How Come?

[Bad Penny II]

How come The Bahamas with a population of 400,000 can produce an articulate prime minister, whilst the USA with many more to choose from, they choose Mr Orange to talk for them?

Shwshhhwshhhwsshhhsh
Shit, what was that? I nearly lost my hat.
A category 5.
Oh, this is bad, very bad, I've never even heard of one of those.

Shwshhhwshhhwsshhhsh
Shit, what was that? I nearly lost my hat.
A category 5.
Oh, this is bad, very bad, I've never even heard of one of those.

Shwshhhwshhhwsshhhsh
Shit, what was that? I nearly lost my hat.
A category 5.
Oh, this is bad, very bad, I've never even heard of one of those.

[Bad Penny II]

How come the local high school's class for average twelve year olds, 8C, can produce a more articulate spokesperson?

[Bad Penny II]

How come the local high school's class for average twelve year olds, 8C, can produce a more articulate spokesperson?

The spokesperson for 8C is a very nice person, I notice she has a lesbian mother, I support that, I support that.  But the nation has chosen me not her.  And I don't think she's really a nice person at all, I've heard things, I'm not going say any more but I've heard things, Nazi loot laundering, lunch money extortion, she was pushing to expel Giles from the library, I've heard things but I'm not saying anymore.

[Ecurb Noselrub]

We are not an articulate, sophisticated nation, as a whole.  And well-spokenness is not high on the list of qualifications for our leaders.  And we have a system that allows a person with fewer votes than his opponent to win.  And many people, knowing that Trump is an asshole, vote for him anyway because they perceive he fits their self-interests better than the other party.  So, those are four reasons - I'm sure there are more.

[Bad Penny II]

"We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war. I do not say the we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours. "

You're the best when you're at your best.

[Ecurb Noselrub]

Yeah, but for every American who talks like that, there are 2 or 3 who would read it and say "huh???".

[Recusant]

. . . And many people, knowing that Trump is an asshole, vote for him anyway because they perceive he fits their self-interests better than the other party.

I don't think it's just those who overlook his despicable qualities for the sake of policies they agree with. It seems to me that a significant percentage of his support comes from those who find his despicable qualities salutary, because his targets coincide with people they despise, hate, and/or fear.

"The Cruelty Is the Point" | The Atlantic

We can hear the spectacle of cruel laughter throughout the Trump era. There were the border-patrol agents cracking up at the crying immigrant children separated from their families, and the Trump adviser who delighted white supremacists when he mocked a child with Down syndrome who was separated from her mother. There were the police who laughed uproariously when the president encouraged them to abuse suspects, and the Fox News hosts mocking a survivor of the Pulse Nightclub massacre (and in the process inundating him with threats), the survivors of sexual assault protesting to Senator Jeff Flake, the women who said the president had sexually assaulted them, and the teen survivors of the Parkland school shooting. There was the president mocking Puerto Rican accents shortly after thousands were killed and tens of thousands displaced by Hurricane Maria, the black athletes protesting unjustified killings by the police, the women of the #MeToo movement who have come forward with stories of sexual abuse, and the disabled reporter whose crime was reporting on Trump truthfully. It is not just that the perpetrators of this cruelty enjoy it; it is that they enjoy it with one another. Their shared laughter at the suffering of others is an adhesive that binds them to one another, and to Trump.

Taking joy in that suffering is more human than most would like to admit. Somewhere on the wide spectrum between adolescent teasing and the smiling white men in the lynching photographs are the Trump supporters whose community is built by rejoicing in the anguish of those they see as unlike them, who have found in their shared cruelty an answer to the loneliness and atomization of modern life.
[Continues . . .]

[Icarus]

The parts that makes me cringe are the instances when Trump's crowd begins to chant...."Lock her up"........."send them back"........and all of the other demonstrations of ignorant mob behavior.

[Ecurb Noselrub]

. . . And many people, knowing that Trump is an asshole, vote for him anyway because they perceive he fits their self-interests better than the other party.

I don't think it's just those who overlook his despicable qualities for the sake of policies they agree with. It seems to me that a significant percentage of his support comes from those who find his despicable qualities salutary, because his targets coincide with people they despise, hate, and/or fear.

"The Cruelty Is the Point" | The Atlantic

We can hear the spectacle of cruel laughter throughout the Trump era. There were the border-patrol agents cracking up at the crying immigrant children separated from their families, and the Trump adviser who delighted white supremacists when he mocked a child with Down syndrome who was separated from her mother. There were the police who laughed uproariously when the president encouraged them to abuse suspects, and the Fox News hosts mocking a survivor of the Pulse Nightclub massacre (and in the process inundating him with threats), the survivors of sexual assault protesting to Senator Jeff Flake, the women who said the president had sexually assaulted them, and the teen survivors of the Parkland school shooting. There was the president mocking Puerto Rican accents shortly after thousands were killed and tens of thousands displaced by Hurricane Maria, the black athletes protesting unjustified killings by the police, the women of the #MeToo movement who have come forward with stories of sexual abuse, and the disabled reporter whose crime was reporting on Trump truthfully. It is not just that the perpetrators of this cruelty enjoy it; it is that they enjoy it with one another. Their shared laughter at the suffering of others is an adhesive that binds them to one another, and to Trump.

Taking joy in that suffering is more human than most would like to admit. Somewhere on the wide spectrum between adolescent teasing and the smiling white men in the lynching photographs are the Trump supporters whose community is built by rejoicing in the anguish of those they see as unlike them, who have found in their shared cruelty an answer to the loneliness and atomization of modern life.
[Continues . . .]

Yeah, this goes to my first point that the USA, on the whole, is not sophisticated and articulate. But there are a few that know what Trump is and still vote for him, and that is very disappointing to me.

[Tom62]

Obama was quite sophisticated.

[Bad Penny II]

Obama was quite sophisticated.

Ye, and part of his sophistication was dumbing it down, for the folks.

[xSilverPhinx]

The average voter prefers a charismatic man to a competent one, a man who is confident in the little he knows to someone insecure in their vaster knowledge.

(I used 'man' to mean exclusively members of the male sex, not as a term for humankind).

Strange things happen during election time. In Brazil, women voted for a misogynistic turd, black people voted for an unabashed racist, and the poor voted for someone who was backed by the elites. 

Very strange.

[Dark Lightning]

Then USians must be highly intelligent and thoughtful.  Not! Look at the turd in our punch bowl!   

[Anne D.]

What are you on about? The Cheeto is a man of great and unmatched wisdom.

[Dark Lightning]

What are you on about? The Cheeto is a man of great and unmatched wisdom.

...and a "stable genius" to boot! :rolleyes: