Second cup of Coffee Talk

[Bloody Brian Burke]

Yeah, the wall is a good example.

Agreed, I think that's been clear since I would say last March. I think Twitter and short-read media are contributing to that being acceptable, but mostly just voter ignorance about the complexity of many of these problems. If the solutions were simple, we would have done them. They're not, and anyone who tells you otherwise is a charlatan.

Thus marks my first use of charlatan on the Hoop. I now have one charlatan in the bank.

I'm just hoping the people he puts in charge of this stuff are at least somewhat competent and responsible.

Of course, his two top advisers are a white supremacist and a guy who chooses to be called "Reince" so...

 

[dare2be]

...and a oil magnate in charge of the EPA. So there's hope.

 

[forty_three]

I also found out last night that Chicago is like Afghanistan only with better pizza and a NHL hockey team.

debatable

I know it's good for a joke, but I think it's time people realise the obvious: Trump has no plans of action, no policy to enact. He has ideas, broad rhetoric regarding issues he thinks are important and he will give those ideas to his staff who will then actually formulate a few plans of action from which he will choose what he believes is best and enact accordingly.

He wants to run it like a business. Stand around, get tons of kudos and money, let everyone else come up with the ideas and fire the people who thought up the ones that fail.

Except that the fallout isn't going to be loss of "market share". The fallout is going to be people dying.

...and a oil magnate in charge of the EPA. So there's hope.

And the one who is going to be secretary of state.

 

[dare2be]

Executive Branch. Chief Executive Officer. CEO of America. It works.

 

[jstewismybastardson]

Also, after hearing about "Emperor Obama" from conservatives for the last 8 years, he ended up having the fewest number of executive orders issued by year since the dawn of the 20th century. Obama averaged just 34.4 per year. Trump is already averaging 210.5 per year.

Now Presidential Memorandums can have the same impact as an EO, but are harder to track. Trump has twice as many memoranda as orders so far, and Obama had a very similar ratio, though the figures are fuzzy as memorandum do not have the same federal registry requirements as executive orders. And in both cases, these can be bypassed altogether by regulation/rules changes within agencies from appointees made by the President.

Nevertheless, we don't hear the same cry about Trump. Which is a shame not because I think he is abusing his authority - he won, he's using long established and accepted tools at his discretion - but because that kind of labeling prevents a more substantive talk about those policies. And this isn't accidental as one network in particular is not made up of journalists, but is a piece of machinery for one party. (for the record, I think MSNBC is crap too and don't watch it or TV news in general, but they don't operate under the same dishonest guise as being a news network).

Overall, Trump's attacks on institutions like the media and our election process are very obviously frustration with them not reflecting his hopes for how he would like his message to be received or the results he imagined because... ya know, facts. Trying to attack and subvert the messenger and alter those facts instead of reacting to the public's needs, shaping policy, etc. is precisely what makes his approach similar to that of a dictator/emperor. And while I hope he succeeds as this is my country, he will not succeed if conservatives don't hold his feet to the fire. I won't hold my breath.

 

[elocomotive]

^Exactly.

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

Except that the fallout isn't going to be loss of "market share". The fallout is going to be people dying.

Who's dying?

 

[forty_three]

Who's dying?

No one yet, but it's only been six days. But some groups who should watch out:
- People losing their health care
- Women who get pregnant by accident
- People trying to get into the US, especially brown ones
- People who are in groups that are often victims of hate crime

 

[forty_three]

Opinion | The State Department’s entire senior administrative team just resigned

Huh. That's probably not good.

 

[jstewismybastardson]

No one yet, but it's only been six days. But some groups who should watch out:
- People losing their health care
- Women who get pregnant by accident
- People trying to get into the US, especially brown ones
- People who are in groups that are often victims of hate crime

aka ... anyone who didnt vote for him

 

[dash]

The Oval Office’s newest tenant owns a politics marked by compulsive, blatant, and sustained lying aimed at generating a cult of personality, rallying his supporters, undermining his opponents, and putting the press on their back heels

Coupled with attempts to bend reality to his will, Trump sorts the world into simple groups, characterizes them as enemies of one another, and then takes sides.

Moreover, his solution to the problems facing the United States is to use the power of the presidency to do battle rather than to work to find solutions.

When Trump says “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now,” he is referencing not crime, but an idea of the United States as a nearly post-apocalyptic hellscape marked by unchecked violence and widespread decay, porous borders across which would-be terrorists are constantly moving, and foreign enemies whose only interest is in the decline and fall of the Republic. He divides the world into heroes (the People) and villains (foreigners, criminals, terrorists, elites). To do battle, extraordinary commitment is required. So are extraordinary powers.

Donald Trump invites authoritarianism to America - Macleans.ca

 

[forty_three]

aka ... anyone who didnt vote for him

Well, fortunately a lot of people who DID vote for him have their health care through ACA. Not Obummercare. So they will be fine.

/s

 

[Comeds]

- Women who get pregnant by accident

Make America Late Again?

 

[jstewismybastardson]

Well, fortunately a lot of people who DID vote for him have their health care through ACA. Not Obummercare. So they will be fine.

/s

Trumps policies have the look of very good low key under the radar ethnic/societal cleansing


/ if anyone out there is a fan of that

 

[dare2be]

- Women who get pregnant by accident

It's no accident. God willed it on them.

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

No one yet, but it's only been six days. But some groups who should watch out:
- People losing their health care
- Women who get pregnant by accident
- People trying to get into the US, especially brown ones
- People who are in groups that are often victims of hate crime

- It's already apparent that totally scrapping ACA and depriving 20 million people of health care isn't going to happen, and if anything Trump has been vocal about covering more people not less.
- Abortion rights are being targeted at the state level far more than at the federal level. If Trump nominates someone dead set on repealing RvW the Dems will likely filibuster the hell out of them. He doesn't have a blank slate when it comes to the Supreme Court.
- US refugee intake from Syria was comically low even under Obama. Going from slim to none won't have much of an impact.
- Hate crimes were, for the most part, static between 2004 and 2012. They shot up quite a bit in 2015 and 2016, mostly due to crimes against Muslims. Maybe that's a trend that continues, but it started under the last administration and while this president and his people clearly aren't all too bothered by the minority population's problems it is very reactionary to just assume people will be more emboldened to act out violently against minorities just because of who's in the White House.

 

[dash]

It's no accident. God willed it on them.

God stealing a page out of the Sidney Crosby playbook.

 

[jstewismybastardson]

It's no accident. God willed it on them.

God stealing a page out of the Sidney Crosby playbook.

if Im following correctly ... does this mean a lamppost was doing the impregnating

 

[dare2be]

it is very reactionary to just assume people will be more emboldened to act out violently against minorities just because of who's in the White House.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/us/politics/hate-crimes-american-muslims-rise.html

“We’re seeing these stereotypes and derogative statements become part of the political discourse,” said Brian Levin, the director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at the San Bernardino campus. “The bottom line is we’re talking about a significant increase in these types of hate crimes.”

He said that the frequency of anti-Muslim violence appeared to have increased immediately after some of Mr. Trump’s most incendiary comments.

also: Hate crimes, racist graffiti after election; Trump says 'stop it' - CNN.com

 

[KennyBanyeah]

For the love of...

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer accidentally tweets password two days in a row

And these shitheads have the nuke codes.