Politics And Current Events

[grunthy]

I don't disagree with that, but I also think that a lot of these dimwits are trying to get a rise out of people. And if that's the goal, there really isn't a way to prevent the escalation of tactics to achieve that end.

No **** they are trying to get a rise out of people. You prevent their douchebag tactics by ignoring them. Yet morons will keep responding to them.

[mikey]

Go away? Maybe, maybe not...but be further marginalized? Sure...even, probably.

See, that's just it. It's a fine line, and no one has the nuance to figure it out. The response to everything is too emotional for that.

Good example: Women in sports. Women and sports. However you want it phrased. The stock answer from those that want it because it's "fair" (worst word in the English language probably these days) is that it needs to be "normalized"...women need to be on the air, women need to be in coaching, women need to be seen playing sports on TV regularly without it looking like a telethon...normalize it for the audience, then it becomes part of society and culture...

But then, on the flip side, a station like MSNBC, will broadcast nothing but imagery of, let's call it, categorical oppression for lack of a better term and go, "why won't it stop?"

Now, I'm not saying ignoring racism solves racism...that's not my point. But at what point do you hit the line...? At what point do you cross over from reporting, from education of mistakes of the past to a reminder...for both "sides"...a glorification of it (like we say for shootings, don't broadcast the gun man, that creates copy cats, etc.) and a reminder...if you're a categorically oppressed person, do you really want that reminder every single day? Do you really want to hear about that every single day? Do you want your brain tuned into that every single day?

There's a phenomena called "unconscious selective attention", it's the brain power that enables us to ignore our noses despite them being in our line of vision constantly...I wonder if that doesn't apply here to a degree...I would think the message would be more about empowerment and moving forward than wallowing in the mire of the 1860's, or, as it were, 1960's...this is the wrong place to ask it, obviously, but when do you want to the tip scale towards the future and out of the past...categorically...?

[NailedPenguin]

Normal people, of all races, have a million better things to worry about.

There will be half a dozen mass shootings in that same city this weekend.

[Troy Loney]

There's a phenomena called "unconscious selective attention", it's the brain power that enables us to ignore our noses despite them being in our line of vision constantly...I wonder if that doesn't apply here to a degree...I would think the message would be more about empowerment and moving forward than wallowing in the mire of the 1860's, or, as it were, 1960's...this is the wrong place to ask it, obviously, but when do you want to the tip scale towards the future and out of the past...categorically...?

I think viewing history as a cyclical, rather than steadily progressive is a good response to that perspective. It's easy to see social progress like we see technological progress, because that makes sense, where things just continuously improve over time. Human behavior and social norms don't seem to follow those rules. I think there is a tendency to want to say things are "getting better" or "getting worse", it's neither, it just is.

I don't think there's anyway to ignore the fact that racial consciousness is front and center of the collective social consciousness, I guess the issue is whether it ever left.

[slappybrown]

Like most bullies and braggerts they exist off your oxygen.

If the Left would stop giving people like Jacob Wahl (or whatever his name is) airtime and space they'd go away.

I think this critique fails to account for (1) how media and exposure work in 2019 and (2) continues the trend in this thread and elsewhere of blaming the boogeyman of "the Left" for the insane, crank wingnuts the conservative movement in this country has produced of their own accord.

[Freddy Rumsen]

Jacob Wohl has no power or followers on the right, of any actual importance. The internet distorts reality, especially social media.

Literally the only exposure he gets is "reactions" from the "reactors".

There are pertinent examples from both right and left.

Trump himself is a good one. Morning Joe and similar programs, gave Trump almost unfettered positive coverage in the summer and fall of 2015 that amounted to almost a Billion dollars in free advertising, including carrying entire campaign speeches.

[slappybrown]

Jacob Wohl has no power or followers on the right, of any actual importance. The internet distorts reality, especially social media.

Literally the only exposure he gets is "reactions" from the "reactors".

There are pertinent examples from both right and left.

Trump himself is a good one. Morning Joe and similar programs, gave Trump almost unfettered positive coverage in the summer and fall of 2015 that amounted to almost a Billion dollars in free advertising, including carrying entire campaign speeches.

Jacob Wohl has appeared on Fox News, written for Gateway Pundit, featured on Breitbart, etc etc. All of these are credentialed news media outlets (I know, I can't believe it either). In addition, yes, his social media following, before he got trash-canned on most sites, was significant. He's even been retweeted by the President himself (as part of a leftist plot, no doubt)!

Jacob Wohl's attempts to blackmail a Presidential candidate or Robert Mueller with manufactured allegations of sexual assault is news. He's going to wind up in jail, eventually, and he's trying hard to make it happen sooner or later. That's not because "the Left" is giving him "oxygen." The only oxygen we all agreed to give Wohl at the last meeting was to laugh and laugh at him.

When Rachel Maddow goes on MSNBC and invents some scary nightmare about the Russkies coming to Fargo, ND in the middle of the night to cut gas lines causing your furnace to shut off and you and your kids to freeze to death, I don't blame "the Right." I blame Maddow. When left-equivalent of Wohl grifter Lousie Mensch says that Trump will be executed for treason, I don't blame "the Right." I blame Mensch, because she's looney tunes.

Re: Trump, yes, we all agree that he received outsized coverage, and the guy obviously inspires his supporters in a way not many on the right have in recent times. Shifting the discussion about Wohl to the President is bizarre, but I'll play along. Trump got plenty of wall-to-wall coverage on Fox News and sympathetic conservative media sites like Breitbart. Your beloved National Review's "Against Trump" edition is both sad and absolutely hilarious in retrospect.

Trying to pretend that Trump is ACTUALLY a product of the left is not persuasive, to say the least. The guy is breaking records for the highest levels of support among Republican voters of any President ever; I think the most recent polls have him at 89 and 91 percent support among Republicans. Maybe your party is leaving you behind Freddy, but it sure as sht isn't "the Left's" fault.

[Troy Loney]

endorse.

[eddy]

The FBI has opened a public corruption investigation into Republican donor and South Florida massage-parlor entrepreneur Li “Cindy” Yang, focusing on whether she illegally funneled money from China into the president’s re-election effort or committed other potential campaign-finance violations, the Miami Herald has learned.

Investigators obtained a federal grand jury subpoena Tuesday seeking records from Bing Bing Peranio, an employee of Yang’s family’s spa business who last year contributed a maximum $5,400 to President Donald Trump’s re-election effort, according to a source familiar with the probe. Yang came to Peranio’s workplace and helped her write the check, Peranio told reporters from The New York Times, who first reported the contribution. Peranio told The Times she didn’t “say no.”

The subpoena asked for any records related to that March 5, 2018, donation and possibly other contributions between 2014 and the present, said the source, who asked for anonymity to discuss an ongoing federal investigation.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politi ... 17729.html

[shafnutz05]

Here is the video that surfaced of the Islamic children singing about beheading people and waging jihad at an event in Philadelphia. This is all totally normal. In a just world, the Feds would descend on that school and anything associated with it, but that probably won't happen.

[Gaucho]

The tune is catchy, though, I'd sing along, too.

[tifosi77]

Job approval rating of a president within their own party is typically between 80% and 90%. (Obama's RCP average approval among Democrats for his full terms was like 86%, for example) What was fun about Trump was he secured the nomination with the lowest approval among Republicans of any major party candidate within their own party in the history of polling; in the week before the election, his approval among Republicans was barely 70%, and that shot up ten points in as many days.

[slappybrown]

I am pretty sure that GWB spent most of his second term with approval ratings in the 60 and 70s from GOP voters. Post-9/11 and into the immediate successes in the Iraq War I am sure he was breaking records, but war-time (at least in most wars) skews things wildly.

[slappybrown]

This is just one polling service -- Gallup -- but you can see the week by week for Donnie:

https://news.gallup.com/poll/203198/pre ... trump.aspx

His lowest is 77 among GOP voters in late 17, but he's been sitting in the high 80s on average for the last year and a half or so.

[slappybrown]

Here's GWB -- https://news.gallup.com/poll/116500/pre ... -bush.aspx

55 among GOP voters near end of term as economy was crashing.

[slappybrown]

All of this is to say that I think I like Mikey's side of the re-elect Trump bet more at the moment.

[Factorial]

All of this is to say that I think I like Mikey's side of the re-elect Trump bet more at the moment.

You want some of that action Slappy?

[slappybrown]

I think if "the economy" stays strong, I think he's more likely than not to be re-elected.

[Factorial]

I think if "the economy" stays strong, I think he's more likely than not to be re-elected.

I'm not sure he can do any better vote wise than he did last time and I think there will be a much stronger turnout by those who oppose him.

[MR25]

Or a swing with the undecideds who regret their decision last cycle.

[Troy Loney]

Giuliani Plans Ukraine Trip to Push for Inquiries That Could Help Trump

Mr. Giuliani’s plans create the remarkable scene of a lawyer for the president of the United States pressing a foreign government to pursue investigations that Mr. Trump’s allies hope could help him in his re-election campaign. And it comes after Mr. Trump spent more than half of his term facing questions about whether his 2016 campaign conspired with a foreign power.

“We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation, which we have a right to do,” Mr. Giuliani said in an interview on Thursday when asked about the parallel to the special counsel’s inquiry.

lol

This is just so god damn insane.

[Morkle]

Is that not obstruction of Justice? Meddling in an investigation?

[crusherstasiak]

https://twitter.com/IGD_News/status/1126670175384662016

[Troy Loney]

Is that not obstruction of Justice? Meddling in an investigation?

I'd say it's extortion.

[Factorial]

Mueller should have forced Trump to be interviewed or take the 5th (like Don Jr is apparently going to do).