monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

@Walter Hinteler,

Quote:

Donald Trump will not be allowed to address Parliament on UK state visit, Speaker John Bercow says

That's so mean (to use the term Spicer used to describe SNL's satire of Trump).

Then again, I recall perfectly how Obama was the widespread object of derision by Brit and European leaders when he took office. Don't we all? I'm certain I recall that. And I'm really smart. Great brain. Amazing brain.

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@georgeob1,

Hey, I'm just pulling Layboy's leg. If he wants protection, I can offer it to him... :-p

Quote:

The EU is paralyzed

Like many of your pronouncements, this and other ones about Europe are too general. The EU has done a lot, including lately. But it is now paralysed in terms of reforming its constitution, its ways of working, because it's too big; too many countries. It's been victim of its own success here. This incapacity to reform its own constitution is something the US lives with as well.

1 Reply

@maporsche,

I'm likely not as aware as are you of all the details in what may be emerging in the Democrat Party. I believe the fact that the far left elements of the party have been on the ascent ever since the unexpected success of Bernie Sanders as a candidate is widely recognized. Hillary Clinton began increasingly to pander to them immediately after the convention, though apparently not very convincingly. In the wake of the unexpected loss in November, the far left elements of the party were the only parts left standing, as evidenced by Keith Ellison et al and the recently expressed convictions of Pelosi and Schumer. I believe the real question here is whether this is a winning play for them. I don't believe it is.

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@MontereyJack,

Quote:

What the constitution CLEARLY says is that the 2nd amendment refers to arms for militias, not a general right. That you think differently is of no bearing. It' an opinion, not a fact, and is subject to change, as SCOTUS did when they reinterpreted it, going against 200 years of judicial OPINION in Heller, which is also OPINION, NOT FACT, made by conservative activist judges and is dependent on the makeup of the court.

The Bill of Rights is a list of individual rights, not group rights. Your opinion is wrong.

1 Reply

"I just misspoke one word" is my favorite Conway thing so far. As in:
- "That man murdered puppies" when the puppy was secured in a cyclist's snuggle carrier.

Quote:

White House adviser Kellyanne Conway claimed she “misspoke one word” when she referenced the non-existent “Bowling Green massacre” in an interview last Thursday. However, she referenced the same event in an interview days earlier with Cosmopolitan.

Though Cosmopolitan never used the senior White House adviser’s claims in two published stories, the magazine reported Monday, Conway referenced a “Bowling Green massacre” over the phone with a Cosmopolitan journalist days before being called on the same error in a television interview.

As she did in conversation with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Thursday, Conway also told Cosmopolitan that former President Barack Obama had temporarily banned Iraqi refugees. (In fact, Obama merely slowed the process of vetting refugees, but never halted or “banned” it.)

"He did, it’s a fact," Conway said on Sunday, Jan. 29, as quoted by Cosmopolitan. "Why did he do that? He did that for exactly the same reasons. He did that because two Iraqi nationals came to this country, joined ISIS, traveled back to the Middle East to get trained and refine their terrorism skills, and come back here, and were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre of taking innocent soldiers' lives away."

While two Iraqi citizens living in Kentucky at the time did plead guilty to various terrorism-related charges in 2011 and 2012, according to an FBI fact sheet flagged by Cosmopolitan, they never carried out any attack on American soil.

On Friday, Conway said on Twitter that she made an "honest mistake."

TPM
Yes. An honest mistake. And the "honest" there is a fact.

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@georgeob1,

georgeob1 wrote:

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

We've been over this.

Whenever someone that you perceive as an outsider criticizes anything American, you have this penchant of going back in history however far is necessary in order to implicate the country of origin of the poster, presumably in the hope of invalidating the poster's contribution.

It's just a version - though one that attempts to sound slightly more educated - of layman insulting people as a "candyass Frogs."

It's also fun to notice that you show no restraint in making broad and sweeping attacks on internal affairs of a foreign nation ("If you are suggresting the unflappable French are standing firm in their now shopworn notion that French culture and civilization is the unifying nirvanah sought and embraced by all from Place de la Concorde to banlieue, then the facts sussest you are seriously wrong"), despite loud and often-repeated protestations about how this kind of behavior is entirely intolerable and unacceptable - for foreigners talking about America.

It's pure jingoism.

1 Reply

@old europe,

old europe wrote:

georgeob1 wrote:
Soi what ! Are you suggesting there is no truth to the observation?

We've been over this.

Whenever someone that you perceive as an outsider criticizes anything American, you have this penchant of going back in history however far is necessary in order to implicate the country of origin of the poster, presumably in the hope of invalidating the poster's contribution.

It's just a version - though one that attempts to sound slightly more educated - of layman insulting people as a "candyass Frogs."

It's also fun to notice that you show no restraint in making broad and sweeping attacks on internal affairs of a foreign nation ("If you are suggresting the unflappable French are standing firm in their now shopworn notion that French culture and civilization is the unifying nirvanah sought and embraced by all from Place de la Concorde to banlieue, then the facts sussest you are seriously wrong"), despite loud and often-repeated protestations about how this kind of behavior is entirely intolerable and unacceptable - for foreigners talking about America.

It's pure jingoism.

If it helps OE I can take your comments and ask them of george. Maybe me being an American will help. Seems like a lot of work and should be completely unneeded but....

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@blatham,

Quote:

Either it is a love affair or I'm being paid. Take your pick.

It's both. Much like a prostitute, what started out as fun turned into a paying job.

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@McGentrix,

Quote:

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

Examples? You hear this all the time but I've lived here for the past 20 or 30 years — and more — and I really haven't noticed a decrease in personal liberties. I'd really like to know what freedom has been eroded. Maybe if we could advertise what a repressive hellhole the country has become those pesky immigrants wouldn't want to come here. Instead of people always waving the flag and bragging about how great the USA is — that's basically putting out a welcome mat, fools! — they ought to tell the horrible truth: "Don't come to the USA! You can't buy a 64 oz slurpee!"

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Well, this thread has entertainment value, at least.

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@hightor,

Me too! Except for WWII when our government put us into concentration camps, I've lived freely, and I'm now 81.

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@cicerone imposter,

Quote:

Assessing Trump’s plan, Stanford Law professor Jenny Martinez said “Excluding all people of a particular religion from entering the country on the sole basis of their religion would, in my view, clearly violate the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection.”

In her view, that doesn't say anything about a legal view. Her personal opinion doesn't count on legal matters.

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@Walter Hinteler,

Ooops... There goes Theresa May's backbending efforts.

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@maporsche,

Link?

1 Reply

@maporsche,

The formation of the Tea Party took lace prior to 2008 election. It started during the time of the Bank bailouts and turned towards fighting the ACA after Obama was elected.

1 Reply

@hightor,

You've not been paying real attention if you need examples. What was this, "sealioning"? Or some thing like that.

But, I'll play along because otherwise I am sure your next post would involve some kind of challenge to my manhood or something.

Let's look at the first amendment to the constitution:

Quote:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

- The Patriot Act broadly expands the official definition of terrorism, so that many domestic groups that engage in nonviolent civil disobedience could very well find themselves labeled as terrorists.

- The Government may now prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they reveal that the government requested information on their clients or members in the course of an investigation. It has become a crime for these individuals to try to safeguard your privacy or to tell you that you are under investigation.

- Government agents may now monitor the First Amendment-protected activities of religious and political institutions, and then infiltrate these groups with no suspicion of criminal activity. This is a return to domestic spying on law-abiding religious and political groups.

- You may now be the subject of a government investigation simply because of the political, activist, or advocacy groups you are involved in, or the statements you make within these groups.

- A U.S. Department of Justice directive actively encourages federal, state, and local officials to resist and/or limit access to government records through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

Oh, I know, "Where's your tin foil hat?", "The black helicopters are coming!", or whatever other way you wish to deny that these freedoms have been taken away from Americans. I didn't even get into the militarization of the Police, domestic seizures and violence. Warrantless wiretapping, lack of government transparency, erosion of gun right... the list is quite long.

But, you've lived here for 20 30 years and have been completely oblivious to it. I guess it's ok for you so long as it's the other guys rights being violated by the government.

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@Baldimo,

Baldimo wrote:

Link?

Data.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/insur201605.pdf

Reporting.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/17/obamacare-brings-record-low-for-us-health-uninsured-rate.html

Snip from statement from HHS.

Quote:

The uninsured rate fell to 9.1 percent in 2015, making it the first year in our nation’s history that fewer than 1 in 10 Americans lacked health insurance

And before you get all snippity with me...I meant the fewest as a percentage of the population. I understand that the population was smaller throughout history.

1 Reply

@Baldimo,

Baldimo wrote:

The formation of the Tea Party took lace prior to 2008 election. It started during the time of the Bank bailouts and turned towards fighting the ACA after Obama was elected.

Sure, but it really gained steam as of 4/15/2009 when it began to hold organized protests.

1 Reply

@Olivier5,

Most such observations are too general in that there are always contradictions in a world that generally defies efforts to predict a future state. I too believe the EU has been, in historical terms amazingly successful in meeting the goals articulated even at its earliest stages. However, much of that success has over the last few decades necessarily involved bypassing some core political processes, replacing inconvenient plebiscites with treaties, etc. which, as you have suggested are difficult to change. The "state" that is emerging appears more bureaucratic than democratic, and that can create some long-term problems, some of which appear to be arising.

In attition, in 1946 the Threats to Europe were largely from within and the confrontation with the Soviet Empire. A very different situation now with the emerging European demographic decline and external threats from the South and East. History quickly confounded Francis Fukuyama's boastful claim of its demise in the early 1990s, and the game continues to change.

1 Reply

And the **** show continues into week three

Quote:

Trump leans on ‘fake news’ line to combat reports of West Wing dysfunction
The president appears especially irked by the growing narrative of Bannon as the real power in the White House.

Politico
But it is not as if we are surprised in this. Another three weeks and we ought to get to a nuclear confrontation with somebody.

1 Reply

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