And as most of you also know, Donald Trump is an absolute master of Twitter, (@realDonaldTrump) a medium which is quickly becoming the primary means of disseminating thought and information. In case you’ve forgotten, here are some of Trump’s most penetrating, brilliant and revealing Tweets:
“If Obama resigns from office NOW, thereby doing a great service to the country—I will give him free lifetime golf at any one of my courses!”
“Everyone knows I am right that Robert Pattinson should dump Kristen Stewart. In a couple of years, he will thank me. Be smart, Robert.”
(That is not Robert Pattinson in the above photographs)
“The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”
“I have never seen a thin person drinking Diet Coke.”
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Ever the iconoclast, Trump has decided to participate in the Presidential debate via Twitter, limiting his answers to a blunt 140 characters. These are some of the Tweets that Trump and his team have been preparing for the night:
On the Charleston shooting:
“Tragedy. National tragedy. As an olive branch from the whites, I am offering any black $100 worth of gambling chips, free, at any of my casinos on the anniversary of that church shooting.”
“Mixed race guests get $50 worth of chips, which is still a great deal.”
Gay Marriage:
“Know lots of gay people. Best decorators in the world. They’re responsible for making my hotels look so great. Terrific race.”
“A couple of them have won Celebrity Apprentice, so I’m obviously not a bigot, even though I am big time Hetero.”
“I’ve slept with a lot of beautiful women.”
Health Care:
“Obamacare is a heat-seeking missile that will rape and destroy small businesses and jobs.”
“Hillary is a socialist, she doesn’t understand business, so I’m telling her once you rape small business, there are consequences, you can’t just go and get an abortion.”
“I would set up a different, much better, more luxurious system than we have now. It would have the Trump stamp of quality.”
ISIS:
“These guys just opened a hotel, can you believe it? Not only have they declared war on America, but now they’re going to war against me.”
“If I can make billions of dollars and build quality golf courses and real estate, I can destroy ISIS.”
“Donald Trump has never lost a war.”
“ISIS, what a bunch of chumps.”
The Mexican Border:
“I’m going to build a wall to keep Mexicans in Mexico, and you know it will be a solid, quality wall because it will be made by Trump builders. ”
“You know that wall in Game of Thrones? It will put that to shame, it will put China to shame, it will be the wall to end all walls, like the Trump Taj Mahal Casino in…”
“….exciting and beautiful Atlantic City. My fantastic casino has an exotic Indian theme–7-11 Indian though, not casino Indian.”
“No Mexicans will ever get through my wall to steal American jobs and water.”
“Is Salma Hayek Mexican? Classy lady. Beautiful, unlike most Mexican women who tend to be plain–they just don’t look after themselves as a people.”
(As of this writing there have been 1,901 gun deaths in the US since the Sandy Hook killings.)
Given the revolutionary context from which the United States was forged, the 2nd Amendment makes some sense. As a hedge against despotic governance, the populace must be permitted the opportunity to defend itself, to be playing on a relatively even playing field so to speak.
Fair enough.
However, this right was enshrined nearly a quarter of a millennia ago, and the world, America in particular, has changed in unfathomable ways since then, whereas the 2nd Amendment has not. Then, a musket (firearm) was a realistic way in which to do battle with evil overlords, who were similarly bound by the technology of single loading weaponry.
Now, of course, the difference between the technology owned by the government and that of its citizens has widened to unimaginable proportions. The US military, widely recognized to be the most awesome martial presence in history, spends more than the next 13 nations behind it combined.
If the 2nd Amendment were to have kept the people and the Government at commiserate technological levels, it would have had to be amended every generation so that the people had not just the right, but were enabled to have jet fighters hidden under tarps in their corn fields. As it is now, with the American government having a mighty arsenal of firepower that includes the media, lasers from space, drones and aircraft carriers, to name just a few, the 2nd Amendment enthusiasts are little more than Stone Age tribesmen running out of the jungle and shooting arrows at the mysterious airplanes screaming above. Telling the people that they have the right to bear arms is like telling an impoverished and over-taxed populace that they have the right to buy lottery tickets.
It seems to me that the 2nd Amendment exists as a symbol now, a vestigial relic of a political principle. It’s abstract, really, but it has concrete and ruinous effects on the society at large. (For instance, statistics suggest that a young, black man has a greater chance of being shot and killed in Philadelphia than if he were serving in the conflicts in Iraq or Afghanistan.) In a sense, the gun owner in the States is making a moral decision that his right to feel secure by owning a weapon is more important or valid than your right to feel secure in knowing that he doesn’t own a weapon.
It’s a fuck-you, kind of thing.
If the American people need some “hammer” with which to strike back at a tyrannical governing force, then they should be demanding that education is constitutionally enshrined. For surely, it will not be survivalists rising up from the misty hills of West Pennsylvania that saves America from herself, but an informed populace and people living in the 21st century, people who can hack computers, shut-down operating systems and disseminate information.
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As everybody knows, December 21st, 2012 is the date the Mayans predicted as the end of time. Some are interpreting this to mean the apocalypse is upon us, while others see it as a time when the consciousness of the world is elevated and we move into some sort of different, perhaps even enlightened, phase.
Ridicule and nervous laughter abounds.
But could we actually be reaching a kind of tipping point?
The Information Age has accelerated our world in unprecedented ways. I think it’s fair to say that our civilization has changed more in the last 15 years than in all the millennia stacked before it. And as I sit at home in front of my computer with streams of information flowing through me from limitless channels, I find myself in a perpetual state of cognitive dissonance. It seems that almost all of the inherited cultural beliefs that shepherded me into the mainstream of North American society seem tragically flawed, even deceptive.
There are simply too many examples to cite, but after the murders in Connecticut, who in their right mind could possibly oppose stricter gun control laws? The only reason a rational (if selfish) person would do so was to protect a financial interest above a human one, or because they valued the reassurance and confidence they received from having their weapon of choice at the ready over the proven actuality that innocents are going to be slaughtered in order to achieve this (perceived) liberty. (Adam Gopnik put this much better in the New Yorker)
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/12/newtown-and-the-madness-of-guns.html )
As far as I’m concerned, anybody who trots out the 2nd Amendment as rationale for owning an AK-47 is mad and should be seeing a mental hair care professional. And really, shouldn’t people who feel a need to own guns (without any obvious necessity for them) have to see a psychiatrist every week? Isn’t there something delusional and potentially destructive in that desire to be armed, something that suggests an anti-social character waiting to emerge in the worst possible way?
We all know that guns are not just part of American culture, but bound and smothered by politics are a part of the economic machinery that governs the nation. Politically, such elephants in the rooms as Global Warming and Gun Control, matters that need to be addressed with utter urgency and sincerity, weren’t even spoken about in the US Presidential debates. Is that not crazy?
Still, the fact the President Obama went on TV and spoke about gun control is a good sign. Hopefully, this suggests a tipping point may be at hand, and what is truly important will no longer be held hostage by political and economic interests. Maybe something like the Overview Effect is happening to all of us, and we’re starting to realize that not getting shot is a civil right and that all living things are mysteriously bound, obliging us to serve the whole rather than the self.
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Heidi have pen pal named Hobo.
Hobo a girl dog, so not what you think.
Hobo very cool dog. Hobo once petted by guy who play sexy werewolf Jacob on Twilght! Hobo also solve many crime with two-legged treat giver! Hobo have quite the resume.
Mostly Heidi and Hobo just exchange thoughts in emails. Kind of like journal workshop.
Sometimes Heidi and Hobo share feelings about smells. Heidi like smell of dead worm and other dead things and hate the smell of lamb! Hobo feel exact same way! Heidi hate stupid cat and Hobo hate stupid cat, too! Both like to kill cat! Trade stories of best way to send death to cat. Heidi want to kill cat by barking until little cat head explode, but Hobo want to kill cat by injecting with disease then when weak, rip throat out!!
Hobo very creative.
Heidi and Hobo like soul sisters.
Heidi share excerpt from letter Hobo wrote:
“Really like meat. Think meat all the time. Meat, meat, meat. You ever think of meat?”
Heidi think meat all the time!!
Like Hobo reading Heidi mind.
Heidi write this to Hobo:
“Hobo, do you like to hunt bugs? Heid fucking hate bugs!! Buzz, buzz, buzz! Heidi jump and snap and chase for hours! Heidi do whatever it takes! Heidi no bug zone.”
Hobo respond:
“Hobo hunt bugs, too. Kill all of them, even ladybugs. Ladybugs have attitude, think they better than Hobo, but not!! So Hobo eat them with her mouth!. Hobo very much want to kill squirrel and bat at same time. Fantasy Hobo have over and over again. Do you think this makes Hobo weird?”
This real freak-out for Heidi because Heidi have same fantasy! Sometimes bird involved, too. Dream make Heidi leg twitch!
Uncanny how much Hobo and Heidi alike, but sometimes we disagree. Hobo think population have right to bear arms so to protect from cats and overthrow government if they seize control of meat or treat market. Heidi disagree and think more guns more danger for dogs! Dogs impulsive and emotional, they shoot first ask questions later! Exchange on matter become very heated, much barking. Hobo and Heidi not write for long time. Think on different spiritual paths, then hear that Hobo get sick! Hobo hit by two-legger steel fast machine! Put things in perspective. Heidi send Hobo postcard and hope can be friends again. Heidi want Hobo feel good so can kill cat with throat bite!
