(note: yes, this is another Trump hate-rant. Don't like it, don't continue reading. I could've made it in a political thread, but there's nothing to discuss.)
I remember where I was when Trump the moment got elected. Well...more specifically: when I first heard that Miami went to Trump. Like many (including all democrats, I assume), I could hardly believe it: that guy who did nothing but spew hate at his fellow Republican candidates and then at Hillary somehow won the trust of enough Americans to get the most v...correction: that got the majority vote in enough states to become the next president. I knew then that things would be bad. Perhaps even as bad as W. Bush, who abused a genuine tragedy to attack an innocent country. Granted...when compared with "an unnecessary war for oil", Trump should not really be this bad. So he's a narcissistic, megalomaniac and potentially psychopathic personality...just exactly how bad is it when his staff has learned this and blocks his actions as much as possible? Well...bad. It's just been a continuous lowering of the bar of morale. So he lied about the size of his audience during his inauguration? It never was the largest, but arguing about that was just nitpicking.
Since then, all his lies have become the norm. Where's the time when Bill Clinton got nearly impeached when he lied about an affair with an intern? The current standard has Trump lying on so many issues that the audience gets numbed to it. Mostly. Whenever he's called out on it, he just adds another lie on top of it. Common decency be damned. And the pace is certainly sped up since it's became clear (and nearly proven) that he rigged the election, so he should never have been in that oval office to begin with.
The result: this sort of shit. Yes, it's in Dutch, but those who didn't call it quits and wanted to enjoy Christmas probably rant about this as well as me.
Rather than translating directly, I'll walk you through how I see things.
This all started with an election promise: he'd put up a huge-ass wall between America and Mexico...paid by Mexico, no less. The other candidates didn't take it seriously, and with good reason. Even the Mexican president did nothing more than send out a "nope, we're not going to do that, LOLOLOLOL!!!
". Those guarding the borders knew it was meant at stupid xenophobic voters who truly believed that Mexicans would sneak into America and steal American jobs...yet somehow would be stopped by a wall. Honestly...Clinton got backlash when she suggested that Trump voters wouldn't be the smartest crayons in the box, but SHE WAS FUCKING RIGHT because those who believed it truly had drank themselves retarded.
Truth be told: we're all used to politicians shelving promises the moment they realise that actually realising things is a lot harder than promising them. Trump has no political background. At first it was unclear whether he simply didn't understand why the government doesn't work as fast as business or that he simply didn't care. That cleared up during the debate on this.
Democrats won big in the midterm elections. Not much of a surprise, as despite holding the majority in the senate and the house, Trump could hardly push any of his stuff through. Rather than "draining the swamp" he added more swamp to it (meaning: business captains now hold more government positions in power than ever). His attempts at border security backfired from pretty much all directions. Not much of a surprise for those who know the immigration deal beyond the cliché image that fox news attempts to reduce it to. Tourists were massively hindered. Tech companies fought for their foreign interns. Judges overruled his policies. In that light, it could even be considered good news that the democrats won the midterms: the "it's all the democrats fault" now holds more merit. If things don't work out, it HAS to be because of the opposition and not because the thing itself is flawed...right?
Unfortunately, that doesn't hold true when taking the laws of power, or even simple things like time, in consideration.
One of the louder controversies in this administration revolved around border security. Trump's attitude of treating immigrants as criminals (at best until proven otherwise) creeped through on the field. The earlier methods of detaining and deporting illegal immigrants were made more strict. The border patrol was allowed to officially arrest them during the procedure. And while on paper that might seem like the same thing, it had consequences on the field. An immigrant isn't "just" the Mexican male sneaking in the border...they're often families as well. This was overlooked (because hey...looking into the situation as it really is takes time. And Trump really did want to lead the government as a business: fast and efficient). And as a consequence, children became separated from their parents.
I honestly don't dare to say on what scale, because at this point Trump had stepped on so many toes that everyone not sucking up to him really wanted all means to strike back. And boy...the picture of a crying child, separated from his parents because of what Trump did certainly damaged his image. Well...to those whose image of Trump was still somewhat reputable, that is. His response? Blame the democrats. Because surely having a minority in parliament and the senate surely means that THEY ARE THE ONES IN CONTROL. Poor Donald...he probably thought that being the president meant that actions wouldn't have consequences anymore. But they did. And apparently unlike in his business, he was expected to be responsible for the end result.
However, Trump believes that responsibility is something that you can claim for something that works and dismiss if it doesn't. So he takes credit for the economy (even though experts say this is only DESPITE his contributions to it) and makes outsiders responsible when his plans that blow up inhis democrat's faces. I still haven't figured out whether what he's doing is smart or stupid. Seeing how he has a better paid job than I have, probably the former, but it really shouldn't be.
Oh, right...the above was before those midterms. For some reason(1), he brought back that stupid wall-idea from the garbage bin and put it on the table. Cost price: 5 billion dollars. There was a voting. Result: unanimous reject, from democrats and republicans alike (oh, and from Mexico as well, obviously). So really...if there is anyone besides Donald Trump wants this wall, can he or she please speak out? Please?
The debate on the topic can be summed up in one word: embarrassing. Pelosi and Schumer knew what it was what they were talking about. Donald Trump seemingly hadn't prepared anything and just repeated his same "we need the wall. A wall provides protection" line over and over again. Is that really what Americans wanted their president to be? A freaking child who throws a tantrum whenever he doesn't get what he want?
So where did this "shutdown the government" come from? Donald J. Trump. No one else. Not the democrats. Not the other republicans. Not Mueller, no Manafort, not Mexico, not even fucking Russia. He just said "if you don't pass this law, I'll shutdown the government AND I hold you responsible". Basic blackmail, really. But the government got shut down. But ey...it's a government lead by Trump, so at least that's good news.
It would've been bad enough if that Dutch article I linked to pointed out how Trump basically denies payment of the hundreds (thousands?) of loyal American civil servants who now apparently work without getting payed (way to go on the Christmas spirit, dude. It certainly brings people together. Sure, it's in their hatred against you, but ey...at least they're together). But it's even worse than that.
Back to the immigrants. One child died when crossing over, on Christmas eve. I honestly can't bring myself to dig into which party has thrown the first stone, but honestly: a president should be above the bickering. He isn't. Rather than the common "I feel sorry for the family", he not only blamed the parents ("the child was already sick when he crossed") but somehow forgot that the draconian-style border patrol is from his watch and blames the democrats for "their miserable immigration policy".
Oh, and a wall would solve anything.
*sigh*
I'm just so sick of all of this. When I was little, the USA was this cool looking country that had all the things that were great (and we as Europeans would be glad to catch up somewhat). It has changed since 9/11, but Trump still manages to find new grounds to lower any potential standards in terms of ethics. Just...impeach the fucker, all right?
For what's left of it: merry christmas. @US citizens: may you get an actual president one day.
(1): my bet is on "diverting attention away from his personal lawyer trialed guilty for actions in name of the Trump administration"
I remember where I was when Trump the moment got elected. Well...more specifically: when I first heard that Miami went to Trump. Like many (including all democrats, I assume), I could hardly believe it: that guy who did nothing but spew hate at his fellow Republican candidates and then at Hillary somehow won the trust of enough Americans to get the most v...correction: that got the majority vote in enough states to become the next president. I knew then that things would be bad. Perhaps even as bad as W. Bush, who abused a genuine tragedy to attack an innocent country. Granted...when compared with "an unnecessary war for oil", Trump should not really be this bad. So he's a narcissistic, megalomaniac and potentially psychopathic personality...just exactly how bad is it when his staff has learned this and blocks his actions as much as possible? Well...bad. It's just been a continuous lowering of the bar of morale. So he lied about the size of his audience during his inauguration? It never was the largest, but arguing about that was just nitpicking.
Since then, all his lies have become the norm. Where's the time when Bill Clinton got nearly impeached when he lied about an affair with an intern? The current standard has Trump lying on so many issues that the audience gets numbed to it. Mostly. Whenever he's called out on it, he just adds another lie on top of it. Common decency be damned. And the pace is certainly sped up since it's became clear (and nearly proven) that he rigged the election, so he should never have been in that oval office to begin with.
The result: this sort of shit. Yes, it's in Dutch, but those who didn't call it quits and wanted to enjoy Christmas probably rant about this as well as me.
Rather than translating directly, I'll walk you through how I see things.
This all started with an election promise: he'd put up a huge-ass wall between America and Mexico...paid by Mexico, no less. The other candidates didn't take it seriously, and with good reason. Even the Mexican president did nothing more than send out a "nope, we're not going to do that, LOLOLOLOL!!!
". Those guarding the borders knew it was meant at stupid xenophobic voters who truly believed that Mexicans would sneak into America and steal American jobs...yet somehow would be stopped by a wall. Honestly...Clinton got backlash when she suggested that Trump voters wouldn't be the smartest crayons in the box, but SHE WAS FUCKING RIGHT because those who believed it truly had drank themselves retarded.Truth be told: we're all used to politicians shelving promises the moment they realise that actually realising things is a lot harder than promising them. Trump has no political background. At first it was unclear whether he simply didn't understand why the government doesn't work as fast as business or that he simply didn't care. That cleared up during the debate on this.
Democrats won big in the midterm elections. Not much of a surprise, as despite holding the majority in the senate and the house, Trump could hardly push any of his stuff through. Rather than "draining the swamp" he added more swamp to it (meaning: business captains now hold more government positions in power than ever). His attempts at border security backfired from pretty much all directions. Not much of a surprise for those who know the immigration deal beyond the cliché image that fox news attempts to reduce it to. Tourists were massively hindered. Tech companies fought for their foreign interns. Judges overruled his policies. In that light, it could even be considered good news that the democrats won the midterms: the "it's all the democrats fault" now holds more merit. If things don't work out, it HAS to be because of the opposition and not because the thing itself is flawed...right?
Unfortunately, that doesn't hold true when taking the laws of power, or even simple things like time, in consideration.
One of the louder controversies in this administration revolved around border security. Trump's attitude of treating immigrants as criminals (at best until proven otherwise) creeped through on the field. The earlier methods of detaining and deporting illegal immigrants were made more strict. The border patrol was allowed to officially arrest them during the procedure. And while on paper that might seem like the same thing, it had consequences on the field. An immigrant isn't "just" the Mexican male sneaking in the border...they're often families as well. This was overlooked (because hey...looking into the situation as it really is takes time. And Trump really did want to lead the government as a business: fast and efficient). And as a consequence, children became separated from their parents.
I honestly don't dare to say on what scale, because at this point Trump had stepped on so many toes that everyone not sucking up to him really wanted all means to strike back. And boy...the picture of a crying child, separated from his parents because of what Trump did certainly damaged his image. Well...to those whose image of Trump was still somewhat reputable, that is. His response? Blame the democrats. Because surely having a minority in parliament and the senate surely means that THEY ARE THE ONES IN CONTROL. Poor Donald...he probably thought that being the president meant that actions wouldn't have consequences anymore. But they did. And apparently unlike in his business, he was expected to be responsible for the end result.
However, Trump believes that responsibility is something that you can claim for something that works and dismiss if it doesn't. So he takes credit for the economy (even though experts say this is only DESPITE his contributions to it) and makes outsiders responsible when his plans that blow up in
Oh, right...the above was before those midterms. For some reason(1), he brought back that stupid wall-idea from the garbage bin and put it on the table. Cost price: 5 billion dollars. There was a voting. Result: unanimous reject, from democrats and republicans alike (oh, and from Mexico as well, obviously). So really...if there is anyone besides Donald Trump wants this wall, can he or she please speak out? Please?
The debate on the topic can be summed up in one word: embarrassing. Pelosi and Schumer knew what it was what they were talking about. Donald Trump seemingly hadn't prepared anything and just repeated his same "we need the wall. A wall provides protection" line over and over again. Is that really what Americans wanted their president to be? A freaking child who throws a tantrum whenever he doesn't get what he want?
So where did this "shutdown the government" come from? Donald J. Trump. No one else. Not the democrats. Not the other republicans. Not Mueller, no Manafort, not Mexico, not even fucking Russia. He just said "if you don't pass this law, I'll shutdown the government AND I hold you responsible". Basic blackmail, really. But the government got shut down. But ey...it's a government lead by Trump, so at least that's good news.
It would've been bad enough if that Dutch article I linked to pointed out how Trump basically denies payment of the hundreds (thousands?) of loyal American civil servants who now apparently work without getting payed (way to go on the Christmas spirit, dude. It certainly brings people together. Sure, it's in their hatred against you, but ey...at least they're together). But it's even worse than that.
Back to the immigrants. One child died when crossing over, on Christmas eve. I honestly can't bring myself to dig into which party has thrown the first stone, but honestly: a president should be above the bickering. He isn't. Rather than the common "I feel sorry for the family", he not only blamed the parents ("the child was already sick when he crossed") but somehow forgot that the draconian-style border patrol is from his watch and blames the democrats for "their miserable immigration policy".
Oh, and a wall would solve anything.
*sigh*
I'm just so sick of all of this. When I was little, the USA was this cool looking country that had all the things that were great (and we as Europeans would be glad to catch up somewhat). It has changed since 9/11, but Trump still manages to find new grounds to lower any potential standards in terms of ethics. Just...impeach the fucker, all right?
For what's left of it: merry christmas. @US citizens: may you get an actual president one day.
(1): my bet is on "diverting attention away from his personal lawyer trialed guilty for actions in name of the Trump administration"
He Row. Is that Michael rowing that boat ashore? 