The Political Thread

[TordelBack]

While I'd love the chance of a holiday in Haiti, I don't want to live there any more than I'd like to live in that magical kingdom of whiteness Norway, mainly because my home and interests are here in Ireland.

But that's not really the point, is it?  My issue is the idea that rich white people should be allowed to travel while poor dark-skinned people need to stay where they are.

What that man said.

I've called more than a few places shitholes in my time,  I've even lived in one or two (by my middle class western standards).   What I have never done is say that the people that live there are inferior to the people that live in 'nice' places, nor ascribed those values along black and white lines. And I'm not even in the position of influencing global policies and attitudes.

Trump, and his supporters, are a disgrace to humanity, and no amount of supposed telling-it-like-it-is changes that.

[JayzusB.Christ]

On a related note, I've been teaching English to Mexicans this week. The question arose as to whether anyone had ever done anything illegal. While I always considered my own youthful transgressions mild if manifold (mainly drug possession, shoplifting and traffic violations) the worst the two Mexicans could manage was taking a piss in public (one while drunk in an alleyway, one with his wife keeping watch while on a quiet cliffside walk).

But yeah, build that fucking wall, Trump, while your own citizens carry on with their shooting sprees and rioting. 

[Professor Bear]

Impeachment seems increasingly like a necessary public duty than a criminal one

Not going to happen.  The highest office in the Western hemisphere being brought down by either the system or the people it represents would set a disastrous precedent for the political establishment, as well as be a millstone around the Republican Party's neck in exactly the same way Nixon has been.  Legacy means a great deal to this strain of the political classes, as you can tell by the way they've worked relentlessly to destroy anything Obama contributed to policy while in office, and they work under the impression that they control how history will be written and that their provable transgressions will be written out of it.

[IndigoPrime]

Either he'll quit after his first term as the "best president ever" or he'll get a second term. Those are the only two scenarios, bar karma giving him a heart attack on a golf course.

As for the shithole comment, it says everything about the man. He's a disgrace.

[Smith]

It's also worth remembering that $10bn in international aid donations following the Haitian earthquake allegedly disappeared under the stewardship of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Apparently, even though they loved Haiti enough to spend part of their honeymoon there, the Clintons prioritised sinking aid money into garment factories and a business centre over addressing the problems of ordinary Haitians made destitute and suffering cholera outbreaks following the earthquake.

Also,a good point.

[Jim_Campbell]

Also,a good point.

Deflection. You've been asked directly whether you're approving of Trump's statement and its implications. Perhaps you should answer that.

[Tjm86]

It does seem a bit of a pastime, to loathe whoever is in office as American president.  Obama has been the rare bright spark but even there his record has been tainted, particularly over the issue of Gitmo and drones.  That said, Trump seems an order of magnitude worse than anything that we've seen in the oval office.  Reagen might have been a dithering fool, Bush a stooge of the oil business and Clinton a lying womaniser but the comments, actions and behaviour of Trump are disturbing at times.  More worrying is the way in which he has seemingly accelerated media mistrust.  Editorial bias has always been a concern but he seems to have seized on it and expanded it in an especially damaging manner.

Impeachment though?  I'd have to agree with PB here; not particularly likely to happen.  Even if it did, it doesn't necessarily guarantee that Trump will go. I suspect that we will have to ride out the next three years, praying that Trump doesn't manage to destroy all human life on this planet.   

As for the 'shithole' comment; there are plenty of parts of the US and Europe that could potentially fall under that category.  Personally I have a high level of antipathy for Suffolk, particularly the Stowmarket area.

[Modern Panther]

It's also worth remembering that $10bn in international aid donations following the Haitian earthquake allegedly disappeared under the stewardship of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Apparently, even though they loved Haiti enough to spend part of their honeymoon there, the Clintons prioritised sinking aid money into garment factories and a business centre over addressing the problems of ordinary Haitians made destitute and suffering cholera outbreaks following the earthquake.

allegedly

I mean, if we're setting unsourced allegations as the bar, then Trump is "allegedly" a treasonous money launderer.

[The Legendary Shark]

A source.

[TordelBack]

No-one is under the impression that you can get to be, and remain, POTUS while retaining blood-free hands and unblemished character: it's not possible.  Deflecting arguments by accusing people of believing that is probably the greatest straw-man fallacy of all. 

So the dubious, venal, stupid or plain brutal deeds of Bush Sr, Clinton, Bush Jr and Obama (or Washington, Lincoln, Kennedy, you fecking name 'em: skeletons abound) are completely irrelevant: we know.

What matters is that the current incumbent is a contemptible dickweasel whose every stumbling utterance emboldens the vilest dregs of humanity and reassures them that their wilful ignorance, contempt for the weak and hate-filled selfishness is not just okay, but worthy of the highest acclaim and respect of their nation. Obama, whatever his other sins, represented his nation as caring, witty, educated, inclusive, respectful and informed: his personal grace was something to be admired, to aspire to, even if he too had feet of clay.

Trump degrades the USA in a way even crooked Nixon, arrogant LBJ and Chimp-in-Chief GWB scarcely approached, and as the whole planet lives in its political and economic ambit, all of us too.

[TordelBack]

POST DELETED.

Thought better of continuing with my rant.  Trump is bad, mmmmkay?

[Eric Plumrose]

Those are the only two scenarios, bar karma giving him a heart attack on a golf course.

Too good for him, shirley? Son of Karma demands Al Trumpone be crushed by his wall while denying by tweet he knew all along 'poonani' means what it means and, no, he didn't grab it confuse it for that non-American Indian bloke's wife. Meanwhile, the Grey Cardinal finalizes divorce proceedings but that's just поддельные новости.

[Goaty]

I just want Trump to be ruined and his family name in blacklisted.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

I'm running a sweep on when he's going to drop the N-bomb

[M.I.K.]

I'm running a sweep on when he's going to drop the N-bomb

According to a couple of stories from last year he already has. Supposedly captured on tape during a recording of a boardroom meeting relating to The Apprentice, (tape is yet to surface, obviously), and Don Cheadle claims he used the term during a game of golf with a friend's father, (a man Trump had only just met).