Month: June 2017

Has This Election Made You An A**hole?

Even President Obama told the media to “calm down” during the 2016 campaign.

If you haven’t noticed, people have been a special brand of asshole since our election. Trump threw tact out of his campaign window, and it worked beautifully. He was crude, rude, and people loved it. Many folks on the right put common courtesy aside, in order to properly malign their fellow Americans, chant, and defend “grabbing them by the pussy.” This isn’t a knock on all Republicans, only the ones subscribing to whats been referred to as Trumpism. Under this moniker, Democrats/anyone not fully devoted to the new President are the enemy.  Neigh-Sayers aren’t only the enemy of Trumpists, but seen as enemies of America.

The rhetoric supporting this narrative is offensive, to say the least, even to non-Democrats. Up until now, at least in my opinion, there’s always been a certain elegance to politics and punditry. Politicians with years of grooming, schooling, and carefully chosen words, engaging in discourse. Sadly, the days of well-spoken, over-educated politicians are gone, and it’s impacting the way citizens interact.

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Why so angry?
The bitter taste of the election is still ripe on Democratic tongue’s, as they’re understandably upset with Hilary Clinton’s dramatic defeat.  For some odd reason, though, the winning-right is still angry. This may have to do with the lackluster start to Trump’s Presidency. While the slow-start may seem great for Liberals, Republicans are blaming them for it, despite Democrats not having enough seats across the government to effectively obstruct any major legislation. In fairness, Republicans do have some room to complain, especially about the Liberal media dissecting Trump’s every breath. Even President Obama told the media to “calm down”, during the 2016 campaign.

With Democrats angry about losing, and Republicans upset with the treatment of their new champion, it’s hard to know if there’s any middle-ground to be found. Scroll through any comment section on Twitter, you’ll see immediate evidence of our decent into tastelessness. We’re becoming desensitized to people being horrid to one another, and it’s playing into the recent uptick in violence and hate crimes. According to Reuters, hate crimes are up 20 percent since the election, and rhetoric from the campaign is a suspect.

We’re also seeing political sub-groups like Antifa, battling the Alt-Right, with riot police often present to separate the two. Trying to know which, if either side is more justified, is an increasingly difficult task. ‘Fake News’, fascist, snowflake, and all kinds of inflammatory language is being used without regard for decency, and we’re normalizing it. It seems that being offensive has become the best defense, and respectful debate is dead.

-Jason Daniel @socialclimatewp

 

How Zero Qualifications Get you a Trump Job

 

So, you want to work for the Trump White House, but fear that you’re grossly under-qualified for the job. Don’t worry, if you’re a millionaire, the job is yours! Being rich seems to be the only previous experience required for Donald Trump. Of course we’re all fed up with traditional politicians, but there’s a reason most of them are in politics, experience. DC is full of career politicians, know-it-all historians, and crooked lobbyists, but they know how Washington works.

These insiders have actual governing experience that’s relevant to the jobs they’re doing. The Trump administration, though, has done away with the traditional employment path. Years of education and climbing your way up the ladder have been thrown out. We can look at HUD Sec. Dr. Ben Carson as our first example. Dr. Carson, a Surgeon, is now in charge of Housing and Urban Development. He has no previous housing policy experience, but he’s rich.

Steve Mnuchin, Trump’s Treasury Secretary, has no governing experience, but he ran Trump’s fundraiser during the campaign. With that logic, anybody who’s run a successful kick-starter can be the Treasury Secretary of the United States. He’s rich too, btw. How fed up are American citizens, to not bat an eye when the president they elected makes such random appointments? Very, apparently.

In a Gallup poll from last year, only 49% of Americans had a favorable view of our government. With that many people tired of the status quo in politics, we begin to see how Trump is getting away with swapping experienced political professionals, for know-nothing millionaires. Though for many, this is still no excuse. Being upset with Washington shouldn’t mean dismantling the institutions that have kept it running for so long.

The EPA Director doesn’t believe in climate research, the education secretary hates education, and the only black man in the administration is in charge of urban development. How can this administration succeed with such an oxymoron-ridden cabinet? The left will obstruct what they can, but really, Republicans control the government right now and have no idea what they’re doing. That should worry everybody.

By Jason Daniel

Has the Left Been ‘Triggered’?

With this murderous leftist narrative finding a home in the minds of Republicans, how long until the right pro-actively defends itself?

Today’s Forecast

Has the Left Been Triggered?

By Jason Daniel

If you’ve been following politics in recent years, or have access to the internet, you may have heard the phrase ‘triggering liberals’. Triggering liberals has become a popular pastime of right wing trolls and personalities. For the most part, they just spout off offensive words and phrases, from what seems like pre–compiled, weekly troll talking-points, then proceed to label people snowflakes. Seems silly, but it’s amazingly popular, and maybe even effective.

Last week a man named James Hodgkinson opened fire on a group of Republican lawmakers in Alexandria, VA, putting House GOP Whip Steve Scalise, in critical condition. Hodgkinson was killed by Capitol Police on the scene, but not before injuring Scalise and several others. James Hodgkinson was a Democrat, and had volunteered on Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. His Facebook was riddled with anti-Trump rants and posts, his disdain for the president and his cohorts was apparent. Did I mention he had a Republican filled hit-list? Nuts.

Almost immediately, Republican personalities and trolls alike, started hammering liberals as violent anarchist who hate America. Clearly a gross exaggeration, but the idea is still finding a home.  Mark Pitcavage , a fellow at the Anti-Defamation League, said this in a recent NPR article “In the past 10 years when you look at murders committed by domestic extremists in the United States of all types, right-wing extremists are responsible for about 74 percent of those murders.” So, if this is the case, what justifies this new talking point the right has been hitting so hard since this terrible shooting? Nothing, really, and therein lies the problem. Narratives are changing and evolving incredibly fast in the information age, and nobody really seems too keen on challenging them. Both Democrats and Republicans are extremely dug in, and the facts are suffering.

With this murderous leftist narrative finding a home in the minds of Republicans, how long until the right pro-actively defends itself? This would undoubtedly prompt the left to do the same, and before we know it, America is a war-zone. Of course, I’m speculating to the extreme, but there needs to be foresight. We can’t continue to unconsciously allow ourselves to be divided, without examining the potential repercussions of allowing division to persist.