Tuesday, May 16, 2017

A Couple Thoughts Today

There hasn't been much news lately, between Trumpsanity getting a second wind on the interwebs these days and the obsession with not-news news. So here are some thoughts on what I see these days.

Thought One: My Trump fatigue is getting worse, but not in the way the left wants. There is so much insane anti-Trump stuff every day that I am honestly at a point where I can't take it anymore. I simply refuse to believe anything the left says anymore and I no longer care what Trump is accused of. I could know for a fact that he drinks the blood of children in the White House and I refuse to care. This is what happens when a million boys scream WOLF on continuous loop. I guess the left never read that one.

Thought Two: The anti-Trump stuff is the establishment thrashing about in a sort of death throw at the moment. It reminds me of a giant monster that is finally stabbed in the heart and then thrashes its tentacles all over the place in an overly dramatic death scene. Now I know why prior revolutions put these people up against the wall rather than simply trying to unseat them. It's also interesting to me how much of the conservative movement falls into this group.

Thought Three: If you want to now why Russia is a eunuch and China is a paper tiger, consider these two facts. Our defense budget is three times both of theirs combined. Trump is looking to increase the defense budget by about as much as Putin spends in total. Still seem scary? They shouldn't. In that kind of world, neither Russia nor China is actually prepared to take us on.

Thought Four: There is an interesting demographic history to the US. You can basically break our history up into periods when an invasion of immigrants or whatnot seemed to be poised to remake America, only to sputter out. Irish, Jews, Eastern Europeans all had their day. Prior to World War II, the Japanese were going to take the West Coast. After the Civil War and through reconstruction, Blacks were going to out breed whites for the title of majority. None of this panned out. The Japanese are probably the smallest Asian group in the US. Jews stopped having babies around 6% of the population. Black growth petered out at 11% today. Hispanic growth has all but stopped and will soon go backwards. They will likely peter out at 15%. The next group trying for the crown will be Chinese.

There are a butt load of Chinese who want to come here, but China is peaking right now and will soon start to shrink massively. They are 1.2% of the population and I suspect they never get about 3%. Indians will follow them, but they have the same problem. They are 1.2% as well and I doubt they get to 2%.

I think what this means is that it's a lot harder to change a country demographically than people think. And I think it means the Democrats made a huge mistake in relying on their supporters out-breeding whites.

Thought Five: Did you know the 80's are back? Pop music sounds remarkably stolen from the 1980s. Adidas track suits are in. Even some of the slang is back. How did this happen?

21 comments:

EPorvaznik said...

The 80s are back, AP, because the decade rocked. Naysayers can gripe about the synth-laden pop music, but so what? Duran Duran weren't Roxy Music, but damn worthy heirs. Also nice seeing the bold-statement sucka MC Kings of Rock RUN DMC's Adidas suits making a comeback. Even heard "Freeway of Love" between innings of the Arizona high school baseball championships tonight. Now where's my Vision Quest soundtrack...?

Amen two-times on the Trump fatigue, too. While I'm certainly no sycophant Trumpkin (wrote in Rick Perry last November), and want his feet held to the fire as much as any president/senator/congressman, just rolling my eyes as I scroll or flip past all the embarrassing histrionics, especially from the right.

Anonymous said...

When I die I intend to ask Jesus why he didn't return and just end history at the end of the eighties. The eighties were the pinnacle of human achievement. While the seventies were the high water mark of achievement in film, the eighties were the crest of human achievement in music. Ronbo's steady hands held the helm, nearly every movie had gratuitous breast shots just so they could get an R rating and unabashed old school masculinity was celebrated. Remember Commando and Cobra? Neither one made a damn bit of sense but shit, they were fun. Plus that decade saw the third installment of the Rocky life story, (I don't acknowledge 4 or 5, and 5 wasn't until 1990 anyway) the film birth of John Rambo, The Road Warrior, Road House, Conan The Barbarian and Die Hard. The birth of the Chuck Norris legend. And Wrestling everywhere! The eighties was simply the greatest time to be alive in America since 1775! And to top it all off at the end of the decade of balls to the wall Americanism the wall came down!!! The perfect ending to the greatest decade. Then came the nineties and the world went to shit. TV went from The A Team to Friends. Piss.
GypsyTyger

Anonymous said...

As far as your other thoughts, I agree. I never cared one way or the other about Donald John Trump until 2016 but he's my new hero. I truly think he has the potential to be one of the greats, I really do. He wasn't my first choice. If I got to pick the 45th President of the United States I would have picked Ron Paul. But I knew he was too far outside of mainstream american political thought so I supported Ted Cruz. I voted for Ted in the Ohio primary. But when Trump got the nominatian I manned up, realized that the world doesn't revolve around me, and unlike the staff at the National Review, the republicans in congress, George Will and the staff of the Weekly Standard Irefused to act like a pissy childish bitch that didn't care if his country went down the shitter so long as "Movement Conservatism " Peace Be Upon It - was preserved. And after I stood in the rain for an hour to vote for him I was fully aware that there would,t be a wall between us and Mexico in 90 days. Things take time and swamps drain hard. Go 45!
GypsyTyger

Anonymous said...

Rand Paul, not Ron.
GT

tryanmax said...

Just a brief reminder that what everybody calls the 80s aesthetic was really the late-80s/early-90s. I'm just barely old enough to remember that everyone dressed like Urban Cowboy until about '84.

Bring back Hyper-Color shirts. Sure, they stopped changing color after about three washes. That's why you didn't wash them. ;-)

Anonymous said...

The 80s are sort of back
Kurt Russell and Sly Stallone in the same movie which was Guardians of the Galaxy 2.
Now just waiting for Duran Duran to have the song for the next bond movie.

EPorvaznik said...

I'd rather the finally and blessedly resurgent Jesus and Mary Chain have that honor, Anon, but based on the Duran Duran I caught twice on the Paper Gods tour, you wouldn't hear me complaining.

tryanmax said...

It's also interesting to me how much of the conservative movement falls into this [anti-Trump] group.

A lot of conservatives have completely outed themselves as ideological in nature, only. They've shown they have no interest in actually accomplishing things.

tryanmax said...

Andrew, what's equally interesting is how important it is to folks on both sides to know why Trump is doing what he's doing. I think it's fair to say that his motivations are extremely opaque, which is how people come to such wildly different conclusions about what they are. Discussion of what Trump has done serves only as a starting point to try to get into Trump's head about why he does them. It's very intriguing.

It's no revelation that, as social creatures, we care deeply about the motivations of others. What is a bit of a revelation (to me, at least) is that when those motives are unknown, everyone regards that person as either a genius or a madman. I think we saw a lesser degree of this with Obama. His motivations weren't necessarily opaque, but they were fuzzy. That allowed the growth of fringe idolaters and haters. Trump, with his pattern of broadcasting every fleeting idea in his head, is Obama on steroids in regards to having obscure motivations.

Koshcat said...

I saw a few clips last night of Nancy Pelosi basically stating that to impeach someone, they have to have done something illegal or treasonist. Thinking the guy is a jerk and not liking him or what he is doing isn't enough to impeach him.

Pretty sad commentary of the left when Pelosi is the voice of reason. We should have a contest for the best made up outrage of something Trump has done. Winner gets one of those invisible t-shirts.

OH...MY...GOD! TRUMP USED DOUBLE PLY TOILET PAPER JUST TO WIPE HIS ASS! THIS PROVES HE HATES THE ENVIRONMENT AND IS A RUSSIAN SPY!

Critch said...

I liked the way I dressed in the 70s,,,especially the yolk front western shirts, Levis and boots...we looked great...

My youngest son just came in and stated that Fleetwood Mac is the best rock band ever....he's 25...go figure...

tryanmax said...

The best rock band ever is clearly The Doors. But the Rumors album is amazing.

Anonymous said...

Critch - Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old I shall not depart from it. :)
GypsyTyger

AndrewPrice said...

Hi everyone, sorry for being absent yesterday. Long day.

My daughter asked me what my favorite band is yesterday. I don't really think in terms of favorites because they can't be ranked. I can say thought that some of my favorites are Pink Floyd, the Police, Dire Straights, the Beatles, Alan Parson's Project, Crosby Stills and Nash.

And I never did see Duran Duran, but I had all of their albums. Radical, dude.

AndrewPrice said...

Trumped up outrage:

DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE QUIT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SINCE HE BECAME PRESIDENT?!!! It must be in the thousands! He is tearing the government apart!!!!

AndrewPrice said...

Apparently Roger Ailes has died. Time for a murder conspiracy theory...

tryanmax said...

RE: Trumped up outrage: Meanwhile, people who voted for Trump are thrilled.

tryanmax said...

RE: Roger Ailes - apparently, the snarky thing to do is to offer condolences to the women he allegedly harassed. You know, the same Fox News anchors that the liberal media harasses for being traitors to their gender. Oh, and he's been posthumously declared a rapist by none of the people directly involved. So, yeah, lot of tap-dancing on that grave.

AndrewPrice said...

tryanmax, I can't take Trump's supporters anymore. They are so INTOLERANT! People need to stop dealing with them. Burn their businesses. Fire them. Make them wear yellow T's on their intolerant shirts too so we know who they are!

tryanmax said...

I was just thinking, if evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia doesn't turn up soon, we'll have to launch an investigation into where the evidence disappeared to and how.

AndrewPrice said...

LOL! So true tryanmax. Of course, we know there is evidence because everyone on the left says it's already been proven... somewhere.

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