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	<title>Comments on: The damage done&#8230;</title>
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		<title>By: RobVG</title>
		<link>https://habitablezone.com/2018/01/08/the-damage-done/#comment-40805</link>
		<dc:creator>RobVG</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Jan 2018 22:43:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://habitablezone.com/?p=68596#comment-40805</guid>
		<description>You&#039;re probably right. The buzz seems to be coming from the celebrisphere</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>You&#8217;re probably right. The buzz seems to be coming from the celebrisphere</p>
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		<title>By: hank</title>
		<link>https://habitablezone.com/2018/01/08/the-damage-done/#comment-40802</link>
		<dc:creator>hank</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Jan 2018 04:40:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://habitablezone.com/?p=68596#comment-40802</guid>
		<description>It&#039;s OK, even desirable, for rich republicans to be self-made wealthy people, its evidence of their natural superiority and competence. It makes them natural leaders.

But when democrats do it its considered hypocrisy.  Liberals aren&#039;t supposed to be good at business, or management, leadership or statesmanship. They&#039;re also pussies and cowards, indecisive and hand-wringing, and not likely to know anything about firearms, or have any military experience, or love their country or care for their families. Do you really believe those are attributes only conservatives are capable of mastering?  Do you people ever actually listen to yourselves before you speak or write?  You really give yourselves away.

No, I wouldn&#039;t be voting for Oprah in the primaries. Like the rest of America, I&#039;ve learned my lesson. One billionaire TV star was enough for me. But if she should somehow win the nomination, I&#039;ll gladly pick her over ANY republican. The last one of THEM was more than enough for me. 

No, the woman I want in the White House in 2020 is Liz Warren.  Bernie is OK, but he&#039;s a little too old.  He might not make it for his second term.  Then again, a Sanders/Warren ticket might work out just fine...

But still, it would be a hoot to see how the Freedom Caucus, the Tea Party, Rush and the gang at FOX would react to a &lt;em&gt;black&lt;/em&gt;, WOMAN President. Heads wouldn&#039;t just be exploding;  they&#039;d be vaporizing. Ionizing. Reducing to their component quarks.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It&#8217;s OK, even desirable, for rich republicans to be self-made wealthy people, its evidence of their natural superiority and competence. It makes them natural leaders.</p>
<p>But when democrats do it its considered hypocrisy.  Liberals aren&#8217;t supposed to be good at business, or management, leadership or statesmanship. They&#8217;re also pussies and cowards, indecisive and hand-wringing, and not likely to know anything about firearms, or have any military experience, or love their country or care for their families. Do you really believe those are attributes only conservatives are capable of mastering?  Do you people ever actually listen to yourselves before you speak or write?  You really give yourselves away.</p>
<p>No, I wouldn&#8217;t be voting for Oprah in the primaries. Like the rest of America, I&#8217;ve learned my lesson. One billionaire TV star was enough for me. But if she should somehow win the nomination, I&#8217;ll gladly pick her over ANY republican. The last one of THEM was more than enough for me. </p>
<p>No, the woman I want in the White House in 2020 is Liz Warren.  Bernie is OK, but he&#8217;s a little too old.  He might not make it for his second term.  Then again, a Sanders/Warren ticket might work out just fine&#8230;</p>
<p>But still, it would be a hoot to see how the Freedom Caucus, the Tea Party, Rush and the gang at FOX would react to a <em>black</em>, WOMAN President. Heads wouldn&#8217;t just be exploding;  they&#8217;d be vaporizing. Ionizing. Reducing to their component quarks.</p>
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		<title>By: RL</title>
		<link>https://habitablezone.com/2018/01/08/the-damage-done/#comment-40800</link>
		<dc:creator>RL</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Jan 2018 02:58:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://habitablezone.com/?p=68596#comment-40800</guid>
		<description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-new-approval-ratings-show-he-least-popular-president-enter-second-774961&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;TRUMP NEW APPROVAL RATINGS SHOW HE&#039;S THE LEAST POPULAR PRESIDENT TO ENTER A SECOND YEAR IN OFFICE AND IT&#039;S NOT EVEN CLOSE&lt;/a&gt;



&lt;blockquote&gt;Trump is the least popular president in modern history, according to FiveThirtyEight. &quot;Trump’s early-term unpopularity is unusual. In the decades since World War II, the average first-term president before Trump had an approval rating of 62 percent on his 175th day in office,&quot; the site wrote in July, when Trump&#039;s approval rating was 39 percent.&lt;/blockquote&gt;

And the idea that Oprah could run without everyone laughing SHOULD scare every sane American...</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-new-approval-ratings-show-he-least-popular-president-enter-second-774961" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">TRUMP NEW APPROVAL RATINGS SHOW HE&#8217;S THE LEAST POPULAR PRESIDENT TO ENTER A SECOND YEAR IN OFFICE AND IT&#8217;S NOT EVEN CLOSE</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Trump is the least popular president in modern history, according to FiveThirtyEight. &#8220;Trump’s early-term unpopularity is unusual. In the decades since World War II, the average first-term president before Trump had an approval rating of 62 percent on his 175th day in office,&#8221; the site wrote in July, when Trump&#8217;s approval rating was 39 percent.</p></blockquote>
<p>And the idea that Oprah could run without everyone laughing SHOULD scare every sane American&#8230;</p>
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		<title>By: mcfly</title>
		<link>https://habitablezone.com/2018/01/08/the-damage-done/#comment-40799</link>
		<dc:creator>mcfly</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Jan 2018 02:55:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://habitablezone.com/?p=68596#comment-40799</guid>
		<description>You&#039;re terrified someone might be more popular than your cherished Drumpf.

I don&#039;t personally know any liberals who&#039;d be enthusiastic about a candidate such as Winfrey, but if celebrity is the only thing dimwitted Americans will respond to anymore, what&#039;re ya gonna do?</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>You&#8217;re terrified someone might be more popular than your cherished Drumpf.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t personally know any liberals who&#8217;d be enthusiastic about a candidate such as Winfrey, but if celebrity is the only thing dimwitted Americans will respond to anymore, what&#8217;re ya gonna do?</p>
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		<title>By: RL</title>
		<link>https://habitablezone.com/2018/01/08/the-damage-done/#comment-40798</link>
		<dc:creator>RL</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Jan 2018 02:42:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://habitablezone.com/?p=68596#comment-40798</guid>
		<description>Do you still think Trump is qualified to be president...?
Or was that just a &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.merriam-webster.com/news-trend-watch/trump-thats-just-a-misnomer-20180104&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&#039;misnomer&#039;&lt;/a&gt;?

Remember, you assured us all here that Trump would hire good people that would reign him in... How is that working out so far, Rob?</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Do you still think Trump is qualified to be president&#8230;?<br />
Or was that just a <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/news-trend-watch/trump-thats-just-a-misnomer-20180104" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">&#8216;misnomer&#8217;</a>?</p>
<p>Remember, you assured us all here that Trump would hire good people that would reign him in&#8230; How is that working out so far, Rob?</p>
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		<title>By: RL</title>
		<link>https://habitablezone.com/2018/01/08/the-damage-done/#comment-40797</link>
		<dc:creator>RL</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Jan 2018 02:28:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://habitablezone.com/?p=68596#comment-40797</guid>
		<description>We are living in a nation where experts are reviled for knowing what they are talking about....

And imbeciles are chosen to represent us to the world...

As Sean Spicer said about the possibility of Oprah running- (with a straight face, no less):



&lt;blockquote&gt;Spicer suggested Winfrey might have problems because of her inexperience in the political arena.

“She doesn’t have the political infrastructure,” Spicer said. “And we’ve seen this before in our history — where people who have tried to pop in who are not in politics and have had a difficult time adjusting.”&lt;/blockquote&gt;

</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>We are living in a nation where experts are reviled for knowing what they are talking about&#8230;.</p>
<p>And imbeciles are chosen to represent us to the world&#8230;</p>
<p>As Sean Spicer said about the possibility of Oprah running- (with a straight face, no less):</p>
<blockquote><p>Spicer suggested Winfrey might have problems because of her inexperience in the political arena.</p>
<p>“She doesn’t have the political infrastructure,” Spicer said. “And we’ve seen this before in our history — where people who have tried to pop in who are not in politics and have had a difficult time adjusting.”</p></blockquote>
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		<title>By: RobVG</title>
		<link>https://habitablezone.com/2018/01/08/the-damage-done/#comment-40796</link>
		<dc:creator>RobVG</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Jan 2018 02:25:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://habitablezone.com/?p=68596#comment-40796</guid>
		<description>&quot;Much better public speaker&quot; That&#039;s attributed to her choice of study- Speech communication (my gawd) and performing arts. Even the thought of OW&#039;s candidacy has gotten the liberals creaming there collective jeans- so much for the academics you so cherish...
And don&#039;t forget she is one of the &quot;rich&quot; who are getting a tax break, a self-made billionaire nontheless.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>&#8220;Much better public speaker&#8221; That&#8217;s attributed to her choice of study- Speech communication (my gawd) and performing arts. Even the thought of OW&#8217;s candidacy has gotten the liberals creaming there collective jeans- so much for the academics you so cherish&#8230;<br />
And don&#8217;t forget she is one of the &#8220;rich&#8221; who are getting a tax break, a self-made billionaire nontheless.</p>
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		<title>By: hank</title>
		<link>https://habitablezone.com/2018/01/08/the-damage-done/#comment-40795</link>
		<dc:creator>hank</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Jan 2018 01:48:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://habitablezone.com/?p=68596#comment-40795</guid>
		<description>Oprah has already demonstrated she can easily do what Trump did;
make a lot of money and be a successful TV personality.

And she&#039;s a much better public speaker</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Oprah has already demonstrated she can easily do what Trump did;<br />
make a lot of money and be a successful TV personality.</p>
<p>And she&#8217;s a much better public speaker</p>
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		<title>By: BuckGalaxy</title>
		<link>https://habitablezone.com/2018/01/08/the-damage-done/#comment-40794</link>
		<dc:creator>BuckGalaxy</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Jan 2018 01:34:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://habitablezone.com/?p=68596#comment-40794</guid>
		<description>&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2018/01/08/oprah-winfrey-gives-a-master-class-for-2020-candidates/?utm_term=.6b91104de425&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Jennifer Rubin makes a good point:&lt;/a&gt;



&lt;blockquote&gt;&quot;....The “Oprah for President” buzz — some in earnest and some humorous — will rev up. But better than banking on another billionaire celebrity (albeit one who reads, praises diversity and possesses none of the twisted, dark demons that haunt Trump), &lt;strong&gt;Democrats and Republicans seeking to defeat Trump (or someone of his ilk) would be smart to identify the qualities that Winfrey demonstrates:
&lt;/strong&gt;
She is hopeful and optimistic, appealing to our better angels and not our base fears. She does not hold up boogeymen or dabble in conspiracy theories. She does not characterize the United States as a dystopia nor exaggerate (let alone create out of whole cloth) a set of challenges that call into question the motives of our leaders.

She is well-versed in history (citing Rosa Parks’s pre-Montgomery bus boycott work on behalf of an African American woman who had been raped by six white men in Alabama in 1944). However, she does not pine for an imaginary past. The good old days were not good for a large segment of the country. She cajoles and encourages her audience to continue the trek toward a more perfect union.

She understands that we come from diverse places but looks for the common thread of humanity — the universal qualities and shared dreams of all Americans (and all humans, for that matter).

She makes clear — even in the context of an acceptance speech honoring her lifetime in media and entertainment — that it is not all about her. She does not set herself up as the savior (“I alone”), nor peddle the false notion that there are easy fixes.

She conveys the most important quality for a political leader (aside from intellectual curiosity) — namely, empathy. The ability to see the world from the vantage point of others is the critical first step for leaders in a diverse democracy. Only then can you problem-solve, summon resolve and inspire others to take a journey with you.

She valiantly defends objective truth and democratic institutions. “We also know it’s the insatiable dedication to uncovering the absolute truth that keeps us from turning a blind eye to corruption and to injustice,” she said. “To tyrants and victims, and secrets and lies. I want to say that I value the press more than ever before as we try to navigate these complicated times.”

Her speech, elegantly delivered, seemed if only for the moment to wash away the bile that Trump spews and the debris that he leaves littered along the landscape. Hey,  someone who thinks the press should write what it wants! Someone who knows that the 1950s weren’t the peak moment in American history! Someone with a grown-up’s vocabulary and sentence structure! Before you snap back to reality, realizing we may have three more years of Trump, we should think of Winfrey’s speech as a master class in creating an alternative political culture....&quot;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2018/01/08/oprah-winfrey-gives-a-master-class-for-2020-candidates/?utm_term=.6b91104de425" rel="nofollow">Jennifer Rubin makes a good point:</a></p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;&#8230;.The “Oprah for President” buzz — some in earnest and some humorous — will rev up. But better than banking on another billionaire celebrity (albeit one who reads, praises diversity and possesses none of the twisted, dark demons that haunt Trump), <strong>Democrats and Republicans seeking to defeat Trump (or someone of his ilk) would be smart to identify the qualities that Winfrey demonstrates:<br />
</strong><br />
She is hopeful and optimistic, appealing to our better angels and not our base fears. She does not hold up boogeymen or dabble in conspiracy theories. She does not characterize the United States as a dystopia nor exaggerate (let alone create out of whole cloth) a set of challenges that call into question the motives of our leaders.</p>
<p>She is well-versed in history (citing Rosa Parks’s pre-Montgomery bus boycott work on behalf of an African American woman who had been raped by six white men in Alabama in 1944). However, she does not pine for an imaginary past. The good old days were not good for a large segment of the country. She cajoles and encourages her audience to continue the trek toward a more perfect union.</p>
<p>She understands that we come from diverse places but looks for the common thread of humanity — the universal qualities and shared dreams of all Americans (and all humans, for that matter).</p>
<p>She makes clear — even in the context of an acceptance speech honoring her lifetime in media and entertainment — that it is not all about her. She does not set herself up as the savior (“I alone”), nor peddle the false notion that there are easy fixes.</p>
<p>She conveys the most important quality for a political leader (aside from intellectual curiosity) — namely, empathy. The ability to see the world from the vantage point of others is the critical first step for leaders in a diverse democracy. Only then can you problem-solve, summon resolve and inspire others to take a journey with you.</p>
<p>She valiantly defends objective truth and democratic institutions. “We also know it’s the insatiable dedication to uncovering the absolute truth that keeps us from turning a blind eye to corruption and to injustice,” she said. “To tyrants and victims, and secrets and lies. I want to say that I value the press more than ever before as we try to navigate these complicated times.”</p>
<p>Her speech, elegantly delivered, seemed if only for the moment to wash away the bile that Trump spews and the debris that he leaves littered along the landscape. Hey,  someone who thinks the press should write what it wants! Someone who knows that the 1950s weren’t the peak moment in American history! Someone with a grown-up’s vocabulary and sentence structure! Before you snap back to reality, realizing we may have three more years of Trump, we should think of Winfrey’s speech as a master class in creating an alternative political culture&#8230;.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
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