#its her literal purpose to be obsessed w her ''master''
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turns out some people dont like pearl very much bc of the shitty things shes done and i just gotta say. i forgive her<3
#i can make a serious post abt this but its fun to laugh abt how much morality ppl apply to a childrens show abt forgiveness and growth#yes she fucked up yes she was almost always held accountable??? theres only sm you can do when it comes to these discussions meant for kids#im being so fr tho like yea she fucked up she was obsessed w rose she manipulated garnet into fusing w her etc idc. i forgive her#its hard to be a bitch w self esteem issues and fucked up attachment styles ok#also i wanna make a whole post abt this but people seem to miss the fact that like. yes pearl was obsessed w rose yea she shoulda moved on#whatever#its her literal purpose to be obsessed w her ''master''#like. people call it toxic bc she ''didnt actually love rose'' she was just Meant to feel like that#but no one ever applies the same logic when they call her toxic For being obsessed w rose#idk#whatever. i get her#ash is mentally ill#su posting
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Why Did Republicans Hate Obama So Much
New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/why-did-republicans-hate-obama-so-much/
Why Did Republicans Hate Obama So Much
Barack Obama Has Polled As The Worst Us President Ever Even Beating George W Bush Courtesy Fox New
Barack Obama has polled as the worst US President ever, even beating George W. Bush. Courtesy Fox New
US President Barack Obama isn’t rating well with his fellow Americans.
WE LOVE him but it seems his own countrymen can’t stand the sight of him.
Barack Obama, who has 43.9 million Twitter fans, has also landed the title of the most unpopular US President since World War II. This means he even rates lower than his predecessor George W. Bush.
While it’s no secret his popularity has been waning, a new poll has revealed just how disliked he has become since sweeping to power in 2009.
A Quinnipiac University survey has shown that even Republican Party presidential nominee Mitt Romney would have been a better choice for voters.
According to the poll, 45 per cent of people say the country would have been better off if Mr Romney had been elected in 2012, and a staggering 38 per cent see him as a better choice.
Leaders are generally rated lower once in power — take Prime Minister Tony Abbott, for example. His popularity has plummeted to the depths that saw Julia Gillard outed in favour of Kevin Rudd’s return.
But Obama’s popularity would come as a shock to Australians who have mostly regarded the president as being in line with our way of thinking.
And he’s certainly popular on Twitter. In December 2012, President Barack Obama scored the most retweeted tweet of the year with an image of him and first lady Michelle embracing along with the words “four more years”.
Obamacare
Why Do Republicans Want To Repeal Obamacare So Much Because It Would Be A Big Tax Cut For The Rich
There are going to be so many tax cuts for the rich, you’re going to get tired of tax cuts for the rich. You’re going to say, “Mr. President, please don’t cut taxes for the rich so much, this is getting terrible.”
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And it will start when Republicans repeal Obamacare.
This is the Rosetta Stone for understanding why conservatives have acted like subsidized health care was the end of the republic itself. It wasn’t just that it had the word “Obama” in its name, which, in our polarized age, was enough to ensure that 45 percent of the country would despise it. No, it was that Obamacare was one of the biggest redistributive policies of the last 50 years. The Republican Party, after all, exists for what seems like the sole purpose of reversing redistribution.
A quick recap: Obamacare is a kind of three-legged stool. First, it tells insurance companies that they can’t discriminate against sick people anymore; second, it tells people that they have to buy insurance or pay a penalty, so that everyone doesn’t just wait until they’re sick to get covered; and third, it helps people who can’t afford the plans they have to buy be able to. Which is to say that you need to come up with a whole lot of money to make this work — money that Obamacare gets by taxing the rich. Indeed, at its most basic level, it raises taxes on the top 1 percent to pay for health insurance for the bottom 40 percent.
Getting tired of tax cuts for the rich yet?
Theres One Reason Why Republicans Keep Telling Obama To Shut Up Its Exactly What You Think
Republicans have smeared and violated the first black president since he first ran for the office, demanding that he watch his mouth and “show his papers.”
Looking back now, I was likely beginning my journey to leaving the Republican Party on September 9, 2009, when Barack Obama was addressing a Joint Session of Congress and Representative Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina, shouted “you lie” in the middle of the president’s address.
The president looked in the direction of the shout, calmly said, “it’s not true” and continued. The House rebuked Wilson a week later, but notably that vote came on party lines, and the tone had been set.
The next year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared that “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” The year after that, Donald Trump joined the so-called Birthers “just asking” whether the first black president was even really an American at all.
Republicans have kept attacking Obama ever since, even after he left office—smearing him, violating him, demanding that he “show his papers.”
McConnell, Trump’s lapdog, told Trump’s daughter in law, Lara Trump, that Obama was “a little bit classless,” and instructed him to “keep his mouth shut.” He didn’t say “boy, stay in your place” but he didn’t have to. The people who belong to Trump and McConnell’s Republican Party know damn well what he meant there, and made no real effort to mask.
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His Eulogy For John Lewis Was Typically Soaring The Reaction On The Right Was Furious
Last week, a former president gave a speech in which he described the United States as a country dedicated to high ideals and striving to “form a more perfect union,” and he called on Americans to support reforms that would help to ensure more equal representation for all. In response, members of the opposing party said that this former president was promoting “communist terrorist propaganda,” and labeled him “cynical,” “divisive and partisan,” a “national disgrace,” and “one of the sleaziest and most dishonest figures in the history of American politics.”
I’m talking, of course, about Barack Obama’s eulogy for civil rights icon John Lewis — and the unhinged reaction of right-wing journalists and media personalities to it. The context is what made that reaction so astonishing. We’re three-and-a-half years into an administration defined by constantly dividing the country between those who support the current president and everyone else, who are often denigrated as haters and losers and “enemies of the people.” More proximally, last week was one when Donald Trump suggested postponing the 2020 presidential election and promised suburban voters that he would protect them from being “bothered” by poor people moving into their neighborhoods and lowering their property values. That was the context for Republicans taking offense at Obama for daring to suggest that “we can do better.”
We’re Less Far Apart Politically Than We Think Why Can’t We All Get Along
Partisans on both sides of the aisle significantly overestimate the extent of extremism in the opposing party. The more partisan the thinker, the more distorted the other side appears. And when we see the opposition as extremists, we fear them. Our tribal thinking prepares us for battle.
What’s the solution? More information? More political engagement? More education?
Surely more information leads to better judgment. But social scientists at the international initiative More in Common find that having more information from the news media is associated with a less accurate understanding of political opponents. Part of the problem appears to be the political biases of media sources themselves. Of all the various news media examined, only the traditional TV networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS, are associated with a better understanding of political views.
This discrepancy may be a result of the lack of political diversity among professors and administrators on campus. As political scientist Sam Abrams found, the average left to right ratio of professors nationwide is 6 to 1 and the ratio of student-facing administrators is 12 to 1. Democrats who have few or no Republican friends see the other side as more extreme than do those with more politically diverse friends. And the more educated Democrats are, the less likely they are to have friends who don’t share their political beliefs.
So what can you do?
A version of this article appeared on the Newsmax platform.
Obama Is Antithetical To Trump So Long As He Exists Trump Is Threatened
Central to Trump’s presidency is the effort to erase Obama’s legacy—his policies, his social agenda, and, more intriguingly, his very persona. This observation is neither new nor original. After all, Trump’s run on the Republican party began with his advocacy of birtherism, an attempt to quite literally delegitimize Obama. .
Obama has remained top of mind for Trump ever since. The evidence is by now well documented: The flap over inauguration crowd size; the withdrawal from the Iran deal; the rollback of Obama’s environmental policies; the broadband attack on Obama’s environmental regulation and nondiscrimination policies; the ongoing assault on Obamacare; his complaints of “presidential harassment”; his recent disparagement of Obama during the G-7 meeting , and on and on.
Many observers have taken notice. Back in 2017, Charles Blow of The New York Times wrote, “Trump is obsessed with Obama. Obama haunts Trump’s dreams. One of Trump’s primary motivators is the absolute erasure of Obama – were it possible – not only from the political landscape but also from the history books.”
“Two Years Into Trump’s Presidency, Obama Remains a Top Target for Criticism,” Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman have likewise noted recently in the Times “It took all of one minute and nine seconds for President Trump to go after his predecessor on Friday — just one minute and nine seconds to re-engage in a debate that has consumed much of his own time in office over who was the better president.”
Video: Its Impossible To Imagine Trump Without The Force Of Whiteness
Roediger relates the experience, around 1807, of a British investor who made the mistake of asking a white maid in New England whether her “master” was home. The maid admonished the investor, not merely for implying that she had a “master” and thus was a “sarvant” but for his basic ignorance of American hierarchy. “None but negers are sarvants,” the maid is reported to have said. In law and economics and then in custom, a racist distinction not limited to the household emerged between the “help” and the “servants” . The former were virtuous and just, worthy of citizenship, progeny of Jefferson and, later, Jackson. The latter were servile and parasitic, dim-witted and lazy, the children of African savagery. But the dignity accorded to white labor was situational, dependent on the scorn heaped upon black labor—much as the honor accorded a “virtuous lady” was dependent on the derision directed at a “loose woman.” And like chivalrous gentlemen who claim to honor the lady while raping the “whore,” planters and their apologists could claim to honor white labor while driving the enslaved.
This is by design. Speaking in 1848, Senator John C. Calhoun saw slavery as the explicit foundation for a democratic union among whites, working and not:
With us the two great divisions of society are not the rich and poor, but white and black; and all the former, the poor as well as the rich, belong to the upper class, and are respected and treated as equals.
Why Is The Affordable Care Act So Despised By So Many Conservatives
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IT HAS been called “the most dangerous piece of legislation ever passed”, “as destructive to personal and individual liberties as the Fugitive Slave Act” and a killer of women, children and old people. According to Republican lawmakers, the sources of each of these quotes, the Affordable Care Act , or Obamacare, is a terrible thing. Since it was passed by a Democratic Congress in 2009, it has been the bête noire of the Republicans. The party has pushed more than 60 unsuccessful Congressional votes to defeat it, while the Supreme Court has been forced to debate it four times in the act’s short history. Obamacare was also at the heart of the two-week government shutdown in 2013. Why does the ACA attract such opprobrium from the right?
Race Alone Doesn’t Explain Hatred Of Obama But It’s Part Of The Mix
NPR
President Obama speaks at a news briefing in July about the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman. Carolyn Kaster/APhide caption
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President Obama speaks at a news briefing in July about the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman.
It’s a fact of American life that a good share of the electorate is disappointed, disapproving and even disdainful of President Obama. What’s less certain are the reasons why.
For some Democrats, the explanation is simple: race. In recent weeks, West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, Mississippi Rep. and former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist have all said racism is the driving force behind Republican resistance to the president.
Republicans, unsurprisingly, say their disdain for Obama is based not on the color of his skin, but on the content of his policies.
“If any white Democrat had pushed through a billion-dollar stimulus plan and a takeover of the health care industry, he would have been equally detested by conservatives and Republicans,” says Whit Ayres, a GOP pollster and consultant.
There’s no question we’re living in a time of divisive politics, when roughly half the country is likely to hate the president, no matter whom he or she might be.
But race has been a factor in American politics since the very beginning. It’s certainly part of the mix in terms of responses to Obama.
Race Is Not The Whole Story
But Race Is Definitely A Factor
All That Obama Represents
Facebook
Obama Really Did Activate Voters Their Hopes But Also Their Fears
There are reams of evidence supporting this explanation, and I run through much of it in my piece “White Threat in a Browning America.” Obama’s presidency was inextricable from the massive demographic change that made it possible, and that continues to reshape American life and politics. But it wasn’t just demographic change that Obama represented. Obama, though a Christian himself, led an increasingly secular coalition, and was othered as a secret Muslim in the minds of many conservatives. Similarly, perceptions of economic change were filtered through broader views about Obama and the country: the political scientist Michael Tesler found that the most racially resentful Americans were the most economically pessimistic before the 2016 election and the most economically optimistic after it.
Obama, notably, spoke about race less than past presidents. But Obama himself was a symbol of a changing America, of white America’s loss of power, of new groups were gaining power. That perception wasn’t wrong: In his 2012 reelection campaign, Obama won merely 39 percent of the white vote — a smaller share than Michael Dukakis had commanded in 1988. That is to say, a few decades ago, the multiracial Obama coalition couldn’t drive American politics; by 2012, it could.
On its face, this is laughable. But Limbaugh’s audience wasn’t laughing. They were listening.
So yes, all of this led to Trump.
Have Republicans Ever Hated A President More Than Barack Obama
It’s getting harder to deny.
The widespread belief on the right that Barack Obama is a Muslim is one of the stranger features of this period in history. There are some of them who know that Obama says he’s a Christian but are sure that’s all an act designed to fool people, while he secretly prays to Allah. But there are probably a greater number who haven’t given it all that much thought; they just heard somewhere that he’s a Muslim, and it made perfect sense to them-after all, he’s kinda foreign, if you know what I mean. Rather remarkably, that belief has grown over time; as the latest poll from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life shows, fully 30 percent of Republicans, and 34 percent of conservative Republicans, now believe Obama is Muslim. These numbers are about double what they were four years ago.
You can bet there aren’t too many who think there’s nothing wrong with it if he were. For many of them, it’s just a shorthand for Obama being alien and threatening. So it leads me to ask: Can we say, finally, that no Democratic president has ever been hated by Republicans quite as much as Barack Obama?
This antipathy has multiple sources interacting together, so it’s overly simplistic to say that it’s just because of Obama’s race, or it’s just because of heightened partisanship. But it’s getting harder and harder to claim that there’s ever been a Democrat Republicans hated more.
The Seeds Of Trump’s Victory Were Sown The Moment Obama Won
Nine months into the Donald Trump administration, the United States seems eons removed from the country that just nine years ago elected its first black president.
Yet the racial divide that Trump demonstrated with his narrow Electoral College win was always there.
President Barack Obama read to a certain portion of white America as an unending attack on white Christian identity, centrality and cultural relevance. In their minds, he was seeking to end their right to bear arms and the right of conservatives to speak freely.
For this group of Americans, Trump has been the corrective. As Ta-Nehisi Coates points out in his brilliant Atlantic essay, “The First White President,” for Trump’s supporters, his election was itself the point. Putting a human wrecking ball against political correctness, feminism, multiculturalism and even decency was the ballgame.
Obama’s election masked this fierce racial schism for only a few short months. That ended the moment he declared, in July of his first year in the Oval Office, that a white Cambridge police officer acted “stupidly” for arresting a black college professor — and long-time Obama friend and mentor — outside his own home.
The racial divide that Trump demonstrated with his narrow Electoral College win was always there.
Yet Obama won re-election by a convincing 5 million votes. Even more than in 2008, his victory demonstrated the power of a non-white constituency to do the once-impossible: deliver the White House, twice.
How The Right Wing Convinces Itself That Liberals Are Evil
Since the 1950s, the conservative movement has justified bad behavior—including supporting Donald Trump—by persuading itself that the left is worse.
If you spend any time consuming right-wing media in America, you quickly learn the following: Liberals are responsible for racism, slavery, and the Ku Klux Klan. They admire Mussolini and Hitler, and modern liberalism is little different from fascism or, even worse, communism. The mainstream media and academia cannot be trusted because of the pervasive, totalitarian nature of liberal culture.
This did not begin with Donald Trump. The modern Republican Party may be particularly apt to push conspiracy theories to rationalize its complicity with a staggeringly corrupt administration, but this is an extension of, not a break from, a much longer history. Since its very beginning, in the 1950s, members of the modern conservative movement have justified bad behavior by convincing themselves that the other side is worse. One of the binding agents holding the conservative coalition together over the course of the past half century has been an opposition to liberalism, socialism, and global communism built on the suspicion, sometimes made explicit, that there’s no real difference among them.
The title of that LP? Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine. The American left is used to waiting for liberals to finally get ruthless. Through the eyes of the right, they always have been.
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The Real Reason Trump Is So Dead Set On Crushing Obamacare
Chris Cillizza
Over the past 24 hours, President Donald Trump has taken two actions aimed at mortally wounding the Affordable Care Act.
The first tasks his administration with increasing competition among health care insurers, a move very likely to drive younger people out of the insurance marketplace entirely and driving up costs across the board. The second, announced late Thursday night, .
The key to understanding Trump’s motivations here are entirely contained in the ACA’s shorthand nickname: Obamacare. It’s named after the man – former President Barack Obama – who shepherded it into existence. And that’s exactly why Trump wants to get rid of it.
Trump’s entire political life – dating all the way back to his adoption of birtherism earlier this decade – is positioned against all things Obama. Why? Because for many Trump supporters in this country, Obama – and his beliefs about society and government – were the antithesis of what they believed.
The best way to distinguish yourself in Republican politics during Obama’s time in office was to position yourself against, literally, everything about Obama – up to and including his legitimacy to be president due to fact-free claims about where he was born.
At every rally, every speech and almost every day on Twitter during the 2016 campaign, Trump promised to get rid of Obamacare – and quickly.
How America Changed During Barack Obamas Presidency
Michael Dimock
Barack Obama campaigned for the U.S. presidency on a platform of change. As he prepares to leave office, the country he led for eight years is undeniably different. Profound social, demographic and technological changes have swept across the United States during Obama’s tenure, as have important shifts in government policy and public opinion.
Apple released its first iPhone during Obama’s 2007 campaign, and he announced his vice presidential pick – Joe Biden – on a two-year-old platform called Twitter. Today, use of smartphones and social media has become the norm in U.S. society, not the exception.
The election of the nation’s first black president raised hopes that race relations in the U.S. would improve, especially among black voters. But by 2016, following a spate of high-profile deaths of black Americans during encounters with police and protests by the Black Lives Matter movement and other groups, many Americans – especially blacks – described race relations as generally bad.
Percentage point difference between all adults saying race relations are “generally good” and those saying “generally bad”
Generally good
Obama presidency
PEW RESEARCH CENTER
But by some measures, the country faces serious economic challenges: A steady hollowing of the middle class, for example, continued during Obama’s presidency, and income inequality reached its highest point since 1928.
Related: How America Changed During Donald Trump’s Presidency
He’s Removed The Veneer That Hid America’s Racism
somehow left behind its racisracist tweets widely criticized
It doesn’t make any difference what color the president is. Malcolm X could have been elected president and racism would have continued just the same.
Kehinde Andrews, historian and author
“the heartbeat of racism” Kehinde AndrewsJoe Scarborough Max Boot.one poll
Racist policies work better when they don’t seem to be racist… once the veneer comes off, a lot of people in the middle will shy away. Trump has taken away the veneer.
Kevin Kruse, historian
it’s just racist.
The Thing Donald Trump Hates Most About Obama
Donald Trump spoke to GQ last month as he sat at his desk in Trump Tower, and many of his characteristically idiosyncratic reflections on the improbable months he has spent as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination appeared in the December 2015 issue. But inevitably, a single article cannot possibly convey all that Donald Trump is, and so some segments of the conversation had to remain unheard. Until now.
You said an interesting thing in one of your first interviews, in 1981: “Man is the most vicious of all animals and life is a series of battles ending in victory and defeat.” Is that still what you think?Sure. I mean, the lions hunt for food. Oftentimes humans hunt for sport. It’s much different. But you look at the chain, and you look at what’s going on in the chain, and yeah, mankind is pretty tough.
I can see that. At the same time I don’t know how the electorate’s going to feel: to be characterized as the most vicious of all animals.Oh, I think they’ll be fine with it. I think they know it’s true. What—you want me to take it back? “Oh, I’m sorry I said that…”
And people who think that that’s not true—they’re just fooling themselves?I think people think it is true.
But I guess one way to look at the world is it’s a jungle and a fight for survival, and another way to look at the world is we’re all in it together and we should love each other**.**
An important part of what you’re saying all the time is “I’m smart.” How smart are you?I’m very smart.
Trump Has Banished The Ghost Of Ronald Reagan
for sayingone memorable phrase
We’re now in a time in American history and in world history where we cannot imply afford to be moderate. We can’t afford to just be tinkering around the edges.
Rutger Bregman, historian and author
economic expansion“haunted by the Reagan era.” at times more like a Republicanproposedreducedncluded conservative ideasGippernever cutvowed to raise taxes conservative voters wantedand notunexpected backlashPublic supportan essay “Rooseveltian vision of activist government.
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As someone who was weaned on stories of leftist intellectuals and journalists traipsing off to communist countries to pay obeisance, I can only shake my head as a parade of right-wingers are making their way to Hungary to sing the praises of authoritarian Viktor Orban. Tucker Carlson of Fox News is the highest-profile rightist to make the trek, but the path was already well-trod.
Former National Review editor and Margaret Thatcher speechwriter John O’Sullivan has moved to Budapest to head the Danube Institute, a think tank funded by Orban’s government. He likes his nationalism straight up.
A few years ago, at the National Conservatism conference in Washington, D.C., Orban was an honored guest, which was a bit head-snapping for those inattentive to the drift toward authoritarianism on the right. Speakers at the conference have featured mainstream figures such as John Bolton, Chris DeMuth, Peter Thiel, Oren Cass and Rich Lowry. In addition to Orban, other questionable invitees included Marion Marechal and Steve Bannon pal Matteo Salvini.
Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the “Beg to Differ” podcast. Her most recent book is Sex Matters: How Modern Feminism Lost Touch with Science, Love, and Common Sense. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
www.alternet.org
Why Do So Many People Hate Obamacare So Much
Facebook
Julie Rovner
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Opposition to Obamacare has been strong from the beginning. Demonstrators made their dissatisfaction clear in front of the Supreme Court in 2015.
The Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, has roiled America since the day it was signed into law in 2010. From the start, the public was almost evenly divided between those who supported it and those who opposed it.
They still are. The November monthly tracking poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 50 percent of those polled had a favorable view of the health law, while 46 percent viewed it unfavorably.
Partisan politics drives the split. Eighty percent of Democrats were supportive in November, while 81 percent of Republicans were strongly negative.
That helps explain why Republicans are working to repeal a key element of the health law in the tax bill Congress is negotiating. The requirement that most Americans have health insurance or pay a tax penalty — the so-called individual mandate — is by far the most unpopular provision of the law, particularly among Republicans.
Still, while partisanship is a major reason why some people hate the health law, it’s far from the only one. Here are four more:
Ideology
Adding to that was the unhappiness with the ACA’s individual mandate. Although the idea was originally suggested by Republicans in the late 1980s, the GOP had mostly backed away from it over the years .
Lack of knowledge
Confusing the health law with the rest of the health system
Are Voters Responsible For Their Own Choices
Where Obama and Shapiro differ sharply in their explanation is in the attribution of blame. Obama blames Trump — and others in the Republican Party and conservative media — for demagogically preying on Americans’ fears and anxieties. Shapiro blames Obama for adopting a lecturing tone that alienated a critical mass of Americans.
Some of this strikes me as, well, strange. John McCain just had Obama speak at his funeral. The idea that the 2008 campaign was uniquely scurrilous is provably wrong. The rest of it is the usual Rorschach test of American politics; I think Obama treated issues of identity with unusual care and caution and, particularly early in his presidency, was unusually willing to believe the best of his political opponents, but I doubt I’ll change any minds on that in this column. Indeed, the deep division over how identity politics was wielded in the Obama era, and who was really acting outside the norms of American politics, is exactly what you’d expect if you believe this broader story of demographic, political, and cultural upheaval.
More interesting, I think, is the way both Obama and Shapiro implicitly absolve voters of responsibility for the choices they made. Obama’s basic argument is that too much change, too fast, made right-leaning voters susceptible to a demagogue’s charms; Shapiro’s basic argument is that too much of Obama’s liberal provocations, for too long, made right-leaning voters long for a strongman of their own.
It’s Not Just Deranged It’s Projection
REUTERS/Carlos Barria
There’s no doubt that when historians assess the Obama presidency, they will pay a great deal of attention to the deep political divisions within the country, and how those divisions shaped political events. There are racial divisions, class divisions, and, most of all, political divisions. Within Congress, for instance, the parties have been moving apart for the last 40 years, as fewer and fewer moderates get elected and the median of both parties moves toward the edge. But the reality is that while Democrats have moved left, Republicans have been moving right much more sharply — a fact not only established by political science but evident to anyone remotely familiar with Capitol Hill.
Yet Republicans are sure that the fault for all this — long-term trends and recent developments alike — can be laid at the feet of Barack Obama, who is terribly, appallingly, despicably divisive.
Here’s the truth: You might like Barack Obama or you might not; you might think he has been a good president or a bad one. But the idea that blame for the political divisions we confront lies solely or even primarily at his door is positively deranged.
They followed through on this plan. As Mitch McConnell explained proudly in 2010, “Our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny Barack Obama a second term.”
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Mysme + Ollivanders
Inspired a lot by this post, here are my thoughts about which wands would choose each of the individual characters in mysme. Full credits to @faeriexqueen who wrote the original in regards to D Gray Man characters.
All core and material information is from Pottermore
Jumin
Pine, Phoenix Feather, flexible,11 1/2 inches
The straight-grained pine wand always chooses an independent, individual master who may be perceived as a loner, intriguing and perhaps mysterious. Pine wands enjoy being used creatively, and unlike some others, will adapt unprotestingly to new methods and spells. [x]
The independent, mysterious loner sounds a lot like how Jumin comes across at the beginning of the game. What’s more, we know he’s creative and willing to try new methods, as he is very good at his job, in which adapting to new markets and strategies sits at the core of e v e r y t h i n g.
I chose phoenix feather for the core, as its best known trait is detachment and the fact that it is so difficult to win their allegiance. Jumin is one of the most emotionally detached of the RFA and it can take a little longer than most for him to open up out of his shell.
V
Black Walnut, Unicorn Hair, slightly flexible, 10 3/4 inches
It has one pronounced quirk, which is that it is abnormally attuned to inner conflict, and loses power dramatically if its possessor practises any form of self-deception. If the witch or wizard is unable or unwilling to be honest with themselves or others, the wand often fails to perform adequately and must be matched with a new owner if it is to regain its former prowess. [x]
I think we all know why a wand attuned to inner conflict would be perfect for V. I chose unicorn hair for the core as they are “prone to melancholy if seriously mishandled”, which again. Is perfect for V. ;w;
Zen
Ebony, Dragon heartstring, rigid, 10 inches
Ebony is happiest in the hand of those with the courage to be themselves. Frequently non-conformist, highly individual or comfortable with the status of outsider, ebony wand owners have been found both among the ranks of the Order of the Phoenix and among the Death Eaters. In my experience the ebony wand’s perfect match is one who will hold fast to his or her beliefs, no matter what the external pressure, and will not be swayed lightly from their purpose. [x]
Zen is proud of his individual looks and history, so much so that he often comes across as a narcissist. He is also very stubborn when it comes to the handling of his career, sticking firm to his beliefs about accepting handouts, even when such decisions potentially do more harm than good.
Add to this the fact that dragon heartstring cores have the most power and are associated with flamboyance, and I think it is perfect for Zen.
Jaehee
Maple, Unicorn Hair, slightly rigid, 12 inches
I have often found that those chosen by maple wands are by nature travellers and explorers; they are not stay-at-home wands, and prefer ambition in their witch or wizard, otherwise their magic grows heavy and lacklustre. Fresh challenges and regular changes of scene cause this wand to literally shine, burnishing itself as it grows, with its partner, in ability and status. [x]
The conflict in Jaehee’s route is the fact that at some point in her life she fell into a rut in her career and stopped following her dreams. A wand that grows lacklustre over time if not given the proper chance to really shine sounds perfect for her.
I chose unicorn hair for the core, as they are known for consistency and are the least capable of being turned to the Dark Arts, which I think rings true of Jaehee, who has the fewest reasons to join Mint Eye.
Yoosung
Sycamore, Dragon heartstring, flexible, 9 3/4 inches
The sycamore makes a questing wand, eager for new experience and losing brilliance if engaged in mundane activities. It is a quirk of these handsome wands that they may combust if allowed to become ‘bored,’ and many witches and wizards, settling down into middle age, are disconcerted to find their trusty wand bursting into flame in their hand as they ask it, one more time, to fetch their slippers. [x]
Yoosung lost a lot of his spark while studying at college, allowing his studies to fall apart while eagerly seeking out the thrill of LOLOL. A sycamore wand sounds right up his alley, especially given that in every route, his actions have very similar consequences to a wand bursting into flame.
I chose a dragon heartstring for him, for dragon heartstrings are prone to accidents and temperamental in the same sense that Yoosung is constantly falling for pranks, but also because dragon heartstring wands are the easiest to turn to the dark arts.... but never of their own accord.
707
Hawthorn, Phoenix Feather, flexible, 10 inches
Hawthorn wands may be particularly suited to healing magic, but they are also adept at curses, and I have generally observed that the hawthorn wand seems most at home with a conflicted nature, or with a witch or wizard passing through a period of turmoil. Hawthorn is not easy to master, however, and I would only ever consider placing a hawthorn wand in the hands of a witch or wizard of proven talent, or the consequences might be dangerous. Hawthorn wands have a notable peculiarity: their spells can, when badly handled, backfire. [x]
Seven has a conflicted nature, of which we are very familiar. Add on the period of turmoil that...well...is basically his life from the agency onwards and the hawthorn wand is pretty perfect.
I added the phoenix feather core both because of its detachment but also because of its tendency to act of its own accord, which reminds me a lot of Seven’s tendency to pull pranks on the other members as well as his activities as a hacker.
Saeran
Hornbeam, Unicorn Hair, slightly rigid, 11 3/4 inches
hornbeam selects for its life mate the talented witch or wizard with a single, pure passion, which some might call obsession (though I prefer the term ‘vision’), which will almost always be realised. Hornbeam wands adapt more quickly than almost any other to their owner’s style of magic, and will become so personalised, so quickly, that other people will find them extremely difficult to use even for the most simple of spells. Hornbeam wands likewise absorb their owner’s code of honour, whatever that might be, and will refuse to perform acts - whether for good or ill - that do not tally with their master’s principles. A particularly fine-tuned and sentient wand. [x]
Saeran has always had one singular passion. When he was younger, it was seeing the sky. When he got older it was having revenge on his bro. In both cases, it was one, singular obsession. Similarly, Hornbeam’s capacity to personalise itself to its owner sounds very similar to Saeran’s enthusiasm for getting the Mint Eye tattoo in what was likely an underground parlour, having taken on Rika’s code of honour not of his own accord of course. Saeran’s conflicted nature, going from an innocent kid to Unknown within the space of a few years would be very interesting in light of a hornbeam wand.
I chose a unicorn hair core because they are known for loyalty and are not swayed to the dark arts easily.
Rika
Vine, Phoenix feather, rigid, 9 1/2 inches
Vine wands are among the less common types, and I have been intrigued to notice that their owners are nearly always those witches or wizards who seek a greater purpose, who have a vision beyond the ordinary and who frequently astound those who think they know them best. Vine wands seem strongly attracted by personalities with hidden depths, and I have found them more sensitive than any other when it comes to instantly detecting a prospective match. [x]
I chose vine for Rika because she sought a greater purpose and constantly astounded the other members of the RFA in terms of her seemingly bright personality and desire to help other people. She also did have other depths, of course.
Originally I was going to give Rika the dragon heartstring core because of its tendencies to fall into the dark arts. In the end, though, I chose the phoenix feather core, as it is detached and acts of its own accord. Rika was far more detached from the RFA than she appeared to be and created Mint Eye despite V’s warnings not to do so.
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