Yeah well I've been saying it for 2 years now. Talk about how alternatives to Trump would be better instead of talking about how bad Trump is. Talk about what we should be doing instead of what he is doing wrong (the same principle you just applied to my last post). Rule of thumb should be to never mention Trump. He's changed the game and found a way to live off of criticism.

Just focus on how you will address at least some of the issues trump has appealed to directly. You don't have to pick all of them especially the ones you don't agree with but you have to be for something instead of only talking about how bad trump is.

-Policies that will revamp the middle class
-Rebuilding infrastructure
-Opioid epidemic
-Improving security
-Deficit reduction
-Tax cuts to the middle class
-Fixing healthcare
-Address corporate money and lobbying (drain the swamp)
-Fixing bad deals abroad (america first)
-Immigration reform

10/11/2017 1:52:21 PM

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/10/11/trump-threatens-to-target-licenses-nbc-and-networks-after-nuclear-arsenal-report.html

Our wannabe dictator-in-chief

10/11/2017 2:33:16 PM

^^ I've heard pretty much all of those points discussed by politicians since Trump was elected, some very vociferously.

So basically your argument to how to do things differently is never talk about Trump at all. While that may be a good strategy, there's no proof at all it's a winning strategy, especially given that the other side will do nothing but extol his virtues as much as they possibly can. It's also a pretty big gamble to assume enough of the population is smart enough to see through all the bullshit to how terrible he is.

Did he gain way too much attention, and possibly votes due to all the coverage he got, especially over sideshow shit leading to his election? Yeah, he did. Do you know for a fact that just ignoring him will somehow make people "see the light"? No, you don't

The simple fact is a shit ton of people in our society are just dumb mother fuckers who will continually vote against their own interests over and over again. Some of those people are probably pushed closer to Trump by jumping on every awful thing he does even if he's just doing it for attention. But some of those people just need to be shown pure awfulness over and over before they realize not to vote for it. He won by a very small minority of votes across a few states while losing the popular vote by millions, so let me break this down very simply for you.

You may be correct in your strategy to change that outcome, BUT YOU DO NOT KNOW FOR A FACT, and until you have a way or proving this, you aren't any smarter or being fooled any less than anyone else

10/11/2017 3:06:31 PM

It seems fairly obvious that to win over those voters Democrats need to have ideas that voters buy in to. Its pretty straightforward. That said, it’s gonna be hard to beat a guy who is so adept at lying to people with whatever they want to hear at that time. The worst strategy would be to play Trumps game, throw on a miners hat and claim mining is coming back to the glory days, for instance.

[Edited on October 11, 2017 at 3:25 PM. Reason : Lol at opioid epidemic. Just remembered Trump was going to declare it a natl emgcy 2 month ago. Oops]

10/11/2017 3:24:15 PM

Quote :

"It seems fairly obvious that to win over those voters Democrats need to have ideas that voters buy in to."

This touches on a large aspect of why things are fucked. Everyone thinks, every year, that America is the worst it's ever been. You cannot run for an election unless you talk about how you're going to do everything different.

There are a lot of things that are actually not that bad and certainly wouldn't be in a list of the top ten things America needs to focus on.

I would be so happy to see someone run and say "these are the three or four things I'm going to work on fixing and aside from dealing with the unanticipated day-to-day issues of the job, this is what i'm doing."

Would be great to see far more effort directed at far fewer things and actually see change than to see all the efforts spread over an almost infinite array of things and see absolutely no progress anywhere.

10/11/2017 6:06:27 PM

That sounds like privilege to me. The country is broken bro.

Which one is without major concerns/crossroads/crises right now?

Department of State
Department of the Treasury
Department of Defense
Department of Justice
Department of the Interior
Department of Agriculture
Department of Commerce
Department of Labor
Department of Health and Human Services
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Department of Transportation
Department of Energy
Department of Education
Department of Veterans Affairs
Department of Homeland Security

10/11/2017 6:29:52 PM

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/10/donald-trump-is-unraveling-white-house-advisers

10/11/2017 6:38:10 PM

Forgive the reordering. My take:

Department of Defense - freeze the budget and then walk it back and let the Pentagon find the difference in the wholesale waste (https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/pentagon-buries-evidence-of-125-billion-in-bureaucratic-waste/2016/12/05/e0668c76-9af6-11e6-a0ed-ab0774c1eaa5_story.html?utm_term=.ca97cb9fc86f)

Department of Justice - front-to-back review as it relates to criminal justice reform (officer-involved-shootings, the drug war, prison terms)

Department of Education - direct funds from defense and homeland security to this

Department of Homeland Security - close down entirely

Department of Veterans Affairs - The VA is horrific but it is not an emergency priority in the grand scheme of things. I will defer to any military/former military here to correct me if I'm wrong.

Department of Energy - priority as it relates to electrical grid and solar power/renewable energy, but not an emergency priority

Department of State - not aware of anything urgent
Department of the Treasury - not aware of anything urgent
Department of the Interior - not aware of anything urgent
Department of Agriculture - not aware of anything urgent
Department of Commerce - not aware of anything urgent
Department of Labor - not aware of anything urgent
Department of Health and Human Services - not aware of anything urgent
Department of Housing and Urban Development - not aware of anything urgent
Department of Transportation - not aware of anything urgent

[Edited on October 11, 2017 at 6:40 PM. Reason : a]

10/11/2017 6:39:28 PM

OMG, the Hannity interview. He... he doesn’t understand how the national debt works. Or really much of anything.

10/12/2017 10:24:26 AM

leaving unesco and cutting aid to PR? wtf?

10/12/2017 11:11:46 AM

https://twitter.com/julianassange/status/918482101598646277

Of fucking course. It’s comical how much of an arm of the Trump administration he has become.

10/12/2017 11:59:17 AM

Wasn't the stated reason for leaving UNESCO because of its anti-Israel bias?

Wasn't Assange posting articles about how Israel had "colonized" US foreign policy no more than a few days ago?

#mentalgymnastics

10/12/2017 12:29:17 PM

He doesn't know the basic fundamentals of how our government works. That's obvious. He didn't know the 25th amendment, and he apparently doesn't know the first either.

10/12/2017 12:38:39 PM

Quote :

"So does trump get impeached or have a stroke first?"

Maybe not impeached, more likely 25th amendment if things are really as bad as vanity fair makes them out to be.

10/12/2017 12:47:11 PM

just gotta hope that every GOP congressperson announces their retirement and is then able to find religion and attack Trump

10/12/2017 12:54:54 PM

Quote :

"Department of State - not aware of anything urgent"

Having the President and Sec of State at each other's throats is pretty alarming. I can't imagine Rex will be able to do his job when the world leaders he's dealing with know he doesn't have the ear of the President. I don't know what your definition of urgent is, but it needs fixing.

10/12/2017 1:15:20 PM

https://twitter.com/markknoller/status/918503515655417857

Considering it was completely mainstream to talk about Clinton’s health is it still taboo to remark about the President’s obviously deteriorating mental health situation?

10/12/2017 1:19:49 PM

in the context of the 25th amendment, absolutely

10/12/2017 1:26:49 PM

But what if he gets rid of Rex before Rex moves on the 25th? I mean, I'm just assuming that he might be one to lead the charge, with Sessions a close second.

10/12/2017 1:43:16 PM

It would be hard to get the cabinet as a whole to go against him, he'll just fire anybody who doesn't keep kissing his ass.

It's going to be on congress.

10/12/2017 1:53:51 PM

The 25th wasn't really designed for a deranged asshole, but more like a situation where a President was physically incapable of doing the job. Like, they were in a coma or something. A conscious and lucid President can challenge an invocation of the 25th and it takes 2/3s of Congress to confirm it. It would make more sense to just impeach him.

10/12/2017 2:00:58 PM

I picture him in cabinet meetings just like the Inglorious Bastards caricature of Hitler..

10/12/2017 3:24:39 PM

From the Hannity interview.

Quote :

"The country — we took it over and owed over 20 trillion. As you know the last eight years, they borrowed more than it did in the whole history of our country. So they borrowed more than $10 trillion, right? And yet, we picked up 5.2 trillion just in the stock market. Possibly picked up the whole thing (national debt) in terms of the first nine months, in terms of value. So you could say, in one sense, we’re really increasing values. And maybe in a sense, we’re reducing debt. But we’re very honored by it."

10/12/2017 4:49:48 PM

I picture him in cabinet meetings just like the Inglorious Bastards caricature of Hitler.

Fixed.

10/12/2017 6:10:21 PM

i feel like Hitler at least knew what he was doing

10/12/2017 6:37:58 PM

Based on tweets from WWII (a real-time retelling of WWII in the form of tweets), it seems to me hitler was an emotional, shallow-thinking madman like Trump, with the biggest difference being hitler's career was in government and politics, so he knew how to play the game.

If Trump knew anything about politics, he'd be far more dangerous, and i'm not convinced that as he acquires more experience, he won't become more damaging.

The guy who actually wrote "art of the deal" is predicting Trump will step down as soon as he knows Mueller will recommend indictment, to try and save face from being indicted... we can only hope.

10/12/2017 6:45:35 PM

I don't think there's any danger of Trump becoming politically competent. The danger is (and will continue to be) some event requiring more than an autonomic response.

10/12/2017 7:28:43 PM

Yea Hitler was a great speaker and propagandist. He had a political goal, which I don’t think trump has (he just wants to be liked). Hitler’s downfall was not listening to his Generals, which i guess you could also say of trump, lol.

10/12/2017 7:41:55 PM

I think trump does have a political goal, he’s been saying the same things politically since the 90s.

He’s a literal actual white supremacist and wants the us gov to institutionally benefit white people over others, and he’s an imperialist and thinks the us should lord over the world with an iron fist to keep and maintain the former goal.

10/12/2017 10:46:51 PM

He literally just lit the Healthcare house on fire and then asked the Democrats why they haven’t put it out yet.

Sad thing is a large chunk of the country will not blame him.

Whatever, his base will suffer the most and we can move closer to a real permanent HC solution once this shitshow leaves Washington.

10/13/2017 7:54:19 AM

Good job ending payments Congress didn't appropriate. We need to follow the process.

10/13/2017 9:24:14 AM

Quote :

"Having the President and Sec of State at each other's throats is pretty alarming."

That's not a fundamental problem with DOS, though, which is what tulsi was asking about. Any incoming president can swap the head of DOS in an instant. So that's not a massive problem. It would take 10 seconds to solve as a new incoming president.

10/13/2017 9:41:59 AM

um, huh? how would replacing sec. of state a solution?

the reason it's terrifying is because everyone believes that tillerson is one of the moderating forces that helps control trump

10/13/2017 11:12:25 AM

I think you guys are misunderstanding the exchange tulsi and I were having.

The problem with Trump/Tillerson is a temporary problem. It is not a fundamental or infrastructure-type problem of the Department of State.

We were talking about a hypothetical based on my remarks about an incoming President (in general) focusing on a smaller set of issues in order to direct far more attention at them, as opposed to how Presidents currently work.

10/13/2017 12:28:04 PM

^Makes sense. One look at the 2018 budgets shows exactly the priorities of this administration. It's downright scary and

Defense: $574 billion/+9%, plans to increase the size of our military, when we were already spending more on our military than the next 8 countries on the list combined (

Homeland Security $44 billion/+7%, which why is that still it's own department?

Education: $68 billion/-14%, cuts grants for teacher training, after-school programs, and many other actually useful things for everyday Americans

Labor: $9.6 billion/-21%, also cutting essential programs non profits and businesses need

EPA: $5.7 billion/-31%...50 programs and 3,200 jobs being cut. Because as you know, there's nothing wrong with the air we're breathing or the water we're drinking.

HHS ($65 billion/-18%) and HUD ($40.7 billion/-13%) are losing a combined $21.3 billion, because fuck poor people.

10/13/2017 1:57:23 PM

So how many days until we read a news story describing how pissed President Trump is about just discovering the consequences of his most recent health care decision?

10/13/2017 3:57:28 PM

^It's not his fault that understanding health care is so hard. Who knew it could be?

10/13/2017 7:07:38 PM

LMAO when Trump said he met with the President of the Virgin Islands. This guy is a fucking moron.

10/13/2017 11:01:35 PM

^

10/13/2017 11:25:14 PM

^^Kenneth Mapp would be a better president than Donald Trump.

10/14/2017 11:50:58 AM

Henry Kissinger’s ‘sage wisdom’ is estimated to have caused 4 million deaths worldwide – and Trump wants his advice on foreign policy
https://www.facebook.com/NowThisPolitics/videos/1738020812896068/

Look at the lavish praise he disgustingly vomits all over the genocidal maniac in front of all cameras

Quote :

"Trump has two parts of brain, 'left' and 'right'. In the left side, there's nothing right. In the right side, there's nothing left."

That about sums it up. (one of the comments)

10/14/2017 8:32:40 PM

10/15/2017 12:07:29 AM

Terminate the deal? I thought he he had his marquee all made up as the Great Negotiator?

10/15/2017 1:45:23 AM

The working theory, which is beyond laughable, is that Trump is trying to effect some sort of grand bargain where Democrats grant him the necessary votes for tax reform in exchange for DACA, CHIP and Obamacare subsidy funding. On paper, I would be ok with this. Some future Democratic Congress can address marginal tax rates even if it means Kansas level budget chaos in the short term. They can't un-deport people or bring the dead back to health.

It's not really a novel idea, the GOP has used the Democrat's morality against them for years, most recently delaying the expiration of Bush's tax cuts in exchange for extending unemployment insurance. The laughable part is that Trump and Paul Ryan are going to be able to wrangle their own conference to pull this off in the next few weeks. Especially when they still haven't done the basic stuff like pass a budget.

10/15/2017 10:25:21 AM

OMG, Trump cited Art Laffer today. We are in supply side hell still. And forever. If a fake populist is citing the Laffer Curve we fucked forever.

https://twitter.com/ericgeller/status/919910806078201861

Haha this makes me like Trump, though. Pence does deserve ridicule for his shitty views. I bet mother was not pleased with Trump.

[Edited on October 16, 2017 at 11:50 AM. Reason : X]

10/16/2017 11:25:50 AM

just said Obama didn’t call the families of fallen soldiers

despicable

10/16/2017 3:10:54 PM

I heard that when he said it. What an odd and out-of-place comment to make. And, incorrect. I doubt Obama was able to get around to every family who lost someone, but there's no way he didn't reach out to families of fallen soldiers.

10/16/2017 3:32:14 PM

How can anyone take this guy seriously? He lies almost everytime he speaks/tweets. I realzie all politicians lie or blur the truth, it's the nature of their job, but this guy takes it to a whole other level with the frequency and blatancy of his lies.

10/16/2017 3:39:38 PM

Yep. He's a con man.

10/16/2017 3:43:33 PM

he’s the manifestation of the right-wing bubble of the past 35+ years

he’s just preaching to the choir

10/16/2017 3:53:24 PM