monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

@georgeob1,

Quote:

@glitterbag,
That's definitely not the way it works in my world. I think for myself, am serious, but also have a taste for humor and irony. You don't understand 'how I am wired' at all, and you appear to be repeatedly swinging at ghosts of your own imagining in this area

I note the reluctance to permit the possibility that she could have you figured out in the same manner that you believe you have her figured out.

Quote:

I also find the master and sheep relationship so evident in this thread to be a bit sad and comical.

You keep pumping this idea out into the polluted atmosphere. And Finn has joined you in this odd little campaign. I grant the idea zero credence. Because you read so little political commentary outside of your two or three admitted sources, you really aren't aware of how common my arguments and perspectives are. A key reason I quote so many right wing voices here is to give people like yourself a hint that that the current right wing notions of a severe binary separation of political ideas (as Grover Norquist put it, "Bipartisanship is like date-rape") is a false framing utilized for political reasons (McConnell has admitted this - and if you somehow don't know the reference I can dig it up for you).

Nobody here is echoing me uniquely. Every single person on the site disagrees with me on numerous things. Where someone finds some post of mine or some idea I advance favorable, it is because I have composed it in a compelling manner and/or because it is how they think as well.

I will point out one humorous aspect to all this. There is one poster on the site who has tried on a number of occasions to duplicate certain stylistic or rhetorical devices I use. And that's Finn.

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@ehBeth,

I've got it bookmarked for later (NYMag has become one of my go-to news operations because of the quality of the people they've employed, Ed Kilgore being my favorite). But from the brief excerpt you've posted on Haley is smack on the money. It's a hell of a dance she has to do and I'm impressed with how well she's managing it.

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@Blickers,

I think you're right, Blickers. I'm going to watch out for how Bannon and Fox cover her. That will tell an interesting tale.

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@blatham,

Yeah. Like blatham said.

But seriously, the three weakest, weirdest critical arguments on this thread are those which
1) question the relevance of commentary from Canadians,
2) assume that blatham calls the shots and the peanut gallery dutifully agrees,
3) assail the posting of links and articles as intellectual grandstanding.

Analyzing an argument and dismembering it bit by bit is ultimately a lot more effective than trying to delegitimize the author of a post, questioning the independence and originality of others who think similarly, and denying the relevance of any shared opinion which may have originated off-site.

1 Reply

@blatham,

I've actually been impressed with Haley from early on and have posted my approval several times.

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@hightor,

Quote:

But seriously, the three weakest, weirdest critical arguments on this thread are those which
1) question the relevance of commentary from Canadians,
2) assume that blatham calls the shots and the peanut gallery dutifully agrees,
3) assail the posting of links and articles as intellectual grandstanding.

Yeah. The first two function as ad hominems, obviously. But the third is utterly bizarre.
Edit: On that last, I should point out that the absence of html links to other sources or to verifying data AND the denigration of norms of careful scholarship are common features of much right wing media and literature. I recall one instance where some writer did an analysis of Ann Coulter's end notes in some book she'd written. Something like 30 or 40% were citations back to Ann Coulter. But at least she was pretending to care.

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@hightor,

Yes. But of course I'm obliged to agree with you as you're my site hero and model.

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Giving Halley so much credit for saying women making accusations of abuse "should be heard" just further normalizes the perversity of the whole administration. Of course they have the fricking right to "be heard", for Crissakes. Can't we at least raise the bar to the point that it would indeed be a bold statement to say the women should be believed?

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Winner of this morning's "Well Of Course They Did" award

Quote:

Lindsey Vonn, the most successful American ski racer in history, suffered a back injury while competing at the World Cup in Switzerland, threatening her participation in the Olympic games next year.

Fox News could barely contain its glee.

In an article posted without a byline, the network quickly connected Vonn’s injury to her criticism of President Trump days earlier. The clear implication is that, as a result of her comments, Vonn deserved to get hurt.

TP

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@snood,

I think her situation is rather like a Nazi SS officer who expresses some appreciation for Jewish culture.

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This really is very dangerous.

Quote:

Our democratic republic is in far more danger than it was even a few weeks ago.

Until this point, there was an underlying faith in much of the political world that if Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian collusion in the election turned up unmistakably damning material about Donald Trump, Republicans in Congress would feel obligated by their commitment to the country’s well-being to accept Mueller’s findings and challenge the president.

We would often hear recollections of how Republicans during Watergate — Sen. Barry Goldwater would inevitably come up — decided that the smoking guns were too smoky and that Richard Nixon had to go. They made clear to him that he no longer had the support of his party.

Surely, said the optimists, we have not drifted so far from decency that this sort of patriotism is beyond us.

Well, it sure seems to be. It’s not surprising that Trump and those on his payroll want to protect him at all costs. But we learned last week that Republicans are deepening their complicity in derailing Mueller’s investigation and burying the facts. The more Mueller imperils Trump, the more McCarthyite the GOP becomes.

EJ Dionne

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@blatham,

Quote:

The more Mueller imperils Trump, the more McCarthyite the GOP becomes.

Wow. A political train wreck. In slow motion. As the rising sea inundates our coastline. As California burns. As the former "working class" searches for its next opiate fix. Can the doomsday asteroid be far behind?

1 Reply

Alabama race epitomizes the turbulence of the Trump era (CNN)

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@blatham,

blatham wrote:

This really is very dangerous.

I know you're a really silly person, but.... Don't be silly.

Setting aside the fact that there is no chance that any wrongdoing is even going to be uncovered here, the Democrats established that presidents are above the law in 1998. It's a little late to start whining about it now.

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@revelette1,

revelette1 wrote:

Alabama race epitomizes the turbulence of the Trump era (CNN)

Not surprisingly, MSN repeats this lie for the 1000th time, eh?:

Quote:

Republican Roy Moore denies accusations of child molestation

And people wonder why Alabamians don't trust media "accounts?"

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@layman,

Quote:

Moore is accused by several women of pursuing sexual relationships with them when they were teenagers, molesting a 14-year-old and sexually assaulting a 16-year-old when he was in his 30s. He has repeatedly denied the allegations.

"I never molested anyone," he said Sunday on the "Voice of Alabama Politics" show.

Wait a second, man — he said he never molested anyone. But he doesn't deny "pursuit" — nor, specifically, "assault" — in this story. If someone is accusing you of shooting the sheriff to say that you didn't shoot the deputy isn't much of a defense.

Moore's not doing much for unrepentant male neanderthals by denying the allegations. It's not much of a victory to be elected in the face of false allegations. No, he should admit to the charges. That way, if victorious, he really wins. No ambiguity, no second-guessing, no should've's and if only's.

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@layman,

Does anyone else find it curious that the even the 18, 19, and 22 year old women who went on multiple dates with Moore don't allege that he made any "sexual" advances toward them at all (beyond "kissing")? They didn't even have sex, but the media calls them "accusers" who claim that Moore made 'improper" and "unwanted" sexual advances, at best, or that he committed "sexual misconduct" upon them against their will, at worst (and it usually is this "worst" that they "summarize" in subjective terms devoid of any and all facts).

A real "child molester," there, eh?

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@hightor,

hightor wrote:

Wait a second, man — he said he never molested anyone. But he doesn't deny "pursuit"...

Of course he doesn't deny "pursuit." Why should he? There is nothing the least bit illegal about merely asking a person of consenting adult age out on a date. There would be nothing illegal about having hard, all-night sex with them either.

Thing is, he didn't even have sex with them, according to their own accounts.

He aint guilty of nuthin. He's a pig meat Papa, that's all. Who aint?

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@snood,

No one should be blindly believed.

Imagine yourself the object of false accusations. What would be fair for you in that circumstance is right for all accused.

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@Lash,

Lash wrote:

No one should be blindly believed.

Imagine yourself the object of false accusations. What would be fair for you in that circumstance is right for all accused.

Exactly. And conversely, no one should be blindly disbelieved.

If you want to decide who to believe, then gather some facts and rely on them, not your personal prejudices.

1 Reply

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