The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    A Deplorable Thought: Trump Could Win

    By Ramona on Mon, 09/19/2016 - 9:32am | Politics
    I was standing in line at the grocery store yesterday looking at this National Enquirer cover, trying to convince myself I'm too old to be horrified by these things anymore. It made me queasy and a little breathless but I managed to get past it and move my groceries from my cart to the belt.
     


    When I heard a woman behind the guy behind me gasp and say, "Oh, my!" I knew without a doubt she was looking at that same tabloid cover. She was an older woman.  An "Oh, my!" sort of woman. Tiny, a little stout, a puff ball of snow white hair surrounding a sweet rosy face.  I couldn't quite hear what she was saying but I heard "Hillary".  She laughed then. She said something to the people behind her and they laughed, too.  Then she said, loudly but nicely,  "I would never vote for her, anyway!"

    Well, okay. I live in Red Country.  Blood red. So red I'm not just surprised, I'm shocked whenever I meet someone who can admit out loud they'll vote for Hillary.  The Democrats up here don't flaunt their political preferences, they whisper them.  It's as if we're members of a secret cult, never letting on who we really are unless we know we're on safe ground, in the company of others like us.  Putting up yard signs for Democrats is an act of courage.

    But the sweet lady in line behind me wasn't quite finished. She said something else to make the people behind her nod and laugh, and then turned back to where I could hear and threw this out: "I guess I'll just go on being deplorable."

    She wasn't talking to me, of course, but it was a direct hit, a punch in the gut. The cashier handed me my change. I moved a few steps away and stood there. For many seconds. What could I say to change the mind of this woman who, I just knew, brought dishes to sick people and sent greeting cards? Okay, she may gossip a bit and look down her nose at people who get food stamps, but a Trump voter?  Inconceivable.

    I left, of course, without saying anything. No magic words. What could I tell her that wasn't already out there? But I'm haunted by that woman. In another time she would be as appalled by that man as I am. Our politics might always be opposing, but on this we could agree: Never Trump.

    What changed?  Do these people, nice as they may be in their private lives, really think Donald Trump would make a good or even an adequate president? Is Hillary hatred all it takes to make the thought of four years of a Trump presidency acceptable? Can't they hear him?  Don't they see he's fueled by power and hate and it consumes him?

    Or is this all it takes?
     


    For all the watching and reading I've done during this presidential campaign, trying to make sense of the rise of Trump so we could finally figure out how to fight him effectively, it took a brief encounter in a grocery line for me to finally get the message:  He could win.

    Donald Trump could win.

     

    (Cross-posted at Ramona's Voices)

    Topics: 
    Politics

    Comments

    The Red Queens 'Basket of Deplorables' vulgar slur of a large portion of the electorate may be remembered as the most stupid and self destructive vomitus  ever spewed by a presidental contender. Millions of voters have quickly decided they will never support stupid and self destructive for president and we are seeing this rejection in the polls.

    Something else i never thought i would see is millions of Black voters shumnning this sullen stupid democrat and actually pledging to vote for Trump as the latest LAT/USC poll documents. The Clintonite's were worried about low Black voter turnout but this Red Queen stupidity has driven then into the Trump camp probably because they were also depicted as  a type of deplorables by the Clintons in the past.


    by Peter (not verified) on Mon, 09/19/2016 - 1:11pm

    The deplorable thought process of the Trump voter comes out from beneath the rock. Trump voters are what Hillary said they were. Thanks Peter.


    by rmrd0000 on Mon, 09/19/2016 - 1:22pm

    Apparently you've never heard Trump speak?


    by Ramona on Mon, 09/19/2016 - 2:05pm

    Peter never provides links because links provide facts that can be checked. The LAT/USC poll uses a scale of 0-100 voting possibly scale rather than simply requiring a vote. Thus everyone polled can have a very significant and sometimes erroneous impact on the poll results. How one would actually vote is not considered.

    http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-polling-differences-20160809-s...

    The wingnut sites are paying a great deal of attention to the nonsense.


    by rmrd0000 on Mon, 09/19/2016 - 2:18pm

    So according to Bing, 25% of American would-be voters register as repubs.

    But Bing tells me that another 16% of American would-be voters 'lean toward' the repubs.

    http://www.bing.com/search?FORM=INCOH2&PC=&PTAG=ICO-44a76390&q=what+percentage+of+Americans+register+as+republicans%3F&uref=chmm

    ​So it is not hard to believe that half of Trump supporters are racist, misogynist, ethnocentric pricks. hahaahah

    We are only talking about a fifth of all Americans.

    And we get into the Clyvon Bundy's of the world and the American White Party people of the world and.....

    A fifth of potential American Voters are idiots and pricks. hahahahaha

    On the other hand 31% of potential American Voters are Dems and 16% of potential American Voters are independents who lean toward the Dems.

    BING BING, BING BING

    Of course there are other songs that I feel better describe my feelings about MY COUNTRY.

    Oh America give us shelter from the cyborgs:

     

     

     


    by Richard Day on Mon, 09/19/2016 - 2:23pm

    Hi Dick...

    This one always seems to bring out the worst in those who are in the Trump Dumpster.

     

    ~OGD~

     

     


    by oldenGoldenDecoy on Mon, 09/19/2016 - 9:14pm

    There ya go Ducky!

    I am wont to underline that you and Smith and others have experienced History with a capital H.

    My God, we have been through so much stuff.

    And here comes this Mussolini guy telling us we are all shit.

    hahahahahahahah

    ​Heaven Help Us All:

     


    by Richard Day on Mon, 09/19/2016 - 9:46pm

    As above, so below.

     

     

    Peter is a smaller version of the gibberish machine that jill stein correctly identifies,

     

    And i have had "one of my flashes"about a month ago that he WILL win.

     

    And he is smooth demented.


    by jollyroger on Mon, 09/19/2016 - 3:51pm

    Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh the past Peter.

    Oh if we could only grasp upon the past.

    We would feel soooooooooo much better.

    Like Pat Buchannan mused, if only the Blacks stayed in their part of DC and the Whites would be safe in their part of DC

    Or when we are apprised that the Holocaust never took place.

    Or....

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Buchanan

    OHHHHHHHHHH  THE GOOD OLE DAYS, FOR SURE!


    by Richard Day on Mon, 09/19/2016 - 2:36pm

    Hillary will win. The National Enquirer tried similar trash stories about Barack Obama in. 2008. At that time Obama had ties to terrorist Bill Ayers

    http://www.brendan-nyhan.com/blog/2008/03/national-enquir.html

     


    by rmrd0000 on Mon, 09/19/2016 - 3:16pm

    I don't recall any campaign that did such extreme photo-shopping on their opponents as what the Trump campaign has done to photos of Hillary and Bill Clinton in this campaign.  They don't just choose unflattering poses, which is the normal thing and is to be expected, they photo-shop them until both Hilary and Bill look like they are 170 years old and in the worst health imaginable.  The National Enquirer photo of Hillary is a prime example.  The one I've seen of Bill makes him look near death.


    by MrSmith1 on Mon, 09/19/2016 - 3:31pm

    David Pecker is the head the National Enquirer since before and after it's last bankruptcy. His alma mater is Pace U, HURRAH  for Pace!!!

    He resides in Boca Rotan Florida and makes $3 million a year.

    A prominent Pace prick named Pecker produces prolific piles of pathetic polluted palaver to prominently puff his personal prosperity.


    by NCD on Mon, 09/19/2016 - 5:17pm

    Pearlclutcher Peter notwithstanding the pneumonia and it's handling were more damaging than I would have thought


    by jollyroger on Mon, 09/19/2016 - 3:39pm

    It was a form of pneumonia that did not require hospitalization. The Clinton Foundation "looked bad" but helped people. Trump used money donate money to his charity to buy a picture of himself. The Trump Organization has ties to countries that Trump owes money and will directly benefit his children if he is elected. There was zero likelihood that the press would handle the pneumonia in a balanced fashion. Reporting the pneumonia puts her at death's door anyway.


    by rmrd0000 on Mon, 09/19/2016 - 3:49pm

    Correctomundo. (Eta) as to underlying medical severity but we go to war with the press corps we have,..,

     

     

     

    That's why i was surprised by the polling damage,and i woukd argue that the press was badly managed.

     


    by jollyroger on Mon, 09/19/2016 - 4:02pm

    The press went all in on the Clinton Foundation. The story was carried on networks, news magazines, and news magazines. The Trump Organization and charity stories do not get the same ongoing coverage. Hillary knows that the fix is in.


    by rmrd0000 on Mon, 09/19/2016 - 4:25pm

    We got the charlie chaplin version first this time in The Apprentice and we may STILL elect Hitler!


    by jollyroger on Mon, 09/19/2016 - 3:49pm

    Yes, of course it’s possible that the Devil will dance in the end.  But as odd as it sounds, we’ve been here before.  Recent elections have always been tight and both sides (yes, I know, but sometimes it’s true) hand-wring about how they’re doing and why it’s so close.  And it will be this way until the votes are counted in November.

    Too much ink has been spilt and time wasted trying to figure out why close to half of the electorate says their choice will be the Republican candidate.  It is simply what it is.  Pollsters call, people answer based on their mood of their day and the rest of us collectively freak out.  Then some other pollster calls some other people on another day and we breathe a sigh of relief.  We’ve been here and done this before.

    Prepare - don’t despair.  The worst can always happen, so it’s not a bad idea to stock your frig with comfort food and arrange to have large amounts of alcohol delivered on November 9th as you lie in bed sucking your thumb.  But until such a horrific (ish …food and booze?) day arrives, remember that close to half of the electorate says that their choice will be the Democratic candidate.

    People are strange around election time.  But in the end we’re not as stupid as we look.


    by barefooted on Mon, 09/19/2016 - 9:16pm

     we’re not as stupid as we look.

    True...It's not like we elected a dry drunk in 2000 who plunged the world into a multi-decade catastrophe....

     

     

     


    by jollyroger on Tue, 09/20/2016 - 9:59am

    I tried to warn Clintonites here and elsewhere months ago that the combination of Identity Politics and hubris was toxic and they should start their panic early and avoid the coming rush. Some Clintonites seem to be moving past denial and moving onto spittle flected anger attacks on the people they can't impress with their higher class image of themselves, that only they could believe is accurate.

    The Red Queen  showed her Class with her deplorables slur and the exposure of her health coverup, however minor, by her collapse along with the immediate lies by her minions was just too much for many voters and we are seeing the results. It's not that voters expect the Red Queen not to lie, all politicians do,  but they do expect some skill at lying to be displayed by their leaders and Queenie and her quislings are incompetent, lazy, low energy liars.

    If you still cling to the fantasy notion that the aftermath of 9/11 could have been dramatically different than what happened under Bush you must also have a fantasy vision of who and what Al Gore was and what the democrat party was and is.


    by Peter (not verified) on Tue, 09/20/2016 - 11:31am

    Which of the poll identified cohorts of Trump's deplorables do you rise to defend?


    by jollyroger on Tue, 09/20/2016 - 12:18pm

    aftermath of 9/11

     

    dunno.  even granting that the operation has vaulted 'sama into the geo-strategic hall of fame for return on investment ('I believe it pencilled out at $250,000, and looks to have shaved half a century off the "American Century"...)

     

    that said--

     

    Suppose Gore, then maybe Afghanistan, yes (bad enough--we didn't even recognize the Taliban as the governement so how do we bomb the country because some NGO is harboring a fugitive??) but not Iraq.

     


    by jollyroger on Tue, 09/20/2016 - 12:24pm

    So Al Gore would have sold off Iraqi oil to oil industry cronies, and gone in and occupied Iraq with no plan. This is the fucktard stuff of dreams - that whatever Republicans do, Democrats would have done worse; whatever Obama did, Hillary would have done worse, etc etc. It's a completely bullshit framing, and of course unrefutable unless you have a Schroedinger box to see if the other cat fries. You go, Peter - you're such a clever clairvoyant, a Cassandra, and us fools just can't bear to acknowledge your wisdom.


    by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 09/20/2016 - 1:23pm

    IF GORE'S BROTHER WAS GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA AND BUSH WON THE POPULAR VOTE BY 1/2 MILLION,  GORE WOULD STOP THE FLORIDA VOTE COUNT PLEADING THE 14TH AMENDMENT.

    THE GOP SUPREME COURT WOULD HAVE RULED FOR GORE, AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WOULD HAVE GRACEFULLY CONCEDED THE ELECTION KNOWING GORE WOULD BE AS EASY TO CONTROL AS THEIR REFORMED DRUNK DRAFT DODGER.

    GOT IT.


    by NCD on Tue, 09/20/2016 - 2:57pm

     If you still cling to the fantasy notion that the aftermath of 9/11 could have been dramatically different than what happened under Bush you must also have a fantasy vision of who and what Al Gore was and what the democrat party was and is.

    The Bush administration chose to collapse Iraq as a first priority. That was where much of the blood and money went.

    Events and the disclosure of the people behind the attack now clearly demonstrate that Iraq had very little involvement with the causes of the attack on nine eleven.

    Therefore, claiming any administration would have reproduced the errors of the Bush 2 crowd means they would have acted in just the same way for the same incorrect reasons.

    That result is not immediately evident and requires more than a mere assertion of the kind you have offered.


    by moat on Tue, 09/20/2016 - 7:54pm

    People are strange around election time.  But in the end we’re not as stupid as we look.

    I kind of suspect that there are a significant number of people out there saying they are going to vote for Trump, who are not actually going to do such a thing in the privacy of the voting booth. I think some of them will vote for Hillary but never tell their friends, some will vote for Johnson and most will leave the top line blank. It's just a guess, I admit, but I think a good number of people get more responsible when it comes time to actually vote.


      by Michael Maiello on Tue, 09/20/2016 - 3:00pm

      Exactly (fingers tightly crossed).


      by barefooted on Tue, 09/20/2016 - 3:47pm

      Suggestion: time to remove the giant National Enquirer cover, 4 days at the top of Dag would seem enough.


      by NCD on Fri, 09/23/2016 - 12:00pm

      Added a video to my latest post just to offer some relief....


      by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 09/24/2016 - 3:12pm

      There.  Fixed it.


      by Ramona on Sat, 09/24/2016 - 3:53pm