I’m actually starting to relax. There was a time when I feared that Debra’s dream might come true: That Trump might reach across the aisle to Democrats and build a coalition to:
1. Make healthcare even more expensive and socialist
2. Cripple the economy with tariffs
3. Blow hundreds of millions of dollars on “shovel ready” make work infrastructure boondoggles.
Fortunately, the Democrats hate him and see his antics as their path to power. The Republicans are losing their fear of him. They are beginning to see him as being like an illness that must run its course. True, our country is becoming more of an international laughingstock on a daily basis. However, that isn’t as bad as having an effective Trump and it isn’t as bad as Hillary.
Milo is a pig. While I support his 1st Amend. rights, my support goes no further. I strongly disagree with those who seek to silence him. Let him have his say, repulsive as it may be, and people can see for themselves what kind of man he is. But CPAC should know better than to give him such a forum.
But if you’re looking for someone to blame Ricky, blame CPAC as they invited him, not Trump. I agree with you the man is a slimeball, and he was long before Trump even came on the scene. You can’t blame Trump for this.
So who did “the pig” support for President? Did Trump ever repudiate “the pig” or any of his most vile statements or actions? Who normalized “the pig”? Why did CPAC invite “the pig” to speak at the conference? Because he is a member (and a leader) of the cult!
I had never watched or read Milo at all until I was recently drawn to watch his interview with Bill Mahr (another that I don’t read/watch). A liberal friend of mine was practically salivating at the opportunity to see Milo cut down to size by Mahr. So I watched. It was a non-event, unless you are titillated by the occasional foul language. Even the libs were disappointed.
Perhaps CPAC is simply hoping to stir the pot for reasons of their own. As far as I can tell, Milo’s primary use it to continue to break the constraints of political correctness that, in our day, pass for civility. Those lines do need to be redrawn, but I’m not sure Milo is an appropriate vehicle for that process. He’s certainly not a comfortable one—but maybe that’s the point…if there is one.
Why would Trump need to do that? Or is that now a requirement, to disavow anyone who voted for you who says something stupid? That’s the first I’d heard of it.
And maybe you need to send CPAC an email and ask them, since it was entirely their decision, not Trump’s.
Perhaps I’m wrong, but when did Trump ever name Milo as a leader in anything involving him or his campaign? You know the answer.
Never. So enough with the childish rants blaming Trump for all that is wrong in the world.
And if you’re so against the man, why do you continue to let him live rent-free in your head? He has money, at least get some rent, he can afford it. 🙂
Debra, I think Milo is trying to obtain attention and money. He does this by promoting anti-Semitism, vulgarity and perversion (including pedophilia). Until the rise of the Trump Cult this was not considered to be part of “conservatism”.
AJ, Disavowal of famous loonies who support you has long been a requirement for American politicians. Obama was forced to disavow Rev. Wright and it made Wright mad.
AJ, At 7:54 neither Mona Charen nor I mentioned the name of Trump. You brought him into the conversation as you know it his cult that has brought the slimiest elements into the Republican Party.
“In at least five states, roughly 60 people lost their jobs this week after they skipped work to participate in the “Day Without Immigrants” protest on Thursday, according to local media reports.
The protest, which was aimed at highlighting the importance of immigrants to the U.S. economy, called on all immigrants to not work or buy anything Thursday and succeeded in shutting down businesses across the country, according to CNN. It is unclear, however, how many people participated in the strike, according to ABC News.
Still, around five dozen people say their participation in the protest cost them their employment as businesses fired them for not showing up to work.
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, 12 Latino workers at the I Don’t Care Bar and Grill told KTUL that they were fired over text message because they did not show up for their scheduled shift and did not call in.
“You and your family are fired. I hope you enjoyed your day off, and you can enjoy many more. Love you,” the restaurant owner texted one employee, according to screenshots provided to the station.
The employees told KTUL that while they expected to be reprimanded for missing work, they did not expect to be fired. However, the owner maintained the move was not political and was simply the result of the bar’s strict “no show/no call policy.” The owner also told KTUL that others had been fired recently for the same offense. Tulsa Public Radio reports that the restaurant has already started looking for new workers.”
——————
Actually, Milo and Ann Coulter functioned as Trump’s psychiatrists. During one of Trump’s epic campaign meltdowns, it was Milo and Coulter (two of Trump’s craziest supporters) who intervened and persuaded the Cult Leader to temporarily hide his insanity.
I will only say this, Trump did not cause anything. Trump is merely an effect (and an entirely predicable one, in my opinion) of many years of wayward policies which are a combination of the left-wing and right-wing globalism.
However, Trump or this movement will probably be here for awhile, so it would be good to be realistic about any possible pitfalls of over-correcting too quickly. For while he may start out as an effect or response to globalism, he and the movement is also creating other effects. The results of those should not be ignored or there will be a sizable backlash.
One could wish for a smoother rollout of some actions, although given the intensity of the dual left-right opposition, he’s probably doing as well as can be expected. But he definitely should limit his late night television watching. :–)
I spent Thursday at the Hewlett Theological Library a block from the Cal campus. They had signs on the door about the immigrants not working. I guess it shouldn’t have surprised me.
The library, BTW, was a deserted and sad place. Mrs. Hewlett, as in Hewlett-Packard, apparently funded the library with 500,000 items. I had to spend the day there for a variety of reasons, but I was one of less than 5 active users. I had trouble finding someone to help me, and the work study student was useless on the library search feature on the agonizingly slow Windows 7 computer.
When the real librarian finally showed up, he was better but unable to pull up anything I hadn’t found myself–even on a periodical search. I find that very curious. I’m a good researcher, but I’ve seldom worked with periodicals–and I was hunting negative stories.
Finally, I settled down in a comfortable chair beside a window and read a fascinating book of early missionary stories by Ruth Tucker: FROM JERUSALEM TO IRIAN JAYA.
I didn’t notice any issues, even in Berkeley, without immigrants to work. I turned off the radio every time someone talked about how glorious it was all these, literally poor, people walked off their jobs. 😦
I watched the Milo-Maher interview with zero expectation of fireworks and was not surprised. Maher needs tight wing provacateurs on his show and they need his exposure neither is going to kill the deal. In addition, Maher is on anti-political correctness kick as he seeks to steer the Democrats away from identity politics.
The real fireworks occurred in the Overtime segment which is available on Youtube and even then it was mostly a few f bombs. Essentially he used the same arguments used against gay rights when he criticized trans rights.
I disagree that Trump brought in the slime. Some will argue Reagan’s 1980 Mississippi speech brought in the slime. However thats reaching back too far. Slime became acceptable in the Republican party when they endorsed the birther/Muslim Obama nonsense. Its here where Trump and rest of the slime seized an opportunity.
I do agree with Debra in that the centre left’s endorsement of globalism (see Blair, Clinton and social democrats nearly everywhere) also helped a right wing populist make it to the White House.
Interestingly Canada’s social democrat party is one of the few to reject free trade and globalism. Canada is also one of the few places to soundly reject right wing populist rhetoric. Not entirely a coincidence.
And yes he should limit his cable news viewing. When your president pays more attention to Tucker Carlson than intelligence briefings, you have a problem. And worse yet, he misunderstood Fox news.
The damage to the GOP and country over the next 4 years is going to come primarily from a Congress that fails to act on the mandate they were given in this election, not from Trump, after which period of failure, the nation will return to the more accelerated version of destruction modeled by Obama and championed by Hillary.
I read this article on FB where the most telling thing is the comments. The Left still isn’t listening. They are talking amongst themselves and only believing what they say.
If you have FB and would like to read the 1.7K comments here is the link. Don’t click on the top article, scroll down until you see the post Are Liberals Helping Trump?
I had to stop reading the comments. What could I say?
SolarP, The Rs have no mandate. Their victory was built on a con, hatred for Hillary and a small assist from the Russians. If they really try to adopt conservative reforms, the Ds, the Trump cult and the press will all turn on them. Better to let the Ds, the cult and the press fight among themselves.
Kim @11:40, I would say that the Sweden embarrassment is just the clearest evidence of a wider problem of the administration of exaggeration for effect. Not as much attention was given to the “Bowling Green massacre” claims, but it was equally, if not more, ridiculous. There are a lot of accusation flung right and left of ‘fake news’, and it would seem that both sides sometimes (but not to the extent the other side claims) indulge in exaggeration – a fact which both sides would do well to admit – but what the media does and what government figures do should be two different things. The president’s office has access to information on a level that few media outlets can boast of – there should be no exaggerated information coming from that office. Making inflated claims is part of the world of commercial advertising that Trump comes from, but it will not do in public office. When Bush reacted to the 9/11 attacks he specifically warned against vigilantes and retaliations, knowing that mass hysteria would create more chaos. Trump’s office rather feeds the hysteria. The office seems to have taken a page from a much disliked figure from Obama’s early days in office, who famously said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste”, and gone one better by manufacturing the crisis.
Oh, Ricky, Canadians are not all alike. I know people who think that Trump was the absolute best thing for the U.S. and who wish that Canada were not so welcoming of certain people. I have a dear relative who currently seems to be indulging in reading stuff the like of that which Milo Yiannopoulous spits out – though this individual would vehemently disapprove of Milo’s lifestyle. There were many, myself included, who were concerned that the last Prime Minister was starting to circle the black hole of nationalistic fear and protectionism. I didn’t let my concerns stop me from voting for that party, but – and I say this with deep reservations for many of the current government policies – I think it was a good thing he wasn’t reelected. He is a more decent, likeable person as a private citizen – as an individual, he probably would help out his neighbour, as a national leader, he was becoming callous and corrupted. The same thing may well happen to the current Prime Minister – there is something to be said for term limits.
“A broad range of activists opposed to the month-old Trump administration were using Monday’s President’s Day holiday to hold “Not My Presidents Day” rallies nationwide.
With most government workers, school employees and students enjoying a day off due to the federal holiday, events were underway in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and as many as two dozen other communities, organizers said. In Atlanta, more than 600 protesters were expected at an “ImPEACH Now” march — the group’s Facebook page featured an image of a cut peach with Trump’s face in place of the pit.
In Los Angeles, about 4,300 people were expected to rally at noon at City Hall, according to the group’s Facebook page. Protests were also taking place in nearby Pasadena and near Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif.
In Philadelphia, protesters were marching in a “Counter the Executive Orders” rally, according to the group’s Facebook page.
In Ann Arbor, Mich., about 600 marchers were expected to attend a “Bad Hombres and Nasty Women” event Monday night, featuring “uncensored performances” and benefiting Planned Parenthood.
“While we acknowledge that Donald Trump holds the current title, the policies he’s trying to put in place are not the beliefs shared by the majority of the people,” said Nova Calise, a television production manager and one of the organizers of New York event, which was expected to draw about 15,000 people to Trump International Hotel near Manhattan’s Central Park, according to a Facebook group. Expected speakers included Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and Sonia Ossorio, who runs the New York City chapter of the National Organization for Women.””
Michelle, is that an interesting book? I had to read it as a textbook and it was considered the better of the two books for the intro to missions class (the other was roundly berated), but I don’t think I ever considered whether it was itself interesting. I hadn’t heard of the book since reading it in 1989.
Ricky, with a modicum of work, the Republicans could repeal Obamacare and lower taxes. They have a mandate for at least those 2 items (and more), and numbers to get there. They’re blowing the opportunity.
Solar P, If ALL they do is repeal Obamacare, millions will lose their insurance, we will still be paying 50% more of our GDP on healthcare than any other nation and Medicare and Medicaid will still threaten to bankrupt the country.
The House plan to pay for the tax cuts is the Border Adjustment Tax, which is a tariff and only has the support of ten Senators.
Their ain’t no mandate for either of those.
The only mandate is for Trump to:
1 deport a few Mexicans
2 mud wrestle with the Ds and the press
3 Humiliate himself and the country on a daily basis.
Might be interesting – tonight if you happen to be in Michigan 🙂
Bringing America Together: Restoring Optimism, Unity, and Opportunity – Arthur Brooks, Ph.D.
“Politicians and pundits are struggling to understand this populist moment. Are a shrinking workforce and a contemptuous, divided culture simply America’s “new normal”? Is free enterprise fundamentally at odds with defending the national interest? Arthur Brooks draws on history and social science to explain these unusual times – and offers a set of strategies, from national policy to personal advice, that we can use to rebuild prosperity and reunite the country.”
Solar P, When you end the Obamacare tax and the subsidies, millions will lose their healthcare. The press will be so focused on that, they won’t even have time to report on Trump daily setting himself on fire. Plus, Trump wouldn’t sign a simple repeal. Even he knows that would be political suicide. The Obamacare reform is going to take months to work out and it is going to be expensive.
Now, what does your tax cut look like and does it have elements of tax reform?
Decent legislation on taxes will take weeks to draft and work out with input from both Houses of Congress, the Treasury and the White House (assuming they have any economists on staff there). Obamacare reform is going to be unbelievably complex and will take months with input from the above parties and representatives of all of the affected groups. Congress could slap something together in a rush, but it would be garbage, like Trump’s initial Executive Order on the 7 country immigration ban.
Here’s some good news. Milo has been dis-invited from CPAC.
WASHINGTON — Milo Yiannopoulos, the provocateur and Breitbart News editor, was under pressure on several fronts Monday after the publication of a video in which he condones sexual relations with boys as young as 13 and laughs off the seriousness of pedophilia by Roman Catholic priests.
The organizers of the Conservative Political Action Conference rescinded their invitation for him to speak later this week. Simon & Schuster said it was canceling publication of his latest book, “Dangerous.” And there were calls online for Breitbart to sever ties with him.
The episode, which unraveled quickly online over the weekend, put many conservatives in a deeply uncomfortable position. They have long defended Mr. Yiannopoulos’s attention-seeking stunts and racially charged antics on the grounds that the left had tried to hypocritically censor his right to free speech.
But endorsing pedophilia, it seemed, was more than they could tolerate….
I hope this whole thing will serve as a lesson for the sorts of “conservatives” who easily fall into cults of personalities. Conservatism is a set of principles, not a stable of personalities. Or, at least, it used to be.
There is a unique opportunity with a Trump presidency for some odd realignments to occur between left and right. As soon as a few people at the top figure out how to make money off of it, things will all fall into place. Unfortunately that could also ruin it; but thanks to Twitter, at least we’ll have front row seats for all the gory details. :–)
More from the article. Many conservatives are waking up to the fact that we are dealing with a cult:
It just so happens that our modern cult leaders aren’t building communes in Guyana, rather they’re building political campaigns or “personal brands.” Their poisoned Kool-Aid is of an intellectual and spiritual variety, although I’m sure they could whip up a batch in a more literal sense and their fans would partake just as eagerly.
That is a very sad article. And the thing is, there are so many people out there like Milo—just lost, but determined to go deeper down the sewer pipe rather than come out and clean off the filth.
Debra @ 9:48 The logical successor to Trump is a John Edwards type of Democrat (except one who didn’t cheat on a dying wife). Such a candidate could appeal to most people who pay no income taxes (which by that point will be between 55% and 60% of the population). Depending on his audience, he could blame the problems of his listeners on racism, globalism, big corporations or immigrants. He would then tax and tax the shrinking group of producer/taxpayers until he kills the goose that laid the golden eggs and the US becomes a giant Greece: full of broke, unemployed or underemployed people.
Debra @ 10:02, That is why I give some credit to Putin, regardless of his horrible flaws. Unlike any other Western leader, he has taken steps to try to protect children from predatory perverts.
Ricky, you say repealing Obamacare will be complicated. Of course, the response to that assertion is:
No duh.
Obama planted his hooks into the system enough to create enough dependencies on his whole scheme to make extracting ourselves a pain. If you were under the impression we weren’t going to be suffering significant pain within two years *keeping* Obamacare, enjoy your unicorns.
Since Obama has been in office, the Ds have lost considerable numbers of seats in the house and state governorships. R’s hold House, Senate, Presidency. Obama’s been a disaster for his party (and the rest of us). Fickle as the electorate is, they’ve made a fairly clear decision in this election. If there’s not a mandate for some kind of move toward conservatism now (or at least a paring away of liberal policies), there isn’t such thing as a mandate.
SolarP, A large percentage of the people who voted for Trump are very ignorant. They have no idea what the repeal of Obamacare will mean for them or members of their families. A large percentage of them pay no income tax and won’t benefit from a tax cut.
To have a mandate, the candidate needs to have articulated a series of principles to which the electorate responded favorably. Trump babbled, “Lock her up.” and “Build that wall.” The other things he said were lies, contradictions and gibberish.
So could you outline the basic components you would include in an Obamacare repeal?
To show how little mandate there is for a “move to conservatism”, remember it was the other 16 Republican candidates who to a greater or lesser degree advocated conservative reforms. Republican primary voters (who included some crossover Democrats) rejected the advocates of conservative reform and selected a longtime Democrat turned incoherent populist demagogue. Not only do conservatives not make up a majority of the total electorate, it is not clear they make up a majority of Republicans.
Not a word I’d use for most of the salt-of-the-earth folks who voted for Trump out of sheer frustration. And that’s just the kind of condescending attitude that makes Trump supporters (rightly) bristle
Holy mackerel, Ricky, you’re the king of the goal post shifters. I didn’t say Trump had a mandate, but Republicans in Congress. They have numbers to pass legislation they could not have since gwb, then for long before that. It’s not incumbent on someone who points that out to them provide the means to replacing Obamacare. I’m saying the Republicans could be taking a window of opportunity now, but are not. Rand Paul has drawn a plan. They could discuss that. Instead, they haven’t broached the subject at all. There are plenty of significant things they could be doing now, but the iron is cooling. Why is it my job to provide you with details of work they should be doing?
Let ’em bristle. They are plenty ignorant. If the Republicans actually simply repealed Obamacare, there would be millions of Trumpkins whining right along with the Democrats that they lost their healthcare because their subsidies were taken away. It would likely be blamed on “globalism”.
SolarP, Move the goalposts back. FYI, the same voters who nominated Trump and Clinton are the ones who vote in Congressional elections. The Congressmen may not be geniuses, but they understand that virtually all Democrat voters oppose conservative reforms, and about half of Republican voters are Trumpkins who either do not know what conservatism is or have rejected it.
No trust in the people there (ricky 11:30). Perhaps we should change our form of government so only those in-the-know and in the upper crust can select / appoint our leaders.
SolarP, Unless you have some specifics in your Obamacare Repeal/Replace plan, we don’t know if it would be more socialist or more expensive than Obamacare. I like your idea to start with Rand Paul’s plan, but Republicans need to understand that the replacement may wind up being more expensive than Obamacare. This is particularly true if “Single payer” Trump is given any input.
I had in mind a ten question test involving knowledge of the Constitution, the legislative process, the names of one’s Senators, etc. However, with a twinkle in his eye, Dad said, “No. We only need one question and it is going to be math. No need to make it trigonometry; algebra will do.” Dad was an engineer who was forced to hire other “engineers” under Affirmative Action. His mother was a high school math teacher. He knew exactly who could do math and who could not. He figured that one question would eliminate approximately 95% of voters. My contribution was to make it a word problem, so the vast majority would then be unable to even set up the equation. I think Dad thought my addition was unnecessary, but he was polite and did not object.
Wandering Views 
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Mona Charen recognizes we are dealing with a cult, and a cult that promotes perversion and accepts one who promotes pedophilia.
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I’m actually starting to relax. There was a time when I feared that Debra’s dream might come true: That Trump might reach across the aisle to Democrats and build a coalition to:
1. Make healthcare even more expensive and socialist
2. Cripple the economy with tariffs
3. Blow hundreds of millions of dollars on “shovel ready” make work infrastructure boondoggles.
Fortunately, the Democrats hate him and see his antics as their path to power. The Republicans are losing their fear of him. They are beginning to see him as being like an illness that must run its course. True, our country is becoming more of an international laughingstock on a daily basis. However, that isn’t as bad as having an effective Trump and it isn’t as bad as Hillary.
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Milo is a pig. While I support his 1st Amend. rights, my support goes no further. I strongly disagree with those who seek to silence him. Let him have his say, repulsive as it may be, and people can see for themselves what kind of man he is. But CPAC should know better than to give him such a forum.
But if you’re looking for someone to blame Ricky, blame CPAC as they invited him, not Trump. I agree with you the man is a slimeball, and he was long before Trump even came on the scene. You can’t blame Trump for this.
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So who did “the pig” support for President? Did Trump ever repudiate “the pig” or any of his most vile statements or actions? Who normalized “the pig”? Why did CPAC invite “the pig” to speak at the conference? Because he is a member (and a leader) of the cult!
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I had never watched or read Milo at all until I was recently drawn to watch his interview with Bill Mahr (another that I don’t read/watch). A liberal friend of mine was practically salivating at the opportunity to see Milo cut down to size by Mahr. So I watched. It was a non-event, unless you are titillated by the occasional foul language. Even the libs were disappointed.
Perhaps CPAC is simply hoping to stir the pot for reasons of their own. As far as I can tell, Milo’s primary use it to continue to break the constraints of political correctness that, in our day, pass for civility. Those lines do need to be redrawn, but I’m not sure Milo is an appropriate vehicle for that process. He’s certainly not a comfortable one—but maybe that’s the point…if there is one.
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Ricky,
Why would Trump need to do that? Or is that now a requirement, to disavow anyone who voted for you who says something stupid? That’s the first I’d heard of it.
And maybe you need to send CPAC an email and ask them, since it was entirely their decision, not Trump’s.
Perhaps I’m wrong, but when did Trump ever name Milo as a leader in anything involving him or his campaign? You know the answer.
Never. So enough with the childish rants blaming Trump for all that is wrong in the world.
And if you’re so against the man, why do you continue to let him live rent-free in your head? He has money, at least get some rent, he can afford it. 🙂
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Debra, I think Milo is trying to obtain attention and money. He does this by promoting anti-Semitism, vulgarity and perversion (including pedophilia). Until the rise of the Trump Cult this was not considered to be part of “conservatism”.
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AJ, Disavowal of famous loonies who support you has long been a requirement for American politicians. Obama was forced to disavow Rev. Wright and it made Wright mad.
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AJ, At 7:54 neither Mona Charen nor I mentioned the name of Trump. You brought him into the conversation as you know it his cult that has brought the slimiest elements into the Republican Party.
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And you see no difference between the two Ricky?
Obama attended Wright’s racist church, considered the man a friend, and Wright campaigned for and with Obama.
Has Trump attended Milo’s “shows” and have a years long relationship with him?
No.
Did he campaign for and with Trump?
Again, no.
Did Trump allow Milo to be his spiritual leader and sit for his teachings for years?
Still no.
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Consequences and repercussions….
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article133612984.html
“In at least five states, roughly 60 people lost their jobs this week after they skipped work to participate in the “Day Without Immigrants” protest on Thursday, according to local media reports.
The protest, which was aimed at highlighting the importance of immigrants to the U.S. economy, called on all immigrants to not work or buy anything Thursday and succeeded in shutting down businesses across the country, according to CNN. It is unclear, however, how many people participated in the strike, according to ABC News.
Still, around five dozen people say their participation in the protest cost them their employment as businesses fired them for not showing up to work.
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, 12 Latino workers at the I Don’t Care Bar and Grill told KTUL that they were fired over text message because they did not show up for their scheduled shift and did not call in.
“You and your family are fired. I hope you enjoyed your day off, and you can enjoy many more. Love you,” the restaurant owner texted one employee, according to screenshots provided to the station.
The employees told KTUL that while they expected to be reprimanded for missing work, they did not expect to be fired. However, the owner maintained the move was not political and was simply the result of the bar’s strict “no show/no call policy.” The owner also told KTUL that others had been fired recently for the same offense. Tulsa Public Radio reports that the restaurant has already started looking for new workers.”
——————
And what did they learn?
Probably nothing.
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Actually, Milo and Ann Coulter functioned as Trump’s psychiatrists. During one of Trump’s epic campaign meltdowns, it was Milo and Coulter (two of Trump’s craziest supporters) who intervened and persuaded the Cult Leader to temporarily hide his insanity.
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I will only say this, Trump did not cause anything. Trump is merely an effect (and an entirely predicable one, in my opinion) of many years of wayward policies which are a combination of the left-wing and right-wing globalism.
However, Trump or this movement will probably be here for awhile, so it would be good to be realistic about any possible pitfalls of over-correcting too quickly. For while he may start out as an effect or response to globalism, he and the movement is also creating other effects. The results of those should not be ignored or there will be a sizable backlash.
One could wish for a smoother rollout of some actions, although given the intensity of the dual left-right opposition, he’s probably doing as well as can be expected. But he definitely should limit his late night television watching. :–)
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I spent Thursday at the Hewlett Theological Library a block from the Cal campus. They had signs on the door about the immigrants not working. I guess it shouldn’t have surprised me.
The library, BTW, was a deserted and sad place. Mrs. Hewlett, as in Hewlett-Packard, apparently funded the library with 500,000 items. I had to spend the day there for a variety of reasons, but I was one of less than 5 active users. I had trouble finding someone to help me, and the work study student was useless on the library search feature on the agonizingly slow Windows 7 computer.
When the real librarian finally showed up, he was better but unable to pull up anything I hadn’t found myself–even on a periodical search. I find that very curious. I’m a good researcher, but I’ve seldom worked with periodicals–and I was hunting negative stories.
Finally, I settled down in a comfortable chair beside a window and read a fascinating book of early missionary stories by Ruth Tucker: FROM JERUSALEM TO IRIAN JAYA.
I didn’t notice any issues, even in Berkeley, without immigrants to work. I turned off the radio every time someone talked about how glorious it was all these, literally poor, people walked off their jobs. 😦
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I watched the Milo-Maher interview with zero expectation of fireworks and was not surprised. Maher needs tight wing provacateurs on his show and they need his exposure neither is going to kill the deal. In addition, Maher is on anti-political correctness kick as he seeks to steer the Democrats away from identity politics.
The real fireworks occurred in the Overtime segment which is available on Youtube and even then it was mostly a few f bombs. Essentially he used the same arguments used against gay rights when he criticized trans rights.
I disagree that Trump brought in the slime. Some will argue Reagan’s 1980 Mississippi speech brought in the slime. However thats reaching back too far. Slime became acceptable in the Republican party when they endorsed the birther/Muslim Obama nonsense. Its here where Trump and rest of the slime seized an opportunity.
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I do agree with Debra in that the centre left’s endorsement of globalism (see Blair, Clinton and social democrats nearly everywhere) also helped a right wing populist make it to the White House.
Interestingly Canada’s social democrat party is one of the few to reject free trade and globalism. Canada is also one of the few places to soundly reject right wing populist rhetoric. Not entirely a coincidence.
And yes he should limit his cable news viewing. When your president pays more attention to Tucker Carlson than intelligence briefings, you have a problem. And worse yet, he misunderstood Fox news.
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The damage to the GOP and country over the next 4 years is going to come primarily from a Congress that fails to act on the mandate they were given in this election, not from Trump, after which period of failure, the nation will return to the more accelerated version of destruction modeled by Obama and championed by Hillary.
The church needs to get itself together.
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I think the funniest thing I’ve seen was a photo of Ikea with the caption
“Je suis Ikea”.
It’s just plain embarrassing.
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I read this article on FB where the most telling thing is the comments. The Left still isn’t listening. They are talking amongst themselves and only believing what they say.
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If you have FB and would like to read the 1.7K comments here is the link. Don’t click on the top article, scroll down until you see the post Are Liberals Helping Trump?
I had to stop reading the comments. What could I say?
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=are%20liberals%20helping%20trump
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SolarP, The Rs have no mandate. Their victory was built on a con, hatred for Hillary and a small assist from the Russians. If they really try to adopt conservative reforms, the Ds, the Trump cult and the press will all turn on them. Better to let the Ds, the cult and the press fight among themselves.
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Kim @11:40, I would say that the Sweden embarrassment is just the clearest evidence of a wider problem of the administration of exaggeration for effect. Not as much attention was given to the “Bowling Green massacre” claims, but it was equally, if not more, ridiculous. There are a lot of accusation flung right and left of ‘fake news’, and it would seem that both sides sometimes (but not to the extent the other side claims) indulge in exaggeration – a fact which both sides would do well to admit – but what the media does and what government figures do should be two different things. The president’s office has access to information on a level that few media outlets can boast of – there should be no exaggerated information coming from that office. Making inflated claims is part of the world of commercial advertising that Trump comes from, but it will not do in public office. When Bush reacted to the 9/11 attacks he specifically warned against vigilantes and retaliations, knowing that mass hysteria would create more chaos. Trump’s office rather feeds the hysteria. The office seems to have taken a page from a much disliked figure from Obama’s early days in office, who famously said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste”, and gone one better by manufacturing the crisis.
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So far the cult seems to be confined to the US. Roscuro and HRW, I think you know the signs to look for if any of your neighbors become infected.
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Oh, Ricky, Canadians are not all alike. I know people who think that Trump was the absolute best thing for the U.S. and who wish that Canada were not so welcoming of certain people. I have a dear relative who currently seems to be indulging in reading stuff the like of that which Milo Yiannopoulous spits out – though this individual would vehemently disapprove of Milo’s lifestyle. There were many, myself included, who were concerned that the last Prime Minister was starting to circle the black hole of nationalistic fear and protectionism. I didn’t let my concerns stop me from voting for that party, but – and I say this with deep reservations for many of the current government policies – I think it was a good thing he wasn’t reelected. He is a more decent, likeable person as a private citizen – as an individual, he probably would help out his neighbour, as a national leader, he was becoming callous and corrupted. The same thing may well happen to the current Prime Minister – there is something to be said for term limits.
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Ricky,
If you hurry, you can probably find one near you to attend. 😲
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/anti-trump-protesters-come-out-for-%E2%80%98not-my-presidents-day%E2%80%99-rallies/ar-AAn6Tky?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=U452DHP
“A broad range of activists opposed to the month-old Trump administration were using Monday’s President’s Day holiday to hold “Not My Presidents Day” rallies nationwide.
With most government workers, school employees and students enjoying a day off due to the federal holiday, events were underway in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and as many as two dozen other communities, organizers said. In Atlanta, more than 600 protesters were expected at an “ImPEACH Now” march — the group’s Facebook page featured an image of a cut peach with Trump’s face in place of the pit.
In Los Angeles, about 4,300 people were expected to rally at noon at City Hall, according to the group’s Facebook page. Protests were also taking place in nearby Pasadena and near Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif.
In Philadelphia, protesters were marching in a “Counter the Executive Orders” rally, according to the group’s Facebook page.
In Ann Arbor, Mich., about 600 marchers were expected to attend a “Bad Hombres and Nasty Women” event Monday night, featuring “uncensored performances” and benefiting Planned Parenthood.
“While we acknowledge that Donald Trump holds the current title, the policies he’s trying to put in place are not the beliefs shared by the majority of the people,” said Nova Calise, a television production manager and one of the organizers of New York event, which was expected to draw about 15,000 people to Trump International Hotel near Manhattan’s Central Park, according to a Facebook group. Expected speakers included Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and Sonia Ossorio, who runs the New York City chapter of the National Organization for Women.””
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AJ, NeverTrumpers protest Presidents Day by working. I’ll check in again when I get home.
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Michelle, is that an interesting book? I had to read it as a textbook and it was considered the better of the two books for the intro to missions class (the other was roundly berated), but I don’t think I ever considered whether it was itself interesting. I hadn’t heard of the book since reading it in 1989.
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Ricky, with a modicum of work, the Republicans could repeal Obamacare and lower taxes. They have a mandate for at least those 2 items (and more), and numbers to get there. They’re blowing the opportunity.
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Solar P, If ALL they do is repeal Obamacare, millions will lose their insurance, we will still be paying 50% more of our GDP on healthcare than any other nation and Medicare and Medicaid will still threaten to bankrupt the country.
The House plan to pay for the tax cuts is the Border Adjustment Tax, which is a tariff and only has the support of ten Senators.
Their ain’t no mandate for either of those.
The only mandate is for Trump to:
1 deport a few Mexicans
2 mud wrestle with the Ds and the press
3 Humiliate himself and the country on a daily basis.
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I thought it interesting, Cheryl, and bought a copy today.
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http://acton.org/event/2017/01/11/arthur-brooks
Might be interesting – tonight if you happen to be in Michigan 🙂
Bringing America Together: Restoring Optimism, Unity, and Opportunity – Arthur Brooks, Ph.D.
“Politicians and pundits are struggling to understand this populist moment. Are a shrinking workforce and a contemptuous, divided culture simply America’s “new normal”? Is free enterprise fundamentally at odds with defending the national interest? Arthur Brooks draws on history and social science to explain these unusual times – and offers a set of strategies, from national policy to personal advice, that we can use to rebuild prosperity and reunite the country.”
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On Twitter:
John Mark N Reynolds
@JMNR
At the bottom, time to pray for MILO. No compromise on the ideas, but the man is a soul created in God’s image. Time to pray.
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Solar P, When you end the Obamacare tax and the subsidies, millions will lose their healthcare. The press will be so focused on that, they won’t even have time to report on Trump daily setting himself on fire. Plus, Trump wouldn’t sign a simple repeal. Even he knows that would be political suicide. The Obamacare reform is going to take months to work out and it is going to be expensive.
Now, what does your tax cut look like and does it have elements of tax reform?
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DJ, I like Brooks, but Debra’s ears went up. Being from AEI, he is sort of the King of the Globalists.
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Decent legislation on taxes will take weeks to draft and work out with input from both Houses of Congress, the Treasury and the White House (assuming they have any economists on staff there). Obamacare reform is going to be unbelievably complex and will take months with input from the above parties and representatives of all of the affected groups. Congress could slap something together in a rush, but it would be garbage, like Trump’s initial Executive Order on the 7 country immigration ban.
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Grrrrrrrr Chomp! I heard that.
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Here’s some good news. Milo has been dis-invited from CPAC.
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“Reckless, grandiose, intimidating: Trump is a lot like the LBJ whom liberals still idolize”
http://Www.nationalreview.com/article/445060/Lyndon-Johnson-Donald-Trump-grandiose-bullying-colossal-figures
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So if we are going to deport undesirable aliens, can we get rid of Milo before we deport the guy who mows our greens?
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He has some nice pearls
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And in other news, Hell has frozen over.
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A really good article by Matt Walsh on Milo and cults of personalities.
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From the article:
I hope this whole thing will serve as a lesson for the sorts of “conservatives” who easily fall into cults of personalities. Conservatism is a set of principles, not a stable of personalities. Or, at least, it used to be.
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There is a unique opportunity with a Trump presidency for some odd realignments to occur between left and right. As soon as a few people at the top figure out how to make money off of it, things will all fall into place. Unfortunately that could also ruin it; but thanks to Twitter, at least we’ll have front row seats for all the gory details. :–)
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More from the article. Many conservatives are waking up to the fact that we are dealing with a cult:
It just so happens that our modern cult leaders aren’t building communes in Guyana, rather they’re building political campaigns or “personal brands.” Their poisoned Kool-Aid is of an intellectual and spiritual variety, although I’m sure they could whip up a batch in a more literal sense and their fans would partake just as eagerly.
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That is a very sad article. And the thing is, there are so many people out there like Milo—just lost, but determined to go deeper down the sewer pipe rather than come out and clean off the filth.
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Debra @ 9:48 The logical successor to Trump is a John Edwards type of Democrat (except one who didn’t cheat on a dying wife). Such a candidate could appeal to most people who pay no income taxes (which by that point will be between 55% and 60% of the population). Depending on his audience, he could blame the problems of his listeners on racism, globalism, big corporations or immigrants. He would then tax and tax the shrinking group of producer/taxpayers until he kills the goose that laid the golden eggs and the US becomes a giant Greece: full of broke, unemployed or underemployed people.
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Debra @ 10:02, That is why I give some credit to Putin, regardless of his horrible flaws. Unlike any other Western leader, he has taken steps to try to protect children from predatory perverts.
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Ricky, you say repealing Obamacare will be complicated. Of course, the response to that assertion is:
No duh.
Obama planted his hooks into the system enough to create enough dependencies on his whole scheme to make extracting ourselves a pain. If you were under the impression we weren’t going to be suffering significant pain within two years *keeping* Obamacare, enjoy your unicorns.
Since Obama has been in office, the Ds have lost considerable numbers of seats in the house and state governorships. R’s hold House, Senate, Presidency. Obama’s been a disaster for his party (and the rest of us). Fickle as the electorate is, they’ve made a fairly clear decision in this election. If there’s not a mandate for some kind of move toward conservatism now (or at least a paring away of liberal policies), there isn’t such thing as a mandate.
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SolarP, A large percentage of the people who voted for Trump are very ignorant. They have no idea what the repeal of Obamacare will mean for them or members of their families. A large percentage of them pay no income tax and won’t benefit from a tax cut.
To have a mandate, the candidate needs to have articulated a series of principles to which the electorate responded favorably. Trump babbled, “Lock her up.” and “Build that wall.” The other things he said were lies, contradictions and gibberish.
So could you outline the basic components you would include in an Obamacare repeal?
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To show how little mandate there is for a “move to conservatism”, remember it was the other 16 Republican candidates who to a greater or lesser degree advocated conservative reforms. Republican primary voters (who included some crossover Democrats) rejected the advocates of conservative reform and selected a longtime Democrat turned incoherent populist demagogue. Not only do conservatives not make up a majority of the total electorate, it is not clear they make up a majority of Republicans.
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“Ignorant”
Not a word I’d use for most of the salt-of-the-earth folks who voted for Trump out of sheer frustration. And that’s just the kind of condescending attitude that makes Trump supporters (rightly) bristle
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Holy mackerel, Ricky, you’re the king of the goal post shifters. I didn’t say Trump had a mandate, but Republicans in Congress. They have numbers to pass legislation they could not have since gwb, then for long before that. It’s not incumbent on someone who points that out to them provide the means to replacing Obamacare. I’m saying the Republicans could be taking a window of opportunity now, but are not. Rand Paul has drawn a plan. They could discuss that. Instead, they haven’t broached the subject at all. There are plenty of significant things they could be doing now, but the iron is cooling. Why is it my job to provide you with details of work they should be doing?
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Let ’em bristle. They are plenty ignorant. If the Republicans actually simply repealed Obamacare, there would be millions of Trumpkins whining right along with the Democrats that they lost their healthcare because their subsidies were taken away. It would likely be blamed on “globalism”.
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SolarP, Move the goalposts back. FYI, the same voters who nominated Trump and Clinton are the ones who vote in Congressional elections. The Congressmen may not be geniuses, but they understand that virtually all Democrat voters oppose conservative reforms, and about half of Republican voters are Trumpkins who either do not know what conservatism is or have rejected it.
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No trust in the people there (ricky 11:30). Perhaps we should change our form of government so only those in-the-know and in the upper crust can select / appoint our leaders.
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DJ, Now you are beginning to understand. Dad and I worked it out years ago. A one question literacy test for voters: an algebra word problem.
And for those who claim Americans can still effectively govern themselves, I have two words: Obama & Trump.
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SolarP, Unless you have some specifics in your Obamacare Repeal/Replace plan, we don’t know if it would be more socialist or more expensive than Obamacare. I like your idea to start with Rand Paul’s plan, but Republicans need to understand that the replacement may wind up being more expensive than Obamacare. This is particularly true if “Single payer” Trump is given any input.
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12:01.
Wow.
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I had in mind a ten question test involving knowledge of the Constitution, the legislative process, the names of one’s Senators, etc. However, with a twinkle in his eye, Dad said, “No. We only need one question and it is going to be math. No need to make it trigonometry; algebra will do.” Dad was an engineer who was forced to hire other “engineers” under Affirmative Action. His mother was a high school math teacher. He knew exactly who could do math and who could not. He figured that one question would eliminate approximately 95% of voters. My contribution was to make it a word problem, so the vast majority would then be unable to even set up the equation. I think Dad thought my addition was unnecessary, but he was polite and did not object.
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