Saturday, February 25, 2017

The Absence of a Vision in Donald Trump Steals One from America

We have seen so far America will likely enjoy progressively larger and smarter televisions, NASA will continue exploring planets with nothing on them and, gee, I love my iPhone.  There isn't anything of expectation to see this or that in the future when people mostly expect it to be generally the same except with bigger TVs.

Trump's leadership isn't revealing any vision in him beyond more of the same and we have seen how many politicians are dredging the Fifties for material on the Commie menace; they're not even in the same century.

Note:  see how Ted Cruz is living the dream of the John Birch Society from the Fifties right now in trying get the U.S. out of the U.N.


Ed:  your analysis is crap since people talk all the time about things like flying cars!

Yah, that's jazzy talk, isn't it.  Did you ever hear them talk about where they will land these things or what facility exists for parking them?

You can get that flying car talk by passing a spliff to a junior and we will only hear from visionaries about actually building something which works from end to end.  Building devices is easy; building systems is hard.

Ed:  the future is self-driving cars!

That future is the same as the old future since they don't do anything particularly different.  There are studies about how self-driving trucks can run much more efficiently if they can manage their own convoys and the science was an elegant analysis for the systems theory for increased throughput ... but it's easy to wreck it.  Run a few civilian hot rods on that same road and your elegant theory will be shot all to hell.

I can't get too lusty about the future when it looks the same as now.


Besides, when there is talk of the future in this context or that one, the reaction is usually that America can't afford it.  In response to that the Rockhouse asks what can America afford since it doesn't seem like much.  They say the money goes for the military but they already had one.  Others say it's to make the American military bigger than the rest of the world but it already is.  All in all, Americans show a remarkable indifference as to where their money goes.


Some of you have been Trump supporters and maybe even voted for him but you got screwed just the same by him as Democrats were by Obama.  Here at the Rockhouse, we have listened for some while since the election to try to discern which is crap and which is concrete in that which Trump has said.  Just as with Obama, a lot of it turned out to be crap.

There's no need for an extended soliloquy as the Rockhouse did not strongly resist Trump because he promised better relations with Russia and consequently a reduced threat of nuclear annihilation.  However, we have since seen his behavior in which he has been escalating problems with Russia just like Obama.

So, uh, tell me.  How does one tell the Democrats and Republicans apart because that distinction is quite fuzzy just now.


Trump's latest stunt was to ban various news agencies from a news conference he gave and that's probably unprecedented although we will need Cadillac Man for the definitive ruling.  Trump sees a major play in the idea of Fake News as that's the strongest weapon the state has got.  When it can convince you the other guy's news is fake, as it tries assiduously to do with Russia Today, the state's news becomes the safe kind and the other leads only to peril.

There are roaring complaints about leaks in Washington security and these make all the more laughable the claims of Russian hacking when it's not even necessary.  The only hack needed for America is to buy someone some coffee in Washington and listen.  It's no wonder nothing stays secret when they tell everyone down to the guy running the toll booth on the bridge what the secrets are.  Then they're surprised when the secrets leak.


Things are perceived exceptionally smelly just now, my chill'uns.


The Rockhouse has tried to stay away from the personality aspect of the hostility toward Trump to stay focused on the matters at hand but there's no way to avoid he's bringing a whole packet of crazy. This business about America needs to dominate militarily is straight out of a Marvel movie.  It already dominates; it's just not very good at it.

How much more domination is there than occupying many of the countries of the world with American military bases.  That's not an exaggeration as they're all over the place.  How much more domination is there than that.  Should they cut over to American currency as well?

As above, there's no vision.  Once you dominate (even more) militarily then what do you gain from it.  What specific thing do you believe will happen if that circumstance is true.  How many more countries do you want to occupy before you're satisfied that's enough.


Don't anyone get defensive for Trump since the regulars have seen I'll slash whomever is in the office if he or she is not being a President and is instead just hustling.  For years we've seen a shitload of hustling but not a whole lot of Presidenting.  Washington has more games than Parker Brothers but they don't seem that good at playing them when no-one ever wins.

Ed:  the rich win!

They didn't win, they just got rich.  They've lost the streets since they're not safe out here and they know it.  Trump has shown they have almost no idea what happens out here and probably much of the middle class doesn't have the idea either except that they're scared.


Reality down here is we can't afford to pay for medical prescriptions while beating up Mexicans, attacking Indians, and making grandiose displays of racist hatred toward Muslims don't go one millimeter toward changing that situation.

America is never going to be great when it can't afford the medicine to get well.  That problem is not just in the Rockhouse as it's common.


It really doesn't matter what Greatest America looks like to Trump since the important thing is what you want it to be.  Surely you have a vision for Greatest America or at least one thing you believe would make it greater.

The Rockhouse is going to fix a lotta fuckin' things.  How about the Great American New England Pothole Project in which America decides, fuck it, I have had it with blowing two-hundred-dollar tires in potholes so we're going to make roads which don't break in the freeze / thaw cycles of Spring in the North.

Ed:  that's not much of a vision!

Tell me that when you get low-profile tires on your killer cruise and you have run up a fat bill replacing them because of potholes.


The Rockhouse is looking for any kind of a vision from y'all and we do believe you have it.  You're the kind of people who won't be told what your vision should be.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The streets were not safe before the election as the street punks have been running wild for years just look at the number of shooting per day in the inner cities.
The protestor just make them crowded every once in awhile but they don't make them scary or unsafe as most are middle age women tired of being told what to do or how to act. If the Hispanics and disgruntled women get together they would be a formidable political force that no politician could ignore.

Unknown said...

It seems disgruntled woman are a large part of the resistance they mention all over. There's not much in the way of unity, as you mention. Cesar Chavez showed Hispanics the power they wield if they organize it and the UFW mostly evaporated in the Reagan years but Chavez accomplished great things.

Cadillac Man said...

The Alien and Sedition Acts passed in 1798 by a Federalist Congress under the administration of John Adams was perhaps the most overt attempt to prevent freedom of speech and the press. In addition, these laws included new powers to deport foreigners and make it harder for new immigrants to vote. Sound familiar. It targeted in particular the Irish and other non-English supporters of the opposition party known as Democratic-Republicans under Thomas Jefferson. Many newspapers and editors who supported the opposition party under Jefferson were arrested and imprisoned under the law. All this within a decade of the establishment of the constitution of the new United States federal government. This led to the beginning of states rights issues when Kentucky and Virginia declared federal laws invalid within their states. The attempt to suppress dissent backfired and John Adams lost his attempt to be re-elected in 1800. The Alien and Sedition Acts became moot when the newly elected Jefferson refused to enforce them. Congress repealed some of the Acts in 1802 and the rest were allowed to expire. Thus the first attack of the first amendment rights were successfully repelled. Well, sort of. The Alien Enemies Act was revised and reintroduced by the FDR administration in WWII. It was broadly interpreted and used to imprison Japanese 'aliens' during WWII. Despite a challenge, the Supreme Court determined that the president has powers under the act to imprison and deport aliens of hostile nations. It hasn't been used since Truman in 1948. Will President Trump?

Anonymous said...

Unions undid themselves. The Boeing plant is One of the Carolinas just voted out the union. They cost the employee a lot and provide very little that the employees can't accomplish themselves

Unknown said...

Thanks for some outstanding history on the Alien and Sedition Acts since that adds an excellent perspective to the view of the actions they're taking today. That's an excellent example of the resilience of American democracy (i.e. as stylized by the Constitution) and maybe there's some lesser similarity to the McCarthy period with lots of repression as well.

Unknown said...

Unclear how much unions ate themselves but the Right has definitely wanted them gone ever since their inception. Inasmuch as the Right never does anything on behalf of the worker, there's got to be some defense if it's not the union.

Something I'm interested in finding is what happened to the UFW after the Eighties. It seems the movement kind of petered out by around 1984 but Cesar Chavez was alive and doing well until 1996.