By Doug Porter
By now ‘everybody knows’ that billionaire blowhard Donald John Trump is out of control.
“He’s tapped into citizen anger” is Republi-speak for “we never thought all our lies would come back to bite us in the ass,” and “please spare us your wrath.”
Others in the party are seeking to portray The Donald as aberrant, only to draw angry responses from the man and his minions. When everyday misogynist Erick Erickson dis-invited Trump from a conservative conference, the blowback was so bad he moved his family to another hotel, fearing for their safety.
So here’s the deal: if Donald Trump had made the same comments about MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, the Fox News crew and the other GOP candidates would have said ‘no big deal.’ They’d still be snickering in the green room.
Men make these kinds of statements all the time and it’s considered no big deal. Donald Trump is not where the conservatives in this country decided to draw the line on sexism.
This is the Republican establishment trying to kill The Beast. He’s co-opted large parts of their message (even if was the subtext) and just ruining things.
From Crooks & Liars:
Watch as the avalanche builds momentum in order to oust Donald Trump from the main stage before the next debate. Ailes gave Trump his center spot, had his moderators toss everything at him they possibly could, but he lived to see another day. (See Ezra Klein’s excellent analysis for why that is so.)
Trump’s real sin, of course, was not pledging undying fealty to the Republican Party but instead hinting that he would run as a third-party candidate which would guarantee the White House to Hillary Clinton.
Roger Ailes cannot possibly have that happen, you understand. Trump was disinvited from the Red State gathering, campaign manager Roger Stone has either resigned or been fired depending on who you ask, and Erick Erickson has been rewarded with some kind of new gig that doesn’t involve running Red State.
The Trump Sex Tape: It’s Huuuuge!
The venom from Ken Williamson at National Review tells you everything you need to know about how freaked the right is:
…For your consideration: the carefully coiffed golden mane, the vast inherited fortune, the splendid real-estate portfolio, the family name on buildings from Manhattan to the Strip, the reality-television superstardom, the room-temperature-on-a-brisk-November-day IQ.
The only thing distinguishing that great spackled misshapen lump of unredeemed American id known as Donald Trump from his spiritual soul mate, that slender lightning rod of unredeemed American id known as Paris Hilton, is — angels and ministers of grace, defend us! — a sex tape.
The gross thing is, you can kind of imagine a Trump sex tape: the gilt pineapples on the four-poster bed, the scarlet silk-jacquard sheets, the glowing “T” in the background, the self-assured promises that this will be the classiest sex tape the world has ever seen — that it’s yuuuuuuuge! — the cracked raving 69-year-old Babbitt analogue barking inchoate instructions off camera . . . no, no more, that way madness lies.
The awful, horrifying, despair-and-cringe-inducing real-talk truth that is causing the more mobile and proactive among us to start downloading those teach–yourself–Swiss German apps onto our iPhones and to read up on the finer points of immigration law is that the Donald Trump presidential campaign is the Donald Trump sex tape, an act of theater performing precisely the same functions as Paris Hilton’s amateur porn-o-vision escapade: exhibitionism, theatrical self-aggrandizement, titillation, etc., all of it composing a documentation of transient potency to be shored up against the inevitable passing of that potency. Trump is a post-erotic pornographer, and his daft followers are engaged in the political version of masturbation: sterile, fruitless self-indulgence.
Over the weekend, both the Washington Post and the New York Times ran articles suggesting this Trump nightmare would soon be over. Or that he’d peaked. Or… yada, yada.
I think Paul Waldman at the WaPo Plum Line blog’s got it right:
While Trump may be setting out to alienate one key demographic group after another, his opponents are doing much the same thing, albeit in slightly less vivid ways. Trump calls Mexican immigrants rapists and drug dealers, but the other Republicans are offering Hispanic voters exactly what Mitt Romney and John McCain did, i.e., not much. Trump insults women with, shall we say, colorful language. But in that same Thursday debate, Scott Walker and Marco Rubio emphatically declared their support for banning abortion even in cases of rape and incest. Their friends on Capitol Hill are trying to stop women from getting health care at Planned Parenthood, a position Barack Obama pummeled Romney for in 2012.
Trump is currently leading in the polls. Anyway you slice it, this is a boon for Democrats.
SDPD’s Okay With [Forced] Sex at the Beach
Since when is sex with an unconscious woman not rape? Since the SDPD says it is, apparently.
Via the OBRag we learn about a News8 report:
The alleged sexual assault happened Thursday in broad daylight, but no charges have been filed, and San Diego Police has said they take all potential sexual assault cases seriously.
According to the police, no arrest has been made because the alleged victim refused to press charges.
Ocean Beach resident Cornelius Harris witnessed a man sexually assaulting an unclothed and unconscious woman in broad daylight right in front of his beachside home.
“I know a lot of crazy stuff goes on down here, but this was nuts. This is a sidewalk. This is where kids walk up to go the beach. It’s crazy they can do it and get away with it,” he said.
Witnesses called the police.
“We said we had just witnessed a woman getting raped by a drunk man who was fully unconscious,” said Justin Shon, another witnesses to the alleged sexual assault.
According to Shon, “He [the police officer] verbatim said, what the -(expletive)- do you want me to do about that? Are you guys victims of anything?”
I checked back on the News8 site this morning to see if the original story had been retracted or refuted. Nope.
So much for the “reforms” in the SDPD.
OMG! A Teacher Shortage!
The Sunday New York Times ran with a feature length article detailing the difficulty school districts nationwide are having in recruiting teachers. Many of the statistics cited, like the 55% drop in people entering teaching preparation programs, were from California.
Having trashed the profession on so many levels, I have no doubt we’ll see “common sense solutions” coming from education reform set involving adjunct educators (paid slightly more than minimum wage).
Maybe even an Uber-type app for school districts down on their luck. Today’s driver could be tomorrow’s math instructor. Isn’t that exciting?
Remember the formula, folks: Defund, Denigrate and Destroy. That’s the path to a libertarian paradise.
It’s the Real (Exercise) Thing
This morning I read a report from the New York Times detailing Coca-Cola’s support to the tune of $1.5 million last year in starting up the Global Energy Balance Network (GEBN), which downplays the importance of avoiding sugary drinks and fast food in order to maintain a healthy weight.
All we need to do is exercise more, according to GEBN and those pesky pounds gained by swilling the Real Thing won’t be such a problem.
Soft drink sales are declining and the Big Soda companies appear to be taking a page from the Big Tobacco playbook.
From Think Progress:
In fact, recent scientific evidence suggests that, in terms of weight loss strategies, dietary changes are actually more effective than increased physical activity — partly because exercise increases appetite, and partly because exercise expends fewer calories than you might imagine. Thirty minutes of jogging or swimming, for example, only burns about 350 calories. An easier way to avoid those 350 calories would be to skip drinking two 16-ounce sodas.
Several public health experts told the Times they’re concerned that the soda company is attempting to mislead the public about the root causes of obesity in an effort to protect its own bottom line, particularly as soda sales have been declining.
“Coca-Cola’s agenda here is very clear: Get these researchers to confuse the science and deflect attention from dietary intake,” Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University and the author of Soda Politics, said. Nestle also referred to GEBN as simply a “front group” for the soda industry.
A Good Time Was Had…
I’d like to thank all the people who came out for the San Diego Free Press anniversary party this past weekend. We’ll have a report with photos in the next day or so. (We’re having web server issues today and you’re lucky to be seeing text!)
On This Day: 1846 – The Smithsonian Institution was chartered by the Congress. The “Nation’s Attic” was made possible by $500,000 given by scientist Joseph Smithson. 1939 – President Roosevelt signs amendments to the Social Security Act, broadening the program to include dependents and survivors’ benefits. 1945 – The day after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan announced they would surrender. The only condition was that the status of Emperor Hirohito would remain unchanged.
Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to “The Starting Line” and get an email every time a new article in this series is posted!
I read the Daily Fishwrap(s) so you don’t have to… Catch “the Starting Line” Monday thru Friday right here at San Diego Free Press (dot) org. Send your hate mail and ideas to DougPorter@SanDiegoFreePress.Org Check us out on Facebook and Twitter.
Doug Porter
Latest posts by Doug Porter (see all)
- Last Call. Last Column. - December 14, 2018
- Which Presidential Candidate Will You Support in 2020? - December 13, 2018
- Mounting the Assault on Big Gay and Other Drivel From SDSU’s Minimum Wage Scrooge - December 12, 2018
Donald Trump is the only Republican candidate who is not a hypocrite and a phony. That’s why they’re all so mad at him. He may be a misogynist, a bigot, a racist, a homophobe and whatever, but he tells it like it is. That’s the problem for the Republican party.
Agreed! He somehow seems to know that voters LIKE politicians who are honest.
The question is, acting as the lightning rod for the other candidates who actually believe the same things, will Chump burn-out and disappear back into reality TV? And, would that be better or worse for the Dems?
I’d bet this is a vendetta. Trump gave money to the right people, and they didn’t listen to him. Now he’s teaching them a lesson. They’ll eject him from the Party in a show of righteousness and faith in the Lord and he’ll run as an independent, and blow them up. He isn’t working for the Democrats, or anybody else for that matter; he’s going for the movie deal, and maybe a mention in historical accounts as the rat bastard who took down the Kingdom of God because. Actually, he’s making history right now.