Trump's America

[River]

Yeah. There are lots of causes to give rage donations to. I picked the ACLU because I like their hit rate. I also give monthly to a couple environmental groups.

One of my cousins volunteers at a migrant shelter in El Paso. My sister's neck deep in immigration advocacy work. I chip in to lawyers suing the Trump Administration. As my family goes, I'm a lightweight.

[RoseMorninStar]

Everything counts. Advocacy (and supporting it) is important & worthwhile.

[elengil]

Remember back in the early days of 2017 when the so-called 'travel ban' was necessary to correct the hitherto "lax" immigration vetting system, and it needed to be halted for several months to review the policies and bolster the process?

Remember that? Several months? And then all the fighting on the courts, and months and months passed, but noone bothered to point out - you've had your several months several times over now, why is this still necessary? Why is your review not done? Why have you not updated the policy and this is no longer required?

3 years later and now more countries being added.

To a process that was supposed to be a months-long review, just an interim until new policies could be drafted?

Remember?

... seems like a lot of people don't.

[elengil]

It almost seems petty to post this but... as exhausting as it is I feel it's critical to continue to point out the hypocrisy. Just because there is a lot of it doesn't mean it no longer matters.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politi ... 13588.html

[RoseMorninStar]

It almost seems petty to post this but... as exhausting as it is I feel it's critical to continue to point out the hypocrisy. Just because there is a lot of it doesn't mean it no longer matters.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politi ... 13588.html

He's very (so very) good at targeting others for the tiniest, pettiest things, but it never seems to stick to him when he does the very same thing. And he gets away with it. It is something narcissists tend to be exceptionally good at. I don't get it. And I don't get why otherwise good people are attracted to it/go along with it.

[River]

Elengil, I also remember that Saudi Arabia, the nation whose citizens have had a hand in thousands of deaths by terrorism in the US, has never been listed on a travel ban. Whatever it's about, it's not security.

[elengil]

Trump refuses to shake Pelosi's hand befofe the speech, Pelosi rips Trump's speech in half at the end.

Freakin gradeschool pettiness.

[Faramond]

Trump refuses to shake Pelosi's hand befofe the speech, Pelosi rips Trump's speech in half at the end.

Freakin gradeschool pettiness.

Refusal to shake hands rarely looks good for the refuser. I think it was a tactical mistake by Warren to refuse to shake Sanders's hand after the debate.

And Trump may actually have hurt himself a tiny bit, because -- maybe? -- a persuadable voter watching might have been put off by Trump being so petty. It's a reach, I know, but little things like this can add up over time. I think it's wrong to say that Trump's bad behavior doesn't hurt him. Given the state of the economy he should be sailing toward reelection and instead he's maybe at best ( for him ) break even to win reelection. All the stuff he does takes a toll on his popularity.

As for Pelosi I think it was a mistake to rip up his speech. To me that reaction only happens if the speech was effective. It's a small admission of defeat, at least in the moment. If Trump gives a lousy speech then there's no need to react, of course. I've read liberal sources that think the speech was effective, but Trump always seems to give a pretty "normal for him" State of the Union Speech, doesn't he? He'll be back to his typical terrible behavior soon enough and then any gains he might have made with the speech will evaporate.

Last thing -- there are a lot of AlwaysTrumpers who are having a go at Pelosi for ripping up the speech, even claiming she could face jail time for "destroying a government document". The hypocrisy here is obvious -- Trump routinely does much worse.

[River]

Last thing -- there are a lot of AlwaysTrumpers who are having a go at Pelosi for ripping up the speech, even claiming she could face jail time for "destroying a government document". The hypocrisy here is obvious -- Trump routinely does much worse.

It is a performance that they hope will please their lord and master.

[elengil]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/07/politics ... index.html

A federal appeals court on Friday dismissed a lawsuit by congressional Democrats alleging President Donald Trump violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution by refusing to allow lawmakers to review and approve his financial interests.
...
This emoluments case was one of three ongoing constitutional challenges to Trump and his business, alleging that the President is violating the anti-corruption emoluments clause. Two other emoluments cases attack Trump for his alleged competitive advantage at the Trump-branded real estate empire. Those cases are still moving through the court system.

[elengil]

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarko ... s-n2560932

"It's unfortunate that Democrats whom we’ve kept in the loop on our investigations would recklessly seek to interfere with legitimate government oversight,” a Grassley spokesman told The New York Times.

[River]

I'm a little lost. How are Democrats interfering?

[elengil]

I'm a little lost. How are Democrats interfering?

I was more focused on the utterly unashamed rank hypocrisy of claiming Democrats are trying to interfere in congressional oversight!!!! At this point, does it even matter if Democrats are interfering or not? They could literally say anything and their base will accept it as gospel truth.

Of course that's heaped on top of the already hypocritical rush to hand over any documents Republicans ask for while blatantly ignoring Democratic requests.

[Frelga]

Well, at least we can't blame the coronavirus on...

Wait.

From October 2019.

Scientists Were Hunting for the Next Ebola. Now the U.S. Has Cut Off Their Funding.

In a move that worries many public health experts, the federal government is quietly shutting down a surveillance program for dangerous animal viruses that someday may infect humans.

Has defunding the program made any difference? I guess we'll never know.

[elengil]

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/1 ... ers-114997

And there we have it. "If you're gonna tell on me imma stop lettin' you listen!"

[RoseMorninStar]

To watch our democracy fall into despotism at the hands of an untethered, amoral tyrant who answers to no one and no law while some of our fellow citizens and the GOP stand by cheering is simply beyond heartbreaking.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Most people have probably heard about the pardons and clemencies that Mr. Trump issued yesterday, further demonstrating his twisted sense of justice. But apparently, there could have been one more.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange alleges that Trump offered him a pardon if he denied that Russia hacked the DNC

The most extraordinary thing about this is that it doesn't even matter. The president of the United States is alleged to have offered a pardon in exchange for a lie, and I am sure that it won't even cause a ripple.

[River]

Well, look at it from this angle: he's rewarding his friends and protecting his kind of people. Positively admirable...if you don't look too close at who his kind of people are.

[Impenitent]

We're in a "fall of empire" stage of history. I keep saying it and in response people make wide circles to avoid the crazy lady, but the evidence points that way.
The world is already splintering into nationalist/xenophobic enclaves. The next couple/several generations are going to have a hard time of it before a new age of reason asserts itself.

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

[Griffon64]

https://twitter.com/ASmallFiction/statu ... 4495614977

Dedicated to all the GOP senators who voted to acquit because they figured Trump would learn his lesson.

( And yes, I'm pretty sure none of them believed what they said. )