MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
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MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
Melania responded to Sean Hannity’s question about the biggest problem she has faced in the White House with the following:
“I’d say the opportunists who are using my name or my family name to advance themselves, from comedians to journalists to performers, book writers,” she said. “It doesn’t hurt. The problem is they’re writing the history and it’s not correct.”
Melania sees the press and critics as the problem. She is the perfect partner for Donald Trump.
Comments
As wife #3 married to a rich, loathsome, detestable, reprehensible, abhorrent, abominable, awful, heinous, contemptible serial adulterer and liar with no redeeming qualities, could it be she's the mother of all immoral, unprincipled, unscrupulous, disreputable, unconscionable opportunists?
by NCD on Thu, 12/13/2018 - 5:24pm
Melania is the perfect First Lady for the deplorables. There was a time that she was given the benefit of the doubt, but that is no longer the case. Having your daughter have Michelle as a role model would be a great thing. If Melania was the role model, you would wonder where you went wrong.
by rmrd0000 on Thu, 12/13/2018 - 10:18pm
I'm sorry what is it about this remark that provides the basis for an attack on Melania?
Let's try this,
I expect many of us here would just nod our heads in agreement.
But when Melania says it, it's grounds for...........well attacking her for the crime of
being married to her husband.
Reminds me of
by Flavius on Fri, 12/14/2018 - 9:40am
Camille Cosby defended Bill. She received pushback. Donald Trump commits crimes and makes racial slurs. People write about those facts. Melania is upset. There is no comparison between the political attacks on Nancy Pelosi by Conservatives and the criticism of Melania Trump’s comments. But I do have empathy for poor Fala.
by rmrd0000 on Fri, 12/14/2018 - 9:52am
Where's the Checkers Speech when you need it.
by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 12/14/2018 - 10:51am
for sure, and not just because it's about the family dog, but there's also the part about Pat's respectable Republican cloth coat and how she looks good in anything. Melania doesn't know from respectable coats, and some of hers are even used for private rather than classic conservative messaging.
by artappraiser on Fri, 12/14/2018 - 4:42pm
Pat Nixon remake/re-brand: "I is not cares whooz a crook, does u?"
Checkers 2.0 for the GOP would be at minimum a rottweiler, better a pitbull. Soft & cuddly my ass - we know what buys respect.
by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 12/15/2018 - 7:28am
On the pitbull thing, you pegged it, I think again of the near viral Twitter meme I noted the other day how Trump is not a dog person. They were all basically saying that even a vicious political opponent can make themselves look human when they reveal themselves to be a dog person.
On Pat Nixon I am thinking how she always appeared to me as knowing early on that she was really stuck married to a deeply flawed and hurt man and being cowed by her situation and then he pities her for what he did to her by marrying her. As the current president says: SAD!
Melania doesn't do that, she's a street fighter from day one on the catwalk, not embarrassed for anything she did or does. The modus operandi: mostly silent tigress.
by artappraiser on Sat, 12/15/2018 - 3:02pm
I don't think she's much of a fighter - reserved and self-conscious mostly.
by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 12/15/2018 - 6:59pm
there's also this little press conference clip:
by artappraiser on Fri, 12/14/2018 - 4:58pm
We all spend time every day with Republicans. Some of whom, maybe most, are good people . And at least a few of whom might occasionally vote Democratic.
Attacking the President's wife reduces that number.
Many of them , think it's important to deal seriously with political issues. But a fair number of them ,I think ,believes abusing the candidate's spouse decreases the chance of that.
by Flavius on Fri, 12/14/2018 - 11:26pm
Oh boo-hoo. Wearing her designer coat to tell refugees she doesn't care about them, or spending $100K-200K per night of taxpayers' money for hotels she doesn't even stay at while they're cuttng the fuck out of needed programs?
Bunch of fucking deplorables. Lie down with the pigs, wake up with the pigs. The reason Pat Nixon was off limits was she kept her mouth shut about Tricky Dick's deplorable business. Once you step into the pond, the muck's all yours.
And by the way, the fuckers didn't quite leave Michelle Obama alone, did they? Nice double standards we're supposed to adhere to. Fuck that - impeachment starts Jan 3, at which time Melania, Ivanka, Jared, Don Jr., Eric all get hoisted by crooked petards. All in the Family, no? [don't be surprised if Ivana comes out as some spy-mole from the old days as well]
by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 12/15/2018 - 7:32am
Guilty as charged.
I confess to believing we should do the right thing even if (many of) the other side behave like pigs.
by Flavius on Sat, 12/15/2018 - 9:59am
Well, attacking pigs for acting like pigs - that's a tough one.
by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 12/15/2018 - 10:04am
Flavius, we are doing the right thing. MLK forcefully criticized people who remained silent on Jim Crow and the daily abuses experienced by black people. Gloria Steinem cdirectly attacked men who wanted to keep women in their supposed place. At this point with all the obvious crimes and abuses of the Trumps, decent people have already fled the party. If people are OK with open racism, gassing and kidnapping children, and synergizing with Russians, they are deplorables. We need to call them out. We all have contact with Republicans. If politics comes up, we have civil discussions. There are no fistfights.
by rmrd0000 on Sat, 12/15/2018 - 10:58am
At the same time they did what they did, MLK and Steinem reached out to other tribes for solidarity and inclusion rather than attack opposing tribes all the time. Not one note johnnies for one small tribe. More and more people looking back at history are pointing out that by doing so, that was the secret sauce, they ended up the successful ones. Meanwhile, Malcolm X died from attack owing to a small inter-tribal war and nobody cares about Andrea Dworkin and Catherine MacKinnon anymore.
by artappraiser on Sat, 12/15/2018 - 3:11pm
Malcolm X still looms large.Malcolm is the contrast to Louis Farrakhan. Malcolm’s death was a murder. The National of Islam membership cratered after the assassination.
King reached out to Progressive whites. He criticized those who were silent on Bull Connor.
Steinem reached out to other women with similar goals.
The discussion is about the criticism of Melania, a women who has cyber-bullying as her pet project, but does not object to the bullying tweets and words of Donald.
by rmrd0000 on Sat, 12/15/2018 - 4:31pm
Flavius, you're right to point out that it's counterproductive to do it about "Republicans" and the wives of most presidents. But this is a special case here where Melania just finally revealed who she is and her approval ratings just crashed and where Trump just hired a chief of staff who in the past has called him "a terrible human being." I think we've finally reached a critical point where name calling members of the Trump family is not politically counterproductive. Even then, though, it should be done cleverly, as giving oneself a label of angry jihadis with one's political speech is never a good idea and not a good idea to give off that Dems think all GOP are "deplorables". Fox News uses that every day, every instance of angry lefty jihadis is used to enforce the fear of the left on those in the middle. Ridiculing Trumps, though: they've got no pushback left for that.
I have a brother in the Midwest who listens to right wing talk radio a lot to check on what they are saying. He said it was a big big deal when Tucker Carlson recently told that German journalist that Trump is not capable, they were all freaking out. I dare say it might not hurt anyone to pick on Bannon, it's so bad. The old rules just don't apply with the Trumps. It's like Trumps were holding the GOP hostage and GOP had Stockholm syndrome and they are finally starting to break free....and yeah, nice good people you might like to be in office aren't the type to ridicule those who have Stockholm Syndrome.The hostage takers, though, that's another matter
by artappraiser on Sat, 12/15/2018 - 2:23pm
Would like to add that replying to your comment was helpful to me, as is usually the case, Flav. It occurred to me after writing the above and thinking about Nixon and how he acted: it's Trump's job now to appear moderate and in control in response to attacks and not angry or his goose is cooked. You give good thoughtful pushback and you do it skillfully, like a good teacher does.
by artappraiser on Sat, 12/15/2018 - 2:35pm
Just ran across this amazing quote, that he actually got this at one time:
All I can think of is that a ghostwriter suggested it to him and he liked the sound of it without thinking about it too much.
by artappraiser on Sat, 12/15/2018 - 3:41pm
I can't hate the guy who has just pushed me out of a snow bank .Even tho he voted for Trump.
by Flavius on Sat, 12/15/2018 - 10:40pm
I can hate the guy that hates others. Even if he's nice to me. I make common cause with the oppressed against the oppressor. Even if I'm not one of the oppressed.
by ocean-kat on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 12:20am
Sure , you can.
But does that help win elections? If so, be my guest!
Or maybe "you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" as my (metaphorical) sainted old grannie use to say.
Assuming we care. Maybe we don't. Maybe the satisfaction of a good hate is top of our list.
Or ,just maybe, if we were less active hating various "hateful" people a more of them would actually vote for us.
Might even win more elections. If we care,
by Flavius on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 9:54am
This is a different argument than the one you made previously i.e. you cannot hate someone who helped push you out of a snow drift. It's an implied moral argument, one that you've made often here in which you claim the moral high ground, and one that I find profoundly immoral. Virtually everyone no matter what degree of evil they embrace or manifest is nice to some people. To say that you can't "feel intense or passionate dislike for" someone based solely on the fact that they were nice to you while completely ignoring how they behave toward other people is not an ethically good position imo.
The political argument you're making now is simplistic. But I rarely get involved in such discussions as they require one to analyze the behavior of people who lack knowledge of issues, have faulty analysis of the cause and effect of the problems they face and possible solutions, and worse much of the "knowledge" they assume they possess is factually wrong. I'm just not very good at guessing how best to change the votes of ignorant people.
by ocean-kat on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 1:56pm
This exactly expresses what Italian historian Sergio Luzzatto called "the banality of decency", which I've mentioned before.
Luzzatto says this tactic was used in the postwar trials of fascists. Recall when Italy withdrew from the war in July, 1943, it brought German occupation and the Gestapo to Italy in September 1943 until the surrender of German troops in Italy in May 1945.
Luzzatto reviewed trials of some of the most heinous Italian collaborators and accomplices to murder who aided the Gestapo, Luzzatto noted their defense lawyers often found people who (for little or no discernible reason) were "pulled out" of Gestapo "snowbanks".
They were very few compared to the scores or thousands who perished. But the dead don't speak. This testimony was often enough to overturn death sentences on appeal to courts outside the region where the crimes had been committed.
by NCD on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 3:22pm
You migjt like Lars von Trier's Zentropa (Europa), set in Germany in the period just after the war, when the trains still needed to run on time, perhaps more than ever.
by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 3:55pm
Will check it out, thanks.
by NCD on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 4:52pm
You guys getting into this discussion ironically reminds me of the all the heated discussion during the Bill Clinton years how Bill was a "relativist". And how conservatives were not relativists but thought there should be some essential truths and essential morals, i.e., they'd want those Ten Commandments up there in the courtrooms and classrooms. My how times have changed.
by artappraiser on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 4:35pm
P.S. I'm a proud relativist. I' m not at all happy with the "10 Commandments" and eternal truths thing. To me the gnarly question that goes with that really is: what do you do when the majority goes along with the idea that "the common good" would be served by removing Jews? Part of the answer, I like a Constitution that protects minority views, and I like me some "judicial temperament". Elites having some of the power isn't always bad and simple majority mob rule is not the answer. (This is actually why I found the suggestion of getting rid of the Senate entirely kind of disturbing, even though to be honest, ours right now is not comprised of the choicest elite.)
by artappraiser on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 4:45pm
The discussion of the senate has nothing to do with elites or mob rule imo. It's not the like the House of Lords in the UK. Senators are elected representatives with a minority of voters given a weigh and power far in excess of their numbers. It's not about majority mob rule unless you consider the House mob rule. One problem with the popular conception of democracy is it often ignores the Bill of Rights and the institutions that are respected enough to have the power to uphold it, like an independent judiciary. If I had to choose between some sort of aristocracy constrained by a bill of rights and a democracy with no bill of rights I'd prefer the aristocracy. That's where we would be discussing mob rule vs elitism, not when we're discussing the problem of the senate.
I also don't see my disagreements with Flavius as a disagreement about moral relativism. Moral discernment requires making judgments about the morality of ideas and actions and weighing the relative merits of conflicting behaviors. Judge not is a moral precept from the bible that I find immoral and impossible and it's important we educate our moral sense to more rationally make those judgments. My problem with the Judeo/Christian/Muslim bibles in general and the Ten Commandments is not so much that they are considered eternal truths since I think it's likely there are some eternal truths but that some of the commandments seem obvious to me, others trivial, and some immoral. In a 21st century discussion of morality the 1st century and earlier discussion we see in the bible would have little if any place. Most of the biblical precepts would be rejected as immoral, and in fact already are rejected by the majority of Christians and Jews.
by ocean-kat on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 5:51pm
You focus on supposed hatred. I focus on the fact that he is OK with the coups going on in Wisconsin and Michigan. He can also overlook the abuse and death of children at the border. Louis Farrakhan would pull you out of a snow bank. I’m arguing to nullify his deplorable vote by getting good people out to the polls to vote for Democrats.
by rmrd0000 on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 9:29am
A fairly successful political friend always said " they don't weigh them, they count them" as describing a deplorable friend he'd just gotten to the polls.
In June of 41 Churchill said " If the devil came in on our side I'd work a favorable reference to Hades into next Question Time". Seems about right to me.
by Flavius on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 10:02am
. If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons. ...
The exact quote, Close enough
by Flavius on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 10:07am
There are Republicans who left the party because of the stench of Trump. There is little evidence that those who left the GOP suddenly developed a love for Democratic policies. Your friend took credit for a person who was already appalled by the GOP.
The Devil already has a full-time job working for Trump and the GOP.
I remember Ivanka was going to be a positive factor. Turns out that she is a grifter like her Dad. Republicans still overwhelmingly support Trump. Democrats gain more benefit reaching out to disaffected Democrats and Independents. Republicans with morals are backing away from Trump on their own. Expecting the Ivanka’s and Jared’s to change stripes is futile.
by rmrd0000 on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 10:38am
Er, from Wikipedia: Jared Kushner, just sayin'
Edit to add. Furthermore, even in the White House and despite all his crooked real estate bullshit, he's still not the same as his father-in-law:
by artappraiser on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 9:45pm
I see you two here doing the same old same old talking past one another that has happened with rmrd so many times. His rhetoric presents the view that everyone who voted for Trump is a "deplorable", he likes to say it that way, it works for him and who is trying to rile up, when he knows full well and has admitted that all voters for Trump are not diehard Trump fan "deplorables" as Hillary meant the term. I suspect you actually agree on the facts about who is not a "deplorable." It's like rmrd believes shaming works by lumping every degree of Trump voter in as one and the same tribe, that the shaming works, and you believe in catching flies with honey. If I've described the situation correctly, I totally agree with you. The shaming thing sucks with swings, they will run from whoever does it to them, they may even resent it for a lifetime. They are swings because they don't like being pegged into a tribe.
I just ran across this old op-ed yesterday which reminded me of all of this: Never before were the two leading presidential candidates so disliked. Both major parties have nominated candidates that most Americans desperately want to reject which is mainly a rant that Hillary was a neo-con warmonger.
Both had high disapproval ratings and many people voted for Trump because they disliked both of them so much and they decided trying the new jerk over the old tired jerk was a better option than voting "none of the above". Some lefties might have fallen for Trump's isolationist talk. And now they are probably sorry they did that. And I'm sorry, I just don't see the benefit or use of labeling such a person as a "deplorable", precisely because they were not all of one tribe or political bent.
It reminded me of another thing: there's plenty of people out there, worldwide, who think all professional politicians are the true "deplorables". And will go for the populist guy or gal who is not one. The populist thing is never going to go away as long as we have democracies, hatred of professional politicians existed in ancient Greece and Rome.
by artappraiser on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 5:07pm
I think it's important to remind ourselves that Hillary didn't call all Trump supporters or voters "deplorables."
I agree with that view though it's likely that even calling half of Trump supporter's deplorables probably wasn't good politics.
I really missed the importance of the high disapproval ratings of Hillary. For me most of the dislike of Hillary was based on right wing talking points that I thought were completely debunked or not very important. So I didn't get that for so many, even some democratic voters, they were relevant. It does make me cautiously optimistic of 2020. Trump hate doesn't seem to have diminished and no one the democrats can nominate has been so successfully demonized as Hillary was so all else being equal the democratic presidential nominee should win easily without there being anything equivalent to Hillary hate.
by ocean-kat on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 6:18pm
thank you for that quote
by artappraiser on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 6:23pm
here's another thing I just ran across
A good thread from earlier this year, reminding us all that the Trumpist base is actually quite small.
by artappraiser on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 9:28pm
Republicans lose elections and respond by limiting powers of incoming Democratic Governors. We are not in normal times. The GOP base is small but dangerous.
by rmrd0000 on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 11:24pm
Hillary was popular in 2013. What use is it to discuss her popularity without discussing media coverage - both the partisan Fox News/Sinclair Broadcast/National Enquirer kind and the Maureen Dowd/Frank Rich/Chris Matthews weird obsessions - along with political ads and social media - including massive illegal Russian bits and Cambridge Analytica and its Canadian offshore group, but also the offshoots of Citizens United (a court case decuding whether the FEC could really limit off-the-radar campaign ads against... Hillary!) such as Karl Rove funding anti-Hillary ads to help Bernie. And then the NYTimes publishes a Steve Bannon hit piece, "Clinton Cash" unchecked and nearly verbatim. I'm gobsmacked.
When my kids get bullied at school with unlikely stories made up about them, do I just assume since a majority of the class now believes it I should just treat it as truth, that my kids really are evil? Propaganda does work, especially with a billiin dollar spend over the years. I'm sure many still think Hillary killed Seth Rich even though Fox was forced to take it down after the damage was done.
What do you say to a 64% favorability in 2013? What did she do so terrible *after* she left office as Secretary of State?
by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 2:18am
Russian interference summarized again:
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/17/russia-social-media-senate-rep...
by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 2:34pm
two significant but quite different dissenters just noted, PP:
by artappraiser on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 11:12pm
Nate Silver also just retweeted this on topic:
the pic has the excerpt Nyhan considers pertinent
by artappraiser on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 11:23pm
It's not like we're trying to explain why 63 million people voted for Trump. clearly the Russians didn't do that. We're just trying to explain why 70 thousand in three states voted for trump. When you compare 70 thousand votes with 130 million cast the scale is pretty small too. But it was enough to shift the election. There's probably dozens of things that could have shifted that many votes or caused enough people to sit out to create that shift. It seems to me that Russian hacking of Podhoretz email and releasing them to wikileaks alone could have shifted that many votes. It may not be among the most important reasons Trump won the electoral college but it's hard to see how it can be dismissed.
by ocean-kat on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 11:35pm
Russia's $1.4b/year propaganda campaign on Syria:
Note that Hillary was on the receiving end of much of this richly backed nonsense, that whatever CIA-promoted gun-smuggling was the cause of the conflict (rather than simply another country in the Arab Spring, that by talking about no-flight zones she was risking World War 3 with the Russians, etc. (and bury that talk of killing civilians & use of chemical weapons). Notice the Tulsi Gabbard-like left enthralled with Putin as the new order democrat trying to bring peace to the region (along with Ukraine/Donbas/Crimea) while renegade Americans were continuing their imperialist colonialist behavior. Pretty crafty to be able to hide 600,000 dead and blame it all on your non-fighting adversary. Benghazi Benghazi Benghazi...a-um.
by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 6:43pm
the enemy of my enemy is...
sometimes called "Allies". Yup, situational morality, otherwise known as relativism.
(Picture is from 1943, Tehran Conference).
by artappraiser on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 5:21pm
Democrats and Republicans are working together for criminal justice reform and that is a good thing. That has nothing to do with the probability of convincing Republican voters to vote for Democrats.
by rmrd0000 on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 11:43pm
The history of 1941 through early 50s is far more dynamic and complex than your photo.
The Germans were off our shores with U boats and allied with Japan. Russia was no threat, had no Navy, and Russia suffered 27 million dead bleeding the Germans dry, saving Britain and western Europe. Many throughout the West believed Stalin's pro-worker propaganda, even into the early 50s.
In 1943 there was no reliable prognostication of the post-war world, conflicts, new weapons that might threaten the US, or the effectiveness of alliances and the new UN.
by NCD on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 1:46am
Not to criticize but just calibrate the picture. German submarines were never a domestic concern. The ferries from
Cape Cod to the Islands ran throughout the war and I'm not aware of any on either coast which were interrupted. I'd welcome contradiction from anyone with contrary information.
I know of no commercial fishing boats ever threatened.
Coastal cities regularly kept street lights off and homes darkened with black window shades . For fear departing convoys would be outlined by the residual escaped light I don't recall any actual close- in attacks after early 1942 when I think there were a very few attacks near shore. And of course , famously, spies were landed on Long Island and were caught. Probably waiting for the Long Island Railroad!
German submarines were extremely active further out through out the War. Being in the Merchant Marine was considered as dangerous and honorable service.
You're certainly right that anti communism was out of style. It may be a faux memory but I think I recall Gregory Peck playing a Russian pilot welcomed when forced to land on a US air craft carrier.
And Russian ground forces also welcomed as they ,for example, freed the workers in "Schindler's List." and others even as further west as Italy. Carlo Levi was rescued from a camp north of Florence and then spent a month on a train circling the area from Italy to Rumania probably while the train commander waited for instructions but meanwhile the prisoners were well cared for until the train was routed back.
And in parallel trainloads of displaced persons- crossed what later became the fortified frontier.
by Flavius on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 7:01am
I was intrigued and found the Peck movie. Good memory, Flav. Days of Glory, 1944. Vladimir was his name! The pilot part is all you got wrong, he was a partisan guerilla behind German lines. In love with a (real, though Russian-American-Balanchine) ballerina, natch.
by artappraiser on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 7:19am
Russians welcomed except those they raped or shot, the former certainly not for collaboration. Cossacks just wanna have fun.
And it's not like East Europeans didn't have memories of how Russia split Poland with Germany 3 years before (incl the Katyn Forest massacre) or invaded the Baltics or Finland. Not sure when they carved off Moldova, but probably was poor PR for Romania.
by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 8:11am
oooh, just ran across this perfect example of why anger about Trumpco should ideally be separated from political partisanship, especially as those who do it that way may actually see the danger more clearly:
by artappraiser on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 5:48pm
Back to Melania's topic. Her being an emigre from a former SSR and all, wondering if she knows about and understands this ironic situation, including the chant:
Edit to add: @ balazscseko did quite a few followup tweets including video here.
by artappraiser on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 6:07pm
Uh, Yugoslavia wasn't USSR nor officially a Russian ally, as Tito liked to keep the 2 superpowers fighting for his affections. And Slovenia was the most Western-tilting of Yugoslavia's states, being nearly Austrian-Italian in politics and temperament, at least when I was there long before the wall fell.
by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 2:26am
It's clear to me with this new Trump tweet that they are confirming each other:
by artappraiser on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 9:13pm
Certainly could be true that Melania is being coached by her husband. Or doesn't require coaching because
like millions of others she has absorbed those talking points from the Zeitgeist. A right wing British friend- who can be amusing , even brilliant, can equally veer into that same spiel. It's as if you press a button and it appears complete with commas, parentheses and semi colons.
As with us.
I'm slowly suspecting the internet is bad for our mental health. Or at least for our ability to voice rational individual judgements , on our own.(It's my own invention!),And far, far worse for our being able to form them. To think for ourselves.
Are we a civilization verging on eye strain from absorbing, internalizing and regurgitating the frequently clever(sounding)comments from the last 45 minutes?
Including, lord help me, mine.
Go to the window. Throw it open! (careful not to catch cold ) And shout ! " I'm not going to comment any more".
Until tomorrow.
by Flavius on Sun, 12/16/2018 - 10:53pm
Criticizing Melania will not chase voters away. Democrats did outreach by sending specific messages to their particular districts. They picked up 40 seats in the House. They may pick up 41 depending on the outcome of a race in North Carolina where Republicans openly stole votes. The true Trump base is not going to be won over, period. The outreach is already being done. If you are OK with a girl dying of dehydration and with hearing no apology from the federal government, you are deplorable.
by rmrd0000 on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 9:04am
You don't need to parrot a lie about the tragic death of a child to support your weak analysis. Her father is responsible for her death and should face child abuse leading to death charges. Perhaps if her father had told the border patrol agents she was burning up with fever when they were first detained she could have been medevaced hours earlier and survived, perhaps not. I'll wait for the autopsy results to determine the cause of her death from people who know, unlike you, what they are talking about. The opinion of the medical professionals who treated her was that she was suffering from sepsis and your crude demand for an apology from the people who tried their best to save her is warped and disgusting.
The sick sanctuary state and open border ploy, disguised as compassion, is what encouraged this father to pay cartel thugs to help him to drag his child across Mexico and expose her to whatever caused her death. You and your opportunist Party creeps are the people who should be apologizing to the world for your twisted agenda.
by Peter (not verified) on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 12:19pm
Peter, the GOP is led by a racist grifter. Other Republican thugs are trying to subvert the will of the people by unconstitutional libation of powers of newly elected Democratic leaders. Your party is home to racists and bigots like Stephen Miller and Steve King. So-called Evangelicals are supporting a man who can’t recite the “Apostles’ Creed. The GOP is a cesspool.
In order to provide balance the MSM has to grade Republicans on a curve. The idiot Paul Ryan was touted as a fiscal genius. Susan Collins is praised as a moderate, when we all saw her cowardice during the Kavanaugh hearings. Trump selected Kavanaugh to provide protection during possible impeachment hearings. Now the feckless Collins is doing her tap dance over the coverup Trump did with Cohen.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cnn-jake-tapper-shuts-down-susan-collins-attempt-to-spin-trump-hush-money-payments_us_5c168cb4e4b009b8aea8663c
There is no one in the Republican party willing to stand up to racism or Trump’s crimes. The party has become Trump’s cult. There is a book “Everything Trump Touches Dies” which pretty much sums up the situation. Wikileaks is exposed as a fraud, Fox News has become Pravda, the NRA became a Russian asset, and the GOP got caught stealing an election in North Carolina. The deplorables are all that is left in the party.
There are a few people thinking the GOP can change.
Some elected Republican women think the party an be less misogynistic
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/crisis-level-republican-women-sound-warning-after-election-losses/2018/12/16/e8c99eba-ffb4-11e8-83c0-b06139e540e5_story.html?utm_term=.7c7dc72b5fdf
Log Cabin Republicans think the GOP will be less homophobic
https://www.thedailybeast.com/log-cabin-republicans-plan-to-push-trump-on-lgbt-rights?ref=scroll
Mia Love thinks the GOP can be less racist
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2018/12/12/mia-love-republicans-have-failed-bring-our-message-minorities-its-hurting-nation/?utm_term=.4aad0bcb09c7
None of these people or organizations have looked at the make up of the party base.
It is hilarious to watch you try to defend the indefensible. Trump and the GOP want white male control of everything. People from other groups who support the GOP are merely useful idiots.
I do thank you for continuing to remind us of the true intellect of the GOP base.
by rmrd0000 on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 1:17pm
this is a non sequitur:
There is no one in the Republican party willing to stand up to racism or Trump’s crimes. The party has become Trump’s cult. There is a book “Everything Trump Touches Dies” which pretty much sums up the situation
Says he's a Republican right on the cover of the book:
by artappraiser on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 2:56pm
Poetic license.
Wilson is not sure that the GOP is worth saving. He says that the party has become Trump’s party. He remains because he is stubborn
https://reason.com/blog/2018/08/27/is-the-gop-worth-saving-rick-wilsons-not
Wilson did agree with the degree of racism in the GOP on a Morning Joe segment
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/8/6/1786246/-Frank-Discussion-of-Racism-on-Morning-Joe
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/401246-gop-strategist-republicans-should-consider-voting-for-some-democrats
So he is a Republican who remains stubbornly Republican but suggests voting for Democrats because there is no solution in the GOP.
Conservative Dennis Prager labels Wilson a RINO
https://truepundit.com/dennis-prager-fraud-for-cnn-to-brand-lowlife-rick-wilson-as-republican-strategist-video/
Edit to add:
Wilson’s last campaign was for Independent Presidential candidate Evan McMullin
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2016/08/22/the-story-behind-evan-mcmullins-run-for-president/?utm_term=.c68b0e380331
by rmrd0000 on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 4:07pm
just pointing out how, like with Peter's rhetoric, the technique of fudging to make partisan harangues more partisan, have a bad effect on this Independent. All Democratic party members are not angels (come to NY or NJ some time and you'll see) and all GOP members not evil. It's beyond me why anyone still thinks it's an effective way to communicate to present that Manichean narrative, seems to me the more there is such "poetic license", the more people become Independents and stop voting party line.
by artappraiser on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 4:06pm
All people who voted for Trump were willing to overlook his racism.
by rmrd0000 on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 4:09pm
After the fact judgment and stereotyping by you that, if stupidly followed by Dem strategists, might get Dems losing the next presidential election with possibly exactly the same voters
Really, all, every single one? The ones who watched nearly every episode of The Apprentice and saw black contestants on it, and then saw him make Omarosa head of Afro-American outreach for the campaign? All the suburban soccer moms who have now swung to voting Dem, they knew back then in their heart when they voted for him that he was racist? The people who had relatives sending them videos of Diamond & Silk, saying "see, he's okay?" The ones who saw that Ben Carson endorsed Trump when he dropped out? The ones who follow beauty pageants and saw Trump crown a black Miss USA i n 2012 when Trump owned that pageant? The ones who saw Trump pal around with Don King and Al Sharpton? The ones who fell for Russian propaganda about Hillary being a racist? The 8% of blacks that voted for him?
Everyone who votes for president are not experts at reading racist dog whistles nor at psychology. Even though they may be neurosurgeons.
by artappraiser on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 9:15pm
Yeah, everybody knew that he was a racist and made peace with it. It was more likely Russian bots sending people to Diamond & Silk then black people directing the traffic. Ben Carson’s picture was right next to Jesus in some black households. His stature felt like a rock when he endorsed Donald Trump. The general impression of black supporters of Donald Trump was that they were sellouts. Look at the percentage of black votes that Trump received.
Republicans are aware of the stench surrounding Trump. Joe Scarborough admits that Liberals were right about the level of racism in the GOP. Rick Wilson agrees with Scarborough. Watch Steven Miller talk about immigration and you can see the horns protruding through the sprayed on hair.
Ask Al Sharpton how he feels about Trump. Omarosa told Sharpton that Trump wants to start a race war. So much for outreach.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/omarosa-trump-race-war_us_5b798881e4b0a5b1febc37e5
Don King is a well known con man.
I’m unaware of the beauty contestant you mentioned. I do know that Trump was accused of racial bias in the pageants
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/03/09/donald-trump-vetoed-miss-universe-contestants-for-being-too-ethnic-new-book-says/
Black “Apprentice” candidates are not fans of Trump.
https://mic.com/articles/141081/black-former-apprentice-contestants-blast-donald-trump#.9UFIkHcjT
by rmrd0000 on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 9:55pm
the point is succinctly made right here, Nov. 5 @ WaPo, and I trust Eugene Scott ("Reporter covering identity politics for The Fix") more than rmrd on the internet:
There were plenty of people who only got the true gist of his attitude towards race slowly after he was elected.
I'd like to share that personally, I find your jihad type identity purity approach to partisan politics to be such a turn off that if you recommend or support a candidate, I find it really hard not to be prejudiced against that candidate. It is such a turn off that it is hard to switch off the emotions and judge the candidate rationally. I do, but it's hard after I see rmrd supports the person. I would never ever hire you as a political consultant, that's for sure. You are a worse purist than most Bernie types. Any tiny hint of any thought that might construed as racist somehow, you only don't want their vote, you want them to pay for it in hell for eternity. I think your rhetoric often tends racialist if not full out racist. I'd really prefer Dems that don't act that way. I think it's bad for the country, feeds the troll, and stokes the divisiveness and tribalism.
by artappraiser on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 10:32pm
The percentage of the black vote received by both Romney and Trump was dismal. There is nothing jihadi about the points that I make, The jihad is being conducted by the GOP. You are upset by my pointing out that outreach tied specifically to getting Republicans to vote for a Democrat repeatedly failed. You completely ignore the jihad by the GOP. They blocked Obama’s SCOTUS nominee. They blocked Obama’s federal court nominees. They gerrymander to rig elections. They are limiting powers of Democratic Governor’s because they don’t like the results. People who remain the the GOP are OK with the Republican war on democracy.
by rmrd0000 on Tue, 12/18/2018 - 7:58am
And here's Sen. Corey Booker in the new interview @ The Atlantic; it's clear you're not going to get much help from him with your program:
by artappraiser on Tue, 12/18/2018 - 1:21am
King said that people of good conscience could not vote for Goldwater.
King also said
Booker uses terms white moderates love to hear. ...identity politics. However, the Republican base is as amenable to racial justice as the old Southern Democrats. When LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act, Southern Democrats left the party. Goldwater supported states rights. Nixon followed with the Southern strategy and Reagan with welfare queens. Republicans and Dixiecrats have had 50 years to change and they have not. We have Stephan Miller in the White House as a result.
Booker will crash and burn in the Primaries because he does not seem like a fighter.
Current Progressive religious leaders have no problem calling out racist and evil people
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/commentary/sd-utbg-mlk-trump-pastors-20180112-htmlstory.html
by rmrd0000 on Tue, 12/18/2018 - 8:54am
We are 50 years out from MLK Jr . We can all imagine that King would agree with our point of view, Today we have activists like Rev. William Barber as standard bearers.
Here is Barber on our current situation
Barber clearly agrees that Republicans created a home for racists.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-racial-divisiveness-plays-well-tv-he-wins-because-ncna930386
Eddie Glaude is a professor of religion. He says that he “overestimated” white voters. He was critical of Hillary, but didn’t think that white people would elect Trump.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/10/31/msnbc_eddie_glaude_i_overestimated_white_people_i_didnt_think_they_would_put_trump_in_office.html
by rmrd0000 on Tue, 12/18/2018 - 9:57am
And Corey Booker is a U.S. Senator right now and is testing out the waters on the presidential race right now. And won election in 2013 (as opposed to "lost election"). I'm prone to believing he knows something more about how to operate politically than rmrd on the internet. Just sayin'
by artappraiser on Tue, 12/18/2018 - 10:16am
We will see how he does in the Primaries.I suspect that voters will be looking for a fighter more than they look for a pastor. He will have to defend ties to Wall Street and support for school vouchers along the way.
by rmrd0000 on Tue, 12/18/2018 - 10:35am
rmrd's tactics are similar to the RINO fiction of the republican party. There are some black politicians and pundits, even very prominent ones like Ben Carson, that aren't actually black. They're BICO (black in color only)
by ocean-kat on Tue, 12/18/2018 - 10:42am
Ben Carson fell from grace in many black households
Kareem Abdul-Jabar said Carson was terrible for African Americans
http://time.com/4096962/ben-carson-abdul-jabbar-african-americans/
The Baltimore Sun noted Carson’s fall from grace in the city.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-ben-carson-ap-20180820-story.html
The article supports what I said. His pictures came down in some households.
In the Stacey Abrams race, 8-11% of black men voted for Kemp. Their sanity is called into question as well
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/11/23/whats-up-with-all-those-black-men-who-voted-republican-georgia-governors-race/?utm_term=.3dbdb331b568
by rmrd0000 on Tue, 12/18/2018 - 11:13am
I know. Clearly those blacks are horribly racist and hate black people. I guess it's similar to the self hating jews. Worse is how they fool some white people into thinking they are actually black. What do you think we should do about the BICO's?
by ocean-kat on Tue, 12/18/2018 - 11:26am
We discuss our disagreements.
by rmrd0000 on Tue, 12/18/2018 - 11:42am
What a waste of time. You should write them all off as racist like everyone who voted for Trump and refuse to engage.
by ocean-kat on Tue, 12/18/2018 - 11:56am
People express their disappointment and disagreements. What is your alternative?
by rmrd0000 on Tue, 12/18/2018 - 12:05pm
It's the relationship to the oreo thing that I most dislike about that. It's an enforcement of literal racism as in: we must tribalize by color of skin. It's personal because I've got mixed race family. Including a half-black member that has purposely transitioned from inner city subculture to suburban "white" subculture by marrying a (much darker skinned!) 100% certified Afro-American person who was raised according to "white CA suburbs". Even more irony: the latter ended up in pro sports, while the former went for the MBA and ruthless climbing of corporate ladder. Then there's my dark-as-night skinned Kenyan immigrant inlaw, who doesn't get the whole thing about Americans not getting along, nor the class things those others are playing with.
Booker knows the inner city culture well, it is part of his constituency, and even he doesn't play the olden days race card game.
by artappraiser on Tue, 12/18/2018 - 11:35am
We have political disagreements. Racism within the Republican Party results in a majority of black voters choosing the Democratic Party. There are disagreements among black Democrats. I find it hard to believe that you reduce black majorities selecting Democrats as tribal behavior rather than a rational response to rejection by Republicans. You are in a bubble.
Look at the the treatment of black female reporters and NFL athletes by Trump. Look at his treatment of Omarosa and Mia Love. Look at gerrymandering. Look at John Kelly’s statement about Fredricka Wilson. Look at Stephen Miller.
by rmrd0000 on Tue, 12/18/2018 - 12:04pm
by artappraiser on Tue, 12/18/2018 - 8:17am
What punitive action is being taken? Which group is under attack?
by rmrd0000 on Tue, 12/18/2018 - 9:01am
Whether it's rmrd or bigger players like Paul Begala this type of partisan spinning has a bad effect on any one with critical thinking skills. But for me, many, most? it doesn't matter because in the end it comes down to the issues and policy. Most here seem to mostly agree on the issues and the policy. I don't know your position on every issue but you mostly seem generally in line with the democratic position on the issues which is usually different from the republican position. Perhaps I'm wrong. While there was a time when there was greater overlap between the parties and even times when a republican might be more liberal than a democrat or vice versa that's no longer the case. You may call yourself an independent but I'm curious as to what policy differences you have with the democrats that would cause you to vote for a republican.
by ocean-kat on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 4:33pm
here's another example of what I see everyday because Rick Wilson retweets any he sees:
by artappraiser on Tue, 12/18/2018 - 12:42am
Peter, (short version): 7 year old dying a "win" for Trump.
by NCD on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 1:29pm
There is no open border ploy. Spending on border security has increased whether democrats or republicans were in control. During Obama's eight years as president spending on border control nearly doubled with the support of most democrats and the democratic president. You're either ignorant or you are lying. Everyone agrees on the need for border control. We just have different ideas as to the most effective means and the degree of compassion. People here are happy to have a serious discussion of how to achieve border security. But no one here wants to have a stupid discussion based on lies.
by ocean-kat on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 2:59pm
This is ridiculous hyperbole demonization that will never get you anything but pushback against whatever it is you support:
why do you always feel the need to lapse into it? It's like you are getting paid to ramp up the noise to prevent any signals
by artappraiser on Mon, 12/17/2018 - 3:01pm