MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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Hits of the Day
Study shows US democracy getting weaker (not due to Trump)
By artappraiser on Wed, 01/25/2017 - 8:41pm |Original Title: "A new study shows American democracy is getting weaker. And not because of Trump."
[....] This year’s report, released on Wednesday morning, has a striking finding: The United States has, for the first time, been rated as a “flawed” rather than “full” democracy.
You’d think, given the timing, that the election of Donald Trump is the reason why. But that’s not it. The report is based on a quantitative metric, linked to survey data and policy, that doesn’t incorporate the election results.
“The decline in the US democracy score reflects an erosion of confidence in government and public institutions over many years,” the report states. “[Trump’s] candidacy was not the cause of the deterioration in trust but rather a consequence of it.” [....] The US scores particularly poorly on “the functioning of government” (7.14) and “political participation” (7.22). This, according to the EIU, reflects a steep decline in American citizens’ faith in their government. [....]
URL:
http://www.vox.com/world/2017/1/25/14385728/economist-intelligence-unit-american-democracy-2016
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Comments
The title of the piece which they state in the text, should be "Study Finds Flawed US Democracy Led to Trump's Election"
Whatever metrics on 'flaws' they look at, will only get worse with '4 million illegals voted' 'gotta investigate that' 'gotta stop those illegals, we know who they are...' Trump.
by NCD on Thu, 01/26/2017 - 11:58am
Don't leave out. "Torture is effective. It is VERY effective." BIGLY EFFECTIVE. If anyone asked, (which is highly unlikely, I know), how he knows this, or is it just something he 'feels,' the answer would be "Many very smart people have told me this."
To which anyone interviewing him with a brain and cajones, would respond, "The same people who 'called you' and said that Obama's Birth Certificate was a fraud?" "The same people from the NFL who called you and complained about the debates conflicting with a football game?"
And on, and on......
by CVille Dem on Thu, 01/26/2017 - 5:48pm
I saw the part of the David Muir interview that addressed that and Muir did do a gotcha on him on that. He let him go on and on about how he conferred in the last 24 hours with "top people" and it works and General Mattis yadda yadda. And Muir listened and then said something like "but Mattis and Pompeo are against using torture." And Trump really fumbled next and I got the quote after that from this article
.. said he would defer to Defense Secretary James Mattis and CIA Director Mike Pompeo. “I’m going with General Mattis. I’m going with my secretary,” he told Muir. “Because I think Pompeo’s gonna be phenomenal. I’m gonna go with that they say.”
And where Muir gave him a break was in moving on to another topic after he had to backtrack so badly.
Which just goes to show what I now strongly believe: he's a fucking troll, just trying to rile by saying outrageous things. And I don't even know if I should waste time posting things like this anymore, and I don't know if people like David Muir should be wasting time challenging him either, because I believe "don't feed the troll" works. He wants media attention for outrageous stuff that exhibits "king of the hill" message. The more you feed him, the more you'll get, and less press resources will be spent on covering what's really going to happen. I.E., in this case, Mattis and Pompeo are not going to allow a return to torture, not to mention not just McCain but Ryan and McConnell. And he's said he's going to acquiesce to his generals, and the heads of Congress are with the generals, and the McConnell link has him saying he's conferred with the head of the CIA and he's not going to go back to torture either. So no way is there going to be torture. So it's just all Trump bullshit bluster for stupid public consumption to distract from what he really will do or can do, and it's just feeding a troll to even challenge this kind of bullshit from him.
By the way, he recommended to his Twitter followers that they watch Muir's interview, so he was pleased with it, even with that faux pas (and probably many others--I didn;'t bother to watch the whole thing, by that time, I was coming to the conclusion: no more feeding the troll with fact checking.)
All that said, your suggested reply, CVille, is hovering on the edge of ridicule, and mho, make it a bit stronger and: that's the one other tactic that works very well on trolls!!!
by artappraiser on Thu, 01/26/2017 - 6:28pm
P.S. It's just coming so clear: with his narcissism disorder, he is constantly craving respect as Mr. Alpha Male of the whole world for his Alpha babbling, which will scare all the bogey men away, protecting all those little forgotten ones with no power he met on campaign trail, protecting them from terrorism and get them factory jobs yadda yadda and then they will all hail his brilliance further, including the bogey men and the media will be licking his feet. The facts aren't the point. It's acting alpha and scaring people into a deal. ("The art of the deal.") The B males then attend to the messy details of the deal, stupid stuff like facts, after he's scared the shit out of the other side, any eventual deal is fine. (In his real estate deals, the B males are the army of lawyers.)
This is why giving the outrageous "alternative facts" media attention is bad, it's feeding a troll, he just goes with more Alpha.
It is also why ridicule, especially comic ridicule not coming from an opposing politico, should work too. Has to be skilled enough, though, to eventually make a lot of the swings and some of his fans laugh at him.
by artappraiser on Thu, 01/26/2017 - 6:45pm
Took John 5 mos., he finally sees: Donald Trump Will Go Down in History as the Troll-in-Chief
By John Cassidy @ The New Yorker, June 29, 2017
by artappraiser on Fri, 06/30/2017 - 7:18pm
Investing legend Jim Rogers says dump stocks if Trump launches trade war.....A veteran investor, who has witnessed several crises over the past half-century, is worried....“He very much wants a trade war. And if that happens, sell everything,” Rogers told MarketWatch...
Yes....Are we biggly winning yet?
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN...LIKE IT WAS LAST WEEK !
by NCD on Thu, 01/26/2017 - 6:48pm
stuff like that is why I think I'm gonna be following business news sections more closely than political ones for a while, until the latter gets a better handle on handling the troll.
By the way, another part of the Muir interview I caught, he took credit for the 20,000 Dow He actually said something like "they love me, see what happened?" I envisioned all kinds of Wall Streeters putting their fists in their mouths so they wouldn't throw up. First prez ever to do that, the unwritten rule is: never comment on the market, puhleez stay away from opining on the market.
by artappraiser on Thu, 01/26/2017 - 7:09pm
Headline news for Mr. Rogers et. al.: Nevermind. Was just some more Alpha Male babble about a wall, we didn't think you would be listening.
by artappraiser on Thu, 01/26/2017 - 7:27pm
Trump wants trade war, Trump needs trade war, Trump has to have it.
Also was my 4 year old nephews favorite sentence structure relating to toys or food.
by NCD on Thu, 01/26/2017 - 8:12pm
While it may be a comfort to us to consider him a mere troll, unfortunately others are listening - and will react accordingly. Whether we like it or not, Trump is the President of the US and his words (and, mind-numbingly, his tweets) matter.
by barefooted on Thu, 01/26/2017 - 8:39pm
Trolls know this, so does Trump, Bannon et. al., so do Postmodernist philosophers, as one self-described "Message Master" conservative blog coacher instructs:
Whoever Controls the Narrative Wins!
...If you simply attack the existing narrative, your chances of winning are slim...
(BTW,later in that 2015 post, after going into anti-global-warming, he is admiring Trump's skills)
You can't attack, that just feeds, you must re-direct to a different narrative. Their protests are disingenuous: the more attention to their narratives the better; the more opponents you get flustered by illogic, the better; label him dangerous, so much the better. It's all so alpha: all confidence, no doubt, dust one unveiled lie off shoulder, move on to the next.
Again, humiliation is.the other weapon aside from stopping feeding and redirecting to an actual real narrative. Hence, Bannon is using it right now: "the media should be humiliated."
by artappraiser on Thu, 01/26/2017 - 11:34pm
Women understand the alpha male better than most, no? So I can't disagree with your narrative or general position, but ... it's different now that he's POTUS. For all the damage his ridiculousness can cause domestically it pales beside his power to cause harm internationally. And for each catastrophe we hopefully avoid via luck and the occasional cooler head there will be another not so easily averted.
A troll he most certainly is, AA. But he's ours now.
by barefooted on Fri, 01/27/2017 - 12:20am
Lindsey Graham ridicules Trump in tweet, from CNN
[....]
President Donald Trump himself, of course, is known to end tweets by deciding something to be "sad." Graham -- who, as a GOP presidential primary candidate, once joked "we're going to drink more" if he were elected -- is a frequent critic of the President.
[....]
by artappraiser on Fri, 01/27/2017 - 1:30am