Thought for the Day

[Stavros]

And the point of these articles is the same narrative as itg was when he was running for office. as in "we can't allow this bigot and uncouth man to be POTUS!!" well he IS POTUS.and he may well be for some time. The "calling him out" angle is tired, and ineffectual, as it doesn't stop his base from voting for him. It won't stop foreign countries or businesses dealing with him or the USA, since it's still the superpower.
They need a new angle if they really want to dissuade him or their supporters. The European attitude - which I share incidentally - is that he's a cunt but then we have no choice but to deal with him.
Bush Jr. for me was worse, since he invaded a country with to date no cause. Trump has done nothing on that scale - well yet.

There are aspects of this Presidency that I think you need to factor in to change your view-

1) This President has tried and failed to reduce US military engagements overseas, be it in Afghanistan or Iraq, while military engagements in Yemen and Mali have flopped -these may not be on the same scale as Iraq, but the foreign policy profile is radically dfferent from all previous Presidents reaching back to Eisenhower, who put US troops into Lebanon in 1958. His successor has broken with decades of policy which, while not being pro-Palestinian had at least sought to act as a go-between with israel, where this new man has been so aggressive in the dismissal of Palestinian rights the fear in the last three days has been that Pompe was in Israel to tell them the US would endorse an Israeli annexation of the Occupied Territories, though it seems even Pompeo may have now cautioned against this, but we shall see.
GW Bush and Tony Blair insisted that regime change in Iraq was justified by Security Council Resolutions -the annexation of the Jabal al-Jawlan from Syria on any measure is a flagrant violation of the UN Charter and International Law, and the point is precisely that the US has, in effect, repudiated the authority of the UN and its Security Council, indeed, incuding the USA's own commitments.

2) there need be no major war abroad, because the battlefield is now the USA, as has been seen with the most radical reversal of inherited policy. It is not enough that the attack has focused on Health Care with a shambolic attempt to repeal the Affordable Health Act, it includes Medicaid and if the most vulnerabe, Disabled Americans are in the front line of attack, this chimes wth the disgusting ridicule of disabled Americans that was evident in His rally in 2016 -as if this entire policy was revenge agaist an unfriendly reporter.

Not enough to strip disabled Americans of their rights in law, not enough to remove rights from women, transgendered Americans, refugees, migrants, illegal/undocumented immigrants and their children but a raft of over 34 decisions has sought to reverse environmental policy dating back to the 1960s that makes it easier now for motor vehicles to poison the streets on which people live, while energy companies can trash as much as the environment as they want and let slurry slide into lakes rivers and streams and pollute the groundwater -and why not?

3) Lastly, there is this thing called 'statecraft' which is what academics call the analysis of Presidential style. It used to be said the most successful Presidents built a relationship with Congress that was was not based on party but on policy. Reagan was the last President to achieve this, indeed, the Conservatives who hailed his election in 1980 were so repelled by his accommodation of policies 'across the aisle' they were opposed to -arms reduction with the USSR for example- they created a 'Neo-Con' ideology on the 'never again' basis.
This President has no social skills, no political skills, and no negotiating skills -all he has is confrontation, laced with the most vitriolic abuse of Congress that has probably ever been recorded outside the Civil War, indeed, most of this man's language is the language of hatred and resentment, of endless accusation, debasing the very nature of debate.
You may say, 'that's just his shtick', but it has undermined the norms and values of politics in the USA, and in my view is a deliberate attempt to so demean and defame the practice of politics that the 'angry citizens' of 2016 will withdraw their support for Federal Government, and seek to secede in all but name from the Union.

That these radical changes are being led by a man most Americans did not vote for, underlnes the worry that either this is a blip the Union will survive, or it is the beginning of the end.

[holzz]

There are aspects of this Presidency that I think you need to factor in to change your view-

1) This President has tried and failed to reduce US military engagements overseas, be it in Afghanistan or Iraq, while military engagements in Yemen and Mali have flopped -these may not be on the same scale as Iraq, but the foreign policy profile is radically dfferent from all previous Presidents reaching back to Eisenhower, who put US troops into Lebanon in 1958. His successor has broken with decades of policy which, while not being pro-Palestinian had at least sought to act as a go-between with israel, where this new man has been so aggressive in the dismissal of Palestinian rights the fear in the last three days has been that Pompe was in Israel to tell them the US would endorse an Israeli annexation of the Occupied Territories, though it seems even Pompeo may have now cautioned against this, but we shall see.
GW Bush and Tony Blair insisted that regime change in Iraq was justified by Security Council Resolutions -the annexation of the Jabal al-Jawlan from Syria on any measure is a flagrant violation of the UN Charter and International Law, and the point is precisely that the US has, in effect, repudiated the authority of the UN and its Security Council, indeed, incuding the USA's own commitments.

2) there need be no major war abroad, because the battlefield is now the USA, as has been seen with the most radical reversal of inherited policy. It is not enough that the attack has focused on Health Care with a shambolic attempt to repeal the Affordable Health Act, it includes Medicaid and if the most vulnerabe, Disabled Americans are in the front line of attack, this chimes wth the disgusting ridicule of disabled Americans that was evident in His rally in 2016 -as if this entire policy was revenge agaist an unfriendly reporter.

Not enough to strip disabled Americans of their rights in law, not enough to remove rights from women, transgendered Americans, refugees, migrants, illegal/undocumented immigrants and their children but a raft of over 34 decisions has sought to reverse environmental policy dating back to the 1960s that makes it easier now for motor vehicles to poison the streets on which people live, while energy companies can trash as much as the environment as they want and let slurry slide into lakes rivers and streams and pollute the groundwater -and why not?

3) Lastly, there is this thing called 'statecraft' which is what academics call the analysis of Presidential style. It used to be said the most successful Presidents built a relationship with Congress that was was not based on party but on policy. Reagan was the last President to achieve this, indeed, the Conservatives who hailed his election in 1980 were so repelled by his accommodation of policies 'across the aisle' they were opposed to -arms reduction with the USSR for example- they created a 'Neo-Con' ideology on the 'never again' basis.
This President has no social skills, no political skills, and no negotiating skills -all he has is confrontation, laced with the most vitriolic abuse of Congress that has probably ever been recorded outside the Civil War, indeed, most of this man's language is the language of hatred and resentment, of endless accusation, debasing the very nature of debate.
You may say, 'that's just his shtick', but it has undermined the norms and values of politics in the USA, and in my view is a deliberate attempt to so demean and defame the practice of politics that the 'angry citizens' of 2016 will withdraw their support for Federal Government, and seek to secede in all but name from the Union.

That these radical changes are being led by a man most Americans did not vote for, underlnes the worry that either this is a blip the Union will survive, or it is the beginning of the end.

I'm ambivalent towards him, to be honest. He is uncouth and divisive, but he does stand for a large bulk of what Americans think. And the Western world has got too PC - for every action, there is a reaction.
That said, I still do think that the continual outrage is tiring now. When he said to ban all Muslims from entering the country in his campaign, which was bad at the time and something I agree was out of sync, then it was right to highlight. Obama, Bush Jr., Clinton, Bush Sr., Reagan, etc. never said that. The worst Bush Jr. said was that he wanted to put food on voters' families. But the narrative is STILL that he's this bad and rude man and "how dare he say that!!" Well he WILL say it.
If a strategy isn't working,then change it. The continual calling him out for his rude behaviour isn't working.
US liberals need another avenue, since if he gets another term and can implement more of his policies (even if the Dems win back Congress) he won't care if liberal media houses condemn his racist or bigoted talk. He won't need to care. It's more the outrage of his comments and the "what kind of man do we have in office" that I don't like - by itself that does nothing.

[holzz]

https://twitter.com/pitchfork/status...431975944?s=20 Interesting. best gangster film was goodfellas or the godfather.

[Stavros]

You don't seem to 'get it', Holzz. This is not a tv show, it is real life. The man is not rude, he is abusive, insulting and makes threats against the liberty of the people he relentlessly attacks. Who in American history before has so publicy vilified Americas as 'total scum, human scum'? This is not a man seeking to unite the country, but deepen its dvisions, at a time when the US is in desperate need of leadershp and a co-ordinated strategy to combat Covid 19.
You need to ask what the end game is for this man and his supporters in Congress who are now openly talking of not just forcing Obama to appear before a made-up Committee to be insulted, but is threatened with '50 years' in prison, yet when asked to identify the crime, the President can't produce one.
This must surely be the deliberate intent, to undermine and ultimately devalue and degrade the three branches of Government in their current form. You may dismiss it all -'Liberate Michigan! 'Lock him up!'- as TV, but behind this man are the armed militia, the super rich, and the foreign donors who care nothing for democracy. Indeed, when you realize that what Putin wants is a weak, divided USA incapable of challenging Russian ambitions, you can begin to see why it is most curious that in 2016 the campaign team had over 100 meetings with the Russians -just as the flagrant attempt to reverse the rule of law, is accompanied by claims that Michael Flynn is a heroic figure now, a 'patriot'. This is serious business, on a par with the calamity of Brexit in the context of the UK.
And it is pathetic to blame all this on 'liberals' when Conservatives have been in power for most of the last 50 years with their tax cutting fantasies and now their cheap bargain basement Nationalism. I don't approve of comparisons with the 1930s, but just as the international order collapsed as economies reeled, and then stagnated from the Crash, so the politics became infused with the same language of hatred and resentment we hear today. The danger is that today we have nuclear weapons, and though I don't see any rationale for a conventional war, the question -is there a head of state stupid enough to use such weapons? The answer is a gloom infused 'yes'. Which is good enough to get rid of this shabby excuse for a man.

[holzz]

You don't seem to 'get it', Holzz. This is not a tv show, it is real life. The man is not rude, he is abusive, insulting and makes threats against the liberty of the people he relentlessly attacks. Who in American history before has so publicy vilified Americas as 'total scum, human scum'? This is not a man seeking to unite the country, but deepen its dvisions, at a time when the US is in desperate need of leadershp and a co-ordinated strategy to combat Covid 19.
You need to ask what the end game is for this man and his supporters in Congress who are now openly talking of not just forcing Obama to appear before a made-up Committee to be insulted, but is threatened with '50 years' in prison, yet when asked to identify the crime, the President can't produce one.
This must surely be the deliberate intent, to undermine and ultimately devalue and degrade the three branches of Government in their current form. You may dismiss it all -'Liberate Michigan! 'Lock him up!'- as TV, but behind this man are the armed militia, the super rich, and the foreign donors who care nothing for democracy. Indeed, when you realize that what Putin wants is a weak, divided USA incapable of challenging Russian ambitions, you can begin to see why it is most curious that in 2016 the campaign team had over 100 meetings with the Russians -just as the flagrant attempt to reverse the rule of law, is accompanied by claims that Michael Flynn is a heroic figure now, a 'patriot'. This is serious business, on a par with the calamity of Brexit in the context of the UK.
And it is pathetic to blame all this on 'liberals' when Conservatives have been in power for most of the last 50 years with their tax cutting fantasies and now their cheap bargain basement Nationalism. I don't approve of comparisons with the 1930s, but just as the international order collapsed as economies reeled, and then stagnated from the Crash, so the politics became infused with the same language of hatred and resentment we hear today. The danger is that today we have nuclear weapons, and though I don't see any rationale for a conventional war, the question -is there a head of state stupid enough to use such weapons? The answer is a gloom infused 'yes'. Which is good enough to get rid of this shabby excuse for a man.

I agree he is an ass. But his message speaks to many. And I agree that he will get called out for being an ass.

but then what effect is calling him out doing? Whether dangerous or not, he WILL get many voters and could well win a second term. A new mode is needed to stop him, since it isn't working.
I get that he is divisive.
Short of a coup, or worse, then stopping him is futile at this point. For me, that's the point. How does one stop him? He was impeached but that didn't pass.

[broncofan]

Trump's actions in total must be unprecedented for a U.S. President. He has corrupted the Justice Department completely and the enforcement arm of the federal government now acts or fails to act based on political expediency rather than rule of law where they conflict. He has floated the idea that he can exceed his authority as President and order states to open. When getting pushback on that and having no practical mechanism of accomplishing it, he tries to stir defiance of the public against public health orders instituted by the states. He has obstructed justice multiple times to protect people around him and used foreign policy as a tool to try to secure his re-election. And finally, he will use people's fear of going to the polls during a pandemic along with bogus accusations of voter fraud to achieve voter suppression, forcing people to risk their lives to vote him out of power, which he likely won't give up without claiming he was cheated and trying to stir insurrection.

Whether it accomplishes its purpose of blocking his corruption or not, the media has an obligation to report what he does and says.

[holzz]

the USA isn't my country. i get fully why people don't like Trump - and he shouldn't have used borderline racist languagfe to that reporter. but if he is successful, i'd look at WHY. every issue in life has a cause.

[holzz]

https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/05/1...irus-covid-19/

I thought mr. bolsonaro hated LGBT? desperate times, desperate measures.

[holzz]

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article...ng-coronavirus

[Stavros]

the USA isn't my country. i get fully why people don't like Trump - and he shouldn't have used borderline racist languagfe to that reporter. but if he is successful, i'd look at WHY. every issue in life has a cause.

Where have you been for the last three years?
-People were angry because they felt let down by the decades in which their wages stagnated, their costs rose, and they saw a fraction of people becoming super-rich billionaires as the beneficaries of Globalization: have their lives improved, especially now, when they have lost the jobs they did have?

-Most Americans never voted for him, he won the votes of the Electoral College.

-He won the vote with the co-operation of the Russians, and has admitted this is true.

-Like Mussolini before him, whom he quoted, he was going to 'drain the swamp' but has smothered DC in his own swamp of corruption and lies.

-He was going to repeal Affordable Care and replace it with something better -he failed.

-He was going to repatriate manufactuing jobs from China -so far, he has failed, but Ivanka still has her tat Made in China.

-He was going to deliver peace between Israel and the Palestinians -he failed.

-He was going to withdraw the US from Iraq and Afghanistan -so far, he has failed.

-He was going to cut taxes -and he has -and who has benefited most from this? Joe Public or Steve Mnuchin?

-He is pledged to appoint as many 'Conservative' Judges as possible -so far, so successful -but are they qualified to judge?

-He is obsessed with Obama- "Between 22 November 2010 and 14 May 2020, he tweeted about Obama 2,933 times", and
“There’s some racism there but, most of all, it’s driven by the fact that Obama has the thing that Trump has always craved but never achieved, and that’s respect. I’ve always thought that the respect that Barack Obama that gets from people in this country and around the world is something that just eats Trump alive inside.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...irus-president

-What he claimed the US had lost he was going to restore, but he has taken away the rights of Transgendered Americans; he has aken away the rights of Disabled Americans; and he has facilitated the right of States to take away the rights of women.

-The President as Commander-in-Chief was presented with the opportunity to lead the USA when it was attacked by Covid 19. His natural instinct was to say 'I take no responsibility at all' and run away, just as he ran away from Vietnam and spent most of the last 5 years sneering at John McCain who did serve, while rubbishing the reputations of HR McMichael and John Kelly, who wore the uniform he refused.

-He resents anyone better than himself at something, so trashes their reputation as 'frauds' to compensate for his own weakness.

-He set himself up as an example, but has made a lamentable example of the USA -dysfunctional, resentful, incompetent.

-Like no other President in US history, he insults and abuses the citizens of his own country on a regular basis, calling American women 'dogs' and the American people 'total Scum. Human Scum'.

-He wanted to restore the respect for American he claimed it has lost under Obama -but he has no respect for the USA, no respect for a Constitution he has never read, and no respect for the rule of law.

Whatever the reason Why might have been in 2016, the reality of the last three years is that this wretched little man did not understand it fully, and never intended to, and has done nothing to address the gievances that existed then. Indeed, by faiing to take control of Covid 19 in January, the situation in the US now is the worst it has been since the 1930s.

2016 was his moment to make some more money, and show off on TV, and give the reins of power to the horsepowered 'Conservatives' determined to roll back 50 years of law even if means breaking the Union.

As to Why? This reaches back to the most basic questions that have driven American history since the 14th of May 1607, punctuated by 1776, 1861 and 1965. Deal with that.