monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Last chance for any of you libertards to take me up on the bet that Trump will be voted in by the Electoral College and be the 45th president of the United States. If he is not voted in I pledge never to use my handle again on a2K. And if he is voted in by the Electoral College you will have to do the same. Any takers?

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12/19/2016:

Trump will be voted in by the Electoral College and be the 45th president of the United States... we the people will be happy.

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@tony5732,

Quote:

If I could ask, why are YOU here?

Long story going back to the NY Times commentary community named Abuzz. Most regulars here arrived from that community.

But let's just note that you've switched the initial point here. I had said that you wouldn't put me on ignore (and that all or most of the right wing posters here will also not do so) because a fundamental goal is contesting liberal ideas. Thus voices like mine seldom, if ever, get put on ignore by folks with that goal.

Engaging here to forward one's ideas is fine. That's the point.

More broadly as to why I'm here - old friendships and affinities, the broad range of possible discussion/information subjects, and political matters. On that last one, I've been studying US politics and culture for many decades and it's my key interest.

As to your notion that Obama never said anything in sympathy with victims who suffered or died at riots, you really need to attend to better information sources than you do presently. That really is the sort of misinformed claim with which I won't waste my time.

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Now, how the heck could they have gotten this idea? And where from?

Quote:

A new poll shows an astonishing 52% of Republicans incorrectly think Trump won the popular vote

But Trump, seeing this and wishing to make Americans smarter, will correct the false notion in a tweet today or tomorrow, I'm sure

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Quote:

Trump is stoking his base on his pre-inaugural tour. But is he building bridges?

...Trump’s tone in the run-up to his Jan. 20 inauguration poses a challenge as he seeks to govern a deeply divided nation and build popular support for his policies. And as he tries to pivot from a rollicking campaign, Trump is struggling to tame the army of passionate followers he has playfully called “wild beasts.”

Trump’s “thank you” rallies have been an extension of those he held as a candidate, from the soundtrack (Elton John and Rolling Stones classics) to the vows from the lectern (“We will build a great wall!”).

Lately, Trump’s stages have been set with Christmas trees — 16 of them at the Orlando stop — as a sparkling reminder that as president he would say “Merry Christmas,” not simply “Happy holidays.” He has made no mention of Hanukkah or acknowledged other faiths. And in Mobile, he was introduced by evangelist Franklin Graham, who said Trump was elected by a spiritual force: “I believe it was God.”

link
Um, the answer to that question is no. His schtick is "us" versus "them". His base is really hot on "us" versus "them". The bridges can only provide connections to bad stuff. He can't drop this set of binary oppositions because he'll lose his base. What he will surely do is dig the canyon deeper. But he'll pretend he's trying to unify because that's part of the lie.

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@blatham,

Now that's not really fair at all Blatham... I made a little report for you, listed my sources, explained the correlation between Obama talking and people rioting, showed you my facts, and you can't "waste your time" giving me one example of Obama saying anything about anybody getting robbed, beat down, or perhaps being in a bp gas station while it was lit on fire? Come on man, this isn't a fastball. It's an nice easy slow pitch right over the plate. As informed as you are you should be able to knock that one out of the park. Use one of YOUR sources.

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Trump has his work cut-out for him because 0bama has burnt so many bridges during his 8 years of vacationing & golf. This country is in far worse shape today, than it was when 0bama first took office. On the plus side of things, Trump has already been responsible for many positive changes even before being sworn in. There is hope in America's future once again.

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@blatham,

Well we are not really a democracy, we are a republic. Anyone who says the pledge of allegiance should be able to understand that. We don't actually vote for the president, we vote for how we want our state to vote for president, and then hope our Electoral College represents our state correctly, which they actually are NOT required to do. There is nothing democratic about that process any way you look at it.

And yes, conservatives can be just as uninformed as liberals before establishing an opinion. A lot of people get their opinions from what they want to believe or they were raised to believe, than cherry pick facts when it's convenient and avoid a subject when it's not. It's human.

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@tony5732,

Sorry, man, you'll have to live with it. You really do need to expand your sources. Turn off Fox and talk radio, forget Breitbart or Townhall or whatever online sources feed you stuff. Do it for a month.

Here's where I begin each morning. https://www.aldaily.com/ Lots of sources, far more than one can attend to, but mostly quality stuff. Start with the column running down the left side. My next post came from here.

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One right wing publishing enterprise I have found very valuable over the last few years is The American Conservative, particularly two writers there, Dreher and Larison. The following is by Dreher

Quote:

The North Carolina Semi-Coup
By ROD DREHER • December 16, 2016, 4:40 PM
...Look, I am genuinely sorry Pat McCrory lost, but reacting this way to stop an opposition candidate who won a free and fair election is dirty. It may well be legal, but it’s shockingly dirty, and the state’s GOP lawmakers ought to be ashamed of themselves.

link
These guys aren't crazy. And though they have conservative opinions and values, they are careful thinkers and writers. What they aren't is propagandists.

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@blatham,

You can't answer one question and your telling me to expand my sources.....

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@tony5732,

It isn't "can't", it's "won't". Now stop being a troll or I will put you on ignore.

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Goodness. The guy who invented the Heimlich just died.

And the answer to your question is, No.

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@blatham,

Well if you want to try to call me out, and then can't come up with any sort of counterpoint at all, and than cop out with snobbery, than you might want to put me on ignore blatham.

Otherwise you are just going to be watching yourself be embarrassed by people using facts to form an opinion rather than an opinion to form an opinion.

Or just show me once where Obama actually said anything at all about riot victims.

Or just say you were wrong and we can move on to the next subject.

Up to you man.

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@ossobucco
Re Bob Mankoff (cartoon editor at New Yorker)

Jane was at the yearly psychoanalytic conference in New York (not long before you and I first met) and Mankoff had been hired as keynote speaker. Jane had some uppity status so was at the head table where they seated Mankoff when he'd done his speech. Here's a story he told the folks at the table.

He'd recently been at a cocktail party with a bunch of New Yorkers and a well-dressed and well-maintained older lady came up to him and expressed her opinion that she was finding recent cartoons in the magazine rather mean. His response was "**** you". The lady got the joke.

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ps... Happy birthday (yesterday) to Pope Francis, one of my favorite humans on the world scene presently.

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From John Cassidy at the New Yorker

Quote:

NINE WAYS TO OPPOSE DONALD TRUMP
...4. Support independent journalism.Trump is clearly obsessed with the media, and for good reason. Like all skilled propagandists, he knows that journalists represent a potential threat to him and his shameless efforts to traduce the truth. With his popular social-media feeds, and the support of an upstart right-wing press, he has found a way to go around the mainstream media and, when he deems necessary, to confront it head on. But, for all the power of Twitter, fake news, and the social-media echo chamber, real news can still break through all the noise.

Witness the past week’s revelations in the Washington Post and the New York Times about Russian efforts to interfere in the American election. For once, Trump was put on the defensive. For months, he has claimed that nobody knows who carried out the hacks of the Democratic National Committee and other targets: at one point, he suggested it could have been a “four-hundred-pound guy” lying in bed. Last weekend, he called a C.I.A. assessment that Moscow had tried to help him win the election “ridiculous.”

But this week Trump was powerless to prevent leading Republicans, including John McCain and Mitch McConnell, from calling for congressional hearings on the extent and origins of the Russian cyberattacks. Many Presidents in the past have come to fear getting caught inside the Bermuda triangle of prying journalists, official leakers, and congressional committees. But for the oversight process to work there needs to be a thriving and independent press.

link
I have a subscription. Hopefully this is available to you. But if not, they have a deal on now that gets you online access or print access or both for peanuts.

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If you have no interest whatsoever in the truth of things but seek to misinform your base through propaganda, you say things like this:

Quote:

Jason MillerVerified account
‏@JasonMillerinDC
@realdonaldtrump gets it done: "China says it will return US drone it seized http://thehill.com/policy/defense/310872-china-says-it-will-return-us-drone-it-seized …"

Miller is Trump's Communications Director

Trump gets it done? He did what to get that done? He didn't do anything at all. It's just total bullshit.

Then Trump tweets

Quote:

Donald J. TrumpVerified account
‏@realDonaldTrump
We should tell China that we don't want the drone they stole back.- let them keep it!

So what's the game? Pretending he's so alpha swaggering dickish that China is intimidated. Then, to show how above it all he is as alpha dude, he doesn't even care about the thing.

And yes, lots of folks in his base will think, "What a man!"

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Conservative voices from all over

Quote:

David Frum ‏@davidfrum 4h4 hours ago
Trump lying gets results: 52% of Republicans now falsely believe that Trump won the popular vote

I've bolded that one bit.

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@blatham,

OK. If mainstream media was so truthful they wouldn't have been so stunned, or at least acted so stunned about Trump winning the election.
They pretended America liked Hillary, downplayed everything wrong with Hillary, and focused a concentrated effort (they are still doing it) to make Trump look like a bafoon .

The mainstream media IS biased, and mostly owned and controlled by the same very small group of people.

I think Bernie Sanders mentioned this during his campaign too, and I can drag up some sources if you want.

Trump is cutting out the middle man, and has found a way to talk directly to the people instead of working through a biased news system that twists everything Trump has to say into something bad. That's part of the Trump charm that got him where he is. It's also something the Democratic party needs to catch up on if they want to better reach out to people.

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monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

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