Chris Bain

[Chris Bain @sentarella]

@jk_rowling Joanne, you talk absolute common sense. If only this wasn’t such a culture war. I salute you!

[Chris Bain @sentarella]

@Culture_Crit Hi. Love your work

[Nostalgia . . . @Nostalgia150360]

@ATRightMovies Thinking that even a blind man can see the music from the Blues Brothers movie/soundtrack is like a mission from god . . .

Enjoy the video for Rawhide 🎥

[Chris Bain @sentarella]

@Pergament_F He also designed a house for his sister Margareta on the Kundmangasse in Vienna, with help from Adolph Loos. It’s really beautiful

[Chris Bain @sentarella]

@emma__jayne14 Thanks Emma. I for one enjoyed your posts. Be well

[Stephen Koukoulas @TheKouk]

Um....
Inflation has fallen from 8.4% to 3.4%
Wages growth has lifted from 1.5% to 4.2%
Every worker will be getting a tax cut on 1 July

[Chris Bain @sentarella]

@RyanWil62993886 Idiot!! My father fought there and Albanese has a sense of history that you just don’t get, Ryan

[Chris Bain @sentarella]

@VoteLewko Despicably moronic false equivalence

[Chris Bain @sentarella]

@duty2warn @gtconway3d Can’t go past George W.
Nucular

[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.”

[Chris Bain @sentarella]

@VoteLewko @w0tn0t2 @auspost Me too. I’m home all day but if the parcel is heavy it goes straight to the PO. I’m going to fill out the form

[Chris Bain @sentarella]

@RobbieY92921740 @QuentinDempster Well actually, that’s Janet’s defence. But the reality is otherwise. Bias on a dreadful scale

[MattGolding Cartoons @GoldingCartoons]

Meanwhile, in the penalty box...
@theage #SamKerr

[Late Night with Seth Meyers @LateNightSeth]

Donald Trump is going to be the GOP presidential nominee once again. Here’s a refresher on the former president. https://t.co/kjilDAKRx8 #ACloserLook

[mass ave curmudgeon @mass_ave]

She’s right about Bernie too

[Chris Bain @sentarella]

@Chutzpahx @colonelhogans He’s a country member.

[Chris Bain @sentarella]

@robynbryant33 Look. He was deeply in love with her but his catholic faith stopped him from consummating it. So he gave himself to her in another, entirely unhealthy, way

[Chris Bain @sentarella]

Tonight’s drinking

[Lohith_Rebel @Rebelism_18]

@PicturesFoIder Perfect loop exists

[Chris Bain @sentarella]

@noplaceforsheep @DianaG64735764 Umm. Maybe not