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Recent Comments
- In The Mailbox: 02.28.23 (Afternoon Edition) : The Other McCain on Hey, longtime pw readers…
- In The Mailbox: 12.23.22 : The Other McCain on Patrick J. Carroll truly IS a sad, embittered psychopath
- Danger on Patrick J. Carroll might be a psychopath
- Danger on Patrick J. Carroll might be a psychopath
- In The Mailbox: 07.18.22 : The Other McCain on Patrick J. Carroll might be a psychopath
Article V convention of the States to:
1) 12 year term limits on all federal employees;
2) 2/3 of States legislatures to affirm raising the national debt beyond $22 trillion
Deactivating Hal 9000 HD (COMPLETE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgkyrW2NiwM
Public Image Ltd – Rise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN-GGeNPQEg
Just an ordinary guy with a wife, couple of ex-wives, a few bankruptcies, some shady business dealings, a crappy reality tv show and billions in the bank. A real champion of the common man
Just like you and me really.
Ernst
I haven’t fell this conflicted over an election since 1968 …. ( I was 14 and really paying attention to politics …I remember the images of the Dem convention in Chicago)
dayum ….
>Just an ordinary guy with a wife, couple of ex-wives, a few bankruptcies, some shady business dealings, a crappy reality tv show and billions in the bank. A real champion of the common man<
hilarity clinton's husband?
Trump should be a donkey dressed up like a RINO dressed up like an Elephant and the real elephants should be ghosts.
Ok looking at the election numbers from last night, when i added up all the numbers it appears that the Dem voters were outnumbered by GOP voters 2 to 1. ???? is that normal, does it signal anything about the general?
I do not love Trump. But last night i was explaining to a younger person who Monica Lewinsky was. How she’s 40 now, never married or had a family and has no career. Her life was ruined. And Hillary is still married to Bill, and they are still rich and powerful.
On the other hand Trump is probably a womanizer too. Sigh.
total voters yesterday in the GOP primaries = 6,719,811
total voters yesterday in the Dem primaries= 6,055,182
nevermind I wasn’t looking at all the numbers. bummer.
Boy of Boy! I cannot believe how incoherent the Anti-Trump faction has become.
Mark Levin’s head is spinning like a circus merry-go-round – He’s gone around the bend and I cannot listen to him anymore. In his fantasy world, he’s convinced that Cruz and Trump have “never had a chance to go head-to-head.” As though that would make a difference. And he’s prattling on about “free trade” much like a leftie peacenik’d rail for idealistic arms-control initiatives, in the abstract and in complete ignorance of our competitors’ unfree trade practices.
Earth to Mark: Free trade only works if everyone plays by ‘free” rules. Duh!
Trump’s the only Republican candidate who has taken the fight – the real fight, not the pretend “fight,” to the Democrats, and he’s the only candidate who dares to belittle their stupid SJW talking points. Compare: Cruz is a career politician who’s been in the fish tank too long. He does not have platform of successful legislation to stand on. And he cannot win in the general because his cloying piety is a turn off to regular, working class Americans.
We all know this, but Levin appears to think that running an unelectable, pious, political careerist is preferable to running a popular business-man with a demonstrated pair of cojones. Maybe he’s just a performance artist and his apparent insanity is just ‘virtue signaling’ to his evangelical base – and he’ll revert to old form once Trump is the GOP’s nominee.
Here’s hopin’ Levin and his listeners will come to their senses after the primaries. And I wish him luck in his new media venture…
Boy of Boy! I cannot believe how incoherent the Anti-Trump faction has become.
Mark Levin’s head is spinning like a circus merry-go-round – He’s gone around the bend and I cannot listen to him anymore. In his fantasy world, he’s convinced that Cruz and Trump have “never had a chance to go head-to-head.” As though that would make a difference. And he’s prattling on about “free trade” much like a leftie peacenik’d rail for idealistic arms-control initiatives, in the abstract and in complete ignorance of our competitors’ unfree trade practices.
Earth to Mark: Free trade only works if everyone plays by ‘free” rules. Duh!
Trump’s the only Republican candidate who has taken the fight – the real fight, not the pretend “fight,” to the Democrats, and he’s the only candidate who dares to belittle their stupid SJW talking points.
THIS. Trump is a RINO? Relative to what? Jeb? Marco?
The GOP brand was damaged long before Trump threw his hat in the ring….
Compare: Cruz is a career politician who’s been in the fish tank too long. He does not have platform of successful legislation to stand on. And he cannot win in the general because his cloying piety is a turn off to regular, working class Americans.
For many of us, Cruz’s “lack of successful legislation” (by liberal media standards) is a feature, not a bug. We want the crap stopped.
That said, I miss the early days of the campaign, when Ted and The Donald honestly had a bromance going, and I would still like to see Ted as Veep.
We all know this, but Levin appears to think that running an unelectable, pious, political careerist is preferable to running a popular business-man with a demonstrated pair of cojones. Maybe he’s just a performance artist and his apparent insanity is just ‘virtue signaling’ to his evangelical base – and he’ll revert to old form once Trump is the GOP’s nominee.
Here’s hopin’ Levin and his listeners will come to their senses after the primaries. And I wish him luck in his new media venture…
Trump is a Republican in name only?
No. No, certainly not. He is, as paleomerus pointed out, a life-long Democrat who now poses as a Republican. One who has funded a long list of Democrat progressives like Harry Reid, Rahm Emmanuel, Chuck Schumer, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, and so many more. Including Hillary and Bill Clinton. One who favored TARP, the Detroit automaker government buy out, Obama’s vast Recovery and Reinvestment Act spending, etc. But hey, don’t look seriously. It might tend to make you sick.
Actually no, Trump is not a life long Democrat, though he has been a registered democrat as well as as republican and reform.
He has also donated to Cruz in the past. So what. Every big businessman in the country has donated to both parties, does that mean the businessman are ineligible to run for politics or politicians are all crooked, America is just plain evil or what? Stabs stupid argument is what.
And I agree about Levin. He, along with almost very other talking head, have become comically incoherent in the last few months. It would be sad if it weren’t so entertaining.
This fire tablet is the hardest thing ever to type on. Sorry for the typo’s.
Question mark after what.
It’s a, not stabs.
“So what?”
Exactly. A life-long Democrat. Don’t look. For the implications of the principles Trump advances are 180 degrees opposed to the principles the American founding and framing laid out.
And that’s not Donald to blame. He isn’t the curious sort, like most people, not least his own supporters.
That’s merely what he was taught while he was coming up and learning what pitiful little he knows about politics. No focus on the Declaration or the Constitution of the United States, since these were surely irrelevant and obsolete under the political philosophical position of the progressives and socialists who by and large taught politics to Trump in university. Besides, Franklin Roosevelt had already created the political fait acomplis. Post-Roosevelt men such as Trump are merely seen to “go with the flow”, getting along with a previously established fact of the matter. (Trump, in other words, was no student of Robbie George.) More government, more state, more power concentrated in the hands of government overlords and unelected bureaucrats, more purely insider dealings cutting the people out. A gradual reversion to the justice of the stronger: i.e., he who has either the nominally consensual command over the coercive powers (IRS, EPA and rest of the Agencies salad-bowl) or command of the gold.
Also, to be honest, I consider myself a RINO considering what the Republican party has become. Maybe I should start identifying as a Reagan democrat, I don’t know…
“For the implications of the principles Trump advances are 180 degrees opposed to the principles the American founding and framing laid out.”
With all due respect, that’s a load of horseshit.
Trump is winning because it’s the economy, stupid. He is the only candidate who recognizes that America is in decline and wants to do something about it. *Every* other candidate, including super conservative Ted Cruz, who I still favor, either denies America is in decline or insists the decline is proper and inevitable and we all should just shut up and deal with it.
The GOP have been running on fumes for years. They keep going back to the same things – tax cuts! free trade! – and those have been played out. In fact, some have backfired, as “free trade” begat open borders, and corporate tax rates are now a much bigger problem than individual ones, which largely explains offshoring.
The GOP needs something new, something to rally around, and anti-PC and anti-the Nanny State are two good villains to fight against. Why, that might rejuvenate the economy, succor the middle class, bring the non-governmental union workers, who actually make things and don’t like eco-fiends and foreign governments (if any of them are still around) and the rest of the blue and pink collar workers over to them, building a new coalition for a new century!
Oh what am I saying? The GOPee are in on the sellout, and the rest of the GOP are afraid of trying to win because they might fail, and by failing to try they guarantee the fail.
No Lee, it’s a simple proposition. Roosevelt successfully made it so. Trump merely follows, as does everyone else in the far larger portion of all human political history. It’s the original founding and framing which is out of step, and to which our contemporaries (and in this sense, unsurprisingly) refuse to return.
Boy, howdy! I cannot believe I’m waiting for the Pro-Trump faction to become coherent.
Well sdferr, Trump has said he will get rid of the DeptEd, and the EPA, returning those powers back to the states. So saying he is 180degrees out of phase with constitutional limited government just isn’t true. Whether he, or Cruz, could do such a thing is highly doubtful (and Cruz’s promise to eliminate the IRS even more so) , but my point is, all the arguments against Trump seem to thing on one thing, you don’t believe what he is saying. Not that what he is saying is wrong. Well guess what, I trust what Trump says ten times more than I trust what ANYONE that has spent more than a month in Washington has to say.
Trump says many things. One among them that he can say whatever he needs to say when he needs to say it. That’s a kind of principle, if we think about it. It’s not a commitment to the ideas the founders and framers put forward, however. He has also said, for instance, that he thinks it right and proper to have everyone in the nation covered by health care paid for by the government in order that, as he puts it, no one is dying in the streets. How pleasant to be compassionate in this regard, and to spend so easily other peoples’ money. What, on the other hand, is it that Trump doesn’t say? Just venturing an observation, it seems to me he has very little to say about those founders and framers, how they thought about political power, how they made arrangements to achieve greater justice than less. That’s just not his area of expertise we can guess.
It’s the economy, Stupid. (wasn’t that Billy?)
that’s why Trump is winning. Nobody thinks he’s a constitutional scholar or even that he’s read any history books. That’s the big picture stuff !
Incidentally I had a painter give me an estimate for painting my house yesterday and he complained about the labor pool in this city, said that “nobody wants to work anymore” and “half the city is unemployable”.
Actually missfixit, long before anyone said “it’s the economy stupid” to Bill Clinton, Karl Marx was proclaiming exactly that about politics as a whole. Marx just made up a fancier term for the principle, calling it the material dialectic. Rid people of their superstitions about human nature and turn to their immediate material conditions, said Marx, and build a world never before seen. Well yes, in the sense that no-one had seen a world in which the politics of a nation could be turned to the wholesale mechanical elimination of whole orders of that nation’s own populace. For the children, of course, where nature couldn’t be entirely eradicated.
[i]Rid people of their superstitions about human nature and turn to their immediate material conditions, said Marx, and build a world never before seen. Well yes, in the sense that no-one had seen a world in which the politics of a nation could be turned to the wholesale mechanical elimination of whole orders of that nation’s own populace. For the children, of course, where nature couldn’t be entirely eradicated.[/i]
But that doesn’t disqualify an economic analysis.
The Leftist dupes believe they can make a New Socialist Man, and that human nature can be modified and altered. They try to formulate policies, economic and otherwise, to socially engineer us.
We who know better understand that human nature is what it is, and we formulate economic policies, economic and otherwise, that reflect that reality.
Lately the left has been trying through its immigration and cultural policies to displace whole orders of that nation’s own populace, namely, most of us.
Regarding healthcare, if you’re honest ( the general you) the system has had problems that need to be addressed. I don’t want to get into decades of government tinkering like Teddy’s creation of HMO’s just for brevity in making my point, but there were concerns needing attention. The growing problem of people without healthcare (for whatever reason, whether being uninsurable due to pre existing conditions or just plain old irresponsible) using the hospital emergency rooms for their primary care for example. This is terribly inefficient both in cost and in practice. What Trump proposes us a return to the employer based insurance model, and with a government program to take care of those that fall in the cracks. I do believe it is necessary to do that, for the sake of efficiency and for the sake of public health at large. If we don’t do that, what is your solution? Just continue to let millions of uninsured clog up emergency rooms driving up the costs more? No? Then what?
But that doesn’t disqualify an economic analysis.
Did you think I meant to disqualify any economic analysis of politics Curmudgeon? Or did you suppose the possibility that I would rather urge that while undertaking any economic analysis of politics that other (just as, or more important, more salient) aspects of human political life be maintained in the forefront of one’s conclusions on that analysis? That is, against a too facile reduction to economics?
Just to shock the world, Ill also say I’m not against welfare. I don’t want to live in an incredibly wealthy country like ours and see starving children in the street. The difference is, the conditions under which welfare is given. In other words, with lots of strings. You have to look for work. You can’t turn down work. You can’t get it if you have family that can help. Like that.
I don’t think welfare bad, but I think as it exists now, actually creating generational welfare and encouraging the destruction of the family instead of helping amily, that isn’t just wrong, it’s evil.
Or did you suppose the possibility that I would rather urge that while undertaking any economic analysis of politics that other (just as, or more important, more salient) aspects of human political life be maintained in the forefront of one’s conclusions on that analysis? That is, against a too facile reduction to economics?
No disagreement there.
Compare trying to force “politically correct” (but unreal) groupthink on us all, vs. accepting human nature for what it is and always has been….
when the economy is decent again and people can actually afford to see a doctor and maybe even retire before they are dead…then they have energy to ponder shit like “hey should the government really have access to my iPhone?”
Trump obviously recognizes reality, I’ll give him that. He knows that nobody cares about closing down abortion clinics right now while we’re standing in the bread lines, so he sits to the left on that. I think it is good strategy.
I don’t get the feeling that Trump is driven by a narcissistic desire for power, the way that psychopaths do. I think he just really hates incompetence in leadership and believes he can do it best. Every time I listen to him he talks about “these incompetents who have NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE DOING!!” (It’s his tag line)
I don’t think he’s operating under any specific ideology. He’s not a Marx or whomever. He’s not going to write books other than “the art of the deal”.
I should say that being a blowhard who isn’t scared to shout out his opinions off the cuff is not the same as being a narcissistic psychopath.
I think. …
I’m a Former Republican Outlaw Goblin, the first letters of which happily form the acronym UNHELPFUL FLYSPECK.
Marx, in the belly of his contemporary followers, has branched out like axons to dendrites to forma virtual tree of what it is.
” It’s the penis stupid”
” It’s God Stupid”
” It’s different shades of skin stupid”
” It’s English Stupid”
” It’s orientalism stupid”
” It’s Blowback from centuries of Colonial Oppression stupid”
” Its education stupid”
” It’s the badguy tribe stupid”
” It’s intersectionalism stupid”
and soon
“It’s all those atavistic older people who can’t learn our modern ways to live in the new world stupid.”
Chances “Tony Schwartz” shows up as the answer to a question [“Who wrote ‘The Art of the Deal’?”] on the tv gameshow Jeopardy? Slight, if yet possible.
But then, Abraham Lincoln too didn’t write any books.
By the way, I had no idea my joke was playing into a joke. The latter of which, I only just now ran into linked on JeffG’s twitter timeline. But still, heh.
Trump obviously recognizes reality, I’ll give him that. He knows that nobody cares about closing down abortion clinics right now while we’re standing in the bread lines, so he sits to the left on that. I think it is good strategy.
i’m with you on this sister and also I like your whole comment
is very good comment
Trump says many things.
yeah I don’t pay him no nevermind
i’m so curious to see how he presidents
Yeah, about the abortion clinics thing, that’s how I felt about the whole ethanol subsidy outrages. The patient is bleeding to death and the paramedics are discussing if he needs his toe nails trimmed.
Priorities people!
It’s a queer thing, Republican primary voters deciding that the way to save the Grand Old Party from itself is to place it in the care of, at best, what we used to scorn as a “Rockefeller Republican.”
Which is why those crafty Japanese own thew world.
Trump: Not a candidate for an orange jump suit.
Hillary: Should be wearing an orange jump suit.
Trump: Has built things and employed a lot of people.
Hillary: Uses public office to extract money from people like Donald Trump.
No matter what the flaws of Donald Trump, he is still far better than Hillary. It’s not even a close contest.
I find all of the hissing and gnashing of teeth by Levin and Beck (haven’t watched or heard, just noticed in passing) about Trump to be rather disappointing. I want to know why they are not focusing their ire on Hillary.
Oh yes, priorities, foremost of which bread and circuses — and to the bottom of the list anything resembling a fidelity to the ideas of the Declaration and Constitution.
But oh! Lo! A great mystery, behold!: like unto the mystery declared by [Frances McDormand in disguise], where we are given to understand that we will only know what’s in the [beautiful thing] to be passed after the [beautiful thing] is passed.
And what wonders to live in that great time to come.
Happyfeet, thank you, I remember enjoying your comments years ago when I hung around here a lot more often. ;) I tend to joke about things that others don’t find as funny. It helps me cope.
This whole election surreal.
Better than Hillary Clinton is an extremely low bar.
Hell, Bernie Sanders can get over it!
Conservatives should aspire to more and better.
I don’t know about Beck, but it seems clear to me that Levin is more upset with Rubio & Kasich & #anybodybutTrump than he is with Trump.
Of course, the fact remains that Levin is correct when he points out that Trump isn’t conservative in an ideological or philosophical sense.
can we hope for a conservative house of representatives to work with Trump, isn’t that better than Hillary?
It’s a queer thing, Republican primary voters deciding that the way to save the Grand Old Party from itself is to place it in the care of, at best, what we used to scorn as a “Rockefeller Republican.”
Said “Rockefeller Republican” is decidedly NOT one of the goo-go-for-globalism-and-open-borders Establicans, however. And *that* is why he is winning.
Make no mistake–every vote for Trump, and for Ted Cruz, was a smack at those who tried to foist upon us first Jeb, then Marco.
But even Ted Cruz underestimated the anger at the issues of immigration and globalism, preferring to talk about socialized medicine, which, while important, still ignores the importation of those who are bursting public medical assistance to the less affluent at the seams, and this importation imperils even private hospitals now.
After 20 odd years of being squelched and suppressed by the Wall Street Journal greedhead wing of the GOP, starting here in the bellwether state of California in 1994, the issue has finally erupted.
Enter the Donald, who, despite his squishiness elsewhere, is loudly and forcefully articulating this problem–at last. Is he an opportunist? I wouldn’t be surprised if the answer is yes. Do I care at this point?
All of you who complain that “he isn’t a true classical liberal” are right, but with the importation of more and more of a Left underclass, Good Luck to ever getting classical liberals elected–ever again!!!
It is really no more complicated than that.
re: Marxism or other ideologies
Barack seemed to have much deeper roots in the ideological left – i remember something about Alinksy, community organizer bullshit, etc. He seemed to have an idea of where he wanted to take this nation (European cesspool?)
I don’t get the feeling Trump is literate in this area.
Anyone here read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair? A book required in my high school English class. It starts out a horror story of immigrants to the Chicago area, who die in the factories and are treated less than human, all of their dreams are crushed – and then the last part of the book I remember being nothing but a socialist manifesto based on the family’s suffering.
I feel like Hillary nursed on those types of books too.
Again. Trump does not seem literate in this way.. it feels like he is applying for the biggest CEO position available because it’s all business to him. ?
Bread and circuses be damned. Do you think the millions of immigrants pouring uncontrolled over the border, or those allowing it, give one goddam about the constitution?
We don’t hAve borders, we don’t have a country, much less a constitutional republic.
Stop the bleeding, stabilize the patient, then we can talk about long term care. Discussing the intricacies of philosophy is no use to the dead.
Can we hope for a conservative house of representatives to work with Trump?
You’re assuming:
1) that the House is controlled by conservatives
2) that Trump would prefer to work with them to to make “deals” with whatever coalition of 218 representatives that he could cobble together
3) that Trump’s legislative agenda will be conservative
Stop the bleeding, stabilize the patient, then we can talk about long term care. Discussing the intricacies of philosophy is no use to the dead.
How you going to stop the bleeding when the guy in the white lab coat isn’t a doctor, but a leech?
Quickest way to stop the bleeding & stabilize the patient is to surrender and give the dems everything they want
#pragmatism!
trump 2016: orange peeps are key!!11!!
Quickest way to stop the bleeding & stabilize the patient is to surrender and give the dems everything they want
#pragmatism!
Demunists want immigration control and a border wall? Hello?
trump 2016: orange peeps are key!!11!!
Boehner supports Trump? Hello?
John Boehner backs Paul Ryan for president, calls Ted Cruz ‘Lucifer’
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/mar/16/john-boehner-backs-paul-ryan-for-president-call-te/
go orange or go home
oh too ;)
The bleeding is the political elite turning the US into just another globalist hell hole to rule over. Embrase “make AMERICA great again” or pretend it’s just an empty phrase and surrender.
Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way.
Trump 2016!
What does that even mean other than some warm fuzzies?
Thank you for confirming my belief that Trump is Obama in white face. No wondering he’s pulling in so many Democrats.
Quite frankly, all I’m doing is watching the circus masquerading as an election.
The very fact that a criminal like Hillary is allowed to run for president makes it obvious the days of the republic are numbered.
Hillary is nothing more than a living version of “Mene, Mene, tekel, upharsin.”
Wheras Trump is “pull my finger.”
If 2008 was a tragedy, this is farce.
That’s what the Germans thought to. And by the time the economy was decent and people could afford to see a doctor and maybe even save enough to rretire –the GESTAPO was everywhere.
I mention it as an example of why first principles aren’t merely philosophical niceties that don’t really matter because the patient is dying. The wrong cure is worse than the disease.
Although, in this case, I’d say we’re only being offered the choice between two ineffectual treatments.
go orange or go home
And here I thought Boehner would throw in with his orange twin Trump
The kissing and making up between Trump and the establishment; she will be a thing of beauty
on surrender —
That kiss is what the Melians refused the Athenian ambassadors, but would have got had they accepted the offer the Athenians made Ernst. Funny thing, ol’ T. Hobbes translated Thucydides’ great History into English, thinking the offering would be of service to the English speakers.
When we look a little bit closer however the Melian dialogue seems to have informed Hobbes’ own outlook not just a little bit, but entirely. Americans too, as English speakers, might benefit from Hobbes’ whole gift to them, far more than a mere translation.
And yet we two, you and I, are justified (so I believe) to doubt that the Americans will now take the time to consider, since we can see that right many Americans think that Donald Trump knows so much better than the old Greek or the old Englishman — and have no time for such abstruse philosophy. Confirming in the breach that where one begins is where one ends.
“What does that even mean other than some warm fuzzies?”
It means the new world order has no room for American exceptionalism (another empty warm fuzzy I’m sure, have someone else explain that to you) or international borders. So while the over educated eggheads discuss the finer points of Hobbes and how the poor stupids are too stupid to understand such intricacies, our philosopher kings are stealing the nation through slight of hand; switching “subject” for “citizen” in the name of social justice.
So, what it means is, we people getting fucked in the ass want to elect, for a fucking change, someone that will actually stop the ass fucking, instead of just talking about how ancient Greeks talked of how to not get ass fucked. We want someone that has actually DONE something in life, not just fucking talk!
MAKE America great again, not talk about how America used to be.
Get it? Got it? Good.
So a guy who brags about how fabulous he is at ass fucking, how all the other ass fuckers are l0sers compared to him, he’s the guy you think is going to stop the ass fucking?
I’m sorry, but that’s the underpants gnome theory of politics.
Brags about ass fucking? That’s pure projection from someone nervous and confused over the phrase make America a great again.
Trump brags about building things and employing people and winning. That you see that as ass fucking says something about you, not him.
. . . not just fucking talk.
Yes, that’s what the Athenians said to the Melians. Enough with the talking!, especially the political talking (that talking which implies thinking). Enough. It’s time for action, for the doing and not for the words: the action in which — after the Melians decide they will not surrender their talking, insisting that justice be done to them — the Athenians act by annihilating the Melians and take the Melian women and children slaves. So, recapitulated today. And there we are.
It is strange however, I should note, that the observation of mine that we can “doubt that the Americans will now take the time to consider” should be interpreted as if that meant those Americans are too stupid to have the capacity to consider, should they take the time to do so. That interpretation, I think, may be an act of preemptive surrender itself. Which, weird, given the context.
Look, I agree about the ends. I just fail to see how Trump is a suitable means for achieving those ends. Because at the end of the day, all of his intincts are those of a conventional New York liberal. Rhetoric to the contrary notwithstanding.
I thought “ass fucking” meant the way the establishment-elite ran the system for its own benefit. Trump is part of that establishment-elite. The crass nouveau riche part of it, to be sure, but part of it nonetheless.
Building things and employing people and buying politicians and trampling on property rights when hew wants to build things –which is okay when you want to employ people because the Supreme Court said so. I mean, the guy plays the game and works the system bettwer than anyone –just ask him. So who better to reform it, right?
You’re focused on the #winning. I’m concerned about the #dealing.
#greatdeals, #fabulousdeals dpoesn’t inspre any confidence in me.
Related, a post at Powerline by S. Johnson titled “Liberalism for Dummies” after those books so titled. There, Bill Voegeli explains.
Ben Domenech had a mostly good essay over at the Federalist in which he argued that whereas the Tea Party phenomenon was driven by a mantra of “no more bailouts”, the Trump phenomenon, to the extent that it’s not simply a cult of celebrity, seems to be motivated by the mantra of “where’s my bailout?”
I think it’s mostly right in general, but the particulars need some refining. “Bailout” is shorthand for redressing any number of grievances, of a protectionist and/or isolationist nature for example.
Sort of what I was referring to the other day with the mention of the flip-sided victory of identity politics. Least wise, that’s what it looks like in some regards. Kind of a “can’t beat ’em? join ’em” sorta deal.
Paul Rahe: The Power of the Purse
Kind of a “can’t beat ’em? join ’em” sorta deal.</i
Obama's chickens come home to roost.
Yep, and to that extent, something to have been expected — more’s the pity.
On Bill O’Reilly yesterday (I think, I’m watching internet clips bc no cable) Trump said that
#1. His favorite president in modern history was Reagan, and
#2. when asked about FDR he referred to him as a “liberal”
#3. He also said that Clinton was not that great because of NAFTA.
now. the question is whether he believes any of that.
?
Trumps appeal has nothing to do with where is my bailout, and everything to do with securing our borders sp America stays America. Unlike the establishment who are more concerned with globalism. Saying he is establishment is like saying a hacker is part of the Obama administration because he read Hillaries emails. Which, said hacker would be way more qualified to secure the server than a constitutional lawyer that talks endlessly about how what Hillary did was improper, historically speaking.
Again, it all boils down to its not that you disagree with what Trump is saying, it’s you don’t believe he means it.
Missfixit, Trump was a registered democrat until 1987, when he became a republican for ten years before he switched to the reform party for a couple of years before switching back to democrat. I think it was 2009 he became an independent for a year then went back to republican. So no, I have no trouble believing he liked Reagan, and no, the people saying he’s a lifelong democrat are t being truthful. Now you can make of his switching around what you will, but to me it’s obvious he puts competence before party, and I think it a major plus in his collumn that he will not be beholden to the party establishment. YMMV.
it’s obvious he puts competence before party,
yes that’s obvious about him. That’s what I was saying upthread about his constant hammering on competence.
Trump is either vastly underestimated and a possible second Reagan, or his ego is so huge he will hang himself on it. I think the fun part of this is the risk involved. ;)
also, because I think names are interesting, google the names meanings of “Ronald” and “Donald” and tell me you don’t get the chills. just a teensy bit.
Donald Trump is a short fingered vulgarian. I still find it bizzare that he leads this shindig. He graduated from Wharton so he isn.t yard ape, but I don’t get the appeal.
Reagan never told his supporters to beat up Democrats. And he didn’t contradict himself three times in one sentence.
When he drew rhetorical blood he did it in such a way even his victms had to laugh along.
He made fun of his opponents on substance, not personality or appearance — even when his opponents went there constantly. He didn’t have to tell people he was better than his critics. He proved it by example.
Now tell me all the reasons The New Reagan has to be an asshole to sell his program, which he never seems to actually describe.
Hey Abe, long time no see.
Now SHUT UP!
Just kidding!!
I really should shut up!
Yeah, Trump isn’t Reagan.
Also, it’s not 1980. Now democrats are full on loud and proud socialists, and republicans are left of the 1980’s democrat.
On the plus side, Reagon granted amnesty to illegal aliens even before they became undocumented immigrants, Trump will not.
The third answer is the only one that really tells us anything
I think the fun part of this is the risk involved. ;)
I’ll append that to “female evo-psych and file them both away under “why women should be denied the right to vote.”
He noted laconically
but when you’re facing a choice between two shitty candidates, why wouldn’t you pick the wild card who measures his penis on live television and still manages to lead the pack ?
I can’t make up my mind if I’m voting yet, but we can file that under female indecision. she noted happily.
the question is whether he believes any of that?
Heh. missfixit can easily answer that for herself. She can just recollect all those genuine Reagan supporters she knows who reflexively and vehemently demanded that Nancy Pelosi impeach George W. Bush; who to this day rage that George W. Bush lied to take the United States to war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq; who contribute great sums of money to Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Harry Reid, Rahm Emmanuel, Chuck Schumer, and numerous other Democrat progressive ideologues; those admirers of Reagan who lock-step approved of Obama’s wasteful stimulus spending, or on passage asserted how great Obamacare would be, or on Obama’s first election declaimed how good a president he would be; who favor universal health care paid by government to prevent people dying in the streets; who say they don’t like guns and would prefer regulations of them were stiffer; who praise all the good work Planned Parenthood does, and therefore would see to it that Planned Parenthood continues to receive federal dollars, though just not dollars for those untoward abortions they perform or have performed for them which end in selling baby parts for profits; who turn to tariffs and threat of trade wars to improve economic matters, for the purported disastrous effects of Smoot-Hawley are misjudged by the economic historians; who never even whisper a word about cutting back to solve the problems of the coming bankruptcy of the welfare state.
Hundreds and thousands of Reagan admirers like that, surely. Oh yes, easy peasy.
“He graduated from Wharton so he isn’t yard ape,”
Most yard apes have more sense than to order some meat, slap it on a table, and claim it proves they are still in the failed overpriced crummy steak business that even Sharper Image never cared about.
Cruz is a Princeton grad who argued cases before the Supreme Court but people want to hear an old orange guy with “a great brain” and “the best words” tell them his pecker is beyond adequate, and by the way Canadian’s can’t be president because Lawrence Tribe sez so.
Oh and the “We had a GDP of zero last year” quote in the last debate is a mixture of sad and nutty but luckily for Big Tower Guy the press magically forgot to ever notice it. Instead they bickered fitfully over whether Michelle Fields is a liar who lies or a twisted maelstrom of lunacy who lies on her way to lying about some lies she lied about and wishes she had more tongues so she could lie several times simultaneously.
I know Cruz gradded from Princeton, but he uses words properly, unlike the habitually babbling Trump. He actually needs confirmation.
Cruz is a Princeton grad who argued cases before the Supreme Court but people want to hear an old orange guy with “a great brain” and “the best words” tell them his pecker is beyond adequate –
My lawyer also used to tell me about all of his legal exploits and how fabulous he was, he charged me over 25k to litigate a child protection case against my ex.
At the end of that 18 month process I hated his guts and I hated every lawyer in the whole country, even though I won my case. My kids can be anything they want except a lawyer, as I will not pay one dime for any of them to go to law school.
Trump is probably a giant asshole but at least he’s not a lawyer or a politician. (I can’t believe how low the bar is now!)
I cannot relate.
good “allanisthegreatestgodyouinfidelscum”
abe is in the house!!11!!
missfixit says March 17, 2016 at 6:20 pm
thanks for the laugh miss
Until he does.
>I know Cruz gradded from Princeton, but he uses words properly, <
oh my
The Sting Theme (Joplin – The Entertainer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WxfjWnuEno
I’ve notice there is an anti-establishment theme to both Trump and Bernie’s candidacies. My question, to you more politically intelligent types, is how in the living hell did those two establishment whores somehow manage to co-opt the anti-establishment idea? I mean Trump is every big business, crony capitalist dickhead we’ve seen and Bernie is 31-year congress critter. Are people so desperate and angry that they’ll actually believe that those two represent anything less than more of the same shit?
Mr. Saturn, never underestimate the power of false advertising.
Never Mind the Why and Wherefore, ahyep.
Mr Saturn, I guess it depends on what you think “the establishment” is.
To me, it started with “the Republican establishment”, which was a subset of “the ruling elite” and “the ruling class” which has a longer history. The term came about as I recall in response to the growing sense that the entrenched powerful within the party were tipping the scales when it came to selecting the candidates as opposed to running a clean game for the people to elect the candidate in primaries. Mostly starting with McCain.
The establishment are the behind the scenes power brokers that
decide who get on which committee, controls campaign funds, and generally determine the success of the candidates career. They are the ones that decide how a particular vote should go, and set about applying pressure to make it so.
Take Rubio, elected as a TEA Party candidate, but turned by the establishment (with promises of fame and fortune and a shot at president no doubt) enticing him to abandon his voters and promises to join the Gang of Eight. He was a non establishment candidate that joined the establishment.
Sanders has always been an establishment puke, a sure vote for whatever his party told him to vote for or against. The only way he could be called anti establishment is in the sense that Hillary is the establishment choice and he’s running against her…but I don’t buy it. I think he was encouraged to run against Hillary by the establishment, because they needed SOMEONE to, but not someone like, say, Elisabeth Warren, who might actually beat Hillary.
Cruz is a tougher call for me. I think the establishment finds him to be a little too rebellious and independent, and so they don’t want him to be president, but I think for the most part he has played ball with them; he HAS made some questionable votes, and he did work in the Bush administration, and his wife does work for Goldman Sacks (I know, that last is a little silly, but it does raise a red flag for rabid establishment haters).
Calling Trump establishment seems ludicrous to me. He’s been totally outside the system, playing a totally different game. If he’s establishment by virtue of donating money to politicians, then so am I, and I dare say so are most of you. It’s like saying if I pay for a contractors licence from the state, I’m a state worker. Or, if you want to entertain the darker characterizations of Trump, it’s like saying if I bribe a building inspector to overlook some subpar work, I’m part of the engineering department.
Anyway, my thoughts, hope it helps.
Yes
We should also remember to distinguish between anti-establishment and anti-status quo.
However much they overlap in the Venn diagram
Ernst Schreiber says March 17, 2016 at 10:49 am
Look, I agree about the ends. I just fail to see how Trump is a suitable means for achieving those ends. Because at the end of the day, all of his intincts are those of a conventional New York liberal. Rhetoric to the contrary notwithstanding.
– See more at: https://proteinwisdom.com/?p=58337#sthash.ih4EtQZz.dpuf
These are your choices. Trump ,Clinton, Sanders and if we’re really lucky Cruz.
Trump is not my forst choice, but when stacked against Clinton and Sanders he is way ahead. Trumps advantage, to me anyway, is I know who he is. I know the type of person he is. He’s a pitchman, a huckster. We know more about him as a candidate than we know about Hillary or Sanders.
Mr. Trump is a good ole boy but also he will take great pride in having his governance measured against his goal of making America great again (he is a very proud man, Mr. Trump is)
and there’s so much low-hanging fruit what he can pick towards that end (the end of making America great again)
just by stopping the rape of the economy what food stamp’s done and what Hillary will continue will get him a good bit of the way there
and by forcing the piggy piggy establishment R’s to think long and hard about what principles they want to defend and advance, he will be very salubrious I think
nope Mr. Trump doesn’t scare me
hillary terrifies me though
advantage: Mr. The Donald
“He will be very salubrious I think” Zactly, Happy!
And I’m gettin’ edified by the salubrious discussion Trump’s candidacy has stimulated here.
One of Trump’s biggest selling points is his career in construction and development. The largest burden on free citizens’ freedoms is that awkward bundle pressed onto our shoulders by building regulations and zoning prohibitions. If you’re a renter, or you don’t own land, or you’ve never sought permits to build a structure in America, and you voted for the latest levy on property owners for, well, whatever, then you won’t understand a word of this, and you should probably just head on over to the safety of National Review for the next five or ten…
But to rally against the codes alone would be to ignore their collaborators in our captivity. These collaborate with (1) the unionized civil service backed by the local municipality’s power to levy liens on landowners, (2) a dumbed-down, dispossessed, urban constituency for municipal services that sees property owners as dupes whose freedom of action is to be forever taxed, undermined and regulated for their caprices, (3) another lien-wielding certification regime composed of often-third-rate, ‘licensed’ contractors, temperamentally opposed to owner-builder opt-outs, right-to-work laws and freemen operating ‘unlicensed’ in their jurisdictions, and who are organized into hives under their respective Registrars (and whose contracts, BTW, are often compelled on the citizen by the same money-lenders, insurers and certification farms that lobby for evermore zoning regulations), and lastly with (4) the interests that sell services to this certification/enforcement framework, like the “continuing education” provider-industry (which includes rafts of print and copy vendors, packet and paper handling/shipping/shredding companies, and even politicians that draft bills tailored to accrue to the regime).
It should come as no surprise either, that, entangled in this gross bramble of rent-seekers, money-men, certifiers and paper-shufflers hides the GOPe (or “Penny-Loafer Republicans”) alongside the metropolitan, Laura Dunham-watching Hillary/Bernie voters. You cannot understand a Mitt Romney’s or John McCain’s careers, nor that of the nation’s current collision with uniparty Socialism, without peering deep into the rentier class’ explosion, and both parties’ collusion in legislating – and then selling into, its personnel expansions.
The average real estate transaction, even one involving raw, undeveloped land, can require the hire of as many of 6 unique private agencies to fill-out and convey, on average, 250 sheets of printed paper (pica, 8 ½ X 11), as well as, if you count States’ departments of revenues and recorders offices, as many as 4 different governmental agencies. Just to buy a piece of real property from another citizen, and before going for permits. All this bloat is mandated by law made by the Uniparty.
Trump is the only candidate who realizes this, and who has, early-on in his campaign, articulated a desire to “roll it back.” It is rarely discussed, but this burst in gov’t-mandated paper shuffling is strangling us. and it is essential that we push back on this ‘hidden’ front. I cannot see Ted Cruz’ Goldman Sachs handlers letting him break these rice-bowls. Donald J. Trump, tho, is another story!
I think voting for the huckster over the committed leftist ideologue is a defensible position.
I also think that it concedes that we’re destined to lose –however slowly. I’m not signing up for that.
And I have to disagree with you about knowing Trump better than Clinton or Sanders. It seems to me that the opposite is the case from a conservative perspective.
Steve’s argument for Trump reminds me of McCain’s argument for reforming the campaign finance system –vote for me to change the corrupt system I’m a part of; help me help you save yourself from people like me.
Personally I think your wish casting. If regulatory reform is what you believe necessary to make America great again, then Trump must be for it. Because Trump is all about making America great.
wok fol air didle di do
and a pint o rum in the morning
Correction: Lena Dunham.
I’m not watching, can’t even spell her name. Still, for some, she’s a star! She says she knows me, but I don’t know her. Pitiful, really.
G’nite, Possums!
I’m a single issue voter this time. An issue that wouldn’t even be on the radar if Trump wasn’t running. This is why I don’t want and don’t trust Cruz: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2014/07/18/mike-lee-sends-regrets-ted-cruz-signs-up-for-glenn-beck-soccer-balls-teddy-bears/
Because nobody was against amnesty until Benito Mousse the Weenie spoke out against it.
Grow up.
Yeah, we’ve been hearing professional politicians like the Canadian TALK about the problem for decades. Now we’re going to elect a non politician American to get’er done.
You wise old sage you…
“[L]ike the Canadian” is very clever stuff. Care to share with us where you got it?
Oh, from “talk” by a “non-politician”? Odd.
This, by the way, is why Trump is getting so violently protested. I mean, any republican is going to get protested, but the level the anti Trump people are protesting is because they realize this guy actually MEANS it. It’s not just talk. Thus, for the first time since they TALKED about building a border fence a decade ago, it’s now on the radar again.
‘Cuz we people that need to grow up respect action, not talk. Wah!
Fucking near as clever as ” Benito”, I think.
I guarana-damn-tee you, if Cruz wasn’t running for POTUS, he would still be a Canadian. Odd.
Ah, the squeeky armpit routine.
That’ll show the old fart.
So proving in court that Ted Cruz is a Canadian isn’t an item about which to just “get’er done”, and not just “talk”? Heck, one might think that claims of action are meant to result in action. But where’s the action to go with the claims? No action, no “get’er done”.
Nope, just more empty talk — empty talk for marks to admire and emulate.
Funny how the action gets thrown out of court, instead of ruled on.
Uh, throwing empty cases out of court for lacking foundation is ruling on the emptiness of the case. Just for the record.
Besides, the action I see from Cruz is handing out Teddy bears to illegals. His TALK was expanding H1b visas by half a million a year. When he wasn’t doing super secret poisoned pill votes for comprehensive immigration reform.
I know, we children just don’t get the genius of our betters…
Implication? That Ted Cruz was giving a teddy bear to himself! What a guy!
By way of examining the record for completeness however, let’s do not look at the reasons Cruz accounted for his reversal on H1b visas. Nor think that the poisoned pill legislative strategy he pursued against the Gang of Eight bill was recognized and commented on by his antagonists contemporaneously with his implementation of that legislative strategy, so “super secret” was it that no one could possibly have winkled it out. No, let’s not. Let’s just make believe none of this has happened. Instead let’s march lock-step with our orders from supreme business leader (“our betters”) headquarters.
Ernst, I’m pretty sure I’m the same age as McGehee, but personally insulting someone with a different perspective than yourself is obviously the mark of maturity. So armpit noises it is.
I guess the ‘stache will just have to bear the burden of knowing he nailed you then
Nowhere have I implied Cruz is an illegal, or even that he is not a citizen. As you well know, my problem is with the term “natural born” as intended in the constitutional requirement for POTUS.
So after that I quit reading. Discussing anything with someone determined to miss the point is fruitless.
Good day!
Another one that misses the point. Determinedly.
Ok, maybe I should have added “to him” after “maturity” to better make my point. Either way…
Discussing a complex legal proposition with oneself must be even harder when one cannot follow the legal implications of one’s own posits. Gathering a so-called “fact” based account for purposes of making a court presentation is simply beyond one’s ken. Following a logical schema? Impossible! Good day!
[M]y problem is with the term “natural born” as intended in the constitutional requirement for POTUS.
You’re problem is that it doesn’t mean what you think it should mean and that’s not fair.
So. . . armpit noises.
Trump!
By the Prostitutes of the Untied Steaks of Duhmerica
Trump sat alone in his tower lair
It was rococo, just as tacky as his hair
Trump used his big orange head to promise us a Wall
Fox said the eff word, so it grew by ten feet tall
He’s Trump, He’s Trump
He’s pulled ahead
He’s Trump, He’s Trump, He’s Trump,
Not Canadian Ted
Trump has the best words and a very good brain
He says he still sells steaks, and Romney is insane
Says Trump U’s great but he knows better than to settle
Says its fine the judge is Spanish, Ol’ Trump deserves a medal.
He’s Trump, He’s Trump
He’s still ahead.
He’s Trump, He’s Trump, He’s Trump,
Some Momentum’s bled
Trump keeps Chris Christie on a see thru leash
Keeps Carson drooping like he’s baked on fresh Hashish
Finally got Little Marco out of the race
But Kasich’s still chopping around at empty space
He’s Trump, He’s Trump
His guys are grabbing arms.
He’s Trump, He’s Trump, He’s Trump,
He’s a dirtbag farm
Trump canceled a show, but he’s not afraid
Will it cost him votes or will he fight in the shade
He got surrounded by Chicago heat
Canceled the rally, But he’s standing on his feet
He’s Trump, He’s Trump
Bernie better lay low
He’s Trump, He’s Trump, He’s Trump,
Baby here we go!
Trump was the grand marshall in a big parade
Believe him! Great deals. He’s closing, getting laid.
He’s tight with God, has a top line score
Says he ain’t got nothing to apologize for
He’s Trump, He’s Trump
He’s still ahead.
He’s Trump, He’s Trump, He’s Trump,
Not sure just what he’s said
Is this Trump outta my hair?
Oh hell no
Is this Trump outta my hair?
Oh hell no
Is this Trump outta my hair?
Oh hell no
Is this Trump outta my hair?
Marketing: Everything’s great!
wrong thread sdferr
This thread is about protecting America from Americans what were born in Canada and so can’t be trusted to keep the Mexicans out as much as the guy who hires Mexicans to build all that great stuff a DOER! like him builds (because he doesn’t hire ’em personally –the subcontracters of the guys that the DOING! is contracted out to do) can be trusted because he said it first and loudest.
M T.
C D B?
D B S A B Z B.
D B S A M T B Z B.
Say Ernst (wink:) “. . . and it, you know, we had our day . . . “, ya can nearly make out the cold logical pessimism Nietzsche railed against in The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music there.
Enough of this teatotalling apollonian nihilist already, give us our life affirming dionysians back.
No, right thread Ernst. It’s about the beautiful fatal uses of marketing, not about Bruxelles as such.
(Yeah that was real mature, I know.)
Trump deserves credit for moving the window on immigration and securing the borders. The rest of the GOP field is to be faulted for not getting to Trumps right on those issues.
But that doesn’t make Trump the only border hawk, or even a reliable one. Maybe he means it, maybe he doesn’t maybe he meant it at the time and times change. The only way to know for sure is to vote for him. He’s like Nancy Pelosi that way I guess.
And none of that makes Cruz ineligable. And Trump lost what little interest I had in ever supporting him when he pulled that opportunistic birther crap.
So forgive me for thinking he’s an opportunistic demogogue who’ll say whatever he thinks he needs to say in order to win.
I’ve only got his example to go off of.
The subcontractors who worked for Trump who I got to know in Philadelphia and south Jersey hate the guy the most: they never got paid by him, and he could care less. Nothing like electing an injudicious piece of shit to the highest office in the land, they’d tell us today.
What’d he do? File for bankruptcy on ’em? Shoulda had better lawyers looking out for them with the judge.
Losers
What’d he do? He saw to it that they absorbed his losses, so that they either simply suffered if they happened to have had substantial enough reserves of capital to keep their concerns going, or, went out of business in his stead while he kept his personal wealth. They, keeping their end of the deal did the work. He, keeping his, fucked them over.
Yep, they felt like the losers they were. Y’know, angry: like Achilles angry.
Well then, I look forward to seeing them in Hillary! campaign commercials.
Or people just like them.