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 ...
Liz says:
I suggest that you watch Walk the Line and Garden State in a double feature. I'm curious as to which you would hate more.
beau says:
cmon, battlefield earth? twice? you gotta be kidding. no one can take that kind of punishment.
gp says:
Graduates of the Patrick Swayze College of Dramatic Arts.
Samantha says:
Hopefully your beef is just with the movie and the actors and NOT with The Man in Black himself. We'd have to have words.
J. Dryden says:
I can only assume from the silence that has ensued since this last post that the producers of this film sought out and exterminated the entire Gin & Tacos talent pool for pointing out such infinitely preferable alternatives to their piece of cinematic corpse-rapery. (Given the box office returns of the film, the advice of G&T appears to have been followed by America.) Either that or, to prove his point, Ed actually went and *did* one of the above rather than see the film. Please God, say it was the cheese grater–say it wasn't seeing Battlefield Earth twice. I just…I couldn't face the idea of that happening to another human being.