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Author | Topic: The Trump Presidency | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Percy Member Posts: 22504 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9 |
An editorial in today's New York Times, Trump Is Compromised by Russia, describes Trump's problems with Russia much better than I have. Some excerpts:
quote: The Republicans who have been in control of Congress the past two years are complicit in all this malfeasance. If politicians had any shame then Republicans would be ashamed, but shame isn't in the politician's repartoir, from any party. Instead they will try to minimize the damage to their political careers. Which is nothing new. When Watergate investigations first began Gerald Ford (House R-MI) called it a "political witch hunt," and he did pretty well, appointed vice-president, then succeeding to the presidency, and then nearly defeating Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election. And Bob Dole (Senate R-KS) called the Watergate stories a barrage of unfounded and unsubstantiated allegations by George McGovern and his partner in mud-slinging, The Washington Post. Dole went on to a distinguished political career, including an unsuccessful run for the presidency in 1996. I guess shame's a waste of time when there's no penalty for being spectacularly partisan and wrong. --Percy
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Percy Member Posts: 22504 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9 |
This message should be subtitled "Trump lies and contradicts himself," which occurred during his helicopter comments before leaving for summit in Argentina. Many of you have probably already seen excerpts from this interview, here's a YouTube video of the whole thing, only the first five minutes are about Cohen. It's not necessary to watch it because I'm going to excerpt just a couple portions that show Trump lying and contradicting himself:
First excerpt, from right at the beginning of Trump's comments:
quote: Trump is referring to Cohen's recent plea deal revealing that Cohen worked on a deal to build Trump Tower Moscow up until mid-June of 2016, also stating that he briefed Trump and family on the Russia deal's status at least three times during the period from January of 2016 (when Trump began his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination) to mid-June of 2016. During this period Trump denied all involvement with Russia at every turn. When Trump says that it was a well known project covered by the news media he is telling particularly blatant lies. Nobody knew about it until well after Trump became president when in October of 2017 Cohen testified before the Congressional intelligence committees. And the reason nobody knew about it before this is because Trump and everyone in his circle lied about Trump's involvement with Russia. But the Russians definitely knew about it and knew that Trump was lying to the American people, so they had leverage over Trump because Trump knew the Russians could create political turmoil for him at any time by revealing this secret. They wouldn't reveal it directly, of course, but through Wikileaks or some similar group.
(Speaking of Wikileaks, I wonder if Julian Assange, holed up now in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for six years, realizes that he could have faced the music, served his time, and been out of jail by now. Same for Edward Snowden, he of the leaking of classified information about NSA surveillance programs, including domestic ones. He's been holed up in Moscow since 2013. If he'd faced the music he'd possibly be getting out of jail around now or the next few years. I wonder how he likes life in Moscow. Of course it must be much better than Assange's situation, who is restricted to a single room with his cat.) Next excerpt:
quote: Trump contradicts himself here. First he says that Michael Cohen is lying about there being a Russian deal during the campaign, then he confirms that there was a Russian deal during the campaign, just as Cohen said, so Cohen isn't lying. What's important here is that Trump lied to the American people about his dealings in Russia from the beginning of his campaign up until just a few days ago. Would he have won the Republican nomination if instead of denying any Russian involvement he was truthful about it and had to defend it? --Percy Edited by Percy, : Bolivian => Ecuadorian
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Tanypteryx Member Posts: 4451 From: Oregon, USA Joined: Member Rating: 5.0 |
(Speaking of Wikileaks, I wonder if Julian Assange, holed up now in the Bolivian Embassy in London for six years, realizes that he could have faced the music, served his time, and been out of jail by now. Assange is in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq
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caffeine Member (Idle past 1053 days) Posts: 1800 From: Prague, Czech Republic Joined: |
(Speaking of Wikileaks, I wonder if Julian Assange, holed up now in the Bolivian Embassy in London for six years, realizes that he could have faced the music, served his time, and been out of jail by now. Same for Edward Snowden, he of the leaking of classified information about NSA surveillance programs, including domestic ones. He's been holed up in Moscow since 2013. If he'd faced the music he'd possibly be getting out of jail around now or the next few years. I wonder how he likes life in Moscow. Of course it must be much better than Assange's situation, who is restricted to a single room with his cat.) I think I'd rather live in Moscow than North Carolina (provided I had money - it's well expensive).
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Percy Member Posts: 22504 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9 |
Gee, so close - Ecuador and Bolivia are only a thousand miles apart. Ah, well, at least I got the embassy location right. I'll correct it, thanks!
--Percy
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Taq Member Posts: 10085 Joined: Member Rating: 5.1 |
Percy writes: The Republicans who have been in control of Congress the past two years are complicit in all this malfeasance. If politicians had any shame then Republicans would be ashamed, but shame isn't in the politician's repartoir, from any party. Instead they will try to minimize the damage to their political careers. You only have to ask yourself one question. What would Republicans be doing right now if Obama or Clinton had done 1/10th of what Trump has done? Look at what little it took for Republicans to impeach Bill Clinton.
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Percy Member Posts: 22504 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9
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Many know about the Washington Post's Pinocchio rating system, but here it is for those unfamiliar with it:
One Pinocchio Some shading of the facts. Selective telling of the truth. Some omissions and exaggerations, but no outright falsehoods. (You could view this as mostly true.) Two Pinocchios Significant omissions and/or exaggerations. Some factual error may be involved but not necessarily. A politician can create a false, misleading impression by playing with words and using legalistic language that means little to ordinary people. (Similar to half true.) Three Pinocchios Significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions. This gets into the realm of mostly false. But it could include statements which are technically correct (such as based on official government data) but are so taken out of context as to be very misleading. The line between Two and Three can be bit fuzzy and we do not award half-Pinocchios. So we strive to explain the factors that tipped us toward a Three. Four Pinocchios Whoppers. There are a few other categories, see their rating page, but they have just introduced a new category, the Bottomless Pinocchio: Bottomless Pinocchio The bar for the Bottomless Pinocchio is high: the claims must have received three or four Pinocchios from The Fact Checker and they must have been repeated at least 20 times. Twenty is a sufficiently robust number that there can be no question the politician is aware his or her facts are wrong. The list of Bottomless Pinocchios will be maintained on its own landing page. Examples of claims receiving the Bottomless Pinnochio, all from Trump (no one else has achieved the necessary criteria:
I also suggested they create a gif that is much less blurry. --Percy Edited by Percy, : Replace animated gif with the better version the Washington Post just put up. Remove comments about the non-working links that they've already fixed.
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Percy Member Posts: 22504 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9
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Many have probably seen the New York Post headline about Trump's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, but for those who haven't here's a very short YouTube video showing the headline:
The headline is a play on the children's book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, but for Trump it was much worse than just a bad day. It was an entire bad week. Here's a brief recap.
--Percy
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Percy Member Posts: 22504 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9 |
In today's New York Times opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg writes at the end of her piece The Presidency or Prison:
quote: That last part is key. Do the Republicans care enough about the republic to make a sincere effort to investigate whether high crimes and misdemeanors have been committed, and if so whether they merit removal from office? --Percy
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Pressie Member Posts: 2103 From: Pretoria, SA Joined: |
Last night I saw what The Don said to Nancy somewhere in the White House with the cameras around. Something about getting the Government not to work because they don't want to fund THE WALL.
It's just amazing that nobody reminded him that his promises were that Mexico would pay for THE WALL. Not the American taxpayer. Edited by Pressie, : No reason given.
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caffeine Member (Idle past 1053 days) Posts: 1800 From: Prague, Czech Republic Joined:
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The Prime Minister of India is from a right-wing nationalist party with ties to extremist fanatic organisations. They have used communal tensions and stoked nationalist discontent to help them gain power. These are his tweets in response to his party's significant defeats in recent legislative elections in several states:
quote: See, Donald? Having vile political opinions doesn't mean you have to abandon basic civility in discourse and coherent sentences that look like they were written by an adult. Edited by caffeine, : No reason given.
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Tanypteryx Member Posts: 4451 From: Oregon, USA Joined: Member Rating: 5.0 |
Nothing surprises me, but I am completely blank about what this means for the future. I don't know if Mattis is a Trump supporter or has applied any restraint on Trump's impulses.
Mattis to Retire at End of February, Trump Says If Mattis is leaving as a result of Trump's odd announcement of total troop withdrawal from Syria that some commenters say is surrendering to ISIS, Russia, and Iran, I have to wonder what new "middle east crisis" this is going to spark? ABE: Read James Mattis’ full resignation letter Edited by Tanypteryx, : added link to Mattis' resignation letterWhat if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq |
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Tanypteryx Member Posts: 4451 From: Oregon, USA Joined: Member Rating: 5.0 |
Does anyone have an analysis of the recent drop in stock prices?
The DOW was $26,828 on October 3, 2018 and today December 20, 2018 it closed at $23,323. There are so many events on the world stage and in the U.S. all playing at the same time, it would seem to be even more impossible to predict trends or to even see what events are causing or retarding market changes.What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq
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Tanypteryx Member Posts: 4451 From: Oregon, USA Joined: Member Rating: 5.0 |
The Trump U.S. Government Shutdown started last night at midnight.
Should we start a pool on how long it will last? I suspect it will last at least until Congress reconvenes January 3, but I wonder what will happen then to change things. As I write this McConnell is speaking in the Senate trying to blame democrats for the shutdown that we all saw Trump claim credit for last week. What a lying sack of bullshit.What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq |
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AZPaul3 Member Posts: 8564 From: Phoenix Joined: Member Rating: 4.7
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Does anyone have an analysis of the recent drop in stock prices? From my reading: The markets do not like uncertainty. Government shutdown, China trade war, European (Brexit) issues, skittishness over the troop withdrawals and resultant power shifts ... It also does not like interest rate increases, even when justified. Market has also been somewhat overvalued for many months now with high price-to-earnings ratios. Put them all together in one package and ... Edited by AZPaul3, : No reason given.
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