Sound The TRUMPets! A Thread for Presidential Pondering 2016-2020(?)

[Jo498]

Ignorance combined with bigotry. ^ ^ ^ Nice.

HIV has been around now for about 120 years. Its inception is thought to have been a mutation combining genetic material from two simian retroviruses. It wasn't started by gays (more likely hunters of bush meat) and most of the spreading has not been through gay sex.

Equal rights and protection under the law replacing the denial of same based on religious prejudice and ignorance is societal progress.

You have completely missed my point. This was that screaming "But science!!!" is mostly meaningless. Because "science" 60 years ago meant treating young homosexuals with electric shocks which is wrong (besides being probably not well founded scientifically, I'd argue that it would be an ethically dubious procedure, even if it worked). This had almost nothing to do with "religious prejudice" but was "established" psychology/psychiatry by presumeably mostly atheist (like Freud) experts.
And I never claimed the HIV "originated" within the gay subculture. But it clearly became an epidemic there in the early 1980s whereas it had been extremely rare outside some rural African regions before that time.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

But more importantly: what happened to that gif I posted of a Chihuahua humping a Trump doll?

Removed based on animal cruelty considerations? 

[knight66]

You have completely missed my point. This was that screaming "But science!!!" is mostly meaningless. Because "science" 60 years ago meant treating young homosexuals with electric shocks which is wrong (besides being probably not well founded scientifically, I'd argue that it would be an ethically dubious procedure, even if it worked). This had almost nothing to do with "religious prejudice" but was "established" psychology/psychiatry by presumeably mostly atheist (like Freud) experts.
And I never claimed the HIV "originated" within the gay subculture. But it clearly became an epidemic there in the early 1980s whereas it had been extremely rare outside some rural African regions before that time.

I am not too sure whether you express yourself in an inadvertantly clumsy way on this specific topic, but AIDS/HIV was never a gay plague in the way you characterise it. For years it was unclear how it was transmitted. I did voluntary work in Edinburgh for some years and during the rise in HIV, we had the very occasional ambulance reluctant to attend ill people because there was fear that HIV could be transmitted like the common cold. So sex had not been homed in on. By the time it was discovered as one method of infection, it was too late for many people. The problem could lie dormant for up to 10 years.

In Edinburgh it turned out mainly to be drug addicts sharing needles who became HIV positive. I spent time in Uganda on a hospital in the bush. It took AIDS awareness to surrounding villages. HIV was rampant in Uganda just as in many other African nations. It was very much a heterosexual issue there. Many Ugandans believed it was a white conspiracy to prevent African men from enjoying life and procreating. (A mirror image of that theory exists seemingly in the GOP now.) The cure and prevention was to have sex with a virgin. So you can imagine the social mayhem. In some villages a whole generation was wiped out leaving grandparents struggling with large numbers of little kids and no wage earners.

At the hospital there was one young doctor who was willed 11 orphans by his dead relatives.

We don't basically change people's hearts and minds on here about anything significant. But I hope you rethink your remarks on this subject to the extent that you make an effort perhaps not to cause offence.

Finally I pick you up on the thought of: electric shock treatment 'probably' not being scientifically sound to use against homosexuality. There is absolutely no probably about it. I suggest that was just a further example of clumsiness on your part.

Mike

[SimonNZ]

Why I'm Leaving the Republican Party

The Kavanaugh confirmation fight revealed the GOP to be the party of situational ethics and moral relativism in the name of winning at all costs.

An interestinh read. Equally critical of the democrats as it is of republicans.

[Karl Henning]

An interesting read. Equally critical of the democrats as it is of republicans.

Aye.

[EddieRUKiddingVarese]

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

'A betrayal beyond words': The far right melts down over Taylor Swift's endorsement of Democrats

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/10/08/betrayal-beyond-words-far-right-melts-down-over-taylor-swifts-endorsement-democrats/?utm_term=.d591561f1fd5

Apparently the far-right thought Taylor Swift was a closet neo-Nazi (because, among other things, she named her cat Meredith) and now they are besides themselves over the betrayal of Taylor expressing support for Democratic candidates for the House and Senate.

Well, they still have Ted Nuggent...

[SimonNZ]

Meredith...?

[Daverz]

Meredith...?

Also perplexed.  Apparently named after a character on Grey's Anatomy.  Still not illuminated.

[SimonNZ]

Trump apologizes 'on behalf of the nation' to Kavanaugh during swearing-in, claims he was 'proven innocent'


elsewhere: from Senator Elizabeth Warren:

""Senators have been muzzled. So I will now say three things that committee staff has explained are permissible to say without violating committee rules. ...
One: This was not a full and fair investigation. It was sharply limited in scope and did not explore the relevant confirming facts.
Two: The available documents do not exonerate Mr. Kavanaugh.
And three: the available documents contradict statements Mr. Kavanaugh made under oath. I would like to back up these points with explicit statements from the FBI documents — explicit statements that should be available for the American people to see. But the Republicans have locked the documents behind closed doors."

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Also perplexed.  Apparently named after a character on Grey's Anatomy.  Still not illuminated.

It's in the article. Apparently a neo-Nazi web site had some sort of poll about the best name for a kitten, and the name Meredith won. Then the neo-Nazis noticed that Taylor swift had named her kitten Meredith. (They didn't notice, thought, that she had named the kitten Meredith several days before the poll was created.) Hey, neo-Nazi's aren't the sharpest tools in the shed.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

This makes me nervous

Nikki Haley Resigns as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/09/us/politics/nikki-haley-united-nations.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Apparently there was to be a big announcement at the White House with Trump and Haley today, and she resigned just before it was to take place.

What the hell?

[Zeus]

How many grown ups are left?  Bolton certainly is not one, nor is Pompeo.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

What really makes me nervous is the clear possibility that the "announcement" she was to participate in was so abhorrent to her that she felt she had no choice but to resign. What could that even be? Declaration of war on Canada? I'm only half kidding.

Well, it appears the resignation was the announcement.

[Karl Henning]

Count me among those least surprised that U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is departing. I've repeatedly urged she do just that to preserve her reputation and political viability and to get out before the special counsel's report lands. Aside from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, she is the only Cabinet-level official whose stature has arguably increased (or at least not decreased) during her time in the administration. She is the only one with a political future who can say that.

[SimonNZ]

My first thought on hearing that news was that Trump intended to lift all sanctions against Russia.

Odds are being given for either Ivanka or Jared being her replacement. My money's on Jared.

[André]

It's in the article. Apparently a neo-Nazi web site had some sort of poll about the best name for a kitten, and the name Meredith won. Then the neo-Nazis noticed that Taylor swift had named her kitten Meredith. (They didn't notice, thought, that she had named the kitten Meredith several days before the poll was created.) Hey, neo-Nazi's aren't the sharpest tools in the shed.

I'll bet you she named kitty after this Meredith:



She has become quite fashionable of late.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2018/07/23/the-lindsay-lohan-parent-trap-20th-anniversary-nostalgia-has-revealed-a-surprising-twist/?utm_term=.bacf8642b7da

[SimonNZ]

Kanye West to lunch with Donald Trump this week

"The two men are expected to discuss prison reform, gang violence and "manufacturing resurgence" in the US."

[SimonNZ]

Trump added no value to his company, says finance reporter

"It's not that they found one time there was massive fraud. What they found is at the core of the Trump Organization was decades and decades of unimaginably blatant fraud, creating false companies to pretend to buy hundreds of, millions and millions of dollars worth of equipment."
Rather than being a mere case of a rich family evading taxes, the Times' "shocking" report showed how "blatant" the Trump patriarch's grift was, the writer noted.

"It also shows that Donald Trump himself added virtually no value to the company," Davidson added, referencing the many occasions in which the president's father worked around the 55 percent large gift tax to bail him out.

"What the New York Times found is unbelievable documentary evidence through 2004 of ongoing schemes for decades," he noted. The exact same people continued to run the Trump Organization. We have no evidence that they change their strategy."

"The courts are very clear that while the statute of limitations for criminal tax fraud is generally six years, it's six years from the last effort to conceal," he added.

"I think a prosecutor would have a fairly easy time saying, no no, this is an ongoing criminal enterprise," Davidson concluded."

[bwv 1080]

Kanye West to lunch with Donald Trump this week

"The two men are expected to discuss prison reform, gang violence and "manufacturing resurgence" in the US."

If bipartisan support for prison reform can be developed is that not a good thing?  The current system, the 'New Jim Crow' as a recent book properly described it, was a bipartisan endeavor