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Poll

What do you expect on Wednesday?

Reports of protests are overblown. A few incidents around the country, but nothing major.
- 5 (45.5%)
A few major incidents in capitals, but nothing much in DC.
- 5 (45.5%)
A major incident in DC, but nothing much around the country.
- 0 (0%)
More than 10 capitals have major upheavals, but nothing much in DC.
- 0 (0%)
A major incident in DC plus more than 10 capitals with significant upheavals.
- 1 (9.1%)
More than half the capitals around the country have problems with protesters, but DC is quiet.
- 0 (0%)
DC has major problems, while more than half the capitals around the country also have considerable trouble with protesters.
- 0 (0%)
Huge disruption to the day.
- 0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Voting closed: January 19, 2021, 10:49:21 PM


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Author Topic: Trump Administration  (Read 1583950 times)

NeedsAdjustments

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #6405 on: November 20, 2018, 01:13:43 PM »

Just when you think this administration has hit the low on absurdity and incompetence:

Ivanka Trump used her private email account to conduct government business.

More amazingly, her explanation for this is that she didn't know that wasn't allowed.

...can't make this shit up.

Another nothingburger

"Another."  A nothingburger like the "Russia Thing" was?

I actually agree.  The email practices of administration officials are, largely, nothingburgers.  Of interest in that they are breaking the rules, perhaps, but worthy of a day or so of press coverage.  Just about the amount of coverage Ivanka's skirting of the rules will get.

But of course, Trump built an entire presidential campaign around Clinton's email practices.  So Ivanka doing it anyway shows total incompetence.  And her now (and yourself) saying that this amounts to a "nothingburger" is breathtaking hypocrisy.  And her claim that she didn't know she wasn't allowed to use private email is laughable, and an insult to our intelligence.

Give it the press coverage it deserves to point out her stupidity.  But then the media should also point that finger at themselves, at how stupid they were to buy into the Trump Campaign's narrative on the very same practice.
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"When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done."  -  The impeached "president" on Feb 27, 2020

NeedsAdjustments

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #6406 on: November 20, 2018, 01:17:46 PM »

Just when you think this administration has hit the low on absurdity and incompetence:

Ivanka Trump used her private email account to conduct government business.

More amazingly, her explanation for this is that she didn't know that wasn't allowed.

...can't make this shit up.

Another nothingburger

"Another."  A nothingburger like the "Russia Thing" was?

I actually agree.  The email practices of administration officials are, largely, nothingburgers.  Of interest in that they are breaking the rules, perhaps, but worthy of a day or so of press coverage.  Just about the amount of coverage Ivanka's skirting of the rules will get.

But of course, Trump built an entire presidential campaign around Clinton's email practices.  So Ivanka doing it anyway shows total incompetence.  And her now (and yourself) saying that this amounts to a "nothingburger" is breathtaking hypocrisy.  And her claim that she didn't know she wasn't allowed to use private email is laughable, and an insult to our intelligence.

Give it the press coverage it deserves to point out her stupidity.  But then the media should also point that finger at themselves, at how stupid they were to buy into the Trump Campaign's narrative on the very same practice.

BTW...

Both the Ivanka and Clinton email story pale in comparison to this one, in terms of the potential for classified and/or damaging info to get into the wrong hands:

https://www.vox.com/2018/10/24/18020906/trump-cell-phone-china-russia-new-york-times

...but we heard about this one too for about a day. 

And we heard nothing from elected Republican officials about this, and won't ever hear Republicans admit that their concern over Clinton's email practices were complete and total bullshit.
« Last Edit: November 20, 2018, 01:19:39 PM by NeedsAdjustments »
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"When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done."  -  The impeached "president" on Feb 27, 2020

NeedsAdjustments

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #6407 on: November 20, 2018, 01:24:06 PM »

BTW, an update on this, just one day later:

I don't think Trump is indifferent on Koshogi at all

Have to get all the facts in.  Talk that is too tough right now could be dangerous.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/20/world/middleeast/trump-saudi-khashoggi.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

President Trump declared his unswerving loyalty to Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, on Tuesday, declaring that the prince’s culpability in the killing of the journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, might never be known.

“It could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” Mr. Trump said in a remarkable, eight-paragraph, exclamation-point laden statement that appeared calculated to end debate over the American response to Mr. Khashoggi’s killing.

“We may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi,” Mr. Trump said in the statement, which read like a verbatim transcript of the president’s off-the-cuff musings. “In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”


---

kiidcarter8's whip smart analysis, always able to cut through the bullshit right to the truth.
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"When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done."  -  The impeached "president" on Feb 27, 2020

NeedsAdjustments

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #6408 on: November 20, 2018, 02:10:48 PM »

As somebody here made this mistake recently...

It would be easy to look at these gains and suggest that the impact of gerrymandering has been overstated. That would also be wrong.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/it-will-take-many-many-more-blue-waves-to-undo-the-gops-2010-power-grab

Offers some compelling comparisons at the state level.  I particular, this one in Pennsylvania, for people who might argue that all this is the result of Democrats "wasting" votes in high population urban areas:

Compare that to Pennsylvania, where the state Supreme Court ordered a new, non-partisan congressional map installed for 2018, after overturning district lines that had produced a 13-5 GOP delegation in 2012, 2014, and 2016 as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. The new districts created a fairer outcome: Democrats won 53 percent of the popular vote, and converted it into 50 percent of the seats. (In contrast, Democrats won just a tick under 50 percent of the statewide vote in 2016, but just 28 percent of the seats.)

How important are maps? While Pennsylvania’s congressional map was replaced this year, the state legislative maps drawn by Republicans remained in place. Pennsylvania voters re-elected a Democratic governor and U.S. senator with double-digit margins and flipped several U.S. House seats blue — but as in North Carolina, a blue wave didn’t come close to control, but merely ended a GOP supermajority in the Senate.


Note that the increased consolidation of Dems to urban areas did not happen in two years, between 2016 and 2018.  And the map that remained gerrymandered produced very different results.

Shows the effectiveness of GOP efforts to disenfranchise, an effort very much still in place in a number of states.
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"When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done."  -  The impeached "president" on Feb 27, 2020

Driver125

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #6409 on: November 20, 2018, 03:22:15 PM »

Quote
Still waiting for you guys to lock up Bush and Cheney
Not only are they not embarrassed by their own lawlessness, they revel in it. Welcome to Klid-Country.
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luee

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #6410 on: November 20, 2018, 04:40:51 PM »

Batten down the hatches, here comes the trickle down effect with a China trade war multiplier.

---Stocks plunged, with the S&P 500 and Dow erasing gains for the year.---

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REDSTATEWARD

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #6411 on: November 20, 2018, 05:14:27 PM »

Same playbook as the GOP efforts at voter suppression;
---
LOL

If it was voter suppression it failed miserably since voting turnout records were set all across the country and democrat made big gains in the House and recovered some of their previous losses at state levels. Turnout was up 12% nationwide with democrats getting 53% of the vote.
In Georgia Stacey Abrams, black candidate for Governor, came closer to winning a statewide race in the conservative State than any other democrat there in 20 years.
Still Abrams charged the winner, former Secretay of State Brian Kemp, with “ systemic disenfranchisement, disinvestment, and iincompetence. “. She overlooks that Georgia has grown its registrations by 20 per cent this decade, turnout was up 16,4%, and her
vote totals in two predominantly black counties was up  90% and 62% over the last mid-terms in 2014.

If Kemp was suppressing the vote he did a particularly shitty job of it.



« Last Edit: November 20, 2018, 06:04:13 PM by REDSTATEWARD »
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NeedsAdjustments

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #6412 on: November 20, 2018, 06:10:36 PM »

Same playbook as the GOP efforts at voter suppression;
---
LOL

If it was voter suppression it failed miserably since voting turnout records were set all across the country and democrat made big gains in the House and recovered some of their previous losses at state levels. Turnout was up 12% nationwide with democrats getting 53% of the vote.
In Georgia Stacey Abrams, black candidate for Governor, came closer to winning a statewide race in the conservative State than any other democrat there in 20 years.
Still Abrams charged the winner, former Secretay of State Brian Kemp, with “ systemic disenfranchisement, disinvestment, and iincompetence. “. She overlooks that Georgia has grown its registrations by 20 per cent this decade, turnout was up 16,4%, and her
vote totals in two predominantly black counties was up  90% and 62% over the last mid-terms in 2014.

If Kemp was suppressing the vote he did a particularly shitty job of it.

"Racism is over now, we elected a Black President."

That obstacles can, on occasion, be overcome doesn't mean they aren't there.
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"When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done."  -  The impeached "president" on Feb 27, 2020

NeedsAdjustments

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #6413 on: November 20, 2018, 06:11:38 PM »

Not only are they not embarrassed by their own lawlessness, they revel in it.

Trumpism in one sentence.

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"When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done."  -  The impeached "president" on Feb 27, 2020

NeedsAdjustments

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #6414 on: November 20, 2018, 06:17:17 PM »

Sounds legit:

In the three years after he arrived in Washington in 2014, Matthew G. Whitaker received more than $1.2 million as the leader of a charity that reported having no other employees, some of the best pay of his career....

In its application to the IRS for status as a tax-exempt organization, the organizers reported that the group would study the impact of environmental regulations on businesses, records show. In that incarnation, the group took no action and “only existed on paper,” one man named in IRS filings as a board member told The Washington Post. Another named in a state filing as a board member said he never agreed to be on the board...

James Crumley, who provides marketing services to conservative nonprofits and campaigns, was listed in an IRS filing as one of the directors. In a phone call, he initially said he did not remember anything about the group, including why it was formed.

“I can only speculate since I didn’t even remember this group existed,” he wrote in an email later.

Crumley said he’d learned that the group held no meetings and apparently had no bank account in its first two years. “The organization only existed on paper and didn’t do anything at all,” he wrote.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/conservative-nonprofit-with-obscure-roots-and-undisclosed-funders-paid-matthew-whitaker-12-million/2018/11/20/25ff987e-e9db-11e8-bd89-eecf3b178206_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ce137c66d48b

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"When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done."  -  The impeached "president" on Feb 27, 2020

bodiddley

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #6415 on: November 20, 2018, 06:31:03 PM »

You can take a look at a few states returns and notice something suspicious:

In IND, Dems won 2 of 9 House seats, both 65%/35%.

Missouri:
Dems won 2 of 8 seats, both landslides (81%/17% &  62%/36%)

No. Carolina:
Dems won 3 of 13 seats: all with 70% or more.

Ohio:
Dems won a mere 4 of 14 House races: with 82%, 73%, 68% & 61%

Tennessee: Dems won 2 of 9 districts: 80% & 68%
(not one competitive race -- the closest was a huge 29 point margin)

Texas:
36 seats.  Dems won 13, a number with 70% or more.  The GOP won 5 close contests, while the Dems only won one close race.

On the flipside, in Maryland, the GOP won 1 of 8 seats, 61%/38%.
Though none of the other 7 (Dem won) races were close at all, so even dispersing GOP voters from District 1 would not do enough to alter another race.  I must say they have some bizarre-shaped districts in Maryland though.


Sure Dem voters tend to be compacted into urban areas, but it's often how you divvy up the suburbs that makes a big difference.  And not hard to infer which states were gerrymandered.

Non-competitive races discourage participation, increase partisanship,
advantage incumbents, and otherwise hurt democracy and undermine faith in government.
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kiiidcarter8

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #6416 on: November 20, 2018, 06:35:25 PM »

"......were complete and utter bullshit"

Yeah.  Trump got her to smash phones with a hammer, allowing the electorate a glimpse into her composure under pressure.

Heh.
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NeedsAdjustments

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #6417 on: November 20, 2018, 07:29:58 PM »

Love lost in Utah.

Wave.
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"When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done."  -  The impeached "president" on Feb 27, 2020

REDSTATEWARD

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #6418 on: November 20, 2018, 07:55:41 PM »

Same playbook as the GOP efforts at voter suppression;
---
LOL

If it was voter suppression it failed miserably since voting turnout records were set all across the country and democrat made big gains in the House and recovered some of their previous losses at state levels. Turnout was up 12% nationwide with democrats getting 53% of the vote.
In Georgia Stacey Abrams, black candidate for Governor, came closer to winning a statewide race in the conservative State than any other democrat there in 20 years.
Still Abrams charged the winner, former Secretay of State Brian Kemp, with “ systemic disenfranchisement, disinvestment, and iincompetence. “. She overlooks that Georgia has grown its registrations by 20 per cent this decade, turnout was up 16,4%, and her
vote totals in two predominantly black counties was up  90% and 62% over the last mid-terms in 2014.

If Kemp was suppressing the vote he did a particularly shitty job of it.

"Racism is over now, we elected a Black President."

That obstacles can, on occasion, be overcome doesn't mean they aren't there.
Obama was on the ballot in 2008 and 2012.  Georgia voter rolls swelled after  2010, 2014, and 2018 mid terms. What obstacles are you talking about?
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whiskeypriest

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #6419 on: November 20, 2018, 07:58:53 PM »

You can take a look at a few states returns and notice something suspicious:

In IND, Dems won 2 of 9 House seats, both 65%/35%.

Missouri:
Dems won 2 of 8 seats, both landslides (81%/17% &  62%/36%)

No. Carolina:
Dems won 3 of 13 seats: all with 70% or more.

Ohio:
Dems won a mere 4 of 14 House races: with 82%, 73%, 68% & 61%

Tennessee: Dems won 2 of 9 districts: 80% & 68%
(not one competitive race -- the closest was a huge 29 point margin)

Texas:
36 seats.  Dems won 13, a number with 70% or more.  The GOP won 5 close contests, while the Dems only won one close race.

On the flipside, in Maryland, the GOP won 1 of 8 seats, 61%/38%.
Though none of the other 7 (Dem won) races were close at all, so even dispersing GOP voters from District 1 would not do enough to alter another race.  I must say they have some bizarre-shaped districts in Maryland though.


Sure Dem voters tend to be compacted into urban areas, but it's often how you divvy up the suburbs that makes a big difference.  And not hard to infer which states were gerrymandered.

Non-competitive races discourage participation, increase partisanship,
advantage incumbents, and otherwise hurt democracy and undermine faith in government.
it is more pronounced if you look at Stage Legislatures, a subject Red.seems to not broach when arguing this election 'conclusively" shows no gerrymandering.
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