• Current Events & Politics
    Welcome Guest
    Please read before posting:
    Forum Guidelines Bluelight Rules
  • Current Events & Politics Moderators: deficiT | tryptakid | Foreigner

The 2018 Trump Presidency thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
∆Republicans are the ones that want more control: prohibition of drugs, marriage, abortion, athiesm, teaching science etc....sounds like control to me
 
MGS, it's not that I'm Democrat or Republican. I agree, bless them both, we need all sorts of different perspectives and opinions, from people who are attempting to participate in making society better for all of its people. But the thing that's going on with a large part of the Republican party, and both this presidential administration and a contingent of the Republican congress right now are not right, and people need to talk about it. I don't understand how you don't see how absurd this shit is, how alarming. Do you just not believe the mainstream media? Because the picture that is painted to me does not align with the way you talk about it. I understand that people have their own opinions but this thing is such a thinly veiled grab for more power and wealth for the very select few, to me I don't understand how/why you don't see it. I think we're at a crucial time right now in this country where people need to realize what's happening and do something before it's too late. I am appalled by some of the stuff that's going on and that's why I feel intense about it. I do care about America, and my rights and ability to work fairly for a good, comfortable life where a sudden sickness or a birth (they cost $5-6 thousand I read recently) upend my life because I couldn't afford insurance, where I don't find myself in 20 years making 20% more money but everything costs 300% more, where I get social security when I get older, where I can do what I want with my body and mind and sexuality and whatever else. That's why I think it's important to speak out against what's going on right now, because there are some people trying to take all that away, and that shit's real. We need to be talking about that.

I don't want Trump's head. But I do want him and others to be held accountable for what they're doing and what they've done. This isn't typical partisan bullshit, there is something very wrong going on. It's not all Republicans either, I couldn't give two shits about political party, I think at this point the two-party system is hurting us, the way it is these days. I'm about my political leaders working to better life for all of us, not just for themselves.
 
mgs said:
don't want to be seen as defending comments relating to drug dealers as I believe in full leglislation. I will only note that every POTUS will say things someone won't like like. I felt the last POTUS did not represent my country in a way I saw fit. The last guy issued executive orders that were unconstitutional and we are still working that out.
Click to expand...

By acting as a loyal apologist, you are doing exactly that, though.

"The last guy issued executive orders that were unconstitutional..." -
Um, so is trump - and you're backing him all the way, apparently.

"I don't know why anyone would want to stop him".

You keep posting these ridiculous defences of trump's divisive/dishonest statements -

"I found his speech entertaining, especially when he did his "presidential" bit. It is obvious (to me) he loves to "troll" and make people squirm and he enjoys it."

You love that he panders to racists, to haters and all of the people too ill-informed to understand the value of government and taxation. "Down with the IRS" etc.

i wonder if you ever think about what pays for the roads you drive on, or the other things governments do that you take for granted.
The environmental regulations that make your water drinkable and your air less choked up with lead and other toxins.

The way you relate it all about to your tax cut indicates one of a few different things
a) you're cheap and easy to buy off, and you'll overlook all sorts of curruption and degradation if you have a bit less tax taken out
Or
b) you have nothing else positive to say about the dirty old man, so you just focus on that one thing and claim nothing else matters.

Praising a president for "trolling" is just so apathetic and juvenile. It's almost unbelievable, but it's difficult to disbelieve almost any absurdity these days.
I wonder if people celebrated and praised other crumbling empires as they burned?

mgs said:
From my understanding, Republicans trust regular Americans to control more of their money and spend it as they see fit. As best I can tell, they believe people of all incomes should keep as much of their own money as possible.
Click to expand...

I think that's a really naive characterisation of it. That's the spin, for the ideologues.

The republicans (especially trump) govern for the mega rich.
That's all there is to it. Poor people are there for cheap labour, but there is absolutely no interest in improving their lives.
Hence the efforts to destroy affordable healthcare initiatives and trumps's moves to de-regulate industry.

He throws the masses a bone every now and then, and plays as many distracting games as he can to keep people from scrutinising what he's up to (sex scandals, divisive racist stuff, generally outrageous/stupid comments) - because he likes to throw the media off the big picture; he's a kleptocrat, who (along with his family) is cashing in big on this.
It's one big brand-building (and ego-boosting) exercise.

The idea that he gives a flying fuck about average americans is laughable. I don't think you genuinely believe that, but it's hard to gauge what you really believe, because you're a bit disingenuous at times.
 
That's a funny video, thanks. :)

But seriously. It don't make no got' damn sense to me man. I still love you though, but I have to say it hurts my heart/baffles my mind a little that you don't see what I'm saying. It feels like willful ignorance but maybe I'm wrong... I want to understand where you're coming from because you're my friend and I respect you. I really honestly fail to understand how you can support this stuff and not see the reality of the things I'm talking about in my posts above. It's like we have two different perceptions of reality about this situation.

Where do you see the bogeyman, then, if not in the alt right/Trump administration? Because yeah, I see systemic issues throughout our government/politicians in both parties. But to me the alt right and current presidency is the absolute worst of it.
 
As for some evidence against your claim that Trump has a higher rating than Obama did, here you go:

Yahoo article said:
Trump Claims He’s More Popular Than Obama, Tells Voters to Ignore Low Approval Ratings

President Donald Trump on Sunday suggested that TV viewers should ignore shows and pundits that report him having low approval ratings, also sharing an incorrect approval rating from one pollster.

In a tweet, POTUS hit out at the suggestion he did not have an approval rating of about 50 percent—claiming that Rasmussen showed him with “around” a 50 percent approval rating. However, it does not.

“Rasmussen and others have my approval ratings at around 50%, which is higher than Obama, and yet the political pundits love saying my approval ratings are ‘somewhat low,’” he tweeted.

Trending: What Is Tweetdecking? Twitter Suspends Multiple Popular Accounts

“They know they are lying when they say it. Turn off the show - FAKE NEWS!”

Unfortunately for the president, his own claim was incorrect. Rasmussen currently has the president at a 44 percent approval rating, 6 percentage points below his suggested number.

Don't miss: Premier League Transfer News: Manchester United Favorite to Sign Robert Lewandowski, PSG Swoop for Chelsea Star

Despite the president giving his approval rating from Rasmussen a nudge upwards, he was indeed correct that Rasmussen reflects a higher rating than most other polls.

Indeed, a poll from CNN released several weeks ago put the president’s approval rating on a par with its all-time low from last December.

That survey showed just 35 percent of Americans approve of the president’s performance, while a number of other polls put the president’s approval rating in the high 30s and early 40s, in numbers he has claimed are “fake news.”

One Politico/Morning Consult poll released on Wednesday spelled bad news for the president in the run-up to 2020, suggesting that currently, Trump would not even beat a generic Democrat candidate in a survey that asked voters who they would back.

The poll showed Trump at just 36 percent compared to a generic Democrat candidate with 44 percent; with an even greater percentage of female voters backing a generic Democrat against the president.
Click to expand...

Article link here: https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-claims-more-popular-obama-173217127.html

Basically the same old, same old. Some sort of journalism or fact shows something Trump doesn't want to see? He shouts "fake news!" and then creates his own fake news that makes him look like the best. In the actual article there are links to sources for the polls that actually show his approval rating is quite low, as low as 35%. Which is more in line with my experience. I don't know many people who support him. Granted I live in a pretty liberal area, but I have Republican friends in Colorado who vehemently oppose Trump. This "most people support me" thing is not real, it's just something he says so people who believe what he says think most of the country approves of him so they feel better about approving of him.
 
Trump lives in his own reality which he is God of and a few poor fools have sold their souls to live in with him.

In his reality he is the smartest most talented most competent man to ever live. Part of his reality is that he is recognized almost universally for these features, because like any serious narcissist, being awesome at everything is pointless unless everyone knows it. So he expunges any suggestion to the contrary from his reality. And in any instance in which he can't remove negative claims from existence entirely he throws a childish tantrum instead. So yea basically like any narcissist.
 
For some reason I tried to watch his speech in PA over the weekend. He never fails to deliver to me a picture of a human that's almost unimaginably full of themselves. It's unclear to me if his personal family ambitions come first or americas? The optics certainly point to him having something financially to hide. Regardless I definitely see the appeal that got him elected. And in spite of his personality disorder, I want him to succeed and do the right things for america.

The consensus is and I agree (FWIW) that it's always better than not to have a line of communication open with your adversary. But North Korea's delivery system and warheads are already perfected, IMHO. So now Kim Jong-un wants to meet, probably because the sanctions have started to bite. They've shown over and over that whatever they agree to is not worth the paper it's printed on. Anybody that believes they're going to dismantle their nuclear capabilities is seriously deluded. So I'm asking y'all what would constitute a successful outcome of this meeting?
 
Morninggloryseed said:
Just reading the quote you provided...I, uh, I am not seeing that. He suggested "puttimg them away a long time." And to be clear, I don't agree with him; we just need more pharmacists and to start teaching people from a young age how to get high safely and privately.

For the sake of argument, let's assume he really feels that way.....so what?

Do you forsee Trump releasing a militia to start extra judicial killings? I know you know that is impossible.

He seems to always be the sort to say incendiary words. It appears to be compulsive.
Click to expand...

you don't see a problem with the president of the united states, the head of the executive branch of the US government advocating summary executions, vigilantism, and that people should ignore the laws that he's oath- and duty-bound to enforce?

i don't even

Xorkoth said:
But seriously. It don't make no got' damn sense to me man. I still love you though, but I have to say it hurts my heart/baffles my mind a little that you don't see what I'm saying. It feels like willful ignorance but maybe I'm wrong... I want to understand where you're coming from because you're my friend and I respect you. I really honestly fail to understand how you can support this stuff and not see the reality of the things I'm talking about in my posts above. It's like we have two different perceptions of reality about this situation.
Click to expand...

it's just blind partisanship, he's openly said so. I'll see if i can find the post later, if i remember.
 
Last edited:
Conceding to N.R.A., Trump Abandons Brief Gun Control Promise

WASHINGTON — President Trump has abandoned his live-on-television promise to work for gun control measures that are opposed by the National Rifle Association, instead bowing to the gun group and embracing its agenda of armed teachers and incremental improvements to the existing background check system.

After the Florida high school massacre last month, Mr. Trump explicitly called for raising the age limit to purchase rifles and backed 2013 legislation for near-universal background checks. He chided Senator Patrick J. Toomey, the Pennsylvania Republican who helped write that background check legislation, accusing him of rejecting the higher age limit “because you’re afraid of the N.R.A.” Mr. Trump later told lawmakers that while the N.R.A. has “great power over you people, they have less power over me.”

But on Monday, it was the president who seemed to knuckle under, again dramatizing the sway that the N.R.A. still maintains in Republican circles. Students around the country might be massing for a march on Washington on March 24. The victims and survivors of school shootings from Connecticut to Florida may be pushing their states to move on gun control.
Click to expand...
(my emphasis)

:\

alasdair
 
Wells that's probably true. In the sense that there's not much they can offer him. Though it's odd that he would say less power rather than no power.

But it hardly matters, the gun rights types are one of the most predictably republican voters around. The NRA might not have any sway over him directly but they hardly need it. If trump actually did something about gun control that would be a lot of his voters gone.

Not all trump voters are trump voters because they are die hard trump fans. Some are just die hard Democrat haters. Better question is if trump is connected enough with reality to realize that.
 
No, just a Rasmussen pole.

Xorkoth said:
As for some evidence against your claim that Trump has a higher rating than Obama did, here you go:



Article link here: https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-claims-more-popular-obama-173217127.html

Basically the same old, same old. Some sort of journalism or fact shows something Trump doesn't want to see? He shouts "fake news!" and then creates his own fake news that makes him look like the best. In the actual article there are links to sources for the polls that actually show his approval rating is quite low, as low as 35%. Which is more in line with my experience. I don't know many people who support him. Granted I live in a pretty liberal area, but I have Republican friends in Colorado who vehemently oppose Trump. This "most people support me" thing is not real, it's just something he says so people who believe what he says think most of the country approves of him so they feel better about approving of him.
Click to expand...
 
tathra said:
you don't see a problem with the president of the united states, the head of the executive branch of the US government advocating summary executions, vigilantism, and that people should ignore the laws that he's oath- and duty-bound to enforce?
Click to expand...

It's not an epidemic (the opioid "epidemic").

If you believe it is, then it's reasonable to take extreme action (i.e. it's not).

If 95% of Americans had to get revived with Narcan last week I'd change my tune. We're a long, long way away from anything that bad (and it's likely that heroin/drug abuse rates will hold steady or go down over time, not sky rocket close to 100%)
 
Trump ousts Tillerson, will replace him as secretary of state with CIA chief Pompeo

President Trump has ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and plans to nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him as the nation’s top diplomat, orchestrating a major change to his national security team amid delicate negotiations with North Korea, White House officials said Tuesday.

Trump last Friday asked Tillerson to step aside, and the embattled diplomat cut short his trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington.

Pompeo will replace him at the State Department, and Gina Haspel — the deputy director at the CIA — will succeed him at the CIA, becoming the first woman to run the spy agency, if confirmed.

In a statement issued to The Washington Post, Trump praised both Pompeo and Haspel.

“I am proud to nominate the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, to be our new Secretary of State,” Trump said. “Mike graduated first in his class at West Point, served with distinction in the U.S. Army, and graduated with Honors from Harvard Law School. He went on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives with a proven record of working across the aisle.”

The president continued, “Gina Haspel, the Deputy Director of the CIA, will be nominated to replace Director Pompeo and she will be the CIA’s first-ever female director, a historic milestone. Mike and Gina have worked together for more than a year, and have developed a great mutual respect.”

Trump also had words of praise for Tillerson: “Finally, I want to thank Rex Tillerson for his service. A great deal has been accomplished over the last fourteen months, and I wish him and his family well.”

The president — who has long clashed will Tillerson, who he believes is “too establishment” in his thinking — felt it was important to make the change now, as he prepares for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as well as upcoming trade negotiations, three White House officials said.

“I am deeply grateful to President Trump for permitting me to serve as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and for this opportunity to serve as Secretary of State,” Pompeo said in a statement. “His leadership has made America safer and I look forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further America’s prosperity. Serving alongside the great men and women of the CIA, the most dedicated and talented public servants I have encountered, has been one of the great honors of my life.”

Haspel in a statement also said she was excited for her promotion.

“After 30 years as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, it has been my honor to serve as its Deputy Director alongside Mike Pompeo for the past year,” she said. “I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.”
Click to expand...
link


lol

the dumpster fire keeps burning
 
Former CIA director Brennen says it is a good thing, that current director Pompeo would make a better secretary...in an interview on PMSNBC. Let's see what Fox Bidness says.

I never saw Tillerson as all that engaged myself. I just wish Trump would fire Sessions.

Also lol he got fired via tweet. Trump is a worm!


Now Fox biZness disputes the firing by tweet, claims he knew Friday. All the talking heads (so far) think Tillerson sucked and are glad to see him go. It's rare fox bizness and msnbc-hee-haw agree on anything. On to CNN for a few minutes.
 
Last edited:
Tillerson has been ineffective as a Secretary of State, in the sense of influencing Trump and in terms of bolstering morale or budget advocacy for the State Department, so in that way it's not that concerning.

However, Pompeo has a reputation for not telling Trump what he doesn't want to hear. Trump is replacing people who leave with people who aren't willing to tell him what he needs to know. That's quite concerning.

People as awful as John Kelly (and it shouldn't take a four-star general to manage a staff...) and Sessions are apparently our last, best hope to keep Trump from completely falling prey to his inner demons. It's the new low.
 
The sexretary of state's job is to advance the office of presidency (and push forward his/her agenda), it says here. A Pompeo-type will be more effective in this role (I postulate). Too often Rex and Donald appeared to contridict each other (I remember).

If Sessions has to get a second special council going to investigate FBI and Clinton/Russian collusion because he recused himself...he is ineffective and needs to go.
 
Last edited:
the revolving door on on this white house just confirms to me that trump and his team are poorly qualified for this job. what a shambles.

alasdair
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top