dagblog - Comments for ""They're Not Sending Their Best...""

built with the finest because

jollyroger — Wed, 04 Jul 2018 19:20:36 +0000

built with the finest because it was so hard

Illustrating the folly of turning way people who survived a 2000 mile walk through the desert.

This is a most excellent

artappraiser — Tue, 03 Jul 2018 04:58:53 +0000

In reply to "They're Not Sending Their Best..."

This is a most excellent point I really never thought much about before that explains much about quite a few working class fans of Trump, one that New Yorkers will totally get, especially those of us with outer borough experience:

To understand Trump, understand that for years on construction sites he was the rich boss's son and learned how to talk to carpenters, iron workers, joiners etc. so as not to seem like the rich boss's son. https://t.co/7DxTRZiBgL
— Alan Feuer (@alanfeuer) June 28, 2018

You know, that GOP primary over in Staten Island, I read a little about it and watched some local news clips of a reporter talking to voters out there in lovely red Staten Island land. I saw at least three or four guys with heavy accents say they all loved Grimm and owed him so much because of this or that favor he did for them (ba da boom!) BUT they voted for the other guy Donovan only BECAUSE Trump said they should!

Suckers all!

(Reminds me of a plumber I two summers ago, yuge Trump fan, Trump stickers allover the van, went on and on about Trump to me and my friend until I said "leave us alone about that, we're artsy liberals." And he did. just shut up like that! )

Edit to add: besides outer boroughs, I should add that that those with New Joisey experience might also qualify as well as any serious fans of The Sopranos. The plumber Trump fan of my story, he was actually from a very nice town in Weschesta, met him in line at the Yonkers Home Depot, where he was buying floor protectors for "an upper East Side Manhattan job,".. Plumbers these days are often top of the heap, can sometimes afford better real estate than Staten Island, and this one just also happened to be an Albanian immigrant who had somehow climbed the ladder real quick if you know what I mean.

So I think this all really does synch with your story, Michael.

I see these arguments as

Michael Wolraich — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 14:31:00 +0000

In reply to Excellent compare and

I see these arguments as rationalizations rather than reasons. White American xenophobes always have to struggle with the fact that they, too, descend from immigrants. To resolve this cognitive dissonance, they're compelled to distinguish between "good" immigrants and "bad" immigrants. Protestants vs Catholics in the mid-1800s, "Nordics" vs Southern/Eastern Europeans (and East Asians) at the turn of the 20th century, "Europeans" vs Latinos and "Judeo-Christians" vs Muslims at the turn of the 21st. The categories change, but the same rationalizations return again and again: crime, disease, sloth, ignorance, extremism, depravity.

Just comes to mind that the

artappraiser — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 03:56:25 +0000

In reply to Excellent compare and

Just comes to mind that the meritocracy thing and the city mouse/country mouse, and the my tribe/your tribe thing can get real complicated as far as "all in your head":

from The Heart of the Hutu-Tutsi Conflict @ PBS News Hour Oct., 1999

[....] According to some historians, like Congolese Professor George Izangola, the only difference between the two groups were economic, rather than ethnic. In a 1996 interview with Charlayne Hunter Gault, Professor Izangola explained:

“In Rwanda, the Tutsi and the Hutu are the same people. They are all people–large grouping or communities which go from seven regions of Cameroon to Uganda–all the way to South Africa, in the same culture,” Izangola said. “People used to be Tutsi or Hutu, depending on the proximity to the king. If you were close to the king, you owned wealth, you owned a lot of cattle, you are a Tutsi. If you are far away from the king, you are a cultivator, you don’t own much cattle, you are a Hutu.”

Colonial rule, which began in the late 19th Century, did little to bring the groups together. The Belgians, who ruled what would later become Rwanda and Burundi, forced Hutus and Tutsis to carry ethnic identity cards. The colonial administrators further exacerbated divisions by only allowed Tutsis to attain higher education and hold positions of power [....]

He was poor. He was

artappraiser — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 01:36:53 +0000

In reply to "They're Not Sending Their Best..."

He was poor. He was illiterate in English. He was an unaccompanied minor. He was Donald Trump's grandfather https://t.co/Jsy30HZRrO
— David Beard (@dabeard) July 1, 2018

Excellent compare and

artappraiser — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 21:09:09 +0000

In reply to It also made me think of this

Excellent compare and contrast point. Trump's MAGA totally synchs there, that's 1896 Francis Walker theory. Makes another thing clear, Walker is disturbed that the country mouse vs. city mouse barriers are breaking down. Wants all the supposedly dumb people in Europe to stay down on the farm. But no, all these transportation options now allow them to globalize, drag us all down. His thought patterns lead him into the evil side of meritocracy, the genetic one. Yes, it's survival of the fittest. Walker thinks the U.S. was built with the finest because it was so hard to be a pioneer. Going back to Maiello's essay, this is all correctly applied, pointing it out to Trumpies.

Comes to mind could bring up the example of the founder denizens of Australia to counter Walker. but then they never had the gumption to have a revolution against the crown.

Another thing. Trump's meritocracy is about money and how smart the grift is getting it. It's classic nouveau riche to a Walker (i.e. my boat is bigger than your boat, gold plated plumbing,) not noblesse oblige.Trump doesn't even get noblesse oblige, he doesn't just want his name on a university for posterity, he uses charity to make money!

It's just a very fruitful comparison.

It also made me think of this

Michael Wolraich — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 19:11:25 +0000

In reply to Yeah, crossing the border is

It also made me think of this remark from AA's link to the Atlantic's way-way-way-back (1896) machine:

Fifty, even thirty years ago, there was a rightful presumption regarding the average immigrant that he was among the most enterprising, thrifty, alert, adventurous, and courageous of the community from which he came. It required no small energy, prudence, forethought, and pains to conduct the inquiries relating to his migration, to accumulate the necessary means, and to find his way across the Atlantic. To-day the presumption is completely reversed. So thoroughly has the continent of Europe been crossed by railways, so effectively has the business of emigration there been exploited, so much have the rates of railroad fares and ocean passage been reduced, that it is now among the least thrifty and prosperous members of any European community that the emigration agent finds his best recruiting-ground.

Yeah, crossing the border is

Michael Wolraich — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 19:07:00 +0000

In reply to "They're Not Sending Their Best..."

Yeah, crossing the border is like winning the Hunger Games, but instead of wealth and fame, the prize is imprisonment and separation from your family (except for the lucky few who make it through and get to work crappy, low-paying jobs).

P.S. Truth be told, the

artappraiser — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 05:27:57 +0000

In reply to of course! You misread my

P.S. Truth be told, the latter is what I was thinking a Fox News hidden meme might be. What I myself was actually thinking, though is: Florida, even in the boonies, maybe it's not so tribal anymore, which confirms my feelings from recent visits to Ft.L and Miami, amplified by the Parkland story. And I just got more confirmation for my bias with this news I just read about a Little Havana election: ‘The Blue Wave Came’: Win for Non-Hispanic Democrat Signals Big Shift in Miami, the Cuban diaspora just elected a Dem gringa to the Miami Dade Commission with the last name Higgins instead of the usual tough-on-commies Republican Hispanic.

of course! You misread my

artappraiser — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 05:14:49 +0000

In reply to oh come on, humanity's a

of course! You misread my mocking, I'm not anti-baby, I was trying to point out exactly what you are, it's a sure thing, a no brainer, we're all susceptible unless pyschopathic.

Motivated a helluva lot of people today, as a matter of fact:

#KeepFamilesTogetherMarch

That Trump even let it happen is puzzling, that he thought fans would appreciate this, as he gets this along the lines of macho MAGA, plus it's a staple of the Family Values right wing movement, and I recall he even used the "innocent little babies" thing with okaying the Syria bombing, etc.

Back to the video. I was thinking more about how saving the overweight guy was a like a big disappointment, so unsatisfying....so is it tribes will only get together to work on perpetuation of the species?