Noam Chomsky predicted the rise of Donald Trump six years ago

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Both parties have colossally failed the American people. It was only a matter of time before a strongman stepped in

In an interview with Chris Hedges in 2010, Noam Chomsky, the world-renowned linguist and dissident intellectual, remarked that he has “never seen anything like this.”

By this, he meant the state of American society, relative to the time in which he was raised — the Depression years — and to the tumultuous state of Europe during that same period.

“It is very similar to late Weimar Germany,” Chomsky said. “The parallels are striking. There was also tremendous disillusionment with the parliamentary system. The most striking fact about Weimar was not that the Nazis managed to destroy the Social Democrats and the Communists but that the traditional parties, the Conservative and Liberal parties, were hated and disappeared. It left a vacuum which the Nazis very cleverly and intelligently managed to take over.”

For decades, Chomsky has warned of the right turn of the Democratic Party, which has, in an effort to win elections, adopted large swaths of the Republican platform and abandoned the form of liberalism that gave us the New Deal and, later, Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.

http://www.salon.com/2016/05/19/noam_chomsky_predicted_the_rise_of_donald_trump_six_years_ago_partner/

[On the Road]

1. I Don't Agree with Godwinning the Campaign

Frequent comparisons with Nazis are not likely to be effective -- too many people have already formed an image of Trump via his reality shows and other TV. It also ignores the various reasons people are supporting Trump or leaving the Democratic party -- it effectively leaves Trump's appeal unchallenged.

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2. No form of bullshit will fix this.

As the OP says, the rich will have to make concessions, and fast, and I see no sign that they have the wits or the courage or the cohesion to do that.

[gordianot]

3. You will be asked are you a winner or a loser.

....even those lines will blend together. I tend to think of Trump in terms of 1984. This is a very unpredictable development.

[truebluegreen]

4. Americans fail to understand

(and are given much assistance in doing so) that the traditional "liberal" stance is not, in fact, "far left" but rather is a moderate stance, a safety valve. FDR was by no means a radical leftist, and neither is Bernie. FDR saved our nation from radicalism by giving enough people enough of the pie to keep them invested in the stability of the system.

The elites, including those in the short-sighted upper echelons of the Democratic Party, have been chipping away at that foundation for our shared prosperity for decades. The middle and lower classes have been crushed and no longer have reason to continue support for the system. So we see the longing for a strong man. Whether we will pull ourselves together enough to prevent that result I don't know.

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5. Polls Now Firmly on Trump’s Side as Candidate Masterfully Adopts Hillary’s Greatest Strength

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PicMonkey-Collage-Hillary-TrumpFirst came Reuters…

Then came Quinnipiac…

After that came NBC News…

And just yesterday, Fox News…

Do four major polls officially make a trend? It’s safe to say yes. And if that’s the case, Donald Trump is now either in a dead heat nationally or even beating Hillary Clinton, with momentum decidedly going his way. The same goes in battleground states like Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio if that recent Q-poll is any indicator. Yes, it’s still early, yes… but given how far back Trump is supposed to be here, the results now consistently coming in are either shocking, downright disturbing or positively uplifting. That perspective all depends on how one votes, of course.

So let’s continue this exercise by juxtaposing these polls against the media scrutiny Trump has received since essentially securing the nomination after winning Indiana and putting the last of 17 rivals in Ted Cruz and John Kasich away:

May 13: Recordings of him posing as his own publicist back before Bill Clinton was president are unearthed. The story dominates cable, print, online and social media for days…

The numbers drift upward.

May 15: A breathless front page New York Times piece alleging the then-entertainer/real estate mogul’s lewd behavior toward women at his beauty pageants goes viral last weekend. Same deal: Wall-to-wall coverage and analysis on cable news and the Sunday talk shows… all compounded by countless editorials piggybacking on the story to give it legs into the beginning of this week. Said piece is co-written by the ambiguous Michael Barbaro, who owns the mentality of a snarky 23-year-old blogger on Twitter but really, really wants you take him seriously when it comes to his official (and completely misleading) job of political reporter objectively covering the Trump campaign for the New York Times… a leading newspaper that hasn’t endorsed a GOP presidential candidate since 1956.

The story appears to be damaging at first. Trump already has enough problems with female voters, right? But then the piece is exposed for what it is (as a partisan hit piece) after Trump’s ex-girlfriend featured in the story condemns the report.

And guess what happens?

The numbers drift upward.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/polls-now-firmly-on-trumps-side-as-candidate-masterfully-adopts-hillarys-greatest-strength/

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6. The Top Female Republican in Congress Just Went Public With Result of ‘Positive’ Meeting With Trump

A week after Donald Trump met with members of the Republican leadership, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, the top GOP congresswoman has made her endorsement.

http://www.ijreview.com/2016/05/609466-mcmorris-rodgers-endorses-trump/

[yurbud]

7. I predicted they would nominate a dirty gym sock...

after GOP got Baby Bush into office, then fawned over Palin.

It's just the logical progression.

I'm not sure if Trump is better or worse than my gym sock hypothesis.

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8. Yeah, but it really begins with Jerry Ford, he was the first explicit sock puppet President.

Before that it was still pretended that some sort of competence and decision making abilty was a necessary thing. Since then it's been open to anybody. As the record shows.