The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: No smocking guns. - Page 1158 - Politics and Economics

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The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: No smocking guns.

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05-02-2017 , 09:41 AM

#28926

master3004

Revisionist Historian

Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 56,466

Quote:

Originally Posted by hornbug

Be proud, your Democrat AG in Iowa is making a political play to deny the next Governor of Iowa the right to appoint a replacement for the office of Lieutenant Governor of Iowa. Petty politics.

Please to be quoting every post you made condemning this.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/12/1...publicans.html

05-02-2017 , 09:50 AM

#28927

TrollyWantACracker

Pooh-Bah

Join Date: Apr 2015 Posts: 4,191

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...92449181093888
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...93829505552385[/QUOTE]

Lol, actually I made these tweets. Surprisingly, it only took me five tries to guess his password (chickentits45 although I expect it to change shortly).

05-02-2017 , 10:11 AM

#28928

Zimmer4141

Wet

Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 33,706

Jesus... Take the words from this Paul Ryan speech and put it in any other context... You'd think it's from the leader of a country that is embroiled in a World War and whose existence is currently under serious threat.

05-02-2017 , 10:15 AM

#28929

ligastar

ToP 1o0 pAsS cAtChErS

Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 31,889

Stay focused my friends.

https://www.salon.com/2017/05/01/his...row-democracy/

Historian Timothy Snyder: “It’s pretty much inevitable” that Trump will try to stage a coup and overthrow democracy

Yale historian and author of the new book "On Tyranny" says we may have one year left to save American democracy

Quote:

Our story about how nothing could [ever] go wrong was a story about how human nature is the free market and the free market brings democracy, so everything is hunky-dory — and of course every part of that story is nonsense. The Greeks understood that democracy is likely to produce oligarchy because if you don’t have some mechanism to get inequality under control then people with the most money will likely take full control.

With Trump, one sees the new variant of this where a candidate can run by saying, “Look, we all know — wink, wink, nudge, nudge — that this isn’t really a democracy anymore.” He doesn’t use the words but basically says, “We all know this is really an oligarchy, so let me be your oligarch.” Although it’s nonsense and of course he’s a con man and will betray everyone, it makes sense only in this climate of inequality.

Quote:

Why is Trump not being held accountable for all of his failures, scandals and incompetence?

Mr. Trump is primarily a television personality. As such, he is judged by that standard. This means that a scandal does not call forth a response; it calls forth the desire for a bigger scandal. It just whets the appetite for a bigger scandal because a television serial has to work on that logic. It’s almost as though he has to produce these outrageous things because what else would he be doing?

Quote:

In your book you discuss the idea that Donald Trump will have his own version of Hitler’s Reichstag fire to expand his power and take full control of the government by declaring a state of emergency. How do you think that would play out?

Let me make just two points. The first is that I think it’s pretty much inevitable that they will try. The reason I think that is that the conventional ways of being popular are not working out for them. The conventional way to be popular or to be legitimate in this country is to have some policies, to grow your popularity ratings and to win some elections. I don’t think 2018 is looking very good for the Republicans along those conventional lines — not just because the president is historically unpopular. It’s also because neither the White House nor Congress have any policies which the majority of the public like.

This means they could be seduced by the notion of getting into a new rhythm of politics, one that does not depend upon popular policies and electoral cycles.

Whether it works or not depends upon whether when something terrible happens to this country, we are aware that the main significance of it is whether or not we are going to be more or less free citizens in the future.

My gut feeling is that Trump and his administration will try and that it won’t work. Not so much because we are so great but because we have a little bit of time to prepare. I also think that there are enough people and enough agencies of the government who have also thought about this and would not necessarily go along.

Quote:

What can citizens do? What would your call to action be?

The whole point of my new book, “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century,” is that we have a century of wisdom and very smart people who confronted situations like our own — but usually more demanding — and that wisdom can be condensed.

What my book does is it goes across the arc of regime change, from the beginning to the end, and it provides things ranging from simpler to harder that people can literally do every day.

The thing that matters the most is to realize that in moments like this your actions really do matter. It is ironic but in an authoritarian regime-change situation, the individual matters more than [in] a democracy. In an authoritarian regime change, at the beginning the individual has a special kind of power because the authoritarian regime depends on a certain kind of consent. Which means that if you are conscious of the moment that you are in, you can find the ways not to express your consent and you can also find the little ways to be a barrier. If enough people do that, it really can make a difference — but again only at the beginning.

Quote:

What are some of the more difficult and challenging things that people can do?

The last lesson in “On Tyranny” is to be as courageous as you can. Do you actually care enough about freedom that you would take risks? Do individuals actually care about freedom? Think that through. I think if enough of us take the little risks at the beginning, which aren’t really that significant, this will prevent us from having to take bigger risks down the line.

We are still at a stage where protest is not illegal. We’re still at a stage where protest is not lethal. Those are the two big thresholds. We are still on the good side of both of those thresholds and so now is the time you want to pack in as much as you can because you could actually divert things. Once you get into a world where protest is illegal, then the things that I recommend like corporeal politics, getting out on the streets — they have to happen but they are much riskier. It’s a much different kind of decision.

Quote:

How much time does American democracy have left before this poison becomes lethal and there is no path of return?

You have to accept there is a time frame. Nobody can be sure how long this particular regime change with Trump will take, but there is a clock, and the clock really is ticking. It’s three years on the outside, but in more likelihood something like a year. In January 2018 we will probably have a pretty good idea which way this thing is going. It’s going to depend more on us than on them in the meantime. Once you get past a certain threshold, it starts to depend more on them than on us, and then things are much, much worse. It makes me sad to think how Americans would behave at that point.

Last edited by ligastar; 05-02-2017 at 10:25 AM.

05-02-2017 , 10:23 AM

#28930

JPantz

veteran

Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 2,144

So congress can have the united ceo tesitifying on an Incident that happened two weeks ago but still haven't had hearings on Trump/page/Flynn etc?

05-02-2017 , 10:32 AM

#28931

ASAP17

Pooh-Bah

Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 5,882

Quote:

Originally Posted by poconoder

This is a pretty good take on what is happening in the US. You guys are being pandered to.

The past 100 days have been a disaster — for Democrats

Democrats are completely focused on placating their frothing, left-wing, anti-Trump base — and the American heartland thinks these people are insane. They see women marching in anti-Trump rallies wearing “pussy” hats (and placing them on the heads of young children). They see left-wing mobs attacking Charles Murray at Middlebury College and trying to stop Ann Coulter from speaking at the University of California at Berkeley. They see “Bill Nye the Liberal Guy” — honorary co-chair of the March for Science — raising a question about whether people should be punished for having “extra kids.” (Which of their kids, they wonder, is the “extra” one?) They see a horrible feedback loop of left-wing intolerance for their beliefs and way of life.
And they see Democrats in Washington pandering to these people.

Yeah it was so awful getting almost everything that they wanted in the budget lmao. It was so awful being completely in the minority and still having Obamacare be law... Reread how stupid your post is and then get back to us.

05-02-2017 , 10:34 AM

#28932

Our House

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 28,109

Quote:

Originally Posted by JPantz

So congress can have the united ceo tesitifying on an Incident that happened two weeks ago but still haven't had hearings on Trump/page/Flynn etc?

These things take a while. I mean, we just found out that Flynn may have potentially broken the same possible law that he might have broken the last time it came up 3 or 4 months ago. After Flynn's situation is squared away, all of the committees can then move on to the next likely witness and call it bipartisan progress.

05-02-2017 , 10:47 AM

#28933

Max Cut

Guest

Posts: n/a

Shut it down until we can figure out what's going on. KappaTrump

05-02-2017 , 11:03 AM

#28934

Huehuecoyotl

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 29,296

https://twitter.com/juliehdavis/stat...20414665252864

Like a well oiled machine.

05-02-2017 , 11:08 AM

#28935

champstark

aka starkwired

Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 14,838

Getting rid of the legislative filibuster is good in the long run, so go for it, Cheetoman.

05-02-2017 , 11:08 AM

#28936

JonnyA

veteran

Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 2,664

Odds he vetos the spending bill? If cable news attacks it enough as a big loss for Trump, I could see it happening. Odds also go up if Obamacare repeal goes fails again as then he would be seen as losing twice in one week.

05-02-2017 , 11:11 AM

#28937

TheHip41

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 27,049

I hope he nukes the 60% in congress. Going to be sweet in 2018 when we have a majority.

05-02-2017 , 11:11 AM

#28938

Max Cut

Guest

Posts: n/a

https://twitter.com/DLin71/status/859405235026104320

05-02-2017 , 11:33 AM

#28939

Our House

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 28,109

https://twitter.com/ABCPolitics/stat...12871284961282

Quick, get him on the WH visitor list.

05-02-2017 , 11:41 AM

#28940

Loki

binary duo

Join Date: Nov 2015 Posts: 12,772

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheHip41

I hope he nukes the 60% in congress. Going to be sweet in 2018 when we have a majority.

uh, vetos are still a thing

05-02-2017 , 11:42 AM

#28941

RV Life

old hand

Join Date: Jun 2016 Posts: 1,935

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonnyA

He'll probably see the spending bill and say "OK, slash that by 40% and you got a deal!" Then when someone tells him "Uhh...that's not how this works." he'll go on TV and blame it on Obama/Dems.

05-02-2017 , 11:48 AM

#28942

TheHip41

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 27,049

Still going with the theory that nothing of substance will get passed as long as cheetolini is in charge

05-02-2017 , 11:49 AM

#28943

ASAP17

Pooh-Bah

Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 5,882

Quote:

Originally Posted by poconoder

So awful for Dems with quotes like this:

. The morons that voted for Trump in the rust belt deserve what they get, sorry you don't understand.

05-02-2017 , 11:56 AM

#28944

Our House

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 28,109

"Cleaned our clock" means "win, win, win" right? Funny how the great negotiator has like 1 victory out of dozens of attempts, it wasn't even his own idea, and he had to cheat to get it.

05-02-2017 , 11:56 AM

#28945

RV Life

old hand

Join Date: Jun 2016 Posts: 1,935

Quote:

Originally Posted by ASAP17

So awful for Dems with quotes like this:

. The morons that voted for Trump in the rust belt deserve what they get, sorry you don't understand.

What is Graham talking about in the quote about the Dems cleaning our clocks?

05-02-2017 , 11:57 AM

#28946

ASAP17

Pooh-Bah

Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 5,882

Quote:

Originally Posted by RV Life

What is Graham talking about in the quote about the Dems cleaning our clocks?

It's regarding how they got smoked on the budget giving Dems most of what they wanted despite having complete control of the executive/legislative.

05-02-2017 , 11:58 AM

#28947

Our House

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 28,109

Also awesome how his great negotiation strategy consists of randomly trying every negotiation tactic known until one of them works.

05-02-2017 , 12:01 PM

#28948

synth_floyd

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 7,074

How did they let themselves "get smoked?" They have the house, senate and prez.

05-02-2017 , 12:04 PM

#28949

OmgGlutten!

Pooh-Bah

Join Date: Aug 2016 Posts: 5,273

Jesus Christ this Trump speech is literally the woat, horrible cheesy jokes and apparently he has the down payment on the wall in the spending budget. lolz.

05-02-2017 , 12:05 PM

#28950

dinopoker

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 9,437

Quote:

Originally Posted by microbet

No way. Trump had clue about Andrew Jackson not being alive during the civil war. Maybe he thought Andrew Jackson was Stonewall Jackson. Or half thought it. Half a thought is about all he can muster. He's pretty sure way too big a deal was made over slavery though.

It's clear with the gobbledygook that he's been spewing on the civil war that someone (Bannon ldo) has been feeding him the official right wing position on it not about slavery but about "states' rights" and he's bought into that narrative. Problem being, he doesn't really know much about it other than that particular talking point and that somehow Jackson was an important figure that would've changed the narrative. It's all just more of his idiocy.

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