monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

@Lash,

Quote:

There are similarities between many of the global upheavals against distant, or unresponsive, increasingly authoritarian control.

Yes, in the abstract. My point was to counter Baldimo's claim, which was a response to a post by georgeob1:

georgeob1 wrote:

(...)

Trump has managed to lower taxes, cut through some of the worst elements of the undemocratic regulatory regime that has been gradually strangling economic initiatives in this country, and significantly stimulate increased economic growth - all significant accomplishments that his predecessors failed to even address. He has also squarely addressed a long festering immigration issue that was rapidly degenerating to chaos, and has at least stabilized the situation.

In the current situation the Democrats have reverted even more to abstract rhetoric about curing some fundamental and enduring flaws in human nature and behavior, somehow without appreciating their dangerously totalitarian character. Meanwhile Trump, despite all the clumsy rhetoric, has substantial achievements under his belt that have real meaning and significance to the lives of a very large fraction of our population, including many who generally oppose him.

Interestingly some very similar political conflicts are playing out in Europe, from the UK, to France, Italy, Greece and even Germany.

source

Then Baldimo wrote that we should include the Hong Kong protests. I disagree because, yes, people are protesting against government, just like they are in Kashmir, Sudan, and practically every other country — there are always people who have grievances with governing authorities. That dynamic has been around, like, forever. But I don't think lumping all these protest together helps us understand the particular circumstances that pushes people into the streets in each and every case. The relationship between Hong Kong and China is unique. The protests are an attempt to preserve what's left of the "One Country, Two Systems" agreement. This is specific to the ex-colony — the protests lack the right-wing populist character of the the European nationalist movement and they lack the left-wing populist character of the progressive movement in the Democratic Party here.

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@izzythepush,

Unfortunately most us citizens know nothing about history because it sent taught in most schools very much. People don't realize that conservitave republican simplistic ideas have been tried over and over again with the same disasterous results. Getting the same results year after year just with the same simplistic actions just don't seem to register.

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Some fun facts:

in Jan 2009, the govt Obama inherited was running $1-T budget deficit

GOP ripped him throughout his term for running up debt

when Obama handed off to Trump, deficit had been cut below $600-B, to 3.2% of GDP

now deficit’s back to $1-T, 5.1% of GDP

1 Reply

Quote:

NRA Spent Tens of Thousands on Hair and Makeup for CEO’s Wife
The gun group used donor funds to fly Susan LaPierre’s favorite stylists around the country and put them up in style.

Fun facts here

1 Reply

Quote:

Trump’s Misogynistic Triumph: Democrats Are Afraid to Nominate a Woman

Ed Kilgore is always worth attending to

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@snood,

'nuff said.

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@blatham,

blatham wrote:

Quote:
NRA Spent Tens of Thousands on Hair and Makeup for CEO’s Wife
The gun group used donor funds to fly Susan LaPierre’s favorite stylists around the country and put them up in style.
Fun facts here

Know what's funny? In the American Rifleman, he's always listed as Executive Vice President. I do wonder why he isn't listed as CEO. Modesty?

1 Reply

@roger,

Sure, modesty or perhaps the NRA really needs Susan to look presentable.

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@Lash,

The similarities your article talks about are tactical, not topical:

Quote:

Leaderless movements, organizing via encrypted messaging apps like Telegram, adapt and evolve.

“The lack of a leader is the reason the movement is still continuing,” he said of Hong Kong.

The nature and motivation of the two groups are still very different.

And of course there are others as well using these tactics. 8 years ago the so-called Arab spring" showed us all how to do it: leaderless and self-organized on social media.

1 Reply

@Olivier5,

Lash of course cannot embrace the demonstrators against Putin or those demonstrating against Brexit in her comparison, cause she loves the latter and works for the former.

1 Reply

Things that make you go, “Hmmm...”:

KKK has killed 5000+ Americans since 1865
•Not designated as terror org

White Nationalists have killed 313+ Americans since 1995
•Not designated as terror org

Antifa has killed 0 Americans—ever
•Trump considers them clearly a terror org

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@snood,

And the 4 junior Congresswomen who haven't even served for 2 years (who according to Chump) have captured the leadership of the Democratic Party (brawhahahahahahahha) The house has 435 members and Chump is shaking in his boots that these brand new 4 congress women....correction....Donald Chump hates democracy....and thinks he is the New Owner of the US, because he is a craven greedy asshat who dreams he can own the world......the Russians, the Chinese and North Korea are laughing their butts off.

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@Olivier5,

I’d have thought this stupid type of statement was beneath you, but I’ll readjust my opinion of you. I haven’t seen news of the kind of wide scale protests against Putin that are happening in France.

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@Lash,

Perhaps it never happened, but it's more likely it did.

1 Reply

@glitterbag,

I’m not going to be held accountable to cite events that ‘likely’ happened, but I doubt Russia’s relationship with ideals of a free press would yield details of large-scale protests.

It seems like our country is beginning to follow their model.

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@snood,

snood wrote:

Things that make you go, “Hmmm...”:

KKK has killed 5000+ Americans since 1865
•Not designated as terror org

White Nationalists have killed 313+ Americans since 1995
•Not designated as terror org

Antifa has killed 0 Americans—ever
•Trump considers them clearly a terror org

Antifa uses the same hooded-look as the KKK, though, and whenever you see an angry mob of people with their faces/heads covered, it stimulates fear unless you assume they are against other people besides you.

In democracy, people communicate with reason and persuasion, not violence. So while you're right that the KKK is terroristic, Antifa isn't exactly a thinktank out raising critical awareness of what fascism is and how to transcend it through things like compassion and inclusion.

Antifa is basically anti-fascism fascism.

Considering that, it shouldn't be surprising that anti-antifa fascism would emerge as a backlash to it.

Fascism is basically when an identity category is defined and then attacked in order to establish stronger solidarity among opponents of the Other-ed category.

If you want to transcend fascism, you have to go beyond identity politics and actually deal with issues and how to solve them. Identify/blame/attack doesn't solve anything; it only shifts the negativity around.

1 Reply

@livinglava,

Quote:

In democracy, people communicate with reason and persuasion, not violence.

Looks like someone didn't get the memo on that concept....

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@Lash,

You haven't read the news lately?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/17/world/europe/russia-protest-moscow-putin.html

1 Reply

Moscow is seeing the biggest protests in years this summer - with tens of thousands of Russians hitting the streets. They've been met with mass arrests and a violent crackdown by police.

They're not specifically anti-Putin at this point; they're demanding clean elections.

1 Reply

@hightor,

Awesome!

0 Replies

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