Cont: The Trump Presidency 11: Insert something funny

[jimbob]

Ha ha! Ha ha. It's totally hilarious nicknames like that that will win the 2020 presidential election for the Democrats!

Keep 'em coming. It's the only way to be taken seriously.

Your current pearls must be crushed to dust by now, maybe one of those Kickstarter things will allow you to purchase more

I'm pretty sure phiwum's main complaint is about the effect of the Democrats seeming to be childish rather than the obvious adults.

I don't see any pearl clutching from him/her - in this or any other thread I can recall.

 

[jimbob]

I sincerely hope that insult plays no role at all in Schiff's agenda. That would be stupid.

Punish Trump for legitimate wrongdoing because he deserves it. Who gives a crap about his silly namecalling? It is regrettable, downright shameful, but not a reason to change the investigations of a Congressional committee.

I doubt it will. But you know what Phiwum? It wouldn't bother me if Trump was taken down for the childish insults he hurls at everyone. The man is disgusting. A pig. But I'm sure that Donnie boy has done plenty to justify the reckoning headed his way.

I noticed that the NY State Supreme Court Justice denied Trump's request to terminate the suit against him and his family involving the Trump Foundation today.

It would be poetic if he does. Especially if its a former ally.

Hie treatment of Cohen for ages before his arrest was... ill advised.

 

[phiwum]

Who cares why he does it as long as the blows land? I don't care if Schiff is motivated by a hatred off Trump's combover as long as he inflicts damage.

One of the ways that Trump has damaged our political system is by making everything personal, objective standards be damned. If Schiff or other Democrats follow this lead, so much the worse for informed governance.

Don't pretend that winning is all that matters. The further the Democrats go down Trump's path, the worse for the future. You can't pretend that winning by despicable means doesn't matter. It encourages the same behavior in the future.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

It's why he nominated Kavanaugh.

It'll be interesting to see the effect of peer pressure on Kavanaugh after Robert's claimed there were no Trump judges.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

One of the ways that Trump has damaged our political system is by making everything personal, objective standards be damned. If Schiff or other Democrats follow this lead, so much the worse for informed governance.

Don't pretend that winning is all that matters. The further the Democrats go down Trump's path, the worse for the future. You can't pretend that winning by despicable means doesn't matter. It encourages the same behavior in the future.

It appears that decorum and tradition was all that was keeping this country from becoming a corrupt kleptocracy because Trump just marched in and made it one and no one is stopping him.

 

[Mumbles]

Don't pretend that winning is all that matters.

Hate to tell you this, but when a bigoted authoritarian who doesn't hesitate to set up concentration camps for children takes power, and his party just goes with it because they want to enact plans to subjugate anyone who isn't a straight cis white christian male, winning is what matters.

Here's the thing - all of these corrupt bigots have a simple choice. They don't like being pressured, embarrassed, exposed? Well, they can retire - and at this point every elected republican at the federal level should do this. They can just give up their corruption and bigotry. But the people they target, don't. They wish to see women subservient to men, they openly push for mass police violence against nonwhite people, they want LGBT people forced to be virtual outcasts. I can't stop being black. They can stop being pieces of ****.

Now, I don't expect Adam Schiff to start hurling petty insults, not because it's despicable (which it isn't), but because it's beside the point, which is to hold thorough and targeted investigations into this god-awful administration.

 

[quadraginta]

<snip>

Don't pretend that winning is all that matters. The further the Democrats go down Trump's path, the worse for the future. You can't pretend that winning by despicable means doesn't matter. It encourages the same behavior in the future.

We're going to have the same behavior in the future anyway, just as we have in the past. (And I mean the past BT ... Before Trump. All he has done is turn up the gas.) We're going to have it because ... it works.

You claim to be concerned about "winning by despicable means", but the fact is that winning still matters, and "winning by despicable means" still gave us the past two years of Trump. Not to mention the GOP atrocities of years gone by.

I'd rather some party which wasn't comprised mostly of despicable people who were quite enthused by winning by despicable means, run entirely by politicians well beyond despicable, were to win. If taking the gloves off provides that result then fine.

Wars are not won when one side keeps using the big guns, and the other side just says, "Please, can't we all just get along?". We know the GOP version of 'compromise'. "Give us what we want and then ... maybe ... we'll talk about what you need."

Screw that.

 

[phiwum]

Hate to tell you this, but when a bigoted authoritarian who doesn't hesitate to set up concentration camps for children takes power, and his party just goes with it because they want to enact plans to subjugate anyone who isn't a straight cis white christian male, winning is what matters.

Here's the thing - all of these corrupt bigots have a simple choice. They don't like being pressured, embarrassed, exposed? Well, they can retire - and at this point every elected republican at the federal level should do this. They can just give up their corruption and bigotry. But the people they target, don't. They wish to see women subservient to men, they openly push for mass police violence against nonwhite people, they want LGBT people forced to be virtual outcasts. I can't stop being black. They can stop being pieces of ****.

Now, I don't expect Adam Schiff to start hurling petty insults, not because it's despicable (which it isn't), but because it's beside the point, which is to hold thorough and targeted investigations into this god-awful administration.

I'm not opposed to investigations into this administration.

I'm opposed to the Democrats becoming their opposition. It's ******** to think, "We'll use despicable tactics to win just this once, and then we'll return to civility." That's not how things work. The Republicans aren't going to forget the utility of Trump's tactics when Trump is gone, and the Democrats wouldn't forget how to be bastards once they win.

We have enough bastards. Focus on Trump in investigations, sure. But don't mimic his thin-skinned, personal attacks on everyone he regards as an opponent.

 

[CapelDodger]

I see no positive purpose, in terms of winning 2020 and preventing the US from becoming an autocracy, in trying to out-Trump Trump. He's not popular. He wears on people like a hair shirt, even some supporters. And that shirt isn't going to turn into silk over the next 23 months.

To me, Trump has become boring already, which is the kiss of death to performers like him. We've seen his whole routine, and he's starting to repeat. His Thanksgiving message, for instance, is just the "speech to the Scouts" sketch, with no new twists. Being outrageous and anarchic got old quickly : the Trump Show won't get a second series, mark my words.

 

[smartcooky]

It'll be interesting to see the effect of peer pressure on Kavanaugh after Robert's claimed there were no Trump judges.

He's also only one of nine judges, and even the supposed conservative leaning judges won't necessarily follow Drunky Boofter's lead. SCOTUS could easily rule 8-1 that Trump is NOT immune to being sued, with Drunky being the only dissenting vote.

 

[phiwum]

We're going to have the same behavior in the future anyway, just as we have in the past. (And I mean the past BT ... Before Trump. All he has done is turn up the gas.) We're going to have it because ... it works.

You claim to be concerned about "winning by despicable means", but the fact is that winning still matters, and "winning by despicable means" still gave us the past two years of Trump. Not to mention the GOP atrocities of years gone by.

I'd rather some party which wasn't comprised mostly of despicable people who were quite enthused by winning by despicable means, run entirely by politicians well beyond despicable, were to win. If taking the gloves off provides that result then fine.

Wars are not won when one side keeps using the big guns, and the other side just says, "Please, can't we all just get along?". We know the GOP version of 'compromise'. "Give us what we want and then ... maybe ... we'll talk about what you need."

Screw that.

I am not arguing that Democrats should naively try to just get along with a party that has decidedly avoided compromise since at least 2008. Not my point at all.

 

[Lurch]

On the subject of despicable means. Recall the despicable means it required to root out and extirpate the cancer of Nazism. Good people tried fair means to deal with that odious lot who got to power legitimately and subverted the system to their nefarious designs. The lesson there was, see the danger early and act soonest. Honorable pussyfooting about like Boy Scouts when the opposition was a cabal of cut-throats ended in tears.

Of our current crop of odious malefactors, O'Connell is rank, reeking of treacherous hypocrisy. That oily wormtongue of the dead eyes, Miller, whispering his siren song of hate into the dullard President's impressionable ear, is, by his shadowy lurking, perhaps an insufficiently perceived danger.

In the larger picture, the GOP as a whole has rotted practically to the core. Fouler has their philosophy become. Increasingly non-democratic are their means. A minority of aggreived and bitter souls who pine for the days of priveledge comprised of and imposed by mysoginy and racism. Bought cheap by the monied interests, doing their bidding to the detriment of 9/10 of the people.

Try to win against that honorably if possible. But don't wait too long.

 

[varwoche]

To me, Trump has become boring already, which is the kiss of death to performers like him. We've seen his whole routine, and he's starting to repeat. His Thanksgiving message, for instance, is just the "speech to the Scouts" sketch, with no new twists. Being outrageous and anarchic got old quickly : the Trump Show won't get a second series, mark my words.

Yes, and worse even. The unhinged things he spews stop having impact even on the impactable, with it being an hourly event.

 

[jimbob]

I found this Slate piece on Trump’s “smallness” to be insightful while managing to be optimistic at the same time.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/11/donald-trump-lies-clinton-comey-investigation.html

one of the links from there

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/10/squirrel-hill-shooting-trump-anti-semitism-america.html

I can also add that I do know that fighting about whether the election of this president is the cause of what the Anti-Defamation League has called “the deadliest attack on the Jewish Community in the history of the United States” or merely the correlate is pointless. Just as it is pointless to wonder what mysterious unknowable circumstances have led to the
massive uptick in hate crimes against Jews since 2016. Just as it is either too easy or too hard to show whether provably false claims about George Soros–financed caravans of Middle Eastern terrorists to the United States have any connection to the killer’s obsession with George Soros and caravans and terrorists. No, we are long past the capacity to debate causation. Because that would require a shared understanding of what is true and the People of the False Flag have ensured that the truth is always the very opposite of the truth.

Perhaps the one thing we can agree upon after today is that we need to ditch that oft-brandished Maya Angelou quote, the one that holds that “when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” We keep repeating it because for some reason it makes us feel better, but the deployment of the quote going forward should be: “When someone shows you who they want their followers to be, believe them.” It’s a better fit for an age in which reality is impossible to pin down and everything is a posture or a pose rather than a statement for which the issuer could be held accountable. It is a better fit for an age when allegedly thoughtful sober men claim this president was just being “playful” when he celebrated assaulting journalists or claim that he’s just using rhetoric when he says that he is indeed a nationalist, with all that word implies.

 

[phiwum]

On the subject of despicable means. Recall the despicable means it required to root out and extirpate the cancer of Nazism. Good people tried fair means to deal with that odious lot who got to power legitimately and subverted the system to their nefarious designs. The lesson there was, see the danger early and act soonest. Honorable pussyfooting about like Boy Scouts when the opposition was a cabal of cut-throats ended in tears.

By and large, I don't regard that Allies performance in WWII as despicable means. Responding to literal military force with military force is not despicable.

(Dresden, say, may count as a despicable means to end the war, as may other Allied tactics, but by and large, fighting against the Nazis in open warfare isn't really what I mean by despicable means.)

At some point, perhaps, the Trump administration may become so overtly authoritarian that open rebellion would be warranted. As bad as the administration already is, we're not there yet.

 

[Mumbles]

I'm not opposed to investigations into this administration.

I'm opposed to the Democrats becoming their opposition. It's ******** to think, "We'll use despicable tactics to win just this once, and then we'll return to civility." That's not how things work. The Republicans aren't going to forget the utility of Trump's tactics when Trump is gone, and the Democrats wouldn't forget how to be bastards once they win.

You don't seem to realize that you hit upon the exact problem.

"The Republicans aren't going to forget the utility of Trump's tactics when Trump is gone"

That's exactly why they should learn the cost of Dolt 45's tactics. Assuming they survive as a political party. Personally, I'd be fine to see actual conservatives form their own party.

I'd nominate as their leader...um...Rick Wilson. Seems good enough. Maybe Bill Weld.

Sorry, but we're currently in one of the hotter periods in US history, caused mostly by the likes of Mitch Mcconnell and Dolt 45, with the approval of the GOP caucus, due their increased fanaticism, and their anger at a black guy being elected president, and the prospects of white people not being an outright majority of the US in the future.

Not, if they were smart, they'd just start calling any Latinx who wasn't clearly black, "white" , and be done with it. Or even - get this - stop judging people by skin color, sexual orientation, or other markers of "purity". But instead they're freaking out, and lashing out, and so they need to be dealt with.

We have enough bastards. Focus on Trump in investigations, sure. But don't mimic his thin-skinned, personal attacks on everyone he regards as an opponent.

Nah. In the situation like this, I boost the bastards on my side. I'll note that Hillary Clinton took the media to the cleaners a few days ago, pointing out that they refuse to cover actual issues, instead of Dolt 45's antics. That's a first step forward, more people, including consumers, need to point out how they're dropping the ball.

If mimicking his thin-skinned attacks works, do it. The first job is to destroy the GOP as it exists today - as a cornucopia of ignorant bigotry.

 

[acbytesla]

One of the ways that Trump has damaged our political system is by making everything personal, objective standards be damned. If Schiff or other Democrats follow this lead, so much the worse for informed governance.

Don't pretend that winning is all that matters. The further the Democrats go down Trump's path, the worse for the future. You can't pretend that winning by despicable means doesn't matter. It encourages the same behavior in the future.

You're not wrong by any means Phiwum. Just because you don't like someone doesn'tjustifies investigation. My point really was that IMV one of the worst thing Trump has done is personalizing everything in a childish and rude manner. I believe strongly in the importance of civility and treating everyone with it. Even those people you disagree with. I consider Trump's behavior to be despicable. I would like to see him crash if for no other reason than his lies and how he treats others.

That said, his insults alone doesn't justify a legal revenge.

 

[smartcooky]

On the subject of despicable means. Recall the despicable means it required to root out and extirpate the cancer of Nazism. Good people tried fair means to deal with that odious lot who got to power legitimately and subverted the system to their nefarious designs. The lesson there was, see the danger early and act soonest. Honorable pussyfooting about like Boy Scouts when the opposition was a cabal of cut-throats ended in tears.

....and 73 million deaths.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

For the record, fire is best fought with water, not with fire.

We don't have to become ******** to learn a few framing and marketing techniques. Right now the Democrats, after more than 30 years of the GOP acting in plain sight, have yet to figure it out.

 

[phiwum]

You're not wrong by any means Phiwum. Just because you don't like someone doesn'tjustifies investigation. My point really was that IMV one of the worst thing Trump has done is personalizing everything in a childish and rude manner. I believe strongly in the importance of civility and treating everyone with it. Even those people you disagree with. I consider Trump's behavior to be despicable. I would like to see him crash if for no other reason than his lies and how he treats others.

That said, his insults alone doesn't justify a legal revenge.

I really didn't think you meant that Schiff should investigate Trump because he was insulted. It is what you said, but I thought that it wasn't what you literally believed.

I've read enough of your posts to know that you are decent.

Trump's lies to the public are a reason he should crash and burn. It's not right to have a president who lies with such impunity. It's a damned shame.

Better would be, of course, a more substantial reason to take him down. One that even his supporters would, for the most part, accept as going too far. Even then, impeachment and removal might cause more damage to our nation than allowing this incompetent to finish his term and vote him out, but that's taking a risk of another sort: reelection. Again, perhaps enough dirt will come out between now and then that he will lose some of the base.

It's a terrible situation right now. Our disgust with Trump might cause even greater divisions, leading to a worse outcome for our nation.

Nonetheless, I'm all in favor of legitimate (not vengeful or purely partisan) investigations. Trump sure looks dirty from where I sit. Perhaps the emoluments clause can actually spur some action, though I doubt it with a Republican controlled Senate at present. They just don't seem to care about that kind of corruption, so long as they can get votes by siding with Trump.