A new US Republican thread 2016

[jacobolus]

Coward party: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... ealth-care

“Of the 52 Republicans in the Senate, 34 have not held a single town hall this year.”

[jacobolus]

pro-systematically-racist-treatment-of-schoolchildren party: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/28/opin ... trump.html

[jacobolus]

At least one sometimes-honest republican congressman:

Steve Womack (R-Ark.) “We [Republicans] just simply don’t know how to govern.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/pow ... -a-budget/

[seebart]

Good aritcle on Trumps background:

How Gotham Gave Us Trump -
Ever wonder how a lifelong urbanite can resent cities as much as Donald Trump does? First you have to understand ’70s and ’80s New York.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/ ... 80s-215316

New lower low, Trump posting some childish wrestling video of himself with the CNN logo imposed on the other guy:

[jacobolus]

Republican tax cuts in South Carolina: failure.
Republican tax cuts in Tennessee: failure.
Republican tax cuts in Kansas: abject failure.
(We might add a dozen other states, but these are the ones in the news right now.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/02/us/p ... .html?_r=0

Will Republican voters in other states and the Republican Congress learn anything from failure after failure of their broken ideology? Oh wait, Republicans are incapable of learning.

[jacobolus]

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shot ... -obamacare

Here’s everything you need to know about Republican voters:

One patient at the Mountain Valleys clinic in Bieber, Kay Roope, 64, knew she had Medi-Cal, and she liked it.

"It did me good," she says.

Now she has a subsidized commercial plan through Covered California with modest premiums and copays, and she likes that, too.

"It's OK, 'cause I'm at the doctor's at least once a month," she says.

But when asked what she thinks of Obamacare overall, she says she doesn't like it.

"Because of Obama himself," she says with a laugh. "I rest my case."

That is, they are people who desperately need healthcare services, but are happy to trash anything with “Obama” in the name after decades of propaganda feeding off their racism. They keep voting for legislators who will happily throw them under the bus (leaving them uninsured, bankrupted, and many of them dead) for the sake of some juicy tax cuts for billionaires.

If you go down the line it’s the same on every issue: education, job training, infrastructure maintenance, public health, consumer protection, environmental protection, corruption, fraud, ... In every case, the people don’t like the policy the GOP is selling, but love the bigoted rhetoric wrapping it, and keep voting to get stabbed in the back for the sake of helping fabulously wealthy people become slightly more fabulously wealthy.

For the GOP, staying elected has an easy recipe: scapegoat the scary brown people, the working women, the gays, the tricky foreigners, and the snooty intellectuals, and then proceed to be as corrupt as you want and your constituents will love you even if you screw them.

What a country.

[fohat]

I was about 50 years old before I really, truly, understood that for a large segment of the population, in politics and religion, emotion is the driving force, and that logic and information are generally irrelevant.

When that realization finally sank in, it was liberating in that the world finally started to become understandable to me, but it was devastating in the damage that the perspective did to my respect for the human race as a whole.

[vivalarevolución]

Hey man, all it takes is to make people feel good or get them riled up, and you've got them hooked. That applies to most everything.

[jacobolus]

Nice article about Republicans’ ongoing efforts to deny millions of people their right to vote if they happen to live in Democrat-voting areas:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/201 ... e-country/

A party that wishes it could return to the glory days of lynching and cross burnings, or at least poll taxes, but will take just canceling poor brown people’s voter registrations as a consolation prize.

[jacobolus]

[jacobolus]

drip, drip, ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/08/us/p ... afort.html

How many secret meetings with various Putin cronies did Kushner forgot to include on his security forms? I think we’re up to 3 or 4 by now?

[seebart]

A "fun" note on the side, when her dad isn't "up to it":

It Gets Worse: Ivanka Trump Takes Her Father’s Seat in Meeting of World Leaders

https://theintercept.com/2017/07/08/get ... d-leaders/

[jacobolus]

58% of Republican-leaning voters now say that colleges and universities have a negative effect on the country: http://www.people-press.org/2017/07/10/ ... titutions/

Ignorant and proud party.

[jacobolus]

Arkansas GOP passes a bill requiring women to get the approval of their rapists before seeking abortions.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/in- ... 9bdb0e17bb

[jacobolus]

GOP: party of tax-evasion and money laundering: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/won ... -hit-list/

[jacobolus]

[chuckdee]

Have fun and go crazy. #KellysCards is a thing on twitter!

My favorite:

[seebart]

Have fun and go crazy. #KellysCards is a thing on twitter!

My favorite:

Good to see some people can still enjoy a bit of fun in all this madness.

[chuckdee]

Have fun and go crazy. #KellysCards is a thing on twitter!

My favorite:

Good to see some people can still enjoy a bit of fun in all this madness.

You have to laugh, or else you become one of the frothers on either side. When the facts are distorted and ignored to such an extent (on both sides) it's hard to stay above the fray and just try to get them to get stuff done.

I really wish they would admit defeat on the health care plan, leave it as is, and move on.

[seebart]

Have fun and go crazy. #KellysCards is a thing on twitter!

My favorite:

Good to see some people can still enjoy a bit of fun in all this madness.

You have to laugh, or else you become one of the frothers on either side. When the facts are distorted and ignored to such an extent (on both sides) it's hard to stay above the fray and just try to get them to get stuff done.

Right, be smart and stay "out of it" as much as possible since this whole war with the media is highly unproductive. Even Kelly looks almost swamped these days eventhough "communication" is exactly what she was hired for. Madness.

[jacobolus]

[jacobolus]

Apparently Trump’s budget numbers don’t add up ... by $3,400,000,000,000 over 10 years. http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/14/politics/ ... index.html

But what’s a few trillion dollars between friends?

[fohat]

When the facts are distorted and ignored to such an extent (on both sides)

This kind of thing makes me want to vomit.

Can you site an example of an important fact being distorted by the "Anti-Trump Press" or whatever you call it?

[chuckdee]

When the facts are distorted and ignored to such an extent (on both sides)

This kind of thing makes me want to vomit.

Can you site an example of an important fact being distorted by the "Anti-Trump Press" or whatever you call it?

You start with this, and think I'm going to engage with you? I've learned that lesson. It should be pretty obvious that I'm not for Trump. Neither do I think the press is "Anti-Trump", so you can stand down from your "attack dog" stance. And
And don't think I didn't see how you laid the field with your statement to cast a negative aspersion on anything I said not being "important enough". I'm sure you could find the examples yourself, so I don't need to parrot them for you.

[fohat]

Let me re-phrase my request in the most neutral tone possible:

I would be sincerely interested to see or hear an example of a significant "distorted fact" published or broadcast by the "side" that is on the opposite end of the spectrum from the Trump administration's position.

[seebart]

Let me re-phrase my request in the most neutral tone possible:

I would be sincerely interested to see or hear an example of a significant "distorted fact" published or broadcast by the "side" that is on the opposite end of the spectrum from the Trump administration's position.

The problem with "distorted facts" and "fake news" is at this point that it is becoming increasingly difficult to pinpoint exactly what is 100% factual correct information and what isn't. I have access to media here where I'm pretty sure it's factually solid but even then I can never be 100% sure which is sad really but that is the world we live in now. And how does one really "prove" something is a significantly "distorted fact" when we know the "other side" will argue otherwise. chuckdee and fohat both of you can "engage" me, but I'll tell you right now I don't have any answers so just relax both of you. On the other hand since this thread does not show in the spy anymore few people will see these posts.

[fohat]

it is becoming increasingly difficult to pinpoint exactly what is 100% factual correct information and what isn't.

Of course, but carrying this to a conclusion such as an American citizen saying "since Hillary Clinton was not an attractive candidate, then I abstained from voting in the 2016 election because it did not matter anyway" has devastating consequences.

[seebart]

it is becoming increasingly difficult to pinpoint exactly what is 100% factual correct information and what isn't.

Of course, but carrying this to a conclusion such as an American citizen saying "since Hillary Clinton was not an attractive candidate, then I abstained from voting in the 2016 election because it did not matter anyway" has devastating consequences.

I would agree 100% with that. Those people are demolishing fundamental democratic principles and often just "giving in" to their anger and hate. I truly believe that many who voted for Trump did so out of pure hate and spite without even an ounce of reason. When I now see some of the townhall meetings some those same voters have understood who and what they voted for and their anger is now rage mixed with disbelief.

[chuckdee]

I'm not sure of the way back, in all honesty. And that's sad. I read an article on NPR recently about the health care debacle. They talked to a Trump supporter.

NPR: How is your health care now?
Trumpet: Oh, a lot better. I can actually go to the doctor regularly, and afford my medicine.
NPR: You're not afraid of what will come out of this?
Trumpet: Not really. It has to be better than what we have now, no matter what.
NPR: But you just said your health care was better. Why do you think it will be better? I'm confused.
Trumpet: Because it won't have Obama in it!

How can you argue with that? There's no logic in it. It's a knee jerk reaction!!

My wife's friend came down, and they are dyed in the wool conservatives. They were saying how the First Lady's focus on bullying was a great thing, and that they should roll back and repeal everything to do with the obesity initiatives started by Michelle Obama. After holding my tongue for a long time, I asked, "Is there anything that Obama did that you can stand behind, or want to stand."

She said, "Nothing at all" with no hesitation or thought. I was boggled by that.

And it's not going away. Their son parroted exactly what they were saying, and was excited by the inauguration, saying "Now we have Obama out and and are going to take over and everything will be better." It was decidedly akin to a cult and brainwashing. And he's a smart kid!

I taught my son to think for himself and have reasons behind what he thinks and says. His vote was not mine, and his choice was not mine. But when asked about it, it was obvious that he researched it, and came to the conclusion that his conscience dictated- not my words. And I respected that. I don't get this wanting to brainwash kids to have the same views as you.

At least you've seen some have remorse, and are seeing the negative consequences of their vote. We can work with that. It's the ones that have blinders on, and don't realize even when it is put in front of them that scare me.

[seebart]

Very much my sentiments chuckdee. Possibly it's easier for me to view the whole situation differently from over here in Europe, not sure about that. I am sure there are those Trump voters that do actually believe "Now we have Obama out and and are going to take over and everything will be better." and those that pretend that they believe that out of hate which is a strong emotion eventhough they are beginning to see this Administration is not "working" the way it should for totally other reasons. I am also sure people on all sides will get very tired of "this mess" (anohter Trump phrase) the longer it goes on. We're only six months into this and already it's becoming difficult to hold up this charade, much of Trumps campain talk isn't even mentioned any more for obvious reasons. He picked CNN as his main enemy amongst others, that's a mighty enemy if you ask me. They will never run out of money and or airtime. I read CNN hired over one hundred people just to work on this topic, I don't think they are about to drop the issue and play his way.