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

[BasilValentine]

Anyone still wondering if Billy Barr is a stooge got their answer yesterday when the AG called for a rerun of the comedy the House Intelligence Committee under Nunes premiered last year. If one doesn't want the FBI "spying" on ones campaign, it's probably a bad idea to bring on an advisor already under surveillance for repeated contacts with Russian intelligence operatives (Carter Page), a second who can't hold his liquor and who is inclined to babble about Russian dirt on Hillary to strangers in bars (Papadopoulos), another taking money from the Kremlin and working as a foreign agent for Turkey (Michael Flynn), and a campaign manager (Manafort) who is a career criminal millions in debt to a Russian oligarch (Oleg Deripaska) and influencing the platform on behalf of Russian interests in Ukraine. We've already been through the four rounds of FISA warrants issued for Page, the only one of the above not indicted or jailed.     

[71 dB]

1) I think you might categorize most of those as among the corporatist candidates, even Warren and Sanders, if you understood their actual positions. As far as I know, Andrew Young is not running. And he certainly would fit your category of corporatist.

2)Warren certainly has received a lot of positive coverage, and going back several years, too. (I am basing this on what I see on CNN and MSNBC.) The others, not that much,  but most of them still need to introduce themselves to the public,  like Gabbard. Currently AOC gets as much or more coverage than almost any of the actual presidential candidates.

1) Their position are corporatist? Really? Single payer healthcare is corporatist? Tuition free education is corporatist? Raising minimum wage to living wage is corporatist? Raising taxes for the rich is corporatist? Ending the wars is corporatist? Green New Deal is corporatist? Legalizing marihuana is corporatist? Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer should love these ideas! How come I feel they don't? How come the right says these "corporatist" ideas make America Venezuela? You don't make much sense here.

2) Occationally CNN and MSNBC can be good (certainly much better than Fox News!), but they are not as left-wing as you think they are. They are corporate.

[JBS]

1) Their position are corporatist? Really? Single payer healthcare is corporatist? Tuition free education is corporatist? Raising minimum wage to living wage is corporatist? Raising taxes for the rich is corporatist? Ending the wars is corporatist? Green New Deal is corporatist? Legalizing marihuana is corporatist? Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer should love these ideas! How come I feel they don't? How come the right says these "corporatist" ideas make America Venezuela? You don't make much sense here.

2) Occationally CNN and MSNBC can be good (certainly much better than Fox News!), but they are not as left-wing as you think they are. They are corporate.

Corporatist in the sense of "personally wealthy, that wealth a direct result of being an elected official, plugged into the corporate media and donor machine". Corporatist in the sense that what you condemn as corporatist policies are moderate, centrist, fairly mainstream, and most of their positions are fairly centrist. There is a reason MSNBC likes Warren.

Whereas the leftist policies you admire are advocated by people with loud voices but much less influence than you seem to think they have. Those same people btw have a tendency to defend Maduro (or like AOC evade making their position clear), so the invocation of Venezuela is not something conjured out of thin air.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

1) Their position are corporatist? Really? Single payer healthcare is corporatist? Tuition free education is corporatist? Raising minimum wage to living wage is corporatist? Raising taxes for the rich is corporatist? Ending the wars is corporatist? Green New Deal is corporatist? Legalizing marihuana is corporatist? Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer should love these ideas! How come I feel they don't? How come the right says these "corporatist" ideas make America Venezuela? You don't make much sense here.

2) Occationally CNN and MSNBC can be good (certainly much better than Fox News!), but they are not as left-wing as you think they are. They are corporate.

Maybe you shouldn't use the word "corporate" in every sentence.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

United States DoD ends contract for JASON, the elite science advisory group.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01185-8?utm_source=fbk_nnc&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=naturenews&sf210823709=1&fbclid=IwAR1S0jNv_rqA_VccPgwXEHSE13D5CKleccFBrKCcu2q0UXR9ncCUnalIsgY

Why am I not surprised?

[71 dB]

Maybe you shouldn't use the word "corporate" in every sentence.

Unfortunately "corporate" is a much needed word when talking about US politics.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Unfortunately "corporate" is a much needed word when talking about US politics.

At least you're not using "Overton window" in every sentence anymore.

[71 dB]

Corporatist in the sense of "personally wealthy, that wealth a direct result of being an elected official, plugged into the corporate media and donor machine". Corporatist in the sense that what you condemn as corporatist policies are moderate, centrist, fairly mainstream, and most of their positions are fairly centrist. There is a reason MSNBC likes Warren.

Whereas the leftist policies you admire are advocated by people with loud voices but much less influence than you seem to think they have. Those same people btw have a tendency to defend Maduro (or like AOC evade making their position clear), so the invocation of Venezuela is not something conjured out of thin air.

Corporate in the sense of advocating the interests of corporations and the rich instead of the people.

Defending Maduro (nobody calls him a good leader - he is not) is about defending Venezuela's right to choose it's own leaders, sort out it's own political problems. The US wants Venezuela's oil and Maduro is against that. What if Putin tweeted Nancy Pelosi is now the president of the US, not Trump? That's what the US is doing to Venezuela.

[71 dB]

At least you're not using "Overton window" in every sentence anymore.

What's wrong with "Overton window"? Why does the US politics look right-wing from European perspective and European politics left-wing from US perspective? Overton Window is the reason. European countries are more democratic and money has less influence in politics and that's why the Overton Window in Europe is more left than it is in the US which is more of an oligarchy rather than democracy.

[StarThrower62]

I agree with 71 db's comments. There is no left wing television media in the US. The closest would be Amy Goodman's Democracy Now which isn't seen by nearly as many viewers as CNN, NBC, or the notorious Fox. Nothing's going to change until everyone in Congress follows Tulsi Gabbard's lead, or is forced by law to accept no corporate campaign funds. At this point anyone from the Democratic side will be a welcome change from the orange blimp. But I would prefer a candidate that will demand changes in favor of the interests of the people and the environment as a top priority. But as history has proven, the demands must come from the bottom up loud and clear.

[71 dB]

I agree with 71 db's comments. There is no left wing television media in the US. The closest would be Amy Goodman's Democracy Now which isn't seen by nearly as many viewers as CNN, NBC, or the notorious Fox. Nothing's going to change until everyone in Congress follows Tulsi Gabbard's lead, or is forced by law to accept no corporate campaign funds. At this point anyone from the Democratic side will be a welcome change from the orange blimp. But I would prefer a candidate that will demand changes in favor of the interests of the people and the environment as a top priority. But as history has proven, the demands must come from the bottom up loud and clear.

Thanks for the support and welcome to the forum! 

Trump is a symptom of deeper problems. Getting rid of Trump isn't enough. Political revolution is needed to restore democracy and that's why Bernie Sanders is the obvious choice.

Democracy Now! is good. I didn't know they operate outside Youtube where I have seen their videos.

[StarThrower62]

I used to watch Democracy Now on satellite TV. Free Speech TV network carries their broadcast, as well as the Thom Hartmann show. At this point I no longer watch TV news of any kind. I know the deal. I read a little news online and read books and magazines. Harper's, The Atlantic, New Republic, the New Yorker, etc...

I realize Trump is a symptom of unrest/ignorance but he's a huge embarrassment. He's also doing great damage to our democratic institutions, diplomacy, language, the environment, and whatever thread of integrity is left of American leadership. He's a destructive, racist demagogue and I want him gone.

[SimonNZ]

Wonkette:

Donald Trump Has Learned Some New #GeographyFacts About Texas

"If it's Thursday, it's a fine time to reflect on some of the carefully chosen words of our president, Donald J. Trump, to see what we can learn from his wisdom.

Trump did one of his many photo-ops in Texas on Wednesday -- which is mighty brave of him, considering how scary he thinks it is down there (don't worry, he was there for fundraisers) -- and while there, he shared some wisdom about the state of Texas, which is big, have you heard it's big?

"They think Houston's, you know, half a mile away, but it's 300 miles! And it's desert! [...] You look at it, I mean, the state is tremendous. We don't see that. You know, I come from New York -- you have 5th Avenue and that connects to Park Avenue, and it's not too far away. But this is hundreds of miles between places!"

VERY GOOD JOB, MISTER PRESIDENT.

OK, so the president is a New Yorker, and this is (theoretically) his area of expertise, since Trump Tower is literally on 5th Avenue. But 5th Avenue does not actually connect to Park Avenue. That's two streets over, parallel, and there's a Lexington Avenue in between. But let's not be nitpicky, because that's probably what he meant, and distracts from his larger point, which is that a lot of people didn't know Texas is really big, but he just found out Texas is really big. Like, to get from one place in Texas to another place, you are definitely going farther than the two blocks down 57th Street you have to walk to get to Park Avenue, except for how Trump takes a chauffeured car those two blocks, due to his chunk body and his bone spurs. These are just #CartographyFacts, and the president of the United States #KnowsThem.

Got it. Texas = BIG.

This is almost as insightful as the time Donald Trump said George Washington would never make the big time if he didn't name his house "George Washington's House," instead of something dumb like "Mount Vernon." And Trump was right, because nobody has ever spoken the name George Washington SINCE HE DIED. Or named the nation's capital after him.

Nope.

Let's look at other #TexasFacts with Donald Trump. This is what it's like to live along the border, he says:

"Also they come in and raid their houses, and it's very dangerous, and they're told never to leave their house at night, and during the day always carry a gun and know how to use it, and where they have their fences, because these are big ranches, never go near the gate unless you have two people, and especially at night, and make sure both of you are carrying a weapon, a gun. And I said, nobody's ever told me this! [...]

Nobody's ever heard this!"

LOL, nobody's ever heard this because nobody's ever fucking said it.

Of course, Trump had human props handy to tell stories of how they were all MURDERRRRRED at night by scary MS-13s because they live along the border (but don't worry, they got better), but that's just not how it actually is along the US-Mexico border. For what it's actually like down there, here are five stories we picked at random off Google. Or you could, you know, talk to some people who live near the border.

Want one more video? Here is Trump bitching about wanting to send the military to the border, but whining because they can't act like the normal military, because if they got "a little rough," everybody would "go CRAZY."

In summary and in conclusion, the president's brain is working just as well as it did last week. OR IS IT?

We don't know, it's too hard to tell. Still a lying fuckin' racist, though.

[Karl Henning]

Maybe you shouldn't use the word "corporate" in every sentence.

Surgically done, sir!

[71 dB]

I used to watch Democracy Now on satellite TV. Free Speech TV network carries their broadcast, as well as the Thom Hartmann show. At this point I no longer watch TV news of any kind. I know the deal. I read a little news online and read books and magazines. Harper's, The Atlantic, New Republic, the New Yorker, etc...

I realize Trump is a symptom of unrest/ignorance but he's a huge embarrassment. He's also doing great damage to our democratic institutions, diplomacy, language, the environment, and whatever thread of integrity is left of American leadership. He's a destructive, racist demagogue and I want him gone.

Recently I discovered Thom Hartmann's YT-channel and I like him too. 

[drogulus]

     I recommend being a better news harvester, using a variety of sources and worrying less about what interests each one serves, which aren't difficult to detect. The problem I have with Fox is the analysis and editorial content require an information famine. The information density is far higher almost everywhere else, to the point that watching Rachel Maddow is almost at the limit of my overload tolerance. You could blandly and pointlessly assert that Hannity and Maddow are equally opinionated, as if that and only that would determine what might be gained by watching them.

[71 dB]

Has Rachel Maddow been talking about anything else than Russia collution? 

[drogulus]

Has Rachel Maddow been talking about anything else than Russia collution? 

     I don't watch her regularly and when I do it's only for a few minutes at the beginning of her show. Often the subject is Trump/Russia related. She also talks about immigration and the 2020 election.

[(poco) Sforzando]

there's a Madison Avenue in between. (Fixed that for you.)

But 5th Avenue does not actually connect to Park Avenue. That's two streets over, parallel, and there's a Lexington Avenue in between. But let's not be nitpicky,

[SimonNZ]

Hey Poco, hadn't seen you in a while and was starting to worry. I was hoping you'd chime in on the Shakespeare thread.