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Trump Watch

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Harry Marks
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Re: Trump Watch

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Storm troopers? Not exactly, but Dear Leader's use of border patrol agents and homeland security personnel to implement unaccountable repression of demonstrations in Portland is an intentional provocation without support from the local population, so it looks suspiciously like a fascist crackdown on dissent. Many observers think he is seeing how much he can get away with, to push the limits as much as he can. I think it might not be that conscious, but just adolescent impulse to be provocative for "our side".

It's possible that it will play well in the suburbs, but I rather doubt it. The agents he is using are reportedly avid Trump supporters, eager to smash up people who don't agree with them. The reputational damage that follows is likely to be, once again, the worst possible move from the point of view of people who have not already made up their mind about him. Are there a lot of people out there who want to see a crackdown but are not part of the 40 percent who back Trump? I don't see it.
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Harry Marks
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Re: Trump Watch

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Okay, in the "credit where it is due," department, Trump actually turned around on mask-wearing, in the face of accumulating evidence. Does that give cover to the governors of Florida, Texas and Arizona to actually do something about Covid? Maybe, but Republican politics are in very sad shape if they need cover.

I blame Fox News, but then, I blame Fox News for nearly everything on the right.
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Re: Trump Watch

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Anyone else reading Mary Trump's book? I ordered it on kindle.
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Re: Trump Watch

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DB Roy wrote:Anyone else reading Mary Trump's book? I ordered it on kindle.
What do you think so far? To answer your question, I haven't read any of it.
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Harry Marks
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Re: Trump Watch

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And in related news, there are a growing number of lawsuits addressing Betsy DeVos' reinterpretation of the CARES Act aid to schools. The funds are clearly addressed to meeting the financial needs created by dealing with poor kids in the Covid emergency: my school had to round up dozens of wifi connections, and the district where my son teaches had to give up on grades because so many of the students (>40 %) had no internet service. Providing meals is another can of worms.

DeVos decided that the CARES funds should be allocated by number of pupils, to private as well as public schools (though there was an out, if a state is helping only Title I schools) rather than on the number of "free and reduced-price meals" qualifiers. The effect is a dramatic shift of funds toward private schools. It's a clear case for a lawsuit, since the administration rule is flying directly in the face of Congressional intent with the appropriations.
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronaviru ... to-schools
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Re: Trump Watch

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Murmur wrote:
DB Roy wrote:Anyone else reading Mary Trump's book? I ordered it on kindle.
What do you think so far? To answer your question, I haven't read any of it.
I'm still on his early life. She dissects him pretty thoroughly. Fred Trump was a prick. Trump's mother was absent from his life at a crucial time. While she was in the hospital, Trump was forced to interact with his father who did not want to interact with him or any of his siblings. Trump's older brother, Freddy, fell out of his father's favor, not that any of Fred's kids were ever really in his favor--certainly not the daughters whom he completely neglected. Freddy got the most attention because he was expected to take over the family business but couldn't measure up in his father's eyes.

Donny saw his chance and began to act out in ways that would normally get a boy in trouble but Fred actually like his son's antisocial behavior until he went too far and got sent to military school. Even then, it wasn't to mold Donny. It was Fred's way of just getting rid of him because he was tired of hearing everybody complaining about Donny's aggression, sadism and bullying.

In military school, Donny learned to be conniving with his shitty behavior because being too brazen brought punishment.

It's a really sad look at what makes Trump tick. He's a damaged, psychologically scarred individual. All his bullying, vindictiveness and cruelty is examined in minute detail. You see why Trump can't change and is a danger to the country. He IS his father's son.
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Harry Marks
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Re: Trump Watch

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DB Roy wrote:Donny saw his chance and began to act out in ways that would normally get a boy in trouble but Fred actually like his son's antisocial behavior until he went too far and got sent to military school. Even then, it wasn't to mold Donny. It was Fred's way of just getting rid of him because he was tired of hearing everybody complaining about Donny's aggression, sadism and bullying.

In military school, Donny learned to be conniving with his shitty behavior because being too brazen brought punishment.


Conniving. Interesting. Fits pretty well with the Donny we know: loves to provoke and play the victim, by using dog whistle memes and playing "Who, me?" Loves to gather admirers by refusing to be confined by political correctness, expectations of truthfulness, norms of playing by the rules, or moral obligations in general, but has learned to obfuscate and deflect and pretend he never did anything of the sort.

In 3 words, Hit and Run.

That is a certain type in this world. Pretending to be legit just to get close enough to stick the knife in someone's back. "Get me in a fight, I like the dirty tricks." Showing off brutality to comrades-in-arms, but canny enough to avoid getting caught at it by the MPs. Breaking shop windows to loot merchandise under cover of demonstrations against racism. Terrorists.

Hiding a shakedown of Ukraine and then denying any wrongdoing when it comes to light.

We are in more trouble than I realized.
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Harry Marks
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Re: Trump Watch

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Today we learned that William Barr is a "leaker": that he published enough information in the (redacted) report on the Steele dossier gathered against Trump in 2016 that the confidential source who discussed it with the FBI is no longer confidential. So, continuing the tradition begun by Cheney's Chief of Staff, "Scooter" Libby, intelligence sources and methods are kept classified unless right-wing politicians want them not to be. (Trump pardoned Libby).

So let me get this straight. Hillary Clinton deserved to be locked up for using a separate server for her non-classified emails, because (no great surprise) a few of them slipped up and included classified stuff and then her idiot staff wiped the server that could have been checked for more, but it's okay for the administration to publish information that could actually disclose the identity of a secret source, in other words a known piece of sensitive information whose disclosure will likely lead to attacks on the Russian who served as a source, and thus will clearly damage the ability of the intelligence agencies to gather information in the future.

And why did Barr do this? Because he was conspiring with Lindsey Graham to paint the investigation of ties between Trump and Russia as "corrupt." Apparently conservatives are eager to portray the source as unserious because he was not plugged into the Russian intelligence system through sources, but merely talked to colleagues and friends fishing for any useful dirt. To me it is a relief that he was not a pawn of Russian intelligence. Steele apparently exaggerated the reliability of the reports in the dossier, but this played no role in opening the wiretaps (on Carter Page), and only a supporting role (with cautions about possible reasons to doubt it) in the renewal of the wiretaps.
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Harry Marks
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Re: Trump Watch

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We have now learned that Donald Trump's vendetta against Amazon, which became a running battle with the Post Office, has morphed into another arm of the corruption octopus. The newly appointed postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, has a significant investment in UPS (more than $100,000) and has been tasked with making the Post Office look bad under cover of making it more efficient. Dear Leader's goals are no longer limited to excuses to attack Jeff Bezos for allowing the independent policy of the Washington Post, but now include fighting mail-in balloting in the election (because Covid deaths don't matter if we don't count them?).

As Schiff noted in the impeachment trial, we can count on Trump to put his own interests ahead of the public interest, because that's who he is. We have had physically impaired presidents, and now we have a president to represent the mentally ill.
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Re: Trump Watch

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LMAO!

I found one of perhaps 3 people alive today that defend the USPS !

The USPS has suffered significant financial losses for the past 11 straight years and has been riddled with incompetence.

And now we have some conspirators that are planning on achieving the impossible - actually making it worse than what it already is!


You can't make this stuff up, people.
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