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Letter to an English Friend
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Letter to an English Friend Letter to an English Friend: Dear Spunky, It’s pretty clear to me that there was collusion between not just the Russians and Trump's team but Trump himself. He brags that he doesn't play by the rules, and that he games the system. I'm sure some voters saw that as an asset, as if knowing how to beat the system meant that he understood it and could win the Washington game for them, but that's the same lie we were told when Bush and Obama tried to persuade us that the guys who caused the financial meltdown were just the guys to fix it, since no one understood it better than them. The biggest lie was in the last phrase- they didn't understand it. Then Fed chairman Alan Greenspan: “Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief,” he told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform." That quote is from the New Yorker. From NBC: “A critical pillar to market competition and free markets did break down,” Greenspan said. “I still do not fully understand why it happened.” I don't think Trump thought he would lose without help from Putin. I think it's simply the way he operates. What evidence beyond his behavior for the last seventy years is needed to observe that the fat fuck has no moral compass? The goddamned media has bought into the current "post truth" fetish. The only reason they cover him now is the same reason they gave him a trillion dollars worth of free advertising during the campaign. The media loves conflict and Trump is loaded for bear with potential conflict. He's certain clickbait, and the media doesn't give a shit if it's negative or positive- “Just look at our fucking ads, stupid". They're corporate whores, and covering his reality show antics is a hell of a lot cheaper than paying for good investigative journalism. There are a few things going on with Trump that although they aren't news ought to be repeated here. One, he lies so egregiously and so often that it's difficult to sort it all out and winnow out whatever germ of truth might have accidentally wandered into his remarks.. Second, although he claims not to care what others think of him, he's in fact so thin skinned that he can't let any criticism slide, no matter how trivial. He tries to cover his dumb ass with bluster in cases like this. Hence, when he blurted out that he fired James Comey to end the investigation into his<b> ties </font></b>with Russia, it was not only true- disconcerting enough coming from a congenital liar- but bluster. It was Trump's great "Fuck you!" to the system. He doesn't have a feel for politics at all, and cut the legs out from under his entire staff, who were trying to pass off their own outrageous and completely different lie that Comey was fired for being mean to Hillary. But of course we're reeling from the audacity of it all and stand by gobsmacked. He hasn't been able to decide which he's going to react with, one of the lies or more bluster, so he's used both and we're left wondering if he's arrogant or stupid, when in fact both things are true. In any case it was an unbelievably stupid admission, bluster or not. It couldn't be more obvious, or more simple, that Comey was fired for exactly the reason Trump gave- he didn't like the Trump/Russia investigation and wanted to end it. The simplest explanation is very often the most likely, and whether Trump had chosen to lie or tell the truth, ending the investigation is the one thing he might think he had to gain from dismissing Comey. But of course he only succeeded in making himself guilty of obstruction of justice, coincidentally the exact offense that brought Richard Nixon face to face with impeachment and resulted in his resignation to avoid that fate. What Hunter S. Thompson wrote about Nixon over forty years ago is also true of Trump: The -of-a-bitch ought to have his nuts ripped off with a plastic fork. When Trump thumbs his nose at the system he gets big cheers from his hard core of supporters, but what he's thumbing his nose at is our system of checks and balances and our rule of law. He thinks he's above the law and his staunchest backers are looking for revenge against a government that they think has sold them down the river, so every nail he drives in the coffin of the republic sends them into an ecstasy of perceived retaliation. They don't recognize white privilege and are so blind to it that equality looks like oppression to them. And they have no loyalty to that system anymore for all their protestations of patriotism and love for America. They claim to love a vanished America, and indeed many of them do pine for the vanished and traitorius Confederate States of America, paragon of Christian virtue that it was. There is a recent article in The Nation magazine by Susan McWilliams: "This Political Theorist Predicted the Rise of Trumpism. His Name Was Hunter S. Thompson.”. McWilliams points out that Thompson described the culture and motivation of our present class of Trump deplorables fifty years ago in his book " Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs". Thompson chronicled the philosophy of violent and total retribution that was followed by the Angels against anyone who crossed them, which meant pretty much any outsider, and almost all of us are outsiders to them. I remember the book well, and Thompson in his turn had credited Nelson Algren from his book, "A Walk on the Wild Side". "Algren’s book opens with one of the best historical descriptions of American white trash ever written. He traces the Linkhorn ancestry back to the first wave of bonded servants to arrive on these shores. These were the dregs of society from all over the British Isles – misfits, criminals, debtors, social bankrupts of every type and description – all of them willing to sign oppressive work contracts with future employers in exchange for ocean passage to the New World. Once here, they endured a form of slavery for a year or two – during which they were fed and sheltered by the boss – and when their time of bondage ended, they were turned loose to make their own way." Later: Drifting became a habit; with dead roots in the Old World and none in the New, the Linkhorns were not of a mind to dig in and cultivate things. Bondage too became a habit, but it was only the temporary kind. They were not pioneers, but sleazy rearguard camp followers of the original westward movement. By the time the Linkhorns arrived anywhere the land was already taken – so they worked for a while and moved on. Their world was a violent, boozing limbo between the pits of despair and the Big Rock Candy Mountain. They kept drifting west, chasing jobs, rumors, homestead grabs or the luck of some front-running kin. They lived off the surface of the land, like armyworms, stripping it of whatever they could before moving on. It was a day-to-day existence, and there was always more land to the west. Some stayed behind and their lineal descendants are still there – in the Carolinas, Kentucky, West Virginia and Tennessee. There were dropouts all along the way: hillbillies, Okies, Arkies – they’re all the same people. Texas is a living monument to the breed. So is southern California." I know these people, Spunky. I grew up with them, went to school with them and worked with them. Lived next door to them. I don't shrink at all from identifying them as deplorables and racists. Not many of them ever did believe that Trump would fix their problems or bring back their jobs, dumb as they are. What they liked were the things that repelled the rest of us, Trump's open misogyny and bigotry. They liked his fascism. He blamed the same people they blame- anyone seen as not "one of us", and they're out to burn down the system, burn it all down, since being white and Christian is no longer enough to buy them special treatment. In the past was a time when no matter how low they were in the pecking order, at least they weren't black or brown skinned or Jews, and by God that meant something. If the system won't give them back what they once had they mean to see to it that nobody has it. In an earlier time we'd have been able to count on a congress that still had some vestiges of decency to thwart Trump's ambition and restrain his excesses, but this is no longer that time. The "Freedom Caucus" wing of the House, put there in the rebellion once known as the Tea Party, was elected by the folks Thompson and Algren described, Bible thumping, hellfire and brimstone preaching, hard drinking and bitter, and the right wing ideologues that make up the rest of the Republican congress are more interested in their own agenda of stripping away the last threads of an already shredded New Deal. Theirs is a bankrupt political philosophy demonstrated to be false time and again, but these are Ayn Rand devoteés and they believe with the fervor and fanaticism of true believers. They are beholden to huge muti-national corporations which are now the sugar tit they suckle. Democrats will put up some resistance but many of them are nursing from the same tit. The Democrats will bring a hacky sack to a street fight. Plainly the incidents of Russian hacking and Comey's ill-advised tepid dismissal of the email charges against Hillary had an effect on the election. Only a fool would find nothing suspicious about the timing of that move. But concentrating on that distracts attention from an unrelenting assault by the Republican party in legislatures across the country on the voting rights of minorities, most of whom would vote Democratic. Voter suppression is not there yet, but it’s approaching the old Jim Crow years and includes the conservative Supreme Court’s repudiation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and its decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. When you add in the apathy many of those same voters feel, and the defeat of the most acceptable alternative to either Hillary or Trump- Bernie Sanders- the voting rolls were trimmed and diverted enough for Trump to just squeeze in. And squeeze he did! He won the popular vote in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania by a tiny amount, giving him the bare edge in electoral votes. Inquiries into the legality and accuracy of the vote were slammed shut by Republican legislatures in each case and we may never know whether there was hacking at the state level by the Russians or ballot manipulation by the Republicans. Journalist Greg Palast has reported on shenanigins in several states, but of course it’s buried in an avalanche of clown show performances by the Trump administration. And given the constant barrage of misdeeds by that administration, it seems likely that any election irregularities will take a permanent back seat to more pressing issues, leaving us vulnerable to a repeat performance in 2020. We’ve been there and done that. In the election of 2000 it was made clear that reform of our federal elections was badly needed and that some kind of standardization of procedures by the states was in order. We have had one Democratic House since then and they did not address it. You can bet your last quid that no Republican congress is going to devote itself to the mantra of one man, one vote. As far as they’re concerned money talks and everything else walks. It’s interesting to me that the Old South and the Dixiecrats who waved its flag considered blacks to be property and thus ineligible to vote, while now they’re married to the party whose idea is that property should indeed have a vote. Become a member now and get a free tote bag. |
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I thought I had commented enough but I had just this one thing more to say:  Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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 Very well said.  Vive La Difference
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Very well said. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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The Electoral college has to go. This system makes it way too easy to sway the results. And, the Supreme Court should be stripped of all powers over the voting process. I'm not saying these change would solve all the problems but they would be a change in the right direction. Bravo, my friend! Great post.   Visit my blog It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World of NaughtyInSO, leave a comment, become a watcher. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LIVE AND LET LIVE Be happy! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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The Electoral college has to go. This system makes it way too easy to sway the results. And, the Supreme Court should be stripped of all powers over the voting process. I'm not saying these change would solve all the problems but they would be a change in the right direction. Bravo, my friend! Great post. As much as I dislike the decisions of conservative courts, I have to say- that's politics. We win some and we lose some. That doesn't mean the decisions will be good ones but in our system the Supreme Court is the final arbiter of the law. I'm an enormous fan of FDR, but his court packing plan stunk. And thank you, Pet. I love seeing your sexy feet in here! Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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I wish I could turn away from this shit-show, but it is on TV and in my feeds 24/7.  .. It is one crisis after another. .. It's not that I don't want to keep up to date, but it is becoming too much.  I don't see the Russians letting Trump in on their plans to interfere with the election. He would be the ultimate loose end!  .. But they sure made it messy, and Trump didn't help with his cabinet appointments. The tide is turning. He is losing his backing. I can see the GOP soon abandoning this sinking ship. These investigations will be fun to watch. .. I do like to see Republicans squirm.
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Bonjour Kzoopair Peut-être faudrait il relire Histoire de la décadence et de la chute de l'Empire romain de Edward Gibbon ♥ Poton ♥ Bisou ♥ Annie ♥ Hello Kzoopair Perhaps we should re-read History of the Decadence and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon ♥ Kiss ♥ Annie ♥
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I have to pinch myself that the Trump administration is an administration and not a dystopian television reality show! On the radio last night one American veteran journalist thought that assassination may get Trump before impeachment! 
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I wish I could turn away from this shit-show, but it is on TV and in my feeds 24/7. .. It is one crisis after another. .. It's not that I don't want to keep up to date, but it is becoming too much. I don't see the Russians letting Trump in on their plans to interfere with the election. He would be the ultimate loose end! .. But they sure made it messy, and Trump didn't help with his cabinet appointments. The tide is turning. He is losing his backing. I can see the GOP soon abandoning this sinking ship. These investigations will be fun to watch. .. I do like to see Republicans squirm. I like seeing these Republicans squirm too but let's hope they don't squirm their way out of their own responsibility for this. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Bonjour Kzoopair Peut-être faudrait il relire Histoire de la décadence et de la chute de l'Empire romain de Edward Gibbon ♥ Poton ♥ Bisou ♥ Annie ♥ Hello Kzoopair Perhaps we should re-read History of the Decadence and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon ♥ Kiss ♥ Annie ♥ Je suis content que vous l'ayez souvenu, Annie. Il y a cinquante ans, j'ai lu une interview avec l'historien britannique Arnold Toynbee dans lequel il a donné aux États-Unis cinquante ans comme la puissance mondiale prééminente, en raison du rythme accéléré des événements politiques mondiaux. Cela m'a choqué et je ne voulais pas l'accepter, mais c'est exactement ce qui se déroule devant nos yeux en ce moment. Au cours des cinq décennies qui ont suivi, la prédiction de Toynbee a été incroyablement précise. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Thanks, Azriel. I think if I were a journalist who had to write copy on this every day I'd need narcotics to get me through it. We've had dark times in our history before, but this self inflicted wound is especially painful. I hope it doesn't prove to be fatal. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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I have to pinch myself that the Trump administration is an administration and not a dystopian television reality show! On the radio last night one American veteran journalist thought that assassination may get Trump before impeachment! I hope Trump will not be assassinated. I'm still hoping that enough congressmen will find their spines to do what's right for the country and impeach him. That kind of rejection, and the rejection of history, is the perfect punishment for the ultimate narcissist that Trump is. If the rule of law can win out here we will have salvaged something from this nightmare. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Well done! Well said by the way.. All I saw was my investments going down this week.. Time will only tell how long he will be in office. hugssssss V Become a blog watcher sweet_vm
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Well done! Well said by the way.. All I saw was my investments going down this week.. Time will only tell how long he will be in office. hugssssss V Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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i wish i had the ability to write like this. it is at once cogent and compelling. i find it difficult to keep moving, some days i find myself inexplicably exhausted as i rise from bed. Two large marches coming and there is work to be done. letters to be mailed. calls to be made. Pence is not a solution so we are searching for a way to negate the election process. sending you love. i wish i could send hope but i am finding it in short supply. You cannot conceive the many without the one.
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i wish i had the ability to write like this. it is at once cogent and compelling. i find it difficult to keep moving, some days i find myself inexplicably exhausted as i rise from bed. Two large marches coming and there is work to be done. letters to be mailed. calls to be made. Pence is not a solution so we are searching for a way to negate the election process. sending you love. i wish i could send hope but i am finding it in short supply. I can't do what you do, and that's one of the reasons I've stayed here. This constant drama does wear me down, so I'm limiting my intake. Pence is a terrible solution. It's like jumping from the frying pan to the fire. He's straight out of Margaret Atwood's Gilead in "A Handmaid's Tale". But the devil you know is better than the devil you don't. Trump himself is an armed nuclear warhead looking for a place to detonate. He's the ultimate terrorist- a lunatic on the inside, and utterly unpredictable. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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I like your take on the deplorables. But they ARE part of our country and their vote should count the same as anyone else's. We are so polarized that I despair of reasonable compromise ever being part of the legislative process again.   
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I like your take on the deplorables. But they ARE part of our country and their vote should count the same as anyone else's. We are so polarized that I despair of reasonable compromise ever being part of the legislative process again. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Very well said my friend. I am horrified to see what is happenning in your country now. I sincerely hope to see Trump impeached in the not too distant future. ~~Anais Nin~~
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Very well said my friend. I am horrified to see what is happenning in your country now. I sincerely hope to see Trump impeached in the not too distant future. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Hey You! I took a long break Friday and today (Saturday) from all my feeds. How refreshing to not see every bump and crazy lump! Sometimes it seems a new revelation hourly! It helps that I nownhave a well placed friend in Washington, and just found out I have a source now in the CIA! Ack... Well done, my friend, and bravo! Kk The observant make the best lovers, I may not do right, but I do write, I have bliss, joy, and happiness in my life, Kitkat Come check out my blog KItkat1415 check out this post by me Adventures In Body Grooming #39 April Topic Link: What Lies Beneath If April Showers Oh Bloody Hell What Kind Of Weather Turns Me On Bloggers Symposium 40
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Hey You! I took a long break Friday and today (Saturday) from all my feeds. How refreshing to not see every bump and crazy lump! Sometimes it seems a new revelation hourly! It helps that I nownhave a well placed friend in Washington, and just found out I have a source now in the CIA! Ack... Well done, my friend, and bravo! Kk Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Thanks WSM. The 2016 election illustrates what happens when the amygdala is given the vote. I used to be in favor of universal adult suffrage but now I'm not so sure. The fascists and I might actually be on the same page in that way- we just disagree on who to prevent from voting! Joking aside, it isn't difficult to see what the motivation was for Trump supporters. Anger, bitterness and fear drove his poll numbers and the nastier he got, the more he incited them to express their rage and violence, the more they ate it up. There have been shit slinging contests before in American history but the last election gives nothing away to earlier ones when it comes to vitriol and mendacity. There is a cultural divide in the nation and it's hard to see it ending well. Putin has pulled off a coup that would make Stalin proud. Trump is set up as a papier maché Caesar Augustus- no one but Trump can solve our problems- and millions were deluded enough to buy it. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Bill, Trump is not the cause, he is the effect. The white working class (WWC) was marginalized and they voted with their middle finger against the ruling elites of both parties. Both Bush and Clinton. They have very good reason for doing so. The WWC is plagued by crisis within and without — household income has been stagnant for 40 years. The mortality rate for whites 45 to 54 years old with no more than a high-school education skyrocketed. Opioids arrived and factories left. Democrats pretended to not see it. Repeatedly said things are just great and pointed to 5% unemployment rate. Clinton signed the NAFTA that Bush Proposed. Factories relocated and mass immigration legal and illegal, drove down already stagnant wages for scares jobs that WWC qualified for. They imposed environmental policies meant to crush carbon-intensive industries, that has been a large part of their employment. Then they mocked their victims as rednecks on the wrong side of history. Trump capitalized on this. Told the WWC what they wanted to hear and got elected. So the "UN-redeemable deplorable s" gave them the middle finger once Bernie's nomination was stolen. Bernie would have easily beaten DJT. DJT is still way better than Pence or Ted Cruz. DJT has no ideology. he is just a malignant Narcissist, who wants people to blow sunshine up his ass. God help us if he resigns and pence and the ideologues who are on a mission from god, who believe in American exceptionalism and prosperity doctrine takes the reign. Prosperity doctrine is as close to Plato's republic, eugenics movement and Nazi ideology as you can get. "Rules for happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for.”― Immanuel Kant .
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Being married to a female version of Trump, I can tell you they are amoral creatures. They need affirmation, adoration, adulation. They see things in binary. He after all the vitriolic attack against Muslims, went to Saudi Arabia and accepted Saudi Version of middle east. He will use this to have the Arabs recognize and have diplomatic relations Israel within 6 months. He might be awarded Nobel for this. On the home front he will plagiarize Ryans proposal for budget. Cut Medicare, Medicaid and stop the $7 billion off the books payment for Obama care. It will infuriate the entire electorate and will force elitists of both parties to actually move towards a single payer system. Trump has no ideology he will embrace what ever makes him popular. He is not going to get impeached. The corporaists already got 500billion plus from the Saudi's. 110 billion arms trade now plus 250 for support and related services. 40 billion for Gladstone group. 15 billion in electrical equipment for GE. (more to come from U.A.E, Egypt and Qathar) He destroyed the French, British, Australian and German defense companies in just 2 days. Now even the Europeans will have to buy U.S equipment. Corporatists will keep him around. Hopefully the voting public sick of D.C will throw out the career politicians. We will see a lot of high quality women with Ph.D's and M.D's running for office and win, that are not part of Clinton's feminazi movement. "Rules for happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for.”― Immanuel Kant .
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