It's official, President Trump takes over.

[Shadowmelded]

No, i think you will have to apply for some kind of reading comprehension course.

I'm asking if you agree with Trump, since that's his stated position. You also brought up Isis "running rampant in parts of the world" as the alternative to not committing a war crime. If the two aren't related, why bring it up?

[JohnBrown1917]

gratz , i want the same one for germany now , thanks

You already had one in the 40s.

[Deleted]

I'm asking if you agree with Trump, since that's his stated position. You also brought up Isis "running rampant in parts of the world" as the alternative to not committing a war crime. If the two aren't related, why bring it up?

I think you need to look at the reality, Isis is running rampant and it's largely due to the funds they recieve from conquered iraqi oilfields. That would've been prevented if the US forces had protected them. That's literally all i'm saying.

[Wells]

I think you need to look at the reality, Isis is running rampant and it's largely due to the funds they recieve from conquered iraqi oilfields. That would've been prevented if the US forces had protected them. That's literally all i'm saying.

ISIS is losing, and has been losing for some time. Their only notable victory recently was retaking a city that Russia and Syria abandoned.

[Shadowmelded]

I think you need to look at the reality, Isis is running rampant and it's largely due to the funds they recieve from conquered iraqi oilfields. That would've been prevented if the US forces had protected them. That's literally all i'm saying.

And as a personal opinion that's fine. It's not what Trump said at all though. He literally said "To the victor go the spoils" and referred to the Oil, not Oilfields. That's pillaging, not protecting the oilfields from being taken over by Isis.

[Berengil]

At the end, asserting US strategic interests is the final word on the matter.

And frankly, you're 15 years out of date. The UK, under David Cameron, has stripped their military to the bone. The US's key European military partner at the present is France, funny enough.

.

I agree with what I underlined. I suppose you and I differ on the details. I fall squarely on the side of " Your elder brother has spoken, and he has saved your rear in the past, if you recall."

I know all too well that the UK's military strength ain't what it used to be. Although Mi5 and Mi6 are top-notch agencies, and the UK's spec ops teams ( SAS) as well as the Royal Marines are very good at their jobs. it's precisely because of their expertise in intelligence that we should listen to them, but that's not all.

And here is where I let a bit of sentimentalism enter my thinking. Britain is family. We've had our quarrels, but they are something like an uncle that we think is a bit of a sht sometimes, but we won't let anyone else f with them. In my view, the US will never under any conceivable circumstances permit an existential threat to the UK.

Oh how times have changed, right? Washington, Adams, and Jefferson would question their own sanity if they could see the UK/US relationship now.

[Shadowferal]

And here we go:

The campaign to impeach President Trump has begun

The effort to impeach President Donald John Trump is already underway.

At the moment the new commander in chief was sworn in, a campaign to build public support for his impeachment went live at ImpeachDonaldTrumpNow.org, spearheaded by two liberal advocacy groups aiming to lay the groundwork for his eventual ejection from the White House.
The organizers behind the campaign, Free Speech for People and RootsAction, are hinging their case on Trump’s insistence on maintaining ownership of his luxury hotel and golf course business while in office. Ethics experts have warned that his financial holdings could potentially lead to constitutional violations and undermine public faith in his decision-making.

The impeachment drive comes as Democrats and liberal activists are mounting broad opposition to stymie Trump's agenda. Among the groups organizing challenges to the Trump administration is the American Civil Liberties Union, which plans to wield public-records requests and lawsuits as part of an aggressive action plan aimed at protecting immigrants and pushing for government transparency, among other issues.

“We think that President Trump will be in violation of the Constitution and federal statutes on day one, and we plan a vigorous offense to ensure the worst of the constitutional violations do not occur,” said Anthony D. Romero, the ACLU’s executive director.
“We may have a new president, but we have the same old system of checks and balances,” he added.

[Skroe]

The Women's March collectively was the largest political protest in US history.

Day one.Welcome to Hell Trump and the Trumpkins. Your waterboarding table awaits...

[Wyrt]

The Women's March collectively was the largest political protest in US history.

Day one.Welcome to Hell Trump and the Trumpkins. Your waterboarding table awaits...

People from around the world participated in it in their own countries as well.

Also glad that people in my state were safe and the only arrests(at least that I've heard of) were in regards to people blocking trains instead of vandalism.

[Wyrt]

How's Trump's ego doing today after 3 million protesters marched in DC after only 200k people showed up for his inauguration?

[May90]

The Women's March collectively was the largest political protest in US history.

Day one.Welcome to Hell Trump and the Trumpkins. Your waterboarding table awaits...

Wasn't Occupy Wall-Street bigger? Or it was more localized, looking bigger than it actually was?

But yeah, I was actually surprised by how massive the protests were. I thought the fighting spirit in this country was taking a nap. Looks like these 4 years (or less) will be intense!

[Skroe]

I agree with what I underlined. I suppose you and I differ on the details. I fall squarely on the side of " Your elder brother has spoken, and he has saved your rear in the past, if you recall."

That's simply not how it works. In fact, doing that undermines our agenda on a comprehensive basis every time we try and do that.

Fundamentally there are two major ways to press a policy.

(1) Force it an do it anyway

(2) Cajole, lobby, convince and consent.

In case (1), we invite active opposition. We invite our enemies to organizes and we alienate our friends by making them feel unimportant.

In case (2), the worst case scenario is that our allies do not help, but also do not hinder. But the important thing is they feel that their input is considered.

In 2003 I was all for unilateralism. I was all aboard the Axis of Weasels train. And look what it got us. It was a catastrophe for US foreign policy that took years to recover from. In some ways we still haven't recovered. The love was back... but the limitless trust, like before the Iraq Wars? It's still elusive. It'll take decades to recover it.

Americans who didn't learn from that... who take our friendships and relationships with our friends and allies for granted, are setting this country up for a catastrophic loss. So much of our international power is dependent upon these friendships and the access it provides. We treat them badly, they'll slam the door, hard.

Fundamentally it comes down to a matter of respect. We want to be respected as a country. We are respected by our deeds, our principles and our wisdom. Respect never comes on the other side of force. That's Vladmir Putin's way of thinking. And with that respect, we must respect those who give us respect. We should not necessarily do what our allies say in all cases. But as their LEADER, we have a responsibility, a duty, to hear them out and make sure their interests are respected.

If we don't do that, we won't lead shit for very long. I hope you understand that.

I know all too well that the UK's military strength ain't what it used to be. Although Mi5 and Mi6 are top-notch agencies, and the UK's spec ops teams ( SAS) as well as the Royal Marines are very good at their jobs. it's precisely because of their expertise in intelligence that we should listen to them, but that's not all.

And here is where I let a bit of sentimentalism enter my thinking. Britain is family. We've had our quarrels, but they are something like an uncle that we think is a bit of a sht sometimes, but we won't let anyone else f with them. In my view, the US will never under any conceivable circumstances permit an existential threat to the UK.

Oh how times have changed, right? Washington, Adams, and Jefferson would question their own sanity if they could see the UK/US relationship now.

The US would never tolerate an existential threat to the UK, but we're talking about the ability to engage in security operations with our allies. The French have been steadily modernizing their forces. The British... what can I say... they're cheap. They don't want to spend. So they're retiring ships and aircraft YEARS before they're end of life date, to save a few billion here and there. They're pulling their long range missiles from their ships to save some money. The Royal Navy's surface fleet numbers about 22 ships, down from 70 not too long ago (the US is 281, on the way to 308 in 220, and then 355 by 2030).

A budget is a list of priorities. THey simply prioritize insulating the rising cost of the NHS over military spending. That's their right. It's their government and their money. But the consequences is that Chancellor Angela Merkel and Germany has become the US's main strategic European partner over the last 8 years, while the UK's role diminished. On security issues (where Germany is less central), it's been France.

The chief villain in this story has been the inept leadership of David Cameron, one of the most talent-less and vision-less politicians of our time. Teresa May should do a better job, on virtue of not being David Cameron.

- - - Updated - - -

Wasn't Occupy Wall-Street bigger? Or it was more localized, looking bigger than it actually was?

But yeah, I was actually surprised by how massive the protests were. I thought the fighting spirit in this country was taking a nap. Looks like these 4 years (or less) will be intense!

More localized. These are larger generally on a per-city basis and happening more places.

An excellent showing on Day One of how Donald Trump will never be normalized.

[Edge-]

I really enjoyed Spicers first appearance as Press Secretary. Spent about 10 minutes whining, crying, and complaining about "unfair" media coverage pointing out how small the crowds yesterday were, proceeded to spin some lies about how big they were, jumped all over the place and couldn't stick to a single topic, and then abruptly left without taking any questions.

Following Trump talking to the CIA in front of a wall honoring those who had died in the line of duty...where he spent most of the time talking about himself and how mean media are. Best part is that apparently, most of the applause during his speech was from folks on the side rather than members of the CIA (and apparently nobody had any clue who those folks were).

This on top of all the issues that are being found with the disclosures from cabinet nominees that is leading to more holdups during the confirmation process because apparently the Trump team couldn't be bothered to properly vett them before nominating them.

This is such a shitshow of awful and stupid. Though watching Trump impotently flail about as the protests today all vastly outnumber those who came to his inauguration, instead of actually doing any of the multitude of things he promised he'd do on day one, is kinda funny I guess : /

[Berengil]

More localized. These are larger generally on a per-city basis and happening more places.

An excellent showing on Day One of how Donald Trump will never be normalized.

Never for the people who oppose him maybe. As for the people who voted for him, he already is. And undecideds? Jury's still out.

[Thepersona]

The Women's March collectively was the largest political protest in US history.

Day one.Welcome to Hell Trump and the Trumpkins. Your waterboarding table awaits...

You know, i like to imagine the aliance between your people (rational conservatives, old era republicans and reagan-esque republicans) with progressives, liberals and democrats in general as the coalition between the alliance, the horde and the sentinels in order to defend mount hyjal from the burning legion. You must defend the world tree (us image of decency, any effort to tackle the global warming problem) from archimonde and his undead scourge (the trumpkins, mindlessly controlled by someone else, and dont even know that). Defend it. Call the wisps at the last hour but do not let him sap nordrassil.
Or better... be the the armies of legionfall

[Shadowferal]

Wasn't Occupy Wall-Street bigger? Or it was more localized, looking bigger than it actually was?

It was a genuine threat to the Establishment. So it's momentum was crushed.

We'll see what happens nowadays...

[Wyrt]

Never for the people who oppose him maybe. As for the people who voted for him, he already is. And undecideds? Jury's still out.

How are all those day 1 promises Trump made and didn't keep sitting with Trumpeteers?

[Skroe]

Never for the people who oppose him maybe. As for the people who voted for him, he already is. And undecideds? Jury's still out.

And therein lies the problem. Even the least popular Presidents have been normalized. Their legitimacy largely unchallenged.

The Russian hacking delegitimizes Trump.
The conduct of Trump's campaign delegitimizes him.
Trump's day to day behavior, his statements to this very day, continue to delegitimize him.

Trump will find his authority little, and this country ungovernable, if he faces an ongoing legitimacy crisis, which these protest illustrate is brewing. As I've been saying, in the end it won't be one thing that takes him down. It'll be a collection of things. Him governing in a way which VALIDATES the reason for these Women going out, which he will because its in his nature, will keep him from being normalized, and will eventually shred the last bit of his legitimacy.

I'll say what I said over a month and a half ago: if Donald Trump had half a brain, he would have been the BAND LEADER of the "We must get to the bottom of Russian hacking" group, if for no other reason than to enhance his legitimacy. Instead he spent two months acting like Putins Laywer. And then he continues to shoot his nascent administration in the foot with his ridiculous statements, his lies and that absurd speech yesterday. Instead of being reconcillatory and leading, and gaining legitimacy through that, he continues to be divisive.

Point is, Trump keeps going the way he's been going, today will be both just the beginning of his problems, and he won't be President for very long. The POTUS will become the PINO (President in Name Only).

- - - Updated - - -

You know, i like to imagine the aliance between your people (rational conservatives, old era republicans and reagan-esque republicans) with progressives, liberals and democrats in general as the coalition between the alliance, the horde and the sentinels in order to defend mount hyjal from the burning legion. You must defend the world tree (us image of decency, any effort to tackle the global warming problem) from archimonde and his undead scourge (the trumpkins, mindlessly controlled by someone else, and dont even know that). Defend it. Call the wisps at the last hour but do not let him sap nordrassil.
Or better... be the the armies of legionfall

It's already happening. This is what REAL conservatives think. Not these reactionary frauds who vocally support Trump.

http://www.the-american-interest.com...-age-of-trump/

Admittedly, we fled town for the Inauguration.

Quite apart from the security headaches, the road closures, and the not-inconsiderable prospect of violent demonstrations the day of, or the days after the event, the prospect of it filled me with disgust. I wanted to be far away from the pleasant city that is our national capital. Donald J. Trump has repeatedly revealed himself as a lying, crooked, narcissistic ignoramus, incapable of generous thoughts or deeds, indeed, incapable of seeing beyond himself at all. The idea of that man living in Lincoln’s house is nauseating.

But he is the President, so what is one to do? More particularly, what are conservative intellectuals to do?

The most important thing is to speak the truth, indeed, to become somewhat fanatical on the subject. That means, to be sure, acknowledging such good as he or his administration may do—increased defense spending, a smack at excessive regulation, and stopping the persecution of the Little Sisters of the Poor or charter schools. More important will be calling him out every time he or his underlings lie: every time he says he has a plan when he does not, every time he jeers at a hero and denies having said any such thing, every time he claims to have created jobs to which others gave birth, or denies an inflammatory statement that he did make. And it means taking on the Reince Priebuses and Kellyanne Conways when they lie at 11 a.m. to cover up the outrageous remarks their boss tweeted out six hours before.

Trump lies because it is in his nature to lie. One suspects that there is nothing inside this man that quivers, however slightly, at an untruth. It is not uncommon for politicians, to a greater extent than most people, to believe what they want to believe, or to change their take on reality depending on what is convenient for them. With Trump, however, this will to believe is pathological: his psyche is so completely besotted by Trump that there is no room for anything, or anybody else.

We will not change him—no one can. His children may be able to soften the edges and his most trusted advisers may deflect him off his erratic courses, but nothing will teach him gravitas, magnanimity, or wisdom. Until he is impeached, thrown out of office in four years, succumbs to illness, or lasts through eight years, he is what we have learned he is, and will remain so. The beginning of wisdom will be to treat his office with respect, but him with none, because it will achieve nothing, and because as a human being he deserves none. He will remain erratic, temperamental, vengeful, and perhaps most of all, deeply insecure. A man who mocks John McCain, denounces Gold Star parents, snarls at an actor who spoofs him, and makes fun of a crippled reporter is someone whose core is empty, and whose need for approbation is unlimited because the void within him is so complete.

Such is Trump. What of his underlings? His Cabinet officials are, after all, by and large Republican normal—some very good, some mediocre, some simply odd. All of his political subordinates either know or will discover that the corruption of power works not by making you do or say outrageous things (at first), but rather by inducing you to persistently shade the truth. They will, for example, find themselves pretending that we have a coherent policy toward Europe when we do not. They will excuse an unhealthy and possibly sinister relationship with Vladimir Putin as an exercise in realpolitik.

They will tell themselves that they have gone to work for the man because they think they can affect him; they will learn—or more likely, their friends and associates on the outside will observe—that actually, he is affecting them. Very few will resign in outrage, because the compromises to their integrity will creep up on them. As Sir Thomas More puts it in Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons, they will be like the man who, having taken an oath, is “holding his own self in his own hands, like water” and when he opens his fingers, “needn’t hope to find himself again.” They will try to open their fingers just a little bit, and it will not work: the water will cascade out. Many of them will never find themselves again, but will instead spend the rest of their careers making excuses for things that once upon a time they understood were inexcusable.

There will be exceptions: military men mostly, I suspect. Jim Mattis and John Kelly have seen the worst and the finest in human nature; contact with the likes of Trump will not defile them. Then again, there is General Flynn, the fine intelligence officer whose life in politics caused him to lead hysterical chants of “Lock her up!” There may be younger people who come through cleanly, mostly in corners of the government where they can avoid the pitch that will stick to others higher up. And no doubt, there will indeed be selfless patriots simply stepping up to the plate who swallow their disgust for a time but feel its sour taste and do not let it dissipate.

All of them, sooner or later, will find themselves at dinner parties where someone will say, “Donald Trump is a louse. He cheats people, he is a bully, he knows nothing, cares little for our law or our history, and he is ruining the reputation of his office and our country. And those are not opinions: they are demonstrable facts.” The table will go silent as heads turn towards the political appointee at the table, and he or she will have to say something. And lying in bed the next morning, they will have to reflect on what they said the night before. And they will strain to explain it all to their grandchildren twenty years from now.

It would be unjust and unreasonable to hound political appointees to this administration when they go in, or to persecute them when they go out. The reputational hazard they will run is real, however, and some of them will eventually regret having succumbed to the lures of ambition or the conceit of self-value that brought them in. But in any case, our hope or desire to encourage the best of them should not cause us to cut any of them any slack. No one who backed Trump has any excuse for being surprised by what he does; no one who joins his administration can ever be allowed to claim that they did so in ignorance. We all know who and what he is.

And the rest of us? “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty” goes the old saw, and it is truer than ever. Churchill, as always, best laid out the right frame of mind. “Never give in. Never, never, never. Never yield in any way, great or small, large or petty, except to convictions of honor and good sense.”

The age of Trump will pass. The institutions will contain him and the laws will restrain him if enough people care about both, and do not yield to fear of him and whatever leverage he tries to exert from his mighty office. He may summon up internet trolls and rioters, attempt to sic the IRS or the FBI on his opponents, or simply harass individuals from the Oval Office. But political history tells us that would-be authoritarians usually come to unpleasant ends, their moments pass, and the mobs that cheered them on will come to denounce them just as vehemently. Trump has started the process of his administration’s self-destruction by repeatedly and gratuitously alienating one group after another—the intelligence community, journalists, and African Americans for starters, and that is just in the few weeks before his inauguration. He will continue in ways we cannot yet imagine.

This will be a slogging match until the end, however. That being so, as the authorities pick up the trash, dismantle the bleachers, and process those arrested for disorderly conduct, I will come back to Washington. There, like many others, I plan to stand ready to offer praise when it is deserved, but mostly to oppose and expose, to contradict and stand up, without apology, without compromise, and without hesitation. Whatever company I find in that enterprise, I have no doubt that it will be infinitely superior to any that will be found in the White House mess.

[CostinR]

The Women's March collectively was the largest political protest in US history.

Day one.Welcome to Hell Trump and the Trumpkins. Your waterboarding table awaits...

I just don't understand you. You go on before talking about how America needs real compromise and bi-partisanship, how Massachusetts is great as a state because you find compromise there between both sides to then turn around to mock a substantial number of people of your country for their support of a candidate.

It just seems....beneath you. You're angry with Trump? Why? Because he represents this naked, deep divide in your country instead of trying to hid it behind fake, plastic smiles that Bush, Obama and Hillary all did?

Your country thew compromise in favor of a bitter divide over the last 16 years. This entire election really makes you appreciate just how much better America would be as a nation if McCain had beaten Bush in 2000, but not Obama in 2008 ( because he became Bush 2.0 ). How much better America would be if Clinton had beaten Obama in 2008 when she was actively seeking to bring people together instead of being just another part of the divider pool as she was in 2016. ( As in running as Obama 2.0 )

Finally how Romney would have been supremely better then Obama in 2012, but it's not just the politicians that led to this divide: Culture, media, tabloids etc. etc. It's all led to where your country is right now: Deeply divided, deeply partisans. Trump didn't rise up in a bubble. He rose up to become president within this deep and stark partisan divide because it's been the only way anyone's won a national election in the last 16 years.

He is very much your president. He represents everything wrong about where your country has landed, but unlike Hillary with her fake 2016 smile at least he's not trying to pretend there isn't a partisan divide: There is and it is very deep.

So may I suggest that "beating" Trump isn't deepening this divide but trying to heal it?

I'd love to hear your opinion on both the press meeting(Can you call it that?) of Spicer and Trump's performance in front of the CIA-memorial.

An observation: It seems to me that the CIA guys in attendance liked Trump, regardless of how anyone else thinks of what he says. I am a bit surprised actually. Also reports that there were a LOT more CIA agents that wanted to be there but they didn't have space.

[Thepersona]

Skroe.... lets rally the armies of legionfall, the resistance must be swift and brutal