Although it seems like six months have passed, it is barely a week since Trump gave his live address from the Oval Office on immigration.
You've already forgotten it, no doubt. And that's not your fault. It was incredibly forgettable.
Pre-address speculation swirled around Trump making some kind of bold power move like declaring a "national emergency" to build his monument to racism and vanity.
What we got instead was one of the rare occasions on which Sedated Trump shows up. Once in a great while, for reasons that only he could guess at, Trump just reads the teleprompter. He doesn't act normal per se, but he doesn't act like he acts at his rallies, for example.
And when you take Donald Trump and filter out the off-cuff insanity, when the people in the White House somehow prevail upon him to just read the goddamn speech and not go off half-cocked, you get a pretty boring result. The speech was boring. Stupid. Just a rehash of 2018 midterm election scare tactic talking points. Ooh, scary immigrants. Coming to commit crimes. Big danger. Crisis. Only a big wall can stop them.
I realized by the end of the extremely brief, extremely uninteresting address that I have grown used to the spectacle of Trump.
I have grown to expect the Crazy Antics, and I do not think I am alone in that regard. When the Antics disappear and he reads straight off the prompter while looking directly and awkwardly into the camera, Donald Trump is not worth watching. He's not smart. He's not eloquent. He's not interesting. And he's so boring that I found myself in the same frame of mind I am in when I'm forced to watch NASCAR; "This is boring. Somebody crash already. Why aren't they crashing. C'mon."
That's scary. Perhaps it's just me, but to some extent I think we all (and certainly the media) have gotten hooked on the high of this guy doing crazy, random shit.
When we go back, god willing, to having a normal person as president in the future, there is going to be one hell of an adjustment period. Do you even remember what it was like to have a news cycle that didn't involve Donald Trump every minute of the day?
To live in a world where there isn't a new crisis in the White House every 12 hours? I'll never say I'm going to miss it, because every aspect of this has been terrible. Let me simply say that when it's finally gone, the difference will be noticeable.
The awful speech was a useful reminder of what presidential addresses used to be like – dull. Some day things may be dull again. These days, however, it's hard to remember a time when they ever were.
democommie says:
This:
Trumpligulamygdala is the embodiment of "The banality of evil"–especially if you swap out "banality" for "derp".
wetcasements says:
Trump is a feature, not a bug.
The GOP is all about telling us how government can never work.
Trump proves them right, forever.
democommie says:
OT, but maybe not.
It just occurred to me that Le roi orange pleurant shut down the national parks for funding while having them remain open makes his gunzloonz, gummint hatin' base happy.
But, more importantly–he finally gets to say, "Fuck YOU" to the people who dissed his YUUUUUUUUUGE crowd numbers at the Inaugflagration.
Butch says:
For what it's worth, even people who like NASCAR watch it mostly for the crashes.
Safety Man! says:
Out here in the hinterlands, the Trump supporters are increasingly talking about a Night of the Long Knives strategy now that the writing is on the wall for their Dear Leader. JW Rawles, etc.
Don’t worry Ed, things aren’t going to be normal for a long, long time.
Dave Dell says:
Safety Man! – Who are the SA in this Long Knives scenario?
Safety Man! says:
Dave if you read the blogs, they’re (the Republicans) the ones talking about breaking into homes and executing people in the midddle of the night. Rawles himself made a comment a few days ago about guns “voting” from rooftops. In other news, people with ties to neo-nazis talk and act like nazis. I’ll give you a moment to clutch your pearls.
Major Kong says:
They might just find that a lot of us liberals aren't as anti-gun as they think we are. Also a lot more of us have served in the military than they might think.
To quote Matthew Quigley: "I said I had no use for them. I never said I didn't know how to use one."
Safety Man! says:
So as not to troll, these are some of the articles I referenced, below.
https://survivalblog.com/legislative-onslaught-begins-federal-gun-grabbing-2019/
Brace yourself and read the comments. Also of note is:
https://survivalblog.com/coming-second-civil-war/
My apologies for hijacking the comments today.
@ Major Kong- Agreed
Safety Man! says:
My apologies everyone; I tried to link the specific articles I mentioned, but it doesnt look like it posted. If you don’t want to take my word on it you can find them at Survival Blog.
@Major Kong – Agreed
Dave Dell says:
Safety Man! – Not a lot of pearl clutching around here. Just don't think the "Long Knives" scenario is a good analogy to what the alt's and related types have in mind. It's been a while since I've read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich but my understanding of the Night of the Long Knives purge was more of an internal Nazi power consolidation/purge of potential internal competition – albeit with some spillover to other targets. Does Rawles actually use that term? If so, do you think he is aware of the historical context or do you think he thinks it just sounds cooly intimidating?
Major Kong – I do have a wish for the grenade launcher I had in the bunker on the base perimeter at Chu Lai. I remember thinking the shotgun round would work as an "alley cleaner". Lacking one of those I'll just hang on to the various rifles and shotguns I've acquired/inherited over the years. (I wouldn't mind having a few of those little pop-up flares as well).
Safety Man! says:
@ Dave
Rawles recently wrote an alt-right obligatory article about a second civil war, a few days back he made a comment about guns “voting” from rooftops.
I haven’t seen the specific phrase used, but one commenter said specifically that it was almost time to drive around and start putting bullets in necks.
I may have oversimplified, I more or less equivocated the Night of Long Knives as sectarian violence/ coup, which is what I think they’re alluding to.
Lastly, I apologize, I confused you with carrstone for a second when I wrote the reply.
satrap says:
Hey, man. NOLA calms down a bit after Mardi Gras, and every small town goes back to normal after the carnival leaves. No matter how loud the barker. I hope the nation as a whole is so lucky.
defineandredefine says:
@ Safety Man! – Good thing the feds decided to focus their counter-terrorism efforts almost exclusively against Muslims and minorities – https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/countering-violent-extremism-trump-era
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/trump-shut-countering-violent-extremism-program/574237/
@ Major Kong – As a relatively left leaning and peaceful person, I sure am glad that Mormon classmate from pharmacy school taught me my way around pistols and rifles, including how to shoot them.
defineandredefine says:
@ Safety Man! – Good thing the feds decided to focus their counter-terrorism efforts almost exclusively against Muslims and minorities – https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/countering-violent-extremism-trump-era
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/trump-shut-countering-violent-extremism-program/574237/
@ Major Kong – As a relatively left leaning and peaceful person, I sure am glad that Mormon classmate from pharmacy school taught me my way around pistols and rifles, including how to shoot them.
democommie says:
@ Major Kong:
I'm going out on a limb, here, but I think it's like this:
If you NEED a gun because your argument is not persuasive, you'd better be prepared to kill AND die for your beliefs. People without real combat skills will find out fairly quickly how useless their AR & M series variants are, against trained troops with vastly superior firepower.
Yeah, they'll own the night, until their villages are razed to save them.
Major Kong says:
Most of these people think they'll get mugged the moment the cross the city limits.
I live in Columbus f*cking Ohio and my rural in-laws think I live in "Taxi Driver" or "The Warriors".
I'm not going to lose too much sleep over this.
defineandredefine says:
@ Safety Man! – Good thing the trump administration shifted counter-terrorism efforts away from white nationalists/supremacists and towards Muslims/minorities (and gutting funding and staff for good measure.)
@ Major Kong – as a left leaning and relatively peaceful person, these days I'm pretty damn glad that my Mormon classmate from pharmacy school taught me my way around pistols and rifles, including how to fire the damn things.
democommie says:
The people that fantasize about having their way in the U.S., 'cuz they haz teh gunz are fucking idiots.
Even the guys with Barretts and, dare I say it, the odd .50 BMG as part of their "In-home Armory" aren't typically going to have THOUSANDS to MILLIONS of fucking rounds to last through a serious uprising. Add to that, no genuine supply chain for spares or routine maintenance items* and the fact that beleagured military units will simply call in the Death from Above guys and KILL everything in front of them.
@ Dave Dell:
One of my HS classmates (died too early from drugs and demons) was in Vietnam from 1970 to 1971 and was the "Thumper*" guy in his squad. He said that they got the "Cong on the wire" call one night and he fired a fuckton of rounds out into the night. Next morning, no dead VC but a pissed off farmer whose water buffalo had been blowed up.
@ Safety Man!:
"Lastly, I apologize, I confused you with c———- for a second when I wrote the reply."
Do NOT utter that name two more times, at least in this thread. You don't want to see what will happen.
* Re-barrelling a .50 BMG has to be done from time to time, anyway, and during heavy use, it might have to be swapped out on the fly–not an easy job for a person who hasn't been trained to do so–wear gloves, honey–and make sure that you have some aloe vera burn salve, handy.
** M-79 40mm grenade launcher–less lethal, much less bulky than an RPG.
Matt says:
"Let me simply say that when it's finally gone, the difference will be noticeable."
Once he's out of office, the Fedayeen Trump will ramp up their campaign of domestic terror.
Major Kong says:
@demo
You are correct.
"Armchair generals talk tactics. Real generals talk logistics."
democommie says:
An army runs on supply chains, even its tanks!
The "Battle of the Bulge" was doomed as soon as German armor (and the vast train of gear and personnel that they require) was running on fumes.
defineandredefine says:
I apologize for posting the same comment thrice, folks…
John Danley says:
Unrelenting crisis. The burnt-orange commandant has been allowed to let his Cluster B freak flag fly with impunity. Dramatic, erratic, and emotionally volatile.
John Danley says:
… so, whenever we get the Captain Klonopin version of Trump, we're staring into the face of his core vapidity. The authentic emptiness of the emperor has been unearthed. He has no identity without chaos.
Townsend Harris says:
A couple of social media acquaintances keep calling for someone to kill Nancy Pelosi and, before her, Hillary Clinton. Would a Venn diagram make clear they're a perfect subset of the my-guns-will-fight-off-the-gubbermint crowd?
The easiest way to reduce their numbers plays to their paranoia about home invasions, encouraging them to unlock the gun cabinets, remove the safeties, and keep a round chambered at all times. The problem with playing to their paranoia is the jackasses will kill children who didn't ask to be born into daddy's paranoia.
Patrick Linnen says:
Safety Man! – what was being described was Kristallnacht, where the SA and civilians carried out a pogrom against German Jews. The SA were purged later on
Jerry Shepherd says:
Don't get me wrong, I definitely do not like this 45thoccupantofthewhitehouse, but going back to Harry S. Truman; Truman was a flat an boring speaker when speaking from a written text. However, when speaking off the cuff and campaigning he was more remarkable, eliciting exuberantes from the audience like, "Give'em Hell, Harry," and, "Go get'em, Harry!"
democommie says:
@ Jerry Shepherd:
But Harry actually knew what he was talking about and meant what he said–well, at least some of the time.