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The enabling Republican Party

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    Posted: May 24 2020 at 4:28pm

https://lasvegassun.com/news/2020/may/17/accommodating-gop-trump-are-transforming-america-i/


 The time has arrived to confront a grim realization in calm but forthright terms.

Since 2016, observers in the U.S. and around the world have remarked on President Donald Trump and the Republican Party exhibiting authoritarian “tendencies.”

With a sense of numb shock, we now must acknowledge the facts before us. By any objective standard, the Trump administration and GOP leadership have moved well past authoritarian reflexes.

Simply put, our nation has entered the early stages of a dictatorship. It’s an immature dictatorship and still gathering power. But it’s not theoretical and it has happened faster than any rational person might believe.

In 1788, James Madison stood before the state of Virginia’s convention to ratify the U.S. Constitution and issued a warning about the future of American democracy. An overthrow, the Founding Father said, was less likely to happen through a violent takeover than “by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power.”

Today, that prophecy is playing out in chilling vigor. Led by a president who lacks all respect for our system of government, today’s Republican Party, through a quickening succession of abuses of power, is acting as an authoritarian regime.

This is not a hypothetical. It’s not dystopian fiction. It’s an inescapable conclusion when you examine the evidence.

Ponder the basic elements of an autocracy, and weigh them against the actions of Trump and the GOP leadership.


This administration and Republican leadership have corrupted the justice system, purged and persecuted nonpartisan military personnel and government employees to install apparatchiks in their place, regularly encouraged paramilitary activity among supporters, thwarted any efforts of legitimate legislative oversight, claimed absolute immunity for Trump, promoted propagandistic media while falsely discrediting the accuracy of legitimate news, manipulated the courts, marbled the administration and judiciary with unqualified lackeys, driven contracts to supporters, used the U.S. Treasury to reward friends, attempted to coerce foreign governments into leveling false charges at political rivals, eagerly courted supportive dictators around the world, excused friends from their crimes while seeking political prosecutions of enemies on false charges, sought to bend our intelligence agencies to partisan ends, threatened a free press with retaliation, revised or suppressed historical records that were unfavorable, publicly smeared perceived opponents, sabotaged fair elections, created a cult of personality around its leader, distributed government largesse based on fealty to the leader, defined critics as subhuman, traded in race-baiting and nationalism, caged children and broken up desperate families, defined all events solely in terms of how they affect the leader, shattered revered institutions protecting Americans, reviled our allies while embracing our enemies, and attempted to call into question the validity of elections that go against the leader while intimating that they might attempt to postpone elections if the leader’s poll numbers are weak. And that catalog of horrors is the abbreviated list.


These are the core attributes the world has used for decades to identify dictators. And these actions are actively afoot in America today, and they are gaining greater velocity with each day we grow closer to the election.

Consider the following items from just the past couple of weeks.


Assault on independent oversight

• Friday: Trump fires the State Department’s inspector general, the fourth time in less than a month he has removed a nonpartisan government watchdog who has found fault with the administration. The Associated Press reports that in a letter to Congress, Trump says Steve Linick, who had held the job since 2013, no longer has his full confidence. Linick is reported to have been investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for using federal resources for personal benefit. The move comes two weeks after Trump fired inspector general Christi Grimm from the Department of Health and Human Services. She had issued a report highlighting administration failures to prepare for COVID-19. At every turn in these firings, Trump sought to disable impartial oversight.


• Thursday: In testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, ousted vaccine chief Dr. Richard Bright says the country is woefully unprepared for further effects of the COVID-19 outbreak because Trump officials ignored his early warnings and then retaliated against him after he sounded an alarm in January. Bright, who worked for the federal government for 25 years before his firing by Trump appointees, tells lawmakers the U.S. will see the “darkest winter in modern history” unless there’s a ramped-up response.


• Tuesday: Asked by Time magazine about the possibility of the administration delaying the November election, Trump son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner doesn’t rule it out. He also won’t affirm that the election will take place Nov. 3 as scheduled. “It’s not my decision to make, so I’m not sure I can commit one way or the other. But right now that’s the plan,” Kushner says. “Hopefully, by the time we get to September or October or November, we’ve done enough with the testing and with all the different things we’re trying to do to prevent an outbreak of the magnitude that would make us shut down again.” Kushner’s noncommittal response fuels fears that Trump and the GOP will postpone the vote if his poll numbers are weak. Constitutionally, Trump lacks the power to do this — although the frequency of rumors about a delay attempt are troubling. However, with the support of a few GOP governors, Trump could throw the election into chaos. At minimum he regularly attacks the validity of any election that doesn’t go his way.


• Tuesday: During oral arguments in a Supreme Court case involving three 

lawsuits Trump has filed to conceal his tax returns, the president’s lawyers contend the president has immunity from being prosecuted or even investigated by law enforcement or Congress for any crime including murder. In other words, the attorneys contend Trump has kingly powers, a level of authority that no president in history has been granted and precisely what the Constitution’s balance of powers was designed to prevent.


• May 8: Under pressure from Trump, the Senate rushes to set a committee hearing on the confirmation of Trump loyalist filmmaker Michael Pack to lead the independent agency that oversees the Voice of America, the largest American international broadcaster. The nomination of Pack, a close ally of former Trump senior adviser Steve Bannon, has fueled fears that the VOA and its sister organizations would become Trump propaganda arms under Pack. Recently, Trump has been harshly critical of the VOA, including falsely accusing it of spreading Chinese misinformation about the coronavirus outbreak.


• May 8: Trump’s acting director of national intelligence, Richard Grenell, reorganizes his agency in blatant defiance of congressional oversight. Grenell makes the changes, which affect the network of 17 U.S. intelligence agencies he’s overseeing on an acting basis, after rebuffing a request from House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., for details. Schiff contends, justifiably, that it’s inappropriate for an acting leader to make wholesale changes. A Trump crony with scant intelligence experience, Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, is expected to be confirmed as permanent DNI by the Senate in the coming weeks.


Attacking perceived enemies

• May 7: Louis DeJoy, one of Trump’s financial backers and a longtime GOP donor, is selected as postmaster general. This opens the door for Trump to force the postal service to raise prices for companies that deliver packages, primarily Amazon, and in turn damage The Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. Earlier this year the Pentagon denied Amazon a bid for a multibillion-dollar contract — something now under investigation. Trump’s USPS move also raises the distinct possibility of the Republicans using the postal service to hinder vote-by-mail efforts this fall.


• May 7: A woman who had accused Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s top infectious disease expert, of sexual assault recants and says she was paid by two Trump loyalists to fabricate the claim. The woman releases an audio recording in which one of the operatives, Jack Burkman, complains that Fauci “shut the country down” and that “you have to make up whatever you have to make up to stop that train and that’s the way life works, OK? That’s the way it goes.” When the woman says that COVID-19 is a serious illness, Burkman replies: “Mother Nature has to clean the barn every so often. How real is it? Who knows? So what if 1% of the population goes? So what if you lose 400,000 people? 200,000 were elderly, the other 200,000 are the bottom of society. You got to clean out the barn.” Considering that coronavirus so far has hit the elderly, blacks, Latinos and other people of color hardest, Burkman’s talk of “cleaning the barn” suggests he considers these people to be manure.


• May 7: Politico reports that leading congressional Republicans are coalescing behind a plan to replace FBI Director Christopher Wray with someone who will be obedient to Trump. It would be another step toward dismantling the Justice Department’s independence and bringing it under Trump’s control. Since his inauguration, Trump has made a series of moves to destroy the nonpartisan independence of our country’s intelligence community. James Comey, who was fired for not ignoring former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s overtures to Russia, has now been placed under criminal investigation by Attorney General William Barr’s Justice Department. So are other members of the FBI and CIA who investigated Russia’s involvement in promoting Trump. The president has long demanded the investigations and prosecutions of these people whom he perceives as enemies.



• May 7: It’s revealed that Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, used classified information for the financial benefit of himself and his wealthy friends. Burr cashed out as much as $1.5 million in stock right before the market crash based on his insider knowledge about the coronavirus threat, and his brother-in-law sold up to $280,000 in shares the same day. Whether Burr is corrupt or not is unknown, but Trump loyalists have applauded because Burr has crossed Trump in the past. Burr steps down as committee chair on Thursday, a day after FBI agents seize his cellphone as part of a burgeoning insider trade investigation.


Undermining the rule of law

• May 7: Barr subverts federal prosecutors and the justice system by dropping charges against Flynn, who had twice pleaded guilty to breaking the law by lying to the FBI about his involvement in Russian election interference. Barr earlier interceded on behalf of another Trump loyalist, Roger Stone, by ordering federal prosecutors to reduce their sentencing recommendation for the convicted felon.

“This is a strange occurrence — this is a man (Flynn) who pled guilty twice and was prepared to be sentenced,” says Shira Scheindlin, a former federal judge, to the National Law Journal. “He had a motion pending to withdraw his plea, which had not been decided. There’s a really bad political smell to this, particularly after the Roger Stone debacle. This is going to be seen critically by prosecutors across the country as the Justice Department being the lawyer for the president, not the lawyer for the people.”


• May 7: Asked by CBS News how history would view his actions involving Flynn, Barr says, “Well, history is written by the winners. So it largely depends on who’s writing the history. I think a fair history would say that it was a good decision because it upheld the rule of law. It … upheld the standards of the Department of Justice, and it undid what was an injustice.” It’s a preposterous statement — an attorney general saying he cares about the rule of law yet obviously is eager to conduct political prosecutions. But it’s also a flagrant acknowledgment that the administration is willing to commit malfeasance and revise history to cover its tracks. Think Soviet-era practices of removing purged individuals from history books and photos. Trump and his inner circle have already shown a predilection for this on a number of occasions: ordering that aerial photos from his inauguration be doctored so that the crowd appeared larger; posting altered images that make Trump look slimmer and make his hands appear bigger; tweeting a faked photo of Trump placing a medal on the military dog that helped U.S. special forces track ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi; and coercing the National Archives into editing photos of the 2017 women’s march on Washington to white out picket signs critical of Trump. More than 2,000 former Justice Department attorneys — Republicans and Democrats — demand Barr’s resignation because of abuses of power.

• May 6: A leaked audio recording reveals that pro-Trump Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., who also heads his state’s Republican Party, pressured a local party official to submit falsified election results so that a GOP activist could make the primary election ballot. “You’ve got a sitting congressman — a sitting state party chair — who is trying to bully a volunteer — I’m a volunteer; I don’t get paid for this — into committing a crime,” said the official, Eli Bremer, to The Denver Post. “To say it’s damning is an understatement.” Previously, Buck has promoted the debunked Trump fantasy that it was Hillary Clinton who colluded with Russians.


Loyalty test

• May 6: The Trump administration assigns a White House loyalist to a behind-the-scenes role vetting Defense Department employees for loyalty to Trump, prompting concerns that Trump will purge civilian military leadership of anyone not in lockstep with his political agenda. Meanwhile, career military officers such as Brett Crozier, captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, are stripped of command if they do something inconvenient to the president.

• May 4: It’s reported that individuals connected to Trump are negotiating to take a controlling stake of One America News Network, an extremist cable-news channel whose hosts include the chief promoter of the insane Pizzagate fantasy, loosely linked to the QAnon whackos, that holds Democrats actively engage in an organized child-abuse ring in a Washington pizzeria. The reason for Trump’s OAN ardor? He believes Fox News isn’t supportive enough and wants an outlet that he can turn into a private version of a state-run propaganda platform. In his coronavirus briefings, Trump regularly turned to OAN staff to lob him friendly questions. Trump, for his part, has made no secret of his disdain on the rare occasions when Fox News personalities give him even the slightest criticism. “The people who are watching @FoxNews, in record numbers (thank you President Trump), are angry. They want an alternative now. So do I!” he tweeted April 26. The irony is monumental – without Fox News softening up the American public with crazed theories, there would be no Trump presidency.


• May 1: A day after militia members and other armed individuals gather to protest coronavirus-related closures at Michigan’s capitol, Trump praises them on Twitter by calling them “very good people.” The protests included swastikas, Confederate flags and a noose, as well as a sign referring to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and containing the message “tyrants get the rope.” This echoes Trump’s support of right-wing paramilitary at Charlottesville, Va., and elsewhere. By Thursday, the Michigan Legislature canceled its legislative session because of threats by armed protesters. It is a grim foreshadowing of the possibilities of Trump-loving paramilitary assaults on democratic institutions and a stupefying development in America.

• April 30: The administration suppresses new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for safely reopening businesses amid the pandemic, which call for wide-scale testing and contact tracing that Trump has been unable to put in place. The guidelines call into question the White House’s narrative that the nation can proceed safely.

Think about it: These are merely two weeks’ worth of actions by GOP leaders to rig the system, tear down checks and balances, eliminate oversight, gain permanent power and reap all the corrupt gains they can get.

This president and his party have shown they will sideline any member of the administration who isn’t a partisan loyalist fully willing to lie to the American public and bend any policy to the convenience of the president. They will: assault any independent institution; wage war on the idea of independent truths; refuse to protect the next election from tampering; engage in wholesale gerrymandering; restrict voter access; offer loving words to Kim Jong Un on his health while criticizing our allies; grovel before Vladimir Putin; engage in constant dog whistles to white supremacists. What was unimaginable in America just a few years ago is now happening before our eyes on an alarmingly regular basis. We are living in a period of kleptocratic minority rule.


Minority rule

Any realist cannot ignore the wanton destruction of the system of checks and balances and nonpartisan government and the congealing of despotic abuses.

One must conclude we are living in the early days of an authoritarian regime.

History teaches us that around the world, dictatorships often don’t announce themselves with tanks in the streets. Instead they arrive with the constant erosion of just systems, finger-pointing at imaginary enemies to mobilize their supporters and the constant concentration of power in a few hands. Meanwhile, they weaponize the justice system, the purse strings of government, law enforcement and the courts to their benefit. After they get away with the early steps, those who would rule let their actions accelerate. Suddenly the population wakes up one day to realize what’s happened. Often it’s too late by then.

During an April 3 coronavirus news conference, Trump offered a telling quote when asked why he doesn’t wear a face mask. “Wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens. Somehow I don’t see it for myself.”

In a simple sentence, Trump clearly elevates dictators (dictators!) to the same dignified plane as presidents, prime ministers, kings and queens. It’s impossible to imagine another president doing the same after more than 100 years when America has stood as a beacon defying dictators. But in today’s GOP, dictators aren’t simply welcome, they are a source of inspiration.

But it’s not too late for the U.S. The systems guarding our freedom retain enough muscle memory that this dictatorship is still too weak to assert total dominance.

We can still save the country and avoid the nightmare scenario that Madison described all those years ago.

There’s a way to prevent Trump and his lickspittles from completing their job of dismantling America. It’s identifying good candidates, supporting them financially, voting for them and doing all we can to encourage others to vote for them too. It is also showing vocal support for the impartial institutions of government that, in the end, report to the American people and not to a mentally unstable leader.

But the window is closing. The pace of the GOP leadership’s abuses isn’t going to slow down, because they know the trend in American elective politics isn’t in their favor. The nation is growing more ethnically diverse and therefore more intolerant of the Trump-era GOP’s racist and anti-immigrant policies. Americans are demanding an end to the income inequality that has been brought on by Republican economic policies that grossly favor the ultrawealthy. As climate change intensifies, so does opposition to the damaging environmental policies of the right.

Plenty of rank-and-file Republicans also are disgusted by what’s happened and need a home — indeed we need a healthy dialogue with conservatives in the marketplace of American political ideas. However, Trump and the GOP leadership are not conservatives, and real conservative Americans are in the wilderness now.

All the while, the largest generation in the country — those in their teens and 20s, a group bigger than the baby boomers — is coming of age and is fervently opposed to today’s Republican Party.

The GOP knows it will fade into history soon without drastic action, so it’s holding onto power by any means necessary and scheming to permanently tilt the scales in its favor.

True Americans — the spiritual descendants of Madison and his fellow founders, who recognize Trump and those around him as the vandals they are — know they can’t let that happen.

But we all need to realize that the emergency is no longer on the horizon, coming gradually closer.

It’s here. We’re living it. And only we can put a stop to it.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Technophobe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 24 2020 at 5:04pm

Sadly, the blinkers are often glued on.  Donnie wants to keep it that way.  But I agree with you.

I hope there is not the slightest error in that essay.  Otherwise it will be jumped on and used to discredit ALL of it.  (sigh)

How do you tell if a politician is lying?
His lips or pen are moving.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ViQueen24 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 27 2020 at 11:22am

Nothing disputable that I can see here, Techno, and in the past two months, more to add to the list!

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote WitchMisspelled Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 27 2020 at 2:34pm

Originally posted by Technophobe Technophobe wrote:

I hope there is not the slightest error in that essay.  Otherwise it will be jumped on and used to discredit ALL of it.  (sigh)


Doesn't matter if there is or there isn't.  In Trump's America, truth is subjective.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote ViQueen24 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 29 2020 at 9:25am

Originally posted by WitchMisspelled WitchMisspelled wrote:

Originally posted by Technophobe Technophobe wrote:

I hope there is not the slightest error in that essay.  Otherwise it will be jumped on and used to discredit ALL of it.  (sigh)


Doesn't matter if there is or there isn't.  In Trump's America, truth is subjective.

Lol, so true, Witchy!

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote carbon20 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 31 2020 at 3:40pm

I don't understand how people could not see from the start what chump was,his conventions were scripted by

Joseph Goebbels

his whole agenda has been to undo anything good Obama did,

Chump is a narcssictic egocentric dangerous weak man

Symptoms
  • Have an exaggerated sense of self-importance.
  • Have a sense of entitlement and require constant, excessive admiration.
  • Expect to be recognized as superior even without achievements that warrant it.
  • Exaggerate achievements and talents.
  • Be preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate.

Sound familiar.....

America you have a BIG PROBLEM



Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.🖖

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ViQueen24 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 31 2020 at 7:24pm

Carbon, if you can get a hold of Mary Trump's book, it's well worth a read.  Nothing that really surprised me, but eye-opening, nonetheless.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kaye kaye Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 06 2020 at 4:02pm
keep the joy
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Turboguy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2020 at 8:31pm

Irony

The people who ascribe to the same party that howls about fascism are the same ones that burned my old neighborhood and police department to the ground and lionize a career criminal whose MO was robbing women, including a pregnant one, on Chicago and Lake. 

The people who ascribe to the same party that howls that anyone who disagrees with them is a Nazi and "Literally Hitler" was the same who went through Minneapolis and was sure to burn the bookstores and libraries. 

The people who ascribe to the same party who howls about food deserts and small businesses being put out of business were the same ones who burned out a majority of the small businesses and grocery stores in Minneapolis. 

The same people who ascribe to the party who howl that we must never forget the past transgressions of evil people are the same ones tearing down statues and deleting it from textbooks all but ensuring those transgressions will be repeated. 

And now, in this thread, the same people who howl for tyranny of the majority accuse the president of trying to become a dictator. 

Twilight Zone level irony. Thanks for that. 

Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views. - William F. Buckley
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Turboguy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 08 2020 at 4:54pm

Originally posted by carbon20 carbon20 wrote:

I don't understand how people could not see from the start what chump was,his conventions were scripted by

Joseph Goebbels

his whole agenda has been to undo anything good Obama did,

Chump is a narcssictic egocentric dangerous weak man

Symptoms
  • Have an exaggerated sense of self-importance.
  • Have a sense of entitlement and require constant, excessive admiration.
  • Expect to be recognized as superior even without achievements that warrant it.
  • Exaggerate achievements and talents.
  • Be preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate.

Sound familiar.....

America you have a BIG PROBLEM

You know very little about America, but must sit and think about us continually. 

Do me a favor: Name one thing that 0bama did that was good. 

Name one stunning success. Just one. One program either foreign or domestic that 0bama contributed to that was all his and was a massive success. 

Killed OBL? LOL! Better rethink that one. 

Calling 0bama's foreign policy a catastrophe is like calling the ocean, "Kind of moist." We are dealing with the repercussions of his abject inept mishandled foreign policy to this day.

Domestically? The real, genuine weaponization of the US government against US citizens was good, great, fine, and dandy while their guy was at the helm, but now that the other idiot is sitting in the big chair they're all, "Ermagherd, too much power!!" If anything, there is less now with the teeth of the Designed-To-Fail 0bamacare law removed, and that is a good thing. 

Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views. - William F. Buckley
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote carbon20 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 09 2020 at 5:51pm
Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.🖖

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote carbon20 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 11 2020 at 2:11am

By the way if any of you yanks don't like me commenting on the orange faced clown,

Could you ask all news channels here in Australia not to put his stupid incoherent ,lying, rambling rants, on our TV news channels....

cheers 😷😜

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.🖖

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Technophobe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 11 2020 at 4:13am

        

Could you get him off of our TV too?  The GOOey slimeball messes up my watching as well.  Please?!  Pretty please?!  With sugar on!?   

How do you tell if a politician is lying?
His lips or pen are moving.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ViQueen24 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 11 2020 at 7:44am

Aw, come on, you mean y'all don't laugh your @$$e$ off when he talks about the "1917" Spanish Influenza epidemic prematurely ending " World War II"?  I highly recommend clicking oǹ the article, because the full effect of the tweets can be had that way, and for some reason I couldn't pick up the last tweet in the article.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-1917-flu-pandemic_n_5f31ebfdc5b6960c066b3e1d?ncid=%20edlinkusaolp00000029


Trump Schooled Online After Claiming ‘1917’ Flu Pandemic ‘Probably Ended’ WWII

World War II began in 1939. And the Spanish flu pandemic began in 1918.

headshot

By Josephine Harvey


President Donald Trump got history wrong on multiple counts Monday when he claimed that the “1917” Spanish flu pandemic likely led to the end of World War II ― which began more than two decades later.


“The closest thing is in 1917, they say, the great pandemic. It certainly was a terrible thing where they lost anywhere from 50 to 100 million people,” Trump said during his White House press briefing. “Probably ended the Second World War, all the soldiers were sick.” 


Leading up to that comment, Trump had been praising his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 160,000 people in the U.S., claiming without evidence that without his ban on foreign travelers, millions more would be dead.


Trump has incorrectly referred to the year of the 1918 pandemic dozens of times, even though his own grandfather Frederick Trump died of it in New York City in 1918.



Acyn Torabi

@Acyn

The President says the “1917 pandemic” ended the Second World War


Embedded video

59.5K

6:50 PM - Aug 10, 2020

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The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1919 overlapped with the final months of World War I, which is ostensibly what the president intended to refer to. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it was first identified in military personnel in the spring of 1918 before spreading to an estimated 500 million people worldwide. It continued until the following year. The spread was likely exacerbated by the widespread deployment of troops, crowded wartime living conditions and other effects of the war, the CDC states.


World War II began in 1939. 


Given the Trump campaign’s repeated efforts to frame presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as lacking mental acuity, Twitter users did not allow Trump’s gaffe to slide. 


Critics, including Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), former White House ethics chief Walter Shaub and conservative group The Lincoln Project joined the fray:



Rep. Eric Swalwell

@RepSwalwell

The Second World War ended in 1945. It’s cruel for @DonaldJTrumpJr and family to let @realDonaldTrump stand out there like this. https://twitter.com/acyn/status/1292956445944606721


Acyn Torabi

@Acyn

The President says the “1917 pandemic” ended the Second World War


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Walter Shaub

@waltshaub

The President of the United States of America is the stupidest man in the world. https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1292956445944606721


Acyn Torabi

@Acyn

The President says the “1917 pandemic” ended the Second World War


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Keith Boykin

@keithboykin

Trump: In 1917, the great pandemic, where they lost 50 to 100 million people, probably ended the Second World War.


1. The pandemic happened in 1918, not 1917.


2. About 37 million people died in WWI, not 50 to 100 million.


3. The Second World War ended in 1945, not in 1917. https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1292956445944606721


Acyn Torabi

@Acyn

The President says the “1917 pandemic” ended the Second World War


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Daniel Dale

@ddale8

A significant part of Trump’s (and the Trump campaign’s) message against Biden has been that Biden gets confused and makes speaking mistakes. https://twitter.com/acyn/status/1292956445944606721


Acyn Torabi

@Acyn

The President says the “1917 pandemic” ended the Second World War


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George Takei

@GeorgeTakei

The president thinks the Spanish Flu probably ended World War Two (!) because “all the soldiers were sick.”


The atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki fell 75 years ago yesterday, bringing a long and devastating war to a shattering, violent end.


Remember history. Don’t distort it.


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The Lincoln Project 🏴‍☠️

@ProjectLincoln

By the way the 1918 flu pandemic started in 1918, not 1917.


World War 2 ended in 1945.


And for some reason it's the Trump Campaign that's trying to run on mental fitness.


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Molly Jong-Fast🏡

@MollyJongFast

The republicans are worried about Joe Biden’s mental acuity https://twitter.com/acyn/status/1292956445944606721


Acyn Torabi

@Acyn

The President says the “1917 pandemic” ended the Second World War


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Nick Jack Pappas

@Pappiness

If anyone says anything about Joe Biden flubbing a line ever again, just post the clip of Trump saying the 1917 pandemic ended the Second World War over and over again.


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Amee Vanderpool

@girlsreallyrule

Trump says the Spanish Flu in 1917 "probably" ended the Second World War. 


The Spanish Flu was in 1918 and WWII ended in 1945. It's "probably" a good thing the Secret Service cut that press conference short. 


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John Fugelsang

@JohnFugelsang

"The closest thing is, uh, in 1917, they say, uh, The Great- the Great Pandemic; & it certainly was a terrible thing where they lost anywhere from 50 to 100 million ppl; probably ended the Second World War, all the soldiers were sick."


-The US President just spoke this sentence


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Richard Marx

@richardmarx

The genius MAGA crowd who worships and defends the guy who can’t pronounce “Yosemite” or “Thailand” and says the 1917 pandemic probably ended WW2 thinks Joe Biden is mentally compromised. https://twitter.com/acyn/status/1292956445944606721


Acyn Torabi

@Acyn

The President says the “1917 pandemic” ended the Second World War


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Brian Tyler Cohen

@briantylercohen

Obama fought WWII but was forced to concede defeat because of the pandemic of 1917 and since then the cupboards have been bare. They couldn't even test for it because there weren't any tests. All the while our soldiers didn't have any bullets. No bullets. Could you imagine? No bu


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Andrew Bates

@AndrewBatesNC

If you were wondering why President Drink Bleach has botched the response for 7 straight months: 


In 1917 "the great pandemic certainly was a terrible thing where they lost anywhere from 50 to 150 million people. Probably ended the second world war. All the soldiers were sick."


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Technophobe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 11 2020 at 8:37am

Perhaps it did, a little before the stone age ended the iron age.

Oh sorry!  I forgot the time machine will not be invented until 2040 -  BC.



Most Republicans are reasonable people.  Why on Earth do they support this buffoon?

How do you tell if a politician is lying?
His lips or pen are moving.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AI Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 11 2020 at 10:22am

Originally posted by carbon20 carbon20 wrote:

By the way if any of you yanks don't like me commenting on the orange faced clown,

Could you ask all news channels here in Australia not to put his stupid incoherent ,lying, rambling rants, on our TV news channels....

cheers 😷😜

Meh guess everything is backwards in AU, well at least to you. Seems your news at least is paying attention to Joe's mental decline and ramblings.


“Facts don't care about your feelings.”
― Ben Shapiro
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AI Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 11 2020 at 10:50am

Originally posted by Technophobe Technophobe wrote:

Perhaps it did, a little before the stone age ended the iron age.

Oh sorry!  I forgot the time machine will not be invented until 2040 -  BC.



Most Republicans are reasonable people.  Why on Earth do they support this buffoon?

Because of this and this is the other choice. Biden's mental acuity is in serious question and rightfully so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=c6lz8-5hZeM

“Facts don't care about your feelings.”
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote carbon20 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 11 2020 at 4:51pm

We'll I think they are both too old for the job.......

It's about time American got its S..t together, and worked as one country ,

Instead of a bunch of headless chickens running round the backyard....

The World needs a strong united America....

Leading the way in FAIRNESS, 

EQUALITY,

AND JUSTICE.....

that's the America we want....to see

not black men been murdered in front of our eyes......

You really need to take a long hard look at yourselves,

You very keen on quoting the constitution in gun law, how about the bit it says something like pursuit of happyness for filling your dreams....

Is that open to 100% of your citizens ?

If not WHY NOT ?

you've had a few 100 years to reach that goal 

What you have now is a

 CLOWN running a great country,

Lions led by clowns.....

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.🖖

Marcus Aurelius
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ViQueen24 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 12 2020 at 7:43am

Originally posted by carbon20 carbon20 wrote:

We'll I think they are both too old for the job.......

It's about time American got its S..t together, and worked as one country ,

Instead of a bunch of headless chickens running round the backyard....

The World needs a strong united America....

Leading the way in FAIRNESS, 

EQUALITY,

AND JUSTICE.....

that's the America we want....to see

not black men been murdered in front of our eyes......

You really need to take a long hard look at yourselves,

You very keen on quoting the constitution in gun law, how about the bit it says something like pursuit of happyness for filling your dreams....

Is that open to 100% of your citizens ?

If not WHY NOT ?

you've had a few 100 years to reach that goal 

What you have now is a

 CLOWN running a great country,

Lions led by clowns.....

Pursuit of happiness is from the Declaration Of Independence.  The Constitution says we "cannot be deprived of life, liberty and property, without appropriate legal procedures and safeguards."  But you are right.  The US, if it is going to lead, must represent what other countries want to have, and want to imitate.  We are not doing that right now.  I am not terribly fond of Biden, but I think he has the creds.  I do like Kamala Harris.  I think together they can get us out of our current mess.  Just to have them quietly, efficiently and methodically running things without the chaos and Tweet-storms, will be a huge and refreshing change.  That wind you'll see coming from The States January 20 will be a collective American sigh of relief.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ViQueen24 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 12 2020 at 7:47am

In my out and abouts a few months ago, I praised an anti-Trump T-shirt another shopper was wearing, and we got to talking about "did you ever think we would see this level of insanity and incompetence in America," and he said to me, "If you elect the clown, you gotta expect the circus."  Truer words were never spoken.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kaye kaye Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 03 2020 at 12:15am

Originally posted by carbon20 carbon20 wrote:

We'll I think they are both too old for the job.......

It's about time American got its S..t together, and worked as one country ,

Instead of a bunch of headless chickens running round the backyard....

The World needs a strong united America....

Leading the way in FAIRNESS, 

EQUALITY,

AND JUSTICE.....

that's the America we want....to see

not black men been murdered in front of our eyes......

You really need to take a long hard look at yourselves,

You very keen on quoting the constitution in gun law, how about the bit it says something like pursuit of happyness for filling your dreams....

Is that open to 100% of your citizens ?

If not WHY NOT ?

you've had a few 100 years to reach that goal 

What you have now is a

 CLOWN running a great country,

Lions led by clowns.....

https://summit.news/2020/09/02/australia-pregnant-woman-arrested-in-her-home-over-anti-lockdown-facebook-post/

keep the joy
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