Sure feels like it most of the time, given our lack of representation and our inability to make laws for ourselves.
Kind of off-topic, but Jon Bernstein has a take on the unusually low number of appointments: Bloomberg - Are you a robot?
I guess I’m in the bargaining phase. My notion at this point is to protect my assets and wait to see what happens. If the unlikely event that banks fail, then we’re all fucked, so I’m going to buy a hedge of gold (the metal, not the stocks) in the remote chance that they are somehow impacted. No, I won’t give you my address. How anybody can believe that billionaires have the interests of the working class at heart is beyond comprehension. Cut corporate taxes (increase corporate welfare, in other words)? They’ll pocket the money, just like they’ve always done, and the jobs will remain right where they are. Congress will not allow the imposition of tariffs on their donors, so that’s not happening. Still, I’ll wait and see, and if I’m wrong I’ll own up to it.
I think he means he’s out of the country, hosting other people from out of the country who are on their way to DC to protest the inauguration.
Well put.
When I see a mother carrying a sign and shouting out in public “You’re not my Son”, then I’ll agree with you. Until then, I’m going to take those folks at their word. If they don’t want me to, then it’s up to them to say what they actually mean.
No, it’s up to you to listen to them.
I’ll get back to you when I hear “Not My President, but I don’t mean that literally”. Don’t hold your breath.
Don’t bother yourself-I’m sure they have better things to do then print out special signs and shout out extra slogans for the overly literal.
Oh, please. I’ll need to see your long form mind reader certificate. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
I think it’s pretty damn obvious that “not my President” is roughly in the same league as “not my football team.” Just because the Dallas Cowboys are not “my team,” doesn’t mean that I deny that they exist.
‘Not my president’: Thousands protest Trump in rallies across the U.S.
Oh, I see. That clears thing up! Emphasis added.
I reject the Dallas Cowboys. So what?
I thought the phrase came from the “Not my Christian” people from 50 shades of grey.
That was definitely the first time I heard that specific method of phrasing.
So, is your contention that all the “Not my Christian” people were being literal, and denying that there was a movie with an actor in it?
And that link from November 11th, before he was officially given the job by the Electoral College, pertains to the current protests and marches how?
Exactly, so what. Fandom is, at its essence, a choice. Anyone can choose to be a fan or not. Plus, it’s a bad analogy. If the analogy worked, you would be claiming that the person saying that is, in fact, a fan. They didn’t mean it literally.
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
There are two possibilities:
- People saying “Not my president” are, by the tens of thousands, so ignorant of how our governmental system works that they think it’s possible to be a US citizen and individually choose who the president is; or
- People are speaking figuratively here, and your insistence on “tak[ing] those folks at their word,” that is to say, interpreting them literally when they speak figuratively, is leading to a misunderstanding.
In the eighties how strenuously did you object to “Must-see TV,” insisting that you weren’t actually forced to watch it? Are you super-bothered by this messageboard’s name, since there are no illegal drugs available here, and even if they were they probably wouldn’t be laid out in a straight line? Does Black Lives Matter really drive you up the wall, since lives don’t have pigmentation?
Oh, shit. It’s impossible to drive up a wall, isn’t it? Your car would just tip over. My bad.
If you interpret people as speaking figuratively WHEN IT’S BLEEDIN OBVIOUS THEY’RE SPEAKING FIGURATIVELY, it’s gonna make life easier.
I went to college in an extremely liberal city (Madison, WI) in the 1980s, and regularly saw protests along the lines of “Reagan isn’t my president.” And, absolutely, there were conservatives who “rejected” Obama as their president, to the level of believing that he wasn’t legitimately qualified to serve. There’s nothing particularly new here, and though, in the extreme cases (like Birthers), it represents an actual disbelief in the President’s legitimacy, I think that, in most cases, the line is more hyperbole.
To address the OP: it’s been difficult for me to “give Trump a chance”, because, in the two-plus months since his election, he’s done so little to indicate to me that he’s going to treat the office and the responsibility with the respect it needs. The horrible picks for his advisers and cabinet posts, the continued thin-skinned tweetstorms, the brazen nepotism and conflicts of interest, and the denial of Russian shenanigans in the election, all bother me tremendously.
I see a few glimmers of hope, such as his statements that he wants to make sure that whatever gets implemented to replace the ACA will cover everyone. But, he’s so prone to making random statements with no backing, and to change what he says from one day to the next, that I’m still extremely skeptical.
Just to be clear, are you saying that you would consider protesters with the same signs and slogans differently if they were doing so today?
Also, just to be clear, do you think the Birthers “didn’t really mean it” when they said Obama was not the president because he wasn’t a citizen?
I didn’t say anything-I asked you a question.