You are not logged in. Please register or login.
- Topics: Active | Unanswered
Re: 2016 Presidential Election Thread
Donald Trump is epically unprepared to be president. He has no realistic policies, no advisers, no capacity to learn. His vast narcissism makes him a closed fortress. He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know and he’s uninterested in finding out. He insults the office Abraham Lincoln once occupied by running for it with less preparation than most of us would undertake to buy a sofa.
Trump is perhaps the most dishonest person to run for high office in our lifetimes. All politicians stretch the truth, but Trump has a steady obliviousness to accuracy.
This week, the Politico reporters Daniel Lippman, Darren Samuelsohn and Isaac Arnsdorf fact-checked 4.6 hours of Trump speeches and press conferences. They found more than five dozen untrue statements, or one every five minutes.
“His remarks represent an extraordinary mix of inaccurate claims about domestic and foreign policy and personal and professional boasts that rarely measure up when checked against primary sources,” they wrote.
He is a childish man running for a job that requires maturity. He is an insecure boasting little boy whose desires were somehow arrested at age 12. He surrounds himself with sycophants. “You can always tell when the king is here,” Trump’s butler told Jason Horowitz in a recent Times profile. He brags incessantly about his alleged prowess, like how far he can hit a golf ball. “Do I hit it long? Is Trump strong?” he asks.
In some rare cases, political victors do not deserve our respect. George Wallace won elections, but to endorse those outcomes would be a moral failure.
And so it is with Trump.
History is a long record of men like him temporarily rising, stretching back to biblical times. Psalm 73 describes them: “Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence. … They scoff, and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression. Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth. Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance.”
And yet their success is fragile: “Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. How suddenly they are destroyed.”
The psalmist reminds us that the proper thing to do in the face of demagogy is to go the other way — to make an extra effort to put on decency, graciousness, patience and humility, to seek a purity of heart that is stable and everlasting.
The Republicans who coalesce around Trump are making a political error. They are selling their integrity for a candidate who will probably lose. About 60 percent of Americans disapprove of him, and that number has been steady since he began his campaign.
Worse, there are certain standards more important than one year’s election. There are certain codes that if you betray them, you suffer something much worse than a political defeat.
Donald Trump is an affront to basic standards of honesty, virtue and citizenship. He pollutes the atmosphere in which our children are raised. He has already shredded the unspoken rules of political civility that make conversation possible. In his savage regime, public life is just a dog-eat-dog war of all against all.
As the founders would have understood, he is a threat to the long and glorious experiment of American self-government. He is precisely the kind of scapegoating, promise-making, fear-driving and deceiving demagogue they feared.
Trump’s supporters deserve respect. They are left out of this economy. But Trump himself? No, not Trump, not ever.
- Smoking Guns
- Rep: 330
Re: 2016 Presidential Election Thread
I just saw the movie "The Big Short"... What a fantastic film... I loved it.
Bush really, IN MY OPINION, got a shitty draw. The housing crisis had nothing to do with his policy and would have happened no matter the pres.. Clinton, Obama, Bush, it still would have happened. GREEDY MOTHER FUCKERS!!!!!!! Made me sick to watch that movie, especially since I am a home builder. But anyway, great movie and the President only has so much power, he can't stop corruption everywhere.. The corruption was so big there is no way George Bush's office could have prevented it. And honestly, the war was probably good for the economy vs. worse during the first few years. So fucking complex I can't even think about it.
Re: 2016 Presidential Election Thread
Here is another Trump supporter assaulting a Trump protester.
https://twitter.com/AaronBlake/status/711365055141568512
[/embed]
There is violence at all of his rallies now. This is who our next President will be? Seriously?
Re: 2016 Presidential Election Thread
Donald Trump is epically unprepared to be president. He has no realistic policies, no advisers, no capacity to learn. His vast narcissism makes him a closed fortress. He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know and he’s uninterested in finding out. He insults the office Abraham Lincoln once occupied by running for it with less preparation than most of us would undertake to buy a sofa.
Trump is perhaps the most dishonest person to run for high office in our lifetimes. All politicians stretch the truth, but Trump has a steady obliviousness to accuracy.
This week, the Politico reporters Daniel Lippman, Darren Samuelsohn and Isaac Arnsdorf fact-checked 4.6 hours of Trump speeches and press conferences. They found more than five dozen untrue statements, or one every five minutes.
“His remarks represent an extraordinary mix of inaccurate claims about domestic and foreign policy and personal and professional boasts that rarely measure up when checked against primary sources,” they wrote.
He is a childish man running for a job that requires maturity. He is an insecure boasting little boy whose desires were somehow arrested at age 12. He surrounds himself with sycophants. “You can always tell when the king is here,” Trump’s butler told Jason Horowitz in a recent Times profile. He brags incessantly about his alleged prowess, like how far he can hit a golf ball. “Do I hit it long? Is Trump strong?” he asks.
In some rare cases, political victors do not deserve our respect. George Wallace won elections, but to endorse those outcomes would be a moral failure.
And so it is with Trump.
History is a long record of men like him temporarily rising, stretching back to biblical times. Psalm 73 describes them: “Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence. … They scoff, and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression. Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth. Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance.”
And yet their success is fragile: “Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. How suddenly they are destroyed.”
The psalmist reminds us that the proper thing to do in the face of demagogy is to go the other way — to make an extra effort to put on decency, graciousness, patience and humility, to seek a purity of heart that is stable and everlasting.
The Republicans who coalesce around Trump are making a political error. They are selling their integrity for a candidate who will probably lose. About 60 percent of Americans disapprove of him, and that number has been steady since he began his campaign.
Worse, there are certain standards more important than one year’s election. There are certain codes that if you betray them, you suffer something much worse than a political defeat.
Donald Trump is an affront to basic standards of honesty, virtue and citizenship. He pollutes the atmosphere in which our children are raised. He has already shredded the unspoken rules of political civility that make conversation possible. In his savage regime, public life is just a dog-eat-dog war of all against all.
As the founders would have understood, he is a threat to the long and glorious experiment of American self-government. He is precisely the kind of scapegoating, promise-making, fear-driving and deceiving demagogue they feared.
Trump’s supporters deserve respect. They are left out of this economy. But Trump himself? No, not Trump, not ever.
This is how they described Bush in 2000.
Obama was described like this in 2008. I'm not buying what the media is selling me anymore. I know why they don't want him in there and it has nothing to do with the 4 year cycle of scare tactics they are rolling out once again.
They are selling their integrity
They sold that long before Trump ever decided to run.
There is violence at all of his rallies now. This is who our next President will be? Seriously?
There were violent protests at Bush events in 2004 over Iraq. Media didn't harp too much on that...just the conspiracy sites saying we were all about to be thrown into camps.
Anyone check that 'breaking news' CNN story earlier today? Protesters block street causing major traffic jam to stop a Trump rally that apparently no one wants to see. If anyone read more than the headline, you saw it was a couple dozen people standing in the middle of the road with a couple cars blocking it while thousands wanted to see Trump.
Like I said, I'm not buying their bill of goods this time. They fooled me one too many times.
Re: 2016 Presidential Election Thread
I agree with the first point. It seems like the worst he behaves the more support he receives. It's very interesting (and scary to me).
I think most presidents try to avoid killing innocent civilians while Trump advocates for it. I suppose Captain Canada does in a way as well, but I don't think he understood what carpet bombing meant when he started talking about it.
It's not so much Trump's name calling of other politicians that bothers me. It's his name calling of anyone that disagrees with him or he dislikes. He is a very insecure man hiding behind a false bravado and lashes out at anyone who calls him out.
Trump isn't the only one telling people what a scam the whole thing is. Bernie has been doing that even longer than Trump has. Bernie is a politician unlike Trump, but IMO he is more trustworthy to do the right thing. I don't trust Trump to do right by us when he hasn't done right by the American worker in his business dealings. He may not have SuperPACs either, but he is a billionaire with plenty of wealthy friends. I don't trust him to put the average American's interests above his own interests. The billionaires don't have to buy Trump off because he already is one of them.
While it may be scary to some, its his "telling it like it is" strategy that does it. Even though he is NOT a 'common man', Reagan had massive appeal on this as well. People could relate to what he was saying. You knew he was genuine. I am not comparing Trump to Reagan I am just saying he appeals to the average person and if he can get these types to vote for him...he wins and I don't care if CNN tells me he is hated in every galaxy from the Milky Way to the Hubble Deep Field...he wins.
I do like how on the dem side we have Sanders who also refuses to be bought off....but he has a problem...the dem primaries are rigged. He CANT win. Period.
He is a very insecure man hiding behind a false bravado and lashes out at anyone who calls him out.
Come on now. You've dealt with at least one man with false bravado. 
I think most presidents try to avoid killing innocent civilians while Trump advocates for it.
Obama sits around approving lists of people to kill in drone strikes. Some(most likely all) of these strikes kill innocent people. I expect Trump to do the same. Being president requires making tough decisions. Reagan's bombing of Libya killed civilians, including babies. Sad but it sent a message. How many more innocent Americans were killed in bombings supported and funded by Libya on Reagan's watch after that strike? ZERO.
I don't trust Trump to do right by us when he hasn't done right by the American worker in his business dealings.
He wants to fix this problem and can you really blame him for how he handled his business in the past? The current system practically begs for corporations to send their jobs overseas and they get all sorts of incentives for doing so.
Hillary sure as hell isn't going to change this. Neither will any of Trump's opponents. At least Trump is willing to give it a shot.
I understand why some people are concerned. We've entered uncharted waters as far as presidential elections go.
I think he deserves a chance. Give him one term.
Re: 2016 Presidential Election Thread
There were violent protests at Bush events in 2004 over Iraq. Media didn't harp too much on that...just the conspiracy sites saying we were all about to be thrown into camps.
Anyone check that 'breaking news' CNN story earlier today? Protesters block street causing major traffic jam to stop a Trump rally that apparently no one wants to see. If anyone read more than the headline, you saw it was a couple dozen people standing in the middle of the road with a couple cars blocking it while thousands wanted to see Trump.
Like I said, I'm not buying their bill of goods this time. They fooled me one too many times.
I don't recall any violence like this at Bush events. Trump has them every single time now. I've never seen anything like this in my lifetime.
Non-violent protests that block traffic (which I don't like either) aren't comparable. They aren't the same thing at all. Punching, dragging, kicking and spitting have become the hallmark of Trump supporters to those protesting his views. The sucker punch seems to be the go-to move for this idiots. How many liberals do you see sucker punching tea party protesters who screamed at Obama, or during town hall meetings over healthcare a few years back???
Re: 2016 Presidential Election Thread
I will say this, the media would be going batshit crazy had Trump supporters gone to Sanders rallies pulling the same stuff. Had Sanders followers (who are pretty despicable in their own right) started beating up Trumpers the media would say they were antagonizers, basically deserving what they got.
Having said that, the violence is typical of cowards who throw a punch when the person is outnumbered or can't fight back.
Re: 2016 Presidential Election Thread
I don't recall any violence like this at Bush events. Trump has them every single time now. I've never seen anything like this in my lifetime.
Non-violent protests that block traffic (which I don't like either) aren't comparable. They aren't the same thing at all. Punching, dragging, kicking and spitting have become the hallmark of Trump supporters to those protesting his views. The sucker punch seems to be the go-to move for this idiots. How many liberals do you see sucker punching tea party protesters who screamed at Obama, or during town hall meetings over healthcare a few years back???
For the record, I wasn't comparing non violent protests to any violence going on anywhere. I read that again and it did seem like I was doing so.
I don't remember if I've said this here or at your site....but I don't watch the news every day. I mainly check CNN or MSNBC headlines or sometimes watch some news/debates on youtube. I haven't heard as much about all this violence at these rallies as some here. I do know that all of it cant just be blamed on people going to support Trump. The people going to these events to start shit cant be handed a free pass.
If I were to show up at a Black Lives Matter rally tomorrow....what do you think the reaction would be? Take into account I'm a white middle aged guy who looks like a biker transported from the 70s. Is the crowd going to hand me milk and cookies?
The Bush protests I mentioned I think were at the 2004 convention when they detained a bunch of people.
I agree that we've never seen anything like this....not just the protests(violent or not) but everything.
On election day 2008.....people were dancing in the street when Obama won. They got Bush III with health care.
In 2016 we have reached a fork in the road..... Hillary(more of the same horse shit) or Trump(realchange). I'm not surprised that there are reactions coming from both sides to the extreme.
The violence needs to stop. It's a distraction from what is really at stake this time. Instead of people using their fists they better start using their eyes and ears.
I will say this, the media would be going batshit crazy had Trump supporters gone to Sanders rallies pulling the same stuff. Had Sanders followers (who are pretty despicable in their own right) started beating up Trumpers the media would say they were antagonizers, basically deserving what they got.
Of course. We're getting biased coverage of this. The media is going to do everything in its power to throw anything they can at Trump because just like the good old red and blue, they know he's a legitimate threat to the establishment.
Re: 2016 Presidential Election Thread
James, you're right. As a member of the media, I am scared of Trump. He wants to go after media members and organizations that he thinks have wronged him. And he's basically said he'll ignore the 1st Amendment to do so. That actually should scare every living American. It's literally the most important amendment; that's why it's first.
Although, I have to say, a lot of times when people say "media," they really mean broadcast news, like CNN, MSNBC, Fox, etc.
