Sound The TRUMPets! A Thread for Presidential Pondering 2016-2020(?)

[Daverz]

This excellent journal article absolutely nails the issues:

http://www.spiked-online.com/spiked-review/article/the-revolt-against-the-masses/20943

Thanks, I'll pass on being lectured on elitism by Tories.

[milk]

This excellent journal article absolutely nails the issues:

http://www.spiked-online.com/spiked-review/article/the-revolt-against-the-masses/20943

Is that Dinesh D'souza...? Oh no, some other dude with the same talking points. "Liberals" are so antidemocratic but meanwhile the right loves that gerrymandering, kicking people off the roles, limiting access, etc. etc. Obama had no scandals because of a media conspiracy, not because he was fairly disciplined or even boring. Poor Fred Siegel, poor Rudolf Giuliani. I'm sympathetic with his critique of identity politics. But he can't say "liberals" are a bunch of elitists AND anti-intellectuals at the same time. I do think it's interesting how anti-libertarian these pro-Tump guys are. I don't know if they're right or wrong really. They seem to think that if America never traded with China it'd be a powerhouse of good jobs and benefits. I have not idea if it's true but that's what the left-of-the-left thinks too. My far-left friends on FB are always defending Tump against the Russia stuff.

"Obamacare was a transfer of money from the middle class to the subsidised poor and illegal immigrants." Is that issue really nailed? I always thought Obama-care was basically the right wing plan before the right wing fell off the flat-earth. I live in a country (in Asia) these days where everyone gets healthcare. It's NOT a "left-wing" country. Just sensible. Only in America can kicking the sick to the curb pass as nailing" the issues. 

[Rinaldo]

before the right wing fell off the flat-earth..

Beautiful. And spot on.

[Karl Henning]

And on that theme:

Holocaust denier running for Congress has no opponents in Republican primary

[Karl Henning]

The jackass of a bully touts himself as a "negotiator";  and jackass voters swallow his line.

Trump's diplomacy is all about the ultimatum. That could spell disaster.

[Christabel]

That's a "journal article" is it? (Whoops, there's my elitism showing).

Tell me : which class or classes do you think the "liberals" come from?

The journal self-identifies as "left".  Here is its editor and it's the same story about the repressive liberal left.  Ironic isn't it?  But, whatever you do, make sure your emotion is your guide and close your ears and eyes to an alternative narrative.  Absolutely hilarious to consider Brendan O'Neill being an elite or a Tory!!  Same with their other contributors. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHfEdx1z6x4

[Florestan]

Absolutely hilarious to consider Brendan O'Neill being an elite or a Tory!!  Same with their other contributors. 

According to Wikipedia:

1. [Spiked] was founded in 2000 after the bankruptcy of its predecessor, Living Marxism (LM).

2. Living Marxism was a British magazine, originally launched in 1988 as the journal of the British Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). It was later rebranded as LM and ceased publication in March 2000 following a successful libel lawsuit brought by the British Independent Television News (ITN).[1][2] It was promptly resurrected as Spiked, an Internet magazine.

3. The Revolutionary Communist Party, known as the Revolutionary Communist Tendency until 1981, was a Trotskyist organisation formed in 1978. After 1991, the party metamorphosed from a self-professed Trotskyist group into one which publicly took a libertarian humanist position. It was disbanded in 1997, although a number of former members maintain a loose political network to promote its ideas.



Looks like a typical case of "right-wing deviationism" from the "true" left. 

[Karl Henning]

.

[amw]

It's nothing that hasn't been said better by e.g. Jacobin Magazine or the DSA people tbh. Not that I'm personally a fan of either one, but, you know. Better than the alternatives probably.

Yes, liberalism obviously is a movement of the rich and powerful, and offers no alternative to fascism. It never has. What used to be called the petty bourgeoisie and I guess now we call the small business class, as well as the class of workers apparently invented in the 21st century that has been dubbed the "precariat" and basically includes independent/casual contractors and temporary workers who have no stability or career path, are losing their livelihoods due to the relentless race to the bottom of global capitalism, and liberalism—a system that upholds global capitalism as the greatest good—is obviously not going to do anything for them, so they'll look for alternatives. Right now that's fascism, as well as some highly watered down forms of socialism in places like the UK and Greece (and which has more or less collapsed in places like Venezuela and Brazil because it turns out market socialism is a good way to funnel wealth and power into the hands of the already powerful).

The whole "identity politics" thing all these white male leftists are blaming for the collapse of leftist movements is risible. All "identity politics" are at core about economic, political and human rights, i.e., basically the things all left ideologies hope to achieve. Critiques of "identity politics" basically all come down to upper middle class white people whining that some political movement isn't putting them front and centre at all times. ("Criticising us for granting leadership positions to police officers is unnecessarily divisive and a symptom of identity politics!" - DSA members, apparently)

Also yeah, I'm not a doctrinaire leftist by any means but Trots are kind of a joke     

(Not as bad as Stalinists but I guess herpes is not as bad as gonorrhea either)

[milk]

It's nothing that hasn't been said better by e.g. Jacobin Magazine or the DSA people tbh. Not that I'm personally a fan of either one, but, you know. Better than the alternatives probably.

Yes, liberalism obviously is a movement of the rich and powerful, and offers no alternative to fascism. It never has. What used to be called the petty bourgeoisie and I guess now we call the small business class, as well as the class of workers apparently invented in the 21st century that has been dubbed the "precariat" and basically includes independent/casual contractors and temporary workers who have no stability or career path, are losing their livelihoods due to the relentless race to the bottom of global capitalism, and liberalism—a system that upholds global capitalism as the greatest good—is obviously not going to do anything for them, so they'll look for alternatives. Right now that's fascism, as well as some highly watered down forms of socialism in places like the UK and Greece (and which has more or less collapsed in places like Venezuela and Brazil because it turns out market socialism is a good way to funnel wealth and power into the hands of the already powerful).

The whole "identity politics" thing all these white male leftists are blaming for the collapse of leftist movements is risible. All "identity politics" are at core about economic, political and human rights, i.e., basically the things all left ideologies hope to achieve. Critiques of "identity politics" basically all come down to upper middle class white people whining that some political movement isn't putting them front and centre at all times. ("Criticising us for granting leadership positions to police officers is unnecessarily divisive and a symptom of identity politics!" - DSA members, apparently)

Also yeah, I'm not a doctrinaire leftist by any means but Trots are kind of a joke     

(Not as bad as Stalinists but I guess herpes is not as bad as gonorrhea either)

Which particular "identities" lack political rights in America? If the critique of identity politics is laughable, how will identity politics specifically advance economic or political rights? I'd like to agree but some specific examples might help. I'm curious what economic program you advise to thread the difference between race-to-the-bottom capitalism and market socialism. Living in Asia, I can see how much improvement there is in some countries over the last decades and I wonder if this is a zero-sum game or if there is an alternative tide to lift all boats.

[Karl Henning]

Well, another bad, testosterone-driven decision from a dysfunctional White House:

Not even Gowdy would accept the premise that the FISA warrant affected the rest of the investigation: "So to the extent the memo deals with the dossier and the FISA process, the dossier has nothing to do with the meeting at Trump Tower. The dossier has nothing to do with an email sent by Cambridge Analytica. The dossier really has nothing to do with George Papadopoulos's meeting in Great Britain. It also doesn't have anything to do with obstruction of justice. So there's going to be a Russia probe, even without a dossier."

Even on Fox News, the designated Republican, Rep. Chris Stewart (Utah), backpedaled. "I think it would be a mistake for anyone to suggest the special counsel should not continue his work. This memo, frankly, has nothing at all to do with the special counsel." You know, if you can't find a booster to spin on Fox News, it's probably not going well for Republicans.

[SimonNZ]

The journal self-identifies as "left".  Here is its editor and it's the same story about the repressive liberal left.  Ironic isn't it?  But, whatever you do, make sure your emotion is your guide and close your ears and eyes to an alternative narrative.  Absolutely hilarious to consider Brendan O'Neill being an elite or a Tory!!  Same with their other contributors. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHfEdx1z6x4

More from Wikipedia:

Views

In his 2012 Huffington Post article titled 'If You Were Abused By Jimmy Savile, Maybe You Should Keep It to Yourself',[3] O'Neill argued against victims of sexual abuse by high-profile individuals coming forward publicly, arguing that "I think there is more virtue in keeping the abuse as a firm part of your past, rather than offering it up to a scandal-hungry media and abuse-obsessed society that are desperate for more episodes of perversion to pore over".[3]

O'Neill has criticised the notion of tackling global warming by solely reducing carbon emissions, and instead advocates technological progress as a method of overcoming any side-effects of climate change.[4] In January 2006, he co-founded the Manifesto Club, an organisation "with the aim of challenging cultural trends that restrain and stifle people's aspirations and initiative".[citation needed] He considers efforts to combat racism in football to be "a class war" driven by "elites' utter incomprehension of the mass passions that get aired at football matches".[5] Referring to high-profile cases of racial abuse and alleged racial abuse, he argued, "these incidents and alleged incidents are not racism at all, in the true meaning of the word", due to the levels of passion involved, describing anti-racism efforts as "a pretty poisonous desire to police the ... working classes".[5]

O'Neill has described himself as "an atheistic libertarian". He is opposed to the legalization of same-sex marriage in Australia, arguing that it has been "attended by authoritarianism wherever it's been introduced"[6] and criticised opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom as intolerant and fearmongering.[7]

O'Neill and others associated with the Revolutionary Communist Party, Living Marxism and Spiked—including Frank Furedi, Mick Hume and Claire Fox—are often seen by commenters such as Nick Cohen[8] as having shifted from a far left position to an extreme stance on the libertarian right. Although O'Neill still insists that he is part of the left,[9] critics such as George Monbiot have suggested that this is typical as a ploy adopted by those associated with the RCP to split and discredit consensus upon the left[10] and to cause impediments for such movements as environmentalism and the reduction of carbon emissions.[11]

O'Neill has served as a visiting fellow and columnist with the Australian libertarian think-tank, the Centre for Independent Studies,[12] as well as being a keynote speaker for the pro-Israel advocacy organisation StandWithUs.[13]

[Florestan]

More from Wikipedia:

O'Neill and others associated with the Revolutionary Communist Party, Living Marxism and Spiked—including Frank Furedi, Mick Hume and Claire Fox—are often seen by commenters such as Nick Cohen[8] as having shifted from a far left position to an extreme stance on the libertarian right. Although O'Neill still insists that he is part of the left,[9] critics such as George Monbiot have suggested that this is typical as a ploy adopted by those associated with the RCP to split and discredit consensus upon the left[10] and to cause impediments for such movements as environmentalism and the reduction of carbon emissions.[11]

Just like I said: right-wing deviationists.   

[Karl Henning]

Maybe Republicans should have thought this through before their lemming-like trek over the political cliff with Nunes.

[Karl Henning]

Heckuva job, Donald!

Dow drops more than 300 points at opening, as frenzied sell-off of stocks continues

The pullback came on the heels of Friday's 666-point Dow decline. Foreign indexes were down across the board amid worries over inflation and rising U.S. Treasury bond yields....

[Daverz]

The journal self-identifies as "left".  Here is its editor and it's the same story about the repressive liberal left.  Ironic isn't it?  But, whatever you do, make sure your emotion is your guide and close your ears and eyes to an alternative narrative.  Absolutely hilarious to consider Brendan O'Neill being an elite or a Tory!!  Same with their other contributors. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHfEdx1z6x4

No wonder I got confused.  Being lectured to by Trots would be even more tiresome.

And and on the emotion dig, GFY.

[Christabel]

Another group weighs in;  all these critiques are headed your way and there won't be anything stopping any of this!!  It's an idea whose time has come:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/resilience-bullying/201802/the-meteoric-rise-professor-jordan-peterson

[Karl Henning]

Heckuva job, Donald!

Dow drops more than 300 points at opening, as frenzied sell-off of stocks continues

The pullback came on the heels of Friday's 666-point Dow decline. Foreign indexes were down across the board amid worries over inflation and rising U.S. Treasury bond yields....

Update!

Dow falls more than 600 points, as stock markets suffer second big slide in a row

The Dow has retreated more than 1,000 points in the last two sessions, a decline pushing 5 percent and shattering long-term momentum.

[bwv 1080]

Update!

Dow falls more than 600 points, as stock markets suffer second big slide in a row

The Dow has retreated more than 1,000 points in the last two sessions, a decline pushing 5 percent and shattering long-term momentum.

I don't see how the US stock market falling back to the level it traded at way back in December 2017 constitutes "shattering long-term momentum"

[Baron Scarpia]

Update!

Dow falls more than 600 points, as stock markets suffer second big slide in a row

The Dow has retreated more than 1,000 points in the last two sessions, a decline pushing 5 percent and shattering long-term momentum.

Careful, it's starting to sound as though you are gloating over financial losses.

That said, it will be interesting to see how the Trump crowd managed to give Trump credit for the run-up and somehow blame Obama for the correction...