30 November, 2016

You_Are_All_Absurd comments on The 'alt-right' splinters as supporters and critics agree it was white supremacy all along

You_Are_All_Absurd comments on The 'alt-right' splinters as supporters and critics agree it was white supremacy all along:

What White Nationalists Don't Get
A common and seemingly reasonable argument for white pride or white nationalism is "why can't I be proud of my culture?"
Well, you can. Always have been able to. We have Irish pride celebrations, we have German drinking festivals, we have Serbian food festivals. Any European culture you can think of has multiple organizations in North America dedicated to taking pride in their heritage and NO ONE gives them shit for it.
But, you see, when you start talking "white pride", that's not a culture. That's a skin colour. There is no white culture, never was. There is no pan-European culture, never was. Europe is a continent, not a culture or ethnicity.
Now, some of you are probably about to go "But wait! Black pride! How is that okay?" Well, easy. Go find a black person and ask them if their ancestors were slaves. When you find one who says "yes", proceed to ask them "what country in Africa were your ancestors from?" Do you know what their answer will probably be? "I don't know." This is because their culture was taken from them. It was beaten out of them. They were enslaved, Christianized, and then white washed. The one unifying feature they have as a people is that history of slavery and that history of being black. They can't have Liberian pride, or Congolese pride, or "insert African country" pride because they have no fucking idea where their ancestors came from other than the broad region of West Africa.
Meanwhile us white people can often trace our ancestors to specific cities and regions. I can trace my mother's maiden name to a single fucking village in Ireland. I know where I came from. I don't have white culture, I have Irish culture.
So that's why white pride makes you an asshole but black pride actually makes sense.



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27 November, 2016

Why Did Trump Supporters Deny Our Stories For Anger & Fear? – Muslim Girl

Why Did Trump Supporters Deny Our Stories For Anger & Fear? – Muslim Girl:

When I was four years old, I used to have a recurring nightmare: I would be walking with one of my great-aunts near my mother’s childhood home in Northwest Bangladesh. As we passed an open field, she snatched me up in her arms and started running back to the house. I looked back only to see rows of soldiers marching, guns pointed straight at us.
The dream never went beyond that. I always woke up with the need to keep running, to escape.
And even though I didn’t live through it, I knew that the nightmare was inspired by one of my mother’s stories from the 1971 Bangladeshi War of Liberation: her first memory—from when she herself was four years old—of being carried away from burning buildings and gun-toting Pakistani soldiers by her aunt, the same woman from my dream.
How do you explain waking up terrified by memories that aren’t your own? How do you relive experiences that you’ve never had?


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Netflix’s 3% Review: Season 1 of Brazil’s Hunger Games Proves Unique | IndieWire

Netflix’s 3% Review: Season 1 of Brazil’s Hunger Games Proves Unique | IndieWire: "What would a Season 2 of “3%” look like? It’s hard to say based on the finale, but the ride that was Season 1 felt me surprised and impressed. Yes, if you don’t already speak Portuguese, the subtitles are a commitment, but for any fan of this particular genre it’s an easy recommend — as well as a nice reminder for Netflix that they don’t need to break the bank, budget-wise, to create a compelling series.

"

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26 November, 2016

Why I Left White Nationalism - NYTimes.com

Why I Left White Nationalism - NYTimes.com: "Mr. Trump’s victory must make all Americans acknowledge that the choice of embracing or rejecting multiculturalism is not abstract. I know this better than most, because I’ve followed both paths. It is the choice of embracing or rejecting our own people.

"

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22 November, 2016

NurRauch comments on I've just been hired as a public defender. Any advice for this job?

NurRauch comments on I've just been hired as a public defender. Any advice for this job?: "Prepare yourself for failure. A LOT of failure. You will have never failed at anything as much as you're going to fail at this job. Again, we're trauma surgeons. We break bones to save the heart or the brain. A lot of the times our patients are gonna die on us mid-operation. You're going to be doing very dangerous surgeries that have less than a 10% success rating. Feel absolutely free to cry and bitch and moan about all the losing you're about to do, but remember that it's not your fault. It's just the way the system is for so many of our clients. Many of the clients will personally hold you accountable -- just let them. It's not your job to convince them you're a good lawyer or a caring lawyer. It's just your job to try to help them. And often you'll find that trying and failing is actually seen in their eyes as winning their case. Hopefully you too will also come to understand what "winning" really means in this job. If you've given it a few years and nothing feels like winning unless you get a full acquittal on all charges, then you might need to re-evaluate how worthwhile you're finding the job. My inclination, though, is that you find you love it.
"

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Constitutional Duties Precede Party Loyalties and Policy Goals – Medium

Constitutional Duties Precede Party Loyalties and Policy Goals – Medium: "Senators aren’t given the binary choice of jumping on the Trump Train or reflexively filibustering everything, every day, for the next four years. Our first job is to defend the Constitution (independent of party label) and to work for limited government and the nearly unlimited potential of every American."

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20 November, 2016

Navy SEALs explain consequences of ego - Business Insider

Navy SEALs explain consequences of ego - Business Insider: "Former Navy SEALs and "Extreme Ownership" authors Jocko Willink and Leif Babin talk about ego and how it can ruin your chance at effective leadership. 

"



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19 November, 2016

The Education of a Libertarian | Cato Unbound

The Education of a Libertarian | Cato Unbound: "A better metaphor is that we are in a deadly race between politics and technology. The future will be much better or much worse, but the question of the future remains very open indeed. We do not know exactly how close this race is, but I suspect that it may be very close, even down to the wire. Unlike the world of politics, in the world of technology the choices of individuals may still be paramount. The fate of our world may depend on the effort of a single person who builds or propagates the machinery of freedom that makes the world safe for capitalism.

"

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The End of Identity Liberalism - The New York Times

The End of Identity Liberalism - The New York Times: "Finally, the whitelash thesis is convenient because it absolves liberals of not recognizing how their own obsession with diversity has encouraged white, rural, religious Americans to think of themselves as a disadvantaged group whose identity is being threatened or ignored. Such people are not actually reacting against the reality of our diverse America (they tend, after all, to live in homogeneous areas of the country). But they are reacting against the omnipresent rhetoric of identity, which is what they mean by “political correctness.” Liberals should bear in mind that the first identity movement in American politics was the Ku Klux Klan, which still exists. Those who play the identity game should be prepared to lose it.

"

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Fugitive kills U.S. marshal serving warrant in rural Georgia - NY Daily News

Fugitive kills U.S. marshal serving warrant in rural Georgia - NY Daily News: "A fugitive accused of the attempted murder of police officers gunned down a U.S. Marshals deputy commander trying to arrest him at a Georgia mobile home park Friday, officials said.

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16 November, 2016

The Old and the Bold: Spotting a Sniper - YouTube

The Old and the Bold: Spotting a Sniper - YouTube: "Ex-Army Commando Roy Cadman describes how to spot a sniper by listening to the sound of the bullet fire, and how such a skill comes only from experience.
"

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15 November, 2016

I’m still fresh out of ideas – Fredrik deBoer

I’m still fresh out of ideas – Fredrik deBoer: "I have seen, with my own two eyes, a 33 year old Hispanic man, an Iraq war veteran who had served three tours and had become an outspoken critic of our presence there, be lectured about patriarchy by an affluent 22 year old white liberal arts college student, because he had said that other vets have to “man up” and speak out about the war. Because apparently we have to pretend that we don’t know how metaphorical language works or else we’re bad people. I watched his eyes glaze over as this woman with $300 shoes berated him. I saw that. Myself.

"

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Research says there are ways to reduce racial bias. Calling people racist isn’t one of them. - Vox

Research says there are ways to reduce racial bias. Calling people racist isn’t one of them. - Vox: "“Telling people they’re racist, sexist, and xenophobic is going to get you exactly nowhere,” said Alana Conner, executive director of Stanford University’s Social Psychological Answers to Real-World Questions Center. “It’s such a threatening message. One of the things we know from social psychology is when people feel threatened, they can’t change, they can’t listen.”

"

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How We Broke Democracy (But Not in the Way You Think) – Medium

How We Broke Democracy (But Not in the Way You Think) – Medium:

Over the last several weeks I have watched dozens of my friends on Facebook de-friend one another. I have seen plenty of self-righteous posts flow across my news feed, along with deeply felt messages of fear, anger and more recently — existential despair.
On the other side I see reflections of joy, levity, gratitude and optimism for the future. It could not be more stark.
The thing that both groups have in common is very apparent: A sense of profound confusion about how the other side cannot understand their perspective.
This seemed to be building on a trend in social media that hit full tilt in the lead up to the election: Political divisions between us are greater than they ever have been, and are still getting worse by the day.


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Wrong_on_Internet comments on Obama: Congress stopped me from helping Trump supporters

Wrong_on_Internet comments on Obama: Congress stopped me from helping Trump supporters:

Trade Adjustment Assistance to retrain workers displaced by free trade: blocked by Republicans.
Community College: Proposed free community college program; blocked by Republicans.
Infrastructure Bill: Proposed $60b on highway, rail, transit and airport improvements + $10 billion in seed money for infrastructure bank; blocked by Republicans
Jobs Bill: to "give tax breaks for companies that "insource' jobs to the U.S. from overseas while eliminating tax deductions for companies that move jobs abroad"; blocked by Republicans


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13 November, 2016

Bumped into this gentleman outside of an... - Mariam Mokhtarzada

Bumped into this gentleman outside of an... - Mariam Mokhtarzada: "As we parted ways, he said that he would fight to define my rights and protect my children. Several people stopped us to say how beautiful it was to see us talking to each other. They said it gave them hope.



Let's not demonize each other. Let's build bridges to understand someone even if we don't agree with their perspective. We have to slow down to connect to the biker, the Muslim, the man on the street. The more we connect with each other the less we each other as the "other"."



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Red, Blue and Divided: Six Views of America - The New York Times

Red, Blue and Divided: Six Views of America - The New York Times: "In some ways, the echo chamber was the winner of this election. Here we are, deeply connected. And yet red America is typing away to red America, and blue America is typing away to blue America. The day after the election, some people said the echo chamber had begun to feel like a prison.

"

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Best way to open a bottle

003 - YouTube:

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they’re going to keep losing – Fredrik deBoer

they’re going to keep losing – Fredrik deBoer:

People don’t seem to understand this: you need to adapt and change and look outside of your tiny enclaves not out of some moral obligation, but because you are losing on every imaginable front. You don’t have to get in touch with the rest of the country because that’s the right thing to do. You have to get in touch with the rest of the country because they’re kicking your ass. The Republicans will control the House, the Senate, and the presidency, have the chance to appoint at least one and probably several Supreme Court justices, run 68 out of 99 state legislative houses, and hold 31 gubernatorial seats. That is domination on an unimaginable level. Every minute you spend signal-boosting people who say that it’s Republicans who have to get on board with liberal values is a minute you’re not doing anything to change that condition.



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President-elect Trump speaks to a divided country on 60 Minutes - CBS News

President-elect Trump speaks to a divided country on 60 Minutes - CBS News: "Nor he said had he heard about reports of racial slurs and personal threats against African Americans, Latinos and gays by some of his supporters.




Donald Trump: I am very surprised to hear that-- I hate to hear that, I mean I hate to hear that--



Lesley Stahl: But you do hear it?




Donald Trump: I don’t hear it—I saw, I saw one or two instances…




Lesley Stahl: On social media?




Donald Trump: But I think it’s a very small amount. Again, I think it’s--




Lesley Stahl: Do you want to say anything to those people?




Donald Trump: I would say don’t do it, that’s terrible, ‘cause I’m gonna bring this country together.




 Lesley Stahl: They’re harassing Latinos, Muslims--




Donald Trump: I am so saddened to hear that. And I say, “Stop it.” If it-- if it helps. I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: Stop it."



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The Democrats Screwed Up - The New York Times

The Democrats Screwed Up - The New York Times:

Liberals miss this by being illiberal. They shame not just the racists and sexists who deserve it but all who disagree. A 64-year-old Southern woman not onboard with marriage equality finds herself characterized as a hateful boob. Never mind that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton weren’t themselves onboard just five short years ago.
Political correctness has morphed into a moral purity that may feel exhilarating but isn’t remotely tactical. It’s a handmaiden to smugness and sanctimony, undermining its own goals.


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Stop Calling the United States a "Banana Republic"

Stop Calling the United States a "Banana Republic": "The cavalier use of the term, by everyone from Robby Mook to Vladimir Putin, is morally obtuse

"



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Trump is a populist in a suit and tie, not a jackbooted fascist

Trump is a populist in a suit and tie, not a jackbooted fascist:

In the 1880s, as today, the result of stagnation was not fascism but populism.
Fascism was all about violence: marching men in uniforms, battered opponents, rearmament, war. The violence of populism is mostly verbal. Populist leaders are demagogues in suits, not jackboots.
They insult their opponents, they don’t break their legs. They tend to be against overseas wars. This is not to say that Donald Trump is identical to William Jennings Bryan, the bombastic populist orator of the late 19th century, only that he is much closer to Bryan than to Hitler.
As in Bryan’s day, the populist backlash is directed against: a) financial elites and their political cronies, b) free trade, c) immigration and d) racial integration (though this last is not explicit today).


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Five ingredients for a populist backlash - Niall Ferguson - Zeitgeist 2016 - YouTube

Five ingredients for a populist backlash - Niall Ferguson - Zeitgeist 2016 - YouTube: "Five ingredients for a populist backlash"

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What So Many People Don’t Get About the U.S. Working Class

What So Many People Don’t Get About the U.S. Working Class:

Michèle Lamont, in The Dignity of Working Men, also found resentment of professionals — but not of the rich. “[I] can’t knock anyone for succeeding,” a laborer told her. “There’s a lot of people out there who are wealthy and I’m sure they worked darned hard for every cent they have,” chimed in a receiving clerk. Why the difference? For one thing, most blue-collar workers have little direct contact with the rich outside of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. But professionals order them around every day. The dream is not to become upper-middle-class, with its different food, family, and friendship patterns; the dream is to live in your own class milieu, where you feel comfortable — just with more money. “The main thing is to be independent and give your own orders and not have to take them from anybody else,” a machine operator told Lamont. Owning one’s own business — that’s the goal. That’s another part of Trump’s appeal.



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Donald did not deserve to win. Democrats did deserve to “lose”. – Medium

Donald did not deserve to win. Democrats did deserve to “lose”. – Medium: "My good friend Will and I were selected as the members of the student body to ask the first question. We spent hours trying to find a question that would be non-partisan, pointed, and important. Despite the temptation to go for what was particularly salient at that moment, we resolved to remember to emphasize that which was truly important and press the Members to push for the repeal of the Electoral College.
"



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTdl8b5Fm1E&t=1h7m20s



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12 November, 2016

Fishtown vs. Belmont, 2016 - The Boston Globe

Fishtown vs. Belmont, 2016 - The Boston Globe:



Murray’s key point in “Coming Apart’’ was that four great social trends of the post-1960 period had hit Fishtown much harder than Belmont. Family breakdown, loss of employment, crime, declining “social capital”: all are much more prevalent in Fishtown. And that, Murray concluded, is why the inhabitants of Fishtown are so unhappy.
Fast forward five years. Murray’s disgruntled white lower class has now found its “voice” and his name, as you have probably guessed, is Donald Trump. The declining, dangerous country that Trump described in his supposedly “dark” acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland was Fishtown writ large. Indeed, you could simply change the names. For Fishtown read Cleveland; for Belmont read Philadelphia, where the Democrats held their convention last week.


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Populism as a Backlash against Globalization - Historical Perspectives - CIRSD

Populism as a Backlash against Globalization - Historical Perspectives - CIRSD: "So why do so many commentators feel that we are living through “unprecedented instability?” The answer, aside from plain ignorance of history, is that political populism has become a global phenomenon, and established politicians and political parties are struggling even to understand it, much less resist it. Yet populism is not such a mysterious thing, if one only has some historical knowledge. The important point is not to make the mistake of confusing it with fascism, which it resembles in only a few respects.



 Rather like a television chef, I shall describe a recipe for populism, based on historical experience. It is a simple recipe, with just five ingredients."



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Female Kurdish Snipers Cut ISIS Down to Size | SOFREP

Female Kurdish Snipers Cut ISIS Down to Size | SOFREP:

In an abandoned luxury apartment building in Til Kocher, Syria, a group of young women laugh, sing songs, and prepare chai tea for their guests. In the adjacent room is an arsenal of weapons ranging from American M4 rifles to Hungarian-made Dragunovs and locally manufactured Zagrov .50-caliber sniper rifles. The cheerful young women enjoying their morning compose a seven-woman sniper unit that falls under the YPJ militia currently fighting ISIS in northern Syria. If you had failed to note all the hardware lying around their arms room, you would never know that these women were snipers, and you would never guess that some of them have racked up dozens of kills.
The oldest of the group is 27, a European Kurd who returned from the diaspora when she heard reports about ISIS murdering children. The youngest of the group said she was 16, but quickly corrected herself and reported that she was actually 18. Later that day, the teenage Kurd slung the .50 caliber Zagrov over her shoulder and walked out to do some target practice.


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Surviving the Fall of ISIS

Surviving the Fall of ISIS: "The mother appeared. Very young, she wore a black abaya and black hijab. She sank to her knees. In a reverie or delirium, she chronicled their ordeal to no one in particular.



 “We were so hungry in Mosul. There was no money, no food,” she said. “It’s all right if we die here hungry. We’re safe. This is the best moment of my life.”"



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I Am Fully Capable of Entertaining Myself in Prison for Decades If Need Be

I Am Fully Capable of Entertaining Myself in Prison for Decades If Need Be: "When I got to the jail unit at Federal Correctional Institution Fort Worth shortly after my arrest, then, I immediately started agitating in favor of a campaign of Dungeons and Dragons or whatever was available, to begin ASAP, with the wooden table in the little corner library to be requisitioned for our use. A huge black guy awaiting trial on complicated fraud charges happened to have the basic mechanics memorized; I drafted him to be the dungeon master. Soon enough I’d also managed to recruit a white meth dealer who was familiar enough with the game to help the rest of us create our characters, a large and bovine Hispanic gangland enforcer who wanted to try the game and was at any rate influential enough to help us secure control over the table, and a fey Southern white guy for atmosphere."



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Tom Nichols: How to react to President Trump - NY Daily News

Tom Nichols: How to react to President Trump - NY Daily News: "Instead, we owe it to him because our institutions have bestowed that responsibility on him, and it is not for us now to repudiate the similar duty imposed on us as citizens of the Republic governed by those very same institutions.



The Constitution and our electoral traditions do not demand that we like the outcome or that we refrain from further criticism. But they do demand that we judge the new President on what he actually proposes, not on what we think of him."



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Glenn Beck: Don’t Move to Canada. Talk to the Other Side. - The New York Times

Glenn Beck: Don’t Move to Canada. Talk to the Other Side. - The New York Times: "If our Mr. Trump, or any future president, should decide to round up Muslims (or any group) as America did with Japanese during World War II under Franklin D. Roosevelt, I will declare, “I am a Muslim.” My values, honor, integrity and the Bill of Rights demand I stand for those most unlike me — that is when it counts.

"

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On the trail for the final week of the Trump campaign.

On the trail for the final week of the Trump campaign.: "And it worked. The press pack, collectively, looked nothing like the crowds at Trump events—particularly in more rural towns. We’d file into these places with our sleek luggage and our expensive tech gear and our better haircuts. We were far more diverse than the people in the stands. When the crowds lustily booed us, we’d sit there impassive and stone-faced, and this only further served to convince the rallygoers that we were snobby, superior pricks. The pen was an amazingly efficient means of othering us.

"



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11 November, 2016

Book Review: 'Strangers In Their Own Land: Anger And Mourning On The American Right'

Book Review: 'Strangers In Their Own Land: Anger And Mourning On The American Right': "Poisoning the habitat and imperiling the health of people is criminal and actionable to lawsuits. The rage of Tea Partiers may be inchoate but it is justified. My libertarian friends would be horrified by the failure to prosecute, both criminally and civilly, acts of force, fraud and coercion. Conservatives believe that more affluence will bring about political dynamics that will bring about cleaner air and cleaner water. This is part of our Deep Story and has a lot of historical evidence grounding it.

"



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Current Affairs | Culture & Politics

Current Affairs | Culture & Politics: "People have good reason for not trusting fact-checkers and wonks. That is because they lie. And they torment people with those lies, by portraying disagreement as an irrational refusal to acknowledge objective empirical truth. They treat political disputes as questions of fact rather than value, and steadfastly refuse to acknowledge their own considerable biases. 

"



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Donald Trump Won Because of Facebook

Donald Trump Won Because of Facebook:

For most of the 20th century, the flow of information was controlled by a relatively small number of media companies — large newspapers, and, later, the major broadcast networks. These companies were large and generally corporate, Establishment-friendly and politically centrist: They limited, mostly, the acceptable range of political opinion, because that nice middle was where advertising and subscription business models were most profitable. This limitation on the supply of information and opinion both enabled, and was enabled by, two Establishment political parties, which had effective control over political mobilization, having cobbled together unstable coalitions of voters bound by fairly tight ideological windows.
Facebook assaults both components of this power dynamic, providing the platform and audience that only news-media outlets could once command, and the organizing power that only parties once held. As then-Senator Obama understood well in 2008, the internet provides political candidates a previously unimaginable opportunity to identify, communicate with, and organize supporters — an opportunity that, significantly, exists outside the traditional party apparatus.


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‘Learn your manners,’ a white man wrote to his black neighbor. This was the response. - The Washington Post

‘Learn your manners,’ a white man wrote to his black neighbor. This was the response. - The Washington Post:

The neighbor who wrote the letter, David O., told The Washington Post that the note had nothing to do with race. He asked that The Post not use his full last name because he fears backlash.
David O. said he and his wife just wanted to sleep. They didn’t know Brookshire was black until the post went viral. He said his upstairs neighbor was cursing and yelling, and it sounded like he was arguing.
Still, David O. said, he understood how the note he penned while sleepy and angry could come across as aggressive.
“I know this was probably dictated by the tone of my note, but please do not perceive me as just another narrow-minded white p—- scared of anything outside of his little white world,” he wrote back to Brookshire. “I have nothing in common with such people, and I would like to emphasize it once (again) that my note yesterday, rude as it was, was nothing more than a response to a late-night disturbance.”


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Late-Night TV Is Not Built for This Election

Late-Night TV Is Not Built for This Election:

The truth is that things had fractured long before Bee and Oliver claimed their small pieces of the pie. They’ve simply given up on countering bad-faith partisanship with even-tempered civility and given a voice to a niche of their own. 



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How Jon Stewart And 'The Daily Show' Elected Donald Trump

How Jon Stewart And 'The Daily Show' Elected Donald Trump: "Yes, there will long be an audience for elite crowds in urban centers to have their viewpoints affirmed. There’s plenty of money to be made in making cultural elites feel morally superior. You don’t have to understand Trump or his supporters to make money and continue having the right people tell you that you are awesome. In fact, the less you know about them and more you mischaracterize them and their views, the better it is for your niche domination.

"



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Never Trump Ends, Lessons Learned, New Perspectives | National Review

Never Trump Ends, Lessons Learned, New Perspectives | National Review: "Trump is not Reagan, but he blindsided the establishment in the same way Reagan did. And elites will be as condescending about him as they were about Reagan. But we can hope that in the end, we will once again look back and marvel at his eight years as president, and how good he was for the party, the movement, and the country."



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Mike Rowe Finally Weighs In On Trump’s Victory. Hillary’s Supporters Won’t Like This. | Tribunist

Mike Rowe Finally Weighs In On Trump’s Victory. Hillary’s Supporters Won’t Like This. | Tribunist: "Last week, three old friends – people I’ve known for years – each requested to be “unfriended” by anyone who planned on voting for Trump. Honestly, that was disheartening. Who tosses away a friendship over an election? Are my friends turning into those mind-numbingly arrogant celebrities who threaten to move to another country if their candidate doesn’t win? Are my friends now convinced that people they’ve known for years who happen to disagree with them politically are not merely mistaken – but evil, and no longer worthy of their friendship?

"



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Superheroes Are Real

Superheroes Are Real: "There are only 400 smokejumpers in the entire United States, and maybe only half of those are actively jumping fires on a regular basis. Here’s how you get to be one of them: First, love fire enough to build your life around it. Spend five years as something literally called a “hotshot,” doing hard and hot work on the biggest fires all around the country, using your Pulaski (a sort of ax-hoe hybrid) and chainsaw to remove all possible surface fuel and dig down to mineral soil in an 18-inch line that encircles the fire. Or else get yourself hired on to a helitack crew and rappel out of a helicopter and into a wildfire. Once you’ve become acquainted with the hard work and 20-foot-high flames and you’re still somehow left wanting something even more impossibly intense, then go ahead and send in your application to become a smokejumper.

"



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Exceptionalism : Blog : The Federalist Society

Exceptionalism : Blog : The Federalist Society: "Ours is the only nation on earth to define itself and the rights of its citizens based not on blood or land, but rather on adherence to a document: the Constitution.  Moreover, that document was architected in large measure to protect those rights. Here I emphatically do not refer to the Bill of Rights – the first ten amendments – but rather to the structure of the government defined in the body of the Constitution, with powers of governance divided among the three branches, and, as to legislative powers, between the two Houses of Congress, so as to assure that interests would always be pitted against competing interests. That structure was put in place with explicit awareness, as Madison famously wrote in Federalist 51, that neither men outside government nor those inside it are angels, and thus governments are necessary to govern the former, and limits on government are necessary to control the latter; but as between the two, government is bottom up, not top down.

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10 November, 2016

Poor, White and Pissed |

Poor, White and Pissed |:



It is about the indignities suffered at the hands of managers and bosses — being degraded to a working, faceless production unit in our glorious new global economy.
It is about being ignored by the educated classes and the other similar professional, political and business elites that America does not acknowledge as elites.
It is about one’s priorities being closer to home and more ordinary than those of the powerful people who determine our lives.
It is about suffering the everyday lack of human respect from the government, and every other institutional body except the church.
It is about working at Wal-Mart or Home Depot or Arby’s wearing a nametag on which you do not even rate a last name. You are just Melanie or Bobby, there to kiss the manager’s ass or find another gig.
It is about trying to live your life the only way you know how because you were raised that way. But somehow the rules changed under you.
It is about trying to maintain some semblance of outward dignity to your neighbors, when both you and the neighbors are living payday to payday, though no one admits it.
It is about media fabled things you’ve never seen in your own family: college funds set aside for the kids, stock portfolios, vacation homes…


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What Comes After the Uprising - WSJ

What Comes After the Uprising - WSJ: "“We have witnessed something epochal and grave. It is the beginning of a new era whose shape and form are not clear, whose personnel and exact direction are unknown. But something huge and incalculable has occurred. God bless our beloved country.”"



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On the Election – Medium

On the Election – Medium: "I say all that to get to this: We are all headed into the most emotional moment in our modern history. The contributing factors to this emotional intensity are many, and there are numerous entities that have gotten rich stoking this emotional fire at the direct expense of reason. For better or for worse, we will only get through this if we begin to understand the emotions of those that we disagree with in a way we haven’t figured out so far. Emotions are a bit like facts in that once they exist, you’ve got to deal with them rather that wishing they’d just go away.
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Life Outside the Liberal Bubble

Life Outside the Liberal Bubble: "This election has revealed, above all, that Trump and Clinton voters occupy two separate countries. President-elect Trump is now the leader of both of those countries. I’m hopeful that he’ll show as president the empathy he so often failed to show as a candidate. Most important, I hope the residents of those countries do the same.

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18F and USDS: Should I Stay or Should I Go? – Government is Beautiful – Medium

18F and USDS: Should I Stay or Should I Go? – Government is Beautiful – Medium: "Therefore, my real request is to the new Administration: fight to keep these people. If you really do want to help veterans; enhance job opportunities; improve border security and immigration fairness; build infrastructure and reduce the cost of government service delivery, 18F and USDS represent the best chance to do it fast and well. You need, just as you would in any business, to re-recruit your best talent, keep them engaged, and learn from them.
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How Donald Trump Filled the Dignity Deficit - WSJ

How Donald Trump Filled the Dignity Deficit - WSJ: "This story is not merely crucial for understanding this extraordinary election. It is also the lodestar for cultural renewal and better politics, no matter one’s place on the ideological spectrum. Leaders on both sides will likely take issue with some parts of Mr. Trump’s agenda. But all must contend with the central reality he has unearthed—the hunger for dignity in communities where it is most absent.

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The smug style in American liberalism - Vox

The smug style in American liberalism - Vox:



If any single event provided the direct impetus for this essay, it was a running argument I had with an older, liberal writer over the seriousness of Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Since June 2015, when Trump announced his candidacy, this writer has taken it upon himself each day to tell his Facebook followers that Donald Trump is a bad kind of dude.
That saying as much was the key to stopping him and his odious followers too.
"Ridicule is the most powerful weapon we have against any of our enemies," he told me in the end, "but especially against the ones who, not incorrectly, take it so personally and lash out in ways that shine klieg lights on those very flaws we detest.
"If you're laughing at someone, you're certainly not respecting him."
"Anyway," he went on, "I'm done talking to you. We see the world differently. I'm fine with that. We don't need to be friends."


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The smug style in American liberalism - Vox

The smug style in American liberalism - Vox:



There is a smug style in American liberalism. It has been growing these past decades. It is a way of conducting politics, predicated on the belief that American life is not divided by moral difference or policy divergence — not really — but by the failure of half the country to know what's good for them.
In 2016, the smug style has found expression in media and in policy, in the attitudes of liberals both visible and private, providing a foundational set of assumptions above which a great number of liberals comport their understanding of the world.
It has led an American ideology hitherto responsible for a great share of the good accomplished over the past century of our political life to a posture of reaction and disrespect: a condescending, defensive sneer toward any person or movement outside of its consensus, dressed up as a monopoly on reason.


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Trump and Obama Hold Cordial 90-Minute Meeting in Oval Office - The New York Times

Trump and Obama Hold Cordial 90-Minute Meeting in Oval Office - The New York Times:

“I want to emphasize to you, Mr. President-elect, that we now are going to want to do everything we can to help you succeed because if you succeed, then the country succeeds,” Mr. Obama told Mr. Trump as the two sat side-by-side after the roughly 90-minute meeting. The president called the session “excellent” and wide-ranging.
Mr. Trump, who said he had never met Mr. Obama before and expected the meeting to last only 10 or 15 minutes, said it had been a “great honor” to sit with the president.
“We discussed a lot of different situations, some wonderful and some difficulties. I very much look forward to dealing with the president in the future, including counsel,” Mr. Trump said.


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Revenge of the Forgotten Class - ProPublica

Revenge of the Forgotten Class - ProPublica: "But Hammel was far from the only person I met in my reporting this year who made me think that Trump had spurred something very unusual. Some of them had never voted before; some had voted for Barack Obama. None were traditional Republican voters. Some were in dire economic straits; others were just a notch up from that and looking down with resentment at the growing dependency around them. What they shared were three things. They lived in places that were in decline, and had been for some time. They lacked strong attachment to either party at a time when, even within a single metro area like Dayton, the parties had sorted themselves into ideological, geographically disparate camps that left many voters unmoored. And they had profound contempt for a dysfunctional, hyper-prosperous Washington that they saw as utterly removed from their lives.

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A new theory for why Trump voters are so angry — that actually makes sense - The Washington Post

A new theory for why Trump voters are so angry — that actually makes sense - The Washington Post:



But if you’re wondering about the widening fissure between red and blue America, why politics these days have become so fraught and so emotional, Kathy Cramer is one of the best people to ask. For the better part of the past decade, the political science professor has been crisscrossing Wisconsin trying to get inside the minds of rural voters.



Well before President Obama or the tea party, well before the rise of Trump sent reporters scrambling into the heartland looking for answers, Cramer was hanging out in dairy barns and diners and gas stations, sitting with her tape recorder taking notes. Her research seeks to understand how the people of small towns make sense of politics — why they feel the way they feel, why they vote the way they vote.



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J.D. Vance: Why Elites Didn’t See the White Working Class Coming | TIME

J.D. Vance: Why Elites Didn’t See the White Working Class Coming | TIME:

Why did so many people not see the white working class coming?
I think so many people were blinded to it because they didn’t know a Trump supporter so they didn’t realize how passionate a lot of people were but also how durable his support would be in the face of a lot of political setbacks. I think it’s just a consequence of this incredible geographic and cultural segregation we have in this country.


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A ‘Dewey Defeats Truman’ Lesson for the Digital Age - The New York Times

A ‘Dewey Defeats Truman’ Lesson for the Digital Age - The New York Times:

That was an extraordinary admission; if the news media failed to present a reality-based political scenario, then it failed in performing its most fundamental function.
The unexpected turn in the election tallies immediately raised questions about the value of modern polling: Can it accurately capture public opinion when so many people are now so hard to reach on their unlisted cellphones?


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Donald Trump Embraces Gay Community During Republican National Convention Speech

Donald Trump Embraces Gay Community During Republican National Convention Speech: "“As your president I will do everything in my power to protect LGBTQ citizens.”

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Gritting Our Teeth and Giving President Trump a Chance - The New York Times

Gritting Our Teeth and Giving President Trump a Chance - The New York Times:

Democrats are too quick to caricature Trump supporters as deplorables. Sure, some are racists or misogynists, but many are good people who had voted for Obama in the past. My rural hometown, Yamhill, Ore., is pro-Trump, and I can tell you: The voters there are not all bigoted monsters, but well-meaning people upended by economic changes such as the disappearance of good manufacturing jobs. They feel betrayed by the Democratic and Republican establishments, and finally a candidate spoke to them.
Liberals condemn the stereotyping of Latinos or Muslims but have been quick to stereotype Trump voters.


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Trump’s Data Team Saw a Different America—and They Were Right - Bloomberg

Trump’s Data Team Saw a Different America—and They Were Right - Bloomberg: "Trump’s team chose to focus on this electorate, partly because it was the only possible path for them. But after Comey, that movement of older, whiter voters became newly evident. It’s what led Trump’s campaign to broaden the electoral map in the final two weeks and send the candidate into states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan that no one else believed he could win (with the exception of liberal filmmaker Michael Moore, who deemed them “Brexit states”). Even on the eve of the election Trump’s models predicted only a 30 percent likelihood of victory.
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World Is About to Find Out What Donald Trump Really Believes - NYTimes.com

World Is About to Find Out What Donald Trump Really Believes - NYTimes.com: "In Donald J. Trump’s private conversations and public commentary, one guiding principle shines through: The world is a zero-sum place, and nations, like real estate developers, are either on the winning side of a deal or the losing side.



 Yet he also is the ultimate pragmatist, perfectly willing to dispense with seemingly core beliefs in return for negotiating advantage. That is why many of his closest supporters have long cautioned that the most headline-grabbing proposals of his run for the presidency should not be taken literally — they are guideposts, the supporters suggest, not plans. Even Mr. Trump once described his proposed ban on Muslim immigrants as a mere “suggestion.”"



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Russia Says It Was in Contact With Trump’s Team During Campaign - Bloomberg

Russia Says It Was in Contact With Trump’s Team During Campaign - Bloomberg: "

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Russia said it was in contact with President-elect Donald Trump’s team during the U.S. election campaign, despite repeated denials by the Republican candidate’s advisers that any links existed.
“There were contacts” before the election, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Thursday, according to the Interfax news service. “We continue this work of course,” he said, without giving details of what the contacts were."



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Trump Derangement Syndrome Has Begun | The Resurgent

Trump Derangement Syndrome Has Begun | The Resurgent: "This is what happens when you presume the worst about your neighbor. The left may love humanity as a concept, but they are prone to think the absolute worst of their neighbors and that contempt for those who see things differently is on full display in the streets of America.

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09 November, 2016

Democrats, Trump, and the Ongoing, Dangerous Refusal to Learn the Lesson of Brexit

Democrats, Trump, and the Ongoing, Dangerous Refusal to Learn the Lesson of Brexit: "When a political party is demolished, the principle responsibility belongs to one entity: the party that got crushed. It’s the job of the party and the candidate, and nobody else, to persuade the citizenry to support them and find ways to do that. Last night, the Democrats failed, resoundingly, to do that, and any autopsy or liberal think piece or pro-Clinton pundit commentary that does not start and finish with their own behavior is one that is inherently worthless.

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Michael Moore Explained Why TRUMP Won - in October - YouTube

Michael Moore Explains Why TRUMP Will Win - YouTube: "Michael Moore Explains Why TRUMP Will Win
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Trump voters: Why? : AskAnAmerican

Trump voters: Why? : AskAnAmerican: "The so-called regressive left hardly help. These people are simply trying to make a better life for them and the people around them and they're being called racist, sexist, bigots, deplorables and worse, and that's not going to get them on side. Not once does the left go "hang on, maybe these people have legitimate concerns". Instead they're mocked, they're told their life is "played on easy mode" because they're white, they're told they should sit and suffer because others have had it worse. Does that sound the kind of campaign that would bring around the disillusioned?
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What A Difference 2 Percentage Points Makes | FiveThirtyEight

What A Difference 2 Percentage Points Makes | FiveThirtyEight: "In light of Trump’s narrow victory, these arguments sound extremely unconvincing. But they’re exactly what we would have been hearing if just 1 out of 100 voters had switched from Trump to Clinton. So consider that there might be at least partial truth in some of these points.

Likewise, if Clinton had just that small, additional fraction of the vote, people would be smugly dismissing the arguments in the first set of bullet points — even though they, too, would have been just 2 percentage points away from seeming incredibly prescient."

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The Age of Trump Begins - The Atlantic

The Age of Trump Begins - The Atlantic: "He broke the pollsters’ models. He redrew the electoral map. He smashed the smug certainties of the arrogant prognosticators. Just as he had in the primary, he changed the axis of politics as we knew it, from a contest of left versus right to one about open versus closed, in versus out, up versus down. And the forgotten and discarded people heard someone speaking to them for the first time they could remember, and they thronged his raucous rallies by the thousands. On Tuesday, they proved they mattered.

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President-Elect Donald J. Trump | The Resurgent

President-Elect Donald J. Trump | The Resurgent: "This morning I am like a broken record admitting in every post how much I got wrong. As I should because I did. And now I hope I am wrong about Donald Trump. He has the opportunity to unite people in ways no one thought possible, but that the results suggest he alone might be able to do.




Donald Trump and Mike Pence and their families should be in our prayers. They now have a heavy burden on them and the weight of a nation in turmoil pressing down on them.




God always has a plan and I put my trust in Him, not men. But Donald Trump and Mike Pence are now explicit parts of God’s plans and I pray for them and wish them well.




What a wild and crazy year."



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08 November, 2016

An Open Letter to the Democrats | The Resurgent

An Open Letter to the Democrats | The Resurgent:

But here’s the thing — in 2008, Republicans, myself included, freaked the hell out over Barack Obama getting elected. I said many terrible things I regret and for which I have apologized. Don’t be like I was then. The internet is even more forever now than it was then.
You wanted us to wish President Obama well then. I hope you will wish President Trump well now. I have always, even when I genuinely could not stand the man, respected President Obama as my President. I hope you will do the same with President Trump.
Our nation depends on our moving past disagreements and working together as Americans. Many of you said as much in the past week when you thought Trump would never win. I hope you will continue to believe it.
We are not always going to agree. Sometimes the fights will be intense. But at the end of the day we’re all Americans and we all have a vested interest in the success of our country.


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#NeverTrump Must Model The Humility They Claim Trump Does Not Have | The Resurgent

#NeverTrump Must Model The Humility They Claim Trump Does Not Have | The Resurgent: "I want the President of the United States to succeed. Whether you want to admit it or not, Barack Obama is your President and he is my President. Come January, Donald Trump will be our shared President. We should want him to succeed.

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Robert Reich: Why the White Working Class Abandoned the Democratic Party | Alternet

Robert Reich: Why the White Working Class Abandoned the Democratic Party | Alternet:



Democrats also abandoned the white working class.
Democrats have occupied the White House for sixteen of the last twenty-four years, and in that time scored some important victories for working families – the Affordable Care Act, an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Family and Medical Leave Act, for example.
But they’ve done nothing to change the vicious cycle of wealth and power that has rigged the economy for the benefit of those at the top, and undermined the working class. In some respects, Democrats have been complicit in it. 
Both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama ardently pushed for free trade agreements, for example, without providing the millions of blue-collar workers who thereby lost their jobs any means of getting new ones that paid at least as well.


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Wrong, Wrong, Totally Wrong. Time to Reset. | The Resurgent

Wrong, Wrong, Totally Wrong. Time to Reset. | The Resurgent: "But he is soon my President now and the head of the party that I belong to. I was #NeverTrump in the election, but must now reset and give him the benefit of the doubt. He says he will fight for a conservative Supreme Court and will have a Republican Senate willing to help him. He says he will help the little guy. I hope he will.

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07 November, 2016

What I learned from visualizing Hillary Clinton’s emails – MIT MEDIA LAB – Medium

What I learned from visualizing Hillary Clinton’s emails – MIT MEDIA LAB – Medium: "And this brings me to my final point, which is that while I support Clinton in this election, and I think Trump is a bad choice for president (a really bad one), I still think that we should work on the creation of tools that improve the ability of people to personalize scrutinize politically relevant information. I now understand that much of the U.S. media may not share that view with me, and that I think this is an important point of reflection. I hope the media takes some time to think about this on November 9 (or the week after).



Also, the large number of people who were unable to interpret our tool as anything but an effort to support or oppose a political candidate — and that was true for both liberals and conservatives — speaks to me about an ineffective public sphere. And that’s something I think we should all be concerned about. This polarization is not just a cliché. It is a crippling societal condition that is expressed in the inability of people to see any merit, or any point, in opposing views. That’s a dangerous, and chronic, institutional disease that is expressed also in the inability of people to criticize their own candidates, because they fear being confused with someone their peers will interpret as a supporter of the opposing candidate. If you cannot see any merit in the candidate you oppose, even in one or two of the many points that have been made, you may have it."



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End this misogynistic horror show. Put Hillary Clinton in the White House | Barbara Kingsolver | Opinion | The Guardian

End this misogynistic horror show. Put Hillary Clinton in the White House | Barbara Kingsolver | Opinion | The Guardian: "Listen: it is not politics as usual when one camp continually threatens the other with imprisonment and death, screaming female-specific vulgarities, painting her face on targets, hoisting her effigy being hanged. No candidate in the history of the US, Barack Obama included, has been subjected to so much jubilant violation.

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06 November, 2016

My Journey to the Center of the Alt-Right - The Huffington Post

My Journey to the Center of the Alt-Right - The Huffington Post:



Already, there are signs blob imagethat right-wing Republicans intend to make a play for Trump’s base. In late October, members of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of ultra-conservative Republicans, openly warned Speaker Paul Ryan that they would not support him unless he respected the will of Trump voters on issues like immigration. (According to multiple reports, Bannon is determined to use Breitbart to eject Paul Ryan from the speakership after the election.) These efforts don’t have to capture the White House or the congressional leadership in order to wreak havoc on the GOP or the political process. The Tea Party has already demonstrated the power of a rebellious faction to alter the course of the party. During this election, the timorous behavior of Ryan, John McCain, Mitch McConnell and others has demonstrated how willing the party establishment is to roll over for a noisy insurgency.



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An Election Is Not a Suicide Mission - The New York Times

An Election Is Not a Suicide Mission - The New York Times: "It is a hard thing to accept that some elections should be lost, especially in a country as divided over basic moral premises as our own. But just as the pro-life movement ultimately won real gains — in lives saved, laws altered, abortion rates reduced — by accepting the legitimacy of the republic even as it deplored the killing of the unborn, so today’s conservatism has far more to gain from the defeat of Donald Trump, and the chance to oppose Clintonian progressivism unencumbered by his authoritarianism, bigotry, misogyny and incompetence, than it does from answering the progressive drift toward Caesarism with a populist Elagabalus.

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The Cubs Just Ended Baseball’s Analytics War

The Cubs Just Ended Baseball’s Analytics War:

If you’re a Cubs fan, it’s time to party like you’ve never partied before. But if you’re a baseball fan, and a fan of smart front offices doing smart things and pushing the envelope and trying new strategies in a never-ending quest to secure a competitive advantage, you should be rejoicing, too. A deeper understanding of the game of baseball not only makes for a better front office, but for a better fan experience. Cubs fans, and Red Sox fans before them, may owe Epstein a particular debt of gratitude, but we’re all indebted to him for helping make the game of baseball more rewarding to follow in 2016 than it’s ever been before.
Maybe they’ll put that on his Hall of Fame plaque, too.


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The ruthlessly effective rebranding of Europe’s new far right | World news | The Guardian

The ruthlessly effective rebranding of Europe’s new far right | World news | The Guardian:



These parties have built a coherent ideology and steadily chipped away at the establishment parties’ hold on power by pursuing a new and devastatingly effective electoral strategy. They have made a very public break with the symbols of the old right’s past, distancing themselves from skinheads, neo-Nazis and homophobes. They have also deftly co-opted the causes, policies and rhetoric of their opponents. They have sought to outflank the left when it comes to defending a strong welfare state and protecting social benefits that they claim are threatened by an influx of freeloading migrants.
They have effectively claimed the progressive causes of the left – from gay rights to women’s equality and protecting Jews from antisemitism – as their own, by depicting Muslim immigrants as the primary threat to all three groups. As fear of Islam has spread, with their encouragement, they have presented themselves as the only true defenders of western identity and western liberties – the last bulwark protecting a besieged Judeo-Christian civilisation from the barbarians at the gates.


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This Lifetime GOP Voter Is With Her | Foreign Policy

This Lifetime GOP Voter Is With Her | Foreign Policy: "I got to spend a little time with Clinton when she was a U.S. senator and we both served on an advisory board at the now-defunct U.S. Joint Forces Command. Given the harsh logic of the alphabet — C comes after B — I found myself seated next to her on several occasions. I found her to be a charming conversationalist with a lot of interest in learning about defense issues. I did not detect her peddling any ideological agenda; she simply wanted to figure out the best course of action. The Hillary I met doesn’t match the ogre of Republican myth."



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‘I’m With Her’: The Strengths of Hillary Clinton - The New York Times

‘I’m With Her’: The Strengths of Hillary Clinton - The New York Times: "First, she knows the world exceptionally well and is essentially a very bright, disciplined nerd who traveled to more countries as secretary of state than any of her predecessors.



 Second, Clinton had a history of playing well with Republicans when she was in the Senate and secretary of state, so there’s some small hope that we could inch back to governing.



Third, Clinton cares deeply about impoverished children and others who are voiceless. In Arkansas, she started an early childhood program. In Washington, she helped establish CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which supports more than eight million needy American kids.
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