Unity or diversity? Oh, my!
Analysis and Opinion
By JoeAm
My response to would-be autocrats calling for unity is a sneering, dismissive shake of the head. They really mean enforced loyalty to THEM, not a collaboration that respects diversity.
The Constitution does not demand that kind of unity, you know. Indeed, it promotes diversity. It has a whole section on human rights. And the cherished notion of free speech is an antidote to the idea of unity as a contrived borg hive where loyalty is assigned to one individual.
Patriotism is loyalty to the Constitution. Not loyalty to unity or homogeneity. We are different. Not the same. Age, gender, sexual orientation, education, geographic location, type of job, race or ethnicity, religion or lack thereof, body shape, and politics. We are different. It takes brains to figure out an approach many will agree to. You can’t just yell for unity and have it happen.
Vice President Robredo makes the point that you can’t have unity without justice. Justice is the formal exercise of fairness in our diversity.
It is dumb not to prize diversity, to see it, welcome it, and respect it. It’s the place where growth occurs, to see life through the eyes of others. Self-contained, enforced uniformity is dumb. And it promotes more mean, brutal deeds than any other characteristic of human kind.
So when an aspiring autocrat proposes “unity”, be sure to ask him how he expects to achieve it. If you can’t get him to show up for a debate, he probably does not grasp that unity must be earned. It is not available on demand.
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Photo source: The Diplomat
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
No aspiring autocrat is inspiring in my book.
That autocrat has no moral turpitude no matter what the Comelec or Supreme Court decides.
On the pink side, I saw a few people chiding Raissa for her spat with the left and using the unity trump card. Raissa just said that people forget that she IS a journalist and truth is paramount.
Democracy is about balancing different interests in a society under the roof of common principles. It isn’t always easy, and the Philippines with its many one hundred percenters and it’s my way or the highway type is a difficult place.
Sometimes the temptation with such a contentious people is to just have a dictator or a “benevolent strongman” similar to the Titan Manuel Quezon (who had after all the power of the USA still behind him even as he struck a hard bargain with them) to give “order”.
What many who admire authoritarian regimes don’t realize is that the buy-in created by
strong consensus is stronger in the long run than imposed unity. Even if democracy can go through very contentious phases. Free men are more committed than slaves.
OT: LCPL_X asked about VP Leni and her pull with Visayans. This is her actually addressing her Surigao supporters in Visayan and their group is wowed.
https://fb.watch/aYmQXBTVSj/
I can’t tell the difference really, but the sound seems still Tagalog , Ireneo. Maybe with Visayan words sprinkled about?
I was looking for a language comparison with Inday Sara, so here at 2:40 time stamp, that sounds more Visayan. its not as softer sounding than Tagalog, more staccato at least to my ear.
It starts with Visayan and continues with Tagalog, true. And the Bikolano accent is more staccato than Tagalog yet softer than Visayan, just like it is linguistically in between. Mindanao Cebuano sounds harder of course. But Visayan isn’t always Visayan, Ilonggo for instance is singsong compared to Cebuano, even as Cebuanos insist their language is Visayan per se.
LOL! yeah, I remember Cebuanos always making fun of Ilongos, they are definitely not unified. a joke went something like How do you know its an Ilongo driving the car, the car’s windows are up even though no AC but just to show people he has AC in the car, something like that maybe somethings lost in translation but the gist is that Ilongos are a bunch of show-offs! LOL!
“… I can’t tell the difference really, but the sound seems still Tagalog , Ireneo. Maybe with Visayan words sprinkled about? …”
LC, language, geography/topography, migration history are some of the components of the Philippine olio of speech communications. Each contribute to purity and/or nuance of what is spoken along the lines of districts, geographic boundaries. To illustrate: I generally speak of Filipino Malay language into categories like Tagalog (MetroManila), Bikol, Ilocano, Ibanag, Bisaya (Cebuano, Ilonggo, Kinaray-a, Waray), Pangasinan, Pampango, Igorot (Kankaney, Ifugao, Bontoc), Ibanag, My generalizations usually depend on the Filipinos I meet and interact with like Masbate-Tagalog, Mindoro-Tagalog, Marinduque (dunno what they speak there also; haven’t met a Filipino from there); Aside from Manila, Tarlac is our traditional melting pot (Pampango, Ilocano, Pangasinanse, Tagalog, no native-Tarlac language). Ilocanos: origin = Ilocos Norte/Sur; migration starts south of Amburayan River to all points – Luzon leeward & windward, Mindanao, Visayas, Zambales, Pangasinan, Hawaii, California, Wash State, US Midwest); La Union has 4 Ilocano dialects due to partition from Pangasinan, Mountain Province, Ilocanos north of Amburayan River, hence the name “La Union”.
‘… north of Amburayan River …’ SOUTH of Amburayan River
Thanks, sonny. I get that over here too, like there’s a way Norcal and Socal locals talk. Like if you hear “hella”, eg. It’s hella fun!!! you know they are from Norcal. But here in Socal you get a 6th sense on who’s who, like a Guatemalan speaks with a different Spanish from a Mexican, and you can hear it. I think i developed this ear somewhat over there too, albeit mostly from bars over there.
Another analogy would be the street gang territories in the LA area. you’ll sense that this gang’s kinda violent and that gang’s got their shit together thus more order. So theres these invisible borders that you begin seeing. that can only come from experience.
For me, being i guess a product of GWOT, i never really knew about the Cold War, just from books and stuff high school history. But I can tell who the Salafis are, and why Sunnis don’t like Shias, and why both arent big fans of Sufis, etc. and how learning prayers and memorizing stanzas of poetry in Arabic will garner you brownie points.
To expand the analogy further, its like what Joe, NH and Micha are talking about below the thread. Honestly, I don’t see any difference between 2016-2020 and 2020-2022 America, sonny. Trump had bluster, Biden is your typical American politician, but it feels like the same America then and now, only that media spin is different.
So to further expand on your point about language borders, and my point about invisible borders and cultural maps, i would add that GOP vs. Dems isn’t really thelines anymore, its the AltRight vs. AntiFA vs. BLM. AntiFA likes to think they got BLM’s back, but actually BLM is more worried about AntiFA types than the more obvious AltRight. like for example the recent book burnings in Tennessee were actually burning books about Witchcraft and Magic, eg. Harry Potter and Twilight series.
AltRight is more entwined with religion and spirituality stuff; AntiFA is more about scientism, etc. which itself is religion; whereas BLM is more about human rights and cancel culture. But all three groups converge at Bitcoin, kinda like La Union for you, sonny.
Going back to Cold War, i’m reading this book:
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2020/08/02/book-review-the-jakarta-method-washingtons-anticommunist-crusade-and-the-mass-murder-program-that-shaped-our-world-by-vincent-bevins/
Mostly because I have a big blind spot about that era. I need to develop a map of that time, but since i’m not living in it, gotta do it thru books, and youtube, and Google. And what happened then, ties directly to why Bitcoin is our La Union right now. I think the 3 groups right now in the US are just splinters of the same reaction (ie. equal opposite reaction) that can be traced back to the Jakarta Method (even farther to Jekyll Island).
That you have powers that wanna control and centralize , only now the equal opposite reaction individual sovereignty and de-centralizing to that has finally matured. thus the die is cast, and board is set. The Trojan Horse is placed. now we wait to enter, sonny. here’s a great video, please watch, and i’ll link a longer video of Alex Gladstein further below.
here’s the longer video but worth the watch.
Terrific, JoeAm! I always look forward to your own view/perpective. THANKS!
Ah, thanks for reading, and for the uplift. Small pleasures. 😁
He probably thinks the crown’s in the bag and Madam Imeldific is a shoe-in to be in Malacanang once again.
Being married to an Araneta, he will probably reach out to Mar Roxas and tap him as a cabinet member and golf buddy.
I think that’s the kind of unity he’s talking about – unity among warring oligarchs and dynasties even as they screw the rest of population.
He did not attend the Presidential Forum of KBP today.
Instead he was at a cooking show organized by.. Korina Roxas.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10227090498109241&id=1259797117
Mismo!
These kind of FB shares and memes are now circulating:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2289078627906311&id=100004125884939
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10160123276739349&id=648154348
Funny that, but…
On the eve of EDSA 86 uprising, Korina was the anchorwoman of PTV-4 broadcasting twisted news and propaganda for the conjugal dictatorship.
Oh, I see. It may also explains why she seems to warm up to certain powerful politicians.
bbm once dressed up as jedi knight. from light saber to kitchen knife, bbm got a demotion and ended up cutting vegetables, lol!
There was a time last year that you said Marcos Jr. was unbeatable even when Sara Duterte was the leading the surveys during that time. I was honestly disappointed but I also know you were just prognosticating.
For Micha.
Just got this from academia.edu: from Prof. Alfred McCoy about the men he considers the three major strongmen of Philippine history: Quezon, Marcos and Duterte.
https://www.academia.edu/37158911/Global_Populism_A_Lineage_of_Filipino_Strongmen_from_Quezon_to_Marcos_and_Duterte
“..Apart from a shared ability to navigate the great power politics of their eras, these successful Filipino strongmen also offered a promiseof order, projecting an aura of personal power that appealed to theircountry’s impoverished masses. Focusing on this element of theirideological appeal cuts against the grain of the dominant themes ortropes in modern Philippine historiography and highlights an issuelong overlooked in the country’s study: the popular need for order. With its inherently conservative view of the people as willing to acceptalmost any government—colonial or national, authoritarian ordemocratic—that offers peace and prosperity, the study of ordercontradicts the thrust of nationalist studies, which tends to view themasses as innately revolutionary, yearning for liberation and strugglingagainst oppression (Agoncillo 1956; Ileto 1979).
These strongmen also gained support by their ability to mediate the contradictions, the structural flaws if you will, in the Philippine polity. Since its emergence as a Commonwealth under US colonialrule in the 1930s, the Philippine state has faced a recurring tensionbetween a nominally strong central government, headed by an empowered executive, and local elites who control their provincial peripheries through economic assets, political office, and extralegal violence..”
Re Quezon and how Aguinaldo wanted him dead:
“..After the campaign began in June, Aguinaldo, the candidate for theNational Socialist Party, soon realized he would be crushed by Quezon’s formidable machine and reacted angrily, publicly chargingfraud and privately threatening murder. Just days before the voting on September 15, the Quezon-controlled Philippines Herald denounced Aguinaldo and the other leading opposition candidate, Bishop Gregorio Aglipay, declaring that “their very breaths smell of assassination.” When Quezon won a crushing 69 percent of the vote against Aguinaldo’s17 percent and Bishop Gregorio Aglipay’s 14 percent, the generalattacked his rival’s “abuse of power” and refused to concede (Hayden1955, 387–92, 409–18, 426–29; Gleeck 1998b, 36).In the election’s bitter aftermath, Aguinaldo threatened assassination, armed uprising, or both. In a confidential report to its superintendent, the Constabulary’s Intelligence Division described the “high tension” at a September 21 meeting of the general’s National Socialist Party in Manila, with speakers “lambasting the entire government machinery in having coordinated smoothly to defeat GEA [General Emilio Aguinaldo].” When Aguinaldo spoke, claiming thatthe government had stolen fifty thousand votes from his final tally, the“irresponsible elements present . . . murmured, ’Ayan ang mabuti,revolucion na!” [That’s good, it’s time for revolution!] (MLQ, confidentialmemorandum)..”
Re the postwar Philippine politics:
“..With both the Constabulary and the municipal police neutralized,Governor Lacson used his private army to attack his local politicalenemies, the Yulo-Araneta group. Aside from its personal and purely factional aspects, this rivalry was, in large part, a continuation of theprewar planter miller conflict—with Lacson, himself a sugar farmer,leading the Negros planters against the Araneta milling interests.Through his alliance with President Manuel Roxas (1946–1948),Negros financier J. Amado Araneta had maneuvered the postwarreconstruction of the sugar industry to take control, directly orindirectly, of six of the province’s ten sugar mills—unprecedentedpower over the local economy. Increased concentration of millownership intensified the planter-miller conflict and provided GovernorLacson a broad base of support among sugar farmers for a “reign of terror” against his factional rivals, which included machine-gunningthe house of a municipal mayor.
To break the Yulo-Araneta faction’s mass base among the province’s working class, Lacson formed a tactical alliance with the region’s militant union, the Federacion Obrera de Filipinas (FOF), first usingit to challenge the Yulo-Araneta faction’s company unions and then, when that work was done, banning it from the province (Tejida 1975;Nacion 1975; Valera 1975). With his monopoly on violence now complete, the governor grew even more violent. In February 1950, hisSP arrested prominent opposition politician Inocencio Ferrer, beat him badly, and buried his still breathing body in a shallow grave onLacson’s own plantation..”
Early Marcos era:
“.. the aftermath of these elections, a family dynasty in Ilocos Surpursued a political vendetta against local enemies, producing anincident iconic for both its brutality and its executive complicity. Sincethis troubled province was adjacent to Marcos’s own Ilocos Norte andits local warlord was his political ally, the president’s victory may haveencouraged these events. As Marcos rose through the Senate to thepresidency, his close friend Representative Floro Crisologo had tightenedhis grip over Ilocos Sur—building a private army of three hundred men,a monopoly on the province’s electoral offices, and a vice grip on itsmain cash crop, tobacco. To ensure payment of an informal tax to hispolitical machine, Crisologo’s private army maintained a “tobacco blockade” on the national highway, stopping every southbound truck to check for receipts. The Constabulary could have easily swept away the Crisologo roadblock were it not for the reputed intervention of General Fabian Crisologo Ver, chief of presidential security and thecongressman’s relative (Mijares 1976, 151; Luis “Chavit” Singson,interview by the author, June 1974).
In mid-September 1969, the Crisologo goons gunned down aformer Bantay municipal mayor, and a month later prosecutorsindicted the congressman’s son, Vincent Crisologo, chief of thefamily’s private militia, for ordering the crime (Daily Mirror, October15, 1969). In the elections’ aftermath, political reprisals continued inthe town of Bantay as the Crisologos retaliated against two villages, Ora Este and Ora Centro, for supporting the opposition’s candidates. In May 1970, Vicente Crisologo led a hundred armed men into these villages and burned both to the ground, killing an elderly woman who was caught in the flames. During the attack, residents pleaded with the provincial PC commander, but he “ignored . . . appeals to stop the arson.” In its front-page coverage, the Manila press carried moving photos of survivors sorting through the ashes of their devastated homes..”
Yes, Chavit Singson is Crisologo’s nephew..
Enter Marcos:
“..Marcos classmate Roberto Benedicto occupied the Alto Broadcasting Station- Central Broadcasting Network (ABS-CBN), and Imelda’s brotherBenjamin “Kokoy” Romualdez expropriated the presses of the Manila Chronicle to publish his own Times Journal.
From exile in the United States, the family’s leader, Eugenio LopezSr., resisted the sale of his leading asset, the Manila Electric Company (MERALCO), until he could no longer withstand Marcos’s multifacetedpressures. By slashing an electricity rate increase from 36.5 percent to20.9 percent, Marcos reduced the company’s profits and hence its value. After a mysterious explosion erupted in one of MERALCO’ssubstations, the Marcos press charged that Lopez himself was responsiblefor the sabotage. With a tacit assurance that his son would be releasedfrom death row in a military stockade, Eugenio Sr. signed over a USD300 million corporation to a Marcos-controlled foundation for anominal payment of USD 1,500. But once the papers were signed,Marcos broke his promise and refused to release the hostage (Mijares1976, 184–81, 191–92, 197–204).
Marcos used similar tactics to crush Iloilo City congressmanFermin Caram Jr., a lawyer whose main asset was the country’s thirddomestic airline, Filipinas Orient, first licensed to fly in 1964 over theopposition of the flag carrier, Philippine Airlines (PAL). AlthoughCaram himself was a Marcos ally, he or his wife had somehow offendedthe First Lady. In a move that was supposed to rationalize the airlineindustry as part of his martial law reforms, Marcos granted Philippine Airlines a domestic monopoly and abolished Filipinas Orient. After PAL expropriated Filipinas Orient’s aircraft, the government charged Caram with plundering the firm and won a court order freezing all his assets..”
And the final big heist:
..Apart from thus breaking established provincial elites, Marcos also worked to change the composition of the country’s regional andnational leadership. He damned the provincial politicians as “warlords”and used his martial law powers to strip them of their arms and offices.He denounced Manila’s wealthy families as “old society oligarchs” whose privileges and power stood as a barrier to economic progress. Atthe very outset of martial law, Marcos destroyed the fortunes of theprominent entrepreneurs, like the Lopez and Jacinto families, thereby silencing “Manila’s 400” and facilitating plunder of their corporations one by one over the next decade. Assets confiscated from erring old society oligarchs were quietly transferred to a new economic elite of family, relations, and Palace retainers. By the end of the decade, Fortune magazine would describe the new Philippine economy as “crony capitalism” (Kraar 1981).
A 1980 study of 453 Philippine corporations by Fr. John F. Doherty, SJ, found that the Marcos reforms had produced an enormousconcentration of wealth. Since over 98 percent of all sectors had “fouror fewer companies controlling 35 percent of total sales,” profits wereexcessive. For example, the coconut industry, dominated by crony Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. and Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, hada profit ratio of 111 percent. Significantly, these 453 companies were controlled by only eighty-one individuals who could be divided intothree groups: previous unknowns close to the First Family who “had expanded their corporate empires at a fantastic rate”; a pre-martial law elite closely allied to the regime; and another pre-martial law elite whohad to “endure periodic harassments” and were forced to “keep thesemblance of loyalty” (Doherty 1982, 12–33)..
i heard Bingbong crisologo talk during the 50th birthday of my dad. He was promoting his movie and his church. Those days born agains talk about their crimes openly. i cringed.
And those are some examples of political and economic dynasties we were supposed to entrust and work with for the country’s development path enunciated and advocated in this SOH article :
https://joeam.com/2022/01/12/federalism-in-practice/
VP Leni’s view on political dynasties is diametrically opposed to that view:
https://fb.watch/aZHDC0gqE_/
She defeated one from the Villafuerte dynasty in 2013 for Congress while her SALIGAN colleague and friend Kaka Bag-ao defeated the Ecleos in Dinagat. The anti-dynasty law for SK (barangay level) was authored by her. It will depend on what kind of Congress is again voted into power whether her dream of a real anti-dynasty law will be realized. People Empowerment a la Naga could be a step to weakening local dynasties though, that is another thing on her agenda, including more of a say vs. mining and the like.
I understand the aversion to “live with it”, “why fight it?”
This does not mean when being raped you just enjoy it, that is the extreme and the not music to the ears version.
When it is about life giving you lemons you turn it to lemonades people find it acceptable and doable.
There are many bad things to cite about oligarchs and dynasties.
Throughout history slaves turned to paid workers ,some continue to struggle for the rest of their miserable lives some strive. Others are just born lucky.
When it comes to Marcos, there is no good dynast, good oligarch about him, you do not deal with him, you do not unite and you do not co-exist with him without demanding accountability and justice, first he must acknowledge that he was part of the abuses his father and mother did and he was not a baby when it all happened.
bbm was a baby when all those atrocities of his parents were committed? bbm must be one terrifyingly big baby!
bbm did once wear diapers in a birthday party in the 70’s! ugly sight.
if that bbm, the big baby? on his sister irene’s 30th birthday party!
You never cease to amaze me with your MRPesque seques, KB.
Very on topic.
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2022/02/03/2158285/no-justice-abuses-no-unification-robredo-archrival-marcos
Joe is right. Diversity in a true democracy is a strength when unified through the equal application of the country’s Constitution. The Supreme Court and lesser courts of the land agreeing with any administration — but violating the Constitution — in the name of unity with the Administration’s desires is of course patently ridiculous, unless we are already a confirmed Banana Republic.
The US for the last few years has been moving towards that unity concept — unity with the idiotic ideas of Micha’s Orange Man. Fortunately, the OM’s support has eroded, although slowly. I hope it accelerates before the 2022 US election — if not, before the 2024 election.
That is rubber stamp unity.
It almost happened during this admin, good thing there are still people with principles and not principals.
Checks and balance and not balancing checks.
ah, unity like if bbm’ uniteam jumps in the lake, everyone has to jump in too.
no thank you, I’ll stay behind; they can all jump in the lake and I hope there are piranhas, lol!
Two kinds of unity in contrast:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=142877774848021&id=101249192344213
Ireneo, this is good. this is the imagery type that needs to be promulgated. But I would just critique that you gotta be very target specific, becuz BBM is the guy to beat here. This particular imagery is more for my LENI-SARA 2022 campaign, eg. good cop / bad cop.
it has to be BBM that becomes the ass in these comparisions. like a drawing of him as bikerider to Inday Sara on motorcycle that would be timely. or him in his top hat, with no Filipinos around, if you can have someone photoshop a top hat on him for every picture that would be awesome.
But yeah, more VP Leni with the people; and BBM without the people.
You’re giving me ideas man.
Yes, I will keep an eye on images I can juxtapose.
I suck at graphics design, but I still know what images look good/bad.
But for now, this is nice.
VP Leni and her daughters jamming.
jamming is better than cooking show! what a pretty pink traditional spanish guitar, jillian has good fingerworks on the spectrum. anyone for cantata? flamenco, lol!
I wish I could draw and/or photoshop, but I’m sure there’s a bunch of Filipinos who can do that Inday Sara on motorcycle with BBM backriding would be priceless, and may be able to turn the tide.
Here is unity as defined by the US Republican National Committee when it censured Rep Cheney and Kinzinger:
“The primary mission of the Republican Party is to elect Republicans who support the United States Constitution and share our values.”
Meaning the “unity” values of Trump and his GOP allies, which are almost all of the GOP elected members. RNC’s support of the US Constitution is also debatable.
NYT’s Karen Tumulty, Deputy Editorial Page Editor and Columnist, writes:
So began the almost laughably hypocritical resolution with which the Republican National Committee on Friday censured Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) — who are among the all-too-few elected officials in their party standing up for the Constitution against a former president who was willing to overturn the result of a legitimate election and who continues to hold the party in his grip.
Even more shockingly, the RNC declared that the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that then-President Donald Trump unleashed was merely a situation in which “ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/05/what-the-cheney-censure-tells-us-about-republican-party/?utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social
I find the prisms with which I view the big political picture of the US and the PH uncannily similar in the distortion the pictures are being presented to the public, especially now when the electoral process — a basic element in a democracy — is being engineered in US Red States to distort the will of the majority.
The GOP has gone full frontal insane. White angst is being used to energize the base and get dickheads like Trump seize power.
It’s true that Biden and the Democrats are not performing splendidly but if the GOP response is just to elevate Trump in the leadership position, there’s no effective counter balance in the descent towards political sclerosis and collapse might be a possible scenario for the US empire similar to what happened in the former Soviet Union.
Unity busted.
“Biden and Democrats not performing splendidly” is a major media theme at variance with the facts. It is not Biden underperforming when Republicans vote as a block against his initiatives or undercut his vaccine drive. The economy is roaring, troops are out of Afghanistan, Democrats are vaccinated and living, job growth is amazing, and he is pursuing cancer reduction and countering Putin. He’ll never be 100% perfect, but he’s 1,000% better than the orange racist. It just makes for dull headlines if he is not postured as being in crisis.
Biden and the Democrats have documented evidence of their performance that no public opinion can refute.
As far as Executive orders Biden had 77 EOS in 2021
https://www.federalregister.gov/presidential-documents/executive-orders/joe-biden/2021
The House Democrats are also proud to have delivered for the people in 2021
https://www.majorityleader.gov/content/house-democrats-delivered-people-2021
Thanks. Unadorned facts.
House initiated legislation doesn’t become law unless the senate concurs so no, that’s just for the most part partisan massaging.
you are correct of course
Here’s an excerpt from an NYT article August , 2017
———-
Ms. Pierson said she was proof that Mr. Trump was not a racist because as soon as he decided to run for president, he hired her as a national spokeswoman for his campaign and encouraged her to speak on multiple television networks.
“A racist does not pick a single black mother to represent his entire freaking presidential campaign,” Ms. Pierson said. “A racist would not endorse Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign in the ’80s twice. A racist would also not spend his time and his resources to bring African-Americans into Wall Street.”
Here’s the counterpoint. https://www.vox.com/2016/7/25/12270880/donald-trump-racist-racism-history
And this: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/06/trump-racism-comments/588067/
And another: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2019/08/14/trump-and-racism-what-do-the-data-say/
Van Jones on Unity Team during Trump Administration, The First Step Act
I am always for good governance. As what VP Robredo is saying, consultation to all stakeholders is the way to go when crafting laws.
Trumps biggest untouted success was Israel opening up to the Gulf States, essentially he got them to abandon the Palestinian cause and move forward. All due to the Jewish side of his family.
isk,
I don’t think Trump is racist, his personnel in the Trump Tower and bigger corporate organization hints that. and there was a documentary in which his employees closest to him stated this (non-whites). He is an asshole and opportunist though and have no compunctionsto play morals.
For example, with Trump in office you felt that he will never go to war, unless he got something in return; he asked this about Venezuela, basically Can we get their oil, they said No we’re doing it for human rights, and he decided otherwise.
You don’t have that same calculations with other politicians for example Hillary. Now I’m suspecting Biden doesn’t understand that NATO just unraveled , Ukraine is lost. Putin has won. Biden may just become another Hillary. not for human rights, but national sovreignty now. load of crap.
That prison reform would’ve changed a lot, all again because of Jared and Ivanka, since Jared’s dad was in prison and this whole arbitrariness of who goes to prison and when, politics of it wall. Warehousing people was their common phrase.
Prison reform is what’s happening now in CA, isk, Newsom and LA DA Gascon are doing it, but unlike the Trump plan to heavily subsidize the blacks, they are just releasing them, thus crimes are up, but violence is still down comparatively tho’ , so just up
in the burglary and theft, tho’ homicide is up but still comparetively lower than in the 90s and 80s we saw real heavy numbers.
So I think Van Jones had a good plan along with other blacks (Kanye West, etc.) and with the backing of Trump who just wanted to really take the black vote from the Dems , possible prison reform would’ve turned the tides. I know now more GOPs are running for office in CA , isk, and there’s good chance
they’ll win, because of this whole release policy with no catchment to soften the blow affecting businesses and residents’ bottom lines. also related to homelessness, that s all Dems policy failures.
I agree with Micha, Biden is polling really low, while Trump is ascendant. I hope this doesn’t become the reason to go to war, isk. But IMHO your assessment of Trump is spot on.
Sources for the Trump rising statement? I don’t believe its true.
that’s for Biden,
for Trump its the fact that he’s doing rallies again and in the news all the time, especially CNN and MSNBC , Joe, thus ascendant.
Okay, it’s just your opinion based on anecdotal observations.
Its not my opinion , Joe, they are literally covering Trump like its 2015 all over again (FOX i can understand, but why is CNN/MSNBC doing it?). It’s my conclusion based on precedence.
Ratings. Right wing media bias from corporate ownership. CNN is going Fox lite. Two-siding the destruction of democracy. New journalism, emotionalized by reporters who are more troll than fact seeker. I still don’t buy that Trump is ascendant. If he is, it’s because y’all got sucked into Republican gaslighting.
“I still don’t buy that Trump is ascendant.”
Joe, that’s what many libs said in 2016!!! and he became President of the USofA!!!
Doesn’t make it wrong.
There’s enough time for the Biden Administration and the Democrats to change course… I think.
What course would you have them change to, isk?
@ Sir Joe
As an observer, the Biden administration and the dems party becomes a big guy on the block pushing what he wants. The nation is divided, I think any changes should be discussed first. There’s a few of issues, the stoppage of XL pipelines wherein thousands of workers lost their job, just like the 11 thousand workers that got laid off due to the non-renewal of ABS CBN franchise. The cancellation of the Migrant Protection Protocols (Remain in Mexico program) that created chaos at the southern border (human and drug smuggling), the wall construction halted with millions of dollars worth of building materials not utilized and is being wasted. Policies on policing and DAs handling of criminal cases in cities run by democrats.
There’s 10 GOP Dems in the senate who are pretty much anti-Trump, IMHO Biden hasn’t done enough to leverage that and go around Sinema/Manchin. so I agree with you.
But totally disagree re XL pipeline, that’s a shit show waiting to happen with leaks and spills etc. etc. and knowing that its meant for the Chinese market, and that Russia’s pretty much done with their arctic route, that pipeline is a short term fix that’ll end up costing us the American people in the long term… all to make a buck with China.
Fuck the pipeline. Fuck China. Fuck Russia.
Agree completely. All points, even on Biden and the 10.
@Joeam
Biden’s build back better plan hits legislative snag when Dem centrist and Wall Street ally duo of Sine-Man who behave more like GOP trojans sabotaged the bill in the senate. That’s a major setback paring down appropriations to at least more than half.
With low approval ratings coming into the midterms and combined with the gerrymandering tactics of the opposing party, Biden could very well face the same shellacking prospect as Obama did in 2010, lose both houses of congress, his hand forced to govern in the interest of the wealthy, and get a second scare from the Orange Dickhead.
Now all that of course is subject to lots of political twists and intangibles but the point is to not be lulled by a “roaring economy” because millions of Americans still endure the pain and suffering of economic precarity and alienation.
“Low approval ratings” is a media theme, self justifying. Even democrats buy into it. The polarization is new, a factor of Republican noise as they seek, not to serve, but to destroy Biden. The “low polling numbers”, and the fact you, LCX, and others recite it as a theme, is testament to Republican success at undermining Biden. Biden is doing good works, as Karl’s lists show. Republicans are not, in my book. Unless destruction is admirable.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/389033/biden-year-one-approval-ratings-subpar-extremely-polarized.aspx
“WASHINGTON, D.C. — During his first year in office, an average of 48.9% of Americans approved of the job President Joe Biden was doing. Biden’s job approval ratings started relatively strong at 57%, but by September had plunged to 43%. A new Gallup poll finds 40% of U.S. adults approving of the job he is doing, his lowest to date.“
Joe, you realize your link supports Micha’s position, not yours?
It shows Biden at about the same level as Clinton and way above Trump’s 38%. My point is that Biden’s comparatively low rating is a function of Republican success at being destructive, not Biden’s lack of achievement. The media tenor is that when job growth is 200,000 a month, Biden is in crisis. But when job growth is 500,000 a month, the economy suprised everyone and Biden had nothing to do with it. And you and others are riding the propaganda. America is approaching levels of dysfunction I never imagined, for sure.
It supports the facts. Now examine what caused the facts. Then you’d be getting to something beyond “Biden in crisis”.
Well there you have it, from Gallup’s own numbers – Biden is second worst to Trump in terms of approval ratings in the first year among US presidents from Eisenhower to the present.
Moving forward, that should factor in for the coming midterms. And how will he govern or defend his legislative agenda if the GOP took control of both the lower house and the senate?
There’s already difficulty passing significant legislation currently even if Pelosi and Schumer are in charge.
Well, Democrats did not really win the House, did they? They won leadership of a mess, including two “bought” Dems. Biden’s low ratings are more a function of Republican unity in driving for power than an evaluation of Biden, who keeps working and doing what he cab do. If Americans are too dumb to see the dynamics, they are too dumb to see the dynamics.
He is still trending down, Joe. CNN/MSNBC aren’t as rabid about him as before, yet also covering Trump with no thought whatsoever of unintended consequence of such free advertising. The Dems and the lib media are shooting themselves in the foot, Joe, not really the GOP’s fault. IMHO.
The observation of Joe in
JoeAm says:
February 7, 2022 at 4:03 am
Biden’s comparatively low rating is a function of Republican success at being destructive, not Biden’s lack of achievement.
rhymes with my observation and others that Leni Robredo’s low rating is a function of the stolen PH billions of pesos being put to use by that nincompoop liar and lazy Presidential candidate of buying media strategists/ practitioners and an army of soc-med trolls — thanks to Facebook, YouTube and the like — not Robredo’s lack of achievement.
Exactly. Some things are outside of Biden’s control, haha. Genius journalists don’t get it.
Here’s a good take on all this, isk:
https://www.thecoddling.com
Thanks Sir. Lance.