1. #9601
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    ^ Ok, we get it. You've had an epiphany. Many before you have had the same one here over the years. Very special.

  2. #9602
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    Social Darwinism Is What Truly Guides Trump

    "Last week, Donald Trump appeared before a rally in Iowa, where he regaled a crowd of supporters with stories of the great wealth of his inner circle of advisers. “When you get the president — this is the president of Goldman Sachs — smart! — having him represent us, he went from massive paydays to peanuts!” he boasted. The crowd applauded, as people passionate enough about a politician to attend a rally are wont to do.

    But the thing about Trump’s core supporters is that Trump doesn’t have enough of them. To win the election, he had to pry away some former Obama voters in the Midwest, and he did it by positioning himself to his opponent’s left on economics. “Hillary will never reform Wall Street.

    She is owned by Wall Street!” he warned. “I’m not going to let Wall Street get away with murder,” he promised. His closing ad quoted Trump insisting, “The Establishment has trillions of dollars at stake in this election,” while images of a stock ticker and the street sign for Wall Street appeared onscreen.

    Trump lies and reverses himself about all kinds of things, but usually this behavior is a flailing attempt at self-preservation. The curious thing about these particular reversals is that this hypocrisy comes at large cost to himself. Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg recently interviewed white working-class Obama voters who’d turned to Trump and found that news of the president’s Wall Street advisers was the fact most likely to shake their faith in his administration. Trump’s approval ratings have sunk to 40 percent or lower. Why is he making so little effort to conceal his bait-and-switch? Why forfeit his most precious political asset? The best explanation for this grand act of self-sabotage (beyond his simply not understanding the policies he endorses) is that Trump, like much of the Republican Party, is an instinctive social Darwinist.

    Social Darwinism is a philosophy that treats the market as a perfectly efficient and moral mechanism for allocating wealth. Just as natural selection favors those species best adapted for survival, the theory goes, capitalism rewards the smartest and most deserving among us. It is the intellectual scaffolding, constructed by writers like Ayn Rand and various Austrian economists, behind the vision of conservatives like Paul Ryan and David Koch. Trump may not have read up on the theory, but he understands it viscerally. His father, Fred, inculcated his son with the unshakable belief that his own greatness would lead to enormous wealth.

    Trump’s boast in Iowa about the “great, brilliant business minds” in his administration communicates a great deal about his innermost beliefs. “I love all people, rich or poor,” he explained, “but, in those particular positions, I just don’t want a poor person, does that make sense?” The richest people in the country are, by definition, the most brilliant and well qualified.

    Trump rejects the notion that circumstance, luck, or social advantage might play a role. In a 1990 interview, a more candid time, Trump expressed his belief that being born into poverty would not have arrested his rise. “The coal miner gets black-lung disease, his son gets it, then his son,” he told an interviewer. “If I had been the son of a coal miner, I would have left the damn mines. But most people don’t have the imagination — or whatever — to leave their mine. They don’t have ‘it’ … You’re either born with it or you’re not.”

    Conservative intellectuals make a sharp distinction, at least in theory, between good wealth amassed through pure capitalism and bad wealth obtained by government favoritism. Trump has never observed any boundary between the two. (On the contrary: During the campaign, he presented his experience buying government influence as a qualification for office.) And in practice, few Republicans bother themselves too much over how a person got rich, either. The Bush administration was a boom time for grifters — Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay, Bob Ney, and Duke Cunningham were among the party eminences who used Republican control of government to fatten their wallets.

    After the Bush presidency collapsed, conservatives made a show of remorse and vowed not to succumb again to the temptations of corruption. Abramoff, the crooked conservative activist and lobbyist, refashioned himself after returning from prison as a chastened reformer. In 2012, he appeared at a Public Citizen event, denouncing the evils of the system.

    But now the lessons have been discarded, and the stench of self-dealing is everywhere. The only low-income-housing program spared by Trump’s budget is one his business profits from, and he picked a comically underqualified family loyalist, an event planner by trade, to oversee federal housing in New York, where his business has its largest interest. Trump has handed control of every major regulatory agency to the industries they oversee — a Wall Street lawyer runs the Securities and Exchange Commission, fossil-fuel surrogates run the Environmental Protection Agency, the CEO of a for-profit lender will oversee the student-loan system, and on and on. Lobbyists are already shuffling between the White House and K Street. Even Abramoff has been lured out of retirement—registering as a foreign lobbyist, in which capacity he prevailed upon one member of Congress to write a letter requesting a presidential meeting with a client of Abramoff’s, a foreign dictator.

    Congress has indulged Trump’s flagrant profiteering in part because he is letting them dip their beaks too. That Trump is holding his inaugural reelection fund-raiser in the Trump International Hotel, where party elites will join in an event that lines the president’s pockets, is one of the perfectly symbolic moments of the young administration. Any theoretical distinction between the Trumpian ethos of self-entitlement and the conservative doctrine of rewarding “job creators” has long since washed away.

    Social Darwinism is the tissue connecting this shady conduct with the Republican Party’s highest policy priorities. Conservatives believe programs that tax the rich and benefit the poor illegitimately meddle with the natural and correct distribution of wealth produced by the marketplace. The Republican health-care bill — both what passed in the House and what Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has brought to the Senate — confers a nearly trillion-dollar tax cut that overwhelmingly benefits the wealthy. That appears to be its sponsors’ primary consideration. Secondarily, it strips away an equal amount in Medicaid and middle-class insurance tax credits.

    Conservatives have little difficulty applying the logic of social Darwinism to justify punishing the sick. Vice-President Mike Pence explains that the administration’s health-care plan supports the promotion of “personal responsibility.” Kellyanne Conway implies that only an unwillingness to work would cause an able-bodied adult to have trouble affording health care: “If they are able-bodied and they want to work, then they’ll have employer-sponsored benefits like you and I do.” The Republican plan, explained Alabama congressman Mo Brooks, will reduce “the cost to those people who lead good lives. They’re healthy, they’ve done the things to keep their bodies healthy.” Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s budget director, allowed that while people who “get cancer” should have a “safety net,” “that doesn’t mean we should take care of the person who sits at home, eats poorly, and gets diabetes.”

    After passing a health-care bill built around a regressive tax cut, Republicans plan to proceed quickly to a second tax cut, which is expected to also benefit the rich disproportionately. The two bills, which are the entire focus of the party’s current legislative ambitions, would constitute the most sweeping upward redistribution of resources in American history.
    Washington in the summer of Trump’s first year is an atmosphere of organized looting. The precariousness of Trump’s position, given his anemic polling, a riled-up opposition, and Robert Mueller lurking in the background, has only heightened the urgency to get while the getting is good".

    *A version of this article appears in the June 26, 2017, issue of
    New York Magazine.

  3. #9603
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    Quote Originally Posted by Humbert View Post
    ^ Ok, we get it. You've had an epiphany. Many before you have had the same one here over the years. Very special.
    Haven't all of us here epiphanies? Otherwise, what are we here gibbering about, anyway?

  4. #9604
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    Quote Originally Posted by elche
    With those results projected across the rest of the country, the 2018 election will be a Democrat sweep of Congress.
    one might think so, especially after 5 hours of rachel maddow per week.

    though, what those special elections showed democratic leaders is that all this hating on trump and russia conspiracy theory talk hasn't worked as well as they had thought it would.

    dem leaders are truly surprised at the results and are now ordering their troops to reverse strategy and focus on policy and not russia/impeachment/hatred for trump.

    was pretty easy to predict what dem leaders now realize,

    though guess many democrats needed 1/2 a year to vent their anger/frustration at trump winning and screaming about russia stealing the election from hillary was "therapeutic" for them.

    from the hill:

    Dems push leaders to talk less about Russia | TheHill

    Frustrated Democrats hoping to elevate their election fortunes have a resounding message for party leaders: Stop talking so much about Russia.

    But rank-and-file Democrats say the Russia-Trump narrative is simply a non-issue with district voters, who are much more worried about bread-and-butter economic concerns like jobs, wages and the cost of education and healthcare.

    In the wake of a string of special-election defeats, an increasing number of Democrats are calling for an adjustment in party messaging, one that swings the focus from Russia to the economy. The outcome of the 2018 elections, they say, hinges on how well the Democrats manage that shift.

    “We can't just talk about Russia because people back in Ohio aren't really talking that much about Russia, about Putin, about Michael Flynn,” Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) told MSNBC Thursday. “They're trying to figure out how they're going to make the mortgage payment, how they're going to pay for their kids to go to college, what their energy bill looks like.

    “And if we don't talk more about their interest than we do about how we're so angry with Donald Trump and everything that's going on,” he added, “then we're never going to be able to win elections.”

    Democratic leaders have been beating the drum this year over the ongoing probes into the Trump administration’s potential ties to Moscow, taking every opportunity to highlight the saga and forcing floor votes designed to uncover any business dealings the president might have with Russian figures.

    Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) has been paying particularly close attention to voters’ concerns because he’s running for governor in 2018. The Russia-Trump investigation, he said, isn’t on their radar.

    “I did a 22-county tour. … Nobody’s focusing on that,” Walz said. “That’s not to say that they don’t think Russia and those things are important, [but] it’s certainly not top on their minds.”

    Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) delivered a similar message, saying his constituents are most concerned with two things:
    dysfunction in Washington and the Republicans’ plans to repeal ObamaCare. The controversies surrounding Trump, he said, don’t tally.
    and schumer yesterday on abc's this week: "when you lose an election you don't blame other people, you blame yourselves."

    at the 4:30 minute mark:


  5. #9605
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    Cool The genius of the Donald's Tweets

    I've been saying all along the Trump Tweeting phenomena is brilliant.

    President Donald Trump frequently comes under criticism for tweeting, even from his own advisers. But tweeting is probably the smartest thing he has done as president. He is able to speak directly to the American people without going through the biased mainstream media filter. The media doesn’t get to ask him slanted questions or pick and choose parts of his press releases to publish. Instead, Trump gets immense control over every single sentence he issues, which are then read by millions of Americans.
    With almost everyone online these days, it is easy for the average American to follow Trump’s tweets on Twitter. Twitter is free, unlike some mainstream media sites. Many of The Washington Post’s articles — the site is a frequent critic of Trump — are behind a paywall. A Twitter account isn’t even required in order to view Trump’s tweets. And even if left-leaning Twitter artificially buries positive news about Trump, it doesn’t matter, people go directly to his tweets.

    Google, Twitter and Facebook control much of the news we see today, but Trump’s tweets get around their dominance. Similar to the Drudge Report website, Trump’s tweets are so well-known that people view his tweets independently of the tech giants. The Drudge Report receives comparable traffic to Google News and The New York Times — despite the fact Google News prominently promotes the Times in search results and on its homepage. Drudge isn’t even carried in Google News, since the site merely aggregates links to articles. Google is the most trafficked site in the U.S. as well as in the world.


    CARTOONS | CHIP BOK
    VIEW CARTOON
    Most of the time, Google News is full of articles by the left-leaning media critical of Trump and conservatism. But Trump’s tweets changed all that. Reporters race to report on his tweets, filling up Google News with articles that are far more favorable to Trump, since there is so little room left for spin with his tweets. A quick perusal of Google News right now reveals this headline near the top, “Trump accuses Clinton of colluding with Democrats to defeat ‘Crazy Bernie Sanders.’” The Washington Post article acknowledges, “Trump took to Twitter Sunday morning…” There really is very little way to write the headline to make Trump look bad. There wasn’t any extra information to glean something from outside of one short tweet.

    One sign of Trump’s success at tweeting may be diminishing references to the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia to influence the U.S. presidential election. Trump rails on Twitter frequently about the “fake news” media making up his ties to Russia. Although no evidence of collusion has emerged during the months the left-leaning media has made it a top story, the media ran with it for quite a long time. But Trump kept hammering the media over it, never letting up, sometimes with multiple tweets in a row. Finally, after fired FBI Director James Comey told Congress earlier this month that there was no collusion, the media showed signs of backing off. On June 22, CNN retracted a story. Rank-and-file Democrats in Congress are now urging leadership to stop talking about it.


    Trump’s tweets repeatedly labeling the mainstream media as fake news, combined with banning their journalists from news events or ignoring them at press conferences when they ask questions, is gradually chipping away at their dominance. Trump attacks CNN probably more than any other news site. Its website traffic has gradually decreased over the past year. In contrast, Breitbart, which is considered by some to be the number one pro-Trump news site, saw a steep increase in traffic right before Trump became president, which has remained at that level. Unlike CNN, Breitbart does not receive top favorable placement by Google News.

    Trump’s advisers continue to pressure him to stop tweeting. They are concerned that without a filter, he may tweet something reckless that could harm him. But so far he’s tweeted several things that critics contend were terrible — yet they bounced right off of him. When Trump tweets things that seem inaccurate, he generally clarifies or corrects them later. Critics are exaggerating the negative aspects of his tweets. But the public has the ability to read his tweets unfiltered and can see through the spin. Additionally, it helps that Trump is funny. He’s spent years in entertainment and knows how to drop clever one-liners. He keeps people engaged and coming back. His tweets often receive over 100,000 likes. Consequently, Trump is still fairly well-liked — despite misleading approval polls — which contributed to his ability to accomplish more during his first 100 days in office than any previous president since World War II.


    Trump tweeted in 2013, “Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest -and you all know it! Please don't feel so stupid or insecure, it's not your fault.” It may have been arrogant, but his success with Twitter has proven his tweeting is sheer genius. He will go down in history as the president who figured out how to get around much of the biased media and talk 24/7 directly to the American people.
    https://townhall.com/columnists/rach...weets-n2346555


    The liberal progressive Dims are outa idea and are having mucho mucho kittens....

    Funny as all get out..

    Meow meow,

  6. #9606
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    Wink

    Quote Originally Posted by Farangrakthai View Post

    and schumer yesterday on abc's this week: "when you lose an election you don't blame other people, you blame yourselves."
    Except Cryin' Chuck and precious Nancy P. are still blaming the Russians.

    Between the two of them, they blow so much hot air they could be accused of "Global Warming"

  7. #9607
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    Quote Originally Posted by elche View Post
    Only Trumptards and Trumpturds would celebrate a loss of nearly 20 percentage points in Georgia, a GOP stronghold of racism since the early 70's. With those results projected across the rest of the country, the 2018 election will be a Democrat sweep of Congress. Lock him up.
    Very willing to take a bet on that with you. I bet they wont. If they dont then you have leave this forum forever and if they do I will have to do the same.

  8. #9608
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    Trump has a resounding win at the Supreme Court.

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    Quote Originally Posted by RPETER65
    Trump has a resounding win at the Supreme Court.
    That's the thing with Trump supporters... They set the bar so low that as long as Trump doesn't trip on it, stumble and fall flat on his face, they declare it a success.

  10. #9610
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    Quote Originally Posted by RPETER65
    Trump has a resounding win at the Supreme Court.
    They didn't rule on the constitutionality of the ban so how could it be a resounding win?

    They ruled on a narrow aspect of the case which allows a temporary ban on citizens of certain countries without any relationship to anyone or any institution within the US. They ruled unanimously on this because the 9th circuit went to far on their ruling.

    Ant is correct. The orange fatso has been such a complete disaster that any good news is viewed as a major accomplishment.
    This post has not been authorized by the TeakDoor censorship committee.

  11. #9611
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    Why are cameras not allowed to be turned on at White House press briefings???

    http://www.businessinsider.com/jim-a...iefings-2017-6

    If the Obama White House did this kind of thing during the ACA debate or during the Benghazi investigations Fox News and the rethugs would be hysterical about it.
    What is the White House constantly trying to hide? More like a tin pot dictatorship than the United States of America with this orange bag of shit in charge.

  12. #9612
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    Quote Originally Posted by RPETER65 View Post
    Trump has a resounding win at the Supreme Court.
    A resounding win for whom? Trump? Yes. You, no. It's a Muslim ban that excludes countries linked to his business dealings in the ME, countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt who are known for terrorism and the killing of Americans, over 3000 of them. Trump doesn't hold any business interests in any of the countries on the list (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen). What a coincidence. How much of a racist fool can you make of yourself?

    Btw, what happened to those jobs at Carrier he was suppose to save, those coal jobs he would bring back and his tax returns?
    Last edited by elche; 27-06-2017 at 07:03 PM.

  13. #9613
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    Quote Originally Posted by elche
    for a Muslim ban that excludes countries linked to his business dealings. How much of a fool can you make of yourself?
    Tinfoil hat time.

  14. #9614
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    Quote Originally Posted by Slick View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by elche
    for a Muslim ban that excludes countries linked to his business dealings. How much of a fool can you make of yourself?
    Tinfoil hat time.
    The tinfoil hat fits on the heads of racist fools like yourself.

  15. #9615
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    Quote Originally Posted by elche View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Slick View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by elche
    for a Muslim ban that excludes countries linked to his business dealings. How much of a fool can you make of yourself?
    Tinfoil hat time.
    The tinfoil hat fits on the heads of racist fools like yourself.
    How am I racist?

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    ^ you disagree with him.

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    Quote Originally Posted by longway View Post
    ^ you disagree with him.
    Another Trumptard straw man. Take a look at his posts. He's a closet Islamophobist and conspiracy theorist. But I know. It's all a coincidence, isn't it? After all, Trump doesn't lie and his nazi-like followers are impartial and objective.

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    ^ so how does any of that make him a racist?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Farangrakthai

    was pretty easy to predict what dem leaders now realize
    I think they saw the Republicans do nothing but obstruct with zero policy agenda for the last eight years with all kinds of electoral success, and they figured it would work for them.

    Their miscaluculation in my view was not understanding that the Republican base is motivated by different things than the Dem. base. Hatred of the Orange cheeto alone isn't going to bring youths to polls the way it does bitter 60 year olds who didn't like blackie

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    Who would ever know that a trumptard, like longway, is too lazy to look at someones posts? Or even ask for proof for anything?
    Last edited by elche; 28-06-2017 at 05:28 AM.

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    ^ well its conclusive that you called him a racist because he disagreed with you then. in all your blather you didn't even manage to deny it.

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    Telling....


  23. #9623
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    Quote Originally Posted by elche View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by longway View Post
    ^ you disagree with him.
    Another Trumptard straw man. Take a look at his posts. He's a closet Islamophobist and conspiracy theorist. But I know. It's all a coincidence, isn't it? After all, Trump doesn't lie and his nazi-like followers are impartial and objective.
    Doing a bit of stalking are?

    You never answered the question, how am I racist?

  24. #9624
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    Quote Originally Posted by bsnub View Post
    Telling....

    From MSNBC

  25. #9625
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    Quote Originally Posted by Slick
    You never answered the question, how am I racist?
    How is this any different than you labeling liberals 'sissies'? Nobody got hysterical about that. Maybe you're just being too sensitive and politically correct?

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