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:
mike says:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0405061duke5.html
I think I can speak for many people who have been to a strip club when I say that if your first instinct, two hour after seeing a stripper, is to find strippers and kill them (read the email at the link – I love the media's careful wording of "and find the situation sexually gratifying"), you are probably a violent sociopath and/or rapist.
Not beyond a reasonable doubt of course, but certainly more likely than not.
mike says:
btw – it took me 3 reads to figure out if that "It looks like the team was the victim here" link was a joke or ironic. I still (want to) believe that it is.
Mike says:
It's PowerLine blog, they're dead serious. I think the writers of PowerLine should get together with the membership base of Little Green Footballs and have a competition to see who's more racist. My money would go to the fascists over at LGF, who probably have a photo of Dale Earnhardt superimposed against the World Trade Center with a crying eagle somewhere.
Do note that all of the writers from PowerLine are white upper-class lawyers, as if they gave a flying fuck if some dumb negro (who strips nonetheless) got pounded by our future business leaders of America.
Kendra says:
Thank God I am a dirty liberal negro lesbian! I mean really….
paul says:
some of your crticisms of MSM are dead on, but your biggest issue is with a blog, which ain't MSM
Peggy says:
I actually think that my favorite line from that blog entry was "With better adult supervision, the latest drama perhaps could have been avoided."
Uh, forgive me if I'm wrong, but… aren't the players all (technically) adults? If so… explain to me why they should need "adult supervision" to keep them from beating up gay men, getting arrested, and gang-raping strippers/exotic dancers/anyone?
Samantha says:
1. The media usually refer to this woman as the 'accuser' and usually also add that she is a mother of two. They could also refer to her as someone who tried to rundown a police officer in a stolen car.
2. If you read the reports about this case you will discover that the accuser did not call the police – a Kroger employee called the police BECAUSE the accuser was intoxicated and would not get out of a car in the parking lot.
3. There is nothing about lacrosse that makes it inherently LESS accessible to people who are not 'bratty trust-fund fratboys.' Saying things like that propogates and gives life to an unfortunate stereotype.
4. Why don't you examine Nifong's methodology and adherence to police procedure before insinuating that he is NOT leading this witch-hunt for personal political gain.
5. You are trying to make this about white 'upperclass' people being racist/classist but YOU are guilty of doing that!!
6. The person Colin Finnerty 'beat up' is NOT gay and despite people such as yourself trying to make this seem like it was some sort of a hate crime, it wasn't
Before pointing fingers at everyone else, why don't you take a close look at yourself. It IS possible to be a reverse racist/classist as you have shown in your comments.