For the last time, and extra loud for all of you in the back: THIS IS NOT NORMAL.
"Status quo and normalcy bias is on florid display in board rooms and cubicles alike across America. Since the election of Donald Trump and the halting, abnormal formation of what looks like it might be an administration, I hear some executives replacing strategic analysis with wishful thinking about what this new government means for business. Normalcy bias is causing these people to assume that because the “Republican” brand name is associated with Mr. Trump, that the policies – and outcomes – to follow are likely to be reminiscent of of Reagan or even George W. Bush. The assumption is that there will be lower taxes and less regulation, which is presumed broadly to be the cause of slow economic growth. These executives are projecting images about the past onto the future without regard to the very clear statements made by Trump and his proxies already about the Nationalist policies he intends to pursue.
This strategic blindness is enormously dangerous, because the stated policy goals are to upend every single guiding principle that made the United States the economic, cultural, and political leader of the free world. This position also made America the architect of the largest economic expansion in history. Abandoning this position will thereby blow up the current global balance of power, and there is no predicting the outcome of the order – or disorder – that might take its place. Business executives – and everyone else – must therefore be on guard and clear-eyed about what comes next."
CounterPunch's photo.
Elitists have been HOARDING dictionaries, knowing this day would come!
a link.
IT'S OFFICIAL: The White House will take no action in #StandingRockand has no thoughts or guidance for Water Protectors on the ground.#nodapl #thanksObama
"Nazis. Racists. Bigots. Sexists. Supremacists. Call these monsters what they are. I am done with the term ‘Alt-Right’ for those who are effectively modern-day Nazis and Ku Klux Klan, for those who attack me personally with unspeakable, unabating venom, for those who brutally and inexcusably denigrate Jews, women, people of color, LGBT, immigrants, Muslims, the list goes on.
The name ‘Alt-right,’ like ‘white nationalists,’ sanitizes a ghastly rhetoric and acutely dangerous agenda, akin to Nazis or the KKK. This is no longer a fringe group, not a few lone actors under the cloak of darkness, no small subset of anonymous individuals; this is a concerted effort currently embedding itself in the heart of Washington DC — policymakers, lobbyists, think tanks, institutes, and the new administration itself — in attempt to mainstream monstrous views and tactics that support a white majority and pro-white ideals they treasure and promote. A physical, offline hub is emerging with a vengeance for the group and ideology that gained traction and rose to prominence across the internet."
Not my words, but I thought this was really well stated. The author has asked me to remain anonymous:
This is why the notion that someone who is "good at business" [which Trump isn't, at least not as I define it] will make a good leader in government is a bunch of hooey. They just DO NOT GET IT that the two areas of practice are vastly different in the skills required and the endpoints for success. Everyone praised Bill Clinton for leaving us with a surplus, but he didn't do that because he's a business magnate—he's actually a pretty crappy businessman, as witnessed by the business ventures where he and Hillary lost their shirts (Whitewater, anyone?). He got there because he's good at prioritizing governance needs. "It's the economy, stupid" is a case in point. The needs of society for governance and strategic planning often have nothing whatsoever to do with financial gain and a whole hella lot to do with public safety and well-being, and you cannot make a short-term profit on those sorts of impacts. You CAN see a long-term one, though, as economic well-being of the nation is improved as people need to worry less about meeting basic housing, health, and education needs. And this is precisely why GOP strategies continually fail to improve American well-being, because they are so focused on short-term bottom-line type planning that they ignore those long-term needs and the gains obtained by taking this view.
Put it this way: We ran a deficit in the Depression and WWII and were rewarded with a post-war boom, because FDR had a lock on this type of thinking.
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