Trump 2017: Year Zero

[Jinsai]

THIS IS GOING TO BE A HUUUUGE THING.

I just came in here to post about the same thing... holy shit

[theimage13]

THIS IS GOING TO BE A HUUUUGE THING.

Or people will stop reporting it after SNL lets Rosie O'Donnell play Steve Bannon, and Trump drops the world's tiniest little nuclear bomb on 30 Rockefeller Plaza while simultaneously tweeting that O'Donnell is too ugly to rape.

Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration.

I hope.

[Exocet]

Ive never understood the US obsession with Iran...i just dont get it, they are always talking about it, for years.....yeah its government is horrible..its not 1979 anymore...
And its not as bad as Saudi Arabia.
no one in Europe or Russia/central Asia, China, India...really gives a shit about it.

Iran is not Iraq....its too late for them to fuck with Iran now, its got 80 Million people becoming quite powerful...its the most powerful country in the middle east now...i know this relegates Israel and makes them anxious..they are not stupid enough to acctually attack Israel and incite blowback from the US.
There will be no coups or democracy installed..

Donald Trump is always going off on these Iran rants...whats he aiming for ??...if he invaded Iran it would be like Iraq times 20 in terms of chaos...nothing is going to happen.
I acctually thought that Obama Iran deal was the best foreign policy thing he did. Out of an otherwise bad legacy in that department.

[allegro]

Ive never understood the US obsession with Iran...i just dont get it, they are always talking about it, for years.....yeah its government is horrible..its not 1979 anymore..

It's partly because we still hold a grudge from the "Iran Hostage Crisis" ("death to the Unites States!" and all that stuff, even though the Iranian Revolution was partly our fault for not sending the Shah back to Iran to face criminal charges), but it's mostly because Iran funds Hamas and Hezbollah. And the U.S. HATES them, particularly Hamas. Because of the U.S.'s ties to, and alliance with, Israel. Because we can't see anything except the Israeli side of things. Even when the Palestinians are totally defenseless and need Hamas to protect them, Israel (and the U.S.) claim that Hamas and Palestine are sending rockets into Israel totally unprovoked. But, if you look at the Real Truth, that's a bunch of shit. But the U.S. has its players on the Risk Board in Israel. Most conservatives and even a shitload of liberals (Hillary Clinton) fucking HATE Palestinians and Hamas. Hillary still holds a grudge because of the failure of the Arafat/Bill Clinton Camp David Summit. As do a ton of conservatives.

If you ever get a chance and can find it, watch the Israel / Palestine episode of Anthony Bordain's "Parts Unknown." It was fucking AWESOME.

Also, the U.S. has close ties with Saudi Arabia (Sunnis), and the Saudis hate Iran (Shiite).

[allegro]

I want to throw a chair at Stephen Miller, the smug little prick.

He's like Doug Neidermeyer in "Animal House."

[Harry Seaward]

Ive never understood the US obsession with Iran...

Donald Trump is always going off on these Iran rants...whats he aiming for ??...

It's worth noting that Gen Mattis holds a long grudge against Iran. So much that the Obama admin "did not place much trust in Mattis, because he was perceived to be too eager for a military confrontation with Iran."

Personally I hate Iran because holding any other view towards the country means you're an anti-Semite. And I could never be an anti-Semite because my girlfriend is Jewish. I love Israel. All they do is try to do things correctly and peacefully but these goddamn archaic ragheads won't let them alone and let them be! Honestly Netanyahu is my hero tbh, I have his poster on my wall.

=/

[Khrz]

A lot of Jews consider Netanyahu to be the lesser of evils, but not much else than a dangerous asshole...

[hellospaceboy]

Personally I hate Iran because holding any other view towards the country means you're an anti-Semite. And I could never be an anti-Semite because my girlfriend is Jewish. I love Israel. All they do is try to do things correctly and peacefully but these goddamn archaic ragheads won't let them alone and let them be! Honestly Netanyahu is my hero tbh, I have his poster on my wall.

=/

This might be a stupid question, but... are you being sarcastic? You are, right?!

[Louie_Cypher]

i finally figured it out, it wasn't make america great again it was make SNL funny again, ok all is right again
thanks trump!
-louie

[Harry Seaward]

This might be a stupid question, but... are you being sarcastic? You are, right?!

Yes.

[Jinsai]

I want to throw a chair at Stephen Miller, the smug little prick.

He's like Doug Neidermeyer in "Animal House."

The press is having a glorious field day with his ass though, so I doubt we'll be hearing too much from him in the future.

"For the record, you have provided zero evidence that the president was the victim of massive voter fraud in New Hampshire," Stephanopoulos said at the end of the interview. "You have provided zero evidence of the president's claim that he would have won the popular vote if 3-to-5 million illegal immigrants hadn't voted. Zero evidence for either one of those claims. Thanks a lot of joining us this morning."

[allegro]

The press is having a glorious field day with his ass though, so I doubt we'll be hearing too much from him in the future.

"For the record, you have provided zero evidence that the president was the victim of massive voter fraud in New Hampshire," Stephanopoulos said at the end of the interview. "You have provided zero evidence of the president's claim that he would have won the popular vote if 3-to-5 million illegal immigrants hadn't voted. Zero evidence for either one of those claims. Thanks a lot of joining us this morning."

THAT INTERVIEW (with Stephanopoulos) this morning is what made me want to hurl a chair at Miller's head. He had just spewed the pompous non-fact racist fear-inducing drum-beating shit on "Meet the Press" and then continued his shit-spewing on Stephanopoulos' show.



"Ask anybody in New Hampshire" ISN'T EVIDENCE!!!

THAT'S FUCKING HEARSAY, THATS NOT FACT, YOU FUCKING MORON.

[allegro]

Here's the asshole on "Meet the Press"



Miller blatantly (and stupidly) claims that the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act HAS POWER OVER the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, even though the NEWER Act specifically REMOVES the discrimination aspects of the 1952 Act. Any new law SUPERCEDES the old law. HE'S NOT IN LAW, HE'S A FUCKING MORON.

Then he goes on and on and on about "criminals" right now being deported to "save the lives" of U.S. Citizens, who "pose a threat to public safety." So, that mother in California who committed the offense of fabricating a Social Security Number in order to get a job and was deported back to Mexico the other day was a 'THREAT TO PUBLIC SAFETY?" WHAT THE FUCK IS THE MATTER WITH YOU, YOU FUCKING RACIST PIECE OF SHIT! GO CRAWL BACK INTO YOUR WHITE SUPREMACIST HOLE!

[allegro]

Meanwhile, God bless Senator Bernie Sanders, who was ALSO on "Meet the Press" this morning and called Trump a "pathological liar."

Washington Post article HERE: Sen. Al Franken also says that a few Republicans are questioning Trump's metal health.

GEE, YA THINK??



I don't think that Sen. Sanders fully understood Chuck's question about the recent protests and activism being similar to the Tea Party activism in 2009; Sanders dismisses it, saying the 2009 Tea Party movement was funded by the Koch brothers, but he misses the connection to the two movements: PISSED-OFF PEOPLE. The Tea Party movement resulted in the WIDESPREAD nomination of Republicans, to the point where they now control TWO-THIRDS of all forms of government in the U.S.

The 2009 Tea Party activists were PROTESTING OBAMA and his policies.

The 2017 activists are PROTESTING TRUMP and his policies.

[Jinsai]

and god, that dulled expression on his face... he looks like a fucking mannequin in a k-hole

[allegro]

He's such a snotty loudmouthed prick, I just wanna throw a bag of crap at him.

[theimage13]

Remember when there was that tiny little glimmer of hope that maybe Sanders could actually get the Democratic nod?

Try to answer this from the headspace of September or October of last year: realistically speaking, do you think he would he have beaten 45? Or do you think the whole "blah blah blah I hate socialists blah blah blah" refrain would've left us in the same position we're in anyway?

[implanted_microchip]

@theimage13 ultimately what it comes down to is the fact that Trump won a very narrow victory all around that was mostly tied together in the final hours and played the electoral numbers game to succeed. The Clinton campaign treated the Blue Wall as impenetrable and didn't put the work into many guaranteed-blue states that they should have, leading to Trump being able to swoop in and claim them as his own by campaigning like a motherfucker in person all of the time rather than just sending out surrogates all of the time.

Had Hillary's camp not tried to flip hard-red states blue and instead maintained their surefire bets that they ended up losing, they easily could have won. Hell, had the election been held just a few weeks earlier than it was, right when that Access Hollywood tape was at its heights, she would have won. It was incredibly close in a lot of areas that ultimately flipped to him thanks to winner-take-all. There were just so many variables at work and so many different scandals going on at any given time that pushed numbers in either direction for both candidates so often that to pin it all on any one thing is way too reductive to lead to any healthy, good discussion.

A lot of people could have beaten Trump, Hillary being one of them, and I believe that Bernie could have, too, but he also could have lost. We will never actually know. We will never actually know what his campaign's strategy would have been; we will never actually know how his ground game would have been run -- could it have led to a grassroots reawakening full of youthful and energized newcomers and aging idealists, or would it have been led by a bunch of inexperienced college kids with no idea how to actually keep the wheels turning?

I do believe that he would have put the necessary time into places like Michigan and appealed a lot harder to the working class white voter, and that would have made the race far more competitive in the end -- Hillary's campaign did a pretty decent job at first once the general began in trying to appeal to people, but then quickly got overconfident after the DNC's massive boost (and, to be fair, it was an enormous boost, especially since it had the luck of being able to immediately contrast the RNC's lunacy and cynicism) and became too reliant on identity politics.

I can easily say that Trump would have focused a lot on socialism as a boogeyman instead of emails. We would have seen a lot made out of his history of supporting radical movements and we would have seen a lot done to energize older voters who remember when socialism was the enemy culturally. I don't trust that Bernie would have been able to maintain his composure in the debates as well as Hillary did -- he's way too reactive and immediate, and while that may be seen as part of what people like about Trump, he lost every single debate enormously. The debates just did not matter like they once did. These were two candidates so polarizing that by the time they were happening, most people had made up their mind, and those who watched them undecided probably weren't compelled one way or another. The Comey letter had a big impact on that sliver of important voters, just as the Access Hollywood tape had mere weeks before.

I do believe Bernie would have made the race even more polarizing, if such a thing is even possible. Hillary was a center-left moderate and Trump was a mercurial far-right authoritarian. Bernie is a hard-left progressive on basically everything except for guns. If the right was able to behave as though Hillary was some crazy left wing lunatic, can you imagine where they would have taken it with Bernie? We would have seen so much Stalin shit just like we saw so much Hitler shit towards Trump, accurate or not.

The genuinely interesting conversation to me though is what a Clinton-Sanders ticket could have accomplished. We know from leaks that he was in the final running for VP choices and I am confident he would have accepted it. I totally think that would have won. Sanders could have helped Hillary pull in some of those more fundamentalist Democrats that were throwing fits about a moderate just like Pence helped Trump pull in a lot of the more traditional conservatives who were throwing fits about a maniac.

[Jinsai]

He's such a snotty loudmouthed prick, I just wanna throw a bag of crap at him.

Meanwhile, in Trump's twitter bubble, he did a fantastic job... also, did you see the huge crowds of supporters that just love me in Florida? Why isn't the unfair news media reporting on how much people loved me today? Isn't that the job of the press? FAKE NEWS!

While back in the real world, the totally biased and unfair news is more concerned about Flynn's Russia scandal... so unfair. SAD.

[theimage13]

@theimage13 ultimately what it comes down to....

A simple "yes" or "no" would have been enough....

Just kidding. That's one of the most well thought-out and thorough responses I've seen here, and a hell of a lot more interesting to read than just "yeah he would've totally won" or "nah he woulda gotten his ass kicked". I'm not sure I share your certainty that a Clinton / Sanders ticket would have been a sure thing, especially since I'm not sure how much (if any) input he would have had on the overall direction of the campaign. The DNC seemed to have a very strong push for Clinton to get her way and just kind of push Sanders to the back, so even if he'd wound up with the VP nod, I'm not confident that the campaign would have given him much (if any) input.

[thevoid99]

BTW, has anyone seen Jim Jeffries telling off Piers Morgan on Real Time with Bill Maher? Piers is a fucking moron.

[onthewall2983]

He truly is, but I don't think that accomplished anything in terms of people taking Morgan less seriously. We already do. It seems like he exists to be a punching bag and somehow accepts it.

What would be satisfying is to see him yelling, ranting, raving and foaming at the mouth. It appears he didn't do any of that here.

[thevoid99]

Seriously, give Melissa McCarthy an Emmy. She is fucking smacked-on as Sean Spicer in every fucking way....

[implanted_microchip]

I'm not sure I share your certainty that a Clinton / Sanders ticket would have been a sure thing, especially since I'm not sure how much (if any) input he would have had on the overall direction of the campaign. The DNC seemed to have a very strong push for Clinton to get her way and just kind of push Sanders to the back, so even if he'd wound up with the VP nod, I'm not confident that the campaign would have given him much (if any) input.

I shouldn't have said it would have been a certainty, but I do think it could have helped. There was a contingency of voters that never would have cared if he was with her because they're the kind that still go around calling he and Warren "sell-outs" for endorsing her (you know, as opposed to sitting back silently with Trump as the alternative or something), but I do think a lot of younger college-age white guys might have been more willing to fill in that bubble had Bernie's name been there. Kaine didn't really add much at all, and while I ultimately like the guy (I even went to one of his campaign stops and met him in Orlando), I don't think he did much to add any big boost to the validity of the ticket. VPs should help appeal to a group that the main person doesn't have as deep an in with, and I think someone who was more on the further end of the progressive spectrum would have been an edge in a race where every edge counted.

[allegro]

Remember when there was that tiny little glimmer of hope that maybe Sanders could actually get the Democratic nod?

Try to answer this from the headspace of September or October of last year: realistically speaking, do you think he would he have beaten 45? Or do you think the whole "blah blah blah I hate socialists blah blah blah" refrain would've left us in the same position we're in anyway?

No.

And in my opinion the reason why is because he got far less votes than Clinton in the primary, indicating his lack of support from minorities and the mainstream liberals; certainly not enough support to beat Trump. Clinton got far more votes in the primary and even SHE failed in three of the key Rust Belt states. Sanders' comment about slavery reparations negatively affected him with black voters (he could have done far better by equivocating), and his comment about "no white ghettos" (while he was standing in one in Flint, MI) alienated lots of unemployed white working class people who DO live in "ghettos" and elsewhere, but particular those voters in the Rust Belt who feel disenfranchised. The ghetto comment affected black voters, too.

DNC shenanigans can't and don't control votes.

[Louie_Cypher]

No.

And in my opinion the reason why is because he got far less votes than Clinton in the primary, indicating his lack of support from minorities and the mainstream liberals; certainly not enough support to beat Trump. Clinton got far more votes in the primary and even SHE failed in three of the key Rust Belt states. Sanders' comment about slavery reparations negatively affected him with black voters (he could have done far better by equivocating), and his comment about "no white ghettos" (while he was standing in one in Flint, MI) alienated lots of unemployed white working class people who DO live in "ghettos" and elsewhere, but particular those voters in the Rust Belt who feel disenfranchised. The ghetto comment affected black voters, too.

DNC shenanigans can't and don't control votes.

again i would rwcomend http://www.audible.com/pd/Nonfiction...EwlRoCVHbw_wcB, he goes into detail on this how clinton went into hiding "prepping for the debates", and how bernie came across as an angry old man, distancing themselves from Obama and his accomplishments, taking the youth and minority votes for granted, thanks DNC.
-louie

[allegro]

Haaaaaa ha ha!!! Ugh

https://twitter.com/pattonoswalt/sta...62994917650432



RESIST

[Jinsai]

Goebbels knew what he was doing, and so does Bannon. The constant endless parade of lies is intentional. Eventually, people are going to be so exasperated and exhausted by all the fucking lying, that they'll just accept it.

[Jinsai]

Trump screwed up passing on this band for the inaugural celebration blast



EDIT: holy shit, John Oliver killed it tonight

[theimage13]