You Have to Grind This Motherfucker Down

[Nevilledog]

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/you-have-to-grind-this-motherfucker

Again, last night, on CNN. We have to see it all again, from this guy. Stoop shouldered, puffy midsection, rich suit buttoned unflatteringly over his gut, big red tie hanging down to his dick. The sculptured wispy hair that curves into horns from a certain angle, the palms out hand gesturing, the thing where he pulls down his bottom lip and lets his bottom row of plastic teeth shine and takes a dramatic pause before making a dumbass point. The weird fluctuations in his voice from trilly to gravelly to breathy, the painted eyelids that sit uncomfortably in a pale tanning booth puddle, the lies. And the crowd. The pink-cheeked enraptured crowd. The retired lawyers and insurance agents and young guys with bad haircuts in Men’s Wearhouse suits who never had the benefit of reading a good book in their lives. The pathetic crowd, with such a low bar for entertainment. The same crowd that used to cheer for the lions to eat the slaves in gladiator times. This is the best they can get now.

And the words. The torrent of words, pushing forward through any air or brains or other words in their path. Not sinuous, sly words, but instead just loud, maximal words, the most words, the biggest words, words like a whole rugby team running full speed into a wall for fun. Words from a bad sitcom, a lowest-common-denominator show with scab writers aired in laundromats to bored people slumped in chairs who will take any stimulation they can get. Words that do not connect to one another sentence by intelligible sentence, but instead just leap out brashly, showing themselves off phrase by phrase, each standing proudly alone, and independent, and irrational.

“I’m not talking about terminating the constitution. I’m talking about cherishing the constitution,” he said. “Things are happening that are very positive,” he said. “Drill baby drill,” he said. “They don’t even speak English in that Chinatown,” he said. “She’s a wack job,” he said. “They’re destroying our country,” he said. “Many people were killed,” he said. “Cold, blank range, they shot her,” he said. “That thug.”

And the reporter, meek and gesturing, standing in a firehose and trying to catch a futile drop. Saying “Mr. President” to the swollen declaiming half insane man who would not stop talking. Saying something was not true, and then getting defiantly blown away by an empty tidal wave of nothingness, as the crowd cheered. We want transgression! We want fantasy! We want blood! Doesn’t matter who the reporter is. Always the same. If he picked her up and choked her and slammed her to the stage and planted a foot on her chest and raised his arms, he would get the loudest cheers of the whole night. This is pro wrestling, and he is experienced. He knows it, and the crowd knows it, but the people who are paid to analyze it never quite seem to get it. He is an idiot savant, a professional in a sea of self-serious amateurs. A big dumb rhinoceros ramming his head into the side of a Land Rover over and over to the squealing delight of the tourists within.

*snip*

It's a nice thought, but trump would never agree to this format.

[usonian]

1. It was a rally. That's clear.

Not sure how to interpret that.

[ZZenith]

2. Oooh that's good writing.

Thanks for posting it.

[Grasswire2]

5. delicious!

I'll savor it several more times.

[Nevilledog]

7. As did I.

[Grasswire2]

9. the writing somewhat reminds me of that of Jean Shepherd.

The author most famous for "Christmas Story" of course.

[Mopar151]

3. Since 2014, 2 things have been true of "those people"

They ain't payin' for anything they don't approve of! And they want to see someone hurt bad.

[Silent3]

4. ALL politicians should be questioned this way

I hate how so many reporters, afraid of losing "access", let politicians duck and dodge, spouting their talking points that don't answer what they've been asked, and then move on.

Plenty of Democrats, even Democrats I like, use the annoying strategy of using an interviewer's questions as nothing but a launching point for pre-planned talking points, and I hate it.

Few, of course, are as awful as Trump about it, who doesn't so much use talking points for evasion, but lies, accusations, diversions, and sheer rambling idiocy as his way to duck questions.

Of course, there are miserable interviewers and reporters too, who are using their questions to project a pre-determined narrative into the conversation. Politicians should be just as relentless and unforgiving when the media pulls that shit, and call them out on it rather than politely try to work with it.

[kacekwl]

6. EVERY TIME he says "excuse me" to the interviewer, reporter

to interrupt should be countered with excuse me who is conducting this interview or who is asking the question ? Do it until he flees the interview or cracks and says "you're damn right I ordered the code red or other confessions.

[spanone]

8. ...K&R...