Competent Republicans?

[Willie71]

I un-nominate Kasich. He's now promoting Christianity as a way to fight Isis.

 

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/kasich-proposes-new-government-agency-promote-judeo-christian-values-n465101

 

As part of a broad national security plan to defeat ISIS, Republican Presidential candidate John Kasich proposed creating a new government agency to push Judeo-Christian values around the world.

 

The new agency, which he hasn't yet named, would promote a Jewish- and Christian-based belief system to four regions of the world: China, Iran, Russia and the Middle East.

 

"We need to beam messages around the world" about the freedoms Americans enjoy, Kasich said in an interview with NBC News Tuesday. "It means freedom, it means opportunity, it means respect for women, it means freedom to gather, it means so many things."

[StringJunky]

I un-nominate Kasich. He's now promoting Christianity as a way to fight Isis.

 

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/kasich-proposes-new-government-agency-promote-judeo-christian-values-n465101

 

He means: we will now be just like those we oppose.

[Phi for All]

I un-nominate Kasich. He's now promoting Christianity as a way to fight Isis.

 

 

I believe it's part of our Constitution, which the Republicans drape themselves in when it's convenient, to allow the Christian Church to influence the US State as much as it wants. There really is no separation of the two.

 

Or, I could be listening to too many Republican news sources, and am wrong.

[Ten oz]

 

Generally conflicted, and that makes us look thick sometimes. Our media excels in spin, so the same thing can be said to all, but it's going to be interpreted in multiple ways, depending on your ideology. None of the news we get in the States is simply informative; it's all got spin to it, left and right. It's all been boiled down to sound bytes they know will cause an emotional, irrational response that keeps viewers viewing because they're never informed enough to form a reasoned judgement on what they see and hear.

 

American media rule of thumb: a cache of gang weapons being found is a better story than the dog that saved a drowning toddler. Fear boosts profit.

Yup!! As print media has been died and more people turned to the quickly digested social media 140 characters of less version of the news content has become secondary to wit, sarcasm, and sensationalism. The news media (for profit) cares more about number of views than anything else. It is why a candidate like Donald Trump, who is so clearly not competent to be president, can dominate news coverage.

 

I suppose on the plus side it appears even amongst conservatives there is not an understanding that Foxnews is bias. So while the overall quality of information coming from news media seems to have fallen so too has the influence of various propaganda.

[overtone]

 

 

None of the news we get in the States is simply informative; it's all got spin to it, left and right.

There is no consistently "left" spin in any major American source of news. It's not even encountered in individual reporting events very often.

 

Unspun recountings of physical fact often appear described in the major media as spun"left", or from the "left" viewpoint, and this practice goes back decades now - witness the rightwing corporate boycott of Scientific American after its analysis of Reagan's Star Wars initiative.

[iNow]

He means: we will now be just like those we oppose.

I disagree strongly with Kaisich on myriad economic issues and find this idea that Christianity should be spread in Iran and China in the manner being suggested repellent, but I cannot get on board with saying he means we will now be just like those we oppose.

 

Kaisich holds different views than me and is IMO wrong on some very important issues, but he's fundamentally a good man and frankly the only current GOP candidate that doesn't cause an immediate gag reflex and hives.

 

This was a genuine and touching moment: http://abcn.ws/1OiHpEQ

[StringJunky]

I disagree strongly with Kaisich on myriad economic issues and find this idea that Christianity should be spread in Iran and China in the manner being suggested repellent,

I wasn't talking about his whole approach (I don't know it), just the bit you too find wrong.

[iNow]

That's fair.

[Ten oz]

@ iNow, Kasich looked really bad on Stephen Colbert's show back in Nov. He admitted to using pot but argued against any messure to decriminalize it. Kasich arrogantly laughed when Colbert questioned what being caught using may have meant for his own future.

 

[Phi for All]

There is no consistently "left" spin in any major American source of news. It's not even encountered in individual reporting events very often.

 

Unspun recountings of physical fact often appear described in the major media as spun"left", or from the "left" viewpoint, and this practice goes back decades now - witness the rightwing corporate boycott of Scientific American after its analysis of Reagan's Star Wars initiative.

 

 

You don't think the media moguls, the bankers, the warmongers, would rather have Clinton as President than Sanders, if they can't elect a stronger conservative? The spin isn't from the left, that's my point. It's from the megacorps, designed to affect those who lean more liberal. It's still corporate maneuvering, looking for favorable, exploitable circumstances. Minimizing the candidates they need to invest in. Figuring the best means to take full advantage during a shift in power.

[StringJunky]

. He admitted to using pot but argued against any messure to decriminalize it.

I see no logical inconsistency. I could hurt someone and then, retrospectively, think: "That's not a good idea". I too have had long experience with drugs and I have the same "hypocritical" attitude as him for the last 15 years or so.

Edited February 19, 2016 by StringJunky

[Ten oz]

I see no logical inconsistency. I could hurt someone and then, retrospectively, think: "That's not a good idea". I too have had long experience with drugs and I have the same "hypocritical" attitude as him for the last 15 years or so.

Had he been caught it would have ruined his life. He wasn't caught though so now he gets to campaign to catch others. It is a troubling contradiction imo. If Kasich can use pot and then still get to realize his dreams others should be provided the same and equal opportunity. Rather it is set up like a lottery. Some people get caught and others don't. Be unlucky enough to get caught (race and economic status playing a huge role) and pay the proce for everyone. That is justified as fair so not to send mixed messages to children? Who gets caught shouldn't be more important than the behavior itslef.

Kasich is acknowledging inequity in society but then basically saying it isn't as important to him as sending the right message about drugs to kids. Ignoring inequity is not competent governmental leadership.

[StringJunky]

Had he been caught it would have ruined his life. He wasn't caught though so now he gets to campaign to catch others. It is a troubling contradiction imo. If Kasich can use pot and then still get to realize his dreams others should be provided the same and equal opportunity. Rather it is set up like a lottery. Some people get caught and others don't. Be unlucky enough to get caught (race and economic status playing a huge role) and pay the proce for everyone. That is justified as fair so not to send mixed messages to children? Who gets caught shouldn't be more important than the behavior itslef.

I see no clear solution. My attitude (for me) represents the least of evils, I think casual dope smokers in the UK just get a verbal caution.

Edited February 19, 2016 by StringJunky

[Phi for All]

Imo, any leader who is still going on about pot is most likely trying to put together privatized prisons in their state. Potheads are the most cooperative, profitable prisoners EVER.

[Ten oz]

I see no clear solution. My attitude (for me) represents the least of evils, I think casual dope smokers in the UK just get a verbal caution.

A verbal caution isn't what Kasich supports. If it were I wouldn't have mention it.

[StringJunky]

Imo, any leader who is still going on about pot is most likely trying to put together privatized prisons in their state. Potheads are the most cooperative, profitable prisoners EVER.

When I managed a public fishing lake, I used to think give me a lakeful of potheads to one drunk, anyday..

[overtone]

You don't think the media moguls, the bankers, the warmongers, would rather have Clinton as President than Sanders, if they can't elect a stronger conservative? The spin isn't from the left, that's my point.

Hence my mild but insistent objection to language like this:

 

"it's all got spin, left and right".

 

Most of it has spin: right only.

 

I think they would rather have Clinton than Cruz or Trump. More reliable, stable, "reform" = more reliable tax cuts and power entrenchment for them. W was fun, and enriching, but he came close to costing them the goose itself. And this Party base they built is suddenly worrying - they weren't paying attention, and now that they are getting a better look they see some infelicities.

Edited February 19, 2016 by overtone

[John Cuthber]

Some people choose to get off their heads on one drug, some choose another.

This affects the competency of republicans because...?

[iNow]

@ iNow, Kasich looked really bad on Stephen Colbert's show back in Nov.

I disagree with his hard nosed stance against legalizing marijuana; don't think he has a leg to stand on in that argument, but I also understand that it's more a political calculation to evade the question like he did (since he's running in the party he is).

 

I heard the hypocrisy you cite, but found his message about focusing on rehab instead of jail to be louder, regardless of the drug in question.

 

Either way, I am not a supporter of his. I disagree with him on too many important issues. That said, I do believe (while fully recognizing and stipulating that I may misguided or downright wrong) that he's a good man with kind intent and moderation relative to his co-candidates. That was my point to SJ. He's human, or at least really damned good at pretending to be.

[Ten oz]

@ iNow, I mostly agree. The party itself often forces their politicians into hard positions. However no one is forces someone like Kasich to be a Republican.Kasichs situation is one of his own choosing so it is hard to feel sorry for him. Sanders registered as a Democrat for the sake of entering the primary but is understood to be a liberal independent. Trump is a republican for the sake of the primary but is truly a facist independent. Kasich doesn't have to tip toe around every issue out of fear of what his own party might think. It is overly calculating and morally weak.

 

Is he a good man; perhaps that is a discussion better suited for a philosophy thread. I do believe Kasich tries to be more sympathic to the average person than the other republican candidates.

[overtone]

Kasich went from influential roles in the House Committees involving welfare reform, Medicare provisions, and banking regulation as well as preferential taxation

 

(with a side trip into impeaching Clinton just before Gramm slid the worst of the deregulatory provisions into a House budget bill directly under Kasich's purview, more or less guaranteeing no veto or even discovery),

 

from those roles in the House, where his office was a must stop for every Medicare and SS and financial industry lobbyist on K Street,

 

into lucrative paid work for Fox Television bashing Clintons and other Democrats, highly paid sinecure board memberships in companies that made such things as those Kasich-influenced government-paid scooters you see advertised on TV, and last but not least a job that made him a millionaire if he wasn't one already: a six year gig as managing director of the investment banking services of Lehman Brothers in his home State of Ohio:

 

the exact role in the exact industry he and his budget initiatives and his tax policy efforts and his buddyship with the likes of Gramm had deregulated the most significantly and handed the biggest tax breaks. His last year paid directly was 2008, the year of the Crash and TARP, "earning" six figures in salary he could write off his house against, and more than 400k in a "bonus" taxed at the capital gains rate - just as the legislation he had fought for provided.

 

So he's a nice guy. Great. He and most of the rest of those guys on the Republican stage would be in jail, if the US had functioning anti-corruption laws.

Edited February 20, 2016 by overtone

[Willie71]

Kasich's touted balanced budget and job growth was accomplished on the expansion of fracking. Decreased environmental regulations and pillaging the environment allowed his "success."

[John Cuthber]

How many pages does it take before we accept that the question that forms the topic's title has been answered in the negative?

[Phi for All]

How many pages does it take before we accept that the question that forms the topic's title has been answered in the negative?

 

We're all waiting for zombie Dwight Eisenhower to roll over, rise up, and feast on the tiny brains of the military industrial complex he warned us about. I picture him with a hand in each of the heads of the CEOs of GE and Lockheed Martin, looking at us bitterly, growling, "I TOLD YOU SO!"

[John Cuthber]

 

We're all waiting for zombie Dwight Eisenhower to roll over, rise up, and feast on the tiny brains of the military industrial complex he warned us about. I picture him with a hand in each of the heads of the CEOs of GE and Lockheed Martin, looking at us bitterly, growling, "I TOLD YOU SO!"

So, rather more than 9 pages then...