[quote=“M_Dub, post:627, topic:74039, Full:True”]
We Got A Statue In The Castro, Too![/quote]
Some anarchist collective called INDECLINE did it, apparently.
“The Emperor Has No B—s,” as the project is called, arrives several months after the group covered stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame with the names of African Americans who have been killed by police. In the past, the collective has also claimed responsibility for an anti-Trump “Rape” mural on the U.S.-Mexico border and a massive piece of graffiti art in California’s Mojave Desert.
Good for them; it does my soul good to see art being used as effective political criticism.
I don’t follow Twitter, but I was shown a very funny tweet from the NYC Parks dept re: their decision to remove the Trump statue from Central Park. Anyone want to find it and post?
Isn’t the hair a bit too realistic?
hey now
That’s the one. Who knew bureaucrats could be this funny?
Bureaucrats are people too!
(Until they’re all replaced by robots)
Trump has (gasp) [offered an apology] (Donald Trump Apologizes For Offensive Statements He Has Made: I "Regret" Causing Personal Pain | Video | RealClearPolitics) for saying bad things and hurting people!
Here’s the full statement:
As you know, I am not a politician. I have worked in business, creating jobs and rebuilding neighborhoods my entire adult life. I’ve never wanted to learn the language of the insiders, and I’ve never been politically correct – it takes far too much time, and can often make more difficult.
Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don’t choose the right words or you say the wrong thing. I have done that, and I regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain. Too much is at stake for us to be consumed with these issues.
But one thing I can promise you is this: I will always tell you the truth.
I speak the truth for all of you, and for everyone in this country who doesn’t have a voice.
Now, let’s rate this on the patented Nimelennar Apology Scale.
- Actual words of apology (“I apologize, I’m sorry”): 7/10.
“I regret” isn’t a standard phrasing, but “having regret” and “being sorry” are pretty equivalent terms. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt here, and eviscerate the rest of it. - Specifics of apology: 3/10.
He says that he has “caused personal pain” to people by “saying the wrong thing,” but offers no examples of how he did so - Acknowledgement of injury: 5/10.
He actually says that he caused personal pain, which is a bit impressive for a politician-scale apology. However, again, he doesn’t say how what he did caused injury, so only half-marks here. - Mea culpa (“This is my own fault,” no excuses): 2/10.
He doesn’t blame the victims, but he’s not especially keen on taking responsibility, either. He says that the problem is the language he is using, not the sentiments behind the language, and blames the fact that he is “not a politician” and that speaking respectfully is “the language of the insiders.” So, it’s not his fault, it’s the fault of the other politicians who have created an expectation of speaking respectfully. Sorry, Donald, that isn’t taking responsibility. - Asking for forgiveness: 0/10.
At no point does Trump ask that he be forgiven, only that his flaws be overlooked. - Not expecting forgiveness: 0/10.
“Too much is at stake for us to be consumed with these issues.” — in other words, “I’ve apologized, now forget about it.” - Humility: 0/10.
" I have worked in business, creating jobs and rebuilding neighborhoods my entire adult life." “I speak the truth for all of you, and for everyone in this country who doesn’t have a voice.” Not really a surprise that Trump zeroes out here - Offer to put right what was wrong: 0/10.
Even though he says that he’s “caused personal pain,” he gives no examples of what he’s going to do to lessen the pain he’s caused, or to compensate those whom he has injured. - Guarantee of improvement:1/10
He does give an example of how he’ll act moving forward: “I will always tell you the truth.” However, when the problem is “choosing the wrong words” or “saying the wrong thing” or “causing personal pain” then, unless what you’re saying has been lies, this doesn’t fix the problem.
OVERALL SCORE: 18/90. Higher than I expected (actually, given that I never expected anything resembling an apology to tumble out of Donald Trump’s mouth, 1/90 would be “higher than I expected”), but still a bafflingly vague and superficial apology.
Well, Manafort just quit.
But at his rally in Fairfield a few days earlier he explicitly said “I might lie to you like Hillary does all the time, but I’ll never lie to Giacomo, okay?”
He can’t even be consistent on the topic of his own honesty.
Funny, I was thinking that the pubic hair was too UNrealistic. Especially for someone with blondish hair in general, there’s no way a man that old has that much hair there. (Yes, that’s right: age in men moves hair from the pubic and scalp areas to nose and ears. No idea why.) It would also be more artistically powerful to have that area be as smooth as a baby.
Well, that’s something I didn’t want to be thinking about this morning.
I got a giggle out of this one.
I think the problem with the analysis of Trump supporters sits in the assumption that you’ll be able to find anything about their personal circumstances that would lead them to support Trump. If we were all homo economicus then neither Trump nor Clinton would have had a chance at the nomination, let alone the presidency. How/why Trump affects people personally is buried too deep under layers of complex feelings to be able to get it out of demographic data.
It’s more like how Trump incites violence. He says something about how in the good old days protesters got beaten up. He never told anyone to beat up a protester, and there is no way to predict that his words would incite any particular person to beat up a protester, but it’s easy to predict that protesters are going to get beaten up after he says those words (I heard the term “stochastic terrorism” after Trump’s insinuation that someone should assassinate Clinton a couple weeks ago).
I think the economic conditions are very related to Trump support, as is the declining health of white Americans. But that doesn’t mean the individuals who support Trump are the ones most personally affected by these issues.
The last finding - the one that Trump supporters are least likely to actually encounter racial minorities - is less surprising to me and more obvious. Actually knowing Mexicans is going to make you less racist against Mexicans almost every time (except in cases where you have deeply segregated communities who are more butting up against each other than living together).
Just some silliness…