US Politics: Follow the Money!

[A Horse Named Stranger]

17 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

Over 70% of Republicans now believe Mueller's investigation is a witch hunt and is not legitimate. 

The only person who can actually restore some degree sanity in the political discourse is Rupert Murdoch (or whoever buys Fox News off him). The irony being it was his creation Fox news that distorted that political discourse to the point it made Trump possible (I leave it to you to decide whether he took Trump into account when he started this Talk Radio On Screen). As long as Republican voters get their own truth and facts feeded to them (including Muller probe being a witch hunt) and reinforced ad nauseam I don't think you will get House Republicans to move against Trump.

The WSJ is at least to some degree calling Trump out on his BS, but Fox News has to follow.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

42 minutes ago, S John said:

I'm pretty sure that ship has sailed.  There's too much noise.  All the scandals on top of the tweets and whatever other crazy shit Trump is doing.  There are now 'sides' even when dealing with simple objective facts.  It's like, fuck, I have to go to work and pay the bills.  I can't keep up with all of this.  And really, whats the point?  I've never had much desire to be politically active on my own time and I already know how I'm voting come November.  Fuck it.  

 

36 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

 

Yep. Trump's shit was already normalized as of, like, March 2017, and then later when he said both sides are bad when talking about actual nazis. The real normalcy came when droves of Republicans retired and then criticized Trump, because they knew that they could not both criticize Trump and get re-elected. 

Over 70% of Republicans now believe Mueller's investigation is a witch hunt and is not legitimate. 

That’s kind of the point though. People are shrugging their shoulders today at things that would have jarred them a year ago. And I’m of the belief that that’s what’s helping Trump’s numbers. People who don’t already hate him are numb to his flaws, but are willing to give him credit when he’s perceived to have done something positive. The only question I have at this point is this unique to Trump, or the new normal in American politics that will last long after Trump’s presidency?

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

9 minutes ago, Notone said:

The only person who can actually restore some degree sanity in the political discourse is Rupert Murdoch (or whoever buys Fox News off him). The irony being it was his creation Fox news that distorted that political discourse to the point it made Trump possible (I leave it to you to decide whether he took Trump into account when he started this Talk Radio On Screen). As long as Republican voters get their own truth and facts feeded to them (including Muller probe being a witch hunt) and reinforced ad nauseam I don't think you will get House Republicans to move against Trump.

The WSJ is at least to some degree calling Trump out on his BS, but Fox News has to follow.

Idk about that. I think Frankenstein’s monster has out grown the control of its master.

[Kalbear]

1 minute ago, Tywin et al. said:

 

That’s kind of the point though. People are shrugging their shoulders today at things that would have jarred them a year ago. And I’m of the belief that that’s what’s helping Trump’s numbers. People who don’t already hate him are numb to his flaws, but are willing to give him credit when he’s perceived to have done something positive. The only question I have at this point is this unique to Trump, or the new normal in American politics that will last long after Trump’s presidency?

As long as anyone has about a 40% base acceptability provided the economy is doing okay, chances are good this is the new normal in American politics. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

8 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Idk about that. I think Frankenstein’s monster has out grown the control of its master. 

He still gives Hannity and all the other ******** a stage to spread that Mueller Witch Hunt lie. If they were down to actually reporting facts it might dawn on enough of their viewers who they put in office. That bubble has to be destroyed. And I think that can only be done from the inside. That is of course in conflict with Murdoch's business model.

[Maithanet]

28 minutes ago, Notone said:

The only person who can actually restore some degree sanity in the political discourse is Rupert Murdoch (or whoever buys Fox News off him). The irony being it was his creation Fox news that distorted that political discourse to the point it made Trump possible (I leave it to you to decide whether he took Trump into account when he started this Talk Radio On Screen). As long as Republican voters get their own truth and facts feeded to them (including Muller probe being a witch hunt) and reinforced ad nauseam I don't think you will get House Republicans to move against Trump.

The WSJ is at least to some degree calling Trump out on his BS, but Fox News has to follow.

I think that Trump would toss aside Fox News is they cross him in any serious way.  There's always Brietbart and the like for people to get their Pro-Trump news. 

[Bonnot OG]

2 minutes ago, Notone said:

He still gives Hannity and all the other ******** a stage to spread that Mueller Witch Hunt lie. If they were down to actually reporting facts it might dawn on enough of their viewers who they put in office. That bubble has to be destroyed. And I think that can only be done from the inside. That is of course in conflict with Murdoch's business model.

Capitalism has to be destroyed in this country first for businesses and jouranlism to actually be held accountable from an ethical stand point. 

 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Just now, Maithanet said:

I think that Trump would toss aside Fox News is they cross him in any serious way.  There's always Brietbart and the like for people to get their Pro-Trump news. 

Yes, but Breitbart and infowars are imho too fringe to carry Trump alone. It's Fox News and this other media company, whose name I've forgotten with all the small local news stations.

[Larry of the Lawn]

34 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

I think that Trump would toss aside Fox News is they cross him in any serious way.  There's always Brietbart and the like for people to get their Pro-Trump news. 

I dunno.  I think Fox benefits him so much because it's already a TV staple.  I remember visiting my grandmother's assisted living facility and Fox News was on like every TV in the joint.

[A True Kaniggit]

33 minutes ago, Notone said:

Yes, but Breitbart and infowars are imho too fringe to carry Trump alone. It's Fox News and this other media company, whose name I've forgotten with all the small local news stations.

Sinclair. I think that's the one. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Just now, A True Kaniggit said:

Sinclair. I think that's the one. 

Yep, that's the one. Thank you.

[James Arryn]

So, apparently the Torture Master General has the votes. 

 

United States of America, forgiving itself for anything since 18something and something. 

[Larry of the Lawn]

Heard from someone at happy hour that NK has threatened to cancel summit with the US and SK.  Was going to happen sooner or later.

[Morpheus]

18 minutes ago, James Arryn said:

So, apparently the Torture Master General has the votes. 

 

United States of America, forgiving itself for anything since 18something and something. 

Mark Warner, a Democrat, has decided to vote for her because a week after doging questions and equivocating, she decided that, yeah, maybe, MAYBE, there are some thing worth regretting.

The Dems are still as cowardly as ever

[Bonnot OG]

United States of America, forgiving itself for anything and everthing since the first person of color was murdered on this continent by a white person.

[S John]

1 hour ago, larrytheimp said:

I dunno.  I think Fox benefits him so much because it's already a TV staple.  I remember visiting my grandmother's assisted living facility and Fox News was on like every TV in the joint.

Yep.  Old people love Fox News.  My 87 yr. old grandma watches it almost non-stop.  It really does shape the world view of a lot of people, particularly those who are old and don't really get out on their own all that much.  

[Which Tyler]

32 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

Heard from someone at happy hour that NK has threatened to cancel summit with the US and SK.  Was going to happen sooner or later.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-44133308

 

As a result of US/SK military manoeuvres the day before the peace summit.

[Yukle]

This article is outstanding. A few pages back in this thread there was a question about why "the left" doesn't listen to "the right."

I find it a stupid argument, because it's so easy to disprove.

Instead, here is a critical analysis of what's happening.

How come Republicans don't respect Democrats? It's nothing to do with Democrats and it's not in their power to change. The best parts of the article are:

It doesn’t come from the policies advocated by the Democratic Party, and it doesn’t come from the things Democratic politicians say. Where does it come from? An entire industry that’s devoted to convincing white people that liberal elitists look down on them.

It’s more than an industry, actually; it’s an industry, plus a political movement. The right has a gigantic media apparatus that is devoted to convincing people that liberals disrespect them, plus a political party whose leaders all understand that that idea is key to their political project and so join in the chorus at every opportunity.

If you doubt this, I’d encourage you to tune in to Fox News or listen to conservative talk radio for a week. When you do, you’ll find that again and again you’re told stories of some excess of campus political correctness, some obscure liberal professor who said something offensive, some liberal celebrity who said something crude about rednecks or some Democratic politician who displayed a lack of knowledge of a conservative cultural marker. The message is pounded home over and over: They hate you and everything you stand for.

...

Let’s take, for instance, Barack Obama. Can you think of another president who spent more time reaching out to the other side and showing respect for them? You might or might not like his policies, but nobody tried harder to be respectful than Obama. And Republican voters had eight years to watch him. Let’s take, as just one example, the speech he gave about race during the 2008 campaign. Here’s one small part:

Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience — as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor.

That is extremely respectful. But it’s not what Republicans think of when they think of Obama. “I despise Barack Obama. I think primarily because I don’t think he thinks very much of people like me,” one Republican told The Post’s Dan Balz. “One of the places I would agree with the hard-core Trump people, they’re tired of being treated as the enemy by Barack Obama,” he went on. “His comment, the whole thing, it’s been worn out to death, that clinging to God and guns, God and guns and afraid of people who don’t look like them, blah, blah, blah. Just quit talking down to me.”

...

The same is true of Hillary Clinton. At a town-hall meeting in March 2016, she was talking about how to revitalize communities that had been dependent on coal but had been devastated by a loss of jobs driven mostly by automation and the fracking boom that made natural gas cheaper than coal. Here’s what she said:

And we’re going to make it clear that we don’t want to forget those people. Those people labored in those mines for generations, losing their health, often losing their lives to turn on our lights and power our factories. Now we’ve got to move away from coal and all the other fossil fuels, but I don’t want to move away from the people who did the best they could to produce energy that we relied on.

Wow, that’s pretty respectful! It acknowledges the people’s hard work, their sacrifices, their contribution to the rest of the country. And yet because she also acknowledged that all those millions of coal jobs aren’t coming back, but said it in a way she would surely have liked to rephrase — “we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business” — the only thing anyone remembers is that one half-sentence, which was immediately turned into “Hillary hates coal miners! She wants to destroy their lives!” All the respect-offering she tried to do was meaningless once it was chewed through the gears of the conservative outrage machine.

...

[Martell Spy]

INTERROGATION

“The Current Israeli Government Feels It Can Do Anything”

An Israeli human rights lawyer on the IDF’s lax live-fire rules, and how the government gets away with it.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/05/gaza-live-fire-a-human-rights-lawyer-on-israels-violations-of-international-law.html

Quote

 

Do you think this Israeli government is particularly dismissive of human rights concerns compared to its predecessors?

There is no question about it, yes. The current Israeli government, given the uncritical backing of the American administration, feels that it can do anything. The prime minister can oversee the killing of [58] people and still call it a good day for peace, as he did at the opening of the American Embassy in Jerusalem. The current government is the most right-wing, nationalistic government Israel has ever had in 70 years of its existence. 

 

 

[Zorral]

3 hours ago, Notone said:

Yes, but Breitbart and infowars are imho too fringe to carry Trump alone. It's Fox News and this other media company, whose name I've forgotten with all the small local news stations.

Sinclair -- Koch Bros.