Trump—gelded by his parents, he never grew to understand manhood. He thwarted his own remarkable political instincts and brutal cunning because he had no self-control. He unerringly chose the worst personal and political advisors.
The codicil is in Biden's presidency. He ran on a platform "I am not Trump," and in pursuing that platform he has undone everything remotely related to Trump.
Trump built a wall; Biden throws open the border. Trump restored manufacturing jobs; Biden gives them away to China. Trump takes on Chinese and other countries' threats to our intellectual property; Biden gives it away.
The cost has been throwing out far more babies than bathwater.
The people who tried to persuade me to vote for Biden--I already knew in advance he'd be worse in the actuals than anything Trump could have done due to intemperate personality and complete lack of self-control. But I couldn't vote for Trump either. Going to hell in the handbasket of my integrity--well, at least it's not an electric vehicle.
Great article! Trump absolutely broke the brains. He was the black mirror that revealed all of the unholy alliances and treasons that had been suspected to be bubbling under the surface all along. He was like at the end of Scooby Doo when one of the gang rips the mask off the bad guy.
I wrote this in one seething boil; I had to get it out before I could settle my creative faculties to work on anything else. I hate feeling sympathy for an otherwise reprehensible person but injustice--it makes me nuts. And all its little children too--hypocrisy, lies, including those of omission--the whole reeking tribe.
We all have our prejudices and our biases. This is normal. Refusing to recognize them is also normal. In fact, so many terrible things in life are perfectly normal.
That is the one silver lining about Trump, as you so articulately explain—his election was seismic, causing all the rocks to roll over and expose their slimy underside. I still loathe him (as a human being) but can appreciate the result of his actions.
Similarly, the Covid fiasco was so extreme that it shook things up and exposed the seamy side of institutions including pharma, government bureaucracies, NGOs, journalism, and the scientific establishment.
I'm not disagreeing with you, or agreeing with you, but two little twigs:
Trump DID try to stop the nuclear threat and mend the hostility to Russia, and he DID try to bring back manufacturing to the US.
And the media didn't turn itself into a pile of steaming poo, it was the Elitist Parasite Class that did it, the Corporatization of the Press. Not the journalists... The ones who were worth their salt were fired or left, and the rest that stayed on and came on afterward are the ones that shouldn't ever be called "journalists" to begin with. (I must say, too, that one snarl about "white people" might be deserved, but I won't insist on it, as I didn't hear it. And I'm white.)
Actually, we all have a right to snarl about whoever or whatever we want to. Unless you're for censorship, of course. Sorry I spoke out, but I won't do it again.
I was answering you and not reproving you. I expect the comments section to be a place for honest discussion--heated disagreements too. I don't expect any reader to agree with me, or like anything, if they don't. I do expect to talk freely about everything.
Some reason to argue that he brought out the best and worst in people.
Not sure about Eugene Robinson though. Know next to nothing about him so did a search and found a fairly decent article, on a quick skim, of us about White Supremacy:
He seems to have some good points there so maybe his "white people" was just a bit of carelessness - failing to qualify his phrase with "some". Lotta that goin' round these days ... 🙂
Article is paywalled, but I think it was before the Buffalo shooting that Robinson said whatever it was that so troubled me, because I haven't watched any channel he'd appear on since the Rittenhouse trial.
It was one of those "you had to be there" sort of moments. When the mask of geniality falls and long-held bitternesses, perhaps, are allowed out. I really had liked him so much, before.
As you saw in this post, he was the one who disappointed me most.
In my view the black victims of the Buffalo shooting were killed by mainstreaming. You turn kids into pets of virtue for their peers in the earlier grades, don't be surprised when they grow up to find no actual friends by HS and the loneliness and despair are gonna be plutonium bombs.
But your "mask of geniality" reminds me of "The Shadow":
"The introductory line from the radio adaptation of The Shadow – 'Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!' – spoken by actor Frank Readick, has earned a place in the American idiom."
I'm sure. Just clicked on your link here too. I think it's to do with IP addresses and how many free articles we've read (though WaPo hasn't let me read very many at all recently).
Whatever remaining shreds of innocence I had about these people were incinerated by the Rittenhouse trial. I watched the entire thing on Fox, all the evidence, the testimony, and the vicious slandering done on all the other channels, the relentless attempts to ruin that kid's life, I just cannot get past it. Rittenhouse was so fortunate there was so much video evidence to be had and that his lawyers were able to get it, because we know every day other innocent defendants are not so lucky at all.
An entire profession shown as the garbage it turned itself into.
Regarding limited free articles: most of the time the count of articles read is on a browser-by-browser basis. Keep several web browsers and if you hit your limit on one, try a different one. That works most of the time.
But as a Canuck I don't follow much of the details of US politics, but I remember reading a couple of stories in the run-up to the 2016 election which emphasized the same rot:
"The shameful display of naked partisanship by the elite media is unlike anything seen in modern America."
"We still don’t know the outcome of the 2016 election, in which our 'democratic process' has produced two candidates widely despised by the American people, but we do know the race’s biggest loser: reporters and the profession of journalism, which has been reduced to surrogacy, largely on behalf of Hillary Clinton."
The 2016 election, I voted affirmatively for "none of the above" as my new home state allows. But I was sleepless until the wee hours of the Wednesday confirming that Hillary had lost. That was all I cared about--that she never get that prize that she trampled over everyone to grab.
The woman whose tweet got so much attention during the trial, some relatively famous and supposedly well informed person, saying that she hadn't known before the trial **was happening** that the people Rittenhouse had shot were also white. That's how bad of a job (if one is being charitable) or how effective the lies of most of the media were about that setup.
Nick Sandmann. Kyle Rittenhouse. They sure do love to go after kids who don't toe their line, don't they?
If young me saw now me watching Fox News in preference to any other media channel, there'd be some sundering of the space-time continuum fer shure.
I really absolutely have no political, philosophical, weird beliefs home anywhere. But I've slightly more tolerance for ignorant idiocy than for deliberate viciousness and lies.
All this shrieking about "lynchings"--they tried to lynch Rittenhouse and I can never ever ever again vote for a party whose declared base is the people who wanted to lynch that kid.
The codicil is in Biden's presidency. He ran on a platform "I am not Trump," and in pursuing that platform he has undone everything remotely related to Trump.
Trump built a wall; Biden throws open the border. Trump restored manufacturing jobs; Biden gives them away to China. Trump takes on Chinese and other countries' threats to our intellectual property; Biden gives it away.
The cost has been throwing out far more babies than bathwater.
The people who tried to persuade me to vote for Biden--I already knew in advance he'd be worse in the actuals than anything Trump could have done due to intemperate personality and complete lack of self-control. But I couldn't vote for Trump either. Going to hell in the handbasket of my integrity--well, at least it's not an electric vehicle.
In 2020 I voted for the most stable candidate in the race, the bipolar guy.
And still "Orange Man Bad" is the only argument Biden people can muster in support of their side. It's getting really threadbare.
Great article! Trump absolutely broke the brains. He was the black mirror that revealed all of the unholy alliances and treasons that had been suspected to be bubbling under the surface all along. He was like at the end of Scooby Doo when one of the gang rips the mask off the bad guy.
I wrote this in one seething boil; I had to get it out before I could settle my creative faculties to work on anything else. I hate feeling sympathy for an otherwise reprehensible person but injustice--it makes me nuts. And all its little children too--hypocrisy, lies, including those of omission--the whole reeking tribe.
There are a handful of journalists who didn't sell out, and are doing good work.
But the new Cynical Me won't be too surprised if any of them wind up being turncoats or sellouts at some point.
We all have our prejudices and our biases. This is normal. Refusing to recognize them is also normal. In fact, so many terrible things in life are perfectly normal.
That is the one silver lining about Trump, as you so articulately explain—his election was seismic, causing all the rocks to roll over and expose their slimy underside. I still loathe him (as a human being) but can appreciate the result of his actions.
Similarly, the Covid fiasco was so extreme that it shook things up and exposed the seamy side of institutions including pharma, government bureaucracies, NGOs, journalism, and the scientific establishment.
Yes. These were necessary moments.
I'm not disagreeing with you, or agreeing with you, but two little twigs:
Trump DID try to stop the nuclear threat and mend the hostility to Russia, and he DID try to bring back manufacturing to the US.
And the media didn't turn itself into a pile of steaming poo, it was the Elitist Parasite Class that did it, the Corporatization of the Press. Not the journalists... The ones who were worth their salt were fired or left, and the rest that stayed on and came on afterward are the ones that shouldn't ever be called "journalists" to begin with. (I must say, too, that one snarl about "white people" might be deserved, but I won't insist on it, as I didn't hear it. And I'm white.)
Wasn't my intention to get into his successes here because it's not a review of his Presidency.
Robinson had been very much worth his salt in the long agoes.
No one has the right to snarl about "white people" or "black people." Snarling about morons, whoever they are, sure.
Actually, we all have a right to snarl about whoever or whatever we want to. Unless you're for censorship, of course. Sorry I spoke out, but I won't do it again.
I was answering you and not reproving you. I expect the comments section to be a place for honest discussion--heated disagreements too. I don't expect any reader to agree with me, or like anything, if they don't. I do expect to talk freely about everything.
Like
"The Human Smelter" - a nice analogy for Trump. In a similar way I've used the concept of staining:
"Staining is a technique used to enhance contrast in samples, generally at the microscopic level."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staining
Some reason to argue that he brought out the best and worst in people.
Not sure about Eugene Robinson though. Know next to nothing about him so did a search and found a fairly decent article, on a quick skim, of us about White Supremacy:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/15/buffalo-shooting-replacement-theory-white-supremacy/
He seems to have some good points there so maybe his "white people" was just a bit of carelessness - failing to qualify his phrase with "some". Lotta that goin' round these days ... 🙂
Article is paywalled, but I think it was before the Buffalo shooting that Robinson said whatever it was that so troubled me, because I haven't watched any channel he'd appear on since the Rittenhouse trial.
It was one of those "you had to be there" sort of moments. When the mask of geniality falls and long-held bitternesses, perhaps, are allowed out. I really had liked him so much, before.
Hop the paywall: "Opinion: The Black victims of the Buffalo shooting were killed by white supremacy" https://archive.li/mOALs#selection-481.0-489.72
As you saw in this post, he was the one who disappointed me most.
In my view the black victims of the Buffalo shooting were killed by mainstreaming. You turn kids into pets of virtue for their peers in the earlier grades, don't be surprised when they grow up to find no actual friends by HS and the loneliness and despair are gonna be plutonium bombs.
… just noticed this article is like two years old and I'd already replied to several comments back then. Sorry!
That's OK. Always good to be reminded of how completely these guys ate their own hearts.
Top 5 heart-eaters. "The Medical Profession Betrayed Us" https://dailysceptic.org/2024/04/04/the-medical-profession-betrayed-us/
You sure? I had found it on WP's Facebook page and opened the article itself without any problem - and I'm not a subscriber:
https://m.facebook.com/washingtonpost/posts/10161730236847293
But your "mask of geniality" reminds me of "The Shadow":
"The introductory line from the radio adaptation of The Shadow – 'Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!' – spoken by actor Frank Readick, has earned a place in the American idiom."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow
And I guess now with Trump, we all know .... Fond illusions and all that.
I'm sure. Just clicked on your link here too. I think it's to do with IP addresses and how many free articles we've read (though WaPo hasn't let me read very many at all recently).
Whatever remaining shreds of innocence I had about these people were incinerated by the Rittenhouse trial. I watched the entire thing on Fox, all the evidence, the testimony, and the vicious slandering done on all the other channels, the relentless attempts to ruin that kid's life, I just cannot get past it. Rittenhouse was so fortunate there was so much video evidence to be had and that his lawyers were able to get it, because we know every day other innocent defendants are not so lucky at all.
An entire profession shown as the garbage it turned itself into.
Regarding limited free articles: most of the time the count of articles read is on a browser-by-browser basis. Keep several web browsers and if you hit your limit on one, try a different one. That works most of the time.
IP addresses is probably a good bet. But found an old archive that might work if you're interested:
https://archive.ph/mOALs
But as a Canuck I don't follow much of the details of US politics, but I remember reading a couple of stories in the run-up to the 2016 election which emphasized the same rot:
"The shameful display of naked partisanship by the elite media is unlike anything seen in modern America."
https://nypost.com/2016/08/21/american-journalism-is-collapsing-before-our-eyes/
"We still don’t know the outcome of the 2016 election, in which our 'democratic process' has produced two candidates widely despised by the American people, but we do know the race’s biggest loser: reporters and the profession of journalism, which has been reduced to surrogacy, largely on behalf of Hillary Clinton."
https://observer.com/2016/11/this-election-has-disgraced-the-entire-profession-of-journalism/
Thanks for that link.
And yeah, the rest of it--no kidding.
The 2016 election, I voted affirmatively for "none of the above" as my new home state allows. But I was sleepless until the wee hours of the Wednesday confirming that Hillary had lost. That was all I cared about--that she never get that prize that she trampled over everyone to grab.
Speaking of shoddy journalism, particularly on the Left, ICYMI:
https://www.commonsense.news/p/how-the-media-fell-for-a-racism-sham
The woman whose tweet got so much attention during the trial, some relatively famous and supposedly well informed person, saying that she hadn't known before the trial **was happening** that the people Rittenhouse had shot were also white. That's how bad of a job (if one is being charitable) or how effective the lies of most of the media were about that setup.
Nick Sandmann. Kyle Rittenhouse. They sure do love to go after kids who don't toe their line, don't they?
If young me saw now me watching Fox News in preference to any other media channel, there'd be some sundering of the space-time continuum fer shure.
I really absolutely have no political, philosophical, weird beliefs home anywhere. But I've slightly more tolerance for ignorant idiocy than for deliberate viciousness and lies.
All this shrieking about "lynchings"--they tried to lynch Rittenhouse and I can never ever ever again vote for a party whose declared base is the people who wanted to lynch that kid.
New Tshirt slogan: "Trump Broke 'Em All!"(R)
Or, you know, "The Human Smelter..."
More enjoyable graphics--but of course I'm biased.
Lol! Aren't we all... ;-)
If only I had the slightest iota of artistic talent... :D
Ain't they got these artificial tools that do pretty good if somewhat soulless mashups of visual themes?