Lets see if we can keep this thread a little more civil.

I found this interview very interesting.  A lot of soft balls thrown at Trump, he explained his back pedalling on his more extreme issues as a lot of his claims as opening bids for negotiation purposes.  Which .. whatever .. I still think that those are insincere claims he used to get elected.

He does now come across way more presidential then he did prior to the election.  A lot of his noise, yelling, and rhetoric has been scaled back.

Do respect this one though:

Quote

 

Lesley Stahl: Are you gonna take the salary, the president’s salary?

Donald Trump: Well, I’ve never commented on this, but the answer is no. I think I have to by law take $1, so I’ll take $1 a year. But it’s a -- I don’t even know what it is.

Donald Trump: Do you know what the salary is?

Lesley Stahl: $400,000 you’re giving up.

Donald Trump: No, I’m not gonna take the salary. I’m not taking it.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-donald-trump-family-melania-ivanka-lesley-stahl/

On 2018-09-28 at 9:48 PM, JCon said:

This is not a real probe. It's smoke and mirrors. 

When the FBI find something, the report will be quashed and confirmation will go ahead. 

It's all for show. They're so morally bankrupt, nothing they do matters. 

I know it was obvious but I knew it all along. 

4 hours ago, Mark F said:

Think you are right. Its not that long since blacks were lynched. 

Exactly, the same attitudes still exist today in large pockets that have been present throughout their history, the corruption at the top has existed since the very beginning and they're reluctant to make progress to alter that hierarchy because the benefits of this system of government flow freely up.  By televising the Kavanaugh  hearing they exposed their bones by opening a window into how they select a supreme court judge and low and behold there is nothing to witness beyond naked nepotism at work.

5 hours ago, do or die said:

This is what happens when you push wedge politics, primarily fueled and then validated by fear and hatred.  Extremism is no longer lurking at the fringes.  

Sickening how history repeats itself. Just an ugly cycle.

5 minutes ago, Throw Long Bannatyne said:

Exactly, the same attitudes still exist today in large pockets that have been present throughout their history, the corruption at the top has existed since the very beginning and they're reluctant to make progress to alter that hierarchy because the benefits of this system of government flow freely up.  By televising the Kavanaugh  hearing they exposed their bones by opening a window into how they select a supreme court judge and low and behold there is nothing to witness beyond naked nepotism at work.

The game plan is obvious.  Privately, the GOP told Trump Kav was a bad pick, had sexual harassment issues in his past and that Trump should go with someone else.  Trump's a legacy guy...he wants his name on buildings because it makes him look special and rich and powerful even if he's none of those things.  He wants a hard, hard, hard right turn on the SCOTUS because its like having his name on the court for decades.

SO he pushes ahead.  Those same GOP Senators that told him Kav had issues, line up behind Trump even though they, as Senators represent the most powerful group in government and are meant to be a check on the President.  They knew Kav's past and they pretended it didnt exist.

They do a sham hearing.  When one or two of them are rightfully shamed into re-considering, the new plan was clear.

We all thought the Senate had agreed to a week long FBI investigation after which, the Senate would have a fuller picture of Kav and then vote.  Instead, all the Senate agreed to do was have a sham FBI background check and a vote (they said "we'd pause for a week and vote, we never said we'd change our vote".  Literally, if didnt matter if Kav was video taped committing a crime).

The White House directed the FBI to do a narrow probe.  When pressed, Trump publicly says no, they can a a full investigation.  Privately, it never changed.  When called on it, they pass the buck to the Senate.  "FBI is complying with Senate request".  When the Senate is pressed "The White House directs the FBI".  Its all a game and disappears into nothingness.

The GOP love this though.  Especially the Senators in no risk of losing their seat.  Im mystified by Flake though.

7 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Im mystified by Flake though.

Flake is fraud, an empty suit. The man is coward. He'll stand up in front of the media and scold Trump but will always back down. 

He couldn't stand there, look those women in the eyes and say, "F U, I'm voting Kav." He just pushed for this sham investigation, knowing it wouldn't be allowed to dig anything up. 

He just can't wait until the end of the year, when he doesn't have to answer questions any longer, when he can just collect a big pay cheque. 

4 minutes ago, JCon said:

Flake is fraud, an empty suit. The man is coward. He'll stand up in front of the media and scold Trump but will always back down. 

He couldn't stand there, look those women in the eyes and say, "F U, I'm voting Kav." He just pushed for this sham investigation, knowing it wouldn't be allowed to dig anything up. 

He just can't wait until the end of the year, when he doesn't have to answer questions any longer, when he can just collect a big pay cheque. 

Unfortunately, I think you're right.  I thought he'd have more courage and perhaps try to live up to McCain a bit.  His friendship with Coons seemed to influence him but what struck me was how easily it seemed the GOP embraced this idea.

Its clear the plan was to create the appearance of investigation without changing anything.  It gives Flake an out..."look I forced them to do an FBI investigation, what more do you want?"

so it seems the fbi were not allowed to actually conduct an investigation. It leaves the senate in the same place as last week with powerful testimony from Dr Ford, a bizarre and concerning performance from Kavanaugh, several allegations and statements from witnesses made publicly but not heard by senate or fbi. 

What changed? Just the ability for the White House to say to the base that doesn’t hear anything else “we did it and he’s exonerated”. 

Edited October 4, 20187 yr by The Unknown Poster

 

Dr. Ford in hindsight should of filed a criminal complaint rather than going in front of that clown show of a judicial committee and having her name dragged through the mud and make fun of. 

Barriers are going up around the Capitol Building

All class I tell you

 

Quote

 

 four fundamental characteristics of demagogues:

They fashion themselves as a man or woman of the common people, opposed to the elites.

Their politics depends on a visceral connection with the people, which greatly exceeds ordinary political popularity.

They manipulate this connection, and the raging popularity it affords, for their own benefit and ambition.

They threaten or outright break established rules of conduct, institutions, and even the law.

The central feature of the practice of demagoguery is persuasion by means of passion, shutting down reasoned deliberation and consideration of alternatives. Demagogues "pander to passion, prejudice, bigotry, and ignorance, rather than reason."

 

Wikipedia has a great article about this. Trump fits every defintiion.

scapegoating, fearmongering, lying, accusing opponents of weakness, promise the impossible, violence and physical intimidation, personal insults and ridicule, vulgarity, attacking the media.

Edited October 5, 20187 yr by Mark F

10 hours ago, bustamente said:

All class I tell you

 

I think it's more telling that no one told him or, maybe, he didn't listen. 

Shite heel

Quote

This is an old term dating back at least 100 years. My grandmother from Eastern Texas used it quite often to describe an uncouth person. I believe it refers to persons who probably didn't have an out-house or toilet, then when they dropped their pants and stooped down to evacuate their bowels, they would sometime hit the back of their shoes or boots. Of course, they probably just as often hit their pants.

 

Edited October 5, 20187 yr by Mark F

😂

Quote

A Russian official accused of directing the foreign operations of Natalia Veselnitskaya, the lawyer who met senior Trump campaign officials in 2016, has plummeted to his death in a helicopter crash. 

Russian Deputy Attorney General Saak Albertovich Karapetyan was exposed in a Swiss court this year for a plot to enlist another nation’s law-enforcement official as a double-agent for the Kremlin.

Media reports in Russia say he died Wednesday night when his helicopter crashed into a forest during an unauthorized flight in the Kostroma region, northeast of Moscow.

Karapetyan, 58, was intimately familiar with some of the most notorious operations carried out under the orders of Vladimir Putin. He worked closely with Veselnitskaya as well as running some of Moscow’s most high-profile efforts to thwart international investigations into Russia’s alleged crimes.

 

Probably why manafort plead guilty in the end. scared of Putin.

daily beast

 

Edited October 5, 20187 yr by Mark F

The Democrats just keep digging a deeper hole for themselves, they really need to try a different strategy. The Trump base continues to spread and not because of hate, because the economy is cooking and unemployment is the lowest in 60 years and all the Democrats continue to do is sling mud that won't stick. 

10 hours ago, pigseye said:

The Democrats just keep digging a deeper hole for themselves, they really need to try a different strategy. The Trump base continues to spread and not because of hate, because the economy is cooking and unemployment is the lowest in 60 years and all the Democrats continue to do is sling mud that won't stick. 

Exactly.  And those employed people will vote for him again. I'm not a Trump supporter, but that's the bottom line.

18 hours ago, pigseye said:

The Democrats just keep digging a deeper hole for themselves, they really need to try a different strategy. The Trump base continues to spread and not because of hate, because the economy is cooking and unemployment is the lowest in 60 years and all the Democrats continue to do is sling mud that won't stick. 

Yes. They should absolutely stop standing up for victims of sexual assault. They should definitely stop doing their duty in the senate to do due diligence on a Supreme Court nominee who lied under oath and is extremely partisan. 

They should just stop standing up for their own principles and morals.

I mean really. I’m a conservative but I wouldn’t say something that stupid about either side.  Good grief. The white nationalists seem to be forgetting what democracy is. 

 

 

13 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

 

Wow. I knew it was going to happen.... but **** it still saddens me.

8 minutes ago, wanna-b-fanboy said:

Wow. I knew it was going to happen.... but **** it still saddens me.

Yeah. I love how the GOP angrily says oh it’s going to be a fight every time now? Oh it’s goinf to be 51-49 every time now?

well when you nominate someone like that what do you expect?  If the Dems nominated someone totally unpalatable to GOP would they just go along with it?

the whole point is to nominate someone who isn’t the farthest right or left. He should be acceptable to a large majority of senators. 

They should make it a 60 vote majority needed. 

43 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Yeah. I love how the GOP angrily says oh it’s going to be a fight every time now? Oh it’s goinf to be 51-49 every time now?

well when you nominate someone like that what do you expect?  If the Dems nominated someone totally unpalatable to GOP would they just go along with it?

the whole point is to nominate someone who isn’t the farthest right or left. He should be acceptable to a large majority of senators. 

They should make it a 60 vote majority needed. 

At least the Dems interviewed brett- Merrick Garland didn't even get that...

 

Man, how shitty must Merrick feel... he's like- "they put THAT guy on the SCOTUS? FML. "

Edited October 6, 20187 yr by wanna-b-fanboy

A disgrace.

The way that crazed leftists, whipped up fake news and encouraged gratuitous attacks...... against the principled and privileged white men in the Republican Senate..... who were only seeking truth and justice for all.

 

Sad times for the usa. They happily confirmed a biased person on the bench of what is supposed to be an impartial court. Never mind the rape stuff that's awful for democracy 

Edited October 7, 20187 yr by 17to85

Orin Hatch 45 years as a Senator, talk about having the good life, also a bit of a perv. Chuck Grassley 38 years as a Senator, also a bit crazy, both should of been retired a long time ago, Mitch McConnell 34 years as a Senator, and about the most two faced human on the planet, also a ferret face. Depending on what happens in the next few elections to the GOP these 3 and Trump may bare the burnt of the finger pointing for gains made by the Democrats in the House possibly Senate and eventually WH.