U.S. Politics megathread (merged)

[Mysterion]

18 minutes ago, maroonlegions said:

And it begins , just like i suspected how it would pan out as they say.

 

These are serious hackers and they are well capable of digging up shite from his past, they have done it before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trump’s Dirty Laundry: Anonymous Hackers Threaten To Reveal All

 

I think they don’t have anything substantial. Over the weekend there was a lot of suggestions about Trump and Epstein but nothing has really been driven by the MSM. If there’s something real it needs to come out pronto to bring an end to Trump.

[JackLadd]

Donnie Bunker claiming he was done more for blacks than anybody since Lincoln. Only surprise is his extreme narcissism allowed him to rate Lincoln above himself. Nobody tougher on Russia either btw. Holding up that Ukraine bound congressional military aid for Biden dirt was as anti Russia as it gets. 40m unemployed and 108k covid deaths is Donnie KAG.

[Justin Z]

12 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

 

I hope you don't mind me altering your words a bit.

 

I mind it a bit Maple only because plenty of non-innocent white men, including mass murderers, get gladhandled by police when being taken into custody. Which, given human rights treaties, is how it ought to be for everyone--innocent or not--so let's keep the focus on the double standard. One example: Cops bought Burger King for Dylann Roof after he killed nine Black people.

[JackLadd]

1 minute ago, Justin Z said:

 

I mind it a bit Maple only because plenty of non-innocent white men, including mass murderers, get gladhandled by police when being taken into custody. Which, given human rights treaties, is how it ought to be for everyone--innocent or not--so let's keep the focus on the double standard. One example: Cops bought Burger King for Dylann Roof after he killed nine Black people.

 

Maybe it was we'll get you any food you want if you tell us everything type thing. I've seen them do that on First 48.  

[Justin Z]

6 minutes ago, JackLadd said:

 

Maybe it was we'll get you any food you want if you tell us everything type thing. I've seen them do that on First 48.  

 

Yeah, sure. They took him alive though, which is the bigger point, that they have this uncanny ability to take even the most violent white offenders alive, yet Black men holding their phones in their family's back garden get shot and killed. They ought to take everyone alive that it is possible to, ought to give them food, water, etc., as required by international human rights law and standards, etc. Equally. But American policing is a shitshow.

[maroonlegions]

13 minutes ago, Justin Z said:

 

Yeah, sure. They took him alive though, which is the bigger point, that they have this uncanny ability to take even the most violent white offenders alive, yet Black men holding their phones in their family's back garden get shot and killed. They ought to take everyone alive that it is possible to, ought to give them food, water, etc., as required by international human rights law and standards, etc. Equally. But American policing is a shitshow.

 

This is what Trumps rubber bullets do to a forehead.   Yip she aint white.

Edited June 3, 2020 by maroonlegions

[Justin Z]

12 minutes ago, maroonlegions said:

 

This is what Trumps rubber bullets do to a forehead.   Yip she aint white.

 

It's awful. This is not, however, down to Trump. The militarisation of police across America accelerated under Obama.

 

This is an insidious structural problem, and it has been ramping up for a long time.

 

[Maple Leaf]

1 hour ago, JackLadd said:

Donnie Bunker claiming he was done more for blacks than anybody since Lincoln. Only surprise is his extreme narcissism allowed him to rate Lincoln above himself. Nobody tougher on Russia either btw. Holding up that Ukraine bound congressional military aid for Biden dirt was as anti Russia as it gets. 40m unemployed and 108k covid deaths is Donnie KAG.

 

 

A day that will live in infamy.  I wonder how long it will be before Trump's enablers say it never happened.

[The Internet]

He actually said he's done more for black Americans than any other president with the POSSIBLE EXCEPTION of Abraham Lincoln

 

 

The guy isn't functioning. 

[The Real Maroonblood]

2 minutes ago, Mauricio Pinilla said:

He actually said he's done more for black Americans than any other president with the POSSIBLE EXCEPTION of Abraham Lincoln

 

 

The guy isn't functioning. 

[The Internet]

'and it's not even close' 

[Unknown user]

7 hours ago, Governor Tarkin said:

 

 

It is poor form, Jake, but for balance, JZ does seem to maintain a sneering tone throughout his interactions with you.

We all do sometimes, and they both give as good as they get. But theres a big difference between posters sneering at each other's opinions and sneering at actual life plans being scuppered, that's just nasty. 

[jake]

28 minutes ago, Smithee said:

We all do sometimes, and they both give as good as they get. But theres a big difference between posters sneering at each other's opinions and sneering at actual life plans being scuppered, that's just nasty. 

I used his own patter back at him.

 

Thars all I'm saying on this.

 

[Governor Tarkin]

47 minutes ago, Smithee said:

We all do sometimes, and they both give as good as they get. But theres a big difference between posters sneering at each other's opinions and sneering at actual life plans being scuppered, that's just nasty. 

 

Meh. They're both intelligent men whose approach to life is defined by very different points of departure.

 

JZ sneeringly bludgeons jake's sometimes confusing honesty with a clear turn of phrase and lucidity of reason borne of his education; jake lashes back with whatever he's got to hand.

 

Philisophically I don't think they're actually that far apart, but circumstance dictates that they'll probably always be talking past each other.

 

 

[Cade]

2 hours ago, Maple Leaf said:

 

 

A day that will live in infamy.  I wonder how long it will be before Trump's enablers say it never happened.

 

Trump himself is already re-writing that history:

"I was only there in the bunker for a few moments, and only because I went down there myself and only because I wanted to inspect it."

"I've done lots of those quick little inspections"

 

[jake]

10 hours ago, Governor Tarkin said:

 

 

It is poor form, Jake, but for balance, JZ does seem to maintain a sneering tone throughout his interactions with you.

If I had known it was so personal I would have took a back seat.

The posts I saw or remember about the Visa thing he posted were politically motivated.

Anyway Tarkin so whiat.

I dont know what troubles you have and no one knows or cares about mine.

But the argument that I got personal  and I'm nasty is weak.

And in line with some peoples politics.

Life isnt easy but by fek lifes no hard when ye greet aboot pish.

 

 

 

[milky_26]

1 hour ago, Cade said:

 

Trump himself is already re-writing that history:

"I was only there in the bunker for a few moments, and only because I went down there myself and only because I wanted to inspect it."

"I've done lots of those quick little inspections"

 

little inspections? was he checking his hands?

[Governor Tarkin]

34 minutes ago, jake said:

If I had known it was so personal I would have took a back seat.

The posts I saw or remember about the Visa thing he posted were politically motivated.

Anyway Tarkin so whiat.

I dont know what troubles you have and no one knows or cares about mine.

But the argument that I got personal  and I'm nasty is weak.

And in line with some peoples politics.

Life isnt easy but by fek lifes no hard when ye greet aboot pish.

 

 

 

 

I don't need convincing about any of that. 👍

 

[jake]

13 minutes ago, Governor Tarkin said:

 

I don't need convincing about any of that. 👍

 

I know 

[Justin Z]

James Mattis Denounces President Trump, Describes Him as a Threat to the Constitution

 

 

I do actually wonder if the dominoes are finally starting to fall. This does give me hope.

 

“When I joined the military, some 50 years ago,” he writes, “I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.”

 

His whole statement is at the link and it's dynamite.

[Justin Z]

And another excellent video from The Lincoln Project.

 

https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1268303956117241856

 

 

[Maple Leaf]

1 hour ago, Justin Z said:

James Mattis Denounces President Trump, Describes Him as a Threat to the Constitution

 

 

I do actually wonder if the dominoes are finally starting to fall. This does give me hope.

 

“When I joined the military, some 50 years ago,” he writes, “I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.”

 

His whole statement is at the link and it's dynamite.

 

We've heard it all before, Justin, and nothing ever happens.  Trump's cabinet and the Senate Republicans are all grovelling boot-lickers, and as long as they continue to enable Trump he will keep on being Trump.

 

He'll be their candidate in November ... you can bet your mortgage on it.

[Justin Z]

2 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

 

We've heard it all before, Justin, and nothing ever happens.  Trump's cabinet and the Senate Republicans are all grovelling boot-lickers, and as long as they continue to enable Trump he will keep on being Trump.

 

He'll be their candidate in November ... you can bet your mortgage on it.

 

Hey I thought I was the hopelessly cynical one

 

Maybe I want to believe after all 🥺

[J.T.F.Robertson]

10 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

 

We've heard it all before, Justin, and nothing ever happens.  Trump's cabinet and the Senate Republicans are all grovelling boot-lickers, and as long as they continue to enable Trump he will keep on being Trump.

 

He'll be their condidate in November ... you can bet your mortgage on it.

 

A despicable bunch.

 

 

[Maple Leaf]

12 minutes ago, Justin Z said:

 

Hey I thought I was the hopelessly cynical one

 

Maybe I want to believe after all 🥺

Hopelessly cynical and hopelessly pessimistic.  President Bunker and his toadies should not be counted out.

[Sharpie]

10 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

Hopelessly cynical and hopelessly pessimistic.  President Bunker and his toadies should not be counted out.

There is an panepidemic, there is rioting and looting on the streets, and Lindsey Graham is shown in the Senate almost foaming at the mouth about the injustices against Trump in the Russia investigation. Demanding an inquiry into the FBI Mueller and that they are all liars. All this despite the fact that he is defending a man who cannot open his mouth without telling a lie.

[Maple Leaf]

8 minutes ago, Sharpie said:

There is an panepidemic, there is rioting and looting on the streets, and Lindsey Graham is shown in the Senate almost foaming at the mouth about the injustices against Trump in the Russia investigation. Demanding an inquiry into the FBI Mueller and that they are all liars. All this despite the fact that he is defending a man who cannot open his mouth without telling a lie.

 

That's exactly my point, Bob.  These people wield enormous power and have the ability to shape the narrative.  The election is still months away, which is enough time for them to push the riots and the pandemic into the background. 

 

By the time the election rolls around, Trump will be hailed as the law and order president, and the one who saved thousands of American lives by his amazing handling of the pandemic.

 

And tens of millions of Americans will lap it up.

[Sharpie]

28 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

 

That's exactly my point, Bob.  These people wield enormous power and have the ability to shape the narrative.  The election is still months away, which is enough time for them to push the riots and the pandemic into the background. 

 

By the time the election rolls around, Trump will be hailed as the law and order president, and the one who saved thousands of American lives by his amazing handling of the pandemic.

 

And tens of millions of Americans will lap it up.

 

I also watched Hannity tonight, raving about the good work NYPD are doing, mainly because of Trump they are clearing people not observing the curfew. The fact is the people I saw were staying there to make a point and the police were doing what they had to do and arresting them. It was all playing out like a rehearsed play, and I would suggest more what the Governor of New York was suggesting this morning. 

I am not surprised at General Mattis slamming Trump I have just finished Woodwards book Fire and Fury and Mattis is mentioned in there quite a lot.

I really am sort of stuck on what to think of Trump, at times I watch him and he is like a deer caught in the headlights and he can't take much more ,then his enablers step in and he seems to steady up a bit. I still do not think he will finish his term, I can't help but feel that his physical or mental health will totally collapse and he will be out.

[Unknown user]

11 hours ago, Governor Tarkin said:

 

Meh. They're both intelligent men whose approach to life is defined by very different points of departure.

 

JZ sneeringly bludgeons jake's sometimes confusing honesty with a clear turn of phrase and lucidity of reason borne of his education; jake lashes back with whatever he's got to hand.

 

Philisophically I don't think they're actually that far apart, but circumstance dictates that they'll probably always be talking past each other.

 

 

Maybe I'm over sensitive to it, I had my share of sneers trying to move abroad. 

 

No one looks great from a feud, I just thought it was beneath him. But to each their own, we can't all agree.

[redjambo]

5 hours ago, Maple Leaf said:

 

We've heard it all before, Justin, and nothing ever happens.  Trump's cabinet and the Senate Republicans are all grovelling boot-lickers, and as long as they continue to enable Trump he will keep on being Trump.

 

He'll be their candidate in November ... you can bet your mortgage on it.

 

Spot on, ML.

[Jambo 4 Ever]

 

[Horatio Caine]

13 minutes ago, Natural Orders said:

 

Hmm...Evangelical Christians - dangerous extremists.  

[Beast Boy]

12 minutes ago, Horatio Caine said:

Hmm...Evangelical Christians - dangerous extremists.  

Amongst the very worst.

[Maple Leaf]

2 hours ago, Horatio Caine said:

Hmm...Evangelical Christians - dangerous extremists.  

 

2 hours ago, Special Officer Doofy said:

Amongst the very worst.

 

And one of them is VP of the USA.

[Beast Boy]

3 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

 

 

And one of them is VP of the USA.

Didn’t think I could find world affairs any more depressing right now... 🙄

[The Real Maroonblood]

3 minutes ago, Special Officer Doofy said:

Didn’t think I could find world affairs any more depressing right now... 🙄

It does suck just now.

[NANOJAMBO]

Uncle Blazer

 

@blakesmustache

 

IF any of you are on Twitter and haven't seen what this guy is Tweeting about Trump now you should take a look. 

[Sharpie]

Saw Trumps medical report, some of the same problems had before the minor stroke and the present prescription regime, blood pressure pills, cholestral pills, and blood thinners, he is ten years younger than I three inches taller and forty pounds heavier.I would suggest he is a walking impending health problem.  reinforces  a previous comment on a post before this information came out.

[NANOJAMBO]

2 minutes ago, Barack said:

Yeah. Can't say I'll be on edge waiting for all that to supposedly happen.

 

Nice to dream, I suppose.

It took me a while to wade through the comments to see that this guy isn't much of a reliable source. 

Sorry , y'all. 

[JFK-1]

The White House is now comapring Trump to Churchill, which is laughable and which has been suitably mocked in this article.
 

Quote

A beleaguered Donald Trump needed an idea for the next episode of his tragic television series, American President. Protesters riled by the death of George Floyd, a black man whose killing by police was caught on camera, were massing in cities across the country.

The world knew that when protesters gathered near the White House last week, Trump had briefly been taken to shelter in a bunker. He had looked weak and this would not do.

Encouraged by one of his co-stars, his daughter Ivanka, he decided to demonstrate he was in command by leaving fortress White House and striding to a nearby Episcopal church -- historic St. John's -- where a small fire set by protesters had done damage to the basement.

Cameras could capture the action as Trump struck a defiant pose -- church and state joined in one man -- to please his Christian Right base. (For Trump, who admires the movie version of General George Patton, all that was missing from his effort to evoke Old Blood and Guts was a uniform and swagger stick.)

 

Although core Trump supporters backed his move, the criticism has come fast and furious with even some Republican officials finding fault.

 

In what seemed like a desperate and ahistorical defense, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tried to compare Trump's photo-opportunity to Churchill's visits to bomb-damaged neighborhoods during the World War II Blitz: "Like Churchill -- we saw him inspecting the bombing damage and it sent a very powerful message of leadership to the British people."

 

Anyone with a junior high grasp of history could say what was wrong with McEnany's claim. Trump didn't view any bomb damage because no bombs had exploded. He didn't even look inside the church to see the evidence of the small fire that had caused a little harm there.

 

Londoners had been attacked repeatedly and devastatingly by foreign forces. Thousands died from air raids carried out by the Nazi regime in Germany. It bore no resemblance to a walk through a park that had been cleared of protesters by US police. Finally, Churchill was a leader who sought to unite. Trump is a divider who seems more inclined to perform than to lead.

Still the production of Trump's photo-op was smooth. The President, who told his team at the beginning of his term that they should consider their work akin to making a daily TV show, orchestrated the key members of the cast: Military and police, including some mounted on impressive horses, were summoned to stand by. The press to hear Trump deliver a line worthy of the role he was playing: "I am your president of law and order."

Nearby, Attorney General William Barr gave the order and the government forces drove away the protesters using rubber bullets, noxious gas, flash bangs, truncheons and shields. The President's path to the church was secured.

With smoke hanging in the air, the President took his cue and began striding across the White House grounds (an exclusive shooting location if ever there was one). Behind him walked the sleek Ivanka, dressed in black, carrying a white, $1,540 MaxMara bag in which she had stashed a Bible).

The president's daughter had performed this way countless times, serving him as a silent figure in one of his tableaux, betraying no real emotion of her own but making sure she looked, as her father would put it, like someone selected by "central casting."

When he reached the door of God's house, President Trump didn't kneel and pray or read Scripture. He didn't ask for God to help heal an anguished country or to help him find wisdom.

Instead he wielded the Bible like an auctioneer holding an item for bidders to inspect, and struck a series of poses. After calling members of his team near -- all white people, all abject White House loyalists -- he let the press capture the group photo and then called it a wrap.

The church walk was taken without consultation with the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and, it seems, without much consideration for how people outside his core supporters would regard Trump's appropriation of Jesus -- the Prince of Peace -- minutes after police, acting under the administration's orders, moved with swift violence against peaceful Americans citizens exercising their right to free assembly.

Later in the evening the show continued. Military helicopters descended so that citizens below would be battered by the prop wash, and again the cameras could record. The deafening sound evoked "Apocalypse Now." (This was, it seemed, what Trump's defense secretary meant, when he urged officials faced with protests to "dominate the battle space.")

Then, after the tear gas wafted away, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, costumed in camouflage no less, surveyed the streets.

Audience response to Trump's Monday night programming included outraged complaints from the local Episcopal bishop who said, "We need moral leadership, and he's done everything to divide us." The Right Rev. Mariann Budde spoke as if Trump was a normal leader drawn to unite the country.

This assumption ignores the reality of the Trump presidency. When events focus attention on him, he acts as the director and star of a TV show that forces people to take sides. Johnnie Moore, a spokesman for religious figures who support Trump clearly understood, tweeting, "I will never forget seeing @POTUS @realDonaldTrump slowly & in-total-command walk from the @WhiteHouse across Lafayette Square to St. John's Church."

Having determined that his Monday night performance worked, President Trump was at it again Tuesday, using a Catholic shrine as the backdrop for another scene in his production. Once again, he didn't ask permission, or notify anyone in the church. He just seized holy ground and stood on his mark to offer the same strange, awkward smile he flashed at St. John's.

At the Catholic shrine, it was first lady Melania Trump who was drafted to serve as his costar and human prop. When the president seemed to ask her to smile for the cameras, she apparently demurred, so he was left to flash his pearly whites alone.

This time it was the Catholic Archbishop Wilton Gregory who complained, calling the display "reprehensible." Fox News, the reliable amen chorus for Trump, then dutifully reported that Gregory was "under fire" from those who didn't like what he said.

On Wednesday morning elements of the 82nd Airborne Division awakened at bases outside Washington, DC. They had been deployed, it seems, to support the president's threat of military action against protests that might lead to looting and other criminal acts. In fact, they would be available, also, to serve as fearsomely armed extras in the next episode of American President.

Although the president seemed immune to the negative reviews that had poured in after his two stunts -- many military figures, and Republican officials joined their voices with others -- Secretary of Defense Mark Esper made public his second thoughts.

After he said he didn't think America was in a situation that required the military intervention the president had discussed, observers began to speculate about how long he would keep his job.

This is the dynamic for those who join the administration believing they are to perform the duties of their office but they discover that they too are human props. The choice is to go along and find yourself deep into role-playing. (See William Barr.) Or you stay loyal to your official duties and find yourself gone. (See any number of former officials from Rex Tillerson to Gary Cohn to James Mattis.)

To understand what will come next it helps to keep in mind that Trump's entire life has been devoted, not to developing a genuine self, but to the construction of a character that would attract love and attention and respect.

In my work as his biographer I came to believe that the seed of this habit was planted when he saw his mother riveted to the TV coverage of Queen Elizabeth's coronation.

Six-year-old Donald saw that his mother was enthralled by what he later called the "splendor and magnificence." Clearly this was what got her attention and as any child will tell you, a mother's attention feels like love.

Sixty-seven years after his mother taught him the power of display, we are all now props in his drama which, in addition to playing out on the screen is manifested in real life anguish, destruction and even death as protesters call attention to police killings of black citizens.

The last thing America needs is a man in the Oval Office who is no more substantial than a fictional character. But that is what we have.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/03/opinions/trumps-photo-op-not-churchillian-dantonio/index.html
 

 

[DETTY29]

Can't remember his exact words but his address just now

 

'George will be looking down, proud of what we are doing today'

[Maple Leaf]

I just saw a short video of an interview of Kelly-Ann Conway on Fox.  She was suggesting incompetence by WHO and justifying Trump's decision to pull funding.

 

She said something along the lines of "this is COVID-19 not COVID-1", implying that WHO had had 18 previous opportunities to manage the pandemic and had failed.  This woman is one of Trump's advisers.

 

Not one of the talking heads on Fox told her that the '19' represents the year the virus was identified.

[J.T.F.Robertson]

9 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

I just saw a short video of an interview of Kelly-Ann Conway on Fox.  She was suggesting incompetence by WHO and justifying Trump's decision to pull funding.

 

She said something along the lines of "this is COVID-19 not COVID-1", implying that WHO had had 18 previous opportunities to manage the pandemic and had failed.  This woman is one of Trump's advisers.

 

Not one of the talking heads on Fox told her that the '19' represents the year the virus was identified.

 

I'd call it unbelievable ........ but only if it was.

Just how do you respond to that level of ignorance?

 

[Sharpie]

6 minutes ago, J.T.F.Robertson said:

 

I'd call it unbelievable ........ but only if it was.

Just how do you respond to that level of ignorance?

 

 By voting for Trump in the last and the next election. Truth and fact have both been removed from the present occupants of the WhiteHouse. 

[The Real Maroonblood]

27 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

I just saw a short video of an interview of Kelly-Ann Conway on Fox.  She was suggesting incompetence by WHO and justifying Trump's decision to pull funding.

 

She said something along the lines of "this is COVID-19 not COVID-1", implying that WHO had had 18 previous opportunities to manage the pandemic and had failed.  This woman is one of Trump's advisers.

 

Not one of the talking heads on Fox told her that the '19' represents the year the virus was identified.

I know it’s a serious subject but ffs what a clown.

[Cade]

"Jobs are up. George Floyd is looking down on us and is proud. It's a great day for him, for us, for everybody in America"

 

   

[Shanks said no]

27 minutes ago, Cade said:

"Jobs are up. George Floyd is looking down on us and is proud. It's a great day for him, for us, for everybody in America"

 

   

 

Apologies for doubting you, I didn't believe even he could be that crass

 

[Sharpie]

I admit to being totally ignorant about the job statistics, but was there not a lot of people who were laid of or jobs that disappeared which caused an increase in the unemployed. Are these jobs new jobs that are being created or are the figures of improvement due in any way to the return to work of some as the release of closures due to covid allow people to return to work. 

[Cade]

19 minutes ago, Sharpie said:

I admit to being totally ignorant about the job statistics, but was there not a lot of people who were laid of or jobs that disappeared which caused an increase in the unemployed. Are these jobs new jobs that are being created or are the figures of improvement due in any way to the return to work of some as the release of closures due to covid allow people to return to work. 

A bit of both.

Some people didn't get furloughed, just straight up sacked.

They have now gotten their old jobs back.

 

However, unemployment for african americans has actually gone up a bit more, making even more of a mockery of Trumps "George is happy" speech

[Victorian]

The day Trump out-Trumped himself.