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 ...
Nick says:
Honestly, I think if you're at the point where you can basically break a world record just for shits, you might as well go ahead and make some money off it.
BK says:
I like the black helicopters as much as the next guy, so I'll throw my own theory in here…
Bolt – like a whole lot of sprinters – was on some sort of performance enchancing substance when he ran the race. I think he didn't run all out because blowing out the WR in the olympics by as much as he would have had he run the whole race would have raised more red flags than the Chinese government…
Then again, I they are all tested and specimens kept so as to be able to take away medals later on…
David says:
1) Sergei Bubke effectively did that in the pole vault.
2) But, then, you can *choose* by how much you want to win the pole vault. Anyone who's participated in track knows there's no way to "hold back" so precisely. He's lucky he still won.
3) Yes, yes, of *course* all of the track athletes are on performance enhancing drugs. [Again, look at the shoulder/arm muscles and neck hypertrophy on the sprinters. Now, compare that to, you know, athletes that are fundamentally *using* their arms/shoulders. Isn't it peculiar that his biceps are as big as some of the gymnasts, and bigger than most swimmers?]
My out-there theory is that we may have finally gotten a few "genetic-doping" competitors this year. So they'll never be caught…instead of finding evidence of foreign substances, they'll just find a physioligical "freak".