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 ...
j says:
Well, as for me, I'd still have a PC if Vista weren't garbage.
Jeremy says:
Only Ed Begley Jr's car is powered by its user’s smugness and sense of self-satisfaction.
Misterben says:
If there was a way to convert into electricity my joy at finally owning a computer that works, not only could I power my MacBook, I could become some sort of electricity-based superhero. Arclight, maybe. Or Surge. And then I could team up with a water-based superhero, and we could call ourselves Public Utility!
(Or rather, we could call ourselves that if America had kept any of its utilities public, instead of privatizing them so that spectacularly bad management could drive them into the ground during the '90s.)
Hey Ed! There's a column idea for you. What Happened to American Management? Decades ago we were the world leaders in training public and private sector managers; now our corporations are a stumbling joke and our government's most recent success is, oh, let's see, can't remember. Why did America stop taking management seriously, and how can we start again?
Kulkuri says:
That last line and Jeremy's comment are very good and right on.