monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

@nimh,

Thanks Nimh! I'll get to these later today.

“straight outta Würselen” is hilarious.

0 Replies

@cicerone imposter,

Me too. And as someone else has described, Americans do so too, to the tune of 30 pounds per year per capita.

That's somewhere in the range of 9.9 billion pounds a year. Could you please check my math, Mr Accountant?

0 Replies

@nimh,

nimh wrote:

I'm not Walter, or German, but it feels to me like the Post was a bit too eager to make the "Schulz effect" into something about America. I'm sure the Trump angle plays a role, but there are plenty of domestic contexts to the SPD's sudden success as well. Here's a couple of pieces I read from academic sources trying to analyze Schulz's sudden effect, and his use of anti-Trump rhetoric is at most mentioned in an aside:

My opinion as well.

Schulz was very popular as a "European German". Now he's more a "German German" - and the SPD got nearly 5,000 new members due to the "Schulz effect" within days.

0 Replies

@cicerone imposter,

Don't worry about it CI, I think layman may simply have a lack of imagination. I looked it up on the urban dictionary, apparently there is several meanings, one is a snitch or rat and the other is someone who receives government assistance. I get my (so far) my insurance through Obamacare, so maybe I qualify. Don't really care.

cheese eater

1 Reply

@McGentrix,

Quote:

Think about, what has Trump actually done?

Wait a second —two weeks ago you were gushing about how he'd done more in his first few weeks in office that any other president!

Quote:

The reason is that the just over loading of the media of everything negative about Trump.

You've just admitted that there are negatives — what do you think the source of the negativity is — it's the things he has done. His critics are not concocting far-fetched stories about whether he was born in this country or whether he's Muslim. He is being criticized for his ineptitude. The travel ban was a fiasco. How about Flynn-ghazi? What about the bumbling stumbling "press conference" where he repeatedly lied, dodged the question, or insulted reporters? He's done these things and I don't understand why you're still wholeheartedly defending him. I wouldn't mind a sort of tentative, wait-and-see approach on the part of people who couldn't vote for Hilary. The guy hasn't had any public service experience and we might be willing to give him some time to find his stride. Except that he won't let us, he won't give us a rest. Every time he opens his mouth or "tweets" (god, do I hate that term!) he says something crass, overly-defensive, half-baked, or dumb.

The guy has had the worst first month in office since Bill Clinton, and while the Clinton WH started off shakily it was functioning a lot better than the current one is. Trump and his inside circle should stay down at his ugly Florida resort for a while and let the grownups put things in some semblance of order. Have someone like James Baker go down there and give him some lessons in civics and presidential decorum. Bring him back to DC and keep him out of sight; trot him out to make speeches with a teleprompter and sign regressive legislation. Hell, maybe he'd like to grab a pick and shovel and break ground on the Great Wall — I'm sure we could find some child-sized work gloves to cover his little pasty white hands.

1 Reply

@revelette1,

Quote:

I think layman may simply have a lack of imagination. [re cheese eater]

No, he's just trolling and people are foolishly playing along with his game. This not a difficult concept. Don't feed trolls. Instead of one idiotic post, we end up with the idiot post, then replies, then more idiocy from the troll, then more replies. Don't feed trolls.

2 Replies

@blatham,

blatham wrote:

Some good news out of Washington State:

Quote:
A florist who refused to sell flowers for a same-sex wedding cannot claim religious belief as a defense under the state’s anti-discrimination laws, Washington’s high court said Thursday, in a case that has been watched around the nation by religious and civil rights groups.

The unanimous ruling by the nine-member state Supreme Court, which a lawyer for the florist said would be appealed to the United States Supreme Court, addressed sweeping questions about public accommodation, artistic expression and free speech.
NYT

Here is a link to the court's opinion:

https://docs.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=http://files.eqcf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/2017.02.16_Opinion.pdf

0 Replies

55% approval

http://www.wnd.com/2017/02/rasmussen-trump-approval-hits-55/

0 Replies

@blatham,

blatham wrote:

With the briefing yesterday and the rally tomorrow, he's just trying to change the narrative. It's an attempt to reassert dominance.

Every time Trump tweets or talks, among other things, he places his embarrassing incompetence on display, (which serves as fodder for SNL, et al.). I doubt his "supporters", not even the most willfully blind, can sustain Trump's insatiable need for adulation. How many of those "supporters" will continue to show up over the next four years to attend his "2020 campaign rallies"? I anticipate that the size of his "adoring" crowds will shrink smaller and smaller.

I also anticipate that Miller and Spicer (or their inevitable replacements) will don their jackboots and attempt tell us the "truth" about crowd size (or whatever may be Trump's grievance du jour), but the people will treat them like the boy who cried wolf one too many times.

Trump is naked. He has no credibility. We're collectively rolling our eyes. Most likely, Trump will resign soon with a substantial "golden parachute" funded by the oligarchy. But probably not before he bombs the hell out of middle east oil fields. After all, Tillerman & Putin cannot profit from those Russian oil fields so long as OPEC survives as a competitor.

0 Replies

@layman,

layman wrote:

Well, ya know, polls, favorable or unfavorable, don't really mean sheeit.

Sure. And so you will say until there's one that's favorable to your guys & causes. Then you'll be touting it here again. Cause polls don't matter ... unless you like what they say.

0 Replies

@revelette1,

revelette1 wrote:

Wonder what he will do if the rally crowd is kind of thin? Bus people in? Pay them in advance?

I doubt his supporters, if he has any true supporters, can afford to leave their jobs and attend regularly scheduled Trump adoration rallies. Maybe his circus handlers can recruit busloads of fake supporters from Massachusetts to feed the wannabe Fuhrer's need for cheering fans. According to Trump, after all, thousands of people from Massachusetts are willing to get on buses and cross state lines for nefarious purposes.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2017/02/10/trump-makes-groundless-voter-fraud-claims/fcnMJfLgOx0UAVhJeTS8TP/story.html

2 Replies

@blatham,

blatham wrote:

Quote:
Just curious, but on Real Clear Politicsthey list 11 polls and you chose to post the one with the lowest score. Rasmussen showb Trumps approval at 55% approve and 45% disapproval. How about we use those scores instead?

First, Rasmussen consistently skews Republican. If you book passage on a Weekly Standard cruise to hear and hobnob with conservative celebs, there's a good chance Rasmussen will be on board as they do these cruises regularly.

Second, if you look again at the RCP polling list you linked, you'll see only 3 of the 11 polling operations listed found a positive spread for Trump job approval: +1, +1, and Rasmussen at +10

On the other hand, 8 have Trump in the negative: -3, -4, -12, -10, -9, -8, -9. and Gallup at -18.

Both Gallup and Rasmussen are outliers but Rasmussen is way out.

Of course they are...And if they had him in the reverse they would be way in...You're so predictable

1 Reply

@blatham,

blatham wrote:

No, he's just trolling and people are foolishly playing along with his game. This not a difficult concept. Don't feed trolls. Instead of one idiotic post, we end up with the idiot post, then replies, then more idiocy from the troll, then more replies. Don't feed trolls.

Don't anyone dare expose Blatham to any facts!

0 Replies

@giujohn,

Predictable and true.

1 Reply

@hightor,

hightor wrote:

You've just admitted that there are negatives — what do you think the source of the negativity is — it's the things he has done.

The thing is, what he has done is hardly bad. He made an executive order that was given a stay by the courts? The Horror. Obama had some executive orders stopped by the courts even in his eighth year in office.

He has a chaotic opening of his administration? Blame the Democrats for refusing to confirm anyone. (I guess it's about time for Republicans to start abolishing any Senate rule that the Democrats are abusing to delay the process.)

One of his staffers had to resign because he tricked the Vice President into unknowingly going out and lying in public for him? I guess no other administration has ever had staffers screw up and have to resign?

His press conferences are big and bombastic and they stretch the truth a bit? Sounds a lot like Teddy Roosevelt.

I'm largely tuning out most of this Left-wing hysteria over nothing. But really the Left are being very silly here.

Wait until Trump enacts a policy that the Left actually disagrees with. Then the hysteria will get really out of hand.

1 Reply

@Debra Law,

The idea that voters would be so energized that they'd get into a bus and cross state lines to vote twice — so dedicated, so intent on victory. And to think, no one even notices a bus (with Massachusetts plates?) pulling up to a polling station and people bundling out, stretching their legs, and heading in to do their duty. It's almost inspiring.

Maine had a similar situation in 2012:

Quote:

The head of the Republican Party in Maine thinks there might have been voter fraud in his state because “nobody in town knows anyone who’s black,” but black voters came in to vote on election day.

GOP state chairman Charlie Webster aims to find those who committed the alleged fraud fraud by sending thank you cards to voters, and seeing if they are returned to sender.

"In some parts of rural Maine, there were dozens, dozens of black people who came in and voted on Election Day. Everybody has a right to vote, but nobody in town knows anyone who’s black. How did that happen? I don’t know. We’re going to find out….

" I’m not politically correct and maybe I shouldn’t have said these voters were black, but anyone who suggests I have a bias toward any race or group, frankly, that’s sleazy."

Guys, I wouldn't get to hung up on the opinion polls. We're going to see lots of them over the next three years and eleven months. We know a lot of people like Trump. At this point I'm more interested in what the seasoned politicians and experienced journalists say. When policies meet the pavement the popular voice will have more significance.

1 Reply

@hightor,

Trump's base is around 35%. His approval rating is at 40%; his disapproval at 55%. Republicans approval of Trump is over 80%. Trump has a history as a liar, bigot and scammer. Go figure.
Oh, did I forget misogynist?

1 Reply

@oralloy,

Quote:

He made an executive order that was given a stay by the courts?

The fact that the courts issued the stay wasn't the problem, nor were any constitutional issues. The problem was the real confusion and hardship caused by the sudden roll out. Had cooler heads prevailed, t's crossed, i's dotted, they could have pulled this off more successfully with a lot less drama.

Quote:

Blame the Democrats for refusing to confirm anyone.

I don't think the delay tactics are that savvy, but I think they feel the base wants to see signs of resistance. But I've heard that Trump's team has been really slow to vet candidates and a lot of them have extensive financial and portfolio holdings which take time to sort through. I imagine the Dems will make a big show of trying to delay Gorsuch, but assuming no "smoking gun" is found it's a rather futile exercise. Even if they could block him Trump has twenty or thirty other potential candidates and I'll bet some of them are even worse.

Quote:

I guess no other administration has ever had staffers screw up and have to resign?

Flynn was already controversial, for other reasons. Sure this happens from time to time but this one was particularly amateurish.

Quote:

Sounds a lot like Teddy Roosevelt.

Yes, I've heard other people draw comparisons between the two. Instant communication and a 24 hour news cycle sort of change the context though.

Quote:

Wait until Trump enacts a policy that the Left actually disagrees with.

Wait until Trump voters realize that they disagree with it too!

1 Reply

@Olivier5,

Olivier5 wrote:

The Dems haven't yet understood what they did wrong in this election cycle. They haven't learnt their lesson. Until they do so, they will have very little credibility as an alternative to the current mess.

I have ceased believing there truly exists two political parties. After all, they serve the same masters. It appears the only purpose for having two parties is to divide and conquer the people. Because the present political system works so well for the rich (the oligarchy), there is no incentive to change. The political parties will continue throwing red meat at the masses.

The Dems clearly understand the system they helped to create: When things get very bad, then the progressives who refused to vote for Hillary will eventually come out and vote just like they did in 2008. Pelosi already told us that the two parties simply take turns at the helm: “When President Clinton was elected, Republicans came in big in the next election. When President Bush was president, we came in big in the subsequent election. When President Obama became president, the Republicans came in big in the next election.”

http://nypost.com/2016/12/04/nancy-pelosi-i-dont-think-democrats-want-a-new-direction/

0 Replies

@McGentrix,

McGentrix wrote:

CNN is a shithole of a news corporation. I honestly don't see why they are still on the air.

And yet as true as that is they are miles above MSNBC!

0 Replies

monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know