US Politics Thread |OT| SAD TRUMP

[agrajag]

In what world is Hilary a worse candidate than Trump?

[Joe Molotov]

Secondly, an incumbent president trying to win again is a lot harder than winning the first time.

[TakingBackSunday]

Does anyone actually believe he wins reelection at this point?

If the other candidate is even worse than he is, yes.

I'd say that's unlikely, but I also thought that last time, and you know what happened...

I think he won't win a re-election though. First of all, as far as I'm concerned, there's no way he's finishing his term with Mueller on his ass. Secondly, an incumbent president trying to win again is a lot harder than winning the first time.

Hillary wasn't a worse candidate.  She was boring and too cocky and had years of mudslinging against her.

Also you know, Russian interference.

[Boredfrom]

Does anyone actually believe he wins reelection at this point?

If the other candidate is even worse than he is, yes.

I'd say that's unlikely, but I also thought that last time, and you know what happened...

I think he won't win a re-election though. First of all, as far as I'm concerned, there's no way he's finishing his term with Mueller on his ass. Secondly, an incumbent president trying to win again is a lot harder than winning the first time.

Hillary wasn't a worse candidate.  She was boring and too cocky and had years of mudslinging against her.

Also you know, Russian interference.

Hillary was the better option (and popular vote seems to agree) but she was not a strong candidate given the stuff you just said.

[Tasty]

Secondly, an incumbent president trying to win again is a lot harder than winning the first time.

[Trent Dole]

Does anyone actually believe he wins reelection at this point?

If he survives to 2020 he 'wins' again and this time it looks like he won the popular vote too.

[Trurl]

Secondly, an incumbent president trying to win again is a lot harder than winning the first time.

I don't get it.

With the exception of Jimmy Carter a political party hasn't lost the White House after only 4 years since Cleveland.

[Nola]

Paul Krugman scaremongering again.

By all accounts, Rex Tillerson has demoralized and degraded the State Department to the point of uselessness. Tom Price did much the same to Health and Human Services before jetting off. Scott Pruitt has moved rapidly to eliminate the “protection” aspect of the Environmental Protection Agency. And similar stories are unfolding throughout the executive branch.

Donald Trump has, in short, been like a Category 5 hurricane sweeping through the U.S. government, leaving devastation in his wake. And one question I don’t see being asked often enough is, will the same thing happen to the Federal Reserve? And if it does, how disastrous will that end up being for the world economy?

"They're destroying the Fed. And then the Fed is going to destroy the economy. Oooooh myyyyy goooooooooooooooooooooooooooood!!!!!!!!"

I don't really see anything wrong with what he just said 

A lot of that has been common, but underreported opinions from people of either party. Tillerson has been gutting the State Department or failing to staff up after changes, pushing out talented career civil servants in the process and the result has apparently been a severely crippled agency that is going to continue struggling to be responsive and effective.

The sheer incompetency in almost every department is almost guaranteed to have knockdown effects. Just look at the failure to staff up at FEMA and how that has affected the response with Puerto Rico. Or how chaotic upper level leadership led to paralysis on responding initially to the crisis, and across multiple agencies. Thats not even mentioning what the war on the "deep state(civil servants)" is going to have on talent drain and recruitment.  And I don't expect that to change with the fed given some of the nominees I have read about.

[Mandark]

He defers to experts on practically everything else and does not give a single fuck.

What do we mean by "experts" in this context?

[FStop7]

I half expect Jim Cramer or Carl Icahn to be nominated as fed chairman.

[benjipwns]

Jim Cramer studied poli sci (and then he got a JD obviously) he fell into stock market trading through Marty Peretz getting him a job at Goldman Sachs. Considering his response to Jon Stewart mocking his incompetence was to immediately crawl into a ball and ask forgiveness the Fed Board would probably eat him alive.

When he was on the Apprentice I didn't get the impression that Trump thought he was very smart. He instantly caved to Trump too.

I forget what it was but he was one of the watchers and he thought the team did something okay but Trump hated it and Cramer started to defend how this one part was decent but Trump was like "nah" and Cramer's response became "you're right, complete garbage, literally the Holocaust of brochures about cars."

Trump apparently has said he might re-appoint Yellen, which means fuck all considering it's Trump, but she's on the board until 2024 anyway. The recent thing has been to promote from inside the board. Yellen was Vice Chair, for example and had been the SF Bank President before moving up. Fed Chair is one of those positions where you can't really look at precedent since Greenspan was it for two decades. Two of his three immediate predecessors served two terms (despite Nixon hating Burns) and Martin was there for twenty years too.

[benjipwns]

Can we not do this hillary shit again?

okay, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/10/06/back-on-the-trail-bidens-message-rankles-the-left/

Former vice president Joe Biden returned to national politics Tuesday during an afternoon rally in Alabama for Democratic Senate nominee Doug Jones, and his speech was a striking departure from his party’s current tone.

As Jones smiled from across the podium, Biden treated the crowd of about 1,000 people to a riff on the Senate’s glory days — days when the party included segregationists.

“I’ve been around so long, I worked with James Eastland,” said Biden, referring to a segregationist senator from Mississippi. “Even in the days when I got there, the Democratic Party still had seven or eight old-fashioned Democratic segregationists. You’d get up and you’d argue like the devil with them. Then you’d go down and have lunch or dinner together. The political system worked. We were divided on issues, but the political system worked.”

Biden talked wistfully about Washington’s old politics, even showing off his vocal impression of the last Democrat to represent Alabama in the Senate, Howell Heflin. (Richard C. Shelby, the state’s senior senator, was elected as a Democrat but switched to the GOP in the 1990s.)

But when Graham Vyse, a reporter for the New Republic, later asked progressives to respond to the Biden pitch, he got an earful. In Vyse’s report published Thursday, Markos Moulitsas, the founder of Daily Kos, said:

If Biden’s solution to eight years of Republican obstruction and conservative slash-and-burn tactics against him and Barack Obama is to talk about “bipartisanship” and “consensus,” then he might as well pack up and go home. If he’s that stupid to believe that s‑‑‑, then he’s no longer got any business being in [public]. The various wings of the Democratic Party may disagree on a bunch of things, but the one thing that unites us is the realization that the right wants nothing more than a white supremacist autocracy that would rather see liberals dead or in chains. You don’t seek consensus with Nazis. You destroy them.”

Democratic activists, who are less focused on 2020 than is the pundit class, have warm attitudes toward Biden. In Alabama, where Democrats have been wiped out of power, it’s not clear that any other high-profile member of the party could stump for Jones.

But as Biden reemerges as a national figure — his book tour will take him across the country this fall — he is set to collide with the new politics of the post-Obama Democrats. Biden, who passed on a 2016 presidential run, never had to face the criticism that weakened Hillary Clinton’s support from the left. She was pummeled for talking in support of the 1994 crime bill; Biden co-wrote that bill. She lost some activists forever by backing the Iraq War; Biden backed it, too, with reservations.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who since Clinton’s defeat has become the Democrats’ most visible messenger, has argued that the party can win back power and compete with white working-class voters by compromising less with Republicans — by staking out a left-wing vision and pulling the country with them. Biden’s approach, of promising incremental change and taking the bitterness out of politics, increasingly sounds out of place.

“Guys, the wealthy are as patriotic as the poor,” Biden told the crowd in Alabama. “I know Bernie doesn’t like me saying that, but they are.”

[Mandark]

Okay, read the Krugman thing. It's just part of his continuing "I Was Right And You Haven't Learned" monetary policy series.

The question is whether the people who'd get in Trump's ear actually believe that stuff about inflation and "printing money," or whether that's just shit you pretend to care about when you're the opposition (like the deficit).

[chronovore]

Does anyone actually believe he wins reelection at this point?

If the other candidate is even worse than he is, yes.

I'd say that's unlikely, but I also thought that last time, and you know what happened...

I think he won't win a re-election though. First of all, as far as I'm concerned, there's no way he's finishing his term with Mueller on his ass. Secondly, an incumbent president trying to win again is a lot harder than winning the first time.

You shouldn't work so hard to live up to your name.

[benjipwns]

speaking of the Gerrymandering case and our favorite justice Samuel Alito, guy who did the research says Alito may have gotten it wrong and backwards, though of course not intentionally
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/10/06/the-supreme-court-discussed-my-research-on-gerrymandering-there-were-some-misconceptions/

[benjipwns]

look at the split on that case (Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, the california ban on violent video games):

Majority   Scalia, joined by Kennedy, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Kagan

Concurrence   Alito, joined by Roberts

Dissent   Thomas
Dissent   Breyer

Though Alito agreed with the constitutional application to the California law, believing that its "threshold requirement" that guides what material would be covered by the law was too broad, he questioned the potential double standard that existed between violence and sexual content in regards to this threshold. Alito wrote that he was unsure that there was no connection between violent video games and effects on children, stating that "There are reasons to suspect that the experience of playing violent video games just might be very different from reading a book, listening to the radio, or watching a movie or a television show," referencing the book Infinite Reality which highlights the psychological effects of virtual reality, and argued that the decision "would not squelch legislative efforts to deal with what is perceived by some to be a significant and developing social problem.

Breyer wrote separately, concerned that the majority's decision conflicts with previous rulings from Ginsberg and Miller. He contrasted the previous findings regulating sales of publications containing nudity to those of violent video games: "But what sense does it make to forbid selling to a 13-year-old boy a magazine with an image of a nude woman, while protecting a sale to that 13 year-old of an interactive video game in which he actively, but virtually, binds and gags the woman, then tortures and kills her?" Breyer further argued that "This case is ultimately less about censorship than it is about education," believing that the Government has a vested interest in allowing parents to make decisions for their child as to "raise future generations committed cooperatively to making our system of government work," and that "California's law imposes no more than a modest restriction on expression." Breyer also expressed concern that the self-regulation of the industry still allowed for 20% of minors to purchase mature video games on a national average, and as high as 50% in the case of one nationwide chain

Justice Thomas, in his dissent, considered that historically, the Founding Fathers "believed parents to have complete authority over their minor children and expected parents to direct the development of those children," and that the intent of the First Amendment "does not include a right to speak to minors (or a right of minors to access speech) without going through the minors' parents or guardians."

Unless they're employed by a school, of course, then they're free to do strip and even cavity searches of minors in order to find drugs because parents could do the same.

[Nola]

I don't really see anything wrong with what he just said 

A lot of that has been common, but underreported opinions from people of either party. Tillerson has been gutting the State Department or failing to staff up after changes, pushing out talented career civil servants in the process and the result has apparently been a severely crippled agency that is going to continue struggling to be responsive and effective.

The sheer incompetency in almost every department is almost guaranteed to have knockdown effects. Just look at the failure to staff up at FEMA and how that has affected the response with Puerto Rico. Or how chaotic upper level leadership led to paralysis on responding initially to the crisis, and across multiple agencies. Thats not even mentioning what the war on the "deep state(civil servants)" is going to have on talent drain and recruitment.  And I don't expect that to change with the fed given some of the nominees I have read about.

There's no question that the Trump administration's incompetency will have long-lasting ramifications but the Fed's safe. When it comes to the next fed chairman, Trump's just going to pick whoever's qualified. Trump only cares about trade, ISIS, and mexicans. He defers to experts on practically everything else and does not give a single fuck. Evidence from Bloomberg:

There’s no frontrunner at the moment, several people said. Two people said the president has no plans to interview economist Glenn Hubbard and U.S. Bancorp Chairman Richard Davis, both of whom have been floated as possible candidates.

I mean, he seriously doesn't care. He could even keep Yellen on, which is what Bloomberg reported in June, but is no longer what Trump's "inner circle" is saying, but who knows because truth is relative and anything can happen.

I think you may have taken that a bit out of context:

Only a small handful of the president’s closest advisers have seen the final list of names, several of the people said. Two senior administration officials who have been involved in the discussions say that in addition to Yellen, Trump is considering Cohn, former Fed board governor Kevin Warsh and current governor Jerome Powell.

There’s no frontrunner at the moment, several people said. Two people said the president has no plans to interview economist Glenn Hubbard and U.S. Bancorp Chairman Richard Davis, both of whom have been floated as possible candidates.

A fifth person, Stanford economist John Taylor, a favorite of fiscal conservatives, is also believed to be under consideration, two of the people said. It’s unknown whether Taylor has been interviewed or is scheduled for a meeting.

Trump is known to have spoken to Yellen, Cohn, Warsh and Powell about the Fed post, several people told Bloomberg News last week.

Hubbard wasn’t immediately available for comment. Dana Ripley, a spokesman for U.S. Bancorp, declined to comment.

The latest developments show that Trump is closer to making a final selection than previously known. He said Friday that he is two or three weeks away from announcing his nominee for the post overseeing the nation’s central bank.

Simultaneously, the White House is searching for a Fed vice chair. Trump has four appointments to make to the Fed in total: chairman, vice chair and two governors.

He seemingly has a list, put together with the help of his advisors. Like anything else, I expect minimal effort and whoever Fox and Friends mentions the day before to likely seal his endorsement. But if you look at some of those candidates, like Warsh, who I have seen mentioned a lot. He is very worrisome. As Mandark pointed out with the rest of the Krugman column, its one of these "is this guy(Warsh) really an erratic market fundamentalist with a penchant for catastrophizing and tunnel-visioning phantom inflation?" A Scott Pruitt of the Fed? Or was he just playing one on TV? Krugman hasn't been the only one worried about that answer, and for good reason IMO. Trumps so-called "experts" he leans on are anything but. With few exceptions they are sycophants, barely qualified, self-promoting, corrupt, or ideologues. In terms of economic expertise, Trump has like one, and a bunch of Goldman Sachs guys(the type of Goldman Sachs people that would be in a Trump presidency) that seem to have his ear. Not exactly a recipe that is likely to yield much in the way of quality leadership hires.

[benjipwns]

This is sorta a form of the Imperial Presidency concept. Krugman's entire article talks about the Fed Chair. The Fed Chair is only as powerful as the rest of the system allows him or her to be, the Vice Chair is incredibly powerful structurally. And the divestment requirements are much higher than a White House position or whatever that got Icahn to flee earlier this year.

There hasn't been a full Fed Board of Governors since 2014. The permanent banks have more voting members than the Board despite the Board being spotted two seats. The (((Vice Chair))) is resigning in a week.

edit: okay, that quoted article or whatever mentions the vacancies, Krugman's (which i also had to go searching for...just saying...) is just about the chair, the chair, the chair, the chair

[brawndolicious]

So Trump was elected 11 months ago. I remember everything like it was yesterday but it feels like I've hated what he represents for all my life. I can't understand why or who would support him right now.

I remember everyones shock, tears, nervous laughter, and the hours and hours of me constantly refreshing this fucking thing hoping it would change.



I guess now is the time to shift focus to midterm elections. Without a strong majority in Congress, he's too incompetent to get anything passed.

[Mandark]

This is sorta a form of the Imperial Presidency concept. Krugman's entire article talks about the Fed Chair. The Fed Chair is only as powerful as the rest of the system allows him or her to be, the Vice Chair is incredibly powerful structurally. And the divestment requirements are much higher than a White House position or whatever that got Icahn to flee earlier this year.

There hasn't been a full Fed Board of Governors since 2014. The permanent banks have more voting members than the Board despite the Board being spotted two seats. The (((Vice Chair))) is resigning in a week.

edit: okay, that quoted article or whatever mentions the vacancies, Krugman's (which i also had to go searching for...just saying...) is just about the chair, the chair, the chair, the chair

In practice, the chair drives fed policy though, right? Been that way for how long?

[Tasty]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. There's a major possibility the current congress passes something extremely damaging that Trump will have no problems signing. They haven't gotten their ducks in a row yet, but don't underestimate their ability to come together on some kind of bill that fucks over abortion rights, free speech, middle America, etc.

They tried repealing Obamacare like twelve times in the last three months. Imagine them getting that worked up about something they even nominally agree on?

[bluemax]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/916750042014404608

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/916751271960436737

Did Trump get interrupted before he could announce a war with NK on Twitter?

[zomgee]

makings fools

We're all gonna get vaporized and my takeaway is that he talks like Popeye.

[Let's Cyber]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/290926188787036161
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/375609403376144384

[TakingBackSunday]

fuck him so much.  so many pointless deaths will be on his hands when all is said and done

[Joe Molotov]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/917026789188399105
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/917029060471152640
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/917030148867682304

https://twitter.com/SenBobCorker/status/917045348820049920

2017, brehs.

[Joe Molotov]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/917091286607433728

https://twitter.com/SI_PeterKing/status/917096200683380737

https://twitter.com/SI_PeterKing/status/917096269029527554

https://twitter.com/PeterAlexander/status/917094805276168192

THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM. YOU'LL FIND OUT.

[Mandark]

https://twitter.com/sung_minkim/status/917104119403261953

[zomgee]

Super clean hat

What a fan

[etiolate]

Honestly, I feel bad for the fans that stayed and had to watch the Colts and Niners play.

[benjipwns]

President Donald Trump laid out his principles on immigration for Capitol Hill on Sunday  as lawmakers delve into a major battle over the future of hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants.

The three main White House immigration priorities, according to documents obtained by POLITICO, are to "ensure safe and lawful admissions; defend the safety and security of our country; and protect American workers and taxpayers."

WOW!

[Joe Molotov]

President Donald Trump laid out his principles on immigration for Capitol Hill on Sunday  as lawmakers delve into a major battle over the future of hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants.

The three main White House immigration priorities, according to documents obtained by POLITICO, are to "ensure safe and lawful admissions; defend the safety and security of our country; and protect American workers and taxpayers."

WOW!

He left out "Make America Great Again", I wonder how serious he really is about immigration.

[chronovore]

#boba (Bring Obama Back Already)
#fett (Fire Entire Trump Team)

[Yeti]

#boba (Bring Obama Back Already)
#tea (Trump Exit Already)

[Mandark]

President Donald Trump laid out his principles on immigration for Capitol Hill on Sunday  as lawmakers delve into a major battle over the future of hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants.

The three main White House immigration priorities, according to documents obtained by POLITICO, are to "ensure safe and lawful admissions; defend the safety and security of our country; and protect American workers and taxpayers."

WOW!

Looking forward to Trump letting legislation get written without his input, talking shit about it if it polls badly, then blaming someone else if it fails.

This does have the added dimension of possible Dem votes. No idea how it's going to play out, other than being deeply, deeply stupid.

[nudemacusers]

Odd display of badassery to basically pull a “Ashley hates Becky so we’re going to Becky’s birthday just to walk out when she blows out the candles” and then brag about it. 

[benjipwns]

It's very Trump.

The part I can't figure out is why Pence does all this shit, especially when the Trump people leak to the press how Trump treats him like a bitch. I mean, I get why he accepted being VP but it's not like he has to literally do anything he's asked to, he must have thought this was a good idea too?

[benjipwns]

How could he know players were kneeling? Is Pence admitting, publicly, that he took his eyes of the flag during the national anthem?

[benjipwns]

Pence hates kneegroes.

[Mandark]

It's very Trump.

The part I can't figure out is why Pence does all this shit, especially when the Trump people leak to the press how Trump treats him like a bitch. I mean, I get why he accepted being VP but it's not like he has to literally do anything he's asked to, he must have thought this was a good idea too?

I mean, he wrote that op-ed against Mulan.

[Mandark]

Sometimes because of Bannon, Flynn, Gorka, and Trump himself, it's easy to think of Pence as the predictable, mainstream politician and forget that he's also a deeply, deeply weird dude in his own right.

[chronovore]

Sometimes because of Bannon, Flynn, Gorka, and Trump himself, it's easy to think of Pence as the predictable, mainstream politician and forget that he's also a deeply, deeply weird dude in his own right.

Wasn't he a hugely unpopular governor when serving that role, as well?

[VomKriege]

Yeah Pence looks like the kind of tool that would get incensed by athletes "disrespecting" the flag (many a Republican do) and thus a willful participant in that stupid stunt.

[chronovore]

Yeah Pence looks like the kind of tool that would get incensed by athletes "disrespecting" the flag (many a Republican do) and thus a willful participant in that stupid stunt.

https://twitter.com/TheDweck/status/917103351149428736

[T-Short]

https://www.facebook.com/FrankieBoyleFans/posts/1682283191813040

It’s telling that footballers have managed a more cogent rejection of racial inequality than the Democratic Party. They’ve also dealt surprisingly well with Trump, I suppose because they’re used to handling a tanned pigskin full of stale air.

...

You start to suspect that the only time Trump wants to see black people drop to their knees in a stadium is after hearing the orders, ‘Ready, Aim, Fire’.

[Shuri]

It's "hilarious" how Pence used a 2014 picture he original tweeted himself, with a lil fllter tweak .. wow

[team filler]

Pence drinks the kool-aid, same as any other trump supporter.

[seagrams hotsauce]

"The California hepatitis A outbreak is on the verge of reaching statewide epidemic status, as cases have spread through homeless tent cities from San Diego north to Sacramento.

California health officials have reported that at least 569 people have been infected with the hepatitis A liver disease and 17 have died since a San Diego County outbreak was first identified in November. Cases have migrated north to homeless populations in Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, San Francisco and Sacramento over the last 11 months."

Disgusting. How can I help stop homeless people from having sex in Sacramento?

vehicular homicide?

[seagrams hotsauce]

Jesus Christ almighty

[bluemax]

vehicular homicide?

The police beat me to it.

Why is like every Dead Kennedys song suddenly relevant again:

[Joe Molotov]

It's "hilarious" how Pence used a 2014 picture he original tweeted himself, with a lil fllter tweak .. wow

Mother's been learning the Photoshops.

[Brehvolution]

Elect shitlords, brehs.

[agrajag]

*pisslords

[Joe Molotov]

I wonder if Trump has a higher IQ than Grren Shinobi.

[Joe Molotov]

BREAKING: James O'Keefe busts NYTimes WIDE OPEN, turns out it's not """objective""". NYT video editor is James Comey's GODSON, also breaking news, NYT video editor is NOT Comey's godson, was lying to female undercover reporter in attempt to get LAID. Liberal hypocrisy and propaganda at its worst?

Woah if true, or woah if not true.

[Nola]

My favorite game the right plays: look at this example of slight bias inside this cosmopolitan organization! FAKE News! Discredited!!... Introduced to me by this hyper-partisan, ultra-biased, politically weaponized news source I exclusively consume to inform my own personal views.

[benjipwns]

The best example being the mainstream media like The New York Times and The Washington Post's endless war against Hillary last year in favor of Trump. (And Bernie.)

Verrit.com authentication code: 0116110

[curly]

Speaking of fake news

 Benji used to be a big gov imperialist socialist. 100% death tax is exactly what I would expect from someone who wants to kill the upper class in Obamacare FEMA death camps.

But what's his position on age of consent laws

[benjipwns]

Speaking of fake news

 Benji used to be a big gov imperialist socialist. 100% death tax is exactly what I would expect from someone who wants to kill the upper class in Obamacare FEMA death camps.

that post is from two years ago bro, only four years after i started posting here to the happiness of The Walrus, and probably over a year plus after i finally convinced the poligaf regulars of the time that i actually hold my political beliefs

also, like poligaf, you confuse a temporal policy platform of incrementalism for a greater future ideological goal

[benjipwns]

i bet none of you went to Verrit.com, media for the 65.8 million, to check the authenticity of my post through the verification code