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Continued from here:

 

 

As requested.

 

 

"Trump’s black outreach could actually work"

Spoiler

There was a mostly unanticipated twist in Tuesday night’s State of the Union address: President Trump’s sustained adulation for the bootstrapping black American.

The speech, essentially the opening argument of his reelection bid, suggests that he thinks black Americans will be instrumental to who wins the White House this November. And it’s fair to assume, based on its content, that his strategy in this regard is twofold: To counter those who accuse him of racial intolerance while trying to improve on 2016’s results — where exit polls show he won 8 percent of the overall black vote and 13 percent of black men.

If his speech is any indication, it appears he’ll try to accomplish this by highlighting black American stories of redemption and self-determination that simultaneously appeal to America’s benevolent nation narrative as well as the conservative strain in black America grounded in bootstrapping — the conviction that grit and ingenuity are enough to overcome racial discrimination and obstacles to economic prosperity. The goal isn’t only, or even primarily, to chip away at Democrats’ advantage with black voters; it is to reassure white voters and depress black voters’ enthusiasm (and turnout) for the eventual Democratic nominee.

Trump’s appeal wasn’t subtle. Studies show that, along with health care, education and the impact of racial discrimination on economic mobility are among black Americans’ top concerns. It’s no wonder, then, that he took credit for the black (and Latino and Asian American) unemployment rate, both overall and for black youth, and the black poverty rate, all of which he called “the lowest levels ever recorded.”

He called attention to the opportunity zone program championed by Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), spotlighting (and drawing a rousing round of applause for) the senate’s only black Republican. And then, pointing to black Army veteran Tony Rankins, who was seated in the House gallery, he told the nation how the program helped Rankins overcome drug addiction, joblessness and homelessness through the dignity of work.

Focusing on education, Trump said, “to expand equal opportunity,” his administration “achieved record and permanent funding” for historically black colleges and universities. And armed with the knowledge that black Americans favor school choice programs at higher rates than Democrats overall, he told the story of a young black student from Philadelphia, and her mother, both guests in the gallery, who was denied the opportunity to attend a better school — something he blamed on swing-state Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, saying that the governor “vetoed legislation to expand school choice to 50,000 children.” He then surprised the student with an “opportunity scholarship” — a euphemism for a public voucher — to attend the school of her choice.

He called attention to another high-achieving black student in the gallery who dreams of joining the newly-created Space Force. Then he noted that the younger McGee is the great-grandson of Charles McGee, who was also in the gallery, a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen who served honorably despite rampant racial discrimination. And then the president regaled the convening by announcing that he’d promoted McGee to the rank of brigadier general earlier in the day.

In a moment foreshadowed by his Super Bowl campaign ad featuring Alice Marie Johnson, a black woman whose federal prison sentence the president commuted, Trump recounted his signing of the First Step Act, a prison reform statute that he accurately called a bipartisan win and described as a “big deal.” Finally, as if fresh from a Black History Month seminar, there were Trump’s hat tips to Martin Luther King Jr., “the marchers at Selma,” Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass.

This focus built on events like the recent Black Voices for Trump in Atlanta and the reporting from the campaign trail that Trump is targeting black men in particular.

In 2016, Trump bragged that after four years, he’d do so much for black America that he’d get “95 percent” of the black vote in 2020. That’s not even close, as I wrote in 2018 — but for Trump to win reelection, it doesn’t have to be.

Between 1968 and 2004, Republican presidential candidates have averaged nearly 12 percent of the black vote. That’s 4 points more than Trump managed against Hillary Clinton. He has underperformed every Republican presidential candidate in the last half-century who wasn’t running against Barack Obama. To win again, he need only return to the mean in a relatively low turnout election to counter the electoral strength that black voters provide Democratic candidates. This probably means focusing on winning over more black men, perhaps something on the order of 1 in 6, and by reducing black voters’ overall share of the electorate.

Deploying themes of heroic individualism and religion-inflected redemption are not accidental, as they get plenty of mileage in black America. A recent survey led by think tanks Third Way and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies showed that a majority of black Americans subscribe to the view that “Most people can get ahead with hard work,” a finding especially pronounced among moderate and conservative black Americans, that constitute the 67 percent of the electorate, according to Gallup. And black Americans continue to have the highest levels of religiosity in the country.

The end goal is not about upending African Americans’ overwhelming support for the Democrats — there are clear reasons for it, none of which Trump can overcome in the short term. Rather, in a close contest, it’s about rewriting the narrative just enough while hanging on to his core base of support. The State of the Union provided a glimpse of how the president intends to accomplish this. By employing the rhetoric of President Richard Nixon’s black capitalism — a program defined in one of his campaign ads as “black power in the best sense of the word. It’s the road that leads to black economic influence and black pride. It’s the key to the black man's fight for equality” — Trump is hoping that just enough black voters will support him or sit out the election altogether. It remains to be seen if Trump’s pitch succeeds, and much of it hinges on who Democrats nominate and if they mobilize black voters.

For now, if the president’s address is an indication, the black electorate — a slice of it, anyway — figure to feature prominently in the Trump campaign’s run of show.

 

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I hope Our Representatives can get back to serving the people now that this over. But I doubt they will. 

 

Edited by tabitha2
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2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

As requested.

I actually wanted just "45 45" - no name at all. Partly just for the coincidence that we got to the thread number that is his number, and partly because I'm sick of seeing that name. I feel like we've run out of words nasty enough to describe him.

But, if it would make the thread too hard to find, I understand.

OK, back to discussing this thug and his fellow thugs taking over the country. I've been thinking about the idea that Putin and/or someone else has dirt on the supposed Trump loyalists, to keep them in line. I know most of the Republican men live in a world different from mine, and perhaps they still feel a scandal would ruin their careers.

I just want to tell them, "Trump has changed all of that. Maybe ten years ago it would have ruined your career if people found out you'd been dishonest in business, paid off hookers, or had an affair. Going by Trump, it seems that is all now the key to success. Not to mention general stupidity and weird ideas about how the world works, which some of you seem to have in abundance."

Being Republicans, I guess any who are in the closet might still consider that a big enough secret to ruin them if exposed. But I wish someone would expose whatever it is that all of them are hiding. Maybe then we could find out what any of them actually think, and get them to either quit politics or start governing the country based on those crazy things called laws and ideals and the good of the people.

Yeah, I know - I'm dreaming.

The prayer breakfast speech was like all of 45's other speeches - me, me, me. If someone wrote a fictional character this bizarre, they'd never get their book published or their movie made -- too unreal.

 

Edited by thoughtful
riffle
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I agree with Zack Hunt - why do we have a national prayer breakfast at all?

As someone who is glad that (theoretically, at least) the US has separation of church and state, I've always been bothered by its existence.

But, since it exists, using it as a way to bring people together and express concern and caring about the country by people of faith would be a good use of it, and what it has meant in the past.

Trump is incapable of any of that.

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Another Pavlovitz post:

https://johnpavlovitz.com/2020/02/03/the-super-bowl-of-maga-hypocrisy/

Quote

I’m pretty sure if irony were fatal, these folks would have expired by the end of the third quarter on Sunday. They are terribly afflicted with it.

Their moral flexibility has been astounding. The Internet is littered with pornographic images of the First Lady, which doesn’t seem to be a moral quandary for Trump supporters*, no matter how Christian they claim to be or how loudly they trumpet their “Family Values” convictions. They’ve made peace with that long ago. (Apparently, full frontal nudity between two women simulating sex, is perfectly fine—so long as one of them later becomes the third wife of the serial adulterer and professed predator they want to vote for). But two talented, powerful, and accomplished women delivering a carefully choreographed and brilliantly executed dance number, while wearing as much as the cheerleaders walking the sidelines—is a pressing moral problem.

 

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I actually wanted just "45 45" - no name at all. Partly just for the coincidence that we got to the thread number that is his number, and partly because I'm sick of seeing that name. I feel like we've run out of words nasty enough to describe him.

But, if it would make the thread too hard to find, I understand.

 

Sadly we do have to have the word trump in the title for both search engine reasons and to make the thread findable. That said, I, like you, can’t wait for the hopefully soon day that he becomes irrelevant and I never have to hear it again.

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@thoughtful, like you, I am convinced the Russians have dirt on the trumplicans. The nature of that dirt, apart from maybe being closeted, is in my view, almost certainly financial.

Like you said, with all the egregious things Trump has been condoned for, anything else wouldn't amount to much anymore. But taking money from the Russians, being indebted to the Saudi's, the Chinese, and Rufus knows who else, being part of money laundering for foreign and domestic mobsters? That is what they are absolutely desperate to conceal. 

@Destiny, I will not mind in the slightest hearing his name after the elections.

"Trump indicted!"

"Trump on trial!"

"Trump found guilty!"

"Trump sentencing soon!"

"Trump sentenced to 60 years!"

"Trump dragged out of court in shackles!"

 

 

Edited by fraurosena
riffle
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I would love to see his name in that context too, however, I don’t possess your faith in the system. Not anymore. 2016 cured me of that nicely.

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6 minutes ago, Destiny said:

I would love to see his name in that context too, however, I don’t possess your faith in the system. Not anymore. 2016 cured me of that nicely.

I agree.  I am so angry about what Trump has been allowed to do to this country but beyond that I am heartbroken that this has destroyed my faith in the system entirely.  I used to think things will eventually right themselves because the constitution will always win.  

Anger I can live with, it's temporary.  But my fear feels permanent and I'm trying to figure out how to live with that.

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I am sharing this because I suspect Molly is probably correct about Twitler's wives. I don't want ANYONE to be shot and would not cheer for anyone to shoot another person. I DO want Twitler, his family, and all his sycophants to be exiled to a desert island without phones or internet access.

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32 minutes ago, Destiny said:

I would love to see his name in that context too, however, I don’t possess your faith in the system. Not anymore. 2016 cured me of that nicely.

I don't have faith in the system. Not one little bit. It's corrupt and contaminated and thoroughly rotten.

I do, however have faith in people. People can, and will, change the system. 

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"In Unhinged Propaganda Rally, Trump Proclaims Victory After Impeachment Acquittal"

Spoiler

In more than an hour of improvisational ramblings that appeared more like fascist propaganda than a White House event, President Donald Trump on Thursday declared victory the day after Senate Republicans acquitted him in impeachment proceedings that were largely favorable toward him.

As the former reality television host walked to his lectern, he received a standing ovation while “Hail to the Chief” played, before launching into an unhinged riff targeting some of his favorite and most frequently mentioned subjects, listing them off in a Mad Libs-like frenzy.

The speech, which resembled his ad-libbed campaign rallies, was held in the East Room, typically reserved for more measured and sometimes somber official White House events.

“We had the witch hunt. It started the day we came down the elevator,” he said, referring to his campaign launch in June of 2015. “And it never really stopped.”

“It was evil, it was corrupt, it was dirty cops, it was leakers, it was liars, and no president should ever have to go through this,” he continued. “Dirty cops. Bad people.”

“We went through hell, unfairly,” Trump continued, after pontificating on various subjects, as he does at his campaign rallies. “We did nothing wrong.”

He then held up the front page of Thursday’s Washington Post, with the headline “Trump Acquitted.”

“It’s the only good headline I’ve ever had in The Washington Post,” he said of the newspaper, a frequent subject of his attacks against the media.

“We first went through Russia, Russia, Russia. It was all bullshit,” he continued, with his remarks turning into a comedy roast at times.

At the end of his hour-plus remarks, he offered his only apology: to his family “for having them have to go through a phony, rotten deal by some very evil and sick people.”

On Wednesday, in an expected party-line vote, the Republican majority in the Senate voted to acquit Trump on two articles of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. During the trial, they voted down Democrats’ efforts to demand witness testimony and documents, which Trump and the White House had repeatedly refused to provide.

Only one Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah), joined the Democratic minority in voting to convict Trump on the abuse of power article.

“The president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust,” he said on the Senate floor. “What he did was not perfect. No, it was a flagrant assault on our electoral rights, our national security and our fundamental values.”

Trump and his allies immediately began attacking the senator and 2012 Republican presidential nominee, including spreading conspiracy theories, such as suggesting “slick, slippery, stealthy Mitt Romney” threw the 2012 race, which he lost to President Barack Obama.

Earlier Thursday, Trump also went after Romney in a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, traditionally a venue where presidents have promoted bipartisanship.

Instead, Trump treated the event — attended by lawmakers of both parties, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — as an airing of grievances.

“As everybody knows, my family, our great country and your president have been put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people,” he said. “They have done everything possible to destroy us and by so doing very badly hurt our nation.”

His East Room remarks were similarly an airing of grievances, before turning into an extended thank-you speech, as if he were accepting an Academy Award. He devoted much of his remarks to thanking numerous Republican lawmakers and allies, sometimes taking personal credit for their electoral victories.

While thanking House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), Trump spent several minutes graphically detailing the 2017 shooting that wounded Scalise and several other lawmakers, police officers and aides.

At several points, he described multiple GOP representatives as “straight out of central casting,” underscoring the speech as a self-indulgent spectacle — fit for a former reality television show host obsessed with the performance of being president. 

I couldn't bring myself to watch the dotard's rambling.

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Most of FJ knows I'm black. Most of us detest the orange menace, and those who don't are ostracized. Some black evangelicals may pray for the fool, but as a collective we are not that stupid to be manipulated by that racist chump. We know when we're getting gamed. 

I absolutely cannot watch that person open his piehole, I have a visceral bad reaction of repulsion and disgust. 

Edited by SilverBeach
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32 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

do, however have faith in people. People can, and will, change the system. 

I want to believe this, I really do but then I read on FB former classmates that still live in the Midwest saying 45's SOU speech was the best ever and posting pictures of T 2020 flags in front if their house. I don't get it, I really don't get it and I worry. 

But I do hope this changes and swings back in my lifetime or that I don't have to leave and go live in another country to escape this regime.

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45 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I couldn't bring myself to watch the dotard's rambling.

I had to stop watching his stuff after i literally vomited. Ain't nobody got time for cleaning up that mess every damn day.

Edited by Destiny
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1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I am sharing this because I suspect Molly is probably correct about Twitler's wives. I don't want ANYONE to be shot and would not cheer for anyone to shoot another person. I DO want Twitler, his family, and all his sycophants to be exiled to a desert island without phones or internet access.

Melania made it clear

 

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From Dana Milbank: "Meet the new Trump, same as the old Trump"

Spoiler

“You can’t trust this president to do the right thing,” lead House manager Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said this week in his final plea before the Senate’s impeachment vote. “He will not change, and you know it.”

But even Schiff couldn’t have known how quickly President Trump would prove these words true.

The morning after his acquittal in the Senate, Trump attended the National Prayer Breakfast, where political opponents have always set aside their differences. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) urged the assembled to “raise our voices in prayer as one.” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) prayed for his colleagues, including Pelosi, and said God couldn’t have “picked a better day to bring us all together.”

And then there was Trump. He complained that he was “put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people.”

Referring to Mitt Romney, the lone Republican to support impeachment, Trump said, “I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong.” Referring to Pelosi, just a few feet away, he added: “Nor do I like people who say, ‘I pray for you’ when they know that’s not so.”

Deriding expressions of faith at the prayer breakfast? Trump had a couple of hours to think about whether he was doing “the right thing” — and he decided he was!

He gathered Republican lawmakers in the East Room of the White House, the chamber where Abraham Lincoln met Ulysses S. Grant and where John F. Kennedy and six other presidents lay in state. There, Trump renewed his mockery of the faith of Romney and Pelosi.

“I had Nancy Pelosi sitting four seats away, and I’m saying things that a lot of people wouldn’t have said, but I meant every word of it,” he said, calling her “a horrible person” and again deriding her for saying she prays for Trump. “She doesn’t pray. She may pray, but she prays for the opposite. But I doubt she prays at all.”

The Republicans laughed.

And Romney? “You have some that used religion as a crutch. They never used it before,” he said of the devout Mormon. Trump derided the 2012 Republican nominee as “a failed presidential candidate.” He said to tell the people of Utah that “I’m sorry about Mitt Romney.”

The Republicans applauded.

He will not change.

He described his political opponents and government bureaucrats as “bad,” “dirty,” “horrible,” “evil,” “sick,” “corrupt,” “scum,” “leakers,” “liars,” “vicious,” “mean,” “lowlifes,” “non-people,” “stone-cold crazy” and “the crookedest, most dishonest, dirtiest people I’ve ever seen.”

In what was billed as an address to the nation, Trump declared to every American man, woman and child: “It was all bullshit.”

The Republicans laughed.

He will not change.

Given license to be licentious, he sprinkled in several more forms of coarse speech. Of the former FBI director and deputy attorney general in the George W. Bush administration, he said: “When I fired that sleazebag, all hell broke out.”

He will not change.

He attacked the federal courts that review national security cases: “The FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] courts should be ashamed of themselves.” He veered into fantasy, saying of the shooting at a congressional baseball practice, “I saw the whole thing,” — though he most certainly had not. He detoured into the bizarre, saying “a lot of wives wouldn’t give a damn” if their husbands were shot and on the verge of death.

It was, in sum, a thorough repudiation of Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Joni Ernst (Iowa) and others who claimed that Trump had learned his lesson, that he had somehow grown because of the impeachment experience.

“We went through hell, unfairly, did nothing wrong — did nothing wrong,” Trump proclaimed in the East Room. He added: “That was a totally appropriate call. I call it a perfect call, because it was.” Those who “need” to claim otherwise are “totally incorrect,” he said.

In Trump’s account, his Republican allies are “warriors” for him, “in battle and war” against “dirty cops,” the “FBI lovers” and “fake dossiers.” He praised Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa) because he “got James Comey to choke.” He praised Sen. Kelly Loeffler (Ga.) for being “downright nasty and mean” in his defense.

And he praised himself — because he had “one of the greatest wins of all time,” because he “topped” Andrew Jackson for running in the “nastiest” campaign, and because the GOP is more spirited under him than under Lincoln.

He made up words. He made up facts. He talked about a Yankee second-baseman from the 1950s. He said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) is “very proud of his body.” He said Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) got her job because “I liked the name Lesko.”

No, he will not change.

After an hour, Trump invited others to speak.

“We’ve got your back,” offered Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.)

The Republicans applauded.

They will not change, either.

 

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16 hours ago, WiseGirl said:

I want to believe this, I really do but then I read on FB former classmates that still live in the Midwest saying 45's SOU speech was the best ever and posting pictures of T 2020 flags in front if their house. I don't get it, I really don't get it and I worry. 

Same.  

I think he will win again in November because the DNC is just as corrupt as the lot of them and will not allow a viable progressive candidate to get anywhere near the nomination.  I am 50; I no longer expect any of it to get any better within my lifetime.  It's only going to get worse.  

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