Trump 2017: Year Zero

[allegro]

For the record, the FHA fee in question is about $500 for a $200,000 home loan. FHA loans require monthly PMI (private mortgage insurance) because you're putting so little down (3.5%), and you have to pay that for the life of the loan (30 years), vs. conventional loans where you are only required to pay PMI until you reach 20% equity. PMI is usually around $135-$150 PER MONTH and it's not a write-off and it affects your loan to income ratio. The mortgage meltdown of 2007 was CAUSED by FHA loans. There is a certain fear behind not having slush in that fee fund, "just in case."

[allegro]

I know many people who traveled to DC to join the women's march, and I feel like you're REALLY dismissive of them. Signing petitions and protesting are not mutually exclusive.
Protest does have results. It sets the tone, and sends a message to lawmakers that certain issues are important to a large chunk of the population.

Back in 2009-10, the Tea Party did a great job of continuously protesting and becoming a movement, at a time when -gasp- the democrats had a supermajority!

I was supposed to go to the march here in Chicago and backed out (because of logistics and crowd). I'm not "dismissive," if this makes people feel more empowered to do more things, to get more involved in government, to register people to vote, to get donations for NOW and Planned Parenthood, to join the ACLU, then that's AWESOME. But politicians and Congress are fully aware that women exist, and they don't care; change comes with electing members of Congress who will enact laws that protect women. Voting is where change happens, and not JUST in Presidential elections. A general "here we are" for one day doesn't send a clear message. Sending letters to Congress DOES. Marching repeatedly with a clear intent and focus on one clear message (e.g. a particular women's healthcare bill) does.

The "aimless protest" I referenced was YESTERDAY. "No to Trump." Okay, now what? That's like "no to Congress." Like "No to Nixon." Which happened. And didn't change anything.

The Tea Party protests were very specific, as I mentioned in my prior post. If you look at the history of each protest, each was in reaction to something specific that Obama or Congress did (auto bailout, stimulus bill, etc.)

[elevenism]

The "anarchists" sure did have cool costumes though, amiright?

[slave2thewage]

This type of bullshit creates the "us versus them" mentality that needs to go away on all sides.

Erm, no. This 'we need to understand the other side' mentality led to this shitshow. Fuck these white straight douchebags.

[elevenism]

So like
I keep seeing shirts and stickers for sale that say God, Guns and Trump. Literally.

The right has become a caricature of itself.

[joplinpicasso]

Oh boy an anarchist punched a Nazi on my teevee

better blame the Left

Few people will come to his sympathy, though I disagree with the punch on principle.

[Archive_Reports]

Erm, no. This 'we need to understand the other side' mentality led to this shitshow. Fuck these white straight douchebags.

Racism and sexism. Cool story.

[Khrz]

Racism and sexism. Cool story.

The operative word was "douchebags", and their orientation, gender and race were mentioned to imply that they don't give a fuck about LGBT, coloured people and/or women.

There's enough panties in a twist right now, let's at least try to get the gist of each other's points here, even when we fundamentally disagree.

[allegro]

The "anarchists" sure did have cool costumes though, amiright?

They looked like Ninjas.

[Mantra]

Well I personally thought the protests were awesome. Yesterday was such a shitty day for this country, but it was really encouraging to see all the pics and videos of the big crowds out there in the streets. I found it uplifting.

[Khrz]

Trump said "When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice."

Soooooooooo. Someone tell him about Germany's history. Trump is such a piece of shit.

Well, there's patriotism and nationalism. I've always been amazed and dumbfounded by how shamelessly patriotic the average US citizen can be, that doesn't mean I ever saw you as a fundamentally nationalistic country.

Problem is, when Trump talks about it, he's talking about his own brand of Patriotism (©), the one he's been pushing all this time, which is really Crystal Nationalism.

They aren't anarchists.

Oh, now we're nitpicking ? So, is The_Left_LULZ constituted of several politically diverse philosophies, or is it still a fat big bag of Clinton sycophants ? I'm getting confused here. Is gatekeeping reserved for the cyber 1337 @anarchists ? Do we get a t-shirt ?

[Mantra]

its literally not possible to be an anarchist if you are a disaffected authoritarian. They are out there "protesting" after the establishment candidate lost for fucks sake.

I guarantee none of those Black Bloc anarchists are out there for Hillary's sake. They hate her.

[slave2thewage]

What's the deal with this "national day of patriotism" Trump issued an order for yesterday? It sounds vaguely ominous, but there's not much being said about it.

[Khrz]

What's the deal with this "national day of patriotism" Trump issued an order for yesterday? It sounds vaguely ominous, but there's not much being said about it.

July 4th?

[Mantra]

"black bloc anarchist" isnt a thing. Black bloc is just a style of protest. Yes, frequently those using black bloc will claim to be anarchist in motivation but I'm not seeing it right now. The majority who seem to be out there are antif (who are predominantly communist these days). Some of them are even flying their red to demonstrate it. Their anti-capitalist targeting further demonstrates this.

We could speculate all we want about which brand of radicalism these particular individuals happen to fall under, but ultimately, the point still stands that none of these people are Hillary/establishment supporters as you were trying to imply.

[BRoswell]

Speaking of photos, Trump's press secretary just tried to Jedi mind trick everyone into thinking that the inauguration was the most attended one in history, and that any photos that show otherwise were doctored to look that way.

I know, I know...let's just see how it goes, right?

[allegro]

Sean Spicer says We're going to hold the media accountable.

What the fuck, are we North Korea now?

[allegro]

I know, I know...let's just see how it goes, right?

He can't be impeached until he DOES something impeachable. He probably will be impeached, because he's a cross between Nixon and Reagan. He's gonna use his power too much, and the ACLU is all over every single thing he does, already. They've already filed FOIA requests and a lawsuit.

[allegro]

Oh *now* the ACLU is cool again?

I re-joined about 6 months ago and I'm on the monthly plan plus I gave them $200 bucks and I've signed a boatload of their petitions and forwarded them. (You know of course that I was a card-carrying member for over 20 years until I got pissed at them here in Illinois.)

Did the WH web site story originate on WaPo?

[botley]

He can't be impeached until he DOES something impeachable.

Hey. Hi. Over here

[Sarah K]

What is with the dislike of the ACLU? I missed that one.

[allegro]

What is with the dislike of the ACLU? I missed that one.

@DigitalChaos is jabbing at me because I was pissed at them and quite for a long time because they were against metal detectors in schools and revenge porn laws in Illinois.

Otherwise there is no dislike that I know of.

@botley , I provided links earlier to the US Code which provides that the President, Vice President and Congress are exempt from conflict of interest. Which is nuts but it is what it is.

https://www.google.com/amp/lawnewz.c...?client=safari

Now, as a matter of ETHICS, of saying he did one thing and then didn't; he wasn't under oath and he relied on legal counsel so that would be on his legal counsel. Impeachment will more likely be related to a Constitutional crisis, abusive of power like Nixon.

[allegro]

Nice. I actually skipped my renewal last year just cause their "all civil rights except guns" thing pissed me off more than usual. I may end up renewing soon but the EFF has been more deserving.

Point of origin. I honestly don't know precisely. WaPo was pushing the story very hard though. They were also popping up as one of the top sites covering it.

I've been focusing on the ACLU, the AARP, and organizations related to Medicaid, Medicare, healthcare and Social Security.

[allegro]

Ya. I'm just being a shithead to allegro.

My annoyance with ACLU is that their stance on Heller has been "under review" since 2008. 9 years of not committing to a stance is bullshit. Just suck it up and pick. I don't even care what it is.

They see both sides. State's rights as well as 2nd Amendment rights. It's not really an ACLU type important issue, not a civil liberty that's been infringed. But PLEASE not drift this here.

[Mantra]

There's probably gonna be a lot of bipartisan support for impeachment, even from assholes like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, and I'm sure Trump will offer up plenty of paths to pursue it, so I suspect that impeachment is basically inevitable...but who knows.

[Sarah K]

Not sure why everyone is wishing and hoping for impeachment. Pence is 4903720842730923750492389 times worse.

[slave2thewage]

Not sure why everyone is wishing and hoping for impeachment. Pence is 4903720842730923750492389 times worse.

I was hoping the ceiling would collapse at the inauguration ball and take them all out.

[onthewall2983]

If Trump is impeached in the first four years, he will find a way to take Pence with him, or make damn sure he isn't elected in 2020.

[onthewall2983]

The views of the marches around the world are nothing less than awe-inspiring to see.

[Sarah K]

LMFAOOOO. SNL is going to be incredible. That does not seem real at alllll. He's so mad.