America Has Fallen?

found online by Raymond

 
From Dave Dubya at Freedom Rants:

America’s “original sin” of slavery has taken us down. The rot at the core, from our nation’s birth to four score and seven years later, infects us today. Obama brought the racists out of the woodwork. The Republican Party embraced them. The word “disavow” is meaningless in light of their words, their “Southern strategy”, and their actions in minority voter suppression.

Quaint concepts like democracy, fair representation, and equality were betrayed by the founders when they allowed the slave states to impose the Electoral College on our republic.

Now the cry is uttered, “America has fallen”.

This isn’t shocking news folks.

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Trump (And The Republicans) Are Wrong On Obamacare

found online by Raymond

 
From Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger:

Throughout his campaign, Donald Trump promised his supporters that he would make repealing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) a priority once elected. And his GOP cohorts in Congress are already preparing bills to do just that. It is doubtful they could pull off a complete repeal of Obamacare, because the Democrats have enough votes in the Senate to sustain a filibuster. But it is possible that the Republicans could use budget reconciliation to defund the health care program, and that would effectively kill it.

But if they do that, they will not be fulfilling the wishes of a substantial majority of Americans.

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A Political Fantasy

found online by Raymond

 
From Infidel753:

It’s long been clear that Trump has very little idea of what being President actually involves. He likely didn’t expect to win — his complaints about election-rigging sounded like face-saving before an anticipated defeat. Since the election, and particularly after his early meetings with Obama, he’s been realizing what he’s gotten himself into. And he’s sometimes seemed rather daunted by it, something especially striking in a man who usually projects such boundless self-confidence.

It’s possible that, deep down, he wishes there were a way out. He’s already talking about living part of the time in New York instead of the White House, treating the Presidency as a part-time job and leaving as much of the real work as possible to others. He’ll soon learn, if he hasn’t already, that that won’t work. Most of the President’s power is non-transferable, and therefore, so is most of the responsibility.

But he still has an escape available, in the unlikely event that he has the imagination to use it

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Pro-Democracy Republicans Can Counter Trump

found online by Raymond

 
From Jonathan Bernstein:

Donald Trump’s accusations claiming that millions of people “voted illegally” in the election were quickly and definitively shown to be false. So why didn’t the truth settle the issue? The answer demonstrates how Trump’s habit of publicizing conspiracy theories could be a danger to the health of U.S. democracy during his presidency.

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Three Weeks In

found online by Raymond

 
From John Scalzi:

Once again presented in Q&A format, as it will contain actual questions that people have asked me. Let’s get to it:

Ugh. I can’t even anymore.

And yet again we start with a comment, not a question. Also, sorry, you have to even, just like the rest of us, and get this: He’s not even president yet. We still have two months of transition to go.

Did you see he’s tweeting again?

I did, in fact.

Why the hell don’t they pry his phone from his hands?

Who is “they”? And why would they? He won the presidency. They don’t need to worry about him losing votes anymore.

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How to Lie About a
Science Paper

found online by Raymond

 
From PZ Myers at Pharyngula:

Now just take a moment and think about this. Here’s a piece of credible, robust science. How would an ignorant wackaloon interpret the story? Just close your eyes and let your imagination run riot for a while. Maybe you’ll come up with a wacky enough story that will make you rich. Or maybe you’ll come up with what you think is a crazy idea, but someone has already beaten you to it and published it.

After you’ve thought about a minute, you can go on and read the story of Gregg Braden. If you’ve got a loonier interpretation than he does, maybe you too can make good money on the New Age circuit!

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Discarding Guilt and American Christianity to Follow Jesus

found online by Raymond

 
From John Pavlovitz:

Guilt is a powerful drug. Once it has its hooks in you, once it enters your bloodstream, it can impossible to get yourself free.

For twenty years I’ve been a pastor in the local church, and I know how insidious and pervasive guilt-addiction is in American Christianity. I’ve seen the way the Church has gladly been the dirty dealer. There is a seductive power that comes when you can wield shame over another human being, especially when you can do it as a surrogate of God—when eternity and damnation hang in the balance. It can be crippling.

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Memories of 2004

found online by Raymond

 
From driftglass:

Back in 2004, we on side of the angels were staggered to discover that 62M Americans would choose to put their higher cognitive functions in cold storage and instead take council of their fear and spite and invincible ignorance by handing the country back to a manifestly and criminally incompetent administration led by an idiot who had gotten creamed in every presidential debate.

(Fun fact! Within five years, most of the meatheads and weasels who were crowing from the rooftops in 2004, touting George Bush as the greatest leader since Charlemagne and bragging about making the Libtards cry were busy doing exactly what we predicted they would do: burning their Bush/Cheney lawn signs, calling themselves “Independents” and swearing on the lives of their children that they had never even heard of George W. Bush.)

So as you might imagine, the question of “What to do next?” came up a lot.

Here was one loud and clear reply to that question from the late Steve Gilliard.

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Trumpocalypse Approacheth

found online by Raymond

 
From (O)CT(O)PUS at The Swash Zone:

TO THE EXECUTIVES OF CNN, FOX, AND NBC:
A presidential candidate defames minorities, mocks disabled persons, and demeans women. In a normal world, such misconduct would sink any candidate. I blame your news network for normalizing the abnormal.

Bombastic and malicious rhetoric earned the candidate an estimated $5.2 billion in free airtime (MediaQuant). Complicit in opportunism, your network reaped a massive ratings windfall. Suckered by a conman, you sacrificed objectivity and integrity on the alter of craven self-interest.

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Kanye West’s Issues Worsened by Fandom

found online by Raymond

 
From Darcwonn at The Intersection of Madness and Reality:

… the performance was only 30 or so minutes. He walked off the stage without a care in the world. In the end, the concert goers had to (momentarily) eat the fact that they paid hundreds of dollars for a half assed show.

Now? He is in an institution seeking the help he should have had many moons ago.

And this is part of the reason why I wish people would have gotten this man some help a long time ago.

Seriously.

Why were people buying his damn records and merchandise and not making sure he was mentally on point?

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