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notices and features - Date published:
6:25 am, January 16th, 2018 - 27 comments
Categories: International, us politics -
Tags: Branko Marcetic, herald, Tr*mp
Someone wrote something in the Herald about why Tr*mp’s first year wasn’t that bad. Branko Marcetic tweeted a thread saying nope and explaining why:
1. The idea that what benefits the corporate sector also benefits ordinary workers (let alone that the stock market has much relevance to most Americans' economic standing), has been thoroughly debunked, but you'll also notice these assertions aren't backed up by any evidence… pic.twitter.com/ynWIkpjHJV
— Branko Marcetic (@BMarchetich) January 14, 2018
…Trump's job numbers are indeed good, though that's due to the strong job market he inherited from Obama (it's now declined under Trump). Meanwhile, this small sample of widely discussed e.g.s shows Trump has failed in probably his key campaign plank: keeping jobs in the US. pic.twitter.com/6JOJ6RNjqe
— Branko Marcetic (@BMarchetich) January 14, 2018
2. I get that it's par for the course to ignore the material effects of policies and just talk about politics like it's a game of darts, but a) that is an indictment of journalism today, and b) even this claim doesn't hold up… pic.twitter.com/p9nVzxUjeI
— Branko Marcetic (@BMarchetich) January 14, 2018
…For one, the travel ban is being allowed temporarily and could still be struck down. Moreover, its legal jeopardy is very much to do with Trump himself, whose own public pronouncements were cited by judges in striking it down… pic.twitter.com/2w9FZSNmJn
— Branko Marcetic (@BMarchetich) January 14, 2018
3. This is pretty misleading. The percentage of Republicans supporting him is unimportant when the largest voting bloc in the US are self-i.d.ed independents… pic.twitter.com/wZHT1hRlqQ
— Branko Marcetic (@BMarchetich) January 14, 2018
…And it's a myth that Trump voters all love him. Numerous polls shown he's lost support among his base, including in rural areas previously strongly loyal to him…. pic.twitter.com/SyQKavrLwW
— Branko Marcetic (@BMarchetich) January 14, 2018
…It's also not true that people who voted for him just mindlessly "love" whatever he does. They hate the tax plan, for e.g., and will hate it more in the years to come. pic.twitter.com/hwp0jeE9DY
— Branko Marcetic (@BMarchetich) January 14, 2018
4. An actual list of his setbacks would look more like this: he failed repeatedly to repeal Obamacare; his travel ban is in serious legal jeopardy; his wall is no closer to completion than before he ran; he's failed to stem the flow of US jobs off-shore… pic.twitter.com/32Uulg2WiC
— Branko Marcetic (@BMarchetich) January 14, 2018
5. Anyway, I agree his presidency has been highly consequential, but if you measure it by what he actually promised, he's done it by entirely betraying his own voters and stated beliefs. Meanwhile, he remains his own agenda's biggest liability.
— Branko Marcetic (@BMarchetich) January 14, 2018
Politics isn't a game. And pieces like this are not only factually lacking, they add little to nothing to our understanding of what's going on in the world.
— Branko Marcetic (@BMarchetich) January 14, 2018
Oh, and 6. This is quite patently not true. pic.twitter.com/iKjU4KVW1M
— Branko Marcetic (@BMarchetich) January 14, 2018
If you liked my tweet thread about the Herald Trump piece yesterday, then you will prob like this thing I wrote, which is basically the same thing but now you can share it with your older relatives. https://t.co/w672tQYbll
— Branko Marcetic (@BMarchetich) January 15, 2018
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The “Someone” was Heather du Plessis-Allen. Anything she writes is generally easily debunked as it is so weak to start with.
10% Grey area,
du-plessis-Allan is another hollow log.
Most of Plastic-Allan’s stuff comes over like it was perfunctorily dashed out and emailed off between 6,00 and 6.45 pm of an early Saturday evening. With a night of ‘fabulous’ cafe society arse-licking ahead. Facile. Just facile. An earnest, moderately informed fifth former could probably do as ‘well’.
Would do quite significantly better as they’d tell the truth rather than lie for their own benefit.
Sorry, but I get lost in trying to sort out what are:
(a) extracts from the article being commented on,
(b) the actual comments by the Standard author,
(c) peoples’ replies to those comments, and
(d) the author’s responses to those replies
So many things appear twice.
So many things appear twice.
Any chance this material could be presented in a less confusing way?
Not really, sorry. Twitter doesn’t allow one to quote tweets singly without stripping out the quoted content within the tweet, which would mean I’d have to do 3x the amount of work to get the post legible (e.g. I’d have to pull out each individual quote or image within each tweet and find a way to post it separately and still in order. I did try and then gave up).
The first two sentences were me. The rest are all tweets by Branco. What device and OS and browser are you on? It should at least be easy to see the outline of each double or single tweet. Maybe try a different device or browser.
btw, Branco wrote the piece at The Spinoff linked in the last tweet. It’s basically a rewrite of his twitter thread, so you could just read that instead (that’s why it’s linked).
Not to worry, weka. Just thought it might be worth enquiring. The item does read a lot better on Joe90’s link (comment 3.2 below) – thanks, Joe!
Unrolled.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/952366837118849025.html
thanks! I tried another platform yesterday and it made a dog’s breakfast.
It’s a shame that instead of enjoying his Sunday he had to spend his time responding to a troll column
Exactly the soper/DPA household are bolted on shills for the establishment singing for their supper.
100% tc.
Odd, in the context of liberalism I would have thought an apt description of politics is just that – it’s a game.
I suppose that’s the problem of being fixated on Liberalism.
It’s the world you live in.
Well it’s obviously the world *you live in, so carry on treating politics as a game. I’ve got better things to do with my time.
Why are you taking my statements personally, and in turn making assumptions? Common theme by people lately.
My point is simple, if we live in a world dominated by liberal capitalism, then the only game in town is where the majority of people lose. If you play by the rules as they stand, you’re playing their game, and realistically, you’re losing.
When you said “it’s the world you live in”, I took that to mean you were talking about me (which is how most people would take that phrase in this context). So of course I am going to push back against someone trying to define my reality.
I live in a world much bigger than the one dominated by liberal capitalism. It’s not the only game in town despite the huge damage it is doing. I don’t play but its rules except where I have to and where it suits the larger agenda. That’s not me taking anything personally, it’s me pointing out that there are other ways to understand the world.
You can understand it any way you like weka, but reality is dominated by liberal capitalism. And just by saying “I think different”, don’t change reality.
that’s you asserting your own “I think different”. What interests me more is why you think that you are right and I am wrong, or why your belief is the most important.
I’m not right. It’s not a game I play.
I’m just pointing out, that society is dominated by an ideology.
One I know you don’t like either, but it does not stop it being dominate.
Lots of ideologies in the dominant culture. I think Liberalism is a late comer myself. But that’s not the only world I live in.
How so?
In standard definitions of liberalism, I do not see that as a key feature.
Is it as much to do with capitalism as liberalism?
I may be making a mistake here, but capitalism and liberalism are at this point welded together.
Capitalism and liberalism* rose hand in hand, each excusing and enabling the other. It isn’t for no reason that the term “liberal capitalism” is used to describe the political economy that sits opposite state capitalism (ie – command economy).
*Liberalism was only one expression of liberatory thought. It has no exclusive claim to “good” and is inexorably wedded to a quite heinous economic idea – ie, capitalism.
Capitalism, a successful failure, its most apt mascot his most self loved the Don.