I might not be well informed about Black Lives Matter then. I thought they had a racial, victimist, whites are to blame, approach to social issues. Exactly what is different between BLM and gang terror. From outside it looks like related phenomena, as riots promoted in the name of BLM are usually linked to pillage, burning and violence. Please explain to the outside world what BLM stands for and what makes it a separate thing from the violence provoked by gangs. — DiegoT

You are reading right-wing mischaracterizations of BLM. Read their own literature to see what they are about.

...if the US still has some remains of rule of law and a justice state or if it has turned into a banana republic. — ssu

The White House is now releasing doctored videos as a pretext to banning reporters it doesn't like, which is amusingly Banana-Republic like, particularly as it's such an obvious and clumsy attempt at deception.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/11/08/white-house-shares-doctored-video-support-punishment-journalist-jim-acosta/

In the doctored version, it looks like the reporter karate-chops one of Trump's minions. In the real version said minion tries to wrestle his mic off him and he simply struggles to hold on to it. Welcome to the keystone cops' propaganda unit. :D

I don´t think reading about what a group has to say about themselves is the best way to know what they really are about. That´s only their discourse, their programming and propaganda. I´d rather know what BLM is from people who are familiarised with their actions, contribution to society, allies, and goals their actions help to achieve.

I´m not an American and if I were I´d still would not vote; so I do not have to make my mind on Trump. However, I find him a very interesting character from an archetypal point of view. He´s so clearly the Fool in the tarot, and people into tarot cards will know what I really mean. The fact that his name is actually, trump, is also very curious! In tarot, the Fool means the return to a point where different choices are possible, a way out of stagnation and lack of response to current challenges. It´s an ambiguous figure, whose role is not to establish the new order or route, but to create the chaos and a new landscape that makes potential and new beginnings possible again.

I looked into this.

Paul Joseph Watson (info wars editor) grabbed a ".gif" file from a conservative website (Daily Wire) and applied a "zoom". In all likelihood the creator of the original .gif file (which was likely created for the conservative website) manipulated the video himself by duplicating/replacing frames during the "action" to make the movement appear to be more sudden. The frame by frame discrepancies only occur at the moment of action, making it unlikely it was a result of the conversion process Watson used.

It would be pretty brazen of him to knowingly tweet doctored video. The original editor was clever enough to make very minimal changes, and because of the effect of those changes (makes Acosta look borderline violent) it rabble roused well in conservative echo chambers.

Watson in this case was just as roused as he was a rouser, which was then unwittingly echoed again by the witless white-house.

It reveals one of the frightening weaknesses of segmented network/data-structure that the internet has us contend with. Bottom up information flow (such as a manipulated gif created by an anonymous person and uploaded to a website viewed mainly by conservatives) only tends to reach parts of the network where users already condone, support, or are massaged by the content in question. This means different sets of facts, records, and repositories can happily co-exist by never actually interacting with their contradictory counterparts. That this particular instance of disinformation managed to leak into the mainstream was a matter of chance, and as long as we all get our information from disparate and disconnected sources (with highly questionable incentives) we will continue to form ideologically disparate and disconnected groups.

Your earlier comment was obviously based on right wing propaganda about BLM. It's not an organization, it's a movement, so what they say about themselves is what defines the movement. But if you want external views, go to this website and search for "black lives matter".

Trump reminds me of "the Mule" in Asimov's foundation trilogy - though surely not as clever he has certainly bypassed status quo predictions for the errmmm galaxy. For "Seldon plan" read globalisation lol!

Trump, if he is as smart as he claims, surely can learn from the army that real torture is no longer useful, and belongs to the past or barbaric regions of the world. — DiegoT

Trump doesn't care a shit about what is effective in the real life. His supporters want the terrorists to be punished and he wants to look good for his supporters, so he is all for torture. If some "liberal" people are against it because it's "barbaric", they are weak on terrorism. Nevermind how many intelligence professionals say torture is counterproductive in an counterinsurgency, there's allways be the moronic talking head on Fox saying that torture works and that it has saved American lives.

Just remember how Trump said to policemen not to protect the head of a detained person when putting him into the policecar. These issues are just trademark Trump.

so it´s all part of his character then, the persona he has created to communicate with his followers and haters. Whatever he says in his famous tweets, I don´t think he can really promote the systematic use of torture by American forces.

so it´s all part of his character then, the persona he has created to communicate with his followers and haters. Whatever he says in his famous tweets, I don´t think he can really promote the systematic use of torture by American forces. — DiegoT

I think so yes.

Trump is basically a reality TV President focused on his appearance. The only policies he has pushed through are the tax cuts for the rich and also he has been successfull in choosing SCOTUS judges. That's basically all. And even those policies have been basically pushed by the GOP. Everything else has been more a public show. Yet in our age his supporters can be in their safe space echo chamber of Breitbart and Fox News and believe that Trump has done a lot. And that Trump basically won the midterms.

Trump is basically a reality TV President focused on his appearance. The only policies he has pushed through are the tax cuts for the rich and also he has been successfull in choosing SCOTUS judges. That's basically all. And even those policies have been basically pushed by the GOP. Everything else has been more a public show. Yet in our age his supporters can be in their safe space echo chamber of Breitbart and Fox News and believe that Trump has done a lot. And that Trump basically won the midterms. — ssu

Those are his legislative accomplishments and judicial appointments, but he's done more via Executive Order, including ordering the relocation of the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and enacting a travel ban from particular Muslim-majority countries (though that demographic fact is purely coincidental...), which has been upheld by SCOTUS, and imposing tariffs on certain goods exported by our trading partners. (I only loosely describe these as "accomplishments.")

I mean like when it happened

they are accomplishments if they serve his electoral program. A program includes all the goals and more that a new president need to use as a guide of his office. If Trump is trying to check on that list he´s doing fine. If he´s not, then he´s going astray. Both Republicans and Dems should make a point of that all the time. Americans are very lucky that presidents want to honour their promises. In Spain an electoral program is just a type of toilet paper, and the last president´s record was to betray the whole of the agenda. ALL of it. Well (cheap) jobs were indeed created...Now we don´t even have a real president, but an impostor playing the part, as a leader from his own party has denounced.

If Democrats really want a better government, or one that is closer to their ideology, they should stop enjoying scapegoating the current president and his voters, and instead:

1. Support him in measures that both Republicans and Democrats can agree on; come on, there must be a few items there. Also, to provide loyal advice on alternatives to his policies and offer him support (that is, allowing to save his face before his voters and party, by renouncing to something and by "protesting" the measure instead of claiming victory).

2. To provide an alternative that is not entirely reliant on tribalism (identity politics), low IQ discourses and populism. Show some little loyalty to your country and responsibility for the future; and demand exactly that to new Dem leaders. Trump is there becouse Hillary was worse, so bad in fact that even Dems didn´t like her.

Support him in measures that both Republicans and Democrats can agree on; come on, there must be a few items there — DiegoT

The only ones I can come up with that are truly bipartisan agendas for both parties are:

1) Keeping political power to themselves, hence preventing any possible third party to emerge as a realistic alternative to the two of them.

2) Staunch support for Israel.

Trump is there becouse Hillary was worse, so bad in fact that even Dems didn´t like her. — DiegoT

Unfortunately the Dems don't get this as they have the Russian assistance that Trump got as a figleaf. The assistance is btw is totally evident, but still...

Trump is there becouse Hillary was worse, so bad in fact that even Dems didn´t like her. — DiegoT

And yet she still won more votes than Trump. Guess the electorate really didn't like him, then.

And did I read you right that Democrats are leaning too heavily on populist politics? I can't begin to understand where you formed that impression. Trump and his ilk are the populists, not the Democrats. However, I agree that Democrats perhaps lean a bit too heavily on identity politics, but let's not confuse "Democrats" and "the American Left." Democrats aren't even all that Left these days.

Just want to throw in a random 2 cents, something I enjoy pointing out about Trump.
Listen to what Mitt Romney had to say about Trump. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpZGR_eTbAI
"the country would sink into prolonged recession."
Keep in mind how wrong people can be, because currently, the opposite appears to be happening..

Hillary had the support of the Arabs, that are not better friends than Putin on his worst day. I think politicians do have a strong drive for their self-preservation, but their parties as suprapersonal entities have that will to remain as well. Both Reps and Dems as organisations need to understand that they need the U.S. to recover stability and cohesion. Don´t be like Europe in this or you are all damned, politicians included. Voters and grassroot activists on both sides need to enact a dialogue around some basics ideas that must be beyond politics, such as defending your borders or changing the energy model, or making health services available to everyone, or ending the gang culture.

Identity politics. I think you misread the word, or I wrote the wrong term. Identity politics, or tribal thinking is something Dems have promoted particularly and eventually backfired. Tribal politics only work to destroy a society, not to bring it together. Tribes only work as one when they have a super-enemy that is perceived as more hateful than the other tribes, but that tension can not be keep forever. In between elections, the tribes will turn on each other. That´s how civilized, or urban empires manage to defeat barbaric nations. That´s how hundreds of Spaniards conquered the Aztecs and Incas that dominated a continent.

Populist politics on the contrary is a must for both parties, for any leader in the world really, becouse that´s how you get a majority of voters; most voters are not clever enough to understand politics or anything too abstract, so populist measures are required to draw them to the ballot box. It doesn´t mean populism has to be your real guide for governance, becouse you need to have a more real agenda with what is really necessary for society in your view.

President Donald John Trump is certainly no philosopher.

He is more like a tyrant, if you want to compare him with ancient Athenians.

He talks like a tyrant, acts like a tyrant, and gives speeches like a tyrant. At times he even reminds me of newsreels about Adolf.

At any rate that's from a philosophical viewpoint.

While I do agree with him on some things that are problems in the USA currently, such as job migration to Asia, and border insecurity, and high taxes on corporations, I do not agree with him on other issues such as more tax cuts for the rich, challenging N. Korea with inflammatory rhetoric, and separating illegal immigrants from their children.

Since the ACA repeal bill did not ever get to his desk we do not know whether he would have approved or vetoed it. ACA repeal was stillborn from the GOP. The late Senator John S. McCain the 3rd aborted it. In response, the American people in this past November 2018 election voted the GOP out of power in the U.S. House Of Reps. So that issue is a party issue not a Trump issue. And the GOP has now paid for it.

As a POTUS Mr. Trump seems to be using the bully pulpit like a tyrant. Sometimes he gets his way and other times he does not. Still he seems more like a tyrant than like a Pericles or a Socrates.

Hillary had the support of the Arabs, that are not better friends than Putin on his worst day. — DiegoT

Um, who did Trump visit first when he got elected President? With Trump Saudi-Arabia got a far bigger friend than any Hillary administration ever would have been. They have played Trump's son-in-law like a fiddle. Actually Trump's other cabinet members tried to have the US to behave as it would have ordinarily done, but Trump sided with the Saudi's and created a bigger mess in the gulf.

And of course even they don't have such influence as Russia has over Trump.

I wish Spain had such a "tyrannical" government. You don´t value what you have becouse you take it for granted...but imagine Trump saying that people who are in jail waiting for a verdict for organising a rebellion and coup d´etat will be released if the Court condemn them. Imagine Trump being proved to have paid for his university degree and PhD, and refuse to resign. Imagine Trump to have three people in the cabinet proved to have collaborated in extorsion, blackmail and fraud and keep them in their cabinet. Imagine if Trump had the support of separatists and terrorist groups (ETA), and the opposition of most of Spanish people, and still refuse to call elections so that citizens can actually vote. I could go on and on...That´s what we have in Spain now. Trump is way better and more respectful of his citizens than most of the presidents we have had in the last 40 years, conservative or progressive.

there´s a big difference between representing U.S. interests in the Gulf, like any other president has done before, and actually having your presidential campaign by dozens of donors from Qatar and Saudi Arabia like Clinton.

Identity politics. I think you misread the word, or I wrote the wrong term. — DiegoT

I was responding to point #2 in your above post wherein you implored Democrats to provide an alternative which doesn't rely on tribalism/identity politics or populism. I took this to mean that you were claiming that Democrats promulgate populism.

all parties who really want to reach power have to resource to populism and cheap propaganda, becouse the appeal to masses, not to a council of wise men and women, like in a real democracy. But tribalism is optional don´t you think? You can elaborate your story-telling around the idea of a common goal and identity, and not different factions competing for resources and imposing their own victimistic story to society.

there´s a big difference between representing U.S. interests in the Gulf, like any other president has done before, and actually having your presidential campaign by dozens of donors from Qatar and Saudi Arabia like Clinton. — DiegoT

Lol. Yeah, and there's a huge difference campaign donors and outright and evident corruption of the Trump administration. Once Qatar bailed out Jared Kushner's familys investments at 666 5th Ave, magically Trump went from supporting the Qatari blockade to the totally different stance of being against the Saudi lead blockade. Btw. his cabinet had been thinking of being a neutral mediator between the Saudi coalition and Qatar, but Trump (or Jared) surprised every including the secretary of stat with their different views. Oh, it's just a matter of over 1 billion dollars or so.

The fact is that the Trump administration is the most corrupt administration for a long time in the White House.

In Europe we have a higher average IQ and education, however Americans get to have a more reasonable, useful government. Angry Americans should try and live in Europe, then they could appreciate more their advantages. For example, consider how both chambers and the presidency are totally in control of two parties, and national parties too, not fascist separatist formations with a clear, explicit agenda of demolishing the country in return for political support. With only two parties, you can gather an impossible level of consensus in my continent, and take great measures very quickly. This system is not perfect, but it should make the nation unstoppable, always ahead. That´s why is so important than foreign powers use their money to buy politicians and companies, otherwise they´d have no chance whatsoever of bringing you down. For example, now you talk about the south borders a lot, but at the end of the day both parties want a solid defense and both parties built the wall. In Spain, the equivalent of your south border together with Greece and Italy, inmigrants and narcos took control of the border long ago and they come and go every day as they please.

As I said there are some things I agree with Trump about and some I do not. It is a mixed bag. It always is. In an election you must always choose the lesser of two weevils.

challenging N. Korea with inflammatory rhetoric — hks

Well something appears to have worked in North Korea. They are for the first time demilitarising their border. It's impossible to say if Trump is responsible for the improvement, but his presidency and total change of POTUS policy towards North Korea coincides with that improvement.

you talk about Trump, or any other politician being corrupt as if it were a bad thing. Corruption, to some extend, is good in any party right or left, becouse the man or woman can be bought, seduced, blackmailed, and is not truly free to pursue a political agenda. Corruption is Chaos: too much chaos brings the system down, but some chaos is necessary for any living or social system to work and progress. Beware of "pure" politicians that only owe to their ideology, and have not a price.