1 We will be open-minded.
2. We will support Trump when he is conservative. We will defend him when he is honest and ethical
3. We will oppose him when he is liberal, dishonest and unethical.
4. Just don’t ask us to listen to any of his Castro-like speeches.
It looks like the Arnold Weaver candidacy could indeed have been positively affected by the shocking video since some of his supporters have doggy backgrounds themselves (remember Samster’s egg theft) . But Dogileaks founders swear it was an inside whistleblower, not the Russians, that hacked the damaging footage.
One thing we do know, hacking has become a real threat for both businesses and government. Identity theft is also rising. It’s time for the government to do its job and support the labor market for IT so more will be encouraged to go into this area. Until now, many people have not invested their time, money and careers because of the ease and prevalence of outsourcing these jobs.
It’s such a tricky slope, Debra. The best hackers are on the other side of the law, yet you need to make sure they don’t hack for their own benefit what they’re trying to prevent other hackers from getting into.
(Does that sentence make sense?)
And of course, jobs are outsourced overseas–which never makes any sense to me–while IT and other clever folks here in the US can’t get jobs. When many University of California engineers have trouble finding work in the bay area after graduation, something is amiss.
It makes perfect sense if you acknowledge that multi-nationals are influencing the government for their personal profit when it comes to labor practices such as outsourcing and h1b visas.
. Syria has a very young population (median age is 24.1). While about half of the nearly five million refugees who have fled Syria are children, Unicef estimates that about eight million children remain in the country. Save the Children also estimates about 40 percent of the besieged population in eastern Aleppo are children. As Save the Children spokesperson Carol Anning told the BBC, in war you should expect to see a much higher population of adult males being killed in frontline action. “But what we have seen in Aleppo in the last couple of days is totally indiscriminate bombing from the air,” says Anning. “So children are impacted just as much or more than adults in those situations.”
“So the Lord said, “You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over and did not grow. It appeared in a night and perished in a night. Should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left, as well as many animals?” (Jonah 4:10-11)
I think Trump’s ‘safe zones’ can not come too soon. It should be helpful to have a secretary of state who can get along with Russia long enough to do something constructive in Syria. That’s something the present administration has not been willing to do.
It’s also interesting to me that all of the hype about Rex Tillerson’s connections in Russia have completely missed the point that connections are exactly what is needed to help bring aid and resolution to these hurting regions. Hillary’s lack of positive connections in Russia, despite being in government for so many years, is really quite a deficit when you think about it. Of course, the media would never look at it that way.
Debra, I seriously doubt that Trump will do anything to fix the problem. As for negotiating with Russia, Putin’s agenda is more likely to become America’s than the other way around. Russia’s agenda in Syria is a pipeline to the oilfields of the Middle East. Tillerson is CEO of Exxon. Speaking of multi-nationals that influence government for personal profit… I speak as one who understands that God puts all government into power, but I also fully realize that God’s purpose for that government may be for discipline. Trump has been elected but his character has not changed. He has not become a good man, or a wise one, simply by his election.
What has the US not done that you think they should have?
When their own men won’t fight for their country and have fled by the millions, why should we?
And where are their muslim brothers? Why are they not doing more?
I know it’s popular to think of the US as the world police, but we’re getting a little sick of that, and having to fund it. When will they step up themselves, because they haven’t yet, despite US arms and money?
Stung by complaints from liberals about the recent election, Facebook has announced that it will begin to try to weed out “fake news” from its platform. This is pretty significant, given the volume of communication that takes place on Facebook. Until now, the company has insisted that it is merely a technological platform, not an editor. Henceforth, Facebook will assume, on at least a limited basis, editorial duties.
Starting as a test with a small percentage of its users in the US, Facebook will make it easier to report news stories that are fake or misleading. Once third-party fact-checkers have confirmed that the story is fake, it will be labeled as such and demoted in the News Feed. …
_________________________________________
Roscuro, if your assessment turns out to be correct (and it could) then there is nothing whatsoever that we can do politically to help the situation in Syria. However, prayer is the most powerful weapon we have at our disposal anyway. And no one is preventing us from using it. :–)
The Real, I put up the post about Aleppo because it was news and this is the news thread. It was for information and thoughtful reflection. Debra made a comment on it and I replied honestly. I have never said anything about thinking the U.S. should solve the problem. I said I didn’t think the new U.S. president would solve it. If the U.S. is the world’s policeman, it is because they wanted that role – the CIA has interfered in so many foreign governments that their furor over the Russian hacking allegations is somewhat ironic. I expect nothing from Trump, as Proverbs 25:28 says, “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” Trump has boasted of his lack of moral self control and as another Proverb says, “Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.” (25:19) I do not know what the solution to Syria is, but I care deeply about the little people there, which is more than Putin, Assad, or Trump care about. Until they care, they will do nothing to help the situation and merely manipulate it for their own ends.
The quicker the Syrian war ends, the quicker children and others will stop being killed. I support Trump joining with Russia to help Assad restore order and end the various rebellions. Will we ever learn not to overthrow or destabilize Middle East governments?
Roscuro, I’m not following your “news” post, then your response to AJ. On the one hand, you’re saying you’re only making a dispassionate news reference to the Syrian situation and a president’s role in it, then predict Trump won’t act in Syria/will only act there out of self-interest, as if you do believe Trump “should” act a certain way there. Can you clarify?
Solar Pancake, Roscuro can speak for herself, but I read it as her saying “If you expect him to solve this situation, don’t hold your breath” and then clarifying, no, she isn’t saying he should . . .
I was reading it that way, Cheryl, until I saw she added her criticisms of Trump being uncaring, self-motivated, and inactive until something satisfies his selfish interests. Seemed to take it to another level there.
Kbells @1:57 I do not know Arnold’s take on Cat Lives Matter, but Samster has been very vocal on the subject. His contention is that because cats have 9 of them, each life should only matter 1/9 of a canine life. But for all that, he really is not a species-ist, and will befriend (or give chase) to either canine or feline as the situation warrants.
His real beef is with Black Lives Matter. As a bi-color individual, Samster has been very disappointed with the singular focus BLM has adopted. At one point, he wanted to parade around the dog park wearing a t-shirt sporting the slogan “Black and Tan Lives Matter”, but I forbade it, fearing some intolerant punk would stone him for his impudence. He still has not forgiven me.
Solarpancake, How is assessing a public figure’s character “taking it to another level”? You may disagree with my interpretation of Trump’s character, but you can’t say that I don’t have ample evidence from which to draw conclusions. If I met a man in the course of everyday business who talks as much about himself as Trump does and makes the kind of superficial assessments that Trump does, and runs his business the way Trump does – strategically declaring bankruptcy and thus hurting all the small businesses who had contracts with the business the way Trump did in Atlantic City – I would come to the conclusion that such a man is uncaring, self-motivated, and inactive unless something is in his interests.
By the way, Cheryl is correct, I am simply saying that if you hope the incoming president will make things better in Syria, don’t count on it, and then I gave my reasons why I thought that. If someone disagrees with my assessment and has counter interpretations of events, go for it. I enjoy debate. But enough of the attempt to cast my words as “taking things to a whole other level.” Surely, people can discuss on world events and public figures without having their words weighed and counterweighed for ‘motivation’.
Many Republicans (like me) were unimpressed by Donald Trump during the primary season, got behind him once he won the nomination, and now are blown away by his appointments as president-elect. …
_________________________________________
I read the Sykes article. He seems so puzzled that his listeners were considering the election as a “binary choice”. What rock has he been taking shelter under for the last 25 years? And what did he imagine he was doing—leading a philosophical movement for philosopher kings? Most of us are well aware that we are making a binary choice of sorts in our general elections. And because of that, we’ve been making compromises for years. But even so, this election has been an eye-opener for me too…..so perhaps I won’t be so hard on Mr. Sykes after all.
What this election has revealed to me is the profound weakness that has been masquerading as strength in both of our political parties and in their core constituencies.
Probably the most shocking weakness is in the Democratic party. The complete meltdown of Democratic-leaning students across the nation, and particularly at our most respected universities such as Harvard, reveals an astonishing lack of depth and resilience in our future leaders. And who can blame them when the current leadership is essentially in the same condition—drunkenly reeling from one poor excuse to another, completely befuddled by what has happened and unable to perceive why.
The Republican Party is in better shape, but only marginally, and that primarily because of the strength of the evangelical character. Maybe that’s not the right way to put it, but a Christian’s reliance on God as the ultimate power on earth is a stabilizing force that no party or ideology can synthetically replicate. And inasmuch as Christians have inundated the Republican party, it has been infused with their stability.
It’s the globalists in the Republican party who have felt the floor fall from beneath their feet. It’s left them breathless; but much less so than the Democrats. And the reason they are in better shape is that when the dust is settled, they’re forced to acknowledge their party has indeed won the election. Now they just have to decide if it’s still their party.
Debra, I disagree with your assessment that this election showed any hint of the stability of evangelicals stabilizing Republicans. If anything, it showed the opposite, to me.
If I remember, I’ll probably post this in the thread for the 17th, so…
Roscuro, that’s the second testy response to what were really just plain questions put to you about what you said.
The reason AJ asked about what you think Trump ought to do in Syria, and why I followed up, is because you loaded your posts with accusations about his character *in the context of the situation in Syria.* You say, “Surely, people can discuss on world events and public figures without having their words weighed and counterweighed for ‘motivation’. Yeah, that’s why we asked what we did. We never said anything about your motivation. [And you should be more careful with your use of quotation marks. They really should only be used when they actually repeat what a person said.]
You say you only posted about Aleppo because that’s in the news, and this is the news thread. But all the stuff about Trump’s character is “taking it to another level;” certainly not just “for information.” I’m prepared to agree with all kinds of criticisms of Donald Trump–for whom I did not vote–and made a number of them here in these pages. But I only want to criticize him over things I know he’s guilty of. He may not care about a lot of things. But you said he didn’t care about the little people in Syria.
So the questions remain, how do you know he doesn’t care about those people, and what are you suggesting he should do to help them?
Cheryl, I understand that others may see things differently, especially if one is not assuming the ‘binary choice’. This was an election cycle fraught with instability, but evangelicals did not go to pieces. I don’t mean that they voted in lock-step either, just that they are not overset. And that is in stark contrast to my unbelieving friends and acquaintances, many of whom are still quite agitated and undone by the election. In my experience, being a Believer does add a measure of stability. I think there just happens to be more of them in the Republican party at this time. That may not always be the case in the future.
Wandering Views 
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I like Lloyd Marcus. He didn’t start out as a Trumpkin. He became one when other options were gone. Here is what he says now.
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/12/time_for_conservativesrepublicans_to_unite_behind_trump.html
To which I respond:
1 We will be open-minded.
2. We will support Trump when he is conservative. We will defend him when he is honest and ethical
3. We will oppose him when he is liberal, dishonest and unethical.
4. Just don’t ask us to listen to any of his Castro-like speeches.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Both Fox News and Fox Business carry his speeches. For free.
I put them on mute.
Like Obama, If he says anything important, Rush will tell me.
😆
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It looks like the Arnold Weaver candidacy could indeed have been positively affected by the shocking video since some of his supporters have doggy backgrounds themselves (remember Samster’s egg theft) . But Dogileaks founders swear it was an inside whistleblower, not the Russians, that hacked the damaging footage.
LikeLiked by 2 people
One thing we do know, hacking has become a real threat for both businesses and government. Identity theft is also rising. It’s time for the government to do its job and support the labor market for IT so more will be encouraged to go into this area. Until now, many people have not invested their time, money and careers because of the ease and prevalence of outsourcing these jobs.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s such a tricky slope, Debra. The best hackers are on the other side of the law, yet you need to make sure they don’t hack for their own benefit what they’re trying to prevent other hackers from getting into.
(Does that sentence make sense?)
And of course, jobs are outsourced overseas–which never makes any sense to me–while IT and other clever folks here in the US can’t get jobs. When many University of California engineers have trouble finding work in the bay area after graduation, something is amiss.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It makes perfect sense if you acknowledge that multi-nationals are influencing the government for their personal profit when it comes to labor practices such as outsourcing and h1b visas.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A good and useful summary of the situation in Aleppo: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/9-things-you-should-know-about-aleppo-and-the-syrian-crisis#When:2016-12-16T06:10:00+00:00
“So the Lord said, “You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over and did not grow. It appeared in a night and perished in a night. Should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left, as well as many animals?” (Jonah 4:10-11)
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I think Trump’s ‘safe zones’ can not come too soon. It should be helpful to have a secretary of state who can get along with Russia long enough to do something constructive in Syria. That’s something the present administration has not been willing to do.
It’s also interesting to me that all of the hype about Rex Tillerson’s connections in Russia have completely missed the point that connections are exactly what is needed to help bring aid and resolution to these hurting regions. Hillary’s lack of positive connections in Russia, despite being in government for so many years, is really quite a deficit when you think about it. Of course, the media would never look at it that way.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Debra, I seriously doubt that Trump will do anything to fix the problem. As for negotiating with Russia, Putin’s agenda is more likely to become America’s than the other way around. Russia’s agenda in Syria is a pipeline to the oilfields of the Middle East. Tillerson is CEO of Exxon. Speaking of multi-nationals that influence government for personal profit… I speak as one who understands that God puts all government into power, but I also fully realize that God’s purpose for that government may be for discipline. Trump has been elected but his character has not changed. He has not become a good man, or a wise one, simply by his election.
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Roscuro,
Some questions……..
So just what is it that you expect Trump to do?
What has the US not done that you think they should have?
When their own men won’t fight for their country and have fled by the millions, why should we?
And where are their muslim brothers? Why are they not doing more?
I know it’s popular to think of the US as the world police, but we’re getting a little sick of that, and having to fund it. When will they step up themselves, because they haven’t yet, despite US arms and money?
Aleppo and Syria aren’t our problem to solve.
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Meanwhile, your new FB editors are gearing up:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/12/facebook-declares-war-on-fake-news.php
Slippery slope anyone?
_______________________________________
Stung by complaints from liberals about the recent election, Facebook has announced that it will begin to try to weed out “fake news” from its platform. This is pretty significant, given the volume of communication that takes place on Facebook. Until now, the company has insisted that it is merely a technological platform, not an editor. Henceforth, Facebook will assume, on at least a limited basis, editorial duties.
Starting as a test with a small percentage of its users in the US, Facebook will make it easier to report news stories that are fake or misleading. Once third-party fact-checkers have confirmed that the story is fake, it will be labeled as such and demoted in the News Feed. …
_________________________________________
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Roscuro, if your assessment turns out to be correct (and it could) then there is nothing whatsoever that we can do politically to help the situation in Syria. However, prayer is the most powerful weapon we have at our disposal anyway. And no one is preventing us from using it. :–)
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The Real, I put up the post about Aleppo because it was news and this is the news thread. It was for information and thoughtful reflection. Debra made a comment on it and I replied honestly. I have never said anything about thinking the U.S. should solve the problem. I said I didn’t think the new U.S. president would solve it. If the U.S. is the world’s policeman, it is because they wanted that role – the CIA has interfered in so many foreign governments that their furor over the Russian hacking allegations is somewhat ironic. I expect nothing from Trump, as Proverbs 25:28 says, “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” Trump has boasted of his lack of moral self control and as another Proverb says, “Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.” (25:19) I do not know what the solution to Syria is, but I care deeply about the little people there, which is more than Putin, Assad, or Trump care about. Until they care, they will do nothing to help the situation and merely manipulate it for their own ends.
LikeLiked by 2 people
The quicker the Syrian war ends, the quicker children and others will stop being killed. I support Trump joining with Russia to help Assad restore order and end the various rebellions. Will we ever learn not to overthrow or destabilize Middle East governments?
LikeLiked by 2 people
What was Arnold Weaver’s stand on Cat Lives Matter?
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Roscuro, I’m not following your “news” post, then your response to AJ. On the one hand, you’re saying you’re only making a dispassionate news reference to the Syrian situation and a president’s role in it, then predict Trump won’t act in Syria/will only act there out of self-interest, as if you do believe Trump “should” act a certain way there. Can you clarify?
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Solar Pancake, Roscuro can speak for herself, but I read it as her saying “If you expect him to solve this situation, don’t hold your breath” and then clarifying, no, she isn’t saying he should . . .
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I care deeply about the little people there, which is more than Putin, Assad, or Trump care about
Can you explain how you know this about Trump?
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I was reading it that way, Cheryl, until I saw she added her criticisms of Trump being uncaring, self-motivated, and inactive until something satisfies his selfish interests. Seemed to take it to another level there.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Kbells @1:57 I do not know Arnold’s take on Cat Lives Matter, but Samster has been very vocal on the subject. His contention is that because cats have 9 of them, each life should only matter 1/9 of a canine life. But for all that, he really is not a species-ist, and will befriend (or give chase) to either canine or feline as the situation warrants.
His real beef is with Black Lives Matter. As a bi-color individual, Samster has been very disappointed with the singular focus BLM has adopted. At one point, he wanted to parade around the dog park wearing a t-shirt sporting the slogan “Black and Tan Lives Matter”, but I forbade it, fearing some intolerant punk would stone him for his impudence. He still has not forgiven me.
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As long as Cat Lives Matters doesn’t misspell graffiti on our monuments, Arnold doesn’t have a dog in that fight.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Solarpancake, How is assessing a public figure’s character “taking it to another level”? You may disagree with my interpretation of Trump’s character, but you can’t say that I don’t have ample evidence from which to draw conclusions. If I met a man in the course of everyday business who talks as much about himself as Trump does and makes the kind of superficial assessments that Trump does, and runs his business the way Trump does – strategically declaring bankruptcy and thus hurting all the small businesses who had contracts with the business the way Trump did in Atlantic City – I would come to the conclusion that such a man is uncaring, self-motivated, and inactive unless something is in his interests.
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By the way, Cheryl is correct, I am simply saying that if you hope the incoming president will make things better in Syria, don’t count on it, and then I gave my reasons why I thought that. If someone disagrees with my assessment and has counter interpretations of events, go for it. I enjoy debate. But enough of the attempt to cast my words as “taking things to a whole other level.” Surely, people can discuss on world events and public figures without having their words weighed and counterweighed for ‘motivation’.
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Of course it all remains to be seen. But …
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/12/donald-trump-butterfly.php
_____________________________________
Many Republicans (like me) were unimpressed by Donald Trump during the primary season, got behind him once he won the nomination, and now are blown away by his appointments as president-elect. …
_________________________________________
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Charlie Sykes was a real hero during this election cycle.
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I read the Sykes article. He seems so puzzled that his listeners were considering the election as a “binary choice”. What rock has he been taking shelter under for the last 25 years? And what did he imagine he was doing—leading a philosophical movement for philosopher kings? Most of us are well aware that we are making a binary choice of sorts in our general elections. And because of that, we’ve been making compromises for years. But even so, this election has been an eye-opener for me too…..so perhaps I won’t be so hard on Mr. Sykes after all.
What this election has revealed to me is the profound weakness that has been masquerading as strength in both of our political parties and in their core constituencies.
Probably the most shocking weakness is in the Democratic party. The complete meltdown of Democratic-leaning students across the nation, and particularly at our most respected universities such as Harvard, reveals an astonishing lack of depth and resilience in our future leaders. And who can blame them when the current leadership is essentially in the same condition—drunkenly reeling from one poor excuse to another, completely befuddled by what has happened and unable to perceive why.
The Republican Party is in better shape, but only marginally, and that primarily because of the strength of the evangelical character. Maybe that’s not the right way to put it, but a Christian’s reliance on God as the ultimate power on earth is a stabilizing force that no party or ideology can synthetically replicate. And inasmuch as Christians have inundated the Republican party, it has been infused with their stability.
It’s the globalists in the Republican party who have felt the floor fall from beneath their feet. It’s left them breathless; but much less so than the Democrats. And the reason they are in better shape is that when the dust is settled, they’re forced to acknowledge their party has indeed won the election. Now they just have to decide if it’s still their party.
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Debra, I disagree with your assessment that this election showed any hint of the stability of evangelicals stabilizing Republicans. If anything, it showed the opposite, to me.
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If I remember, I’ll probably post this in the thread for the 17th, so…
Roscuro, that’s the second testy response to what were really just plain questions put to you about what you said.
The reason AJ asked about what you think Trump ought to do in Syria, and why I followed up, is because you loaded your posts with accusations about his character *in the context of the situation in Syria.* You say, “Surely, people can discuss on world events and public figures without having their words weighed and counterweighed for ‘motivation’. Yeah, that’s why we asked what we did. We never said anything about your motivation. [And you should be more careful with your use of quotation marks. They really should only be used when they actually repeat what a person said.]
You say you only posted about Aleppo because that’s in the news, and this is the news thread. But all the stuff about Trump’s character is “taking it to another level;” certainly not just “for information.” I’m prepared to agree with all kinds of criticisms of Donald Trump–for whom I did not vote–and made a number of them here in these pages. But I only want to criticize him over things I know he’s guilty of. He may not care about a lot of things. But you said he didn’t care about the little people in Syria.
So the questions remain, how do you know he doesn’t care about those people, and what are you suggesting he should do to help them?
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Cheryl, I understand that others may see things differently, especially if one is not assuming the ‘binary choice’. This was an election cycle fraught with instability, but evangelicals did not go to pieces. I don’t mean that they voted in lock-step either, just that they are not overset. And that is in stark contrast to my unbelieving friends and acquaintances, many of whom are still quite agitated and undone by the election. In my experience, being a Believer does add a measure of stability. I think there just happens to be more of them in the Republican party at this time. That may not always be the case in the future.
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