The Trump Presidency – 2016

[RainMaker]

I will never understand why he wouldn't just put out a massive rescue package. The guy doesn't care about the deficit. He could have pumped a trillion right into people's hands and made this race close.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

I don't think I ever saw anything that said she went to Walter Reed, think I saw something say she was doing well?

Huh. I must have heard wrong then. I could have sworn she was there as well. So much going on in the last few days, it's getting hard to keep up haha!

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

I will never understand why he wouldn't just put out a massive rescue package. The guy doesn't care about the deficit. He could have pumped a trillion right into people's hands and made this race close.

Because he can't.

It is in his best interest, but it is not in the congressional GOP's best interest. And he is pretty much beholden to them. He is an incredibly weak President behind the scenes.

He lacks the sense to really understand what is going on. And, even if he did, he lacks the juice to make them do it.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

Because he can't.

It is in his best interest, but it is not in the congressional GOP's best interest. And he is pretty much beholden to them. He is an incredibly weak President behind the scenes.

He lacks the sense to really understand what is going on. And, even if he did, he lacks the juice to make them do it.

Pretty much, McConnell is the one running the country

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Pretty much, McConnell is the one ruining the country

Dola Fixed that for myself

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

Because he can't.

It is in his best interest, but it is not in the congressional GOP's best interest. And he is pretty much beholden to them. He is an incredibly weak President behind the scenes.

He lacks the sense to really understand what is going on. And, even if he did, he lacks the juice to make them do it.

I don't know, he has a cult following. Trump starts putting constant pressure and they would crack like an egg. He got them all to flip from free trade they've been touting for decades to protectionist in a couple years.

[Drake]

If my largely rural Facebook feed is any indication, over the last 48 hours or so, a bunch of Republicans have suddenly realized that Trump is very likely going to lose the election.

And they are not happy about it. Lots of "end of life as we know it" rhetoric.

It's not quite vagina hats on the Mall, but I suspect we'll get there.

[RainMaker]

So this popped up when it was accidentally tweeted by their account. Is this a placeholder "just in case"? Or do they know something that they are just trying to officially confirm?

PREP. DO NOT PUBLISH UNTIL THE NEWS CROSSES. Vice President Mike Pence Tests Positive For Coronavirus 8 Days After Donald Trump – Deadline

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

So this popped up when it was accidentally tweeted by their account. Is this a placeholder "just in case"? Or do they know something that they are just trying to officially confirm?

PREP. DO NOT PUBLISH UNTIL THE NEWS CROSSES. Vice President Mike Pence Tests Positive For Coronavirus 8 Days After Donald Trump – Deadline

Must have been a plague fly that landed on him if true.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by Drake

If my largely rural Facebook feed is any indication, over the last 48 hours or so, a bunch of Republicans have suddenly realized that Trump is very likely going to lose the election.

And they are not happy about it. Lots of "end of life as we know it" rhetoric.

It's not quite vagina hats on the Mall, but I suspect we'll get there.

Vagina hats will invade their fields in victory!

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Drake

If my largely rural Facebook feed is any indication, over the last 48 hours or so, a bunch of Republicans have suddenly realized that Trump is very likely going to lose the election.

And they are not happy about it. Lots of "end of life as we know it" rhetoric.

It's not quite vagina hats on the Mall, but I suspect we'll get there.

Is it like "there are a lot of stupid blue Americans who are going to vote out Trump" or "the Dems are going to steal the election"?

SI

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by Drake

If my largely rural Facebook feed is any indication, over the last 48 hours or so, a bunch of Republicans have suddenly realized that Trump is very likely going to lose the election.

And they are not happy about it. Lots of "end of life as we know it" rhetoric.

It's not quite vagina hats on the Mall, but I suspect we'll get there.

I know that trying to drill down to the logic of it all is a fool's errand.

But I'm kind of foolish, so I will ask.

These people said the same thing about Obama. And then things were pretty good for 8 years.

How do they explain that? They didn't lose their guns. Abortions didn't spring up everywhere. The blacks and the gays didn't take over. The economy grew. The deficit shrunk. The Muslims didn't take over. Health care became more accessible and cheaper.

Like, do they even acknowledge that the same people telling them that the world will end were 100% wrong about the same thing just 4 years ago?

[Drake]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Is it like "there are a lot of stupid blue Americans who are going to vote out Trump" or "the Dems are going to steal the election"?

SI

Little bit of both, to be honest. But the majority in my neck of the woods seems to be "stupid people can't see what's obviously best for this country"...but, of course, the Dem leadership in Washington is rigging it.

Expecting that rigging elections is just what politicians do is par for the course. Trump being President has nothing to do with the default Indiana setting that government is full of lying, cheating bastards.

[Drake]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

Like, do they even acknowledge that the same people telling them that the world will end were 100% wrong about the same thing just 4 years ago?

It's about the incremental erosion. There's always the hope that 4 or 8 years from now, there'll be another great conservative (white) hope who will snatch us back from the edge of destruction.

I've seen lots of posts today about the Dems giving statehood to DC and PR to stack the Senate, then expanding the Supreme Court to stack that...and before you know it, we'll have a one party government and that'll be the end of America.

Which tells me that there's some niggling (NIGGLING, ya fuckin' racists) suspicion in their minds that America has spent 4 years getting an eyeball full of their ideal American experiment, and yes, we're about done with your bullshit. There is no silent majority of conservative citizens waiting in the wings to re-inaugurate the 1980s.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by Drake

re-inaugurate the 1980s.

About the only things I'd like to bring back from the 80s is housing prices and my hair. But seriously, it's amazing how hard it is for people to accept progress and it's probably lost on them how much their day to day life has improved by progresses in society and technology over the last couple of decades. Don't get me wrong, not all progress can be considered good and I can get a serious case of nostalgia now and then myself, but, man, the disconnect is unbelievable with these people. They need to get out more, see the world, try new foods and meet new people.

[cuervo72]

That or they need to get offline and stop watching the tv so they don't have to see blacks and browns and gays at all.

[cuervo72]

Or atheists.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

Or atheists.

They would probably be bored to death if they lost all of their boogymen.

[Drake]

We don't have atheists in Indiana. Just people who haven't been saved yet.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by Drake

We don't have atheists in Indiana. Just people who haven't been saved yet.

Well, at least they are optimistic.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Drake

I've seen lots of posts today about the Dems giving statehood to DC and PR to stack the Senate, then expanding the Supreme Court to stack that...and before you know it, we'll have a one party government and that'll be the end of America.

.

Bet the Venn diagram of these people and people who cheered when Trump suggested removing term limits is a perfect circle.

[GrantDawg]

The President's doctor has now cleared him to return to the campaign trail on Saturday. Trump people now want that in person town hall back. They are refusing to say he has had a negative test.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[JPhillips]

Who knew there were so many shitty doctors working for the military?

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Who knew there were so many shitty doctors working for the military?

Every veteran who goes to the VA hospitals?

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Who knew there were so many shitty doctors working for the military?

Oh you would be surprised. If it wasn't for motrin, there'd be no need for a lot of them.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Every veteran who goes to the VA hospitals?

Yes.

[sterlingice]

So what's with this 25th amendment bill with Pelosi? Isn't the safe play right now to let Trump doom spiral his way to Election Day and win in a rout with him dragging the GOP down, keeping the House and taking the Senate?

He's talking about going back to the table for stimulus talks. That can't be bad if you really want to govern for the next 2 or 4 years (though there's always the talk about negotiating like him being like building on sand).

Does it delay the Supreme Court hearing? Like enough to matter?

To say nothing about how if we would even know if he had more erratic behavior than any other time in his Presidency? I guess maybe this is a "blood in the water" thing...?

Ultimately, don't you risk the election being about the 25th Amendment, Pence, and Trump's stolen Presidency instead of a pandemic that he completely bungled and an economy that tanked because of it?

Or is this just about stealing another news cycle or two before Election Day, trying to run out the clock? Or just piss off Donny into doing something even more crazy as he's backed into a corner?

Can anyone here connect the political dots for me?

SI

[thesloppy]

This seems like a poor decision.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

So what's with this 25th amendment bill with Pelosi? Isn't the safe play right now to let Trump doom spiral his way to Election Day and win in a rout with him dragging the GOP down, keeping the House and taking the Senate?

He's talking about going back to the table for stimulus talks. That can't be bad if you really want to govern for the next 2 or 4 years (though there's always the talk about negotiating like him being like building on sand).

Does it delay the Supreme Court hearing? Like enough to matter?

To say nothing about how if we would even know if he had more erratic behavior than any other time in his Presidency? I guess maybe this is a "blood in the water" thing...?

Ultimately, don't you risk the election being about the 25th Amendment, Pence, and Trump's stolen Presidency instead of a pandemic that he completely bungled and an economy that tanked because of it?

Or is this just about stealing another news cycle or two before Election Day, trying to run out the clock? Or just piss off Donny into doing something even more crazy as he's backed into a corner?

Can anyone here connect the political dots for me?

SI

I feel the same way. I don't understand it at all.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

These people said the same thing about Obama. And then things were pretty good for 8 years.

How do they explain that? They didn't lose their guns. Abortions didn't spring up everywhere. The blacks and the gays didn't take over. The economy grew. The deficit shrunk. The Muslims didn't take over. Health care became more accessible and cheaper.

Like, do they even acknowledge that the same people telling them that the world will end were 100% wrong about the same thing just 4 years ago?

They don't think they were wrong. They think the immigration problem (they would say crisis) has gotten worse, that race relations were damaged by Obama, that he undermined the police and law & order, the Constitution itself, etc. A lot of it is just seeing the same facts differently. I.e. on health care they view that as a step backwards, a loss of liberty, continued progress towards government over-reach, European-style socialism lite, apologized for America non-stop, had a feckless foreign policy, and so forth.

They definitely don't see the Obama years as pretty good. As has been discussed here before, a non-trivial number of them viewed Obama as a larger threat than ISIS. Even those who didn't largely would have taken anyone over him. Which is part of the reason why we got Trump.

[thesloppy]

A significant number of these people are also absolute morons who want the government to stay out of medicare/medicaid and/or think Joe Biden's voting record from the '80s is a bigger threat to their SS benefits than Trump eliminating the payroll tax entirely.

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

So what's with this 25th amendment bill with Pelosi? Isn't the safe play right now to let Trump doom spiral his way to Election Day and win in a rout with him dragging the GOP down, keeping the House and taking the Senate?

He's talking about going back to the table for stimulus talks. That can't be bad if you really want to govern for the next 2 or 4 years (though there's always the talk about negotiating like him being like building on sand).

Does it delay the Supreme Court hearing? Like enough to matter?

To say nothing about how if we would even know if he had more erratic behavior than any other time in his Presidency? I guess maybe this is a "blood in the water" thing...?

Ultimately, don't you risk the election being about the 25th Amendment, Pence, and Trump's stolen Presidency instead of a pandemic that he completely bungled and an economy that tanked because of it?

Or is this just about stealing another news cycle or two before Election Day, trying to run out the clock? Or just piss off Donny into doing something even more crazy as he's backed into a corner?

Can anyone here connect the political dots for me?

SI

Maybe I'm missing something, but it looks dumb to me.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

A significant number of these people are also absolute morons who want the government to stay out of medicare/medicaid and/or think Joe Biden's voting record from the '80s is a bigger threat to their SS benefits than Trump eliminating the payroll tax entirely.

Just to continue with this thought, I'm certain that the bottom of the left's barrel is also full of ignorant morons, there's obviosuly plenty to go around...but crucially the Democrats' platform and policies are not historically built around fooling a significant part of their base into voting against their fundamental interests.

Conservatives have tried to make the argument that several of the longtime progressive/welfare policies only end-up contributing to poverty & discrimination, but that is surely a whole different story than an entrenched part of the Republican base being too ignorant to understand that the party's purposely confusing policies & rhetoric directly conflict with their interests.

[Edward64]

The article has lots of stats at the beginning on the shift away but thought the rationale was interesting especially the last paragraph below. Exhaustion certainly applies to me.

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinio...sn-ncna1242672

And while the fact that the trend is long-standing suggests that it's bigger than Covid-19, pollsters have yet to bother teasing out the exact reason for the shift, because it has gone mostly unnoticed.

What polling has revealed is that older Americans have consistently said the United States is headed in the wrong direction — the Sept. 27-30 Economist/YouGov survey found that 62 percent of voters 65 and older say America is on the wrong track — but that alone cannot account for the change in voters' preferences.
:
Seniors ranked health care as their top issue in the 2018 and 2020 elections. Furthermore, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's Obamacare tracking poll, their approval of the Affordable Care Act was just 32 percent in November 2010. Now its favorability has risen to 53 percent — a 31-point rise over 10 years. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is fighting to eliminate the law without any apparent replacement plan in the offing, and it is appointing Supreme Court justices expected to rule in its favor.

Anecdotally, many seniors seem to have turned away from Trump because of two further reasons. First, institutional memory: Trump — with his norm-busting behavior and all-too-frequent departures from decency — is reported to have triggered their recollection of when a president behaved like a president, and, like other Americans, they miss that time.

The other factor is felt by all Americans: exhaustion. They are tired of Trump and his incessant whining, bellicosity, conspiracy mongering, paranoia and divisive behavior. In February, a Pew Research Center study found that over two-thirds of Americans felt worn out by the news, and Trump has been injecting drama into the center of it for the last five years. Seniors fall well within that two-thirds of Americans. This is likely part of why Trump's labeling Biden as "Sleepy Joe" backfires: Voters realize that some peace and quiet sounds pretty good these days. (It also likely hurts him among seniors who find it ageist.)

[JPhillips]

I think the GOP line of, old people should stop holding the country back and risk dieing plays some part.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

So what's with this 25th amendment bill with Pelosi? Isn't the safe play right now to let Trump doom spiral his way to Election Day and win in a rout with him dragging the GOP down, keeping the House and taking the Senate?

He's talking about going back to the table for stimulus talks. That can't be bad if you really want to govern for the next 2 or 4 years (though there's always the talk about negotiating like him being like building on sand).

Does it delay the Supreme Court hearing? Like enough to matter?

To say nothing about how if we would even know if he had more erratic behavior than any other time in his Presidency? I guess maybe this is a "blood in the water" thing...?

Ultimately, don't you risk the election being about the 25th Amendment, Pence, and Trump's stolen Presidency instead of a pandemic that he completely bungled and an economy that tanked because of it?

Or is this just about stealing another news cycle or two before Election Day, trying to run out the clock? Or just piss off Donny into doing something even more crazy as he's backed into a corner?

Can anyone here connect the political dots for me?

SI

Originally Posted by spleen1015

I feel the same way. I don't understand it at all.

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Maybe I'm missing something, but it looks dumb to me.

Unless she somehow has a bunch of Republicans secretly lined up to do this, and that's why Pence flew back (saw that theory online last night,) yeah, this sounds exceedingly dumb.

[Ksyrup]

Yeah I don't get the 25th amendment stuff either. The one big thing they have over Trump is his continued push to invalidate the election results, then they do this. I've seen theories that they know something - Pence was called back to DC and they're going to do something and that's why Pelosi is taking this position. Clear fantasy. It's just a bad political move that can only hurt.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Here's some details from the Detroit Free Press:
Feds: Militia group plotted to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer

SI

I want to stress this upfront. Based on what I have seen from the investigation so far, I don't think that this was the case.

However, remembering the imagery of those Michigan statehouse protests back in the spring led me to check to see if investigators found any evidence that those protests might have actually doubled as reconnaissance missions.

Again, I am not making accusations or trying to devalue the the concerns of that day. I am just telling where my head went when I first heard this story yesterday given how I felt during that time and everything that has gone on since.

[Bee]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

I want to stress this upfront. Based on what I have seen from the investigation so far, I don't think that this was the case.

However, remembering the imagery of those Michigan statehouse protests back in the spring led me to check to see if investigators found any evidence that those protests might have actually doubled as reconnaissance missions.

Again, I am not making accusations or trying to devalue the the concerns of that day. I am just telling where my head went when I first heard this story yesterday given how I felt during that time and everything that has gone on since.

I saw an interview with the Michigan AG yesterday and she confirmed the guys in the plots were part of those protests and they believe they actually were recruiting additional folks there. She didn't mention reconnaissance but I'm assuming that was a given.

[JPhillips]

The very quick response to the plot by the MI Senate leader has a bit more nuance to it now that there are pictures of him sharing a stage with a couple of the plotters at a lockdown protest.

[Ben E Lou]

Seriously???

Fox News Dr. Marc Siegel Will Interview Trump, Conduct 'Medical Evaluation' On-Camera Friday Night https://t.co/iqOWU7ra4b

— Mediaite (@Mediaite) October 9, 2020

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Seriously???

Fox News Dr. Marc Siegel Will Interview Trump, Conduct 'Medical Evaluation' On-Camera Friday Night https://t.co/iqOWU7ra4b

— Mediaite (@Mediaite) October 9, 2020

Next on E!, Keeping up with the Trumps!

[QuikSand]

Wait, you are surprised that the clown family and clown in chief have orchestrated a clown show?

(I know, we all take our turns in the I-can't-believe-that-I-can't-believe-this train these days)

[Ben E Lou]

Touche', Quik.

[kingfc22]

Can’t wait for Trump to call the Nobel Peace prize a fraud.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

Can’t wait for Trump to call the Nobel Peace prize a fraud.

It's Friday. That's definitely coming.

[ISiddiqui]

House Dems have introduced legislation (which would only apply to future Presidents) to appoint a bipartisan commission of medical experts to evaluate ailing Presidents for removal under a 25th Amendment claim. It probably won't make it through the Senate, but it's guaranteed to piss off Trump... even though it wouldn't apply to him.

[Ksyrup]

A little late, but funny.

“Okay now land on his head” pic.twitter.com/Jh4ncDhzbC

— �������� �������� (@GHXSTWES) October 8, 2020

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

House Dems have introduced legislation (which would only apply to future Presidents) to appoint a bipartisan commission of medical experts to evaluate ailing Presidents for removal under a 25th Amendment claim. It probably won't make it through the Senate, but it's guaranteed to piss off Trump... even though it wouldn't apply to him.

Does it apply to him during the 2nd term he's not going to have?

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

House Dems have introduced legislation (which would only apply to future Presidents) to appoint a bipartisan commission of medical experts to evaluate ailing Presidents for removal under a 25th Amendment claim. It probably won't make it through the Senate, but it's guaranteed to piss off Trump... even though it wouldn't apply to him.

Again, I don't get this political chess with my political checkers brain.

SI