The Political Thread

[Arcadia]

The other good news is that Virginia (where I live) voted in a lot of Democrats in the last election. Yay, I don't feel so alone anymore!

[Fantasy Lover]

Some updates: Michael Flynn pleaded guilty https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/01/trumps-ex-national-security-adviser-michael-flynn-charged-with-lying-to-fbi, Roy Moore didn't win https://m.mic.com/articles/186756/doug-jones-pulls-out-a-stunning-win-in-alabama?utm_source=policymicFB&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=WHFacebook&utm_content=inf_11_285_2&tse_id=INF_5e750a20dfb611e7b926579f881108d6 and Net Neutrality got repealed https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/12/14/technology/net-neutrality-repeal-vote.html?referer=https://www.google.be/.

[Arcadia]

Good news, better news, terrible news. :(

[Van Buren Supernova]

Are you guys aware that last year the attack of the clowns stopped around the same time a clown became president?

[Fantasy Lover]

I hadn't noticed that, but anyway that guy is too much of a dangerous lunatic to be considered a clown. I mean, have you read this? http://qklnk.co/FHVjug is this doesn't scream dictatorship, then nothing will.

[J.P.]

I bet the institutions will be able to go on with changed wording. But the ban itself and the fact that he can do it, makes me cringe. Even the communists didn't do this (at least not that blatantly)

 

If he's a clown, he's the one from "It". To me he's an idiot. A dangerous idiot, becaus he thinks he thinks he's a genius.

[Arcadia]

To be fair (as much as it pains me) they have walked back a bit from that "ban" ... now there is a report saying that it was a "suggestion" that those words be avoided when applying for funding. Which is much the same as saying they won't get funding if they use those words in their proposals ... but we all knew that already anyway. Nothing fact-based will occur during the Trump administration.

 

More stunning to me was the disclosure that the new tax bill has incentives in it for people to have more children. Apparently that's how they intend to make up the deficit they will create when they lower corporate taxes ... by creating more individual taxpayers. Never mind the dangers of overpopulation (which they don't believe in anyway.)

Stupid, stupid, stupid......   :comp:  :facepalm:  :comp2:   

[J.P.]

I read recently that USA also have problems with the age structure of the society (as in the most developed countries, btw: too many old people and not enough those in productive age), which is not really going towards overpopulation. But seriously, I wonder why anyone not being rich would decide to have kids over there. The Machiavellian in me tells that's the aim of the new crusade against sex education, contraception and abortion - there is no other way to get enough babies.

[Arcadia]

I live in a part of the country where the population just keeps exploding, so the thought of encouraging the production of even more people is particularly annoying to me ... we've got too many already!!!!!!

[Fantasy Lover]

While it's horrifying that they are preventing women from having birth control and abortion, Trump and Kim Jong un continue threatening each other with nukes in a very childish way.

[T.o.b.y]

That tweet isn't real, is it? It's got to be satire. Please tell me it's satire...

[J.P.]

Nope. It even made it into German news. Without a comment.

[Arcadia]

Nope, not satire. I wish it were.

 

I've been chortling all day because now there is a big feud between Trump and his white supremacist buddy Steve Bannon, the one person from this whole odious administration that may actually be a worse person than Trump. Too soon to see how it pans out, but right now it looks like Steve-O is going down, big time (in terms of his ability to affect our politics, at least.) Hope so. Hope he takes Trump with him. Agh, I hate this vengeful person this president has turned me into.......

[J.P.]

The news about the Fire and Fury book being out sooner than announced to prevent the legal ban on it actually made me laugh. What a great prank!

[T.o.b.y]

I wonder whether the president or whoever writes those tweets for him maybe knows just how outrageous they sound and is doing it on purpose just for the attention. Like online trolling, but in real life.

 

The part that still shocks me the most is that millions of people voted for him. It's not the few outrageous people in power that worry me so much as the masses who put them there.

[HerlockSholmes]

If this was a movie people would say that the script was too far fetched. How did this lunatic get into office? I shouldn’t say this but where’s Lee Harvey Oswald when you need him!

 

The people of the USA deserve better that this. Come to think of it....we all do.

[Arcadia]

I wonder whether the president or whoever writes those tweets for him maybe knows just how outrageous they sound and is doing it on purpose just for the attention. Like online trolling, but in real life.

 

The part that still shocks me the most is that millions of people voted for him. It's not the few outrageous people in power that worry me so much as the masses who put them there.

Yes, that worries me also. And many of them are, indeed, worrisome people; not anyone I want anywhere near my family.

 

I will say, however, that many of the people I've talked to were voting against Clinton more than they were voting for Trump. And around here, at least, the deciding factor seems to have been abortion. They seem to think that now that we have another conservative on the Supreme Court, put there by Trump, that the courts will make abortion illegal again. I have my doubts about that ... but then, I never imagined Trump stood a chance of being elected in the first place, so what do I know. I feel like a stranger in my own country these days.

 

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency is doing everything it can to stop protecting the environment. That's the kind of thing that frightens me the most ... take away a basic human right, and we can fight to get it back. Kill off our planet, it's gone for good. Gah.

[Arcadia]

If this was a movie people would say that the script was too far fetched. How did this lunatic get into office? I shouldn’t say this but where’s Lee Harvey Oswald when you need him!

 

The people of the USA deserve better that this. Come to think of it....we all do.

The funny thing about this new book is that it doesn't say anything (so far) that hasn't already been reported in the Washington Post. (Bless them. :smile:) Heck, you didn't even need to read the Post for some of it, it was right there on television for all the world to see. The terror on the Trumps' faces on election night. The coldness between Trump and his wife on inauguration day. The absolute ignorance of Trump about how the government works. The book's just confirming that we saw what we thought we saw.

 

I don't know, Herlock ... I think there's some wisdom in the saying that people get the government they deserve. This president has brought out the base selfishness and determined ignorance of many of my fellow citizens. I have to include me in that ... I always knew there was a core of people in this country who despised education, government and anyone who doesn't look like them; but I always thought they were mostly a small group of crackpots who lived out in the hills somewhere. Apparently I was being a bit ignorant and insular myself. *sigh*

[HerlockSholmes]

Hi Arcadia,

 

Perhaps there was also an element of anti-political establishment about the vote (as well as anti-Clintonism) ? People tire of faceless politicians spewing the same political script. Trump was the outspoken ‘outsider.’ We have a similar thing going on here and it partially explains the ‘success’ of idiots like Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson. People almost like the fact that they occasionally speak out of turn, it gives them a kind of man-of-the-people image (in Trumps Case a billionaire man-of-the-people) By calling Trump an idiot I sort of feel like I’m insulting the American people for voting him in but I think they were simply conned. He said what many wanted to hear (about helping ‘ordinary’ people/industry etc) and he opposed Clinton.

Let’s just hope that the next election sees him gone

[HerlockSholmes]

The anti-environmental aspect is also worrying. The abortion one is obviously a very emotive subject. I’m a Humanist (and so an atheist) so I do worry about religious led laws. America’s halting of stem cell research is worrying as it could have a massively beneficial effect for all. The decision surprised me as although the USA is a very religious country the constitution famously separates church and state.

[J.P.]

I have some doubts about the credibility of the book, even if some of the statements aren't anything we didn't know before.

 

And if the story about not wanting to win is true, it reminds me of Brexit, where you also have a feeling the people who started it had absolutely no plan for the case of winning.

 

And this is today's reaction.

 

Michael Wolff is a total loser who made up stories in order to sell this really boring and untruthful book. He used Sloppy Steve Bannon, who cried when he got fired and begged for his job. Now Sloppy Steve has been dumped like a dog by almost everyone. Too bad!

 

I recently came upon a text trying to demonstrate DT is suffering early state of dementia and it's getting worse very fast.
One thing is for sure - his younger self indeed was able to speak sensibly and in full sentences.

 

 

As for his followers - there are still people admiring him. I even read some comments from Germany from people who think he's great. My jaw hit the floor.

[T.o.b.y]

I certainly doubt that this book, no matter how well or how poorly its claims are substantiated, will change anybody's mind. People who are still fans of his, after all that has happened, won't be swayed by a piece of writing and those who aren't already know why; they don't need a book to tell them so.

 

So what's all the fuss about?

[J.P.]

Money?

[J.P.]

Jesus… (and it's me saying this)

 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DS3yoWYWkAAoV7p.jpg

[T.o.b.y]

"like, really smart"... No comment.