NYT op-ed: "Detested and defeated, Donald Trump is now in a tear-the-country-down rage"

It was, I believe, the will of her constituents. It divided my friends.

3 Likes

What’s the term for the exact opposite of a class action suit?

4 Likes

Please!

(old joke)

7 Likes

Trumpageddon?

3 Likes

1 Like

I was pretty young, but I remember being told of the awful things that would happen when Jimmy Carter was president. Wait… I’m detecting a pattern.

9 Likes

I respect what McCain was trying to do there, but whenever I watch that I really wish he took a little extra time to point out that maybe being an Arab (a ethnic and linguistic category) isn’t the same as not being American or a decent family person. Not faulting him, since he looked like he was trying to back away slowly and move on, but I lament the missed opportunity.

7 Likes

re: Parallels in post-war Germany.

This is an interesting point, I think it is more accurately the parallels with the depression. Plenty of far right and trade protectionist governments arose in the 1930’s.

Obviously the Great Recession is not as bad as the Depression but there are plenty of people who have been sidelined economically, not just in the US but everywhere. In the UK (NPR’s Planet money did a podcast on the depressed seaside towns that used to be popular resorts but it costs a $100 to get there by train vs $15 flight to Amsterdam)

Combine that with the xenophobia following the influx of both refugees fleeing the war in Syria, or simply economic refugees fleeing poverty in North Africa which is why we are seeing far right parties gaining in the EU. Some like Poland Hungary etc, are still openly racist because they tended to be homogeneous, but having spoken with a someone visiting from Germany the far right is gaining there too. Their support has gone up from single digit numbers to 12% last election? and maybe 25%. She said that there is a lot more opposition to the increased refugees than is shown in the media.

This is something the columnist Gwynne Dyer also mentions, if there is anything that worries him at this time it is the potential rise of far right governments in Europe or the US. Given that increasing climate change will likely lead to droughts and more food riots and instability and more refugees - there will be even more push back against taking them in.

2 Likes

Would you say you are disappointed in Boing Boing?

6 Likes

Look, folks. Do you really think Donald Trump would even WANT a country like America? I mean look at her. I don’t think so. I’m sure she would not be his first choice, if you know what I mean. I think you know.

16 Likes

Actually, “Sexmonster” comes across pretty well in English. Still accurate.

5 Likes

I know all too well what you mean. Just when I think he’s reached the lowest point possible he peels away another layer.

So what I screwed up was my timeline. I knew I had it backwards. Germany hadn’t recovered from the Depression, I was thinking of Reparations. The Nazis were nascent before the depression, and it helped them along. It was Reparations that I was thinking of in terms of it not affecting the Germans as much as Nazi propaganda claimed. So, sorry for the confusion. But they were coming into force by the mid-1920s, before the Great Depression.

The sources that I’m specifically thinking of are The Nazi Conscience by Koonz and Richard J. Evans’s Third Reich Trilogy. I think they’re pretty good, though they’re not without their own problems.

I find Shirer to be very interesting, and it’s worthwhile to note that Evans speaks favorably of him. I’m not sure how I feel about the Sonderweg hypothesis, but I do think many of the insights the framework provides are valuable.

4 Likes

The rise of nazism - and fascism generally in Europe, they were hardly the first - would deserve its own topic here, but I’ll chip in a bit anyway :wink:

Like you said, the reparations were often blamed, though I think the main beef was not directly about the payments, but the lost territories after WW1, like the Elsass and Ostpreussen. However, I get the impression that the killer blow in Germany was the depression (black Friday) combined with a dislike for democracy in general. Remember, the old Reich was barely over a decade gone. The dominant christian democrats were openly authoritarian, and had a perfect foil with the like-minded communists. Social democrats were the only open defenders of democracy, but, alas, too small.

Also universal daycare was almost passed during Nixon, but red scare rhetoric ended up overcoming.

4 Likes

I too thought it was a documentary.

2 Likes

I remember watching Inherit The Wind for the first time and being horrified. The last time I saw it was a couple years ago, and I just thought it was par for the course.

1 Like

Good point. Flabby ass and cottage cheese thighs. Plus . . . retarded.

I mean, it basically is.

You should also watch Marjoe!

Aren’t you just America’a most representative charmer.

1 Like