Posts by simon g
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Hard News: The fake news problem, in reply to Farmer Green,
FG, this is Public Address, and I'm sure nobody wants flame wars here. There are enough other places for that.
But you are commenting on the American election without even knowing - or wanting to know - the results in the American election. And I don't know how to engage with that, I'm afraid.
Take some responsibility for informing yourself. Over and out.
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Trump narrowly won the popular vote in 44 states, and that Clinton won it , overwhelmingly in 6 states.
There is no excuse for swallowing this kind of nonsense. Results are easily available and easily verifiable, regardless of our political/media preferences.
The question is simply: do we want to know, or just believe?
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It's the degrees of separation that are so terrifying. In fact, the single degree.
Clinton hires a large staff and somebody on there hires somebody else who says something stupid sometime. This "proves" she is unelectable, if repeated and exaggerated enough.
Whereas ... the new President-elect of the USA yesterday personally phoned and thanked Alex Jones of InfoWars for his great contribution to the campaign. And if you don't know who Jones is or what he represents, you can find out easily enough, but it's just as easy to imagine the worst things somebody could possibly say, way beyond the usual fringe, and that will save you the bother. And he is Trump's guy, not only not disowned, but clasped to the bosom.
If you point this out, you are "elitist", or something. That is where we have got to.
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Hard News: The fake news problem, in reply to Ally Cat,
I Googled "9/11 conspiracy theories". The MSM stories begin on page one, e.g the BBC.
This took a few seconds.
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Speaker: No, there isn’t a popular…, in reply to Dennis Frank,
Well, they voted (indirectly) against the administration that responded to the GFC with the Recovery Act, a huge economic stimulus, the auto industry bailout, and and wanted to do much more, but was stymied by the Republicans in Congress.
And instead, they voted for a guy who never pays his taxes to fund such a stimulus - and never seems to pay anybody else, either.
So "screwed again" pretty much sums up what they voted for, and will now get.
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Really felt it in Auckland. Like never before up here. (Not intended as a "let's make this about Auckland too" comment! - just reporting in).
Totally agree that Radio NZ is a treasure at these times. Broadcasting in pyjamas, I imagine. Professional and comprehensive.
Thoughts to all those coping with the aftermath.
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I can think we can safely assume that Republicans in Congress always knew he was bullshitting about many of his promises: there won't be a wall or a special prosecutor for Hillary. The swing voters have been pocketed, the win delivered, and he won't be running in 2020, so it doesn't matter.
The Republicans' goal now has little to do with Trojan Trump: it's as many gains as possible for Pence and the general conservative agenda. Ideally for them, they would lock in the changes (e.g Supreme Court) and then when popular anger is directed at Trump, get Pence or other smoother candidate for next time.
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Speaker: No, there isn’t a popular…, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Like so many of the online troll farm that form The Dimpost’s commentariat you seem to have reduced “the left” to a gaggle of online dilettantes.
This, so much this. People in NZ (or generally outside the USA) "analysing" the result with the help of a hefty crowbar, which they use to insert exactly the same views they held a week ago.
It's also a classic case of the internet fantasy: the belief that we understand the influences on American voters just by reading our preferred sources online. Meanwhile there is a huge network of other influences 24/7, such as right-wing talk radio, or religious communities, to which many of us either have no access, or would not want to anyway.
Sure, I know we all want to chuck in our 2 cents, and I'm as wrong as most (of course Hillary was going to win!). But mostly, we don't know what we're talking about.
Finally, helpful fact of the day: number of people who read on Facebook that the Pope endorses Trump was more than 20 times greater than the number who read the Snopes piece debunking it. That's the battle right there - volume versus truth.
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Again, discussing turnout without reference to local factors does not tell us much. In New Zealand a turnout of 50% means people sitting in draughty primary schools twiddling their thumbs while waiting for the locals to take a few seconds out of their day. We practically drag voters in off the street. It couldn't be any easier to participate, and that is by non-partisan design.
In the USA it is the opposite. People not voting is "good", in the eyes of many who are supposedly charged with enabling the election. Depending on the jurisdiction, there are obstacles to voting threat we would not tolerate - or perhaps we would, and our turnout would plummet. So let's take care with the "lazy" label, it's ... well, lazy.
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The New York Times has a quick summary here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/09/opinion/the-voters-abandoned-by-the-court.html
We see those long queues around the block on TV, and we wonder. There's a background to that: our election commission is non-partisan and wants more people to vote. The USA is different.