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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

Proglottid Since: Mar, 2010
#162026: Dec 13th 2016 at 1:44:43 AM

It just feels like, we're all supposed to cling to hope and "`keep fighting" and things turn out for the better, but it's been shown clear as day that things are just growing worse by the day and just won't stop. Trump is a walking, living paradox. He SHOULDN'T have gotten this far, let alone be even considered a runner. He's had so many things that should have by all logic ruined him, and yet the universe is literally bending down to him

At this rate it wouldn't surprise me if he just ends up being the first biologically immortal human being, or something, because reality is shaping itself so that he'll always come on top and we'll never get rid of him

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#162027: Dec 13th 2016 at 1:48:24 AM

[up] He's a particularly nasty parasite burrowed into our collective skin, that's for sure.

Trump is just really, really good at marketing and conning people. It just so happens that that skillset is very helpful in an election campaign.

The worrying thing — aside from his Lack of Empathy and bigotry — is his near total lack of competence in almost everything else. Oh, and the fact that his Cabinet picks were mainly based on two things: 1) how much money they gave him during the campaign and 2) ...how much money they gave him during the campaign. Even if Trump spent his entire term touring around the country giving victory speeches, we'd still have to watch out for his Cabinet as they bleed the country dry.

edited 13th Dec '16 1:52:46 AM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
JulianLapostat Since: Feb, 2014
#162028: Dec 13th 2016 at 2:10:26 AM

This article shows how pathetic the man is. He's having a letter Nixon wrote to him, framed in the White House. The sheer, craven narcissism is just amazing. Never seen anything like it.

He's just the embodiment of everything wrong about America, a walking-talking anti-American caricature come to life.

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#162029: Dec 13th 2016 at 2:14:26 AM

[up] The fact that a man like Donald Trump is going to be our POTUS is proof that American society has some serious flaws to work out.

edited 13th Dec '16 2:15:14 AM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
TrashJack Confirmed Doomer from beyond the Despair Event Horizon (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Confirmed Doomer
#162030: Dec 13th 2016 at 2:31:22 AM

[up] Assuming we'll ever get the chance to do so.

"Cynic, n. — A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be." - The Devil's Dictionary
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#162031: Dec 13th 2016 at 2:35:22 AM

[up] Oh we will. I just hope we take advantage of that chance when it comes. Otherwise we'll have to go through this shit all over again.

Disgusted, but not surprised
MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#162032: Dec 13th 2016 at 3:39:34 AM

If he can survive seventeen intelligence agencies accusing him of being a Russian puppet, he can survive anything. He's like a cockroach. Exactly like, in fact.
A cockroach will still die if you stomp on it with all your weight. Or drown it in enough insecticide. Or set it on fire. Or drown it in water.

Trump's invulnerability is only an illusion born out of shock-induced despair at his unexpected rise and failure of what had been long assumed as things that must destroy a politician's reputation should they be hit with. You just need to think outside the box... and preferably follow a "no holds barred, anything goes" approach to taking him down.

Also, if I may speak frankly... If this was happening to me and I was given the choice, I'd choose the horrors of a new civil war, widening the rift with the bigoted portion of the population, and potentially setting a bad precedent over letting this madman sit in the White House. Violent revolution should never be dismissed as an option when it comes to tyrants who are poised to usurp leadership of the country and destroy decades if not centuries of generally positive democratic progress.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
TerminusEst from the Land of Winter and Stars Since: Feb, 2010
#162033: Dec 13th 2016 at 4:02:05 AM

Rex Tillerson, Exxon C.E.O., Chosen as Secretary of State

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump on Tuesday officially selected Rex W. Tillerson, the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, to be his secretary of state. In saying he will nominate Mr. Tillerson, the president-elect is dismissing bipartisan concerns the globe-trotting leader of an energy giant has a too-cozy relationship with Vladimir V. Putin, the president of Russia.

A statement from Mr. Trump’s transition office early Tuesday brought to an end his public and chaotic deliberations over the nation’s top diplomat — a process that at times veered from rewarding Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of his most loyal supporters, to musing about whether Mitt Romney, one of his most vicious critics, might be forgiven.

Instead, Mr. Trump has decided to risk what looks to be a bruising confirmation fight in the Senate.

In the past several days, Republican and Democratic lawmakers had warned that Mr. Tillerson would face intense scrutiny over his two-decade relationship with Russia, which awarded him its Order of Friendship in 2013, and with Mr. Putin.

The hearings will also put a focus on Exxon Mobil’s business dealings with Moscow. The company has billions of dollars in oil contracts that can go forward only if the United States lifts sanctions against Russia, and Mr. Tillerson’s stake in Russia’s energy industry could create a very blurry line between his interests as an oilman and his role as America’s leading diplomat.

Mr. Tillerson has been publicly skeptical about the sanctions, which have halted some of Exxon Mobil’s biggest projects in Russia, including an agreement with the state oil company to explore and pump in Siberia that could be worth tens of billions of dollars.

Senator John Mc Cain, Republican of Arizona, said on Saturday that Mr. Tillerson’s connections to Mr. Putin were “a matter of concern to me” and promised to examine them closely if he were nominated.

“Vladimir Putin is a thug, bully and a murderer, and anybody else who describes him as anything else is lying,” Mr. Mc Cain said on Fox News.

Mr. Trump has fanned speculation about his choice for secretary of state for weeks. In the end, he discarded not only Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Romney, but also an endlessly changing list that at times included Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee; David H. Petraeus, the former Army general and C.I.A. director; and Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the former Utah governor and presidential candidate in 2012.

Mr. Romney, Mr. Petraeus and Mr. Corker, the three leading runners-up, all received calls late Monday informing them of Mr. Trump’s decision, according to people familiar with the president-elect’s final choice.

He settled on Mr. Tillerson, a deal maker who has spent the past four decades at Exxon, much of it in search of oil and gas agreements in troubled parts of the world. A native of Wichita Falls, Tex., who speaks with a strong Texas twang, Mr. Tillerson, 64, runs a company with operations in about 50 countries, and has cut deals to expand business in Venezuela, Qatar, Kurdistan and elsewhere.

If confirmed as secretary of state, Mr. Tillerson would face a new challenge: nurturing alliances around the world that are built less on deals and more on diplomacy.

That could prove to be a special test when it comes to Russia, where Mr. Tillerson has fought for years to strengthen connections through business negotiations worth billions of dollars. Under his leadership, Exxon has entered into joint ventures with Rosneft, a Russian-backed oil company, and donated to the country’s health and social programs.

In his new role, Mr. Tillerson would have to manage the difficult relationship between the United States and Mr. Putin’s Russia, including the economic sanctions imposed after Moscow intervened in Ukraine and occupied Crimea. Last month, President Obama and European leaders agreed to keep sanctions in place until Mr. Putin agrees to a cease-fire and to the withdrawal of heavy weapons from front lines in eastern Ukraine.

Other Republicans who have challenged Mr. Tillerson’s potential selection include Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who expressed concern in a Twitter post on Monday about his relationship with Mr. Putin.

Mr. Trump favored Mr. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, initially, but quickly grew weary of his penchant for drawing outsize media attention. Mr. Trump was also troubled by reports of Mr. Giuliani’s business entanglements overseas. And some of the president-elect’s closest advisers, including his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, saw Mr. Giuliani as a poor fit for the job.

Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#162034: Dec 13th 2016 at 4:21:21 AM

[up] Oh hey, another TPP supporter. Who'd have guessed? tongue

Disgusted, but not surprised
PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#162035: Dec 13th 2016 at 4:25:42 AM

You'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Julep Since: Jul, 2010
#162036: Dec 13th 2016 at 5:37:13 AM

I think the time is right to explain Trump supporters that 2 + 2 = 3. Because if they can still say that Trump is "against the system" and "will support the working class" and that "he's not a Wall Street puppet" with all these billionnaire allies, they can swallow absolutely anything.

TrashJack Confirmed Doomer from beyond the Despair Event Horizon (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Confirmed Doomer
#162037: Dec 13th 2016 at 5:51:04 AM

[up] Now, that's just not true. Many of Trump's voters won't swallow absolutely anything, because they absolutely refuse to swallow anything that isn't propagated by the GOP and its affiliates (e.g. Fox News, Breitbart, Russian fake news peddlers). To them, if Big Broth- I mean, Donald Trump or Rush Limbaugh says that 2 + 2 = 5, that makes it automatically true, even if they said that 2 + 2 = Fish just five seconds earlier.

If we say that 2 + 2 = 5, or even something plainly factual, like "the sky is blue" or "the paint is wet", they'll never believe it. They are too far gone, lost in their Cult of Personality, for us to even have a hope of changing them.

"Cynic, n. — A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be." - The Devil's Dictionary
Wildcard Since: Jun, 2012
#162039: Dec 13th 2016 at 5:58:50 AM

I get not supporting the Clinton family. After all they did sign DOMA into law, even if they were trying to avoid associating themselves with unpopular opinions to secure another election that was bad in the immediate future, and work had to be done over a decade to fix it. But voting for Trump as an alternative? Really?

AmbarSonofDeshar Since: Jan, 2010
#162040: Dec 13th 2016 at 6:05:42 AM

Trump is building an oligarchy. But remember folks, Clinton's corruption deeply upsets "economically anxious whites".

Wildcard Since: Jun, 2012
#162041: Dec 13th 2016 at 6:10:18 AM

Racism won the election. It's unfortunate that we still have so much work to do.

Reflextion from a post-sanity world (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: What's love got to do with it?
#162042: Dec 13th 2016 at 6:14:44 AM

[up]x5 Yeah, what we need to do is make a big deal out of how breathing oxygen is anti-Trump, then just sit back and watch the hilarity ensue.

Someone did tell me life was going to be this way.
blkwhtrbbt The Dragon of the Eastern Sea from Doesn't take orders from Vladimir Putin Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
The Dragon of the Eastern Sea
#162043: Dec 13th 2016 at 6:19:10 AM

Trump's dominance of politics is much like Negan's hold over the Saviors' thralls and vassals. It's an arrangement made of fear and disgust, and the question isn't if it will fail, it is when.

And when it does, it will fail spectacularly. Of course, someone does need to make that happen. People have to fight back.

And how do we convince the nation, who gave up "both parties" as "corrupt" long ago, to stand for something? To fight?

Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you
blkwhtrbbt The Dragon of the Eastern Sea from Doesn't take orders from Vladimir Putin Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
The Dragon of the Eastern Sea
#162044: Dec 13th 2016 at 6:21:43 AM

To them, if Big Broth- I mean, Donald Trump or Rush Limbaugh says that 2 + 2 = 5, that makes it automatically true, even if they said that 2 + 2 = Fish just five seconds earlier.

It's a skill that serves well and is served well by their religious fundamentalism, which requires the similar ability to be completely immune to incongruous logic.

edited 13th Dec '16 6:22:11 AM by blkwhtrbbt

Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you
TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#162045: Dec 13th 2016 at 6:26:32 AM

"Hamilton" remains politicized: they're holding a lottery to see all three shows, by donations to Planned Parenthood.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Ominae Since: Jul, 2010
#162046: Dec 13th 2016 at 6:34:35 AM

Well I read up that Russian hackers could be involved in the presidential elections, but Trump raised an eyebrow at the CIA.

edited 13th Dec '16 6:34:55 AM by Ominae

JulianLapostat Since: Feb, 2014
#162047: Dec 13th 2016 at 7:44:28 AM

I get not supporting the Clinton family. After all they did sign DOMA into law, even if they were trying to avoid associating themselves with unpopular opinions

I'm not sure what you mean, but not being very pro-LGBT was the popular opinion in the mid-90s. That and apathy and indifference. Bill Clinton was trying to be Competent!Reagan. Let's not rewrite history and forget how unpopular LGBT rights were back then. Even Obama when he came to the white house, said that he considered marriage to be between a man and a woman.

Remember when Joe Biden went off-script and broke for gay marriage, it was a big f—king deal and it forced Obama to take a stand.

Besides it's unlikely Trump-voters had DOMA in mind when thinking of the Clinton family's "sins".

CrimsonZephyr Would that it were so simple. from Massachusetts Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
Would that it were so simple.
#162048: Dec 13th 2016 at 7:47:30 AM

"He's just the embodiment of everything wrong about America, a walking-talking anti-American caricature come to life."

Trump is who America really is: evil, small-minded, anti-intellectual, greedy, misogynist, racist, and narcissistic. He's living proof that we were never as good as we thought, and probably never will be. I'm honestly beginning to believe that all the great progressive gains of the last hundred years were in opposition to our fundamental nature as a people, not a fulfillment of it, and that deep down, we're a monstrous society that deserves to be scourged by Trump's malice and incompetence. Maybe we'll learn, but it's unlikely. Every time I try to convince myself that Trump was buoyed by essentially good, but desperate people in fear of the economy, I'm confronted by more evidence that racial malice and apathy are more to blame and find traces of Trump in the very DNA of our country, right down to the founding fathers.

I've read about 1968, but looking forward I never thought we'd get a more terrible, despairing year than it, but in everything about 2016, underestimation is the death of wisdom.

edited 13th Dec '16 7:52:12 AM by CrimsonZephyr

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."
Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#162049: Dec 13th 2016 at 7:50:30 AM

Trump voters no, but I can imagine that it turned a few college aged voters Green due to them seeing it as a big negative, especially when combined with Clinton's AI Ds comment about Nancy Reagan.

As much as people say racism won the day I'm not convinced, any one of a dozen factors changing would have thrown this election the other way, if you want a key factor though I'd personally go with the he fact that the media (including the likes of Facebook who allow fake news) consistently acted as if Clinton was equally bad as Trump, the emails should have been a footnote months ago and never mentioned again, Trump should have been pressed on his scandals instead of them being swept under the rug each week in favour of a new one. Trump should have been taken to task not just for his racism and sexism but also his lack of an economic plan beyond making the rich richer.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
Elle Since: Jan, 2001
#162050: Dec 13th 2016 at 7:52:41 AM

@Handle: *makes note to throw $10 at that when she has it*


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