The Politics Thread

[rhinohide]

I am losing my damn mind. Every day  there is a new godawful chapter in this great American tragedy. I live in one of the poorest states in the country. We rank near last in everything but lead the nation in heroin overdoses and opioid abuse. One of my Senators Shelley Moore Capito just got her bill passed today that allows  mining companies to dump debris into our streams. Among other contaminants, arsenic.  She's also supporting Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education.  There isn't a single city/town in the state with a population > 50,000 and our population continues to shrink.  Repealing ACA will leave thousands of out of work miners devoid of their benefits for black lung disease.  The state voted for the orange smear in America's underpants 4-1.  

[DramatistDreamer]

Has anyone read Howard Stern's comments on why he thinks Trump ran for president and why he's been calling for voter fraud investigation??

 

Howard Stern: Trump wants to be loved, presidency will be 'detrimental' to his mental health

[DRW50]

Something kind of bothers me about that Obama poster...

[DramatistDreamer]

According to what I have been reading on this topic, Nixon didn't reach this level in the polls until at least 16 months into the Watergate scandal. Trump, whose impeachment numbers are growing (according to polls, if you believe them) is way ahead of the Nixonian scandal schedule.

About that call to Putin, file this under things that are said/done in Americans' name that they aren't allowed to know about apparently. 

 

Foreign policy insider: ‘No readout of Trump-Putin call because White House turned off recording’

[marceline]

I'm not here for all the people who bitched and moaned then sat home suddenly asking "Where's Obama?" If you cared so much about Obama you should've voted to protect his legacy.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Or where's Hillary for that matter!  

[marceline]

The "Where's Hillary?" people are even worse because they are usually Berniacs who like to say "Bernie's out here fighting for us and Hillary's nowhere to be found!" They just want her back out here so they can beat up on her some more in the name of purity politics while Bernie chases after Trump voters.

[DramatistDreamer]

Now who didn't know this?!

 

Sanders says Trump may be right about his voters

 

It makes Sanders' statements to 'work with Trump' even more obnoxious.

 

Enjoy the fall of what's left of the U.S. Empire, folks. 

[Huntress]

I don't know how viral this video has become in the US.

 

A Dutch tv station made fun of Trump's mantra "America First" and his "alternative facts".

 

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Now several other European countries have created similar videos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DramatistDreamer]

Wow #MakeEverySecondCount is certainly sharp satire. Using Trump's simplistic tone of speech to mock him-all I can say is, it's very clear that the U.S. went from a respected country that people sometimes disagreed with yet still generally respected, to a laughingstock.  That's really the only thing I can say about that.

 

Speaking of laughing, with a purpose.

 

I know people boo-hooed the mocking of Ivanka Trump's clothes on Amazon but behind those sarcastic posts was a real boycott of her products, which is beginning to bite her now. Trump may tout his love for the poorly educated, but I guess a lot of Hillary supporters have the $$$ to shop at Nordstrom and they voted with their wallets and purse strings and that's definitely no joke.

 

Nordstrom Drops Ivanka Trump's Clothing Collection, Citing 'Brand's Performance'

[DRW50]

 

I don't think most of the world has respected the US since the disastrous handling of Iraq. Even then it took a horrific terror attack to stave off some very hostile global views of us pre-9/11 (goodwill Cheney and friends soon threw away). And we've been a laughingstock to much of the world for a long time, the ugly, stupid, loud American so often seen in foreign TV shows or films. They like our money. And they liked Obama (well those who weren't racist did), but they also were happy to flout the US, as happened more and more in his last term. What he did continue was stability and trust. And now Trump has taken that away, replaced by fear and bullying. Once other countries see, in a way that goes beyond easy videos that help mask how much some of those countries like Germany are struggling against their own tide, that Trump is a paper tiger and that his real threat is to the US, then they will move on more and more from needing the US or seeing us as someone to rely on to help with peace, to do business with - to do anything but ignore, the way Trump and Bannon so desperately want us to ignore anyone but rich people writing checks. The best we can hope for is some of this can be fixed after 4 years (if he is in office that long), but it's going to take someone much more skillful than our current crop of politicians. 

 

 

My issue with that was I just thought the cutesy look-at-me posts were a waste of time and energy and counterproductive, like that man who berated her on a plane. The boycott itself I initially thought would be best served with people who were more involved and less easy to paint sympathetic media stories about, but now that she's taken on a role in her father's administration, I get why people were and are boycotting and I'm glad it's having an effect. I think at one point I also naively deluded myself into thinking she and her husband might have some voice in his ear, but clearly I was wrong on that one. 

Edited February 3, 2017 by DRW50

[Vee]

Edited February 3, 2017 by Vee

[Wales2004]

First alternative facts and now made up massacres.  Trump is here to save us with a refugee ban to prevent the Bowling Green massacre from ever happening again...only it didn't but it's a teeny mistake and you know how the media makes stuff up all the time so Kellyanne Conway thinks she's entitled.

[DRW50]

That stuff makes me worry we're heading toward some sort of coup or military state within the very near future. 

[Vee]

I think Trump mostly just likes having "his own guys" in there.

 

I also do wonder if someone wants him to have loyal security if or when someone decides it is time to remove him.