President* Trump

[rstrong]

Over 200 arrests,

Via kettling.

In other words it's not that 200 people did anything wrong. Most - including six journalists - just happened to be nearby when *somebody* did something wrong, and the police rounded up and arrested everyone in the area. Typically the courts will drop the charges against the vast majority of them for lack of any evidence whatsoever.

[Vrede too]

200 is .0036% of 5.5 million.

...


https://www.womensmarch.com/
"We did it! On January 21, over 5 Million of us worldwide and over 1 Million in Washington, D.C., came to march, speak and make our voices heard...."

SISTER MARCHES
"NUMBER OF MARCHES: 673
SISTER MARCHERS (EST): 4,834,000" ...

I wonder how many arrests there are in an average weekend of any other group of over 5 Million. More than 200?

[rstrong]

200 is .0036% of 5.5 million.

Yes, but this was Friday's Trump inauguration. A much smaller crowd.

[JTA]

200 is .0036% of 5.5 million.

Yes, but this was Friday's Trump inauguration. A much smaller crowd.

Yes, but you seem to be forgetting. Only poor people on welfare utilize public transportation. Real Americans drive themselves in their pickup trucks because they have jobs.

Trump > Hillary. MAGA.

Checkmate, libruls.

[Vrede too]

Yes, but this was Friday's Trump inauguration. A much smaller crowd.

[JTA]

I'm sure you've all noticed this already, but the common theme I've noticed in people that are all about Trump is a thirst for blood.

Look at various discussions. It's not so much "Trump is going to make our nation great and do great things for our country, help our standing, and bring back high paying jobs and unify our country and strengthen our ideals", it's "Trump's sticking it to the liberals and the left and the democrats. He's gutting government programs and sticking to the parasitical public employees. He's got his boot on the neck of the left and they can't stand it!"

Read this everyone, I think it captures what I'm trying to say perfectly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ressentiment

tl;dr:

Ressentiment is a reassignment of the pain that accompanies a sense of one's own inferiority/failure onto an external scapegoat. The ego creates the illusion of an enemy, a cause that can be "blamed" for one's own inferiority/failure. Thus, one was thwarted not by a failure in oneself, but rather by an external "evil."

I think it equally applies to many on the left as well.I guess the more extreme types in both camps.

[Vrede too]

I'm not sure that a sense of one's own inferiority/failure and extremism go hand in hand. After all, the radicals are taking action for change beyond voting. It could be that folks across the spectrum are as likely or not to feel victimized and vengeful.

[JTA]

I'm not sure that a sense of one's own inferiority/failure and extremism go hand in hand. After all, the radicals are taking action for change beyond voting. It could be that folks across the spectrum are as likely or not to feel victimized and vengeful.

I don't know if that necessarily applies to all, but some of the folks I know fit the bill pretty closely. What I'm mainly getting at is thirst for revenge against the abstract foe of the "left". I've fallen into this rabbit hole myself looking back. And I still do sometimes, but I recognize that.

For some of the Trump fanboys I've talked to around my age (late twenties, early thirties) there's this scary entity that consists of of social justice warriors, feminazis, BLM, environmentalist extremists, and so forth trying to tear apart the fabric of society. While I don't care for extremists on any spectrum, they're exactly that - extremists. By the very definition of their name they're rarities. But to Trump fanboys, they make up the rank and file of the left. If you spend a lot of time on the internet and not out actually conversing with people, you tend to fall down that rabbit hole pretty easily. I think this is why people say traveling the world makes you more open minded. You're out of your comfort zone experiencing a completely different perspective on things rather than sitting within your echo chamber having your prejudices and false narratives confirmed. Social media has made this worse. As has television prior to the Internet, I think. This abstraction, while having some basis in reality, becomes a concrete enemy you can blame all of your woes on.

[JTA]

I think a good example of what I'm talking about can be observed in the French and Russian revolutions. Fuck man, Dostoevsky was spot on in some of his books. Crime and punishment is a good example. The main character gets caught up in a philosophical abstraction and ends up murdering a woman because based on this beliefs it's the most rational thing to do. Same with the characters in his book Demons.

[bannination]

"Vrede is not a moderator. I don't think there is a way to reorder posts even if Vrede was. I'd have to go directly to the database level to make something like that happen. It does show that he's edited his own posts which should be publicly visible."

Then he must be a co-administrator:
Blue Ridge Debate
Proudly anti-Trump and home of the goat

I knew that had to be burning some old posters up. While I was changing it, I was thinking of soupy sales manager's blood pressure going up a few points.

[Mr.B]

Blue Ridge Debate
Proudly anti-Trump and home of the goat

"I knew that had to be burning some old posters up."

I gotta admit...I thought it was funny too. I didn't even notice it until homerfobe commented on it.

(you know, the guy that's me, and me that's him, no wait--- can't be me, I'm Seth, no wait, Seth is homerfobe --- aww crap, now I'm confused who I am!)

[Vrede too]

Inauguration Day:



Women's March:



More pics:

A Visual Comparison of Washington D.C. During the Inauguration and the Women's March
Let's just say the crowds look different.

[rstrong]

This is how a dictator controls the loyalty of his inner circle:

Bloomberg: Why Trump's Staff Is Lying

By requiring subordinates to speak untruths, a leader can undercut their independent standing, including their standing with the public, with the media and with other members of the administration. That makes those individuals grow more dependent on the leader and less likely to mount independent rebellions against the structure of command. Promoting such chains of lies is a classic tactic when a leader distrusts his subordinates and expects to continue to distrust them in the future.

Another reason for promoting lying is what economists sometimes call loyalty filters. If you want to ascertain if someone is truly loyal to you, ask them to do something outrageous or stupid. If they balk, then you know right away they aren’t fully with you. That too is a sign of incipient mistrust within the ruling clique, and it is part of the same worldview that leads Trump to rely so heavily on family members.

- Tyler Cowen, professor of economics at George Mason University

[rstrong]

And lest anyone disagree with comparing Trump to a dictator, he just renewed his demand for America to be a torture state.

[Vrede too]

North Korea's Kim Jong Un Will Destroy Los Angeles With A Nuclear Bomb If US Continues Threats, Defector Warns

Los Angeles? Great, now Kim joins Putin in supporting President* Trump. This is the real Axis of Evil.

[Boatrocker]

North Korea's Kim Jong Un Will Destroy Los Angeles With A Nuclear Bomb If US Continues Threats, Defector Warns

Los Angeles? Great, now Kim joins Putin in supporting President* Trump. This is the real Axis of Evil.

"What now stands between us and the end times is not just the scotch tape that holds the tectonic plates together, or the fragile sense of order that keeps racial animus at bay, or the light winter drizzles that keep the chaparral just this side of hydrated, but the combined prudence and good sense of two great statesmen: Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump."

I'm gonna take that as journalistic-grade sarcasm.

[billy.pilgrim]

North Korea's Kim Jong Un Will Destroy Los Angeles With A Nuclear Bomb If US Continues Threats, Defector Warns

Los Angeles? Great, now Kim joins Putin in supporting President* Trump. This is the real Axis of Evil.

wouldn't he be better suited to bomb texas

[Boatrocker]

Republicans Have Changed Their Tune on Executive Orders
Well, who'd thunk it? Blatant hypocrisy is useful for rethugliklans, cause their base is collectively retarded.

[billy.pilgrim]

Republicans Have Changed Their Tune on Executive Orders
Well, who'd thunk it? Blatant hypocrisy is useful for rethugliklans, cause their base is collectively retarded.

no different than anything else they do, same old double standard

[billy.pilgrim]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... spartanntp


Trump’s Chief Strategist Says News Media Should ‘Keep Its Mouth Shut’

maybe he likes print news, or he just another Nazi - you decide