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Purgatory: Oops - your Trump presidency discussion thread.

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  • "Canadians’ dislike of Donald Trump reaches new heights" is the title of a news tory of a poll. It's behind a paywall so I'm not linking. Trump is also tainting the opinion of his country, with a 15% drop. Is this similar worldwide? Suspect so.
  • Article in The Age on the same topic, but for Australia. Interesting... Someone must have done a press release.
  • Well, after all those wars he started to deflect from his domestic problems, it's no wonder he isn't well-liked internationally.
  • Gramps49 wrote: »
    This thread just will not go away, I know. The latest OOPS is in his latest Support Our Troops ad. The image is of a group of soldiers on the ground with a group of jets flying over them. Problem is, the jets that are depicted are MIG-29s. The ad ran from Sept 8 thru the 12th before it was pulled. Story here. Also, it appears one of the soldiers is carrying an AK-47. Double oops.

    The actual Shutterstock image the Trump Campaign used. The flag is Syrian, by the way. OOPs
  • There's additional that the wariness about America began with the second Bush president and his despicable performance re invasions, lying and war crimes. I think public perception is working on whether the infection has come to a head with this monster but that the country has been ill for a very long time.
  • Powderkeg wrote: »
    Well, after all those wars he started to deflect from his domestic problems, it's no wonder he isn't well-liked internationally.

    Astonishingly putting kids in cages and supporting shooting your own citizens in the streets can make you unpopular even if you only do it in your own country
  • CrœsosCrœsos Shipmate
    edited September 2020
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    The actual Shutterstock image the Trump Campaign used. The flag is Syrian, by the way. OOPs

    No, this seems to be the original Shutterstock image, though both of them seem to use the same flight of MiG-29s.
    Powderkeg wrote: »
    Well, after all those wars he started to deflect from his domestic problems, it's no wonder he isn't well-liked internationally.

    Astonishingly putting kids in cages and supporting shooting your own citizens in the streets can make you unpopular even if you only do it in your own country

    Talk about lowering the bar! Trump's supporters are now reduced to arguing that it's a huge accomplishment for him not to have started any pointless ground wars, though it's not for lack of trying and he seems to have failed to end America's ongoing wars that he said he would end.
  • Not a Trump supporter myself...I think both he and Biden are crappy choices, and I'll probably vote Green this time around.
    But as a non-interventionist, I do appreciate the fact that Trump didn't decide to drop bombs on, say, Libya (to use a hypothetical example).
  • You do realize, don't you, that the goal is to get rid of you-know-who. The only way to do that is to vote for the candidate with the best chance of defeating him. Voting Green will not accomplish that.
  • Powderkeg wrote: »
    Not a Trump supporter myself...I think both he and Biden are crappy choices, and I'll probably vote Green this time around.

    Because now that they're openly trying to aid Republicans in getting elected the Greens have earned your support?
    Powderkeg wrote: »
    But as a non-interventionist, I do appreciate the fact that Trump didn't decide to drop bombs on, say, Libya (to use a hypothetical example).

    I'm guessing that's one of those "alternative facts" so popular with people who totally don't support Trump but seem to approve of everything he does.
  • Powderkeg wrote: »
    Not a Trump supporter myself...I think both he and Biden are crappy choices, and I'll probably vote Green this time around.
    Please don't. A Green vote is a total waste of your precious right to vote. Please, please vote for Biden just to get rid of Trump. Once he's gone, we can hope for a slow return to normality.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    Powderkeg--

    I was a Green for a lonnnggg time. I looked carefully through voting materials, and decided it was the closest match to my own politics.

    But there were problems:

    --There were few Green candidates on any level, even here in SF.

    --There were immediate, vital issues that needed immediate attention. Things that Democrats acknowledged, and were much more likely to have a chance to address. I wound up often voting Dem, though I was still Green.

    --A personal matter: Hillary Clinton. The first time she ran, I wrote her in on the Green primary ballot. Write-ins don't always get counted. She didn't win. When she ran again in 2016, I reluctantly reregistered as a Dem, so I could properly vote for her. And she did win the popular vote. {Insert here much grumbling, grief, and finger-pointing.}

    --I'm staying Dem, because the Green party just doesn't have the connections and power to compete, to be workable.

    Powderkeg, you're Green. I presume that means their 10 Key Values matter to you?

    I see that the Green pres. and VP candidates are Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker. I know nothing about them. They might do spectacularly well in those jobs. But, as things are, there's no way they'll win.

    Meantime, there is a monstrous person in the White House. (Along with his family and cronies.) He is destroying the country and getting people killed. And the only thing he can consistently understand is that *he* has to be the absolute center of and ruler of *everything*.

    He not only isn't doing the good, Green things you want--he's actively, openly, blatantly working *against* them.

    You absolutely have the right to vote as you see fit. But IMHO, voting Green for president in this election makes the perfect the enemy of the good. The US is on fire in many ways, literally and metaphorically. Not stopping T (legally and non-violently) is like raining gasoline down on the fire, throwing in thousands of hand grenades, and dropping a nuke on top--all while T happily does a jig.

    Voting for Biden, as flawed as he is, has a *chance* of evicting T, and giving the US a chance to clean up the mess, fix things, heal, and do better in the future. Truthfully, I don't think Biden should be president--BUT he's the best choice and chance we've got.

    In this 2020 election, voting Green is like not helping out at all, not passing along buckets of water in a bucket brigade, not handing out drinks and cookies to the firefighters and volunteers.

    It's like sitting in the middle of an access road with lunch, a book, and a computer/smartphone, because you don't like your neighbors.

    IMVHO, it makes things worse.



  • Besides, if Biden wins, I'll bet that Kamala Harris ends up being President before long.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    Yeah. I'm not wishing for that, 'cause I don't want Biden harmed. But if he should win, then later have to bow out for health reasons, I would be thrilled to have Kamala as president.
    :)
  • I think Biden would make a great transition president. Sort of like the interim priest who comes in and helps the church relook at who they are and what they want. The interim also helps with healing any pain they may have suffered and prepares them to receive a new leader.
  • Simon ToadSimon Toad Shipmate
    edited September 2020
    Powderkeg wrote: »
    Not a Trump supporter myself...I think both he and Biden are crappy choices, and I'll probably vote Green this time around.
    But as a non-interventionist, I do appreciate the fact that Trump didn't decide to drop bombs on, say, Libya (to use a hypothetical example).

    If people are committed to the principle of pacifism, I accept that but disagree. It is certainly a respectable, time-honored and consistent position to hold. It's also part of the Christian ideal.

    My disagreement is because I don't think pacifism is a tenable policy position for a nation state today. A party putting such a position in my country or the USA would not be elected, and if they adopted in in Government, they would be defeated at the next election. Australians, in my judgement are not ready for us to adopt such a stance. One reason is that Australians know that other countries, specifically China and Indonesia will not adopt such a stance. They will see it as a sign of weakness.

    When in 2017 I was freaking out at Trump ditching the US's allies in favor of a fee-for-service renting of the US Military, I was advocating for Australia to develop nuclear weapons. A shipmate posted that they would rather just surrender than rely on nukes. That option just hadn't occurred to me. But the shipmate was right. If China or Indonesia did take us over, it would be better to surrender and trust that one day, the situation might change, rather than resort to nukes. Where there is life, there is hope type of thing.

    That is the strength of the non-nuclear argument, and I find it persuasive. Its also the strongest argument in favor of a pacifist stance in today's world. Perhaps our privilege, including our freedom of expression, is not worth killing for. It's not a popular position, but it might well be right.

    If people are non-interventionists for other reasons, like the US is giving those foreigners a free ride, or we should only look after Americans and everyone else can suffer, they can get stuffed. That is so stupid, a short-sighted, ignorant, selfish and gutless attitude. I despise that attitude. I spit on it, I stamp on it, I wipe my bottom with it. That there are people who think this way, that the USA is an island that can thrive without friends, that the USA has only ever given its people and its money and that it has never had the benefit of my country's people and money; that there are people who are so disrespectful that they don't even know that Australian blood has been spilt in the service of our joint foreign policy goals; that there are people who don't realise that Australians too jumped from island to island driving the Japanese back from PNG to Okinawa; that there are people who have never heard of Australia's contribution to the war in Korea, about our commitment to Vietnam; that our soldiers too were killed and injured fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that we were in those wars not to serve our interests but to help the USA and to show solidarity with our allies; that people hold such hateful positions makes me want to vomit. I have nothing but scorn for such ignorant and selfish opinions. It is my sincere wish that people keep that insulting opinion to themselves, and that they refrain from voting for the rest of their limited and troglodyte lives.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory

    NP---
    This explains why a Green party vote is not good: https://twitter.com/marcformarc/status/1305682975217025024?s=20

    I got a "page doesn't exist" error, on repeated attempts.
  • edited September 2020
    A young woman humourously explained that in a 2 party country you can't afford right now to do other than vote for the party which doesn't have a wicked fascist candidate. That you vote Green in subsequent elections. The video appears to be gone.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    Ok, thx, NP.
  • Powderkeg wrote: »
    Not a Trump supporter myself...I think both he and Biden are crappy choices, and I'll probably vote Green this time around.
    But as a non-interventionist, I do appreciate the fact that Trump didn't decide to drop bombs on, say, Libya (to use a hypothetical example).

    What is it about Trump that you don't like @Powderkeg ?
  • Pangolin GuerrePangolin Guerre Shipmate
    edited September 2020
    And it just continues. Trump has demonstrated repeatedly what an enemy he is of democratic norms. He speaks glowingly of the rubber bullet shooting of MSNBC's Ali Velshi.One can barely imagine his glee at an actual death.

    Fixed broken URL. BroJames, Purgatory Host
  • That last URL is possibly dangerously broken.
  • It was, chrisstiles, and, thank you Pigwidgeon for installing a good link.
  • And now he is going to sign an executive order disqualifying Biden from running. Now, who would do that?
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    He's what???
  • ta for the link ... sort of... :wink:

    I think we can put that one down to one of the Presidents really really funny jokes/direction to his lawyers.
  • Desperation is setting in I see. Well we know how effective that order will be. Donny may have just sealed his fate.
  • I don't usually watch presidential debates, but I think I will watch the upcoming one. I just hope that Biden can carry it off well. If he doesn't, it will spell doom.
  • Will it though? Clinton comfortably outdid Trump last time in the debates, as far as I remember, so 'losing' the debate clearly isn't fatal to your chances.

    It's difficult to see Biden being out-thought by Trump, given that the latter can hardly string a coherent sentence together.
  • If Trumps advisors are any good. They will tell him to only use approved answers. Wether he will is another matter
  • Furtive GanderFurtive Gander Shipmate
    edited September 2020
    But his followers are bewitched and will fall on his every utterance, completely believing he's trounced his presumptious, lying opponent.

    To lose, the debate some Trump-leaning voters watching will have to come to their senses and see him as he is: self-serving, all 'front', with no substance or compassion or consideration for anyone else or any trace of an honest desire to serve the whole US public.

    Even so, his spin people will claim he won (as will Biden's spin people to be fair.)

  • The GOP seems to have been subsumed in to Trump. They are not the news he is. When a leader becomes bigger than the party their is a problem
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    edited September 2020
    Hugal wrote: »
    Desperation is setting in I see. Well we know how effective that order will be. Donny may have just sealed his fate.

    I'm pretty sure his flack-catchers will just spin it as a particularly out-there but ultimately harmless joke, along the lines of "I've just outlawed Russia, we begin bombing in five minutes."

    And that'll be enough for anyone still willing to entertain a GOP vote.
  • JonahMan wrote: »
    Will it though? Clinton comfortably outdid Trump last time in the debates, as far as I remember, so 'losing' the debate clearly isn't fatal to your chances.

    It's difficult to see Biden being out-thought by Trump, given that the latter can hardly string a coherent sentence together.

    I have an idea that Trump's mode of speaking is put on. Here's a Letterman interview from 2013 where he seems very comfortable and is talking normally.
  • Simon Toad wrote: »
    JonahMan wrote: »
    Will it though? Clinton comfortably outdid Trump last time in the debates, as far as I remember, so 'losing' the debate clearly isn't fatal to your chances.

    It's difficult to see Biden being out-thought by Trump, given that the latter can hardly string a coherent sentence together.

    I have an idea that Trump's mode of speaking is put on. Here's a Letterman interview from 2013 where he seems very comfortable and is talking normally.

    As I've said before, when I see him speaking one-on-one with reporters, he comes off as fairly well-adjusted and even-tempered. There's a YouTube video of him talking about the 9-11 rescue operations a few days after the attacks. Nothing bombastic or maniacal about it.

  • That was some time ago.
  • Penny S wrote: »
    That was some time ago.

    Indeed. I've noticed a significant decline in Trump's public speaking effectiveness just over the five years of his campaign and presidency*.
  • It's also the case that (in addition to the aging issue Penny S brings up) even the most level-headed, stable, realistic, both-feet-on-the-ground of personalities (Jimmy Carter, maybe?) might find it a struggle to maintain balance / perspective / common sense in the social isolation which this president experiences. Even if self-imposed, it can't be stabilizing or healthy.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    stetson--

    Re T and talking about 9/11:

    He may not have been "bombastic or maniacal", but he's known to have said a variety of lies, delusions, and/or fantasies about what he saw and did.
  • stetson wrote: »
    As I've said before, when I see him speaking one-on-one with reporters, he comes off as fairly well-adjusted and even-tempered. There's a YouTube video of him talking about the 9-11 rescue operations a few days after the attacks. Nothing bombastic or maniacal about it.

    This reminded me that Donald Trump's immediate reaction to the 9/11 attacks was to call up a local television station and use that time (in part) to remind everyone watching that since the World Trade Center had collapsed (just a few hours earlier) he now owned the tallest building in New York. That seems at least a little bombastic.
  • The guy is clearly a narcissist and grossly insensitive. I take issue with the idea that his speaking style as President is an indication of his mental decline, or that he can't perform exactly how he wants to perform in a debate.

    His performance in the debates with Clinton was crafted to send a message that just doesn't gel with people like me, or with reporters and analysts in the media. The stalking of Clinton was deliberate and calculated intimidation of her, perhaps directed at her to try and unsettle her, but more directed at people watching who like aggression. They don't give a rats arse about what he says. They want to see him be tough and aggressive, and that was what he was trying to do during the debates. Its always what he's trying to do, because he knows that his supporters want to elect a strongman who will protect them and their way of life.

    I don't really care what Clinton says, to be frank. I trust her. I trust that she is going to do the right thing for the world. If she does something surprising or concerning, well, she knows more than me, and I trust her judgement. I'm no different to a Trump supporter in how I choose politicians I like. I just have different criteria.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    edited September 2020
    Don't forget that dementia is progressive, people. Just because he is coherent in 2011 or 2013, he could still have decompensated. Just comparing the videos back then to the videos today will show just how fast he has deteriorated.
    The stalking of Clinton was deliberate and calculated intimidation of her, perhaps directed at her to try and unsettle her, but more directed at people watching who like aggression. They don't give a rats arse about what he says. They want to see him be tough and aggressive, and that was what he was trying to do during the debates. Its always what he's trying to do, because he knows that his supporters want to elect a strongman who will protect them and their way of life.

    Remember when Al Gore "invaded Bush's personal space? He got crucified for it. Double Standard?
  • I lamented then, and lament now, that Mrs. Clinton didn't have the presence of mind to say, "Back off, if you don't mind" instead of allowing herself to be stalked.
  • I lamented then, and lament now, that Mrs. Clinton didn't have the presence of mind to say, "Back off, if you don't mind" instead of allowing herself to be stalked.

    Clinton has said she regretted not telling him to back off. But I don't think she should have added: "if you don't mind."
  • Middle-class American women (I have been one for more than 50 years) are trained from birth never to call attention to this sort of thing. I suspect there's a primitive fear in the hindbrain that calling attention to one's victimization may encourage others to join in.
  • Yep. There's a docco on Hillary and in the first episode she talks about her and a handful of women sitting an entrance exam to get into lawschool. Blokes were whispering stuff to them like - if I don't get a job because of you I'll make you pay. She specifically said that she trained herself not to respond. That was how you handled it. Now, she says, I'm supposed to express my emotions?
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    edited September 2020
    Gramps wrote:
    Clinton has said she regretted not telling him to back off. But I don't think she should have added: "if you don't mind."

    I think she should have made a joke of it. "Oh, there you are, little boy. I was wondering where you'd got to."

    (For some reason, I could imagine Elizabeth Warren really making that work.)
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