The Urine Thing Is Dumb

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Thursday January 12, 2017 · 4:22 AM PST

2017/01/12 · 04:22

The worst things about Trump are not big secrets. I think it is dumb to make any deal at all of this urine story, because nobody knows if it's true, probably we’ll never know, it's not worth resources to try to find out if it is true, and it elevates the unverifiable story above the historic conflicts of interest that are being exposed before our eyes, horrors with zero deniability. We don't know if the pee stuff is true, but the nominations of Tillerson, Sessions, Tom Price, Andrew Puzder, Steve Mnuchin, etc. — that is all real and undenied. Trump's directly profiting from the presidency is for real. If you make a big deal out of the urine stuff it's on the level of talking about the Clintons killing Vince Foster even after Kenneth Starr said it was a suicide. It's not quite on the level of speculation about Obama's birth, since that is intentionally ignoring the truth, but it is making a big deal out of something which is total speculation at this point. And that makes attempts to educate the public about the important issues harder.

In political struggles it's a good thing if you can be distinguishable from your opponents. When they do something wrong (spreading unverifiable stories) it's good if you have a clean record, and not just be better than they are, but clearly better than they are. It's true that Trump is gross so something like this “scandal” is arguably more plausible, but even though I can't stand Trump I don't particularly think the pee story is true. Somebody who is favorably disposed to Trump is far less likely to believe it.

Why not stick to issues that are relevant, proven, and so much more important? I think every time anti-Trump people bring this up in a political setting (as opposed to telling jokes with friends) it helps Trump, it doesn't hurt him. If it were established fact, then obviously there'd be no end of joking and tweeting about it until the end of time, but since it is not, and almost certainly never will be, it's a waste of time and energy.

Poll

42 votes Show Results

Is talking about the Trump prostitute urine story enlightening and educational, or just dumb?

42 votes Vote Now!

Is talking about the Trump prostitute urine story enlightening and educational, or just dumb?

Dumb - it's not even that entertaining. It's just boring.

19 votes

It is critical to helping people understand our current political situation.

16 votes

I guess it might have some marginal relevance.

7 votes

Straight talk - the Hillary, Trump, and Bernie versions

tamandua

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Friday March 11, 2016 · 5:12 AM PST

2016/03/11 · 05:12

Most mistakenly, many talking heads compare Trump to Sanders, treating both as their parties' extremes, or both as wild-talking crazy men who will say anything. This is unintelligent analysis. For one thing, Trump's winning attribute, to his supporters, has nothing to do with positions. It's his strong fascist vibe - they love the hate. The thing that Trump and Bernie have in common is that they both talk without hesitation. Trump does so because he is speaking from his id to his supporters' ids. That is the essence of his political strength. Logic, truth or verification would be an impediment to his success.

Bernie, like Trump, speaks directly, and without hesitation, but in his case it is because his strength is speaking from principle, and his positions are rooted in those principles. He doesn't have to make tactical calculation on the essence of what he is saying — he is already living that essence. His consistent strategy is to say what he means.

Not even Hillary's supporters - not even her advisors, not even she herself - have any answer to questions about her sincerity, authenticity, honesty - even her paid spokespersons are fully conscious that she is dishonest and would rather not talk about it -- because everyone sees that Hillary can't answer a question simply and straightforwardly. She is not wired that way, it would go against her game plan, and for decades, for her whole life, she has been relying on a strategy of trying to confuse people, trying to appeal to the greatest number of people by saying one thing in one time and place, another thing in another time and place, and counting on not being called on it. In a debate or interview, in real time people see and hear the gears grinding as she plots her course through her answers to questions, guided by what her machinery (humans, inculcated in the Bill/Hillary/nowChelsea methods) tells her is the safest, best bet for her electoral goal.

People can see that Bernie is honest. Even his enemies usually concede that, because disputing it is discrediting in itself.
Like Hillary, Trump is dishonest, and has no principle other than self-glorification, but Trump's direct style, his id-to-id communication style, is mistakable for open honesty. If Hillary does become the nominee, it is hard for me to see Hillary's complicated style of deceit trumping Trump's simple and direct deceit.

It is Bernie's direct, intelligent honesty that can trump Trump. Homespun but wise and knowledgeable Bernie has, in spite of tremendous institutional, infrastructural disadvantages, has wrestled Hillary to a near-tie in a system heavily heavily crookedly stacked in her favor. If Hillary becomes the nominee, the rules are reversed. The media will continue to give Trump limitless free media exposure. Bernie can challenge and overcome Trump's advantages with the truth that people are thirsting for. Can Hillary's style of fraudulence trump Trump’s?

David Brock goes after Sanders

tamandua

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Tuesday September 15, 2015 · 2:00 PM PDT

2015/09/15 · 14:00

David Brock, author of "The Real Anita Hill," breaker of the "troopergate" story in right wing publication "American Spectator," spokesperson for the pro-Hillary Clinton super-PAC correct the record, and founder of liberal media criticism website Media Matters, is now busy trying to make people not like Bernie Sanders. My guess is this guy means what he says when he says it, but he doesn't have a truly big-picture understanding of the world.

He was really, really nasty against Anita Hill in his efforts to support the Clarence Thomas nomination. He was pretty good in Media Matters.

I bet he is going to get really unpleasant toward the Sanders campaign, and say things that are meant to hurt it, but probably won't because he's not really coherent, big picture.

Take a look at the Talking Points Memo article if you have not noticed it: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...

tamandua

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Wednesday July 10, 2013 · 3:47 AM PDT

2013/07/10 · 03:47

Forgive me if someone else has posted this video.

http://www.youtube.com/...

The power of his statement goes so far beyond anything that would come from someone who had just been indoctrinated or made to memorize stuff. This boy is talking with great heart and immense intellect. It inspires me to see what people can be. It would be wonderful if he were 30 years old instead of 12, but that he is a child makes it extra amazing.

What potential we human beings have. If only we could get aligned and stop working against ourselves we could make a lot of progress on all our problems in a very short time.

The Muhammad story and the Jesus story are plain and simple messages, that a child or uneducated person should be able to grasp. These stories grew around the lives of special men and were influenced by their times and places of origin. Now the stories are used by some modern so-called Christians to push down the poor and stir up hatred against gays and others; and modern so-called Muslims to retard their societies and to stir up hatred as well.

I think this boy could hold up well in a debate against the champions of these perverted schools of thought.

Venezuela-US coooperation

tamandua

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Tuesday July 09, 2013 · 1:02 PM PDT

2013/07/09 · 13:02

I am fooled by the news stream, even though I am skeptical.

I have been led to believe that Venezuela and the USA are practically enemies.

Venezuela is in the news now, right?

Well looky here on MSNBC. The headline is "Colombia extradites 'Madman' drug lord to US" but if you read carefully you find out how Colombia captured the "madman." Working with British and USA governments (and no doubt the spy apparatus that we are hotly debating these days) the Colombians knew that this drug lord was using a pay phone in Venezuela. They notified the Venezuelans who picked him up on the spot. The articles about this say that the "madman" was working closely with "leftist guerillas" fighting the Colombian government.

http://investigations.nbcnews.com/...

http://www.foxnews.com/...

tamandua

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Monday December 17, 2012 · 3:58 PM PST

2012/12/17 · 15:58

The essential argument of the crusaders for no controls on guns is that if the citizens can't have all the weapons they want, then they will be defenseless against a tyrannical government.

I believe that the reality is these crusaders are driven by the urge to intimidate peaceable citizens, and to overcome democracy with violence and threat of violence.

To me the historical event that best illuminates the roots of the gun fanatics is the Wilmington Insurrection. Using guns and other violence, white supremacists deposed the elected city government of Wilmington, North Carolina. They murdered and terrorized many blacks, burned down the building that housed the newspaper operated by blacks, drove black citizens out of town to turn it from majority black into a majority white town, and subsequently worked hard at voter suppression to keep it that way. Here is one website about these events in our history: http://www.pbs.org/... . Until Michigan's new laws effectively took away the rights of voters to elect their own local governments, this was the only coup d'état in our history, I think.

tamandua

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Thursday September 06, 2012 · 1:07 PM PDT

2012/09/06 · 13:07

Donna Edwards, wonderful congresswoman from Maryland's 4th District, is supposed to address the convention at 5:30 p.m.

Edwards is compelling because of her exceptional knowledge, talent, goodness and toughness. She ousted an incumbent Democrat who was in the pocket of energy companies and who was not serving his district. He is still in their pocket, but now he more appropriately lobbies for them.

I hope that Edwards will be the next new senator from Maryland. She is really spectacular. If you are not familiar with her, do yourself a favor and tune in when she is scheduled to be on.

C-SPAN is putting up videos of all the speeches at http://www.c-span.org/...

chris christie says he thinks romney wished he could take back birther comment

tamandua

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Tuesday August 28, 2012 · 7:47 AM PDT

2012/08/28 · 07:47

So he says:

http://todayonthetrail.today.com/...

what romney said about nobody ever asked him for his birth certificate, it's just something that slipped out, and these things are going to happen if you are on the campaign trail day after day.

IF what christie says is right, then there is a meaningful way romney could take it back.

he could say, the other day i meant an unfortunate comment about my birth certificate. let me make it totally clear. president obama was born in hawaii. he has shown his birth certificate to the world. he is an american, born in hawaii, and anyone who says anything different is contradicting established, documented fact.

also, i should apologize for certain other comments i made, using the word 'foreign' to describe the president of the united states. these comments were, like the birth certificate comment, something that was ill-stated and not expressing my views. this campaigning for president is hard business, and i am sure the president would agree that it is not always possible to express oneself as well as one would want.

this is a close election, and both the president and i have a lot of supporters. we are all americans, and we don't all agree, and we are going to have to accept and respect each other. we are all americans, but clearly we do not all agree as to how we should govern ourselves.

i would like to make this a campaign of ideas and not mudslinging. i pledge to you all that i am determined to do all i can to promote that sort of campaign. i will apologize when i slip up, and i will count on the president to apologize when he slips up. but i can only control my own thoughts and actions, and i absolutely do not want to play into the unfortunate narrative that some have developed accusing the president of not being an american.of course he is, just as i am.

tamandua

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Monday August 13, 2012 · 2:13 AM PDT

2012/08/13 · 02:13

Since his identification as Romney's running mate, I have several times heard a certain narrative about Paul Ryan being advanced - that he is a self-made man who had to overcome the tragedy of losing his father early. Attached to this I have heard the phrase,"pulled himself up by his bootstraps." Here is one example, without the bootstraps part: http://www.thedailybeast.com/... , and from the Daily Beast which is not particularly friendly to Romney/Ryan. I know I heard it previously over the last day - that Ryan's father died at an early age, said in a way to suggest that that caused him great economic hardship.

However, I am wondering about the accuracy of that picture.

His father was a lawyer. His grandfather founded Ryan Incorporated Central, a construction business which according to its website ( http://www.ryancentral.com/... ) is now "one of the nation's premier mass excavation and sitework contractors."

tamandua

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Tuesday July 24, 2012 · 5:22 PM PDT

2012/07/24 · 17:22

Obama is bad for having said that the hardworking business owners who have built their enterprises with blood, sweat and tears, did not build what they obviously did build, with their own two hands.

But he has said even worse things. Also, I think the pressure of the campaign is making him break apart. He is becoming weirdly inarticulate. The words below constitute one of the worst collection of statements attributed to any US President ever:

"The first step we will take is to strangle one and a half million Americans. As Americans, we expect handouts. I do not accept America. I’ve said, it’s going to take grease and a culture of ‘anything goes.’ Our best days are behind us. I get discouraged because the American people cannot come together. You can still be gay. You get sick, I want that."

Why did we elect this man?

If you want to reference this quote of Obama's far and wide, here are the citations. It's all there!

4/29/2009 press conference; his remarks at Mexican President Calderon's 4/16/2009 press conference; Obama's 7/22/2009 speech at Georgetown University; and his remarks today, 7/24/2012, in Oakland California.

I am not convinced of the importance of filibuster reform.

tamandua

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Thursday January 13, 2011 · 2:14 PM PST

2011/01/13 · 14:14

When the Republicans have narrow majorities in Congress, they can get major radical legislation through.

When the Democrats have big majorities, they struggle to get watered down legislation passed.

I am not convinced that filibuster reform will change anything.

For example, the House passed the Bush tax cuts in March 2001, with 10 Democrats joining 220 Republicans voting for it, against 198 Democrats voting against it. Then 12 Democratic Senators joined 46 Republicans (every Republican Senator except McCain (this was before his latest incarnation as a hard line rightwinger, which is more natural territory for him, I think)) -- and the bill was passed using reconciliation.

Then, look at the extension of the Bush tax cuts. The Dems had big majorities, and would not/could not stop what they said they did not want. All through the health care debate, Team Obama's approach to the people who supported the approach he campaigned on was, shut up.

tamandua

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Thursday September 02, 2010 · 5:56 PM PDT

2010/09/02 · 17:56

The Department of Justice is suing Joe Arpaio, Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, for failing to cooperate with its investigate into alleged discrimination against Hispanics by Arpaio and his department.

See http://www.cnn.com/...

Arpaio forced the DOJ's hand by publicly refusing to provide documents requested for the investigation. It seems obvious to me that it would not have come to this if Bush or McCain were president.

Arpaio keeps finding ways of being more extreme - even arresting a Republican county Supervisor who disagreed with some of Arpaio's extreme tactics.

This is one of the best things to come out of the Obama Administration, I think.

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The Urine Thing Is Dumb

Straight talk - the Hillary, Trump, and Bernie versions

David Brock goes after Sanders

12 year old boy explains the Egyptian revolution

Venezuela-US coooperation

Wilmington Insurrection and the right to bear arms

Donna Edwards to speak at DNC 5:30 p.m. Thursday

chris christie says he thinks romney wished he could take back birther comment

Is Paul Ryan a self-made man?

shameful words of barack obama

I am not convinced of the importance of filibuster reform.

Justice Department sues Arpaio