US Politics Thread 2016-2020

[vienna]

Pure political sophistry of the worst sort. No pure word count is an indicator of actual intent of the word being counted. Examples from the actual unedited speech:

It’s good to be home. My fellow Americans, Michelle and I have been so touched by all the well-wishes we’ve received over the past few weeks. But tonight it’s my turn to say thanks. Whether we’ve seen eye-to-eye or rarely agreed at all, my conversations with you, the American people – in living rooms and schools; at farms and on factory floors; at diners and on distant outposts – are what have kept me honest, kept me inspired, and kept me going. Every day, I learned from you. You made me a better president, and you made me a better man.

I first came to Chicago when I was in my early 20s, still trying to figure out who I was; still searching for a purpose to my life. It was in neighborhoods not far from here where I began working with church groups in the shadows of closed steel mills. It was on these streets where I witnessed the power of faith, and the quiet dignity of working people in the face of struggle and loss. This is where I learned that change only happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged, and come together to demand it.
After eight years as your president, I still believe that. And it’s not just my belief. It’s the beating heart of our American idea – our bold experiment in self-government.

If I had told you eight years ago that America would reverse a great recession, reboot our auto industry, and unleash the longest stretch of job creation in our history…if I had told you that we would open up a new chapter with the Cuban people, shut down Iran’s nuclear weapons program without firing a shot, and take out the mastermind of 9/11…if I had told you that we would win marriage equality, and secure the right to health insurance for another 20 million of our fellow citizens – you might have said our sights were set a little too high.

In 10 days, the world will witness a hallmark of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power from one freely elected president to the next. I committed to President-elect Trump that my administration would ensure the smoothest possible transition, just as President Bush did for me. Because it’s up to all of us to make sure our government can help us meet the many challenges we still face.

That’s what I want to focus on tonight – the state of our democracy.
Understand, democracy does not require uniformity. Our founders quarreled and compromised, and expected us to do the same. But they knew that democracy does require a basic sense of solidarity – the idea that for all our outward differences, we are all in this together; that we rise or fall as one.

Our democracy won’t work without a sense that everyone has economic opportunity. Today, the economy is growing again; wages, incomes, home values, and retirement accounts are rising again; poverty is falling again. The wealthy are paying a fairer share of taxes even as the stock market shatters records. The unemployment rate is near a 10-year low. The uninsured rate has never, ever been lower. Healthcare costs are rising at the slowest rate in 50 years. And if anyone can put together a plan that is demonstrably better than the improvements we’ve made to our healthcare system – that covers as many people at less cost – I will publicly support it.

That’s why I leave this stage tonight even more optimistic about this country than I was when we started. Because I know our work has not only helped so many Americans; it has inspired so many Americans – especially so many young people out there – to believe you can make a difference; to hitch your wagon to something bigger than yourselves. This generation coming up – unselfish, altruistic, creative, patriotic – I’ve seen you in every corner of the country. You believe in a fair, just, inclusive America; you know that constant change has been America’s hallmark, something not to fear but to embrace, and you are willing to carry this hard work of democracy forward. You’ll soon outnumber any of us, and I believe as a result that the future is in good hands.

My fellow Americans, it has been the honor of my life to serve you. I won’t stop; in fact, I will be right there with you, as a citizen, for all my days that remain. For now, whether you’re young or young at heart, I do have one final ask of you as your president – the same thing I asked when you took a chance on me eight years ago.

I am asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change – but in yours.

I am asking you to hold fast to that faith written into our founding documents; that idea whispered by slaves and abolitionists; that spirit sung by immigrants and homesteaders and those who marched for justice; that creed reaffirmed by those who planted flags from foreign battlefields to the surface of the moon; a creed at the core of every American whose story is not yet written:

Yes We Can.

Yes We Did.

Yes We Can.

Thank you. God bless you. And may God continue to bless the United States of America.

I am not defending Obama or his terms in office; I am more concerned with what is coming. But I do like to defend the real, actual, useful truth: I challenge you to show in the above examples, or anywhere in the entire text of the speech, any instance of a purely self-serving or self-aggrandizing instance of the word "I". I am quite sure I will die of old age before you are successful. I did see an awful lot of instances of words such as "we" and "us"; I also counted 63 paragraphs in the text (including single sentence paragraphs); 20 of those paragraphs had either the words "I" or "I've"; that leaves 43 paragraphs without any alleged "self reference" or almost 70% of the text. A count of words is not in any way an indicator of meaning; unless one has heard first hand or read the words of any text, one can not say, with authority, they know the full intent of the words...

I'm willing to bet a good many of the people who take this sort of tripe sophistry as actual reasoning are the same people who neither saw, heard nor read the speech. They probably just wait around for the talk show host, blogger, hatchet job website to tell them what to think and say and how to vote; it must be nice in that little world, not having to use whatever brainpower they might have; they must laugh at all us silly, stupid folk who actually do the "homework" and try to separate out the dross so we might actually find the truth and make informed decisions; Oh, silly us, for thinking democracy and the fate of our nation deserves at least some effort from its citizens...



Again, if you just take the "word" of those out to misconstrue for their own advantage, well, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you...



<O>

[vienna]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

Well it really is about him by definition isn't it! You don't get in office without an ego.

Very true of all of them: Leader Of The Free World is not a title sought by a very humble person...

I wonder if a word count of previous Presidential Farewells were made, how often "I" and other self-references might occur. I don't have the patience to do it, but it would probably be no better or worse than any other...


<O>

[Oberon]

Barack Obama (2017)

I - 33
my - 18
me - 12
I've - 11
I'm - 1

George W Bush (2009)

I - 35
my - 9
me - 6
I've - 2
I'm - 0

Bill Clinton (2001)

I - 17
my - 4
me - 3
I've - 1
I'm - 2

George H.W. Bush (1993)

I - 46
my - 9
me - 2
I've - 0
I'm - 2

Ronald Reagan (1989)

I - 72
my - 15
me - 9
I've - 13
I'm - 4

Jimmy Carter (1981)

I - 28
my - 8
me - 4
I've - 2
I'm - 1


I can go on, but Ford didn't give a Farewell address it seems but did a final State of the Union address, not sure if that would count.

Speeches found here - http://millercenter.org/president/speeches
Except for Obamas which I've got from ketv.com.
In all cases I've gotten the 'find' function on Firefox and put in the relevant words with 'highlight all', 'match words' and 'whole words' then seeing how many matches there are. I'll admit that this gives some problems with "I" because it sometimes highlights "I've" and "I'm" as well because it has the word "I" in it.

[Mr Quatro]

Billionaire George Soros reportedly lost nearly $1 billion during Trump rally
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/b...134916493.html

Soros' hedge fund, Soros Fund Management, manages about $30 billion for Soros and his family. Soros was a supporter of Hillary Clinton's campaign.

[Mr Quatro]

Thank you vienna and Oberon for tracking the truth down, but Obama will not be remembered for his humility.

[August]

Originally Posted by Mr Quatro

Thank you vienna and Oberon for tracking the truth down, but Obama will not be remembered for his humility.

No and i'll bet there is a distinct difference in the way he uses the I's and me's to how previous Presidents have used it.

[mapuc]

George Takei is one of them follow on FB I have never seen so much negative comments from this person when it comes to the new President.

He has the right to have his say, but there must be some positive thing he has to say about Trump.

Markus

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by mapuc

George Takei is one of them follow on FB I have never seen so much negative comments from this person when it comes to the new President.

He has the right to have his say, but there must be some positive thing he has to say about Trump.

Markus

There is no requirement for anyone's opinion to be based on facts nor is there any requirement that someone's opinion represent all sides of an issue.

[vienna]

Originally Posted by Mr Quatro

Thank you vienna and Oberon for tracking the truth down, but Obama will not be remembered for his humility.

Thankfully, we now have a Dipstick-In-Chief who is very well known for his humility: "I know more than the generals; I know more than the intelligence community; I know more than [insert laughably implausible comparative here]...". If it's humility you're looking for, boy, did you ever pick the wrong Dipstick...




I would very much like to see, further down the road, a count of how many times Dump..er, ah,...Trump use "I" in his own presidential speeches; it would probably take a Cray to tabulate that count...

Well, with any luck, he'll trip over his own ego, do something characteristically idiotic, and be given the boot; probability is on the side of that issue...

@ Oberon...

Much respect for the effort! At my age, the ability alone to count one's fingers and toes is an accomplishment...


<O>

[vienna]

Originally Posted by August

No and i'll bet there is a distinct difference in the way he uses the I's and me's to how previous Presidents have used it.

Any real, verifiable specifics to this claim?...



<O>

[Oberon]

Meanwhile in 1958...

[August]

Trumps face made from crying snowflakes

[vienna]

...or the soon to be faces of Trump supporters once the indictments come down and they realize they were hoodwinked and betrayed by the person they have bet so heavily upon; given the nature of Trump's picks for his "administration", this the biggest rogues gallery since Nixon in '68 & '72 and has a very high balance of probability of facing the same fates; this is not to exclude an anticipated Impeachment of the Tiny-Handed One...

You know, in many ways, George Orwell was amazingly prescient:











<O>

[Oberon]

There's been one or two people who have been quite happy to see Obamacare go, safe in the knowledge that their insurance won't be affected because they're on the ACA, not Obamacare.

Let that sink in...

[August]

Originally Posted by Oberon

There's been one or two people who have been quite happy to see Obamacare go, safe in the knowledge that their insurance won't be affected because they're on the ACA, not Obamacare.

Let that sink in...

I'm sure you can find one or two people who think, well just about anything. Nearly everyone knows that (except possibly one or two) so i'm not sure what you mean by saying let that sink in like it's some great revelation.