In 2016 and today, Trump’s principal selling point is that a vote for Trump is one of the few ways that the average frustrated American can give the Double Bird.
Strangely enough Vivek Ramaswamy is not in Trumps crosshairs. My bet is that the Trump campaign is working as hard as they can to get him to join the Trump team as VP. I don't think Ramaswamy will do that.
I also believe that Ramaswamy's polling will surge in and after Iowa in a big way. If Trump somehow gets hung up legally and can't run, he's going to throw all of his support to Ramaswamy.
Finally, IMO it's a bit terrifying what the landscape of our country might look like on November 6th if Trump does win. I can imagine mass violent protests, burning blue cities, curfews, and a call for marshal law. This of course would only embolden the DC establishment and 3 letter agency spooks to crack down even more on 2A, spying on the populace and lawfare based on political leanings.
Regardless, the next 10 months is going to be a shitshow so buckle up.
(A) Get well soon. (B) Great essay. Absolutely up to form. Many, many great points in this essay. It's a beautiful essay. Some might say the most beautiful.
What America needs (IMO) is less Federal control and more states rights regardless of who's in power. Trying to force one direction onto the entire country is like trying to shove a saggy corn cob down a pissed off goose's gob hole, it's just not terribly viable.
Taibbi’s writing is the perfect medicine for whatever ails you. (Do not read while driving or operating heavy machinery. Not recommended for pearl clutching ninnies.)
And what does a politician have to give YOU to get your vote? While I can't stand to hear Trump speak for more than 10 minutes. However he was a pretty good president. I can't recall him holding American Citizens as Political Prisoners, nor trying to put his opponents & their families in jail or stealing their money with trumped-up charges or calling 74 million American Citizens Extremists. Not to mention, he did NOT start any wars.
This is one of the reasons why the GOP will never be the same. Donald Trump connects with people on a profound and personal level. I know the importance of this as an entertainer myself. He's also funny as hell. He speaks common language. He offends people. The first amendment was created to protect that speech. The Deep State has ALWAYS hated that. He CONFRONTS the press rather than panders to them. I have a funny feeling this has changed the mind of many "liberal" journos like Mr. Taibbi and Mr. Shellenberger. Respect.
And a perfect metaphor for the lefty-climate-hysteric: a bomber jet that doesn’t leave an “environmental” footprint. This sums it up so well! They love war but hate the fossil fuels for which most wars are fought.
Wow Matt, you managed to get this off while suffering from Covid? Good on you man!
"If Barack Obama was the avatar of upper class probity, a lean multiracial scholar fawned over by the Nobel Committee, Trump was the opposite, an artery-clogged casino boss with bankruptcies and a comb-over."
Love it! "Transparency" vs. cold, hard reality eh?
Yet after two decades we find ourselves still being kept in the dark. I sure would like to see some real, genuine light being shone to illuminate details hidden in the shadows of those years.
This is absolutely the best journalistic essay on Donald Trump ever. If somone gets it, if Taibbi and Kirn get it and they transmit their understanding to us, not all is lost. I am old and born and raised in Communist Cuba, with extensive readings in Socialist theory, a survivor of a Socialist upbringing, a revolutionary family and a demagogic enviroment, and an ex political prisioner, 5 years in the Ariza Concentration Camp, from age 18 to 23, for writing a counterrevolutionary poem in high school, and I can assure you -whomever you might be, oh reader of my comment to another great piece by Taibbi- that the same elitist, hyperintellectualized, college educated class of lawyers and doctors (Castro, Dorticós, Guevara, Vilma Espín, Celia Sánchez, etc., the offspring of Cuban landowners and oligachs, Ivy League educated brats, well-to-do nihilists and radicalized snobs) brought down in a mater of 5 years a modern and rapidly developing free Republic. Not the ignorant peasants, not even the plebeian Fulgencio Batista. But the very same forces at work in America today. Cerntainly the feeling of impending doom is quite similar.
This article is may be violation of the First Commandment of the Censorship Industrial Complex: "Thou shalt not humanize Donald Trump." Seriously, Matt, it's awesome.
Who among the luminaries of the Democrat Party thinks suing your way to elective office is a winner in America? I think it was Axelrod who posited that when voters get around to "rationalizing their vote" rather than telling pollsters they are for Trump as an expression of general irritation, they'll come back to the safe, boring choice for President. And as a bonus, we'll make it easier to see the proper way forward by removing that other guy's name from the ballot, in the name of protecting democracy.
What will they say when write-ins for Trump number more than traditional ballot ticks for Biden? 'Trump' is pretty easy to spell, even for uneducated rubes. And telling Americans they can't do something they expect to be able to do - namely vote for a preferred candidate - guarantees voter anger, maybe the best turnout motivator of all.
This spectacular demonstration of inability to read the room and the mood of the public that doesn't read the New York Times bodes ill for their desired result in the fall. And they've made it a hanging offense to question vote counts post hoc. Schadenfreude, thy vessel be Trump.
This essay Matt! Proof we need your point of view in our mindscapes to pull all the pieces together. The biggest hit to the working class was Clinton’s signing NAFTA. The beginning of the erasure of small town America. I’ll never forget what Clinton said at the time “Globalization is inevitable.”
In 2016 and today, Trump’s principal selling point is that a vote for Trump is one of the few ways that the average frustrated American can give the Double Bird.
Strangely enough Vivek Ramaswamy is not in Trumps crosshairs. My bet is that the Trump campaign is working as hard as they can to get him to join the Trump team as VP. I don't think Ramaswamy will do that.
I also believe that Ramaswamy's polling will surge in and after Iowa in a big way. If Trump somehow gets hung up legally and can't run, he's going to throw all of his support to Ramaswamy.
Finally, IMO it's a bit terrifying what the landscape of our country might look like on November 6th if Trump does win. I can imagine mass violent protests, burning blue cities, curfews, and a call for marshal law. This of course would only embolden the DC establishment and 3 letter agency spooks to crack down even more on 2A, spying on the populace and lawfare based on political leanings.
Regardless, the next 10 months is going to be a shitshow so buckle up.
Matt, your writing is spot on, Covid or not.
Get well soon!
(A) Get well soon. (B) Great essay. Absolutely up to form. Many, many great points in this essay. It's a beautiful essay. Some might say the most beautiful.
That was damn fine!
What America needs (IMO) is less Federal control and more states rights regardless of who's in power. Trying to force one direction onto the entire country is like trying to shove a saggy corn cob down a pissed off goose's gob hole, it's just not terribly viable.
Taibbi’s writing is the perfect medicine for whatever ails you. (Do not read while driving or operating heavy machinery. Not recommended for pearl clutching ninnies.)
And what does a politician have to give YOU to get your vote? While I can't stand to hear Trump speak for more than 10 minutes. However he was a pretty good president. I can't recall him holding American Citizens as Political Prisoners, nor trying to put his opponents & their families in jail or stealing their money with trumped-up charges or calling 74 million American Citizens Extremists. Not to mention, he did NOT start any wars.
This is one of the reasons why the GOP will never be the same. Donald Trump connects with people on a profound and personal level. I know the importance of this as an entertainer myself. He's also funny as hell. He speaks common language. He offends people. The first amendment was created to protect that speech. The Deep State has ALWAYS hated that. He CONFRONTS the press rather than panders to them. I have a funny feeling this has changed the mind of many "liberal" journos like Mr. Taibbi and Mr. Shellenberger. Respect.
And a perfect metaphor for the lefty-climate-hysteric: a bomber jet that doesn’t leave an “environmental” footprint. This sums it up so well! They love war but hate the fossil fuels for which most wars are fought.
Wow Matt, you managed to get this off while suffering from Covid? Good on you man!
"If Barack Obama was the avatar of upper class probity, a lean multiracial scholar fawned over by the Nobel Committee, Trump was the opposite, an artery-clogged casino boss with bankruptcies and a comb-over."
Love it! "Transparency" vs. cold, hard reality eh?
Yet after two decades we find ourselves still being kept in the dark. I sure would like to see some real, genuine light being shone to illuminate details hidden in the shadows of those years.
You're doing a fine job man, stay on it.
This is absolutely the best journalistic essay on Donald Trump ever. If somone gets it, if Taibbi and Kirn get it and they transmit their understanding to us, not all is lost. I am old and born and raised in Communist Cuba, with extensive readings in Socialist theory, a survivor of a Socialist upbringing, a revolutionary family and a demagogic enviroment, and an ex political prisioner, 5 years in the Ariza Concentration Camp, from age 18 to 23, for writing a counterrevolutionary poem in high school, and I can assure you -whomever you might be, oh reader of my comment to another great piece by Taibbi- that the same elitist, hyperintellectualized, college educated class of lawyers and doctors (Castro, Dorticós, Guevara, Vilma Espín, Celia Sánchez, etc., the offspring of Cuban landowners and oligachs, Ivy League educated brats, well-to-do nihilists and radicalized snobs) brought down in a mater of 5 years a modern and rapidly developing free Republic. Not the ignorant peasants, not even the plebeian Fulgencio Batista. But the very same forces at work in America today. Cerntainly the feeling of impending doom is quite similar.
This article is may be violation of the First Commandment of the Censorship Industrial Complex: "Thou shalt not humanize Donald Trump." Seriously, Matt, it's awesome.
Who among the luminaries of the Democrat Party thinks suing your way to elective office is a winner in America? I think it was Axelrod who posited that when voters get around to "rationalizing their vote" rather than telling pollsters they are for Trump as an expression of general irritation, they'll come back to the safe, boring choice for President. And as a bonus, we'll make it easier to see the proper way forward by removing that other guy's name from the ballot, in the name of protecting democracy.
What will they say when write-ins for Trump number more than traditional ballot ticks for Biden? 'Trump' is pretty easy to spell, even for uneducated rubes. And telling Americans they can't do something they expect to be able to do - namely vote for a preferred candidate - guarantees voter anger, maybe the best turnout motivator of all.
This spectacular demonstration of inability to read the room and the mood of the public that doesn't read the New York Times bodes ill for their desired result in the fall. And they've made it a hanging offense to question vote counts post hoc. Schadenfreude, thy vessel be Trump.
The Vatican line absolutely slayed me.
Roll on, 2024! Let it all hang out.
Classic Taibbi column! Get well soon ...
This essay Matt! Proof we need your point of view in our mindscapes to pull all the pieces together. The biggest hit to the working class was Clinton’s signing NAFTA. The beginning of the erasure of small town America. I’ll never forget what Clinton said at the time “Globalization is inevitable.”