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#people saying hilary clinton was a fascist
realhbomax · 2 months
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hate to put anything political on this blog, but im afraid ive seen way too many tumblr users do this, so it needs to be said:
you guys need to stop throwing around the term fascist without even knowing what it means. you're essentially using it as a curse word saying "fuck you you're a fascist" but you don't know what a fascist is? you can't just call anyone you disagree w/ politically a fascist.
i'm not saying america is right--in fact, i disagree with a large portion of the politics going on in america today. there is fascism in america--im not saying there isn't. there has been since it was made. the KKK was fascist, and that was huge during WWII. and of course there was the black legion, the italian americans that were trying to establish fascism in the U.S. by overthrowing the government... but obviously the german american bund.
but what about now? people today are calling every political leader a fascist. if you're conservative, you're immediately a fascist. how does that work?
"fascism" is a diagnosis word, not a curse word. stop using it like one.
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mallowmaenad · 8 months
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my new political ideaology is that I get a device called the dipshit detector that removes self-important white people’s ability to use cellphones for 1 month and I don’t fucking care if this is a fascist dictatorshit i actually would turn joe biden into joe woke and donald trump into pronoun trump if i see one more loud mouthed straighty act like their opinion fucking matters im introducing their shy 9 year old son to my little pony i cant fucking take this shit yes fuck it throw republicans in concentration camps they’re practically begging for it they wont shut the fuck up about how theyre gonna be hunted down and killed wish granted bitch blam blam its wabbit season bitch im sick of liberals im sick of voting im sick of norway if youre even slightly uncomfortable around gay people you should be set on fire black power asian power jewish power latino power and i fucking mean it im not just buying the stupid 30$ tshirt on fckhate.com the worst thing to ever happen in american history is abraham lincoln not publicly executing every confederate general and outlawing slavery full stop we literally live in starship troopers we are trapped in a shitty gmod half life dark rp server yeah I do think you’re basically a terrorist if you go to disney land and i also think that if the first words out of your mouth when the rustbelt gets set on fire is “those dirty rednecks deserve it” ill show you a fucking redneck you fucking yank prick you fucking racist i wish hilary clinton would explode on live tv charitys are fucking fake theyre as fake as those cardboard towns in north korea oppenheimer was a limpdick pussy and fallout is becoming a game franchise that fetishizes the mass genocide of asians and i want todd howard pinned under a large rock for it spec ops the line wasn’t ugly enough there is a conspiracy started by the cosmetics, nutrition and fashion industry in collaboration with the upper class descendants of fucking typhoid “moneybags” marys to fool the masses that fat people aren’t hot as fuck. My body and mind and soul degrade with the week because of yhe shit ass menial labor yhey made me do and the fucking lead in gasoline and world war 1 started a chain reaction of fathers beating their kids and wives because it’s cheaper to buy a gun than go to therapy because we’re fucking warhammer orks without any of the endearing mental stupidity we live in mordor. we live in fucking mordor. it literally does not matter who is president our two political parties are Nazis and Neo-Nazis bernie sanders was the closest thing to a centrist this country has ever seen. capitalism grinds up joy into a paste to divvy out on 500$ gucci toothpicks public urination should be legal rent is theft corporations are agents of satan who is jesus christ who is not jesus of nazareth jesus christ is the poster boy of white supremacy i fucking hate Hamilton white people should listen to MORE rap i want to get my dick sucked at a death grips concert. Laundromats and burger joints where you can get a meal for 5$ are far more important than police stations and walmart. pop anarchists want to personally confiscate your wheelchair uou fuckers treat yhis like a game fuckin e girls with hammers and sickles in their icons arguing about what form of communism or socialism or whateverism is right when bitch that is a pipe dream you are going to die in captivity arguing about which dragon ball z character is the strongest (girl broly) at least go punch a hole in your wall and fuck it to prove you’re human you facebook fetishist jesus christ every other day i want a biblical death just so my fucked up thouhhts mean something i need a fuckingjason vorhees bitch wheres the yandere tea party this is all so fucked up its not fucking real the christian god hates you whoever says otherwise is trying to make you a fucking slave. Mormonism and scientology should be wiped off the map any religion formed after the invention of the gun is a fucking pyramid scheme i wish i was a 9 foot toll shark lady with hugebrealssta so i could fucking knock over thechrystler building
DO 9/11 AGAIN
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quakerjoe · 5 years
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"Why are people so hostile towards President Donald Trump?"
Chris O'Leary:
Before you pass my answer off as “Another Liberal Snowflake” consider that 1.) I'm an independent centrist who has voted Republican way more often in my life than Democrat, and 2.) If you want to call someone who spent the entire decade of his 20’s serving in the Marine Corps a snowflake, I’d be ready to answer the question what did you do with your 20’s?
Why Liberals (And not-so liberals) are against President Trump.
A.) He lies. A LOT. Politifact rates 69% of the words he speaks as “Mostly False or worse” Only 17% of the things he says get a “Mostly True” or better rating. That is an absolutely unbelievable number. How he doesn’t speak more truth by mistake is beyond me. To put it in context, Obama’s rating was 26% mostly false or worse, and I had a problem with that. Many of Trump’s former business associates report that he has always been a compulsive liar, but now he’s the President of the United States, and that’s a problem. And this is a man who expects you to believe him when he points at other people and says “They’re lying”
B.) He’s an authoritarian populist, not a conservative. He advances regressive social policy while proposing to expand federal spending and federalist authority over states, both of which conservatives are supposed to hate.
C.) He pretends at Christianity to court the Religious Right but fails to live anything resembling a Christ-Like Life.
D.) His nationalist “America First” message effectively alienates us and removes us from our place as leaders in the international community.
E.) His ideas on “Keeping us safe” are all thinly veiled ideas to remove our freedoms, he is, after all, an authoritarian first. They also are simply bad ideas.
F.) He couldn’t pass a 3rd-grade civics exam. He doesn't’ know what he’s doing. He doesn't understand how international relations work, he doesn’t understand how federal state or local governments work, and every time someone tries to “Run it like a business” it’s a spectacular failure. See Colorado Springs’ recent history as an example. The Short, Unhappy Life of a Libertarian Paradise And that was a businessman with a MUCH better business track record than Trump. We are talking about a man who lost money owning a freaking gambling casino.
G.) He behaves unethicaly and always has. As a businessman, he constantly left in his wake unpaid contractors and invoices, litigation, broken promises, whatever he could get away with.
H.) He is damaging our relationships with our best international friends while kissing up to nations that do not have our best interests in mind. To his question “Wouldn't’ it be great to have better relations with Russia?” The answer is Yes. But it is RUSSIA who needs to earn that, who must stop doing the things that are damaging to that relationship, or we are simply weaker for it.
I.) He has never seen a shortcut he didn't like, and you can’t take shortcuts in government. “Nuclear Option, Remove the Filibuster, I’ll change the Constitution by Executive Order…Don…what happens when you remove the filibuster and the other side retakes the majority in the Senate? Suddenly want that filibuster back? What happens if you manage to change the Constitution by Executive Order and an Anti-2A President wins the next election?
J.) He behaves and has always behaved as an unabashed racist. Yes, I’ve seen your favorite meme that claims he was never accused of racism before the Democrats…Absolutely false. Donald Trump’s long history of racism, from the 1970s to 2019 See the Central Park 5, the lawsuits and fines resulting from his refusal to lease to black tenants, the 1992 lost appeal trying to overturn penalties for removing black dealers from tables, his remarks to the house native American affairs subcommittee in 1993. The man sees and treats racial groups of people as monoliths.
K.) He is systematically steamrolling regulations specifically designed to keep a disaster like the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis from happening again.
L.) He speaks and acts like a demagogue. He sees the Legislative and Judicial branches of government as inconveniences, blows up at criticism no matter how deserved and actively tries to countermand constitutional processes, not to mention attempts to blackmail and coerce people who are saying negative things about him
M.) His choices for top positions, with the exception of Gen. Mattis, who is a gem, have been horrendous. A secretary of Education without a resume that would get her hired as a small town grammar school principal, A secretary of Energy who didn't know the Department of Energy was responsible for nuclear reserves, an EPA head whose biggest accomplishments to date had been suing the EPA on multiple occasions, an FCC head who while working for Verizon actively lobbied to kill net neutrality, and an Attorney General who thinks pot is “nearly as bad as heroin” and asked Congress for permission to go after legal pot businesses in states where it is legal. (There goes that great Republican States rights rally cry again, right? *Crickets*) An Interim AG after Firing his First AG who’s appointment is probably unconstitutional.
N.) He denies scientific fact. Ever notice that the only people you hear denying climate change are politicians and lobbyists? 99% of actual scientists studying the issue agree that it’s real, man-made and caused by greenhouse gasses. Ever notice that every big disaster movie starts with a bunch of politicians in a room ignoring a scientist's warning?
0.) He does not have the temperament to lead this nation. He is Thin Skinned, childish, and a bully, never mind misogynistic, boorish, rude, and incapable of civil discourse.
P.) He still does not understand that the words he speaks, or tweets, are the official position of 1/3 of the US government, and so does not govern his words. He still thinks when he speaks it’s good ol’ Donald Trump. It’s not. It’s the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. You have probably spread a meme or two around talking about how no president’s every word has ever been dissected before…YES, THEY ALWAYS HAVE. It’s just that every other president in our lifetime has understood the importance of his words and took great care to govern his speech. Trump blurts out whatever comes to his mind then complains when people talk about what a dumb thing that was to say.
Q.) He’s unqualified. If you owned a small business and were looking for someone to manage it, and an unnamed resume came across your desk and you saw 6 bankruptcies, showing a man who had failed to make money running CASINOS, would you hire him? He is a very poor businessman. This is a man it has been estimated would have been worth $10 BILLION more if he’d just taken what his father had given him, invested it in Index Funds and left it alone.
R.) He is President. But he refuses to take a leadership position and understand that he is everyone’s President. Conservatives complain about liberals chanting “Not my President” while Trump himself behaves as if no one but his supporters matter.
S.) He’s a blatant hypocrite. He spent 8 years bitching Obama out for his family trips, or golfing, or any time he took for himself, and what does he do? He was already on his 20th golf outing in APRIL of his 1st year in office. He constantly rants about respect for the military, yet can’t be bothered to attend the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day because of a little rain. (And that excuse about Marine One not being able to fly in the rain is HILARIOUS.)
T.) He’s a misogynist. It's not really ok in this day and age to be a misogynist, but it’s not a huge deal if you’re a private citizen. It’s a pretty big deal if you hate half the people you’re elected to lead. The disdain for women seeps out of his …whatever…. and he just can’t hide it.
U.) Face it. In any other election “Grab Em’ By the Pussy” would have been the end of that candidate’s chances. Back in the 90’s I used to marvel about how Teflon Bill Clinton was. I no longer do. The fact that he managed to slip by on that is as much a statement about how much people hate Hillary Clinton as it is about what is wrong with politics in this country right now.
V.) He has one response to a differing opinion. Attack. A good leader listens to criticism, to different points of view, is capable of self-reflection, tries to guide people to his point of view, and when necessary stands his ground and defends his convictions. Any of that sound like Trump? His default is not to Lead, its’ to attack. Scorched Earth. The Jim Acosta reaction is a good example. There was no defense of his convictions when Acosta was asking him repeated questions about his rhetoric on the caravan. His response was to attack Acosta.
W.) He takes credit for everything positive while deflecting blame for everything negative. Look at him with the Stock Market. He’s been bragging about it since day one, and to give credit where credit is due, speculation on coming deregulation early in his presidency did fuel some rapid growth, but to pretend that it’s all him, that we’re not in the 9th year of the longest bull market in history and THEN, when the standard market volatility that deregulation inevitably brings about starts to show up? Yeah. Look at yesterday. Hey! Stock Markets losing because the Democrats won! Do I need to bring out the Stock market chart for the last 10 Years again?
X.) He emboldens the worst among us. Counter-protesters are slammed into by a car while countering actual Nazi rally, and the response is there’s fault on “Both Sides” The media is at fault for a nut job sending them and Donald’s favorite targets pipe bombs. The truth is not all Republicans, not all Trump Supporters are racist, fascist lunatics. Many are just taken in by the bombastic personality and are living in an information bubble made worse by the fact that they unfollow anyone and ignore any source of information that makes them feel uncomfortable. People on the left do that too. The Biggest problem the right has right now is that the worst of the Right is the loudest and the most in your face, and the actual right, especially the Freaking PRESIDENT needs to be standing up and saying No. Those are not our values.
Y.) He seems to think the Constitution of The United States, the document that IS who we are, the document he took an oath to support and defend is some sort of inconvenience. He demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of Constitution, from believing he can alter the 14th through executive order, to thinking The free exercise clause in the first amendment somehow supersedes the establishment clause (not that he really understands either) or that the free exercise clause only applies to Christians. Or his attacks on freedom of expression and the press. He repeatedly makes it clear that if he’s read them, he does not understand Articles 1–3, and that’s something he really should have before he took the job, because they’re not going away.
Z.) I’ll use Z for something I do blame him for, but the rest of us have to carry the blame too. Polarization. This country is more politically polarized than I can remember in my lifetime. Some of you who are a few years older than I may remember how it was in the late 60’s when construction workers in New York were being applauded for beating up hippies, I think it’s pretty close to that right now, but that was before my time. And he is the cause of much of the current level polarization, but also the result. It didn't’ start with Trump. We’ve been going down this road I think since the eruption of the Tea Party in the early years of the Obama Administration. I do hope the tide turns before it gets much worse because the thing that scares me more than anything is what if that keeps going the way it has been? "
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A person asked the question, "Why are people so hostile towards President Donald Trump?"
Chris O'Leary:
Before you pass my answer off as “Another Liberal Snowflake” consider that 1.) I'm an independent centrist who has voted Republican way more often in my life than Democrat, and 2.) If you want to call someone who spent the entire decade of his 20’s serving in the Marine Corps a snowflake, I’d be ready to answer the question what did you do with your 20’s?
Why Liberals (And not-so liberals) are against President Trump.
A.) He lies. A LOT. Politifact rates 69% of the words he speaks as “Mostly False or worse” Only 17% of the things he says get a “Mostly True” or better rating. That is an absolutely unbelievable number. How he doesn’t speak more truth by mistake is beyond me. To put it in context, Obama’s rating was 26% mostly false or worse, and I had a problem with that. Many of Trump’s former business associates report that he has always been a compulsive liar, but now he’s the President of the United States, and that’s a problem. And this is a man who expects you to believe him when he points at other people and says “They’re lying”
B.) He’s an authoritarian populist, not a conservative. He advances regressive social policy while proposing to expand federal spending and federalist authority over states, both of which conservatives are supposed to hate.
C.) He pretends at Christianity to court the Religious Right but fails to live anything resembling a Christ-Like Life.
D.) His nationalist “America First” message effectively alienates us and removes us from our place as leaders in the international community.
E.) His ideas on “Keeping us safe” are all thinly veiled ideas to remove our freedoms, he is, after all, an authoritarian first. They also are simply bad ideas.
F.) He couldn’t pass a 3rd-grade civics exam. He doesn't’ know what he’s doing. He doesn't understand how international relations work, he doesn’t understand how federal state or local governments work, and every time someone tries to “Run it like a business” it’s a spectacular failure. See Colorado Springs’ recent history as an example. The Short, Unhappy Life of a Libertarian Paradise And that was a businessman with a MUCH better business track record than Trump. We are talking about a man who lost money owning a freaking gambling casino.
G.) He behaves unethicaly and always has. As a businessman, he constantly left in his wake unpaid contractors and invoices, litigation, broken promises, whatever he could get away with.
H.) He is damaging our relationships with our best international friends while kissing up to nations that do not have our best interests in mind. To his question “Wouldn't’ it be great to have better relations with Russia?” The answer is Yes. But it is RUSSIA who needs to earn that, who must stop doing the things that are damaging to that relationship, or we are simply weaker for it.
I.) He has never seen a shortcut he didn't like, and you can’t take shortcuts in government. “Nuclear Option, Remove the Filibuster, I’ll change the Constitution by Executive Order…Don…what happens when you remove the filibuster and the other side retakes the majority in the Senate? Suddenly want that filibuster back? What happens if you manage to change the Constitution by Executive Order and an Anti-2A President wins the next election?
J.) He behaves and has always behaved as an unabashed racist. Yes, I’ve seen your favorite meme that claims he was never accused of racism before the Democrats…Absolutely false. Donald Trump’s long history of racism, from the 1970s to 2019 See the Central Park 5, the lawsuits and fines resulting from his refusal to lease to black tenants, the 1992 lost appeal trying to overturn penalties for removing black dealers from tables, his remarks to the house native American affairs subcommittee in 1993. The man sees and treats racial groups of people as monoliths.
K.) He is systematically steamrolling regulations specifically designed to keep a disaster like the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis from happening again.
L.) He speaks and acts like a demagogue. He sees the Legislative and Judicial branches of government as inconveniences, blows up at criticism no matter how deserved and actively tries to countermand constitutional processes, not to mention attempts to blackmail and coerce people who are saying negative things about him
M.) His choices for top positions, with the exception of Gen. Mattis, who is a gem, have been horrendous. A secretary of Education without a resume that would get her hired as a small town grammar school principal, A secretary of Energy who didn't know the Department of Energy was responsible for nuclear reserves, an EPA head whose biggest accomplishments to date had been suing the EPA on multiple occasions, an FCC head who while working for Verizon actively lobbied to kill net neutrality, and an Attorney General who thinks pot is “nearly as bad as heroin” and asked Congress for permission to go after legal pot businesses in states where it is legal. (There goes that great Republican States rights rally cry again, right? *Crickets*) An Interim AG after Firing his First AG who’s appointment is probably unconstitutional.
N.) He denies scientific fact. Ever notice that the only people you hear denying climate change are politicians and lobbyists? 99% of actual scientists studying the issue agree that it’s real, man-made and caused by greenhouse gasses. Ever notice that every big disaster movie starts with a bunch of politicians in a room ignoring a scientist's warning?
0.) He does not have the temperament to lead this nation. He is Thin Skinned, childish, and a bully, never mind misogynistic, boorish, rude, and incapable of civil discourse.
P.) He still does not understand that the words he speaks, or tweets, are the official position of 1/3 of the US government, and so does not govern his words. He still thinks when he speaks it’s good ol’ Donald Trump. It’s not. It’s the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. You have probably spread a meme or two around talking about how no president’s every word has ever been dissected before…YES, THEY ALWAYS HAVE. It’s just that every other president in our lifetime has understood the importance of his words and took great care to govern his speech. Trump blurts out whatever comes to his mind then complains when people talk about what a dumb thing that was to say.
Q.) He’s unqualified. If you owned a small business and were looking for someone to manage it, and an unnamed resume came across your desk and you saw 6 bankruptcies, showing a man who had failed to make money running CASINOS, would you hire him? He is a very poor businessman. This is a man it has been estimated would have been worth $10 BILLION more if he’d just taken what his father had given him, invested it in Index Funds and left it alone.
R.) He is President. But he refuses to take a leadership position and understand that he is everyone’s President. Conservatives complain about liberals chanting “Not my President” while Trump himself behaves as if no one but his supporters matter.
S.) He’s a blatant hypocrite. He spent 8 years bitching Obama out for his family trips, or golfing, or any time he took for himself, and what does he do? He was already on his 20th golf outing in APRIL of his 1st year in office. He constantly rants about respect for the military, yet can’t be bothered to attend the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day because of a little rain. (And that excuse about Marine One not being able to fly in the rain is HILARIOUS.)
T.) He’s a misogynist. It's not really ok in this day and age to be a misogynist, but it’s not a huge deal if you’re a private citizen. It’s a pretty big deal if you hate half the people you’re elected to lead. The disdain for women seeps out of his …whatever…. and he just can’t hide it.
U.) Face it. In any other election “Grab Em’ By the Pussy” would have been the end of that candidate’s chances. Back in the 90’s I used to marvel about how Teflon Bill Clinton was. I no longer do. The fact that he managed to slip by on that is as much a statement about how much people hate Hillary Clinton as it is about what is wrong with politics in this country right now.
V.) He has one response to a differing opinion. Attack. A good leader listens to criticism, to different points of view, is capable of self-reflection, tries to guide people to his point of view, and when necessary stands his ground and defends his convictions. Any of that sound like Trump? His default is not to Lead, its’ to attack. Scorched Earth. The Jim Acosta reaction is a good example. There was no defense of his convictions when Acosta was asking him repeated questions about his rhetoric on the caravan. His response was to attack Acosta.
W.) He takes credit for everything positive while deflecting blame for everything negative. Look at him with the Stock Market. He’s been bragging about it since day one, and to give credit where credit is due, speculation on coming deregulation early in his presidency did fuel some rapid growth, but to pretend that it’s all him, that we’re not in the 9th year of the longest bull market in history and THEN, when the standard market volatility that deregulation inevitably brings about starts to show up? Yeah. Look at yesterday. Hey! Stock Markets losing because the Democrats won! Do I need to bring out the Stock market chart for the last 10 Years again?
X.) He emboldens the worst among us. Counter-protesters are slammed into by a car while countering actual Nazi rally, and the response is there’s fault on “Both Sides” The media is at fault for a nut job sending them and Donald’s favorite targets pipe bombs. The truth is not all Republicans, not all Trump Supporters are racist, fascist lunatics. Many are just taken in by the bombastic personality and are living in an information bubble made worse by the fact that they unfollow anyone and ignore any source of information that makes them feel uncomfortable. People on the left do that too. The Biggest problem the right has right now is that the worst of the Right is the loudest and the most in your face, and the actual right, especially the Freaking PRESIDENT needs to be standing up and saying No. Those are not our values.
Y.) He seems to think the Constitution of The United States, the document that IS who we are, the document he took an oath to support and defend is some sort of inconvenience. He demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of Constitution, from believing he can alter the 14th through executive order, to thinking The free exercise clause in the first amendment somehow supersedes the establishment clause (not that he really understands either) or that the free exercise clause only applies to Christians. Or his attacks on freedom of expression and the press. He repeatedly makes it clear that if he’s read them, he does not understand Articles 1–3, and that’s something he really should have before he took the job, because they’re not going away.
Z.) I’ll use Z for something I do blame him for, but the rest of us have to carry the blame too. Polarization. This country is more politically polarized than I can remember in my lifetime. Some of you who are a few years older than I may remember how it was in the late 60’s when construction workers in New York were being applauded for beating up hippies, I think it’s pretty close to that right now, but that was before my time. And he is the cause of much of the current level polarization, but also the result. It didn't’ start with Trump. We’ve been going down this road I think since the eruption of the Tea Party in the early years of the Obama Administration. I do hope the tide turns before it gets much worse because the thing that scares me more than anything is what if that keeps going the way it has been? "
//Meanwhile, I’m not a Liberal either, and I’m a veteran of 20 years with 13 deployments to combat zones.//
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queernuck · 5 years
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i really wish the "justin trudeau’s real father is fidel castro" conspiracy theory wasn’t reactionary propaganda bc it’s fucking hilarious to think about like "hello i’m fidel castro and my bastard son is a neoliberal" is that not the funniest shit
the fundamental problem is that any humor derived from it is going to be at least somewhat similar to, say, the meme about Jeffrey Epstein not killing himself, in that the decontextualization, the repetition of it (in the Deleuzean sense) effectively creates the same reactionary series of claims over and over until it is associated with Trudeau, and moreover associated with him in a profoundly incorrect fashion.
“neoliberal failson” is a well-established category, one of the most prominent at the moment is Pete Buttegig as the son of an incredibly important Gramsci translator. and the humor in that, the sort of ironic reversal that a radical’s child adopting hegemonic politics denotes is a kind of allegorical representation of the greatest fear of a critical theorist: the death of their writing in impotent critique, in appropriation to support the academy. This is the fate seen in Foucauldian concepts applied to designing “better” schools and prisons that still retain the same disciplinary regimes. This is seen in how Deleuzean concepts are developed by the IDF, the restructuring of the urban space that they pursue through Deleuzean critique of architecture and space itself by conceiving of Palestinian cities and towns as rhizomal, as not being arboreally confined by the structure of the street. While Israel did not originate the idea of anti-armor weapons being used as a means of movement, they did refine it to such a degree that the contemporary usage of the concept is impossible to discuss without discussing Israeli tactics in Gaza. And so, in turn, for a radical to fear their child’s complacency is a recognition of the fear, the Oedipal return one looks to one’s parents with, and wondering what that would be like for one’s own children. 
However, there are multiple elements that rather quickly make the Trudeau conspiracy one that is rather unsettling to think about, even jokingly. First, the racialization involved is rather open, is based around the exact kind of sexualized “cuck” politics that Trudeau is seen as having, and if this is not seen as a genetic determinism, it is implied to be a kind of fitting counterpart. Trudeau’s policies, mischaracterized as a vaguely leftist understanding of borders rather than correctly as a neoliberal and neocolonial series of principles is attributed to a mythic mixed-race heritage that he either refuses to acknowledge publicly, will not willing accept but is influenced by anyway, or a sort of secret drive, secret desire that he gains a sort of satisfaction from hiding, almost a mirroring of the white supremacist ideology that so many hold without admitting it. 
It also relies so much on cherry-picking, on making sure to affirm this fetishized politics of cuckoldry, the way in which it sees itself as an example of the White Replacement/White Genocide myth in action makes it so that it becomes a dogwhistle rather quickly, the attempt to cleave what is clear reactionary fantasy from any salvageable joke becomes all but impossible. Furthermore, it implies a great deal about concepts of Castro, Cuba, and the Cuban people as invaders, as an inscrutable Other, rather than part of a nation that has been stricken by decades of embargo but still managed to lower infant mortality to incredibly small levels, that has been the target of American interference for decades, that is still today part of American fetishization of what must be done to attain peace: Cuba must die, Cuba must be reclaimed, the Global North must make Cuba its own again. 
When discussing Epstein, the clear reasoning for many is that there was a worry that even going to trial, without his compliance, would lead to the exposure of more of those involved with him, and that these people tend to be powerful members of the bourgeoisie, ones who would have no qualms killing to keep up appearances. After all, if the Clintons were implicated, their respective records in government would not show much of a fear of killing to get out of it, let alone the numerous stories about the Clinton Foundation and so on. Epstein’s death in custody, furthermore, strikes many as suspicious who think nothing of the death of Sandra Bland, as one somewhat over-simplified but justifiably common response goes. Even if he had killed himself, the notion he might do so in order to avoid the consequences of others being exposed is not unthinkable, and his blood is still on the hands of the guards. However, it also frequently is a mere half-measure removed from outright stating that it was part of this pedophilic cult, one named with blood libel and conspiratorial rituals that are as much a part of fascist aesthetics as fascist rituals themselves.
So, the whole “...why the fuck does Trudeau look like he’s Castro’s kid?” may be a funny and absurd thing to offer at first, it quickly turns toward fascist propaganda when one considers exactly what is implied and what connections are desired by the combination of the two.
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seh406 · 4 years
Text
A.) He lies. A LOT. Politifact rates 69% of the words he speaks as “Mostly False or worse” Only 17% of the things he says get a “Mostly True” or better rating. That is an absolutely unbelievable number. How he doesn’t speak more truth by mistake is beyond me. To put it in context, Obama’s rating was 26% mostly false or worse, and I had a problem with that. Many of Trump’s former business associates report that he has always been a compulsive liar, but now he’s the President of the United States, and that’s a problem. And this is a man who expects you to believe him when he points at other people and says “They’re lying”
B.) He’s an authoritarian populist, not a conservative. He advances regressive social policy while proposing to expand federal spending and federalist authority over states, both of which conservatives are supposed to hate.
C.) He pretends at Christianity to court the Religious Right but fails to live anything resembling a Christ-Like Life.
D.) His nationalist “America First” message effectively alienates us and removes us from our place as leaders in the international community.
E.) His ideas on “Keeping us safe” are all thinly veiled ideas to remove our freedoms, he is, after all, an authoritarian first. He has shown that they also are simply bad ideas.
F.) He couldn’t pass a 3rd-grade civics exam. He doesn't’ know what he’s doing. He doesn't understand how international relations work, he doesn’t understand how federal state or local governments work, and every time someone tries to “Run it like a business” it’s a spectacular failure. See Colorado Springs’ recent history as an example. “The Short, Unhappy Life of a Libertarian Paradise” and that was a businessman with a MUCH better business track record than Trump. We are talking about a man who lost money owning a freaking gambling casino.
G.) He behaves unethically and always has. As a businessman, he constantly left in his wake unpaid contractors and invoices, litigation, broken promises, whatever he could get away with.
H.) He is damaging our relationships with our best international friends while kissing up to nations that do not have our best interests in mind. To his question “Wouldn't’ it be great to have better relations with Russia?” The answer is Yes. But it is RUSSIA who needs to earn that, who must stop doing the things that are damaging to that relationship, or we are simply weaker for it.
I.) He has never seen a shortcut he didn't like, and you can’t take shortcuts in government. “Nuclear Option, Remove the Filibuster, I’ll change the Constitution by Executive Order…Don…what happens when you remove the filibuster and the other side retakes the majority in the Senate? Suddenly want that filibuster back? What happens if you manage to change the Constitution by Executive Order and an Anti-2A President wins the next election?
J.) He behaves and has always behaved as an unabashed racist. Yes, I’ve seen your favorite meme that claims he was never accused of racism before the Democrats…Absolutely false. Donald Trump’s long history of racism, from the 1970s to 2019 See the Central Park 5, the lawsuits and fines resulting from his refusal to lease to black tenants, the 1992 lost appeal trying to overturn penalties for removing black dealers from tables, his remarks to the house native American affairs subcommittee in 1993. The man sees and treats racial groups of people as monoliths.
K.) He is systematically steamrolling regulations specifically designed to keep a disaster like the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis from happening again.
L.) He speaks and acts like a demagogue. He sees the Legislative and Judicial branches of government as inconveniences, blows up at criticism no matter how deserved and actively tries to countermand constitutional processes, not to mention attempts to blackmail and coerce people who are saying negative things about him
M.) His choices for top positions, with the exception of Gen. Mattis, who is a gem, have been horrendous. A secretary of Education without a resume that would get her hired as a small town grammar school principal, A secretary of Energy who didn't know the Department of Energy was responsible for nuclear reserves, an EPA head whose biggest accomplishments to date had been suing the EPA on multiple occasions, an FCC head who while working for Verizon actively lobbied to kill net neutrality, and an Attorney General who thinks pot is “nearly as bad as heroin” and asked Congress for permission to go after legal pot businesses in states where it is legal. (There goes that great Republican States rights rally cry again, right? *Crickets*) An Interim AG after Firing his First AG who’s appointment is probably unconstitutional.
N.) He denies scientific fact. We’ve all witnessed this with the latest world disaster, the Coronavirus. He was warned by scientists and doctors very early on that this could happen but he totally ignored these warnings which has had un-reversible repercussions. Have you also noticed that the only people you hear denying climate change are politicians and lobbyists? 99% of actual scientists studying the issue agree that it’s real, man-made and caused by greenhouse gasses. Ever notice that every big disaster movie starts with a bunch of politicians in a room ignoring a scientist's warning?
0.) He does not have the temperament to lead this nation. He is thin skinned, childish, and a bully, never mind misogynistic, boorish, rude, and incapable of civil discourse.
P.) He still does not understand that the words he speaks, or tweets, are the official position of 1/3 of the US government, and so does not govern his words. He still thinks when he speaks it’s good ole’ Donald Trump. It’s not. It’s the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. You have probably spread a meme or two around talking about how no president’s every word has ever been dissected before…YES, THEY ALWAYS HAVE. It’s just that every other president in our lifetime has understood the importance of his words and took great care to govern his speech. Trump blurts out whatever comes to his mind then complains when people talk about what a dumb thing that was to say.
Q.) He’s unqualified. If you owned a small business and were looking for someone to manage it, and an unnamed resume came across your desk and you saw 6 bankruptcies, showing a man who had failed to make money running CASINOS, would you hire him? He is a very poor businessman. This is a man it has been estimated would have been worth $10 BILLION more if he’d just taken what his father had given him, invested it in Index Funds and left it alone.
R.) He is the President. But he refuses to take a leadership position and understand that he is everyone’s President. Again, this has been recently demonstrated with the Coronavirus Pandemic. Conservatives complain about liberals chanting “Not my President” while Trump himself behaves as if no one but his supporters matter.
S.) He’s a blatant hypocrite. He spent 8 years bitching Obama out for his family trips, or golfing, or any time he took for himself, and what does he do? He was already on his 20th golf outing in APRIL of his 1st year in office. He constantly rants about respect for the military, yet can’t be bothered to attend the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day because of a little rain. (And that excuse about Marine One not being able to fly in the rain is HILARIOUS.)
T.) He’s a misogynist. It's not really ok in this day and age to be a misogynist, but it’s not a huge deal if you’re a private citizen. It’s a pretty big deal if you hate half the people you’re elected to lead. The disdain for women seeps out of his …whatever…. and he just can’t hide it.
U.) Face it. In any other election “Grab Em’ By the Pussy” would have been the end of that candidate’s chances. Back in the 90’s I used to marvel about how Teflon Bill Clinton was. I no longer do. The fact that he managed to slip by on that is as much a statement about how much people hate Hillary Clinton as it is about what is wrong with politics in this country right now.
V.) He has one response to a differing opinion. ATTACK. A good leader listens to criticism, to different points of view, is capable of self-reflection, tries to guide people to his point of view, and when necessary stands his ground and defends his convictions. Does any of this sound like Trump? His default is not to Lead, its’ to attack. Scorched Earth. The Jim Acosta reaction is a good example. There was no defense of his convictions when Acosta was asking him repeated questions about his rhetoric on the caravan. His response was to attack Acosta and he’s done this many times now with the
W.) He takes credit for everything positive while deflecting blame for everything negative. Look at him with the Stock Market. He’s been bragging about it since day one, and to give credit where credit is due, speculation on coming deregulation early in his presidency did fuel some rapid growth, but to pretend that it’s all him, that we’re not in the 9th year of the longest bull market in history and THEN, when the standard market volatility that deregulation inevitably brings about starts to show up? Yeah. Look at yesterday. Hey! Stock Markets losing because the Democrats won! Do I need to bring out the Stock market chart for the last 10 Years again?
X.) He emboldens the worst among us. Counter-protesters are slammed into by a car while countering actual Nazi rally, and the response is there’s fault on “Both Sides” The media is at fault for a nut job sending them and Donald’s favorite targets pipe bombs. The truth is not all Republicans, not all Trump Supporters are racist, fascist lunatics. Many are just taken in by the bombastic personality and are living in an information bubble made worse by the fact that they unfollow anyone and ignore any source of information that makes them feel uncomfortable. People on the left do that too. The biggest problem the right has right now is that the worst of the Right is the loudest and the most in your face, and the actual right, especially the Freaking PRESIDENT needs to be standing up and saying No. Those are not our values.
Y.) He seems to think the Constitution of The United States, the document that IS who we are, the document he took an oath to support and defend is some sort of inconvenience. He demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of Constitution, from believing he can alter the 14th through executive order, to thinking The free exercise clause in the first amendment somehow supersedes the establishment clause (not that he really understands either) or that the free exercise clause only applies to Christians. Or his attacks on freedom of expression and the press. He repeatedly makes it clear that if he’s read them, he does not understand Articles 1–3, and that’s something he really should have before he took the job, because they’re not going away.
Z.) I’ll use Z for something I do blame him for, but the rest of us have to carry the blame too. Polarization. This country is more politically polarized than I can remember in my lifetime. Some may remember how it was in the late 60’s when construction workers in New York were being applauded for beating up hippies, I think it’s pretty close to that right now. And he is the cause of much of the current level polarization, but also the result. It didn't’ start with Trump. We’ve been going down this road I think since the eruption of the Tea Party in the early years of the Obama administration. I was hoping the tide would turn before it got much worse because the thing that scared me more than anything is what if that keeps going the way it has been? Well, that ship has sailed given Trumps past record and the latest current events that have gone horribly wrong.
If you’ve read this far, thank you for reading my reasons which I hope has given you my insight rather than just some superfluous statement I could have made that would have been pretty meaningless of why I cannot and never will support this man as someone I respect, let alone support him as our President.
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myworld50 · 5 years
Text
A person asked the question, "Why are people so hostile towards President Donald Trump?"
Chris O'Leary:
Before you pass my answer off as “Another Liberal Snowflake” consider that
1.) I'm an independent centrist who has voted Republican way more often in my life than Democrat, and
2.) If you want to call someone who spent the entire decade of his 20’s serving in the Marine Corps a snowflake, I’d be ready to answer the question what did you do with your 20’s?
Why Liberals (And not-so liberals) are against President Trump.
A.) He lies. A LOT. Politifact rates 69% of the words he speaks as “Mostly False or worse” Only 17% of the things he says get a “Mostly True” or better rating. That is an absolutely unbelievable number. How he doesn’t speak more truth by mistake is beyond me. To put it in context, Obama’s rating was 26% mostly false or worse, and I had a problem with that. Many of Trump’s former business associates report that he has always been a compulsive liar, but now he’s the President of the United States, and that’s a problem. And this is a man who expects you to believe him when he points at other people and says “They’re lying”
B.) He’s an authoritarian populist, not a conservative. He advances regressive social policy while proposing to expand federal spending and federalist authority over states, both of which conservatives are supposed to hate.
C.) He pretends at Christianity to court the Religious Right but fails to live anything resembling a Christ-Like Life.
D.) His nationalist “America First” message effectively alienates us and removes us from our place as leaders in the international community.
E.) His ideas on “Keeping us safe” are all thinly veiled ideas to remove our freedoms, he is, after all, an authoritarian first. They also are simply bad ideas.
F.) He couldn’t pass a 3rd-grade civics exam. He doesn't’ know what he’s doing. He doesn't understand how international relations work, he doesn’t understand how federal state or local governments work, and every time someone tries to “Run it like a business” it’s a spectacular failure. See Colorado Springs’ recent history as an example. The Short, Unhappy Life of a Libertarian Paradise And that was a businessman with a MUCH better business track record than Trump. We are talking about a man who lost money owning a freaking gambling casino.
G.) He behaves unethicaly and always has. As a businessman, he constantly left in his wake unpaid contractors and invoices, litigation, broken promises, whatever he could get away with.
H.) He is damaging our relationships with our best international friends while kissing up to nations that do not have our best interests in mind. To his question “Wouldn't’ it be great to have better relations with Russia?” The answer is Yes. But it is RUSSIA who needs to earn that, who must stop doing the things that are damaging to that relationship, or we are simply weaker for it.
I.) He has never seen a shortcut he didn't like, and you can’t take shortcuts in government. “Nuclear Option, Remove the Filibuster, I’ll change the Constitution by Executive Order…Don…what happens when you remove the filibuster and the other side retakes the majority in the Senate? Suddenly want that filibuster back? What happens if you manage to change the Constitution by Executive Order and an Anti-2A President wins the next election?
J.) He behaves and has always behaved as an unabashed racist. Yes, I’ve seen your favorite meme that claims he was never accused of racism before the Democrats…Absolutely false. Donald Trump’s long history of racism, from the 1970s to 2019 See the Central Park 5, the lawsuits and fines resulting from his refusal to lease to black tenants, the 1992 lost appeal trying to overturn penalties for removing black dealers from tables, his remarks to the house native American affairs subcommittee in 1993. The man sees and treats racial groups of people as monoliths.
K.) He is systematically steamrolling regulations specifically designed to keep a disaster like the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis from happening again.
L.) He speaks and acts like a demagogue. He sees the Legislative and Judicial branches of government as inconveniences, blows up at criticism no matter how deserved and actively tries to countermand constitutional processes, not to mention attempts to blackmail and coerce people who are saying negative things about him
M.) His choices for top positions, with the exception of Gen. Mattis, who is a gem, have been horrendous. A secretary of Education without a resume that would get her hired as a small town grammar school principal, A secretary of Energy who didn't know the Department of Energy was responsible for nuclear reserves, an EPA head whose biggest accomplishments to date had been suing the EPA on multiple occasions, an FCC head who while working for Verizon actively lobbied to kill net neutrality, and an Attorney General who thinks pot is “nearly as bad as heroin” and asked Congress for permission to go after legal pot businesses in states where it is legal. (There goes that great Republican States rights rally cry again, right? *Crickets*) An Interim AG after Firing his First AG who’s appointment is probably unconstitutional.
N.) He denies scientific fact. Ever notice that the only people you hear denying climate change are politicians and lobbyists? 99% of actual scientists studying the issue agree that it’s real, man-made and caused by greenhouse gasses. Ever notice that every big disaster movie starts with a bunch of politicians in a room ignoring a scientist's warning?
0.) He does not have the temperament to lead this nation. He is Thin Skinned, childish, and a bully, never mind misogynistic, boorish, rude, and incapable of civil discourse.
P.) He still does not understand that the words he speaks, or tweets, are the official position of 1/3 of the US government, and so does not govern his words. He still thinks when he speaks it’s good ol’ Donald Trump. It’s not. It’s the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. You have probably spread a meme or two around talking about how no president’s every word has ever been dissected before…YES, THEY ALWAYS HAVE. It’s just that every other president in our lifetime has understood the importance of his words and took great care to govern his speech. Trump blurts out whatever comes to his mind then complains when people talk about what a dumb thing that was to say.
Q.) He’s unqualified. If you owned a small business and were looking for someone to manage it, and an unnamed resume came across your desk and you saw 6 bankruptcies, showing a man who had failed to make money running CASINOS, would you hire him? He is a very poor businessman. This is a man it has been estimated would have been worth $10 BILLION more if he’d just taken what his father had given him, invested it in Index Funds and left it alone.
R.) He is President. But he refuses to take a leadership position and understand that he is everyone’s President. Conservatives complain about liberals chanting “Not my President” while Trump himself behaves as if no one but his supporters matter.
S.) He’s a blatant hypocrite. He spent 8 years bitching Obama out for his family trips, or golfing, or any time he took for himself, and what does he do? He was already on his 20th golf outing in APRIL of his 1st year in office. He constantly rants about respect for the military, yet can’t be bothered to attend the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day because of a little rain. (And that excuse about Marine One not being able to fly in the rain is HILARIOUS.)
T.) He’s a misogynist. It's not really ok in this day and age to be a misogynist, but it’s not a huge deal if you’re a private citizen. It’s a pretty big deal if you hate half the people you’re elected to lead. The disdain for women seeps out of his …whatever…. and he just can’t hide it.
U.) Face it. In any other election “Grab Em’ By the Pussy” would have been the end of that candidate’s chances. Back in the 90’s I used to marvel about how Teflon Bill Clinton was. I no longer do. The fact that he managed to slip by on that is as much a statement about how much people hate Hillary Clinton as it is about what is wrong with politics in this country right now.
V.) He has one response to a differing opinion. Attack. A good leader listens to criticism, to different points of view, is capable of self-reflection, tries to guide people to his point of view, and when necessary stands his ground and defends his convictions. Any of that sound like Trump? His default is not to Lead, its’ to attack. Scorched Earth. The Jim Acosta reaction is a good example. There was no defense of his convictions when Acosta was asking him repeated questions about his rhetoric on the caravan. His response was to attack Acosta.
W.) He takes credit for everything positive while deflecting blame for everything negative. Look at him with the Stock Market. He’s been bragging about it since day one, and to give credit where credit is due, speculation on coming deregulation early in his presidency did fuel some rapid growth, but to pretend that it’s all him, that we’re not in the 9th year of the longest bull market in history and THEN, when the standard market volatility that deregulation inevitably brings about starts to show up? Yeah. Look at yesterday. Hey! Stock Markets losing because the Democrats won! Do I need to bring out the Stock market chart for the last 10 Years again?
X.) He emboldens the worst among us. Counter-protesters are slammed into by a car while countering actual Nazi rally, and the response is there’s fault on “Both Sides” The media is at fault for a nut job sending them and Donald’s favorite targets pipe bombs. The truth is not all Republicans, not all Trump Supporters are racist, fascist lunatics. Many are just taken in by the bombastic personality and are living in an information bubble made worse by the fact that they unfollow anyone and ignore any source of information that makes them feel uncomfortable. People on the left do that too. The Biggest problem the right has right now is that the worst of the Right is the loudest and the most in your face, and the actual right, especially the Freaking PRESIDENT needs to be standing up and saying No. Those are not our values.
Y.) He seems to think the Constitution of The United States, the document that IS who we are, the document he took an oath to support and defend is some sort of inconvenience. He demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of Constitution, from believing he can alter the 14th through executive order, to thinking The free exercise clause in the first amendment somehow supersedes the establishment clause (not that he really understands either) or that the free exercise clause only applies to Christians. Or his attacks on freedom of expression and the press. He repeatedly makes it clear that if he’s read them, he does not understand Articles 1–3, and that’s something he really should have before he took the job, because they’re not going away.
Z.) I’ll use Z for something I do blame him for, but the rest of us have to carry the blame too. Polarization. This country is more politically polarized than I can remember in my lifetime. Some of you who are a few years older than I may remember how it was in the late 60’s when construction workers in New York were being applauded for beating up hippies, I think it’s pretty close to that right now, but that was before my time. And he is the cause of much of the current level polarization, but also the result. It didn't’ start with Trump. We’ve been going down this road I think since the eruption of the Tea Party in the early years of the Obama Administration. I do hope the tide turns before it gets much worse because the thing that scares me more than anything is what if that keeps going the way it has been? "
*snagged from a friends wall:
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honeychildoz · 5 years
Text
"Why are people so hostile towards President Donald Trump?" Chris O'Leary:
1.) I'm an independent centrist who has voted Republican way more often in my life than Democrat, and 2.) If you want to call someone who spent the entire decade of his 20’s serving in the Marine Corps a snowflake, I’d be ready to answer the question what did you do with your 20’s?
Why Liberals (And not-so liberals) are against President Trump.
A.) He lies. A LOT. Politifact rates 69% of the words he speaks as “Mostly False or worse” Only 17% of the things he says get a “Mostly True” or better rating. That is an absolutely unbelievable number. How he doesn’t speak more truth by mistake is beyond me. To put it in context, Obama’s rating was 26% mostly false or worse, and I had a problem with that. Many of Trump’s former business associates report that he has always been a compulsive liar, but now he’s the President of the United States, and that’s a problem. And this is a man who expects you to believe him when he points at other people and says “They’re lying”
B.) He’s an authoritarian populist, not a conservative. He advances regressive social policy while proposing to expand federal spending and federalist authority over states, both of which conservatives are supposed to hate.
C.) He pretends at Christianity to court the Religious Right but fails to live anything resembling a Christ-Like Life.
D.) His nationalist “America First” message effectively alienates us and removes us from our place as leaders in the international community.
E.) His ideas on “Keeping us safe” are all thinly veiled ideas to remove our freedoms, he is, after all, an authoritarian first. They also are simply bad ideas.
F.) He couldn’t pass a 3rd-grade civics exam. He doesn't’ know what he’s doing. He doesn't understand how international relations work, he doesn’t understand how federal state or local governments work, and every time someone tries to “Run it like a business” it’s a spectacular failure. See Colorado Springs’ recent history as an example. The Short, Unhappy Life of a Libertarian Paradise And that was a businessman with a MUCH better business track record than Trump. We are talking about a man who lost money owning a freaking gambling casino.
G.) He behaves unethicaly and always has. As a businessman, he constantly left in his wake unpaid contractors and invoices, litigation, broken promises, whatever he could get away with.
H.) He is damaging our relationships with our best international friends while kissing up to nations that do not have our best interests in mind. To his question “Wouldn't’ it be great to have better relations with Russia?” The answer is Yes. But it is RUSSIA who needs to earn that, who must stop doing the things that are damaging to that relationship, or we are simply weaker for it.
I.) He has never seen a shortcut he didn't like, and you can’t take shortcuts in government. “Nuclear Option, Remove the Filibuster, I’ll change the Constitution by Executive Order…Don…what happens when you remove the filibuster and the other side retakes the majority in the Senate? Suddenly want that filibuster back? What happens if you manage to change the Constitution by Executive Order and an Anti-2A President wins the next election?
J.) He behaves and has always behaved as an unabashed racist. Yes, I’ve seen your favorite meme that claims he was never accused of racism before the Democrats…Absolutely false. Donald Trump’s long history of racism, from the 1970s to 2019 See the Central Park 5, the lawsuits and fines resulting from his refusal to lease to black tenants, the 1992 lost appeal trying to overturn penalties for removing black dealers from tables, his remarks to the house native American affairs subcommittee in 1993. The man sees and treats racial groups of people as monoliths.
K.) He is systematically steamrolling regulations specifically designed to keep a disaster like the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis from happening again.
L.) He speaks and acts like a demagogue. He sees the Legislative and Judicial branches of government as inconveniences, blows up at criticism no matter how deserved and actively tries to countermand constitutional processes, not to mention attempts to blackmail and coerce people who are saying negative things about him
M.) His choices for top positions, with the exception of Gen. Mattis, who is a gem, have been horrendous. A secretary of Education without a resume that would get her hired as a small town grammar school principal, A secretary of Energy who didn't know the Department of Energy was responsible for nuclear reserves, an EPA head whose biggest accomplishments to date had been suing the EPA on multiple occasions, an FCC head who while working for Verizon actively lobbied to kill net neutrality, and an Attorney General who thinks pot is “nearly as bad as heroin” and asked Congress for permission to go after legal pot businesses in states where it is legal. (There goes that great Republican States rights rally cry again, right? *Crickets*) An Interim AG after Firing his First AG who’s appointment is probably unconstitutional.
N.) He denies scientific fact. Ever notice that the only people you hear denying climate change are politicians and lobbyists? 99% of actual scientists studying the issue agree that it’s real, man-made and caused by greenhouse gasses. Ever notice that every big disaster movie starts with a bunch of politicians in a room ignoring a scientist's warning?
0.) He does not have the temperament to lead this nation. He is Thin Skinned, childish, and a bully, never mind misogynistic, boorish, rude, and incapable of civil discourse.
P.) He still does not understand that the words he speaks, or tweets, are the official position of 1/3 of the US government, and so does not govern his words. He still thinks when he speaks it’s good ol’ Donald Trump. It’s not. It’s the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. You have probably spread a meme or two around talking about how no president’s every word has ever been dissected before…YES, THEY ALWAYS HAVE. It’s just that every other president in our lifetime has understood the importance of his words and took great care to govern his speech. Trump blurts out whatever comes to his mind then complains when people talk about what a dumb thing that was to say.
Q.) He’s unqualified. If you owned a small business and were looking for someone to manage it, and an unnamed resume came across your desk and you saw 6 bankruptcies, showing a man who had failed to make money running CASINOS, would you hire him? He is a very poor businessman. This is a man it has been estimated would have been worth $10 BILLION more if he’d just taken what his father had given him, invested it in Index Funds and left it alone.
R.) He is President. But he refuses to take a leadership position and understand that he is everyone’s President. Conservatives complain about liberals chanting “Not my President” while Trump himself behaves as if no one but his supporters matter.
S.) He’s a blatant hypocrite. He spent 8 years bitching Obama out for his family trips, or golfing, or any time he took for himself, and what does he do? He was already on his 20th golf outing in APRIL of his 1st year in office. He constantly rants about respect for the military, yet can’t be bothered to attend the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day because of a little rain. (And that excuse about Marine One not being able to fly in the rain is HILARIOUS.)
T.) He’s a misogynist. It's not really ok in this day and age to be a misogynist, but it’s not a huge deal if you’re a private citizen. It’s a pretty big deal if you hate half the people you’re elected to lead. The disdain for women seeps out of his …whatever…. and he just can’t hide it.
U.) Face it. In any other election “Grab Em’ By the Pussy” would have been the end of that candidate’s chances. Back in the 90’s I used to marvel about how Teflon Bill Clinton was. I no longer do. The fact that he managed to slip by on that is as much a statement about how much people hate Hillary Clinton as it is about what is wrong with politics in this country right now.
V.) He has one response to a differing opinion. Attack. A good leader listens to criticism, to different points of view, is capable of self-reflection, tries to guide people to his point of view, and when necessary stands his ground and defends his convictions. Any of that sound like Trump? His default is not to Lead, its’ to attack. Scorched Earth. The Jim Acosta reaction is a good example. There was no defense of his convictions when Acosta was asking him repeated questions about his rhetoric on the caravan. His response was to attack Acosta.
W.) He takes credit for everything positive while deflecting blame for everything negative. Look at him with the Stock Market. He’s been bragging about it since day one, and to give credit where credit is due, speculation on coming deregulation early in his presidency did fuel some rapid growth, but to pretend that it’s all him, that we’re not in the 9th year of the longest bull market in history and THEN, when the standard market volatility that deregulation inevitably brings about starts to show up? Yeah. Look at yesterday. Hey! Stock Markets losing because the Democrats won! Do I need to bring out the Stock market chart for the last 10 Years again?
X.) He emboldens the worst among us. Counter-protesters are slammed into by a car while countering actual Nazi rally, and the response is there’s fault on “Both Sides” The media is at fault for a nut job sending them and Donald’s favorite targets pipe bombs. The truth is not all Republicans, not all Trump Supporters are racist, fascist lunatics. Many are just taken in by the bombastic personality and are living in an information bubble made worse by the fact that they unfollow anyone and ignore any source of information that makes them feel uncomfortable. People on the left do that too. The Biggest problem the right has right now is that the worst of the Right is the loudest and the most in your face, and the actual right, especially the Freaking PRESIDENT needs to be standing up and saying No. Those are not our values.
Y.) He seems to think the Constitution of The United States, the document that IS who we are, the document he took an oath to support and defend is some sort of inconvenience. He demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of Constitution, from believing he can alter the 14th through executive order, to thinking The free exercise clause in the first amendment somehow supersedes the establishment clause (not that he really understands either) or that the free exercise clause only applies to Christians. Or his attacks on freedom of expression and the press. He repeatedly makes it clear that if he’s read them, he does not understand Articles 1–3, and that’s something he really should have before he took the job, because they’re not going away.
Z.) I’ll use Z for something I do blame him for, but the rest of us have to carry the blame too. Polarization. This country is more politically polarized than I can remember in my lifetime. Some of you who are a few years older than I may remember how it was in the late 60’s when construction workers in New York were being applauded for beating up hippies, I think it’s pretty close to that right now, but that was before my time. And he is the cause of much of the current level polarization, but also the result. It didn't’ start with Trump. We’ve been going down this road I think since the eruption of the Tea Party in the early years of the Obama Administration. I do hope the tide turns before it gets much worse because the thing that scares me more than anything is what if that keeps going the way it has been? "
*snagged from a friends wall:
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sumpix · 5 years
Text
Jordan Peterson ‘the 21st Century Battle Rapper’ vs Akira the Don
Actually, the young men who follow Peterson are not the deplorable ‘fan boys’ or ‘alt-right nazi scumbags’ that Peterson haters say they are. Young fans of Peterson are clued-in to the cultural zeitgeist in a way that the ‘champagne socialists’—who have snidely called Peterson ‘the stupid man’s smart person’ — are not. These academics and journalists have reacted hysterically to Peterson—calling him a ‘fascist mystic’ and other less pretty names—and they have also attacked his fans. This is reminiscent of the way that Hilary Clinton called working people ‘deplorables’— ‘fanboy’ is just another word for deplorable here. The implication is that Peterson fans are a lesser species of mongoloid, or at best lower class. But actually Peterson fans are diverse and intelligent and they span the the political spectrum.
(via Jordan Peterson ‘the 21st Century Battle Rapper’ vs Akira the Don)
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tsvitok · 6 years
Text
Oh, by the way.
This is the guy who got James Gunn fired.
I don’t share your apoplectic rage over the incident because I don’t know James Gunn as a person or a director other than he was kinda left-leaning.
But this piece of shit is Mike Cernovich.
He is one of the thought leaders of the alt-right. He rose to prominence during gamergate - that totally made up outrage that was nothing more than an anti-woman witch hunt and the prototype for what we currently refer to as incels.
He used gamergate to spread his “ideology” that rape is natural and should be done and it is okay to do it because fuck women. Also fuck gay people, they aren’t real and anyone who says they are is a “cuck”. Yeah, he turned that word into a laughably ineffective insult - one that has more than a few racist undertones.
He also regularly peddles conspiracies including pizzagate, a conspiracy that Hillary Clinton was operating a pedophile ring in a pizzeria’s basement. This conspiracy resulted in an alt-right gunman storming the pizzeria looking to rescue the children from the non-existent basement. Luckily the gunman didn’t injure anyone when they shot the place up.
When he isn’t doing that, he also regularly doxs people, inciting his fanbase to harass and even threaten people he doesn’t like for no real reason. From female game developers to female actresses. There is a pattern, yes.
But what do you expect? The man is a rapist, who advocates rape and calls everyone who doesn’t let him speak his hateful nonsense a pedophile.
He is also a white supremacist, and has regularly called black lives matter a terrorist organisation and that “diversity is code for white genocide”. Oh, yes, he believes in white genocide. He is terrified of non-white men raping your virginal white women! Don’t you know that muslims have a rape culture? Oh right, because despite basically saying women should be raped because they’re not people, he only wants white men to do the raping. Because he’s a racist. And he is anti-Semitic. Because you know, he has gone on the record as saying Jews are not white, and given that he hates all non-white men well... logic dictates that... oh, wait we don’t need to speculate - he has supported the singling out and harassing of Jewish individuals on twitter.
He tries to distance himself from the alt-right and neo-nazis that are his fanbase under an air of “provocation” and “anti-SJW” sentiment. He tries to look like he fights with other people on the alt-right, to make himself look like a dissenter, even though his philosophies are completely and one-hundred percent in lock-goose-step with them. He is a fascist who is using his platform to preach hatred and apparently he gets offended on a regular basis.
And that is hilarious to me. Because given the kind of guy he is, I’d say he is projecting. I’d wager he’s a pedophile that dreams of raping children.
I say that because he has done this exact same thing previously, to a guy called Sam Seder. It’s pretty well documented, and it’s how I have the misfortune of knowing who this guy is. The guy is obsessed with pedophilia and trying to justify rape as not morally wrong.
Just so we’re clear on who this guy is.
Because you’re gonna see the centrists pick apart James Gunn, he’s going to be dragged across the coals. Because the centrists don’t care, they got the response they need - a half-million nazis just told them they don’t like something. So instead of doing the right thing and defending Gunn’s right to make shitty and kinda harmful jokes, they fire him.
They already sided with the nazis.
Liberals and conservatives, they’ll side with fascists over leftists every single fucking time. You should remember that next time someone complains about freedom of speech, or tells you not to punch nazis.
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freethoughtforall · 3 years
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Are You Woke?
Are you woke? Think So?
               Are you still riding the Trump train? Are you following that lost cause, somehow believing there is a magic bullet that will put him back in office? Are you believing that he will be back in 2024? The election was stolen, there was massive voter fraud, and the myriad of “Q” and other conspiracies?
               Or are you on the Biden victory train? America is saved, we have all we need now, social inequalities will get fixed, everything will be better now that Biden is in office. Trump was a bad person, a racist, an authoritarian, fascist, supported white supremacy?
               If you are on either of those band wagons, sadly you are still asleep. You are so caught up in what is being fed to you. Do not feel bad, I was there, many still are. The media, corporate America, most of the federal government, many politicians, many celebrities, and many other high-profile people are hanging out there, either pushing the narrative knowingly or they are just as bought in and brainwashed by the system and do not know any better.
               Let us start at this point, yeah, I will get a lot of hate for this one, the 2020 election was not stolen or rigged. No, it was not. Not any more than the 2016 election was stolen or rigged. No, you can not provide proof or evidence that the election was stolen and thousands upon thousands of fraudulent mail in ballots were submitted and ballots were changed, nor can you provide irrefutable proof that computer systems changed votes on a massive scale. The proof just is not there. So save your links to “fact videos”, “biased articles”, “Seriously questionable interviews”, and anything related to “Q”.
               Here is why. I have spent many, many, many hours researching this topic every which way. I use multiple VPNs, blind searches, and back alley internet sites (if you know, you know) and looked through everything. Each topic point has its own list of pros and cons, fact and fiction, he said and she said. Essentially, neither the left nor right is putting out the truth, well, not entirely. The facts are there, they are however manipulated, twisted, and sold to you in the manner you want to hear it. You have been bought and controlled.
               If you want to wake up, look around, there is no truth being given any longer. Mainstream Media outlets are selling news targeted with specific agendas. Social media is using targeted advertising produced by algorithms to show you only what fits your agenda, or the agenda they are supporting. Things you want to know, like, “just the facts”, are no longer on the surface. You need to dig deep consume many articles from different viewpoints to track down the facts.
               It is now more important than ever to follow an old saying, “Believe none of what you hear, and only half of what you see.” The devil is in fact, In The Details.
               If you want to see the truth in it all start with the 2016 election. Did Trump win? Legitimately? Yes. He did lose the popular vote but secured the Electoral vote. This enraged the left leading to calls of a rigged election, illegitimate presidency, foreign collusion, foreign interference and so on. Is any of this true? Yes and No.
               Foreign governments have a direct interest in how our elections turn out and who and what party holds office. They need certain things from America and who is running things has a direct impact on those needs. So yes, they would love to control who attains office. Doing so directly is not advantageous to either the candidate they support nor themselves. Why? If found out it could be construed as a direct attack on America and may be construed as an act of war.
               Does corporate America want to influence the election? Absolutely without a doubt. They need the correct people and party in office to control and push the agendas they need to sustain profit and grow, there is more to it but that is the short of it.
               In 2016 both the left and the right employed what you may want to consider psychological operations to manipulate the American People. They needed to influence the votes of their base and sway undecided voters. So massive campaigns on both sides attempted through data manipulation of Social Media, mainstream media, and targeted advertising based on this data manipulation to send the data to your door, via what you see online and TV.
               The left did a good job of pushing their agenda and Hilary seemed a sure winner. They were so convinced of this win; they could not accept Trumps win. The right used the same manipulation of data and targeted information pushed heavily in battleground areas to secure electoral votes, not popular votes. It was a good plan and it worked. The left screamed foreign collusion hoping to find something to discredit the election. The problem, there was none. There was foreign manipulation of social media pushing the Rights agenda as well as corporate manipulation doing the same, but no direct interference, no hands-on interference with voting or voting results.
               So, Trump won via a better more precise targeted influencing campaign. The Left lost because they did not target the right places in the right manner nor did they push it hard enough, they felt Hilary’s popularity in key groups and the potential for a first Woman president following the first Black president was a direct sell and would carry them. This failed, because the push for change and a non-establishment political figure along with Clinton family issues, email debacle, Benghazi and other issues was pushed hard in those key areas and targeted social and mainstream media hitting people over and over sold the deal to enough people to swing votes. Right or Wrong? You decide. A great documentary which can get you started in the research of this is “The Great Hack”. Watch it and background research the points, you will soon see 2016 was not on the Up and Up.
               What happened next? Trump was not supposed to win. Now everything was off. This began a learn and adjust as you go campaign to remove Trump from office. Everything from that point forward was a well-coordinated precision targeted campaign to discredit, defame, debase the current administration, and create a toxic divided electorate who is so divided they could isolate the middle and target them to sway enough votes. This is where the Time Magazine article “The secret history of the shadow campaign that saved the 2020 election” comes into play.
               You can get angry about that article and claim the election was stolen, they admitted it, it was illegal, and so on. However, you would be wrong. They did what the Right did in 2016 only they learned from it and their failure and employed it better. 4 years of defamation. 4 years of Mainstream media being on board and pushing the agenda. Limited to no reports of the administrations positive policies, only constant manipulation of speeches to show out of context wording supported by news narratives. Unrelenting social media censoring and factchecking showing out of context, misleading, and false reports on many articles supporting the administration, yet a serious lack of the same fact checking on left and liberal leaning viewpoints.
               Then there is the Pandemic or “Plandemic”, this is a real virus which only gave them more fuel for the fire. Yes, it’s real, the “Plan” was once it arrived it let the left attack every response, every action, inaction, word blunder, and policy and place the blame on the Sitting President, completely ignoring how our country operates and how the dissemination of power and response works. So – Trump killed a lot of people with his poor action, or so the claim goes, and it did not sit well with the undecided voters.
               Let us throw in a country erupting in social justice battles amid a pandemic, leading to both far right and far left groups getting out of hand. This created an even wider gap in the country’s division. Suddenly white conservatives became racists, white supremacists, fascists, privileged, and this translated straight up stream to the president as a large part of his base was white, middle class, working Americans. Conservative America almost overnight became extremists and evil. If you were white, you were the problem and you had to apologize or you were a fascist racist. If you were a person of color and supported conservative values and god help you supported Trump, you were a sellout and a traitor to your race. Rather convenient, don’t you think?
               So yes, Biden / Harris won 2020. Was it invalid, stolen, or rigged? No, it was however heavily manipulated, the Time article proves that it happened. Right / Wrong? Turnabout is fair play? Trump played the wrong hand, picked the wrong horse, fumbled on 4th and goal take your pick. He lost using the wrong strategy, he believed trying to suppress and make illegitimate mail in votes was his answer, wrong answer.
               All the conspiracy theories did not help matters. Constant new theories coming out about criminals in Washington, yes, I believe most of our politicians are criminals just not as portrayed by the conspiracists. Here is where we get to “Q” and their followers. Was this an actual Far Right conspiracy that had the opposite effect as the right intended? I do not believe so. “Q” arrived on the scene in full fashion and heavily in the last year and a half preceding the election, and was systematically removed from social media just after the election? Suspicious to say the least. No lingering “Q” accounts, yes there are some still pushing the theories, but the info drops are gone, and do you think a movement like that just gets censored out of existence? I think Not.
There are growing theories that “Q” was a left social media operation to discredit Republican, Conservative, and Trump supporters, by getting them sucked into a continual barrage of leading theories supporting a surprise Hail Mary move by Trump to take everything back. This theory is still just a theory, but if true would be a game changer.
Thus, Biden did not need a strong physical campaign, and this aided in a feeling on the right that he did not have enough support and Trump was going to take this election hands down. However, Biden’s team and the left knew the media and social media campaigns were going to swing the vote.
So, yes, we are being manipulated. Why? To many people believe what is fed to them by the Media and Social media without a second thought. “Orange Man Bad”, was the mantra sold for 4 years and while you saw people wake up and move from the left to the right, there were far more silent voters who swung to the left based on media biased advertising and social media manipulation.
So, if you are still camping left or right and sticking a hard line on that – you my friend are not woke. The entire system is rigged, a divided country is easier to sway and control. It makes it easier to target the undecided in the middle and inundate them with targeted media to move them one direction or another.
If you believe this is a wild conspiracy, you are asleep, you have been bought and you are sold on a path either on the right or the left. We The People, are gone. We need to get us back, we are divided and need to become “The UNITED States of America” again. It is not the left -vs- the right, it is We The People -vs- The Government and their current state of corruption.
 T3E ©2021
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theuberthinker · 5 years
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Sometimes you just have to applaud.
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A person asked the question, "Why are people so hostile towards President Donald Trump?"
Before you pass my answer off as “Another Liberal Snowflake” consider that
1.) I'm an independent centrist who has voted Republican way more often in my life than Democrat, and
2.) If you want to call someone who spent the entire decade of his 20’s serving in the Marine Corps a snowflake, I’d be ready to answer the question what did you do with your 20’s?
Why Liberals (And not-so liberals) are against President Trump.
A.) He lies. A LOT. Politifact rates 69% of the words he speaks as “Mostly False or worse” Only 17% of the things he says get a “Mostly True” or better rating. That is an absolutely unbelievable number. How he doesn’t speak more truth by mistake is beyond me. To put it in context, Obama’s rating was 26% mostly false or worse, and I had a problem with that. Many of Trump’s former business associates report that he has always been a compulsive liar, but now he’s the President of the United States, and that’s a problem. And this is a man who expects you to believe him when he points at other people and says “They’re lying”
B.) He’s an authoritarian populist, not a conservative. He advances regressive social policy while proposing to expand federal spending and federalist authority over states, both of which conservatives are supposed to hate.
C.) He pretends at Christianity to court the Religious Right but fails to live anything resembling a Christ-Like Life.
D.) His nationalist “America First” message effectively alienates us and removes us from our place as leaders in the international community.
E.) His ideas on “Keeping us safe” are all thinly veiled ideas to remove our freedoms, he is, after all, an authoritarian first. They also are simply bad ideas.
F.) He couldn’t pass a 3rd-grade civics exam. He doesn't’ know what he’s doing. He doesn't understand how international relations work, he doesn’t understand how federal state or local governments work, and every time someone tries to “Run it like a business” it’s a spectacular failure. See Colorado Springs’ recent history as an example. The Short, Unhappy Life of a Libertarian Paradise And that was a businessman with a MUCH better business track record than Trump. We are talking about a man who lost money owning a freaking gambling casino.
G.) He behaves unethically and always has. As a businessman, he constantly left in his wake unpaid contractors and invoices, litigation, broken promises, whatever he could get away with.
H.) He is damaging our relationships with our best international friends while kissing up to nations that do not have our best interests in mind. To his question “Wouldn't’ it be great to have better relations with Russia?” The answer is Yes. But it is RUSSIA who needs to earn that, who must stop doing the things that are damaging to that relationship, or we are simply weaker for it.
I.) He has never seen a shortcut he didn't like, and you can’t take shortcuts in government. “Nuclear Option, Remove the Filibuster, I’ll change the Constitution by Executive Order…Don…what happens when you remove the filibuster and the other side retakes the majority in the Senate? Suddenly want that filibuster back? What happens if you manage to change the Constitution by Executive Order and an Anti-2A President wins the next election?
J.) He behaves and has always behaved as an unabashed racist. Yes, I’ve seen your favorite meme that claims he was never accused of racism before the Democrats…Absolutely false. Donald Trump’s long history of racism, from the 1970s to 2019 See the Central Park 5, the lawsuits and fines resulting from his refusal to lease to black tenants, the 1992 lost appeal trying to overturn penalties for removing black dealers from tables, his remarks to the house native American affairs subcommittee in 1993. The man sees and treats racial groups of people as monoliths.
K.) He is systematically steamrolling regulations specifically designed to keep a disaster like the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis from happening again.
L.) He speaks and acts like a demagogue. He sees the Legislative and Judicial branches of government as inconveniences, blows up at criticism no matter how deserved and actively tries to countermand constitutional processes, not to mention attempts to blackmail and coerce people who are saying negative things about him
M.) His choices for top positions, with the exception of Gen. Mattis, who is a gem, have been horrendous. A secretary of Education without a resume that would get her hired as a small town grammar school principal, A secretary of Energy who didn't know the Department of Energy was responsible for nuclear reserves, an EPA head whose biggest accomplishments to date had been suing the EPA on multiple occasions, an FCC head who while working for Verizon actively lobbied to kill net neutrality, and an Attorney General who thinks pot is “nearly as bad as heroin” and asked Congress for permission to go after legal pot businesses in states where it is legal. (There goes that great Republican States rights rally cry again, right? *Crickets*) An Interim AG after Firing his First AG who’s appointment is probably unconstitutional.
N.) He denies scientific fact. Ever notice that the only people you hear denying climate change are politicians and lobbyists? 99% of actual scientists studying the issue agree that it’s real, man-made and caused by greenhouse gasses. Ever notice that every big disaster movie starts with a bunch of politicians in a room ignoring a scientist's warning?
0.) He does not have the temperament to lead this nation. He is Thin Skinned, childish, and a bully, never mind misogynistic, boorish, rude, and incapable of civil discourse.
P.) He still does not understand that the words he speaks, or tweets, are the official position of 1/3 of the US government, and so does not govern his words. He still thinks when he speaks it’s good ol’ Donald Trump. It’s not. It’s the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. You have probably spread a meme or two around talking about how no president’s every word has ever been dissected before…YES, THEY ALWAYS HAVE. It’s just that every other president in our lifetime has understood the importance of his words and took great care to govern his speech. Trump blurts out whatever comes to his mind then complains when people talk about what a dumb thing that was to say.
Q.) He’s unqualified. If you owned a small business and were looking for someone to manage it, and an unnamed resume came across your desk and you saw 6 bankruptcies, showing a man who had failed to make money running CASINOS, would you hire him? He is a very poor businessman. This is a man it has been estimated would have been worth $10 BILLION more if he’d just taken what his father had given him, invested it in Index Funds and left it alone.
R.) He is President. But he refuses to take a leadership position and understand that he is everyone’s President. Conservatives complain about liberals chanting “Not my President” while Trump himself behaves as if no one but his supporters matter.
S.) He’s a blatant hypocrite. He spent 8 years bitching Obama out for his family trips, or golfing, or any time he took for himself, and what does he do? He was already on his 20th golf outing in APRIL of his 1st year in office. He constantly rants about respect for the military, yet can’t be bothered to attend the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day because of a little rain. (And that excuse about Marine One not being able to fly in the rain is HILARIOUS.)
T.) He’s a misogynist. It's not really ok in this day and age to be a misogynist, but it’s not a huge deal if you’re a private citizen. It’s a pretty big deal if you hate half the people you’re elected to lead. The disdain for women seeps out of his …whatever…. and he just can’t hide it.
U.) Face it. In any other election “Grab Em’ By the Pussy” would have been the end of that candidate’s chances. Back in the 90’s I used to marvel about how Teflon Bill Clinton was. I no longer do. The fact that he managed to slip by on that is as much a statement about how much people hate Hillary Clinton as it is about what is wrong with politics in this country right now.
V.) He has one response to a differing opinion. Attack. A good leader listens to criticism, to different points of view, is capable of self-reflection, tries to guide people to his point of view, and when necessary stands his ground and defends his convictions. Any of that sound like Trump? His default is not to Lead, its’ to attack. Scorched Earth. The Jim Acosta reaction is a good example. There was no defense of his convictions when Acosta was asking him repeated questions about his rhetoric on the caravan. His response was to attack Acosta.
W.) He takes credit for everything positive while deflecting blame for everything negative. Look at him with the Stock Market. He’s been bragging about it since day one, and to give credit where credit is due, speculation on coming deregulation early in his presidency did fuel some rapid growth, but to pretend that it’s all him, that we’re not in the 9th year of the longest bull market in history and THEN, when the standard market volatility that deregulation inevitably brings about starts to show up? Yeah. Look at yesterday. Hey! Stock Markets losing because the Democrats won! Do I need to bring out the Stock market chart for the last 10 Years again?
X.) He emboldens the worst among us. Counter-protesters are slammed into by a car while countering actual Nazi rally, and the response is there’s fault on “Both Sides” The media is at fault for a nut job sending them and Donald’s favorite targets pipe bombs. The truth is not all Republicans, not all Trump Supporters are racist, fascist lunatics. Many are just taken in by the bombastic personality and are living in an information bubble made worse by the fact that they unfollow anyone and ignore any source of information that makes them feel uncomfortable. People on the left do that too. The Biggest problem the right has right now is that the worst of the Right is the loudest and the most in your face, and the actual right, especially the Freaking PRESIDENT needs to be standing up and saying No. Those are not our values.
Y.) He seems to think the Constitution of The United States, the document that IS who we are, the document he took an oath to support and defend is some sort of inconvenience. He demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of Constitution, from believing he can alter the 14th through executive order, to thinking The free exercise clause in the first amendment somehow supersedes the establishment clause (not that he really understands either) or that the free exercise clause only applies to Christians. Or his attacks on freedom of expression and the press. He repeatedly makes it clear that if he’s read them, he does not understand Articles 1–3, and that’s something he really should have before he took the job, because they’re not going away.
Z.) I’ll use Z for something I do blame him for, but the rest of us have to carry the blame too. Polarization. This country is more politically polarized than I can remember in my lifetime. Some of you who are a few years older than I may remember how it was in the late 60’s when construction workers in New York were being applauded for beating up hippies, I think it’s pretty close to that right now, but that was before my time. And he is the cause of much of the current level polarization, but also the result. It didn't’ start with Trump. We’ve been going down this road I think since the eruption of the Tea Party in the early years of the Obama Administration. I do hope the tide turns before it gets much worse because the thing that scares me more than anything is what if that keeps going the way it has been?
- Chris O’Leary
This Occupy Democrats post ended up in my news feed a little bit ago- and I had to comment on this. Chris hits the nail square on the head with one swing of the metaphorical hammer. He, to put it simply, just GETS it, and it’s a wonderful thing.
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asifzschool · 5 years
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A woman from the other political party
Because the issue is not feminism. Definitely not. Since I began with 'political party', I think I should mention a few. Take BJP & AAP for example. Both from India. Not only BJP has a woman wing, their radical Hindutva alliance and their main propagandist RSS too has a woman wing. Even a Muslim wing exists for BJP. I know some stories around this women. Right now, I'm typing on my keyboard, and putting down the words on a gmail draft - whatever is coming to my mind. As I remember, I was googling up that Congress woman this December. Renuka Chowdhury was holding  the Women's and Child Development Minister's post in Congress era, a while ago. Well, several years ago. Now, Renuka was a fierce lady. Whoever else I have seen in the Indian stage? I would, definitely mention Asiya Andrabi - because I was never a supporter of Mehbooba Mufti. I hated her, to be precise. Her Kashmiri political party, PDP - formed an alliance with BJP. Some times later, she resigned.
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I support Asiya Andrabi, instead. Because she is the one fighting the colonial power. Mufti, along with Taslima Nasreen, Sushma Swaraj, Uma Bharti etc - are supposed to be written in a different record. I made an attempt to think up a name for that. Should it be 'The Indian Mademoiselles'?   Asiya Andrabi is a Muslim lady, called for death penalty for Islamophobes - which was a bit of 'too much Muslim fanaticism' on the TV screen. The Indian channels did broadcast what she was saying, to generate public views, needless to say - in favor of BJP. The fanatic Hindutva party from whom even Hindus are not safe, they kill Dalits because they are from lower caste, not Brahmins - which is still happening in our world. And they kill/ask the Bangladeshi Government to kill and burn and loot the Bangladeshi Hindus - to further their Hindutva agenda. We bear witness to all this claims. We know they are not allegations, they are real. But caste is a thing in our world. I'm allowing my words to flow on, to take whatever turns it wants. In Bangladesh, the lower cast is BNP, lowest is Jamat - the 'political pariah'. The Brahmin is Awami League, though BNP is the word which begins with a B. That is all BNP and Brahmin have in common. The Brahmin ideology is about inferior race and superior race. Everybody else is inferior if you're a Brahmin. However, we were supposed to talk about political feminism - not religion. There are things around women happening in Bangladesh. That is our politics. The two women - Khaleda Zia, and Sheikh Hasina. If we look at India, it's BJP and Congress. Sushma Swaraj vs whom? Renuka Chowdhury? Or Sonia Gandhi? Renuka is long out of news. But she was as fierce as Asiya, our Kashmiri Jihadist woman. Mamata Banerjee has been termed 'Jihadi didi' by BJP supporters, that J-word reminds me. She has a fan base in Bangladesh, since there are Bangladeshis who know too well changing the Delhi politics is probably the only way out for our stupid, unlivable, insufferable country. The fact is, Bangladeshis themselves are not a big fan of Bangladesh. I call it a ‘shit-hole’. We know our country is gone. Taken. India is in control. We wish we would still be discussing Benazir Bhutto and Reham Khan - but sadly, that is not what is happening. We are discussing Hasina-Khaleda, both of them has been put in the same bracket in world media, 'the two begums'. My talk is simple. If you want Indian women's rights in Bangladesh, you have to deprive Bangladeshi women of their rights. Yesterday, just after I wrote something on Facebook about Hasina's Gopalganj, I got a taxi driver named Sanjaya Gopal. Here in Malaysia. We talked a lot. Even he is aware of it. He knows how Indian crime lords are taking over the SAARC nations. Sanjaya's girlfriend is Bangladeshi, and he complimented me, sayin' you're a nice man, it's difficult to get foreigners like you these days. Back to the point. What are we looking for? Sushma Swaraj's rights? Will she vote in Bangladeshi election? Should she control the Pakistani politics? Is she the one to decide who will come in power in the White House? Donald Trump. Asra Nomani. Nomani is a Muslim reformer, who voted for Trump. Mina Farah is a Bangladeshi feminist who advocates Bangladesh Jamat-e-Islami. Farah voted for Trump.
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Here again, this two trump voters are different. Nomani is rather from the Israeli table of the politics. I remember her Facebook post, asking to 'vote for Nazi'. Nazi was a Muslim woman, not the German Nationalsocializmus Party. The post was hilarious, more hilarious than the lady Clinton whose name begin with an H. Asra Nomani kept calling it 'Beloved Yoga'. Well, it's absolutely fine to love Yoga. It's an exercise. I completely understand the sentiment. I know how the flower smells like, if your Yoga seat is in the garden. But she was saying it at a time when Yoga was taking lives in Delhi, Gujarat and other Indian states. BJP used it in their poster, the way it uses classical Indian dance pictures to justify their fascism. We've been reading in the Bangladeshi media that Hilary should have been the President of United States solely because she's a woman. Is that enough? Does your gender auto-qualify you for a very crucial, very important post like that? I'm not saying things wouldn't have been better or worse if Hilary came to power instead of Trump. I'm saying that just because Virginia Woolf once fought for Women's rights and now feminism itself is a commodity in today's world doesn't mean your not-a-he identity auto-qualifies you for something. Trump's party itself has women as well. I'm not into American politics, so I'm skipping the hazard to find out their names for now. Back to the point again. Bangladeshi media is comparing Hilary Clinton with Sheikh Hasina, though Hilary is rumored to be a chief patron of Muhammad Yunus. Hasina was giving Yunus a not-so-enjoyable time a while ago. So, what are we looking for? The right of Indian women in Bangladesh? Or the right of Bangladeshi women in their country? There is no reason to think Bangladeshi women have a say in political affairs. They don't. Khaleda Zia was a Prime Minister because she was Ziaur Rahman's better half, her party chose her as their leader. Hasina is the Prime Minister because she is the daughter of Sheikh Mujib. That is all she has. Her father. That is the landscape and boundary of her world. Nothing else has a chance of existing there, unless it's about she and her father.   Other than Khaleda Zia, the Bangladeshi social media was having its women's hour where the women involved are BNP. There was Afroja Abbas, there was this 25-or-something-years-old Sansila Jerin Prianka - both complaining about how Awami men are treating them. Still I remember I joined a protest demanding Khaleda Zia's immediate release last year. The same day was Women's Day. The Awami-sponsored feminists did everything in their ability excepting physically attacking the BNP protesters. The Awami police was there to perform that job. Awami-sponsored firebrand women were right beside our rally. Their microphone was louder. They were shouting louder. It was Women's Day, and they were proving their point why Khaleda Zia should be kept in jail. By yelling in a higher pitch with their loudspeakers. That is as hilarious as it gets. 
But my point is different.
If you give Indian women what they want, you will have to deprive Kashmiri women of what they want.
If you give Israeli women what they want, you will have to deprive Palestinian women of what they want.
If you give BJP women what they want, you will have to deprive Congressi 'Jihadi didis' of what they want. Asiya Andrabi and Asra Nomani can not work together. Even if their names begin with the same letters. No matter how we wish for it, reality is something else. BNP itself had a woman candidate this time, Hasina Ahmed. Ahmed or whatever. Her name too, was Hasina. This Hasina from BNP too was attacked by Awami Hasina party.
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So, who is our girl? Hasina or Khaleda Zia? If one stays in power, the other will stay in jail. It's as simple as that. The issue is definitely not about feminism. The 'Sarkari Feminism', which went to it's worst when Masuda Bhatti, a supporter of Awami League requested to arrest a man who was talking against the government - is all about 'Sarkari' women's rights. Sarkari means Government endorsed. The reality is, our world does have women who are not 'Sarkari', who talk against the Government. What about their rights? What about the Non-Sarkari feminists?
Sheikh Hasina was congratulated from her patron countries, which includes both India and Saudi. If it was not for her, I myself wouldn't have been talking about so many Indian women here. These Saudi fascists, who are treated as notorious in the world stage at the moment for killing Jamal Khasoggi, and those Indians from a different religion, hated in Bangladesh by the Bangladeshi people for ruining our democracy... They are clearly Hasina's favorite, and vice versa. They are aiding her to execute her plans. After the last 30th December, which was two days ago - we know Khaleda Zia is destined to take her last breath in jail. She will not live for long. She is not going to make it.
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This systematic murder of the opposition party is happening right in front of the world. World does nothing about it. Bangladeshis have serious conclusions about the world media. Even when it criticizes Hasina, we know it is going to praise her sooner or later. Somebody in the media from either US or Britain has called it 'a choice between Freedom and Prosperity.' Freedom, being a mostly Israeli table's word these days, is about Khaleda Zia right now. Prosperity, is about Sheikh Hasina. This type of headlines gives Hasina the credit, which she doesn't deserve. There are beggars in Kuala Lumpur. But not a lot. However, beggars are a third world phenomena most of the times. Bangladesh, is full of beggars. What the BNP-Jamat women have gathered from recent events is, Hasina was bribing the corrupt police system in Bangladesh. After the election, it turned out that the Army is just as corrupt as police there. If Hasina makes them happy, she stays in power. She even said that loud, I'm quoting her exact words here: 'take bribe from Jamat-BNP, vote Awami'. This is her model of the country, which is Bangladesh. So, what about other women?
There are women in Bangladesh who hate their Prime Minister. Sharing the gender identity with her makes them feel more disgusted.
There are women in BNP.
There are women in Congress, though they too, have patronized Awami League, in historical times.There are women in PTI. Everybody is not a Reham Khan. Everybody doesn't talk negatively about their ex-husband if he becomes the Prime Minister.
There are women in Kashmir. Mehbooba Mufti, Asiya Andrabi and many others. They too are fighting each other to make Kashmir free from India.
There are women in Palestine who might not agree with Gal Gadot. If Gadot takes the lead role in 'Wonder Woman', that is definitely troublesome for the entire world. 
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Fighting women with women, feminism with feminism, problem with problem - is rather difficult. In today's world, things are definitely changed. Today's world is not like what it used to be a hundred years ago. More or less, women have different kind of rights. But the world is not a gender war. Women are still getting engaged to men, bridal shops are still in business. Lesbian marriages are a different topic. We are fighting a war against fascism, which is definitely not about gender. Just because you are a man does not auto-qualify you for President's post in the White House, the same thing goes for Hilary with her gender. Everybody expected a surprise. Like Barack Obama was the Black President, the world thought we are going to get a female President. That will happen sooner or later, when you are more qualified than your male counterpart. In Hilary's case, the American people's votes went for Trump.
The Bangladeshi people's votes, everybody knew, were for Khaleda Zia this time. The whole election has been rigged, hilariously. BNP, the second largest political party in Bangladesh with at least 80 million supporters out of 180 something, barely got six seats. Hasina is back to the office again, like I saw in a youtube ad which was auto-promoted, 'the prosperity burger is back'. In reality, fascism is back. I saw that ad before the election and after reading that headline, which claimed it is a choice between freedom and prosperity in Bangladesh.
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It's not a choice between genders.
It's not He vs. She.
That ‘gender war’, nobody is fighting. Excepting a few radical feminists. If women now eliminates men/the whole male species go extinct, the world will get destroyed. That will be the apocalypse day. But if the choice becomes She vs. She, which ‘she’ will you choose?
What about the other woman, from the other political party?
Asif Tamoso
02 January 2019
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donnerpartyofone · 7 years
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i won’t bother too much with ALL the details of this, i’m just watching this one dude ask me the world’s most boring unfunny questions, slinking back to see what kind of reaction they get, and then making it clear that he’s the guy who either is or pretends to be an “alt right” douchebag. this guy has got to be my biggest fan in the world. people who actually love me don’t even love me the way this guy loves me.
flashing forward to 4/26: yesterday at around 1:30 pm, my wingnut white nationalist anon leaves some dumbass shit in my ask as usual. an hour later at about 2:30, he begins his routine of anxiously scrambling back to see if i’m going to engage him.
when he realizes that i'm not responding, he comes back around 5:30 and (i wasn’t tracking any of this at that time, but i THINK) he asks kind of a typical lolrandom “question”. not really thinking about who it might be from, i respond this time, comparing it favorably with his original message of the day: a cringeworthy dorky dad rap about clinton’s dusty old email “controversy”.
at 7:30 that evening he comes back to read what i wrote, and then opens the post itself (http://donnerpartyofone.tumblr.com/post/160023485961), maybe to see if he has any fans in the notes, maybe for whatever type of little serial killer scrap book he keeps.
then this morning, he returns around 8:30am, and again at 9:30 to “ask” me the question at the bottom. this one is kind of interesting, because it reads sarcastic. (i can’t bring myself to read it as serious) he seems to want to trick me into thinking it’s from a sympathetic third party, saying “what a mean anon you have, acting like your opinions don’t matter!” i’m guessing this was supposed to get me to talk about him again; maybe i would have some sort of lefty pinko freakout, proving what an insidious, manipulative internet genius he is.
why am i even doing all this? there’s no political meaning here: i’ve stopped posting what he says, and i don’t address the content, often just because i have no idea what this guy's word salad-y asks even mean. sometimes, someone knowledgeable about what’s going on in “alt right” echo chambers explains what he’s struggling to say, and it usually turns out to be about some hilarious conspiracy theory that’s just a couple hairs away from hollow earth nazis. sometimes i think these messages might just be copied out of some godforsaken neo-fascist forum somewhere, the way people just send me lines from tv shows for no reason.
so the point for me is, i don’t think i’ve ever seen someone so desperate for my attention in my entire life. it’s kind of an ego boost to watch this guy circle back in helpless, compulsive spurts, all day long, begging and praying for me to notice him. the only person i can think of who ever acted this obsessed with me was this very seriously mentally ill person who spent several years stalking me from my place of work. i had to go through a couple different DAs to deal with him, and eventually just resort to getting in touch with his mother so she could monitor his medication more closely or take additional measures where needed. there was a similar quality to that experience, too, where i’d be subject to constant emails, or forum comments or whatever, that came out of the clear blue sky, and had no apparent tie to reality. they had the same sort of mid-sentence, stream of consciousness character, and were full of similar grossout sexual references and conspiracy theories.
the important difference in that case was, at least the messages were to me and about me, so in some ways that pseudo-relationship made a lot more sense than this one. national socialist anon’s messages could be sent to just about anybody and are uninterpretable to me. it’s probably a safe to bet that he just scrounges around tumblr for anti-trump posts, and then keeps a running list of “liberals” to pester with copied-and-pasted alex jonesy glossolalia. however, my personal experience is just that there’s this dude who has an inexplicable 24 hour boner for me, and he spends every waking moment buzzing around my blog trying to get me to touch it.
obviously he thinks this is all super funny, on the surface, but i’m convinced he must be terminally lonely. i keep thinking of this unfortunately typical tumblr moment i witnessed, where a friend was complaining about the relentless sexual harassment she suffers here, and she immediately got this crazy bitter anon saying “well at least people send you messages”. it really makes me feel even more like a reptile, when i see how desperate people are for contact that they’ll happily take it even from people who explicitly hate them. i’ll never understand it. but, at least it’s entertaining to watch some nobody desperately clamor to make himself the center of my universe. in a perfect world, todd solondz would make a movie about this guy, and then he’d get the attention he's missing, and i’d get to see what the fuck his problem is, and we could all have a big sadistic laff about it.
anyway, blocking you again anon, please feel free to spoof your IP and come back whenever you need to show me how much you love me again.
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echoboots · 7 years
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Red, White, and First Amendment Blues
One of the most fascinating and rapidly evolving news stories this week involves Nordstrom dropping Ivanka Trump’s clothing line, citing poor sales as its reasoning. In case you missed this, here is more-or-less what happened: First it was a simple schadenfreude-laden headline, because the Trump dynasty loves selling things and also is historically bad at it. But the collective amusement turned into incredulous outrage when Trump censured Nordstrom’s from the POTUS account, in typical 45th fashion. Then we all watched a Spicer Double Down Special in yesterday’s press conference, when he referred to the business move as “a direct attack on [the President’s] policies.” And by the time Kellyanne Conway got around to literally advertising Ivanka’s product in her official capacity as a White House adviser today, nothing was surprising anymore.
I’ve seen a lot of people note Conway’s endorsement that was illegal (which it was), that this whole story illustrates Trump’s inherent conflict of interest(which it does), and also that Spicer apparently doesn’t know what the word ‘direct’ means (which he doesn’t). But I also think this is the latest in a larger picture issue, and I don’t hear a lot of people talking about it. And that issue is that this administration is launching a systemic assault on the First Amendment.
What does Trump’s conflict of interest have to do with the First Amendment?
I’m glad you ask, Hypothetical Person in My Head! The key is both Trump and his proxy Spicer censuring Nordstrom’s business decision. The groundwork was laid when Trump criticized Nordstrom’s business decision from the POTUS account, saying: “My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. . . . Terrible!” This is because a statement from an official account that something was “unfair” can be reasonably read to carry an implicit threat. But that idea wasn’t fully developed until Spicer said this in the press conference yesterday: “There are clearly efforts to undermine [Ivanka’s] name based on her father’s positions on particular policies that he’s taken. This is a direct attack on his policies.” And it’s when a business decision becomes an “attack” on Presidential policies that the larger picture about the First Amendment starts to take shape. As it happens, these statements taken together tread awfully close to Nordstrom’s right to freedom of speech — specifically its freedom of association and freedom of expressive conduct (And also its freedom to contract, but that’s a whole other ball of wax.).
A Brief First Amendment Primer
For those of you playing the home game, the First Amendment contains more-or-less five basic rights:
Freedom of the press;
Freedom of speech;
Freedom of religion (encompassing both the right to practice religion without government hindrance and the right to freedom from government laws “respecting a religious establishment”);
Freedom to petition; and
Freedom to peaceably assemble.
Though whole treatises could be (and have been) written on this topic, the main thing to take away for now is that the government generally cannot tread on these five things. That includes all branches of the federal government, not just Congress (which is what the First Amendment literally says), and thanks to the Fourteenth Amendment it includes state government as well. (Note that it does not, however, extend to that moderator on reddit who banned that one guy for using slurs, regardless of what that guy is yelling on 4chan.)
Okay, but One Tweet Isn’t an Attack
Good point, Other Hypothetical Person Also in My Head! But this is the part where I remind you that this wasn’t just one tweet in a vacuum — it’s just the latest part of a sustained, systemic effort. Let’s go through that list above, with an eye towards things this administration has done in the past as well as in the past few weeks, and see if they hit all of the First Amendment tickyboxes.
Freedom of the Press: Check. At this point, the 45th discrediting specific members of the press (and especially CNN) as “fake news” has become so commonplace that it’s a recurrent joke on Saturday Night Live. And that skit was hilarious, but it touches on a real phenomenon that’s pretty frightening: The idea that if you report displeasure with the President’s policies, you no longer get to count as real news. This is in addition to a growing rhetoric that the members of the fourth estate are enemies of the state generally, which is popping up in everything from serious allegations that the press is “refusing to cover” terrorist attacks to random statements attacking the “so-called media” over, of all things, reporting on a bathrobe. These statements, taken in tandem, paint a picture of this administration’s general desire to make Americans mistrust news in general.
Freedom of Speech: Check. I covered this one briefly above, but let’s spend a few more minutes on it. This administration has a long-established position of disliking First Amendment freedom of speech, which predates its assumption of office — from threatening to sue the people who stepped forward about sexual assault during his campaign to threatening to jail Hillary Clinton for telling ‘so many lies’ to threatening to remove citizenship for flag-burning. Since taking office, the administration has continued this trend, issuing a communications lockdown impeding executive government staff’s use of social media, demanding that park service officials retract tweets, and beginning to dismantle net neutrality. These actions, taken in tandem, suggest this administration wants people to fear speaking and relaying information freely in a variety of circumstances.
Freedom of Religion: Check. This administration has touched upon both the exercise clause and the establishment clause within the past few weeks. On the exercise end, mounting evidence is being considered by courts that the recent executive order is intended to curtail Muslim entry to the country due to specific Islamophobic animosity within the administration. On the establishment end, we have Trump threatening to dismantle the Johnson Amendment at the National Prayer Breakfast so that Christian organizations can participate more directly in politics, and promising to make persecuted Christians a political priority for immigration. None of this is a good sign, especially so early on in the Presidency.
Freedom to Petition: Check. This one is a more nebulous concept in some ways than the others, but the freedom to petition generally involves being able to talk to government directly about issues with governance. Political texts books often point to things like lobbying, letter-writing, e-mail campaigns, testifying before tribunals, filing lawsuits, supporting referenda, collecting signatures for ballot initiatives, peaceful protests, and picketing. It’s pretty closely tied to the freedom to assemble, which I’ll get to below. But things like shutting down the White House comment line, lying about the number of people who attended the Inauguration, the forcible follow of the POTUS account by 560,000 Twitter users, ignoring one of the most popular We the People petitions in history, and repeatedly attacking the judiciary branch all implicate the freedom to petition, and also all have happened in the past few weeks. Taken together, they suggest this administration wants to make it difficult for constituents as well as other branches of government to interact with its decisions.
Freedom to Assemble: Check. This right applies both to the right to protest and to the general right to associate with other people in things like unions. Though in general the Trump administration has been a bit cagey about this one, we do see early indications that we can expect future infringement of the right of assembly . Trump’s threat to cut federal funding over Berkeley protests is a mixed example at best, but his early description of protests as “unfair,” later description of Madonna’s statements at the Women’s March as “disgraceful to our country,” and more recent iterative rhetoric that protesters are being ‘paid’ all paint a larger picture that can be separated from the violence associated with the Berkeley news. And they come at a time when several state legislators are suggesting criminalizing protest. These things suggest a broader stance against protest generally.
Why does all of this matter?
It matters because the First Amendment collectively is an important check on centralized government process. The Founding Fathers knew this — the anti-federalists fought so hard for a Bill of Rights because they wanted to have a system in place that could slow the federalist machine and prevent it from steamrolling human rights. It’s not a coincidence that the First Amendment is, well, first.
And a natural extension of that is that a healthy enforcement of the Bill of Rights, and the First Amendment in particular, prevents a lot of the hallmarks of fascism from finding purchase (particularly the intertwining of government and religion, controlled mass media, suppression of labor power, and censorship of the arts). It’s a foundational part of American history, and one of the things that does, in fact, make America great. We’ve seen a lot of discussion about whether Trump’s administration is ushering in an era of fascism, and I personally believe that it is. In order for a nascent fascist state to take root in the United States, the Bill of Rights and especially the First Amendment (along with the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Tenth) need to be bludgeoned into submission. And we’re watching it happen, one tweet at a time.
What can we be doing? (Besides getting the 45th to stop tweeting. That isn’t going to happen.)
Okay, you raise a compelling counterpoint, Final Hypothetical Person, despite the noted disadvantage of not actually existing. But there are things we can be doing nonetheless!
Resist normalization of deviance. This is basically just a fancy sociological way of saying that there is real actual societal value in stamping “This Isn’t Normal” on your forehead and yelling it every time something infringes on a First Amendment right. On a related note, Amy Siskind recommends keeping a list of all of the things you notice changing around you — experts say this can be a very effective technique for resisting normalization. She keeps a weekly list herself, and you can read this past week’s here.
Continue to exercise your own rights, especially the last two. Protest things! Sign petitions! Call your senators and yell a lot! Obviously, this is easier for some people than others, but one very real way to preserve rights is to exercise them.
Keep track of the news. You can’t know your rights are being infringed if you aren’t paying attention — but more importantly, you also don’t know when your rights are being protected. The Ninth Circuit took a big step towards protecting freedom of religion today, though that fight is far from over, and that’s really helpful to know — it’s a form of petition being successfully preserved, at least so far.
Take care of yourself. It’s the best way to keep on fighting.
And on that note, I am going to take my own advice, and save writing about today’s three executive orders for tomorrow. Self-care, folks. It’s a thing. But you’ll hear from me again soon!
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heddabee · 5 years
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[this must be from Quora; I took it from a fb post; I like it] A person answered the question, "Why are people so hostile towards President Donald Trump?". Chris O'Leary: I’ll take a stab at this. Before you pass my answer off as “Another Liberal Snowflake” consider that 1.) I'm an independent centrist who has voted Republican way more often in my life than Democrat, and 2.) if you want to call someone who spent the entire decade of his 20’s serving in the Marine Corps a snowflake, I’d be ready to answer the question what did you do with your 20’s? Why Liberals (And not-so liberals) are against President Trump. A.) He lies. A LOT. Politifact rates 69% of the words he speaks as “Mostly False or worse” Only 17% of the things he says get a “Mostly True” or better rating. That is an absolutely unbelievable number. How he doesn’t speak more truth by mistake is beyond me. To put it in context, Obama’s rating was 26% mostly false or worse, and I had a problem with that. Many of Trump’s former business associates report that he has always been a compulsive liar, but now he’s the President of the United States, and that’s a problem. And this is a man who expects you to believe him when he points at other people and says “They’re lying” B.) He’s an authoritarian populist, not a conservative. He advances regressive social policy while proposing to expand federal spending and federalist authority over states, both of which conservatives are supposed to hate. C.) He pretends at Christianity to court the Religious Right but fails to live anything resembling a Christ-Like Life. D.) His nationalist “America First” message effectively alienates us and removes us from our place as leaders in the international community. E.) His ideas on “Keeping us safe” are all thinly veiled ideas to remove our freedoms, he is, after all, an authoritarian first. They also are simply bad ideas. F.) He couldn’t pass a 3rd-grade civics exam. He doesn't’ know what he’s doing. He doesn't understand how international relations work, he doesn’t understand how federal state or local governments work, and every time someone tries to “Run it like a business” it’s a spectacular failure. See Colorado Springs’ recent history as an example. The Short, Unhappy Life of a Libertarian Paradise And that was a businessman with a MUCH better business track record than Trump. We are talking about a man who lost money owning a freaking gambling casino. G.) He behaves unethicaly and always has. As a businessman, he constantly left in his wake unpaid contractors and invoices, litigation, broken promises, whatever he could get away with. H.) He is damaging our relationships with our best international friends while kissing up to nations that do not have our best interests in mind. To his question “Wouldn't’ it be great to have better relations with Russia?” The answer is Yes. But it is RUSSIA who needs to earn that, who must stop doing the things that are damaging to that relationship, or we are simply weaker for it. I.) He has never seen a shortcut he didn't like, and you can’t take shortcuts in government. “Nuclear Option, Remove the Filibuster, I’ll change the Constitution by Executive Order…Don…what happens when you remove the filibuster and the other side retakes the majority in the Senate? Suddenly want that filibuster back? What happens if you manage to change the Constitution by Executive Order and an Anti-2A President wins the next election? J.) He behaves and has always behaved as an unabashed racist. Yes, I’ve seen your favorite meme that claims he was never accused of racism before the Democrats…Absolutely false. Donald Trump’s long history of racism, from the 1970s to 2019 See the Central Park 5, the lawsuits and fines resulting from his refusal to lease to black tenants, the 1992 lost appeal trying to overturn penalties for removing black dealers from tables, his remarks to the house native American affairs subcommittee in 1993. The man sees and treats racial groups of people as monoliths. K.) He is systematically steamrolling regulations specifically designed to keep a disaster like the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis from happening again. L.) He speaks and acts like a demagogue. He sees the Legislative and Judicial branches of government as inconveniences, blows up at criticism no matter how deserved and actively tries to countermand constitutional processes, not to mention attempts to blackmail and coerce people who are saying negative things about him M.) His choices for top positions, with the exception of Gen. Mattis, who is a gem, have been horrendous. A secretary of Education without a resume that would get her hired as a small town grammar school principal, A secretary of Energy who didn't know the Department of Energy was responsible for nuclear reserves, an EPA head whose biggest accomplishments to date had been suing the EPA on multiple occasions, an FCC head who while working for Verizon actively lobbied to kill net neutrality, and an Attorney General who thinks pot is “nearly as bad as heroin” and asked Congress for permission to go after legal pot businesses in states where it is legal. (There goes that great Republican States rights rally cry again, right? *Crickets*) An Interim AG after Firing his First AG who’s appointment is probably unconstitutional. N.) He denies scientific fact. Ever notice that the only people you hear denying climate change are politicians and lobbyists? 99% of actual scientists studying the issue agree that it’s real, man-made and caused by greenhouse gasses. Ever notice that every big disaster movie starts with a bunch of politicians in a room ignoring a scientist's warning? 0.) He does not have the temperament to lead this nation. He is Thin Skinned, childish, and a bully, never mind misogynistic, boorish, rude, and incapable of civil discourse. P.) He still does not understand that the words he speaks, or tweets, are the official position of 1/3 of the US government, and so does not govern his words. He still thinks when he speaks it’s good ol’ Donald Trump. It’s not. It’s the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. You have probably spread a meme or two around talking about how no president’s every word has ever been dissected before…YES, THEY ALWAYS HAVE. It’s just that every other president in our lifetime has understood the importance of his words and took great care to govern his speech. Trump blurts out whatever comes to his mind then complains when people talk about what a dumb thing that was to say. Q.) He’s unqualified. If you owned a small business and were looking for someone to manage it, and an unnamed resume came across your desk and you saw 6 bankruptcies, showing a man who had failed to make money running CASINOS, would you hire him? He is a very poor businessman. This is a man it has been estimated would have been worth $10 BILLION more if he’d just taken what his father had given him, invested it in Index Funds and left it alone. R.) He is President. But he refuses to take a leadership position and understand that he is everyone’s President. Conservatives complain about liberals chanting “Not my President” while Trump himself behaves as if no one but his supporters matter. S.) He’s a blatant hypocrite. He spent 8 years bitching Obama out for his family trips, or golfing, or any time he took for himself, and what does he do? He was already on his 20th golf outing in APRIL of his 1st year in office. He constantly rants about respect for the military, yet can’t be bothered to attend the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day because of a little rain. (And that excuse about Marine One not being able to fly in the rain is HILARIOUS.) T.) He’s a misogynist. It's not really ok in this day and age to be a misogynist, but it’s not a huge deal if you’re a private citizen. It’s a pretty big deal if you hate half the people you’re elected to lead. The disdain for women seeps out of his …whatever…. and he just can’t hide it. U.) Face it. In any other election “Grab Em’ By the Pussy” would have been the end of that candidate’s chances. Back in the 90’s I used to marvel about how Teflon Bill Clinton was. I no longer do. The fact that he managed to slip by on that is as much a statement about how much people hate Hillary Clinton as it is about what is wrong with politics in this country right now. V.) He has one response to a differing opinion. Attack. A good leader listens to criticism, to different points of view, is capable of self-reflection, tries to guide people to his point of view, and when necessary stands his ground and defends his convictions. Any of that sound like Trump? His default is not to Lead, its’ to attack. Scorched Earth. The Jim Acosta reaction is a good example. There was no defense of his convictions when Acosta was asking him repeated questions about his rhetoric on the caravan. His response was to attack Acosta. W.) He takes credit for everything positive while deflecting blame for everything negative. Look at him with the Stock Market. He’s been bragging about it since day one, and to give credit where credit is due, speculation on coming deregulation early in his presidency did fuel some rapid growth, but to pretend that it’s all him, that we’re not in the 9th year of the longest bull market in history and THEN, when the standard market volatility that deregulation inevitably brings about starts to show up? Yeah. Look at yesterday. Hey! Stock Markets losing because the Democrats won! Do I need to bring out the Stock market chart for the last 10 Years again? X.) He emboldens the worst among us. Counter-protesters are slammed into by a car while countering actual Nazi rally, and the response is there’s fault on “Both Sides” The media is at fault for a nut job sending them and Donald’s favorite targets pipe bombs. The truth is not all Republicans, not all Trump Supporters are racist, fascist lunatics. Many are just taken in by the bombastic personality and are living in an information bubble made worse by the fact that they unfollow anyone and ignore any source of information that makes them feel uncomfortable. People on the left do that too. The Biggest problem the right has right now is that the worst of the Right is the loudest and the most in your face, and the actual right, especially the Freaking PRESIDENT needs to be standing up and saying No. Those are not our values. Y.) He seems to think the Constitution of The United States, the document that IS who we are, the document he took an oath to support and defend is some sort of inconvenience. He demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of Constitution, from believing he can alter the 14th through executive order, to thinking The free exercise clause in the first amendment somehow supersedes the establishment clause (not that he really understands either) or that the free exercise clause only applies to Christians. Or his attacks on freedom of expression and the press. He repeatedly makes it clear that if he’s read them, he does not understand Articles 1–3, and that’s something he really should have before he took the job, because they’re not going away. Z.) I’ll use Z for something I do blame him for, but the rest of us have to carry the blame too. Polarization. This country is more politically polarized than I can remember in my lifetime. Some of you who are a few years older than I may remember how it was in the late 60’s when construction workers in New York were being applauded for beating up hippies, I think it’s pretty close to that right now, but that was before my time. And he is the cause of much of the current level polarization, but also the result. It didn't’ start with Trump. We’ve been going down this road I think since the eruption of the Tea Party in the early years of the Obama Administration. I do hope the tide turns before it gets much worse because the thing that scares me more than anything is what if that keeps going the way it has been?
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