Archive 2017-2019 Political Thread

[maroonedinhsv]

That 80 year old war hero is trying to screw his party and constituents and the country.

So, you're saying he voted for Trump?

 

[ghost]

What am I trying to do ? Drain the swamp !

Trump has turned a swamp into a cesspool

 

[Matt]

McCain is now wanting to take over the SecDefs job.

http://dailycaller.com/2017/07/31/mccain-if-trump-doesnt-produce-an-afghanistan-strategy-i-will/

 

[gangstonc]

Matt, what do you think of Trump's treatment of the Russia sanctions bill. Does it seem fishy to you?

 

[Derek00]

I noticed that the WH conceded that the Boy Scouts "flattering" calls to Trump actually never happened.

Draining the swamp sure does require a lot of lying and stupidity.

 

[KoD]

"Don't take vacations. What's the point? If you're not enjoying your work, you're in the wrong job." -Donald Trump - 11:28 am - 19 Nov 2012

 

[Evan]

It is not good that the transcripts of Trump's calls with Turnbull and Pena Nieto leaked out. First, the President has to have some privacy and latitude to deal with foreign affairs. It also sets a horrendous precedent for the future. This was NOT a good thing. And, it probably presses Trump and the WH even harder to be more secretive and withhold information that the American people SHOULD know about or be told about. It is a lose lose for nearly everyone.

My gut is that this didn't come from the White House. I don't know if Congress at some high level gets a copy of these transcripts or if someone in Congress was leaked this and then turned around and provided it to WaPo, but I think it was a warning shot across the bow to tell Trump to stay in his lane. It exposed that he doesn't care that much about the actual principle or the details behind a deal but is more concerned about the public and political perception of what he is doing. In other words, Trump has been calling out Congress and accusing them of being hypocrites and has been trying to tell them how to do their job. This is a strong message saying you'd better reconsider your angry tweets against us and stop trying to impose a purity test on us publicly when all you care about is optics. Basically... don't attack us for something you do ALL THE TIME and if you keep throwing us under the bus this is a preview of how we will return the favor.

I could be wrong, but I have a sense that is what may have played out. I don't see how someone in the WH (or even recently departed) would have much to gain by leaking this. It makes absolute sense that someone from the WH had previously leaked this to people in Congress, and they have finally decided to weaponize it, or they receive a briefing on call transcripts and someone decided to leak it. Not sure which, but I actually think a decent number of recent leaks have been from Congress. I don't think Trump has realized yet that when he attacks the members of his own Party and tries to throw them under the bus that his own sticky situations start to heat up quite a bit. If he gets the message now they may back off, but if he keeps on some very embarrassing things are liable to come out. Just a hunch. Could be totally wrong.

 

[Evan]

One other potential sources -- and some will think it doesn't make sense -- but it does if you've paid attention to what is going on recently. There have been a lot of natsec leaks embarrassing to Trump personally, but even more than usual. 3-4 National Security Council people loyal to Bannon or heavy Trumpers have been fired by McMaster in the past couple of weeks. In addition to the natsec leaks, dirt or supposed dirt about McMaster is being HEAVILY leaked to Breitbart, alt-right media, and news outlets/personalities that are very friendly to the WH -- particularly very friendly to Steven Bannon. It might seem the two are unrelated, but one way to enrage Trump is when YOUR area of responsibility is the supposed source of leaks. Combine that with the fact that the leaks on McMaster have almost 95% been that McMaster is undermining Trump, lying to Trump, or making Trump "look weak" and it becomes apparent that the natsec leaks and the Trump specific leaks are one in the same. Its almost as if someone is angry that McMaster is the National Security Advisor and that he fired people that were loyal to them and kept them fed with info about natsc, angry that he has traditional foreign policy views instead of the nationalist/populist type, and angry that McMaster has gotten his way on policy and staffing. Anyone remember someone that was removed from the NSC once McMaster was hired? Perhaps a certain nationalist/populist that can control Breitbart and alt-right messaging with a few phone calls. Sounds an awfully lot like Steve Bannon.

 

[Evan]

This is the system and agency that Matt, Trump, and others say does an incredible job of enforcing our laws and that they say Obama twisted into protecting illegal aliens:

http://www.npr.org/2017/08/01/54090...-3-years-denied-compensation-by-appeals-court

How ironic that this occurred under Obama! But, remember, we are going to deport 11-14 million people using this same system and agency. Because they don't make mistakes! Has anyone been held accountable? Anyone fired? Demoted? Why shouldn't criminal charges be filed against those in ICE responsible for his illegal detention and false imprisonment? This guy lost some of the best years of his life because people at ICE treat immigrants like subhuman beings, don't understand the law they are enforcing, and make sloppy, incompetent, and even malicious errors.

Can ANYONE justify someone being held for 3.5 years because ICE didn't simply get his father's full name and compare it to Naturalization records? Are we really to believe that it took 3.5 years to figure it out?

Unfortunately, this is not a unique case. It is not uncommon for ICE to falsely imprison US Citizens. As the article mentions, over 1500 such cases have occurred since July 2007. That's more than 150 a year on average.

Here is DHS (ICE's parent agent), instructing the CBP to deny lawyers access to clients by regarding their inquiries about people detained as being "part of a protest" and denying Congress' Constitutional right and duty to conduct oversight of the Executive:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/border-patrol-ordered-to-block-congressmen-during-travel-ban

It shouldn't matter if you are liberal or conservative. Who wants the government to be so incompetent as well as absolutely refuse to follow the law while violating the Constitutional rights of innocent Americans? All the while ignoring the Constitutional powers enumerated and assigned to the Legislative and Judicial branches.

That's right -- not just ignoring Congress, but outright refusing to comply with orders from multiple judges:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps...rt-as-his-first-constitutional-crisis-unfolds

I posted about this back in January while it was occurring in realtime. It was surreal and unbelievable. The Executive branch was outright ignoring lawful judicial orders and refusing to allow Congress to exercise their Constitutional powers of oversight.

Do you trust Trump and this admin to help re-write, modify, and implement the immigration bill they brought up this week?

 

[Evan]

Even in Russia they aren't this shameless. You only see this kind of propaganda in North Korea these days:

 

[ghost]

Even in Russia they aren't this shameless. You only see this kind of propaganda in North Korea these days:

I didn't know Trump TV existed and you are right with the comparison to North Korea.

 

[ghost]

Can you imagine how conservative white evangelicals would have reacted if Obama had said the exact same words that Trump has said? Be warned... it gets pretty graphic at the end.

 

[Derek00]

Trump TV? What, did Fox News finally change their name? They're full of s**** and a lot of the hosts harass women, so it's perfect.

 

[Evan]

So glad our President spent his time tweeting about Mika's face-lifts, his approval ratings, and posting CNN wrestling memes. Now we get to enjoy NK having a nuclearized ICBM with the ability to hit one of our major cities.

Gonna be hard to enjoy getting a rise out of liberals if Seattle & San Francisco no longer exist.

 

[Evan]

Awesome... two maniacs threatening each other with apocalyptic doom. Hard to see how this ends well.

 

[Mike S]

Awesome... two maniacs threatening each other with apocalyptic doom. Hard to see how this ends well.

I think we need to make a pre-emptive strike, I just wish we had an actual leader calling the shots.

 

[Evan]

I think we need to make a pre-emptive strike, I just wish we had an actual leader calling the shots.

We don't really have any other choice at this point. But Trump seems willing to bait Kim Jong Un instead of just acting... hence why I believe it won't end well.

Since NK has specifically threatened only the US with its nuclear weapons, I believe they made a monumental strategic error and we have a brief opening for a 1st strike. I can't believe I just wrote that. May God have mercy on the innocents and the USA.

 

[Matt]

So glad our President spent his time tweeting about Mika's face-lifts, his approval ratings, and posting CNN wrestling memes. Now we get to enjoy NK having a nuclearized ICBM with the ability to hit one of our major cities.

Gonna be hard to enjoy getting a rise out of liberals if Seattle & San Francisco no longer exist.

Get a grip Evan. This problem has been ignored by the last 3-4 administrations. Did you fail to notice the 15-0 vote by the security council Saturday ?

 

[Evan]

Get a grip Evan. This problem has been ignored by the last 3-4 administrations. Did you fail to notice the 15-0 vote by the security council Saturday ?

Trump had 200 days. This could've been avoided had he focused AND HAD A STRATEGY to start with.

Do you think baiting a lunatic cultist like Kim is helpful? That psycho doesn't care if he and his people die.

There should be mushroom clouds all over North Korea right now. We don't have any options left. Mika's face-lift was just more important than actually having a plan.

 

[Evan]

Get a grip Evan. This problem has been ignored by the last 3-4 administrations. Did you fail to notice the 15-0 vote by the security council Saturday ?

By the way, you do know what you just said was LITERALLY the Obama administration's canned response to anything regarding NK? Oh, look at this meaningless UN Resolution... not our fault the OTHER President didn't do something before.

Give me a break.