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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
This is Trump. Or perhaps it should be said, Trump is a personification of this.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank.Does anyone here listen to the NPR podcast "Hidden Brain." They just did a rather fascinating episode on why people believe "alternative facts" in politics, and when presented with the evidence that proves that their belief is based on a false premise, they just double down.
http://www.npr.org/2017/03/13/519661419/when-it-comes-to-politics-and-fake-news-facts-arent-enough
edited 26th Mar '17 3:58:06 PM by megaeliz
Nothing from the more standard news sources that I can find yet, so grain-of-salt, but I'm hearing that Putin put out what is essentially an thinly veiled threat in English on the Russian foreign ministry website saying that some of what they have on us may see leaks of the Trump/Russia investigation continues.
Found it, part of an interview with Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
Ctrl+F "Rex Tillerson will " to go straight to the section I saw quoted.
The specific portion quoted, near the end if that spot:
Our American colleagues must decide if they respect the diplomatic procedure, if they keep their word on the arrangements made between us, primarily arrangements made at their own request, or we create a few very nice surprises for each other
edited 26th Mar '17 4:03:04 PM by sgamer82
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Hm...
PUTIN: OK, so get this Americans! Turns out that George Washington was actually an alien spy sent by angels from on high because God hates every living thing due to having an elispy when he was little which was caused by a time-traveling Obama and that said time travel machine runs on abortions due to a space-time flux courtesy of the Tuska incident and the Roswell aliens who are planning on learning How to Serve Man and it's all thanks to Donald Trump as well as Rod Sterling's rotting corpse.
Honestly, I'm impressed with the sheer level of bullshit I can cook up when I put my mind to it.
edited 26th Mar '17 5:24:41 PM by kkhohoho
When it comes to women leaders, a large part of the issue is that leaders are expected to act "alpha," but women who act nearly as arrogantly as is expected of the average man are seen as unattractive and "bitchy." Margaret Thatcher being called The Iron Lady was not a compliment until she managed to turn it around in the wake of the Falklands War. The Double Standard has been screwing women leaders over for at least a thousand years.
From Eschaton's article:
"... It’s possible to imagine a Republican health-care politics that rejects the ultra-redistributionary approach of the ACA and instead argues that since all benefit from health coverage, all must contribute to its costs via some kind of broad-based tax. It’s possible to imagine a Republican health-care politics that emphasizes cost control over benefit provision. It’s possible to imagine a Republican health-care politics that incentivizes providers and insurers to achieve better outcomes at lower prices. It’s possible to imagine a Republican health-care politics that resists socializing the burden of addiction, obesity, and other unhealthy behaviors. It’s possible to imagine a Republican Party that cares about the details of health policy and is not satisfied with poorly informed hand waves toward outworn party shibboleths."
Possible to imagine, perhaps, but the road there would be long and winding even if the Republican leadership wanted to go there. The real problem is that they don't really want this- actually solving problems is a much harder way to whip up their base than fake news and hyperbole. They have tied their reputation to propaganda, and I dont know if they even can back down now.
I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.Yes but Biden isn't under FBI investigation or disliked like Hillary is. Biden's also got a bit of that charisma.
Biden wouldn't have brought out anyone new to vote but he would've picked off supporters from both sides.
That he resembles Hillary ideologically is what makes me think that it would've ultimately come down between Sanders and Biden rather than Hillary.
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Thatcher was professionally coached to lower her voice an octave because of the perception that men will never follow a woman unless she can sound as mannish as possible, so there was definitely gender bias against her.
That said, there was more than just gender bias going on. In her day, she was fringe right, an extremist by the standards of the day. She shifted the centre ground of politics significantly right and the other parties couldn't catch up until Tony Blair shifted the left wing right to meet the new definition of 'centre'. As a result, the antipathy towards her was not simply because she was a woman. There was far more going on than that.
On the earlier post regarding Trump giving the £300bn bill to Merkel, and the article's comment that it was supposed to be an 'intimidation' bill. I think it's fairly clear that Trump can't see past the fact that Merkel is a woman. He has very ingrained ideas about women and Merkel defies his perception of women. While he claims he's for women's rights and points to women working around him, he still expects them to dress and behave in a certain way, and they are defined by what limited use they have for him.
In Merkel's case, she doesn't fit any of his definitions of what a useful woman actually is. She doesn't doll herself up; she doesn't have a position that answers to a man and is limited by what the man in power needs from her. He's clearly approaching this from the point of view that the US is 'alpha' to Germany, that he is 'alpha' to Merkel, and that she therefore needs to be submissive to his every demand. While he has that attitude in general anyway (even to men), there is some indication that he really doesn't know how to deal with women who are leaders in their own right.
Merkel won't give him the time of day, and he'll struggle to comprehend that.
edited 26th Mar '17 6:08:49 PM by Wyldchyld
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.![]()
I agree. Biden could have gotten Democratic turnout up just enough to hold the Rust Belt. He didn't have the scandals holding him down, and he would have mauled Trump during the debates.
As for Sanders, I doubt that (unless everyone else drops out, becomes non viable, etc) he ever had the support within the party base to win. He never came within striking distance of Clinton, and Biden would have walked all over him. Now, if Biden and Clinton split the vote in a hypothetical three way race, maybe Sanders makes things interesting.
edited 26th Mar '17 6:06:06 PM by Rationalinsanity
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.http://www.npr.org/2016/10/18/498309357/too-sweet-or-too-shrill-the-double-bind-for-women
This brings up a lot of good points about how woman are treated in leadership positions. If a woman is too nice, she is not taken seriously, while if she is too aggressive, people would consider her to be a threat. And if a woman is undeniably successful, she is often seen as unlikable or cold. We've even seen this demonstrated in Hillary Clinton's campaign.
edited 26th Mar '17 6:34:41 PM by megaeliz
Well, it is been said that Putin has a tell, which is that he denies accusations immediately if they're true, so...
1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV

No mention of the Dunning-Kruger effect?
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman