We Wake to President Trump with Republican Majorities in Congress - Page Four

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» Resonating with Like-Minded Souls

One of the things that pundits talk about today in our extremely and increasingly polarized society .. as a cause of this fracturing and polarization .. is how everybody lives in their own echo chamber, where they only listen to ideas coming from people with whom they resonate.

This is such an obvious point, and so widely accepted, that I neednt cite the evidence for it .. the overwhelmingly obvious evidence.

Some of our elected officials claim that both sides need to listen to the other side's points-of-view .. as a way to try to bridge the vast gap between the two sides.

I would argue here .. I would contend here .. that while Americans may indeed opt to live in an echo chamber of their choosing, where they listen to people with whom they resonate .. they have indeed listened to arguments presented by the other side.

They simply do not agree with those arguments.

A friend recently told me, while referring to the Donald Trump the presidential candidate, "I heard him speak with my own ears. I was not listening to something that somebody else told me about him that he said. With my own ears I heard this guy talking with his own mouth. I heard the things that he himself was saying."

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It wasnt like she didnt hear the things that Donald said, but rather that she did indeed hear these things and she disagreed with them. She disagreed strongly. Very strongly. She was clearly upset.

Perhaps my point here is that Donald understands these people. He obviously understands the things that they are feeling. He speaks their language and they love to come listen to him. This is why he has been filling auditoriums around the country.

They obviously resonate with his words and they certainly seem to love him for it.

I wasnt there in Germany during Hitler's rise to power,

but I'm sure that there were probably some Jews who were doing unsavory things.

So when Hitler started spewing his hate and venomous speech,

this is why his oratory resonated with the people. (I would imagine.)

But slaughtering an entire race of people because of the actions of a few bad actors ..

this is an example of how hate and anger can consume people who feel like they have a valid grievance.

(And who may very well have held a valid grievance. They may have been genuinely fucked over and wrongly cheated. Only the naive would deny such a thing.)

Anger is hidden within the word dangerous. (Barely.)

People who have a hate-furnace burning inside of them .. they are always searching for something to hate. They need something to hate. Something that they can use to validate all this hate and the anger that keeps welling up inside of them.

People who hated Obama and Hillary are now terrified that Trump is actually going to be the president .. and with Republican majorities in congress .. this leaves them nothing to hate.

Nothing so terrifies a hater as having nothing to hate. The reason why this terrifies them is because it forces them to look at themselves .. in order to see where all this hate is coming from .. with nowhere to go.

It's much easier to find something new to hate .. than to introspectively and honestly look at themselves .. and why all this hate keeps bubbling up out of them. Why it keeps oozing up out of them .. on such a regular basis.

This honest self-appraisal is very difficult to do. It's not far from impossible .. in my opinion.

I dont see how it can be done without the support of a sensitive, compassionate lover. (Or perhaps a skilled therapist.) Because we have spent our whole lives constructing a narrative around such toxic dysfunction.

(Which we often get from our shitty parents .. at a time when we are completely vulnerable and do not possess the skills to defend ourselves from such practiced dysfunction.)

And once you start jiggling this key block in the life that you have constructed for yourself .. then the whole structure looks as tho it might come tumbling down. It can a scary thing, for sure.

When you get to the point where you are faced with continued denial on the one side, and the courage of honest self-appraisal on the other .. well, I'll let you finish that sentence yourself.

» A Predictive Psychological Profile

Speaking of not-so-hidden anger .. governments sometimes conduct psychological profiles on world leaders in order to try to anticipate their moves, their decisions.

I would like to see a team from academia conduct such a profile on Donald Trump .. and see where that profile leads.

Wouldnt that be interesting? You would need a variety of disciplines. Political scientists. Shrinks. Social scientists. Etc.

What if they came back and said, "Prepare for the apocalypse." ?

Here is an interesting article titled » Trump Says the US Should Expand its Nuclear Ability.

» Donald Reads and Resonates with Hitler but not the Prophets

There was a telling flub in a speech given by Donald at Liberty university that every Christian picked up on, where Donald cited a verse of scripture from "Two Corinthians."

This is an honest mistake. I have made this mistake myself, thinking that the book was called "Two Corinthians."

But then I went to a church where the pastor said, "Let's open our bibles to second Corithians," and I realized that my initial reading was incorrect. My very first day sitting in a church, I realized that Two Corinthians was incorrect.

Some Christians claim that Donald in one of them because he wants people to say "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays." (Either one of which I have no problem with.)

But to think that Donald is a true believer because he prefers "Merry Christmas" to "Happy Holidays" .. this is the same mistake that people made when they fell for George Bush claiming that he was true believer.

Like Bush, Donald is playing the evangelicals like a fiddle, and they seem only too eager to be played. Everybody knows that actions speak louder.

» The Basis for the Value Behind the Accounting Construct

Speaking of preparing for the apocalypse .. why didnt you just give Wall Street its stupid money back, Hil?

Was that too hard for you?

Was that too difficult for you?

Was that asking too much of you?

Was that beyond your ability?

Was that beyond your reach?

Did that require a tool not found in your skill set?

Could you not see the image problem with you receiving large sums of money from the very people who brought the American economy to the brink of collapse in 2008, and who should be in jail for fraud?

An economy that is still fucked up (for us-the-people), with even more inequality than before. Can you really not see the image problem there?

And now, not only are these fraudsters not in jail, but they are doing better than anybody else in this economy. Way better.

They are the only ones doing well in this economy .. that you worked so hard to designed for them.

Can you really not see the injustice in such a thing? Can you really not understand how that feels like a betrayal to the American people?

We the people do not like it when we see this bullshit going on. Do you know why we dont like it, Hil? Think about it and we'll talk more later.

But basically, it feels like a giant middle finger .. stuck right up in our faces .. so close that we cant possibly miss it even if we like you and wish we didnt see it.

You suck at managing appearances.

I would have had to fire your ass.

If you were working for me.

I'm sure that Huma says you're wonderful at everything.

Very sure of it.

That's probably why you kept her around.

Say hi to Huma for me.

It seems like you could not possibly be unable to see this image problem, but rather that you simply dont give a fuck what it looks like. Because you wanted their money .. and you obviously wanted it badly.

Who were the clowns advising you on this? Do you surround yourself with pretty 'yes' people .. who tell you all the pretty things that you like to hear?

"Oh, Hillary .. you are so smart, your are so beautiful, you are so wonderful. You have so much money. You are going to be the first woman president in America's history. You are so sexy."

It's only numbers coded electronically .. an accounting construct, you might say. And not a very good one, if you ask me.

Tell me, Hil .. what is the basis for the value of these electronically encoded numbers? You've had plenty of time to think about it.

What do you know about values? (Nietzsche is very much about values. You know Nietzsche.)

» Say Hi to the Kids for Me

Say hi to your kids for me, Blow. They were in the Bernie camp, if I recall correctly.

I feel that the youth should receive a vote that is weighted more heavily .. because they will have to continue living here long after the rest of us are dead and gone .. to wherever it is we are going when we die.

And the older generations are famous for making poor decisions that are based on economic expediency, and which disregard the impact of their shitty decisions on generations that will come after them.

Peter Thiel says that » "There are reduced expectations for the younger generation, and this is the first time this has happened in American history."

» For the First Time in American History

You have the older generation to thank for that .. for taking more than they leave future generations .. and for leaving our children an enormous IOU to pay.

Does the older generation seem very concerned about leaving such an enormous debt for our children to pay?

"More for me," their actions loudly cry. "Let the next generation pay for it. I won't be here anyway, so who cares?"

Thanks older generation. Good riddance ye selfish ones of historical proportions.

[ Selfish and self-serving is shorthand for the capitalist way, which can lead to policies that are exploitative of the weak and the poor and the helpless in order to benefit the rich and the powerful and the politically-connected. ]

If such a system had been enacted last year, Bernie would be president right now. (By a landslide.)

» What Kind of Moral Values are We Leaving to Our Children?

What kind of country are we leaving to our children? What kind of values and morals are we passing on to them?

John Kelley from Sun Valley writes:

Just think of how young people on the threshold of adulthood see the world when a person who embodies the antithesis of character qualities their mothers and fathers worked so hard to instill -- honesty, fairness, compassion, generosity -- rises to occupy the most powerful office in the world.

I could not have said it better myself.

I could really get off on a tangent here to talk about how the system is currently not designed to encourage noble character.

Those with a noble character will be crucified by the system, because they remind people of how un-noble they really are, despite the expensive suits that they wear.

It should be obvious to everyone that the system is designed to reward nasty, lying, hateful, trick-fucking, pussy-grabbing celebrities who care about little beyond their own self interests.

Dostoevsky talked about how it feels to live in a society that makes it difficult-to-impossible to live a moral life. This has certainly been my experience.

» I'm Not Going to Say that I Told You So

I am not going to say, "I told you so, Blow." But it's pretty fucking hard not to.

I can feel myself needing to shift over into my nuclear-grade restraint mode. ( I am biting my tongue so hard that I can feel callouses starting to form there. )

The ramifications of this elections are incalculable. People are talking about the US as a failed state. Whether or not we fail .. this is still a remarkable thing that such dialogue is even floating about.

What's going to happen now, Blow?

Where is the history of the so-called "United States" heading now?

How much laughter do you foresee in the future?

With Herr Donald in charge, you can be sure it wont be boring.

Reality TV comes to Washington. Stay tuned for breaking developments.

Very big breaking developments. Downright yuuuge.

Surely shit the likes of which you little people have never seen before.

» The Mother-of-All Wake-Up Calls

Talk about a wake-up call. President Trump with Republican Majorities in Congress .. now there's headline that will get people's attention. Doncha think, Blow?

I've been saying this shit for quite some time. Sometimes you get tired of beating your head against a wall. And it just seems so fucking obvious. "How can he not see this?" I wonder.

There goes Obama's legacy. You can go ahead and rip that page out of the book right now. (But dont throw it away just yet.)

» Reactions to the Mother-of-All Wake-Up Calls

Here is the View breaking it down for you. If Whoopi wasnt already on the triple-top-secret "Enemies" list, she is now.

She is livid. Blow, can you put her words there into your own words? And then write those words in a column? That would be cool.

Herr Donald is now in control of the NSA. The gestapo will soon have a feeler up her ass. Whoopi will be like, "What's that tingling sensation that I feel down there?" They will know what kind of toilet paper she uses. (And how often.)

Here is James Cordon. He will probably be deported very soon. Seth will be right behind him. Here's Aussie John Pilger on RT. Stephen is coming unhinged here on his election night Showtime special. He was clearly not prepared for the result.

Elizabeth Warren is all fired up here. I've never seen her like that. Here's Dave Chappelle on SNL. He is very much in his element there, no? Here's Howard Stern as it was happening live.

Here's Joe Rogan and his crew covering the election night from the Comedy Store. Notice that his coverage is titled » End of the World.

Here's Krugman's thoughts for the horrified. Here's Glenn Beck at the NY Times .. that's something you dont see every day. He says we should talk. You know what I think of that.

Bill Maher says, "We're still here, fuckheads."

They've been saying that at Guantanamo for more than a decade now, Bill. And Donald is having one of the cells there cleaned out special right now .. just for you.

Here are the Turks melting down live as their doomsday senario unfolds right before their very eyes.

Chelsea Handler was crying with her friend, Barbara Boxer, who puts this election in terms of making a peanut butter & jelly sandwich .. something we can all understand.

Look at Meghan go here. I was impressed by that. Where does she live? Richard Branson. Trevor Noah. Rob Reiner.

Peter Thiel .. even before he endorsed Donald Trump, he was a wizard-jedi. Almost spooky in his ability to see into the business world.

He single-handedly took down Gawker, who outed him. And he didnt give much of a fuck what anybody thought about it, either.

[ I cant help but wonder what kind of babies he and Maureen might make. True warriors. Make America great again .. by making great babies. ]

But now, he is a true player. He is German. Born in Germany. Proudly gay. (Good for him.)

If I were Trump, I would give him a blank check and say, "Here .. go do that shit you do so well. You are your own boss."

He obviously sees things that others dont or cant. (And really, what's the difference?)

This entry wouldnt be complete without at least mentioning Kate at the piano. She sings pretty fucking good, I thought. Did you see her wink at me?

Here's John Oliver. I havent watched that yet. I'm saving it for when I can devote my full attention to it.

» A Cathartic End to 2016

Okay, I've seen this now. I did not think I could be any more impressed. He is transcending the laws of nature and becoming Super John Oliver right before our very eyes.

He hits all the bases. He touches them all. He presents the unvarnished ugliness of reality. And he makes you laugh. With plenty of absurdity.

When you get over into describing how ugly reality actually is .. you need to balance that with the comedy and the absurdist perspective .. because it can be too much without those things to help you along.

When this is done well, the humor and the absurdity .. it brings a sort of therapeutic effect.

I'm not really sure how he does it, because this is grim news he delivers .. but I actually feel better after watching his shows.

Is it just me, or does he not continue to grow in impressive ways. Do you know anybody else like him? I dont.

» Go Fuck Yourself, 2016

At the end he has everybody tell 2016, "Fuck you, 2016." And these people are clearly enjoying the shit out of this. "Go fuck yourself, 2016," they gladly proclaim with gusto.

And then he blows up 2016. Oh my God .. I was laughing like a crazy person. (Angry people never laugh.)

Why does that make me laugh so hard? It should not be that funny. But it is. There comes a therapeutic effect with the blowing up of 2016.

You dont want to admit it to yourself, but that is obviously a feeling that many people can resonate with. What a year.

How many more of those can America stand? How many more of those can we take? It seems like things are coming apart right before your very eyes.

I am going to grab an image of him blowing up 2016 and place it here .. as a fitting way to end this entry.

I am pretty good myself at saying, "Go fuck yourself." But even I couldnt come up with something this poetic. Here's to you, 2016.

"That's our show. See you in 2017." Well, that was very cathartic. And here is John Oliver's mentor and hero.

Here is your response, Blow, dated Nov 10, 2016.

» The Professor's Political Insights

Here is Dyson sticking up for you. His title mentions what Donald doesnt know about black people, but his article seems to cut a broader swath by addressing all white people in general.

How can a white person really know what it is like to live in black skin?

You can read all the books that you like about how to fly an airplane. But until you have actually flown one, and more than once, I dont want to fly with you .. because you have no meaningful experience that I am willing to trust with my life.

The conclusion to Dyson's column is » "The real unifying force in American political life is whiteness."

To which I thought, "Duh."

No white American needs a college professor to tell him this. He already knows this.

And he is going after Bernie, just like you. This seems to me a fool's errand .. because this argument always brings you to back to Donald.

At this point, is it really wise to cast blame at things Bernie said .. when all those polls showed him matching up much more favorably against the Donald?

My position is based from a person who lives here in white America. Dyson's is based from his perch there in black America. Tho a professorship at Georgetown is not exactly what I would call black America.

I recognize my limitations in addressing certain aspects of certain discussions. I will naturally cede to a black man discussions that involve black America.

But I stand by my positions, which are based on my experiences (.. as a white-hetero-male).

And you are going to need more than a professor at Georgetown to argue away a Trump presidency.

He seems to be insisting, "We were right to vote for Hillary because Bernie is fucked up."

And I look over at President Trump getting sworn in and I think, "Okay .. we did it your way."

The ontological argument sort of works backward from two different possible conclusions.

So now that we know the conclusion of/to one of these options .. I dont see why you are still arguing for it.

He's at Georgetown. I like Georgetown. You know.

Come 2017 the United States enters terra incognita. I have a sneaking suspicion that it wont be boring.

Nov 23, 2016 » Speaking of not boring, I was visiting the Times Opinion page, and your piece titled » No, Trump, We Can't Just Get Along is listed #1 atop the Most Emailed column.

I couldnt help but notice that you listed, first of all, in the list of things that Donald said at his meeting with the Times, that he "wouldn't seek to prosecute Hillary Clinton."

I am not going to comment on your comment, but merely note this existential data point. Because it seems to confirm my previous observations with you.

You are clearly fired up, Blow. "I will say proudly and happily that I was not present at this meeting." This meeting with Donald Trump. Downright livid, it seems.

There are other quotes, of course. Many others that I could cite. But my point here, perhaps, is that it is understandable if you are feeling the way you are feeling. It would be strange if you were not.

Maureen says that she was present there at this meeting that you were proud not to attend, and that Tump chided her on multiple occasions for being "too tough on him".

She is tough. Those drops dripping (drips dropping?) off her sword say it all. You know .. her bloody sword.

Notice how, before the election, everybody was giving Trump shit about calling into question the reliability of the American system of voting.

Yet today, after the election, everybody who criticized Trump now admits that the American system of elections is unreliable. What a turn that was.

Cant you fuckers see the shit crumbling right before your very eyes? Trust in our government is crumbling right before your very eyes.

And all you can think about seems to be talking to your friends there at Goldman Sachs, and telling them all the pretty things that they want to hear.

» Spineless Pussies

Here is Krugman with a column titled » How Republics End. Here he calls the GOP "spineless"? Do you think that the GOP is spineless? If so, why?

I bet that Stephen knows exactly what I am talking about here.

Sen. David Perdue of Georgia changed his mind about Trump's racist comments. Where is your spine, David? What happened to it?

I find their use of the term 'spineless' interesting because I was just reading in Numbers .. how the younger generation had to suffer because the older generation were spineless pussies.

A professor at Cornell, who studies Chinese foreign policy at Cornell says that the glaring contrasts in styles could prove 'combustible'.

Now there's a word you dont hear every day .. combustible. You gotta have an IQ of at least 4,000 in order to teach at Cornell.

Doesnt she look super-smart? I wonder if she's kinky. Smart people are usually kinksters. (My experience.)

My mom said to me when I was in high school, "I think you should go to Cornell. That would be a good school for you."

I was not familiar with the school, but mom had been talking to people.

I remember thinking, "Cornell? That's not a cool name, mom. I want to go to a school with a cool name."

She sent me to an SAT prep course at Yale, which was 20 minutes away, taught by super-smart grad students every Sunday night for 13 weeks from 7-10 PM in an underground room of a building covered with ivy.

They used ounces of pot for many of their practice math word problems. "If Johnny has a ounce of Colombian that sells for $40, and he mixes it with Billy's ounce of Panama Red that sells for ..."

I always wanted to smoke a joint on the way to that class.

Speaking of wanting to smoke a joint .. Blow, tell Obama that this was a stupid thing to say .. because Democrats have already demonstrated that they suck at predicting election results.

They suck painfully bad. Did he not learn his lesson when he taunted Donald with his mean tweat by saying, "At least I'll be president." You could blame Trump on Debbie and the DNC and that would not be totally inaccurate.

Here is another bone that you should pick with Obama .. being something of a journalist yourself.

» Rick Perry's Public Appraisal of Donald Trump from July 2015

Remind me to talk about Rick Perry's thoughts and public comments on Donald Trump and his campaign.

Because I find them very telling.

He calls Trump, for example »

» "A small-minded, a divisive figure, propelled by anger,

appealing to the worst instincts in the human condition.

A barking carnival act that can best be described as Trumpism.

A toxic mix of demagoguery, mean-spiritedness and nonsense,

that will lead the Republican party to perdition,

and whose candidacy is a cancer on conservatism."

Ouch.

Perdition .. now there's a word that you dont hear every day. I wonder what Rick meant by that. And I wonder what he knows about perdition.

Now we know that nobody whoever said such things about the Donald would ever agree to go to work for him, and carry water for him. But, if someone did .. what would that say about such a person?

But really, his public appraisal of Donald Trump begs the question » what does Rick Perry know about the human condition?

» No Spine to Speak Of

See, Rick Perry .. this is exactly why voters so often feel like politicians such as yourself, and others like you, will say whatever the fuck the need to say in order to get elected.

They dont really mean a word of what they say. They will gladly equivocate all day long. In fact, that is their preferred style of communication.

They have no guiding principles other than saying whatever they need to say in order to get elected. And once they get elected, then nothing that they have previously said matters one bit.

But you obviously already know all this. Because you are obviously very practiced at such things.

This is why it seems like you fuckers have no spine to speak of. I bet that John Oliver knows exactly what I am talking about .. at t=14:00 here.

It seems like Rick Perry is saying, "Donald Trump will ruin the party and bring its swift destruction. Oh, wait .. he won? Oh sure, I'll help him bring that swift destruction to the party. Fuck, yes .. where do I sign up?"

Can you see that, Rick? In the dictionary, beside the word 'spineless,' they should include this photo of you with Trump .. serving the very man who you seemed to indicate, before the election, was a political piece-of-shit.

Hopefully someday you will grow a spine, Rick Perry.

What you you know about energy? Besides how to spell it, I mean? What are your qualifications to lead such a department?

Would you want to work for somebody who knew as little as you know about energy?