Author: Raymond

 
From Tommy Christopher:

One of the few forms of accountability that Trump’s underlings face these days is the occasional light public shaming — but even that seems to be too much for them.

Ordinary citizens have been expressing themselves face-to-face with Trump officials with increasing frequency, sparking media hand-wringing over the “civility” of such expressions. In a new report by The Washington Post, several current and former Trump officials complained about the alleged “viciousness” of those encounters.

But in almost every case, the incidents described in the story are examples of purely legitimate political dissent. Most of them were relatively mild — and said a lot more about the Trump officials than they did about the citizens opposing them.

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From CATO’s Julian Sanchez:

On Tuesday, Donald Trump took to Twitter to draw attention to an important story about a large scale National Security Agency surveillance program—though largely for the wrong reasons.

Wow! The NSA has deleted 685 million phone calls and text messages. Privacy violations? They blame technical irregularities. Such a disgrace. The Witch Hunt continues!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2018

There are two significant errors here and one important truth. The first error is that NSA is in the process of deleting “Call Detail Records”—or metadata—about phone calls and text messages, not the calls and messages themselves. The second error is that the records being purged were acquired pursuant to a counterterrorism authority: They have nothing to do with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election (or “The Witch Hunt,” as Trump is fond of characterizing it). The important truth is that the dramatic purge of hundreds of millions of records is indeed an attempt to remedy “technical irregularities” that led to privacy violations: the acquisition by NSA of large numbers of private telecommunications records it was not legally entitled to receive.

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From Frances Langum:

We’re being played by Donald Trump, folks.

At least CNN and MSNBC aren’t habitually interrupting their day for live coverage every time the so-called president holds a rally. But we still cover everything he says to the detriment of really important stories, says Ezra Klein:

If I worked in a White House where, on Friday, a corruption-plagued EPA chief resigned and a Fox News-exec ousted for covering up sexual assault was named deputy chief of staff, I'd be pretty thrilled if the media spent Monday mocking Stephen Miller for throwing away sushi.

— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) July 9, 2018

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In response to Burr Deming:

Senator Hatch may have arrived late.

LGBT youth deserve our unwavering love and support.

Perhaps, like many of us, he is still coming to terms with his past, a past that includes irrational rejection of the humanity of others.

We who once stood with him, unquestioningly accepting our bigotry, can now walk with him toward the light. Somewhere along that path we ought to join in silent apology toward our God and toward those of his children whom we have joined in hurting.

I agree that we should generally welcome those who change for the better rather than focus on their past. However, those who hate and use political power to spread that hatred bear additional responsibility. After building a career partly out of such behavior, it is not enough to say that one has changed his mind. He must work to undo the damage that he caused.

Furthermore, condemnation serves a useful purpose whether the condemners are perfect or not. Beyond simply making the condemners feel good, it sends a message to the condemned and to observers that some behavior, attitude, or thought is wrong. If people are on some sort of path to become “finished,” praise and condemnation, like reward and punishment, can assist in the journey, even if they can also be abused. We cannot rely on everyone softening with time or with exposure to the people they hate or with some revelation.

“We just stop hating some people for who they are. It doesn’t make us hypocrites. I am sure we hate others in their place.”

We replace one form of bigotry with another? That may be true of those who only change due to exposure to the people they hate, especially among friends or family. Such people have no guiding principle. But those of us who don’t see a reason to hate others who don’t cause harm are not similarly swept from one form of bigotry to another on the waves of passion. While religion is certainly not the sole source of such hatred in the world, it does help to abandon religions that preach hatred for (or as some might say, “compassionate opposition to”) the non-traditional, the abnormal, or whatever else makes people uncomfortable for no solid reason.

 
From Max’s Dad:

Some man, whether mentally ill, a MAGA guy, or a guy with a beef, walked into a newspaper office and shot and killed 5 people doing their jobs. Since he was white and a narcissistic asshole he was taken alive. These people who were murdered, these journalists, were regular folks with families and goals and lives. They had a passion for telling you the truth. They were NOT the “enemy of the people” as our Dear Leader loudly exclaimed at one of his Klan rallies in South Carolina two nights before. They did not deserve to be “curb stomped” as failed actress and NRA loudmouth Dana Loesch said. The cheering from asshole Trumpers happy about people dying at a small newspaper in Maryland was disgusting. The dripping with sarcasm thoughts and prayers bullshit from Trump and his leech Pence made me want to wretch. These two wanna be strongmen would allow this to happen daily if their deep inner selves were allowed to bubble over like a fascist volcano and take power as they fantasize.

Do I really believe that? Goddamned right I do.

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From The Moderate Voice:

It’s really hard for me to feel optimism and pride in my nation while we engage in policies that will make future readers of history books shake their heads. While a majority of Americans believe the president of the United States is a racist and bases his policies on his racism, a large contingent still support him.

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From Green Eagle:

Ha ha, just kidding. In the wake of discovering that he is building concentration camps for children, Gallup reports that Republican support for Trump has fallen from 90% to 87%. This is an openly, proudly Fascist party, people, and anyone who can’t see that at the present time is deeply defective, morally and intellectually.

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From PZ Myers:

I don’t give a rat’s ass for Alan Dershowitz, but this is so symptomatic of how bad the NYT has become. It’s not just that a cranky old man (hey, where’s MY feature?) gets a sympathetic article, but that phrase: Martha’s Vineyard is the “epicenter of progressive values”? Martha’s Vineyard, vacation spot of the rich? If there’s any clearer picture of the delusions of the NYT and the Democratic party, this idea that Martha’s Vineyard matters, I’d like to see it.

But then, the NYT and the Democratic party have been ongoing oblivious catastrophes for years. Now a former executive editor has a few words to say about that.

I’m feeling about the NYT now like I did when my son cheated on a test in 10th grade. I loved him to death, believed he was a thoroughly wonderful young man, but he needed a course correction. So I left my desk at The NYT, where I was DC [Bureau] Chief, met his school bus and read him the riot act. He needed a course correction.

So does the NYT… it’s making horrible mistakes left and right.

This sums up her litany of complaints:

More narcissism: It’s always about us. Yikes. Distance is part of journalism’s discipline.

It’s that narcissism that allows them to think they are doing good by including a line-up of deplorables on their opinion pages, and printing complete garbage with a straight face.

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From The Onion:

“Our initial data showed that Americans are impulsive and tend toward willful ignorance—findings that are consistent with past research,” said Professor Spencer Dixon, who led the study on U.S. culture and society. “But what we were surprised and, honestly, a little delighted to find is that Americans’ short attention spans, simplemindedness, and inability to articulate a coherent idea can actually make them pretty lovable.”

“It’s hard to describe,” Dixon continued. “It’s just all these little quirks they have. And after a month or two of observation, they kind of start to grow on you.”

After thousands of interviews with citizens from every socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic background, the UNM researchers discovered that despite the tendency of many Americans to do the loudest, dumbest thing possible at any given moment, the populace is “in the end, pretty hard not to like” and in many instances “sort of charming, frankly.”

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From Dave Dubya:

What we have in the United States is not a democracy. When a minority seizes power over a majority, it also not a representative republic, founded on the consent of the governed. It is a corruption of the Founders’ dream, and for most Americans, a failed state.

This is what we have now. Consent of the governed has been replaced by the rule of an increasingly unaccountable minority.

First let’s get this straight. The Right needs to know this: The majority is NOT on their side. Although they are not losing morally or socially, there is a reason moderates and Left are losing politically.

The reason is clear.

Moderates and the Left are losing politically only because democracy is losing.

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