Democrats could point out that tariffs are actually taxes and that what it really means is that Trump is raising taxes. There’s no greater poison for the GOP than that.

↪Benkei Democrats could point out that tariffs are actually taxes and that what it really means is that Trump is raising taxes. There’s no greater poison for the GOP than that. — Wayfarer

Don't assume that people would be so logical. Trump was saying that 'Mexico will pay for the wall', yet when the reality is that 'The wall will be funded from the US Defence Budget, especially from fighting the war in Afghanistan and also counter-narcotics funding', nobody cares.

Yeah but taking income off farmers is going to hurt the base a lot more than taking money off the Pentagon to build the Wall.

Politics isn't about facts most of the time. Once I've got you classified as a Conservative I obviously don't have to listen to you because of course a Conservative would say such things and we all know they're wrong.

You do the same about me as a pansy leftist and we can happily talk past each other while your buddies confirm what stupid dimwits those leftists are. Meanwhile, I'll be once again reinforced in my belief that to be conservative requires you to be as ignorant today as you were yesterday.

*Cue world collapsing because we can't get shit done*

Several ominous things have occurred in the past 24 hours.

1. Alabama Lawmakers Vote to Effectively Ban Abortion in the State
2. White House Reviews Military Plans Against Iran, in Echoes of Iraq War
3. Trump Opposes Federal LGBTQ Nondiscrimination Bill

Slate: Trump's Tariffs are actually a Huge Tax Hike

That’s what his tariffs are, after all: tax increases on imports. Trump knows this. He likes to brag about how much money the Treasury is collecting thanks to the levies he’s placed on everything from car parts to furniture to toilet paper shipped over from the People’s Republic. The problem is that he thinks the cash is coming out of China’s pocket. It’s not. Tariffs are legally paid by importers, and economically speaking, the cost tends to fall on domestic companies and consumers who buy goods from abroad. Recent research has suggested that, in 2018, just about 100 percent of Trump’s tariffs were passed on to Americans.

...All of this short-term pain might be worth the long-term gain if Trump had some sort of reasonable strategy for getting China to make serious changes to how it approaches trade. But the administration’s approach has been ad hoc and ill-considered; it’s based on the flimsy idea that the U.S. can use tariffs to bludgeon Beijing into submission in a one-on-one showdown. Maybe they’ll be proven right (you never know). But for now, it seems like Americans are paying higher taxes for nothing.

Of course, to the base, it doesn't matter. We all know the GOP hates and would never approve raising taxes. But the President has done it, so it must be alright.

Let's assume that Trump is just the ordinarily bad guy we all - most of us - think he is. Is it plausible he could screw up so much so consistently in so many ways all by himself? I don't think so. This isn't just incompetence, nor mere criminality; nor do I think he could think up all this stuff on his own. So who runs him? Who's writing his playbook, whispering in his ear? A subtext of his administration is to get rid of as many good guys as possible - accident? the truth is what makes sense, and what makes sense is the Russians somehow have his ear and make a lot of suggestions. Among them no doubt are recommendations as to who to appoint where. Is Barr a Russian agent? Unlikely, but he's clearly a tool. And others?

In short, in my opinion in Trump we have not just a very bad man and a very bad president, but also an enemy. Or a conduit for enemy input. If anyone can think of anything that makes more sense, please post it. I'd like to feel there was something else that made better sense that was a little less dire.

In short, in my opinion in Trump we have not just a very bad man and a very bad president, but also an enemy. Or a conduit for enemy input. If anyone can think of anything that makes more sense, please post it — tim wood

IMO, Trump is the apotheosis of narcissism. He wants to "win", and will cheat to do so. This alone doesn't imply he will harm the U.S. The bigger danger is that he's uninformed, lazy, and always things his uninformed opinions are right.

1. Alabama Lawmakers Vote to Effectively Ban Abortion in the State — Maw

This is just vindictive. No abortion even in case of invest and rape.

If anyone can think of anything that makes more sense, please post it. — tim wood

Here's my take from my plebian perspective. Trump is trying to imitate Reagan through adherence to neo-conservative economic thought. There's also a lot of libertarian sentiment in his philosophy of governance. Also, he has a lot of humanity in him, which other people don't really notice or are biased about him being on team red. He hasn't started any new wars, wants us to direly go back to the moon. Is very concerned about the American public, although some might say in a misguided manner. Psychologically he displays traits of an antisocial personality with a tinge of paranoia... He trusts Russians more than his own advisors, which is worrying to say the least. He has a very short attention span and is obsessed with the media, which is where he derives most of his "stable genius" insights.

The fundamental mistake about Trump is that he thinks that the American government should be run like a business, which is his area of expertise. But, the simple fact is that he is quite inept and unqualified for the job. You're going to hate me for saying this; but, if it comes down to a decision between Biden or Trump, I would pick Trump. As others have said Biden is Hillary with a penis.

Although, I should say that neo-cons like Bush and the like, fundamentally hate Trump for sabotaging Jeb's chance at the Bush dynasty. So, too the Clintons hate him for dashing their chance at their own dynasty.

You're going to hate me for saying this; but, if it comes down to a decision between Biden or Trump, I would pick Trump. — Wallows

This is the new normal. This guy is so bad and lousy he actually cannot do much, but the other guys are going to be even worse.

Perhaps inability to do anything should be viewed as a positive trait?

As others have said Biden is Hillary with a penis. — Wallows

That was me, glad you liked the analogy. :lol:

You're going to hate me for saying this; but, if it comes down to a decision between Biden or Trump, I would pick Trump. As others have said Biden is Hillary with a penis. — Wallows

Well that's just stupid, because Hillary was a better candidate than Trump, so Hillary with a penis would be a better candidate than Trump. Why would you pick the worse candidate? Not voting at all would be better than that. And voting for the best candidate would be the best course of action.

Well admittedly, Trump did manage to raise taxes through tariffs without anyone complaining about it. No mean feat in the US. I think he's secretly a communist.

I think he's secretly a communist — Benkei

:love:

And voting for the best candidate would be the best course of action. — S

Yeah, define best... Go figure.

You're going to hate me for saying this; but, if it comes down to a decision between Biden or Trump, I would pick Trump. As others have said Biden is Hillary with a penis. — Wallows

So why is Hillary (or Biden with a vagina) worse than Trump?

Trump comes off to me as a human being, although with flaws, just like anyone else. Clinton and Biden have their prerogatives and frankly I'll come off as a loon but their are deeply entrenched in special interests and the "deep state".

*Goes and takes his meds*

Maybe you'll feel differently after the meds kick-in.

Yeah, and here I take my bow and leave with some semblance of dignity.

I would pick Trump. — Wallows

That is, you would pick the bad man. Apparently you're not alone. Plato and Aristotle had quite a lot to say about the good and the bad man. Not knowing the bad man as a bad man is a serious piece of ignorance. With the bad man, you deserve whatever you get. Are you going to tell me that Trump is a good man? If yes, in what way?

It seems to me that he has an astonishingly consistent record of doing the bad thing in the bad way. Think of the things he's tried to accomplish and failed. There's a peculiar quality to that trail of failure. It almost seems as if success or failure were not really the issue, but that making a mess is - and his administration is oddly good at that.

Anyway, if you vote, don't vote for the bad man.

Trump is trying to imitate Reagan through adherence to neo-conservative economic thought. There's also a lot of libertarian sentiment in his philosophy of governance. — Wallows

:lol: That is just too funny - believing Trump has a philosophy, or expertise.

Think of the things he's tried to accomplish and failed. — tim wood

'Malevolence foiled by incompetence'.

:lol: That is just too funny - believing Trump has a philosophy, or expertise. — Wayfarer

Trump has a natural instinct for Science... a natural instinct for life.... he is an instinctual autodidact, a self-educated man who never read a book but relied on his ethereal instinct.

Yeah, and here I take my bow and leave with some semblance of dignity. — Wallows

The cleaver of ChimpPig gets no dignity....

'Malevolence foiled by incompetence'. — Wayfarer

But this is why he is such a great jobs president.

.............

In all honesty the only logical reason you would vote for Trump is that you hate humanity and either want to see the death of the species, destruction of all civilization or fall of the United States and you are just voting for Trump to expedite the process and so you can point and laugh all the while.

Trump is an abortion all grown up.

This is just vindictive. No abortion even in case of invest and rape. — Benkei

Yeah pretty I'm fucking angry today.

This is just vindictive. No abortion even in case of invest and rape. — Benkei

This was passed for one reason: to make its way to the Supreme Court, to give them an opportunity to strike down Roe v Wade.

Pat Robertson thinks this is not the best approach, because it goes SO far, it's easy to strike down without having to wrestle with the nuances. Even so, if it's struck down - it will show the current SCOTUS supports SOME abortion rights. We'll see.

Yeah, I suppose because it's done for the greater good it's all fine and dandy and totally lessens the vindictiveness of it all. :chin:

Pat Robertson thinks this is not the best approach, because it goes SO far, it's easy to strike down without having to wrestle with the nuances. Even so, if it's struck down - it will show the current SCOTUS supports SOME abortion rights. We'll see. — Relativist

And some support for limitations on it.

At least we know Kavanaugh will be in favour of abortion in case of rape because presumably a rapist like him doesn't want illegitimate children to walk around as proof.

At least we know Kavanaugh will be in favour of abortion in case of rape because presumably a rapist like him doesn't want illegitimate children to walk around as proof. — Benkei

Not at all. Striking down Roe v Wade does not outlaw abortion, it just permits individual states to do so. Trump and Kavanaugh can fly their Alabama girlfriends to New York to destroy the evidence of their indiscretions.

Trump storms out of meeting with dems

As if the Trump administration weren't already chaotic and ineffective, as documented by Michael Wolff and Bob Woodward last year, it has now reached the point where the White House and the Democratic Party can't even sit in the same room.

Trump really does seem to believe that the Mueller Report really did exonerate him, and that the investigation is a phoney witch hunt, as he keeps saying. I don't think this is at all true - but how can you run the country, with this issue still ticking along under every headline?

I mean, regardless of whether Trump should be impeached or not - I think he definitely should - it's simply going to be impossible for the Government of the United States to function when the presidency and the houses are operating at daggers drawn. There is going to have to be a boilover of some kind.

Drilling down on the story a bit more the consensus is that Trump didn't have, and couldn't get, anywhere near the trillions of dollars that he had been talking about for infrastructure, that was the purported subject of the meeting. Journalists noted that, affixed to the Rose Garden podium, was a nicely printed No Collusion No Obstruction poster for when Trump stormed out of the meeting and started to kvetch. So the whole walk-out was staged as a smokescreen for the inability to deliver the infrastructure funding, which was itself a smokescreen.

But the point remains - politics in the US is nearing total paralysis due to a combination of Trump's ineptitude and unfitness for office, and the ongoing consequences of the Mueller report. I mean, just what is not redacted in that report, is far, far worse than anything Richard Nixon was accused of doing, and he resigned before impeachment proceedings even began. But then, compared to the incumbent, Richard Nixon was an honest man.