Trump's America

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Meanwhile, a 13 judge en banc panel from the Fourth Circuit of the Court of Appeals has ruled 10-3 that the revised travel ban is unconstitutional, with the chief judge of the court writing in the majority opinion that the executive order “speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination.”

Next stop, SCOTUS, where Neil Gorsuch is likely to show why Trump nominated him.

[Griffon64]

Meanwhile-meanwhile, it appears that Donald Trump's brand new personal Russia Investigation lawyer found some time to threaten Berkeley Breathed for posting photoshopped pictures of Donald Trump wearning Bloom County swag. 'cause that's serious business, ya know.

[Frelga]

Apparently, there are strange flashing red lights at the White House. Is the One Ring being forged?

https://twitter.com/RobbinSimmons7/stat ... 2168115200

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Covfefe!

[Primula Baggins]

My favorite tweet on this vital issue last night was from Lord Covfefe the Strong: "I am summoned to your world. I know not why."

[Frelga]

For the word lovers, here's a wonderful thread on the linguistics of covfefe. https://twitter.com/GretchenAMcC/status ... 3068898304

[Cenedril_Gildinaur]

@ACLU is live tweeting the Muslim Ban 2.0 court case and it's beautiful.

Eta:
And @MordorNPS, the Mordor National Park account, is live tweeting the Sally Yates testimony.

It's not a "Muslim Ban" and those who call it such damage their own credibility. It is a 3 month suspension (not a ban) on travelers of any faith (not just Muslims) from several specific countries on a list created by President Obama. Muslims (as well as people of other faiths) from countries not on that list are neither suspended nor banned.

[Griffon64]

Yes, and it was not "Death Panels" either, to pluck something similar, but from the conservative side instead of the liberal side, off the top of my head.

And so on and so forth. Characterizing a political or philosophical opponent's position in an inaccurate / more evil / shorthand / etc fashion is hardly new, and also, in my opinion, one of the reasons having a discussion in anything but an echo chamber seem to quickly devolve into finger pointing, insults, and general weasel wording and maneuvering these days. The two sides cannot have meaningful discussion because they do not share a common vocabulary. They don't understand each other's shorthand. It takes effort to understand someone else and to straighten out the crooked paths, and people typically avoid effort.

And I bet if I looked, somewhere some Roman complained about this same thing a few thousand years ago.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It absolutely is a "Muslim ban." it just is not the total and complete ban on Muslim's that Trump originally wanted. There is abundant evidence, convincing to the vast majority of judges appointed from both parties that have looked at both versions of the travel bans, that the purpose of both executive orders was to accomplish as much of the goal of a ban on Muslim immigration as possible. As such, it is not inaccurate to call it a "Muslim ban."

Death Panels, on the other hand, never existed in any shape or form.

[Cenedril_Gildinaur]

Yes, and it was not "Death Panels" either, to pluck something similar, but from the conservative side instead of the liberal side, off the top of my head.

You're right. The conservatives were as guilty when they said "death panel" as the liberals are guilty when they say "muslim ban".

Characterizing a political or philosophical opponent's position in an inaccurate / more evil / shorthand / etc fashion is hardly new, and also, in my opinion, one of the reasons having a discussion in anything but an echo chamber seem to quickly devolve into finger pointing, insults, and general weasel wording and maneuvering these days. The two sides cannot have meaningful discussion because they do not share a common vocabulary. They don't understand each other's shorthand. It takes effort to understand someone else and to straighten out the crooked paths, and people typically avoid effort.

That's why I so dislike such shorthand. It's too easy, and as a result political discussion generally devolves into "omg he made a typo" instead of any substantive discussion.

[Impenitent]

Didn't Prince record a song about a little red covfefe?

[yovargas]

That's why I so dislike such shorthand. It's too easy, and as a result political discussion generally devolves into "omg he made a typo" instead of any substantive discussion.

It's pretty absurd to say that there hasn't been an enormous amount of very substantive discussion around the President just because people think "convfefe" is funny.

[Cerin]

I just read (part of, what I thought was) the most ridiculous article in defense of the bloody severed head display of the President by comedian Kathy Griffin. My question is, wouldn't we here have been upset if, say Ann Coulter or Sarah Palin, had displayed a bloody, severed head of Pres. Obama?

[yovargas]

I haven't paid much attn to it but I thought I saw somewhere that Griffin herself had apologized for it, no?

[Cerin]

I believe she did apologize, but this writer thought that (the apology) was a sad and pathetic spectacle and an affront to freedom of speech.

[Cenedril_Gildinaur]

Yes, we would have been as upset had it been Obama. In fact when people put up similarly offensive displays there was similar outrage with just one additional element - it was also called racist.

That's why those protesting Obama started to police their own ranks about what was acceptable and unacceptable (note I said "started to" and not "did") when protesting Obama.

[Frelga]

So Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord. Two other countries did not sign. Nicaragua, which is on track to reach 90% renewable energy by 2020, felt the Accord does not go nearly far enough. The other country is Syria, 'nuff said.

While the main reason Trump cited was to fulfill a campaign promise, a Yale survey found that a majority of Americans in every state say that the United States should participate in the Paris Climate Agreement. Almost half of Trump’s voters supports participation in the Accord compared to 28% who do not.

[Dave_LF]

The latest story related to the Trump-Russia scandal(s) nicely illustrates a problem I'm going to struggle with repeatedly moving forward: how in the world am I supposed to take someone seriously when her name is Reality Winner?

Luckily, it's getting harder and harder to take anything seriously to begin with.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The Senate Intelligence Committee has posted James Comey's opening statement on their website in anticipation of his testimony tomorrow. It makes for interesting reading:

https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sit ... 060817.pdf

[Primula Baggins]

Very interesting indeed. It casts a clearer light on both Comey's previous public statements and Trump's. Much less potentially reassuring to Trump than I expected.