In last week’s Triangulator, we compiled North Carolina Republicans’ responses to recently surfaced recordings of Donald Trump bragging about grabbing women by the … well, you know. DR B says that the word hypocrisy is no longer adequate: “Hypocrite provides insufficient breadth and depth for the fact that the political party that purports higher moral standards and is known as the ‘Moral Majority’ (what a joke!) has taken this long to feign abandoning ship. I say feign because even though this latest blatant evidence that Trump is a despicable demagogue incapable of empathy/integrity/humility will cause Republicans to publicly state that they don’t support him, I have no doubt that when afforded the privacy of the voting booth, they will, like spoiled rotten brats, derive a perverse sense of smug pleasure by voting for Trump. Repugnant, repulsive, and nauseating are the first words that come to mind when I contemplate the reprobate himself and the miscreant peons who will shamelessly vote for him. … Like I said, we need a new word.”
Tony Dockery singles out for criticism Senator Richard Burr, who condemned Trump’s remarks on Saturday but, by Monday, had decided to still vote for him. “Burr’s responsebecause he is a shit for brainsis complete and total nonsense; it has no bearing on the question asked. But like all Republican puppets of the regime, when you don’t know what to say, always repeat the rhetoric.”
The infographic that accompanied that story”Survival Guide: What to Do When a Presidential Candidate Attempts to Grab Your Genitalia”caught the attention of New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who blasted it out on Twitter. This elicited a number of responses from his 1.8 million followers, from all over the world and in several languages. Some loved it. Others thought it was in poor taste. A quick sampling:
Lance Ashdown: “Whoever created that graphic is brilliant.” Eli Friedmann: “That graphic is almost the same dimension as a Facebook cover photo. Well done.” Emily Troutman: “I feel like that cartoon is supposed to be funny and it’s just not. Are we making jokes about this? Already?”
In response to our stories on Raleigh’s languishing bus system and the forthcoming bond referendum, AlanfromBigEasy says Raleigh needs to get serious about mass transit: “Bus service is a social-service necessity. Not just for low-income citizens, but senior citizens that legally should not be driving but still do to avoid becoming prisoners in their homes, people will medical conditions, from epilepsy to a variety of eye problems to those with broken legs, etc. And DWI offenders who simply should not be given an exception to drive to and from work. Bus service is a necessity for the transit dependent. There is no ‘no buses, everybody drive’ option. Car drivers get a massive $100 billion-a-year subsidy, so let’s not talk about the inequity of subsidizing transit. Fuel taxes, tolls, and license tags pay for less than half the cost of building and maintaining roads and highways.”
MX46, however, counters that our story looking at the bus system’s racial dynamic [“Back of the Bus,” October 12] is “another one-sided argument from the INDY. “There are multiple bus stops in North Hills and north Raleigh that contain no bench, shelter, and also no sidewalk. I should take pictures and compare this to that and throw the race card in there. ‘No one has to wait in the rain and the cold’: What? Please show me where one of these bus stops has a heating element.”
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