pnwmom
pnwmom's JournalTrying to make America MALE again. Women control the ballot box,
and angry, sexist Trump voters just can't deal.
Women and those uppity minorities.
http://www.salon.com/2016/08/09/trying-to-make-america-male-again-women-control-the-ballot-box-and-angry-sexist-trump-voters-cant-deal/
Donald Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again,” is drenched in layers of nostalgia. The slogan itself has been swiped from the schmaltz-fueled 1980 campaign for Ronald Reagan. The naked racism spewing from Trump suggests that the what he feels will return America to its mythical glory days is to embrace of the white supremacy of the past. His widespread support amongst bona fide white supremacists shores up this reading.
But this kind of nostalgia is also about gender, as the America of many decades ago was also one where men controlled the ballot box.
Women may have won the vote in 1920, but men were the majority of voters for the next six decades. That started to change in the early ’80s, when women started out-voting men. In 2012, 58.5% of women reported voting, compared to 54.4% of men. While most office holders are still men, women have quietly reshaped the nation’s political discourse.
The nomination of Trump — a loudmouthed misogynist who can’t seem to name a single talented woman besides his own daughter — can be understood in large part as a reaction to this trend, a temper tantrum thrown by angry men whose idea of making America great again means wresting control of it back from women.
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Looking over the past few decades, one of the dominant political trends — perhaps the dominant trend — is that women are flocking to the Democrats, pushing them to the left, and in reaction, the majority of men are running to the Republicans and pushing them to the right.
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Why "just joking" is not a defence.
http://www.vox.com/2016/8/9/12417100/donald-trump-assassinate-hillary-clinton-jokeBefore becoming a lawyer, Steed was an English professor. He wrote his PhD dissertation on "the social function of humor" and found something important: Jokes about socially unacceptable things aren’t just "jokes." They serve a function of normalizing that unacceptable thing, of telling the people who agree with you that, yes, this is an okay thing to talk about.
This, Steed explains, is why "it’s a joke" isn’t a good defense of racist jokes. By telling the joke, the person is signaling that they think racism is an appropriate thing to express. "Just joking" is just what someone says to the people who don’t appreciate hearing racist stuff — it shouldn’t matter any more than saying "no offense" after saying something offensive.
Likewise, Trump is signaling that assassinating Hillary Clinton and/or her Supreme Court nominees is an okay thing to talk about. He’s normalizing the unacceptable.
Trump On Second Amendment Backlash: ‘I Think It’s A Good Thing For Me’
Source: Huffington Post
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Tuesday night he’s benefitting from the controversy he created earlier in the day by suggesting “the Second Amendment people” might forcefully stop Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton from appointing Supreme Court justices.
After an outcry from Democrats and gun-control advocates over remarks that appeared to obliquely encourage violence, Trump said he didn’t mean to suggest any harm. The real villains, he said on Fox News, were the media.
“I have to say, in terms of politics, there is few things, and I happen to think that if [the media] did even bring this up, I think it’s a good thing for me,” Trump told Sean Hannity.
“Because it’s going to tell people more about me with respect to the Second Amendment ... because Hillary Clinton wants to essentially abolish the Second Amendment.”
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-second-amendment-backlash_us_57aaa702e4b0ba7ed23e2bf8
So he's going with the "any publicity is good publicity" theory.
White-bearded guy behind Trump instantly gets it.
So does his wife -- who thinks it's funny.
It doesn't matter what Trump MEANT. It matters what he SAID.
And, as Michael Hayden, former Bush CIA Director, pointed out today, it matters what others HEAR.
Wars have started over mistakes and misunderstandings. That's why Hillary's caution, her control, her "calculating" nature would be infinitely better suited for the office they are seeking.
http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-second-amendment-hillary-clinton-comment-2016-8
What the president says matters. Presidents' comments can move markets, create policy, inflame foreign tensions, even start wars. It is therefore important that presidents be careful.
Donald Trump is incapable of being careful. His loose talk is not a mere personality quirk and it is not refreshing — it is a reason he cannot handle the job of the presidency.
Voting without retching: beyond the lesser of two evils.
Surprise!
This is an article from 1980, subtitled: What to do if you can't stand Reagan or Carter.
Once upon a time many Dems thought Carter was just as bad as Reagan. Hard to imagine with the wisdom of hindsight.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/voting-without-retching-lesser-of-beyond-the-two-evils-19801016
On August 19th of this year, George Wald, emeritus professor of biology at Harvard and a recipient of the 1967 Nobel Prize for Medicine, wrote in a letter to the New York Times: "I have a suspicion approaching conviction that John Anderson's try for the presidency was invented by, or with the connivance of, the Trilateral Commission, to cut into the Democratic vote and so secure the election of Ronald Reagan." After much buttressing of this eccentric thesis, the professor concluded in the same terms: "I think John Anderson is the instrument designed by the Trilateral Commission to assure Reagan's election."
"Did you read that letter?" we asked Anderson.
Anderson rolled his eyes. "Oh my God! For a Nobel laureate! To write this preposterous....… I haven't even gone to a meeting for two or three years."
Trump's full comment today was more damning that what is being shown in edited clips
on CNN and elsewhere:
“Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment…By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know. But I’ll tell you what, that will be a horrible day.”
He now says he was just speaking about political activism. Yeah, right.
What We Know About the Young Boy Decapitated on the World’s Tallest Water Slide
Source: Time
Ten-year-old Caleb Schwab was decapitated while riding what has been dubbed the world’s tallest water slide at the Schlitterbahn Water Park in Kansas City, police said.
The case is being investigated as a civil rather than criminal matter, yet details are vague and authorities have disclosed little information about what caused the tragic accident. Questions remain over how exactly Caleb died, including whether the ride or safety equipment — as well as the Velcro straps and belt holding him into the raft — malfunctioned.
Caleb Schwab, the son of a state lawmaker, sustained a fatal “neck injury” at around 2:30 p.m. while riding the 168-foot-tall “Verruckt” (meaning “insane” in German) water slide, the Associated Press reports. Police confirmed to TIME on Tuesday that the boy was decapitated in the accident. He was found dead at the bottom of the ride in a pool.
Schwab boarded the raft with two women who were not related to him, they both suffered minor cuts and scrapes on their face in the incident.
Read more: http://time.com/4444447/caleb-schwab-verruckt-water-slide-death/
The rumor of the cause of death has been circulating on Twitter for days.
There are no Federal regulations for waterparks, and this park was last inspected by the state in 2012 -- two years before it opened. But the owner has said that they delayed the opening in 2014 because of safety changes they made. Why didn't the state re-inspect after the changes?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3730558/Witnesses-day-ten-year-old-boy-DECAPITATED-flew-world-s-tallest-waterslide-fell-safety-net.html
There are no federal inspection laws for waterparks in the U.S., and inspections are handled on a state-by-state basis. State inspectors reportedly last checked the waterpark in 2012, well before the Verruckt opened in 2014.
GOP EPA chiefs endorse Clinton
Source: Politico
REPUBLICAN EPA CHIEFS ENDORSE CLINTON: Former Nixon and Reagan EPA Administrator William Ruckelshaus and former George H.W. Bush EPA Administrator William Reilly both endorsed Hillary Clinton for president today, damning Donald Trump for his "profound ignorance of science." As Pro's Andrew Restuccia reports, the two men criticized Trump for failing to accept the warnings on climate change from scientists and threatening to "cancel" the Paris climate deal. "That Trump would call climate change a hoax — the singular health and environmental threat to the world today — flies in the face of overwhelming international science and the public conviction and commitment of almost 200 national governments" that joined the Paris deal, they said. "To back away now, as Trump wants to do, would set the world back decades — years we could never recover. The young people in this country deserve far better than that as our legacy."
Story Continued Below
Republicans lining up for Hillary: Ruckelshaus and Reilly are unusual in the GOP for their acceptance of and concern about climate change. But other Republican heavyweights have joined them in their preference for Clinton over Trump, including Brent Scowcroft, Meg Whitman, Richard Armitage, and Henry Paulson. Last night, Republican Sen. Susan Collins said in a Washington Post op-ed that she could not support Trump. Former George W. Bush EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman said Clinton was "more stable" than Trump, but hasn't endorsed in the race.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-energy/2016/08/gop-epa-chiefs-endorse-clinton-215782
Republican Trump-hater, ex CIA Evan McMullin, plans to file for an independent run for President.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/09/us/politics/evan-mcmullin-independent-candidate.htmlEvan McMullin, a former C.I.A. official and a Republican who passionately opposes Donald J. Trump, will file papers to run for president as an independent candidate, according to two people briefed on his plans.
Mr. McMullin, who until recently worked on policy development with the House Republican conference, has missed the ballot-access deadlines in more than two dozen states.
But Mr. McMullin, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, studied in Utah and could take votes from Mr. Trump in the heavily Mormon state.
In a statement provided by an aide, Mr. McMullin said, “In a year where Americans have lost faith in the candidates of both major parties, it’s time for a generation of new leadership to step up.”
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/evan-mcmullin-trump-independent_us_57a880bae4b021fd9879173e?section=&
Evan McMullin, 40, is expected to file as an independent candidate for president Monday, telling ABC News in a statement that “it’s never too late to do the right thing, and America deserves much better than either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton can offer us.”
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McMullin is a former CIA agent and former chief policy director of the House Republican conference. His resume includes stints at Goldman Sachs and the United Nations. He was educated at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ― a distinction he shares with Trump ― and Brigham Young University. He has never held elected office, and is largely unknown in political circles.
The House Republican Conference distanced itself from McMullin in a statement emailed to reporters on Monday.
“The House Republican Conference has zero knowledge of his intentions,” said conference spokesperson Nate Hodson.
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