U.S. Politics, Elections & Culture issues

[Gocka]

LMAOF

Maybe someone should send a "mediator" to the USA to help resolve the crisis. Or maybe we should send a 'peace keeping" force to prevent a humanitarian crisis. Or maybe we could depose the leader and help bring about a democratic process. Maybe we can install a more democratic leader.

This is what happens when you get high on your own bullshit.

The "international community" needs to

condemn this. Oh, wait...

[Phoenix]

C'mon guys, please lets not get sucked into this bullshit that the media is being unfairly attacked by this 'despot'...

The US media and its international subsidiaries have been playing its people and the entire world for fools for far too long...the mainstream media is in the hands of a few very powerful individuals who are either very close to the US president or in this case, very distant from the US president and they respond accordingly to the status of this 'friendship'...the media has been an extension of US foreign policy for decades and still to this day, is the tool of choice when it comes to moulding the images of its enemies around the world.

As an example, look at all the attempts over the years to try and portray Putin as some sort of self centred and dysfunctional madman...or the post WWII characterisation of the citizens of the USSR and those others behind the "Iron Curtain" as sub-human, ugly and evil...the media and US entertainment industry perpetuated these lies for decades...and in some cases still do (i.e Islam, as the latest enemy)
Then there was the WMD fiasco in Iraq...a carefully crafted CIA lie passed onto the media to be used to buy-in public approval to engage in another futile war...and on it goes
Even in Macedonia we have the VMRO media peddling its version of what constitutes news.

Here in Australia a day doesn't pass that there isn't some insignificant Trump story on the front page, even such a polarising (and much despised in the US) president like Obama didn't make headlines every single day in Australia.

I think all the Trump bashers should give the guy his fours years in office first before they go calling for his head...if the US system is robust enough it should be able to curtail any abuse of power...then after 4 years you can vote for somebody else...and in the case of the US, unfortunately if you can't be bothered to get out and vote you shouldn't be complaining...

Remember, all democracies deserve the leaders they get...

[Risto the Great]

On the Russians. I hate to generalise, but why do the women have great bodies and faces like slapped arses?

[vicsinad]

C'mon guys, please lets not get sucked into this bullshit that the media is being unfairly attacked by this 'despot'...

The US media and its international subsidiaries have been playing its people and the entire world for fools for far too long...the mainstream media is in the hands of a few very powerful individuals who are either very close to the US president or in this case, very distant from the US president and they respond accordingly to the status of this 'friendship'...the media has been an extension of US foreign policy for decades and still to this day, is the tool of choice when it comes to moulding the images of its enemies around the world.

As an example, look at all the attempts over the years to try and portray Putin as some sort of self centred and dysfunctional madman...or the post WWII characterisation of the citizens of the USSR and those others behind the "Iron Curtain" as sub-human, ugly and evil...the media and US entertainment industry perpetuated these lies for decades...and in some cases still do (i.e Islam, as the latest enemy)
Then there was the WMD fiasco in Iraq...a carefully crafted CIA lie passed onto the media to be used to buy-in public approval to engage in another futile war...and on it goes
Even in Macedonia we have the VMRO media peddling its version of what constitutes news.

Here in Australia a day doesn't pass that there isn't some insignificant Trump story on the front page, even such a polarising (and much despised in the US) president like Obama didn't make headlines every single day in Australia.

I think all the Trump bashers should give the guy his fours years in office first before they go calling for his head...if the US system is robust enough it should be able to curtail any abuse of power...then after 4 years you can vote for somebody else...and in the case of the US, unfortunately if you can't be bothered to get out and vote you shouldn't be complaining...

Remember, all democracies deserve the leaders they get...

I don't care for the media. It is concerning , though, to what lengths Trump will go to discredit anyone that disagrees with him.

Trump is president. That doesn't mean we have to remain silent here when he does something that we disagree with. If you're truly concerned about the influence of the US media and how it's tied to the US government foreign policy, then you should be concerned as to how Trump may be selecting specific news outlets to use as bearers of his foreign policy agenda.

If you can't tell, he is using the favorable media to paint Islam as the enemy of the US and to target the middle east. Already he is signing off on arms deals with Saudi Arabia that Obama blocked, and he's considering ground troops in more.countries. I didn't even need to wait a year to call out Bush's foreign policy after 9/11 as a precursor to endless war in the region. I got booed and harassed in school for making an unpatriotic speech to not invade Afghanistan and again in Iraq. Several towns in Vermont issued arrest warrants for him, believing it was their democratic duty not to wait until the next election to act. Similarly, we don't have to wait four years to call a spade a spade with Trump and his agenda. It's undemocratic to simply measure your civic duty by how many votes you cast in a lifetime.

You may say Obama was polarizing and despised, and to a certain extent, that's true. At the same time, a lot of that was due to people like Trump who were given a wide platform by the media establishment to spew complete crap that Obama was a Muslim born in Kenya and thus could not be a legitimate president. Some people were opposed to him ideologically and some were opposed because he perpetuated the system (I fall in that category), but there were many who were opposed simply because he was a black man. I can't tell you how many nashi from Detroit didn't want to vote for him because they didn't want a crnac to be their leader.

Trump and some of his goons will prove to be very dangerous. I don't mean this in the ideological sense. I'm opposed to VP Pence ideologically, but I would tolerate him as my leader given what he has said and how he's acted.

[Gocka]

Can you really say with a straight face that Trump doesn't

1) Talk like a total seljak. He literally can not string together a coherent and grammatically correct sentence. He has said and I quote "I am like, a smart guy you know" He constantly misspells tweets

2) Exhibit symptoms of some sort of complex. His behavior might be amusing but its downright childish for a 70 year old man.

He is totally ignorant, and has proven over and over that he doesn't understand basic questions and situations.

I think your desire to see the "system" be brought down is clouding your judgment a bit. I think Bernie Sanders could have challenged the system in a profound way, but Trump is teetering on the edge of insanity. Everything can't be a conspiracy. If it was he would have never been elected in the first place.

I don't like the powers that be as much as the next guy, but in my opinion, the millions of people who can not see past that blithering idiot are blissfully deluding themselves. He is not right in the head period. The lack of attention to the obvious is very much how Hitler came to power, in the beginning no one wanted to see him for what he was because he stroked a nationalist ego the right way. Not that Trump is capable of such things but lets not kid ourselves on his lack of intelligence and basic decency.

I know you want to see a certain type of establishment dismantled but i just think that this is playing with fire imho.

C'mon guys, please lets not get sucked into this bullshit that the media is being unfairly attacked by this 'despot'...

The US media and its international subsidiaries have been playing its people and the entire world for fools for far too long...the mainstream media is in the hands of a few very powerful individuals who are either very close to the US president or in this case, very distant from the US president and they respond accordingly to the status of this 'friendship'...the media has been an extension of US foreign policy for decades and still to this day, is the tool of choice when it comes to moulding the images of its enemies around the world.

As an example, look at all the attempts over the years to try and portray Putin as some sort of self centred and dysfunctional madman...or the post WWII characterisation of the citizens of the USSR and those others behind the "Iron Curtain" as sub-human, ugly and evil...the media and US entertainment industry perpetuated these lies for decades...and in some cases still do (i.e Islam, as the latest enemy)
Then there was the WMD fiasco in Iraq...a carefully crafted CIA lie passed onto the media to be used to buy-in public approval to engage in another futile war...and on it goes
Even in Macedonia we have the VMRO media peddling its version of what constitutes news.

Here in Australia a day doesn't pass that there isn't some insignificant Trump story on the front page, even such a polarising (and much despised in the US) president like Obama didn't make headlines every single day in Australia.

I think all the Trump bashers should give the guy his fours years in office first before they go calling for his head...if the US system is robust enough it should be able to curtail any abuse of power...then after 4 years you can vote for somebody else...and in the case of the US, unfortunately if you can't be bothered to get out and vote you shouldn't be complaining...

Remember, all democracies deserve the leaders they get...

[Gocka]

lol you mean until they turn 30, then they look like baburki.

As we say about Bulgarian women, "so e ko sekira vo facata"

On the Russians. I hate to generalise, but why do the women have great bodies and faces like slapped arses?

[Phoenix]

Can you really say with a straight face that Trump doesn't

1) Talk like a total seljak. He literally can not string together a coherent and grammatically correct sentence. He has said and I quote "I am like, a smart guy you know" He constantly misspells tweets

2) Exhibit symptoms of some sort of complex. His behavior might be amusing but its downright childish for a 70 year old man.

He is totally ignorant, and has proven over and over that he doesn't understand basic questions and situations.

I think your desire to see the "system" be brought down is clouding your judgment a bit. I think Bernie Sanders could have challenged the system in a profound way, but Trump is teetering on the edge of insanity. Everything can't be a conspiracy. If it was he would have never been elected in the first place.

I don't like the powers that be as much as the next guy, but in my opinion, the millions of people who can not see past that blithering idiot are blissfully deluding themselves. He is not right in the head period. The lack of attention to the obvious is very much how Hitler came to power, in the beginning no one wanted to see him for what he was because he stroked a nationalist ego the right way. Not that Trump is capable of such things but lets not kid ourselves on his lack of intelligence and basic decency.

I know you want to see a certain type of establishment dismantled but i just think that this is playing with fire imho.

The Trump phenomena is the classic 'elephant in the room' situation...nobody (mostly Americans) really wants to address the real problems facing America, it is easier to shoot down Trump...

The US is so fucked up and yet no American is prepared to look inward regarding this unfolding catastrophe...there's something very wrong (and has been for a very long time) in America's heartland that would allow Trump to come to power...there's something seriously wrong in the US if one man can split the entire nation into two halves like that...and a big part of Trump's rise to power was Obama's inability to unite that cesspool of racism and the exponential rift of social inequality.
Average wages have stagnated for over 20 years for the masses, whilst executive salaries continue to rise, year-on-year.

Half of the US has realised that they've absolutely nothing to lose if they vote for a madman, after all, he's promised to give them jobs.
It's a simple formula that works in every election, in any place on the planet...promise somebody with nothing anything and he'll gladly give you his vote...

I don't like Trump, he's merely a pathetic reflection of what the US has become, or perhaps always was...

[Gocka]

You are totally right about the state of the USA, it is totally fucked up. Although I feel like it always has been. At what point can we say the USA actually lived up to its supposed ideals. The only difference form the past is that economically there was tremendous upward mobility. There was enough to go around so that the fat cats can become absurdly wealthy and the poor worker could still see massive improvements to his own situation. That all stropped about 30 years ago.

You are also right about how Trump got elected. It is absolutely because of the greed and the political class ignoring the average worker. Isn't it ironic though, doesn't Trump exemplify the exact kind of fat cat that would bribe politicians, abuse and underpay his workers, bend the laws to his favor, step on other peoples backs to make it to the top. He seems like the left hand to the political class right hand. Together people like him and his cabinet members like Devos, Mnuchin, and the other wall street execs he installed to run the country, are the type of people that worked behind the scenes with corrupt politicians to get richer and richer while screwing the working class. All the voters did was bring the puppet master out of the shadows, and are cheering on the same type of policies that caused them pain int he first place. All because Trump acts like a dick and they like it. Trump and his goons are going to enact trickle down economics on steroids, and what a coal miner will be happy that he can get lung cancer for 15 bucks an hour again? Trump promises the job of the 20th century, and the average worker is happy with that. Even China is starting to automate production because labor is too expensive, and Americans think they can get those jobs back.

I guess you are right, Americans deserve Trump and all the pain he will cause for being ignorant and arrogant pricks all these years. Maybe he will screw things up so bad, that people will rethink ignorant American nationalism. Or Trump will always find a scapegoat and people will get angrier and angrier until they lash out at said scapegoats. Is Australia offering citizenship

The Trump phenomena is the classic 'elephant in the room' situation...nobody (mostly Americans) really wants to address the real problems facing America, it is easier to shoot down Trump...

The US is so fucked up and yet no American is prepared to look inward regarding this unfolding catastrophe...there's something very wrong (and has been for a very long time) in America's heartland that would allow Trump to come to power...there's something seriously wrong in the US if one man can split the entire nation into two halves like that...and a big part of Trump's rise to power was Obama's inability to unite that cesspool of racism and the exponential rift of social inequality.
Average wages have stagnated for over 20 years for the masses, whilst executive salaries continue to rise, year-on-year.

Half of the US has realised that they've absolutely nothing to lose if they vote for a madman, after all, he's promised to give them jobs.
It's a simple formula that works in every election, in any place on the planet...promise somebody with nothing anything and he'll gladly give you his vote...

I don't like Trump, he's merely a pathetic reflection of what the US has become, or perhaps always was...

[Phoenix]

Gocka,

Australia is following the same path as the US...an ever growing divide between the rich and the poor, non-existent wage growth, a push to drive down wages, particularly for those in unskilled jobs...everything is so fuckin expensive, racism continues to grow and extreme right wing politics is becoming more readily accepted...

[Gocka]

So WW3 it is, see you on the other side.

Gocka,

Australia is following the same path as the US...an ever growing divide between the rich and the poor, non-existent wage growth, a push to drive down wages, particularly for those in unskilled jobs...everything is so fuckin expensive, racism continues to grow and extreme right wing politics is becoming more readily accepted...

[Spirit]

Gocka,

Australia is following the same path as the US...an ever growing divide between the rich and the poor, non-existent wage growth, a push to drive down wages, particularly for those in unskilled jobs...everything is so fuckin expensive, racism continues to grow and extreme right wing politics is becoming more readily accepted...

I concur, this is so true Phoenix especially now that the Fair Work Commission has passed legislation penalty rates to be reduced for hospitality workers, retail workers and others.
Businesses argued by reducing the penalty rates on weekends/ public holidays it would allow them to put on more workers, open at weekends etc. I call bullshit on this, the hospitality industry makes most of its money on weekends and I doubt that any cafes etc will put more workers on.
There is a big push towards the casualisation of the workforce as well. I see it the Community Services sector I work in.

[Soldier of Macedon]

Australia......racism continues to grow and extreme right wing politics is becoming more readily accepted...

Phoenix, your statement above suggests that racism in Australia has been on a continuous upward trend. In your opinion, how, where and why is racism growing in Australian society, and who are the victims?

[Phoenix]

Phoenix, your statement above suggests that racism in Australia has been on a continuous upward trend. In your opinion, how, where and why is racism growing in Australian society, and who are the victims?

SoM,

The one constant of racism has been the ongoing treatment of the Indigenous community.
Each immigration wave, particularly post WWII has experienced racism...whether that be the German and Dutch migrants after WWII...the Southern European wave of the 50/60/70's...the Turks in the 70's and earlier...the Asians in the 80's and most recently the Indian,Chinese, African and Islamic communities...

I wouldn't say there's a particularly hardcore element of racism but there's certainly a very high occurrence of low level racism throughout the country...I think it's worse the further you move away from the large multi-cultural centres of the capital cities and larger regional towns.



The same processes that are at work in Britain, Europe and the US are at play in Australia...and I think it's largely economically driven...as people feel the pinch through job losses, the blame turns to the newly arrived immigrants and particularly the 457 visa rort and it's role in driving wages and conditions downward.

[Gocka]

Trump is already inspiring the crazies.

The infuriating silence of Donald Trump over an Indian engineer’s murder in Kansas

https://qz.com/919678/srinivas-kuchibhotla-muder-the-infuriating-silence-of-donald-trump-over-an-indian-engineers-murder-in-kansas/

Donald Trump is anything but a man of few words.
Especially on Twitter, the US president scarcely restrains himself from reacting to a range of events. In the last few days, for instance, his official Twitter handle @POTUS and personal handle @realDonaldTrump have produced the usual flurry of tweets, covering everything from fake news and the leaking of confidential information to a museum visit and shootings in Chicago.
Yet, the voluble president hasn’t uttered a word on the shooting in Kansas that killed 32-year-old Indian techie Srinivas Kuchibhotla and injured two others. Kuchibhotla and his colleague, Alok Madasani, were grabbing a beer at a bar in Olathe when they were attacked by 51-year-old Adam Purinton, who apparently mistook them for Middle Eastern men. Ian Grillot, a patron who tried to intervene, was seriously injured.
“Get out of my country,” Purinton allegedly shouted, before opening fire.
So far, the Trump administration has said precious little. When White House press secretary Sean Spicer was asked about a possible link between Trump’s rhetoric and rising racist violence, his response was this: “Obviously, any loss of life is tragic, but I’m not going to get into, like, to suggest that there’s any correlation I think is a bit absurd. So I’m not going to go any further than that.”
Trump’s silence is unsettling—and infuriating—for more than one reason.
By choosing not to openly condemn the attack in Kansas at a time when the US is deeply divided along racial lines, Trump risks giving the impression that he cares little for America’s influential Indian immigrants—or Indians in general.
“If the situation in Kansas were reversed, if two Indian immigrants attacked a group of white patrons to intimidate the larger community, there’s little question that Trump would respond with anger and condemnation,” Slate’s Jamelle Bouie wrote last week.
Such a stance flies in the face of Trump’s pre-election proclamation that the US and India would be “best friends” if he made it to the White House. “If I’m elected president, the Indian and Hindu community will have a true friend in the White House, that I can guarantee you,” he said last October at a campaign event organised by the Republican Hindu Coalition in New Jersey.
Indian-Americans are among the most successful and educated minority groups in the US today, with a particularly strong presence in the technology sector. And a legion of middle-class Indian engineers—some of who have risen to the top of Silicon Valley—have bolstered the community’s grip on the industry, while raising its profile globally.
That is why the attack in Kansas—and the lack of a response—has touched a raw nerve: What did a well-educated, law-abiding, and legally-employed immigrant do to deserve this?
“The situation seems to be pretty bad after Trump took over as the US President,” Madasani Jaganmohan Reddy, Alok Madasani’s father, said last week. “I appeal to all the parents in India not to send their children to the US in the present circumstances.”
India’s $146 billion information technology (IT) industry, the main exporter of Indian immigrants to the US, already fears that Trump’s clampdown on work-visa programmes might make life difficult. So, the lack of empathy from the White House after the Kansas shooting will add to the anxiety.


Nearly 100 headstones toppled at Philadelphia Jewish cemetery

http://www.syracuse.com/us-news/index.ssf/2017/02/nearly_100_headstones_toppled_at_philadelphia_jewish_cemetery.html

PHILADELPHIA-- Stacy Silver prayed as she drove with her husband to Mount Carmel Cemetery in Philadelphia's Wissinoming section Sunday: Please don't let my mother and great-grandmother be among the victims.

When Silver, 50, of Cherry Hill, N.J., heard about the vandalism at the Jewish cemetery that occurred overnight Saturday, she rushed to her loved ones' graves.

What she saw when she arrived was worse than she imagined -- tombstone after tombstone, story after story, was toppled to the ground -- including those belonging to her mother and great-grandmother.

"Your stomach just drops," Silver said. "I mean it's just horrible."

Detectives canvassing the cemetery Sunday afternoon estimated that 75 to 100 headstones had been knocked over.

"It's criminal. This is beyond vandalism," said Northeast Detectives Capt. Shawn Thrush, as he walked the cemetery grounds. "It's beyond belief."

The vandalism, coming a week after a similar incident in St. Louis, prompted the Anne Frank Center to call for President Donald Trump to make a forceful denunciation of anti-Semitic hate crimes.

"Mr. President, it's time for you to deliver a prime-time nationally televised speech, live from the Oval Office, on how you intend to combat not only #Antisemitism but also Islamophobia and other rising forms of hate," the organization posted Sunday on Twitter. "Whether or not your intention, your Presidency has given the oxygen of incitement to some of the most viciously hateful elements of our society."

The Southern Poverty Law Center recorded 1,372 bias incidents between Trump's inauguration and Feb. 7, the watchdog group reported. Among those, the group highlighted 57 incidents in 24 states of anonymous bomb threats being called in to Jewish Community Centers. The organization has also recorded that the number of hate groups in the U.S. grew in 2016 for the second straight year, with a threefold increase in the number of anti-Muslim hate groups.

The incident at Mount Carmel prompted support from the national Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA.

"We are deeply troubled by these rising and ongoing attacks on our Jewish sisters and brothers and members from our Philadelphia chapter are in route to assist in clean up," said Nasim Rehmatullah, the organization's national vice president.

Mount Carmel Cemetery is one of four graveyards located on each corner at the intersection of Frankford and Cheltenham Avenues. No noticeable vandalism was visible at the other three cemeteries, which all appear to be for Christians.


In a statement Sunday, Mayor Jim Kenney offered condolences to the families affected and said police would find and charge those responsible.

"Hate is not permissible in Philadelphia," he said. "I encourage Philadelphians to stand with our Jewish brothers and sisters and to show them that we are the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection."

In a post on Twitter about the incident, the Anti-Defamation League said: "We are appalled to see the desecration of another Jewish cemetery. These attacks need to end now."

The vandalism was similar to that the previous weekend in suburban St. Louis, Mo., where vandals knocked over 154 headstones at the Chesed Shel Emeth Society cemetery. Vice President Mike Pence, who visited the cemetery, condemned the damage as a "vile act of vandalism" and said "there's no place in America for hatred or acts of prejudice or violence or anti-Semitism."

[Redsun]

Antisemitism and “Islamophobia” existed in America before Trump came into power.

Doesn’t he support the state of Israel? Wouldn’t a speech by him on Anti-Semitism only consolidate his oppositions attack? He has been hammered hard for his recent statements on Israel, if he makes a speech on anti-Semitism any time soon it may give people the impression that either he himself has Jewish lineage or something other.

What good was Obamas speeches on gun violence, how can this Anne Frank centre possibly believe that Trump could deliver a speech that is going to do “magic” upon these anti-Semitist and anti-islamist… Turn them overnight, purge them of their hate.