tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21288083720258324272024-03-13T16:48:17.424+01:00PoliticalgatesPatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.comBlogger862125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-84971553867516529782016-12-04T02:34:00.000+01:002016-12-05T20:39:57.806+01:00Announcement<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Patrick</b></div>
<br />
This post will be very surprising for almost all of our readers, but unfortunately it was also inevitable at some point. Kathleen and I have decided that we won't continue Politicalgates, and that we will stop blogging. There are several reasons for this decision, and we have been thinking about this move for quite a long time. It was not an easy decision, as we have a wonderful community here, which has developed over several years, and which is also very unique.<br />
<br />
It has been a long and ride wild ride for us, which started already back in 2008. Most of you know the history very well. After a particularly busy time at <a href="http://palingates.blogspot.de/">Palingates</a>, in the very important year of 2010, we started Politicalgates as our own blog in early 2011. It has been an amazing experience in so many ways, and blogging became a huge part of our lives.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Even though many of you will now feel sad or even shocked, there is some good news as well. Our wonderful community can and will continue to exist. However, you all have to "migrate" to a different place. </b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://nomadicpolitics.blogspot.com/">We would like this new place to be the blog "Nomadic Politics",</a> which is a very active political blog, run by our friend Nomad. </span></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>You all know Nomad already very well. I have spoken to him a short while ago, and he is very motivated to continue with his blog. He certainly would also be happy to expand his readership, and he truly deserves it, as he continues to publish excellent posts. </b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>As an American citizen, Nomad is particulary interested to provide a critical voice during these very difficult times. He uses "Disqus" on his blog for the comments as well, so the transition will be easy.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
There certainly would be many things to say, but I am a bit lost for words right now. Kathleen and I hope that you will understand our decision. We need to get on with other things in our lives. Continuing this blog with other people in charge was never really an option for us, as we feel too emotionally attached to Politicalgates, and we do not want to worry all the time what is happening with the blog. We would like to have a proper conclusion, and believe that this is the best solution for our readers as well.<br />
<br />
<b>Please note that we have no plans to delete the blog. It should stay online as a point of reference.</b><br />
<br />
Just for the record, our decision to stop blogging has purely personal reasons, and nobody "forced" us to do this. :-)<br />
<br />
We would like to thank our contributors and readers who made this blog and this community a very special place over the years. We are very grateful that we had the opportunity to bring you all together. This blog has now come to an end, but we know that the community will survive and prosper. After all, we cannot allow the "bad guys" to be victorious, and we have to continue to fight for freedom and democracy, every day. We hope to occasionally catch up with you all at Nomad's blog in the comments in the future. Lots of love to all of you!<br />
<br />Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-65513512444012232662016-11-25T16:45:00.002+01:002016-11-25T16:49:55.202+01:00HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYBODY!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrk03xGIxEuP0vPhWpQfNHRZgBDF0Pb0jum89fBJ24gZQ01crjP67ankywU5uctDrfnol5YJOYKcxRy7vpsd-B9QJmXUj0LeHBTXRSoM8YmDns0ahAt-xDZYoHeTPR_WF-866qjAIZVsQ/s1600/Thanksgiving+-+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="473" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrk03xGIxEuP0vPhWpQfNHRZgBDF0Pb0jum89fBJ24gZQ01crjP67ankywU5uctDrfnol5YJOYKcxRy7vpsd-B9QJmXUj0LeHBTXRSoM8YmDns0ahAt-xDZYoHeTPR_WF-866qjAIZVsQ/s640/Thanksgiving+-+1.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Patrick</b></div>
<br />
Just a little bit late. Kathleen and I would like to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!<br />
<br />
We hope that you all have a great time, and that you won't be bothered too much by Trump-loving relatives. ;-)<br />
<br />
<a href="http://nypost.com/2016/11/22/sarah-palin-not-being-considered-for-any-trump-cabinet-positions/">There are also some good news:</a><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGx7gZlrJv2YjkHxDfsatiNQsmDitOxKXKzovZ03-NgvOPaUCo-8BivJxxflJ1bZT0zTA8NPy_EiUELqcoOdLECaqXOMzNiZX9BQWXUZJAmftApEHhWebmxB0vpbFGEUtyHyW0h-9sYmQ/s1600/Palin+-+New+York+Post.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGx7gZlrJv2YjkHxDfsatiNQsmDitOxKXKzovZ03-NgvOPaUCo-8BivJxxflJ1bZT0zTA8NPy_EiUELqcoOdLECaqXOMzNiZX9BQWXUZJAmftApEHhWebmxB0vpbFGEUtyHyW0h-9sYmQ/s640/Palin+-+New+York+Post.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
<br />
Which does not come as a big surprise. Not even Donald Trump is THAT crazy!<br />
<br />
Have a very pleasant long weekend, everybody!<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2RU0arq7NTrUhPmH3NnNtIVNyT4X0AnOv_DcfqL-_ur_LTIhy6palIGeRTCqdgVDxPwtlbYhcjtUuoVjTCcOGMxgDEpuivISAqqZbX4mhuktNoE1-74loH3S8uD_cmnZACGltK06uSts/s1600/Thanksgiving+-+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="403" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2RU0arq7NTrUhPmH3NnNtIVNyT4X0AnOv_DcfqL-_ur_LTIhy6palIGeRTCqdgVDxPwtlbYhcjtUuoVjTCcOGMxgDEpuivISAqqZbX4mhuktNoE1-74loH3S8uD_cmnZACGltK06uSts/s640/Thanksgiving+-+2.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
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<br />Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-67038761706848819522016-11-19T15:35:00.000+01:002016-11-19T15:47:51.737+01:00Election Post Mortem With Leadfoot, Bella, L.A.’s Handsome Mayor and Some Other Smart People<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibyXqdoAGsqwCwIcDkpOhd48OFJJ0JMUn9ndTnhZWl0xHHLgFgAZELOOcd0ES6pHY3v9lruB4oYuuJMFPGzdy31Ky4zNGTiJgffUN5ZLczMY4L0rhgVeH5rKATC2xayaini77fiZa2EUU/s1600/LA+Times+cartoon+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibyXqdoAGsqwCwIcDkpOhd48OFJJ0JMUn9ndTnhZWl0xHHLgFgAZELOOcd0ES6pHY3v9lruB4oYuuJMFPGzdy31Ky4zNGTiJgffUN5ZLczMY4L0rhgVeH5rKATC2xayaini77fiZa2EUU/s640/LA+Times+cartoon+2.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo from the Los Angeles Times Essential PoliticsPost Election Symposium
</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Leadfoot</b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Last night, Bella and I had the privilege
(see what I did there?) of attending the <b><a href="https://www.redcat.org/event/la-times-essential-politics">Los Angeles Times Essential PoliticsPost Election Symposium.</a></b> I got an email inviting all subscribers to attend, and
immediately ordered tickets. It was good I acted quickly, because the event was
sold out within 5 minutes. Apparently we all need post election therapy here in
L.A.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b>So I busted Bella out of school early, and
we drove downtown. She missed last period, which is social studies. I figured
this event would be more educational anyway.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">First up was Jill
Darling, <span style="background: white;">survey director of the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none; color: black; padding: 0cm;">Center for Economic
and Social Research</span><span style="background: white;"> at
the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. That is a very long
title that just means she conducted the poll that the LA Times printed before
the election – the only major newspaper poll that predicted a Trump win. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Since <span style="background: white;">the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://cesrusc.org/election/" target="_blank"><span style="background: white; border: none 1.0pt; color: #0201fe; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">USC Dornsife/Los
Angeles Times Presidential Election Daybreak Poll</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span style="background: white;">debuted in July,<span class="apple-converted-space"> people on social media had asked “what is up
with that LA Times poll though?” because </span></span>it predicted Trump
winning the election by 3 points. It was so different from the other polls,
that observers thought the LA Times had to be wrong. Now the pollsters look
like geniuses. So how did they do it? Darling said they “caught the wave of
secret Trump voters” by not using the telephone. They went into communities in
the swing states and set up panels, which they used to get to know people. They
formed relationships and built trust, meeting face to face with the same people
each week. While respondents might lie to a faceless pollster on the phone,
they tell the truth to someone they know and trust. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Darling was asked why the rest of us were
so duped. She responded that “people were looking at predictor models, not
scientifically sound poll results.” Everyone was looking at sites such as the
New York Times and Nate Silver’s fivethirtyeight.com, which told us the
percentage chance that Hillary would win, so we felt confident. For example,
Nate Silver showed Trump had a 30% chance of winning, so we all thought that
meant he would lose. But if someone told us we had a 30% chance of having a
major earthquake, we would take that much more seriously. That still means that
3 times out of 10, there is a path to victory (or your house falling down). The
lesson is – do not rely so heavily on the predictor model. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Next up was a panel of political
strategists, including: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">n<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">Bill Burton, deputy White House Press Secretary during President
Obama’s first term</span></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">n<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">Bill Carrick, a Democratic consultant who previously worked for
Diane Feinstein and advised Loretta Sanchez’s Senate campaign</span></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">n<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">Tim Clark, Republican consultant and the Trump campaign’s California
director</span></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">n<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">Sean Clegg, former deputy mayor of LA, and consultant for <span style="background: white; color: #333333;">Senator-elect Kamala Harris </span></span></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">n<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">Mickey Kantor, <span style="background: white; color: #333333;">a former
Commerce secretary under President Bill Clinton</span></span></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">n<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #333333;">Rob Stutzman, who used to
work in former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration, </span><span lang="EN-US">on the Romney campaign, and was a loud voice in the Never Trump
movement</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">First, they were asked why everyone in the
world of politics and the media predicted the outcome so incorrectly. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Tim Clark said that “people started to
believe the media line that Trump didn’t have a ground game. We knew we were
going to win. We knew we had North Carolina and Florida won. Our campaign was
built on metrics, data and a strong ground game. The press corps and the
Clinton campaign began to believe the media hype.” The Trump campaign decided
to just keep quiet and not tip their hand.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK7_LFVx3MYx0D3H7bMQNip_pOccGcUjq1IM8WniSwZq5CZxNBOyonisLK2ky3RBzscFz2jrCAT98vG4jHPrgV-ewdoMilYwXxVpArwQDt9wV1SQHNLxycvbKVb32swPvj2duXHUbh4oA/s1600/LA+protest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK7_LFVx3MYx0D3H7bMQNip_pOccGcUjq1IM8WniSwZq5CZxNBOyonisLK2ky3RBzscFz2jrCAT98vG4jHPrgV-ewdoMilYwXxVpArwQDt9wV1SQHNLxycvbKVb32swPvj2duXHUbh4oA/s1600/LA+protest.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Protests in Los Angeles against Donald Trump</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Next they were asked if a different
Democratic candidate would have changed the outcome. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Bill Burton responded, “There was a lot of
anger out there. I don’t know that some other candidate could have won this
race on the democratic side. Trump just did too good of a job appealing to the
angry white people without college degrees in the rust belt. The Dems needed
more white people (to vote) and I don’t think any candidate would have
attracted them.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Other panelists noted that “Make America
Great Again” was an economic message, and “Stronger Together” was not.
Americans wanted an economic message during this election cycle. Instead, the
Clinton team made their campaign about Trump -- his failures as a human, and as
a candidate. They needed to focus much more on how to improve the lives of
people feeling economic pain. “We need an economic message that appeals to
people who make between $50,000 and $100,000 a year. We completely missed that
group of voters,” said Mickey Kantor.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b>Loretta Gonzalez from the AFL-CIO chimed in
to note, “We overlooked why Bernie appealed to people in the Rust Belt. He had
a great message on trade and unions that appealed to those in the blue collar
labor force. The DNC cast his messages aside, and that was a mistake. </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b>The Sanders movement was real! Those were
passionate supporters. In retrospect, Hillary should have made him the VP
candidate. And his message must not be ignored going forward. The youth has a
very strong BS meter and they didn’t trust Hillary. They thought Democrats
should never support trade agreements that don’t protect the workers.”</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Kantor agreed and said that “Michael
Dukakis carried Iowa by 12 points in 1988 and Hillary lost it! She just did not
appeal to rural communities at all.” The
Clinton campaign spent more money in OH and PA than any presidential candidate
in history. It simply didn’t matter. The message was wrong.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Trump spent far less money than any candidate
in recent history, and that fact appealed to his base. He was the first truly
independent candidate to ever win the presidency. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">That said, if you look at the Senate
candidates’ vote counts, people who voted for the GOP Senate candidates
outweighed those who voted for Trump in FL, NC and OH. So the Republican voters
weren’t entirely buying what Trump was selling. Many didn’t vote for him, but
did vote for Portman, Rubio, etc. He is still the least popular candidate to
ever win the presidency.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkkbSfFvd4B0FmMBQwVEfWPZ06MHvn0R7RcjVZrULpSWwXkVIxHZM0qdphLKBBtu2NaurzBVHr3ABM_pQwvYAQqdJh8Cub-RyFOoP8l0ho_lLLozpehG6Y6CASNI2jZxFX1Hh3PUADe2s/s1600/LA+Times+cartoon+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkkbSfFvd4B0FmMBQwVEfWPZ06MHvn0R7RcjVZrULpSWwXkVIxHZM0qdphLKBBtu2NaurzBVHr3ABM_pQwvYAQqdJh8Cub-RyFOoP8l0ho_lLLozpehG6Y6CASNI2jZxFX1Hh3PUADe2s/s640/LA+Times+cartoon+1.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo from the Los Angeles Times Essential PoliticsPost Election Symposium
</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Clark implored the audience to understand
that “We need true leadership – someone who talks to the American people in
plain language and walks them through the plans in a way they can understand.
They need to hear specifically how we are going to improve education, and how
we are going to create jobs.” The crowd grew restless and it was clear that
most disagreed that Trump had walked them through anything specific. But the
point was taken that Hillary’s message went over most voters’ heads.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b>Rob Stutsman did not vote for Trump because
he “had grave concerns about a campaign that was run on denigrating women,
minorities and the disabled.” </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b>When asked if Trump will abandon the
inflammatory rhetoric of the campaign once in office, even the two Republicans on
the panel admitted that “Steve Bannon and Jeff Sessions are a bad sign.” Kantor
said “Bannon is not a person who is worthy of working in the West Wing.” </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Kantor also said that Trump gave so many
mixed messages that nobody has any idea what is actually going to happen. “Buy
your popcorn and get in the seats, because this is going to be a wild show!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">At one point Clark said that when his wife
gets together with her “lady friends” -- and all the women in the room started
booing, and he didn’t even get to finish the sentence. Apparently misogyny is
contagious among GOP officials. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Once he was allowed to speak again, Clark
said the GOP was united, and is always united. They get together to support
their candidate. He doesn’t know which way the Dems will go moving forward.
“Will the Progressives or the Centrists lead the party in the next 4 years? And
how do they get them all to come together and support the same candidate?” he
asked. It was a rhetorical question, or at least one that nobody had the answer
to, so we moved on.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Finally, the panel discussed California.
One strategist said that “California is now the center of the Progressive
universe. We have a unified Progressive government that is committed to
protecting Californians from anything Trump might do.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The issue is that our values here in
California are at odds with fiscal responsibility. For example, we support
immigrant rights, but that position is very expensive to us. We have to come to
terms with that reality at some point. “That’s one of the reasons we put
marijuana on the ballot. We want those tax dollars!” exclaimed Gonzales.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOtgsr6ya20rjC6nCvXTb6Qcpl8D55-cKUItSuiy21i1bIBn508Qz03PaH-C1_HXikpWYVKj6SjMMhYUEEy3HfD6Nf8jYPoJjtm1EdVOwCqoOat1ZwTGfYlRrdICZHsRG1noVkAZ6MdyI/s1600/LA+Times+cartoon+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOtgsr6ya20rjC6nCvXTb6Qcpl8D55-cKUItSuiy21i1bIBn508Qz03PaH-C1_HXikpWYVKj6SjMMhYUEEy3HfD6Nf8jYPoJjtm1EdVOwCqoOat1ZwTGfYlRrdICZHsRG1noVkAZ6MdyI/s640/LA+Times+cartoon+3.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-US"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo from the Los Angeles Times Essential PoliticsPost Election Symposium</span></b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The strategist panel was excused and the
mayoral panel was brought out. Eric Garcetti, the mayor of Los Angeles, kind of
made me fall in love with him. He spoke with enthusiasm and passion (after just
getting off a 16-hour flight from Qatar, where he was discussing the city’s
Olympic bid), had on a very hip suit and shoes, and his answers were inspiring!
He’s pretty easy on the eyes too. Remember his name. He has a future in the
Democratic party! The other mayor was <span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Kevin Faulconer, mayor of San Diego, who is a Republican.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The first question was about Trump’s
promise to cut off funding to sanctuary cities.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Mayor Garcetti responded, “The LAPD’s job
is to keep citizens safe and to solve crimes. We are going to focus on that
great responsibility. We cannot solve murders and rapes and other serious
crimes if we are enforcing immigration law. We are not a city that will ever
stop people and ask them to show us their papers. It’s just not ever going to
happen here.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Mayor <span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Faulconer answered, “</span>In San Diego, we are building
bridges with Mexico, not walls. Literally. We just opened a pedestrian bridge
that crosses the border. We already have a fence in San Diego, we don’t need a
wall. We aren’t focusing on any of that. We are focusing on how to build a
mutually beneficial relationship with Tijuana and on creating jobs on both
sides of the border.” Hmmmm, he sure doesn’t sound like a Republican. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b>Garcetti went on to say that “sanctuary
cities” aren’t even a real thing. There is no definition anywhere in any
charter or legislation. Los Angeles does not consider itself as a sanctuary
city, so we don’t know how a Trump administration will affect us yet, but we
don’t think we should lose any federal funding. We will push back against any
attempt to cut us off. “Pico Union isn’t filled with terrorists, it is filled
with hard working people.” The crowd went wild. My heart was aflutter. </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #222222;">Faulconer
</span><span lang="EN-US">admitted he opposed Trump and wrote in Paul Ryan for
president. He did back Trump on some policy issues though. “We would like to
partner with the new administration on infrastructure. We agree that
improvements are needed. We need better water infrastructure, to plan for
autonomous vehicles, etc. However, we will fight the administration on climate
change. We passed an aggressive climate change bill in San Diego, which focuses
primarily on water recycling. In CA, climate change means wildfires and
mudslides. It is a big deal to us and we will continue to fund programs to
combat it.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Garcetti has reached out to president elect
Trump to try to arrange a meeting. “I want to let him know that values are
important and we will never compromise on that. I left him a message to tell
him I will call him out if he says something un-American, but otherwise, let’s
get to work!” Do you think he will fit in my bag? I want to take him home. No?
Ok, well at least I have never been so proud to be an Angeleno. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Asked if Trump’s presidency could affect
LA’s bid for the Olympics, Garcetti said, “Our diversity is our greatest
strength. Los Angeles is a reflection of the world. We have the people, and the
experience. So nothing should derail our bid.” (I mean, ladies, am I right?!)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b>Asked about Calexit, both mayors said it is
a bad idea. Garcetti answered, “I love this country and I want to make its
political winds blow from the west.” And with that, I officially dropped my
support of Calexit.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Next up was a panel of LA Times political
reporters. Their most interesting comment was that they were shocked by
people’s reactions to Trump all over the country. They witnessed first-hand the
power of celebrity and showmanship. People reacted to him like he was a rock
star. Women tried to touch him. They screamed and fainted. Everyone took
selfies. Even the men. Trump also resembled a stand up comedian. People were
laughing as much as they were cheering. He hooked them by entertaining them.
They felt that they already knew him because he was a universal TV celebrity,
so they were comfortable with him. They liked the way he spoke to them as much
as the things he said. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">On top of that, the reporters said that
many men they talked to “voted with their middle finger.” They resent college
educated liberals, whom they thing look down on them. “So many people we talked
to, didn’t care whether Trump was qualified. They just wanted to stick it to
the liberals.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Finally, it was time for the question and
answer session. We had to write our questions on cards, and pass them to the
front. I submitted 4. Bella submitted one. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">One of my questions was read first: “Do you
see any of the electors refusing to cast votes for Trump?” The political
reporters said no. “I will never say never, but I don’t see this going
anywhere. There is no incentive for other states to do it.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Bella’s question was read next, and the
moderator said the question was from a 13-year-old (we wrote that on the card.)
She asked “Why do you think so many women voted for Trump after he showed women
such disrespect?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The LA Times political reporters said that
women, like every other group, are not one issue voters. No female candidate
ever gets 100% of her gender to vote for her. Women, all along, had negative
views about Hillary. They were willing to overlook things that Trump said
because Hillary was paid $250,000 a pop for giving speeches to Goldman Sachs,
and that turned them off more than Trump did. His female supporters were mostly
voting against her,<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a> instead of for him. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Bella was not at all satisfied with that
answer. As we walked out of the auditorium, several people stopped to ask her
if she was the famous 13-year-old (the crowd was mostly north of 50. Bella and
I were easily the youngest people in attendance). She said yes, and then talked
to strangers about how that answer didn’t sit well with her. “Women should
frown upon anyone who disrespects other women. Even if they didn’t like
Hillary, they could have still not voted for Trump. It’s possible to leave the
President part blank!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I beamed with pride as I scanned the room
for mayor Garcetti, but he had already left. Oh well, all in all, it was well
worth cutting school to attend the event. We both learned a lot, and felt
motivated to write letters to reporters, call our congress people, and maybe
even run for office one day. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">+++</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b>Note by Patrick:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b>Great post, Leadfoot, many thanks! </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b>Also, that's how children receive "real" education. I see a bright future ahead for Bella.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-73036372532180396122016-11-15T23:23:00.002+01:002016-11-15T23:37:12.875+01:00The best commentary about the election, and the best movie<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigcWNLIfcALtWCWGu28ykXufPwN21zb-lmpK-4W3KBWn3rMcKNH_y2C4c-YSt0VhyphenhyphenEbHMaXRKXVKKoi-QdQ6iBuxkM_ajzX3eRzUGwEj6Wu7iv54FRueK1jRQTB-wPSj0tz4hNfW-q4rE/s1600/Selection_003.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="504" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigcWNLIfcALtWCWGu28ykXufPwN21zb-lmpK-4W3KBWn3rMcKNH_y2C4c-YSt0VhyphenhyphenEbHMaXRKXVKKoi-QdQ6iBuxkM_ajzX3eRzUGwEj6Wu7iv54FRueK1jRQTB-wPSj0tz4hNfW-q4rE/s640/Selection_003.png" width="608" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Patrick</b></div>
<br />
Well, what is there to say during these trying times. Not much, really! Nothing is going to stop the upcoming disaster, and although Donald Trump apparently promised that he won't lead the USA into chaos straight away, but will keep a few pieces of civilization, there is not much hope. One could of course be cynical and could say "well, maybe it is good that America will finally see what right wing policies REALLY look like"....but then, too much damage will be done.<br />
<br />
A good European comparison to Trump is actually <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvio_Berlusconi">Silvio Berlusconi</a>, the former Italian Prime Minister, who also was a successful, boastful businessman, who liked the look of scantily dressed ladies, had strong ties to the mafia, was himself deeply corrupt - and finally left Italy in a terrible state. Pretty much a carbon copy of "the Don."<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">OK, as promised in the title of this post, I present to you the best commentary about Donald Trump's election that I could find - <a href="https://medium.com/@SnoozeInBrief/an-analysis-of-donald-trumps-election-win-and-the-prospects-for-his-presidency-f6a87eef6d70#.roovxj9p2"><b>click to read, it really is a "must-read":</b></a></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil1IbbgOjislPUMK8tqg-O22_WVVjIZTFv6z_sVI_EdD0CMyLMF-M3lIBg_xVaJhj304pUconnKeswwuZowmBcnfdrBFLrLMQnSTk1KAYZCD3XpAHDBVm-_3cC1cCc8ZcIf635avTMB-E/s1600/Selection_004.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil1IbbgOjislPUMK8tqg-O22_WVVjIZTFv6z_sVI_EdD0CMyLMF-M3lIBg_xVaJhj304pUconnKeswwuZowmBcnfdrBFLrLMQnSTk1KAYZCD3XpAHDBVm-_3cC1cCc8ZcIf635avTMB-E/s640/Selection_004.png" width="608" /></a></div>
<br />
OK, well, that was probably a bit one-sided, this analysis, haha, but in general I can highly recommend <a href="https://medium.com/"><b>this wonderful blog called "Medium"</b></a> which really deserves a larger readership! :-)<br />
<br />
The best movie? Well, there is no contest: Of course it has to be <b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">"Idiocracy"...!</a></b><br />
<br />
This little movie from 2006, which Fox tried to bury back then, but which then became a "cult hit" on DVD, provides the perfect narrative for the upcoming Trump-presidency.<br />
<br />
I had to think of this movie immediately when our dear friend Leadfoot commented on the previous post:<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><b>"The reason that people like my family in Ohio watch FOXNews is because it is packaged for less educated people. They like to feel entertained. They never watched Hillary speak because they literally cannot understand the words she is using. Her vocabulary makes them feel stupid and inferior, so they hate her."
</b></i></div>
<br />
<br />
Some of you might not have seen this movie yet. You can find quite a lot of clips on youtube, even the full movie (in bad quality, though), and here are some examples:<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m_aN-SN3iY">CLIP 1:</a></b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3m_aN-SN3iY" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGUNPMPrxvA"><b>CLIP 2:</b></a><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sGUNPMPrxvA" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W62ieTbvfDw">CLIP 3:</a></b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W62ieTbvfDw" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
<br />
If you have the chance to see the full movie, I can only highly recommend it - <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Idiocracy/dp/B005UWQ2M8">the DVD is not too expensive.</a><br />
<br />
I would like to close by quoting yet another comment by Leadfoot on the previous post - because reality is always better than fiction:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><b>"It is the same thing that has played out in my own family. I have one foot in L.A. and one foot in Ohio, where my family lives. They all voted for Trump because they are poor and stupid. But, and I have said this a million times here now, so sorry.... The economic frustration they feel is their own goddamn fault. They are LAZY. People were told 30 years ago that we were moving towards technology, and away from manufacturing. They were told to educate or re-educate themselves, and they chose not to. They chose not to leave their small towns for places where there are more opportunities. And they are PISSED OFF at those of us that did. I am sick of being told by my cousins I am a snobby bitch because I had the foresight to move away and did the hard work of getting 2 college degrees. They resent me because I became more than they did in life. And it is THEIR OWN FAULT. I am done. I will not even listen to willful ignorance and fake reality anymore.
Donald feels like the world frowns upon him, just like my family does. And they are right. That makes them angry. But they fail to take any personal responsibility. Idiots!"</b></i>
</div>
<br />
Very well said, Leadfoot!<br />
<br />
Good night, and good luck!<br />
<br />
+++<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>BONUS:</b></span><br />
<br />
Maya Rudolph, the former SNL-star who also head a lead role in "Idiocracy", <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq2kZBfzUTM">had a very funny appearance on "Ellen" a few years ago:</a><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zq2kZBfzUTM" width="600"></iframe></div>
<br />Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-78037033502919675102016-11-12T19:57:00.002+01:002016-11-12T19:57:48.648+01:00The reactions of German politicians to Donald Trump's success<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw163MLLlT4BNXdz8g5aIM6GOCcPp6asfqYou6Lp-aJ9nm-axpJc2m31NpPKxr-S2h3GDsYO60uwejP_SQYJfKlmuRek5__DinyfK8mwJvO6hqEXJaMeK5mKw3pwNNELrt-srstYazq08/s1600/Selection_001.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="477" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw163MLLlT4BNXdz8g5aIM6GOCcPp6asfqYou6Lp-aJ9nm-axpJc2m31NpPKxr-S2h3GDsYO60uwejP_SQYJfKlmuRek5__DinyfK8mwJvO6hqEXJaMeK5mKw3pwNNELrt-srstYazq08/s640/Selection_001.png" width="608" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Patrick</b></div>
<br />
German politicians had some interesting reactions to Donald Trump's victory.<br />
<br />
Angela Merkel had a very distinct response. She went on to praise the "old and honorable" American democracy in great length and afterwards provided her money quote:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: large;">"<b>On the basis of these values,</b> I offer a close cooperation to the upcoming President of the United States, Donald Trump."</span></i></div>
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP8yh9mfgS8">Watch:</a><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UP8yh9mfgS8" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<br />
The German chancellor is much braver than many people know. She also had no hesitation to sharply criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin in common press conferences, while he was standing next to her - in particular in regard to the Ukraine. Putin did not like this at all.<br />
<br />
Imagine a common press conference with Merkel and Trump. This could get interesting in the future.<br />
<br />
Germany's foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Social Democrats) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZiQi8OGcHM">made little attempt to hide his feelings:</a><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0ZiQi8OGcHM" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
<br />
Germany's minister for the defense, Ursula von der Leyen, whose father was a conservative politician, also made some interesting points:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-rpfmOKtMpw" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
<br />
German politicians are not afraid to speak out against authoritarian leaders. Donald Trump will not like the Germans very much.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80hlkT28Qv0">Well, at least he is proud of his "German blood" - whatever that is:</a><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/80hlkT28Qv0" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
<br />Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-13916698965802597012016-11-09T20:33:00.000+01:002016-11-09T20:39:12.358+01:00The disaster, it has happened<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHntKVR7fCgsQ0XqKvD2cvDJsB6vac89KF5xB_3WIu5K-phYJBzYOa6T7CMoWVOlufwzdFDl2yTsEHgNZ1aSv5myeni7Dr6wo1bbJbVXjlOTBV7xR_0Q_AxL9L4y3ULmKMpZ9LcoXNMIk/s1600/Trump+-+nasty+woman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="485" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHntKVR7fCgsQ0XqKvD2cvDJsB6vac89KF5xB_3WIu5K-phYJBzYOa6T7CMoWVOlufwzdFDl2yTsEHgNZ1aSv5myeni7Dr6wo1bbJbVXjlOTBV7xR_0Q_AxL9L4y3ULmKMpZ9LcoXNMIk/s640/Trump+-+nasty+woman.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Patrick</b></div>
<br />
Well, it is happened, the Americans have elected a vindictive racist narcissistic moron into the most important position in the world, with the power the blow the whole world up, and what could now possibly go wrong?<br />
<br />
I am very angry, because I believe that many sides are to blame for this catastrophic result, and as I am not connected to any US party, I feel free to speak my mind.<br />
<br />
This has been in the making for decades, and ever since the word "Liberal" became an insult in the eyes of many, the American democracy has been in great danger. Nobody knows this better than the Germans.<br />
<br />
In Germany, we were once confronted with the fact that the minds of a large part of the population had been poisoned, and these people then also motivated a lot of other people to vote for an evil person. The results were catastrophic, as well all know.<br />
<br />
The parallels to Nazi-Germany are too obvious. In Germany, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hugenberg">it was the right-wing Hugenberg press-empire</a> which made Adolf Hitler respectable, and in the USA, it was Fox News in particular as well as many right-wing radio shows all around the country which made extreme right-wing views respectable.<br />
<br />
Yes, this election was manipulated, by Russian hackers, Wikileaks and Mr. Comey, but it is a huge failure of the political system as a whole that a flawed candidate like Donald Trump was possible in the first place.<br />
<br />
Donald Trump cannot act within a democracy, because his twisted and sick mind does not allow it. He can only function as a dictator. If he does not become the "American Putin", I will eat my hat.<br />
<br />
Moderate Republicans should have stopped Trump, but they were far too self-absorbed and could not commit to one strong candidate to run against Trump. Then, the #NeverTrump people could not bring themselves to vote for Hillary and wasted their votes as a result.<br />
<br />
The Democrats obviously lost their connection to a large part of their traditional base, which is terrible.<br />
<br />
Not enough was also done against the destruction of the middle class - now many of them turned to an extremist.<br />
<br />
I am also very upset that Barack Obama continued to expand the surveillance state, with the naive belief that this monstrous surveillance machine would only be used for justified actions. It should have been more than obvious that this machine can also be abused, and I am pretty certain that Donald Trump's domestic enemies will get "first impressions" of this fact pretty soon. With the available surveillance technology, virtually everybody is an open book, as all communications can be easily monitored, and real privacy has become virtually impossible. Good luck with that.<br />
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This might not be a popular view, but I really don't care, sorry: It was a huge mistake in my opinon to construct and expand this huge surveillance machine. It will soon be in the hands of Donald Trump and his ruthless extreme right-wing allies. They surely will put it to "good use."<br />
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What else is there to say? There really is little hope. It will not be bad, it will be worse. Many Americans will suffer, and probably many people abroad as well. History tells us that people like Donald Trump are hell-bent to start wars, and I do not believe that Trump will be the exception.<br />
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Democracy in the USA will soon become a travesty. This is inevitable. The most important features, like the free media and free speech, will be under real threat, no doubt about it,<br />
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The media failed as well, as we have often discussed in the comments. They can now become his claqueurs, because much more won't be possible any more.<br />
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<a href="http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/whitehousemoron.asp">The prophecy by H. L. Mencken from 1920, it finally became true:</a><br />
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<blockquote style="border-color: #a44b3d; border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;">
The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.
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The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.</blockquote>
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Rebecca Schoenkopf at Wonkette <a href="http://wonkette.com/608425/go-fuck-yourself-america">has some harsh words for her fellow citizens.</a><br />
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Many people don't know yet what will hit them. They will know it pretty soon.<br />
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I feel very sorry for the good Americans who are now caught up in this mess. This should have been avoided.<br />
<br />Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-3157987655155413812016-11-08T20:41:00.001+01:002016-11-08T22:16:30.833+01:00Today is the day when Donald Trump will lose and we all will win!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9zsCq39qKBndRnk_XKL9f4nH_mNSTm4GEg6In0jaGSWFvVRyG14yROavf4MyjUtfhBPZxlcw08dYLE3jEUvW0JMce5aTEwmga-igZe35Wk9sKPO1POTOBN3XPH466LqvU5OeNvkTI-FY/s1600/Trump+Cowboy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="435" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9zsCq39qKBndRnk_XKL9f4nH_mNSTm4GEg6In0jaGSWFvVRyG14yROavf4MyjUtfhBPZxlcw08dYLE3jEUvW0JMce5aTEwmga-igZe35Wk9sKPO1POTOBN3XPH466LqvU5OeNvkTI-FY/s640/Trump+Cowboy.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">No, he won't be President, don't worry</span></b><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">!</span></b></div>
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<b>By Patrick</b></div>
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<b>"The day" has finally arrived! Hurray! The end of Donald Trump is near!</b></div>
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There is so much we learned during this crazy election!</div>
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<b>For example:</b></div>
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- We learned how easy it is to manipulate a very large part of the population</div>
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- We learned that it is actually possible to hide your tax returns while running for president</div>
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- We learned how somebody like Hitler could actually come to power (on a side note, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_federal_election,_March_1933">the Nazis received 43,9% in the last "free" elections in March 1933</a>, which will probably be very close to Donald Trump's result)</div>
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- We learned that even somebody like Glenn Beck <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/11/08/in-shocking-reversal-glenn-beck-tells-new-yorker-obama-made-me-a-better-man/">is able to finally "see the light"</a></div>
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- We learned that most of the GOP politicans are disgusting cowards who would endorse satan if their political lives depended on it</div>
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- We learned <a href="https://twitter.com/BenHowe/status/794379300870955008">that right-wingers like Ben Howe</a> are actually able to realize that somebody like Trump would rule as a dictator and are not afraid to speak out against him (however, they will start to love other right-wing scumbags again pretty soon, sadly)</div>
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- We learned that democracy is very fragile, and that even after this election democracy in the USA will continue to be under threat</div>
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- We learned that politics in the USA is not a joke, but deadly serious, especially if you elect the person who will be able to blow up the world</div>
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We learned of course many, many more things - maybe you can add more examples in the comments.</div>
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<b>It will be an exciting day! Let's praise democracy and enjoy ourselves!</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj9VNWHVeMjCrSugRV5jGDAgXF5ZXvXDiDK1lPiYD3oabdYxpHTzAkIGifbUavl8HNruyJCDF8NZINgGTk32tDvcN6Q0JP0cHQv-5x-OF6wCRFgCVZ3roVAbrlDSFWJNYdF_MNssEQsgQ/s1600/Miami+Herald+-+Her%252C+not+him.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj9VNWHVeMjCrSugRV5jGDAgXF5ZXvXDiDK1lPiYD3oabdYxpHTzAkIGifbUavl8HNruyJCDF8NZINgGTk32tDvcN6Q0JP0cHQv-5x-OF6wCRFgCVZ3roVAbrlDSFWJNYdF_MNssEQsgQ/s1600/Miami+Herald+-+Her%252C+not+him.jpg" /></a></div>
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+++</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">BONUS:</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Wonderful "final clip" by the Clinton campaign - "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYtg7qy1CGg">Don't stand still. Vote today.</a>"</span></b></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hYtg7qy1CGg" width="600"></iframe></div>
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Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-23377459401877046062016-11-05T14:24:00.004+01:002016-11-05T20:50:23.610+01:00Bill Maher delivers the ultimate pre-election smackdown - PLUS: A great and also frightening commentary in the UK Guardian <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8c_q-3__sjwXU1P77XWW_xd8dtSWg2Fj4WWoNQP-52GZHB9mk0vH-dqIIiKfpgZtZvbODiQd62KkDJgO2KK42hLK63q-TjqKrvoPgIegeg3u-3notQOFcqSC3qUlGLyjg97x1LxG4h9Q/s1600/Donald+Trump+-+pied+piper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8c_q-3__sjwXU1P77XWW_xd8dtSWg2Fj4WWoNQP-52GZHB9mk0vH-dqIIiKfpgZtZvbODiQd62KkDJgO2KK42hLK63q-TjqKrvoPgIegeg3u-3notQOFcqSC3qUlGLyjg97x1LxG4h9Q/s640/Donald+Trump+-+pied+piper.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
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<b>By Patrick</b></div>
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With the election unexpectedly close again, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj0XYQKbGLk">Bill Maher delivered an epic smackdown:</a><br />
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Also, the UK Guardian published a commentary that everyone should read - <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/04/if-donald-trump-wins-new-age-endarkenment">it is not just about America, it is about everybody:</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivVFOtFv3yGq5zGxChfXdh113n58mCuJNleEONQE4aMPavJrpo9HsfsvfW5SOrttD9te-qpQB0cV9lN22pm4AfFGEz9WOSv6GrBUc2e32lC0uq3BKBUe0IzowFOnriwRYh-Qrc19lpLnw/s1600/Guardian+headline.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivVFOtFv3yGq5zGxChfXdh113n58mCuJNleEONQE4aMPavJrpo9HsfsvfW5SOrttD9te-qpQB0cV9lN22pm4AfFGEz9WOSv6GrBUc2e32lC0uq3BKBUe0IzowFOnriwRYh-Qrc19lpLnw/s640/Guardian+headline.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
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<b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/04/if-donald-trump-wins-new-age-endarkenment">Quote:</a></b></div>
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<blockquote style="border-color: #a44b3d; border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;">
<b>We are standing on the brink of the abyss. And, like anyone who’s ever peered into a chasm, we are experiencing a queasy, sinking feeling. All round the world, not just in the United States, people are contemplating the prospect that on Wednesday morning we will wake to hear of victory for Donald J Trump.
</b><br />
<br />
Trump campaign hit with restraining order over voter intimidation fears – as it happened
Follow live updates from the 2016 campaign trail as Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are dispatched to swing states with four days to go until election day
Read more
The mere imagining of that outcome is inducing anxiety in those far away from the action. I don’t just mean obsessives such as me, who spend the midnight hour checking the early voting returns from Washoe County, Nevada. Otherwise normal people also confess to being reduced to nervous wrecks by the thought that Trump might actually win. They chart their mood swings on social media, delighting in hopeful news – Hillary Clinton up in ABC News tracking poll! – or panicking at any sign the snake-oil salesman might pull it off, such as today’s Washington Post headline: “Donald Trump has never been closer to the presidency than he is at this moment”, I could feel my palms turn clammy.
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In Britain we feel especially vulnerable. If you voted remain, the memory of a ballot going the wrong way is fresh. And not just any ballot, but one you believe will cause lasting, epochal damage. The thought that Tuesday might bring the second such moment in a year is one to dread.<br />
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Thanks to Brexit, the usual reassurances – the expert endorsements, the polling data – have lost their calming properties. In June the smart money, including the betting markets, said remain had it in the bag. Burnt by that experience, nothing can soothe us now – except the right result. Until then, we have to chew our fingernails, hit refresh on the Real Clear Politics polling page and wait.<br />
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<b>Many, especially in the US, will have a ready response: what’s it got to do with you? To which the answer is: plenty. The experience of the last photo-finish election – Bush v Gore in 2000 – taught many non-Americans a lesson we could not forget. Americans decide, but their decision affects the entire world. The supreme court’s installation of George W Bush as president had a profound and global impact. Just over a year later, Bush was agitating to invade Iraq, a choice whose consequences we live with still. (In Britain the focus is always on Tony Blair, as it was again this week when John Chilcot faced MPs. But that war would never have happened without Bush.)
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(...)It's the contempt Trump shows for democratic norms that has people fearing they are witness to something akin to fascism
So a President Trump will change lives far beyond the US. An American leader who believes climate change is a Chinese hoax, who believes terror suspects should be tortured and their family members killed, who believes that Saudi Arabia should have nuclear weapons, who is fascinated by nukes’ power of “devastation” and who has asked repeatedly why the US doesn’t use them; a man who says, “I love war”; a man who drools in admiration for Vladimir Putin and whose disregard for Nato, and refusal to promise to defend a member state if attacked, would all but invite Moscow to invade one of the Baltic states – such a man would plunge all of us into a dark future. That we are not living in the US will not protect us.o a Trump presidency would exert a pull beyond America’s shores. Suspicion of migrants, loathing of Muslims, a desire to put up walls and roll back social progress – these currents exist everywhere. Were Trump to win, they would have the endorsement of the most powerful office in the world. For eight years, Barack Obama has been a cautionary voice, counselling against the global rush towards xenophobia and insularity. If Trump replaces him, white nationalism will have command of the world’s loudest megaphone. Racists and bigots everywhere will feel validated, vindicated – and mobilised.
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<b>
The same is true of the contempt Trump shows for basic democratic norms. As much as the rank prejudice, it’s this that has serious people – including Republicans – fearing they are witness to something akin to fascism. His insistence that “I alone can fix” America’s problems; his threats to curb the free press, punishing news organisations that have criticised him; his hint that he would sack America’s generals and replace them with ones more compliant; his threats to jail his opponent and his winking hint that gun rights activists could find a way to deal with Clinton; his refusal to say he will accept the outcome of the election – with each of these steps, Trump has trampled on the foundation stones of liberal democracy.</b><br />
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Should he win, it would be a victory for a candidate who has lied more than any in history, who is spectacularly unqualified for the job and who stands contrary to the very idea of expertise. (Asked who he consulted on foreign policy, Trump answered, “I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things.”) It would be a triumph over truth, facts and knowledge. It would be the start of a new age of endarkenment.</blockquote>
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Well, at least nobody can say that this election is boring. ;-)<br />
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In any case, we still have a lot of hope that sanity will prevail in the end. That being said, the American political system is an absolute nightmare.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Have a nice weekend, everybody!</span></b><br />
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Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-26259804787554030082016-10-31T21:34:00.001+01:002016-10-31T22:17:53.103+01:00One of the faces of good America: Robert Reich<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><i>"America is great because America is good, </i></b></div>
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<b><i>and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."</i></b></div>
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<b><i>Alexis de Tocqueville</i></b></div>
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<b>By Patrick</b></div>
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America is a very confusing country, maybe more than ever. One the one hand, it is home to millions of highly educated people. Many of the best universities are located in the USA - <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2016/world-ranking#!/page/0/length/25/sort_by/rank_label/sort_order/asc/cols/rank_only">no less than 17 American universities can be found</a> among the best 25 universities of the world. On the other hand, contempt of education, ignorance and the fanatic belief in authoritarian solutions have become popular, endangering the foundations of democracy. In this incredibly diverse country, a clash between several cultures is taking place. The outcome has yet to be determined.</div>
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Reich"><b>Robert Reich</b></a> is a prominent representative of the highly educated, and may I say, "good" America. He wrote many books which surely are excellent, but these days, the public conversation mainly takes place on social media. Books are not as influential as they once were. </div>
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Social media however has become incredibly influential. That's where we spend many hours a week, where we form our opinions and communicate with others. Places like our blog, but most importantly, the conversation can be found on facebook and twitter.</div>
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Therefore it is a good thing that somebody like Robert Reich <a href="https://www.facebook.com/RBReich?fref=nf">has become very active on facebook as well.</a> He usually publishes several facebook posts every day, and they are often very thought provoking as well as fascinating. They are worth reading.</div>
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Here are some examples.</div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/posts/1349621041717155">Robert Reich described how Republican cowardice could result in Trump-dictatorship in the USA:</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfortqj6S-Rt8McTSp5b3ESDkd3FIi0zjB26s3m3OfXtG_PHbdNFU66IfqQ1Cry-z1l2Y9jhiQ6quw8dJ2zx83b5vyg40bO4eJaLgfezmsZ97gx_gQdylFQEWoPqWXXSWMbkXgXF7wXcg/s1600/Reich+-+facebook+post+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfortqj6S-Rt8McTSp5b3ESDkd3FIi0zjB26s3m3OfXtG_PHbdNFU66IfqQ1Cry-z1l2Y9jhiQ6quw8dJ2zx83b5vyg40bO4eJaLgfezmsZ97gx_gQdylFQEWoPqWXXSWMbkXgXF7wXcg/s1600/Reich+-+facebook+post+1.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/posts/1167783783234216">He explained how Donald Trump follows the script of fascism:</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEkrubPpdtNCJ945hEVDMwKN7dYQwtzi0uFqC_-avEeyumxZZxLm4yS0xvh4F_pKUmQu70AT2D0M5lzPPKiUbta2HLKEGEGYADN5rV9aID2muTyw4TyBHrnfEX0EvWopqWj8lPKf3qT-0/s1600/Reich+-+facebook+post+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEkrubPpdtNCJ945hEVDMwKN7dYQwtzi0uFqC_-avEeyumxZZxLm4yS0xvh4F_pKUmQu70AT2D0M5lzPPKiUbta2HLKEGEGYADN5rV9aID2muTyw4TyBHrnfEX0EvWopqWj8lPKf3qT-0/s1600/Reich+-+facebook+post+2.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/posts/1352195811459678"><br /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/posts/1352195811459678">He praises comedians:</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9MSH9-OUCcC8WPt5gViWdOlU7DW44cRlB5PTGl_eaeZudQKB9HEnUUY8xYUEsy8SHk5FuILLnYwfBzjMcwpuX7lRRMd9qL5D7R-ce6M0cqTwp5Id1n-ZJq7rwZgnKIoNiBEJQWJYAB7o/s1600/Reich+-+facebook+post+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9MSH9-OUCcC8WPt5gViWdOlU7DW44cRlB5PTGl_eaeZudQKB9HEnUUY8xYUEsy8SHk5FuILLnYwfBzjMcwpuX7lRRMd9qL5D7R-ce6M0cqTwp5Id1n-ZJq7rwZgnKIoNiBEJQWJYAB7o/s1600/Reich+-+facebook+post+3.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/posts/1351333664879226"><br /></a>
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/posts/1351333664879226">He wrote a scathing post about Anthony Weiner:</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfamY9IcYb5n3VLkriEi7x7Qc2KDiugB5ctvOehHBID67F0qGlQ4D0kcThOP4lwew1kvAardtoCgesExwhG-x1jR5ez7hOkci8wwLB8d-CP6dBAEsostXQx27QOqhf-PxHXkWIlfyztU8/s1600/Reich+-+facebook+post+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfamY9IcYb5n3VLkriEi7x7Qc2KDiugB5ctvOehHBID67F0qGlQ4D0kcThOP4lwew1kvAardtoCgesExwhG-x1jR5ez7hOkci8wwLB8d-CP6dBAEsostXQx27QOqhf-PxHXkWIlfyztU8/s1600/Reich+-+facebook+post+4.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/RBReich">There is much more.</a> Please check it out.</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
We will never stop believing in "good America." After all, there is something special which distinguishes America from many other places. People like Robert Reich are wonderful representatives of this free world with liberal values - a world which is now under threat. </div>
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Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-88278759205429977822016-10-28T21:54:00.002+02:002016-10-28T22:12:09.551+02:00Songs about Donald Trump<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlFx4D-l7GvLLejSDDOEVP99g7JD-ZiiLMPqSxGpMzBEyuWlcCs1eLD8lrU0iRJI7kVKA8akTITK5__P_vST4r2TPJ0RRdWnlFCYtgWjh0YFznph1XBVZ9BTRrDSdje3gh37UHpdipROg/s1600/Trump+song.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="485" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlFx4D-l7GvLLejSDDOEVP99g7JD-ZiiLMPqSxGpMzBEyuWlcCs1eLD8lrU0iRJI7kVKA8akTITK5__P_vST4r2TPJ0RRdWnlFCYtgWjh0YFznph1XBVZ9BTRrDSdje3gh37UHpdipROg/s640/Trump+song.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Patrick</b></div>
<br />
Donald Trump aspires to be a dictator who wants to throw his domestic enemies in jail, wants to throw millions of people out of the country, wants to end the concept of a free press and media, wants to torture his "foreign" enemies and kill their families, wants to "shoot first and ask questions later", wants to punish women for abortions, and wants many more obscene things which I have forgotten about right now.<br />
<br />
Donald Trump is obscene.<br />
<br />
Therefore, it is fully justified to publish hard-hitting, even "outrageous" anti-Trump music-videos, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-bKFo30o2o">like the Russian band "Pussy Riot" did yesterday.</a> It appears that only those people who for example already experienced the humiliating life as a prisoner in an autocratic country can truly imagine what life in "Donald Trump's America" would be like. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/23/freed-pussy-riot-amnesty-prison-putin-humiliation"><b>Three members of "Pussy Riot" had to endure nearly two years imprisonment in Vladimir Putin's prison camps</b></a>, and they know very well what the very harsh reality would look like. No doubt in my mind that Donald Trump deeply admires Vladimir Putin's brutal system...<br />
<br />
(h/t silver_desert)<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-bKFo30o2o">Watch:</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s-bKFo30o2o" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
<br />
More interesting songs which are "featuring" Donald Trump in one way or the other can be found on the internet. Here is a small collection of songs which are worth watching.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hAq9ro7StU"><b>CLIP 1:</b></a><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-hAq9ro7StU" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95AR87ciruc">CLIP 2:</a></b><br />
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/95AR87ciruc" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSBGDC0rKWU"><b>CLIP 3:</b></a></div>
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<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JSBGDC0rKWU" width="600"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdBF6h7oH5I">CLIP 4:</a></b></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FdBF6h7oH5I" width="600"></iframe></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC7u_IKEWwA"><b>Finally, one of our favourite artists, Randy Rainbow, with a new clip:</b></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WC7u_IKEWwA" width="600"></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">However, there is no doubt in my mind that American democracy will triumph over the forces of evil in the end.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Have a good and pleasant weekend, everybody!</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
+++<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">BONUS:</span></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbryz0mxuMY">This is pretty epic:</a></b><br />
<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Kbryz0mxuMY" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
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Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-772745277276657162016-10-23T23:08:00.000+02:002016-10-24T20:23:36.174+02:00"Saturday Night Live" with Tom Hanks - Looking for yuuuuuuge fun?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4vNT6ZLxqI99lSCcaFiqvMEGAS241uucp6Wui90kgUB_HQYHjctXaOjP8qTPR7MV6IROt09ehtZCwzIxUk_D4__vyCrO_9A2bjYW_x3M_ZghkDbZUJXg5rVD1VvIfeQ_Uqa8NiiZP2rQ/s1600/Pussy+grabs+back.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4vNT6ZLxqI99lSCcaFiqvMEGAS241uucp6Wui90kgUB_HQYHjctXaOjP8qTPR7MV6IROt09ehtZCwzIxUk_D4__vyCrO_9A2bjYW_x3M_ZghkDbZUJXg5rVD1VvIfeQ_Uqa8NiiZP2rQ/s640/Pussy+grabs+back.jpg" width="512" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Patrick</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
We need a new post, I am a bit "trumped out" at the moment, so I will keep it brief. Donald Trrump's campaign will probably go down in history as the worst presidential campaign ever, but this is hardly a surprise, as "the Don" is also the worst presidential candidate ever. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Maybe the "Trump-wing" of the Republican party should just form a separate party. They could call themselves "Huge Nuts Party." Haha, I came up with this myself.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Anyway, Tom Hanks, a man I really admire, teamed up again with the good people at "Saturday Night Live", and the results are glorious, as was to be expected.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Tom Hanks is a great person and a real role model. The "antidote" to Donald Trump, so to speak.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Watch and enjoy!</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kjyltrKZSY">CLIP 1:</a></b><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-kjyltrKZSY" width="600"></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfcJQ880E4g">(READERS OUTSIDE THE USA, PLEASE CLICK HERE)</a></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7VaXlMvAvk">CLIP 2:</a></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/O7VaXlMvAvk" width="600"></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr6vMeh6OnI">(READERS OUTSIDE THE USA, PLEASE CLICK HERE)</a></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcwFeyrH2ww">CLIP 3:</a></b><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vcwFeyrH2ww" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyA0ojRuT0I">(READERS OUTSIDE THE USA, PLEASE CLICK HERE)</a></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b>+++</b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">BONUS (non-political):</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm8MiJWnfyA">CLIP 1:</a></b><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wm8MiJWnfyA" width="600"></iframe>
<b><br /></b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elOBGwK99u4">CLIP 2:</a></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><br /></b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/elOBGwK99u4" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-3752774223448851372016-10-19T21:07:00.001+02:002016-10-19T21:21:41.644+02:00Finally, the third and last debate - It will soon be over, and the Constitution will have saved the American people<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0d6teuLxc4_83tC-f2CNe7e-Vxk60iQDtXRRvKQuc73hvGj5xO7ntvQ6Px1rTCSFdSt89rzm_FeMgeBlZL75brbUEAzuKy4JaHwXAxeG1QTdzaxFSlBsDp56bgiCd11bhb-ruTqGcH1U/s1600/trump+debate+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="431" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0d6teuLxc4_83tC-f2CNe7e-Vxk60iQDtXRRvKQuc73hvGj5xO7ntvQ6Px1rTCSFdSt89rzm_FeMgeBlZL75brbUEAzuKy4JaHwXAxeG1QTdzaxFSlBsDp56bgiCd11bhb-ruTqGcH1U/s640/trump+debate+1.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Patrick</b></div>
<br />
Yes, almost done!<br />
<br />
Don't worry, very soon, the nightmare will be over.<br />
<br />
I am confident that America will recover, although it may take some time.<br />
<br />
What I hope is the following: America will realize (again) that the Constitution has been created to protect us from ourselves. This year, the Constitution has to protect us from Donald Trump and his minions.<br />
<br />
We need to have faith in the strength of American democracy.<br />
<br />
The debate will probably just be as terrible as the last one, but at least it will soon be over.<br />
<br />
Starting at 09.00 ET, as usual.<br />
<br />
Here are two interesting clips.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neTQxqF1Wew">Steve Schmidt, a man who redeemed himself, makes some stinging comments:</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/neTQxqF1Wew" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKfNp8NU82o">Stephen Colbert talks to "Melania Trump":</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hKfNp8NU82o" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjosYk9qTY5zjgokIE2LKB3vVTgWT87w4pu_NEUu3CMiV1Zc37ihbXdHsE7hxfs3A21pSKh82E1eBcG7ltLFHkI8kle2KmrMr86fgJ51PKIJzzqM1-sZFz5ExQOr_7J3NLgUdoFeXkjv_Y/s1600/trump+debate+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="365" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjosYk9qTY5zjgokIE2LKB3vVTgWT87w4pu_NEUu3CMiV1Zc37ihbXdHsE7hxfs3A21pSKh82E1eBcG7ltLFHkI8kle2KmrMr86fgJ51PKIJzzqM1-sZFz5ExQOr_7J3NLgUdoFeXkjv_Y/s640/trump+debate+2.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvmaRTEFJOpxwJrJQPBg-T0bVSQyQeQZFnGuIEtiXx0_E5eD-PDTL7YShNLsUBVmxcyjR66WLDeshstR1HQOMDfEhWiBgGyz9tNhfJFqwbpcgvMtY0_gV7AXEPN1YnN_ILrKNBas8wz7M/s1600/TRUMP+DOG.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="608" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvmaRTEFJOpxwJrJQPBg-T0bVSQyQeQZFnGuIEtiXx0_E5eD-PDTL7YShNLsUBVmxcyjR66WLDeshstR1HQOMDfEhWiBgGyz9tNhfJFqwbpcgvMtY0_gV7AXEPN1YnN_ILrKNBas8wz7M/s640/TRUMP+DOG.png" width="580" /></a></div>
<br />
+++<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">BONUS:</span></b><br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYagr8TdBl0"><br /></a>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYagr8TdBl0">Randy Rainbow interviews Melania Trump:</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oYagr8TdBl0" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-10101895057983168282016-10-15T15:16:00.000+02:002016-10-15T17:42:53.671+02:00The Apocalypse has to be postponed - Donald Trump will lose the election in a landslide, but what will happen then?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijcxvO1PWOqqJKcGRJJUzp3tXRBBTTlAvfY1E3hDzb4tLA3Te57KJoq9GsQ89OVaSb1uSNxzpBmbKqNvPp2HL5_wIFiPortZOWiKxShaxyKJvb0eUDliS55VtvUKoRtGbcA_09D7Iv4vw/s1600/albrecht-duerer-die-vier-apokalyptischen-reiter-high.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijcxvO1PWOqqJKcGRJJUzp3tXRBBTTlAvfY1E3hDzb4tLA3Te57KJoq9GsQ89OVaSb1uSNxzpBmbKqNvPp2HL5_wIFiPortZOWiKxShaxyKJvb0eUDliS55VtvUKoRtGbcA_09D7Iv4vw/s640/albrecht-duerer-die-vier-apokalyptischen-reiter-high.jpg" width="464" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Albrecht Dürer, "The four horsemen of the Apocalypse", 1498</span></b></div>
<h1 class="passage-display" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-align: center;">
<span class="passage-display-bcv" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-right: 10px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Revelation 6:1-8</span></span></h1>
<h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: center;">
<span class="text Rev-6-1" id="en-NIV-30795" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Seals</span></span></h3>
<div class="chapter-1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="text Rev-6-1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="chapternum" style="bottom: -0.1em; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "arial"; font-weight: bold; left: 0px; line-height: 0.8em; position: relative;">6 </span>I watched as the Lamb<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-30795A" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-30795A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span> opened the first of the seven seals.<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-30795B" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-30795B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span> Then I heard one of the four living creatures<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-30795C" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-30795C" title="See cross-reference C">C</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span> say in a voice like thunder,<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-30795D" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-30795D" title="See cross-reference D">D</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>“Come!”</span> <span class="text Rev-6-2" id="en-NIV-30796" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "arial"; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">2 </span>I looked, and there before me was a white horse!<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-30796E" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-30796E" title="See cross-reference E">E</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span> Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown,<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-30796F" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-30796F" title="See cross-reference F">F</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span> and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-30796G" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-30796G" title="See cross-reference G">G</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="text Rev-6-3" id="en-NIV-30797" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "arial"; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">3 </span>When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-30797H" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-30797H" title="See cross-reference H">H</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span> say, “Come!”</span> <span class="text Rev-6-4" id="en-NIV-30798" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "arial"; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">4 </span>Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-30798I" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-30798I" title="See cross-reference I">I</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-30798J" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-30798J" title="See cross-reference J">J</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span> and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="text Rev-6-5" id="en-NIV-30799" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "arial"; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">5 </span>When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-30799K" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-30799K" title="See cross-reference K">K</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse!<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-30799L" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-30799L" title="See cross-reference L">L</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span> Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand.</span> <span class="text Rev-6-6" id="en-NIV-30800" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "arial"; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">6 </span>Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures,<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-30800M" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-30800M" title="See cross-reference M">M</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span> saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-30800O" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-30800O" title="See cross-reference O">O</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span> the oil and the wine!”</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="text Rev-6-7" id="en-NIV-30801" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "arial"; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">7 </span>When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-30801P" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-30801P" title="See cross-reference P">P</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span> say, “Come!”</span> <span class="text Rev-6-8" id="en-NIV-30802" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "arial"; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">8 </span>I looked, and there before me was a pale horse!<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-30802Q" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-30802Q" title="See cross-reference Q">Q</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span> Its rider was named Death, and Hades<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-30802R" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-30802R" title="See cross-reference R">R</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span> was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.</span></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Patrick</b></div>
<br />
Yes, Donald Trump really is like a biblical plague. Fortunately, <a href="http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/">he will lose in such a huuuuuuge way</a> that it will be very memorable, no doubt about it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUJH7ORyEGvthyphenhyphenChg_q-gXdQJ2Iw9wxzfCpB5qGgUm818wsvU3IVfm3rZUijUL3u91UKSvsZuo3ZSU04ga2EdUePH4GUcmMwTI0r1rPLh4zid1aJD5nV9FegHzJMhc6qyGTF3qhY7voFU/s1600/Election+forecast+15+Oct+2016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="598" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUJH7ORyEGvthyphenhyphenChg_q-gXdQJ2Iw9wxzfCpB5qGgUm818wsvU3IVfm3rZUijUL3u91UKSvsZuo3ZSU04ga2EdUePH4GUcmMwTI0r1rPLh4zid1aJD5nV9FegHzJMhc6qyGTF3qhY7voFU/s640/Election+forecast+15+Oct+2016.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
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<b>The question, however, is the following: What consequences will the election have, once it is all over? Will it make the US democracy stronger, or will it weaken it?</b><br />
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There is no doubt that Donald Trump unleashed a dangerous, radical, destructive and poisonous "movement." It is obvious that this movement cannot win a general election. There are simply not enough fools around.<br />
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However, will these people <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/15/us/politics/trump-media-attacks.html">who threaten the media</a> and crave an authocratic ruler like Donald Trump continue to have an impact, or not? This is the question. Much will depend on the self-confidence of Democrats, and it remains to be seen who finally takes over the Republican party, because right now, they are at war with each other.<br />
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I do hope that Trump's loss will make democracy stronger, and it should. Democracy can be very fragile, and it can be at risk. However, if America forcefully rejects Donald Trump, voters will send a huuuuge message. Any future populists will be compared to Donald Trump, and hopefully his evil "brand" of populism will then be tainted forever.<br />
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<b>The USA still is in a massive crisis, as far too many pressing problems are being ignored. It is not enough that for example the economy recovers. There is more work to do. The USA are in dire need of a healthcare system which covers all their citizens and won't bankrupt them if they have serious diseases. The gun culture is literally "killing" US society. It is also not a distinction that 25% of all prisoners worldwide are being imprisoned in the USA. Poor people should not be just left to themselves, but should receive a minimum standard of state support which allows them to live a dignified life without crime and despair.</b><br />
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That's at least my opinion. I am living in a country where all these above mentioned problems actually have been solved or do not exist, and we have a very, very good life here. It would be great to see if <b>all</b> Americans could receive the same standard.<br />
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I know of course that there are many wealthy people in the USA who have a great life. But life should be great for everybody, not just for the wealthy. Currently, from what I have seen, and I have seen quite a lot, this is not the case in the USA. Far from it, actually. There still is a lot of work to do. In particular, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/08/war-on-poverty-more-than-feeding-poor">the "War on Poverty"</a> is far from over.<br />
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At the beginning of the 1960s, the USA was in a fantastic position. The USA was the biggest winner of WWII, as the war had propelled to economy and the military to "superpower" status. It should have become an incredibly wealthy country with no significant problems in society. Unfortunately, through many mistakes over several decades, things turned out differently. Today, we see that one of the results of the many mistakes which were made is the fact that the US society is deeply divided. This is pure poison for a country, which now becomes also very obvious as Donald Trump roams the land.<br />
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So this was a more serious post - although we also desperately need comedy for our mental health sometimes! :-)<br />
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Will the big problems be addressed, even after Hillary Clinton wins the election in a landslide? This remains to be seen. I certainly hope so, however, the previous eight years were also full of disappointments. We can only pray that the Democrats win the House as well as the Senate and then actually <b>do something.</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFE_1LeHVC9IsoqdtqkzamKZsdC6lPTq4hKlTUhpOg3pbBix_RA2UEwYCulv6Drj2HMERsbiud_EM7qL24X_RQPHX8yXSKhojoXbMrWEFHUAsY0pjsZo5IeeNniS0YGmV0z_39V2Nw3v8/s1600/MLK+quote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFE_1LeHVC9IsoqdtqkzamKZsdC6lPTq4hKlTUhpOg3pbBix_RA2UEwYCulv6Drj2HMERsbiud_EM7qL24X_RQPHX8yXSKhojoXbMrWEFHUAsY0pjsZo5IeeNniS0YGmV0z_39V2Nw3v8/s640/MLK+quote.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
<br />Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-31715974826371043772016-10-11T23:35:00.000+02:002016-10-13T20:53:22.875+02:00Donald Trump humor post - we have deserved a good laugh!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEganDGZ05hHQZzVcHa4UCS2B5pXIwTt-d5xqkjZv8SnrGyGMfQCXxv7pWQBYbOyeWjz10woYyiShXD-hdRbIBPrBOTvqQ4InKhR5TzEcRR_8889jzNTgg1NzCuIaHtZgIuwq95WJj-IZCk/s1600/private+eye+grope.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="608" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEganDGZ05hHQZzVcHa4UCS2B5pXIwTt-d5xqkjZv8SnrGyGMfQCXxv7pWQBYbOyeWjz10woYyiShXD-hdRbIBPrBOTvqQ4InKhR5TzEcRR_8889jzNTgg1NzCuIaHtZgIuwq95WJj-IZCk/s640/private+eye+grope.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">The upcoming issue of the UK satire magazine"Private Eye"</span></b></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Patrick</b></div>
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Guys and gals, let's face it: Donald Trump already lost the election. Still, don't forget to vote! ;-)<br />
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In addition, the GOP is toast as well, Cheers!<br />
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Therefore we can relax a bit and have a good laugh!<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jp-PK1TihE"><b>Randy Rainbow's new clip, I love it:</b></a><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1jp-PK1TihE" width="600"></iframe></div>
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In New York, a "Trump Zoltar Machine" appeared at various locations, it's hilarious! Look out for new clips, on facebook, youtube etc!<br />
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<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KexUGujrckM">CLIP 1:</a></b></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KexUGujrckM" width="600"></iframe><br /></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gyz22rjhws"><b>CLIP 2:</b></a><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_Gyz22rjhws" width="600"></iframe>
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More cartoons:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVMlxZarW6jFM2oJ6TZDqH4NcwbNJMzTP8QJdd1AX-TO4eo7Q7ez9UHyCE6Pazl1NXnyTWAhz2Kvhd_9gl5CgFD4XWopE1TmB1F7-ETeOZWZ8K0ARC1NU0VKwYt_eMCy_torIU_yGuD_w/s1600/trump+myself+cartoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVMlxZarW6jFM2oJ6TZDqH4NcwbNJMzTP8QJdd1AX-TO4eo7Q7ez9UHyCE6Pazl1NXnyTWAhz2Kvhd_9gl5CgFD4XWopE1TmB1F7-ETeOZWZ8K0ARC1NU0VKwYt_eMCy_torIU_yGuD_w/s640/trump+myself+cartoon.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Fill in the blank, LOL:</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPF3z9NjFTiz7YGMkgn0IgCvYUUb-pDzfsCcL3VjNB636L2iAyaJd_nh3X83FtpwTlhdsXmKJvEmJnyHysfx1LlGAeyv-IrWmzPCPJW2Vl52wkkObnpgtyvAk04IzHA0B3PnmkbMmDHRk/s1600/Trump+cartoon+blank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPF3z9NjFTiz7YGMkgn0IgCvYUUb-pDzfsCcL3VjNB636L2iAyaJd_nh3X83FtpwTlhdsXmKJvEmJnyHysfx1LlGAeyv-IrWmzPCPJW2Vl52wkkObnpgtyvAk04IzHA0B3PnmkbMmDHRk/s640/Trump+cartoon+blank.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
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<b>Finally, a previous cover from "Private Eye":</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSuSw2BazUINfmocVS2zAbAMhQ2Fd4RxbZWRVNIwhfIwWtry0nHFYrDbVRlIlHqLJJTXdWt90dURSFrqAz4W9J-H_tCUaQWEQxnVJZHqiRQDbDZz0IsRPP8qKL9nw995CjD84dVCmwTfY/s1600/private+eye+no+brainer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSuSw2BazUINfmocVS2zAbAMhQ2Fd4RxbZWRVNIwhfIwWtry0nHFYrDbVRlIlHqLJJTXdWt90dURSFrqAz4W9J-H_tCUaQWEQxnVJZHqiRQDbDZz0IsRPP8qKL9nw995CjD84dVCmwTfY/s640/private+eye+no+brainer.jpg" width="442" /></a></div>
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+++<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">BONUS:</span></b><br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldfF6chin5s"><br /></a>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldfF6chin5s">Randy Rainbow created the most wonderful clip about the first presidential debate:</a><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ldfF6chin5s" width="600"></iframe>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLYHu0AG8GI">BONUS 2 - more than 5 million views on youtube so far:</a></span></b></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WLYHu0AG8GI" width="600"></iframe>
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Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-22795785498616291312016-10-09T17:53:00.001+02:002016-10-09T18:06:41.005+02:00Let's brace ourselves for the town hall debate - this one should be interesting!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC6mjQkBFAg_ZN9YWLbpNOKMxuVuS8uUNutl8qJ-wlW-9K53llEqB1XZpqTvr5H3K-J0UCXHuBOk9lyrK16R8Y9ipbukb2mHxOel4YCK8361HgwR1Q4BDRToPHF44FQimLuY8cIxWuETM/s1600/don%2527t+grab+my+pussy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC6mjQkBFAg_ZN9YWLbpNOKMxuVuS8uUNutl8qJ-wlW-9K53llEqB1XZpqTvr5H3K-J0UCXHuBOk9lyrK16R8Y9ipbukb2mHxOel4YCK8361HgwR1Q4BDRToPHF44FQimLuY8cIxWuETM/s640/don%2527t+grab+my+pussy.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Patrick</b></div>
<br />
OK, so I think, by now, we have "seen it all"...! Or have we?<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/10/7/13198690/second-presidential-debate-time-schedule-trump-clinton">The "town hall" starts today at 09.00 pm ET,</a> and it promises to be interesting. "The Don" against Hillary. What could possibly go wrong.<br />
<br />
Therefore, have fun, everyone!<br />
<br />
Here are some cartoons and clips to "get you in the mood."<br />
<br />
I will be sound asleep, as always! But I guess Kathleen will be watching.<br />
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Have fun, and maybe have a strong drink as well. ;-)<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">These are golden times for SNL, which comes as no surprise:</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyAiLkAo4CE"><b>CLIP 1:</b></a><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iyAiLkAo4CE" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sYGjoUcusM">here is a better link</a>, but I believe that this link works only within the USA)<br />
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+++<br />
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<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjbc15X1zSM">CLIP 2</a> (works only in the USA):</b><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zjbc15X1zSM" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
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+++<br />
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<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nQGBZQrtT0">Finally, the SNL-clip from the first debate</a> (this link also only works for US viewers):</b><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-nQGBZQrtT0" width="600"></iframe></div>
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Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-66749954169383059242016-10-07T22:58:00.000+02:002016-10-08T19:38:24.765+02:00Will this shameless pig called Donald Trump be the next US president? No way, my friends, never! - UPDATES<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOzTao1P28d5CikXR1ziUwgZl9mih0QZj21vCNFQBQoIVwluNWJQC3395yN4KqXq6yF1WeYrPBYE9QHTfEw-WRJJINhudB8VmTyhEHvesOnyWih_qLe2M-o054N4SL_3XFnqBnKqCKSCY/s1600/Trump+-+women.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="511" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOzTao1P28d5CikXR1ziUwgZl9mih0QZj21vCNFQBQoIVwluNWJQC3395yN4KqXq6yF1WeYrPBYE9QHTfEw-WRJJINhudB8VmTyhEHvesOnyWih_qLe2M-o054N4SL_3XFnqBnKqCKSCY/s640/Trump+-+women.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Patrick</b></div>
<br />
Dear female readers,<br />
<br />
you will be very offended, but you definitely have to watch this clip, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extremely-lewd-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4_story.html">which was revealed today by the Washington Post</a> - the transcript alone is not enough, <b>you have to listen to it yourself:</b><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="348" mozallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="//www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/3bf16d1e-8caf-11e6-8cdc-4fbb1973b506" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="576"></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This is the next huge scoop by <a href="http://www.poynter.org/2016/meet-david-fahrenthold-the-washington-posts-trump-foundation-sleuth/433207/">Washington Post reporter David A. Fahrenthold (interview here)</a>, to whom we will be eternally grateful.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extremely-lewd-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4_story.html">Quote from this article:</a></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
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<blockquote style="border-color: #a44b3d; border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;">
The tape obtained by the Post includes audio of Bush and Trump’s conversation inside the bus, as well as audio and video once they emerge from it to begin shooting the segment.
<br />
<br />
In that audio, Trump discusses a failed attempt to seduce a woman, whose full name is not given in the video.<br />
<br />
“I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it,” Trump is heard saying. It was unclear when the events he was describing took place. The tape was recorded several months after he married his third wife, Melania.
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<br />
“Whoa,” another voice said.
<br />
<br />
“I did try and f--- her. She was married,” Trump says.
<br />
<br />
Trump continues: “And I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, ‘I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture.’”<br />
<br />
“I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married,” Trump says. “Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look.”<br />
<br />
At that point in the audio, Trump and Bush appear to notice Arianne Zucker, the actress who is waiting to escort them into the soap opera set.
<br />
<br />
<b>“Your girl’s hot as s---, in the purple,” says Bush, who’s now a co-host of NBC’s “Today” show.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>“Whoa!” Trump says. “Whoa!”</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>“I’ve gotta use some tic tacs, just in case I start kissing her,” Trump says.“You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful -- I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.”</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>“And when you’re a star they let you do it,” Trump says. “You can do anything.”</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>“Whatever you want,” says another voice, apparently Bush’s.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>“Grab them by the p---y,” Trump says. “You can do anything.”</b></blockquote>
<br />
No, my friends, this pig won't be the next US president, no way, never.<br />
<br />
+++<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>UPDATE:</b></span><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyE7jzhDEG0">The clip has now been uploaded to Youtube, for easier sharing:</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qyE7jzhDEG0" width="600"></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
+++</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://twitter.com/politicalgates/status/784516434651189249">PLEASE RETWEET (LINK TO TWEET)</a></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
+++<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">UPDATE 2:</span></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipBvoEDBOpw">Here is the video with Donald Trump's "non-apology":</a></b><br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ipBvoEDBOpw" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
+++<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">UPDATE 3:</span></b><br />
<br />
Donald Trump has always been a misogynistic pig.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://books.google.de/books?id=BeUCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA41&lpg=PA41&dq=%22Marie+Brenner%22+trump+wine&source=bl&ots=tX3bn4ql8h&sig=o3lsFRig7dxSOfw6N79Zavz9izU&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=treat%20them&f=false">On the internet, on "Google Books", you can find an original copy</a> of "New York Magazine" from November 9, 1992. They wrote a major piece about Donald Trump back then, and there already Trump is on the record saying for example that you <b><i>"have to treat women like shit."</i></b> The whole article is very revealing.<br />
<br />
Also, interestingly, the New York Magazine observed:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">"Women are two types for him - </span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">those of use, and those he beds."</span></i></b></div>
<br />
<b>(h/t junasie14 - many thanks!)</b><br />
<br />
Screenshots from the article:<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-YLM-xh9eb37KDL7RqNeP1lLqnB9PmegX3APpQekd3bytwsO9ryO7Vfv0Z3I_5USdeWJkoKTrDHm-uHRFo2U7ckXBAtiHjULRnNR8Z1wk33mG27Bkg_uQ00utHtHqmR1HnMJ7AlayxIk/s1600/New+Yorker+1992.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-YLM-xh9eb37KDL7RqNeP1lLqnB9PmegX3APpQekd3bytwsO9ryO7Vfv0Z3I_5USdeWJkoKTrDHm-uHRFo2U7ckXBAtiHjULRnNR8Z1wk33mG27Bkg_uQ00utHtHqmR1HnMJ7AlayxIk/s1600/New+Yorker+1992.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7DZRftzg1An0isNp0i3KawdZsc8dRt1E8wHTZotPnqdrnZ-ZVl6rYqDILNCaAHGJarTXw4uE-pH8R3gs2TJUo4Qr8mR3rWAntWxVFr-v_LFC09VnfIIkShJaiXrRHOOKxV7VUX8KJFV0/s1600/New+Yorker+1992+-+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7DZRftzg1An0isNp0i3KawdZsc8dRt1E8wHTZotPnqdrnZ-ZVl6rYqDILNCaAHGJarTXw4uE-pH8R3gs2TJUo4Qr8mR3rWAntWxVFr-v_LFC09VnfIIkShJaiXrRHOOKxV7VUX8KJFV0/s1600/New+Yorker+1992+-+2.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://twitter.com/politicalgates/status/784760807183806466">I tweeted about it here.</a></span></b>Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-38233462729755052162016-10-04T21:03:00.000+02:002016-10-04T21:06:10.547+02:00Now for something not so different: Let's all try to survive the vice presidential debate together! - Bonus: Politicalgates has achieved more than 10 million pageviews since January 2011!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAC58BNonb0IdgraEaPYKcasd2o2yANePYMblrPpci0e8_YirRdCL0OZOvQFIFcLH7BK1DO4Yj20QUFPjUt1lFL_ufI0Agfl4VVR_qUNp2hw_99ZPgZOLnyU3s78hgJ7DFunNN6VmR3Ds/s1600/Trump+Pence+cartoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="431" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAC58BNonb0IdgraEaPYKcasd2o2yANePYMblrPpci0e8_YirRdCL0OZOvQFIFcLH7BK1DO4Yj20QUFPjUt1lFL_ufI0Agfl4VVR_qUNp2hw_99ZPgZOLnyU3s78hgJ7DFunNN6VmR3Ds/s640/Trump+Pence+cartoon.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Patrick</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
The vice presidential debate will start today at 09.00 ET, and I smell more embarrassment for the Republicans. It should be pretty good. The debate will be shown on all major networks, <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/10/4/13158384/kaine-pence-vice-presidential-debate-live-watch-stream">and there will also be live streams on the internet.</a><br />
<br />
Let's all watch America becoming sober again!<br />
<br />
In other news, Politicalgates has achieved more than 10 million pageviews since our start in January 2011. Kathleen and I are really grateful for having so many fantastic readers, who make America great again every day of the week by supporting freedom, democracy and the pursuit of happiness!<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiklxESIOUBQYhBrnphdvIDCzOvKt4F1Aa2XKY3tw4IP9SVpvO9aXDihP4zzDKzZP3bLzN8jdXv1fh0iZc6FciaXxRSQo_PjTDjz5WNE8aRtgpHiPOxoe-_gZf4teKZFfS5IwripJ5tT4g/s1600/Pageviews.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiklxESIOUBQYhBrnphdvIDCzOvKt4F1Aa2XKY3tw4IP9SVpvO9aXDihP4zzDKzZP3bLzN8jdXv1fh0iZc6FciaXxRSQo_PjTDjz5WNE8aRtgpHiPOxoe-_gZf4teKZFfS5IwripJ5tT4g/s1600/Pageviews.jpg" /></a></div>
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Together, we will all survive the Trump-madness in good health and good spirits!<br />
<br />
Finally, some more great cartoons. They also help to lift our spirits, so I am very grateful that the USA is populated by so many excellent cartoonists:<br />
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<br />Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-4868083219868400742016-09-26T21:30:00.000+02:002016-09-26T21:31:45.420+02:00Let's all try to survive the first presidential debate together!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Patrick</b></div>
<br />
While some of you will try to survive the debate, I will be sound asleep in good old Europe. But I am very confident that everything will go well.<br />
<br />
Especially for the debate, I resurrected some words from the even older good old Europe:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><i>If only all liars would get </i></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Such a padlock in front of their mouth!</i></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Instead of hatred, slander, black temper, </i></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Love and Brotherhood would endure. </i></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Quote from: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, "The Magic Flute"</i></span></b></div>
<br />
Thankfully, Bloomberg will fact-check the debate live, which is great! (h/t Linda1961)<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://twitter.com/i/live/778347749217406976">WATCH BLOOMBERG HERE (STARTS 8.30 ET).</a></span></b><br />
<br />
Also, Andrew Sullivan said on facebook that he will be live-blogging the debate, but the exact link has not been provided yet. <b><a href="http://nymag.com/">It will happen on nymag.com.</a></b><br />
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<b>Have fun, everybody, if that's possible! ;-)</b><br />
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<br />Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-70499053394999002412016-09-20T20:56:00.001+02:002016-09-20T22:11:06.753+02:00Lessons from history - A clown can become the world's worst nightmare, if voters are not careful<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTMf2LuUiRoC-ITbw1rWHtiWgqQiAojn9h_yCfQldj7diLeFCPQH-DvB3qkJKQcuREUQUdhzgfRk0Xiyat0WxXjlLrrKBzTqaQTNnjgOIwcn6skPaJNMZDwgVvWkE5Ht9V0eMHz7AnaKw/s1600/Trump+-+Deal+with+it.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTMf2LuUiRoC-ITbw1rWHtiWgqQiAojn9h_yCfQldj7diLeFCPQH-DvB3qkJKQcuREUQUdhzgfRk0Xiyat0WxXjlLrrKBzTqaQTNnjgOIwcn6skPaJNMZDwgVvWkE5Ht9V0eMHz7AnaKw/s640/Trump+-+Deal+with+it.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Patrick</b></div>
<br />
Well, this won't be a happy, uplifting post. Because things are starting to become pretty depressing. Hillary Clinton's massive lead begins to shrink dramatically, and we can only pray that things will start to change again after the debates. My fear is that American Democracy is not as strong as people would like it to be.<br />
<br />
If he was victorious, Donald Trump would impose a brutal authoritarian rule, with terrible consequences for the USA and the rest of the world. This is not even a secret. Virtually everybody knows that Donald Trump wants to rule as a dictator. The US system would make it far too easy. No <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire">"Reichstagsbrand"</a> will be needed. The magic word: <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-06-27/trump-eyes-executive-orders-to-sidestep-congressional-gridlock">"Executive orders".</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/288517-gingrich-pushing-trump-to-issue-hundreds-of-executive">Newt Gingrich came up with great ideas already several months ago</a> - <b>and there is no doubt that Trump will embrace them:</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxBxrIRSUAbH9GjEpl414-WPUVnFKf7LYBWwhy6dVGoknymWecFCPhCTONkvJey2XDRvYbQCJiJ8b9iN6yGFzVL3kIlY2YSTOfh7irHuh93sBUAKd0m60YnZcpqt0qftr77bF89grovQQ/s1600/Gingrich+-+executive+orders.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxBxrIRSUAbH9GjEpl414-WPUVnFKf7LYBWwhy6dVGoknymWecFCPhCTONkvJey2XDRvYbQCJiJ8b9iN6yGFzVL3kIlY2YSTOfh7irHuh93sBUAKd0m60YnZcpqt0qftr77bF89grovQQ/s640/Gingrich+-+executive+orders.png" width="608" /></a></div>
<br />
Despite the threat of an authoritarian rule, many US voters have absolutely no hesitation to vote for Donald Trump. You all know some "Trump-fans." They might be your friends and family members. Not all of them are totally stupid. They are, however, thoroughly manipulated and misguided. Their votes might plunge the world into chaos, with unforeseen consequences. We can just hope that this nightmare vision won't become reality.<br />
<br />
Many people see Donald Trump as a clown, However, we should not forget that this hasn't happen before.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/03/early-warnings-how-american-journalists-reported-the-rise-of-hitler/254146/">See for example this article in the Atlantic from March 2012:</a><br />
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Quote:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6iP4Es9zBzy6RCdE9bV79e2x38r45VATjcy1WQU3JvVx40FRMIn3JAh-t-5K-FC9G46sqA_D5ClsfmF6ZV0PfCQO94Z4Ox47bBDzjPHfQjPKsurfBg-Dx_4g9GaSEQQQ-tSfNy33Ya0U/s1600/Trump+-+Hitler+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6iP4Es9zBzy6RCdE9bV79e2x38r45VATjcy1WQU3JvVx40FRMIn3JAh-t-5K-FC9G46sqA_D5ClsfmF6ZV0PfCQO94Z4Ox47bBDzjPHfQjPKsurfBg-Dx_4g9GaSEQQQ-tSfNy33Ya0U/s640/Trump+-+Hitler+1.png" width="604" /></a></div>
<br />
This quote in particular just sounds far too familiar:<br />
<br />
<blockquote style="border-color: #a44b3d; border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;">
<b>After the Great Depression hit, suddenly the Nazi Party became a major contender for power. Yet you had Americans meeting Hitler and saying, "This guy is a clown. He's like a caricature of himself." And a lot of them went through this whole litany about how even if Hitler got into a position of power, other German politicians would somehow be able to control him. A lot of German politicians believed this themselves.</b></blockquote>
<br />
Yes, they would be able to control "him." There is no doubt that the GOP has the same thoughts about Donald Trump. However, ruthless maniacs cannot be controlled. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_von_Papen">The German conservatives who brought Hitler to power</a> did not know what hit them.<br />
<br />
Also, while I love a good caricature very much, the sad reality is that caricatures won't necessarily save the world,<br />
<br />
Here is how some US and UK caricaturists viewed Adolf Hitler in 1933 <a href="http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/ns-propagandabuch-wie-die-welt-hitler-sah-1.1423127-13">(taken from this German article):</a><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD1Adb3ZQVlzcuTRL0jokLe-hG7450Ffu2elGo_Ihs34jWWbMMh5-pSn8ITBQsQmnErVjQp0FjiNY8SzyX-BtTHBAFdp8egdr51VdaBz-TXMn5EdC0z-PMpb12oajXoqLinriSTV-nqYU/s1600/Hitler+Karikatur+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD1Adb3ZQVlzcuTRL0jokLe-hG7450Ffu2elGo_Ihs34jWWbMMh5-pSn8ITBQsQmnErVjQp0FjiNY8SzyX-BtTHBAFdp8egdr51VdaBz-TXMn5EdC0z-PMpb12oajXoqLinriSTV-nqYU/s640/Hitler+Karikatur+1.jpg" width="532" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>The Nation, New York/USA, early 1933 </b></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVxJIvhi1DS8vruZrYvDKuSKpAtbvqTljDqC0neD9AzS9Rx62ZjUDRLYbhBJaaOUpyBRRwOYzz8RtB1UyjcdHPXu7prmtGLGunR29qReZbOWlFBlkt3vfzT7hTLc2CAzMY1aaRjX2ksPY/s1600/Hitler+Karikatur+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="403" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVxJIvhi1DS8vruZrYvDKuSKpAtbvqTljDqC0neD9AzS9Rx62ZjUDRLYbhBJaaOUpyBRRwOYzz8RtB1UyjcdHPXu7prmtGLGunR29qReZbOWlFBlkt3vfzT7hTLc2CAzMY1aaRjX2ksPY/s640/Hitler+Karikatur+2.png" width="608" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>The Evening Standard, London/England, June 26, 1933 </b></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgClBf0XjMtcD4IZ3os_IlRUVfDh81L3eAzlJvFhbl6XU6LKKkRkPFWBTcG95loSQ6_N9pv9EK3x-XIjNm_-twbfsEiqDOc2i_K4DDfsCVTfzIif-jpsIFvFsLXE3LE0FsqUwh2a_UadGk/s1600/Hitler+Karikatur+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="608" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgClBf0XjMtcD4IZ3os_IlRUVfDh81L3eAzlJvFhbl6XU6LKKkRkPFWBTcG95loSQ6_N9pv9EK3x-XIjNm_-twbfsEiqDOc2i_K4DDfsCVTfzIif-jpsIFvFsLXE3LE0FsqUwh2a_UadGk/s640/Hitler+Karikatur+3.png" width="608" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>The New York Times, New York/USA, April 2, 1933</b></div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.thewrap.com/are-hitler-trump-comparisons-fair-a-holocaust-survivor-tells-his-son/">Finally, this article from March 2016 gives a lot food for thought:</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieN5nVMhx5kcgVMXZLY5huf2tz2yw_VvQJyPQzIJcHb4kYxAW5CqZM8-tptPTtqPWeNz1vfo6dhtnYgwvnCxmW4NnGoqyi2EQ2dpOfxENslBJCFP2VI69odvjEimntfy6u3Y1s31MrI5A/s1600/Trump+-+article+-+Hitler+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="68" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieN5nVMhx5kcgVMXZLY5huf2tz2yw_VvQJyPQzIJcHb4kYxAW5CqZM8-tptPTtqPWeNz1vfo6dhtnYgwvnCxmW4NnGoqyi2EQ2dpOfxENslBJCFP2VI69odvjEimntfy6u3Y1s31MrI5A/s640/Trump+-+article+-+Hitler+1.png" width="608" /></a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR51gKrHXj6jKXK9721ORUYgnOGVdTQPhdn0jdYwAFs7zL8_z9ozfDUuscDPjN_-6YcmT5TZub4AEBO1R6X47u-Rk-mzARwx7WgrN9aEGLiy00cMStDx7tLhwsZupC0cZzh-fY2opSBf8/s1600/Trump+-+article+-+Hitler+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR51gKrHXj6jKXK9721ORUYgnOGVdTQPhdn0jdYwAFs7zL8_z9ozfDUuscDPjN_-6YcmT5TZub4AEBO1R6X47u-Rk-mzARwx7WgrN9aEGLiy00cMStDx7tLhwsZupC0cZzh-fY2opSBf8/s640/Trump+-+article+-+Hitler+2.png" width="522" /></a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvvIsSdcrRfN50A1hBHhIP1BXR6p0XL-GC500pFhnlGErm-ta_rElEwfATvUGu_VAQMCgqbF3QTthnSHEhEbkll7LnsAk3Agdq7T4JyQ3kwAU8VODsNbw9Lak9W3LGMobXDMO1dieWtWU/s1600/Trump+-+article+-+Hitler+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="633" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvvIsSdcrRfN50A1hBHhIP1BXR6p0XL-GC500pFhnlGErm-ta_rElEwfATvUGu_VAQMCgqbF3QTthnSHEhEbkll7LnsAk3Agdq7T4JyQ3kwAU8VODsNbw9Lak9W3LGMobXDMO1dieWtWU/s640/Trump+-+article+-+Hitler+3.png" width="608" /></a></div>
<br />
Excerpt from the interview that is included in this article:<br />
<br />
<blockquote style="border-color: #a44b3d; border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;">
<b>So, how much does Donald Trump truly resemble Adolf Hitler?</b><br />
There are slight similarities between the two. But there is a difference. Germany was in much worse shape economically in the ’20s and ’30s. It was still recovering from WWI, having to pay reparations to the Allies. Hitler was able to tap into the Germans’ frustration by zeroing in on an enemy, the Jews. He claimed the Jews were taking over the country, stealing high-paying jobs. He was able to galvanize the uneducated by saying that Jews had stabbed Germany in the back.
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Can you give me more examples?</b><br />
Sure. Now that America’s minority population is becoming a majority, Trump is able to tap into that same fear among its disenfranchised. Asking his supporters to raise their hand during his rallies while proclaiming their allegiance to him is eerily reminiscent of Hitler’s Nazi salute, which was meant to inspire loyalty and sympathy towards the regime.</blockquote>
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">There is only way how potential dictators can be defeated: If the population forcefully speaks out against them. Let's hope that US voters will make the right choice.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b>Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-16397284636606249202016-09-13T21:47:00.000+02:002016-09-15T21:56:42.923+02:00Keith Olbermann is back, and the world instantly became a better place again<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1bvyePmoSVBWVL-rpKNJyEWK7HOmTeTHuQmJYDJiXk0eoncS4NOpCbRxwrz2coF-xZGcgVFr98EtqWDzasHHDwJK1vJdrcbmCDpel5UHBAUh-HI3Dfm3WUds4bCNqlICinWX0_M72Sq4/s1600/Keith+Olbermann+tweet.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="490" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1bvyePmoSVBWVL-rpKNJyEWK7HOmTeTHuQmJYDJiXk0eoncS4NOpCbRxwrz2coF-xZGcgVFr98EtqWDzasHHDwJK1vJdrcbmCDpel5UHBAUh-HI3Dfm3WUds4bCNqlICinWX0_M72Sq4/s640/Keith+Olbermann+tweet.png" width="608" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/KeithOlbermann/status/775766527975034880">Keith Olbermann's tweet</a></b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Patrick</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Keith Olbermann is back!</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Will he save the world? Why not, somebody has to do it, after all!</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://twitter.com/keitholbermann">You find his twitter here.</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b>He just published his first video as the new special correspondent of GQ - <a href="http://video.gq.com/watch/meet-the-newest-member-of-gq-keith-olbermann-2016-09-11-a">and it is one of the best things we have ever seen</a>.</b><br />
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Watch, enjoy and <a href="http://video.gq.com/watch/meet-the-newest-member-of-gq-keith-olbermann-2016-09-11-a">share</a> - 176 horrors which disqualify Donald Trump:</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<script async="" src="//player.cnevids.com/embedjs/51097beb8ef9aff9f5000006/video/57d7682bb57ac36c95000074.js"></script><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.gq.com/story/176-reasons-donald-trump-shouldnt-be-president-olbermann" style="font-size: xx-large;"><b>Read the article at GQ-magazine here</b>.</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj04Y_pDN7OsUMaK4NwdlKU6yeYH5KhdkFlPeDy6JyH1OKhuUJt2kA6CFdZJ2Dy6X5w1TdoK_L0_CNbsT5ShbWaBBBTv_xkvpLBmSpUJ_ntEk53K8JUsA947rwtMqMnqquawF6BFS4sVyQ/s1600/Keith+Olbermann+-+article+pic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="403" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj04Y_pDN7OsUMaK4NwdlKU6yeYH5KhdkFlPeDy6JyH1OKhuUJt2kA6CFdZJ2Dy6X5w1TdoK_L0_CNbsT5ShbWaBBBTv_xkvpLBmSpUJ_ntEk53K8JUsA947rwtMqMnqquawF6BFS4sVyQ/s640/Keith+Olbermann+-+article+pic.png" width="608" /></a></div>
<br />
+++<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">BONUS:</span></b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/political-media-loses-its-mind-over-clinton-763536963988">Lawrence O'Donnell also hits the media as well as Donald Trump very hard:</a><br />
<br />
<iframe border="no" height="500" scrolling="no" src="http://player.theplatform.com/p/7wvmTC/MSNBCEmbeddedOffSite?guid=n_lw_ablock_160912" width="635"></iframe><br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://nicolesandler.com/today-is-the-day-the-political-news-media-lost-its-mind/">Found at "Laffy's Place" - Nicole Sandler's website.</a></b><br />
<br />Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-74382016434125386362016-09-06T00:11:00.000+02:002016-09-10T04:17:27.956+02:00Mika vs. Don the Con<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQqJ8yQoRUd61JREu2CQk6j1UoTTT_Ns3NfDZlcEWPDoymDcbPitvgOCTssmSf1bSnXNkz5MAafzXvwLf0QpY873YB6sc23wRn0yqIjWM6QZf0FeIDW1HE9kMX_qtnDgIV0FEE8R1NGII/s1600/Mika+tweet.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQqJ8yQoRUd61JREu2CQk6j1UoTTT_Ns3NfDZlcEWPDoymDcbPitvgOCTssmSf1bSnXNkz5MAafzXvwLf0QpY873YB6sc23wRn0yqIjWM6QZf0FeIDW1HE9kMX_qtnDgIV0FEE8R1NGII/s640/Mika+tweet.png" width="608" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/771686352438042624">Trump tweet from September 2, 2016</a></span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Patrick</b><br />
<b><br /></b></div>
Just a short post today:<br />
<br />
It is truly fascinating to see that a huge "feud" developed between Mika Brzezinski and Donald Trump. Well, Joe is somehow involved in it as well, but it is mainly about Mika and Donald. He hates to be criticized by women, as he obviously regards them as deeply inferior human beings.<br />
<br />
This is an insane and dangerous person, and Mika is calling him out. He does not like it one bit. Yes, Mika and Joe promoted Trump in the beginning, but now things are getting really interesting.<br />
<br />
Where is this going to end? It seems to get more serious every day - see also Trumpolini's tweet above. It is only the beginning of September, after all...<br />
<br />
The "free press" - this is not Donald Trump's world.<br />
<br />
In any case, Donald Trump's world looks more like this, LOL <b>(click to enlarge):</b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWZlIxV9XhPine-OSHxbEDzrgonHaIplgbmQo2aKTUqreJS048XwzOUxrHYpkhzPihyphenhyphenlmnnuI3rHxQb1N_VMWHDxS1RCRfpk7yOS88-exNkb4RA7i1ZYu7lcHiHTG07gaFCBg-dN9BcXE/s1600/o-MAP-OF-THE-WORLD-ACCORDING-TO-DONALD-TRUMP-900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="363" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWZlIxV9XhPine-OSHxbEDzrgonHaIplgbmQo2aKTUqreJS048XwzOUxrHYpkhzPihyphenhyphenlmnnuI3rHxQb1N_VMWHDxS1RCRfpk7yOS88-exNkb4RA7i1ZYu7lcHiHTG07gaFCBg-dN9BcXE/s640/o-MAP-OF-THE-WORLD-ACCORDING-TO-DONALD-TRUMP-900.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
<br />
Alternatively, like this:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXbY1j2NIEzRcStk5Y8DZEidPKU5Uh8edbxe_0cEYDtwGAKhFFrE7mvUXRTKSsUvm0oHXcJMtfnuaTA_Qf9MnAHArPTEozC1BaQuSWeEkwh0DuWMD9OiEfttmJDefl4oq4rJFuMr2HkMc/s1600/Trump%2527s+world.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="433" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXbY1j2NIEzRcStk5Y8DZEidPKU5Uh8edbxe_0cEYDtwGAKhFFrE7mvUXRTKSsUvm0oHXcJMtfnuaTA_Qf9MnAHArPTEozC1BaQuSWeEkwh0DuWMD9OiEfttmJDefl4oq4rJFuMr2HkMc/s640/Trump%2527s+world.png" width="608" /></a></div>
<br />
OK, last one:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrqmFh1yGIXN6YLjpyhGMupBBn88NOQwzpfn7nDsN6pQDg4_eSBie-dShvtjcfv8D0_UTr3AHgWSGvJNFyGfs2zpu0EGaau7znkYUUk5q1Ykb62iQ7JfdjPa-zIrzgF4djF8tp6qGXXEQ/s1600/Trump%2527s+world+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrqmFh1yGIXN6YLjpyhGMupBBn88NOQwzpfn7nDsN6pQDg4_eSBie-dShvtjcfv8D0_UTr3AHgWSGvJNFyGfs2zpu0EGaau7znkYUUk5q1Ykb62iQ7JfdjPa-zIrzgF4djF8tp6qGXXEQ/s640/Trump%2527s+world+2.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<b>Take a look at the following clips from "Morning Joe" - they are well worth watching.</b><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9q4OuxCslU">CLIP 1:</a><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E9q4OuxCslU" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SDur-kzus8">CLIP 2:</a><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_SDur-kzus8" width="600"></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDc_7mEN-8I">CLIP 3:</a><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UDc_7mEN-8I" width="600"></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV2PKytigso"><br /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV2PKytigso">CLIP 4:</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WV2PKytigso" width="600"></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fzvuckLkGM">CLIP 5:</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5fzvuckLkGM" width="600"></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
+++</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">UPDATE:</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVJOqziLTxU"><b>Published on 09.09.16 - "Tsunami Of Lies" - that's an excellent clip:</b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sVJOqziLTxU" width="600"></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-72672324056766765712016-08-31T00:03:00.000+02:002016-08-31T00:50:27.887+02:00Take a look at the healthiest US President ever<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuRdfRlnQMVosws6Cy3-VdtCNcpbYRau727pBbsByAke39G89b_yQCQkf8_NHpjOo3h99ss6hbZZSokzMEqF9esradLS-gtVGnzBKtqGJGpyC7-MRigRZtE-9dkwhVWzYj66yEu5501KU/s1600/Obama+-+Trump.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuRdfRlnQMVosws6Cy3-VdtCNcpbYRau727pBbsByAke39G89b_yQCQkf8_NHpjOo3h99ss6hbZZSokzMEqF9esradLS-gtVGnzBKtqGJGpyC7-MRigRZtE-9dkwhVWzYj66yEu5501KU/s640/Obama+-+Trump.png" width="466" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Patrick</b></div>
<br />
Hi everyone, while there was so much discussion about "Donald Trump will be the healthiest president ever - NOT", I thought I should post the above picture, which we found on facebook. It's just so sweet.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjFKpIq4ixM">This would not be complete without Stephen Colbert:</a><br />
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Well, I don't really know what to talk about right now. It feels a bit boring writing anything about Donaldo Trumpolini, as it is quite tiring how he puts his boundless stupidity on display on a daily basis. America and the world will survive Donald Trump, I am convinced.<br />
<br />
We are going to be travelling again for a few days. We won't be online very much during the next days. Can we leave you alone in the meantime? Yes, I think we can! :-)<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Don't forget to <a href="https://twitter.com/politicalgates/status/770738886872035328">retweet my tweet with the above picture!</a></b><br />
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I feel like posting more artworks from Albrecht Dürer. The beauty of art surpasses almost everything <b>(click to enlarge). </b><br />
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Please talk about everything, and have a good time, everybody!<br />
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Finally:<br />
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I posted this fascinating little clip in the comments before, featuring American artist Andrew Stein Raftery, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQvghHs15hA">who explains how engravings come to life:</a><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">BONUS:</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_oVFoBH9YM">Trump and Hillary Debate Prep: A Closer Look</a></div>
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Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-86726400506535349152016-08-23T21:18:00.001+02:002016-08-23T21:27:46.504+02:00Bye bye "Gawker" - we will miss you!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUf0HJ900m4zT7TuWBKY0N-4g57u1ktTOEFGu1A0t02bdyuidftVTlQ5NBBG3KzCtPjZWznm5GvjcFIpQD9fTBzI7ROLOVg0LsIx5AID_QT7LzK7XYx9aO8aaYngmUn7QeAiRhyphenhyphenhGT4cw/s1600/GAWKER-LOGO-facebook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUf0HJ900m4zT7TuWBKY0N-4g57u1ktTOEFGu1A0t02bdyuidftVTlQ5NBBG3KzCtPjZWznm5GvjcFIpQD9fTBzI7ROLOVg0LsIx5AID_QT7LzK7XYx9aO8aaYngmUn7QeAiRhyphenhyphenhGT4cw/s640/GAWKER-LOGO-facebook.jpg" width="608" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Patrick</b></div>
<br />
Gawker, one of the most iconic websites of this young internet age, will close down - because it was murdered.<br />
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<b><a href="http://gawker.com/gawker-com-to-end-operations-next-week-1785455712">The announcement today:</a></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCGlo1JRfSQvD4XIvS0oU9sScBmqJ5BfYScT1vX2rBigWH3OPGqhkgdb_7NbVi9MNHfA0AfWuk-vy_mlEoALuuaOQQziea4YaKocvy6BbsXdiXl-Wn-hTEiRUsPc-O1NethoTvBblM9ZE/s1600/Gawker+annoucement.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCGlo1JRfSQvD4XIvS0oU9sScBmqJ5BfYScT1vX2rBigWH3OPGqhkgdb_7NbVi9MNHfA0AfWuk-vy_mlEoALuuaOQQziea4YaKocvy6BbsXdiXl-Wn-hTEiRUsPc-O1NethoTvBblM9ZE/s640/Gawker+annoucement.png" width="608" /></a></div>
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Yes, Gawker was sometimes quite outrageous, but it was also a symbol for the "freedom of the press", as the website had no hesitation to expose inconvenient truths, and no hesitation to publish facts or "rumours" that other websites did not dare to touch. "Gawker" was also known for biting commentary and strong opinions. It was always a breath of fresh air and a hugely popular website.<br />
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The demise of Gawker is an historical event. An inconvenient news website was deliberately targeted and killed, setting a horrific precedent.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Gawker itself <a href="http://gawker.com/gawker-was-murdered-by-gaslight-1785456581">published an excellent article about the background yesterday.</a></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOX_eNOLxWAQXeebPK0NrDVjVaSWGBu_gAkjOY_jFF1ZWvGs-tuNLB-lVRrO3NiqGCXEQmswaLEGqphgAN5EIOUFpBpDrudGRWPByLAgiLpf4f_7yemo9qYvSj9CvrPCPmS1X86GytBg0/s1600/gawker+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="127" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOX_eNOLxWAQXeebPK0NrDVjVaSWGBu_gAkjOY_jFF1ZWvGs-tuNLB-lVRrO3NiqGCXEQmswaLEGqphgAN5EIOUFpBpDrudGRWPByLAgiLpf4f_7yemo9qYvSj9CvrPCPmS1X86GytBg0/s640/gawker+3.png" width="608" /></a></div>
<br />
Quote:<br />
<br />
<blockquote style="border-color: #a44b3d; border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;">
Gawker.com is out of business because one wealthy person maliciously set out to destroy it, spending millions of dollars in secret, and succeeded. That is the only reason.
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<br />
The strange and embarrassing thing about being the target of a conspiracy, an actual conspiracy, is that it undermines one’s own understanding of the world. It is true that Gawker was always a publication that took risks. It had bad manners and sometimes bad judgment. Occasionally, it published things that it would regret—just as, for instance, the New York Times has published things that it regrets.
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But every publication gives itself room to make mistakes, and is prepared to absorb the damage when it does make a mistake. The New York Post was so eager for a scoop on the Boston Marathon bombing that it put a photo of two innocent men on its front page, after law enforcement had already declared that they were not suspects. The Post was denounced, as it deserved to be, for callously crossing the line, and it ended up settling a defamation lawsuit.
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<br />
Lawsuits and settlements happen to everyone, and everyone carries insurance to handle them. In Gawker’s wildest, most buccaneering years, it never came close to paying a million dollars for crossing a line.
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<br />
<b>What Thiel’s covert campaign against Gawker did was to invisibly change the terms of the risk calculation. The change begins with the post about Thiel’s sexual identity in a homophobic investor culture, the post Thiel now cites as the inspiration for his decision to destroy Gawker. It was solidly protected by media law and the First Amendment, as were the other posts that, as Thiel wrote, “attacked and mocked people”—specifically, his cohort of rising plutocrats in Silicon Valley. Hurting rich people’s feelings is, in principle, not a punishable offense.
</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>So rather than fighting the material that he really objected to, Thiel went looking for pretexts. Over time, he came up with them. Gawker found itself attracting legal threats and lawsuits at an unprecedented rate. Among those was Hulk Hogan’s complaint against Gawker for having written about a sex video he appeared in, and for publishing brief excerpts of that video. This was the kind of case that, in the normal course of things, would have gone away. Hogan’s first two attempts to pursue it, in federal court, went nowhere, with judges ruling that the publication was newsworthy and protected.
</b><br />
<br />
Yet the case kept moving. Suddenly the company had exhausted the limits of its insurance and was bleeding money on legal fees. The business model on which it had thrived—writing things that people were interested in reading, and selling ads to reach those readers—was foundering due to a whole new class of expenses.
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<br />
The natural conclusion, even for people on the inside, was that the company must have taken too many risks. The willingness to publish things too ugly for other outlets to touch—an account of seeing video of the mayor of Toronto smoking crack, domestic-violence accusations against Bill O’Reilly—had gone over to destructive irresponsibility, and we were being punished for it. The business side began to believe the editorial side was heedlessly dragging the company down; the editorial side began to believe the business side was fearfully prepared to undermine its integrity.
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<br />
Nick Denton himself, having taunted and titillated other journalists for years with the message that Gawker would do what they wouldn’t, found that message turned back on him. He internalized what his critics and his legal bills were telling him—that the site was out of control, that it had grown too reckless and irresponsible for the power it had grown to wield. In a recurring and nigh comical routine, he took to asking his editors and writers over and over again, in slightly different ways for slightly different occasions, to name the best stories they’d done, to remind him over and over of what the mission was that he had come up with years before.
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<br />
Former Gawker editor Max Read wrote an account of this era for New York magazine, where he now works. It was Read and executive editor Tommy Craggs who resigned from Gawker in the summer of last year, after the strain between the editorial and business departments—and between the two sides of Denton’s mind—broke into an open rupture over the publication of a post about a business executive’s entanglement with an escort, and over the company’s decision to remove that post.
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<br />
Read’s assessment of that episode is clear-eyed and self-critical, and is probably as good a rendition of the story of that disastrous post as can be written. It does not, however, explain Gawker’s demise. Having worked closely with Craggs and Read, and having lived through the whole thing firsthand, I found Read’s history of the era unsettling: It is a thoughtful, deeply considered, and on certain levels deadly accurate portrait, but it is still inescapably a portrait drawn by gaslight.</blockquote>
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<b>The author concludes:</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<blockquote style="border-color: #a44b3d; border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;">
<b>Gawker always said it was in the business of publishing true stories. Here is one last true story: You live in a country where a billionaire can put a publication out of business. A billionaire can pick off an individual writer and leave that person penniless and without legal protection.
</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>If you want to write stories that might anger a billionaire, you need to work for another billionaire yourself, or for a billion-dollar corporation. The law will not protect you. There is no freedom in this world but power and money.</b></blockquote>
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It is only a matter of time until a similar thing will happen to another inconvenient news website - there are lots of right-wing billionaires out there, after all.<br />
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Rolling Stone yesterday published an article <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/gawker-infamous-stories-from-sarah-palin-to-rob-ford-w435508">about the "10 Most Infamous Gawker Stories."</a><br />
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<b>Our old pal Sarah Palin is included in the list as well, and not only that - this sounds very familiar indeed:</b><br />
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Oh yes, we remember! It was not only Gawker, it was also Kathleen and myself at Palingates who in 2010 published pages from Sarah Palin's hilarious upcoming ghostwritten mess "America By Heart", and we received huge attention from the national media. The quotes from the book were just too hilarious to be ignored.<br />
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If you fancy to take a trip down memory lane, see <a href="http://palingates.blogspot.de/2010/11/sarah-palin-rails-in-her-book-america.html">here</a>, <a href="http://palingates.blogspot.de/2010/11/sarah-palins-america-by-heart-ugly.html">here</a> and <a href="http://palingates.blogspot.com/2010/11/sarah-palins-next-grand-slam-hollywood.html">here</a>.<br />
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Do you remember <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzO_9RbunHc">that we were even mentioned on national television?</a><br />
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What happened then was not a surprise - <a href="http://palingates.blogspot.de/2009/11/palingates-hit-nerve-letter-from-harper.html">we already "knew the drill" from the previous year (2009)</a>, when we published pages from Sarah Palin's "masterpiece of lies", her autobiography "Going Rogue": <a href="http://palingates.blogspot.de/2010/11/sarah-palin-rails-in-her-book-america.html">We promptly (again) received a letter from Harper Collins's General Counsel Christopher Goff,</a> and then we immediately removed most of the pages.<br />
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Gawker however fought on and went to court, but they got out of the affair without damage in the end, gaining massive publicity. As you can see, even "Rolling Stone" still remembers the case, more than six years later!<br />
<br />
For the old "Going Rogue" posts, see for example <a href="http://palingates.blogspot.de/2009/11/palingates-exclusive-sarah-palin.html">here</a>, <a href="http://palingates.blogspot.de/2009/11/sarah-palins-autobiography-going-rogue.html">here</a> and <a href="http://palingates.blogspot.de/2009/11/sarah-palin-calls-john-kerry-in-going.html">here</a>.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">We will miss Gawker. They were fearless, which is the most important thing of all.</span></b><br />
<br />Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-20743209055583834432016-08-16T23:00:00.004+02:002016-08-16T23:13:55.427+02:00Comrade Donald Trump<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Patrick</b></div>
<br />
Donald Trump soldiers on, and has great success so far on his mission to destroy the GOP. After this election, there won't be much left any more, as the Republicans are quickly falling apart.<br />
<br />
So who is the Donald working for? "Many people say" that he is secretly working for the Russians. This might actually be quite close to the truth,<br />
<br />
For example, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/us/politics/paul-manafort-ukraine-donald-trump.html">the "New York Times" revealed in an already historic story</a> that his current campaign chief Paul Manafort was deeply involved in the corrupt practices of the former Ukrainian pro-Russian party, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_of_Regions">which was called "Party of Regions."</a><br />
<br />
Excerpt:<br />
<br />
<blockquote style="border-color: #a44b3d; border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;">
The papers, known in Ukraine as the “black ledger,” are a chicken-scratch of Cyrillic covering about 400 pages taken from books once kept in a third-floor room in the former Party of Regions headquarters on Lipskaya Street in Kiev. The room held two safes stuffed with $100 bills, said Taras V. Chornovil, a former party leader who was also a recipient of the money at times. He said in an interview that he had once received $10,000 in a “wad of cash” for a trip to Europe.
<br />
<br />
A page from the “black ledger,” released by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau. This page does not include Mr. Manafort’s name.
“This was our cash,” he said, adding that he had left the party in part over concerns about off-the-books activity. “They had it on the table, stacks of money, and they had lists of who to pay.”
<br />
<br />
<b>The National Anti-Corruption Bureau, which obtained the ledger, said in a statement that Mr. Manafort’s name appeared 22 times in the documents over five years, with payments totaling $12.7 million. The purpose of the payments is not clear. Nor is the outcome, since the handwritten entries cannot be cross-referenced against banking records, and the signatures for receipt have not yet been verified.
</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>“Paul Manafort is among those names on the list of so-called ‘black accounts of the Party of Regions,’ which the detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine are investigating,” the statement said. “We emphasize that the presence of P. Manafort’s name in the list does not mean that he actually got the money, because the signatures that appear in the column of recipients could belong to other people.</b>”
<br />
<br />
The accounting records surfaced this year, when Serhiy A. Leshchenko, a member of Parliament who said he had received a partial copy from a source he did not identify, published line items covering six months of outlays in 2012 totaling $66 million. In an interview, Mr. Leshchenko said another source had provided the entire multiyear ledger to Viktor M. Trepak, a former deputy director of the domestic intelligence agency of Ukraine, the S.B.U., who passed it to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau.</blockquote>
<br />
There is actually more shocking revelations contained <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/us/politics/paul-manafort-ukraine-donald-trump.html">in this important story by the New York Times:</a><br />
<br />
<blockquote style="border-color: #a44b3d; border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;">
In a recent interview, Serhiy V. Gorbatyuk, Ukraine’s special prosecutor for high-level corruption cases, pointed to an open file on his desk containing paperwork for one of the shell companies, Milltown Corporate Services Ltd., which played a central role in the state’s purchase of two oil derricks for $785 million, or about double what they were said to be worth.
<br />
<br />
“This,” he said, “was an offshore used often by Mr. Yanukovych’s entourage.”
<br />
<br />
<b>The role of the offshore companies in business dealings involving Mr. Manafort came to light because of court filings in the Cayman Islands and in a federal court in Virginia related to an investment fund, Pericles Emerging Markets. Mr. Manafort and several partners started the fund in 2007, and its major backer was Mr. Deripaska, the Russian mogul, to whom the State Department has refused to issue a visa, apparently because of allegations linking him to Russian organized crime, a charge he has denied.
</b><br />
<br />
Mr. Deripaska agreed to commit as much as $100 million to Pericles so it could buy assets in Ukraine and Eastern Europe, including a regional cable television and communications company called Black Sea Cable. But corporate records and court filings show that it was hardly a straightforward transaction.
<br />
<br />
The Black Sea Cable assets were controlled by a rotating cast of offshore companies that led back to the Yanukovych network, including, at various times, Milltown Corporate Services and two other companies well known to law enforcement officials, Monohold A.G. and Intrahold A.G. Those two companies won inflated contracts with a state-run agricultural company, and also acquired a business center in Kiev with a helicopter pad on the roof that would ease Mr. Yanukovych’s commute from his country estate to the presidential offices.</blockquote>
<br />
<b>So Paul Manafort can comfortably be linked to organized crime in Russia. Pretty amazing indeed. This is the (current) campaign chief for the presidential candidate of the Republican party. </b>If somebody would write something like this in a novel, it would probably be dismissed as "science fiction."<br />
<br />
In any case, <a href="http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/?ex_cid=rrpromo">Donald Trump is losing really, really badly:</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8ER5FC7dOSHyy5mgLqHD6AsY6fqdgcjTmqj2sPBikBISd4emUh5SWMIJMIXow2ljacKpzS29un5ppyfHRD8IbgV7qfSxPNxwkK1oH22ytKVRwjz0jcEzOKg2au-gPbHyDwsNI_THNNso/s1600/Who+will+win.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="572" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8ER5FC7dOSHyy5mgLqHD6AsY6fqdgcjTmqj2sPBikBISd4emUh5SWMIJMIXow2ljacKpzS29un5ppyfHRD8IbgV7qfSxPNxwkK1oH22ytKVRwjz0jcEzOKg2au-gPbHyDwsNI_THNNso/s640/Who+will+win.png" width="608" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Why? Because Trump is a big fat joke - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnQoE3s7J7g">Stephen Colbert totally nailed it two weeks ago:</a><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MnQoE3s7J7g" width="600"></iframe>
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But there is more. If you want an even more shocking look at the "real Donald", watch this interview <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym_ARL41kBM">with investigative journalist David Cay Johnston, published five days ago:</a></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ym_ARL41kBM" width="600"></iframe>
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<br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/MLevineReports/status/765571098742251520">Donald Trump will apparently receive</a> his first intelligence briefing tomorrow, and Putin-enemy Garry Kasparov <a href="https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/765628163997118464">had some stinging comments on twitter:</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDKFsN3Z0xB8yw-QV5wK0Bp8wCIejXugHnRk1QMK9Oss_7jVLFm3tLo1l8nrV2Y_ezEWNp13FHISGfFlP7rZg8itIjm_JkGoV7Hz2QexkSnpt2REpYWpwBqYjNh1CrLx5qOwVQ3gRwEZ4/s1600/Kasparov+tweet.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDKFsN3Z0xB8yw-QV5wK0Bp8wCIejXugHnRk1QMK9Oss_7jVLFm3tLo1l8nrV2Y_ezEWNp13FHISGfFlP7rZg8itIjm_JkGoV7Hz2QexkSnpt2REpYWpwBqYjNh1CrLx5qOwVQ3gRwEZ4/s640/Kasparov+tweet.png" width="608" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/765646025939791872">More from Kasparov on this topic today:</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvYw58doQ3tuxOX-SghqaQhyphenhyphenjkG_hRrXCgXWcdml9WLUMAKiZKdPxTS9f4FWuCnKPZ99VFBlFbpfUGnoPYZwOADojpGIfgqitCyN9U1sz8vxM6zwNsqcXY85_EdLqwCysM6ReMLhqkGNw/s1600/Kasparov+tweet+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="405" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvYw58doQ3tuxOX-SghqaQhyphenhyphenjkG_hRrXCgXWcdml9WLUMAKiZKdPxTS9f4FWuCnKPZ99VFBlFbpfUGnoPYZwOADojpGIfgqitCyN9U1sz8vxM6zwNsqcXY85_EdLqwCysM6ReMLhqkGNw/s640/Kasparov+tweet+2.png" width="608" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>However, absolutely nothing is too bizarre these days!</b><br />
<br />
A Republican candidate who is a fan of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Jones_(radio_host)">infamous conspiray theorist Alex Jones?</a><br />
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Who surrounds himself with Putin-loving people?<br />
<br />
Also, bizarrly, Trump advisor Michael T. Flynn now claims to <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/04/donald-trump-2016-russia-today-rt-kremlin-media-vladimir-putin-213833"><b>that the Russian propaganda channel "Russia Today (RT)"....</b></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNlcpba9QPjaDZwNam4zMoGk-UkjRSgSww61nLCRujZE_EhEUkUki0ctUv-QqRwrs9HafD5xNJKjlK8qVU8dTcK0bVhltsHFUqPh3ewnG6HBAHvRw88IgkPLA0qocFpjGoe_W6A3udT0k/s1600/RT+-+politico.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="329" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNlcpba9QPjaDZwNam4zMoGk-UkjRSgSww61nLCRujZE_EhEUkUki0ctUv-QqRwrs9HafD5xNJKjlK8qVU8dTcK0bVhltsHFUqPh3ewnG6HBAHvRw88IgkPLA0qocFpjGoe_W6A3udT0k/s640/RT+-+politico.png" width="608" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/08/15/trump-adviser-michael-t-flynn-on-his-dinner-with-putin-and-why-russia-today-is-just-like-cnn/">...is just like "CNN"</a>, and Flynn also seems to have no idea between the difference of a "state-run-network" like RT and a private channel like CNN:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglP85gtSz_m515FKlfz_cA5XJATUDsxFnDsCrctLNwVRnqOr2OIJupZWfEVsyB7Tw4oc8pVyLiFrhflyn4arNCUga7xhJ8KeRLAk6z8Fp_SahhD1Rt59V6x4G8lewkM9bSay9lrjAqs6Y/s1600/Flynn.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglP85gtSz_m515FKlfz_cA5XJATUDsxFnDsCrctLNwVRnqOr2OIJupZWfEVsyB7Tw4oc8pVyLiFrhflyn4arNCUga7xhJ8KeRLAk6z8Fp_SahhD1Rt59V6x4G8lewkM9bSay9lrjAqs6Y/s640/Flynn.png" width="608" /></a></div>
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Quote:<br />
<blockquote style="border-color: #a44b3d; border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;">
PRIEST: Tell me about the RT [state-run Russian Television] relationship?
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FLYNN: I was asked by my speaker’s bureau, LAI. I do public speaking. It was in Russia. It was a paid speaking opportunity. I get paid so much. The speaker’s bureau got paid so much, based on our contract.
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PRIEST: Can you tell me how much you got for that?
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FLYNN: No.<br />
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PRIEST: No? Because you don’t want to get your fees out there?
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FLYNN: Yeah, I don’t.
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PRIEST: What was the gig?<br />
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FLYNN: The gig was to do an interview with [RT correspondent] Sophie Shevardnadze. It was an interview in front of the forum, probably 200 people in the audience. My purpose there was I was asked to talk about radical Islam in the Middle East. They asked me to talk about what was going on in the situation unfolding in the Middle East. … The speaking agreement was done before Russian went into Syria, which was actually more interesting to me because … one of my discussions, I talked about the attacks in France … and the negative role that Iran was playing where I thought Russian could actually have a role. The statement that I made was actually: “Russia ought to get Iran to back out of the proxy wars they are involved in,” to include Syria, so we, the rest of the international community, could settle this situation down.
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<b>PRIEST: Have you appeared on RT regularly?
</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>FLYNN: I appear on Al Jazeera, Skye New Arabia, RT. I don’t get paid a dime. I have no media contracts. … [I am interviewed] on CNN, Fox …
</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>PRIEST: Why would you go on RT, they’re state run?
</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>FLYNN: Well, what’s CNN?
</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>PRIEST: Well, it’s not run by the state. You’re rolling your eyes.
</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>FLYNN: Well, what’s MSNBC? I mean, come on … what’s Al Jazeera? What’s Sky News Arabia? I have been asked by multiple organizations to be a [paid] contributor but I don’t want to be.</b><br />
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PRIEST: Because you don’t want to be hamstrung?
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<br />
FLYNN: That’s right. I want to be able to speak freely about what I believe. There’s a lot of people who would actually like to be able to do that but, for whatever reason, they can’t. … I feel pretty passionate about what’s happening to the country
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PRIEST: One more thing about Russia …
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FLYNN: A lot of people are making this about Russia. Read my book. You’ll see what I say about Russia.
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PRIEST: Let me ask about sitting next to Putin … because that’s the symbol.
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<br />
FLYNN: Yeah, I know, boring.
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PRIEST: But did you think about what the optics would be …
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FLYNN: Sure. I didn’t have any problem. What I’m looking for is to make sure, in my view, I see a country that has lost respect for another country and if I have any sort of fiber in my body where I can help out to make sure they understand that we have people in our country who aren’t going to apologize for who we are.
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<br />
We’re not going to act in a soft way for what we believe needs to be done. I was very adamant about what I said. He knows exactly what I said.</blockquote>
<a href="https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/765414680172990464"><br /></a>
<a href="https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/765414680172990464">Let's give the last word to Garry Kasparov:</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnZlu4T_QEUfkdZ21qIOi0aYSM3HHm4ZJlyDjmhZHKfxjQcvu6oQVlb3TFHj7p_25UXyvB2wpgsMlgzzUzy76t_NeK6kN7ejlXtbRq_ohNkhH3wveSppsvV67pfxRz65g6vL3fCH3D1Lk/s1600/Kasparov+tweet+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnZlu4T_QEUfkdZ21qIOi0aYSM3HHm4ZJlyDjmhZHKfxjQcvu6oQVlb3TFHj7p_25UXyvB2wpgsMlgzzUzy76t_NeK6kN7ejlXtbRq_ohNkhH3wveSppsvV67pfxRz65g6vL3fCH3D1Lk/s640/Kasparov+tweet+3.png" width="608" /></a></div>
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Yep, that sounds just like Donald Trump. Or Putin. They are just very hard to distinguish. These are bizarre times indeed.<br />
<br />Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128808372025832427.post-34984201589423333102016-08-13T18:37:00.000+02:002016-08-14T16:31:31.282+02:00A surprisingly modern piece of medieval art history - Open Post<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmi3hxn6HkDZZXA85_urNny9RFAsu7sdV1aup23RaP3XAA87X6AJKbhyphenhyphennV4jdQ-4MVTTAx7Cq8ep4l1DpJfd_3vu8N39XGHpjmdqsb8K2dHIIQ1smm8AkDd06j2M27EhWLG704lxcFYnw/s1600/Durer-self-portrait-at-the-age-of-thirteen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmi3hxn6HkDZZXA85_urNny9RFAsu7sdV1aup23RaP3XAA87X6AJKbhyphenhyphennV4jdQ-4MVTTAx7Cq8ep4l1DpJfd_3vu8N39XGHpjmdqsb8K2dHIIQ1smm8AkDd06j2M27EhWLG704lxcFYnw/s640/Durer-self-portrait-at-the-age-of-thirteen.jpg" width="448" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Albrecht Dürer - Self-portrait at the age of 13 ( from 1484)</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Patrick</b></div>
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<a href="http://politicalgates.blogspot.com/2016/08/open-post-kathleen-and-patrick-on.html">Following our visit to the Albrecht Dürer house in Nuremberg,</a> I continued to read about Albrecht Dürer's art. I ordered a large catalogue from a previous Dürer exhibition in Vienna, and there I discovered something interesting: I never knew that Albrecht Dürer <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer_-_Head_of_a_Negro_-_WGA7069.jpg">created a wonderful, very modern looking drawing of an African man, dated 1508,</a><br />
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Subsequently I discovered that he Dürer also created <a href="http://www.wikiart.org/en/albrecht-durer/portrait-of-african-woman-catherine">a very interesting drawing of a black woman in 1521,</a> who was called Katharina (Catherine), and who according to the inscription was 20 years old.<br />
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<a href="http://afroeurope.blogspot.de/2012/10/black-man-and-woman-in-16th-century.html">While the woman was a servant,</a> the man actually doesn't look like a servant at all.<br />
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Here are the drawings in high-resolution:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ_hXGrBznBfWh0hEuymURaqPUr7bk10OHk_35KeZ9skuSA8s7cp5Qx6zlOJGmshTd-C87AVWqYkTjfaalBa3ysm53Pioz7ccTVt1hZX6V-0eMNfHPd3G-0_ULJZm2o61-kX8uO6WQ8R0/s1600/Albrecht_D%25C3%25BCrer_-_Head_of_a_Negro_-_WGA7069.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ_hXGrBznBfWh0hEuymURaqPUr7bk10OHk_35KeZ9skuSA8s7cp5Qx6zlOJGmshTd-C87AVWqYkTjfaalBa3ysm53Pioz7ccTVt1hZX6V-0eMNfHPd3G-0_ULJZm2o61-kX8uO6WQ8R0/s640/Albrecht_D%25C3%25BCrer_-_Head_of_a_Negro_-_WGA7069.jpg" width="438" /></a></div>
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<b><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer_-_Head_of_a_Negro_-_WGA7069.jpg">From Wikimedia:</a> Where Dürer met this man is not known: he may have encountered this subject in a major port city such as Venice or even in the imperial city of Nuremberg, where this African may have been a member of a visiting entourage. His serious expression is depicted with extraordinary sensitivity and skill. Dürer's exploitation of the soft, finely grained structure of the chalk in contrast with the white reserve of the paper is evident in his masterful rendering of the way light falls on the man's face and hair.</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijGNqm-S7h_BDQhzjTaSo43jZhWNPJki8lPHHR9d9vEAFV03mVepoZikFg2_4TYQQ9PZ7e3tb-L8mZXUKRWJVmvjQWoNEl7KOcC_6xXUSR6usZs5_KkkB60idx-6H2QdFKmjurGn4_wnY/s1600/portrait-of-african-woman-catherine+LARGE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijGNqm-S7h_BDQhzjTaSo43jZhWNPJki8lPHHR9d9vEAFV03mVepoZikFg2_4TYQQ9PZ7e3tb-L8mZXUKRWJVmvjQWoNEl7KOcC_6xXUSR6usZs5_KkkB60idx-6H2QdFKmjurGn4_wnY/s640/portrait-of-african-woman-catherine+LARGE.jpg" width="448" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><a href="http://afroeurope.blogspot.de/2012/10/black-man-and-woman-in-16th-century.html">From Afro Europe blog:</a> Portrait of the Moorish Woman Katharina from 1521. Dürer saw her in Antwerp, where she was the servant or slave of the Antwerp agent of the king of Portugal. The inscription says "Katharina allt 20 Jar."</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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When I saw the drawing of the African man, I was struck by the very modern appearance and the respectful way in which Albrecht Dürer portrayed this man.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>According to my catalogue, this is in fact the oldest remaining depiction of a black person in European art. - EDIT: </b>It has been pointed out by several readers that there are older depictions of black people existing, <a href="http://politicalgates.blogspot.com/2016/08/a-surprisingly-modern-piece-of-medieval.html#comment-2836542149">for example in Roman and Greek art,</a> and there are also <a href="https://www.quora.com/Were-the-North-Africans-known-as-Moors-Black-Why-or-why-not">older depictions of Saint Maurice,</a> who became the <a href="http://www.coburg.de/Portaldata/2/Resources/dokumente/z-stadtportrait/Wappen_Coburg_high2.pdf">patron saint of the German city of Coburg</a>. So it has to be concluded that this statement is not entirely correct. The author who wrote this in the catalogue for the Vienna exhibition probably wanted to express that this is the first known "more defined" portrait of a black person in European art, created by a famous, recognized artist.<br />
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So who was he? He does not look like a servant or slave, although we cannot completely exclude this possibility, as no information about the history of the picture seems to have survived. I believe that it is likely that he actually was <b>not</b> a slave. Through research on the internet I found another extremely interesting picture from the same period, <a href="http://www.artwis.com/articles/who-is-this-man/">a painting by the Dutch artist Jan Mostaert, made around 1520 - 1525:</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhouQrCxnRmX7qegtviFBUZBDwIHPIYNJ5-f5AvgK8awkshMaaFpuuN9El4JPUTij8eaFC54K3Wvu5zhSu3DpNLn0u3_KXYuWLojs3d7H0Dxb8caButMHWSYhSPHY489HHDFUQgNUTGSi0/s1600/Painting+Moorish+nobleman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhouQrCxnRmX7qegtviFBUZBDwIHPIYNJ5-f5AvgK8awkshMaaFpuuN9El4JPUTij8eaFC54K3Wvu5zhSu3DpNLn0u3_KXYuWLojs3d7H0Dxb8caButMHWSYhSPHY489HHDFUQgNUTGSi0/s640/Painting+Moorish+nobleman.jpg" width="444" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.artwis.com/articles/who-is-this-man/">From Artwis:</a><br />
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<blockquote style="border-color: #a44b3d; border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;">
This unique portrait shows a bearded black man who has assumed a powerful pose, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword while he gazes out of the picture. He is dressed quite soberly, in a Flemish cap, doublet, shirt, tabard and hose. More luxurious items are the white kid gloves, the pouch decorated with a fleur de lis and the sword. The man’s pose, clothing and attributes indicate that the subject of this portrait is a soldier.
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<br />
This unique portrait shows a bearded black man who has assumed a powerful pose, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword while he gazes out of the picture. He is dressed quite soberly, in a Flemish cap, doublet, shirt, tabard and hose. More luxurious items are the white kid gloves, the pouch decorated with a fleur de lis and the sword. The man’s pose, clothing and attributes indicate that the subject of this portrait is a soldier.
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<br />
The painter of this work has been identified by Jan Piet Filedt Kok with reasonable certainty as Jan Mostaert. As far as is known this is the only painted portrait of a black man from the early sixteenth century. Around the same time, in 1521, Dürer drew a portrait of a black woman, Katharina, in Antwerp; in 1508 he had also drawn a portrait of a black man who coincidentally seems to bear some likeness to the man in Mostaert’s painting.</blockquote>
<b><a href="http://baital.tumblr.com/post/81551642554/in-wtf-internet-news-portrait-of-christoph"><br /></a></b>
<b><a href="http://baital.tumblr.com/post/81551642554/in-wtf-internet-news-portrait-of-christoph">However, another website has more detailed information about the painting:</a></b><br />
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<blockquote style="border-color: #a44b3d; border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;">
I’m reading about pilgrim badges right now, and this piece was called out for the gold badge on Christoph’s hat. Here is the accompanying text:
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“As soon as Charles heard the news in 1519 that he was to be crowned King [of the Holy Roman Empire], he went…on a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Halle, a sanctuary not far south of Brussels. Charles had been there before and had bought badges of silver and gold for himself and his close retinue, as well as pewter and lead ones for the lower ranks. One of his personal guards, a certain Cristoph le Mohr, got such a badge of precious metal.” - p. 199, Jos Koldeweij, “Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges” in <i>'From minor to major: the minor arts in Medieval art history.'</i></blockquote>
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<b>EDIT: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_an_African_Man">There is much more information about this painting on Wikipedia.</a></b><br />
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I find this all very fascinating, and I am sure that Americans in particular will find this very interesting as well. Albrecht Dürer's drawing of the black man is very remarkable in many respects. I really like the proud and sincere expression on his face. This in fact a very modern and very inspiring drawing.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">BONUS:</span></b><br />
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A little bonus - you liked Albrecht Dürer's rabbit so much, so I am sure that you will love this lion as well:<br />
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<br />Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283141747023601058noreply@blogger.com0