Dangers of a Trump Presidency--Part 7

[BlueRidge]

I'm not convinced at all of the wisdom of starting impeachment proceedings. I'm really not sure what should be done but I think the situation is unprecedented.

 

[DFJ]

On a happier note: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...il-must-remain-behind-bars-until-sex-n1031171

 

[caseyedwards]

In the Nixon impeachment democrats from areas where Nixon still had enormous popularity voted for impeachment in the judiciary committee! The key is the politicians acting on what’s right. Is that too much to expect from democrats who run the house now unlike in the Nixon era?

 

[rfisher]

The good news is there are more voters who are NOT part of the rabid Trump base than who are. At least 3 million of them voted so in 2016. And, I suspect there are moderate Republicans and Independents who didn't vote for either candidates, as well as the Bernie rabid fans. Whoever the Democratic nominee is, has to not be afraid to call Trump out for his lies. They are going to have to play hardball. If they dither and wring their hands, they'll lose. Support your local and state wide candidates. Take a stand for decency. Speak out. Call out those hypocrites who claim they are good Christians who just want to save babies for being racist and bigots. If you support Trump, you support racism, bigotry, sexism, lying, hate rhetoric.

 

[BlueRidge]

One thing I think is being lost in the condemnation of Trump's tweets and the crowds chants as racist. They are racist, but also and quite dangerously, they are Islamophobic. I have no doubt Muslim Americans are feeling an upsurge in hostility due to this and feeling less safe.

 

[demetriosj]

I think the election cycle is going to be violent. It was escalate from :send her back" to lynch mobs.

I would hope that this actual left-wing violence would worry you just as much:

Opinion | Antifa Attacks a Journalist

Andy Ngo is beaten as he attempts to cover a Portland protest.

www.wsj.com

 

[once_upon]

Violence is disturbing to me.

As I am not a subscriber I cannot read the whole opinion piece.

 

[demetriosj]

Yes, my very white student from England had no problem getting citizenship. My very black student from Ghana, had a very different story.

and I'm sure there were no extenuating circumstances, naturally had to be based only on race....

and you're teaching?! That's scary.

 

[demetriosj]

Violence is disturbing to me.

As I am not a subscriber I cannot read the whole opinion piece.

Here's a video:

Conservative journalist Andy Ngo says Antifa attacked him in Portland - CNN Video

Conservative journalist Andy Ngo tells CNN's John Berman he suffered a brain hemorrhage after being attacked by Antifa activists while covering an rally in Portland, Oregon.

www.cnn.com

 

[MsZem]

I would hope that this actual left-wing violence would worry you just as much:

Opinion | Antifa Attacks a Journalist

Andy Ngo is beaten as he attempts to cover a Portland protest.

www.wsj.com

Your commitment to whataboutism is truly spectacular.

Let me make it easier: someone shot up people at a Republican baseball game. Someone else sent mail bombs to politicians and public figures on the left. This is unacceptable. As the late Yitzhak Rabin said in his final speech before being assassinated, "violence eats away at the foundations of [Israeli] democracy. It must be condemned, denunciated and isolated."

Those words are true for every country. The president of the United States of American should not be dealing in racism and fomenting violence.

 

[demetriosj]

Your commitment to whataboutism is truly spectacular.

Way to deflect.

 

[MsZem]

Way to deflect.

Way to deflect.

Dude, you're repeating yourself.

Read the rest of my post and try again.

 

[canbelto]

I'd like to put this to the Trumpers out there. Suppose you are a manager. Suppose you had an employee say what Trump said about the four congresswomen to another employee. Then suppose friends of said employee started harassing the other employee with "send her back!" Whether you're deep-red or deep-blue, Trump's words would merit an immediate meeting with HR, sensitivity training, maybe a suspension without pay, and, if the comments continue, dismissal. Yet we have Republicans in Congress falling over themselves to explain away the comments and/or defend them. I can GUARANTEE if any of their staff said these things they that staff member would also be immediately dismissed. It's appalling.

 

[caseyedwards]

I'd like to put this to the Trumpers out there. Suppose you are a manager. Suppose you had an employee say what Trump said about the four congresswomen to another employee. Then suppose friends of said employee started harassing the other employee with "send her back!" Whether you're deep-red or deep-blue, Trump's words would merit an immediate meeting with HR, sensitivity training, maybe a suspension without pay, and, if the comments continue, dismissal. Yet we have Republicans in Congress falling over themselves to explain away the comments and/or defend them. I can GUARANTEE if any of their staff said these things they that staff member would also be immediately dismissed. It's appalling.

Yes it’s baffling and incomprehensible how republicans can make Pence president but choose not to. But all throughout 2017 and 2018 when they had the power to impeach and remove they didn’t because they were afraid of losing primaries. But now democrats control the house and they can impeach trump. And then the republicans in the senate many of whom don’t face elections this cycle can vote to remove him without fear of consequence. So democrats can impeach trump and then republicans can vote to remove

 

[Reuven]

Rand Paul is a physician:

Rand Paul stops unanimous passage of 9/11 first responders funding bill

Republican Sen. Rand Paul objected Wednesday to an attempt to pass the bill funding 9/11 first responders' health care unanimously, arguing that passing such a long-term bill without offsetting the cost would contribute to the national debt.

www.cnn.com

Paul is an ophthalmologist, with an interesting history. From The Hospital Leader, June 2010:

But it turns out that the American Board of Ophthalmology (ABO), the official ABMS board for the field, hasn’t heard from Dr. Paul since 2005, which was when his initial certification lapsed. As the Louisville Courier-Journalreported this week, Dr. Paul is now certified by an organization called the National Board of Ophthalmology (NBO).
Which is convenient, since when the NBO incorporated in 1999, the documents list one Rand Paul as both its founding president and director. The NBO went out of business in 2000, but Paul resurrected it in 2005, just in time to revive his lapsed board certification. In contrast to the ABO, which has a staff of 11 in its Philadelphia office, the NBO’s address is a UPS box in Bowling Green. Rented by, well, you know.

Just sayin'

The electorate wasn't initially ready to accept a Nixon impeachment, either. Polling was against a Nixon impeachment before it happened. But as impeachment went on and Nixon's crimes were exposed, his approval ratings fell.

Actually they were impeachment hearings. And the polling on having impeachment went from 19% approval to something like 57% by the time Nixon quit. I can see the same thing happening here.

 

[canbelto]

I'm really thinking this "I could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue" line is now true:

‘It Makes Us Want to Support Him More’

Amid a convulsive week in American politics, at one of the darkest rallies Donald Trump has ever held, his base showed up in force to tell the president he’s done nothing wrong.

www.theatlantic.com

 

[caseyedwards]

I'm really thinking this "I could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue" line is now true:

‘It Makes Us Want to Support Him More’

Amid a convulsive week in American politics, at one of the darkest rallies Donald Trump has ever held, his base showed up in force to tell the president he’s done nothing wrong.

www.theatlantic.com

So true! The base would be like “why’d you only shoot them once?” “Why didn’t do shoot and dismember?”

 

[VGThuy]

Way to deflect.

Nobody is deflecting. Someone answered your post and talked about other incidences of violence against Republicans but also said it doesn’t excuse nor takeaway from the violent rhetoric being stirred up by Trump and his base. The fact that you already are picking sides shows you don’t care about violence against other people at all and are already invested in this “war” where I bet you’re ok if violent attacks do result from that rally. You already perceive anyone from the left as some monolithic enemy combatant to attack literally. Also you bringing it up is obviously you trying to deflect (see that’s how you use the word and man you really learned the classic projection tactic where you take behavior you are super guilty of and accuse other people of doing it that is so popular in your circle) in some lame attempt to minimize the damage he did last night in that racist rally. It is transparent, unconvincing, and quite pathetic.

 

[caseyedwards]

I don't view that as a hoop to jump through though. I see it as one of the requirements/qualifications that you have to meet when you want to apply for an (immigrant) visa of a certain category/as a general restriction as to who is allowed to enter the United States. I'm positive other countries have similar restrictions.

This also doesn't just apply to immigrants from Central America.

Yeah but it’s too much if there is also a gang in your town. Maybe people in Australia can be patient and follow all the laws and rules but you can’t do that if you are in Honduras

 

[DORISPULASKI]

Biden condemns violent Antifa assault on conservative journalist Andy Ngo

Former Vice President Joe Biden spoke out against the violent assault on journalist Andy Ngo. The Democratic presidential candidate “believes violence directed at anyone because of their political …

nypost.com

Candidates Biden and Yang, Rep. Swalwell, and Sen. Ted Cruz have all condemned the violence against Ngo and want it investigated. Apparently, violence against journalists is disapproved of on both sides of the aisle.

 

[BlueRidge]

Antifa is abhorrent as far as I'm concerned. They are mostly looking for street brawls with far right activists. Antifa are anti-democracy. They want to escalate the chaos in society in much the same way that the far right does.

 

[VGThuy]

I'm waiting for a Dem politician say there are good people too. Then I think it'll be analogous. For the most part, I don't see many official Dems supporting Antifa in any way nor emboldening them. As far as I can tell, it's actually sort of hard to define Antifa as it seems to be a haphazard group with a somewhat common goal but seems more like individual groups doing their own thing to antagonize people who they think are fascists using the Antifa banner though there's no headquarters or leader or group of leaders organizing all of them directly.

I don't watch cable news much, but do they regularly feature Antifa sympathizers or even Antifa members and treat them as equals to non violent non-extremists the way CNN and others have given that opportunity to many far right pundits who rev up their base to make them seriously scared and paranoid of Dem politicians resulting in getting people to think these politicians are evil Al-Qaeda members who are not born in this country? They definitely give those pundits who refuse to condemn blatant racist acts (violent or not) a lot of implicit and explicit credibility to be considered as intellectually honest as a reasonable person, and thus making people think they have valid acceptable opinions resulting in mainstreaming them.

 

[BlueRidge]

I'm waiting for a Dem politician say there are good people too. Then I think it'll be analogous. For the most part, I don't see many official Dems supporting Antifa in any way nor emboldening them.

There is NO Democratic Party politician supporting antifa.

The reality is that NO Democratic or Republican president in modern times has EVER done the kind of things Trump is now doing.

In every society that has fallen into chaos dischord violence or authoritarianism there have been citizens who would not speak against the forces that created those conditions, who excused them, who stood by while people were hurt. Trump supporters are doing the same thing today. I beg those of you who are doing this to stop for the sake of humanity and America.

I also beg those of you who are opposed to Trump to stop participating in this kind of arguing which only furthers the notion that there are two sides to this. Don't argue with people you know are trolls. Don't be sucked into your own whataboutism, talking about Ivanka or Melania. We've gone far beyond what would be okay in normal times. Stand above it, please.

 

[ballettmaus]

Yeah but it’s too much if there is also a gang in your town. Maybe people in Australia can be patient and follow all the laws and rules but you can’t do that if you are in Honduras

That's what asylum is for and why Trump's asylum/refugee policies are so outrageous.

 

[VGThuy]

Trump's racism, a timeline:

Stand Up Republic on Twitter

“Trump's history of racism, a timeline:”

twitter.com

Direct quotes and quotes from former employees and associates. Oh, but he's not a racist, right?

 

[BlueRidge]

For the issue of incidents of violence, such as the synagogue shooting, the white supremacist killings at the SC church, the leftwinger who shot Steve Scalise, all of these have been individual acts. We have not at this time had organized violence in this country, neither left nor right.

To me, these acts are not what the concern about Trump's rhetoric is. The concern is the social climate, the hate crimes, the incidents that Muslims, legal immigrants, refugees who have come here through legitimate processes are facing daily because of the hostility Trump is ginning up.

There is also a concern of a tipping point where suddenly the incidents may become more violent.

Hate is a dangerous force. Having the president of the US suggesting that certain people--those who are people of color, who wear hijab, who have non-US accents--should leave unless they support his politics is a dangerous provocation to his supporters to treat these Americans like they do not belong here.

 

[demetriosj]

Having the president of the US suggesting that certain people--those who are people of color, who wear hijab, who have non-US accents--should leave unless they support his politics

He told the four they are welcome to leave since they have so much hate and venom for the US, which they prove daily; he did not say they should leave because they do not support his politics.

 

[ballettmaus]

Omar received a warm welcome at the airport in Minneapolis/St. Paul. https://twitter.com/thauserkstp/status/1151970452337758209

 

[BlueRidge]

Omar received a warm welcome at the airport in Minneapolis/St. Paul. https://twitter.com/thauserkstp/status/1151970452337758209

That made my day.

Btw, here is what we are being told is hate being spewed by AOC (from her FB)

Reminder of what people are calling the “radical, extreme-left agenda”:
✅ Medicare for All
✅ A Living Wage & Labor Rights
✅ K-16 schooling, aka Public Colleges
✅ 100% Renewable Energy
✅ Fixing the pipes in Flint
✅ Not Hurting Immigrants
✅ Holding Wall Street Accountable

 

[Susan1]

I'd like to put this to the Trumpers out there. Suppose you are a manager. Suppose you had an employee say what Trump said about the four congresswomen to another employee. Then suppose friends of said employee started harassing the other employee with "send her back!" Whether you're deep-red or deep-blue, Trump's words would merit an immediate meeting with HR, sensitivity training, maybe a suspension without pay, and, if the comments continue, dismissal. Yet we have Republicans in Congress falling over themselves to explain away the comments and/or defend them. I can GUARANTEE if any of their staff said these things they that staff member would also be immediately dismissed. It's appalling.

I know we say this all the time, but can anybody imagine another president telling a congressperson of the other party they do not agree with that they can leave the country? And having congresspeople of their party go on t.v. and back them up? How have things gotten so bad?