Trump

[Lilias]

Dead. On.

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/10/brett-kavanaugh-left-protests-mob-republicans-bundy-midterms.html?gtm=bottom&gtm=bottom

[gaggedLouise]

Nikki Haley has resigned. Speculation has begun about who will replace her. Some believe Ivanka is a possibility.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/nikki-haley-resigns-resignation-un-ambassador-trump-luxury-private-jet-white-house-a8575876.html

How about her father-in-law, another long-standing Trump ally? :P

[gaggedLouise]

Trump promises not to make his daughter Ivanka UN ambassador, even though "everyone wants her". He'd love to appoint her, but according to Trump, some people are narrow-minded enough to think it would mean nepotism. How now?!

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1050746600916754432

Best comment: "who wants someone wrapped up in a counterintelligence probe to rep us at the UN?" :P
"

[Various]

Only partially related to the right's Orange Messiah, but, locally there's a guy running for office who is an attorney. As an attorney, he represented some shady people including a guy involved in adult entertainment. There's an attack ad intoning darkly "How do we explain him to our daughters?". This is from a party and PAC that goes all-in in their endorsement of Donald "Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything." Trump. Whataboutism? I don't care.

[gaggedLouise]

At a campaign rally in Montana, Trump hails a congressman who (in 2017) body slammed a newspaper reporter when the latter was asking him a few legitimate questions, as part of his job, wrestled him down and broke his glasses. Making his supporters laugh, stomp and cheer, Trump paints the guy as a cool, muscular sheriff type who wouldn't take any crap from some irritating nobody, and the fact that the congressman attacked the reporter, used real violence to get him out of the way, is what excites Trump the most.  “Any guy that can do a body slam … he’s my guy!" ::)

In Trump's own words, speaking of another attack on a journalist, and speaking within 24 hours of the Montana rally, "it's bad, bad stuff".

Giving his first detailed account of the Gianforte attack on Jacobs, Trump went on to tell the Missoula crowd that he had learned of the incident while he was in Rome in a gathering of world leaders. He expressed his immediate dismay.

“We endorsed Greg very early. But I heard that he body-slammed a reporter. This was the day of the election or just before, and I thought ‘Oh, this is terrible! He’s going to lose the election.’”

Trump continued: “And then I said, ‘Wait a minute, I know Montana pretty well, I think it might help him.’ And it did.”

The line prompted another massive cheer from the Montana crowd. The US president finished his account of the physical assault by saying of Gianforte: “He’s a great guy. Tough cookie.”

The campaign for Kathleen Williams, Gianforte’s Democratic opponent in the November congressional election, released a new advert in response to Trump’s comments. In a statement, the campaign said “Gianforte’s assault and lies are not who we are as Montanans”.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/18/trump-greg-gianforte-assault-guardian-ben-jacobs

On May 24, 2017, the day before the U.S. House special election, Ben Jacobs, a political reporter for The Guardian newspaper who was covering the election, said that Gianforte assaulted him.[38][39][40][41] Jacobs said that Gianforte "bodyslammed" him to the floor and broke the reporter's glasses.[38][39][40] The Gianforte campaign was initially unapologetic, blaming the reporter,[42] disputing the allegations, saying that Jacobs grabbed Gianforte's wrist, causing them both to fall to the ground.[43] However, an audio recording of the incident appeared to support Jacobs's statement,[44][38] and other reporters who were present at the scene corroborated Jacobs' version of events.[45]

According to Fox News reporter Alicia Acuna, who witnessed the incident, "Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground," then "began punching the man" and "yelling something to the effect of 'I'm sick and tired of this!'"; Acuna added that Jacobs was not showing "physical aggression" prior to the altercation.

[Gianforte was tried and found guilty of misdemeanor assault, while Jacobs agreed not to press any civil lawsuit]

On June 12, 2017, Gianforte pleaded guilty and was originally sentenced to four days in jail, to be completed in part through a work program. However, he was ineligible for the work program due to the assault conviction. The judge then switched the sentence to 40 hours of community service, 20 hours of anger management, 180-day deferred sentence, and a $300 fine along with an $85 court fee.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Gianforte#Assault_of_reporter


When was the last time a sitting US president openly acclaimed someone for physically attacking a journalist doing his job? And an attack on U.S. soil, to boot?  :-(

[Flower]

I'm not surprised by his or his supporters' actions. If anything, I'm just wondering why he's bringing this back up now. Does it have anything with Khashoggi, a journalist, being murdered? >.> Is this his way of saying he approves of what happened in spite of the so-called outrage of its happening? I don't know. Just seems like a rather odd time to advocate for violence against the press.

[Various]

Donald Trump has made many, many, many calls to violence against Americans exercising the legal right to protest him, which the coward hates.

This is one of the most telling, and speaks to half of the reason for his complacency in the murder of Khashoggi (the other is, as always, corrupt financial interest).

You know, part of the problem, and part of the reason it takes so long, is nobody wants to hurt each other anymore, right? And they’re being politically correct the way they take them out, so it takes a little bit longer. And honestly, protesters, they realize it. They realize that there are no consequences to protesting anymore. There used to be consequences, there are none anymore. March 2016

Speak out against an autocrat in Trump's mind (himself or the Crown Prince), and you get what you deserve. As always this anti-American, anti-democratic sentiment is fully supported by the GOP.

Trump and his cultists believe that he has a monopoly on truth. If Trump is the only game in town because journalists who point out his patently obvious lies are silenced, jailed, or murdered, they see this as a win. It's why they advocate violence against them and anyone else legally dissenting against Trump (This is incidentally about ends, not means. See eg, talking point about supreme court protesters as mobs and compare it to he and his party's full-throated support of the Bundy clan).

[The Lovely Tsaritsa]

Your president wants dropping from nuclear treaties? Why?  He’s crazy.

http://tass.com/politics/1027086

[gaggedLouise]

Your president wants dropping from nuclear treaties? Why?  He’s crazy.

http://tass.com/politics/1027086

Yes he is (he's not my president though, thank Goodness!) :D . Or he lacks people with the diplomatic skills to handle this kind of situation - even versus his supposed buddy Putin.3

[Deamonbane]

I'm pretty sure that Putin is the one that benefits from this. If the US drops out of the treaties, it gives Russia an excuse to do the same.

Or am I reading this wrong? I saw something on my newsfeed about Putin warning about the implications and it seemed that that was where all this was headed.

[Lustful Bride]

I'm pretty sure that Putin is the one that benefits from this. If the US drops out of the treaties, it gives Russia an excuse to do the same.

Or am I reading this wrong? I saw something on my newsfeed about Putin warning about the implications and it seemed that that was where all this was headed.

+1. Trump is acing like he thinks he is a chess master, when really its Putin who benefits by looking like a calm, level headed leader while trump (and by extension the US) look like a warmonger and increasingly unstable, further weakening our global position in a time when Russia and China are both expanding and getting away with a lot of nefarious things because everyone is so entertained by the dancing puppet show known as the Trump administration.

[gaggedLouise]

+1. Trump is acting like he thinks he is a chess master

It used to be Russian politicians and writers who were avid chess players, such as Lenin himself. :)

[Oniya]

It used to be Russian politicians and writers who were avid chess players, such as Lenin himself. :)

Key word:  'Thinks'.  Trump is actually a pigeon, occasionally knocking pieces over and dropping crap while strutting around like he's already won.

[Various]

A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News. It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!

25 Oct 2018

Let's unpack this lie. The anger here is ten (at least) pipe bombs being sent to those have criticized/been seen as enemies of Trump, mostly Democratic politicians. If these bombs were sent to mostly Republican politicians, this lie would (if being generous) hold up. The media is saying these people are terrible and someone tried to blow them up, so it needs to be clamped down. That is obviously not what happened. This is pure deflection from a coward who cannot take responsibility for anything he has ever done. Less then a week ago he was celebrating an opponent being bodyslammed, but this political climate is something he is apparently completely divorced from. He's an outside observer like a political scientist or anthropologist.

I'm tired of pointing out the obvious, but suppose there were pipe bombs sent to Boehner, McCain, G.W. Bush, Hannity, the Koch brothers etc. etc. and Obama's only response was a to retweet a message from Biden that we condemn this and then he went on to scream at Fox. Not only would the response of the right wing media be MUCH different, the mainstream media itself would cover it as the appalling dereliction from what is expected of a president and what is expected of anyone with basic human decency that it is. That's the most disgusting part of his response is that his absolute failures as a politician and as a person are now normalized.   

[TheLionKing]

Everyone here brings up so many good points that this whole thread makes me happy to be on this site even more.

To add some historical insight,  Hitler loved to discredit the media. In fact, he ended up controlling the media in the end to promote his propaganda.  However, Hitler and the Nazis used four ways to accomplish Gleichschaltung.

1. Media control
2. Paramilitary organizations
3.  Scapegoating
4. Emergency Laws

Thus far, in similarity, Trump as denounced the media crying that it was not true and "Fake News".  For ideological purposes Hitler controlled the media and shut down anyone who did not agree with his views.

As for Paramilitary, while Trump did refuse funding from the KKK, he also praised their leader in the same breath thus leaving many Americans confused and worried about an open door for violence and white supremacist gaining a foothold in society.  Hitler used the SS and SA to control his people. Big Brother was always watching.

I think the biggest similarity is the Scapegoating. Everyday on the news Trump blames foreigners, blames immigrants, blames anyone he can to push his agenda and brain wash his supporters who in turn feel that they hold no responsibility for their downfalls in life because it's all the fault of someone else. Thus creating a sense of white entitlement that makes majority of Americans cringe. Hitler, obviously, blamed the jews and anti-antisemitism was already rampant in Europe since Medieval times so that was an easy connection for him. Need I say more?

As for the last, Hitler introduced the Enabling act in 1933 which allowed the government to issue laws without the parliament. I am just thankful that has not come into play. Shhh No one tell Trump of this. I could only imagine the chaos. But he does have the controls to the Nukes that is scary as well.

[Roleplay Frog]

Trump's not as smart as Hitler, nor as good a politician. .. am.. am I allowed to say that? It kinda feels wrong to say that...

Not to belittle Trump, he's smarter than he lets on, but I genuinly believe that if they were to meet, Hitler, just like Putin, would play Trump like an arrogant fiddle.

Infact, I do believe I read a satirical account of that from Trumps perspective once. Forgot the name of that though.

[TheLionKing]

Trump's not as smart as Hitler, nor as good a politician. .. am.. am I allowed to say that? It kinda feels wrong to say that...

Not to belittle Trump, he's smarter than he lets on, but I genuinly believe that if they were to meet, Hitler, just like Putin, would play Trump like an arrogant fiddle.

Infact, I do believe I read a satirical account of that from Trumps perspective once. Forgot the name of that though.

Oh I agree on that note. Sometimes I don't even think Trump is a smart businessman. He seems to just throw money and expect someone to do something with it and they do but it's not very good. 

[Callie Del Noire]

Oh I agree on that note. Sometimes I don't even think Trump is a smart businessman. He seems to just throw money and expect someone to do something with it and they do but it's not very good.

I read somewhere, Business International or Fortune I think, that had he taken the money he inherited and put it in a dead average trust based on the market, he'd be 3 to 5 times richer than he is. With out the bankruptcy or defrauding all those contractors over the years.

[Oniya]

I read somewhere, Business International or Fortune I think, that had he taken the money he inherited and put it in a dead average trust based on the market, he'd be 3 to 5 times richer than he is. With out the bankruptcy or defrauding all those contractors over the years.

http://robertreich.org/post/150669464055 

“But if he had just put that $200 million into an index fund and reinvested the dividends, he’d be worth twelve billion today,” I said.

The Trump supporter went silent.

"And he got about $850 million in tax subsidies, just in New York alone,” I said.

More silence.

[TheLionKing]

Honestly that doesn't even surprise me. I've read about multiple things he's built and they just were complete flops. Oh and don't mention his name to the Scottish... Or do in that case.

[Hades]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-blames-media-true-enemy-people-inspiring-hate-133424472.html

But yeah, he's totally not encouraging violence or anything and it's totally the media that's to blame for everything that's going on.

[Twisted Crow]

I am usually the guy looking to smack both sides of the propaganda machine, myself (convenient supplied exodus caravan headed for Mexican border during midterms, etc.). But when I saw the perp of the pipe bomb fiasco? I wasn't the least bit surprised.

All democratic-aligned targets? I was almost certain that this was the sort of person that would do something like this.

[gaggedLouise]

I am usually the guy looking to smack both sides of the propaganda machine, myself (convenient supplied exodus caravan headed for Mexican border during midterms, etc.). But when I saw the perp of the pipe bomb fiasco? I wasn't the least bit surprised.

All democratic-aligned targets? I was almost certain that this was the sort of person that would do something like this.

An updated version of the UNA-bomber, but a bit more in-your-face aggressive.

[Twisted Crow]

It is one thing I can't deny. While I would say all of our blasting media coverage over right-wing attacks appear convenient... but I can't help but feel like Veks is right though... violence from that side certainly seems at a disturbing rise. :/

[legomaster00156]

I think Trump is legitimately incapable of comprehending his role in all of this. I think he actually just cannot will himself to believe that he is culpable for anything.