Donald trump. what is your take on him?

[DaveP]

It's an engineering thing, you find a problem, you find out the cause, you (re)define constraints/ specifications, and you develop a suitable solution (and verify afterwards). I realise that politics has a more fuzzy front end than engineering, but above remains true, stray to far from it and you'll get nowhere.

+1
I have always believed in pragmatism over ideology.
Back on topic, I always hoped that pragmatism would be Trump's redeeming feature.
We will see.

DaveP

 

[tands]

https://twitter.com/LanaDelRaytheon/status/885269917930409984

https://twitter.com/crimesofbrits

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[DaveP]

https://twitter.com/crimesofbrits

I would bet that this was written by an Irish Republican.

I think that every country has done things that they later regret.

Turks genocide of Armenians.

Stalin's murder of 30,000,000 Russians.

Hitler's murder of 25,000,000 Russians

Russian murder of Poles in Katyn wood.

French deportation of Jews in WW2

Nazi murder of 6,000,000 Jews.

Belgian enslavement of people in the Congo.

Chinese invasion of Tibet.

Chinese cultural revolution.

Russian invasion of Afghanistan.

Indian/Pakistan genocides during partition.

American Black slavery.

American destruction of first nation peoples

Crimes of the Roman Empire etc,etc

It is pointless to single out one country, unless you have an axe to grind.  Then it becomes unbalanced.

DaveP

 

[micaddict]

I would bet that this was written by an Irish Republican.

I think that every country has done things that they later regret.

Turks genocide of Armenians.

Stalin's murder of 30,000,000 Russians.

Hitler's murder of 25,000,000 Russians

Russian murder of Poles in Katyn wood.

French deportation of Jews in WW2

Nazi murder of 6,000,000 Jews.

Belgian enslavement of people in the Congo.

Chinese invasion of Tibet.

Chinese cultural revolution.

Russian invasion of Afghanistan.

Indian/Pakistan genocides during partition.

American Black slavery.

American destruction of first nation peoples

Crimes of the Roman Empire etc,etc

It is pointless to single out one country, unless you have an axe to grind.  Then it becomes unbalanced.

DaveP

I'm missing an empire there that would seem too close to overlook.

Or is it hidden in the etceteras?

 

[tands]

Turks genocide of Armenians.

Stalin's murder of 30,000,000 Russians.

Hitler's murder of 25,000,000 Russians

Russian murder of Poles in Katyn wood.

French deportation of Jews in WW2

Nazi murder of 6,000,000 Jews.

Belgian enslavement of people in the Congo.

Chinese invasion of Tibet.

Chinese cultural revolution.

Russian invasion of Afghanistan.

Indian/Pakistan genocides during partition.

American Black slavery.

American destruction of first nation peoples

Crimes of the Roman Empire etc,etc

All of which we're thought to be very 'pragmatic' at the time, no doubt.

 

[dmp]

Better than a partisan list of no, yes, negotiable.
Actual votes on actual issues:

https://np.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/6pc5qu/democrats_propose_rules_to_break_up_broadband/dkon8t4/

 

[tands]

That's not better.

The Hill reports on a push in the Democratic leadership to offer alternatives to Trumpcare - and single payer:

    Pelosi and other top Democrats have hailed a series of ACA reforms recently proposed by a small group of centrist New Democrats and conservative-leaning Blue Dogs...Adding to the pressure, almost 90 Democrats endorsed four specific reforms — based on the proposals from the New Democrats and Blue Dogs — designed to prop up ObamaCare’s struggling individual markets.

As some readers have already pointed out, abandoning single payer for a significantly less popular raft of inadequate technocratic tweaks is a great way to lose elections! And once you recognize this, it's easy to conclude - like Jeet Heer did recently - that Democrats are chronically suicidal politicians with a compulsion to lose.

If you measure victory by election and legislative wins marked with the letter D, this is an understandable take. Still, as fun as it is to point out that the clowns in Congress are a bunch of clowns, this is not actually a plausible account of ordinary human goal-driven behavior. People do not ordinarily try to fail; even losers usually want to win. Democrats see the same polls that we do; they know perfectly well that single payer has plurality support among Americans, and majority support among Democrats. Surely they aren't just reflexively running with the least popular option they can find, regardless of what it is, in order to lose - something else must be at work, right?

Here's an alternative theory: Democrats want to win. But for many Democrats, winning means stopping leftist policy outcomes - and sometimes, the best way to do that is to lose elections and lose fights over legislation. If you are a centrist Democrat and your priority is stopping single payer, then of course you are going to offer alternatives to single payer, even if that means risking a Republican victory. You may even be willing to do things like risk the election of Donald Trump for the sake of denying a win to Bernie Sanders - even as critics warn you just how dangerous this is.

That's why the same people who gave us Hillary Clinton are now actively lobbying for anything-but-single-payer. And as in 2016, this has to be understood as a decision to risk losing to Republicans for the sake of derailing the left. That's the defining calculation that leftists miss when they regard centrists as benevolent but incompetent allies; it's an easy calculation to miss, because only the most cynical centrists realize that they're making it. But if you don't see an effective preference for Republicans over leftists in the operation of centrist politics, there's a lot about their behavior you won't be able to explain.

more

http://www.carlbeijer.com/2017/07/democrats-may-be-losing-but-centrists.html

 

[tands]

Twitter's been hilarious this morning, anyway.

https://twitter.com/dril/status/893002574957248512

https://twitter.com/Julie_Johnsoned/status/892983868877361152

https://twitter.com/ronaldravegan/status/892992613325824000

https://twitter.com/alyssakeiko/status/892992270575816704

https://twitter.com/mondoblando/status/893013411835105280

;D

.

 

[dmp]

In real news this week, a sanctions bill went to Trump's desk and he capitulated and signed it (no choice)
As it passed the house 419-3 and the senate 98-2, it was veto proof.

From the WSJ editorial: "This was a no-confidence vote in a sitting American president. "

Seeing all the nonsense new links posted in this forum makes it easier to understand why we have this reality TV star as a President. Who would have thought a 'business man' who inherited his success, had no government experience, 6 bankruptcies, 5 kids from three different marriages, charges of sexual assault, thousands of lawsuits, would be such a failure at President?

 

[tands]

I just thought it was funny. Cheer up!

Sen. Cory Booker just introduced a bill that could legalize marijuana nationwide Vox. Sanders introduced a bill to deschedule marijuana in 2015. Importantly “The legislation would also be retroactive, so it would automatically expunge federal marijuana use and possession crimes from people’s records and let those currently serving time in prison for marijuana use or possession petition for resentencing.” Personally, I think it’s a very good sign when even the most vile opportunists compete to do the right thing.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/08/links-8317.html

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[DaveP]

I'm missing an empire there that would seem too close to overlook.

Or is it hidden in the etceteras?

The subject was the British Empire, if that was what you meant.
I don't doubt that the French and Dutch had their atrocities too, it was not meant to be an exhaustive list of all the world's ill doings.

Ghengis Khan and Ivan the Impaler should probably be there too.

DaveP

 

[micaddict]

Oops, my bad, Dave.
Don't worry, I won't pull the homework card. 
I simply should have read that.

 

[micaddict]

OK, so I didn't hide behind the homework excuse and I read it back to half June. Watched the video's, too. They're short so it's perfectly doable. But it's all I can take for now.

I'm afraid this goes far beyond Ireland. Lots about India, Kenia, The Middle East etc.

Have you read and watched it, too? Or are you going to? Those who do better have a strong stomach.

Yes, it's one-sided. So nothing about the splendid infrastructure the colonialists left the natives.
But we've heard and been taught (!) the other side a-plenty (understatement) and  for centuries.

I don't doubt that the French and Dutch had their atrocities too

Oh yes.
And then some.

 

[tands]

https://twitter.com/TheWensey/status/893264808673370112

 

[tands]

Ismael Lopez and his wife Claudia Lopez

A Mississippi man who was killed by police in an apparent address mix-up was shot in the back of the head, a family attorney said.

"It is so troubling to learn that not only this man died but that this man died running away from people who were trespassing on his premises after he was in bed lawfully," Murray Wells, an attorney representing the family of Ismael Lopez, told reporters
.
Lopez, a 41-year-old car mechanic, was at his Southaven home late Sunday when the deadly police shooting unfolded, Wells said.

Police were looking for a man suspected of assaulting a woman at a gas station in nearby Tate County, according to an incident report. But authorities said the officers responded to the wrong address.

In a Friday news conference, Wells said an independent investigation commissioned by his firm revealed that Lopez died of a single bullet to the back of the head.

"Our conclusion is not a conclusion of the coroner's office but it is very simple to understand what happened when you look at the physical evidence," he said. "It couldn't be any clearer."

A coroner's report has not been released.

Conflicting accounts

Since the shooting, Wells and the DeSoto County District Attorney have given multiple versions of what happened when police showed up at Lopez's residence.

DeSoto County District Attorney John Champion said Southaven police officers knocked on the door of the residence to ascertain if it was the correct location, but the Lopez family didn't hear the knock. He said they only heard their dog barking, and Ismael Lopez went to find out why.

Police officers say that when Lopez opened the door, his pitbull charged at them, and they shot and wounded the dog. When they looked up, Lopez was pointing a gun at them, Champion said. The officers commanded him to lower the weapon, and fatally shot him when he did not comply, Champion said.

The Lopez family attorney said police shot through the door of the home, killing Ismael Lopez, who was unarmed. Wells said bullet holes can be seen through the front door.

There were two guns in the house, Wells said, but none were near Lopez's body. The man's wife told Wells he didn't hear the officers' voices.

Southaven police has not released their police incident report and they would not comment on the status of the officer or officers involved in the case. On Friday, Southaven Police Department Chief Steve Pirtle declined to respond to Wells' allegations.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/29/us/mississippi-man-shot-dead/index.html

 

[tands]

Wasserman Schultz was also chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee from 2011 to 2016, resigning last summer after WikiLeaks published stolen internal party emails. She said Awan never worked for the DNC.

She said her concerns over the investigation were the reason she grilled Capitol Police Chief Matthew R. Verderosa about a laptop computer at a May 18 House Appropriations subcommittee hearing.

She said the laptop in question was issued by her office to Awan. “He accidentally left it somewhere,” a loss Wasserman Schultz said was reported to the Capitol Police. When the Capitol Police recovered the laptop, the agency wanted to search its contents.

She said she has agreed to allow the police to examine the laptop and wasn’t attempting to hide anything. “This was not my laptop. I have never seen that laptop. I don’t know what’s on the laptop,” she said.

She said her concern about the nature of the investigation was what prompted her to warn Verderosa at the hearing that he could face consequences. “I was trying to get more information I wanted to make sure they were following the rules.”

Since Awan’s arrest, Republicans have been questioning Wasserman Schultz. U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Ponte Vedre Beach, said, “There’s just a lot of behavior that is not easy to explain.” DeSantis, a likely candidate for Florida governor next year, said the issue “could be a significant security breach.”

Ronna Romney McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, was even more certain in a radio interview. “There is a huge national security issue,” McDaniel said. “She’s not cooperating. She’s obstructing every chance she can.”
Document

Wasserman Schultz said much of the coverage of the case on conservative websites and social media is “completely untrue.”

“The right-wing media circus fringe has immediately focused not on this run-of-the-mill investigation just reporting the facts, but jumped to outrageous, egregious conclusions that they were trying to, that they have ties to terrorists and that they were stealing data,” she said.

She cited suggestions he was attempting to flee the country and emphasis on his ultimate destination — Pakistan — before his arrest on the bank fraud charge. The country is widely known as a battleground for Islamic terrorists.

She said it’s absurd to conclude he was trying to flee the country. He filed a form to take an unpaid leave of absence and talked to Wasserman Schultz’s staff chief, Tracie Pough, about his departure and return dates.

“He is from Pakistan. … He’s an American, a naturalized American citizen. His children are natural born citizens. His wife is a naturalized American citizen. And I mean when you’re trying to flee, you don’t fill out a form with your employer and go on unpaid leave,” she said.

Awan’s wife, Hina Alvi, was already in Pakistan, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., in connection with the case. Even though both had return tickets, the agent said he didn’t believe Alvi intended to return to the U.S. The couple had wired $283,000 to Pakistan in January, the affidavit said. The wire transfer included $165,000 from the home equity line of credit.

more

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-reg-wasserman-schultz-discusses-imran-awan-20170802-story,amp.html

 

[tands]

https://twitter.com/AriMelber/status/893493437793751044

 

[tands]

https://twitter.com/SeanMcElwee/status/893476619784007682

 

[fazer]

Saw an interesting pbs show about bots that basically are program trolls that scan  the internet to make a political point by replying to social media sites by posting replies with links that promote the bots preprogrammed agendas rather than thought out responses .  Really makes me wonder about this tread and I don't pay a lot of attention to it like I use to.

 

[DaveP]

+1
you have a point

DaveP