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Mammoth Springs

Monday, November 14, 2016

Revenge of the sticks


I need to spill. Got a lot of stuff backed up.

After the election several of my Republican buddies, and I have many, never insisting on any orthodoxy or political litmus tests in matters of friendship, called to make sure that I was doing okay, suggested that I take a deep breath and chill. That things would work out better than I thought.

I appreciate that and their genuine sincerity. But truth be told, I am spitting mad. I think that this president of ours is at best a flim flam man and at worst a monster. I am worried about our country and the future of the world. And my animus does not concern personalities, it has to do with policies, practically which, concerning Trump, every one I abhor.

Where do I start?

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I have been a man my entire life and I will not pretend to be a pollyanna, I have talked and heard many other men talk about pussy. But going out and grabbing some, without consent? Never. Literally, nobody. And it appears that that was this man's game, on multiple occasions.

I had a good christian Trump supporter in San Francisco tell me that that is how all men talked. Sorry Nancy, it isn't.

But even possibly worse than his predacious carnal behavior, at least for me, is his lack of any semblance of moral judgement in business.

My family dealt with the west coast version of Donald Trump. We sold "our Donald" a large apartment project and he refused to pay us. Over twelve million. Said he didn't like the work, that the shear panel was over nailed. He would see us in court.

We won a unanimous jury verdict but he had billions and signaled that he could fight us forever. And he could. We ended up just getting enough to pay the attorneys the million and a half they were due. We were broken. Forever.

When Donald Trump was confronted with stiffing reams of contractors in a similar way, he said the same thing - he didn't like their work so he never paid them. His bankruptcies left a trail of corpses in their wake. Not to mention the poor rubes he suckered with the fake Trump University scam.

I was in construction long enough to see what this can do to a common man. I have seen marriages and businesses ruined, equipment repossessed, people's lives destroyed. And the predator never feels a thing, money is a tool to bully and pillage with and they have no conscience whatsoever for the damage they leave in their wake.

That is what I hate so much about Donald Trump. I have met others like him, pathological liars, who will do and say anything in order to achieve their ends. They tend to have no ideology whatsoever, but like Saruman, have cunning voices and can adopt a mask to fool the weak minded at will. And he has a habit of stiffing people. America next?

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I have been rather aggressive this week, questioning Trump voters about their choice. Met a woman supporter at the game who works in health insurance and has a masters degree. I asked her if she was comfortable losing her reproductive choice and seeing Roe overturned and she said that that would never happen. Ditto with the sexual orientation issue, Mike Pence's bailiwick.

Only one man, he will never do it, politicians talk, one should never believe them. And I have heard this line over and over.  Selective attention. But I am old enough to know that you should always listen to politicians, sometimes they even do what they say they are going to do.

And you have to look at who they associate with.

In this case, people like Alex Jones.



Or Steve Bannon.

Newt.

Christie, Giuliani. Etc.

Bill Maher said that Democrats have to stop being so nice. The Republicans have not played fair, refusing to consider Obama's SCOTUS appointment and then signalling that they would wait out Clinton too.

But the Democrats play fair, being idealists by nature and I am sure would never consider this level of obstruction. If it was me, payback would be a bitch. Screw you Mitch McConnell. I won't disparage turtles, you are closer to a parasitic worm. Good luck with that coal recovery.

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I am embarrassed to be an American. For the first time in my life.  My country has been stolen by a motley caste of deplorables and shysters, with a little help in the last week from the New York F.B.I.. And don't tell me that I should leave then. I don't have to, at least not yet.

Edward Morbius said last week that people should start scrubbing their social media archives before the brownshirts came knocking. They've threatened everybody with legal action, from Hillary to Harry Reid and the New York Times. The Trump Administration doesn't appear to be too down with the concept of a free press. There are stark similarities to Hitler, I'm sorry.

And Kellyanne Conway thinks it is Obama and Clinton's job to tamp down this dissent. Not a chance Kellyanne, you are on your own. I expect a very short honeymoon.

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Looks like Clinton will end up with about 2 million more votes than Trump, if not more. Doesn't sound like much of a mandate but it is the cards we have been dealt.

I call it Revenge of the Sticks. All those rural red state voters that act as a welfare drain on the productive states on the coast. And whose flyover votes count so much more than the rest of us. Watch us craft a bunch of socialist make work programs to keep them and their outdated resources working.

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Did you hear about the schizophrenic buddhist? He was at two with everything.

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It is amazing to me how many people I have queried who told me that they voted for Gary Johnson. For all the frigging people who said they pulled the lever for this guy, he should have won the election hands down.

But the reality is that they were fibbing. They voted for Trump. Irrespective of consequences. The support he got from racist circles, the mysoginistic groping, the failure to release tax returns, the glee at working the system, it meant nothing to you people. The only happy people are going to be the pay prison people, that will have to make a shelter for the three million or so expected deportees.

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I wanted to know a bit more about people that lie about who they voted for and the Bradley effect drove me to the Wilder effect, they both clued me in to the concept of social desirability bias.  People evidently tend to answer questions in a manner that will be viewed favorably by others. And it is apparently a very real phenomenon.

Portion of Paulhus Deception Scales
In other words, people lie. A lot.

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I can not foretell what will occur in a Trump presidency. Word is that a climate change denier will head the EPA.

Today I read that the Pentagon has been monitoring the very real effects of climate change on its strategic holdings for the past several years.

Now. like that funny city in South Carolina, they will not be able to mention it in the future. Trumpspeak. And we have announced our intention to withdraw from the Global Climate Pact, something even China thinks is crazy.

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A friend of mine, who leans to the tao, thinks that the election was a natural reaction. That there is always a reversal at the end of a cycle. And he may indeed be right. I was as hard on Obama as anyone. There were many things that he did that pissed me off. He gets a passing grade from me, but just barely.

Because when you start talking about separate tranny bathrooms, you have to think somebody is over reaching and that you are losing a lot of the country. And the politically correct language and failure to identify islamic terrorism when people are plainly and rightfully scared was ridiculous and patronizing. He also threw Israel under the the bus, and to his chagrin that country is still supported by a majority of America. But for all his failures, he looks like a frigging apostle next to Trump.

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I am hurting, a lot of very well meaning people are hurting. But mostly I am very pissed off. It has cost me relationships, not to mention business before and very well may again. If so, so be it. I know that many Americans, I would even say the majority, like me, are bewildered and disconsolate.

The impossible has happened and the portent is ominous. I would shut up and deal with it privately but many people have told me that they need to read what I have to say right now so for that reason I am going to continue to speak. I ask you to speak up, don't make nice, make the Trumpers accept responsibility for this man, make sure that they own this.

There is evil afoot. Look at all the verified racist incidents on campuses across the country since the election. The pandora's box of racism and white nationalism has been opened up. We are now pitted against each other like at no other time since the civil war.

How in the hell did you let this happen?

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