President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

Unless that job includes getting in pissing contests with everybody who says something mean about him, it doesn't look like he's doing his job.

 

Why are you conquering his point?

 

Because he admitted to possessing weapons of mass destruction and my swiping spelling on my phone leaves something to be desired

 

The Democrats are starting to the play the game smart, man. AOC personally is floating this plan? Probably scratched it out on a bar napkin.

At any rate, I don't think they'll get 70 percent, but they'll get something in due time. America's ready for the shift and the Congressional newcomer is just the person to push it.

 

They've got to ask for 70 percent to eventually get a modest amount down the road. Will have to give up a lot to get it, too. I'm ready for the grand bargain of grand bargains. Have to get the baby boomers out of office to get it done.

 

Trump curiously well versed in specific Russian talking points

 

I believe this is the Vizzini Plan.
First on CNN: Hundreds of TSA screeners calling out sick - CNNPolitics

"Airports struggling with manpower issues could also opt to loosen standards for checked baggage based on a theory that people would not bring a bomb onto their own flights because the explosion would kill them, too. Known as positive passenger bag match"

 

I could be wrong about this, but in looking at news coverage of the 1981 strike and firings by Reagan, I've yet to find anything that suggests the economy went to hell or there was any sort of major disruption. How is that possible?
I was 15 at the time and I don't remember any catastrophe. And that has always amazed me. Seems like getting rid of people who keep the skies safe would compel the complete suspension of air travel such as we saw in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.

 

Trump's fondest wish is for another 9/11. He gets the bump in approval ratings that always accompanies national turmoil, and he uses his pulpit to blame the Democrats for this one.

 

Trump's gambit probably won't pay off, but it is interesting. Basically, he's banking on enough Americans thinking "so, we're shutting down government because we can't put up a wall to keep our illegal immigrants? Seriously?"

Now, this isn't what I personally think. But Trump is operating on a premise close to this. He's going to gum up the federal government and blame the Democrats for not wanting to put up a simple southern border wall.

And the inevitably the question becomes: Why not have a wall? Because it'll hurt America financially? Because it's morally wrong? Because it sends a bad message to all the nations from which immigrants come? Even if the answer is "yes" to all three, I find the Democrats' case often lacking on immigration. Mostly, it's a "oh, how dare you!" posture - co-opted by a lot of the media and Twitter - for anything short of open borders.

Now, if Trump was smart, or anyone around him was - and he's not, not particularly, and neither are they - he'd really zero in on the congresspeople from the states most affected by undocumented immigrants. He'd force that issue. He won't, because he's him, and he'd rather spar with whoever is in the media at the moment.

I don't know if the wall is a winning issue for Trump. I do know it's deeply misunderstood by a lot of liberals, especially educated liberals who largely don't have to compete with undocumented immigrants for jobs. (Such as journalists.) As abhorrent as I find Tucker Carlson on most topics, he's not wrong when he says Americans did not ask for the mass migration of the 1990s and 2000s. (I'd add they were ignorant/clueless as to how those undocumented immigrants were tied the lower cost of food, goods, etc.) If you'd given Americans a choice on the matter 25 years ago, there isn't any way a majority would have supported the flow of undocumented immigrants to America. None.

So, here we are, in 2018, with a president who won, in essence, because he (well, Bannon) gambled on representing many Americans on the matter of immigration. And now he wants the wall he says those Americans want.

According to polls, the majority of Americans do not want it. it's about 55% against and 44% for. But that's in a vacuum. If polls phrase the question differently -- Would you support the border wall as a means of ending the government shutdown? -- it may produce a different answer.

Frankly, I think it'll backfire. But Trump is stronger here - even if he's a buffoon - than disdainful liberals have ever given him credit for. And while some of his strength is rooted in racism and xenophobia, not all of it is. Our immigration system is broken, Trump's offered a plan - I don't think it's very good, but it's something - and the Democrats' response strikes me as a kind pollyannish resistance to any reform or change.

 

But, where we do have barriers, they are working, right?

 

Sick leave requests among Federal employees always increase in the weeks after the holidays. It has nothing to do with protests or getting cash jobs. This is union spin.