one more on the pile!

(apparently this guy is pure aids bull****ter tho, but saying that out loud is a start I guess)

Imo the black arts of hucksterism are very simple. Several years ago I read Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion and thought it was quite good. I read it as part of reading some business and marketing books when I started my business. There are some clear elements in there, but I've seen a LOT of hucksterism first hand working as a subcontractor and seeing a lot of cheesy salespeople in action.

In my defense I've quit working for at least 6 different sales companies because they are dishonest with customers. Just lying with confidence is the standard trick, but patently obvious crap like pretending to call the office and finding out of about mistaken order that just has to be sold right now at a huge discount is ubiquitous and people fall for it.

It's that simple. Anyone who has sold anything in that kind of environment for 6 months, was famous enough to get heard in the first place and could semi-plausibly pretend to be a billionaire could have done what Trump did.

Howard Stern would probably have been Governor of New York if they didn't have a law requiring the disclosure of tax returns.

People don't think of this long term and that they won't be able to protest later on in 4 or 8 years. They just think in the NOW as in if this stops those damn liberals then I'm all for it!

I hope so but I don't share in your enthusiasm given even in the Dem party there are plenty against universal healthcare. IIRC it was Dems that also tried to shutdown single payer in Colorado. When big business is so entrenched in both parties...well...good luck with pushing anything massive like that when it could take away profits from the big players.

He's the guy from Florida that wants to get rid of the EPA. He can go **** off.

Putin seems legitimately popular. I was working at an older Filipino guy's house today. He really likes Duterte. A lot of people, including many Democrats until quite recently, pretty much hate protesters. A lot of people are just quite willing to lose freedoms especially if they are other people's freedoms and many of them will be perfectly happy with Dictator Trump.

Two thoughts on this:

1. USA in 2016 isn't Weimar Germany. In terms of the economy, crime, access to education, access to healthcare, things are going really well for America right now. Imagine how well Trump 2.0's message would resonate if things were actually going poorly and urban white guys were desperate for jobs.

2. Trump made some crazy unforced errors. Like, he had historically unique negatives and bragged about sexually assaulting women --heck, many wondered if he was intentionally sabotaging his own campaign! Trump 2.0 might not have these weaknesses. Imagine a Trump who could hide his racism behind dogwhistles.

So, I'm not super optimistic about the future. It's not clear to me that Thiel or some other sociopathic rich celebrity bozo wouldn't be able to craft a superior version of Trump's recipe. I've got nightmares of Ted Cruz staying up late and studying Trump game footage. The only thing that saves us is some kind of huge demographic shift toward a better society. Maybe that comes from liberals being shook and organizing, maybe that comes from oldsters dying off, I just don't know.

I don't understand why some Dems want to prop up people like Beck.

It's scary how they don't think through what that will actually mean.

One resident trumpkin on my social media has already taken to posting insane fake news and memes attacking McCain. Hell Hannity ran a fake news story about McCain the other night and had to apologize. They are ready to devour any of their own who get out of line. Hopefully the McCain Graham townhall next week gives them some more fuel for infighting.

Yea, I'm worried about the future too. Something has to give eventually. You can't have the top .1% gaining more and more wealth while the bottom 90% struggle more and more. You just can't.

The democrats need to figure out a way to show the average republican voter that the problem is the power elite. But for whatever reason, there's a huge barrier and they don't want to hear it. Like, they won't even entertain the idea of discussing the problem. It's the liberals that are clueless, and that's that. If you present them with facts, it's fake news. I don't know how you can break through that barrier.

Sooner or later, there WILL be another terrorist attack. 9/11 was almost 16 years ago. It's just a numbers game; something will happen. And when it does, the GOP leadership is going to scream "We told you so!" and take away even more of our rights.

Most have no idea what it's like to live under a dictator here or realize why we fought against that in the history books. There's always a human flaw to think "it can't get any worse" or "he'd never do that" or "that can't happen here". Many probably think it's utopia. They are wrong and hopefully we all don't find that out the hard way.

Our world status is already taking hits and it's only been a month. People hate globalism so much they're willing to kill off america being the world's top country. Brilliant strategy.

Yes, balance is ideal but if you go one vs the other straight up globalism seems to be better to me--the best security we can have is being admired across the world.

Yes, thank you. Now when the Supreme Court has to rule on whether the President can legally deport all Muslim American citizens, we can be sure that the case is judged fairly.

Right after the election I had posted something on FB talking about how much worse this could get due to future job loss with regards to more and more automation. WH had a report some months ago saying between like 10-50% of all jobs in the next decades could be lost to automation. If the .1% isn't willing to create a system that shares in the wealth created by automation so that people who lose jobs can do something, anything, with their lives then I don't want to imagine the political turmoil. The people that are already blaming immigrants and minorities for their economic issues will only increase and their failure to put the blame for these economic conditions on the proper source could be disastrous.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...=.bfc3cb0ff29e

"brings shame upon the legal profession" that's incredible

I had a friend send me this and given all the negativity found it funny/positive. It's good to recognize any positive through all the mountains of bull****!

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it looks like Trump is actually making America great again. Just look at the progress made since the election:

1. Unprecedented levels of ongoing civic engagement.
2. Millions of Americans now know who their state and federal representatives are without having to google.
3. Millions of Americans are exercising more. They’re holding signs and marching every week.
4. Alec Baldwin is great again. Everyone’s forgotten he’s kind of a jerk.
5. The Postal Service is enjoying the influx cash due to stamps purchased by millions of people for letter and postcard campaigns.
6. Likewise, the pharmaceutical industry is enjoying record growth in sales of anti-depressants.
7. Millions of Americans now know how to call their elected officials and know exactly what to say to be effective.
8. Footage of town hall meetings is now entertaining.
9. Tens of millions of people are now correctly spelling words like emoluments, narcissist, fascist, misogynist, holocaust and cognitive dissonance.
10. Everyone knows more about the rise of Hitler than they did last year.
11. Everyone knows more about legislation, branches of power and how checks and balances work.
12. Marginalized groups are experiencing a surge in white allies.
13. White people in record numbers have just learned that racism is not dead. (See #6)
14. White people in record numbers also finally understand that Obamacare IS the Affordable Care Act.
15. Stephen Colbert’s “Late Night” finally gained the elusive #1 spot in late night talk shows, and Seth Meyers is finding his footing as today’s Jon Stewart.
16. “Mike Pence” has donated millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood since Nov. 9th.
17. Trump has succeeded where thousands of history teachers failed – now everybody knows who Frederick Douglass was.
18. Melissa FREAKING McCarthy.
19. Travel ban protesters put $24 million into ACLU coffers in just 48 hours, enabling them to hire 200 more attorneys. Lawyers are now heroes.
20. As people seek veracity in their news sources, respected news outlets are happily reporting a substantial increase in subscriptions, a boon to a struggling industry vital to our democracy.
21. Live streaming court cases and congressional sessions are now as popular as the Kardashians.
22. Massive cleanup of facebook friend lists.
23. People are reading classic literature again. Sales of George Orwell’s “1984” increased by 10,000% after the inauguration. (Yes, that is true. 10,000%. 9th grade Lit teachers all over the country are now rock stars.)
24. More than ever before, Americans are aware that education is important. Like, super important.
25. Now, more than any time in history, everyone believes that anyone can be President. Seriously, anyone.

I would argue that my critical thinking along the lines of both caring about and achieving equality in America is more advanced than any of these triggered outraged crybabies.

I argued a long time ago that calling people names and not making any distinctions among varying degrees of racism, sexism, etc., was not a winning formula and I was 100% correct. It got us Trump. And it's still not going to work and most of you will probably never learn the lesson. Deal in things of importance and that make an actual difference in the quality of lives of those in impoverished neighborhoods. Fight for equal funding in education, businesses, scholarships, etc., instead of focusing on some white collar dude who doesn't understand his privilege and commits a minor faux paus that could may or may not be construed as racist.

And I'd say ditto for Trump. Stop obsessing over his outrageous comments and stupid cries about the media and focus in on the things that matter. Things that could actually get him impeached. Overreaction is precisely why we are living in Trump's American right now.

well you best believe if SC passes a similar law, i'm gonna go break the **** out of a window or some various property the next time the KKK is rallying downtown, and maybe i'll get some of them arrested

Lots of trump supporters are in denial that trump is facilitating the GOP. Trump is a lump of clay easily remolded by anyone who has access.

It seems the Christian Right has started their move to take control of things at this point. Trump is not smart enough to marginslize him and they are more deceptive and aggressive than his staff.

I guess the silver lining is that if the **** ever does go fully down, I'll still be white and educated and can maybe blend in with the new regime. Then when the GOP flips on their gun stance I'll just stay quiet.

But I can have secret resistance meetings in the basement and chain smoke while planning night attacks. Ha ha fu Gestapo boom

The first lady traditionally chooses a cause she champions. How long into a president's term does this usually happen?

sometime after actually moving into the white house

Wasn't her thing bullying for like 5 minutes

Something I've wondered about, there are always various stories about all politicians from both parties leaking from insiders, what's the incentive for folks to leak information? This isn't unique to the trump administration is it?