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The Official Paracast Political Thread! — Part Three

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And here is the real surprise - who'd a thunk it?

Sarah Palin - she said something intelligent. Sign of the End Times, ya think? Apocalypse, for sure.

Sarah Palin just came out swinging against Donald Trump’s Carrier deal
LINK: Sarah Palin just came out swinging against Donald Trump's Carrier deal
TEXT: "Sarah Palin is coming out against President-elect Donald Trump’s deal with a furnace manufacturer in Indiana in the middle of his victory tour celebrating it.

"The former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential nominee, who has been rumored to be in consideration to head the Department of Veterans Affairs in the Trump administration, brazenly called out Trump for using tax dollars to prop up a private business. Palin made the comments in an op-ed posted to Young Conservatives. 'When government steps in arbitrarily with individual subsidies, favoring one business over others, it sets inconsistent, unfair, illogical precedent,' Palin wrote. 'Republicans oppose this, remember?' 'We know special interest crony capitalism is one big fail,' she continued.

"Just as Fox News’ Greg Gutfield did on Thursday, Palin compared the Carrier deal to Solyndra — an American-based solar company that failed in 2011 despite getting subsidies from the Obama administration. 'Politicians picking and choosing recipients of corporate welfare is railed against by fiscal conservatives, for it’s a hallmark of corruption,' Palin wrote.

"The op-ed comes at a pivotal time for President-elect Trump and Vice president-elect Pence, who are working hard this weekend on a victory tour in the Midwest to convince the rust belt constituencies that made the difference for them on Election Day that they’ll do right by blue-collar workers. However, the deal has come under fire from both the left and the right. Even though the two are ideological opposites, Palin’s op-ed is a compliment to Bernie Sanders’ op-ed in the Washington Post earlier this week, in which the Vermont senator blasted Trump for allowing corporations to have giant tax breaks while still shipping American jobs overseas.

"Under the deal, Carrier will keep roughly 1,000 jobs in Indiana in exchange for $7 million in additional tax breaks. The furnace manufacturer will still be allowed to send over 1,000 jobs to Mexico."
​
 
Trump team seems weirdly afraid of recounts in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin
LINK: Trump team seems weirdly afraid of recounts in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin
TEXT: "Lawyers for Donald Trump or the Republican Party are now trying to block the recounts in all three states in which Jill Stein has requested them—Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. The Trump legal team is saying 'nothing to see here, folks, and it’s an outrage you’d even ask' at the same time as Trump and a host of his surrogates are claiming massive voter fraud.

"What are these people afraid of? Is Trump so sensitive about having lost the popular vote that he can’t stand to have Hillary Clinton’s margin increased by whatever few thousand votes she might pick up in recounts? Are they simply looking to sow uncertainty and doubt by whatever means necessary, even if it means drawing attention to the fact that Trump’s margins in key states were so narrow?

"One thing’s for sure. On this as on so many issues, Trump and his people don’t mind simultaneously holding conflicting positions - in this case, 'there was massive fraud and also there shouldn’t be a recount'—and they expect voters not to mind, either."​


When you look at the Pennsylvania numbers, you can see why - even though the result is highly unlikely to change - the Trump team might not like the optics: Trump’s margin has closed from more than 70,000 to less than 47,000.
 
Tyger said:
When you look at the Pennsylvania numbers, you can see why - even though the result is highly unlikely to change - the Trump team might not like the optics: Trump’s margin has closed from more than 70,000 to less than 47,000.
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I notice that's not getting very much coverage. It wouldn't take a lot to turn it around, though I don't expect to see that happen.

Oh, and for the forum members who got sucked in by all the fake news out there, here's a lesson on how to deal with it:

How to outsmart fake news in your Facebook feed - CNN.com
 
Beware of Trump - he is a vindictive man. We have evidence of that - and he is getting angry with the fact he didn't win the popular vote. How will he 'get back' at America for the insult? This article explores the idea that Trump will retaliate.

Donald Trump, Loser-in-Chief
Our next president cannot stand that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote – and America will suffer for it
LINK: Donald Trump, Loser-in-Chief
TEXT: "Donald Trump lost the vote for president by well over two-and-a-half million votes and counting, and it's driving him out of his mind. Because our odd electoral system gives more weight to voters in small, rural, mostly white states, the loser of this year's popular vote will take the oath of office on January 20th.

"The popular vote this year matters more than ever. In an election that was more deeply about values than any in recent memory, it's important that a clear majority of Americans rejected a campaign premised on racist attacks against Mexicans and Muslims and a man with a long history of misogyny. The majority rejected a near-sociopathic celebration of ignorance and the least qualified person ever to become a major party's nominee for president.

"Donald Trump is going to be the next president of the United States, but he's a loser, and he can't stand it. That's why he tweeted a lie about millions of Americans voting fraudulently to give Hillary Clinton the popular-vote victory. It doesn't matter whether he believes that to be true – he needs it to be true. Our thin-skinned baby president-elect hates the idea that millions more people voted for his opponent than for him, so he'll accept whatever made-up facts he needs to make it not so.

"The schadenfreude over Trump's feelings of inadequacy is all well and good until you realize the impact his infantile need for approval will have on our country. Make no mistake: Trump isn't a poll reader who will, say, cancel plans to repeal Obamacare just because it turns out the majority of Americans don't want him to. Trump seems more the type to recede into his bubble. He's already back holding the sorts of rallies he misses from the campaign trail, where his strongest supporters wait hours in line to cheer his nonsense. Thursday night he bragged to a surprisingly thin Cincinnati crowd about his victory, which he amusingly characterized as a 'landslide.'

"This didn't sound much different from the rambling stump speeches he gave throughout his campaign. He promised to build the wall. He railed against immigrants. He said he'd fix all our problems so quickly it would make our heads spin. He also revisited his old classic of calling the press dishonest.

"Only now it's not a candidate questioning the veracity of the media – it's the next president of the United States, a man who promised to 'open up our libel laws' and who responds to virtually any insult with petty counterattacks on Twitter. What will he do with the power of the federal government behind him when reporters start poking their noses where he doesn't like it? He calls them liars now; is it so hard to imagine him hauling them off for questioning? This isn't a man with a deep – or even thin – understanding of constitutional rights. (Thursday night, he reiterated his call to punish people who burn the flag, after threatening earlier in the weekto revoke their citizenship.)

"That's what makes the prospect of a Trump presidency so terrifying. A man who brazenly lies, is desperate to punish insults (real and perceived) and has no conception of the rule of law is about to assume a position of immense power. A man with a need for validation as desperate as Trump's is dangerous.

"Earlier Thursday, Trump went to Indiana to brag about the great deal he'd struck with United Technologies, the parent company of Carrier, to save jobs at a local plant.

"Only the deal wasn't great. More than half the jobs Carrier threatened to send to Mexico are still headed there. Trump saved fewer than a thousand jobs in exchange for tax breaks delivered by his running mate – who is still Indiana's governor. That's certainly good news for the men and women who will keep their jobs, but it's anything but a good deal. Trump had promised to use threats of tariffs to protect jobs from outsourcing; instead, he saved some jobs by offering a gift of tax breaks. Now corporations across the country know the new president will reward them for threatening to send jobs overseas.

"Trump lost his negotiation with Carrier. But he's spinning it as a big victory, just as he's lied about his popular vote loss being a win. That's what a loser who can't handle losing does, and we're in for at least four more long years of this. It's going to get ugly."​
 
Wisconsin Recount Officials Just Found Five Counting Machines With Tampered Seals
LINK: Wisconsin Recount Officials Just Found Five Counting Machines With Tampered Seals
TEXT: "Despite the best efforts of President-elect Donald Trump and his nefarious brand of twisted politics to prevent a recount in Wisconsin it is in full swing. Those who are observing the recount on behalf of Jill Stein, who requested the recount, have presented evidence to show the votes were indeed tampered with.

"An individual, who is known only as 'Wendy' has been on the ground in St. Croix County in Wisconsin. That county is performing both a recount of the machines used, and of all ballots which were cast by hand. As was shared by Wendy, she observed that five seals were broken on nine voting machines. The evidence which has been posted on Jill Stein’s official website shows that seals were indeed broken. The seals themselves come with a warning that 'removal of seal voids warranty.'

"At this time it is difficult to dispute that the voting machines were indeed tampered with, but what is not known is if they were tampered with before the election or after. There is no timeline to know when the machines were originally issued, or if they were used in previous elections.

"This raises serious questions about all elections in Wisconsin, and not just the general election. Thus far Wisconsin election officials have offered no statement as to the status of their voting machines, or about the broken seals. The only thing that has been learned so far during the Wisconsin recount is that the rules were not followed, and that the people of Wisconsin were cheated out of a fair democratic process.

"As the recount has only begun, there is no telling what other despicable details will be unearthed, but if this evidence has been located so early in the scenario it is fair to believe that the broken seals are merely the tip of a massive iceberg."​
 
For those interested in the on-going vote count, there is this site - LINK: 2016 National Popular Vote Tracker

Current numbers are -
2016 US Presidential ElectionPopular Vote (still being counted)
Hillary Clinton (D) 65,250,336 48.1%
Donald Trump (R) 62,686,062 46.2%

Difference is 2,564,274 - that's 2.5 million, just under 2% - with voter suppression.
 
On the topic of vote rigging. If Trump won because the vote was rigged then he is the least of your worries.
The democratic process is well and truly controlled by the riggers and they will place in power whomever they see fit.
Debating the merits of the candidates is pointless, The puppet masters will put who they like in the WH and your opinion is worthless.

On the topic of bankruptcy. You have to risk it, If you want the biscuit.
Plenty of sportspeople have won their respective grand finals after a string of losses.
Plenty of scientific breakthroughs have come after a string of failed experiments.

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” - Robert F. Kennedy
Click to expand...

30 Powerful Quotes on Failure
 
mike said:
On the topic of vote rigging. If Trump won because the vote was rigged then he is the least of your worries. The democratic process is well and truly controlled by the riggers and they will place in power whomever they see fit. Debating the merits of the candidates is pointless, The puppet masters will put who they like in the WH and your opinion is worthless.
Click to expand...
Exactly so. Well put. It's over. Many have seen this coming - over the past 16 years the warnings have been consistent by a determined, valiant few - but never heard - since the free press has been hobbled in this country on a wholesale basis.

There will be analyses of this time in history in the future for sure. We have reached this point through a thousand cuts to our liberty and sense of decency. The scale of this loss is surmised by many but will only be apprehended by all in retrospect. Had Hillary succeeded to the presidency there might have been a delay but not by much (and I personally would rather not see her taken down by the wolf pack that would be set in motion). Too many across the board sold out for momentary, short-sighted, monetary gain, selling their souls to lies - and so it will continue - aided and abetted by the darkness of hate and fear. But even that won't matter anymore. The end game is already in play - quite beyond human command now.

We can expect 10 feet of sea level rise far sooner than we ever anticipated. We can expect massive disruptions of populations. There will be political disruption of a kind unexpected - driven by ignorance and fear. The nation state is a creature of the past. The world will be unrecognizeable by 2050. Enjoy what you have now because in the end the final say in the matter will be natural forces that will not be placated by money, by hubris, or by untruth.

This I will say, though: as dark as the time coming will be for so many, within all that - even now - the shape of the new is already gathering and unfolding - and at least in that way it is an exciting time. What has been so powerfully rejected in ignorance and fear - will - in time - become the dominant paradigm. That is a certainty. :) In that there is cause for hope.
 
I was attempting to find a program on NPR where a Harvard PhD shared a polling where a significant percentage of the population, (millennials?), no longer care if the government is of an authoritarian nature, in compromising democracy. I suppose it’s too much effort for Americans to truly know the issues, what is at stake, and get out & vote.

So goes, the slowly boiling frogs.
 
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I'm reading this morning with a nice cup of hot cocoa. :) Thought I'd share this. Seems relevant.

From John Feffer's 2016 novel 'Splinterlands':
"Water boils most fiercely before it disappears. And so it is, evidently, with human affairs.

"Before all hell broke lose in 1914, the world experienced an unprecedented explosion of global trade at levels that would not be seen again for more than six decades. Before the Nazis took over in 1933, Germans in the Weimar Republic were enjoying an extraordinary blossoming of cultural and political liberalism. Before the Soviet Union imploded in 1991, Soviet scholars were proudly pointing to rising rates of intermarriage among the many nationalities of the federation as a sign of ever greater social cohesion.

"Empires, like adolescents, think they'll live forever. In geopolitics, as in biology, expiration dates are never visible. As a result it can be hard to distinguish growing pains from death rattles. When the end comes, it's always a shock.

"Consider the clash of the titans in World War I. Four enormous empires - the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and German - went into that conflict imagining that victory would give them not just a new lease on life, but even more territory to call their own. And all four came crashing down. The war was horrific enough, but the aftershocks just kept piling up the bodies. The flu epidemic of 1918 and 1919 alone, which the soldiers unwittingy transported from the trenches to their homelands, wiped out at least fifty million people worldwide. This, too, was globalization - of death. It would have been impossible to imagine such an outcome in 1913, when the silkworms of modernity - the telephone, the ocean liner - were spinning gossamer threads to enclose the world in a cozy cacoon.

"When dinosaurs collapse, they crush all manner of smaller creatures beneath them. Who today remembers the final throes of the colonial empires of the mid-twentieth century with their staggering population transfers, firece insurgencies, and endless proxy wars - even if the infant states that emerged from those bloody afterbirths gained a measure of independence?"​
 
I am intrigued by the level to which there seems an inability - or disinclination - to actually engage in fruitful debate. While not everyone is necessarily a fundamentalist Christian, there are aspects to a fundamentalist way of thinking, as described in this article, that resonates.

Why Fundamentalist Christians Fear Intellectualism
LINK: Why Fundamentalist Christians Fear Intellectualism
TEXT: "You are what you believe.

"At the core of each of us is our belief system. It is around that belief system that a large part of our personal identity is formed. One of the real strengths of fundamentalism is that it provides a stable core belief system. To borrow from 80’s new wave and avant-garde band, Talking Heads, Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was.

"It is much easier to believe you understand who you are and to be stable when your core belief system is stable. For folks like liberals and progressives this is a little more difficult because the walls around our core beliefs are a little less rigid and more willing to flex as new information presents itself. Which means that we, more frequently than fundamentalists, are reshaping our understanding of who we are and how we relate to society, even if in small ways.

"This just isn’t true for a fundamentalist Christians. The protective walls around their core beliefs are tall and rigid and with good reason. We have to keep in mind, these core beliefs are so much more than ideas or ideals, they are identification and identity. Who we understand ourselves to be is formed around them. When you challenge a specific belief you are also, in small part, challenging the person’s understanding of who they are.

"For fundamentalist Christians, it is even more complicated than just that. In both direct and subtle ways, they believe their salvation, at least in part, is dependent upon being correct on issues of faith.

"Intellectualism invites the constant assessment of the 'correctness' of a person’s belief system. That’s dangerous ground for a fundamentalist Christian. When you confront them on a particular belief you are not only confronting them on an idea that they have held to more rigidly for a longer time than most other folks but you are confronting the very core of who they understand themselves to be. For them, it is those core beliefs upon which their salvation hangs in the balance, at least in part. Questioning it doesn’t just question the thought but, for them, it puts into question a lifetime of holding on tightly to that thought.

"When you take all of that into consideration, it’s really not surprise that most fundamentalist Christians react negatively to or avoid all together any intellectual questioning of their core belief systems. For that matter, it’s not surprising that fundamentalist of all camps tend to have a less than positive reaction to intellectualism. They just want to be right and the rest of us just hope to sort out some small version of the truth. A subtle difference but an important one."​
 
Tyger said:
This doesn't jive with Gene's information on the status of the Pennsylvania recount.

Updated Pennsylvania Vote Tally Shows SUDDEN Surge For Hillary Clinton, Trump FUMING - Donald Trump's lead over Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania narrows dramatically as final votes are tallied.
LINK: Updated Pennsylvania Vote Tally Shows SUDDEN Surge For Hillary Clinton, Trump FUMING
TEXT: "A court hearing on Monday will decide whether a full recount will commence."
Click to expand...

My god. Let it go. Hitlery lost.
 
For those interested in the on-going vote count, there is this site - LINK: 2016 National Popular Vote Tracker

Current numbers are - 2.59 million, just shy of 2.6 million difference
2016 US Presidential ElectionPopular Vote (still being counted)
Hillary Clinton (D) 65,316,724 48.2%
Donald Trump (R) 62,719,568 46.2%

Difference is 2,597,156 - that's 2.59 million (exactly 2% today), or just 2,844 shy of 2.6 million - with voter suppression - and a halted vote recount (apparently) in Pennsylvania.
 
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Some more stuff.

One poster, who has since disappeared (evidently because he can't standing having messages with personal attacks removed) would frequently drop links to wacky or partisan sites here that pointed to false claims about the opposition.

The epidemic of fake news can cause some pretty nasty consequences.

Here's where it almost became disastrous:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/u...t-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
 
Ages ago I said my concern about Trump's ascendancy was more about his alienated empowered followers than about the man himself and this story just solidifies my feeling. As far as the man himself time will tell. Let us hope this was an isolated incident.
 
I am hearing that the Pennsylvania recount has not been dropped. The count is just being done in a different way. Anyone know anything about that beyond what I have below? There is a good 17 minute video with Jill Stein in the below link.

Pennsylvania Recount
LINK: Pennsylvania Recount
TEXT Excerpted For Video: "2016 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein explains why Pennsylania presidential election results recount is different from other states'. Voters must initiate the recount in each precinct—Pennsylvania contains more than 9,000 precincts. Learn how to kickstart the recount in a Pennsylvania precinct."

Also, can it be getting any weirder with the Electoral College? Electors are declaring they will vote for a 'Republican alternative' - like Kasich.

BREAKING: Republican Elector Makes STARTLING Announcement; Trump Presidency In Doubt
LINK: BREAKING: Republican Elector Makes STARTLING Announcement; Trump Presidency In Doubt
 
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