19 minutes ago, Pete1111 said:

Piker has lived in WEHO longtime. Staying fit avoids risk of all the harrumphs one might hear from the gay cats when you let your body go.

There's a fun video on YouTube of Piker and his gay buddy at WEHO Pride. They played a game asking various queens who, between Piker and his buddy, was dressed more gay, even though Piker wore a tank top and stylish sunglasses. Piker lost each time and he was a little perturbed, bless his heart. ❤️

I never knew "communists" were so hot, and could be so much FUN ! 😍

1 hour ago, RockyRoadTravel said:

Gen-Xers came of age during the Reagan revolution. For many this supply-side neo-conservative hellscape we've been living in for the last 40 years is all they know. The direct attacks by the American right-wing on the middle-class, working-class and farmers is assumed to be the only economics there are.

Enjoy your wedding. It's hot and humid still in the south, I hope your summer suit breathes.

Thank you. I will enjoy it. That's why I got a new suit. It breathes. And hopefully it doesn't rain. It's hurricane season.

The Gen X thing is interesting. The theory I read long ago is that they grew up under sunny Reagan optimism and conservatism. And for them, it worked. As an objective fact, we can trace the loss of millions of factory jobs in the US to the Bush era, 2001 to 2008. That was way after Reagan. In fact, Reagan was the original "Joe Sixpack" (beer, not abs) Republican who lured working class factory Democrats to his side. I think most people in my family, including ones who despise Trump now, would say that the Reagan era was good for White middle class suburban America. So it makes sense to me, as a theory, that an optimistic conservatism could be baked into their genes. Then again, in my extended family, there are two sisters who are both Gen X and absolute political opposites. Which is partly why they are not very close. And, you are right. Bill Clinton has been described as "Reagan Lite" by critics. So some would argue Reaganomics and growing class inequality has been the reigning government philosophy at least until Trump. It's all they know. Obama would disagree. He wanted to replace Reaganomics. He did not really succeed. But Obamacare was a start.

The Fourth Turning theory paints a very different picture of Gen X. These were the latchkey left behind kids. They were on their own. They were the first generation, sort of, who grew up with working Moms. Ironically, my Mom worked when I was a kid. I was the youngest child, so I recall in high school I came home to an empty home. But my sister was mostly a stay at home Mom for her two daughters. My nephew, the Romney traditional conservative type, literally told me a story once - unprompted by any of my words or theories - about how he'd come home from school and both his parents would be at work. And he'd cook himself dinner. I think he said that even happened in grade school. How or whether that evolved into a "we're on our own" philosophy is not clear to me. But if we just go by Fourth Turning archetypes, Gen Xer's are the left behind, forgotten, "we're on our own" generation. And Millennials are the more communitarian "we're in this together" generation that found their own political coming of age with Obama. That all kind of fits in my extended family.

I personally think of Trump as the Gen X President. Even though he is not personally Gen X. Vance is Millennial. Harris is late Boomer. So far, Gen X actually is the "skipped over" generation. At least in Presidential politics. Neil Howe, the Fourth Turning guy, argues that if a Gen Xer becomes President it would likely be a Dwight Eisenhower kind of conservatism. Ike was himself a member of the so-called Lost Generation. The Gen X nephew I refer to, who I am very close to despite his conservatism, would fit the archetype perfectly. He'd be more the Massachusetts Romney who wanted Romneycare and wanted child tax credits to eliminate poverty than the Trump grift guy who wanted only tax cuts for the rich. If I really wanted to test the limits, I would ask him: how is it possible you are on the board of your state's food bank, and yet you can vote for a President who is cutting SNAP and making your challenge far worse? I think he probably knows more about SNAP than I do. And he might say, "I would rather have Romney. But you voted for Obama in 2012. So blame the reaction of the Republican Party on yourself!"

In fact, among many possible futures (if we survive AGI, that is) one scenario I could see happening is something like that. Ike was the first Republican after 20 years of New Deal Presidencies. We're not there. We're split 50/50. But I would not be shocked if we elected some democratic socialist adjacent type, somewhere between Bernie and Biden. And then after that we got some older Gen Xer like Ike who was more pragmatic and (right of) centrist. If I compare that to the option of an ascendant right wing authoritarian majority, which the Sadism Clown would love, it would not be a bad outcome from my perspective. And Ike was President NATO and President Alliance. That does not fit with Trump's Republican Party at all. Which, as I made very clear, is disappointing.

For the record, this nephew and his wife call themselves Independent, although I suspect they mostly vote R. The thing he epitomizes that almost all my nieces and nephews share is this deep cynicism about government. Doesn't matter whether they are liberal or conservative. Government is useless. All we got is 9/11 and the global financial crisis. It seems very self-pitying to me. They are almost all doing better than their parents, economically. But it is very much a sign of the times. MAGA guy Rich Baris' new book about Zoomers is called "Burn It Down: What The Polls Says Young Americans Really Want" for a reason.

The other dirty little secret I see is that while the 1 % may be doing incredibly well, if it is a K shaped economy that suggests the top half are doing better than okay. I'd argue it's the top 20 %, or maybe the top third, that are mostly doing better than ever. And that's partly what is stopping the revolution Bernie wants. A lot of upper middle class suburban people are, so far, just that: upper middle class.

I'm curious how or if these archetypes fit with Gen Xers or Millennials or Zoomers in your families, if anyone wants to talk about it.

2 minutes ago, stevenkesslar said:

Thank you. I will enjoy it. That's why I got a new suit. It breathes. And hopefully it doesn't rain. It's hurricane season.

Safe travels, but just make sure you wear the "right" shoes.......🩰 Nothing ruins an outfit like the wrong shoes...... and a 70 year old washed up hooker in bad shoes is

16 minutes ago, Suckrates said:

Safe travels, but just make sure you wear the "right" shoes.......🩰 Nothing ruins an outfit like the wrong shoes...... and a 70 year old washed up hooker in bad shoes is

LOL. I got new shoes, too.

Still, I am washed up and tragic. I just wish I was as pretty and kind as you, Sis.

15 minutes ago, stevenkesslar said:

LOL. I got new shoes, too.

Still, I am washed up and tragic. I just wish I was as pretty and kind as you, Sis.

You ARE kind, no doubt, but pretty, well you missed that boat ! 💋

44 minutes ago, Suckrates said:

You ARE kind, no doubt, but pretty, well you missed that boat ! 💋

I thought he rented that boat for a good chunk of change? It's hard for me to keep up.

I concur, shoes are so important.

2 hours ago, Suckrates said:

I'm sorry Sis, but tolerance, as you lay it out may NOT be such a good thing, for it is Tolerance of Trump that has led us to this point..... Little by little his crazy shit and harmful acts became "normal", and just another day of Trump. Him knocking down this and that, and building grotesque golden garbage, putting his face and name everywhere is now NORMAL, and just Trump doing Trump, so we tolerate it..... The voters may verbalize discontent, but lets see what they do in the mids...... In the meantime everyone is letting Trump do EVERYTHING, because of Tolerance...... At this point, I have NO patience for tolerance..... I want to really fuck some shit and some people up !

The Germans "tolerated" Hitler, to the near extinction of Jews...... And now in a different fashion, Trump is pulling the same "Nazi" shit with minorities..... Will we TOLERATE it ? Some will and are..... but those are mainly lost broken souls who sold themselves to Trump for him to FIX them..... they cant be FIXED ! And Trump is NOT a fixer. History shows he is a DESTROYER..... Resistance requires us to abandon TOLERANCE now......

An important distinction there.

Germany ended as a democracy around when Hitler came to power. Ten years in, we're not there.

I was looking at polling data from Fall 2022 for a specific reason when I posted my long boring blog about midterm polling. I was curious about July and August 2022. That is when Pelosi did her Jan. 6th hearings. And, as accused, it was a rigged show. The only Republicans on the committee were hand-picked anti-Trumpers. Pelosi was not going for balance. She was going for guilt and shame. I agree with her. And, arguably, it worked. At least it did not hurt. The 2022 polls show Republicans were leading the generic polling by 2- 4 % all year. In the late Summer and Fall, after the hearings, it was more like a tie. Maybe those hearings helped, at the margin, by arguing what Trump did on Jan. 6th is intolerable. But in the last month the latent anti-incumbent midterm thing came back, albeit more as a trickle than a wave. My point is I think Pelosi set the bar. She consistently called Trump out and made HIM the issue.

That said, Trump said at one point that when he saw Harris campaigning with Liz Cheney (about democracy) he knew he would win. And he did. Democracy? Too abstract. Let's talk about Bidenflation. Let's talk about rent. Let's talk about Biden's new Forever War. No tax on tips was crumbs from billionaires getting the real tax cuts. But Trump and Susie Wiles knew what they were doing: prices, the border, the war. I will go to the grave thinking that if Harris had been more like Elizabeth Warren - we will both have broken teeth and blood if you even think about taking those child tax credits away and throwing all these millions of kids back into poverty - she might have been able to win. People care more about that then her house in Malibu. I've read that some of Trump's advisers think if Bernie had been nominated in 2016 he would have won. That is NOT the conventional wisdom, for sure. But it would have been right wing authoritarian populism v. left wing economic populism.

Michelle "When They Go Low We Go High" Obama kind of changed her mind about tolerance. And so did I. In 2016 AFTER Trump won I recall being in Puerto Vallarta with a Republican client and friend I knew for about 15 years. Some people we were sitting by at a cafe told us their kids would no longer talk to them, because they voted for Trump. My Republican client and I both said that's horrible. I acquired TDS in Fall 2018. For me, it was the Kavanaugh thing that put me over the edge. That episode did it for lots of people, on both sides. And, objectively, I would be the first to argue Ford had a very weak legal case. I think for me it was just the way that they trampled all over her. Of course, Miss Graham felt Democrats did the same. That was when I cut ties with Republican clients and friends. And I'm not proud of it, really. But where I've drawn the line is family. My point is we've been on a ten year or so test, so far. If you count Trump coming down the escalators as the start.

I do think Trump is symptom, not cause. I happily voted for Obama in 2012 and was delighted he won. But the action is always in the reaction. I do think it was Obama winning twice, and specifically Romney's loss in 2012 that set Republicans going in a different direction. Much like Biden and Harris losing helped push democratic socialism along. Nature abhors a vacuum. Trump and his authoritarian populism and authoritarian hate filled it. There is Civil War in America. And a similar thing is happening at least all over the West. Like the AfD in Germany. And while some of them may be neo-Nazis or horrible people, a common denominator every time is working class people with legitimate economic grievances that the established order - including 8 years of Obama - did not begin to solve.

Mexico, meanwhile, is more unified than ever around a democratic socialist/economic populist regime committed to helping the working class and the poor. Can we please be Mexico? Por favor?

Do we really want or need a Civil War like the last one? Robert Pape, who has been spot on on how Iran is a disaster for the US, says this is an age of political violence that is having global implications. Duh! He sees demographic change (race), economic inequality, and political exclusion or cynicism as key drivers, among other things. He thinks the solution is to try to slow it down and find ways to build bridges to solve problems, rather than just throw fuel on the fire. The Sadism Clown is all about feeding the fire, hoping his side can win. Or, like Hitler, just crush dissent. Trump would go so much further, if only he could. But I agree with Pape. I do think the challenge is: how do we become a more tolerant society? The Wellstone way in 1990 and the Bernie way in the last decade is unify people from the bottom up and the middle out, around shared economic grievances. Biden, who was really just playing the role, didn't do so bad. But for inflation and age, he would have won again.

Having Trump as POTUS and having ICE shoot people in the head and deporting millions of people who work hard and make America a better place while we start wars we can't win that drive up prices ............................. Well, let's just say that is NOT the way to build tolerance. So for me it is a tug of war. And I sometimes adjust my limits. But I meant what I said. I do think most of the people I disagree with are kind, and loving, and trying to be tolerant. I do think, as Michael Lewis argued, where we are now does not "rhyme" with the way most Americans are.

Part of my thing with the Sadism Clown is I do feel deep rage. I think he does put Judaism to shame. I think he does put religion to shame. I think he does put America to shame. He is full of hate and bigotry and toxic ideas. And he loves letting us know it. The Sadism Clown is not what makes America great. The Sadism Clown is what makes America hate. I am not for tolerating the hate and bigotry he has advocated for years.

Rant over. For now.

2 hours ago, RockyRoadTravel said:

The one thing that misses is that there is always a dialectic. How Marxist is that?

In Germany's defense, Hitler rose after years of economic misery that, arguably, was imposed on it. While I think it is unfair to argue that China suffered when US capital shipped middle class factory jobs from us to them, that is where their grievance about being held down comes from. Oddly, I feel proud that US and Western capitalism were seeds that helped a whole massive nation like China pull itself out of poverty and hunger. Ask Mao and Deng about that. In the long run, I think the US and China may find they have more in common than divides us. I hope at least. It actually could be that the new MAD is not nuclear bombs. It's superintelligent AI agents that could run amok and kill us all, if we let them.

But, back to the point, nothing happens in a vacuum.

So I think the first part of that statement has to be added to what you said. People are feeling insecure.

It would be too simplistic to say Biden in 2024 was "weak and right." But he looked weak. If inflation were zero and there were 2 million new factory jobs and homes were cheap, you could have embalmed Biden in a coffin and he would have won. 🫨 So I think it's the insecurity, stupid. Was Iowa racist for voting for Trump twice after voting for Obama twice? Or was it that Obama didn't fix their problems?

Add to that raging cynicism that anybody in power gives a flying fuck about me. And, even if they do, they can't or won't do shit about it.

Like I said already, that shocks me. Especially coming from nieces and nephews who are millionaires, from hard work, and way better off than their parents at the same age. But they will uniformly tick off 9/11, the global financial crisis, and - for the conservatives - all the heavy-handed government intrusion and lies that Fauci represents to them. Even though I deeply believe he was just trying to save lives - in this case of Republicans.

It doesn't excuse the racism and scapegoating and xenophobia. But I do think rising right wing authoritarianism no longer looks like a bug. Democrats need to focus on what "strong and right" means. And part of the reason the D brand looks so shitty right now is that the party looks divided and weak.

It's always possible that the solution won't happen in the two party system. But usually it is movements from outside that change the two party system. A socialist didn't win in 1932. But the movements and unions influenced what FDR did. Sanders is technically an Independent. If there really is a wave, one or two Independents could win in these farm states that used to elect farmer/labor Democrats. That would help. It would be good to have some Independents rooted in farms and labor insisting both parties need to change.

2 hours ago, stevenkesslar said:

The one thing that misses is that there is always a dialectic. How Marxist is that?

But, back to the point, nothing happens in a vacuum.

So I think it's the insecurity, stupid.

Dialectics is Hegel I say, not being a philosophy major, before it was Marx.

Insecurity. I've argued in some other thread, at some other time, on here that I half think that the current insecurity is deliberate.

People are less willing to work together for their common interests when they are desperate and more concerned about survival than about enrichment.

4 hours ago, stevenkesslar said:

An important distinction there.

Germany ended as a democracy around when Hitler came to power. Ten years in, we're not there.

The end of Democracy is actually dangling off a cliff, and come Jan 2027, it just might meet its final hurrah, when Trump and Mike refuse to seat ALL the Dem mids winners..... It will then be up to SCOTUS to be called on to make a decision.... THAT is not encouraging....

So the fact that after 10 years and "we are not there yet", with Trump is only due to Courts and luck, and shouldnt ever be interpreted as "safety".... We are never safe if Trump is still in power.... and "tolerance" of him and what he is doing CANNOT lead to anything good.

note: As Scotus tonight BLOCKED his mail-in voting scheme, tommorow he will be MORE desperate, so watch for his Newest scheme to supercede the mail-in vote one..... and most likely it will be more insane and illegal than the former ?

43 minutes ago, Suckrates said:

and "tolerance" of him and what he is doing CANNOT lead to anything good.

We agree, Sis.

And to be clear, I am hardly saying we should be tolerant of Trump or the illegal and grifty and rapey and stupid and geocidal things he does that harm America and the world ............. on a good day. On a bad day he is just an evil horrible piece of shit who does deserve to burn in hell forever. You can never be too intolerant of evil pieces of shit like Trump.

Melania, on the other. She'll just go buy shoes while the piece of shit burns in hell eternally.