‘T’ is for Trump / ‘T’ is for Treason (plus Matador Playlists 7/14/16 + 8/4/16)

18 Aug ‘T’ is for Trump / ‘T’ is for Treason (plus Matador Playlists 7/14/16 + 8/4/16)

Posted at 21:00h in Uncategorized by inkyinkinc

So it’s come to this, Gentle Reader(s). After months of racism, misogyny, xenophobia, hate-mongering and flat-out shameless lying, Donald Trump has now taken to inciting violence against his opponent, Hillary Clinton, and insinuating that our duly elected (and re-elected) president, Barack Hussein Obama, deserves the same. Today this revolting bargain basement demagogue flat out accused Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama of being co-founders of ISIS and advanced the baffling claim that the terrorist death cult ‘honors’ them. But Hold on a second, one might say—he didn’t intend these things to be taken literally. His deranged accusations were intended as metaphor by way of suggesting that the Obama administration’s shortsighted foreign policy created a political vacuum which ISIS exploited. But no, Herr Drumpf is beyond any such subtlety—not that subtlety was ever a component of the Trump Trick Bag. Patently absurd though Trump’s ISIS accusation may be (and despite Trump later claiming that his ISIS remarks were intended to be sarcastic) it would be foolish to assume that his followers are possessed of the discernment to distinguish between Dumb Donald’s dark fantasy world and the one in which sane, reasonable people live.

Dumb Donald is smart enough, however, to deliver his outrages in his now well-rehearsed, smirking ‘nudge nudge, wink wink’ style, allowing him to claim plausible deniability while blaming the liberal media for twisting his meaning. The liberal media has certainly been working overtime then, twisting Trump’s meaning when he insulted the parents of an American Muslim solider who died defending his country and when he called for a foreign power to hack the email accounts of our former Secretary of State. Nudge nudge, wink wink… In addition, Trump has extended his whining about the Republican presidential primary process being ‘rigged’ (odd, then, that he actually won), to suggesting that if he loses in November it will be because the election itself will have been rigged. Is it that far of a stretch to think that Trump is once again inciting his followers to violence should they awake on November 9th to find that things have not turned as they had hoped? To quote Oscar Wilde,

Such accusations proceed either from the thin colorless lips of impotence, or from the grotesque mouths of those who, possessing nothing of their own, fancy that they can gain a reputation for wealth by crying out that they have been robbed.

Wilde, for whom subtlety was an art form, was not being literal about ‘wealth.’ He was suggesting that those claiming to have been robbed are impoverished of spirit—decency, charity, humility, compassion, intellect, tolerance, subtle things like that. In addition to his assorted business failures, Dumb Donald is spiritually and morally bankrupt and probably always has been. His words of late have been dancing a dangerous little dance along the borderline between freedom of speech, criminal incitement and treason. In the world of mainstream American politics he is setting a new standard by which to judge infamy. Trump obviously believes that he is smarter than everyone else and that he can nudge and wink himself away from the precipice but it is my most sincere hope that someday, someway he will be called to answer for it.

The New York Times has taken note of Trump’s ‘Second Amendment People’ comment and on August 9 Thomas J. Friedman threw down the gauntlet in an Op-Ed piece, calling Trump ‘a disgusting human being.’ For a staid, mainstream publication like the Times that’s pretty exceptional. But then the Secret Service has also taken note, confirming to the media that they have talked to Trump about his veiled threats. The Trump campaign, on the other hand, denied that such a conversation took place. So the Secret Service is lying as well? Rigged. It’s all rigged.

Ultimately, the most troubling thing about Donald Trump is not that he is the cause but rather the symptom. That’s a much more worrisome and intractable problem that the cold, clear morning light of November 9, 2016, will not put to rest.

Oh, and playlists—right! Here’s a couple. The more attentive of you (and by ‘you’ I mean ‘YOU’) might notice that at least one installment appears to be missing. I noticed that myself. Oh well…

7/14/16 Playlist

Grammar of Life – Charles Bukowski
Le Marseillaise (pour nos amis Français)
Honky Tonk Horror – the Black Belles
Incinerate – Sonic Youth
Gonna Rock n’ Roll Tonight – Carl Mann
Summer Wind – Frank Sinatra
For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) – AC/DC
Sabotage – the Beastie Boys
It’s All Too Much – the Beatles
Mama Taught Me Better – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
My Little Red Book – Love
Now Hear In – Cloud Nothings
Semi Automatic – the Boxer Rebellion
Get It – Buffalo Killers
Remote Control – the Clash
Axis Mundi – Magik Markers
Ivy League Asshole – Negative Scanner
When Will I Be Loved – the Everly Brothers
TV Party – Black Flag
Drown In the Now – the Crystal Method
God Bless the Girl – David Bowie
The Good, The Bad, and the Leftover Crack – Leftover Crack
Wild Man (feat. Big Chief Bo Dollis) – Galactic
Bummer in the Summer – Love
Stupid Monday – the Stupids
Crescent City – Lucinda Williams
Shed No Tears – Flipper
Modern World – Jonathan Richman
Cut Your Hair – Pavement
Good Vibrations – the Beach Boys
Intertiatic ESP – the Mars Volta
Goo Goo Muck – the Cramps
Water (live) – the Who
Taste – Magik Markers
Summertime – Janis Joplin
Sour Grapes – Descendents
That Man I Shot – Drive-By Truckers
The Longest Shadows – High Places
The Linear Way – Linear Movement
I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (live @ Monterey Pop) – Otis Redding
I’m Gonna Dry My Eyes – Hillbilly Moon Explosion
Printhead – the Fall
Hysterical Strength – St. Vincent
Waterloo Sunset – the Kinks
Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us – Sam Phillips
Jesus Meets the Stupids – the Stupids
Superstar – the Carpenters
The Act We Act – Sugar
Anytime – Eddy Arnold
When the Levee Breaks – Led Zeppelin
Boy – Ra Ra Riot
Heat Wave – Martha & the Vandellas
Where Eagles Dare – the Misfits
I Felt Like A Gringo – the Minutemen
You Can’t Always Get What You Want – the Rolling Stones
Nearly Lost You – the Screaming Trees
The Kid With the Replaceable Head – Richard Hell & the Voidoids
California Nights – Best Coast
Wiped Out – OFF!
I Come From the Mountain – Thee Oh Sees
I Don’t Care – the Ramones
Ashes to Ashes – David Bowie
Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucka) – Parliament
So What – Crass
Everyday People – Sly & the Family Stone
I’m Free Now – Morphine
Hey – the Pixies
Stagger Lee – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Seattle – Public Image, Ltd.
Black Grease – the Black Angels
Mystery Achievement – the Pretenders
Drain You – Nirvana
Freakin’ Out – Death
Tell Her No – the Zombies
I Can’t Quit You Babe – Led Zeppelin
I Fought the Law – the Clash
Funtime – Iggy Pop
Waiting Room – Fugazi
World Without Tears – Lucinda Williams
Buona Sera – Louis Prima
Happy Trails – Roy Rogers & Dale Evans (feat. Trigger on Billal Entrenchement)
Taxi – Bryan Ferry