Monday, July 25, 2016

The duped believe the scam with all their hearts




     At New Year’s 1993, outgoing President George H.W. Bush, on his way to Russia, visited the American troops he had sent to Somalia three weeks earlier. He toured a hospital and spent a total of 10 hours in the country.
     If you’re wondering what that historical blip has to do with anything, especially our chaotic presidential race, remember last week when I introduced you to my Cleveland
I had to ask, "Are you sincere?" He was.
cabbie
. I mentioned he is voting for Donald Trump but didn’t get the chance to share his reply when I asked why a black Muslim would do such a thing.
     He said that Bush visited Somalia and thus most Somalis vote Republican. The cabbie waved off other considerations that Trump would ban Muslims like himself from the country or that Bush himself isn’t supporting Trump. The cabbie offered up the fiction that Trump had recanted and apologized, which he certainly hasn’t.

     His answer set the tone for Cleveland. Everyone I spoke with seemed motivated by an equally nonsensical rationale: Black Lives Matter protesters who aren’t voting because our country isn’t equal yet. Jews supporting Trump despite his cracking open the Pandora’s Box of bigotry because they prefer his stand on Israel to Hillary Clinton’s. Those who are voting for neither Trump nor Hillary Clinton because the most important things in this election is for them to preserve their own moral purity.

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10 comments:

  1. Oh, but Hillary is a liar with her e-mails, or something. Just ask John Kass. (God, why does that guy have a column? Why is he allowed outside without adult supervision?)

    Bitter Scribe

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    1. Bitter: I've told you before the solution to that puzzle. I never read Kass, never encounter anyone in the living world who reads John Kass, and with the rare exception of comments such as yours, utterly forget he exists. He isn't even bad in an interesting fashion, the way Bob Greene was.

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    2. A friend recently mentioned to me about some gardening tip or other that he read in Kass' column. It took me aback for a moment until I remembered that my friend is the son of a butcher so maybe he felt that connection to Kass (it also gave me some insight into my friend's weirder political statements). There can't be that many children of butchers in the city to keep his column going though, someone else must be reading him or they wouldn't keep him.

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  2. Jeez, I thought that even in cultures in which traditionally butchers were basically untouchables, the day had long gone when being a "son of a butcher" was a taint worn forever.

    john

    P.S. Since I've never read Kass, I have no opinion on his political views or writing skills. I'm loyal to Neil, which in the context of today's column may not count for much.

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    1. I don't think Walter meant it as a slur. From what I remember, Kass is in essence channeling Mike Royko, so as Royko often references his growing up above a tavern, Kass uses his Greek heritage to try to make his right wingnut idea carry the tang of authenticity. He's the standard Fox News politics given a shot of ouzo, which I could forgive if he ever ventured beyond his pitiful handful of topics. But he doesn't.

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    2. Cultural Nuance is everything. In my cultural background, slaughtering meat is a religious act, it has to be done with respect for the life that is being sacrificed, in a single stroke across the carotid, so that it is instantaneous and as close to painless as possible, a prayer is chanted before an after, the knife is freshly sharpened each time, the person who does it is one who remains aware of what he is doing and not become hardened by it. it is slow and meticulous and the reason Kosher meat is so expensive. "Son of a butcher" is nothing to be sneered at.

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    3. Neil is correct, I was using it to point out the narrowness of his demographic (to match the narrow viewpoint he writes from).

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  3. A minor quibble, but from what I read Sanders supporters don't object to Kaine because he is "boring," but because he has taken moderate (and sensible) positions on international trade agreements and other issues. Kaine, himself, was quoted as saying he was boring, but his speech in Miami, a stem-winder, suggests he was kidding. Amid all the speculation about how Hillary chose him the one that does her most credit is that she considers him capable of assuming the Presidency.

    Tom Evans

    Tom Evans

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  4. Good move Neil, because I just got this intercepted message from the RNC! "Needless to say, I guess I didn't make the short list! "But I have seen the light, I'm driving for "Wiki-Leak" now as a undercover "Uber" driver, in "Philly"! (After I told my 79 year old, American internet wife, "guess who was in my cab last week", she said, first she was going to shoot herself in the head, and to stop laughing, because I was next! But instead, she just left me!) "I love this country"! My motto is: "As long as you get to where you're going babe"! Hey, at least you guys get to vote, me, not so much! And you are a much better tipper than those Trump Republicans! ("Be well my friend"! "Your cabbie from Cleveland"!)

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