Trump

[ryoder 1,590]

  On 9/19/2024 at 6:17 PM, gowlerk said:

I'm equal parts English, Irish, Scottish and Dutch. Near perfection.

So none of your grandparents wanted to associate with their own kind?

[JerryBaumchen 1,430]

  On 9/19/2024 at 1:16 PM, nigel99 said:

Well according to John Howard we Trump you

Howard said political events seen in the US showed its system had major deficiencies.

"Everything we're witnessing in America tells us is that their political system is far inferior to ours," he said.

"In a parliamentary system, Donald Trump would never have got to the leadership of the Republicans, and I don't think Kamala Harris would ever have got to the leadership of the Democrats.

"We wouldn't have gone through the agony the Democrats went through regarding Joe Biden.

"They have a different system. And my take, my very strong view, is that a parliamentary system is much better than a presidential system."

Hi Nigel,

When I compare that to the Electoral College, I agree with him.

Jerry Baumchen

[Phil1111 1,149]

  On 9/19/2024 at 6:17 PM, gowlerk said:

I'm equal parts English, Irish, Scottish and Dutch. Near perfection.

 

  On 9/19/2024 at 6:24 PM, ryoder said:

So none of your grandparents wanted to associate with their own kind?

Oh god, do you blame them?

[gowlerk 2,249]

  On 9/19/2024 at 6:24 PM, ryoder said:

So none of your grandparents wanted to associate with their own kind?

The Irish was orange. Close enough. Presbyterian and Anglican get along well enough. My English grandfather married a Dutch immigrant and converted to Catholic. My father ditched that and converted to Anglican to marry my mother. None of them were particularly religious.  

[Phil1111 1,149]

Trump’s Tax Proposals Would Cost a Staggering $10.5 Trillion over only 10 years. It currently stands at $34.5 trillion

[billvon 3,065]

Trump talking about his debate performance on Fox News:

“And the audience was absolutely—they went crazy.  I walked off, I said, ‘That was a great debate, I loved it.’”

There is, of course, a minor problem with that statement.  There was no audience.

[wmw999 2,530]

That'd be the voices in his head.

Wendy P.

[billvon 3,065]

  On 9/21/2024 at 5:44 PM, wmw999 said:

That'd be the voices in his head.

Suddenly his claims about crowd size make more sense.

[nigel99 566]

  On 9/21/2024 at 5:48 PM, billvon said:

Suddenly his claims about crowd size make more sense.

In all seriousness I have wondered if he has psychosis. He does bizarre stuff like waving at non existent people. 

[ryoder 1,590]

  On 9/21/2024 at 11:05 PM, nigel99 said:

In all seriousness I have wondered if he has psychosis. He does bizarre stuff like waving at non existent people. 

According to Ron Filipkowski, he does this while getting on/off planes so his lackeys can film him waving to the imaginary crowds...which works as long as the camera is not pointed toward the "crowds".

[nigel99 566]

  On 9/22/2024 at 12:00 AM, ryoder said:

According to Ron Filipkowski, he does this while getting on/off planes so his lackeys can film him waving to the imaginary crowds...which works as long as the camera is not pointed toward the "crowds".

I’ve heard Ron say that. I’m not sure Trump is capable of much strategic thought and thinking beyond the next 10 seconds. I can easily see the people around him being evil and using him strategically though. On the other hand I volunteered on a suicide/crisis hotline and had quite a few calls from people in the middle of psychotic breaks and the experience was very real for them.

One of the most memorable was trying to calm a woman who believed she was the Virgin Mary and Princess Di was in heaven trying to kill her. Callers often had delusions of grandeur and being under attack (call me your highness or sir was quite common). 

[jakee 1,559]

  On 9/22/2024 at 12:40 AM, nigel99 said:

I’ve heard Ron say that. I’m not sure Trump is capable of much strategic thought and thinking beyond the next 10 seconds. 

Don’t forget he’s a born grifter. When it comes to manipulation he’s quite intelligent.

[tkhayes 348]

  On 9/22/2024 at 6:28 AM, jakee said:

Don’t forget he’s a born grifter. When it comes to manipulation he’s quite intelligent.

And oddly enough, humans appear to be subject to grift, over and over again.  Nigerian billionaires are still sending me money and spam email still arrives, phone calls daily for scams.  If this shit was not working, it would not exist.

Trump is a master and telling people to give him money, as well as a master of never paying the people he owes money to.

[kallend 2,106]

  On 9/22/2024 at 6:39 AM, tkhayes said:

 

Trump is a master and telling people to give him money, as well as a master of never paying the people he owes money to.

Trump’s six bankruptcies were: 

The Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1991.

The Trump Castle casino in Atlantic City, 1992.

The Trump Plaza and Casino in Atlantic City, 1992.

The Plaza Hotel in New York City, 1992.

Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts, with properties in Atlantic City and in Indiana, 2004.

Trump Entertainment Resorts, the successor company to Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts, 2009.

[Phil1111 1,149]

  On 9/22/2024 at 6:39 AM, tkhayes said:

And oddly enough, humans appear to be subject to grift, over and over again.  Nigerian billionaires are still sending me money and spam email still arrives, phone calls daily for scams.  If this shit was not working, it would not exist......

Sorry about your losses.Try to be positive about it. You helped a Nigerian rise above poverty. Just think of trump supporters that also got scammed.

[JoeWeber 2,819]

  On 9/22/2024 at 1:31 PM, Phil1111 said:

Sorry about your losses.Try to be positive about it. You helped a Nigerian rise above poverty. Just think of trump supporters that also got scammed.

Losses??? I just got my statement and I'm up another 200% I'm doublin' down, baby, and lettin' it ride!

[tkhayes 348]

  On 9/13/2024 at 4:16 AM, headoverheels said:

Long time (Nixon days to present) Republican operative Karl Rove had a take on the debate, published in today's Wall Street Journal.

***

A Catastrophic Debate for Trump

Karl Rove

Tuesday’s debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump was a train wreck for him, far worse than anything Team Trump could have imagined.

Ms. Harris was often on offense, leaving Mr. Trump visibly rattled as she launched rocket after rocket at him. A New York Times analysis found she spent 46% of her time on the attack while Mr. Trump devoted 29% of his time to going after her. Debates aren’t won on defense.

Ms. Harris pressed Mr. Trump on the economy, the Ukraine war, foreign policy, healthcare, the Jan. 6 attack and especially abortion, leaving him flustered and often incoherent. In return, he criticized her on border security, climate change and the Israel-Hamas war.

Mr. Trump had to know the vice president would try to get him to lose his cool. She did. She went after him on his multiple indictments. She called him “weak” and belittled him as a six-time bankrupt, spoiled inheritor of wealth. She said his former national security adviser thought him, in her words, “dangerous and unfit” for the Oval Office.

As is frequently the case with Mr. Trump, he let his emotions get the better of him. He took the bait almost every time she put it on the hook, offering a pained smile as she did. Rather than dismissing her attacks and launching his strongest counterarguments against her, Mr. Trump got furious. As her attacks continued, his voice rose. He gripped the podium more often and more firmly. He grimaced and shook his head, at times responding with wild and fanciful rhetoric. Short, deft replies and counterpunches would have been effective. He didn’t deliver them.

Mr. Trump did a terrible job at his most important task—tying her to President Biden’s failed policies. He did an even worse job prosecuting the argument that she’s a far-left politician out of sync with America’s values. The Trump campaign’s mid-debate fact-check bulletins that flooded email inboxes were far more substantive and effective than his responses at the podium.

Mr. Trump’s failure wasn’t for a lack of material. He had plenty in the Biden-Harris administration’s record to work with, especially on inflation and the crisis at the border. In one of his strongest moments, he hit hard on the botched Afghan withdrawal. Even then, he got sucked into an argument about his administration’s negotiations with the Taliban.

There was no sustained, specific indictment of her record on almost any issue. Mr. Trump offered angry responses, pursed lips and eyes darting mostly down, seldom looking at her. And what was it with his makeup that left white circles around his eyes? This was his most important opportunity to make an impression of strength and relative stability.

Both candidates made significant misstatements. Ms. Harris said her opponent “left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression” and Mr. Trump declared inflation under Biden-Harris “probably the worst in our nation’s history.” But his false statements far outnumbered hers by my count.

Mr. Trump had a great comeback to Ms. Harris’s agenda for change. She’s had 3½ years as vice president, he said, so “why hasn’t she done it?” But that was in his closing statement. It should have been the attack he started with, continually repeated, and closed with, undercutting every new policy proposal she offered.

It matters how debating candidates carry themselves. There, it was no contest. Ms. Harris came across as calm, confident, strong and focused on the future. Mr. Trump came across as hot, angry and fixated on the past, especially his own. She mastered the split screen, projecting confidence and wordlessly undercutting him by smiling while shaking her head as he spoke.

Many undecided and swing voters will make up their minds less on any single issue than on their visceral reactions to the candidates. Ms. Harris did herself much good with that crowd Tuesday. Mr. Trump didn’t.

Even more voters wanted to learn something new and reassuring about the candidates in the debate. She provided them plenty, while he didn’t.

Trump enthusiasts will be upset that the ABC interviewers fact-checked the former president far more than they did Ms. Harris. Then again, he gave them plenty of material to work with—such as repeating the bizarre claim that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating the pets of local residents. That was probably Team Trump’s lowest moment.

Will this debate have an effect? Yes, though perhaps not as much as Team Harris hopes or as much as Team Trump might fear. But there’s no putting lipstick on this pig. Mr. Trump was crushed by a woman he previously dismissed as “dumb as a rock.” Which raises the question: What does that make him?

***

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/09/22/afghanistan-taliban-restrictions-men-beards/
all that is required for evil to conquer is for good men to do nothing 

this applies to Trump as well  unleashed he is capable of anything.   narcissistic sociopath  

maybe the pullout in Kabul was not such a good idea but I am also not advocating that we could have made something else for Afghanistan by pouring more into it. A shitshow just like Israel

no solution, so why bother?  There is that. Some problems have no solution and maybe millions have to suffer and die before they wake up. The shitty part of humanity

[nigel99 566]

  On 9/22/2024 at 4:21 PM, tkhayes said:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/09/22/afghanistan-taliban-restrictions-men-beards/
all that is required for evil to conquer is for good men to do nothing 

this applies to Trump as well  unleashed he is capable of anything.   narcissistic sociopath  

maybe the pullout in Kabul was not such a good idea but I am also not advocating that we could have made something else for Afghanistan by pouring more into it. A shitshow just like Israel

no solution, so why bother?  There is that. Some problems have no solution and maybe millions have to suffer and die before they wake up. The shitty part of humanity

I’m sorry to say but I think the world would be a better place if the US kept their noses out of other peoples business.

Saddam was a nasty piece of work, but Iraq was relatively stable, Ian Smith was a nasty racist, but Rhodesia was prosperous and the entire population was doing ok. Then  Thatcher and Jimmy Carter helped Mugabe in and Zimbabwe is in ruins. The list goes on …

 

[obelixtim 150]

  On 9/22/2024 at 8:06 PM, nigel99 said:

I’m sorry to say but I think the world would be a better place if the US kept their noses out of other peoples business.

Saddam was a nasty piece of work, but Iraq was relatively stable, Ian Smith was a nasty racist, but Rhodesia was prosperous and the entire population was doing ok. Then  Thatcher and Jimmy Carter helped Mugabe in and Zimbabwe is in ruins. The list goes on …

 

The CIA also set the stage for Iran by putting the corrupt Shah in power back in the day. Overthrowing the democratic will of the people. 

[gowlerk 2,249]

  On 9/22/2024 at 8:06 PM, nigel99 said:

I’m sorry to say but I think the world would be a better place if the US kept their noses out of other peoples business.

Saddam was a nasty piece of work, but Iraq was relatively stable, Ian Smith was a nasty racist, but Rhodesia was prosperous and the entire population was doing ok. Then  Thatcher and Jimmy Carter helped Mugabe in and Zimbabwe is in ruins. The list goes on …

 

So, the white man’s burden should go on? For the good of the ignorant natives?

[jakee 1,559]

  On 9/22/2024 at 8:06 PM, nigel99 said:

Ian Smith was a nasty racist, but Rhodesia was prosperous and the entire population was doing ok. 

Then who was he being nasty to?

[JoeWeber 2,819]

  On 9/22/2024 at 9:02 PM, gowlerk said:

So, the white man’s burden should go on? For the good of the ignorant natives?

I think the point is that, best intentions and good reasons notwithstanding, the usual result of American meddling is the  trading of one shit show for another. I can't disagree.

[billvon 3,065]

  On 9/22/2024 at 8:06 PM, nigel99 said:

I’m sorry to say but I think the world would be a better place if the US kept their noses out of other peoples business.

 

Yes and no.  I think the world would be a poorer place if we refused to help Britain during World War II.

[gowlerk 2,249]

  On 9/22/2024 at 9:09 PM, JoeWeber said:

I think the point is that, best intentions and good reasons notwithstanding, the usual result of American meddling is the  trading of one shit show for another. I can't disagree.

Sort of, but of Thatcher and Carter I believe only one of them was ever American.

[nigel99 566]

  On 9/22/2024 at 9:05 PM, jakee said:

Then who was he being nasty to?

Obviously the Rhodesian situation was not right, but it is long and complicated and it’s far from black and white. The point was the West Interfered and installed Mugabe - less than 3 years later there was genocide - which got ignored. 20 years later the country was on its knees. Now poverty is rampant, and the country is stuffed. 

The main point is that foreign interference often (usually?) does more harm than good. I picked on the US, but I was brought up with the belief that the British Empire had brought civilisation and salvation to the savages around the globe. If they didn’t learn about Jesus they were doomed.