ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
 You are en fuego today!  

 Lazy8 wrote: 
I guess if you set the bar low enough... even Trump might be able to slink over it.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 

 Red_Dragon wrote: 

 VV wrote:
Yes. Zero is not the lowest number in a down market.

The best presidencies had the best presidents. Nothing is never the worst thing that could happen.

 Lazy8 wrote: 
Huh? You're willing to wait indefinitely for zero returns? Remind me to never listen to stock tips from you. In the meantime, he demeans and lessens the office while presiding over a West Wing no-holds-barred cage match in which most of his staff is engaged. 

Yes, history tells us the best presidencies were always mired in dysfunction. 

 VV wrote:
He should take his time. I, for one, am totally fine with chaos and dysfunction when it comes to implementing his agenda.

 steeler wrote: 
The whole administration is a complete clusterfuck and an embarrassment to humanity.

 VV wrote:

 
He never should have been in that position.  No background in it whatsoever, no credentials for it.  Besides, he is an asshat . . . maybe that was the credential?      

Edit:  There are 3 primary categories of appointees to high positions in this administration:  Generals.  Wall Street types.  Family members.  Credentials for the position one is assuming are not necessarily required. See Jared Kushner and solving the Middle East problems.     

 Red_Dragon wrote: 
I knew he wasn't going to last as long as Renice or Spicy... but WOW what a start to yet another dysfunctional week for Trump. He beat Flynn's record and I thought that would be tough to do. Renice & Sean must certainly be laughing their asses off. The wreckage of the Trump administration continues to pile up.

Poor Mooch... we hardly knew ye.

When is Trump going to start hiring the "best" people for his administration anyway?

He lasted ten days.

Total chaos. 

 LowPhreak wrote: 
Just who are you lecturing exactly? If you're upset by what you are reading here and want to see threads on things that you are currently not seeing... go ahead and start them. No skin off my ass.

 aflanigan wrote: 
you're correct in recognizing that it's not candidates

it's their philosophy

good people, intelligent people can have a flawed philosophical position (even if they're given great power and have fancy titles and stuff)

the two major parties core philosophy (as evidenced by their human action) is deeply flawed

just look at the debt, deficit, unfunded liabilities, healthcare, schooling, foreign policy, etc.

it should be abundantly clear that there is a problem

a consistent approach in problem solving (solution building) should revolve around scientific principles

regards

 miamizsun wrote: 

 kurtster wrote: 
satan

 aflanigan wrote: 
I mentioned 3rd parties in the sense of a Nader, not a Ron Paul or Sanders who are already part & parcel of the corrupt parties they pretend to rail against.

No meaningful change, short of outright revolt or revolution, can take place as long as the system is allowed to be greased and controlled by corporations, the wealthy, and other special interests that do not have the vast majority's best interest in mind.

 LowPhreak wrote: 
Third party candidates have not been, and will continue to not be, the game changers you imagine. The more a third party candidate or third party becomes actually politically viable in national elections (translation: the more money they can raise), the more they will come to resemble the D and R candidates you deplore. An example would be Ron Paul's enlistment of Lew Rockwell to write racist screeds on his behalf in an apparent attempt to broaden his base by appealing to populist paleoconservatives (much like Trump has appealed to modern paleoconservatives in the alt-right).

Campaign reform including overturning Citizens United should be a nonpartisan issue, because it will make meaningful reduction in political corruption possible and allow relatively uncorrupt candidates (such as Nader, Sanders, Paul Wellstone on the left, for example), of any political stripe to have a decent chance at getting elected.

 Steely_D wrote: 
No it isn't. What got us into this mess was continuing to put faith in the corrupt two-party (one party) system, including Sanders and Trump. How many of you did not vote 3rd party because "they don't have a chance to win"? How many of you voted for say, Ralph Nader when he ran (who never took a dime from corporations or the like) either in the primaries or in the general election? I use Nader as an example since he has more accomplishments on his resume that helped the country than any 20 politicians together you can name - and he's never held a political office. He is also incorruptible.

This thread is an example, made specifically for bashing Trump generally from a Dem. Party perspective. We've allowed ourselves to become so polarized R vs. D that nothing can get done, while both parties are bought-and-paid-for corporate subsidiaries.

How many here have tried to organize a few hundred people in their Congressional districts, putting aside party labels and partisanship? How many have bucked the conversation they might have been having when someone gushed about Trump or Clinton, or your lousy Congress reps, for fear of standing out from the crowd or being chastised, and didn't use the same old lesser-of-two-evils canard?

How many of you rooted for war on Afghanistan, or later Iraq, based on zero or false evidence, except some jingoism yelled through a bullhorn by Shrub and repeated endlessly by the MSM?

I'd like to see threads for example, on getting a Constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision. I'd like to see threads on lobbying Congress, the MSM, and the White House for Trump to order the release of the data NSA has on the DNC servers and Podesta emails. Those are things worth fighting for instead of wasting energy on these fabricated sideshows.

Those are the kinds of things that got us here.

So other than Putin, just who exactly is Trump beholden to ?  

Which oligarchs bought and paid for Trump along the way during his campaign ?  

Soros, the Koch brothers ?  Surely this is an easy question to answer.