The Politics Thread

[Vee]

 

Toldja:

 

 

 

This isn't going to keep the GOP in line. It wasn't good and they're already defecting. The media is mostly unimpressed.

 

From the above:

 

 

I knew he'd do this, but I didn't know he'd do it preemptively. The next 48 hour will be full of public and private disasters because this went bad. He's so predictable.

 

Edited January 9, 2019 by Vee

[Vee]

[Vee]

[Vee]

[Juliajms]

We are incredibly lucky that the first time an authoritarian came for our country he turned out to be extraordinarily incompetent.  I only hope that the next time we aren't caught asleep at the switch because we won't get this lucky again.  That's not to say that he hasn't caused incredible damage to many people and our country at large, but it could have been much, much worse.  Of course, it isn't over yet, but at least the end is (hopefully) in sight.

[Vee]

[Roman]

 

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well I screwed it up but you get the point....

 

[DRW50]

 

A lot of the media coverage I saw (including from some I'd half-expected better from, like Colbert) was making fun of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. It feels like whatever criticism Trump would have gotten has been pushed away for the usual bot-driven meme culture and the media's general need to remind us that Democrats are 'uncool' and a waste of space.

 

What a [!@#$%^&*] joke the AP is - not that this is a surprise. It's just unfortunate this represents the Beltway at large and too many in the public.

 

 

Edited January 9, 2019 by DRW50

[Roman]

have you read some of the responses? I would like to know who wrote this.

[DRW50]

It's what the AP has been since Ron Fournier took over. 

[Vee]

The memes about Chuck and Nancy were plentiful, yes, but that didn't stop the coverage of Trump from being brutally negative. Bottom line: He failed in his last hail mary.

[DramatistDreamer]

As justification for airing Trump's address in prime time, the media claimed that this was Trump's attempt to 'make his case' for funding the wall to the American people. 

The media made it seem as if it was some monumental deal to air this address, probably hoping to further avert criticism over their decision not to give Obama airtime when he requested to address the nation about immigration.

 

Well, like I said, I didn't watch the spectacle but, from what I've heard it was a whopping 8-9 minutes.  Is that long enough to make a case for a $5-7bn price tag?  I've also read that it was a poorly executed speech, clumsily read from a TeleprompTer.  Was that really going to convince anyone who believed that funding the wall would be a waste to change their minds?

 

The media inevitably will 'both sides' this TV thing but was it the Democrats' idea to take this thing to prime-time?  It seems to me that the decision to cede time to the Dems for a rebuttal was a last minute decision anyway but this thing was first, and foremost, presented as a presidential address to appeal to the American people. 

Given what I've read about it this morning, I would have to say that it didn't at all achieve the goals that were seemingly set for this thing.

 

The networks will never admit that they wasted theirs and everyone else's (who watched) time on this but I keep hearing the word "pointless" being mentioned.

 

Edited January 9, 2019 by DramatistDreamer

[Khan]

I'm still upset over the fact that the networks gave Trump what they had denied Obama when he was still in office.  It doesn't surprise me, of course, but it just galls the hell out of me how so many people today feel so free to be so openly racist.

 

Thank God I've pretty much stopped watching television, save for Hallmark Channel's annual slate of Christmas movies (and after the pro-Trump messages they snuck into last year's crop, they're on thin ice with me as well).

 

 

Kellyanne Conway, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Bill Shine all need to take a good, hard look at the man they work for and realize that the traditional methods of getting their messages across to Americans (and others) aren't going to work.  Trump is incapable of appealing to anyone outside of Fox News' target demographic or the numbskulls who attend his rallies.  Last night's performance apparently proved as much.

 

Like I had suggested upthread, I think Trump should go ahead at this point, declare a national emergency and try to get the wall built.  Of course, the courts will slow down (if not stop altogether) his efforts, meaning there's a good chance he'll be gone from office before they even break ground on the cursed thing -- but who cares?  At the very least, it'll free up both sides to try and work on some compromise that would end the current showdown.

 

In fact, that's pretty much how I would handle Trump from now on: distract him, keep him busy on wild goose chases (such as convincing the courts to let him have his damn wall), while the more competent types run the country (into the ground).

Edited January 9, 2019 by Khan

[Vee]

[Vee]

And the unkindest cut of all for Donald: