Trump II

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Or uncontrollable laughter. I "ignore" Alan and Slobodan for that reason.

And that's, ladies and gentlemen, how echo chambers work.

[Alan Klein]

I don't think so, they just oppose it when freedom of speech turns into violence. Same with the right. And both sides are right on that.
It's only the violent extremes that are opposing the freedom of the other side, not the large groups in the middle. Opposing the views of the other side is not equivalent to opposing their right to free speech.

No, it's not just when it turns violent.  Universities impose "safe zones" and restrict "free speech".  Look how Berkley shut down speech. A few years ago, the liberal powers that be tried to shut down Fox under the guise that they should have alternative opinions.  If they succeeded, we'd only have liberal speech in media.  PC occurs on TV, radio, in politics, and in the public square. We look aghast at ISIS and the Saudis with their imposed way of thinking.  Yet aren't we doing similar things in our societies as well?

[Chris Kern]

Or uncontrollable laughter. I "ignore" Alan and Slobodan for that reason.

And that's, ladies and gentlemen, how echo chambers work.

Precisely.  And while this particular thread is actually a counterexample to that, since posters with distinctly different opinions have been engaging directly in (a mostly civil) debate, I think at least some of the political polarization we're seeing in the States—and a major contributing factor to neopopulist movements like Trump's—is attributable to the growing number of people who get the news from their self-selected "echo chambers" rather than from professional journalists.

A gallery owner I met the other day during a brief visit to St. John's, Newfoundland, had an amusing observation about the Trump phenomenon: "I blame it all on the spread of Internet service to rural areas."

(He also told me Trump has "a number" of admirers in Newfoundland, which I suspect has something to do with the loss of jobs in the petroleum industry due to the falling price of oil.  Not that different from what we in the States have seen in places like West Virginia.)

[Peter McLennan]

Universities impose "safe zones" and restrict "free speech"...  If they succeeded, we'd only have liberal speech in media.  PC occurs on TV, radio, in politics, and in the public square. We look aghast at ISIS and the Saudis with their imposed way of thinking.  Yet aren't we doing similar things in our societies as well?

No, Alan, were're not.  Saudi and other countries prohibit any speech that doesn't come from government-approved sources. The MSM doesn't.

The MSM, despite your protestations, are NOT controlled by anybody, other than their own widely publicized and universally accepted ethical standards. Please stop with these vacuous accusations.

For better or worse, the media are one of your much-vaunted "free markets"

[Rob C]

Some chastise others for "conflating" things that some think should not, cannot be so treated.

I think there's a rather large difference in what is being defined, here, as political correctness, and that patently has nothing to do with PC but everything to do with little more than the entrenched differences in party political beliefs. Or religious ones, for that matter.

PC is a disease brought about by the incestuous pretentions of a highly-educated group of youngsters with nothing more pressing to do, back in the second-half of last century. It represents one of the more grotesquely monstrous faces of the love-surge Hydra. It has been a modern source of hatred, ignorance and denial of reality; the making okay of the not okay, where a dissenting voice is first crowd-mocked, put to trial by organized mob and then sent to that lonely stake in the fires of self-righteousness.

Love these mothers. Let's make bigotry great again!

Rob

[texshooter]

The delirium continues.

Theater bans Gone with the Wind.  Why am I not surprised?

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/08/28/gone-with-wind-screenings-pulled-from-memphis-theater-for-racially-insensitive-content.html

[Rob C]

The delirium continues.

Theater bans Gone with the Wind.  Why am I not surprised?

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/08/28/gone-with-wind-screenings-pulled-from-memphis-theater-for-racially-insensitive-content.html

And so they should ban it: no signs of equal opportunity for minorities in that poster! Anyway, Halle Berry would have looked so much more, well, rock'n'Roll for today's audience. Beyoncé? - maybe too powerful, but Salma Hayek would have looked cute. By the way, when is a minority no longer a minority in a situation with more than two teams of players?

;-)

Rob

[Alan Klein]

The liberal left supporting free speech.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/08/28/black-clad-antifa-attack-right-wing-demonstrators-in-berkeley/?utm_term=.182b89a830ff

[James Clark]

The delirium continues.

Theater bans Gone with the Wind.  Why am I not surprised?

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/08/28/gone-with-wind-screenings-pulled-from-memphis-theater-for-racially-insensitive-content.html

I, for one, am outraged.

How dare Fox News be needlessly divisive in pushing this narrative. 

[James Clark]

The liberal left supporting free speech.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/08/28/black-clad-antifa-attack-right-wing-demonstrators-in-berkeley/?utm_term=.182b89a830ff

I don't know if you've heard this Alan - you probably haven't because the right wing media won't report it, but a lot of people are saying that these "antifa" losers are being paid by the Koch brothers and the ghost of Andrew Breitbart to show up and cause violence.  Believe me.

(Satire aside, I am 100% opposed to political violence and don't agree with these tactics )

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Two lawsuits challenge Trump transgender military service ban
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-military-transgender-idUSKCN1B81GN

QUOTE   August 28, 2017 / 4:15 PM   "(Reuters) - Civil rights groups filed two lawsuits on Monday challenging President Donald Trump’s controversial ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military.

Both lawsuits say the ban violated U.S. constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process under the Fifth Amendment, and one said it also violates service members’ free speech rights.

“We do not comment on active or pending litigation,” a White House official said.

Trump announced the ban in a series of Twitter posts on July 26, reversing a policy of his predecessor, Barack Obama.

It halted years of efforts to eliminate barriers to military service based on sexual orientation or gender identity, including an “Open Service Directive” designed to let transgender people serve without fear of discharge."


Cheers,
Bart

[jeremyrh]

Precisely. 

If by "echo chamber" you mean someone declining to read the witless and racist blether produced by somebody, then yes, I guess so. Freedom of speech does not imply obligation to publish and still less requirement to read.

[Alan Klein]

Two lawsuits challenge Trump transgender military service ban
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-military-transgender-idUSKCN1B81GN

QUOTE   August 28, 2017 / 4:15 PM   "(Reuters) - Civil rights groups filed two lawsuits on Monday challenging President Donald Trump’s controversial ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military.

Both lawsuits say the ban violated U.S. constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process under the Fifth Amendment, and one said it also violates service members’ free speech rights.

“We do not comment on active or pending litigation,” a White House official said.

Trump announced the ban in a series of Twitter posts on July 26, reversing a policy of his predecessor, Barack Obama.

It halted years of efforts to eliminate barriers to military service based on sexual orientation or gender identity, including an “Open Service Directive” designed to let transgender people serve without fear of discharge."


Cheers,
Bart

The military wants psychologically and physically healthy youngsters.   They exclude fat people,  people with flat feet, do not allow people overt certain ages even though there are laws against age descriminations.  The armed forces must not be sidetracked.   Their mission is to kill the enemy and protect the country.   SCOTUS  usually grants them wide latitude understanding that an army is different than civilian life.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

If by "echo chamber" you mean someone declining to read the witless and racist blether produced by somebody, then yes, I guess so....

I rest my case.

[Schewe]

Meanwhile, back to Trump...

Trump’s prized perk: Oval Office photo ops
Several advisers and aides say Trump appears happiest when showing off the Oval Office.


White House aides said it was impossible to know how many pictures President Donald Trump has taken behind the desk and declined to make official White
House photographer Shealah Craighead available for an interview.

Donald Trump has grown frustrated with many parts of being president. But the former showbiz star is still in love with one perk: the Oval Office photo op.

Despite the weight of multiple Russia investigations, open war with GOP leaders and a stalled congressional agenda, Trump has spent considerable time grinning behind the Resolute Desk, where he summons visitors from PGA star John Daly to former campaign aides to pastors, truck drivers, tech CEOs, teachers and even journalists to pose in front of the gold curtains.

He tells aides, from senior White House advisers to his private bodyguard, Keith Schiller, to snap the photos on cellphones, or he shouts for Shealah Craighead, the official White House photographer, to come in. The often impatient president will sometimes pose for several minutes per sitting, taking variations of a photo with a single group. He even stands with people to inspect the photos.

"Check the lighting," one senior White House official said, describing his comments. "Are your eyes closed? Do you want another? He knows these are special moments for people."

The photos illustrate how master marketer Trump sees the job, White House officials say — and are one part of the presidency that doesn't seem to grate on him, even though other presidents have barely tolerated the click-and-grin sessions.

While Trump scowls in his official presidential portrait and lashes out at his critics on Twitter and at rallies, the private Oval Office photo sessions are largely all teeth and charm, revealing a softer side that Republican leaders wish he’d show more often in public.

Several advisers and aides say Trump appears happiest when showing off the Oval Office, almost seeing it as the ultimate prize, just as he once showed off his celebrity photos, trophies and other memorabilia, such as Shaquille O'Neal's shoes, at Trump Tower.

It's pretty remarkable how consistent Trump's expression is...it seems his face goes directly into smile-mode when the camera fires. Well, he's had a lot of practice!

[Schewe]

Russia? Trump has no business ties to Russia, right? Well, apparently it's not from a lack of trying...

Trump Associate Boasted That Moscow Business Deal ‘Will Get Donald Elected’


Donald J. Trump with Felix H. Sater, right, and Tevfik Arif at the official unveiling of Trump SoHo in September 2007.

WASHINGTON — A business associate of President Trump promised in 2015 to engineer a real estate deal with the aid of the president of Russia, Vladimir V. Putin, that he said would help Mr. Trump win the presidency.

The business associate, Felix Sater, wrote a series of emails to Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, in which he boasted about his ties to Mr. Putin and predicted that building a Trump Tower in Moscow would be a political boon to Mr. Trump’s candidacy.

“Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it,” Mr. Sater wrote in an email. “I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this, I will manage this process.”


A portion of an email Felix Sater sent to Michael Cohen on Nov. 3, 2015.

The emails show that, from the earliest months of Mr. Trump’s campaign, some of his associates viewed close ties with Moscow as a political advantage. Those ties are now under investigation by the Justice Department and multiple congressional committees.

[Schewe]

But wait...do you love cartoons? I love cartoons...


1 of 15
Daryl Cagle / darylcagle.com

Here is a collection of syndicated cartoons that address many topics having to do with President Donald Trump.

Cartoons: Donald Trump has many issues

 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

The military wants psychologically and physically healthy youngsters.

And you are suggesting that Transgenders are not?

It is not a psychological disease, and apparently many have already served and are serving in combat situations and in other branches/activities.

Cheers,
Bart

[Schewe]

So Fox is keeping track...

Former Trump administration officials, from Bannon to Comey

Gorka joins a growing group of people who have left the young Trump administration in just its first eight months – a group that includes former press secretary Sean Spicer, F.B.I. director James Comey and chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Read on for a running list of who has left the White House since Trump took office. [13 and counting...]

Ohhhh...another cartoon!

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

So Fox is keeping track...

Former Trump administration officials, from Bannon to Comey

And that's in addition to all the top level vacancies for which there aren't even nominees ...

Cheers,
Bart