Page 17 of 25

Re: Trump is not a joke

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2016 6:11 am
by DWill
With each candidate having such high negatives, their choice of running mates may have an outsize difference in the election. Unfortunately for Trump, Hugh Hefner is too old.

I think you're right about sexism and Clinton. She bends over backward to be personable and likable--just look at her on the campaign trail--yet her image is still that of the pushy broad. The take-charge thing that's admired in men is still off-limits for women. But it's amazing how in the past 28 years two families, the Bushes and Clintons, have dominated politics.

Re: Trump is not a joke

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2016 9:57 am
by DB Roy
There's talk of Elizabeth Warren running with Clinton. That's viable. She's about the only other woman in politics of any renown right now that could be president. There are others, I'm sure, but they don't have the name. In the GOP, there are no women I would consider ever voting for. They're an embarrassment. I mean Sarah Palin? Seriously? This is what they offer as the model of a conservative woman?? Hillary may carry a lot of negative baggage and some of it well deserved but she's clearly a smart woman. She understands the issues and she has clear ideas of how to deal with them. Palin has none of this, as Katie Couric accidentally proved some years ago. And Clinton has clout within the govt. You can bet nobody in the govt talks down to her. She's well-connected in what is otherwise a good ol' boys network. You know from the day her husband got elected, she was already planning her own run.

Trump I don't know about. Who will be his running mate? I've heard talk of a female running mate but that comes across as so politically expedient that it's pathetic. You know Trump doesn't respect women enough for that. It would look too much like he's trying to come across as not quite so misogynistic and she would be trying to use her status to move onto her own run. It wouldn't look like either's heart was really in it but were just using each other to fill in their own agendas. It might be true of most running mates but it shouldn't be so damned obvious that neither one can stand the other. There's also talk of Ben Carson who looks like he believe it himself. Well, good luck with that. It won't make Trump look any less racist and it won't get the black or minority vote.

The danger for Trump at this point is that he's going to have a very difficult time maintaining his maverick outsider image from here on out which has been his bread and butter. He has to start coming across as more presidential without alienating himself from his basic constituency who hate that kind of stuff. I suppose if anyone can do it, though, it will be him. He's a con man and can talk himself in or out of just about anything. So we'll see what happens.

Re: Trump is not a joke

Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2016 6:51 am
by DWill
I just finished reading a psychological portrait of Trump by Dan McAdams in The Atlantic. Seems to distill Trump to the essence starting from a base of the" Big Five" recognized personality traits. Trump rates exceptionally high on extroversion and exceptionally low on agreeableness, which McAdams says is a somewhat unusual combination. What it produces is a person who constantly needs social rewards while also relying on anger as his primary motivational force. Hard to get what you want by treating people this way, but if you don't care how many hate you after dealing with you, and if you create a band of admirers despite your unpleasantness, it can be done. McAdams gives us Andrew Jackson as a close parallel to Trump among our past presidents, but in the end McAdams doubts that Trump has any vision at all for the country, unlike Jackson, whose populism did strengthen our democracy. McAdams also cites the common judgment of psychologists that Trump is narcissistic, and he doesn't dissent from that. However, several presidents rated as high on narcissism are often included among the "greats," such as T. Roosevelt, Johnson, and Jackson.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc ... mp/480771/

Re: Trump is not a joke

Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2016 11:16 am
by DB Roy
There are now lawsuits against Trump for sexual misconduct with underage girls. These may or may not go anywhere but they need to be investigated fully. Some of the allegations made sound like they may be true. Trump's history of talking shit about women and openly mocking the looks of any he doesn't like certainly do nothing to dispel these allegations. One woman who was 13 when she said Trump raped her said he threatened her life and her family if she told anyone and she believed him. Why should we dismiss this when Trump wants to go after the families of terrorists and kill them?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-bloo ... 19944.html

His association with convicted sex offender, Jeff Epstein, could be overlooked since Epstein was very rich and associated with a lot powerful figures including Bill Clinton except for this strange statement that Trump made:

“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it, Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

Here is Snopes' synopsis the affair:

http://www.snopes.com/2016/06/23/donald ... e-lawsuit/

We also know that Trump's ex-wife, Ivana, accused him of rape but then after the settlement walked back the serious of her accusations. But her story claims very differently. Hard to walk back a story that serious.

Now Trump may be innocent but, if so, then let's put it to the test and find out. Although he stands, by the latest estimates, a 19% of getting into the White House, do we want to put him there and THEN find out he really did this stuff?

So couple the racketeering charges with the sex allegations and the gOP has every reason at the convention not to give him the nomination. If they do, shame on them.

Re: Trump is not a joke

Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2016 1:22 pm
by DB Roy
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/ ... l_facebook

This article should be required reading for anyone intending to cast a vote this November.

Re: Trump is not a joke

Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2016 11:25 am
by DB Roy
So Trump has picked his running mate, Mike Pence. You KNEW it wasn't going to be Newt Gingrich although it would have been hilarious if Trump has picked one of the few politicians people hate more than Trump himself. Trump chose Pence precisely because nobody's heard of him. Then they did this disastrous interview on 60 Minutes where Trump kept answering for Pence and, at one point, gave him permission to answer yes.

Then Trump did something crazy--he admitted Pence was an establishment politician and said, "Establishment's okay." Really, Donny? Because your appeal to the brainless twats who intend to vote for you has been that you are not an establishment politician because establishment = BAD. I said earlier that Trump would have to walk a tightrope while choosing a running mate because whoever it is will have to look like an outsider and yet Trump chose a blatant insider, brags about it, says being an insider is okay (unless your name is Hillary) and his followers have no criticisms to offer. Once again, I was wrong about this guy. And the reason I am continuously wrong is that I keep lowering the bar for the intelligence of his supporters and it simply isn't low enough. I keep thinking, "Nobody can possibly be stupid enough to buy into THIS!" And no sooner do I think that and they go and buy into it and without a single word of complaint!

I realize now that Trump supporters are identical to Limbaugh supporters--no matter what he says, no matter how he contradicts himself, no matter how badly he acts in public, no matter how brutally he embarrasses himself, no matter what stupid, racist, hateful, misogynistic drivel he spews in front of the media that would instantly end the careers of most politicians--they will follow him no matter what. If called on to explain this totally unmerited adulation, they mumble out weak-ass rationalizations (e.g. "At least he isn't Hillary") but that has nothing to do with anything. They follow him because they are the types of people who are prone to get caught up in a cult of personality. It doesn't even have to be a real personality. That's why most of them are also ardent Jesus-worshipers. They actually worship themselves by projecting their own deficient personalities on the leader (because they are authoritarian by nature) and worship themselves through him and fool themselves by saying, "He says what's on his mind." No, you project your mind onto him and then worship your own mind by worshiping him. In that sense, they are using Trump as much as he is using them and they truly deserve one another.

When Leslie Stahl brought up the Iraq War and how Trump lambastes Hillary for voting for it but Pence also voted for it, Trump simply said, "I don't care." But Pence didn't simply vote for the Iraq War, he was a YUGE cheerleader for that war. He was a major reason that it got off the ground--this war that Trump said was started on false pretexts, was started just so some rich fatcats could make money at the expense of the American taxpayer, this war which he insisted he was always against from the very beginning and which he endlessly criticizes Hillary Clinton for voting for. Yet he picks for a running mate one of the people that was instrumental in getting authorization for that war pushed through Congress and yet when that fact is brought to his attention, all we get is, "I don't care."

So, let that be a warning to you Trump-lovers out there. Trump has no ideology, no firm convictions aside from grabbing all the money, power and publicity that he can for himself, no scruples. Why? Because he doesn't care! Did he promise you the moon and fail to deliver? He doesn't care. Did he fail to help you keep your job as he promised? He doesn't care. Did he send your job overseas after vowing to end outsourcing? He doesn't care. Did he destroy your health care insurance by killing the ACA? He doesn't care. He doesn't care, He doesn't care!!! Do you get it???? He doesn't care--about you.

Re: Trump is not a joke

Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2016 6:32 am
by DWill
DB Roy wrote:
I realize now that Trump supporters are identical to Limbaugh supporters--no matter what he says, no matter how he contradicts himself, no matter how badly he acts in public, no matter how brutally he embarrasses himself, no matter what stupid, racist, hateful, misogynistic drivel he spews in front of the media that would instantly end the careers of most politicians--they will follow him no matter what. If called on to explain this totally unmerited adulation, they mumble out weak-ass rationalizations (e.g. "At least he isn't Hillary") but that has nothing to do with anything. They follow him because they are the types of people who are prone to get caught up in a cult of personality.
I think you've got it there. The phenomenon is beyond teflon, a la Ronald Regan. Trump can't possibly disqualify himself in the eyes of his fanatics. The Trump voters are simply looking for someone through whom they can release their passions, completely devoid of the thought process.

Re: Trump is not a joke

Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2016 5:06 pm
by DB Roy

Re: Trump is not a joke

Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2016 5:24 pm
by DB Roy
DB Roy wrote:Interestingly, here in Michigan, the republican-controlled legislature is trying to pass a bill eliminating single-punch voting cards. This is the card where you can just punch one hole to vote a straight ticket. I used it in the last election for the first time. I always previously voted for individual candidates but was so fed up with Republican bullshit that I punched a straight democratic ticket in 2012 although it didn't do any good for the state, the republicans won hugely.

So now the Michigan GOP is introducing a bill to eliminate one-punch voting. Now there could be legitimate reasons for it, right? Except there aren't. The very reason they gave is that one-punch voting tends to favor democrats. So they are going to re-do the ballots to make it harder to vote for their opposition. It has nothing to do with making voting easier or less cumbersome--in fact, the opposite. If you want to vote a straight ticket, you have to do it page-by-page if this becomes law. Hopefully, then, you might pick some republicans by mistake.
Btw, good news! SCOTUS shot it down! One-punch voting will remain in Michigan.

Re: Trump is not a joke

Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2016 11:33 am
by johnson1010
Trump’s so called honesty is completely the opposite.

He isn’t honest. He’s unfiltered. Or in other words, he doesn’t think about what he says. He isn’t INVESTED in what he says. Because the truth doesn’t matter to him. Because he’s a fraud. A Huckster. He doesn’t have any plan to make America great again. He’s just wallowing in the attention he’s drawn to himself by being an out-loud idiot on national television.

Lets take a look at his supposed honesty.

Trump University:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tli9s_lRbGM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfaLYHCC-HU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84lUQFvHeDk

Trump lies about Obama’s birth, his hand in continuing that nonsense conspiracy, and then shamelessly foisting his actions onto the people who did not have a hand in it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blckpwk1voQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wlinmy91KQ
This is a subject he spent YEARS championing, long after others had re-considered their ill-advised trip down racist Blvd. Trump was still banging the drum. Then he goes on stage and in 30 seconds says the opposite of what he’d spent years of his life championing with no explanation of why he’s been such an obvious and intrusive dip shit on that subject.

Trump lies about not knowing David Duke’s history of white supremacy. Refuses to reject the endorsement of white supremacists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9rzi5vRpvE
He won’t talk about people he knows nothing about? Flat out bullshit.
Trump’s entire gig is talking about things he knows nothing about. Declaring people losers, and dismissing them out of hand for infractions that disappear into nothingness compared to David Duke.

Trump pretends to be a different person on the phone to reporters. Claiming to be a PR spokes person for himself, bragging outrageously about himself while PRETENDING TO BE SOMEONE ELSE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8CzncS4w5A

Donald Trump lies about self funding his campaign
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O87ix4cVz5g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85NmW5Fz38E

Trump lies about his ludicrous border wall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU8dCYocuyI

These links can just keep coming and coming. This is not a man, guys. This is a goddamn Colonel Sanders. This is a Ronald McDonald. This is a spokesperson for TRUMP brand everything. He is lying at all times about all things because he doesn’t have any idea what he’s talking about at any moment. He isn’t an expert on anything. He hasn’t got fantastically rich on the merit of his business sense. Comparatively speaking, Paris Hilton has done far better with her inheritance. He CAN’T pick “the best guys. The very best guys. The smartest and best guys there are.” On any subject because he DOES’NT UNDERSTAND ANY SUBJECT!

Sam Harris articulates the dangers of Trump being an outrageously stupid and un-informed fool, on the brink of controlling the united states.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az1JyDJ_iKU

Trump is WASTING our time with every second of coverage he gets on TV. And if he gets elected he will squander the wealth, resources, good will and lives of our people. This is a Hitler in the making.

Unfortunate that Hitler comparisons are used so frequently on so many occasions that when there is a legitimate comparison it sounds hysterical. Like if someone says the death penalty is a good thing, or if white and black people have some differences or if mom grounds you for the weekend they might be Hitlers...

What about when an actual hollow-man with stated racist views, penchant for authoritarian statement and behavior, refuses to reject white supremacy, endorses violence at his rallies from people who desperately want to make the fatherland great again rises to the top of a political party that is falling apart at the stitches?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u879fZ_OqWw