Donald Trump is the President Mark IV (Read Mod Warning in OP)

everlast75

Wall street journal Sunday night apparently.

hang on - here it is...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/manafort-sought-deal-in-next-trial-but-talks-broke-down-1535404819

Dohnjoe

If effect we're seeing the (promise of) presidential pardon being used to directly cover the president, extraordinary, has this ever happened before?

everlast75

aloyisious wrote: »

So Don is making the US presidential pardon a bargaining chip, a bribe, to dangle in front of potential witnesses who are likely to give truthful testimony in open court or before Grand Jury sittings. I'd imagine he see's it as making a deal I his own way.

Yep. And apparently this upcoming DC trial is far more linked with Russia than the Virginia case.

And he is also going to fire Sessions after the mid-terms, for failing to protect him from Mueller's Russia probe.

Honestly, if one could do away with cognitive dissonance, there cannot now be one person that can truly say, he isn't acting guilty as hell.

Trent Houseboat

everlast75 wrote:

"Sen Warren irked some of the lads in the swing states with her comments on the Tibbetts murder"?

That's nothing compared to the GOP making it a talking point when Manafort was convicted and Cohen made that plea deal!

And not to forget her family's reaction- telling the reps to "keep her name out of your mouth" and not to use her death to stoke up racial tension.

1 illegal immigrant murders someone - BUILD THAT WALL

A white guy AGAIN murders people with guns - *crickets*

Same thing happened with the family of Seth Rich pleading not to have him used for propaganda. These people don't care about law and order, the victims, or their loved ones, the just want to score points, distract, and demonise.

everlast75

Up at 5:24 am and tweeting this.. Nothing to see here folks. Totally normal behaviour..

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1034371152204967936

Doctor Jimbob

everlast75 wrote: »

Up at 5:24 am and tweeting this.. Nothing to see here folks. Totally normal behaviour..

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1034371152204967936

He's becoming more and more like a parody of himself by the day. Bizarre behaviour.

Call me Al

everlast75 wrote: »

Up at 5:24 am and tweeting this.. Nothing to see here folks. Totally normal behaviour..

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1034371152204967936

He goes on as follows:
".....Google & others are suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good. They are controlling what we can & cannot see. This is a very serious situation-will be addressed!"

What is he proposing to do to "address" this very serious situation? He's blaming Google and others.

mcmoustache

Call me Al wrote: »

He goes on as follows:
".....Google & others are suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good. They are controlling what we can & cannot see. This is a very serious situation-will be addressed!"

What is he proposing to do to "address" this very serious situation? He's blaming Google and others.

He probably wants TruePundit, Daily Caller, Breitbart and Infowars on top. He's bonkers.

pixelburp

So here's a side issue to the main circus: the ombudsman in charge of the Student Loan Watchdog at the consumer protection bureau, has stepped down, writing a pretty scathing letter of resignation in doing so, attacking the President & Mick Mulvaney:

https://www.npr.org/2018/08/27/642199524/student-loan-watchdog-quits-blames-trump-administration?t=1535452416863

Unsurprisingly, it sounds like Trump & co. have been stymying attempts to protect student borrowers from debt collectors etc and other financial issues. His replacement will probably become a Yes Man, but reading the middle term it feels like there are generations now coming who'll find themselves under even greater pressure from their college loans, without any protection from Washington. MAGA n' all that.

pixelburp wrote: »

Shrinking perhaps, but with increasing voter supression policies and gerrymandering happening across various districts, there's a very real situation of (predominantly) Republicans skewing elections.

One piece of news spotted re. gerrymandering is that Federal Judges have ruled North Carolina may need to redraw its congressional maps again, in time for the midterms: AFAIK they were already to be redrawn to fix racial gerrymandering, but looks like they're still seen as being too politically biased.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/2018/08/27/fc04e066-aa46-11e8-b1da-ff7faa680710_story.html?utm_term=.76f5fc85714f

demfad

mcmoustache wrote: »

He probably wants TruePundit, Daily Caller, Breitbart and Infowars on top. He's bonkers.

Breitbart and TruePundit/GatewayPundit are owned by the Mercers who are Trump's benefactors. They also work hand in hand with Russian disinformation to promote Trump/Brexit/LePen/Wilders/AFD and others.
He is not bonkers: just following orders here.

Akrasia

Call me Al wrote: »

He goes on as follows:
".....Google & others are suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good. They are controlling what we can & cannot see. This is a very serious situation-will be addressed!"

What is he proposing to do to "address" this very serious situation? He's blaming Google and others.

The irony is that google personalises the search results based on what the person has previously searched for and what links they click.

So if Trump is seeing bad news about himself at the top of the search results, it's because he's probably obsessively up all night googling his own name and clicking all the 'fake news' sites to see what they're saying about him.

Sad Professor

To be fair, he's right about Google. In cracking down on "fake news", they are also suppressing non-consensus voices, including legitimate ones on the left. Several left wing sites have suffered large loss of traffic since earlier in the year.

Trump would probably be happier with Youtube which tends to push nazi and far right conspiracy videos on just about everyone.

Christy42

pixelburp wrote: »

So here's a side issue to the main circus: the ombudsman in charge of the Student Loan Watchdog at the consumer protection bureau, has stepped down, writing a pretty scathing letter of resignation in doing so, attacking the President & Mick Mulvaney:

https://www.npr.org/2018/08/27/642199524/student-loan-watchdog-quits-blames-trump-administration?t=1535452416863

Unsurprisingly, it sounds like Trump & co. have been stymying attempts to protect student borrowers from debt collectors etc and other financial issues. His replacement will probably become a Yes Man, but reading the middle term it feels like there are generations now coming who'll find themselves under even greater pressure from their college loans, without any protection from Washington. MAGA n' all that.

pixelburp wrote: »

Shrinking perhaps, but with increasing voter supression policies and gerrymandering happening across various districts, there's a very real situation of (predominantly) Republicans skewing elections.

One piece of news spotted re. gerrymandering is that Federal Judges have ruled North Carolina may need to redraw its congressional maps again, in time for the midterms: AFAIK they were already to be redrawn to fix racial gerrymandering, but looks like they're still seen as being too politically biased.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/2018/08/27/fc04e066-aa46-11e8-b1da-ff7faa680710_story.html?utm_term=.76f5fc85714f

Given what we know of demographics ensuring more feel priced out of a college education is a good thing for the Republicans and especially Trump.

MadYaker

Sad Professor wrote: »

To be fair, he's right about Google. In cracking down on "fake news", they are also suppressing non-consensus voices, including legitimate ones on the left. Several left wing sites have suffered large loss of traffic since earlier in the year.

Trump would probably be happier with Youtube which tends to push nazi and far right conspiracy videos on just about everyone.

Youtube are owned by Google though?

amandstu

Akrasia wrote: »

The irony is that google personalises the search results based on what the person has previously searched for and what links they click.

So if Trump is seeing bad news about himself at the top of the search results, it's because he's probably obsessively up all night googling his own name and clicking all the 'fake news' sites to see what they're saying about him.

Is that true? It is a sad reflection on Google as skewing results like that smacks of a individual echo chamber .Are there alternative search engines as good? Duckduckgo?

Sad Professor

MadYaker wrote: »

Youtube are owned by Google though?

I know. But they obviously use different algorithms.

pixelburp

Christy42 wrote: »

Given what we know of demographics ensuring more feel priced out of a college education is a good thing for the Republicans and especially Trump.

You'd also imagine that this will also only ensure the USA continues to lose competitiveness with the rest of the world, if its educated workforce finds itself even more adrift in a sea of college debt. It's a sorry continuation of the "f*ck you, I got mine" attitude of the Republicans, evident by the ageing demographics seen at these Trump rallies. Makes you wonder if the US might eventually, violently crash into socialism purely by dint of a last resort.

Akrasia

amandstu wrote: »

Is that true? It is a sad reflection on Google as skewing results like that smacks of a individual echo chamber .Are there alternative search engines as good? Duckduckgo?

Google personalised search is turned on by default and it means that if you and I both searched the same term, we'd get different results depending on our own search history

Google Personalized Search is a personalized search feature of Google Search, introduced in 2004. All searches on Google Search are associated with a browser cookie record.[1] Then, when a user performs a search, the search results are not only based on the relevance of each web page to the search term, but also on which websites the user (or someone else using the same browser) visited through previous search results.[1] This provides a more personalized experience that can increase the relevance of the search results for the particular user. Such filtering may also has some side effects, such as creating a filter bubble.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Personalized_Search

Christy42

amandstu wrote: »

Akrasia wrote: »

The irony is that google personalises the search results based on what the person has previously searched for and what links they click.

So if Trump is seeing bad news about himself at the top of the search results, it's because he's probably obsessively up all night googling his own name and clicking all the 'fake news' sites to see what they're saying about him.

Is that true? It is a sad reflection on Google as skewing results like that smacks of a individual echo chamber .Are there alternative search engines as good? Duckduckgo?

I think part of the point is that it enhances the value of ads since they are the best way to get to a new audience via google. Still I don't think it is overwhelming, if I google Trump news Fox still appears on the front page (and an Australian paper for some reason).

So if you always select the guardian link no matter what is offered that gets a bump towards the top but right wing sites don't disappear (unless you drown it out with many left wing sites).

Not so much an echo chamber unless you have tried to only view an echo chamber and have ignored other presented links repeatedly (at which point it is what that user wants).

amandstu

Akrasia wrote: »

Google personalised search is turned on by default and it means that if you and I both searched the same term, we'd get different results depending on our own search history

Thanks I will definitely be turning that off.

@Christy42 ,so it amplifies to a debatable degree one's innate tendancy to go with the crowd...

I wouldn't mind a toggle feature if it might come in handy now and then...a sort of jog your memory approach to searching perhaps.

Now if only I could delete T's search history:rolleyes:

Inquitus

pixelburp wrote: »

Makes you wonder if the US might eventually, violently crash into socialism purely by dint of a last resort.

If the Dems could engage their support to a degree where they actually went out and voted, this would perhaps already be a reality!

serfboard

Inquitus wrote: »

If the Dems could engage their support to a degree where they actually went out and voted, this would perhaps already be a reality!

And why is that? Because the Democrats are socialists?

Wow - I'm sure their large corporate donors will be upset to hear that!

Inquitus

serfboard wrote: »

And why is that? Because the Democrats are socialists?

Wow - I'm sure their large corporate donors will be upset to hear that!

Well by the US definition Universal Healthcare is Socialism! And if they could get the apathetic to vote the more progressive wing of the party would benefit the most!

pixelburp

Thing is, what amounts to socialism in America is still nowhere near the equivalent here in the EU; what folks like Sanders would be looking for with Obamacare still amounts to universal medical insurance, as opposed to the nationalised health system ala the HSE/NHS.

The Democrats do seem a little paralysed into indecision over how far they want to push the 'socialist' agenda: I get the impression they're terrified of losing the Flyover States if they come off too 'commie' or tax-and-spend, nearly always stepping back from fully committing to what polls say would be a popular agenda.

Inquitus

pixelburp wrote: »

The Democrats do seem a little paralysed into indecision over how far they want to push the 'socialist' agenda: I get the impression they're terrified of losing the Flyover States if they come off too 'commie' or tax-and-spend, nearly always stepping back from fully committing to what polls say would be a popular agenda.

This is largely down to the electoral college, they could probably win the popular vote on a "Socialist" agenda, but like you say that would cost them in some of the states they need to win in the electoral college. It's a catch 22 brought about by the odd nature of their democratic presidential process.

Quin_Dub

amandstu wrote: »

Thanks I will definitely be turning that off.

@Christy42 ,so it amplifies to a debatable degree one's innate tendancy to go with the crowd...

I wouldn't mind a toggle feature if it might come in handy now and then...a sort of jog your memory approach to searching perhaps.

Now if only I could delete T's search history:rolleyes:

This has been part of the problem with Facebook and others , and in part what makes it easier for the "echo chamber" to be created..

All the platforms do this - They tailor what you are seeing based on your previous behaviours (or in Facebooks case yours and your friends)..

This is all fine and dandy when it's info about Sport/Music or clothes or whatever..As it allows them to monetise you with advertisers more effectively

But when it's social/political information , you get the echo chamber that creates all the issues we are seeing everywhere..

It's a massive problem for the Tech companies -

Turn it off and let everybody see everything ordered by general popularity and they potentially lose significant revenue as advertisers won't pay as much for those generic targets..

Leave it on and get accused of bias and creating Political echo chambers...

Water John

Well if you do read The Guardian article on his media brainfart, you will see where it came from. Basically, the 'survey' classified anyone more moderate than Fox News as left wing.


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/28/donald-trump-google-news-service-is-rigged-against-me

And he saw it, where else, but on Fox News. His first lie of the day, at 5.30am.

Itssoeasy

I see trump mentioned Pearl harbour to the Japanese PM during a tense meeting according to the Washington post. He is supposed to have said "I remember Pearl harbour."

Now firstly Donald Trump was born in 1946 and Pearl harbour happened in December 1941 so how could trump claim to remember an event that occurred nearly five years before he was born ?

Now if he had said "I remember hearing about Pearl harbour" then given when he was born he'd very likely have known people who probably were at Pearl harbour. I realise this might seem a bit picky but he's the president of the United States so his words matter. Also, as bad as the Japanese were in the Second World War, I'm sure Pearl harbour isn't one of the nations best moments.

amandstu

Itssoeasy wrote: »

I see trump mentioned Pearl harbour to the Japanese PM during a tense meeting according to the Washington post. He is supposed to have said "I remember Pearl harbour."

Now firstly Donald Trump was born in 1946 and Pearl harbour happened in December 1941 so how could trump claim to remember an event that occurred nearly five years before he was born ?

Now if he had said "I remember hearing about Pearl harbour" then given when he was born he'd very likely have known people who probably were at Pearl harbour. I realise this might seem a bit picky but he's the president of the United States so his words matter. Also, as bad as the Japanese were in the Second World War, I'm sure Pearl harbour isn't one of the nations best moments.

As a foot in mouth moment it reminds me of when ,in Paris as a teenager I was shown by my French hosts the Arc de Triomphe where Boney's victories are listed.

Naively and after a perusal I said to my hosts "Where is Waterloo?":D

2 Scoops

amandstu wrote: »

Is that true?

From my experience it isn't true at all. 95% of what I see on google after searching Trump are negative stories from liberal outlets and that's what that article reflects, sites which I avoid. There needs to be a proper study done by a reputable and neutral thinktank.

It is a sad reflection on Google as skewing results like that smacks of a individual echo chamber .Are there alternative search engines as good? Duckduckgo?

Microsoft owned search engine bing.com doesn't skew the search prompts or results like google's does.