Nah, you've maxed out being an absolute dolt with nothing to fall back on other than calling people racist. Don't sell yourself short.
The part that's really funny to me though isn't so much that people are sitting around talking about how saying kung fu is racist now. It's that it's always people who clearly who have an extremely high opinion of their intelligence(at least in the media). I just can't get over how ridiculous they look spamming their 5 dollar words talking about such an absurd subject. Granted it's kind of tired at this point, but it still cracks me up.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/style/tiktok-trump-rally-tulsa.html Kind of glad this didn't end up being violent.
should be noted that just because they got a ticket doesnt mean it reserved them a seat. More tickets were “given” than the total occupancy of the stadium, so whatever they did (and by all estimates there were quite a few who did this), none of their actions actually prevented anyone from going. Trump campaign said protesters blocked entry for many people but there wasn’t one reported instance, and only one arrest made. The cops did a very good job of handling it. Campaign will likely use the inflated numbers to their advantage, claiming a large number of tickets being given, and blame the protesters on the low turnout. Reality is, people just didn’t wanna show up to a large gathering where they were close together and not wearing masks.
I think this is going to end up being the biggest mistake of Trump's campaign. It's not that BLM is hugely popular per se, but going around talking about what an amazing jobs the cops are doing is definitely unpopular right now.
that’s a pretty big statement, but you might be right. He keeps shooting himself in the foot and this is no different. I’d only hedge that statement a little to say his campaign isn’t over and he has plenty of time to still make more, worse mistakes. brad parscale, his campaign manager, is from nearby where I live and I know some people who’ve known him to varying degrees. They’ve all said to a person that he’s a very bright guy and but that the personality cult is real. They’re amazed the campaign has done this poorly with him at the helm. I was worried when he got involved. Thought for sure he’d propel trump to another win. We’ll see.
I think someone could easily argue that his handling of coronavirus was much worse in terms of impact, but a lot of people will just look at deaths per capita, and feel like he did ok-ish because our death rate per capita is lower than a lot of Europe. You have to read into how much older the population in those countries is, and then you have to read about the states fighting over resources with each other, and with federal agencies, and getting what a clusterfuck all of that was takes a bit of a time investment. Sure, they heard about injecting lysol, or whatever the fuck as a cure, but while that's painfully stupid, it's ultimately harmless for the most part. With the cop issue it only takes a few minutes to see Floyd's neck being crushed and then seeing Trump talking about how cops are the most terrific!!! people. In other words, it's right in front of everyone's face.
And just to add some relevant context about that one arrest made at the rally: It was a woman wearing an “I can’t breath” T-shirt who had a ticket to the event. She was arrested for trespassing.
The event had over 800,000 tickets reserved including space outside the arena for a second stage where Trump was going to address the spillover crowd. Turn out that a bunch of teenagers on ticktock coordinated a ticket reserving campaign to artificially inflate the possible attendance numbers. Turns out less than 8,000 people showed up and they had to break down the second stage well before the rally even started. On top of that, the arena was less than half full. The best are the video clips of all the pundits bragging about how popular this event is. Pretty genius move by the kids.
In no fucking way did he do "ok-ish", but optics for a virus are hard. The worst visual related to the virus is either crowded hospital corridors, which isn't really poignant or empty shelves. For the police brutality issue, if there's not video, it almost doesn't even get attention (exception being Breonna Taylor). The image of a white officer kneeling on the back of a helpless black guy is powerful, just look at the political cartoonists that ran with it. I think the Trump appeal is boiled down to emotion vs. expertise. The meek have inherited the earth, and the benefits of the past 20 years of development largely accrued to the educated. Also, the people who have gotten an education in the past 2 decades are Millennial, and I think the perception is the value of all that book-learnin' ain't what it used to be. Parents see their kids get into stupendous debt for degrees that don't end up giving them jobs or a secure path to the middle class and some underlying resentment kicks in, as well as the perception that the education was worthless. So, they see "smart" people that don't or can't really solve problems, they feel suckered and hoodwinked by all the technology (which is simultaneously more disposable, expensive, cheap and indecipherable), and they no longer can keep up. In 1995, the weather predictions were good for about 3 days out, now it's about 10...which is awesome, until you try and explain how they got better. It's complex computer models, algorithms, improved sensor capacity....you lose people. And if you've spent the majority of your life only counting on 3 days worth of prediction, the extra week might not change anything for you: "They solved a problem I didn't have in ways they couldn't explain and called it progress! It didn't do SHIT for me!" From a work perspective, a lot of progress won't make a ditch-digger's job easier or better, it just eliminates it (see: chimney sweeps, telephone switchboard operators). There's no "thanks for making that dangerous, dirty and unpleasant task irrelevant" and even if there was, there would be no single entity to thank. I also think that by and large, the older folks in our society have been robbed of their position of wisdom. They used to go to their elders for advice and wisdom and now....no one does. They are facing a social irrelevance that is terrifying: the only appeal many of them have is their money, and they learned in 2008 how precarious that is. They can't quit their jobs, age discrimination means they might not ever get another one (and they know how miserable the 50+ are that can't find work, just look at the suicide metrics for that cohort). They aren't fuckable, they aren't cool, and the mainstream elements to try and make them cool are laughably shitty: look at the remakes of "Death Wish", "Rambo", and I'm sure "Top Gun: Maverick" will be as well. There is no veneration of the elderly, and they naturally fight that erosion. One of the stalwarts of tradition is the church and they cling to it, not because it provides them comfort, but because it's an authority. It's why the religious arguments for policy don't actually follow the tenets of the church (seriously, you think Christ would be Republican???), they follow the authority of the church and it's dictation to followers. Yet, the consequences of not submitting to that authority don't exist or don't matter: ask how many people at a Pride parade worry about going to hell. So, these people are afraid and angry, and they feel excluded. The world is moving on from them, and they are powerless to stop it, save from their vote. It's easy and appealing to paint Trump supporters as stupid: they, by and large, are not educated. They damn sure don't apply a lot of critical thinking to their choice in political candidates and seem more influenced by emotions than facts, the most powerful of which is anger, followed by fear. This recipe: uneducated, roused by anger and fear leads to manipulation. It's far easier to keep someone from peeking behind the curtain if they are scared and pissed off. Angry and frightened people don't demand accountability, or accept explanations from the opposition. They don't debate complex issues in good faith: they literally can't. It's why when Trump resorts to name-calling, and boils down incredibly complicated issues into sound bytes, it's not questioned it's applauded. "Cheeto McPenis made the complicated scary shit sound easy! Those damned libruls making us feel afraid and dumb with their big words!" Both sides fall victim to this, but for one side there's at least a rational appeal. What's the rational appeal of Trump at this point? If you were to be completely objective, come out of a 5 year coma and be asked to make a choice, what would the advantage for Trump be based on? Why continue the Trump experiment? That experiment has failed in reality. For your average ditch-digger, the past 4 years haven't changed anything other than politics being more entertaining. Trump hasn't accomplished anything revolutionary, and objectively speaking, isn't great at his job. The defenses of him seem to center around name-calling, whataboutism, or fantastic representations of threats he avoided by just being himself. If he fixed some shit: ANY SHIT, he'd have an easy path to re-election. He hasn't, and in many ways the things he promised to solve are now worse. The economy, immigration, jobs, infrastructure, healthcare, education, corruption...all are worse or at best, the needle hasn't moved significantly since 2015. I think that maintaining anger and fear for four years is exhausting. Conservatives have a much easier path when they are on the sidelines and can lob criticisms at active solutions. Why didn't people attend the Tulsa rally? There's an explanation or ten for every empty seat. I don't think the constant cries of racism have done anything, and I don't think the Democrats have somehow swayed a ton of former Trump voters. I think the simplest explanation is that it's running out of gas and excuses. It's hard to be angry and scared for years, and people now see Trump as a fountain of excuses, rather than solutions.
To be clear I wasn't trying to actually say he did just fine. I think he did fucking terribly. I only meant that as in I think some people will just look at deaths per capita in the US relative to some other first world countries and assume he did fine. I don't know how many that people really is, but given that a lot of people don't read past headlines, and a few figures, I't's probably not that small of a number. The thing you guys seem to keep forgetting when you write this stuff is Trump would never have won in a million years against someone even a little bit decent. He's not beating Obama. He's not beating John Kerry. He's not beating Al gore, or anyone else the democrats have nominated in the last 30 years not named Hillary. He was the beneficiary of facing off against the worst democrat nominee fucking ever. Also, the people that really liked Hillary, let's think. Scared and pissed off? Yep. Angry, fearful, easily manipulated? Check. Check. Check. Influenced by emotions over facts. Big fat check. I mean, yeah, there were very reasonable arguments for why to vote Hillary, and I said so at the time, although obviously I wasn't really sold on them. That said I read some of the most delusional, rationalizing fucking nonsense I've ever seen. I saw some of the silliest attempts at emotional appeals ever. "My baby wants to know if the bad man is going to be president." I saw fear mongering on a level I didn't even know was possible. If you want to sit there and bash Trump go right ahead. If you want sit there and talk about how electing him was a mistake go right ahead, but don't fucking sit there and pretend that this was some dichotomy where Hillary supporters were totally rational, fact first, clear minded thinkers because they fucking weren't. I'm just pointing it out because while my memory on the exact numbers is a bit hazy, I do remember there was more 'against' than 'for' votes going both ways last election. The primary voters who got their way were happy, and everyone else was pretty goddamn disappointed. Make of that what you will, but it doesn't really paint the picture of everyone shivering in their living room because the caravan is coming.
I long to know what "people" you speak of... Deaths per capita is a pretty poor metric that I haven't seen as indicative of anything. It's not like we all stand an equal chance of getting the virus. And I think the virus response is a domestic issue, not an international one. We don't really give a shit how Italy is doing when it's up-fucked our own way of life so bad. Hillary isn't relevant in 2020, however let's examine your point for the millionth time. I'm seriously begging you, stop bringing up Hillary. It's been 4 years, and you're the only one who thinks somehow this is worth discussing. Trump had no political experience. Hillary was a former NY Senator, Secretary of State and First Lady. Logically, if this was a job, she was more than qualified, and Trump was not. The only fear or anger there was the fear of the amateur and the anger that people thought he had a right to the same consideration as she did (ie, expertise vs. opinion). Trump was a rich, white man, who inherited his wealth and leveraged it to become a celebrity. Hillary was not, and would have been a historic first woman president at a time in which that was happening elsewhere with increasing frequency. No anger or fear in elected another white dude, aside from identity politics bullshit. Hillary's private life being public was traumatic, you couldn't imagine her as a pundit or on a reality TV show. I think that added to the perception of her as secretive, and thus corrupt. Trump wasn't as transparent as other candidates, but again...no anger or fear around voting for a celebrity. Hillary ran on a cohesive, sensible policy platform that continued the Obama legacy: she was a policy wonk. Trump ran on a bunch of slogans that didn't really make sense, from "build a wall" and "lock her up" to "make America great again". Trump's policies were recycled GOP nonsense. Fuck, even his campaign manager said "being President was never really discussed." He didn't know what to do when he got the office, and I think four years later, we see that: aside from the tax cuts that the GOP would have pushed through if a carrot was POTUS, all his initiatives stalled. Her policies weren't emotionally driven, they were complex and logical but impossible to get excited about or listen to her explain, his were all (incoherent yelling) and no substance. No real fear or anger in saying "I know how the system works and this guy doesn't." Trump leveraged the media to an unprecedented degree: every tweet, quote and comment was massive news. Hillary didn't really play into the outrage game, and she didn't stoop to the levels that Trump did (mocking the disabled, for example, or calling Ted Cruz' wife ugly, or giving out Lindsey Graham's cell phone number). Trump got billions of free media coverage that Hillary had no hope of emulating. She had no chance against Trump in the media machine, and that was her largest weakness he exploited. Trump would have beaten Bernie or Biden in 2016 by the same advantages. The people who voted for Hillary, by and large, were voting for a qualified candidate, with some historic underpinnings, a decently well-thought out platform and an underwhelming campaign. It was less a vote of "I'm afraid of what Trump is going to do" as much as "I'm voting for the candidate who looks like they can do the job if they get it" and "more of the same, please, but with less racial overtones". I don't think fear or anger motivated Hillary voters nearly as successfully as Trump voters. Also, was it directly coming from her campaign? I don't think Hillary relied on fear and anger, I think she saw that as the high road. I think there was a ton of media "wharagbl" around Trump and everything he said or did, but Hillary herself? I don't remember a ton of fictitious nastiness directed at Trump from her campaign. I also think if you tallied up the fear-mongering, lies and rabble-rousing between the two of them, Trump wins by a landslide. Hillary wasn't openly asking Russia to leak dirt on her opponent, or inciting violence against her opposition, or threatening Trump with jail time for 'crimes' that were fabrications. What was the Democratic version of "they're coming to take your guns" or "the radical Muslim/gay/liberal agenda"? When were the Republicans accused of promoting "sharia law" in the US? What was Hillary's equivalent of Alex Jones? The dichotomy is "let's not elect a racist/sexist asshole and a highly qualified woman instead" and "they're coming to take your guns and persecute your religion". Which one of those sounds realistic to you? Hillary couldn't use fear and anger against Trump, because aside from racism or sexism (and her own party wasn't immune from that), there wasn't anything to fear other than an amateur, shit-poster running the country. She didn't really need to fabricate much in terms of racism/sexism, reality spoke for itself there. His supporters didn't care and he won. She tried to stay above it, couldn't, lost control of the signal and thus the election. Now, on the other hand? The fear and anger he's used to maintain support isn't really doing so well. Biden isn't a threat, the worst Trump can muster is "Sleepy Joe", Biden feels like a return to comfortable normalcy. The gay agenda seems to be going smoothly, the liberal agenda seems to be progressing despite all of Trump's objections (or did we not just have the largest experiment in UBI in our country's history under his watch?), the Muslim threat seems to have receded back into whoever imagined it in the first place, and the "Democrats coming to infringe upon your rights" seems to fit less with the reality of an administration that combats the first amendment on a regular basis. Look at how effective those AR's were protesting the virus, yay 2nd amendment being safe from Democrats! The job market is in shambles, and no other countries had the massive economic step backwards that we did. He's using markers for success that don't matter or impact his supporters: the stock market, the views, the rally attendance. The jobs, the debt, the deaths and the expenses loom far larger. Also, the dog-whistle racism against African-Americans seems to be ill-timed: people are seeing black Americans as victims of violence and the perpetrators of that violence emboldened, encouraged and enabled by Trump. The corruption perpetrated by this administration is starting to be overwhelming, and the constant bickering, firing, back-biting and battling isn't really indicative of "greatness", it feels more swampy. I think the virus and the resulting unemployment will end up changing the equation for Trump: you don't have the nationwide protests without the 40+ million unemployed, you can't get the rallies to emotionally charge people when they are afraid of spreading or catching the virus and he can't point to the economy as his accomplishment. People are now paying more attention because they are home, their lives are disrupted, and I can't think of anyone who looks at what Trump has said and done over the past 4 months and thinks he's doing exactly the right things. The longer these troubles go on, the less Biden has to do, and the "give them nothing to attack until he stops shooting himself in the foot" strategy may last us all the way to fall. Trump will continue to be his own worst enemy and he's certainly bereft of friends. His isolation will make him desperate (see rally in Tulsa, a state he would have won, until he said he had 100,000 people showing up and less than 8k did...), and his desperation will cause him to double down on things he views as appealing...driving others away. Trump is trapped in a downward spiral and for at least the second time I'm saying this: his bandwagon is emptying before our eyes.
Dude, I have not been posting incessantly about Hillary. I have mentioned her maybe a couple times in the last 6 months. I only brought her up because you were inventing a dichotomy totally out of line with reality. People only voted because blah blah blah my bullshit. Ok, dude. I didn't know you actually took it as far as your last post indicates. You think she didn't try to use fear mongering in her campaign? I don't know even know what to say to that. Your memory is really bad. If you think she was highly qualified and there was nothing wrong her record then good for you. You're out of your mind.
Who ELSE brings her up? And 6 months? Dude, it's been 4 years! What part of this dichotomy is out of line with reality? Explain it to me. Why is it that Trump supporters don't have a lot of education? Why is it that they are passionate about someone who's objectively doing a shitty job? Why does this administration have a surgeon running HUD and a movie producer running the Treasury? Why do people like Bolton, Mattis, and Sessions talk about this president the way they do? I don't recall her fear mongering being anywhere near Trump's, no. So, instead of saying shit like "my memory is bad", what do YOU remember? What was the message that she was inspiring fear with? You might be right, I don't remember her campaign all that well, it's why I described it as "underwhelming". I didn't say there was nothing wrong with her record (other than she had one, whereas Trump didn't). I said she was qualified, again, Senator from NY, Secretary of State, First Lady. Yeah, dude if you have sat in those seats you know how the Presidency works, because you've been at arm's length from it. Instead of saying I'm out of my mind, demonstrate how your perception of reality is more accurate....if possible.
The basket of deplorables isn't fear mongering? Nah, not if it's just true. Then it's not taking advantage of gullible people, and being a divisive asshole, am I right??? I mean, she had a campaign platform on her site(that anyone with half a brain realizes she didn't give a shit about) but all she talked about was her fear mongering nonsense. There is endless posts on the first hundred pages of this thread anyway. If nothing there convinces you DND that she had a career loaded with repeated, constant malfeasance nothing will. There's nothing I can really add that hasn't been said. Thinking that Russia gate shit had proof, but Hillary's malfeasance is made up out of thin air is next level delusional to me, but whatever man. If you want to believe that.
Honestly, if Trump would have just built a wall out of her "missing emails" it would've been so much more effective considering how impossible it is for some people here to get over.