Writes Byron York (at the Washington Examiner).
The joke:
“Our big plan to cancel student debt doesn’t apply to everyone. Just yesterday, a defeated-looking man came up to me and said, ‘I’m being crushed by debt. I’m completely wiped out.’ And I said, ‘Sorry, Donald, I can’t help you.'”
Meanwhile, Trump has jokes too, and over at Politico, Michael Kruse is trying to convince us that there's something terribly wrong with that: "In on the Joke: The Comedic Trick Trump Uses to Normalize His Behavior/His supporters love it. Critics call it a sign of his autocratic tendencies."
Autocratic tendencies... can you believe it? He unleashed the deadly power of... humor.
His critics along with experts in rhetoric and nationalist and populist movements and leaders say... the mirth masks the menace....
“He’s always been funny,” Jen Mercieca, the author of Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump, told me — “branding” and “framing” his foes in a way that “undermines their credibility” and “reaffirms the us-versus-them polarization” all “under the guise of just joking.” Practically every joke is “an in-group and out-group joke,” and “laughing at the joke is a sign of loyalty,” Mercieca explained. “That,” she said, “is how autocrats work.”...
“Mussolini,” Ruth Ben-Ghiat, the author of Strongmen, told me, referring to 20th-century Italian fascist Benito Mussolini, “had the same twisted sense of humor” as Trump....
Posts
74 comments:
"experts in rhetoric and nationalist and populist movements" What would we do without experts?
Mussolini was a stitch. Cracked everyone up. Some of the most hilarious speeches ever given were by Mussolini. The dude rivals Dave Chapelle. All credentialed PHD historians know this.
"Our big plan to cancel student debt"
Slightly OT: Didn't the courts tell him not to do it?
So here we have Joe acting lawlessly while going after DJT with made-up lawfare.
And by the way, since AOC tells us violating RICO isn't a crime, will Fani drop her case?
So Trump is Hitler AND Mussolini! What an amazing talent!
Can he be Tojo, too, or is that cultural appropriation?
Ruth Ben-Ghiat - 63-year-old white woman. Undergrad at UCLA. PHD at Brandies University. Teaches Italian History at New York University. A self-proclaimed "expert" on fascism.
And this liberal ding bat can't recognize that the what the censorship coordination between the US gov't and big tech is Mussolini style fascism/corporatism. Or the coerced use of the private sector to push the poison vaccine. Even the global warming scam being pushed by the gov't through corporate "green" initiatives is fascism.
America is being destroyed by college educated white women.
Was Joeys Nazi motif address humor or serious?
Asking for a friend.
I still want it explained how, if Trump is such a tyrant, Biden was able to run much less prevail.
I mean, you'd think Tyrant Trump would have levied charges against Hillary and jailed her, a fear stoked all through 2016, as the first time a winning presidential candidate did that to a losing one. And that only the most obvious example of something Trump the Tyrant didn't do.
"... an electorate that largely believes he is too old for a second term, "
It is not his age that is the problem. It is his competence. Media latched on to age so as to be able to use "his age" against Trump also.And to avoid saying his competence.
Plenty of geezers still capable. The left never considered Ginsburg or Pelosi's age to be a factor
Autocrats' decisions are not subject to judicial review. The massive judgments against Trump are also intentionally designed to evade judicial review. No man has access to $ 500 million dollars cash.
Somewhat related but I found this to be astounding.
This morning CNBC had the unemployment report. That can affect the Fed's actions on interest rates. An economist from Brookings said the UI report was good because *immigration* was a check on inflation.
So, Biden spends billions and creates wild inflation. But his solution to taming inflation is allowing 10m illegal aliens into the country.
I've never seen anything more destructive in my life next to war.
Ask Laken Riley's parents how they feel about Biden's inflation fighting technique.
How can any of this be? The Left is out to destroy America and it is right before our eyes.
Handing Putin an unearned and undeserved victory will only hurt the US. For the US and the world, this truly a decisive moment.
This is the core vital interest of the United States that extends and expands American suzerainty in the world further solidifying US future economic power, influence, and domestic prosperity. Europe and the United States along with the Far East democracies are one highly integrated and successful geopolitical hole. (The US economy captures great benefits of scale by generally having the largest, most innovative enterprises functioning in the advanced economic space due to our geopolitical leadership; the dividends far exceed the costs of maintaining the security architecture upon which our wide-ranging suzerainty rests.)
In June 1944, the US along with allies invaded Northwest Europe at Normandy and drove eastwards eventually liberating and creating a successful Western Europe that later successfully expanded eastwards to incorporate the rest of continental Europe into the Euro-Atlantic community. The current campaign to bring Ukraine into the European fold is simply the final campaign of what began at Normandy 80 years ago this June. It is a campaign of ever greater liberation (which is why Putin fears it so). The Ukraine is European, not Eurasian.
What is Trump? He is simply a corrupt agent of autocratic brigandage. He is Putin's fool.
So the Left has branched out from Hitler comparisons.
Still applying Stalin's definition of fascist.
What these elite liberals fail to realize is that they are a complete joke. It would be funnier if they weren't so fucked up and their destructive policies and lies weren't so dangerous.
It's easy to understand why the French peasants stormed The Bastille.
More same-old-same-old; Democrats "so brave" and Republicans "pounce".
No ‘Trump is like Biden’, nor ‘Biden is like Trump’ tag.
Trump's jokes are an exercise of rhetorical power, a power which emanates only in direct proportion from the truth about the subject that the joke reveals.
Biden's joke was about what's been done to his opponent by his party's coordinated abuse of governmental power.
So tell me: who's the autocrat?
Honestly think that Biden mentioning/joking about the Trump fines is a losing proposition for Democrats. How can you know anything about that lawsuit and not think anything but it's unfair and targeted at Trump because he's Trump.
Sure, people who would never vote for Trump think it's great. The rest of the country, the middle-of-the-roaders? They see it for what it is.
"Our big plan to cancel student debt"
Slightly OT: Didn't the courts tell him not to do it?
So here we have Joe acting lawlessly while going after DJT with made-up lawfare.
The courts told him that he couldn't unilaterally cancel all student debt, but the admin has been doing so in cases where they already had authority (there are a lot of options for cancellation for e.g. public employees, doctors, etc.). Of course, there was nothing stopping them from doing this before. Now, they're just pretending to defy SCOTUS as theater for their base.
You should have heard Stalin's standup routine. Everyone laughed.
Trump is about to become $3.5 billion richer.
As usual, the joke's on Biden.
Biden's joke doesn't even make sense. Trump's debt isn't from a student loan. ("Our big plan to cancel student debt doesn’t apply to everyone.") Unless he's trying to drive home the point that anyone with any other kind of debt - mortgage, medical, whatever - shouldn't bother asking why only some debt is being transferred to the rest of us.
the Real Joke,
is that some people Actually think resident Biden is anything more than a paid spokesman.
He's Not running the show.. He's Not running his household.. The ONLY THING he's running:
is for reelection to figurehead
Fuck you Rich. Fuck any cocksucker that thinks we have any business supporting corrupt governments and their wars. I sincerely hope one of your family members dies a horrible death to an illegal immigrant or a Russian soldier. Hell, all of you warmongers you deserve it. You’ve earned it.
Hitler was a vegetarian and an anti- (tobacco) smoker. Don't you see? It's so clear!
TIL that Mussolini made the trains run on time AND made everybody laugh.
Dave Begley said...
. An economist from Brookings said the UI report was good because *immigration*..
of ALL the jobs created during the Biden residency.. How many went to Immigrants?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/joe-biden-s-job-growth-boasts-built-on-illegal-migration/ar-BB1iiGtl
A report by the Center for Immigration Studies highlighted that President Biden’s job record is based on the hiring of 2.9 million job-seeking migrants, with a persistent 183,000 deficit in the number of employed Americans compared to 2019.
The data revealed that all of the additional jobs created under Biden above the 2019 level are held by migrants, while U.S.-born workers have not fully regained their 2019 employment levels.
when you've lost msn.. you've lost Main Stream News
That's not funny.
I probably know more about Mussolini than 97% of Americans.
I don't recall ever seeing anything about his comedic tendencies.
Note: I don't claim to know all that much about him. I have read a couple of bios and some of his writings. Also histories and novels about Italy in the interwar pause.
So, not all that much but more than 97% of the us population. Which makes me a one eyed expert.
John Henry
I guess Con Law professors can’t be bothered to weigh in on whether the Eighth Amendmenr wasn’t violated by that kangaroo court in New York. Like most Americans (I hope) I saw clips from yesterday’s testimony by Tony Bobulinski, and it is clear that the Democrats are institutionally corrupt all the way down. Will there ever come a reckoning?
And by the way, since AOC tells us violating RICO isn't a crime, will Fani drop her case?
Big Fani is proving AOC correct by virtue of her crumbling RICO case anyway. She may have already dropped it. Oops. The only underlying alleged "crime" she cited in filing her conspiracy theory has now been dismissed by the judge. Ooh ooh that smell..."of prevarication." Can't you smell that smell?
Dave.
We have a measels epidemic on the south side of Chicago. It has spread from the community centers that the mayor co-opted to house illegal immigrants,(nobody is illegal!). Meanwhile petty theft, prostitution and assult likewise increase.
Oh. And the residents that those community center are supposed to serve? They are really, really pissed. As more than one resident noted, "Trump was doing a better job!".
Let that one marinate.
I am not a Biden fan, but that's a pretty good joke.
Look at Rich, still believing the propaganda that got debunked like a good little comrade does. Useless idiots for the Bumbling Biden Administration who are continuing Husseins Fundamental Transformation of America into a Shithole like Haiti.
Any institution that lasts long enough becomes corrupted.
The entire expert class has been around too long.
Blogger Rich said...
Handing Putin an unearned and undeserved victory will only hurt the US. For the US and the world, this truly a decisive moment.
Now that's funny, rich. Thanks for being a clown on this thread about the use of humor by politicians.
@D Begley — Let's over-simplify. Since the 2008 financial crisis, there has been large scale monetary expansion. In Phase I (the Obama years and early Trump), monetary expansion was flowed through big banks and intermediaries allowing the wealthy and well-connected to buy lots of assets of all types, which inflated the value of all these assets. Asset price inflation — good!
In Phase II (pandemic years and Biden), monetary expansion was democratized and funds flowed out to the people who bought stuff instead of assets. The prices of stuff inflated — bad! (Even the beneficiaries of the "stuff first" policy started to whine!)
Now, high economic growth is creating more supply and that should reduce inflation more efficiently and fairly rather than high interest rates "destroying demand" by increasing unemployment while increasing interest-rate assets for the benefit of the wealthy (the real source about all the whining about where are the interest rate cuts? I mean I bought the senators, where is the performance?) From the wealthy people's perspective, one lowers inflation by lowering the consumption of the bottom 90 percent of the income distribution — simple, understandable, and completely understandable to the droits du seigneur thinking of the wealthy.
The high interest rates will ultimately divert federal spending away from consumption in order to make interest payments to the wealthy holders of the federal debt (who will get higher real rates of return as nominal rates stay sticky and inflation falls). Wealth holders who were increasing wealth through cheap federal money will see their wealth increases slow down if not reverse (commercial real estate).
But an overall higher growth real economy will reward holders of profit-sharing assets like stocks in growing enterprises.
Biden is the Trump the experts are always warning us about
So tell me: who's the autocrat?
Ooh ooh I know!
Rich is on record that our bleeding Russia by killing its young people by proxy is a good thing. Rich is quite the guy.
This is fascism: "STFU and obey!" That's Joe Biden and the deep state.
This is fascism: "STFU and obey!" That's Joe Biden and the deep state.
3/21/24, 9:03 AM
Blogger Rich said...
Handing Putin an unearned and undeserved victory will only hurt the US. For the US and the world, this truly a decisive moment.
etc.
---
You can thank Joe "Bribe me!" Biden for Putin's invasion, Rich. Bribe me! is weak and corrupt. He gave your hero, Vlad, permission to invade Ukraine.
Did he tell any jokes about holding political prisoners for years without trials? Because, you know- that's pretty funny, too.
Mussolini had a Jewish mistress. She was the one who ghost wrote his autobiography. That's kind of funny. Maybe they could make a rom-com out of that wacky couple. I'm thinking they should go full DEI and cast Amy Schumer and Dave Chapelle for the leads.......Stalin had a dry sense of humor. He would sometimes greet colleagues by saying that he was glad to see them, that he thought they had been arrested. What a kidder....In the current issue of The New Yorker there's an article by a writer who takes note of all the amazing similarities of Hitler's rise to power with that of Trump. He repeats the observation that although history doesn't repeat itself, it sometimes rhymes....Here's my variation of that observation. The first generation of Bolshies were all students of history. They wondered if a Napoleon might spring from their raniks. They were, however, okay with repeating the example of Robespierre and The Terror. Well, they didn't have any Napoleon spring from their ranks. They got Stalin. Stalin killed most of them. Those who think there are lessons to be learned from the study of history are doomed to get fucked in the ass by people like Stalin.
@ OG Mike: Let me just remind you that Russians are dying because they came to occupy the territory of another country, Ukrainians are dying because they are defending their home from invaders. The number of dead Ukrainian citizens is increasing thanks to people like you who are shouting about stopping the supply of weapons to Ukraine so that it can defend itself. This imaginary concern for Ukrainians is nothing more than hypocrisy. You are not addressing the Russians who started this war. You write nonsense here in order to take away the means of protection from the victim of aggression, trying to sell capitulation as peace, while deliberately keeping silent about the fact that then the number of dead Ukrainians will be in the millions.
Second effort: Mussolini had a Jewish mistress. She ghost wrote his autobiography. That's kind of funny. Maybe they could make a rom-com out of the story of that wacky couple. Go woke with the casting. I'm thinking Amy Schumer and Dave Chapelle for the leads or maybe Gal Gadot and Leonard DiCaprio if they don't want to push the envelope.
Old and slow said... What would we do without experts?
Have a good life. God save us from the "degree-hunters" though the higher "education" landscape is rife with those who got advanced degrees not for the interest in scholarship or investigation but to be a professor. A century ago, the degree-hunters were projected to lessen on campus but instead they infest.
In the orderly process of development, the time will come when the degree-hunters will lessen in numbers and when the graduate and professional schools will represent essentially what the university represents in Europe-a school whose students have already had their undergraduate experience of sports and of class rivalries, as well as their grounding in fundamental subjects, and have now entered upon a life with the primary purpose to bend themselves intelligently and energetically toward study, toward research, toward professional attainment.
Whether the universities can ever become universities in this sense, as long as they are mingled with, and in the public mind overshadowed by, their highly populated undergraduate colleges, with their spectacular contests in athletics and with the manifold activities in which students compete, is a question which cannot be answered at this moment.
—Are Our Universities Overpopulated? HENRY S. PRITCHETT, Scribner's Magazine Vol. 73, 1923
This demented old corksoaker doing what SCOTUS ruled he must not do… using taxpayer money to buy him some votes.
He can’t be gone soon enough.
Rusty:
I guess that Brookings economist didn't put those facts into her model.
I think the notion that jokes are harmful speech that shouldn't be protected is what caused FF and KK to start Triggernometry. I think as they heard more people criticizing Trump's humor and then actually listened to Trump's humor; they started coming around to understanding Trump is being persecuted like other comedians.
“Fuck you Rich. Fuck any cocksucker that thinks we have any business supporting corrupt governments and their wars. I sincerely hope one of your family members dies a horrible death to an illegal immigrant or a Russian soldier. Hell, all of you warmongers you deserve it. You’ve earned it”
The Bidens took their bribes from the current political rulers in Ukraine. They helped thwart an investigation into them. And they are now keeping them in power. What should worry everyone is that they took even more money from the Chinese.
There's an article in the current New Yorker about the amazing similarities between Hitler's rise to power and that of Trump. The author repeats the observation that although history doesn't repeat itself, it sometimes rhymes....Here's my variation on that observation: All the early Bolshies were students of history. They were wary of a Napoleon springing from their midst. They were okay with a Robespierre and The Terror happening, but they were worried about a Napoleon. Napoleon never happened. They got Stalin instead. Stalin went on to kill nearly all the early Bolshies. That's the way it goes. Those who think that there are useful lessons to be learned from the study of history are doomed to get fucked in the ass by Stalin.
Everyone always remarks on the comedic genius of Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler, East German leaders, Mao, and who can forget Pol Pot.
And that's why they went after that rodeo clown during the Obama regime.
"The number of dead Ukrainian citizens is increasing thanks to people like you who are shouting about stopping the supply of weapons to Ukraine so that it can defend itself."
My opinion on our helping Ukraine is mixed. But I've got to say, the spectacle of people like you salivating at killing Russians turns my stomach and has definitely cooled my initial impulse to aid the invaded.
@ B Hayden: Iisten to any House testimony yesterday? To say this is falling apart actually understates how horrifically bad this is. This was dumb and dumber.
Lev Parnas Testifies on Coordinated Effort to Falsely Accuse Biden Family. ~ C-Span
Lev Parnas, former associate of Rudy Giuliani, testifies on a coordinated effort to falsely accuse the Bidens of corruption in Ukraine so that Donald Trump could win the 2020 election.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5110982/lev-parnas-testifies-coordinated-effort-falsely-accuse-biden-family
Lev Parnas, ex-Giuliani associate, testified allegations against Bidens are false and 'spread by the Kremlin' ~ NBC
In an interview with NBC News after his testimony, Parnas argued that the impeachment inquiry hearings are "pushing the same Russian narrative and propaganda."
"Ron Johnson was our guy in the Senate" ~ Lev Parnas on pushing disinformation
Must be humiliating for the MAGA Republican members of this committee.
This is the core vital interest of the United States that extends and expands American suzerainty in the world further solidifying US future economic power, influence, and domestic prosperity.
You know what would do far more for our overall prosperity? Bringing our ruinously expensive military home to our own shores, cutting its budget by 75%, forbidding the stationing of American combat troops anywhere overseas except in time of declared war, and leaving the Eurotrash to deal with Putin and Xi by themselves. They need to be forced to divert money towards their own defense, and away from subsidizing domestic industries that compete with ours.
I don't want "suzerainty" over other countries. Fuck the neocon/neolib warmongers who do. It's just the "White Man's Burden" by another name.
What fun is Fascism if you can't rub your political opponents noses in it.
Beiden and his joke really impress me, negatively. Biden is a very small man who has a problem that he thinks getting lots of money will solve. His joke is not presidential. It destroys the effect of your dirty trick if you brag about it. That is why people hate Hillary.
Rich the Useful Idiot Bitch.
Well George W. Bush referred to his political guru Karl Rove as "Turd Blossom". Biden yells at those "extremist MAGA Republicans".
And Donald Trump comes up with a new name for the Brylcreem Boy (he has fabulous hair) governor of California. That's Governor New Scum to you folks at the French Laundry.
Ironic that a commenter who calls himself Rich can be so intellectually impoverished.
Good for his small audience. The rest of us have been laughing AT Biden for years.
@Rich
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u88EIoUkKQ0
Dave Begley said...
"Rusty:
I guess that Brookings economist didn't put those facts into her model."
Probably didn't fit the results they wanted.
Iman said...
"Rich the Useful Idiot Bitch."
C'mon, man! The kid is only sixteen. He's got a lot of learning to do yet.
To be fair, Hitler was known for his standup routine at the beer hall.
What is Trump? He is simply a corrupt agent of autocratic brigandage. He is Putin's fool.
Well, that would certainly explain why Putin waited until Biden was President before invading Ukraine, wouldn't it?
Mary Beth,
Stalin the stand-up comedian: "Humor is like food.... Not everybody gets it!"
2nd Interviewer: Doug?
Vercotti: Doug (takes a drink) Well, I was terrified. Everyone was terrified of Doug. I've seen grown men pull their own heads off rather than see Doug. Even Dinsdale was frightened of Doug.
2nd Interviewer: What did he do?
Vercotti: He used... sarcasm. He knew all the tricks, dramatic irony, metaphor, pathos, puns, parody, litotes and... satire. He was vicious.
Presenter: By a combination of violence and sarcasm, the Piranha brothers by February 1966 controlled London and the Southeast of England.
Gusty: I'm a Ph.D. and (non-matriculated) law student, quit with good grades -- I figured I'd just stroll up the street and write the damn laws. I'm a white woman. And by 8 a.m. this morning, I had convinced the largest radio station in the US to agree to stop running weepy descriptions of death penalty killers' last meals; worked on our coalition to boycott Planet Fitness for letting any man in women's rooms, planned my weekend protest against them, and worked on my arrangements to be in Chicago to infiltrate ANTIFA to defend the police (telling them you're coming is a strategy -- I've done this a long time).
Plus, I wrote half an op-ed explaining how left-wing radicals organize.
What did you do? I do get up early.
I would appreciate any housing near Chicago during the DNC. No ned to commit for more than one or two nights; I have referrals, and the police know I'm coming. I have an eponymous blog.
Tina,
Good work!
However, you are certainly perceptive enough to realize that you're an outlier, right? For every one of you (or my wife) there's a dozen Althouses and Michelle Goldbergs.
The malevolent vegetable's joke sounded better in the original German.
Blogger Kirk Parker said...
Stalin the stand-up comedian: "Humor is like food.... Not everybody gets it!"
When my son was in high school, he had a t-shirt with Stalin's image and this on it. He bought it himself. I was very pleased...
"Autocratic tendencies... can you believe it? He unleashed the deadly power of... humor."
I immediately thought of Doug and Dinsdale Piranha, but I see that Sofa King thought of them before me.
Reagan, IIRC, got lambasted for telling a joke about bombing the Soviets when asked to sound test his microphone. Then again, he was lambasted for waking up, going to bed, and everything he did in both directions in between, every day, all day. If you're gonna joke as a politician, go large and don't hold anything back.
So whoever gave Joe the notecard to read with that joke on it, good work! Joe made himself seem like he knows what is happening around him, usually a hard sell to his live audience, and at the same time confirmed he is still the utter ass he has always been.
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