[Vengeance]

Hey how about we completely ignore and reject our foreign policy for the last 75 years

https://www.reddit.c...JAL&sh=6417e5f5

[Vengeance]

He is even trying to cover himself.

https://www.reddit.c...KXW&sh=a6b012f9

[worry]

Some townie GOPer actually did the crotch grab to a woman he was mad at: http://jezebel.com/c...-gro-1791231208

You know, as a "joke". Something tells me he won't be the last.

[EmperorMagus]

I'm watching the documentary "All Governments Lie"

First of all, this is superbly made and I recommend it to anyone who wonders about media accuracy and fake news issues.

Second of all, there are some superb quotes you can lift out of this movie:

"You know, we don't have state media in the united states. But if we did, how would it be any different?"

[Malankazooie]

[Primateus]

death rattle, on 16 January 2017 - 04:44 AM, said:

Some townie GOPer actually did the crotch grab to a woman he was mad at: http://jezebel.com/c...-gro-1791231208

You know, as a "joke". Something tells me he won't be the last.

And hopefully his little joke will earn him some jail time.

[Cause]

[worry]

Dictionary definition insider trading and bribery from Trump's Health & Human Services pick: http://www.cnn.com/2...pany/index.html

[worry]

How's this for a headline: New Trump Adviser Being Sued for Hiring Whites to Attack Blacks
Reed Cordish allegedly called blacks “urbans” and hired thugs to scare them away from his restaurants and clubs. Now he’s got a job in the White House.

http://www.thedailyb...ack-blacks.html

[Silencer]

I, for one, am struggling with one thing about this whole election so far.

Namely, the effort it's going to take in order to remember to correctly identify the government of the US as an extreme right wing/fringe party. We've just come from 8 years of US-left, everyone else centre-right, prior to that we had regular old US centre-right, everyone else right.


Now its going to be "oh yeah, the US is run by a right-wing government, with a fringe extremist right wing head of state and his cronies in the top jobs", and I'm just not sure my brain is ready to say that all the time. XD

[EmperorMagus]

I'm struggling with Trump pick for education coming out and figuratively saying "yeah, public schools are for idiots."

Like, why ...

Not to mention the woman being complicit in funding religious hate groups.

[worry]

I'll offer a two-pronged answer to that. 1) She's a right-wing mega-Christian who believes public schools have "displaced" the church & 2) She's made a boatload of money as a major investor in the for-profit online education company K12 Inc, which is the grade school equivalent of ITT Tech/DeVry/etc. (not sure if those schools resonate outside the US, but they're for-profit "colleges" that suck vast sums of secondary education $$$ from students and govt while offering a degree that is worth less than a high school diploma -- reputable employers recoil from them).

She's that odd combination of con-artist & true believer that leeches so much out of working people without it making a dent in her conscience.

It's worth seeking out the portions of her hearing w/ Senators Franken, Sanders, Warren, Murphy, and Tim Kaine.

[Cause]

EmperorMagus, on 18 January 2017 - 08:02 AM, said:

I'm struggling with Trump pick for education coming out and figuratively saying "yeah, public schools are for idiots."

Like, why ...

Not to mention the woman being complicit in funding religious hate groups.

death rattle, on 18 January 2017 - 09:55 AM, said:

I'll offer a two-pronged answer to that. 1) She's a right-wing mega-Christian who believes public schools have "displaced" the church & 2) She's made a boatload of money as a major investor in the for-profit online education company K12 Inc, which is the grade school equivalent of ITT Tech/DeVry/etc. (not sure if those schools resonate outside the US, but they're for-profit "colleges" that suck vast sums of secondary education $$$ from students and govt while offering a degree that is worth less than a high school diploma -- reputable employers recoil from them).

She's that odd combination of con-artist & true believer that leeches so much out of working people without it making a dent in her conscience.

It's worth seeking out the portions of her hearing w/ Senators Franken, Sanders, Warren, Murphy, and Tim Kaine.

If true this is very scary!

Why is he picking these people? Does he really believe in their messages? Or are they just pliable. His choices seem incredibly bizarre

[Cause]

EmperorMagus, on 18 January 2017 - 08:02 AM, said:

I'm struggling with Trump pick for education coming out and figuratively saying "yeah, public schools are for idiots."

Like, why ...

Not to mention the woman being complicit in funding religious hate groups.

death rattle, on 18 January 2017 - 09:55 AM, said:

I'll offer a two-pronged answer to that. 1) She's a right-wing mega-Christian who believes public schools have "displaced" the church & 2) She's made a boatload of money as a major investor in the for-profit online education company K12 Inc, which is the grade school equivalent of ITT Tech/DeVry/etc. (not sure if those schools resonate outside the US, but they're for-profit "colleges" that suck vast sums of secondary education $$$ from students and govt while offering a degree that is worth less than a high school diploma -- reputable employers recoil from them).

She's that odd combination of con-artist & true believer that leeches so much out of working people without it making a dent in her conscience.

It's worth seeking out the portions of her hearing w/ Senators Franken, Sanders, Warren, Murphy, and Tim Kaine.

If true this is very scary!

Why is he picking these people? Does he really believe in their messages? Or are they just pliable. His choices seem incredibly bizarre

[amphibian]

Cause, on 18 January 2017 - 01:30 PM, said:

Why is he picking these people? Does he really believe in their messages? Or are they just pliable. His choices seem incredibly bizarre

Trump doesn't give a shit about education, housing/urban development, or several other Cabinet level positions. He's quite literally slotting the larger donors or those related to large donors/key political players into the positions he doesn't give a shit about.

And he's staffing the rest with Goldman Sachs executives.

[amphibian]

Nicodimas, on 15 January 2017 - 07:30 PM, said:

#twitterincharge
I like this current news, kicking the press corp across the street. #propagandistscum

https://twitter.com/...661205526343680

So much fake news these day's...kick them out!! I say relocate them outside myself.

Direct to #twitter with the news from Trump

Nicodimas, on 15 January 2017 - 07:42 PM, said:

What do we really like the press corp? I mean seriously how enlightening will in be if Trump can put some people in charge that tell the truth. 6 companies own that room... BYE!! Open the news to anyone, independent's hopefully.

It's going to be an interesting 4 years to say the least.

Nicodimas, on 15 January 2017 - 08:37 PM, said:

Primateus, on 15 January 2017 - 07:54 PM, said:

Nicodimas, on 15 January 2017 - 07:42 PM, said:

What do we really like the press corp? I mean seriously how enlightening will in be if Trump can put some people in charge that tell the truth. 6 companies own that room... BYE!! Open the news to anyone, independent's hopefully.

It's going to be an interesting 4 years to say the least.

Yes, independents like The Blaze, Breitbart or Infowars, because that would be soooo awesome.

Good article for you : https://soapboxie.co...r-the-Real-News

There's several problems with what you link to and what you say, Nicodimas.

The Soapboxie article lists Russia Today as a good media source to follow for "real news" - with a straight face. That's highly problematic due to Russia Today being far worse at being impartial and being told to run specific stories or slant stories by the Russian government (or face the imprisonment/exiling/killing of the journalists). There are other sources that are terrible on their list, while many are indeed good, but have specific biases that are apparent once you know what you're looking for.

Furthermore, you seem to think a small journalistic company can have three reporters to cover everything on the globe. There are so many topics that journalists/media cover that no handful of human beings can accurately and intelligently cover them. For example: sectarian politics/strife in Syria are not the same thing as sectarian politics/strife in Sudan; medical drug markets, regulations, and prices in the US are not the same as those in Germany or even Canada; what the President says on economy/crime/disaster relief is gibberish to one reporter, yet clear as day to another and so on. Sources have to be cultivated, the specific sets of people around powerful individuals have to be known and have cordial working relationships established with.

No one person can track all the issues cogently. No one person can be trusted to write everything factually. That's why there's specific bureaus and beats for journalists to work within and gain expertise. That's why there's fact checkers. That's why editors assign journalists to write quick hit stories while working on the long developing stories about things like the Flint water systems being poisoned by illegal and unethical conduct by the governor of the state/cancer patients popping up among regions that worked with Teflon products 30 years ago etc.

All of the apparatus developed by the larger media places are necessary. The papers/magazines have to be sold to the people/stores, advertisments obtained, the finance departments to figure out how best to expand or contract, how to pay everyone working there. The shift to the digital age has not been a good one for most of the industry and thus contraction has occurred majorly. This has allowed the rise of "independent" places of journalism, but almost always, they are one-note or hold forth only on a couple of issues. They don't have the people and the resources to cover more than that.

The "independent sources" can't accurately cover a President - especially one that spins off so much bullshit that needs to be fact-checked like Trump does. It cannot be done.

The "six companies owning everyone in the room" is a bullshit line too that takes any nuance or actual understanding out of the room to give you a line that "works" in the sense of suggesting that everything they say can't be trusted while Trump can be trusted since he "speaks to the American people directly". That is so much bullshit that I'm amazed you fall for it.

I'm actually angry at you for thinking that journalism is so easy that all you need is a tape recorder, the internet, and a desire to write. It's not that easy. I did some of it for a long time in a very niche sport and I realized how fucking tough it was and how little it paid to be actually objective or go do the long developing pieces that take months and months to write.

This post has been edited by amphibian: 18 January 2017 - 04:49 PM

[worry]

It's incredible -- and it happens like clockwork every time -- that those who are the most (in their own heads anyway) suspicious of "big" government, those who find it the most intrusive, give in the most easily to strongmen and demagogues. The "liberal" media are too easy on Democrats (a laughable claim, but they believe it)...so they should get out of the way of Trump entirely? How is the answer to a press corps that's maybe gone a little soft, a little too chummy w/ the people they cover, to become LESS investigative? LESS confrontational? How does that make sense in any context other than: I have the power now and want to get my way.

That's pretty explicitly Newt Gingrich's position: http://mediamatters....ak-press/215012
Great company.

I'm gonna side w/ those whose aim is to speak truth to power, not "objectively" regurgitate their sales pitches, and a piercing dauntless press corps is indispensable to that. Hope this remains the MO: http://www.rawstory....e-rules-for-us/

[worry]

Silencer, on 18 January 2017 - 07:56 AM, said:

I, for one, am struggling with one thing about this whole election so far.

Namely, the effort it's going to take in order to remember to correctly identify the government of the US as an extreme right wing/fringe party. We've just come from 8 years of US-left, everyone else centre-right, prior to that we had regular old US centre-right, everyone else right.


Now its going to be "oh yeah, the US is run by a right-wing government, with a fringe extremist right wing head of state and his cronies in the top jobs", and I'm just not sure my brain is ready to say that all the time. XD

Not to pile on, but let's not forget it's not even a principled far right wing, but a kleptocratic morass of quasi-lawless con artists and leeches. Like this isn't hypothetical, it isn't partisan rhetoric. Donald J. Trump, who will be president in two days, literally and deliberately swindled thousands of desperate people out of millions of dollars through Trump University. He just paid his settlement sum of $25 million today.

Here's HHS-nominee Price being grilled by Liz Warren about the FACT that he introduced legislation that would benefit a company he bought stock in literally 6 days before:


There's DeVos and her private education INCOME (not just her heartfelt political opinion). Rex Tillerson's Exxon deal w/ Russia. Dr. Ben Carson -- who started his campaign simply traveling along the grifter's path Sarah Palin trailblazed, i.e. campaign as book tour.

The only "principled" part of the Trump camp is the white supremacy/neo-Nazism. Trump might 'merely' be a sympathizer, at best an opportunist, but Bannon is a true believer. (I use the 'might' there to be charitable, since I personally believe Trump himself is, fundamentally, a white supremacist).

EDIT: Oops I forgot to mention what really made me think about this today: Donald Trump is selling -- and this is not normal -- "Official 2017 Inaugural Membership Cards" on his website. These are literally meaningless. It's not even a MAGA hat, it's a simple card you get for a minimum donation of $35. Why is DJT still taking donations?!
https://www.donaldjt...ral-membership/

This post has been edited by death rattle: 18 January 2017 - 11:35 PM

[EmperorMagus]

Holy cow, that Warren video was beautiful. She just proved on national TV that Price is a crook.

[worry]

https://www.nytimes....nald-trump.html
WASHINGTON — When President-elect Donald J. Trump offered Rick Perry the job of energy secretary five weeks ago, Mr. Perry gladly accepted, believing he was taking on a role as a global ambassador for the American oil and gas industry that he had long championed in his home state.

In the days after, Mr. Perry, the former Texas governor, discovered that he would be no such thing — that in fact, if confirmed by the Senate, he would become the steward of a vast national security complex he knew almost nothing about, caring for the most fearsome weapons on the planet, the United States’ nuclear arsenal.

Two-thirds of the agency’s annual $30 billion budget is devoted to maintaining, refurbishing and keeping safe the nation’s nuclear stockpile; thwarting nuclear proliferation; cleaning up and rebuilding an aging constellation of nuclear production facilities; and overseeing national laboratories that are considered the crown jewels of government science.