The Swamp

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 1:22 pm

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 1:13 pmKarlan was using Barron's name to make a point. She never said anything about him personally.

It was a stupid and unnecessary quip, one that had nothing to do with the kid, who as far as I know has done nothing wrong. It helped fuel the "both sides are extreme" narrative that millions of people want to fall back on (because it's easier than judging people). And it detracted from her otherwise great testimony.

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 3:27 pm

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 1:22 pm

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 1:13 pmKarlan was using Barron's name to make a point. She never said anything about him personally.

It was a stupid and unnecessary quip, one that had nothing to do with the kid, who as far as I know has done nothing wrong. It helped fuel the "both sides are extreme" narrative that millions of people want to fall back on (because it's easier than judging people). And it detracted from her otherwise great testimony.

Here's the thing: If she hadn't had said that (and seriously, it was one sentence in hours of testifying) it would have been something else. Conservatives are so desperate to turn this into as big of a shitshow as possible they will latch onto ANYTHING to make a distraction.

Johnnie wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 11:22 pm It just unnerves me how the rules don't apply to Fat Manbaby Nixon.

I talk shit about a 16 year old on Twitter and my military career is over. He does it and instead of being appalled that an adult does those things in the first place, it's "well she's an environmental activist who's critical of his policies, soooooo..."

Where the fuck are we right now? If she was a 12 year old supergenius that graduated college and invented a thing to make [X] problem go away instantly, it still doesn't justify anything.

Basically, if Karlan can't make a play on words, Donald can't make a personal attack.

sancarlos wrote: ↑Sat Dec 14, 2019 12:58 pm So, Rudy Giuliani’s spokeswoman is a 20 year-old, who is currently pursuing her college degree online (at the same online school where she got her high school diploma).
Interesting.

Pruitt wrote: ↑Sat Dec 14, 2019 7:41 pm Screen Shot 2019-12-14 at 7.40.54 PM.png

Nice make up job buddy!

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Sat Dec 14, 2019 8:31 pm

Pruitt wrote: ↑Sat Dec 14, 2019 7:41 pm Screen Shot 2019-12-14 at 7.40.54 PM.png

Nice make up job buddy!

Its the fluorescent lights!

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2019 9:31 am And the early leader in ass-kissing...

A few things spring to mind.

Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem.
For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.
So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever.
I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman.

But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers.

And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface.

Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront.
Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul.

And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist.
Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that.
He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat.

He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully.
That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead.

There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss.
After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.
God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid.

He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart.
In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish:
‘My God… what… have… I… created?
If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.

Jerloma wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2019 10:46 am Someone on Quora asked why British people don't like Donald Trump. This response is amazing...

degenerasian wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2019 11:01 am

Jerloma wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2019 10:46 am Someone on Quora asked why British people don't like Donald Trump. This response is amazing...

While this is all true, I find Brits to be pompous frauds. Always the portraying themselves to be polite gentleman but they first thing they pick up in the morning is a tabloid to see what's happening in people's bedrooms.

Johnny Carwash wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2019 11:09 am

degenerasian wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2019 11:01 am

Jerloma wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2019 10:46 am Someone on Quora asked why British people don't like Donald Trump. This response is amazing...

While this is all true, I find Brits to be pompous frauds. Always the portraying themselves to be polite gentleman but they first thing they pick up in the morning is a tabloid to see what's happening in people's bedrooms.

This. That whole thing reads like the American (and Irish/Scottish/Welsh...) stereotype of English people.

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2019 11:36 am All of what you guys said, but especially Joe.

Fucking Brits are so condescending.

brian wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2019 11:47 am The worst of the Brits are the ones still stuck in the 1930s when the UK was still nominally a world power. Some of the Brexit stuff is related to that superiority complex that they think they're better than the rest of the EU because they once had a Navy that controlled the world's seas. They see themselves as they once were and not as they presently are.

ETA: To be clear, most of the Brexit stuff is racism, pure and simple. Or classism if you're being generous and give some of these Tory twats the benefit of the doubt that their hatred of Poles and Latvians is somehow remotely justified (it's not). But the idea of a "great" nation like the UK being at all level with Latvia or Poland or Hungary rankles these losers and their sense of patriotism.

Pruitt wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2019 12:45 pm Everything said in that post is true.

And so is every criticism of that post.

And what was not mentioned is the British belief that while colonialism may have been a bad thing, they at least left culture and democracy when they left the lands they had conquered/annexed.

duff wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2019 2:19 pm Is anyone else watching this cluster fuck of a hearing? Some fuck from Georgia just compared Trump to jesus, and the Dems to Pontius Pilate.

duff wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2019 2:19 pm Is anyone else watching this cluster fuck of a hearing? Some fuck from Georgia just compared Trump to jesus, and the Dems to Pontius Pilate.

And do Republicans understand the Constitution? All I hear is the Dems are so sad they lost 2016.

And I am loving Nadler's responses to the Republican's responses when they state something that is incorrect.