It's intense stuff.

Yes it is.

Today the House Democrats are holding a sit in to say that Congress shouldn't take a weeklong vacation until there have been votes on gun control.

On one hand, I'm furious and saddened that the conversation has ground to such a halt that some of the most powerful people in the country have to resort to civil disobedience just to have the conversation.

On the other hand, I'm so thrilled to see my representatives fighting for the issues I care about and being the people I wanted them to be when I voted for them. So I called my Congressman and had a very lovely conversation with the people in his office and I thanked him. And then I left a stern voice mail with Speaker Paul Ryan's offices where I told him to turn the cameras back on because as a voter I feel entitled to witnessing my representatives be the people I voted for. I mean, I think it's probably a right but I didn't feel like arguing that point so my exact phrasing was "I deserve to watch them"

House leadership turned off the cameras as soon as the sit in started, so that no one could watch. I guess they were hoping no one would really notice if people couldn't watch on C-Span. But instead of reducing interest, that's just pissed people off so I think that will end up being a mistake.

And the Trump news is all complete and total fiasco, from his fundraising failures to his campaign organization, and then the whole LEWANDOWSKI FINALLY GOT FIRED! Only Donald Trump could find a campaign manager who was a bigger sociopath than him.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/ ... cnn-224733

Politico is reporting that Corey Lewandowski will be joining CNN. Are you KIDDING me?! After he physically assaulted a reporter?! After all the animosity he's shown to the press, all the physical and verbal abuse?!

I just hope this decision came from the corporate overlords and not the editing room, because if the actual journalists at CNN have so little regard for the integrity of their profession that they would work with this sociopath then there is no hope for them.

It's been an interesting week. People are saying Trump has finally pivoted to being more professional, but I doubt it will last.

I doubt it as well. I keep hearing stupid fun things about Trump that it's sick to keep hearing about. Just a couple days ago watched The Daily Show and my god his crap that came out of his mouth is never the same. They even showed proof of things he actually said to begin with along side the stuff he is saying now. Funny but sad.

I wonder if anything good will come out of the sit in. I watched the Daily Show about it as well and hope something might come of it. Besides some saying it was just for show and means nothing.

Plus I guess the Supreme Court choose to go with domestic violence records you can't get a gun. But not sure what will come of it after that now. We will have to wait and see.

Funny that Sanders has come out and said he's voting for Clinton. Even though both of them are bad candiates (Trump and Clinton). I just wished we had better choices for this final race, but we all knew it was going to be between them in the beginning.

saiyouri wrote:I doubt it as well. I keep hearing stupid fun things about Trump that it's sick to keep hearing about. Just a couple days ago watched The Daily Show and my god his crap that came out of his mouth is never the same. They even showed proof of things he actually said to begin with along side the stuff he is saying now. Funny but sad.

I wonder if anything good will come out of the sit in. I watched the Daily Show about it as well and hope something might come of it. Besides some saying it was just for show and means nothing.

Plus I guess the Supreme Court choose to go with domestic violence records you can't get a gun. But not sure what will come of it after that now. We will have to wait and see.

Funny that Sanders has come out and said he's voting for Clinton. Even though both of them are bad candiates (Trump and Clinton). I just wished we had better choices for this final race, but we all knew it was going to be between them in the beginning.

In regards to the sit in, some good has already come of it, at least in the abstract personal sense. My congressman hosted a rally in a city about an hour and a half from my house, so I went. It was a pretty small turn out, but I saw a lot of really great communication between the local police and the community organizers. One of the church groups that came brought a refugee who had just arrived from Uganda a few weeks ago, and when I eavesdropped on his conversation I heard him saying that he was really inspired by the whole event. That was so exciting to hear! It's hard to be cynical when someone who has so many reasons to be disillusioned chooses to be hopeful instead. As for what happens next...well, we'll have to wait until Monday to see. Forecasts predict a stormy week ahead in the Capitol...

The more time goes on the harder it is for me to tell if there's any kind of reason to Trump's madness. Normally I assume people who manage to get into positions of power have at least SOME semblance of intelligence. I mean, I may think certain people are totally wrong about pretty much everything, but someone who is really and truly stupid shouldn't be able to climb that high, right? But it just keeps getting harder and harder to give Trump the benefit of the doubt. Most of the time I can't even tell if he knows what he's saying, forget about understanding the implications of his thoughts or the consequences of saying them out loud.

I mean, right now the scandal du jour is that over the weekend Trump tweeted a meme of Hillary Clinton next to a Star of David emblazoned with the words "Most Corrupt Candidate Ever" super-imposed over a pile of money.

Now, that's anti-semitic. And I know it's anti-semitic, because I know the history of anti-semitism. Neo-nazis and other anti-semitic groups associate Jews with greed and corruption because for hundreds of years Jews worked as money lenders in Europe. The reason for this is that during the Middle Ages any work involving finance was considered morally dubious and so rich people didn't want to manage their own money. Jewish people in Europe at that time were also barred from participating in most forms of employment. To be a farmer, you had to be able to stay in one place and most communities did not tolerate Jews at the time. It was hard to be a craftsperson or an artisan as well, because rich people would refuse to buy or even touch anything that had been made by Jews. The Spanish invented ghettos during this time in order to isolate the Spanish Jews from the general population. On the other hand, even through the Dark Ages the Jewish people were still able to read and write and so they were of value to the (often illiterate) rich and powerful. The association with Jews and money comes from this time, when the only area in which Jewish people were permitted to engage was finance. Today, anti-semites use that association to imply that Jews cannot be trusted, that we're corrupt and greedy and basically just morally broken. It's a tired old dog whistle, but at least its an obvious one.

Then there's the fact that the image Trump tweeted had actually been made by white supremacists. The image came from a white supremacist 4chan. Like it was actually made by avowed neo-Nazis.

So, to recap, this image was anti-semitic in terms of the historical context and in terms of the actual context surrounding the image.

And what does Trump's campaign say? "Nothing to see here."

Literally, one of Trump's media surrogates actually said "Nothing to see here."

I mean, come on.

Holy what the actual fuck? My god that is.... WOW.
Now he is truly going below the damn belt way too far. I didn't know that image was that bad. I knew it was just not as bad as I just read.
Thank you for the history lesson though, I never knew that about the Jewish people. So nice to find out the reason why they are associated with money. It makes so much sense. Sad and sick that your people had to suffer that much shit. I am truly sorry.

But glad to hear that your congressman did something good and that refugee is looking on the bright side. I hope more good comes from this.

And I agree with you. You would assume that someone like Trump couldn't get as far as he is and yet, what the hell is wrong with this world?? On The Daily Show a woman interviewed hard Sanders supporters... who are voting for TRUMP. Get this because he isn't as bad as Clinton..... HAHAHA
Like seriously how stupid are these damn people. IF you are going to support Sanders, then go with the lesser of the two evils. Even though she is truly bad in many ways. At least she isn't spouting racist shit and being supported by those fuckers (I can't remember the name of that neo nazi group haha).

>.> Ugh this world is just going more and more down the damn toilet.

Oh ya, do you understand what the entire Britian pulling away from the EU is about? The Daily Show didn't touch too much on it and it's still something I don't understand much. Though I do know that the own britsh people who voted to pull out, found out what it was and they are all like.... oops wrong choice there.