Upchurch
Papa Funkosophy
Well, clearly he means Obama. What pompous asinine jackass would thank himself in the third-person?
(Good one, Upchurch!)
The Trump Presidency 14
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Well, clearly he means Obama. What pompous asinine jackass would thank himself in the third-person?
(Good one, Upchurch!)
The_Animus
Illuminator
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And remember that Trump also said Stormy Daniels wasn't his type. It's one of his go to lines for denial when he in fact did it.
False rape accusations do occur but they are extremely rare and the probability that all 20+ accusations are false is practically none. Especially when he has been caught lying about things like not having ever met the person.
The fact is Trump, our president, is a known rapist, and there is evidence that includes children. Despite this the GOP, evangelical Christians, and Republican voters in general support him.
In addition we have the current ongoing atrocity of the immigrant detention conditions.
A not insignificant minority of the US population are truly horrible, disgusting human beings.
alfaniner
Penultimate Amazing
I don't think the US has the monopoly on that.
"May I have another!???"
plague311
Great minds think...
[Bob] Yeah but if there isn't a way for you to prove it and I mean beyond any absolute doubt, because really, what is doubt? Think about that and then say that she was raped. What actually is raped? It's past tense, as in, it's over. It can't be proven in our timeline, and really, what is time? [/Bob]
That's what you're going to get because that's the gist of what he posted above.
ETA: My fault, I thought you had quoted Bob. I read too fast. I'm not erasing it because it's still accurate.
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While I didn't support Trump for president, you're right that I don't think he'll do any lasting damage to the fabric of the US. Our form of government was specifically designed to resist demagogues by spreading the power between the three branches of government. I don't think Trump will be able to get past that any more than Barrack Obama could "fundamentally transform" the country from a Constitutional Republic to a Socialist form of government.
What has Trump actually accomplished of his agenda? A small tax cut. He can't even manage to secure the borders which was his biggest campaign promise. In a couple of years or six at the most, he'll be gone and we'll have someone else to complain about not getting anything done.
You see the same thinking on the other side all the time. A bunch of conservatives are absolutely convinced that if Sanders or Warren gets elected, the US will be converted into a Venezuelan-style hellhole overnight.
Our institutions are much stronger than 1910's Russia, 1920's Germany, 1950's Cuba, or 1990's Venezuela. We'll survive Trump just like we'll survive whoever comes after him.
Fast Eddie B
Philosopher
Maybe. But I’ll bet a lot of folks in Russia, Germany, Cuba and Venezuela said the same thing as their governments gradually (or not so gradually) morphed from one type to another.
But to say “It’s different here” is to ignore both history and human nature. I hope you’re right, and I’m hopeful - but a lot less hopeful than I was 2 years ago.
MRC_Hans
Penultimate Amazing
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Have to react to this kind of nonsense. Obama tried nothing of the sort. Obama was, possibly, a liberal, although in Europe, where we happen to know what 'socialism' means he would count as right-wing.
I mostly agree on this. The good thing about Trump is that he is so unbelievably incompetent: Whatever he might want to do, he just can't actually accomplish much of it.
Hans
Safe-Keeper
My avatar is not a Drumpf hat
A Stephanie Grisham is the new WH spokesperson. Why anyone would want that job is beyond me.
ponderingturtle
Orthogonal Vector
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He got a lot of judges appointed for life, got the supreme court moved solidly to the right to overturn gay rights and abortion. He has it well established that the president has the right to commit obstruction of justice. That we can finally throw out the emoluments clause in the constitution with all the other meaningless statements in it.
Really it was a very productive tenure for the right wing. And you have Trump providing a smoke screen for all of that.
ponderingturtle
Orthogonal Vector
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Think of how easy the press secretary job is now that they don't need to bother with press conferences!
Segnosaur
Penultimate Amazing
The problem is, Trump and the rest of the republicans have been undermining the whole 'division of power' thing... Stacking the courts with right wing judges, which of course means that future rulings from the Supreme court are more likely to benefit the right wing, which gives them even more power.
First of all, what exactly is a 'socialist form of government'? There is nothing inherently left or right wing about being a republic.
Seconly, despite claims that Obama was some sort of 'secret muslim communist', his policies were actually pretty moderate. Even Obamacare was an attempt to compromise with the republicans.
That 'small tax cut' has:
- Added billions of dollars to the debt, and will make it harder in the future to handle any recessions
- Has increased the gap between the rich and poor, which can make society unstable
- Removed the individual mandate provision from Obamacare, thus resulting in more people without insurance (and, with fewer people covered, the cost per person is likely to rise.)
But in his attempt to fulfill his 'promise', he has:
- Brought the government to a shutdown, resulting in thousands of public employees going without pay
- Brought in policies that have resulted in the separation of hundreds of families, and kids locked in cages
There is a difference though...
Any attempt to suggest Sanders/Warren want to make the U.S. a "venezuelan hellhole' is just empty rhetoric. (There are many successful center-left countries in the world that are better models for what Sanders/Warren want to do... Sweden for example.) On the other hand, the damage that Trump is causing is real... the huge debt is not just some pretend money, its something the U.S. government will eventually have to deal with. The images of kids locked in cages is real.
Why exactly is the measure of success to "just survive"? Having children locked in cages is wrong, even if the "country will survive". Having a massive crushing debt that makes it harder to survive the next recession is wrong even if the "country will survive".
Oh, and by the way, Trumps policies are likely going to lead to violent death, as he has shifted resources away from right-wing domestic terrorism to islamic terrorism (which ultimately causes fewer incidents of violence than right-wing terrorism.) So even if the "country will survive", many of its citizens will be injured or killed. So, yay trump?
Stacyhs
Penultimate Amazing
Politics swings like a pendulum. It goes too far one way, it reacts by going too far in the opposite direction.
Aridas
Crazy Little Green Dragon
Correction - Thousands, at least. There were over 2800 kids separated because of the zero tolerance policy and possibly many, many more than that before it.
The current outdated number is over 4500 children separated from their families, in short, and a rate of over 40% of the children from before the policy. Given how many are left to review, at that rate, we could end up with well over 20,000 kids separated from their families... from before the zero tolerance policy alone. Unwarranted separations are still ongoing.
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Stacyhs
Penultimate Amazing
Presumably the ones who are his type are the ones who aren't going to make an accusation of rape or sexual assault against him
Trump's narcissism would never allow him to believe that any woman would reject his sexual advances. In his mind, it's an honor to be 'chosen' by him.
Armitage72
Philosopher
Interesting choice of words on the headline on the CNN main page.
"Trump taps new White House press secretary"
Skeptic Ginger
Nasty Woman
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Raw Story: Trump delivers nonsensical answer when asked if he should be on Mt. Rushmore
But from there it got really weird.
They should put his face up there in celebration of wiseness.
But from there it got really weird.
Such a hero.
They should put his face up there in celebration of wiseness.
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theprestige
Penultimate Amazing
I assume nothing of the sort.
A recurring theme in discussions here about Trump is how especially evil he is. My argument is one of comparison, to his predecessors and contemporaries, to see if his evil really is all that special. If he really is so much worse than any other president ever. What I find, when I do the comparisons, is that the claims of Trump's special badness are overblown.
I'm open to the argument that current US immigration policy is bad, and needs to be improved. I'm even open to the argument that it's gotten worse under Trump than it was under Obama. I'm not particularly open to the argument that the current policy is evidence that Trump is substantially more evil than other presidents have been.
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On the other hand, I do think that there is very clear evidence that Trump is much, much worse than other presidents, in one respect: His use of Twitter.
Twitter is a stupid channel for communicating anything important anyway. But people insist on taking it seriously. A reasonable approach would be to assign the president's official Twitter account to a senior assistant to the press secretary, and let them make a small number of banal tweets about boring government stuff every day. "Press conference at noon." "Excited about signing the new bill into law." "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims." That kind of stuff.
The actual president should never go near Twitter. And y'all probably shouldn't either.
theprestige
Penultimate Amazing
Not a tu quoque. The proper response to special pleading is to point out that it's not actually special.
I simply refuse to judge Trump in a vacuum, free of context and without reference to his predecessors and contemporaries.
theprestige
Penultimate Amazing
You know I'm wrong, but you can't explain why or how? That must really suck. I hope it gets better.
At least you won this argument, so that's some good news.
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