The Trump Presidency Ocho :: It Can't Go On. A.K.A. We All Gotta Duck / When The Shit Hits the Fan

Discussion in 'Politics & Current Events' started by crazypete13, Sep 28, 2018.

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  1. Cascarino's Pizzeria

    Apr 29, 2001
    New Jersey, USA
    Why the Barr summary was a smart move from the Bad Guys' POV. It totally took the air out of the Mueller report. Republicans will say Dotard is cleared and Democrats will say it shows conspiracy & obstruction. More smokescreens.
     
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  2. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Also the leftists who think that Trump-engendered chaos will create the conditions in which their version of lefty-utopianism can be implemented.

    If you see chaos as a useful political tool, you probably have deep strains of authoritarianism running through your political thought utopian fantasies.
     
  3. JohnR

    JohnR Member+

    Jun 23, 2000
    Chicago, IL
    How many of those are out there?

    True enough. Utopians are born cultists.
     
  4. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Not a huge number, and they are electorally insignificant (not least because they don't vote) but its easy to spot them in and around anarchist bookstores. Many who affiliate themselves with antifa, too.

    It's funny how GOP bloviaters pint antifa on the democrats when they don't generally vote democratic (or at all), but you can bet your ass that right wing militia types do vote, and often for Republicans.
     
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  5. Boloni86

    Boloni86 Member+

    Jun 7, 2000
    Baltimore
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Gibraltar
    I think the fundamentalist Christians are the only true believers. They're used to the televangelist persona, so Trump had them already with the shiny hair and private jet.

    But Trump's more rational supporters who picked him precisely because he's unfit. Trump is their murder weapon. The point wasn't that Trump would be a good leader of our institutions. It's precisely that they wanted our institutions to fail. The point was to destabilize the establishment ... particularly the neoliberal globalist establishment which is basically a bipartisan class of people that spans the spectrum from Bush/Romney/McConnell to Clinton/Pelosi/Schumer.
     
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  6. Funkfoot

    Funkfoot Member+

    May 18, 2002
    New Orleans, LA
    I think I would actually prefer it if he used those terms.
     
  7. JohnR

    JohnR Member+

    Jun 23, 2000
    Chicago, IL
    There are also the one-issue voters. The most rational Trump supporters whom I have met, at least by my judgement, are those who know he's a shit but he's their shit. They want Israel to trample the Palestinians. Or nobody ever to touch guns. Or abortion banned. One can deplore their willingness to trade decency, morality, and perhaps even democracy itself so that their single goal can be accomplished, but you can't say that their math is wrong. He will support Israel to the hilt, leave guns untouched, and appoint anti-abortion judges.
     
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  8. bigredfutbol

    bigredfutbol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 5, 2000
    Woodbridge, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This is too over-simplified IMHO. And I'd argue that we're not currently suffering from an overly-powerful Federal government. HOW power is used, and on whose behalf, is the real question.

    I will concede the point that Democrats have acceded to far too much centralization of power in the executive branch. And we're all probably overdue a re-calibration of the federal system (NOT towards State's rights).
     
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  9. Boloni86

    Boloni86 Member+

    Jun 7, 2000
    Baltimore
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Gibraltar
    While I agree that those seeking chaos for chaos's sake are not thinking clearly, that only tells half the story. You have to go one step back and find out what created these conditions where voters are becoming increasingly irrational.

    The way I see it's an intersection the two forces. Technology and a corrupted global economic/political system. On the one hand you have technology hurling citizens into the future with light speed advances in access to information, access to markets, communication and entertainment. On the other hand you have a world order designed to perpetuate the concentration of power in a tiny class of elites. I think the 2008 economic crash was an eye opening case study in how our world system is so wired for self perpetuation. Saving the banking system briefly superseded everything else including democracy and even logic itself.

    This is why I worry about this illusion that if only we can turn the clock back to before Trump, somehow everything goes back to normal. Biden is the representation of this. Not only is this a logical fallacy, because turning the clock back just means going back to the conditions that got you in the mess the first place. But it's also a problem of physics. When a system as big and complex and ours starts to collapse it has an incredible amount of momentum. Fighting that momentum is the equivalent of trying to survive an avalanche by pushing the snow back up the mountain.

    Energy wasted on propping up old corrupt systems is often wasted energy. Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe this can still all be saved by going backwards and tweaking the system. But I can't think of many cases in history where it works like this. Instability leads to an irrational public which leads to more instability and so on ...
     
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  10. bigredfutbol

    bigredfutbol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 5, 2000
    Woodbridge, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Well said.
     
  11. ceezmad

    ceezmad Member+

    Mar 4, 2010
    Chicago
    Club:
    Chicago Red Stars
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The problem with concentration of power is that there is no guarantee that you will always be in control, sometimes you will be in the minority side.
     
  12. Cascarino's Pizzeria

    Apr 29, 2001
    New Jersey, USA
    Interesting article on Jennifer Pritzker, a transgender woman who's from a rich family and served for years in the military. Unlike most in her family, she was a Trumper who bought in on the grift even knowing what a scumbag he was through family business dealings with him. Then the transgender ban was announced...

    The greater Pritzker clan has long disliked Donald Trump for reasons nonpolitical too. In 1979, they became his partner in developing the Grand Hyatt hotel in New York—Trump’s first major project. It was a rancorous and litigious relationship, from which the Pritzkers extricated themselves in 1996, when they bought out Trump’s half interest.

    Trump began his candidacy, Jennifer says, she supported him for various reasons: “I did not want to see President Hillary Clinton. I had a lot of problems with her, and her husband. I took a rather optimistic view of Trump. I thought that because he wasn’t a politician, he would be willing to take some risks that professional politicians wouldn’t. I thought he would take more favorable positions on taxes and gun control. And I thought he would be at least as LGBTQ-friendly as any Democratic candidate.” She was “disturbed” when Trump referred to McCain as a loser, but still hung in: “I recognized he had a tendency to say impulsive things, but I felt a lot of his positions were ones I could agree with.”


    Cut to July 2017. “Well that tweet hit close to home,” she says. “One ‘Aw, shit’ wipes out a thousand attaboys.” “It was his impulsiveness, his lack of thought, that I resent most,” she continues. “The military had done all kinds of surveys and studies evaluating whether the policy was feasible. Then he just arbitrarily said transgenders couldn’t serve.”

    https://www.vanityfair.com/news/201...is-abandoning-trump-after-coming-out-as-trans
     
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  13. JohnR

    JohnR Member+

    Jun 23, 2000
    Chicago, IL
    ******** her. Just another Republican who doesn't care how many minorities get hurt, unless it is her minority.
     
  14. Sounders78

    Sounders78 Member+

    Apr 20, 2009
    Olympia
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    The writing on the wall was so obvious. If she thought Republicans were going to be more LGBT+ friendly than Democrats, then she is an idiot, a complete moron. You have to be ********ing brain dead to think a Republican President would be more friendly to the LGBT+ community than a Democrat President. What an idiot.
     
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  15. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Even worse, she apparently didn't pay attention at all during the campaign and seemed to base her opinion on her "belief" rather than actual evidence.. It's not like Trump's opinion on Trans snuck up on people. At least she's not quite as bad as the people married to someone who was undocumented, but voted for Trump because they were sure he'd go after only the bad ones..

    Seriously, tho.. They keep bringing these people up.. Are we supposed to feel sorry for them? They brought it on themselves.
     
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  16. Cascarino's Pizzeria

    Apr 29, 2001
    New Jersey, USA
    Even more amazing she fell for it based on her education, traveling in wealthy circles & no-nonsense military career. Just your typical Hillary hater/starry-eyed Trumper no different from trailer trash.
     
  17. song219

    song219 BigSoccer Supporter

    Apr 5, 2004
    La Norte
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Vanuatu
    She's worse because she had all types of advantages and privileges and couldn't make better decisions. At least with the "trailer trash" you can make the claim they weren't in the circumstances to know better.
     
  18. bigredfutbol

    bigredfutbol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 5, 2000
    Woodbridge, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Well, sure.
     
  19. Kazuma

    Kazuma Member+

    Chelsea
    Jul 30, 2007
    Detroit
    Club:
    Chelsea FC
    At least it wasn't some rural diner in middle of nowhere Michigan/Ohio. All that was missing was the Springsteen and how we city elites are out of touch.

    One of my favorite blogs, Humans of New York did series on Macomb County after the election. I had to laugh because Macomb is the kind of place that looks down on you for aspiring to move up. And it's known to be quite prejudiced.

    That said, I have no sympathy for her voting wise. She knew for years the Republican party doesn't a give a shit about anyone that is gay or trans.
     
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  20. Sounders78

    Sounders78 Member+

    Apr 20, 2009
    Olympia
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    I totally disagree. They give a big shit, so much so they endlessly work to dehumanize us, take away our rights, ensure we can be discriminated against, desire to make us illegal again, etc.

    Any LGBT+ person who votes Republican is effectively engaging in self-harm.
     
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  21. Deadtigers

    Deadtigers Member+

    Jul 23, 2015
    Independent Republic of the Bronx, NY
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Ghana
    I back this up 100 percent, through what happened in Ghana. The Chinese expect bribing politicians as part of the cost of business then when Ghana hosted the CAF CoN years back the Chinese helped renovate the 2 old stadiums and build 2 new ones and people hated them. Now there are more Chinese restaurants and store owners in Ghana despite a law that says all store owners have to be Ghanaian citizens. The expressway built by Dubya Bush in Ghana is the preferred example and because of it and him being the president that encouraged the cancelling of Ghana's debt to the world bank, he is fondly remembered in Ghana.
     
  22. bigredfutbol

    bigredfutbol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 5, 2000
    Woodbridge, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Fewer now than before the 2016 election, to be sure.

    I have at least one old HS friend who absolutely felt that way in Nov. 2016. Not so much now.
     
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  23. bigredfutbol

    bigredfutbol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 5, 2000
    Woodbridge, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I agree, but it also doesn't help that many progressives claim any public good or government-run service is "socialism."
     
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  24. charlie15

    charlie15 Member+

    Mar 9, 2000
    Bethesda, Md
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Donald Trumpis in Orlando to announce the kickoff of his re-election campaign. We’re here to announce our endorsement for president in 2020, or, at least, who we’re not endorsing: Donald Trump,’ the Orlando Sentinel writestoday.
    The editorial continues: ‘Some readers will wonder how we could possibly eliminate a candidate so far before an election, and before knowing the identity of his opponent.
    Because there’s no point pretending we would ever recommend that readers vote for Trump. After 2½ years we’ve seen enough.

    Enough of the chaos, the division, the schoolyard insults, the self-aggrandizement, the corruption, and especially the lies.
    So many lies — from white lies to whoppers — told out of ignorance, laziness, recklessness, expediency or opportunity.
    Trump’s capacity for lying isn’t the surprise here, though the frequency is.

    It’s the tolerance so many Americans have for it.
    There was a time when even a single lie — a phony college degree, a bogus work history — would doom a politician’s career.’
     
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  25. song219

    song219 BigSoccer Supporter

    Apr 5, 2004
    La Norte
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Vanuatu
    This also explains largely why I'm not invested in the Democratic primary race. It's not conceivable that any of the winners would be less qualified to hold office than Trump.
    In a normal election there is the possibility that one of the candidates would have so little experience that despite their politics they would not be suitable to be president. But this election they are running against a former developer-tv show host whose only experience in running the White House has shown him as being less qualified than he was in November of 2016.
     

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