Understanding US thread-III

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 20 Jan 2017 14:50

I used to think that only Americans were in to conspiracy theories (and BRF'ites!) but yesterday was out drinking with some 'east european' folks - and I discovered that they believe a few curious things

1. MH17 was a con, actually the Americans hid MH370 and then staged a crash in the Ukraine to blame Russia (how did the Chinese passengers turn into Dutch?... well that was just decomposition, locals said that all the bodies were very decomposed... etc., etc.)

2. DT will unearth and reveal the truth about JFK unless the deep state gives him the same treatment

3. berlin truck attack was a false flag - just to stop 'free movement of people' in the EU (note how jihadist didn't die in the attack but was shot in Italy - convenient huh?!)

4. DT wants to kill obamacare because he wants to save the population from the evil injections that Obama is giving children that end up with people getting cancer

I changed the topic after that!

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 20 Jan 2017 20:21

And this from Da Man who monitored the kendostix sistahs as they changed the dunia! What a comedown in imaginative thinking!

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 20 Jan 2017 20:42

Local PBS Radio stations in Northern California mostly run by Leftists are playing funeral dirges during the breaks!!!

One person called "Coming Trumpocalypse"!

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 20 Jan 2017 20:44

GD, What is that map about? Please post a one line description of the image.

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 20 Jan 2017 20:45

UlanBatori wrote:And this from Da Man who monitored the kendostix sistahs as they changed the dunia! What a comedown in imaginative thinking!

my supply of Afghanistan's finest to aid fitful sleep (and perchance to dream) have been curtailed ever since the good/bad talibain's moved into the western poon-jab... what to do onlee...

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 20 Jan 2017 23:15

X-post.....

sudeepj wrote:Must read article on what is roiling the US nat sec establishment. Trump will provide the creative destruction needed. There are great opportunities here for India.

http://www.realclearworld.com/articles/ ... 12180.html

Trump’s rhetoric is a problem, but so is conventionally clear political rhetoric that clearly says nothing. I say this because I think that observers tend too readily to dismiss what he says. This is an attempt to decode it.

Trump’s core strategic argument is that the United States is overextended. The core reason for this overextension is that the United States has substituted a system of multilateral relationships for a careful analysis of the national interest. In this reading, Washington is entangled in complex relationships that place risks and burdens on the United States to come to the aid of some countries. However, its commitments are not matched by those countries in capability, nor in intent.

Overextension by Alliance

NATO is the obvious case. The United States has been involved in wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere in the Islamic world. NATO has not provided decisive strategic support to these efforts. Many have provided what support they could or what support they wanted, but that level of support was far below the abilities of NATO members.

As important, the primary strategic activity of the United States for the past 15 years has been in the Islamic world. Many in NATO objected to the U.S. operation in Iraq, and except for the United Kingdom they provided little or no significant support. Alliance members have no obligation to join in conflicts initiated by the United States outside the area of NATO’s focus. Trump accepts that principle but points out that the organization has been irrelevant to U.S. strategic needs. Where the alliance engaged, it did so with far too little force to constitute a strategic force. Their reasonable argument that the 28-member alliance makes no commitment to out-of-area engagements not undertaken under Article 5 raises the question of what, then, NATO’s value is to the United States. In sum, NATO lacks significant strategic capabilities, and the alliance is defined in such a way that its members can and do elect to avoid those conflicts that matter most to America.

It is therefore not clear that NATO as currently constituted is of value to the United States. The United States is liable for the defense of Europe. Europe is not liable for defending American interests, which today lie outside of Europe.

Similar re-examination of our relationships ought to be carried out globally in regard to allies such as Japan and South Korea to assure that such relationships remain of value to both parties, and that the level of effort and risk reflects that value.

The End of Multilateralism

The United States’ central preoccupation in foreign policy -- one shared by other countries -- is Islamic radicalism, especially in its latest manifestation, the Islamic State. ...

The United States is ready to work with any ally prepared to dedicate resources to this goal and to share risks. This includes Russia, which has an internal problem with Islamic terrorists and has significant capabilities it could deploy. Trump sees U.S. and Russian interests as coinciding. ...

panduranghari · Post by **panduranghari** » 21 Jan 2017 01:03

Yagnasri wrote:So people with better living conditions in cities voted Dem and poor and disadvantaged areas of the nation voted for GOP. Ironic.

Its debatable if the life in cities in the west is better than in rural hinterland. Much of rural areas in the UQ (for eg) is quite well connected, reasonable healthcare facilities, access to all modern amenities, cheaper housing, lower crime etc etc. I would expect that should be the case in the US too. As I have not lived there I cant comment, but I wont be surprised if the comparison holds.

Perhaps the better way of putting your statement might be - People in ghettos vote overwhelmingly for the Dems while those who vote Republicans may not necessarily live in ghettos.

I wont be surprised to know the incidence of crime in the areas where Dems won is higher. Of course this is a very broad brushed argument as I am basing this observation on what I have seen in the UQ.

KLNMurthy · Post by **KLNMurthy** » 21 Jan 2017 01:41

ramana wrote:Local PBS Radio stations in Northern California mostly run by Leftists are playing funeral dirges during the breaks!!!

One person called "Coming Trumpocalypse"!

??

PBS is a television network, nothing to do with radio. There is CPB, or Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is a different entity.

Both PBS and NPR are partially government-funded, and consider themselves professional. I can't imagine them taking such an openly partisan stance.

I am guessing you were probably listening to a Pacifica radio station, which is openly leftist.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 21 Jan 2017 01:55

Dirges are most realistic for NPR and PBS under a Trump administration.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 21 Jan 2017 02:05

KLNM, I guess you haven't been hearing NPR all through the campai(g)n!

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 21 Jan 2017 02:30

And if you want to see it live, see it here.

"ANNOTATED" transcript of the President's Inaugural Address? By NPR's POLITICAL EDITOR!!
I am going to Al Jazeera to get the unedited transcript of the POTUS' speech.

KLNMurthy · Post by **KLNMurthy** » 21 Jan 2017 11:32

ramana wrote:KLNM, I guess you haven't been hearing NPR all through the campai(g)n!

Not as regularly as I used to, at least for the flagship news shows, which try to appear objective, more or less on par with MSM. I suppose their interview guests are not bound by that requirement.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 21 Jan 2017 12:05

The CPB may get axed under the DT administration. Certainly NPR funding will be scaled back. There is no reason to fund Voice of America (VoA) and NPR as both of them are propaganda organizations.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 21 Jan 2017 12:31

ramana wrote:GD, What is that map about? Please post a one line description of the image.

I mistakenly posted the mosul map here instead of levant thread

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 21 Jan 2017 12:50

New general taking temporary command of DC National Guard
By: Meghann Myers, January 20, 2017 (Photo Credit: Army)
As soon as President Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, at 12:01 p.m. Eastern on Friday, Brig. Gen. William Walker assumed command of the District of Columbia National Guard.

Walker, previously the head of Land Component Command at Joint Force Head Quarters District of Columbia, relieved Maj. Gen. Errol Schwartz, who retired after 40 years in the guard.

Schwartz then told the Post that the transition team offered to let him stay on for a few more days after the report went public, but he declined the offer. Unlike state guard organizations, which are led by generals appointed by their governors, the District of Columbia's commanding general is chosen by the president.

Zynda · Post by **Zynda** » 21 Jan 2017 12:50

Man says Milwaukee's sheriff detained him for shaking head

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A Milwaukee man says a tough-talking, cowboy-hat wearing Wisconsin sheriff detained him after a flight because the man shook his head at the lawman, who has gained a national prominence for his outspoken support of Donald Trump.

Dan Black said in a complaint submitted through the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office website that his gesture of disapproval was about football, not politics. Black said he was disappointed that Sheriff David Clarke was wearing Dallas Cowboys gear the same day that team was playing the Green Bay Packers in the divisional round of the playoffs.

But Clarke didn't view the interaction as harmless. He said in a Facebook post Wednesday that he "reserves the reasonable right to pre-empt a possible assault."

The encounter happened during boarding for a flight from Dallas to Milwaukee hours before kickoff. The Packers went on to beat the Cowboys 34-31.

Black, 24, said in the complaint that Clarke wasn't wearing his trademark cowboy hat and Black asked him whether he was Milwaukee's sheriff. When Clarke said, "Yes," Black said he shook his head, then walked toward his seat. Clarke then asked him if he had a problem, Black said, and Black shook his head to say, "No."

Black said deputies questioned him for about 15 minutes after the plane landed before letting him go.

The status of Black's complaint was not immediately known.

Clarke's profile has been elevated by his outspoken support of the president-elect, and he's been mentioned as a possible candidate for a job in Trump's administration. He was one of the few African-Americans to speak at the Republican convention and has called anti-Trump protesters "anarchists" who "must be quelled."

In his Facebook response to Black's complaint, Clarke warned: "Next time he or anyone else pulls this stunt on a plane they may get knocked out." He added he "does not have to wait for some goof to assault him."

And...

Donald Trump inauguration: US civil rights history deleted from White House website under new President

The White House’s webpage on civil rights has been deleted, just hours after Donald Trump was inaugurated as President.

Previously a page marking the history of civil rights in the US the page has now been removed. The page appears to have been replaced by one entitled ‘Standing Up For Our Law Enforcement Community’ which states there is a “dangerous anti-police atmosphere in America” as well as a “tide of lawlessness associated with illegal immigration”.

No new page on civil rights appears to have been posted elsewhere on the site as a replacement for the old webpage.

It continues: “President Trump is committed to building a border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities. He is dedicated to enforcing our border laws, ending sanctuary cities, and stemming the tide of lawlessness associated with illegal immigration.

“Supporting law enforcement also means deporting illegal aliens with violent criminal records who have remained within our borders.”

LokeshCji warns all desis in US to comply and never argue or to be on the wrong side with the US law enforcement officials, as your day can get real dark with just one perceived wrong move. I think going forward, the recent scrutiny of police power abuse will disappear or decrease. Cops will have more leniency...probably desis in blue states will be OK but the ones living in Red states need to be extra careful. At least first generation Indian immigrants are usually very law abiding in Massa and on the majority will not have any issues with cops...but still please pass the word along. If you belong or associated with a univ, please educate the FoB students from India about complying etc. Most universities already include that in their orientation sessions...

There will be always folks like that Sheriff Clarke, who are willing to take pre-emptive action when there is really no actual threat.

panduranghari · Post by **panduranghari** » 21 Jan 2017 16:29

Zynda ji,
Forget police. Every tom, dick, harry who is a civil servant likes to show his or her power.

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 21 Jan 2017 23:59

even a perceived speeding situation can become a situation or problem with US cops - been there done that...

g.sarkar · Post by **g.sarkar** » 22 Jan 2017 00:34

http://www.spiegel.de/international/wor ... ok#ref=rss
Assault on Europe
Donald Trump and the New World Order
The inauguration of Donald Trump heralds the arrival of a new world order. The West is weaker than ever before and rising American nationalism poses a threat both to Germany's economy and the European Union.
....
Today, a new president is moving into the White House and one thing is already clear: Telephone calls between Washington and Brussels won't get any easier. "I spoke to the head of the European Union, very fine gentleman called me up," Donald Trump said this week in a joint interview with the German tabloid Bild and the Times of London. When asked if it was Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, Trump responded: "Yes, ah, to congratulate me on what happened with respect to the election."
Except, the fine gentleman Mr. Juncker wasn't the fine gentleman Mr. Juncker. It was Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, the powerful body representing the leaders of the EU member states. A former Polish prime minister, Tusk chatted with the future U.S. president for about 10 minutes, but Trump was apparently able to remember neither his name nor his arguments. The European Union, he said in the interview, is "basically a vehicle for Germany," adding that "I believe others will leave," as Britain plans to do.
For more than 60 years, the U.S. has promoted European unity. The country introduced the Marshall Plan, it supported the single European market and backed Europe's eastward expansion following the collapse of the Iron Curtain. But now, a man is entering the White House who is counting on the disintegration of the EU. He would rather negotiate with each country individually, believing that will be more beneficial for America.
A real estate magnate is now the most powerful man in the world and it looks as though he plans to run his administration as though the U.S. were a vast real estate conglomerate. He is after lucrative deals, and those who can't keep up in the competition for the most profitable contracts will be left behind.
Concepts like human rights and the protection of minorities are not part of his vocabulary. His only goal is America's profitability, particularly in global trade, which he sees as a brutal fight for survival and not, as had been normal for his Republican Party, as a peaceful exchange with benefits for both sides. The concept of "win-win" is not one his team adheres to.
The situation could hardly be worse for German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Soon, the EU will be forced to make do without the United Kingdom, the bloc's second-largest economy; right-wing populists are on the advance in Europe; and now Trump is at the helm in the U.S., a man who said in his interview this week that the German chancellor had "made a catastrophic mistake." It would be difficult to formulate a challenge more directly than that.
Can Merkel's Europe now hold together? Can she become a worthy adversary to Trump in the approaching conflicts over trade regulations, international agreements and the liberal legal and economic order that has been so important to the United States for the last six decades?
That which had seemed inconceivable just a short time ago now appears to be a foregone conclusion: A new era is beginning, one in which the certainties that have held true for decades are suddenly no longer valued. They are suddenly vulnerable.
For the most part, that is because the 45th president of the United States of America is simply not interested in the world order that has developed since 1945. He is just as disinterested in the trans-Atlantic partnership and the long-cultivated alliances with Western allies.
An Epochal Shift
For Trump, there is no such thing as friendships and alliances. He is not focused on morals; he is not concerned with dividing the world into good and evil; he does not see the use in unselfishly providing protection to allies, as the U.S. has done for decades with it soldiers stationed in Europe.
"America first" is his slogan, one which helped him win the election. It is the same promise British Prime Minister Theresa May has made to her voters: "Britain first." And Marine Le Pen, head of the French right-wing populist party Front National, is using a similar slogan in that country's ongoing presidential election campaign: "La France d'abord." What, though, will the world look like when there are no longer any grand, binding values and goals? A world in which each country is only looking out for itself?
Most dangerous, it seems, is Donald Trump's deep ignorance of the Western community of values that has developed since World War II. History is not something that concerns him. As such, he feels no obligation to it. NATO? Obsolete. The World Trade Organization? "A disaster."
The new president feels absolutely no sentimentality when it comes to the alliances that arose out of the rubble of World War II. Like no other president before him, he is prepared to call them into question and even, apparently, to bring them to an end. Plus, Trump has no taboos. On the contrary: He loves to break them, he loves to provoke.´
The result is that Europe finds itself on the eve of an epochal shift of the kind it hasn't seen since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Eastern Bloc. Is this the end of the West as we know it, as former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer warned a month ago? U.S. historian Anne Applebaum told SPIEGEL in an interview this week that she expects a historical change of course. "The world order that we've known since the end of the Cold War has been radically transformed," she says.
Russia's annexation of Crimea was the first indication that the global order that we had enjoyed for 25 years was under threat -- and the world simply stood by and watched. Apart from a couple of sanctions, U.S. President Barack Obama left the problem to the Europeans. Even then, America was no longer interested in overseas autocrats like Bashar Assad and Vladimir Putin.
Europe's Loss, Russia's and China's Gain
The new president will likely continue the process that began under his predecessor: America's withdrawal from global politics. Just that the incoming president is expected to formulate that withdrawal more clearly than Obama did. Trump has pledged to carry out a relentless fight against Islamic State, but otherwise he is an avowed isolationist, intending to stay out of other global conflicts.
In the fight against terrorism, the new president would seem to be leaning toward a close alliance with Russia. A weak, perhaps disintegrating Europe wedged in between the two great powers U.S.A. and Russia, whose presidents get along better than most of their predecessors: For Europe, such a scenario would be the largest foreign and security policy challenge since World War II. For the last 70 years, Europe could depend on having America at its side. Now, this is no longer a certainty.
The power vacuum that America's withdrawal is creating is particularly welcome to two countries: China and Russia. For the leadership in Beijing, the collapse of the old world order is akin to an act of God: America, China's last rival on its path to becoming a superpower, is pulling back. Never before have the prospects been as good for the realization of the "Chinese Dream," which Xi Jinping has made the slogan of his presidency.
Xi spoke of his global vision this week in Davos, at the annual gathering of the world's economic and financial elite. The rules of international cooperation, he said, must be changed. Beijing isn't happy with Western dominance of global organizations such as the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. China, with its population of 1.3 billion and significant economic strength, sees itself as an alternative. Beijing, Xi said, is prepared to take on more responsibility: "History is created by the brave."
Are we headed for a world in which China -- an authoritarian state in which the Communist Party leadership has a firm grip over the economy, controls the media and censors the internet -- dominates the new global order? Will the 21st century see the realization of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" or George Orwell's "1984," the most dystopian visions of the 20th century?
.....
America's Greatest Adversaries: Japan and West Germany
That is particularly true when it comes to trade policy, which Trump has for decades seen as a conspiracy against America. For the past several weeks, a March 1990 issue of Playboy magazine has been making the rounds in Merkel's Chancellery. The cover shows a long-haired brunette covered in a black tuxedo jacket next to a slim 40-something: Donald Trump. Inside is a long interview with Trump, in which he talks about what he sees as America's most dangerous adversaries. He doesn't mention Russia or Red China, but Japan and West Germany, countries that he said had robbed the U.S. of its self-esteem. "Their products are better because they have so much subsidy," he said, while America is ensuring that those countries aren't "wiped off the face of the earth in about 15 minutes." He concludes his point by saying: "Our 'allies' are making billions screwing us."
.....

Gautam

TSJones · Post by **TSJones** » 22 Jan 2017 01:43

something everybody should know and grok........

the donalds grandmother desperately homesick and pregnant wanted to live in germany and be with her family.

his grandfather who had emmigrated tp canada earlier avoided the german military draft by going to the yukon to seek his fortune.

the couple begged the german principality to be allowed to stay in germany. they were denied and told to leave. homesick and pregnant, they left......

oh, and the donald was ripped off by two mexican promoters and the mexican courts did nothing.......keep that in mind also....

the fact that the donald has ripped off lots of people thru bankruptcy and contract finagle doesn't make any difference.....in his mind.

TSJones · Post by **TSJones** » 22 Jan 2017 02:05

also grok this article........in my view it is right on target after listening to his inaugural speech.......

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/ ... fghanistan

Falijee · Post by **Falijee** » 22 Jan 2017 02:14

Trump Is Not A Good Speller

Trump Deletes Misspelled Tweet, Which May Be Illegal

One day after his inauguration, Donald Trump has already fxxked up a tweet and deleted it. The problem is that he very likely isn’t allowed to do that anymore.

Since his nomination, Trump has acted as a sort of hacker in our system— identifying vulnerabilities in which common decency has restricted previous presidents, but the law did not. Most glaringly, Trump has not divested from his global business interests, and he has not released his tax returns. But one area in which the president is bound by law is that his or her administration is required to archive all official records. Trump may have violated that requirement this morning when he tweeted and then deleted this gem from his personal account:

While it may feel like no big deal for Trump to delete a typo, history might tell a different story. If this man is so careless with his official communication less than 24 hours after becoming president, we’ll need the documentation to show that.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 22 Jan 2017 02:35

Hate to have to agree totally with TSJi, but that was right on target. I too felt that DT was using an elephant-gun rather than a donkey-whip. The Bushes not voting for him was a clear marker of the great divide, and I think that ultimately it marked DT as an outsider from the pompous elitist Republican leadership, despite his being a real, self-made billionaire unlike the silver-spoon Bushes.

Someone posted a series of speeches and interviews with Trump through the years, starting waay back when his hair was real. That actually helped me a lot in figuring him out. He was articulate, passionate, and in fact pretty liberal in his views. OK, people shift to the right when they age, but I think his basic beliefs are still populist, and he has great sympathy/empathy for the great American Public, esp. the workers. He got much more joy from ripping off the Wall Street/ New York aristocracy, than from bullying the small fry. His recent persona is all Twitterized, plus a gruff corporate Board style of not saying much. But deep down the feelings are what he showed in those early interviews. Nothing much to fear there.

Reagan was a lot scarier. He was 100% actor. Nothing at all spontaneous about him. Fooled way too much of the American public for way too long.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 22 Jan 2017 02:37

And DT's advisor gang is on target. His FIRST OFFICIAL VISIT was to the CIA- actually went down to Langley and talked to the people. That IMO was a huge kick in the backside for the CIA top brass.

Plus, read this: Earlier, at Washington's National Cathedral, Trump listened as the prayer service unfolded, watching clergy from various faiths including Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Islam offer prayers for his administration and the nation.

First time all those names appeared, I believe. In that order. Per the Fake News Network:

Trump, who was accused of discrimination against followers of Islam throughout the campaign, also sat quietly as a Muslim prayer echoed through the nave. The imam, Imam Mohamed Magid, executive director of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, had been expected to deliver the Islamic call to prayer, but instead recited two verses from the Quran that contained clear political messages for the new president and his administration. The President did not speak, making the prayer service an unusual moment in a political journey shaped by his own brash comments, speeches and tweets.

The media comments about Trump reminds me of a wacko crook at my workplace. Every sentence she says/writes tries to bring in some perceived/real slight directed at someone who happens to have proved that she has been cheating for the past 30 years. Trump has them in his sights, and they know it.

Falijee · Post by **Falijee** » 22 Jan 2017 02:56

Secrets and lies: intelligence and the media in the Trump era

Donald Trump has come to office having reviled and degraded two institutions in the United States that claim to be pillars of the country’s democratic system: the news media, and the intelligence services.

The irony embedded within this deliberate denigration of fact is that journalists and spies have for decades viewed each other with suspicion, even enmity.

Throughout his campaign for the presidency, Trump called reporters “dishonest”, “disgusting” and “scum”. Then there was that press conference last week when he refused to take a question from CNN’s senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, shouting him down...apparently enraged that CNN had been the first to report that former President Obama had been briefed on lurid allegations about him in an intelligence dossier.

In his belief that the US intelligence agencies leaked that dossier, he likened their actions to Nazi Germany’s. This was merely the latest rhetorical attack on the intelligence agencies by their new commander-in-chief. He previously ridiculed their view that Russian hackers had broken into data held by the Democratic National Committee — and leaked a mass of material embarrassing to the Democratic candidate for the presidency, Hillary Clinton — by suggesting that, since they had wrongly believed that Saddam Hussein of Iraq held stocks of weapons of mass destruction, they could no longer be trusted. IMO, sometimes the Deep State and the Media collude with each other against the interest of the general populace . And that is what Trump is being suspicious of !

Trust is the prize.

The intelligence services, which provide a synopsis of highly classified material to the Oval Office every day before 8am, in the form of the President’s Daily Brief, would find their work rendered meaningless if the administration dismissed it as either intrinsically flawed because of past error, or politically partial. (During his campaign, Trump declared that he had no need for such a briefing.) And on top of that, he recently had a public spat with the CIA Head !

President Trump campaigned to destroy trust in two of the institutions most requiring it as the basis for their existence. In doing so, he has both implicitly and explicitly demanded that trust be placed only, or at least mainly, in him. The truth begins, and ends, in him. And Trump has mounted that campaign knowing that both journalism and the intelligence agencies are more fragile than they have been in the past. He has promised to "clean the Washington swamp" , which may include the Intelligence Apparatus as well !

The secret services were strongly criticised for failing to detect the plans and activities of the 9/11 hijackers. They were excoriated, especially on the left, for wrongly maintaining that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction....

Journalism, which has never been so available, so varied and so accessible to comment, correction and argument from its audience, nevertheless suffers from the closures and cuts in one of its main institutions: the newspaper. Putting out a quality newspaper with wide coverage and high standards of fact-checking and reliability is becoming increasingly hard —...

Broadcast and cable news have fared well in the past year — Leslie Moonves, chief executive of CBS, said last spring that Trump’s campaign “may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS”. But the “mainstream” media are regarded with suspicion by a large majority of Americans:

Trump has been able both to capitalise on this trend, and to further it. His posture is of a piece with other populist leaders: in Italy, Beppe Grillo, leader of the Five Star Movement, presently Italy’s most popular, recently called for citizen juries to judge journalists’ accuracy, echoing Trump’s view that they were the main source of “fake news”. For all who take the populist route in politics, news media that attempt a coherent, fact-based narrative of current events are a natural enemy.

The relationship with journalism, stable enough if frequently combative, is now deeply disturbed by mass leaks and unpredictable whistleblowers: more than that, by an incoming commander-in-chief who, until now, has seen them as hostile to his short-term needs, and may seek the revenge of indifference. A new figure of Tyranny to come?

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 22 Jan 2017 03:24

TSJones wrote:also grok this article........in my view it is right on target after listening to his inaugural speech.......

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/ ... fghanistan

The rest of the world cannot wait for this internal jockeying and boxing
The world is under threat from ISIS and islamic threat and islamic dictatorship

Rest of the world will forge an alliance and remove the threat

Bush wanted to maintain the existing world order. Trump wants to undo it.
Bush was a neoconservative who believed the US could and should use its military, economic, and political muscle to prod dictatorships and authoritarian states toward democracy. He put those beliefs into practice most notably in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the US quickly deposed the country’s rulers only to spend enormous amounts of blood and treasure on a seemingly endless effort to rebuild their physical infrastructure and political systems.

Trump, in another sharp contrast, spent his entire campaign decrying the two wars as catastrophic mistakes that wasted American lives and resources while doing nothing to keep the US safe. He has cozied up to Russian strongman Vladimir Putin and spoken admiringly of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator Bush literally went to war to depose. Trump also stirred outrage during the Republican primary fight by belittling Bush’s record on terrorism and blaming him for not stopping the 9/11 attacks.

Dipanker · Post by **Dipanker** » 22 Jan 2017 04:14

Feel sorry for Trump, so few people showed up for inauguration on 1/20:

At least 2 to 3 times more women showed up for protest next day on 1/21:

saip · Post by **saip** » 22 Jan 2017 04:18

You do not have to feel sorry. Trump thinks these are all fakes. Lying media etc.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 22 Jan 2017 04:31

saip wrote:You do not have to feel sorry. Trump thinks these are all fakes. Lying media etc.

Even Trumps Press Secretary says so. The event was the most watched in DC and the country and across the world

http://heavy.com/news/2017/01/live-stre ... ize-video/

Only the last 15 min press comments with no questions asked. LOL

fanne · Post by **fanne** » 22 Jan 2017 04:37

Being Saturday and no rain perhaps helped.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 22 Jan 2017 04:37

The entire event will be remembered for the debate on the crowd which attended the event

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 22 Jan 2017 04:39

Angry press conference

Scolding about crowd. Press will be held accountable.

Dipanker · Post by **Dipanker** » 22 Jan 2017 06:40

Massive protests today all around US numbering in hundreds! The protest at DC was 2-3 times bigger than Trump's inauguration crowd, mostly women, wow! protest in NY was 200,000+ strong , similar crowd in Chicago and LA.

Hundreds of protests around the globe too!

I don't remember seeing anything like this. Eagerly awaiting for Trump's tweets on subject, should be fun!

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 22 Jan 2017 06:58

The term

"matters as much as a fa*t in a thunderstorm"

comes to mind.
Division championship games coming up all tomorrow afternoon. Thunderstorms in the morning.

There was a Million Man March to DC some years ago. Didn't decrease the number being shot by police every year.
The Veterans bring a motorcycle rally on DC every year. Now THAT's worth seeing.
Now a bunch of whiny wimmens who have nothing better to do, congregate. Bully for them. It's a free country. If it had been up to me I would have flown to Los Angeles.

shyam · Post by **shyam** » 22 Jan 2017 08:04

All these rallies will taper down once Trump start going after the infamous Geo*** So***

shyam · Post by **shyam** » 22 Jan 2017 08:07

svinayak wrote:Only the last 15 min press comments with no questions asked. LOL

Same accusation is made about Modi's Mann Ki Bath. Press can not ask questions.

TSJones · Post by **TSJones** » 22 Jan 2017 08:13

its not the donald grabbing female genitalia thats got them in a huff. that's sexual assault anywhere in the US. could be jail time for the perp.

its birth control and abortion and defunding planned parenthood that'e got them in a huff.

and I don't blame them.

the idiot rethugs want to see a birth explosion of poor people and even greater urban crime rates.

let them thin the herd is my philosophy,,,,,,,,

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 22 Jan 2017 08:17

IMO, if I had to rank major US populations openly not respecting women, I would rank African American, Latinos, and then Caucasians. Ironically African American and Latinos suppose to be two of the vote banks for democrats.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 22 Jan 2017 08:27

Dipanker wrote:Massive protests today all around US numbering in hundreds! The protest at DC was 2-3 times bigger than Trump's inauguration crowd, mostly women, wow! protest in NY was 200,000+ strong , similar crowd in Chicago and LA.

Hundreds of protests around the globe too!

I don't remember seeing anything like this. Eagerly awaiting for Trump's tweets on subject, should be fun!

calm down bro