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 ...
Eric says:
is this before or after he was crying?
Sarah says:
I spend a lot of time watching the History Channel, so I've seen that many times, natch. But in line with your previous post, it just occurred to me that there may be a lot of adolescents and young adults who would look at that image and wonder who these people are and what they are doing. (The latest Twilight novel-turned-movie is on track to make $140 million in its opening weekend. Pray–or weep–for humanity.)
johnnyboy says:
Found it interesting that they didn't actually "officially" pronounce him dead for quite some time. And J. Edgar's phone call to Robert was rather crass: "He's dead" and then hangs up? WTF? Some interesting parallels in today's climate re: the treatment of the POTUS by the folks that don't want him in office. Respect and decency, anyone?
greatestwirefan says:
Thank you. Not many tributes today.
Ed says:
He was not declared dead because A) they wanted to ensure that they had someone available to administer the oath to LBJ and B) they wanted to keep up the pretense that he was alive so he could be administered the Catholic sacrament of Extreme Unction before he died. That's pretty important to Catholics.
Technically they still had a pulse and heartbeat when he arrived at the hospital, although the priest they found to give him his Rites claims that the body had a sheet pulled over his face when he arrived.
jazzbumpa says:
Ed –
This is actually the only thing I've seen on the web today relating to Kennedy's assassination.
Thank you.
JzB the somber trombonist