Sound The TRUMPets! A Thread for Presidential Pondering 2016-2020(?)

[Rinaldo]

Another take on McCain and the course of things:

1. McCain's funeral was very moving and appropriately political (as befits the funeral of a major political figure). But it also reflected the weakness of a certain type of politics, Decency Resistance or Ancien Régime Resistance.

2. To say the funeral was political is not to insult it -- I'd argue the funeral of any major political figure is inescapably political, an occasion for staking out a legacy and laying claim to a heritage. McCain himself designed it that way.

3. The overriding message of the funeral was to contrast, by barely disguised subtweets, McCain's decency & patriotism with Trump's squalor, selfishness & bigotry.

4. The problem with the staging of the funeral is that it was designed to draw a contrast between the old establishment (bipartisanly embodied by Bush & Obama) with the off-stage Trump. But that's false dichotomy. That old establishment created Trump.

5. As I've been arguing for the last 3 years, Trump wasn't created out of an immaculate conception but is the true heir to generations of bad politics, notably GOP "Southern Strategy" of race-baiting.

6. McCain himself illustrates the true complex dichotomy here: yes, he stood up to Trump & offered an alternative nationalism. But McCain, by picking Palin & also fostering conspiracy theories about ACORN, helped pave the way for Trump.

7. Beyond the Southern Strategy & Palin, think of all the other elite choices that led to Trump: the lies of the Iraq war, the mainstreaming of Islamophobia, the casino economics that led to the 2008 meltdown, Obama's failure to prosecute bankers.

8. We've had decades of elite failure, elite impunity, and elite coddling of racism, elite promotion of anti-intellectualism (think of climate denial). Are we surprised that the end result is President Trump?

9. And also elite tolerance of corruption. Figures like Paul Manafort skirted the law for decades and were welcome by the likes of Reagan and Dole. Any surprise they would take the next step & elect, with foreign help, Trump?

10. The message of the funeral was "The American establishment has a bipartisan contempt for Trump." What was missing was any sense of responsibility by that establishment for creating Trump.

11. The failure of the elite to come to terms with its own responsibility vitiates everything at the funeral -- Meghan McCain's righteous anger, Obama's eloquent thoughtfulness, Bush's cutesy candy-sharing.

12. The message of the funeral was "once we get rid of Trump, the grown-ups can take over again." Sorry, won't work. You had your chance and you muffed it.

13. "If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?" -- Anton Chigurh. That's the question we have to ask the establishment. The rules they followed brought us here, and now they want us to return to those rules.

14. The American elite really thinks they can subtweet their way out of a fascist crisis. It's not so easy, my friends.

15. John McCain was admirably blunt & forthright. We owe it to his memory to be no less honest in our appraisal of him. His complex legacy is that he both helped create Trump & resisted him.

[drogulus]

Another take on McCain and the course of things:

     The Repubs prepared for this, the Dems have not prepared because they wanted to play a game in the middle according to the stereotype of liberals, that they are people who don't take their own side in an argument. Repubs are not tempted to take this point of view.

     Young leftish Dems want to return to an older understanding where you take your side and not externalize it as a position occupied by other people. If Dems want to raise the minimum wage, "we" want to raise it, "we" want more spending on the social safety net, "we" want universal health care Repubs can't destroy, "we" want to begin to build the new economy and repair what's broken not just in the Blue fortresses but deep in the Red wastelands.

[eljr]

     The Repubs prepared for this, the Dems have not prepared because they wanted to play a game in the middle according to the stereotype of liberals, that they are people who don't take their own side in an argument. Repubs are not tempted to take this point of view.

     Young leftish Dems want to return to an older understanding where you take your side and not externalize it as a position occupied by other people. If Dems want to raise the minimum wage, "we" want to raise it, "we" want more spending on the social safety net, "we" want universal health care Repubs can't destroy, "we" want to begin to build the new economy and repair what's broken not just in the Blue fortresses but deep in the Red wastelands.

i was just admiring the Biltmore Estate. https://www.biltmore.com/



Magnificent! 6950.4 acres or 10.86 square miles. 178,926 square feet home.
"Construction of the house began in 1889 and continued well into 1896. In order to facilitate such a large project, a woodworking factory and brick kiln, which produced 32,000 bricks a day, were built onsite, and a three-mile railroad spur was constructed to bring materials to the building site. Construction on the main house required the labor of well over 1,000 workers and 60 stonemasons"

It's amazing what a few can have if not for a burdensome income tax.

Well, he"earned it" after all it was not easy being the son of a Vanderbilt.

[EddieRUKiddingVarese]

After Trumps downfall ha ha ha ha

[drogulus]

     Yes, America Benefits from All Immigration--Legal and Illegal

Americans who want less immigration – legal and illegal—always portray immigrants as deviant and dangerous. The same line was used against the Germans, Irish, Italians, Jews, etc. 

But in 30 years of covering the immigration debate, here's what I have never understood: If Americans are so terrified of illegal immigrants, why are we so quick to bring them into our lives? We give them the security codes to our gated communities so they can cut our lawn, leave them alone in our homes so they can clean our toilets, and hand them our babies so we can get to yoga.

     Of course this is true, all of the negative consequences of illegal people are for illegal people. They are the ones that are hurt by creating the law barrier. It does no one good. It's evil in intent and consequences.

[zamyrabyrd]

After Trumps downfall ha ha ha ha

Welcome to the Planet of the Apes after the Barbarians get through with it!

[bwv 1080]

this neocon in life has been transformed into a resistance leader in death: that while the anti-Trump movement might doll itself up as rebellious, and even borrow its name from those who resisted fascism in Europe in the mid 20th-century, in truth it is primarily about restoring the apparently cool, expert-driven rule of the old elites over what is viewed as the chaos of the populist Trump / Brexit era.

http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/now-we-know-the-resistance-is-the-establishment/21762#.W42Qu6ROmEe

[EddieRUKiddingVarese]

Welcome to the Planet of the Apes after the Barbarians get through with it!

Moderator action: Sorry, I have deleted the flashing image which could triggor a fit.

Knight

[knight66]

http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/now-we-know-the-resistance-is-the-establishment/21762#.W42Qu6ROmEe

Yes, although some kind of cross-aisle politeness is fine. When I saw Bush pass a sweet to Michelle Obama and the mutual reactions, it did indeed look like the aristocrats' club all rather smugly colaborating to confound the peasants' revolt. I felt that the disappointed voters who had turned to Trump would see this gesture as symbolic and symptomatic of the elite club that it is. Democratic politics needs to find a new distinct and younger voice if the jaded sector of voters are to be inspired rather than to reluctantly return for more of the old model, which has not worked for them and won't work for them.

Mike

[Mahlerian]

Eek, my eyes.  Good thing I'm not prone to seizures.

[BasilValentine]

The Scumbag in Chief just tweeted this:

"Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen [he means Collins of NY and Hunter of CA] were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff ..."

He is angry because the Justice Department is not an arm of the Republican party — yet. The random use of punctuation and capitalization is annoying too.

[EddieRUKiddingVarese]

Moderator action: Sorry, I have deleted the flashing image which could triggor a fit.

Knight

Slight correction trigger

[SimonNZ]

Trump: DOJ Shouldn't Have Indicted Republicans So Close to an Election

Guilt or innocence apparently irrelevant.

[drogulus]

    I don't find it incongruous that a man with military values would lead a branch of the Resistance, or that he would be a foreign policy hawk. That's where I would expect to find an effective and inspiring leader, from among people with developed views. Well meaning as they are, Dem squishes are unable to articulate policy at the geostrategic level, they habitually "don't study war no more" to an alarming degree. I keep my expectations low for Dems.

[zamyrabyrd]

Slight correction trigger

Correction trigger a fit, instead, disgust.

[zamyrabyrd]

Yes, although some kind of cross-aisle politeness is fine. When I saw Bush pass a sweet to Michelle Obama and the mutual reactions, it did indeed look like the aristocrats' club all rather smugly colaborating to confound the peasants' revolt. I felt that the disappointed voters who had turned to Trump would see this gesture as symbolic and symptomatic of the elite club that it is. Democratic politics needs to find a new distinct and younger voice if the jaded sector of voters are to be inspired rather than to reluctantly return for more of the old model, which has not worked for them and won't work for them.
Mike

Ditto. The aristocratic club (AKA "swamp") comprises across the aisle members, exactly what McCain himself had been accused of.

[EddieRUKiddingVarese]

Correction trigger a fit, instead, disgust.

At least I go by the same name

[zamyrabyrd]

At least I go by the same name

Which is what?

[EddieRUKiddingVarese]

Eddie

[Karl Henning]

So you're in the space-time continuum!