by cofty 103 Replies latest social current
Brokeback Watchtower,
Anyway I think we need to wish the best for Trump's presidency for the next four years and I'm hoping that he gets the best advisers on his team to get some good things done for the country.
It is his vice President who has been entrusted to pick out the advisers. A little research will show that they are conservative radicals beginning with the VP himself.
Straight from Huffington Post:
Earlier in the year, before Mike Pence was chosen as Donald Trump’s running mate, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, using Trump’s analogy of running a business to explain how he’d run the country, told HuffPost’s Howard Fineman that the vice president of the Trump administration would really be the “CEO” or “COO” ― or, the president of the company ― while Trump would be more like the “chairman of the board”:
“He needs an experienced person to do the part of the job he doesn’t want to do. He seems himself more as the chairman of the board, than even the CEO, let alone the COO...There is a long list of who that person could be.”
That person turned out to be Pence, and, before and after the election, there’s been some analysis and commentary suggesting that Mike Pence could be “the most powerful vice president ever.” And now, just days after the election, his power has increased tenfold as he is replacing Chris Christie as chairman of Trump’s transition team, filling all the major positions in the incoming Trump administration.
Mike Pence is perhaps one of the most anti-LGBTQ political crusaders to serve in Congress and as governor of a state. Long before he signed the draconian anti-LGBTQ “religious liberty” law in Indiana last year, he supported “conversion therapy” as a member of Congress, and later, as a columnist and radio host, he gave a speech in which he said that marriage equality would lead to “societal collapse,” and called homosexuality “a choice.” Stopping gays from marrying wasn’t biased, he said, but was rather about compelling “God’s idea.”
Ben Carson, who compared homosexuality to pedophilia and incest, is a vice chairman of the transition team and so is Newt Gingrich, who has attacked what he called “gay fascism” and, in 2014, “the new fascism” around LGBTQ rights.
And right on cue, already appointed to lead domestic policy on the transition team is Ken Blackwell, formerly the Ohio secretary of state. Blackwell compared homosexuality to arson and kleptomania, which he called “compulsions.” In an interview with me at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul in 2004, he explained:
“Well, the fact is, you can choose to restrain that compulsion. And so I think in fact you don’t have to give in to the compulsion to be homosexual. I think that’s been proven in case after case after case...I believe homosexuality is a compulsion that can be contained, repressed or changed…[T]hat is what I’m saying in the clearest of terms.”
Expect each of these individuals and more bigots to have prominent positions in the Trump administration.
Ok, you're scaring me now. this Ken Blackwell guy got a lot of bad baggage.
You exacerbated your insults with false accusations. Now you are pretending to take the moral high ground. Predictable.
Well. I did have better things to do. I was invited by friends to help feed the homeless. That's far better than going around and around over a trivial comment I made. Basically I said that I didn't like Harris use of some insults towards Trump, but you can't let go of anything that diverges from your views, even unimportant comments.
Oh hell. Let me add another insult. You are an ingrate too. I didn't trash this thread. I kept it alive far longer than it deserved. Furthermore, don't forget that it takes two to tango.
In the podcast Sam Harris compares the situation to a passenger taking control of an aeroplane after the death of the pilot. The vital thing is who the pilot is talking to in the control tower and whether he is taking good instructions.
It appears that Trump is determined to people as ignorant as himself.
Cofty - Thanks for posting this.
As a Brit, or just because of who I am even, I'm not really interested in USA politics as such. However, this election was worth looking at (as an outsider). To me, it just exposed human nature for what it is. As Mr Harris mentioned, these candidates are the ones that get their hands on the nuclear codes. That's where I engage. I'm hoping nothing will happen. Fingers crossed. Aunty Em, aunty Em!
Usually, these types of things are way too heavy for me. This was a very interesting podcast.
Yes, I echo Punk's sentiments - thanks for posting this.
I've recently discovered Sam Harris and believe he talks a lot of sense - for me, he's a bit like the US version of Douglas Murray. I hope he keeps a critical eye on the preposterous presidency of Trump.
I still haven't listened to the podcast because I only have access to the internet at my library and I need to buy some headphones.
But I will listen to it when I can.
I've been reading this thread with interest and I have to say I'm amazed. The West, including the US, has serious problems.
In addition to terrorism, etc., it has to face the influence of politicians and other powerful people who have similar opinions to SBF and other useful idiots.
Their arguments need to be explained, debated and demolished. It's nothing less than masochism being offered to us by sadists.
I hope this appalling attempt at cultural suicide will be averted.
The world needs more voices like Sam Harris, Ayan Hirsi Ali, Maajid Nawaz, Gad Saad, Jonathan Haidt, Jordan Peterson and Douglas Murray.
Gad Saad supported Trump. Murray refused to say if he supported Trump but said he opposed Clinton. I don't know about the rest, where did they stand?
It's amazing you'd hold up as admirable a list including people who supported Trump. Why does the world need more voices of people who are so confused in their moral thinking that opposing Trump is not a no brainer for them?
I don't know about the rest, where did they stand? - Sam Harris supported Hillary over Trump.
Murray said that Trump's presidency might not be as bad as people fear but as he isn't a US citizen he can't do any damage. Harris certainly did not vote for Trump.
Listen to Harris' podcasts and you'll see ...
Why does the world need more voices of people who are so confused in their moral thinking that opposing Trump is not a no brainer for them? - I don't get you sometimes, SBF, I really don't. You are an intelligent, thoughtful poster and I enjoy lots of your posts.
Are you really asking why the world needs more voices like Maajid Nawaz's?!
"I don't want to live in a society where I can commit adultery and be stoned. I want to live in a society where I can be stoned and then go out and commit adultery!" - Ibn Warraq.
PS - I doubt Maajid Nawaz supported Trump ...
"It's amazing you'd hold up as admirable a list including people who supported Trump." SMB
If you remove context looks bad. But the overwhelming majority of people were trapped between a bad choice and a worse choice. The people in the list would have never chosen Trump if they had been offered more choices than just Clinton.
