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 ...
BK says:
Squating IS where it's at…
In all seriousness, however, you'd need to be a PhD or an attorney to understand what even a fraction of the documents mean at a typical real estate closing. My hunch is the people most negatively impacted by the subprime lending debachle aren't either.
In some way, everyone is going to be impacted by lenders putting out billions of dollars in loans to people they knew couldn't possibly pay them back. The investers and responsible borrowers will take it in the pants becuase of greedy capitalists who got commissions on the number of new loans they closed.
I agree there has to be personal responsibility on behalf of the borrower – but what about the responsibility on behalf of the lender?
warmbowski says:
Agreed BK, personal responsibility all around.
But now it seems that the precedent has been set by the bail out of Bear Sterns investment bank. Those bootstrap Republicans have just used $30 million of our tax money to back it up, and now the new owners of the bank are in "horrible predicament" of either earning more money for themselves, or losing tax payer money. Boy if the gub'ment could put us all in that position. So now, in the interest of fairness, I can't blame the borrowers or lenders for asking for help, and I can't complain if they get it.
Where's Neil Bush when you need him.