Trump Allies Target Journalists Over Coverage Deemed Hostile to White House

Yes. You're absolutely right. It's always been a guiding rule of journalism that "If it bleeds, it leads". And I'm very aware of the human tendency to seek confirming evidence, and to avoid disconfirming evidence. So I know I'm susceptible to only paying attention to the evidence that makes me feel good, and ignoring contrary evidence. So at the moment, I'm testing my view that elemental patriotism is on the decline among young people, and not only young lefty ideologues.

I sometimes go on a Pantheon site called 'Friendly Atheist'. Although I'm an atheist, and, I hope, friendly, if I reveal that I am not a progressive there -- despite sharing a number of view with progressives -- I get a firestorm of really nasty crude responses. On one such occasion, a couple of weeks ago, I did get into a more or less civil discussion with three or four older people about patriotism.

One of them told me he was a teacher in Appalachia, and that there, only about half the kids said the Pledge of Allegiance in his school. (He wasn't bothered by this -- like many liberals, he thinks it's a meaningless ritual, manipulated by crafty Rethuglicans to whip up nationalism.)

I thought that was a very important statistic, assuming that it is typical of a trend. (I should make it clear that I see American patriotism as instrumental, the glue that holds a multi-ethnic society together. I don't have a moralistic attitude towards it. In fact in the long long run, I hope to see the dissolution of nation-states and the merger of all the human tribes into a single polity. But people can't jump over their own heads, and that time is not yet.)

Now data is not the plural of anecdotes as they say, so I'm trying to systematically canvass various sources of information on this. But I'm not optimistic.

 

I'm not familiar with the event you cite, or James Rosen, but I will make an attempt to research it.

 

Well, we judge by results, not by this or that example. If you showed a picture of a legal border crossing, with only legal visitors and immigrants let in, and I showed a picture of a 'coyote' leading a group of illegals across an unguarded part of the border ... how would we decide which was relevant? We would have to ask, how many illegals are in the US now? Of course this is not easy to determine with precision. Here's what Wiki says on .illegal immigration to the US. . They say it's about 3% now, down from 4% a few years ago.

Now it seems to me, that if ten million people can get into the US illegally, it wouldn't be too hard for another ten million to do so in the future, and maybe another ten million after that, driven by conditions in Latin America, in which we cannot expect to see a rapid improvement very soon. So it seems entirely plausible to me that in another decade or two, we could have thirty or forty million illegals here, 10 to 15% of the population. Now ... if they assimilated and become patriotic Americans, that wouldn't be much of a problem in my view. (We can argue about effects on wage leves for unskilled labor, but that's another argument.)

But unfortunately, assimilation to American values of hard work and patriotism is running the other way: our indigenous population is losing those. Teachers teach 'social justice' and that means America-the-Ugly. They use Howard Zinn's textbook for inspiration, and are raising generations of kids who have no deep emotional attachment to their nation.

Either you think this might be a serious problem, or you don't. I think many people on the Left see absolutely no problem with having a population where ten or fifteen percent are illegal immigrants from Central and South America. For them, there is no problem. It's even a good thing, because it hastens the day when the evil whites are a minority, and can begin to experience life as a minority.

I don't agree and so I am in favor of finding an effective method to control the border. I also think we should work hard, and think about radical measures, to try to make Central America and Mexico decent places to live so that people won't be driven to try to cross the border. (I don't believe that most illegals are violent M13 types. They are just desperate people looking for a better life, people to which Americans should be sympathetic. What to do about the corrupt Mexican country, where some states are run almost openly by narco gangs, and the equally horrible or worse Central American states is another argument.)

 

"If it bleeds it leads" has given way to

" make America bleed"

 

These same clowns that doxx others and buy opposition research to smear Americans, think it's a high sin to call attention to the racists tweets of the Fake News Folks. These Clowns are really something else.

CNN Benches Steve Cortes, Its Own Latino Contributor, Because He Supports Trump.

CNN has benched one of its own TV commentators Steve Cortes, because he is a Hispanic man who supports President Donald Trump and who also said that CNN is pushing a fake “racist narrative.”

Now, just stop and think for a second what CNN has done here. They have kept their own guy off the air because he does not have the exact same homogeneous opinion as to their other “commentators.”

Clearly, CNN does not want “commentators,” they want parrots of the company line.

 

Sanctuary cities are supporting people here illegally, but they aren't pushing for open borders.

 

I support effective physical barriers, not necessarily a wall. I also favor an effective e-verify program.

My policy? I don't think so.

 

Conservatives gave patriotism a bad name with liberals when they charged Americans who opposed the Vietnam War were unpatriotic. They repeated their shtick over the Iraq War in 2003.

We don't have much glue with Trump trashing minorities.

 

My solution:

Instead of a wall, we need a national ID modeled on the Nexus Pass that can be used to make sure employers only hire people entitled to work here, and that includes domestics and day labor. Anyone who hires an illegal gets fined, and lots of illegals get jail time. We can use physical barriers and other means as required, but the ID card is key. The ID can replaced the Social Security card.

American workers shouldn't have to compete against illegal immigrants for jobs. I don't care if illegals have low crime rates (they do).

Family reunification for legal immigrants? Yes--spouses and minor children as long as they don't have criminal records.

Illegals here now? I'm inclined toward generosity providing we get the national ID and smart border barriers that no doubt include wall-like structures in some areas.

Trump shouldn't get a dime until he puts forward a comprehensive border barrier plan. Then we should fund it if it makes sense. I'd like too see a comprehensive solution because the various parts of a complete program interact.​

We don't have to take in a lot of illegals.

 

Don't they support releasing aliens into the interior of the country after they're caught?

 

This is a pretty pathetic reply to @Robert E Allen, who is far from promoting a 'tin foil hat' conspiracy theory. After all, we know that the Democrats think of these people as their future voting base - this was made PERFECTLY clear in the leaked internal party memo a couple of years back!

 

Since it was announced that government workers under Trump have been ordered to look into the personal backgrounds of CNN & MSNBC reporters & others who've written articles disagreeing with Trump & his policies, how is that different from what you are accusing CNN of doing? And how is using government resources to harass members of a "free press" less dangerous or ruthless or illegal than what you say CNN is doing?

 

Denial of the obvious truth is a sure sign of problems ahead..

I suppose you think Feinstein didn't leak Ford's story either?

 

Supporting illegals IS open borders.

Kicking them out is just following the law..

Sanctuary cities are obstructing justice, so people that support them should shut the hell up about Trump's alleged obstruction.

 

she got more votes from voters then Trump.. Millions more... so guess voters thought even less of Trump

 

And that makes her NOT useless?

 

Sorry, did you think that my post was NOT in support of you? You may want to read it again.

 

Are you saying that the rules are rules that Trump made up? You don't think that there are White House/press rules that have been in place since long before Trump?

 

It's almost like the people these days are doing things to purposely get attention and take something viral. You know, or they could just write a good story.

 

Some do for some of those caught.

 

Why not for ALL do you think?

 

http://politicalforum.com/index.php...to-white-house.560787/page-12#post-1070930554

 

His claim above is BS. That's not the reason Democrats support sanctuary cities. One memo, no matter who wrote it or what the author said, establishes Allen's claim.

 

By who - And none of this unnamed sources bullshit, we are all wise to that crap.

After CNN and MSLSD spent two years trying to destroy Trump based on claims in the Russian sourced Dossier that Hillary paid for?

That's the point. It's like the little girl who told her mommy to make her brother quit pulling her hair. Her Mom said: "but he doesn't know what it feels like." Shortly thereafter she heard her little boy yelp and the her daughter informed her "He does now!"

 

I can see the truth to you is irrelevant.

Yeah, and so what?

No, they aren't. They're simply refusing to devote state and city resources to enforce federal law. What they're doing is legal.

Trump obstructed a federal investigation.