A new US Republican thread 2016

[fohat]

the whole right to bear arms thing in the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution

These dealings with Russian officials show that they are clearly trying to hide something very nefarious.

Even the most staunch constitutional "constructionists" are shameless in the way that they cherry-pick what they use.

When crowing about the 2nd Amendment they never quote the first half of the sentence that refers to "a well-regulated militia" as the condition for the right to bear arms, and ignore the fact that freedoms of speech and press are unconditional.

[jacobolus]

An individual right to own and carry weapons is a modern construction by the gun industry. Nobody considered that to be what the 2nd amendment was about until the past few decades.

The pro-gun lobby doesn’t really care about the interests of gun owners even, though. It’s all about profit for gun manufacturers.

[vivalarevolución]

Is this really a surprise, though? They have been hinting at this sort of thing since the first day in office. The administration clearly wants lapdog journalists and absolute control of the message, because the truth often does not work in their favor. They are attempting to crack down on any government whistle blowers that will leak anything unsavory and unflattering about the administration (and I'm sure there is plenty, these are morally decrepit people). They don't want accountability, transparency, compromise, criticism, or any of those principles which are important aspects of a functioning representative democratic government. These dealings with Russian officials show that they are clearly trying to hide something very nefarious. If they don't have anything to hide, then why are they trying to hide something?

It's not a "suprise" as much as it is the real first "taste" of censorship. Apparently the FBI refused White House request to knock down recent Trump-Russia stories which is the real story if that's even true. From what I understand an exclusion of certain media by the white house even to these informal meetings has never happened before?

One of the common responses I have heard to this move is that Obama used to hold closed door meeting with select members of the media to discuss certain aspects of his agenda. Not sure on how the journalists were selected or how the information discussed in the meetings was disseminated to the public. But focusing too much on that is a distraction from the present situation, which is the only one that we can address.

I agree, the fiddling with the FBI is more troublesome. The administration appears to be doing everything that they can to discredit and control the information coming out of the intelligence agencies, and that started even before the election. Wonder why. I suspect the intelligence agencies already have or are accumulating some very...unsatisfactory...information about members of the administration. The theoretical purpose of the FBI is to investigate violations of federal law, so what sort of federal crimes are they trying to hide?

This administration is not very hard to figure out. They will try to push the limits to accomplish their stated agenda, while using tools of deception, bullying, and propaganda, and ignoring conciliatory gestures. The underlying agenda is the I'm-angry-and-hate-everyone stuff that Bannon and his crew is obsessed with, along with Paul Ryan's goal to sell off and dismantle as much of the federal government as possible. They will only enforce the laws and regulations that fit the agenda. For example, state's rights on transgender bathroom issues and environmental laws, but heavy hand of the federal government on immigration or marijuana enforcement.

[fohat]

This administration is not very hard to figure out.

Sometimes I am left scratching my head and wondering ....

While defending the need to build a costly wall along the southern U.S. border, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) claimed on Wednesday that nuclear bombs could be hidden inside bales of marijuana smuggled into the United States through Mexico.

“I can suggest to you that there are national security implications here for a porous border,” Franks told CNN host Brianna Keilar on Wednesday. “We sometimes used to make the point that if someone wanted to smuggle in a dangerous weapon, even a nuclear weapon, into America, how would they do it? And the suggestion was made, well, we’ll simply hide it in a bale of marijuana.”

[jacobolus]

Turns out Pruitt used a private email for government business as the AG of Oklahoma, and lied about it to the Senate committee during his confirmation hearing.

That’s a felony.

Of course, since the GOP-controlled Senate and Trump Justice Department don’t give a shit about the law, it’s likely nothing will come of it.

[fohat]

lied about it to the Senate committee during his confirmation hearing.

As if that is anything in comparison to Mnuchin.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/us/p ... .html?_r=0

[jacobolus]

Trump-ism is a pre-Enlightenment anti-rule-of-law government philosophy. Would fit right in in the middle ages, but really has no place in a supposed democracy, after 1700.

“Make America Great Again” is code for “Turn America into Louis XIV–era France”

[seebart]

Is this really a surprise, though? They have been hinting at this sort of thing since the first day in office. The administration clearly wants lapdog journalists and absolute control of the message, because the truth often does not work in their favor. They are attempting to crack down on any government whistle blowers that will leak anything unsavory and unflattering about the administration (and I'm sure there is plenty, these are morally decrepit people). They don't want accountability, transparency, compromise, criticism, or any of those principles which are important aspects of a functioning representative democratic government. These dealings with Russian officials show that they are clearly trying to hide something very nefarious. If they don't have anything to hide, then why are they trying to hide something?

It's not a "suprise" as much as it is the real first "taste" of censorship. Apparently the FBI refused White House request to knock down recent Trump-Russia stories which is the real story if that's even true. From what I understand an exclusion of certain media by the white house even to these informal meetings has never happened before?

One of the common responses I have heard to this move is that Obama used to hold closed door meeting with select members of the media to discuss certain aspects of his agenda. Not sure on how the journalists were selected or how the information discussed in the meetings was disseminated to the public. But focusing too much on that is a distraction from the present situation, which is the only one that we can address.

I agree, the fiddling with the FBI is more troublesome. The administration appears to be doing everything that they can to discredit and control the information coming out of the intelligence agencies, and that started even before the election. Wonder why. I suspect the intelligence agencies already have or are accumulating some very...unsatisfactory...information about members of the administration. The theoretical purpose of the FBI is to investigate violations of federal law, so what sort of federal crimes are they trying to hide?

This administration is not very hard to figure out. They will try to push the limits to accomplish their stated agenda, while using tools of deception, bullying, and propaganda, and ignoring conciliatory gestures. The underlying agenda is the I'm-angry-and-hate-everyone stuff that Bannon and his crew is obsessed with, along with Paul Ryan's goal to sell off and dismantle as much of the federal government as possible. They will only enforce the laws and regulations that fit the agenda. For example, state's rights on transgender bathroom issues and environmental laws, but heavy hand of the federal government on immigration or marijuana enforcement.

Right, it seems there are two "levels" of news here, it is not far fetched then that stories like the white house media exclusion or Trump not attending the press dinner are used to distract from the real pressing news that team trump doesn't like to have out there.

Of course Germany is "in sync with the times":

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/25/worl ... iegel.html

[fohat]

Of course Germany is "in sync with the times":

I don't think that it surprises any of us to hear that everybody is spying on everybody else.

That is the motivation behind Trump's the push to discredit "everything" and force ordinary people to live in an illusory world where nothing is "real"

Religion in the US today, being ready, willing, and able to step in and reassure the masses that it will all turn out OK on the other side, is a perfect coincidence.


"The psyche of the great masses is not receptive to anything that is half-hearted and weak. Like the woman, whose psychic state is determined less by grounds of abstract reason than by an indefinable emotional longing for a force which will compliment her nature, and who, consequently, would rather bow to a strong man than dominate a weakling, likewise the masses love a commander more than a petitioner and feel inwardly more satisfied with a doctrine, tolerating no other beside itself." - Hitler, 1925

[jacobolus]

Another desecrated Jewish cemetery, this time in Philadelphia. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/h ... nnsylvania

Trump’s racist and antisemitic rhetoric is emboldening all the racists and antisemites in the country.

[vivalarevolución]

Of course Germany is "in sync with the times":

I don't think that it surprises any of us to hear that everybody is spying on everybody else.

That is the motivation behind Trump's the push to discredit "everything" and force ordinary people to live in an illusory world where nothing is "real"

Religion in the US today, being ready, willing, and able to step in and reassure the masses that it will all turn out OK on the other side, is a perfect coincidence.


"The psyche of the great masses is not receptive to anything that is half-hearted and weak. Like the woman, whose psychic state is determined less by grounds of abstract reason than by an indefinable emotional longing for a force which will compliment her nature, and who, consequently, would rather bow to a strong man than dominate a weakling, likewise the masses love a commander more than a petitioner and feel inwardly more satisfied with a doctrine, tolerating no other beside itself." - Hitler, 1925

Gee, that's reassuring, fohat. Should we just bow down to our great leader?

[fohat]

Gee, that's reassuring, fohat. Should we just bow down to our great leader?

That depends on your place within your society. Little surprise that "intellectuals" are often the first to be purged.


“To whom has propaganda to appeal? To the scientific intelligentsia, or to the less educated masses? It has to appeal forever and only to the masses! The strong leader, by “understanding the great masses’ world of ideas and feelings, finds, by a correct psychological form, the way to the attention, and further to the heart, of the great masses. Propaganda must be popular and has to adapt its spiritual level to the perception of the least intelligent …. Therefore its spiritual level has to be screwed the lower, the greater the mass of people which one wants to attract.” - ibid

[jacobolus]

Sessions DOJ is doing everything it can to back off legal challenges to transparently discriminatory voter ID laws. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/texas-v ... versal-doj

Trump signed the GOP Congress’s resolution helping fossil fuel companies hide bribery of foreign governments. http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/f ... got-easier

[chuckdee]

Bush Weighs In On Trump Presidency, Calling Press 'Indispensable To Democracy'

http://www.npr.org/2017/02/27/517547987 ... -democracy

[jacobolus]

Trump: “We have come up with a solution [ACA replacement] that’s really, really, I think, very good. It’s an unbelievably complex subject. Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated.”

Trump’s “solution” that he “came up with” is to let the GOP congress work out the details, because he has no fucking clue about anything, and hasn’t hired any policy experts to advise him about it. The part that is “really very good” is that the GOP congress also doesn’t have any kind of plan yet. Nobody in congress wants to take responsibility, because if they blow up the healthcare system voters will turn on them, but they don’t have any workable replacement for the ACA, since the ACA was the Republican (Romney et al.) compromise plan right from the beginning. The only workable ACA replacements are to the left of the ACA, e.g. a single-payer system.

[jacobolus]

Turns out that white racist xenophobes in Illinois are happy in principle to deport all the scary “illegals”, but are now shocked to find out that their buddy Carlos who runs the town Mexican restaurant, and has a citizen wife and kids, might be deported. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/27/us/i ... checo.html

[fohat]

The "there is no difference between the US political parties" crowd has been pretty quiet lately.

[webwit]

I wonder what's worse. The racist fascists who voted Trump, or the racist fascists who voted Clinton. They seem kind of fanatic, while both don't give a fuck about the middle-east as long as they get their cheap spices, err, oil. In the disadvantage of the pro-wedding bombers, they keep spamming a mechanical keyboard forum, keeping their silly hypocrite diaries on there, of all places, cheering each other on. FFS, can't you assholes go somewhere else? How long are you going to keep this up? Eight years?

[Ratfink]

FFS, can't you assholes go somewhere else? How long are you going to keep this up? Eight years?

I'm with you 100% webwit. I'm really tired of seeing this thread in the spy. It's making Deskthority less enjoyable.

[XMIT]

FFS, can't you assholes go somewhere else? How long are you going to keep this up? Eight years?

I'm with you 100% webwit. I'm really tired of seeing this thread in the spy. It's making Deskthority less enjoyable.

So get off your rear and make something.

The sorts of posts I enjoy - projects, discoveries, group buys, repair diaries - seem like they've been more scarce these past few months. I'm as guilty of this as anyone but I've got some really exciting projects in the works that I'm looking forward to sharing with all of you.

Many in the US - myself included - are incredibly frustrated with the state of our national politics. But if you want to see change - more of the threads that make DT the best place on the Internet for vintage keyboard discussion - be a part of it.

(Not that I have anything against you per se Ratfink. But while you're frustrated with this thread, I want to see more projects!)

[webwit]

You know, I think I speak for many (although I have no proof of this), but I think this is a bit of an egotistical thread. We're a free speech forum, we're Offtopic-Thority. You can speak your mind, it's ok, you can vent your opinion.. You can off-rail topics, it's ok, we don't take ourselves too seriously. You can post your favorite music video, we enjoy that. You can talk about Brexit, which some enjoy and some don't, but it's finite and it stops. And the last example, is what this topic should have been. It should have stopped after the election. If you can't feel what I'm talking about, I can't help you. Then with this endless diary, I think you're self-absorbed, egotistical, and lacking empathy, abusing our free speech with your flood of repeating opinion, being juvenile, and being an asshole, disrespecting our community. Even if you dislike my opinion about this, and think I'm an asshole myself - I know I talk strong, I'll take it on the chin. But just consider all the others, no matter what political color, who kept silent, and who are here because of the keyboards, and some of the off-topic talk, but are just tired of this. Don't be an asshole, if you feel so strong about this, take it to a specialist forum, where you can endlessly circle-jerk, to everyone's delight. I'm not even sure what you're looking for here. How would you feel if I kept a diary here about partisan Dutch politics? Irritated, indifferent, bewildered, or all of these?

TLDR: We're tired of this. Can't you see that?

[jacobolus]

LOL. Even Webwit, the great whatabout-ist in chief, who never even tries to engage with anyone else’s conversation – even direct responses to his comments – except to throw in weird off-topic diversions about his Biden/Clinton fetish and weird apologies for Putin, is now overwhelmed and out of defenses for the absurdity that is the US GOP.

Oh yeah, it’s not the people who are destroying the environment, dismantling basic civic institutions like education and healthcare, stealing from the poor to give to the rich, and throwing millions of lives into disarray who are “self-absorbed, egotistical, and lacking empathy”, but rather the poor citizens who are tired of taking it up the ass from the Republican party, and feel like complaining about it.

Anyway, I sure as shit hope this doesn’t last 8 years. I’d put the over/under on Trump’s presidency at about 3 years. That’s how long it will take for the Russia investigations to come to some public conclusions, for the 2018 Democrat-majority House to go through impeachment proceedings, and for the Trumpians to force his resignation before the Senate gets around to removing him. We’ll see though.

Unfortunately just getting Trump out of office isn’t going to entirely excise the cancer that is the modern institutional GOP. That’s going to take another generation or so, for all the 65+ year-old racists to die off and leave the party with a sharp enough minority to force it to reform.

[webwit]

Get a clue, you total and complete idiot.

[vivalarevolución]

This reminds me of fighting in the backseat with my siblings back in the day. Good memories!

[chuckdee]

Make a feature that lets you remove a thread from your personal spy/unread topics. This has been asked for a few times. It's just one thread, so this would solve the problem.

[fohat]

You can post your favorite music video, we enjoy that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dtk2gozGtbg

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/frankzap ... ryday.html

[jacobolus]

All of the Republicans in Congress just voted to keep Trump’s tax returns secret (except 2 of them, who voted “present”); they’ve decided that the best way to save their skins is to help Trump’s cover up, and pray no investigations (by journalists, domestic or foreign intelligence agencies, or the legislature) uncover whatever it is he’s hiding.

Trump is the Congressional GOP and the Congressional GOP is Trump.

Now it’s up to the American citizenry to get off their asses, do their patriotic duty, and vote these traitors out in 2018.

(In case anyone forgot, Trump promised before running for president: “If I decide to run for office, I’ll produce my tax returns. Absolutely. I would love to do that.” Then during the election he waffled a bunch about audits and said he would share his taxes after winning the GOP nomination. Later he continued waffling about how he couldn’t share his tax returns before the election because people would take them out of context and make up stories about it. Now it’s clear that he never planned to come clean because there’s something illegal hiding there.)

[adhoc]

All of the Republicans in Congress just voted to keep Trump’s tax returns secret (except 2 of them, who voted “present”); they’ve decided that the best way to save their skins is to help Trump’s cover up, and pray no investigations (by journalists, domestic or foreign intelligence agencies, or the legislature) uncover whatever it is he’s hiding.

Trump is the Congressional GOP and the Congressional GOP is Trump.

Now it’s up to the American citizenry to get off their asses, do their patriotic duty, and vote these traitors out in 2018.

(In case anyone forgot, Trump promised before running for president: “If I decide to run for office, I’ll produce my tax returns. Absolutely. I would love to do that.” Then during the election he waffled a bunch about audits and said he would share his taxes after winning the GOP nomination. Later he continued waffling about how he couldn’t share his tax returns before the election because people would take them out of context and make up stories about it. Now it’s clear that he never planned to come clean because there’s something illegal hiding there.)

Fuck yeah, USA! USA! And when you guys get back in to power bomb the shit out of all the brown people again! Woohoo USA number 1 motherfuckers!

EDIT: And when you break the record for most days in war during your reign again, don't forget to give yourself another nobel peace prize!

[jacobolus]

[Ratfink]

Please stop posting in this trash thread. Let it die.