Fresh8686

How about we all agree to the obvious, but nuanced truth that the GOP is indeed worse, But it is not totally their fault. And your point about the left not dealing with it has a small bit of truth, but on the whole doesn't carry enough water. Obama spent most of his political capital on the ACA, but unlike the GOP he did try to many times to pass immigration reform. Pressure from his base made sure of that, just like pressure from Trumps racist ass base is fueling the opposition. "Time and again, the Obama administration has stepped forward with a new initiative on immigration. Time and again, those efforts have encountered difficulty, and time and again the White House has thrown up its hands, said it has done all it can, and tried to move on. And each time, immigration advocates have reacted furiously, successfully pressuring the administration to take back up the banner. That recurring pattern has led to major shifts in immigration policy over the last three years. When the DREAM Act died in Congress, President Obama instituted a policy—Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA—that achieved many of the same goals. When immigration reform foundered in Congress, Obama unveiled an executive action that expanded DACA. (Actually, he promised to do so before the 2014 midterm elections, then flinched, then issued the rule after the election.)" https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/394388/

This is true, clear communication and follow-up or confirming questions are necessary to properly navigate uncertainty. Checking in to make sure both people are on the same page. However, that also needs to be combined with the dedicated development of emotional and social intelligence that creates an awareness of the real time emotional state of the people around you. Guys aren't taught to read the emotions of others and the majority ****ing suck at it badly compared to women. A guy should be able to get out of his own head and feel what's going on with the people they communicate with just like women do. They should be able to feel the quality or flavor of rapport they are having with a person at a given time and what kind of behavior aligns or does not align within the confines of that rapport. I had to learn it myself and it's hugely important to richer experiences of connection and frankly better sex/intimacy. I feel like too many men cling to an immature view of masculinitiy that derides the practice and development of the above to everyone's detriment. Edit: just want to add that the very important fact that a woman CANNOT be blamed for only using non-verbal cues to say no. A guy can't use that as a defense. It's the mans responsibility to check in with his partner to pay attention to noises she makes and the body language she is expressing. I don't care if your eyes are rolling back in your head and your on the edge of orgasm, you need to be paying attention and able to stop things at a moments notice if things go south. And if anyone wants to say that's too much responsibility or not practical, that's bull****, because I live that level of responsibility and have no problem being that conscious. It's very doable, once you adapt to its practice. You can't take mutuality and connection and being on the same page for granted.

There is an interesting little quote in this article that goes like "Trumpism is a religion founded on patriarchy and white supremacy. It is the belief that even the least qualified man is a better choice than the most qualified woman and a belief that the most vile, anti-intellectual, scandal-plagued simpleton of a white man is sufficient to follow in the presidential footsteps of the best educated, most eloquent, most affable black man." Kind of pulls the curtain back on what some people are really saying when they spout that line of "still better then Hillary". And then for the base As President Lyndon B. Johnson said in the 1960s to a young Bill Moyers: “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.” It's easier to look down on others, than to put in the effort to raise yourself up. They get that emotional hit or charge, that pacifies the dissonance of not being where they want to be, while validating the lie or mask, their vanity pushes them to pretend to be. Like the validation of a "like" on facebook, rather then the internal validation of achieving or creating something through effort, even or especially if you're the only one who witnesses it. And if you supply people with that emotional hit, they will pay you for it, they will do things for you, that's both drug dealing and pimping 101. Our world has way too large an amount of people making the cheaper choice, instead of the harder, deeper, richer choice. Our world or society as a living, breathing ecosystem can only sustain a certain degree of people making parasitical choices like that, before the balances tip and we fall into decline.

I hear you. If you look at the post I wrote after the one you quoted. I think you'll see where I touched on that. ?

Thanks, and I do see where your coming from. I have no illusion that some of the people on that stage are hypocrites or enablers to some degree when it comes to the actions of people like Weinstein. But, that takes a back seat for a moment in the face of women who have spent their childhood and teens being told their abuse didn't happen, or they deserved it, or they're just trying to get some preacher, or coach, or high school football star, or mother's boyfriend, or father in trouble and they just need to shut up about it and apologize to the very same people who took from them in such a horrible way. For those who have been silenced, to see others speak up and to have the whole show carry the focus of speaking your truth, in however small a way means something. Because for however trite or overly emotional it may seem, it's more then they had a year ago, and it was a hell of a lot more then they had when they were children and had that **** done to them. It breaks my heart, but I can see the little girl my wife used to be in her tears. But, I also see a bit more hope and a bit more empowerment, added on to the reality of this uphill struggle we have to make things truly and sustainably better.

He really doesn't have a choice if I'm correctly understanding the powers Mueller has available and the precedent set by previous presidents.

Speak for yourself. I was moved by what the women had to say at the golden globes. I didn't take it as a lecture. It sucks that the men hardly said anything about it when they had their time, but something is wrong with a person, if they have a problem with what the women on that show had to say. It meant a lot to my Wife and many other women carrying those same scars of sexual abuse to see those women speak their truth.

Well when your empathy and care has atrophied from long-term dis-use and you're a short-sighted, shallow creature, led to and fro by your appetites and fears, there isn't much in the way of neural connections that would spark thoughts about how someone else is doing. Especially, when they are a class of people you routinely demonize, dehumanize, or instrumentalize for personal gain.

I think what you're partly asking about is redemption. I don't know how many people think deeply about redemption, but what redemption really is - from my painful, personal experience - is recognizing that there is a line that was crossed and making the choice to work every single day to not cross that line again and in doing so, slowly build and earn back the trust people lost towards you, when you crossed that line in the first place. Now in order for your friends and others to redeem themselves, there has to be an understanding and Acceptance of there being a line that was crossed, and a Rejection of what's beyond that line rather than the current justifications and obfuscations for crossing it in the first place. The problem is, that undertaking, that change for the better, requires challenge and stress and a self-awareness of our limitations and areas in need of further development which is painful to face. It requires a society that has some semblance of health to enough of a degree to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy behavior, and to evaluate both the short and long term consequences that arise from the choices we make. All of which runs contrary to our appetite based, least path of resistance, short-cut taking, exploitative way of living. I always remind myself when I get caught up in all this **** that we're dealing with, that this didn't start with Trump. The stuff we're dealing with now is a culmination of systemic consequences made from the bad choices, directions, and focus our society has chosen to accept and internalize over it's life-time. Basically, we have to fix our foundation. And only now is the awareness of our flawed foundation reaching enough of a critical mass to dispel the myths and fabrications of American exceptionalism or the false sheen of "golden age" nostalgia. MAGA is a reaction to that critical mass of awareness. The people fighting to take things back to the way they were, where exploitation is hidden or diverted from our awareness and we are fed stories/lies and accept and internalize them in order to support and prolong the manipulation of those who benefit and created this quasi-"matrix" in the first place. There is a **** load of people who want to stay in that matrix. But, not all of us are that weak and that ready to settle for scraps when it comes to the potential awaiting for us in life.

I thought this was an interesting twitter compilation thread regarding Trump, Wilbur Ross and Deutsche Bank https://mobile.twitter.com/SLSmith000/status/926594211381686272

Yup, hate is in essence the strongest or most intense expression of rejection human beings have. And like you said above this isn't blind hate at all, but the culmination of the deep seated rejection of trump's bull**** and destruction of our trust and our values day after day.

Former Attorney General Paul Fishman on Rachel Maddow's show was just saying that there seems to be no legal protections incorporated into the language of Flynn's plea agreement. That essentially he can still be charged for his other stuff. Did anybody else see that? Is that correct?

There is not enough understanding of "power" as an emotion in human beings... most people are too busy chasing it, to demystify and depedestalize power in order to understand it. If they did, they would understand it as an unhealthy, emotional response that is located on the extreme spectrum of Capability Personally, I don't indulge in "I'm powerful" feelings when I achieve something nor do I attach and internalize it to my identity or my appetites, to such a point where I feel I need to exercise my "power" in order to validate my view of myself or create stimulation. Instead, I calm down my feelings to bring them away from extremes back to normal and I replace the language I use, assumptions I make, and expectations I have around power to the balanced and grounded view of capability. When you see it in that light, the feeling of power becomes a stupid, immature, quasi-masturbatory fixation, inherently out of balance that must be calibrated rather then indulged in.

Yup, you can have up to an ounce gifted in DC legally and there are some really good people out there, who deliver and are looking to help those in need. One even sells hand-made soap that can then come with a variety of different gifts for the right donation. Quality is not on the same level as Denver's better places, but it's only a notch below and still great.

Really nice man. I go through CO every now and then and my preferred place is the Herbal Cure for flower and Good Chem. for concentrates. If your ever in Boulder I highly recommend 14er. They've got the best flower I've seen in CO along with some really high quality Rosin.

Just read that a possible reason Murkowkski will vote for the tax bill, is because of some juicy arctic wildlife legislation hidden in the bill that opens up the region to oil and gas drilling. http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/18/politics/lisa-murkowski-tax-reform-arctic-drilling/index.html And man... so tired of the narrative that a corporate tax cut will automatically spur further investment and expansion. When you already have money to spend and invest, what motivates a company is the OPPORTUNITY to make more money at an advantageous rate or through gaining a competitive edge that mitigates the risk to enough of a degree. Being given money does not create that opportunity in and of itself unless you were hurting for money in the first place and needed the help to get past hurdles to expansion. That is not the case at all for successful companies and the people who run them that become these political donors. Who it is the case for are poor people. They will not sit on that money, they'll spend and invest it, because their the ones in actual scarcity and are consequently motivated by its pressure. For them the opportunity for things they want to buy and invest in are available, but the access or financial leverage to reach it is not, after the cost of living takes it toll. These people are doing **** backwards.

Looks like there is another accuser coming out this afternoon... http://www.ajc.com/news/national/gloria-allred-hold-press-conference-with-new-roy-moore-accuser/Gzo4WHg3eUHj7NQ6lomHXO/

I read every single one of the accounts in that thread, my heart shattering with every word. I hate these ****ing rapists, I reject every single bit of weakness and predatory pleasure they take in destroying the lives of people we care about. We need to pull back the curtain on this ****, this is completely unacceptable and all too long has been kept under wraps with lies and threats and a culture that shames our most vulnerable when they come out to speak their truth. And these guys who do this **** are the WEAKEST ****ing people on the planet. While the women who pull themselves up from this horrible **** done to them, who face the assholes who try to blame them or call them liars, they are some of the strongest, most beautiful souls I've ever had the pleasure to meet. I don't know if other guys know what it's like to work with a loved one for years to heal from rape and abuse. The painstaking trust that must be forged, the self-control and empathy and heart you have to have just to support someone as they go through healing something so monumental... like many people on that thread her sexual abuse also started at 3 and happened many other times after that... these women and men fight everyday just to be healed enough to have a normal day. To be able to go through a single ****ing day without being reminded of these traumas, to have a normal feeling of safety that so many take for granted. To have an intimate relationship that isn't tainted by what these weak ****s have done to them. And the thing is, I still haven't heard all the stories... Just the day before she told me about another one while she worked at CNN years ago that included repeated sexual abuse and my heart clenched with pain and rage, all the while doing everything I could to balance those feelings and not make it about what I was feeling, but instead to support her and let her know that it wasn't her fault. We fight those feelings of shame with every accounting, because of so many ignorant people who have no idea what these people are going through try to put them in this impossible situation of somehow fighting off a person twice your size, twice your weight, and twice your rank. We're going to change this ****. Educate and train men so they can control their appetites and actually communicate with women rather then treat them as objects or opportunities for predation. To put women in positions of power so our culture and our government doesn't have this shadow side where victims can be marginalized and robbed of voice and protection. **** these ****ing assholes. All of them.

I'd say it's more that the context of the situation makes consent untenable rather than the individual is incapable of consent due to some fault or weakness of their own. Do you disagree that those factors are applicable? Do you have first or second hand, in-depth experience with situations where sexual overtures are made while a power imbalance is present? I have a wife who has survived sexual molestation and rape and we occasionally work to help girls who have also dealt with the same, heal and regain themselves. An integral part of that is overcoming the feelings that arise from the self-castigation of "I should have" I should have pushed him away, I should have ran, or said no more forcefully then I did, etc. And overcoming that is often aided by separating the fantasy of how we think we would have acted in that situation with the reality of the factors and pressures at play during the event and how the human nervous system handles it or doesn't. Im not implying you're victim blaming by the way. But a lot of times an innacurate idea of how things go down paired with an over-inflated sense of how a person would personally handle it can be a slippery slope towards victim blaming... ie implying they were weak or incapable or maybe even facetious in their account of why they didn't stop or remove themselves from the situation.

Are you considering in your assessment the power dynamic at play and with that said the possible repercussions that come from leaving and upsetting the perv who is in a position of power, plus the biological freeze response that can be induced in such high stress, high surprise situations (or less intensely how such ****tails of stress and surprise can lead to a greater chance of compliance from the victim)? We gotta make the context apples to apples, before we attempt to answer such a question and seriously consider all the factors that may be at play.

Yup, apparently he's been interviewed by the FBI at least 5 or 6 times and possible by another agency as well. This guy is like a field of landmines on top of roaming roombas for the trump administration. Oh lord he's putting Sessions in a very bad position with his testimony. 73/ BOMBSHELL #3: Jeff Sessions organized the June 2016 Capitol Hill Club NatSec meeting, and let the WH lie that no such meeting occurred. 74/ This is *another* critical lie on Russia by Sessions, especially as—at the dinner *he set up*—he was seated next to George Papadopoulos. 75/ The meeting wasn't short (two hours long), and Sessions used J.D. Gordon—who "may have had a Trump email address"—to set it all up. 76/ Page admits he discussed his upcoming (we now know Kremlin-orchestrated) Moscow trip with the AG at the unreported June '16 NatSec meet. 77/ Process it: the *first time* Page ever meets Sen. Jeff Sessions, the *first thing* he tells him is, "I'm about to go to Moscow." Jesus. 79/ BOMBSHELL #4: Page gives the first ever confirmation, it appears, that Jeff SESSIONS received Papadopoulos emails about Kremlin meeting.

Reading through this now, the reveals about Page notifying Hope Hicks (Trump's alleged pillow pal and direct intermediary) about going to Moscow are especially interesting given the fact that Mueller is scheduled to interview Hope after they come back from Asia. Page is not just a perjury machine for himself, but anyone else he can trip up who either already has interviewed with Mueller or soon will be. Setting the stage for more people to be flipped...

lol, was just about to post that. "But there is one quirk that consistently puzzles America’s fans and critics alike. Why, they ask, does it experience so many mass shootings? Perhaps, some speculate, it is because American society is unusually violent. Or its racial divisions have frayed the bonds of society. Or its citizens lack proper mental care under a health care system that draws frequent derision abroad. These explanations share one thing in common: Though seemingly sensible, all have been debunked by research on shootings elsewhere in the world. Instead, an ever-growing body of research consistently reaches the same conclusion. The only variable that can explain the high rate of mass shootings in America is its astronomical number of guns." When I hear people say "guns don't kill people, people kill people" I shake my head because the truth is guns give people the LEVERAGE to kill people more easily and with greater volume. One of the biggest challenges human face as a society is being able to keep our emotional and mental development at a pace with the developments of technology that give us the leverage to do even greater damage to ourselves if we make bad choices. And we are failing that challenge.

Right, but it's all tied together. The corruption is what made this group of people amenable to working with a foreign adversary and giving them concessions via a shift in the GOP platform with Ukraine and the easing of Russian Sanctions. Further this history of corruption and incompetence are also what make them perfect candidates for Russian operatives to turn them out and own them with their Kompromat. Incompetence - the lack of quality in your efforts and execution corruption - the lack of quality in your intentions and behavior

Why one or the other? There is a definite mix of both extreme incompetence and extreme corruption.