stevenkesslar

Add another great Clinton line. Or word: "Arithmetic" Clinton: "Arithmetic" created surplus budgets Dick Cheney said a long time ago that Reagan proved deficits don't matter, politically. He has yet to be proven wrong. But maybe that is where Zoomers come in. I have a lot of fun teasing my nieces and nephews about their cynicism. But their argument is that if I grew up in an America where the government actually got shit done, maybe I would be less cynical. So now it seems like everybody under 40 likes to blame Boomers for this big ass deficit they will spend the rest of their lives paying off, for shit Boomers got and they didn't. Assuming they have a job. Meanwhile, it was our first Boomer POTUS, Bill Clinton, that got us a surplus. Hopefully a lot of Zoomer men learned the hard way in 2024. And in 2028 they might want to talk about jobs and deficits instead. If some Democrat like Clinton can figure it out.

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST! That is so unfair. Talk about bait and switch. If Jonathan Groff ruled us all, I would love him until my dying days. And he could kill my friends and family. Who cares? Actually, he just did. Just got together with a friend last night who just got back from NYC and saw Groff's Bobby Darin gig. He loved it. GROFF FOR KING IN 2028!

It's already happening. Youth unemployment keeps going up. And there are lots of stories about unusually high unemployment rates among recent college graduates, who usually have low unemployment rates. Maybe it is uncertainty about the Trump tariffs. Or maybe it is AI. Or maybe it is all of the above. So on the one hand there is this false promise that you're gonna pay more for your big ass truck so we can have more blue collar factory jobs. And meanwhile white collar jobs will be shredded by AI. I don't get how that is progress, yet. All those young Zoomer men who thought the blue collar billionaire Trump understood their problems ain't gonna be happy. Growing China trade deficit cost 3.7 million American jobs between 2001 and 2018 Jobs lost in every U.S. state and congressional district That's a nice summary. We know that while Bill Clinton was POTUS manufacturing was stable - from 16.8 million jobs in Jan. 93 on his first month to 17.1 million factory jobs on his last day. From there it was freefall to 11.4 million jobs by the Great Recession bottom in early 2010. So you can ding Obama for inheriting a financial crisis and Clinton for advancing the WTO based on promises of US job gains. But mostly this played out under Republican rule and Republican "free trade" policies. Biden was actually one of the ones who protested it at the time. And as you note it was some combination of being replaced by cheaper labor somewhere else, or automation. More for capitalists, less for labor. What a shocker! One nice thing about Trump is he has identified the problems, without really putting forward solutions. He lost in 2020 in part because people who live in these former factory towns said nothing really got better under Trump. In 2024 he won thanks in part to young men who felt at least Trump did not call them toxic. Now they get toxic Epstein drama, and the right to pay more for their big ass trucks to support Elon's tax cuts while the deficits that will fuck them good go up. Woo hoo! Maybe at some point Democrats will actually fight back to solve these problems.

I think it is both more complicated and worse than that. First, there will be tariffs on imported parts on cars manufactured in the US. It's a war on North American supply chains and auto workers in Canada and Mexico. Screw those auto workers! Second, as a result, prices will go up because cars cost more - thanks to Trump taxes. How do Trump taxes lower prices? They don't. Third, if prices go up thanks to Trump taxes, how does that help US auto workers negotiate higher wages? Pressure will be on auto makers to NOT raise prices any more than they have to. Do they achieve that by giving auto workers big raises? It makes no sense. One of my family members who is an Establishment Republican type and works for a large consulting firm is working on this now. He told me one prevailing view, I guess he meant among the consulting class, is that the last one to raise prices wins. That makes sense as a business strategy, if that is what happens. If there is any such thing as a car or SUV made 100 % in the US, in theory it could give a US car maker a competitive advantage in the US. My response to this was to cite Ruben Gallego's claim that every Latino man in America wants a big ass truck in his driveway. And they won't be happy when those big ass trucks cost more. This family member could not relate. We were actually sitting in his brand new luxury SUV with all the latest gadgets. How could he relate? It seems like a misguided policy. The same Establishment Republican types were behind the loss of millions of factory jobs when W. was President a generation ago. That was when the great shredding of US manufacturing happened, while Republicans ruled and Democrats like Biden protested in favor of "fair trade". So Trump has kind of embraced the slogan. But these days "fair trade" basically means "you pay more for your big ass truck". It's not gonna go down well.

Well, I'm a Christian. We believe in grace and charity. Besides, The Divine Miss Graham is a fashion goddess. How could I not be proud of her?

Satan won't even fuck the disgusting rapist felon. Does Satan know Trump fucked girls with Epstein? What a disgusting man. Our POTUS is a disgrace to the US. Did he rape girls, or just be best pals with a scumbag who did? We need to know!

Did felon rapist Trump rape girls with Epstein? I am with MAGA. MAGA wants to know. I want to know. Did rapist Trump rape girls? We know the lying rapist felon Trump was hiding something. What the lying rapist felon Trump is hiding is beginning to emerge. What a sick evil fuck! Child rapist? LIAR!!!!!!! Would felon rapist Trump be put to death for being a felon rapist? Did felon rapist Trump rape girls with Epstein? What a sick evil fuck Trump is! What a sick evil raping lying Trump our POTUS is! What a disgusting man! MAGA wants to know. I want to know. Did the felon rapist Trump rape girls with Epstein at Mar-A-Lago?

It's out of context. But I found this funny. That's at the end of a very long Politico piece about how Hegseth keeps fucking up again and again. But Trump likes him. In Gay terms, Pretty Pete ingests fully. He takes Donald's old and small member in all the way, and sucks out whatever may be left. And no matter how it tastes, Pretty Pete smacks his lips in satisfaction. Perhaps it has replaced his alcohol addiction? That is why Donald wants Pete. If Pete tends to rape and throw his pals under the bus, so what? That makes him just like Trump. It is true that in certain fashionable circles in Paris or Brussels, it would be viewed with disdain for Christine Lagarde to get down on her knees and see if she could get the old fat ass she has to negotiate with pumped up enough to drip out whatever she can get. So instead they make empty promises about how European businesses are going to ingest deeply in America. Sorry. I meant invest. 🙄 In the long term, this sucks for America. Biden was right about that much in his 2020 launch. If it were one time in 2016 based on a fluke in the electoral college, that can be viewed as NOT America. Now the world knows. This IS America. Then again, I think they probably knew that already.

Yes, that's true. But at least some of them exhibit grace and charm, and are true Southern ladies. That counts for something, at least.

Well since you got the bigger cock, isn't it only fair that I got the weightier voice? But, as always, beloved Sis, we agree. The answer to the question is YES. Of course, as my beloved OLDER sister knows, sometimes we Gays have to be a bit of a bitch when the right wingers want to take our shit away.

That sounds about right. Trump's disapproval ratings are spiking. And now a large majority are saying his immigration crackdown has gone too far. And polls are starting to show Americans are more pro-immigration than ever. So all that suggests they don't want to live in an America filled with chaos, and hate, and fear, where any "immigrant" is looked down on and maybe deported. "The border" was clearly a reason Trump won, in his own words and the words of his top campaign staff. But the fact that Biden was seen as going too far one way doesn't mean people voted for hate and fear. The ubiquitous line I have heard again and again is that people who voted for Trump say they voted for his policies. Some will add they know he is an asshole. I mostly buy that. And then it gets more complicated when you point out that the policies are cruel. So if you say you like Trump's policies, are you saying you like cruel policies? Basically, you voted for cruelty? Is that what you are saying? More cruelty? Every Republican or Trump voter I know would of course deny that these policies are cruel. It makes sense that they have to rationalize that away. We don't really mean to hurt those nice Gay people. We don't really mean to make people hungry, or take away rural hospital care. On a personal level, going back to the examples I used, my friend's sister does not want fear or hate. The opposite. She wants to be close to her brother in the way she used to be. Before Trump. My MAGA niece wants to be closer to her liberal sister, who may lose health care subsidies and whose health insurance premiums will rise thanks to the Big Ugly Cruel Bill. I don't blame my liberal niece for saying I don't really need to be around my sister. That has to do with more than politics. But part of the feeling is my niece clearly sees her sister as an affluent Republican snob. But she would never say her sister is hateful. It is complicated. I will end again with what I said about Michael Lewis's optimism. All this fear and hate and chaos does not "rhyme". If I look at my family or my friend's family, it is not the way people want to be. But I agree with you that Trump is continuously injecting hate and fear and chaos into the body politic. So I don't blame Democrats for saying this is just fucked up. And anybody who supports this ain't necessarily a friend of mine. Even if they are a family member.

I completely agree. Now that I said that, here is a much more complicated reponse. In this instance I was talking about a close friend and his sister. He is being honest in saying to her something like this: "We disagree about Trump. And when I'm with you Trump is off the table. It's just about you and me, pre-Trump, brother and sister." So what upsets him is he flies to another state to visit her and while he is there Fox News is on all the time. And there is MAGA stuff or Trump stuff lying around. But it's not like they have "Kill Gays Because They Are Evil" signs up. So it is a slippery slope. The sister wants her Gay brother to know that being Gay (and an escort) is fine, and always has been. One wonders what would happen if Trump actually did start deporting Gay people. But as you said, she wants to be able to have the same loving and kind relationship with her brother she used to have. As if this whole "LGBTQ oppression" thing doesn't even really matter. Which of course says it doesn't really matter to her. It would be as if Trump took her health care away, and my friend said, "Well, really, why should that matter anyway? It's not really important, is it?" So I'll add two other examples, both of which involve my MAGA niece. Who I have a kind and loving relationship with. We travel together regularly. And the biggest issue with her is she is a restaurant snob who can make dinners unpleasant when her exacting needs around food and service are not met. What a shocker! I posted about the first. She emailed me a very short one sentence suggestion that I might be interested in this series called Fellow Travelers. I debated whether to let it pass. But I sent her a relatively long email (what s shocker!) saying it was a great series I watched two years ago. But it was relentlessly depressing. Because it chronicled how the oppression of Gays in the 50's destroyed many people's lives. Then I added that many Gay people feel the same thing is happening again today under Trump. But just to appear fair and balanced, I mentioned that we also have our first Gay Treasury Secretary. She did not reply. I could of course have simply said, "Oh, thanks for the suggestion." She could have emailed back and said, "I didn't know that. Thanks for sharing." To me it's a perfect example of what you said. She wants to feel like she is not some hateful person. And, in fact, she is not. But she's proven time and again she has zero interest in knowing anything about things like the same-sex marriage organizing fight and how we won. But go get a drink in a Gay bar? She'll recommend that. After all, she's not one of those haters! I would not choose friends like this. But it's family. As you said, a charitable impulse is better than uncharitable. Second example. I recently spoke with her sister, who is a liberal Democrat I have a lot in common with. Her MAGA sister asked me a few years ago if I would pop for an AirBnB in California and invite both of them plus their families. There's a complicated relationship of two sisters there. But they have been close in the past. And she clearly viewed me as a sort of bridge builder. So I invited them both but said you two have to take the lead in planning when and where this happens. And for two years nothing has happened. The liberal sister called me to say she wants to come out here this Winter with her hubby and kid and spend a week. I said great, and asked her how she'd really feel about traveling with her sister. And she basically said I don't want to be around someone who supports all these efforts I find repulsive. Plus, she said she does get health care subsidies. And she is worried in 2026 those will be taken away. So, thanks but no thanks. I told her my rules for family are different, but I completely respect her decision. It is a slippery slope. I'll end on a note of optimism. I watched this great interview of Michael Lewis recently. He wrote The Big Short and lots of other good books, including ones slamming Trump. He made the point that this divisiveness can't last. Because, to quote him, the political divisions don't "rhyme" with the rest of American culture and society. My Canadian sister-in-law might debate that, and say America is a country of gun owners and road rage. So Trump fits right in. But being an optimist like Lewis I agree with him. And all these examples in families are proof of it, I think. Trump has gained power by playing divide and conquer. But even the people like my MAGA niece and my friend's MAGA sister don't really feel good about it. They don't apologize for being conservative. Nor should they. But they don't like the consequences. So I think Lewis is right. This can't last forever.

I think one likely answer is no. They were going through puberty. Inside the Political Divide Roiling Gen Z That chart sums it up nicely. From most things I read the other big dividing line is men v. women. I think younger Gen Z females are probably still more likely to have voted for Trump than older Gen Z females. But it is particularly a thing among Gen Z men. And it is as much cultural as political, since they ain't into politics, anyway. I can easily see how this worked just based on how turned off by Biden younger Democrats in my family were. To them he was like an old guy in a coffin who broke all his promises. Trump is no spring chicken. But he mined the podcasts and wrestling messages and Nelk Boys and influencers well. So now the chickens are coming home to roost for bloated old liar rapist Trump. Poor thing! I think it is probably a fact that in a lot of swing states and House districts, the narrow margin Trump or Republicans won by depended in part on younger Gen Z voters who are disaffected from politics and do not reliably vote. If that is true it means they will have a problem in the midterms if these people feel like Republicans are just the same old bullshit. This is why I like Ruben Gallego, as one example of a Democrat who fits in to the cultural stream. He comes off as very down to earth. Instead of The Gospel Of Climate Change, he talks about young men who want to own homes with "big ass trucks" in the driveway. Trump is teaching every purist climate changer right now that if you let me win I will absolutely destroy solar and wind initiatives that do lower costs and that are broadly popular. So some Democrat who is good at leading ought to be able to figure out how to build a pragmatic coalition out of that.

Just more of the same basically saying what you said: Trump's 'South Park' Problem It’s the latest sign that Trump has lost control of the Epstein narrative and that the saga has broken Washington containment. Here's the most interesting part. This is not rocket science. But neither was it completely obvious: The key words I highlighted there are "young men". It goes to this point we have been going back and forth about relating to "the cult" versus everyone else who voted for Trump. When I think of why young men voted for Trump, I think of things like reactions against high rent. High mortgage rates. COVID lockdowns. "Toxic masculinity" diatribes. But it makes sense that a lot of it was just being turned off by politics in general. Whatever their flaws, polls showed this clearly last Fall. The more turned off you were by politics, the more likely you were to be for Trump. So Trump was an anti-hero who flew into that cultural space and was happy to talk, talk, talk. Even if it was all bullshit. And now maybe they seem him as just that. Another politician full of shit. It also explains why Epstein has more traction than Medicaid cuts right now. People turned off by politics don't read Politico or Real Clear Politics every day. But they watch South Park and Joe Rogan. I think we can add this group to voters who maybe did vote for Biden in 2020 and maybe would vote for a Democrat in 2028.

I feel saved! And so does America. I'm no South Park resident. But here is my pro-Trump message.