The most powerful person in the world...not who you think

Russian President Vladimir Putin tops Forbes list of the world's most powerful people, with President-elect Donald Trump coming in second.

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/310383-forbes-picks-putin-as-most-powerful-trump-second

Never Again...

"In modern day America, we should not tolerate a system where the president has lost the popular vote. The Electoral College must go."

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/presidential-campaign/310298-we-can-elect-the-next-president-by-popular-vote

Trump is an extinction-level event

As this dystopian election campaign has unfolded, my mind keeps being tugged by a passage in Plato’s Republic. It has unsettled — even surprised — me from the moment I first read it in graduate school. The passage is from the part of the dialogue where Socrates and his friends are talking about the nature of different political systems, how they change over time, and how one can slowly evolve into another. And Socrates seemed pretty clear on one sobering point: that “tyranny is probably established out of no other regime than democracy.” What did Plato mean by that? Democracy, for him, I discovered, was a political system of maximal freedom and equality, where every lifestyle is allowed and public offices are filled by a lottery. And the longer a democracy lasted, Plato argued, the more democratic it would become. Its freedoms would multiply; its equality spread. Deference to any sort of authority would wither; tolerance of any kind of inequality would come under intense threat; and multiculturalism and sexual freedom would create a city or a country like “a many-colored cloak decorated in all hues.”

This rainbow-flag polity, Plato argues, is, for many people, the fairest of regimes. The freedom in that democracy has to be experienced to be believed — with shame and privilege in particular emerging over time as anathema. But it is inherently unstable. As the authority of elites fades, as Establishment values cede to popular ones, views and identities can become so magnificently diverse as to be mutually uncomprehending. And when all the barriers to equality, formal and informal, have been removed; when everyone is equal; when elites are despised and full license is established to do “whatever one wants,” you arrive at what might be called late-stage democracy. There is no kowtowing to authority here, let alone to political experience or expertise.

America Has Never Been So Ripe for Tyranny -- NYMag - nymag.com
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/04/america-tyranny-donald-trump.html

+25,000 -14,000 + Ah..this IBM math

IBM's CEO announced it would hire 25,000 new employees before a meeting with Trump, who has recently tanked the stock of big companies and targeted groups hiring outside the U.S.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/310312-ibm-ceo-announces-plan-to-hire-25000-workers-ahead-of-trump

#BREAKING: Twenty Republican electors are reportedly considering not voting for Trump.

Sanity is coming round the bend...insanity is close behind.,and at the finish the winner is. .??

Why the Obama administration didn't respond earlier to Russian hacks

Source: CNN

For months, Obama administration officials have debated how to respond to Russian hacks they believed were intended to undermine the US elections. But they kept arriving at reasons not to respond publicly.

In addition to a fear of sparking a wider cyber-conflict and an attempt to save talks with Russia over Syria, the administration did not want to give Donald Trump reason to cry foul following what they were certain would be a Hillary Clinton victory.

Now it's Democrats who are suggesting that the elections were stolen, in part at least, by Russian hacking efforts aimed to hurt Clinton and boost Trump.

Read more: https://apple.news/AaRyNToD_Qbqb5ARuE7IE5g

GOP Senator Blames Opioid Epidemic On...Obamacare?

Republicans and various conspiracy theorists have said a lot of crazy things about the Affordable Care Act. Think death panels or microchips embedded under your skin. But Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) appears to have come up with a brand-new one: Americans abuse heroin and painkillers because of Obamacare.

Yes, he actually made this argument.

Because it’s not enough for conservatives to say that the Affordable Care Act raised health insurance prices for some people, or that it costs the government too much money, or that the federal government shouldn’t legally mandate that people get health coverage.

GOP Senator Blames Opioid Epidemic On...Obamacare? - The Huffington Post - US
https://apple.news/AEpRWiLXHQuCOdd1Xd9DItg

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This shit is getting very strange..

Trump wins liar of the year award

The entire 2016 election has won this year’s reader competition for most significant falsehood.


http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2016/dec/13/2016-lie-year-readers-poll-results/

Pelosi says the republicans will not repeal ACA

"There's division among the Republicans within their own ranks," Nancy Pelosi said. "I don't think they're going to repeal the Affordable Care Act."

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/310296-pelosi-doubts-gop-can-pull-off-obamacare-repeal

Tucker cuts off guests mic...

Tucker Carlson cuts off a guest's mic after repeatedly asking him for evidence that Russia stole the election.

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/im-cutting-you-off-tucker-carlson-confronts-guest-for-saying-russia-swayed-election/

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Must be vigilant in the face of bullshit...