monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Don’t use Republican language, or repeat their positions, even to negate them.

Just as Lincoln's phony emancipation didn't change things, just as separate but equal didn't change things, just as Brown v Board of Education didn't change things, just as all the civil rights acts didn't change things, more band aids won't change things.

At what US torture site around the world would you suggest the gallows should operate for US war criminals?

Quote:

At what US torture site around the world would you suggest the gallows should operate for US war criminals?

If there's one here in British Columbia, I'd help out.

Political Realism in International Relations

In the discipline of international relations there are contending general theories or theoretical perspectives. Realism, also known as political realism, is a view of international politics that stresses its competitive and conflictual side. It is usually contrasted with idealism or liberalism, which tends to emphasize cooperation.

While classical realism emphasizes the concept of national interest, it is not the Machiavellian doctrine “that anything is justified by reason of state” (Bull 1995, 189). Nor does it involve the glorification of war or conflict. The classical realists do not reject the possibility of moral judgment in international politics. Rather, they are critical of moralism—abstract moral discourse that does not take into account political realities. They assign supreme value to successful political action based on prudence: the ability to judge the rightness of a given action from among possible alternatives on the basis of its likely political consequences.

Human nature is a starting point for classical political realism. Realists view human beings as inherently egoistic and self-interested to the extent that self-interest overcomes moral principles. At the debate in Sparta, described in Book I of Thucydides' History, the Athenians affirm the priority of self-interest over morality. They say that considerations of right and wrong have “never turned people aside from the opportunities of aggrandizement offered by superior strength”

“Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.” (Bertrand Russell)

In his main work on international relations, The Twenty Years' Crisis, first published in July 1939, Edward Hallett Carr (1892–1982) attacks the idealist position, which he describes as “utopianism.”

He characterizes this position as encompassing faith in reason, confidence in progress, a sense of moral rectitude, and a belief in an underlying harmony of interests.

According to the idealists, war is an aberration in the course of normal life and the way to prevent it is to educate people for peace, and to build systems of collective security such as the League of Nations or today's United Nations.

His central idea is that the interests of a given party always determine what this party regards as moral principles, and hence, these principles are not universal. Carr observes that politicians, for example, often use the language of justice to cloak the particular interests of their own countries, or to create negative images of other people to justify acts of aggression.

Policies are not, as the idealists would have it, based on some universal norms, independent of interests of the parties involved.

Values that idealists view as good for all, such as peace, social justice, prosperity, and international order, are regarded by Carr as mere status quo notions. The powers that are satisfied with the status quo regard the arrangement in place as just and therefore preach peace. They try to rally everyone around their idea of what is good.

Idealists fail if in their attempt they do not pay enough attention to the reality of power...their belief that Germany could be satisfied by territorial concessions, helped to foster a political environment in which the latter was to grow in power, annex Czechoslovakia at will, and be militarily opposed in September 1939 by Poland alone.

Policies are not, as the idealists would have it, based on some universal norms, independent of interests of the parties involved.

"Racist white supremacist" nails it.

After years of criticism that it wasn’t taking harassment seriously, Twitter is planning to roll out some of its strongest tools yet to combat abusive content on the platform by virtually putting Twitter trolls in dark, soundproof room.

The company announced several improvements in a blog post Tuesday that it says will help make Twitter a safer place — including shutting down sock-puppet accounts created by users who have been previously suspended or banned, removing abusive tweets in search results, and collapsing “low quality” replies.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_the_United_States#Asian_Americans

JAPAN'S PROBLEM WITH RACE

The racial discrimination that exists in Japan is reminiscent of the segregation-based atmosphere of 1950s America, posing a hostile environment for those of non-Japanese origin.

America is changing. Tonight at the Grammys, there was an award for Best Neo-Nazi Choral Album.

Brian Beutler ‏@brianbeutler 9m9 minutes ago

Trump was right, I am tired of all this winning.