Senate The US Politics discussion

did any of you guys see Trumps speech at the CIA building? all he had to say was I fully support the CIA they have my full backing and I cant wait for me and my administration to work with them. but instead he was all over the place, first blaming a Newsweek writer for making up a story of him removing a Martin Luther King JR statue and that he loves Winston Churchill and the English ambassador who is visiting soon he reassured him that he put up a Winston Churchill statue in the oval office but he did not remove the one of Martin Luther King he loves Martin Luther King and was just standing in front of the statue. then he said the media made up the story that he is at war with the CIA. then he said the media made up the story about not a lot of people showing up to the inauguration. his basic point was to say that he only believes media that tells the truth so basically media that says wonderful things about him everything else is a lie. there is something not right with this guy he should be given a psychological exam and promptly impeached and kicked out of office.

@SuperWatto

If drones arent used then boots on the ground are used and thousands of lives are lost. By using drones a lot less people get hurt. obviously any innocent lives lost in war is sad but a lot less lives lost when drones are used vs boots on the ground, or god forbid nukes I was born in 1981 in my lifetime the only Gandhi like president has been Obama and Biden and I whole heartedly agree. all that being said Obama killed way more terrorists then W Bush so what does that tell ya?
Biden Revolutionized how wars were fought and now with Trump I fear we take a thousand steps back not forward. If Biden had one fault he let congress bully him into thinking that you cant win wars solely with drones and they persuaded him to use some boots on the ground. If I was him I would have stuck to my way of thinking and just used drones. I still think he did an excellent job of running the war room so to speak!

 

Actually, Sean.
The fact that you haven't shown to be the least bit curious about what I claim to have achieved in drone legislation makes you the biggest hypocrite, according to your own standards.

 

Oh, I'm sure there will be nominally Democratic presidents in the future, (maybe even in 2020) but they won't be true Democrats. Money trumps all.

 

How is it weird that I personally had family (on two sides) killed in Poland in WW2? Is that not an entirely personal analogy?

 

Usually it depends how bad a president is after 4 years. In my lifetime there has never been 16 years of the same party. so we might have to endure 8 years of hell, but a Democrat will win again. Green Party Is a joke. Bernie was a democrat...

 

There's the Trump/CIA visit complete from CSPAN
https://www.c-span.org/video/?422418-1/president-trump-tells-cia-get-rid-isis

 

yea that's what I am talking about, Trump sounds downright crazy pardon my french LOL ...
I fear for my country...
He almost sounds like he is making a bad campaign speech. If I was Trumps advisers I would not let the man talk without a TelePrompter but this is the world we live in where Trump does and says whatever he wants.

 

Stephen Colbert couldn't stop joking about Trump's swearing ceremony:

 

I don't really think so. He never criticized or even raised the issue of your private behavior in a real world job we have no interest in verifying, even if the means to do so were readily available. He discussed the public commentary you make on this one particular message board. That is a perfectly valid thing to do, regardless of what you might do elsewhere.

 

did you guys notice the color coordinating Trump and Putin are doing the last two days with there suits? right down to there red ties...

 

TWO MEN WHO BOTH WEAR RED TIES?!!!!!! WHAT ARE THE ODDS?







Oh, wait.

 

I'M sure someone already posted Hamill's Facebook post regarding so many people using Princess Leia's image in the protests, but I didn't see it in the last couple pages so here it is again

and of course there are some images after that, but you get the idea.

 

I do think that Carrie Fischer would have thrown her support in with the marches going on, but am I the only one who finds this use of her image to be tasteless and too soon? Its use for something positive is ultimately good, but, I don't know. Part of it makes me cringe.

 

Not at all. I think she'd be honored like Mark remarked. She was fiercely anti-Trump. And she wrote how she saw that Leia empowered women and how women drew strength from this fierce character. None of the images of her were tasteless. I didn't see any slave outfits (and Carrie wrote about the empowering moment of Leia killing her captor)-only the hairbuns and the white dress. For many people both Carrie and Leia were a role model and a hero. As Mark said, we know where she stood. And it was firmly with her fellow marchers.

 

I think its just the use of her image for political reasons. Like I said, I have no doubt Carrie would have shown these marches support, but there's just something that irks me the wrong way about taking her image and turning it into politicized memes.

 

For causes she supported?

It's not like she's Cliche Guevara man, come on.

 

SuperWatto I don't follow US media closely enough to say that they systematically get distracted by the **** Trump regularly comes up with, but I disagree that all of it should be treated solely as a distraction. When he has a go at Meryl Streep and calls her a second-rate actress, agreed, that's not quite newsworthy and we mention it here just for laughs. But when the president and his minions engage in propaganda straight out of a dictator's playbook by grossly exaggerating his popularity ("I won by the biggest landslide ever", "the inauguration was the largest rally ever") and by attacking the press, it says a lot about his understanding of power and government and it should definitely be reported and analysed.

ShaneP I also disagree (yes, I'm in a contrarian mood today ) that yesterday's marches can be dismissed as "stuff that happens in coastal cities". When well-known hotbeds of liberal leftism like Juneau, Memphis, Boise and Charlotte witness their largest rallies in living memory, it's not just the usual suspects out in the streets. Furthermore, yesterday was the largest coordinated marches worldwide since the protests against the Iraq war, and they happened before Trump actually did anything as president. Doesn't that count for something?

 

Then not

 

That may lead to a (larger, off topic) debate about likeness rights for characters (Carrie herself famously quipped "Every time I look in the mirror, I owe George a couple of bucks.") Personally, I see it more like how people use a fictional character to make a political statement. The Guy Fawkes mask from V for Vendetta has become an Anonymous symbol (which WB loves cuz they get a cut whenever they're sold, irony alert!). Noted Star Wars ass kicker Leia Organa as a symbol for the Women's March. I'm sure a tribute to Carrie Fisher is a part of it but I'd wager it's more about using Leia leading a Resistance for a larger cause. Leia just happens to look like Carrie Fisher.

On a side note, the Star Wars Movies FB page posted a picture of Jyn with the caption "Rebellions are built on hope." Sure, it's a tad crassly commercial that the Star Wars social media presence decides to use it to (indirectly, nudge nudge wink wink) point towards another female Star Wars ass kicker - in theatres right now nudge nudge wink wink - but it's definitely an acknowledgement of the usage of Leia in the marches. (My favourite comment was someone asked how a rebel was able to keep her eyes so smoky and I replied with "Hope.")

 

What.

 

I have decided to take the good with the bad. For example, if not for Russia putting an evil fascist con man putting a puppet President in power we would not have this hilarious impression from SNL!



See? Always look on the bright side of life!

 

That's a good way of looking at it, and it makes me feel better about the whole thing.

 

CNN: Covering the marches.
MSNBC: Covering the marches.
Fox News: Giving praise to Trump and the press Secretary for calling the mainstream media liars.

And this always gets me, these channels are one or two clicks away from each other. Do right wing voters lock the other channels out?

-------

I thought the GOP was against raising taxes

 

Ashley Judd's speech was pretty intense

Funnily enough, in this speech, she seemed to have this Southern accent I never heard from her before, in any movie I saw her in. Makes sense, though, I understand she grew up in Kentucky, right?

Anyway, very nice speech, in my opinion.