MEL GIBSON on Trump heading to California today: “It’s like daddy arrived and he’s taking his belt off.”
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 25, 2025
pic.twitter.com/8mFU55JP7N
Scanning the posts over there, I'm mostly seeing the sharing of the video, in a manner that seems to approve of Trump's style and Gibson's rhetoric. The articulated criticism seems to have more to do with a purported weirdness to calling Trump "daddy" than any outrage about using the corporal punishment of children as a simile. I'd say "he’s taking his belt off" is much milder than "he's kicking ass" (which is a very common and accepted metaphor), so the focus on "daddy" seems apt. What I'd say about that is there's a longstanding practice of analyzing Democrats and Republicans as the "mommy party" and the "daddy party," and — as we can see in the video with L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and Trump, blogged below — the mommy/daddy contrast was very much on display in California yesterday.
I'll make a more refined criticism of Gibson's simile. Mayor Bass represented the maternal tendency of the Democratic Party. She's in the mother position, not the child. Trump represented the role of the father, but if "daddy arrived and he’s taking his belt off," he should be going after his children, because they've misbehaved. With respect to the children's mother, his wife, he should be helping her solve problems with the children, not going after her. I think — as you can see by my earlier post — that Trump was trying to encourage her to step up and to use her executive powers, to be an effective co-parent. Mommy and Daddy can work together.
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When my dad took his belt off -- very rarely -- he was done listening and negotiating. He'd reached the end of his patience and wanted results.
Bass is a child in this simile, not a co-parent.
Botched. Bass and the California Democrats are the spoiled brats…
Wait Till Your Father Gets Home was an animated sitcom that aired in the early 70s. Tom Bosley was the father and he would go on to play the father in Happy Days so maybe that was his thing.
if Bass is supposed to be a "mom".. she's acting like a 15 year old mom.
She TOLD people that they Could privately guard their own homes.
in a while.. once the police let them.. once there is no thing to guard
https://x.com/saras76/status/1882965260350742646
Apt observation
Bass isn’t in the mother position to Trump’s father because he’s the president and she’s a mere mayor. She doesn’t represent the Democrat’s mother instinct so much as their petulant teenager instinct.
Taking off the belt oftentimes a warning, a signaling of what is to come. Sometimes that’s enough to get results.
The government bureaucrats, Bass chief among them, are the children.
The Hegseth and Kavanaugh nominations make it clear that “Mommy” cannot — will not — work with “Daddy.” As long as Democrats continue to put Party above country, the metaphor will continue to be worthless.
Bass is a negligent mommy who left her kids in a hot car to die while she was buying cigarettes and booze.
The voters are the Mommies and the Daddies. The Mommy voters have voted for a bunch of ne’er-do-wells and treating them as children. The mommy voters think that if they give these Democrat politicians one more chance, the Democrat politicians will finally grow up and start doing their jobs responsibly. Now the mother of all daddy voters has flown in. At the meeting with California leaders, when Rep. Brad Sherman asked Trump for more money, Trump told Sherman that it was his fault that all the insurance companies left California. It left a mark.
My father, 23 years a Navy officer always said "Hands are for loving." He used the belt a few times, and I deserved it, but mostly that belt was a circuit-breaker, for both him and me ... "Barton, do I need to take my belt off ?" For my mother, it was a big wooden hairbrush.
There were very few firm rules -- a) Safety for self and others b) How to treat other people of all sorts and positions c) After age 7, no open defiance, of which lying was a form, and do your share as part of this family -- for which punishment was even an option.
After Dad's death, his Navy records revealed that they'd had him on an Admiral track, but he declined the key promotion because he would not uproot his family from our coastal Connecticut home and move us all to DC.
I wish I could have thanked him.
Didn’t comedian Larry Miller become famous for doing a routine mimicking his father pulling up on his belt and pants as a threat when he was angry?
Who’s your daddy?
For mommy and daddy to work together, both sides have to actually want to. Democrats are the mommy who wants the kids and alimony in a divorce, with no visitation rights.
People are done being (s)mothered. Trump was welcomed so robustly because he sided with the "children". Who wouldn't want someone to save them from an oppressor?
Especially if you take the belt off with a flourish and it makes a sharp snapping sound. Theater is a key ingredient to get results.
Yes indeed the belt can be a compliance tool because of the implied threat. But of course it only works if the errant child believes that the threat is real. This simile is not any different from the mother saying “Wait until your father gets home.”
Bass’s weak “maybe a week “ answer when asked how soon people could go back to their homes was stunningly heartless and cruel! Why? She had already conceded private parties were more motivated and efficient at cleaning their lots of fire debris.
I can still hear it Howard. More than half a century later!
I suppose Corporal punishment is preferable to Major pain.
Maybe Bass is the oldest daughter who was left to watch over the rest of the house while Mom and Dad were away. But she squandered the resources the parents left her to take care of the rest of the house and failed to respond properly when disaster struck.
Bass and Newsom should hire a lot of these people who likely have no job at the moment, to parallelize and get more work done sooner. I bet there’s a lot of skill in that population that would be able to help a lot.
Jew don't want to be around when Mel or his dad took their belts off.
Too soon? Too late? Or just inappropriate at all times.
Bill Cosby use to do a long routine about fear of his father's belt. "We had never seen the belt , but we had heard about it. 9 feet long, 8 feet wide, with metal hooks on it that would rip the flesh of your body". He and his brother knew that when dad talked about taking off his belt, they better clean up their behavior quickly.
Bass is a rank incompetent, who has broken whatever Villaragoisa had left standing, so we find ourselves in Day of the Locusts,
What a shame Biden didn't pick her off the short list for VP. She looks like another 20+ electoral votes in the Trump domination.
No, the Democrats are not the "mommy" party. Mommy implies there's a daddy around, and that she really loves her kids. Democrats are more like the heroin-addicted single mom with kids spawned by several sperm providers from a variety of gene pools, and with the feral kids pretty much unsupervised and foraging on their own while mom does her thing.
The Democrats cannot be the mommy party because they have chosen not to procreate. They are the fixed feral cat lady party.
Althouse is mommy and professor.
'Depends' entirely on pants staying on!!
but she is not allowing foraging
Ann made this really important point: "that Trump was trying to encourage her to step up and to use her executive powers, to be an effective co-parent." Trump was exhibiting real leadership skill encouraging a reluctant "subordinate" to do the job assigned. It's a small point that few observers will note, but for me it underscores that Trump is not a fluke, he knows how to lead.
"Mayor Bass represented the maternal tendency of the Democratic Party."
Mayor Bass is a reeking pile of Communism.
"With respect to the children's mother, his wife, he should be helping her solve problems with the children, not going after her. "
Bass isn't LA's "mother" even though a Democrat. She's the petulant teenager who needs tough "love".
In any case, Trump is/was a developer. He knows that right now hordes of local/state government petty functionaries are working with the "most horrible profession on earth" urban planners with the glee of a mustachioed villain on how they can "transform" the burned out areas with lots of meetings, comment periods and other delays as they change the rules on the property owners.
Trump is separating himself from that local hell (Democrat or Republican) created by petty local/state planners and commissions. Now those with burned out neighborhoods are about to get what they voted for good and hard but Trump has come out to use the emergency powers to waive sideline the "urban hellhole planners".
And yet, it didn't do much good ...
My mom when I was 5 or 6, after I misbehaved: "Don't make your father come home and have to give you the strap!", she warned.
I supposed the terminology, which was later changed to "the belt", came from the days when a strap was kept in the home for punishing children. Many men wore suspenders in my paternal family, not belts, except for my dad who had not developed "the Bressler belly" until later in life.
My dad never used either on me. I got spanked only once, by the palm of his hand, in the cellar of our house in West Redding CT, when I had misbehaved. Both my little sister and I were to be punished, the misdeed long forgotten. He offered us, "one hard spank or two softer ones?" We both took the single option, to get it over with.
My parents never hit us, but the threat was there and we stayed in line. My mother could get me to behave with just "the look". When I was 13, my dad did try to whack me as I backpeddled up the stairs, but he did not connect. I think my mother said, "Matt, Matt, don't." He had been summoned home to fix a flood in our basement as I had done chin ups on the copper water pipes attached to the 2x8s that line the ceiling of the partial cellar. Just one attempt when I put my weight on the copper pipes, caused them to collapse down with me on my fall, with the end result of cold water rushing onto the area below. I recall that he guided my mother in how to turn off the main line into the house so the damage was minimal as was the "flooding", but having to leave work to repair what I had broken.
My father's reluctance to use corporal punishment as a tool or parenting was due to his being subject to it from his abusive alcoholic father. Once when my grandfather was striking my dad's mom and his only sister, my dad at 16 tried to play peacemaker and got between his old man and the women. This enraged my grandfather who grabbed a cast iron skillet and attempted to hit my father in the skull. My dad, who had just taking up boxing at the local gym, managed to duck the drunken swing but was so taken aback at the violence that he "ran away from home". He joined the James Strate Shows midway for a while and continued to train at a Brooklyn gym where he became much more proficient at the sport. When he returned home, he was no longer afraid of the old man (my dad was a change of life baby, but even at an advance age, my grandfather was quite strong and a brawler) and easily counter any physical aggression, without having to beat his father up. My grandfather simmered down from that point on, though not verbally, when he realized that his son was no longer cowered or an easy target.
I also spanked my youngest daughter just once, on her bottom, when she was 8 or 9, after she had went into her room, saying disagreeable words and slammed her door. I grabbed her by the arm, in anger unfortunately, and gave her a swift whack on her bottom, telling her to never do that again. She never did and I never raised a hand to her again.
I am politically incorrect in that some of these kids could use a whack once in a while for the way they behave and talk back to adults. I have no belief that such punishment begets a violent child. When a child knows they no longer have boundaries and can only receive "timeouts", it is not much of a deterrent.
I was at the local beach one day and a mother and her daughter were on blankets next to me, with the daughter berating her mother in nasty tones and language about some trivial thing. The parent said, "Keep it up and I'll give you a smack."
The daughter defiantly replied, "Hit me and I'll call DCF on you!"
As the petulant teenager turned away, the mom reached out an cracked her a good one across the back of her head, saying, "Make sure you tell them about that one!"
As long as mommy and daddy don't play favorites.
Having demonstrated a previous willingness to put it to use, "taking the belt off" is usually all that is necessary to enforce compliance. I speak from experience!
Putin, "It's like Daddy arrived and he's taking his belt off."
Zelenskyy, "It's like Daddy arrived and he's taking his belt off."
Xi, "It's like Daddy arrived and he's taking his belt off."
Sheinbaum, "It's like Daddy arrived and he's taking his belt off."
Hamas, "It's like Daddy arrived and he's taking his belt off."
Houthi's, "It's like Daddy arrived and he's taking his belt off."
Et cetera and et cetera and et cetera.
On the question of when someone could start clearing the rubble and debris in Pacific Palisades, Bass was saying the city would do it and "would do it as fast as we can." Trump was talking about people finally being allowed to see their burned out houses--the city keeping them away from the site for several days if not a couple of weeks. Those people wanted to clear their property. As Trump said, "My people can start tomorrow". Bass--no we'll do it and we'll do it as fast as we can. That's what Trump's people are afraid of.
The maternal instinct is loving. The Democrats instinct is not loving. It is power-grabbing. It is a zest for power and place, for celebrity and being seen in powerful places with powerful people (hence: you go to an inauguration in Ghana instead of staying home to take care of people and things). If you think yourself a Democrat, but do not see yourself in this light, then you are most likely an old school Democrat who used to think that loads of Government was helpful to the poor & downtrodden. The current Democratic Party could give a crap about actually helping anyone. It's the appearance of helping and/or caring that is their highest standard.
The maternal instinct, such as I see it, is competent. Democrats, particularly those in California, are the opposite of competent. So, no- I don't see Karen Bass in the 'mommy' role. I see her in the Kamala Harris role. Just a different office in a different state.
technochitlin said…
“For mommy and daddy to work together, both sides have to actually want to. Democrats are the mommy who wants the kids and alimony in a divorce, with no visitation rights.
And then after the divorce she spends all her time hanging out at the club trying to impress everyone while the kids are left at home in the care of the illegal nanny.
"Bass--no we'll do it and we'll do it as fast as we can."
The government says "As fast as we can?" Do I need to ask the people in North Carolina how that went for them?
i supposed the terminology, which was later changed to "the belt", came from the days when a strap was kept in the home for punishing children.
@Marcus, nope. In the days of shaving with straight razors men kept a thick leather strap around to sharpen the blade. The ones I’ve seen were almost as thick as bridle leather but fairly stiff. They were 30 to 30 inches long and about 2 inches wide.
The sinking-ship expression "Women and children first" isn't an accident. Women often do tend to struggle with emotions, seek safety, and require assistance in troubling times. Sexual dimorphism was accepted as obvious to everyone until the 1970s.
Karen Bass is no mother figure, unless the referenced "mother" is the woman who partied elsewhere while the kids burned down the house. I sense no warm fuzzies from this long-time communist cadre member.
Mayor Bass holds executive emergency powers she's thus far failed to adequately mobilize. And Trump called her out on that fact.
Bass represents the outcome of "entitled DEI woman official" form of government, where the assumption of power doesn't translate into the effective implementation and use of that power for benefit of those governed. Bass is a a one-note "DEI! DEI!" figurehead puppet.
Translation of Bass "fast as we can" timeline: Same 2 years minimum, before groundbreaking can occur for average "politically-unconnected" household, given environmental hazard waste disposal regulations, contract award regulations, planning entitlements and construction permit regulations, MBE/WBE set-aside regulations, and significant shortages in adequate manpower, contractors, and building equipment/materials. Oh, there'll be several poster-child homeowners who get expedited, whether for good press purposes, or heavyweight political connections, but most homeowners will either move away altogether, or face a 3 -4 year timeline before they'll see completion of building-shell of their home rebuilt.
It could be quicker if enough people decided that Ms. Mayor's preferred timelime was unacceptable and said "Fuck this shit. We're rebuilding, and we're doing it now. You can either help us or get out of the way."
Videos of the government trying to arrest people for the crime of rebuilding their burned-down houses would be epic.
According to the New York Post, Trump "suggested that federal aid to rebuild the Golden State would be granted on the “condition” of state legislators first requiring IDs to vote in the state."
I'm sure some people will find that problematic.
Lazarus
And yet, it didn't do much good ...
Yeah but just imagine how much worse he would have been if he didn't get the belt.
"...Trump was trying to encourage her to step up and to use her executive powers, to be an effective co-parent."
Co-parent. Oof. Smooth as butter-- like "co-conspirator".
The thing is, if Bass were to overstep her "authority" to allow the cleanup process to begin/proceed, and the governor or the legislature or a court were to overrule her, would anyone fault her for it? Politically or morally?
Her reflex is to make sure the bureaucratic fiefdoms get the proper respect.
Trump is saying--get it done, and take the heat. Which is leadership.
I've demolished old homes for redevelopment. It takes a backhoe and a few guys 4 to 6 hours to clear everything off a 0.10 acre site, and I mean the entire previous house and patios and walkways and landscaping, including the in-ground gas and sewer lines on the property, which are capped at the mains before demolition. Everything goes into a dumptruck or a rollon/rolloff dumpster, which is hauled to the landfill. Done. Foundation construction can begin the day after the surveyor plants the pins showing where the new building is sited.
Except of course, that getting a demo permit here in Austin takes months, because you have to have your new home plans and permits approved, including spending weeks and weeks and many thousands of dollars satisfying the goddamn city tree authorities that the trash hackberry tree on your property that you want to remove is being replaced adequately with new plantings equal in diameter to that crappy tree, or that the hollow-trunked ash tree is really at risk of falling. So Bass hasn't removed any impediments for the sake of rebuilding unless she uses her emergency powers to waive the petty tyranny restrictions of the city permit offices.
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