SummerSnow
SummerSnow's JournalI don't always agree with George Will but when I do....
By George F. Will Opinion writer December 23, 2015
If you look beyond Donald Trump’s comprehensive unpleasantness — is there a disagreeable human trait he does not have? — you might see this: He is a fundamentally sad figure. His compulsive boasting is evidence of insecurity. His unassuageable neediness suggests an aching hunger for others’ approval to ratify his self-admiration. His incessant announcements of his self-esteem indicate that he is not self-persuaded. Now, panting with a puppy’s insatiable eagerness to be petted, Trump has reveled in the approval of Vladimir Putin, murderer and war criminal.
It is possible Trump will not win any primary, and that by the middle of March our long national embarrassment will be over. But this avatar of unfettered government and executive authoritarianism has mesmerized a large portion of Republicans for six months. The larger portion should understand this:
One hundred and four years of history is in the balance. If Trump is the Republican nominee in 2016, there might not be a conservative party in 2020 either.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-conservative-party-jeopardized-by-trump/2015/12/23/3335339c-a8e2-11e5-8058-480b572b4aae_story.html
Obama nominated Merrick Garland for SCOTUS..
Senate Rethugs won't even meet with him. Obama said he fulfilled his Constitutional duty. However, Senate Rethugs obstruct this appointment cause they hate Obama.They want the next POTUS to nominate the next Justice. So, it might be President Trump to nominate one. You know, the one they are so called trying to stop from being POTUS. Rethugs are trashy.
Donald Trump walks back suggestion of paying legal fees for man accused of punching protester...lol
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/donald-trump-walks-back-suggestion-125528241.htmlColin Campbell,Business Insider 8 hours ago
Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump denied on Tuesday that he said he was looking into paying the legal fees for a man who is accused of punching a protester at one of Trump's rallies.
"I didn't say that. I haven't looked at it yet. And nobody's asked me to pay for fees," Trump said on ABC's "Good Morning America."
A man was filmed sucker punching a demonstrator at a Trump rally last week in North Carolina. John McGraw, 78, is reportedly facing assault charges in the attack.
On Sunday's "Meet the Press," Trump said he "actually instructed my people to look into" paying McGraw's legal bills. Trump also said he wanted to see the "full tape" and noted that the protester was "very loud, very disruptive."
But during his Tuesday "Good Morning America" interview Trump appeared to be far less inclined to get involved.
"Somebody asked me the question. And I hadn't even seen it. So I never said I was going to pay for fees," he recalled.
"You said you were 'looking into it,'" host George Stephanopoulos pressed. "And I'm just saying, if you're open to that, wouldn't by paying those fees, wouldn't that be rewarding violence?"
Trump replied:
Well, maybe so. And maybe that's why I wouldn't do it. I don't condone violence at all. I looked and I watched and I'm going to make a decision, but I certainly don't condone violence. And maybe you're right. And maybe that's why I wouldn't do it.
Trump has been harshly criticized in recent days for his violent campaign-trail rhetoric. Trump has voiced his desire to punch protesters in the face, pined for the old days in which hecklers would be roughed up, and at one event said he would pay for the legal fees of people if they "knock the crap out" of protesters throwing tomatoes.
ROFLMAO
Your'e toast Christie:Chris Christie Skips NJ Cop’s Funeral To Emcee A Trump Rally In North Carolina
MARCH 14, 2016 By The Federalist Staff
Failed presidential candidate and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie missed a funeral for a New Jersey State Trooper who was killed in the line of duty so he could emcee a Donald Trump campaign event in North Carolina on Monday.
New Jersey State Trooper Sean Cullen, 31, was accidentally struck by a motorist while responding to a car fire last week. Christie skipped Cullen’s funeral on Monday because he was too busy interviewing Donald Trump for an event in North Carolina, NJ.com reports.
This is the third funeral for a police officer killed in the line of duty that Christie has missed in order to hit the campaign trail. The governor’s office refused to comment on or answer questions pertaining to Christie’s attendance–or lack thereof–instead referring reporters to the Trump campaign for answers, NJ.com reports.
At least one top Republican lawmakers in New Jersey has said that Christie either needs to stop campaigning for Trump or quit his job.
“If he is going to go on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, he cannot continue to serve as our governor,” New Jersey Sen. Jennifer Beck, a Republican, said earlier this month. “The governorship of the state of New Jersey is more than a full-time job.”
Last week, Christie spent two days vacationing in Florida. NJ.com reported that it has been unable to confirm whether or not Christie stayed at Trump’s resort in south Florida. When asked directly about whether he stayed at a property owned by Trump while on vacation in the Sunshine State, Christie refused to answer the question.
Taxpayers have footed the bill for a lot of Christie’s campaign travel expenses, as the law enforcement officers who protect him at all times are paid with public funds. From January through September of 2015, taxpayers have shelled out $614,000 for security detail on the campaign trail. In 2015, Christie spent a total of 271 days on the road outside of his home state.New Jersey taxpayers have paid nearly $1.8 million for law enforcement to protect Christie during out-of-state travel since he first took office.
Christie’s decision to endorse the New York businessman was a significant change in tone from his earlier criticisms that Trump lacked the temperament to be president. Christie was widely and brutally mocked online after he half-heartedly introduced Trump at a press conference and then pathetically stood behind him, his eyes wide and expressionless, while Trump bragged about his primary victories.
http://thefederalist.com/2016/03/14/chris-christie-skips-nj-cops-funeral-to-emcee-a-trump-rally-in-north-carolina/
Iowa Man Who Wears Surgical Mask Because He’s ‘Allergic to Black People’ Charged With Hate Crime
Andy Benavidez, 47, was charged with a hate crime after he used racial slurs to refer to a black man and hit him.
An Iowa City, Iowa, man who reportedly wore a surgical mask so as not to catch black people's germs has been charged with a hate crime for fighting a man because he is black.
According to CBS 2, police responded Sunday to a call about two men fighting. When they arrived, the victim told police that the man identified as Andy Benavidez, 47, referred to him using racial slurs and hit him. Police documents viewed by the news station note that Benavidez mentioned that he wears a surgical mask because he is "allergic to black people" and doesn't want to catch their germs.
Benavidez also reportedly admitted to fighting the victim because he's black.
CBS 2 notes that Benavidez has been charged with assault—violation of individual rights, which is considered a hate crime.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2016/03/iowa_man_who_wears_surgical_mask_because_he_is_allergic_to_black_people.html?wpisrc=topstories
* Stupidity should be a felony*
I read this and thought about Donald Trump and the U.S.
Why They Followed Adolf Hitler. The root cause: The Germans' fear of modernism. By Rafael Seligmann
http://www.atlantic-times.com/archive_detail.php?recordID=257
Why did the Germans elect Adolf Hitler, thereby unconditionally linking their fate to his person? Why did they go to war for him? Why did some even become murderers? Rafael Seligmann's book, "Hitler. Die Deutschen und ihr Führer (Hitler. The Germans and Their Führer)," shows that Hitler could only win power, because he had made himself the spokesman of German fears and longings. He led a war against modernism.
Adolf Hitler is the dominant figure of our age. He outshines Mussolini, Stalin, Franco, Mao Tse-tung and Saddam Hussein as a politician, strategist and villain. The ramifications of Hitler's doings were so far-reaching that they continue to affect the emotions, thoughts and activities of humankind, and especially of the Germans.
Hitler's life and deeds have been more thoroughly investigated than those of anyone else in recent history. Respected historians and journalists have dedicated lifetimes to examining his world view and his politics and the atrocities and wars they led to. In their zeal, some biographers have included Hitler's private life in their investigation. Even his dogs have been written about.
Given the numerous publications about Hitler, they have generated little insight. Some of the most crucial questions about Hitler have only been addressed tangentially and still need to be answered adequately.
How did this Austrian immigrant manage to captivate the Germans? Why did 17 million people vote for him in free democratic elections? What moved the German people to choose him as their leader? Why did the Germans fight and kill in the name of Hitler, Nazism and their country; even sacrificing themselves in the end, long after it was indisputably clear that their leader was going down and would take the country with him over the cusp of the abyss? And how could it reach the point where the Germans committed collective genocide against the Jews?
Those questions alone prove that Hitler's power could only have blossomed in collaboration with the German people. On his own, the mediocre postcard illustrator and would-be artist would have remained forever a nobody.
And that is the crucial difference between Hitler and the other dictators mentioned above. Those leaders dispensed entirely with any kind of democratic legitimization. Popularity was secondary for those men. Hitler, by contrast, enjoyed the broad support, confidence, admiration - indeed the love - of the Germans until the very end of his days.
Hitler's power was based on the unconditional allegiance of the population. The Germans put their trust in Hitler. And that is how he was able to make his worldview, his politics, his hate, his war, and his crimes those of an entire nation.
Niccolò Machiavelli said that love or fear were the most effective tools in securing power. But "perhaps it is best," the Florentine political theorist said, "to wish to be both loved and feared." It was that amalgamate of feelings that bound the Germans to Hitler. But why? What did this man from the small Austrian town Braunau convey so effectively to his people?
Hitler's appeal has always been, and continues to be, attributed to his charisma. Hitler himself used the term providence, as if there was a mythical bond between the Führer and his people. But there was nothing heavenly about the Germans' entanglement with Hitler. As in every lasting relationship, it began with a spontaneous connection, which emerged from shared cultural and mythological legacy. But there were also tangible elements. His charisma was a pretext, masking the joint interests of the Germans and Hitler. What connected the Führer and his people was fear of the modern age, or in other words, the future.
Modernism meant the endeavor to subject all thought and action to reason, thereby making decisions and actions comprehensible and verifiable. This is an attitude that requires the rejection of any metaphysical rationalization.
Modern thought was never able to develop as fully in Germany as it did elsewhere in Europe. The baby of the Enlightenment, epitomized by Kant, Lessing and many others, was thrown out with the bathwater of the anti-Napoleonic Wars of Liberation. The vast majority of the German bourgeoisie was more interested in aligning itself with the nationalist idealism of German philosophers Fichte and Arndt, or Richard Wagner's newly invented world of Germanic myths. Indeed, they veritably fled to those comforts, instead of subjecting their political, social and cultural awareness to objectively verifiable criteria.
That attitude gained currency following the trauma of defeat in World War I and the socio-economic crisis it brought in its wake. Instead of rationally tackling and overcoming the difficulties that loomed at the beginning of the 1920s, the Germans sought escape in an intoxication of chauvinism - the same jingoism that had already contributed so much to their misery during World War I and thereafter.
The Germans felt, and indeed were, threatened by modernism, since they had, to a great degree, closed their eyes to the principles of lucid reason. Hitler also considered himself a victim of modernism and blamed it for his early failures to that point. Hitler and his National Socialist movement gave true voice to the fears of the German middle class. He told the Germans that the Jews were the one and only cause of all their misery. And the Jews were, in fact, the undisputed beneficiaries of modernism, whether as democrats, capitalists, intellectuals or communists.
But Hitler was not satisfied just to denounce the Jews. His goal was to lead his people into a war of liberation from the Jews, activating the anti-Semitism dormant in Germany. Indeed, more than any other group, the Jews embodied and cultivated modernism. Although it's rarely discussed these days, back then there were significant economic, social and intellectual differences between the German Gentile and the Jewish communities. The Nazis fueled those conflicts until they escalated into a majority war against the minority, which found its ultimate expression in coldly executed mass murder. The Germans were not murderous anti-Semites contrary to the claim of Daniel Jonah Goldhagen. But they looked the other way, tolerated and even profited from the genocide.
Hitler waged war with modern tactics. The enthusiasm he and his cohorts showed for the newest techniques in propaganda, mass mobilization and weapons of war has long obscured the fact that the Nazis and their Führer availed themselves of those tools only as a means to an end, and that end was a campaign to exterminate modernism and its adherents. Hitler's ultimate goal never changed - a return to the earth, to "blood and soil", to the idealized world of the Teutons.
The "total war" the Nazis proclaimed in 1943 was the brainchild of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Millions of Germans participated enthusiastically, steadfast until the bitter end in their loyalty to Hitler. What resistance there was, made up largely of elite army officers, lacked all support among the masses. So Claus von Stauffenberg and his comrades-in-arms who made an attempt on Hitler's life, on July 20, 1944, were forced to dissimulate and pretend to defend the authority of the state.
Nazi propaganda claimed a supranatural unity between the Führer and the people: "Germany is Hitler, and Hitler is Germany." While the totality of that alliance may be exaggerated, there is no doubt that Hitler could not have done what he did except by joining forces with the Germans.
- Rafael Seligmann is an editor in chief at The Atlantic Times. After the publication of his book, "Hitler. Die Deutschen und ihr Führer (Hitler. The Germans and Their Führer)," the following statement met with fierce opposition: "The continued prohibition of Hitler's book 'Mein Kampf' in Germany is counterproductive. It is evidence of a lack of democratic self-confidence. Unrestricted access to Hitler's writings would not produce new Nazis. On the contrary, it would serve to dismantle a myth." The paperback edition of Seligmann's book will be published this month.
Watch Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda Freestyle w/ President Obama,and Obama drops the mic literally!
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2016/03/watch-hamiltons-lin-manuel-miranda-brilliantly-freestyle-president-obama* I have goosebumps*
YOU ROCK OBAMA!!!!
During a visit to the White House on Monday, Lin-Manuel Miranda, the star and creator of the enormously popular Broadway show "Hamilton," stopped by the Rose Garden to showcase his freestyle skills with an assist from President Obama.
The performance featured the president holding up cue cards with words such as "Constitution" and "Obamacare" for Manuel to weave into his performance—and the result was pure magic.
The performance concluded with both Miranda and Obama dropping the mic.
"You think that's going viral?" Obama joked. "That's going viral."
Sarah Palin's Husband Recovering After Snowmobile Crash...She's with Trump in Florida
Updated March 14, 20168:14 PM ET
Published March 14, 20167:02 PM ET Laura Wagner
Sarah Palin's husband, Todd, is recovering after a Sunday night snowmobile accident that left him with eight fractured ribs and other injuries.
Todd Palin's father, Jim Palin, told The Associated Press that his son also had injuries to his collarbone and lungs from what he called "one of those freak accidents." The elder Palin said his son was scheduled for surgery today at a hospital near the Palins' hometown of Wasilla. He expected his son to fully recover.
Sarah Palin was in Florida to campaign for Donald Trump ahead of the state's GOP primary. She canceled one of her appearances but made remarks at a Trump rally in Tampa before she was scheduled to fly back to Alaska.
At the event, she thanked audience members for their prayers for her husband, who she said was recovering in the ICU after the "little wreck."
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/14/470448014/sarah-palins-husband-recovering-after-snowmobile-crash
Profile Information
Member since: Mon Nov 26, 2012, 09:08 PMNumber of posts: 12,608