Shutdowns, military pullouts, and resignations: it’s Christmas and Trump thread 89

[TheClaws]

It’s chaos in Trump’s world, more so than usual, with #TrumpResign trending in Twitter after a number of key debacles: the pull-out of US troops from Syria, the resignation of General Jim Mattis, and the shutdown of the government over Christmas due to bipartisan disagreement over wall funding. (Those are just 3 issues.) The next few weeks will be rocky.

Previous thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3442038-But-When-the-president-does-it-that-means-it-is-not-illegal-Trump-thread-LXXXVIII

For some reason my phone isn't picking up the link for the previous tweet.

It's from @SteveKornacki the MSNBC election analyst.

Trump is having one of his press conferences right now. Mostly nonsense about how brilliant he is, his unique views of wars etc .... 🙄

twitter.com/Lawrence/status/1080543127151218692

Trump just now: “I think I would’ve been a great general but who knows?”

Everyone knows.

twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/1080543633504460800

"Syria was lost long ago. We're talking about sand and death. We're not talking about vast wealth. We're talking about sand and death." -Trump. Actually just said this.

twitter.com/ddale8/status/1080543778073653248

Trump's hingedness level was not high today.

Trump says he had a meeting about Iran and the Middle East with lots of good-looking generals: "Like from a movie. Better looking than Tom Cruise, and stronger."

@ddale8
twitter.com/ddale8/status/1080544047587094529

Trump says "Russia used to be the Soviet Union", It became Russia because it "went bankrupt" fighting in Afghanistan. He says Russia, India and Pakistan need to be in Afghanistan now.

twitter.com/awzurcher/status/1080542679409283072

Trump is off on one again.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-game-of-thrones-poster-iran-sanctions-are-coming-cabinet-meeting-white-house-a8708531.html

How can such an ignorant man have fooled so many people.

Rebecca Solnit.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/02/racist-sexist-confederate-monuments-new-future

www.newstatesman.com/world/north-america/2019/01/tweeting-about-wall-trump-s-happy-place-and-he-s-back-there-because-he-s

For Bernie Sanders, Claims of Sexism in 2016 Campaign Hang Over 2020 Bid

www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/us/politics/bernie-sanders-campaign-sexism.html

Also, a good thread on the likeability of female candidates

mobile.twitter.com/ashtonpittman/status/1080384836324470784

Not about anything in particular, but I do love Rachel Maddow. After about ten minutes of skit about a bit of high-level corruption (which under any other president would be headline-grabbing horror) she went on to Trump's government shutdown and included the words

"There is no five billion dollars for the President to build a wall, or a moat, or steel slats, or a decorative pergola, on the long southern land border between our country and Mexico"

Well, it made me laugh!

I have watched these threads for the past 2 years and occasionally jabbed it, but this is scarily turning into the extreme IDPOL shit which a lot of (center left in american circles) are turning against, I work in IDPOL central silicon valley, the hug box mentality on here is mirroring the most extreme were i work, in the run up to the primaries it might be best to look outside your inner circle and see that the left in general are turning away from IDPOL, gender/skin colour has been taken over by massive corporate entities (divide and conquer at the most basic level), there is predictions made years ago how the corporate left will turn on Sanders, word for word.

People are starting to look at class, which is a problem here in the UK and US, the issue is that the IDPOL crowd in the US dismiss class and extrapolate and obfuscate it into IDPOL shit/

These threads are turning into not highlighting whats wrong with america or its political landscape and just turning into a low key liking twitter comments that confirm your naive culture war because "it's reminiscent of 1930's"

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/02/foremost-experts-various-topics-according-trump-most-whom-are-trump/?utm_term=.7da86faa1bdc

I don't understand much of your post, justanotherlurker.

Possibly because I don't live in your hug box? Whatever that is? (typo?)

What's IDPOL?

I can't work out if you're trying to claim these threads do mention class or don't? For avoidance of doubt, they do. It's not something your hug box(?) just invented or discovered.

These threads are largely about Trump, and the operation of the US administration around Trump, his appointment of corrupt officials who try to profit from their posts, his and his family's attempts to profit from their posts, his ignorance of international affairs and failures economic and diplomatic in international affairs. They're also about Trump's relationship with Putin and apparent malleability by him.

I'm not sure what you mean by the words "culture war" to describe that?

BTW, I do believe you if you're trying to say you personally live in an inward-looking inner circle with its own argot. The fact I've no idea what your little codes mean evidences that plainly.

The microtargetting by the Trump campaign segmented recipients of propaganda by, among other things, race.

I don't know how your post relates to that, because as I say I don't really understand your post.

IDPOL= identity politics. The term identity politics refers to political positions based on the interests and perspectives of social groups with which people identify (wiki)

Hug Box = a derogatory term for an environment, usually on the internet, in which a group with similar interests gathers to discuss topics in what they intend to be a safe, comforting, and confrontation-free environment. (Urban Dictionary)

Lots of other three-dollar words in that post that I can't be bothered with. I think the poster is saying that we're insular and only want posters who agree with us. Whatever. But as I see it, these are support threads, not political debate threads.

Personally, I'm grateful for this particular 'hug box' and those who think like I do. It's kept me sane these last two years!

Oh I see, thanks, Across.

So the Mercers' political programme is IDPOL then? They certainly talk in terms of funding a longterm "culture war".

And actually any elite group trying to protect and promote "People Like Us" is engaged in IDPOL.

I'm trying to relate the phrase "culture war" to discussion of Trump's corruption and possible treason.

There's certainly an age-old effect where, as long as someone is "One of the chaps", his little peccadilloes are just fine. Bit of light sexual assault, profiting from office, maybe a bit of treason among friends... nothing to worry about.

But god forbid the cleaner gets a speeding ticket: that's the end of civilisation.

That's certainly about small-c culture.

A good opinion piece on the expert on everything, D.J. Trump.

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/02/foremost-experts-various-topics-according-trump-most-whom-are-trump/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.c8d771a04292

‘During his first Cabinet meeting of the year on Wednesday, President Trump offered an unexpected defense of his views on border security.

‘A wall was needed, he argued, because you couldn't use technology alone, like drones, to prevent illegal border crossings. How could we be confident in that?

‘"I know more about drones than anybody," Trump said.

‘This is possible, I suppose. Perhaps Trump has spent an inordinate amount of time studying unmanned aircraft during his tenure in the White House, or, perhaps, he brought to the job years worth of analysis on the subject. It just seems as though perhaps it’s hyperbolic. Even if we constrain the comment to the context in which it was offered — the use of drones to patrol the border — it seems unlikely that Trump is the foremost authority on the subject in the world.’

I value this thread; it helps me to laugh occasionally rather than cry about a dangerous and disgusting clown whose intent appears to be to destroy, first as individuals a lot of people known to him and unknown to him, second his country, and third the world.

It also gives me the support of knowing I am not the only person who feels that way about him.

There are makers and fakers and takers and breakers in this world, and Donald Trump is not the first, just all the other three.

I am unsure how that is "identity politics".

"I know more about drones droning on than anybody,"" Trump said

FTFH (fixed that for him)

I presume "hug box", with its connotations of "hygge", is a nicer way to say "echo chamber"?

I'd actually like a debate. But a proper intelligent one. Sadly no such pro-Trump pps has really ever shown up.

Some seem intelligent but reek either of parroting political slang or of artificial intelligence.

Most of us ain't American so it's hard to judge the real America. And the American pps can relate to the bit they know.
Still, it's true that in many countries it's not politics as we used to know anymore. We get lucky bastards (and some lucky good willing people, I hope) rising to power probably because they sense the discontent and adjust their speech. We know that.
Most politicians know that, but I'm not sure most main political forces are able to adjust. Fresh blood and fresh perspectives are needed. But the inevitable reality check will come. Either the winning candidates are lacking or the system and the reality of governing cut their wings.

As they say, the more things change the more they stay the same. We just ride the same waves.

Thanks for the interpretation. I logged in last night and looked up IDPOL. While I think I understood all the words, I was still not sure I understood what it meant.

Coincidentally the Solnit piece posted earlier discussed the culture changes.

I thought this thread was a means of curating articles and viewpoints from various sources that we can read and/or discuss. I'm finding it harder to discuss these days because I quickly get overwhelmed by the frustration of it all. I want to keep tabs, join the dots, try and see a path out of this darkness but it drains me emotionally and intellectually. I do get a lot of support from the thread knowing that I'm not alone. I like the concept of it being a hug box in a non pejorative way.

As for an echo chamber, it's noticeable that only the GOP and the real partisans support Trump now. Everyone else accepts he's doing harm to the US and the world. Even some Fox News commentators. Only the way ahead is up for debate now - divided between various shades of impeachment now v wait for the electorate in 2020.

Finally and importantly, I'm not American and I don't live in the US and I've learned over the course of this thread that I know very little. But I've also learned so much about the country, it's complexities, it's divisions and it's history from Across and other US posters and from reading US news sources. I'm in awe of the resistance - the collective and individual determination to continue fight to reestablish norms.