The Match Cut 2017 Political Thread (or: The Lord of the Leaks: The Trump Towers)

[Dead & Messed Up]

I've reached a point with Donald where I don't take these moments of empathy in good faith, nor does this act seem like a high bar to clear.

[Skitch]

I wasnt being a dick, I legitimately didnt understand what was in the video that you liked, duke.

[Dukefrukem]

No, a normal person would have posted it and waited to actually see what the reaction was rather than pre-emptively being all pissy about it.

I don't come on Match Cut to be told I'm not positive about Trump enough. Just post your video and let people talk about it or ignore it - stop being an idiot about it.

The softest things get you upset. You're a marshmallow on the end of a stick being held over the fire of America.

[Spinal]

Nationalism is a pretty legit thing to get upset about. It's kind of callous to claim otherwise.

[Spinal]

Also, using a phrase like "the fire of America" is pretty creepy.

[Dukefrukem]

Nationalism is a pretty legit thing to get upset about. It's kind of callous to claim otherwise.

Not when someone is 100% genuine and is accused of being a passive aggressive idiot.

[baby doll]

Personally I thought it was pretty creepy to see all these people fawning over Trump and his family for showing up to a hospital.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I've been happy to see that J.D. Scholten's putting up a real fight in Iowa against Steve King.

[Spinal]

This midterm election is like knowing you have cancer and waiting to find out if it's terminal or not.

[Dead & Messed Up]

This midterm election is like knowing you have cancer and waiting to find out if it's terminal or not.

Accurate. I am allowing myself to hope it is not.

[transmogrifier]

The softest things get you upset. You're a marshmallow on the end of a stick being held over the fire of America.

Keep on believing that. My beef is with you. I haven't said a word about the US in this little stoush. If you need to evoke your entire country to defend yourself and make yourself feel better, that's on you.

[Dukefrukem]

Keep on believing that. My beef is with you. I haven't said a word about the US in this little stoush. If you need to evoke your entire country to defend yourself and make yourself feel better, that's on you.

Your beef is about the seven words above the video. Yeh that's soft.

[transmogrifier]

Don’t worry Duke, I’m sure you’ll stumble across the point one day.

[Dukefrukem]

Don’t worry Duke, I’m sure you’ll stumble across the point one day.

I thought being passive aggressive was idiotic?

Funny part is, I really like you. So I'm hurt that you take such offense to all of this.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I've been happy to see that J.D. Scholten's putting up a real fight in Iowa against Steve King.

Extra-nice: a friend from high school I keep in touch with on FB tried to get into a Steve King dinner with a friend of his; the goal was to ask a direct question about King's seeming white nationalism. My friend failed, but the friend he went with succeeded yesterday, which led to a current very-publicized spat.

[Skitch]

Extra-nice: a friend from high school I keep in touch with on FB tried to get into a Steve King dinner with a friend of his; the goal was to ask a direct question about King's seeming white nationalism. My friend failed, but the friend he went with succeeded yesterday, which led to a current very-publicized spat.

What an absolute coward.

[transmogrifier]

I thought being passive aggressive was idiotic?

Funny part is, I really like you. So I'm hurt that you take such offense to all of this.

Oh, I think you are one of the most valuable posters on this site. Just your way of approaching political discussion is bizarre and unproductive.

[Ezee E]

Way to make a terminal cancer joke work, Spinal. Literal lol.

[MadMan]

Extra-nice: a friend from high school I keep in touch with on FB tried to get into a Steve King dinner with a friend of his; the goal was to ask a direct question about King's seeming white nationalism. My friend failed, but the friend he went with succeeded yesterday, which led to a current very-publicized spat.

Steve King trying to act like his words and the words of other Nazi pieces of shit don't have consequences would be funny if it wasn't pathetic. I hope he loses his seat.

Also great now I want s'mores after reading Duke's fire comment.

[MadMan]

Way to make a terminal cancer joke work, Spinal. Literal lol.

I chuckled.

[MadMan]

My issue with the Trump hospital video is that its your typical politician trying to score points move. Also I imagine he made it all about him. There is noting in his statements or actions to suggest he has empathy.

[bac0n]

Not to pour salt on an old wound, but, Duke, the below quote would have worked better swapping out "America" with "Freedom".

You're a marshmallow on the end of a stick being held over the fire of Freedom.

See? Makes me want to punch a motherfucking commie just looking at it.

[MadMan]

Considering the western states often catch on fire half the year America literally is on fire. I wonder who is holding the stick, though.

[PURPLE]

Problems I currently have with the Republican Party:
1. The Republicans have made no effort to address climate change, which will continue to have increasingly drastic negative impacts on human life and on the future of the country's cities and landscapes and the planet's people and other living beings.
2. Congress passed a disastrous tax cut which has massively increased the national debt without providing any long-term benefits to anyone but the richest in the country.
3. The President has applied disastrous tariffs which will have increasingly damaging and deflating impacts on the economy at large.
4. Republicans in the House voted 54 times to repeal Obamacare during Obama's administration, along with its new protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Upon gaining control of the Presidency, Senate, and House, they did not vote to repeal Obamacare. They did not have a replacement ready. Upon drafting the replacement, it was shown to be disastrous and ineffective, with a strikingly low approval rating by American voters, and it still almost got passed.
5. The gutting of the executive branch's many Departments and the waste of the immense talent employed there is damaging to progress, damaging to governance, and damaging to precedent. These institutions are the grease on the incomprehensibly intricate gears of America's economy and international influence, and they're at risk of grinding to a halt. While some Department heads have been installed, many of those have fled due to scandal, infighting, or outright disgust.
6. The President's outright hostility to the country's allies and to the allies of the kind of liberalism that both Democrats and Republicans admire, with the exception of a radical authoritarian wing, is abhorrent and dangerous, as is his support of numerous dictators. I like liberalism. It allows me to write this without going to jail.
7. The President, like many in the Republican Party, parrot thinly veiled anti-semitic and racist rhetoric which is now a part of the standard discourse on FOX News, despite its origins entirely in hate groups. The obliviousness of the decent people repeating this nonsense is troubling, but it is inexcusable for a President. The racist rhetoric is perhaps as old as America, but the anti-semitic language is new. It may be just as bad, but it certainly doesn't bode well. As for the language about middle easterners and Muslims, it is far worse than racist. It is both racist and anti-secular. It's several steps farther than I could ever imagine a President lowering himself. President Bush, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, had the decency to call for respect for Muslims. The President called for a faith-based ban. Unbelievable.
8. The President lies, a lot, and repeatedly makes verbal attacks on the integrity of the Fourth Estate. Some have called this a violation of his sworn oath to protect the Constitution, including the protections of Free Speech of the First Amendment. If we're talking about violations of the sworn oath we could go on for a while, but his attacks on the Intelligence Agencies and complementary support for Russia despite their attacking the country's Electoral process is probably more egregious.
9. The Republicans have no plan to tackle the nation's glaring personal savings crisis, no plan to improve the nation's crumbling infrastructure, no plan to repair or improve upon the nation's out of control healthcare cost crisis, no plan to address income inequality, no plan to address the nation's criminal industrial complex, no plan to bring about a sensible end to the drug war and its associated violence, and no plan to address gun violence related to drugs or domestic violence or suicide. There are more issues, but you get the point.
10. In general, Republicans prefer to govern as little as possible, assuming that human beings will naturally bring about order and prosperity without intervention despite there being absolutely no precedent for this in the entirety of human history. This is a problem, for me.

I could go on, of course. I would love for there to be a sensible Republican Party to oppose the Democrats, but I haven't seen it in my lifetime. Someone that willingly associates themselves with the modern Republican Party as a politician is someone that I could not in good conscience vote for under any circumstances. Or even speak well of.

[Skitch]

Problems I currently have with the Republican Party:

Answers, 1-10: Politicians are millionaires who work for billionaire corporations to increase profits.