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 ...
HoosierPoli says:
Stand-up comedy and teaching are actually very similar disciplines. In fact, in Germany they have a long tradition of what is called Kabarett, which is stand-up infused with incisive political satire that informs and entertains.
If you have 50 minutes, you owe it to yourself to watch Herr Pispers tear shit up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4H_E8b-qmo
Matthew says:
When are we going to get some video of your stand-up, you jerk?
Mark says:
Volker Pispers is pretty unpopular here in conservative Bavaria – mainly because Germany's North-South dynamic is similar to the U.S.'s. But Bavaria is the Texas of Germany, just with better schools, economy, and standard of living. Of course, Bavarian conservatism would still be pretty far left of the Democrats in the U.S.
That being said, Pispers has a pretty commanding knowledge of history and I agree with him on much of what he says in that program from 2004.
Peggy says:
I'm with Matthew on this one.
Also, not to be creepy, but I dreamed last night that you and I were playing in a rock band together. You were mad at me because I had no idea wtf I was doing (apparently I was trying to string a guitar upside-down). You yelled at me a lot.
It felt like old times. :)
Hazy Davy says:
Tell me where you do go and I´ll meet you there.
Da Moose says:
Nice. Keep it up. You'll find your stand-up to be much more enlightening for your audience than any bully pulpit you might own on the professor circuit and a whole lot more financially rewarding potentially. Academia is for egotists and people who want to sleep with undergrads….hold on, maybe academia is for me after all.
BTW, I have a suggestion for some material for you. I am currently in this running argument with this buffoon who goes on and on about how we need to strictly adhere to the Constitution and that the government should only exist to secure our liberty. My response is: so according to your thinking on this, we need the government for two things, to secure our liberty and to secure our mail delivery? That's not that funny but you could extrapolate for hours on stage just on the notion of what exactly liberty means to certain people. For instance, the definition of liberty to me is allowing me to work naked in my cube and to randomly accuse my boss, during meetings he chairs, of barbaric acts of cruelty and infidelity. That would be true freedom to me. Should I try to lobby my senator to make this happen? And, if such legislative enactment can't come to pass, is this an infringement upon my liberty? Discuss.
leon says:
Nice to be on the west coast, where noon for you is still morning for me!
Shane says:
Did you open with an earthquake joke? I would have gone with a "well if anyone is equipped to handle a nuclear emergency" type joke!