Buy

Books
Click images for more details

Twitter
Support

 

Recent comments
Recent posts
Currently discussing
Links

A few sites I've stumbled across recently....

Powered by Squarespace

Discussion > President Trump

Yes, tomo. What I read about what is apparently happening in Broward County, Fla beggars belief. An interminable long recount where the people overseeing it have previously been told by judges to 'not do it again' are ignoring court orders, excluding media and even impartial observers, finding historically unbelievable numbers of extra votes to be counted, asserting the importance of counting illegal and unregistered voters... It just goes on and on and on and on.

And even people on the conservative side of the media are saying "Well, there is no proof yet of electoral fraud", even as it is clearly going on under everyone's noses.
I hope to God (and I'm an atheist) that the Republicans/overseers are simply waiting for the official result to be announced before the full-scale legal challenges are mounted, whatever the result. What I find truly frightening is that, in the broad light of day, the perpetrators have the confidence to ignore court orders and break so many laws designed to prevent electoral fraud with some kind of presumed immunity. It is truly awful that they do it, but far worse that they clearly expect people above them to permit it.

Nov 16, 2018 at 11:52 PM | Unregistered Commentermichael hart

And yay, go me! I got the top post on page 100 of this thread.

Nov 16, 2018 at 11:54 PM | Unregistered Commentermichael hart

Nov 16, 2018 at 11:52 PM michael hart

They bought the Law, now they expect a return on their investment.

Nov 17, 2018 at 8:59 AM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

And yay, go me! I got the top post on page 100 of this thread.

Nov 16, 2018 at 11:54 PM | michael hart

This thread was started in anticipation of it all being over by Christmas 2016, then Christmas 2017 and definitely by Christmas 2018.

Trump has demonstrated far more patience and restraint towards lying Democrats and Climate Scientists than they had any right to expect.

Nov 17, 2018 at 9:22 AM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

Lying Democrats and Clinton Scientists?

Nov 17, 2018 at 9:26 AM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

Oh come on Gwen. Half the voting population are Democrats. All characterized by you with the epithet "lying". Whereas Republicans are all whiter than white? Get some perspective.

Nov 17, 2018 at 11:23 AM | Unregistered CommenterSupertroll

Nov 17, 2018 at 11:23 AM Supertroll

Just trying to address the balance between the Ying , Yang and Yakkedy Yak of Phil Cllarke. Trump has decided to end the Great Chinese Takeaway of US jobs, and BREXIT may have similar results.

Perhaps I should have said lying Clinton supporting Democrats and lying Climate Scientists? Those that weren't lying to support lies won't be offended, but we will have to trust them on that.

Returning to Trump, as President, what has he done wrong?

Nov 17, 2018 at 12:21 PM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

I agree with ST - sort of.

I have lived and worked with 'merkans of notionally democrat persuasion and had very little to complain about. Where the epithets kick in is in the organisation and core belief systems of "The Party" kick in - and I think many of my erstwhile colleagues would broadly agree that the Dems as a political entity need to look at themselves - they've had to do this in the past and they will again.

Tribalism will only carry a party a certain distance in terms of the ballot boxes - dicking with the ballot boxes as a substitute for a cogent and workable solution for competent governance that should guide voters in their responsibilities - not so much.

At the end of the day - the politicians and clingon hucksters are after the power - demonstrating that you are prepared to use any means to hand including wholesale fraud to get it can't be healthy.

Nov 17, 2018 at 10:55 PM | Registered Commentertomo

Talking about hucksters - I do hope that the arrangement pictured here can be put in place for Acosta at the WH press room.

Nov 18, 2018 at 6:28 PM | Registered Commentertomo

Nov 18, 2018 at 6:28 PM | tomo

There may also be a "special" microphone, capable of discharging high voltage, if not released on request. Releasing it then, may not be a matter of request.

Nov 18, 2018 at 7:29 PM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

" ... demonstrating that you are prepared to use any means to hand including wholesale fraud to get it can't be healthy."
Nov 17, 2018 at 10:55 PM | tomo

But it worked so well for Robert Mugabe, and numerous other extremists, including Climate Scientists.

I have never previously had reason to take an active interest in US Politics, but it is time the Democrats found Presidential candidates from outside the swamp, and outside the reach of the swamp dwellers.

Nov 18, 2018 at 7:57 PM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

I'm glad to see people are turning their thoughts to ways of preventing people like Acosta from hijacking Presidential Press Conferences. I'm slightly disappointed that some of them haven't already been implemented. Given Trump's known prediliction for the limelight, I'm surprised Acosta was allowed to make them all about himself for so long.

Some extra suggestions:
1) Acosta dosn't look up to much. Only a woman who spends a bit of time in the gym should be enough to deal with him in place of the timid young female intern he had to defeat to keep hold of the microphone in the video. No need for a burly male.

2) As suggested above, an electrifiable device seems great, but we know how the rest of them would complain. Having a microphone that is switched off remotely, or on a timer, seems like the easiest and least controversial solution for someone who won't let go.

3) Given how aggressive and out of touch with reality Acosta seems, I personally would regard him as a significant security risk. I'm sure everybody in the room already has to go through a security screening and be patted-down before they get so close to a President of the USA. Acosta is clearly needing of a more extensive security check. Perhaps about an hour. And the patting down could be done by a more amazonian Ronda Rousey type, (something Trump might appreciate) as long as Acosta doesn't seem to be enjoying it.


If we share our suggestions, interested individuals are then free to submit them directly to the White House via email.

Nov 18, 2018 at 10:40 PM | Unregistered Commentermichael hart

The device that would induce the President to give an honest answer to a straight question has yet to be invented.

HTH.

Nov 19, 2018 at 8:09 AM | Unregistered CommenterPhil Clarke

Phil

and that likely has applied as long as they've had presidents .... Mr Acosta though is looking a bit like a porcupine with all the colleagues knives in his back - popular in the press pool? - not really it seems...

Nov 19, 2018 at 9:33 AM | Registered Commentertomo

From August 2018, Jim Acosta still believes in Steele's Dodgy Dossier, and Phil Clarke still believes in Mann's Dodgy Dossier.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/jim-acosta-thinks-trump-is-inviting-him-to-ask-a-question-when-he-calls-cnn-fake-news
Jim Acosta thinks Trump is inviting him to ask a question when he calls CNN 'fake news'
by Katelyn Caralle
August 09, 2018 07:42 AM

If Mann would only appear in Court and answer the questions so many have been asking for so long .....

Nov 19, 2018 at 12:23 PM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

Telling how 'others also did it' is offered as some kind of defence (Never worked for me in school). Dishonest Don has taken lying to a whole new level. It is now industrial scale; the poor sod whose job it is at the Toronto Star to log them all has calculated an average of 2-3 false statements per day.

The Star is keeping track of every false claim U.S. President Donald Trump has made since his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017. Why? Historians say there has never been such a constant liar in the Oval Office. We think dishonesty should be challenged. We think inaccurate information should be corrected. And we think the sheer frequency of Trump’s inaccuracy is a central story of his presidency.

If Trump is a serial liar, why call this a list of “false claims,” not lies? You can read our detailed explanation here. The short answer is that we can’t be sure that each and every one was intentional. In some cases, he may have been confused or ignorant. What we know, objectively, is that he was not telling the truth

It is not possible to take anything Lame Duck Donald says at face value unless he is reading a prepared script and sometimes not even then. Heck, even the professional fact checkers have given up trying to keep up, the torrent is so strong.

(Politifact) Editor Angie Drobnic Holan said her instinct is to assign a reporter to do a fact check whenever the president utters any inaccuracy. “But we’re not doing that with Trump,” she said, “just because there are too many.” Similarly, when Trump repeats a lie again and again — he has falsely called America the world’s highest-taxed nation 27 times as of this writing — PolitiFact will only occasionally fact-check it more than once: she thinks readers would find it “strange” to see the same claim re-checked over and over. There is a “real concern,” she acknowledged, that Trump might just keep saying the same things until “people get tired of correcting them.”
.

This is new.

www.thestar.com/news/world/2018/05/28/call-them-lies-why-we-sometimes-dont-use-the-l-word-when-trump-is-wrong.html

https://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/statements/byruling/pants-fire/

https://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/statements/byruling/false


https://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/statements/byruling/pants-fire/

Nov 19, 2018 at 4:54 PM | Unregistered CommenterPhil Clarke

Best Canuck comment on the Toronto Star

Used to get the Saturday Star until the budgie died

Having tried to use Politifact over a number of years = "a check on the exercise of rhetoric" but not "a check on the exercise of power" rings quite true. Who would deny that DJT is prone to exaggerate?

They mean well but don't apply consistent rules and scoring is pretty arbitrary - their Obameter missed a number of howlers.

Nov 19, 2018 at 6:26 PM | Registered Commentertomo

Telling how 'others also did it' is offered as some kind of defence/ (Never worked for me in school).
Nov 19, 2018 at 4:54 PM | Unregistered CommenterPhil Clarke


Maybe that was where you started to go wrong, Phil. Time to grow up?
Despite my very many failings in life, I don't think I ever said something like that to a schoolteacher who might have been admonishing me. It seems like you were expressing a basic instinct to try and shift the blame some where else for something what you know to be your own responsibility.

Nov 19, 2018 at 7:25 PM | Unregistered Commentermichael hart

Shorter Tomo: I don't like the message so will just slag off the messenger. Lazy. Has the Toronto Star got anything materially wrong?

Saying Trump is 'prone to exaggeration' is like saying Vlad the Impaler had a bit of a problem with anger management.

I see that following critical remarks from Admiral Bill McRaven, who lead the raid on Osama bin Laden, Trump has once again been rewriting history in his own image:

Of course we should have captured Osama Bin Laden long before we did. I pointed him out in my book just BEFORE the attack on the World Trade Center. President Clinton famously missed his shot. We paid Pakistan Billions of Dollars & they never told us he was living there. Fools!..

Naturally, not one these claims has the remotest basis in fact. The USA seems to have elected a narcissistic fantasist.

'Prone to exaggeration'. LOL!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/12/07/trumps-claim-that-he-predicted-osama-bin-laden/

Nov 19, 2018 at 8:47 PM | Unregistered CommenterPhil Clarke

Acosta triumphs over Trump censorship attempt.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/nov/19/jim-acosta-white-house-press-pass-trump-administration-suspend-letter

Nov 19, 2018 at 9:51 PM | Unregistered CommenterPhil Clarke

Phil Clarke, when it comes to exaggerated claims, do you think Trump would be better as a Climate Scientist, or is he just too honest?

Nov 19, 2018 at 10:07 PM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

Tedious TDS

Yes the SJW riddled Toronto Star is most of the time like pretty much * all * the legacy media of * all * stripes not fit even for the bottom of a budgie's cage - are they still Trudeau fan boys + girls ?

The US did pay Pakistan billions of dollars - as have the Saudis.... Last time I looked we in the UK were giving them £400 million-ish a year of borrowed money that could be used to repair our infrastructure for fuck-all in the return direction of much if any worth..

What's so different about Obamah bumping off bin Laden vs. MBS bumping off Khashoggi?

Nov 19, 2018 at 10:08 PM | Registered Commentertomo

A sobering reality check on Trump's fantasy economics. A majority of US economists now forecast a recession, some say as early as next year, most predict a downturn in 2020.

Trump's tax cuts, which mainly benefitted higher earners and corporations, his protectionist trade policies and his dismantling of social and environmental protections have sent the stock market soaring, the economy growing and unemployment falling.

But anyone can load up the credit card. While he preaches fiscal discipline, he does not practice it. In the first 19 months his policies loaded $1.46 Trillion onto the national debt, an increase of 7.3%. The gamble is that economic growth will increase sufficiently to pay that down.

Donald (Lame) Duck was elected by people disillusioned with the political elite. They saw the son of one the wealthiest men in the country as an outsider, their champion against an out of touch political class. In office he appointed a cabinet of fellow billionaires and proceeded to further enrich the already wealthy.

So it goes. I sincerely hope I'm wrong but I suspect as the economic cycle turns negative, it is those Trump supporters who did not have the good fortune to be born to a self made millionaire who will suffer the most.

That same expansion has left many people underemployed and earning less than before the Great Recession of 2008, as well as losing health insurance and retirement savings, which could mean when the next bust happens, poor and working-class people will be in much worse shape than ever. And that, coupled with the elimination of some social safety nets across many states in the U. S., means the future might be pretty bleak, indeed. 

At least, for those without a pile of money to rely on.

https://bigthink.com/brandon-weber/economists-second-longest-economic-boom-in-u-s-history-ends-in-2020-with-a-recession
0

Nov 19, 2018 at 10:16 PM | Unregistered CommenterPhil Clarke

Twitter Thread

A tangled web with some familiar names cropping up.

DJT seems actually wise to let 'em stew...

So Phil, - you moving into gold -or- BitCoin ?

btw I thought the UBL assassination was quite odd as I'd seen Benazir Bhutto claim he was murdered by Pakistani thugs some time beforehand - the lack of a body was an unusual move.

Nov 19, 2018 at 10:21 PM | Registered Commentertomo

What's so different about Obamah bumping off bin Laden vs. MBS bumping off Khashoggi?

Um, one murdered 3,000 people, the other was a journalist.

Nobody denied killing bin Laden for weeks after the event.

Obama did not falsely claim to have identified the bin Laden threat after the event.

Ludicrous.

Nov 19, 2018 at 10:27 PM | Unregistered CommenterPhil Clarke