• 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.
Hell of a post, sj.

the USA was an unrivalled global power for many years, but maybe trump is a symptom of decay, rather than the cause of it.
i would argue that as a world power, america has lacked the necessary leadership to respond to the challenges humanity has been presented with in the last few decades.
when the wealthiest nation in history leaves so many of her people starving, homeless and lacking affordable healthcare and education, perhaps it's not surprising that hundreds of millions of people jaded (or misguided) enough to think a psychopath like trump might somehow be the answer.

the sick irony of that - at least to me - is that many of the dismal socioeconomic conditions that lead voters to elect trump (huge wealth disparity and the resentment of people locked out of the "american dream"; the gaudy false promises of consumer capitalism) are only going to be more extreme and insurmountable, with this administration's slash-and-burn approach to governance.

I think America has been slowly decaying ever since this whole movement to dismantle the middle class began. In the early to mid 1900s, the middle class was born, policies were in place to ensure the well-being of people. But in the 50s or 60s, well, who knows when it really started, some people began working to undo all of that. Nearly every important social factor has been affected: income vs cost of living, education, cost of healthcare, social security, etc etc. This is the direct result of a purposeful undermining of these rights, and it's why we're where we're at now, and it's only going to get worse. Our schools used to be the best in the world, and now we're nowhere close to that. It takes an uneducated populace that lacks critical thinking skills to keep voting for people who are blatantly doing this undermining. I mean both sides of the fence are corrupted, but at least Democrats are trying to increase social safety nets and bring more funding to schools, and protect the environment. Meanwhile, Trump appointed Betsy DeVos as Sec of Education and Edward Scott Pruitt as head of the EPA. :|

It is indeed mind-boggling that so many Trump supporters, and Republican supporters more broadly, buy this shit. It's gotten so blatant. But somehow they laud the Republicans as representing "the people" and blame their poor policy decisions on the Democrats. It is seriously disturbing. I mean although I think it's selfish, at least I get why rich people are Republicans because their policies help them. And it doesn't help at all that the tax reform temporarily puts a few hundred more dollars into their tax returns before it starts to hurt them, and the North Korea stuff. Makes me more worried he'll be re-elected. But you know the scary part? If he goes, we have Pence. If the whole administration comes crumbling down, we'll still have plenty of other people working to turn us into a working class of indentured servitude, much less publicly.
 
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/12/trump-north-korea-human-rights-642336

Trump went soft on Un, and I think we all know it. Even the trolls who pretend otherwise.

Completely ignoring the human rights violations is deplorable.

the North Korea stuff. Makes me more worried he'll be re-elected.

Nah. He hasn't eliminated DPRK. He utterly failed. He's in the same gridlock all the other presidents were in.

He'll keep lying about success (i.e. the unemployment rate, his personal fortunte, etc.) but this was a massive failure. Have faith the average voter will see through this.
 
Hell of a post, sj.



I think America has been slowly decaying ever since this whole movement to dismantle the middle class began. In the early to mid 1900s, the middle class was born, policies were in place to ensure the well-being of people. But in the 50s or 60s, well, who knows when it really started, some people began working to undo all of that. Nearly every important social factor has been affected: income vs cost of living, education, cost of healthcare, social security, etc etc. This is the direct result of a purposeful undermining of these rights, and it's why we're where we're at now, and it's only going to get worse. Our schools used to be the best in the world, and now we're nowhere close to that. It takes an uneducated populace that lacks critical thinking skills to keep voting for people who are blatantly doing this undermining. I mean both sides of the fence are corrupted, but at least Democrats are trying to increase social safety nets and bring more funding to schools, and protect the environment. Meanwhile, Trump appointed Betsy DeVos as Sec of Education and Edward Scott Pruitt as head of the EPA. :|

It is indeed mind-boggling that so many Trump supporters, and Republican supporters more broadly, buy this shit. It's gotten so blatant. But somehow they laud the Republicans as representing "the people" and blame their poor policy decisions on the Democrats. It is seriously disturbing. I mean although I think it's selfish, at least I get why rich people are Republicans because their policies help them. And it doesn't help at all that the tax reform temporarily puts a few hundred more dollars into their tax returns before it starts to hurt them, and the North Korea stuff. Makes me more worried he'll be re-elected. But you know the scary part? If he goes, we have Pence. If the whole administration comes crumbling down, we'll still have plenty of other people working to turn us into a working class of indentured servitude, much less publicly.

The post-war years was our Golden Era as far as establishing and recognizing the importance of a strong middle class was concerned. Putting aside the fact that many minority populations were systematically disincluded. Politicians we have traditionally come to think of as "right-wing" or "conservative" from that era were actually to the left of many of our supposed "left-wing" candidates by today's standards.

The unraveling of our middle class came in the 1980's with the emergence and ultimate dominance of supply-side economic policies. The era of Reaganomics. Supply-side economics is so comically, absurdly stupid, even someone with no knowledge of economics at all can tear it apart without effort. The philosophy of supply-side economics is to throw money where there's money. Instead of throwing money towards innovation, social welfare or infrastructure development, the idea is to say "this guy has money, let's give him more, and grow our economy based on that."

Even the founders of the ecomic theory have discredited it, for decades now. Yet, many of our politicians still firmly believe it to be a viable economic principle, and practice it fervently and zealously to this day. See: Paul Ryan.
 
Well, like most things it?s complicated. I think there are a lot of people who are just tired. There has been this massive shift of good paying jobs in manufacturing to countries overseas. And that?s good for a lot of people. Consumers, investors, and the labourers in those overseas countries. But it has been terrible for the people that had those jobs here in North America if those people were not able to transfer to new and better or at least comparable jobs. And regardless of what team red or team blue say there is going to be a large group of people who can?t make that transfer. No ammount of education or what would you call it, American gumption? I know that?s the wrong turn of phrase I?m not from your country. Is going to fix that. And those people are really, really pissed off. And rightly so. And I think, maybe incorrectly, that those people just want to blow it all up. And Trump offers that to them.

I would think that a community of drug and alcohol users would find the idea of ?I just want to watch the motherfucker burn? very easy to relate to. Right now, personally, I am in a good place. But man I have wanted to watch the world burn! Like a blow torch and magnesium.

Anyways. As a Canadian. With a few Canadian friends. And having spoken to like 6 people about this. So I have a pretty reliable statistical sample. Most people up here are sad, not angry. I have way to many cool American friends to allow this jackass to ruin things.


And just so the trump supporters reading this thread don?t think that I am accusing them of being narcissistic assholes. I actually agree with some of the Republican Party initiatives. Not all of them, a few. I?m not saying that all trump supporters are knuckle draging mouth breathers. But, there?s a few out there. ��

I can't speak for anyone else here, and I dunno how much it has to do with drugs. But I'll admit I can totally relate to feeling a desire to watch it all burn. I think it's a bit of a coping mechanism. If I can't see people fix the world I can at least see them punished for their stupidity.
 
I can't really relate to the idea of wanting to watch the world burn.

I know people who cheered when the twin towers went down, but i certainly wasn't one of them.

It's the same kind of nihilism as people who want to see war (with whoever) - because it is a spectacle, or a source of national pride or something.
I can't really understand the appeal of watching rich, powerful forces rob and pillage the poor - whether it is a rich nation plundering a poor country, or wealthy kleptocrats sabotaging and destroying government programs that were designed to help ordinary citizens.

I mean - just because i'm a drug user, doesn't mean i don't want to see a better world.
If anything, it makes me all the more interested in fighting for the little guys, and the underdogs, because i see the hardships many addicts have to endure; and the brutal inhumanity of the "war on drugs" and the suffering it causes.

The thing about trump is that he's destroying all the parts of government that exist to help make people's lives better (and their health, their education, their natural environment).
He steals from the poor, and pockets what he can for himself and other rich folk.

To me, that's not any sort of world burning i have any interest in.

Maybe some kind of 21st century bolshevik uprising - shit yeah, let's raise hell for the emancipation of the exploited workers of the world! :)

...but that ain't happening - instead, much of the post-industrial western world is governed by kleptocrat oligarchs who are more focused on dismantling democracy and sewing division and hostility than leading strong, healthy populations.

Considering how often america's military literally sets the world aflame - again, the rich fucking the poor - i think there are better ways to get your kicks.

Personally i don't find creepy old johns like trump to be very entertaining, especially when he's fucking democracy and fucking humanity.

It seems ironic to me that there are still trump fans who consider themselves patriots, because he's screwing the things that america used to be proud of - democracy, freedom, the idea of justice and liberty.

Which is why i get such a morose laugh at trump's alt-right keyboard army calling everyone "cuck" - while they stand back and watch the old man and his corporate puppetmasters fuck the very thing they claim to love.


I'm sure there are some decent people out there who support trump, and that they sincerely believe he is fighting for their best interests, but the impression i get from most trump fans that i encounter online is that they're proudly supporting something that is completely fucking them over - and that they've been completely conned.

This is especially true of the people that love trump for his social agenda.
i think there are many trumpers who are so aroused by trump's shameless bigotry that they don't even care that he's stealing what rightfully belongs to them, and belongs to all the people.

trump's political career seems to be based on his ability to nurture an unrealistic level of entitlement, and to pander to the resulting resentment - utilising all the usual scapegoats.

Because trump supporters' loyalty is unconditional.
They don't hold him to account - they don't question or criticise, because he's fooled them.
He knows that prejudice outweighs critical engagement with representative democracy - which is pretty clearly demonstrated in all the MAGA folks - i think most of them are so genuinely ignorant of what they're getting behind, or how badly it will fuck their communities, their future, their country and their world.
trump fans know it's too late to back out now. any acknowledgement that the emperor wears no clothes - well, that would make them look pretty silly now, wouldn't it?

The people who love trump because he panders to their simple fears and prejudices are probably not capable of understanding what he's actually doing, because they feel secure in seeing people weaker than them suffer at the hands of state oppression.
especially if those people have different belief systems to them - or different ways of speaking, different ways of loving, different ways of living.

Presumably those sort of trump fans think they can trust him - that he'll reward their devotion and loyalty by doing the right thing by them.

But that's not how political charlatans operate. Trump doesn't govern for the people, he doesn't govern with any consideration for the US constitution, or whatever "america" stands for in any sort of abstract sense.

His presidency is distraction, to divert people's attention away from the dismantling of the parts of the US government that operate for the good and wellbeing of the american people.
Whether it's deliberate or conscious on his part is irrelevant, in a way.

The role he is fulfilling is basically to keep the news media focused on what a weird, nasty old creep he is, while the republican establishment rigs the system - more than ever - in the favour of the corporate elite and truly wealthy minority.
While he's at it, he is also doing all he can to destroy the freedom of the press, which is a crucial part of any democracy.

I'm sure there are some people out there with reasonable justifications for why they support trump - but they've still been fucking conned.

At least the people who support trump because he's a racist/rapist bigoted piece of shit aren't kidding themselves. But they're being conned too - trump's racism is opportunistic and calculated, even if it is "sincere".



true - i agree. the thing about trump and his support base is that they're a group of people i'd probably never see eye-to-eye with about too much of anything, so me suggesting that trump supporters deserve a fairly generous portion of the blame for trump and the destructive things he does is niether here nor there, really.

but y'know - life on this planet is a pretty fragile thing - as is the democracy most of the developed western world takes for granted.

giving so much power to a man as wilfully ignorant, petulant and hateful as donald trump is worrying.

if the world is going to be plunged into economic depression, war and chaos - there is something horrifying about it being caused by such a clueless narcissist - an oafish trash tv cretin like trumo.
perhaps the cause of it is irrelevant - but i kinda think that if we fell into a global recession because we somehow fucked things up in trying to convert the world to renewable energy, or some other noble quest, we would at least be trying.

the trump phenomenon is just so absurdly nihilistic - a political belief system based entirely on lies and paranoia - which exists in total denial of reality (such as climate change) - that it makes the shaky position we humans find ourselves in seem all the more tragic.

hate is a corrosive and pointless thing to get sucked into - you're absolutely right.
and it is sad to see the sort of harm that the world's most powerful government can do to international agreements and cooperation. it's sad to see one of the world's most robust and democracies get highjacked by someone so completely lacking in humanity or intellectual depth as donald trump.
i used to think he was the perfect embodiment of all that is wrong with america - but i'm starting to think he represents the very worst of humanity - selfish, insular, destructive and vain.
i think that humanity has been quite lucky, since trump took office, not to have had to face the sort of calamity or disaster that would require political leadership and sound governance - but the longer trump stays in power, the greater the likelihood of him doing some serious damage.
as i said before, democracy is fragile - and not something we should take for granted.

now is a good time to look out for one another, to strengthen the bonds within our communities - and to refuse to be divided, refuse to join in the knee-jerk reaction of hate and suspicion. people like trump thrive on division; not unity.

it's pretty unsettling to see the so-called "leader of the free world" acting like a recalcitrant toddler in a G7 meeting - but maybe this is to be expected when an empire falls.

the USA was an unrivalled global power for many years, but maybe trump is a symptom of decay, rather than the cause of it.
i would argue that as a world power, america has lacked the necessary leadership to respond to the challenges humanity has been presented with in the last few decades.
when the wealthiest nation in history leaves so many of her people starving, homeless and lacking affordable healthcare and education, perhaps it's not surprising that hundreds of millions of people jaded (or misguided) enough to think a psychopath like trump might somehow be the answer.

the sick irony of that - at least to me - is that many of the dismal socioeconomic conditions that lead voters to elect trump (huge wealth disparity and the resentment of people locked out of the "american dream"; the gaudy false promises of consumer capitalism) are only going to be more extreme and insurmountable, with this administration's slash-and-burn approach to governance.

Standing ovation!!!! Damn good analysis.

Especially agree that Trump is a symptom of decay not the cause. The US is in a decline. Economically, morally and militarily. We live in dangerous times. Historically speaking it's past time for a major shakeup on the world stage.
 
All anyone has to do is tell Trump his Wall is going up, just in the North, and it will still keep lots of immigrants out. #Promises kept! #MAGA #Build that Wall! Build that Wall!

(Ummm...Je suis une citoyenne canadienne!? I'm 'hoarbly sorey', please don't deport me and send me back to the States. :D)

Trudeau

IHfgxS2_d.jpg


versus

Trump

jkDQVGm_d.jpg


.
It?s fascinating to me that body/ fat shaming is okay in certain circumstances, and not others.


Anyone see the tweet criticizing Merkels allowing of mass immigration into Germany? These are the tweets that make me cringe, and want him to stop tweeting.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It’s fascinating to me that body/ fat shaming is okay in certain circumstances, and not others.
Trump isn't a Bluelighter. There was nothing racist about the post. Time to move on to another imagined grievance.

Anyone see the tweet criticizing Merkels allowing of mass immigration into Germany? These are the tweets that make me cringe, and want him to stop tweeting.

Nope. I don't pay attention to his insanity on twitter. Hate when it bleeds through into the news.
 
Trump and Kelly 'barely tolerating' each other: report

White House chief of staff John Kelly has loosened his grip amid a worsening relationship with President Trump, Politico reported late Sunday.


The news outlet reported that Kelly has essentially given up on trying to control the president’s impulses. He told at least one person that he will let the president do what he wants, even if it results in impeachment.


Kelly, who served as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary prior to becoming chief of staff, reportedly warned current DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen against attending Monday's White House press briefing.


Nielsen fielded questions on the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy that has led to the separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents. She defended the policy and declared "Congress alone can fix it," despite the practice resulting from an order from Attorney General Jeff Sessions.


The relationship between Kelly and Trump has soured over the course of the last several months. Multiple media reports have indicated the chief of staff could leave the White House, and that Trump has grown unhappy with him.


In April, Kelly denied a report that he called Trump an “idiot.”
“I spend more time with the president than anyone else and we have an incredibly candid and strong relationship," Kelly said at the time.


"I am committed to the president, his agenda, and our country," he added. "This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administration’s many successes."
 
Last edited:
To be honest Trump's nose is a bit more desirable. I don't think Trump should be ashamed of what he has, just needs to lay off the Big Macs and stick to some regular exercise, which he apparently despises.

That's definitely an ass you can twerk.
 
Lighten up Droppersneck!
And who is body shaming? They're both sportsman ready to enter their respective octagons. Don't you think Trump looks hot? Does he look that scrumptious in person? Do tell. :)
I learned early on not to judge folks for their physical attributes, the ones they couldn?t help or otherwise. It?s served me well, so far, in life. It was pretty amazing to see him in person. Seeing all of the secret service was pretty cool, also I got to tell some Marsha Blackburn shills off, and why I wouldn?t vote for her, but supported trump. Their shock and discomfort brought me great satisfaction.
 
I actually agree with droppers on this one. I didn't care for that particular meme. I understand how nastily Trump speaks of others, but two wrongs don't make a right.
 
Trump regularly actively body-shames women. I think it's fair to use his own tactics against him.

Margaret Cho spoke out about body-shaming Trump, but I thought to myself how thoroughly and shamelessly he does that to women. It seemed unfair to treat someone kindly that doesn't extend you the same courtesy.
 
Pics of Trump playing golf replaced with a much older one in which he clearly feeling good. ;)

mal3volent, thank you for showing, with 100% transparency, that staff can disagree with civility. Droppersneck is just a troll, but I can appreciate your pov.

I'd like to remind everyone that if you feel that a post is inappropriate or makes you feel uncomfortable, triggered, or violates BLUA, please use the reporting function.

Alternatively, pm CE&P staff, senior staff or administrators for additional help or feel free to post in STH.

Fight the power!

Ssstt32_d.jpg
 
Last edited:
Way I see it, trump made himself a target for fat jokes not because he's fat, but because of how laughably in denial of it he is. If he just owned it and didn't act like he was super attractive it wouldn't be so funny.
 
Way I see it, trump made himself a target for fat jokes not because he's fat, but because of how laughably in denial of it he is. If he just owned it and didn't act like he was super attractive it wouldn't be so funny.

Indeed. Gotta call the guy on his narcissistic personality disorder.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top