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Donald Trump’s Alt-Earth—Where America Is Poor, Weak, and Terrified
Dailybeast ^ | July 1, 2016 | Stuart Stevens

Posted on 07/01/2016 4:51:58 AM PDT by upchuck

You can’t make it up—there’s a 25 percent or so chance that an unhinged demagogue will be America’s next commander in chief.

A few years ago I started noodling on a novel that I hoped would expose the fault lines that seemed to be splitting our politics. My thought was to take reality and push it to the edge both for comic affect and to offer up a cautionary tale of where our politics might be headed. I finished the book in the summer of 2015 and I was a little worried that I had gone too far. How believable would it be that a xenophobic Republican who wanted to ban immigration and deport millions might actually be a real contender for president?

Well, now we know. Donald Trump hasn’t called for a new Bill of Rights like Armstrong George, the handsome fire-breather in my novel, The Innocent Have Nothing To Fear, but he’s the first candidate who’s running as if the Bill of Rights doesn’t exist. (If we get through this election without some reporter asking Trump if he can name the amendments in the Bill of Rights, it will be a crying shame.) Even while channeling my darkest impulses—and Lord knows we all have them, which is probably the key to Trump’s success so far—it never occurred to me that a candidate for president of the United States of America could call for a religious test to enter the United States without being considered a frothing lunatic.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections; US: New York; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 2016election; dailybeast; demagogicparty; election2016; memebuilding; newyork; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; stuartstevens; trump; waronterror
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To: upchuck
You can’t make it up—there’s a 25 percent or so chance that an unhinged demagogue will be America’s next commander in chief.

This sentence says it all about the writer, unless he is talking about Hillary Clinton, a clearly corrupt, unhinged, vacillating demagogue.

There is nothing made up with that statement about crooked Hillary!

21 posted on 07/01/2016 6:03:50 AM PDT by olezip
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To: upchuck

(If we get through this election without some reporter asking Trump if he can name the amendments in the Bill of Rights, it will be a crying shame.)

############################################################

I doubt if I could and attach a number to them. Why not ax hildabeast the same question? Or that constitutional scholar obozo.


22 posted on 07/01/2016 6:12:14 AM PDT by Graybeard58 (Crooked Hillary's going down and I aint talkin about, on Huma.)
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To: mkjessup
Great video. Those guys were such entertainers. I knew the matches were generally scripted but the guys still had to execute all those moves in real life so it could be dangerous if someone slipped up. IIRC a couple of wrestlers died from incorrectly performed moves, like the one pile driver move that Jesse Ventura was famous for.

The Sammartino-Volkoff "feud" was very infamous. My Dad used to take us and his Mom to see the matches in Trenton and Philly. Grandmom was great. She'd start screaming at the bad guys as soon as they came in. One time one of them, maybe Lou Albano, ran out of the ring to get away and he came near enough to her that she bopped him with her cane. Lou reacted well (went staggering off), made it part of the action (act). The highlight of my rasslin' fan days was to go into the locker room once and get some photos with the guys (for a price, of course). I had one where Killer Kowalski did his "claw" move on my head. Then he gave me a hug. Damned if I can find those pics now.

Freddie Blassie, "Haystacks" Calhoun, Bobo Brazil with his signature coco-butt (head butt), Bruno, "Dr." Jerry Graham, they were all such good guys and great fun to watch.

23 posted on 07/01/2016 6:44:35 AM PDT by chimera
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To: chimera

I envy you, I truly do. Even if you can’t find those pictures (and they’ll turn up one day I’ll bet), the visuals remain in your mind, and that’s a great thing to carry around.

GREAT story about your GrandMom, getting to whack Cap’n Lou is not something a lot of people can claim to have done, bravo!


24 posted on 07/01/2016 7:57:35 AM PDT by mkjessup (It's Donald Trump, or Hillary Rotten Criminal. It's a no-brainer!! Get on the Trump Train, or GTFO!)
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To: upchuck

“an unhinged lunatic” . . .

So, is he saying that Hitler-y Clintoon is likely to be
elected?


25 posted on 07/01/2016 8:28:07 AM PDT by Twinkie (Cowards die a thousand deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.)
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda

there’s a 100 percent or so chance that an unhinged demagogue is America’s commander in chief.


26 posted on 07/01/2016 8:31:38 AM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda

Trump has about 95% chance.


27 posted on 07/01/2016 8:47:38 AM PDT by Carry me back (Cut the feds by 90%9)
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To: Twinkie

I suspect he would much prefer Killary to Trump.


28 posted on 07/01/2016 9:04:39 AM PDT by upchuck (I'm hanging here until my Free Republic 401K is fully vested.)
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To: mkjessup

Yeah, those were fun times. I do recall it was “Captain” Lou back when he was a wrestler and not a manager. Lou was great with getting the audience worked up. He’d get in your face and make like he was going to belt you one, the times he was chased out of the ring by the good guy (which was often). Dad would root for the heels, and everyone around him would give him grief. One little old lady ran up to him and said something like, “You like him so much, go on up there and kiss ‘im!” One time one of the heels saw my Dad rooting for him and he’d point it out to the ref (who was in on the script) and use it to back up his appeals for sympathy, like “See? He (my Dad) knows what’s goin’ on!” My brother and I and GrandMom would always jeer the heels, if they came out in the audience we’d always make threats like, “I’ll kick YOUR ass...later!” The heels would always love that. They’d go off on a tirade about kicking YOUR ass, you better shaddup, blah blah blah. Good stuff, I’ll tell you.


29 posted on 07/01/2016 10:15:40 AM PDT by chimera
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To: chimera

I had a girlfriend who worked at a steakhouse in Tampa in the day when they beat the shinola out of each other in St. Pete on Saturday, and do it all over again in Tampa on Sunday, then go out for steak dinners before hitting the road to other venues. Terrible threats on the television then laughing and sharing a meal an hour later. She always said the bad guys were the funniest customers and best tippers.


30 posted on 07/01/2016 10:28:42 AM PDT by Ketill Frostbeard ("At every doorway, one should look 'round. And fare not one pace from thy weapons." ~ODIN~)
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Comment #31 Removed by Moderator

To: upchuck
You can’t make it up—there’s a 25 percent or so chance that an unhinged demagogue will be America’s next commander in chief.

Wait, what? I thought Obama was limited to two terms.

32 posted on 07/01/2016 11:30:33 AM PDT by Lazamataz (Hillary: "Weapons of war have no place on our streets."... Laz: "Muslims are weapons of war.")
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To: Ketill Frostbeard
I can believe it. The heels were always in demand. A good heel could bring in a lot of customers just for the chance to razz them and make the mock threats. So that was a more lucrative play than the good guy (babyface, or face), so they had money. And when they got good at it they'd always put on a good show. But the few I met were the nicest people you'd want to know outside the ring.

Look up "Professor Toru Tanaka" on ImdB sometime. His real name is Charlie Kalani, and was an American (Hawaiian), not Japanese. He served honorably in the US Army and had some movie roles, most notably with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Another wrestling "heel" who was a good guy in real life.

33 posted on 07/01/2016 12:40:40 PM PDT by chimera
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To: chimera

I remember Professor Tanaka, The Iron Sheik, The Assassin, Chief Strongbow, the Briscos, and the Mexican who proved a big man can fly like a bird, Mil Mascaras. I was a fan when it was great theatre, not today’s homoerotic bs.


34 posted on 07/01/2016 1:06:12 PM PDT by Ketill Frostbeard ("At every doorway, one should look 'round. And fare not one pace from thy weapons." ~ODIN~)
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To: Lazamataz

:)

You mean there’s more than one unhinged demagogue?


35 posted on 07/01/2016 4:49:05 PM PDT by upchuck (I'm hanging here until my Free Republic 401K is fully vested.)
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To: Ketill Frostbeard

I don’t watch it, either. Just lost interest when the “old guard” passed.


36 posted on 07/01/2016 6:22:28 PM PDT by chimera
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