@ggersh [video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0jsWDsc-bg]

#1 #1 https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/11/despair-helped-drive-trump-victo...

Ep3
November 18, 2017 at 9:17 am

Great post.
Having lived in the heartland of despair of Michigan, in a manufacturing town, here is my 2 cents. I did not vote for trump, but family members, who were life long democrats, did.
And what people want is something to be done.
Example: I lose my job, but get another with less pay and higher health insurance. I am upset but not mad. Politicians tell me it will take a little time, but they will fix the cost of health care. So I wait, expecting an uptick. But I lose this job. And now I am working in retail. I am running out of patience with the current democrats (and all politicians in general). Nothing is being done, that I see. What I see is bickering and name calling and “gridlock”. I want something done. I am now losing my rationality because my retail job is not paying the bills. I am falling hopelessly behind. And when I hear politicians are fighting over whatever, I want them all thrown out of office. So along comes trump. He says “F all of them, I will tell them all to go to hell”. He plays as an outsider. He says he will get things done.
Who do you think I am going to choose now? I am sick of waiting. I cannot wait. My children are hungry and need medicine. I am getting older and need more medical care. Here’s someone who says he will get things done, regardless if whether those things actually benefit me (cuts to Medicare,etc). I see claims that minorities are coming to the country and getting “free stuff”. He says he will kick those freeloaders out. I see millionaire sports players complaining.
Now that he is hired, trump has become just as do-nothing as all the other career politicians. His current tax reform and simplification is just as watered down and convoluted and confusing as other “reforms”. What happened to filing with a postcard?
Wasn’t this what happened in Germany in the 1920s? People became desperate. They elected somebody that did “something”, even tho it was bad. I am not comparing trump to that guy. I am comparing the desperation and lack of rational judgement. And that is what I see and hear from people in my community. That’s from both lower class citizens to upper class. And people don’t realize it is a “war” between the 1% and the rest of us. Put people in this desperate situation, tell them they can’t afford social security and Medicare, the people say “this is for the greater good”, they cancel those programs, then the money is redirected to the 1%. Then people are still paying 15.2% of their wages govt. but now, they are paying for a huge wealth transfer in the form of tax cuts (and defense spending) instead of paying for their health care & retirement when they are old and can’t work no more.

@Meteor Man

It is not possible to work on solving one without also working on the other. But TPTB don't want us to know that (what's next, burning all the knitting mags?)

#2
in The Guardian, which I tend to disagree with. Class and race are not distinct and separate issues, they overlap. Neither one can be ignored and they are both frequently manipulated.

Carly Fiorino, Sara Palin and Hillary Clinton all demonstrated that gender alone is a meaningless criteria for making political choices. Identity Politics is pure political poison IMO.

@thanatokephaloides

The old editor was bunged out to make room for the new Guardians Not of The People; the former spent his last months (year?) focusing on climate change, while the paper hasn't been the same since the new editor came in.

Somebody recently posted something about the associations of the new Guardian editor and some other higher level hires, one of the latter being - rather surprisingly, well perhaps not - associated with the State Department, although I can't recall enough about the rest of these to even mention. Explained a lot, though. Treat the once-great Guardian like the Washington Post - just enough shreds of real news to wave as a False credibility Flag now and then.

#2

Dividing the country by race instead of class.

Class is right. Race is not.

Exactly.

Most racisms are implemented in the US by keeping people in the lower-class income brackets, with predictable results.

Those places shouldn't exist for anybody, regardless of skin color, ethnicity, or any other accidental.

Let's get schooled by Britain? Really?

Bernie Sanders still says class is more important than race. He is still wrong
[link to comment at The Guardian]

The Guardian's article is packed with caca. Bernie Sanders didn't "lose" the primary because he didn't pay enough homage to identity politics; he "lost" because those on the side of Hillary "Her Heinous" Clinton cheated and rigged the entire process. Every registered Dem in the country could have voted Sanders, and the fix Her Heinous had in with the superdelegates would still insure a coronation for Her.

It was never the contest of policy or ideas that The Guardian's article depicts it as. It was a gentleman playing by Marquis of Queensbury Rules against an opponent who fought dirty first, even when an honest victory would have served Her better.

With this article at least, The Guardian is mis-informing the British people.