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George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

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Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#251

Post by jaredklewis »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #201
jaredklewis wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Direct quote from Sean Spicer: > This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in-person and around the globe If "in-person" doesn't mean "physically at the inauguration" what does it mean then? It is not ambiguous. Spicer made an unsubstantiated claim, and has since been defensively walking it back to the equally unsubstantiated second part of "around the globe." "The media" is a very b…

> If "in-person" doesn't mean "physically at the inauguration" what does it mean then? It is not ambiguous. The ambiguity isn't what "in-person" means, it's what "both in-person and around the globe" means. Does it mean "both 1) in person and 2) around the globe (each independently)" or does it mean "both (the total sum) in person and around the globe"? Obviously the second is more strained, but it's not completely a…

Good point. Of course, it's still total B.S. since they just made the claim up.

On the other hand he spent the whole press conference talking about metro ridership, the national parks service, and the physical event, which leads me to think in context that they weren't talking about tv. Never even mentioned the word tv actually.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#252

Post by rat87 »

jupiter90000 wrote: post #72
dllthomas wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm really confused by how impeachment works in the U.S. Impeachment requires a crime. Lying isn't usually a crime, and as best I can tell hasn't been one any of the times Trump has done it (.. yet?). It also hasn't been a crime any of the times Obama has done it. Failure to give up business interests is breaking precedent and confounding ethicists, but also doesn't seem to be illegal. When we come up with somethin…

Do people really want him to get impeached and convicted, with Pence being the successor? Seems like a terrible idea...

Yes

Pence is at least a sane conservative theocrat

Trump is a lying corrupt racist who is extremely unpredictable and may or may not blow up markets, start wars, abandon our allies, or deport millions of people

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#253

Post by rat87 »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #136
noobermin wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going to take off the objective hat and talk as a liberal. The answer I give to this is for the US, the President is both the head of state and the head of government. As is clear from recent articles about Trump's manner in the white house, his team is very much making many of the small policy decisions while Trump gets to strut out as the figurehead. So yes, Trump stepping down wouldn't mean much difference when it…

his team is very much making many of the small policy decisions while Trump gets to strut out as the figurehead. Which is pretty much exactly how you would expect a "I have no idea what I'm doing but I don't want to fuck it up so I'll fill my cabinet with people who know what they're doing and let them do their thing" administration to work. >Not to mention his poor demeanor, his lack of likeability, his unpopularity…

> Are these seriously that much more important than how well the job gets done. On some level I don't care if the president is a member of the goddamn KKK if the job gets done well enough.

You should

The fact that he is openly racist is one of the biggest marks against him

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#254

Post by kazagistar »

int_19h wrote: post #213
azernik wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue isn't who enforces the constitution; it's what the constitution says . Congress has the power to decide which emoluments are okay. Assuming parent comment's interpretation of the law is correct (which it may not be), Congress has given blanket permission, in the same way that it has historically signed away large parts of its Constitutional war-making powers to the executive.

Congress hasn't given blanket permission. The law says that it's illegal for certain government officials to accept gifts etc. It doesn't say anything about whether it's legal for the president to accept them; it merely says that the president is not within the scope of that particular law.

You don't have to have a law for something to be legal. All actions are legal unless stated otherwise.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#255

Post by flukus »

knieveltech wrote: post #89
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people seem to be reading far to much into it in any case Executive orders, cabinet appointments and apparently agency gag orders left right and centre with more, plus SCOTUS nominees, to come. But all my Facebook feed talks about is rain and lawn coverings.

Really? My facebook feed is a nonstop stream of political organization, grass-roots advocacy, media takedowns of the day's latest outrage, and the odd picture of someone's dog.

Good chance you've created your own bubble.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#256

Post by zamalek »

icebraining wrote: post #239
zamalek wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. In addition to your points, Orwell has to do with both an overreaching left (thought crime) and right (surveillance state). The government even associates itself with socialism. That being said, it's not a stretch to imagine that it takes two successive and opposed politicians to set up and orwellian state. Trump would set up the surveillance state (as he threatens to do), and some future authoritative Democr…

Orwell has to do with both an overreaching left (thought crime) and right (surveillance state). No, the surveillance state is certainly not a right-wing-specific thing, and in fact Orwell was probably inspired by the Stasi and other Soviet secret police agencies. Just to give you an idea: By 1995, some 174,000 inoffizielle Mitarbeiter (IMs) Stasi informants had been identified, almost 2.5% of East Germany's populatio…

Thanks for the correction, I clearly interpreted it incorrectly.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#257

Post by bagels »

tps5 wrote: post #80
beloch wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reagan was 70 when he took office and did later develop Alzheimer's. Did he develop it while in office? If he did, his staff covered for him quite effectively. If you're saying Trump has Alzheimer's now , and that explains his behaviour... Well, Trump's been acting like this for decades!

Did they? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran–Contra_affair

That page does not mention Alzheimer's. What point are you trying to make?

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#259

Post by rat87 »

xname2 wrote: post #111
dllthomas wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm really confused by how impeachment works in the U.S. Impeachment requires a crime. Lying isn't usually a crime, and as best I can tell hasn't been one any of the times Trump has done it (.. yet?). It also hasn't been a crime any of the times Obama has done it. Failure to give up business interests is breaking precedent and confounding ethicists, but also doesn't seem to be illegal. When we come up with somethin…

I can't believe there are so many people here suggest DJT should totally give up his business. This is basically the same as saying no business person should run for the president, so just leave it only to career politicians. Gets lots of downvotes for no reason. The hates toward DJT are crazy.

> I can't believe there are so many people here suggest DJT should totally give up his business. This is basically the same as saying no business person should run for the president,

Being president of the USA is a big deal, he needs to be willing to set aside his pride and company. Sell it for pieces, invest those in a blind trust or index stocks. At least the foreign properties he can buy them back afterwards. Even Carter appointed an independent trustee to run his peanut farm.

> so just leave it only to career politicians.

What's with the hate for career politicians, would you hire something out to be programmed by someone who had just taken an introductory python course?

Besides that Trump is worse on corruption, worse on lying, worse on demagoguery then most career politicians. Which is a fairly large accomplishment.

> The hates toward DJT are crazy.

He earns it.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#260

Post by benchaney »

kazagistar wrote: post #254
int_19h wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Congress hasn't given blanket permission. The law says that it's illegal for certain government officials to accept gifts etc. It doesn't say anything about whether it's legal for the president to accept them; it merely says that the president is not within the scope of that particular law.

You don't have to have a law for something to be legal. All actions are legal unless stated otherwise.

Yes, and the constitution states otherwise.
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