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johnnyrobish · 2 years

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Alex Jones Dumping Trump for Ron DeSantis in 2024 Presidential Race

InfoWars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has decided to suspend his long-time support for former president Donald Trump, and is now backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the 2024 presidential race, whom Jones claims is “way better than Trump.” Jones explained that “I pigheadedly supported [Trump] a few years ago, even though I disagreed with his Warp Speed” program to develop the COVID vaccine, but he stuck with him because he felt anything would be better than Biden or Hillary. Jones says he’s now supporting Ron DeSantis because "I can look in his eyes,” adding that “DeSantis is sincere!”

OK, sure - but did you know that if you look directly into Donald Trump’s eyes for long enough, you can actually see the original recipe for Colonel Sanders’ secret sauce - so there’s that! Even so, it’s no real surprise when a guy like Alex Jones, who makes his living by causing others to suffer pain and misery, could “look into Ron DeSantis’ eyes,” and really like what he sees!

Whether it’s his attacks on immigrants, his disdain for the LGBTQ+ community, his portrayal of teachers as “groomers,” the banning of school books, pushing Christian Nationalism into schools, his war on Disney for being “woke,” his refusal to follow the CDC’s COVID guidelines, or categorizing of healthcare professionals as the “enemy.” I mean, if you’re a Sandy Hook denier, what’s not to like? Hell, DeSantis is the type of guy who’s lying when he tells you “Good morning.”

And so we have our lovable QAnon conspiracy theorist and grifter now trying to latch onto another “bottom feeder.” Historically, it’s as if “Goebbels had decided to dump Hitler, for Heinrich Himmler.” Put another way, “a parasite is abandoning its decaying host, for a healthier body.” Or, another rat jumps off a sinking ship. Of course, we all know rats and ships have always had a rather tumultuous relationship, but I digress.

All that aside, I do get Jones’ logic here. DeSantis has all the same corrupt motives and blind ambition Trump has - without the “crazy.” That means, in the long run, DeSantis is far more dangerous. Why? Because Trump is simply a self-centered, narcissistic grifter, but DeSantis is sincere - “sincerely fascist.” A really slick Ivy League lawyer, with a Gestapo mentality. Isn’t this a little like saying “I’m no longer backing the devil; I’m now backing Satan?” Well, excuse me, but what the hell’s the difference?

The fact is, the more astute MAGAs are beginning to realize that with all his legal problems, it’ll be difficult for Trump to win in 2024. But, with DeSantis, they can still get their “fill of fascism,” without the crazy. How will Donald Trump take this obvious betrayal of a former ally?” Well, there is no reason to suspect he’d respond any differently than he normally responds in these situations, with all the grace and dignity you’d expect - of an angry, rabid, bipolar Komodo Dragon on crack.

If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve just read, please consider joining me at:

#InfoWars #Alex Jones #Ron DeSantis #Donald Trump #Politics #Current Events #american politics #comedy #humor #satire #jokes #news #progressives

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mentalisttraceur-long · 3 years

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Someone replied to my last post on my main blog:

Aka to stop actions taken by panic, which ppl (rightfully) flipped their shit at trump for saying that on the leaked journo interview

So, there is a difference between

someone deliberately withholding or misrepresenting information to influence people into making decisions they wouldn't make if they had the full information (which seems to be a key part of what people were mad at Trump for in the case you're talking about) and

the emergent behavior of nuance decay which always happens in networks of human activity.

I assert that the mask flip was overwhelmingly in the latter category. There wasn't a cabal of scientists or censors who withheld information or outright lied about the efficacy of masks. Just because the nuanced version didn't reach someone doesn't mean it was deliberately withheld or intercepted. And if you pay attention to human social dynamics it should be overwhelmingly obvious that nuance decay is the default unless actively resisted as a collective effort, so to me it seems obvious that this is the most justified explanation.

You can maybe accuse, like, American Society/Culture for misinforming or lying, but you can't rightly level that allegation against most individual people anywhere along the causal chain. The truth was always out there, always readily available if people actively sought to make their opinion sources the kind of people who could give them that nuanced truth. The truth was just not winning the memetic natural selection competition.

I mean, shit, if anyone asked me for my opinion on masks back before there was any public messaging about it, I would've said exactly this (I know this because I remember having this conversation when I first started seeing people wearing masks): that the people knee-jerk getting masks to protect themselves grossly misunderstand how masks work, because masks primarily protect others from you if you're sick. I was briefly against it before it was cool because my opposition to wrong cognition flagged it.

And I'm just a guy who

once learned that the Japanese have a norm of wearing masks when they get sick to protect others, and

has some above-average mental feel/intuitions/simulations for physical phenomena.

I don't remember if I consciously predicted we would have mask shortages but if I know I would have thought of the possibility if I had occasion to think about it, because I already knew that's how modern supply chains work - they run on thin margins and "just in time" availability if they can.

And if you had asked me for recommendations given the constraint of "there's not enough masks" I'd say exactly this to most mask buyers: "stop buying masks, they don't really protect you, and other people need them more". Which isn't a lie nor intended to prevent panic behavior, it's the most honest formulation available given constraints like

most people literally mentally tune out if you use too many words or nuancing asides;

many people incorrectly process any non-zero probability as way more probability than I would like to convey here, so much so that I would be more dishonest if I said "they only negligently protect you" instead of "they don't really protect you";

I don't have sufficiently precise knowledge about the person I am talking to and how my words will be (mis)interpreted.

But I would've given the nuances to almost anyone if they seemed at all interested/receptive/compatible with that.

And... if you had asked me for recommendations assuming no mask shortages, but like everyone is milling about doing almost normal life stuff, but 'rona is still going around, I would've been like "well that's a weirdly specific set of constraints but I guess I can see that - yeah actually now that I think about it it's totally plausible people would keep interacting and moving about in large numbers... *deep sigh* okay so yeah if people are regularly going out and there's a realistic chance that they're shedding 'rona and there's plenty of masks they should totally wear masks".

To be clear I would've told you all this for any hypothetical infectious agent spread by human respiration/coughing/sneezing, even before this strain of 'rona was a known thing. Well, that last one, "everyone should wear masks if there's a realistic chance they're shedding it", I would only say if it had severely bad consequences to get infected by it.

That's not to say I would have reached for "let's have everyone wear masks" unprompted - the above is assuming you specifically asked me for mask-related recommendations.

The point of all that is: I know I can't have been the only one, or even particularly rare in this regard. I think there were plenty of people who were also ready and willing to say these full takes to anyone who seemed willing and able to listen. And I think those takes were put out there, they just didn't spread. Less due to deliberate manipulation and more because brevity and punchy reaction-invoking one-liners and controversy will always outcompete detail and nuance and stuff everyone can agree on (unless we all actively work to maintain a culture with very different memetic selective pressures - unlike modern social media and published news/op-ed media).

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blogpinoy339 · 3 years

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Avenged Sevenfold Hail To The King Zip

Avenged Sevenfold Full Song List

Avenged Sevenfold Albums

The Best of 2005–2013Compilation album by ReleasedDecember 2, 2016Recorded2004–2013GenreLength1:35:39LabelWarner Bros.Avenged Sevenfold chronology

The Stage (2016)The Best of 2005–2013 (2016)Live at the GRAMMY Museum (2017)

Get the best deals on avenged sevenfold hoodie when you shop the largest online selection at eBay.com. Free shipping on many items Browse your favorite brands. Avenged Sevenfold Full Zip Hoodie! Hail to the King! AVENGED SEVENFOLD METAL ROCK. Avenged Sevenfold - Hail To The King by Gandi Tama. Publication date 2013-11-29 Usage Public Domain Mark 1.0 Topics Avenged sevenfold Language Indonesian. The Best of 2005–2013 is a greatest hits album by American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, released by the band's former label, Warner Music Group, on December 2, 2016.The album covers songs from all of the band's albums released under Warner Bros., from City of Evil to Hail to the King, including covers and one-off singles released in between. Audio normalizer for windows.

The Best of 2005–2013 is a greatest hits album by American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, released by the band's former label, Warner Music Group, on December 2, 2016. The album covers songs from all of the band's albums released under Warner Bros., from City of Evil to Hail to the King, including covers and one-off singles released in between.(1) The band members themselves have not endorsed or supported this album due to it being released without their consent, knowledge or involvement. The album has since been removed from digital streaming services.

Background(edit)

In early 2016, Avenged Sevenfold left Warner Bros. for Capitol Records, resulting in a legal battle between the record label and the band.(2) In response to the allegedly-leaked release date of the band's seventh album, falsely leaked and titled Voltaic Oceans with a December 9 release date by Chris Jericho over Instagram, Warner Bros. announced The Best of 2005–2013, to be released one week prior to the leaked release date, on December 2. However, the band officially surprise-released the album as The Stage on October 28, to which the label quickly changed the release date to capitalize on traffic, but reverted to its December 2 release.

Avenged Sevenfold Full Song List

Singer M. Shadows has openly expressed disdain about the release of the greatest hits album without the band's knowledge, stating 'You’re gonna try to put this record out right before our new record just to undercut us and try to confuse the casual fan, like, 'Is this the new record? Or is that the new record?' Or parents buying stuff for Christmas. So it's just really childish.'(3)

Track listing(edit)

Disc oneNo.TitleAlbumLength1.'Bat Country'City of Evil, 20055:112.'Beast and the Harlot'City of Evil, 20055:433.'Seize the Day'City of Evil, 20055:344.'Critical Acclaim'Avenged Sevenfold, 20075:155.'Almost Easy'Avenged Sevenfold, 20073:546.'Afterlife'Avenged Sevenfold, 20075:527.'Dear God'Avenged Sevenfold, 20076:338.'A Little Piece of Heaven'Avenged Sevenfold, 20078:00

Disc twoNo.TitleAlbumLength1.'Nightmare'Nightmare, 20106:142.'Welcome to the Family'Nightmare, 20104:053.'So Far Away'Nightmare, 20105:264.'Hail to the King'Hail to the King, 20135:055.'Shepherd of Fire'Hail to the King, 20135:236.'Walk' (Pantera cover)High Voltage!: A Brief History of Rock, 20065:207.'Flash of the Blade' (Iron Maiden cover)Maiden Heaven: A Tribute to Iron Maiden, 20084:018.'Paranoid' (Black Sabbath cover)Covered, A Revolution in Sound, 20092:439.'Carry On'Black Reign (EP), 20184:1510.'Not Ready to Die'Black Reign (EP), 20187:05

Avenged Sevenfold Albums

Personnel(edit)

M. Shadows – lead vocals

Zacky Vengeance – rhythm guitar, backing vocals

Synyster Gates – lead guitar, backing vocals

Johnny Christ – bass, backing vocals

The Rev – drums, backing vocals (all tracks on disc one, tracks 6, 7 and 8 on disc two)

Mike Portnoy – drums (tracks 1, 2 and 3 on disc two)

Arin Ilejay – drums (tracks 4, 5, 9 & 10 on disc two)

External links(edit)

References(edit)

^'Avenged Sevenfold to Release 'The Best of 2005-2013''. Loudwire.

^'Avenged Sevenfold Wants Out of Warner Bros. Contract, Label Sues: Exclusive'.

^'A7X's M. Shadows Denounces Warner 'Greatest Hits' Album'. Loudwire.

Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Best_of_2005–2013&oldid=991057901'

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Song Released: 2013

Hail to the King Lyrics

'Hail To The King' Watch your tongue or have it cut from your head Save your life by keeping whispers unsaid Children roam the streets now orphans of war Bodies hanging in the streets to adore Royal faith will carve the path in..

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anonymous

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Mar 27th, 2018 3:37pmreport

I thought this was an actual Christian song about praising God.

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anonymous

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Oct 8th, 2016 10:05pmreport

A song about the people yearning to bring back and greet the coming Christian king to rule in the name of God's son Jesus Christ in the near future. In order to save our Western society that has been polluted and corrupted by the ungodly intellectual illuminated illuminaries, working with the old Bolshevik communist, Zionist Nazi slave driven mentality, that has been used on us with the throat cutters now, to create and accomplish their agenda for the one world order rule, who calls themselves the globalists. That are against hailing to the coming of the king, like they have always been, and now who likes for us to be against the Christian 'czar' Vladimir Putin that are demonizing him like he is the new Hitler to scapegoat for war, and don't want to be surfing themselves to 'Hail To The King' and serve God.

anonymous

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Aug 13th, 8:25amreport

The song is not about a tyrant king. Because even after the the rebellion of the people in that interpretation happens they still hail to the king. I think the song is about the second comming of the messiah. Every interpretation I have come across that says otherwise leaves out the part about being born again but it's to late to atone. There are so many other correlations to be made with him being referred to as the king, the one, standing in the sun or the light. The bad has references to god in there songs all the time this is no different.

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anonymous

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Jul 5th, 7:42amreport

This the sound tracks of the series game of thrones, cutting heads, cutting dick,cuting hairs fuck it all hail to tha king.

anonymous

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Mar 24th, 2020 3:27pmreport

You dont need my opinion, it's mine. just enjoy good music when and where you find it. Stop over anylising everything, get a job and stop worrying about life so much. It is going to end someday for all of us. Be right with GOD and enjoy whats here. opinionated huh?

anonymous

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Feb 20th, 2020 2:59pmreport

It's Trump's theme song for his MAGA rallies.

anonymous

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Jan 11th, 2020 1:34amreport

This is a Clear Depiction and Story of Julius Caesar and his Accomplishments. Kaiser which a title meaning ruler or King derived from Caesar. Hail to the King.

anonymous

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Jun 24th, 2019 6:39pmreport

It's a long shot but I think of this song as the rein of Hitler. 'Watch your tongue or have it cut from your head' Those who opposed Hitler were suppressed in violent ways. This song is clearly about a tyrant king who suppressed opposition. It's an idea, but it's probably not about him especially coming from a band like this.

anonymous

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Sep 14th, 2018 9:53pmreport

My interpretation is like others have said, about a tyrant king, but the ending shows something dark not sure if it's death or the devil! But the song is badass!

anonymous

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May 1st, 2018 5:40amreport

i'm not 200% but I think that the song is about a Tyrant king who is suppressing the common folk in a time of war

anonymous

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Apr 27th, 2018 4:13pmreport

Hail to the King is an occult song. It's referencing Saturn which rules death, decay, slowness, cold, sharpness, rings, winter, grief, solemnity and time. 'Watch your tongue or have it cut from your head' - Saturn is a very serious entity. He doesn't joke or love. As the angel Cassiel who governs Saturn once said, 'I leave love to others.' 'Save your life by keeping whispers unsaid' - Saturn is quiet which is manifest in winter silence for example. So this line is saying respect Saturn and rest in the stillness. 'hildren roam the streets, now orphans of war' - War brings about death. Losing one's parents to war brings mourning and grief. All Saturnian characteristics. 'Bodies hanging in the streets to adore' - Don't fear death, come to terms with it by understanding it's place in life. 'Royal flames will carve a path in chaos' This carving a path could be a reference to the shape of Saturn's knife, the scythe. 'Bringing daylight to the night' This line references bringing attention and action to the night which Saturn rules. 'Death is riding into town with armor,' Pretty clear 'They've come to take all your rights' You can't have rights if you're dead. 'Hail to the king, hail to the one Kneel to the crown, stand in the sun Hail to the king' Saturn is king because he rules time and death. Therefor, let's honor him as king. Also, historically Saturn has always been worshipped and there is even confusion between the Sun and Saturn hence 'Stand in the sun' line. Some believe Saturn was once a sun which undergone a change with cataclysmic consequences on earth. Others believe Saturn always was the planet that the 'sun' referred to. 'Blood is spilt while holding keys to the throne Born again, but it's too late to atone No mercy from the edge of the blade Dare escape and learn the price to be paid' This refers to the inevitability of death and Saturn's influence on our lives. Saturn strikes us with cold, sharp fear. The blade is another reference to the Scythe. Saturn doesn't do love so if you try to escape his grasp, you WILL lose and indeed learn the 'price to be paid' for your arrogance. The rest is pretty clear as well. Hope this helps. This is coming from a magician. Additionally, Saturn worship is seen in wedging RINGS, halos above the heads of saints (a reference to Saturn's rings) and countless other customs. It's deep. This is coming from a magician who evokes spirits. Honoring them in music is definitely an excellent way to reap the benefits of their office.

anonymous

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Feb 18th, 2018 2:37amreport

I think this song is about Satan and The Illuminati. https://blogpinoy339.tumblr.com/post/653279790755921920/diskmaker-x-snow-leopard. When he says watch your mouth ill have it cut from your head I believe that Its the Illuminati saying that if he talks about what they do then they will kill them

anonymous

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Jun 26th, 2017 6:28pmreport

A tyrant king who rules over his subjects with a iron fist who kills all who oppose him it is not about the bible or the second coming.

skullripper48

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Jun 17th, 2017 6:56pmreport

this is a song, in my opinion, that is a sarcastic pledge to the leaders of the world. 'These people torture us and are totally disconnected, not concerned with anything but the almighty dollar, but by all means, HAIL TO THE KING!'

anonymous

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Jan 9th, 2017 1:22pmreport

I think the king is death, and the lyrics show how in the end, death triumphs over everything

anonymous

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Jun 9th, 2016 6:52amreport

This song is about a tyrant king who abused his people and how they are angry with him everything from armour to the sky blackened with arrows describes a Dark ages king who has alust for power it is not Jesus'second coming or the anti Crist or Satan it is a dark ruler like Bloody Mary, king Richard III, or Henry VIII.

JJG103

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Aug 10th, 2015 8:55amreport

I think its about anything that can completely take over you and your every thought and therfore effect you and everybody and everything that surrounds or includes you and or something or someone or anything that is effected by you weather it be drugs or love,war,jesus violence or being the best at something. if you look at it like that you can put any circumstance weather it be good or bad in there case opiate addiction is the king

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herringbookshelf · 5 years

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The network has painted a grim picture of American cities as “almost Third World in their decay,” facing “a complete breakdown of the basic needs of civilization,” and filled with “drugged-out zombies chasing barefooted babies.” Fox has largely focused on the issue in cities on the West Coast -- mostly focusing on cities in liberal California, with a few segments on Denver; Seattle; and Portland and Eugene, OR. Every city Fox highlighted has at least one thing in common: Democratic leaders. And the problem Fox identified in each city is more or less the same -- the Democratic leaders and their “rich friends” prefer to push “social justice initiatives,” “socialist solutions,” and “liberal compassion” instead of properly addressing mental illness or engaging in punitive crackdowns on homelessness (Fox's preference). One Fox host even suggested the solution in Los Angeles is to “bulldoze the 50-block radius” and “institutionalize everybody.”

Despite the attention Fox has been paying to the issue, the network has been silent about the Trump administration’s lack of serious interest in tackling America’s homelessness crisis. President Donald Trump’s White House “has twice proposed eliminating the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, which coordinates efforts among more than a dozen federal agencies.” He has also proposed additional work requirements for federal housing aid and food stamps, and Trump’s tax reform bill “weakened the low-income tax credit, which is the primary tool we have to promote affordable housing.”

Instead, Fox hosts, anchors, and guests have repeatedly used degrading and dehumanizing terms to describe the homelessness problem and thus to attack Democratic politicians such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Some Fox figures have tried to suggest that the real victims of homelessness are not homeless people themselves, but the “normal people” who are confronted with the problem in public parks and libraries. Others have tried to contrast the issue with unrelated Democratic proposals to provide resources for undocumented immigrants, implying that it’s not fair to allocate resources to other marginalized people while homelessness still persists. One Fox guest discussing homelessness in Los Angeles claimed that Democrats “want to take that nationwide in 2020 with this presidential election,” and another said that LA’s homelessness is “a template of what the Democrats want to continue.”

It is clear that Fox plans to make this topic a part of its strategy ahead of 2020 by using the real and serious problem of homelessness to demonize Democrats and fearmonger about socialism. Below is a rundown of some of the network’s recent attacks:

#fox news channel #media matters #media #fox #trump #2019

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dwestfieldblog · 7 years

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A WITCHES BREW

How many impossible things to believe before a psychedelic breakfast today? Welcome to here there and everywhere, now then and every when. You are reading a man who rhymes quantum with random because it makes sense, good luck.

Way too much normal news last time, so I will limit such to 3 things I have seen only by accident this month...President Benny of Israel (seems like he has been in power a looong time now) has said (without any signs of irony) that Israel understands the desire of the Kurds for their own state. Altogether now...Hmmm. Allow your sentience to fill in the blanks...but not in the occupied territories.

Anyway and meanwhile...Well, America, it looks as if your destiny is manifesting right before your very eyes. You must feel like true master magicians. Loved Trump's rant at the United/Untied Nations Assembly about North Korea...they will be 'totally destroyed', like I mean, you know, to-tally...'The righteous many need to confront the wicked few'. They tried that recently in the USA by standing up to racists and fascists of the moronic ku klax klan and the neo wannabe hitlers...and Duck Fart just said there was...'good and bad on both sides'...So...so much for the wicked few running scared. This man is a gift for the Conspiracy for Counter Evolution. The ideal puppet ass clown.

Now is that any way to talk about the leader of the free world? Arf.

Duck Fart's famous low attention span...intelligence dies when it cannot focus for long (or even moderate) periods. Energy becomes hollowed out, running on empty and burning only on finite ego. Thought of the Golden One again when I read last week about Uncle Stalin regularly executing the chiefs of his secret police due to his paranoia...(which ended up killing him anyway...) That said, few can be sad at the ignominious removal of the foul Steve Bannon. May Breitbart bite the big one soon. Inashallah, Sieg Heil. Hail Mary. Ex president Shrub behaved like a goofy child of nine, Trump comes across like a petulant teen, sullenly trying to look serious among the adults and then regressing to phone slamming and storming off to his room to play with his phone. Impeach this reptile incubus now, ridicule him into utter obscurity. Then focus your intelligence on his up and coming son. The emperor's boy has seen the nearness of the crown of glory... Anyone in America who isn't paranoid these days must be crazy.

That which is objectively repressed will become subjectively repressed. (The unspeakable becomes unthinkable)...and deeper and deeper it goes... Everything not compulsory is going to be forbidden.

Speaking of which...

Better the devil you think you know? (If you cannot banish you really shouldn't summon...) *acebook has proudly stated recently that it now 'has the largest facial dataset to date'. It spends over 10million dollars per year on a host of creepy self empowerment, including attempts to stop biometric privacy legislation. That's right, to stop it. So every time you post a selfie of you or your friends, the facial points and characteristics are noted in geometrical computer images to be used at a later date...perhaps just to send you advertisements of exciting consumer goods...or for...well...(Orwell) just about anything your rational paranoia could dream up at 3 am. Nice idea to have a future president Zuckerberg who not only has all the power but who genuinely knows everything about you.

'...because any wizard bright enough to survive for five minutes was bright enough to realise that if there was any power in demonology, then it lay with demons. Using it for your own purposes would be like trying to beat mice to death with a rattlesnake.' T.Prachett. Just ask Cagliostro....

Mass surveys in the western world declare that the majority of water we drink via taps at home is packed with plastic particles. By the end of the century the 'average' person will be ingesting 780,000 bits of micro plastic a year...within this is included the 11,000 we already eat via seafood. 'Fresh' or otherwise...Damn, that's 4 news items. Time to ignore ALL news again and feel mental health rising...

'Verily a polluted stream is man, One must be an ocean to receive a polluted stream without becoming unclean'. Freddie nails it again...

Creation was caused by focused thought form radiations of a higher oscillating force upon binary possibility waves...Obviously, concentrating upon particulars (AKA, the devil is in the detail) raises your evolutionary energies...Time and space are only real to our sensory organs, they ain't really real. Our consciousness on every level controls events... imprints/ influences information fields around us to shape 'reality'. Which as a child knows, is subjective. Okay? YOU are a magician.

'To open the eternal worlds, to open the immortal eyes of man Inwards,

into the worlds of thought, into Eternity'. William Blake...who also wrote (as the ancients knew and thus created 'Satans' in order to posit an alternative perspective in democratic debate) '...without contraries is no progression'.

Ha. Just remembered that during my drug fuelled year at college I had an optional lesson period called 'Does God Exist?' I am childishly amused to admit I have NO idea what the 'conclusive' final lesson was or how we even got any type of grade.

When did the intelligence rot start? Another generation might say the Fifties, some years after the last world war when the mass began to ease up on their tensions just a little, when consumer society was held up as a cheerful life affirming way forward. Could be after the hippy dream was crushed, crashed and almost burned out in 69...Many believe it to be when mankind began building cities. That sounds about right.

Blurred coherence in the pointless. There seems to have been decades of mass infiltration of universities in the Western world...Governments have seen that they are indeed hotbeds (to coin a cliché) of various think-for -yourself types to question right wing authority. Even though the majority of students just end up conforming to conservative consumerist capitalism within five years of leaving university. (No I am NOT a socialist).

Perhaps this has led to manipulations and insertions of topics, themes, curricula, which as my last blog said, direct the attention elsewhere into meaningless debates to filibuster time. Idle, soul decaying distractions.

By what educative standard has it become acceptable to receive a doctorate by writing a thesis on 'The Prevalence of Alienation in Modern Soccer.' or 'Madonna, Beyonce and Miley Cyrus - 21st Century Amazonian Philosphers?' Uff. Mind you, I recently downloaded a PDF of 'The Middle Pillar - A Balance Between Mind and Magic' by Israel Regardie...which had been stamped with a Pennsylvania State Campus Library mark, so perhaps there are pockets of intelligent understanding in various universities...to balance a new white race of uneducated cowards. Hope is an eternal spring:-)

Those who hunger for the glory of an old empire, stop looking back, something wicked caught up with you and went past a long time ago. It awaits afore ye. And as for those who want a new empire based on a similar dominant ideology of allegiance to an invisible sky wizard or else painful death, God just told me that you should forget it. She says you have wasted your whole/hole lives on nothing, but she understands you needed a hobby.

Never once in my life have I felt the need to follow the mass. (Hurrah and hallelujah for me eh?) I felt deeply uneasy around primary colours as as child, the bright plastic magnetic letters on the fridge...(M is for Mummy.) The lesson in primary school when we were taught about English kings...on hearing about the 'divine right', I felt an internal frown of 'That's not right, that's wrong'. My disobedience to the casual arrogance of presumed authority began then. Possibly at seven years old. Four years later in a little notebook I scrawled 'Because an idea is 'traditional', does this make it RIGHT'? Too little self knowledge appears to be a dangerous thing. Know thyselves. Dave, you can't be Sirius:-)

'I slept with Faith and found her a corpse in the morning. I drank and danced all night with doubt and found her a virgin in the morning.' A.C.

Ban the word 'Is'. Globally adopt the idea proposed by Alfred Korzybski, that English Prime (E-Prime) should be used in all scientific works, in order to more accurately report facts of possible reality than to state it IS. IE...it seems to be. Using this in ALL conversations and writings might well move humanity onwards.

The Earth vibrates at 7 hertz per second...equivalent to the alpha brain wave/dream state. Add this to the oscillations of the brain and we would seem to be hypnotised in a magnetic force field. No wonder we appear to be sleepwalking through this virtual reality TV of life. We are.

'All that we are is the result of all that we have thought'. Buddha.

This year I fell in love with a possibility and the energy of that idea created a tiny universe of works. And still is. (Whoops, seems to be, arf) Needs to be a balance between discipline and chaos, but the balance needs to be imposed by free will. Turned on by fascination...Everything is (appears to be, in my perception) permissible...if you accept the consequence. Can you? Would you? Say Yes.

Our circle is cast...

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hellofastestnewsfan · 4 years

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Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.

OLIVER MUNDAY

Argument of the Day

The pandemic didn’t break America. It was already broken, George Packer argues, and the virus simply exploited its weaknesses.

“Every morning in the endless month of March, Americans woke up to find themselves citizens of a failed state,” he writes in this special preview from our June 2020 issue.

Americans must now ask themselves hard questions, including “Are we still capable of self-government?” Read his argument in full.

Additional reading: George previously warned that American institutions were in a state of decay, thanks to the Trump administration, in this magazine cover story.

ADAM MAIDA

Today’s outbreak reading guide

One question, answered: Why are America’s COVID-19 numbers flat?

One possible answer: “There is clearly some group of Americans who have the coronavirus but who don’t show up in official figures,” Alexis C. Madrigal and Robinson Meyer, who launched a project tracking state-by-state testing progress, write.

One statistic highlights the extent of the cases that the U.S. could be missing. Alexis and Rob evaluated a metric called the test-positivity rate, which estimates how many people who are tested for the virus are found to have it. In the U.S., that rate is 20 percent. That’s very high—and implies that doctors are testing only those patients with a very high likelihood of having the virus.

The positivity rate doesn’t tell us the proportion of coronavirus cases in the U.S., but it can give us a general sense of how drastic a particular outbreak is. In America’s case, it shows that the outbreak is far from under control.

What to read if … you just want practical advice:

The four possible timelines for life returning to normal

Here’s how many people have the coronavirus in your state

12 free things to watch, listen to, and learn in quarantine

30 unexpected movie masterpieces to watch

Tonight’s Atlantic-approved quarantine activity:

Help us decide the subject of next week’s #AtlanticMovieClub. These four ’90s actors are beloved, but not always taken seriously. Our film critic David Sims will revisit the work of one of these idiosyncratic performers, and explore their place in American cinema. Whom should he choose?

Jennifer Lopez

Keanu Reeves

Winona Ryder

Will Smith

Vote on Twitter or by replying to this email with your choice.

View all of our stories related to the coronavirus outbreak here.

We’re looking to talk with individuals who are applying for unemployment insurance due to the pandemic. To share your experience, please write to us with your name, location, and relevant job details.

BIANCA BAGNARELLI

Dear Therapist

Every Monday, Lori Gottlieb answers questions from readers about their problems, big and small. This week she advises a reader whose sister is “not handling the coronavirus outbreak well”:

She has bad anxiety, and because of grad school, she developed a panic disorder that involves frequent panic attacks. She expects me to console and calm her, and I have tried, but it’s exhausting. … Can I tell her to limit how much she puts on me? Or should I accept that in order to help her through her mental-illness journey, this is what is required of me?

Read the rest, and Lori’s response. Write to her anytime at [email protected].

This email was written by Caroline Mimbs Nyce, with help from Isabel Fattal, and edited by Shan Wang. Sign yourself up for The Daily here

from The Atlantic https://ift.tt/3bpUMXX

#Blogger

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gettoop · 6 years

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Is America on the Verge of a Constitutional Crisis?

As the Trump presidency approaches a troubling tipping point, it’s time to find the right term for what’s happening to democracy.

Here is something that, even individually, is surprising: The leader of the United States requested the terminating of the previous FBI representative chief, a vocation government employee, in the wake of tormenting him both openly and secretly—and it worked.

The American open still don't know in any detail what Andrew McCabe, who was rejected late Friday night, should have done. Be that as it may, natives can see precisely what Donald Trump did to McCabe. Furthermore, the president's activities are consuming the freedom that a sound sacred vote based system needs in its law authorization and insight mechanical assembly.

McCabe's terminating is a piece of an example. It takes after the rundown evacuation of the past FBI chief and comes in the midst of Trump's rehashed dangers to flame the lawyer general, the delegate lawyer, and the extraordinary guidance who is examining him and his partners. McCabe's ouster unfurled against a riotous political setting that incorporates Trump's rehashed calls for examinations of his political adversaries, requests of dedication from senior law-implementation authorities, and revelations that the activity of those authorities is to shield him from examination.

All of which has driven numerous eyewitnesses to ponder: Are we amidst a protected emergency? What's more, assuming this is the case, would we even know?

A speedy hunt on Google Trends demonstrates that open enthusiasm for sacred emergencies has scaled up amazingly in the time since Trump's race, with spikes in enthusiasm showing up at especially laden minutes: the principal travel boycott, James Comey's terminating, and a few focuses at which Trump gave off an impression of being on the very edge of expelling Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Presently, with the terminating of McCabe, the ghost of protected emergency has returned.

The expression "protected emergency" gets tossed around a ton, yet it really has no settled significance. It's not a lawful term of workmanship, however legal counselors and law teachers—and additionally political researchers and writers—now and then utilize it just as it were. Saying that something is a sacred emergency is similar to stating that somebody is experiencing a "mental meltdown"— a term that does not delineate onto a particular clinical condition, but rather is reminiscent of a specific group of stars of emotional well-being crises. It's difficult to characterize an established emergency, however, you know one when you see it. Or then again isn't that right?

There have been different endeavors to characterize the term throughout the years. Writing in the wake of the denunciation of President Bill Clinton, and the turmoil of the 2000 race, the political researcher Keith Whittington noticed the speed with which observers had hurried to proclaim the nation on the very edge of a protected emergency—despite the fact that, as he brought up, "the republic seems to have survived these occasions moderately unscathed."

Whittington rather proposed reasoning about protected emergencies as "conditions in which the sacred request itself is flopping." In his view, such an emergency could take two structures. There are "operational emergencies," in which sacred principles don't reveal to us how to determine a political debate; and there are "emergencies of loyalty," in which the guidelines do instruct us yet aren't being taken after. The last is most likely nearest to the regular comprehension of protected emergency—something along the lines of President Andrew Jackson's celebrated (if fanciful) response to the Supreme Court, "[Justice] John Marshall has settled on his choice, now let him uphold it." Or, to point to a case proposed as of late by Whittington himself, such an emergency would come about if congressional Republicans neglected to consider Trump responsible for terminating Mueller.

The established researchers Sanford Levinson and Jack Balkin pretty much concur with Whittington's typology, however, include a third class of emergency: circumstances in which the Constitution neglects to oblige political debate inside the domain of regularity. In these cases, each gathering included contends that they are acting naturally, while their adversary isn't. On the off chance that cases of the emergencies portrayed by Whittington are generally far and few between—in the event that they exist by any means—Levinson and Balkin see emergencies of translation as relatively normal. One striking case: the fight over severance that started the Civil War.

These three classifications help demonstrate what an established emergency could resemble, yet it's not so much clear how they apply to the current circumstance. Whittington, Levinson, and Balkin all concur that the thought of a protected emergency infers some intense scene—a reasonable tipping point that tests the legitimate and sacred request. However, how would we know this administration isn't only a case of the voters picking a frightful pioneer who at that point leads unpleasantly? When does a terrible president doing awful things turn into an issue of established greatness, not to mention an emergency of sacred size? In fact, it's difficult to see an emergency when the sun is as yet rising each day on plan, when no one seems, by all accounts, to be opposing court arranges or testing the expert of the nation's run of-law establishments, and when a frequently planned midterm race—in which the president's gathering is generally anticipated that would perform gravely—is booked for a couple of months from now. What precisely is the emergency here?

Another issue with considering America's present misfortunes an established emergency includes the topic of what comes straightaway. That is, except for a minute we are in some sort of sacred emergency. What of it? What precisely spills out of that conclusion? Ordinarily, sacred conclusions infer certain recommended results. At the point when a president is reprimanded, for instance, the Senate must hold a trial to decide if he or she ought to be expelled from office. When serving a moment term, a president isn't permitted to keep running for a third term. Be that as it may, on the off chance that one reason that we are experiencing a sacred emergency, what occurs straightaway? The name doesn't convey any undeniable ramifications, not to mention an activity thing. On the off chance that it has esteem, its esteem is unmistakable. It conveys social and enthusiastic weight yet very little else.

Still another issue with the term is that the length of the emergency isn't clear. Does a protected emergency happen over days, weeks, or more? Must it undermine in the quick term to explode things on the off chance that it doesn't blow over or get settled through some different procedure? (Think about the Cuban Missile Crisis, just in local established terms.) Or can a sacred emergency additionally occur in the moderate movement?

There's a superior term for what is occurring in America as of now: "sacred spoil."

Protected spoil is the thing that happens, the sacred researcher John Finn contends, when confidence in the key duties of the Constitution step by step disintegrate, notwithstanding when the lawful structures stay set up. Established spoil is the thing that happens when chiefs maintain the vacant content of the Constitution without constancy to its fundamental standards. It's likewise what happens when this happens and the general population either doesn't understand—or couldn't care less.

Balkin utilized a similar expression quickly after the terminating of James Comey to depict what he saw as "a debasement of sacred standards that may work over drawn-out stretches of time." Comey's terminating was startling, he contended, yet not a protected emergency all by itself. The genuine established change lay in the moderate debasement of open trust in government that had conveyed Americans to this point.

Spoil, in Finn's words, is "peaceful, guileful, and inconspicuous." It hollows out the framework without natives or authorities notwithstanding taking note. Also, as Balkin notes, however, "protected decay" in particular from "sacred emergency," the previous can prompt the last mentioned. Gradually decaying sections of flooring can all of a sudden offer path to the shrouded pit underneath. (Balkin utilizes a comparable allegory of a spoiled tree limb.)

There are unmistakably components of spoil in our present circumstance. The proof is all around. Continuous infringement, or endeavored infringement, of our popularity based standards and desires, have turned out to be normal. The unmistakable requests for the politicization of law implementation have heightened. A profoundly politicized media scatters presidential purposeful publicity. Congress endures everything. This is predictable with sacred spoil.

Be that as it may, "sacred spoil" likewise has its points of confinement as a method for depicting Trumpism. Spoil, all things considered, is a restricted road—a procedure that can be stemmed and moderated yet can't be turned around. Wood does not recover. Spoiled meat does not mend itself and turns out to be crisp once more.

However, in various ways, both Balkin and Finn envision protected spoil as conceivably reversible. Balkin's answer is, basically, that we should choose extraordinary and better pioneers later on—apparently before it's past the point where it is possible to supplant the sections of flooring. Finn takes an alternate view, presenting the defense that decay can be fought through the advancement of a connection with and stimulated citizenry, one that thinks about safeguarding and keeping up protected esteems.

Indeed, even in the midst of the established corruption of this minute, both of these reviving instruments are especially in prove. Every day, highlights of our equitable culture look more like antibodies fending off a disease than like the spoil before an inescapable crumple.

Columnists have been persistent and brutal and compelling in unmasking and announcing reality—and news organizations have grown more dedicated readership accordingly. A wide equitable coalition of subjects is assembling against Trumpism—most as of late in a Pennsylvania congressional locale accepted to be so emphatically Republican that Democrats let the occupant run unopposed in late races. Different establishments, including the very FBI that Trump is attacking, are hunkering down and doing their employment even with weight. This isn't the stuff of a spoiling popular government.

Trump can cry and he can fire senior FBI authorities, yet he has been independently ineffectual either in getting the department to examine his political adversaries (they have not yet "bolted her up") or in dropping the Russia examination, which proceeds to his evident unending dissatisfaction. On the off chance that this is established decay, it's moving a surge of open responsibility regarding basic majority rule standards—including the freedom of law authorization.

What we are seeing, at the end of the day, is somewhat more unique than spoil, an expression that accepts we know the result. It's more similar to protected contamination or damage. The injury may, in fact, prompt an emergency; it might wind up gangrenous. In any case, to portray the United States today as confronting an established emergency misses the excited pre-emergency movement of the antibodies battling the microorganisms, close by the antimicrobials the patient is taking.

We are certainly in a time of supported sacred contamination. The inquiry is whether we can all things considered bring that disease under control before we confront an intense emergency.

#IFTTT #Blogger

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go-redgirl · 6 years

Text

Russia, Russia, Russia and Cognitive Dissonance Feb 2 2018 | Vanity Post

Trump did not collude with Russia to win the election. On the contrary, the evidence continually proves it was in fact the Democrats, the passive GOP establishment, the media, and the Deep State which have in fact been the ones exhibiting Russia-style, KGB copy-cat behavior.

It was Democrats like Hillary Clinton who gave 20% of our uranium away in exchange for $145 million of Russian oligarch donations to the Clinton Foundation. (And this is just one example. As nobody seems to want to talk about how much money she herself invested in Russian projects and their nascent tech sector.) So, Russia, and more specifically, dirty Russian money has come home to us, courtesy of them.

They are the ones in co-hoots doing Putin's dirty work for him: undermining the very institutions which are supposed to keep us from decaying into an authoritarian, corrupt crony-network system of power sold out to the interests and back accounts of select, embezzling elites - which is exactly how Putin's Russia operates.

It was the enemies of Trump turning America into a modern-day Russian kleptocracy. It's Trump who is draining the swamp. And with all the lies and artificial chaos swirling around designed to catch the people off guard, rig our elections, get people in line with the propaganda spewed by the media talking heads - we get a taste of what is considered "normal, daily" political life in places like Russia. And you can thank the American Left for that.

----------------------------------

To:

GoldenState_Rose

Just a side note:

Wasn't it Hitler or one of his henchmen who said that if you repeat a lie long enough the people will believe it?

Yeah, that was Hitler. He was a scumbag psychopathic murderer of millions of people.

The lamestreamers are counting on him for advice?

Russia, Russia, Russia.

Ho hum.

======================

To:

Slyfox

Goebbels: "

Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth

". The people that want to believe it will. Like the Nazis, Democrats have learned that hate is the easiest and most effective emotion to manipulate people with. So they tell lies to feed the "us vs. them" mob mentality of their minions. I've known plenty; they don't think or reason, they just feel, and all they feel is hate. Evidence doesn't matter to them, since they'll believe any lie which justifies that hate.

‎2‎/‎2‎/‎2018‎ ‎2‎:‎13‎:‎31‎ ‎PM

by Telepathic Intruder

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nicholemhearn · 6 years

Text

Sorry, but the Republican Party is not in crisis

The nomination of Donald Trump occasioned many premature obituaries of the Republican Party and the conservative movement. His election led to more predictions of imminent realignment around a new populist agenda.

But the first year of Trump’s presidency in Congress has brought Republican orthodoxy: major tax cuts and another failed push to repeal Obamacare. Trump also appointed a highly conservative cabinet and his administration is dutifully pursuing across-the-board deregulation. He has appointed strongly conservative judges and they are shifting the courts rightward. Anti-Trump Republicans, while remaining justifiably concerned with the decay of democratic norms, are now noticing that Trump has pursued traditional conservative policy.

As to public opinion, Republicans are now facing a larger than normal thermostatic backlash in response to the most conservative administration in memory as well as Trump’s personal unpopularity. These same factors are making Democrats more energized. Republicans’ special election performance reflects this public shift, as do their dimming 2018 electoral prospects.

Trump’s first year thus accelerated the normal partisan pendulum and the nation’s polarizing trends without fundamentally transforming or undermining the Republican Party. Republicans pursued the same fiscal and regulatory policies, the same social issue agenda, and roughly the same international agenda that they would have pursued with another Republican president. This represents a rightward move because they have historically paired conservative policy with at least a few liberal initiatives, such as in education and healthcare under George W. Bush.

Republicans in 2017 also displayed the same internal ideological conflicts that have long plagued the party. But like followers of the Religious Right and the Tea Party before them, Trump aficionados have melded into the broader Republican Right. In primary elections, Republicans are returning to the 2010 and 2012 pattern of right-wing challengers that can undermine general election prospects (largely avoided in 2014 and 2016). But in Congress, Paul Ryan has been better than John Boehner at keeping his caucus together and Senate Republicans have successfully united around rules to work around the filibuster.

The party is facing its traditional challenges, not a new existential crisis. Before the election, I predicted (with my co-author David Hopkins) that a Trump victory would not change the party. It would leave most positions “in the hands of orthodox conservative politicians” with the party facing its traditional predicament: “how to reconcile ambitious campaign promises with the realities of governing without alienating conservative ideologues.” Six months into his presidency, we noted that Trump was still pursuing orthodox conservatism, despite constant claims that a pivot toward Democratic positions was coming.

What will 2018 bring? Trump may depart further from Republicans on international trade or double-down on Republican militarism with North Korea. But Bush also imposed protectionist tariffs (on steel) and pursued an unpopular war. The necessity of negotiating with Democrats on spending (and a reduced Senate majority) will reduce flexibility in Congress. Election-year considerations will pressure Republicans to avoid rash policy change and postpone unpopular actions.

Could a misjudgment by President Trump (say, on North Korea) be so calamitous that it shifts the course of American history and forever damages the Republican Party? Anything is possible, especially with this president. The Civil War and the Great Depression did change our party system, but events on that scale are obviously few and far between. And Democrats and Republicans are now more entrenched in the public mind, so it would take a mighty shock indeed to dislodge GOP voters from their current loyalties. A big historic turning point could materialize unexpectedly, but experts organized to track democratic backsliding under Trump are finding little evidence so far.

Republicans do face big electoral challenges this year, but they have a long way to fall. The party has tight majorities in the House and Senate, but has not held significantly larger majorities since the 1920s. Its control of state governments is also near an all-time high. The party maintains structural and geographic advantages across elections, and in 2018 Republicans will be fighting on especially fertile soil. Republican losses among white professionals and racial minorities are also long-term trends, as is their tendency to be offset by relative gains among the white working class.

Trump could face more scandal this year, especially from Robert Mueller’s investigation. But Republicans’ rallying behavior is again hardly unprecedented. They also rallied around Nixon, with similar arguments resonating: the Democrats were trying to overturn the election and the media was out to get him. Nixon also maintained Republican public support in the early days of Watergate; it faded as Republican leaders abandoned him (though some, including Reagan, continued to defend him). The party recovered: after losing the 1974 and 1976 elections, Republicans re-emerged as a more ideologically conservative party and started their steady drift rightward in 1978. The 1980s brought triumph. Watergate may have even helped conservatives because remaining party moderates lost and distrust in government rose.

Republicans can recover from in-party challenges to their president or an unpopular presidency. After losing both a president and vice president to scandal under Nixon, incumbent Gerald Ford barely survived a challenge from Ronald Reagan—who won the presidency only four years later. In 1992, President George H. W. Bush faced both a primary challenge from Pat Buchanan and an independent challenge from Ross Perot (which also drew Republicans). But Republicans regrouped to take back control of Congress two years later and elect Bush’s son six years after that. George W. Bush’s popularity also dove while in office, culminating in an unpopular war, a botched hurricane response, and the largest recession in decades. Yet Republicans again had to wait out only one presidency before returning to power. A few dissenting senators under Trump (especially complaints from those entering retirement) is hardly a sign of an imminent breakup or division that cannot be survived.

Parties can suffer in their levels of public support due to presidential performance, but the long-term effects tend to be modest. Republican identification did decline from both Watergate and the 2008 recession, but some identifiers later returned to the fold. Trump’s low popularity has lost Republicans about five percentage points of party identifiers this year, but many still lean toward the party and are likely to return to it.

If and when Democrats regain control of government, they are (like the Republicans) prone to overshooting on policy. When their lawmaking expands the role of government on partisan votes, it also leads to electoral backlash—recreating a cycle of close competition. Our increasingly nationalized elections closely pair the results of state and congressional elections based on feelings toward the party in the presidency. As Democrats lost under a Democratic president, Republicans will lose under Trump—and the pattern will likely be replayed again under the next Democratic president.

It is appropriate to criticize Trump for the huge disconnect between his campaign promises and his policies in government, but that does not mean we lack more modest Republican historical precedents. Republicans traditionally run more symbolic campaigns than Democrats, who tend to provide more policy details. They have increasingly relied on ideological media and amplifying resentment in recent elections, a trend Trump accelerated. But from the John Birch Society to Southerners to the Religious Right to the Tea Party, Republicans have long incorporated right-wing populist constituencies into their voting base with only modest changes in their ideological and policy trajectory.

Trump’s move toward a nativist issue focus is not the clear departure often assumed. It matches long-term trends in Republican voting in Congress on race and immigration. Bush’s immigration positions, not Trump’s, were out-of-step with the party’s shifting stances. The move brings Republicans toward alignment with global left-right party divisions on national identity, without changing its status as the world’s most consistently conservative party on other dimensions. In both public opinion and policy, the Republican move responds to a sharp leftward move by Democrats on immigration.

Trump also drew on a long history of Republican strategy in stoking fear of crime, immigration, and racial change in response to cultural liberalization, taking slogans directly from Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. The scorched-earth patriotism and culture-war mentality of the 2016 campaign followed the 2004 campaign’s reigniting of Vietnam and gay rights conflicts and the 2008 controversies over Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers. The 2012 election, fought mostly on economic issues, turned out to be the exception.

Despite the current liberalizing trends in public opinion (responding to conservative policy change and an unloved Republican president), Republicans maintain a longstanding basis of public support. Americans are more conservative in self-identification and ideological predispositions, despite their more liberal positions on specific policy issues. This has long included not only opposition to big government in the abstract, but also concerns over any acceleration of social and cultural change. Americans favor the Democratic Party to stand up for disadvantaged groups and propose specific policies to solve new social problems, but favor the Republican Party to speak up for shared traditional American values and to ensure that government stays within its proper role in society. Both Americans’ strong party loyalties and their internally divided opinions make a full-scale Republican collapse unlikely.

Even though the public images of the presidential candidates were quite different in 2016 (compared to 2012), the images of the political parties as a whole were remarkably stable. The public’s positive and negative images of Trump were candidate-specific. The public still likes Republicans’ conservatism, view of government, and values; the public still dislikes their support for the rich over the disadvantaged. Nothing they are doing in government is likely to change those views.

Republicans disgusted by Trump naturally want to see him as a complete aberration. Democrats hungry for payback likewise convince themselves that a final liberal victory might be coming. But history suggests that is wishful thinking. As we relearn during each new administration, the backlash may take different forms—but it flows both ways.

The post Sorry, but the Republican Party is not in crisis appeared first on Niskanen Center.

from nicholemhearn digest https://niskanencenter.org/blog/sorry-republican-party-not-crisis/

#nicholemhearn digest

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o-flynn-o · 6 years

Photo

Everyone's losing it right now over net-neutrality. Someone even posted something insinuating I'm sitting here like the "This is fine" meme. Yes, it is fine. The Obama-era administration had us on a road to socialism. Where in spite of what you may think, there would have been an even more indefinite separation of classes and power. You would have been screwed. They would have owned you and your future. Once it shifts to socialism, you have no say. You have no choice. You have no power.

"...But free healthcare and college..." Yeah it'll seem free. While they're handing you your free "carrot" they'll be slipping shackles on your hands while you're distracted. Once you realize they're there it'll be too late.

All these "heartless acts" everyone keeps freaking out about... There are things that the previous administration wrote into, slid into, laws and bills. Masked as other things. The current administration, President Trump and this team of people are undoing all that stuff you didn't even know was there. Saving all of us from things we didn't know were there.

You may ask,"Well how do you know?" That's classified and it's what I do...I eat mac & cheese and I know things.

So this current system, that has been found to be faulty, is being reworked and replaced by one that will change our course to something MUCH better.

On another subject, but an addition to: Notes on raising poverty levels- (If you can program people to buy your products. You can program people to help the nation thrive.)

"I'm gonna get you out. If I have to carry you on my back. If you can get your mind out. You can get out." Bishop TD Jakes

I share that sentiment. It is truth. About thinking "in the ghetto". A poverty mentality is a "condition", a circumstance.

Welfare was created to help you survive through a tough time...it is not a way of life. People have adopted it and it has become a culture in itself.

Someone posted something about making food companies donate all their unsold food to the needy. Maybe restaurants too... Yes! Why not?? It's not an excuse to continue to live that way, but people are starving in the streets of the most wealthy countries in the world. The ultimate thought here is leading to as much rehabilitation as possible. Healing their mind.

One thought I had after reading that was,"There could be a child out there with a cure for cancer, hiv, aids, or some other equally brilliant purpose or invention; Who's going hungry. Surrounded by people who don't know any better. Who have succumb to living in a "survival mode" mentality."

...stoking the fire for a thirst for knowledge outside of what they know...outside of the normal they live everyday...

Teach people the right way to perceive or think about things.

Education reform would also be an extraordinary worth while investment. For the United States to fall into the percentile it has, with government funded public education, is shameful. It's also no secret that many young people, even myself coming from another generation, have not been taught basic living knowledge. Maybe make "Life Classes" a prerequisite class to graduate high school? Or implement it into some primary and middle school so basic knowledge and needs are met ahead of time.

-One of the most powerful things I've read in the last year,"Be who you needed when you were younger."-

I needed someone to teach me, beyond survival...to prosper. Granted each individual is responsible for the level that they achieve. I think our focus has shifted to the wrong things with the right intentions; or to the wrong things for selfishness and greed. Allowing people to or keeping them in a drugged state, distracting them with "technology" (which should be further than what it is...), distracting them with entertainment, is not prospering anyone. Especially in the long run. Right now we're withering. Don't let things decay because you're trying to hold on to power. Teaching these people and arming them for the future is not wrong. It's not a threat. If they're taught the right way.

Grow the nation. Strengthen the people.

"Give and it shall be given to you..." Your future will not suffer for giving good things.

-B-

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bluewatsons · 7 years

Text

John Thomason, Hillbilly Ethnography, The New Inquiry (November 29, 2016)

A well-meaning, best-selling memoir promotes dangerous myths about racial determinism and racial innocence that form the bedrock of Trumpism

J.D. Vance has had a very good year. With the bewildering rise of Donald Trump–buoyed, supposedly, by a groundswell of support among the white working class–the author of the best-selling memoir Hillbilly Elegy has become a de facto spokesperson for the president-elect’s constituency on the cable news circuit. “I may be white, but I do not identify with the WASPs of the northeast,” Vance writes in the book’s opening pages. “Instead, I identify with the millions of working-class white Americans of Scots-Irish descent who have no college degree.” A Yale Law School graduate who now works for Peter Thiel’s investment firm in San Francisco, Vance has made a second career explaining his Appalachian Kentucky and Rust Belt Ohio roots to the liberal audiences of MSNBC and the New York Times. (The Times even included Hillbilly Elegy in its list of “Six Books to Help Understand Trump’s Win.”)

Some on the left have taken liberal readers to task for their earnest gullibility: Vance is a conservative–albeit of the #NeverTrump variety–and he prescribes conservative values to rectify the Rust Belt’s “culture in crisis.” He takes great pains to insist that the decline of industry is not responsible for “a culture that increasingly encourages social decay instead of counteracting it,” that reacts “to bad circumstances in the worst way possible”: with hedonism, materialism, poor work ethic, lack of thrift, disregard for family obligations, and a victim mentality. Those sound like the pathologies conservatives have long attributed to black Americans, as Sarah Jones points out in the New Republic, because that’s exactly what they are. (“I have known many welfare queens,” Vance writes, “some were my neighbors, and all were white.”) Like all bootstraps narratives, Vance’s focus on self-improvement distracts from the structural causes of the suffering that plagues his hometown.

If this were the extent of Hillbilly Elegy’s ideological baggage, it would be harmless enough–Vance’s policy prescriptions are vague, and his bootstraps mantra is unlikely to convince any liberals. But embedded within Vance’s many first-person plural appeals to the white working class is a set of racial assumptions that readers would do well to interrogate. Hillbilly Elegy insists, almost simultaneously, that it is and is not about race. Vance writes that he hopes his readers will not see class through “a racial prism,” but quickly goes on to say: “There is undoubtedly an ethnic component lurking in the background of my story.” Hillbillies, Vance claims, are a race of their own.

After lamenting that all whites fall under a single racial banner in the American imagination, Vance works to distinguish “hillbillies” from WASPs and other whites. “Hillbillies” are an ethnically homogenous and geographically identifiable subgroup: whites of Scots-Irish descent who live in the Greater Appalachia region of the United States. As Bob Hutton notes in Jacobin, Vance’s ethnographic description echoes historians Forrest McDonald and Grady McWhiney’s “Celtic Thesis,” which argued that white southerners were ethnically and culturally distinct thanks to their common descent from pastoral Celtic tribes in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. McDonald and McWhiney were also founding members of the League of the South, a white nationalist organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center currently lists as a hate group.

Vance’s view of Appalachian culture feels more opportunistic than sincerely white nationalistic. It allows him to portray Appalachian and Rust Belt poverty as an exceptional phenomenon, rather than a symptom of broader trends that could not be so easily ascribed to culture. As such, it conveniently justifies the existence of his book. This opportunism makes the book’s racial determinism all the more insidious: it makes it more palatable to audiences that might normally be on guard against explicit white nationalism.

For one thing, Vance cites racist-thinking much more directly than even his critics have indicated. The very first endnote references Razib Khan, a writer who the New York Times dropped as a regular science contributor after Gawker revealed his “history with racist, far-right online publications.” Charles Murray–author of The Bell Curve, and perhaps the most famous racial determinist in contemporary American public life–is cited approvingly. These citations are not accidental, nor the product of lazy research. Last month, Vance sat down with Murray for an hour-long discussion at the American Enterprise Institute, a discussion in which the two emphasized the “strong ethnic distinctions” that characterize the white working class.

It’s clear that Murray not only relishes Vance’s emphasis on the ethnography of the Scots-Irish–Murray’s reference to his own “pretty clean Scots-Irish blood” is a bit chilling–but also has good use for the cultural crisis Vance diagnoses in his supposed ethnic group: when Murray asks him to comment on the decline of steady marriages and male breadwinning, Vance obliges in good faith. The accident of Vance’s success is that he published his memoir about “a culture in crisis” at precisely the moment that Trump’s election has forged a national consensus that such a crisis exists. And, to paraphrase Milton Friedman, the ideas that get picked up in a time of crisis are the ones that are lying around.

But Charles Murray’s ideas about racial determinism are not the only ones still lying around. Another racial ideology is “lurking” in the background of Hillbilly Elegy, one so central to contemporary conservative thought that it doesn’t register as ideology at all. Call it racial innocence: Even as Vance wags his finger at the vices of his fellow hillbillies, he cannot help but insist on the innocence of their whiteness.

For decades, the explicit invocation of white supremacy has been anathema to American public life. If this was a welcome development, it was foolish to assume it would be a permanent one. Racial determinism was the Trump campaign’s center of gravity, from the candidate’s rise to prominence as a champion of the “birther” movement to his insistence that a Mexican-American judge would necessarily be biased against him. People like Murray have been peddling racial determinism for a long time, but Trump’s victory has made it a central tenet of the American right, rather than a fringe view it entertains with the occasional National Review article or think tank fellowship.

With its “ethnic component lurking in the background,” and with well-meaning liberals tacitly accepting its dubious racial claims, Hillbilly Elegy helps to normalize this thinking across the political spectrum. But while reactionary racial determinism spent decades in exile before its recent, triumphant return, an insistence on racial innocence never left the conservative mainstream. This ideology, too, is implicit in the book’s opening pages. Hillbilly Elegy asks us to accept that the Scots-Irish are fiercely loyal, quick to anger, and suspicious of outsiders. It’s just their culture. If the white working class is reacting badly to deindustrialization, as Vance argues, it is because of these innate characteristics.

This strain of mythology was expressed in former Democratic Senator Jim Webb’s Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America (2004), a book that Vance and Murray both cite approvingly. For Webb, these cultural traits are the very stuff of American greatness. In Vance’s update, those same traits are hastening decline. But, though Vance calls for introspection instead of anger, and though he explicitly insists that his people are responsible for their own lot in life, he is still (implicitly) endorsing a story much like Donald Trump’s: The Scots-Irish made America great until outside forces cast them aside. Something intrinsic to them–what they were–once held great social value, but no longer.

As the historian Matthew Lassiter has argued, racial innocence was a foundational ideology of the “silent majority” that elected Richard Nixon for two consecutive terms. The movement’s core of suburban whites accepted equality before the law (and many core civil rights); what they vehemently objected to was the idea that their whiteness had benefitted them and that antiracist policies might be required to counteract this. (Housing and school desegregation were the flashpoints for this constituency.)

For the Trump coalition, the dynamic is different: instead of the innocence of its privilege, it’s the innocence of its dispossession that supporters rally behind. The danger lies not only in their denial of the continued, empirically demonstrable benefits incurred by whiteness, but also in the implicit (and sometimes explicit) claim that their whiteness is being leveraged against them. This is how the racial innocence that has long characterized conservative thinking in the post-Civil Rights era evolves into a more dangerous phenomenon: racial vengeance.

Of course, vengeance couldn’t be further from the mind of J.D. Vance. He seems nothing but thankful for his own ascent to the coastal cosmopolitan class, and Hillbilly Elegy is peppered with positive statements about pluralism and multiculturalism. But with its casual, almost imperceptible acceptance of conservative racial premises, the memoir draws the battle lines in favor of the white supremacists now storming the halls of American power. The problem is that Vance tells the exact same story that they tell, just with a different ending: To make America great again, they should pick themselves up–not push others down. Needless to say, this sermonizing is not going to convince them. If we’re going to halt their advance, we need to tell a different story.

#literature #critique #appalachia #america #j. d. vance #conservatism #race #inequality #rural america #hillbillies #culture #subcultures #poverty #racialism

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Jan 22, 2017: What To Do This Week

What to Do This Week of Jan 22, 2017

Action Checklist for Americans of Conscience

There are 21 months to mid-term elections. Let’s get cracking!

The intention of this weekly document is to make clear suggestions for action backed by well-considered research. If an issue doesn’t affect you, consider whether you would support this issue on behalf of other Americans and act accordingly. Although these topics have been well researched and are intended to be helpful, they are still subject to human error. Please do your own research!

If you'd like get this checklist weekly, sign up here:

http://jenniferhofmann.com/home/weekly-action-checklist-democrats-independents-republicans-conscience/

I believe I can make a difference.

Gear up for the next 652 days to the midterm elections.

Print out this worksheet for the steps below:

Put your representative’s name, local phone, DC phone, address, and email on the worksheet or your phone. Get them here.

Put your two senators’ names, local phones, DC phones, addresses, and email addresses there too. Get them here.

Get a pile of postcards (or sheets of 110lb cardstock to make your own) and 34-cent postcard stamps. Snail mail is the new response to full voice mailboxes.

Decide on your “Top Three” most-important issues. Focusing on just a few issues will prevent overwhelm. Consider choosing at least one issue that doesn’t affect you personally.

Have a conversation with yourself and/or beloved others about how you want to give time and/or treasure to your Top Three.

Set aside time each week to be active. 20-60 minutes is a good range. Add this to your calendar. You might consider doing your actions with others for support and community.

I believe in a free, quality education for America’s youth.

Oppose the appointment of Betsy DeVos to Secretary of Education ASAP. Even if you’ve already called and/or left a message, call again. If you get voicemail, leave a message. (Instructions on the next page.)

Call: Senate HELP Committee Chair, Lamar Alexander (R-TN) 202-224-4944

Call: HELP Committee Ranking Member, Patty Murray (D-WA) 202-224-2621

Call: Your two senators. (lookup)

Script: Hi! I am calling to oppose Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education. (Really, that’s all you need to say.)

I believe in equal rights for all Americans.

Oppose Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions

Call: Senate Judiciary Committee Chair, Chuck Grassley (R-IA) 202-224-3744

Call: SJJC Ranking Member, Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) 202-224-3841

Call: Your two senators local office (look up)

Script: Hi! I am calling to oppose Jeff Sessions for Attorney General.

Read the ACLU’s 7-point action plan

https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/here-aclus-7-point-plan-action-take-trump-administration

Choose what action you will take based on what you read.

I believe in integrity and reject corruption.

Sign the first two petitions on the new White House website. (Incidentally, I’m happy to see the petition page--which Obama started--still on the site.)

Release tax returns: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/immediately-release-donald-trumps-full-tax-returns-all-information-needed-verify-emoluments-clause-compliance

Divest: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/divest-or-put-blind-trust-all-presidents-business-and-financial-assets

I believe in creating a healthy environment for future generations.

Since the new potus* and crew don’t believe the climate crisis is real, we must ask our state governors to uphold Obama’s climate goals.

Click this link for an easy call with complete script. (Weekly Resistance rocks!)

I believe in my Constitutional right to free speech.

Call your governor if you live in Michigan, Washington (state), Minnesota, North Dakota, or Iowa. These five states are proposing legislation that criminalizes peaceful protest. (source)

Also call your state representative if you live in the states above.

Share: If you know anyone in the states above, ask them to call.

Script: I am a constituent calling to oppose new legislation that threatens my constitutional right to peacefully protest.

I believe in the value of social welfare.

Protest the potus’* wide-ranging, unamerican budget cuts. Full instructions on The 65

I believe in affordable, accessible healthcare for all Americans.

Read this thorough, timely action plan to prevent dismantling the ACA.

https://www.risewhenwefall.org/healthcare

Choose what action you will take based on what you read.

I believe in the power of my voice.

Get coffee: Ask a few friends to meet up and discuss how you’ll proceed over the next four years. This website offers fantastic step-by-step instructions on how to take meaningful action.

Send an email to friends.

Use this guide: https://www.indivisibleguide.com/group-toolkit