Pierce: We're Witnessing a Dangerous Detachment from Reality

[mcar]

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a53868/trump-detachment-reality/

...West Virginia is ground zero for those of us who empathize, but who do not sympathize. The state went big for the president*, who promised to bring back the coal industry and reopen the mines and otherwise revive a local economy that had vanished decades ago. Since then, he has freed up not the miners and the workers, but the people who own the companies. He and the Congress have demolished the protections the people of McDowell County had against coal waste products in their drinking water....

They will die whether or not they trusted Hillary Rodham Clinton, or thought Barack Obama was a tool of the Kenyan Chinese Communists, or whether or not they believe in the climate crisis. The companies are going to laugh off these toothless "compliance reviews" and be as heedless of the safety of their employees as they've ever been. Then there will be an explosion, or a fire, or a cave-in, and people will die, and there won't even be a sufficient investigation into why because there will be nobody to conduct it, and no new regulations will result because there won't be anyone there to write them or enforce them.

This is the profound emptiness at the heart of conservatism when it gets into government. Even in triumph, it can't turn off the autonomic anti-government nerve system that has animated modern conservatism for the past 50 years. It has relied on so much that is contrary to human nature and human experience that it doesn't know how to relate to the world any other way....

This is a movement that believes that, to be free, a 68-year-old Alzheimer's patient should shop for his own health insurance, which will be provided to him at a reasonable price because, if it isn't, some market magic will make the health insurance company go bankrupt for being mean to its customers. This is the movement that produces critters like Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, who, when asked why he voted against the Violence Against Women Act, replied that violence against women was a state issue and not a federal one. When asked, and I'm paraphrasing here, whether or not he realized how very stupid his first answer was, Barton replied, Shut up.

[Moostache]

1. Trump is a circus clown...meant to distract and obfuscate and nothing more.

Donald Trump is a loser. He hates to hear that and is loath to believe it himself, but it is objectively true. His businesses fail and drag down those around them, he is now famous for being famous and like Paris Hilton before him, he is utterly vacuous and beneath contempt.

But he is on the national stage at this moment in history for a very specific reason...his utter lack of self-control.

The GOP is planning to utilize this monstrous little orange toddler in a business suit and bad fitting ties to keep the attention on him and off them as they dismantle the efficacy of the entire Federal Government and enrich the very wealthiest among their benefactors. It is beyond time to ignore the ill-tempered yam and START holding the spotlight on the GOP and their heinous members. They MUST own the shame of what they are doing and the stain of the results forever.

[murielm99]

9. Trump is the clown we should fear. eom

[LiberalLovinLug]

16. No, both forces are threatening

Its like a one-two punch. They both are destructive but in their own way. And they can both redirect attention from each other. Sometimes they are in lockstep sometimes not as much. Trump is dangerous because he is an overgrown baby-man narcissistic turned into a paranoid megalomaniac who is unpredictable and trigger happy. He could start a war on a dime. (well trillions of dimes)

But House and Senate Republicans are the clear and present danger as of now. They are madly stripping the country of civil rights, environmental protections, conflict of interest laws, voting rights, LGBTQ and womens rights, Social Security and medical insurance access and more to come.

They are pleased as punch to have the big buffoon be the distraction. Don't you think that all of their actions and reversals of Obama's accomplishments would get much greater attention if it were, say, Ted Cruz in the White House?

[Initech]

15. I saw a great tweet this morning that said "if you elect a clown, expect a circus!"

Truer words never spoken!

[Kimchijeon]

20. Oh, that's a good one, so true!

[Girard442]

30. Ironic, isn't it. The real circus is shutting down...

...partly because people didn't like the way they treated the elephants.

The political circus is going strong. The elephants are mistreating the people, the clowns have run the ringmaster out of town and are doing nothing but run around squirting seltzer at each other, and the idiots in the stand are loving it -- at least until the big top burns to the ground with all of us inside it.

[spanone]

2. these people will get screwed twice..once when the jobs don't come back

and twice when they are poisoned by their drinking water...thanks don!

[mcar]

3. And then when they lose their Medicaid

their black lung care, their Medicare, etc.

[calimary]

13. Yep. Only one party in power. Only one direction for the blame and finger-pointing to go.

And if they try to turn that blame toward Democrats in ANY way, the important thing to remember - AND TO REPEAT - "We're not the ones in power."

And if there's time to elaborate: "...which is why WE can't do anything about it. If you something done, then we're gonna need YOU to help us do something about it."

AND THEN YOU ADD: "... because they aren't going to help you. They DON'T WANT TO help you. They don't believe in it. THEY DON'T WANT TO HELP YOU. AND THEY DON'T THINK THEY SHOULD HAVE TO!"

"THEY DON'T WANT TO HELP YOU."

[mcar]

17. Yes. They have to govern now

It's not working out so well for them.

[KingCharlemagne]

34. Dayum! The Democratic Party should hire you to coordinate its national

messaging campaign for 2018.

Serious, serious hat tip!

Wish I could rec your reply 1 million times.

[calimary]

38. Thank you, sweetie! I'd LOVE to do that.

Last edited Thu Mar 16, 2017, 06:38 PM - Edit history (3)

As Rosie O'Donnell said re: could she play Steve Bannon on SNL - "I'm available!"

Lordy Lordy would I love to do that!

Besides, EVERYONE needs to know what all that baloney about "get the government off yer back" and reagan's old verbal turd: "the most terrifying words in the English language are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help'."

Okay, was he a true Christian or not? I'd say, judging from THAT shitty-ass selfish attitude, the answer would have been "NO!" You suppose the tornado wreckage victims or the hurricane homeless think that when FEMA arrives in what was left of their neighborhoods? Well, when Bill Clinton was in office, FEMA was utterly beloved! Cheered! Praised to the heavens! Because it HELPED PEOPLE. It was "here to help". In the literal sense of those words. What would reagan have done? Cursed it? Defund it? Lambaste it in his aw-shucks dear-old-Uncle-Dutch schtick that everybody just loved.

Just think about it. How horrible is it when you're on the down-n-outs that somebody comes up to you and says "I'm here to help"? Is that REALLY such a terrible horrible wretched dreadful godless thing?

They like cutting the government. Certain individuals among them have tried at various times to shut down the government. And to hell who gets screwed (like powerless pensioners and other retirees). Because they hate the government. I imagine the whole miserable lot of 'em were unruly two-year-olds stamping their widdle feetsies and screaming at their mommies - "NO ONE is the BOSS of ME!!!" Monica Lewinsky described doing that when she was two, btw. "NO ONE is the BOSS of ME!"

They don't believe that it's government's job to help people. And those who just barely do always try to push it off on the states. Like that ASS Joe Barton the other day - telling a town hall attendee asking him about why he voted against the Violence Against Women Act. Remember what he said? "Violence against women is not a federal issue. It's a states issue." And the crowd went wild - with boos and jeers and cat-calls. And people like me go "WHAT the Fuckin' Fuck-Fuck?"

THAT'S what we have to beat back.

THAT'S what we have to outshout.

THAT'S what we have to STOP, COLD.

THAT's what we have to re-educate the masses about.

Unfortunately, the bad guys have had a 30-40-year head start, and they built up a humdinger of an infrastructure to push their message - first on hate radio and then on cable TV, with an entire cable channel at their disposal to push their propaganda and talking points and messaging. All for the sake of pushing a mean-spirited, selfish, myopic and totally cock-eyed "philosophy" of "government" that's straight from the seventh level of Hell. And, oh yeah, they'll also keep hammering on their BLASPHEMOUS holier-than-thou "Christianist" faith that somehow Jesus gives His blessing to all this.

THAT'S what we have to counter-act. And it's ALL in the messaging.

[Blue_Tires]

4. k+r

[wiggs]

5. Generally, corporate power is sociopathic...caring only for

its own care and feeding. The GOP has hitched its wagon to corporate wealth and power to sustain its competitiveness in the context of changing demographics, much more than the dems have. The sociopathic, selfish driver of corporate imperative has rubbed off onto the gop.

GOP = believe corporate power equates to american power and gop power = sociopathic policies

[ProfessorPlum]

8. And it has been designed to be that way

[JudyM]

37. The conscious business movement is gaining ground here and in Europe, but slowly.

[HAB911]

6. those of us who empathize, but who do not sympathize

Perfect statement

[mcar]

7. It really is

[DK504]

10. Isn't the same state has such a horrific Oxy epidemic.

>sigh< I guess having black lung is more important than childhood education.

So many are talking about automation in industries, they can't think up something for mining? Howsa about real education and training for green energy that will pay more.

[mcar]

11. I read they can't keep up with funerals

[Leith]

18. That Was HRC's Plan

She wouldn't lie to them and promise that they would mine coal again. She offered plans for infrastructure, education, new types of employment. In short, a future.

They went with orange boy and his glib lies.

[lindysalsagal]

12. I disagree: They're totally in touch with their own reality, but lack human compassion

It's not mental illness, it's ethical and moral bankruptcy.

[Initech]

14. Wrong! Fake news, OK! Sad!

[Nevernose]

19. Much is our fault

Certainly not all, but much of their idiocy is our fault. Not because we didn't "reach out to working whites" or because we didn't drop our liberal stances on basic human rights, but because we failed to educate them.

If the whole class fails the test, the fault is usually the teacher's.

[Coventina]

36. Disagree. There have been MANY efforts by the teacher to educate. However, there are non-stop TVs,

radios, pastors, and parents in the classroom constantly shouting that the teacher is WRONG!!!

[Cha]

21. Yes, we have been since trump came on the scene

spreading his political LIES.. starting with.. Obama was not born in the US.

Mahalo, mcar!

[mcar]

23. Hi Cha!

Good on Hawaii judge for blocking ban 2.0.

[Cha]

24. I know right.. and this in from Hawaii, too..

Link to tweet

mcar!

[mcar]

25. He looks way better golfing

than does the current WH resident.

[Cha]

26. the other golfer is sooooo jealous of

#44.

[mcar]

27. Oh yeah

I am delighted our president is relaxing but I miss him so!

[Cha]

28. Livin' the life, mcar.. but he'll be back to help us. Just taking their Hawaiian vacation early..

[mcar]

29. I'm glad for them

[bdamomma]

32. He deserves it

and much more. He did the peoples' job excellent and scandal free too.

[Cha]

33. He doesn't look too worried about

getting busted for "wiretapping" the idiot, does he, bdamomma?

[ProfessorGAC]

31. This Golfer Is Too!

Of course, i didn't have to do the hardest job in the world for 8 years. He did.

[Solly Mack]

22. K&R

[Coventina]

35. I love Charlie, but, I neither empathize nor sympathize with West Va.

Not only did they vote for their own deaths, but the deaths of their fellow citizens.