Cont: The Trump Presidency Part IV

[quadraginta]

Then why do you feel upset? Because it sounds like a lot?

For one building?

Certainly not the most expensive ever, but it's still a pretty good chunk of change.

Even for government work.

That's about two thirds of what the Pentagon cost to build (adjusted for inflation). Which bought 6.5 million sq. ft. of building with a five acre central plaza inside of it. And lots of parking space.

 

[quadraginta]

My mother had a boarder from Cameroon when I was in high school--he was doing his graduate work in immunology. One of the kindest and most intelligent people I've ever met. This was around the same time of the Miracle in Milan, when Cameroon beat Argentina in the World Cup--I remember him coming home with a huge grin on his face every time Cameroon defied expectation and made it to the next round.

He couldn't believe the opportunities my brother and I wasted. Going to school at all was a rare privilege for people in his country.

Anyway, they're all *********. You can have immense wealth, be raised in an exclusive wealthy neighborhood, be given the best private education that money can buy, and still turn out to be Donald Trump.

AKA "Mr. President" and "Leader of the free world."

 

[Giordano]

Besides the language and the racism Trump also seem to be oblivious to the fact that people coming from ****hole countries describes pretty much the entire history of immigration to the USA. Maybe someone should explain that 19th century Irish immigrants didn't come to the USA because they wanted to enjoy the kickass St Patrick's Day parades?

Exactly. My grandparents each came from "****-hole" countries because the countries were ****-holes. They came hoping that the USA would offer them (and more importantly their children) opportunities for a much better life if they worked at it. Opportunities that did not involve digging beets and potatoes for a living. Or being drafted into the Czar's army. Or being tortured or killed for being Jewish.

And so it came to be. And I am eternally grateful to my grandparents for their bravery, vision, and hard work in coming to the USA and creating new lives here despite the difficulty of the new culture and new language. And I am eternally grateful to the USA for permitting them to do so. I don't like digging potatoes...

Oddly most people wishing to come to the USA do so because they believe they can build better lives here than the country they are leaving behind. Coming from a "****-hole" country makes it easier to have that desire, but even so imagine how strong that belief, that desire, that hope must be to leave everything you know for a new world. And how motivated, how brave one must be to do so.

Several newsflashes for Trump. Even the worse countries have things of beauty and joy in them, not among the least being many of the people who make up the country. And wonderful people, the very ones you wish to have as immigrants, can have come from struggling (or worse) countries. Finally, the countries that Trump no doubt now considers acceptable sources of new immigrants were often the "****-hole" countries of decades ago.

 

[Giordano]

For one building?

Certainly not the most expensive ever, but it's still a pretty good chunk of change.

Even for government work.

That's about two thirds of what the Pentagon cost to build (adjusted for inflation). Which bought 6.5 million sq. ft. of building with a five acre central plaza inside of it. And lots of parking space.

Property in London is amazingly expensive. But still a good chuck of change.

 

[Civet]

This would be a good angle for 2020. The DNC won't do it, of course, but it would still be a good angle.

I think it would backfire catastrophically. It would take about 5 minutes for Trump's henchmen to round up a vast number of military veterans to proudly declare their support for the man and accuse the Democrats of hating the troops.

 

[quadraginta]

If this were really just an attempt at distraction, you would think Trump could find a better way to do the distraction than doing something that portrays him as a huge racist.

What would be better, from his point of view, than the behavior that got him elected?

He's playing to his base. He doesn't give a damn about what people in a bunch of **** hole countries think.

Maybe kick a puppy instead.

No, that won't work. Even racist bigots love their pets.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Graham weighs in, says he challenged the comments directly when Trump said them.

 

[BobTheCoward]

Exactly. My grandparents each came from "****-hole" countries because the countries were ****-holes. They came hoping that the USA would offer them (and more importantly their children) opportunities for a much better life if they worked at it. Opportunities that did not involve digging beets and potatoes for a living. Or being drafted into the Czar's army. Or being tortured or killed for being Jewish.

And so it came to be. And I am eternally grateful to my grandparents for their bravery, vision, and hard work in coming to the USA and creating new lives here despite the difficulty of the new culture and new language. And I am eternally grateful to the USA for permitting them to do so. I don't like digging potatoes...

Oddly most people wishing to come to the USA do so because they believe they can build better lives here than the country they are leaving behind. Coming from a "****-hole" country makes it easier to have that desire, but even so imagine how strong that belief, that desire, that hope must be to leave everything you know for a new world. And how motivated, how brave one must be to do so.

Several newsflashes for Trump. Even the worse countries have things of beauty and joy in them, not among the least being many of the people who make up the country. And wonderful people, the very ones you wish to have as immigrants, can have come from struggling (or worse) countries. Finally, the countries that Trump no doubt now considers acceptable sources of new immigrants were often the "****-hole" countries of decades ago.

If those were the types of countries he was talking about (with czars or war, or dictatorship) that would be one thing. It seems the big thing the ones he was talking about (other than being filled with black people) is they are poorer and less developed. Well, the US is poorer and less developed than 50 years in the future
Does that make every country a hole?

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

George Stephanopoulos was complaining a bit ago about ABC not allowing him to say "********".

Seems to be leaking out in a few programs with the s-word making it past the self or broadcast censors. Axelrod used the actual word just now on CNN.


Note to forum management: the autocensor is making it hard to discuss this subject and to know what is acceptable to get around the autocensor and still be acceptable.

 

[blutoski]

He's playing to his base.

I've considered using the model that Trump does not consider himself to be the president of the United States so much as he considers himself to be the president of his supporters.

That he's not playing to his base so much as considers everybody else irrelevant.

 

[Stacyhs]

For one building?

Certainly not the most expensive ever, but it's still a pretty good chunk of change.

Even for government work.

That's about two thirds of what the Pentagon cost to build (adjusted for inflation). Which bought 6.5 million sq. ft. of building with a five acre central plaza inside of it. And lots of parking space.

The new embassy was built to withstand terrorist attacks. That isn't cheap. When you consider that London has been the site of several attacks, it is certainly understandable that the US embassy is an attractive target. Would you be critical of the price tag if an attack occurs and lives are saved because of the way the embassy was built?

 

[Segnosaur]

If this were really just an attempt at distraction, you would think Trump could find a better way to do the distraction than doing something that portrays him as a huge racist.

What would be better, from his point of view, than the behavior that got him elected?

He's playing to his base. He doesn't give a damn about what people in a bunch of **** hole countries think.

True, his base consists in large part of racists and bigots.

But many of them like a certain amount of plausible deniability. "I'm not a racist... but" sort of thing. When you're that blatant with your comments it makes it difficult to maintain that deniability.

 

[Stacyhs]

The reporting on these comments proves that the media wants to tear this country apart.

You're not upset that he made the comments, but you're upset that the media is reporting the comments?

It isn't the media that's tearing this country apart; it's Trump.

 

[Stacyhs]

11. Retweeting videos posted by Britain First.

12 (or 13 if you throw out Woody Guthrie's song about his father):

“Oh look at my African-American over here."

(campaign rally June 3, 2016)

"MY" African-American?

 

[Garrison]

The new embassy was built to withstand terrorist attacks. That isn't cheap. When you consider that London has been the site of several attacks, it is certainly understandable that the US embassy is an attractive target. Would you be critical of the price tag if an attack occurs and lives are saved because of the way the embassy was built?

There's also the consideration of blocking electronic eavesdropping on the embassy that could get expensive depending on the measures they decided to take.

Also I doubt the old embassy could have been brought up to modern standards even if it weren't Grade II listed.

 

[pgwenthold]

You're not upset that he made the comments, but you're upset that the media is reporting the comments?

Stacyhs, meet Cain.

 

[Stacyhs]

There's also the consideration of blocking electronic eavesdropping on the embassy that could get expensive depending on the measures they decided to take.

Also I doubt the old embassy could have been brought up to modern standards even if it weren't Grade II listed.

That was the main reason it was decided to build a new embassy; it could not be retro-fitted to the security standards nor the requirements needed by law today.

Following a series of high-profile attacks on US embassies elsewhere in the world—including lethal bombings in 1983 outside the Beirut mission, and then in 1998 at embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, during which 220 embassy workers were killed and thousands more injured—US Congress ruled that all embassies must be set back from the street behind a 100-foot “seclusion zone,” and be built within a self-contained site of at least four and a half acres.

http://www.harvarddesignmagazine.or...bassy-and-the-rise-of-counter-terror-urbanism

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

...

It isn't the media that's tearing this country apart; it's Trump.

Truth be had, the media is responsible in a large part for his election. The news media capitalized on the Trump TV reality show, playing all his campaign speeches live in full from the beginning of his campaign. Billions and billions of dollars of free TV coverage, constantly reminding us that his base didn't care about any of his outrageous behavior, helping to normalize it.

 

[Craig B]

The reason these people want need to come here is because they live in these bad places. And that's the whole reason this country was FOUNDED in the first place.

The USA was founded to bring people to the USA from Africa? Do you know, I'm inclined to believe that.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

What would be better, from his point of view, than the behavior that got him elected?

He's playing to his base. He doesn't give a damn about what people in a bunch of **** hole countries think....

Or, he's just being himself. More stress and less motive to present a facade and you get Trump playing Trump. Yes he wants the crowd's adulation. That is clear. But letting out a stupid comment in a meeting, that's just Trump letting his guard down.

If he was playing to his base it would have been a public comment in a speech or a Tweet.