You asked what indicators I would use to show that Trump is doing a good job??

Ford: 700 Jobs to Start

Publicly traded automotive company LKQ Corp is establishing a new headquarters in the Nashville, Tennessee, area. It is a sign that the company feels that the automotive industry in the U.S. is on track to grow in the age of Trump.

And this list doesn't include the Carrier jobs Trump saved...

He has done all this BEFORE EVEN BEING SWORN IN!!

NONE of this would have happened if Hillary had won the Election....

No matter how you slice it, Trump is doing a GREAT job as President Elect...

What will he do as President??? The sky's the limit!!!

Democrats may find cold comfort in Hillary Clinton’s nearly 3 million popular vote lead and the fact that more people call themselves “liberal” than ever polled. And they can, and do, fairly protest a system of representative government that allows the government to be so unrepresentative of the popular vote. But it will be up to Democrats to solve their own problem within the current rules.
http://www.nbcnews.com/specials/democrats-left-in-the-lurch

Ya know things have got to be bad when the Party standard water carriers are so pessimistic...

Taxpayer funded party is over, people..

Time for ya'all to get REAL jobs... :D

In short, ya'all are going to treat Trump EXACTLY as ya'all claimed the GOP treated Obama...

Democrats will become The Party Of NO....

Who could have POSSIBLY predicted that??

Oh.... wait.. :D

So, black americans who are athletes and comedians are not "real" black people??? They are somehow only "mediocre negroes"??

The headline was dead on balls accurate...

Black Americans who don't toe the *I AM A VICTIM* line are not black enough..

Have you ever made fun of anyone???

Does that make you a bad person??

Like I said..

I will condemn Trump when I feel he deserves it..

So far, you haven't listed anything that's condemnable..

During the primaries, WaPo had one day where they published 11 hit pieces on Bernie with far from "impartial facts".

Just like the NYT, they were in the bag for Hillary and violated journalistic norms to aid her tirelessly.

Both outlets lost a huge amount of credibility during this election on the left and the right.

Your praise for the GOP corporate tax cut proposal is disheartening despite the caveat that should have you condemning the whole thing.

You wrote "incomes" but I believe you meant revenue, and a trillion dollar cut is massive and hard to reconcile with your praise given your recently restated concern about inequality... which these policies are a main driver in creating and exacerbating.

A

One thing you can always say about Olbermann: he knows his stats!

Context: Two sentences earlier, Professor Hill* said:

“They keep bringing up comedians and and actors and athletes to represent black interests. It’s demeaning, it’s disrespectful, and it’s condescending.” He continued, “Bring some people up there with expertise Donald Trump, don’t just bring up people to entertain.”

Bruce LeVell, a member of Trump's transition "diversity team" replied: “You weren’t even there… Pastor Darryl Scott, Mike Cohen, they are in the process of bringing all types of people from all over the country, from all different backgrounds. Remember the diversity coalition where we reached out to all different types of people?”

Hill: “Yeah, it was a bunch of mediocre Negroes being dragged in front of TV as a photo-op for Donald Trump’s exploitative campaign against black people. And you are an example of that.”

*Marc Lamont Hill is an American academic, journalist, author, and activist. He's a Distinguished Professor of African American Studies at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.

So the headline "CNN denounces 'mediocre negroes'" is wildly inaccurate, to say the least...

I will judge Trump on a case by case basis, one issue at a time.. If he does great, I will crow to the high heavens and say so..

If he fraks up, I'll condemn him til the cows come home...

You are going to condemn Trump when he does wrong? You've got a lot to catch up on, then. Trump is the man....

Who made fun of a physically disabled reporter.

Who lied about six million dollars in charitable donations to veterans’ groups from his telethon; who lied about donating his profits from The Apprentice, about charitable donations from The Celebrity Apprentice, and from "Trump the Game" to St. Jude Cancer Center.

Who lied about why he wouldn't release his taxes, because he was being audited and proved himself a liar by saying he would release his taxes if Hillary Clinton released her e-mails; who lied about how much money his father gave him or helped him get, coming out of college; who lied about sending his private jet to ferry stranded U.S. servicemen; who lied about talking to the Attorney General of Florida, who declined to investigate Trump University after she was given a campaign donation; who lied about his business in Russia; who lied about meeting Russian president Putin; who lied about offering child care to his employees, when it was child care for his hotel guests; who lied about "some people" wanting a moment of silence for the murderer of five Dallas policemen; who lied about seeing thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating 9/11; who lied about 9/11 hijackers sending their wives and girlfriends home to Saudi Arabia.

A man who has claimed he was his own best foreign-policy adviser; claimed that Putin will not go into Ukraine when he already invaded Ukraine in 2014; claimed the U.S. is paying rent for a military base in Saudi Arabia when the last one there closed in 2003; claimed that to avoid hacking, the military should stop communicating "on wires" and return to using messengers.

A man who is planning on simply ignoring the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. A man who is ignoring laws anti-nepotism laws.

Have fun condemning Trump!

(Thanks to Keith Olbermann for listing out most of these!)

“Yeah, it was a bunch of mediocre Negroes being dragged in front of TV as a photo-op for Donald Trump’s exploitative campaign against black people. And you are an example of that.”
-CNN analyst Marc Lamont Hill

Yea... The Left is *always* on the side of black Americans..

But ONLY the black Americans who toe their Party line...

We clump all the different Native American tribes together with the old terms "Indian" or "Redskin" (which was actually how they described themselves when conversing with white settlers, but not the point). While those terms are no longer acceptable, clumping them all together "Native American" is no better to most tribe members. I spent three years living on the Crow Reservation in Montana. The different tribes are just that "different tribes" and should not be lumped together, according to them. Call a Creek tribe member a Sioux and get ready to be punched in the face.

As a homosexual man, I have seen my community go from "Queer" to "Gay" to "Homosexual" to "LGBT" to "LGQBT" to "LGQBTSFGNABC123" to whatever it is today. And this is what we are doing to ourselves. (Reason 2) Back at my granddaddy's home in L.A. (Lower Alabama), we are still just "Fags".(Reason 1)

You want an ideological checklist..

Party boxes that you can check YAY OR NAY when it comes to Trump's performance as President..

But your problem is two-fold..

1. Trump is not ideological...

and

B. Neither am I...

With you and the majority of Weigantians, it's ALL about ideology... Your's vs their's....

I will judge Trump on a case by case basis, one issue at a time.. If he does great, I will crow to the high heavens and say so..

If he fraks up, I'll condemn him til the cows come home...

But what I won't do, what YOU want to do, is to peg him into an ideological box where if he does A, does B and doesn't do C, he is bad...

Actually, to be more accurate.. Ya'all will condemn Trump no matter WHAT he does...

This is well documented..

So, no.. I can't give you what you want because what you want is unreasonable and illogical...

Because YOU want me to condemn Trump no matter WHAT he does.. And, as you have proven with Trump's job saving and job creating, you won't give Trump credit for ANYTHING...

Trump could push thru Single Payer Healthcare that is the biggest liberal's wettest dream, push thru a Constitutional amendment that raises min wage to $30 an hour, forces EVERY corporation to pay 99% in taxes to the poor and sign an executive order that totally disbands Wall Street and ya'all would STILL condemn him and wouldn't credit him with a damn thing..

Ya'all *ONLY* care about the '-R' after his name.. Trump could do EVERYTHING that the Democratic Party and ya'all want and ya'all would STILL slam and attack Trump..

This being totally factual, how is it that ya'all have ANY credibility when it comes to President Trump??

In YOUR opinion, it isn't..

But WaPoop is no different than Breitbart when it comes to Fake News..

This is well documented, based on the number of bullshit articles WaPoop has posted since Trump was election..

This is the bubble that you live in, and it is your problem when you realize that voting for tax cuts for the $250+ crowd isn't going to really help, especially when your healthcare goes into the toilet.

As opposed to the bubble YOU lived in where Hillary was going to win in a 50-state landslide??? :D

Let's face reality my friends..

When it comes to bubble-living, *I* am the *ONLY* one here with a PROVEN track-record of NOT living in a bubble... :D

And, based on the current track record, he is fulfilling that promise..

THOUSANDS of jobs created and saved...

Time will tell if he lives up to the hype, but he is doing a bang up job so far....

Yea, I know, I know.. You don't agree.. So what else is new...

:D

This all stems from our psychological need to separate ourselves from those that we view as "different" from us in any way. Look at how we use "liberal", "conservative", "Christian", and "progressive" these days to lump people into groups we have issues with. Michale is quick to refer to everyone here as "liberal" as he announces the ways that we as a collective unit think about issues, but you never see him say, "As conservatives, we believe..." Why is that?

As a gay man from the Deep South now living outside of Seattle, who voted Republican until 2008, who was an ordained youth minister and is married to a police officer, trust me when I say that I am all too aware of how we classify each other into little groups. I understand why Black Lives Matter just as much as I understand why Blue Lives Matter. I know firsthand that in conversations using the words "liberal" and "conservative" they could easily be exchanged with "faggot" or "nigger" and would not change the overall sentiment being expressed one bit!

I end with a quote from one of the best movies for anyone who wants to understand what it is to be a teenager, The Breakfast Club, as I believe that it is at the heart of this whole conversation:

"You see us as you want to see us—in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain...and an athlete...and a basket case...a princess...and a criminal. Does that answer your question?"

The promises made to get power coupled with the commitment not to impact the debt is so ridiculous that it will be interesting to see what the Republicans really do.

My bet: the rich and big business will do really well out of the next four years. The debt will shoot up and some candy for the fanboys (a wall, Trumpcare - which will be Obamacare with a lot of the good bits missing, a middle class tax cut of a few hundred bucks) will be thrown in.

Let's see if the electorate is smart enough to see thru this.

..and will seriously tie Trump's hands, if he really wants to do some of the things he says he wants to do, like build-out our infrastructure or build a wall across the US southern border. Trump says he wants Trumpcare to cover everyone, like Obamacare, but with red states participating for a change. That would require some investment by the Government. At this point, unless the GOP wants to just completely blow up the budget, they might have enough wiggle room for one tax cut and nothing else, and still hit their own spending targets. If they try to get around that by cutting Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security they'll be risking their own political futures in the process.

The trick will be getting Trump to agree (see above) to the border adjustment (without which all investment will go overseas) and getting the WTO to classify the DBCFT as a VAT and not an income tax (setting the rate well below the top rate for income means that many organizations will eliminate wages and replace them with dividends (I think, I get a but cloudy at this level of detail).

Anyway, a good proposal, needs a realistic tax rate and the WTO and Trump's signature, but these are not insurmountable problems. The democrats can up the rate in 2020 if the Republicans have given away the farm at our kids' expense.

Go Donald!

Except it isn't. This is where right wing lies are not equal to impartial facts.

Just because impartial facts are not to your liking, you don't get to equate them with right wing lies. There are left wing lies as well, but apart from yanking your chain with a "golden shower" I don't traffic in them.

This is a problem the press has to deal with. There has been a concerted effort by the right wing to brand the press as just like Breitbart or Stormtrooper ;), etc. but you may fall for false equivalencies, but I don't.

This is the bubble that you live in, and it is your problem when you realize that voting for tax cuts for the $250+ crowd isn't going to really help, especially when your healthcare goes into the toilet.

Ho hum.

Then humor us and prove me wrong, list them out.

List them.

Yes I have.. Several times.. You just didn't like it so you ignored it..

And they have been issuing a LOT of retractions lately.. :D

That shows how un-credible they are as a source..

But, as I said, I am not surprised yer using that... It's like someone using Brietbart as a source for Obama.. :D

THAT is going to be REALLY interesting to see if Obama pardon's Hillary...

He's gonna have to do it PDQ... :D

Boo hoo. C'mon snowflake, are we being politically incorrect by making sure that Trump is correct politically?

You trust your sources of lies, I'll trust my respected news organization that fact checks and issues retractions when they get things wrong.

Just because the truth makes your orange hero look bad isn't my problem.

Plus you still haven't explained why you voted for Trump and how you will measure him on your expectations.

Actually, they can be pardoned...

Hillary can be pardoned, even though she hasn't been convicted of anything...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-promise-tracker/

That's just like the Obama Promise Tracker the Right Wing nutjobs used....

I tell ya, ya change Trump to Obama and ya'all are acting *EXACTLY* like the GOP acted in 2009... :D

Snowden (and Assange) hasn't been convicted of a crime so can't be pardoned or have their sentence commuted.

The mere fact that you are using WaPoop to judge Trump shows how far off the reservation you have gone..

To put it into it's proper context, it would be as if I used Breitbart to judge Obama's effectiveness....

Seriously... You might as well use HuffPoop or CNN to judge Trump...

WaPoop is the EPITOME of fake news....

But, I am not surprised that it's your choice... :D

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-promise-tracker/

The next post will be the site I use to judge Trump on his campaign promises at least. Of course I will use other methods to judge his success (e.g. does he start a trade war with France because they banned Trump Cheese because it was too smelly even for them, or invade Scotland for building windmills that spoil the view from his failing golf courses, etc.).

A big and mighty FRAK YOU!!! to the US military...

Looks like Snowden and Assange are next on Obama's BJ list...

:^/

http://pressthink.org/2016/12/winter-coming-prospects-american-press-trump/

The other examples you offer make sense to me.

But I don't crave food by region.
If I want Thai, Chinese doesn't cut it.

A

Because YOU brought it up by quoting another Obama sycophant, Brennan...

Brennan was whining and crying that Trump was being a meanie and calling the CIA nazis..

You defended Brennan in his whining and crying, forgetting that the Left Wingery called the CIA Nazis when it was Bush's CIA...

You brought up the CIA and the nazis in an attempt to disparage Trump.. I pointed out the hypocrisy of your disparagement...

See?? Simple... :D

Yep.. Nothing about Nazis or the CIA...

Exactly, so why did you even say that Left Wingery did?

Tut, tut. You know the use of granfalloons is politically incorrect, right? ;)

Context certainly plays a part. I don't really look at the broader high level ethnic titles as ascribing to a brand of political correctness or moving backwards. I look at it more as a progression of how many approach things as our culture has become more diverse.

If I am giving a presentation on certain aspects of culture for a meeting, I will often use the high level term, I.E. " These are Central American trends and practices to be aware of..." now to carry it further I also then usually will also say " here are some of the local regulations and customs in El Salvador..." Or in the case of the Asian Cuisine thing I tend to use the high level to identify a type of food from a geographical region that I want so say I am in Lima or even Miami I will make the statement " let's grab Asian for lunch." to which the response usually is there is a great Japanese spot up the road or I know a great Korean BBQ ... Ultimately this saves time because there may only be Chinese where I am at.

Just as if the discussion is specific to a country I am not using those high level identifiers as that would be insulting to those involved but at the same token I am also not using the "-American".

When it comes to ethnic identification I tend to notice that the people I associate with tend to identify as just their ethnic origin sans the hyphen. It is assumed they are American first and ethnicity comes second. Perhaps this is due to just my unique set of experiences or perhaps it is generational. In either case I have not really seen any of my associates uncomfortable or insulted by the use of these generalized terms and in many cases use them as well, the use of these generalized terms can be used to open a conversation to find out more about a person.

Perhaps the question needs to be re-framed as to weather or not the need and drive to assign ethnicity is a generational one...

Yep.. Nothing about Nazis or the CIA...

Granfalloon time again Michale? Didn't you read CW's article above?

Everything except what they do.. :D

Mirror time Michale.

I hear the term "Asian-Americans" fairly frequently.

There is also areas of education such as: Asian American Studies Center University of California, Los Angeles

Asian as a group is also used as a high level term in the census:

https://www.census.gov/population/race/data/ppl-aa13.html

THAT looks awesome!!! I can't wait....

And when Obama's CIA becomes Trump's CIA, then the Left Wingery will be back to calling the CIA "Nazis" like they did when it was Bush's CIA...

"And so it goes.... and so it goes...."
-Billy Joel

:D

http://www.chrisweigant.com/2017/01/13/ftp421/#comment-91989

Comments??

I've never really been into SciFi except for the original Star Trek, which I watched during its original run.

But, I have come to really love the Marvelverse. They must be good to have hooked me!

I have a link for you about a new series by James Cameron looking at the history of SciFi from the originators to the present. I'll look for it now ...

Everything except what they do.. :D

http://www.chrisweigant.com/2017/01/13/ftp421/#comment-91898

“Tell the families of those 117 CIA officers who are forever memorialized on our wall of honor that their loved ones who gave their lives were akin to Nazis,” he said. “Tell the CIA officers who are serving in harm’s way right now and their families who are worried about them that they are akin to Nazi Germany. I found that to be very repugnant.”

Apparently, you didn't find it repugnant when the Left Wingery slammed the CIA as Nazis when the CIA was torturing terrorists for actionable intel...

That's why I really don't believe the indignation of the Left Wingery and everyone (who is indignant) here..

Because I know that it is solely based on Party ideology...

Sounds like political correctness to me.

Of course it does.. To an extremist, EVERYTHING sounds like political correctness...

Sounds like political correctness to me.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/politically%20correct

How's it feel to be a snowflake Michale?

http://www.wsj.com/articles/cia-director-john-brennan-rejects-donald-trumps-criticism-1484611514

“Tell the families of those 117 CIA officers who are forever memorialized on our wall of honor that their loved ones who gave their lives were akin to Nazis,” he said. “Tell the CIA officers who are serving in harm’s way right now and their families who are worried about them that they are akin to Nazi Germany. I found that to be very repugnant.”

It's funny you should say that.. While I was typing the question, I thought about how I have never been much of a Thor or Captain America or even Iron Man fan.. To me, growing up, they were regulated to the back row of super heroes behind Spiderman (my fav), Superman, Batman, etc etc.. Hell, I never even HEARD of Black Widow or Hawkeye....

I have to hand it to Marvel, Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans and Scarlett Johanessen and Jeremey Renner.. They really brought those super heroes into focus..

For me at least... :D

And I submit to you, WITH the facts to back it up, that the Left Wingery enmasse has succumbed to EXTREME political correctness...

One only has to look at the snowflakes in our nation's colleges to know that this is factual...

The traditional meaning is to avoid insults like the N-Word and other racial epitaphs.

Nope.. That's the meaning for those who practice EXTREME political correctness...

Avoiding insults like n-word and other racial attacks is not political correctness.. It's common courtesy..

The extreme end is to shut down speech.

Which is the entirety of the Left Wingery, from Climate Change to anything else the Left finds unpalatable..

Are you advocating the common use of racial epithets Michale?

Of course not.. I am advocating the common use of common sense and common courtesy, decency and respect..

Calling tens of millions of Americans irredeemable deplorable racists SOLELY because of their political views is NOT common sense, common courtesy, decency OR respect...

There is "political correctness" and there is extreme "political correctness". The traditional meaning is to avoid insults like the N-Word and other racial epitaphs.

The extreme end is to shut down speech.

Needless to say, the term is used at its extreme by extremists.

Are you advocating the common use of racial epithets Michale?

You just might be.. :D

Hmmm ... an Asgardian in Weigantia ...

Say THAT 3 times fast... :D

I'm not trying to be facetious, here.

Seriously. I can't be the only Asgardian in Weigantia. Can I?

Hmmm ... an Asgardian in Weigantia ...

:D

That wouldn't be bad. That would be unfathomably abysmal, to say the least.

We just need an edit function. Everything else is good.

yea... They're called liberals.. :D

Heh... Couldn't resist.. Not that strong.. :D

CW: you were looking for ideas for the layout of an updated page. The comments section in the ozy link above is a good format. They have a main comment then a few replies then the next main comment. It seems to be only one level deep (i.e. you don't get sub-threads of sub-threads).

Anyway, an idea.

It's called FaceBook.. :D

I actually kinda like the FB commenting structure.. It would have to be tweaked to work here in Weigantia, but there are definitely worst ways to do it.. :D

Just to be clear.. I am not advocating that CW turn his commenting over to FaceBook.. That would be bad.. And I am NOT fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing.. :D But the mechanics of the FB commenting system are pretty solid..

With regards to the content of the link itself...

The chart does not assign causation, but it’s easy to point the finger at the, er, elephant in the room: globalization. It’s “a plausible narrative,” says Milanovi?. “The gains from such big forces like globalization are never going to be equal for everybody.” Over the past year, the chart has gotten much traction, with some arguing it explains the rise of Bernie, Trump, Brexit and all the rest of it.

In other words.. For equality's sake, it's a damn good thing that the forces of globalization had their asses handed to them, eh?? :D

Furthering my theme of inequality:

It's been my experience that, if you look at the detailed history of anyone screaming about inequality, you will find that, somewhere in their past, they had frak'ed up and are the agents of their own inequality...

Which re-enforces CW's comment (like how I came around right back to that?? :D) about race being a social construct...

See? This is precisely why we need a post-comment edit function around here. What time is it, anyway?

Now, there's a cultural discussion and a half that we all need to have!

Race is a social construct, not a biological one, in other words. Meaning that society can come up with whatever divisions it deems appropriate, but which also have no accurate scientific basis (even at the subspecies level).

I never really thought of it that way, but.... DAAAMMMMNNNNN THAT'S GOOD!!!

It goes a long way to explain the cause of all the strife, which you show in your next nail-head hitter..

Perhaps it is just political correctness trying to be overly sensitive -- that's really the only reason I can think of, but I truly don't know.

Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding!!! We have a winner!!! Tell 'im what he's won, Johnny!!!

Political Correctness is one of those things that this country could REALLY do without...

I don't much hear the "Asian" designation except from those....er... of a disagreeable political persuasion.. I haven't noticed a trend towards replacing Japanese/Chinese/Korean/etc with "Asian"...

Maybe it's a California thing?? :D

Great Commentary, CW... :D

The taxonomy actually became slightly more interesting with the confirmation of Neanderthal genes in us and the possibility of Denisovan... but that is veering off topic.

I've never heard anyone say "let's go out for Asian food".
Where did you hear this?
Or the going backwards to the more general term, er, generally?

I mean, was it in discussions with friends, overheard on the street, comments online?
It doesn't seem to make sense, so I am curious.

As for the country distinctions, outside of heritage, American familiarity seems to correlate to where we've fought wars to some extent.

A

What we have here is the best I've seen ... we just need a post-comment edit function that lasts for just 15 - 30 minutes after you post.

Anyway, an idea.

I've not seen any research on this, but if anybody knows of some please point me in the right direction.

http://www.ozy.com/provocateurs/the-man-behind-the-most-important-chart-of-2016/74283