Respect for the office of President

[GiveEmElle 1,559]

17 minutes ago, AUUSN said:

Good luck with that. The parallels are blatantly obvious.

Especially considering that some of the words in Suess' political cartoons were said in the inauguration speech yesterday. 

[homersapien 11,390]

On 1/20/2017 at 10:29 AM, TexasTiger said:

We're asked to respect the Office when the person who will hold it considers it a step down:

"

Jennifer Jacobs– Verified account ‏@JenniferJJacobs

Trump made "enormous sacrifices," Conway said. "He actually gave up more money, more power, more prestige, more position than he will have."

5:17 AM - 20 Jan 2017

179 RETWEETS243 LIKES

From what I can tell, he hasn't given up anything from his former life.

[homersapien 11,390]

On 1/20/2017 at 1:33 PM, AURaptor said:

Continental Army... not a US govt thing.

[homersapien 11,390]

23 hours ago, icanthearyou said:

Wrong?  He represents all that is wrong?

Let me know when he violates the law and/or the Constitution.  I will quickly join in.  For now, I will respect the office, the process, even though my respect for the man himself is questionable and conditional.

 

https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-emoluments-clause-its-text-meaning-and-application-to-donald-j-trump/

 

[homersapien 11,390]

23 hours ago, AURaptor said:

Elle -  Trump did not mock a disabled man 

  If you were going to have rabid, hateful things to say about a man, at least they should be factual and true. 

 

Are you clicking your heels together?

[homersapien 11,390]

22 hours ago, bigbird said:

No more or less than any of the other politicians.

I thought he wasn't a 'politician'?

 

[AURaptor 1,125]

2 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Are you clicking your heels together?

Are you ? I showed you the video proof. 100% debunks that false claim. 

[homersapien 11,390]

22 hours ago, Mikey said:

Now that The Great Divider has exited the office of President, I expect the country to move ahead with increasing unity. The scattered dissidents may even prove healthy. They are as much a part of modern America as the porta-potty. They serve a utilitarian, if somewhat unpleasant purpose.

Seriously?  That's totally delusional.

Trump is continuing to pander to his base supporters who are a minority of the country.   And we all know how he reacts to criticism.

The next big schism he will accentuate is the one between himself and the saner elements of the Republican party.  In fact, it will be the GOP - particularly Mitch McConnel - who will the ones who bring him down, just as soon as he exhausts whatever good will he inherents from being elected.  He doesn't have a large enough popular base to survive the office.

[bigbird 60,569]

10 minutes ago, homersapien said:

I thought he wasn't a 'politician'?

 

Then you thought wrong. 

[homersapien 11,390]

22 hours ago, Mikey said:

Don't you ever get tired of calling people that disagree with you racist, sexist, or some other sort of "ist"? Recognizing Obama as the most anti-American President in our history does not make one a racist. Recognizing that Obama's policies set America's race relations back 50 years does not make one a racist. You need to find a new dead horse to beat. Slinging groundless insults because someone doesn't agree with you is weak as water.

Actually it does.

No matter how much you dislike Obama, one cannot justify that sort of statement without the added incentive of racial bigotry.

[homersapien 11,390]

21 hours ago, Barnacle said:

Elle, you don't have to bow down to anyone. This is America, after all. None of us should bow down to the President, whoever he or she is. Our founders set up our government in order that we never have that obligation. You're right. Donald Trump isn't your President. No one will ever be your President. And please don't misinterpret my tone as patronizing. That's not my intention, I promise. Donald Trump may be everything that you say he is, but whatever he is, he's ours, better or worse, and that's the reality of living within a democracy. Trust me, I understand the criticism of Trump. I'm very critical of Trump, but I don't understand it when people say "he's not and never will be my President." 

Our country is capable of making mistakes.  It's done so in the past.

The true mark of a real patriot is not to simply accept mistakes made by your country - my country right or wrong -  but to do everything you legally can to rectify them.  

In this case, the question becomes one of blindly accepting a narcissistic psychopath who didn't even receive the plurality of the vote and was also aided in his victory by the interference of an unfriendly government and an unethical director of the FBI. 

The good news is his character will be the unavoidable self-limiting factor that will neutralize him as a political force, if not directly remove him from office.  And if there is anything I can do personally to accelerate that process, I will gladly do it.  It's my patriotic duty.

Republicans didn't seem to have a problem with taking that exact same attitude with Obama (for no good reason). I find it ironic for the same people to be playing the "patriotism" card for Trump. 

 

[homersapien 11,390]

20 hours ago, TexasTiger said:

He is the President. As an American, he is MY President. He works for us. He's never worked for anyone before. There are expectations of employees. For whatever policy issues one may disagree with, there is a baseline of decent behavior. GWB adhered to that baseline, even though I disagreed strongly with many of his policies. He upheld the dignity of the office. Obama  did, too, even though many disagreed with his policies. For five years, Trump vigorously claimed without evidence that Obama was illegitimate because he was not even a citizen. It was beyond shameful. Trump's behavior leading up to today has not been decent nor worthy of respect. If he miraculously changes that trend going forward, I'll give him the respect he deserves. But people earn respect. I have never had a President from either party that I believed had not at least deserved respect of the office because they at least were largely decent most of the time. This is not a partisan issue, as Trump's behavior has nothing to do with party. But most Republicans have decided to own this man despite his conduct and divisive nature. They need to decide soon if they wish to be defined by him. If he continues, I refuse to normalize his behavior. I believe no decent person should. To do so hurts our country. He's saying he won't change so we must change and lower standards to meet him. I strongly disagree.

Very well stated TT.    

[homersapien 11,390]

17 hours ago, cole256 said:

I'm glad John Lewis "whined" back in the day....who knows where I'd be? Without opportunity because I'd be labeled as having an inferior mind

Seriously.

He was damn near beaten to death for the cause.

"All talk and no action" my ass.  

[homersapien 11,390]

17 hours ago, SaltyTiger said:

I find you to be a very angry.

You have a problem with that?

[AUUSN 823]

John Lewis exhibiting that 'whining'

[homersapien 11,390]

4 hours ago, AURaptor said:

Correct. He tried to bring  down everyone to a common, lower economic level. 

Liar.

[homersapien 11,390]

40 minutes ago, AURaptor said:

Are you ? I showed you the video proof. 100% debunks that false claim. 

"You gotta see this guy....."   You got one thing right.  That video was proof.

http://www.snopes.com/2016/07/28/donald-trump-criticized-for-mocking-disabled-reporter/

 

After Trump then became the center of a second, even bigger controversy for supposedly having callously mocked a disabled reporter in public (that Trump was mocking Kovaleski was undeniable, but whether he was specifically mocking Kovaleski's appearance and disability was a subject of debate), Trump asserted that the whole thing was just a coincidence — he had no idea who Kovaleski was and thus couldn't have been aware of his physical condition:

I have no idea who this reporter, Serge Kovalski [sic], is, what he looks like or his level of intelligence. I don’t know if he is J.J. Watt or Muhammad Ali in his prime or somebody of less athletic or physical ability. Despite having one of the all-time great memories, I certainly do not remember him.

I merely mimicked what I thought would be a flustered reporter trying to get out of a statement he made long ago. If Mr. Kovaleski is handicapped, I would not know because I do not know what he looks like. If I did know, I would definitely not say anything about his appearance.

Trump's claims to non-memory were widely considered to be disingenuous, as Kovaleski had covered Trump extensively while working for the Daily News from 1987 to 1993 and had interviewed and talked to the business magnate numerous times during that period:

Donald and I were on a first-name basis for years. I’ve interviewed him in his office. I’ve talked to him at press conferences. All in all, I would say around a dozen times, I’ve interacted with him as a reporter while I was at The Daily News.

The New York Times, Kovaleski's current employer, said in a statement that “We think it's outrageous that [Donald Trump] would ridicule the appearance of one of our reporters." Trump responded in familiar fashion, issuing a series of tweets in which he admonished Kovaleski to "stop using his disability to grandstand" and repeatedly disparaged the Times:

Somebody at the financially failing and totally biased New York Times said that, over the years, I have met Mr. Kovaleski. Serge Kovaleski must think a lot of himself if he thinks I remember him from decades ago — if I ever met him at all, which I doubt I did. He should stop using his disability to grandstand get back to reporting for a paper that is rapidly going down the tubes.

[AURaptor 1,125]

Sorry, but he did the same thing to Cruz.

 

You have no case. 

[Mikey 16,630]

1 hour ago, homersapien said:

Actually it does.

No matter how much you dislike Obama, one cannot justify that sort of statement without the added incentive of racial bigotry.

"There you go again"~~Ronald Reagan.  Nobody gave you the authority to assign motivation to other persons. This power you continually try to assume for yourself is false, you don't have it.

Edited January 21, 2017 by Mikey

[AURaptor 1,125]

1 hour ago, homersapien said:

Liar.

 

You keep using that word. It does not mean what yo think it means.

 

Black unemployment, which at the end of the Bush administration broke a decades-long pattern of being twice white unemployment, has resumed its disturbing and prolonged trend under President Obama, with the rate among African Americans now at 13.4 percent, according to a new Pew Research report.

In a report timed for release on the eve of the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Dream" speech, Pew said on Thursday: "Much has changed for African-Americans since the 1963 March on Washington (which, recall, was a march for 'Jobs and Freedom'), but one thing hasn't: The unemployment rate among blacks is about double that among whites, as it has been for most of the past six decades."

The trend broke at the end of former President George W. Bush's administration as the recession hit whites more, temporarily boosting their unemployment rate.

But as the recession has eased, whites have picked up more jobs. Currently, Pew said white unemployment is 6.7 percent, exactly half the black rate.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/under-obama-black-unemployment-back-to-twice-the-white-rate/article/2534597

Edited January 21, 2017 by AURaptor

[SaltyTiger 7,816]

1 hour ago, homersapien said:

You have a problem with that?

no sir please don't hit me or call me names

[AURaptor 1,125]

The same sort of cult view which elevated Obama to divinity status is now driving many of those same people to absolute unhinged hysteria against Trump. 

This will get old, very soon. 

[cole256 17,084]

8 hours ago, Mikey said:

Who may or may not be a racist is not something I spend any time thinking about. You and TT call anyone a racist if he says, for instance, "Jesse Jackson is a huckster." That's not racism, it's being factual. I'm entirely equal opportunity. I'll call a crook a crook regardless of race, color, religion, creed, national origin, marital status or sexual orientation. That's not being some sort of "ist", it's being factual. Now, if you want to say I'm not at all PC, you nailed it.

I'm asking because it seems you are dancing around the question, but no you're wrong I don't run around calling everybody racist. It hasn't been one time I've called someone a racist and the reaction from the board was I think you went too far on that one..... But that was a good try though for he reverse stuff I notice you do now

[homersapien 11,390]

5 hours ago, bigbird said:

Then you thought wrong. 

Me and a great many other people.

Not that his history of a self-promotor doesn't have a lot in common with politicians, but he's never had to answer to the public.   

Edited January 22, 2017 by homersapien

[homersapien 11,390]

3 hours ago, Mikey said:

"There you go again"~~Ronald Reagan.  Nobody gave you the authority to assign motivation to other persons. This power you continually try to assume for yourself is false, you don't have it.

It's simple logic:

Once you eliminate all of the possible rational reasons for such hyperbolic statements, you are left with the irrational reasons, which might include a universe of irrational thinking. Such as, a hate for tall people, or people born in Hawaii, or people whose ears poke out, or resentment of a black person as POTUS..... 

Now you may personally have any one of a universe of irrational phobias, but I know where I'd put my money.  It just seems reflected in statements such as "Obama hates the country".  

Finally, I don't need to given authority to speak my mind.  All I need - for this forum - is permission to use it from the folks who own it.

Edited January 22, 2017 by homersapien