The Politics Thread

[DramatistDreamer]

So, Trump's cabinet picks are dodging the Government Ethics office?  They won't submit their paperwork.

This is going to be one extremely messy administration!

 

ETA: Not to mention, yet another person in Trump's millieu is being called out for plagiarism- this time his pick for National Security advisor, Monica Crowley.

Edited January 8, 2017 by DramatistDreamer

[DramatistDreamer]

So let me get this straight: After the FBI decides that there are no links between Esteban Santiago (AKA, the Florida airport shooter), the Alaskan police decide to return his gun to him??

So now, only terrorist links are the qualifying factor for whether someone is deemed dangerous?

What about plain old mentally unstable?

What about in the cases of domestic violence? Those don't qualify as enough of a threat?

 

Anchorage police returned gun to Florida shooting suspect after ‘mental health crisis’

 

Edited January 8, 2017 by DramatistDreamer

[Khan]

Incredible...but not surprising.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

That's what I believe. IMO, I think that Trump owes Russia a mountain of money and this 'presidency' is some compensation to pay for his debt. This man is simply putting his own interests before others...

[ReddFoxx]

Putin seemingly wants control of the Baltic States, which are all part of NATO. Trump pulling the US out of NATO or at least reducing it's involvement is what Putin is after.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Is that why he can't pay his transition team?

 

"Billionaire" Trump Can't Pay His Transition Team's Salaries

 

[JaneAusten]

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What is interesting is how many commenters are blaming the mental health facility for this. Perhaps they are responsible, but does no one want to know why someone with a domestic violence background and is being treated for mental health issues is given his gun back? I can't say I can blame law enforcement if there is no law on the books prohibiting it but doesn't it beg the question, shouldn't there be?

[Khan]

Why do I think that Trump ran for office because he needed to pay some bills and it beat folding shirts at Macy's?

 

Trump insisted he didn't need donors to keep going and that he was footing all the bills for his election campaign himself (more or less).  Now, I realize this makes me sound like an even bigger nut...but what if it were really Russia that had been picking up part, or even most, of the tab?

Edited January 8, 2017 by Khan

[NothinButAttitude]

 

I don't think you sound nutty at all. I think you might be onto something...

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[marceline]

 

That's not nutty. It's logical.

 

Nutty is thinking that Hillary Clinton is running a child sex ring in the basement of a pizza parlor.

[slick jones]

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[Khan]

 

Is THAT what Pizzagate was about?

 

Well, I'm glad at least three people (you, slick and NBA) don't think I'm TOO off-the-rails on my theory about Russia/Putin and Trump's campaign.  I'm not saying it's true.  (I'm not Michael Flynn.)  But I think if I were Putin, and I wanted to ensure that Hillary Clinton NOT be elected president, then as far as I'm concerned, pledging certain resources, financial and otherwise, to her opponent would not be off the table.

 

Who knows?  Putin might have even put Trump up to running in the first place.  

 

Because of Trump's role in the birther movement, Putin might have seen Trump as the perfect someone who could not only upset Hillary (and by extension, the rest of the Democratic party) in the general election through populist sentiment, but sow seeds of chaos within the GOP as well.  

 

Subsequently, with both political parties suffering identity crises of one kind or another, Americans divided against each other along lines of gender, race and class, and even the mainstream media coming to grips with their handling of Trump as well as their function within this new "post-fact/post-truth" society, where even the word of our own intelligence community is being doubted over proof of the Russians' hacking into DNC email servers, America as a whole is too busy freeing itself from the wreckage of the past year to pay attention to whatever Putin has up his sleeve next.

 

And I STILL think there's something screwy about the fact that Hillary won the popular vote by such a relatively wide margin, and that the states that cost her the electoral vote and the presidency were also the states many pundits said she needed to win going into Super Tuesday.

 

Again, though, this is only speculation.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Also incredible yet unsurprising is how muted the right-wingers have become on this since they've been unable to tie Santiago to ISIS. They tried by showing a picture of him wearing what supposedly a kaffiyeh, only to discover that it was bought as a souvenir on his way home from his first stint in service. 

 

Even the Florida PD are flummoxed as to why Alaskan PD gave someone who had submitted himself to a psychiatric facility was given his gun back.

 

Santiago was said to rave about how the CIA was sending him secret messages- but I guess no ISIS, no problem.

 

Even the obvious right-wingers who sometimes post onto this board...*crickets*. I guess no jingoistic slogans to parrot by way of Breitbart this time. M'kay.

Just obvious failure of our gun laws and mental health infrastructure, nothing to see here but by all means, stripping Obamacare and Medicare/Medicaid to nothing takes priority so we can give the wealthy another tax break, right?

 

Let's have the next POTUS attack Meryl Streep (but side-step the actual content of her speech).

As long as we have our priorities as a nation set, I guess.

[NothinButAttitude]

He's started already:

 

 

[DRW50]

 

I don't think Russia has that type of money to throw around. They're using it to build up their armies and whatever else. I guess some of Trump's advisers may have gotten a cut, but I think most of this was done by Putin through flattery and "bullshine," which is all Trump needed. I think if you play pals with Trump he won't want to bomb you. That's as deep as he goes.