Just Another Boorish Day in T-ville

Perhaps file under "Unintended Consequences" - today the Boy Scouts of American opened their ranks to trans boys. Starting immediately.

Twick said:

Perhaps file under "Unintended Consequences" - today the Boy Scouts of American opened their ranks to trans boys. Starting immediately.

Click to expand...

Actually, they did that back in January. Still a good move, in this former Scout's opinion.

And now he's telling police that they should be rough with immigrants who are crime suspects. The man really does want us to have a police state.

“When you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over?” Trump said, miming the physical motion of an officer shielding a suspect’s head to keep it from bumping against the squad car.

“Like, don’t hit their head, and they just killed somebody — don’t hit their head,” Trump continued. “I said, you can take the hand away, okay?”

Click to expand...

This was to general applause, though the Suffolk County Police Department (and other police organizations) later stated that they support policies that protect the safety of all people who are in police custody.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...spects-during-arrests/?utm_term=.0b9730835041

Nothing that comes out of his mouth surprises me anymore.

The MS13 comments are just another example of his deflection strategy, which is really wearing thin. I doubt very many people will pay much attention to it.

caw

I'm not surprised. He doubles down on immigrants every time he has a bad day.

blacbird said:

The MS13 comments are just another example of his deflection strategy, which is really wearing thin. I doubt very many people will pay much attention to it.

Click to expand...

It was pretty much like he was back on the campaign trail. A collection of half truths, outright lies, exaggerations, and fantasy, delivered to his base -- in this case, police officers, though it's not clear if that audience represented the majority of officers in that region or not.

And the main thrust was, as usual, immigrants, people of color, coming to this country to rape and murder good, honest, God-fearing Americans citizens. MS-13 (a very brutal, real, and dangerous gang) is the latest boogey man.

Long Island, according to trump, has become a killing field overrun with vicious animals pouring up from south of the border to torture, rape, and kill your daughters. And what's more, under the Obama administration, as soon as these animals were arrested for murder they were released back into the community to murder again, sometimes the very next day. But not with Trump as president, believe me.

He even segued into the violence in Chicago, which has nothing whatever to do with MS 13 or immigrants.

These speeches are like crack to the Donald. He can't go very long without his fix – standing in front of adoring crowds while spinning his fantastic version of the world. It's his own personal high, and he can't give it up.

ElaineA said:

One of these days I want ONE, just ONE crowd to turn on him. The cops might have been a good place to have it happen. Missed opportunity there. I know they love law and order and all that, but when he endorsed rough handling, they could have booed.

Click to expand...

Me too. I'd love to see a group he thinks of as adoring supporters to start booing him (would have been nice if some of those horrified boy scouts and their parents did, but instead we heart scattered applause). I think too many cops are die-hard Trump supporters for that, and I worry that too many of them wish it were the "good old days" again, before the ability to video and the internet existed, and they could treat people however they wanted without fear of any public scrutiny or repercussions.

As I understand it, corruption and brutality are often "top down" problems, so I don't know how genuine the condemnation of Trump's words by management and officers' associations was. If the spokespeople for the police department and organizations who condemned Trump's comments are truly representing their own goals and values, there's a huge disconnect between management level and the cops on the beat, and they very much need to address this.

Note that I am in no way minimizing the problems posed by vicious gangs or by the high crime rates in some parts of the country, but asserting that undocumented immigrants are to blame and that border walls and increased police brutality will solve these problems is alarming. Do slightly fewer than half the people in the US (and considerably more than half of police), those who voted for and continue to support Trump, really want the US to become a police state, where cops get to decide who guilty and how they should be punished?

ElaineA said:

One of these days I want ONE, just ONE crowd to turn on him. The cops might have been a good place to have it happen. Missed opportunity there. I know they love law and order and all that, but when he endorsed rough handling, they could have booed.

Click to expand...

Oh, that would be a beautiful day, indeed, though I don't expect it'll happen. His handlers are very good at stacking audiences and culling rogue elements - little as I suspect he realizes it. It's likely as much about appeasing his ego, convincing the emperor his clothes are spectacular, as it is about generating more press.

Roxxsmom said:

Do slightly fewer than half the people in the US (and considerably more than half of police), those who voted for and continue to support Trump, really want the US to become a police state, where cops get to decide who guilty and how they should be punished?

Click to expand...

I'm betting 'yes', but only because they think it won't affect them. They assume they are 'law-abiding', and that law-abiding white people are safe. That the police will protect them, and the lawless hordes will get what's coming to them, without all the expensive nonsense of trials and incarceration.
It doesn't occur to them that in a police state, looking at an officer funny could be a crime, that if a cop is having a bad day he could take it out on the nearest person, regardless of how they voted. That a bribe to keep the officer off your back could easily become extortion.

They think they are special, and that it would work in their favour. They are very wrong, but they won't realize it until it's too late.

ElaineA said:

One of these days I want ONE, just ONE crowd to turn on him. The cops might have been a good place to have it happen. Missed opportunity there. I know they love law and order and all that, but when he endorsed rough handling, they could have booed.

Click to expand...

Police push back against Trump's law-and-order speech

"But for many communities in our city, President Trump's comments only (stoke) fears of interacting with officers. President Trump's speech today was shameful, dangerous, and damages the progress our city has made toward improving police-community relations."

Click to expand...

James D. Macdonald said:

Police push back against Trump's law-and-order speech

Click to expand...

I don't believe this will matter to him at all. He got his positive reinforcement and video clips of how loved and tough he is. If the push back reaches him at all, he will blow it off as the pathetic byproduct of the remnants of a politically correct world.

And for the officers who applauded him, they will not care about the official statements either. As far as they're concerned, their time and their hero has come.

Now he's putting words in foreign leaders' mouths.

Trump: "As you know, the border was a tremendous problem and they're close to 80 percent stoppage. And even the president of Mexico called me - they said their southern border, very few people are coming because they know they're not going to get through our border, which is the ultimate compliment."

Pena Nieto's office rejected that account.

Click to expand...

This was all over the local news today. Everyone was holding their laughter. Trump really makes a doofus like Peña Nieto seem smart. One commentator said that Trump's the best thing that the United States have done for Mexico.

But if he's improved security so much, why to they need infinityzillion dollars for a wall? A wall with holes in it, so you can see people throwing bags of drugs over?

So in addition to making up stories about the president of Mexico praising Trump we have this lie:

Politico reporting on WSJ interview: Trump: "I got a call from the head of the Boy Scouts saying it was the greatest speech that was ever made to them."

At one point, Trump seemed annoyed that one of The Wall Street Journal reporters in the room called the reaction to his July 24 Boy Scouts speech “mixed.”

“There was no mix there. That was a standing ovation from the time I walked out to the time I left, and for five minutes after I had already gone. There was no mix,” Trump said.

He added: “And I got a call from the head of the Boy Scouts saying it was the greatest speech that was ever made to them, and they were very thankful. So there was — there was no mix.”

The chief of the Boy Scouts subsequently apologized for the political nature of the speech.

The full transcript, unpublished by the Journal but obtained by POLITICO, is below.

TRUMP: ... So I’ve done a lot. I mean, last night — last night it was amazing. I was at the — you know, I was in West Virginia doing certain things and making a speech to the Boy Scouts, and that was some crowd. That was an incredible crowd....

TRUMP: And I got a call from the head of the Boy Scouts saying it was the greatest speech that was ever made to them, and they were very thankful. So there was — there was no mix.​

Click to expand...

Daniel Dale, reporter for the Toronto Star, followed up: To repeat: the Boy Scouts say this call, described in detail by the president of the United States, did not happen.

It's not a lie. It's rhetoric.

-cb

Rhetoric is saying the Boy Scouts liked your speech.

A lie is saying the head of the Boy Scouts called and told you it was the greatest speech they ever heard, when they say that call never happened.

To be fair, I'm not sure Trump knows what reality is? Or that it isn't whatever stream of lies erupts from his mouth at any given moment?

Introversion said:

A lie is saying the head of the Boy Scouts called and told you it was the greatest speech they ever heard, when they say that call never happened.

Click to expand...

That would be humor. Like roughing up criminals. That was a Trump Joke (tm).

Here how this works. The first part of your sentence goes to all media outlets. The second part - its denial - only goes to the "liberal outlets". It's blocked from the conservative media. Different Breaking News ensues. Man this is fubar.

-cb

Does anyone suppose that toughass General Kelly will be able to get Trump to stop blathering blatant untruths, even for a day or two?

caw

cbenoi1 said:

That would be humor. Like roughing up criminals. That was a Trump Joke (tm).

Click to expand...

Good point! What was I thinking?

I shared that about the Boy Scouts on FB. I'll be curious to see how his supporters on my friends list respond. I suspect I'll lose friends, or get complete silence from them.

"I was joking" is the very first thing on page one of The Bully's Big Book of Excuses.

This isn't exactly boorish by Trumpian standards, but...Trump calls White House "a real dump."

Not enough gold in there?