President Trump: Making America Great Again...

[byu71]

There are many strands to the Trump/Russia connection. Flynn is only one of them.

Let's have a prediction here. Is anyone who was in the Trump organization going to go to jail over this.

[Jeff Lebowski]

That's why I don't do FB. Idiots making idiotic statments. There is enough on here to pick from without doing FB also. You folks who do both must be gluttons for punishment.

Here is another one from a guy I greatly respect and admire. Due to your chronic mistrust of both science and journalism, I again thought of you as I read it.

The war on science and the war on journalism are two sides of the same coin. This is why people who are hostile to scientific claims that they find inconvenient or disagreeable (say, about the efficacy of vaccinations or the reality of climate change) tend to be the same people that cannot distinguish between an investigative piece published by the Washington Post and a political rant on the Sean Hannity show or a meme that their dear sweet grandmother posted on Facebook (I’m not saying that the two groups are always the same, but they tend to be highly similar). Part of the problem is that most people are unaware of how institutional science, for example, is practiced. Careers are made from challenging the results of the community consensus or steering it in some new, fruitful direction. And careers are forfeited when scientists are overly hasty in presenting their findings, or misinterpret the data, or lie about it (anybody remember Pons and Fleischman?) It is similar with journalists. Careers are made in scooping your peers but if you turn out to have falsified your claims or leaned upon unreliable sources and this is discovered, irreparable damage could be done to your career (see: Peter Jennings, Brian Williams, etc.). It is important to get out ahead of the crowd and contribute something new and valuable but not at the expense of the verifiable facts that may be turned up by other, equally ambitious journalists. That is not to say that editorial decisions about how their work is presented to the public may not show subtle traces of bias and most readers will notice that a particular news source tends to lean modestly one way or the other. But most thoughtful, critical readers may learn to spot such biases and compensate for them when reading. And this does not mean that certain journalistic institutions are never to be trusted or simply dismissed as ideologically-driven. I personally make it a point to dip into sources that I know I will not like. Occasionally, these will help me to change my mind on some point. That said, most of my sources these days are highly critical of Trump. But that's not a surprise: most reputable news organizations are and should be skeptical of him, just as most newspaper editorial boards--whether they lean right or left--declined to endorse him. He deserves an uncommonly high degree of scrutiny.

But I think we are seeing something entirely new today, with dual attacks on both the institutions of science and the institutions of journalism. Consider the recent comment by Texas Republican Lamar Smith, who chairs the House Science Committee. He said, just last week, that when we want the truth, we should not turn to the media but rather we should seek it from Donald Trump (of course it was only a few weeks ago that Kellyanne Conway chided journalists for focusing too much on what Trump actually said rather than what was "in his heart." Go figure.). With Congressman Smith, the streams of criticizing science and criticizing journalism have truly crossed (didn’t Bill Murray warn us about that?). I can’t overstate how dangerous this is. Ms. Conway’s revealing phrase about preferring her own “alternative facts” and Steve Bannon’s criticism of the mainstream media (as if Fox News and Breitbart were not now as mainstream as they could ever be!) as “enemies” amounts to a hostile attack on the bedrock principles that make civil discourse possible, reducing them to a sordid tribalization of knowledge. It is distressing to see so many people (including students that I teach!) who seem to be antecedently wired to practice a kind of “relativism of convenience” and who don’t believe in anything but those claims that reinforce the beliefs they already have. We tend to think this tendency is unique to the “millennials” but I think it is just as prevalent among older generations that should know better. It is a temptation that we should all guard against.
Again, it is hard to imagine a more dangerous state of affairs for a constitutional republic.

[BlueK]

Let's have a prediction here. Is anyone who was in the Trump organization going to go to jail over this.

I would predict yes.

[Uncle Ted]

I have of course been a fan of the service and sacrifice John McCain has made for the country. Never been a big fan of Senator McCain. He was a thorn in the side of President Bush and went over the top against Romney in the 2008 campaign.

He was the maverick. Maverick being a pain to the republican establishment and who loved him, the press. Of course when we got to the head to head match against President Obama, he wasn't loved so much anymore by the press.

So was McCain really pardoned by Nixon for all his actions as a POW? I am too young to remember much about Nixon and who he pardoned. All I could find was this one recording which doesn't seem too bad:

I am guessing that this is why Trump brought up John ("Songbird"?) McCain's military record and why McCain doesn't care for Trump so much.

[byu71]

Here is another one from a guy I greatly respect and admire. Due to your chronic mistrust of both science and journalism, I again thought of you as I read it.

Good thoughts to ponder, but unless you are communicating with God it is just his opinion.

Like the guy I was playting golf with the other day said, "can you believe people actually can't admit the press is bias and treats Trump far worse than Obama. What a bunch of dipshits".

It made me think of you.

[Uncle Ted]

Exactly. McCain (and his bombing buddy Graham) are a train wreck. When Republican leadership (rightfully) urged President Clinton to use caution in the Kosovo conflict, Senator McCain was stepping on the gas arguing for a full scale invasion. Ever since, McCain has never seen a country where he wouldn't want to put US boots on the ground; the classic case of having a hammer and seeing everything as a nail. As if it was even possible, McCain is even more hot-headed, bellicose, and short-fused than President Trump. And the dude picked Sarah Palin as a running mate. Case closed.

I did prefer him over George W. Bush in the 2000 primary though since he wasn't nearly as bad as George W. Bush. So he's got that going for him.

Rand Paul has the same opinion about McCain...

Rand Paul: We’re very lucky John McCain’s not in charge

Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) ripped fellow Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) on Sunday after McCain criticized President Trump’s escalating war of words with the media.


He argued that the nation is “very lucky” that Trump is president and not McCain, who won the 2008 GOP nomination but lost to Barack Obama in the general election.


Paul said that McCain’s recent criticisms of Trump are driven by his “personal dispute” with the president over foreign policy.


He added that McCain and Trump are at odds because McCain supports the wide deployment of U.S. troops to protect and promote American interests abroad while he characterized Trump’s views as closer to a realpolitik approach to foreign policy.
“Everything that he says about the president is colored by his own personal dispute he’s got running with President Trump, and it should be taken with a grain of salt, because John McCain’s the guy who’s advocated for war everywhere,” Paul said on ABC’s “This Week.”


“He would bankrupt the nation. We’re very lucky John McCain’s not in charge, because I think we’d be in perpetual war,” Paul added.

[...]
“I would say John McCain’s been wrong on just about everything over the last four decades. He advocated for the Iraq War, which I think destabilized the Middle East,” he said.


“If you look at the map, there’s probably at least six different countries where John McCain has advocated for us having boots on the ground,” he added.

http://thehill.com/policy/internatio...-not-in-charge

Given that McCain was tortured in Nam (or at least that is the claim) one would think he would be against sending young men and women in to endure the same fate.

[imanihonjin]

Rand Paul has the same opinion about McCain...


http://thehill.com/policy/internatio...-not-in-charge

Given that McCain was tortured in Nam (or at least that is the claim) one would think he would be against sending young men and women in to endure the same fate.

Are you saying you think something else happened?

[Jeff Lebowski]

Good thoughts to ponder, but unless you are communicating with God it is just his opinion.

Like the guy I was playting golf with the other day said, "can you believe people actually can't admit the press is bias and treats Trump far worse than Obama. What a bunch of dipshits".

It made me think of you.

Hmm... Not sure why. I would never say such a thing.

And btw: in this case it is "biased", not "bias".

[creekster]

Hmm... Not sure why. I would never say such a thing.

And btw: in this case it is "biased", not "bias".

Maybe it was an operational definition

[Jeff Lebowski]

Maybe it was an operational definition

Could be. Maybe he was referring to Lenny Bias. As in, "The press is dead."

[Uncle Ted]

Are you saying you think something else happened?

There are some folks that claim that McCain was treated rather well as a POW (for being the grandson of a Navy Admiral and making propaganda broadcasts)... (e.g., see pic below). I have not formed an opinion either way because there is simply not enough information.

[Jeff Lebowski]

There are some folks that claim that McCain was treated rather well as a POW (for being the grandson of a Navy Admiral and making propaganda broadcasts)... (e.g., see pic below). I have not formed an opinion either way because there is simple not enough information.

You should read his memoir about his time as a POW in Hanoi. You would be a little more reluctant to post/forward conspiracy crap like that.

[Uncle Ted]

You should read his memoir about his time as a POW in Hanoi. You would be a little more reluctant to post/forward conspiracy crap like that.

I would if there was evidence (Hello, CIA, are you listening? Release the damn reports!) backing up his claims... As far as I know his book may be full of a lot of fiction to advance his political career. Does he mention why Nixon had to pardon him in the book?

I do have to agree with Rand Paul... McCain seems like a warmonger so maybe it is a good thing he didn't become president.

Now the right is saying he is the one behind the media leaks:

Embedded Tweet

Too early to tell.

[byu71]

Could be. Maybe he was referring to Lenny Bias. As in, "The press is dead."

By the way, it is Len Bias not Lenny. The pedestal I have you on just lowered a bit.

[BigFatMeanie]

There are some folks that claim that McCain was treated rather well as a POW (for being the grandson of a Navy Admiral and making propaganda broadcasts)... (e.g., see pic below). I have not formed an opinion either way because there is simply not enough information.

It would be interesting to know who the poor guys in the right-hand photo are. Are they from the Vietnam war? Are they even American POWs? The top picture looks like it could be British WWII prisoners in Japanese camps.