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The Focus Group

by THE Twank Thu Aug 31st, 2017 at 10:33:27 PM EST

The Focus Group

Recently on the news I saw a "focus group" in which a panel of Republican voters were asked questions concerning "President Trump".  The usual crap you might expect ... something like,  "Describe in one word a description of President Trump".  My attitude: who gives a flying fuck about this shit?  Let's get to the heart of the matter ... and you KNOW they would never ask these questions, but what the fuck. Here we go.


Panel:  I'm going to describe a series of hypothetical scenarios and I want to know if any of these scenarios would be enough, if real, to get you to demand President Trump be impeached by the House of Representative of the United States.

Scenario 1:  President Trump orders a first strike nuclear attack on North Korea, over the objections of is his Sec. of Defense, Sec. of State, etc.  Why did he do it?  Cause he could, he was bored, and the FAKE NEWS wasn't paying adequate attention to him.

Scenario 2:  President Trump is shown to have committed TREASON by Meuller and, in fact, is shown to be continuing to do so.

Scenario 3:  President Trump is shown raping 3 year old children of both sexes while his entire family watches on and smiles.

Scenario 4:  President Trump starts holding daily news conferences where he wears just a toga and wants to be addressed as "Dear Emperor".

Scenario 5: Emperor Trump is shown leading a Nazi/alt right rally with lots of sig-heiling and people being burned alive; you know, a Jew, a black person, a dark brown person.

That should be enough.  My suspicion is that most Trumpies would still support Trump, which tells you where our society is.

Thank you for reading.  Ain't it fun?

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Sseriously folks, the stuff we know now, things he himself has already said on the record would have had other Presidents impeached.

Yea, you're right, he really could shoot somebody on 5th Avenue and the secret service would simply reload his gun.

The GOP see nothing but downsides to impeaching him and a lot of positives to keeping him. So, he stays

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Fri Sep 1st, 2017 at 03:39:10 PM EST
Meanwhile The Resistance™ is bothsiding Nazis.

by generic on Fri Sep 1st, 2017 at 06:31:31 PM EST
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If he did that, De Blasio would prosecute him, and Trump can't pardon himself for that. It would be interesting to see whether he can arrest Trump - there may be no precedent for this.
by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Sat Sep 2nd, 2017 at 05:18:33 AM EST
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You seem to be unclear on the concept of the purpose of a focus group.  Peter Hart who led that focus group is quite good at what he does and elicited from the participants their opinions and ideas without unduly skewing them in a direction he picked.  Your questions would do just that.

My 2¢ and worth both pennies, if pennies are worth anything these days.

Solar IS Civil Defense

by gmoke on Fri Sep 1st, 2017 at 08:51:31 PM EST
Now I AM amazed.  I thought I would get a HUGE backlash from the examples I cited and so far ... NA DA.  So let me get this straight ... Trump could do ANYTHING, he's here to stay, AND WE'RE ALL SCREWED?  Is that it?

They tried to assimilate me. They failed.
by THE Twank (yatta blah blah @ blah.com) on Fri Sep 1st, 2017 at 10:11:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]
the examples you created are only exagerrated statements of already existing positions. There is nothing particularly fantastical or ridiculous about them.

And, given that there is an acceptance that Trump really could shoot somebody in broad daylight (maybe not in NY, but certainly in NJ) and nobody would think it a problem, it's almost a given that he could get away with anything so long as he is not an electoral or legs=islative liability to the GOP

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sat Sep 2nd, 2017 at 06:56:00 AM EST
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NJ? Christie has his good moments. He did put Kushner's father in jail, after all. And given the way that Trump has treated him, he may be looking for revenge.
by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Sat Sep 2nd, 2017 at 07:18:29 PM EST
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As long as American Foreign and domestic policies continue so destructively, yes.
More than any example in recent history, we are seeing a people get the leader they deserved, in spades.
A Leader this vainglorious and rash at the helm of the hegemon's ship of fools has not been seen since Nero.
His happening may seem like happenstance to many, but objectively it's just a fulfilment of Mencken's prediction from the last century that if it continued on then-present trajectory American would elect an epic moron.
Britain has done the same, for similar, ideologically idiotic reasons.
Both with leaders hemorraging international credibility as if handsomely paid to do so.
Both countries embracing neoliberal and neoconservative late stage predatory corpo-capitalism to yet unseen levels, endangering and ravaging the environment we all depend on.
America made a choice to prefer a loose cannon rather than the one fixed to the deck and pointing at Russia, a terrible less worse choice as corruption sidelined the only alternative candidate.
So he we are...


'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty
by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Sun Sep 3rd, 2017 at 04:38:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Oh, I'm not criticizing the focus group.  I'm saying, basically, I think the focus group as is, is useless. It didn't provide the information I care about.  My "focus group" is more to the point.

They tried to assimilate me. They failed.
by THE Twank (yatta blah blah @ blah.com) on Fri Sep 1st, 2017 at 10:16:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Focus groups are only part of the process.

I always think of it as exemplifying the difference between Ken Livingstone (socialist Labour) and Tony blair (noliberal Labour).

Tony Blair would use a focus group to take a snapshot of where the UK public were on any issue and then he'd create policy to meet the public.

Livingstone decides what he wants to do and then focus groups messages to decide how best to sell what he's doing.

One takes the market as it is, the other works out how best to move the market. One is a process that regards the public as incapable of change, the other is more optimistic. Oddly, conservatives, with their constant aspirational and acquisitive messaging, are much more likely to engage in optimistic focus grouping than so called progressives, who are generally more pessimistic about the public

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sat Sep 2nd, 2017 at 06:51:27 AM EST
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