Trump

[Cazmonster]

Sicko gets his jollies watching people get locked up? Maybe he should send the damn Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to patrol cemeteries instead.

[Zen]

[Tahlvin]

[Zen]

[Mike]

According to the FBI, the calls did originate overseas. Some are robocalls, and some are a live person... suspected to be a single person making all the live calls. All of this is potentially the same source calling in threats to British schools, some (but not all) of which are Jewish schools.

Obviously a coordinated plan to sow confusion/terror.

[Phoebe]

I get updates on this issue very frequently and I don't think anyone knows that. CNN reported many of the calls may have come from overseas, but not all, and their source isn't clear. News outlets have also said one person is behind all the domestic calls. But I don't think anyone knows this for sure, unless they've identified a specific person as a suspect, but then, the public doesn't know that either. Some calls are using voice masking technology, and you can hear one of the calls online as an example, but other calls were reported earlier to be from a female voice. The Jewish cemetery destruction is far more concerning in this context because it means whoever is doing this is physically capable of and willing to take big risks to cause harm. That's an important line crossed. If these aren't isolated cells of people but are broadly coordinated, then it's even more serious regardless of where the calls originate. The threats are having the unintended effect of uniting people in the Muslim and Jewish communities. Threats from overseas intend to disrupt everyone would not focus on JCCs specifically. Though most people who use them are not Jewish, the effect of threats-against-Jews vs. threats-against-local-mall is quite distinct (lol apparently this means I'm saying other threats are less important or don't exist at all, in the "new logics".) You're also not getting the context of all the other in-person swastikas and oven references, which are certainly not coming from overseas, so the idea of coordination between local actors and a deliberate, organized foreign opposition is even worse.

[Mike]

I suspect a deliberate, organized foreign action to make the threats. I suspect that the local actions are merely encouraged and inspired by the highly publicized threats. Because of Trump and Breitbart and a bunch of other factors, all of it feeds into itself and makes racism socially acceptable again in certain circles.

[Phoebe]

I really hope you're right and if we get confirmation that the local and the calls are unrelated that would be really wonderful. What is freaking me out right now is that I know for instance my local band of friendly Nazis is in regular collaboration with people overseas.

[Tahlvin]

I thought he made mention of the Kansas murders in his SotU speech last night. He certainly should have said something much sooner.

And I agree: coordinated calls coming from overseas are a big concern, but the vandalism to Jewish cemeteries, other vandalism, racist comments, etc., are certainly coming from an emboldened, local faction of racists. They certainly are a problem, and it wouldn't surprise me to find it's a problem that some other actor is willing to exploit.

[Zen]

[Tahlvin]

[Zen]

[Mike]

For the first time ever, he stuck to the teleprompter and did not go off script. So when you hear people talking about him sounding and acting truly "presidential", what they mean is that he didn't go off on a bunch of self-serving tangents for the first time ever. But that also meant that he did not have any of the Trump fire and passion that rallied his base to him in the first place. It was extremely bland as far as tone and presentation. Scoring it as the "most Presidential Trump has ever been" is still an extremely low bar.

As far as content goes, he stayed true to his campaign promises. He stayed true to his base. He delivered the same message he has always delivered, but without the constant self-aggrandizement, and without the constant fire-and-brimstone. It may have had the tone of a typical presidential address, but he's still laying the groundwork for some pretty draconian stuff. More spending on law enforcement to stop the "uncontrolled flow" of unvettable immigrants into our country. There is no such thing as "unvettable" and there is no "uncontrolled flow". Immigration is at its lowest point in decades. But he can spend millions on militarizing our immigration service and then in two years point to those already low numbers and say, "See! It worked!" He's promising to spend millions on bringing back "Law and Order" to the United States, in spite of the fact of a historically low crime rate. Millions of dollars will go into further militarizing our police forces so that in two years, he can point to the already low numbers and say, "See! It worked!" He's figured out that the solution to terrorism is to take the battle to ISIS and put a stop to them once and for all. As if Bush and Obama hadn't thought of that and we aren't already involved in two extremely unpopular wars to combat terrorism abroad. But it will justify increasing military spending by many BILLIONS to "improve" a military that already spends more than the next 8 nations combined. He wants to withdraw from intervention around the world while still eliminating terrorists and increasing military spending. He's still going to repeal and replace Obamacare with something better that keeps all the parts of Obamacare that everyone likes while eliminating things like the individual mandate while reducing overall costs AND guaranteeing that people can keep their doctors and their current health plans. Oh... and don't forget the TRILLION or so to improve our infrastructure, which... okay wait... I actually like that one. I hope he manages to pull it off.

[Phoebe]

I found more to like about this speech of Trump's than almost any of the others I've heard. If you discount all the things that were not factually correct, which is hard to do, nevertheless there were some good proposals in the mix. The sober method of his presentation was also appreciated after the recent events where he was so off-the-cuff and personally attacking people. I don't even mind Neil Gorsuch, if it weren't for the fact that his nomination only occurs after such a terrible abrogation of duty and insult to the American people by the Senate.

He did mention the Olathe, Kansas shooting, and like all of these responses to incidents of violent hatred it has been a day late and dollar short. ...and sometimes coming after completely insane statements that proceeded it, like that the Jewish cemetery attacks and Community Center threats are a false flag operation. But you know what? I'll take it. Anything the President can do at this point to denunciate bigotry, great, please do what you can.

[Phoebe]

Oh, depends what the definition of IS is... Remember? About a sexual act. Now whether one breaks the law depends on the definition of so many other words... Such nuances.

BTW the sheer pace of events is just wild. I'm too busy for the news reading. Yet how does one not want to know? Will he resign? Would that move prevent the contents of his communications someday becoming public? Eventually we will be looking back on all this, knowing more facts. Wow. It's like, too unrealistic to be a movie, yet here we are.

[El Jefe]

The backlash from military areas of the social media landscape has been amusing to watch. The really questionable usage of the soldier's spouse did not go over quite like it was planned. Anybody who saw that moment as Presidential needs to be evaluated immediately.

Better speech skills and prep? Sure. There wasn't a damn bit of Presidential in that speech.

[Phoebe]

Yeah, I'm baffled by the eager media consensus that it was Presidential, and Jefe's example puts a finger directly on why it wasn't. It was better than wildly attacking people or institutions without cause, but it was weird on the other side. There is no hope of quiet dignity.

The applause all has that very Soviet or small country dictatorship feel, but to be fair he's only continuing a trend there. It's spectacle but not the sort we should want. When did it become like this, I wonder? Not as soon as televised, right? At what point after that? I can't recall.

Anyway, I'm eager to see if he really does get stuff like a big infrastructure spending package, and protectionism from the party long opposed to it.

[bralbovsky]

Everything. Every. thing. will eventually be able to be traced to some personal financial enrichment or protection of same. Military buildup - look for his investments in contractors, infrastructure, watch for his connections to contractors. Stonewalling, lying, cover up, failure to be transparent, all where he's making dirty money. Racism, sexism, etc, all incidental facts of life for a 70 year old rich white guy.
This has been his M.O. his entire adult life. He's not changing his stripes. He's increasing the scale at which he rips off people who are credulous enough to believe him or powerless to keep his hands out of their pockets.

[Stan]

[Phoebe]

I can't even dip into this shit anymore because it makes me anxious and I have things to do. But WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? Really? This is one of those situations where it seems like massive collective action on the part of the Legislative Branch might be warranted. Such is the reward we reap for having elected these people. I am so grateful to the ones who are speaking out in a sober fashion, not rushing to judgment but clearly pushing back on unacceptable behaviors and indicating that the people deserve to know WHAT IS GOING ON HERE. Where are those tax returns?