Trump voter lost home, blames incoming Treasury secretary

I suspect we'll be seeing a lot more 'buyers remorse' stories as the term wears on: Oops

Sigh......

It's truly disturbing that we whenever Trump makes an appointment, we sigh in relief when "not insane" is among their qualifications.

Riddle me this

Q: When is a Nazi Klansman a 'controversial figure'?
A: When he's being described on CNN.

 Q: How do you know that a scandal is being manufactured out of thin air.
 A: When it 'raises questions'.

Compassion's Not In Fashion Anymore

'Spreading' Freedom

In the past, one of the most difficult quandaries the US faced was that it saw it's role as a Protector of Freedom elsewhere in the world. The problem with this is that it's difficult to impose 'self-determination' when the only tool at your disposal is weaponry. Self determination is pretty much the antithesis of the threat of force. As we enter the Trump era, however we con look forward to this problem disappearing. Seeing as his first act will be to ally ourselves with Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad, we can suddenly forget about the idea of self-determination in Syria. The Balkans? Sorry. Having decided that it's now okay to not only prop up dictators, but to not even have to pretend to care about their legitimacy, we can enter into a Brave New World of Peace and Prosperity, where the only meaningful conflicts are WITHIN nations rather than between them.

Left on a thread concerning our current predicament and it's Historical roots.

Clinton's 3rd way was a direct result of Reaganism. Reagan was direct response to the Great society. The Great Society was a direct response to Jim Crow. Jim Crow was a direct response to Emancipation. You CANNOT separate the present form the past in any meaningful way.

Left on a comment thread somewhere: re Trump

Here's the deal. His announced goal is to increase infrastructure and military spending while drastically cutting taxes. He claims he wants to balance the budget but he's relying on magical growth fairies to do that part for him. And with single party control of that House, the Senate and the Supreme court, our whole system of checks and balances is now inoperable. He has plenty of time (at least 2 years) to do lasting damage and that's precisely what we can expect. In other words, the people who are going to be most thoroughly screwed over by his Presidency are the people who voted for him.

Taboos and Trump

The entire project of warfare requires that we keep certain conversations taboo. We insist on honoring the fallen but it's the survivors who actually 'win' the battle. We insist that our soldiers are defending freedom when they are in fact deployed thousands of miles away and are fighting people who themselves are defending their own homes. The inherent immorality of engaging in indiscriminate killing renders honest conversation about warfare utterly taboo. Apparently Donald didn't get the memo. But of course he's enough of a sociopath to regard indiscriminate killing to be a feature, not a bug.

I don't know whather to be upset over the blatant racism that took place in McKinney TX or heartened by the fact that anybody who comes out publicly in support of the officer gets either immediately fired or is outed as felon. Teacher fired Oops

Merry Christmas

Beware the word "Thug"

"Thug." Watch it carefully. It's only use is to dehumanize people. We humans have inalienable rights and even criminals are protected by the due process clause. But if you're a thug? Not so much. "Thug" is just a spam-filter safe spelling of "ni&&er".

Somebody help me out......

What I find fascinating is that while we all worry about the rise of the surveillance state, it's first and most prominent victims are the police. I'm not sure what to make of that.

New Republic goes after Dawkins.

The capacity and propensity for destruction goes with being human. One does not have to be religious to acknowledge this dark fact.

It's astounding how many writers get this exactly backward. As animals, we simply are.. There are no value judgments to be applied beyond the fact that living seems better than dying. It's quite unremarkable that we are capable of evil. What is absolutely ASTOUNDING is that we are capable of thinking about it. Good and Evil is a strictly human preoccupation; it does not exist in nature without our very peculiar and rare brains. It's worth noting too that all creatures on earth are equally evolved. Therefore intelligent, moral creatures are a one in a billion long shot.

I take issue

I take issue The rise of intelligence and consciousness, far from being a natural result of evolution is incredibly rare. On earth it has only been achieved by one species out of millions (all of which are equally 'evolved') You may be right about what's next for us, but you can't accurately portray it as a natural progression. Our's is a quite unique road.

Re; Upcoming ISIS operations.

My #1 concern is that our enemies in Iraq and our friends in Syria happen to be the same people. Current estimates of ISIS fighting strength is only 30,000 or the number in attendance at a typical Hockey game. Do we really think that we can muster a force that will defeat them while that force is in fact fighting the Syrian regime side by side with their alleged enemies. This whole mess is a direct result of the American reflex that insists that no matter what, we have to DO SOMETHING. It doesn't help that 'Caliphate" is one of those magic words that causes neocon's ears to bleed whenever they hear it. Obama has to DO SOMETHING and by God, he's going to do it, at least until 11/4 is safely in the rear-view mirror.

Re: McCain vs Carney

The trouble is that this clip has now appeared on every news site there is. McCain isn't going away until people start ignoring him. When I asked the folks at Time why he was always on TeeVee, they insisted that it's because he always "makes news". Unfortunately as long as we consider crap like this "news" they will continue to be right.

Ask Time Magazine

#AskTime My Grandfather was Methodist Minister, a noted leftist, and dedicated his life to helping the less fortunate as Director of the Indianapolis Goodwill for 35 years. I attended Church as a youth and was taught in no uncertain terms that Jesus's mission was one of mercy and forgiveness. I then attended a summer camp run by Wheaton College and was presented with an entirely different and (to me) alien version of Christianity. 

My question is simply this: What happened to allow the word "Christian" to become a synonym for "Right Wing"? I know for a fact that there are literally millions of Liberal Christians but any close look at the media and the words they choose, makes it seem like such people are insignificant to the point of non-existence. 

What we do to help journalists write more carefully so they aren't lazily conflating two very different concepts?

Another way "Centrism" equals dishonesty.

It appears that every news outlet that covering the Lerner story is ignoring the fact that the subject of the conversation was "the whacko wing of the GOP". That does not mean 'Conservatives". That does not mean 'Some Republicans" The fact that they are pretending that it does means that the MSM INCLUDING Time is willing to lie in order to push a false narrative. Lois Lerner's e-mails acknowledged a simple fact that is also apparent to most mainstream Republicans. The fact that they are unwilling to admit it makes them liars as well.

Reminder

Of course Benghazi wouldn't be nearly the obsession it has become if Mitt Romney hadn't made a complete a$$ of himself the night it happened. Accusing the Commander in Chief of the Armed forces of siding with the enemy is NOT something you should be doing if you happen to be a loyal American. The real cover up is the fact that no one remembers that little slip because of all the chaff that's been deployed since.

I'm posting this here and now so that my bragging rights are preserved

Today the Senate eliminated the filibuster for judicial nominees. I am therefore compelled to make this prediction: The senate is NOT going to change hands in 2014 OR 2016. There is no question that the problems with the Federal exchange will be worked out WELL before springtime and the Party of NO will be relegated to hoping to cancel policies that are written and in place.