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 ...
Middle Seaman says:
A strong connection exists between NGOs and the top echelons of the liberal belief. Elitism, arrogance, interest in "high" policy (NSA) and foreign affairs play a major roles. Otherwise put, disregard for blue color workers (workers period), dismissal of everyday problems, etc.
The Left is dead and is now called liberals or NGOs. RIP.
Andrew C says:
It depressed me how much of the focus of the whole shebang was on trying to undermine the conditions of the teachers. And Cory Booker is another corporatist black guy who started off doing community organisation but as moved as quickly as he could to smooching with Wall St.
He better get the long-form birth certificate ready now.
c u n d gulag says:
The "Privatization" of any government function, is an plan to move pubic tax dollars into the pockets and offshore accounts of the politicians wealthy cronies.
And the politicians then have a "feather bed" to land on, whenever they decide to quit politics, or the voters have had enough of their act.
We need to "Un-privatize," not "Privatize" more.
Benny Lava says:
I refuse to watch waiting for Superman because it is apparently just another op ed that what this country really needs is better teachers. Despite the fact that the most important factor in whether you child will go to college is – surprise – the parents. Instead we are creating this blame the teacher fallacy. From no child left behind, aka fire the teachers, to race to the top, aka fire the teachers. We created this culture where parents absolve themselves of all responsibility for their children's education. It is sad, really.
Tim H. says:
And let's not think too much about the time parents no longer have to spend with their children, their employers will be ashamed to show their selves at the country club without that next billion…
cat says:
Please send me an invite to the Revolution's Facebook group.
BigHank53 says:
If you need another reason to drink, look up a couple stories about the attempt by the Board of Visitors (the trustees) of the University of Virginia to force out the university president. The BoV though UVA should be following in the pioneering path blazed by the University of Phoenix…as long as their consultant friends stood to make millions off the deal, anyway. None of that in-house shit.
democommie says:
"A strong connection exists between NGOs and the top echelons of the liberal belief. Elitism, arrogance, interest in "high" policy (NSA) and foreign affairs play a major roles. Otherwise put, disregard for blue color workers (workers period), dismissal of everyday problems, etc."
You're full of shit, but other than that, spot on.
E* says:
@c u: I will gladly live in any country that collects pubic tax dollars.
Now that we've established my level of maturity, I want to point out that I am on the receiving end of the dollar transfer, as I work at a "non-profit" education consulting firm. Of course, by the time all of the various VPs (and we have A LOT of VPs) and managers skim the good bits off the top, there is hardly a trickle of those billions left for those of us actually doing the consulting work. It's quite the racket.
My job consists of going around and collecting "data" about how to improve various aspects of various education systems. My invariable conclusion is that whoever has hired us should stop paying ridiculous sums to us and funnel that money instead to the people doing the actual work (i.e., teachers). But I could never actually write that in a report, could I? Because it would never get past the various VPs and managers who read the reports before they go out to make sure we're staying on message…