tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post2332755151570299496..comments2024-03-29T03:19:09.227-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: INTERIM REPORTRobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-36530903049677505652017-11-07T11:41:12.970-05:002017-11-07T11:41:12.970-05:00Hey everybody, If you love building sheds like I d...Hey everybody, If you love building sheds like I do, here's a great link for you to download shed plans:<br /><br /><a href="http://home.syntaxlinks.com/r/MyShedPlans" rel="nofollow"><b>DOWNLOAD 12,000 SHED PLANS</b></a>Bloggerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07287821785570247118noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-6213314196831764352017-01-07T23:22:13.490-05:002017-01-07T23:22:13.490-05:00Among the contradictory heap of soundbites that Tr...Among the contradictory heap of soundbites that Trump has spewed instead of policy, there certainly are elements I, at least can embrace. We should work with him e.g. to restore Glass-Steagall. After that, we're quickly in the territory of ideas that must be rejected tooth and nail<br /><br />resisting Trump's incumbent on us all<br />Republicans, and Democrats alike<br />if we don't want our kids to live in thrall<br />without a living wage, or right to strike<br />his economic vision's zero-sum<br />his empty talk of growth is content-free<br />to trust him at our helm is more than dumb<br />it's a betrayal of our progeny<br />when out of power, Mitch McConnell's boys<br />appeared united, always braying "nay"<br />the opposition's all about the noise<br />it's optional to have something to say<br />his cabinet's stocked from the rabid fringe<br />we've got to fight, not merely whine and whinge<br /><br />http://mobilesonnets.blogspot.com/search/label/politics<br /><br />Barry H. Levine (levinebar)<br /><br />levinebarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11436714033924525689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-20608365556899102772017-01-07T13:32:04.525-05:002017-01-07T13:32:04.525-05:00Chris,
It sounds like an intelligence operation f...Chris,<br /><br />It sounds like an intelligence operation from a Le Carré novel (one of my favorite authors) where intelligence professionals use the media to praise a certain political figure in order to weaken his alliances. It might work on that level: daily New York Times editorials praising Trump, long positive write-ups in the Nation, flattering profiles of Trump in the New Yorker, articles elsewhere in the liberal media lauding Trump's openness to polyamory, etc. That might lead some Republicans to suspect Trump.<br /><br />On the level of the leftwing masses I can't see it working because first of all, as I said above, by the time the leftwing masses learn what the plot is, Trump will have learned. Second of all, the left's chief fuel is indignation, righteous indignation of course, so leftists en masse are unlikely to be willing to give up the joy of being indignant about Trump to praise him in order to destroy him. We all savor our indignation too much for that.s. wallersteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17448905469871566228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-37954272461417423182017-01-07T13:01:10.083-05:002017-01-07T13:01:10.083-05:00Wallerstein,
I definitely wasn't intending thi...Wallerstein,<br />I definitely wasn't intending this in any Leninist way. It's true that Trump did support, even if only very briefly, certain positions the left likes. It's true the Republicans would probably try to stop him on some of those issues. There's no need to be clandestine about motives and goals.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08250295324149056708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-27536529715075412042017-01-07T12:32:26.744-05:002017-01-07T12:32:26.744-05:00Professor Wolff,
I served for a number of years a...Professor Wolff,<br /><br />I served for a number of years as a precinct committee officer (PCO), sometimes referred to as precinct captain. I also served on the Executive Board of a District Democratic organization. If you want to learn about the nuts and bolts of how the Democratic Party works at the local level, serving as a PCO and getting involved in a Democratic District organization is a good way to do it. It doesn't take very long to learn that such lowly positions give you disproportionate access to elected Party officials at the state level and even to members of Congress. This kind of political activity takes time, energy, and patience (you end up going to a lot of meetings), but for many people this is a satisfying way of getting involved in the political process.Ludwig Richterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17145442092958521609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-26333864701531126492017-01-07T12:31:18.355-05:002017-01-07T12:31:18.355-05:00seems to me there is another reason to be optimist...seems to me there is another reason to be optimistic: the republican agenda includes many rollbacks that will hurt a lot of people. trump is going to get his share of the blame for this when people start getting hurt. because of his general incompetence and reactionary agenda, people are going to be worse off in 2 years than they are now. much of his support is superficial - it is from people who have bought into his personality cult and believe that he can wave a wand and make america great. some of those people will be fooled when he blames everyone but himself for his failures while trumpeting his real and imagined successes, but many others will turn on him, like the people who enrolled in his university or bought his shoddy products. just as many voters turned against george w. bush when his monumental incompetence was exposed by his response to katrina, the WMD debacle, and the financial collapse, they will turn against trump.Utopian Yurihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00793188513692796773noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-66814726666558375142017-01-07T09:42:28.091-05:002017-01-07T09:42:28.091-05:00Chris,
The left in the U.S. is not a secret consp...Chris,<br /><br />The left in the U.S. is not a secret conspiratorial party with Leninist discipline, so the plot to turn the Republicans against Trump by praising him from the left would soon become public (don't you think that intelligence agencies read this blog and many others in which the plot would become public?) and Trump and the Republicans would be forewarned. s. wallersteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17448905469871566228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-1121139717779961452017-01-07T09:40:27.898-05:002017-01-07T09:40:27.898-05:00I am certainly not opposed in principle to this, b...I am certainly not opposed in principle to this, but I am not sure where our purchase would be. Notice the people around him who have his ear on a daily basis. Perhaps the best way to proceed is to try it on one thing and see whether it works. What would you suggest?Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-82986507699880682372017-01-07T09:20:23.290-05:002017-01-07T09:20:23.290-05:00I'm just throwing an idea out there, and I'...I'm just throwing an idea out there, and I'm curious what others think. Let me note before I state it, per usual, I do not support Trump, I do not like Trump, and I recognize him as a fascist threat. Okay, so, this is just an idea open for discussion for Professor Wolff and readers of this blog. Wolff states the following:<br /><br />"Finally, there is Trump himself. He remains ignorant, distractable, unable to concentrate even on the things he appears to want, and easily baited into scattershot Twitter rants that undermine his ability to govern. Since virtually everything he claims to want to do is bad, the less competent he is the better we will be."<br /><br />This is all completely true. Trump is thin skinned, a bully, and he definitely keeps a list of enemies who have wronged him, and seeks revenge like a giant baby (no offense intended to actual babies). But he also loves praise and accolades. Anyone that kisses his ass will for a fleeting moment get awarded over the opposition.<br /><br />If we form a MASS resistance to Trump, the mass resistance will be his target of revenge and ire. That's fine, he deserves it. But just hypothetically, is it POSSIBLE, that maybe we are going about this the wrong way. Resisting him, calling him names, protesting him from day one. What if it were possible for the left, oddly enough, to praise him for all the bits of progressive things he stated during his campaign (trade deals, brief nod to universal healthcare, etc), and point out how those evil republicans are holding him back from being the great man that he is, because they think he's a bit fat idiot.<br /><br />Basically what I'm saying is, this man is a manipulable idiot, why can't we just turn him leftward and make his enemies the republicans?Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08250295324149056708noreply@blogger.com