U.S. Politics

[Jareth]

1 hour ago, chrisp65 said:

This mythical shared identity, was it stronger in New Orleans before or after Katrina?

Is it shared more when blacks can fight in wars, or when blacks can't get jobs?

Would the indigenous people having pipelines driven through their land feel more or less shared identity than a Mexican immigrant or a Kurdish refugee?

I think perhaps there are many more americas than we were ever traditionally told about in cowboy films.

They'll be fine, the majority are good people, just like people everywhere. It's just the political classes having a bit of a reset.

It's the whites having the crisis. And the majority own guns. And you're more likely to be shot and killed by your own toddler than a terrorist. Country is screwed. 

This was the thread -

 

Edited October 31, 2017 by Jareth

[Straggler]

The news today is rather wonderful to read.  There is speculation that Papadopoulos may have been wearing a wire for the last 3 months or so on behalf of the FBI.  Even the speculation will have everyone he spoke to absolutely bricking themselves about what they said in front of him.

 

[a m ole]

he’s getting his wish, the swap is about to be drained. Hopefully the toad gets caught in the machinery and shredded to pieces.

[villakram]

The more politicos and those who hang around them that get caught up in this the better, but thus far all very much of the low hanging fruit variety. 

[Guest av1]

Out of intetest, what's Trumps approval rating fiqures like with the American public now? 

Are they realising yet that they made a f##k up or does he still have a lot of support?

[Jareth]

7 minutes ago, av1 said:

Out of intetest, what's Trumps approval rating fiqures like with the American public now? 

Are they realising yet that they made a f##k up or does he still have a lot of support?

38% at the mo. Surely going further down the more we see of Mueller's case. 

[Straggler]

6 minutes ago, av1 said:

Out of intetest, what's Trumps approval rating fiqures like with the American public now? 

Are they realising yet that they made a f##k up or does he still have a lot of support?

33% approval is the latest from Gallop, which is a decline, all be it a small decline from an already desperately low (historically speaking) rating.  Across the rest of the polls for the last month he is averaging in the mid to high 30's.  This represents over 100 million people who think that Trump is doing a good job.  I could have hit submit reply a good few minutes ago, but I had to get my head out of my hands and was struggling to do so.

[Guest av1]

5 minutes ago, Straggler said:

This represents over 100 million people who think that Trump is doing a good job.  

Its absolutely staggering when you it like that. 

[TheAuthority]

9 minutes ago, av1 said:

Its absolutely staggering when you it like that. 

It's his hardcore base of Republicans. That's why the other members of the GOP won't speak out against him because they will get "primaried" by Bannon and his online machine.

Senator Flake & Corker are the only 2 senior Republicans to speak against Trump because they aren't running for re-election. The GOP party is rotten to the core and a hypocritical money grabbing machine.

[Rodders]

you would think republicans would go "oh shit, together with our ludicrous policies and the encouragement of demented right wing commentary in the media, we've created an unstoppable monster of stupid. A behomoth of ignorance so large that we are now beholden to these **** imbeciles. "

[TheAuthority]

58 minutes ago, Rodders said:

you would think republicans would go "oh shit, together with our ludicrous policies and the encouragement of demented right wing commentary in the media, we've created an unstoppable monster of stupid. A behomoth of ignorance so large that we are now beholden to these **** imbeciles. "

The majority must be thinking that, but they are selfishly hanging on for the ride to save face/stay on the Washington gravy train/be there to benefit when it all collapses, or any other despicable reason you can think of.

Someone earlier in the thread suggested that Trump hasn't achieved anything so far. Well sure, there's been no landmark legislation on Taxes, Healthcare or immigration. But the appointments he's making, rubber stamped by the GOP are having a huge effect on those departments and institutions.

This documentary is about the Environmental Protection Agency and it's new Trump appointed head Scott Pruitt (bought and paid for by the energy industry.) It is really worth the watch to see an example of how this administration is taking us back decades. I must stress that this documentary is from PBS, a sort of US version on the BBC. It's an independent as it gets over here - no commercials etc. It's not by some left wing online group.

 

[StefanAVFC]

Republicans and republican media is not designed to govern. All they can do is obstruct and create talking points about those in government.

Hillary losing might end up destroying them. Hillary winning would have been the best thing to happen to republican governance and republican media in decades.

 

Take the vitriol aimed at Obama and multiply it by 10.

[OutByEaster?]

No surprise to see President Koch right behind Pruitt in that documentary.

When the Attorney General has a "Federalism Unit" designed to fight federal regulation - essentially an arm of government fighting the ability of government to apply regulations on business - you really have sold your Democratic process down the river. If people knew and understood this, they'd be appalled. Why you'd need a giant orange madman in order to distract them from this sort of thing, and that couldn't happen right?

 

 

 

[Keyblade]

2 hours ago, StefanAVFC said:

Republicans and republican media is not designed to govern. All they can do is obstruct and create talking points about those in government.

Hillary losing might end up destroying them. Hillary winning would have been the best thing to happen to republican governance and republican media in decades.

 

Take the vitriol aimed at Obama and multiply it by 10.

Sean Hannity accidentally called her President Clinton yesterday

[peterms]

I see they are starting to roll over.

Soft targets first, working up to the bigger fish.

Here goes the non-scientist lined up for a scientist's job, a clubbable gofer who would do the bidding of whoever gave him such a position.

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/31/sam-clovis-senate-russia-investigation-244370

Quote

Sam Clovis, President Donald Trump’s controversial nominee to be the Agriculture Department’s chief scientist, has been “a fully cooperative witness” in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts told POLITICO.

Clovis, a former co-chair and policy adviser to Trump’s campaign, knew that another campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, was talking to Russians, according to documents released Monday as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe and campaign and administration officials.

Papadopoulos was arrested in late July and pleaded guilty to a charge that he made false statements to the FBI about his contact with a professor who has ties to the Kremlin and promised thousands of pages of emails related to Hillary Clinton.

Meanwhile, NBC News reported Tuesday that Clovis has been questioned by Mueller's team and has testified before Mueller's grand jury.

Clovis’ nomination to the top scientific job at the Agriculture Department has already drawn significant opposition from Democrats and scientists who have raised concerns about his climate-change skepticism, his credentials and his history of making disparaging statements about blacks, women, LGBT individuals and others. But there's been no public opposition from Republicans.

Roberts said Monday that he planned to continue with a scheduled Nov. 9 confirmation hearing. But on Tuesday, when asked whether he'd consider delaying the hearing amid the Russia developments, he said that was "to be determined."

“I don’t think he’s a target of any investigation,” Roberts said of Clovis on Monday, describing him as someone likely on the fringes of the inquiry.

Clovis brought Papadopoulos into the campaign in March 2016, when he was asked to put together a foreign-policy advisory committee, according to the administration and campaign officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Trump felt pressure to hastily assemble a team because he was getting criticism for a lack of foreign policy manpower, these people said.

But Clovis, an Air Force veteran and radio host who taught management and public policy at Morningside College in Iowa until 2015, didn’t have foreign-policy connections and scrambled to find people willing to align themselves with Trump. He brought in a group of people with little vetting, the officials said.

Papadopoulos had little contact with most campaign insiders, but he was in touch with Clovis, the people said.

Victoria Toensing, a lawyer representing Clovis, said in an e-mailed statement that after an initial meeting of the advisory panel, all of Papadopoulos' communications with the campaign were "self-generated," and that Clovis did not believe an improved relationship with Russia should be a foreign policy focus of the campaign.

"Dr. Clovis always vigorously opposed any Russian trip for Donald Trump or staff," Toensing said. "However, if a volunteer made any suggestions on any foreign policy matter, Dr. Clovis, a polite gentleman from Iowa, would have expressed courtesy and appreciation."

Neither Senate Intelligence Committee officials nor the USDA press office responded to a request for comment.

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Agriculture ranking member Debbie Stabenow, along with a handful of other Democrats, have publicly announced their opposition to Clovis. They argue that Clovis does not have the academic and research background required for the post, and also point to the disparaging comments, including some about former President Barack Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

 

[HanoiVillan]

Why do I get the feeling that 'a polite gentleman from Iowa' is a synonym for 'a total and utter tube at the best of times'?

[Davkaus]

12 hours ago, Keyblade said:

Sean Hannity accidentally called her President Clinton yesterday

He starts to say Hillary, then actually corrects himself to 'President Clinton'.

On the same day, other Trump allies have referred to the 'Clinton administration', which doesn't exist. Coincidental slips of the tongue, or a coordinated dog whistle to spur on these nutters who think Trump's being conspired against by some kind of deep state, run by an old woman who spends her day going on walks in the wood?

[Keyblade]

1 hour ago, Davkaus said:

He starts to say Hillary, then actually corrects himself to 'President Clinton'.

On the same day, other Trump allies have referred to the 'Clinton administration', which doesn't exist. Coincidental slips of the tongue, or a coordinated dog whistle to spur on these nutters who think Trump's being conspired against by some kind of deep state, run by an old woman who spends her day going on walks in the wood?

Definitely the latter. They're really convinced Obama and Hillary are running the show from behind the scenes. It's the only way they can deal with the cognitive dissonance of "gubment is evil" and "I love Trump".

[NurembergVillan]

 

[snowychap]