Trump says 'I'm not a racist,' willing to reach deal on DACA

[ToS2014]

4 hours ago, dunroaming said:

In the 1980's I lived in Boston, Mass. for a while.  I can tell you the place is a real sh*thole, drug dealers, drunks, strip joints and hookers.  Don't think that sounds right?  Well it was but I am referring to an area locally known as the "warzone" and it was all of those things.  However to call Boston a sh*thole would be way off of the mark.

 

Then again for nearly fourteen years I lived in Thailand and that was just an enormous brothel and all the women there could be had for the price of a couple of beers.  Everywhere you look there are criminals, paedophiles and drug addicts and murderers and lowlifes and.....  I have heard that said more than once by people who really believe it.  We all know that Thailand is very diverse and there are certainly places like that but also it is a beautiful country with many kind, creative decent people, both Thais and ex-pats. 

 

It's simple enough, you don't call a country a sh*thole unless you are an ignorant moron.

You had me hooked until the last line; especially your shared comments concerning Thailand.  Your last posit wrecked the entire position you were attempting to make.  Again, I do not agree that the POTUS should have said such; however, I would really like to be an old fly on the wall and quote a few other POTUS'.  Surely they have all acted with the highest decorum and voiced the most eloquent verbiage while holding such a position.....NOT just in front of the camera or behind the microphone.

 

I truly attempt my best to remain in the middle; and yes, I have voted for both donkeys and elephants.  I even voted for Clinton on his first go and Obama on his.  Nothing stated or read by the fake or 'real' news changed my mind.  I vividly remember the former POTUS (jumping back to Clinton), stepping off M1 (that's Marine One), with the largest smile while talking to his nearest ear (aide, friend or donor I forget).  Three steps before the mic and the real/fake news podium his decorum abruptly changed to solemn as he announced his very deepest, heartfelt, sober, etc.... condolences to a fallen warrior.  Which was real, which was fake, I do not know.  All I learned way back then is, its all a light switch.  What ever is PC at the moment most people will act the part.  Guess I'm trying to say is the the current POTUS is acting like he did when he ran his personal business.

 

I was fortunate (?) enough to reside in a tent in some very sh*thole states during my day.  I met some very educated, smart, whatever you want to call them, individuals; however, I would still stay Trashcan (Afghanistan) and Iraq remain number 1 & 2 on my SH list.  After all the media attention and being a bit vague on Haiti I perused the world fact book authored by an intelligent (or moron?) agency.  After reading about the country, I'd guess they have some very beautiful beaches and some great people; however, I'd still call it a very depressed state that is plagued by centuries old problems.  Still don't know where I'd rank it on my SH list, but it truly is no matter how you slice it; depressed state.

[dunroaming]

1 hour ago, alex8912 said:

lol way OTT. That area was called the "combat zone " it was about 2 blocks by 2 blocks in size. By the end of the 80's Chinatown just grew into it. Now the Ritz Carleton residence is in the MIDDLE of it. My college buddies and I would go there a lot in the mid eighties and just joke around with some of girls there who were harmless, even on a Saturday night there were never that many. Nothing like Thailand in 2018. You must be from Maine, New Hanpshire or VT to think it was the war zone !  BTW where are all the "creative " types in Thailand? 

No I am English and I also heard it called the combat zone.  It was mid eighties that I was there and the Ritz Carlton was on the corner of Newbury Street.  My business was three blocks down. I lived on the hill just off of Charles and I also enjoyed a few drunken nights in the zone.  I enjoyed my time in Boston apart from the wind in the winter!  Of course I was being OTT, that was the point.  Same as my comments on Thailand.  You cannot call a whole country something nor can you call a whole town something.  There is good and bad everywhere although it can be a struggle in Pattaya 

 

Create types in Thailand?  I lived in Chiang Mai for many years and the artisans in the area were/are very creative and skilled.  I still use some of them now

[Jingthing]

Yeah, I knew the old Boston combat zone too (Chinese restaurants there) ... but wow, how far off topic can we go here? 

 

http://archive.boston.com/business/gallery/combat_zone_now_and_then/

Edited January 15, 2018 by Jingthing

[dunroaming]

4 minutes ago, ToS2014 said:

You had me hooked until the last line; especially your shared comments concerning Thailand.  Your last posit wrecked the entire position you were attempting to make.  Again, I do not agree that the POTUS should have said such; however, I would really like to be an old fly on the wall and quote a few other POTUS'.  Surely they have all acted with the highest decorum and voiced the most eloquent verbiage while holding such a position.....NOT just in front of the camera or behind the microphone.

Fair comment.  I am not a fan of any of the POTUS's and place politicians in general somewhere beneath second hand car salesmen.  I certainly do not believe there is any sincerity in their words.  Also you and I may well call somewhere a shithole (I know I have) but we are not the President of anywhere let alone one of the most influential countries in the world.  Sorry to paraphrase myself but only a moronic President would do that.

[lannarebirth]

5 minutes ago, ToS2014 said:

 Again, I do not agree that the POTUS should have said such; however, I would really like to be an old fly on the wall and quote a few other POTUS'.  Surely they have all acted with the highest decorum and voiced the most eloquent verbiage while holding such a position.....NOT just in front of the camera or behind the microphone.

 

 

LBJ was obsessed with his dick. History records that he liked flashing it to colleagues in the Capitol restrooms and then starting conversations about it. If outdoors he'd whip it out and pee just about anywhere on the Capitol grounds.  No 24 hr news cycle then and unnamed sources were closer to 1% rather than the near 100% as exists today.

[dunroaming]

2 minutes ago, lannarebirth said:

LBJ was obsessed with his dick.

So was GW Bush..  Oh that was Dick Cheney though 

[lannarebirth]

14 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Yeah, I knew the old Boston combat zone too (Chinese restaurants there) ... but wow, how far off topic can we go here? 

 

http://archive.boston.com/business/gallery/combat_zone_now_and_then/

 

How far OT can we go?  In your repatriating to US thread I called Spokane a shithole. I was wrong and I regret saying it. I've been through there since and while there are some areas I was not too fond of it was not near so bad as I had misremembered. There; I feel better now.

Edited January 15, 2018 by lannarebirth

[dunroaming]

10 minutes ago, lannarebirth said:

 

How far OT can we go?  In your repatriating to US thread I called Spokane a shithole. I was wrong and I regret saying it. I've been through there since and while there are some areas I was not too fond of it was not near so bad as I had misremembered. There; I feel better now.

The public toilets in Chang De.  Now that is a sh*thole, literally!

[Scott]

Posts violating Fair Use Policy have been removed.  

[boomerangutang]

11 hours ago, Thaidream said:

There are plenty of words that people of color can't or should not use and that is any word that is considered offensive to other people. My family came from Italy- we don't like to be called 'Wops' or 'Dagos' and no black person I have met has ever used the term. I would imagine that Jewish people feel the same regarding certain terms directed at them as well as other nationalities or people of color. If a term offends someone else- why use it?

I think we agree in principle (people should not voice derogatory words, particularly in public), but we differ a bit on semantics.  

 

If there were a panel of men (women are given more latitude on what they say) of differing ethnic/skin-colors on a stage speaking to an audience.  If any of the men used the word 'spic' or 'wop', it would be low-class, but not alarming.  If the dark-skinned men used the n-word, it would elicit the same response from the audience; perhaps low-class, but not alarming.  

 

The anomaly is, if any of the non-dark-skinned people used the n-word, there would be gasps from the crowd, and possible fights or lawsuits. 

 

I stand by my claim:  All people without dark skin are not allowed to use the n-word (or the word negro).  In contrast, dark-skinned people are allowed to shout it non-stop, and that includes albino blacks and south Indians (who are often darker-skinned than black Africans).   

 

You see how ridiculous this gets?   The sooner the n-word loses its sting, the better.  Same for every racial/ethnic slur.  In my view, people are stuck in primitive ways of thinking, ....and it's based on their self-pumped-up pride and the requirements of the place (and people) which influences them.   No other species suffers like that, ....not remotely.

 

If/when people mature as a species, they (some of them, at least) will get to a mental state where words (sounds emitted by mouths) won't offend them.  

 

We look back at cavemen and joke about how a male hominid who lusts after a female, would go with a club and batter the hominid who owned that female, and then drag her back (by the hair) to his cave.   That's how humans in the 23rd century will look back at today's humans in regard to their hair-trigger self-imposed offense at certain words.

 

 

[FritsSikkink]

Not a racist? history tells it different:

 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/15/opinion/leonhardt-trump-racist.html

[boomerangutang]

Some of us have been aware of Trump for decades (I drew a political cartoon of him, 20 yrs ago).  He's a racist.  Who is surprised?   If you want to point fingers, point them also at the deplorables who voted for Trump/Pence in 2016.    

 

If Trump goes out, we're stuck with Pence.  Pence will be more effective, than Trump, at getting things passed.  So which would you rather have?  A racist who is harmful-for-America who is inept at getting things done, or one who can get things done?  .....and 3rd in line is Ryan, who could be worse than the other 2, and that's a really low bar.

[ChiangMaiLightning2143]

Oh, a racist! (yawn). There are also those calling him a Nazi also while he makes his son-in-law Senior advisor and the daughter and whole family are orthodox jews.  America  needs a merit based migration system and end the chain migration of unskilled people who will never WORK only suck welfare. Is it that wrong also to ask people who migrate to America to not HATE everything about America trying to subvert it from within and push the rules of an intolerant religion on the native population? As for "shitehole", he is only pointing out the obvious but he has a very crude way of saying things. Too bad Trump does lie constantly but all politicians lie. He'll be remembered as the greatest one ever. I do think he will be more effective at getting things passed as he is not a die hard GOP functionary and appears willing to compromise to move the MAGA agenda along.

 

The truth is many places in the US are shiteholes. Crime and violence are horrible. I won't live there anymore and few "people from Norway" probably want to either for obvious reasons.

Edited January 16, 2018 by ChiangMaiLightning2143

[Silurian]

How Barack Obama spent last year on MLK Day...

 

 

 

 

How Donny John spent MLK Day during his first term...

 

 

 

Edited January 16, 2018 by Silurian

[Thakkar]

28 minutes ago, ChiangMaiLightning2143 said:

Oh, a racist! (yawn). There are also those calling him a Nazi also while he makes his son-in-law Senior advisor and the daughter and whole family are orthodox jews.  America  needs a merit based migration system and end the chain migration of unskilled people who will never WORK only suck welfare. Is it that wrong also to ask people who migrate to America to not HATE everything about America trying to subvert it from within and push the rules of an intolerant religion on the native population? As for "shitehole", he is only pointing out the obvious but he has a very crude way of saying things. Too bad Trump does lie constantly but all politicians lie. He'll be remembered as the greatest one ever. I do think he will be more effective at getting things passed as he is not a die hard GOP functionary and appears willing to compromise to move the MAGA agenda along.

 

The truth is many places in the US are shiteholes. Crime and violence are horrible. I won't live there anymore and few "people from Norway" probably want to either for obvious reasons.

 

If you mean that he will be remembered as the greatest liar ever, I disagree. he may be an egregious, pathological and frequent liar. But he’s also a terrible liar, so no, he won’t be remembered as the greatest, but perhaps the most prolific liar. ?

[Thakkar]

 

[Peterw42]

[Thakkar]

Paraphrasing Colbert:

Some say it was “sh*t-hole” Some say it was “sh*t-house”

Either way, Trump is an asshouse who doesn’t belong in the Whitehole.

 

[Jingthing]

The main promise trump has actually kept and is likely to keep keeping, racist pandering to the politics of white resentment. As he's the president and has so much power, it matters not what is in his heart (which is clearly no prize either) but what he says and does. It's ain't pretty, folks! But it is very, very white.

 

Quote

Reopening the wounds of racial grievance will be Donald Trump’s most lasting achievement.

...

But there’s another way to read Trump’s promise—not as a commitment to economic populism but as a statement of racial solidarity. Far from acting as a president for all Americans, he’s governed explicitly as a president for white Americans and the racial reactionaries among them. He’s spoken to their fear and fanned their anger, making his office a rallying point for those who see decline in multiracial democracy and his administration a tool for those who would turn the clock back on racial progress.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/01/the-lasting-damage-of-donald-trumps-bigotry.html

[Jingthing]

3 hours ago, Thakkar said:

Paraphrasing Colbert:

Some say it was “sh*t-hole” Some say it was “sh*t-house”

Either way, Trump is an asshouse who doesn’t belong in the Whitehole.

 

It's pretty amazing how out of the closet the CORRECT charge that trump actually is an actual RACIST has become in the last few days. I don't think he'll be able to put that back in the bottle. He owns that now. He's branded with that now PERMANENTLY. If the democrats can't take the house and senate in 18 in these conditions, then they may as well give up the ship. 

 

http://time.com/5101077/donald-trump-racist-michael-steele-shithole-countries/

'The Evidence is Incontrovertible.' The RNC’s First Black Chairman Says Trump Is Racist

 

Also, be clear, it's not only leftists, liberals, democrats, etc. that are saying it LOUD AND CLEAR. Some famous mainstream traditionally conservative republicans as well.

Edited January 16, 2018 by Jingthing

[boomerangutang]

23 hours ago, ChiangMaiLightning2143 said:

Oh, a racist! (yawn). There are also those calling him a Nazi also while he makes his son-in-law Senior advisor and the daughter and whole family are orthodox jews.  America  needs a merit based migration system and end the chain migration of unskilled people who will never WORK only suck welfare. Is it that wrong also to ask people who migrate to America to not HATE everything about America trying to subvert it from within and push the rules of an intolerant religion on the native population? As for "shitehole", he is only pointing out the obvious but he has a very crude way of saying things. Too bad Trump does lie constantly but all politicians lie. He'll be remembered as the greatest one ever. I do think he will be more effective at getting things passed as he is not a die hard GOP functionary and appears willing to compromise to move the MAGA agenda along.

The truth is many places in the US are shiteholes. Crime and violence are horrible. I won't live there anymore and few "people from Norway" probably want to either for obvious reasons.

CML opines: "America  needs a merit based migration system and end the chain migration of unskilled people who will never WORK only suck welfare."

 

Boomers: Have you met migrants who reside in the US? I have. They're less likely than 'good ol white boys' to be lazy.  They suck less on the federal teat re; SSI.  They're not as grossly fat nor suck on beer as much as the average white American who's family has been in the US for generations.

 

Who would you rather have as next door neighbors?  A family of Ethiopians or a family of gun-hugging, Trumpist rednecks?   You can guess what my answer would be.

[ChiangMaiLightning2143]

41 minutes ago, boomerangutang said:

CML opines: "America  needs a merit based migration system and end the chain migration of unskilled people who will never WORK only suck welfare."

 

Boomers: Have you met migrants who reside in the US? I have. They're less likely than 'good ol white boys' to be lazy.  They suck less on the federal teat re; SSI.  They're not as grossly fat nor suck on beer as much as the average white American who's family has been in the US for generations.

 

Who would you rather have as next door neighbors?  A family of Ethiopians or a family of gun-hugging, Trumpist rednecks?   You can guess what my answer would be.

When I think Ethiopia I think fashion models, scholars, Chef Marcus Sammuelsen, and ancient history and I read the average migrant from African continent is actually better educated than the average American. I went to Denver last year. Airport resembles Addis Adaba (workers), but there are hundreds of people sleeping rough downtown and in a tent city along the Platte river. They have to come down 16th street with power washers every morning to remove the stinking human wastes. So where is the shitehole? I also had two gorgeous female Ethiopian students next-door neighbors who made friends with my wife in an apartment in Oakland 20 years ago. They didn't have anything good to say our native African American neighbors by the way .

 

It is quite bigoted to make negative assumptions about Ethiopians.  Calling Trump supporters "rednecks" is a shocking slur to hear from an enlightened liberal.  Blocking entire countries from migration is not helpful. Such decisions should be based on a individual points system and merit based.

[Jingthing]

You're right. Not all trump supporters are 'rednecks'. Many are though and many 'rednecks' self identify that way with pride. 

 

To add, this specific thread is about trump denying being a racist in the context of a large portion of the country now totally convinced that he IS a racist. 'Rednecks' are generally white people and often associated with racial intolerance, so there is a connection. 

 

Overall, though, I would agree that labeling people that way isn't helpful but for those that label themselves that way, that's their right!

Edited January 17, 2018 by Jingthing

[ChiangMaiLightning2143]

I just checked Google the Denver Ethiopian population has surged around 2000 percent in 30 years.

How many are now "gun hugging"? As it is their right under the 2nd Amendment I'd reckon quite a few. 

[GeckosDiving]

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Thaivisa Connect mobile app

[Jingthing]

6 minutes ago, GeckosDiving said:

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Thaivisa Connect mobile app
 

Americans are very politically divided. I consider supporting trump to be supporting many things completely antithetical to American democratic values. 

[ChiangMaiLightning2143]

19 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

You're right. Not all trump supporters are 'rednecks'. Many are though and many 'rednecks' self identify that way with pride. 

 

To add, this specific thread is about trump denying being a racist in the context of a large portion of the country now totally convinced that he IS a racist. 'Rednecks' are generally white people and often associated with racial intolerance, so there is a connection. 

 

Overall, though, I would agree that labeling people that way isn't helpful but for those that label themselves that way, that's their right!

I don't think you can be born rich 75 years ago in Queens with a KKK rally attending father running a red-lining real estate company, come up in east coast boarding schools and Ivy league colleges, and NOT be racist. I think almost everybody is a little bit racist by the way something to work against.  Trump probably does not think he is racist, Trump is Trump. Even if he admitted it he would not answer a reporters question in the affirmative. He has SOME kind of filter. The MAGA agenda includes rational immigration reform if he can get it through he will have accomplished something Obama and Bush could not.

 

As for the slurs some recknecks self- identify proudly,  that is fine with me but when a liberal calls Trump voters rednecks it comes from bigotry. When such words are used amongst the group it targets, it is in a spirit of solidarity that reclaims the slur and deflates all the hate out of it. I had to explain this more than once to the "Black people call each other n-word why can't I say n-word?" types.

[boomerangutang]

True story:  I was in downtown San Francisco waiting for a Greyhound bus.  This was middle of biz district where average wages were (guessing) $180k/yr.   It was a cold night, and there were people in sleeping bags on the sidewalks.  One bag had a pool of liquid dribbling out of it at mid-point - I assume it was urine.  

 

Among other things, it was indicative of the rich getting pampered and richer (thanks to Trump), while the poor fall between the cracks.     

[ChiangMaiLightning2143]

Vagrancy laws should be tightened on the other hand free public camps should be establised in all cities. Showers, clean running water and toilets.  Many camping by the river in Denver are actually working just very hard to keep a roof over ones head with the housing costs.

 

https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/human-wasteland-map-plots-all-of-san-franciscos-poop

[lannarebirth]

42 minutes ago, boomerangutang said:

True story:  I was in downtown San Francisco waiting for a Greyhound bus.  This was middle of biz district where average wages were (guessing) $180k/yr.   It was a cold night, and there were people in sleeping bags on the sidewalks.  One bag had a pool of liquid dribbling out of it at mid-point - I assume it was urine.  

 

Among other things, it was indicative of the rich getting pampered and richer (thanks to Trump), while the poor fall between the cracks.     

Since the last Republican mayor in San Francisco was in 1964, your experience is more likely attributed to the fact that the Greyhound station is a quarter mile from the Tenderloin