This thread will see you in court.Again. Trump watch

[amispartacus]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2850730-She-was-told-to-be-quiet-Nevertheless-she-persisted-Trump-cont

I wonder when this thread will fill up.

I couldn't get past the jokey "in our world you can rape women and grab them" on the Westeros second video. Major fail when you have a misogynistic twat like Trump in power.

Someone (can't remember who) described both his and Putin's style as "cartoon machismo" which seems very apt

He vividly reminds me of every caricatured evil or incompetent businessman featured in 1980s cartoons and films. I have trouble believing he's a genuine, living human being, and not a comedy sketch gone too far.

It's not just that he's a racist, self confessed sex predator who, according to himself, uses his power and wealth to assault women. It's the fact he's barely coherent when he talks - he's like a very young child, or somebody with a brain disorder, or a permanent drunk.

We should have a morning quiz or something else to keep us on our toes.

Or a list of things that we'd missed, there's so much bollocks going on I'm genuinely having trouble keeping up. I'd completely missed the stuff about him rolling back financial regulation due to his mates not being able to get loans.

www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/02/09/trumps-claim-that-friends-cant-borrow-money-because-of-dodd-frank/

Another classy response from Meryl Streep . Wait for more toys to be thrown out of Trump's pram.

.

Place marking

Interesting interview with Gary Kasparov here where he compares Trump to Putin:

www.vox.com/conversations/2017/2/11/14577834/garry-kasparov-putin-trump

Clearly, Trump said before the election who were the leaders he admired. And they were ALL dictators.

This whole situation reminds me of Gabriel Garcia Marques' "Chronicle of a death foretold" everybody knew what was going to happen. The perpetrator announced loud and clear what he was going to do. Yet the victim never realised or heard about it (that's the blind Trump voters).

Even the drain the swamp wasn't from him. Someone suggested it, he didn't like it but tried it and people liked it (of course).
He's not keeping up with THAT.

One thing for sure is:

I know the US does very effective negative ads. If we do get to the Presidential elections in 4 years time, some real FACTS can be used:

He said Mexico would pay for the wall but you have paid for it.
He said that he would drain the swamp but this is where the money has gone.

Etc etc.

That's IF we make 4 years. I wonder how many threads that will be?

It hinges on Flynn right now

edition.cnn.com/2017/02/12/politics/trump-shinzo-abe-mar-a-lago-north-korea/index.html

This is just mind boggling.

tautologous..machismo is a caricature of masculinity

Not really - it's more exaggerated masculinity than a caricature.

Yeah we were discussing the lax handling of that and how it likely stroked his ego to be boss-man in front of the customers.

Hi everyone. Back in the UK our favourite PM is wanting to bring in much harsher sentences for government whistleblowers. This could potentially make it much harder for people to know what the government is doing behind closed doors and to hold them to account. I worry about the PM trying to sneak in similar plans to Trump, but just being a lot more subtle about it.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/feb/12/uk-government-accused-full-frontal-attack-prison-whistleblowers-media-journalists

Here's a short quote from that article

"Draft recommendations from the legal advisers say the maximum prison sentence for leakers should be raised, potentially from two to 14 years, and the definition of espionage should be expanded to include obtaining sensitive information, as well as passing it on."

So basically you can be out in jail for 14 years just for knowing something. You don't even have to tell anyone else about it

Bigly Yes, a concern that in comparison to Trump, she seems restrained. But comparisons are not helpful in this instance.

The Independent ‏*@Independent* 22m22 minutes ago
More
A major study spanning four decades just busted the biggest myth about immigration

Immigration not linked to increased crime levels, finds US study over four decades
Donald Trump orders publication of weekly list of crimes committed by immigrants

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/immigration-increased-crime-levels-no-link-us-study-donald-trump-muslim-ban-racism-us-study-a7576971.html

The New York Times ‏*@nytimes* 13m13 minutes ago
More
Michael Flynn has hunkered down since investigators began looking into what, exactly, he told the Russian ambassador

www.nytimes.com/2017/02/12/us/politics/national-security-council-turmoil.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

Trump should come to the UK. He'd have no issues with the UK press with his views on migration, borders, Islam etc.

Thanks for that about the attack on whistleblowers, Bigly.

It's not reassuring that the draft proposals are deceitful even about ridiculous things they needn't have deceived about: claiming to have consulted with bodies they just had preliminary "general chats" with.

I worry about the PM trying to sneak in similar plans to Trump, but just being a lot more subtle about it

I would hope that the UK press would make a big thing about that..

Yes, a concern that in comparison to Trump, she seems restrained. But comparisons are not helpful in this instance.

Trump is going for the blitzkrieg attack and May seems to be boiling the frog. There is also a similarity in that a long list of people are cited in the report as having been consulted. Many of them are coming out and saying they have not been consulted at all and are surprised to see their names on this list. Trump seems to be leading the way in outright lieing and the fact that he appears to be getting away with it gives other governments the go ahead to do the same. We have to be vigilant and not allow our expectations to be shifted by what is happening in the US. We could find that Trump gets thrown out and it turns out in the end we are the ones left with the broken democracy.

CNN ‏*@CNN* 3m3 minutes ago
More
Michael Flynn has no plans to resign and no expectations that he'll be fired, a senior administration official says cnn.it/2lAwl3G

I read the counterpunch essay about Abu Ghraib, I almost felt it was excusing evil for the feeling of being 'left behind'. It seemed to describe one of the perpetrators as just a small-time girl who grew up in a grim poor area and didn't know any better. I don't buy this. I had a friend who I used to walk to school with who grew up in an awful council estate and one time asked me when she met me if I had a tissue because she got blood on her hands from closing her front door, they'd been a stabbing outside it. She ended up going to UCL and becoming a doctor. I know she's just one story but people can go through a whole load of crap and end up on the right path, even with no support from anyone, just sheer determination. I can't help but feel in the case of Abu Ghraib it wasn't their circumstances that made them like that but their nature.

About May - I think we are going to have to watch her carefully too, she deliberately misleads (I know that's not uncommon for a politician) - when asked about Trump's immigration policy she said "the US' policy on refugees is the US' policy" but it wasn't just a policy on refugees as we know, it affected people who had lived in the US for years...I think she said it in this way to appeal to the UKIP group of her voters in particular who are terrified of refugees 'pouring' in (even though in the US had already heavily vetted these refugees)

This may be off topic? But it naturally leads on from this conversation, I read this article the other day and the quote below from the Archbishop of Canterbury is quite disturbing.

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/dubs-amendment-refugee-petition-close-child-theresa-may-a7575296.html%3Famp

^The petition follows a bruising intervention by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who said he was “saddened and shocked” by the Dubs closure and appeared to compare the Government’s position with that of Donald Trump.

He warned that halting the initiative would see more children being trafficked, exploited and killed and said it would be “deeply unjust” to leave the burden of caring for such children on Italy and Greece.^