The photos of the "crowds" at the tank parade remind me of when Bill Hicks would come on stage in an almost-empty club, scan the room slowly, and announce "I've had more people in bed than this" ...
When the president sends a cabinet member on TV to announce "We are using the military to liberate an American city from its elected leaders," where do you go from there. What is left to say. The idea of that being anything short of a near-universal "Wait, what the fuck is going on" moment proves how far we've backslid.
This is from 2022 but it was absolutely right. The practiced buffoonery of Trump 1, all the "just kiddings" and "seriously but not literallys" absolutely succeeded in desensitizing people who are hardly paying any attention to the harder stuff they always intended to do next. ...
The basic fallacy in chasing votes by being "tough on immigration" is that the modal American's position on the issue is "Deport the Bad ones and keep the Good ones," and they alone know who is which, and that simply does not translate into workable policy. So this kind of gestapo stuff horrifies some of the same people who cheered when Trump promised to do it. There are true sociopaths who love this, but "No, I meant only the BAD immigrants! Not my coworker/friend/neighbor!" is as likely a reaction as enthusiasm. You cannot do immigration policy that satisfies these people because what they want is nonsensical.
So by the time center-left parties fully commit to chasing the far right by "getting tough" on immigration, the backlash has already begun to build and they walk right into it. "I thought you people wanted this!" No, they want something impossible and convinced themselves they'd could have it - the "eat whatever you want AND lose weight!" of immigration policies.
It is hard to grasp but large masses of Americans are both racist/xenophobic AND not racist/xenophobic enough to applaud what Trump is doing. It's goldilocks shit, they want a level of racism/xenophobia calibrated exactly to their personal preferences, and you just can't make that policy. Don't try. ...
AP: Trump extends olive branch, invites Musk to White House cellar to taste some brand new amontillado ...
Dave. says:
Let's just hope no-one's left braindead in these shootings. Sorry, that's bad taste. Where I say 'Braindead', I actually mean 'unable to function on any fundamental level necessary to qualify as a human life, but otherwise enjoying the standard of living of any middle-class American.'
Sorry. Glad I cleared that up.
J. Dryden says:
The problem here is that the morons responsible for putting the gun in the kid's hand are themselves dead, and thus not around to be made a suitable example of. (Though winding up dead is quite the cautionary tale, it doesn't have the sting of facing a good, vigorous prosecution with accompanying pillorying in the court of public opinion.) Seems to me that the solution to this problem is just to pass a law saying that if a minor under your care gets hold of your gun(s) and pulls a Dodge City, you get to face the music to the tune of "full-blown accomplice." Might keep a few more trigger-locks in place, a few more gun cabinets closed with something more than a non-jigger-proof latch. But such a law will never pass, because it would be asking voters to take MORE responsibility for their actions, which they (we) will never do.
Dave. says:
I'm sure if you look hard enough you'll find the actual problem here is rock music and videogames.
James says:
I would agree w/ having the adult gun owner charged as an accomplice. There is no excuse for not having guns locked up. I am a gun owner but they're all inside my safe, no way in hell a kid would be able to get at that.
Matt says:
(generic Breast Augmentation? I want specific Breast Augmentation!)
What ever happened to pissed off ex-employees returning to Post Offices and going on shooting sprees, there? They started this whole trend, but they've been slacking. I seriously think we need to consider redifining the term 'going postal.'
Ambrosini says:
I would like to point out a similar issue just happening in California. The Governator signed a bill to make buying .50 caliber guns/ammo illegal. The NRA followed this up by annoucing that they are supporting a new caliber standard, .499, called the Girlie Man.
To funny.