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 ...
Mike Q says:
If the pound is a secret terrorist handshake, than I wonder what the hell this means:
http://tinyurl.com/5ul9jw
I can't help but look at Fox in the same way I see Cartoon Network. I never watch either (mainly because I don't have TV and, if I did, wouldn't watch it anyway). But at the off chance I pass one of these networks I either shake my head at how mind numbing it is or laugh hysterically at the pure stupidity of what I am seeing.
BK says:
Good post Ed… I noticed on msn.com yesterday that one of the most popular searches on the internets yesterday was something along the lines of "Obama fistbump."
While fox news is certainly worthy of most every criticism raised, at some level it's a sad commentary on the American public that this station ever had a hay-day. It's never been news, and yet it was the primary source of information for a considerable amount of people.
Pick on Fox, but let's not leave several million Americans off the hook for this one too…
Samantha says:
I think you're right about Hill parodying her own network. The look on her face as she said it, the fact that she never explained herself, and the sheer absurdity of the topic itself make me think that must have been what was going on. God help us if not.