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Breaking News! The Donald didn't go to the bunker because he was afraid of protesters, oh no no no, he went to inspect it!
Of course! I knew it probably needs a little dusting in to be kept in order at time, I totally get it.
FFS
This is comedy gold
How long till the defense secretary gets fired then? Obviously the Donald barely knows the man, won't remember ever meeting him despite the photos and videos and personal endorsements, but hears bad things about him from others.
How long till the defense secretary gets fired then? Obviously the Donald barely knows the man, won’t remember ever meeting him despite the photos and videos and personal endorsements, but hears bad things about him from others.
72hrs max. He’s weak and been doing a terrible job. Bigly. So sad.
How long till the defense secretary gets fired then? Obviously the Donald barely knows the man, won’t remember ever meeting him despite the photos and videos and personal endorsements, but hears bad things about him from others.
It'll be late Friday eve as usual. Lots of reports today that US military are pushing back on his demands after Monday's PR disaster.
Interesting that Esper said that medical helicopter that was low-flying over Washington is under investigation.
And meanwhile the White House has said that Tinkerbell's church walk was an iconic, defining moment in history, just like Churchill inspecting bomb damage in WW2.
I think the point of iconic, defining moments are that these are usually defined by how history views them, not by how they are announced by the press secretary. Utterly pathetic.
Wow, a virtual military standoff within internal USA, who'd have thought....
The church workers supplying water and first aid who had the flee through tear gas aren't so convinced apparently.
defining moment in history,
Oh it probably will be, just not in the way they hope...
I noticed she always looks unhappy
Not true. She is hungry for Justin Trudeau and he totally makes her happy
His mad dog has now turned on him.
How long is he going to hang on for?
One of the most senior military leaders has finally had enough and given his opinion on Tinkerbell, and others are following suit. Predictably, Tinkerbell suddenly decides Mattis wasn’t that great after all.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/03/opinions/mattis-thinks-trump-risks-america-bergen
Trump, who revels in the ceremonial aspects of being Commander in Chief, now has an emerging bloc of senior retired generals forming against him. Trump will, of course, perform his usual tricks of denigrating them, but he should be aware that if this bloc starts to organize itself to oppose him as he seeks re-election, the President will find it hard to paint these senior generals as a bunch of weak "deep state" types since so many of them performed heroically in the long post-9/11 wars.
Predictably, only hours after Mattis released his statement, Trump struck back with tweets calling him "the world's most overrated general" and saying he didn't like his leadership style.
Now that God and guns (religious leaders and the military)seem to be against him, who or what else needs to denounce him for his base to look elsewhere?
for his base to look elsewhere?
Where do they look though?
Now that God and guns (religious leaders and the military)seem to be against him, who or what else needs to denounce him for his base to look elsewhere?
GOP
Found a clip of general milley dealing with trump
Now that God and guns (religious leaders and the military)seem to be against him, who or what else needs to denounce him for his base to look elsewhere?
The problem is that his supporters are religious in the cultural way, far more so than the religious way. It's their way of life, their friends, their community. It's not about theology, it's about maintaining their comfortable status quo while allowing them to feel superior. They're about as far removed from Jesus as the Easter Bunny is. To paraphrase, "It's difficult to get a man to understand the [problem with Trump], when his [way of life] depends on his not understanding it."
it’s about maintaining their comfortable status quo while allowing them to feel superior.
When your life is privileged, equality feels like oppression, as the saying goes.
Request from the Homeland Security Committee Chairman for the director of the Secret Service to appear before Congress to explain stuff...
Another quote I’ve just seen from exactly one hundred years ago, from H L Mencken
“ As democracy is perfected, the office [of president] represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. . . . On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
https://thebulwark.com/trump-covid-19-and-the-american-idiocracy/
utterly damning & terrifying analysis here
https://www.ft.com/content/8189e105-68f2-4672-b906-f19fa1031cbe
just like Churchill inspecting bomb damage in WW2.
I must have missed when Churchill had to have all the Londoners forced out of sight as well. Maybe they got confused about who Churchill was talking about when he said "fight them on the beaches".
Not surprising considering Trumps willingness to see the best of nazis.
Not true. She is hungry for Justin Trudeau and he totally makes her happy
She was also pretty chirpy around Obama at Barbara Bush’s funeral.
I just see a jumble of words, you’d get a more coherent and succinct response by pulling random letters from a scrabble bag
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1268623496676024321?s=21
He's rather inevitably decided that he fired Mattis rather than Mattis resigning, but what I like more is that he's also declared that he gave him a new nickname- Mad Dog. A nickname he's had since at least 2004. Oh and apparently he's "the world's most overrated general"- and who's better placed to say so than the man who called him "the general's general"?
Mattis's line "“I earned my spurs on the battlefield; Donald Trump earned his spurs in a letter from a doctor” is kinda beautiful
Request from the Homeland Security Committee Chairman for the director of the Secret Service to appear before Congress to explain stuff…
Perhaps they can ask Kayleigh 'I will never lie to you' McEnany about not using tear gas too. The gaslighting is ridiculous.
https://twitter.com/NathanBacaTV/status/1268546711452094464?s=20
The fall from grace(tm) of Gen. Mattis is something that is really messing people up. I have seen comments on some FB posts saying that former marines are, for the first time, removing their USMC colours from display in shame of their former commander.
I think that this might be warranted in other situations, but given how Mattis is a private citizen, he can choose to say what he wants to. That's the wonder of the First Amendment that Americans love. It might nott be politically good, but then I suspect that Gen. Mattis doesn't really give a shit about that.
Not surprising considering Trumps willingness to see the best of nazis.
That's why an anti-fascist organisation is on his 'who to blame' list
Evil
Just came to post that, unreal
The GOP have got to be thinking 25th amendment to salvage whats left of the party
'It's a great day for him'
Unbelievable.
'It's a great day in terms of equality'
Nope.
https://twitter.com/Yamiche/status/1268925664058650624
He was killed by cops and a few days later the president is saying its a great day for him.
I’ve run out of words
You can always see the exact second that he goes off script. His speech writers must bang their heads against a wall each time
DC Mayor making her views known. This is in front of the White House.
'The section of 16th street in front of the White House is now officially “Black Lives Matter Plaza”.'
https://twitter.com/MurielBowser/status/1268916115809488896?s=19
America is now revealing itself to be a failed state, all pretence at democratic norms have been abandoned. The army has been put at odds with the president. It seems the police are following the presidents orders (tweets) rather than abiding by the constitution. I wonder if cracks will soon begin to appear between the ranks of the armed forces as well.
I mentioned on another thread that the situation was beginning to look more like Turkey. I'm also thinking about Egypt, Romania and many other middle eastern or African states where the relationships between respective governments, security forces and the army are precarious.
Whatever happens we know the discussions behind the scenes regarding the 25th amendment are being had. We also know that such a move would be framed as a coup. That's where Trump is taking this.
Trump has gone the full Erdogan. With the looting and destruction receding, the protests are being deliberately strung out by the police, now they are just beating peaceful protesters. Could Trump be looking to conflate the protests with the pandemic in order to engineer a delay to the elections or the implementing of martial law? Could he be agitating for some apparent 'failed' coup? (Ergo the Erdogan reference.)
Meanwhile an astronaut gets a Trump political ad taken down as it had footage of her and her kids in it without her say so.
https://twitter.com/AstroKarenN/status/1268667789604270082?s=19
Drew Brees has politely told him to **** off
When the reckoning comes Fox News have a lot to answer for as to the current state of America, all the way back to Cops
https://twitter.com/ComplexSports/status/1268551040074383361?s=20
This is an odd turn of phrase.
We as a white community need to listen and learn from the pain and suffering of our black communities.
Should be more like we
'We all need to listen and learn from the pain and suffering of the black members of our communities'
Very much agree with his general point though.
But the local police union boss defended his officers. “Fifty-seven resigned in disgust because of the treatment of two of their members, who were simply executing orders,” said John Evans, PBA president, according to WGRZ.
Jeez, where do I recall that being used as a defence before?
Who's issuing these orders?
Jeez, where do I recall that being used as a defence before?Who’s issuing these orders?
That those 57 officers can't see what's wrong with that video is horrifying.
It's not even just the officer(s) who push the guy down - it's the others just walking past as he lies there bleeding. Horrible.
Well, at least Trump is focussed on the important stuff at the mo. He went to Maine yesterday afternoon, said their Governor was a dictator (for not coming out of lockdown) and threatened the EU with tariffs on cars again if they didn't remove tariffs on lobsters 🦞
And another Trump campaign video got pulled from social media. Similar to the Nasa one I think, using footage of people who are not happy to be in a Trump vid.
https://twitter.com/jack/status/1269077097294688256
Jeez, where do I recall that being used as a defence before?
[nerd] Befehl ist Befehl (orders is orders)....Is actually a pretty widely recognised legal trap, it had be specifically ruled as inadmissible at the Nuremberg Trails. [/nerd]
Given the very tense nature of the creeping rise of fascist-alike organisations the US right now, I'd be cautious about drawing these sorts of comparisons without very good evidence that those officers have far right sympathies, and are not just (rightly or wrongly) supporting their colleagues.
That those 57 officers can’t see what’s wrong with that video is horrifying.
From former conversations with US colleagues this could very much come from the American military psyche. If I understand it correctly in military or para military organisations the American way is to very much lean on hierarchy for instructions, avoid individual thought. I do believe our armed forces was critical Or at least observant of this in the Gulf War, whereby our way is to think for ourselves when things go to rat shit. That would explain this behaviour whereby they think what they were told to do is absolutely the right thing.
To me though, where’s the humanity? To have myself mentally enforced to a point where I can inflict serious injury on a fellow human being without emotion and then shrug my responsibility away to hierarchical instruction is abhorrent. Why would I join such an organisation? We’ve heard so many time’s that “this is how they’re trained” which to me is not an excuse for individual compassion and understanding.
This is why I wanted to make the connection between the training the police officers are getting now in the states, and it's similarities to battlefield training.
Lt Col Grossman wrote a v successful book about the psychology of killing and became the first (and only) researcher in the field of Killology ie training men to overcome their fears and when in wars to become a successful murderous bastard. Which while pretty brutal is fine (I guess) for soldiers. Trouble is. Grossman now trains a huge amount of local Police Forces in the US, combine that with the 1033 Act (that means that huge amounts of Army surplus gear is made available to other civil protection organisations ) means that much of the US police force is indistinguishable from Para Military or Military in both dress and actions.... And you get Police forces acting like this...
But American police have always acted like this, Rodney King riots, Detroit riots. Boston police and NYPD have always had reputations for brutality. The Dead Kennedys track Police Truck about LAPD is pretty accurate.
The fact is now they can play dress up with a bunch of army equipment. I would say 80% of my American friends are wary of the police which is way more than over here.
I read they've been trained up with techniques from Krav Maga, developed and refined in the occupied territories.
Krav Maga, developed and refined in the occupied territories.
The north of Ireland?
😉
Techniques from the N of I would be too old hat but were employed by the SPG in the past, recent and ongoing occupations attract the most investment in training and resources. Weren't they going to rename a football team after him? Trump Town? Jaffa Oranges?
Well, at least Trump is focussed on the important stuff at the mo.
He tweeted over 200 times yesterday, more than on any other day during his presidency
It's all a bit more grassroots than just the police. The whole school day starting with allegiance to the flag. That's just scary and a bit fanatical state. It is indoctrination from a very young age.
Just to be crystal clear at what Trump is saying here: George Floyd, who died at the hands of Minneapolis police officers late last month, is looking down from heaven, seeing the jobs numbers, and saying, "There's a great thing that's happening for our country."
From kuco's link. Trouble is; he didn't say that. He said it about equal rights.
Lazy reporting like that feeds into Trump's Fake News agenda; it'll be all Business Suit Barbie goes on about at the next presser
The whole school day starting with allegiance to the flag. That’s just scary and a bit fanatical state.
You see, I just see that as patriotism. They don't have a head of state that isn't political, so they rally around the flag. It's slightly better than praying to a fictional deity like they do in my kids school.
It's more of a pity in this country you can't have an England flag without being a footy yob. You can't have a Union flag without being Tommy Robinson
Having scanned the ridiculous word salad/stream of low consciousness that constitutes a Trump presser, it's actually hard to work out what particular thing he thought George Floyd would be enjoying in posterity.
So it’s been a really a terrific thing. It’s now time for us to work together as we rebuild, renew and recover the great promise of America, and that’s true, we’re going to work together. It’ll all work out. It’ll all work out. Some governors may need a little help yet, but I think for the most part, they are in good shape.
Ok, that's something to do with the economy.
Donald Trump: (20:35)
We have a fantastic military. We have fantastic national guard. National guard was barely used and these people have done an unbelievable job. They helped the secret service at Washington. Secret service by the way, are unbelievable. The job they did at the white house is unbelievable. There was never any form of like, “Oh gee, this sounds dangerous.” All I could see is what I was seeing on television. But they were outside. And the secret service was incredible, but we were also helped by the DC police and we were helped by the national guard was unbelievable. They came in and they… This was like a piece of cake.Donald Trump: (21:13)
And I really am suggesting because if you look at Minnesota and the great success we had there, and other places, I’m suggesting to some of these governors that are too proud in New York, you see what’s going on there. Don’t be proud, get the job done. You’ll end up looking much better in the end. Call in the national guard, call me. We’ll have so many people, more people than you have to dominate the streets. You can’t let what’s happening happen. It’s called dominate the streets. You can’t let that happen in New York where they’re breaking into stores and all of the things. And by the way, hurting many small businesses, you can’t let it happen.
Crack down on the protestors, send in the National Guard. Overwhelming blah blah...
Donald Trump: (21:50)
Equal justice under the law must mean that every American receives equal treatment in every encounter with law enforcement, regardless of race, color, gender or creed, they have to receive fair treatment from law enforcement. They have to receive it. We all saw what happened last week. We can’t let that happen. Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying, “This is a great thing that’s happening for our country.” This is a great day for him. It’s a great day for everybody. This is a great day for everybody. This is a great, great day in terms of equality. It’s really what our constitution requires and it’s what our country is all about.
Ah, this is the bit. Why, exactly, is this a great day for equality? Has he announced some kind of police reform? No. Has he removed the military from the streets of US cities? No, he's actually encouraging more governors to use them to crack down on protesters. The president simply stating the self-evident truth that all citizens should be equal under the law is not something that is exceptional enough to make this a great day for equality, let alone a great day for some poor bloke who got choked to death by the police. There is nothing here, and immediately he's back onto the economy again.
Donald Trump: (22:38)
I just want to finish by saying, to save the economy, we passed several pieces of critical legislation, totally many trillions of dollars meaning three. We’re set up to do more if we want. I think we should, because we are dominant. For many years as a bystander, but somebody that loved government, somebody that loved this country, I would watch and study and see, when I say study, naturally study by watching. But if you go back, China was going to catch us in 2019. And that was like a given. You go back five years, six years, seven years, it was always, yeah, China will catch America, catch the United States in 2019, and then it will become the dominant economy. Never happened. It’s not going to happen.
It's hard for anyone not to interpret that statement, even tagged with the word 'equality', in the middle of a self-congratulatory spiel about the economy in any other way.
Boomerlives,
Patriotism is when you take a piece of cloth with a pattern on it and treat it like it's the Turin Shroud.
For any newbies, the Turin Shroud is displayed at the beginning of the Aaargh My Eye thread
Patriotism is when you take a piece of cloth with a pattern on it and treat it like it’s the Turin Shroud.
The trouble with the written word is that it's harder to tell if you are joking, or have a total and utter irony failure.
The Turin Shroud is an ironing failure.
Donald Trump: (22:38)
Is that a passage from Angry Tinkerbell’s latest publication, the New Testament according to D Trump?
Laura Ingraham.
I mean....
WTAF???
Brazen, utterly brazen & NGAF.......
🤬🤬🤬
Ingraham should be shot with shit.
She's a trump apologist with a media platform.
Another white supremacist.
Laura Ingraham.
I mean….
WTAF???
Google some of her anti-COVID science/lockdown stuff if you want to get really wound up.
Someone on here recommended 13th on Netflix. Really hit home. Wife couldn't watch it. The section intercutting between Trump's rallies and Nixon very timely. Didn't appreciate the history of his 'law and order president' rhetoric.
Laura Ingrham did a news piece covering (and promoting) the launch of a gun etched with the American flag and the word 'STAND'
It was the single most repulsive piece of news broadcasting I've ever seen. She is the bottom of the putrid barrel that all those rotten police apples are festering in.
Is Trump a narcissist? As Don would admit himself, he does tickle all the boxes and he's got a squad of world-beating officers.
Is Trump a narcissist?
Is the Pope a Catholic?
Actually, it's 'malignant narcissist', if you want to be accurate.
Is Trump a narcissist? As Don would admit himself, he does tickle all the boxes and he’s got a squad of world-beating officers.
Yes. He’s a narcissistic psychopath, there are roughly twenty specific traits and Angry Tinkerbell shows all of them. This has been posted any number of times, he’s the classic schoolyard bully who’s grown up to be a bully, as I’ve posted recently he said that he’s no different to when he was five years old, and at that age he was throwing rocks at the toddler next door. He grew up in an entitled family, and he’s got a sense of entitlement with its own zip code, probably shows on google earth!
So where's this headed, I see three options:
1). It all just fizzles out, Trump wins re-election and America heads further down the toilet
2). Protests keep going and keep the issues in the national conscience long enough that Trump loses the Presidency and he kicks off a shit storm of legal/twitter crap, likely bringing out the far right protest
3). Civil war
I can't see the National Guard or military disobeying orders, possibly a few cases of resigning/awol but not enough that any sort of armed rebellion would have any legs, option 3 is more likely to happen as a result of option 2 than 1. Although I'd prefer option 2 I can see option 1 winning out.
Not sure what effect coronavirus will have either, it could bolster the chances of long-term protests (if people are already unemployed and with little prospect of returning to work) or the second wave happens and hits the protesters hard.
option 2 with a little option 3. Charlie Manson finally gets his dream of a race war.
The far right militias are a wild card, but I suspect they're in the main cowardly blusterers, albeit highly dangerous. bombing nurseries, church shootings, mowing down protestors, and crying about not being able to get a haircut under lockdown. Pathetic sad little men
And not sure where to position themselves now that the federal government is beating up blacks
I can't see option 1 happening as by all accounts Trump has lost or is losing the swing states he needs to win. He is only capable of throwing red meat to his base now. It's inconceivable he'll expand his appeal again in the run up to the election even if the economy rallies. My understanding is that the polling in battleground states is overwhelmingly favouring Biden, and more so than Clinton had in the last election run up so thankfully no equivalence
He obviously won't go without a fight and is seeding that argument already with the postal voting fake news
Option 2.
RW 'militias' are faux hardmen; in reality, they're inadequates who bully because that's the limit of their ability - as for the guns, in the main they're emotional props to make the owners feel empowered.
America has always been a divided country but the divisions are now so massive that they will never be repaired.
Part of trump's 'legacy'.
Part of trump’s ‘legacy’.
You are giving him too much credit. He is a symptom not the cause.
Giving trump credit? Ha.
Or option 4:
Trump pulls out of a race he sees he cant win (or is removed under the 25th.) Then a Mike Pence / Nikki Hailey ticket runs against Biden. A traditional religious conservative and a progressive Republican (with native American ancestry) pitch to unify the country whilst pillorying Biden as the architect of mass incarceration.
How many Republican legislators are secretly dreaming this?
RW ‘militias’ are faux hardmen;
General Holy War/Blood Agent would argue with that. 🙂
Trump pulls out of a race he sees he cant win (or is removed under the 25th.) Then a Mike Pence / Nikki Hailey ticket runs against Biden.
If Trump thinks he can't win, or is removed because he can't - How does Pence distance himself from Trump's legacy and get the votes that Trump has lost?