The 2018 Trump Presidency thread

[JGrimez]

A bunch of EPA changes that Pruitt (a soulless monster that makes Trump look like an angelic baby with wings) rolled back.

Can you be more specific? If possible with a balanced source?
I've noticed nobody is speaking out about the Trump's administration efforts to run the EPA with more transparency.
People just assume before Trump came in that the EPA was staffed with heavenly angels doing their best to protect our environments. Absolute nonsense.

We're in a big pothole and we're never going to get out of it. "Economy great" = LIES as long as the gov't is in the hole 20 trillion. "Economy great" = LIES when over 10% of people are underemployed and there's a perpetual unemployment rate.

WTF do you want Trump to do about it? Are you blaming Trump for this?
The Pentagon has "lost" $20 trillion of tax dollars and so far Trump is the ONLY person that has attempted to track it all down, so he's doing more than most.
I've repeated this many times and no posters here have agreed that this was a good move.
Unemployment continues to fall.

We're fucked, game over.

We've been fucked since we allowed families like the Rothchilds to amass over $40 trillion (realistically it's probably much higher).
But Trump..

At least you're smarter than Trump then, who's also an anti-vaxxer. Tell me, do you at least believe in getting vaccinations?

This is a loaded question and will be used as an attempt to further character assassinate me, but I will say that Andrew Wakefield's work has been vindicated by the Lancet, after everyone called him evil, dangerous, pseudo-scientific, fraud etc (watch Vaxxed if you don't know what I'm talking about). Also without directly stating that vaccines contribute, can anyone give an explanation as to what is the cause of rising autism rates? If all you have to say is "better diagnosis" don't waste my fucking time thanks. This is an alarming issue that nobody can quite properly explain.

but what about...?

you're doing it again.

No, YOU'RE doing it again. Whataboutism is refuge for the hypocrite.
If you use this term unironically when in debate - you're a hypocrite, plain and simple.
EG: all these people that are shrieking about Trump destroying the environment - however, they will sing Obama's praises. Absolute ignorance and hypocrisy.
The term was created when people were (correctly) pointing out that the Clinton camp actually colluded with Russians, when everyone was pointing the finger at Trump for the same thing sans evidence.

Indeed, if there's one thing I find consistent among Trump supporters, it's a complete inability to describe what exactly they like about the guy.

LOL - the exact opposite is true. The Trump-haters (can I use the term "TDS" here or not?) are 99% of the time extremely vague about why they hate him. It's almost never based on policy, it's just identity politics/criticisms of his personality. I have a very intelligent friend who just finished a law degree. I ask him why he hates Trump so much. "He's an asshole".
"Yeah that's great but what about policy-wise, what actions has he undertaken that you have such a problem with?"
"The guy's a fucking joke"
.....
This happens so often to me, because I do hear a lot of people yelling about Trump and instead of arguing I'll just ask them "why do you hate him exactly?"
I can count on one hand the amount of times someone has given me a relevant and thoughtful answer that wasn't based on liberal media lies.

Why I like Trump: Not a lawyer like every other career politician, proven track record in business, winning mentality, non-PC, destroyed the 'fake' image of the executive position while still taking the job seriously, coming through with his campaign promises unlike every other goddamn politician, lots of observable improvements, de-escalated North Korea, HASN'T STARTED ANY NEW WARS, given people new hope for the republic, patriotic without being racist (proven by exit polls and current opinion polls - more minority votes than Romney, doubled black support over the past year).

There's more..

EDIT: how could I forget (probably because the national media is silent about it), but the huge number of human trafficking and pedo arrests.
It's fun (but also depressing) watching people either ignore this or attempt to deflect it away.
Someone on this board recently said that we shouldn't celebrate human trafficking arrests..

 

[Tubbs]

You always seem to have a friend... hmmm

 

[JGrimez]

Yeah because I talk to EVERYONE.
Not just people in my echo chamber.
And I'm going to use my 1000th post to say that I Love Trump
(and I also love all you guys)
May we all one day come together and rise up against the true enemy.

 

[Cyc]

LOL - the exact opposite is true. The Trump-haters (can I use the term "TDS" here or not?) are 99% of the time extremely vague about why they hate him. It's almost never based on policy, it's just identity politics/criticisms of his personality. I have a very intelligent friend who just finished a law degree. I ask him why he hates Trump so much. "He's an asshole".
"Yeah that's great but what about policy-wise, what actions has he undertaken that you have such a problem with?"
"The guy's a fucking joke"
.....
This happens so often to me, because I do hear a lot of people yelling about Trump and instead of arguing I'll just ask them "why do you hate him exactly?"
I can count on one hand the amount of times someone has given me a relevant and thoughtful answer that wasn't based on liberal media lies.

I literally just wrote an essay about why I don't admire the guy as a leader. I even balanced it by giving him credit where I thought it was due.

Trump, distilled, is a giant middle finger to the establishment. That honour could have easily gone to Bernie Sanders had he taken the Democratic nomination. That mistake from Dems, combined with Russian meddling, combined with a wholesale disillusionment with government, created the perfect storm for Trump to get elected.

A leader needs to be someone I admire, and unfortunately the used car salesman archetype does not impress me. The effeminate flailing arms, the overuse of the superlative, the word salad, the absence of nuance in thought, the name-calling, the 'Animal Farm' style of manipulation, appeals to nationalism.. I really don't get the appeal. At all. I find him neither creative nor conscientious, thoughtful or quick-witted. His personality is, to sum up, a non-starter.

When it comes to policy, it's actually nice that he's not terribly socially conservative, and this should be evident by the fact that he has not led a socially conservative lifestyle. How this flies with his fundamentalist supporters is confusing to me.

When it comes to economic policy, I feel like he's completely out of his depth.

When it comes to foreign affairs, I feel like he's completely out of his depth.

So to sum up, the two things I like about Trump (socially liberal and anti-establishment) are really concessions that should trouble his supporters, and everything else is just awful.

So I don't really get it.

Why I like Trump: Not a lawyer like every other career politician, proven track record in business, winning mentality, non-PC, destroyed the 'fake' image of the executive position while still taking the job seriously, coming through with his campaign promises unlike every other goddamn politician, lots of observable improvements, de-escalated North Korea, HASN'T STARTED ANY NEW WARS, given people new hope for the republic, patriotic without being racist (proven by exit polls and current opinion polls - more minority votes than Romney, doubled black support over the past year).

There's more..

EDIT: how could I forget (probably because the national media is silent about it), but the huge number of human trafficking and pedo arrests.
It's fun (but also depressing) watching people either ignore this or attempt to deflect it away.
Someone on this board recently said that we shouldn't celebrate human trafficking arrests..

You're giving him credit for things that could have been incidental to any presidency.. He's been in office just over 1 year and you're congratulating him for not starting a new war? You actually took time to write that? He escalated the war in Syria. His army is still carpet bombing the middle East. Why set the bar so low?

Also.. "not a lawyer"? Great.. Winning mentality? Takes the job seriously? This is all fluff, and his track record in business sucks ass. He was a trust fund baby with every opportunity in the world handed to him on a silver platter and still managed to fuck up a casino, which is a license to print money ffs.

Then the ever vague "observable improvements".

Your list of accomplishments is as empty as his short list of adjectives.

 

[JGrimez]

I literally just wrote an essay about why I don't admire the guy as a leader. I even balanced it by giving him credit where I thought it was due.

I wasn't referring specifically to yourself more so the claim that Trump supporters cannot explain why they like him - when I've seen much more nonsense and non-answers spewing from the mouths of Trump haters.

You also did not give adequate justifications for most of your criticisms. "out of his depth" is vague and means nothing... if someone "out of his depth" on foreign policy can completely turn around the disasterous North Korea situation, then let's just get rid of all the experts because they made shit worse. Vague and illogical criticisms are "dog shit."

You're giving him credit for things that could have been incidental to any presidency.. He's been in office 1 year and you're congratulating him for not starting a new war? You actually took time to write that? He escalated the war in Syria. His army is still carpet bombing the middle East. Why set the bar so low?

You could say the same about Obama, 8 years for that "recovery"?
And yes you bet your fucking ass I'm going to congratulate him for not starting new wars - which has been US foreign policy for as long as I can remember.
"He escalated the war in Syria" - that's lies or ignorance. Clinton wanted to install a no-fly zone against the Russians. Trump said he wants to improve relations with Russia (Syria is a proxy war). Trump cut CIA funding to "moderate rebels" (aka terrorists) over there. Syria has obviously de-escalated.

Also.. "not a lawyer"? Great.. and his track record in business sucks dick. He was a trust fund baby with every opportunity in the world handed to him on a silver platter and still managed to fuck up a casino, which is a license to print money ffs.

Yeah because every trust fund baby in the world magically turns millions into billions and creates a successful global empire.
Oh he had failures? You mean he's not perfect? That's too bad.... 515 successful companies compared to 5 bankruptcies (which were not even proper bankruptcies).
He has a better strike rate in business than Elon Musk - and that's without receiving government support.

Then the ever vague "observable improvements".

If you check the last page or two, I am constantly posting updates with observable figures.

 

[Tubbs]

So Trump completely turned around the disasterous North Korea situation? Is that why north Korea is still building nuclear weapons?

 

[JGrimez]

So Trump completely turned around the disasterous North Korea situation? Is that why north Korea is still building nuclear weapons?

What you talking about? Kim just publicly reinforced his commitment to denuclearize, stating that he had "unwavering faith" in Trump.
NK were lobbing missiles over Japan - have they fired or tested any missiles since the Trump negotiations? NO.
They just had their military parade - WIHOUT brandishing their nuclear weapons, which was always a feature of their parades.
Denying that Trump had success with the NK situation is DELUSIONAL.

THANK YOU DONALD TRUMP - here's some reasons

 

[Tubbs]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...6moXKvn8eM_mhJLXW&ampcf=1&cshid=1536999404120

Yes, you would cut the nuclear weapons out of your monitored parades if you were trying to conceal production.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

If you say so. I don't see why he would have done worse than Hillary and she got the majority of America's votes. I found Hillary to be a bland, unremarkable candidate.

She was the significantly better candidate. Many of us non-democrats would have been happier with a centrist democrat over a left-wing socialist-leaning guy. That being said I think he's a great senator and should continue to represent the people of Vermont in the senate; though I really am not a fan of his style of politics. It is not right for the nation. Medicare for all and college for all plans are terrible plans.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

Can you be more specific? If possible with a balanced source?

Fuck off FFS. I am specifically referring to rolling back gas mileage requirements for the auto industry. Stop being a troll.

http://www.foxnews.com/auto/2018/08...ill-save-lives-trump-administration-says.html

there's your BALANCED NEWS, now fuck off and read about it if you haven't already. Get with the program. This is obviously what I was referring to FOR INSTANCE and any well read individual REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT OR 3RD PARTY would have immediately recognized what I'm talking about.

The notion someone goes "oh wow I have a gas efficient vehicle now I can go out of my way to drive more" is the worst argument I've heard the R's come up with anything, for any reason, since Trump threw his toupee into politics.

 

[zephyr]

Yeah because I talk to EVERYONE.
Not just people in my echo chamber.
And I'm going to use my 1000th post to say that I Love Trump
(and I also love all you guys)
May we all one day come together and rise up against the true enemy.

There is no winning here, mate.

Idc wat the issue ppl have with you, the backlash you're copping here is embarrassing, sorry dude.

 

[Tubbs]

Honestly I don't have an issue with grimes other than him dodging my questions for the most part. He brings a different view to the table, one I don't necessarily agree with, but one I respect regardless.

 

[JessFR]

I'm of a mixed opinion. I mean, i do think if nothing else, I do like that Grimez provides at least some representation to the protrump side of politics. Much as I enormously disagree with it, it's a political reality, and this is the politics section. And it's a political reality that I think would otherwise be very poorly represented.

But, at the same time, I can't blame people for getting frustrated and nearly losing it sometimes. You can't expect perfection from humans. And these kinds of issues do tend to push people into extremes. And one problem with extremes is they're often very hard to tell apart from parody and being a troll.

And hey, JGrimez might be a great person to hang with once you take away all the political discussion.

For what it's worth, while I obviously can't be 100% sure, I tend to think JGrimez, isn't a troll. I think he believes what he says.

These are emotionally charged issues. Opposing sides of political, social and philosophical belief about how our societies should go forward in the future. You can't blame people for getting frustrated and upset and tired when it feels to them like people are advocating for a completely wrong position. It can get exhausting for everyone.

 

[spacejunk]

Sometime I've found astounding, that I feel like pretty much nobody seems to have picked up on. Is that for better or worse, Trump might well be the first atheist president. He pretends not to be for obvious reasons. But it seems blindingly obvious to me that Trump is an atheist. And I find it amazing that the hardcore christians don't see it more readily.

While I have no problem with Trump being an atheist or with having an atheist president. I think one of the reasons is that Trumps personality is incompatible with belief in the existance of a being more powerful, intelligent and important in himself. And I do have a problem with that.

People said the same thing about Obama (might be an atheist but pretends not to be) so trump's not the first.

 

[zephyr]

Honestly I don't have an issue with grimes other than him dodging my questions for the most part. He brings a different view to the table, one I don't necessarily agree with, but one I respect regardless.

Yeah, I dont have any problem with anyone's opinion really as each to their own. Well mostly, some disgusting posts here have really pissed me off and have learned to not even bother with those subject matters, getting pissed off at an anonymous account here is a waste of time and it's pretty easy to get pissed off enough to earn me a ban is kinda dumb.

It's a different story nowadays though if said person is just booted as just a useless troll if those that can remove him collectively decide hes just trolling and should "fuck off" What if others dont share that view, dont want him gone and a totally prefer him here?

It's a lot better for the sake of generating discussion to encourage it and if that takes you just posting in threads to ppl you dont like to "fuck off" then just dont talk to him, s scroll through etc. Why should anyone get repeatedly harassed and booted just because they dont suit you? "Fuck it" actually means fuck off here, its a bit harsh and also not cool from a smod.


SJ, however can tell me to fuck off whenever he wants.

Other forums here are now in actual death throes because of this same thing, whether anyone actually means up and admits it doesnt change that. How about learning from that and not have it happen here. It will though, this post will be seen as nagging, it's sad for ppl who ha e been blrs for a long time to have these forums and their once lively atmospheres just get flushed no fucks given.

As for Trump, fuck him and the shift to politics being seen as more priority than anything else here to the point of ridiculousness.

 

[andyturbo]

Yeah, I dont have any problem with anyone's opinion really as each to their own. Well mostly, some disgusting posts here have really pissed me off and have learned to not even bother with those subject matters, getting pissed off at an anonymous account here is a waste of time and it's pretty easy to get pissed off enough to earn me a ban is kinda dumb.

It's a different story nowadays though if said person is just booted as just a useless troll if those that can remove him collectively decide hes just trolling and should "fuck off" What if others dont share that view, dont want him gone and a totally prefer him here?

It's a lot better for the sake of generating discussion to encourage it and if that takes you just posting in threads to ppl you dont like to "fuck off" then just dont talk to him, s scroll through etc. Why should anyone get repeatedly harassed and booted just because they dont suit you? "Fuck it" actually means fuck off here, its a bit harsh and also not cool from a smod.


SJ, however can tell me to fuck off whenever he wants.

Other forums here are now in actual death throes because of this same thing, whether anyone actually means up and admits it doesnt change that. How about learning from that and not have it happen here. It will though, this post will be seen as nagging, it's sad for ppl who ha e been blrs for a long time to have these forums and their once lively atmospheres just get flushed no fucks given.

As for Trump, fuck him and the shift to politics being seen as more priority than anything else here to the point of ridiculousness.

Good read. I didnt at all read it as a nagging post. Agreed, Social media platforms and forums are overflowing with the same Trump this and Trump that this past 18 months its really changed things. This is just my opinion and not intended too offend any Americans- but its gotten to a point where it seriously looks like a great number (NOT ALL) Americans are only able to talk about either Trump,Racism,Guns.
I find it rare now too have good general talk about anything thats interesting in the way I do with friends in Canada,UK,NZ ect Fuck Politics

 

[andyturbo]

People said the same thing about Obama (might be an atheist but pretends not to be) so trump's not the first.

Exactly, then before that what a absolute *we are shiting in your face* moment when ever Bush acted christian.
A 322 society member cant get any more opporsite. Of all the various Fraternitys, Orders (secret societys) ect Skull and Bones is right up there with the most sickening. Way worse than OHS, M.M,A.A, OTO ect

 

[alasdairm]

Whataboutism is refuge for the hypocrite.

i agree. which is why it's curious that you do it so often.

sometimes you seem unable to discuss trump without going straight to "but what about clinton?" or "but what about obama?". you definitely seem to rail against it and yet do it frequently.

HASN'T STARTED ANY NEW WARS

i am with Cyc (long time no see Cyc!). you don't get credit for doing something you're just supposed to be doing anyway. chris rock hit the nail on the head:

You know the worst thing about niggas? Niggas always want credit for some shit they supposed to do. A nigga will brag about some shit a normal man just does. A nigga will say some shit like, "I take care of my kids." You're supposed to, you dumb motherfucker! What kind of ignorant shit is that? "I ain't never been to jail!" What do you want, a cookie?! You're not supposed to go to jail, you low-expectation-having motherfucker!

but cyc is correct. trump dangerously escalated things in syria.

i idly wondered to myself if, as with so many things trump does, there would be a tweet of him criticising somebody else for doing exactly what he did. lo and behold!

past trump criticising something current trump just did. what a fucking surprise. honestly, it would be hilarious if it wasn't so downright depressing...

which trump do you side with jgrimez? doesn't it get confusing sometimes having to make excuses for trump and disagreeing with him on exactly the same issue?

Someone on this board recently said that we shouldn't celebrate human trafficking arrests..

link?

alasdair

 

[invegauser]

Well, totally an aside to the point of this thread, but in theory (and often in practice), churches ask for money so that they can use it to provide help for their communities, since we live in a world where money is necessary for pretty much everything. I attended a church that my ex was the pianist for (I was in the choir) which did a lot of good for their community. They raised tens of thousands of dollars a year and put it to good use.

i'm pretty sure you knew i was being rhetorical but i think you forgot to mention keeping the lights on.

I literally just wrote an essay about why I don't admire the guy as a leader. I even balanced it by giving him credit where I thought it was due.

you made some good points. you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink. i liked your fresh perspective on things and being honest about credit where it was due. it humbled me.

I tend to think JGrimez, isn't a troll. <---> I think he believes what he says.

what's the difference?

 

[alasdairm]

^ a troll will post whatever he needs to post to get a specific reaction, whether he agrees with it or not.

i don't think that jgrimez is a troll - i think he is generally committed to his belief and he's not purely looking for a rise.

we've seen plenty of classic trolls come and go in ce&p...

alasdair