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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
@Wolfenmaus, works for me. My thanks, sir thief. As for your responses:
My concerns are:
- the checks and balances system of our constitution is a 200 years old system that evolved based upon court decisions (like non-delegation doctrine), ad hoc laws (like civil service reform), and traditions (like giving audience to widely recognized, legitimate pres outlet and either informing or misleading voters with actual if misleading data rather than outright falsehoods). Even a originally designed it did not anticipate the rise of parties (who may concentrate power in, recently the presidency, because loyalty to party has superseded the loyalty to institution—Congress, court, executive—that was supposed to safeguard against tyranny.
- In any case, the constitution is parchment and ink. It only works because the people in charge of carrying in out show it some kind of fidelity. I can't expect that from one who has broken so many norms already.
- The crime demographics are largely driven by whom police and prosecutor decide to go after, and the perception i not helped by cultural bias. (The hole looter or forager thing from New Orleans a while back is a good example). Drug use, for example isn't significantly higher among black communities than other. The type of drug use surely affect the sentence though, and here police expect to find drug affects who gets sentenced at all (and that statistics look like). Crime demographics are also driven by the fact that the Drug War in general decimated black communities and the standard "law and order" approach aggravates the problem.
- I was referring to Jeff Sessions, not the cabinet in general. Though, Ms. De Vos showed stunning incompetence. I haven't vetted the others; though the other posters can tell you. I can't really say I'm happy with anti-government types being put in charge of administering the government in general.
- For the deplorables comment, well even Ms. Samantha Bee thought that was a mistake. And I can certainly see the cause for offense, but that assignment wasn't arbitrary and they're not moral equivalents. The basket of deplorables became such because of their loudly spoken values and they could not be picked out by sight but by their actions. And that comment was hyperbole and qualified. She said half of his supporters were such, probably as an ill-judged divide and conquer / appeal to decency thing. note That said, I'm not settled on what I can say about someone who supports Trump and my live-and-let-live net is very wide.
- He isn't Hitler, but he didn't campaign on unity and togetherness and the intrinsic value and liberty of every human being either. The bedrock of his campaign was singling out scapegoats. Even if a supporter thought he was just kidding about everything he said, and committed to the old Republican line, it's not like what he said didn't happen or say, inspire myriad hate crimes across the nation. That's the guy who perhaps a generation of kids will be growing up under, and dehumanization needs words alone. note The transition team's comments on Japanese Internment camps technically being precedent for their plans for Muslims and the people that the president has chosen for his inner circle, like Sessions and Bannon, keep me alert. Its not for nothing that "fascist" is being thrown around now, without coming afoul of Godwin's Law.
- The polling data didn't even support Trump's appeal to the poor. His victory relied apparently relied upon an anxious middle class (which again follows historical precedent) and his campaign seemed to have organized a large number of whites into an ethnic voting bloc.
- And popular sovereignty is actively being chipped away by, among other things, voting restrictions, large segments of the population being reclassified as "unamerican," and a culture of cynicism toward government and public life in general. Popular Sovereignty is, after all, just another idea, that must be actively cultivated by the culture. The Presidency of a man who claimed "I alone can fix it" doesn't seem right to help that idea along. And a tried and true method of undermining popular sovereignty is divide and rule.
- An amazing number of civil liberties (from Miranda rights to same-sex marriage) depend on whose heart's beating on the Supreme Court bench. They're not insurmountable and, in fact, Shelby County v. Holder indicates that they're still being rolled back as much as gained.
- If you please, you must explain this one to me: "The amount of military intervention against scientific development is worrying, and needs to be balanced."
edited 20th Jan '17 3:07:13 PM by CenturyEye
Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our livesWhich, as we've gone over before, is primarily motivated by wanting to shut down all of NASA's climate research.
Not to mention that one of the few things on the White House website is “making our military strong again," and I'm not even sure what that will look like. More spending? More wars? Hell, if more parades are all we need to make people shut up about it, then I say we go full Soviet bombast.
edited 20th Jan '17 3:03:13 PM by Eschaton
Comments about what people were saying at the inauguration
Everywhere you go people in Trump and Clinton gear are segregated, staring daggers. Not a comfortable scene by any measure.
Man in Deplorable Me shirt, pointing at protestors and National Guard: Itd serve these idiots right if these fellas opened fire
Man in Trump gear with family, walking by protestors: "Got to make sure I don't drop my wallet so a bunch of faggots don't bump up on me"
You can't walk a few feet without hearing a racial or homophobic slur
I'm staring at the Capitol, waiting on a president to be sworn in, listening to a guy complain about "the gays." It's 2017.
Sign I just saw confiscated: Obama's lucky he's leaving before WE MADE him leave.
Obama leaving, vocalizing Trump as revenge. They're reveling in sending him as punishment, not governance
so many words, that this is about spitting liberals and multiculturalism. They're celebrating it openly.
Two men walk by holding hands, someone yells "it's not your country anymore"
Somebody talking loudly about how Russia didn't hack election, that Obama was installed by China.
Guys catcalling female police officer: Hey sexy, over here
"Hope the illegals get their fun in cause they got three hours before they're shipped back to Mejico."
High schoolers walking by, guy near me to his buddy: "I don't care if she's fifteen, she's got the twins out"
This isn't about left and right, Democrat or Republican, this is about two very different strains of Americans. It's about prideful hate.
Guy yelling Thank Allah Obama's gone! Cheers, laughter, high-fives.
Man screaming that Obama's not welcome here. Says go back to Chicago, someone yelled Kenya, another Arabia. Someone yells "fuck him"
Never ceases to amaze me how much pleasure Trump supporters always show in calling Obama racial slurs. It's pure, unadulterated joy.
Guy wearing a Confederate flag bandanna pointed to it as protestors with LGBTQ signs walked by and said, "This means you're not welcome"
Somebody walked by with a sign calling Trump a racist, supporter tried to start something, another supporter stepped in and stopped it.
Such a weird divide. Trump supporters are just jubilant. So many downtrodden protestors. Couldn't be a better metaphor for 2017 America.
Someone watching video of Obama: You don't have to go back home to Africa but you can't stay here.
It's so cold and miserable.
@Filibuster: Aren't we in danger of Too Awesome to Use?
edited 20th Jan '17 3:21:20 PM by TheHandle
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.![]()
Most Filibustering Options were removed by Democrats in 2008-2010. There's only one Filibuster Option left: For Supreme Court Nominees...
Oh, come on! They couldn't leave the Youtube Videos alone for Historical and Research Purposes? Really. That's just so petty.
edited 20th Jan '17 3:29:50 PM by DingoWalley1
I didn't see that one coming, but then book burning is so 20th century I suppose...
Does internet archive work for youtube videos?
edited 20th Jan '17 3:42:25 PM by CenturyEye
Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our lives
The scientists were also Genre Savvy enough to back up the data and take it with them, too.
Yeah.
Also: Good news everybody! a lot of it is safe here
. Until Trump starts rewriting the site, I guess.
It was never about the job opportunities or the “tells it like it is” or the government at ALL
This thing, this whole damn thing, was just whiplash
This is just people that hate the “progressives” and “political correctness” SO DAMN MUCH they push for monsters like Trump just to see them crumble
This is all just revenge on women and poc and LGBT for being all up in their faces
That’s the “great” America they want back

Mad Dog is the most sane choice...well relative to his other pics
New Survey coming this weekend!