Mike Sylvanus

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

Nate White, 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.”

[Mike Sylvanus @WyoMikey]

@Parkway_Tavern Truly spectacular. The Dead Guy really pulled out all the stops for this one - and then put them into the Randall.

[Mike Sylvanus @WyoMikey]

@TomPatrickRyan1 Never understood the allure, even at 30 bucks. Decent view of the mountain, though ;-)

[Julie Roginsky @julieroginsky]

I get it now. Ted and Heidi Cruz wanted their children to be safe, to have basic sanitary services like heat and running water, to leave behind a third-world apocalyptic nightmare for a safer place. Like so many parents before them, they decided to cross the Mexican border.

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @AOC]

Pence demanding that Harris answer *his* own personal questions when he won’t even answer the moderator’s is gross, and exemplary of the gender dynamics so many women have to deal with at work.

[Mike Sylvanus @WyoMikey]

@TomPatrickRyan1 Click randomly - keep those little bots guessing

[Mike Sylvanus @WyoMikey]

@TomPatrickRyan1 Hmm, have you actually measured the AQI inside? I’m skeptical - even with furnace filters attached to fans ;-)

[Mike Sylvanus @WyoMikey]

@Parkway_Tavern Love y’all. Good call.

[Mike Sylvanus @WyoMikey]

@CliffordAsness ... even though you shine light to most issues

[Mike Sylvanus @WyoMikey]

@CliffordAsness You started dark ;-)

[Clifford Asness @CliffordAsness]

The Illiquidity Discount? https://t.co/Ssyl6ijTAU

[Mike Sylvanus @WyoMikey]

@oshea00 Never say never ;-(

[Mike Sylvanus @WyoMikey]

Nondescriptly solid? Best FH are herbal, citrus, pine, dank and tea-ish. Checks all around. Artful lacing boot. - Drinking a Fresh Hop (2019) by @oldschoolbrew @ North End Social Club — https://t.co/DRoVtcAdrR

[Mike Sylvanus @WyoMikey]

@Grumpydoc90 So “deplorables” didn’t work so well but maybe “trash” will ? ;-)

[Mike Sylvanus @WyoMikey]

@TomPatrickRyan1 Ugh, crossed fingers that was as bad as it gets.

[Ray Dalio @RayDalio]

As you may have heard me say before, I believe that we are on a classic journey that we haven’t seen in our lifetimes but has happened many times before, most recently in the late 1930s. It is being driven by the same big forces that drove the dynamics in the late 1930s...

[Mike Sylvanus @WyoMikey]

@benjaminwittes Senseless violence and a waste of perfectly good cheese-ish

[Mike Sylvanus @WyoMikey]

Palate challenged by prior but this is great. Clean, floral citrus even a teensy dank. #SquealerWorthy - Drinking a Brewing Down the House IPA by @stoupbrewing at @Parkway_Tavern — https://t.co/OZaHQqBUp0

[Mike Sylvanus @WyoMikey]

@TomPatrickRyan1 @nytimes Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. -Ralph Waldo Emerson ;-)

[Bill Maher @billmaher]

Democrats don’t seem to get it. ‘It’s in the rules,’ is not an argument that works on Donald Trump. You’re playing Monopoly with a Hyena. #MuellerReport #Putin