Petition seeks to prevent Trump from speaking in The Hall of Presidents at Disney's Magic Kingdom

HeyIsntThatRob? said:
However, you run the risk of losing any credibility when you oppose and scrutinize every action of a president that has a letter next to their name, but completely praise the actions and overlook the bad actions of another. I'm not accusing you of doing that, but I think Gonch's point and my point is that you cannot make these claims about Trump being the worst president we've ever seen and ignore the context that we had 43 other leaders before him.

OK, so I'm not doing it, but if I were you'd take issue with it? How about worst president in my lifetime? I think if there were a way to objectively keep score, that would be true. At least most politicians lie by omission, but this guy...

Actually, the context provided to us by the past 44 presidencies is precisely what enables humans to correctly identify Trump as the worst president we have ever seen.

Without such context, he may just appear normal.

That said, there is something really, really wrong with him.

What tempers any sense of dramatic fear are the aforementioned checks and balances, and the fact that there are some very noble individuals such as Elizabeth Warren and John McCain still around; folks that, while I may disagree with their political views at times, have earned a certain degree of respect.

OhioStater said:

... and the fact that there are some very noble individuals such as Elizabeth Warren and John McCain still around; folks that, while I may disagree with their political views at times, have earned a certain degree of respect.

Add Justin Amash to that list. He's a small-government libertarian from the west side of Michigan---in other words, someone I'd probably never vote for even if I lived in his district. But, he's taken a very principled stand about some of the things the current administration is doing, and has definitely earned my respect.

Yeah, I know that guy. Total ideologue, but seems to at least be in the right corner when it comes to civil rights.

HeyIsntThatRob? said:
I'm just not ready to decide if Trump is terrible for the country or not, especially after 4 weeks.

I get what you're saying, I do.

But, still ... the past four weeks don't exist in a vacuum. The President campaigned for over a year. We have decades of documentation of his, um, excesses, illegal activities and callous contempt for so many people.

The only thing that has surprised me over the last four weeks is how extravagantly the President has exceeded my lowest expectations.

(Also, not gonna lie: the guy who spent so mch time tweeting how awful it was that President Obama spent so much time playing golf has played much more golf as President than Obama did a month in amuses me to no end. As the Washington Post pointed out, President Trump has spent six hours receiving intelligence briefings and 25 hours playing golf.)

Somewhat reminiscent of the confirmation hearings. Ignore the 30 or 40 years of history this person brought to Capitol Hill, and pay attention only to what's said IN the hearing. Seems like an easy road to a terrible mistake. I am much more likely to judge based on years of consistent history than I am to ignore ALL of that in favor of what's said in one day of testimony.

Historically, Trump has been all over the map on issues. So there *was* some reason to believe he might govern as more of a moderate than the person he was when campaigning. Once he decided that he was a Republican President and not an American President, and started filling his cabinet with the absolute worst people on Earth (and unqualified to boot) - sorry, I'm not going to "wait and see" for even one more moment. We are now relying on "Mad Dog" Mattis to be the responsible party in international affairs....and hoping that with McMaster and Kelly, the three of them can keep us out of any major wars. Against the likes of Bannon and Miller...aka, "the uneven Stephvens."

Certain news organizations were not allowed to a press briefing today, news organizations that the president is critical of because they are critical if him.

This is bad.

I promised myself I would steer clear of political conversations, but here I am, yet once again.

The press has done themselves in years ago when news stopped being reported. I can't even begin to name one credible news source available to the general public. Yeah, you can Google whatever information you are looking for, but you can also see many "sources" that will make polar opposite claims on the same subject. So who in the heck is the American public to believe? There is so much misinformation going around, and a lot of it is coming from "credible" news sources that people have trusted for decades.

I personally do not like Trump due to many of the things he has done over the years. I also think he upsets the population because he does not "just go with the flow" of being a typical puppet that we are used to seeing, ie Obama, Clinton, Bush I and II, on and on. Just my opinion

I agree a lot with what Gonch is saying as well. I hear this doomsday prophecy from both sides every election year.

The one thing I can unequivocally observe is that everyone who says there isn't any real harm is in little danger of being harmed.

See, these are the sorts of things that keep giving me pause and leave me worried.

The administration put someone on the National Security Council, and then went through the process of getting them security clearance. Which they failed.

We have a Chief of Staff violating the law -- there are four people in the White House allowed to communicate with DOJ, FBI, etc regarding ongoing investigations (POTUS, VPOTUS, POTUS Chief Counsel, Counsel's deputy); Priebus calling Comey at the FBI with directives on how to respond to media stories regarding the multiple investigations into connections between the Trump campaign and Russia is not legal.

So far, seven people have been fired from their White House jobs because they didn't pass their FBI background checks.

As Kindly Professor Maddow asked this week -- is the administration stupid -- or nefarious? Are they that incompetent, or pursuing an agenda?

It's easy to mock the President's "me, me, me, I, I, I" approach to his job. It's fun to laugh about how the CPAC audience was trolled with small Russian flags emblazoned with TRUMP in gold letters.

But it's this drip drip drip of incompetence or nefariousness that leaves me fretting.

Okay end of Saturday morning diatribe :-)

We just had the husband of a presidential candidate meet with the Attorney General on a plane for an hour while his wife was under investigation. Now Trump's Chief of Staff supposedly did similar.

I am confused by which of these scenarios is evidence that the wolf is about to devour everything we hold dear.

Gonch makes the most sense to me. Checks and balances will keep both wolves in line. Hysterical responses will continue to alternate left and right depending on who won the last election.

"Suppoesdly?" No. Priebus did not "supposedly" call the head of the FBI; he did call the head of the FBI in violation of the law. And, sorry, you're going to have to make a stronger case that what Bill Clinton did is equivalent.

If the Trump admnistration is, simply, incompetent, then yes, the checks and balances of our system will protect us. But if Bannon is sitting in the White House plotting to enact his declared desire to destroy this country, well, that's where I get nervous.

Anyone else due to jump in and comment that while you don't really support Trump, per se, that you're not afraid and think the 'end of the world' rhetoric is overblown only to be yelled down by the vocal minority of haters about why you're wrong and horrible and privileged or whatever?

Anyone?

No? Have we really batted around and we're back to the top of the order? Crap.

Going back to the start of the thread, I think that means you're up, Pete.

(Seriously though, am I the only one seeing the pattern? It's kind of funny, like we're tagging in. "I gave it all I had, I need a breather, tag me! Go! Go! Go!")

But you are only saying the world isn't going to end because you won't be affected if it does. And I think a lot of people here probably suspected that about you but this thread only serves to confirm it.

True. I'm above the laws and the system and even the world itself. Godlike, really.

If everything collapses into ruin I will merely look down and laugh upon the destruction.

Yes, I get what you're saying, but ... the Obama administration wasn't putting unqualified people on the NSC. The Bush administration wasn't hiring unqualified people and giving them free run of the White House. Like I say, it's the drip drip drip of reports that either demonstrate the incompetence of this administration or reflect Bannon's announced desire to undermine this country that give me pause. That post was well over twice as long, filled with examples, before I started hacking away at it.

Lord Gonchar said:

Anyone?

I'm with you Gonch. I might not be the best company, but I stand in your corner. My allegiance, good sir.

I recently sent a video message to Trump via YouTube. My friends were upset I was too respectful while addressing our President. I'm not personally his supporter, but I respect him for his position. He earned his shot.

Unfortunately respect is also something that needs to be earned.

Lord Gonchar said:

Anyone else due to jump in and comment that while you don't really support Trump, per se, that you're not afraid and think the 'end of the world' rhetoric is overblown only to be yelled down by the vocal minority of haters about why you're wrong and horrible and privileged or whatever?

Anyone?

No? Have we really batted around and we're back to the top of the order? Crap.

Going back to the start of the thread, I think that means you're up, Pete.

(Seriously though, am I the only one seeing the pattern? It's kind of funny, like we're tagging in. "I gave it all I had, I need a breather, tag me! Go! Go! Go!")

The sky is falling? HAHA

Gods, I hope you're all right...

...but this administration has given free run of the White House and the NSC to unqualified people, refused to fill 80% of the positions an incoming administration can fill, attacked innocent American citizens -- and its all headed by a man who can barely open his mouth without either lying -- it didn't rain during his Inaugural speech -- or demonstrating his ignorance -- no one knew heathcare policy was complicated?