This has been the most turbulent election years in my life. I’m sure my elders would scoff at the assertion “in my life” and point out I am still too young to know better, but they’d be mistaken. We are right on course for this election to be a do-or-die moment for American politics no different than when Abraham Lincoln or Franklin D. Roosevelt were candidates.
At the same time this has also been one of the most boring and predictable elections. Newscasters have turned the election into a reality T.V. freak show which is the most suitable pandering for their ratings-for-profits advertising model. The more controversial the candidate the less work they have to do to find their headlines and collect their advertising revenue.
They’ve become lazy because paying real journalists to find the truth and not being the first to report about where a candidate stopped to eat lunch before Buzzfeed or Huffington Post is too difficult. Meanwhile the people of this country suffer the consequences of lackluster journalism while the media is raking in big profits for little work.
With this premise it isn’t surprising to see a reality T.V. personality rising in the polls and making a mockery of the democratic process. It isn’t surprising to see the power hungry female villain storyline that made Disney a fortune when they ripped off centuries old fairy tales. It wasn’t long ago we saw Omarosa in every weekly preview of the Apprentice playing the female villain and butting heads with Donald Trump. The whole election has been stage directed from the beginning.
None of the candidates represent the American people and none of them know what is good for us as a country.
Trump is talking about building a wall and Hillary is talking about equal pay for women as if this is still a problem in American life. She’s too detached to realize there’s more pressing women’s issues than equal pay or abortion. Most women I know are more worried about rising child care costs, rising housing costs, and whether they will fall into the welfare queen trap because their hours at work and healthcare benefits have been reduced.
Donald Trump doesn’t seem to realize anybody desperate enough to find a way around a wall will exhaust every idea until they get around the wall. Just ask the many Germans that found a way around the Berlin Wall. In 20-30 years time we will be trying to convince someone to “tear down this wall” just as we’ve finish paying off the debt it took to build the wall in the first place.
And for every Trumpeteer I’d like to point out that walls don’t just keep people out, they also trap people inside the country and cripples their freedom to cross the border. Just realize when you are voting to build a wall you are also voting to build your own cage.
The American Paycheck-To-Paycheck Mentality
What has surprised me is the popular opinion of my own generation with “Feel the Bern” support for Sander’s democratic socialist views. As if we don’t have the deck stacked against enough many in my age group would like to continue this terrible fixed income idea.
The worse idea my parents, family, and community passed onto me was the paycheck-to-paycheck mentality. This idea supported many post-war families last century when economic conditions were drastically different. Today this model serves to trap the plebes of this country into corporate slavery. It’s been a very successful model in accomplishing its goal of restricting our economic freedoms.
Don’t believe me? Just observe how many elderly people are bitching about not getting a cost of living increase on their benefits. Go ahead and roll your eyes at another retail worker who claims their hourly wage isn’t enough to pay their inflated rent and bills. Or get self-righteous at another young college graduate who complains their education debt is too much to pay every month.
Every corporation has the exact payment and wage schedule. Americans get paid based on their corporate employer’s schedule and owe money based on their corporate collector’s schedule. This sets up every American to live hand-to-mouth someway or anther. It’s this financial mentality of every month that traps Americans in their crappy jobs and underwater mortgages that continues to make them fearful and submissive to the status quo.
For years I’ve seen political and financial websites continuously quoting Benjamin Franklin’s saying, “Those who give up essential liberty for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety” without understanding the irony. Most use the quote to defend gun rights while not even realizing safety can mean different things to different people.
In our era most Americans have given up their essential liberty for financial safety. The government loves when the govern depend on them to make sure they’re fed and have a roof over their heads. It’s even better when they depend on them for benefits that are scheduled to be paid out once a month.
Anger Can Be A Great Motivator When Used Correctly
The media has been touting Donald Trump’s “anger” as the uniting cause of his supporters. This claim is just laughable and straight bullshit. Donald Trump isn’t angry at all. He’s cocky and prideful. He’s not suffering nor is his family. He’s gloating at the American people and their eyes are too glazed over from their submissive training to realize it.
Donald Trump’s family started their business in the most traditional sense when it comes to American prosperity. That being his grandfather opened a hotel in Washington that profited off gold prospectors and prostitution. Even describing his own hotel in the Yukon Sun newspaper at the time as “”For single men the Arctic has excellent accommodations as well as the best restaurant in Bennett, but I would not advise respectable women to go there to sleep as they are liable to hear that which would be repugnant to their feelings – and uttered, too, by the depraved of their own sex”.
Donald’s own father made money off of real estate except he didn’t do this in an honorable way. Instead he priced gouged government contracts and was even investigated by the U.S. Senate Committee in 1954 for “windfall profits”. He was later embroiled in a civil rights suit against him for refusing to rent to prospective black tenants.
Gives food for thought to Trump’s comments of getting “a small loan of a million dollars” from his father. But you won’t be reading extensively about the Trump family the same way the media picked apart the upbringing and wealth of the Bush or Romney families.
If anything the supporters of Donald Trump aren’t angry at all. They’re just gullible and looking to a fat cat to solve their problems as they sniff around the mouse trap for the block of cheese. Donald Trump isn’t going to do anything for the American people unless it benefits Donald Trump.
The American people don’t know how to be defiant. This is apparent from the lingering hippy love feast of the counter culture generation. Instead of learning how to feel anger and channel it into productive activities most Americans load up on self-help books, buy their crystals and lucky rabbits feet, and pray positive thinking will change their lives.
I haven’t mentioned the campaigns of Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio for a reason. Neither one of them has enough gristle to be defiant against the political status quo. Both are too docile in their attempts to win over the American people.
Neither will be president this election season because they both need to fail in order to learn how to succeed. Both won their Senate elections but it’s not enough to build the momentum to become power hungry for the presidency. They’re both too go along to get along in their approach to politics.
It’s a shame to think Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul could’ve wiped the floor with their aging baby boomer counterparts if they’d employed defiance in their campaign approaches.
My son is home this weekend… How about you come over and meet him?
Nicely done, Stephanie. It takes gumption to risk your opinions on this forum as the commenting manners are pretty bad if you dare to disagree about Trump, blacks, or poor people. If you follow the mould you are raised up high, but dare to disagree the knives come out. I always remember one of your retorts a year or so ago. To paraphrase: “You don’t piss me off, it’s just the internet”.
A lot of people demean your generation, and it is very true that stereotypes exist for a reason, but I am sure you are pretty good at tuning them up when they say it to you.
If Trump thinks he can close the Globilization box with protectionist tariffs, the joke is on everyone. It will bring this phony growth to a sudden and immediate halt. If The People choose to buy American/Union-made, and support those neighbors trying to maintain a decent manufacturing wage, then great. However, I am inclined to think we are all on a path to a lower standard of living and many shop at the WalMarts of the world and buy Chinese crap because they don’t have any options to choose otherwise. I don’t think Share is in Trump’s vocabulary. Hillary might even be worse. It seems this sucker is, indeed, going down.
For you Trump supporters, is referencing the size of your dong in a public debate Presidential these days? Jeezus H Christ, it’s out there. Pathetic.
You have guts Stephanie . This is a rough crowd. Stucky hit the nail on the head at 7:55. We are going to cast a big FU vote and it may be a mistake but there are a lot of us that are pissed off.
Instead of a wall, Trump should build thousands of turn-styles like in the NYC subway system. Very few people can get through those.
We all ‘basically got Schlonged’ watching the debate, Rubio actually got his hands all over it, he really got Schlonged. ‘Little Rubio’, Trump’s dominating romantic prison call.
Record breaking new lows.
More to come.
Lower.
Let’s give you a four star on this post. If I weren’t so old, I’d try and pick you up and have a lovely dinner at the eatery of your choice! And who knows where that would lead too! (Old is not necessarily impotent!!)
Compared with your previous posts and comments, TBP has rotted your mind to the precise point where you are indeed on board with the rest of us!
May I offer my congratulations to you Ms. Clammy for finally achieving nirvana TBP Wise and I look forward to many more posts from an apprentice TBPer!!
Your dirty old MA…
About 200BC, the Chinese built a wall 5,500 miles long through rural mountains and it kept out invaders for about 1,400 years; it’s still there. The first thing the Jews did when they got home was listen to Nehemiah and build a wall. Even a 5th grader understands that if someplace just lets people walk in and help themselves to whatever good stuff they can get, that place will very shortly run out of good stuff. America has a lot of good stuff and there are about 5 billion people that will just walk in if we do not build the wall. A lot of things also need doing but step one or two is to build a real good wall.
steph , as a semi lurker , kudos on your post . Your skill at writing is growing , lets hope exponentially .
I think that when you get a comprehension of the POCB’s ,and who controls them and what they have as an agenda ,you will be aghast !! It is very detrimental to just about everyone.
Get rid of your cognitive dissonance !!!!!!!!!!!! Please . You will indeed ,grow exponentially .
Assume , almost everything you have been taught is a lie . Grow from that perspective .
Be well , and continue your search for accurate knowledge .
Trump’s wall border fence should be at least as good as this:
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As long as we have no worldwide minimum wage the problems with immigrants will always be there. It is similar to the tragedy of the commons were one persons builds a factory that produces water bottles at an extremely cheap price. He puts the money in his Cayman island account and leaves everyone else to clean up the mess he made so much money from at cost to the tax payers. As for Trump family history. It doesn’t matter. All of the ruling class have really nasty skeletons in their closets Bush family supported Hitler we won’t even go into people like Dick Cheney. They care NOTHING for the people . You don’t become part of a ruling family by being Mr. Rogers. The sad thing is that we look to the worst of us to make things better. We are also encouraged to look down on those below our little station of life and accuse them of being the reason we are getting worse off when the reality is it is the top 5% who are making the other 95% worse off. Go to college go in debt buy a car go in debt cellphone debt and the jobs the colleges teach aren’t there in the real world. Best thing to do is become a teacher so you can sucker punch the next generation like the last one did to you.tho people who CAN”T ,..TEACH. Need the piece of paper tho. like money which is another piece of paper. People will wake up. maybe that is what is starting now. the system is not working and the few have too much too many people to much political correctness. Maybe we need to say “BullShit” more often until enough people catch on and say it too. We all know what is wrong but nobody wants to do anything about it. That which is unsustainable falls apart. those are our choices. Status Quo no longer works.
Steph,
Your writing has improved in leaps and bounds. I’m glad you didn’t run off.
A piece of advice? Tackle one candidate at a time in an article, or target the entire shit show. Trying to do a few at a time gives people room to nitpick, unless you shell out the sheer word count that Admin does on a regular basis.
TPC- Thanks for the advice. But you know me, I like to keep them wanting more 🙂 I have more articles being written that piggy back this one.
Most disappointing analysis that borders on the delusional. Controlling your border equates to the Berlin Wall? Well sommeone is out of touch with reality and therefore any analysis that followed is rather suspect.
The rable rousers on the left pander to their racist followers, because as the Hillary tells it blacks are in a rigged system. Hmm guess that explains the tens of millions flooding the country hoping to be exploited by the white man’s con game.
No rampant violence, most of it racial, is not uppermost in a nation where millions of guns are sold each month. The spread of terrorism isn’t a concern because we’re importing the religion of peace.
Truly insightful. If your in the meployment of Karl Rove or one of Obama’s inner circle.
Good grief. Do you ever stop commenting on “my generation?”
Gullible? Trump voters are no more gullible than any other voters. I know you’re young and ignorant and all, but perhaps you’ve forgotten the morons who voted for Barry and didn’t even know what his platform was? Perhaps you don’t remember the idiots who thought Barry would pay their mortgages for them? Give them free phones? Those gullible voters?
And fuck you-I think a wall is a great idea. I will be satisfied by nothing less than East Germany’s wall. I want guns, minefields, flame throwers, crocodiles, lasers, and endless triple strand razorwire. If you’re caught crossing the exclusion zone, I hope they shoot to kill. THAT is how a nation controls its borders. Once we build the wall, and man it from sea to shining sea, then we can deport all the criminal illegal aliens from this country and cut off all entitlements and public services to them. The amount of money we save from feeding, clothing, and breeding illegals will probably more than pay for the defensive zone on our border. Mock the concept of a wall all you want-if you ever actually lived on the border, like I did (Sierra Vista, AZ), you would have seen the real life consequences of unrestricted immigration, including:
Bankrupt hospital emergency rooms
High crime
Drug smuggling
Violent smugglers
High crime
Higher taxes to pay for illegals
MASSIVE pollution in illegal corridors (visit the San Pedro River Nature Preserve sometime)
Rape Trees!
High crime
Massive demand for govt services and entitlements
High crime
“Donald Trump doesn’t seem to realize anybody desperate enough to find a way around a wall will exhaust every idea until they get around the wall.”
Why don’t you stick to what you’re good at, writing whiny rants about your career at TGI Fridays. Have you ever tried to climb a border wall? No of course not, it’s doubtful you could mount a chain link fence. Like most millennials given such a task, you would sit down, stare at the wall, and cry. Possibly update your Snapchat with frowny face picture overlapping said wall. And that’s similar to what 90-95% of Mexicans and Central Americans are going to do when confronted with a giant, common sense barrier. Yes, a few will slip in, bribe their way in, tunnel their way in, possibly build crude submarines to enter the U.S. But the bulk will stay where they belong, and maybe then we can take a breather and begin sorting our economic mess out.
I realize you’re a middling writer, and that must be hard on you. But the whole “I’m principled, I’m so principled I’m not going to vote or like anyone or do anything. I’m just going to lose, time and time again, while I whine and whine and whine” approach is so 2012. Ron Paul lost. Twice. And badly. Most of us have woken up to the fact that we can’t just sit on the sidelines and bitch our way to solutions.
HSF – “You’re a millennial, your generation is singularly responsible for mainstreaming every sexual degeneracy known to mankind and proudly so.”
I can’t believe I even read that in print. You’re familiar with the post war baby boom. What’s not widely known is that the subsequent two generations however you want to label and bad mouth, are the relatively the same size. The simple fact of the matter is the boomers are disproportionately represented in the workforce and it’s attendant results. Enough said.
Mitt Romney called Trump a fake. That’s good enough for me, I’m voting Trump and I don’t care if he builds a wall. Just enforce the immigration laws.
Interesting and thought provoking -well done! I am not a writer with any literary skills; just an old guy (72) that has lived a bit longer than Stephanie.
“Donald Trump is angry”-No Stephanie -I am angry!!! Pissed off!!! Sick of The Bushes,Clintons,The Republican Party,The Democratic Party. Sick of all the broken promises over decades. I don’t know if Donald Trump is a lying piece of shit or not. But I do know that ALL THE OTHERS ARE!!!! I’m willing to take that chance.
Donald”s father didn’t start his business in an “Honorable “way. Oh my!! Stephanie; have your ever checked out the Kennedy family?-good old Joe!! Or, the Bush family – good old Prescott!! Now ,they were real crooks!!
As far as your comments of ” living paycheck to paycheck” – I get it!! I’m not the best at conserving wealth because I want “things” too many things- but if I don’t have enough money; Its MY fault!! Live within your means or go out and improve your circumstances.
Maybe I picked the wrong major in college. Maybe I should not have gone to college! Maybe I should have lived within my means!
I was 10 years old in 1953. We lived in a 900 square foot home (5 kids) We had one car, one TV, one bathroom. We ate cornmeal mush for breakfast many mornings and we were HAPPY!!!!
Now days, we expect Government to take care of us. Bull shit!! Take care of yourself- Quit bitching and complaining and start using your brain. Never depend on anyone else to give a damn about you or your problems
Be responsible for yourself and your loved ones. – that’s all you can do!
Interesting:
https://m.facebook.com/Peter.Ticktin/posts/10205751789135961?fref=nf
Hey Clammy, I forgot to post it when I first saw it but a few weeks ago I saw that a large number of student loan debts had been turned over to private debt collectors in TX and the debt collectors were using the US Marshals Service to have people arrested and hauled into court where they were being made to sign structured payment plans. Might want to keep an eye out for the po po as they have a tendency to show up just as one is getting their life back on track and ruin it for them.
Did you finish that short book you were working on?
To Kokoda
Good suggestion about searching on the Jordan border wall
ADD THIS TO THAT : Into Google type “Saudi Border Fence Project”
Even if one only looks at the graphics and photo-graphical images, that
will convince all lookers of the wisdom and do-ability of Trump’s wall on
the Mexican Border, if you can call that “sieve” to be a “border”. It is not
SnowieGeorgie
Stop bein such uh asshole Indented Sphincter. And all the rest of yer, stop encouragin Steph ter write more articles. It’s like encouragin uh mongreloid ter try out fer the chearleading squad, er like tellin one uh them monkey people they could be president, er some shit like that. Steph was born ter be uh waitress, she’s damn good at it, and this writin bullshit is uh distraction.
I don’t understand why people don’t get it.
There is not going to be any physical “wall.” Trump knows that.
The “wall” is a rhetorical and negotiating device. It’s shorthand for tightening up control over the border and enforcing the immigration laws.
But saying “tightening up border control and enforcing immigration laws” doesn’t sound sexy and doesn’t get a lot of people excited. So Trump says “wall.”
Everybody gets “wall” and it represents what he wants to do.
This is also how you start a negotiation with someone, like the Mexican government. You say you’re going to build a wall and make them pay for it. Then you make concessions to get them to do some border control and cooperate with our new border controls, and let up on the “wall” proposal.
Everybody’s happy, more or less, and save face, while Trump gets his goals accomplished.
I can’t believe I have to explain this to people.
After the last 15 years, in which we fought for and patrolled the borders of Iraq and Afghanistan, doesn’t it seem like we could spend some time and resources protecting our own border?
Gimme a wall. I’ll take everything you offer, including the farcical, like Barry’s offer of a moat. Borders mean things. Even the most podunk backwards-ass countries police their borders. I’ve crossed a lot of them. For instance, years ago, I crossed an internal Russian border, akin to crossing from NC to VA, and they had checkpoints with triple rows of dragon teeth, machine guns, and armored vehicles. THAT is a border.
BTW-Jack, you probably got a point. Trump’s playbook is to demand insane things, then negotiate a more realistic plan once he frames the debate the way he wants it.
I see honesty stopped as soon as the headline was written.
Every time an intelligent person brushes up against a Millennial it lowers the quality of their life. Not too difficult to see their future of downward and less and less and the poetic justice endgame that waits for them. These generations are marked and measured and found wanting for reasons the author demonstrates but is unable to comprehend. Anyone with a brain would be better served by asking for answers to those questions.
Ok let me Break it down for you Stephanie
Stage one:when I heard about Donald the real estate developer, I hated him and rationalized away his success.
Stage two:when he became open about all aspects of his life (that was before reality TV)I hated him a bit less.
Stage three:when (he tried to)open the lid on his success (through trump university, trump network, the apprentice, etc) I again hated him a bit less
Stage four:when he promised to take on the very corrupt that enriched him and his buddies, I became very fucking ready to vote for him as president
You, despite your prodigious development, are stuck in stage one
Great post Stephanie, your writing has improved a lot over time. While I might have a quibble here or there, no BFD. Keep up the good work!
The wall is already built in certain sectors, but not all that were funded. Others like the valley pictured above, and in areas where grazing cattle must have access to the water will need to be handled differently. But whether a physical wall, a garrison of troops, drone and satellite surveillance, fixed wing and helicopter patrols backed up by mobile guard troops, the border can be secured. What it takes is the will to do so!
Whether Trump ever possessed that will, other than for use as a sound bite, is questionable. He has employed illegals for many years, after all. His recent temporizing indicates his intention is far less bellicose than his previous stance.
Personally, I see him as a moderate Leftist Republican, by far the furthest Left in the field. He is well left of GHWB. He has largely obscured that with brash boasts, bloviation, and masterful manipulation of free media by using the media thirst for news cycle filler, even if it is contrived fluff.
So, I agree with George Will (a first!), we’ve likely seen peak Trump. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have enough inertial momentum to garner the nomination, especially if the field is not cleared to expose him. Cruz has Mo on his side, so it’ll be interesting to watch.
Steph, here is the best part. I find a lot of your positions all over the place. That’s OK. You’re thinking about lots of things, and your level of awareness is ten times better than mine was at your age. Just don’t let any of this get baked in. Respect the successful. It’s not easy to succeed. Study them. Copy them. Do what’s easy, as long as it’s legal and moral. If you despise the wealthy, how are you ever going to transact business with them? People more experienced than you are going to hear every word that comes out of your mouth. They have more options than just you. Become their best option
upvoted you starfcker lol such a name
In business ya gotta provide a service people will pay for . Become the best option indeed is the ticket .
Miss Stephanie , focus ,focus,focus on your target audience , best advice I got .Also learn history ,it does not always duplicate , but it certainly has a particular rhyme to it .
Same ole same ole down thru the ages or at least a few thousand years back .
Latest Immigration Grades:
https://www.numbersusa.com/content/elections/races/presidential/2016-presidential-hopefuls.html
Stephanie, I’m not sure how old you are but many of the “Gen Y’s” I know aren’t Trump supporters so I’m not surprised half your rant is about him. My best guess as to why is #1, youth is often wasted with liberal thoughts and #2 you haven’t seen enough yet to understand better the reality of the situation at hand.
Sure, the media does love Trump because he brings ratings, but don’t be fooled, this election was a setup from the beginning. The establishment had pre-ordained a Bush. vs. Clinton showdown this November. Us “pleebs” are (pardon) fucking it all up by supporting this uncontrollable outsider known as Trump. Their best hope now is propping up the only GOP “yes man” they have left in Rubio, who is a very flawed candidate even for the establishment.
Is Trump perfect, no, but he says things that resonate and I have no doubt he’s a smart man who would surround himself with smart people. Oddly enough the same thing is happening on the left side of the aisle (far far left side) with Bernie Sanders. Certainly there is a degree of anger in the electorate with the status quo. Sadly your article makes me thing the entitled-youth like the status quo which I assure you will not end well for your generation.
It’s funny how we have not heard about one of Trump’s big campaign ideas from the last Presidential election he participated in, which was to assess a one-time wealth tax (tax total wealth, not just one year’s earnings) on the very rich, which would used t pay off the national debt. I actually thought this was his best idea at the time.
Instead, we’ll end up seeing bank bail-ins, which is essentially the same thing albeit being a tax on the middle class and poor because rich people do not hold their wealth in banks.
Steph,
Well written – nicely done. Nothing I can add that hasn’t been said already.
Flash says:
“Immigration has been weaponized.”
Comment of the day. Truer words have never been spoken. Unfortunately, it has become a global phenomena.
And would some one, for the sake of the good Lord above, please take Westcoaster’s crack pipe away. I’m starting to think he is actually serious about Bernie…