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 ...
jenn says:
OMG I CLICKED THE MISSILE LAUNCHER AND IT TOOK ME TO HENTAI
Is "Mid-Range Ballistic Missile Launcher" some kind of euphemism?
erik says:
Come on people, all we need is another $35752.00 dollars to be bid on the "sexy pics" and we can promptly reinvest the money in a ginandtacos.com missle launcher….
"Mike" says:
Ok, I'm the "Mike" in the pictures, and for every $1 above $2 the auction goes for the winner gets an additional, customized picture. I'm serious. $5, you'll get the 25 pictures and 3 with me holding up a sign with a message with your name on it.
If you bid enough to beat that missle launcher, that means you'll get 35,747 pictures. I'll follow through with it.
jenn says:
Oh, oops! Scratch the last thing! I had the wrong idea from the Shy Kiss index.
Valerie says:
I see that you cancelled a $14,000.00 bid on the "sexy pics." What if this person REALLY wanted the 13,998 additional pics of "Mike"? Who are we to deny him that?
Besides, can't we sue if he fails to pay?
Lady wants a new pair of shoes!