A reader stated at a recent post that he thought things would be dull here, if I didn't allow commenters to banter back and forth. What I think is dull is seeing a long comment section of two people having their own conservation, especially when they're anonymous. But, on the topic of dull, I present my 17th post on the incivility of this election.
I have a facebook friend who can't stop complaining about Trump. She couldn't be more offended if he had grabbed her crotch. What she will do with that outrage come November 9th, who knows? She might have to become a blogger. What started me off for this new post was Morgan Freeman and Colin Powell's endorsement of Clinton. Morgan narrates Hillary's latest campaign ad, with his iconic voice. Colin, describing himself as a Republican, came out for Clinton. Of course, he also came out for Obama in 08 and 12. He seems to be a Republican in registration only.
Pictured above, college educated soccer mom thinking about Donald Trump.
Pictured above, college educated soccer mom thinking about Donald Trump.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteWhile waiting for the Novocain to take effect yesterday I was shooting the breeze with my dentist. When I brought up the ugly campaign he told me he isn't telling anyone whom he is supporting. When pressed he told me Trump and he knows lots of people like him him who are staying under the radar because that don't want the treatment but feel America is going in the wrong direction fast.
By the way, my son sent me the link for video and a news report of Trump supporters being harassed on the Pitt Campus.
So, now Trump and his allies have thrown out terms like "rigged" and "consequences if he loses" which has got his followers all frothed up and ready for a "race war" aka revolution. Are they serious?
ReplyDeleteI hope Bo & Luke Duke and Pete & William Parks do know that the only people talking about "revolution" are the ones that actually have no sense of the word. Have they or their past ancestors ever been harassed, beat, enslaved, jailed, experiemented on with diseases such as syphilis or robbed of their cell structure, tricked by Jim Crow laws, or even constantly feared by the public (due to mass media propaganda) or shot/killed continuously by police without any disregard? There's a HUGE difference in "feeling" downtrodden and abused and actually "being" ....
I keep telling folks, as I was coming up in SC there were PLENTY of white people talking this same hype in 80's - early 2000's until they actually confronted us and saw that we are more NAT TURNER and less STEPPIN FETCHIT in modern times.
It would be so much easier to just to get along with everyone instead of attempting to convince themselves that they are being dumped on, taken advantage of by people of color / illegals, and need to STAY the "superior race"...
I tell people all the time, you don't have to LIKE us but you MUST treat us humanely and with dignity. That's not asking for alot. In fact, that's just the basics when it comes to living in a basic society.
My message to Trump followers: Calm Down... It will be ok, either way. Society will not breakdown and descend in to chaos if Hillary is elected. And if nothing else: Don't allow Trump to have you write a check you can't cash. He's like that friend who instigates/convinces you into getting an "ass whippin" in a fight after school. You jump into the fray and he runs away and hides. He WON'T be there to fight for you. In fact, he could care less, truth be told.
- Alfonso Todd
The anger and hysteria seen in this election cycle is quite depressing. Nobody can shut up about Trump. The acrimony shown in the public dialogue saddens me.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't care less what actors think of our presidential contenders. Powell seems to be a reluctant Hillary supporter, and his assessment of Trump being a "national disgrace" is a sentiment many share. Personally, I think Trump is trying to lose so that he can claim foul and start his own media "empire" with Breitbart and Ailes. That is the only logical conclusion I can draw from Trump's behavior.
I'm not a soccer mom - my kids would rather make movies/build robots/do karate than play soccer. (I'm raising happy, smart geeks, thank god.) But I am nonetheless the coveted suburban mom. (A registered independent.) And there's no way in hell I'd cast a vote for Trump. I could easily have voted Republican this year, given the right candidate. I will be voting for Charlie Dent this year - I am an experienced voter of Republican candidates. But Trump does NOT represent Republican ideals, economic or otherwise. The party really screwed itself by selecting such an idiot, and they have no one to blame but themselves. Clinton is so reviled - it should have been easy to find an alternative that was palatable to most people. But instead, Republicans picked a man who is bent on polarizing the masses and inciting anger and hatred. When Clinton is elected president, republicans can thank themselves for selecting a candidate that they are afraid to openly support, because he is so embarrassing.
I recall an election 30, well actually, more than 30 years ago now. we had a similar situation in our country. There was a lot of unemployment, hard to buy a home due to high interest mortgages, inflation was also very high. Overseas, we had been humiliated by the Iranians for over a year, the Russians showing off their military and we had a Democratic president who was campaigning saying that all was well.
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans at first had an establishment type and an 'outsider'. During the primaries, the outsider didn't do all that well, and the outsider gained the GOP nomination. Although he did choose the establishment type for his VP, he was promising to shake up the beltway crowd.
During the general election, the polls all had the Democrat ahead throughout the campaign. On the day before the election, the Democrat was up by 7 or 8 points over the Republican.
On election night, as the returns came in, The Democratic Candidate started to see he wasn't doing all that well in the east. As the returns started moving west, it wasn't getting any better, and by 10:00pm, well, even before the polls in California had closed, he called the GOP candidate and conceded the election.
The year was 1980
The Democratic Candidate was Jimmy Carter
The Republican Candidate was Ronald Reagan
Pretty similar to what we have today in 2016
It took about two years, until 1983, until the actions of Ronald Reagan changed the United States, and in 1984, there was truly a Moring in America. Which lasted for over 20 years.
Sorry Mike for the banter. It's frustrating to see local people fighting corruption in City Hall but willing to elect Hillary, the most corrupt politician, leader of the pay-to-play racket, to the presidency.
ReplyDeleteIn recent elections it has been Democratics that have refused to accept the election results. Al Gore refused to accept the election results in 2000. I remember some years ago in Washington state the GOP candidate for governor losing after three recounts and wallah no more recounts needed and the GOP candidate being told if you want another recount you have to pay for it yourself. GOP candidates over the last 15 years have seen elections stolen by the recount efforts to then be told sorry maybe next time. I've personally witnessed election fraud in Philadelphia only to be told by the media what I saw did not occur. When you have the entire media apparatus dumping on one candidate while ignoring the other - it's rigged.
As before, if a war comes, it won't be because the GOP fired the first shot. It'll be the Democratics as in the NC GOP office being firebombed or the defacing of private property in GOP candidate neighborhoods.
When we talk about the terrible history of America and Black people it's actually the terrible history of the Democratic Party and Black people. It was the Democratic party that ramped up efforts post 1820's to enlarge the role of slavery in America, the Democratic Party that was willing to destroy the Union just to protect slavery, the Democratic Party that put into law racist policies, created the KKK to terrorize Blacks and White GOP members, resisted all GOP pushed Civil Rights bills from about 1880 - 1964, protected lynchers, refused to educate Blacks and refuses any reform efforts today to improve education for urban people, and supports the wholesale slaughter of Black children via abortion. The places that are rife with problems between the police and Black people are places governed and have been governed for at least 50 years by the Democratic Party.
Maybe it's time to stop voting for the Democratic Party.
***These comments are mine and mine alone.***
Typical reactions here prove Mike's point. Don't talk real issues but talk up victimization and name the responsible party as the Republican Party. Really? Then write that Republicans picked the wrong guy to be president. Well at least our primaries weren't "rigged" like the Democrat ones. Thanks again Wiki Leaks.
ReplyDeleteDave, you should have started your comparison of 1980 with 2016 with something along the lines of, "I'm not saying that is the way it was, rather, I'm saying that is the way I remember it."
ReplyDeleteThere are some significant differences. First, Ronald Reagan was not an insurgent in 1980. He was the former runner up to President Ford in the 1976 primary, and had served two terms as Governor of the most populous state in the Union. He led a unified party to victory against an unpopular siting President. Obama (save for the tin foil hat crowd) is not unpopular; he has over a 50% popularity rating, almost unheard of in modern times. His wife is even more popular. Carter was so unpopular within his own party that Ted Kennedy ran against him in the primary of 1980. Afterwards, his faction of the party, much, much larger than the Bernie-manics (essentially the kids, who never show up on election day to vote), never rallied to Carter, but, rather supported the Independent candidate, John Anderson. In contrast to today, the candidacy of the Independent,Johnson, has completely imploded, with even his running mate, Weld, calling for supporters to vote for Clinton.
So, is the race getting closer? I concede that I am a progressive, with political & policy viewpoints contrary to Molovinsky & the usual commentators on this blog. But, I am evidence based; I can separate, unlike most on the Right, my opinions from facts.
ReplyDeleteThe change from Clinton up around 6+ to now 3+ does not, as of today, portend that she will lose. She has not dropped any in her support; it holds steady. Rather, Trump has gained Republicans coming home. He still trails Romney in all groups, and, of course, the problem for him is that even if all Republicans do ultimately come home, as we learned in 2012, it is not enough to win. Trump must gain outside of the Republican base, he must capture Democrats & independents. Such outreach is dismal, and the evidence does not support that it is happening. Put other way, it seems more likely that Clinton will exceed Obamas's 2012 tally than that Trump will match Romney's.
Media news always pushes a horse race; that is ratings & money. Should the polling evidence demonstrate over the next two weeks a change in the essential dynamic of the race I will cite same. But right now, Clinton is still 100 EV ahead of Trump, and not behind in any swing state (albeit in a dead heat in Ohio).
This is a transcript of a Michael Moore comment:
ReplyDelete"Whether Trump means it or not, it’s kind of irrelevant because he’s saying the things that people who are hurting. And it’s why every beaten down, nameless, forgotten working stiff who used to be part of what was called the middle-class loves Trump.
“They’re not racists or rednecks, they’re actually pretty decent people. So, after talking to a number of them, I sort of wanted to sort of write this.”
[…]
Donald Trump came to the Detroit Economic Club and stood there in front of the Ford Motor executives and said: if you close these factories, as you are planning to do in Detroit, and rebuild them in Mexico, I am going to put a 35% tariff on those cars when you send them back and nobody’s going to buy them.
It was an amazing thing to see. No politician — Republican or Democrat — had ever said anything like that to these executives. It was music to the ears of people in Michigan and Ohio and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The Brexit states. You live here in Ohio. You know what I am talking about.
He is the human Molotov cocktail that they have been waiting for. The human hand grenade that they can legally throw into the system that stole their lives from them. And on November 8th — Election Day — although they have lost their jobs. Although they’ve been foreclosed on by the bank. Next came the divorce and now the wife and kids are gone. The car’s been repossessed. They haven’t had a real vacation in years. They’re stuck with the shitty Obamacare bronze plan. They can’t even get a f**king percocet.
They have essentially lost everything they had…except one thing. The one thing that doesn’t cost them a cent and is guaranteed to them by the American Constitution: the right to vote.
[…] So, on November 8th, the dispossessed will walk into the voting booth, be handed a ballot, close the curtain, take that lever — or felt pen or touchscreen — and put a big f**king X in the box by the name of the man who has threatened to upend and overturn the very system that has ruined their lives: Donald J. Trump.
[…]
They see that the elites who have ruined their lives hate Trump.
Corporate America hates Trump. Wall Street hates Trump. The career politicians hate Trump. The Media hates Trump…
The enemy of my enemy is who I am voting for on November 8th.
Trump’s election is going to be the biggest F**K YOU ever recorded in human history.
And it will feel good."
For once Micheal Moore is correct. The anger is middle America is very real. Those who are doing the heavy lifting have become the culprits. Those doing nothing are growing fatter. That is how many see today's America. Frankly, who can blame them?
ReplyDeleteThe excerpt from Michael Moore's "Trumpland" is of course, incomplete. The rest of Michael Moore's comment reads:
ReplyDelete"[Voting for Trump will feel good] for a day. Maybe a week. Possibly a month. And then. Like the Brits, who wanted to send a message, so they voted to leave Europe only to find out that if you vote to leave Europe you, actually have to leave Europe.
And now they regret it. All the Ohioans, Pennsylvanians, Michiganders and Wisconsinites of Middle England, right, they all voted to leave and now they regret it.
And over 4 million of them signed a petition to have a do-over, they want another election, but It's not going to happen. Because you used the ballot as an anger management tool. And now you're f***. And the rest of Europe. They're like, Bye Felicia.
So when the rightfully angry people of Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin find out after a few months in office that President Trump wasn't going to do a damn thing for them, it will be too late to do anything about it.
But I get it. You wanted to send a message. You had righteous anger. And justifiable anger. Well, message sent.
Goodnight America. You've just elected the last president of the United States."
The rest of the comment I think is quite important for clarity.
Well I guess everyone can agree that we need to bring back jobs. This isn't a R or D problem but an us problem. So, who benefits from sending our jobs out of the USA? This problem is 25 years in the making and both parties are responsible for our current condition.
ReplyDeleteNo one can bring back jobs. The Trump rhetoric on that is for the rubes who watch Faux News & listen to talk radio. Only low information voters can believe a tariff war will bring industry back. The idea that state or federal legislators would even vote for such legislation, in defiance of BIG BUSINESS, their donors, who have bought & owns them, is laughable.
ReplyDeleteClinton's answer is to raise the minimum wage. While that would help those currently employed, full time minimum wage employment is still below the poverty level.
The truth is that for the older working class most of them are going to miss the future...which is mostly data/info jobs, like medical coding/billing, yadda yadda. Robotics/AI, relocation to beyond the border for industry, etc. is only going to further leave the older working class further behind. Personal services/medical/health etc. will be the growth sectors.