2016 Democratic Thread

[bmags]

Really wonderful, from Leon Weiseltier

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverythi...trumps-america/

[StrangeSox]

took a few days off of politics, come back to find 1) a white nationalist is one of the first appointments to a very powerful position in Trump's administration and 2) Ryan and co. are already gunning for Medicare.

 

We are in for an incredibly awful 4+ years.

[caulfield12]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/susandudley/20...fp#5b9ea9ca309b

 

Scary stuff about gutting environmental regulations and using the COngressional Review Act (CRA) to undo 150 rules put in place since mid May of 2016.

 

Can it really be the first time since Herbert Hoover in 1928 there was a Republican president with control of both houses of Congress (and soon the Supreme Court)? That worked out well.

 

 

[bmags]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/susandudley/20...fp#5b9ea9ca309b

 

Scary stuff about gutting environmental regulations and using the COngressional Review Act (CRA) to undo 150 rules put in place since mid May of 2016.

 

Can it really be the first time since Herbert Hoover in 1928 there was a Republican president with control of both houses of Congress (and soon the Supreme Court)? That worked out well.

 

People keep saying that, bush had all three houses for much of his presidency, including re-election in 04. They wasted all of the capital on SS privatization.

[bmags]

took a few days off of politics, come back to find 1) a white nationalist is one of the first appointments to a very powerful position in Trump's administration and 2) Ryan and co. are already gunning for Medicare.

 

We are in for an incredibly awful 4+ years.

 

 

Was together with my brothers last night. We realized that my mom may lose her medical benefits from her job, which had only been added because of ACA, and then we had to figure out how we'd help cover her additional costs if medicare is gutted.

 

And we can take care of her, scared for others.

[illinilaw08]

Was together with my brothers last night. We realized that my mom may lose her medical benefits from her job, which had only been added because of ACA, and then we had to figure out how we'd help cover her additional costs if medicare is gutted.

 

And we can take care of her, scared for others.

 

Medicare is actually a popular program. Ryan attacking Medicare (assuming that does in fact happen) will be political suicide.

 

Also, some good fact checking on Medicare solvency from the Washington Post... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-ch...is-going-broke/

[StrangeSox]

Medicare is actually a popular program. Ryan attacking Medicare (assuming that does in fact happen) will be political suicide.

 

Also, some good fact checking on Medicare solvency from the Washington Post... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-ch...is-going-broke/

 

If they phase it out so that it doesn't immediately start screwing everyone over but will only impact people who are say 55 or younger right now, it'll soften the political blow. Kentuckians did the same thing to themselves recently when they elected Bevin governor, but they went strongly Republican again last week.

 

This is why Ryan lent his tepid support for Trump all along. He's been trying to gut our social safety nets for his entire time in Congress.

[bmags]

Never underestimate a group like the AARP's power to sell out slightly younger seniors to preserve power of current seniors.

[StrangeSox]

SPLC-STEPHEN BANNON HAS NO BUSINESS IN THE WHITE HOUSE

 

Dear President-elect Trump: Your pick for “chief strategist,” Stephen Bannon, has no business working in the White House.

 

Bannon presided over a news empire where he, according to former staffers, ”aggressively pushed stories against immigrants, and supported linking minorities to terrorism and crime.”

 

"We're the platform for the alt-right," Bannon said in July, using a term that is really just a rebranding of traditional white nationalism.

 

Under Bannon, Breitbart published a call to “hoist [the Confederate flag] high and fly it with pride” only two weeks after the Charleston massacre when the country was still reeling from the horrors of the murders.

 

Under Bannon, Breitbart published an extremist anti-Muslim tract where the author wrote that “rape culture” is “integral” to Islam.

 

Worse perhaps, Bannon personally insinuated that African Americans are “naturally aggressive and violent.”

 

Mr. Trump, during your victory speech, you pledged to be a president for “all Americans” and to “bind the wounds of division” in our country.

 

If you mean what you say, you must rescind your appointment of Bannon.

 

 

We at @ADL_National oppose the appt of Steve Bannon to sr role at @WhiteHouse bc he & his alt-right are so hostile to core American values

 

 

Edited November 14, 2016 by StrangeSox

[BigSqwert]

An apparent Donald Drumpf fan punched a lady in the face after the pair got into an argument about the outcome of the election at Boerum Hill French bistro Bar Tabac on Saturday evening then made a hasty getaway as staff tried to chase him down, according to witnesses who were shocked to see the whole thing play out in front of families during dinner-time.

 

“It’s the worst thing ever — a guy in front of kids punching a girl in the face,” said Jonas Leon, the manager who was on duty at the Smith and Dean streets eatery at the time of the attack.

 

The assailant was having dinner with a woman when he got into an argument about the president-elect with the two women at the table next to him after they expressed their disappointment about Drumpf’s victory, according to Leon.

 

The man asked Leon to throw the women out of the restaurant, but he refused, and instead moved the gent and his companion to a different table. The guy paid his check and exited the restaurant at 6:50 pm, but then dashed back in again — nearly knocking over a kid on his way — and slugged one of the ladies in the face, according to the manager.

 

via

[StrangeSox]

Cameron Joseph ✔ @cam_joseph

.@SpeakerRyan on Steve Bannon pick: “This is a person who helped him win an incredible victory on an incredible campaign.” No criticism.

9:50 AM - 15 Nov 2016

 

Rest of the GOP now fully and openly on board with white nationalism.

[GoSox05]

Gotta give them credit, they sure do know how to fall in line.

 

 

[CanOfCorn]

Gotta give them credit, they sure do know how to fall in line.

 

They're stuck in the swamp.

[BigSqwert]

Gotta give them credit, they sure do know how to fall in line.

 

 

They're stuck in the swamp.

Wait, people don't think this billionaire family sitting on gold thrones is going to help the little man? This could turn into more of the same?

 

 

 

 

[bmags]

It's underrated how much things like an infrastructure bill could be used to coat the pockets of Trump family. Without the blind trust, the insider trading possibilities they'd have from knowing billions could be going to specific industries is ridiculous.

 

 

[BigSqwert]

Andrea Mitchell

‏@mitchellreports

Trump team has asked for son in law Jared Kushner to have top secret clearance for Presidential Daily Brief no precedent for that

 

via

[RegionSox]

How is this possible for all his family members to be given all this access? Don't we have nepotism laws for this kind of scenario?

[caulfield12]

And there's certainly zero opportunities for his family/Trump Corporation to take advantage of whatever information they have before the rest of the world...

 

And it's not like Jared Kushner's not already tied directly into Wall Street. No insider trading going on, of course.

 

SIGH.

 

 

 

It will be interesting to see who wins. Ivanka/consumerism/shopping/fashion and style VS. liberalism/feminism. Because she gave a speech about giving women more time off to have a baby, daycare tax credits and had a ghostwritten book about female empowerment and entrepreneurialism AND she rebuked her father (a few times) for his public stances, then we should congratulate her instead of boycotting her product line.

[bmags]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/201...-secret-service

 

President in Grift

[Balta1701]

Steve Bannon sees 20% of silicon valley ceo's being asian, mentally freaks out and interprets this as 75%, winds up saying that having large numbers of asians in those roles is bad for civic society.

 

Remember folks, it's not just the muslims, brown people, blacks, and jews. They'll get down the list to hating you personally eventually.

[caulfield12]

http://www.newsweek.com/michael-rubin-trum...-521622?ref=yfp

Trump transition team with second ethics scandal...the other is $950,000+ being paid to Breitbart by a super PAC

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KVdiOKI7xd8

Apparently it's now hilarious to drive your car super-fast close to a crowd of anti-Trump protestors on the highway and hit one of them

 

It's amazing the level of commitment Chinese students have in math, physics and chemistry, not to mention nearly all of them studying economics as well. Probably spend 3x as much time studying those areas as US students, and many go to school halftime starting at age 2-3, at least some type of educational enrichment program. Then the ms and hs students almost all go to English or SAT IELTS TOEFL training centers at night or on the weekends.

 

Average math SAT score is 740-760. Anyone below 700 is an idiot to be made fun of, to them.

 

Creativity and innovation and critical thinking...not so strong. They really struggle with the higher levels of computer science as well, but it's also hard to find good foreign (white/native English speaker) teachers in those areas.

 

There's no secrets. Hard working, rote memorization, tons of practice and drilling, go over every past exam and memorize multiple choice possibilities for AS/A2 level, AP, IB, etc.

 

This is why we're losing in the STEM areas. Not IQ or ability. Simply not enough dedication, commitment and family pressure to work harder.

Edited November 16, 2016 by caulfield12

[Chisoxfn]

Steve Bannon sees 20% of silicon valley ceo's being asian, mentally freaks out and interprets this as 75%, winds up saying that having large numbers of asians in those roles is bad for civic society.

 

Remember folks, it's not just the muslims, brown people, blacks, and jews. They'll get down the list to hating you personally eventually.

Under no circumstances, should Bannon be associated with the White house. Trump needs to get his act together. The nationalist sentiments coming from the campaign is always what terrified me the most about Trump.

[chw42]

http://www.newsweek.com/michael-rubin-trum...-521622?ref=yfp

Trump transition team with second ethics scandal...the other is $950,000+ being paid to Breitbart by a super PAC

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KVdiOKI7xd8

Apparently it's now hilarious to drive your car super-fast close to a crowd of anti-Trump protestors on the highway and hit one of them

 

It's amazing the level of commitment Chinese students have in math, physics and chemistry, not to mention nearly all of them studying economics as well. Probably spend 3x as much time studying those areas as US students, and many go to school halftime starting at age 2-3, at least some type of educational enrichment program. Then the ms and hs students almost all go to English or SAT IELTS TOEFL training centers at night or on the weekends.

 

Average math SAT score is 740-760. Anyone below 700 is an idiot to be made fun of, to them.

 

Creativity and innovation and critical thinking...not so strong. They really struggle with the higher levels of computer science as well, but it's also hard to find good foreign (white/native English speaker) teachers in those areas.

 

There's no secrets. Hard working, rote memorization, tons of practice and drilling, go over every past exam and memorize multiple choice possibilities for AS/A2 level, AP, IB, etc.

 

This is why we're losing in the STEM areas. Not IQ or ability. Simply not enough dedication, commitment and family pressure to work harder.

 

Yeah pretty much. The heavy competition in China also forces students to do even more. I have relatives who pretty much go to school all year around and even then, they'll be lucky to get into a decent college.

 

Almost any sort of work ethic here in the states pretty much guarantees entrance into a half-way decent university. You'd be lucky to end up in a 2 year vocational school in China if you just try hard...

Edited November 17, 2016 by chw42

[chw42]

Steve Bannon sees 20% of silicon valley ceo's being asian, mentally freaks out and interprets this as 75%, winds up saying that having large numbers of asians in those roles is bad for civic society.

 

Remember folks, it's not just the muslims, brown people, blacks, and jews. They'll get down the list to hating you personally eventually.

 

The reason why we no longer have so many manufacturing jobs is that we're now a technology-led economy. It might not be long before the racists figure that out and start blaming Asians and Indians for their problems instead of Mexicans, black people, and Muslims.

Edited November 17, 2016 by chw42

[caulfield12]

So basically, let's blame the countries that have strong educational emphasis as part of their core culture, lol...

 

No matter how chaotic/disorganized/corrupt India is (and you could say the same for South Korea with their current presidential scandal), they are excellent at producing engineers and IT/computer specialists.

 

We can't even copy Finland's math program success nationwide, because that would require only choosing the top 10-15% of the best academically prepared teachers/IQ testing, and then playing them upper middle class/salaries competitive with private industry (compared to salaries which force teachers to work a 2nd job on weekends or during the summertime in "flyover" territory in the US, or Arizona, even).

 

 

As chw42 noted, the competition here in Asia is incredible.

 

I'll share a story. All the students in China that don't study abroad (and it was something like 350,000 alone in the freshman class in US universities in 2015, bigger than the next four countries combined, with India at around 150K) have to take the GAO KAO exam, which is an "all stakes" standardized exam across China that every student spends their entire three year high school period cramming for.

 

One of the countryside schools...they basically had a rebellion/riot against the police and school authorities. Why? Because the police were jamming cell/mobile phone signals into the school, preventing their sons and daughters from cheating. The parents knew that students in other area schools were at an advantage to cheat, no mobile phone jamming or confiscation, and those other students didn't have to sit outside in the middle of the basketball courts with their desks spread out as far as the eye could see to keep them from being close enough to look at someone else's multiple choice answer sheets.

 

Pretty much everything can be changed or altered. Don't like a student's recommendation letter, agents paid $30,000 and up for one student will go back to the school after changing the letter and force a local/Chinese teacher to sign it if the foreign teachers refuse. Almost none of the admissions esays/personal statements are real. They are bought/sold online for $500-750 and up, and that's how you ended up with almost 100 Chinese students applying for IVY League admissions having almost the same or identical essays. Grades are changed/fudged all the time. Volunteer activities are made up out of thin air, since students don't have the free time to do anything but study or go to cram schools to prepare for exams outside of school time (which is normally ending at 8-10 p.m. at night for many students, as all the time after dinner is dedicated to studying/homework/revision).