Daily Archives: September 1, 2016

09.01.16
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One more immigration post

 

Image result for border wall

“It’s physical, sure, but not exactly beautiful, you know?”

 

I promise no more Trump for the rest of the week.* I’m as sick of this as you are. And without even getting into the substance of his immigration speech, I just want to point out two quick parts (from the transcript on Vox).

Number one. Are you ready? Are you ready? We will build a great wall along the southern border. And Mexico will pay for the wall. 100%. They don’t know it yet, but they’re going to pay for the wall. And they’re great people. And great leaders. But they’re going to pay for the wall.

On day one we will begin working on an impenetrable physical tall powerful beautiful southern border wall.

  1. They’re not paying for the wall. I love the “they don’t know it yet”. This is such a con job. “Oh yeah, I pulled the wool over their eyes today folks. They are suckers– but you’re not, are you folks? Of course not. That’s why you trust me.”
  2. The list of adjectives is how a dumb person talks to people he thinks are dumber than him.
  3. “Physical”? That’s how you know he’s full of it. “I’m just going to keep saying words that sound good in my head.” I’m glad that we now know his wall is physical. I hope there was someone in the crowd who really started going nuts with applause at that part. “Yes! I was thinking the wall was a metaphorical one in our hearts, hardened against the swarm, but this is much better!”

This is a little more substantive.

Countless Americans, who have died in recent years, would be alive today if not for the open-border policies of this administration, and the administration that causes this horrible, horrible thought process. It’s called Hillary Clinton. This includes incredibly Americans like 21-year-old Sarah Root.

  1. This is part of his raw demagoguery. Bringing up these people– and actually bringing up their families– is a horrible vengeance-soaked way to draw out the worst in a crowd.
  2. It is made worse by “countless”. That’s just a goddamn lie. He repeated “countless” a few times. It’s smart, in its cruel fashion. It implies thousands, not “I don’t feel like checking.” It implies a massacre. It implies hordes, ravaging like the Mongols, clawing at our decent citizens who have to barricade themselves against the night.
  3. This “horrible, horrible thought process” that is caused by the administration is “called Hillary Clinton.”  On paper this sounds idiotic, and in the speech it did as well. It’s how a child talks. But there is a certain cadence to it, a certain whispered conspiracy, where if you are already angry and suspicious, it all makes sense. Countless Americans are dying, and it’s called Hillary Clinton.

I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever seen such a combination of genuine stupidity and genuine danger in a single person.

Anyway, I promise* that the rest of the week will be more fun stuff like ISIS.

*promise not binding

09.01.16
by

Mexico Visit Shows Again That Trump Campaign is 100% Phony

 

Image result for trump casino bankrupt

I run the best casinos. Believe me. 

 

I’m not concerned– relative to my sweaty panic over the possibility that the worst person in America has a legitimate shot to become the next President– that Trump said one thing in Mexico, and then a completely different thing in his big immigration speech to an adoring crowd. The substance isn’t that interesting, and it was expected. After a solid week of people saying he had to “soften” his immigration approach, there is no way Trump wasn’t going to double down. That’s his personality: a dimwitted sociopathic 4th-grader. We know this.

No, what is much more interesting, and telling, is how he came out and said that the topic of who was going to pay for his big and beautiful wall didn’t come up when he met with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. I actually believed this, because I figured both men tacitly admitted that was an insane idea, only believable by the goons in his Leni Riefenstahl stag parties.

It turns out, of course, that it apparently did come up, first thing, in the form of Peña Nieto declaring that there is no way Mexico is going to pay for his wall. So who is lying? If you have to ask, you haven’t listened to a single word Trump has ever said. He lies as a matter of course, and habit, because the sell, and the con, are the only thing that matters.

Think of his Mexican presser as him going to talk to one group of suckers who want to invest in, say, the third casino he is building on one stretch of road in Atlantic City. He just met with some experts, and is ready to deliver the news: everything is fine. “Well”, say the nervous investors, “wouldn’t all three just suck revenue from one another and lead to a collapse?”  Trump would say

“Well”, say the nervous investors, “wouldn’t all three just suck revenue from one another and lead to a collapse? Did they say anything about that?”  Trump would say “You know what? It didn’t come up. Everyone says it is a great idea, and it’s going to make so much money.”  Trump lies because that’s how he sells things to gullible investors, including banks. He just makes up whatever he has to do to please an audience, to get them to buy his pitch. It’s different than what normal politicians

It’s different than what normal politicians do, because he has absolutely zero substance. The lie, the con, the sell, is the entirety of his approach. There’s nothing behind it. It’s why he lies with such ease and without hesitation. Behaving in this way is integral to his– and I use this word in the loosest possible sense– character.

Remember, even if he used to, Trump doesn’t build anything anymore. He doesn’t manage or run things in a real sense. He sells his name to people to use as some kind of stamp of authenticity. And that’s how he’s run his campaign. There is no actual policy, no substance. The campaign is just a way to keep the campaign going, to keep selling. It’s  alie created in order to tell more lies. It’s just another reason why, while his winning would be a disaster, the fact that it is working at all has exposed a Trump-shaped rot in the American character.