The absurdity of Donald Trump

[Griff]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

That's the last rose to lose it's petals in the fall.

That's kinda beautiful.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Aw shucks you're just saying that...


Oh, you mean what I wrote.

[Griff]

Ha!

Back to Twitler, even Fox News has seen enough.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by tw

I found nothing entertaining in it. Especially since same reasoning is emphatically believed by his supporters. Satire was lost in that it is Trump disciple beliefs and exactly how they think.

Hey man.

tw, I apologize.

I will probably wreck the apology, but here goes anyway. I really wasn't laughing at you, I was laughing at the *absurdity* of our current situation where Poe's Law could even be applied to Alexandra Petri's column. It is definitely satire, and you make a good point, some people express themselves like this in earnest. For the record, they're absurd too. The column was funny, your response just amplified the ridiculousness, so I laughed some more.



So, let's start over. Here are a couple more examples, check them out. ABSURD!

Are these even real?
1 -- Trump says Biden will abolish the suburbs.
2 -- Trump orders secret police to round up citizens in Portland.

[BigV]

Column: Trump is right — Joe Biden will abolish the suburbs. And NO ONE will be safe!

Column: Trump is right — Joe Biden will abolish the suburbs. And NO ONE will be safe!

President Donald Trump is right — Joe Biden, a known supporter of evil and Marxism and America-hating, wants to abolish the suburbs.

But it’s worse than that. The Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president doesn’t just seek to abolish, he wants to bulldoze, befoul and hold pagan rituals on the ashes of the suburbs. He wants to demolish your cupboards, outlaw your scrub boards and cut up your club cards.

As Trump sensibly tweeted this week: “Joe Biden and the Radical Left want to Abolish Police, Abolish ICE, Abolish Bail, Abolish Suburbs, Abolish the 2nd Amendment — and Abolish the American Way of Life. No one will be SAFE in Joe Biden’s America!”

NO ONE WILL BE SAFE!

You have to believe these obviously truthful words and not look for any factual basis to support them. Seeking facts is what satanist DEMONcrats like Biden and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and KILLary Clinton want you to do.

Don’t get lulled into complacency by Biden’s long career in the public eye, nonthreatening and empathetic demeanor or eight years as a popular American vice president. He’s trouble.

As Trump said Thursday outside the White House: “Suburbia will be no longer as we know it, they’re gonna watch it go to hell.”

And suburb destruction is just the beginning of the havoc Biden would wreak as president.

I realize I’m getting ahead of the Trump campaign here, but allow me to detail THE MANY VERY REAL THINGS you should fear about Joe Biden.

He’s going to defund the military and force our brave soldiers to serve as gender-less spoken-word poetry ambassadors at “surrender bases” around the world. Our beautiful military weaponry, the jets and tanks and naval ships, will be melted down and forged into a towering statue of liberal billionaire George Soros, which Biden will place on the site of one of the many Midwestern churches he’ll tear down.

Every American homeowner will be required to house a member of the dangerous MS-13 street gang in their spare room, and provide that gang member with one clean hand towel, one clean bath towel and access to a guest bathroom stocked with flower-shaped soaps in an array of pastel colors. Toilet doilies will be mandatory.

Biden, immediately following his inauguration, will do away with all American borders, abolish law enforcement and declare Spanish the official language of America. All fire hydrants will be replaced with taco trucks.

He will dispatch immigrants in the country illegally to uproot any nonorganic gardens and force senior citizens to turn over their tchotchkes and knickknacks so they can be used in gift baskets for the terrorists who will be moving in next door to you.

Fields will burn. Rivers will run dry. Milkshakes will be banned.

The economy will collapse, with the dollar replaced by “Biden Bucks,” which will be equally distributed to all Americans and used to purchase protein pellets for sustenance. Health care will be available to all people, even the undeserving poor. (Gross.)

Black Lives Matter protesters will be given access to your lake houses. Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore will be named Indoctrination Czar and put in charge of all schools, gluten will be forbidden and everyone will have a peanut allergy.

The only sport allowed will be “Silencing Conservative Voices,” and events will be televised once a week on a program called “Everybody Loves Cancel Culture!” That show will be hosted by Kathy Griffin. All other stations will show “Will & Grace” reruns 24 hours a day.

Law enforcement won’t exist, crime will be encouraged and child smuggling will be incentivized. Satan, who will be Biden’s running mate, will routinely cast Christians into a lake of fire, though not on Tuesdays, because that day is reserved for mandatory yoga, meditation and statue destruction.

All of history will be erased, except for former President Barack Obama’s time in office, and that one corner of the couch you love will no longer be comfortable.

Trump’s extremely long and fantastic three miles of new border wall will be reconfigured into a square and used to imprison all white people, and the Statue of Liberty will be torn down and replaced with the Statue of Michelle Obama Wearing a Sleeveless Dress. Cows will start singing.

It’s going to be bad, folks. Don’t let yourself be fooled by so-called “fact checks” or “logic” or “a simple recognition that things could literally not get any worse.”

Biden will destroy America as we know it.

Protect the suburbs. Keep cows from singing. Vote Trump!

rhuppke@chicagotribune.com

[BigV]

Trump Unleashes His Secret Police in Portland

Trump Unleashes His Secret Police in Portland
In a dangerous authoritarian move, federal agents in camouflage and without badges are rounding up American citizens.

Donald Trump’s war on protesters is escalating, with reports emerging out of Portland, Ore., that federal law enforcement officers, wearing camouflage but without any other visible insignia, have been rounding up American citizens. On Thursday, Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) reported that “federal law enforcement officers have been using unmarked vehicles to drive around downtown Portland and detain protesters since at least July 14. Personal accounts and multiple videos posted online show the officers driving up to people, detaining individuals with no explanation of why they are being arrested, and driving off.”

OPB quotes one person who was arrested by these officers, although never charged. “I am basically tossed into the van,” Mark Pettibone told the broadcaster. “And I had my beanie pulled over my face so I couldn’t see and they held my hands over my head.” He was taken to a building that he later discovered was a federal courthouse. Only there was he read his Miranda rights, but he was never charged. After he asked for a lawyer, he was released. Videos are circulating on social media of similar detentions.

“It’s like stop and frisk meets Guantanamo Bay,” attorney Juan Chavez told OPB. He added that these detentions were not following any rules of probable cause. “It sounds more like abduction. It sounds like they’re kidnapping people off the streets.”

On the face of it, what these federal officers are doing is illegal and unconstitutional. It’s possible that they are acting under the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act, signed by Barack Obama, which legalized the detention of Americans suspected of being terrorists. If so, then the War on Terrorism has truly come home.

The Trump administration used unidentified federal officers to patrol Washington, D.C., in early June when the scale of the protests forced Trump to go into the White House bunker. Those officers turned out to be guards from the US Bureau of Prisons who had been repurposed as ad hoc praetorian guards.

Protests have been roiling Portland for over six weeks. Even prior to these protests, Portland was a site of a long-running battle between right-wing groups like the Proud Boys and left-wing activists who are usually lumped together under the antifa label. It’s possible that the antifa connection made Portland a spot of particular interest to the Trump administration, which has used the loosely organized anti-fascist groups as a scapegoat for social upheavals in the wake of police brutality.


The deployment of unidentified federal officers is particularly dangerous in a situation like that in Portland and elsewhere in America, because it could easily lead to right-wing militias’ impersonating legal authorities and kidnapping citizens. As former CIA counterintelligence analyst Aki Peritz notes, “All it takes is one of these similar-kitted out militiamen groups to start grabbing folks off the street as well, but then having their way with them, for there to be huge, possibly violent pushback for these tactics. This hurts the police, and the citizenry.” Peritz argues, “We’re quickly entering secret police territory now. DHS is becoming Trump’s Mukhābarāt” (mukhābarāt being the Arabic word for intelligence agency, used colloquially to refer, for example, to the Egyptian or Iraqi or Libyan secret police).

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf is currently in Portland. In a statement on Thursday, Wolf said, “The city of Portland has been under siege for 47 straight days by a violent mob while local political leaders refuse to restore order to protect their city. Each night, lawless anarchists destroy and desecrate property, including the federal courthouse, and attack the brave law enforcement officers protecting it.” Wolf warned, “This siege can end if state and local officials decide to take appropriate action instead of refusing to enforce the law.”

Wolf’s strident words echoed the law-and-order theme that has come to the fore in Trump’s reelection campaign. Trump himself sounded a racist variation on the theme in a Thursday White House virtual town hall when he decried the collapse of “law and order” in cities like New York and Chicago. Trump also claimed that Democrats were trying to destroy the suburbs. Announcing the rescinding of an Obama order against racial segregation in housing, Trump said, “The suburb destruction will end with us.”

There is every sign that Trump will continue to pound the drum of law and order until the election. Portland is likely a test case for a larger security crackdown that will be repeated in other cities.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown has been commendably blunt in attacking Trump’s assault on protesters. On Thursday, she tweeted:

Originally Posted by Oregon Governor Kate Brown

The President is failing to lead this nation. Now he is deploying federal officers to patrol the streets of Portland in a blatant abuse of power by the federal government.

I told Acting Secretary Wolf that the federal government should remove all federal officers from our streets. His response showed me he is on a mission to provoke confrontation for political purposes. He is putting both Oregonians and local law enforcement officers in harm’s way.

Brown shouldn’t be the only one protesting. Congressional Democrats need to open up an immediate investigation into the use of federal law enforcement officers in Portland. Joe Biden also needs to make clear that if elected he’ll order an immediate house cleaning in all federal agencies and that any officers found to have broken the law will be punished. Moreover, if Trump is acting within the law, the Democrats need to make new rules so no future president can repeat this travesty.


Jeet HeerJeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent at The Nation

[DanaC]

Genuinely worried about the US right now.

How can this be happening in America, of all places?

I know there's a huge gun culture, and I get that the police are pretty militarised so heavy handed treatment of protesters is not such a big surprise (though the degree of it has been kind of shocking) - but this?

All those people who support Trump, waving their MAGA hats and protesting their democratic freedom to not wear a mask - where the fuck are you on this?

The many times i have had arguments on here with people on the extreme end of the Republican side and been told that the US approach to gun ownership and absolute defence of the right to free expression and STATE's rights against the federal gubmint make fascism impossible in America.

So where are you now? Can you support a president who sends federal officers, in full military kit to bundle protestors into unmarked cars, without due process and against the wishes of the individual state government - just because the people they're targeting are a different political stripe?




In America?


For all I have grown in cynicism as an adult, I grew up on Superman and Rocky, in a world wholly infused with American soft power - at a deep level, I still think of America as the bastion of modern democratic values - albeit somewhat faded.

When Trump became president I was horrified and thought he would be disastrous - but I also thought the worst of his excesses would be ameliorated by the system he has to operate within. Most presidents (whatever party) are prevented from doing much in terms of radical change or action.

I was clearly very wrong.

[Griff]

I'm not going to say it's good here because it isn't but we can recover. We just need to get through an election cycle and absorb the nonsense after. The Trump right knows their enemy as the Deep State which is known to the rest of us as the folks who manage risks for the country. The judiciary while under assault has a long institutional memory. Chief Justice Roberts is showing signs of maintaining that. The Republican Senate has been a complete shit-show but that is also a one election issue. The Dems will want to retaliate but their best retaliation is responsible governance. Many of us have recognized that the Executive was accumulating too much power, now it should be obvious to everyone. The parties are a mess now so who knows how long the Dems can keep it together.

The actual news people at Fox are pushing back.

[Griff]

Trumps lack of connection to existing ideological boundaries is on display now. He's is all about States Rights for fighting the virus but all about Federal Power for busting BLM heads. He really doesn't fit in any normal American political position, it may be a reflection of a big turnover in beliefs or just a rudderless reactionary electorate. The GOP Senate believed they could manage him for their own purposes but that seems not to be the case.

[tw]

Originally Posted by DanaC

How can this be happening in America, of all places?

Plenty of little reasons explain it. For example, many Trump officials are now "Acting ...". He fires responsible people. Replaces them with "Acting ..." people that need not be vetted. Then does not bother to hire anyone for the job - who would otherwise be vetted by Congressional or Civil Service review. He surrounds himself with a type of emotionally reactive people who will even invite Russians to manipulate our elections and then deny it publicly using insults. In short, lie. Since lying is good when a government is run by despots.

Furthermore, he has inspired a type of 'adult who is still a child' mentality that is also found in posts from Urbane Guerrilla and henry quirk. They don't reason rationally. They use emotions to justify personal attacks and insults. Then lies need not be exposed or even discussed. As if that is reasonable or an 'adult acting like an adult'.

Charlottesville, Virginia demonstrated this early on. And still, so many remained perfunctory of That Don and his long criminal history. So many foolishly credit him with the Obama economy that makes him look good. Only recently have many finally started to see The Don for who he really is. Before Covid, The Don had already started a major recession.

Notice how bad The Don had to be before so many saw it. He finally said masks are necessary. And then lies saying he always believed mask are good and necessary. No problem. Adults, who are still children, will even believe that obvious lie.

Same trends exist in Poland and Hungary. Once an 'adult child' is convinced that all institutions are conspiring against their extremist, then their support for that extremists is fully entrenched - will never change. Will always ignore facts. How many knew Nixon was a victim when reality clearly said otherwise? Entrenched - because thoughts come from a Reptilian brain.

So many also rabidly knew Saddam had WMDs when facts clearly and blatantly said he did not. All that is obvious in The Cellar back in and after 2002. And still so many in America, who believed those outright lies, refuse to apologize for their part in killing 5,000 American servicemen for no purpose. That would force them to admit why they were so easily deceived. To learn why some adults still do not think logically; are manipulated by targeting a child's (reptilian) brain.

Demonstrated are so many who know only from their feelings / emotions. A powerful machine promotes outright and obvious lies as if fact. A great purveyor of misinformation and extremism is Facebook. Run by a man who has no interest in being responsible - who only wants profits. Another source of the dribs and drabs of misinformation that slowly turn a government into totalitarian.

The President is now threatening to send Storm Troopers to cities run by Democratic Mayors. Since only those cities (he lies) contain anarchy. Another little change that, well, that is how 1930 Germany became 1940 Nazis. We are suppose to learn from history.

Gerrymandering is still standard practice. In Florida, it was done repeatedly even after laws were created to make it illegal. Florida only partially restricted gerrymandering finally when its Supreme Court said the Republican Party was intentionally and brazenly violating the law. But only required four districts to be reconfigured.

The Economist demonstrated how we are doing so much harm to America using 'death by a thousand cut' methods. What Trump did to Senator Sessions is another example of how totalitarianism happens.

A hotbed of this problem exists when great and responsible Republicans are being replaced by people who have a Nazi party attitude. Like 1930 Nazi Party, they claim to believe in government. But in reality openly endorse and work towards totalitarianism. That party has become popular among whites only who harbor racist tendencies. Even administration officials are only 'Acting'. Only approved by The Don. Whose entire life has been similar to Al Capone.

Al Capone was finally convicted on tax evasion. The Don even sacked a prosecutor (in Southern Manhattan) who job is to investigate tax evasion. Trump[ replaced that Prosecutor with another "Acting" supervisor. Al Capone would be jealous. Nobody even in the Cellar complained.

This 'death by a thousand cuts' was pioneered / promoted in America by Newt Gingrich. Who demonstrated how to obtain power by lying - attack the person rather than address an issue. Newt was a genius at this technique of using emotions and insults to rally 'adults who are still children'. What has changed in American politics. He is a Democrat so he must be liberal - therefore evil. A Trump mantra because it entrenches his mostly white, racist, and emotional 'strongest' supporters.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Griff

The actual news people at Fox are pushing back.

Chris Wallace remains the only senior correspondent in Fox who asks damning question. Another was finally driven out a year or so ago. I really do not understand why Chris Wallace is not fired. Because he has repeatedly used these type expressions when some lies are so egregious. "That is not true, sir."

[Griff]

Jennifer Griffin also getting it done at Fox.


Weirdly, a stable genius allowed Bob Woodward to tape his interviews. He knows his supporters though, nothing he could say matters. His words always mean what they want them to mean.
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/09/91113...to-avoid-panic

[tw]

Wow. Can anyone confirm? Someone said Trump did not lie today. Has the Universe ended?

[Undertoad]

you mean when he was talking about the people who want war for their war machine money?

[tw]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

you mean when he was talking about the people who want war for their war machine money?

You mean he could not keep his mouth shut for even one day?