The inaguration is just a week away.Trump and his appointees appear to be gathering momentum across the spectrum - The indignant paranoia and self-serving delusions of the left are growing, as are their increasingly desperate efforts to discredit the candidate who defeated their hopes. Meanwhile the earlier outlines of the likely character and policy of the Trump administration is filling in, as support for him becomes increasingly vocal and evident, and in places where it wasn't previously seen.
President Obama entertains us with rather forced rationalizations for the defeat of his "scandal-free" administration, conceding only that he occasionally wasn't successful in persuading people of the inherent "rightness" of his actions (or inactions). Democrats are meanwhile dredging up faded models of "million man marches" and demonstrations to distract and entertain themselves as the new era approaches.
Yesterday I attended a routine lunch gathering of an informal club that gathers weekly (I generally make only 1 in 3) in a San Francisco restaurant. It's an eclectic group of about 40 judges, tort lawyers, labor union bosses, local pols & businessmen, musicians, and a few retired NFL & ML baseball players. ( The group is fairly representative of the currently prominent ethnic groupings of white, black Hispanic & Asian, etc. members.) Politics is usually only a very marginal part of the rather garrulous conversation there, but this time it was noticeably different. The normally very liberal political tone out here, was significantly changed, mostly by members who were usually silent on political matters. I heard comments suggesting: "this just might work out well, "refreshing change", " he might actually do something" etc. while the, now somewhat marginalized diehard liberals were a bit apoplectic in their expressed indignation and outrage, some even forecasting impeachment within the year, etc. I suspect this to a large degree mirrors what can be seen in varius mixtures across the country.
@georgeob1,
The hard-core cheese-eaters will whine for the next 8 years, George. They will spend every day of their lives telling each other they hate Trump, then congratulating each other for being so damn smart.
Their numbers will dwindle, as more and more realize that they are effete and impotent and that they are only poisoning themselves with their venom, but they will continue to think they are some kind of meaningful "force." As a reward for the childish antics, they will alienate more and more voters and lose more and more seats in both the federal and state offices.
The more Trump accomplishes, the more they will complain. As they get more and more shrill in their demands for attention and respect, they will get less and less attention and respect.
They don't know it, but they're dead. Finished. Aint no more.
@georgeob1,
Quote: The normally very liberal political tone out here, was significantly changed, mostly by members who were usually silent on political matters. I heard comments suggesting: "this just might work out well, "refreshing change", " he might actually do something" etc.
I have heard similar comments from liberals in a liberal college town a few miles away. Liberal bar/club & restaurant owners in that town are seeing $$ under POTUS Trump, they are quietly enthusiastic. The liberal college town I speak of has been described as a miniaturized Austin, TX. the student body was for Bernie, and the 35 to 40 crowd were mostly for that nasty woman, some switched to Bernie. The professors & their peers were almost 100% for that nasty woman.
Things aint really changed none in the last 15 years:
Quote:"I have a confession: I have at times, as the war has unfolded, secretly wished for things to go wrong," Gary Kamiya, executive editor of the left-leaning Internet journal Salon, wrote last week. "Wished for the Iraqis to be more nationalistic, to resist longer.”
“Wished for the Arab world to rise up in rage. Wished for all the things we feared would happen. I'm not alone: A number of people who oppose the war have told me they have had identical feelings."
“Some of this is merely the result of pettiness -- ignoble resentment, partisan hackdom, the desire to be proved right and to prove the likes of Rumsfeld wrong, irritation with the sanitizing, myth-making American media. But some of it is something trickier:…
“Wishing for things to go wrong is the logical corollary of the postulate that the better things go for Bush, the worse they will go for America and the rest of the world. Pessimism is the dirty little secret of the antiwar camp -- dirty because there is something distasteful about wishing for bad outcomes.”
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2003/04/11/liberation/index.html
I hope Harvey is up to the digital abuse he's getting from 'tolerant' liberals.
Quote:Protesters planning to blockade inauguration checkpoints
An anti-Donald Trump group is planning massive disruptions for next week's inauguration covering everything from "blockades" at security checkpoints to a "dance party" outside VP-elect Mike Pence's house, according to group leaders as well as newly obtained audio of their apparent plans.
The audio, recorded by Trevor Loudon with Capital Research Center, purports to show a female member detailing plans to "do everything we can to try and stop people from being able to access the inauguration."
The group is planning an "anti-Capitalist, anti-fascist bloc" that "will be an unpermitted march that will be leaving from Logan Square...We’re going to be doing blockades," the woman says in the audio. "We’re going to [be] blockading checkpoints into the security zones. We're also going to be blockading roads and other modes of transit into the city."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01/13/protesters-planning-to-blockade-inauguration-checkpoints-party-outside-pence-home.html
"Anti-Capitalist" commies, intent on disruption and subversion, eh? Figures, sho nuff.
In the meantime, "Bikers for Trump" are announcing plans to come en masse to kick some commie ass.
One side benefit to these whack-ass cheese-eaters: The citizens will be demanding that Trump declare martial law. He will be happy to comply, I'm sure, and will NEVER find a reason to rescind it.
D.C. should just declare a state of emergency & put all resources on alert ready.
@blatham,
Scary, scary, scary.
I have never listened to Trump speak, on purpose, though I've read a fair amount about his thoughts. Photos of him bring me anguish darts, but that's good for me, keeps me tuned in and reading.
Don't remember where, probably immediately near on this very thread, that you recommended the Mother Jones article re marches going on: that was a saver, as was its link to sister marches.
Quote:Michael Gerson @MJGerson 12m12 minutes ago
A pres-elect attacking a civil rights icon days from the oath divides the country, diminishes himself, and brings discredit to his office.
Well, yeah, it kinda does. But that's the way Trump rolls.
What is as notable in Trump's responses to Lewis though is his apparent near complete ignorance of the civil rights movement history. Has this man ever read a book, even one, about anything?
Here's Trump giving us a movie review on Citizen Cane. Yes, really. Attend to it all but particularly the very last sentence Trump speaks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeQOJZ-QzBk
@blatham,
Lewis is an American embarrassment.
Quote:Keith Boykin @keithboykin 9h9 hours ago
By the way, John Lewis represents a majority-black district where 88% of adults have high school diplomas and 41% have college degrees.
And median household income is close to US average of $56,000
But Trump thinks it suits his purposes to speak like a southern racist from the 50 or 60 years ago.
@blatham,
blatham wrote:
Swamp-filling notes from all over...
Quote:Trump’s impulse is to cavalierly disregard ethical and democratic norms that he views as inconvenient. Going forward, government officials like Shaub, who risked a great deal by standing up to his incoming boss, will be more necessary than ever.
They will also have to be ready to pay a price. The day after Shaub’s press conference, he received a letter from Congressman Jason Chaffetz, a Republican from Utah and the chairman of the House Oversight Committee. He was not writing to praise Shaub for pressing Trump to abide by the same standards as his nominees. Instead, Chaffetz issued a veiled threat to cut off funding for Shaub’s agency.
NewYorker
That just swings wide open the door for corruption is obvious to everyone. But not nearly enough people on the right are showing principle or courage on this matter. Chaffetz is a particularly ugly example but he's far from alone.
The New Yoker's defense of Obama's appointed "Ethics" comissioner was truly rich in irony. That the administration that has so thoroughly politicized the administration of American "Justice", in selectively enforcing civil rights law, refusing to enforce immigration law at all, and in covering up security violations on the Part of the former Secretary of State in National security matters; not to mention gross violations of the public trust in the Bengazi cooverup, the e mail investigation, the "accidental meeting of the AG & Bill Clinton at the Phoenix airport; and finally in the recent (and ongoing) effort to divert attention from a DNC/Clinton campaign conspiracy to hack the primary and election campaign processes , should now attack Republican efforts to throttle some low level Obama appointee, are truly ludicrous.
Blathan is entirely in character in dredging this crap up, and in his futile efforts to make a big deal about - nothing at all in this case. Certainly the contrast in the relative substance of this event and the recort of the failed and now departing Obama Administration is quite obvious to any rational observer.
More and more the left appears to be grasping at straws in and increasing ly desperate effiort to hide their failures .... from themselves ( to most others they have become increasingly obvious) . It is all fast becoming rather tiresome and repetitious.
@blatham,
blatham wrote:
Quote:Michael Gerson @MJGerson 12m12 minutes ago
A pres-elect attacking a civil rights icon days from the oath divides the country, diminishes himself, and brings discredit to his office.
Well, yeah, it kinda does. But that's the way Trump rolls.
What is as notable in Trump's responses to Lewis though is his apparent near complete ignorance of the civil rights movement history. Has this man ever read a book, even one, about anything?
Bullshit !! In this case it was the superannuated Civil Rights leader, apparently still reliving his salad days, who himself attacked the President- elect, in a Senate confirmation hearing, calling him "unsuitable' for the office to which he was elected. Trump merely responded. ( I do think Trump would have been wiser to simply Ignore Lewis as do most others.)
Blatham's phony literary/historical pretenses notwithstanding, I suspect Trump has indeed read a few books in his life. I note the complete ansence of any factual basis for this bit of propagandist hyperbole from our esteemed scholar of U.S. political history from British Columbia .
@georgeob1,
georgeob1 wrote:refusing to enforce immigration law at all
You're losing touch with reality, George.
More undocumented people have been deported by immigration authorities since President Obama took office than during the two terms of President Bush. Border Patrol's budget has expanded under Obama, apprehension rates have gone up. Under Secure Communities, duties of local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities have been combined and contributed towards better enforcement of immigration laws.
That hardly constitutes "refusing to enforce immigration law at all."
You're going off the deep end.
@blatham,
blatham wrote:And median household income is close to US average of $56,000
But Trump thinks it suits his purposes to speak like a southern racist from the 50 or 60 years ago.
Also,
crime is down 30% since 2009 in his district, it's
ranked 97th out of 434 on Gallup-Healthways’ Well-Being Index, and third among Georgia’s 14 districts in the well-being index.
Trump's thought process seems to have been "Black guy in Congress? He's
obviously representing a district which is in horrible shape, falling apart and crime infested!"
@old europe,
Unfortunately the facts are not with you. I didn't write that Obama was not enforcing
any immigration law. His sworn duty is to enforce
all of it , and he most certainly is not doing that. Indeed repeat violent crimes committted by previously convicted and deported illegal residents whose illegal residency was ignored by the Federal government have been a frequent and reoccurring issue here for the last several years. Obama has politicized this matter in a failed effort to gain political support in a way that; (1) failed to have the desired effect and (2) has injured the country and its people.
I believe immigration issues are a matter of some dispute in your country as well. Are you off the deep end about that?
@georgeob1,
Go yell at Mike Gerson, george.
