U.S. Politics 2016 Seasonal Hiring Edition: "You're fired"

[Dr. Pepper]

1 hour ago, Commodore said:

excuses like Russian hacking and fake news, trying to abolish the electoral college

crank up the identity politics and racism/sexism/homophobia charges to eleven

this is the left's path back to power?

 

This sounds like the typical made up shit outrage machine from the right.  Trump dug in on the fake war on christmas today so that pretty much completes your yearly outrage machine newsletter.  

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

2 hours ago, Commodore said:

Russian hacking, fake news, electoral college

Still in the denial phase of Kubler-Ross, 6 weeks later

If you think Russian hacking and fake news didn't play a part in this election, it's you who are in denial.

[ThinkerX]

Denial?

No.

My view on Trump has been consistent since he became a major primary candidate over a year ago:

Because of his very nature, President Trump WILL do something impeachable in short order.  He literally cannot prevent himself. 

Going from the Russian hacking mess and his refusal to divest himself from his businesses, I'd say Trump is liable to get impeached even quicker than I'd thought.  (Given the option, the Republican controlled Congress would probably vastly prefer Pence, a 'true conservative politician,' in the Oval Office instead of Trump. That said, I suspect Pence has potentially crippling issues of his own that are currently lost in Trumps mess.)  

I see the Electors rejecting Trump as an interesting theoretical that has little chance of happening. 

[Tempra]

6 minutes ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

If you think Russian hacking and fake news didn't play a part in this election, it's you who are in denial.

For months, liberals told us that the DNC hack yielded nothing of consequence except a good risotto recipe from Podesta.  Now, of course, the hack swayed the election to Trump.  And, per the FBI, Russia perpetrated the hack to get Trump elected.  But can we trust the FBI?  Liberals keep changing their mind to whatever is politically expedient at the moment.

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

1 hour ago, Tempra said:

For months, liberals told us that the DNC hack yielded nothing of consequence except a good risotto recipe from Podesta.  Now, of course, the hack swayed the election to Trump.  And, per the FBI, Russia perpetrated the hack to get Trump elected.  But can we trust the FBI?  Liberals keep changing their mind to whatever is politically expedient at the moment.

Yes, the 2nd leak (the Podesta emails) was a load of shit. The leak that was released right before the Dem Convention lost Wasserman-Schultz her job (and rightfully so) and pisssed of Sanders supporters. When you look at the margins and the numbers, it seems pretty obvious that many Democratic voters stayed home. I'm not willing to say that those hacks accounted for that entire margin, but I think it's safe to say that it attributed to it.

 And I agree the Wikileaks stuff was mostly poo-pooed by Hillary supporters. Just one more thing we were wrong about, apparently. That doesn't mean that they weren't consequential, does it?   

[Altherion]

21 minutes ago, ThinkerX said:

Going from the Russian hacking mess and his refusal to divest himself from his businesses, I'd say Trump is liable to get impeached even quicker than I'd thought.

They have to give him a chance to flame out. If he is removed before it becomes clear that he has failed to deliver on the more important of his promises, the next one will say that Trump was going to make America great again, but the establishment contrived to bring him down to protect the status quo.

[ThinkerX]

40 minutes ago, Altherion said:

They have to give him a chance to flame out. If he is removed before it becomes clear that he has failed to deliver on the more important of his promises, the next one will say that Trump was going to make America great again, but the establishment contrived to bring him down to protect the status quo.

Given the glacial pace of such investigations (why am I hearing this 'Benghazi!' echo?) he'll probably have that chance. 

Also, the republican agenda, overall, is going to very badly hurt republican voters - something the leadership appears utterly oblivious too.  With a full sweep (Presidency, Congress, and Supreme Court) ALL of the responsibility falls on them.  So, when things crash hard and the republican leadership lies about how things have improved (or try to blame liberals), the lies will fail big time with a significant number of people they rely upon to remain in power. 

 

[felice]

...is this a president or a preschooler?

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

7 minutes ago, felice said:

...is this a president or a preschooler?

https://seeker401.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/82733-why-not-both-meme-5lvd.jpeg

[TrueMetis]

7 hours ago, Tempra said:

For months, liberals told us that the DNC hack yielded nothing of consequence except a good risotto recipe from Podesta.  Now, of course, the hack swayed the election to Trump.  And, per the FBI, Russia perpetrated the hack to get Trump elected.  But can we trust the FBI?  Liberals keep changing their mind to whatever is politically expedient at the moment.

People still believe the "climategate" emails proved a global conspiracy about climate change. Despite them containing nothing of consequence. Saying the DNC emails contained nothing of consequence and they swayed the are not contradictory, people are just to stupid to actually read the emails.

[butterbumps!]

Was the liberal reaction to Wikileaks/ Infowars/ "Teh Emailz!" truly that they were of "no consequence"?   My impression (and my own reaction) was that the email leaks didn't contain anything of real consequence in terms of their content, but that the hysteria drummed up surrounding them, which treated them as though they were salacious smoking guns of...something, could be really damaging.  I wasn't aware of liberals "poo pooing" the hacks/ leaks; I thought the reaction from the left was a combo of horror at being hacked and anger over how pretty innocuous emails were being spun as earth shattering, furthering the "corrupt Hillary" narrative, as anything with the words "Hillary" and "Emails" were wont to do.   I think the liberal reactions before and after the election have actually been pretty consistent on this.

[Larry of the Lawn]

1 hour ago, butterbumps! said:

Was the liberal reaction to Wikileaks/ Infowars/ "Teh Emailz!" truly that they were of "no consequence"?   My impression (and my own reaction) was that the email leaks didn't contain anything of real consequence in terms of their content, but that the hysteria drummed up surrounding them, which treated them as though they were salacious smoking guns of...something, could be really damaging.  I wasn't aware of liberals "poo pooing" the hacks/ leaks; I thought the reaction from the left was a combo of horror at being hacked and anger over how pretty innocuous emails were being spun as earth shattering, furthering the "corrupt Hillary" narrative, as anything with the words "Hillary" and "Emails" were wont to do.   I think the liberal reactions before and after the election have actually been pretty consistent on this.

That's the sad/funny part-- there was nothing in the leaked (heard someone making the case that 'phishing' wasn't hacking) emails that was incriminating.  Rather, the damage done was that after the Benghazi inquiry and the Hillary private server fiasco, any news that contained the words Hillary and emails was damaging regardless of what it involved. 

I wouldn't say there is any 'horror' in being hacked or even surprise that Russia or anyone else would try to hack or influence the election.  I'd expect this to happen everytime.  But I'd also expect people to be at least concerned over it and want to know wtf is going on.

The only thing that is most fucked up about all this is that Trump doesn't seem to give a shit and at the same time is loading his cabinet with a bunch of crooks, kooks, and shitheads.  And that the right is regarding this, for the most part, as a variation of what commodore said: the right is twisting this into some kind of 'typical left whining' or perverted Red Scare comparisons.  And doesn't even think that a foreign power trying to hack need to be investigated.

Kind of have to give it up to that fuckwit Milonopolous, we apparently do live in a post-truth reality.

 

[butterbumps!]

42 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

That's the sad/funny part-- there was nothing in the leaked (heard someone making the case that 'phishing' wasn't hacking) emails that was incriminating.  Rather, the damage done was that after the Benghazi inquiry and the Hillary private server fiasco, any news that contained the words Hillary and emails was damaging regardless of what it involved. 

I wouldn't say there is any 'horror' in being hacked or even surprise that Russia or anyone else would try to hack or influence the election.  I'd expect this to happen everytime.  But I'd also expect people to be at least concerned over it and want to know wtf is going on.

The only thing that is most fucked up about all this is that Trump doesn't seem to give a shit and at the same time is loading his cabinet with a bunch of crooks, kooks, and shitheads.  And that the right is regarding this, for the most part, as a variation of what commodore said: the right is twisting this into some kind of 'typical left whining' or perverted Red Scare comparisons.  And doesn't even think that a foreign power trying to hack need to be investigated.

Kind of have to give it up to that fuckwit Milonopolous, we apparently do live in a post-truth reality.

 

yea, that's a good point-- the horror (if you can call it that) wasn't about being hacked by foreign powers so much as it was the fact that far too many people simply didn't care.  The reps (except a few, like Graham, I think, and Rubio) were more than happy to use it so long as it helped them, and the buzz about "emailz scandal!" just drowned this part out.  it's a really frightening feeling of helplessness.  combined with being gaslighted (basically the "it's all in your head, typical left whining" comments).

Someone brought up the "wrestling with a greased pig" saying in a previous thread to describe arguing with trolls.  But it's basically how I feel about this whole fucking horrorshow, from Trump, to his grotesquerie, enablers, his news coverage, down to every deplorable/ sucker/ deplorable sucker who voted for him.   It's probably even worse.  It's like wrestling with a greased pig cracked out on amphetamines.    What is there to even latch on to anymore when reality itself is just constantly up for negotiation?

As this greased pig horrorshow continues to unfold, I'm left really wondering who will benefit from his win, outside of his own family, individual cronies and loyalists, and maybe like Russia and the like.   I guess some super anti-choice people are having some gains in eroding away some rights, so there's that.  But who's really getting anything out of this?  Like, all these ridiculous appointments and policies-- who are they actually benefitting?*   I mean, outside of the delicate snowflakes with anxieties about social progress who voted specifically to "shake things up" put us back in our places.

*ETA:  I'm not asking rhetorically.  I'm genuinely baffled as to who benefits from anything coming out of his plans.

[Larry of the Lawn]

5 minutes ago, butterbumps! said:

yea, that's a good point-- the horror (if you can call it that) wasn't about being hacked by foreign powers so much as it was the fact that far too many people simply didn't care.  The reps (except a few, like Graham, I think, and Rubio) were more than happy to use it so long as it helped them, and the buzz about "emailz scandal!" just drowned this part out.  it's a really frightening feeling of helplessness.  combined with being gaslighted (basically the "it's all in your head, typical left whining" comments).

Someone brought up the "wrestling with a greased pig" saying in a previous thread to describe arguing with trolls.  But it's basically how I feel about this whole fucking horrorshow, from Trump, to his grotesquerie, enablers, his news coverage, down to every deplorable/ sucker/ deplorable sucker who voted for him.   It's probably even worse.  It's like wrestling with a greased pig cracked out on amphetamines.    What is there to even latch on to anymore when reality itself is just constantly up for negotiation?

As this greased pig horrorshow continues to unfold, I'm left really wondering who will benefit from his win, outside of his own family, individual cronies and loyalists, and maybe like Russia and the like.   I guess some super anti-choice people are having some gains in eroding away some rights, so there's that.  But who's really getting anything out of this?  Like, all these ridiculous appointments and policies-- who are they actually benefitting?*   I mean, outside of the delicate snowflakes with anxieties about social progress who voted specifically to "shake things up" put us back in our places.

*ETA:  I'm not asking rhetorically.  I'm genuinely baffled as to who benefits from anything coming out of his plans.

I think it s a resource grab- companies and people in Trump's circle are going to literally divide the spoils by getting in on oil deals with Russia, and gobbling up water and oil rights domestically.  

I know it sounds like tinfoil hat stuff but the next fifty years is going to be, more than ever, about resource scarcity and abundance on a global level.  China has had an unquenchable thirst for raw materials the last ten years or so to support their growth spurt, iron, concrete, oil.  I think Trump really wants to give the US back to the captain's of industry and robber barons.  I think what he admires about Putin is how he turned Russia into a kleptocratic free for all for his friends.  

/End crazy rant

[TrackerNeil]

 

10 hours ago, Tempra said:

For months, liberals told us that the DNC hack yielded nothing of consequence except a good risotto recipe from Podesta.  Now, of course, the hack swayed the election to Trump.  And, per the FBI, Russia perpetrated the hack to get Trump elected.  But can we trust the FBI?  Liberals keep changing their mind to whatever is politically expedient at the moment.

Yeah, we lefties are nuts. And the way our presidential candidates win the popular vote is just crazy!

[Martell Spy]

Trump Gets a Special Christmas Visit From a Shirtless Vladimir Putin on Saturday Night Live

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/12/18/trump_gets_a_christmas_visit_from_putin_on_snl.html

[Martell Spy]

Quote

 

Given the glacial pace of such investigations (why am I hearing this 'Benghazi!' echo?) he'll probably have that chance. 

Also, the republican agenda, overall, is going to very badly hurt republican voters - something the leadership appears utterly oblivious too.  With a full sweep (Presidency, Congress, and Supreme Court) ALL of the responsibility falls on them.  So, when things crash hard and the republican leadership lies about how things have improved (or try to blame liberals), the lies will fail big time with a significant number of people they rely upon to remain in power. 

 

 

They aren't oblivious to it. They assume that about half of their base, the more wealthy half, will benefit from their policies. And that the other half are idiots and will keep voting for them no matter what they do. And are they wrong? So, they have no incentive to stop servicing donors 24/7. It's what they do.

[Mexal]

49 minutes ago, TrackerNeil said:

Yeah, we lefties are nuts. And the way our presidential candidates win the popular vote is just crazy!

By 3 million votes but not like it matters. 52% of Republicans think Trump won the popular vote. 

[Dr. Pepper]

6 minutes ago, Mexal said:

By 3 million votes but not like it matters. 52% of Republicans think Trump won the popular vote. 

And now in the future, journalists are going to be allowing Republicans to discuss this as a belief rather than requiring them to accept fact.  Much like they have to do with evolution and climate change.  

[LongRider]

8 minutes ago, Mexal said:

By 3 million votes but not like it matters. 52% of Republicans think Trump won the popular vote. 

 

1 minute ago, Dr. Pepper said:

And now in the future, journalists are going to be allowing Republicans to discuss this as a belief rather than requiring them to accept fact.  Much like they have to do with evolution and climate change.  

If facts mattered at all, we would live in an entirely different world.