The legislative moves that he has been most successful at making have largely been those of the Republican party at large - McConnell's agenda, and not his. — StreetlightX

Whether or not this was on Trump's todo list, I'm sure he's thrilled about it.



From what I understand, the growing disparity between rich and poor is not good for democracy or economic stability. A small coalition of power and a downtrodden populace works well for an autocracy, however.

Great video.

I remember the Trump rally in San Jose, where protesters committed violence and harassment against rally-goers. A seething mob postured towards one woman, mocking her, throwing eggs at her face. A young man, obviously non-confrontational, was chased and beaten, as were many others. The police did nothing.

This is essentially persecution and it has no place in a free society. We should humanize our political opponents instead of the other way about.

Regarding the Erie Pennsylvania Obama-Obama-Trump voters, manufacturing jobs have not returned and there's no indication that they will ever return. The horizon looks like ever increasing automation. So will they still vote for him in 2020? If so, will that be a rational choice, or a choice consistent with what they claim to be the reason for supporting him?



Regarding populism, some believe that right-wing populism can carry an element of racism in that those experiencing a fall in status (deplorables) may resent falling to an equal or lower status as minorities. This could be why tactics like the NFL anthem controversy worked so well for Trump.

What would you make of a Bernie or Warren candidacy? — StreetlightX

Bernie is an 800 year old socialist from Timbuktu, yet he's supposed to be the voice of the future, who will just seize the passion of this changing nation. Really? He owes his fame to the debacle of the Democrats in having eliminated all competition in last election's primaries to hand Hillary the unopposed candidacy, minus one irrelevant old man so they could make it look like a contest. Then the guy actually makes a run for it and gives her some heat, proving she was an incredibly weak candidate.

A Trump/Bernie debate would be very entertaining, watching Trump tell him he's impotent or something else totally crazy. Anyway, the left needs to rethink running a socialist and maybe move to the middle. Trump is hardly a right wing firebrand, but more of loony tune right leaning pragmatist, so I don't know the country really is looking for an ideologue.

Warren seems to have a problem with the truth, and that will be exploited. If the Democrats wish to bring dignity back to the office, I'm not sure she'd be the candidate. Having a woman candidate against Trump will only give him the opportunity to be unapologetically sexist, thus gaining him more votes. You really can't underestimate the value of being unapologetic. If openly advocating pussy grabbing doesn't sink someone for being sexist, I don't think anything will.

BREAKING: Person who will vote for Trump thinks the Democrats shouldn't nominate a left wing candidate.

Excellent analysis. Thanks for posting the video.

Opposite the riff raff in Erie, PA and the various deindustrialized areas of the US (and the UK) are the Boston-New York-Washington metroplex (and London) elites who dominate a great deal of what we see, hear, and read in the national media. The New York Times, New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, and so on speak to and for the elite. Their views are skewed toward the interests of these highly privileged people (numbering in the single-digit millions).

The kind of world that is good for the elite isn't the same kind of world that is good for the riff raff. The riff raff have been impoverished partly by globalization (featuring cheap Asian labor costs), but also by the successful wage-stagnating strategies of business, the steady erosion by inflation, and the gradual thinning of what passes for a social safety net. All this has been a fact of riff-raff life since the 1970s.

There is a large faction of "the left" and the elite that is suffering from what Quillette author Dr. Benedict Beckeld (a philosopher, not an MD) calls "Oikophobia" -- the hatred or dislike of one’s own cultural home. Oikophobia tends to set in when a powerful nation passes its apogee of power. Images of what were celebrated on the way up (rough, tough industrial workers, strong ethnic communities, political solidarity among the majority population, and so forth) becomes a crass embarrassment to those who no longer feel like they are riding an ascendent rocket. After the apogee, the elite begins to loathe the formerly heroic rough tough workers as sexist fat failures who couldn't adapt to the new economic realities (which they themselves rigged against the workers), views strong ethnicity as racist, and reinterprets the old political solidarity as populism tinged with a hint of fascism.

The narrative of the elites tends to place the responsibility for racism, sexism, xenophobia, islamophobia, homophobia, etc. on individuals, meaning "your privately held primitive attitudes are the source of the problem", rather than naming elite-administered national political and economic policies as the major factor. A very significant example of this is that American suburban racial and economic segregation was explicit national policy starting in the 1930s. The policy was "home ownership in segregated suburbs for whites with adequate resources and segregated rental housing in the urban core for blacks". It isn't that there were no racial/income gulf before this policy, but there were some blacks, with as sufficient resources to buy houses in the suburbs as some whites, who ran into the brick wall of FHA policy and financing rules.

The government didn't invent racism, of course. But separating the races in urban environments solidified and aggravated racial bias.

academic analysis as explained here:

5 min Ch4 interview related to the fragility of democracy. Yale professor Timothy Snyder :

https://www.channel4.com/news/some-of-todays-politicians-have-learned-propaganda-tricks-from-1930s-fascists-says-yale-professor — Amity

It is an interesting attempt to understand Trump’s phenomenon. In Germany, the fascistic body politic had been constituted so that the body, the intellect, the affection, and even the mimics of the fuhrer had embodied the German masses’ desires, aspirations, and hopes. The individuals’ anxieties, emotions, traumatic experiences, and fantasies had been mobilized and transformed. Is that possible to apply this account on one of the main aspects of fascism to the relations between Trump and his supporters? Trump could establish a unique channel of immediate communication with a vast audience, trying to address its concerns and appeal to its interests. Should Trump’s proximity to his voters be categorized as the fascistic or proto-fascistic body politic that threatens to destroy the existing political regime? And, does Trump’s base constitute the hysteric mass, subordinated to the irrational impulses of the maniacal leader?

And, does Trump’s base constitute the hysteric mass, subordinated to the irrational impulses of the maniacal leader? — Number2018

An important distinction that sometimes gets overlooked between Hitler and Trump is that the former had death camps where millions of people were systematically murdered in an attempt to create a pure race and in the latter the guy would send out a bunch of fucked up tweets that pissed everyone off. Other than that, pretty much the same.

Hitler and Trump is that the former had death camps where millions of people were systematically murdered in an attempt to create a pure race — Hanover

Look up what was happening in Germany in 1934

The video covers the topic of the "deplorables" well even if it's not explaining many of the other factors in the Trump victory. I wonder how many voters of Trump actually support Trump and don't just hate the left and Hillary. I think I can understand where Hanover is coming from, although maybe it's just my imagination, I feel that many would vote for anyone if it meant preventing the likes of Hillary from achieving presidency. The contempt the left has for the "deplorables" is not unmatched by the contempt felt for the left by all kinds of unlikely allies. I feel that Trump is so outdone as a threat by the left, it's just terrible that he can be a better option than his mainstream political rivals.

I don't see Trump as representing any kind of ideology or position. Rather he's an expert at exploiting the feelings of a large and mainly silent demographic by making them feel as though he understands their plight and will work for them. Well, they've all been suckered, because Trump stands for nothing but himself. His sole expertise is self-advancement, exploiting others, and conning people.

If you read the actual facts about Trump's character, career, history and politics, there is no way you could support him, but of course, neither he nor his supporters read anything much, let alone anything critical. So we're supposed to recognise that wilful ignorance and mendacity constitute a 'tectonic shift'.

I don't think so.

Oh, and Bernie Sanders should retire immediately and stop being a distraction.

He's been within the top 3 in polls this entire time and only recently dropped to third what are you talking about

If you read the actual facts about Trump's character, career, history and politics, there is no way you could support him, but of course, neither he nor his supporters read anything much, let alone anything critical. So we're supposed to recognise that wilful ignorance and mendacity constitute a 'tectonic shift'.

I don't think so. — Wayfarer

This is exactly the kind of attitude that the video is targeting. They knew all that and still voted for him, and I don't think you care why.

I don't get why centrist liberals always want to make such a display of their outrage, even after three years. It's embarrassing.

I don't think you care why. — jamalrob

If millions of people vote for such an obviously flawed candidate, then the reasons aren't political, but sociological.

I don't get why centrist liberals always want to make such a display of their outrage, even after three years. — jamalrob

I'm not a 'centrist liberal'. I've always followed US politics, I subscribed to Time Magazine for years. I'm also, unlike many people I know, not anti-American. And I'll stop talking about it when Trump is removed from office, which won't be too far off.

[Sanders] has been within the top 3 in polls this entire time and only recently dropped to third what are you talking about — Maw

He's just had a heart attack, he's 77 and looks every day of it.

He's just had a heart attack, he's 77 and looks every day of it. — Wayfarer

Add some bad grammar and profanity and you've got a Trump tweet in the making there.

I'm also, unlike many people I know, not anti-American. And I'll stop talking about it when Trump is removed from office, which won't be too far off. — Wayfarer

You're such a basically good person. Trump probably isn't going to be removed from office. He's probably going to be re-elected. It's really not the end of the world, though.

BTW, we need to talk about Australia's coal production and what it would mean for them to slow down or stop exporting it. Maybe we could talk about something important like that after everybody's head is through exploding over bullshit politics.

He's just had a heart attack, he's 77 and looks every day of it — Wayfarer

Biden had two aneurysms in 1988 and can't speak more than a minute without digressing into jabberwocky, but his deteriorating health issues aren't magnified in the way that Bernie's has been. I do think that he will eventually drop out either because of health issues or simply because I think Warren will eventually trail him, but either way he's hardly a distraction when 1) he's still polling well, and well above most other contenders and 2) many key topics that the Democrats are grappling with are directly because of him and their popularity within the Democratic party.

Trump probably isn't going to be removed from office. He's probably going to be re-elected. — frank

I don't think you have been following the news. I'm certain there is no way Trump will be able to stand as GOP candidate next year. He has just plunged the US into a bona-fide 'constitutional crisis' by claiming that the impeachment inquiry, which is grounded in impeccable testimony, is a 'witch hunt' and a 'hoax'. He has had a shadow secretary of state running around Eastern Europe trying to drum up evidence of a fringe conspiracy theory whilst withholding American military aid to coerce other nations to co-operate.
In other words, he has clearly broken the oath of office. Seriously nobody in this conversation seems to have any idea of how big a crisis this is. The US is about to be shaken to its foundations, but I cling to the hope that in the end - which is maybe weeks, maybe months away - Trump will be removed from office.

In other words, he has clearly broken the oath of office. Seriously nobody in this conversation seems to have any idea of how big a crisis this is. The US is about to be shaken to its foundations, but I cling to the hope that in the end - which is maybe weeks, maybe months away - Trump will be removed from office. — Wayfarer

I know. The GOP isn't going to budge, though. They aren't going to find him guilty, at least that's what they're signalling right now.

All you can do is get philosophical about it. Could you explain why it's important to you?

I deny that the left or the right actively helps the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. That economic transformation is not partisan-directed, or helped. It is a system growing on a natural basis by itself. — god must be atheist

Can you clarify what you mean by a system growing, you seem to be saying, sui generis? That's not sounding very Marxian to me.

But what is there to exploit in people who are not even working? Or in the golden era of middle class (1950-2010) who wanted to fight against oppression and exploitation? — god must be atheist

Constituting 13% of the population in the usa, Black folks have never not been exploited and held back. And lots of white folks fought on their behalf, as you know, during the Civil Rights movement.

"What is there to exploit in people who are not working?" Are you kidding? Reagan's vast expansion of the prison system that revved up in the 1980s and has continued ever since, has made billions upon billions for all companies involved in constructing and administrating prison systems. The projects also "make" billions of dollars for other people.

That's what he thought the main secular goals of a Christian ought to be, and he saw it clearly that the communist party had the very same ideals in view. — god must be atheist

I think that's a really good story about your father: he saw the best ideals of Christianity and communism with none of the taint of greed, ambition or hypocrisy.

Could you explain why it's important to you? — frank

I believe in America's role in the liberal West. It is a bastion of liberal democracy, and liberal democracy is under threat. A lot of people are cynical about it - remember Agustino? There are others here, 'democracy ain't that great'. 'Compared to what?' I ask. At least you have a chance to change things. Once it's gone, nobody will have a say.

If Trump was found guilty by the House, and then acquitted by the Senate, there would literally be no way to rein him in. Look what he's already done this year - remember the Shutdown? I know someone whose livelihood was destroyed by that, he had an amazingly clever science consultancy working for a Government agency, he was one of thousands of small businesses just obliterated by Trump temper tantrum. Over what? An adolescent fantasy.Then he signed an 'executive order' to rip money out of all these other programs to fund it. He should have been impeached then!

Trump is ignoring the Constitution. This is not 'fake news', it's not 'DNC propoganda', he really is doing that. If he's aided and abetted by the GoP, then we're all going to suffer hugely for it. But I really do believe that the last embers of decency haven't been snuffed out yet -- well, ok, they have in Mitch McConnell, but not in all of them. They are going to turn and when they do, it will be all over.

You think democracy is dying and nobody is paying attention.

One cool thing that's going to start happening around 2020 is that millennials are going to start taking the world into their hands. It's really up to them what happens next, not the demented crackheads of Generation X.

Put your money on them.

Look up what was happening in Germany in 1934 — Maw

The Nazi hyperbole goes from mildly annoying to insulting, but to speak literally, as if we are just a few years from actual gas chambers and genocide, is absurd and may evoke a yawn, depending upon how passionate I am at the time

Put your money on them. — frank

What if Trump wins the next election and declares himself President for Life? If he is allowed to defy Congress on this matter, then what is going to stop him?

And no, Trump is not 'like Hitler'. Not remotely comparable. Evil comes in many hues. You can destroy the constitutional order of the States without raising a weapon; it's being done right in front of your eyes.

What if Trump wins the next election and declares himself President for Life? If he is allowed to defy Congress on this matter, then what is going to stop him? — Wayfarer

Bittercrank and I discussed this recently. We agreed that it would take some sort of profound crisis, a large scale military defeat (so nuclear, I guess), or a pandemic, or a really bad natural disaster like Yellowstone blowing up; that sort of thing would set the stage for a military coup, and it likely would be seamless (like Rome turning from republic to empire).

Trump is not the guy who would head the American Empire. The military would gut him and throw him in a ditch.

I'm not talking about a military coup. I'm talking about Trump defying the Constitution and getting away with it. And it's happening right before your eyes. Trump's lawyers have basically declared that he ought to be immune from prosecution, even though the complaint that has been filed against him is clear and so-far unchallenged evidence of criminal acts. (Saying it's a 'witch hunt' is not challenging the evidence.)

In a series of legal maneuvers that have defied Congress, drawn rebukes from federal judges and tested the country’s foundational system of checks and balances, President Trump has made an expansive declaration of presidential immunity that would essentially place him beyond the reach of the law.

Both in courts and before Congress, Trump’s legal teams are simultaneously arguing that the president can’t be investigated or indicted by prosecutors because Congress has the sole responsibility for holding presidents accountable, and that the House’s impeachment inquiry is an unconstitutional effort that the White House can ignore.

“We have a president who simply doesn’t believe that Congress is a coequal branch of government,” said Elliot Williams, who helped run the Justice Department’s legislative affairs office during the Obama administration. “That’s a huge departure from anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes.

Source

I think we ventured a long ways from the OP.

The fate of the world in the hands of the enraged inexperienced? What a terrifying prospect! I suppose in the long run the collapse of civilization as quickly as possible might actually be the best thing for the world. Why postpone the inevitable except to conserve our own present comforts and well-being? Of course the millennials might get a rude shock if they find that their actions can be effective enough to collapse the system, and they are plunged into the radical discomfort of an extreme battle for survival.

It's Mad Max all the way. And upon the return of civilization, they made a wormhole and spirited across the universe eventually evolving into cute cuddly little alien looking things that only need to eat a few berries each day.

Woo hoo!