A new US Republican thread 2016

[andrewjoy]

Peaceful protests are fine , i will defend anyone's right to protest, but as usual with any large protest people will take it too far in some areas and cause property damage etc that is not ok and should be dealt with according to local law.

[seebart]

My prediction is that the new administration will use events like protests to crack down on "violence" (aka peaceful resistance) in the name of "law and order", (aka establishing control and spreading fear through intimidation or even direct harm). We've seen such tactics before.

Yeah, I would certainly expect nothing less from someone like Giuliani.

Peaceful protests are fine , i will defend anyone's right to protest, but as usual with any large protest people will take it too far in some areas and cause property damage etc that is not ok and should be dealt with according to local law.

That is often a problem with peaceful protests, few individuals or small groups in a peaceful crowd turn violent and thereby giving the police a reason to break it up hence ruining the wohle thing, happens a lot here in Germany.

[Muirium]

Just in case any Americans are wondering what the new White House team looks like to the rest of us…

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Yeah, I know, every single person who voted Trump doesn't give a rats ass. Such is life.

[vivalarevolución]

Peaceful protests are fine , i will defend anyone's right to protest, but as usual with any large protest people will take it too far in some areas and cause property damage etc that is not ok and should be dealt with according to local law.

That is often a problem with peaceful protests, few individuals or small groups in a peaceful crowd turn violent and thereby giving the police a reason to break it up hence ruining the wohle thing, happens a lot here in Germany.

Perfect example is the recent anti-Trump protests. The vast majority of the protests and protestors were nonviolent, yet some of the media focuses on the arrests and isolated incidents of violence and property damage. The same type of coverage was applied during the rallies and protests that occurred on the campaign trail.

Now if a media outlet started the article by prefacing that the majority of protests were peaceful and nonviolent, that would provide a more accurate picture of the reality. But that doesn't get the most clicks.

[ohaimark]

I despise modern reporting. It sacrificed ethics and minimal bias for viewers and ratings.

[andrewjoy]

Peaceful protests are fine , i will defend anyone's right to protest, but as usual with any large protest people will take it too far in some areas and cause property damage etc that is not ok and should be dealt with according to local law.

That is often a problem with peaceful protests, few individuals or small groups in a peaceful crowd turn violent and thereby giving the police a reason to break it up hence ruining the wohle thing, happens a lot here in Germany.

Perfect example is the recent anti-Trump protests. The vast majority of the protests and protestors were nonviolent, yet some of the media focuses on the arrests and isolated incidents of violence and property damage. The same type of coverage was applied during the rallies and protests that occurred on the campaign trail.

Now if a media outlet started the article by prefacing that the majority of protests were peaceful and nonviolent, that would provide a more accurate picture of the reality. But that doesn't get the most clicks.

Its the same with anything, bad news sells and gets you ratings.

A headline of

Several peaceful protests ended without incident

is not as enticing as

Blood in the streets XXXXX doom on the way !!!!

[fohat]

I despise modern reporting. It sacrificed ethics and minimal bias for viewers and ratings.

Imagine the vast volume that needs to be filled.

I grew up in a mid-sized college town that had 3 TV stations, about 4-5 radio stations, and one newspaper. The number of words-per-day required to make an adequate presentation was not that great. Journalists took great pride in being thorough and accurate, and fact-checking was a large and important function.

Today, multiply that by at least 2 orders of magnitude and there has to be a lot of fluff. Combine that with media expansion/consolidation and you have a recipe for cubic miles of garbage on a continuing basis.

And because today 90%+ of "media personalities" eschew even the concept of fact-checking, average viewers have little concept of who they can trust.

[jacobolus]

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/306 ... for-muslim

A supporter of President-elect Donald Trump cited the United States’ use of internment camps for Japanese-Americans during World War II as precedent for Trump’s rumored registry of Muslim immigrants.

“It is legal; they say it will hold constitutional muster. I know the the [American Civil Liberties Union] is going to challenge it, but I think it will pass,” Carl Higbie, a former Navy SEAL, said in an interview on Fox News with Megyn Kelly.
“And we’ve done it with Iran back — back a while ago, we did it during World War II with Japanese, which, call it what you will, it may be wrong—” he said as Kelly jumped in.

“Come on, you’re not proposing we go back to the days of internment camps,” she said. “You know better than to suggest that. That’s the kind of thing that gets people scared, Carl.”

“No, no, no, I’m not proposing that at all, Megyn, but what I am saying is we need to protect America first,” he said. “I’m just saying there’s precedent for it, I’m not saying I agree with it, but in this case I absolutely believe—“

“You can’t be citing Japanese internment camps as precedent for anything the president-elect is going to do,” Kelly responded.

“Look, the president needs to protect America first, and if that means having people that are not protected under our Constitution have some sort tor registry so we can understand- until we can identify the true threat and where it’s coming from, I support it,” Higbie said.

Trump adviser and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach told Reuters this week that Trump was weighing creating a national database for immigrants from largely Muslim countries or those with terrorism risks.

Kris Kobach (creator of the unconstitutional Arizona immigration law, among other travesties) is now on Trump’s team. Bleh.

[fohat]

Kris Kobach (creator of the unconstitutional Arizona immigration law, among other travesties) is now on Trump’s team.

He is the worst, but isn't he from Kansas?

edit - I looked it up. He is a busy little beaver, isn't he?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/w ... ign=buffer

[seebart]

Its the same with anything, bad news sells and gets you ratings...

Actually that's another reason the trumpet guy got elected. During the campaign he got more media coverage than any of the other candidates, all of which were simply not as controversial.

Today, multiply that by at least 2 orders of magnitude and there has to be a lot of fluff. Combine that with media expansion/consolidation and you have a recipe for cubic miles of garbage on a continuing basis.

First and foremost (which I know you also meant) combine that with the internet and you have a seemingly endless amount of a random mix where something like the Breitbart News Network could even seem reputable to the uneducated.

Quotes from Trump's new chief strategist that will terrify you...

http://mashable.com/2016/11/14/steve-ba ... OfTUpexqqI

[vivalarevolución]

By the way, Ted Cruz, potentially the Attorney General, continues to voice his distaste of protestors while also saying that Trump will protect our rights. Please remember that protesting is a free speech right, but I guess that right is deserving of ridicule.

http://www.breitbart.com/video/2016/11/ ... ion-trump/

[fohat]

By the way, Ted Cruz, potentially the Attorney General, continues to voice his distaste

Yeah, Baby, Yeah!

Cruz, former Attorney General of Texas, helped defend a law criminalizing the sale of dildos.
The case was actually an important battle concerning privacy and free-speech rights. In 2004, companies that owned Austin stores selling sex toys and a retail distributor of such products challenged a Texas law outlawing the sale and promotion of supposedly obscene devices. Under the law, a person who violated the statute could go to jail for up to two years.

In 2007, Cruz's legal team filed a 76-page brief calling on the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to uphold the lower court's decision and permit the law to stand. The filing noted, "The Texas Penal Code prohibits the advertisement and sale of dildos, artificial vaginas, and other obscene devices."

The brief insisted that Texas, in order to protect "public morals," had  "police-power interests" in "discouraging prurient interests in sexual gratification, combating the commercial sale of sex, and protecting minors." There was a  "government" interest, it maintained, in "discouraging .… autonomous sex." The brief compared the use of sex toys to "hiring a willing prostitute or engaging in consensual bigamy," and it equated advertising these products with the commercial promotion of prostitution.

In perhaps the most noticeable line of the brief, Cruz's office declared, "There is no substantive-due-process right to stimulate one's genitals for non-medical purposes unrelated to procreation or outside of an interpersonal relationship."

[vivalarevolución]

Oh so they went with Jeff Sessions for AG, my bad. He seems like an interesting character that was once deemed too racist for a high level government position, but I guess now he is okay.

In case you had any questions about exactly how white and male the administration will be, here is a photo of the transition team:

FB_IMG_1479495065716.jpg (139.63 KiB) Viewed 4576 times

[jacobolus]

Bannon: “We’re just going to throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks. It will be as exciting as the 1930s, greater than the Reagan revolution — conservatives, plus populists, in an economic nationalist movement.”

So.. um... yeah.

I’m not so sure most people would characterize the economic nationalist movements of the 1930s or the fascist states they empowered as “exciting”. Maybe exciting in a “better run away before they murder all my relatives” kind of way?

More Bannon: “Darkness is good. Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That’s power. It only helps us when they [presumably the existing establishment? liberals?] get it wrong. When they’re blind to who we are and what we’re doing.”

[seebart]

Jeez, worse than I thought. The guy is a looney. Exciting as the 1930s...in Germany? Get the fuck outta here.

[fohat]

Here is the thing

[jacobolus]

He didn’t say “Germany” explicitly. Just left that implied.

It’s only Darth Vader (“let’s blow up a whole planet with billions of people on it just for funsies”) and Satan that he’s willing to explicitly call out as role models. Not Hitler directly.

[Wodan]

FB_IMG_1479495065716.jpg

I found waldo the black dude.

[vivalarevolución]

Okay, so these alt right fringe Christian strategists clearly have won the strategy game and are more organized than the opposition. They conned enough tribes to get them in their corner. They have the power that they so desperately sought for all these years. They will start imposing their agenda as soon as possible and implement as much as they can while they can, regardless of any outcry.

And most of us won't care as long as any of it does not directly affect our lives and we still have our entertainment devices, while the supporters will pledge their steadfast support regardless of what he does. And the merry-go-round keeps on spinning.

[vivalarevolución]

FB_IMG_1479495065716.jpg

I found waldo the black dude.

Yea, back left corner? My guess is Secret Service because he is one of the only people not looking at the camera, but rather looking towards the door, probably surveying the scene.

[vivalarevolución]

Chomsky on the election and other matters, for anyone that is interested.

[jacobolus]

I knew Jeff Sessions was a racist dirtbag, but I didn’t realize quite how much he has been involved in preventing black people from voting.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/why-tru ... -advocates

The right wing in this country has been trying to systematically disenfranchise minority voters pretty much forever, and would love nothing more than to have the federal justice department backing them up.

(For anyone who wasn’t paying attention during the Bush Administration or doesn’t remember, one of the big scandals which was never properly resolved was the US Attorney firing imbroglio: US Attorneys unwilling to go along with the administraion’s bogus voter fraud charges were sacked and replaced them with compliant partisan hacks under provisions of a “counterterrorism” bill (cf. wikipedia). For anyone who thinks Hillary Clinton’s Secretary of State email scandal was worthy of attention, the Bush Administration also deleted millions of emails from the private RNC-run server they were using for White House communications, including those where they planned the US Attorney firings. It was an epic cover-up. In any event, Jeff Sessions in charge of the Justice Dept. would be far worse.)

[vivalarevolución]

I knew Jeff Sessions was a racist dirtbag, but I didn’t realize quite how much he has been involved in preventing black people from voting.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/why-tru ... -advocates

The right wing in this country has been trying to systematically disenfranchise minority voters pretty much forever, and would love nothing more than to have the federal justice department backing them up.

(For anyone who wasn’t paying attention during the Bush Administration or doesn’t remember, one of the big scandals which was never properly resolved was the US Attorney firing imbroglio: US Attorneys unwilling to go along with the administraion’s bogus voter fraud charges were sacked and replaced them with compliant partisan hacks under provisions of a “counterterrorism” bill (cf. wikipedia). For anyone who thinks Hillary Clinton’s Secretary of State email scandal was worthy of attention, the Bush Administration also deleted millions of emails from the private RNC-run server they were using for White House communications, including those where they planned the US Attorney firings. It was an epic cover-up. In any event, Jeff Sessions in charge of the Justice Dept. would be far worse.)

Highlighting the misdeeds of the Bush Administration, which seem to equal or outweigh any misdeeds committed by Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration, simply was not politically expedient during this election cycle. Hence, the topic was not thoroughly discussed during this election cycle. If any other country tried to pull the crap that the Bush Administration did with the invasions in the Middle East, we would call it unjustified and worthy of war crimes. Also, in the video I shared, Chomsky suggests that the drone warfare of the Obama administration also would be labeled as terrorism if any other country was doing it. I think he makes a good point.

The American people generally don't care that our government is killing civilians halfway across the world as long as it does not directly affect their lives at home. They rationalize a justification for such actions, often communicated to them via a complicit media (keeping us safe, terrorism, extremism, etc.)

Basically, you systematically hammer your political opponents to sway the electorate in your favor over sometimes questionable accusations, and then don't hold your allies accountable if it doesn't help you.

[fohat]

Okay, so these alt right fringe Christian strategists clearly have won the strategy game and are more organized than the opposition.

They conned enough tribes to get them in their corner.

This is all mind-boggling to me, because as a particularly devout Presbyterian child who morphed into a raging atheist when I reached adulthood, it seems abundantly clear to me, from my early education and studies, that Jesus was a compassionate, generous, kindly, forgiving, bleeding-heart liberal who held the establishment in general, and wealthy plutarchs in particular, in the most utter contempt.

As I posted previously, Bannon specifically named "Satan" as a powerful influence and someone (some-thing?) to be emulated.

How is it that so-called "religious" persons could have supported an election bid by this utterly amoral candidate?

[vivalarevolución]

Okay, so these alt right fringe Christian strategists clearly have won the strategy game and are more organized than the opposition.

They conned enough tribes to get them in their corner.

This is all mind-boggling to me, because as a particularly devout Presbyterian child who morphed into a raging atheist when I reached adulthood, it seems abundantly clear to me, from my early education and studies, that Jesus was a compassionate, generous, kindly, forgiving, bleeding-heart liberal who held the establishment in general, and wealthy plutarchs in particular, in the most utter contempt.

As I posted previously, Bannon specifically named "Satan" as a powerful influence and someone (some-thing?) to be emulated.

How is it that so-called "religious" persons could have supported an election bid by this utterly amoral candidate?

If you believe in one ideology (devout religious beliefs), you might be prone to believe in other ideologies (political parties, the idea of left vs. right, pro-life movement, etc). And not everybody that claims to be a devout Christian actually understands what kind of person that Jesus actually was. Although many Christians do attempt to emulate the principles taught by Christ.

Also, while the culture wars are in full swing about Mike Pence being lectured at the Hamilton musical, the fact that Trump settled the Trump University case, turning back on his word to not settle, has been pushed to the back page.

But this is very funny http://metro.co.uk/2016/11/19/special-s ... e-6269311/

[jacobolus]

The bulk of religious Trump voters are more the Old Testament type than the Jesus type.

(No seriously: the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) was composed by a bunch of pre-literate tribalist rural herders who despised the cosmopolitan culture of Babylon with its writing, bureaucracy, engineering marvels, labor specialization, banking industry, court system, prostitution, fancy palaces, etc. The tribalist herders were big on women as property, shunning outsiders, calling God’s wrath down on your enemies, and so forth.)

[fohat]

The bulk of religious Trump voters are more the Old Testament type than the Jesus type.

calling God’s wrath down on your enemies,

I totally agree with that, and it is always important to remember that Jesus was a Jew, first and foremost, and that he never had any intention of starting a new religion. All he wanted to do was to fix his own religion, and it was clear to him that the way to do this was to re-define "God" as something that was a positive and wholesome force rather than a supreme and capricious dictator and punisher.

Modern-day "Christians" have completely lost sight of what Jesus was attempting to accomplish.

[Findecanor]

Chomsky on the election and other matters, for anyone that is interested.

I'm sorry but that is one of many interviews of Chomsky that have been reposted after the election and hailed as new...
You can find that same interview on Channel 4 News' channel, dated May 14.
(I saw that one and several more right before the election because I was looking at info about TTIP. The only good thing I can see with Trump is that it is unlikely that TTIP is going to go through now)

[fohat]

I'm sorry but that is one of many interviews of Chomsky that have been reposted after the election

Yes, I heard several instances where it was clear that the election hadn't happened, but he seemed to be taking Trump's candidacy as a given.

[vivalarevolución]

Chomsky on the election and other matters, for anyone that is interested.

I'm sorry but that is one of many interviews of Chomsky that have been reposted after the election and hailed as new...
You can find that same interview on Channel 4 News' channel, dated May 14.
(I saw that one and several more right before the election because I was looking at info about TTIP. The only good thing I can see with Trump is that it is unlikely that TTIP is going to go through now)

My bad, it seemed like the election was being discussed after the fact.

Interesting enough, Chomsky has been saying for years that the USA is vulnerable to the election of a charismatic, straight- and tough-talking, autocratic type of leader. Now we got it.

Also, more interesting commentary about the ploy of sending Pence to Hamilton to ignite the culture wars and distract from actual issues: http://www.gq.com/story/mike-pence-hami ... us-as-hell