Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
Billy_TParticipantOh, and this is pretty obvious. The core of Trump’s support, solidly middle class, white Christian males, have the least to complain about in America, relative to any other “groups.” No other group in this country has it so good. They’re the last people who should be as angry as they are, and it’s not at all close.
And the main reason they’re so filled with hate? They’re losing their foothold of dominance in society, and they hate that. They hate that they have to share the country with the various Others.
Trump appeals to their sense of absurdist, ridiculous, irrational grievance, fears and hatred of the Others. He couldn’t have won the nomination without that classic fascist trope.
Billy_TParticipantA thot-experiment — If Trump had won, would those angry-white-males
still like him two years into his term, when their
lives stayed the same or got worse ?Anyway, with President-Hillary as President it gives them
something to live for — smoldering hate.
(and i will be right there with them 🙂w
vThey’d turn on him soon enough, if they were presented with another messiah. And that’s all Trump is. A temporary messiah. Perhaps the best used-car salesman as messiah in American political history. But temporary all the same. So, if he does win the presidency, and the inevitable happens — he gets nothing done — yes, they’ll turn on him. But not until much later in the day, as was the case with Bush. Bush was beloved by righties very nearly to the end, and anyone who spoke against him was considered a traitor and anti-American and bashed mercilessly.
Now? Because of the Trump effect as new messiah and chief Goebbels Big-Lie artist, we see the Republican faithful saying they were against the Iraq invasion all along, against “free trade,” “globalization” and all the bedrock Republican third rails. Trump even has them changing their minds on Putin:
Will Jordan @williamjordann
PUTIN Net-Favorability (YouGov/Economist Poll) among…
Democrats
July 2014: -54
Aug 2016: -54Republicans
July 2014: -66
Aug 2016: -27
8:57 AM – 9 Sep 2016748 748 Retweets
574Trump has proven something most here already knew: Politics is nothing but sales. The folks with the best sales team win.
September 3, 2016 at 12:24 pm in reply to: informal poll: Goff not starting, being #3 – disaster? not concerned? #52137Billy_TParticipantZooey,
That’s an interesting take. Especially on his age. I know you don’t mean his actual age, but his maturity, etc. etc. But he’s also pretty young for a rookie QB. He turns 22 next month. Most rookie QBs are 23 or 24. In effect, he’s still a Junior or Senior in college.
That youth can be a plus, of course. It means he’s likely gotta coupla extra years of peak physicality for the Rams on the back end of things. But on the front end, it may mean he’s less ready than an older QB. Perhaps.
For most positions on the field, I strongly prefer drafting the younger guys, the players who come out at 21 or 22. Gurley, for example, was only 21 as a rook. That’s generally big plus for me. If the Rams can keep him, you can basically add on three seasons of peak performance, compared to a large number of other draftees.
Anyway . . . . maturity. He does seem like a pup so far. Nice guy, if Hard Knocks is any kind of indication. But a pup.
Billy_TParticipantRecently watched a so so movie, In the Heart of the Sea, and it spurred a lot of thoughts. From wiki:
In the Heart of the Sea is a 2015 historical drama film based on Nathaniel Philbrick’s 2000 non-fiction book of the same name, about the sinking of the American whaling ship Essex in 1820, an event that inspired the novel Moby-Dick. An international co-production between the United States and Spain, it was directed and produced by Ron Howard and written by Charles Leavitt; the film stars Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Tom Holland, Ben Whishaw, and Brendan Gleeson . . . [3]
Anyway, it was one of those “duh” things for me. They hunted the whales almost to extinction for oil. We used to slaughter these beautiful, incredibly intelligent animals for oil.
(Now we slaughter our fellow humans for it. But that’s another story, one not taken up by Melville — but hinted at toward the very end of the film.)
It’s a good thing we humans also make art, or we’d forget about the beauty that was once on this earth, or all too rare, because of what we do when we’re not making art.
I read the book “Heart of the Sea” and really liked it. I don’t know anything about the movie but the book wasn’t a dramatic effort. It was simply a description of the events that occurred based on the accounts of the survivors and what was known about that time period.
This part of the linked paper bothered me…
“Slijper (1962) reported succorant behavior when a humpback whale supported an injured humpback for 40 min before being harpooned by whalers.”
It bothered me mostly because of what happened…a whale was harpooned while trying to help another previously injured whale (probably also harpooned). I picture a grieving, frightened animal, frantically trying to help a pod member (probably a sibling, parent, etc) only to receive a horrible and painful death for its efforts.
But what also is unsettling is the detached, clinical way in which it is written. Of course, it’s a scientific paper. To word it any other way would be inappropriate, but still…reading that after looking at pictures of a dolphin and whale playing was a little unsettling.
That is pretty awful. I’ve read that whales are quite likely smarter than we are. So we can’t make the excuse that we were just killing “dumb” animals without any feelings. They may surpass us in those areas.
Thanks for the picture, Nittany. It’s beautiful to see and think about.
September 3, 2016 at 10:35 am in reply to: informal poll: Goff not starting, being #3 – disaster? not concerned? #52115Billy_TParticipantI wouldn’t call it a disaster, exactly, but I do think it’s another mark against the trade. I thought it was dumb when they did it — actually, before that. When I heard they might do it. And nothing this off-season has made me feel any better about it.
Whether or not Goff’s lack of progress is due to all those other factors . . . . coaching, staff, his own will to win . . . I have no real clue, though I don’t think Fisher is a good coach overall, and I don’t think he’s especially given to “developing QBs” well.
Anyway, I wish they had gone a different route back in April. Kept their picks. Gone for someone like Hackenburg in the 2nd. I just don’t think they have enough talent yet to trade all of those picks away for one player.
Hope I’m wrong. But that’s my view.
Billy_TParticipantRecently watched a so so movie, In the Heart of the Sea, and it spurred a lot of thoughts. From wiki:
In the Heart of the Sea is a 2015 historical drama film based on Nathaniel Philbrick’s 2000 non-fiction book of the same name, about the sinking of the American whaling ship Essex in 1820, an event that inspired the novel Moby-Dick. An international co-production between the United States and Spain, it was directed and produced by Ron Howard and written by Charles Leavitt; the film stars Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Tom Holland, Ben Whishaw, and Brendan Gleeson . . . [3]
Anyway, it was one of those “duh” things for me. They hunted the whales almost to extinction for oil. We used to slaughter these beautiful, incredibly intelligent animals for oil.
(Now we slaughter our fellow humans for it. But that’s another story, one not taken up by Melville — but hinted at toward the very end of the film.)
It’s a good thing we humans also make art, or we’d forget about the beauty that was once on this earth, or all too rare, because of what we do when we’re not making art.
Billy_TParticipantFrom the additional links for that story. Looks like the officer in question likes to play dress-up Nazi:
and
Billy_TParticipantWould be pretty cool if the Green Party were the “far right” for us.
:>)
But, pushing things a bit further, rather than having a bunch of leftist parties — which would be ginormously better than our current situation — why not zero parties?
No political parties allowed. Because they are, of course, concentrated organizations, with their own hierarchies, and concentrated organizations tend to represent their own interests, rather than the broader public’s. At least over time. Concentrated power tends to make gaining more power the goal.
Instead, let’s go back to basics, and “organize” as communities, with everyone automatically granted full and equal membership in their particular (fully democratic) community, federated with every other community. The economy would be fully democratized, and cooperative, not competitive. The communities themselves would be co-ops.
We’d have regions, not states. And regions would consist of all the co-ops in their area, and the regions would cooperate with each other too . . . and the communities and the regions would form the nation, under a new Constitution and a new economic mode. No permanent power centers, anywhere. The flattest possible pyramids, with “leadership” being temporary, rotational, at the local, regional and national levels. Lotteries. Not elections.
No parties needed. All political power rests in each of us, as individuals, with equal voices and equal shares in our commonly held economy and democratic union. Our organizing principles are the earth, democracy, equality, social justice for all.
Billy_TParticipantHmm. I went through it and survived. There’s no malware. It’s a white supremacist website that outlines the plan for ridding this nation of inferior races, especially Jews who, as you know, caused all this mess by encouraging mass immigration and the homosexual agenda. And so on.
The warning may be based on its being a hate group’s website. Not sure. I didn’t stick around long enough to find out.
Just thought I’d mention the red flag, etc.
The alt-right and its “friends.” There are few ideologies in this world that disgust me more, or make me despair to such a degree. The obscene ugliness of their thinking. Its twisted nature. Its venom and road-kill stench.
And the people most likely to join such movements — white Christian males — generally have, relatively speaking, the least to complain about in this country and in much of the rest of the world. As in, their sense of being under threat from the government and from the Other is, more often than not, the opposite of reality.
Billy_TParticipanthttp://www.dailystormer.com/a-normies-guide-to-the-alt-right/
Zooey, that gets a red light from my browser’s WOT app. Says “not safe.”
September 1, 2016 at 11:31 am in reply to: Ultraviolet light reveals how ancient Greek & Roman statues really looked #51988Billy_TParticipantInteresting, ZN.
My first degree’s minor was Art History. We touched very lightly on the colors of those statues, but it was there for us. Amazing how first impressions take hold, because from my aesthetic point of view, I’m moved more by the statues with the color faded away. My guess is that if I had grown up with the color, I would have preferred that, but who knows?
Then again, there is always that “acquired taste” thing. Prior to visiting Ireland, I wasn’t always so thrilled with seeing brightly colored homes or businesses in a row. After seeing them close up, and often, I grew to love them. Haven’t been to the Scandinavian countries, but they have a lot of that as well.
Colors done well. When it’s right, it fits in so much better with the environment . . . so it would be interesting to see those statues with their original colors in context. Again, when it comes to buildings, I really liked the way — rooftops, especially — they blended in so well with hills, mountainsides, the coasts in France. Mostly slate and a kind of amber color, and it was pretty universal in most towns in the South. Studying Cezanne more than prepared me for that, for that special kind of adaptation to the environment which is all too rare in America.
Too often our cities and towns seem to be an expression of conquering and exploiting surrounding nature, instead of harmonizing with it. Much of Europe was built with a different view of things.
September 1, 2016 at 11:17 am in reply to: A cross between Huey Long, Pinochet, David Hasselhoff"? #51987Billy_TParticipantWV,
That one about the 13 trillion. Not sure if he goes into more detail about the repercussions of a bailout from the bottom up. But, it’s pretty obvious that it would do amazing things beyond his initial listing. People with paid for houses and no debt have all kinds of “disposable income” they never had before, and they’d likely spend it. If they’re from the “working class,” they’d likely spend all of it here, in this economy, which rich folks don’t.
If the goal is to improve a capitalist economy, there is really no better way than to get money into the hands of the poor on up to the middle. They’ll spend 100% of that here, now, whereas the richer one gets, the lower that percentage goes . . . . In effect, the richer one is, the more one takes money OUT of a capitalist economy.
So, beyond the ethical and moral dimensions of a bottom up bailout . . . . and the obscenely unethical and immoral dimensions of bailing out the rich . . . . it’s just smart economics under a capitalist system. Radically increase disposable income for the people who will spend 100% of that income here, now.
Of course, the billionaires will never let this happen, but they should. They’d make money too. A ton.
September 1, 2016 at 11:07 am in reply to: This really happened: Jimmy Kimmel, Alex Jones & pickles. #51985Billy_TParticipantHave you ever had difficulty opening a jar?
If so, you know it has nothing to do with physical fitness.
Opening a jar, or being unable to open a jar, is without question the poorest test for the presidency I have ever heard of.
This is what our country has come to. The alt-right, with their legion of white supremacist lunatics leading the charge, is lost in a sea of paranoia and delusion . . . . perhaps, like WV suggests, due to mental illness. To me, it’s one more sign of how far things have broken down that they have any media/societal power at all, or that HRC thinks it’s necessary to respond to their idiocy.
IMO, it’s not too much of a stretch to worry about fascism arising from all of this. I see the alt-right as fascist to begin with . . . but, and this may sound counterintuitive, a response to their brand of fascism might be yet another kind. A strengthening of inverted totalitarianism (Sheldon Wolin).
Sheesh. I’m depressing myself!
September 1, 2016 at 10:58 am in reply to: This really happened: Jimmy Kimmel, Alex Jones & pickles. #51983Billy_TParticipantWow. It was a joke on a late night TV show. Nobody cares anything about it except right-wing conspiracy theorists.
————
Yes, but I’m interested in who these rightwing-conspiracy types are,
and how they got that way. I think many are mildly to moderately to extremely
mentally ill. Not all, but many. I suspect that because i work with many
mentally ill defendants and many of them have ‘those views’.Mental illness in all kinds of forms is on the rise in America. Google
the numbers. At least it seems to be. Especially among the poverty-stricken. If it is…why?Sometimes i think the ‘system’ causes mental illness (not on purpose of course)
and then the system blames the mentally ill for their wacko-views. Sometimes.At any rate, Alex is mentally ill in my view. Having said that I would ‘assume’
Kimmel’s people and Hillary’s people made damn sure she would succeed at opening the jar.
I mean if YOU were on Hillary’s staff wouldn’t you make damn sure she was
gonna be able to open that jar? Maybe they picked the jar or picked the type of jar
or loosened it or had Hillary practice with similar jars…somethin like that.
Cause they would not take a chance. No way they would take a chance on that.Granted, it aint the least bit important to the Non-brain-dead
whether she can open jars or not. But then how many Americans
really vote on ‘policy’ issues ? I dunno.PS — I know Alex’s views are dangerous-memes. Quite dangerous.
I dont mind people criticizing him at all. I just dont think
he’s mentally healthy. I am not convinced he’s a ‘con man’. I think
he believes this stuff. But who knows.w
vWV,
You might be onto something, when it comes to the rise of mental illness. And the likely culprit, IMO, is pollution of all kinds. We are awash in air, water and land pollution, and the things we eat all too often are filled with serious hazards — known and unknown to those who make and sell them.
We learn time and time again, after the fact, that some product is dangerous to our health, cancerous, etc. etc. And it’s either been covered up by capitalists, or they couldn’t be bothered to make sure things were okay before they made and sold them. The built-in math of capitalism, of course, makes it too costly to do that, if they want to make huge profits . . . . and there are too many forces arrayed against spending tax dollars to prevent this or expose that, etc.
Beyond that, the poor tend to be victims of NIMBY, which the well off get to dictate. Environmental disasters are relocated into impoverished areas, endlessly. Landfills, which leech carcinogens by the ton, typically go into poorer areas of the nation — or get shipped overseas, burdening the impoverished there even more than happens here.
That, and the usual PTSD of living in dangerous environments . . . . The human animal wasn’t meant for that. It was meant to leave those areas for greener pastures. We just don’t have the internal defenses for daily, toxic levels of stress and pollution.
August 31, 2016 at 10:43 am in reply to: A cross between Huey Long, Pinochet, David Hasselhoff"? #51949Billy_TParticipantThanks for the link and the quotes, WV.
I like this one a lot. Boiled down, to the point, spot on:
But whatever their personal leanings, influential reporters mostly work in nihilistic corporations, to whom the news is a non-ideological commodity, to be sold the same way we hawk cheeseburgers or Marlboro Lights. Wars, scandals and racial conflicts sell, while poverty and inequality do not. So reporters chase one and not the other. It’s just business.
August 31, 2016 at 10:26 am in reply to: This really happened: Jimmy Kimmel, Alex Jones & pickles. #51948Billy_TParticipantHere’s a follow up story on pickle-gate.
Pickle Jar Truthers: Alex Jones’ latest Hillary health conspiracy is extra “twisted”
When radio conspiracy theorist and exploiter of paranoiacs, Alex Jones, insisted that President Obama used “tiny helicopters and airplanes” to guide a super-tornado toward a small Oklahoma town in order to distract from yet another alleged “gun grab,” I thought we’d reached Peak Jones. I thought we’d finally witnessed the most ludicrous conspiracy theory since the one about shape-shifting lizard people from outer space infiltrating every level of our government.
But somehow Jones managed to top it, while also completely embarrassing himself. Finally.
and
Trump, who famously injected himself into the Birther movement, is also attempting to mainstream the entirety of the conspiracy theory fringe and, with it, Alex Jones himself who, like Trump, is nothing more than a wealthy con-man, selling gibberish to deeply impressionable and, perhaps, mentally ill listeners. In doing so, Trump also stupidly called attention to the fact that his own health may or may not be an issue, given that Trump released an extremely suspicious doctor’s letter in lieu of releasing his actual medical records. Of course we have no way to prove that Trump is in poor health, any more so than Trump can prove Hillary’s alleged poor health. But we do, indeed, have evidence pointing to Trump’s obvious paranoia as well as his susceptibility to suggestion — his willingness to accept unfounded nonsense marketed by a professional matchstick man, Jones, who once said the federal government is turning young boys gay via poison juice boxes.
We have to ask then: what’s Trump hiding? For that matter, what’s Jones hiding? Full medical records, please, gentlemen.
Perhaps WV is correct. He’s just mentally ill. Perhaps it’s not “nice” to go after Alex Jones because of that. And I’d agree, if he weren’t a public figure with a surprisingly large and loyal audience. And Trump’s praise for Jones is another red flag.
Oh, well. The fringe has always been with us. But, thanks to Trump, it’s more “mainstream” than ever before.
August 30, 2016 at 6:26 pm in reply to: Kaepernick is righter than you know-the national anthem celebrates slavery #51918Billy_TParticipantI think the song should be replaced. It celebrates our racist past, and it points to yet another time when words like “freedom” need to be footnoted. Let’s find a song that doesn’t need the footnotes.
As in, whenever people spout off about “freedom and liberty,” we should always ask “For whom?” When it comes to economics, social policy, education, health care — anything and everything. Freedom and liberty for whom?
Too often in American history, and right now, in the American present, freedom and liberty for one meant/means chains for another. In real terms.
And, yes, there are bigger problems in the world than the national anthem. But it’s a problem we could easily fix. Not so many of those these days. Change it. Find a song that speaks to our diversity, without celebrating slavery, or racism, or any kind of oppression of others, or “the Other.” Find a song that everyone can love, without any burden or sense of “bad faith” or alienation.
The nation should choose this song, together. It shouldn’t have been chosen for us.
August 29, 2016 at 8:41 pm in reply to: Kaepernick is righter than you know-the national anthem celebrates slavery #51872Billy_TParticipantFound this via da google:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/seven-facts-star-spangled-banner/
In 1861, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. added a verse. Despite using the words “the land of the free,” Francis Scott Key had been a slave owner, and members of the Confederate Army wanted to claim his anthem. Holmes, an influential writer from Boston, wrote new lyrics advocating that American slaves be unchained. Holmes’ addition now appears in most official publications of the lyrics.
August 29, 2016 at 8:35 pm in reply to: Kaepernick is righter than you know-the national anthem celebrates slavery #51871Billy_TParticipantThanks for that article, Nittany.
I grew up in Maryland. We weren’t taught the truth about Key either. I had to learn about that on my own, later in life.
Don’t really know how to express this well, and it’s gonna come out an awkward mess of sorts. But, frankly, it’s a wonder any black athlete stands for the SBB. Ever. It basically celebrates the defeat of human beings who sought an escape from slavery, and the writer owned slaves and was anti-abolition his entire life, from what I’ve read. I think Kap was well within his “rights” to speak out about it. More public figures should, IMO. Of course, it’s not for me to say — which is where I feel the awkwardness most.
Related: I can’t stand hearing or reading nonsense like this: “He should be grateful he gets to live in America, where he is free to pursue his dreams!! In no other country but America could he do that!!!”
Bullshit. Too many knuckle-dragging, know-nothings seem to actually believe America stands alone in the world when it comes to “freedoms”. Hell, he could pursue his athletic dreams in dozens of countries, many of them granting far more “freedoms” than he has here — especially in Europe, and especially in the Scandinavian countries.
Bottom line for me: We need to axe the national anthem and bring down every single confederate flag existing on public grounds. I know those are just symbols, and we need radical, substantial change in policy far more. But it’s a good start.
August 29, 2016 at 9:10 am in reply to: Paul Wolfowitz 'might have to vote' for Hillary Clinton #51826Billy_TParticipantSpeaking of big money backers. Robert Mercer, a hedge-fund billionaire, was the principal backer of Ted Cruz. He is also the money man behind Breitbart. Kellyanne Conway, now with Trump, ran the superpac devoted to electing Cruz, and they’ve both now switched to Trump, along with Steve Bannon, who used to run Breitbart.
In general, it’s not the case that Trump is self-funding and owes nothing to big money donors. Politico talks about Trump courting the money guys here:
Trump blesses major super PAC effort
At a meeting of about 30 major donors organized by a pro-Trump super PAC called Rebuilding America Now PAC, operatives displayed a slide that offered an overt endorsement from Trump’s vice-presidential nominee Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.
“Supporting Rebuild America Now is one of the best ways to stop Hillary Clinton and help elect Donald Trump our next president!” read the quote attributed to Pence on the slide, which was obtained by POLITICO. Pence’s director of operations Marty Obst also attended the meeting and, according to two attendees, he said the campaign was considering attending future fundraising events for the super PAC.
Reinforcing the message that the Trump campaign wants donors to give to Rebuilding America, Trump’s top strategist Paul Manafort called into the meeting to discuss the campaign and make clear that the PAC was the only one he is addressing, according to three attendees.
August 29, 2016 at 8:59 am in reply to: Paul Wolfowitz 'might have to vote' for Hillary Clinton #51825Billy_TParticipantThis isn’t directed at anyone here:
I think some Americans fall for the idea of the “outsider” candidate, and they think, “Well, if the establishment is against this guy, he must be awesome!!”
Thing is, as bad as the establishment is, some “outsiders” are worse. It’s just not automatically the case that they’re going to be better. And I can’t see anything in Trump’s past or present that would indicate he would be better than the establishment. His business record is abysmal. He’s been sued literally thousands of times, including for discrimination against blacks and other minorities. His rhetoric is obviously incendiary, with serial lying being a major factor.
Aside from his well-known greatest hits of lies, he lied that the NFL agreed with him about debate schedules; he lied about meeting with Chicago top cops to discuss how to fix crime there; he lied that Clinton is targeting black businesses for a tax hike of 50%.
The above also points out another reason to doubt him when he says he will do X, Y or Z — whether it will help or hurt Americans. He lies so often, it’s impossible to know. But, on balance (IMO), given his personal history of NOT helping workers, minorities, women, etc. . . . and making his entire trade pitch a matter of workers against workers . . . I think it’s safe to conclude he’s unlikely to be good for the country.
Oh, and there is this rather important question Trump asks:
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump asked a foreign policy adviser multiple times in an hourlong briefing why the U.S. can’t use its nuclear weapons, MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough said Wednesday morning.
Scarborough revealed the story while he was interviewing former CIA Director Michael Hayden on “Morning Joe” about Trump’s campaign.
“Several months ago, a foreign policy expert went to advise Donald Trump,” Scarborough said. “And three times he asked about the use of nuclear weapons — three times he asked. At one point, ‘If we have them, why can’t we use them?’”
August 28, 2016 at 12:19 pm in reply to: Paul Wolfowitz 'might have to vote' for Hillary Clinton #51786Billy_TParticipantYou may be right, Billy, about the “workers” rhetoric. That completely fits.
In any event, on a number of issues, it is apparent that Trump is just completely unfit for the job. He’s reckless. Bottom line. He is just reckless.
And nobody wants a reckless president.
(except for those people who root for the Joker).
I can see that, Zooey. Reckless. The chaos candidate. Also, have heard interviews from people who have written books about him say this:
He really doesn’t care at all about policy. He doesn’t read about the issues of the day. Many people who know him say he’s woefully incurious. He sets goals, and if he reaches them, he’s too bored by the nuts and bolts of things to stay with them. He just moves on.
(This makes me think the rumor of that VP offer to Kasich is true. That he was told he could basically run the Executive, and the Donald would just be all about “making America great again.”)
The above sounds to me like a combination of Reagan, Dubya and Palin. I really don’t want us to go there again.
Like you and most of the folks here, I don’t like HRC as a choice, either. But compared to Trump? I’m still going to vote my conscience and go Green Party. But if the race ends up being HRC or Trump, I hope HRC wins.
August 28, 2016 at 10:34 am in reply to: Paul Wolfowitz 'might have to vote' for Hillary Clinton #51781Billy_TParticipantI think the financial elite is fine with Trump. Trump or Clinton, they don’t much care — at least on economic grounds. Trump would directly inflate their bank accounts by tens of millions, just from his tax cuts. And Clinton would make sure to grease the skids and protect them from all threats to their power. As would Trump.
The major error I see, when it comes to debating Trump’s apparent “populism” and rhetoric about workers: He never talks about how American corporations have screwed them over. He sets everything up as a battle between nations, with lopsided trade deals helping the people of other nations while screwing ours. He makes it all about the Chinese, the Mexicans, the Malaysians, etc. etc. against Americans. I’ve never once heard him talk about how our trade deals were set up to help American corporations ship jobs overseas, produce products there and not here, so they could sell them back to American consumers with much, much higher profit margins.
He can’t, of course. Because he’s been doing this for decades. All of Trump’s manufacturing has been outsourced. So he has to whip up anger and hatred between nations — workers against workers. He can’t talk about American Corporate control over trade deals and international capitalism, because he’s a part of all that.
The financial elite also know that on the few things he seemingly might go against globalist dogma, like potential tariffs, he’d never get those through Congress. They know this. So what we’d end up with, under Trump, are hard-line, right-wing, trickle down economic policies, with any “populist” ideas blocked by Congress — and I personally don’t believe Trump means any of it anyway.
Why would some of them choose Clinton over Trump? Not because they “fear” Trump would go against their interests, while knowing HRC wouldn’t. They likely think he’s a bombastic, churlish cretin . . . . and the financial elite have a great deal of inside knowledge about bombastic, churlish cretins.
Billy_TParticipantYes, GOT has many quiet non-battle, non-soap-opera scenes that are quite good. Like that one, with Stannis.
Good dialogue on that show.
w
vYes. Though I find it to be a bit up n down, though I don’t mind that fact. Some scenes are just poorly done. (I generally find those scenes in the Daenerys narrative. I know I am supposed to like that narrative, but I don’t as much.) (Which, again, is fine.)
————-
Yes, up and down.
I find the actress who plays Daenerys to be the weakest link
in the whole series. She is no Meryl Streep.
Maybe its the writing, but I think its mainly her.
I also think her captain of the Unsullied was miscast.
No way that skinny kid would be in charge of a band of spartan warriors.w
vI may be alone in this, but I actually like the Danaerys actress and character. But I think you’re correct about the Unsullied . . . though I’d say it’s the entire outfit. They were set up as this invincible fighting force initially, in both the books and the TV show, but in the show, they seemed to turn into a second-rate force all too quickly. The Sons of the Harpy got the better of them in two key scenes, and the Unsullied just looked flat. Obviously a matter of abysmal coaching, from the position guys on up to the HC. Not enough F bombs, apparently.
They need Mike Wauffle, at least.
August 27, 2016 at 9:30 am in reply to: Paul Wolfowitz 'might have to vote' for Hillary Clinton #51692Billy_TParticipantTrump has never given us any indication that he will be less bellicose with his policies than Clinton. And she is likely to be quite the neocon.
Trump’s party, and his core constituency, puts great store by flexing American muscles, endlessly. For them — and this is my dime-store psychology talking — it’s essential masculinity, which they feel has been destroyed by Obama and “the left.” To go further with the dime store stuff, I’d say the basis for their hatred of PC is all about masculine projection, and the sense that women have stomped all over men in America. Down deep, being “PC” is seen as succumbing to moms telling you to be a good boy, and boys who never grow up really, really resent this.
Boys who never grow up also really, really love to blow people up, shoot them up, play with guns, play with fighter jets and battleships and so on, too. More of that resentment stuff in play.
In a nutshell, neocons are boys who never grew up. The alt-right are filled with them, and they add racism, anti-semitism, misogyny and homophobia to that as well.
So, yeah, we’re essentially screwed. But I think it’s safe to say Trump is worse. He combines all the things wrong with HRC and he adds the alt-right, and the alt-right is, boiled down, American Nazism, with slightly better packaging.
Billy_TParticipantDak,
That’s really well said.
Also, if you guys haven’t seen it yet, The Big Short is on Netflix too, and it’s excellent. I saw it the other day. Based on the Michael Lewis book.
IMO, anyone running for elected office should have to watch it, and take a quiz afterward. I’d say the same thing about Chomsky, but maybe that’s a bridge too far in this country. At least with The Big Short, they can get pulled into the story because it’s a bunch of capitalists involved, and they can kinda root for some of them. Until they finally realize what happened, etc.
-
This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by
Billy_T.
Billy_TParticipantWhy would modern humans mate with Neanderthals?
Bigger brains. Neanderthals apparently had bigger brains and were stronger physically.
Home Sapiens won the war. But it’s kinda like VHS versus Betamax. The latter should have.
Billy_TParticipantIMO, Alex Jones has said far too many racist, heinous, truly despicable things to make up for any stopped clock stuff. And I’m betting his idea of “democracy” isn’t anything like ours.
He said the Sandy Hook massacre was a “false flag” operation, staged by the government so it could confiscate guns. Staged with child actors to make it more powerful. He said this in public. To me, that goes about as far down into the mind’s muck as it’s possible to go.
And Trump has been on his show several times, praising him. But the real issue here is he has quite the following, especially among the alt-right. And Trump put one of the leaders of the alt-right in charge of his campaign.
To me, it’s not an exaggeration to call these people fascists and white supremacists. It’s who they are. Maybe they wear suits instead of white sheets or brown shirts, but that’s essentially who they are.
Billy_TParticipantThis is missing the visual part, of course. If anyone can track down a great version of this classic with both, please post it.
To me, it’s one of the all-time great covers of a classic American song, which speaks to a classic American vibe of being the underdog, the red-headed step-child, the black sheep of the family, in a way that perhaps doesn’t exist anywhere else in America. New Jersey. New Jersey, across the water from that behemoth, New York City. That long, deep shadow cast by the Big Apple, and there is perhaps no greater generator of insecurity than NYC, especially for people who live in Jersey.
So when Springsteen sings about his Jersey Girl — and I had one of my own, so I know what he and Tom Waits are talking about — and the audience yells in spontaneous delight, it’s as if all the decades of being told they’re only second rate, or third rate, are wiped away, and for that moment in time, with the Boss on the stage, Jersey is Number One and Jersey Girls are queens of the night.
August 23, 2016 at 11:51 am in reply to: youtube party…post a song you like which you think is not that widely known #51464Billy_TParticipantCat Stevens. He doesn’t fit the heading of this thread all that well, because he’s fairly well-known. But I think since his conversion to Islam, he’s been largely forgotten. Or remembered angrily. Back in high school, his music influenced me a great deal. I thought he was incredibly wise, so close to the earth, to what matters in life, cutting through the bullshit.
An existentialist singer/songwriter, in a way. To me, he was a part of that pantheon of wise souls, along with the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Melanie, CSNY and Simon and Garfunkel.
Four great albums from him, IMO: Tea for the Tillerman; Teaser and the Firecat; Catch Bull at Four; and Foreigner.
From the first of those albums. It’s his song, but not his video, of course.-
This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by Billy_T.
-
This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by
-
AuthorPosts
