The review begins:
You saw them. You probably read a few. Maybe you even wrote one.Lozada is fed up with reading stuff like:
Seething political takes. Overwrought open letters. Emotional manifestos. They began invading our inboxes and Facebook feeds in the early hours of Nov. 9, 2016, and continued for days and weeks. They frothed from keyboards across the country, countless renditions of what became an instantly recognizable genre: the How I Felt on Election Night essay.
‘Overwhelmed by grief.” “Brokenhearted.” “Hopeless.” “Something inside me died on Election night.” “I woke up that morning and everything felt f—ed.”And:
“I am not ashamed to admit I am more afraid than ever,” writes novelist Meredith Russo. For novelist Mira Jacob, the moment evoked the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001: “At four [a.m.], I bolted awake with a surge of fear I have not felt for fifteen years.” And writer Nicole Chung recalls how, that evening, she and her husband “would remain up for hours, alternately swearing and reaching for each other’s hands in bleary and increasing panic.”The moment evoked the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001... That sounds awful, but I can relate to the sense of disbelief. The kick in the head — that really happened — over and over again. On and after 9/11, I remember experiencing that kick, first multiple times within each minute, gradually decreasing to perhaps once a minute or 10 times an hour, on and on, until I fully absorbed the reality. It happened.
There was a slightly similar feeling about Trump, but it was much, much milder. 9/11 happened suddenly one day and the pictures vividly confronted us with the reality. Election day was a known date, and the polls only made it something like 80% likely that Hillary would win. We'd been seeing Trump's success and survival against all odds for months, and even on election night the reality crept up slowly. The news media deliberately slowed it down, performing the strange theater of imagining how it could still be possible for Hillary to find a path to victory and delaying calling Michigan.
When I see the continuing shock and struggle to absorb the reality of Trump's presidency, I want to ask these people why they did not understand the people of their own country and why they do not accept the consequences of democracy? You don't believe in democracy if you only believe in it when someone you like wins. This is democracy, and these are your fellow citizens.
Posts
396 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 396 of 396Blogger Michael K said...
Visiting Poland, ten-time NBA all-star Ray Allen followed up his interest in the Holocaust with a visit to the house of a family that hid Jews from the Nazis in a small space under the floor.
Michael I know you know this but most Americans don't so let me expand a bit.
This is a classic illustration that counters the "First they came for the Jews... Then they came for me." saying.
The non-Jewish family that hid the Jews was in as much danger of being murdered in the death camps by the National Socialists as the Jews. 3mm Jewish Poles were murdered but 3mm non-Jewish Poles were murdered in the same death camps.
The National Socialists were just getting warmed up. Their goal was to kill about half the population of Poland, especially the educated and those who showed any leadership traits. In addition to murdering the population, they also worked hard at destroying all property, church, legislative, cultural and other artifacts of Polish culture.
The goal was to utterly destroy the Polish identity. The remaining population would be agricultural slaves whose only purpose would be to provide food for Germans.
Essentially the National Socialists wanted to do to the Poles what Pol Pot tried to do to the Cambodians under Cambodian style socialism. Take them back to the 13th century.
NEVER forget.
This is socialism, of whatever flavor. Murder is baked into mix.
John Henry
I wonder how shocked Trumpers will be when the investigations are over and Trump is shown to be a far bigger criminal than Clinton was ever made out to be. I predict much tearing of hair, rending of clothing, and lamentations. Some will talk of burning down D.C. It'll be epic. I can't wait.
Freder Frederson said...
And that is exactly my point. In aggregate Democrats receive more votes than Republicans.
Explain to me how Democrats get all the votes and lose all the elections. This should be good.
The Left has really gone off the cliff. Trump is the least bad possible Republican ( if they were actually able to reason things out from their perspective). A real conservation would going hammer and tong after their rice bowls and perks. For those on the Left who want to push out Trump, be careful what you wish for.
The deficit will never be addressed by either party until no one will want to buy government paper. So the idea of raising taxes on the people who already pay the bulk of the taxes is a criminal fraud. They get nothing for it in return. The budget will not get balanced. As for entitlement reform, yet another fraud. It just means that those who were forced to pay in to Social Security and Medicare at or near to the top of their SS income maximum will get means tested and they get screwed out of what they were promised in the annual statement of benefits
so the parasites can keep getting at the producers expense without any compensation to the taxpayers in exchange.
For all of the whining and wailing about Trump, about how awful he is (and he does have some un-presidential traits), the democrats still can't see or admit that to the majority of states, via the 2016 electoral college calculus, Hillary is significantly worse that Trump. Try not nominating someone under active FBI investigation next time, for one thing. No one bought the Comey presser.
When sports teams are losing, they re-group, find a new strategy, a new manager or coach, go back out on the field with a different approach. When the hell are we going to see that in this political arena? Are the Dems so lost they can't even do that?
@Breezy, yes.
"The US is a welfare state already, in most ways far more generous than any European welfare state."
Depends on how you measure. Cash transfers as % of GDP (the usual lefty measure): lower. Closing of poverty gaps etc.: lower. Absolute $/capita etc: high (because US is richer and spends a lot on the old). Welfare spending, taking into account the value of services like education and medical care: high. Net spending, i.e. considering low US taxes esp. on the poor and on benefits, high EU taxes on the poor and on benefits, and US "private" benefits: high. Google OECD and Adema--lots of data there.
Tyrone Slothrop said...
Explain to me how Democrats get all the votes and lose all the elections. This should be good.
THE CASE OF THE UNCOUNTED BALLOTS, OR
HOW AN IQ TEST CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY
"In the days following the 2000 presidential election in Florida, millions of words were written analyzing the result. But few were necessary. Herein, Prodigy chronicles a remarkable visit with his friend and teacher, Mentor, who evaluates the minimum IQ needed to cast a proper ballot in each of Florida's counties in 2000. These IQs, varying widely, reveal the voters' real choice and the margin of his victory."
buwaya,
I reread "The Handmaid's Tale" sometime in the past year, when it was being considered for the Libertarian Futurist Society's Hall of Fame award (for which I'm a juror). It actually had quite an explicit "how they got there." Offred remembers how she used to have a job, and how her job was terminated, and then her bank card stopped working because women didn't need money, and then she and her significant other tried to flee and got caught and she was dumped into an indoctrination camp; it's all really step by step. In fact I thought it was a nice cautionary tale about the dangers in going over from paper money to electronic money. Atwood didn't really account for the motives of the people who made it happen, but then Orwell doesn't do that either, except for "the purpose of power is power."
List of clueless people:
1. Leftists
2. NeverTrumpers
3. Most college professors not named Althouse or Reynolds
4. Paris Hilton
Who the fuck is Aaron Sorkin gonna fight? Please.
I was in Rancho Cucamonga from the Saturday before the election till the following Sunday visiting friends. Whenever I'm there,
We go to a place called The Cask and Cleaver. It's half dive bar half kick ass steakhouse and is staffed and run by local Mexican/American kids who are all citizens. They were all pumped up about the election because the just knew Trump was gonna win. I laughed and all and they were not amused that I had voted for a guy from my high school sports board. They despised Hillary to a person, especially the Bernie loving super babe bartender. I mean they were positive. I remember speaking to this young guy, who had grown up in San Bernadino and he happened to mention that he was alt-right. I asked him what that seeing as how I had never heard that till that fat ducking skank brought it up. He told me it meant Trump, ending illegal immigration and marijuana legalization. He was about 25, he was married, he had kids. He was not fucking around.
On election night about 9:30 when it was called, Jim and I were there. We had kick
Ass ribeyes along with some martinis. Several martinis. They went nuts. They were screaming and crying. They see a future! In California. Then they shut that place down and the real party started.
Whatever Trump is, he ain't that monster and we have a non-politician in there. This alone should be enough to give the man a shot. Unless you hate the entire concept of America ofmwhich fuck you. And shitbirds like Frey and Kristol.
Jesus on a cracker! What the h%$ll is wrong with these people!? Trump was elected, get over it. This constant wailing about how he is a psycho and a sociopath without any evidence, and we are all going to die because of him is BS. What right do you not have now that you had on Nov. 7th? You are not in camps and no one has been disappeared. My children were Hillary supporters and are still in mourning and still spouting this crap about Trump. Get over it. He is president, not god. No one is going to bother with you, stupid babies.
"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act."
Exactly. That's why I acted - with my support and votes for Trump. So did a lot of other voters. And that's why we'll likely continue to support Trump and probably vote for Trump again in 2020.
Trump comes with unexpected bonuses. He has made plain the corruption of the MSM and ushered in a new age of alternative news. He also redefined the term, "fake news," to a more precise and appropriate meaning.
I wasn't comparing trump to Hitler, I was comparing Althouse to the passive Germans who did nothing to stop him and considered criticism unpatriotic.
So ... Althouse is acting like the Germans who did nothing to stop Hitler but that is not "comparing trump to Hitler?" Priceless.
There is a website named www.usgovernmentspending.com that, I believe is pretty reliable. It shows guesstimated total govt spending for 2017 of $6.97 Trillion and GDP of $19.16 Trillion.
That translates to govt spending of 36.5% of USA GDP.
These are Heinlein's crazy years. We just live in them.
The Toothless Revolutionary said...
Oh, my bad.
Conservatives want the American state to fail. They see as their failure the fact that America is not a failed state already.
This is embarrassing. Sometimes you engage in discussion. Lately you can only engage your strawmen.
It is also a point that Ritmo, probably the most intelligent leftist in this arena, unknowingly makes the point of Ann's post.
Buwaya what Freder doesn't get is that the wonderful Europeans he wishes to emulate tax the poor with a VAT tax that averages about 22%.
Up thread Unkown conceded that Hillary is a criminal ( albeit not as bad as Trump) so there is hope that reality is slowly penetrating the unreality zone.
I care how you feel. I will love you. Come to me. Come with me. We will be made whole together. I will make you whole.
-Carebot
I'd love to see some analysis of this phenomenon of overwrought emotions and deep, exaggerated fear. Are the people most distraught especially heavy users of social media? Are they already on antidepressants or in therapy? How does it break down in terms of age/gender/race/socioeconomic status (something tells me that people with more money than sense are well represented).
You wanna talk about fear? I feel fear when a refusefascism.org mob puts up a bunch of posters blaring "No!," and "Drive Out the Trump/Pence Regime" around my downtown.
I am surprised that liberals don't know that Obama the Stupid was seen as Putin's tool and a betrayer of freedom and democracy by the Russian dissidents. Or maybe they don't care....
President Trump will screw Putin badly. Just watch how president Trump is helping US oil production, the most dangerous weapon. And remember, obama, funded by Russian-backed environmental groups was trying to limit oil production and sales. As Obama said, I will be more flexible after the elections.
Blogger The Cracker Emcee Activist said...
"The Handmaid's Tale" is the exact Leftist equivalent of "The Turner Diaries". That the Left takes it seriously tells you everything you need to know about what pathetically unserious people they are.
Feminists, and Blacks, and Hispanics, are all nationalists. They believe that the group they identify with is unalterably unique, that they are oppressed, that they are, in reality, superior to their oppressors, and that any advantages the oppressor group has, it stole from them.
Same tune, from the Nazi's to today's feminists.
I want to second John Henry's 12:48PM comment about the Nazis and Poland. What he said is true. Please read the WWII section of the "History of Zamosc" Wikipedia entry.
I don't know why I take the time to correct you.
Then don't because you are wasting all our time. You have no more idea of economics than you have of military affairs.
Look, I don't mind the left stating their positions. I don't even mind Inga's brainless celebrations.
I wonder how shocked Trumpers will be when the investigations are over and Trump is shown to be a far bigger criminal than Clinton was ever made out to be.
Keep wondering. I expect that Mueller will get Flynn on some lame ;erjury trap. declare victory and go home, just like Fitzgerald did with Libby. Remember "Fitzmas?"
If you can't see that Hillary and Bill Clinton are grifters who somehow got hold of the federal government thanks to Ross Perot, you are blind, deaf and dumb.
I blame GHW Bush for them even more than Perot. Bush started the whole tradition of empty promises by the GOP.
From "Read my lips. No new taxes" to "Repeal Obamacare." None of them meant a word of it.
And Peggy Noonan was part of the deception.
"I wonder how shocked Trumpers will be when the investigations are over and Trump is shown to be a far bigger criminal than Clinton was ever made out to be."
I wonder if liberals would be upset if republicans succeed in appointing special prosecutors to investigate obama and Hillary...something is telling they would call it a witch hunt.
Michael K said...
I blame GHW Bush for them even more than Perot. Bush started the whole tradition of empty promises by the GOP.
From "Read my lips. No new taxes" to "Repeal Obamacare." None of them meant a word of it.
And Peggy Noonan was part of the deception.
The GOP never meant any of the things it said. They just said what they needed to to trick the majority of americans who just want to be left alone to vote for them.
A good number of them are just traitors.
Just when I had (happily) forgotten my Facebook friends talking about Trump's election being their 9/11.
At least they're not comparing it to Vietnam. (Enough time has finally gone by, apparently.)
The Toothless Revolutionary said...
Why don't you write something about a president so in-hock to a hostile foreign power that the Senate has to vote 98-0 to sanction them and tie his hands on their behalf on how to deal with them, blatantly against his will?
What kind of a derangement does it take to be blind to the statement made by that?
With respect to Russia, Iran and North Korea: 8 years of hysterical blindness?
Unknown said...
I wonder how shocked Trumpers will be when the investigations are over and Trump is shown to be a far bigger criminal than Clinton was ever made out to be. I predict much tearing of hair, rending of clothing, and lamentations. Some will talk of burning down D.C. It'll be epic. I can't wait.
Please list the specific instances and crimes Trump has committed.
I like how Inga thinks Rape is not that big of a deal.
The Toothless Revolutionary said...
Why don't you write something about a president so in-hock to a hostile foreign power that the Senate has to vote 98-0 to sanction them and tie his hands on their behalf on how to deal with them, blatantly against his will?
History starts new every day for the true leftist. It makes them feel smart.
The 80's called and they want their foreign policy back. *snicker snicker*
As a point of reference: "Новодворская: Обама не поможет Украине, он самый бездарный американский президент в истории США"
http://gordonua.com/news/separatism/novodvorskaya-obama-ne-pomozhet-ukraine-on-samyy-bezdarnyy-amerikanskiy-prezident-v-istorii-27588.html
A leading Russian dissident called Obama "the worst US president in history".
He went full-retard, Michael K., and I remember your comment at his blog mentioning the funeral. Do you post anywhere else? I've always enjoyed your commentary and insight!
"My children were Hillary supporters and are still in mourning and still spouting this crap about Trump. Get over it. He is president, not god. No one is going to bother with you, stupid babies."
Another good German.
"Good Germans" liked socialism...
4. Paris Hilton
Clueless? Nah. She's smart and successful. Called Trump her second father and said she would drop everything and come to help, if he ever asked.
Three things:
1. I hate The Handmaid's Tale. I gave it a shot and threw in the towel halfway through the episode when the Commander couldn't get it up to fuck Elizabeth Moss. This is what comes from Sanctimonius Canadians feeling the luv when they write about the evil of the Christian Coalition. All these Emmy nominations are the result of leftie onanism.
2. I sleep very soundly at night knowing that Hillary is off monitoring Bill's infidelities rather than selling sleepovers in the Lincoln Bedroom. Trump may be a bit of a nut, but he is completely unafraid of the lefties. Of course, he should be afraid of all those Chucks out there who are residents of the swamp and other bow-tied femmy defeat monkey conservatives who prefer to be petted by the warm moist hand of the governing leftist then in power. I'm looking at YOU, Graham, McCain, Collins, Murkowski, etc......
3. Laslo is a gift.
- Krumhorn
"Only I can fix it"- Trump
'By My Own Efforts'- Hitler
"Today Hitler Is All of Germany." The newspaper headline on Aug. 4, 1934 reflected the vital shift in power that had just taken place. Two days earlier, on the death of Reich President Paul von Hindenburg, Hitler had lost no time in abolishing the Reich Presidency and having the army swear a personal oath of unconditional obedience to him as "the Führer of the German Reich and People." He was now head of state and supreme commander of the armed forces, as well as head of government and of the monopoly party, the NSDAP. Hitler had total power in Germany, unrestricted by any constitutional constraints. The headline implied even more, however, than the major change in the constellation of power. It suggested an identity of Hitler and the country he ruled, signifying a complete bond between the German people and Hitler.
The Führer Myth. How Hitler Won Over the German People. There were still many Germans who were skeptical of Hitler when he became chancellor in 1933. But Führer propaganda and military success soon turned him into an idol. The adulation helped make the Third Reich catastrophe possible.
Hillary is scheming to get back in. She will never give up until she's dead. She's a sociopath money grubbing power whore, and she's desperate to punish ordinary Americans to satisfy her ego. If it's not her, then it will be a Clinton surrogate like Terry McAuliffe.
Anyone have a remedy? Anyone on the left courageous enough to say enough is enough?
Hillary belongs behind bars. Trump's biggest mistake is making light of her crimes.
Speaking of nazi Germany.....
"Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed."
OMG - Just like Hitler, Trump is marching Jews off to the ovens!
Obama is like Hitler - he hates Jews, Israel, and gave Iran piles of cash on pallets.
Friday's Drudge had Hillary hiring back her old campaign staff. Next time will be the charm, I guess.
"Trump may be a bit of a nut, but he is completely unafraid of the lefties"
Bingo. His campaign platform for 2020.
"Do you post anywhere else?"
Chicago Boyz and my own blog I call "A brief History after my first book.
I don't post all that much anymore.
If you leftists are seriously comparing the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history with an election that didn't turn out your way?
You are fucked in the head.
And I want nothing to do with you. All of you.
Ever again.
“I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.”-Trump
"Hitler had lost no time in abolishing the Reich Presidency and having the army swear a personal oath of unconditional obedience to him as "the Führer of the German Reich and People.""
Progressives have a Nazi socialist problem.
So ... Althouse is acting like the Germans who did nothing to stop Hitler but that is not "comparing trump to Hitler?" Priceless.
I would never compare trump to Hitler, it would be an insult to Hitler. Trump lacks the vision of Hitler. He also lacks the shitty life experience that shaped(and warped) Hitler.
Trump is nothing but a spoiled overprivileged brat.
@Althouse, @Meade, you've had plenty of comments by Snark, Toothless, Freder, "Unknown," etc., to sort through. What do you think about lefties getting their shit together and accepting that other people have a different opinion, and, more to the point, have a right to that opinion?
"You'll be lucky if she works for you."
--Every employer that Inga/unknown ever had.
Visiting Poland, ten-time NBA all-star Ray Allen followed up his interest in the Holocaust with a visit to the house of a family that hid Jews from the Nazis in a small space under the floor.
I heard this story, too. It was on NPR yesterday.
NEVER forget.
Keep destroying the state, and the forgetfulness will come. Remember, NPR is what you're going for, first. Big Bird, NPR. I'm pretty sure the AM radio and FOX crap that y'all rely on couldn't have fit a thoughtful story like that in their programming, in between all the paid screaming/hoarse shouting and sexual harassing. FOX's blondes apparently don't think their skimpy legginess "sells" stories as sexy as this one.
"@Althouse, @Meade, you've had plenty of comments by Snark, Toothless, Freder, "Unknown," etc., to sort through. What do you think about lefties getting their shit together and accepting that other people have a different opinion, and, more to the point, have a right to that opinion?"
Who said you didn't? We have the right to our opinion as well, don't we?
What do you think about lefties getting their shit together and accepting that other people have a different opinion, and, more to the point, have a right to that opinion?
Not that I was asked, but I'll tell you what I think:
I think once they get the hang of having opinions - enough to like it, maybe they'll start getting around to having something called "thoughts."
But I don't think it's very likely.
And I want nothing to do with you. All of you.
Ever again.
That's nice.
Enjoy the corndogs, Crisco, cholesterol, Oxy-Contin, camper-vans, cornfields, and callous disregard for one another. And the Christian broadcasting.
Don't ever again watch anything produced within a thousand miles of Hollywood or the Theater District.
Have fun!
After being reminded of recent a senate bill, a fatally wounded demigod said:
History starts new every day for the true leftist. It makes them feel smart.
The 80's called and they want their foreign policy back. *snicker snicker*
Oh yeah?
Well the 1600s called. They want their ideas on how to run a government back.
Yep. Writing that made me feel pretty smart, too. Especially since you set-up the layup, all for me.
Just a slam-dunk. You keep on setting them up, and I'll knock 'em right down. Every time.
Why, I'm as disruptive as your president! (Moreso, even). And hell, I don't even have to ruin the American people - including those who supported him - to do it!
How do you like them apples?
"No, we won't just sit down and shut up."
Well, of course not.
There will be other baseball practices in which you'll get plenty of opportunities to shoot up more Republicans.
Keep running your mouth, Ms. Patriot.
Just keep it up.
"The moment evoked the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001... That sounds awful, but I can relate to the sense of disbelief."
Ya know..its' bad enough the left so routinely violates Godwin's law...
I see Ed Hominem is back in fine form...first contribution suggesting a topic change. How's that resistance summer working out?
At least some entrepreneurs will make some bucks off of books catering to the collective butt-hurt.
"I would never compare trump to Hitler, it would be an insult to Hitler. Trump lacks the vision of Hitler. He also lacks the shitty life experience that shaped(and warped) Hitler.
Trump is nothing but a spoiled overprivileged brat."
Thank goodness Trump is incompetent. That might be one of the things that saves America.
"We go to a place called The Cask and Cleaver."
Every time we travel to Pomona for the drag races, we hit up the Cask and Cleaver.
LOVE that place.
"Conservatives want the American state to fail. They see as their failure the fact that America is not a failed state already."
This is embarrassing. Sometimes you engage in discussion. Lately you can only engage your strawmen.
It is also a point that Ritmo, probably the most intelligent leftist in this arena, unknowingly makes the point of Ann's post.
Do you and Trump's minions or do you not want to destroy the state? I know that's what Steve Bannon said he wanted to do. (While calling himself a "Marxist") Are his ideas setting the agenda or aren't they?
Speaking of straw men, almost everything everyone in these comments says about the left is a straw man. We're not the ones trying to re-shape America in the image of Communist China. Or trying to set America on the same course Russia wants to do to itself again that it did at every point prior to 1917.
I think you guys love communism, or socialism - or whatever. You seem to want to do everything in your power to make it inevitable.
Someday you will find that just rubbing shoulders with low-pay workers doesn't actually do anything for their lives. Flattery only works on people dumb enough to believe it all their lives - like Trump.
"Are the people most distraught especially heavy users of social media?"
Interesting question – it wouldn't surprise me if the answer was "yes". E.g., Snark's earlier comment on this post, fretting that "foreign social media influence" somehow "overwhelmed the system". I asked for clarification on that, but got none. Personally, I doubt that such "influence" exists to any real extent, but even if it did, I also doubt that enough people spend enough time surfing the web to be affected.
"When sports teams are losing, they re-group, find a new strategy, a new manager or coach, go back out on the field with a different approach. When the hell are we going to see that in this political arena? Are the Dems so lost they can't even do that?"
Praise God, yes!
The pendulum always swings. I have no illusions about that. But the Democrats have caged themselves in a corner in a way that they haven't done since just prior to the Civil War. The delicious thing is that Trump isn't the end result of the Dem's ideological straitjacket. He's the initial, cathartic event that precedes the long countermarch through the institutions.
"It is interesting that the US argument is about a LACK of resources rather than the grossly inefficient use of them, which any honest international comparison would clearly show."
Because the goal of those running the left in this country has never, really, been to solve social problems, but to get rich. Grifters all. It is the process of spending money that is important, because that is where they get their cut, their commission. Viggorish. The CA train to nowhere was never more than a scheme for the liberal elites in CA to get even filthy richer. It never made economic sense. That was never important. But they couldn't waive environmental or zoning requirements because both the environmentalists and the trial attorneys are critical interests in the ruling CA Dem coalition. Follow the money. Always follow the money. How can our infrastructure be maybe even worse after spending most of a $trillion$ or so there in Obama's "Stimulus"? Again, the goal was getting rich. Paying off major Dem constituencies. Raiding the federal piggy bank, even knowing it would likely cost them their grip on Congress. If the goal had been infrastructure or putting people to work, Obama could have suspended environmental regulations, Davis Bacon, etc.
Why did the Dems lie, cheat, and steal in order to give Crooked Hillary the nomination? I think that much of the answer is that the Dem party leadership knew that she was one of them. She could be trusted to make sure that they all got their pieces of the pie, because she had already shown that she and her husband were at the top in this endeavor, having parlayed 4 years as Sec of State into > $100,000,000 personally, and > $billion$ for their personal slush fund/foundation. Grifter in Chief.
I view this as big city machine politics gone national. What the Chicago machine would have looked at on a national level. I remember fraternity bros from there explaining how it worked - $20 on the seat when taking the driving test meant a driver's license. Etc. the City That Worked - until it didn't. The Irish, Italians, Polish, etc all had their ethnic fiefs. The bribes, the city contracts, etc, are how and why it worked. Everyone who mattered had their place at the public trough. Sound familiar? It should - both Obama and Crooked Hillary spent time there.
So, when looking at the inefficiencies, keep in mind that the goal for the statist leadership is never, really, to solve societal problems, but rather to make money on ostensibly solving them. And if they were ever successful in solving one, they would have to invent some more, to justify their grafting ways.
Just read the last 40 or so comments. Do you lefties really think these views will resonate with American public?
When I see the continuing shock and struggle to absorb the reality of Trump's presidency, I want to ask these people why they did not understand the people of their own country and why they do not accept the consequences of democracy?
One side claims the election was hacked, the other insists the election was rigged. Take your pick, it's not like we don't have a choice!
Just read the last 40 or so comments. Do you lefties really think these views will resonate with American public?
I don't know.
Since you seem to think you know the American public so well, though - about how many of them are good with Trump? How many support what he's doing and what he's all about?
Just give a round-about estimate.
70%? 90%?
Saddam had 99%, remember. You can't seem to fall short of a goal that successful.
Even when you did have Baghdad Bob's American equivalent, Sean Spicer, as the information minister equivalent. Best attended inauguration IN HISTORY! PERIOD!
Lol.
Another good German
Der Junge, der "Wolf" schrie.
Given that every Republican candidate is eventually compared to Hitler....
TR asserts: I think once they get the hang of having opinions - enough to like it, maybe they'll start getting around to having something called "thoughts."
But I don't think it's very likely.
No, that would be a stretch. ;-)
He said that still through chaos
Works on the ancient plan,
And two things have altered not
Since first the world began—
The beauty of the wild green earth
And the bravery of man.
But they couldn't waive environmental or zoning requirements because both the environmentalists and the trial attorneys are critical interests in the ruling CA Dem coalition.
Yes. This is all about the Benjamins. Always has been.
When I moved to California from Chicago, I kept a $10 bill in my wallet behind my drivers' license.
The first time I got stopped by a cop in Los Angeles, I was given a stern lecture about this.
Those were the days when California worked.
Why did Republicans give the nomination to Trump without him revealing his taxes? You seriously don't care what is in his taxes? You don't care about possible crimes, tax evasion, money laundering? Why would you not care?
I heard upon his dry dung-heap
That man cry out who cannot sleep:
"If God is God He is not good,
If God is good He is not God;
Take the even, take the odd,
I would not sleep here if I could
Except for the little green leaves in the wood
And the wind on the water."
Unknown, never forget that the alternative to Trump was a venal, corrupt crime boss with nothing to offer the Country but a way for her family to become ever richer.
Trump was NOT elected in a vacuum.
Before you say "But, but, but Trump...." again, for the hundredth time, remind yourself what a complete narcissist and corrupt and inept politician Hillary was, and remind yourself the extreme lengths that the Washington Post and New York Times went -- and still go -- to protect her from her rapacious schemes.
This comment thread is the purest entertainment online.
Freder Frederson knows nothing of macroeconomics except what he is spoon fed. Also, he mistakes a representative democracy with a democracy. Tragi-comic.
UnknownInga19 was discovered by all and sundry as Inga so she went back to good old standby UnknownInga82. Simply inspired.
TTR said some angry things. He denounced an entire people: Americans. And then another: Filipinos. The German and the French were only half condemned. Comedians should take a day to reflect.
I'm relatively certain Donald Trump is the worst person in the history of all worlds. And Obama is still a saint.
Comedy gold.
If we could just agree that the election was both (hacked and rigged) we could sleep soundly again.
Democracy, it's a floor wax and a dessert topping.
"Just read the last 40 or so comments. Do you lefties really think these views will resonate with American public?"
Someone who thinks that Trumpers constitute 90% of the American public. How is the weather there under your rock?
I saw this comment:
There will be other baseball practices in which you'll get plenty of opportunities to shoot up more Republicans.
And it got me thinking about a Trump Era update to a familiar old "lawyer" joke. Anyway; what struck me was how much the militant deranged left, and the alt-right might both like this joke:
"Q. What do you call a couple of Establishment GOP congressmen and staffers gunned down at a baseball practice?
A. A good start."
Would Sean Hannity be any more or less amenable to that joke than James Hodgkinson? Sean hasn't actually shot anybody, of course. All that he did was to point his pistol at Juan Williams.
Unknown,
For those of you who think the Resistance is undemocratic, remember the people of the WW2 Resistance, they were people like us who recognized the danger of authoritarianism. They pushed back against it at great risk to themselves during WW2, history sees them as the true patriots, the respecters of democracy and lovers of human decency.
You are surely not asserting that the Vichy government was elected, are you? It was installed by force, by which I mean tanks and stuff.
Why this level of anger? I think that partly it was that Trump campaigned on cleaning up the graft and corruption of the establishment. Maybe he could have been coopted if they had tried hard enough early on. Probably not. In any case, he ran as an outsider, understanding it, and vowing to end it. On election night, the powers that be all of a sudden realized that they had put their money on the wrong horse. Woke up the next day realizing that the federal trough that they had prepaid to get access to in a Crooked Hillary Administration was going to be closed to them.
And maybe part of it was that they had pushed to get him nominated by the Republicans as probably the easiest opponent for their greatly flawed candidate to beat. But he turned into their worst dream. Not only was he able to poach a significant part of the votes from one of the Dem party's traditional key voting blocks (working class Whites), but he knew, better than most how the game was played, having spent much of his career paying bribes, and negotiating around the bureaucratic state to get his buildings built.
And, they should be upset. Quietly, under the radar, Trump has been attacking the bureaucratic state, and a lot of Obama's legacy. A lot of progressive accomplishments are being gutted, while everyone is looking the other direction. Global Warming. Campus "Rape". Affirmative Action. School choice. Gun control. Illegal immigration. Appeasement of Iran, Russia, China. Preference for Islam over Christianity and Judaism. Etc.
Chuck said...
I saw this comment:
There will be other baseball practices in which you'll get plenty of opportunities to shoot up more Republicans.
And it got me thinking about a Trump Era update to a familiar old "lawyer" joke.
--
....
That's the first time I've ever noticed a disgraceful "joke" used in conjunction with a strawman argument. Sad!
UnknownInga19 insists that the IRS is incompetent to find Trump's illegal tax evasion in the same thread TTR bleats that the administrative state cannot be reduced.
You two should talk.
I have to remember to take my comedy medicine so that my comedy organ doesn't release all the laughter into my bloodstream at once. I could get a cramp.
God forbid we should have another 9/11 incident. Who will lead the country? Will Trump tweet insults to the perpetrators? They would laugh in his face.
buyawa
And my point about the NHS is to show that the US level if effort in that area alone is vastly greater than Europes. That the US instance of public medical care provision is horribly mismanaged and tremendously wasteful is independent of the resources supplied.
It is interesting that the US argument is about a LACK of resources rather than the grossly inefficient use of them, which any honest international comparison would clearly show.
According to the World Bank, in 2014 the US ranked 8th in the world in Health expenditure, public (% of GDP). Following is a comparison of the US with some better-off countries, most of whom are in Europe.
Health expenditure, public (% of GDP)_2014
Sweden 10.0
Netherlands 9.5
Denmark 9.2
New Zealand 9.1
France 9.0
Austria 8.7
Germany 8.7
Japan 8.6
Norway 8.3
United States 8.3
Belgium 8.2
Switzerland 7.7
United Kingdom 7.6
Canada 7.4
Finland 7.3
Iceland 7.2
Italy 7.0
Bosnia and Herzegovina 6.8
Slovenia 6.6
Serbia 6.4
Spain 6.4
Croatia 6.4
Australia 6.3
Czech Republic 6.3
The conclusion I make is not that the US doesn't spend enough on government-funded health care, but that the US doesn't spend efficiently.
"You don't care about possible crimes, tax evasion, money laundering? Why would you not care?"
Had this been the case Trump would be under investigation by the IRS. The MSM would not let such a possibility lie.
No one who puts forth these arguments cares about proof.
Freder Frederson,
And that is exactly my point. In aggregate Democrats receive more votes than Republicans.
State by state, or nationwide? You can't gerrymander Senatorships or Governorships, so I think those results are true. The House and the state leges are a bit different, though we do need to remember that gerrymandering cuts both ways.
If what you're saying is just that there are more total Democrats than Republicans in the country, with Democrats more highly concentrated in Democratic states than are Republicans in Republican ones (just as Democrats are more highly concentrated in large cities than Republicans are everywhere else), the solution is obvious: Move. Move to a red state, or at minimum a red county, and Make A Difference.
"One side claims the election was hacked, the other insists the election was rigged."
I don't believe in either, because of those things would be incredibly hard to do on such a scale.
It could have been worse, one of the other candidate could have won.
Correction:
According to the World Bank, in 2014 the US ranked 16th in the world in Health expenditure, public (% of GDP).
Why is Trump upset that his taxes are under Mueller's purview?
"Trump was asked by the New York Times whether Robert Mueller would be crossing a red line if he expanded the probe into the Trump family empire. “I would say yes,” Trump said about the red line."
Election night 2016 is one of my greatest schadenfreude experiences. My joy at seeing Trump win was equal to my enjoyment of liberal tears. I've watched several video compilations of the coverage and the joy grows each time. The Young Turks was the best.
It gives me chills just recalling it all.
I don't believe in either, because of those things would be incredibly hard to do on such a scale.
Well, in that case they're both liars but don't worry, you still get to choose which pack of liars to support! Freedom!
Nice posts on your blog Michael K. I'll be dropping by regularly. Perhaps Althouse could link?
Chuck I understand, and can see a lot of his points, even when in disagreement. TTR and Unknown I don't even understand what they are trying to say 90% of the time. They sound more like my kids when they were young and having a 'I hate every thing' type of day. No reasoning at all that I can tell. Pure emotion. Actually they are kind of fun since I'm not the one responsible for them. Kind of like when my wife and I are in a public setting where a 3 year old is throwing a fit and we roll our eyes at each other. Glad to be done with that phase of life.
I know it is impolite to say this, but I would love to know their ages. Is this what just out of college (or still in) looks like? Younger? There is an emotional maturity that comes with even a modicum of age that seems lacking.
At any rate, keep them coming TT and Unk. Sometimes annoying but mostly enjoyable. And it helps to firm my belief that Trump was the best choice.
Maybe one way of looking at this is that 2008 was the year that the big city political machine model went national for the Dems. For the first time in a long time, maybe since LBJ, they had firm control over the Presidency and both houses of Congress. Meanwhile, that model had blown up in the big cities where it used to provide them with much of their power. You are always hearing about securing other revenue streams in those weekend radio commercials, and their traditional income streams were drying up. Just in time, in response to GW Bush and his War on Terrorism, they had the means to secure such. And then did, with the "Stimulus", Dodd/Frank, Obamacare, etc, then locked them in by refusing to pass budgets, even after losing control of Congress. It was a gamble, betting that if they could keep the Presidency, trading control of Congress for passage of those self-enriching programs would ultimately pay off, and guarantee them a permanent ruling majority, once all those illegals had been given citizenship and the vote (or given the vote first, which may have been the case in CA).
But as I pointed out in my last post, this is all falling apart. They aren't going to get those votes from the current crop of illegals. They aren't going to get the infrastructure graft that they so need to survive. The failing Dem machine controlled cities aren't going to be bailed out. Nor are the failing Dem controlled states, with their massive pension shortages for Dem contributing government workers. The latter meaning that people are going to continue to flee the failing Dem controlled cities and states. Which is a vicious circle because diverting money that should be spent on police, fire, infrastructure, etc, into pensions for overpaid govt employees just drives more people to flee, reducing further their tax bases, making things progressively worse. They have nothing on the horizon now that can realistically be expected to bail them out from this slide. Why should Republican politicians from Trump states bail out the Dem politicians who have gotten rich exploiting their constituents? As I said, things are falling apart in much of Crooked Hillary's America, and with the Presidency in Trump's hands, the left is, probably rightly, panicking. They can have their cities, their urban hipsters, their gang violence, etc. just don't bother asking the rest of us, the deplorable, for help. It is their problem. They created it through generations of graft and misrule. And their elites got rich, often filthy rich, off that system. Hard to get much sympathy from the rest of us.
Just for our enlightenment.
AntiFa is terrorist instrument of what party?
"You don't believe in democracy if you only believe in it when someone you like wins. This is democracy, and these are your fellow citizens." ~ Posted by Ann Althouse
Last time I checked, the United States was a duopoly in which two political parties work to get their candidates elected. Further, American laws and states rights make it possible to win without a majority, thus blunting mobocracy, which is really what democracy is.
With all this complexity, accepting the election of candidate from either party who, in my humble opinion, puts personal interests ahead of what is best for the country deserves no support and will never get mine.
Will Trump tweet insults to the perpetrators?
He will tweet pictures of himeself holding a posterboard sign that says things like "#Bring Back Our Girls!" while making a sad face.
There was an online photo cartoon soon after the Trump victory, which showed a bunch of down-in-the-mouth moonbats and had a caption that was something like, "Don't spend generations expanding the power of the State, and then get angry because it's fallen into the hands of someone you don't like."
"With all this complexity, accepting the election of candidate from either party who, in my humble opinion, puts personal interests ahead of what is best for the country deserves no support and will never get mine. "
Make "Don't blame me" bumper sticker evergreen..
But as I pointed out in my last post, this is all falling apart. They aren't going to get those votes from the current crop of illegals.
Such a joke, both parties have corruption built into their DNA and the system that supports them is full of perverse incentives (rigged) but instead of an honest critique from the Trump "populists" we just keep hearing the same old partisan Kool-aid that has been used again and again to elect the Republican establishment.
Humperdink said: "Just read the last 40 or so comments. Do you lefties really think these views will resonate with American public?"
Unknown responded: "Someone who thinks that Trumpers constitute 90% of the American public. How is the weather there under your rock?"
Never said anything on the order of 90% of anything. I have debated lefties on numerous sites. Responses like yours remind that it's a fool's errand. You and your ilk refuse to debate the issues. It's Russia, Russia, Russia, Hitler, Hitler, Hitler and with you it's Trump taxes ad nauseum. Think that crap sells anywhere outside of the east and west coast?
You need not answer as I suspect your supply of non-issue drivel is unlimited.
Robert Mueller has compromised himself ethically in so many ways that he can only redeem himself by destroying the Trump Presidency. If he does, the same amoral bedwetters who cannot accept Trump as POTUS will smother him with adulation, whatever the cost to our nation.
Democrats, GOPe, leftymediaswine and other anti-Trumpers have already accepted with open arms Portland rioters, security breaches by leak for politics or profit, news media complicity with and concealment of felony leakers of classified information, judicial usurpation of executive powers, broken GOPe promises about Obamacare and immigration (tax reform next), libel by anonymous, perhaps imaginary, sources, fake news, illegal divulgence of grand jury information, anything that hurts Trump.
When called on their infamy they respond with ad hominem attacks on their accusers or by vilifying Trump. Scott Adams pegged them perfectly.
The swamp strikes back, as always, by destroying the rule of law.
"Nice posts on your blog Michael K. I'll be dropping by regularly. Perhaps Althouse could link?"
Thanks. I started it after Cathy Seipp died. I mainly keep it to see what I thought at other times. I've got a lot of links and stuff I keep.
Since I started posting on Chicagoboyz, by invitation, I've posted less and often use it as a drafting site and move posts to the other blog.
Robert Mueller has compromised himself ethically in so many ways that he can only redeem himself by destroying the Trump Presidency.
No, I think he will do what Fitzgerald did. Make a big show and get a scalp from some minor player like Libby and call it a day. Flynn may have gotten himself into trouble with Turkey lobbying that Trump was unaware of.
I've previously compared the left to my dog that used to spend hours chasing birds. They would keep an eye on him and fly away when he got close. He never caught one but never got tired of it.
both parties have corruption built into their DNA
Antiphone, I kind of agree with you. That's why Trump is such a threat to both parties.
It looks to me like the Repubs will try to avoid rocking any boats but the voters may notice and punish them.
Bruce Hayden said:
"As I said, things are falling apart in much of Crooked Hillary's America, and with the Presidency in Trump's hands, the left is, probably rightly, panicking. They can have their cities, their urban hipsters, their gang violence, etc. just don't bother asking the rest of us, the deplorable, for help. It is their problem."
Interesting comments, Bruce. Do you think the GOP has the courage to challenge the Democrats on the failures of Detroit, Chicago, California, Illinois, Hartford and so on?
My own Congresswoman in Tucson is Martha McSally and sounds pretty clean. I've sent her money and will volunteer when the time comes. I'd love to see Ducey appoint her to finish McCain's term. She is a retired USAF fighter pilot.
She is the one who created all the flap in Saudi when she refused to wear a burkha off the air base.
I like her a lot.
Michael K: 'Keep wondering. I expect that Mueller will get Flynn on some lame perjury trap. declare victory and go home, just like Fitzgerald did with Libby. Remember "Fitzmas?"'
As I said above, Mueller has compromised himself so badly that redemption can only come by doing substantial damage to Trump's Presidency. He didn't hire 16 six-figure Democrat hacks as henchmen to come up short. Don't expect him to stay within his charge, but don't look for substantive violations either. Chickenshit will do. The leftmedia and never -Trumpers will take it from there. Do you suppose losers like Unknown and Chuck would care how many laws or ethical rules were sacrificed to bring Down Trump?
Nobody even remotely connected with Trump should even consider waiving their 5th Amendment privilege to refuse to give evidence against themselves to Mueller's witch hunt. The Supreme Court has long held that the "Fifth" serves to protect the innocent as well as the guilty. Any lawyer who does not so advise them should be disbarred for incompetence.
The swamp will not be drained by peaceful means.
Amy McGrath from Kentucky, a retired Marine fighter pilot, is running for Congress.
"McGrath is one of several military veterans to run for office as a Democrat following Donald Trump’s election last year. They include former Air Force officer Chrissy Houlahan in Pennsylvania, former Army Ranger Jason Crow in Colorado and former Marine Dan McCready in North Carolina."
Also love your doctor jokes. I send the best ones to my son who is an endo surgeon at Mayo.
LA County number of registered voters is 144% of it's voting age residents.
"Dear Secretary Padilla:
From public records obtained on the Election Assistance Commission (“EAC”) 2016 Election Administration Voting Survey (“EAVS”), and through verbal accounts from various county agencies, eleven (11) counties in California have more total registered voters than citizen voting age population (CVAP) calculated by the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2011-2015 American Community Survey."
We should sell LA County to China to pay off the debt.
Do you think the GOP has the courage to challenge the Democrats on the failures of Detroit, Chicago, California, Illinois, Hartford and so on?
If you haven't, I suggest reading John Kass's columns about Chicago and Illinois. The Illinois GOP is almost as corrupt as the Dims.
They had a US Senator who had defeated Carol Mosely Braun who was deeply corrupt. He was Senator Peter Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald was first elected to the state Senate in 1992. He was a member of a group of conservative state senators elected in 1992. They often challenged the leadership of the Illinois Republican Party and were dubbed the "Fab Five." The group also included Steve Rauschenberger, Dave Syverson, Patrick O'Malley and Chris Lauzen
He served as a moderate conservative but was too clean for the Illinois GOP. They told him he would not be nominated for re-election. Instead they nominated Jack Ryan who had marital baggage and that's how we got Barack Obama.
That's all you need to know about the Illinois GOP.
California is also hopeless. The guy who should have been governor and Senator is a Congressman named Tom McClintock, who was running for Governor in 2002 and a RINO named Bill Simon swooped in and dumped enough money to get the nomination, then lost the Gray Davis who was so awful he was recalled in 2003.
This is democracy, and these are your fellow citizens.
Actually, no -- all the "is-this-my-country?"Trump-haters were supposed to have moved to Canada by now.
What this guy tweeted:
@newtgingrich May 17
Robert Mueller is superb choice to be special counsel. His reputation is impeccable for honesty and integrity. Media should now calm down.
Also love your doctor jokes. I send the best ones to my son who is an endo surgeon at Mayo.
One more. A guy swallowed his glass eye and had an obstruction. He went to the GI guy but was ashamed to admit he had swallowed his eye. The GI doc does a colonscopy and up about 30 centimeters, he sees an eye looking back at him. He stops he procedure and says to the patient, "Sir, You are just going to have to learn to trust me."
We actually had a rectal foreign object that was a "Smuckers" jam jar. One of the residents did a sigmoidoscopy and saw "Smuckers" looking back at him.
Unknown said...
Why is Trump upset that his taxes are under Mueller's purview?
"Trump was asked by the New York Times whether Robert Mueller would be crossing a red line if he expanded the probe into the Trump family empire. “I would say yes,” Trump said about the red line."
Because Mueller is running a Stalinist investigation against a person looking for a crime. No criminality has ever bee alledged. The Special Counsel was appointed due to an illegal leak by Comey.
None of the people trying to oust Trump with this garbage investigation have any concern about the law or justice. This is a pure power grab. You leftists were willing to overlook dozens of felonies by Clinton, Obama, and Clinton including rape and serial violations of the espionage act.
We will not allow you stalinists to seize power like this. You would be better off accepting the results of the election and being decent human beings. If you continue down your treasonous path we will crush you.
"Friday's Drudge had Hillary hiring back her old campaign staff."
Who is paying for them?
Blogger RichardJohnson said...
According to the World Bank, in 2014 the US ranked 8th in the world in Health expenditure, public (% of GDP).
Why use % of GDP, Richard? that seems to be misleading.
You could have 2 countries each spending the same amount on health care per person but if one has half the GDP of the other, it will look like it is spending twice as much. It is, as a percentage of GDP but not in terms of how much healthcare each person is getting. Dollar value of the health care, not necessarily actual amount due to differing efficiencies.
If we go to your link and look at $/capita spent on healthcare, the US is #3 behind only Switzerland and Norway.
Per capita in US Dollars
All Countries and Economies
Country
Switzerland 9,674
Norway 9,522
United States 9,403
Monaco 8,149
Luxembourg 8,138
Sweden 6,808
Denmark 6,463
Australia 6,031
Netherlands 5,694
Austria 5,580
Germany 5,411
Canada 5,292
France 4,959
New Zealand 4,896
And so on.
John Henry
The Toothless Revolutionary said...
"This is embarrassing. Sometimes you engage in discussion. Lately you can only engage your strawmen.
It is also a point that Ritmo, probably the most intelligent leftist in this arena, unknowingly makes the point of Ann's post."
Do you and Trump's minions or do you not want to destroy the state? I know that's what Steve Bannon said he wanted to do. (While calling himself a "Marxist") Are his ideas setting the agenda or aren't they?
Again with your projections. You are rambling now. My personal view is almost everything the federal government does domestically needs to be done at the state level for a variety of reasons.
Speaking of straw men, almost everything everyone in these comments says about the left is a straw man. We're not the ones trying to re-shape America in the image of Communist China. Or trying to set America on the same course Russia wants to do to itself again that it did at every point prior to 1917.
Obama turned the surveillance state on his political enemies. He sent the IRS after his political enemies. I believe large chunks of the GOP were involved and applauded. The FBI/DOJ at the highest levels is clearly trying to help keep the current political class in power. It is this entrenched power that needs to be defeated.
I think you guys love communism, or socialism - or whatever. You seem to want to do everything in your power to make it inevitable.
This is just dumb.
Someday you will find that just rubbing shoulders with low-pay workers doesn't actually do anything for their lives. Flattery only works on people dumb enough to believe it all their lives - like Trump.
Condescending and dumb.
How do the Clintons - who, unlike Trump, build nothing, do nothing, create nothing - how do the Clintons make over 10 Million a year?
You leftists were willing to overlook dozens of felonies by Clinton, Obama, and Clinton including rape and serial violations of the espionage act.
Yes, because they have the right "policies" that include destruction of the bourgeois culture.
Also known as The Middle Class. Sinclair Lewis began the process although Wilson had given them the inspiration with his government of "experts." Fascism descended with Eugene Debs imprisoned by Wilson, and the Palmer Raids which ended with Harding and Coolidge's election.
Prohibition was often blamed on Republicans by the 1920s "intellectuals" when they were another manifestation of "Progressives."
This is a 100 year war with the left that began with Theodore Roosevelt's egotism and tantrum that Taft was not following his policies closely enough.
We are nearing the end with Obama and the Clinton crime family.
"Trump and Self-Worth: the Story of a Broken Man" (excerpt)...
It took me awhile, but now I can say it: I am PROUD of my Ass Herpes. My Ass Herpes is a constant reminder of the need to be vigilant against the forces of Evil and Stupidity that elected Trump. My Ass Herpes remind me that Resistance includes pain and suffering. My Ass Herpes remind me that Nazis exist...
In the bathrooms of seedy bars, with each man that fucks me in my herpes-riddled ass, I remember Why I Am Here. With each diseased cock I suck for drug money I remember Who I Am. With each Impassioned Internet Comment I remember What I Stand For. Trump will NOT define me. Trump will NOT define me. Trump will NOT define me...
I am Laslo.
Yeah, Ritmo and Inga think we're Nazis who are trying to destroy the American state because everyone knows the Nazis were totally anti-Big Government. That makes total sense - if you watch CNN and MSNBC.
Maybe when Inga is done googling for Bonhoeffer quotes she should look at just who is leading her beloved pussy hat brigade. Linda Sarsour is a supporter of Islamic terrorism and she's not the only one:
"NY Post reports that Rasmea Yousef Odeh, a convicted terrorist. Odeh, a Palestinian, was convicted in Israel in 1970 for her part in two terrorist bombings, one of which killed two students while they were shopping for groceries. She spent 10 years in prison for her crimes. She then managed to become a US citizen in 2004 by lying about her past (great detective work, INS: Next time, use Google) but was subsequently convicted, in 2014, of immigration fraud for the falsehoods. However, she won the right to a new trial (set for this spring) by claiming she had been suffering from PTSD at the time she lied on her application. Oh, and in her time as a citizen, she worked for a while as an ObamaCare navigator.
Angela Davis, is a Stalinist professor and longtime supporter of the Black Panthers. Davis is best known for being acquitted in a 1972 trial after three guns she bought were used in a courtroom shootout that resulted in the death of a judge. She celebrated by going to Cuba.
Tithi Bhattacharya, praised Maoism in an essay for the International Socialist Review, noting that Maoists are “on the terrorist list of the US State Department, Canada, and the European Union,” which she called an indication that “Maoists are back in the news and by all accounts they are fighting against all the right people.” You know you’re dealing with extremism when someone admits to hating Canada."
Charmers.
Boy, Inga, I bet Bonhoeffer would be marching right alongside them if he were alive!
The Left screams about violence while they're the ones committing it. They santimonously trot out Bonhoeffer quotes while ignoring the Jew haters in their own midst.
Readering opined: "What this guy tweeted:
@newtgingrich May 17
Robert Mueller is superb choice to be special counsel. His reputation is impeccable for honesty and integrity. Media should now calm down."
I tend to consider actions with a bit more weight that words. Since May 17, Mueller has essentially hired a crew of former Hillary fundraisers as staff. I am skeptical that Mueller, Comey's buddy, will view this investigation through an unbiased lens. It's early though, I could be wrong.
"It is also a point that Ritmo, probably the most intelligent leftist in this arena ...."
Tell me the bar hasn't been set that low!
TTR said...
"Well the 1600s called. They want their ideas on how to run a government back"
If you said the late 1700's I would have given you a cookie.
As it is your post was just stupid.
Blogger Unknown said...
"Why did Republicans give the nomination to Trump without him revealing his taxes? You seriously don't care what is in his taxes? You don't care about possible crimes, tax evasion, money laundering? Why would you not care?"
They have been submitted to the IRS and he has been audited every year. I have been audited. They are ridiculous and assume you did everything wrong and are lying. To get past the IRS that many times Trump is going to be nearly spotless and nowhere near felonious.
Anything mueller makes up will be a lie.
"Tell me the bar hasn't been set that low!"
I agree, that's overstating things. That guy who calls himself the town in Yorkshire is probably the smartest leftist posting here.
Tommy Duncan:
You forgot Birmingham, Memphis, StLouis, Kansas City, Houston, San Francisco, Cleveland and quite a few more.
The failures of Democrat cities is a scandal of the first order.
So the press covers it. With a pillow. Until it stops moving.
UnknownInga64
Will you abandon hope that we won't know it's you?
I know it is impolite to say this, but I would love to know their ages.
Don't worry. Nowhere near as close to death and irrelevance as you are.
It must be nice to be so immoral to have screwed up things as badly as your generation has, and so unconcerned about your posterity not to care!
Actually, I'm sure it isn't all that nice. But glad you feel free to admit it, anyway.
This reminds me of the overwrought letters my parent used to leave for me to explain shit. Like 8 page, both sides typed single space. And we lived in the same house. I couldn't read them. Too emo.
Ten years later I was in Jackson Hole Wyo and realized I was free and happy. Finally.
As it is your post was just stupid.
MacArthur Prize-winning Genius Grant fellow Achilles, everybody.
I was about to write something clever in response to Freder, Inga, Cookie and our nasty little LLR, Chuckles.
But, frankly Charlotte, I don't give a damn.
Yeah, Ritmo and Inga think we're Nazis who are trying to destroy the American state because everyone knows the Nazis were totally anti-Big Government.
Which makes Trump not a Nazi because no matter how incompetent the micro-manager is at delegating or getting anyone to work for him, he still wants to exercise a heck of a lot more power than any other president - including power over the legislature and judiciary!
Totally not Nazi-like, at all. And that politicized, self-pitying rally for the Boy Scouts? The one where he lied about what they had to say about it? Also completely non-Nazi.
The xenophobia is not Nazi-like. So is his hatred of the press, which Trump fan Richard Spencer (very non-Nazi) said he preferred to refer to in the original German: luegenpresse.
Trump sees an America in which all the classes are united. Much like der Fuehrer did.
Trump is very concerned that people know the extent and depth of his struggles. In fact, he could write a book called "My Struggle." It would go gangbusters. Especially after translated into a German title.
And then there was their bizarre sexuality interests. Oh, and Hitler liked to slick his hair back in an immaculate fashion, as well.
They both believed in the importance of investing one's faith in a "strong" leader - one to whom all others must be subservient. They also both liked to play their staffs off against each other; they believed in instituting a Darwinian "survival of the fittest" contest to see who could flatter the leader and win his favor the most.
That's about it for now. Let me know if you come up with any others. Hopefully I haven't missed any!
I was about to write something clever in response to Freder, Inga, Cookie and our nasty little LLR, Chuckles.
But, frankly Charlotte, I don't give a damn.
No. You're really just not clever.
Remember, Trump hates to be outdone and he says he gets to be the smart one! Good job of you to fall in line like that! I'm sure he'll be impressed at your one-way devotion to him.
Again with your projections. You are rambling now. My personal view is almost everything the federal government does domestically needs to be done at the state level for a variety of reasons.
So just admit that you want to destroy the state. That's how your friend Steve Bannon put it. He also called himself a Marxist but the point is the same. The 50 states won't gain sovereignty at the U.N. If you want to dismantle the federal government just say so.
And it helps to firm my belief that Trump was the best choice.
Given your age and passion for passionless conviction, consider us to be the political equivalent of what must be your favorite pharmaceutical. We are your ideological Viagra.
I'm not rambling, he said in his 6th post in the last 19 minutes.
I'm actually becoming more amenable to voluntary reductions of what the federal state distributes back to the 50 states. Most revenue is collected on us in the blue states, because our economies and industries smash the pissy little red state economies to shreds, in terms of performance and importance. So most spending goes back to them. Perhaps it shouldn't. What good are they doing with it anyway? It will kill national cohesion, but on a purely practical and moral level, these red state assholes who keep obsessing about what the federal government does should get as their reward a total reduction of expenditure back to them. If the Medicaid cuts lead to more red staters dying, then hopefully they'll learn next time and vote differently.
But I'm really getting sick and tired of these dysfunctional, retrograde red states pushing their stupid agenda onto the country. They could sell their case much more easily by admitting how much the blue states outperform their own economies, contribution to revenue per capita - especially when considering how much less per capital they take back for it, and cut a deal with us. They hate their residents, we love ours, and let their unimpressive contributions to the federal coffers be reflected in decreased expenditure on them.
Fine with me.
I'm not rambling, he said in his 6th post in the last 19 minutes.
Every stupid/wrong thing you upload gives me something else to post about.
It is wrong to say that I am rambling, he said again, in his 8th post in 23 minutes.
How dare anybody think my sophomoric jibberish is rambling.
Because the democrat media has been calling anyone who doesn't agree with them sexist, racist, homophobic, religious nuts, xenophobic, bigots and now with this election deplorable. Why would they accept any votes from them.
F**** them.
Speaking of Mein Kampf .. guess what it translates as in Arabic. ... There you have it ... Why it is so popular in the Muslim world. Hitler is the 2nd coming for them.
I wonder how those Leftist Collectivists will factor in the hundreds of billions in bailouts states like California, Illinois, Connecticut and Massachusetts (not to mention Puerto Rico) will demand in this wrongheaded factless assertsion that the Leftist Collectivist states pay more in taxes.
It will be fun to read.
It is wrong to say that I am rambling, he said again, in his 8th post in 23 minutes.
How dare anybody think my sophomoric jibberish is rambling.
I think Citizens United says that, as long as I've got the money, I can ramble all I want. Right?
>why the anger at Trumps election?
I wonder this also.
Some guesses on the left's opposite opposition:
1. Trump deliberately trolls his opposition.
2. Quick responses are to easy on twitter and facebook.
3. Echo chamber on the left
4. TDS is good short term politics
5. The vocal base demands it. Part of the echo chamber.
6. Culture issue where if you believe your on the side of rightednous and demographics, the only way you could lose would be via cheating.
7. Trump is the first Republican President that hits back
8. The opposition smells blood in the water with nobody, but voters, supporting Trump. House, Senate, etc are full of Republicans that don't like Trump.
9. Trump is blunt and course, and does not virtue signal.
10. There is no cost yet electorially demonstrated/ perceived for TDS.
GOPe anger I don't get. Wanting to vote for Hillary?
I wonder how those Leftist Collectivists will factor in the hundreds of billions in bailouts states like California, Illinois, Connecticut and Massachusetts (not to mention Puerto Rico) will demand in this wrongheaded factless assertsion that the Leftist Collectivist states pay more in taxes.
Certainly it is not "rambling" to restrict your vocabulary to dunderheaded Orwellian doublespeak like "leftist collectivists." Especially when dunderhead Birkel forgets that loans were paid back to the taxpayer at interest and Wall Street and Silicon Valley are what allow us to have as big an economy as we do in the first place. But if he wants to argue about how the poor Alabama Medicaid recipient has done anything else as worthy as that for the money then let him try.
TTR said...
...Stuff... That boils down to:
1. Trump is a Nazi.
2. Everyone who disagrees with him is stupid.
3. We should let the coastal elites/wealthy run the country because they have all the money.
Is that a fair summary of your positions?
"Don't worry. Nowhere near as close to death and irrelevance as you are."
So pretty much college age or younger. If you can manage to shed some of your anger it will pass.
I wonder how much further Hillary can go with the resistance game, till Trump says game over and demands an investigation of her corruption...
Putting Silicon Valley and Wall Street out of business as unpatriotic America-hater Birkel wants to do is fine with me. Just as soon as he divests himself of every computer product he's ever used, every internet service, and stops investing any of his money.
Oh silly me, I forgot! He doesn't have any money to invest. Typical red-state trailer boy.
You know, every revolutionary wants to destroy "A" state.
And they immediately acquire the structure of the old state, which they did not actually destroy, and convert it to their ends, as did the Bolsheviks of the October Revolution, or are eventually subverted by the instutution of the state, as were the French revolutionaries.
The only cases where this model doesnt apply are when nations devolve into complete anarchy, which happens only in extreme cases of underlying barbarism.
To "destroy the state" is a meaningless statement. One must expound in detail.
I actually participated in the destruction of a state, in a manner analogous to one or both sides goals within the current American controversy, the end in view of either the "deplorables" or the "resistance". That was the Philippine revolution of 1986, which I think is a reasonably good model for what is achievable.
The outcome was as follows - the head of state (Marcos) was replaced, as were many service chiefs of the armed forces, most of the cabinet, a large number of executive agency leadership, leaders of government corporations, and a number of "crony" enterprises were sequestered.
The police, municipal services, nationalized utilities, the post office, transport systems, the courts, and etc. all remained open throughout. As did the military, conducting their regular duties. All this structure in a modern state runs by auto-pilot really. I think it was Belgium that ran for two years recently with neither executive nor cabinet.
So, Ritmo, what do you mean by "destroy the state"?
And this time expound with detail and reason. You can do a great deal better than to vent your rage-boiler.
Is that a fair summary of your positions?
No. But it's as good as your mind will let you understand of them, so I don't expect you to be accurate or anything.
Regarding #3, I don't care who "runs" the country - although anyone would be better than Queens-born bullshit connoisseur Donald Trump - just that less federally collected monies go to red states.
"Don't worry. Nowhere near as close to death and irrelevance as you are."
So pretty much college age or younger.
Not really. In our blue states and liberal communities, health outcomes are much better than in the ones you identify with and we tend to make it into our eighties or beyond. But I can understand your identification with societies that kill each other off or win Darwin Awards for fatal firework or farm equipment-related incidents before age 30.
The Toothless Revolutionary said...
Is that a fair summary of your positions?
No. But it's as good as your mind will let you understand of them, so I don't expect you to be accurate or anything.
You are weak in your positions. You cannot accept the positions others hold and must project your own thoughts onto them to argue with them. You refuse to be clear on what your positions are and take responsibility for them.
You are boring today.
Post something better than "Trump is a nazi and you r dum k."
You cannot accept the positions others hold.
Well if they're bad positions, why should I?
You refuse to be clear on what your positions are -
I'm not unclear. You just have trouble understanding things. Do more pot.
You are boring today.
Oh wow. Sick burn. Is that what you told your teachers growing up before you failed their classes?
"Not really. In our blue states and liberal communities"
So you are one of the ones suckling on the government health tit and demanding more, knowing full well it is unsustainable. The next generation will despise you for it. My God, how do you live with yourself?
Nah. You're a college kid. It is the only thing that explains your attitude. Unless you find a way to live off of the largess of others the rest of your life you are in for some rude awakenings.
No ranting there, no sirree bob.
So you are one of the ones suckling on the government health tit and demanding more, knowing full well it is unsustainable. The next generation will despise you for it. My God, how do you live with yourself?
Same way you live with your denial of temperature, ecology, and the impacts of heavy industry. But at least I know, unlike you, that our financial circumstances are secondary to and much more easily fixed than our destruction of the natural world in which we have no choice but to sustainably live. If we are to live, that is.
Anyway, it's our contributions that are paying the way. If you think spending is unsustainable then contribute to your own fucking economy and fund the revenue better.
Nah. You're a college kid. It is the only thing that explains your attitude. Unless you find a way to live off of the largess of others the rest of your life you are in for some rude awakenings.
It's funny listening to an inherently irrational reactionary trying to reason himself into what he will deny any direct evidence of anyway - even if it were provided to you. It's just a part of your suspicious, untrusting, anti-human nature. And pretty hilarious. You seriously think that adulthood is an unalterable trajectory into stinginess, closed-minded recalcitrance and hatred for your fellow man. Must suck to be you, then. Good luck with your senescence. I hear Alzheimers however is usually the best explanation for the sort of social regression you're experiencing as "normal."
Fernandinande said...
Tyrone Slothrop said...
Explain to me how Democrats get all the votes and lose all the elections. This should be good.
THE CASE OF THE UNCOUNTED BALLOTS, OR
HOW AN IQ TEST CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY
The one figure I found remarkable in that is the 95.6% of all black voters in Florida showed up to vote. We're talking about a population that routinely fails to show up at parent-teacher conferences about their own children. We're talking about areas that often have no volunteer functioning civic organizations, no Scout troops, boy or girl, no Kiwanis or Lions or any other fraternal organization. We're talking about areas where lawyers (and other professionals) deal with what is described here- http://www.thebirdman.org/Index/Others/Others-Doc-Blacks/+Doc-Blacks-Intelligence&Competence/TheTragicomedyOfLawyeringWithBlacks.htm
And yet we are to believe that 95.6% of blacks in Florida can find their way to the polls on election day and vote for Democrats, and there is voter fraud about it. The remarkable civic virtue of black districts in inner cities everywhere showing 100% participation rates is unbelievable on it's face. But yet, it happens again and again and again. Where is all that civic virtue the rest of the year?
And yet we are to believe that 95.6% of blacks in Florida can find their way to the polls on election day and vote for Democrats, and there is voter fraud about it. The remarkable civic virtue of black districts in inner cities everywhere showing 100% participation rates is unbelievable on it's face. But yet, it happens again and again and again.
There is only one answer to this, Gospace: Restrict their access to the polls! Shorten polling hours! Make them choose between working and voting, and do not put in enough machines to accommodate if lines reach around the block! Think of how good this will be for Republicans!
Do it.
The Toothless Revolutionary said...
And yet we are to believe that 95.6% of blacks in Florida can find their way to the polls on election day and vote for Democrats, and there is voter fraud about it. The remarkable civic virtue of black districts in inner cities everywhere showing 100% participation rates is unbelievable on it's face. But yet, it happens again and again and again.
There is only one answer to this, Gospace: Restrict their access to the polls! Shorten polling hours! Make them choose between working and voting, and do not put in enough machines to accommodate if lines reach around the block! Think of how good this will be for Republicans!
Of course, you fail to see the disconnect between observable everyday life and a once a year showing of remarkable civic virtue. That's not even a half-decent attempt at satire.
Of course, you fail to see the disconnect between observable everyday life and a once a year showing of remarkable civic virtue. That's not even a half-decent attempt at satire.
Don't worry. You've already satirized black Americans more than enough with your utterly condescending evaluation of what you seem to have discovered about them.
Said the man who disparaged all Filipinos. Because you care so much about casual racism you demonstrate it every so often?
Lefty racism. Good times.
"Same way you live with your denial of temperature, ecology, and the impacts of heavy industry."
I think I've explained to you before that we have at least partial agreement on this issue. I am still waiting on your proposed solution.
"But at least I know, unlike you, that our financial circumstances are secondary to and much more easily fixed than our destruction of the natural world in which we have no choice but to sustainably live. If we are to live, that is."
Again, I think you are disconnected from the reality of the human condition. The idealism of youth is not the best lens to view the solutions to near unsolvable problems. Besides, I'm tired of picking up you kid's bottles and cans and McDonald's wrappers.
Again, your proposed solution is?
"Anyway, it's our contributions that are paying the way. If you think spending is unsustainable then contribute to your own fucking economy and fund the revenue better."
You know that this sounds like your position is that I should just give more to you? I can pretty well guess that I have funded the government revenue stream a whole lot more than you have. And helped build up the economy in the process. Yet isn't strengthening the economy, thereby harming the environment one of the things you are railing against?
"It's funny listening to an inherently irrational reactionary trying to reason himself into what he will deny any direct evidence of anyway - even if it were provided to you. It's just a part of your suspicious, untrusting, anti-human nature. And pretty hilarious. You seriously think that adulthood is an unalterable trajectory into stinginess, closed-minded recalcitrance and hatred for your fellow man. Must suck to be you, then. Good luck with your senescence. I hear Alzheimers however is usually the best explanation for the sort of social regression you're experiencing as "normal.""
I am rubber and you are glue. LOL.
TTR, I know it is a fools errand, but I am trying to help you. Maturity and adulthood are not synonymous. If you truly want to help solve the problems you are so passionate about you need to gain a bit of it. Juvenile insults reflect badly on you.
To anyone else reading this, sorry for feeding the troll. Sometimes the urge is too strong.
"I wonder how shocked Trumpers will be when the investigations are over and Trump is shown to be a far bigger criminal than Clinton was ever made out to be."
You have a rich and expansive fantasy life.
Ritmo never read or heard of "The Man Who Came to Dinner."
He was invited, spent the whole time talking and wouldn't leave.
It is nice to be able to scroll past so quickly.
Pacwest, TTR was identified as being in his 40s.
Thanks. Sorry TTR. You sound much younger.
Bad Lieutenant,
I think you are wrong. He seemed to self-identify as mid-30s, at most. But since he is an inveterate liar I won't take offense if we disagree on this matter.
pacwest said...
Thanks. Sorry TTR. You sound much younger."
Like 15.
If you truly want to help solve the problems you are so passionate about you need to gain a bit of it.
In the system of bribery our Supreme Court has granted us, all it takes is money - and I don't know that you have all that much more of it than me, at least not in the context of effective campaign contributions, and I'm sure you won't gift what you have that way, anyway.
Oh no! I've been "ID'd!"
Love the "good faith" demand on the part of people who speak of me as if I'm a criminal.
It is nice to be able to scroll past so quickly.
Oh, so now they make a device that does that more easily for 80-year olds?
Very nice, indeed, I'm sure.
The Toothless Revolutionary said...
You cannot accept the positions others hold.
Well if they're bad positions, why should I?
Disagreeing with a position but addressing it honestly is one thing. You refuse to address other peoples opinions honestly and build a strawman to argue against instead. It is dishonest.
"You refuse to be clear on what your positions are -"
I'm not unclear. You just have trouble understanding things. Do more pot.
You never post an actual policy preference. You just sit here most of the time and bash a parody of what other people post. The only thing you are clearly for is the DNC and the democrat machine and the people who fund it having a much power as possible.
"You are boring today."
Oh wow. Sick burn. Is that what you told your teachers growing up before you failed their classes?
It is what I tell otherwise intelligent people who are mentally lazy and do not discuss topics in good faith. The other leftists on this site like Freder or Inga are incapable of engaging because they are stupid. You are capable and at times engage. But tonight you were just wasting your own time and mine it seems.
Some of us look to improve our paradigms and some on this site have perspectives that help with that. You are the only person on the left in this room capable of going beyond copying and pasting garbage on TPM or Huffpo. But lately you are just as useless as the other idiots on this site and really just a disappointment.
You know that this sounds like your position is that I should just give more to you?
I just want to shift the argument and change the debate-frame. I'm tired of wasting all our country's time and energy with red-state assholes whose economies are weaker and whose residents need more cash transfers per revenue contribution paralyzing the legislative and executive branches. If they want the government to do less and the people to do more for themselves, I think we should just make it a red-state/blue-state issue by making all spending back to the states contingent on how much they contribute. Let Mississippi pull its fair share and not shift the burden onto Massachusetts. If these conservatives were real believers in federalism, that's what they'd do. And this distracting go-nowhere debate over individual responsibility could be re-framed as it really is: An argument over state responsibility. Many just aren't pulling their share for the expenditure they receive, and need to be receiving much less of it.
https://taxfoundation.org/states-rely-most-federal-aid/
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-most-least-dependent-on-the-federal-government/2700/
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/which-states-are-givers-and-which-are-takers/361668/
If the conservative "state-destroyers" (although like good little prevaricators, they now today pretend to be state preservationists) were honest, they'd agree to this approach and let the country finally move on to the much bigger and more important things it needs to accomplish. But I predict that they won't. Everything they do relies on misinformation.
You refuse to address other peoples opinions honestly and build a strawman to argue against instead. It is dishonest.
But there's so much misinformation in them. I feel very uncomfortable taking misinformation as a serious challenge to actual, factual information.
You just sit here most of the time and bash a parody of what other people post.
For the most part, so many of their posts are already seem to attempt self-parody. Where they are serious and realistic, I usually either agree or just leave them alone.
But lately you are just as useless as the other idiots on this site and really just a disappointment.
Lately Trump has been playing a partisan and presidential shell-game, attempting to rally his base and his party without much real, non-partisan problem solving. When he stops that - if he stops that - and gets over the fact that he cannot avoid investigation or criticism, then I'll break out of just pure attack mode.
Anyways, thanks for the honest critique.
Again, I think you are disconnected from the reality of the human condition.
I don't know what science you follow, but the way I understand it, economies are a function of the 10,000 year old agrarian societies we developed, which could only take place under the conditions in which we evolved anyway. And our evolution's taken about a million to ten million years - depending on how you measure it, and a few billion before that. With every degree increase we decrease agricultural yields by about 10%. Our naval ports now need to be done over from scratch, and will keep having to be done over from scratch every few decades or however long it takes to experience another few feet of rise. Florida cities have fish swimming in the streets even when it is not raining. Alaska telephone poles fall over because the permafrost is going away. We are putting the planet through its 6th great extinction, all on our own, and have no idea how many of these species that we kill off are also crucial to our own survival.
And the response of the right is to basically deny that and say that unless the amount of change can be predicted to an infinitesimal degree of certainty, preserving our environment isn't worth it. This is insane. It's like saying that unless someone could predict exactly how close to death a dose of arsenic would bring a poisoner's husband, she's not guilty of malfeasance. Even gunshot wounds aren't uniformly fatal. But to tempt fate with one always brings the perpetrator into culpability. I'm supposed to be taking seriously the politics of people who don't get any of this and who obviously have warped values that differ so drastically from what is normal as to say that money matters more than lives. There is no way for me to take people like that seriously.
"It's like saying that unless someone could predict exactly how close to death a dose of arsenic would bring a poisoner's husband, she's not guilty of malfeasance. "
YES! It's JUST like that.
"making all spending back to the states contingent on how much they contribute"
Something similar to pushing medicare payments back to the states? Sounds like a Freedom Caucus scheme to me. How much power/responsibility do you want to divest back to the states and how much would you like to see the federal government shrink? We could be in total agreement here. Suprisingly enough. You almost sound like a fiscally conservative republican on this one.
Again, I think you are disconnected from the reality of the human condition. -me
I wasn't clear enough here. The US and a lot of western nations have made decent gains limiting pollution within their respective countries. Any real gains need to be made by China and others. And don't give me that Paris Accords bullshit. I would think anyone worried about our planets health would be happy to be out of that. It was an easy out for the real polluters.
What I meant was that guy in rural India burning cow dung to keep his family warm doesn't give a shit about GW anymore than the Chinese industrialist burning raw brown coal to make a million anymore than you using energy to live your affluent lifestyle. My point was humans by nature are first and foremost self-centered. The water will be up to Denver resident's knees before humanity will be willing to make sacrifices necessary. Probably not even then. And no I do not believe the science is settled, although I do have my worries.
You want to control pollution? Control population. You have a better solution?
You seriously don't care what is in his taxes?
I have a mild curiosity about Trump’s taxes. If he ever reveals his taxes I would be very disappointed if Trump did not take advantage of every tax law that he could to keep his tax bill as small as possible. Doing otherwise would brand him as a poor businessman and a poor employer.
I suspect that Trump paid NO taxes wherever he could legally avoid it. That’s what I would have done if I had been Trump. In fact – that’s what I do. I never pay more taxes than I am legally required to pay.
Considering that Trump has the best tax advice that money can buy – I would be disappointed if he paid much in taxes. My best case scenario is that Trump paid no taxes at all. To pay any more than is legally required is just plain silly.
You don't care about possible crimes, tax evasion, money laundering? Why would you not care?
The IRS has Trump’s tax returns. If there are crimes revealed by those returns I assume the IRS Deep State contingent would leak it to the Post or the failing NYT. Notify me when a lefty New York prosecutor issues an indictment and I’ll pay attention to “possible crimes.” Otherwise, “crime” talk is nothing more than the usual smearing of Trump with the usual innuendo from the usual suspects.
It looks to me like the Repubs will try to avoid rocking any boats but the voters may notice and punish them.
Yes. Ryan and the rest of the eGOP phonies are walking a fine line that may backfire. They want to avoid passing significant legislation because to do so would benefit Trump. Benefiting Trump is something they’ll do almost anything to avoid. But not passing that legislation could also sink the eGOP’s boat in 2018.
If that happens and the eGOP loses seats in Congress I predict their fallback will be to try to blame Trump for their defeats. I also predict that the Trump excuse will fail. Why would it fail?
Because of alternative news which gives rise to and supports independent opinion.
Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms, the internet and various influential blogs have all busted the old MSM news monopoly and opened up new avenues of information and persuasion. The stranglehold the old media had on opinion is over and the Lefties are losing their minds over this modern development.
"Considering that Trump has the best tax advice that money can buy – I would be disappointed if he paid much in taxes. My best case scenario is that Trump paid no taxes at all."
You sound very pleased to place the manacles around your neck and limbs yourself.
The best case scenario is that wealthy individuals (and corporations) would be required to pay more, rather than less--or no--taxes.
""Considering that Trump has the best tax advice that money can buy – I would be disappointed if he paid much in taxes. My best case scenario is that Trump paid no taxes at all."
You sound very pleased to place the manacles around your neck and limbs yourself.
The best case scenario is that wealthy individuals (and corporations) would be required to pay more, rather than less--or no--taxes."
The best case scenario is that the tax code be stripped of the carve outs, and non-competition elements installed over decades by Congress Critters beholding to special interests. Nearly every paragraph in the tax code has a daddy. And nearly every paragraph creates a victim.
Cutting these cancers out one by one is impossible. Fiddling with rates is smoke and mirrors. The rich and powerful can hire experts to avoid the mines. And who, except a LLR can blame them? Even the beloved Buffet says he'll take every legal deduction. So do I, but there are damn few for me.
A wholesale reform(like, maybe, a flat tax) is the only viable method.
We understand you want more communism, Robert Cook.
After all, it's never been tried with the "right people" running it.
I say again you are a monster who would not weep to see mass slaughter in pursuit of your self-defined-purity of vision.
JAORE,
That might be correct - EXCEPT - the Congress would face the same incentives that led us where we are the same day some new tax regime was installed. Congress would immediately be petitioned for redress of grievances and start manipulating that new system by placing riders in bills, log rolling and etc.
I wish the outcome could be different but that possibility will only obtain if the incentives of the politicians change. And your guess is as good as anybody's how that might happen.
And yet we are to believe that 95.6% of blacks in Florida can find their way to the polls on election day and vote for Democrats, and there is voter fraud about it.
I don't know where you got this bullshit statistic, but it is simply not true.
Term limits would be a good place to start..
Term limits would be a good place to start..
Amen to that, bro!
Not only will I second what grackle wrote (6:02), but I'll go further. I hope that Trump legally paid precisely zero in taxes. I can't imagine anything that would better goad the lethargic Republicans in the House and Senate to get serious about real tax reform.
And don't give me that Paris Accords bullshit. I would think anyone worried about our planets health would be happy to be out of that. It was an easy out for the real polluters.
Exactly which status quo ante treaty was doing more to rein them in?
My point was humans by nature are first and foremost self-centered.
Ergo, the government's job is to encourage their self-centeredness and exacerbate its harms? I don't think so.
Can more comedy gold happen?
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