Trumperies

Worldtraveller · Post by **Worldtraveller** » Mon Jul 31, 2017 3:25 pm

it would be fun to use this data to push for a real, viable public transportation system at the national level within the US! Somehow, I don't think that's their goal, though.

Damn I miss living in Germany.

Tharmas · Post by **Tharmas** » Mon Jul 31, 2017 8:18 pm

[quote=""Tharmas""]

The betting has already started about how long he will last.[/quote]

Whoever had less than ten days wins. In fact he wasn't officially to take his role for another two weeks. That's another record for Trump.

MattShizzle · Post by **MattShizzle** » Mon Jul 31, 2017 8:36 pm

It's like musical chairs for key positions in his administration.

lpetrich · Post by **lpetrich** » Thu Aug 03, 2017 3:48 pm

MSNBC hosts spit fire at GOPer claiming Ivanka would be great senator because shes got the full package

During an interview on MSNBC, Zeldin asserted that newly-appointed White House Chief of State John Kelly would not diminish Ivanka Trumps role in the administration.

Ive had an opportunity to spend some quality time with Ivanka and a little bit of time with Jared [Kushner] as well, Zeldin explained. I am super impressed with Ivanka Trump. She brings a tremendous amount of intellect and class. She cares about certain issues child care tax credits, paid family leave.

MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle interrupted: Can I just say one thing? As much as I appreciate you talking about fine manners and class. As a professional woman and a mother, its tough for me to stomach someone looking at me and talking about the great class, when you have the most senior woman in the White House saying nothing when her father says vicious things about a news anchor.

That statement is just tough to swallow, Ruhle said.

BUSTED: Leaked transcript shows Trump begged Mexican prez to stop saying hed never pay for the wall

However, a leaked transcript of a phone call between Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto obtained by the Washington Post shows that Trump understood that he would never get Mexico to fully pay for the wall but he nonetheless begged his Mexican counterpart to stop saying so publicly.

U need 2 work on your begging skills: Internet rips Trumps pathetic wall plea to Mexican president

Users blasted Trumps followers for their uncritical acceptance of everything Trump says while others suggested this is just the White Houses pattern to float extravagant lies, get caught and then re-spin the facts to attack the media or leakers.

lpetrich · Post by **lpetrich** » Thu Aug 03, 2017 4:03 pm

Russia warns Trump ‘establishment’ aims to oust him

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has issued a warning to Donald Trump’s White House that the “U.S. establishment” is preparing to oust him from power and codifying sanctions on Russia is only the first step.

“The U.S. President's signing of the package of new sanctions against Russia will have a few consequences,” Medvedev, Vladimir Putin’s onetime successor in the Kremlin wrote on his Facebook page in Russian and English. “First, it ends hopes for improving our relations with the new U.S. administration. Second, it is a declaration of a full-fledged economic war on Russia.”

I think that DM knows whose side DT is on.

Here are the 8 nuttiest things Trump said to foreign leaders in newly leaked transcripts

Below are the eight craziest things Trump said in the newly leaked transcripts with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

1.) Trump falsely tells Peña Nieto that he won the state of New Hampshire in 2016 because it is a “drug-infested den.”

2.) Trump said he would send the U.S. military into Mexico to take out the country’s drug gangs if Peña Nieto couldn’t handle the job himself.

3.) Trump begged Peña Nieto to stop saying that he would never pay for his proposed border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

4.) Trump laments that children can buy heroin for even less money than they can buy candy.

5.) Trump chewed out Australian PM Turnbull and compared him unfavorably to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

6.) Trump whined about honoring a deal with the Australian government made by the Obama administration to accept refugees — on the grounds that it would make him look bad.

7.) Trump tells Turnbull that “the ISIS thing” is particularly bad because the organization’s members do not wear official uniforms and instead walk around “in disguise.”

8.) Trump tells Turnbull that he is the “world’s greatest person.”

What a narcissist.

lpetrich · Post by **lpetrich** » Thu Aug 03, 2017 4:14 pm

Disgusting: Infuriated NH senator lashes out at Trump for calling her state a drug-infested den -- Sen. Maggie Hassan.

LISTEN: Explosive audio of the profane phone call that got Anthony Scaramucci fired though with a lot of bleeping out of profanity.

He claimed that Reince Priebus was a leaker, and RP got fired in two days. He also claimed that RP was very paranoid. About Steve Bannon, he stated that he does not perform oral sex on himself, that he was not trying to build his own brand, and that he was there to serve the country.

Golf reporter crushes Trump denial: At least eight or nine people heard him call White House a dump

In an article published on Tuesday, Alan Shipnuck reported that Trump said that the White House is a real dump in a candid moment at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Trump fired back on Twitter, calling the report totally untrue and fake news.

Shipnuck explained to the Golf.com podcast on Wednesday that he was certain of his reporting.

lpetrich · Post by **lpetrich** » Thu Aug 10, 2017 7:07 am

Make America golf again: Internet slams Trump for playing 18 holes after threatening nuclear war with North Korea -- "fire and fury"

I think hes saying he blew Trump: Twitter erupts after Scaramucci compares himself to Monica Lewinsky

About his recent interviewer,

Anthony Scaramucci
@Scaramucci

.@RyanLizza is the Linda Tripp of 2017. People know. And he is up at night not being able to live with himself.

lpetrich · Post by **lpetrich** » Sat Aug 12, 2017 10:47 am

A psychological analysis of Trump supporters has uncovered 5 key traits about them noting Social Psychological Perspectives on Trump Supporters | Pettigrew | Journal of Social and Political Psychology

Those traits are:

1. Authoritarian Personality Syndrome
2. Social dominance orientation
3. Prejudice
4. Intergroup contact
5. Relative deprivation

Though there are some left-wing authoritarians, authoritarianism is more common among the Right than among the Left.

Social-dominance orientation is the belief in social hierarchy, with the belief that some racial or ethic or other such group deserves to rule.

Prejudice? When campaigning, DT was very willing to portray Muslims and Mexicans as Very Evil People.

I'll quote the article on intergroup contact.

Intergroup contact refers to contact with members of groups that are outside ones own, which has been experimentally shown to reduce prejudice. As such, its important to note that there is growing evidence that Trumps white supporters have experienced significantly less contact with minorities than other Americans. For example, a 2016 study found that the racial and ethnic isolation of Whites at the zip-code level is one of the strongest predictors of Trump support. This correlation persisted while controlling for dozens of other variables. In agreement with this finding, the same researchers found that support for Trump increased with the voters physical distance from the Mexican border.

Also,

Relative deprivation refers to the experience of being deprived of something to which one believes they are entitled.

The average income of DT voters is around $72,000, so what must be making them feel deprived? Or at least insecure.

lpetrich · Post by **lpetrich** » Sat Aug 12, 2017 11:01 am

Carl Beijer: Fascism is a movement of the middle class

Historian Robert Paxton elaborates:

It was soon noticed that fascist parties were largely middle class, to the point where fascism was perceived as the very embodiment of lower-middle-class resements...On closer inspection, fascism turned out to appeal to upper-class members and voters as well...the relative scarcity of working class-fascists...[is because] those already deeply engaged...in the rich subculture of socialism...were simply not available for another loyalty.

The political explanation here is fairly straightforward: the poor prefer socialism. It's the upper and middle classes who oppose it, particularly in wealthy countries. So when liberal capitalism starts to fail, it's the middle and upper classes who are most likely to turn to fascism - not the poor. If this explanation is correct, then much of the high-profile pundit debate over poor Trump voters has been largely beside the point.

Looking at the numbers,

While these brackets only approximate "classes", the general trend is clear: Clinton ran up significant margins among lower class Americans, while Trump won middle and upper class Americans by slim margins. This fits the general profile of a fascist movement defined by an absence of support among the poor.

Turning to No, Actually, This Is What a Fascist Looks Like, I find

The 1983 American Heritage Dictionary defined fascism as: "A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism."

Merging of state and business leadership? President Trump has been doing a little bit of that by flagrantly disregarding the Emoluments Clause.

Belligerent nationalism? Easy to spot in his speeches.

lpetrich · Post by **lpetrich** » Wed Aug 16, 2017 2:05 am

[quote=""Worldtraveller""]it would be fun to use this data to push for a real, viable public transportation system at the national level within the US! Somehow, I don't think that's their goal, though.[/quote]
Good urban, regional, and intercity rail systems?

The US has slowly been building new urban and regional ones since the 1960's, when BART was built. That's the Bay Area Rapid Transit system. It was the first new system in half a century, and it was to be a big leap forward, with automated trains and the like. But its automated systems did not work very well at first, and BART's operators were reduced to having employees wave signal flags for a while. It was only in the late 1980's that BART started to expand again.

BART is entirely grade-separated, meaning that it crosses no streets at-grade, at their level. Thus it is like a freeway, and like New-York-City subway trains and similiar systems. It opened in 1972, followed by similar systems in DC in 1976, Atlanta in 1979, Baltimore in 1983, Miami in 1984, and Los Angeles in 1993. Similar in construction, even if not in extent.

It's unlikely that there will be a new heavy-rail / rapid-transit / metro system in the US, even though some other nations have been investing heavily in them, notably China.

But a halfway sort of system has become common: light rail, a latter-day trolley usually with larger vehicles. Though most light-rail systems have plenty of at-grade street crossings, they usually run in street medians or in their own rights-of-way -- and sometimes in elevated trackways or in tunnels for parts of their systems.

The first new one built in nearly half a century was in San Diego in 1981, and several other cities have followed with similar systems, Buffalo in 1984, Pittsburgh in 1984, Portland OR in 1986, Sacramento in 1987, San Jose in 1987, Los Angeles in 1990, Baltimore in 1992, St. Louis in 1993, Denver in 1994, Dallas in 1996, Salt Lake City in 1999, Jersey City in 2000, Tacoma in 2003, Minneapolis - St. Paul in 2004, Houston in 2004, Seattle in 2007, Charlotte NC in 2007, Phoenix in 2008, Norfolk in 2011, Tucson in 2014, Kansas City in 2016, Cincinnati in 2016, and Detroit in 2017. Systems with varying sizes and varying amounts of extension.

Commuter-rail systems have also been built. The older ones have been taken over from the railroads that had run them, but there are also several newer ones, like Los Angeles Metrolink, which opened in 1992, and systems in Miami in 1987, northern Virginia in 1992, Seattle-Tacoma in 2000, Salt Lake City in 2008, and Denver in 2016.

Progress here has been very patchy, and it has depended on how much initiative local politicians have shown. This is evident from how much progress has varied in nearby cities. Portland got a light-rail system long before Seattle, San Francisco and San Jose have light-rail systems while Oakland doesn't, Dallas > Houston > Austin > San Antonio, etc.

Hermit · Post by **Hermit** » Wed Aug 16, 2017 7:51 am

Now the manchild doubles down on his Charlottesville gaffe a few days ago. According to him the "alt-left" is also to blame for the death of one of its protesters at Charlottesville.

0:23 "What about the alt-left? They came charging at the, as you say, the alt-right. Do they have any semblance of guilt? Let me ask you this: What about the fact they came charging, that they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs, do they have any problem? I think they do." 0:50 "I think there is blame on both sides, and I have no doubt about it..."

(View video on YouTube)

In a more comprehensive recording of the news conference Trump also found time for making a gratuitous insult when a reporter interrupted him: "Wait a minute. I haven't finished. I haven't finished, fake news." I think he must have read "Nazism for Dummies" and discovered that "fake news" is pretty much a literal translation of one of Hitler's and Goebbels's favourite expletives, "Lügenpresse".

And the best prognosis is that we'll have to endure another three years and five months of Trump's presidency. Second best is that Pence will replace him before then.

JamesBannon · Post by **JamesBannon** » Wed Aug 16, 2017 7:52 am

His recent rage-fuelled statements on Charlottesville really take the cake.

lpetrich · Post by **lpetrich** » Wed Aug 16, 2017 5:20 pm

Turning to intercity rail, Amtrak is essentially a bailout of the railroad companies' passenger-rail service. It had been going downhill for several reasons, and Amtrak may have initially been supported out of nostalgia, memories of nice train trips in past years and decades.

Very surprisingly, Amtrak has survived to this day, instead of shrinking to the Northeast Corridor. But it has been an unwanted stepchild, barely getting enough money to operate, let alone expand. But some states have pitched in here and there, like California, and California is trying to build a TGV-ish high-speed line between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

-

As to President Trump himself, he has talked about infrastructure construction, but he has yet to make that much of a priority. That may make him have to work with Congressional Democrats, because it is mostly Democrats who represent areas that could use big infrastructure projects the most.

MattShizzle · Post by **MattShizzle** » Wed Aug 16, 2017 8:17 pm

There used to be rail service from the nearby city of Reading to Philadelphia (the old Reading Railroad), but that stopped in the late 1950s. They have been every so often talked about bringing it back since the 70s.

Worldtraveller · Post by **Worldtraveller** » Wed Aug 16, 2017 8:30 pm

[quote=""JamesBannon""]His recent rage-fuelled statements on Charlottesville really take the cake.[/quote]
He clearly gives no real shits about it. A few of his saner advisers give him a script to read and he reads it. Then, he meets with his inner circle of actual nazi fuckheads and they tell him to say 'both sides' and he flip flops (heh) faster than the news cycle can keep up.

MattShizzle · Post by **MattShizzle** » Fri Aug 18, 2017 6:26 pm

This song was originally written about his dad by Woody Guthrie in 1950 and only made earlier this year.

(View video on YouTube)

Another one written about HIM by Joan Baez

(View video on YouTube)

Hermit · Post by **Hermit** » Sun Aug 20, 2017 10:13 am

According to Trump the 40,000 counter-protesters in Boston are not anti-fascist and anti-racist demonstrators. They are anti-police agitators. The Boston police commissioner disagreed.

MattShizzle · Post by **MattShizzle** » Thu Aug 31, 2017 3:28 am

A lot of it now is people on the left saying punch Nazis and people on the right saying punching Nazis is wrong...

Old Woman in Purple · Post by **Old Woman in Purple** » Sat Sep 02, 2017 1:03 am

(View video on YouTube)

sohy · Post by **sohy** » Sat Sep 02, 2017 1:54 pm

That video is sadly true.

lpetrich · Post by **lpetrich** » Mon Sep 04, 2017 12:46 am

Trump Is A 19th-Century President Facing 21st-Century Problems | FiveThirtyEight

Since President Trump announced his candidacy in 2015, commentators have asked whether he really understands the office. Over the last few tumultuous months, some have concluded that he does not.

But another way to understand Trumps presidency is as a throwback to a previous era: Trump is in some ways a normal 19th-century president; the issue is that hes serving in the 21st century.

Back in the 19th cy., presidents were much less active, including in policymaking. They tended to leave that to Congress. Not surprisingly, presidents back then had much fewer employees than they do now.

So far, Trump has mostly followed the 19th-century model, even if that wasnt exactly his intention. Despite his clashes with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell over health care, Trump has not shown an interest in the details of policy. He hasnt fully staffed the executive branch and hasnt appointed staff or Cabinet officials with a lot of relevant policy experience. This reflects older patterns in which the national government was smaller and did much less, and presidents didnt have the extensive professional staff they have now.

Likewise, in moral leadership, 19th cy. presidents tended to do much less of that.

Trumps approach has been different. He seems to prefer addressing the public through Twitter and campaign-style rallies over the conventional prime-time address. Twitter obviously didnt exist in the 1850s, but Trumps preference for partisan media is also a throwback to older practices. And he hasnt harnessed the moral power of the office, to say the least.

Then "America First" isolationism and economic self-sufficiency. These were much more common positions before the early 20th cy. Here also, DT fits that pattern fairly well, pushing energy independence and disdaining promoting democracy and human rights.

I also share [the American peoples] frustration over a foreign policy that has spent too much time, energy, money and, most importantly, lives trying to rebuild countries in our own image instead of pursuing our security interests above all other considerations.

Conclusion:

If Trump cant sell the public and his fellow party members on his presidential style, however, he may face the same fate as 19th-century presidents like Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce and Chester Arthur: a challenge from within the party the keeps him from serving a second term.

MattShizzle · Post by **MattShizzle** » Mon Sep 04, 2017 3:10 am

How insane is N Korea? They have to know even a sane US president if they launched a nuclear attack on the US, the US would respond with like 500 nukes for every nuke they launched. Trump would be crazy enough to launch a preemptive strike. Yeah, they'd hurt us but we'd end them. Then the rest of the world would have to deal with the results. China and Russia really need to let Kim know he can't fuck around, especially with someone crazy like Trump. Rhetoric enough might get him to do something insane. Trump and Kim with nukes is like 2 toddlers who hate each other with guns, except one has a .22 revolver and the other has an AK-47 and a kevlar vest and there are about 100 other toddlers in the area.

lpetrich · Post by **lpetrich** » Wed Sep 13, 2017 12:20 pm

Study: Trump fans are much angrier about housing assistance when they see an image of a black man - Vox

In contrast, Clinton supporters seemed relatively unmoved by racial cues.

All it takes to reduce support for housing assistance among Donald Trump supporters is exposure to an image of a black man.

...
The study is just the latest to show that racial attitudes are a powerful predictor for support for Trump — and the newest to suggest that such attitudes play a major role in Americans’ views toward public policy. Previous studies have found that racial resentment was a much stronger indicator of support for Trump than views about the economy. And other research has shown that priming people to think about race can make them more conservative on a host of issues.

The researchers used only white subjects because they could not find very many pro-Trump minority ones.

They used a picture of house with a sign saying "Foreclosure" in front of it, and they overlaid pictures of a white man and a black man on it, in separate pictures.

So it seems that many white people consider white people much more deserving than black people. Much like how Republican politicians are much more willing to support disaster relief in red states than in blue states.

In short, racial attitudes are a powerful predictor for a host of political issues, and racial priming can push people in a more conservative direction. That just so happens to be beneficial for Trump, whose policy agenda is built largely on cracking down on immigration, bringing back “tough on crime” policies, and cutting taxes for the rich and services to the poor.

So with all his racist comments on the campaign trail, Trump not only pandered to his biggest fans, but likely got more people to think in a direction that favored his agenda.

Like his unwillingness to disavow neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan.

Ajay0 · Post by **Ajay0** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 6:29 pm

Trump angers Britain claiming terrorists were known to British police, who had apparently failed to take prompt action , and urging them to be more 'proactive' in their duties.

British PM Theresa May responded by warning Trump not to speculate too much into the matter.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/World/ ... ttack.ashx

lpetrich · Post by **lpetrich** » Sat Oct 14, 2017 9:39 pm

Could we reverse a hacked presidential election? - Vox

Not just one where the Russians did a massive propaganda campaign to influence the election, and not just one where Russian hackers stole large numbers of voter records from several states.

It is cold comfort that we have no evidence so far that Moscow actually manipulated vote tallies to change the elections outcome.

But what if it emerges that Russian operatives were successful on that front as well? Setting Trump aside, what if a foreign government succeeds in the future in electing an American president through active vote manipulation?

The Constitution offers no clear way to remedy such a disaster.

Especially if the President did not know about such assistance.

The Constitution does not allow what parliamentary systems allow: calling for quick elections.

A Constitutional amendment? The US Constitution is very hard to amend.