12-01-2016, 11:04 AM
(12-01-2016, 06:29 AM)Galen Wrote:(11-30-2016, 09:05 AM)pbrower2a Wrote:(11-30-2016, 03:56 AM)Galen Wrote:(11-29-2016, 03:56 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Our wonderful president whom supposed "libertarians" support, has a new proposal to violate our civil rights:
Trump suggests loss of citizenship or jail for those who burn U.S. flags
My preference for Trump stems from a desire to avoid war with Russia. I have to admit watching the collective freakout from the Left is just a bonus.
Vladimir Putin now has a President that he can blackmail. That is far more dangerous than a President at arm's length with Vladimir Putin.
What evidence do you have that Trump can be blackmailed?
What do people get blackmailed on?
1. Sex. Mercifully, homosexuality itself has been stricken from that list because people very conservative on sexuality and family life (like me) can accept homosexuality as innocuous. I became sympathetic to gays and lesbians on the ground, of all things, law and order -- after being threatened with gay-bashing. The problem wasn't that some violent dolt thought (I am not sure that anything to do with the verb think applied in that instance except on my part -- get out of the situation fast) I was gay; it was that that violent dolt thought that gay men are fair game for violent assaults.
We have a President whose sex life does not fit my standard. If fornication (premarital sex) is excusable today (to find out whether someone is desirable? Use suitable protection and you are not so shaky), adultery remains damnable. The husband-wife relationship must not be violated. Grabbing women by their crotches without their consent is close to rape, and it is sexual assault. Walking into female changing rooms with women present is both unconventional and unacceptable.
Children out of wedlock, jilted lovers, and serial philandering are all unacceptable to most devout Christians. If Donald Trump has paid for an abortion, then that could be used against him. A divide between moral pretensions and personal behavior makes one vulnerablt to people who know and can take revenge.
2. Crime. Obviously any criminal deed from the most violent (including murder, rape, kidnapping, terrorism, and armed robbery) to tax evasion and drunk driving discredits one. Any one of those is good for a long prison term. But aside from doing the criminal act (which includes being an accessory or conspirator), involvement with figures of organized crime in knowledge of the criminal figures in anything other than a function of law enforcement or prosecution is shady. Casino development often involves organized crime in some aspect of operations. It is difficult to develop property without being involved in dealings with Mob-controlled labor unions.
3. Business. Shady bankruptcies, involvement in questionable enterprises, and sticking it to suppliers and subcontractors do not look good once exposed. Dealings with vicious tyrants? Those who sleep with dogs can expect fleas. We have yet to see the last. One can get away with treating employees badly because such is the American way of life for economic elites.
Bribes or extortion? Somebody knows.
You can trust that Russian intelligence agencies are as effective now as were the KGB and GRU in older times. I understand how it works: cultivate a dishonest operator, entice him to get in progressively deeper, and make getting away with his bad deeds dependent upon his cooperation. Then when the dishonest operator has become so corrupt that any exposure of the truth shatters the credibility and social position of the wretch, exploit the power that the wretch has for all that is possible. An engineer working on defense projects might trade secrets for quiet -- but commit espionage in the process. Now what harm could the President do?
I hope that you have not just had a heavy meal before you have read this.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.