Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Edge-]

You never come by to talk about any policy.

In his defense, what fucking policy is there even? This has been one of the least policy-oriented administrations in the past century.

[Dacien]

Oh the irony... the delicious irony.

When do you ever show up except to post favorable polls or express your outrage at whatever Fox news told you to be outraged about? You never come by to talk about any policy. You seem to like Politics as a team sport, you have no actual positions as far as I can tell.

I don't even know what you're talking about. I've never posted a favorable Trump poll, and I don't watch Fox or get news from Fox. I've discussed policy over and over and over again through the years.

You have me mixed up with someone else.

[TigTone]

In short, it was Congress's idea. The way the majority of these federal alphabet agencies gain their authority is via very broad statutes that Congress passes saying, "go do this big thing with this amount of money, hire experts and use your discretion". This is mostly a pretty reasonable approach - if you want an agency to do some many-faceted task like "make the environment better", you can't really pin down every last piece of that as non-experts voting on something, so you instead set a funding level and a core mission, then set people loose with the authority to go do things. If agencies are doing things Congress really doesn't want them to do, the generally appropriate approach is updating legislation to clarify what the goal of the agency is; if the agency blatantly contradicts that legislation, it has to go to courts.

The agencies aren't intended to be fragile, they're intended to be flexible.

Thank you for that information.

[Thekri]

I don't even know what you're talking about. I've never posted a favorable Trump poll, and I don't watch Fox or get news from Fox. I've discussed policy over and over and over again through the years.

You have me mixed up with someone else.

Possible. I might be confusing you with Ghostpanther. Polls are kind of his gimmick. Not really sure what yours is, other then the usual bothsiderisms and complaining that people are allowed to disagree with you.

[Dacien]

Possible. I might be confusing you with Ghostpanther. Polls are kind of his gimmick. Not really sure what yours is, other then the usual bothsiderisms and complaining that people are allowed to disagree with you.

I dunno about any of that, all I know is this place needs a "General political goings-on thread".

[Thekri]

I dunno about any of that, all I know is this place needs a "General political goings-on thread".

Sure, make one. Plenty of not really relevant stuff gets thrown in here, so it isn't a bad idea. Not sure if the mods would be ok with such an open ended thread though.

[Cleansing Totem]

The more you listen to her the more you realize she's got nothin'. Nothing but gesticulations and a raised voice about "working families", a staple in any of her speeches.

She asks better questions then most. But lets be real, the only time you even hear about her is when some right wing rag is triggered about god knows what. Tell me, what actually policies of hers so you dislike the most. I'll take anything that you know about besides the green deal, I doubt you can name a single one.

[Dacien]

She asks better questions then most. But lets be real, the only time you even hear about her is when some right wing rag is triggered about god knows what. Tell me, what actually policies of hers so you dislike the most. I'll take anything that you know about besides the green deal, I doubt you can name a single one.

It's not about just her policies. People did this with Hillary and guns. They said she flip flopped a lot, didn't really have a strong stance on guns! Total gaslighting. If she won the presidency gun rights would absolutely be on the chopping block. Why? Because that's her party. That's her support base. AOC stands for far worse than Hillary does, ideologically speaking. Larger government, massively larger, government takeover of our healthcare system, increased government intervention in the economy, these are all general ideals that may or may not have attached, specific policies, yet I oppose them all the same.

[Cleansing Totem]

I dunno about any of that, all I know is this place needs a "General political goings-on thread".

Make one then. And then you can post nonsense like this story about AOC. It will hit a page or two, mostly people destroying whatever nonsense story fox news told you that you need to be mad about and that will be that. Come to think about it, that's probably why there is no thread like that.

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It's not about just her policies. People did this with Hillary and guns. They said she flip flopped a lot, didn't really have a strong stance on guns! Total gaslighting. If she won the presidency gun rights would absolutely be on the chopping block. Why? Because that's her party. That's her support base. AOC stands for far worse than Hillary does, ideologically speaking. Larger government, massively larger, government takeover of our healthcare system, increased government intervention in the economy, these are all general ideals without attached specific policies, yet I oppose them all the same.

"HiLaRy CoMiNg FoR MuH GuNS" was what you went with. Good lord.

[Dacien]

Make one then. And then you can post nonsense like this story about AOC. It will hit a page or two, mostly people destroying whatever nonsense story fox news told you that you need to be mad about and that will be that. Come to think about it, that's probably why there is no thread like that.

No, there's just not enough people passionate enough about criticizing AOC here as there is for Trump. But it's just a little side comment anyway, it's not worth a thread.

[beanman12345]

No, there's just not enough people passionate enough about criticizing AOC here as there is for Trump. But it's just a little side comment anyway, it's not worth a thread.

It's not worth a post, it's that asinine, that didn't stop you though. Again take the advice you gave just a few posts ago.

[alexw]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...ion-its-worse/

Republicans seem to be doing their damndest to kill off their voters. Alabama won't order "shelter in place".

Why?



Per-capita, the outbreak is worse in Alabama than it is in California and trending more along the lines of the NY outbreak.

I don't want Americans to die, but if Republicans want to kill their voting base then there's nothing I can do about that. I guess we have to break a few eggs to save our 401K's. Sorry Gam Gam and Gramps, you may have fought abroad in more than one war for this nation but you'll need to risk your life in your golden years for your kids and grandkids.

It's simply how things are. This isn't a death panel. This isn't socialism even. This is red-blooded capitalism, baby.

Who would have thought it. Multiple decades worth of extremism and reality denial results in more extremism and reality denial, to the extent they will happily kill off tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of their own voters.

[Lenonis]

Everyone just report Dacien for derailing the thread and being off topic. He can reconsider his approach in his next time-out.

On topic -- I understand why Trump is such a train wreck. What I don't understand and probably never will is why people are willing to go so far for that awful human being as to completely shred both their credibility as well as any future career aspirations. The fact that someone like Dr. Birx would actually try to sell Trump as some sort of scientific intellectual is just mind numbingly stupid.

[Dacien]

I think Trump's daily briefings have been fine. I think he's doing just fine. That's my opinion of Trump in this crisis. I'm sure he's made some missteps, but nobody is going to convince me he isn't both A) doing everything he can to guide the country through this as smoothly as possible and B) doing a pretty decent job of it with good advisers by his side.

[Edge-]

I think Trump's daily briefings have been fine. I think he's doing just fine. That's my opinion of Trump in this crisis. I'm sure he's made some missteps, but nobody is going to convince me he isn't both A) doing everything he can to guide the country through this as smoothly as possible and B) doing a pretty decent job of it with good advisers by his side.

So you're living in literal fiction.

[Dacien]

So you're living in literal fiction.

Well...

Uh, I think I'm in the majority who feel that way. 60% I believe. Is this some kind of mass hallucination we're all suffering? Is this a Covid side effect? I need answers!

[Bdatik]

nobody is going to convince me he isn't both A) doing everything he can to guide the country through this as smoothly as possible and B) doing a pretty decent job of it with good advisers by his side.

Not like anyone needed more proof that you don't know shit about anything you talk about, but here you go. At this point, there's only one word that describes you. Go back to National Review, your talking points don't work here.

[alexw]

I think Trump's daily briefings have been fine. I think he's doing just fine. That's my opinion of Trump in this crisis. I'm sure he's made some missteps, but nobody is going to convince me he isn't both A) doing everything he can to guide the country through this as smoothly as possible and B) doing a pretty decent job of it with good advisers by his side.

As I said above. Reality denial. Complete and total reality denial.

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Well...

Uh, I think I'm in the majority who feel that way. 60% I believe. Is this some kind of mass hallucination we're all suffering? Is this a Covid side effect? I need answers!

No that's the rally around the flag effect in action, which is utterly irrelevant to whether he actually is or isn't handling the crisis well.

[alexw]

Which part exactly? Not initially taking the virus seriously, and even downplaying it? Not being prepared for mass testing before the virus spread? Giving mixed, inaccurate messaging (everyone can get tested, not costing you a dime)? Not doing enough to counteract the hospital equipment shortages? Telling governours to get their own ventilators? Outbidding them when they try to get ventilators? Using racially inflammatory language to describe the virus? Trying to pull back social distancing before public health experts say it has a chance to work? Not taking any responsibility for anything I just listed?

What universe are you living in?

You have to realize Dacien is an extremist. He might be friendly sounding but that doesn't alter the fact that under that nominally normal exterior is an extremist who has no limit to what he will justify in the name of Trump. When Trump said he could shoot people and not lose the support of his voters. He was talking about the Dacien's of America.

That's why he still gladly and fervently supports a president who through his inactions and inadequacy will kill tens of thousands at minimum.

[Dacien]

You have to realize Dacien is an extremist.