Republicans

[Forty Two]

"Kid Rock endorsed Donald Trump for president in 2016 and Republican nominee Mitt Romney in 2012, and Law said the “superficial” idea of Kid Rock as an entertainer and as a “wild redneck” should not deter people from seriously considering his candidacy."

Exactly. He should be a perfect representative for Americans...

He wouldn't be representing all Americans, just Michiganders (not sure who'd be representing the Michigeese).

[Animavore]

Jesus! I thought that piece on Ryan was parody at first as I read it.

[Forty Two]

GOP, you have a problem. You are only in power thanks to racists.
https://twitter.com/DearAuntCrabby/stat ... 7719318528

There aren't enough racists in the US for that to be the case. The people are no different than they've been for the Obama administration. Remember, when Obama became President we had a narrative in the media that all the racists were coming out to get Obama because they couldn't stand the black guy in the white house. Now, we've forgotten about that, and now the new narrative is that now that Trump is President, all of America is racist.

Does everyone not see that all this racial strife is being ginned up on purpose? The Charlottesville rally would have been a big nothing with a few thousand irrelevant people playing handball into a curtain, if it wasn't for the orchestrated "counter protest" which was created for the express purpose of causing violence and keeping this narrative in the news.

Nobody in mainstream America and at least two standard deviations from the norm is like this. These white racist views are held by a vanishing minority of people, a fraction of a fraction of 1% of the population. Most people don't even know who these groups are, where they are or anyone who belongs to them. This is NOT the United States. It's a manufactured controversy to keep CNN and other mainstream outlets harping on about it and gaining political points against Trump and the GOP. It's astroturf, plain and simple.

Don't get me wrong, racists exist and they do what they do, and I oppose them. But, they are so small in number, and so irrelevant, that the only traction they have is from the controversy portrayed in the media. Is it just a coincidence that we saw NOTHING of these groups in the news for the 8 years of Obama? Why? They existed then too. They held marches and rallies every year from 2008 to 2016. But, they were largely ignored because - they're not news. They're irrelevant. They remain so today, but there is an orchestrated effort to make it news.

[Sean Hayden]

It's the on purpose bit that I'd take issue with Forty Two. I think it's more organic than that. organic! I mean to say, you don't need the Jew bankers at the Earth's core to make it look like there are Jew bankers at the Earth's core. Christ, that didn't help. You don't need a conspiracy. -just people

[Sean Hayden]

....false equivalence, now that bit is definitely on purpose.

[Forty Two]

I don't think it's "Jew bankers" or that kind of conspiracy. However, there is machinery in both major political parties that uses their resources to create narratives that they want to pursue. You see it the "talking points" that the major media outlets all seem to follow. They'll use the same verbiage, and catch-phrases. That's because the political machines have "contacts" in all the major media outlets. They feed stories and narratives to those people, and they are then filtered out to the news.

Reporters need scoops. They get in bed with political figures and operatives, who feed them scoops in exchange for getting items that the political figures and operatives want published out in the news as well. The media outlets love it when the political machines spoon feed them material to put into their programs. It's much easier to take what the Democrats feed them on the one hand, and what the Republicans feed them on the other, and then create shows around those feeds. That's why most news programs today is not about getting investigative reporting done and accurate, incisive reporting of events that we'd otherwise know nothing about -- today's news reports (other than disasters and crimes) are based on what Republicans say, and what Democrats say, and then "we report, and you decide." It's garbage. Contrived garbage.

It's been that way for a while, and I do not blame Democrats, and I do not suggest that they are the worse offenders. This is a thing political machines can and will do. The problem is that the bit in the media that was once very much concerned with investigative journalism, and taking the time to research, investigate, interview, pour over records, etc., that's all gone. There isn't enough time. By the time Woodward and Bernstein got their Watergate story done, they'dve been old news. The news needs stories now. A new thing now. So, to keep that motor running, the news outlets are wedded to what is released to them, because if they tried to do it the way they used to teach in journalism school, nobody would listen to them.

[Hermit]

...there is machinery in both major political parties that uses their resources to create narratives that they want to pursue. You see it the "talking points" that the major media outlets all seem to follow. They'll use the same verbiage, and catch-phrases. That's because the political machines have "contacts" in all the major media outlets. They feed stories and narratives to those people, and they are then filtered out to the news.

Reporters need scoops. They get in bed with political figures and operatives, who feed them scoops in exchange for getting items that the political figures and operatives want published out in the news as well. The media outlets love it when the political machines spoon feed them material to put into their programs. It's much easier to take what the Democrats feed them on the one hand, and what the Republicans feed them on the other, and then create shows around those feeds. That's why most news programs today is not about getting investigative reporting done and accurate, incisive reporting of events that we'd otherwise know nothing about -- today's news reports (other than disasters and crimes) are based on what Republicans say, and what Democrats say, and then "we report, and you decide." It's garbage. Contrived garbage.

It's been that way for a while, and I do not blame Democrats, and I do not suggest that they are the worse offenders. This is a thing political machines can and will do. The problem is that the bit in the media that was once very much concerned with investigative journalism, and taking the time to research, investigate, interview, pour over records, etc., that's all gone. There isn't enough time. By the time Woodward and Bernstein got their Watergate story done, they'dve been old news. The news needs stories now. A new thing now. So, to keep that motor running, the news outlets are wedded to what is released to them, because if they tried to do it the way they used to teach in journalism school, nobody would listen to them.

Yes, this is undoubtedly going on, and I appreciate that you see all this happening "on many sides. Many sides." So what? Machineries of many sides have been creating narratives and promoting talking points to be spread by cooperative media for as long as mass media existed. Fake news is not a concept that was invented recently either. Interested parties have planted stories they themselves fabricated in order to manipulate public opinion for ages. The Polish attack on Germany and the Tonkin incident come to mind. If I cared enough about it, I'd probably find even more ancient examples.

Still, Sean is right. It's people. And you are right as well. People are predictable, and vested interests will take advantage of such predictability any which way they can.

The anti protest protest was neither more nor less contrived, fabricated or "on purpose" than the protest. Maximal publicity and a desire to change other people's minds are central motivations of protests, you know? I venture to say nobody expected a fatality to be the outstanding feature of the event, and without it we would have relegated Charlottesville to the back of our minds as quickly as we will the more recent Boston protest and counter protest.

[pErvinalia]

Nobody in mainstream America and at least two standard deviations from the norm is like this. These white racist views are held by a vanishing minority of people, a fraction of a fraction of 1% of the population. Most people don't even know who these groups are, where they are or anyone who belongs to them. This is NOT the United States. It's a manufactured controversy to keep CNN and other mainstream outlets harping on about it and gaining political points against Trump and the GOP. It's astroturf, plain and simple.

The exact same thing could be said (well, it has been said many times) about you and your obsession with the exceedingly small number of nutty SJW's in America.

[pErvinalia]

I don't think it's "Jew bankers" or that kind of conspiracy. However, there is machinery in both major political parties that uses their resources to create narratives that they want to pursue. You see it the "talking points" that the major media outlets all seem to follow. They'll use the same verbiage, and catch-phrases. That's because the political machines have "contacts" in all the major media outlets. They feed stories and narratives to those people, and they are then filtered out to the news.

Reporters need scoops. They get in bed with political figures and operatives, who feed them scoops in exchange for getting items that the political figures and operatives want published out in the news as well. The media outlets love it when the political machines spoon feed them material to put into their programs. It's much easier to take what the Democrats feed them on the one hand, and what the Republicans feed them on the other, and then create shows around those feeds. That's why most news programs today is not about getting investigative reporting done and accurate, incisive reporting of events that we'd otherwise know nothing about -- today's news reports (other than disasters and crimes) are based on what Republicans say, and what Democrats say, and then "we report, and you decide." It's garbage. Contrived garbage.

It's been that way for a while, and I do not blame Democrats, and I do not suggest that they are the worse offenders. This is a thing political machines can and will do. The problem is that the bit in the media that was once very much concerned with investigative journalism, and taking the time to research, investigate, interview, pour over records, etc., that's all gone. There isn't enough time. By the time Woodward and Bernstein got their Watergate story done, they'dve been old news. The news needs stories now. A new thing now. So, to keep that motor running, the news outlets are wedded to what is released to them, because if they tried to do it the way they used to teach in journalism school, nobody would listen to them.

I don't doubt that this sort of thing is going on. What's bizarre is that you don't see the irony in your mentioning it, given your penchant for more or less transcribing right-wing talking points into your posts here. You and Donald Trump both follow the Fox News talking points.

[Tero]

“It was last October and I’d just mentioned my support for a Republican congressional candidate on Twitter when this 19-year-old responded by telling me I was an ignorant asshole who hated the poor and that I was everything that was wrong with the world, and it just completely opened my eyes to how incorrect my whole worldview was,” said Welsh, fondly recounting how the sophomore sociology major converted him to liberalism on the spot by calling him a hateful bigot and saying he was too much of a “brainwashed puppet” of corporate interests to know what was best for him, instantaneously invalidating the 56 years of individual thought and life experience that had led him to his previous political beliefs. “

Welsh then expressed his deep gratitude that the young man had even stopped to direct the series of derogatory tweets at him in the first place, saying he would likely still be a “money-grubbing racist shithead who spends all day sucking the Koch brothers’ dicks” if not for the magnanimous individual.

http://www.theonion.com/article/former- ... coll-56825

[Tero]

[Tero]

Republicans disguise tax cuts as some kind of required "overhaul". Because...because...Trump can't do even a simple form. It's all too complicated.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/1 ... orm-242654

[L'Emmerdeur]

It's a few months old, but still relevant:

[Tero]

If they just had a Republian president! Then Ryan could gut entitlements and cut taxes! His Ayn Rand inspired dream since freshman year in college.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/20 ... anted.html

[Scot Dutchy]