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A British writer penned the best description of Donald Trump I’ve ever read:
“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”
A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.
And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.
So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.
This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.
God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.
And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”
-Nate White
I remember watching trump brag about how rich he was, and thinking how bizarre that was because you never hear wealthy people saying "you know, I'm really rich."
If you're really rich, you don't have to brag about it.
Then, I remember how he did that with his "intellect," bragging about how he had "a really good brain" and how he had "the best words."
It was equally strange to see him brag repeatedly about that "person, woman, man, camera, TV" test. I mean, it's almost like bragging about passing a breathalyzer test.
Intelligent people don't brag about it, there's no need, as they can flex with a few casual sentences.
Come to think of it, he did the exact same thing with people, saying that he hires "the best people."
Then he went and hired clueless Jared Kushner, disgusting Steve Bannon, sleepy Ben Carson, and Four Seasons Total Clueless Rudy Giuliani.
In every single instance, he bragged about things that were verifiably false.
- he can't cough up $454 million, despite bragging that he's a billionaire. Nobody will loan it to him, because they're not stupid.
- he's spent the past few months confusing Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi, WW2 with WW3, and he can't get President Obama out of what's left of his mind.
- many of the people he hired had to ask for pardons, a bunch were fired for incompetence, others were indicted and/or convicted, and some have been disbarred.
Not a billionaire.
Not a genius.
Not connected with the best.
He's a pretender, a poser, a complete phony. He's got fake hair, fake tan, lifts in his shoes, lies about his height and weight, even cheats at golf.
For some reason, MAGA thinks this clown of a person is strong, but he's a weakling's idea of what a strong person looks like.
He's a poor person's idea of what a rich guy looks like.
He's a dumb person's idea of what a stable genius looks like.
I'll never understand how a blatant charlatan fooled so many people so thoroughly, but I'm determined to make sure that phony, lying, weak, stupid coward is exposed and defeated once and for all.
Let's fucking do this.
The fact that the Supreme Court is even considering Trump’s immunity case is horrific.
It should be clear to anyone who cares about democracy that no one is above the law.
But while a Supreme Court packed with Trump’s appointees won’t save us, there is something we can all do:
The presidential election is 250 days from today.
The hard work of keeping American democracy alive and thriving is up to the voting public.
We must redouble our mobilizing, volunteering, knocking on doors, registering, and helping others register in time to vote on November 5.
For those who oppose autocratic rule, complacency and apathy are the enemy. Democracy is not a spectator sport.
Anyone and everyone can make a difference.
Let the work begin.
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Republicans are doing their “it’s not the guns, it’s the mental health of the person” shit again, so I have to share this again:
Guns are a uniquely American problem.
The rest of the world has mental health issues.
The rest of the world has ideological & philosophical division.
They have social media, pot, porn, cellphones & video games.
What they don’t have — is more guns than people, they don’t have more than 500 mass shootings in less than a year, they don’t have a populace paralyzed with fear that their child will be next. That THEY could be next.
At least, not until they arrive here.
After a British gunman killed 16 people in 1987, the country banned semiautomatic weapons like those he had used. It did the same with most handguns after a 1996 school shooting. It now has one of the lowest gun-related death rates in the developed world.
In Australia, a 1996 massacre prompted mandatory gun buybacks The rate of mass shootings went from once every 18 months to only one in the 26 years since.
Canada also tightened gun laws after a 1989 mass shooting.
So did Germany in 2002, New Zealand in 2019 and Norway in 2021.
Meanwhile here in America… since the Columbine massacre, there have been a total of 304 fatal school shootings in the United States.
Since 1999, 440 people have been killed and 1,243 injured in shooting events at K-12 schools.
Since Sandy Hook — mass shootings have nearly tripled.
121 people have been killed and 281 people have been injured from school shootings since Parkland.
And there have been well over 100 incidents of gunfire at K-12 schools since the Uvalde school shooting.
In 2023, in the 632+ mass shootings recorded, 597 people died and 2,380 people were injured.
In total last year in this country - more than 40,000 people died from gun violence. That is an average of almost 118 gun deaths each day.
Every year, approximately three million kids are exposed to gun violence.
This. Is. An. American. Problem.
There are more civilian owned guns in this country than there are civilians.
It’s not the pot, the porn, the video games, it’s not the wrong kinds of locks, or too few “good guys with guns”, and it’s not the mental health issues.
Nearly every other country on earth has those things. And they don’t live this way.
It’s the guns.
It’s the guns
ITS THE GUNS
I know I deserve it all but I don't know what I could do to at least have a chance to make things right..
I would be grateful and I would be very happy if you would retweet the entire tweet and reply.. because it would mean that you understand me.
Big love.
#FPL#FPLCommunity