Juliajms

Exactly. The world has changed more than anyone could have imagined. I bet the Founders couldn't imagine Nazi's killing upwards of 11 million people with hate being the root cause. I certainly agree with Khan that this is a 1st amendment issue, but I don't see the constitution as a sacred immutable text. Germany seems pretty free to me and they don't let people run around giving Nazi salutes and flying the Nazi flag. I don't see why we aren't at least talking about the wisdom of letting people run around venerating an enemy flag (Nazi or confederate) that inspires fear in a good portion of our population. Although what I'm talking about is akin to advocating for a $15 federal minimum wage. It's pie in the sky for the foreseeable future.

Both things are true, but CNN says they have about 2,000 - 6,000 people. That's nothing when the population of our country is approaching 400 million. Still, this is the image of America that people abroad will be seeing and it is disturbing. I've thought for awhile it's probably time for us to join Germany in having laws against glorifying Nazis, but I can't see it happening any time soon.

Oh yeah. A lot of things have surprised me in the last year, but this is not one of them. I won't even say it's necessarily confined to red districts. How many times have all of us heard people say "They did it to themselves". My response to that is most of the bad things that happen to us are our fault on some level. Does that mean we never deserve help? I wish we could move onto the bigger problem of how to help them. I think we are going to see a lot of people die of both opioid addiction and alcoholism until a better drug is found to break the cycle of addiction. Or maybe parts of the agricultural industry have become like manufacturing. Jobs that really can't be done here any more. If the only people who will take the job is someone undocumented doesn't that mean we are setting up a defacto system of second class citizens? I've read many an article that says as soon as workers become documented they find any job other than working in the fields because it's awful. It's low paying, back breaking, there's exposure to pesticides and long term damage to your body. I'm not sure what's really right here, tbh.

I agree. We've had other President's who were pretty bad when judged by today's standards, but at least they were the product of the time and society in which they lived. It's not that easy to think outside of those bounds. Someone like Trump doesn't have that excuse. Sure, he was born in the 40's, but he's had the opportunity to learn from some of the best minds out there, he just chooses not to.

CNN fires Jeffery Lord. I'm sure they'll find another delusional idiot to take his place, but this still makes me happy. http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/10/cnn-fired-jeffrey-lord-nazi-salutecnn-fired-jeffrey-lord-nazi-salute-241501

^ That has always been my real fear. That 45 wouldn't just temporarily screw people over. That he wouldn't just cause tears in our society that will take a generation to heal, but that he would derail the whole thing. The fake excuse to do so is right there too. Making sure only "real" Americans vote. Jesus take the wheel.

I'm pretty happy about this one. Hopefully, it's a sign of things to come.

This is one of the more interesting articles I've read about Palestine in awhile. So many sources on both "sides" are hopelessly biased. I wish there were someplace for these young people to go, but with the refugee crisis happening now, that just doesn't seem likely. Not to mention Hamas has given Gaza a reputation as a terrorist hot spot. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/trapped-between-israel-and-hamas-gazas-wasted-generation-is-going-nowhere/2017/08/06/47b8bf42-5c18-11e7-aa69-3964a7d55207_story.html?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.ae267c2ce15b

That has been can piss off.

^ But his bullying has worked. That's how he got elected in the first place, why would he stop now? http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/345614-kayleigh-mcenany-named-rnc-spokesperson Could they have picked someone with less credibility to be the RNC spokesperson? It's fitting I guess.

But do they? I imagine some of them do, but the people who voted for him see the world in a fundamentally (pun not intended, but it sure works) different way then we do. I'm talking about his base here and not just people who voted for him because they hated Hillary and other ridiculous reasons.

They would have been some of the biggest losers under the GOP healthcare bill too.

^ I didn't even know that Joe and Kelly existed until recently. I kept seeing people talk about Morning Joe, but I only watch CNBC and CNN. Point being I got quite a kick out of "Failure Friday" and "Felony Friday", but I didn't know they were Pro Trump at one point. Failure Friday had to be killing 45. I saw a clip and it made me incredibly happy.

I've seen articles claiming that a small but significant number of people have stopped identifying as Republican and that's why the number is as high as it is. If I can find one I'll post it.

It's like Uber. I would even argue that it's a bit like certain police departments. Sometimes an entire organization has a sick culture .Very different from places that have a few bad apples that are rooted out in short order. For awhile I worked at a major conglomerate and there truly was zero tolerance, but I've worked at places where everyone knew things were off too. That's the sad part. When everyone knows, but the people who could stop it won't.

Maxine Waters saying first they would get Trump and then go after Pence.

Please God let the hearings and investigations take up the rest of his presidency. Even without those issues he's not accomplishing much though. I feel so lucky that he's both lazy and incompetent.

Over the years I've basically put myself in a liberal bubble without even realizing I was doing it. I'm not really a people person, so that made it a lot easier for me to just stop interacting with people who weren't to the left on social issues. I have no regrets, but that's why I was taken so off guard by Trump's rise. I hadn't realized how insane things had become. My husband has some Republican friends, but I just wrote them off as pendejos and limited my contact with them. Little did I know they were not outliers. 17 days?! That's pretty outrageous. The lazier he is the better off we all are though, so I won't bitch about it.

He's been pretty good for business so far. That's not a hard thing to be when you don't care about the environment, a fair tax structure or worker's rights. I think people underestimate how much money can be made if you decide to rape (and I never use that word lightly) the environment. It's unconscionable and unsustainable, but I do think they could keep it going for four years. When Jim Accosta (SP?) said "Aren't you trying to change what it means to be an immigrant in this country?" Miller should have simply said "yes". We are not bound by tradition. We should always be doing things because they are right not because we've always done them in a particular way. Tradition is among the worst logical arguments, especially if you live in America. I don't think many of us on this board want to go back to what's traditional. There are much better arguments for immigration. Meanwhile, the point system they are coming up with is pretty disgusting. Olympians? Really? Why not just simply ask if having a higher score means you are more entitled to food, freedom and shelter? If so, why? I'm starting to favor a lottery system for the most of the spots.

One thing Trump has achieved is to completely change my mind about immigration. Not that long ago I used to wonder how we could just ignore laws we don't like? How can it be OK to have sanctuary cities and how can we have a nation that's boarders are so insecure? Now I still find it odd to ignore the laws we don't like, but that's still better than rounding people up and breaking up families. It's sad that I had to see it happen to realize how awful it is, but there is often a difference between the abstract and reality. I've also thought (in the past) that we should stack the deck in our favor when it comes to immigration. Doesn't it make sense to let people in based on skills versus family relations? I don't think so any more. Of course doing it by family relationship is also somewhat unfair to people who don't have that foothold and we obviously do it to keep down welfare expenses. I'm not sure what the answer is, but I'm now against braindraining other countries simply because we can. I still don't care much about that poem on the Statue of Liberty and think it's been romanticized to a ridiculous degree, but I do think we need the immigration policy that does the most good for the most people versus one that is simply self serving. Luckily, there is no way Trump will get any law in this area passed. It's just not going to happen. Elite Republicans know we need customers, cheap workers and a tax base to keep growing.

I just saw new polling numbers showing that 45 has an approval rating of 33% I guess we are supposed to be shocked by how low it is, but all I can think is that 1 out of every 3 people we meet approve of him. How is that possible?

Trump is just playing to his base with this one. Almost anyone can get into college. There are so many of them. I've seen studies that show it mostly doesn't make a difference to your income where you go, unless you are going to an Ivy League school. The point being it doesn't make a lot of sense to spend $50,000 to go to a mid level school for a BA. My neighbor is talking about sending her daughter to a school that costs $38,000 a year because she wants to play softball. She's not good enough to make the team at UNL. This is shitty little private school in NE I'm talking about. It was all I could do not to stick my nose into it and tell her all the reasons this is a horrible idea.

This is so ridiculous I have a hard time taking it seriously, even though it is serious. Of all the things they could be investigating resources are being wasted on this.

The sad thing is that's OK with way too many of "us". I've realized that even when we have empathy for people in other places sometimes it's too easy to dehumanize them by thinking of them as one big group. I think of people in Darfur or undocumented immigrants and feel bad for what they are going through. If I really think of them as individuals (mothers, fathers, someone's daughter or brother) the horror and loss is overwhelming. I'm not sure the human mind is meant to deal with that much pain for long, but if "we" are going to say "thousands of them will die" (but surely not us, because that's all that matters) the people in charge should really understand what that means. I certainly have no faith that 45 understands or cares. I'm not saying I think is USA could emerge from a nuclear war with North Korea unscathed, I'm just saying it should be horrifying to kill innocent people, but it doesn't seem like the Lindsey Grahams of the world have a problem with it at all.

Yeah, but I figure it's a year or so too soon to wag that dog.