[Unfriend]
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Thereâs probably enough of a case to be made for banning him from entering the UK as a hate preacher now.
Between Trump, and seemingly everyone in the US shooting everyone else, this week has looked like America is trying to commit media suicide.
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Trump was amusingâŚat first. Whatâs not amusing is that a significantâŚand growingâŚsegment of the âGOP Baseâ find him perfectly reasonable. He started out as a loudmouthed, attention-craving buffoon. Now that heâs veered way into looneyland, heâs morphed into a vile buffoon. But heâs still just a buffoonâŚmore ludicrous than ever, and a perpetual gaffe machine. Iâm not troubled by his insane bloviating as much as I am by the growing number of my fellow citizens who are jumping on board his crazytrain.
I think itâs simply a symptom of how gullilble, bigoted, racist, shit-headed, fear-driven, selfish, ignorant, hate-filled, and downright stupid so many so-called conservatives have allowed themselves to become. But I worry that this nauseating appeal to the dark underside of American âcultureâ is maniipulating the pinheads to act on their moronic jingoistic fantasies.
SoâŚYeah, Iâm still laughing. But a little knowledge of history is causing me to laugh a little less convincingly each day.
Trump is a living embodiment of the âevil clown.â
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When I traveled outside the US between 2001 and 2009, I found myself constantly apologizing for President Bush. People would say, âWe like Americans, we just donât like your president.â To which I would reply, âNeither do I!â
I donât want to go through that again.
Ant Trump is more insane than Bush EVER was!
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Someone should ask Alex Salmond his thoughts. He was a big fan of Trump when the decomposing Cheeto wanted to bulldoze a Site of Special Scientific Interest to build a golf course.
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Iâm definitely not an expert fascistologist; but based on Ecoâs â14 Ways of Looking at a Blackshirtâ, Iâd give Trump some fascism points, though not full marks(most notably, unlike the classic European fascists, he is tapping into capitalism-induced frustration; but definitely not touching the idea of having an alternative to both capitalism and communism, since the âtraditional Americaâ of his cult of tradition is the land of free enterprise).
The hazily-defined âmake America great againâ slogan definitely has a âcult of traditionâ flavor about it. Flexible enough to syncretistically glob on to whatever is handy; but definitely hearkening back to a purer and truer past.
As for ârejection of modernismâ: Trump definitely has a more capitalist take on it than the Europeans; but his emphasis on negotiation-as-strength and being able to make âthe dealâ certainly suggests a profoundly anti-enlightenment embrace of the practices of reason and discourse as purely instrumental means of exerting power.
âCult of action for actionâs sakeâ? Well, he is definitely leading the pack on proposing splashy, forceful, and wildly disproportionate responses to just about everything, so Iâm going to give him this one.
âDisagreement is treasonâ and âexploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of differenceâ. Yup, just a bit.
âThe appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groupsâ. Did I mention that giant wall to keep out the mexican rapists, and how that pesky âblack lives matterâ guy deserved to be roughed up?
âThe followers must feel humilated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemiesâ: Between resentment of the effete âelitistsâ who allegedly control the commanding heights of theâŚliberal mediaâŚand adjunct professorships; and the fear of the rising tide of rapidly breeding xenos elements, Iâd say yes.
Iâm going to stop droning; but I think he has real potential.
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Iâve heard this phrase more times than I could count.
I also had the pleasure of being overseas when Obama was elected, and heard locals very excited and positive about it. âObama!â with the thumbs up sign, âHe is not Bushâ, âHe looks [dark skinned] like meâ, or âWe like Obama, we donât like Bushâ.
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See I keep having this argument with friends and family. Theyâre all concerned because they buy the media narrative that âTrump is winningâ. But that doesnât really look like whats going on to me. What Trump is, and has been, ahead in is early polling of likely Republican primary voters. So its deliberately looking at only one party, Primary voters are the most conservative block of voters, and the sort that respond to polls even more so. An even with that group as your test case he can only muster around 30% support. Less than a third of the most insane, conservative, and dedicated Republicans actually support the guy. You poll him nearly any other way and it doesnât look too good for him. Look at the whole electorate, the whole Republican party, look at his favorability ratings and nothing looks nearly as rosey for him. And from what I understand he doesnât even have the basic infrastructure of a campaign in place. So basically the deal with Trump is that his position is inflated by 2 things. The failure of the majority of involved Republicans who hate the guy to coalesce around anyone else (and frankly given your top 3-4 it looks like thereâs a majority of support for unqualified assholes), and the mediaâs monomaniacal obsession with Trump. Heâs good for ratings so we hear way more about him than we should.
Frankly it does look like there is some chance the mess on their end has him squeaking out a win in the Republican primaries. I wouldnât have necessarily bought that a few months ago, so I could be wrong. But when even the Republican party brass are making plans (which they appear to be) to mitigate the damage it doesnât look too good for a Trump candidacy. They donât do that unless even their internal information is saying the same thing all the public stuff seems to point too. Trump is bad enough of a choice that heâll drive Republican voters off, increase Democratic turnout, lose the vast majority of independents, and poison the well for republicans in a great number of other races.
So at this point his existence is still largely a major, major embarrassment for our country. Its a media circus. He just attracts the same vocal and obsessive groups as other nutty âmovementsâ. A loud minority that makes it a point to march out and âdefendâ their chosen subject at ever opportunity. Like the gamersgate knobs. There might only be a couple thousand of those people (at best), but mention the subject at all and a couple will show up to loudly throw it in your face. But the consolation is the longer this goes on the worse things look for conservative candidates as a whole when the full election starts. And frankly their whole field is coming off like the Keystone Cops. Mistakes left and right, and I havenât seen too many policy proposals that would even be possible or legal.
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Theyâre both bloviating loudmouths who are running primarily on âbusiness experienceâ in spite of both a long history of bankruptcies and the fact that no country can or should be run like a business. And neither one could come up with a coherent policy about anything.
Thatâs why I think Trump supporters are the same people who stood by Bush up until the very end. They seem him as having the potential to bring back everything theyâve been missing for the past seven years.
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If one were to undergo the Ludovico Technique using Fox News as the input, one might well turn out the same way. It seems that sitting in front of the boob-toob for years on end has a similar result. Funny that. (Though, technically, Ludovico would call for something sane and logical to condition one against - but thatâs not the comparison Iâm drawing)
I caught a CNN blurb from his last rally where they walked the line of people waiting to get in and asked them if they agreed with Darth Trumps position on âthe Muslimsâ. They all did, but one guy, wide eyed in fear stumbling over his words to say something that ultimately boiled down to âI am afraid because they are not like me & I donât know what will happen nextâ seemed the most genuine.
Part of me worries that this (Trump, that Alaskan nutter & Cruz - but a few) are the next logical step. We had a minor course correction after eight years of Bush but, OMG, heâs brown. Will that, added to the new devil you canât see, be enough to get the segment who are afraid out to vote? Think about it, in the last hundred years we havenât seen more than 63% turnout at the very most. If fear drives even an extra 10% to the polls it could well throw the election to Trump. The horror, the absolute horror.
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yes , â off the grid â is still a thing , it is a goal or a way of life rather than a destination ~
solar cells are less than 3 $$ a watt retail , those nifty whole house tesla motor corp batteries are like 3,000 $$ each , so 2 of those and 6 kw of solar is about $$ 24, 000 ( plus installation and inverters and such ) ( less sunny weather is often windier , so an extra 4 k $$ for a pair of small wind turbines and associated towers is a real good add-on ) , which is kinda affordable for median us of a incomes , almost , like a used car ( 2009 lexus ) instead of a new one , or 3 lattes a day for 10 years ~
yes , internet is allowed , if one is an off-gridder , perhaps not if one is an off-gridian , kinda like reform , it is ok , orthodox , not ~
( you prolly already knew most of this , or could have googled it ~ )
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He also lost a lot of his support when BUF members were caught hospitalising hecklers at his rallys. Letâs hope we donât need things to get that far with Trump.
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Iâll say this for George W. Bush: he had an actual track record in government. It was a pretty TERRIBLE record, mind you, but âGovernor of one of the most populous states in the Unionâ is a perfectly respectable example of the kind of job experience we should look for in a potential President.
If Trump was elected he would be the first President in U.S. history with no record of public service whatsoever. (The same can also be said of Ben Carson or Carly Fiorina.) Republican leaders have spent the last generation trying to convince voters not to trust anyone in government, and it appears that their base has taken them at their word.
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That may be true, but people also do more general polls of âwho would you vote for, X or Y?â to see who would win if different candidates were chosen. Trump isnât polling at 3% in the general population, heâs polling at 43% or higher, and only a few points behind Clinton when the two are paired:
Iâm not a fan of Clinton, but this is pretty grim stuff. I know a lot of this is driven by people not paying attention, but if they arenât paying attention to the current media circus around Trump, then what will catch their attention? In the most recent Canadian election a sudden appeal to anti-Muslim angst made for a brief rise and then a more considerable fall for our Conservatives, and in the long run maybe people donât like overt racism all that much. But if there were another terrorist attack or two as the election got close, I think Trump could honestly become president.
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Iâll share this: Iâm not that scared of terrorist attacks. For whatever reason, itâs not a thing I worry about on a daily basis very much. Theyâre terrible and I donât like them, but they donât keep me holed up in my house for days on end.
But Trump as president? That scares the shit out of me. It makes me want to go all crazy-pants prepper and start stockpiling drinking water and toilet paper.
So thatâs where Iâm at.
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Actually, itâs pretty simple: itâs a book-promo tour.
The Republicans tolerate him because every time he opens his mouth, he makes the rest of them look like sensible, serious candidates.
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I donât usually post on the politic stuff (cause, yes, Iâm a conservativeâŚ) but I did find this awesomeâŚ
Love me some Farscape.
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After the first parentsâ evening at my new school, my form teacher remarked to me âIt seems your father and I threw bricks at the same fascistsâ. That was the battles of Cable Street, when Mosleyâs fascists tried to force their way into the East End chanting âThe Jews, the Jews, weâve got to get rid of the Jewsâ. (Only the word they used wasnât Jews, but one which now is forbidden. Which is funny because Tottenham supporters used to identify themselves with that word, turning it back on the fascists.)
Mosley also started to lose support when the East Enders fought back, with the support of Jews and left-wingers from North London. Blairites call Corbyn an âextremistâ. They may yet find out who the real extremists are.
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Interesting. The picture on the front cover appears to be Boris Johnson. Have they ever been seen in the same room at the same time?
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This is a really good point. Thereâs definitely some symbiosis going on there.
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