President Trump & the USA

[Darkon84]

Couple of brief updates. I won't be getting in to anything tonight, but may reply tomorrow if I have time.

 

Following on from the Trumps vs CNN wrestling tweet thing..... (sorry to bring it up again). CNN 'investigated' and found out who they thought had created the gif/video, to then pretty much blackmail the guy, saying they'd out his real name etc if he did anything else similar. To be fair, the guy they highlighted had apparently posted some distasteful stuff before (though I haven't personally seen it, but a few places have said similar so I'll take that). 

However, it has since come out that the guy they've threatened isn't even the creator of said gif/video. Once again, CNN has shown itself up massively. All they needed to do was point and laugh at Trump about the tweet, saying how stupid it was (which it was), but instead they overreacted and have done themselves no favours.

 

According to the latest Politico poll, 60% of voters now support the proposed temporary travel ban, compared to 28% against it. I'm still personally dubious over it, though, as usual, the hypocrisy of the outrage needs to be highlighted as the thing and the countries were originally created by the Obama administration with zero outcry.

 

Kathy Griffin has now also been questioned by the secret service over her 'severed head' stunt. Surely that must be seen as inciting violence now? For what it's worth, my personal opinion is that that is going way too far, though it's good to see they are at least being consistent, as they did the same thing, questioning Ted Nugent in 2012 when he said "We need to ride in to that battlefield and chop their heads off in November", referring to the Obama administration. I admittedly hadn't heard that before, and I feel exactly the same way about that as I have argued against Griffin, Madonna etc. Reprehensible behaviour. 

 

Ciao for now!

[Buce]

 

Trump ramping up the rhetoric on NK.

 

The go-to response for being unpopular at home - start another fvcking war.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40515329

[Nick]

1 minute ago, Buce said:

 

Trump ramping up the rhetoric on NK.

 

The go-to response for being unpopular at home - start another fvcking war.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40515329

 

Yeah his tweets about 'sorting them out' and China and Russia involvement in this are so politically inept in terms of advocacy and diplomacy its not just unbecoming of the role - it's incompetent and beyond embarrassing.

 

Absolute Fvcktard.

 

[Innovindil]

Wait are we blaming trump for NK constantly testing missiles? 

[Nick]

5 minutes ago, Innovindil said:

Wait are we blaming trump for NK constantly testing missiles? 

No we are a slating him for his incompetence in relation to his political response to NK's missile tests.

[Innovindil]

Just now, Swan Lesta said:

No we are a slating him for his incompetence in relation to his political response to NK's missile tests.

What would you like him to do? He's asked china/russia for help in dealing with them. We've already got severe sanctions on them. And japan/sk are getting (rightly, imo) worried. 

 

Just want him to go have a chat with the tubby tyrant and get him to calm down? 

[Nick]

Just now, Innovindil said:

What would you like him to do? He's asked china/russia for help in dealing with them. We've already got severe sanctions on them. And japan/sk are getting (rightly, imo) worried. 

 

Just want him to go have a chat with the tubby tyrant and get him to calm down? 

 

I'd like him to demonstrate some advocacy and diplomacy skills that bear some resemblance to the office which he holds.

[Innovindil]

1 minute ago, Swan Lesta said:

 

I'd like him to demonstrate some advocacy and diplomacy skills that bear some resemblance to the office which he holds.

Again, he's tried that, he's asked for help, not received much at all. Should he just sit and wait til NK has finished its nukes? 

 

You think they won't become a problem 100 times worse when they're finished? 

[Nick]

1 hour ago, Innovindil said:

Again, he's tried that, he's asked for help, not received much at all. Should he just sit and wait til NK has finished its nukes? 

 

You think they won't become a problem 100 times worse when they're finished? 

I have no idea why you are addressing these points at me. Nowhere have I played down the need for action or the potential disastrous outcomes of doing nothing.

 

I'm simply saying that global advocacy and diplomacy isn't perhaps a forum for blunt twitter comments.

[Guest MattP]

2 hours ago, Innovindil said:

Wait are we blaming trump for NK constantly testing missiles? 

Yep,  somehow

 

I think we've got the point now, if Trump flew into the middle east and created peace in the Israel/Palestine conflict the first reaction would be from some to cry about the plane he flew in on.

 

It's all a bit boring now. 

[leicsmac]

2 hours ago, Innovindil said:

Again, he's tried that, he's asked for help, not received much at all. Should he just sit and wait til NK has finished its nukes? 

 

You think they won't become a problem 100 times worse when they're finished? 

 

Yes, and no. In that order.

 

And, furthermore, if you took a look around SK right now you'd find they're more worried about the next update for their smartphone than what is happening a few miles north.

 

Because (and this is the important part, and something that Trumps advisors should really be telling him if they were any way competent)...it is all a bluff. The NK's know they lose any war with the South and the US, so they will never, ever start one - nukes or no nukes. 

 

What Trump has said here is just idiotic rhetoric that does nothing for the situation, and makes it seem to everyone concerned that the only way a war would actually start on the Korean peninsula, viz. a US intervention, is on the table. That would be beyond disastrous, but I'm sure it would play well with a decent-sized part of his voter base who can then enjoy their favourite spectator sport on Fox News. A good war does do wonders for approval ratings, after all.

 

15 minutes ago, MattP said:

Yep,  somehow

 

I think we've got the point now, if Trump flew into the middle east and created peace in the Israel/Palestine conflict the first reaction would be from some to cry about the plane he flew in on.

 

It's all a bit boring now. 

 

Far be it from assuming the intent of other people, but I think the general flow here was a desire for Trump to actually act like a statesman and show savvy regarding the political situation and his response to it, rather than just blaming him for what other countries have done.

[Merging Cultures]

The issue is clearly about the way he says these things. He's not wrong, this time, China is clearly not helping the situation.

However, is potentially pissing off China a wise thing? I think bringing Russia into it is just his way of trying to demonstrate that he isn't in cohoots with them, even though we know he is.

Diplomacy is much more nuanced than this guy can handle, and far more nuanced than a 140 character tweet.

[The Horse's Mouth]

Trump's actually been quite impressive on the world stage, it's about time someone has tried to do something about North Korea rather than pretending there isn't one.

[leicsmac]

4 minutes ago, The Horse's Mouth said:

Trump's actually been quite impressive on the world stage, it's about time someone has tried to do something about North Korea rather than pretending there isn't one.

 

My apologies, but the last few decades have been "doing something" about North Korea, and as the peninsula hasn't erupted into a firestorm I'd say it's worked reasonably well.

[The Horse's Mouth]

8 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

My apologies, but the last few decades have been "doing something" about North Korea, and as the peninsula hasn't erupted into a firestorm I'd say it's worked reasonably well.

aye, help funding their nuclear missile program has been going reasonably well. 

[leicsmac]

Just now, The Horse's Mouth said:

aye, help funding their nuclear missile program has been going reasonably well. 

Yup, it's amazing how destabilising various areas of the world by the major powers causes both money and skilled people to go to places that...probably are undesirable.

 

Of course, as detailed above, it's all a bluff anyway, and Trump is doing it a service by buying it.

[Carl the Llama]

So apparently some Trump supporters are angered by the wording of their constitution...: 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/05/declaration-independence-tweets-confuse-donald-trump-supporters/

 

Quote

 

The Declaration of Independence has caused confusion on Twitter after some Donald Trump supporters appeared to interpret the text as an attack on the president.

America’s National Public Radio (NPR)faced a public backlash after sharing the famous document in a series of tweets to celebrate Independence Day.  

It’s an annual NPR tradition to read out the Declaration of Independence line-by-line on-air for the past 29 years, but their tweets were apparently misinterpreted by some.

One Twitter user mistakenly thought the federal funded station was calling for a political revolution against Mr Trump.

“So, NPR is calling for a revolution. Interesting way to condone the violence while trying to sound ‘patriotic’. Your implications are clear,” wrote one.

Another responded: “Propaganda is that all you know? Try supporting a man who wants to do something about the injustice in this country.”

“Glad you are being defunded,” tweeted another. “You have never been balanced on your show.”

“Seriously, this is the dumbest idea I have ever seen on Twitter,” said another comment. “Literally no one is going to read 5000 tweets about this trash.”

 

 

[leicsmac]

53 minutes ago, Carl the Llama said:

So apparently some Trump supporters are angered by the wording of their constitution...: 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/05/declaration-independence-tweets-confuse-donald-trump-supporters/

 

 

 

This would be harmless amusement if that same attitude didn't bleed over into matters directly affecting the future of everyone.

[DJ Barry Hammond]

 

Questions for people;

 

1.) Do you think a Trump has any level of justification to suggest certain media outlets have been unfair in their reporting to him

 

2.) Do you think the way the media are reporting his actions are actually making the situation worse?

 

To provide my own observation on these two questions, I believe there is evidence of a sneering undertone towards Trump from certain sections of the media and that this has resulted in Trump being further intrenched inside his own position.

 

Given the character traits on show from the Donald, direct attacks are unlikely to hold weight in terms of influencing and changing opinion and so I surmise the media are doing the world no favours here, regardless of the rights and wrongs of President Trump. 

[leicsmac]

30 minutes ago, DJ Barry Hammond said:

 

Questions for people;

 

1.) Do you think a Trump has any level of justification to suggest certain media outlets have been unfair in their reporting to him

 

2.) Do you think the way the media are reporting his actions are actually making the situation worse?

 

To provide my own observation on these two questions, I believe there is evidence of a sneering undertone towards Trump from certain sections of the media and that this has resulted in Trump being further intrenched inside his own position.

 

Given the character traits on show from the Donald, direct attacks are unlikely to hold weight in terms of influencing and changing opinion and so I surmise the media are doing the world no favours here, regardless of the rights and wrongs of President Trump. 

I'd definitely agree that many sections of the media are negatively predisposed towards the guy, and it doesn't serve a really useful purpose - for exactly the reasons you say and as a result distracting from and in a way enabling the really negative aspects of policy that he's putting in place.

Edited 6 July 2017 by leicsmac

[Carl the Llama]

1 hour ago, DJ Barry Hammond said:

 

Questions for people;

 

1.) Do you think a Trump has any level of justification to suggest certain media outlets have been unfair in their reporting to him

 

2.) Do you think the way the media are reporting his actions are actually making the situation worse?

 

To provide my own observation on these two questions, I believe there is evidence of a sneering undertone towards Trump from certain sections of the media and that this has resulted in Trump being further intrenched inside his own position.

 

Given the character traits on show from the Donald, direct attacks are unlikely to hold weight in terms of influencing and changing opinion and so I surmise the media are doing the world no favours here, regardless of the rights and wrongs of President Trump. 

1.)  Of course he does: He's a high profile political figure so there'll always be somebody in the media being unfair to him.

 

2.)  Most likely but they really shouldn't be:  Obama was under constant harassment from the Fox and the extreme right-wing media but he didn't let it affect his decorum let alone start a war with news organisations.  Likewise Dubya who received the same levels of disdain from the liberal side of their media as we're seeing now.  This sort of behaviour by the US media is nothing new so it's not something we should expect to significantly trouble a president, the only thing that's changed is the mental stability of the incumbent (yep I can't believe we've already had a president make George W. Bush look sane by comparison either).

[leicsmac]

Trump and Putin together at the G20 summit.

 

As Trump doesn't seem to listen to anyone else perhaps Vlad can have a word in his ear about the suicidally bad environmental policy of the current administration and a way to actually do something good for the future in that regard?

[Detroit Blues]

46 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Trump and Putin together at the G20 summit.

 

As Trump doesn't seem to listen to anyone else perhaps Vlad can have a word in his ear about the suicidally bad environmental policy of the current administration and a way to actually do something good for the future in that regard?

It's in the Russian interest that global warming continue to open up shipping lanes in the artic, and make oil there more accessible to drilling.

[Nick]

On 6 July 2017 at 12:37, MattP said:

Yep,  somehow

 

I think we've got the point now, if Trump flew into the middle east and created peace in the Israel/Palestine conflict the first reaction would be from some to cry about the plane he flew in on.

 

It's all a bit boring now. 

 

Show me where we/me are blaming Donald Trump for North Korea testing missiles? 

 

Just because you're a closet Trump lover doesn't mean that his brash stupid incompetence has become any less boring for the rest of us. In fact I'd rather keep it in the limelight CNN style - lest not we forget!

[leicsmac]

2 minutes ago, Detroit Blues said:

It's in the Russian interest that global warming continue to open up shipping lanes in the artic, and make oil there more accessible to drilling.

Of course. But as Putin is perhaps a little smarter than his current US counterpart he (or someone around him) might have actually considered the long term consequences of this.

 

Or maybe not and there's a significant non-zero chance things are going to be interesting.

 

1 minute ago, Swan Lesta said:

 

Show me where we/me are blaming Donald Trump for North Korea testing missiles? 

 

Just because you're a closet Trump lover doesn't mean that his brash stupid incompetence has become any less boring for the rest of us. In fact I'd rather keep it in the limelight CNN style - lest not we forget!

As I've said before, I'd consider it humorous if it wasn't so dangerous at the local level for marginalised groups now and for potentially everyone in the future. That's when it stops being funny.