The topic is clearly directed at Trump, the right and Trump supporters. We are well into 2 years of Trump and the predicted terrors of a Trump presidency has completely fallen flat. There is no impeachment. There is no treason. We are not extending wars. Ect... The reality is its just another day in America. Corruption from both sides, top to bottom. There are good people and there are bad people. For me, the crux of the issue is I have grown weary of listening to the nonstop berating of how awful Trump is. Its everywhere and much of it is all about 'what if-isms' and responding to his very obvious provocative tweets. How ignorant must a person be to not realize his entire purpose of tweeting is to simply cause outrage. Nothing else. Perhaps I simply like the pragmatic approach, much like Gabbard appears to take. Nothing worse being around people who b**** and whine about a problem and do absolutely nothing about it but b**** and whine. That is exactly what the OP's message is all about. No positive thoughts. No solutions. Just b****ing. Yes, we know Trump is a bad representative of this country. Most of us knew that before the election. Persuade me of the best solution ... besides 'its not Trump'. If people are truly tired of Trump, its time to start acting like we are moving past him. Because to be frank, this current narrative comes across as defeated and resigned to another 4 years of Trump.
Speak to people that you run into in person and try to have an intelligent conversation. It's rare. Well my experiences are with Americans so I can't speak to humanity generally. I do think it's depressing.
I'm going to go watch my special copy of "Up With People". Hope you are just having a bad day (yes, that came out weird) and tomorrow is better. I have found there are lots of interesting and intelligent people around even if we don't necessarily agree on everything. Done being Pollyanna. Peace.
Who cares about Trump? He is what he is and nothing PC you say will change it - I am pointing out why he got elected. If you want to change that in 2020, you won't keep trumpeting the same narrative. There is a reason America is where everyone wants to come . . . why they are responsible for the brain drain of many poor countries. Why so many people have been gaming the system for so long, hurting those who go about it legally. Rich people do not directly say how they feel and mean, there is a spin and pitch, prosperous Americans play dumb but know this... - this goes back to feudal times.
First of all. I hate PC so don't label me with that crap. I'm not talking PC BS. I'm talking about Trump and how he has shown that he treats people and their actions differently based on ethnicity. Stop dragging other crap into it. We can look at how Trump treats groups differently based on the color of their skin and ethnicity. Whether he is actually racist or not doesn't matter because he is playing to people that appreciate his bigoted actions.
He has always supported legal immigration - it is not his fault illegals are of a certain ethnicity. It is not his fault 60% of violent crime is committed by 6% of the population. There is a cause and effect that has to do with previous regimes (left and right), but the only way to overcome that is to draw a hard line on the illegal issue. If you cannot get that, then you are the cause of your own undoing.
Oh I'm not depressed. I just find it upsetting what my country has become. We've completely lost moral authority in the world.
Interesting the relevatory nature of your post. In the main, the things people say are more illustrative of themselves and their mindset than of their apparent object. Too, people frequently "find" what they seek, whether or not it is actually there. The OP's message is an appeal for all to be aware of the fundamental dynamics in play so that progress toward solution has at least a springboard. The reason for ongoing discussion of "how awful Trump is" is that the chief executive and the Senate majority who abandon their legislative and oversight responsibilities are the obstacles to solution. Solution begins with removing selfish rather than altruistic motives directing our national course, with removing contributions from lobbies, corporations, PACs to those in public service so that our public servants will represent the interests of their constituents instead of their donors. And in this rare case solution begins with putting an end to the practices of a chief executive whose choices are entirely a function of self-enrichment and brand-building to the detriment of our environment, economy, international standing and influence, and national security.
Yeah I guess all the employment sure is hurting people. Damn economy. The real truth though, and you may not want to believe this, is that Dems, Reps... the real people who control this country... none of them care about you! They care about themselves.
Understanding starts with awareness and I've always been fascinated with how people work. While some may see it as b****ing, I enjoy reading these type of posting. You may have all your faculties, but if you aren't aware of how you and other works, you might as well not have them.
The fact is that Trump treats crimes committed by different ethnicities differently. That's all there is to it.
Sure, OP is talking about Trump, but also describing a political science framework for thinking about Trump. And really I was being sincere in saying I think you're missing out by not reflecting on this dynamic being described of using populist appeal to gain power, using that power to increase misery, and then blaming that misery on others to gain more power. In Maduro's case, he's centralized a lot of power over the economy in a populist appeal to protect the working class from elites. He's damaged a lot of the economy in the process and created an absolute crisis, and then he blames that crisis on sabotage by the Americans in cahoots with these elites to rally support for his government. I think the model has some application to Trump -- particularly the way he makes the illegal immigration problem worse to justify harsher immigration policy -- but you don't have to think of it as just another piteous grievance of the liberals, unless you're feeling irrationally defensive of Trump. It's just a lens through which you can understand the dynamics of this presidency. Not going to persuade you of some solution (the solution is to pick a different president in 2020) because that was never my point. I'm not complaining, I'm trying to understand. And I think this framework is helpful.
There is a concerted effort to associate populism with autocracy by corporate media and other powers that be and to demonize grievances by common people. Narratives of how Sanders is a bolshevik, Trump is literally Hitler, Leave voters are racist xenophobes, and the Gilet jaunes movement is a Russian plot to agitate Le Pen voters try to sow fear, uncertainty, and doubt to keep people from straying from the status quo. That Trump hitched a ride on this trend is no secret, but with all bluster aside, it's largely for appearance. His actual policies have largely continued orthodox GOP continuity, and party leadership has largely conceded to his leadership for a good reason. Neo-cons run his foreign policy, and ex-Goldman Sachs CIO and hedge fund manager Steve Mnuchin passed confirmation as Treasury Secretary without too much fuss from the Senate. Maduro inherited the mantle of his predecessor movement, the Chavismo interpretation of Bolivarism, which depended upon money from its nationalised petro-industry to support its many programs for poor. Maduro inherited a country in an economic slump largely due to crashing oil prices in an undiversified economy that didn't work so well when oil traded on the cheap. Had the US not choked the nation out with crippling sanctions (including freezing billions of dollars in western banks) the situation would not be nearly so dire -- it's a more than legitimate complaint. The sanctions, as sanctions are, were designed to create misery and instability by starving people. Support for Maduro is largely along class lines -- the poor still support him and the rich largely don't, and that was the case even before sanctions and when oil prices were high. It should also be noted that despite the blistering criticism of yanqui foreign policy since Chavez was elected in 1999, the country actually offered to send millions of dollars of aid (food, water and millions of barrels of oil) to people affected by Katrina (which Bush refused). Trump exploits problems from within his base in order to "solve" them and performs in character in order to gain their assurances. This performative duplicity is not exactly a strategy he invented, other than his full kayfabe style. And he's really ****ing good at it -- down to the mocking character voices of taboo strawmen for his audiences. As long as keeps playing up the "heel" role as the "bad guy" who really infuriates the "enemies" of middle America, he'll keep his fanatical adoration. All he needs to succeed is to do the one thing he's good at: to be Donald Trump. It's faux populism at best, but it's in the great tradition of Reagan's Hollywood cowboy "protecting us from the government that's holding back our prosperity", Clinton's southern preacher that simultaneously "felt our pain" and dog whistled angst about urban "super predators," W's boarding school, Ivy League grandson-of-a-patrician in a cowboy hat who promised "compassionate conservatism" and to protect us from "evil doers," and of course Obama's "Hope and Change," all of which ultimately gave us increasing neo-liberal economic policies and violent intervention around the world that was good for today's shareholder value, but bad for longterm American credibility abroad and prosperity for the average person within.
The GOP are Machiavellian masters while the Democrats are emotional fools. I wish the GOP had some heart and I wish the Dems had bigger balls.
He outright said he preferred Nordic immigrants over Central Americans. His slack jawed supporters reply with "he's joking" with an unsubtle and forced wink.
I think your assessment of the situation with Maduro, the general situation, the sanctions, and his supporters is pretty far off base. It isn’t the “poor” that the structure supports its more rural versus urban to a degree and no the poor don’t support Maduro. People only support him because they risk imprisonment, beating and death by collectivos or other Maduro thugs if they go against him. The support is absolutely not among class lines and I’m not exactly sure where you are getting that from. As of right now the poorest don’t have access to anything and have no reason to support Maduro in the slightest. Fwiw, my girlfriend is trying to figure out how to create a small business that would be able to sell clean water to the people in the city where she is from right now. Nothing fancy but that shows you how ****ed things are. Not to mention we had to wire money to her family down there ASAP after she found out her parents were only eating a cup of rice a day and they didn’t tell anyone because they didn’t want to take food for their kids who have families of their own to support. Her mom is supposed to be getting a govt pension to but that is fake news since there is no money there. Yes that is only an anecdotal story but the support for Maduro is in no way along class lines. Maduro inherited a country that had been poorly maintained due to corruption that goes along with socialism. Every aspect of every type of infrastructure was promised to be maintained but never was. The massive power problems have been a problem for years there but have come to a head recently (and no it isn’t because of EMP blasts from the US lol). Oil production has been collapsing not due to low oil prices. The US has a higher cost of production and our oil production has exploded during the time where Venezuela’s has going to complete ****. Other oil centric economies have done fine during this time as well. So I don’t understand this narrative about oil prices creating the problems there. It’s all related to extremely poor maintenance and corruption of the govt owned production of the petrochemicals. Further the sanctions are very clearly targeted at the corrupt government and lets not forget that we were buying Venezuelan oil until relatively recently. The people had already been suffering well before these sanctions. 4 million people didn’t leave prior to the sanctions just because they got tired of living in Venezuela. I could go on but I’m typing this on my phone and it’s tedious.
It seems pretty clear populism results in confusion and chaos. Don’t need the corporates to tell me that. Trump used the themes of populism/autocracy to get elected while his actual policies have been largely a continuation of GOP orthodoxy, although I’d argue they are the more extreme versions. The protectionism and have the govenrment pick winners and losers is more populist.... modern exporting states are being harmed because the nostalgic exporting states (Rust Belt) have fallen behind under their own volition. I still think their problems are largely of their own making. Trump gets to do all the things that the GOP hated about Obama because of this narrative I highlighted. That’s definitely populism.
U funny. All disbitch did for the last ten years was vacuuously complain on Twitter. That's what he does, whether he's cic or not. Sorry if that hurts your feelings
Your focus is too narrow. The issue with employment is the types of jobs cultivated and the management of employment. Unemployment has been trending downward for the entire developed world for quite some time. Developed nations are on course to be unable to sustain industrial and economic growth because population growth is not keeping up with the labor demands of industry. As this further manifests, the stock market paradigm will suffer losses as it is predicated on perpetually ever increasing short term growth. Labor demands to continue industrial and economic growth are the reason China has recently abandoned its one-child policy (crucial here because China's growing influence on the world stage is predicated on its continued dazzling economic growth). Labor demands to continue industrial and economic growth are the reason Angela Merkl has maintained the controversial policy of immigration/refugee acceptance. And our lack of a feasible immigration policy and unease with the consequences of such (along with allowing free rein to increasing wealth inequity) have put us in our current situation of crops rotting in fields because the labor to harvest it has been squelched. And we haven't even touched on the destructive impact to the environment--the oceans and farmlands that sustain us, the air that we breathe, water we drink--caused by irresponsibly driven consumerism to spur ever-increasing bottom lines. Painful as the adjustment will be, it will also be interesting to see the intermix of labor shortages with the growing implementation and capability of mechanized production and AI performance of white collar functions. Too, this is where my reference to employment management enters in. A failure to redirect, retrain, reapply those displaced blue- and white-collared workers will mean a surge of population left unable to provide for themselves. The world is a complex and astonishingly interrelated thing, dachuda. Tight focus on but a few aspects is an abandonment of comprehension of the wider scheme and an acceptance of blindness to consequences.
