TRUMP is seriously dangerous

[82_28]

Oh c'mon SLAD, it's hard to not grow up a boy/man and not encounter others like that among your peers. Luther is a feminist. I know this. Omission of feminists most certainly does not preclude him from being completely sensitive to what others go through. He's just saying it's the way it is and does not tolerate it and never has. The same could be said of me. Giving accounts of our own unique experiences is always going to be a given. I am sure he organizes with women as well.

[seemslikeadream]

Trump admitted to committing a crime.....sexual assault

ignoring that is what has turned this into battle against men

....a battle against men who will not or can not see or refuse to admit we are talking about an assault ...a crime...not just some bad language that us girls are so offended by

[seemslikeadream]

then I misunderstood you.....you're voting for Stein ...right?

Because I'm saying that if he went away forever I would be happy about it. And while I am a pacifist myself, I understand that violent resistance is sometimes just, like it was in the cases of Sitting Bull and Geronimo. Maybe now is the time for violent resistance against rape culture?

I named Inés Ixierda right in that post, anyway. And I mentioned bell hooks ad Michelle Alexander in a conversation with you last week. I also told you I just did the March to End Rape Culture last month. Not sure where this is coming from.

Did you purposefully ignore or just miss my response to you above where I said I was in fights as a young man against people who talked exactly the way Trump did in the audio when I was younger?

[82_28]

RNC halts Victory project work for Trump

The Republican National Committee on Saturday appeared to at least temporarily halt the operations of some of the “Victory” program that is devoted to electing Donald Trump.

The move comes as the GOP nominee is under mounting pressure from elected Republicans to step aside after he was caught on tape bragging about sexually assaulting women.

In an email from the RNC to a victory program mail vendor, with the subject line “Hold on all projects,” the committee asked the vendor to “put a hold” on mail production.

“Please put a hold/stop on all mail projects right now. If something is in production or print it needs to stop. Will update you when to proceed,” Lauren Toomey, a staffer in the RNC’s political department, wrote in an email that was obtained by POLITICO.

The email was sent to at least one RNC victory program vendor. Rick Wiley, a top RNC official, was cc’d on the email.

Neither Toomey nor Wiley responded to requests for comment. An RNC spokesperson also didn’t respond to a request for comment.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/r ... ump-229363

[seemslikeadream]

Trump video fallout drama owning the airwaves
By Joe Concha



At the Masters, they call Saturdays "Moving Day."

And that's where we are on the presidential political front today. Donald Trump finds himself in a repulsive rhetorical situation, thanks to a leaked tape during a taping with Billy Bush, then of Access Hollywood (NBC Universal). Even he won't be able to escape or brush it off simply as political correctness run amok. And he’s faced with two choices:

Moving on out of the race, as some Republicans are calling for, for his "grab them by the (women's genitalia)" comment that makes Mitt Romney's caught-on-tape "47 percent" comment leaked merely sound like a sneeze.

Defend the indefensible Sunday night at the second presidential debate in St. Louis in front of 80-90 million people watching at home.
Throughout Friday night, calls for Trump to step down came in fast and furious on cable news and social media.

Rep. Mike Lee (R- Utah) even did so on Facebook Live, a first for any politician making that kind of demand. By doing so, Lee got his message out without taking questions.

GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz, also of Utah and never one to be shy with the press, actually announced his withdrawal of support for Trump on a local Salt Lake City affiliate (Fox-13) before calling into CNN to do so nationally in an interview with Don Lemon.

Will a major player like Speaker Paul Ryan (who said he was "sickened" by the video) or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell follow Lee in asking Trump to drop out? How about RNC chair Reince Priebus?

If so, count on those declarations to not be done the old-fashioned way of a press conference, but rather via another taped video or more likely, a simple tweet. It's that easy (and pain-free) when it comes to messaging in 2016.

On Friday's "CNN Tonight" with the aforementioned Don Lemon, Republican Ana Navarro, a Jeb Bush supporter, said Trump was not only unfit to be president, but even "unfit to be a man." Navarro also repeatedly used the “p-word” on the air in quoting Trump during a heated panel segment, another first in cable news history from a what's-allowed-to-be-said perspective.

On Fox News and "The O'Reilly Factor", Geraldo Rivera called the comments "obscene" and pronounced Trump's campaign "on life support."

On MSNBC, Rachel Maddow pushed her own company in NBC to release tapes of Trump allegedly disparaging women on "The Apprentice."

In a related story, it can be argued that a Bush (OK, NBC's Billy Bush, who is likely updating his LinkedIn page as you read this for his cheerleader role in the Trump conversation) finally took down a Trump.

As for not facing the press, the same strategy was carried out by Trump himself, who taped a defiant apology at Trump Tower that took responsibility for the remarks before pivoting to a comparison to Bill Clinton's alleged actions regarding his mistreatment of women years ago.

Of course, Trump's words were obviously written for him and therefore devoid of his usual authenticity in the process, because it's fairly easy to tell the difference between spontaneous Trump and TelePrompTer Trump.

Still, by taping the video, Trump didn't need to take questions. He will have to at some point, however, likely starting Sunday night from an audience and two moderators (ABC's Martha Raddatz and CNN's Anderson Cooper) in St. Louis.

In yet another related story, it's been well over 100 days since Trump held a press conference, a criticism once reserved for Hillary Clinton.

In assessing this situation, one has to wonder this: Just how long was the Trump "grab them by the ‘p’" tape in the hands of someone looking to destroy Trump? It is 11 years old, after all. Only someone at NBC/Access Hollywood would have access to it.

Considering the timing, it's hard to believe that someone had a sudden epiphany that the audio existed just days before a crucial debate and 32 days until the election when it published by the Washington Post. Just like it's also hard to believe Donald Trump's 1995 tax documents were suddenly found in a New York Times reporter's mailbox just days before the Vice Presidential debate last week.

October surprises may be surprising to the public, but rarely is damaging information that happens to be discovered in the same month. Discovery of opposition material and release of information through the media are two very different things.

Today will be arguably the most compelling Saturday politically in the history of political Saturdays — on cable news and social media. What would normally be a quiet day of travel for many media members heading to St. Louis for the debate will instead be filled with reporting, commentary and analysis all day and evening.

If Friday night is any indication, the pressure on Trump to drop out will undoubtedly be raised to an 11 (on a scale of 1 to 10).

Those hired this year by CNN to defend Trump in an effort to create balance (Corey Lewandowski, Kayleigh McEnany, Jeffrey Lord, Scottie Nell Hughes) should all ask for a raise before going in today. Because attempting to defend or even deflect Trump's grabbing comments will be the toughest job in the world.

Moving day, Saturday, is here.

It may prove to be the most riveting, drama-filled day in the history of 21st Century media.

Popcorn is popped. And those covering this story just got another weekend completely devoid of sleep.
http://origin-nyi.thehill.com/blogs/pun ... e-airwaves

Here Are All The Republicans Dropping Their Support For Donald Trump
The list is expanding to sitting senators, members of Congress and governors.
10/07/2016 11:03 pm ET | Updated 1 hour ago

Jennifer Bendery
White House and Congressional Reporter, The Huffington Post
Igor Bobic
Associate Politics Editor, The Huffington Post

ASSOCIATED PRESS
So it wasn’t a Muslim ban, slut shaming, calling Mexicans rapists or insulting a Gold Star family. It took Donald Trump talking about grabbing women by the p**** for GOP lawmakers to pull their support for him.
WASHINGTON ― Republican lawmakers are pulling their endorsements for GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump after the Washington Post released a bombshell video Friday in which Trump makes lewd comments about women.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (Utah) was the first GOP member of Congress to peel off Friday night, declaring on a local TV station, “I’m out.” He said he didn’t know who he was going to vote for now, but it wouldn’t be Trump or Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. That was right after his home state governor, Gary Herbert (R), said he, too, was dropping his support for Trump after seeing the tape of him claiming he tried to have sex with a married woman and boasting of groping women because of his celebrity.

The floodgates were open by Saturday morning. Here’s a running list of the GOP members of Congress, senators and governors rescinding their endorsements for Trump or calling on him to step down, one month before the election, after seeing the video.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (Utah)

Rep. Martha Roby (Ala.)

Rep. Chris Stewart (Utah)

Rep. Bradley Byrne (Ala.)

Rep. Joe Heck (Nev.)

Rep. Cresent Hardy (Nev.)

Rep. Scott Garrett (N.J.)

Rep. Ann Wagner (Mo.)

Rep. Rodney Davis (Ill.)

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.)

Sen. Mike Crapo (Idaho)

Sen. John Thune (S.D.)

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.)

Sen. Deb Fischer (Neb.)

Sen. Dan Sullivan (Alaska)

Sen. Cory Gardner (Colo.)

Sen. John McCain (Ariz.)

Gov. Gary Herbert (Utah)

Gov. Dennis Dauggard (S.D.)

Gov. Robert Bentley (Ala.)

There’s also some GOP lawmakers who didn’t support Trump before but are now taking it a step further and saying he needs to drop out. They include Sens. Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), Mike Lee (Utah), Ben Sasse (Neb.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Reps. Mike Coffman (Colo.), Barbara Comstock (Va.), Fred Upton (Mich.) and Charlie Dent (Pa.).

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly identified Rodney Davis as a congressman from Missouri. He is from Illinois.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gar ... ead%20More

[dada]

I guess feminists and progressives, black lives matterers, and charming free radicals have created this fog of political correctness in the mass mind with our critical-marxism, or whatever it's called. All fogs fault.

Subconsciously spreading like a shadow over everything, while you watch the spectacle. Enjoy your popcorn, America.

[82_28]

[seemslikeadream]

To Think After All This, It May Be a Member of the Bush Family Who Undoes Trump’s Candidacy

After all, it has largely been the Trump v. Bush dynamic that has launched him into the position of political power he now finds himself. During the Republican primary process, the real estate mogul absolutely eviscerated former Florida Governor Jeb, making a public spectacle of beating up on Bush as if he were a punching bag in dire need of a 5 Hour Energy

........

Enter Billy boy.

Billy Bush is the son of Josephine Bradley and Jonathan Bush, a banker in Connecticut, one of the leaders in the second generation of the family tree. Jonathan Bush, born in 1932, is the brother of William H.T. Bush (a banker), Nancy Walker Bush, Prescott Bush Jr. (an insurance executive with a failed Senate run to his name) and George Herbert Walker Bush himself.

If you’re following along, this makes Billy Bush the first cousin of President George W. Bush and Jeb Bush, the first cousin once removed of Jenna Bush, and the nephew of no-new-taxes himself.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/to-think ... candidacy/

[Agent Orange Cooper]

god, the Bushes are such heroes. true patriots. thank goodness we still have them around to undo that mean old nasty evil mean man meanie's scary mean campaign!!!

[8bitagent]

god, the Bushes are such heroes. true patriots. thank goodness we still have them around to undo that mean old nasty evil mean man meanie's scary mean campaign!!!

Seeing people replying to the Bushes, Condi Rice and other neocons feign anger over Trumps 2005 tape leak by saying "as if mass murder in Iraq based on lies is not vulgar"? Makes my night

Did anyone truly have any doubt even in the 1980's that Donald Trump's entire schtick was being a gross womanizer? No wonder Bill Clinton found a natural bromance buddy with him.

Now that the RNC has cut off funding, mailers and other support to Trump; ya can expect Trump and his few remaining advisors(including Alex Jones Infowars daily guest Roger Stone) to go
thermo nuclear. If youre like me and hate both sides of Wall Street War Incorporated (ie Repubs and Dems), and the two party system...tonights "debate" should be a doozy. Id
be disappointed if the next 30 days wasnt a total race to the bottom politically apocalyptic war.

Btw, why is it that blatant racism, war crimes, homophobia, ect doesnt offend Christian Conservatives...but the word pussy does? It's a rhetorical question.

Trump and his fellow rapist pig pal, showing off his grope

[seemslikeadream]

the word p****y offends me.....might as well just call Blacks here n*****ers and get away with it

I don't expect the men here to understand that or care that it offends women....


--------------------------------------------------------------------

Btw, why is it that blatant racism, war crimes, homophobia, ect doesnt offend Christian Conservatives...but the word pussy does?

It was the CRIME that was admitted to by Trump on TAPE that offended them

they didn't care that he did it...only that he got caught admitting to the illegal act


----------------------------------------------------


blatant misogyny

a misogynist blames a woman for her husbands/boyfriends deeds

god, the Bushes are such heroes. true patriots. thank goodness we still have them around to undo that mean old nasty evil mean man meanie's scary mean campaign!!!

Seeing people replying to the Bushes, Condi Rice and other neocons feign anger over Trumps 2005 tape leak by saying "as if mass murder in Iraq based on lies is not vulgar"? Makes my night

Did anyone truly have any doubt even in the 1980's that Donald Trump's entire schtick was being a gross womanizer? No wonder Bill Clinton found a natural bromance buddy with him.

Now that the RNC has cut off funding, mailers and other support to Trump; ya can expect Trump and his few remaining advisors(including Alex Jones Infowars daily guest Roger Stone) to go
thermo nuclear. If youre like me and hate both sides of Wall Street War Incorporated (ie Repubs and Dems), and the two party system...tonights "debate" should be a doozy. Id
be disappointed if the next 30 days wasnt a total race to the bottom politically apocalyptic war.

Btw, why is it that blatant racism, war crimes, homophobia, ect doesnt offend Christian Conservatives...but the word pussy does? It's a rhetorical question.

Trump and his fellow rapist pig pal, showing off his grope

[82_28]

I think it's how you mean the word "pu**y". In fact this came to my mind last night when my girlfriend and I were talking about some story and I said, believe me I wasn't a pussy about it. It didn't offend her in the least. I would absolutely never use that term to refer to someone's anatomy. To me it has always meant you were a wimp about something and I always thought it was related to the pussy cat thing -- how cats go and hide when there is a commotion. That's just the way I always thought of it. I can be quite dense but them's the truth. I don't know how "pussy the cat" came about. I'm sure it has an interesting history and they could for some reason be distantly related. But yes, typically the term now is associated with female anatomy.

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Come to think of it, I watch that old show Gunsmoke and that character Miss Kitty who runs the saloon just came to mind. She was strong willed etc yet also beautiful. But Miss Kitty.

Really you got me. We'll have to research this before we get mad about something further. Language is language and there is nothing we can do about it. It's how we use the terms. How trump used it is vile and disgusting for obvious reasons. You'd never hear him say, yeah I pussed out on that one. So I really don't know.

$.02

[Heaven Swan]

https://youtu.be/5sYGjoUcusM


Are we having fun yet?
I was anxious at the thought that Trump might win but, even though the choice was between the devil and the anti-christ, I'm tremendously relieved right now, and looking forward to an entertaining debate tonight.


Click on the link for the SNL skit....couldn't get the video to post


Which reminds me of another good one from some comedian, can"t remember which one:
In a recent poll 70% of Americans said they'd be extremely anxious if Donald Trump won the election. The other 30% said they'd be Canadian.

[Heaven Swan]

The Age of Decline, Apple Pie, and America's Chosen Suicide Bomber

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45630.htm

And Truly, This Is Not About Donald Trump...

By Tom Engelhardt

This is not about Donald Trump. And I mean it.

October 07, 2016 "Information Clearing House" - "Tom Dispatch" - From the moment the first scribe etched a paean of praise to Nebuchadnezzar into a stone tablet, it’s reasonable to conclude that never in history has the media covered a single human being as it has Donald Trump. For more than a year now, unless a terror attack roiled American life, he’s been the news cycle, essentially the only one, morning, noon, and night, day after day, week after week, month after month. His every word, phrase, move, insult, passing comment, off-the-cuff remark, claim, boast, brazen lie, shout, or shout-out has been ours as well. In this period, he’s praised his secret plan to destroy ISIS and take Iraqi oil. He’s thumped that “big, fat, beautiful wall” again and again. He’s birthered a campaign that could indeed transport him, improbably enough, into the Oval Office. He’s fought it out with 17 political rivals, among others, including “lyin’ Ted,” “low-energy Jeb,” Carly (“Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?”) Fiorini, “crooked Hillary,” a Miss Universe (“Miss Piggy”), the “highly overrated” Megyn Kelly’s menstrual cycle ("You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever"), always Rosie O’Donnell (“a slob [with] a fat, ugly face”), and so many others. He’s made veiled assassination threats; lauded the desire to punch someone in the face; talked about shooting “somebody” in “the middle of Fifth Avenue”; defended the size of his hands and his you-know-what; retweeted neo-Nazis and a quote from Mussolini; denounced the outsourcing of American manufacturing jobs and products while outsourcing his own jobs and products; excoriated immigrants and foreign labor while hiring the same; advertised the Trump brand in every way imaginable; had a bromance with Vladimir Putin; threatened to let nuclear weapons proliferate; complained bitterly about a rigged election, rigged debates, a rigged moderator, and a rigged microphone; swore that he and he alone was capable of again making America, and so the world, a place of the sort of greatness only he himself could match, and that’s just to begin a list on the subject of The Donald.

In other words, thanks to the media attention he garners incessantly, he is the living embodiment of our American moment. No matter what you think of him, his has been a journey of a sort we’ve never seen before, a triumph of the first order, whatever happens on November 8th. He’s burnished his own brand; opened a new hotel on -- yes -- Pennsylvania Avenue (which he’s used his election run to promote and publicize); sold his products mercilessly; promoted his children; funneled dollars to his family and businesses; and in an unspoken alliance (pact, entente, détente) of the first order, kept the nightly news and the cable networks rolling in dough and in the spotlight (as long as they kept yakking about him), despite the fact that younger viewers were in flight to the universe of social media, streaming services, and their smartphones. Thanks to the millions, billions, perhaps trillions of words expended on him by nonstop commentators, pundits, talking heads, retired generals and admirals, former intelligence chiefs, ex-Bush administration officials, and god knows who else that have kept the cable channels churning with Trump on a nearly 24/7 basis, he and his remarkable ego, and his now familiar gestures -- that jut-jawed look, that orange hair, that overly tanned face, that eternally raised voice -- have become the wallpaper of our lives, something close to our reality. If he were an action film, some Hollywood studio would be swooning, because never has a single act gotten such nonstop publicity. We’ve never seen anything like him or it, and yet, strange as the Trump phenomenon may be, if you think about it for a moment, you’ll realize that there’s also something eerily familiar about him, and not just because of The Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice.

In a world where so many things deserve our attention and don’t get it, rest assured that this is not about Donald Trump. It really isn’t.

In terms of any presidential candidate from George Washington to Barack Obama, Trump is little short of a freak of nature. There’s really no one to compare him to (other, perhaps, than George Wallace). Sometimes his pitch about America -- and a return to greatness -- has a faintly Reaganesque quality (but without any of Ronald Reagan’s sunniness or charm). Otherwise, I dare you to make such a comparison.

Still, don’t be fooled. As a phenomenon, Donald Trump couldn’t be more American -- as American, in fact, as a piece of McDonald’s baked apple pie. What could be more American, after all, than his two major roles: salesman (or pitchman) and con artist? From P.T. Barnum (who, by the way, became the mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut, late in life) to Willy Loman, selling has long been an iconic American way to go. A man who sells his life and brand as the ultimate American life and brand... come on, what’s not familiar about that?

As for being a conman, since at least Mark Twain (remember the Duke of Bridgewater and the Dauphin, who join Huck and Jim on their raft?) and Herman Melville (The Confidence Man), the charm of the -- excuse the phrase under the circumstances -- huckster in American life can’t be denied. It’s something Donald Trump knows in his bones, even if all those pundits and commentators and pollsters (and for that matter Hillary Clinton’s advisers) don’t: Americans love a conman. Historically, we’ve often admired, if not identified with, someone intent on playing and successfully beating the system, whether at a confidence game or through criminal activity.

After the first presidential debate, when Trump essentially admitted that in some years he paid no taxes (“that makes me smart”) and that he had played the tax system for everything it was worth, there was all that professional tsk-tsking and the suggestion that such an admission would deeply disturb ordinary voters who pay up when the IRS comes knocking. Don’t believe it for a second. I guarantee you that Trump senses he’s deep in the Mississippi of American politics with such statements and that a surprising number of voters will admire him for it (whether they admit it or not). After all, he beat the system, even if they didn’t.

Whenever I see Trump and read accounts of his business dealings, I’m reminded of what 1920s Chicago crime boss Al Capone told British journalist Claud Cockburn: "Listen, don't get the idea I'm one of those goddamn radicals... Don't get the idea I'm knocking the American system. My rackets are run on strictly American lines. Capitalism, call it what you like, gives to each and every one of us a great opportunity if only we seize it with both hands and make the most of it." Trump’s “rackets” are similarly “run on strictly American lines.” He’s the Tony Soprano of casino capitalism and so couldn’t be more American.

My father was a salesman. I grew up watching him make his preparations to sell. I existed at the edge of his selling universe and, though I thought I rejected his world, the truth is that, given the chance and under the right circumstances, I still love to sell myself. It’s addictive in the most American way. There was as well another aspect of that commonplace world of fathers I once knew and that I now recognize in Trump’s overwhelming persona: the bully. That jut-jawed stance, the pugnacious approach to the world, that way of carrying both one’s body and face that seems inbuilt and offers the constant possibility of threat -- it was the norm of the world I grew up in. It was what fathers looked like (and must still in so many families). It was, in short, an essential part of the pre-Trumpian world, a manner, a way of being that The Donald has distilled into an iconically brutal version of itself, into not the commonplace bully -- schoolyard variety -- but The Bully. Still, at least to me, and I think to many Americans, it couldn’t be more recognizable and, I suspect, for people raised among the bullies, the thought of having such a bully in the Oval Office and speaking for you for once is strangely appealing.

Just in case you were wondering at this point, I’m serious: this is not about Donald Trump.

And yet, don’t believe that everything about The Donald is old hat and familiarly American. In this strange election season, there are aspects of his role that are so new they should startle us all. Begin with the fact that he’s the first declinist candidate for president of our era. Put another way, he’s the only politician in the country who refuses to engage in a ritual -- until now a virtual necessity for American presidential wannabes, candidates, and presidents: affirming repeatedly that the United States is the greatest, most exceptional, most indispensable nation of all time and that it possesses the “finest fighting force in the history of the world.”

Undoubtedly, that by-now-kneejerk urge to repeat such formulaic sentiments reflects creeping self-doubts about America’s future imperial role. It has the quality of a magic mantra being used to ward off reality. After all, when a great power truly is at its height, as the United States was in my youth, no one feels the need to continually, defensively insist that it’s so.

Trump broke decisively with this version of political orthodoxy and it tells us much about our moment that he is now in the final round of election 2016, not in the trash heap of American history. His claim, unique to our moment, is that America is not great at all, even if he (and only he) can -- feel free to chant it with me -- make America great again! Add to that his insistence that the U.S. military in the Obama era is anything but the finest fighting machine in history. According to him, it’s now a hollowed-out force, a “disaster” and “in shambles,” whose generals have been “reduced to rubble.” Not so long ago, such claims would have automatically disqualified anyone as a candidate for president (or much of anything else). That he can continually make them, and make the first of them his t-shirt-and-cap campaign slogan, tells you that we are indeed in a new American world.

In relation to his Republican rivals, and now Hillary Clinton, he stands alone in accepting and highlighting what increasing numbers of Americans, especially white Americans, have evidently come to feel: that this country is in decline, its greatness a thing of the past, or as pollsters like to put it, that America is no longer “heading in the right direction” but is now “on the wrong track.” In this way, he has mainlined into a deep, economically induced mindset, especially among white working class men facing a situation in which so many good jobs have headed elsewhere, that the world has turned sour.

Or think of it another way (and it may be the newest way of all): a significant part of the white working class, at least, feels as if, whether economically or psychologically, its back is up against the wall and there’s nowhere left to go. Under such circumstances, many of these voters have evidently decided that they’re ready to send a literal loose cannon into the White House; they’re willing, that is, to take a chance on the roof collapsing, even if it collapses on them.

That is the new and unrecognizable role that Donald Trump has filled. It’s hard to conjure up another example of it in our recent past. The Donald represents, as a friend of mine likes to say, the suicide bomber in us all. And voting for him, among other things, will be an act of nihilism, a mood that fits well with imperial decline.

Think of him as a message in a bottle washing up on our shore. After all...

This is not about Donald Trump. It’s about us.

Tom Engelhardt is a co-founder of the American Empire Project and the author of The United States of Fear as well as a history of the Cold War, The End of Victory Culture. He is a fellow of the Nation Institute and runs TomDispatch.com. His latest book is Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World.

Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Book, Nick Turse’s Next Time They’ll Come to Count the Dead, and Tom Engelhardt's latest book, Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World.

Copyright 2016 Tom Engelhardt

[American Dream]

http://www.leninology.co.uk/2016/10/trumped-down.html

Trumped down posted by Richard Seymour

If we assume that the Trump tape release was orchestrated by the Clinton campaign, as seems likely, then it is the first really skilful move they have made throughout the entire campaign - and with leading Republicans backing away from him, the RNC withdrawing funds, and the GOP leadership looking for ways to legally replace him as the candidate, it may be fatal.

The IMF, which calls Trump 'Voldemort' on account of the threat he seemingly poses to their idea of global economic order, will breathe a sigh of relief if the RNC are successful. Wall Street, which must already be looking with horror at Brexit and May's decidedly Trumpian turn, will too. So will, of course, any of the major constituencies whom he would cheerfully have victimised - women, immigrants, Muslims, African Americans, leftists, protesters, etc.

It is as though Bret Easton Ellis had decided to rewrite the mafia boss genre as a tale of ruling class soul-dead depravity. I can thoroughly well imagine Bill Clinton talking exactly like this, and suspect that this kind of braggodocious (dixit Trump) side of rape culture is common at the top of US politics. Certainly, Bush jr seems to have been entirely at home in the conversation.

But at some point, we should inquire into the other modalities of rape culture. It is obvious that the stuff about Trump being 'newly married' is a species of it. Would sexual assault be okay if his marriage was getting on a little, and he was bored? What about the 'wives and daughters' stuff? Isn't this clearly implicated in the dichotomy between good and bad women that sustains rape culture - as if, those who aren't anyone's wives and daughters, who are socially dislocated, are fit to treat as 'whores'.

More broadly, we might want to inquire into the libidinal underside of the reactions. I'm not interested in moralising about this, but it seems obvious that in the cool light of retrospect, analysis of the lulzy coverage will disclose a rich seam of excitement and fascination, barely disguised in all the jokes. The hubbub of "omg, can't believe he said that" is invested in glee at the transgressive nature of such "lewd" discussion of sexual assault, much like the fascination with his openly Oedipalised sexual objectification and denigration of his daughter. Isn't there an obvious enjoyment even in repeating his words in the fashion of this headline? We certainly get a kick out of imitating his highly imitable swagger and speech patterns. We enjoy Trump (although it goes without saying that we don't all enjoy Trump in the same way, if for no other reason than that patriarchy, 'whiteness', class resentments, geographical and social stagnation, and so on, do not affect everyone in the same way).

I am not at all claiming that people should stop making these jokes, and any attempt to make that happen by fiat would be doomed anyway. One of the functions of jokes is to give a certain regulated access to transgressive enjoyment, wherein we can advance an idea without 'meaning' it. So it is always a question of context, of how the joke works, at whose expense. I am just saying that we should analyse it, if we want to understand where the appeal of Trumpism comes from. Even if his campaign now collapses, as it seems to be doing, the psychopolitical sources of Trumpism won't dissipate on that account.