The Politics Thread

[DRW50]

 

I think they are very ideological and cold but I don't believe they would have done anything like that. The Kochs in particular always seem to try to keep a step back and are focused on their image. 

 

Some other people supporting Trump, I wouldn't be shocked...

[dragonflies]

LOL

 

 

[DramatistDreamer]

Social media trolls Conway over October tweet mocking Clinton's FBI investigation

 

Chickens coming home to roost?

[DRW50]

I don't mean to be condescending but do people out there still believe those "White House staffer" Twitter accounts are real? 

[JaneAusten]

No I doubt it. And I don't think a man mentored by Roy Cohn is scared at this point. He is doing exactly what Cohn taught him.

[DRW50]

 

I think he's terrified of whatever things his father put in his head many decades ago, but I don't think he has the ability to process the world. 

 

I don't know how many here ever saw that Doctor Who episode where Celia Imrie is a big villain and at the end is regressed to a crying child in a grown woman's body, but that's what he reminds me of sometimes. 

[Vee]

No one ever taught Trump much of anything. He doesn't have a fraction of the intellect of those guys.

 

He's absolutely scared and angry, and when that happens he rages like he did today on Twitter during the hearings. I think he's been scared and angry most of his life. Watch, he'll go off tonight at his Kentucky rally.

 

The alt-left, meanwhile, is losing its [!@#$%^&*] over the Russia reveal. Guys like Glenn Greenwald, Michael Tracey, etc. who have passionately defended Russia and RT against the slings and arrows of 'corrupt Democrats' are very upset today.

[marceline]

 

The Steele dossier stated outright that the Russians used the DNC hack to drive people towards Sanders at Clinton's expense. I'd be interested to see where some of his $27 donations came from. He played right into their hands and will never acknowledge it.

[Vee]

I can't be bothered to shift focus to Bernie - there's not a lot of upside there right now - but watching the WhataboutAmerica Gang (Greenwald, Tracey, even Matt Taibbi, whose very dry piece on today's hearings opens by snidely suggesting America has propaganda networks just like RT and also, surveillance state!) fall all over themselves to explain away Russia is extremely entertaining. They're getting roasted on Twitter.

 

Meanwhile, the WH is in civil war. Again.

Also, Weathervane Joe tilts anew:

 

 

 

Jeffrey Wright (yes, that one) is a man after my own heart:

 

Edited March 20, 2017 by Vee

[Khan]

Frankly, I've been too bogged down by personal matters to be as concerned as I have been about TrumpCo.  (I can take only so much drama, ya know?)  But I am glad the FBI has officially, on-the-record launched their investigation into Russia.  Part of me doubts much will come of it.  Nevertheless, I'm glad someone in such a capacity is doing something.

[JaneAusten]

The new Greenwald target is Louise Mensch, who I admit to being a conspiracy pusher, but part of her analysis has been correct. She was the first one to report the FISA warrant before it was know and it turns out now it's know pretty much to be true.

 

And I don't understand Greenwald at all. Is it that everything America is awful, but he seems to have a narrower target, the democrats. No matter what anyone does it's always back to the awful democrats, the hypocrites, how obsessed the dems are with Russia, how Sanders is the most popular politician in the country, etc. I really don't get it.

 

 

The investigation was launched last July and they have confirmed Russian interference and their alleged intentions. There is an ongoing investigation. They are investigating potential collusion with the Trump campaign but they will not confirm or deny who is being investigated.

 

Spicer today called Flynn a small volunteer for the Trump campaign, that Manafort played a minor role, obviously trying to distance themselves from those most likely under scrutiny at the present time. Forget Flynn was part of the intelligence briefings provided to Trump when he was running for president and that Manafort was Trumps campaign manager, and that Trumps dialogue on Nato suddenly turned negative when Manafort joined the campaign.

Edited March 21, 2017 by JaneAusten

[Vee]

Louise Mensch is nuts and should not be trusted IMO, but Greenwald is only going after her because of ego and his own deeply rooted anti-Western bias.

 

Greenwald never grew out of his years fighting the Bush cabal. He was drummed out of leftist circles in those days for turning on everyone, then came back with Snowden. He was a libertarian to begin with, and he'll never stop fighting the same war where the evil American empire is always the central enemy and he is the daring rebel, so Russia (and any other power) becomes a friend. Even as Greenwald, a gay man, aligns himself with Putin's anti-gay empire.

Edited March 21, 2017 by Vee

[DramatistDreamer]

Steering back to the subject on Gerrymandering, here's an interesting article on why fixing it also affects governing patterns, not just elections.

 

Fixing Gerrymandering Doesn’t Just Make Elections More Fair

[DRW50]

In Duterte news...not that this actually effects any policy in the Philippines, but this is some of the most egregious backtracking and lying I've seen even for modern politics. When I read that he'd previously supported gay marriage I thought it was just the generic statements that even Trump made, that you know don't really mean a whole lot, but no, he was actually going on about how the Bible should be Adam, Eve, and the gays. And now he's going on about how people want to stop men and women as marriage, and also making transphobic comments. 

 

I wonder if he's still popular over there or if his insability has worn off the shine.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/world/asia/duterte-same-sex-marriage-philippines.html?_r=0

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Since the Catholic Church wields enormous influence in the Philippines, I doubt statements like these will have much effect on Duterte's popularity.

 

From what I've read, it was his promises to crack down on crime that help him ascend to the presidency from mayor of a city.  And in killing thousands of people and labeling them drug traffickers, after the fact, has convinced a large portion of society that he is fulfilling his biggest promise.

If anything diminishes his political prospects down the road, it will be if something goes horribly awry with his self-proclaimed 'War on Drugs' or if his police kill the 'wrong' person(s) or if the carnage becomes too diffuse and too bloody for the people to continue to stomach.

 

Duterte has definitely had his battles with the Catholic Church. He blames them for thwarting his efforts to institute family planning services and distribute birth control and sex education nationwide- the Philippines has the world's highest teenage pregnancy rates. It doesn't surprise me that Duterte would go back on such a promise as gay union, he knows there will be little to no repercussions in doing so.