That is what a Trump supporter said to me recently, and it got me thinking. Her point seemed to be that it’s too bad Trump can’t do what he promised because the media and the Washington establishment won’t let him succeed. The implication I took from this conversation is that she’s given up on him, but not blaming him. If he becomes seen as a martyred loser by his own supporters he’s done.
Meanwhile, a look back at how he got here: Fears of Cultural Displacement Pushed the White Working Class to Trump
Whenever talking to in-denial Trump supporters who live in yesteryear I often think of the irrelevant, impoverished and out-of-touch patriarch in Chekov’s “The Cherry Orchard” who defended his misplaced significance saying something like, “I’ll have you know we are mentioned in the encyclopedia.”
Or, as Oscar Wilde said, “I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.”
the trumpians’ motto:
cacas nos non olet
trump supporters are conduits for artificial stupidity, plain and simple, sprinkled with the sugar of revenge…putie’s mastery of American culture and his clever intelligence has set his bots and trolls upon the forgotten citizens. Who gives a rat’s behind about a billionaire perv? Phony empathy to cover the most ugly, racist, misogynist election in my history.
However, the fringe on the left, like sarandon? Just as stubborn and artificially stupid. Humans who pretend they can ‘read and see’ the future. It might be a ‘group dementia’ given the age of trump and third party candidate supporters. Or maybe the fringes are foils for each other while the middle suffers at their whims. PS susan, we are at war in several spots about the globe…plus escalating nuclear armaments and war with third rate countries. No danger in that?
patd…trump and his golden showers upon Americans. Tinkle down on the little guy.
kochs buy time.
The Meredith Corporation — the owner of Family Circle, Better Homes and Gardens and AllRecipes — agreed to purchase Time Inc. in an all-cash transaction valued at nearly $3 billion. The deal was made possible, in part, by an infusion of $650 million from the private equity arm of Charles G. and David H. Koch, the billionaire brothers known for using their wealth and political connections to advance conservative causes.
Holy Original Banana Republic. Honduras may elect tv personality with left/right coalition dissing America’s choice.
A left-right coalition led by a flamboyant TV host took a surprise lead in the Honduran presidential election, initial results showed on Monday, upsetting forecasts that the crime-fighting, U.S.-allied incumbent would comfortably win.
excerpt from
vanity fair:
Exclusive: What Trump Really Told Kislyak After Comey Was Canned
During a May 10 meeting in the Oval Office, the president betrayed his intelligence community by leaking the content of a classified, and highly sensitive, Israeli intelligence operation to two high-ranking Russian envoys, Sergey Kislyak and Sergey Lavrov.
[…]
On the cloudy spring morning of May 10, just an uneasy day after the president’s sudden firing of F.B.I. director James B. Comey, who had been leading the probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives, a beaming President Trump huddled in the Oval Office with Sergey Lavrov and Sergey Kislyak.
And, no less improbably, Trump seemed not to notice, or feel restrained by, the unfortunate timing of his conversation with Russian officials who were quite possibly co-conspirators in a plot to undermine the U.S. electoral process. Instead, full of a chummy candor, the president turned to his Russian guests and blithely acknowledged the elephant lurking in the room. “I just fired the head of the F.B.I.,” he said, according to a record of the meeting shared with The New York Times. “He was crazy, a real nut job.” With the sort of gruff pragmatism a Mafia don would use to justify the necessity of a hit, he further explained, “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.” Yet that was only the morning’s perplexing prelude. What had been an unseemly conversation between the president and two high-ranking Russian officials soon turned into something more dangerous.
“I get great intel,” the president suddenly boasted, as prideful as if he were bragging about the amenities at one of his company’s hotels. “I have people brief me on great intel every day.”
He quickly went on to share with representatives of a foreign adversary not only the broad outlines of the plot to turn laptop computers into airborne bombs but also at least one highly classified operational detail—the sort of sensitive, locked-in-the-vault intel that was not shared with even Congress or friendly governments. The president did not name the U.S. partner who had spearheaded the operation. (Journalists, immediately all over the astonishing story, would soon out Israel). But, more problematic, President Trump cavalierly identified the specific city in ISIS-held territory where the threat had been detected.
[….continues…]
Remember Clinton fatigue
So when are we going to start hearing Trump fatigue
Come on media, you are falling down on the job.
Jack
I learnt a long time ago to not talk politics to the type of person who would still be a Trump supporter today. Although… I have to say Craig… nice observation.
Methinks most of us that want Trump gone are just waiting with bated breath for Mueller’s next shoe to drop.
Heinlein quote specific to disillusioned Trump supporters:
I’m curious at what point GOP legislators will get fed up with the destruction, Trump appointments are wreaking on the government and injuring the American public.
There are times when I think some of these bastards won’t be happy until with have a Typhoid or Cholera epidemic in the US as long as it is in the “right neighborhoods”.
Welcome to the world of the Robber Barons.
For Thanksgiving we stayed at home just the 2 of us, 1 dog 2 cats and a parrot, all the family we needed. Did the turkey the weekend before so for thanksgiving we did a salmon with roasted root veggies, Brussel sprouts and a spinish salad with east Asian/Japanese inspired vinaigrette , toasted walnuts, pineapple, grapes and because it was TG cranberries with a local Missouri white wine.
Left over salmon is much better than turkey and we finished it up Saturday with salmon salad on a fresh bake whole wheat roll.
With all the good food Mrs Jack got nostalgic for 60’s style homemade greasy tacos. As we can’t eat a lb of greasy beef in one setting, it was tacos with refried beans Saturday and Taco salad Sunday. The refried beans were from a can and I cooked them a bit to remove some of the water and added some of the spicy beef fat from the taco meat. They reminded me of the bean dip we use to get at 7-11 after a case of the munchies.
Jack
We solve the problem of politics and family get togethers, during the election last year. My nephew who is in the navy was moving from San Diego to Norfolk on the drive across country he stopped by his folks for a week visit and everybody was invited for a backyard cook out on Saturday. I told them I would come but if anybody started talking politics, I was out of there. Evidently everybody else thought it was a good idea as politics never came up.
Jack
I’m about to join Donny in calling MSNBC and CNN “fake news”. Both are heavily into panels full of false equivalency. Al Franken is practically being drawn and quartered by the oh so noble Democrats about what if it were a Republican being accused.
Small reminder: Pinching rear ends unless you are Italian is verboten and should not ever be done. OTOH molesting Congressional pages is a whole different level of bad behavior.
RR, I continue talking to Trump supporters and studying polls of them simply because I want to understand how this happened, and how we prevent it from ever happening again.
….Trump, during an event at the White House honoring Navajo code talkers Monday…
“I just want to thank you because you are very, very special people. You were here long before any of us were here,” Trump said. “Although, we have a representative in Congress who has been here a long time … longer than you — they call her Pocahontas!”
at wh honor meet with Navaho code talkers, above photo referenced in code talk with stifled giggles about the missing orange scalp
Patd
Saw our President on tape with his “well it’s funny to me” joke about Pocahontas. The man is a hideous embarrassment to the office he holds. Anyone who continues to support him at this point becomes “birds of a feather” and guilty on all counts of ignorance and racism.
speaking of rear actions, a little anecdotal history
from mentalfloss: Why Do Athletes Slap Each Others’ Butts?
[a judge rejected a plea] after she took offense to Johnson playfully tapping his lawyer on the butt. ….
Light taps to the rear-end are pretty common on the football field, but maybe Johnson shouldn’t have tried it out in court. Why do athletes do that?
Unfortunately, the first athlete to playfully slap a teammate on the butt didn’t record his reasoning for history, but it’s become common practice among professionals and amateurs alike, and many have their own take on it. In 2007, Johns Hopkins News-Letter editor Mary Doman asked some of the school’s athletes about it and got a variety of responses about the “extra-low five.”
A freshman tennis player told her that the meaning of the butt slap is pretty open-ended depending on the context and relationship between slapper and slappee. “Well, a nice smack on the butt could mean anything,” he said. “It can just mean, ‘Nice job,’ or ‘You’ll get them next time,’ but it can also mean simply, ‘Hi, how you doin’?’, or ‘How’s that essay coming along?’, or, ‘Wow, your butt is pretty muscly today. You been working out?’”
A freshman lacrosse player explained that the butt slap was just a variation of the congratulatory shoulder or back slap, moved lower as a reflection of the intimacy between two players. “Two teammates who aren’t best buddies tend to slap each other on the shoulder or upper back,” he said. “Teammates who are pretty tight go for the mid to lower back. Teammates who see each other as brothers go for the real deal and slap each other’s asses.”
A freshman football player also thought that the gesture was congratulatory, and theorized that it suited the needs of players on the field. “High fives are becoming outdated. Handshakes work, but eye contact is made and it takes too much time,” the player told Doman. “A smack on the ass can be used any time.”
A freshman fencer mused that the butt slap was a little more complex, an expression of every man’s desire “to be a cowboy.”
Cowboys give their horses a slap on the behind to get them moving, so, the fencer thought, “likewise with sports, men need to commune and help motivate one another as a team. It’s standard practice and common courtesy to slap another man’s ass if you feel he is slacking.”
Whatever any one player’s reason for slapping someone else’s butt, the sporting world learned a valuable lesson this week about keeping it on the field and out of more formal settings. In some parts of the world, though, even a slap during a game is too risque. In 2011, two Iranian soccer players were suspended and received pay cuts for a butt slap during a match. The national football federation’s disciplinary committee called the gesture an “immoral offense.”
more on the subject
The Unspoken Rules of Butt Slapping in Sports
So let’s get this sorted out: Trump/GOP stands for middle class tax hikes, predatory lenders and pedophiles. Hello midterms.
considering the above on boys’ butt slaps and the uproar over al’s misplaced hands, perhaps what we have here is miscommunication due to the language barrier of malese and femalese.
similar problem in animal world:
a dog wags its tail when happy and wants to play but for a cat a tail wag means war.
after yahoo story Donald Trump’s White House ethics lawyer resigns, first commenter posted:
Kelly
6 hours ago
All together now, everyone; “THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAD AN ETHICS LAWYER?”
After a hard day of work I watched The Secret Lives of Pets. That is a good movie to forget your day.
SFB does it again. USAF 72-76, White and Native American (small percentage, but real). And transgender. I represent almost everything that little hands hates. If only I had an African ancestor I could be the ultimate example of a warrior that sad whimperer wishes he could be.
What we know about SFB is that he hates everything except rich white males. If he is showing the hate because he is secretly a gay, transgender woman, who wanted to be a killer Seal who would be black or bronze, he is doing good.
Trump wants to destroy Elizabeth Warren’s brainchild. In a new interview, Warren hits back.
Jamie, I disagree. Franken and Conyers should resign. Zero tolerance.
Franken “apology” utter crap. He’d be fired by a gas station for this behavior. He should quit the Senate.
“Zero tolerance.
Yeh that’s it, and let the most prudish neurotic set the standards.
Kinda weird how 70 year old fiction can explain today. Ya take elements of 1984 and mash them up with Arthur Millers “The Crucible” you get a good explanation of current events, especially when you realize that Miller’s piece was no more about witchcraft then todays drama is about sex.
Jack
Jack – I am working on how Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe fits what SFB is doing.
Zero tolerance of what…. having an affair even if both parties are consenting adults… lusting in one’s heart… telling a joke… or how about a little flirting. What about having sex outside of marriage. I’d bet not one person here could meet such prudish and exacting standards. IMO… this thing is morphing into absurdity.
If the individual is accused of a crime, let the designated authorities investigate and take further action as the facts warrant. Release dispassionate information to the Press as is normal for unsubstantiated information. If no prosecutable offense occurred, close the case. Notify Press as is normal.
If the individual is not accused of a crime, or if the appropriate statute of limitations has expired, let the appropriate election law prevail.
If the individual is accused of being a cad, let the Tuesday Polls prevail.
Today has been a day of earworms for me: a throwaway comment has Elton John or the Beatles singing lustily on the soundtrack in my head. This thread brought on another.
. . .don’t gimme no lines and keep your hands to yourself. . .
Btw, I spent eighteen days scanning turkeys the size of Ice Age megafauna before Thanksgiving and four hours the day itself scanning entire meals.prepared for those who leave their planning to our deli. . .hope my elbow heals up before I start slinging Christmas hams.
The national ~news~ finds time to cover what the Queen’s corgies thought of the “American princess.” Mmmmaybe cover our service men and women in harm’s way & leave the fluff to the entertainment shows.
Sorry Craig
I believe in forgiving sins as long as no permanent damage done. None of the claims against Franken involve minors, are said to have impacted the women involved in their careers or personal relationships, cheating on his spouse, or sought more intimate attentions. If we throw out everyone in sports, business, or politics according to such stringent demands, there would be nothing but women working anywhere.
Are all you guys angling for early retirement?
If every Congressman comes under fire for behavior unbefitting anyone above the sixth grade, and is then expected to leave office, will there be anyone left by year’s end?
Craig, We keep “it” from happening, again, by having viable alternatives to run against the gross GoOPerz (or GoOP-perves)…and the horizon looks barren.
Dems still don’t understand/care about Americans who feel they are losing ground. They don’t seem to pay any more attention to active -duty military or veterans than the lame-ass media.
So if it’s a Democrat it’s OK? C’mon folks, dehumanizing women is what it is.
Trump’s accusers go away if Democrats give their own a pass. Franken and Conyers not worth saving.
lol
Craig that is a good one, they go away, really?.
Sigh, how long have you lived in DC ? It never goes away. you give ground and you lose ground. Then they see how much they can push you the next time.
Jack
Flatus,
That sounds like due process, Can’t be having that, string them up by their thumbs till they confess.
Jack
Are we getting to where all offenses are equal? That we give the death penalty to murders and jay walkers alike?
Jack, you think groping women is jay walking?
Fine, if Democrats want to pretend Franken and Conyers did nothing wrong then Moore and Trump accusers can also be dismissed.
What groping?
And since everybody objects to hanging jaywalkers then we obviously have to let the murders go free.
Oh the logic.
Jack
If you are going to compare Moore to someone compare oranges to oranges. Moore = Wiener and Dems had no problem dumping a real creep in their midst.
Jack
Welcome to America 2017: we debate the degrees of creepiness in our Politicians. Who is good? Who is bad? Is the glass half empty or half full? Were his pants half way up or were they half way down? Is a hand on the butt = two paws on the titties? One thing for sure, a woman gets debased in value somehow, somewhere, by a Republican, by a Democrat. Bipartisanship!
If the #45 Presidency yields anything worthwhile, it verifies hypocrisy exists everywhere.
Drain the swamp? Yeah. Rah.
You first.
No, You.
Mr Olbermann has ended The Resistance GQ videos. Kudos to him for speaking out while others stayed silent.
He did the Commentaries for free, just requesting that GQ make donations to various charities he supports.
Thank You, Sir. Good citizen, friend of democracy.
you don’t have to compare Franken and Conyers to Moore to find their behavior reprehensible.
Yes there are degrees of creepiness and there is also degrees of inappropriate noncreepiness. Where Franken and Conyers rest on that scale has yet to be determined but so far there is certainly less proof than with either Moore or Wiener. and less accusation than Trump
But never mind, just string them up by their thumbs until they confess.
Jack
How so Craig?
Why would anyone speak in support of the men who used/exploited women as sexual objects, whether the act was full fledged or implied intent? A victim is a victim; the perpetrator’s Party affiliation gives no cover or pass. The women should be top priority, transcending any politician’s career.
This should be about the women who were used, humiliated, made to feel less than, made to feel inferior. They should be the focus.
In the event that Franken left the Senate, the 3 most likely ripper candidates to replace him would be Reps emmer and lewis, and michele bachmann. Could happen. Anyone here think any of those creeps would be good for women ?
It will be better to accept his tearful mea maxima culpa and let him continue to serve until another, more Wellstone-ish, candidate can be found to replace him.