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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Trump came to power as a brand. That brand included a non-fiction book that was ghost-written by someone else, it involved casinos (on which he lost money), boardgames, planes, steaks, and then that reality TV show which in retrospect built his Cult of Personality as a serious respectable businessman. The reality TV The Apprentice was about this narrative of a businessman being this great people person, dealmaker and also being in the right when he fires someone, which is always made into this big dramatic incident.
So this isn't news media and its essentially a kind of intellectual property enterprise. And its analogous to how franchises around other IP build and sustain themselves. And the Trump IP got him into the white house which has never happened.
It's an entirely new development in the history of democracy. In the Roman Republic, someone who is Trump-esque is Marcus Licinus Crassus, real estate tycoon who largely got his property and wealth by shady and criminal means and the association of his word Crassus with the unrelated English word "crass" is fitting and fortuitous. That guy had a weak ego because being rich did not by itself get him respect, martial honor was needed and he kept trying to find a victory that would get him the Roman Triumph and ultimately got killed by the Parthians. According to legend, the Parthians poured molten gold down his throat.
"All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated, and well supported in logic and argument than others." — Douglas Adams.
Equal airtime should not be given, for example, to the Flat Earth Society, or the North American Man/Boy Love Association, for obvious reasons.
edited 2nd Dec '16 8:19:30 PM by pwiegle
This Space Intentionally Left Blank.See here's the thing, people have a right to say that they don't believe in evolution, but they have no right to force schools and institutions to teach that opinion. That's abusing freedom of speech. You are telling schools and institutions not to teach what has been part of the scientific consensus for more than a hundred years. Something that even the Catholic Church has supported (how could it not, Fr. Gregor Mendel is one of the pillars of the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis).
And why should schools and institutions not accept this scientific consensus, its how all educational institutions have operated.
And the only reason it works is because these individuals have some power and money to get their voices heard and taken seriously. The same applies to garbage like these "religious freedom" laws in response to LGBT. And now this climate change denial. This whole disrespect for intellectual labor but glorification of intellectual property.
Trump basically just bumbled his fat ass backwards into one of the thornier political issues in East Asia (and there are a lot) because someone there is still stupid enough to want to build something Trump-branded. I hope the Taiwanese don't take this to mean that the US has their back, because that can go one of two ways - Trump ignores Taiwan while China squishes them, or we actually get into a trade war.
It's been fun.Taiwanese weren't born yesterday. There will obviously be some amount of CYA on their side now. And some spin or the other.
And the Taiwanese like everybody else in the world knows that they should never trust the USA, and that's when Obama was in charge.
edited 2nd Dec '16 9:09:51 PM by JulianLapostat
Secretary of Economic Development in Santa Catarina, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, says Trump is 'Telling the Truth' about 'Saving Jobs'
. I don't know what to make of this, considering that, while yes, Trump saved some jobs, there are still plenty of jobs going to Mexico, and more then what were saved for the price Indiana has to pay.
Either she knows something we don't, doesn't actually understand what the deal entailed, or Mexico has a plan to combat this kind of Corporate Welfare and is just biding its time.

There's always the non-violent way of protesting, which historically has worked. You can't go around starting a fight, but you sure as hell better stand firm and not break. It might not always work though. I remember reading about Gandhi once saying that non-violent protests wouldn't work on the Nazis; the reason it worked for Gandhi in India is because it relied on the goodness of people back in Britain to get angry about all the violence against peaceful people. The Nazis were too far gone for that. I'm glad at least more than half of America gives a shit about minorities.
I guess I metaphorically want to give white supremacy a big middle finger and say "Fuck you. You want to have a white nation? You already lost that war 150 years ago. You better be willing to die for your bullshit because the rest of us are willing to die and kill to protect the rights granted to ALL citizens in this nation, just like we did with you traitors long ago. We aren't going to show you assholes any mercy. I will not share this country with the likes of you, so either quit being a bigot or fuck off to Europe where your people came from."
Really, non-white people have been hurt by white "immigrants" far more that white people ever will be by immigrants. Bunch of hypocrites.
edited 2nd Dec '16 8:10:03 PM by StarOutlaw