'Murica! (2,121 Viewers)

king Ale

Senior Member
Oct 28, 2004
21,689
Yep they weren't around to see the disillusionment that followed
Which is an entirely different thing from his being out of touch.

What? I mean I can actually get the argument that Trump might not be quite as scary as it seems in terms of domestic policies, but foreign policies? This is the guy that thinks it'd be a good idea that a lot of countries get nuclear weapons - including Saudi Arabia, and who is an open proponent of torture in an extent not seen in a first world nation since...well I can't think of any example really.

Not to mention how extremely unpredictable, volatile and narcistic he is, and that he seems to have literally no idea of the concept of sensitivity or tact. He'd be a complete disaster in terms of foreign relations, and dangerous to global stability as a whole.
He's a lost cause. And by "he" i don't mean Trump.

This is an interesting read if you have time:

http://www.stirjournal.com/2016/04/01/i-know-why-poor-whites-chant-trump-trump-trump/
 

Buy on AliExpress.com

king Ale

Senior Member
Oct 28, 2004
21,689
Huh sorry not following
You say he is out of touch, which is untrue looking at his supporters' demographics. How can he be appealing to the youth if he is ignorant of the present issues and concerns? Now it's fine if you want to disregard that particular demographic but you can't say that Bernie's out of touch. Btw, this particular age-range is way maturer on many issues (e.g., Israel-Palestine conflict) than its previous generations, and it's something very promising about the future of the united states imo. The other thing that i think is appealing to the Sanders' supporters is that Bernie is the least divisive candidate out there, which is very refreshing even to me as a foreigner.
 

GordoDeCentral

Diez
Moderator
Apr 14, 2005
71,045
You say he is out of touch, which is untrue looking at his supporters' demographics. How can he be appealing to the youth if he is ignorant of the present issues and concerns? Now it's fine if you want to disregard that particular demographic but you can't say that Bernie's out of touch. Btw, this particular age-range is way maturer on many issues (e.g., Israel-Palestine conflict) than its previous generations, and it's something very promising about the future of the united states imo. The other thing that i think is appealing to the Sanders' supporters is that Bernie is the least divisive candidate out there, which is very refreshing even to me as a foreigner.
They are both out of touch with reality, hence the congruence of angles*


*:p
 

Bjerknes

"Top Economist"
Mar 16, 2004
116,881
Another brilliant piece from Kunstler.

http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/the-mystery-revealed/

The mystery is at last revealed: why does the field of candidates for president score so uniformly low in trust, credibility, likability? Why are there no candidates of real substance, principle, and especially of real charm in this scrim of political basilisks? (Surely there are many people of substance and principle elsewhere in America — they just don’t dare seek the job at the symbolic tippy-top of this clusterfuck of faltering rackets.) The reason is that the problems are unfixable, at least not within the acceptable terms of the zeitgeist, namely: the secret wish to keep all the rackets going at all costs.

This is true, by the way, of all parties concerned from the 0.001 percent billionaire grifter class to the deluded sophomores crying for “safe spaces” in their womb-like “student life centers” to the sports-and-porn addled suburban multitudes stuck with impossible mortgage, car, and college loan debts (and, suddenly, no paying job) to the deluded Black Lives Matter mobs who have failed to notice that black lives matter least to the black people slaughtering each other over sneakers and personal slights. None of these groups really want to change anything. They actually wish to preserve their prerogatives.

The interests of the 0.001 percent are obvious: maintain those streams of unearned, rentier, notional wealth as long as possible and convert them as fast as possible into hard assets (Caribbean islands, Cézanne landscapes, gold bars) that will theoretically insulate them from the wrath of history when the center no longer holds. The poor (and ever-poorer) formerly middle class suburban debt serfs, for all their travails, can’t imagine living any other way or putting less of their dwindling capital into the Happy Motoring matrix. The Maoist Social Justice Warrior students are enjoying the surprising power and thrills of coercion, especially as directed against their simpering professors and cringing college presidents anxious to sustain the illusion that something like learning takes place in the money laundering operations of higher ed. The Black Lives Matter crowd just wants to be excused from their failure to follow standards of decent behavior and to keep mau-mauing the other ethnic groups of America for material and political tribute.

It must be obvious that the next occupant of the White House will preside over the implosion of all these arrangements since, in the immortal words of economist Herb Stein, if something can’t go on forever, it will stop. So the only individuals left seeking the position are 1) An inarticulate reality TV buffoon; 2) a war-happy evangelical maniac; 3) a narcissistic monster of entitlement whose “turn” it is to hold the country’s highest office; and 4) a valiant but quixotic self-proclaimed socialist altacocker who might have walked off the set of Welcome Back Kotter, 40th Reunion Special. These are the ones left standing halfway to the conventions. Nobody else in his, her, it, xe, or they right mind wants to be handed this schwag-bag of doom.

On Saturday, the unstoppable Democratic shoo-in Hillary lost her 7th straight contest to the only theoretically electable Vermont Don Quixote, Bernie Sanders. This was a week after it was reported in The Huff-Po that her campaign crew literally bought-and-paid for the entire 50-state smorgasbord of super-delegates who will supposedly compensate for Hillary’s inability to otherwise win votes the old-fashioned way, by ballots cast. Wonder why that didn’t make nary a ripple in the media afterward? Because this is the land where anything goes and nothing matters, and that’s really all you need to know about how things work in the USA these days.

The Republican mandarins are apparently delirious over loose cannon Donald Trump’s flagging poll numbers in the remaining primary states. Should Trump fall on his face, do you think they’ll just hand Ted Cruz the Ronald Reagan Crown-and-Scepter set. (They’d rather lock Ted in the back of a Chevy cargo van with five Mexican narcos and a chain saw.) The GOP establishment insiders are already lighting cigars in preparation for the biggest smoke-filled room in US political history, Cleveland, July 20. But what poor shmo will they have to drag to the podium to get this odious thing done? Who wants to be the guy in the Oval Office when Janet Yellen comes in some muggy DC morning and says, “Uh, sir (ma’am)… that sucker you heard was gonna go down…? Well, uh, it just did.”

As for the Dems: they are about to anoint the most unpopular candidate of our lifetimes. The BLM mobs have promised to deliver mayhem to the streets of the party conventions and don’t think they will spare Hillary in Philary, no matter how many chitlins she scarfed down last month in Carolina. The action in Philly will unleash and reveal all the deadly power of President Obama’s NSA goon squads when the militarized police put down the riots, and Hillary will be tagged guilty by association.

And that is how Kim Kardashian gets elected president.
 

Osman

Koul Khara!
Aug 30, 2002
61,669
Yeah that was actually really well said. Normally would said too cynical if same attitude / approach was used about another subject, but for this farcical election and system it's on point.
 

king Ale

Senior Member
Oct 28, 2004
21,689
Why, how were the previous elections any different? Romney was better looking and sounded smarter, and Bush was not even that, McCain was another "old fart", Hillary was there, and Obama is "the worst ever president of the united states". Strange to depict a helpless dystopia like that (while this is more or less how things are/have been everywhere, every time), yet mock idealism.
 

Seven

In bocca al lupo, Fabio.
Jun 25, 2003
39,434

You guys do realise that the only presidential candidate he gives some credit is Sanders? He describes him as valiant for a reason and is far harsher for the other three.

Tbh even if I have my doubts regarding Bernie, he's the only somewhat reasonable candidate anyway. I can't really understand why you'd not vote for him at this point. Especially considering the options you have.

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Why, how were the previous elections any different? Romney was better looking and sounded smarter, and Bush was not even that, McCain was another "old fart", Hillary was there, and Obama is "the worst ever president of the united states". Strange to depict a helpless dystopia like that (while this is more or less how things are/have been everywhere, every time), yet mock idealism.

Previous campaigns were on a completely different level intellectually speaking. I have to say I have never seen a presidential candidate question the size of another candidate's penis before. And 'Yes, We Can' was a great and hopeful message, while 'Feel the Bern' is something that should only do well in a campaign to be elected hall monitor.
 

Hængebøffer

Senior Member
Jun 4, 2009
25,185
Why, how were the previous elections any different? Romney was better looking and sounded smarter, and Bush was not even that, McCain was another "old fart", Hillary was there, and Obama is "the worst ever president of the united states". Strange to depict a helpless dystopia like that (while this is more or less how things are/have been everywhere, every time), yet mock idealism.
Because the cultural elite feel threatened.
 

Ocelot

Midnight Marauder
Jul 13, 2013
18,943
You guys do realise that the only presidential candidate he gives some credit is Sanders? He describes him as valiant for a reason and is far harsher for the other three.

Tbh even if I have my doubts regarding Bernie, he's the only somewhat reasonable candidate anyway. I can't really understand why you'd not vote for him at this point. Especially considering the options you have.
Yeah you can see that he didn't find any real criticisms (bar quixotic), so he just went on to ridicule him because he's old and Jewish.

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Because the cultural elite feel threatened.
The level of intellectual discourse is a desaster compared to any previous election. Mostly due to Trump of course, but the rest of the Repubs have followed his descent quickly.

Contentwise it's just slightly worse.
 

Seven

In bocca al lupo, Fabio.
Jun 25, 2003
39,434
Because the cultural elite feel threatened.
No, it really is worse. Much much worse.

Yeah you can see that he didn't find any real criticisms (bar quixotic), so he just went on to ridicule him because he's old and Jewish.

Quixotic is also wrong imo. I understand what he means in that Sanders is acting like a knight in shining armor, but he is trying to tackle very real issues.

The only logical conclusion he could make at that point was saying that you should vote for Sanders, but somehow he doesn't want to say it.
 

Hængebøffer

Senior Member
Jun 4, 2009
25,185
Yeah you can see that he didn't find any real criticisms (bar quixotic), so he just went on to ridicule him because he's old and Jewish.

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The level of intellectual discourse is a desaster compared to any previous election. Mostly due to Trump of course, but the rest of the Repubs have followed his descent quickly.

Contentwise it's just slightly worse.
The rhetoric and lix number is a disgrace, but I agree with Hoori. Trump is talking to the 'Average Joe' who has felt unheard and perhaps marginalized for many years.
 

Bjerknes

"Top Economist"
Mar 16, 2004
116,881
You guys do realise that the only presidential candidate he gives some credit is Sanders? He describes him as valiant for a reason and is far harsher for the other three.

Tbh even if I have my doubts regarding Bernie, he's the only somewhat reasonable candidate anyway. I can't really understand why you'd not vote for him at this point. Especially considering the options you have.

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Previous campaigns were on a completely different level intellectually speaking. I have to say I have never seen a presidential candidate question the size of another candidate's penis before. And 'Yes, We Can' was a great and hopeful message, while 'Feel the Bern' is something that should only do well in a campaign to be elected hall monitor.
No, it really is worse. Much much worse.




Quixotic is also wrong imo. I understand what he means in that Sanders is acting like a knight in shining armor, but he is trying to tackle very real issues.

The only logical conclusion he could make at that point was saying that you should vote for Sanders, but somehow he doesn't want to say it.
He mentions elsewhere none of the candidates have any credibility. To me, he was speaking to Sander’s persistence in preaching what he believes, but I doubt Kunstler is a fan of his policies.

You feel marginalized, @Bjerknes?
Depends on what you mean by marginalized. I certainly don’t feel that the current government represents me or my interests, nor will any of these candidates most likely. I’m not sure how anyone apart from a select few in the “establishment” could feel happy with the state of affairs. No matter which party we vote for, we are left with the same end results. So once again, it’s a matter of voting for the lesser of all evils, if that is the route I begrudgingly choose.
 

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