There is a great article at National Review online by Kevin D. Williamson, titled "the Father-Fuhrer," that partially explains the rise of Donald Trump. He blasts the narrative that the "Establishment" has sold out white working class men in places like the mythical Garbutt, New York. The myth is
"immoral because it perpetuates a lie: that the white working class that finds itself attracted to Trump has been victimized by outside forces. It hasn’t. The white middle class may like the idea of Trump as a giant pulsing humanoid middle finger held up in the face of the Cathedral, they may sing hymns to Trump the destroyer and whisper darkly about “globalists” and — odious, stupid term — “the Establishment,” but nobody did this to them. They failed themselves.
"If you spend time in hardscrabble, white upstate New York, or eastern Kentucky, or my own native West Texas, and you take an honest look at the family anarchy — which is to say, the whelping of human children with all the respect and wisdom of a stray dog, welfare dependency, the drug and alcohol addiction, — you will come to an awful realization. It wasn’t Beijing. It wasn’t even Washington, as bad as Washington can be. It wasn’t immigrants from Mexico, excessive and problematic as our current immigration levels are. It wasn’t any of that.
"Nothing happened to them. There wasn’t some awful disaster. There wasn’t a war or a famine or a plague or a foreign occupation. Even the economic changes of the past few decades do very little to explain the dysfunction and negligence — and the incomprehensible malice — of poor white America. So the gypsum business in Garbutt ain’t what it used to be. There is more to life in the 21st century than wallboard and cheap sentimentality about how the Man closed the factories down.
"The truth about these dysfunctional, downscale communities is that they deserve to die. Economically, they are negative assets. Morally, they are indefensible. Forget all your cheap theatrical Bruce Springsteen crap. Forget your sanctimony about struggling Rust Belt factory towns and your conspiracy theories about the wily Orientals stealing our jobs. Forget your goddamned gypsum, and, if he has a problem with that, forget Ed Burke, too. The white American underclass is in thrall to a vicious, selfish culture whose main products are misery and used heroin needles. Donald Trump’s speeches make them feel good. So does OxyContin. What they need isn’t analgesics, literal or political. They need real opportunity, which means that they need real change, which means that they need U-Haul.
"If you want to live, get out of Garbutt."
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This beautifully describes something that anyone in the criminal justice system sees every day. I can't tell you how many defendants I've been appointed to represent that were too poor to hire their own lawyer. In Kerrville they are mostly Anglo or Hispanic. What is depressing is how many of them have no job, or work in low skill, menial labor jumping from one job to the next, and have illegitimate children. It is pretty common for a defendant to tell me he needs to get out on bond so he can support his kids. I ask - how many, and how old. He'll say five, ages 6 months to 12 years. I ask - who's the mother, and he'll answer: for which ones? I'm starting to hear some of them, too many really, call the mothers "baby-mamas." If I tell the DA that my client needs to get out so he can support his kids, the response is - why is he $20k behind in child support?
"immoral because it perpetuates a lie: that the white working class that finds itself attracted to Trump has been victimized by outside forces. It hasn’t. The white middle class may like the idea of Trump as a giant pulsing humanoid middle finger held up in the face of the Cathedral, they may sing hymns to Trump the destroyer and whisper darkly about “globalists” and — odious, stupid term — “the Establishment,” but nobody did this to them. They failed themselves.
"If you spend time in hardscrabble, white upstate New York, or eastern Kentucky, or my own native West Texas, and you take an honest look at the family anarchy — which is to say, the whelping of human children with all the respect and wisdom of a stray dog, welfare dependency, the drug and alcohol addiction, — you will come to an awful realization. It wasn’t Beijing. It wasn’t even Washington, as bad as Washington can be. It wasn’t immigrants from Mexico, excessive and problematic as our current immigration levels are. It wasn’t any of that.
"Nothing happened to them. There wasn’t some awful disaster. There wasn’t a war or a famine or a plague or a foreign occupation. Even the economic changes of the past few decades do very little to explain the dysfunction and negligence — and the incomprehensible malice — of poor white America. So the gypsum business in Garbutt ain’t what it used to be. There is more to life in the 21st century than wallboard and cheap sentimentality about how the Man closed the factories down.
"The truth about these dysfunctional, downscale communities is that they deserve to die. Economically, they are negative assets. Morally, they are indefensible. Forget all your cheap theatrical Bruce Springsteen crap. Forget your sanctimony about struggling Rust Belt factory towns and your conspiracy theories about the wily Orientals stealing our jobs. Forget your goddamned gypsum, and, if he has a problem with that, forget Ed Burke, too. The white American underclass is in thrall to a vicious, selfish culture whose main products are misery and used heroin needles. Donald Trump’s speeches make them feel good. So does OxyContin. What they need isn’t analgesics, literal or political. They need real opportunity, which means that they need real change, which means that they need U-Haul.
"If you want to live, get out of Garbutt."
----------
This beautifully describes something that anyone in the criminal justice system sees every day. I can't tell you how many defendants I've been appointed to represent that were too poor to hire their own lawyer. In Kerrville they are mostly Anglo or Hispanic. What is depressing is how many of them have no job, or work in low skill, menial labor jumping from one job to the next, and have illegitimate children. It is pretty common for a defendant to tell me he needs to get out on bond so he can support his kids. I ask - how many, and how old. He'll say five, ages 6 months to 12 years. I ask - who's the mother, and he'll answer: for which ones? I'm starting to hear some of them, too many really, call the mothers "baby-mamas." If I tell the DA that my client needs to get out so he can support his kids, the response is - why is he $20k behind in child support?
A Bexar County grand jury on Wednesday indicted a San Antonio attorney previously accused of coercing clients into having sex with him in exchange for money or legal services.
The indictment added to the charges against Mark H. Benavides, 46, bringing the total to 35 counts of sexual assault and compelling prostitution, both second degree felonies, involving nine alleged victims.
Ex-FBI Agent Admits to Stealing Drug Money
A former FBI special agent pleaded guilty to stealing more than $136,000 that was seized during drug investigations. Scott M. Bowman, 45, on Monday admitted in a Riverside, California, courtroom to using the money for a three-week spending spree on things such as a car, plastic surgery for his wife, and a Las Vegas boxing match, prosecutors said. he former federal agent’s arrest led prosecutors to drop criminal charges against more than a dozen defendants in a case he investigated while he served on a task force targeting gang-related crime.
Ex-FBI Agent Admits to Stealing Drug Money
A former FBI special agent pleaded guilty to stealing more than $136,000 that was seized during drug investigations. Scott M. Bowman, 45, on Monday admitted in a Riverside, California, courtroom to using the money for a three-week spending spree on things such as a car, plastic surgery for his wife, and a Las Vegas boxing match, prosecutors said. he former federal agent’s arrest led prosecutors to drop criminal charges against more than a dozen defendants in a case he investigated while he served on a task force targeting gang-related crime.
Every sex abuse victim ever scared into silence is in debt to the man who had only been publicly known as Individual D until he rose to speak at the sentencing of former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.
Individual D identified himself as 53-year-old Scott Cross and proceeded to describe how he had become one of five teens Hastert molested while coaching an Illinois high school wrestling team.
Rafael Cruz: A vote for my son is a vote “according to the word of God”
“I implore, I exhort every member of the Body of Christ to vote according to the word of God, and vote for the candidate that stands on the word of God and on the Constitution of the United States of America. And I am convinced that man is my son, Ted Cruz. The alternative could be the destruction of America.”
Rafael Cruz: A vote for my son is a vote “according to the word of God”
“I implore, I exhort every member of the Body of Christ to vote according to the word of God, and vote for the candidate that stands on the word of God and on the Constitution of the United States of America. And I am convinced that man is my son, Ted Cruz. The alternative could be the destruction of America.”
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