The Trump Presidency: Part 17

[Jim_MDP]

Lincoln was a Republican. Not very many people know that.

Prager U knows it.
They built a 5 minute gotcha man-on-the-street YT ad based around that re: slavery and the later Jim Crow South.
Tricky no?

Has any other nation had their two most major parties literally swap positions on such a social issue? Damn, we're weird.

 

[PhantomWolf]

Has any other nation had their two most major parties literally swap positions on such a social issue? Damn, we're weird.

During the Mid-80s our Labour party went hardcore Ring wing for about 7 years, until the National Party went even further to the right. The hardcore right wing elements then left that Labour Party and along with some of the Hardcore right National party members, formed our now far right party, ACT, which meant that Labour was able to swing back to the left again.

 

[kellyb]

Has any other nation had their two most major parties literally swap positions on such a social issue? Damn, we're weird.

Not just that.

The Republicans are now all about tariffs instead of "free trade."

Few remember this, but it used to be the left that most wanted to radically limit immigration, and the right wanted something close to open borders, in order to depress wages and the organization of labor.

Conservatives used to scream about "soft on Russia" foreign policy, too.

 

[acbytesla]

Not just that.

The Republicans are now all about tariffs instead of "free trade."

Few remember this, but it used to be the left that most wanted to radically limit immigration, and the right wanted something close to open borders, in order to depress wages and the organization of labor.

Conservatives used to scream about "soft on Russia" foreign policy, too.

It was only a few short years ago. I was thinking the same thing.

 

[Aridas]

...and here's me thinking that the GOP were against selling out the Kurds.

Why would you think that the GOP, as a party, actually has principles in the first place, by this point?

Don't. It's a DOJ memo, not any written law, and because of the argument put forth in front of that judge, that memo has been called into question.

To add to this... It was an OLC memo that was created with the intent of achieving a specific outcome - the VP resigning, rather than becoming President, because he was in on the crime, too (I could also add limiting the damage to the GOP and trying to generally navigate the mess that Nixon created without casualties, but those were likely secondary concerns). It accomplished that. That doesn't make it legally sound.

Anyways, just in case anyone was curious... Here's a link to a list of the GOP congressmen who decided to aid and abet Trump's Obstruction of Justice.

Other random news time!

Igor & Lev were arrested on the way to Hannity interview with Rudy and Ukrainian ex-prosecutor

The arrest of Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas, was not during a felonious flight, but was part of a plan to set up more propaganda where Arms for Dirt would continue via Sean Hannity. A Viktor Shokin interview would try to media frame his removal for inaction on corruption as some Joe Biden plot.

Uh huh.

Russian trolls are back in force, and the real 'fake news' is already appearing in heaps

Take that as yet another warning.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Trump's use of the term "lynching" wasn't a dogwhistle, it was the classical Trump telling the Press: "stop talking about the horrible thing I did yesterday, talk about the horrible thing I did just now".
Trump hasn't used the term before, so it was a deliberate choice.

 

[Trebuchet]

He now says he's building a border wall in Colorado.
Presumably New Mexico is going to pay for it.

 

[Steve]

He now says he's building a border wall in Colorado.
Presumably New Mexico is going to pay for it.

Seems like a sensible place for one. Can’t trust those New Mexicans any more than the other kind of Mexicans.

Is he building it on a state border or somewhere in the middle of Colorado?

 

[Norman Alexander]

Seems like a sensible place for one. Can’t trust those New Mexicans any more than the other kind of Mexicans.

Is he building it on a state border or somewhere in the middle of Colorado?

Right down the Colorado River, one presumes.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Wrong, never even discussed this with Kellyanne Conway or Steve Mnuchin. Just more Fake News!

Bloomberg Economics
@economics
JUST IN: Donald Trump has been privately testing the idea of replacing his chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney with Treasury Secretary Mnuchin or Kellyanne Conway https://bloom.bg/32NHobX

OMG can you imagine Kellyanne as chief of staff?

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Trump doesn't lie. He's not enough honest, or paradoxically too honest, I don't know. He's so gone none the terms can even really apply to him.

Lying is knowing what the truth is and deciding not to say it for some personal gain. Trump just says what ever pops in his head but he's literally wrong about everything.

Again all the old rules don't apply to Trump. There's no person there, just a persona.

I think Trump knows when he's pulling a con. He might believe he's the greatest but he's knows damn well when he says no quid pro quo it's a lie. Maybe after time he changes to believing X wasn't quid pro quo because of Y, or he believes he was clever enough to get away with it and no one can prove otherwise. But some of these lies are clearly willful.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

OMG can you imagine Kellyanne as chief of staff?

she would be a good fit for the job - the job being to babysit Trump and stopping him from doing something insane by assuring him that others are doing insane things for him.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Trump Tweets

Where’s the Whistleblower?

Maybe he expected the GOP stunt was going to expose the anonymous whistleblower?


Darn it, thread moved 5 pages. I'm going to stop here for now.

 

[Mumbles]

I could be wrong, but I think Trump just doesn't care, he says whatever comes into his head and due to his background and personalty sometimes this means he is misogynistic or racist or homophobic etc. I recon he's not spending all his time in private preoccupied with ensuring white privilege. I think he makes of the hip decisions if he thinks it will make him popular with whatever crowd he is talking to at the time.

Cen tral Park 5? "********" countries? Muslim ban? Birtherism? "Obama is lazy and couldn't have possibly earned his grade or wrote a book"? Concentration camps for Hispanics?

Nah, upholding white supremacism is pretty much the only major promise he hasn't broken so far, and the only one that he's been devoted to for decades. He's "smart enough" to not use racial slurs in front fo cameras, but that's mostly because the actual elites that he desperately wants to love him are disgusted by that level of bigotry. But there's no real thought here - he heard the word at some point, and used it.

(Well, or someone else in his staff picked it intentionally to distract. That one's a distinct possibility.)

 

[timhau]

Seems like a sensible place for one. Can’t trust those New Mexicans any more than the other kind of Mexicans.

Exchange at a car rental somewhere in the Northern US:
"I'm sorry, I need to see an American driver's licence."
"That is a New Mexico driver's licence."
"Listen pal, I don't care when you got it."

(Heard from a local in Albuquerque.)

 

[Norman Alexander]

I think Trump knows when he's pulling a con. He might believe he's the greatest but he's knows damn well when he says no quid pro quo it's a lie. Maybe after time he changes to believing X wasn't quid pro quo because of Y, or he believes he was clever enough to get away with it and no one can prove otherwise. But some of these lies are clearly willful.

I dunno.

He lives in a fantasy world, so he seems to believe that whatever he makes up or thinks is so just now is "true". So in that context, he isn't lying. The rest of the world is mistaken. His reality is "true", ours is not. Ergo he isn't lying.

Truly, he rejects your reality and substitutes his own.

 

[Ladewig]

But it is such a crappy argument;they could have dragged it out with a better one.

In trying to understand why Trump lawyers do anything, one needs to start with the position that they, like their client, have absolutely no shame. E.G. When NY started to bring charges over his illegal activities related to his charities, his lawyers actually argued that President Trump simply didn’t understand the laws related to 501(c)(3) organizations.

I could be wrong, but I think Trump just doesn't care, he says whatever comes into his head....

I think it comes down to the president looking at the folks in the room and thinking what words do I need to say to make these people applaud me. Then he says those words. He doesn’t really pay attention to what he is saying so when someone asks on the very next day why he said something, he thinks he is being accurate when he says “I never said that.”

I am not qualified to determine if that sort of behavior is the result of unadulterated selfishness, poor mental hygiene, some sort of mild mental impairment, or full-on mental illness.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Trump lawyers heavily rely on the fact that many white collar crimes require the perpetrator to be aware that what they are doing is wrong. Because Trump is so open about his crimes and because he has been doing them all his life, he is effectively immune to many charges that would land a more careful person in jail for decades.

 

[Susheel]

I dunno.

He lives in a fantasy world, ....

After reading this, I have been unable to get the image of Noel Fielding's Fantasy Man with very trumpian hair, from his Luxury Comedy series out of my head.

 

[quadraginta]

Seems like a sensible place for one. Can’t trust those New Mexicans any more than the other kind of Mexicans.

Is he building it on a state border or somewhere in the middle of Colorado?

Right down the Colorado River, one presumes.

He could build it all the down to the Gulf of California.

And then claim the Baja from Mexico ... as a "buffer zone".

(That seems to be the new euphemism for territory you steal from another country that's too weak to defend itself.)