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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
A conservative editorial on why Donald Trump would be a disaster for the Republicans.
Trump seems intent on focusing on a narrow brand of anger and celebrity fandom. Where Romney downplayed his wealth, Trump brags about it. He denigrates his opponents and his critics in personal terms. On the campaign trail, Trump mugs for the crowd while belittling a Carson anecdote about an attempted stabbing that led Carson to faith for redemption. Trump has also made a number of claims that stretch credulity with everyone except Trump's followers. The most recent of these controversies prompted The Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes to remark on Fox News on Monday that "fact-checking Donald Trump is like picking up after a dog with diarrhea … [there] just isn't much point."
Is Trump how America sees itself? Is Trump how America wants to see itself?
Editorials and thoughts about Trump aren't needed to point out how much of a harmful imbecile he is. Even a mere glance to his thoughts is all that is needed to dismiss him as a viable politician, and also possibly an actual human being.
Shove him into a circus and...oh wait. Idea. Why not put him in the Senate? Those guys deserve him.
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothesThe problem is that there is apparently a very large minority of the Republican Party who sees him as their straight-talking political messiah, here to clean up the mess in Washington and "get things done". Every time he says something outrageously racist or blatantly false, they shrug it off as "just how he is".
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"U.S. authorities are officially investigating the San Bernardino massacre as an act of terrorism
, based on the wife's apparent declaration of allegiance to ISIS on social media.
Called it. Not happy to have called it, but I did. Looks like she radicalized him.
edited 4th Dec '15 12:03:11 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"I can't confirm this "roommate of Texas Cruz" business, but... wow
.
The funny thing about this is that Trump contradicts himself all over the place and changes stances on a whim. A couple of months agpo he was talking about letting Syrian refugees in, now he's talking about shutting the borders and killing anyone associated with Syria. He talked about the need to tax Wall Street more, then basically copied JEB's tax plan, with low taxes on Wall St and the wealthy. The list goes on and on and on. The only thing he's kept consistent about is racism and xenophobia, and yet he's the straight talker.
Because the only thing he's talking straight about is the bigotry, tribalism, and xenophobia that his base shares. He says what they wish they could say without the risk of anyone denouncing them for being a racist, ignorant asshole. And apparently that alone is enough to make him their straight shooting, straight talking man. It's absurd, and it would be funny if it weren't for the fact that the Id of this country (and much of humanity) is so nasty and constantly threatening to overwhelm the gains we make when we're not buying into that bullshit.
And in news that may have gone unnoticed recently:
Even after a shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado last week, momentum to defund the organization hasn't slowed.
"Individuals who speak out for the life of children shouldn't suddenly be silenced by being screamed down because an insane person does a shooting in a clinic," said Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma on the floor Wednesday.
But stripping federal funds from Planned Parenthood may not be a slam-dunk. Republicans can only afford three defections for their bill to pass with the required 51 votes. And one of those defections could be Susan Collins of Maine.
"My concern is that this total prohibition of federal funding, including Medicaid funds, for Planned Parenthood would cause millions of women across the country to have to find new health care providers," said Collins.
And, there's another provision in the bill that guts the Affordable Care Act's expansion of Medicaid. That was to placate hard-line conservatives who didn't think the bill went far enough to eviscerate Obamacare. But the Medicaid provision could cost votes from other Republicans, who are up for re-election in competitive states.
All military combat roles are now open to women
“There will be no exceptions,” Mr. Carter said at a news conference. He added, “They’ll be allowed to drive tanks, fire mortars and lead infantry soldiers into combat. They’ll be able to serve as Army Rangers and Green Berets, Navy SEA Ls, Marine Corps infantry, Air Force parajumpers and everything else that was previously open only to men.”
The groundbreaking decision overturns a longstanding rule that had restricted women from combat roles, even though women have often found themselves in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 14 years.
It is the latest in a long march of inclusive steps by the military, including racial integration in 1948 and the lifting of the ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly in the military in 2011. The decision this week will open about 220,000 military jobs to women.
The military faced a deadline set by the Obama administration three years ago to integrate women into all combat jobs by January or ask for specific exemptions. The Navy and Air Force have already opened almost all combat positions to women, and the Army has increasingly integrated its forces.
The House of Representatives voted Wednesday night, with a massive bipartisan majority of 359 to 64, in favor of a new education bill that would reduce the federal role in K-12 education for the first time since the 1980s.
The bill, the Every Student Succeeds Act, would keep the most familiar feature of No Child Left Behind: annual tests in reading and math for students in third through eighth grades. But it drops the 2002 law's other big idea: that the federal government, which spends $14 billion each year on poor schools, should directly hold those schools accountable for the quality of their education.
This is a major victory for the conservative vision for education policy, which puts the states, not Washington, in charge of holding schools accountable — and it means states could scale back their efforts to improve schools for poor and minority children.
...
The new education bill would keep some of No Child Left Behind's ideas. But states, not the federal government, would largely be in charge of holding schools accountable, reversing a trend toward greater federal control.
- Students would still have to take tests every year from third to eighth grade.
- Schools would have to report the results of those tests, including breaking out the scores for "subgroups" of students
- racial minorities, students learning English, students in special education, and students from poor families.
- States would have to come up with a system to hold schools accountable for their progress toward goals. But the goals themselves would be up to states, and other factors besides standardized test scores will have to weigh in.
- States would be required to do something about the bottom 5 percent of schools, and to identify schools where individual subgroups of students were struggling.
That means states are free to design their own system. States decide what factors are most important, although they have a few guidelines: They need to pick three academic factors, including test scores and graduation rates, as well as one variable dealing with something besides a school's academic performance, such as surveys of students or parents.
Still, states decide how to weigh those factors, although academic factors must be most important. States decide what, if anything, happens to schools that don't make their goals. States decide what happens if large numbers of parents opt their students out of required standardized tests. And states decide what to do about the bottom 5 percent of schools where they're required to intervene.
The federal government would have to approve states' accountability plans within 120 days after the states submit them. But there are limits on whether they can reject them, part of a broader set of measures meant to curb the Education Department's power. The education secretary can't urge states to adopt academic standards, as Arne Duncan did with the Common Core. And they can't change the requirements for accountability systems to emphasize different priorities.
And in you obligatory Trump moment: Trump tries to woo Republican Jewish groups by making a speech to them full of anti-semetic stereotypes
Trump spoke about the infamous $43 million gas station in Afghanistan, asking the crowd, “How many of you think you could have done it for less?” His question was greeted with silence, so he moved on. “I’m a negotiator, like you folks,” he said while discussing what he considers to be the failures of the recent nuclear deal struck with Iran.
“Is there anyone in this room who doesn’t negotiate deals?” he later asked. “Probably more than any room I’ve ever spoken.” You know — because it’s full of Jews.
His most powerful misstep, however, occurred when he waffled on the question of whether Jerusalem should remain undivided. “I don’t know if Israel has the commitment to make it,” he said. Time’s Zeke Miller said that at that point, “you could hear a pin drop.”
Also, he criticized Israeli policy with regards to Palestinians and refused to say that Jerusalem should be an undivided capital
, so talk about not playing to your audience. (I'd give him credit for that, but it's Trump, he'll contradict himself on it sometime next week, at the latest.)
Trump is like a sadistic clown and you guys keep giving him space as if he was a human being whose life and opinions mattered.
I am thoroughly amused, as well as grateful, that I do not have to personally deal with him.
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothesThat's the thing: ISIL may get Trump elected President. But the mainstream GOP is terrified of him, because they think he'll not only lose the White House but sabotage all the down-ticket races as voters' disgust for him makes them abandon the Republican ballot wholesale.
I'm totally down for that to happen, of course, but existential fear can do crazy things to an election.
edited 4th Dec '15 1:38:13 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"He's done similar things with "the blacks". He is so hilariously self-centered that he cannot recognize when his treatment of a group is blatantly offensive. Again, this makes him a great match for his supporters.
edited 4th Dec '15 1:57:15 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

With that in mind it does seem like a weird ass combination.
The husband was not radicalized, the wife was. His motive seemed to be one personal, hers one of terrorism. Or maybe his was a weird ass case of Love makes you a terrorist"
Not the most romantic honeymoon to end in a pool of blood.
edited 4th Dec '15 8:38:55 AM by Aszur
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes