At least you show consistency in using radical, left-wing Progressive scandal rags of questionable veracity in trying to advance your arguments, specious as they are.
Per Media Matters/Fact Check: The Nation utilizes "strong loaded words ... publish[es] misleading reports, and omit[s] information that may damage liberal causes." It also relies on sources that Media Matters classifies as "untrustworthy." Hardly a description of a credible news source.
I agree regarding that the source is far less, than part of a reliable nail to hang one’s hat on.
On a related issue and since you have rarely agreed when I support my claims with sources highly rated by, media bias fact check, that you are now concurring with their analysis for my sourcing?
For the readers please note Dr. B’s subtle slight snobberies by not responding directly to my comments.
Instead he comments directly to the article in order to ensure his posts are seen first before the reader clicks and digs down to the responses his comments generate.
This provides a faux and extremely superficial front that “shows” Dr. B is “above the fray”...
To the trained individual this behavior is the hallmark of a person who’s goal isn’t good faith discussions, but instead an opportunity to boost their egos and confirm their biases.
LOL Dr. B - Israel has a long history of ties to the mafia (murder inc.) and multiple covert operatives and tech back doors that make them a questionable ally.
It isn’t a conspiracy “theory” there is a well documented pattern that Israeli driven conspiracies harm our nation.
Random disparate and poor people are not the same as highly resourced and organized operatives, but sure blame George Soros to distract yourself from Israeli aggression towards America.
Interesting but with my long history with Israel, I find your criticism’s short on a deep understanding of the nation and it’s people. I would point to the now, 30 straight weeks of full spectrum opposition to Bibi’s corruption and trumpist demagoguery. Israel is no black and white situation. Like most complex issues, the shades of grey are endless. In the global era of radical populism, nationalism and far-right, violent extremism, Israel, like the US has had their national identity undermined by religious fanatics and corrupt leaders. We must strive to better understand the identity of both friends and enemies.
Israelíes vs American Jewry are very different populations and ruling governments aren’t always representative of their people.
It isn’t a condemnation of an entire nation or a people, but the highlighting something I have been unable to make sense of and few people want to discuss openly from fear of being called an anti-Semite.
The fact remains that on multiple occasion wether sanctioned by Israeli government or not that Israel or Israelis enabled Pollard, Maxwell, and Epstein.
Hope that makes sense, also was only introduced to all of these shenanigans.
You have conservative and liberal factions in all groups of people yet I continue to be appalled by conservative Jewry propping up the same kind of authoritarians that brought about WWII.
Those backing Bibi, tolerate domestic anti-semitism and worse actively stoke racial division here. Stephen Miller and Bret Weinstein are perfect examples.
So you are saying, and I paraphrase; Your implied condemnation of Israeli state and non-state activities makes them all bad.
Pollard’s activities were part of a very complicated and murky world of high stakes poker, where most nations have a seat at the table. Were folks using this as their criteria for judgment, few nations would have a friend or ally.
I believe, without looking back into comments, that I already stated that Bibi and his global far right thugs are irredeemable. We are beyond fortunate that the US still has any friend or allies post trump. It will take a generation to rebuild our relationships if... we can put an end to the MAGA quicksand engulfing the GOP.
The best way forward is for all players to at least embrace truth and reality. The only way to do this is grounded in undoing what I call “FOX Syndrome.” In short rebuilding the Great American Narrative, centered around our stated and often demonstrated values. Telling the truth is embedded in that narrative because it is one of the countless supporting narratives of that Great American Narrative.
The real narrative in my opinion, is that the US has stood up to fascism and will remain vigilant to continue to erode its threat.
Israel, after decades of close personal experience with the state, via Israeli Jews and other citizens, as well as the different flavors of American and other diaspora Jews, I can tell you that Israeli politics follow US trends by approximately 3-4 years.
Bibi will end up like trump, but with better lawyers.
No one can control reality. For humans, leadership at all levels that display via actions, our true values, are the key to success. This is what builds resilience via a well formed identity.
Lots of rambling but I am just out of the pool, playing with family and am doing what I despise... typing with my thumbs.
Bibi - given his career and then political life afterwards position him to be in a very odd place where intelligence meets politics meets terrorism meets the messy real world.
No demonizing any group is the last thing I would want to do because demonizing "communism/socialism" is what turned the GOP into what it is going all the way back to McCarthy and Roy Cohn.
I am forgetting who made this comment but a Jewish American said something along the lines the Jewish people get blamed for both communism and fascism. Jewishness is something very difficult to navigate given it is an ethnographically and religiously heterogenous, but homogeneously used as the scape goat for what ever crisis arises.
What I am trying to highlight the undiscussed reality that Israel's intelligence agencies and their private proxies have a very long history of interfering in America's domestic affairs and at least for the past decade several prominent conservative jewish American's have helped further authoritarianism by demonizing progressivism and even liberalism.
As Victor Frankel noted - there are only two races the decent and the indecent. Tribalism (which is innately biological and random based on where/who you were born to) blinds otherwise good people into not realizing this until it is too late.
If we are unwilling to forgive we will all end up like Romeo and Juliet, killing each other over conflicts which details have long been forgotten yet continue to generate conflict for the sake of tribalism.
I agree America is the one country which has landed on the side of decency the most across the globe and throughout human history for that matter. I also recognize that the Jewish mafia of the 1940s was key in defeating domestic Nazism and protecting our harbors.
Sigh you worry about boarder crossings while your party welcomes Israeli operatives such as Psy-Group to operate with in our borders so you can win elections while compromising a entire political party and pitting Americans against each other. Further silencing Americans 1st amendment by barring boycotting Israel and then importing further Israeli spy tech.
I am no fan of Greenwald, although after spending a great deal of time with Laura Poitras I am a fan. We were together while that she largely worked with my team, filming her Oscar-nominated documentary, My Country, My Country. In fact, my fifteen seconds of fame resulted from her using my photo as the cover shot for the film.
The intercept is not what it appears - I know it has become quite anti-American recently. I use it as an example Cobwebs is small potatoes compared to Pegasus/Psy-Group and what ever other spyware back channels are lurking in our computers thanks to our "friends."
The far left is a revealing and relevant as are the far right "white nationalists." Currently the far left has gone very anti-American, while the far right has oddly become pro-American. I try to stand somewhere of center-left and like to think I know that capitalism and democracy are the best of the worst and that life is messy.
LOL this is also a tactic that has yet to be named - someone uses the correct language and has the historical/legal knowhow to dispute a contrarian and the contrarian slanders them with a faux ignorance.
Then while using ad hominem attacks discredit the person who accurately identifies and describes the contrarians behavior; knowing their audience is too stupid to value the individual who called them out.
I try having nice days but doctor you keep getting in my way...
This should concern everyone in particular with Dr. Buffington’s interpretation of the 10th amendment which is closer to the anti-federalist and the confederacy than to the federalism established by Lincoln and furthered by FDR/LBJ.
Wow, just WOW!! I never knew quoting from the Preamble of the US Constitution constituted trigger words to say nothing of safety and security for the citizenry which is the primary duty of government. My, my, one learns new things every day.
As to the other descriptives -- sea lioning, pregnant questions, tone policing -- I have no idea what these mean so I will pass on commenting.
And just for the record, it is because I care about the lives of American citizens and the appropriate use of constitutional powers -- to include checks and balances as well as the careful delineation between the enumerated powers granted the Federal Government and all other powers granted the States and the People per the 10th Amendment -- that I raise these issues.
Now, now, now my friend, here you go obfuscating again. Your point has no relevancy to the topic. I also see, that despite your prodigious analytical prowess, your political identity still produces a variety of tactics to dilute expert analysis and facts that challenge your political ID. I don’t expect you to produce any here as well and specific to the topic. How do I know this... because that facts you seek don’t exist.
Rogelio,
As an advisory, Doc is a longtime and dear friend. He will defend GOP false narratives due to being wedded to his political identity... unconditionally. When arguing, he uses a variety of techniques and tactics to undermine truth. Additionally, he loves to poke and provoke me for the fun of it, when I tell the truth about anything that he sees as an attack on the GOP. This he enjoys and does it for fun’s sake. When I spent a lot of time on LinkedIn, he did this so regularly that other commenters ended up declaring much the same as you have.
On national security matters, he a remarkable intelligence analyst besides his Theological prowess. The most important point for me is to show others that we can passionately debate with our dear friends and not agree at all on topics, but still remain great friends. he also knows that I will call him out for his unsupportable false narratives devoid of any facts.
I appreciate y’all having this discussion and quite frankly, this is the point of starting TAT. Spectators to such discussions come to their own conclusions and never producing a single credible fact, becomes apparent to most spectators. This is what America was designed for.
My bad to the Doc. I’ll police myself better in the future.
Ultimately though, how can one be an objective analyst if they see politics in the apolitical?
It quickly becomes like the covid contrarian physicians who politicize medicine. It is one thing to have a collegial but adversarial collaboration and another to completely fabric narratives not based on objective data/reality.
Without an open mind partisans force concessions from objectivists which chips away at reality until intersubjective “truths” are weighed as equal to objective truth.
I too lost a friend to religious fundamentalism and political extremism. It render their mind impervious to anything other than their one “true” truth and allowed the politicalization of our medical discussions to the point of being unproductive.
The search for truth is not a zero/sum game, because objective truth doesn’t give a damn about those who trick themselves into believing they are always right.
The problem is technologist such as Steve Job’s with their reality distortion field shows that one individuals subjective truth can be adapted by many to form an accepted self-evident “fact” that is just a widely accepted intersubjective truth.
I would call it a perversion of common sense much like the concept of original sin or the just world phenomenon cause people to fall for logical fallacies and not examen if their biases match objective reality.
Humans are not innately evil, we are playful, but the cheaters who treat games as zero-sum pit friends against each other at the expense of progress for the entire sand lot.
No worries about sparring with Doc. He often provokes for fun, although he is certainly married to his political identity. Much like boxing, if one gets into the ring, it would be foolish to believe that you won't be struck.
Much of what I do within our Think/ Do tank, Narrative Strategies, how humans "make meaning" out of what they experience, from their first breath onward, is delicate to sort out without specific knowledge of NIA/ Narrative Identity Analysis.
Within Narrative Warfare, the battle is for meaning over events not the facts themselves. Today's version of the GOP has been conditioned, much like Pavlov's dog, to accept the false reality of Trump/ MAGA. They have no conscious ability to resist, in most cases. It has taken FOX and the other deplorable media like Gateway Pundit, Breitbart, OAN, The Daily Caller nearly three decades to condition their audiences. With this largely accomplished, most of the GOP is "conditioned" to do and say whatever their favorite narrators tell them to. Even if we made all the right moves now to intervene in this un-American behavior, it would take a generation at best, to mostly deprogram the Party. This is why my professional opinion is that a MAGA dominated GOP is the most acute threat to US national security.
Are they so brain washed they can no longer differentiate friend from foe? Would evidence that they are toadies for foreign and hostile domestic operations?
It isn’t just the US our adversaries includes an “ally” whom has exported tech to turn the West into birthing grounds of authoritarianism.
The Narrative has evolved that it provides too many “normal” people with righteous justification to harm their fellow countrymen.
How do they gloss over the 3x covid death rate amongst their constituents. If you can get people to kill themselves for a cause that provides them no benefits beyond faux purpose/meaning you have a cult or a terrorist organization.
based on your stated dedication to all of the named American principles, where was your voice when the last administration assaulted (and still does) every single true American value and principle?
No you don’t - you continue to advance politics without supporting evidence just more rhetorical sophistry.
You use the preamble where you see it fit and abuse the constitution to ends that will lead to a constitutional crises brought to us by the interpretation of federalism that Lincoln would be applaud by.
Thank you for your lengthy response. And I agree with your basic premise that our broken immigration system and resultant border crisis are issues of long standing with culpability resting with both political parties yet it seems only the GOP is blamed while the Democrats consistently get a pass.
However, you still have failed to address the basic question of what should be the proper response of any of the 50 sovereign states in the face of the abject failure and dereliction of duty of the Federal Government in enforcing its enumerated powers, or in this case, to "insure domestic Tranquility" and "provide for a common defense." While you rightfully raise objections to Governor Abbott's response to the ineptitude of the Biden Administration's callous if not criminal incompetence as it pertains to the immigration and border policies I have yet to see any constructive alternatives to the response by the State of Texas. Surely you are not suggesting that the Governor ignore issues of safety and security that affect the lives of Texas citizens?
Trigger words: Screed, abject failure, dereliction of duty, insure domestic tranquility, common defense, ineptitude, safety and security.
Logical issues and biases: false agreement, both sides, straw men galore, sea lioning, and pregnant questions.
Hardly the presentation of someone who is engaging in a good faith discussion and frequently seen tactics in the use of spreading disinformation on COVID.
I’m certain you’ll follow up by tone policing. The author of the article provides evidence and you come back with self evident “truth” that Texas and the US are under attack by immigrants with nothing to back your truth up except with rhetoric.
Let me straw man right back what has Abbot done to insure domestic tranquility and provide for a common defense? Texas is #2 for the most mass shootings in the US. The governor has enabled covid disinformation and also banned covid “mandates.”
If you cared about American lives not politicians and the appropriate use of constitutional powers I kindly suggest perhaps targeting the bigger issues using facts backed by data not just your beliefs.
The one thing your most recent screed against the government of the State of Texas fails to address is the question of what should be the proper response of any of the 50 sovereign states in the face of the abject failure and dereliction of duty of the Federal Government in enforcing its enumerated powers, or in this case, to "insure domestic Tranquility" and "provide for a common defense."
I get it that you have a decidedly jaundiced view of Governor Abbott and his policies. But if we may set aide your partisan biases for the moment surely you must agree that the current untenable situation at our southern border created by the incompetence of the current administration in Washington poses a dire threat to the safety and security of the citizens of Teas and the greater United States. Surely you are not suggesting that Texas authorities simply sit by and do nothing?
Yikes my friend, I wrote a long response but now I don’t see it. I will try to recreate it.
First and foremost, I don’t speak with political bias. My bias is against any that work tirelessly against American values with cruelty and dishonesty. This includes breaking the law repeatedly with illegal and often unConstitutional agendas. To be blunt, “I call ‘em as I see ‘em.”
Your false narratives in your comment are not supportable by credible facts. In regard to the facts and as with my definition of truth, “all credible facts assembled, analyzed and presented in context” the article you are challenging is full of truthful links. Perhaps a read of the links will be of assistance to your better understanding.
The false narrative of the current administration’s border failure cannot be supported by any factual presentation. I welcome an attempt to make your case, not just with a false narrative but with truth. The blame for our immigration issues, not a “border crisis,” lies with congress and both parties... for decades. You will see in the article links to both JFK’s speech on immigration and an essay from “W’s” Commerce Secretary on immigration. Like both Obama’s and W’s very similar comprehensive immigration reform packages, the hand grenade undermining both was then Speaker, Newt Gingrich’s no holds barred/ scorched earth politics that prevented and still prevents partisanship. You may wish to read, “Burning down the House” by Julian E. Zelizer, Princeton Professor and NYT, best selling author. The point being, arguing that the current administration is solely responsible for anything but some moderate successes at the border. As John Adams famously said, “facts are stubborn things.” Illegal border crossings are down by more than 30 percent due primarily to the innovative approach of using an app to schedule asylum appointments.
As for recommendations, it’s the author’s prerogative to write about the topics they wish. I have written on recommendations in the past. To save you a minute or so, my recommendations are painfully simple and get right at the core of the problem. The two highlights are for 1. Congress to do their job and 2. Voters to shake off their addiction to party and become responsible citizens by voting for truth rather than the fake patriotism of today’s, MAGA dominated GOP. At the same time, may I also suggest that the party do what the left has done; cordon off their small handful of more fringe-like elected reps, so they don’t get in the way of progress. The current GOP embraces and is submissive to the loonies espousing all manner of conspiracy theories.
I am not interested in some philosophical discussion on this topic. I would though appreciate a factual debate over the issues, supported by credible evidence, not the Daily Caller or Heritage Foundation. Truth is available in publicly accessible documents. For example, I regularly read CBP reports, all available online. I read history, all available online. I read responsible members on the alleged, “both sides” also available publicly, with the exception of some of our elected TX politicians who have scrubbed their media presence to distance themselves from their trumpiest contributions. Yes, our congressman, Tony Gonzalez has done this often, including blocking well informed constituents like me.
You my friend are a most talented analyst. The facts are mostly all available. I would suggest employing your substantial talent on facts rather than political identity. As I often say, “if you believe your side is always right, you’re wrong.”
Surely, you don’t suggest cruelty, breaking US and international law and unconstitutional behavior is acceptable behavior. To make matters worse, all that abbott and his cronies are doing in the trump era violates all of the moral standards our founders advocated for in our founding documents. This isn’t conservatism, it’s fascism.
The terms never taking a knife to a gunfight is from a fictional character LOL.
Further the writer David Mamet - recently talked about pedophelia and is likely projection. Given the crew he hangs out with it is not surprising.
Paul - I draw the line of forgiveness at sexually abusing children.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/theater/david-mamet-broadway.html
https://www.thedailybeast.com/david-mamets-new-play-about-harvey-weinstein-bitter-wheat-is-a-dud
It is more in line with Chicago Police Detective Jimmy Malone's advice about never taking a knife to a gunfight.
At least you show consistency in using radical, left-wing Progressive scandal rags of questionable veracity in trying to advance your arguments, specious as they are.
Per Media Matters/Fact Check: The Nation utilizes "strong loaded words ... publish[es] misleading reports, and omit[s] information that may damage liberal causes." It also relies on sources that Media Matters classifies as "untrustworthy." Hardly a description of a credible news source.
I agree regarding that the source is far less, than part of a reliable nail to hang one’s hat on.
On a related issue and since you have rarely agreed when I support my claims with sources highly rated by, media bias fact check, that you are now concurring with their analysis for my sourcing?
Examples of Israeli linked psy-ops in the US
Joel Zamel
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/02/18/private-mossad-for-hire
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2018-05-21/ty-article/.premium/who-is-joel-zamel-australian-israeli-linked-to-muellers-trump-probe/0000017f-f09b-dc28-a17f-fcbf42fc0000
https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-mueller-trump-jr-israel-meeting-20180522-story.html
Gal Luft
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/12/business/cefc-biden-china-washington-ye-jianming.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Arthur Finkelstein
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66065550
I can keep on going...
For the readers please note Dr. B’s subtle slight snobberies by not responding directly to my comments.
Instead he comments directly to the article in order to ensure his posts are seen first before the reader clicks and digs down to the responses his comments generate.
This provides a faux and extremely superficial front that “shows” Dr. B is “above the fray”...
To the trained individual this behavior is the hallmark of a person who’s goal isn’t good faith discussions, but instead an opportunity to boost their egos and confirm their biases.
Most folks don’t click and read.
Sounds like the typical conspiracy story trash peddled by Progressive left-wing scandal sheets.
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/trump-israel-collusion/tnamp/
LOL Dr. B - Israel has a long history of ties to the mafia (murder inc.) and multiple covert operatives and tech back doors that make them a questionable ally.
It isn’t a conspiracy “theory” there is a well documented pattern that Israeli driven conspiracies harm our nation.
Random disparate and poor people are not the same as highly resourced and organized operatives, but sure blame George Soros to distract yourself from Israeli aggression towards America.
Interesting but with my long history with Israel, I find your criticism’s short on a deep understanding of the nation and it’s people. I would point to the now, 30 straight weeks of full spectrum opposition to Bibi’s corruption and trumpist demagoguery. Israel is no black and white situation. Like most complex issues, the shades of grey are endless. In the global era of radical populism, nationalism and far-right, violent extremism, Israel, like the US has had their national identity undermined by religious fanatics and corrupt leaders. We must strive to better understand the identity of both friends and enemies.
Israelíes vs American Jewry are very different populations and ruling governments aren’t always representative of their people.
It isn’t a condemnation of an entire nation or a people, but the highlighting something I have been unable to make sense of and few people want to discuss openly from fear of being called an anti-Semite.
The fact remains that on multiple occasion wether sanctioned by Israeli government or not that Israel or Israelis enabled Pollard, Maxwell, and Epstein.
Hope that makes sense, also was only introduced to all of these shenanigans.
You have conservative and liberal factions in all groups of people yet I continue to be appalled by conservative Jewry propping up the same kind of authoritarians that brought about WWII.
Those backing Bibi, tolerate domestic anti-semitism and worse actively stoke racial division here. Stephen Miller and Bret Weinstein are perfect examples.
So you are saying, and I paraphrase; Your implied condemnation of Israeli state and non-state activities makes them all bad.
Pollard’s activities were part of a very complicated and murky world of high stakes poker, where most nations have a seat at the table. Were folks using this as their criteria for judgment, few nations would have a friend or ally.
I believe, without looking back into comments, that I already stated that Bibi and his global far right thugs are irredeemable. We are beyond fortunate that the US still has any friend or allies post trump. It will take a generation to rebuild our relationships if... we can put an end to the MAGA quicksand engulfing the GOP.
The best way forward is for all players to at least embrace truth and reality. The only way to do this is grounded in undoing what I call “FOX Syndrome.” In short rebuilding the Great American Narrative, centered around our stated and often demonstrated values. Telling the truth is embedded in that narrative because it is one of the countless supporting narratives of that Great American Narrative.
The real narrative in my opinion, is that the US has stood up to fascism and will remain vigilant to continue to erode its threat.
Israel, after decades of close personal experience with the state, via Israeli Jews and other citizens, as well as the different flavors of American and other diaspora Jews, I can tell you that Israeli politics follow US trends by approximately 3-4 years.
Bibi will end up like trump, but with better lawyers.
No one can control reality. For humans, leadership at all levels that display via actions, our true values, are the key to success. This is what builds resilience via a well formed identity.
Lots of rambling but I am just out of the pool, playing with family and am doing what I despise... typing with my thumbs.
Bibi - given his career and then political life afterwards position him to be in a very odd place where intelligence meets politics meets terrorism meets the messy real world.
No demonizing any group is the last thing I would want to do because demonizing "communism/socialism" is what turned the GOP into what it is going all the way back to McCarthy and Roy Cohn.
I am forgetting who made this comment but a Jewish American said something along the lines the Jewish people get blamed for both communism and fascism. Jewishness is something very difficult to navigate given it is an ethnographically and religiously heterogenous, but homogeneously used as the scape goat for what ever crisis arises.
What I am trying to highlight the undiscussed reality that Israel's intelligence agencies and their private proxies have a very long history of interfering in America's domestic affairs and at least for the past decade several prominent conservative jewish American's have helped further authoritarianism by demonizing progressivism and even liberalism.
As Victor Frankel noted - there are only two races the decent and the indecent. Tribalism (which is innately biological and random based on where/who you were born to) blinds otherwise good people into not realizing this until it is too late.
If we are unwilling to forgive we will all end up like Romeo and Juliet, killing each other over conflicts which details have long been forgotten yet continue to generate conflict for the sake of tribalism.
I agree America is the one country which has landed on the side of decency the most across the globe and throughout human history for that matter. I also recognize that the Jewish mafia of the 1940s was key in defeating domestic Nazism and protecting our harbors.
??????????????????????????????????????????????????
Please specify. I can make the same generalized comment about the current Administration.
Sigh you worry about boarder crossings while your party welcomes Israeli operatives such as Psy-Group to operate with in our borders so you can win elections while compromising a entire political party and pitting Americans against each other. Further silencing Americans 1st amendment by barring boycotting Israel and then importing further Israeli spy tech.
https://theintercept.com/2023/07/26/texas-phone-tracking-border-surveillance/
I am no fan of Greenwald, although after spending a great deal of time with Laura Poitras I am a fan. We were together while that she largely worked with my team, filming her Oscar-nominated documentary, My Country, My Country. In fact, my fifteen seconds of fame resulted from her using my photo as the cover shot for the film.
The intercept is not what it appears - I know it has become quite anti-American recently. I use it as an example Cobwebs is small potatoes compared to Pegasus/Psy-Group and what ever other spyware back channels are lurking in our computers thanks to our "friends."
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-intercept/
The far left is a revealing and relevant as are the far right "white nationalists." Currently the far left has gone very anti-American, while the far right has oddly become pro-American. I try to stand somewhere of center-left and like to think I know that capitalism and democracy are the best of the worst and that life is messy.
Dr. Bluffington is a brainless coward who can not respond with objective data and is too scared to read the WSJ article that rebuffs his claims.
Instead he acts as if I am incoherent to deny he got pwned by me.
Dr. Bluffington please respond with a data driven and coherent answer otherwise you are a yellow bellied lily liveried excuse of an intelectual.
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Since it is difficult to respond to incoherence all I will say at this point is have a nice day.
LOL this is also a tactic that has yet to be named - someone uses the correct language and has the historical/legal knowhow to dispute a contrarian and the contrarian slanders them with a faux ignorance.
Then while using ad hominem attacks discredit the person who accurately identifies and describes the contrarians behavior; knowing their audience is too stupid to value the individual who called them out.
I try having nice days but doctor you keep getting in my way...
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/07/20/federalism-constitution-state-laws-00106876
This should concern everyone in particular with Dr. Buffington’s interpretation of the 10th amendment which is closer to the anti-federalist and the confederacy than to the federalism established by Lincoln and furthered by FDR/LBJ.
Wow, just WOW!! I never knew quoting from the Preamble of the US Constitution constituted trigger words to say nothing of safety and security for the citizenry which is the primary duty of government. My, my, one learns new things every day.
As to the other descriptives -- sea lioning, pregnant questions, tone policing -- I have no idea what these mean so I will pass on commenting.
And just for the record, it is because I care about the lives of American citizens and the appropriate use of constitutional powers -- to include checks and balances as well as the careful delineation between the enumerated powers granted the Federal Government and all other powers granted the States and the People per the 10th Amendment -- that I raise these issues.
Doc B
Now, now, now my friend, here you go obfuscating again. Your point has no relevancy to the topic. I also see, that despite your prodigious analytical prowess, your political identity still produces a variety of tactics to dilute expert analysis and facts that challenge your political ID. I don’t expect you to produce any here as well and specific to the topic. How do I know this... because that facts you seek don’t exist.
Rogelio,
As an advisory, Doc is a longtime and dear friend. He will defend GOP false narratives due to being wedded to his political identity... unconditionally. When arguing, he uses a variety of techniques and tactics to undermine truth. Additionally, he loves to poke and provoke me for the fun of it, when I tell the truth about anything that he sees as an attack on the GOP. This he enjoys and does it for fun’s sake. When I spent a lot of time on LinkedIn, he did this so regularly that other commenters ended up declaring much the same as you have.
On national security matters, he a remarkable intelligence analyst besides his Theological prowess. The most important point for me is to show others that we can passionately debate with our dear friends and not agree at all on topics, but still remain great friends. he also knows that I will call him out for his unsupportable false narratives devoid of any facts.
I appreciate y’all having this discussion and quite frankly, this is the point of starting TAT. Spectators to such discussions come to their own conclusions and never producing a single credible fact, becomes apparent to most spectators. This is what America was designed for.
Cheers to both of you.
My bad to the Doc. I’ll police myself better in the future.
Ultimately though, how can one be an objective analyst if they see politics in the apolitical?
It quickly becomes like the covid contrarian physicians who politicize medicine. It is one thing to have a collegial but adversarial collaboration and another to completely fabric narratives not based on objective data/reality.
Without an open mind partisans force concessions from objectivists which chips away at reality until intersubjective “truths” are weighed as equal to objective truth.
I too lost a friend to religious fundamentalism and political extremism. It render their mind impervious to anything other than their one “true” truth and allowed the politicalization of our medical discussions to the point of being unproductive.
The search for truth is not a zero/sum game, because objective truth doesn’t give a damn about those who trick themselves into believing they are always right.
The problem is technologist such as Steve Job’s with their reality distortion field shows that one individuals subjective truth can be adapted by many to form an accepted self-evident “fact” that is just a widely accepted intersubjective truth.
I would call it a perversion of common sense much like the concept of original sin or the just world phenomenon cause people to fall for logical fallacies and not examen if their biases match objective reality.
Humans are not innately evil, we are playful, but the cheaters who treat games as zero-sum pit friends against each other at the expense of progress for the entire sand lot.
Rogelio,
No worries about sparring with Doc. He often provokes for fun, although he is certainly married to his political identity. Much like boxing, if one gets into the ring, it would be foolish to believe that you won't be struck.
Much of what I do within our Think/ Do tank, Narrative Strategies, how humans "make meaning" out of what they experience, from their first breath onward, is delicate to sort out without specific knowledge of NIA/ Narrative Identity Analysis.
Within Narrative Warfare, the battle is for meaning over events not the facts themselves. Today's version of the GOP has been conditioned, much like Pavlov's dog, to accept the false reality of Trump/ MAGA. They have no conscious ability to resist, in most cases. It has taken FOX and the other deplorable media like Gateway Pundit, Breitbart, OAN, The Daily Caller nearly three decades to condition their audiences. With this largely accomplished, most of the GOP is "conditioned" to do and say whatever their favorite narrators tell them to. Even if we made all the right moves now to intervene in this un-American behavior, it would take a generation at best, to mostly deprogram the Party. This is why my professional opinion is that a MAGA dominated GOP is the most acute threat to US national security.
Thanks for this discussion
Are they so brain washed they can no longer differentiate friend from foe? Would evidence that they are toadies for foreign and hostile domestic operations?
It isn’t just the US our adversaries includes an “ally” whom has exported tech to turn the West into birthing grounds of authoritarianism.
The Narrative has evolved that it provides too many “normal” people with righteous justification to harm their fellow countrymen.
How do they gloss over the 3x covid death rate amongst their constituents. If you can get people to kill themselves for a cause that provides them no benefits beyond faux purpose/meaning you have a cult or a terrorist organization.
My friend,
based on your stated dedication to all of the named American principles, where was your voice when the last administration assaulted (and still does) every single true American value and principle?
Oh spare us your false surprise theatrics.
Even the WSJ agrees that Abbot wasted tax payer money and broke laws...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/texas-billion-dollar-push-on-border-security-isnt-paying-off/ar-AA1ea6gN
No you don’t - you continue to advance politics without supporting evidence just more rhetorical sophistry.
You use the preamble where you see it fit and abuse the constitution to ends that will lead to a constitutional crises brought to us by the interpretation of federalism that Lincoln would be applaud by.
Hi Paul,
Thank you for your lengthy response. And I agree with your basic premise that our broken immigration system and resultant border crisis are issues of long standing with culpability resting with both political parties yet it seems only the GOP is blamed while the Democrats consistently get a pass.
However, you still have failed to address the basic question of what should be the proper response of any of the 50 sovereign states in the face of the abject failure and dereliction of duty of the Federal Government in enforcing its enumerated powers, or in this case, to "insure domestic Tranquility" and "provide for a common defense." While you rightfully raise objections to Governor Abbott's response to the ineptitude of the Biden Administration's callous if not criminal incompetence as it pertains to the immigration and border policies I have yet to see any constructive alternatives to the response by the State of Texas. Surely you are not suggesting that the Governor ignore issues of safety and security that affect the lives of Texas citizens?
V/R
Doc B
V/R
Doc B
Trigger words: Screed, abject failure, dereliction of duty, insure domestic tranquility, common defense, ineptitude, safety and security.
Logical issues and biases: false agreement, both sides, straw men galore, sea lioning, and pregnant questions.
Hardly the presentation of someone who is engaging in a good faith discussion and frequently seen tactics in the use of spreading disinformation on COVID.
I’m certain you’ll follow up by tone policing. The author of the article provides evidence and you come back with self evident “truth” that Texas and the US are under attack by immigrants with nothing to back your truth up except with rhetoric.
Let me straw man right back what has Abbot done to insure domestic tranquility and provide for a common defense? Texas is #2 for the most mass shootings in the US. The governor has enabled covid disinformation and also banned covid “mandates.”
If you cared about American lives not politicians and the appropriate use of constitutional powers I kindly suggest perhaps targeting the bigger issues using facts backed by data not just your beliefs.
Hi Paul,
The one thing your most recent screed against the government of the State of Texas fails to address is the question of what should be the proper response of any of the 50 sovereign states in the face of the abject failure and dereliction of duty of the Federal Government in enforcing its enumerated powers, or in this case, to "insure domestic Tranquility" and "provide for a common defense."
I get it that you have a decidedly jaundiced view of Governor Abbott and his policies. But if we may set aide your partisan biases for the moment surely you must agree that the current untenable situation at our southern border created by the incompetence of the current administration in Washington poses a dire threat to the safety and security of the citizens of Teas and the greater United States. Surely you are not suggesting that Texas authorities simply sit by and do nothing?
V/R
Doc B
Yikes my friend, I wrote a long response but now I don’t see it. I will try to recreate it.
First and foremost, I don’t speak with political bias. My bias is against any that work tirelessly against American values with cruelty and dishonesty. This includes breaking the law repeatedly with illegal and often unConstitutional agendas. To be blunt, “I call ‘em as I see ‘em.”
Your false narratives in your comment are not supportable by credible facts. In regard to the facts and as with my definition of truth, “all credible facts assembled, analyzed and presented in context” the article you are challenging is full of truthful links. Perhaps a read of the links will be of assistance to your better understanding.
The false narrative of the current administration’s border failure cannot be supported by any factual presentation. I welcome an attempt to make your case, not just with a false narrative but with truth. The blame for our immigration issues, not a “border crisis,” lies with congress and both parties... for decades. You will see in the article links to both JFK’s speech on immigration and an essay from “W’s” Commerce Secretary on immigration. Like both Obama’s and W’s very similar comprehensive immigration reform packages, the hand grenade undermining both was then Speaker, Newt Gingrich’s no holds barred/ scorched earth politics that prevented and still prevents partisanship. You may wish to read, “Burning down the House” by Julian E. Zelizer, Princeton Professor and NYT, best selling author. The point being, arguing that the current administration is solely responsible for anything but some moderate successes at the border. As John Adams famously said, “facts are stubborn things.” Illegal border crossings are down by more than 30 percent due primarily to the innovative approach of using an app to schedule asylum appointments.
As for recommendations, it’s the author’s prerogative to write about the topics they wish. I have written on recommendations in the past. To save you a minute or so, my recommendations are painfully simple and get right at the core of the problem. The two highlights are for 1. Congress to do their job and 2. Voters to shake off their addiction to party and become responsible citizens by voting for truth rather than the fake patriotism of today’s, MAGA dominated GOP. At the same time, may I also suggest that the party do what the left has done; cordon off their small handful of more fringe-like elected reps, so they don’t get in the way of progress. The current GOP embraces and is submissive to the loonies espousing all manner of conspiracy theories.
I am not interested in some philosophical discussion on this topic. I would though appreciate a factual debate over the issues, supported by credible evidence, not the Daily Caller or Heritage Foundation. Truth is available in publicly accessible documents. For example, I regularly read CBP reports, all available online. I read history, all available online. I read responsible members on the alleged, “both sides” also available publicly, with the exception of some of our elected TX politicians who have scrubbed their media presence to distance themselves from their trumpiest contributions. Yes, our congressman, Tony Gonzalez has done this often, including blocking well informed constituents like me.
You my friend are a most talented analyst. The facts are mostly all available. I would suggest employing your substantial talent on facts rather than political identity. As I often say, “if you believe your side is always right, you’re wrong.”
Surely, you don’t suggest cruelty, breaking US and international law and unconstitutional behavior is acceptable behavior. To make matters worse, all that abbott and his cronies are doing in the trump era violates all of the moral standards our founders advocated for in our founding documents. This isn’t conservatism, it’s fascism.