monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

I think the real issue is that right-wingers, generally an ill-tuned chorus of perpetual crybabies and sore-asses anyway, have nothing better to do online than engage with people they don't respect and endlessly repeat the same stupid arguments with people they dislike or hate, day in day out, year after year.

And he is a shallow thing. A greedy, self-centered white supremacist who does everything out of spite and self aggrandizement.

They support him because - far more than out of any "economic anxiety" -they think he's the way to preserve America in its purest white paternal capitalistic form, and resist all those things that threaten it (everything that isn't centered on white make heterosexuals being on top).

There is no reasonable or moral justification for supporting Donald Trump, no matter what ten dollar words or acrobatic sophistry anyone tries to attach it to.

Biden likes to say we are at war for the soul of America. I don't think he coined the phrase, but I take that deadly seriously.
It's truth versus lies; light versus dark; and yes, good versus evil.

crackedhead wrote:

I don't really believe 70+ million people actually voted for Trump. Maybe we should be looking into Trump's totals. It seems like more people voted for Trump than common American sense would allow.

If sense was really common in America, we wouldn't have elected his mangy ass in the first place.

I would hope that tens of millions of Trump supporters are wrestling mightily with conscience. Or I should say I would've hoped that - maybe four years ago.

I think there's a finite number of rotten things a person of conscience is willing to overlook- to shrug off - to deny - in order to allow themselves permission to support someone for “policy” reasons. To support Trump, a person has to make the conscious decision that any ******* thing he does, goes. Anything.

One thing about georgeob, he could provide decent lip service to the concept of the "open marketplace of ideas" which you didn't see in some of the other Trumpsters. But he couldn't shake off much of the Koch-friendly cant which riddled his imagination. The inability to allow or admit one crack in Trump's facade must have been quite a burden to sustain. And as he kept trotting out defenses of Trump which were just rehashed talking points he began to grow stale, at least to me. He might begin by saying that Trump could be a little more "polished" but by the end of his post he'd be in full-scale Breitbart mode. And by that time it was too late; thumbed down and insulted, he grew even more resentful and unwilling to meet liberals half way on anything. I imagine that by now he'd have no difficulty rationalizing Trump's blatant attempt to interfere with the results in Georgia -- after four years of hewing the party line, I doubt he'd ever be willing to admit that it might have been a mistake.

Here's a great example of someone with nothing to add to a discussion but just champing at the bit to indulge in a little bit of meaningless armchair psychology. Notice that this character doesn't even attempt to refer to any of the other points raised in the discussion about georgeob begun on the previous page. Nor does the clown so much as mention anything about the phone call Trump made on Saturday and what it means. No, all this person does is show up and attempt to personally insult someone he doesn't even know. Priceless.

The judge's reasoning was hardly a ringing endorsement of either Wikileaks or the function of journalism. But the extradition outcome is the right one and I hope the US will now drop the pursuit of Assange (and @Snowden) and let them get on with their lives.

My conscience does not trouble me

if Assange should be extradited anywhere it should be to Sweden to face the rape allegations.

He is not an American citizen and is not subject to American laws.

I think it is absolutely true that when someone feels under attack they will back into a corner and fight back as hard as they can. It has to be hard as a true conservative to look at what Trump has done and how the Republican party has fallen in line and not be concerned, but given the level of vitriol I think most would cling to their positions are go silent rather than face the ridicule of admitting their doubts.

I've felt such discomfort so understand it and empathize. But what I think they get wrong or what their sensitivities exaggerate is that most of us won't respond with vitriol. Quite the opposite. Still, I understand the fear of giving an inch and thus setting themselves up for calls to go much further.

He is an Australian citizen, it should be down to Australia whether or not he should be extradited. We should keep out of it.