In The News Today...

Well, the Flake speech was a lot to read. I am glad to see there is at least one lawmaker from that side of the aisle willing to call him out. I'd be even more impressed if it came from someone who was planning on running again.

But that might be too much to ask. A recent Marist poll says that Americans view Trump's first year as a failure (53 - 40%) yet 87% of Republicans and 91% of his supporters view it as a success.

Until that support changes, Republicans up for re-election aren't going to have the guts to stand up like that, if they have a different viewpoint.

Quote: Dalex64

Well, the Flake speech was a lot to read. I am glad to see there is at least one lawmaker from that side of the aisle willing to call him out.

Q: How do you know a Republican's political career is about to end?
A: He grows a spine.

Quote: Face

Can you point out a flaw, an error, a disagreement, that you personally have with Sen Flake's post

I have to be honest, I did not take the time to read it. I take it as just another speech from a hater. A RINO at that. He is like many RINOs. They run with the GOP because they cannot win as a Democrat.

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Where was he wrong?

I gotta tell ya, man, I feel a pretty deep disconnect with you. When the game was on, I took all the trumpeting of alpha-male this and real leader that as a bit of goose-gander trolling. Now, I'm not so scared that you actually believe that, but rather sort of boggled that you have come to embrace a good number of things that I always thought you were pretty much against. I heard "cult of personality" out of your mouth more times than when Living Colour was winning Grammy's, yet I can't see how you're not eyebrows deep in one. And all over a f#$%ing NY Democrat, ferchrissakes!

You are not understanding Trump nor the Trump supporters. Trump won because he understands the working class man, and woman for that matter. We are tired of being told how awful the USA is, and how awful we are. Tired of a government that cares more about refugee and illegal aliens than working people, than our vets. Tired of seeing a collapsing culture. Perhaps most of all, tired of a PC culture where too many people wait around to be offended to better their situation.

Trump is no racist. But the cry of "racism" sticks, so it has been thrown at him. Bill Clinton sent Haitians to Gitmo after he called for them to be admitted to the USA to be more compassionate during the 1992 election. After he won, they got on rafts and he slammed the door shut on them. Remember that? Yet Trump gets called the "racist" for mentioning, not even in public, what so many people actually think.

Trump refuses to roll over like a GOP pol is expected to do. He is, as I said, Rodney Dangerfield in "Caddyshack." A self-made man who has no desire to join the club, not act as the snobs in it do. The economy has boomed just knowing he will not continue the socialist policies of Obama and what would have been Hillary. The Trump voter does not want government handouts. It wants to work, the chance to make their way in the world.

Guys like Flake have the position that we just have to live with Obamacare. Obamacare has increased my health insurance 100% in three years! Trump is doing something to help. Who do you think I am going to support?

I have said here many times, I see the USA, and the rest of the West for that matter, as a collapsing society. I see my government as not caring about people like me. I do not think the collapse can be stopped as it is too far along. But I do see Trump as perhaps the one leader who can make it tolerable, at least put it off.

If you doubt me, consider how the Establishment acts when he comes out for "America First." As if it is the end of the world that a leader puts his own nation first. Should say something.

EDIT: Put in a simpler way, when a group of people gets pissed on long enough, things snap in the other direction. People with a traditional view are tired of being called sexist-racist-bigoted-homophobes just because they do not buy into what the far left of America has been shoving down our throats for decades now. As offensive as some people find Trump, we feel we have been putting up with the same with nobody caring.

Quote: AZDuffman

As offensive as some people find Trump, we feel we have been putting up with the same with nobody caring.

The Left has bullied the Right for
so long, that when somebody like
Trump pushes back against it, the
Left is amazed and discombobulated
about it. They freak out, like they do
every day now. Trump plays their game
better than they do and they just can't
stand it.

Quote: beachbumbabs

I dare say that anyone who has the privilege and awesome responsibility to serve in this chamber knows that these reflexive slurs of "fake news" are dubious, at best. Those of us who travel overseas, especially to war zones and other troubled areas around the globe, encounter members of U.S. based media who risk their lives, and sometimes lose their lives, reporting on the truth. To dismiss their work as fake news is an affront to their commitment and their sacrifice.

According to the International Federation of Journalists, 80 journalists were killed in 2017, and a new report from the Committee to Protect Journalists documents that the number of journalists imprisoned around the world has reached 262, which is a new record. This total includes 21 reporters who are being held on "false news" charges.

Mr. President, so powerful is the presidency that the damage done by the sustained attack on the truth will not be confined to the president's time in office. Here in America, we do not pay obeisance to the powerful -- in fact, we question the powerful most ardently -- to do so is our birthright and a requirement of our citizenship -- and so, we know well that no matter how powerful, no president will ever have dominion over objective reality.

How many of these reporters died or were imprisoned by our ally Saudi Arabia, or Turkey a Nato member? http://www.newsweek.com/2014/10/24/when-it-comes-beheadings-isis-has-nothing-over-saudi-arabia-277385.html That is from '14 but no shortage of links to the biggest beheader in the world.

https://www.google.com/search?q=turkey+imprisoned+journalists&oq=Turkey+impri&aqs=chrome.3.69i57j0l5.9914j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 Turkey has 240 journalists locked up.

Flakes factoids can all use, just a few more words.

The post is just to long to respond to all of it. Geezus. Anyway, Flake talks about going overseas? I read he went with McCain to Ukraine, wtf are we doing there? Nothing good. Was Flake with McCain on this trip to talk with ISIS leader Bagdadi or Akbar? https://www.google.com/search?q=photo+mccain+al+baghdadi&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj4scOFvOPYAhUH-2MKHfMBAzAQsAQIMg&biw=1366&bih=613

I was looking to see how Flake voted on renewing the warrantless wiretapping which just renewed for 6 more years of warrantless wiretapping Is the Intercept the only ones covering this?

First, the truthy and transparent congress had to pass that, so they could leak a memo about FISA exposing all of the next two weeks news. https://disobedientmedia.com/2018/01/senate-passes-warrantless-spying-reauthorization-bill/

New FISA memo says "heads will roll" or possibly roll, or would roll if they weren't so flat. https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-18/explosive-shocking-and-alarming-fisa-memo-set-rock-dc-end-mueller-investigation

I didn't get all warm hearted from the speech, although I did read your post, to the bottom. He wouldn't have been re-elected in AZ. so he "retired". Sure.

Quote: petroglyph

I didn't get all warm hearted from the speech, although I did read your post, to the bottom. He wouldn't have been re-elected in AZ. so he "retired". Sure.

That's exactly why he quit, he's a flake
in more ways than one..

Quote: petroglyph

Everybody is hard wired to be tribal.

It has always been "us" against "them". Always and everywhere.

BUT why is there an "against" in that statement at all? The whole point of America is that ANYONE can live the dream. Why is that a threat to white males? People want to join you as people. It doesn't have to be adversarial. You don't have to lose for others to win alongside you.

You want a merit-based world? So do we. You want people to earn what they have? So do we. You want to be sold something you want to buy? So do we.

People want to have what you have. Not YOURS. But to emulate you and have their own LIKE yours. America makes that promise. She stands as a beacon in the night (I lift my lamp beside the golden door) inviting all, regardless of title, position, religion (your huddled masses yearning to breathe free), to make their fortunes and their lives among people who believe in the merits of hard work, dedication, and ingenuity.

It's not a pie. There aren't x many pieces and no more here. It is possible to help one another and all prosper, as honest, open community members.

Perhaps it appears to you as empty romance. But it's that romance, that vision, that work ethic, that built America. It can be that love which sustains it.

Quote: beachbumbabs

BUT why is there an "against" in that statement at all?

Think of it in terms of hyena's and Zebra's. Real ones.

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The whole point of America is that ANYONE can live the dream. Why is that a threat to white males?

Are you talking to me?

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People want to join you as people. It doesn't have to be adversarial. You don't have to lose for others to win alongside you.

You want a merit-based world? So do we. You want people to earn what they have? So do we.

Same thing they told Geronimo.

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So do we.

Who is this We??

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But to emulate you

Not sober, they don't.

Quote: beachbumbabs

People want to have what you have. Not YOURS. .

Cool. Figure out how to do it in
your own shithole country and
leave us alone. We have enough
problems.

Quote: beachbumbabs

BUT why is there an "against" in that statement at all? The whole point of America is that ANYONE can live the dream. Why is that a threat to white males? People want to join you as people. It doesn't have to be adversarial. You don't have to lose for others to win alongside you.

There is an "against" because it has been made that way. White = Racist. Male = Sexist. Just look at how different groups and organizations are treated.

Consider:

Remember the Tea Party rallies? Remember how the media kept calling them out for being "almost all white?" No blacks were banned, they were more than welcome. But to the media, something had to be wrong. Was I supposed to find some random black on the street and invite them? Then it was called "Right Wing." Is BLM called "Left Wing?" Which group had violence associated with it?

When is the last time you saw a Help Wanted ad that stated, "Whites and Males encouraged to apply?" How many encourage women and minorities?

Look at fraternal organizations and schools. A woman applies to a known all-male military academy and she is "breaking down barriers!" An all-female college starts admitting males and "women are threatened." What about Agusta? Did the feminists say, "we do not like this, we are starting an all-woman club to take you on?" No, they demanded the men change their club.

It is another thing Leykis has right. Women get praised for taking away spaces guys have for themselves. No self-respecting man cares about joining the women-only place.

We can look in a similar way at the NFL. What percent Black is the NFL these days? 80% seems a fair guess. Yet we hear the yearly barrage of needing more Black coaches and QBs. Suggest white kids might like white players to look up to and, well, you are a racist! Meanwhile, Black kids need Black role models.

See where I am going with this? It just repeats with American culture and history. These groups do not want to "join" white culture. They want to erase it from history in many cases. It is easy to see the parallel with the American Indians if you take off the PC sunglasses.

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You want a merit-based world? So do we. You want people to earn what they have? So do we.

Fine. Then lets end every affirmative action program today. Lets close every women's interest group today. Lets get rid of every "minorities united" group today. Lets put immigration on merit.

Won't happen of course. If you doubt me as to treatment, look at how Affirmative Action Bake Sales are treated vs. those stores that charge men extra to make up for the supposed gender pay gap.