peterms Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 This is quite good. Could have done with more editing in fhe later parts. First para only - the whole thing is quite long. As the Bishop said to the actress. Quote To mourn for America is not my style. In fact, I have rarely mustered much enthusiasm even for my own team. Johnson (before my time), I could never forgive; Carter was not the kind of guy who inspired; Clinton, who I voted for over and over again, always struck me as a shallow opportunist — a view his undignified post-Presidency has only reinforced. And those were the wins. Then consider Nixon, a paranoid schemer whose self-appointed enemies were my heroes; Reagan had more substance than his detractors like to think, but he played the race card, and his policies were not my policies. As for Bush the younger — he quite irritated me. At least Nixon and Reagan were self-made, whereas “W,” an undistinguished fellow, emerged from the halls of privilege. The point is, what we have here is quite a different thing. This is not about partisanship — I have lost more than my share of elections. And if a conservative Republican like John Kasich, or, help us all, Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz, had won the Presidency, I would have been terribly disappointed. My side would have lost, my policies would have been abandoned. But such things happen in the normal course of events. Nor is this about politics more generally, which on a good day is an exercise in imperfection and compromise. Truman and Eisenhower each presided over shameful acts, more than once. It’s hard to be a saint in the city. No, this is about our very capacity for self-governance, which is a fundamentally different beast, and no small thing. Perhaps you are inclined to tell yourself stories about Trump’s huge loss in the popular vote, how but for a few thousand ballots here or there and the quirks of the Electoral College, he would not be President. But you’d be wrong. Even if he lost, that he could get so close exposed the ruin of our political parish. From day one of the election campaign — that Mussolini on-an-escalator gesticulating incoherently about Mexican rapists — Trump ought to have been booed off the stage 20 times over. The list of should-have-been disqualifying moments is too long and too familiar to rehearse, but some of the highest crimes still linger: mocking heroes, banning Muslims, gleefully consorting with white-supremacists and anti-Semites (you name them, he retweeted them), more generally parading dangerous ignorance (about things like nuclear weapons) as if it was a virtue, showering praise on murderous authoritarian enemies of America, and conducting his affairs more broadly as if he was an incurious, spoiled game-show host surrounded by sycophants — this is the man that has been chosen by the people to lead us 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VILLAMARV Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 The Times of Isreal did a little piece on this Gorka chap a couple of days ago, seems like another great guy from the right wing Breitbart ****wit ranks.. Quote Sebastian Gorka, a former editor at Breitbart News and now a deputy assistant to the president, was photographed and interviewed at Trump’s inauguration wearing the uniform and medal of Vitézi Rend, a Hungarian order of merit closely associated with Nazi Germany. The order was founded in 1920 by Miklós Horthy, who served as regent of Hungary until 1944, and comprised his supporters. Horthy was an ally of Adolf Hitler and collaborated with the Nazis throughout most of World War II. During the war, confiscated Jewish property was distributed to members of the order by the Hungarian government. Gorka, who is of Hungarian descent, may have inherited the medal and uniform from his grandfather, according to foreign policy site Lobelog. The US State Department lists Vitézi Rend as a Nazi-linked group, which could render members ineligible for visas. Gorka became a US citizen in 2012. Lobelog also noted that Gorka signed his PhD dissertation in 2007 as “Sebestyén L. v. Gorka” — “L. v.” being initials representing members of Vitézi Rend. Other than at the inauguration, Gorka has worn the medal and uniform in the past, as seen in an undated photo on his Facebook page. ......................................... Gorka was quoted by JTA in 2006 defending the reappearance of a Hungarian flag appropriated by the pro-Nazi Hungarian Arrow Cross. The flag wavers “are a soft target, because how do you prove you’re not a fascist?” he said. “If you say eight centuries of history can be eradicated by 18 months of fascist distortion of symbols, you’re losing historic perspective.” Isreali fake news outlet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 The next terrorist attack is what worries me. Trump's rhetoric has already moved far beyond anything you'd get from a regular president (Republican or Democrat) in a time of national crisis, and that's without there being a major attack under his watch so far. A few days after 9/11 Bush made quite a public point of saying that the US was not at war with Islam and that the US needed its Muslim allies etc - what happens with Trump as president? I genuinely believe we could be looking at internment camps. I despise Trump and I think some go overboard a bit when talking about him but I could honestly see that happening. His authoritarian instincts are far beyond any other president in living memory. And the scary thing is it doesn't even have to be an attack on the scale of 9/11. Even something on the level of the Boston bombing could spark chaos. And this is why the Russians wanted Trump. I don't necessarily believe he's actively working on behalf of the Kremlin but he's essentially demolishing the US from the inside and that's exactly what they want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 Can we talk about how he had a heavy, wrestling intro-esque song play as he walked into the room. Sounded like a Dragonball Z soundtrack. He really is President Camacho come to life Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 Did he actually say Iran is the world's top sponsor of terrorism with a straight face? Barely 5 minutes in and this is incredible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 (edited) From Politico: The husband-and-wife team driving Trump's national security policy Quote Before they became a Trump administration power couple, Sebastian and Katharine Gorka were prolific collaborators on research about the Islamic terrorist threat who built a fan base in far-right circles. Business partners as well as published co-authors, the Gorkas made successful careers out of their shared passion. “Our pillow talk is the Islamic State and Al Qaeda,” Sebastian Gorka, now a senior White House aide, said during a talk in Florida last November. At times it can even be difficult to tell which Gorka is doing the talking. Several passages of Sebastian’s 2007 dissertation, on the rise of radical Islam, appeared almost verbatim two years earlier in an article for the conservative journal Human Events. The byline over an online version of the article, “ccornell,” links to an author page for Katharine Cornell — the maiden name of Katharine Gorka. The dissertation, written for Sebastian’s doctorate in political science from Corvinus University of Budapest, does not credit either a Katharine Cornell or Katharine Gorka in its endnotes. “We write together all the time,” Gorka said during an hourlong conversation with POLITICO. He brushed off the overlapping passages as “probably something I dictated or that we came up with together.” Much of his writing and that of his wife, he explained, is the result of a “collaborative effort,” even if that’s not clear to readers. “She’s my wife and she’s my closest collaborator,” he said. In the decade since earning his doctorate, Sebastian has vaulted into the heart of the American national-security apparatus. At the White House, Gorka — who was born in Britain and became a U.S. citizen in 2012 — is a deputy assistant to the president. He reports to strategist Steve Bannon and includes the Strategic Initiatives Group, Bannon’s in-house think tank, in his email signature. That appointment, which includes a portfolio focusing on terrorism and national security, has befuddled mainstream counterterrorism experts, who recognize Gorka from his Fox News appearances but not as an influential thinker. “He is hard core,” said retired Army Col. Joseph Collins, a professor at National Defense University who worked with Sebastian Gorka when he taught there. “He came at the issue from the ideological route.” Joining Sebastian in Trump’s orbit is his wife, Katharine, who served on the Trump transition’s Department of Homeland Security “landing team,” focusing on plans to shift its “Countering Violent Extremism” programs to concentrate on Islamist extremism, according to a former DHS official. Sebastian Gorka declined to comment on his wife’s current role within the department, and calls and emails seeking comment from DHS were not returned. Trump first summoned Gorka to Trump Tower in the summer of 2015. At the time, Gorka was national-security editor at Breitbart News, the right-wing website Bannon ran before joining Trump’s campaign. Long before most people took Trump’s candidacy seriously, Gorka wrote him a series of position papers. Gorka’s biography at the Institute of World Politics, a Washington-based program that offers master's degrees and continuing education programs for military and other government officials, casts him as an “internationally recognized authority on issues of national security, irregular warfare, terrorism and democratization.” Gorka taught there as an adjunct before becoming a professor in 2016. Several experts interviewed by POLITICO puzzled over the gap between the numerous military academic credentials listed by Gorka — a political science Ph.D. who unfailingly uses the title “Dr.” — and their unfamiliarity with his work and views “When I first encountered his name during the transition, I did a triple-take. I've been in counterterrorism since 1998, and I thought I knew everyone. But I'd never heard his name and couldn't recall anything he'd written or said,” said Daniel Benjamin, who served as counterterrorism coordinator under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Retired Col. Peter Mansoor, a former top aide to Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq who helped rewrite the Army’s counterinsurgency manual, also said he’s never crossed paths with Gorka. “What I've heard has not been complimentary,” added Mansoor, who now teaches at Ohio State University and remains active in military circles. In a subsequent email to POLITICO, Gorka said the two participated together on a panel discussion. Mansoor responded that he had forgotten about the event but said he remains critical of Gorka's recent views. Gorka’s defenders dismiss such criticism. “Seb has never been in the traditional kind of academic world,” said James Carafano, a national security expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “There is a certain demonization that goes on against these guys.” Trump’s rhetoric and actions since taking office reflect the influence of the Gorkas, who call for a tougher response to Islamist radicalism. In his Florida speech days after Trump won the election, Gorka showed what he acknowledged was a controversial PowerPoint slide featuring a dead ISIS fighter face down in the sand framed by a black background featuring white text that read: “Now we can win.” The Trump administration, Gorka told POLITICO, is committed to “crushing” ISIS “with [its] partners in the region.” Gorka was one of the few White House staffers consulted ahead of Trump’s controversial Jan. 27 executive order limiting arrivals into the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries. He told POLITICO that he believes “it’s absolutely watertight when it comes to the legality and the president’s right to do this.” Although two federal courts have halted the order, Gorka hasn’t changed his opinion. “It’s a fundamentally preventative measure,” he added. “Counterterrorism isn’t about responding afterwards.” Katharine Gorka wrote in 2013 that the Obama administration “seems to be allowing Islamists to dictate national security policy.” And she criticized President Barack Obama’s DHS for allegedly changing its training protocols to include an “emphasis on Islam as a religion of peace.” The Gorkas are also strong believers in changing official U.S. government rhetoric to include the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism,” which Obama, and George W. Bush before him, shunned. “We are prepared to be honest about the threat. We're not going to white it out, delete it as the Obama administration did,” Sebastian Gorka told NPR last month. In November, the Council on American-Islamic Relations described the views of both Gorkas as “Islamophobic.” Gorka disputes that characterization. He claims that half of the students he has instructed, including Jordanian Princess Aisha bin Al Hussein, King Abdullah's sister, are from predominantly Muslim countries. “I’ve said again and again, the people who are most at peril in this world are our Muslim partners, because ISIS and Al Qaeda are killing them first,” he told POLITICO. “It’s not a war with Islam,” he continued. “It’s a war within Islam.” Gorka was born in the United Kingdom to Hungarian parents who fled during the country’s failed 1956 anti-Soviet revolution. In the book "Defeating Jihad," Gorka describes how his father was tortured and imprisoned for two years, searing in his mind what he calls the “evil” of Soviet totalitarianism and turning him, unlike many anti-jihadist hard-liners, against torture, which he calls “fundamentally wrong.” The Gorkas met in Romania in 1994, when they both attended a symposium for young leaders. At the time, Gorka was working in Budapest, while Katharine was working for a small policy think tank in New York. Katharine, whose father was president of a major Pennsylvania iron works factory, earned her master’s degree from the London School of Economics and in the early 1990s focused on the post-Soviet transition to democracy. They married in Hungary and remained in Europe. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, they turned their attention, like many in the national-security world, to terrorism. Gorka’s biography at the Institute of World Politics says he spent four years on the faculty of the Program on Terrorism and Security Studies at the George C. Marshall Center in Germany. Gorka said he worked for the program’s founder, retired Marine Corps Col. Andrew Nichols Pratt, who died in 2013. The program’s current director, James Howcroft, also a retired Marine colonel, said Gorka only “periodically delivered lectures or served as a seminar leader.” The Gorkas returned to the U.S. nine years ago, Gorka said. On several of his personal biography pages, Gorka lists a two-year fellowship at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, though he said he left after less than a year to take a position at the Rand Corp., the Washington think tank. Several military sources noted that Gorka’s teaching affiliations — including the Marine Corps University Foundation as well as the Joint Special Operations University — have been with part-time professional development seminars for midcareer military officers, rather than at premier war colleges such as the Naval Postgraduate School in California and the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Carafano, who has known the Gorkas for 15 years, said Gorka is a serious scholar. Carafano said he’s filled in for Sebastian Gorka at the Institute of World Politics. “I struggled to keep up with his curriculum,” said Carafano, who also worked alongside Katharine Gorka on Trump’s transition team for DHS. Earlier this month, Gorka was cleared of a weapons charge filed after he attempted to board a plane at Reagan National Airport with a gun; Gorka has said he was carrying a gun because he'd received death threats. During his conversation with POLITICO, Gorka defended himself — unprompted — against recent reports, including one that he overstated his role as an expert witness for the Department of Justice during the trial of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. “I’ve got invoices claiming I wrote studies for [DOJ],” he said, but “they just never put me on the stand.” The Gorkas have been clear about their desire to position themselves and their ideas in the public eye. During his Florida talk last November, for the right-wing Freedom Center, Sebastian Gorka described how his wife encouraged him to market "Defeating Jihad" — a how-to manual for fighting terrorism that fills 244 large-type pages, about a third of which consist of appendixes, recommended reading and an index. “I'm going to write about what I do for our war fighters, what I teach them in the class, how to understand the enemy, the A-Z of national security and counterterrorism,” Gorka described telling Katharine. “My wife, she said, 'Are you crazy? I mean, don't you want to sell books, or we just want to sell them to wonks?'” Gorka told the audience. “She gave me some very sage advice, and this is to all you budding authors out there: If you want the people to read your book, especially Americans, you must have a good story. You have to connect.” Edited February 17, 2017 by snowychap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted February 17, 2017 Moderator Share Posted February 17, 2017 One of my personal favourite WTF moments of many WTF moments with Trump was when he claimed parts of Chicago are worse than the war zones of the Middle East. The stuff that falls out of the tangerine shit gibbon is quite staggering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterms Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 Apparently his administration is a well-oiled machine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 Expect to see some shocking 'facts' announced by Spicer and Trump, based on a fair, scientic, unleading poll sent out to their supporters. https://action.donaldjtrump.com/mainstream-media-accountability-survey/ I particularly enjoyed: Quote Do you believe that if Republicans were obstructing Obama like Democrats are doing to President Trump, the mainstream media would attack Republicans? Do you believe that the mainstream media has reported unfairly on our movement? Yes No No opinion Other, please specify: Do you trust MSNBC to report fairly on Trump's presidency? Yes No No opinion Other, please specify: Do you trust CNN to report fairly on Trump's presidency? Yes No No opinion Other, please specify: Do you trust Fox News to report fairly on Trump's presidency? Yes No No opinion Other, please specify: On which issues does the mainstream media do the worst job of representing Republicans? (Select as many that apply.) Immigration Economics Pro-life values Religion Individual liberty Conservatism Foreign policy Second Amendment rights Which television source do you primarily get your news from? Fox News CNN MSNBC Local news Do you use a source not listed above? Which online source do you use the most? Do you trust the mainstream media to tell the truth about the Republican Party’s positions and actions? Yes No No opinion Other, please specify: Do you believe that the mainstream media does not do their due diligence fact-checking before publishing stories on the Trump administration? Yes No No opinion Other, please specify: Do you believe that the media unfairly reported on President Trump’s executive order temporarily restricting people entering our country from nations compromised by radical Islamic terrorism? Yes No No opinion Other, please specify: Were you aware that a poll was released revealing that a majority of Americans actually supported President Trump's temporary restriction executive order? Yes No No opinion Other, please specify: Do you believe that political correctness has created biased news coverage on both illegal immigration and radical Islamic terrorism? Yes No No opinion Other, please specify: Do you believe that contrary to what the media says, raising taxes does not create jobs? Yes No No opinion Other, please specify: Do you believe that people of faith have been unfairly characterized by the media? Yes No No opinion Other, please specify: Do you believe that the media wrongly attributes gun violence to Second Amendment rights? Yes No No opinion Other, please specify: Do you believe that the media has been far too quick to spread false stories about our movement? Yes No No opinion Other, please specify: Do you believe that the media uses slurs rather than facts to attack conservative stances on issues like border control, religious liberties, and ObamaCare? Yes No No opinion Other, please specify: Do you believe that the media purposely tries to divide Republicans against each other in order to help elect Democrats? Yes No No opinion Other, please specify: Do you believe that the media creates false feuds within our Party in order to make us seem divided? Yes No No opinion Other, please specify: Do you believe that the mainstream media has been too eager to jump to conclusions about rumored stories? Yes No No opinion Other, please specify: Do you believe that if Republicans were obstructing Obama like Democrats are doing to President Trump, the mainstream media would attack Republicans? Yes No No opinion Other, please specify: Do you agree with the President’s decision to break with tradition by giving lesser known reporters and bloggers the chance to ask the White House Press Secretary questions? Yes No No opinion Other, please specify: Do you agree with President Trump’s media strategy to cut through the media’s noise and deliver our message straight to the people? Yes No No opinion Other, please specify: Do you believe that our Party should spend more time and resources holding the mainstream media accountable? Yes No No opinion Other, please specify: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 (edited) Apparently, he's due to appoint Mike Dubke, the founder of something called 'Crossroads Media', as his communications director. Expect more contrived stories, badly delivered lines and Benny to pop up as new National Security advisor. Edited February 17, 2017 by snowychap 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted February 17, 2017 Moderator Share Posted February 17, 2017 My new mostest favouritist clip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 He's, like, a smart guy. Real smart. He'll figure out uranium in 30 minutes, he probably already knows most of it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted February 17, 2017 Moderator Share Posted February 17, 2017 I love how he condescendingly says "It's a thing called nuclear weapons" like you're the idiot It just gets better with each viewing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted February 17, 2017 Moderator Share Posted February 17, 2017 2 hours ago, TrentVilla said: One of my personal favourite WTF moments of many WTF moments with Trump was when he claimed parts of Chicago are worse than the war zones of the Middle East. In fairness to him, in terms of the likelihood that you will die, for a young American male you're less likely to get killed before reaching thirty by joining the army and serving in the Middle East or Afghanistan than you are through working in large parts of Chicago - the murder rate there is higher than the combat death rate for the US military in most major conflicts. However, in order to say that parts of Chicago are worse than the war zones of the middle east, you'd have to assume that the only deaths that matter are those of US troops and that the millions of deaths of brown Muslim people are in fact utterly inconsequential to the point where they shouldn't be included in the statistics - which quite clearly he..........ah. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 Better add Pakistan to your list, Donald. Quote A suicide attack in a popular shrine in southern Pakistan has killed at least 72 people, police say. The bomber blew himself up among devotees in the shrine of Sufi saint Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in the town of Sehwan in Sindh province, police said. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has condemned the attack, which has been claimed by so-called Islamic State. It is the deadliest in a string of recent bombings claimed by IS, the Pakistani Taliban and other militants. BBC As it's other Muslims that are feeling the pain, it's not such an issue 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 52 minutes ago, BOF said: I love how he condescendingly says "It's a thing called nuclear weapons" like you're the idiot It just gets better with each viewing. The President of the United States. It is just surreal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 http://www.vox.com/2017/2/16/14640772/president-trump-quotes-presser Quote Reporter: When you call it "fake news," you're undermining confidence in our news media ... Trump: No, no. I do that. Here's the thing. OK. I understand what you're -- and you're right about that, except this. See, I know when I should get good and when I should get bad. And sometimes I'll say, "Wow, that's going to be a great story." And I'll get killed ... English, really bad person, do you speak it?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 He completely Conway'd that question. Also he can't seem to finish a thought without launching into another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 Curiously checked out Obama's last press conference to see the difference and my god. 1:50 really stood out as a stark contrast to what we witnessed yesterday. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted February 17, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted February 17, 2017 It's no wonder people were talking about President Bannon. The man holding the title can barely speak coherently. I'm still waiting for the mask to slip that people were reassuring us existed, and that actually Donald was a clever man and this was a charade to make him electable. He's a genuine moron, a textbook narcissist, and positively dangerous. You can laugh at you're inept these conferences are, but then you remember this is the man with his finger on the button, who in the campaign asked why we couldn't use the nukes, who spent a few moments in that conference discussing what amounts to nuclear armageddon. And millions of cretins voted for this farce. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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