The Goat Pen

From the UK.


The American white-collar class just spent the year rallying around a super-competent professional (who really wasn’t all that competent) and either insulting or silencing everyone who didn’t accept their assessment. And then they lost. Maybe it’s time to consider whether there’s something about shrill self-righteousness, shouted from a position of high social status, that turns people away.

Yeah, I think they got that message loud and clear. It's ironic that, at least for one cycle, the dems became the party of the elite which had been the perception of the republican party for most of our lifetimes, whereas the repubs became the populist party. I suspect the dems are going to get back to their roots very quickly...

On a positive note, Trump seems to be a changed man since he won. I think he was more shocked than anybody by that and even with his giant ego he seems to be humbled by the enormity of what has happened. I think that's good. He might end up being alright, although if that happens, he's going to break the hearts of a lot of the alt right/tea party faction out there...

I saw the 60 minutes interview, and Trump has REALLY cooled his rhetoric. He was open to a wall with fences in some places. That's a semantic distinction, but is a signal nonetheless. He's not to start rounding up illegals until the border is secure, which means probably never. He's not going after gay marriage. I never thought he would. He's a New Yorker, not an Alabamian. He will nominate justices he can proclaim as pro-life, but more often than not, supposedly conservative Republican appointees turn moderate when they get to SCOTUS. I expect more Kennedy's and Roberts's than Scalia's and Thomas's (peace be upon the latter two).

Dem's should be delighted by what they heard. If he appoints even more Roberts's and Kennedy's to SCOTUS, that's infinitely better than the loonies Hillary would have put there.

Yeah, now the "big, beautiful southern border wall" gives way to "strategic fencing". Deportation numbers went from 11 mil to "2 or 3." The no-muslims-from-hostile-territory section of his website was removed. "Drain the Swamp" evaporated when he chose Priebus to be his chief of staff, plus all the pols and lobbyists he's got lined up for other spots. Our allies may not have to worry about us running a protection racket after all. He'll probably keep parts of obamacare, he probably won't lock her up, and he thinks same-sex marriage is jake.

Nevertheless, if you [still] like your prez-elect, you can keep your prez-elect. heh

Cubs WS champ. Trump prez-elect. No rain here since August. Super-moon.

[youtube]JSUIQgEVDM4[/youtube]

Great song...

bluetick wrote:Yeah, now the "big, beautiful southern border wall" gives way to "strategic fencing". Deportation numbers went from 11 mil to "2 or 3." The no-muslims-from-hostile-territory section of his website was removed. "Drain the Swamp" evaporated when he chose Priebus to be his chief of staff, plus all the pols and lobbyists he's got lined up for other spots. Our allies may not have to worry about us running a protection racket after all. He'll probably keep parts of obamacare, he probably won't lock her up, and he thinks same-sex marriage is jake.

Nevertheless, if you [still] like your prez-elect, you can keep your prez-elect. heh

He's already said he'd keep the pre-existing conditions clause and kids staying on their parents' plan until 26. Those were the only features of Obamacare that were popular.

Of course, today he could go back to the full wall, Muslim ban, deport all illegals, arrest Hilary, etc, and say he never wavered yesterday. That was his M.O. during the campaign.

It was also his M.O. during the campaign to say that you always overstate what you want when you're negotiating to give yourself a more favorable starting point when the time comes to make some concessions. This notion was wildly popular with Trump apologists who cited that as proof of his business savvy and negotiation skills, and indeed, it may prove to be of great value. But I think they may have overlooked this aspect of negotiation tactics when it came to many of the things Trump promised on the campaign trail...

We are all doomed.

For all the "he's spending his own money and isn't dependent on the Wall Street fat cats" talk, Trump is going to do exactly what his big bank masters (to whom he's on the hook for a billion dollars) wants him to do.

Middle class white guys expecting the Big Steel, Tool & Die or auto industry jobs to come back can hang it up. Remember, your Trump hat has a tag that says "Made in China."

The saving grace is that America is a big organism and it takes big organisms a long time to die. Hopefully we can get Trump out before the case is terminal. But he has a legislative blank check and the last time that happened for a GOP president, we had a never-ending war (in fact we're still fighting it), a precedent setting economic downturn and the US Men's Basketball Team lost 3 games in the same Olympics.

Elections have consequences.

bluetick wrote:Cubs WS champ. Trump prez-elect. No rain here since August. Super-moon.

[youtube]JSUIQgEVDM4[/youtube]

Great song, but this is the video that MUST go with it:

[youtube]wRwwUZLV-IE[/youtube]

Professor Tiger wrote:
Great song, but this is the video that MUST go with it:

[youtube]wRwwUZLV-IE[/youtube]

"Saigon. Shit. I'm still only in Saigon."

Best opening line in a movie ever.

Trump faces backlash over appointing Bannon as a top aide, a choice critics say will empower white nationalists
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... spartandhp

“It is easy to see why the KKK views Trump as their champion when Trump appoints one of the foremost peddlers of White Supremacist themes and rhetoric as his top aide. Bannon was ‘the main driver behind Breitbart becoming a white ethno-nationalist propaganda mill,’ according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.”

1 - The check is in the mail.

2 - I won't come in your mouth.

3 - Race had nothing to do with it.

Lemme guess:

Is he a sexist, homophobe, Islamophobe, and climate change denier too?

Professor Tiger wrote:Lemme guess:

Is he a sexist, homophobe, Islamophobe, and climate change denier too?

Don't know if he's anything . . . but his supporters are all of the above.

After reports Donald Trump requested security clearances for his children, denial
https://mic.com/articles/159454/preside ... .chqSuusCO

Republican President-elect Donald Trump requested security clearances for some or all of his children and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, CBS and NBC reported on Monday evening, triggering the Trump transition team to issue a denial.

Media reports immediately questioned whether seeking security clearances for Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump, who the president-elect has said will be in charge of running his business interests via a questionably ethical "blind trust," would constitute a conflict of interest.

81% of white evangelicals voted for the thrice-married, womanizing, arrogant, biblically illiterate, unrepentant, profane casino owner without a conversion story for president.

Wow.

University students and faculty are asked to not quote the man who founded the university...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washin ... ent=safari

Thomas Jefferson LOVED black people. One in particular.

Professor Tiger wrote:Thomas Jefferson LOVED black people. One in particular.

Loved her enough to keep her children as slaves until he died.

Just saw this (a little late - sorry). Hysterical. Chappell and Rock reacted the same way my black friends did.

[youtube]SHG0ezLiVGc[/youtube]