OK, now THAT was funny!

:-D

-CW

Nice use of "helots"... had to look that one up!

:-)

as for your: "...that talks a populist game while delivering something entirely different and not remotely for the working class and far from it."

Well, I want both. I want someone forceful to talk a REAL populist game to both Trump and all the MAGA universe, and show them what the true difference is!

But then I wanted (since 2016) the matchup between Trump and Bernie. That would have been a real populist showdown... the real versus the fake...

:-)

-CW

I plead laziness. I mean, I thought Trump earned the superlative, but then I thought "I just don't know..." and didn't have the time to wade through all the past corruption...

It wasn't weakness of rhetoric, is what I'm saying, but rather weakness of historical perspective. I wanted to leave myself an out!

I throw myself on the mercy of the court...

:-)

heh

as for your later comments, I actually said to a friend this week: "I swim in shit. Every day. I bathe in sewage. I do it so others don't have to, but that doesn't make it any more pleasant."

:-)

anyway, thanks for the kind words!

-CW

Two of the biggest bullshitters of our time masturbating on their respective failing social media platforms doesn’t mean a damn thing and for me is NOT entertaining.

Grown-ass overcompensating men carrying on like juveniles is never a good look. Call it out for what it is.

Speaking of social media platforms, if I was Musk, I would definitely be suing Trump's ass off in a Court of law for ripping off my Xitter social media platform, you know, kind of like when Apple sued Microsoft. If I was Musk would I even care if I won the dang lawsuit? Not even a scintilla. The idea would be to beat the fraudulent bastard at his own game of using the Court system to screw over the little guy... Trump being the little guy for once in his pathetic existence.

i think that's sort-of what i meant yesterday. quit "talking" and "messaging" about economic liberalism, and just bleepin' do it.

Exactly.

or if you can't actually accomplish it, at least mount a real organized fight trying to, without the excuses of

"those dastardly republicans just won't allow it to happen; vote us more power and THEN things will change."

Exactly.

those attitudes just won't cut it.

Exactly. Today's so-called "conservatives" lie with impunity and invent their own reality; in short, they are largely a group of absolute performative frauds, and as we already know, Republicans have for decades run the game of "divide and conquer." Instead of trying to emulate the bullshitting con artists, call them out on their culture war divide-and-conquer performative garbage.

Everything with these fraudulent bastards is a "public relations" game. Donald Trump isn't against the "fake news," he invented it and lives for it. A POTUS doesn't staff his administration with a plethora of Fox News propaganda entertainers unless the aim is to invent their own version of reality. Trump is literally pushing people into the awaiting arms of China while the reality TV star presidency makes America the laughing stock of the world. Screw that.

I think Democrats should do exactly the opposite, be as authentic as possible and call out the performative frauds and Orwellian bullshitters for exactly what they are.

How? That's a whole other discussion.

I, too, am part of the political world and I am paying zero attention to this so-called spat. Two of the biggest bullshitters of our time masturbating on their respective failing social media platforms doesn’t mean a damn thing and for me is NOT entertaining.

"gosh there's just not enough votes,"

nor

"those dastardly republicans just won't allow it to happen; vote us more power and THEN things will change."

those attitudes just won't cut it. use every damn tool in your legislative arsenal to make people's lives better while shouting to high heaven about it, or continue to live in the political wilderness.

JL

i think that's sort-of what i meant yesterday. quit "talking" and "messaging" about economic liberalism, and just bleepin' do it.

It's just as likely that Tweedledee and Tweedledum will get distracted and tone it down for awhile... until it eventually escalates, which is likely to happen in a Court of law or two or three.

As for the so-called "conservatives," it'll be interesting to watch them abase themselves further. Republicans are no longer representatives of their constituents, they are bought and sold helots and harlots.

So where are the political strategists and Democratic politicians who are adept at playing this game?

So it appears this is probably going to be one of those times we disagree on something (which I believe is fairly rare) because I don't think Democrats should endeavor to play this bullshit cult of masculinity game and *pick your own noun here* ---> _______ measuring contest that talks a populist game while delivering something entirely different and not remotely for the working class and far from it.

I think Democrats should take a wholly different tack and call out the steaming hot piles of BS for exactly what they are and by exposing the Republican representative so-called "leaders" for being a bunch of spineless subservient sheep.

First part. Yes, yes, yes. Make it illegal, not untraditional, to be a corrupt president.

Speaking of which, of Dems not getting into the facts of the situation, you did it yourself here - you hemmed and hawed about something that's clearly indisputable, in the best NY Times or DNY tradition:

"Donald Trump is the most corrupt president we have had in a very long while. Perhaps ever."

NO, NO, NO!!! Come on, this is not hard, and I thought it was the very point you were trying to make tonight:

"Donald Trump is the most corrupt president we have ever had in all of American history. No one else - Nixon, Harding, A. Johnson, Buchanan, Pierce - even COMES CLOSE. We're talking major corruption, financial, constitutional, legal, moral, ethical, CORRUPTION."

Why is this so hard to write? It's true, dammit. Obviously. DUH, as my daughter says.

Second Part. Yes. Grim but true. Politics as entertainment has become politics = entertainment. Not just because of Trump but he has put the cherry on the sundae's whipped cream.

But I would dissent from your universalism. You write:

"...the entire political world is glued to their screens to see what nasty tweet the richest man in the world or the United States president has just launched. We are all held rapt by a hissy fit that is worthy of junior high school students..."

Well, not quite. I am in the political world, as an amateur I admit, but that's what this blog and comments section is, no? And yet, believe it or not, I do not always read the Trump news and I NEVER, EVER read anything Trump writes or view any footage or listen to any audio of anything he does or says. I can't stand it, and I can't always stand to read the constant never-ending stories of his BS, nonsense, hatefulness, and dementia. For example, I know that he and Musk have recently upped their quarrel in unpleasant ways, but I have purposely decided not to read any of the reports. I just don't want to.

So much for politics becoming pure entertainment, I submit. For many people, politics has become a tour of the town sewage treatment plant with free tasting samples available to the visitors. No thanks. And I don't think I'm alone. Not listening, not viewing, not enjoying, not being entertained AT ALL.

Third Part. Yes, again. Thanks for this. Dems need to get their messaging and media acts together in ways that don't come naturally to them. It has to be done, though. The country is in danger in ways not even the World Wars threatened. Again, thanks for all of this.