Jump to content
IGNORED

Trump 29: Divider In Chief or Liar In Chief? WHY NOT BOTH?


Destiny

Recommended Posts

All the swamp creatures are crawling towards their master. Same as in Germany in the 1930's. 

There are no words to properly describe the evil that lurks in this world under the disguise  of Donald J Trump.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 494
  • Created
  • Last Reply
23 minutes ago, JMarie said:

The organization's spokeswoman, Dana Loesch, said Thursday that "many in legacy media love mass shootings" because "crying white mothers are ratings gold."

I saw a clip of her saying this yesterday.  She sounded like an absolutely evil fuck.  If  there was anyone left who thought that the NRA is a benign group of people who just enjoy guns and maybe hunting and target shooting, then they need to listen to her for a couple of minutes. Maybe it's a good thing they use her as a spokesperson because she sure has the opposite effect on me than they think she does.  The NRA might love what she says, but when is televised to a larger audience she makes them seem horrifying. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, PreciousPantsofDoom said:

I saw a clip of her saying this yesterday.  She sounded like an absolutely evil fuck.  If  there was anyone left who thought that the NRA is a benign group of people who just enjoy guns and maybe hunting and target shooting, then they need to listen to her for a couple of minutes. Maybe it's a good thing they use her as a spokesperson because she sure has the opposite effect on me than they think she does.  The NRA might love what she says, but when is televised to a larger audience she makes them seem horrifying. 

But how do those "white mothers", the majority of whom are Repubs, feel about Loesch saying that the media shouldn't listen to them when they are crying about their dead children? I think she mis-stepped here. I think the NRA is so isolated from the world of two-party politics that they may have forgotten how their hatred sounds outside of their echo chamber.

As for the Dumpster, he's preaching to the choir here. But it's working for him, his new favorite word is "hardened" so he's getting what he needs there at the Corrupt Politicians And Crooks conference. Later he'll take his woody and head down to Mar A Lago for golf all weekend.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The word "homeland" brings up both Nazi and Soviet connotations to me, for some reason. Like it's a slightly less inflammatory version of "motherland". I realize it's probably a reasonably benign word, but still it peaks my attention, especially considering that the majority of people in this country are or come from immigrants. Some leftover from old TV shows and the days of fake Russian pro wrestling villains, maybe?

And yes, Mr. Presidumbass, we don't mind a BIT if you go off script. Do it as often as possible. It proves who you really are, whose butts you really smooch, how far over the edge you are, and how little you actually know. What you say is still 99% lies, but I'd prefer blatant obvious lies to the carefully worded ones the speechwriters keep twisting up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

GrumpyGran, when you said" take his woody and head....." It took a few seconds to realise you meant his golf clubs!

All I saw was wooden head. A very good description sadly. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, Gobsmacked said:

GrumpyGran, when you said" take his woody and head....." It took a few seconds to realise you meant his golf clubs!

All I saw was wooden head. A very good description sadly. 

Oh, honey, I didn't mean his golf clubs. No. Is this one of those times where we speak the same language but there's still a little lost in translation? Perhaps. It's the "hardening..." thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, GrumpyGran said:

Oh, honey, I didn't mean his golf clubs. No. Is this one of those times where we speak the same language but there's still a little lost in translation? Perhaps. It's the "hardening..." thing.

Got you!:laughing-rolling:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Trump also used CPAC to once again attack John McCain (he got the crowd to boo McCain).

Meghan McCain - you were gullible to believe it "wouldn't happen again."

Agree with McCain or not - this is wrong.

 

Cadet Bone Spurs strikes again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"No wonder Wayne LaPierre is freaking out"

Spoiler

I had supposed President Trump was causing only his opponents to freak out, not his supporters. Then I heard Wayne LaPierre.

To see the National Rifle Association boss speak this week at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference was to see a man in urgent need of mental-health intervention. He turned a conventional speech about guns (specifically, the need for more of them in schools) into a paranoid fantasy about a socialist takeover of the United States.

He saw a “tidal wave” of “European-style socialists bearing down upon us,” creating a “captive society,” eliminating “resistance,” making a “list” in a cloud database of those who spank their children, expunging the “fundamental concept of moral behavior,” controlling speech through “safe zones.”

With this “new socialist wave in America,” he said, “it’s just a short hop to the systematic destruction of our most basic freedoms.”

Had LaPierre fallen on his head and awakened in 1964? All that was missing was for him to quote General Jack D. Ripper in “Dr. Strangelove” on “the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.”

And just who is perpetrating this red invasion, 27 years after the Soviet Union fell? Our billionaire president, who with his Cabinet and staff of billionaires and Goldman Sachs executives just secured a $1.5 trillion tax cut for the rich? The Republican-controlled Congress, which seeks to dismantle the social-safety net and business regulations? The pro-business majority on the Supreme Court?

LaPierre singled out three billionaire capitalists to blame for the socialist revolution: George Soros, Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer. But he saw conspirators everywhere in the government — Trump’s government: the FBI (with its “corruption” and “rogue leadership”) the Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the intelligence agencies. He also blamed the Democrats, media, Hollywood, universities, classrooms, Black Lives Matter, elites and Keith Ellison.

Even the CPAC audience seemed to be stunned by this unhinged time-traveler from the Cold War. “You know, I hear a lot of quiet in this room, and I sense your anxiety,” he said. “And you should be anxious, and you should be frightened.”

LaPierre was so frightened and anxious that CPAC wouldn’t list a time for his speech in advance, to avoid protests. He travels with a huge security entourage, even though his opponents eschew guns. Does he think he will be pelted with sprouted quinoa?

And it isn’t just LaPierre. His group’s spokeswoman, Dana Loesch, exhorted the CPAC crowd to turn against reporters in the room, saying “many in the legacy media love mass shootings” because “crying white mothers are ratings gold.”

Nor is it just CPAC. Jack Kingston, formerly a mild-mannered and sensible Republican member of Congress, went on social media and TV this week to echo a conspiracy theory that the grieving students in Parkland are leftist stooges.

I am empathetic. None of us are at our best these days. We are on edge — even those who like Trump. We can’t help it; it’s in our brain chemistry.

A new book by neuropsychologist William Stixrud and my friend Ned Johnson provides an explanation. The book, “The Self-Driven Child,” explains how calm parents give their kids more sense of control and help them perform better.

The science is simple. If you are calm, your executive functions handled by the brain’s prefrontal cortex — organizing, problem-solving, self-control, decision-making — perform well. If you are overly stressed, those functions decline as your brain floods with cortisol. Stress is contagious, and if you are in the presence of somebody who is out of control — a parent, an employer or, say, a president — your own executive functions decline.

“It’s a terrible thing for a chief executive of anything to be fear-mongering or emotionally reactive,” Johnson explains, “because all the bright capable people around you become less bright and less capable if they’re overly stressed.”

You don’t have to be the focus of the person’s ire or in the person’s physical presence for the stress to spread. A 2014 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that those who watched six hours or more of media about the Boston Marathon bombings reported higher stress than those present at the bombings. And Trump is almost a perfect stress-inducing machine, hitting all the buttons that University of Montreal psychiatry professor Sonia Lupien lists as causes of stress: novelty, unpredictability, perceived threat to safety or ego, and a low sense of control.

In theory, some who support Trump would be less affected, because they might feel comforted by an I-alone-can-fix-it authority figure. But, as poor Wayne LaPierre shows, no one is immune.

Being led by a man who rages out of control makes all of us — friend and foe alike — more like that ourselves.

"...pelted with sprouted quinoa..." That made me laugh out loud.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"No wonder Wayne LaPierre is freaking out"

  Hide contents

I had supposed President Trump was causing only his opponents to freak out, not his supporters. Then I heard Wayne LaPierre.

To see the National Rifle Association boss speak this week at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference was to see a man in urgent need of mental-health intervention. He turned a conventional speech about guns (specifically, the need for more of them in schools) into a paranoid fantasy about a socialist takeover of the United States.

He saw a “tidal wave” of “European-style socialists bearing down upon us,” creating a “captive society,” eliminating “resistance,” making a “list” in a cloud database of those who spank their children, expunging the “fundamental concept of moral behavior,” controlling speech through “safe zones.”

With this “new socialist wave in America,” he said, “it’s just a short hop to the systematic destruction of our most basic freedoms.”

Had LaPierre fallen on his head and awakened in 1964? All that was missing was for him to quote General Jack D. Ripper in “Dr. Strangelove” on “the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.”

And just who is perpetrating this red invasion, 27 years after the Soviet Union fell? Our billionaire president, who with his Cabinet and staff of billionaires and Goldman Sachs executives just secured a $1.5 trillion tax cut for the rich? The Republican-controlled Congress, which seeks to dismantle the social-safety net and business regulations? The pro-business majority on the Supreme Court?

LaPierre singled out three billionaire capitalists to blame for the socialist revolution: George Soros, Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer. But he saw conspirators everywhere in the government — Trump’s government: the FBI (with its “corruption” and “rogue leadership”) the Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the intelligence agencies. He also blamed the Democrats, media, Hollywood, universities, classrooms, Black Lives Matter, elites and Keith Ellison.

Even the CPAC audience seemed to be stunned by this unhinged time-traveler from the Cold War. “You know, I hear a lot of quiet in this room, and I sense your anxiety,” he said. “And you should be anxious, and you should be frightened.”

LaPierre was so frightened and anxious that CPAC wouldn’t list a time for his speech in advance, to avoid protests. He travels with a huge security entourage, even though his opponents eschew guns. Does he think he will be pelted with sprouted quinoa?

And it isn’t just LaPierre. His group’s spokeswoman, Dana Loesch, exhorted the CPAC crowd to turn against reporters in the room, saying “many in the legacy media love mass shootings” because “crying white mothers are ratings gold.”

Nor is it just CPAC. Jack Kingston, formerly a mild-mannered and sensible Republican member of Congress, went on social media and TV this week to echo a conspiracy theory that the grieving students in Parkland are leftist stooges.

I am empathetic. None of us are at our best these days. We are on edge — even those who like Trump. We can’t help it; it’s in our brain chemistry.

A new book by neuropsychologist William Stixrud and my friend Ned Johnson provides an explanation. The book, “The Self-Driven Child,” explains how calm parents give their kids more sense of control and help them perform better.

The science is simple. If you are calm, your executive functions handled by the brain’s prefrontal cortex — organizing, problem-solving, self-control, decision-making — perform well. If you are overly stressed, those functions decline as your brain floods with cortisol. Stress is contagious, and if you are in the presence of somebody who is out of control — a parent, an employer or, say, a president — your own executive functions decline.

“It’s a terrible thing for a chief executive of anything to be fear-mongering or emotionally reactive,” Johnson explains, “because all the bright capable people around you become less bright and less capable if they’re overly stressed.”

You don’t have to be the focus of the person’s ire or in the person’s physical presence for the stress to spread. A 2014 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that those who watched six hours or more of media about the Boston Marathon bombings reported higher stress than those present at the bombings. And Trump is almost a perfect stress-inducing machine, hitting all the buttons that University of Montreal psychiatry professor Sonia Lupien lists as causes of stress: novelty, unpredictability, perceived threat to safety or ego, and a low sense of control.

In theory, some who support Trump would be less affected, because they might feel comforted by an I-alone-can-fix-it authority figure. But, as poor Wayne LaPierre shows, no one is immune.

Being led by a man who rages out of control makes all of us — friend and foe alike — more like that ourselves.

"...pelted with sprouted quinoa..." That made me laugh out loud.

Like sprouted quinoa would hurt....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bigly: "Trump seems to miss his old life"

Spoiler

Between grievances about  “atrocities” committed by the “crooked media,” President Trump paused during Friday's speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference to reminisce about the good old days.

“They used to treat me so good, too, before I ran for office,” Trump said of the press. “I used to get the greatest publicity. A friend of mine said to me, ‘You know, you used to be the king of getting great publicity. What happened?’ I said, ‘Well, I have a lot of views that they're opposed to for a lot of bad reasons.’ ”

Trump has never seemed to understand why seeking and ultimately occupying the nation's highest office should bring more intense scrutiny than hosting “The Apprentice” or building towers and golf courses.

“When I won, I said, ‘Well the one thing good is now I'll get good press,’ ” he told the Associated Press last year. “And it got worse. … So that was one thing that is a little bit of a surprise to me. I thought the press would become better, and it actually, in my opinion, got more nasty.”

Memories of gentler coverage were not the extent of Trump's nostalgia at CPAC. Much of his 75-minute turn at the microphone was a throwback to his pre-presidency, a time when fame was not accompanied by the weighty responsibilities of the Oval Office.

“It was a lovefest,” Trump said of his debut at CPAC in 2011, romanticizing an appearance that actually drew mixed reviews.

“A lot of people remembered,” he continued, “and they said,  ‘We want Trump. We want Trump.’ And after a few years, they go by, and I say, ‘Here we are. Let's see what we can do.’ And then everybody said, ‘He cannot get elected. He cannot do it.’ ”

In Trump's version of events, he was drafted into politics by popular demand, only to face totally-unfair skepticism once he volunteered his services.

At times on Friday, Trump sought to re-create the thrill of campaigning. His reference to a “crooked opponent” whipped the crowd into a familiar chant: “Lock her up! Lock her up!”

Axios's Jonathan Swan and Mike Allen wrote on Friday morning, before the president's speech, that “in Trumpworld, every day is yesterday,” which might be an understatement. Sometimes “yesterday” is 2016.

Trump read a poem called “The Snake” that he used to deliver often as a candidate. It is about a snake (obviously) that bites a woman after she welcomes it into her home, which Trump uses as an anti-immigrant metaphor.

The president received a standing ovation for his rendition.

Trump exited the stage to “You Can't Always Get What You Want,” as he used to do on the campaign trail, but not before returning, finally, to his current job to announce new sanctions against North Korea, which White House aides had indicated would be a major theme of the address.

Instead, the sanctions were a footnote.

“You don't mind if I go off-script a little bit?” Trump had asked the audience earlier. “Because it's sort of boring. It's a little boring. Got this beautiful speech — everything's wonderful — but a little boring.”

Last April, as part of a media tour around his 100th day in office, Trump confessed to a Reuters reporter that being president was harder than he expected and that he missed his former life.

“I love my previous life,” Trump said. “I had so many things going. This is more work than in my previous life.”

“I thought it would be easier,” he added. “I thought it was more of a — I’m a details-oriented person. I think you’d say that, but I do miss my old life. I like to work, so that’s not a problem, but this is actually more work.”

Trump's speech at CPAC on Friday indicated that it still feels the same.

Poor baby. Maybe he should just quit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Bigly: "Trump seems to miss his old life"

  Reveal hidden contents

Between grievances about  “atrocities” committed by the “crooked media,” President Trump paused during Friday's speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference to reminisce about the good old days.

“They used to treat me so good, too, before I ran for office,” Trump said of the press. “I used to get the greatest publicity. A friend of mine said to me, ‘You know, you used to be the king of getting great publicity. What happened?’ I said, ‘Well, I have a lot of views that they're opposed to for a lot of bad reasons.’ ”

Trump has never seemed to understand why seeking and ultimately occupying the nation's highest office should bring more intense scrutiny than hosting “The Apprentice” or building towers and golf courses.

“When I won, I said, ‘Well the one thing good is now I'll get good press,’ ” he told the Associated Press last year. “And it got worse. … So that was one thing that is a little bit of a surprise to me. I thought the press would become better, and it actually, in my opinion, got more nasty.”

Memories of gentler coverage were not the extent of Trump's nostalgia at CPAC. Much of his 75-minute turn at the microphone was a throwback to his pre-presidency, a time when fame was not accompanied by the weighty responsibilities of the Oval Office.

“It was a lovefest,” Trump said of his debut at CPAC in 2011, romanticizing an appearance that actually drew mixed reviews.

“A lot of people remembered,” he continued, “and they said,  ‘We want Trump. We want Trump.’ And after a few years, they go by, and I say, ‘Here we are. Let's see what we can do.’ And then everybody said, ‘He cannot get elected. He cannot do it.’ ”

In Trump's version of events, he was drafted into politics by popular demand, only to face totally-unfair skepticism once he volunteered his services.

At times on Friday, Trump sought to re-create the thrill of campaigning. His reference to a “crooked opponent” whipped the crowd into a familiar chant: “Lock her up! Lock her up!”

Axios's Jonathan Swan and Mike Allen wrote on Friday morning, before the president's speech, that “in Trumpworld, every day is yesterday,” which might be an understatement. Sometimes “yesterday” is 2016.

Trump read a poem called “The Snake” that he used to deliver often as a candidate. It is about a snake (obviously) that bites a woman after she welcomes it into her home, which Trump uses as an anti-immigrant metaphor.

The president received a standing ovation for his rendition.

Trump exited the stage to “You Can't Always Get What You Want,” as he used to do on the campaign trail, but not before returning, finally, to his current job to announce new sanctions against North Korea, which White House aides had indicated would be a major theme of the address.

Instead, the sanctions were a footnote.

“You don't mind if I go off-script a little bit?” Trump had asked the audience earlier. “Because it's sort of boring. It's a little boring. Got this beautiful speech — everything's wonderful — but a little boring.”

Last April, as part of a media tour around his 100th day in office, Trump confessed to a Reuters reporter that being president was harder than he expected and that he missed his former life.

“I love my previous life,” Trump said. “I had so many things going. This is more work than in my previous life.”

“I thought it would be easier,” he added. “I thought it was more of a — I’m a details-oriented person. I think you’d say that, but I do miss my old life. I like to work, so that’s not a problem, but this is actually more work.”

Trump's speech at CPAC on Friday indicated that it still feels the same.

Poor baby. Maybe he should just quit.

JFC! Me me me me me me me me me......... Does he not realize that he contradicted himself? "They used to treat me so good..." "Now I'll get good press..." Which is it, chucklehead? And is that seriously the most important thing to you, good press? Oh, right, what am I talking about? Not a single word about "I'll be able to help the American people, give back to my country, serve my country."

Stop fucking whining.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Why the hard-right activists at CPAC love Trump so much'

Spoiler

“We’ve come a long way together,” President Trump told the crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference today. But near the beginning of his speech, Trump acknowledged that he wasn’t always embraced by the CPAC crowd. As late as 2016, when he pulled out of the conference in the midst of the primary campaign, his appearances generated controversy and debates about whether he was ideologically pure enough to qualify as a real conservative.

“Do you remember,” he asked the crowd, “I started running and people said, ‘Are you sure he’s a conservative?’ I think now we proved that I’m a conservative.”

In his speech, Trump made expansive claims about how he has accomplished more than any president in history and spoke about the shooting in Parkland, Florida, temporarily quieting the crowd before bringing them back to cheers with a vision of armed teachers blowing away attempted mass shooters. As he did at many of his campaign rallies, Trump read the lyrics to “The Snake,” a song about a compassionate woman who takes a snake into her home; the snake then bites her. Trump uses this song to explain why it’s foolish and naive to admit immigrants to America who because of their evil natures will try to kill us.

And when in passing he mentioned his 2016 primary opponent, it prompted chants of “Lock her up! Lock her up!” It wasn’t the first time the chant had rung out during the conference, which is a bit ironic given that on this very day, Rick Gates would become the third former Trump aide to plead guilty to criminal charges.

The CPAC crowd was unbothered, because at last they have a president who not only supports their agenda but also reflects their entire approach to politics, someone perfectly at home in the carnival atmosphere of extremists and outright nutballs for which CPAC has always been known. Yesterday, longtime GOP consultant John Weaver tweeted:

Weaver was both right and completely wrong. The fact is that CPAC is a far better embodiment of conservatism in the age of Trump than any Heritage Foundation policy forum.

That isn’t to say that the attendees don’t care about traditional conservative ideology. But while they are cheered by the actions this administration has taken on matters like cutting taxes, slashing environmental regulations and undermining the safety net, what really endears Trump to them is as much about style as it is about substance.

It’s partly that Trump mirrors them in his obsession with critics and enemies. The form of hard-right conservatism that dominates the conference is particularly concerned with liberals — how awful they are, how much they should be hated and feared, and what means might be used to infuriate them.

Which is why having a friendly administration in Washington always presents a challenge for the kind of activists who come to CPAC. They draw their strength from opposition (just as liberal activists are drawing strength now), and it can be difficult to generate the passionate anger that feeds your movement when your side is in charge. But through everything he does, Trump brings a furious intensity to what would normally be the most mundane proceedings of the political world, not least because of his constant search for enemies (the news media, immigrants, Democrats) he can demonize and vilify.

But there’s an even more important reason the CPAC crowd loves Trump: He has, so far anyway, succeeded using the political model they’ve advocated for decades.

The hard-right always said that moderation was for losers, and the formula for victory has two parts: pure conservative positions on policy, and scorched-earth political tactics. Which is exactly what Trump did in 2016 and has continued to do.

They’ve realized, as everyone else has (or should have), that Trump’s momentary rhetorical nods to moderation on issues such as DACA are meaningless; when it comes time to actually make policy, he won’t deviate from conservative dogma. Just as important, Trump won in 2016 with a strategy that could have been written by the CPAC attendees: Vilify immigrants, attack Muslims, curse the news media even as it props you up, foment hate and fear, make wild and baseless accusations about your opponent, and even promise to jail her should you win. Don’t pretend that those who disagree with you are people of good will who happen to be mistaken; proclaim that they’re evil. Above all, focus all your attention not on “reaching out” to an increasingly diverse America but on mobilizing the old America, the one where white Christians are the only people who matter.

What was so intoxicating to the hard right wasn’t just that Trump ran that kind of campaign, but that he won with it. As far as they’re concerned, he proved that they were right all along.

And he has continued that strategy in office. Trump has made more than clear that he has little interest in being president of all Americans; whether his base is happy is all that matters. In 2020, he’s going to follow the same strategy to try to get reelected.

I happen to think that lightning won’t strike twice, and that strategy won’t succeed again. But whether it does or doesn’t, it won’t change the minds of conservative activists that it’s the only path to victory. Though they may turn on him if he loses, for now Trump is the leader they’ve always yearned for.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Maybe he should just quit.

Maybe?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I urge you to read the article linked in the tweet. It’s hilariously sad.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, fraurosena said:

I urge you to read the article linked in the tweet. It’s hilariously sad.

 

He is, as usual, drunk on himself. I'd have loved to be in the crowd. I suspect that it isn't quite the joyful crowd he might imagine in his wet dreams. Peer pressure would be high there, because if you're not saluting the emperor, you will get a rough exit. But you can't listen to that and then walk out and think "I'm so glad the safety of my children and grandchildren is in his hands." More like "Whoa! When are we going to impeach him? He's nuts!"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Destiny locked this topic

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.



×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.