Hi poll #s keep tanking -- saw the latest reports today. I just don't get a sense Trump wants to run for a 2nd term due to the realization that the job requires work. Still blows my mind that one inside staff member mentions that he refuses to be disturbed after 6pm so he can channel surf. And the cost to the American people in these early months are rising so fast that in Trump's first full year it is estimated that he will have surpassed the entire expenses that the Obama family accumulated in their entire 8.
^This is the same criticism people have of Rubin, only it's even more obvious in Rubin's case given that he routinely says straight up that he's basically just a sounding board whose purpose is to give everyone as much rope as they need to either convince his audience or hang themselves. Which is a perfectly legitimate interviewing style.
Not everyone has to come to the table to try to debate people and try to make them repent of their world view. There's room for more than one type of conversation.
I think it's closer to the latter, but a bit of a false dilemma. The practice is actually to create further and further narrow divisions on issues where one can take a holier-than-thou moral stand. If that's your M.O., of course you're going to alienate yourself from people. How else could you demonstrate that you're ideologically purer, and thus, a better person than they are?
The problem I have with Rubin is that he just keeps presenting the same narrative every week. A while back he had Mark Duplass on there who I guess is liberal. But instead of giving Mark a platform to openly rail about conservatives, he used the interview to talk yet again about the same dead horse of Hollywood media bias and how liberals are all awful.
If you are going to play the 'I just let my guests speak freely' cars, then you need a more diverse set of guests. His show is just a giant echo chamber. And it seems to go double for Rogan as their guests often just happened to have done the others show days before.
On this Sunday, a day meant in my religious tradition for reflection and prayer, I find my mind returning more than a half century in the past to the early days of the civil rights movement. I spent many a sabbath in black churches hearing justice and righteousness preached from the pulpit in the face of violent state sponsored bigotry - the deep roots that beget the vile strain we witnessed yesterday in Charlottesville.
Then, like now, we didn't know where this country would be heading. But thankfully we found out that the vast majority of Americans were decent enough to recognize that segregation, disenfranchisement, and violent intimidation should not be part of our national destiny. Apparently, tragically, that lesson must be repeated. And now the question is will we have leadership out of the White House or will have cynicism and cowardice?
But what I also remember from covering the civil rights movement was the strong current of hope that coursed through the entire enterprise. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his followers believed that if America could see the true depth of the hatred it would recoil. And, by and large, it did. And our political leaders acted with the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, amongst other measures.
We are once again peering into an abyss, and I am heartened by the response from across the political spectrum. But we cannot merely cleave the most grotesque incarnations of this national malignancy. We must recognize that the seeds for yesterday's carnage can be found in attacking voting rights, demonizing immigrants, the coded words of anti-Semitism, and all the other more subtle forms of discrimination and false victimhood. They are just as dangerous as what was on display in Charlottesville, perhaps more so because they are allowed in "polite company" - with a knowing wink and a blow of the proverbial dog whistle.
Perhaps we needed to see this hatred so raw. Perhaps we needed to see how easily our order can break down. Perhaps we needed to feel the empathy for those in our society who are subjected daily to racist taunts and actions. This is a moment for moral clarity as a nation. It is a time for everyone to line up and be counted, are you on the side of love or hate.
The central question of the moment is will we pledge actions that do not only mitigate the crisis but lead to real and substantive change. The world is watching. History is watching. I hope we are up to the challenge. I think we are.
My friend told me that Trump receives two folders a day of things in social media that are speaking positively of him and pictures of him where he looks powerful... Is this true??!
My friend told me that Trump receives two folders a day of things in social media that are speaking positively of him and pictures of him where he looks powerful... Is this true??!
It started apparently with Priebus and Spicey, VICE first reported this and you have to believe its true with his obsession with the media and cable news.
Trump is obviously hoping Charlottesville just goes away, so we can expect some leaked nonsense story in the next day or so to try and change the subject. Don't think it's gonna work this time though.
__________________
"Think I'm gonna be the scapegoat for the whole damn machine? Sheeee......."
When you say interesting, you're talking Comet Ping Pong interesting. You're talking ravings of a lunatic interesting. You're talking Alex Jones off his mess interesting.
None of this is conjecture. Its just twisting history and then connecting dots to create a house of cards that falls apart with the first application of critical thought or looking up a single of these unrelated dots he talks about. Conspiracy theories at every turn, with one one specific goal: deflect from the Dear Leader.
For example, The Ukraine Insurgent Army fought against the Nazis, not with them. Blut und Boden is core to Nazi ideology and has nothing to do with the Ukraine Insurgent Army. Sweet baby Jesus. Certainly provides insight into what people consider "interesting."
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Man, Sessions is such a spineless lapdog. The guy has been Trump's punching bag all summer, and yet he continues to defend him like the obedient minion that he is.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday strongly defended President Trump’s response to the violence in Charlottesville, seeking to counter widespread criticism that the president did not go far enough in denouncing white supremacists and other hate groups.
“His initial statement on this roundly and unequivocally condemned hatred and violence and bigotry,” Sessions said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” as part of his appearances on morning shows. “He called on our people to work together in community and love and affection and not in hatred and violence.”
And then this quote when asked about Trump constantly attacking him on Twitter:
Quote:
“I believe in the president’s agenda,” Sessions said. “I believe in his leadership. He has a right to scold his cabinet members if he’s not happy with them. And he has a right to have people in his cabinet that he believes will serve his agenda … I look forward to meeting with him today and talking about the issues that face us right now. And I appreciate the opportunity to serve in his administration.”
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Man, Sessions is such a spineless lapdog. The guy has been Trump's punching bag all summer, and yet he continues to defend him like the obedient minion that he is.
A reasonable person might say that, scared or not, someone who plows a car into dozens of people in a street should be held accountable for their actions. But in the wake of recent protest movements including Black Lives Matter, authoritarian state legislators across the country have been working to legitimize the act of crashing a car into people on the street if those people happen to be protesting.
North Dakota started the trend in January, with a bill in the aftermath of protests at Standing Rock that aimed to shield drivers who killed protesters with their cars from criminal and civil liability if they “exercised reasonable care.” The bill narrowly failed in the North Dakota House. In February, Tennessee state representative Matthew Hill proposed a bill that would have also banned lawsuits against drivers who hit peaceful protesters; Hill’s bill died in committee. The Florida Senate’s iteration of the bill, introduced in February, meanwhile, simultaneously created a misdemeanor for someone who “obstructs or interferes with the regular flow of vehicular traffic” and barred lawsuits against drivers who “unintentionally” hit protesters.The burden of proof would have been on the protester who was hit by the car; that bill died in committee. Rhode Island had a similar bill introduced in March; a week later, it was held for “further study.”
Rather, these bills are part of an attempt to quell and control civil rights movements. Republican legislators are attempting to ease restrictions on drivers murdering demonstrators. At the same time, they’re also trying to criminalize peaceful protest.
President Donald Trump on Monday denounced the white supremacist groups whose rally in Virginia on Saturday turned deadly, criticizing “racist violence” in remarks that were much more direct in their condemnation than his initial, widely-panned response.
“Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans,” Trump said in televised remarks Monday afternoon from the White House. “Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America.”
That the president waited until Monday to specifically condemn the hate groups that marched over the weekend had raised eyebrows and recalled multiple episodes from his 2016 campaign in which the president was forced to distance himself from symbolism and language tied to white supremacist and anti-Semitic groups.
