The Trump swivel-dance – Study them moves!

We’ll focus on Donald, the dreamguy of late-night comics, in a sec. 

But first… more mass-shooters. In just a week, we had one from the radical islamist side and one far-right SOB. And then today, late news flashes tell of yet another theater-attack, by it-could-be-either-kind. 

Of course, the impotent, aftermath hand-wringing stays the same.  Though here’s an interesting rumination how, when they are white, are almost always called “mentally ill.”  Take this passage from Salon: “We’ve created a world so topsy-turvy that seeking medical help for depression or anxiety is apparently stronger evidence of violent tendencies than going out and purchasing a weapon whose only purpose is committing acts of violence.” The author wanders -- but provokes us to think.

I do know this.  It is time to try my proposal to rename such mass killers. Ancient Greeks had the class to do it. Follow my reasoning. At long last, let's try this:  Deny killers the notoriety they seek. 

== The Trump-Swivel-Dance makes a point… and another! ==

The scenario that makes Rupert Murdoch jolt awake with night sweats must be one possibility, that he’ll lose control over the monster he wakened. It’s one thing to re-ignite the American Civil War as a political tool, riling Red America’s wrath toward all elites who aren’t oligarchs. Hey, it worked for plantation owners in 1860… for a while. If you’ve convinced 40% of the population to hate all scientists, teachers, civil servants, doctors, economists, skilled labor, law professionals -- every single meritocratic "elite" -- well, that makes it easier to restore feudal plutocracy. The last elite standing.

Rupert has the GOP political caste in his pocket, and he knows they will do as they are told. For one thing, they will give lots of lip service -- but only lip service -- to culture war issues like abortion or prayer or illegal immigration etc. When it comes to actual action, though? They focus like a laser on measures to fill the pockets of Rupert’s pals. Tax breaks and resource giveaways for the party’s owners. But just talk and talk and illusions for Red American voters. 

Think I am exaggerating? Then scan the years 2001 through 2007, when the Republican Party had an absolute lock on every lever of American power and branch of government.  They had the ability to enact anything and everything on their agenda. Now actually name the changes they implemented during those years, for all their talk?  

Yep. Just wars that benefited Cheney family companies. And resource giveaways and gifts to the rich.  Name one other thing. One thing that the preachers in red America have been demanding from their pulpits -- like crackdowns on immigration or abortion. I'm serious. I challenge you. Yet the ground troops never complain. Not yet. To date, they have been willing to accept lip service. Symbolic rants, but never any substance from a GOP that takes them for granted.

But what if those confederate ground troops ever wake up, realizing they’ve been had? That the owners of the Republican Party never, ever give them anything they actually want? Rupert must have thought he had that possibility removed by buying-off Mike Huckabee. Indeed, Preacher Huckabee is now widely known to be a fully-owned hypocrite.

== Only along comes Donald Trump... == 

... independently financed and beholden to no one -- not to Rupert or his Saudi partners, nor  to the Kochs, nor to front-man-for-China Sheldon "Macao Conduit" Adelson, nor to the Bush Clan nor to any GOP functionary – Trump is more than just the late night comedian’s beloved pal. Sure, he’s likely to self-destruct at the Fox-staged debate, or next week, or the next, as Republicans repeat 2012’s series of Bozo of the Month fads. But meanwhile, he is firing up liberals and igniting political will in the Hispanic Community as never before, propelling voter registration drives, every time he opens his mouth. 

Nor will that stop when Mr. Trump slumps back into well-deserved single digits. Because the very fact that his message was popular among GOP ground troops is not lost on those minority communities. When ultimate-nominee Jeb Bush finally steps up, rattling off fluent jokes in perfect Spanish, there will still be that odor in the room.

Of course there’s also the possibility of a Trump Third Party run… oh, pretty please? And may he also field a slate of insurrectionist congressional candidates!  But none of that matters here or now.

What matters is that no one in media will zero in upon underlying issues that are laid bare by Donald Trump. Starting with…

… the fact that the Confederacy can kiss goodbye to all claims of moral high ground. No, I'm not talking here about the execrable record of electoral cheating with fraudulent voting machines, voter suppression and Gerrymandering. I've laid out that immorality elsewhere. 

Rather, let’s talk about philandering, divorce, gambling and ties to organized crime. 

These were – once-upon-a-time – alarm bells that could be lethal to a politician. But now Mr. Trump’s popularity among the republican rank and file suggests that the true face of “Bubba” is not the Andy Griffith image foisted by Mr. Huckabee.

(Blue states that have eased their way out of the insane Drug War are, ironically, also hated by criminal mobs, who benefit from red state drug puritanism.)

No wonder abortion looms so high on the confederate agenda, allowing one paramount issue to “trump” all other morality matters, simply sweeping them off the table. "We may be leaders in divorce, STDs, teen sex, teen pregnancy, domestic violence, dropouts, gambling and drug use... but we demand women carry unwanted pregnancies, and that counterbalances the rest!"

No one else will mention it. But THAT is the lesson being demonstrated by the popularity of multiple divorcé, philanderer and gambling kingpin Donald Trump.  Those things don't matter an iota anymore, to the pulpit pounders and GOP ground troops. Morality is contingent and it does not apply to My Side.

== The stunning weirdness re immigration ==

Mr. Trump has proved agile at the backstep swivel. He had better be, with his mouth! When it comes to Hispanics, he knows he has to begin a walk-back. Slowly, in order to keep the riled-up bubbas in his camp. So how to do it? Simple. Last week he murmured some flattering things about “hardworking Hispanics” who are here legally.

“I favor legal immigration!” He proclaimed. And at-surface that may elicit a few nods from some crowds.  Sure, Legal is Good – going through channels and jumping through the nation’s lawfully legislated hoops, then getting passports, licenses, paying taxes, yeah!  Much better than floods of undocumenteds at the border. (And do bear in mind America accounts for half of the legal immigration taking place across the entire planet! So spare us sanctimony about Open Borders.)

In fact though, are you ready for an irony? Preference for LEGAL IMMIGRATION happens to be the Democrat Thing!

It’s Democrats who have always tweaked laws to allow more documented immigration, which far outweighs illegal border crossing as a factor in changing the demographic face of America. (A demographic shift that is Bubba’s deepseated trauma and resentment and underlying complaint.) Why do democrats prefer and enhance LEGAL immigration? Because documented immigrants can’t be exploited as easily. They join unions. They eventually vote, and largely for democrats. No wonder dems prefer it!

In contrast, illegals do nothing for the DP!  Which is why, in fact, Democratic Presidents are always much tougher at Border Enforcement than Republican ones are! Don’t believe that?  See it laid out here. Because in fact all of your clichés about immigration are diametrically opposite to true!  

(In fact, it is republicans who have always fostered illegal immigration, for reasons that are obvious, if you think it through.)

So, when Mr. Trump declares “I favor legal immigration!” does that make him a … democrat?  Nope.  Just an agile opportunist who hasn’t pondered deeply. In fact, any bubba who actually thought it through would – at that point – drop Donald like a live grenade.

Fortunately for the talk show hosts, that ain’t happening soon.

== Gerrymandering in decline? ==

Huzzah!  The Florida Supreme Court has ruled against the state legislature’s heinously cynical-cheating attempt to reinstate gerrymandered districts, after the citizens of that purple state decisively demanded an end to that foul and deliberately evil practice.  “The court also chastised the Republican-led legislature for its secretive measures in creating the map, which—despite repeated vows to be transparent—included private planning sessions and destruction of important documents and emails. The Court ruling states that Republican lawmakers in Florida "did in fact conspire to manipulate and influence the redistricting process."

“This was the fox guarding the henhouse. In gerrymandered states, lawmakers end up choosing their voters, rather than voters choosing their legislators," a spokesman said, adding that the ruling "sets a precedent for many states across the country who are dealing with gerrymandered districts."

And more good news? Prodded by the judiciary, Virginia’s Democratic governor, Terry McAuliffe, and Maryland’s Republican governor, Larry Hogan, are moving toward some version of redistricting reform. In both cases, that would be a blow to the good-old boys in the state capitals and Congress, and a favor to voters, whose say in elections has been subjugated to partisan interests. “Each faces a state legislature dominated by the opposing party. And each can convincingly make the argument that the timing is right to shift the responsibility of drawing electoral maps to a bipartisan or nonpartisan commission.” 

And finally....

== you guys are so-o-o-o crazy! A potpourri of insanities. ==

Seriously, this following bit is a direct question for you neo-confederates out there: do you have any memory at all?  How many times must you be proved wrong… not on ideological grounds but simply based on success at prediction, before you’ll re-evaluate? 

Take for example the stunning failure of Supply Side (‘voodoo’) Economics to deliver on one promise. A single one. Even one. Just one. Ever! Will that endless chain stand a chance, eventually, of causing you to allow into mind the mantra of all scientists: “I might have been wrong”?  (Nope. Far better to wage War on Science.)

Or how about which party is better at reducing budget deficits... every single administration? Not just once but every single time and always?  (The chart at this page demonstrates that any deficit hawk who ever votes GOP is a raving idiot.)

Here’s a biggie…  “The auto industryis making significant strides toward increasing fuel efficiency and is ahead of schedule in meeting strict federal fuel economy goals.”

Um, remember the CAFE Standards that the GOP blocked for 25 years, that would have saved US consumers close to a trillion dollars in fuel costs and cut the vampire suck of OPEC?  The dems finally passed CAFE in 2009, while every single GOP congressman cried out that it would “destroy Detroit.” (Oh irony, as they then did their best to destroy the US auto industry, denying US automakers federal loans during the financial crisis?  Loans that in fact saved the industry and were nearly all repaid, on time?)   

Those gas efficiency standards are now saving consumers billions at the pump, while engendering vast improvements in car quality, making our products better for export and incidentally reducing pollution and also helping the recent liberation of America from dependence on foreign oil.  And you guys think we will forget the screeching howls you emitted in 09?  Confidently screaming that CAFÉ would end America forever?

How about just six months ago, the moans over some central American kids sneaking across the border.  End of the world! Only… the initiatives then enacted by the administration proceeded to… work!  Within a month, the news mania shifted elsewhere, as illegal border crossings resumed their steady decline, which always happens under democrats and never happens under a republican president.  See this proof.  

I could go on and on with how you fellows are almost always dead wrong… and not for left-right or ideological reasons! I’m actually rather a bit of a Smithian libertarian! I’m the one sci fi author who keynoted a Libertarian convention and also FreedomFest! 

But I also know crazy when I see it.  And any libertarian who thinks that dems are worse than goppers is completely loco. 

Indeed, dems are better than goppers… at war!  And better at achieving healthy capitalism.

No, you aren’t wrong because libertarian concepts are wrong. Nor for any “left-right” reasons.

You are wrong because you are confederates, waging civil war against your own country.  And because you blare chicken-little screeches of doom without ever, ever, ever going back later to see if any of them came true!  Never checking scientifically see if you were ever, even-slightly right in your predictions. 

And hence, no wonder you hate science so.