Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Da Geezer]

Trump Transition team has become a cluster****. Mike Rogers bails and no longer wants any part of it. Trump campaign and Trump himself were completely unprepared.

Heh. That would be the former congressman who is a CNN host and commentator, who tried to whitewash Benghazi by issuing a report from his committee without interviewing any witnesses of what actually happened?

Probably was "overlooked" for a job "comensurate" with his "qualifications", and this is his reply. Sour Grapes. The last ones on the Trump train will be the first ones off when the going gets rough, so they may as well be encouraged to leave now.

[Hannibal]

You guys are always railing on safe spaces, did you ever think these people need these because they aren't tough, manly men like you? Not everyone can be an Internet Tough Guy.

They are called "Self care" spaces now. Get with the times, it's <Current year>

[froot loops]

Safe spaces, self care space, it's makes no difference my point still stands.

[Hannibal]

Well that media mea culpa didn't last long, did it?

[Hannibal]

Hanni: I read that NY Times letter from the Publisher. The only real content was ..."We believe we reported on both candidates fairly during the presidential campaign.." If they believe that, or if their readers believe that, then they remain hopelessly partisan.

It's hardcore Ministry of Truth material, isn't it?

[Hannibal]

Safe spaces, self care space, it's makes no difference my point still stands.

Do you think that it is healthy for adults to retreat into a child-like state in a time of stress and unhappiness? Play dough? Legos? Coloring books? Seriously?

[froot loops]

The ones who were last to get on the train are probably the best ones to work with Congress in my opinion. If the main qualification is the Trump purity test, it's going to be hard to get a lot done. That's my opinion, you're not talking about a huge margin in the congress. The opposition will be looking to reuse the McConnell Obama Obstruction playbook.

[Hannibal]

Trump's cabinet will be his biggest challenge. There are very few experienced politicians that can be trusted to not drag Trump into being George Bush 3.0. IMHO Jeff Sessions is a no-brainer. Rudy G. somewhere too. After that, the choices are few. (Sarah Palin LOL)

[froot loops]

Do you think that it is healthy for adults to retreat into a child-like state in a time of stress and unhappiness? Play dough? Legos? Coloring books? Seriously?

I don't really care truthfully, but like I said not everyone is a manly man like you.

[Hannibal]

I don't really care truthfully, but like I said not everyone is a manly man like you.

When your kids are full-grown adults, how are you going to advise them to deal with stressful situations in life? With toughness, introspection, and humility, or with milk and cookies? No matter how much you want to retreat from the real world in an infantile state, the real world will be waiting for your when you come back, and the later you choose to do this, the harder it is. If nothing else, you should be annoyed that a prestigious law school is encouraging that type of response, and they are not an outlier.

[froot loops]

Yeah I'm pretty sure my kids will be fine. Not my concern, but I can tell it really bothers you.

[Hannibal]

I don't really care truthfully, but like I said not everyone is a manly man like you.

I also might not care were it not for the fact that Liberals inevitably parlay their need for "Safe spaces" "Self care spaces" into attacks on free speech, of which the examples are numerous. These attacks include but are not limited to:

1. Unconstitutional speech codes on college campuses
2. Attempts by Democrats to make Right Wing talk radio illegal
3. Newspaper stealing when a newspaper is going to run an Op Ed that the Left doesn't like
4. Bans from social meda
5. Riots and other violent disruptions of Conservative speaking events
6. Attempts by Universities to ban Conservatives from speaking there or imposition of outrageous fees.

From David Horowitz and Milo Yiannopoulos to Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, the free speech of Conservatives is constantly under attack because "muh hurt feels". I have been watching it happen for 25 years now.

[froot loops]

Yep, you have successfully gotten that point across numerous times, yet those voices are loudly heard even with these terrible safe spaces.

[iam416]

One of my favorite post-mortem articles I've read: http://www.the-american-interest.com...-trumps-world/

A popular knee-jerk reaction has been to attribute the outcome exclusively to bigotry, misogyny, the Electoral College, uneducated white males, and voter identification laws. This is usually followed by a vow to “fight sexism and racism in all its forms.”

There is nothing prima facie objectionable with such a reaction. However, just below its surface lies the proposition that nearly half American voters have finally shown us their true bigoted, misogynist colors, and the implication that it is up to us, liberal savants, to show them why they are wrong. Going down this route means going about liberal “business as usual.” It means digging in our heels in the face of an external threat and doubling down on our positions, taking them even more for granted than before.

* * *

Nowhere has this benevolent but ultimately self-defeating myopia been more pronounced than on college campuses. We have dismissed our conservative peers in the classroom and taunted them on social media all while refusing to seriously engage their views. We have taken hard questions like affirmative action and abortion entirely off the table, as if we had already provided an answer that should be immediately convincing to all. We have refused to consider a diversity of viewpoints on what constitutes “diversity.” We have resolutely resisted paying more than lip service to socioeconomic inequality, rural alienation, and shifting patterns of exclusion while still purporting to speak on behalf of all marginalized people. We have proclaimed that the only reasonable way to respond to racial and gender inequality is to entrench pre-existing identities rather than overcoming them through what unites us all.

* * *

No, it is not “our fault” for losing this election, whose outcome signals something much bigger than a revolt against the discourse that dominates American universities. We primarily lost this election because of our flawed electoral system, a compromised candidate, and the resurgence of nationalistic intolerance around the world. But the limits of our vision and the condescending tone of our attitudes played a role.

And this is the part of the puzzle liberal academia is best positioned to solve. Instead of being the avatars of liberal condescension, we can work to preserve liberal values while updating them for the modern world. We can disagree with our conservative colleagues without discriminating against them. We can redouble our dedication to fighting racism and sexism, but also find ways bring in those we have hitherto ignored because they did not fit in our pre-existing notions of marginalization. We can find new, creative ways to think about inequality, difference, and alienation. We can confront head-on difficult questions, such as those arising from the complex relationship between immigration and employment patterns, rather than pretending they do not exist at all. Most important, we can build intellectually honest spaces that encourage diverse opinions, rather than simply permitting uniform opinions articulated by diverse-looking faces.

[Hannibal]

Froot -- It's okay. I don't expect you guys to be able to sympathize or understand. The regressive left is on your side. But if Universities were all run by Right-wingers and they banned all speech pertaining to Socialized medicine because it was too triggering to Conservatives, your reaction would likely be similar to mine right now -- some combination of outrage and ridicule.