Quote :

"So I have to ask. Trump is quoted right now as saying Obamacare has been repealed. This is his comment regarding the Congress passing the tax bill. Were there provisions in the bill affecting healthcare?"

yes, it got rid of the individual mandate

[Edited on December 20, 2017 at 1:36 PM. Reason : he’s hilariously ignorant on this one]

12/20/2017 1:35:43 PM

OMG that was cringeworthy. Why do they all NEED to praise him. It’s so fucking bizarre.

12/20/2017 4:07:02 PM

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/12/20/trump-just-admitted-the-gops-tax-cuts-were-deceptively-sold/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_fix-trump-deception-140pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.ecd0a0dbac23

Quote :

"President Trump was so excited about passing his first major piece of legislation Wednesday that he blurted out that the Republican Party had misrepresented the entire bill, handing Democrats some potentially troublesome talking points for the 2018 midterm elections. Speaking at the White House just before the House prepared to sign off on the tax-cuts bill one last time, Trump reveled extensively in his win before turning things over to Vice President Pence to heap praise upon him continuously for a few minutes. It was a thoroughly unique spectacle, even as victory dances and Trump Cabinet meetings go. But along the way, Trump basically admitted that the GOP's talking points on the bill weren't exactly honest in two major ways. While talking about the corporate tax rate being cut from 35 percent to 21 percent, Trump said, “That's probably the biggest factor in our plan.”"

Quote :

"The problem? Republicans have been selling this legislation as a middle-class tax cut, first and foremost. A sampling: “The entire purpose of this is to lower middle class taxes.” — House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) “Primarily, and priority number one, is middle-class Americans.” — White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders “The theme behind this bill is to get middle-class tax relief for most people in the middle class.” — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Fox News on Tuesday And polls show Republicans have bought into this, with around 6 in 10 believing the bill favored the middle class over the wealthy — despite the biggest cuts going to the wealthy and the corporate cuts being permanent (unlike the personal tax cuts)."

Quote :

"Trump's second admission was about the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate being repealed in the bill. Apparently eager to argue that this constituted his having cut taxes and slain Obamacare in one fell swoop (after Congress came up short on Obamacare this year), he argued that repealing the individual mandate was basically the same as repealing Obamacare. But, he said, he told Republicans not to talk about that. Trump said he told allies to "be quiet with the fake news media because I don't want them talking too much about it." “Now that it's approved, I can say that,” he said."

12/20/2017 6:22:59 PM

Quote :

"Explain to me how convincing the base to vote for him (against Hillary, a Bush and a bunch of non sequiturs), a base that doesn't believe in science and thinks vaccines gives you autism and think there are inferior races of humans somehow requires a genius intellect?"

Convincing a group of people that are stubborn and unreasonable is very difficult. Bush was the favorite by default. He was the Hillary of the GOP. Destined to win. Rubio was the Obama of the the GOP. Those were heavyweight candidates if you disregard hindsight. Trump used his nickname technique among others to destroy them.

It may not be Trump himself that is the genius behind his technique but even if its his handlers or his team, the end product is a genius strategy.

Quote :

"If you sincerely think Donald Trump is a genius then you literally either do not understand what the word means or actually love (not like) and support the guy despite some of the posts you've written."

This clause suggests you don't understand what the word means. There is nothing in the definition about love or hate, agreement, support, good or evil. A lot of people have conflated genius with being a positive genius and (if we assume you think trump is evil) think that evil cannot be genius. We usually use the synonym "mastermind" in this context. Maybe that sits well with you?

Trump is a mastermind.

Quote :

"someone who plans and directs an ingenious and complex scheme or enterprise."

Quote :

"What’s weird is he wouldnt consider Obama, W or Clinton geniuses despite winning re-election, getting way more (good and bad) done all with MUCH HIGHER approvals."

You are making assumptions because I have never talked about that.

In order to further evaluate their genius, I would have to have a presumption of their intentions. I don't know enough about the Clinton era to really speak on it, but the distinction is that none of these presidents did anything new or unpresidented (ha). They all sorta followed a pre-existing formula for accomplishing the things you listed. Conventional methods of success is not "ingenius".


The only thing I could think of that may have been extremely innovative would be , if you subscribe to the idea that W started the war for corrupt reasons, knew the intel was bogus, and intentionally misled the public to start the war, then the whole thing would be genius. I don't really subscribe to that and think W had good intentions but was just misled by some other genius.

These people might be so good at masking their intentions that its impossible to know if they are a genius. For example, if Obama was secretly working for the big banks/pharma/insurance/ag the whole time, then ya, he was a genius because he convinced everyone he was about the people and change and hope while selling them out without being found out.

Quote :

"And yes, he does like Trump. Not for his politics but he wants to bring down the system and Trump wants to as well but is ultimately too lazy, dumb and easily manipulated."

Nah this was a possibility but we knew it wasn't happening as soon as he took office. I hate trump but on that note, I do like something about the way he makes people react. I like the fact that people suddenly care about important things they never cared about before he was president.

I don't know if I should call it the "Trump effect" but when he took office, everyone suddenly started caring about sexual harassment, climate change, deportations, healthcare, and so many other things.

12/20/2017 7:29:54 PM

Whole lot of "names to take down" here. 128-9 (35 abstains)

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/21/572565091/u-n-votes-overwhelmingly-to-condemn-trumps-jerusalem-decision

[Edited on December 21, 2017 at 1:39 PM. Reason : UN vote]

[Edited on December 21, 2017 at 1:42 PM. Reason : 128...]

12/21/2017 1:35:01 PM

[Edited on December 21, 2017 at 3:38 PM. Reason : ]

12/21/2017 3:37:12 PM

To add context:

https://cis.org/Report/Immigration-Multipliers

So, I guess we're shifting the focus from illegal immigration to legal immigration now?

One more step towards the white, sorry, I mean right. Actually, those are pretty much synonymous. Utterly infuriating. I guess we're trying to turn into Japan with a negative growth rate?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-study/immigrants-will-drive-u-s-population-growth-in-next-five-decades-pew-idUSKCN0RS08V20150928

Quote :

"“Without the immigrants, the U.S. population would start decreasing,” said Pew demographer Jeff Passel, among those who worked on the report. “The big picture is that immigration has been the major demographic factor driving growth and change in the U.S. population over the last 50 years,” he added."

[Edited on December 21, 2017 at 4:40 PM. Reason : a]

12/21/2017 4:37:10 PM

Trickle down economics good, trickle down people bad?

12/21/2017 9:06:53 PM

Wasn’t Paul Ryan just arguing that women need to breed more in order to increase the population?

12/21/2017 11:50:06 PM

They’re fine committing atrocities to support their agenda of racism:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-trump-immigrants-parents-children-20171221-story.html

12/22/2017 12:51:49 AM

^^ as long as they're white, sure.

12/22/2017 2:51:56 AM

Been saying this for a while.

The Right's immigration stance has nothing to do with legal issues and only racism. The fake cries of "just do it the legal way and I have no problem" continue to be proven false. Yes, tell immigrants to do it the legal way; meanwhile, the legal way continues to throw barriers at applicants. The legal way continues to place highly restrictive quotas. Republicans keep trying to decrease the number of legal immigrants accepted. And now we have a new campaign blaming legal immigrants for using the legal means to enter the country.

12/22/2017 8:06:44 AM

MUST WATCH

Trump has changed what "normal" feels like.
https://www.facebook.com/ezraklein/videos/811825905671680



The consequences of this will reverberate throughout the fabric of society and politics for many many years to come, perhaps decades.

12/22/2017 12:34:35 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYAClOv3px4&feature=youtu.be

12/22/2017 7:43:43 PM

these things are dumb because they are anecdotal but i do generally agree that is how most people operate. once they know its their party, they support it no matter what and if they hear its the other party they think its the worst thing ever when the two party's are too similar to blindly distinuish who a policy belongs to.

[Edited on December 22, 2017 at 7:49 PM. Reason : same same]

12/22/2017 7:47:48 PM

Plenty of videos doing the same with Obamacare and Republicans.

12/22/2017 9:05:24 PM

12/22/2017 9:16:39 PM

One interesting thing that I’ve noticed about myself..:

Under obama whenever the intel agencies released news they thwarted an attack I always was skeptical they only announced it to boost the president’s approval rating.

Trump’s been so at odds with the agencies that I’m more likely to accept without cynicism that the fbi legitimately did credible work to stop an attack, since they have little public incentive to try and make trump look good.

12/23/2017 2:38:39 AM

he's their boss

[Edited on December 23, 2017 at 9:34 AM. Reason : there's incentive for them to make themselves look good too]

12/23/2017 9:31:51 AM

Is there some alternate reality that I seeped into where people didn’t say Merry Christmas?

I get it. Blah blah, his base. But this is so fucking weird.

12/25/2017 5:38:36 AM

He's putting Jesus Christ back in the season. As in, "Jesus Christ, what is he tweeting about now?"

12/25/2017 7:46:04 AM

Oh, and

Quote :

"When you're attacking FBI agents because you're under criminal investigation, you're losing"

https://twitter.com/sarahhuckabee/status/794255968448020480?lang=en

12/25/2017 10:25:13 AM

https://twitter.com/funder/status/945140830343454720

12/26/2017 10:31:38 AM

Are we really arguing over who said Merry Christmas more? Is that what it's come to?

12/26/2017 1:11:30 PM

not really an argument

12/26/2017 1:28:27 PM

your people made up this non-existent war on christmas, go talk to them

[Edited on December 26, 2017 at 1:28 PM. Reason : ac]

12/26/2017 1:28:48 PM

More lies.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/28/politics/trump-more-legislation-fact-check/index.html

Quote :

""You know, one of the things that people don't understand -- we have signed more legislation than anybody -- we broke the record of Harry Truman," Trump told the first responders."

Quote :

"Trump has signed 96 bills into law so far in his presidency -- the fewest of any first-term president stretching back to Dwight D. Eisenhower, according to data from the US Congress and from GovTrack.us."

12/28/2017 6:59:28 PM

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/946531657229701120

America fucking sucks.

12/28/2017 7:20:39 PM

sigh

12/28/2017 8:06:59 PM

^^^CNN at it again. from that same article:

Quote :

"That said, Trump signed more bills in his first 100 days than any president since Truman, according to PolitiFact."

Trump never mentioned a timeline for his statement.

12/29/2017 8:52:29 AM

?

Quote :

"It is true that Trump had signed more bills in his first 100 days than any president since Truman, but as Trump nears the anniversary of his Jan. 20 inauguration, he is far removed from his 100th day. And he has now signed the fewest number of bills into law of any first-year president dating back to Dwight Eisenhower, according to a recent report from the website GovTrack."

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/27/trump-legislation-record-truman-319542

Trump: "I've signed more than anyone."

Not true.

[Edited on December 29, 2017 at 10:23 AM. Reason : a]

12/29/2017 10:20:13 AM

USPS is apparently stupid for taking Amazon's business.

12/29/2017 11:05:26 AM

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-approval-poll-offers-no-negative-options/

Hmm, where have I seen this before? North Korea? Soviet Union?

Quote :

"The joint fundraising committee of President Trump's reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee released a three-question "Inaugural Year Approval Poll" that offers readers no option to give a negative assessment of the president's first year in office. The only options for "how would you rate President Trump's first year in office" are "great," "good," "okay" and "other." "

12/31/2017 12:19:47 PM

:roll eyes:

the trump fundraising committee has a poll with no negative responses for trump, big whoop who cares

12/31/2017 7:41:38 PM

you're right, we should just let them live in their own world and not be worried about 1) the fact they do not care about the truth and 2) the potential exists for their numbers to grow

enough of them exist to get him elected so yea, this is a "big whoop"

[Edited on January 1, 2018 at 3:28 AM. Reason : a]

1/1/2018 3:27:40 AM

what do you propose should be done to fix the problem?

1/1/2018 10:38:37 AM

Consider the education system part of infrastructure (in terms of importance and critical need for the functioning of our nation) and throw improvements in along with the rest of our up and coming infrastructure bill.

More tactically, call people out when they pull this type of ignorant shit and make sure people are aware of what is going on when something like this happens.

[Edited on January 1, 2018 at 3:33 PM. Reason : a]

1/1/2018 3:30:29 PM

Quote :

"Trump has changed what "normal" feels like."

Yeah, some of the relatively more moderate figures in the GOP (McCain, Flake, Romney, etc...or pundits like David Frum, etc) seem like absolute godsends now, when before, I tended to see their faults as big-government, warmongering neoconservatives, or as pandering excessively to the religious right.

Man, what I would give for a President Romney right now, even though I didn’t vote for him when he ran (despite suspecting him to be a centrist mostly concerned with pro-business policy, which is right down my line, I couldn’t stomach how much he cozied up to the dipshit wingnuts across the broader GOP).

1/2/2018 12:50:10 AM

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/948195478428102657

This motherfucker is so narcissistic he can’t NOT take credit for anything he sees on Fox and Friends.

1/2/2018 9:15:06 AM

^^with you on Romney

1/2/2018 9:48:27 AM

More proof the admin is full of under informed ignorant lying pieces of shit

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/nikki-haley-russia-binomo-prank-us-ambassador-election-hacking-interfere-putin-a8133041.html

Unbelievable

1/2/2018 12:39:48 PM

looking forward to eleusis telling us why Trump is correct for taking credit for worldwide aviation safety

1/2/2018 1:03:09 PM

^I literally just saw that. He is insane.

1/2/2018 1:20:32 PM

Quote :

"Consider the education system part of infrastructure (in terms of importance and critical need for the functioning of our nation) and throw improvements in along with the rest of our up and coming infrastructure bill. More tactically, call people out when they pull this type of ignorant shit and make sure people are aware of what is going on when something like this happens."

Can't have your cake and eat it too. Our entire national pride has always been based on burying the truth and creating our own idealistic version of history.

You guys are just bitter because Trump is taking advantage of the same mechanisms to glorify himself but at the same time you still have no problem glorifying figure who are far worse dating all the way back to Columbus.

1/2/2018 3:54:31 PM

earl is a great example of how /t_d happens

1/2/2018 3:55:16 PM

Neocons spent their entire lives trying to convince us the idea that the deep state was controlling everything in government, intelligence and media was a wild conspiracy theory but Trump gives no fucks and has spilled the beans.

The idealist vision of Trump as a wrecking ball is partially coming true. The existence of the deep state has been exposed and can never be put away now.

Quote :

"President Barack Obama's alleged lack of success of his campaign promises relating to the Afghanistan war and civil liberties has been attributed by Tufts University professor Michael J. Glennon to what he calls the "double government"; the defense and national security network.[23][24] Mike Lofgren felt Obama was pushed into the Afghanistan "surge" in 2009.[25]"

It was this along with the wall street bailout/lack of prosecution that woke me up.

[Edited on January 2, 2018 at 7:14 PM. Reason : fuck it, let trump bring all this shit down]

1/2/2018 7:13:34 PM

I like that he thinks Trump doesn’t just repeat what he sees on Fox News. It’s cute.

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/948355557022420992

[Edited on January 2, 2018 at 7:51 PM. Reason : Lols, he’s got jokes about nuclear holocaust. ]

1/2/2018 7:44:14 PM

At least Trump doesn't wear tan suits.

1/2/2018 7:56:21 PM

At least Un seems like a rational actor so that makes one.

1/2/2018 8:20:50 PM

Quote :

"looking forward to eleusis telling us why Trump is correct for taking credit for worldwide aviation safety"

he's back now, maybe we'll get an answer

1/3/2018 12:39:50 PM