monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

@MontereyJack,

Quote:

20 million is "a few people"? You're weird, baldimo.

No weird, how many people still do not have insurance? How many of those people were suppose to sign up to actually provide the funding for the ACA and exchanges to work? It failed. It's actually only 12 million who fall under exchange insurance. There are 30 million who still do not have coverage and a majority of those are not going to get insurance because they would rather pay the fine.

1 Reply

@Baldimo,

Baldimo wrote:

how many people still do not have insurance?

The fewest in history.

1 Reply

@Olivier5,

Olivier5 wrote:

No, I'm just saying that the French are not crybabies like you Trumpists are.

I think the real difference is that we have held an election and determined a path forward. The only crybabies I see here are those here who haven't yet assimilated the election result, and who, in the grip of their extreme left wing elements, can't find a constructive path forward for themselves. The path they are on now will likely be self-defeating.

Meanwhile Europe is paralyzed by the growing cultural and demographic threat from its former colonial playground.

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@layman,

"Intolerable"... Thanks for the laugh! Is it intolerable for you, really, if a bunch of Yemenites comes and visits the grand canyon?

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@georgeob1,

georgeob1 wrote:

I think the real difference is that we have held an election and determined a path forward. The only crybabies I see here are those here who haven't yet assimilated the election result, and who, in the grip of their extreme left wing elements, can't find a constructive path forward for themselves. The path they are on now will likely be self-defeating.

Did you feel the same way after 2008 and the rise of the Tea Parties?

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@layman,

I hope nobody is ploting to overthrow Trump. It would be criminal: the guy has such a yuuuuge comic talent. Let him humor us.

Le Pen is a complicated character. She might prove a more apt fascist than Trump -- less amateurish, better prepared. But she could also flunk it big time if elected, like Trump is doing right now, i.e. sends us in a inflationary spiral if she pulls us out of the Euro.

Macron would be the best thing for the country. He's a centrist with a good economic programme. All the good economic reforms done under Hollande were his doing. He's a bit young and unexperienced though. We shall see.

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@georgeob1,

I am sorry but the guys who cry that without the latest Trump EO banning all Yemenites, Iranians etc., they won't feel "protected"... these guys are scared little crybabies, period. Or how do you explain their fear? Do you think it is rational to be that afraid?

2 Replies

@maporsche,

maporsche wrote:

Did you feel the same way after 2008 and the rise of the Tea Parties?

To a large degree, yes, though looking back it increasingly appears the Republican party has reunited with a strong influence from them.

1 Reply

@Olivier5,

Quote:

Or how do you explain their fear?

I don't think that fear is the thing at all. That emotion isn't evident. But hatred is.

There's a difference here in the people generating these ideas of a dangerous other and those buying into the story. But in both cases, hatred is the reigning emotion and that's very easy to determine just in the way they talk and behave. It has political uses and it has psychological benefits.

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Could some knowledgeable person start and curate a thread about the upcoming French election? The global move against globalization (heh) and toward 'nationalism' (not sure if that's the correct word) bears watching.

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@Olivier5,

Olivier5 wrote:

I am sorry but the guys who cry that without the latest Trump EO banning all Yemenites, Iranians etc., they won't feel "protected"... these guys are scared little crybabies, period. Or how do you explain their fear? Do you think it is rational to be that afraid?

I believe you are mistaking their motivation. The EU is paralyzed, a prisoner of the conflicts between its unifying principles and the realities of the world they inhabit ( and did so much in the 19th and 20th centruies to create). There is no reason for a sovereign nation to passively accept the cultural and political dysfunctions of other states. Realistic policies for dealing with the real challenges oif the world we inhabit, promote constructive feedback and eventual solutions. The pursuit of illusions in the face of contradicting facts promotes only more dysfunction.

1 Reply

Quote:

A county Republican official in Michigan has apologized for suggesting that there should be a crackdown on "violent protesters" and calling for "another Kent State."

"Taking a lot of heat for a very poorly worded tweet yesterday," Marquette County Republican Party secretary Dan Adamini tweeted on Friday. "Sorry folks, the intent was to try to stop the violence, not encourage more."

TPM
I love the "it was poorly worded" excuse. But it is a bit better than the more common version, "I was taken totally out of context". He also said:

Quote:

"Violent protesters who shut down free speech? Time for another Kent State perhaps. One bullet stops a lot of thuggery," he tweeted the same day.

Aside from somebody having the idea that Kent State had any positive social consequences or motivations at all, the thing to concentrate on here is his use of "violent protesters". In all the protests so far, whether those of a racial context or the more recent anti-Trump, anti-authoritarian sort, the proportion of protesters who were violent was exceedingly small. Where the violence is made the identifying marker of what has gone on (while all the rest is ignored) then the speaker is moving right into the sort of response/rhetoric which is absolutely typical of the authoritarian response.

2 Replies

@georgeob1,

georgeob1 wrote:

Meanwhile Europe is paralyzed by the growing cultural and demographic threat from its former colonial playground.

Jingo!

1 Reply

@old europe,

Soi what ! Are you suggesting there is no truth to the observation?

1 Reply

@blatham,

blatham wrote:

authoritarian

You use this word a lot. Wield it like an epee even. Skewering what you perceive to be a political opponent(s) that dares to not walk in lockstep with your liberal values.

The problem though, is that the freedoms that an authoritarian should be taking away is not coalescing behind what you are perceiving to be authoritarian actions. The taking away of freedom is one of the fundamental aspects of an authoritarian government.

Trump is giving the people back their freedom that the federal government has been slowly eroding away over the past 20 or so years.

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When you get this guy being concerned about misuse of executive power, you gone pretty far into the nether regions.

Quote:

John Yoo: 'Even I Have Grave Concerns' About Trump's Use Of Executive Power

TPM
Yoo, we'll recall, argued that it would be within the President's legal powers to order a young boy's nuts to be crushed in front of the father as a means of encouraging that father to give up secrets that he might be in possession of.

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@georgeob1,

georgeob1 wrote:

maporsche wrote:

Did you feel the same way after 2008 and the rise of the Tea Parties?

To a large degree, yes, though looking back it increasingly appears the Republican party has reunited with a strong influence from them.

I wonder if all you're seeing and complaining about is just a left version of the tea party beginning to take form. It's not like there was some organized movement right out the gate after 2008. First there were protests.

I don't know yet how one could see the protests from the left as a bunch of crybabies and congruently see the tea party protests as simply "public support", but that's none of my business I guess.

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@McGentrix,

Quote:

You use this word [authoritarian] a lot. Wield it like an epee even. Skewering what you perceive to be a political opponent(s) that dares to not walk in lockstep with your liberal values.

Well, it is true that I use that term frequently. As to using it because I bump into some speech or acts which simply don't correspond with my "liberal values", that's where your thinking goes astray and you let yourself off the hook.

I just noted John Yoo's concerns above. Though he doesn't use that term, that is his concern. I have posted numerous conservatives who do use that term in the context I use it, for example the very smart interview David Frum gave to CBC radio last week or David Gerson in his columns over the last few months, etc.

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I don't think that he actually wanted to do so, but Donald Trump will not be allowed to address Parliament on UK state visit, Speaker John Bercow says (links to video)

Quote:

Donald Trump would not be welcome to address parliament during his state visit, the Commons Speaker, John Bercow, has said in an unprecedented intervention that drew applause and cheers from MPs.

Bercow, whose role is non-political, said he could not block a state visit by the US president but would use his role as one of the three “key-holders” of Westminster Hall to prevent the Republican from addressing MPs and peers.

He said he had been particularly persuaded by what he termed Trump’s “migrant ban”, the executive order signed during the president’s first fortnight that prevented any nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US, including refugees.
[...]
He told MPs: “We value our relationship with the US. If a state visit takes place, that is way beyond the pay grade of the Speaker. However, as far as this place is concerned, I feel very strongly that our opposition to racism, and to sexism and our support for equality before the law and an independent judiciary are important considerations in the House of Commons.”
[...]
“Before the imposition of the migrant ban, I would myself have been strongly opposed to an address by President Trump in Westminster Hall. After the imposition of the migrant ban by President Trump, I am even more strongly opposed [to] an address by President Trump in Westminster Hall.”

Source

Before the "left and cheese-eater tirades" start again: Bercow has been a MP for the Conservatives, known as a "hardline right-winger".

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@maporsche,

Quote:

a left version of the tea party beginning to take form

This one is interesting. There's pretty widespread agreement that the "anti-Trump" protests (shorthand, as anti-ACA repeal and other things are in here too) are using the device previously used by Tea Party people and organizers. That's pretty obvious.

But if we'll recall, when that thing was ramping up, Dick Armey (who headed up the Koch operation moving to get those protests loud and widespread) said that they were just using techniques originated by William Ayers (that Armey and crowd were studying).

It's all a bit silly as protests have always been part of the democratic experience. They're to be expected. They are to be welcomed (though it certainly is the responsibility of reporters to delve into background issues like funding and other such matters).

0 Replies

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