What utter nonsense. Our elite postsecondary institutions are unrivaled. It’s not America’s cognitive elite who are responsible for Trump! Jesus, what a bizarre theory.
If we excised the cancerous, benighted states where slavery was legal, you’d still be left with the majority of the population and land. That country would stack up well against any other Western nation. And even with that handicap, we still got two terms of Obama! A totally cool intellectual, whose White House became a salon for cutting edge artistry (for just one example, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” had its genesis at aspoken-word event held in the WH in 2009.
People just massively overreact to 51% here and 46% there.
On a brighter note, my Father-in-law, a Trump voter and Fox News aficionado, said last night he wanted to ask Trump how such a great businessman[sup]1[/sup] could make such a crappy president. He’s losing his base.
1 - Yes, I know. Baby steps.
Voting against Trump is not the same as voting for or working for *the *adult candidate instead. Anyone who contributed to this fiasco, and arguably anybody who is part of the culture that made it possible and didn’t work hard enough to prevent it, is complicit as well.
Should the Dutch be happy they got an ambassador, when Trump hasn’t bothered to fill most of the ambassadorships, or outraged that they were singled out?
When I read the headline in my native language ( that didn’t mention names ) I thought it was that of an elephant and to Ajit Pai.
But no, of a horse and to Mnuchin… Well, maybe tomorrow…
In re Steve King: dunno. Plenty of gay men and straight women think broad shoulders are attractive; I’m not so sure that bulbous calves are in the same category. Anyway, whether SK is gay or straight, no human group would gladly claim him.
In re voting: I’m going to reiterate my belief that voting against Trump IS something. If we start demanding X number of hours of activism as the minimum to avoid being held in contempt, then we’re going to be spending all our time despising each other. And if we do that, Trump wins.
The conservative backlash rhetoric has been remarkably effective for about 60 years, and liberals haven’t shown much progress in combating it, so I doubt this. Or perhaps there’s already been a backlash against the Republican establishment – first with the Tea Party revolt, then with Trump.
If you look at the generic ballot and Trump’s historically low approval ratings, I think it indicates a better picture of public opinion and the efficacy of liberal persuasion than you are allowing.
Hear, hear.
This kind of impulse seems unfortunately to be a general tendency on the left. It’s related to the kind of Maoist or Jacobin “self-correction” we see with everyone chiding others for “problematic” tweets, or going into histrionics over Halloween costumes. Let’s please break off the circular firing squad and train our fire in the right direction.
A psychiatrist/lawyer/professor gave at talk at our local continuing legal education conference up here in Kanukistan last fall on his frequent role as an expert witness. He called Trump bat shit crazy, and then delved down into more DSM-V stuff. He wasn’t too concerned about the propriety, or lack thereof, of professionally commenting on the nuttiness of this living person. It was refreshing to have a pro call it like it is.
Seth Abramson just tweeted:
“I’m delaying a thread about Ivanka, the Russian mafia, Daphne Galizia, the Panama Papers, Alexandre Nogueira, and ICIJ until I have more time. Until then, a summary: Ivanka was working with Russian mafia; Galizia helped uncover it; Galizia was assasinated.”
The many ways Mike Pence looks at Trump. A short video from the Washington Post. (At the end Trump gives Pence one of those patented Douchenozzle pull-you-off-balance handshakes. At least this time he did it to another asshole.)
