Political Discourse 2016

Friday morning I’ll be posting a review of the recently released John Podesta emails, including a selection of the ones I found most damning. But I wanted to share thoughts this morning on the election process and how interesting it was that Hillary had complained in 2008 about voter fraud in Pennsylvania (among other states).

Despite the fact that recently leaked Podesta emails show possible media collusion within DNC, paid actors being coached to ask specific questions for Hillary at townhall debates, that a moderator provided questions prior to the presidential debate, and proof that Bernie Sanders was never a legitimate Democratic candidate (documents show DNC were supporting Hillary as their candidate as early as May 2015), many voters have and will continue to vote for Hillary Clinton (or Donald Trump for that matter).

Which begs the question – is there an issue with the electoral system, or perhaps a problem with the perception of where to draw a line within the government as a whole?

Political discourse in teetering on the brink and neither big ticket candidate seems capable of legitimizing this election and that is perhaps the most polarizing fact of all. The two party system, and how it’s portrayed by mainstream media, is deeply flawed, if America feels they truly have no other options.

Verified by Google

While researching topics for this mornings entry, I spent some time reading about a new process Google is introducing called the International Fact-Checking Network.

Done correctly, it would be similar to the blue verified check mark started on Twitter, and now appearing on Facebook as well. Source

Richard Gingras, head of News @ Google will be tasked with spearheading the initiative. He explained the undertaking in this blog post.

The problem with this, however, is two-fold. First, this already exists. It’s called Snopes, and while they’re biased on certain topics (hiring child actors for townhall questions, for instance or Hillary Clinton’s desire for a “One World Government”).

Secondly, and perhaps more damning, is the revelation that it will be run in part by the National Endowment for Democracy, a so-called Non-governmental organization (or NGO for short), which is actually funded by US congress. And perhaps worse, the fact that it will be in part funded by  Pierre Omidyar, who donated $1 Million to the Clinton Foundation’s HIV/AIDS drug distribution program.

Conflict of interest, you ask? I would say so. And if that passes, government policing on the internet won’t be too far behind.

Morning musings: A judge dismissed Ontario activists claims in bid to have Cleveland’s monicker “Indians” banned while in Ontario for the ALCS vs the Jays: Source

Canadian Tire has pulled all Halloween clown decorations in light of the creepy clown sightings across North America: Source

Hillary’s running mate, Tim Kaine insists Wikileaks Podesta documents could be “doctored”: Source

Judge dismisses Sandy Hook families lawsuit against gun maker: Source

And finally, Air Canada will no longer be permitting customers to board their planes with Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones: Source

That whole Trump is like Hitler meme

This mornings article is in reference to this tweet: https://twitter.com/BrandMooreArt/status/780391058358280193 and also this one as well: https://twitter.com/mattgood/status/780412920689754112

I spend a lot of time on Twitter. Far more than I ever did on Facebook. And since joining in 2011, it’s been my go to for political news and updates from around the world. A veritable feed of any type of information I’m looking for from who won the Tigers game last night (12-0 Tigs over the Cleveland Indians), to Theo Walcott’s passing percentage v Chelsea (77%), to the amount of unarmed civilians Obama has droned since taking office (at least 314 since 2009).

But where there’s a wealth indisputable knowledge, there’s also conjecture and lunacy. There’s tightrope walking that fine line of Political Correctness that still allows hundreds of thousands of us a soapbox of our very own. And magazines like Medium to make sweeping statements that wind around and never really go anywhere.

As of this morning, I follow 604 different Twitter accounts. Most of them news conglomerates, politicians and a wide variety of graphic designers, whose posts help inspire me and see the design world from a different perspective. On Monday morning, a pair of tweets appeared in my timeline.

Firstly, this one:

It certainly caught my attention.

Hitler was a lot of things to a myriad of people. But no one can argue that with the help of German clothing designer Hugo Boss, he had an immense sense of style. The Feldgrau and Luftwaffe fashion is still part of every day wear over 80 years after. He also had some incredibly lofty ideas that made Germany a super power and a country feared by every neighbour within a one hundred mile radius of Berlin. The article, sadly, does nothing to prove it’s point for or against.

The second tweet, was by Canadian rock musician Matthew Good, someone I’ve known for well over 20 years, and whose politics have always been concise and well thought out yet, filled to the brim with a foreboding tinge that let’s you know exactly who he’s backing. Put mildly, he’s very Liberal.

I probably should’ve been more eloquent. I certainly could’ve been less biased as well. But what developed was an exchange over direct message that would compare former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to a war mongering sociopath, while mostly overlooking the atrocities carried out by this regime. My point was, that if you kill one person, or you kill over 300, you’re still a criminal. And since Trump, to the best of my knowledge has done neither, that sets him apart.

Trump is different. He’s not a politician. He’s not beholden to anyone. I’m not an American, so it’s irrelevant really, but given the opportunity I’d throw my vote away on Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, despite the fact that msm berated him for not knowing what Aleppo is.

That said, I can fully understand why someone would vote for Trump instead of a lying, conniving criminal like Hillary, who would likely sell out her own family and backstab her former cohorts at the State to have another chance of climbing those White House steps. She lied to congress, she covered up the planned kidnapping and eventual killing of an Ambassador, while her and Obama blamed it on a laughable propaganda film denouncing Mohammed.

Hitler had some truly terrible ideas when it came to ethnic cleansing, eugenics and racial purity. None of which I see in Trump. Frankly, Hillary’s win at all costs mentality is far more in line with the Third Reich, in my honest opinion.