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

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#188351: May 11th 2017 at 8:50:08 AM

[up]Dammit, I feel dumber just reading that garbage.

Disgusted, but not surprised
PolarPhantom Since: Jun, 2012
#188352: May 11th 2017 at 8:50:46 AM

[up][up][up] THE SHEER AUDACITY OF THIS THIEF KING

My hatred of him is endless.

edited 11th May '17 8:51:06 AM by PolarPhantom

Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#188353: May 11th 2017 at 8:51:09 AM

I'm actually impressed he knows the word Keynesian.

nightwyrm_zero Since: Apr, 2010
#188354: May 11th 2017 at 8:51:53 AM

[up]I edited the quotes. The bolded words are the interviewer's.

Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#188355: May 11th 2017 at 8:52:40 AM

Figures. Trump isn't smart enough to even name a single economic school of thought.

Zendervai Since: Oct, 2009
#188356: May 11th 2017 at 8:55:58 AM

@ the photos being released: What did they think was going to happen? "Hey, these pictures that I'm obviously taking with my giant professional camera are for my own personal use." Like, it's obvious they were taking pictures and only an idiot would think they weren't going to be released.

And Trump tried to claim that he invented a phrase. To a newspaper that specializes in economics. And the phrase he picked has been in use since at least the 30s, and it doesn't make sense with his economic plan at all. I seriously think that Trump is either functionally illiterate, or he really needs glasses because he is so incredibly bad at anything he tries to seem knowledgeable about that it's obvious he literally doesn't know anything about it. He doesn't even know enough to fake any knowledge about it.

edited 11th May '17 8:56:28 AM by Zendervai

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#188357: May 11th 2017 at 8:56:08 AM

Of course, Keynes said that lowering taxes is the least efficient way to "prime the pump". /sigh

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#188358: May 11th 2017 at 9:07:40 AM

That transcript: IT HURTS TO READ.

I see he still hammering how rushed Obamacare was while at the same time praising how great his plans and ideas for Trumpdoesntcare are going to be.

His trade policies and how his Trumpnomics are, I am having difficulties in putting it into words, completely counter productive. It is the same tried and failed trickle down economics but this time with protectionism and the alienation of key trade partners that will hurt the US economy even further on an ensuing trade war.

Damn, I never thought that the US would have a president with an English and sentence domain worse than my own.

Inter arma enim silent leges
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#188359: May 11th 2017 at 9:07:42 AM

[up][up][up] It's incredible. Even after I set my expectations for Trump so damn low, he still manages to horrify and disgust me.

edited 11th May '17 9:07:50 AM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
AmbarSonofDeshar Since: Jan, 2010
#188360: May 11th 2017 at 9:08:05 AM

You know, for all your hatred of Russia you and Putin (and more or less every center-left poster here) clearly agree that there's no such thing as an "organic" popular movement, or a legitimate one for that matter. (except when claiming such a thing suits your agenda)

So in one post you 1) tell everyone who disagrees with you where they sit on the political spectrum, 2) accuse them of arguing in bad faith and 3) tell them they secretly agree with Vladimir Putin. What's next—gonna resurrect your claim that we're all incipient Nazis who want to ally with the alt-right to stop the left?

Boston Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
#188361: May 11th 2017 at 9:08:22 AM

Apparently, No. 45 doesn't think the phrase "priming the pump" is very common, either — and that's gone back several hundred years.

But I think he's a bit smarter than he lets on. Not much smarter, mind you .... But the "playing dumb" trick is there mostly to get the person he's talking to into a gullible state of mind. It's hucksterism.

PolarPhantom Since: Jun, 2012
#188362: May 11th 2017 at 9:09:22 AM

The Thief King is the gift that keeps on disappointing.

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#188363: May 11th 2017 at 9:11:11 AM

[up][up] The tricky bit is that he is pretty genuinely stupid and immature too.

Disgusted, but not surprised
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#188364: May 11th 2017 at 9:14:06 AM

@Ambar: This is a problem that exists all over the political spectrum; people simply refuse to believe that organic movements exist other than ones they support, and fixate on outside, particularly foreign influences rather than looking at the underlying internal factors behind said movement, even though such things are pretty much ubiquitous in the highly interconnected and globalized world we live in. I'm not saying you're arguing in bad faith, I think you genuinely believe what you're saying.

I'm arguing that you're fixation on Russian involvement as opposed to the very blatant and numerous internal factors in the decline of the center is not a constructive way of thinking about things, it's a self-defense mechanism to rationalize away everyone who doesn't agree with you as stooges of a foreign power or of rival elite interests in the same way the democrats rationalize the tea party as a Koch Brothers astroturf and Putin rationalized the 2012 protests against him as a CIA plot. In all three cases there was a very clear outside influence, particularly in the form of funding, but you can throw all throw all the money you want at a cause and not get a movement going if there's not at least a plurality of popular support for it.

That's something that most politicians and pundits have in common whether we're talking about Vladimir Putin seemingly earnestly believing the people protesting him in 2012 were manufactured by American intelligence agencies in an attempt to overthrow him (and similar assertions about the Arab spring by Assad), /pol/ weaving up massive conspiracy theories about how anti-Trump protests are actually masterminded by George Soros, the prevailing view on the left of the tea party being nothing more than Koch Brothers astroturfing, and most recently the insistence that the populist left (and right) is nothing more than a Russian plot to destabilize the west.

edited 11th May '17 9:26:01 AM by CaptainCapsase

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#188365: May 11th 2017 at 9:17:50 AM

[up] Maybe you should try phrasing your arguments in ways that don't equate us with dictators like Hitler and Putin.

Disgusted, but not surprised
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#188366: May 11th 2017 at 9:19:39 AM

[up] I'm not trying to equate you with them as much as I'm saying you are falling into very similar congitive "traps" as people you would rightfully condemn. Which is a very human thing to do I suppose.

edited 11th May '17 9:20:49 AM by CaptainCapsase

PolarPhantom Since: Jun, 2012
#188367: May 11th 2017 at 9:20:25 AM

People are often looking for excuses because they can't bear the alternative.

There are people out there who vehemently argue that slavery was only a minor reason for the American Civil War despite overwhelming evidence it was the primary reason. Were it not for slavery, there would have been no war.

Why?

Because slavery is so repugnant, so Obviously Evil, that to think so many would die and kill for it is just sheer madness.

Surely there were other reasons?

And there were.

Unfortunately, they were only minor pushes to war.

Of course, Putin WAS a major player in influencing public opinion. Even if it was only a little, that little was enough to put The Thief King in power. So, I will continue hating that murderer Putin.

But there are deeper issues cutting into America; Putin just widened the wound.

edited 11th May '17 9:37:40 AM by PolarPhantom

Zendervai Since: Oct, 2009
#188368: May 11th 2017 at 9:21:20 AM

Trump has a very limited pool of knowledge. It's incredibly obvious because he wouldn't be so incredibly bad at faking it if he knew even a bit more. Remember when he got asked about God and then started talking about how amazing it was for Trump to build a golf course? That is a weird answer. And he answers a lot of stuff like that. He tries to pull it back to himself, but in an incredibly inept way that's really obvious to anyone who knows anything about the subject in question. His description of abortion that was obviously just describing a C-section is an example of this, since he clearly had heard something second hand, but embellished it to the point that whatever he was trying to say was completely gone.

Another obvious example is his statements on autism. He obviously has no first-hand experience, and he clearly doesn't even know what autism is or what it looks like. He's clearly heard one specific story that always happens to "a friend of a friend" or a distant relative, but he overstated it enough that anyone who has any real experience with autism knows it doesn't happen nearly that fast.

He clearly doesn't pay attention to anything, even when it's blatantly obvious that it will be important. Hell, he doesn't even pay attention to what he seems to be paying attention to. We know he watches a ton of news and tweets about it at random hours. Half the time his tweets barely resemble whatever he's tweeting about because he can't get something he's staring at right. Like, he doesn't appear to understand that the ticker doesn't always have anything to do with the main thing on the screen, even though it should be really obvious.

edited 11th May '17 9:22:36 AM by Zendervai

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#188369: May 11th 2017 at 9:21:40 AM

[up][up] He tore it open and poured salt in it, and keeps adding anti-coagulant to keep it fresh and bleeding.

edited 11th May '17 9:21:48 AM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
CenturyEye Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign? from I don't know where the Yith sent me this time... Since: Jan, 2017 Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
#188370: May 11th 2017 at 9:34:07 AM

Well, I just dragged myself through that Economist interview, which they keep reminding me is with the President of the United States. (I hope there are pills for reading this kind of thing). But at least you get this:

Now, Obama[care] has something that’s very, very bad. Where you have to pay a penalty. And people don't realise, how many people are forced to pay a penalty and they don’t get any benefit out of it. We don’t have that. We’re going to have much lower premiums and we’re going to have much lower deductibles.
I was never the best economics student but I was awake during the spiel about adverse selection...
I would like to see states taking over health care, I think they could do a better job than the federal government. Now in some cases that’ll be great, like in Florida that works fantastically with Rick Scott, and a couple of others. And in some states it isn’t, where they’re not equipped to do it. But ultimately, you know I use the expression, “If you have a bad knee, I would rather have the federal government focus on North Korea than fixing your knee.”

The state governments are in much better position to, you know, help people. In terms of, you know, just the size, the mere size of it. But we’re putting in $8bn and you’re going to have absolute coverage. You’re going to have absolute guaranteed coverage. You’re going to have it if you’re a person going in…don’t forget, this was not supposed to be the way insurance works. Insurance is, you’re 20 years old, you just graduated from college, and you start paying $15 a month for the rest of your life and by the time you’re 70, and you really need it, you’re still paying the same amount and that’s really insurance.

Second paragraph..idk wtf that means but 1 & 2 sound like they'd fit perfectly in 2018 campaign ads...

Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our lives
Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#188371: May 11th 2017 at 9:47:17 AM

I am not Anti-Russia. I am Anti-Putin. And Anti-Erdogan. And Anti-Trump. And Anti-Assad. And Anti-Wilders. And Anti-Le Pen. And Anti-Farage. And by now also Anti-May. I am basically Anti everyone who I perceive as too autocratic to lead a democracy.

For the record, I don't necessarily believe that Sanders belongs into the category. I just think that the idea that he would be a better candidate is like the "better movie" we never got to see. Hillary made sense for multiple reasons, and she was popular enough that she could have won even against a proper candidate before her reputation was systematically tore down. I have no reason whatsoever to believe that Sanders would have fared any better. And I do think that those who couldn't bring themselves to vote for Hillary because they fell for the narrative which was effectively put out there by Russian hackers and are now keep talking about Sanders for one failed their country, because they should have known how important it was to keep Trump from the White House, and are now lying to themselves if they truly think that Sanders is a possible candidate for the next election. They will either pick someone who made a name of him (or her) self by standing up to Trump, or they will pick a fresh face. They certainly won't pick someone who will remind the voters of this election.

Oh, and for the record: Once Putin is gone, I am ready to give his successor the benefit of the doubt (to a certain degree) and as long as the US doesn't get rid of Trump AND his cronies, I don't want my country to get dragged into their messes.

At this point it doesn't really matter what Putin did back then outside of "what did Trump know". But what does matter is that there is an impending election in may own country, and there has already been a hacker attack and a fake new attack aimed at Merkel (the latter one thankfully not getting traction).

edited 11th May '17 9:49:34 AM by Swanpride

Luigisan98 A wandering user from Venezuelan Muscat Since: Oct, 2013 Relationship Status: I <3 love!
A wandering user
#188372: May 11th 2017 at 9:59:57 AM

"But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated."

Ernst Hemingway.

That quote truly defines the resilience of resistance like in the USA, Venezuela and others as well.

The only good fanboy, is a redeemed fanboy.
CenturyEye Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign? from I don't know where the Yith sent me this time... Since: Jan, 2017 Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
#188373: May 11th 2017 at 10:10:08 AM

At this point it doesn't really matter what Putin did back then outside of "what did Trump know". But what does matter is that there is an impending election in may own country, and there has already been a hacker attack and a fake new attack aimed at Merkel (the latter one thankfully not getting traction).
Yeah...based on what I've read of Germany, that country's leading choices are Fine vs Ok. I wasn't kidding when I said the caption to that BBC article on the state election should've been "You jealous?"

For foreign and outside influence, is it a fair summary of Cap's point that: it takes an already broken body politic for such interference to be more than an annoyance/statistical blip?
(In recent times one can contrast France crushing its far right vs the states not even bothering to turn up at the polls (or being suppressed)).

edited 11th May '17 10:14:24 AM by CenturyEye

Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our lives
speedyboris Since: Feb, 2010
#188374: May 11th 2017 at 10:52:04 AM

New York Magazine thinks this is the beginning of the end for Trump's presidency. Basically, the author argues that this action will only embolden leakers further, especially if Trump picks a yes man for the new FBI director. And as more leaks come, anyone incriminated will try to save their own ass, not protect Trump.

That said, I'm not exactly hopeful considering people have been saying "Oh this'll sink Trump" for literally over a year now and nothing has happened.

edited 11th May '17 10:52:17 AM by speedyboris

Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#188375: May 11th 2017 at 11:01:15 AM

Acting Director of the FBI said he'll go straight to Congress if Trump tries to interfere with the Russia investigation.


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