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

Started by kishnevi, November 09, 2016, 06:04:39 PM

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Karl Henning

Columbine was 19 years ago.

And now that the Congress is GOP-controlled, nothing, but nothing, is going to be done about this problem.  Except the fatuous sending of "thoughts & prayers."
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Florestan

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on February 16, 2018, 01:32:06 AM
Columbine was 19 years ago.

And now that the Congress is GOP-controlled, nothing, but nothing, is going to be done about this problem.  Except the fatuous sending of "thoughts & prayers."

My question is: in all these 19 years, has the Congress ever been controlled by the Democrats? If yes, what did they do to address the problem?
"Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part." - Claude Debussy

71 dB

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on February 16, 2018, 01:32:06 AM
Columbine was 19 years ago.

And now that the Congress is GOP-controlled, nothing, but nothing, is going to be done about this problem.  Except the fatuous sending of "thoughts & prayers."

I think Cenk Uygur (or was it Ana Kasparian?) said it best: "Instead of building the wall, we should send out our thoughts & prayers to the Mexican border and hope nobody crosses it illegally."
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Karl Henning

Quote from: Florestan on February 16, 2018, 01:35:25 AM
My question is: in all these 19 years, has the Congress ever been controlled by the Democrats? If yes, what did they do to address the problem?

Little enough, yes, Andrei.  Consider this in the light of the line in JRR Tolkien's foreword to The Lord of the Rings: "When those whose advice I sought corrected little hope to no hope . . . ."
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Florestan

"Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part." - Claude Debussy

Karl Henning

Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Florestan

"Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part." - Claude Debussy

Karl Henning

Quote from: Florestan on February 16, 2018, 03:53:28 AM
Thanks. Very informative. It seems that nothing is going to change.

Only the body count will increase.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Florestan

QuoteWithout an armed citizenry, the government will have an easier time suppressing people's rights.

This is nonsense. In the contemporary world people would need not only firearms, but also armored vehicles, ballistic missiles and even nukes to be any match for the government.
"Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part." - Claude Debussy

milk

Quote from: Florestan on February 16, 2018, 04:05:59 AM
This is nonsense. In the contemporary world people would need not only firearms, but also armored vehicles, ballistic missiles and even nukes to be any match for the government.
My cousin has even sillier justifications for being anti-gun control. It'd be easy to defeat his arguments but it wouldn't change his stance because I think these are not the real reasons. They like guns. They enjoy them and in reality all these deaths are a price they're willing to pay for unlimited access to guns for everyone. I'm not against guns on principle or the hunting culture. There's certainly a way to do it much more responsibly (see the Canadians). At the same time, I'm glad to live in a place where there are nearly 0 guns out and about. 

Karl Henning

There is no arguing the ammosexuals out of their obsession with heat.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Florestan

What is funny is that the same guys who proclaim that an armed citizenry would discourage the government from encroaching upon their rights are usually quite vocal about how the federal government has been for decades expanding its powers over society.
"Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part." - Claude Debussy

André

An interesting correlation, Karl. I wonder if this quasi sexual fetishness has been discussed/analyzed ? The gun acting as a proxy for alienated males. A nation sitting on a powder keg...

Karl Henning

American Nationalists Are Awfully Quiet about Russia

[...] Meanwhile, it is now an accepted fact that the Russian government attempted to meddle in our elections and is planning on doing so again in 2018 and beyond. Members of the [El Tupé] administration, with the notable exception of the president himself, are unequivocally blunt about this. But where is the outrage from the nationalist caucus?

To be fair, National Review has issued stern editorials. But most of the rah-rah nationalists on cable, talk radio, and social media have been remarkably blasé about it, more interested in Hillary Clinton's misdeeds than those of a contemptuous foreign power. For some of the alt-right, the silence is understandable; many of them are simply fanboys (or clients) of Vladimir Putin.

But at least part of this outrage lacuna must be attributable to the distorting effects of partisanship. The Russians didn't win the 2016 election for [El Tupé], but the whole topic remains politically charged for him, and his refusal to squarely address this issue sends a powerful signal to his own party. So it gets downgraded to a mere technical challenge for the Deep State to handle. And maybe that's the right course.

But it does pose an interesting question: How powerful can nationalism be if it cannot overpower partisan loyalty?
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Mahlerian

Quote from: milk on February 16, 2018, 04:34:00 AM
My cousin has even sillier justifications for being anti-gun control. It'd be easy to defeat his arguments but it wouldn't change his stance because I think these are not the real reasons.

If one's opinion is based on emotion rather than reason, any removal of supporting evidence will cause that person to hold the opinion even more strongly.  It's unfortunately true of opinions around any subject, especially one that goes right to the core of one's self like politics.
"l do not consider my music as atonal, but rather as non-tonal. I feel the unity of all keys. Atonal music by modern composers admits of no key at all, no feeling of any definite center." - Arnold Schoenberg

Baron Scarpia

Quote from: Mahlerian on February 16, 2018, 07:16:19 AM
If one's opinion is based on emotion rather than reason, any removal of supporting evidence will cause that person to hold the opinion even more strongly.  It's unfortunately true of opinions around any subject, especially one that goes right to the core of one's self like politics.

...and atonality.  (Sorry)

Florestan

"Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part." - Claude Debussy

Mahlerian

"l do not consider my music as atonal, but rather as non-tonal. I feel the unity of all keys. Atonal music by modern composers admits of no key at all, no feeling of any definite center." - Arnold Schoenberg

zamyrabyrd

Quote from: André on February 15, 2018, 10:59:09 AM
White supremacist, Trump supporter and high school killer. Got his semi-automatic firearm from a fellow member of Republic of Florida.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/evidence-linking-alleged-shooter-to-white-supremacist-group-is-unraveling_us_5a860d74e4b004fc3190630c

"Law enforcement officials in Florida have reportedly not yet found ties between the Parkland school shooting suspect and the white supremacist paramilitary group Republic of Florida, despite claims from the group's leader. Those claims were widely circulated by news outlets on Thursday.

As of Thursday evening, it was seemingly too soon to say what might have motivated Nikolas Cruz, 19, to allegedly shoot at least 17 people to death at his former high school. It was likewise too soon to say whether Cruz held any white supremacist views. So far, though, the evidence linking him to this specific white supremacist group is thin. (We will update this story if that changes.) 

Jordan Jereb, an ROF leader, told the Anti-Defamation League on Thursday that Cruz participated in training exercises with the group, but that the group hadn't ordered Cruz to carry out the school shooting."


Also doesn't make sense that the ROF would encourage shooting up white people. Cruz was a bitter piece of work. His real father may be around somewhere but he was brought up by a stepfather who died several years ago and his mother last November. I always suspect a drug connection.
"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one."

― Charles MacKay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Karl Henning

Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot