President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

there are various measure of Rome's run, and I exclude the Eastern Holy Roman Empire

Founding of Rome is about 753 BC,
the Republic is generally thought to begin about 509 BC and the overthrow of the monarchy
27BC is about the beginning of the Empire with the installation of Augustus as essentially the first Emperor, though the title was different
286 CE is the division of the empire into East and West
476 is the mark for the fall of the eastern empire established by Gibbon, though it probably began to decline 200 years before and linger after.

either way, Rome as the epicenter of the non Asian world was at least 600 years of domination or dominance.

The USA hasn't been a dominant power for 100 years. You can mark the decline of the US at the first OPEC war in 1973 and the transition from Democratic Republic to autocracy began in 2017

 

They may have more money than God, but he is still the boss...

"US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has claimed he didn’t want his new job, and that he only took it after some persuading from his wife.

Mr Tillerson, a former oil executive with no previous diplomatic experience, said his wife convinced him by saying God wanted him to be Secretary of State."

 

Redirect Notice

 

What I’ve Learned From People Whose Loved Ones Were Transformed by Fox News

No matter where the stories came from they all featured a few familiar beats: A loved one seemed to have changed over time. Maybe that person was already somewhat conservative to start. Maybe they were apolitical. But at one point or another, they sat down in front of Fox News, found some kind of deep, addictive comfort in the anger and paranoia, and became a different person — someone difficult, if not impossible, to spend time with. The fallout led to failed marriages and estranged parental relationships.

...

Young parents wrote that they don’t want to bring their children to visit aging Fox-brainers. “The worst is when my children go to spend time with their grandparents and come home with Fox News talking points coming out of their mouths,” one told me. “I have to decontaminate them every time.”

...

A son wrote to me of his widowed father choosing Fox News over the well-being of him and his wife, both of whom are disabled. “He is aware that the GOP wants to take away health care and he still voted for Trump. He still likes Trump.”

...

“I’ve been on eggshells with my dad for half my life now,” one wrote. “It really hurts having a father who is kind and smart but has Fox News brain worms. I can only talk to my dad about the weather. Anything else will set him off, even football …”

...

To be fair, there is a rough analog on the other side of the political spectrum, even if it seems, anecdotally, relatively muted. More than a few readers wrote to say this all made them thankful they merely had to contend with Dem-Boomer family who had gone mad for Maddow and Russiagate. “My grandma is a huge Maddow person and operates the same way as Fox News brained people,” one wrote me. “The signaling she gets and reiterates from MSNBC happens in the same sort of ‘brain rot’ way. Like, she heard something on there, or on Facebook, that was about how Trump is about to get impeached — and every day I talk to her and she repeats that.”

“I love her, and she’s bright and it’s obviously less offensive” than Fox News, the reader continued, “but the whole fucking garbage corporate 24 hour news model is insidious and so so fucking bad.”

 

We report. You decide. Fair and balanced.

 

Hmm. I've decided it's neither.

 

I blame loneliness. Another reason to call your parents often.

 

As soon as Fuckboy starts jabberbabbling like a senile deranged idiot, we go to commercial.

 

Now I've been crying lately,
Thinkin' about the world as it is
Why must we go on hating,
Why can't we live in bliss

'Cause out on the edge of darkness,
There rides the Trump Train

 

He keeps all the best words in there, too ...