The Alt-Right Isn't Even Pretending Anymore: Part 2

[MiraMirror]

I can't speak for most of what you've said, Doom, but I can say that I understand and am fearful of the regime when it comes to the "reprogramming the gays" thing.  I don't believe the general thing, but Pence has already taken from state funding to try making conversion "therapy" a thing, and given his position as VP, (and let's be honest here, Pence seems to be in a better position to manipulate Trump here),  I get where the fear is coming from.   The guy's gone on record already with a slew of anti-queer crap, the whole board is notoriously anti-queer, and anyone at all who would condone the actions of Milo Ineedtostopbeingallowedoutofthehouse needs to stay out of the office.   

Tl;dr At least part of the fear is justified, imo.

[Cassandra LeMay]

...Why so much scrutiny on who Trump picks? Is it because their really is a problem, or is it because the media likes people stirred up about something?

It is because there really is a problem.

Trump promised to "drain the swamp". He walked all over Ted Cruz during the primaries because Cruz's wife works for Goldman Sachs. He claimed Hillary Clinton was beholden to Wall Street.

Yes, Wall Street bankers have been involved in government in one position or another, but do a little digging and you'll find a whole lot of former or current Goldman people in Trump's cabinet. Heck, his pick for head of the SEC (Jay Clayton) - the agency supposed to regulate big banks - is married to a Goldman employee. Banon? Former Goldman employee. And the list goes on and on and on.

Trump made a promise. He should be held to it. Whatever scrutiny he is under is not something the media brought up - it is something he, himself, invited.

And right now he does not stand up to what he promised.

Right now Trump is putting the wolves in charge of the sheep, so I'd say the scrutiny sure is justified,

[Doomblade403xxx]

So lemme get this straight....

He is getting successful people into his positions and it's a problem? Folks the reality is this...and i know I'm going to step on toes but...if your rich...if you have your name on a building...have a statue in your image...or more money than sense...you are one kind of son of a bitch or another. If you want to succeed in business your most likely born with money and a douchebag. There is no one on his team, trumps team, bush's team that didn't have their hand in something. There is literally no such thing as an honest rich man or politician.

So the question is do you want {insert rich asshole here} who knows how to make money for the country on the team, or do you want some dude you like that can barely balance his checkbook.

And please don't take this as me getting up in your grill...but the fact is the man hasn't even taken office yet and the media has everyone in a tizzy acting like the world we know is about to collapse. The president is not an all powerful being that can do whatever he wants. We have three branches of government that acts as checks and balances. All i'm saying is that he is leaps and bounds better than Hillary and instead of listening to the media who has a new 'sky is falling' message everyday...we should wait and see.

[Cassandra LeMay]

So the question is do you want {insert rich asshole here} who knows how to make money for the country on the team, or do you want some dude you like that can barely balance his checkbook.

A false dichotomy.

Nuff said.

[Doomblade403xxx]

Jesus said "You will always have the poor among you.."

We will always have rich assholes among us too, and they will always be in the upper crust of our society.

[Shekinah]

Jesus said "You will always have the poor among you.."

We will always have rich assholes among us too, and they will always be in the upper crust of our society.

You don't have to be rich to be an asshole and not everyone rich is by default an asshole so please stop generalizing.

[Doomblade403xxx]

There is no generalization...how many regular joes have you ever seen picked for a white house position?

[CopperLily]

There is no generalization...how many regular joes have you ever seen picked for a white house position?

Define "Regular Joe"?

Beyond that, I can name a number of members of the Obama cabinet, because they directly effect me and I care. Back when Obama was elected the first time, that was actually the email I sent to the campaign to get them to stop soliciting money from me: "I won't give anything until you name your CDC Director pick". And I can tell you that they're not all "rich bastards", and they have a major effect on policy. And yes, Trump's picks are seriously a problem.

[Rhapsody]

So lemme get this straight....

He is getting successful people into his positions and it's a problem? Folks the reality is this...and i know I'm going to step on toes but...if your rich...if you have your name on a building...have a statue in your image...or more money than sense...you are one kind of son of a bitch or another. If you want to succeed in business your most likely born with money and a douchebag. There is no one on his team, trumps team, bush's team that didn't have their hand in something. There is literally no such thing as an honest rich man or politician.

So the question is do you want {insert rich asshole here} who knows how to make money for the country on the team, or do you want some dude you like that can barely balance his checkbook.

And please don't take this as me getting up in your grill...but the fact is the man hasn't even taken office yet and the media has everyone in a tizzy acting like the world we know is about to collapse. The president is not an all powerful being that can do whatever he wants. We have three branches of government that acts as checks and balances. All i'm saying is that he is leaps and bounds better than Hillary and instead of listening to the media who has a new 'sky is falling' message everyday...we should wait and see.

Vice-President-elect Mike Pence, as Governor of Indiana, defunded Planned Parenthood so hard it set the stage for an HIV outbreak in September of 2015. The centers used for testing and treatment did not provide abortions at all, but Pence forced them to shut them anyway. This is in addition to his bullshit Religious Liberty law he shoved through Indiana, to the point that massive revenue events like Gencon threatened to pull out of the state due to the enabling of discrimination once again.

Gen. James Mattis should not be eligible for the position to which he has been nominated, as military personnel are required to be out of active service for seven years. Mattis retired in 2013. Congress is expediting a special law allowing him to become a Secretary anyway. This is in addition to his rabid Islamophobia.

Jeff Sessions wants a strong border fence along the south, and doesn't feel that women who are in need of abortions should have them, even if the baby has a lethal deformity. This resonates pretty strongly with me, since I had to have a termination due to my second daughter developing osteogenesis imperfecta in the womb. Apparently, it's more humane to let a little girl suffer without the ability to breathe for her thirty second-to-five-minute lifespan instead of ensuring she passes without pain.

Ben Carson is not a human being I would consider capable of functioning in reality. He not only claims that pyramids were built by Joseph to house grain silos, he also has no memory of ever running for President, and now apparently has no memory of saying he would never take a cabinet position. When asked why he felt qualified to assume the position to which he was appointed, he rambled on about the brain being the most complex and best supercomputer humanity knows, and didn't actually answer the question with anything relevant to the discussion.

These are but a few of your qualified people. Due process deniers, human rights deniers, health and safety service deniers, reality deniers. Shall I go on?

[Callie Del Noire]

Check out Sessions record as a prosecutor. The man might not be out and out racist.. but he doesn't think the civil rights act should have been enacted. I know he'd do F-all about the 'voter id' bs where you got places that literally are open ONE Day every FOUR MONTHS (every 5th Wednesday of the Month?) or states that suddenly close down DMVs in areas with low income folks who can't get to the ones in the 'Burbs.

I'm a Rhino, which means I'm a moderate republican but most folks in the party call me a 'flaming liberal' or such because I DETEST watching money get wasted on useless social bs that has been settled (Abortion, the fucking Bathroom bill bs..ect.. ). I mean I know.. five folks transitioning one direction or another.. I know another who went for YEARS with a therapist to transition who finally killed herself.  I know another.. great educator, a bit WAY out there.. literally the ONLY card carrying communist I know, but an AWESOME special needs teacher. Run off because of shallow pitiful folks who don't realize that NONE of the BS going on is remotely relevant.

I look at about 2/3rds of the cabinet choices and my teeth grind. Gov. Rich Perry.. a man who literally had NO clue what the DoE does.. now in charge of it. Ben Carson I would think would be better doing some of the hospital administrator jobs he did in the past would be better as the VA head or Health and Human Services. The choice for Department of Education is a 'education reformer' who is building a for profit education empire, and lies to congress about her past actions and posts. The head of the EPA is a state AG who has repeatedly SUED it to counter regulations.

The list goes on. Mathis is a bit blunt about Islam.. but he is a good military leader.. so I'm not as set against him. Then there is the stories of how only about 1 in 10 appointees who aren't being immediately replaced are being asked to stay on after the transition. VITAL departments and teams are being beheaded. The talk of killing off vital studies in the DoE and elsewhere have me wondering what 'landmines' will be detonating in the future because active leadership isn't in place till a replacement can be picked, vetted and appointed.

My problem, ironically, isn't in the President Elect as much as some of the actions of his transition teams.

[DominantPoet]

Funny that Donald Trump was a beloved celebrity figure until he decided to run for President with an R beside his name.

That's a stretch, at best. Did people like him? Sure. Was he well known? To various degrees, certainly. There were many people who also thought he was a huge joke and didn't take him seriously at all, and many people who hated him for his various business deals, ethics, and general personality, however. Beloved is certainly not a word I would use.

Donald Trump didn't ruin your healthcare, he didn't double your debt, he didn't invite cop killers to the White House, he didn't send the IRS after political enemies, he didn't lie about a video getting your ambassador killed, and on and on. To call these people "white supremacists" is stoking a special kind of hate. Clearly public school and colleges teach people what to think, not how to think. But this is apparently what happens when the half the country that pays the bills gets tired of the lazy half's mooching. And sorry, but the US is the only country you can just roll into and have people standing there to sign you up for welfare. I pay 25% of what I make in taxes with nothing to show for it, except some stupid socialist policy, and like many other Americans, I'm sick of it. It's not my job to take care of you. But I guess that's being racist, homophobic and xenophobic.

Hasn't ruined their healthcare, but he's going to very soon, that's a given. And while Obama didn't exactly implement the universal healthcare in the best way, there were some, what, 40 million americans who suddenly had healthcare thanks to it? But who cares about other people, I guess. But then, you are clearly of the mentality that people having any kind of aid that comes from tax dollars is "mooching", so. I can see why you would think it was "ruined". As for nothing to show for it? That's kind of the point of taxes, it helps pay for pretty much anything government run. In fact, there are helpful websites out there which will show you precisely what your 25% goes towards. Like this, for instance - https://www.whitehouse.gov/2014-taxreceipt

I'd suggest utilizing it. It has nothing to do with you taking care of anybody, not that you would obviously care about anyone else in general anyways from the sound of it. As for the whole "at least he/she didn't", there's a laundry list of things Trump HAS done that Obama never did, and I don't think you even want to go there. However, none of this makes you racist, homophobic, or xenophobic. But given all you've written, I'll get to those in a minute here. What THIS particular bit makes you is egotistical, uncaring, probably various other things that I shouldn't get into.

And let's be clear, Trump NEVER said anything racist. That's an outright lie, because that's all the left can do - running on their so-called great ideas doesn't work, so they have to make it all about how "terrible" things will be if they don't win. That's what happens when you think your feelings are the truth, instead of standing by logic and what makes sense. The world isn't "fair", and it never has been. People who work hard and try are usually the ones who succeed. If you stand there all day with your hand held out, chances are all that ever happens is people will shit in it.

First off - he wants to build a wall between the US and Mexico. Racism by definition - "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior." But if you really want more examples, by all means - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-racist-examples_us_56d47177e4b03260bf777e83

Have at it. So no, that's not an outright lie, far from it. This is one of the problems that seems to be inherent with a lot of people who support Trump, they have this massively skewed idea of what "truth" is. No, the world is not fair, and it's not an easy place to live in either most of the time. There's enough hatred, anger and intolerance out there, and Trump in general has and continues to promote and provoke it in overtly subtle ways.

Also, your inference in that last line there is a tad offensive, not everyone who needs assistance got that way because they didn't try. Many people tried, and failed, for reasons out of their control. Would you leave them in the gutter because you see them as "having their hand out"?

Be realistic in your thinking. Everything will be fine. It's not like he's going to do more damage than the biggest failure in American history, the affirmative action president himself, King Putt. So stop acting like a guy qualified to do nothing that wasn't propped up by taxpayer dollars, and had no personal success on his own is somehow infinitely better than a successful businessman who knows what he's doing. Yes, I know, some of his companies went bankrupt, blah blah. We're talking a few out of a hundred. That makes the other 95 or so successes.

That's kind of the point of much of what you are voicing your own issues against - people ARE being realistic, based on how Trump has acted, who he is appointing, what he wants to do, what he wants to cut, where his priorities are, so on and so forth. Obama was by no means perfect, nobody is, but whatever Trump will end up doing, I guarantee you, logic dictates the country will be in much worse shape four years from now (assuming he doesn't get impeached beforehand).

More inferences and implications about people who are against Trump, given you seem to hate the generalization of people who do support Trump, I find it quite odd that you employ the same tactics you're vehemently against being used on you. It's not just that some of his companies went bankrupt, there's also the rather massive list of people he stiffed or cheated out of money, his missing tax returns, so on and so forth.

It's almost to the point now where calling someone a racist is laughable and has no effect at all - it's just the common response to the inability to win a common sense debate. If you can't win with intellect, just call them a name no one wants to be called.

I'd be far more ashamed of needing hot chocolate and coloring books because my candidate didn't win than I would ever be of being called something untrue. But, then again, I'm a responsible adult who pays all his own bills, supports his family, and made wise decisions in life, and grew up during a time when the world didn't suck, so what do I know.

If you're being called a racist, I guarantee you it's because you're being one. Common sense debates, as you put it, would require common sense being employed at all. Or intellect, for that matter. Frankly, I don't see much of either in most of what you've written here, quite honestly.

You grew up in a time when the world didn't suck? That's curious, because the world HAS sucked to some degree or another for...oh, pretty much all of human history, actually. It's sucked progressively less and less for a majority of the people on this planet, certainly, but it's certainly otherwise sucked in ways both big and small for a great many still. Between poverty, starvation, disease, genocide, murder, racism, bigotry, intolerance, evils done in the name of religion, and a long, long, LONG laundry list of other things the human race has invented or inherently has to create misery among themselves, there has been no shortage of some kind of suckage or another in this world.

Nobody who is upset about Trump needs hot chocolate or a coloring book, thank you very much. Although the sanctimony is duly noted. We're simply aware of the writing on the wall and see Trump for the 70 year old man-child that he is. Someone who time and again has shown a general disdain not only for the world, but for the very country he is going to become leader of. Yes, he may do some small things that you'll enjoy or be happy about, I'm sure. He's also going to do rather BIG things that are going to have a huge impact on your country, and the world, in general.

His complete and utter disdain for anything to do with the environment, for one...I am personally terrified of what will come of that. He outlined today or yesterday the various offices and departments he plans to severely or completely cut funding to, not limited to but sadly including - Energy, Commerce, Transportation, Justice and State. He wants to fully privatize public broadcasting. There are musings about eradicating things healthcare wise like the inability for insurance to refuse people based on pre-existing conditions. Meaning, they would once again be able to do so. Or, alternatively, charging them ridiculous amounts of money if for some reason they can't maintain their plan for a set period of time.

His healthcare reforms in general will basically cause low-income families to once again most likely go without the ability to take care of even simple medical needs. Not that you care, of course, but for those of us with empathy and who actually care about our fellow human beings, that's not a good thing.

Now, this particular point I'm about to say is my own musings, however Trump seems a tad...against imports for companies that have production facilities that are not US based. It's kind of why he was musing about slapping a 35% import tariffs on German car makers, for instance. What else might he impose this on? And how long would the rest of the world put up with it before simply refusing to import anything to the US, and simply looking into their own economy instead? That could be VERY bad for the US in general. Mainly because the US exports 1.6 trillion each year, AND because it imports nearly 2.4 trillion.

So if countries suddenly, say, stopped exporting and importing with the US because of how Trump is dealing with them, how badly do you think that could affect the US's own economy? Not exactly a pleasant thought, by any means.

Anyways, I think I've rambled more than enough here.