The Tiny Problem That Could Bring Down Trump’s Giant UFC Birthday Bash The UFC fighters won’t be the only bloodthirsty ones at the event.

 The Tiny Problem That Could Bring Down Trump’s Giant UFC Birthday Bash

The UFC fighters won’t be the only bloodthirsty ones at the event.

Cowardly Men

She's a young beautiful woman, never smiles. I never see a smile on her face. I see her standing there with hatred in her eyes, like she has hatred because we have borders, because we have a strong military, because we cut our taxes...

Donald Trump in a recent press conference.

Donald Trump is a creepy old man.

A few years ago there was a lot of ink spilled and electrons expended on whether or not there was a "crisis of masculinity" in American culture.  There's still a fair amount of discussion of it, as evidenced by this New York Times op ed from this year:

America Has a Masculinity Crisis

A much-needed, nuanced conversation about masculinity and feminism today.

I've thought about posting in it from time to time, but never had as its a difficult topic to really address, even though, as it involves a shift in social standards, it fits right into this site's purpose.

Seeing Donald Trump insult of a female reporter the other day however, makes it impossible not to address.

Trump is a creepy old man who came of age in the 70s and had early sexual morals like that of an alley cat.  He seems to lack any morals today.  The comment he made was not only demeaning, it demonstrates an absolute contempt of women.  The reporter is supposed to be a pretty adornment, in his view.

How many women have been confronted by the lech stating "why don't you smile more".  Indeed, if you are of a certain age, "why don't you smile more?" or "why don't you wear prettier dresses" or the like is pretty much raising the flag of an intended sexual assault of the pressure type.  Given Trump's dementia, it's not impossible to wonder if that was a line other women in other context have heard before.

It should have been met with a male reaction.

When I was young, even though I grew up in the 1960s and 70s, there was a set of expectations that boys learned and men followed.  I think to some extent they've fallen aside as in the 1970s men lost track of what was expected of them due to the wave of First Generation Feminism.  That era has passed, but knowing what to do and how to behave seems to have gone out to sea.

There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it."

Chesterton, The Thing. 

The old standards weren't quaint, they existed for a reason.  Two of the reasons are that men are more powerful than women and if the law of the jungle applies, lots of men will abuse women, and by abuse, you know what we mean.  The vulnerable girls at Epstein Island, where Trump traveled with the other rich and often unprincipled, provide an example of that.  Another reason is that the rules restrained men and oriented them towards decent behavior.  Finally, and quite frankly, the rules in fact reflected centuries old views of the relationship between men and women, much of which underwent assault in the 1970s, but frankly which reflect women, and men, in their more natural roles.

Now, let's be clear.  There were men who always violated these rules, some very openly, but they weren't admire for that.  And the reaction to violation could go far beyond mere internal contempt.

Amongst the rules were some that seem pretty minor.  You always opened the door for women, including women you didn't know.  You walked around a car to let a woman out of the car and opened the door for her, and when entering a car you opened the door for her.  Both of those actually reflect an era when doors were heavier, including car doors.

A man got up from his seat when women approached to address them, something depicted in the final seat of True Grit when Frank James does not get up when she approaches, and when she leaves she states "Keep your seat, trash".  

That is how that was viewed.

More seriously, however, men, including teenage boys, were taught not to insult a woman's virtue in any fashion.  The instruction was so serious that if you were in a relationship with a woman so insulted you were expected to immediately intervene, but it went beyond that.  If you were in a setting where that was done you were also expected to intervene, particularly if you knew the girl or the knew somebody who was in a relationship with the girl.  It was universally understood that a verbal rebuke of a person talking smack or insulting a girl, or saying the kind of thing Trump was saying, didn't cause them to knock it off, a fistfight was the probable result.  Generally, the exchange went something like:

"Hey, knock it off and leave her alone."

The reply normally was:

"Hey dude, I didn't mean anything by it".

If,, however, the insulting person did not back off, a fight often ensued.  

This is, of course, amongst younger men.  If an older man, like Trump, said something like that, a verbal rebuke and walking out was the norma.

That went something like:

"You sir, are being insulting and owe her an apology".

With an old baffoon like Trump, that was normally met with:

"Um, I all I meant. . . 

At which point the other men started leaving.

This is all 20th Century stuff, I'd note, and 20th Century middle class stuff.  Even when I was young in rougher society fights could arise in this fashion which went right to knives.  In European and European American middle class and upper class society of the 18th and 19th Century failing to yield often outright resulted in a duel.  

Now, these guys just stand there like lumps, saying nothing.

One of the things about our current society is that it's really become White Trash.  The gutter morals of men who view women as objects and who can't speak with any proficiency are dictating the culture of the country, and combined with this is the corruption that wealth has always brought about.  

Again, Trump provides us a fine example of that.  He's an immoral man who is steeped in immorality. He's hung around with the rich men who abuse teenage women to the point where questions about his behavior are legitimate questions.  He's made creepy comments about his own daughter when she was young. The wheels are coming off of his ability to restrain himself.  He gets closer and closer to the point at which he's going to outright proposition a woman on national television and not one male reporter has the courage to do anything about it.

But we're going to have to start doing something about this behavior.

Part of the claim of the MAGA movement and entities like the Wyoming Freedom Caucus is that they were restoring America. Instead, they're just White Trashing it up.  Chuck Gray have us just such an example the other day when he acted like a 12 year old brat the Cowboy State Daily video program.

One of the things about the old rules is that even one person enforcing them was normally effective.  Even within the last few years I've seen that when an official got mad about something and started swearing and another official rebuked him with "there are ladies here".  I hadn't heard that in years, but it resulted in an immediate apology.

People around Trump need to start calling him on his behavior.  People around Trump who pretend its not important need to be called on that.  But beyond that, people in everyday conversation need to do the same.  The long road back won't become from the top of the generation in charge.  It'll have to come from the bottom.

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 139th Edition: Um, I have to wash my hair that night.

One of the ways to tell if you are held in social esteem is to invite people to a party and have them come up with excuses not to show up.

That's happening to Trump.  Trump was planning a "Great American State Fair" with a host of performers, most of whom have already begged off.

This isn't even up to date, as since this was posted C+C Music factory says he or it (I don't know anything about that act) has said nope as well.

McBride says she'll be on tour with the Dixie Chicks.  Bret Michaels says he never planned to go to a political event, which this has become, and is concerned about the safety of his people.  Young MC has also said he never intended to go to a political event.  I'd be surprised if any of these people show up.

Somebody will.  It'll likely be country acts that trend heavily far right, which a few do.  But this level of rapid backing out is fairly remarkable.

The reference to state fairs is interesting.  Are state fairs a big deal anywhere anymore?  I'm sincere.  They still occur, but I don't think they were what they once were, so that's an oddly nostalgic reference, I think.

On other spectacles. . . 

I've hesitated to say it, as its controversial, and can be taken the wrong way, but MAGA contains a heavy element of white trash in it.  Not everyone by any means.  I know a few very well educated supporters of Donald Trump, and a few who are supporters for what I'd regard as regional reasons.  But there's some flat out white trash as well.  "Professional" wrestling is a white trash theatre, and Trump is hosting an event on the White House grounds.  

Figures.

Hosting a wrestling event gives lie to the entire "I need a ballroom as if I don't get one I'll be in danger" crap.  It'll be a big, stupid, hootenanny.  If you were concerned about safety, you wouldn't host it.

It's so unfortunate that Trump is President for the 250th Anniversary of American independence as he symbolizes everything the nation rebelled against.  It's like simply closing a page on American democracy.  We had local democracy and colonial rule, went to democracy, improved our democracy, and then crashed into oligarchy.  It's questionable if the nation will be able to recognize itself after Trump is done destroying everything he touches.

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 138th Edition: Congress is having hearings on UFOs.

Labels: 119th Congress, 2020s, 2026, Ascendant Ignorance in the Age of Donald Trump, Cryptozoology, Economics, Ignorance, Stupidity, This is why we can't have nice things, Unidentified Flying Objects, Zeitgeist

The ascent of the ignorant.

I know I have an Ivy League education which is now supposed to make me ashamed. 

But I am really tired of trying to argue with ignoramuses who don’t know anything about anything on this hellsite.

It will be a miracle if America survives this ascent of the ignorant.

Jon "Bowzer" Bauman.

We need to stop trusting the experts... Trusting the experts is not a feature of science or democracy, it's a feature of religion and totalitarianism.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., ignoramus.

Bauman, famous for his portrayal as a deep voiced "greaser" in the band Sha Na Na, but in fact very well educated and now a Democratic political activist, has it right.

I've struggled to put together posts on this topic, unsuccessfully several times.  Lots of people like me, Conservatives back in the day, and Social Conservatives still, keep wondering what happened, even while pretty much knowing what happened. We're horrified as the country rockets towards Petainism, or Francoism, or just outright stupidity, even while we wonder how on earth we went to a country in which homosexual propaganda is outright directed at the young.

Justice Kennedy. . . you are to blame for a lot of this.

Anyhow, one of the real stunning things of the Trump ascent has been the ascent of the ignorant.

And that's hard to take.

William F. Buckley, conservative intellectual.  He wouldn't recognize, or approve of, the current Republican Party.

Conservatism used to be fairly intellectual. . .well it was fairly intellectual after the McCarthy era.  In truth, it's always cycled between intellectualism and wild conspiratorial phantasy, just as the left has cycled between  intellectualism and wild eye flaming goofballedry . To some extent, the poor nation is getting both of these now at the same time, but it's most prominent on the right.

Ronald Reagan and conservative George F. Will.  Will left the Republican Party due to Trump.  This is the same room that Trump has made look like a movie set designers version of a 19th Century New Orleans whorehouse.

A big part of Trump's intellectual, if you will, drive now comes from Dominionist who claim to be carrying a sword for Christianity but who don't grasp the mains intellect of it.  It was Cardinal Newman who noted that to know history was to make a person a Catholic, and the Dominionist neither know history nor, for that matter, Christianity very well.  Outside of those carrying a Pine Tree flag are those who are in the Petainist/Francoist Christian Nationalist movement, who at least aren't anti intellectual and are relatively intellectual themselves, when their beliefs are drilled into.

But beyond that are a great mass of people, including people now in power, who reflect blistering ignorance.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Anti vaxxers, who took their initial inspiration from a Playboy model whose only claim to fame was her boobs, and then having had a child (out of wedlock, of course), went into full bore ignorance during COVID, showing how low education in the country generally sunk.  A person can oppose vaccines for themselves on philosophical, or even theological, grounds, but you can't oppose them on scientific grounds. That's just ignorant.  Nonetheless, Trump has elevated Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and "Dr. Oz" to positions of real power, when they ought to be in the waterfowl section of the local zoo.  No serious nation would have either of these people in positions where they dealt with anything biological, even if that meant they were disqualified from being dog catchers.

Mehmet Oz.

Most of the cabinet officers we hear from on a frequent basis are total sycophants who sound like their on the losing end of a debate in a high school forensics team.  Some sound like outright thugs.  Our Ambassador to Israel is there as he wants to help bring about the Apocalypse.  

Trump is outright weaponizing the Justice Department into the Reichssicherheitshauptamt and persecuting (not a typo) anyone who publicly opposed him.  He's also sending the National Guard, converted into the Ersatzheer, into Republican cities illegally.  While all  this occurs a populace that would have previously flooded into the streets in protests sits on its hand believing that there must really Marxist, Communist, Fascists, Monarchist about to take over these cities and convert them into Communist Anarchist Monarchies.

It's really doubtful the nation can recover from this.

At a lower level, we're debating library books in the children's section which an adult nation ought to be able to sort out in about fifteen minutes. But perhaps a bigger example is the outright believe by people who believe that you ought to drink petroleum oil for breakfast that nuclear power is going to turn your housecat into the central character in 1950s Japanese horror film.  In the meantime, a legitimate concern on the part of some, youth being exposed to pornography, has been captured by local members of the Freedom Caucus who are freely dumb in their local efforts to oppose it, going to public forums like school boards to act up.

The press rarely gets things 100% right, indeed a local big story that I know very well has recently amused me by how off the mark the reporting is, but the press has become a whipping boy for people with agendas on both sides.  Chuck Gray, the Wyoming Secretary of State, is so enamoured of this that he can't pick up a lunch menu without claiming its the product of  the "radical left wing media".  The left accuses the press of ignoring Trump's mental decline, which is obvious to everyone, while the right basically seeks to totally shut down everything but the Völkischer Beobachter.

How we get out of this is really questionable, but education, and I mean public education, is going to have to be they key to a large extent.  People need to learn science again.

I don't know how Americans became so uneducated.  

I went through the local public school system which wasn't perfect, but frankly it was pretty good.  My parents also took a real interest in how we were doing in school, and I think everyone's parents did.  My own kids went through the same system after I had, and it had improved from good to really good.  

Even then, there were some hints of things changing, mostly in the form of a handful of homeschooled showing up in sports and the rise of a series of private Christian schools and schools that were private Christian schools but which wouldn't admit that they were.  Homeschooling was, and is, mostly marked here by what the parents don't want their children to learn.  Some of those parents were really well educated themselves, but imports from elsewhere and often members of distinct minority religious communities.  Outside of the Catholic school, and probably the Lutheran school, this was true of the Christian schools as well.  

Following COVID, here locally, we got the influx of people from somewhere else who detested education even as they put their kids in schools  One member of the legislature enrolled her two kids in the local high school noting how she was a "refugee" from Illinois, where she'd been on a school board.  Now we have a Freedom Caucus legislator being such a problem at a school board meeting she had to be escorted away from the podium when you can bet that every member of the school board is, in fact, conservative.

What I think that tells me is that education elsewhere had declined, and we took in an influx of the uneducated, who in the sprit of the times, spread their views to elements ready to accept it locally.

Another thing is this.

Americans have always had a sort of populist anti intellectual streak, which is heavily ironic as the Founding Fathers of the nation were largely well to do elitists.  Indeed, Jefferson figured the republic would not last, as ultimately it would yield from hard working yeoman farmers to a city living mob, dependent upon the government.  He wasn't quite right, but he wasn't all that far off.  We've had two prior New York born Presidents in the country, a highly educated but quite rural intellectual, a more urbane intellectual, and a real estate developing complete buffoon.  

The essence of populism is that people have a native wisdom.  The problem is, only an educated public does.  Jefferson appreciated that, which is why he so heavily depended on the yeomanry to carry the republic.  Family units, living independently, and frankly as somewhat genteel hardworking Christian farmers.  He wasn't a yeoman himself.  He did foresaw a day in which the republic would be much like it has become, a screaming mass of poorly educated people who were easily lead.

The "new people", German propaganda poster from 1938.  In reality, most Germans never looked like this, just as right now most Americans don't really reflect the ideals of the New Apostolic Reformation. 

Populist movements have in fact always been easily lead.  The Nazis were able to do it with the German populace.  The Communist were able to do it with the Russian people.  The Fascists were able to do it with the Italians.

Manipulation of the masses by forces co opting populist movements is uniformly simply.  The people are worshipped for having common sense, with their leader supposedly reflecting back their wisdom.  Out side of that group, are the enemies, some vague, often faceless group, who are out to destroy the common people.  For the Nazis, those horrific enemies were the Communists and the Jews, as well as Gypsies, Catholics, homosexuals, and Slavs.

For the Fascist, it was the Socialist, Communists and Slavs. 

Soviet realist painting of female farm worker. Female farm workers were a favorite subject for Soviet propaganda posters.  They were always smiling, and tended to be a little chunky.

For the Communists, the population is the workers, whose enemy are capitalists, those who own their own businesses, and people who believe in any kind of religion.

Chinese girls are a favorite of Chinese Communist posters

For Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, which has been co opted by the National Conservatives, it's anyone who isn't a Christian conservative.  

Now, it's always the case that populist movements, after they get co opted, are shot through with hypocrisy  The movements become vehicles for obtaining power and people at the top either never believed in the movement, or they regard themselves as exceptions.  Nazism was virulently anti homosexual, but Ernst Röhm was a flaming homosexual.  Goebbels had been a Communist.  Mussolini, Stalin and Hitler all lived well, not as common people.  English roundheads in the English Civil War may have fought for Calvinist morality, but they kept in some cases mistresses.

And so we have Trump and his followers.  Trump probably has no real solid moral beliefs at all, and is a serial polygamist who was born obscenely wealthy and is getting richer in the office.

The problem with populism is that the bloom always comes off the rose.  It turns out that native intelligence is often pretty ignorant.  It always collapses in one way or another, often violently  It's followers are left to pick up the pieces often having been exposed, by the end, as people who were enemies of the very movement they espoused.  

It didn't have to be this way.

There were real reasons that the mass of people were discontent.  Ignored on immigration and the erosion of an industrial base for decades, and watching the decay of moral values even as they joyously participated in that decay themselves, there was a real opportunity for a return to true conservatism.  Even National Conservatives had the opportunity to participate in that, although they'd lost faith in democracy in general which caused them to choose not to.

When this flies apart, and it will, the reckoning is going to be huge.  What will have been achieved is to anger those who became victims of it.  The real number of populists in the country is fewer than supposed, and the true diehards fewer yet. Trump mostly won because Joe Biden chose to run in his dotage, which was obviously advanced, and which camouflaged Trump's mental decline.  That can't be camouflaged any longer.  

Nonetheless, like good fascists, the GOP is going to go down with Trump, even though it need not to.  Mike Johnson is effectively releasing cheery news from the Führerbunker as the edifice of the Republic literally collapses around him.  The Leader and his Favorite Architect plan a monumental building as an old one is destroyed.  Miller and Bondi send their thugs out to hang supposed enemies from lamposts. Loyal reports from loyal lieutenants about not being able to hang on are ignored.  Vance consults his Plans for the Fatherland book as if he has a political future.

It should be obvious where this is headed.

But it's easier just to blame it on Trump's style, or his amazing intelligence that we can't grasp, and just ignore it.

RFK, Jr. opines that the best protection against measles is the breast milk from an unvaccinated woman. . .

presumably with the recipient being an infant, of course.

This is seriously weird.

At this point in time, the United States is being run by dimwit weirdos.