The Round Stable

Well this is the politics subforum so let's talk about president donald trump

I'm honestly amazed the Republicans haven't disowned him yet.

Fontra wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 31, 2017 1:25 pm

Well this is the politics subforum so let's talk about president donald trump

Do you have any particular feelings regarding his policy, his administration, or maybe his vision for the country? Maybe a unique insight on how he and his actions affect you as an American living abroad? You could contribute something that a lot of ponygoons can't.

Fizzbuzz wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 31, 2017 3:09 pm

Do you have any particular feelings regarding his policy, his administration, or maybe his vision for the country? Maybe a unique insight on how he and his actions affect you as an American living abroad? You could contribute something that a lot of ponygoons can't.

I don't feel like a lot of people here think most Americans were on board with him. Europeans seem to be oddly well-aware most don't like the guy so I never felt like I had to go around apologizing for his existence nor I guess would they expect a Turk to do the same for Erdogan. I think him being elected definitely makes America seem like a fickle ally at best: One moment we're all nice and easy to talk to and the next Merkel has to explain to Trump fifty times how the damn EU works. So in terms of reducing confidence in the country leadership rather than the citizenry, yeah Trump succeeded there.

On the other hand, europe has its own homegrown dipshits stirring up trouble again in the form of Identitarians which are like the European version of Proud Boys. Not too happy with the 92 or whatever AFD that made it into office in Germany, but so far it doesn't look like they can do shit and the more they see Trump and the alt right crumble from afar, the less confidence these douchebags will have too.

Kronos wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 31, 2017 2:38 pm

I'm honestly amazed the Republicans haven't disowned him yet.

Republican Priorities are, in order:

• 1. Making sure rich straight christian cis white men stay in power
  2. Making liberals angry

Donald Trump does both of these things, so they're completely fine with him. Republicans threw a fit when Obama ordered a sandwich with dijon mustard on it, and yet they're willing to look the other way amid strong evidence that Donald Trump's administration committed literal treason.

Trump is a symptom of the disease infesting America, not the cause.

I don't think anyone thinks Trump is the cause of every flaw in the country and political system, no, but shit like pardoning Arpaio (a man who should never again be allowed see the light of day as far as I'm concerned) and giving power to parasites like Pruitt and Devos means he's still doing real damage. Not to mention him sabotaging the current healthcare system.

And, yes, the motherfucker will hopefully be going to jail when Mueller is finished with him and his cronies.

I feel as long as the alt-right media keeps the conservative base in fear, the base will ensure that the Republicans will back Trump. I feel the only way for him to lose favor with his supporters is if they believe the alt-right media was lying to them this entire time. His supporters have been spoon fed paranoia for years and anyone who suggests otherwise is clearly a world government spy trying to mislead them.

Did everyone hear about Trump's new tax plan yet? Remember how he said he would give the middle class all those tax breaks? Well, come to find out he is, but he is changing the definition of that is considered to be middle class. In the new bill, you have to make $450,000 a year to be considered middle class to get those breaks, everyone else is considered poor and receives less breaks. His idea of a middle class is the top 1%. He is even giving the "middle class" a $500,000 tax deduction for home loans.

Apparently, he has also called a dozen Democrat senators to ask them to support this bill because the estate tax is personally 'killing' his finances and he wants it gone. He said they have to give some kind of deal to the rich. Trump has pretty much said he wants a new tax code that will personally benefit himself and the rich.

Hmm, how strange that he'd be calling Senate Democrats in order to drum up support for this tax bill. I thought the GOP passed a budget resolution through both houses just so the Senate could then use budget reconciliation to pass the tax bill with only 51 votes, which fits just within the 52-seat Republican majority!

Cards Against Humanity is buying a plot of land on the US/Mexico Border to try to prevent the border wall from happening.

Those who pay $15 on the first day of the sale will get a tiny plot of the land. Since there will be thousands of plots, it will be extraordinarily time consuming and expensive for the US government to exercise eminent domain on every single one required for the border wall to be built. They also retained a staff of lawyers who specialize in eminent domain to make the process even more lengthy and difficult.

I went to buy some land and they were already sold out. Bummer. I would have loved to be a landowner in Texas.

That is even more incredible than the Hawaii II gimmick they did for one of their holiday special deals.

On last night's episode of Mr. Robot - which is set in later 2016 because Obama is still president - the two bad guys of the show met up in that ostentatious Mai Tai bar owned by Trump and basically spent five minutes laughing about how they despise him and how god awful he looks in swim trunks.

Sam Esmail really does not like Trump suffice to say.

Trump Ocean Club tied to dirty money. It seems like Russian mafias and South American drug cartels were using Trump's Ocean Club resort in Panama Bay to launder money. They would buy hundreds of units through shell companies and never use them. The hotel was mostly empty. Trump never asked where the money came from and claims he doesn't know anything about it. This might explain why he didn't want to show his tax returns.

It is like how many more nails do we need for this coffin? The coffin is practically made of nails by now.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-isra ... SKBN1E00YW

So as I understand it the US position is now Jerusalem belongs wholly to Israel, no compromise, end of, deal with it Palestine.

Octavia wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 14, 2017 9:20 pm

Cards Against Humanity is buying a plot of land on the US/Mexico Border to try to prevent the border wall from happening.

Those who pay $15 on the first day of the sale will get a tiny plot of the land. Since there will be thousands of plots, it will be extraordinarily time consuming and expensive for the US government to exercise eminent domain on every single one required for the border wall to be built. They also retained a staff of lawyers who specialize in eminent domain to make the process even more lengthy and difficult.

They've been sending out letters for the past week or so now.

Day one had a "map" of the border, some cards, and:


Day two they announced a good news podcast.

Day three they went through the surveys people filled out when they signed up, picked out the hundred poorest people on the list, and sent them $1,000.


I guess this isn't really Donald Trump news, but it's probably the least-depressing news this thread will see in a while.

Interesting thread on how some FBI members likely worked together in favor of Trump.

Eh, I'm still not sold that folks like Seth Abramson aren't just rambling whackjobs, tbh, especially when they write these enormous Twitter threads that are hundreds of tweets long.

It's obviously his own view on things and should be taken with a grain of salt. He's been pretty on the money with the Mueller stuff though, as far as I can tell.

A legal podcast I listen to was chuckling at questions they got about Abramson because he tends to overstate the legal case against Trump, which they're more familiar with. So he's an interesting source for possible big deal news that's been overlooked, but he should definitely be treated carefully.

That said, the main flaw in that current tweetstorm seems to me that he's leaping from "True Pundit claims to have lots of important sources" to "The FBI didn't dismiss them out of hand, so they are real FBI mens."

Quanta wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 12, 2017 1:16 pm

these enormous Twitter threads that are hundreds of tweets long.

Were it not for this I would likely actually read what these people have to say, but writing like this is the literal actual opposite of what Twitter's for. Even with those sites that concatenate all the tweets in a thread into one somewhat more readable page, it's still annoying to read sentence after choppy sentence written in that manner.

It's worth remembering that Abramson is a veteran prosecutor. He has extensive training and experience in piecing together evidence into a coherent narrative, and this is true for better or worse - plenty of prosecutors can chase the wrong trail yet come up with something plausible. My dad was a litigator who often argued cases against government attorneys, and he had a favorite saying that summed up his line of work: "Frequently wrong, never in doubt."

What I find most valuable about Abramson threads is his commentary on other prosecutors' aims and methods (like the Mueller team). I think they're more valuable for his insights into the process, both explicit and implicit from how he justifies his conclusions.

The Trump administration just sent the CDC a list of words they're forbidden to use in any official documents for next year's budget. Those words are: “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”

What the fuck

That's as stupid as it is useless, because I can easily think of alternate words for each of those terms.

That's as stupid as it is bigoted and fucked up. Jesus.

Bremen wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 16, 2017 1:31 am

That's as stupid as it is useless, because I can easily think of alternate words for each of those terms.

"Fetus" is particularly galling because most alternate terms you could use play into the GOP narrative that they are Umbert the Unborn (until they're actually born and face crippling health care and family assistance cuts).

But boy, you've gotta be pretty high on your own supply to think banning "evidence-based" will look good.

Just lump abortion and transgender healthcare under the banner of bodily freedom

Then if anyone suggests banning the term, you can be like "SO YOU'RE AGAINST FREEDOM?"

Half-surprised "vaccination" didn't make the list.

The UN is passing an emergency resolution to officially say they don't recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. There is the BBC and Fox News report on the subject. The gist of it is that Trump is strongly opposed to this idea. He says since America pays billions of dollars to the UN they shouldn't vote against their interests. Trump is threatening to send Ambassador Haley to get the names of all the countries that support this resolution and cut off financial aid to them. Turkey responded by saying this has nothing to do with America and no country would bow down to such threats. Ambassador Haley has accused the Palestinians for being the ones who are harming the peace talks and doesn't understand why something as trivial as as admitting Jerusalem is the capital of Israel should cause such problems.

The ignorance at play here is disgusting and dangerous on every level.

Octavia wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 15, 2017 11:13 pm

The Trump administration just sent the CDC a list of words they're forbidden to use in any official documents for next year's budget. Those words are: “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”

What the fuck

Fortunately/Unfortunately, this isn't right. The list of words were words that the CDC was telling their people who were involved in the budgetary process to avoid using in things that go outside of the CDC to make sure that their budgetary things get past the biases of the people in charge and are actually read.

https://www.vox.com/2017/12/18/16792124 ... an-science

I have so many back and forth feelings on this it's amazing. I'm glad that words aren't banned. I'm horrified that they have to avoid phrases to get people to read things. I'm glad that work is getting done. I'm horrified that I was so willing to believe it. I'm glad that the CDC can continue to research things. I'm horrified that this isn't some B-Plot from The Man in the High Castle but is actual life.

Octavia wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 14, 2017 9:20 pm

Cards Against Humanity is buying a plot of land on the US/Mexico Border to try to prevent the border wall from happening.

Those who pay $15 on the first day of the sale will get a tiny plot of the land. Since there will be thousands of plots, it will be extraordinarily time consuming and expensive for the US government to exercise eminent domain on every single one required for the border wall to be built. They also retained a staff of lawyers who specialize in eminent domain to make the process even more lengthy and difficult.

Unfortunately this probably won't slow anything down, because when they did the fence thing a decade ago they just continued to build during the years while the court case went through the system. I guess you could get a court to issue an injunction against the wall, but it's hard to say that your empty land will suffer much devaluation from a wall built on/near it. I still wish them luck.

I've enjoyed the surprises from the CAH fundraiser . Day 4 was a matching donation to teacher's projects and a talk about how dumb homework is (agreed), Day 5 is an announcement of a year-long polling project that they'll be doing throughout 2018 to find out what people think about things and the interesting ways that statistics breaks down, and day 6 is that they bought the naming rights to a minor league stadium and gave the people one ticket to a game there. And the baseball cards are actual packs with randomized cards inside of them! Even if I don't think it'll have the effect they're hoping for, I had fun being a part of it. I haven't done any other CAH thing, so this was fun to be a part of, and to watch the countdown of how many were left on the main page, feeling happy that I got in when I knew there would be thousands (or more) who didn't.

A little taster from "Fire and Fury": "You Can’t Make This S--- Up": My Year Inside Trump's Insane White House

As much as I still think that the scumbags that enable Trumps are the real issue to focus on, my main take away from this article is that Trump is indeed growing increasingly senile and that his staffers are getting deeper and deeper into playing cover-up. Comparing videos from Trump's campaign with recent times, he seems increasingly distracted and unfocused when talking than he used to on the campaign trail. He seems to repeat himself more and go more in circles. The lengths his staff must go to just to keep this all somehow, somewhat running are both horrifying and astounding.

What would it take for Trump to actually be deemed mentally unfit to govern, and more importantly for his staff to be seen as compliant in covering it all up?

It's not the first time it happened, when Ronald Reagan showed signs that he had Alzheimer's during his second term at the latest (he wasn't officially diagnosed until during the Clinton presidency). Lots of cover-up from those inside happened then, too.

Do bad leaders go nuts or was it being nuts that made them bad leaders?

King George III, Hitler, Reagan. They all lost their minds during their reign and became increasingly demanding.

I can't say how stressful it is for Trump but he seems to be avoiding as much work as possible. Between golfing and rallies I don't see him getting much governing done. He kind of just shows up for publicity stunts and that is about it.

West Filly wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 05, 2018 12:05 pm

Do bad leaders go nuts or was it being nuts that made them bad leaders?

King George III, Hitler, Reagan. They all lost their minds during their reign and became increasingly demanding.

With the exception of George III, Hitler and Reagan were assholes before they came to power.

Trump said he is willing to have an interview with Mueller if he agreed to a hard stop date for the investigation. His lawyers advised against it and Mueller didn't respond. I don't see why Mueller would agree to those terms when he can subpoena Trump when ever he wants for an interview.