RickJay is as entitled to make baseless assertions as any other poster when he is posting as a poster. His mod status has nothing to do with that. It doesn’t make him a cult leader-like figure whose every utterance should be treated as if pearls were falling from his keyboard.
Disagree with him, by all means, but don’t attempt to hold him to some higher, more exalted status of communication that the rest of us bums just because he’s a mod.
He lived in Toronto until sometime in the last couple of years. Now, it is an odd statement, and I disagree with it, but it’s ridiculous to say that he shouldn’t post odd statements because he’s a mod. Baseball threads would never be the same.
This is an opinion, with which I generally agree. Trump is only ‘extremely right’ within the normal realm of democratic politics if your opinion is that ‘right’ equals ‘distasteful’. Trump is extremely distasteful, IMO. But there are factually plenty of things Trump has said even in his campaign, let alone in his whole public life, which are at odds with conservatism as its been understood in the US in recent decades. Trump is not a further right version of them, he’s different, but one dimensional left-right doesn’t capture it (see Economists’ cover story this week: Trumpism, whether or not the man himself, is part of a new rich world divide political mainly between open and closed to the outside world, not so much left v. right).
The only way to say Trump is ‘extreme right’ is to establish that he is actually a fascist. Fascists were also to the left/authoritarian side of modern conservatives in many respects, though it’s convention to call them ‘the extreme right’.
But ‘ignorance’ isn’t having a different opinion, and it’s a matter of opinion, which I’m sure has been the subject of long threads, whether Trump is a fascist. I agree with Rick, if Trump thought actual fascism would promote Trump he’d be one, if Communism would he’d be there just as quick, or anything else. Which was true of some fascists historically, it was a generally less ideological ‘ideology’ than some others, and some of its famous figures had been on the left at one time. So calling Trump a totally self focused opportunist doesn’t itself disprove he could be a fascist.
However to really decide I think you’d have to see what he would do as a leader in the political realm, since he has no track record and contradicts himself so often. I don’t propose conducting that experiment though.
Just a quick follow up on this. SigDig over at 538 is reporting that Hillary and her allies have reserved $98 million worth of air time through E-Day while Trump and his allies are at $817K.
I dig counting on free air time through Trump’s personality and statements but that’s going to be a slaughter. By the time he begins airing things there won’t be a lot of airtime left to buy.
Asymmetrical warfare at its finest. Of course the Khan’s attacked Trump. He’s the Republican candidate for president – it’s the job of the Democratic convention to attack Trump.
But it was a trap. The only good response to the Khan’s speech – if any response was required, which it wasn’t – was for Trump to say that he honored the Khan’s sacrifice. And shut up.
But no. Donald fell into the trap, pulled out his shovel, and started digging, and piling dirt on his head, and setting his shoes on fire.
Clinton’s presidential response to her parallel situation where she manages to disagree and still be respectful:
“My heart goes out to both of them. Losing a child under any circumstances, especially in this case, two State Department employees, extraordinary men, both of them, two CIA contractors gave their lives protecting our countries, our values. I understand the grief and the incredible sense of loss that can motivate that. As other members of families who lost loved ones have said, that’s not what they heard – I don’t hold any ill feeling for someone who in that moment may not fully recall everything that was or wasn’t said.”
Note the lack of implying that Smith is a terrorist or bringing up her own struggles as a law student as comparable situations of Smith’s sacrifices.
Yet another prominent Republican jumps ship. Meg Whitman, now endorsing, and offering to contribute to, Hillary. I’m losing count buy we’re up to about 7 now, maybe 8 prominent Republicans who have done likewise.
The very thought of losing one of my kids makes my heart pound with anxiety. I cannot imagine what agony it must be. I don’t know how people bear it. I understand the Khans hold annual barbecues for the cadets who graduate from the University of Virginia ROTC. I find that amazing. Their bravery and dignity is certainly beyond my abilities. I can see how it would be a way to cope, but gosh, I don’t know. If I lost one of my daughters I don’t know that I would even have the courage to visit her grave. I just do not have it in me.
That picture breaks my heart. It brings tears to my eyes. That poor, poor man. I know exactly what he was thinking; “I would die a thousand times to bring you back.” If you cannot sympathize with someone like that and just back away when the subject is the death of their little boy, you’ve gotta be some kind of monster.
The thing is, an intelligent person who had paid even a modest amount of attention to our political discourse over the last few decades would know that was the obvious thing to do. What that says about Trump I leave as an exercise for the reader.
Trump still seems convinced that the media is keeping the story alive because they’re “out to get him”, when it should be obvious to anyone that the thing that’s keeping the story alive is Trump. The story isn’t “Gold star family is upset with Trump”, it’s "Trump verbally attacks gold star family, " and it’s a story entirely of his own making.
No, dummy. Not when you “defend yourself” by ad hominem, not when it’s a gold star family, not when you’re seeking to be elected as our Commander in Chief. What part of the job did you not understand?
