Sigh...

That doesn't address my point. YOU said that going along with this idea will not have long term consequences on congress because voter attention spans are short. So if voter attention spans are short then how will this benefit Trump? If it's merely a short term gain then why do it when the potential political fallout could be so great? Especially since it would require Trump to basically continue to embarrass the Republican congress in order to make any use of this supposed opportunity? Feel free to use big words even if you don't know what they mean.

Cause republicans are plain old dummies of course!

One last try. Read slowly this time.

Originally Posted by Chula Vista
Trump had been catching a lot of flack, even among some of his base and even GOP politicians over a number of his cabinet appointees the past month. His whole "draining the swamp" catch phrase was beginning to become a running joke just recently.

And then, over the course of just a 24 hour period, *poof* he's the renegade again.

:laughing:

I think you're only really exposing how fickle and goldfish brained you are when it comes to politics.

You simpleton.

1. How long do you think this new renegade status will last?

2. Will Trump capitalizing on this opportunity have negative consequences for congress?

3. If so, how long will congress have to eat Trump's ****?

1. Instant damage control for Trump's transition.

2. Hardly. Tomorrow the news and public outcry will be over the breaking news about "the Wall" That and the recent Macy's debacle.

3. *blink* it's already ancient history. GOP lawmakers are already doing the nightly network cycle and doing spin control on Trump's behalf over his massive flip flop today.

Is this your way of saying that Donald Trump has won you over or something? Because you are really putting waaaaaay too much faith into this turning out like you say.

So... this has had no effect on the public's perception of Trump, nor did Trump even try to capitalize on it?

I posted about the GOP move and then the next morning I had a bunch of Trump supporters all over about how their boy stepped in and saved the day. That's what actually got me thinking about it.

Let's talk about how you, me, and Frown will now be paying for the Wall.

How did Trump save the day?

Seriously? Huge public and political outcry over the proposed ethics gut and Trumps get the GOP to back down.

Top story tonight is the US now knows who turned over the hacked DNC emails to Russia. This'll be interesting over the next few days.

I don't watch much news. What did Trump do?

As recently as yesterday Trump was backing Julian Assange (who just two years earlier he said should get the death penalty) after Assange stated that Wikileaks didn't get the emails from Russia.

The US is now saying they have identified the middle man who brokered the deal between Wikileaks and Russia.

Trumps get an intel brief tomorrow so it'll be interesting to see if he still stays in denial.

Throw me a link or something. What was Trump's response to congress? There's five bajillion Trump stories out there and I'm too drunk to prove your point for you.

Recently:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ange-dnc-hacks

Six years ago:
Trump in 2010 wanted 'death penalty' for WikiLeaks | TheHill

Oh my ****ing god I wasn't talking about that.

THIS. A LINK TO TRUMP'S COMMENTS ABOUT THIS. I'M STILL NOT DONE MOCKING YOU.

Sleep it off and we'll chat in the morning.

Slept. You're still evasive. Did Trump actually voice any opinion on the matter?

In the same place as his tax returns.

Trump is still in his denial phase because he has to protect his butt buddy Putin at all costs and continue to spread misinformation.

It's interesting to see you guys debating something with no tangible evidence supporting either side. You won't be able to prove a motive unless a trustworthy whistleblower lays it all out for us. All we can debate is the attempt itself and potential political outcome.

That being said, I can still provide my own speculation. I highly doubt this was a move to make Trump look like the rebel again. The moderate Republicans will always be questioning him no matter what and his base has already shown they are fine with him walking straight into their trailers, grabbing their pussies, and murdering their pets. As long as he tweets #MAGA every once in a while, they'll probably vote for him in 2020 as well. No, I think congressional Republicans simply misread the room and felt they had a mandate from the electorate to do whatever the hell they want. Just look at all the backpedaling they have been doing to explain their motives. Several have stated in interviews that it "must have not been the right time", implying they will be trying again. One thing I think they have not considered is that while their base may have gotten Trump elected, presidential elections are really the only thing they come out for. Is your average Joe Shmoe coal miner going to care enough about the Republican agenda to get out there and support it? No...he's got to feed his family and mine coal. He just wants to make sure his guns and unborn fetuses are safe and that there's not a black man or a woman in the oval office. Their job is done - now the electorate will be composed of the people who actually have a stake in the nitty gritty details of politics, and those people are not as big a fan of Trump. I'm happy to see there will at least be some resistance to Trump's efforts.

If anyone wanted Trump to seem like a rebel again for a pre-presidency popularity boost, it was Trump himself. He's an opportunist - he saw an opportunity and he took it. This is why he scares the **** out of any logically minded Republican. No one...on either side...knows what he is going to do.

Good lord. Watching the Trump cronies trying to put a positive spin on Trump asking the US to pay for the wall is so hilarious and disgusting at the same time.

I wonder if Kellyanne Conway has to go home at night and scrub herself down with bleach in order to get a good night's sleep?

The spin is that we'll pay for the wall in order to get it done fast and then we'll get Mexico to pay us back over time. Estimates put the wall cost at no less than $10 billion dollars.

You know this is politics, right?

There's politics. And then there's POLITICS!

Flip flopping on a campaign promise is usually done pretty quietly and over time. This takes it to a whole other level by a factor off 100.

I think he was referring to the cronies justifying anything that Hil--I mean Trump does.

Both.

ROFL you weren't saying that when you were declaring that Hillary was the most evil person alive in modern times.

That's not based on a political opinion lol

And I never said she was that evil.

tbh this sounds like something Trump would say

Yay, political threads!

As a left-leaning centrist, Trump's election was shocking and disappointing. Personality flaws aside, I was bothered by his campaign's unwillingness to discuss issues or policy, outside of purposefully inflammatory anti-immigrant rhetoric and heavily distorted allegations against Hilary Clinton. There was a lot of "I will do" not "I will lead us to" or "I will work with" - I think he fundamentally misunderstands the nature of the job. Trumo voters effectively elected Mike Pence as president. I hope they knew that going in to the voting booth.

Trying to maintain a positive attitude on this whole thing, I think Trump's election will force discussion on many issues that have been deemed political third rails. Social Security and the retirement age, our relationships with other countries (Russia has been a political enemy, but not engaging out of "tradition" is just as stupid as not engaging with Cuba for 70 years), and First Amendment issues surrounding Speech, the Press, and Public Religion. Trump causes friction on all these issues. It forces all sides to sharpen arguments and work to convince the public. For instance, I'd like to see UK-style libel laws implemented here. Intentional falsehoods, disguised as fact are poison to a republic. How this would look or work or if it's even desirable, I don't know. But the 'fake news' issues that dogged this election will force some kind of reaction and, in the aggregate, I think that's a good thing.

We're not as stupid as our comedians and the world at large things we are. Just over 50% of eligible voters participated in the 2016 race. Apathy is not the same as stupidity. Trump's outrages will inspire greater political participation. As others have said in this thread, he's not a dictator, he's not a king, the Constitution has not been supplanted. This will likely be a test of our system, but the what became the Imperial Presidency began under a Progressive (FDR) and was expanded by Obama (somewhat due to congressional intransigence, but that's another story), so liberals have little moral high ground to protest against executive orders.

I do have to say to whoever put the 'milo <3' tag in this thread, you should really re-evaluate this sentiment. He hides behind the mantle of 'free speech' when he rants about feminism and Islam, but he's inciting hatred through misinformation, hyperbole, and what can only be called 'memeism'. The dumb-ing down of culture starts when guys like him.

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

:clap::clap::clap:

And swallow it whole.

I think Trump would have won the popular vote if that was the deciding factor at the outset.

Almost as bad as those Huffpost disciples.

Splain Luzee. As of today she beat him by nearly 3 million votes and a full 2 percentage points.

And there's this just released today:

Full report here:

https://www.documentcloud.org/docume...ng-report.html

Just screencap it you lazy ****

http://i.imgur.com/3CpVvk9.gif

https://66.media.tumblr.com/eb5e904a...sjh1ps_500.gif

People being weary of drug gang members or islamic terrorists entering the country is not "anti-immigrant" nor "anti-islamic." But that is how they are portrayed by the left-wing media as "anti-immigrant" and "anti-islamic."

What Trump said on the campaign trail is nothing that hasn't been brought up before within Conservative talk shows dynamic about real issues, real events. There is a whole backstory to them. Trump blurts fragments of those issues and gets picked up by the media twisted. And maybe he can be faulted for not articulating his position more clearly. But I am certain the media will demonize him on soundbites anyway.

That goes both ways. If Trump said "beware of wolves in sheep's clothing" he would be accused of being "anti-sheep" by CNN.

Whoever tagged "milo <3" kudos to you for having a mind of your own, and for not being stuck in the far-left's "echo chamber."

Absolutely correct. The left don't seem to understand that despite the problems on the right, THEY are the ones who played into Trump's hands, fueled perceptions that got him elected, plus they won't take responsibility for the last eight years' underlying issues (the failure of the ACA, the fact most of the jobs Obama created are low end service jobs, the Obama administration's various foreign policy failures, etc.)

I'd like to hope that at some point the real liberals in the the U.S. will stand up and constructively try to better the country instead of writing stupid half-assed hit pieces in the Huffington Post that only contribute to the noise and uncertainty of the coming four years. We used to have media in the U.S. that provided balanced viewpoints and that analyzed events from multiple angles: now everything both online and offline is so blatantly biased / polarized and ratings hungry that you can't take any of it at face value.

When was this exactly? In the 50s? Please, I'm so tired of hearing about how the big bad media is twisting things. People are acting like this is a new thing and even when facts are presented in a balanced manner, if it says something negative that they don't agree with. The whines continue about the media.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lq...otu4o1_400.jpg

You have to be incredibly naive to believe that journalism hasn't gone downhill when it began focusing on (1) entertainment and (2) internet grade timeliness (publishing doesn't have to wait until the morning anymore) as opposed to actual reporting. That's also not to mention that objective, sensible reporting does not garner as high of a click rate than National Enquirer rate ridiculous headlines.

Bias in the media has always been present, obviously. Actually, early American journalism was even more biased then today. However, it has become infinitely more prevalent and easier to spot (due to resources and such). It is true that people shout bias where there is one, but come on dude.