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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2019 9:48:32 GMT -5
Agree, nighttimer -- AOC did some of the best questioning there -- as a lawyer, I applaud her. Seriously, that was a grade-A piece of work, and even more especially when you consider she's brand new. She didn't waste her time posturing but went straight for the jugular in a clean, calm fashion. It was impressive. More of that, please (from everyone).
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Post by celawson on Feb 28, 2019 12:31:12 GMT -5
Unlike some professions, my hours aren't regular, and I see patients when they become ill. I need to go in earlier today, and it looks to be busy. Some of you will accuse me of avoiding this thread, but *shrug*. My patients are more important that TCG. Ironically, if I do answer some questions (and I will briefly below), then I will be accused of derail (even though my "derails" have all been answers to other people's questions.) Again, *shrug*. Few brief thoughts: AOC did fine. Still no big surprise at the answers and nothing that the IRS shouldn't already know about. Cass, take a look at your taxes along the year, not simply at your refund. Many folks' refunds are smaller because less was withheld along the way. www.cnbc.com/2019/02/22/heres-why-your-tax-refund-could-be-smaller-than-last-year.html Cohen did a good job of helping Trump with the collusion narrative and the subornation of perjury accusation. Thanks, Michael! I am not claiming Trump is of good character. Or that he doesn't lie. Or that he isn't a narcissist. Or an adulterer. (I don't believe he is a racist, however.) I also do not think he is the evil being some here do. And I think he has America's interests at heart (yes, along with his ego,) This character stuff has been known for a while, and when I voted for him it was out there in the open. He was still a better choice for me than Hillary. I hoped he'd do better in his behavior, but macro over micro. So for me, this hearing did not illustrate anything that was surprising or that will result in Trump being removed from office. What it did show is that folks would rather embarrass and humiliate our sitting POTUS, at a time when he is conducting foreign policy, than support our country, for their own Trump hatred. (This can also be shown in other ways like the insistence that a border wall is an abomination (it's not); another ploy to thwart Trump rather than do what is best for our country.) For NT - Trump's policies with regard to dereg of business and tax breaks/cuts have allowed businesses to expand and have increased jobs and wages. Trump's admin being tough on crime and supporting police, IMO, has been a factor in the decline in crime nationally. www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/28/18244633/america-violent-crime-murder-rate-2018. And Trump's criminal justice reform is also something that is a positive for many blacks. We can thank Jared K and Trump for that. www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/how-trump-unexpectedly-garnered-bipartisan-support-criminal-justice-reform-n949706So...IMO, increasingly desperate attempts to embarrass and humiliate Trump, while exposing things many people already knew (eye-roll), while NOT exposing any high crimes or misdemeanors, while NOT exposing anything that can actually remove Trump from office only, IMO, works against the U.S. I have said before, I choose the macro good for our country over Trump's foibles and lack of character any day of the week. And again, I will wait for Mueller (increasingly less patiently) and see what comes of that. But this? It's a circus.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2019 12:57:42 GMT -5
Trust me, ce. I looked at that. I came out behind on taxes this year, and so did many people. That tax relief was not intended to help most of us -- it was intended to help a certain select group. My being in a blue state, I was not one of those people. (New York did its best to help -- I actually did do a bit better on my state and local taxes this year.)
If you know, believe, and understand the implications of all of that you just said about Trump, then IMO your choice to support and defend him is morally bankrupt, and given your oft professed moral beliefs and your critiques of the "other side" for far less serious traits and behavior, hypocritical.
ETA:
I mean, sure, people in general are flawed, and many of our leaders, like many of us, are afflicted with fairly large flaws. But we don't, most of us, lie dozens of times a day, engage in constant grifting, cozy up to dictators, white supremacists, and criminals... He's a very, very, very, very, very, downright criminally bad person, who always has at the forefront his own ego and self-interest uber alles. I don't think you can say the same about our past presidents -- even Nixon was leaps and bounds better than him in a number of ways, IMO. This isn't holding your nose and putting up with a few imperfections. This is about putting about the worst person possible in the oval office and giving him as much power as possible, while checking him as little as possible (though god willing, our new blue House will help with that at last).
I know you think I'm harsh and mean and horrible. But honest to god, I keep thinking you'll wake up instead of doubling down. This isn't about "he's a conservative." (Which, IMO, he is not, in any case.) This is about "my god, he's a horrible, terrible, corrupt person who should never have this much power". This is the guy a lot of us worried about as the executive office gained more and more out-sized power over the last couple of administrations.
ETA:
It's not your initial voting for Trump or your initial optimism about him that I find so deeply troublesome. I think it was extremely misguided, and given his well-known traits, actions, and behavior going back for years, either blithely uninformed or deliberately blind. But still, I could say "well, she thinks all that is a show, and that he'll follow the advice of smarter, better people."
What bothers me so very much -- the reason I cannot stop trying to hold a mirror up to you and calling you out -- is because of your reaction as it has become increasingly clear that Trump is WORSE than his reality TV persona, that he ignores and fires the better people around him, that he has no self-control, no morals, that he puts himself and his interests and his ego before the interests of our country at every turn. You either ignore it or worse still, look for ways to defend it. You not only continue to support him, you have doubled down on your support as he has shown himself to be everything his detractors feared and worse.
You might remember that although I voted for Hillary, I did in fact repeatedly and fervently criticize her where I thought she deserved it. I voted for her because for all her flaws, she's nowhere in a ballpark as bad as Trump in any way. But here's the thing: had she won the election, I would have continued to criticize her. I would have continued to call her out. And if she showed herself unworthy of my support and defense, I would absolutely not be twisting myself in pretzels to defend her. I would have considered criticizing her and holding her to a standard my especial duty, in fact, because I helped put her in office.
Everything you and people like you do to defend Trump rather than call him out Makes. Him. Worse. It encourages Republicans in office to give him a free rein, it emboldens him to cuddle up to dictators, drive out the few good, decent, smart people (e.g., Mattis) he had around him, encourages his horrible, horrible statements on Twitter, at his rallies, everywhere.
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Post by nighttimer on Feb 28, 2019 16:15:16 GMT -5
So for me, this hearing did not illustrate anything that was surprising or that will result in Trump being removed from office. What it did show is that folks would rather embarrass and humiliate our sitting POTUS, at a time when he is conducting foreign policy, than support our country, for their own Trump hatred. (This can also be shown in other ways like the insistence that a border wall is an abomination (it's not); another ploy to thwart Trump rather than do what is best for our country.) Embarrass and humiliate your sitting POTUS? Child, puh-leeze. This is a man who bragged about the size of his dick in a nationally televised presidential debate. This is a man who regularly went on Howard Stern's show and boasted of his sex life. This is a man who was recorded saying how he kissed women without their permission and grabbed them by the pussy. This is a man who embarrassed himself YEARS ago and he humiliated his wife with his tacky little liaisons with Playboy models and porn stars YEARS ago.
It is literally impossible to embarrass a man like this. Donald Trump has no shame.
Wonder if Otto's mama and papa do?
That's your president saying he believes a murderous, merciless madman and will take him at his word. The same way he took Vladimir Putin's word that the Russians never tampered with the 2016 elections. The same way he took the word of the Saudis government that they had nothing to do with the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. But this should shock no one. Trump never gave a fuck about Otto Warmbier. He was just some punk kid who should have stayed his ass home instead of going to North Korea to steal a propaganda poster.
Why should Kim know anything about an American citizen who was paraded begging for mercy in a televised show trial and sentenced to 15 years at hard labor? He was probably binge-watching Stranger Things on Netflix. Yeah, no way he'd know anything about it.
Last June your president said of Warmbier's death, "There is nothing more tragic for a parent than to lose a child in the prime of life. Our thoughts and prayers are with Otto’s family and friends, and all who loved him."
“Otto’s fate deepens my Administration’s determination to prevent such tragedies from befalling innocent people at the hands of regimes that do not respect the rule of law or basic human decency. The United States once again condemns the brutality of the North Korean regime as we mourn its latest victim.”
“Otto’s fate deepens my Administration’s determination to prevent such tragedies from befalling innocent people at the hands of regimes that do not respect the rule of law or basic human decency. The United States once again condemns the brutality of the North Korean regime as we mourn its latest victim.”
The late Senator John McCain put it even more bluntly, "Otto Warmbier, an American citizen, was murdered by the Kim Jong-un regime. In the final year of his life, he lived the nightmare in which the North Korean people have been trapped for 70 years: forced labor, mass starvation, systematic cruelty, torture, and murder."
“North Korea is threatening its neighbors, destabilizing the Asia-Pacific region, and rapidly developing the technology to strike the American homeland with nuclear weapons. Now it has escalated to brutalizing Americans, including three other citizens currently imprisoned in North Korea. The United States of America cannot and should not tolerate the murder of its citizens by hostile powers.”
Hostile powers? Hey, back off Johnny Mac! You can't talk that way about Trump's buddy. You're dead. This is how America is made great again. By *45 giving a dictator a hand job and coming home with nothing to show from it.
If your president is shrugging off the imprisonment, torture and death of an American citizen as no sweat off his balls, then your president and your country are both fucked.
That's how you prove Michael Cohen is wrong and Donald Trump isn't a racist?
So, you got nothing, huh?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2019 17:31:53 GMT -5
The Otto Warmbier thing is sickening. I'm sick over it; I can't imagine how his family and friends must feel.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2019 13:27:08 GMT -5
Otto's parents are not pleased.
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Post by nighttimer on Mar 1, 2019 15:32:03 GMT -5
Otto's parents are not pleased. This is such a derail!
This post should be in Trump's Accomplishments.
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Post by markesq on Mar 1, 2019 16:27:33 GMT -5
Otto's parents are not pleased. This is such a derail!
This post should be in Trump's Accomplishments. Yeah, I was gonna start a thread about his UN-accomplishments, but who has time for that?!
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Post by nighttimer on Mar 4, 2019 12:30:06 GMT -5
There was a particularly galling moment during the Congressional hearing last week and this was it.
The glum looking lady with the cheap-ass wig is Lynne Patton. She has worked with or for Donald Trump for ten years and if you didn't know that, don't feel bad because only a few did. Patton was invited by Rep. Mark Meadows to stand there as living proof to Michael Cohen's charge that Donald Trump is a racist.
This is where a Black Conservative is most useful. Standing mutely and dutifully behind a racist White man and lending out the melanin in their skin in defense for another White man's racism. Patton said nothing during the hearing, but then she wasn't there to talk. She was there to rebut the allegation Trump is a racist.
Then Patton wrapped herself in a cloak of victimhood. “Black Republicans are not an anomaly. Not only do we suffer the same societal hurdles that face any black man or black woman every single day, we also have the additional albatross of being conservative. Nothing proves this point more than the partisan reaction to my committee appearance this week. God forbid a black Republican is in the room based upon her own merit and can think for herself. But it’s a scarlet letter I wear with pride.”
"The additional albatross of being conservative? " Well cry me a Mississippi River, Lynne. Being a conservative is not an albatross. It's a choice . When she's not caping for Trump, Patton is also getting her hustle on by inquiring whether or not she can get a waiver so she can appear in a reality TV show about the trials and tribulations of Black female conservatives.
Cry me two Mississippi rivers.
Lynne Patton's willingness to be a prop is disgusting, but selling her dignity to get paid is simply how she moves through the world. Before she turned on Trump, it was Omarosa Manigault Newman who would have been the resident Black Face in a White Place. To be sure, it's not easy for Omarosa, Patton, Diamond and Silk, or Candace Owens. Well, that's not entirely correct. It's real easy for them to ingratiate with White conservatives the same way White liberals appreciate having their own Very Special Black Friend. They provide insulation from charges of being racist against other Blacks.
It was The Mouth That Roared, Ann Coulter who gave the game away when she spoke on Hannity about Herman Cain. "I mean that's why our blacks are so much better than their blacks. To become a black Republican you don't just roll into it, you're not just going with the flow. You have fought against probably your family, probably your neighbors, you have thought everything out. And that's why we have very impressive blacks in our party."
Damn, Ann. Shush. You're giving the game away. It's not about Black conservatives being free-thinkers and rejecting the Democrat plantation mentality of the masses. It's about how OUR Blacks are better than YOUR Blacks because they think and act the way we want them to.
Capin' ain't easy. But as long as you don't mind selling your dignity one piece at a time, it can be profitable. Hustlers gonna hustle.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2019 16:00:51 GMT -5
Oh, god. I cringed all the way through that Lynne Patton shit.
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