Now that the summer silly season is winding down, and "serious" (at least in comparison) observers and observations are getting more involved in what passes for a political discussion in this country, Donald Trump's oldest children are flooding the zone to defend dear old dad's spewage and tone.
Let's play devil's advocate for a few: I don't doubt their sincerity. I believe that if he likes you, needs something from you, or you at least pull your weight, Donald Trump is probably a reasonably generous person, nice even. There, I said it.
He's an obnoxious tool partly by temperament, partly because, like Jesus and Gandhi and L. Ron Hubbard, Trump intuitively understands that he has to fully commit to his own hype. It's kind of like being in an up-and-coming band -- if you don't believe you're awesome and destined for success, why on earth should anyone else?
But it's impossible to take anyone seriously who bloviates about how they would have prevented 9/11. The thing is, maybe he would have. Al Gore probably would have. Pretty much anyone other than Vacation Boy W. McDressup, being handed a fucking memo titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US" and just sitting there like a bump on a pickle, could have thwarted a handful of assholes with box-cutters.
So Trump's essential point about Fredo Arbusto's incompetence, even if it is meant to be a poke at this year's Arbusto larva, Heb (or is it Yeb? -- he's the Hispanic one, y'know) happens to be true. But it's about the only thing I can recall hearing from Trump so far that falls anywhere near that category.
The trick is that Trump has mastered the art of occasionally saying things that sound true -- and even are true to some extent -- without providing any corroborating evidence or viable solutions. Does the Iran nuke deal suck? Yeah, somewhat, but something is better than nothing, and nobody had any better ideas. Is the middle class getting fucked over? Constantly, but Trump's tax plan will not change that, unless you believe in supply-side magical thinking. No one wants to pay for benefits for illegal immigrants, but assembling an eviction squad to root them out and send them home, breaking up countless families in the process, would cost far more. And so on.
It all sounds good, pushes those hot buttons that his booster club of ultramaroons needs to get between oxy fixes. But it's all so preposterous, half the time you get the distinct impression that not only does Trump not believe any of it himself, he seems to scarcely believe that they believe it, that he's really getting away with it.
Only a fool would forecast the presidential election a full year out, so here goes: I think Hillary ends up the nominee, and pulls in Sanders as a running mate. Despite earlier assuming that Trump would bail by Christmas, I have to admit between the complete disarray throughout the Republican party and roster of candidates, and Trump's effective cockpunching of his only real threat, he might actually make a dent, could even conceivably win the GOP nomination. But odds are he drops out after the first couple primaries take the wind out of his sails.
In the meantime, his spoiled, whiny kids need to take something to heart, and never let it go -- he asked for this, just like any other candidate. You hear Chelsea Clinton whining to the fucking Today show about how mean the press is to her mommy? Me neither. Maybe next summer, but not now. And gee, maybe if your old man wasn't such a smug, insufferable prick every damned time he opened his mouth, you wouldn't have as much of a reaction from the very same press that gave him a free ride all summer.
Trump and his family and his ilk are nothing but spoiled brats, people who have become so besotted with wealth, so out of touch with what 99% of people must do to get by, they literally regard money merely as a means for keeping score. It makes a weird sort of sense that they've managed to gull the dull and the desperate -- an ever-swelling demographic -- but their hypocritical whinging fools no one but themselves and their addled fan club.
Let's play devil's advocate for a few: I don't doubt their sincerity. I believe that if he likes you, needs something from you, or you at least pull your weight, Donald Trump is probably a reasonably generous person, nice even. There, I said it.
He's an obnoxious tool partly by temperament, partly because, like Jesus and Gandhi and L. Ron Hubbard, Trump intuitively understands that he has to fully commit to his own hype. It's kind of like being in an up-and-coming band -- if you don't believe you're awesome and destined for success, why on earth should anyone else?
But it's impossible to take anyone seriously who bloviates about how they would have prevented 9/11. The thing is, maybe he would have. Al Gore probably would have. Pretty much anyone other than Vacation Boy W. McDressup, being handed a fucking memo titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US" and just sitting there like a bump on a pickle, could have thwarted a handful of assholes with box-cutters.
So Trump's essential point about Fredo Arbusto's incompetence, even if it is meant to be a poke at this year's Arbusto larva, Heb (or is it Yeb? -- he's the Hispanic one, y'know) happens to be true. But it's about the only thing I can recall hearing from Trump so far that falls anywhere near that category.
The trick is that Trump has mastered the art of occasionally saying things that sound true -- and even are true to some extent -- without providing any corroborating evidence or viable solutions. Does the Iran nuke deal suck? Yeah, somewhat, but something is better than nothing, and nobody had any better ideas. Is the middle class getting fucked over? Constantly, but Trump's tax plan will not change that, unless you believe in supply-side magical thinking. No one wants to pay for benefits for illegal immigrants, but assembling an eviction squad to root them out and send them home, breaking up countless families in the process, would cost far more. And so on.
It all sounds good, pushes those hot buttons that his booster club of ultramaroons needs to get between oxy fixes. But it's all so preposterous, half the time you get the distinct impression that not only does Trump not believe any of it himself, he seems to scarcely believe that they believe it, that he's really getting away with it.
Only a fool would forecast the presidential election a full year out, so here goes: I think Hillary ends up the nominee, and pulls in Sanders as a running mate. Despite earlier assuming that Trump would bail by Christmas, I have to admit between the complete disarray throughout the Republican party and roster of candidates, and Trump's effective cockpunching of his only real threat, he might actually make a dent, could even conceivably win the GOP nomination. But odds are he drops out after the first couple primaries take the wind out of his sails.
In the meantime, his spoiled, whiny kids need to take something to heart, and never let it go -- he asked for this, just like any other candidate. You hear Chelsea Clinton whining to the fucking Today show about how mean the press is to her mommy? Me neither. Maybe next summer, but not now. And gee, maybe if your old man wasn't such a smug, insufferable prick every damned time he opened his mouth, you wouldn't have as much of a reaction from the very same press that gave him a free ride all summer.
Trump and his family and his ilk are nothing but spoiled brats, people who have become so besotted with wealth, so out of touch with what 99% of people must do to get by, they literally regard money merely as a means for keeping score. It makes a weird sort of sense that they've managed to gull the dull and the desperate -- an ever-swelling demographic -- but their hypocritical whinging fools no one but themselves and their addled fan club.
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