Today's Trumpy Tantrum

Fretwired

HAL9000 said:

What I find scary are the parallels to the rise of fascism in 1930's Europe...

The scapegoating of certain groups based on religion or race
The unwillingness/inability of the leader to accept criticism
The claiming of 'alternative facts' as 'truth'

Now I'm not trying to compare the US with Nazi Germany, or claiming that Trump is Hitler reincarnate, just that there are behaviours here that are reminiscent.

But fascism is on the rise again in Europe. Look at the eastern block of EU members, Austria, Netherlands, Germany and France. A friend of mine was in Germany the other week in a bar with his son who is studying Germany and a group of men were marching down the street doing the Nazi salute and shouting about immigrants.

Viktor Orban (Hungray's leader) wants to build a big wall to keep Muslims out. I'm not going to post what his said about Muslim refugees as it makes Trump look like a saint. Robert Fico (head of Slovakia) says Islam has no place in Europe or his country. I haven't heard Junker denounce either of these men.

Geert Wilders leads an anti-Islam party in the Netherlands, Germany has the Alternative for Germany which looks set to get some seats in the Bundestag at the next election; then there's the Freedom Party of Austria which narrowly missed out winning in the last election and the National Front in France. Far right parties are making gains all over the EU.

Fretwired

earwighoney

goldtop said:

Interesting to read that there's a Kushner vs Bannon power struggle going on. Kushner trying to moderate, Bannon pushing for more radical change. Is it true that Bannon is using the Sabbat to get his stuff done? (Kushner is orthodox Jewish = no phone, no work, no access!)

Bannon is the guy who scares me the most.   I can't see anyone winning against him, the only person he can potentially lose a battle with is himself. 

Garthy

ESchap said:

Definitely seems that his inner "cabinet" are starting to turn on each other; lots of juicy leaks out of the Whitehouse ... looking forward to the Trump version of the night of the long knives as we seem to be paralleling history currently.

There is someone deeply mischievous in the White House leaking weird stuff to the press, such as Trump getting shitty with the leaders of Mexico, Canada, Australia and one other that escapes me, then those leaders having no idea what the press is talking about when asked about falling out, hanging up phones, threats etc. There was a double page spread about a barny with the Ozzies a few days ago then a paragraph from the Oz government saying none of it was true.

Trump is a cock but the press should heed the story of the boy who cried wolf.

Emp_Fab

Watch the judge's speech to the press...  this guy's got some seriously big cojones !

Particularly his last sentence !

If that's not throwing the gauntlet down to the Orange toddler, I don't know what is.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38786462

goldtop

earwighoney said:

goldtop said:

Interesting to read that there's a Kushner vs Bannon power struggle going on. Kushner trying to moderate, Bannon pushing for more radical change. Is it true that Bannon is using the Sabbat to get his stuff done? (Kushner is orthodox Jewish = no phone, no work, no access!)

Bannon is the guy who scares me the most.   I can't see anyone winning against him, the only person he can potentially lose a battle with is himself. 

Indeed, Bannon tried desperately with Sarah Palin, then with Mercer's money pushing Ted Cruz and then they settled on Trump. Bannon's on the board of Cambridge Analytics, the data-mining company that does 'election management' - of the type I thought was just fiction (see House of Cards). And that's all funded by the Mercers (the Medallion Fund, etc).

Not sure if this was posted before: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/big-data-cambridge-analytica-brexit-trump

earwighoney

goldtop said:
Indeed, Bannon tried desperately with Sarah Palin, then with Mercer's money pushing Ted Cruz and then they settled on Trump. 

Trump & Bannon's Breitbart was a marriage made in heaven/hell.  I have a macabre fascination with Breitbart, it's like looking in at the guts of roadkill. 

Emp_Fab

Sorry - I linked to the wrong clip earlier !

It's THIS guy that has the huge cojones !  (and he's the DA, not the judge) 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38866749

HAL9000

ICBM said:

There's a lot of stuff which is worryingly similar, both in how he got into power and what he's doing now he's got it - like the immediate labelling of any dissent as 'betrayal', eg about the acting Attorney General who was sacked. He will try to drive out any moderate opposition from within the administration and replace with his own people. It's being described by some people as a 'coup' and that probably isn't too far off.

I know this is going to seem ridiculously far-fetched but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he finds, or at least looks for, some mechanism (constitutional crisis, state of emergency, etc) to avoid having the next election or two.

Am I being stupid? Probably, but it's not like this kind of thing hasn't happened before.

Moss

HAL9000 said:

ICBM said:

There's a lot of stuff which is worryingly similar, both in how he got into power and what he's doing now he's got it - like the immediate labelling of any dissent as 'betrayal', eg about the acting Attorney General who was sacked. He will try to drive out any moderate opposition from within the administration and replace with his own people. It's being described by some people as a 'coup' and that probably isn't too far off.

I know this is going to seem ridiculously far-fetched but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he finds, or at least looks for, some mechanism (constitutional crisis, state of emergency, etc) to avoid having the next election or two.

Am I being stupid? Probably, but it's not like this kind of thing hasn't happened before.

I'm really hoping America doesn't have an Article 48 equivalent 

Sambostar

I thought the internet was a music company.

stimpsonslostson

Trump had a go at the judge who blocked the travel sanctions
“The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!” Trump tweeted.

He subsequently attempted to have his EO reinstated... Which has been denied. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38872680

We wait with bated breath to see how he reacts to this. 

ICBM

I assume he will appeal to the Supreme Court, once he's got his new judge installed.

Sambostar

What about the latest anti Donald tantrum from your insular news feeds.

Emp_Fab

More than likely that's his plan - however - as the Republicans blocked Obama's nominee for the post made vacant by the death of Antonin Scalia; Merrick Garland, it's pretty much an absolute certainty that the Democrats will do the same with Neil Gorsuch, Trump's nominee.  The Supreme Court is very much the last line of defence against Trump's dictatorial tendencies and the Democrats will not let it fall into his tiny hands.

UnclePsychosis

stimpsonslostson said:

Trump had a go at the judge who blocked the travel sanctions
“The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!” Trump tweeted.

He subsequently attempted to have his EO reinstated... Which has been denied. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38872680

We wait with bated breath to see how he reacts to this. 

---a "so-called" judge appointed by a 

 "so-called" President in accordance with the  "so-called" US constitution as required by  "so-called" law. 

Going after the press and now the independence of the judiciary. The man is a danger to democracy. 

The "so-called" "decent" Republicans can fuck right off too, have any of them called him out for this disgraceful attack on the US rule of law? 

goldtop

Does anyone here understand the work that Twitter's bots do?

I'm wondering if there's a different explanation for this: https://medium.com/@mikekeen/twitter-censoring-trump-supporters-a1f1d9a87cda#.19asdw8uz

ICBM

UnclePsychosis said:

The "so-called" "decent" Republicans can fuck right off too, have any of them called him out for this disgraceful attack on the US rule of law? 

Not sure if John McCain has yet. He has been quite enthusiastic about putting the boot into Trump at every opportunity so far though, so I wouldn't be surprised if he has.

I'm not a huge fan of everything he's said and done, and I'm not sorry he never became President - not least because Sarah Palin was his running-mate - but he's definitely one of the decent Republicans.

holnrew

ICBM said:

UnclePsychosis said:

The "so-called" "decent" Republicans can fuck right off too, have any of them called him out for this disgraceful attack on the US rule of law? 

Not sure if John McCain has yet. He has been quite enthusiastic about putting the boot into Trump at every opportunity so far though, so I wouldn't be surprised if he has.

I'm not a huge fan of everything he's said and done, and I'm not sorry he never became President - not least because Sarah Palin was his running-mate - but he's definitely one of the decent Republicans.

I wish he got the nomination when W did. Before the Palin desperation and pandering. There's a lot to like him for and though I don't agree with him on some things I think he's a good person.

Also he appeared on Parks and Recreation, gotta love him for that

Garthy

Emp_Fab said:

More than likely that's his plan - however - as the Republicans blocked Obama's nominee for the post made vacant by the death of Antonin Scalia; Merrick Garland, it's pretty much an absolute certainty that the Democrats will do the same with Neil Gorsuch, Trump's nominee.  The Supreme Court is very much the last line of defence against Trump's dictatorial tendencies and the Democrats will not let it fall into his tiny hands.

Apparently he has the nuclear option of changing the senate vote from majority of 10 to overall majority. Then the proper scary shit will happen, well, scary for the half of the country that didn't vote for him anyway as the rest of the world will keep spinning unimpeded anyway.