Li: ritual, propriety, etiquette. Hsiao: love within the family (parents for children and children for parents. Yi: righteousness--the noblest way to act in a situation. Xin: honesty and trustworthiness. Jen: benevolence, humaneness towards others. Chung: loyalty to the state and authority. --Confucius (Kong Fuzi)

All articles appear in reverse chronological order [newest first].

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I believe the past is relevant, sometimes more than others of course. In most cases we are seeing history being repeated, so it is most relevant.

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

The 'again' in Make America Great Again comes later, but don't worry "best ever".

by Glenn Littrell

It's interesting that the mantra (conspiracy theory) from the right has been that all the criticism of Trump is because the Left can't get over Hillary losing, yet, the Right's most common defense against criticism is "look at Hillary" (roll the list of conspiracy theory talking points).

It looks more and more like it's the Right that can't get over Hillary losing. Their so much better at attacking than they are defending. Call it deflection, confirmation bias, whatever you want, but it is hypocrisy.

You should know that everyone who criticizes Trump didn't automatically support Hillary. The truth is that it is possible to condemn many of the actions of both of them, but when your knee jerk reaction to any criticism is to fling criticism of others around the room it becomes a waste of breath. It childish, like an 8 year old tattle-telling on his brother in an attempt to get out of trouble.

The Right had 8 years to bring Hillary down, endless congressional committees and hearings, several investigations. They spent millions of dollars on attacking her (not GOP money but taxpayer money), and they proved nothing illegal. No charges, no independent council, nothing illegal. She also withstood 9 hours of televised grilling before one of many congressional committees (republican run). Walked out without a scratch. It's time that Trump and his supporters put on their 'big boy' pants and quit whining about a few months of criticism. Defend your man if you must, start a discussion about Hillary on your timeline, but move on and get off of Hillary when imagethe discussion is about Trump.

Like a bully, Trump and many of his supporters cry when people push back, when he thinks he's losing he cry's foul, he deflects and name calls to avoid giving answers (he doesn't even deflect with an issue statement. He does so by insults and innuendo). But it's not just Trumps supporters who can't get over Hillary losing, it's also Donald Trump himself. The most mentioned names that come out of his mouth, second and third after his own name, is Obama and Hillary. His kneejerk reaction to criticism is to raise the ghost of past politicians. Showing an inability to explain his words, action, or decisions in the face of criticism.

The most active agenda item of his is to undo everything that Obama accomplished, even though it may hurt millions of Americans, damage our security, or delay his other agenda items. His entire campaign was built around criticism of Obama, Democrats, and Hillary. Any effort to advocate for an issue was expressed with a political slogan (Make America great again) and the promise of "don't worry, I'll tell you later, best ever." Still missing signifigant and detailed plans for agenda items he continually relies on the endless attacks on past politicians, childish tweets, bully tactics, and executive actions. The 'again' in Make America Great Again comes later, but don't worry "best ever".

His use of executive directives as a preemptive alternative to working with Congress doesn't even give the questionable pretense of reacting to a 'do nothing Congress'. Obama's use of executive actions prompted rabid accusations of tyranny, but Trumps use of them as a preemptive undercutting of the Congressional branch, as a tool of deflection from scandals and pixies, as an attention getting failsafe, garners no criticism from his supporters or any of the anti-executive actions crowd.

Executive actions for Trump is just a political tool, a license, to distract, deviate, and assault. What Trump is showing us is that he is just a bad politician, but still a politician. His flaws and boorish behavior have been exposed because he left the closed world of business where money could hide his flaws and transgressions. Where 'yes' men and paid experts could confirm his ego and discreetly correct his failings. He entered the more transparent world of politics and has shown his incompetence, egotism, less than stellar character, and less than advertised intelligence,

He won the election and is President of the United States, so let's stop claiming the system is rigged, if it was rigged he never would have gotten this far, if it was rigged Hillary would have been the party's candidate in 2008 instead of Obama, and Jeb would've been the Republican candidate, and Hillary would be President now*. So let's stop blaming Hillary for Trump. The blame can be spread out across party lines, so for the many of us who claim to be independent voters please stop rehashing an election that is irreversible.

Like a bully he cries when people push back, when he thinks he's losing he cry's foul, he deflects and name calls to avoid giving answers (he doesn't even deflect with an issue statement, he does so with insults and innuendo).

It's politics, not a beauty pageant. Stop whining and lead.

*failed attempts by Russians, voter suppression legislation and questionable actions by the parties notwithstanding, the election was not rigged. People fail to realize that the party nomination process is not the election. It is the business of the separate parties. Run and governed by the parties. Bernie was never a party member so the party was stacked against him, but he made a choice to not run as an independent. That was his mistake. I could care less about party rules and processes, because like many Independents I don't support a party, vote for a party, or belong to a party (or vote in primaries). I vote issues and candidates. Like many independents and moderates I long for more parties offering more choices, but we are too often left with lesser choices.

See also: http://www.glennlittrell.org/2015/10/politics.html


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