REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

TRUMP - Just because.....................Naw, I just can't say it!

POSTED BY: SHINYGOODGUY
UPDATED: Tuesday, July 23, 2024 11:14
SHORT URL:
VIEWED: 189731
PAGE 10 of 34

Tuesday, August 9, 2016 8:19 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
But on to more interesting topics: Hillary's "seizures".

I agree KIKI, these don't look like seizures, they look possibly like an over-medicated movement disorder.

A little too much dopamine, perhaps??? That "seizure" at the DNC convention looked like nothing so much as a sudden, distracting hallucination which can be caused by dopamine overdose.
Hillary Clinton’s falls recall the health questions JFK tried to dodge

www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/aug/8/hillary-clintons-falls-recall-
the-health-questions/

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

The health of a prospective president is one of the most important issues of any campaign, but whether to ask hard questions about a candidate is usually a matter of whose prospective president, and whose health. When the prospective president is a Democrat, the media only sends candy, flowers and best wishes.

Ours is a curious campaign, and the precedents set in the coverage of it are dark and dangerous because they’re likely to be long-lasting. Objectivity, honored if sometimes only in the breach for more than a century, is regarded this year as no longer necessary because “going after Donald Trump” is not only legitimate, but morally righteous.

If you’re a reporter or pundit and believe that Mr. Trump is evil, or at least bad, “you have to throw out the textbook American journalism has been using for the better part of the past half-century, if not longer, and approach it in a way you’ve never approached anything in your career,” Jim Rutenberg, the “mediator” at The New York Times, wrote Monday. “If you view a Trump presidency as something that’s potentially dangerous, then your reporting is going to reflect that.”

Thus partisan opinion officially becomes fact, the only “news” that’s fit to print. It was a moment to mourn objectivity, which newspapers have held high for what seems like forever. RIP.

The latest contretemps is over the health of Hillary Clinton, and whether there should be any discussion of it, and if so, how, and who should do the discussing. Her stumbling, fainting, severe coughing and moments of odd behavior on the campaign have been much talked about by the reporters following her, but this knowledge was veiled in a discreet silence, until now.

The Drudge Report, which everybody on the bus reads as an early take on the news of the world, led Monday with an inventory of her health missteps and photographs of her being helped up the steps of a private house, held up by several aides. The clearly intended question posed is whether the Democratic nominee is ailing, and if so, how. Carol Costello, a news hostess on CNN, observed that the Drudge item had been up all weekend and asked a Trump aide: “Will Donald Trump go there?”

The question would once have been bizarre for a journalist, even a television journalist. The question would have been, would reporters go there? And if not, why not? “Going there” is what a reporter is paid to do, to see whether there’s a story there, and if not, to say so — loud and clear. Instead Mzz Costello, who is neither a physician nor has she examined Hillary Clinton’s health, acknowledged the health episodes, but assured her viewers: “She has totally recovered.” She did not say how she knows that.

The Drudge Report cited four health episodes over the years Hillary has campaigned for president: needing assistance climbing stairs this year, a blood clot on the brain in 2012, a fall while boarding an airplane in 2011 and a fall on her way to the White House in 2009. One of the accompanying photographs, by Reuters, shows her losing her balance while touring a substance abuse center in Charleston, S.C.

None of the incidents, taken as single episodes, appears to a layman’s eye to be a symptom of something to take her out of the campaign, and if, as “Dr.” Costello of CNN says, “she has totally recovered,” we can all be glad of that, and wish her good health, if not too much happiness on the way to November 8.

But the incident, and the media anger at having been caught out not doing its job, should be a caution for correspondents, editors and others in the media. We’ve been here before.

John F. Kennedy was asked by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1960 whether he suffered from Addison’s disease, a debilitating malfunction of the adrenal glands. The glands produce key regulatory hormones, and if the hormones cannot be sufficiently replaced by synthetics, wasting and death nearly always follow.

JFK denied it all, declaring that he was “the healthiest candidate for president in the country,” a sly dig at LBJ, who had suffered a severe heart attack five years earlier. Robert F. Kennedy declared that his brother “does not now nor has he ever had an ailment described classically as Addison’s disease.” It was a clever dodge. He knew that the disease had been first identified by one Dr. Thomas Addison in 1855, who said the disease was caused by tuberculosis. JFK never had tuberculosis, but an autopsy performed 13 years later, after the assassination, revealed that Addison’s disease had destroyed his adrenal glands.

Drugs can control many diseases, but lies cannot. This is a hard lesson that politicians learn only with stubborn difficulty.

• Wesley Pruden is editor-in-chief emeritus of The Times.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Tuesday, August 9, 2016 8:22 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


http://dilbert.com/strip/2016-08-09


That "angry" person? That's you, honey.


--------------
I think it's time you disabused yourself of that pleasant little fairy tale about our fearless leaders being some sort of surrogate daddy or mommy, laying awake at night thinking about how to protect the kids. HA! In reality, they're thinking about who to sell them to so that they can get a few more shekels in their pockets.

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Tuesday, August 9, 2016 9:24 AM

REAVERFAN


Present company excluded...

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Tuesday, August 9, 2016 10:20 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
http://dilbert.com/strip/2016-08-09

That "angry" person? That's you, honey.
I'm not Alice, I'm Wally, except I don't drink coffee or wear glasses or ties nor am I bald or wear shirts, although I do have a coffee cup full of Pilot pens, letter opener, and Sharpies. There is an eraser that I never need because either I stopped making errors or stopped caring enough to notice.
http://dilbert.com/strip/2010-07-15


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Tuesday, August 9, 2016 10:34 AM

THGRRI



double post

____________________________________________


NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Tuesday, August 9, 2016 10:34 AM

THGRRI


Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
Hillary will get nothing on climate change, no matter what she wants you to think the future holds with her. She also won't get universal healthcare, the public option or any of the other fantasies she promotes. Obamacare will stand or fall in the courts. It will not be voted out in the senate, so Hillary's position is moot.

If you're a typical democrat, you're a poor example of democrats in general. No wonder they've been such losers over the years.


So what, you are suggesting people should vote for someone else because Hillary will be blocked from doing what the voters want.

Another stupid obseveration 1kiki. And you the self proclaimed socialist suggesting by your relentless attacks against Hillary to vote for who, Trump. Careful, your agenda is showing again comrade.

____________________________________________


NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Tuesday, August 9, 2016 10:38 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by G:

Welcome to Kikiville Second.

You know how you crack a few eggs in a bowl to make an omelet and you see a small piece of shell in the bowl? And you try and fish it out but it keeps slipping one way or the other no matter how directly you try and address it? It just keeps side stepping to either side?? Ayep - Kiki.

Obviously Kiki has an opinion on Global Warming, and Muslims, and Health care and OBVIOUSLY expressing that would back her into a corner of inner and yet public conflict. She will never admit her true motivations - trust me on that one. She'll just keep side stepping, left, right. At least she has Signym for comfort.
1kiki is hiding something. I rudely speculated that it was working for Putin and being paid per thousand keystrokes. That's going to be impossible to scientifically verify without asking Hakin for help and why would he want to get sucked into that nonsense of one fireflyfan poster asking where 1kiki is really posting from in the world, so I tried another theory of 1kiki and that is why I was asking questions. But 1kiki answered "moot" to every question and then refusing all questions told me all I need to know about 1kiki.

Getting back to Trump and Dilbert, Scott Adams had this to say:

Clinton’s label of “dark” for Trump’s convention speech was such a well-designed linguistic kill shot. It is so good, in fact, that I speculated it was designed by the Godzilla of persuasion – who I did not name.

Dark is a fresh, unusual word (for politics). And it lets you fill in the details with whatever scares you the most about Trump while conveying a general tone of evil and negativity. Dark is no common insult. It originated from a master persuader.

Meanwhile, Trump was trying out his new linguistic kill shot by calling his opponent Hillary Rotten Clinton. Her actual name is Hillary Rodham Clinton, so it works as a play on words, and that helps memory retention, which is a persuasion trick. But it’s more than a clever play on words.

Rotten – like dark – is a fresh, unusual word (for politics). And it is general enough that people can fill in their own details with whatever they find to be rotten about Clinton. If you think Clinton looks unhealthy, perhaps she is rotting from the inside. Likewise, Clinton’s email problems sound rotten. . . .
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/147998060931/the-dark-and-rotten-election

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Tuesday, August 9, 2016 3:10 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Donald Trump thinks he knows how to make America's economy grow again, and that's by copying George W. Bush.
www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/08/09/donald-trump-has-a-plan
-to-make-america-great-again-copy-george-w-bush/


Indeed, in his big economic speech on Monday, Trump mostly just repeated the same supply-side shibboleths about cutting taxes for the rich and cutting back on regulations that Republicans have for 35 years now. The only way you could tell you weren't listening to, say, Mitt Romney, were all the calls to rip up our trade deals. But while the establishment might celebrate his lukewarm embrace, he ended up being just as disconnected from economic evidence as the GOP has been for years on questions of tax, regulation and economic growth.

The Republican Party, you see, keeps insisting that the only way to increase growth is to do what has not, in fact, increased growth the past 25 years. That's freeing businesses and businessmen from overly burdensome taxes and regulation so they bless us with so much wealth-creation that some of it will trickle down to us plebes. The problem with that, though, is it didn't work when George W. Bush tried it. The private sector, as you can see above, actually added fewer jobs after Bush cut taxes than it did after Bill Clinton and Barack Obama raised them.

It's almost as if growth depends on a lot more than just marginal tax rates.

How do Republicans explain this? Easy: They don't. They pretend that they never said Clinton's tax hikes would "lead us to a recession," like Newt Gingrich did in 1993. Or that the Bush tax cuts would supercharge the economy so much that they would pay off the entire national debt, like the Heritage Foundation did in 2001. Or that Obama's plan to raise taxes on the rich was "killing the Dow," like economist Michael Boskin did in 2009. The focus is always on the next tax cut, which, as Trumps says about his own, will "lead to millions of new, good-paying jobs." Everything else goes down the memory hole.

The GOP has the same approach when it comes to regulation. They tend to forget that rules have benefits as well as costs, or, if you look at it from the other direction, that there are costs as well as benefits to not having rules — like air that isn't as breathable, water that isn't as drinkable and a financial system that isn't as stable. Instead, they worry about anything getting in the way of business, even if that business is making predatory loans. Remember, after all, lax regulation of mortgages under the Bush administration helped foment the financial crisis that destroyed millions of jobs. You might have thought the Bush years would have made obvious that loose regulations aren't quite a magic elixir for growth, but, well, no.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Tuesday, August 9, 2016 7:07 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by G:

I don't know about you, but I feel some standard issue denyin' coming on.
I never give a damn about what "second" writes on my computer. "second" is not me, "1kiki" is not the person behind 1kiki and "River Tam" is not Summer Glau. No human need worry about their reputation when using a pseudonym. But some do, thinking that every word they type is a reflection of who the person is.

I throw in some valuable words from an essay before I go. These were written using her real name, not a pseudonym. The words are worth her defending because of the attachment to her real personality, not some internet character.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_Weil

On the Abolition of All Political Parties by Simone Weil

The problems with political parties are fairly obvious but nothing has changed here in the seventy years since this was written:

"When a country has political parties, sooner or later it becomes impossible to intervene effectively in public affairs without joining a party and playing the game. Whoever is concerned for public affairs will wish his concerns to bear fruit. Those who care about the public interest must either forget their concern and turn to other things, or submit to the grind of the parties. In the latter case, they shall experience worries that will soon supersede their original concern for the public interest."
www.amazon.com/dp/1590177819/

Since the essay was written during WWII, it references the War:
“Democracy, majority rule, are not good in themselves. They are merely means towards goodness, and their effectiveness is uncertain. For instance, if, instead of Hitler, it had been the Weimar Republic that decided, through a most rigorous democratic and legal process, to put the Jews in concentration camps, and cruelly torture them to death, such measures would not have been one atom more legitimate than the present Nazi policies (and such a possibility is by no means far-fetched). Only what is just can be legitimate. In no circumstances can crime and mendacity ever be legitimate.”

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Tuesday, August 9, 2016 8:35 PM

THGRRI


Quote:
Originally posted by G:


I don't know about you, but I feel some standard issue denyin' coming on.


I got the popcorn and am ready.

____________________________________________


NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Tuesday, August 9, 2016 10:53 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by THGRRI:
Quote:
Originally posted by G:

I don't know about you, but I feel some standard issue denyin' coming on.


I got the popcorn and am ready.
This can actually apply to Trump because he did something sneaky and misleading with his tax plan announced yesterday. He will be denying it but he said one thing and yet the tax plan does not work the way he wants you to think it works:

From the very beginning of his campaign, Trump has been consistent about abolishing the carried-interest loophole, which allows hedge fund managers to pay low tax rates on their management fees, which can sometimes run into the billions of dollars. This is the entire basis of his claim that the rich will pay more under his plan.

But it turns out that he's found a clever way to stick with his promise but nonetheless give the hedge fundies a huge tax cut. CBPP explains:
www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/examining-donald-trumps-statements-t
oday-on-taxes
Quote:
Mr. Trump said today that he would set the top individual income-tax rate at 33 percent...However, his plan would create a much lower rate than 33 percent for a substantial number of very-high-income households by allowing people to pay a new low rate of 15 percent on “pass-through” income (business income claimed on individual tax returns).

....This large tax cut for pass-through income would also undercut another tax change Mr. Trump mentioned today: eliminating the tax break for “carried interest.” Under current law, investment fund managers can pay taxes on a large part of their income — their “carried interest,” or the right to a share of their fund’s profits — at the 23.8 percent top capital gains tax rate rather than at normal income tax rates of up to 39.6 percent. The Trump plan ostensibly would tax carried interest at ordinary income tax rates. In fact, however, these investment fund managers generally would be able to arrange to receive their income as pass-through income.
Nickel summary: Under the old plan, the tax rate for carried interest would go up from 23.8 percent to 33 percent (or whatever top rate Trump happens to be hawking at any given moment). Under the shiny new plan, it would go down from 23.8 percent to 15 percent. The carried interest loophole would be gone, but the new pass-through income rate would be even better. Hooray for Wall Street!

This is basically a trivial thing, but it just goes to show how fanatic Republicans are about cutting taxes on the rich. Even a small symbolic tax increase that would affect only a tiny number of rich people simply can't be tolerated. Some way has to be found to get rid of it, even if that means inventing a whole new tax giveaway for a huge number of people.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, August 10, 2016 6:01 AM

SHINYGOODGUY


Hey Second,

And now he proposes to his followers to "take care" of Hillary as only 2d Amendment followers can, should she win the "rigged" election. So vile is his suggestion that the Secret Service commented on the matter. A rarity in the world of security.

To threaten a potential presidential candidate is serious business. Of course he denies it and places blame on the media. Funny thing, he spoke the words - pretty much like "blood coming out of her wherever." We all know his
intent, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out his intent.

This is a president!?


SGG


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
http://time.com/4443382/donald-trump-economic-speech-detroit-transcrip
t/

Donald Trump just finished his big economic policy speech. Every single one of his proposals would benefit the rich and do nothing for the working and middle classes. But he sure knows how to put a populist spin ("your tax will be zero!") on giveaways to the rich, doesn't he? Here are the pieces that caught my eye:

Huge tax cut for the rich.

But no spending cuts that he's willing to admit to.

End of estate taxes.

Cut corporate tax rate to 15 percent.

Allow corporations to repatriate foreign earnings at a special 10 percent rate.

Slash regulations on corporations.

Pretend global warming doesn't exist.

Ban all new financial regulation.

Repeal Obamacare.

Most of the speech was just the usual tired Republican orthodoxy. Mitt Romney could have given 90 percent of it. There was also a lot of random guff about how disastrous the economy is; how the unemployment rate is a hoax; and how American energy, planes, cars, steel, and so forth will employ way more American workers once he becomes president.

You bet.



The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, August 10, 2016 10:14 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by SHINYGOODGUY:
Hey Second,

We all know his intent, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out his intent.

This is a president!?
From today's Houston Chronicle:

George P. Bush’s Trump endorsement puts politics above decency
by LISA FALKENBERG

www.houstonchronicle.com/news/columnists/falkenberg/article/George-P-s
-embrace-of-Trump-is-a-missed-9132815.php

Shrewd. Calculating. Unconvincing.

These are the words that came to mind when I read of George P. Bush’s decision to split with his family and urge his party to support Donald Trump as the Republican presidential nominee.

“From Team Bush, it’s a bitter pill to swallow, but you know what? You get back up and you help the man that won, and you make sure that we stop Hillary Clinton,” the 40-year-old Texas land commissioner told the State Republican Executive Committee at a Saturday meeting, according to an attendee’s video that went viral on You-Tube.

For a rising star young politician who serves as the party’s victory chair in Texas, Bush’s move wasn’t terribly surprising. It resembled the tacit nod of other painfully uncomfortable Republicans who split hairs between “endorsing” Trump and “supporting” him, and who make half-hearted distinctions between the man himself and the man’s latest despicable sound bite.

So, why did Bush’s words sting so badly?

Some of us concerned Americans — including, say, the 50 senior Republican national security officials from Nixon to George W. Bush who signed a letter the other day declaring Trump a national security risk — are past the point of caring about political considerations.

We’re past the point of pretending that a guy who whispers sweet nothings to Vladimir Putin, badmouths NATO, insults the grieving family of a war hero, touts his illiteracy like an honorary degree, and has the emotional control of a nap-deprived 3-year-old is a normal presidential nominee deserving of traditional partisan deference.

We need brave souls to stand up and call a joker a joker. We need young voices to drown out, or at least moderate, the frustrations and fear of the older generation. We need serious public servants to stop cloaking Trump’s radical agenda in the awkward embrace of mainstream conservatism.

We need someone with a good head on his shoulders, a nice smile, and GOP credibility to stand up and point out this farce. Who better than George P., who watched Trump belittle his father, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and drag his mother into the ring of a contentious Republican presidential primary by suggesting her Mexican heritage swayed Jeb Bush’s policy positions on immigration?

But George P. passed on the opportunity.

Republicans stand up

His move is understandable, given his responsibility to unite his party, promote lower-ballot candidates and build rapport with the Republican base.

As Republican political consultant Matt Mackowiak told the Chronicle’s Mike Ward: “If Trump wins, it helps him. If Trump loses by a small margin, it still helps him.”

But, as the recklessness of Trump’s candidacy becomes more evident, Bush’s stance is no longer acceptable.

As conservative New York Times Columnist David Brooks put it recently: “You either stand with a man whose very essence is an insult to basic decency, or you don’t.”

He added: “If you’re not in revolt, you’re in cahoots.”

One can’t expect the younger Bush to be as outspoken against Trump as his father. And Texas Republicans may never have the luxury of conscience afforded to politicians like Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who has come out against Trump. Consider what happened when U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz used the word “conscience” in his convention speech refusing to back Trump.

As a young reporter covering the Texas Legislature and various state and congressional races, one of the hardest concepts to master was the cynicism of it all. I knew that, to some degree, politics was a game, with rules and rivalries, and cold stats that guided decisions.

But as hard as I tried, I couldn’t seem to reduce in my mind important policy decisions — a child’s education, say, or a family’s health care options — to mere collateral damage of a political horse race.

Trump lacks ‘respect’

Politics affects people’s lives in very real ways. Trump poses a greater danger than we may have ever seen. If you listen to the 50 former national security folks, he weakens the U.S. moral authority around the world and he lacks basic knowledge of the U.S. Constitution.

Collins, of Maine, adds another grave concern: Trump’s unsuitability for office is based on his “disregard for the precept of treating others with respect.” It’s an idea, she says, “that should transcend politics.”

She described in a Washington Post op-ed the “unpleasant reality” that she has come to accept: “there will be no ‘new’ Donald Trump, just the same candidate who will slash and burn and trample anything and anyone he perceives as being in his way or an easy scapegoat.”

It’s not a comfortable place to be — in Trump’s way. But at this point, it’s the only option. lisa.falkenberg@chron.com twitter.com/chronfalkenberg

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, August 10, 2016 10:28 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


I knew Trump would bounce back due to Americans’ short-term memory loss, and it is happening! It makes me feel confident about the future of America!
http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/#now


Tweet of the Day: Barack Obama Has Never Built a Golf Course

Rudy Giuliani says Obama has never built a golf course in his entire life. Unlike you know who.

Can a man truly call himself a man until he's built his first golf course?

The trees at Liberty Golf Course must be watered with the blood of patriots, Peter Thiel, and tyrants.

Ask not what your country can do for you, but what sand trap you can build for your country!

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, August 10, 2016 12:27 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by G:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
I knew Trump would bounce back due to Americans’ short-term memory loss, and it is happening! It makes me feel confident about the future of America!



I'm ready to call it.
Let's cheer him on: Trump! Trump! He's The Man! If he can't stop Hillary, nobody can!
And besides, Hillary is The Devil because Trump said so.




The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, August 10, 2016 2:53 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Poll numbers actually show that Trump is now less popular with the white working class than Romney was. In 2012, Romney won 62 percent of noncollege-educated white voters. The latest NBC-Wall Street Journal poll showed that Trump isn’t even winning a clear majority with the group, with just 49 percent backing him. A McClatchy/Marist poll puts him even lower, at 46 percent. This is a reversal from earlier in the summer, when Trump’s support among the group was in the 60s, higher than Romney’s, though not by leaps and bounds.

Much of the analysis of Trump’s support was based on the fact that he did very well indeed among a particular group of white working class voters early on: those who planned to vote in the GOP primary. Surowiecki, for instance, cited a July 2015 Washington Post/ABC News poll that showed a third of white GOP voters without college degrees had decided to support Trump, more than his rivals in the then-crowded field.

But one third of white working class voters planning to vote in a GOP primary is not that many people. Just 14 percent of eligible adults took part in the presidential caucuses and primaries, 9 percent of the total American population. White working class Trump voters were a small subset of that number, not really enough to make much of a difference.

If a candidate were to come along who was able to win most white working class voters – and energize them enough to boost their overall voter participation – that would indeed be noteworthy. But the evidence so far suggests Trump isn’t that candidate.

https://theintercept.com/2016/08/10/the-great-white-hype-no-one-is-ene
rgizing-the-white-working-class-not-even-donald-trump/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, August 10, 2016 4:14 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Trump Eliminating Estate Tax
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/08/10/hair-meets-heirs/

It’s sort of being put into the background by little stuff like death threats against Hillary Clinton, but I’m still kind of fascinated by how “populist” Donald Trump came out for elimination of the estate tax, which hits only a tiny number of yuuge estates. Of course, he probably doesn’t know that. Still, it was clearly a sop to the GOP establishment, which considers tax-free inheritance the “linchpin of the conservative movement.”

That tells you a lot about said movement. The thing about the estate tax is that it’s really, really hard to make the case that it’s all about incentives and trickle-down benefits. And conservatives basically don’t even try. Instead, they’ve made estate tax repeal an issue of “fairness” — people, they say, shouldn’t have to pay tax all over again when they die, and think of all the family farms and businesses broken put to pay the tax.

Now, this argument is in fact deeply misleading and almost always dishonest. For one thing, lots of people get taxed twice — once when you earn income, again when you pay sales tax, etc.. And much of the wealth passed on to heirs represents income — unrealized capital gains — that has never been taxed before. Oh, and the very wealthy, the people who now pay the bulk of the estate tax, often pay lower overall tax rates than people further down the scale; see Romney, Mitt.

There’s more: we’re supposed to feel bad about those broken-up family farms — but back in 2001, when the American Farm Bureau Foundation was asked to provide examples, it couldn’t find even one. Small business tales are also very hard if not impossible to find, and that was back when the minimum threshold was a lot lower than it is now. Basically, we’re supposed to feel sorry for unicorns.

But in that case, how does this story still exert power? Money in politics, for sure; decades of lavishly funded propaganda, too. But what Graetz and Shapiro, linked above, emphasize is that some of the blame rests on centrists and mild liberals, too: they never made the moral case for estate taxation. Even now, it’s hard to think of many politicians willing to be anywhere near as forthright as Teddy Roosevelt was about the dangers to democracy posed by vast inherited wealth.

The question is whether the Trump phenomenon will reopen that door. I understand and sympathize with the Clinton campaign’s decision to emphasize how uniquely bad Trump is; their task is, first and foremost, to keep his short fingers off the button. But a big win would, perhaps, create room for a more robust enunciation of progressive values, on this and many other subjects.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, August 10, 2016 4:22 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Donald Trump’s new tax plan could have a big winner: Donald Trump’s companies

www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2016/08/10/donald-trumps-new-
tax-plan-could-have-a-big-winner-donald-trumps-companies/

A little-noticed provision in Donald Trump’s tax reform plan has the potential to deliver a large tax cut to companies in the Republican presidential nominee’s vast business empire, experts say.

Trump’s plan would dramatically reduce taxes on what is known in tax circles as “pass-through” entities, which do not pay corporate income taxes, but whose owners are taxed at individual rates on their share of profits. Those entities are the most common structure for small businesses and increasingly popular for larger ones as well. They are also a cornerstone of the Trump Organization. On his 2015 presidential financial disclosure report, Trump listed holdings of more than 200 limited liability corporations, which is a form of pass-through.

"It’s a really nice deal” for Trump and pass-through owners like him, said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

Other Republicans and some business lobbying groups have long pushed to reduce taxes on pass-throughs, but what’s notable about Trump’s proposal is that it goes much further than any other recent GOP nominee's.

Trump would tax pass-through income at a rate of 15 percent, compared to the 40 percent personal income tax rate a wealthy business owner would pay today. He is the first GOP nominee to propose a specific pass-through rate. Others have simply lowered the top income tax rate, which would have the effect of lowering the pass-through rate as well. Mitt Romney, the party’s 2012 nominee, would have set a top rate of 28 percent. John McCain and George W. Bush wanted to tax it at 35 and 33 percent, respectively.

Critics say the changes create new incentives for tax-evasion and shower benefits disproportionately on the wealthiest Americans.

Trump “personifies the problems with pass-throughs, in a really clean way,” said Brendan Duke, the associate director for economic policy at the liberal Center for American Progress think tank, which on Wednesday released a report on the practice. “He’s proposed to make the problem far worse and in a way that would be a big benefit to him.”



The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, August 10, 2016 4:38 PM

THGRRI


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Poll numbers actually show that Trump is now less popular with the white working class than Romney was. In 2012, Romney won 62 percent of noncollege-educated white voters. The latest NBC-Wall Street Journal poll showed that Trump isn’t even winning a clear majority with the group, with just 49 percent backing him. A McClatchy/Marist poll puts him even lower, at 46 percent. This is a reversal from earlier in the summer, when Trump’s support among the group was in the 60s, higher than Romney’s, though not by leaps and bounds.

Much of the analysis of Trump’s support was based on the fact that he did very well indeed among a particular group of white working class voters early on: those who planned to vote in the GOP primary. Surowiecki, for instance, cited a July 2015 Washington Post/ABC News poll that showed a third of white GOP voters without college degrees had decided to support Trump, more than his rivals in the then-crowded field.

But one third of white working class voters planning to vote in a GOP primary is not that many people. Just 14 percent of eligible adults took part in the presidential caucuses and primaries, 9 percent of the total American population. White working class Trump voters were a small subset of that number, not really enough to make much of a difference.

If a candidate were to come along who was able to win most white working class voters – and energize them enough to boost their overall voter participation – that would indeed be noteworthy. But the evidence so far suggests Trump isn’t that candidate.

https://theintercept.com/2016/08/10/the-great-white-hype-no-one-is-ene
rgizing-the-white-working-class-not-even-donald-trump/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


People always assign White men who leaned towards Trump the labels of being afraid, bigots, racists, homophobes, anti-Muslim, ignorant, isolationists and more. That has never been true. Many, and I mean many are from the disappearing middle class who lost good manufacturing and labor jobs over the last 40 years. Especially the last decade and a half. These jobs did not require a college education and paid a living wage. Even if many of those manufacturing jobs were lost to technology, fee trade played a major role as well.

The White male realizes a country cannot survive without manufacturing. The White male realizes that many more jobs are going to be lost to technology so deporting the rest is a formula that spells disaster. Many of the problems in urban city communities come from industries leaving(textiles to name one). Many White male working class feel betrayed by their government because they have been. And even if Trump was going to be a disaster on most issues. Being strong on immigration and giving countries who benefited the most from our companies jumping ship (China who hacks and steals from us as well) was going to get a boot up their ass from Trump. He said it so strongly, on this he would have to follow through.

Also realize that the White male knows global warming (famine, drought, look at what’s happening in Europe) is going to drive many to our borders in the near further and we need to be able to control that. Something we do not hear our government acknowledging. The Republicans would but then they would have to admit to global warming.

What you are noticing now SECOND is this same White males backing off Trump because he is unstable and dangerous. He would drive wedges between ourselves and our allies and well, the list is too long.


____________________________________________


NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, August 10, 2016 6:35 PM

ELVISCHRIST


"If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. I don’t know. But — but I’ll tell you what. That will be a horrible day."

Drumpf threatening the life of a presidential candidate.

He now claims that he was just pointing out that "the Second Amendment people" would rise up and take political action. But why did he claim "that will be a horrible day" if that were to happen?

As with most things, Drumpf doesn't make any sense, either in the things he says or in his weak-kneed attempts to explain those things after the fact.

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Wednesday, August 10, 2016 7:15 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by ElvisChrist:
"If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. I don’t know. But — but I’ll tell you what. That will be a horrible day."

Drumpf threatening the life of a presidential candidate.

He now claims that he was just pointing out that "blah-blah" . . .
Trump calls Secret Service Liars. This should not make Trump's Secret Service detail eager to take a bullet for him if the need arises. I sure hope they're more professional than he is.

www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/08/cnn-secret-service-has-spoken-t
rump-about-second-amendment-people

I suppose I need to say that Trump is "in error". The US Secret Service has spoken to the Trump campaign about his apparent threat against Clinton.
http://qz.com/755452/the-us-secret-service-has-spoken-to-the-trump-cam
paign-about-his-apparent-threat-against-clinton/

In his column today, New York Times writer Thomas Friedman said that the episode reminded him of the toxic rhetoric that preceded the 1995 assassination of Israeli prime minister Yitzhaq Rabin. Hillary would be in the role of Rabin.

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Thursday, August 11, 2016 3:31 AM

SHINYGOODGUY


ElvisChrist

I think he knows exactly what he's doing, but then again, you may be more right than anything about his take on things. He says things to excite and incite, fanning the flames so to speak. He knows his base and what they like
to hear and repeats the rhetoric that got him the nomination.

Actually, since his declining numbers in the polls, he's picked up his rhetoric and cranked it up to 11. He basically lies through his teeth to
deflect any negative press, that's in addition to calling the media liars.
He never lies or makes mistakes, no not Trump.

Now, for those that point fingers at the media, Hillary has her faults as well. But can you trust a pathological liar? No, Trump doesn't make any
sense, but don't be fooled, he's as crazy as a fox.


SGG


Quote:
Originally posted by ElvisChrist:
"If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. I don’t know. But — but I’ll tell you what. That will be a horrible day."

Drumpf threatening the life of a presidential candidate.

He now claims that he was just pointing out that "the Second Amendment people" would rise up and take political action. But why did he claim "that will be a horrible day" if that were to happen?

As with most things, Drumpf doesn't make any sense, either in the things he says or in his weak-kneed attempts to explain those things after the fact.

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Thursday, August 11, 2016 7:32 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by SHINYGOODGUY:

He says things to excite and incite, fanning the flames so to speak. He knows his base and what they like to hear and repeats the rhetoric that got him the nomination.

Actually, since his declining numbers in the polls, he's picked up his rhetoric and cranked it up to 11.
Trump is a walking, talking Spam-bot. A Reddit bot may be beating Donald Trump at his own game.

The bot, which moderates an anti-Trump sub-Reddit called EnoughTrumpSpam, has been casting vague and probably false aspersions about Trump in a voice not unlike that of the Republican presidential nominee. If the rumors weren’t about him, you might think that Trump started them himself.

“Speaking of tax returns, did you hear Donald Trump is refusing to release them because Donald Trump has donated to NAMBLA? That’s what all the best sources, the most tremendous sources are saying,” the AutoModerator bot says. NAMBLA is the North American Man-Boy Love Association.

It’s extremely unlikely that Trump donated money to NAMBLA. There’s no evidence suggesting he did. (Trump’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.) But doesn’t that syntax sound familiar?

It’s a lot like the language Trump used to try to bait President Barack Obama into releasing his birth certificate in 2011, The Daily Beast pointed out, which fueled rumors that Obama was not born in the US: “Maybe that’s right, maybe that’s wrong, but I don’t know why he doesn’t he release his records,” Trump said at the time. “Why doesn’t he release [them]?”

http://qz.com/754244/a-reddit-bot-is-spreading-vicious-rumors-about-do
nald-trump-in-a-very-trump-like-manner/


www.gocomics.com/nickanderson/2016/08/11

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Thursday, August 11, 2016 8:31 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.





So; listening again to Trump's extended quotes (as opposed to the two-word snippets that the press likes to report) .... much of what Trump said in these videos is true.

More illegal immigrants than ever before? check
People pouring into our country and us not knowing who and where they are? check
Foreigners laughing at us for our ridiculous immigration policies? check
Mexicans coming here with a lot of problems? check
Obama having no political record to speak of before running for President? check
Leaving war materiel for terrorists? check

Will Trump get Mexico to pay for a wall?? I guess it depends on what kind of pressure is applied. Build that wall or ... we w/draw from NAFTA? That might work.

This video is more like an ad for Trump, yanno?


--------------
I think it's time you disabused yourself of that pleasant little fairy tale about our fearless leaders being some sort of surrogate daddy or mommy, laying awake at night thinking about how to protect the kids. HA! In reality, they're thinking about who to sell them to so that they can get a few more shekels in their pockets.

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Thursday, August 11, 2016 9:26 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

So; listening again to Trump's extended quotes
The value of vague promises.

Overall, Trump’s appeal may NOT be rooted in what he says he’ll do — rather it’s in the rhetoric itself.

The wall and Muslim ban, for example, are unrealistic, said Sabato of the University of Virginia, "but both these pledges got Trump airborne and still sustain him. As long as non-college, blue-collar whites like the sound of these promises, Trump will keep repeating them."

Some of Trump’s positions are actually in line with those of Clinton, such as protecting Social Security and increased skepticism toward trade.

Trump’s lack of detailed pledges and firm stances may be advantageous.

"Voters generally do not punish candidates for being vague, and in partisan elections voters actually prefer ambiguous candidates over precise ones," Stanford University political scientists Michael Tomz and Robert Van Houweling found in a study. "The reason, we find, is that ambiguity allows voters to 'see what they want to see’ in members of their own party."

Trump himself put it best in February: "Everything is negotiable."
www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2016/jul/15/donald-trumps-top
-10-campaign-promises/

http://politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/

www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/




NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Thursday, August 11, 2016 10:26 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
The value of vague promises


Yanno all of the quotes that I paraphrased??? They weren't "vague promises" they were DESCRIPTIONS OF A PROBLEM.

Try reading with comprehension some time. It might help.

--------------
I think it's time you disabused yourself of that pleasant little fairy tale about our fearless leaders being some sort of surrogate daddy or mommy, laying awake at night thinking about how to protect the kids. HA! In reality, they're thinking about who to sell them to so that they can get a few more shekels in their pockets.

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Thursday, August 11, 2016 11:00 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
The value of vague promises


Yanno all of the quotes that I paraphrased??? They weren't "vague promises" they were DESCRIPTIONS OF A PROBLEM.

Try reading with comprehension some time. It might help.


For your first paraphrase "More illegal immigrants than ever before? Check." Google it and you find it is not true.

As for your other paraphrases:
"People pouring into our ..."
"Foreigners laughing at us ..."
"Mexicans coming ..."
These are all true if you can find even one person "pouring" "laughing" or "coming". That makes each of your paraphrases empty of meaning. "Worthless paraphrases."

Your best paraphrase: "Obama having no political record to speak of before running for President? check" is just so untrue. Obama has 8 years in the Illinois Senate and 4 years in the US Senate. I had to look it up because I don't know his past. You could do the same, SignyM.

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Thursday, August 11, 2016 12:23 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Today's Perfect Storm of Trivial Lies From Donald Trump

Too good to check: Sean Hannity’s tale of a Trump rescue
www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/08/11/too-good-to-che
ck-sean-hannitys-tale-of-a-trump-rescue/

This morning: a tale of (a) Trump largesse, (b) told by Sean Hannity, and (c) confirmed by the Trump campaign. Already, you know it's a lie. There are not enough Pinocchios in the world for something like this.

Not that it matters, but this particular fairy tale is about Trump sending his private jet down to Camp Lejeune in 1991 to ferry home some Gulf War soldiers whose military flight had been FUBARed. We all know perfectly well that Trump would never do something like this unless there was some kind of massive publicity tied to it, because Trump never engages in any charitable act unless there's something in it for him. So it's already about 99 percent likely to be fiction.

Sure enough, it turns out that the real story is just a demonstration of Trump's lousy business judgment—something far more common than Trump's acts of charity. When he bought the Eastern Shuttle in 1989 and turned it into the Trump Shuttle, he negotiated a terrible deal. Not only did he overpay, but he also accepted five extra planes he didn't need instead of a lower purchase price. So the Army leased the planes from him and used them for various tasks in order to free up military planes. In 1991, they were assigned to ferry troops home from Camp Lejeune.

Does this matter? I suppose not, compared to insulting a Hispanic judge, attacking a Muslim family that lost a son in Iraq, and expressing his hope that someone will murder Hillary Clinton. But it's sort of Trump in a nutshell: Take credit for a charitable act even though it's a flat-out lie that's trivially easy to fact check and debunk. He doesn't care. He knows that guys like Sean Hannity will hype it to his credulous Fox News audience, and none of them will ever read Glenn Kessler, fact-checker at the Washington Post. And if they do find out it was a lie, they won't care. Trump 2016!

I award this story 58 gazillion Pinocchios.

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Thursday, August 11, 2016 2:20 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

They weren't "vague promises" they were DESCRIPTIONS OF A PROBLEM.
Yes, yes, Trump knows what the problems are, as he revealed in an interview:

Donald Trump, Insisting He Won’t Change His Style, Repeats Claim Obama Founded ISIS

www.nytimes.com/2016/08/12/us/politics/donald-trump-obama-isis.html

Donald J. Trump said Thursday that he intended to stick by his unorthodox campaign style, even if it meant taking “a very, very nice long vacation” after Nov. 8.

In interviews on Thursday morning, Mr. Trump sounded an uncharacteristically fatalistic note, acknowledging the possibility he could be defeated on Election Day.

Mr. Trump pledged on CNBC to “just keep doing the same thing I’m doing right now,” adding that he was the only presidential candidate who tells things “straight” and is “a truth-teller.”

“At the end, it’s either going to work or I’m going to, you know, I’m going to have a very, very nice long vacation,” he added.

It was a rare instance in which Mr. Trump has conceded that his approach might not work.

Mr. Trump also defended his portrayal of the president as a “founder” of ISIS, despite criticism that the claim was both inaccurate and inflammatory.

In an interview with the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Mr. Trump was given an opportunity to explain that he meant the claim only theoretically. But Mr. Trump would not budge.

“You meant that he created the vacuum, he lost the peace,” Mr. Hewitt suggested, leaving Mr. Trump an opening.

“No, I meant he’s the founder of ISIS. I do,” Mr. Trump said. “He was the most valuable player. I give him the most valuable player award. I give her, too, by the way, Hillary Clinton.”

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Friday, August 12, 2016 2:55 AM

SHINYGOODGUY


You know Second, I admire your tenacity and stick-to-itive-ness in trying to shed light on an absolute dullard as Donald Trump. But, I dare say, your
case is falling on deaf ears. Only sensible people will actually even get
what your saying, not Orange people with low mental capacity.

You are right, but I'm afraid there's no hope on the other side. You get an A for effort though. You, my friend, have the patience of an angel.


SGG


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Today's Perfect Storm of Trivial Lies From Donald Trump

Too good to check: Sean Hannity’s tale of a Trump rescue
www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/08/11/too-good-to-che
ck-sean-hannitys-tale-of-a-trump-rescue/

This morning: a tale of (a) Trump largesse, (b) told by Sean Hannity, and (c) confirmed by the Trump campaign. Already, you know it's a lie. There are not enough Pinocchios in the world for something like this.

Not that it matters, but this particular fairy tale is about Trump sending his private jet down to Camp Lejeune in 1991 to ferry home some Gulf War soldiers whose military flight had been FUBARed. We all know perfectly well that Trump would never do something like this unless there was some kind of massive publicity tied to it, because Trump never engages in any charitable act unless there's something in it for him. So it's already about 99 percent likely to be fiction.

Sure enough, it turns out that the real story is just a demonstration of Trump's lousy business judgment—something far more common than Trump's acts of charity. When he bought the Eastern Shuttle in 1989 and turned it into the Trump Shuttle, he negotiated a terrible deal. Not only did he overpay, but he also accepted five extra planes he didn't need instead of a lower purchase price. So the Army leased the planes from him and used them for various tasks in order to free up military planes. In 1991, they were assigned to ferry troops home from Camp Lejeune.

Does this matter? I suppose not, compared to insulting a Hispanic judge, attacking a Muslim family that lost a son in Iraq, and expressing his hope that someone will murder Hillary Clinton. But it's sort of Trump in a nutshell: Take credit for a charitable act even though it's a flat-out lie that's trivially easy to fact check and debunk. He doesn't care. He knows that guys like Sean Hannity will hype it to his credulous Fox News audience, and none of them will ever read Glenn Kessler, fact-checker at the Washington Post. And if they do find out it was a lie, they won't care. Trump 2016!

I award this story 58 gazillion Pinocchios.

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Friday, August 12, 2016 3:03 AM

SHINYGOODGUY


Good one!


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
The value of vague promises


Yanno all of the quotes that I paraphrased??? They weren't "vague promises" they were DESCRIPTIONS OF A PROBLEM.

Try reading with comprehension some time. It might help.


For your first paraphrase "More illegal immigrants than ever before? Check." Google it and you find it is not true.

As for your other paraphrases:
"People pouring into our ..."
"Foreigners laughing at us ..."
"Mexicans coming ..."
These are all true if you can find even one person "pouring" "laughing" or "coming". That makes each of your paraphrases empty of meaning. "Worthless paraphrases."

Your best paraphrase: "Obama having no political record to speak of before running for President? check" is just so untrue. Obama has 8 years in the Illinois Senate and 4 years in the US Senate. I had to look it up because I don't know his past. You could do the same, SignyM.

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Friday, August 12, 2016 9:38 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by SHINYGOODGUY:
You know Second, I . . .
SGG
If the election was today, 41.3% would vote for Trump, 9.9% for Johnson. That is a majority for Mr. Terrible and Mr Impossible. I think of it as proof more people should vote in Presidential Primaries so that the future is not dominated by more Trump vs Hillary contests – two not good candidates. I could be wrong. Maybe a much larger primary turnout would not have meant somebody other than Hillary and Trump, but I want to keep that dream.
http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/#now


I saw a recent article about how America has been a class hierarchy from the arrival of the First Colonists.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/09/the-original-underclass/4
92731/?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits

I can imagine that the 400 year old class hierarchy originally built on landownership and now on money is why Trump vs Hillary is actually a confused war between the classes in a self-identified “egalitarian” nation. The multibillionaire vs the centimillionaire are promising to reach out and help the lower classes in different ways.

From experience I’ve already decided which political party has Congressmen more likely to bend its President to keep those promises. But Trump won’t bend to his party. I don’t think he believes in promises that must be kept; he thinks he is only selling his personality, not making promises.

I don't even think Trump is a particularly terrible person, because I personally know 3 people who are just like him --- loud-mouths, huge in every dimension and way. But I live in Texas, the Bullshit state, where the tall-tales and the characters are bigger than any other.

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Friday, August 12, 2016 1:42 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Massive new study debunks a widespread theory for Donald Trump’s success
www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/08/12/a-massive-new-study-deb
unks-a-widespread-theory-for-donald-trumps-success/

While Trump's supporters might be comparatively well off themselves, they come from places where their neighbors endure other forms of hardship. In their communities, white residents are dying younger, and it is harder for young people who grow up poor to get ahead.

The Gallup analysis is the most comprehensive statistical profile of Trump's supporters so far. Jonathan Rothwell, the economist at Gallup who conducted the analysis, sorted the respondents by their Zip code and then compared those findings with a host of other data from a variety of sources. After statistically controlling factors like education, age and gender, Rothwell was able to determine which traits distinguished those who favored Trump from those who did not, even among people who appeared to be similar in other respects. . . .

This research leaves some mysteries unsolved. Something is afflicting the places where Trump's supporters live, but Trump's supporters do not exhibit more severe economic distress than do those who view him unfavorably. Perhaps, Rothwell suggests, Trump's supporters are concerned less about themselves than about how the community's children are faring. Whatever it is, competition from migrant labor or the decline of factory work appear to be inadequate explanations.

Trump is giving his supporters a misleading account of their ills, Rothwell said. "He says they are suffering because of globalization," Rothwell said. "He says they’re suffering because of immigration and a diversifying country, but I can’t find any evidence of that."

Trump's support does come from a place of adversity, though, and Rothwell said Trump's prescriptions -- tariffs on imported goods, restrictions on immigration and mass deportation -- seem disconnected from his voters' real problems.

"I don’t see how any of those things would help with their health problems, with the lack of intergenerational mobility," Rothwell said.

Health

As The Post reported in March, the counties that supported Donald Trump in the GOP primaries were the same counties where middle-aged whites suffer from abnormally high death rates. Rothwell's report confirmed this connection, and expanded on it.

Among Americans who were similar in terms of income, age, education, and other factors, those who lived in places where people were less healthy had more favorable views of Trump. In these communities, whites are dying faster, there is more obesity, and people report more health problems. Again, this pattern held when Rothwell focused on white respondents only and on white Republicans specifically.

In other words, between two people who earn the same amount of money and have the same amount of schooling, the person who comes from a place with bad health is more likely to support Trump. It's hard to say what is causing this bad health, but at least some of this likely has roots in cultural practices — diet and exercise habits, patterns of drinking and smoking, and so on.

It’s unclear what’s going on here, but it’s not a recent phenomenon. Economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton recently documented startling increases in the middle-aged white death rate in the past decade, but Rothwell finds that people's support for Trump didn't seem to be affected by changes in the white death rate where they lived. The places where Trump is popular are places where people have been unhealthy for a long time.

Opportunity

Children raised in places with low economic mobility, like Raleigh and Indianapolis, struggled just to do as well as their parents in adulthood. Trump was especially popular in these parts of the country.

Why does Trump’s message resonate the most in these low-mobility areas? The data do not provide a clear answer.

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Friday, August 12, 2016 2:25 PM

THGRRI


SECOND, KPO and G:

Anand Giridharadas just gave a speech at TED TALKS that is going to be available Tuesday the 16th. It is an apology to many Americans who feel left behind. If I can when it airs I will post a link. I am giving a link to Morning Joe so you can see the importance of what he says. His segment is titled " If Trump loses, what happens to his message?"

Finally we hear the topic start to turn away from a movement based on racism, to a topic giving voice to the concerns of the middle class.

http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe

____________________________________________


NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Friday, August 12, 2016 7:45 PM

ELVISCHRIST


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
The value of vague promises


Yanno all of the quotes that I paraphrased??? They weren't "vague promises" they were DESCRIPTIONS OF A PROBLEM.

Try reading with comprehension some time. It might help.



Thing is, you flat-out LIED about all of them when you said "check" on them. It's bullshit, pure and simple, and you're falling for Trump's particular brand of it because of your rampant xenophobia and your latent white supremacy.

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Saturday, August 13, 2016 6:40 PM

ELVISCHRIST


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

They weren't "vague promises" they were DESCRIPTIONS OF A PROBLEM.
Yes, yes, Drumpf knows what the problems are, as he revealed in an interview:

Donald Drumpf, Insisting He Won’t Change His Style, Repeats Claim Obama Founded ISIS

www.nytimes.com/2016/08/12/us/politics/donald-trump-obama-isis.html

Donald J. Drumpf said Thursday that he intended to stick by his unorthodox campaign style, even if it meant taking “a very, very nice long vacation” after Nov. 8.

In interviews on Thursday morning, Mr. Drumpf sounded an uncharacteristically fatalistic note, acknowledging the possibility he could be defeated on Election Day.

Mr. Drumpf pledged on CNBC to “just keep doing the same thing I’m doing right now,” adding that he was the only presidential candidate who tells things “straight” and is “a truth-teller.”

“At the end, it’s either going to work or I’m going to, you know, I’m going to have a very, very nice long vacation,” he added.

It was a rare instance in which Mr. Drumpf has conceded that his approach might not work.

Mr. Drumpf also defended his portrayal of the president as a “founder” of ISIS, despite criticism that the claim was both inaccurate and inflammatory.

In an interview with the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Mr. Drumpf was given an opportunity to explain that he meant the claim only theoretically. But Mr. Drumpf would not budge.

“You meant that he created the vacuum, he lost the peace,” Mr. Hewitt suggested, leaving Mr. Drumpf an opening.

“No, I meant he’s the founder of ISIS. I do,” Mr. Drumpf said. “He was the most valuable player. I give him the most valuable player award. I give her, too, by the way, Hillary Clinton.”



It's funny - he was rather insistent on this point, reiterating time and time again, to anyone within earshot, that Obama founded ISIS, even claiming that he met with people in a room to found the group.

And then, when virtually the entire world (except the gullible morons and Republicans who support him - but that's redundant) called bullshit on his idiotic claims, and when even a sham news source like CNN was able to pull up video of Trump in 2007 calling Bush the founder of ISIS...

...he suddenly backtracked, flip-flopped, and started calling people stupid for not knowing that he "was being sarcastic."

And none of that will stop people like Signym or Auraptor from voting for him or claiming that he's right. Authoritarians are never interested in the truth, or in reality; they only want someone to tell them what the problems are and insist that they and they alone can fix them. Of course people like Signym love fascists. After all, Mussolini made the trains run on time, right? ;)

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Sunday, August 14, 2016 9:00 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Trump as Pygmalion: The Mission to Tame Trump’s Tongue
www.staradvertiser.com/nyt/the-failing-inside-mission-to-tame-trumps-t
ongue/

Joined by his daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, a cluster of Trump’s confidants pleaded with him to make that day — June 20 — a turning point.

He would have to stick to a teleprompter and end his freestyle digressions and insults, like his repeated attacks on a Hispanic federal judge. Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman, and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey argued that Trump had an effective message, if only he would deliver it. For now, the campaign’s polling showed, too many voters described him in two words: “unqualified” and “racist.”

Trump bowed to his team’s entreaties, according to four people with detailed knowledge of the meeting, who described it on the condition of anonymity. It was time, he agreed, to get on track.

Nearly two months later, the effort to save Trump from himself has plainly failed. He has repeatedly signaled to his advisers and allies his willingness to change and adapt, but has grown only more volatile and prone to provocation since then, clashing with a Gold Star family, making comments that have been seen as inciting violence and linking his political opponents to terrorism.

Advisers who once hoped a Pygmalion-like transformation would refashion a crudely effective political showman into a plausible American president now increasingly concede that Trump may be beyond coaching.

In private, Trump’s mood is often sullen and erratic, his associates say. He veers from barking at members of his staff to grumbling about how he was better off following his own instincts during the primaries and suggesting he should not have heeded their calls for change.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Sunday, August 14, 2016 9:16 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Yanno all of the quotes that I paraphrased??? They weren't "vague promises" they were DESCRIPTIONS OF A PROBLEM. Try reading with comprehension some time. It might help.- SIGNY

For your first paraphrase "More illegal immigrants than ever before? Check." Google it and you find it is not true.= SECONDRATE
Yes, thanks to the downturn, there are slightly fewer Hispanics here than a few years ago, but thanks to the Chinese crackdown on corruption more mainland Chinese.

After steady increases from 1980 at 3.5 million, numbers rose to 12.2 million in approx 2008. It's now 11.3 million, a SLIGHT decrease since then. Overall, the illegal immigrant population has increased by a factor of approx four since Reagan's amnesty. I would consider that basically "more than ever before", since it hasn't decreased since 2010.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/22/unauthorized-immigrant
-population-stable-for-half-a-decade/

Quote:
As for your other paraphrases:
"People pouring into our ..."
They are.

Quote:
"Foreigners laughing at us ..."
They do.

Quote:
"Mexicans coming ..."
They do.

Quote:
These are all true if you can find even one person "pouring" "laughing" or "coming". That makes each of your paraphrases empty of meaning. "Worthless paraphrases."
I have. In fact, I have spoken to an illegal immigrant who thinks that USA policy is "stupid" (her word, not mine) with regards to people like her. In fact, she was quite detailed about all of the stupid things that the USA does. Next?

Quote:
Your best paraphrase: "Obama having no political record to speak of before running for President? check" is just so untrue. Obama has 8 years in the Illinois Senate and 4 years in the US Senate. I had to look it up because I don't know his past. You could do the same, SignyM.
So, do you recall any significant votes that he made, any strong positions that he took, any significant bills that he introduced?
Yeah, me neither. There was much discussion of his record in 2008, and it was very thin. He left only faint trace in any of his terms in office, and his term in the US Senate was marked by a overall high absenteeism of 24%. http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2015/oct/28/marco-rubio/w
hen-attacked-missed-votes-marco-rubio-calls-out-b/

For comparison ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/02/18/congresss-bi
ggest-vote-missers-in-2-charts/
http://www.vocativ.com/usa/us-politics/congress-absenteeism/

In fact, Obama made only ONE important vote, which was whether or not to fund use of force in Iraq. He voted "no". The reason why people voted for Saint Obama was partly because he was black and raised outside of the USA people really DID expect him to be different! And, Obama voted "no" and Hillary voted "yes".

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Sunday, August 14, 2016 10:04 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

In fact, I have spoken to an illegal immigrant who thinks that USA policy is "stupid" (her word, not mine) with regards to people like her.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted at one point that there are 11.3 million undocumented aliens in the country and Congress has provided funds for removing about 4 million. "So inevitably, priorities have to be set," she said. www.cnn.com/2016/04/18/politics/supreme-court-immigration-executive-ac
tions-texas/

One of the purposes of removing illegals, if you're Trump, is to create jobs for citizens, who will take the jobs the illegals are working. If Republicans really want illegals out of the country, then Republicans in Congress need to pay for their removal. Obama's salary isn't large enough to pay those costs. Congress either pays or else it won't happen. But, you know, they don't want to pay and they don't really want the illegals out.

What are the illegals doing with their days in the USA? Almost none are office workers. They do this: Baytown, controlled by a Republican government, is replacing sanitary sewer mains. That is 54" lines down to 10" with 4" lateral lines to each house. It is hot, dirty, smelly manual labor in sewage filled pits, manholes, and backyards. I can't prove all sewer workers are illegal, but I can prove they all speak Spanish, except bosses who are citizens of Texas. Now how did that happen unless the Republicans running Baytown wanted that to happen? The corollary is how did it happen that nearly all cotton pickers in Texas were slaves in 1860? Why were few citizens of Texas doing that work? There was talk about citizens picking the cotton and sending all the unemployed slaves back to Africa, kind of like talk of sending illegals back to Latin America, but plantation owners did not want to pay a living wage to Texas citizens. The plantations wanted a labor force that would take a barely living wage, paid in food only.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Sunday, August 14, 2016 11:36 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


So, what are you saying, SECOND?

That "we" should allow or even encourage the presence of illegal immigrants because Republican businessmen want to exploit them?

Whose side are you on?

--------------
I think it's time you disabused yourself of that pleasant little fairy tale about our fearless leaders being some sort of surrogate daddy or mommy, laying awake at night thinking about how to protect the kids. HA! In reality, they're thinking about who to sell them to so that they can get a few more shekels in their pockets.

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Monday, August 15, 2016 12:58 AM

SHINYGOODGUY


Debates.....can't wait!!!


SGG

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Monday, August 15, 2016 1:15 AM

SHINYGOODGUY


Hey Second,

"clashing with a Gold Star family, making comments that have been seen as inciting violence and linking his political opponents to terrorism."

That line is more true than not. On Saturday I saw a news story that broke in the early afternoon in New York. It seems some mentally challenged idiot took it upon himself to shoot 2 innocent men as they were walking home after attending prayer services in their neighborhood Mosque. They were shot in the head execution style from behind. This is the result of Trump's vile rhetoric. I wish someone would shoot him in the head and put him out of his misery (the miserable S.O.B.).

The police have a video of the shooting from a nearby business. The coward
approach them from behind shot, and then ran for his life. There was no robbery and no other obvious motive. Police are investigating this as a possible hate crime.


SGG

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Monday, August 15, 2016 1:36 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So, what are you saying, SECOND?

That "we" should allow or even encourage the presence of illegal immigrants because Republican businessmen want to exploit them?

Whose side are you on?
There is no "we". First of all, it is exclusively the Republicans' problem because Democrats and Hillary are not supporting the Republicans' brainstorm on illegals.

Next, Trump is full of bullshit. That guy is all talk and no do. He has talked about removing illegals but his talk boils down to the illegals will buy a bus ticket back to Guatemala. Self deportation of illegals is his entire plan. Trump has no plans that actually involve paying to be rid of illegals. Remember the wall along the Mexican border? Trump would have Mexico build the wall. The USA would pay nothing. Also, obviously repeating the point so you remember, the Democrats and Hillary are not supporting Trump and his deportation of illegals. You can't blame Democrats for Trump and his supporters being full of bullshit and refusing to pay for removing illegals.

To summarize: on the Republican side, voters and Congress and Trump say they want illegal aliens out of the USA, but none of them are doing the work or paying the money or increasing the number of judges hearing deportation cases in order to make it happen. Are these Republicans full of bullshit or not?

I think the Republicans want the Democrats to pay all the costs and do all the work for removing the illegals. Republicans don't want to do their own work, but they can't stop talking about what they want. Texas Gov Greg Abbott and Rick Perry talked about it, but certainly didn't do anything because the Republican controlled legislature would not pay. Abbott and Perry could not get the Republican controlled counties to pay. Obama could not pay because Republican controlled Congress would not pay.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Monday, August 15, 2016 1:49 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


From Finian Cunningham
Donald Trump has entered a political kill zone.

Quote:
And the American establishment is lining up to take him out. We are talking here in virtual terms - at least thus far.

Nowadays, political assassination by US powers-that-be does not necessarily involve physical liquidation of the individual deemed to be an enemy of the state. Who needs all that blood and controversy? Especially when character assassination achieves the same desired end result — that is, elimination of target from the public domain.

The fierce media crossfire that the Republican presidential contender is being subjected to leaves little doubt that this is a concerted effort to destroy this politician.

In the past week, we have seen a fusillade of vilification fired at the New York property tycoon-turned presidential hopeful. Everything, it seems, has been thrown at him, from his Slovenian-born wife's alleged US visa violations, to his bullying of crying babies at rallies, to his serving as an unwitting agent for Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

It's so transparent and preposterous, it is almost hilarious.

Evidently, the US corporate news media are out to bring Trump down in spite of his stubborn support among ordinary Republican voters. It is obvious that the Washington establishment has determined that Democrat rival Hillary Clinton is the preferred choice to protect their privileged interests as the next occupant of the White House.

And the US media — as a pillar of the establishment — is doing its bit to eliminate Trump from the supposedly free presidential election due in November by aiding and abetting in assassinating his character in the eyes of the public.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton addresses the Democratic National Convention via a live video feed from New York during the second night at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, July 26, 2016.
© REUTERS/ Mark Kauzlarich
If Hillary Becomes US President, She 'Will Look for Excuses to Bomb Damascus'
It is ironic really given that there is so much more sordid stories to be reported on Clinton, given her involvement in warmongering, clandestine regime-change operations and abuse of state secrecy for her own self-aggrandizement with foreign sources of money.

The latest sign that the secretive US Deep State — Pentagon, CIA, FBI, Wall Street financiers — is moving to install their White House candidate is the letter published this week by some 50 senior Republican "national security experts" who endorsed Clinton while eviscerating Trump.

Yes, that's right, Republicans backing a Democrat. Which just goes to show the uniformity of interests.

The signatories included former CIA director Michael Hayden, ex-chief of homeland security Michael Chertoff, both of whom served in the George W Bush administration, as well as John Negroponte who was a former director of national intelligence and alleged purveyor of death squads in Central America during the 1980s.

The joint anti-Trump letter followed the publication only days ago of an oped piece in the New York Times by another ex-CIA head, Michael Morell in which he lambasted Trump as a Russian stooge.
All of them neocons.

Quote:
All of these figures are intimately connected to the US Deep State and all are unanimously pillorying Trump as a "dangerous threat to American national security".

For his part, Trump rebuffed the latest volley of vilification by saying that the list of national security "experts" are responsible for creating the Iraq war, the loss of American troops' lives and the rise of terrorism across the Middle East. Cheekily, he thanked them for all going public with their names so that the American people can hold them to account for foreign policy disasters.

However, the point here is that the campaign to discredit Trump is not just some haphazard run of bad luck on the candidate's part for mis-steps and mis-speaks that he may have issued on the hustings trail.

The intense, concerted nature of the campaign to destroy Trump demonstrates how the Washington power structure, including the corporate media, is setting him up for character assassination.

This is the kind of political liquidation that the American plutocracy excels at.

A few decades ago, American "executive action" — or "termination with extreme prejudice — involved, more often than not, literally murdering the individual target.

The most notorious case is that of President John F Kennedy who was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas. Around that time, several other foreign political leaders were also killed by American state agents, including Patrice Lumumba of Congo, Rafael Trujillo of Dominican Republic and Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam. Political murder was, still is, par for the American course.

The late New Orleans attorney, Jim Garrison, who probed the JFK assassination, said that the primary reason for his murder was that the president was working to end the Cold War with Russia. Kennedy was quietly using backchannels with Russian counterpart Nikita Krushchev to implement ambitious plans for nuclear weapons disarmament.

JFK had also flatly rejected secret proposals presented by the Pentagon for a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the Soviet Union. He was in addition closing down CIA-sponsored terrorist operations in Cuba and he had declared a withdrawal of US troops from the nascent Vietnam war.

In this way, Kennedy had entered the political kill zone, as far as the powerful, unelected Deep State was concerned. His policies were threatening huge vested interests of military manufacturers, Big Oil and Wall Street financiers. Hence, the CIA and its contract killers were deployed to eliminate the "problem".

Donald Trump shares two aspects with JFK. Like Kennedy, the business magnate is independently wealthy, which allows him to speak his mind without apparently having to ingratiate himself with powerful sponsors.

Secondly, and more importantly, Trump has repeatedly pitched his election platform against the relentless build up of the US-led NATO military alliance in Eastern Europe, as well as overseas deployment of American forces, and, in particular, Washington's policy of hostility towards Russia.

Trump has called for the normalization of relations with Russia. His foreign policy position is anathema to the Washington establishment which requires — as an absolute necessity — the demonization of foreign countries as "national security threats" in order to maintain the gargantuan US militarized economy. In short, the American Deep State thrives on continual war-making. War is a permanent function of bankrupt American capitalism.

This systemic dysfunction is what the Cold War with Russia was and continues to be about — the pumping of trillions of dollars into corporate and financial elites, who get away with the scam because of their lackeys among the political and media channels.

Anyone who defies these powerful American interests is liable for termination. They have entered the kill zone.

In former times, the American methods of termination with extreme prejudice routinely involved physical elimination.

Five decades after JFK, the US methods of political assassination have evolved to become more sophisticated. Character assassination may suffice most of the time. No need for contract hitmen or messy public enquiries. Media hitmen will do.

The target just needs to be placed in the crossfire of a media barrage, with no let up in negative shots.

Any foreign leader who likewise becomes a "problem" for US power interests is also targeted similarly. Russia's President Putin being perhaps the best example of this.

As the US presidential election approaches over the next three months, just watch how the shadowy powers in Washington mobilize to take Trump out of the race.

For taking out political enemies with extreme prejudice is the American way.


--------------
I think it's time you disabused yourself of that pleasant little fairy tale about our fearless leaders being some sort of surrogate daddy or mommy, laying awake at night thinking about how to protect the kids. HA! In reality, they're thinking about who to sell them to so that they can get a few more shekels in their pockets.

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Monday, August 15, 2016 1:56 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


So many people talk about Trump without having even listened to him. Aside from the snippets of one or two words that the press delightedly serves up and replays over and over, and the fake news stories -like the Secret Service having talked to Trump about his Second Amendment, which officials had to come out and deny (quietly) - most people probably don't know what Trump has actually said.

So here is a Trump news conference. I hate political speeches, especially long ones, but this is a good sampling of Trump. Some of it is awkward, some of it is self-aggrandizing, a little bit of it is cringe-worthy, but there are also many rational, reasonable statements in it.



--------------
I think it's time you disabused yourself of that pleasant little fairy tale about our fearless leaders being some sort of surrogate daddy or mommy, laying awake at night thinking about how to protect the kids. HA! In reality, they're thinking about who to sell them to so that they can get a few more shekels in their pockets.

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Monday, August 15, 2016 2:17 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

So here is a Trump news conference. I hate political speeches, especially long ones, but this is a good sampling of Trump. Some of it is awkward, some of it is self-aggrandizing, a little bit of it is cringe-worthy, but there are also many rational, reasonable statements in it.
"Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while." In this allegory, Trump is both the squirrel and the nut.

Words cost Trump nothing, so he talks too much. What do you think he will say about this on Monday morning? Manafort is Trump's campaign manager. "Handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from Mr. Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012, according to Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau. Investigators assert that the disbursements were part of an illegal off-the-books system whose recipients also included election officials."
www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/us/politics/paul-manafort-ukraine-donald-tr
ump.html

Mr. Manafort did not receive “any such cash payments,” his lawyer said. You betcha.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Monday, August 15, 2016 5:34 AM

SHINYGOODGUY


Signym

You know, when you make blanket statements like that, well suffice it to say
that there are some of us who do use our better judgment and actually "look
before we leap."

I, for one, do listen to his long-winded speeches so that I may decide in what context did he say the stupid things he says. Every once in a while he
actually says something that makes sense; either by accident or because his "people" right it for him. That's just MY observation. I will listen and watch this speech later today, then I will make an informed decision if it actually makes sense.

Mean while there seems to be trouble brewing in paradise.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/secret-ledger-in-ukraine-lists-
cash-for-donald-trump%E2%80%99s-campaign-chief/ar-BBvCJjt?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp


SGG


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So many people talk about Trump without having even listened to him. Aside from the snippets of one or two words that the press delightedly serves up and replays over and over, and the fake news stories -like the Secret Service having talked to Trump about his Second Amendment, which officials had to come out and deny (quietly) - most people probably don't know what Trump has actually said.

So here is a Trump news conference. I hate political speeches, especially long ones, but this is a good sampling of Trump. Some of it is awkward, some of it is self-aggrandizing, a little bit of it is cringe-worthy, but there are also many rational, reasonable statements in it.



--------------
I think it's time you disabused yourself of that pleasant little fairy tale about our fearless leaders being some sort of surrogate daddy or mommy, laying awake at night thinking about how to protect the kids. HA! In reality, they're thinking about who to sell them to so that they can get a few more shekels in their pockets.

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Monday, August 15, 2016 8:22 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
I look forward to hearing what the GOP has to say in response to this
The GOP will say about this what the DNC said about the Clinton Foundation getting lots of money from terrorist-funding Saudis. Too bad the DOJ quashed that nascent FBI investigation on that.

Quote:
"So many people talk about Trump without having even listened to him. " You're basing that on what?
On the many people who talk about Trump without having listened to him. People that I know personally, and some here on the board that I strongly suspect. According to you: not you.

Quote:
You know, when you make blanket statements like that, well suffice it to say that there are some of us who do use our better judgment and actually "look
before we leap."
I didn't make a blanket statement. If you were to look up the meaning of the phrase "blanket statement" it says ... A blanket statement is a generalization - something that covers everything like a metaphorical blanket. If I had said "EVERYONE talks about Trump without even having listened to him..." THAT would have been a blanket statement. Apparently you, like G, felt unfairly criticized by that statement. If you (pl) felt unfairly accused, I apologize.


Quote:
"Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while." In this allegory, Trump is both the squirrel and the nut.
This is one person whom I think has never listened to Trump, because everything she says is everything that someone else has said. So, SECOND, based on the press conference, what did you agree with?

Quote:
So, what are you saying, SECOND? That "we" should allow or even encourage the presence of illegal immigrants because Republican businessmen want to exploit them? Whose side are you on?- SIGNY

There is no "we". -SECOND
Then why did you quote Republican businessmen in a way that, in context, sounded like agreement?




--------------
I think it's time you disabused yourself of that pleasant little fairy tale about our fearless leaders being some sort of surrogate daddy or mommy, laying awake at night thinking about how to protect the kids. HA! In reality, they're thinking about who to sell them to so that they can get a few more shekels in their pockets.

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Monday, August 15, 2016 8:42 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
I look forward to hearing what the GOP has to say in response to this
The GOP will say about this what the DNC said about the Clinton Foundation getting lots of money from terrorist-funding Saudis. Too bad the DOJ quashed that nascent FBI investigation on that.
What Trump could say about Manafort, his campaign manager, is "You're fired." Then he introduces his new manager. Presidents fire and hire people all the time. As does Trump.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Monday, August 15, 2016 8:51 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:
So, what are you saying, SECOND? That "we" should allow or even encourage the presence of illegal immigrants because Republican businessmen want to exploit them? Whose side are you on?- SIGNY

There is no "we". -SECOND
Then why did you quote Republican businessmen?
It's the Republicans' problem, not the Democrats'. Let the Reps handle it, except Reps in power don't handle the problem because they don't want to pay. What they do want is the votes of people who want illegals deported. Even the voters who say they want illegals deported won't confront the problem they would create for themselves --- those voters would have to take the crappy jobs left unfilled by illegals. They could have those right this minute, but they don't want those smelly nasty outdoor jobs at crappy wages. Those Republicans who know conversational Spanish can have a job today in sanitary sewer replacement. No need to wait for President Trump.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

YOUR OPTIONS

NEW POSTS TODAY

USERPOST DATE

OTHER TOPICS

DISCUSSIONS
Trump Presidency 2024 - predictions
Thu, October 31, 2024 20:54 - 15 posts
U.S. Senate Races 2024
Thu, October 31, 2024 20:49 - 9 posts
Electoral College, ReSteal 2024 Edition
Thu, October 31, 2024 20:47 - 35 posts
Are we witnessing President Biden's revenge tour?
Thu, October 31, 2024 20:44 - 7 posts
No Thread On Topic, More Than 17 Days After Hamas Terrorists Invade, Slaughter Innocent Israelis?
Thu, October 31, 2024 20:35 - 35 posts
Ghosts
Thu, October 31, 2024 20:30 - 72 posts
U.S. House Races 2024
Thu, October 31, 2024 20:30 - 5 posts
Election fraud.
Thu, October 31, 2024 20:28 - 35 posts
Will religion become extinct?
Thu, October 31, 2024 19:59 - 90 posts
Japanese Culture, S.Korea movies are now outselling American entertainment products
Thu, October 31, 2024 19:46 - 44 posts
Elon Musk
Thu, October 31, 2024 19:33 - 28 posts
Kamala Harris for President
Thu, October 31, 2024 19:24 - 594 posts
 VIEW MORE TOPICS 

FFF.NET SOCIAL