Trump's statements and promises

[metalhead]

*sigh*

The election is over. Trump won. You might as well post a video of Yosemite Sam and be like, "Well at least Trump isn't as nuts as this guy!" It doesn't matter. Trump will shortly be the one in charge, and he sends very conflicting signals about what he will do with the military. He wants to be non-interventionist but wants to "knock the hell out of ISIS." Those two things are incompatible with one another. Whatever the result, you will own voting for him for better or worse.

Also, do I really need to post the video of Trump saying he was in favor of military action to get rid of Qaddafi, so we can stop this garbage of "Trump is against intervention!" Trump isn't really "for" or "against" anything, because he has no real guiding beliefs. He says and does what best suits him in the moment.

 

[Kyriakos]

Well at least he isn't in favour of a new cold war against Russia, right? You know, that country which actually can erase US from the map, unlike Iraq, Afganistan, Libya, Korea, Vietnam, Serbia or half of the rest of the world the US has invaded or bombed.

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

*sigh*

The election is over. Trump won. You might as well post a video of Yosemite Sam and be like, "Well at least Trump isn't as nuts as this guy!" It doesn't matter. Trump will shortly be the one in charge, and he sends very conflicting signals about what he will do with the military. He wants to be non-interventionist but wants to "knock the hell out of ISIS." Those two things are incompatible with one another. Whatever the result, you will own voting for him for better or worse.

Also, do I really need to post the video of Trump saying he was in favor of military action to get rid of Qaddafi, so we can stop this garbage of "Trump is against intervention!" Trump isn't really "for" or "against" anything, because he has no real guiding beliefs. He says and does what best suits him in the moment.

Go ahead and post the video. Its actually important since Trump of now isnt necessarily Trump from a year ago. What you have to understand is that people like you voted for obviously corrupted and pretty much convicted war criminal so anything coming from your side I will have to take with that in mind.

I agree that Trump isnt easily readable guy but given the nature of the system full of lies, corruption, hostility and covert agendas it is an amazing advantage. It doesnt scare me at this point but fills with hope. Sure I could know some liars agenda nice and clear but it would be just bunch of lies so as of now I cant really complain...

 

[metalhead]

I'm sorry, but this is insane. You're saying that Trump's rank lying and corruption are an advantage because the system is full of lies and corruption? Isn't this the stuff he was supposed to be against, the lying and corruption? And now it's an advantage. Jeez, come on. And on top of it, you're giving yourself permission to basically ignore anything that people say that you don't agree with

Well, I'm going to try anyways. Here's the video. Maybe you don't have a problem with someone who has zero regard for the words he says being president, but I assure you, it is hugely problematic for a lot of reasons.

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

I'm sorry, but this is insane. You're saying that Trump's rank lying and corruption are an advantage because the system is full of lies and corruption? Isn't this the stuff he was supposed to be against, the lying and corruption? And now it's an advantage. Jeez, come on. And on top of it, you're giving yourself permission to basically ignore anything that people say that you don't agree with

You are misreading me as well as ascribe to me things I never said. I am saying that in the system/environment which is rigged not to disclose all your cards at once is a necessity and basic survival skill. I can add that some form of lying when you deal with war criminals and elements hostile to your countrys democracy is negligible nay necessity. As for corruption it is up to you to provide some proof of thereof but some sort of manipulation may again be necessity and well justified due to the extreme state of affairs. This isnt the time to be naive and hopeful against hope. What good is it to you being against lying and corruption when big portions of your government are involved in murdering and destruction of others? Sure they can feed you some merciful lies and pretenses like that the destruction is for a good cause but the sooner you discard that nonsense the better for you.

I am not going to ignore anything. What I want to point out to you is some of the absurdities and mess which is the real context of this topic. If you tell me that president shouldnt lie I will reply: yes, but let him stop being a murderer first....

Well, I'm going to try anyways. Here's the video. Maybe you don't have a problem with someone who has zero regard for the words he says being president, but I assure you, it is hugely problematic for a lot of reasons.

So Trump at 2011 calls for stopping Gaddafi killing people in his country and Trump at 2016 says the intervention was a huge mistake. This can be viewed from many sides and discussed in many aspects but let me just quote for you something for now:

“…He gets criticized for changing his opinions, or ‘flip flopping,’ but over a lifetime I’ve seen many people who don’t change and they always get left behind. Smart people learn things, so they change their minds. Only stupid people never change their minds…”

 

[metalhead]

But there is a fundamental problem here. Not that Trump changed his mind, certainly there is nothing wrong with that. But when asked to rectify his current position with his position in 2011, rather than claim he rethought his earlier position and was wrong back then, he simply denies he ever made the statement in the first place. That's what is troubling about it. He will say to a reporter or a debate moderator or anyone who asks about it, that he simply did not say something that he is on tape saying. Or claim things which previous videos directly contradict, such as having a prior relationship with Vladimir Putin - now he says he has no such relationship, but there is video from 2013 of him saying otherwise.

It belies an utter lack of critical self-reflection on his part, and that is indeed a very troubling quality. That past statements and past policy stances can simply be discarded makes it extremely difficult to figure out what Trump actually believes, or if he even believes anything. Sure, he said he was against toppling Gaddafi in 2016, but is that an actual policy stance, or something he said solely because it was politically advantageous? That's the problem. The people who voted for him don't really care about this stuff, but it has very large ramifications for the rest of the world.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

I'm with metalhead. It's President Trump now. Even if some people itt are right about how Hillary is worse in some ways, no one gives a deuce anymore. She's out of the race. Trump has to be judged completely and only on his own merits.

Isn't this the stuff he was supposed to be against, the lying and corruption?

Drain the swamp!

[Rex Tillerson is announced]

Dramp the swain..

[Mnuchin is announced]

Drump the swonk

[Ross is announced]

Derk uh Derk

 

[aelf]

I'd like to echo my lack of faith in the checks and balances in the American political system. Even if there were some demonstrably effective mechanism for preventing crazy decisions by Trump, going by what I've seen, I have no confidence that the Republican-controlled Congress would want to use it. Why would they act against their own candidate? So far Trump has appointed Republican fellow-travellers to advisory positions. What reason would Republicans have to try and rein him in if he continues in the vein of the Bush administration?

And I wouldn't understimate the American public's appetite for war, especially in the rural areas.

 

[Bootstoots]

The appetite for war in the rural US peaked in 2001-3 and went way down after that, because it's the rural people whose kids are disproportionately likely to come back in body bags. In his speeches, Trump has shown that he understands this on some level, which is why he says he opposed the Iraq War from the beginning (not quite true, but it's actually more true than most of his claims). There is certainly no appetite for "nation-building" interventions, which even GWB understood while campaigning in 2000. On the other hand, people can easily be made to feel something is a threat, in which case they will support attacking with overwhelming force and no regard for concepts like "war crimes" or "international law". Joe Sixpack is really easy to scare for whatever reason, and he needs a small armory to feel safe.

Trump's foreign policy is a giant question mark. About the only things I'm confident of are that he will make very friendly overtures to Russia, and that he'll offend just about every other world leader. I think he's by nature an isolationist and anti-interventionist, especially during his rare cool-headed moments, but he is also quick to anger, prone to macho behavior, and could probably be prone to launch attacks and then regret them later (and then deny he ever ordered them, probably). If we had a 9/11 scale terrorist attack, he might behave worse than GW Bush did and cause a giant, no-holds-barred Middle East conflagration along with enormous violations of civil liberties at home. He's also surrounded by Iranophobes, who might manipulate him into attacking Iran. But there is some chance that he'll actually scale back US intervention abroad by following his isolationist instincts, so there's a bit of a chance he'll be even better than Obama. There's also a chance he'll be worse than W.

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

I cant resist posting this as a sort of perspective projection:

 

[yung.carl.jung]

**** those comedians. What happened? That's some of the unfunniest garbage I've ever seen in my entire life. The fake laughs made me cringe really hard.

I've seen this trend everywhere in American TV. Honestly, Trump gave American comedians so much **** to work with and nothing good ever came out of it.

Especially the big formats like SNL, the Tonight Show and so forth were so blatantly unfunny it hurt. Only good sketch was Larry David as Bernie Sanders.

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

**** those comedians. What happened? That's some of the unfunniest garbage I've ever seen in my entire life. The fake laughs made me cringe really hard.

I've seen this trend everywhere in American TV. Honestly, Trump gave American comedians so much **** to work with and nothing good ever came out of it.

Especially the big formats like SNL, the Tonight Show and so forth were so blatantly unfunny it hurt. Only good sketch was Larry David as Bernie Sanders.

There was plenty of funny sketches so far as I can tell but most were quite one-sided. In case you didnt get the joke they were laughing becouse of that creeps first reaction to the US military involvements in hot conflicts was laughing and ignorance. That moron literally tried to laugh it off like it was nothing much and it surely deserves reaction which the comedians gave in their own right.

 

[red_elk]

Interesting. Obama administration just extended anti-Russian sanctions and are expelling 35 Russian diplomats. Looks like desperation.

Putin sent happy new year congratulations to both Obama and Trump and invited families of American diplomats to celebrate New Year in Kremlin.
https://www.rt.com/news/372256-putin-diplomats-expulsion-rejects/

 

[metalhead]

**** those comedians. What happened? That's some of the unfunniest garbage I've ever seen in my entire life. The fake laughs made me cringe really hard.

I've seen this trend everywhere in American TV. Honestly, Trump gave American comedians so much **** to work with and nothing good ever came out of it.

Especially the big formats like SNL, the Tonight Show and so forth were so blatantly unfunny it hurt. Only good sketch was Larry David as Bernie Sanders.

A couple of the debate send-ups had their moments, but the post-election stuff on Trump hasn't been that funny. It's kind of telling that in an election year, the most memorable thing SNL came up with is David S. Pumpkins.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

There was plenty of funny sketches so far as I can tell but most were quite one-sided. In case you didnt get the joke they were laughing becouse of that creeps first reaction to the US military involvements in hot conflicts was laughing and ignorance. That moron literally tried to laugh it off like it was nothing much and it surely deserves reaction which the comedians gave in their own right.

How can one not "get" the joke? It was really in your face...

A couple of the debate send-ups had their moments, but the post-election stuff on Trump hasn't been that funny. It's kind of telling that in an election year, the most memorable thing SNL came up with is David S. Pumpkins.

So much material yet all I saw was "grab em by the *****" impersonations and jokes about how Trump is racist. Tame and boring tbh.

 

[BvBPL]

...is that an actual policy stance, or something he said solely because it was politically advantageous? That's the problem.

The same complaint applied to Hilary Clinton.
Although I guess she didn’t try to rewrite history about her past support of presently unpopular policies as much as just gloss over or repaint the issues.

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

How can one not "get" the joke? It was really in your face...

Then surely you understand that when absurdity is met with laughter it hardly amounts to "unfunny garbage"...

 

[yung.carl.jung]

That's precisely what it is to me, sorry. Maybe you thought it was funny, no problem. I thought it was a pretty pathetic sketch and unfunny as all hell. For me this is the epitome of uninspired, lazy, politically correct writing. No redeeming qualities, not one. I don't want to take away from your enjoyment of it, everyone's got different tastes. But that **** ain't funny to me

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

That's precisely what it is to me, sorry. Maybe you thought it was funny, no problem. I thought it was a pretty pathetic sketch and unfunny as all hell. For me this is the epitome of uninspired, lazy, politically correct writing. No redeeming qualities, not one. I don't want to take away from your enjoyment of it, everyone's got different tastes. But that **** ain't funny to me

O.K. I myself love when the absurdities and weaknesses get exposed/pointed out and if done through comedy so much the better. What is your prefered way in pointing out the absurd and twisted or arriving at redemption? To me comedy is often the best becouse as it doesnt spells out the whole thing in concreate manner it leaves lot of space for both more complete understanding as well as various ways for correction. I am only glad these things are being pointed out which is the first step for any kind of correction. Kudos to the comedians!

Also calling these people "politicaly correct" doesnt seem to me accurate as the driwing insipiration behind it isnt any 'out of touch with reality' ideology but rather simple humanist feeling and concern for the US democracy.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

You're right, politically correct wasn't the right word. Rather I thought the sketch was tame, boring, in line with general opinion. Political correctness doesn't have much to do with it. We're seeing a person who is inappropriately laughing at a terrible foreign politics situation ridiculed by laughter from comedians. To me that isn't funny, or original, or worthy to be shown on television. But I get what you're saying. Comedy has an important function in today's media landscape. Won't even deny that. I was simply saying that it ain't funny, which I stand by