Politics And Current Events

[MWB]

Who was it that said all the media does is report his tweets? I think twitter had a significant impact. Not saying he needed it to get elected, but it helped a lot.

[tifosi77]

Carter Page never got charged.

Wasn’t his the one that launched the whole investigation and started getting leads?

No, that was Papadapalous.

Page was under FISA surveillance like a year before Trump even announced his candidacy.

[Gaucho]

While we're at it, let's also uninvent the fax machine, the egg cooker, and detergent.

[tifosi77]

Like 2% of Americans are even on Twitter.

Actually, *ahem* it's more like 1-in-5.

But the biggest social media outlet that was exploited in the Russia campaign was Facebook, where around 70% of Americans have accounts.

[MWB]

I assume I know the answer to this, but for the Trump voters in here, and the anti-anti Trumps, has anything changed? For the former, has the needle moved at all where you’d consider not voting for him? For the latter, is he still considered basically no worse than others, or no affect?

40.5% +/- 0.3% Presidency likelihood during the whole past week (since Nov. 14) despite all the "bombshells" .

https://electionbettingodds.com/

Trump being really bad at doing improper/illegal things and surrounding himself with numbskulls is not really surprising, nor shocking to most people who have been exposed to him for 30+ years.

One of the things that is also not all that surprising is how incompetent most GOP folks are. They've been grifting on "conservative" principles for decades while governing as Corproratists and Big Government Tories for a similar length of time. An actual American Right died with Robert Taft.

I kind of don't want to get into a profound discussion of Trump, but IMO his first presidential term so far has been extremely efficient.

People who voted for him to get conservative judge(s) on the Supreme Court - delivered.
People who voted for him to cut taxes - delivered
People who voted for him to increase deregulation - delivered
People who voted for him to increase US protectionism - delivered
People who voted for him to increase US isolationism - delivered

All while the by far No. 1 determinant of re-election in all major statistical models covering all possible periods - stock market performance - massively increased.

IMO if a "standard Republican" President was able to deliver all of the above, he/she would be very popular and the re-election chances would be in high 70's-80s....

I don't disagree with this. You uninvent Twitter and his approval is in the upper 50's and he would sail to reelection.

Though there is good money being made in Never Trumper circles by acting all aghast at his eating his salad with a dessert fork.

Do you think the only reason he gets negative reactions is because of Twitter?

[Ted]

Like 2% of Americans are even on Twitter.

Actually, *ahem* it's more like 1-in-5.

But the biggest social media outlet that was exploited in the Russia campaign was Facebook, where around 70% of Americans have accounts.

I’m still waiting for the flood of Trump voters, specifically to announce they were intending to vote for Hillary until duped by Facebook ads.

[tifosi77]

IMO if a "standard Republican" President was able to deliver all of the above, he/she would be very popular and the re-election chances would be in high 70's-80s....

I don't remember who said it, but I agree with the assessment that when you look at his relatively stable approval ratings (low-to-mid-40% range throughout his term), that represents a ceiling as much as it does a floor.

[Troy Loney]

Like 2% of Americans are even on Twitter.

Actually, *ahem* it's more like 1-in-5.

But the biggest social media outlet that was exploited in the Russia campaign was Facebook, where around 70% of Americans have accounts.

I'm reading the Brittany Kaiser book right now, I'm not that far into it, but a part that is sticking out to me from a recitation of Alexander Nix's SCL pitch. He goes through a standard, "traditional marketing used to be top-down, now it's bottom up", blah blah blah, but then he uses an image of a picture of a beach with a private property sign, then follows that same beach image, but the second sign says shark sighting, and he's like, which message is more likely to influence behavior.

Basically, there are no rules on data in this country, people using facebook have volunteered so much information that we have no clue about.

And to the other point, no one that was influenced by the facebook messaging has any clue that they were influenced by the facebook messaging.

[count2infinity]

Like 2% of Americans are even on Twitter.

Actually, *ahem* it's more like 1-in-5.

But the biggest social media outlet that was exploited in the Russia campaign was Facebook, where around 70% of Americans have accounts.

I’m still waiting for the flood of Trump voters, specifically to announce they were intending to vote for Hillary until duped by Facebook ads.

I've read this post 5 times now trying to make sense of it... it's not coming to me. I must be a dupe.

[Willie Kool]

Like 2% of Americans are even on Twitter.

Actually, *ahem* it's more like 1-in-5.

But the biggest social media outlet that was exploited in the Russia campaign was Facebook, where around 70% of Americans have accounts.

I’m still waiting for the flood of Trump voters, specifically to announce they were intending to vote for Hillary until duped by Facebook ads.

Stein voters, and those who abstained...

[grunthy]

Like 2% of Americans are even on Twitter.

Actually, *ahem* it's more like 1-in-5.

But the biggest social media outlet that was exploited in the Russia campaign was Facebook, where around 70% of Americans have accounts.

I’m still waiting for the flood of Trump voters, specifically to announce they were intending to vote for Hillary until duped by Facebook ads.

Stein voters, and those who abstained...

So the people that never would have voted for Clinton anyway?

[Troy Loney]

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... rich-lowry

Rich Lowry
A couple of things. We ran our “Against Trump” issue in December 2015 prior to the Iowa caucuses. We desperately wanted to defeat him. We thought there were 16 better alternatives. But fast-forward to today, he’s now the president, and we’ve seen how he’s governed and I’ve been surprised in two ways.

I’ve been surprised how on some really important matters of substance to conservatives of long-standing, he’s been a rock, like on pro-life stuff, on conscience rights, on judges. That was one of the deep concerns we had about him but he’s basically delivered.

My other surprise is I thought he would attempt to tone it down in terms of his personal conduct once he took office, but he absolutely hasn’t. The office has made no impression on him whatsoever. The huge downside is that he doesn’t respect the separation of powers in our government, he doesn’t think constitutionally, and says and does things no president should do or say. And I and my colleagues call him out on that.

But at the end of the day, we’re asked to either favor Trump or root for Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden or Mayor Pete, who oppose us on basically everything. So it’s a pretty simple calculation.

Easing in to fascism.

[crusherstasiak]

fever dream

[grunthy]

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... rich-lowry

Rich Lowry
A couple of things. We ran our “Against Trump” issue in December 2015 prior to the Iowa caucuses. We desperately wanted to defeat him. We thought there were 16 better alternatives. But fast-forward to today, he’s now the president, and we’ve seen how he’s governed and I’ve been surprised in two ways.

I’ve been surprised how on some really important matters of substance to conservatives of long-standing, he’s been a rock, like on pro-life stuff, on conscience rights, on judges. That was one of the deep concerns we had about him but he’s basically delivered.

My other surprise is I thought he would attempt to tone it down in terms of his personal conduct once he took office, but he absolutely hasn’t. The office has made no impression on him whatsoever. The huge downside is that he doesn’t respect the separation of powers in our government, he doesn’t think constitutionally, and says and does things no president should do or say. And I and my colleagues call him out on that.

But at the end of the day, we’re asked to either favor Trump or root for Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden or Mayor Pete, who oppose us on basically everything. So it’s a pretty simple calculation.

Easing in to fascism.

There is only one party that refuses to accept the results of multiple elections. Only one party where the nominees are calling elections illegitimate.

[Troy Loney]

"Yes, only one party questions the legitimacy of the sitting president. "

- person in a coma between 2009 and 2017

[crusherstasiak]

https://www.post-gazette.com/local/wash ... 1911220067

6 measly cases...these people, man : (
all they do is *****
if you're not able to move to upper st clair and enjoy your tax break in peace that's on you

[MWB]

If you vote for Trump you vote for the things he does and says that “no president should ever do or say.” You’ve accepted it as part of the package, and it’s not important enough to ultimately matter.

[Kane]

"Yes, only one party questions the legitimacy of the sitting president. "

- person in a coma between 2009 and 2017

How dare he wear a tan suit.

[grunthy]

"Yes, only one party questions the legitimacy of the sitting president. "

- person in a coma between 2009 and 2017

I didn’t know the RNC slogans and official position was Obama wasn’t a citizen.

[crusherstasiak]

There is only one party that refuses to accept the results of multiple elections. Only one party where the nominees are calling elections illegitimate.

[Troy Loney]

"Yes, only one party questions the legitimacy of the sitting president. "

- person in a coma between 2009 and 2017

I didn’t know the RNC slogans and official position was Obama wasn’t a citizen.

lol, "official position".

Whatever point you are trying to make, provide more context, these one liners make no sense.

[Troy Loney]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/22/us/p ... e=Homepage

President Trump refused to commit Friday to signing legislation overwhelmingly passed by Congress to support pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, saying that he supported the protesters but that President Xi Jinping of China was “a friend of mine.”

[grunthy]

"Yes, only one party questions the legitimacy of the sitting president. "

- person in a coma between 2009 and 2017

I didn’t know the RNC slogans and official position was Obama wasn’t a citizen.

lol, "official position".

Whatever point you are trying to make, provide more context, these one liners make no sense.

The DNC **** ing sued about undermining an election.

[NailedPenguin]

Oh well if the good people over at vox.com believe were on the edge of facism that changes everything!

[CBear3]

"Yes, only one party questions the legitimacy of the sitting president. "

- person in a coma between 2009 and 2017

I didn’t know the RNC slogans and official position was Obama wasn’t a citizen.

"Yes, only one party questions the legitimacy of the sitting president. "

- person in a coma between 2009 and 2017

take the L on that one nobody. You can admit that Stacy Abrams and those who still repeat her belief that she lost an illegitimate election are smoking crack and also understand that the Head of the Republican party, the man sitting in the Oval Office, basically got his second political life by continuously moaning that Obama was a Kenyan Muslim.

I often wonder if Obama hadn't berated him so badly at the Correspondence dinner if we'd have a Trump presidency at all.