If You're Not Happy With Any Party Right Now

[Auld Phart]

There used to be a popular bumper sticker, "Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way"
In that scenario, I need to get out of the way. I'd happily be a follower, if there were someone I felt was worthy of following. Maybe there's a silver lining in every storm cloud. I wanted to share this with those of you who feel like me. Things may get better. Maybe some of us need to get involved in one way or other.
As bones says, stay strong.


Kathleen Parker: Trump's unique gift to America

• Jul 18, 2017
  
• BANNER ELK, N.C. — Even the least popular presidents sometimes do great things.

What might Donald Trump’s great thing be? He has unified a divided nation.

He has brought Republicans and Democrats together as only just wars can. He’s brought women, scientists, minorities, teachers, journalists, professors — and no, they’re not all liberal — out of their favorite laptop seats and moved them to march, protest and, most important, run for public office.


The pink-capped Women’s March is familiar to all but the dead. On Earth Day in April, scientists around the world staged rallies to protest Trump’s apparent lack of interest in research-backed facts.

A few prominent conservatives — George Will and Joe Scarborough among them — have left the GOP, while Democrats have offered to take drastic action.

A majority say they would forswear drinking for life if it would mean Trump’s impeachment, according to a story in The Hill. This seems a tad excessive, though given the increased alcohol consumption (anecdotally) since Trump took office, a long-term wagon ride might be just what the doctor would order. Relatedly, if not causatively, Nevada ran out of marijuana products a few days after the state legalized recreational use.

When have so many Americans of so many stripes been so united in a shared mission? And, no, Woodstock doesn’t count.

Other gifts from the president include an increased national interest in politics, civic participation and electoral office. Trump seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue, even among those who have never before expressed any interest in politics.

Chris Clark, an artist in this mountain village, echoed the sentiments one hears several times on any given day. “I’m obsessed with the news,” he told me during a recent visit to his gallery.

“All I do is watch TV now,” he laughed. “It’s like watching a train wreck, you can’t look away. It’s hard to go to work, really!”

Meanwhile, countless Republicans and Democrats and independents, the nonpolitical as well as scientists, teachers, and, sure, a freshly emboldened outlier class (Jay Z?) are considering running for public office, a goal previously not on the radar.

A newly formed Political Action Committee — 314 Action — is urging scientists to “Get Elected” and offers help with funding and logistics. Hundreds have signed up. Similarly, Silicon Valley tech magnate Sam Altman — president of Y Combinator, which invests in start-ups such as Dropbox and Airbnb — is offering to fund good candidates for statewide office to “create prosperity through technology, economic fairness and maintaining personal liberty.”

Nationally, a centrist movement is gaining traction under the self-explaining name of “No Labels,” and may yet prove to be a counterforce in the zero-sum sport of current politics. The group organized in 2010 and is co-chaired by former Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Democrat (later Independent) Joe Lieberman.

Today, more than 70 members of Congress from both parties have formed a bipartisan coalition called the “No Labels Problem Solvers,” pledging to work together on legislative initiatives. Earlier this month, the congressional group released its first bipartisan effort — a “Make Government Work!” legislative package aimed at reducing government waste and inefficiency. Coming up in September, No Labels will host an international Ideas Summit to coincide with the United Nations General Assembly session in New York.

Thus, though our national political narrative is that we’re more divided than ever, a dispassionate second look suggests otherwise. We’re not so much divided as stuck. Running in mud. That’s not the swamp draining; it’s the muck of money, greed, self-interest and one-upmanship — Washington’s unique art of the deal.

We don’t have only Trump to thank. The ecosystem of media-generated conflict and America’s penchant for spectator sports has ensured a persistent game of warring factions — a perfect milieu for someone like Trump with his particular talents. He merely strolled to the lectern, called everybody else a loser, and plowed his way to the presidency on a whim and the most golden of promises — to make America great again.

We have work to do. There is hope. A trend seems to be taking shape if momentum can be nourished. What an irony if Trump’s presidency made America great again by inspiring people to get elected whose civilian lives have been circumscribed by the pursuit of knowledge, wisdom and truth, which is not, in fact, relative.

Trump would go down as one of the greatest unifying presidents in history — the sooner the better.


Kathleen Parker’s email address is [email protected].
Kathleen Parker: Trump's unique gift to America

Forget Hillary Clinton. It was the media that actually elected Trump.

Hillary had Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, the media, the Russians, the GOP and the FBI against her and she still won the popular vote by millions.
Market watch, in May, put the amount of free media for Donald Trump at 3 BILLION. By the end of the election, some estimates were 5 BILLION. Double all the GOP and all the Democratic candidates put together.

Nearly every Trump speech was played from beginning to end. Most of the time any part of a Hillary speech was played, it was the part where she talked about Donald Trump.

Chuck Todd couldn't say her name without also saying "unlikable, untrustworthy and dishonest".

On the other hand, the same media was calling Trump "authentic" and a "master of media" right up until just before the election. They even gave his hotel and Scottish Golf Course free hour long infomercials.

Remember the media swarmed the Clinton Foundation but it was a single reporter who took down the criminal organization, the uncertified and unlicensed Trump Foundation. Thousands of media personnel studying the Clinton Foundation, only one looking into Trump's criminal organization. And that reporter won the Pulitzer Prize for his investigation. Did he win it because he was the ONLY one?

Not only do politicians need to be held accountable, the media also needs to be held accountable.

We know the only reason the GOP is against Obamacare is because it has the name Obama as part of it. People in Kentucky have said they should make a national Kynect (Kentucky's Obamacare) and get rid of Obamacare. How stupid is that?

It was the media that actually elected Trump.

The media that spent months trashing Trump put him in office?

(Boy, I bet THEIR faces are red)

 

[debbiedowner]

There used to be a popular bumper sticker, "Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way"
In that scenario, I need to get out of the way. I'd happily be a follower, if there were someone I felt was worthy of following. Maybe there's a silver lining in every storm cloud. I wanted to share this with those of you who feel like me. Things may get better. Maybe some of us need to get involved in one way or other.
As bones says, stay strong.


Kathleen Parker: Trump's unique gift to America

• Jul 18, 2017
  
• BANNER ELK, N.C. — Even the least popular presidents sometimes do great things.

What might Donald Trump’s great thing be? He has unified a divided nation.

He has brought Republicans and Democrats together as only just wars can. He’s brought women, scientists, minorities, teachers, journalists, professors — and no, they’re not all liberal — out of their favorite laptop seats and moved them to march, protest and, most important, run for public office.


The pink-capped Women’s March is familiar to all but the dead. On Earth Day in April, scientists around the world staged rallies to protest Trump’s apparent lack of interest in research-backed facts.

A few prominent conservatives — George Will and Joe Scarborough among them — have left the GOP, while Democrats have offered to take drastic action.

A majority say they would forswear drinking for life if it would mean Trump’s impeachment, according to a story in The Hill. This seems a tad excessive, though given the increased alcohol consumption (anecdotally) since Trump took office, a long-term wagon ride might be just what the doctor would order. Relatedly, if not causatively, Nevada ran out of marijuana products a few days after the state legalized recreational use.

When have so many Americans of so many stripes been so united in a shared mission? And, no, Woodstock doesn’t count.

Other gifts from the president include an increased national interest in politics, civic participation and electoral office. Trump seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue, even among those who have never before expressed any interest in politics.

Chris Clark, an artist in this mountain village, echoed the sentiments one hears several times on any given day. “I’m obsessed with the news,” he told me during a recent visit to his gallery.

“All I do is watch TV now,” he laughed. “It’s like watching a train wreck, you can’t look away. It’s hard to go to work, really!”

Meanwhile, countless Republicans and Democrats and independents, the nonpolitical as well as scientists, teachers, and, sure, a freshly emboldened outlier class (Jay Z?) are considering running for public office, a goal previously not on the radar.

A newly formed Political Action Committee — 314 Action — is urging scientists to “Get Elected” and offers help with funding and logistics. Hundreds have signed up. Similarly, Silicon Valley tech magnate Sam Altman — president of Y Combinator, which invests in start-ups such as Dropbox and Airbnb — is offering to fund good candidates for statewide office to “create prosperity through technology, economic fairness and maintaining personal liberty.”

Nationally, a centrist movement is gaining traction under the self-explaining name of “No Labels,” and may yet prove to be a counterforce in the zero-sum sport of current politics. The group organized in 2010 and is co-chaired by former Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Democrat (later Independent) Joe Lieberman.

Today, more than 70 members of Congress from both parties have formed a bipartisan coalition called the “No Labels Problem Solvers,” pledging to work together on legislative initiatives. Earlier this month, the congressional group released its first bipartisan effort — a “Make Government Work!” legislative package aimed at reducing government waste and inefficiency. Coming up in September, No Labels will host an international Ideas Summit to coincide with the United Nations General Assembly session in New York.

Thus, though our national political narrative is that we’re more divided than ever, a dispassionate second look suggests otherwise. We’re not so much divided as stuck. Running in mud. That’s not the swamp draining; it’s the muck of money, greed, self-interest and one-upmanship — Washington’s unique art of the deal.

We don’t have only Trump to thank. The ecosystem of media-generated conflict and America’s penchant for spectator sports has ensured a persistent game of warring factions — a perfect milieu for someone like Trump with his particular talents. He merely strolled to the lectern, called everybody else a loser, and plowed his way to the presidency on a whim and the most golden of promises — to make America great again.

We have work to do. There is hope. A trend seems to be taking shape if momentum can be nourished. What an irony if Trump’s presidency made America great again by inspiring people to get elected whose civilian lives have been circumscribed by the pursuit of knowledge, wisdom and truth, which is not, in fact, relative.

Trump would go down as one of the greatest unifying presidents in history — the sooner the better.


Kathleen Parker’s email address is [email protected].
Kathleen Parker: Trump's unique gift to America

Forget Hillary Clinton. It was the media that actually elected Trump.

Hillary had Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, the media, the Russians, the GOP and the FBI against her and she still won the popular vote by millions.
Market watch, in May, put the amount of free media for Donald Trump at 3 BILLION. By the end of the election, some estimates were 5 BILLION. Double all the GOP and all the Democratic candidates put together.

Nearly every Trump speech was played from beginning to end. Most of the time any part of a Hillary speech was played, it was the part where she talked about Donald Trump.

Chuck Todd couldn't say her name without also saying "unlikable, untrustworthy and dishonest".

On the other hand, the same media was calling Trump "authentic" and a "master of media" right up until just before the election. They even gave his hotel and Scottish Golf Course free hour long infomercials.

Remember the media swarmed the Clinton Foundation but it was a single reporter who took down the criminal organization, the uncertified and unlicensed Trump Foundation. Thousands of media personnel studying the Clinton Foundation, only one looking into Trump's criminal organization. And that reporter won the Pulitzer Prize for his investigation. Did he win it because he was the ONLY one?

Not only do politicians need to be held accountable, the media also needs to be held accountable.

We know the only reason the GOP is against Obamacare is because it has the name Obama as part of it. People in Kentucky have said they should make a national Kynect (Kentucky's Obamacare) and get rid of Obamacare. How stupid is that?

I kind of agree with the media helped elect Trump, but it didn't help Hillary to put the screws to Bernie, his voters either didn't vote or voted for Trump out of spite.

 

[Defiant1]

There used to be a popular bumper sticker, "Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way"
In that scenario, I need to get out of the way. I'd happily be a follower, if there were someone I felt was worthy of following. Maybe there's a silver lining in every storm cloud. I wanted to share this with those of you who feel like me. Things may get better. Maybe some of us need to get involved in one way or other.
As bones says, stay strong.


Kathleen Parker: Trump's unique gift to America

• Jul 18, 2017
  
• BANNER ELK, N.C. — Even the least popular presidents sometimes do great things.

What might Donald Trump’s great thing be? He has unified a divided nation.

He has brought Republicans and Democrats together as only just wars can. He’s brought women, scientists, minorities, teachers, journalists, professors — and no, they’re not all liberal — out of their favorite laptop seats and moved them to march, protest and, most important, run for public office.


The pink-capped Women’s March is familiar to all but the dead. On Earth Day in April, scientists around the world staged rallies to protest Trump’s apparent lack of interest in research-backed facts.

A few prominent conservatives — George Will and Joe Scarborough among them — have left the GOP, while Democrats have offered to take drastic action.

A majority say they would forswear drinking for life if it would mean Trump’s impeachment, according to a story in The Hill. This seems a tad excessive, though given the increased alcohol consumption (anecdotally) since Trump took office, a long-term wagon ride might be just what the doctor would order. Relatedly, if not causatively, Nevada ran out of marijuana products a few days after the state legalized recreational use.

When have so many Americans of so many stripes been so united in a shared mission? And, no, Woodstock doesn’t count.

Other gifts from the president include an increased national interest in politics, civic participation and electoral office. Trump seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue, even among those who have never before expressed any interest in politics.

Chris Clark, an artist in this mountain village, echoed the sentiments one hears several times on any given day. “I’m obsessed with the news,” he told me during a recent visit to his gallery.

“All I do is watch TV now,” he laughed. “It’s like watching a train wreck, you can’t look away. It’s hard to go to work, really!”

Meanwhile, countless Republicans and Democrats and independents, the nonpolitical as well as scientists, teachers, and, sure, a freshly emboldened outlier class (Jay Z?) are considering running for public office, a goal previously not on the radar.

A newly formed Political Action Committee — 314 Action — is urging scientists to “Get Elected” and offers help with funding and logistics. Hundreds have signed up. Similarly, Silicon Valley tech magnate Sam Altman — president of Y Combinator, which invests in start-ups such as Dropbox and Airbnb — is offering to fund good candidates for statewide office to “create prosperity through technology, economic fairness and maintaining personal liberty.”

Nationally, a centrist movement is gaining traction under the self-explaining name of “No Labels,” and may yet prove to be a counterforce in the zero-sum sport of current politics. The group organized in 2010 and is co-chaired by former Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Democrat (later Independent) Joe Lieberman.

Today, more than 70 members of Congress from both parties have formed a bipartisan coalition called the “No Labels Problem Solvers,” pledging to work together on legislative initiatives. Earlier this month, the congressional group released its first bipartisan effort — a “Make Government Work!” legislative package aimed at reducing government waste and inefficiency. Coming up in September, No Labels will host an international Ideas Summit to coincide with the United Nations General Assembly session in New York.

Thus, though our national political narrative is that we’re more divided than ever, a dispassionate second look suggests otherwise. We’re not so much divided as stuck. Running in mud. That’s not the swamp draining; it’s the muck of money, greed, self-interest and one-upmanship — Washington’s unique art of the deal.

We don’t have only Trump to thank. The ecosystem of media-generated conflict and America’s penchant for spectator sports has ensured a persistent game of warring factions — a perfect milieu for someone like Trump with his particular talents. He merely strolled to the lectern, called everybody else a loser, and plowed his way to the presidency on a whim and the most golden of promises — to make America great again.

We have work to do. There is hope. A trend seems to be taking shape if momentum can be nourished. What an irony if Trump’s presidency made America great again by inspiring people to get elected whose civilian lives have been circumscribed by the pursuit of knowledge, wisdom and truth, which is not, in fact, relative.

Trump would go down as one of the greatest unifying presidents in history — the sooner the better.


Kathleen Parker’s email address is [email protected].
Kathleen Parker: Trump's unique gift to America

Republicans are leading.

Demoncraps are not following or getting out of the way.

Let Obamacare die.

Because Americans suffering is so funny, right?

Only a few may be suffering. You want everyone to suffer.

I'll believe there's suffering when I see bodies piling up in the street.

 

[TNHarley]

what does that matter?

Because he wanted a Muslim ban, and whatever they call it, they effectively enacted a Muslim ban.

6 countries hold all of the Muslims?

Considering the problems in England, should we add it to the 'Muslim ban'?

How about Germany?

do you understand how silly your comments are?

To a bigot, if he can't ban all Muslims, he can still make a good start with those countries.

It's like the poll tax of old. It prevented many black people from voting, due to their poverty rates. Did it prevent all? No. But it made an impact.

Do you think obama was a bigot when he did the ban? When he made the list Trump used?

Link?

Flawed comparison on immigration restrictions

 

[debbiedowner]

There used to be a popular bumper sticker, "Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way"
In that scenario, I need to get out of the way. I'd happily be a follower, if there were someone I felt was worthy of following. Maybe there's a silver lining in every storm cloud. I wanted to share this with those of you who feel like me. Things may get better. Maybe some of us need to get involved in one way or other.
As bones says, stay strong.


Kathleen Parker: Trump's unique gift to America

• Jul 18, 2017
  
• BANNER ELK, N.C. — Even the least popular presidents sometimes do great things.

What might Donald Trump’s great thing be? He has unified a divided nation.

He has brought Republicans and Democrats together as only just wars can. He’s brought women, scientists, minorities, teachers, journalists, professors — and no, they’re not all liberal — out of their favorite laptop seats and moved them to march, protest and, most important, run for public office.


The pink-capped Women’s March is familiar to all but the dead. On Earth Day in April, scientists around the world staged rallies to protest Trump’s apparent lack of interest in research-backed facts.

A few prominent conservatives — George Will and Joe Scarborough among them — have left the GOP, while Democrats have offered to take drastic action.

A majority say they would forswear drinking for life if it would mean Trump’s impeachment, according to a story in The Hill. This seems a tad excessive, though given the increased alcohol consumption (anecdotally) since Trump took office, a long-term wagon ride might be just what the doctor would order. Relatedly, if not causatively, Nevada ran out of marijuana products a few days after the state legalized recreational use.

When have so many Americans of so many stripes been so united in a shared mission? And, no, Woodstock doesn’t count.

Other gifts from the president include an increased national interest in politics, civic participation and electoral office. Trump seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue, even among those who have never before expressed any interest in politics.

Chris Clark, an artist in this mountain village, echoed the sentiments one hears several times on any given day. “I’m obsessed with the news,” he told me during a recent visit to his gallery.

“All I do is watch TV now,” he laughed. “It’s like watching a train wreck, you can’t look away. It’s hard to go to work, really!”

Meanwhile, countless Republicans and Democrats and independents, the nonpolitical as well as scientists, teachers, and, sure, a freshly emboldened outlier class (Jay Z?) are considering running for public office, a goal previously not on the radar.

A newly formed Political Action Committee — 314 Action — is urging scientists to “Get Elected” and offers help with funding and logistics. Hundreds have signed up. Similarly, Silicon Valley tech magnate Sam Altman — president of Y Combinator, which invests in start-ups such as Dropbox and Airbnb — is offering to fund good candidates for statewide office to “create prosperity through technology, economic fairness and maintaining personal liberty.”

Nationally, a centrist movement is gaining traction under the self-explaining name of “No Labels,” and may yet prove to be a counterforce in the zero-sum sport of current politics. The group organized in 2010 and is co-chaired by former Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Democrat (later Independent) Joe Lieberman.

Today, more than 70 members of Congress from both parties have formed a bipartisan coalition called the “No Labels Problem Solvers,” pledging to work together on legislative initiatives. Earlier this month, the congressional group released its first bipartisan effort — a “Make Government Work!” legislative package aimed at reducing government waste and inefficiency. Coming up in September, No Labels will host an international Ideas Summit to coincide with the United Nations General Assembly session in New York.

Thus, though our national political narrative is that we’re more divided than ever, a dispassionate second look suggests otherwise. We’re not so much divided as stuck. Running in mud. That’s not the swamp draining; it’s the muck of money, greed, self-interest and one-upmanship — Washington’s unique art of the deal.

We don’t have only Trump to thank. The ecosystem of media-generated conflict and America’s penchant for spectator sports has ensured a persistent game of warring factions — a perfect milieu for someone like Trump with his particular talents. He merely strolled to the lectern, called everybody else a loser, and plowed his way to the presidency on a whim and the most golden of promises — to make America great again.

We have work to do. There is hope. A trend seems to be taking shape if momentum can be nourished. What an irony if Trump’s presidency made America great again by inspiring people to get elected whose civilian lives have been circumscribed by the pursuit of knowledge, wisdom and truth, which is not, in fact, relative.

Trump would go down as one of the greatest unifying presidents in history — the sooner the better.


Kathleen Parker’s email address is [email protected].
Kathleen Parker: Trump's unique gift to America

Forget Hillary Clinton. It was the media that actually elected Trump.

Hillary had Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, the media, the Russians, the GOP and the FBI against her and she still won the popular vote by millions.
Market watch, in May, put the amount of free media for Donald Trump at 3 BILLION. By the end of the election, some estimates were 5 BILLION. Double all the GOP and all the Democratic candidates put together.

Nearly every Trump speech was played from beginning to end. Most of the time any part of a Hillary speech was played, it was the part where she talked about Donald Trump.

Chuck Todd couldn't say her name without also saying "unlikable, untrustworthy and dishonest".

On the other hand, the same media was calling Trump "authentic" and a "master of media" right up until just before the election. They even gave his hotel and Scottish Golf Course free hour long infomercials.

Remember the media swarmed the Clinton Foundation but it was a single reporter who took down the criminal organization, the uncertified and unlicensed Trump Foundation. Thousands of media personnel studying the Clinton Foundation, only one looking into Trump's criminal organization. And that reporter won the Pulitzer Prize for his investigation. Did he win it because he was the ONLY one?

Not only do politicians need to be held accountable, the media also needs to be held accountable.

We know the only reason the GOP is against Obamacare is because it has the name Obama as part of it. People in Kentucky have said they should make a national Kynect (Kentucky's Obamacare) and get rid of Obamacare. How stupid is that?

It was the media that actually elected Trump.

The media that spent months trashing Trump put him in office?

(Boy, I bet THEIR faces are red)

Yes, they did at least helped. They were there reporting everytime he took a shit. I saw very little of other candidates ads on TV but I saw plenty of Trump.

 

[ricechickie]

Because he wanted a Muslim ban, and whatever they call it, they effectively enacted a Muslim ban.

6 countries hold all of the Muslims?

Considering the problems in England, should we add it to the 'Muslim ban'?

How about Germany?

do you understand how silly your comments are?

To a bigot, if he can't ban all Muslims, he can still make a good start with those countries.

It's like the poll tax of old. It prevented many black people from voting, due to their poverty rates. Did it prevent all? No. But it made an impact.

Do you think obama was a bigot when he did the ban? When he made the list Trump used?

Link?

Flawed comparison on immigration restrictions

Thank you. At first glance, this link seems to say that comparisons between the two aren't valid. But I have to go now, will read more later.

Bye!

 

[Auld Phart]

There used to be a popular bumper sticker, "Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way"
In that scenario, I need to get out of the way. I'd happily be a follower, if there were someone I felt was worthy of following. Maybe there's a silver lining in every storm cloud. I wanted to share this with those of you who feel like me. Things may get better. Maybe some of us need to get involved in one way or other.
As bones says, stay strong.


Kathleen Parker: Trump's unique gift to America

• Jul 18, 2017
  
• BANNER ELK, N.C. — Even the least popular presidents sometimes do great things.

What might Donald Trump’s great thing be? He has unified a divided nation.

He has brought Republicans and Democrats together as only just wars can. He’s brought women, scientists, minorities, teachers, journalists, professors — and no, they’re not all liberal — out of their favorite laptop seats and moved them to march, protest and, most important, run for public office.


The pink-capped Women’s March is familiar to all but the dead. On Earth Day in April, scientists around the world staged rallies to protest Trump’s apparent lack of interest in research-backed facts.

A few prominent conservatives — George Will and Joe Scarborough among them — have left the GOP, while Democrats have offered to take drastic action.

A majority say they would forswear drinking for life if it would mean Trump’s impeachment, according to a story in The Hill. This seems a tad excessive, though given the increased alcohol consumption (anecdotally) since Trump took office, a long-term wagon ride might be just what the doctor would order. Relatedly, if not causatively, Nevada ran out of marijuana products a few days after the state legalized recreational use.

When have so many Americans of so many stripes been so united in a shared mission? And, no, Woodstock doesn’t count.

Other gifts from the president include an increased national interest in politics, civic participation and electoral office. Trump seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue, even among those who have never before expressed any interest in politics.

Chris Clark, an artist in this mountain village, echoed the sentiments one hears several times on any given day. “I’m obsessed with the news,” he told me during a recent visit to his gallery.

“All I do is watch TV now,” he laughed. “It’s like watching a train wreck, you can’t look away. It’s hard to go to work, really!”

Meanwhile, countless Republicans and Democrats and independents, the nonpolitical as well as scientists, teachers, and, sure, a freshly emboldened outlier class (Jay Z?) are considering running for public office, a goal previously not on the radar.

A newly formed Political Action Committee — 314 Action — is urging scientists to “Get Elected” and offers help with funding and logistics. Hundreds have signed up. Similarly, Silicon Valley tech magnate Sam Altman — president of Y Combinator, which invests in start-ups such as Dropbox and Airbnb — is offering to fund good candidates for statewide office to “create prosperity through technology, economic fairness and maintaining personal liberty.”

Nationally, a centrist movement is gaining traction under the self-explaining name of “No Labels,” and may yet prove to be a counterforce in the zero-sum sport of current politics. The group organized in 2010 and is co-chaired by former Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Democrat (later Independent) Joe Lieberman.

Today, more than 70 members of Congress from both parties have formed a bipartisan coalition called the “No Labels Problem Solvers,” pledging to work together on legislative initiatives. Earlier this month, the congressional group released its first bipartisan effort — a “Make Government Work!” legislative package aimed at reducing government waste and inefficiency. Coming up in September, No Labels will host an international Ideas Summit to coincide with the United Nations General Assembly session in New York.

Thus, though our national political narrative is that we’re more divided than ever, a dispassionate second look suggests otherwise. We’re not so much divided as stuck. Running in mud. That’s not the swamp draining; it’s the muck of money, greed, self-interest and one-upmanship — Washington’s unique art of the deal.

We don’t have only Trump to thank. The ecosystem of media-generated conflict and America’s penchant for spectator sports has ensured a persistent game of warring factions — a perfect milieu for someone like Trump with his particular talents. He merely strolled to the lectern, called everybody else a loser, and plowed his way to the presidency on a whim and the most golden of promises — to make America great again.

We have work to do. There is hope. A trend seems to be taking shape if momentum can be nourished. What an irony if Trump’s presidency made America great again by inspiring people to get elected whose civilian lives have been circumscribed by the pursuit of knowledge, wisdom and truth, which is not, in fact, relative.

Trump would go down as one of the greatest unifying presidents in history — the sooner the better.


Kathleen Parker’s email address is [email protected].
Kathleen Parker: Trump's unique gift to America

Forget Hillary Clinton. It was the media that actually elected Trump.

Hillary had Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, the media, the Russians, the GOP and the FBI against her and she still won the popular vote by millions.
Market watch, in May, put the amount of free media for Donald Trump at 3 BILLION. By the end of the election, some estimates were 5 BILLION. Double all the GOP and all the Democratic candidates put together.

Nearly every Trump speech was played from beginning to end. Most of the time any part of a Hillary speech was played, it was the part where she talked about Donald Trump.

Chuck Todd couldn't say her name without also saying "unlikable, untrustworthy and dishonest".

On the other hand, the same media was calling Trump "authentic" and a "master of media" right up until just before the election. They even gave his hotel and Scottish Golf Course free hour long infomercials.

Remember the media swarmed the Clinton Foundation but it was a single reporter who took down the criminal organization, the uncertified and unlicensed Trump Foundation. Thousands of media personnel studying the Clinton Foundation, only one looking into Trump's criminal organization. And that reporter won the Pulitzer Prize for his investigation. Did he win it because he was the ONLY one?

Not only do politicians need to be held accountable, the media also needs to be held accountable.

We know the only reason the GOP is against Obamacare is because it has the name Obama as part of it. People in Kentucky have said they should make a national Kynect (Kentucky's Obamacare) and get rid of Obamacare. How stupid is that?

It was the media that actually elected Trump.

The media that spent months trashing Trump put him in office?

(Boy, I bet THEIR faces are red)

Yes, they did at least helped. They were there reporting everytime he took a shit. I saw very little of other candidates ads on TV but I saw plenty of Trump.

and the majority of it was negative for him.

By keeping his name in the news, they accidently put him in office.

I seriously doubt that was their plan.

 

[TNHarley]

6 countries hold all of the Muslims?

Considering the problems in England, should we add it to the 'Muslim ban'?

How about Germany?

do you understand how silly your comments are?

To a bigot, if he can't ban all Muslims, he can still make a good start with those countries.

It's like the poll tax of old. It prevented many black people from voting, due to their poverty rates. Did it prevent all? No. But it made an impact.

Do you think obama was a bigot when he did the ban? When he made the list Trump used?

Link?

Flawed comparison on immigration restrictions

Thank you. At first glance, this link seems to say that comparisons between the two aren't valid. But I have to go now, will read more later.

Bye!

They are but they arent. But that doesnt change my point.
Later

 

[Mac1958]

There used to be a popular bumper sticker, "Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way"
In that scenario, I need to get out of the way. I'd happily be a follower, if there were someone I felt was worthy of following. Maybe there's a silver lining in every storm cloud. I wanted to share this with those of you who feel like me. Things may get better. Maybe some of us need to get involved in one way or other.
As bones says, stay strong.


Kathleen Parker: Trump's unique gift to America

• Jul 18, 2017
  
• BANNER ELK, N.C. — Even the least popular presidents sometimes do great things.

What might Donald Trump’s great thing be? He has unified a divided nation.

He has brought Republicans and Democrats together as only just wars can. He’s brought women, scientists, minorities, teachers, journalists, professors — and no, they’re not all liberal — out of their favorite laptop seats and moved them to march, protest and, most important, run for public office.


The pink-capped Women’s March is familiar to all but the dead. On Earth Day in April, scientists around the world staged rallies to protest Trump’s apparent lack of interest in research-backed facts.

A few prominent conservatives — George Will and Joe Scarborough among them — have left the GOP, while Democrats have offered to take drastic action.

A majority say they would forswear drinking for life if it would mean Trump’s impeachment, according to a story in The Hill. This seems a tad excessive, though given the increased alcohol consumption (anecdotally) since Trump took office, a long-term wagon ride might be just what the doctor would order. Relatedly, if not causatively, Nevada ran out of marijuana products a few days after the state legalized recreational use.

When have so many Americans of so many stripes been so united in a shared mission? And, no, Woodstock doesn’t count.

Other gifts from the president include an increased national interest in politics, civic participation and electoral office. Trump seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue, even among those who have never before expressed any interest in politics.

Chris Clark, an artist in this mountain village, echoed the sentiments one hears several times on any given day. “I’m obsessed with the news,” he told me during a recent visit to his gallery.

“All I do is watch TV now,” he laughed. “It’s like watching a train wreck, you can’t look away. It’s hard to go to work, really!”

Meanwhile, countless Republicans and Democrats and independents, the nonpolitical as well as scientists, teachers, and, sure, a freshly emboldened outlier class (Jay Z?) are considering running for public office, a goal previously not on the radar.

A newly formed Political Action Committee — 314 Action — is urging scientists to “Get Elected” and offers help with funding and logistics. Hundreds have signed up. Similarly, Silicon Valley tech magnate Sam Altman — president of Y Combinator, which invests in start-ups such as Dropbox and Airbnb — is offering to fund good candidates for statewide office to “create prosperity through technology, economic fairness and maintaining personal liberty.”

Nationally, a centrist movement is gaining traction under the self-explaining name of “No Labels,” and may yet prove to be a counterforce in the zero-sum sport of current politics. The group organized in 2010 and is co-chaired by former Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Democrat (later Independent) Joe Lieberman.

Today, more than 70 members of Congress from both parties have formed a bipartisan coalition called the “No Labels Problem Solvers,” pledging to work together on legislative initiatives. Earlier this month, the congressional group released its first bipartisan effort — a “Make Government Work!” legislative package aimed at reducing government waste and inefficiency. Coming up in September, No Labels will host an international Ideas Summit to coincide with the United Nations General Assembly session in New York.

Thus, though our national political narrative is that we’re more divided than ever, a dispassionate second look suggests otherwise. We’re not so much divided as stuck. Running in mud. That’s not the swamp draining; it’s the muck of money, greed, self-interest and one-upmanship — Washington’s unique art of the deal.

We don’t have only Trump to thank. The ecosystem of media-generated conflict and America’s penchant for spectator sports has ensured a persistent game of warring factions — a perfect milieu for someone like Trump with his particular talents. He merely strolled to the lectern, called everybody else a loser, and plowed his way to the presidency on a whim and the most golden of promises — to make America great again.

We have work to do. There is hope. A trend seems to be taking shape if momentum can be nourished. What an irony if Trump’s presidency made America great again by inspiring people to get elected whose civilian lives have been circumscribed by the pursuit of knowledge, wisdom and truth, which is not, in fact, relative.

Trump would go down as one of the greatest unifying presidents in history — the sooner the better.


Kathleen Parker’s email address is [email protected].
Kathleen Parker: Trump's unique gift to America

I was going to offer a comprehensive analysis of what Parker is doing, or trying to do.

But really, I think it boils down to this: She's trying to put lipstick on a pig.
.

I like the No Labels concept. That's a worthless concept in your eyes?

Oh, I love the concept, but I haven't seen evidence that it can work in practice. There's another couple of groups that have tried this, and the problem is that a nebulous group of people with disparate opinions is doomed to fail, in my opinion. I think a better approach would be specific parties with specific platforms for people to sink their teeth into. One or two more.

Frankly, I don't see either approach working any time soon...
.

 

[TNHarley]

There used to be a popular bumper sticker, "Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way"
In that scenario, I need to get out of the way. I'd happily be a follower, if there were someone I felt was worthy of following. Maybe there's a silver lining in every storm cloud. I wanted to share this with those of you who feel like me. Things may get better. Maybe some of us need to get involved in one way or other.
As bones says, stay strong.


Kathleen Parker: Trump's unique gift to America

• Jul 18, 2017
  
• BANNER ELK, N.C. — Even the least popular presidents sometimes do great things.

What might Donald Trump’s great thing be? He has unified a divided nation.

He has brought Republicans and Democrats together as only just wars can. He’s brought women, scientists, minorities, teachers, journalists, professors — and no, they’re not all liberal — out of their favorite laptop seats and moved them to march, protest and, most important, run for public office.


The pink-capped Women’s March is familiar to all but the dead. On Earth Day in April, scientists around the world staged rallies to protest Trump’s apparent lack of interest in research-backed facts.

A few prominent conservatives — George Will and Joe Scarborough among them — have left the GOP, while Democrats have offered to take drastic action.

A majority say they would forswear drinking for life if it would mean Trump’s impeachment, according to a story in The Hill. This seems a tad excessive, though given the increased alcohol consumption (anecdotally) since Trump took office, a long-term wagon ride might be just what the doctor would order. Relatedly, if not causatively, Nevada ran out of marijuana products a few days after the state legalized recreational use.

When have so many Americans of so many stripes been so united in a shared mission? And, no, Woodstock doesn’t count.

Other gifts from the president include an increased national interest in politics, civic participation and electoral office. Trump seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue, even among those who have never before expressed any interest in politics.

Chris Clark, an artist in this mountain village, echoed the sentiments one hears several times on any given day. “I’m obsessed with the news,” he told me during a recent visit to his gallery.

“All I do is watch TV now,” he laughed. “It’s like watching a train wreck, you can’t look away. It’s hard to go to work, really!”

Meanwhile, countless Republicans and Democrats and independents, the nonpolitical as well as scientists, teachers, and, sure, a freshly emboldened outlier class (Jay Z?) are considering running for public office, a goal previously not on the radar.

A newly formed Political Action Committee — 314 Action — is urging scientists to “Get Elected” and offers help with funding and logistics. Hundreds have signed up. Similarly, Silicon Valley tech magnate Sam Altman — president of Y Combinator, which invests in start-ups such as Dropbox and Airbnb — is offering to fund good candidates for statewide office to “create prosperity through technology, economic fairness and maintaining personal liberty.”

Nationally, a centrist movement is gaining traction under the self-explaining name of “No Labels,” and may yet prove to be a counterforce in the zero-sum sport of current politics. The group organized in 2010 and is co-chaired by former Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Democrat (later Independent) Joe Lieberman.

Today, more than 70 members of Congress from both parties have formed a bipartisan coalition called the “No Labels Problem Solvers,” pledging to work together on legislative initiatives. Earlier this month, the congressional group released its first bipartisan effort — a “Make Government Work!” legislative package aimed at reducing government waste and inefficiency. Coming up in September, No Labels will host an international Ideas Summit to coincide with the United Nations General Assembly session in New York.

Thus, though our national political narrative is that we’re more divided than ever, a dispassionate second look suggests otherwise. We’re not so much divided as stuck. Running in mud. That’s not the swamp draining; it’s the muck of money, greed, self-interest and one-upmanship — Washington’s unique art of the deal.

We don’t have only Trump to thank. The ecosystem of media-generated conflict and America’s penchant for spectator sports has ensured a persistent game of warring factions — a perfect milieu for someone like Trump with his particular talents. He merely strolled to the lectern, called everybody else a loser, and plowed his way to the presidency on a whim and the most golden of promises — to make America great again.

We have work to do. There is hope. A trend seems to be taking shape if momentum can be nourished. What an irony if Trump’s presidency made America great again by inspiring people to get elected whose civilian lives have been circumscribed by the pursuit of knowledge, wisdom and truth, which is not, in fact, relative.

Trump would go down as one of the greatest unifying presidents in history — the sooner the better.


Kathleen Parker’s email address is [email protected].
Kathleen Parker: Trump's unique gift to America

Forget Hillary Clinton. It was the media that actually elected Trump.

Hillary had Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, the media, the Russians, the GOP and the FBI against her and she still won the popular vote by millions.
Market watch, in May, put the amount of free media for Donald Trump at 3 BILLION. By the end of the election, some estimates were 5 BILLION. Double all the GOP and all the Democratic candidates put together.

Nearly every Trump speech was played from beginning to end. Most of the time any part of a Hillary speech was played, it was the part where she talked about Donald Trump.

Chuck Todd couldn't say her name without also saying "unlikable, untrustworthy and dishonest".

On the other hand, the same media was calling Trump "authentic" and a "master of media" right up until just before the election. They even gave his hotel and Scottish Golf Course free hour long infomercials.

Remember the media swarmed the Clinton Foundation but it was a single reporter who took down the criminal organization, the uncertified and unlicensed Trump Foundation. Thousands of media personnel studying the Clinton Foundation, only one looking into Trump's criminal organization. And that reporter won the Pulitzer Prize for his investigation. Did he win it because he was the ONLY one?

Not only do politicians need to be held accountable, the media also needs to be held accountable.

We know the only reason the GOP is against Obamacare is because it has the name Obama as part of it. People in Kentucky have said they should make a national Kynect (Kentucky's Obamacare) and get rid of Obamacare. How stupid is that?

It was the media that actually elected Trump.

The media that spent months trashing Trump put him in office?

(Boy, I bet THEIR faces are red)

Yes, they did at least helped. They were there reporting everytime he took a shit. I saw very little of other candidates ads on TV but I saw plenty of Trump.

and the majority of it was negative for him.

By keeping his name in the news, they accidently put him in office.

I seriously doubt that was there plan.

yea i didnt understand that either

 

[OldLady]

The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.

It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.

George Washington was SOOOOOOOOOO right

He was right about the function of political parties. But you didn't include what Washington was proposing we do about the inevitable realities of human nature....It is the duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. He is right. That is what I think Parker was getting at, what Scarborough perhaps sees at the end of this fiasco. The duopoly restrained by its own petard, so to speak. But people have to keep pushing and not just AGAINST something. It must be FOR substantial policies that will help the country.

 

[OldLady]

What might Donald Trump’s great thing be? He has unified a divided nation.

He has brought Republicans and Democrats together as only just wars can. He’s brought women, scientists, minorities, teachers, journalists, professors — and no, they’re not all liberal — out of their favorite laptop seats and moved them to march, protest and, most important, run for public office.

Well, yes, that's a thing Trump has done. Silver lining? Tarnished brass is more what I'd call it. I doubt anyone wants to be unified that way by their own countryman.

The way I took her article was that the conflict may lead to a new metal--if we seek it out.

 

[deanrd]

There used to be a popular bumper sticker, "Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way"
In that scenario, I need to get out of the way. I'd happily be a follower, if there were someone I felt was worthy of following. Maybe there's a silver lining in every storm cloud. I wanted to share this with those of you who feel like me. Things may get better. Maybe some of us need to get involved in one way or other.
As bones says, stay strong.


Kathleen Parker: Trump's unique gift to America

• Jul 18, 2017
  
• BANNER ELK, N.C. — Even the least popular presidents sometimes do great things.

What might Donald Trump’s great thing be? He has unified a divided nation.

He has brought Republicans and Democrats together as only just wars can. He’s brought women, scientists, minorities, teachers, journalists, professors — and no, they’re not all liberal — out of their favorite laptop seats and moved them to march, protest and, most important, run for public office.


The pink-capped Women’s March is familiar to all but the dead. On Earth Day in April, scientists around the world staged rallies to protest Trump’s apparent lack of interest in research-backed facts.

A few prominent conservatives — George Will and Joe Scarborough among them — have left the GOP, while Democrats have offered to take drastic action.

A majority say they would forswear drinking for life if it would mean Trump’s impeachment, according to a story in The Hill. This seems a tad excessive, though given the increased alcohol consumption (anecdotally) since Trump took office, a long-term wagon ride might be just what the doctor would order. Relatedly, if not causatively, Nevada ran out of marijuana products a few days after the state legalized recreational use.

When have so many Americans of so many stripes been so united in a shared mission? And, no, Woodstock doesn’t count.

Other gifts from the president include an increased national interest in politics, civic participation and electoral office. Trump seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue, even among those who have never before expressed any interest in politics.

Chris Clark, an artist in this mountain village, echoed the sentiments one hears several times on any given day. “I’m obsessed with the news,” he told me during a recent visit to his gallery.

“All I do is watch TV now,” he laughed. “It’s like watching a train wreck, you can’t look away. It’s hard to go to work, really!”

Meanwhile, countless Republicans and Democrats and independents, the nonpolitical as well as scientists, teachers, and, sure, a freshly emboldened outlier class (Jay Z?) are considering running for public office, a goal previously not on the radar.

A newly formed Political Action Committee — 314 Action — is urging scientists to “Get Elected” and offers help with funding and logistics. Hundreds have signed up. Similarly, Silicon Valley tech magnate Sam Altman — president of Y Combinator, which invests in start-ups such as Dropbox and Airbnb — is offering to fund good candidates for statewide office to “create prosperity through technology, economic fairness and maintaining personal liberty.”

Nationally, a centrist movement is gaining traction under the self-explaining name of “No Labels,” and may yet prove to be a counterforce in the zero-sum sport of current politics. The group organized in 2010 and is co-chaired by former Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Democrat (later Independent) Joe Lieberman.

Today, more than 70 members of Congress from both parties have formed a bipartisan coalition called the “No Labels Problem Solvers,” pledging to work together on legislative initiatives. Earlier this month, the congressional group released its first bipartisan effort — a “Make Government Work!” legislative package aimed at reducing government waste and inefficiency. Coming up in September, No Labels will host an international Ideas Summit to coincide with the United Nations General Assembly session in New York.

Thus, though our national political narrative is that we’re more divided than ever, a dispassionate second look suggests otherwise. We’re not so much divided as stuck. Running in mud. That’s not the swamp draining; it’s the muck of money, greed, self-interest and one-upmanship — Washington’s unique art of the deal.

We don’t have only Trump to thank. The ecosystem of media-generated conflict and America’s penchant for spectator sports has ensured a persistent game of warring factions — a perfect milieu for someone like Trump with his particular talents. He merely strolled to the lectern, called everybody else a loser, and plowed his way to the presidency on a whim and the most golden of promises — to make America great again.

We have work to do. There is hope. A trend seems to be taking shape if momentum can be nourished. What an irony if Trump’s presidency made America great again by inspiring people to get elected whose civilian lives have been circumscribed by the pursuit of knowledge, wisdom and truth, which is not, in fact, relative.

Trump would go down as one of the greatest unifying presidents in history — the sooner the better.


Kathleen Parker’s email address is [email protected].
Kathleen Parker: Trump's unique gift to America

Forget Hillary Clinton. It was the media that actually elected Trump.

Hillary had Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, the media, the Russians, the GOP and the FBI against her and she still won the popular vote by millions.
Market watch, in May, put the amount of free media for Donald Trump at 3 BILLION. By the end of the election, some estimates were 5 BILLION. Double all the GOP and all the Democratic candidates put together.

Nearly every Trump speech was played from beginning to end. Most of the time any part of a Hillary speech was played, it was the part where she talked about Donald Trump.

Chuck Todd couldn't say her name without also saying "unlikable, untrustworthy and dishonest".

On the other hand, the same media was calling Trump "authentic" and a "master of media" right up until just before the election. They even gave his hotel and Scottish Golf Course free hour long infomercials.

Remember the media swarmed the Clinton Foundation but it was a single reporter who took down the criminal organization, the uncertified and unlicensed Trump Foundation. Thousands of media personnel studying the Clinton Foundation, only one looking into Trump's criminal organization. And that reporter won the Pulitzer Prize for his investigation. Did he win it because he was the ONLY one?

Not only do politicians need to be held accountable, the media also needs to be held accountable.

We know the only reason the GOP is against Obamacare is because it has the name Obama as part of it. People in Kentucky have said they should make a national Kynect (Kentucky's Obamacare) and get rid of Obamacare. How stupid is that?

It was the media that actually elected Trump.

The media that spent months trashing Trump put him in office?

(Boy, I bet THEIR faces are red)

Absolutely. I retired last year after spending decades as a senior design engineer in manufacturing. For the first time in my life, I got to watch an entire election every day going from NBC to CNN to Fox to PBS and so on. I wrote media outlets again and again asking why they wouldn't play more than exerts from Hillary speeches. I tweeted the entire cast of Morning Joe asking them to quit calling Trump "authentic".
I said right here on the USMB that Trump was going to win more than a month before the election.
When Chuck Todd was confronted with his constant attacks on Hillary,he just rolled his eyes and said "Whatever".
I posted links to organizations studying the election who talked about how much air time Trump was getting. Any publicity is good publicity.

They know President Trump sells papers. And he is president and they were right. President Trump sells papers.

 

[OldLady]

This is why i hate the duopoly. They are SO full of shit. But the population just buys their horseshit..
You have to be a COMPLETE MORON to think they give a fuck about you.

Another editorial in my op ed section this morning was saying the duopoly is about to end. That they are destroying themselves/each other and are about to fracture into groups with real ideas, not bumper sticker logos and billions of dollars to get a shiny new Ken doll elected every four years.

So we'll have 4 or 5 parties?

I don't know. France's system has a LOT and somehow they work it out. Not saying we replicate France, but just that it can be done.

 

[OldLady]

I was hoping to keep this thread from being rancorous; however, that ain't gonna happen, so here:
the op ed I referred to saying the duopoly is on its last legs:
JOE SCARBOROUGH
Trump is killing the Republican Party
It would take far more than a single column to detail Trump’s failures in the months following his bleak inaugural address. But the Republican leaders who have subjugated themselves to the White House’s corrupting influence fell short of Lincoln’s standard long before their favorite reality-TV star brought his gaudy circus act to Washington.

When I left Congress in 2001, I praised my party’s successful efforts to balance the budget for the first time in a generation and keep many of the promises that led to our takeover in 1994. I concluded my last speech on the House floor by foolishly predicting that Republicans would balance budgets and champion a restrained foreign policy for as long as they held power.

I would be proved wrong immediately.

As the new century began, Republicans gained control of the federal government. George W. Bush and the GOP Congress responded by turning a $155 billion surplus into a $1 trillion deficit and doubling the national debt, passing a $7 trillion unfunded entitlement program and promoting a foreign policy so utopian it would have made Woodrow Wilson blush. Voters made Nancy Pelosi speaker of the House in 2006 and Barack Obama president in 2008.

After their well-deserved drubbing, Republicans swore that if voters ever entrusted them with running Washington again, they would prove themselves worthy. Trump’s party was given a second chance this year, but it has spent almost every day since then making the majority of Americans regret it.

The GOP president questioned America’s constitutional system of checks and balances. Republican leaders said nothing. He echoed Stalin and Mao by calling the free press “the enemy of the people.” Republican leaders were silent. And as the commander in chief insulted allies while embracing autocratic thugs, Republicans who spent a decade supporting wars of choice remained quiet. Meanwhile, their budget-busting proposals demonstrate a fiscal recklessness very much in line with the Bush years.

Last week’s Russia revelations show just how shamelessly Republican lawmakers will stand by a longtime Democrat who switched parties after the promotion of a racist theory about Barack Obama gave him standing in Lincoln’s once-proud party. Neither Lincoln, William Buckley nor Ronald Reagan would recognize this movement.

It is a dying party that I can no longer defend.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham has long predicted that the Republican and Democrats’ 150-year duopoly will end. The signs seem obvious enough. When my Republican Party took control of Congress in 1994, it was the first time the GOP had won the House in a generation. The two parties have been in a state of turmoil ever since.

In 2004, Republican strategist Karl Rove anticipated a majority that would last a generation; two years later, Pelosi became the most liberal House speaker in history. Obama was swept into power by a supposedly unassailable Democratic coalition. In 2010, the tea party tide rolled in. Obama’s re-election returned the momentum to the Democrats, but Republicans won a historic state-level landslide in 2014. Then last fall, Trump demolished the Republican and Democratic establishments.

Political historians will one day view Trump as a historical anomaly. But the wreckage visited of this man will break the Republican Party into pieces — and lead to the election of independent thinkers no longer tethered to the tired dogmas of the polarized past. When that day mercifully arrives, the two-party duopoly that has strangled American politics for almost two centuries will finally come to an end. And Washington just may begin to work again.


Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, hosts the MSNBC show “Morning Joe.”
Trump is killing the Republican Party

Joe is wrong it's been deystroying itself for sometime, maybe Trump is putting the icing on the cake. But in reality is Trump really a republican?

No, and I agree the way the parties have morphed into groups that want power above all else has been going on for some time. I believe Joe made that point somewhere--that this began long before Trump's circus came to town. Pointing fingers at who started it isn't really the important part here, though. At least imo.

 

[Votto]

There used to be a popular bumper sticker, "Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way"
In that scenario, I need to get out of the way. I'd happily be a follower, if there were someone I felt was worthy of following. Maybe there's a silver lining in every storm cloud. I wanted to share this with those of you who feel like me. Things may get better. Maybe some of us need to get involved in one way or other.
As bones says, stay strong.


Kathleen Parker: Trump's unique gift to America

• Jul 18, 2017
  
• BANNER ELK, N.C. — Even the least popular presidents sometimes do great things.

What might Donald Trump’s great thing be? He has unified a divided nation.

He has brought Republicans and Democrats together as only just wars can. He’s brought women, scientists, minorities, teachers, journalists, professors — and no, they’re not all liberal — out of their favorite laptop seats and moved them to march, protest and, most important, run for public office.


The pink-capped Women’s March is familiar to all but the dead. On Earth Day in April, scientists around the world staged rallies to protest Trump’s apparent lack of interest in research-backed facts.

A few prominent conservatives — George Will and Joe Scarborough among them — have left the GOP, while Democrats have offered to take drastic action.

A majority say they would forswear drinking for life if it would mean Trump’s impeachment, according to a story in The Hill. This seems a tad excessive, though given the increased alcohol consumption (anecdotally) since Trump took office, a long-term wagon ride might be just what the doctor would order. Relatedly, if not causatively, Nevada ran out of marijuana products a few days after the state legalized recreational use.

When have so many Americans of so many stripes been so united in a shared mission? And, no, Woodstock doesn’t count.

Other gifts from the president include an increased national interest in politics, civic participation and electoral office. Trump seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue, even among those who have never before expressed any interest in politics.

Chris Clark, an artist in this mountain village, echoed the sentiments one hears several times on any given day. “I’m obsessed with the news,” he told me during a recent visit to his gallery.

“All I do is watch TV now,” he laughed. “It’s like watching a train wreck, you can’t look away. It’s hard to go to work, really!”

Meanwhile, countless Republicans and Democrats and independents, the nonpolitical as well as scientists, teachers, and, sure, a freshly emboldened outlier class (Jay Z?) are considering running for public office, a goal previously not on the radar.

A newly formed Political Action Committee — 314 Action — is urging scientists to “Get Elected” and offers help with funding and logistics. Hundreds have signed up. Similarly, Silicon Valley tech magnate Sam Altman — president of Y Combinator, which invests in start-ups such as Dropbox and Airbnb — is offering to fund good candidates for statewide office to “create prosperity through technology, economic fairness and maintaining personal liberty.”

Nationally, a centrist movement is gaining traction under the self-explaining name of “No Labels,” and may yet prove to be a counterforce in the zero-sum sport of current politics. The group organized in 2010 and is co-chaired by former Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Democrat (later Independent) Joe Lieberman.

Today, more than 70 members of Congress from both parties have formed a bipartisan coalition called the “No Labels Problem Solvers,” pledging to work together on legislative initiatives. Earlier this month, the congressional group released its first bipartisan effort — a “Make Government Work!” legislative package aimed at reducing government waste and inefficiency. Coming up in September, No Labels will host an international Ideas Summit to coincide with the United Nations General Assembly session in New York.

Thus, though our national political narrative is that we’re more divided than ever, a dispassionate second look suggests otherwise. We’re not so much divided as stuck. Running in mud. That’s not the swamp draining; it’s the muck of money, greed, self-interest and one-upmanship — Washington’s unique art of the deal.

We don’t have only Trump to thank. The ecosystem of media-generated conflict and America’s penchant for spectator sports has ensured a persistent game of warring factions — a perfect milieu for someone like Trump with his particular talents. He merely strolled to the lectern, called everybody else a loser, and plowed his way to the presidency on a whim and the most golden of promises — to make America great again.

We have work to do. There is hope. A trend seems to be taking shape if momentum can be nourished. What an irony if Trump’s presidency made America great again by inspiring people to get elected whose civilian lives have been circumscribed by the pursuit of knowledge, wisdom and truth, which is not, in fact, relative.

Trump would go down as one of the greatest unifying presidents in history — the sooner the better.


Kathleen Parker’s email address is [email protected].
Kathleen Parker: Trump's unique gift to America

Lead? It sounds like the same argument we hear repeatedly about why the US needs to get involved around the world in various wars. It's because the US needs to LEAD!!

Yippee!

What happened to those in government just maintaining a civil society while people are allowed to live their lives in peace?

Instead, the government how has control of such things as our health care, as if it were nothing more than a pawn on a chess board while people suffer.

And now that government is involved, they will never give up the power. They will not be satisfied until they have complete control and then treat us as they wish as it changes on a political whim at any given time.

 

[deanrd]

There used to be a popular bumper sticker, "Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way"
In that scenario, I need to get out of the way. I'd happily be a follower, if there were someone I felt was worthy of following. Maybe there's a silver lining in every storm cloud. I wanted to share this with those of you who feel like me. Things may get better. Maybe some of us need to get involved in one way or other.
As bones says, stay strong.


Kathleen Parker: Trump's unique gift to America

• Jul 18, 2017
  
• BANNER ELK, N.C. — Even the least popular presidents sometimes do great things.

What might Donald Trump’s great thing be? He has unified a divided nation.

He has brought Republicans and Democrats together as only just wars can. He’s brought women, scientists, minorities, teachers, journalists, professors — and no, they’re not all liberal — out of their favorite laptop seats and moved them to march, protest and, most important, run for public office.


The pink-capped Women’s March is familiar to all but the dead. On Earth Day in April, scientists around the world staged rallies to protest Trump’s apparent lack of interest in research-backed facts.

A few prominent conservatives — George Will and Joe Scarborough among them — have left the GOP, while Democrats have offered to take drastic action.

A majority say they would forswear drinking for life if it would mean Trump’s impeachment, according to a story in The Hill. This seems a tad excessive, though given the increased alcohol consumption (anecdotally) since Trump took office, a long-term wagon ride might be just what the doctor would order. Relatedly, if not causatively, Nevada ran out of marijuana products a few days after the state legalized recreational use.

When have so many Americans of so many stripes been so united in a shared mission? And, no, Woodstock doesn’t count.

Other gifts from the president include an increased national interest in politics, civic participation and electoral office. Trump seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue, even among those who have never before expressed any interest in politics.

Chris Clark, an artist in this mountain village, echoed the sentiments one hears several times on any given day. “I’m obsessed with the news,” he told me during a recent visit to his gallery.

“All I do is watch TV now,” he laughed. “It’s like watching a train wreck, you can’t look away. It’s hard to go to work, really!”

Meanwhile, countless Republicans and Democrats and independents, the nonpolitical as well as scientists, teachers, and, sure, a freshly emboldened outlier class (Jay Z?) are considering running for public office, a goal previously not on the radar.

A newly formed Political Action Committee — 314 Action — is urging scientists to “Get Elected” and offers help with funding and logistics. Hundreds have signed up. Similarly, Silicon Valley tech magnate Sam Altman — president of Y Combinator, which invests in start-ups such as Dropbox and Airbnb — is offering to fund good candidates for statewide office to “create prosperity through technology, economic fairness and maintaining personal liberty.”

Nationally, a centrist movement is gaining traction under the self-explaining name of “No Labels,” and may yet prove to be a counterforce in the zero-sum sport of current politics. The group organized in 2010 and is co-chaired by former Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Democrat (later Independent) Joe Lieberman.

Today, more than 70 members of Congress from both parties have formed a bipartisan coalition called the “No Labels Problem Solvers,” pledging to work together on legislative initiatives. Earlier this month, the congressional group released its first bipartisan effort — a “Make Government Work!” legislative package aimed at reducing government waste and inefficiency. Coming up in September, No Labels will host an international Ideas Summit to coincide with the United Nations General Assembly session in New York.

Thus, though our national political narrative is that we’re more divided than ever, a dispassionate second look suggests otherwise. We’re not so much divided as stuck. Running in mud. That’s not the swamp draining; it’s the muck of money, greed, self-interest and one-upmanship — Washington’s unique art of the deal.

We don’t have only Trump to thank. The ecosystem of media-generated conflict and America’s penchant for spectator sports has ensured a persistent game of warring factions — a perfect milieu for someone like Trump with his particular talents. He merely strolled to the lectern, called everybody else a loser, and plowed his way to the presidency on a whim and the most golden of promises — to make America great again.

We have work to do. There is hope. A trend seems to be taking shape if momentum can be nourished. What an irony if Trump’s presidency made America great again by inspiring people to get elected whose civilian lives have been circumscribed by the pursuit of knowledge, wisdom and truth, which is not, in fact, relative.

Trump would go down as one of the greatest unifying presidents in history — the sooner the better.


Kathleen Parker’s email address is [email protected].
Kathleen Parker: Trump's unique gift to America

Forget Hillary Clinton. It was the media that actually elected Trump.

Hillary had Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, the media, the Russians, the GOP and the FBI against her and she still won the popular vote by millions.
Market watch, in May, put the amount of free media for Donald Trump at 3 BILLION. By the end of the election, some estimates were 5 BILLION. Double all the GOP and all the Democratic candidates put together.

Nearly every Trump speech was played from beginning to end. Most of the time any part of a Hillary speech was played, it was the part where she talked about Donald Trump.

Chuck Todd couldn't say her name without also saying "unlikable, untrustworthy and dishonest".

On the other hand, the same media was calling Trump "authentic" and a "master of media" right up until just before the election. They even gave his hotel and Scottish Golf Course free hour long infomercials.

Remember the media swarmed the Clinton Foundation but it was a single reporter who took down the criminal organization, the uncertified and unlicensed Trump Foundation. Thousands of media personnel studying the Clinton Foundation, only one looking into Trump's criminal organization. And that reporter won the Pulitzer Prize for his investigation. Did he win it because he was the ONLY one?

Not only do politicians need to be held accountable, the media also needs to be held accountable.

We know the only reason the GOP is against Obamacare is because it has the name Obama as part of it. People in Kentucky have said they should make a national Kynect (Kentucky's Obamacare) and get rid of Obamacare. How stupid is that?

It was the media that actually elected Trump.

The media that spent months trashing Trump put him in office?

(Boy, I bet THEIR faces are red)

Yes, they did at least helped. They were there reporting everytime he took a shit. I saw very little of other candidates ads on TV but I saw plenty of Trump.

and the majority of it was negative for him.

By keeping his name in the news, they accidently put him in office.

I seriously doubt that was there plan.

yea i didnt understand that either

Negative press on Trump was only at the very end.

Mika Brzezinski, before the election, would say nearly every day that Trump was "authentic". She talked about going over to Melonia's later in the morning and having coffee and "girl talk". Trump offered to officiate at her wedding.



I watched this every day. Is the last thing you remember the ONLY thing you remember?

 

[OldLady]

There used to be a popular bumper sticker, "Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way"
In that scenario, I need to get out of the way. I'd happily be a follower, if there were someone I felt was worthy of following. Maybe there's a silver lining in every storm cloud. I wanted to share this with those of you who feel like me. Things may get better. Maybe some of us need to get involved in one way or other.
As bones says, stay strong.


Kathleen Parker: Trump's unique gift to America

• Jul 18, 2017
  
• BANNER ELK, N.C. — Even the least popular presidents sometimes do great things.

What might Donald Trump’s great thing be? He has unified a divided nation.

He has brought Republicans and Democrats together as only just wars can. He’s brought women, scientists, minorities, teachers, journalists, professors — and no, they’re not all liberal — out of their favorite laptop seats and moved them to march, protest and, most important, run for public office.


The pink-capped Women’s March is familiar to all but the dead. On Earth Day in April, scientists around the world staged rallies to protest Trump’s apparent lack of interest in research-backed facts.

A few prominent conservatives — George Will and Joe Scarborough among them — have left the GOP, while Democrats have offered to take drastic action.

A majority say they would forswear drinking for life if it would mean Trump’s impeachment, according to a story in The Hill. This seems a tad excessive, though given the increased alcohol consumption (anecdotally) since Trump took office, a long-term wagon ride might be just what the doctor would order. Relatedly, if not causatively, Nevada ran out of marijuana products a few days after the state legalized recreational use.

When have so many Americans of so many stripes been so united in a shared mission? And, no, Woodstock doesn’t count.

Other gifts from the president include an increased national interest in politics, civic participation and electoral office. Trump seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue, even among those who have never before expressed any interest in politics.

Chris Clark, an artist in this mountain village, echoed the sentiments one hears several times on any given day. “I’m obsessed with the news,” he told me during a recent visit to his gallery.

“All I do is watch TV now,” he laughed. “It’s like watching a train wreck, you can’t look away. It’s hard to go to work, really!”

Meanwhile, countless Republicans and Democrats and independents, the nonpolitical as well as scientists, teachers, and, sure, a freshly emboldened outlier class (Jay Z?) are considering running for public office, a goal previously not on the radar.

A newly formed Political Action Committee — 314 Action — is urging scientists to “Get Elected” and offers help with funding and logistics. Hundreds have signed up. Similarly, Silicon Valley tech magnate Sam Altman — president of Y Combinator, which invests in start-ups such as Dropbox and Airbnb — is offering to fund good candidates for statewide office to “create prosperity through technology, economic fairness and maintaining personal liberty.”

Nationally, a centrist movement is gaining traction under the self-explaining name of “No Labels,” and may yet prove to be a counterforce in the zero-sum sport of current politics. The group organized in 2010 and is co-chaired by former Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Democrat (later Independent) Joe Lieberman.

Today, more than 70 members of Congress from both parties have formed a bipartisan coalition called the “No Labels Problem Solvers,” pledging to work together on legislative initiatives. Earlier this month, the congressional group released its first bipartisan effort — a “Make Government Work!” legislative package aimed at reducing government waste and inefficiency. Coming up in September, No Labels will host an international Ideas Summit to coincide with the United Nations General Assembly session in New York.

Thus, though our national political narrative is that we’re more divided than ever, a dispassionate second look suggests otherwise. We’re not so much divided as stuck. Running in mud. That’s not the swamp draining; it’s the muck of money, greed, self-interest and one-upmanship — Washington’s unique art of the deal.

We don’t have only Trump to thank. The ecosystem of media-generated conflict and America’s penchant for spectator sports has ensured a persistent game of warring factions — a perfect milieu for someone like Trump with his particular talents. He merely strolled to the lectern, called everybody else a loser, and plowed his way to the presidency on a whim and the most golden of promises — to make America great again.

We have work to do. There is hope. A trend seems to be taking shape if momentum can be nourished. What an irony if Trump’s presidency made America great again by inspiring people to get elected whose civilian lives have been circumscribed by the pursuit of knowledge, wisdom and truth, which is not, in fact, relative.

Trump would go down as one of the greatest unifying presidents in history — the sooner the better.


Kathleen Parker’s email address is [email protected].
Kathleen Parker: Trump's unique gift to America

Forget Hillary Clinton. It was the media that actually elected Trump.

Hillary had Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, the media, the Russians, the GOP and the FBI against her and she still won the popular vote by millions.
Market watch, in May, put the amount of free media for Donald Trump at 3 BILLION. By the end of the election, some estimates were 5 BILLION. Double all the GOP and all the Democratic candidates put together.

Nearly every Trump speech was played from beginning to end. Most of the time any part of a Hillary speech was played, it was the part where she talked about Donald Trump.

Chuck Todd couldn't say her name without also saying "unlikable, untrustworthy and dishonest".

On the other hand, the same media was calling Trump "authentic" and a "master of media" right up until just before the election. They even gave his hotel and Scottish Golf Course free hour long infomercials.

Remember the media swarmed the Clinton Foundation but it was a single reporter who took down the criminal organization, the uncertified and unlicensed Trump Foundation. Thousands of media personnel studying the Clinton Foundation, only one looking into Trump's criminal organization. And that reporter won the Pulitzer Prize for his investigation. Did he win it because he was the ONLY one?

Not only do politicians need to be held accountable, the media also needs to be held accountable.

We know the only reason the GOP is against Obamacare is because it has the name Obama as part of it. People in Kentucky have said they should make a national Kynect (Kentucky's Obamacare) and get rid of Obamacare. How stupid is that?

Interesting take on the media's role in the Democrats losing the election. However, I never mentioned Hillary and she isn't the focus of either Op Ed. So I'm not sure how you want me to respond.

 

[deanrd]

I was hoping to keep this thread from being rancorous; however, that ain't gonna happen, so here:
the op ed I referred to saying the duopoly is on its last legs:
JOE SCARBOROUGH
Trump is killing the Republican Party
It would take far more than a single column to detail Trump’s failures in the months following his bleak inaugural address. But the Republican leaders who have subjugated themselves to the White House’s corrupting influence fell short of Lincoln’s standard long before their favorite reality-TV star brought his gaudy circus act to Washington.

When I left Congress in 2001, I praised my party’s successful efforts to balance the budget for the first time in a generation and keep many of the promises that led to our takeover in 1994. I concluded my last speech on the House floor by foolishly predicting that Republicans would balance budgets and champion a restrained foreign policy for as long as they held power.

I would be proved wrong immediately.

As the new century began, Republicans gained control of the federal government. George W. Bush and the GOP Congress responded by turning a $155 billion surplus into a $1 trillion deficit and doubling the national debt, passing a $7 trillion unfunded entitlement program and promoting a foreign policy so utopian it would have made Woodrow Wilson blush. Voters made Nancy Pelosi speaker of the House in 2006 and Barack Obama president in 2008.

After their well-deserved drubbing, Republicans swore that if voters ever entrusted them with running Washington again, they would prove themselves worthy. Trump’s party was given a second chance this year, but it has spent almost every day since then making the majority of Americans regret it.

The GOP president questioned America’s constitutional system of checks and balances. Republican leaders said nothing. He echoed Stalin and Mao by calling the free press “the enemy of the people.” Republican leaders were silent. And as the commander in chief insulted allies while embracing autocratic thugs, Republicans who spent a decade supporting wars of choice remained quiet. Meanwhile, their budget-busting proposals demonstrate a fiscal recklessness very much in line with the Bush years.

Last week’s Russia revelations show just how shamelessly Republican lawmakers will stand by a longtime Democrat who switched parties after the promotion of a racist theory about Barack Obama gave him standing in Lincoln’s once-proud party. Neither Lincoln, William Buckley nor Ronald Reagan would recognize this movement.

It is a dying party that I can no longer defend.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham has long predicted that the Republican and Democrats’ 150-year duopoly will end. The signs seem obvious enough. When my Republican Party took control of Congress in 1994, it was the first time the GOP had won the House in a generation. The two parties have been in a state of turmoil ever since.

In 2004, Republican strategist Karl Rove anticipated a majority that would last a generation; two years later, Pelosi became the most liberal House speaker in history. Obama was swept into power by a supposedly unassailable Democratic coalition. In 2010, the tea party tide rolled in. Obama’s re-election returned the momentum to the Democrats, but Republicans won a historic state-level landslide in 2014. Then last fall, Trump demolished the Republican and Democratic establishments.

Political historians will one day view Trump as a historical anomaly. But the wreckage visited of this man will break the Republican Party into pieces — and lead to the election of independent thinkers no longer tethered to the tired dogmas of the polarized past. When that day mercifully arrives, the two-party duopoly that has strangled American politics for almost two centuries will finally come to an end. And Washington just may begin to work again.


Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, hosts the MSNBC show “Morning Joe.”
Trump is killing the Republican Party

Joe is wrong it's been deystroying itself for sometime, maybe Trump is putting the icing on the cake. But in reality is Trump really a republican?

No, and I agree the way the parties have morphed into groups that want power above all else has been going on for some time. I believe Joe made that point somewhere--that this began long before Trump's circus came to town. Pointing fingers at who started it isn't really the important part here, though. At least imo.

That's total BS. A creepily simplistic observation.

Republicans are 90% white and race driven. Clearly, they hate Obamacare because of the name Obama. Now that he's gone and they face the prospect of terrible danger to their families, many are freaking out.

Democrats are having a hard time rallying around a single leader because it's a coalition Party. Black, brown, Asian, Native American, poor, rich, uneducated, educated, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, atheist, gay, straight, young, conservative, liberal, old and so on. Before they present a unified front on anything, it has to go through debate and discussion and negotiation just to get enough people on board. That's why Republicans call them undecided.

Republicans have this mindset that blacks are in a "plantation" party when the truth is, blacks are a dynamic and integral part of the Democratic Party.

The last president was black. Many black leaders are important voices in the Democratic Party.

Other than being in America, the two parties have almost nothing in common.

 

[gipper]

This is why i hate the duopoly. They are SO full of shit. But the population just buys their horseshit..
You have to be a COMPLETE MORON to think they give a fuck about you.

Another editorial in my op ed section this morning was saying the duopoly is about to end. That they are destroying themselves/each other and are about to fracture into groups with real ideas, not bumper sticker logos and billions of dollars to get a shiny new Ken doll elected every four years.

So we'll have 4 or 5 parties?

Outlaw political parties entirely. They are merely criminal enterprises.

Every asshole politician must stand alone before the people.