[Discussion] The Donald Trump Administration

Let's follow and discuss what our newest presidential administration gets up to, the good, the bad, the lawsuits.

Yea but when Southern Rupublicans say "states rights" they mean "states should have the freedom to enslave or discriminate against african americans" not "states should have self determination"

In fact, even in the civil war states rights didn't mean self determination, the Confederate Constitution specifically stripped member states of self determination on half a dozen topics, most especially slavery.

Southern Republicans who champion "states rights" never see the irony in their love of the Fugitive Slave Acts.

I think the point is it's only an irony from the outside looking in. It's a language problem, outsiders can't hear the dogwhistle that 'states rights' is.

thrawn82 wrote:

I think the point is it's only an irony from the outside looking in. It's a language problem, outsiders can't hear the dogwhistle that 'states rights' is.

Exactly. But they will completely deny that "states rights" is code for "white supremacy".

Paleocon wrote:
thrawn82 wrote:

I think the point is it's only an irony from the outside looking in. It's a language problem, outsiders can't hear the dogwhistle that 'states rights' is.

Exactly. But they will completely deny that "states rights" is code for "white supremacy".

Greatly depends on context. States rights were a big thing for Republicans during Marriage Equality battles too... right up until states started legalizing then we needed a Constitutional Amendment.

Demosthenes wrote:
Paleocon wrote:
thrawn82 wrote:

I think the point is it's only an irony from the outside looking in. It's a language problem, outsiders can't hear the dogwhistle that 'states rights' is.

Exactly. But they will completely deny that "states rights" is code for "white supremacy".

Greatly depends on context. States rights were a big thing for Republicans during Marriage Equality battles too... right up until states started legalizing then we needed a Constitutional Amendment.

'States rights' is never ever about autonomy. It is universally a dog whistle for gov sanctioned discrimination. Always.

thrawn82 wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:
Paleocon wrote:
thrawn82 wrote:

I think the point is it's only an irony from the outside looking in. It's a language problem, outsiders can't hear the dogwhistle that 'states rights' is.

Exactly. But they will completely deny that "states rights" is code for "white supremacy".

Greatly depends on context. States rights were a big thing for Republicans during Marriage Equality battles too... right up until states started legalizing then we needed a Constitutional Amendment.

'States rights' is never ever about autonomy. It is universally a dog whistle for gov sanctioned discrimination. Always.

I'm upset at how long it took me to figure that out. It turned out that states rights was one of a number of things I was taught were bedrocks of conservative belief...right up until they were suddenly inconvenient.

Like the national deficit.

I am not even really sure what "conservative" means any more outside of the context of white supremacy. Just about everything else seems fungible.

Paleocon wrote:

I am not even really sure what "conservative" means any more outside of the context of white supremacy. Just about everything else seems fungible.

They've been pretty consistent about being against whatever Democrats are talking about.

Paleocon wrote:

I am not even really sure what "conservative" means any more outside of the context of white supremacy. Just about everything else seems fungible.

Once again Paleo drives it with a tack-driver precision.

Gorilla.800.lbs wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

I am not even really sure what "conservative" means any more outside of the context of white supremacy. Just about everything else seems fungible.

Once again Paleo drives it with a tack-driver precision.

Careful. You’ll end up on my signature.

thrawn82 wrote:

Yea but when Southern Rupublicans say "states rights" they mean "states should have the freedom to enslave or discriminate against african americans" not "states should have self determination"

In fact, even in the civil war states rights didn't mean self determination, the Confederate Constitution specifically stripped member states of self determination on half a dozen topics, most especially slavery.

I certainly realize this. Many Southern and midwestern Republicans are actively trying to reform the us in their narrow ‘white is right’ image. They certainly play on religion and stereotypes to propagate their holy crusade against the minority. I feel that’s true for a vast majority of R’s currently in our news cycle.

I guess the flaws of a two party system have really begun accelerating to its own rapid destruction.

Paleocon wrote:
Gorilla.800.lbs wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

I am not even really sure what "conservative" means any more outside of the context of white supremacy. Just about everything else seems fungible.

Once again Paleo drives it with a tack-driver precision.

Careful. You’ll end up on my signature.

truely a grim fate...

Big Brother? This country, man... shambolic disgrace.

IMAGE(https://i.redd.it/8yv2sila01f01.jpg)

WP: Top White House officials knew of abuse allegations against top aide for months

White House Counsel Donald McGahn knew one year ago that staff secretary Rob Porter’s ex-wives were prepared to make damaging accusations about him but allowed him to serve as an influential gatekeeper and aide to President Trump without investigating the accusations, according to people familiar with the matter.

Chief of Staff John F. Kelly learned this fall about the allegations of spousal abuse and that they were delaying Porter’s security clearance amid an ongoing FBI investigation. But Kelly handed Porter more responsibilities to control the flow of information to the president.

thrawn82 wrote:

I think the point is it's only an irony from the outside looking in. It's a language problem, outsiders can't hear the dogwhistle that 'states rights' is.

I would bet that a lot of insiders don't recognize what they're saying or its implications, either. When outside says something, inside says "I want my way," and it comes out as "state's rights."

On this week's Trumpalogues, ham hocks and the Roman Empire.

Yeah, I don't know why I'm still doing this either.

Trump can't even be assed to even read the bullet-pointed summaries of intelligence briefings and now relies on oral briefings every couple of days that are largely driven by what he wants to hear about, not what's happening in the world that he needs to know about.

And now I'm worrying more about this willfully ignorant motherf*cker starting a war with North Korea because he honestly doesn't have a clue of what's happening because he can't be bothered to read what our intelligence agencies spend billions of dollars to produce.

WaPo wrote:

For much of the past year, President Trump has declined to participate in a practice followed by the past seven of his predecessors: He rarely if ever reads the President’s Daily Brief, a document that lays out the most pressing information collected by U.S. intelligence agencies from hot spots around the world.

Trump has opted to rely on an oral briefing of select intelligence issues in the Oval Office rather than getting the full written document delivered to review separately each day, according to three people familiar with his briefings.

Reading the traditionally dense intelligence book is not Trump’s preferred “style of learning,” according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

The arrangement underscores Trump’s impatience with exhaustive classified documents that go to the commander in chief — material that he has said he prefers condensed as much as possible. But by not reading the daily briefing, the president could hamper his ability to respond to crises in the most effective manner, intelligence experts warned.

Soon after Trump took office, analysts sought to tailor their intelligence sessions for a president with a famously short attention span, who is known for taking in much of his information from conservative Fox News Channel hosts. The oral briefings were augmented with photos, videos and graphics.

After several months, Trump made clear he was not interested in reviewing a personal copy of the written intelligence report known as the PDB, a highly classified summary prepared before dawn to provide the president with the best update on the world’s events, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

...

Several intelligence experts said that the president’s aversion to diving deeper into written intelligence details — the “homework” that past presidents have done to familiarize themselves with foreign policy and national security — makes both him and the country more vulnerable.

Leon Panetta, a former CIA director and defense secretary for President Barack Obama, said Trump could miss important context and nuance if he is relying solely on an oral briefing. The arrangement also increases pressure on the president’s national security team, which cannot entirely replace a well-informed commander in chief, he said.

“Something will be missed,” Panetta said. “If for some reason his instincts on what should be done are not backed up by the intelligence because he hasn’t taken the time to read that intel, it increases the risk that he will make a mistake.”

“You can have the smartest people around you — in the end it still comes down to his decision,” he added.

...

Aides say Trump receives his in-person intelligence briefing nearly every day, although his publicly released schedules indicate that the sessions have been taking place about every two to three days on average in recent months, typically around 11 a.m.

It's fine. It'll be fine. We're fine. Everything's fine. It's fine. Everything is fine. It's fine.

I want the world's media taking Pence to task for not standing for both Koreas entering together at the opening ceremonies.

It's just petty juvenile sh*t and I'm really embarrassed.

Every step they take together is a step towards peace. We should be nothing but respectful and supportive.

Wait, what happened?

Awesome. Either that was a calculated snub, or the admin is terrible at diplomacy. I'm honestly not sure which it's more likely to be.

He chose to sit in that box by the NK delegation. It was a snub. A sh*tty juvenile snub that also snubs the SK.

IN OTHER NEWS, not declassifying the memo.

In OTHER other news: Speechwriter out for domestic abuse allegations.

Other OTHER other news: Kelly talks about resigning.

And in Other OTHER otter news: Pictures.

oilypenguin wrote:

He chose to sit in that box by the NK delegation. It was a snub. A sh*tty juvenile snub that also snubs the SK.

Definitely. Just like the sh*t he pulled with the Colts, protesting against NFL players.

Except in that case he didn't even go in the stadium and tweeted a 2 or 3 year old picture.

So he decided to release the GOP memo before he read* it, but for the dem memo, he's deferring to the DoJ and not releasing it, even though the DoJ said releasing the GOP one would be reckless. Cool.

*well, had someone give him the jist, he can't be expected to read words.

oilypenguin wrote:

And in Other OTHER otter news: Pictures.

Yay! That's right by me.