Summations Only

quote:

---

Unfortunately it serves somebody's political interests to put out a disgusting rumor about a hated opponent. Everything I've seen on it this morning so far calls it out for its absolute lack of evidence and other telltale signs of being a fabrication

---

And that is even more true for "pizzagate" which you refuse to talk about - even though it is promoted by your trusted alt media.So long as you refuse to condemn that, your position here can hardly be seen as a moral stand.

"Pizzagate" is certainly more obviously false than these rumours about Trump. Those, at least, fit in with the way that the Russians are known to have operated, and are not so far out of character for Trump. Surely the "secret tunnels" were a giveaway (at least to anyone who remembers the ridiculous extremes of the Satanic Ritual abuse panic of the 1980s)

Telling the President of a neighbouring country that a planned visit is off unless he's willing to pay for an expensive boondoggle is impolite, to say the least.So, even if it is true that the visit would have been pointless, it certainly could have been cancelled in a more sensible and less insulting way. And I think that it certainly is reasonable to criticise Trump for it, as well as the whole idea that Mexico should have to pay for the wall.

You seem to be giving very little credit to the Republican establishment or the far-right.The Republican establishment surely bears great responsibility for the increasingly partisan nature of U.S. Politics. As does the far right media encouraging hate and lies. This is not something new, it has been going on for years. The Republican Party embraced this extremism and it came back to bite them.Equally the whole "regressive left" business seems to be at least in part a product of far-right hate groups looking for targets. People who equate "free speech" with the right to viciously harass opposing voices with the intent of silencing them.When haters come to power, blaming the targets of their hatred seems to be more than a little perverse.

It gets worse. Several reports are unclear and some may even be false. Even some of those that refer to genuine incidents are dubious: BBC

BathrobeGateSeriously. If there aren't worse things to complain about, don't bother.

quote:

---

In one sense, I get where I might want my financial advisor to *not* take my best interest as a first priority - which is when I want to gamble. I would be a little pissed if I asked him for advice on a gamble and he could only reply: "Sorry, by law I can only inform you that gambling on this is not in your best interest."

---

I don't see that as a problem. If high-risk investments are really not in your interest he would (probably) be required to tell you that. But it is very unlikely that he would be forbidden from advising you on them or selling you one if you insisted.

The real question should be why the law was needed.Anyone offering their services as a financial advisor should be providing good advice - the best they can - to their customers. If they are chasing commissions they are just salesmen and should admit to being salesmen.

And it seems that Trump,knew about the phone calls: Trump knew of Flynn Russia phone call issues 'weeks ago'And the Acting Attorney General warned Trump about the legal issues.
(Which raises questions about her sacking - clearly the Trump,administration don't care much about the law and I wonder if an honourable person could take the AG role)

quote:

---

One theme that I noticed was that Trump claimed that the "classified" or "confidential" discussions that he had with foreign leaders were "illegally" making their way into the press.
How would this happen?

---

I think he means the reports on his phone calls released by his press office...

In other words, Trump was Trump.Everything he likes is the greatest ever, everything he doesn't is a disaster. And anyone who disagrees is lying.This is exactly how he has been acting on Twitter. It should surprise nobody who has been following his recent actions.

Donald Trump obviously defines "honesty" as saying what he wants - even if it is false, and not saying things he doesn't want even if they are true.Do you really think that the President should be dictating what the media do and do not say ? Or do you regard the idea as an attack on liberty ?

quote:

---

And there are those of us who believe the news media defines honesty as saying anything it wants, and not saying things that favor Trump even if they are true.

---

Which is hardly relevant to my point, even if it is true.

quote:

---

How is he "dictating"? Doesn't he have the right to say what he thinks

---

I didn't say that we was dictating, but it seems he would like to. And I don't think "he's not lying, he's delusional!" is a really good defence of a President if the United States.

quote:

---

Having a free press goes both ways. They're not constitutionally protected from criticism. From anyone, including the president.

---

So you see nothing wrong with a President who wants the press to be his personal propaganda machine. I somehow doubt that would be true if the President wasn't a Republican. And there are plenty here who would be appalled by the same behaviour from any political of any party.When someone complains because the media are too honest I am not likely to sympathise with them.

quote:

---

As we're seeing on another recent thread here, the U.S. constitution is slowly eroding into a re-written excuse to protect illegal immigrants.

---

We certainly are not seeing that. In fact we see Trump and his supporters wanting to deny rights that the Constitution grants to legal immigrants and visitors. It is the Right which is trying to rewrite the Constitution and to try to reverse the situation is a hypocritical lie.Some of the lies they tell are really crazy. One guy tried to claim that there were no legal immigrants or visitors to the U.S. at all! Maybe you remember seeing that.

quote:

---

The claims that parts of the U.S. constitution applies to the entire world is probably something many foreign leaders and citizens aren't too crazy about. And with good reason.

---

Which would be an issue if anybody were making such claims. But alas nobody is. That is just another of the Right's stupid lies.

Oh look Pence used a personal AOL account for government business when he was governor of Indiana. And it was hacked. And when that happened he just abandoned it and opened a new account. And he didn't copy all the emails automatically to government servers either - leaving it until he was leaving office. Guess he should be investigated by the FBI.