Donald Trump watch

@CB, yeah I do watch PBS news programs actually . Great guess, my dude.

My nightmare scenario is to see another schism between a Warren-like candidate of the far left (Bernie's done due to that sexual harrassment allegation against his staffer) and a moderate Dem like Harris that causes voters to stay home, allowing the GOP to repeat 2016 again. That absolutely cannot happen again.

That's a big risk McLewis. And the fact that presidential races put a lot more focus on personality and media compatibility... the person running must pop out on media.

The people who will decide the outcome aren't going to necessarily vote for some random dem to spite Trump. They'll look at the person.

I think dems underestimate those in the US who don't truly give a rat's ass about party. They care about security, money in their pockets and stability. It's really that simple. These are the people that you need to convince. The Trump base and the dem base are already set in stone.

VivaStPauli wrote:His idiocy just endears him to his base even more, and with the electoral college being what it is, he still has a real chance, no matter the democrat's candidate.

Yep, that is the sad truth.
His voters like that he's a racist moron, because, well, they're racist morons themselves.
What we think is outrageously unnacceptable about his actions is what gets him votes.

And as much as Obama came away from touring the heartland during his campaign with the unshakeable sense of the DECENCY and the COMMON SENSE of the American people, the part of the American people that is proto-fascist, dangerously ignorant to the point of insanity, racist and bigotted ,and that fetishizes being a bully, a prick, and whose philosophy strongly favours exploiting other people (mostly of color) economically, without remorse or scruples, has struck back with force and reminded everyone how much they still exist.
And certain distortions of the democratic representative process, exploited and inforced by special interests, favour them blatantly.

I really don't want to paint it too black and maybe I'm a bit hysterical, but I see painful violence and serious disruption in the future, more than we ever thought would still occur in our societies. Because these people are beyond reason and common sense, they're dangerous, they're armed, and they're not stopping.

If all the white people in the world that show a bit of support for trump are racist what do we call the non white people that show a bit of support for trump. I never thought about this before until someone told me if your white and agree with trump on some things then you are automatically a racist.

Unique wrote:If all the white people in the world that show a bit of support for trump are racist what do we call the non white people that show a bit of support for trump. I never thought about this before until someone told me if your white and agree with trump on some things then you are automatically a racist.

Had you asked this question right after the election, I would've said you can be a Trump supporter and not be racist. Now? I don't think the 2 can be separated at this point, in good faith, given everything he's said about people of color and the way his administration has treated them. It's guilt by association at this point. They can cleanse themselves by renouncing their support of him and his policies. That's the only way for them now. They won't though because they live in a bubble of Fox News, Breitbart and all the other members of the right-wing, Trump-supporting echo chamber.

So to me, it makes no difference if they are Black, Asian, Native American, or Latino. If they refuse to see that he has absolutely no respect for these communities then they aren't worth anyone's time to have a dialogue with. They are as lost a cause as his white base are.

BREAKING: US says 2 troops and 2 American civilians among those killed in suicide bombing claimed by Islamic State in Syria.

— The Associated Press (@AP) January 16, 2019

This came after...

Starting the long overdue pullout from Syria while hitting the little remaining ISIS territorial caliphate hard, and from many directions. Will attack again from existing nearby base if it reforms. Will devastate Turkey economically if they hit Kurds. Create 20 mile safe zone....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2019

and....

I have never been prouder of President Donald Trump. In today’s meeting, he stood up for a strong America and steadfastly opposed foreign wars. Putting America First means declaring victory in Afghanistan and Syria. President Trump is delivering on his promises.

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) January 16, 2019

and......

"The caliphate has crumbled and ISIS has been defeated," Pence says in speech to diplomats, hours after ISIS claims responsibility for a deadly blast in Syria, blamed for multiple US casualties.

— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) January 16, 2019

I feel awful for the families of the 4 people these 3 morons have gotten killed.

This feels like the spawn of Bush's Mission Accomplished fiasco and the Benghazi scandal that the right hung around Hillary's neck. I expect the same to be done to these 3 when they all run for re-election.

President Trump's ban on transgender people serving in military to go ahead after Supreme Court ruling - BBC

Between this and the shutdown, his "America First" stance is in tatters. 2020 can't come soon enough.

McLewis wrote:Between this and the shutdown, his "America First" stance is in tatters. 2020 can't come soon enough.

Some journalist just outed Trump from a conversation where he wanted to be called “a source close to the president”

If that’s how the media refers to him they need to have their credentials stripped. That’s some awful ethics.

Trump is a clown. mcConnell and the republicans who support him are worse. Arnold was one of the last true repubs

Freeza wrote:

McLewis wrote:Between this and the shutdown, his "America First" stance is in tatters. 2020 can't come soon enough.

Some journalist just outed Trump from a conversation where he wanted to be called “a source close to the president”

If that’s how the media refers to him they need to have their credentials stripped. That’s some awful ethics.

Absolutely. Trump's idiotic cries of "Fake News" at everything that doesn't paint him in the perfect light are one thing, but journos who are not reporting the news in good faith are a disgrace to the profession and they only strengthen his and his base's animosity towards the press. This is another reason why I seriously scrutinize journos now more than ever. Fame can be had with these gotcha moments with this president since he's full of them. Some are just after that Pulitzer and the prominence that comes with it.

‘We have a system that is fundamentally broken.’ — Rep. @AOC is explaining just how f*cked campaign finance laws really are pic.twitter.com/sCwpkRzcHB

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) February 8, 2019

I don't if she'll be the first female President, but I do believe this woman is destined to be either President or Speaker of the House at some point of her career. What she's saying in this video isn't particularly new, but the way she broke it down and most importantly, got it on congressional record, was extraordinary.

This is why establishment Dems like Pelosi and Schumer as well as all kinds of Republicans and Conservatives fear her. She got elected to Congress without taking a cent of corporate money or PAC money and that allows her to speak freely like this. I was not at all sure of her when she first emerged and I still don't agree completely with some of her policies, but she's perhaps the brightest Democrat prospect to emerge in generations.

She'll need more security than what Congresspeople are afforded right now, that's for sure. She's quickly becoming a target for political forces that do not want her talking like this to the public and they will do whatever is needed to make sure she is silenced.

Man you guys really need to watch that. I don't agree with everything AOC says but I love her attitude. She has balls of steel and is bringing attention to the dark side of politics

Yeah she's great and would make a fantastic first female president. She's only 29 though.

Myesyats wrote:Yeah she's great and would make a fantastic first female president. She's only 29 though.

2028

Declaring national emergency over a construction project. Broken politics.

I'm literally playing a game of semantics with a Trump supporter on Twitter who has fully bought into his lie that people are pouring across the border like Huns trying to invade and sack cities. Pathetic.

Trump could've had the funding he needed for this wall anytime in the last 2 years given he had the majority in Congress. hell, he could've gotten 4 times what he asked for during the shutdown with this current deal and he foolishly turned it down. Now he's looking to blame the Democrats instead of the GOP who dragged their feet for 2 years. Pathetic.

Why didn't he do this when he had the majority? Because this isn't about a wall. This is about him and those who follow him not wanting brown people coming into this country in large numbers, be it legally or illegally. They're trying to stop the browning of this country because they know whites will be the minority in 20+ years time and it scares the shit out of them. It's about consolidating power through racist policies.

This is a dangerous precedent being set and the moderate in me hopes the next Dem president doesn't use these emergency powers in the same reckless manner that Trump is now. The liberal in me absolutely wants them to though.

All this said, Trump has done certain things that literally only someone like him would do since he cares little for establishment politics:
-  Calling China out on piracy and expansionism and backing it up with sanctions
-  Calling out Europe for not paying its bills for NATO and forcing compliance
-  Calling out the international community for not paying its bills for the United Nations and forcing compliance
-  Not signing an unenforceable environmental deal.  The champion of the deal, France, has decided to back off too.  The "yellow jacket" movement started out because Macron wanted to unilaterally impose tax on fossil fuels as a result of this deal and the extra cost burden caused the outrage.  Environment is important obviously.  But fossile fuel dependency is like being on heroine...  there's a process before getting clean.
-  Although I would have done it differently... the Iran deal was just awful.  Perfect example of a president (Obama) looking at the optics of getting this done as opposed to what it actually entails
-  Blowing up the broken system.  We all knew Congress was broken.  Trump being shows how completely useless it is

He's done many more things wrong.  But you can't just say he's been completely ineffective. As much as I disagree with him... he is doing exactly what he promised on his presidential campaign trail. There were no empty promises to get votes. I respect him for this although I'm horrified that he was serious lol.

Reason I say this is that I don't like any of the Democrat candidates.  None of them.  I'll likely abstain from voting if these are the choices.

So Bernie's running again. Isn't he a little too old?

sportsczy wrote:All this said, Trump has done certain things that literally only someone like him would do since he cares little for establishment politics:
-  Calling China out on piracy and expansionism and backing it up with sanctions
-  Calling out Europe for not paying its bills for NATO and forcing compliance
-  Calling out the international community for not paying its bills for the United Nations and forcing compliance
-  Not signing an unenforceable environmental deal.  The champion of the deal, France, has decided to back off too.  The "yellow jacket" movement started out because Macron wanted to unilaterally impose tax on fossil fuels as a result of this deal and the extra cost burden caused the outrage.  Environment is important obviously.  But fossile fuel dependency is like being on heroine...  there's a process before getting clean.
-  Although I would have done it differently... the Iran deal was just awful.  Perfect example of a president (Obama) looking at the optics of getting this done as opposed to what it actually entails
-  Blowing up the broken system.  We all knew Congress was broken.  Trump being shows how completely useless it is

He's done many more things wrong.  But you can't just say he's been completely ineffective. As much as I disagree with him... he is doing exactly what he promised on his presidential campaign trail. There were no empty promises to get votes. I respect him for this although I'm horrified that he was serious lol.

Reason I say this is that I don't like any of the Democrat candidates.  None of them.  I'll likely abstain from voting if these are the choices.

But what exactly do we have to show from all of that though? How are we better off right now? Trump is good with making a show of strength, but I see little substance behind all of this bluster.

Myesyats wrote:So Bernie's running again. Isn't he a little too old?

He's 77, Elizabeth Warren is 69 and Joe Biden is 76. Clinton was 69 at the time of the 2016 election as well, the same as Reagan when he took office in 1980. Trump is 72 currently and he shows all of it everyday. They're all too damn old tbh. They could perfect candidates ideologically to me, but that makes no real difference if they keel over while in office.

Just as there's cutoff point for being too young to be President, I really believe there should be one for being too old as well. 35 to 60 sounds about right.

McLewis wrote:

Myesyats wrote:So Bernie's running again. Isn't he a little too old?

He's 77, Elizabeth Warren is 69 and Joe Biden is 76. Clinton was 69 at the time of the 2016 election as well, the same as Reagan when he took office in 1980. Trump is 72 currently and he shows all of it everyday. They're all too damn old tbh. They could perfect candidates ideologically to me, but that makes no real difference if they keel over while in office.

Just as there's cutoff point for being too young to be President, I really believe there should be one for being too old as well. 35 to 60 sounds about right.

would the us not be better off picking the right person for the job anf not the right age.

Bernie represents a movement rather than himself.

Unique wrote:

McLewis wrote:

Myesyats wrote:So Bernie's running again. Isn't he a little too old?

He's 77, Elizabeth Warren is 69 and Joe Biden is 76. Clinton was 69 at the time of the 2016 election as well, the same as Reagan when he took office in 1980. Trump is 72 currently and he shows all of it everyday. They're all too damn old tbh. They could perfect candidates ideologically to me, but that makes no real difference if they keel over while in office.

Just as there's cutoff point for being too young to be President, I really believe there should be one for being too old as well. 35 to 60 sounds about right.

would the us not be better off picking the right person for the job anf not the right age.

A reasonable concept, except none of them are the right person. Age for a POTUS, however, is a practical matter however as when they die before their term ends, it can cause a crisis, especially if the VP and/or Speaker are dubious characters.

Our 2 youngest in Kennedy (43) and Teddy Roosevelt (42) are revered as 2 of our best ever presidents so there is a precedent here. Bill Clinton is up there as well and he was 46 when elected. This isn't completely monolithic though (US Grant, whom I rate as one of our worst, was also 46 when elected). There's also Grover Cleveland, another terrible one, who was 47 when elected.

What I can say though is that history has told us that the older they are at election, the worse or ineffective they tend to be. Beyond him there's Reagan, Trump, Buchanan, WH Harrison (was 68 at the time of election and he died a month after inauguration from pneumonia), Jackson, and Taylor, none of which were (or are in Trump's case) considered good POTUS.

The ages of the current Dem field are: Klobuchar (58), Delaney (55), Harris (54), Gillibrand (52), Booker (49), Castro (44), Buttigieg (37), and Gabbard (37). All are much younger than Trump, Clinton or Sanders so barring assassination or a serious disease, there's no threat of them dying suddenly in office. Policy-wise, it remains to be seen if they are good candidates though. We'll find that out this year.