What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[Barrister]

Argument that the GOP tax bill is about the culture war: https://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2017/12/06/the-tax-bill-is-really-about-the-culture-war/

I read an article, which I can't find now, that says basically this kind of argument is hogwash.  The tax cuts are of course only going to benefit the very rich - but those people are by and large democrats.  The benefits are going to go to the coastal elites, the pain felt by, well, the red states.

The GOP isn't even serving their own constituency - they're just giving their ultra-rich donors what they have demanded for years.

[Valmy]

I read an article, which I can't find now, that says basically this kind of argument is hogwash.  The tax cuts are of course only going to benefit the very rich - but those people are by and large democrats.  The benefits are going to go to the coastal elites, the pain felt by, well, the red states.

The GOP isn't even serving their own constituency - they're just giving their ultra-rich donors what they have demanded for years.

So now all the poor are Republicans and all the rich are Democrats eh? But that is not the same thing as the culture war.

[Jacob]

I read an article, which I can't find now, that says basically this kind of argument is hogwash.  The tax cuts are of course only going to benefit the very rich - but those people are by and large democrats.  The benefits are going to go to the coastal elites, the pain felt by, well, the red states.

The GOP isn't even serving their own constituency - they're just giving their ultra-rich donors what they have demanded for years.

I don't think the argument is that the GOP is handing out benefits to their voters while taking away benefits from Democrat voters. The argument is that the GOP is working to "...restoring seemingly lost power for men over women, parents over children, the rich over the poor, white people over minorities, and so forth" and that the budget is designed to advance that agenda by fatally undermining any and all institutions and programs they feel have a liberal bias (i.e. which prevents those higher in their ideal hierarchy from exerting power over those below them, or benefits or help to accrue to those lower in the hierarchy).

[derspiess]

Maybe not that extreme, but they're saying he's in the bag for Hillary and the Dems and is out to get Trump.  This was red meat for them: http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/02/politics/fbi-agent-removed-trump-investigation/index.html

So removing someone with a conflict of interest proves they have a conflict of interest?

Not at all.  It's evidence that at least one person in the investigation (when there are probably more--  hell, maybe even all of them!) was virulently anti-Trump, which taints the entire investigation.

Don't shoot the messenger.

[Razgovory]

I just cannot keep myself from being truly scared at what is going on with attacks on Mueller.  At this point people have to have some idea in the back of their minds that Mueller is a danger because he's likely to link Trump to Russia, and that's where all this nonsense is coming from. 

Whether the good guys win this fight, or Trump somehow manages to bury the investigation like Erdogan buried his, the people that are trying to get Trump out of this treason jam are still going to be with us.  They'll be ready to collaborate with the bad guys on the next assault on democracy.  I don't know how we step away from the brink here.

I think the frantic attacks on Mueller by people Sean Hannity is telling on respect.  They obviously can't know if Trump or any of his people are guilty, but are acting as they believed Trump could have done it.

[Grey Fox]

I just cannot keep myself from being truly scared at what is going on with attacks on Mueller.  At this point people have to have some idea in the back of their minds that Mueller is a danger because he's likely to link Trump to Russia, and that's where all this nonsense is coming from. 

Whether the good guys win this fight, or Trump somehow manages to bury the investigation like Erdogan buried his, the people that are trying to get Trump out of this treason jam are still going to be with us.  They'll be ready to collaborate with the bad guys on the next assault on democracy.  I don't know how we step away from the brink here.

This - I was trying to get through to someone that at the end of the day...

YOU ARE FUCKING SIDING WITH PUTIN AGAINST THE FBI/CIA/NSA/EVERYOTHERUSINTELAGENCY

Like, seriously? Do you get that? You are taking the side of the actual enemies of the US, against the people we have hired to protect us from THOSE EXACT SAME ENEMIES.

For them the FBI/NSA/CIA/DEEPSTATE is the enemy, not Russia.

[Valmy]

I have stated several times that I found Hannity an intellectual lightweight when I used to listen to him back around 2002 or so but I never questioned his commitment to the Constitution and the USA and our values and all that as he understood them. Pretty disappointing.

[Razgovory]

I have stated several times that I found Hannity an intellectual lightweight when I used to listen to him back around 2002 or so but I never questioned his commitment to the Constitution and the USA and our values and all that as he understood them. Pretty disappointing.

I didn't think that Evangelicals would go from the people who were the most likely to believe that an personal morality was key to being a good leader to the least likely to believe that, but here we are.

[CountDeMoney]

Was it Seedy that said a few years back that we'll never ever get below something like 8% unemployment?

No, it wasn't.


Although it is nice to see that it's dropped from the not-even-Muslim-ghettos-in-France-bad 42% unemployment rate Candidate Trump campaigned against. 

During the campaign, Donald Trump called the official unemployment rate published by the Labor Department "such a phony number," "one of the biggest hoaxes in American modern politics" and "the biggest joke there is." He variously described the real rate as 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30 and 35 percent. In August, he told Time magazine that the "real unemployment rate is 42 percent."

The criticism didn't stop after the election: As recently as December, Trump called the rate "totally fiction."

I blame the Funk Monk.

[grumbler]

Not at all.  It's evidence that at least one person in the investigation (when there are probably more--  hell, maybe even all of them!) was virulently anti-Trump, which taints the entire investigation. 

You can't find a person who is not virulently anti-Trump that has the capacity to investigate anything whatsoever.  Any investigation of Trump would be tainted.  Luckily, he's guilty as fuck of so many crimes that a tainted investigation isn't a concern.

[derspiess]

No, it wasn't.

Yeah, pretty sure it was.  I should probably put Raz on my payroll and have him dig it up.

[Valmy]

No, it wasn't.

Yeah, pretty sure it was.  I should probably put Raz on my payroll and have him dig it up.

You could utilize the search function.

[Razgovory]

Argument that the GOP tax bill is about the culture war: https://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2017/12/06/the-tax-bill-is-really-about-the-culture-war/

You know what bothers me?  I see these articles that hysterically assume the absolute worst from the Right, and then I go on to FaceBook and see the very same opinions that are attributed to conservatives actually demonstrated by people in my town.  That is deeply disturbing.

[DGuller]

Not assuming the worst about the Right has been a disastrous policy so far.  Now is probably a time to realize that "the truth is somewhere in the middle" only works until one or both sides get wind of this saying and revise their bids at truth accordingly.

[Razgovory]

No, it wasn't.

Yeah, pretty sure it was.  I should probably put Raz on my payroll and have him dig it up.

Someone should.  I have useful research skills that are wasted confronting homophobes on Facebook with their mugshots and asking if their animosity is based on a bad first experience.