ReeferMadness

Look at the Republican presidents since Reagan. Bush Senior is an outlier, being reasonably articulate and having a measure of integrity. Every Republican president seems less intelligent and more more sociopathic than the last. If you leave out Bush senior (as an outlier) and go from Reagan to Bush to Trump, it's a straight line into the cellar. I don't know how the Republicans could possibly dig up anyone less articulate than Trump but I said that about Bush too. If you compared Trump on his best day to Obama at his worst, the difference would still be staggering. If you averaged the intelligence of Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama and compared that to the average of George W Bush and Donald Trump, I wonder what the delta would be. 40 points? 50? more? It's lunacy. Conservatives have convinced the common folk that intelligence and knowledge are things not to be trusted.

So your argument is that he's not suffering from dementia, he's just naturally a dimwit with a short attention span? That's a great defence of the US president. Look here. It talks about how Reagan's vocabulary declined noticeably during his presidency (unlike Bush senior). It also compares Trump's vocabulary now to when he was in his 40s. If you look at a transcript of anything Trump says, you'll see it's cringe-worthy how simplistic and unintelligent his discourse really is. And it shows that, although he was never even close to being eloquent, his decline has been significant.

Flatters dictators, thugs and murderers. Alienates the democratically elected nations that have been US allies for the past century or so. Participates in weird rituals in a theocratic kingdom. Shoves other leaders aside so he can be in front. Did you see the video clip of Trump with Netanyahu where he suddenly stands up and wanders off? Look at his face. There's nobody home. The Republicans hid Reagan's dementia but nobody is going to hide Trump's for long. The people around him aren't that stupid, they're trying to ride the presidency for as much as they can get for as long as they can get it. Meanwhile, the US image on the international stage is going into the toilet. So, as Trump torpedoes, the post-WWII western alliance in favor of tilting towards Russia, the question is who is looking to gain from the new alliance? Bannon? The Mercers? Kushner? His kids?

Oh. So your new president wants to cozy up to a fascist. Well, isn't that nice. Fits well with your history so I guess it shouldn't be a surprise.

You're a funny guy. Trump just removed the DNI and the Chair of the joint chiefs as permanent members of the NSC. In their place he put a white supremacist with no experience in either government or security; but plenty of experience in drumming up hatred against those who are not white and Christian. You can go ahead and tell yourself there is some secret genius behind Trump's moves but you're in complete denial. The US, for the second time in modern history, is under the control of an old man not in complete command of his faculties. Only, this time, he's surrounded himself by a team of complete nutbars. Time to join the survivalists.

Your response is completely idiotic. I think you know that and you're trolling.

"Atlas Shrugged" is the most pretentious, bombastic, puerile piece of nonsense I've ever read. I forced myself to complete it but it cured me of any desire to ever read anything by her again. The John Galt speech goes on for about 100 pages, saying things that could easily fit into a few paragraphs. What drivel. Funnily enough, the essential philosophy would have appealed to me at one time in my life. But then I turned 15.

If you truly believe that, it's sad. You can't possibly believe in democracy.

The links between Trump and Putin represent the most undercovered story of the entire sad, sordid Trump saga. While he's using refugees as pawns to generate controversy, this story is being largely ignored. That's right. Shortly after Trump was read in on top secret information, the Russians were arresting a senior spy for passing information to US intelligence. Everything about the relationship between Trump and Putin stinks. Why has Trump been so complimentary to Putin? Why has be brought so many pro-Putin, pro-Russian people into his cabinet? Why won't he be forthcoming about his business holdings in Russia? What of the Steele dossier? Why has Trump denied that Russia was hacking the election is his favor? Why WAS Russia hacking the election in his favor? None of these questions has been satisfactorily answered and now Trump is in perfect position to cover up and distract; not to mention stymie investigation.

If you weren't too busy reading Breitbart, you'd know that the NAACP also praised Byrd after he died. Or are you accusing them of being Klan supporters as well? Geez, the level of debate of this forum used to reach that of Kindergarten.

Yes, the price of oil would fall, but I'm sure Putin and Trump have a fix for that. Since Muslims have been demonized in the western world for the past generation (and now these two are ramping up the Islamophobia), the obvious answer is to use tried and true methods to keep Muslim oil in the ground. Find a Trumped up reason to slap sanctions on Iran. Stir up a war in the Middle East. Both have been done so it doesn't take much imagination to see how it might work.

True. As I said earlier, they need each other.

<palm hits forehead> The Islamic terrorists are a ragtag bunch of nobodies who mostly kill other Muslims. They were created by the US and USSR and when the US and Russia intervene, they are mostly making the problem worse. Leave the countries to sort out their own problems and support the leaders who support democracy and peace. Putin, on the other hand, is a dictator who has suppressed his own citizens and has dreams of reviving the USSR and has already shown he's willing to use his military to do it. But hey, he's white and Christian, so I guess he's OK in your books.

I shake my head at the comments made about "radical Islam", as if it is any comparison to the Nazis. Meanwhile, real Nazis are having a resurgence and nobody seems to notice. It's a pity George Orwell weren't still around - perhaps he could explain it so that you'd get it. As a threat to the world, "radical Islam" is laughable. It exists mostly in poor countries and has no base of operations (unless you count Saudi Arabia and Pakistan). Even if you count them, it is no threat to the larger world. So, why does so much attention get paid to it? And why do the responses consist mainly of bombing, although it can readily be seen that this mostly makes the problem worse? Partly, it's because people are naturally xenophobic and suspicious of others who are different. And partly it's because bigoted, authoritarian, nationalist leaders find it so easy to exploit the xenophobia. "Extreme Islam" is a right wing authoritarian's wet dream. It isn't a threat in any serious way but it's just enough of a problem that you can whip up fear in the population and use it to control them. And, to some degree, you can whip it up by just bombing more. As Gwynne Dyer said, the Muslim extremists and right wing authoritarians need each other. Muslim extremists need the authoritarians to keep bombing so that they can keep recruiting. And the right wing authoritarians need the extremists to justify repressive legislation, huge military budgets and domestic surveillance. But hey, as long as you get your tax breaks, right?

Wow, you have problems wrapping your head around analogies, don't you.

Really? It looks to me Russia is bringing the US into its fold. Wow. Really? Are you really not aware of what a blatantly racist statement that is? I guess that's why you're such a big Trump supporter.

Patent nonsense. All of it. Military action by foreign powers in poor countries almost always makes things worse. Did you forget how ISIS came into being? The USSR and the US combined to make a f*cking mess in Afghanistan. Out of that came the Mujihideen, which spawned al Qaeda, which spawned ISIS. The more civilians that are killed, the more kids orphaned, the more infrastructure destroyed, the easier it is to recruit people into extremist organizations. It's really not that hard to understand.

The last time so many American political and business leaders came out for a leader of a foreign major power who was as authoritarian, militaristic, bigoted and nationalistic as Putin was in the 1920's and 1930's. No points for guessing who that leader was or how things turned out. Seriously. Americans need to give their heads a shake.

You've provided possible answers yourself. Russia fears China and wants US as an ally. Russia wants sanctions lifted so that Exxon can drill. US foreign policy is now being subverted to corporate interests. Drain that swamp!!!! But the interests don't stop there. Putin's Achilles Heel is Russia's reliance on oil revenues to keep the country afloat. So, having a White House full of climate change deniers who will undermine the Paris Accord is in his best interest. And both Putin and Trump are populists who appeal to bigots of all kinds - racists, homophobe, Islamophobes. It's like 2 peas in a pod.

Right. And of course every one of those bombs lands on ISIS, doesn't it? Those bombs are smart enough to not kill and maim civilians? kids? Those bombs don't wipe out civilian infrastructure like water purification plants and electrical generation plants, leaving the civilian population to die later of disease? Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I assumed you might care what happens to poor brown people who might have a different religion than you. My bad - carry on eating popcorn and watching war porn. Cheer on those military stocks too!

Some EC members already have pause about Trump because of his transparent pandering to racism, sexism, Islamophobia and white supremacy. Sadly, there are insufficient numbers at this time to make a difference. What would it take for the EC to grow a pair and perform their duties seriously? If it were shown that this interference tipped the election? if it were shown that Trump was aware of it? If it were shown that Trump was involved in it? Would anything do it at this point? I couldn't even guess. There was endless appetite to delve into the Benghazi affair, Clinton's poor judgement in routing emails to her personal account and the dealings of the Clinton foundation. But nobody seems to care about the gaping and obvious conflicts of interest that Trump has. Here, we have linkages that suggest the president-elect's organization could have been involved in espionage or even treason. Do enough of the establishment have the intestinal fortitude to take this on? We'll see.

According to a CIA assessment, Russia's interference in the 2016 election was intended to help one candidate: Trump. Predictably, the Trumpkin spin factory is in overdrive, trying to undermine the CIA and denying that the interference influenced the result. However, they're missing the point. As Evan McMullin (former CIA operative, former policy director for House Republicans) tweeted: At the very least, Trump actively encouraged foreign interference in the election and is now preparing to cover up and evidence of it. This alone should make Americans enraged. Of course, in the current, hyper-partisan environment, Trumpkins will doubtless have no trouble rationalizing this immoral (and probably criminal) behavior. But the real question isn't even being seriously asked. The real question is how much did Trump know about the interference. Was he or his organization actually involved in some way? The relationship between Trump and Putin has not been thoroughly investigated or documented. Trump himself made several contradictory statements about his relationship with Putin. Senior people associated with his campaign and cabinet have questionable associations with Putin's Russia. Former campaign Paul Manafort is under investigation by the FBI for his dealings. His Secretary of State pick, Rex Tillerson received the Order of Friendship, one of Russia's highest honors, from Putin. So, is it credible that Trump knew nothing of Russian interference?

The USA is behaving like a guy in a mid life crisis. He's discovered that he really should have been a rocket scientist but life was stacked against him. He's quit his job, dumped his wife, abandoned his kids, cashed in his retirement savings and bought a corvette. He's now hanging around with local gang members who tell him he's cool. His friends are saying "ummm, buddy, your life was actually pretty great already" but he's beyond reason. Eventually, once he's lost friends, bankrupted his family, and generally made his life much worse, he'll come to his senses. Meanwhile, all his friends can do is keep their distance to avoid being dragged down with him.

Well, that's undeniably true. Bigots of all sorts are pleased at what they're getting. I see David Duke has welcomed the addition of Steve Bannon to the White House staff. People who would like a more authoritarian style of government will be happy to see an ardent admirer of Putin in charge. The wealthy who don't give a crap about anyone else will enjoy their tax cuts. The banking industry will love this because of the coming deregulation. Oh, and climate change deniers will get a big kick out of it. And millions of "low information voters" who will be worse off under Trump but don't have the patience to go and figure it out are happy - for now at least. Into which category do you fall?

Isn't that ironic. Trump spent his entire campaign whipping up hatred against recognized groups of people and was lauded for "telling it like it is".