The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Michael Maiello's picture

    Today is National Moron Day

    By Michael Maiello on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 9:53am | Politics

    No way to be nice about this.  If you voted for Trump, I don't want to hear it.  You're a moron.  I retain a smidge fo sympathy for third party voters but if you voted Trump, you're dumb and will reap the results.

    But I am also mad at some other stupid idiots out there.

    We have to start with the Clinton campaign, which begged me for a dollar, every day since the start of the primaries, and then blew an easy lay-up.

    Then we have the national media, especially NBC, which created and nurtured Donald Trump and turned him into an uncontrollable force.

    Then we have the vast right wing conspiracy part of the media, which has been trying to take down Hillary Clinton since the late 80s and has ultimately succeeded, with help from the above.

    We have the FBI, complicit in the above to the very end.

    We have the progressive media, from Slate to Vox to Talking Points Memo, who assured us all with supposed science, that she was going to win big and maybe deliver the Senate as a welcome gift.

    We have social media, which we all aid and abet, that leads to echo chambers that insulate us from what's going on outside our curated streams.

    Morons, all.

    We have elected an anti-intellectual and given him a mandate to do stupid things and we will all suffer for it.

    Today is National Moron Day.

    Topics: 
    Politics

    Comments

    What easy layup? the fucking head of the FBI ran interference for Trump, while Wikileaks was given every news org to drip out out anti-Hillary ads, even after Congress ran 11 investigations of Benghazi and her own party spent a year skewering her. And she won the fucking popular vote.


    by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 10:28am

    He's a clown.  She had no business letting this be close.


    by Michael Maiello on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 11:04am

    You underestimate the racism of the American populace. Trump voters want their country back. They love the America of the 1950s. They want blacks in their place and brown immigrants  out of the country. Russia, Wikileaks, and the FBI were in Trump's corner. The gutted Voting Rights Act helped. The GOP was sued for voter suppression up to the day of the election. White voters wanted an ignorant racist to represent the United States.


    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 11:28am

    Why on Earth do people think the 50s were good?  What is wrong with people?  I get it, I get it, white people were somehow "in charge."  But most of them were not.  Not really.  In the 1950s you got a factory job that I think most people now would look at as pretty drudgery and you only got that in exchange for having fought in one of two world wars with the privilege of sending your kids to Korea or Viet Nam.  You had a rising income, sure, but rising off a base of nothing.  Why nostalgia for what looks like pretty hard times? I don't want a black and white TV with three channels and an antisemitic uncle swilling J&B on the cushioned recliner in my living room!


    by Michael Maiello on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 11:33am

    The 50s were the time of an increasing middle class and comfortable white supremacy. Blacks were just starting to publicly protest sitting in the back of the bus. Women knew their place, That is the world Trump offers. He told his supporters to keep an eye on the darkies voting in the cities. These are the voters who came out for Trump. Others simply looked away from the racism, just like the people who did nothing to stop the Klan and white citizens councils in the 1950s. This is not about Hillary's faults this is about white rage.Whenever blacks have made strides there has been pushback by white reactionaries. Carol Anderson analyzes the white reaction to black progress in her book "White Rage". Freed slaves who presented a threat to whites received backlash. Black soldiers coming home from fighting in both World Wars faced backlash from whites.

    Anderson notes that the black unemployment gap had closed significantly in the 60s and 70s, then came the backlash.

    Anderson singles out President Ronald Reagan for presiding over the rollback of many of the gains blacks made during the civil rights movement. She says that while Reagan “positively oozed racial innocence,” his policies showed a contempt for blacks. 

    Black unemployment had declined sharply during the ’60s and ’70s, actually closing the racial gap, and the number of blacks enrolled in college had doubled between 1970 and 1978. But Reagan erased those gains through massive cuts in federal programs and jobs. Black unemployment rose to 15.5 percent — the highest it had been since the Great Depression — and black youth employment to a staggering 45.7 percent. “At this point,” Anderson writes, “Reagan chose to slash the training, employment and labor services budget by 70 percent — a cut of $3.805 billion.”

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-white-rage-driving-our-racial...

    This election was backlash against a black President and First Lady. Voter suppression is white rage. Obama wanted infrastructure projects. The GOP rejected those plans. Now the GOP will promote rebuilding America. This election was all about white rage.


    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 12:04pm

    Some positive points:

    ~ there will be no more scandals within government, and ergo no investigations.

    ~ gun sellers lose, no more boost in sales after the next massacre.

    ~ there will be no more media blather that 'both sides are to blame' as Republicans will control all 3 branches of government. (Add to that big downer Harry Reid will be gone, Elizabeth Warren our lone remaining brawler.)

    ~ if the economic expansion ends/crashes voters might elect less Republicans for at least one election.

    ~ there is a very slight possibility that since Trump is not as easily manipulated a grifter as, say, Rubio, he may resist stiffing his base as severely as the GOP would like to. He owes Koch nothing, although Trump will cut billionaires taxes, eventually leading to that Republican Götterdämmerung, ending Medicare and turning Social Security over to Wall Street privatization.

    Tom Toles:

    Things may even go well for a while. Honeymoons happen. But Trump has shown no capacity for acting responsibly when things go badly for him. And in this instance, there is no younger, more attractive country available to trade this one in for.


    by NCD on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 1:34pm

    - Rents go down after Trump guts the inner cities

    - Israel finally admits its nuclear arsenal after Iran and Saudi Arabia get the bomb

    - Cheaper to vacay in the Baltics after Putin annexes them

    - Collapse of the dollar boosts exports

    - Pay-whatever-you-want-taxes after the IRS kills its audit division

    - Nonstop twitter fun with @realDonaldTrump


    by Michael Wolraich on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 1:42pm

    Permit me to join you in the Kubler-Ross transitional grief process .

     

    I envy you for having arrived at acceptance (TMac, let's bargain about this...anger is actually paralyzing of the rational faculties you will be needing so badly iin the dystopian world to come...)

     

    So to show that I am a guy who knows a silver lining when he sees one, even as I internalize the idea that N. Korea will be "warhead on LA ready" in time to lay the problem in Pres. Trump's (hang on, my head explode.d  I'll just ladle these back in, and we'll be good to go....) lap, I note with a little hope the  prospect that we prolly won't be trading missles with the really big dog, as this interesting analysis by four retired security guys lays out, somewhat ironically as they were scoping the probable HRC foreign policy world...)

     

    http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/11/2016-election-foreign-pol...

     

      My stumbling towards acceptance, however, continues to be upended every time I confront the reality that even if we maybe don't have WWIII, the Supreme Court for the next 30 years will now be Nino Nino Nino, and the Arctic Global Methane Emergency just went Code Orange, which is to say that 30 years of supreme court may be all the supreme court that's left.


    by jollyroger on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 2:32pm

    I'm broken. I don't know what to do. I want to write something profound and all I have is tears and worry and anger, so much anger.


    by tmccarthy0 on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 2:11pm

    Be angry. Seriously. Clinton and Obama are both being way too reasonable about this.

    By the way, we need to get rid of the electoral college.  I do not pay high rents in NYC to have my president selected by flyover yokels.


    by Michael Maiello on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 2:24pm

    Yes this, this, this this this. It does need to end these morons in control.  And yes I am so angry.


    by tmccarthy0 on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 2:35pm

    Tmc, my Sig Other has been hammered for eight years by her supervisor over Obama after she said once that she voted for him. She was afraid of the environment if HRC were to be elected. I told her it wouldn't make any difference the guy can be a real jerk. So this morning she tries to be nice to him and he starts complaining about how the networks kept on saying "too close to call' on the Trump states. This is a guy who has made tons of money related to the Obama infrastructure spending in the original bill.  


    by Oxy Mora on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 3:48pm

    Ugh it will only get worse for you all in Red States now.  You are always welcome in Seattle! I've missed you Oxy nice to see you again.


    by tmccarthy0 on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 6:30pm

    Hey tmc, thanks. Long day, running on 2 hrs sleep.


    by Oxy Mora on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 7:52pm

    It will never happen, at least for the foreseeable future, because it takes a bi-partasin consensus to change the constitution and it's working for republicans. Just as the fact that 40 million people in California get the same number of senators as the 500 thousand in Wyoming is working for republicans too.


    by ocean-kat on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 2:36pm

    Michael, I wish I could be angry, buy a gun shoot some animals or beer bottles off the fence. I had to suck it up here in rural Texas this morning where my right hand guy was the very first Trump fan I ever met. I'm just sad, and feel like I just lost my country. In most of my adult life I've tried to be what the clown is not---to be fair and cooperative. What a chump I am.

    I was born too close to the 30's not to understand the real danger which our country is in, as institutions crumble. In my small business I've been working way past the normal retirement time. Now I feel like quitting.  My own progeny voted for the jerk. Why should I keep busting my ass to have something to pass along to them?

    There is only one thing I have to say to folks who didn't vote for Hillary but I can't say it here.

    I have been maintaining an old house in Vermont which is full of great books and haven't been able to decide what to do with the house or collection. I had thought of a country bookstore, gallery and such. Now I am too old and discouraged to think I could still do it. What a completely fucked up day this has been.


    by Oxy Mora on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 2:47pm

    Courage, dude - it sucks but we find a way to manage. Maybe the bookstore is your way to restore sanity, to yourself if no one else. Kesey wrote "Never Give A Inch" (sic). It's the best book for when you've been trampled (Sometimes a Great Notion). The river keeps on gnawing away, but they keep on propping up that shore. Fuck em if they cant take a joke, if they can fuck em anyway.


    by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 2:53pm

    Thanks, man.

     


    by Oxy Mora on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 3:08pm

    We'd visit a bookstore/gallery like that.


    by Michael Maiello on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 3:22pm

    Thanks.

    On second thought I'll send you the keys.


    by Oxy Mora on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 3:39pm

    I never say no to gifts of real estate.  Well, I've never been offered such a gift, but...


    by Michael Maiello on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 3:47pm

    We'll talk sometime.


    by Oxy Mora on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 3:51pm

    It's haunted, isn't it? Always knew this is how I go out...


    by Michael Maiello on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 8:58pm

    I wouldn't say I'm angry. I'm more hardened and resolved. As far as I'm concerned Trump voters can die in a fire and rot in hell if there is any. I mean it. I don't think that will change in 4 or 8 years. They deserve to get what they voted for. I won't lift a finger to help anyone I know voted for Trump.


    by ocean-kat on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 2:59pm

    I'm getting more hardened as the day goes on.


    by Oxy Mora on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 3:11pm

    As far as I'm concerned it's war on both a macro and a micro level. I'm actually a pretty nice guy when I meet people, my harsh posts here to the contrary. But it's no more Mr. Nice Guy. I don't think most people can do that in their daily life, but I can.


    by ocean-kat on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 3:25pm

    TMac, it's what women have always done, bake some cookies and fight some more. They say " a woman, just not this woman", but they're lying. There will be a Hispanic, an Asian, an Indian, the list goes on. There will be a dozen jackasses before a woman gets a chance. But it'll happen. Maybe 200 years after sufferage, but it'll happen. This time she won the popular vote, despite not being "likeable" enough. Next time, whenever, there won't be excuses. When the next right woman comes along, God help the man that gets in her way.


    by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 2:47pm

    I hope you are right PP. I hope you are right. I'm just numb.


    by tmccarthy0 on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 3:02pm

    Tell me about it. I'd drink more, but it's redundant.


    by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 3:09pm

    ha, well at least we have pot in Washington State. Maybe I can stay super stoned for four fucking years. 


    by tmccarthy0 on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 6:32pm

    I hear you develop tolerance. And then what?


    by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 11/10/2016 - 12:54am

    Booze? Pills? LOL.


    by tmccarthy0 on Thu, 11/10/2016 - 7:02pm

    ISIS will look at a Trump presidency as a recruiting opportunity.

    Target Americans anywhere in the world, taunt Trump, 'a Trump Benghazi', 4 victims would suffice, expect an over reaction.....$$$$$ comes in and recruiting goes up. Trump could be the gift that keeps on giving. As his base doesn't travel abroad, and as they love bombing brown people, it would be ok by them.


    by NCD on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 4:27pm

    Republicans now face a monumental task of taking full responsibility for running the nation, with an unstable TV personality as President, while also undoing every last thing Obama has done. Without creating mayhem and chaos.

    And satisfying a bunch of folks scattered in remote unhappy windy places who expect a return of Leave it to Beaver fantasies.

    PLUS we'll never have to hear about Hillary emails again or 'crooked Hillary'.


    by NCD on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 4:40pm

    Well, unless he keeps his promise to appoint a special prosecutor...


    by Michael Maiello on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 8:59pm

    Destor, I'm gonna come right out and say ths, Brother.

     

    I'm sayin' it to your face, and take it how you like but here it is.

     

    The reason that Trump juiced (and I use the word advisedly) his hillbilly aryan posse into rising out of their methamphetamine fueled rutting frenzy and  going out and voting is that he invoked the rhetoric and, more importantly, the manner, of the WWF--in other words, the guy up there...

     

    In the avatar....yeah, "Nature Boy", ... I'm talkin' to you--you're the only one there, right?

     

     


    by jollyroger on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 11:42pm

    Speaking of "juiced",...this is McMahon at 67 (when you've fully internalized the meaning of "Better Living Through Chemistry")

     

     

     

     


    by jollyroger on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 11:50pm

    'Proving that just because Dianabol is bad for teenaged boys doesn't mean it's bad for old men


    by jollyroger on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 11:54pm

    LOL...


    by trkingmomoe on Thu, 11/10/2016 - 2:56am

    Yeah, he did.  I made this same argument back during the primaries. Pro wrestling is one of the most enduring, and most American, forms of conflict storytelling. Trump played both roles (face and heel) and did it very well. His long involvement with the WWE only helped him. There's a reason people watch this stuff.  It pushes the right buttons. Also, for Beth Phoenix.


    by Michael Maiello on Thu, 11/10/2016 - 7:14am

    Exactly--dunno  how i missed the first iteration, (but I'm pretty sure no one linked to it from Dagblog...).

     

    Flawed  analysis,however...

     

    Trump will likely go down in history as a joke candidate, his pro wrestling persona the evidence that he was never serious. But his early successes shouldn’t be dismissed.                            

     

     


    by jollyroger on Thu, 11/10/2016 - 12:29pm

    I forgot my PT Barnum, apparently.


    by Michael Maiello on Thu, 11/10/2016 - 12:42pm

    Worse still, as I plumb the synaptic residua of the many intervening months of thc modulated neurochemical transactions, I fear that I may have read the article but missed your byline!


    by jollyroger on Thu, 11/10/2016 - 3:19pm

    Parenthetically, I put to you the following, from what is actually a totally uninformed position vis-a-vis the WWF, save only that my nephew is a lifelong WWF fan,

    Rick Ruffman's Profile Photo

     

    (and, to my shame, a Trump voter, albeit I hasten to add,an innocent one cuz he votes in NJ)

     

    Anyway:

     

    May we perhaps take some comfort(or not...) in the proposition that 90% of the posturing is understood (and intended to be understood) as "puffery" (cf. Trump Steaks, etc) and any disparagement inflicted is no bar to being on a tag team (eg, Chris Christie)next week, BECAUSE IT'S ALL SCRIPTED  AND MEANT TO BE UNDERSTOOD AS SCRIPTED?

     

    Thus no real insult has been delivered to the seeming victim. (cf shaving Vince)  And each despised primary opponent becomes an esteemed and hard fighting (almost) equal as soon as he rolls over and presents his throat. (The HRC comments in his victory speech were paradigmatic.

     

    Add to this the retroactive editing that Burnett brought to Survivor and it's demon child, The Apprentice, with the wrinkle that whereas Survivor was edited and the games fixed to please the viewers, the outcomes in The Apprentice were rigged (pace, Deadbeat Donald...) to please Trump.

     

    Bottom line, Strawberry Fields Forever.

     

    Except that he has segued to a sequence where he is in a reality  show where none of the other wrestlers are in on the secret and he doesn't have the power to retroactively edit how the "tests" come out.

     

    So whereas on one hand, I raise the possibility that he is not as totally deranged by end stage Munchausen Testosterone Poisoning Syndrome as would have appeared, (a plus) but the indications (and implications) of a profoundly defective epistemology are terrifying.

     

    The delusional issues worry me...


    by jollyroger on Thu, 11/10/2016 - 3:48pm

    Yes.  What if he think he's engaging in an elaborate piece of performance art and doesn't realize it's all real? What if he's doing this with such conviction that the people around him are buying into it?


    by Michael Maiello on Thu, 11/10/2016 - 4:18pm

    That sefl-delusion is what made possible his perpetual re-invention of reality.

     

    Actually, he IS retroactively editing the "tests", only in "real time", like the stories of seeing five miles down Manhattan in the wrong direction to pierce smoke and dust and perceive World Trade Center "jumpers".

     

    BTW , and just ICYMI, 

    Fred spent his last 6 years living post Alzheimer's diagnosis.


    by jollyroger on Thu, 11/10/2016 - 4:46pm