Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Trump's Card

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Shame about that carbon fee thing in Washington State.

    Comment


      https://twitter.com/shahed/status/1060200569590214656

      Comment


        Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post
        I'm much less stressed by this outcome than I was last night. I think at some point yesterday, I had decided it was going to be a spectacular year for Democrats despite evidence suggesting otherwise.
        I got very irritable last night as my wife had MSNBC on at around 8pm while they are basically covering every slight move in numbers. I found it horribly stressful, mostly because they are all on a big HYPE mission and, altogether, the whole damn thing is pointless. I much prefer the British voting process where you get to know when it is done and it is just silence till then.

        Comment


          Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
          I disagree on the comparison to “Europeans” (though any comparison that broad is DOA).

          Just look at attitudes towards organised religion, guns and climate change.

          One also should never discount the degree to which people here who are financially comfortable believe that state to be conclusive evidence of their wisdom, rather than the product of luck and favorable macro trends). The plague that is the “prosperity gospel” only encourages them in this.
          That's a good point. Europeans generally have more faith in democratic institutions and in experts, so its harder for misinformation machines, like the NRA or climate liars, to get going there. And the prosperity gospel isn't just an organic outgrowth of the Puritan religion that came here from Europe 300 years ago. It's also a well-funded misinformation machine run by and for big capital.

          Americans are less likely to trust government or large democratic institutions because our constitution was designed to make sure that those things are never actually very efficient, so people assume they never can be, so they don't vote to fund them and down the spiral goes. Meanwhile big capital just consolidates its power and bombards us with advertising telling us how they have what we need to be "ok." Whereas in a parliamentary system, at least occasionally, big things can get done. And big capital has less opportunity to step in and take it all.

          My point was just that there are still an awful lot of Europeans* primarily interested in conserving what they believe to be "theirs" just as there are here. They just have a slightly different conception of who the "us" are in the us-vs-them calculus and a very different idea of who is going to protect us from them.

          I don't know if those kind of abstract attitudes have ever been polled and compared.


          * Obviously not everyone. There are obviously lots of leftist Europeans who are happy to share what they have with others just because they're decent compassionate people and aren't at all racist or xenophobic. But that's true in the US too. The problem is that our messed-up minority rule system makes it easier for a small number of well-organized assholes to produce a government that doesn't reflect the popular will.

          Comment


            Ah, yes.

            People across the world are inherently protective of what they perceive to be theirs. It is a rather intrinsic part of human nature. At the same time, I would argue that their notions as to boundaries of what is theirs, and, even more broadly, when what they have is enough, can differ dramatically. There are very powerful cultural forces desperately trying to convince Americans that they don’t have enough which are less powerful and unchallenged in other places in which I’ve lived.

            I’m also not sure that people are as intrinsically distrustful of “Government” as you say. There are legions of white people here who are perfectly fine with the military, law enforcement and the criminal justice system to operate unchecked while being enthusiastic participants in mindless civic rituals “celebrating their service”. It’s why they call 911 on black people being black.

            Comment


              https://twitter.com/johnmyers/status/1060280990227021824

              Comment


                Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post

                I also sometimes think that the CBC goes out of its way to find the most unhinged Americans they can, because the smug sense of Canadian superiority is a big seller. It goes both ways. Fox et al can always dig up a Canadian economist who thinks free healthcare is a bad idea or find a town that doesn't have enough doctors and pass that off as typical.
                More fear based insecurity than smug superiority I think. In general Canadians have a shrewder sense of the emotional temperature in the US than the reverse. Mainly because it affects us so much, consequently matters more. Your comparison of the CBC to Fox News is both unfair and inaccurate. Generally, especially in news pieces, they're scrupulously balanced sometimes to the point of tedium. As indeed they were in the story I mentioned above. Can that ever be said of Fox News?

                Comment


                  https://twitter.com/amanbatheja/status/1060252768085176320

                  Comment


                    I'm detecting an incipient feeling that Trumpism is about to become normalised, or more so than it already is, in the coming months. Partly it's the plastic olive branches thrown out by La Grand Orange and Pelosi, but mainly it's that emotional exhaustion has begun to set it. I mean how long can anyone stay genuinely enraged without being hospitalised? (I don't include Trump's professional anger.) Sooner or later most people come to terms with the status-quo, obscene as it is in this case. Whatever Mueller throws up — assuming we get to find out — probably won't be any worse than speculation has already assumed, so it'll likely be treated as a damp squib by all but the pundits and lawyers. Fuck.

                    Comment


                      no.

                      Comment


                        Originally posted by Amor de Cosmos View Post
                        I'm detecting an incipient feeling that Trumpism is about to become normalised, or more so than it already is, in the coming months. Partly it's the plastic olive branches thrown out by La Grand Orange and Pelosi, but mainly it's that emotional exhaustion has begun to set it. I mean how long can anyone stay genuinely enraged without being hospitalised? (I don't include Trump's professional anger.) Sooner or later most people come to terms with the status-quo, obscene as it is in this case. Whatever Mueller throws up — assuming we get to find out — probably won't be any worse than speculation has already assumed, so it'll likely be treated as a damp squib by all but the pundits and lawyers. Fuck.
                        I'd suggest that the general anonymity of prospective Dem candidates is probably the biggest concern - 12 years ago, Obama had already begun his rise to prominence with his convention speech, but is anyone truly rising above the parapet now? Biden and Sanders are too old, Warren too patrician, and while Harris has been touted, it would take the best part of two years simply to build her public profile. Add in a further two years of economic growth, and it all adds up to a second Trump term. Bread-and-butter issues such as healthcare and education offer the best route to success, but the worry is that such matters will get lost through over-concentration on the orange one.
                        Last edited by Diable Rouge; 07-11-2018, 22:12.

                        Comment


                          https://twitter.com/PeterBeinart/status/1060147820123090945

                          it's still about un-normalising something that's been considered normal for far too long. Racism is normal. It was the cornerstone of the USA.

                          these are the people who might change it. though.

                          https://twitter.com/Ocasio2018/status/1060268747787767808

                          Comment


                            As with 2016, it feels like everyone is over-interpreting results to suit their own agendas. I think it's a fool's game, which is shown by 2018 proving that the 2016 theorists are all wrong.

                            I've heard that 2018 is proof the centrists can no longer win in the age of Trump, because Donnely, Heitkamp, McGrath, etc.

                            I've heard that 2018 is proof the idiosyncratic centrists who don't stick to the party line can win in the age of Trump, even in really Trumpy places - look at Manchin and Tester and Conor Lamb, etc...

                            I've heard that 2018 is proof the more openly progressive candidates are not the turnout panacaea that can open up red states - see defeats of Beto, Abrams, Gillum

                            And that 2018 is proof the more openly progressive candidates are the turnout panacaea that can open up red states - see Beto, Abrams, Gillum being competitive in red states

                            Etc... etc...

                            Comment


                              Perhaps if Gillum didn't pivot from "Medicare for all!" in the primary to "affordable healthcare for all!" in the general and then brought in Hillary to give his campaign the kiss of death. But that's my bias talking.

                              Comment


                                it's still about un-normalising something that's been considered normal for far too long. Racism is normal. It was the cornerstone of the USA.

                                That's absolutely true of course, but Trumpism isn't just about racism, or reflexive sexism. He's employed overt hatred, lies, insults and synthetic anger over almost everything and everybody, to make his "base" feel validated. I was down in Point Roberts to check-out the coffee shop scuttlebutt this morning. I heard less outrage and astonishment than I did, even a few months ago. Then it was, "I'm ashamed this man is our President!" now it's more, "Yeah, he's an asshole, and insults people, but things are basically OK, and maybe he does know what he's doing after all." I know it's just just one cup of coffee in one Washington State coffee shop but I left feeling an air of tired resignation. It's really depressing.
                                Last edited by Amor de Cosmos; 07-11-2018, 23:08.

                                Comment


                                  If you think it's bad now, he's got 6 years for the economy to go south in a big way. And it will, btw. Imagine how he'll govern then.

                                  Comment


                                    These two sets of (exit poll) stats are incredible. It's basically just old white men who're holding back progress. Every other demographic is basically unified and progressive.



                                    Comment


                                      Nah, don't let white women off the hook. 50/48 is far too close. Feel like even just a nudge in the percentage of white women towards Democrats could have made a big difference in a lot of races.

                                      And the thing the age breakdown really nails home is that people need to cool it with that bashing millennials shit. Go after the old people that have no concern about keeping a party that wants to destroy the earth in power just because they got theirs and won't be around to face the consequences of their actions.
                                      Last edited by Incandenza; 07-11-2018, 23:48.

                                      Comment


                                        would like to see a breakdown by income

                                        Comment


                                          About the fourth set down here. (not great, but the best I can find)

                                          Lower-income voters remain a core part of the Democratic Party’s base, but this year, the second largest shift left came from voters who make $50,000 to $100,000 annually. The wealthiest voters continue to vote Republican.
                                          Though the highest bracket is notably less Republican than it was in 2016 or 2014 (the peak since 2002)

                                          2018 results in tabular form here.
                                          Last edited by ursus arctos; 08-11-2018, 00:28.

                                          Comment


                                            The White House has revoked the press credentials of Jim Acosta of CNN

                                            Comment


                                              Wow. His surname is suspiciously foreign but.

                                              Comment


                                                Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post
                                                These two sets of (exit poll) stats are incredible. It's basically just old white men who're holding back progress. Every other demographic is basically unified and progressive.
                                                Fox News viewership:

                                                - 90% white
                                                - 65% Male
                                                - Average age 68 years

                                                I'm sure it is all just a coincidence.

                                                Comment


                                                  Originally posted by Incandenza View Post
                                                  Nah, don't let white women off the hook. 50/48 is far too close. Feel like even just a nudge in the percentage of white women towards Democrats could have made a big difference in a lot of races.
                                                  Let's just be honest about it. White people, taken en masse, are fucking awful. We should be ashamed of ourselves, if we weren't such pathetic whiney snivelling entitled Fox watching shit buckets on legs. We're voting for the worst excuse for a shit bucket ever AND HE ISN'T EVEN WHITE.

                                                  the most radical of racialist Nation-of-Islam type nutters isn't actually extreme enough in their pronouncements.

                                                  Comment


                                                    People vote according to their white privileges, although that doesn't totally explain the white liberal bloc in California or the East Coast, who perhaps have more black and Latino friends, or work in the social/welfare/public teaching sector, so are able to express some empathy.

                                                    A sizeable number of white women maybe fears the unknown stranger that Trump's racism depicts, even though they don't live within a 100 mile radius of many Mexicans or Muslims. Fear is not rational.

                                                    Is there some way to extend adolescence to age 40 so that the whites aged 18-29 who voted Democrat keep doing so?

                                                    Would an economic downturn turn whites more anti-Trump or even more liable to blame the brown-skinned minority?

                                                    Comment

                                                    Working...
                                                    X