The Trump Presidency 15

[Minoosh]

OK, thought of some other messaging Dems could do which might be more credible than the issues his base doesn't care about:

- Trump can't keep good help. The turnover in his staff is appalling. Most people can relate to having a bad boss ... Trump is a bad boss.

- The abysmal pace of Border Patrol/ICE recruiting. Without saying "wall bad" one can ask where Trump is going to get the agents given his/Republicans track record.

I'm talking about changing the conversation in ways that appeal to Trump supporters' values. Yes I think those folks have some values. National security, staff churn, pre-existing conditions, can't hire Border Patrol agents. There's a way to do this without falling back on the latest goofy thing he's said or done. His America isn't happening.

Video: Has President Trump rebuilt America's military?

The answer is hell no, and this guy ain't no Democrat.

 

[Minoosh]

Apparently there is another change... The logo was changed from E plurubus unum (latin for out of many one) to the spanish phrase "45 is a puppet"

Who could have pulled this off? Does it mean Trump has a traitor on board? I hope so.

 

[WilliamSeger]

Ann Coulter gave a figure once of 30-35 million. He's scoffing because 11 million is too low.

If Coulter's right 1 in 10 people would be an illegal immigrant.

I've always wondered how many Asians etc. have been smuggled in while everyone focuses on Latinos.

When Trump says he wants to build a wall at the Canadian border, I'll know he's serious about illegal immigration.

 

[Segnosaur]

More convinced then ever there will be no peaceful solution to this .The Rubicon has been passed.

Dude, I love you but you sound like the doomsayer who lives in a cardboard box right next to parliament.

I think there are valid reasons to be pessimistic about the future of the United States.

Currently they have an extremely divided society, and roughly 40% is willing to vote for an openly racist con-artist who conspires with foreign governments.

You have one of the major political parties (the Republicans) who have shown themselves to be very good at obtaining power in congress and the white house (partly because of their natural appeal to more rural areas, but mostly because of dirty tricks...voter suppression, gerrymandering, manipulation of congressional rules, assistance from foreign governments.) Yet despite their ability to obtain power, they are incompetent when actually IN power (witness the explosion of the deficit thanks to the Republican tax cuts. Or their handling of health care. "Obamacare is bad! Wait, we have to come up with our own health care plan? Ummm... look! Over there! A squirrel!") The republicans are basically traitors, con-artists and, well, scum bags.

Yet those republicans have stacked the supreme court (as well as some of the lower courts) with right-wing partisans. (And keep in mind that those justices got their jobs from a president who did not win the popular vote.) And those judges have given rulings that strongly favor the republicans (e.g. ruling on gerrymandering) which will help give Republicans more power than they would get from their popular support.

At one point I would have hoped a democratic shift might have improved the Democrats chances in future elections, but voter suppression and gerrymandering will probably negate that.

Even if Trump is removed from power (either through impeachment or losing the 2020 election), you will still continue to have a republican party that will continue to put party before country, and a huge segment of the electorate who are quite happy with racism, russian interference and a president with almost weekly scandals, as long as it "makes libruls cry". The problems will not be going away with the removal of Trump. And they won't likely get a chance to fix the supreme court, because the next vacant seat will likely be Ginsberg, and even if the Democrats are the ones that pick her successor, it will be a case of replacing one liberal judge with another.

They you have things like the upcoming recession. (I'm not predicting exactly when the next recession will occur... but, on average they happen every decade or so, and the U.S. economy seems to be due for one.) The problem is, the natural reaction to a recession involves 1) cutting interest rates, and 2) increasing the deficit, partly due to spending increases and party due to decreased tax revenue. The only problem is, with the economic mismanagement by Trump and the republicans (including a spike in the deficit, and lower than normal interest rates), the government of the future won't have the needed flexibility to deal with the economic slowdown.

Some people say "Well, the Democrats just have to get better at winning elections", but that's easier said than done, especially when so much is currently stacked against them.

Will all that, I think some pessimism is warranted.

 

[Belz...]

I think there are valid reasons to be pessimistic about the future of the United States.

Oh, I absolutely agree. It's just the repetition that I was commenting on.

 

[Segnosaur]

Who could have pulled this off? Does it mean Trump has a traitor on board? I hope so.

I think I remember reading that this was some sort of 'projection', rather than a printed logo. If so, pulling it off wouldn't be that difficult... just changing a single image on a computer file.

Heck, it may not have even been deliberate... Trump supporter John gets emailed an image of the altered logo by Bill as a joke. John accidentally saves the file to the wrong directory on his lap top, Comes time to set up for Trump's speech, John just takes the first logo he finds on his computer (which happens to be the altered logo) without looking too closely at it.

I remember a few years ago, they had found a bunch of pro-bin Laden protesters had signs that featured a picture of Bin Laden along with Bert (from Sesame street). Whomever made the signs had done an image search and picked one of the first ones he found, not paying enough attention to notice the fuzzy yellow guy in the picture. The same sort of thing may have happened here.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bert-is-evil/

 

[BobTheCoward]

I think there are valid reasons to be pessimistic about the future of the United States.

Currently they have an extremely divided society, and roughly 40% is willing to vote for an openly racist con-artist who conspires with foreign governments.

You have one of the major political parties (the Republicans) who have shown themselves to be very good at obtaining power in congress and the white house (partly because of their natural appeal to more rural areas, but mostly because of dirty tricks...voter suppression, gerrymandering, manipulation of congressional rules, assistance from foreign governments.) Yet despite their ability to obtain power, they are incompetent when actually IN power (witness the explosion of the deficit thanks to the Republican tax cuts. Or their handling of health care. "Obamacare is bad! Wait, we have to come up with our own health care plan? Ummm... look! Over there! A squirrel!") The republicans are basically traitors, con-artists and, well, scum bags.

Yet those republicans have stacked the supreme court (as well as some of the lower courts) with right-wing partisans. (And keep in mind that those justices got their jobs from a president who did not win the popular vote.) And those judges have given rulings that strongly favor the republicans (e.g. ruling on gerrymandering) which will help give Republicans more power than they would get from their popular support.

Two points.

There was that time the so many states with white supremacists were in charged and actively coordinated with a terrorist group. That seems worse

I think you have the wrong framing about conservative justices. Who is probably better at determining what a bunch of slave holding, sexist, elitist, white men wrote two hundred years ago? kavanaugh or Sotomayor?

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Yet despite their ability to obtain power, they are incompetent when actually IN power (witness the explosion of the deficit thanks to the Republican tax cuts. Or their handling of health care. "Obamacare is bad! Wait, we have to come up with our own health care plan? Ummm... look! Over there! A squirrel!")

Whether or not they're incompetent depends largely on what you believe their primary goals to be. You cite the explosion of the deficit as an example of incompetence, but why do you believe that getting the deficit under control was ever something they wanted to achieve? Tax cuts for the rich? That's something they wanted to achieve. Trump was told of the damage that his fiscal policies would wreak on the country and he said that he didn't care because he'd be out of office by the time the damage hit.

The repeating pattern is that Republicans increase the deficit and then the Democrats get it back under control while being blamed for the negative consequences. So why would Republicans have the goal of controlling the deficit?

As far as I can see the major goals of the Republicans over the last few years have been 1) to give the rich a large tax break, 2) to stack the Supreme Court, and 3) to keep Trump in power. They've succeeded at the first two and seem to be doing well at the third.

 

[Mojo]

Who could have pulled this off?

Snowball! Hillary!

 

[Segnosaur]

Yet despite their ability to obtain power, they are incompetent when actually IN power (witness the explosion of the deficit thanks to the Republican tax cuts. Or their handling of health care. "Obamacare is bad! Wait, we have to come up with our own health care plan? Ummm... look! Over there! A squirrel!")

Whether or not they're incompetent depends largely on what you believe their primary goals to be. You cite the explosion of the deficit as an example of incompetence, but why do you believe that getting the deficit under control was ever something they wanted to achieve? Tax cuts for the rich? That's something they wanted to achieve

Oh, I agree... they are probably achieving their actual goals (more money to the wealthy, etc.), even if they are engaging in some rank hypocrisy over the deficit.

When I say they are 'incompetent', I was referring to their ability to run the country in a way that will maintain it as both stable, and as a major global power. Large wealth disparities, crumbling infrastructure, widespread financial problems, poor foreign relations and the like are harmful and will end up hurting the majority of people and reduce its stature in the world, even if the republicans managed to funnel money to the 1%.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Trump Tweets

Mark Levin on @foxandfriends now! Great guy.

House Republicans should support the TWO YEAR BUDGET AGREEMENT which greatly helps our Military and our Vets. I am totally with you!

President Trump’s Approval Rating on Economy is at 52%, a 4 point jump. Fox Poll @foxandfriends

Shouldn’t this be at 100%? Best stock market, economy and unemployment numbers ever! Most people working within U.S. ever! Low interest rates, very low inflation! Country doing great!

Fox Poll say best Economy in DECADES!

 

[Belz...]

Well, if Fox says it...

 

[The Greater Fool]

Trump Tweets

Mark Levin on @foxandfriends now! Great guy.

House Republicans should support the TWO YEAR BUDGET AGREEMENT which greatly helps our Military and our Vets. I am totally with you!

President Trump’s Approval Rating on Economy is at 52%, a 4 point jump. Fox Poll @foxandfriends

Shouldn’t this be at 100%? Best stock market, economy and unemployment numbers ever! Most people working within U.S. ever! Low interest rates, very low inflation! Country doing great!

Fox Poll say best Economy in DECADES!

Thanks Obama!

 

[Segnosaur]

So, Trump has recently vetoed congressional bills to restrict arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. (The bills were largely bipartisan, and were enacted over concerns regarding civilian casualties in the area, as well over the murder of Khashoggi.)

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/24/politics/saudi-arms-sale-resolutions-trump-veto/index.html

This is the 5th time Trump has used his veto...On average he's used it twice a year. By comparison, Obama used his veto powers 12 times over 8 years, so on average 1.5 times per year. It should be noted however that all of Trump's vetoes have occurred within the past year (after the Democrats took the house).

 

[ponderingturtle]

So, Trump has recently vetoed congressional bills to restrict arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. (The bills were largely bipartisan, and were enacted over concerns regarding civilian casualties in the area, as well over the murder of Khashoggi.)

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/24/politics/saudi-arms-sale-resolutions-trump-veto/index.html

This is the 5th time Trump has used his veto...On average he's used it twice a year. By comparison, Obama used his veto powers 12 times over 8 years, so on average 1.5 times per year. It should be noted however that all of Trump's vetoes have occurred within the past year (after the Democrats took the house).

Only kind of true, when he vetoed the budget it was before the start of the new congress to cause the shutdown because his party wasn't playing wall with him.

 

[Segnosaur]

Trump Tweets

Mark Levin on @foxandfriends now! Great guy.

Trump would know... Certainly a Trump type of guy.

From: https://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2014/01/mark-levin-dismisses-pay-to-play-charge-180896
Conservative talk-radio host Mark Levin is defending himself against charges that he engaged in a quid-pro-quo transaction with the Senate Conservatives Fund, promoting the right-wing group after it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on his book.

 

[Aridas]

DOJ says it won't prosecute Barr, Ross after criminal contempt vote

From that..

“The Department of Justice’s long-standing position is that we will not prosecute an official for contempt of Congress for declining to provide information subject to a presidential assertion of executive privilege,” Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen wrote in a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

They repeatedly lied to Congress about a number of things that outright could not be covered by executive privilege, even in theory. This response itself, I think, is grounds for indictment.

Got a little carried away here but I do home some of this comes up as talking points when Trump says Dems want open borders. Throw back at Trump the abysmal hiring stats and the unconscionable fees paid to contractors.

I think you might have missed an important side note, though - the Trump Administration's overall strategy of encouraging and endorsing crime and cruelty as a deterrent to migrants also acts as a very real and significant deterrent to both the short-term and the long-term recruitment and retainment efforts of qualified personnel.

 

[Horatius]

It's hard to tell from that picture, but to me it looks like the other claw is clutching a wad of dollar bills, too.

Here's a better image:

Here's an even better image: https://i.imgur.com/2dPP025.jpg

 

[plague311]

Here's an even better image: https://i.imgur.com/2dPP025.jpg

45 es un titere = "45 is a puppet"

Ouch.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Can Dems just vote to keep that Seal, with a sunset provision for 2021?