US Politics Thread 2016-2020

[Rockstar]

Oh god here we go again with 'facts'.


Look, if a man wants to wear a dress, thinkhimself and behave as a woman, take HRT or surgically remove his penis so his panties fit. I don't think Trump, like me, really gives a rats arse what you do, go for it. But its not the militaries job to order their personnel to view and accept gender dysphoria as if it were a normal condition or some civil rights group. Nor do I have any desire that my tax money be spent by the Pentegon paying for gender reassignments and appointments with a shrink.

What about those who are considered Gender nonconforming (GNC) people who feel that they are neither only male or only female who identify themselves "genderqueer".

Where does it stop?

The real issue here is the FACT that some estimates are that 71% of people with gender dysphoria will have some other mental health diagnosis in their lifetime. That includes mood disorders, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, and suicide attempts. Fix the ACA so it can provide the right and affordable assistance. Dont dump it on the Pentegon's lap. Let the military spend its allotments on weapons and training warriors.

[Mr Quatro]

Maybe we will all meet again ... till then this song will have to do.



Whoops! I put it in the wrong thread. Oh well I'll let it stay.

[Rockstar]

1980 interview by Rona Barrett: "Why wouldn't you dedicate yourself to public service?"" Donald Trump: "Because I see it as a mean life.....and I also see it that somebody as someone with strong views, and somebody with the kind of views that are maybe a little unpopular even tho they may be right, but maybe unpopular, wouldn't necessarily have a chance at getting elected against somebody with no great brain, but a big smile."

I guess some people got tired of the brainless smiles. hehe

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

I guess some people got tired of the brainless smiles. hehe

Helps to run against a toothy crocodile that's for sure.

[August]

Interesting article.

Same Old “New” Democrats

Trying to reclaim lost voters, the party rolls out a derivative slogan to promote old, failed ideas. Steven Malanga
July 26, 2017 Politics and law



Seizing the opportunity created by a stumbling president whose White House seems incapable of fulfilling his biggest campaign promises, Democrats counterattacked this week, touting a new slogan and policies as they look ahead to the 2018 midterm elections. The slogan—“A Better Deal: Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Wages”—was quickly derided by Twitter wags as reminiscent of Papa John’s Pizza marketing (“Better ingredients, better pizza”). And the policies rolled out a day later were retreads of Hillary Clinton’s policy positions in her failed presidential campaign. It’s tempting to speculate, given this uninspired effort, that Democrats are coasting on the assumption that President Trump is so toxic that their victory in the midterms is assured. But this is the second reassessment the party has performed on itself after devastating political losses in the last three years, and in each case the message to America seems to be: “Don’t worry so much about our ideas: just trust that we’re on your side.” Maybe the Democrats’ ideas really are the problem. It’s worth remembering that Trump’s surprise victory last November was not the first major setback that Democrats have suffered since Barack Obama won his historic election in 2008: other than his reelection four years later, it’s pretty much been all downhill. Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives in 2010 and the Senate in 2014. At the state level, the party faced a sustained run of bad results that included losing some 900 local legislative seats, while watching Republicans capture 31 governorships. Republicans now boast 25 state “trifectas”—in which they control the legislature and the governor’s office—compared with just six for Democrats. To comprehend the magnitude of Democratic losses, consider that Republicans hold more power in the states than at any time since the Civil War.

https://www.city-journal.org/html/sa...ats-15364.html

[August]

Even more interesting:

The Bizarre Hacking Scandal That Democrats And The Press Are Happy To Ignore

Scandal: When federal officials arrested Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz's IT aide, Imran Awan, as he tried to flee for his native Pakistan, it was the latest twist to an already twisted scandal involving several House IT workers who possibly stole highly sensitive information from several Democrats. Stranger still has been the Democrats' nonresponse to this unfolding scandal.

Back in February, the Capitol Hill police opened a criminal investigation into Awan and four other House employees who provided IT services for several Democrats, including those serving on the House intelligence, foreign affairs and homeland security committees.
Investigators were looking into whether these employees, who had access to emails and official documents of dozens of Democratic lawmakers, had stolen equipment and sent information to an off-site server. The police immediately shut off their access to the House network.
From there, the story got weirder with every new revelation.
It turned out that the other four being investigated were relatives of Awan — two brothers, his wife, and a sister-in-law. Then we learned that Awan's bothers owed money to a Hezbollah-connected fugitive, and a friend of Awan's had been working at McDonald's before getting hired as an IT professional by Congressional Democrats.
What's more, they were pulling down unusually large salaries of around $160,000, according to the Daily Caller, which is the only news outlet that has been actively pursuing this story. Together, Awan and his family raked in $4 million between 2009 and 2016, the DC reported, for what at times appeared to be "no show" jobs.
Then, a month after the investigation was made public, Awan's wife took her children out of school and fled the country for Qatar. Earlier in the year, Awan wire transferred $283,000 to two people in Pakistan. More recently, the FBI found smashed hard drives and other equipment at Awan's home.
How these people were able to get high-paying, highly sensitive jobs with dozens of House Democrats over the years is a mystery.
Then there's Schultz's odd reaction to these events. After learning of the investigation, Schultz kept Awan on her payroll. In fact, she didn't fire him until this Tuesday, the day after he was arrested at the airport.
Also, after the Capital Police seized a computer related to their investigation of Awan — which Awan apparently hid in a crevice of the Rayburn House Office Building — Schultz demanded that they return it. She even spent several minutes of a Capital Police budget hearing hectoring the police chief to return the laptop and threatening "consequences" if he didn't. Only recently did Schultz's attorney begin negotiating with the police over access to that laptop.
Other Democrats have been utterly indifferent to the whole affair. At one point, Rep. Gregory Meeks suggested the police targeted Awan and his bothers because of Islamophobia, the DC reported. That led some congressional staffers to wonder if Awan and company were blackmailing House members with data they'd pilfered.
And, of course, since Democrats don't want this story in the news, the mainstream "news" media have entirely ignored it. Neither the New York Times, the Washington Post nor CNN appear to have published a single story on this case since it broke five months ago.
What does this all add up to? Nobody knows at the moment. Once the FBI is able to examine the equipment Awan tried to destroy, we might learn more about the parameters of this strange and troubling case. Until then, it would be helpful if Democrats and the press were to take it seriously and start pressing for answers.

[Platapus]

You don't need to be straight to fight and die for your country. You just need to shoot straight. -- Barry Goldwater

[eddie]

Now the so called Bad arse Zinke is threatening the Senators from Alaska because they didn't vote the way Donnie boy wanted them to on healthcare!?!

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politi...D=ansmsnnews11

[mapuc]

Originally Posted by Platapus

You don't need to be straight to fight and die for your country. You just need to shoot straight. -- Barry Goldwater

Didn't Patton say something similar

....you let the enemy die for his country"

Can't remember the exact phrase

Back to topic

Markus

[Onkel Neal]

More and more Republican Congressmen are drawing a red line over Sessions. I would love it if they would join the Democrats and impeach Trump. He needs to go.

[August]

Originally Posted by Platapus

You don't need to be straight to fight and die for your country. You just need to shoot straight. -- Barry Goldwater

Sounds good but:

How are you going to shoot straight when you are in the hospital getting your private parts cut off.

Why should we the taxpayers be forced to fund it?

I don't care what a person does to themselves but don't demand that I fund the lunacy. Nor do I want to see other soldiers putting themselves at risk to take up the slack for one of these people while they are off reinventing themselves or are too depressed to function over having not reinvented themselves yet, or any other reason that puts their personal issues over the needs of their unit.

[August]

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

More and more Republican Congressmen are drawing a red line over Sessions. I would love it if they would join the Democrats and impeach Trump. He needs to go.

If he is forced from office it could cause a civil war. Is subverting the will of the voters really that important?

[Skybird]

The climate where riots and violence between different opinion camps in the US is possible, has been created and did form up over the past couple of years, if not decades already. Trump coming, staying or being kicked, is just a symptom of it. Not the cause of the mess. And if he goes, whenever and however that will be, the problems will remain - and maybe become obvious more evidently than ever before.

A tornado moving through the countryside, is bad. A tornado without any attractor making it moving in one straight line, so it zig-zags unpredictably, is even more dangerous for those in its vicinity. Trump may be the attractor making it moving in a straight line.

The tornado itself - the climate and energy in the air creating it - you already have had before him.

The "old white men" in the US are loosing their voter base, the massive immigration wave form Latin America votes by majority for socialism braking out even more powerfzul in America. The - left-leaning - Democrats benefit from that, the Republicans will either turn socialist too, or get pushed out of the game for power. In the end, the differences between both parties will vanish, and all will turn into a one-party state. Like we already have in Germany by Merkel's net effect.

[mapuc]

Some thoughts after have read some of your comments

I doubt it will be a civil war if Trump is removed or impeached-There will be some demonstration and perhaps some riots. If there is a civil war it will be fought on the Internet.

I understand that people don't like Trump, but should this be a reasonable reason to remove or impeach him ?
(Here I'm thinking on some of the comments Platapus has postet. Doing a bad job, acting like a jerk and so on is not a criminal act)

Markus

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by mapuc

Some thoughts after have read some of your comments

I doubt it will be a civil war if Trump is removed or impeached-There will be some demonstration and perhaps some riots. If there is a civil war it will be fought on the Internet.

I understand that people don't like Trump, but should this be a reasonable reason to remove or impeach him ?
(Here I'm thinking on some of the comments Platapus has postet. Doing a bad job, acting like a jerk and so on is not a criminal act)

Markus

Not even me would impeach a Donald just because I "do not like it". Although this Donald's hair sometimes is tempting to be used as a valid argument to impeach it. - But nepotism, failure in duties, braking laws, corruption - that should be reason to impeach somebody for sure. When I did read an explanation longer time ago with what wide range of offences - in my book - you can get away with when you are POTUS, I was quite shocked and wondered whether the authors of these rules really had not lost any of their marbles. Protection for the POTUS imo goes too far in quite some of the examples explained. I post it when I can find it again.