i'm not about to endorse trump or anything. but the media narrative across the spectrum - from the young turks through to john oliver and cnn and all the way to charles krauthammer - has been nothing short of preposterous. the over-the-topic rhetoric, the specious logic, the flat-out smearing - none of this could exist on the other side of karl rove. the american political discourse has entered a period where the tactics of fox news and the bush regime have been adopted by the entire spectrum. it is a society where truth is no longer even an old-fashioned virtue, but merely an annoyance. mr. colbert, come forward and accept your award for prophesying the future.

the actual truth is that donald trump is a moderate democrat.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/why-jewish-groups-embrace-of-trump-is-more-than-a-little-ironic/article29420759/

j reacts to susan sarandon & bernie or bust logic

actually, she's absolutely right. and, if he can tear up a few trade agreements while he's inciting some riots, that's a positive. i haven't worn a shirt with a slogan in twenty years, but i'd be tempted to wear one that says this: if you think that it's pragmatic to shore up the status quo right now, you're not in touch with the status quo. and, fwiw, he's more pro-choice than her, too.

but, listen. the bernie or bust crowd is aware that trump is going to be a disaster. the point is that you vote for him because he's going to be a disaster. because people are fed up, and want the country to burn down and the society to start over again. the choice is between somebody who can ably steer the ship and somebody who is going to crash it in five minutes. yes. clearly. but, we don't want to sheer the ship. we want to crash it! so, can we realize that's the position, here, before we debate it further?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6L4NOVNoNU

BB
So basically if we can't get captain sanders who could sail this busted up ship outta the rocky waters and repair it. only other choice would be to have captain trump quickly crash the busted up ship and build a new one.

jessica
i don't like the way that's framed, though. let's begin by understanding the metaphor properly: the ship is capitalism. or existing capitalism. or whatever. it's in bad need of repairs, because it's been sailing around for years under a self-regulating regime of repairs. inspectors estimate it's on the brink of sinking.

like fdr before him, we think bernie can probably not just fix the ship's problems but also make it a little nicer. so, we're still on the ship. we're still sailing. the aim is sticking with this ship, still. let's realize that, too.

hillary is going to take this beat to shit ship and sail it around in circles for a few years. we can trust her to navigate it. but, it may flood in the process, too. we can expect that when she's done, the ship will be in worse shape than when she inherited it, simply through that many more years of use without repairs.
and, trump is going to sail right into the rocks, likely within a few minutes of taking over.

so, you're talking in fatalistic terms. i would reject that. there's not any reason why i couldn't be arguing for sailing the ship around in circles for a while and trying to fix it later, other than that i'm sick and fucking tired of sailing around on a sinking ship.

so, yes: it's reckless. it's not prudent: not moderate, not middle of the road.

not at all conservative.

kind of rash, maybe? revolutionary, perhaps? risky? a gamble?

yeah. sure.

but, i never claimed to be a prudent, middle-of-the-road, moderate conservative, either. if i was, i'd probably be ok with voting for the status quo. right?

shit hillary said vol 13

"The American people are tired of liars and people who pretend to be something they're not."

j reacts to cruz' remaining role as a vote-splitter in the northeast

i had initially argued that if you give trump supporters a clear option to defeat cruz then they will take it. kasich needed a little bump to convince people that he can actually beat cruz. the polling released this week may provide that. and, you may finally see that movement towards the center.

remember: trump is not winning because he's crazy and people like it. he's winning because he was controlling the center of the republican spectrum. he was the buffer against the crazies. and the more advertising was thrown into cruz, the better trump looked.

when the field was split a dozen ways, it was rational to support trump if your goal was solely to defeat cruz because he was the only candidate that seemed like he had a real shot of doing it. but, now that there is only one serious option (kasich), there is a possibility that the support will coalesce. i had initially bet on this happening around bush, and a little earlier, but he spliced and ran before the fight even started.

kasich just needed a trickle to form, in order for it to build into a stream.

kasich should be favoured in virtually every remaining state. he could conceivably run the table. it's not cruz v trump, with kasich splitting. it's trump v kasich, with cruz splitting - but beneficially.

put another way: cruz won't be able to cut into centrist support for trump. but, kasich will be able to peel it off quite easily, if it looks like he can actually win.

in fact, i'm going to call it right now (i'm allowed to change my mind): kasich sweeps the northeast on april 26th.

--

but, the point is that none of the candidates were reflective of the voters' will. so, do a country-wide IRV with the three remaining candidates.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/03/john_kasich_is_trying_to_destroy_the_gop_primary_process.html

it appears as though a national enquirer story has destroyed cruz' campaign. he's now third in wisconsin, and third in new york.

j reacts to the continuing ominous signs of hillary clinton as orwellian end game

this is the kind of non-logic that follows hillary everywhere she goes.

if she's running for president, that means she should be less strenuously investigated. if she was running for a lower office, well, then you'd be justified in fully investigating.

they are purposefully messing with your head. they do not deserve the benefit of the doubt.

once again: all evidence suggests that hillary is taking us over the finish line and directly into the orwellian state.

big sister loves you.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/03/29/ron_fournier_there_should_be_a_higher_bar_of_evidence_before_indicting_hillary_because_shes_running_for_president.html

j reacts to the dangers of racial divide and conquer strategies in the current economy

this is a strategy that assigns very little intelligence to voters and will almost certainly produce a backlash. if you (the media, broadly) keep running segments like this, you're going to push white voters right into his arms. the study was asking about affirmative action - and the response is tautological. the confusing part is how 58% of republicans somehow think that affirmative action helps white people.

what the trump phenomenon demonstrates is that there is a mass of uneducated, impoverished white people in america that need social programs written for them. they've been confused by decades of propaganda that scapegoats minorities instead of corporations. but, by sitting there and pointing fingers at them and belittling them, you just come off as a bunch of smug, upper class pieces of shit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJufx2VEUGc

let me clear about something.

if you're going to make me do it.

the election match-up media narrative that's developing is a conflict between wealthy non-whites supporting clinton and poor whites supporting trump. that's an over-simplification, as are all media narratives. and i'm more likely to attack the narrative than fall into it.

and, of course, i'm a leftist. i understand what's happening. i'm inoculated from the group think.

but, at the end of the day, i am not a wealthy non-white. i am a poor white. and, i can tell you that the media will get what it wants, if it decides to frame the issue the way it's framing it.

"I don't want to send them to jail. I want to send them to school." - Adlai E. Stevenson

28-03-2016: derailed by my attempt to derail my own ideas

tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1