American Politics Thread: Orange is the new POTUS

[Cali Panthers Fan]

edit: nm, swear filter won't allow the meme to be posted due to swear in the URL.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

edit: nm, swear filter won't allow the meme to be posted due to swear in the URL.

You could use a link shortener: https://goo.gl/

Paste the original URL in there and it will generate a link that just uses a random string of letters and numbers.

[Bagor]

Today's tweet from the past.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Ok, let's try this again. NSFW for swear word.

My child loves Winnie-The-Pooh, and every once in a while it has some simple wisdom.

NSFW!

[oldschoolcalgary]

anyone watching Trump's speech?

Just catching it part way in... its rather ironic to be applauding Saudi Arabia for agreeing to join in the effort to cut off funding for terrorist organizations...

Saudi Arabia, or more accurately, some of the Saudi upper class, are the one's directly funding organizations like Isil...

very interesting to single out hezbollah and Iran... i know that Iran just elected a moderate president...so Trump's speech can't go over too well there... also as mentioned as a result, he does single out Shii'te muslims over sunni muslims...

i will be interested to hear the analysis from pundits on the speech... so far it seems fairly measured - which simply suggests to me that Trump advisors begged him to stay on script...

hopefully, idiots in the media don't fall over themselves by calling him "presidential"... the speech shows that he can maintain focus long enough to read from a teleprompter... though i am sure Fox will be gushing over the speech.

[Thor]

lol Saudi Kingdom is one of the biggest proponents of what we in the west describe as an extreme form of Islam, Wahabism!

It was funny to see Donald start to get tired talking in the last 5 or 10 mins of his speech, you could tell this is a guy with terrible stamina (irony again).

But the speech was pretty much a win for him, and well written I think in most parts. Of course it was helped out by former Bush Jr people as well.

[FLAME ENVY]

No mention of the delicious Steak & Ketchup dinner ?

[Bagor]

Was waiting for:

I think nobody knows more about Islam than I do, maybe in the history of the world. Nobody knows more about Islam, believe me, believe me. I have friends that are muslim, Mohammed, a friend of mine, great friend of mine.

[Lanny_McDonald]

How can you fight radical Islamic terrorism if you can't use that exact term in your speech?

[direwolf]

Originally Posted by oldschoolcalgary

i will be interested to hear the analysis from pundits on the speech... so far it seems fairly measured - which simply suggests to me that Trump advisors begged him to stay on script...

hopefully, idiots in the media don't fall over themselves by calling him "presidential"... the speech shows that he can maintain focus long enough to read from a teleprompter... though i am sure Fox will be gushing over the speech.

Oh don't worry, I'm sure the rest of the networks will gush over it as well. Remember what happened after he stuck to the script for his speech to congress? The bar is set so low for this jackass, that when he simply sticks to the teleprompter and comes across as "measured" or "normal", it's considered a huge win for Trump. No doubt it will push all the Russia talk off the front page for at least a day or two.

[direwolf]

Pretty good summary of the Trump administration's proposed budget (at least what's been leaked so far), and why there's zero chance it becomes law.

https://www.vox.com/2017/5/20/156660...ate-filibuster

Donald Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2018 (which begins on October 1 of this year) is not out yet; it’s set to be released on Tuesday, May 23.

But from the administration’s “skinny budget” released in March, as well as scattered leaks to the press by the administration and Congress, we have a pretty good idea what might be in it:

An assumption of 3 percent annual economic growth due to tax cuts, which reputable experts say is spectacularly unlikely; 1.8 percent growth is what real forecasters project.

"Trillions" in cuts to various programs, including, "food stamps, Medicaid and federal employee-benefit programs." The Medicaid cuts are above and beyond the $880 billion in ten-year cuts contained in the Republican health bill.

Billions in cuts to life-saving biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health.

Big, unnecessary increases to Trump’s pet programs, including a nearly 9 percent increase in defense spending, a 7 percent increase in funding for the Department of Homeland Security (including border wall and deportation funding) and a 6 percent increase for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Almost comically large cuts to every other federal agency: a 31 percent cut to Environmental Protection Agency budget, 21 percent to Agriculture and Labor, 18 percent to Health and Human Services, 16 percent to Commerce, 13 percent to Housing and Urban Development, 13 percent to Transportation, and 12 percent to Interior.

A particularly massive 28 percent cut to the State Department, in particular foreign aid funding that even conservative foreign policy types think is essential.

New funding for voucher programs and private schools alongside a nearly 14 percent cut to the Education Department, including eliminating loan forgiveness for students who go on to do public service.

This is not a serious plan. It is not something that has much, or any, shot of becoming law. And while that in itself is not too remarkable in a budget document, the fact that an administration is putting out a doomed policy proposal this egregiously unpopular and easy to attack is remarkable.

For one thing, most of these changes would require passing appropriations bills, which can, and definitely would, be filibustered by Democrats in the Senate. Slashing the EPA budget or cutting the Department of Agriculture by 21 percent or funding a border wall — that would all have to go through a process that requires 60 Senate votes, and it’s simply inconceivable that eight Democrats would defect and support cuts and immigration crackdown funding this draconian.

[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by direwolf

Pretty good summary of the Trump administration's proposed budget (at least what's been leaked so far), and why there's zero chance it becomes law.

The crippling effect of changes made to student loans would kill higher education, as no one would go on to saddle themselves with that level of debt, and damn almost an entire generation of students to poverty as there is no way to get out from under those loans. The PSLF component would crush all public service organizations and create a brain drain that would permanently damage interests who work for the common good. These changes alone should make this budget unpassable. Knowing our politicians, and the fact that they are all millionaires, it is pretty well assured that these budget changes will be codified into law and further damage our economy and the institutions that have given America an advantage over all other nations.

[oldschoolcalgary]

Originally Posted by direwolf

Oh don't worry, I'm sure the rest of the networks will gush over it as well. Remember what happened after he stuck to the script for his speech to congress? The bar is set so low for this jackass, that when he simply sticks to the teleprompter and comes across as "measured" or "normal", it's considered a huge win for Trump. No doubt it will push all the Russia talk off the front page for at least a day or two.

agreed; the bar is set very low for Trump...

its a weird battle for media companies, trying to figure out how to report the news now - if one goes "too negative" you get labelled as part of the "left wing media" or "fake news", so in an effort to provide a more 'balanced' view, CNN will invite some clown like Jeffrey Lord on an give him a platform... or the NYTimes hiring a climate denier like Bret Stephens...

you'd think these guys would learn from the awful proliferation of false equivalence during the election...its a crazy form of self-sabotage, esp with a guy like Jeffrey Lord....just because people have opposing positions does meant that they should necessarily be given equal weight as prevailing truth.

In an interview with the Huffington Post, the NYT’s Bennett said there was “more than one kind of denial.”

“And to pretend like the views of a thinker like Bret, and the millions of people who agree with him on a range of issues, should simply be ignored, that they’re outside the bounds of reasonable debate, is a really dangerous form of delusion,” he said.


Let’s think about what the NYT opinion page might look like if we based it on the beliefs of millions of Americans.


According to Gallup polling data, some 20 percent of Americans believe in witches, which is roughly half the number of people who think extrasensory perception is actually a thing.



A poll conducted by Harris in 2016 found that two out of five Americans think ghosts are real. Belief in evolution? That’s at 49 percent. Creationism? Some 37 percent are down with that.


Lizard people controlling societies? One in 25 Americans fear their presence, but where's their representation in the NYT editorials?

Arguing that someone should be hired to the editorial desk of one of the world’s most influential newspapers because “millions of people” hold a particular belief is a clear path to supporting the sort of delusional thinking that has more Americans believing in the paranormal than accepting that climate change is mostly human-caused.

https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/04/2...ectual-honesty

Trump not deviating from the teleprompter, scrolling through a script that Trump probably had nothing to do with, does NOT make him presidential... and legitimate media suggesting that without the caveats mentioned above are doing the American people a disservice.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by New Era

The crippling effect of changes made to student loans would kill higher education, as no one would go on to saddle themselves with that level of debt, and damn almost an entire generation of students to poverty as there is no way to get out from under those loans. The PSLF component would crush all public service organizations and create a brain drain that would permanently damage interests who work for the common good. These changes alone should make this budget unpassable. Knowing our politicians, and the fact that they are all millionaires, it is pretty well assured that these budget changes will be codified into law and further damage our economy and the institutions that have given America an advantage over all other nations.

The inability to bankrupt out of them, the ease at which they are given out and the lack of proper incentives to reduce tuition creates part of the mess that US post secondary is right now. The incentives are all set up to screw the students

[Senator Clay Davis]

Two things:

1. Bill Mitchell is still one of the funniest things on Twitter.

2. Maggie Haberman confirming the Trump administration tries to plant fake "anonymous sources/leaks" stories is probably the least surprising thing to come out about the Trump administration.

[Thor]

#sad!

[DownInFlames]

WTF is going on here?

[puffnstuff]

Last one with his tiny hands on the ball wins a car.

[Snuffleupagus]

It was the official opening of the phony global centre for combating extremist ideology that the Saudi's put together, it'll be closed next week.

[Bagor]

Trump has the best moves.

https://mobile.twitter.com/IHWCo/sta...544770/video/1