America - The Official Thread

[prisonermonkeys]

Good advice when handling cyber bullies, don't you think? Hit back 10X?

You do realise that Trump is the bully, right? These Tweets represent a sustained personal attack. It's not the first time he has described a woman he is being critical of as "bleeding", either - he did the same thing to Megyn Kelly.

The media is getting a taste of its own medicine.

The day the media cannot criticise the government for fear of reprisal - however (seemingly) benign - is the day freedom of the press dies. And a free press is usually the first casualty of a dictagirship.

 

[Johnnypenso]

You do realise that Trump is the bully, right? These Tweets represent a sustained personal attack. It's not the first time he has described a woman he is being critical of as "bleeding", either - he did the same thing to Megyn Kelly.

The day the media cannot criticise the government for fear of reprisal - however (seemingly) benign - is the day freedom of the press dies. And a free press is usually the first casualty of a dictagirship.

As far as I know, no press has been hindered and they've been free to print or write whatever they please so far. But do let us know when the free press is dead and we've moved into that facist dictatorship. It'll make a fascinating headline on CNN. I'm sure it'll provide many juicy headlines from that ABC source you're so fond of.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

no press has been hindered and they've been free to print or write whatever they please so far

That hasn't stopped Trump from repeatedly attacking them in increasingly-unjustified ways. Any news outlet that posts a story critical of him is branded a fake news outlet and an enemy of America.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Interesting observation from Waleed Aly: Trump's Tweet appears to be a massive distraction. The New York Times apparently published a story exploring a link between the Trump campaign and Russian hackers. I'm trying to find a link to it now.

 

[Dotini]

@prisonermonkeys

Unconventionally, Trump uses Twitter to counterattack those who have attacked him in the media. Though controversial even within his own party, it seems to be working for him.

It may be tough finding links between the Trump campaign and Russian hackers. Though they might could be found in the Clinton campaign.

When Trump wants to create a better distraction than a Tweet, he will quite unjustifiably bomb someone like Assad, currently our favorite whipping boy. How could there be a better distraction than loud noises and stinking smoke?

If Trump somehow manages to bring about peace and prosperity, then his manifold sins are forgiven as far as I'm concerned, and he's the greatest president since Andrew Jackson. If on the other hand, he brings about war with Russia and/or China, he's the worst since William McKinley who sacrificed our continental republic for a now-moribund global empire.

 

[magic_town]

Interesting observation from Waleed Aly: Trump's Tweet appears to be a massive distraction. The New York Times apparently published a story exploring a link between the Trump campaign and Russian hackers. I'm trying to find a link to it now.

The Project: Anti Trump since 2016

 

[Johnnypenso]

That hasn't stopped Trump from repeatedly attacking them in increasingly-unjustified ways. Any news outlet that posts a story critical of him is branded a fake news outlet and an enemy of America.

So what? Is it un-Presidential? Yes. Is it stupid? Yes. Has it changed anything other than to make his enemies hate him even more and dig even deeper for dirt? No. This is America not Russia. The press is not hindered in any way by anyone's tweets, even if he is the President. It's the kind of tabloid fodder that sucks in the weak minded and easily titillated.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Trump uses Twitter to counterattack those who have attacked him in the media.

I'm aware of that, although I would hardly call it a counter-attack. He goes after anyone who disagrees with him and holds long-standing grudges. Any news story - even the best-researched with bulletproof sources - that is even remotely critical of him is dismissed as "fake news" and the publication branded the enemy of the people.

 

[Imari]

Unconventionally, Trump uses Twitter to counterattack those who have attacked him in the media. Though controversial even within his own party, it seems to be working for him.

Does it really? How so? Everyone seems to despise the way he communicates, allies and enemies alike.

 

[Johnnypenso]

Does it really? How so? Everyone seems to despise the way he communicates, allies and enemies alike.

What better way to show you're not part of the Washington establishment than to have people on both sides of the aisle hating you?

 

[Joey D]

I get the president doesn't want to take attacks, but there's an appropriate way to call out those who disagree with you. Making fun of someone's surgery and/or looks really isn't the way to do that. Trump could have easily disputed whatever the show was promoting and provided a factual information to back it up...you know like people should do when they don't agree with something.

 

[Danoff]

I get the president doesn't want to take attacks, but there's an appropriate way to call out those who disagree with you. Making fun of someone's surgery and/or looks really isn't the way to do that. Trump could have easily disputed whatever the show was promoting and provided a factual information to back it up...you know like people should do when they don't agree with something.

He should be known as the ad hominem president.

 

[DDastardly00]

Trump reminds me of Morton Downey jr minus the chainsmoking.

 

[Imari]

What better way to show you're not part of the Washington establishment than to have people on both sides of the aisle hating you?

Lol. You know, there's still part of me that thinks that maybe Trump is just a political and social genius who is demonstrating in the most visceral way how broken the system is.

It's not a very big part, but it's like the inverse of Poe's Law: total genius is largely indistinguishable from total incompetence. Maybe Trump is the best thing to happen to America, to pull the parties back into alignment for the good of the country and to make sure that the people that hold positions of power are qualified to do so and are there for the right reasons.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I get the president doesn't want to take attacks, but there's an appropriate way to call out those who disagree with you. Making fun of someone's surgery and/or looks really isn't the way to do that. Trump could have easily disputed whatever the show was promoting and provided a factual information to back it up...you know like people should do when they don't agree with something.

Brzezinski and Scarborough claim that they have been coming under increasing pressure to apologise to Trump for their coverage of him with the promise of killing a scathing story to be published in The National Enquirer offered in return:

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-...ski-joe-scarborough-respond-to-tweets/8669328

 

[Johnnypenso]

Brzezinski and Scarborough claim that they have been coming under increasing pressure to apologise to Trump for their coverage of him with the promise of killing a scathing story to be published in The National Enquirer offered in return:

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-...ski-joe-scarborough-respond-to-tweets/8669328

One would assume they have some recordings of these supposed phone calls that kept coming from not one, not two, but three top administration officials. If not recordings then surely phone logs of the incoming calls with times and dates. Can't wait to hear them or see the records. These are serious accusations.

 

[TenEightyOne]

One would assume they have some recordings of these supposed phone calls that kept coming from not one, not two, but three top administration officials.

They claim to have records of the timing and nature of the contacts, definitely.

 

[TenEightyOne]

A great article about America - certainly sums up a good number of the Americans I've worked with over the years, especially Texans (they're the best, and they have great boots).

 

[prisonermonkeys]

These are serious accusations.

But it's totally okay for the President to accuse whoever he likes of whatever he likes without any proof, right? I mean, if somebody publishes a story that you don't like, why going through all the hassle of refuting their claims when you can just accuse them of fabricating their stories to undermine you?

 

[McLaren]

The day the media cannot criticise the government for fear of reprisal - however (seemingly) benign - is the day freedom of the press dies. And a free press is usually the first casualty of a dictagirship.

So, where were you when Obama was getting scrutinized for the way his administration spied on people, that included the press?

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/...ld-trump-targets-journalists-thank-obama.html

Over the past eight years, the administration has prosecuted nine cases involving whistle-blowers and leakers, compared with only three by all previous administrations combined. It has repeatedly used the Espionage Act, a relic of World War I-era red-baiting, not to prosecute spies but to go after government officials who talked to journalists.

Under Mr. Obama, the Justice Department and the F.B.I. have spied on reporters by monitoring their phone records, labeled one journalist an unindicted co-conspirator in a criminal case for simply doing reporting and issued subpoenas to other reporters to try to force them to reveal their sources and testify in criminal cases.

https://cpj.org/reports/2013/10/obama-and-the-press-us-leaks-surveillance-post-911.php

At the same time, the journalists told me, designated administration spokesmen are often unresponsive or hostile to press inquiries, even when reporters have been sent to them by officials who won’t talk on their own. Despite President Barack Obama’s repeated promise that his administration would be the most open and transparent in American history, reporters and government transparency advocates said they are disappointed by its performance in improving access to the information they need.

“This is the most closed, control freak administration I’ve ever covered,” said David E. Sanger, veteran chief Washington correspondent of The New York Times.

https://www.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/...-fox-news-reporter-james-rosen-134204299.html

The Justice Department spied extensively on Fox News reporter James Rosen in 2010, collecting his telephone records, tracking his movements in and out of the State Department and seizing two days of Rosen’s personal emails, the Washington Post reported on Monday.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...be8095fe767_story.html?utm_term=.d6ef1db99079

In a sweeping and unusual move, the Justice Department secretly obtained two months’ worth of telephone records of journalists working for the Associated Press as part of a year-long investigation into the disclosure of classified information about a failed al-Qaeda plot last year.

The AP’s president said Monday that federal authorities obtained cellular, office and home telephone records of individual reporters and an editor; AP general office numbers in Washington, New York and Hartford, Conn.; and the main number for AP reporters covering Congress. He called the Justice Department’s actions a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into newsgathering activities.

“There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters,” Pruitt wrote to Holder. “These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP’s newsgathering operations, and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know.”

Let's not act like Trump is anywhere close to censoring the press, when there were multiple stories about like these above where Obama's Administration didn't like a story, so they demanded journalists reveal their sources. Because that's not scaring the media into silence, right?

 

[TenEightyOne]

Let's not act like Trump is anywhere close to censoring the press, when there were multiple stories about like these above where Obama's Administration didn't like a story, so they demanded journalists reveal their sources. Because that's not scaring the media into silence, right?

Surely there's a difference between investigating a leak of classified security information and simply threatening/abusing journalists if they don't like you?

 

[BobK]

A great article about America - certainly sums up a good number of the Americans I've worked with over the years, especially Texans (they're the best, and they have great boots).

Although I have some quibbles, I have to agree that most of that article is spot on. A great read.

 

[Johnnypenso]

But it's totally okay for the President to accuse whoever he likes of whatever he likes without any proof, right?

It is? I didn't think you'd feel that way. Quite surprising.

I mean, if somebody publishes a story that you don't like, why going through all the hassle of refuting their claims when you can just accuse them of fabricating their stories to undermine you?

It's definitely less work. Not surprised you support this one.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I didn't think you'd feel that way.

And I didn't think you'd miss the sarcasm.

Not surprised you support this one.

Again, sarcasm

 

[Johnnypenso]

And I didn't think you'd miss the sarcasm.

Again, sarcasm

I've seen you take a question and turn it into a statement so many times I sometimes forget that it might be sarcasm.

 

[Obelisk]

Is anyone in here going to talk about the hospital shooting yesterday?

Because it happened.

 

[polysmut]

Is anyone in here going to talk about the hospital shooting yesterday?

Because it happened.

Is there a particular aspect of the event that you were hoping to discuss?

 

[Obelisk]

Is there a particular aspect of the event that you were hoping to discuss?

Well, for one thing, the perpetrator managed to gain access to the building, in spite of being previously fired (or leaving) due to sexual harassment complaints.

 

[polysmut]

Well, for one thing, the perpetrator managed to gain access to the building, in spite of being previously fired (or leaving) due to sexual harassment complaints.

Are New York hospitals difficult to get into?
In the UK you can pretty much walk into and around hospitals without being asked questions.

 

[Obelisk]

Are New York hospitals difficult to get into?
In the UK you can pretty much walk into and around hospitals without being asked questions.

No, but you'd think they'd be suspicious of him, considering the issues he had while employed.