Tag: Political Discourse

Give Credit Where Credit Is Due

Out Fearless leader has been on a roll taking credit for everything from airline stats to Wall Street stats while some of it he should claim others he should just let it go and keep his Twitter fingers warm…..

But since he will not do that we should look at some of the situations that he, Trump, should take credit for………

Donald Trump is not telekinetic. His brain may be a medical marvel, but for terrible reasons, not because he can move objects with his mind. Nonetheless, Trump recently took credit for keeping airplanes all around the world from crashing in 2017.

“Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation,” the (I still can’t believe this person is) president tweeted Tuesday morning. “Good news – it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!”

Yet there hasn’t been a fatal airline crash in the U.S. since 2009, and the current head of the FAA is Obama appointee Michael Huerta. If we’re going to go around arbitrarily assigning credit for planes staying in the sky, maybe we should give it to the guy whose job description includes “the safety and efficiency of the largest aerospace system in the world.” Or maybe pilots, or possibly airplane mechanics. Or according to Trump’s logic, every single person in the world who took a flight this year, since I’m sure we all were “very strict” about our wish not to die in a plane crash.

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/6-things-trump-actually-deserves-credit

He be smart……after all he is a “stable genius”…….Give credit where credit is due……to take credit for something one did not actually do….is plain pathetic.

“The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword”

How many times have you heard that one simple statement?

Who is the mastermind behind that statement?

Is it really true?  Is the pen mightier than the sword?

“The pen is mightier than the sword.” This widely used saying, which originated in an 1839 play about Cardinal Richelieu written by novelist and playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton, has become so common as to border on platitude. And yet, these simple words reflect a clear and enduring principle: writing, and by association information, is more influential than military might.

To wield the power of the pen effectively one must have power behind it. That power can be in the form of military might but, does not have to be. And as the most powerful nation in the world—not just militarily, but economically, in terms of political influence, soft power, and by virtually any metric—the United States should be in a position to capitalize by wielding information in the service of US national interests. And yet, we’re not very good at it, objectively or compared to other governments. Why?

Source: The Un-Mighty American Pen | RealClearDefense

What say you?

Are You A Collectivist?

Anybody here ever watch Star Trek–The Next Generation?

If so then you will recall the Borg….the nemesis of the Federation.  But what were the Borg?

……Their existence is in the Collective where each drone was part of the collective consciousness……they all received the same thoughts and information from those that were assimilated…..

And that got me thinking about “collectivism”……

Scratch your head and repeat after me…..HUH?

These days someone is always labeling others with some insulting tag or another…..such as “globalist”, “socialist”, “Fascist”, “apologist”…..so why not “collectivist”?

So onto a definition…..trying not to confuse too many at one time…..

Collectivism is a form of anthropomorphism. It attempts to see a group of individuals as having a single identity similar to a person. The collective is claimed to have ideas, and can think. It has purpose, and it acts to achieve goals. It even has a personality, called culture. It claims to have moral rules the collective should follow. It claims to have collective rights, as well.

Since the collective is actually just individuals interacting, the collectivists have to change their views of individuals. They morally evaluate people according to the results of the collective. If the collective manages to accomplish something great like land on the moon, every individual is given equal credit. If a nation goes to war, everyone is to blame. And if an individual refuses to acknowledge the superiority of his collective, than he is a traitor and is eliminated. This is the result of collectivism.

Collectivism demands that the group be more important than the individual. It requires the individual to sacrifice himself for the alleged good of the group. Although different from altruism, collectivism complements it well. Altruism demands sacrifice for others, collectivism demands sacrifice for the group. Collectivism leads to altruism.

Now that you have a handle on what collectivism is all about…..we will move onto what brought about the thought process that gave you this post.

We have a new way of thinking about our place in this society…..first of all….America has always been great and these days it needs to find itself again

Those involved with the America First revival and the campaign to “make America great again” seem to be forgetting that America was made great in the first place with freedom. Personal freedom and civil liberties, and economic freedom with the protection of private property rights, freedom of contract and association, and especially free markets.

It was the philosophy of individualism upon which America was founded and in which the people had real freedom — and thus, prosperity.

unfortunately, Donald Trump’s collectivist agenda involves a mystical nationalism with policies of authoritarian governmental controls, certainly not promoting individualism and inviolable free markets.

Source: Are You A Collectivist?

I have noticed that some bloggers fall into this trap….they just repeat the lousy info they have assimilated….in essence they are part of the “hive”…the collective.

“Resistance is futile….You will be assimilated”……..would make a great slogan for Breibart and other hate filled sites.

Will Democrats Learn Anything About The Working Class?

This is the question that begs an answer.

Remember back to 2012 and the GOP was handed its ass by the Obama team and they set about having a party autopsy to see what went wrong….they identified all the areas that needed work and then ignored them all and kept doing the same silly shit they always do….and (poof) the Trump candidacy was born.

Fast forward to the 2016 election…the Dems had the perfect candidate, at least in their twisted little minds, and (poof) they had their asses handed to them…not even close to a good showing.

After their dismal showing in the election they set about trying to formulate a plan to win back the working class…but like the GOP it will be business as usual….money is in control and money will stay in control…..

This is a publicized look at what the Dems will probably not achieve…..

Appalachia and the industrial Midwest, like many places in the US, have their history of racism and sexism. But Donald Trump’s victory is not due solely to race and misogyny and, if the Democrats want to rebound, they must be careful not to draw the wrong conclusions.

Journalist Sarah Jones tells Jeff Schechtman that she is afraid that Democrats and others may be learning the wrong lessons. While people like J.D. Vance argue that the answer is to promote conservative culture and respond to the “crisis of masculinity” and Horatio Alger mythology, the problem is that taking the cultural perspective may be playing directly into the liberal elitist view of a region of “deplorables.”

Source: Will Democrats Learn All the Wrong Lessons about the Working Class? – WhoWhatWhy

I agree with the author…the Dems have lost their way and money is the only direction they will follow….just like the GOP.

Is The “Populist” Uprising Over?

Now that the 2016 election is over and we have a winner…..the big question now is with all the populist movement, both Left and Right, will they continue….or is this a dead subject….are they over with the election?

The summer ends with a growing lament among progressives. Tom Frank’s cutting voice sums it up:

“And so ends the great populist uprising of our time, fizzling out pathetically in the mud and the bigotry stirred up by a third-rate would-be caudillo named Donald J Trump. So closes an era of populist outrage that began back in 2008, when the Davos dream of a world run by benevolent bankers first started to crack. The unrest has taken many forms in these eight years – from idealistic to cynical, from Occupy Wall Street to the Tea Party – but they all failed to change much of anything.  And now the last, ugliest, most fraudulent manifestation is failing so spectacularly that it may discredit populism itself for years to come.”

Like many on the left, Frank has few hopes for Hillary Clinton. She’ll be the ultimate Davos moderate, he predicts, collecting neo-conservatives and Republican elites, negotiating backroom deals to “get things done.” The elites, shaken by the Sanders insurgency and the Trump rise, are now back in the saddle.

Source: The Populist Uprising Isn’t Over—It’s Only Just Begun | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community

We will see if these movements can continue after the voting is done….

I think that the movement has only just begun….but I have been mistaken before…..

But just what causes these times of popular revolt?

Easy answer….bungled wars, uneven growth and insecurity.

Does any of that sound familiar?

I believe the “populist” movement is here to stay….at least until the American people get some answers that makes sense to them.

Thoughts?

Why Doesn’t The Military Speak Up?

I have heard this statement or should I say question asked many times….if they see something wrong why do they not speak up?

For one, they serve at the discretion of the president and most like their jobs so they smile and do what they are told….ever noticed that the generals that make the news are all retired before they speak up?

There is a big reason why….read on……

Blindspots mean no truth-telling until after retirement.

The United States is now engaged in perpetual war with victory nowhere in sight.  Iraq is chaotic and scarred. So, too, is Libya. Syria barely exists. After 15 years, “progress” in Afghanistan has proven eminently reversible as efforts to rollback recent Taliban gains continue to falter. The Islamic State may be fracturing, but its various franchises are finding new and horrifying ways to replicate themselves and lash out. Having spent trillions of dollars on war with such sorry results, it’s a wonder that key figures in the U.S. military or officials in any other part of America’s colossal national security state and the military-industrial complex (“the Complex” for short) haven’t spoken out forcefully and critically about the disasters on their watch.

Source: Why the Military Brass Can’t Face the Colossal Failure of Perpetual War | Alternet

What about military personnel?

When I was serving a soldier could not participate in any political campaign while in uniform….that included protests or rallies……

I’ve often wondered, can people who have spent their lives working in an institution, particularly in the military or some other part of the national security state, retire and suddenly see that same institution in a different and far more negative light?  Once outside, they become, in essence, critics of […]

Source: Why It’s So Hard for Members of the Military to Speak Out – Antiwar.com Original by — Antiwar.com

A military person cannot be seen as showing favoritism for one side or the other while on active duty…..a soldier has a duty no matter the political leanings to carry out the orders of his commanders……any questioning of that authority will get them subject to punishment under the UCMJ…..

What they do in the voting booth is another matter……between him and his conscience…..

He Doesn’t Believe in “American Exceptionalism”

American Exceptionalism is a term that many Americans grasp eagerly……I have written a couple of times on the subject in the past…….most heartily embraced by the Right as a leading characteristic of their neocon movement….

But to refresh your memory about those that I posted….

https://lobotero.com/2015/03/06/the-real-american-exceptionalism-the-unz-review/

https://lobotero.com/2015/03/13/its-time-to-rethink-american-exceptionalism-the-nation/

https://lobotero.com/2016/02/19/flies-under-the-banner-of-american-exceptionalism/

Those were a few presses with my on-going commentary…..

Most Americans have no idea where the term originated…..was it just always so or was there a point where it became the “in term”?

American Exceptionalism was widely used during the administration of Woodrow Wilson……

Wilson’s idealism was firmly grounded in the belief that the United States was a nation set apart by its values and principles from the rest of the world. He believed strongly that the “force of America is the force of moral principle” and that the “idea of America is to serve humanity.” Long before he became president, Wilson wrote of his conviction that the United States had a “plain destiny [to] serve [rather than] subdue the world.” Later, as president, he would contend that this destiny to serve was the only possible motivation for American actions in the world. Wilson held that “morality not expediency” must be the guiding principle of all American policy. He applied this principle to the use of American military force. As Frederick Calhoun argues, Wilson “showed no aversion to fighting if the end justified the means.” As Wilson stated, he believed that while other nations used force “for the oppression of mankind and their own aggrandizement,” the United States would use force only “for the elevation of the spirit of the human race.”

(You may thank me for the historical perspective by sending a donation to your local humane society)

Not many people were thrilled when I disputed the term….and now it seems that Trump is not a big fan of the term either…..will be interesting to see if the Right will buck him on this……

“I don’t think it’s a very nice term.

2012, the Republican Party was so hot to hype its love of “American exceptionalism” that it devoted one of the party platform’s seven sections to this notion. In this document, the GOP proclaimed that it embraced “American exceptionalism—the conviction that our country holds a unique place in human history.” But with Donald Trump now the Republicans’ presumptive presidential nominee, the party may have to delete this doctrine from the platform it will be constructing at its upcoming convention in Cleveland, because Trump has explicitly declared that he does not believe in American exceptionalism.

Source: Donald Trump Says He Doesn’t Believe in “American Exceptionalism” | Mother Jones

I cannot wait to see if there is any blow back….or if the Right wimps out and just rides along on the coattails of Trump….my guess is that they will just ignore it and keep fondling the Trump ego.

What do you think the outcome will be?

Why you should always cast a suspicious eye on American power

Most of us Americans are proud to be a citizen of this country….,the problem is, as I see it, NO one is willing to question the US and its actions for fear of being labelled somehoe…..you know being political correct or worse a traitor for not blindly supporting the various interventions of conquest…..and make NO mistake these are conquest…maybe not in land area but something is gained for the situation.

Over the weekend Daniel Drezner, professor at Tufts University and writer for The Washington Post, got into an interesting debate with a number of leftists on Twitter. The question at issue was worldwide American military hegemony: Is it good or bad? Drezner took the “good” position, while Adam Johnson of Alternet took the contrary view.

Both sides make some pretty good points. But regardless of one’s position on the American empire, anyone in Drezner’s position must recognize a basic duty to keep a suspicious eye on government activity — especially when it involves the use of force.

When in doubt, call for more oversight

Source: Why you should always cast a suspicious eye on American power

I believe that all Americans should question their government’s involvement internationally……they should asked what is to be gained….and by whom?

Trump, The Bush Slayer

I know it is too early to care about the 2016 election and the GOP circus of errors….but there is something that I just cannot turn away from…..the Trump V Bush saga……

Recently Trump accused GW as NOT keeping the country safe….simply based on the fact that he was president when the attack happened……I can see where he is coming from on this….I mean if anything that happens is Obama fault simply because he is prez…….. then……. why not GW?

Of course Jeb took the bait and lashed out at Trump in defense of his brother…..when that happened I said then that Trump had set a trap for Jeb…..gets him defending his brother and not talking about his policies and plans….kinda brilliant.

Donald Trump continued his recent attacks on the Bush family by implying today that he would have prevented the 9/11 attacks, CNN reports. The Republican presidential contender said on Fox News Sunday that he’s “extremely, extremely tough on immigration,” which may have thwarted the 9/11 terrorists. “There’s a good chance that those people would not have been in our country,” says Trump. (The Guardian, however, notes that all of the terrorists legally entered the US on tourist or business visas—except one, who used a student visa.) “I’m not blaming George Bush,” adds Trump. “But I don’t want Jeb Bush to say, ‘My brother kept us safe,’ because September 11 was one of the worst days in the history of this country.” Cue the reactions:

  • “My brother responded to a crisis, and he did it as you would hope a president would do,” says Jeb Bush on State of the Union. “He united the country, he organized our country and he kept us safe. … And I don’t know why [Trump] keeps bringing this up.”
  • “I would probably ask [Trump] what he meant by that. I seriously doubt that he’s saying that—that George W. Bush is to blame for [9/11],” says Carson, per ABC News. “I certainly—I certainly don’t think so.”

And Jeb recently fired back at Trump (who’s been attacking the Bush brothers on Twitter) with a video that mocks Trump as a foreign-policy lightweight while fanciful clarinet music plays in the background.

Jeb is suppose to be an astute politician…..after all that has been said by Trump about Jeb…..he, Jeb, should have seen this coming and prepared for it…..he did not and he will be destroyed……

If you followed political headlines over the last few days, you know that Donald Trump has been going after Jeb Bush by attacking his brother. After noting that 9/11 occurred on George W. Bush’s watch, Trump boasted that his policies would have prevented the attacks. Essentially blaming Bush for 9/11 is “laughable,” but it’s also “brilliant politics,” writes Ben White at CNBC. In a post at Vox, Ezra Klein has a similar take. Even if Trump doesn’t end up the nominee, “it’s increasingly clear he’s going to destroy Jeb Bush before he loses.” Trump has realized that Bush’s biggest weakness is his brother, and he’s relentlessly piling on. On Twitter, Trump asked, “Jeb, why did your brother attack and destabalize the Middle East by attacking Iraq when there were no weapons of mass destruction? Bad info?”

Bush, meanwhile, is defending his brother while twisting himself in knots trying to answer questions like this one from CNN’s Jake Tapper regarding 9/11: “If your brother and his administration bear no responsibility at all, how do you then make the jump that President Obama and Secretary Clinton are responsible for what happened at Benghazi?” Trump is reminding Republicans that if they choose Jeb Bush, they’ll have to answer questions like that one—and answer for George Bush’s polices—all through the general election, writes Klein. Click for his full column.

Trump may well not be the nominee……and he is doing everything possible to make Jeb damaged goods so that he will not be the nominee either……

Plus Jeb is destroying himself……

Source: Jake Tapper stuns Jeb Bush: If your brother is blameless for 9/11 why is Hillary Clinton responsible for Benghazi? – Salon.com

Like I have said….kinda brilliant!