Among the RepublicansPart 2
What it’s like to watch Donald Trump wage a war on Islam, live from the floor of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
Part 1
Donald Trump’s United States of #MAGA, Beheld Live at Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena
The floor might have been a prop for TV, but it was beautiful. Spotlights danced off the red, white, and blue bunting, off the tall, triangular signs spelling out the names of the states and territories, off the delegates themselves, equal and unruly, a republic made flesh. To stand on it gave one a feeling of chaos and joy.
The states were defined by red carpets running between them, and by their costumes. Guam wore tropical-print shirts. Texas had Lone Star flag shirts and cowboy hats and super-sized enamel pins. North Carolina seemed patrician and slightly aloof in their seersucker suits. West Virginia wore hardhats and pinstripes, waving “Trump Digs Coal” signs. Chunks of Colorado displayed a mutinous, die-hard love for Ted Cruz by walking out of the convention on Monday afternoon. The many-footed whip was walking up and down the aisles, handing out Trump/Pence signs, whipping up cheers of “Trump! Trump! Trump!” often settling for “USA! USA! USA!”
Moving around the Floor, delegates could brush past such legendary statesmen as Jeff Sessions, Newt Gingrich, and Orrin Hatch. They could attempt to peer into the epicenter of a 40-foot, 30-legged, many-cabled monster, at the center of which Chris Christie was milking the last few hours of his celebrity. They could catch a glimpse of Trump’s three-trunked family tree, a genetic menagerie seated like princelings in tiered opera boxes, before being admonished by an officer to “keep moving.” They could ride elevators with the party elect and watch longingly as they disappeared into the closed-off upper levels of the Quicken Loans Arena, known as the Q, on their way to the Founders Room, the 45 Club, the Senate Cloakroom, the House Cloakroom, and the Grand Old Party Suite.
Two rifts in the Republican Party still needed patching up. The first rift was between Trump and Cruz. The serious Tea Partiers considered Cruz to be more reliable than Trump, a “Democrat in disguise.” The Day 2 Melania/Michelle plagiarism flap didn’t help on this front, nor did the high drama of Day 3, when Cruz himself took the stage, espoused a fusion doctrine of Tea and Trumpism, slammed Obama for exporting jobs and importing terrorists, but, in the end, failed to endorse Trump. This might not have come as a complete surprise to the inner circle of Trump’s camp, but whatever information they had was closely held. The rest of the convention was stunned by Cruz’s impertinence and nearly drowned the end of his speech out with boos.
The Floor was choppy as the sea in changing weather. “All he [Cruz] had to say was Make America Great Again,” said Adrienne King, delegate of Hawaii, who was furious about Cruz’s betrayal. “He would have brought the house down.”
“Get off the stage!” hollered Clifford Young, an alternate delegate from California. A few minutes later, I asked him why he was so angry at Cruz. “It’s sour grapes,” he said. “He needs to go back to Texas. And stay in Texas.”
Cruz was finally out of the way. Trump had the nomination, but it would take some time before the hearts and minds of his people would belong to Make America Great Again, shortened to MAGA. Late on Day 3, after Cruz’s speech, one Cruz die-hard fired a text message off to her friend as she fled the Floor by elevator: “I’m done with these A-holes who are angry with Cruz.” Even at her moment of greatest anger, she did not type out the full expletive. It would be hard for her to come around to a man like Trump.
The second rift, a deeper one, though less conspicuous, was between Trump and the old-guard establishment of the Grand Old Party, many of whom had decided not to show up. John Kasich, Ohio’s governor, had skipped the convention after reportedly spurning Trump’s offer of the vice presidency. So had the Bushes, a blue-blooded, white-shoe mafia of bankers and oilmen. Trump had bullied Jeb Bush with merciless brilliance during the primary debates. Now he risked being shut out from the family’s fundraising apparatus, relationships that had been accumulating interest for three generations. There was no Mitt Romney, no Henry Kissinger, no John McCain. Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, the varsity captains, did show up and give serviceable speeches, and Marco Rubio appeared by video. The grandest old party man who Trump’s people could drum up was Bob Dole, who gave no speech, just a private luncheon at Morton’s steakhouse. It was said to be for his 93rd birthday.
Atmosphere at day 4 of The Republican National Convention.
Photo: Dennis Van Tine/Star Max/IPx
Vox Populi
Few have explained the essence of Make America Great Again with the clarity of Grandpa Simpson. “I used to be with it,” he said, to his son Homer and his son’s friend Barney, having caught them rocking out in front of a mirror. “But then they changed what it was. Now what I’m with isn’t it, and what’s it seems weird and scary to me.” Then came the curse: “It’ll happen to you.” Grandpa Simpson’s words echoed the two questions that Rudy Giuliani asked on Day 1: America! What happened to it? Where did it go? I looked to the delegates for answers.
John Rosado, an Arizona delegate who had kitted himself as George Washington, complete with breeches, buttoned topcoat, and a tricorn hat, blamed it on Teddy Roosevelt’s progressivism. I asked for something in his lifetime. He offered Lyndon Baines Johnson. If only Johnson had been willing to stick it out in Vietnam, Rosado said, we would have won the war. “Walter Cronkite gave it away,” he said. “It was when he said, ‘We can’t win this war.’ We were winning. The politics gave it away.”
Thomas Stark, a middle-aged lawyer and delegate from North Carolina, wore white suede bucks and a seersucker suit. A few minutes into our conversation, Stark told me that he was the general counsel for the state party, an unpaid position. He said this with such humility that it almost sounded like an apology. He said the Democrats were the party of Hobbes — fear and top-down government. The Republicans were the party of Locke — government leaves man alone, man rises to his best. Stark’s enthusiasm for Trump was solid, but the mortar was still hardening. Trump was “transitioning,” Stark said, from businessman to policymaker. “I hope the country doesn’t lose its spiritual base,” Stark said in a quiet voice, one that held its own field but made no claim on others. “It really rounds things out.” I asked Stark what he meant by spiritual base. He seemed slightly taken aback, as though I ought to know the answer. “I don’t know if I can put it into words,” he said.
Drew Danford, a younger delegate from Texas and party precinct leader, makes his living selling insurance. He said that America’s decline began when people started identifying with a “subculture” or “microcosm” before they identified as Americans. A subculture could be a sport, a hobby, a race, or a religion, he said. Some were explicitly contrary to American values. “Disenfranchisement” was his name for this phenomenon. As a young man, he said, he had suffered at the hands of some police. “If I was black,” he said. “I would have thought it was racism.” As we spoke, Danford went out of his way to be courteous to passersby, but he was also watchful. He had heard stories of protestors throwing urine-filled balloons at police, something that was widely reported but difficult to confirm.
Sitting beside us on the concrete lip of Cleveland Public Square was Danford’s fellow Texas delegate Joshua Sanders, a forklift operator. Sanders told me that “the politicians have decided it’s suitable to give them —” by which I took him to mean Danford’s subcultures “— preferential treatment, in order to appease their cultural values.” I asked him for an example. He brought up sanctuary cities, where undocumented immigrants can live without fear of arrest. “In a sanctuary city, you can drive with no license and no insurance,” Sanders said. “Whereas if I were to drive with no license or insurance, I’d be arrested.”
Al Baldassaro, delegate and state representative from New Hampshire, Marine Corps veteran, adviser to Trump on veterans’ affairs, constant wearer of a camo Make America Great Again hat, is best known for advocating during a radio interview the killing of Hillary Clinton by firing squad “for treason.” He is now under investigation by the Secret Service. One night outside the bar of the Westin hotel he told me that some of his nieces and nephews were African-American and Puerto Rican. When he heard them speaking against the police, he knew America was on the wrong track. He blamed Obama. “He should be their mentor,” Baldassaro said. “Instead of this Black Lives Matter business, he should be standing up for the police.” He moved on to trade, and immigration.
I told Baldassaro about a study by the World Bank that found that immigration does not cause a significant decrease in host-country wages, and that it takes a generation or two for new immigrants to start competing with the rest of the labor force. By that time, most have gotten the right papers. Many have changed their names, Drumpf to Trump, or given their children first names from the dominant culture, like Rudolph William Lewis Giuliani. Some of their descendants may choose to dye the roots of their hair, shave the bumps off their daughters’ noses, and slick their sons’ hair back into a helmet, a haircut I saw on the heads of delegates of all races. The essence of the Trump brand is conformity, a genetic conversion from loser to winner.
Baldassaro parried away my beloved World Bank study with an anecdote about the undocumented immigrants he had seen gathering around open-air labor markets in New England towns. As for the Drumpf stuff, I didn’t have the wherewithal to say it at the time.
There were not many Muslims to be found in the Q. To the RNC’s credit, the Day 2 benediction was delivered by Sajid Tarar, founder of American Muslims for Trump. One person reportedly chanted “No Islam!” but these three syllables failed to catch fire. On Day 4, I spoke on the Floor with Amjad Bashir, a British Muslim born in Pakistan, and a member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire. As a member of the Conservative Party, he had come to observe the proceedings of his Republican cousins. He had a neat gray beard, glasses, and a dark suit. He said he had been displeased when Obama weighed in on Brexit, which he supported. Brexit was the business of the U.K., not the U.S.
Of Trump, he said, “Whoever you choose, we will respect.” He said that Islam was a religion of peace, and that “any sort of terrorism has to be condemned.” I brought up Giuliani’s speech, and his repeated use of radical Islamic terrorism. “Speaking generally,” Bashir said, “I am critical of anyone who singles out any community, or any faith. … I think people should be very careful.”
The Ultimate Ringmaster
Some have compared Trump to Hitler. I think that’s a stretch. When Hitler spoke, he was feeling it. He was buying his own bullshit, as the saying goes. Nazi rallies, I imagine, had the vibe of a really good rock-and-roll show, something like the Beatles or the Monks during their Hamburg club years. “The applause was so loud and insistent that I had to respond with several encores,” wrote Leni Riefenstahl, who directed “Triumph of the Will.” “I was numb with happiness.”
The applause for Trump at the Q was loud. Sometimes it was insistent. But at other times it had an obligatory, whipped-up feeling. There were no encores. Like late Chavez, late Castro, and late Dylan, Trump seemed to be going through the motions, expending just enough energy to convey a virtuoso image to his fans, those who are unwilling to look and see the tired man on the stage in front of them. On TV, it might have looked like charismatic ecstasy between the altar and the pews. On TV, whipped-up might have passed for fired up.
Did I see what I saw, or what I wanted to see?
Trump took the stage around half past 10 on Day 4, Thursday, to deliver a speech that the next morning’s papers would call “dark.” (Giuliani’s was “fierce.”) By now, I had heard Trump boosted up as a “blue-collar billionaire,” “a true patriot and champion of the common man,” and “the ultimate ringmaster.” Giuliani, in video form, got a massive cheer. “He [Trump] can make us feel like what we should feel like,” Giuliani said.
In addition to clumsily grafting a bit of Michelle Obama onto Melania Trump, whoever was writing the teleprompter copy was trying to soften up Trump the man while hardening his platform. It wasn’t easy. The many members of Trump family who appeared on stage all emphasized the father’s kindness, but other than Giuliani’s testimony about Trump’s de-anonymized donations to police and firemen, specific examples were hard to come by. Ivanka, the lady-scion, who could pass for the Princess Diana Kardashian, who had Manafortian influence over her father and his business, talked about Trump’s habit of clipping out stories from the newspaper. The stories, she said, were about people in some kind of distress. Trump would then summon them to his office to give them charity. Not one of these recipients could be found to testify firsthand about the goodness of their alleged benefactor.
Trump’s life, Ivanka said, was one of deals, of building. “Judge his competency by the towers he’s built,” said Ivanka. “Only my father will say, ‘I’ll fight for you.’”
TRUMP. The five letters of #MAGA’s chosen one manspreaded on the high screen. The low screen offering a digital backdrop crowded with flags hanging slack on their poles. I had never seen Trump’s face projected at such size. I was most taken by his mouth, expressive and elastic. The mouth had only two expressions, satisfaction and contempt. One for profit, one for loss. Then there was the automatic smile when he felt obliged to display some warmth. I thought of the way that Donald had hugged Melania, grabby and abrupt, then the stagy ‘Look at her!’ point of the finger, accompanied by a half-smile. The half-smile had a diamond shape, like a kite. The chin formed the bottom point and the mouth formed the cross-spar. The creases running up and down, on either side, were the sides.
… I am your voice … I know the time for action has come …
Trump’s eyes were small and blank. They looked to be blue-green. The face, red, elastic, and now rather sweaty, was trying to compensate for the deadness of the eyes with its reluctant caricatures of unfelt emotions. At times, Trump’s patronizing manner threatens to simmer over into outright mockery of his audience, as though he can’t quite believe they are actually stupid enough to buy into such a weak charade.
Then came the rhetorical scalpel, the heart of the speech, the keystone that was held back from the pre-released remarks. In 66 words, Donald turned Drumpf to Trump, loser to winner, immigrant self-hatred into nativist superiority.
America is the nation of believers, dreamers, and strivers that is being led by a group of censors, critics, and cynics! Remember, all of the people telling you, “You can’t have the country you want,” are the same people that wouldn’t stand — I mean, they said, “Trump doesn’t have a chance of being here tonight. Doesn’t have a chance!” Oh, we love defeating those people, don’t we?
Those people. Naysayers. Terrorists. Anarchists. Barbarians. Hippies. Bill. Hillary. The Islamic State. The media. The ones who say, “Trump can’t win.” Against this universal enemy, Trump offered himself up as the embodiment of a universal grudge.
Day 1, Giuliani: You know who you are and we’re coming to get you!
Day 3: Cruz: What if this right now is our last time? Did we live up to the values we say we believe? Did we do all we really could?
Day 4, Trump: History is watching us now. We don’t have much time.
Of course Trump can’t win. Everyone from both parties knows this is true. It must be true. It can’t be otherwise. Is it a fact? Or is it a wish?
One hundred and twenty thousand balloons fell from the ceiling, particles in the void. We don’t have much time. They spread across the Floor in tricolor drifts, knee-high, waist-high. Two security men hustled Giuliani by me. The three men moved like a conga line. Giuliani was in the middle, his hands draped on the shoulders of the man in front, the man in back holding him up by the waist. I thought of a question that it would have been good to ask Giuliani, although now it was too late. Two days before, my colleague Alex Emmons, who is sure-footed enough to capitalize on such moments, caught Giuliani in the hallway leading to the Floor and interviewed him for three minutes. Emmons asked Giuliani to name one useful lead, one terrorism plot that had been thwarted by the years of Muslim profiling in New York City. “Of course I cannot,” Giuliani said, almost immediately. “That’s top-secret information.”
Giuliani told Emmons that Hillary Clinton might reveal that sort of thing. Rudy Giuliani, the former No. 3 in the Department of Justice, would not. He would release a dead man’s sealed juvenile arrest records to help win a seat in the U.S. Senate. But he would not explain what was gained by surveilling thousands of New York City Muslims in their restaurants, businesses, and places of worship. On Sunday, Trump suggested that he might issue a ban on Muslims from certain countries, including France and Germany, from entering the U.S.
The working-class delegates were loading onto their buses. The fancier people, the ones with downtown hotel rooms, were bottlenecking up around the exits. For a few minutes we were packed in between high walls of black steel mesh. Somewhere, people with better credentials were being whisked away to the Founders Room, the Grand Old Party Suite, the Senate Cloakroom, and the House Cloakroom, to their awaiting jets, borne in the back of their Chevy Suburbans, their pathway cleared by the motor officers’ sirens, gliding through the hidden over-world, a world with no lines or walls. The walls that trapped us upper-mid-level delegates and press had been intended to keep the un-credentialed protestor/barbarians from violating the party’s sanctuary. Now we were the ones who wanted to get out. The walls were making it harder.
Martian Hoplite & the War on Islam
On the train out from Cleveland I traded seats, aisle for aisle, with a young man in a Trump T-shirt. We knew which side of the line the other was on and treated each other with the grim courtesy that had kept the peace throughout the week. As the train approached Pittsburgh five hours after midnight on Friday, I saw the young man looking at a feed on his phone. I asked if I could follow him.
Sure, he said. I’m Martian Hoplite.
Hoplite, I asked. Is that a Vonnegut thing?
A hoplite is a citizen-warrior, he explained.
On his Twitter profile, Martian Hoplite describes himself as a “working class aristocrat. Partisan for truth. Pro-western. Aspiring Martian. Shitlord.”
Martian Hoplite’s avatar is Marv, the gun-toting noir hero from Frank Miller’s “Sin City.” One of Miller’s other graphic novels, “300,” is about 300 Spartans — hoplites, citizen-warriors — who kill many hordes of Persian barbarians at Thermopylae, not one of them a civilian. The 2007 film adaptation of “Sin City” grossed nearly half a billion dollars worldwide. My guess is that the runaway success of “300” may have given Miller the freedom to devote his energies to connecting with a slightly narrower audience, what is known in Hollywood as a “passion project.” Miller’s 2011 graphic novel, “Holy Terror,” is about a war undertaken by a Batman-like superhero who graphically slaughters terror-minded Muslims. “For some reason,” Miller once said in an interview with National Public Radio, “nobody seems to be talking about who we’re up against, and the sixth-century barbarism that they actually represent. These people saw peoples’ heads off.”
These people.
Only my father will say, “I’ll fight for you.”
The train was pulling into Pittsburgh.
I asked Martian Hoplite if I could ask him a question for the record. He agreed.
“Are we at war with Islam?” I asked, the question that I had wanted to ask Rudy Giuliani. Martian Hoplite took a moment to think it over.
“We’re not,” he said. “But we should be.”
To read Part One, click here
Part 1
Donald Trump’s United States of #MAGA, Beheld Live at Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena
Among the RepublicansPart 2
What it’s like to watch Donald Trump wage a war on Islam, live from the floor of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
I think it’s a disservice to America, to Trump and to those that are dying around the world because of radical Islam, to make statements like “Trump is at war with Islam”. Your article is reprehensible and not even an intelligent look at the most important issue facing today’s world – namely the very survival of a civilized world, as it faces the cancer of radical Islam.
Let me ask you Mattathias, would you like to live in Germany or France at the moment? People are frightened and no longer have the freedom to enjoy a peace life. That’s all gone now. Do you support this unfettered accommodation of refugees that clearly has brought the radical element to Europe and other parts of the world? Is this what you support? There is a stark distinction between those that practice Islam peacefully and those that are radicals, promulgating Sharia law, cutting off women’s genitals, and people’s heads. Do you know the difference Mattahias? Donald Trump does.
Hillary Clinton won’t even say the word ISIS and hasn’t given any press conferences since December 2015 (http://freebeacon.com/politics/fact-check-trumps-claim-clinton-no-presser-235-days/) to discuss these important issues, whereas Trump has given many press conferences and is clear and direct. You may not like him but he’s not afraid and not hiding from the tough issues.
The problem of radical Islam won’t go away if we don’t do something and based on the many times he’s spoken it’s clear Trump holds the protection of Americans as a priority and has stated clearly that a system for vetting refugees from the middle east has to be analyzed and properly handled to mitigate further possibility of radical Islamists coming to the US and committing these heinous crimes against innocent people. The US has plenty of reason to be on alert over the issue of radical Islam based on it’s military history of war in the Middle East and it’s aiding of arms supplies in the region.
Why are you disrespecting Americans and Donald Trump’s rational position on this point in light of what’s happening in Europe? Is the topic vague to you? I just don’t get it?
Why are Germans protesting Merkel at the moment? – because they want her gone, because her open doors, no questions asked policy for refugees is destroying Germany. Europe is acting like a battered women who takes back their abusing husband and makes all kinds of excuses for him. It’s called DENIAL.
You also make Trump out to be an idiot and nothing could be further from that truth. Sad Mattathias, really sad. To exchange the issue of religious discrimination, which is something entirely different, for the issue of radical terrorism is aiding the terrorists, disrespecting peaceful Muslims and scapegoating Trump as a religious bigot of sorts, which he isn’t. Where do you people come up with this stuff?
Have you seen this documentary with Ross Kemp about the Kurds fighting ISIS in Rojava? It’s an important watch. Food for thought on the reality of our world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDwbwcHZIsw
Many thanks for the feedback. You can find more of my thoughts on immigration here: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/04/21/the-anchor
”Martian Hoplite took a moment to think it over.
“We’re not,” he said. “But we should be.” ”
One day folks like Hoplite will realize that Islam is neither their enemy nor the cause of their woes but I’m afraid that by then it might be too late…
I mean, it’s not like they have Syrian suicide bombers in Germany, or anything, right?
Why is The Intercept spewing this drivel and not providing an expose on the latest oligarch overreach in Turkey?
You want this poor man to write about Turkey from Cleveland?
Perhaps you should write the article since you know what it should say already. Send us a link.
Cheer up and do not “brood” about it, “Brooding”.
ah, hahahahahhahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahhahaahahahahhaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaha
a
h
a
Unbelievable.
The only war on Islam is led by Obomba,the Muslimphobe,with the Hell Bitch,Kerry and the rest of the dweeb scum cheering him on,the Zio MSM first in the parade of fools.
Obomba —- that’s some hysterical wordplay there, you should trademark that before someone else uses it
the Hell Bitch —- oh my god you have such a way with funny phrases
the Zio MSM —- I don’t get what you mean here. Are you talking about Zion National Park? That is a very nice place. I don’t see why you should attack it.
This article has almost nothing to do with the headline. Stream-of-consciousness writing is all very well, but this just jumps all over the place. As much as I can make out, the author is trying to address two issues: immigration and the Islamic religion.
On the immigration issue, really, quoting the World Bank? Hardly a reliable source of information on immigration. This gets back to free trade deals, in that, despite Tim Kaine’s claims, they do not help poor people in the developing world.
In Mexico, NAFTA facilitated the dumping of U.S.-subsidized corn on the Mexican market, driving many small farmers into bankruptcy. What did all the out-of-work farmers do? They could work in the new sweatshop factories set up by NAFTA (which used to be in the United States) or they could cross the border and make ten times as much as undocumented workers, sending the money back to feed their families.
However, that tends to drive down wages in the U.S., resulting in all the out-of-work white working class Trump supporters outraged over their lowered living standards (again, due to NAFTA, which promotes illegal immigration).
Now if you want an honest economic analysis of the immigration issue, read Ha Joon Chang’s Bad Samaritans and 23 Things They Didn’t Tell You About Capitalism:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ian-fletcher/a-review-of-ha-joon-chang_b_840417.html
Some key points on immigration from 23 Things:
In the United States, there is a large inflow of low-wage immigrants from other countries, many of them illegal, which makes them even cheaper. This is precisely what Wall Street and the establishment Republicans (Bush clan) and establishment Democrats (Clinton clan) like to see, since it cuts labor costs and boosts Wall Street profits, while impoverishing the American middle class.
Thus, free trade deals actually impoverish both poor people in foreign countries (as well as subjecting them to environmental degradation, etc.) via unregulated market manipulation by U.S. corporations, as well as middle class industrial workers in the United States, whose jobs are offshored.
The general public does understand this, even if the media tries to ignore it, and this is why the populist movements have been so successful; in fact it would now be a Trump vs. Sanders contest if the DNC hadn’t worked so hard to rig the Democratic primary; this clever monkey move by the DNC and Hillary Clinton will very likely end up costing the Democrats the presidency.
As far as Islam, the U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of religion in the United States and any attempt to change that by Trump should (and will) result in serious opposition from the courts and Congress.
Nevertheless, while Trump may be trying to wage a war on Islam in the U.S., Clinton and Obama have been waging a war against Islam all over the world, by supporting dictators who promote one brand of Islam (typically Saudi Wahhabism) over all others (Shia, Sufi, moderate Sunni), and using regime change to destablize countries, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths while they’re at it.
Sorry, but I have to conclude that Hillary Clinton would be a disaster for the whole world; Donald Trump is the lesser evil of that pair. Regardless, I’m backing Jill Stein and the Green Party.
Most of what you write tracks with my own opinions and recollections.
That’s a good sign; if you agreed with everything I wrote something would be very wrong. . . I don’t even agree with everything I write, when I look back on it. ;)
Poor Matt wants us to believe this is an ‘impartial’ piece of journalism not the partisan rant it clearly was. There must be a new knee-jerk school of journalism churning out these verbose posers funded by the Clinton Foundation and just like HRC they can’t even prevaricate with any skill or real enthusiasm. They might try to sue the fraudulent hack mill for their wasted tuition.
I was led to believe we would see mostly investigative journalism reporting here not HP style rants but that doesn’t seem to be the case and even the feeble attempt to be fair and balanced, see the seven short paragraph mention of the latest Clintonite scandal, are almost pathetic.
I especially like Matt’s little attempt at fear and loathing with his mention of the horrible death threats made against his Maid of Orleans, that were actually calls for legal action and legal punishment even if they were wishful thinking, there is no police investigation because their was no threat of illegal physical harm.
Trump is now leading in the polls. I would have thought he would delay his surge till mid-September, but he can’t help it if the Dems decide to suicide-bomb themselves.
What irony that the Intercept supported Bernie turns out to be just as crooked asking for free plane rides in exchange for support.
No doubt Trump has many flaws, however, my preferred candidate, Bernie Sanders, was thwarted, by vile political intrigues. Is the real threat to America a Trump Tyranny or the miasma of corruption that has engulfed both political parties, the press and the financial system?
The overtones of Big Brother are certainly present in American politics. We want to break free from the parasitic elites that have rigged the system to their benefit and against the rest of the country. We are looking at a realignment.
The chief weapon of the elites is a form of thought control called political correctness. Trump has defied political correctness and broken the political correctness spell. The media is used to being able to destroy people by calling them racist or xenophobic. They are angry and befuddled that Trump ignores them with impunity and laughs in their faces.
http://fredoneverything.org/it-cometh-from-the-pitand-hath-a-knout/
Political Correctness is Trump’s shorthand for the increasingly dogmatic dialogue of the socially progressive left which has successfully alienated the white working class in America.
“For the white working class, having had their morals roundly mocked, their religion deemed primitive, and their economic prospects decimated, now find their very gender and race, indeed the very way they talk about reality, described as a kind of problem for the nation to overcome. This is just one aspect of what Trump has masterfully signaled as “political correctness” run amok, or what might be better described as the newly rigid progressive passion for racial and sexual equality of outcome, rather than the liberal aspiration to mere equality of opportunity.
Much of the newly energized left has come to see the white working class not as allies but primarily as bigots, misogynists, racists, and homophobes, thereby condemning those often at the near-bottom rung of the economy to the bottom rung of the culture as well. A struggling white man in the heartland is now told to “check his privilege” by students at Ivy League colleges. Even if you agree that the privilege exists, it’s hard not to empathize with the object of this disdain. These working-class communities, already alienated, hear — how can they not? — the glib and easy dismissals of “white straight men” as the ultimate source of all our woes. They smell the condescension and the broad generalizations about them — all of which would be repellent if directed at racial minorities — and see themselves, in Hoffer’s words, “disinherited and injured by an unjust order of things.””
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/04/america-tyranny-donald-trump.html
I don’t disagree with much of your comment. I would point out something that has annoyed me occasionally. Multiculturalism is a part of Political Correctness. People who admonish others to be more tolerant of other people’s cultures are often the least tolerant of other people’s cultures.
They are OK with Islam so long as Islam comports with their social justice worldview. When it doesn’t, they have a fit.
What you describe is actually a “divide-and-conquer” policy run against the American people by a relatively small handful of Wall Street elites. If these divided groups sit down and talk to each other, they often find they can work together on many issues.
For example, take clear-cut logging in the Pacific Northwest; this was supposed to be a story about working-class redneck loggers vs. tree-hugging environmental leftists, but in many areas, a solution that made both sides happy but which angered Wall Street junk bond dealers was finally settled on: selective logging practices.
Selective logging means going in and picking which trees to cut; this leaves many trees standing, preserving habitat and preventing mass erosion into streams (which was killing off salmon runs). It costs more, however, and employs more skilled workers, than a clear-cut operation. This means lower profits for the land owner, who is often just some bank on Wall Street. But it is a win-win solution for the two groups (loggers and environmentalists) who were supposed to be fighting each other tooth and nail.
Getting rid of NAFTA is a similar win-win outcome for Trump supporters and for Sanders supporters. On the Sanders side, people are concerned about the human rights of immigrants (which Obama and Bush both trampled all over); on the the Trump side, people are concerned about uncontrolled immigration and wage depression; abolishing NAFTA deals with both problems (as it would help the domestic Mexican agribusiness sector, creating less incentives for illegal migration to the United States).
I’m sorry to have to inform you that Bernie was and is part of those vile political intrigues.
Tell it to Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Her bacon is toast.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/debbie-wasserman-schultz-dnc-226100
DWS did her job as planned and will now move on to her next royal assignment with all the benefits that servitude promises. Bernie gets to pompously claim a victory for his phony cause and continues to be a democrat party stooge trying now to neuter the uprising of his delegates all for unity with his beloved Red Queen.
You may well be correct.
Keep on bashing Trump – you’re only pulling more voters in his direction.
And for that, America thanks you.
“Without fear or favor,” as the old saying goes.
Hunter S. Thompson 9/11 Interview 8/29/2002
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbG5Awb7gK4
And things have only gone downhill since then …
Excellent article Matthias, you have a nice turn of phrase…Hats off to you, just for having the stones to stand in there and listen to four days worth of SOLID bullshit…I would’ve gone to a bathroom stall and opened a vein before Melannia even finished her (mostly plagarized)
“Paean to Lord of the Comb-over”.
‘Living in Canada is like the nice family living above a bikers bar’
(quoted from a reader’s comment today in the FT)
I am still looking for a comparative reading of Trump’s acceptance speech with the John Birch Society doctrine of the 1950’s. It seems The Donald is equally authoritarian, dogmatic, anti-trade, isolationist, anti-immigrant, racist, and anti-democratic. However, his speech was probably not written by him. He certainly lacks the intellectual power to read, research, or write those claims to the failure of the America as he sees it today.
The only balance to greed in the US is bankruptcy and when DT files one on behalf of the American people, wallstreet will wish they had been prosecuted.
rhetoric is one thing, facts are another. Hillary is an unconvicted war criminal based on her role in urging the yankee imperium to wage an aggressive war to overthrow Khaddafi’s regime in Libya. Among the crimes committed by the jihadis supported by Hillary and the US regime was a mass murder of blacks settled by Khaddafi in Libya as “mercenaries.” Khaddafi had allowed them to settle there pursuant to his viewpoint fostering African unity. Yes, comparing Trump to Hitler is a stretch, but in its implied defense of the other major candidate, a war criminal, even mentioning Hitler is an outrage.
dollars to donuts she told goldie sackers that with her as prez, they could own the world’s economy and rob anyone anywhere anytime and own the court as well with the TPP.
Notice how the media is refusing to make foreign policy an issue in this election season? National Propaganda Radio is an ardent cheerleader for Obama’s foreign policy disasters and Cold War re-upping, and won’t discuss the Clinton record in Honduras, Haiti, Syria, Libya, eastern Europe, or China.
The media won’t discuss the fact that the TPP has little to do with trade (other than it keeps offshoring jobs) and is really more of a “national security” agreement, Obama and Clinton’s attempt to create a Pacific theater Warsaw Pact / NATO style military cooperation deal (at great cost to the U.S. taxpayer) as they push for a new Cold War (also seen in the Clinton campaign blaming the email release on Russia)
Hillary “Thatchet” Clinton, a Reaganite War Pig in the pocket of the military-industrial complex, closely allied to the Saudi Royals and the Israeli Zionists, working to bring more wars to the world that will boost Wall Street profits via defense industry contracts, another Rumsfeld-Cheney neocon type.
No wonder there’s a corporate media blackout on Clinton’s foreign policy agenda; the majority of the American public wouldn’t support it.
Where was Steve King and his new found white hooded – “buddies” – voters.
we’re not but we should be?
NO.
What we SHOULD be doing is actually enforcing the American Way. That means thievers on wallstreet 20 to life.
Seen everywhere the desparation of wallstreet friendlies pushin’ hod to “put Hellery out on The Street”? Hellery’s platform is the typical elitist “same’ol same’ol” lippy do service. With DWS’s betrayal of democracy and the DNS’s platform support for the genocide of Palestinians and Hellery’s pashion for the World Order from her affair with war criminal kissinger, all the wallstreet friendlies can do is bash The Donald. Tough love? No. Tough luck.
Wallstreet’s Fear..
Bankruptcy is actually a good thing. Wallstreet knows this which is why they always bankrupt their corporat people to rob pension funds (cough romney) and pay their whores in congress to prohibit people people to be able to do that. What bankruptcy does is keep people employed and give the 1% a H-U-G-E haircut. Think of bankruptcy as an antidote to greed. And the 99% get a PRICE RESET! Things become democratically more affordable for all while the thieves sink.
Is wallstreet soooo afraid of The Donald’s expertise in real business (not like the flim flam fony business of wallstreet) that they are afraid he will expose their criminal ways and give them the huge-est haircut of all?
Barabbas,
I don’t know WHERE you are getting your ridiculous ‘information’ , I can only conjecture from the paranoid tone, obviously tenuous grip on reality; combined with the TOTAL lack of anything approaching a fact…. that your ‘source(s) are the imbeciles comprising the late, late, late-night (ie 3rd rate/3rd tier) , a.m. radio talking-heads, a´ la. Michael Savage, Mark Levin, & that BITCH on wheels- Laura Ingraham. Your stream of consciousness and breathless style of ‘communicating’ reminds me of my baby brother….just before he was diagnosed as schizophrenic and subsequently became a ‘guest’ of the state of Florida. My brother is a success story, (fingers crossed in your case!) he did 3 years in a VERY nice place that the inmates…I,,I,,,I mean… ‘patients’ :-* affectionately call, ” the ‘hootch ” (short for “Chatahoochee” …Google it ) . If I may? I would like to impose upon you for a favor, for myself and the rest of humanity…please, Do yourself and ALL the rest of the World a service?
STEP AWAY FROM THE RADIO!! Then, remove your bulbous and disgustingly mis-shapen cranium from whence it is most firmly ensconced…the interior cavity of your posterior fundamental orifice. Go IMMEDIATELY to the nearest purveyor of periodicals and purchase one copy each of the following: The New York Times, Washington Post & Boston Journal. Take these three copies of well respected “REAL” Newspapers directly to the nearest Starbucks, walk BOLDLY and confidently up to the barrista and say,
“I would like a quad-venti latte’ please.”
Then go sit in a quiet corner, put your ear-buds into your ears…
& tune your radio to the BBC
(it is usually broadcast on NPR, local Times vary…so to you’ll just have to listen-up for it).
Now, sit back, sip your drink & do not get up until you have read all three papers cover to cover… or, until Starbucks declares bankruptcy, and closes the location you chose)
Whichever comes first.
Cheers!
P.S. You may want to consider beginning a strenuous exercise regime. Those hospitals are chock-a-block FULL of delusional, violent, psychotics….
ALL armed to the teeth, with full-on “Retard strength” and they are NOT afraid to use it! (Then again?…now that I think of it?…they are not afraid of much at all…what-with the psychosis & all)
Good Luck…and WHATEVER you DO.?…Do NOT stare anyone in the eye! …Actually, you probably shouldn’t stare at ayone at all, for any reason whatsoever…just watch, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” with Jack Nicholson…for a crash-course…you will see what I mean.
Many people think rising prices for stocks are a gain. That sort of information comes from the people who rob America on a regular basis.
Donald Trump will declare a bankruptcy on behalf of the United States of America and WALLSTREET WILL COLLAPSE which may end their criminal ponzi currency scheme and fraudulent stock pricing. And that, Mr. Critic, is a H-U-G-E GAIN for mainstreet.
Info? When you’re on the right track, look for the attack. Works like radar.
Wow…we all know where you came from…
NYT, BBC, WaPo, BJ, NPR…..aaaaaaaaaaand Starbucks. (No wonder you know so much about the Cuckoo’s Nest…huh, Israel)
The war on Islam was actually started and continued by the Bushes and the Clintons and Obama along with the neocons under the name of the war on terror. So large parts of the Muslim world were invaded, bombed and destroyed, false enemies created like Al Qaeda and ISIS, false flag terror events carried out in the name of Islam and the religion demonized. A false civil war started between the Shias and the Sunnis, with mouthpiece CNN declaring that the Sunnis don’t consider the Shias Muslim and that it is a genocidal conflict. So now the Muslims will be used to kill one another.
All of the above was done by the insiders connected to the deep state – the Bushes, the Clintons and Obama.
Trump is so far an outsider who wants to remove the US from unnecessary conflicts.
With all this background, the demonization of Trump (for taking the war on terror literally) by ‘liberal-minded’ articles like this is a little disingenuous.
Will Mattathias Schwartz expose the true faces of Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama with the same blood-thirst?
This is a needed review of the historical context putting the real crimes of the Clintons in perspective against the real fact that Trump’s positions, apart from the rhetoric, dial back the war crimes. Of course, we know that, as an apologist, Mr Schwartz’s job is to draw attention away from the real crimes of the existing regime by positing phony ones of those seeking to replace it with a less criminal policy.
Excellent comment; the war on Islamic countries has been a joint neoconservative (Bush) / neoliberal (Clinton) campaign aimed at controlling their natural resources via the installation of puppet dictatorships like the House of Saud.
The rationalization for this approach is that a country run by a dictator is cheaper to loot than a independent democracy is. For a $100 million bribe to a dictator and his family, one can gain access to $10 billion in natural resources; an independent democracy would insist on selling you those $10 billion in natural resources at going market rates, and if you refused to pay, they’d just sell to China or Russia or India.
That’s really what the American Empire is all about with respect to North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.
This is really also why the corporate media and its Wall Street owners were angling for a Clinton-vs-Bush matchup; what they didn’t want is people like Trump and Sanders. Now, they’re trying to prop up the sleazy dishonest Hillary Clinton and demonize Trump – but overdoing the PR game is leading to blowback and massive distrust of the media.
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”
Islam has been at war with the west since its inception. It was just crippled by the last generation of strong men with the fall of the Ottoman Empire. 9/11 was a signal that it had returned to the battlefield.
The West has been at war with Islam,but since the Ottomans,no Muslim army has attacked the West,and whatever Islam is,it certainly is isn’t modern fascism redux,as they have no weapon factories and industry which made fascism the ugly headed thing it is,like in Israel,where they have plenty of weapon making,and they control Western industry,through their stock market.
This superficial, petty jibe type attack seems about all the Clintonites have left in their bag of dirty tricks but they keep doubling down on their losing arrogant regurgitations.
They don’t seem to be bright enough to know these attacks only inspire the cultish true believers and are probably driving others, who might not like Trump, to vote for him because they are sick of this feeble, petty low road garbage.
Everyone knows that Hillary is Lady Lip service, the queen of TPP, the whore for war, the goto girl for wallstreet thieves, master of disaster. Knowing this, one might naturally be suspect reports that bash Donald Trump.
It was revealed the Hillary and company acted illegally to sabotage Bernie’s campaign. No charges.
All excellent characterisations of the harpy. We all know that the basis of the email server and subsequent wipe was so the Clintons could use their foundation to cash in big time in an unprecedented fashion from her role as secretary of state.
oh yeah.
Muslimrelvion happens to be where the west thieves a lot. No we havenot had too much buddhist terrorists because we are not stealing buddhist resources and displaced them through regime changing. All this discussion is good. About time. Things might be a whole lot better if people stayed home and fixed their problems, not leaked out into the west by the B$CEOs plan.
The salient fact is that Hillary’s war includes an actual one which led to the overthrow of Khaddafi and his replacement by Jihadis whose crimes include the mass murder of Africans Khaddafi had settled in Libya as part of his belief in African unity. The Harpy also advocates a no-fly zone to defend Jihadi thugs active in Syria. All of this other stuff presented is propaganda on behalf of neocon thugs who are seeking to consolidate power.
As far as Romney, Kissinger, and McCain not showing up
at the delusional Trump-fest,
Hillary Clinton will represent them at her
delusional fest.
They prefer her kind of deviance – Well established and
more reliably manipulative of the suckers.
lol. spot on. She didnt want sex with her husband because she wanted to screw everyone else.
Too florid, too cutesy and way too self-conscious.
This piece reads like the work of an undergraduate English major trying to impress upon the the instructor that he is really, really literate has an impressive vocabulary, is oh, so knowledgeable — and that he really wants to be an important writer, some day, just like one of his heroes.
Sorry, Mattathias, but you’re trying way too hard. Take a deep breath and work on declarative sentences for a while. Once you’ve done that, you can start to mix in some dazzle, again, but do it in measured amounts and with restraint.
As for the comparisons to Hunter: not even close. Hunter lived the lives (yes, plural) he wrote about. You come across as a privileged kid pretending to be something else.
Go take some more drugs, spend a year with a biker gang, drink crappy whiskey until you puke, play with guns and then, maybe, if you’re really lucky. . .
I’m sure you’re a good and sincere person, and you do have writing skills. This style, comes across as phony as hell when issuing from your pen/keyboard.
You completely forgot to castigate the fellow on his typos; or are you saving that constructive critique for later?
You are just a moron. That’s how much considered response you deserve.
Well, except for the small point that you used the semicolon incorrectly. Don’t feel too bad, few can use it properly anymore. I blame our English teachers.
The fact that you considered your response a considered one is something only you would consider.
Now go back and edit that duplicate word from your initial comment – if you can.
I’m sorry it wasn’t your cup of tea, Doug. Tho I do appreciate the life advice.
That was a very dignified response, Mattathias — only slightly smirky/snarky — and that’s not easy to formulate in response to a critique like mine.
Note: We’re not texting here; the word is “though.”
Doug, if you are going to do pompous grammatical corrections, then you need to be absolutely perfect. Alas, you are not. It is almost a rule of karma in internet commentary that one who points out a grammatical error will make one at the same time.
Let’s discuss the following sentence from one of your posts above:
“Don’t feel too bad, few can use it anymore.”
That’s what I’m sure you know is called a comma splice, grammar boy. Ironically, given your remarks about proper use of a semi-colon, you should have used a semi-colon there to separate those two independent clauses from one another.
Of course, for stylistic reasons many good writers ignore this rule of grammar. You write well enough, but you don’t always follow the rules of grammar. You didn’t here. Your sentence would not necessarily be stylistically improved by following the rules – by using a semi-colon or by adding a conjunction, as the rules dictate.
Maybe Mattathias can write “tho” if he likes to. Maybe it is a stylistic choice. Maybe you make them too. Maybe we can do what we want. Maybe you could drop the schoolmarm bit if you don’t want to live it every minute of your life.
You’re off on a mostly-irrelevant tangent, Vic.
The “grammar police” silliness began with a stupid comment by Sillyputty and my response was on-point.
My critique of Mattathias’ work was in quite a different vein, except, of course, for my objection to the lazy and cutesy use of “tho.”
We teach kids, beginning quite early in elementary school, to read for comprehension and to grasp the “main idea.” Please do me the favor of, at least, attempting that before critiquing my posts.
Thanks.
Doug, perhaps what I’m objecting to is the thinly veiled, old man, “Get off my lawn, you pesky kids!” tenor of some recent comments of yours. It’s an attitude that I encountered a lot when I first started commenting here, and one that I pushed back against. A lot.
Also a part of my reply is the completely unsupported back-handed innuendo that you lobbed into a discussion on a Micah Lee article about smartphone protection, where you offered what I thought was an unconsidered comment implying that Snowden and Bunnie are “blinkered and blinded addicts” for even trying such a stunt.
So a knee-jerk reaction on my part to what I consider a knee-jerk reaction on yours. I’ll own that. Of course, you’ll claim, as you have already, that your responses are “considered,” thus making whatever you say all right.
Or as you note in the same thread, “Suffice it to say that I don’t post unless I know what I’m talking about.” A moronic and lazy stance.
That your views on policy echo mine (mostly), that you can articulate what you mean and write it down in complete sentences without duplicate words, grammar or HTML code screw-ups (mostly) is a plus, but beside the point.
In other words, you’re using your articulateness and unverifiable claims of rightness to cover for what are unnecessarily boorish authoritarian replies to others articles and comments.
In my experience, life’s too short to put up with authoritarian assholes, whatever their political bent, and I’ll continue to give your comments, as I have with the other authoritarian assholes here, as much consideration as I think they are due.
Oh, I see. Like a partner in a domestic relationship who has been saving anger, frustration and disagreement over a long string of incidents, only to pour all of the resulting bottled-up emotion into a single outburst when an opportunity arises, you are upset with me over other matters and that justifies (to you) your knee-jerk anger.
Grow the fuck up.
No, you dumbfuck: the simple truth and a practice more people ought to adopt.
Now, fuck off.
Not at all. I explained my concerns exactly when it started (the Snowden incident) and bottled nothing up for later.
Again, not at all. That I don’t like authoritarian, self-righteous, holier-than-thou school-marmishness is what’s happening here; it’s not some arm-wrestling over misdirected anger that you’ve conjured up.
So, despite all the evidence (or claims by you) of acumen in any other areas of your life, you’re an authoritarian personality, first and foremost.
I made a conscious, thoughtful decision, not a knee-jerk reaction, to address the specific things that I have.
And guess what? I got the exact “it’s not my issue it’s yours” response I that I expected, with nary a civil explanation in sight.
As far as fucking off? Yeah. I don’t think so.
Have a great day. :-)
Sorry, I forgot that you can’t handle your heroes being criticized — here, as in “the Snowden incident.” Your response, in both cases, has been to assert that the critic must not really be qualified to critique.
There’s a difference between having, or being, an authoritarian personality and speaking from authority.
That you can’t tell the difference, and that you feel so angry at that which you misperceive, is. . . perfectly normal and usual. And it bores the living shit out of me.
But, congratulations, you and Vic have convinced me, yet again, that the quality of dialogue here is not worth the effort — because, you see, you two are among the brighter participants here and, if you aren’t worth bothering, nothing here is.
Not at all. My critique has been that authoritarian appeals to authority are still unpersuasive – redundant, in fact.
On that we agree. You are most certainly the former. The latter you have still failed to qualify; that is, unless, you consider your authoritarian arguments against “addicts to technology” as being a persuasive one. I don’t.
I’m not angry at all. You, on the other hand, exhibit an authoritarian penchant to elevate yourself above the “perfectly normal and usual” using unsurprisingly low-brow arguments.
And yet, here you are. This is one of the more prevalent tells of insecure authoritarians: complaining that the very folks they are railing against are nevertheless unworthy of their attention.
Finally we have it. What I felt it was all along. Your displeasure isn’t about Vic, or I, or Mattathias Schwartz, or anyone else here, It’s about you being here.
There’s a solution for that.
Booya!
Doug:
You’ve indulged in grammar corrections here before.
nuf said:
No dice. Nothing incorrect about that comma. Quite the opposite. Here is a website article that argues that a comma MUST be used to separate “if…then” conditionals:
http://sites.saintmarys.edu/~mwaddell/grammar.html
Some people think the insertion of a comma between if..then clauses is a judgment call. I would be one of those people, although I think I would in most cases keep it. As “an educated person” myself I do not actually agree with the author of that Saint Mary’s College web page’s first sentences.
I believe where meaning is not hindered, grammatical correctness is a consideration secondary to function and style. Plenty of educated people do not chain themselves to continuously following grammar rules at all costs; perusal of the works of almost any major author proves this.
For example, in this post I thought it would be a good idea to use three sentence fragments to begin my response to nuf said rather than such unsatisfactory but correct complete sentences: “There is nothing wrong about that comma; in fact, the situation is quite the opposite.” Or “Nothing is wrong about that comma. It is the exact opposite situation.”
And how does one turn the useful rejoinder “no dice” into a proper independent clause? It can’t be done without stylistic violence.
These sentence fragments please my ear more than the variations that would express the same ideas in a grammatically correct way. Others might disagree. I don’t doubt that most of the time following the rules of grammar is a good practice. This sensible position would, I fear, fail to appease serious grammar nuts.
So, is that your excuse for ignoring the content of my original post and jumping in to play “grammar police internal affairs” inspector and then ignoring my challenge to your failure to address the main idea?
Lame, Vic.
Take it up with Sillyputty. Most of my post was directed at nuff said. As long as you wanna fight though, sure:
You compliment the author on his pleasantness, but then can’t keep yourself from expressing your boring issue with his using the word “tho”.
Correctness for the sake of correctness. Lecture him on his incorrect placement of the salad fork the next time you see him. Hey, you aren’t wearing your tie right. These kids today wear their pants too low. In my day nobody wore hats indoors.
What “main idea”? What “content”?
I’m really enjoying the way you paint with words, Mattathias. You add another dimension to an already very good organization.
Thank you, Sillyputty. Much appreciated.
Speaking of making America “great again”, has anybody else noticed that the U.S. has utterly given up on Puerto Rico, accepted that everybody on it will be infected with Zika (if they’re not already), giving rise to a vast generation of microcephalics … while Cuba has prevented all domestic transmission? Florida is next – Yap Island, under U.S. “protection”, which spread the epidemic to the world, was the one before that. Meanwhile Congress has done nothing, gone on vacation, couldn’t give a shit.
With the leadership that we have today what else did you expect? We need a change, and very soon.
Statehood for Puerto Rico is in the Republican platform.
the thieving wallstreet media seems to have forgotten all about that. Hmmmm. Sounds like another robbery in progress, and a big one.
The Islamist fellows have declared war on themselves after hearing Donald Trump’s threat to defeat terrorism. News is coming just now from Ansbach, Germany, that there was no collateral damage, praise be to the Holy Allah, when the suicide-bomber pulled his cord.
That’s doesn’t absolve Merkel the responsibility of making horribly terrible decisions, but at least we can hope ISIS collapses into itself like it did today.
Cruz is a natural born Canadian and will never be eligible to be the US President in any year.
When the EBOLA scare was around, did anyone question not allowing infected patients from those countries to enter the USA?
Islam, from the middle east countries, has the potential to harbor those with the disease of JIHADIST.
Like dormant rabies, do you really want to to have to constantly watch them for symptoms?
What you say has some merit. At the same time we too should stop going there. This to-and-fro business of open borders is a cause for all the problems today. Maybe we should give it a pause – both ways – like Donald Trump suggests.
You don’t have to compare Islamic Jihadists with some disease. Those fellows are in big trouble and suffering quite a bit, partly because of their own stupidity and largely because they have treacherous rulers and leaders who use them as pawns to capture wealth and power. They deserve some respect as human beings, something that I also try to give some of the nasty and ignorant blokes here.
If we halt emigration it will benefit them more than us. This is not Trump’s war on islam, this is a war on the war itself. The ISIS apparently disagre, and I am happy to find today that they have declared war on themselves and started suicide-bombing with no collateral damage.
oh yeah. Bacteria can be exorcised. Virus however is different. Viri are not life forms, they are programs and install themselves then incubate after short times, long times, very long times. Aint seen nothin yet. This virus or one like it could exterminate the human species but we may not know it until it’s too late.
real evocative stuff here a la hunter s. the good sort of yellow journalism, the kind with real teeth.
thank you. that’s about what I was going for and I am glad that you feel like I got somewhere close.
Caveat being, don’t emulate the MAN. HST was a drunken, abusive narcissist.. (at least later in his life)