Trump

I will say that it is weird how many people there are who completely unwilling to believe that Bernie's ideas are feasible. The problem is not that his policies can't be costed, it's that there are load of people who have been utterly brainwashed to believe that any kind of more generous social benefits is utterly loony toons pie in the sky fairy tale madness and, that specifically, it is literally impossible for any country to offer any kind of "free at the point of use" healthcare systems along the lines of any of the "free at the point of use" systems that countless other countries do offer. I don't know what you do with these people or how you argue with them (maybe you have to accept that some people are just inflexible and insane and hope there aren't as many of them as it seems) - but the a lot of the issue is not about whether things can be paid for but whether people can accept that they can.

Maybe you remember this article from a "Conservative woman attending an AOC rally" that was all around a little while back.
As far as I know this is not a joke, and what I get from reading it is that this woman is completely insane. She doesn't have a problem with the costing of free healthcare, she is simply ideologically opposed to it cos she knows that it is evil.

But then Ocasio-Cortez spoke, followed by Bush, and I saw something truly terrifying. I saw just how easy it would be, were I less involved and less certain of our nation’s founding and its history, to fall for the populist lines they were shouting from that stage
I saw how easy it would be, as a parent, to accept the idea that my children deserve healthcare and education.
I saw how easy it would be, as someone who has struggled to make ends meet, to accept the idea that a “living wage” was a human right.
Above all, I saw how easy it would be to accept the notion that it was the government’s job to make sure that those things were provided.

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Absolutely staggering stuff. I don't even get what she's saying - or trying to say - she knows how the nation was founded and so she understands that her children don't deserve healthcare? I mean what the fucking fuck? I'd love to have the chance to interview her and ask her to unpack that argument, the steps that take you from the first line to the last. It really seems as though it can't possibly be real... perhaps it's not, I dunno, but I have seen people say the same things (more or less) on Twitter and in other places.
How can you reason with these people who, as far as I can tell - and I'm not someone who just says this for anyone who disagrees with me on any topic - has been completely brainwashed to argue against obvious facts that in fact support their own interests and are one hundred percent convinced they are right?

https://dailycaller.com/2018/07/23/conservative-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-rally/

Apparently prosecutors are resigning over the Roger Stone case because the DOJ's trying to interfere and get him a shorter sentence.

The entire team prosecuting Roger Stone abruptly resigned from the criminal case on Tuesday after the Justice Department said it planned to reduce the recommended sentence for Stone, a longtime Trump associate.

The Justice Department on Tuesday said it was pulling back on its request to sentence Stone to seven to nine years in prison after President Donald Trump blasted the sentencing proposal as "a miscarriage of justice."

The revised recommendation doesn't ask for a particular sentence but says the one that was recommended earlier "does not accurately reflect the Department of Justice’s position on what would be a reasonable sentence in this matter" and that the actual sentence should be "far less."

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Complete naked collapse of the rule of law.

It's frightening cos even those who must know it's wrong are so partisan and polarised they cheer for it.

What do you think that the chance is of him (Trump) refusing to accept an electoral defeat?

I wouldn't put it past him and nobody's managed to stop him doing anything so far, so...

There's also the chance the GOP could rig it. Nobody's gonna stop them.

I seriously think that they will cheat and if they lose they will try and fight it in court. Not long ago I wouldn't have seriously thought that was possible but now I think it's more than likely.

I didn't bother reading the article, but this George Monbiot headline popped up on various feeds the other day and I remember thinking yeah, that's pretty much how it feels at the moment.

‘Try to stop me’ – the mantra of our leaders who are now ruling with impunity

IdleRich said:

What do you think that the chance is of him (Trump) refusing to accept an electoral defeat?

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Strong, but I also think there was a possibility of it in 2016.

craner said:

Strong, but I also think there was a possibility of it in 2016.

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Slight difference between now and back then is that he wasn't already the president!

Can anyone explain whether Bloomberg actually has a chance? The bookies seem to think he's second favourite for the Democratic nomination at the moment, which suggests an answer to my own question, but all the stuff I've read suggests that it's not that likely.

version said:

I didn't bother reading the article, but this George Monbiot headline popped up on various feeds the other day and I remember thinking yeah, that's pretty much how it feels at the moment.

‘Try to stop me’ – the mantra of our leaders who are now ruling with impunity

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A culture of impunity is spreading around the world. “Try to stop me” is the implicit motto in nations ranging from Hungary to Israel, Saudi Arabia to Russia, Turkey to China, Poland to Venezuela. Flaunting your disregard for the law is an expression of power.

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Something I admire a lot about Monbiot is that he isn't on anyone's "side" except, in the broadest sense, humanity's.

Mr. Tea said:

Slight difference between now and back then is that he wasn't already the president!

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True.