By Manifesto Joe
My sense of fairness compelled me to hold off on attacking Donald Trump, at least for a while. I actually thought he might change as the nominee of a major political party.
Might as well wait for the next glacier to move through Texas. The latest Trump travesty was him lamenting about how well the Manhattan bomb suspect was being treated in the hospital, that he will be represented in court by a good lawyer (perhaps), etc.
Essentially, Trump was suggesting to his neo-Nazi admirers that he thinks that the U.S. should suspend constitutional rights for certain terrorism suspects. Perhaps Mr. Trump should move somewhere like Russia, where no such rights would be extended to much of anyone perceived as a threat to the established order.
What Mr. Trump seems to believe is that the U.S., in order to oppose those who would impose a police state on Americans, should establish its own style of police state to combat such an ideology. The absurdity of this should be evident to all who have learned how to use their thumbs.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton has been catching shit over characterizing half of Mr. Trump's supporters as "reprehensibles." She said later that she regretted using the word "half" in her statement.
I'd say she should have said two-thirds, or perhaps three-fourths. Mr. Trump has put together a coalition of "alt right" kooks, including white supremacists, gun nuts, xenophobes, homophobes and other assorted crazies who recall the pre-1940 right-wingers who listened faithfully to radio broadcasts by Father Coughlin.
Hillary Clinton is a hero to few. She comes across as a typically corrupt politician, better than some, worse than others. But at least she is, at worst, "the devil we know."
Can the country afford four years of the devil we don't know?
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Showing posts with label Donald Trump. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Donald Trump. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
Donald Trump's Big Gamble
By Manifesto Joe
The mogul of Atlantic City is doing some high-stakes gambling these days. And if he wins, the country is likely to lose -- BIG.
I didn't consider Donald (T)rump to be all that dangerous, even amid the comparisons to Hitler and such -- until last Thursday night. I thought of him in terms of a corrupt buffoon, akin to Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister and media mogul. But after his dark acceptance of the Republican Party nomination for the presidency, I had second thoughts.
Trump has supporters who resemble Nazis in their pugnaciousness and not-so-subtle white supremacy, and he does nothing to discourage them. He actually said he doesn't know enough about the KKK to refute David Duke's endorsement of him. Describing himself as the "law-and-order" candidate, he's taking many pages out of the campaign playbook of the late Alabama Gov. George Wallace, and he's proving much more successful than Wallace was. He's put together a coalition of bigots, rednecks, gun nuts and other assorted psychos, and if he can get them to the polling places (some perhaps for the first time) in November, he could very well be elected president. After his convention speech, he was leading in the polls.
The Republican Party, the establishment of which seems a bit stunned by Trump's success, brought this on themselves. As far back as the Goldwater bid for the presidency in 1964, the GOP has catered to Southern bigots. Nixon extended the party's "Southern strategy" in 1968 and 1972, and by the time Reagan was the nominee in 1980, the South was solidly in the hands of the GOP. The Republicans have done all they could to court this type of voter -- working-class right-wingers who embrace a single issue, whether it be abortion, gun rights, or something else.
Now they've taken control of the party, like a Frankenstein monster, and the Republican Old Guard -- the economic royalists who used to call all the shots -- had no one on hand to back Donald Trump down.
If he ends up losing and destroying the Republican Party "coalition" of rednecks, the party moguls have no one to blame but themselves.
But what if he wins? Polls indicate that it's possible. And this fellow isn't merely stupid, like Il Doofus (Bush 43) appeared to be. This is a cunning megalomaniac with no apparent regard for the facts. Media observers pointed out that his bloviation on crime was false, with statistics showing that violent crime has declined since Obama became president. Yet he stands by everything, as usual.
One saving grace for the country may be his inexperience. As a political amateur, his mishandling of the GOP convention and of his own campaign may indicate that a Trump administration wouldn't go the distance. Politics is a contact sport not played well by amateurs, especially at the national and international levels.
But how much damage could he do in the meantime? As distasteful as I sometimes find Hillary Clinton, she's probably got my vote, because I don't care to find out how much damage Trump can do.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
The mogul of Atlantic City is doing some high-stakes gambling these days. And if he wins, the country is likely to lose -- BIG.
I didn't consider Donald (T)rump to be all that dangerous, even amid the comparisons to Hitler and such -- until last Thursday night. I thought of him in terms of a corrupt buffoon, akin to Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister and media mogul. But after his dark acceptance of the Republican Party nomination for the presidency, I had second thoughts.
Trump has supporters who resemble Nazis in their pugnaciousness and not-so-subtle white supremacy, and he does nothing to discourage them. He actually said he doesn't know enough about the KKK to refute David Duke's endorsement of him. Describing himself as the "law-and-order" candidate, he's taking many pages out of the campaign playbook of the late Alabama Gov. George Wallace, and he's proving much more successful than Wallace was. He's put together a coalition of bigots, rednecks, gun nuts and other assorted psychos, and if he can get them to the polling places (some perhaps for the first time) in November, he could very well be elected president. After his convention speech, he was leading in the polls.
The Republican Party, the establishment of which seems a bit stunned by Trump's success, brought this on themselves. As far back as the Goldwater bid for the presidency in 1964, the GOP has catered to Southern bigots. Nixon extended the party's "Southern strategy" in 1968 and 1972, and by the time Reagan was the nominee in 1980, the South was solidly in the hands of the GOP. The Republicans have done all they could to court this type of voter -- working-class right-wingers who embrace a single issue, whether it be abortion, gun rights, or something else.
Now they've taken control of the party, like a Frankenstein monster, and the Republican Old Guard -- the economic royalists who used to call all the shots -- had no one on hand to back Donald Trump down.
If he ends up losing and destroying the Republican Party "coalition" of rednecks, the party moguls have no one to blame but themselves.
But what if he wins? Polls indicate that it's possible. And this fellow isn't merely stupid, like Il Doofus (Bush 43) appeared to be. This is a cunning megalomaniac with no apparent regard for the facts. Media observers pointed out that his bloviation on crime was false, with statistics showing that violent crime has declined since Obama became president. Yet he stands by everything, as usual.
One saving grace for the country may be his inexperience. As a political amateur, his mishandling of the GOP convention and of his own campaign may indicate that a Trump administration wouldn't go the distance. Politics is a contact sport not played well by amateurs, especially at the national and international levels.
But how much damage could he do in the meantime? As distasteful as I sometimes find Hillary Clinton, she's probably got my vote, because I don't care to find out how much damage Trump can do.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Sunday, July 17, 2016
From Joe's Vault, November 2012: Does Donald Trump Belong In Jail For Suggesting 'Revolution'?
By Manifesto Joe
I'm pretty much of a First Amendment purist. No matter how contemptible the speech is, in the good ol' U.S. of A., it's supposed to be free, and protected by law.
But a question now nags me. If Romney had won the presidential election, and someone with the background of, say, Bill Ayres, tweeted something suggesting "revolution," do you think he would be getting a visit from the Department of Homeland Security before long? I think it's quite possible that he would.
Donald Trump has a long history of being hostile to President Obama. He was one of the main instigators of the "birther controversy," and he persists in this behavior even after Obama won re-election.
And a recent tweet from him was reported this way in examiner.com:
Donald Trump has no regrets when it comes to his so-called Election Day Twitter rant in which he claimed the United States was not a democracy and called the election "a sham and a travesty." He later went on to say "More votes equals a loss...revolution!" and "The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy."
Trump says he has no regrets about this. Here's a link to the complete story.
Was Trump genuinely advocating a violent revolution to overthrow the U.S. government, because the election didn't go the way he wanted? Only "The Donald" could tell you for sure what was going through that privilege-numbed skull of his. I'm just judging by what he said on Twitter, and he's standing by it.
If he's not backing down, perhaps he ought to be put under Homeland Security surveillance. I wouldn't advocate that he go to jail, at least not now. That would just make a "martyr" of him.
If Romney had won, and it were Bill Ayres tweeting such things, I think there'd be agents staking out his house.
But Trump, being a right-wing billionaire, probably isn't going to have to answer to anyone for his reckless remarks. Stay tuned.
Postscript: Rock guitar has-been Ted Nugent tweeted that Obama's supporters were "pimps whores & welfare brats." Wow. Are there really over 61 million of us? Check out the cartoon at the link.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
I'm pretty much of a First Amendment purist. No matter how contemptible the speech is, in the good ol' U.S. of A., it's supposed to be free, and protected by law.
But a question now nags me. If Romney had won the presidential election, and someone with the background of, say, Bill Ayres, tweeted something suggesting "revolution," do you think he would be getting a visit from the Department of Homeland Security before long? I think it's quite possible that he would.
Donald Trump has a long history of being hostile to President Obama. He was one of the main instigators of the "birther controversy," and he persists in this behavior even after Obama won re-election.
And a recent tweet from him was reported this way in examiner.com:
Donald Trump has no regrets when it comes to his so-called Election Day Twitter rant in which he claimed the United States was not a democracy and called the election "a sham and a travesty." He later went on to say "More votes equals a loss...revolution!" and "The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy."
Trump says he has no regrets about this. Here's a link to the complete story.
Was Trump genuinely advocating a violent revolution to overthrow the U.S. government, because the election didn't go the way he wanted? Only "The Donald" could tell you for sure what was going through that privilege-numbed skull of his. I'm just judging by what he said on Twitter, and he's standing by it.
If he's not backing down, perhaps he ought to be put under Homeland Security surveillance. I wouldn't advocate that he go to jail, at least not now. That would just make a "martyr" of him.
If Romney had won, and it were Bill Ayres tweeting such things, I think there'd be agents staking out his house.
But Trump, being a right-wing billionaire, probably isn't going to have to answer to anyone for his reckless remarks. Stay tuned.
Postscript: Rock guitar has-been Ted Nugent tweeted that Obama's supporters were "pimps whores & welfare brats." Wow. Are there really over 61 million of us? Check out the cartoon at the link.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Friday, July 15, 2016
From Joe's Vault, May 2011: Bin Laden Isn't Qualified To Be Dead Until Donald Trump Sees The Death Certificate
By Manifesto Joe
This May 2, 2011, blog post came to mind recently, as Republicans prepare to anoint birther-in-chief Donald Rump (er, Trump) as their presidential nominee. The question I would ask is: With so much horror happening in the world now, can the U.S. afford to have a neo-fascist buffoon like this man as president? Oh well, here goes, from over five years ago:
The problem is, how would we know that it wasn't a fake?
I guess that means that "The Donald" and all the rest of us will have to see the bullet-riddled body. But if the face has been shot to pieces, how would we know that Special Forces didn't just dredge up some 6-foot-4, skinny Arab for target practice? How would we know that Osama isn't actually still alive, scarfing hummus and falafel and advising that closet Muslim in the White House?
Well, by now I suspect you get the point of this sarcasm.
Any credit here for Obama?
Barack Obama seemed downright presidential Sunday night while announcing this big score of scores. But will he get any credit? If you watch Fox "News" during the next week, I'll bet that Il Doofus gets much more credit than Obama will. And Bush 43 couldn't get this guy for over seven years -- in fact, Bush diverted U.S. attention away from bin Laden and the Afghanistan-Pakistan region with his rogue-nation invasion of Iraq. That cost this country countless billions, some of which should have been focused on a terrorist network that actually attacked us. And according to some estimates, it cost over a million Iraqi lives.
I hope that the American people have sense enough to know that this day should have come much sooner, and likely would have, if the country's priorities hadn't been grotesquely and viciously distorted by ruthless, self-serving people.
This post is going to strike some people as irreverent and brutal. Sometimes honesty has an unfortunate way of sounding like that.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
This May 2, 2011, blog post came to mind recently, as Republicans prepare to anoint birther-in-chief Donald Rump (er, Trump) as their presidential nominee. The question I would ask is: With so much horror happening in the world now, can the U.S. afford to have a neo-fascist buffoon like this man as president? Oh well, here goes, from over five years ago:
The problem is, how would we know that it wasn't a fake?
I guess that means that "The Donald" and all the rest of us will have to see the bullet-riddled body. But if the face has been shot to pieces, how would we know that Special Forces didn't just dredge up some 6-foot-4, skinny Arab for target practice? How would we know that Osama isn't actually still alive, scarfing hummus and falafel and advising that closet Muslim in the White House?
Well, by now I suspect you get the point of this sarcasm.
Any credit here for Obama?
Barack Obama seemed downright presidential Sunday night while announcing this big score of scores. But will he get any credit? If you watch Fox "News" during the next week, I'll bet that Il Doofus gets much more credit than Obama will. And Bush 43 couldn't get this guy for over seven years -- in fact, Bush diverted U.S. attention away from bin Laden and the Afghanistan-Pakistan region with his rogue-nation invasion of Iraq. That cost this country countless billions, some of which should have been focused on a terrorist network that actually attacked us. And according to some estimates, it cost over a million Iraqi lives.
I hope that the American people have sense enough to know that this day should have come much sooner, and likely would have, if the country's priorities hadn't been grotesquely and viciously distorted by ruthless, self-serving people.
This post is going to strike some people as irreverent and brutal. Sometimes honesty has an unfortunate way of sounding like that.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Trump Just Saying What A Lot Of Republicans Really Think
by Manifesto Joe
I don't find it surprising at all that billionaire Donald Trump has pulled out in front of the Republican Klown Kar, with 24% in one recent poll. He's just saying what a lot of Republicans privately think, but seldom say out loud for fear of sounding like ignorant bigots and xenophobes (which, of course, many are).
Trump, whose singular business acumen includes four company bankruptcies, claims that as president he would know how to make America great again. Looking at him I think the trick is to be born rich.
With the recent trip to Laredo, Texas, and the "Hispanics love me" rhetoric, he seems to have taken a page from the playbook of onetime pro wrestler Kinji Shibuya, who made a handsome living playing burly Japanese bad-guy bullies in our homegrown American Theater for the Unwashed. He used "illegal" karate chops in the ring, and such.
"The Mexican people, they love me!" Kinji would exclaim when he would take his rasslin' show to San Antonio back in the 1960s. Hispanics in the auditorium, meanwhile, would be booing loudly and splattering Kinji with beer as he held forth for the cameras. "I eat beans and tortillas every day!" he would bellow.
I suspect that the Donald has been to a Taco Bell drive-thru in his limo, so perhaps that qualifies him as having a unique understanding of Hispanics in America.
Meanwhile, GOP presidential hopeful Ted Cruz seems to be trying to out-Donald the Donald himself. Calling Mitch McConnell a liar certainly isn't going to get him anywhere in the Senate hierarchy, so the junior Texas U.S. senator appears to be trying to steal the headlines away from Trump.
The Republican Klown Kar seems to grow more crowded each day, but Trump now appears to be the leader in the polls. With all the money and power to be found on that side of the aisle, I suspect that such folks have the means to derail the Donald before he even gets close to the GOP nomination, and I suspect that the Republican establishment will knock off Cruz as well.
But for several more months, it should make for a wonderful show.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
I don't find it surprising at all that billionaire Donald Trump has pulled out in front of the Republican Klown Kar, with 24% in one recent poll. He's just saying what a lot of Republicans privately think, but seldom say out loud for fear of sounding like ignorant bigots and xenophobes (which, of course, many are).
Trump, whose singular business acumen includes four company bankruptcies, claims that as president he would know how to make America great again. Looking at him I think the trick is to be born rich.
With the recent trip to Laredo, Texas, and the "Hispanics love me" rhetoric, he seems to have taken a page from the playbook of onetime pro wrestler Kinji Shibuya, who made a handsome living playing burly Japanese bad-guy bullies in our homegrown American Theater for the Unwashed. He used "illegal" karate chops in the ring, and such.
"The Mexican people, they love me!" Kinji would exclaim when he would take his rasslin' show to San Antonio back in the 1960s. Hispanics in the auditorium, meanwhile, would be booing loudly and splattering Kinji with beer as he held forth for the cameras. "I eat beans and tortillas every day!" he would bellow.
I suspect that the Donald has been to a Taco Bell drive-thru in his limo, so perhaps that qualifies him as having a unique understanding of Hispanics in America.
Meanwhile, GOP presidential hopeful Ted Cruz seems to be trying to out-Donald the Donald himself. Calling Mitch McConnell a liar certainly isn't going to get him anywhere in the Senate hierarchy, so the junior Texas U.S. senator appears to be trying to steal the headlines away from Trump.
The Republican Klown Kar seems to grow more crowded each day, but Trump now appears to be the leader in the polls. With all the money and power to be found on that side of the aisle, I suspect that such folks have the means to derail the Donald before he even gets close to the GOP nomination, and I suspect that the Republican establishment will knock off Cruz as well.
But for several more months, it should make for a wonderful show.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Does Donald Trump Belong In Jail For Suggesting 'Revolution'?
By Manifesto Joe
I'm pretty much of a First Amendment purist. No matter how contemptible the speech is, in the good ol' U.S. of A., it's supposed to be free, and protected by law.
But a question now nags me. If Romney had won the presidential election, and someone with the background of, say, Bill Ayres, tweeted something suggesting "revolution," do you think he would be getting a visit from the Department of Homeland Security before long? I think it's quite possible that he would.
Donald Trump has a long history of being hostile to President Obama. He was one of the main instigators of the "birther controversy," and he persists in this behavior even after Obama won re-election.
And a recent tweet from him was reported this way in examiner.com:
Donald Trump has no regrets when it comes to his so-called Election Day Twitter rant in which he claimed the United States was not a democracy and called the election "a sham and a travesty." He later went on to say "More votes equals a loss...revolution!" and "The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy."
Trump says he has no regrets about this. Here's a link to the complete story.
Was Trump genuinely advocating a violent revolution to overthrow the U.S. government, because the election didn't go the way he wanted? Only "The Donald" could tell you for sure what was going through that privilege-numbed skull of his. I'm just judging by what he said on Twitter, and he's standing by it.
If he's not backing down, perhaps he ought to be put under Homeland Security surveillance. I wouldn't advocate that he go to jail, at least not now. That would just make a "martyr" of him.
If Romney had won, and it were Bill Ayres tweeting such things, I think there'd be agents staking out his house.
But Trump, being a right-wing billionaire, probably isn't going to have to answer to anyone for his reckless remarks. Stay tuned.
Postscript: Rock guitar has-been Ted Nugent tweeted that Obama's supporters were "pimps whores & welfare brats." Wow. Are there really over 61 million of us? Check out the cartoon at the link.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
I'm pretty much of a First Amendment purist. No matter how contemptible the speech is, in the good ol' U.S. of A., it's supposed to be free, and protected by law.
But a question now nags me. If Romney had won the presidential election, and someone with the background of, say, Bill Ayres, tweeted something suggesting "revolution," do you think he would be getting a visit from the Department of Homeland Security before long? I think it's quite possible that he would.
Donald Trump has a long history of being hostile to President Obama. He was one of the main instigators of the "birther controversy," and he persists in this behavior even after Obama won re-election.
And a recent tweet from him was reported this way in examiner.com:
Donald Trump has no regrets when it comes to his so-called Election Day Twitter rant in which he claimed the United States was not a democracy and called the election "a sham and a travesty." He later went on to say "More votes equals a loss...revolution!" and "The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy."
Trump says he has no regrets about this. Here's a link to the complete story.
Was Trump genuinely advocating a violent revolution to overthrow the U.S. government, because the election didn't go the way he wanted? Only "The Donald" could tell you for sure what was going through that privilege-numbed skull of his. I'm just judging by what he said on Twitter, and he's standing by it.
If he's not backing down, perhaps he ought to be put under Homeland Security surveillance. I wouldn't advocate that he go to jail, at least not now. That would just make a "martyr" of him.
If Romney had won, and it were Bill Ayres tweeting such things, I think there'd be agents staking out his house.
But Trump, being a right-wing billionaire, probably isn't going to have to answer to anyone for his reckless remarks. Stay tuned.
Postscript: Rock guitar has-been Ted Nugent tweeted that Obama's supporters were "pimps whores & welfare brats." Wow. Are there really over 61 million of us? Check out the cartoon at the link.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
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