Trump's Card

[ad hoc]

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the Democrats can still eff this up.

I'm assuming they will. To me that's the default

[ursus arctos]

I was trying not to say that out loud

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Hah. No comparison. Trump is an order of magnitude worse than GWB at his absolute worst, and even Kool-Aid drunk Republicans realize this.

The congressional republicans are pretty shook up and angry about this Kim/Otto Warmbier thing. Everyone had accepted that he was going to take Putin's word over the CIA and FBI, because they're already comfortable with the idea that he'd have been executed in the 50's for treason. They Understand him taking Mohammed Bin Salman's word that he didn't have Jamal Khashoggi murdered and dismembered, because that's about money. But this Kim thing is just humiliating. Melania had his parents as her personal guests at the 2018 State of the Union address.

[Wouter D]

Hah. No comparison. Trump is an order of magnitude worse than GWB at his absolute worst, and even Kool-Aid drunk Republicans realize this.

How does this not make you shudder by the imagination of what the republicans will come up with in 2032? We thought GWB was beyond the pale in 2000, and since 2016 we think that GWB is not so bad given DJT. Wat satanic monstrosity must they conjure in 2032 to make us think that DJT wasn't so bad?

Maybe Kanye West? Or Cthulhu?

[ursus arctos]

I would consider us to be ahead of the game if we still have a functional system in 2032

[San Bernardhinault]

The Warmbier thing and Trump becoming friends with Kim must be really pissing John Bolton off. He must have assumed that when he was made NSA that he'd be getting the war he always wanted, and then Trump goes and becomes all chummy with Bolton's #1 Target.

[ad hoc]

No, Bolton's number one target is still Iran His only problem there is Netanyahu being charged with corruption

[ursus arctos]

Correct, and the new focus on Jared's dodgy security clearance isn't going to help with that. At the same time, I would expect both Bibi and Jared to try.

[San Bernardhinault]

Bolton had seemed very excited by the possibility of a war with North Korea. I still think he's got to be pretty disappointed.

[WOM]

How does this not make you shudder by the imagination of what the republicans will come up with in 2032?

No, as others have said much better, it's not the clowns that are the frightening thing. It's the competent sociopath who learns from DJT's experience. In just two years, we've learned that, no matter what they do, the right cover story will do the trick and everyone will fall into line. And that appealing to race and power goes much farther than I'd ever have imagined it would. And that a strong father figure is what a lot of people want. Some see it in DJT. And freakishly, DJT sees it in tyrants and dictators.

[ursus arctos]

Bolton has Venezuela to stoke his despicable fires now.

He will be fine, unfortunately.

[Sporting]

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., has asked the committee’s attorneys to prepare the request, according to two aides involved in the process. Neal has also contacted the chairs of several other House investigative committees, including Oversight and Government Reform, Financial Services, Intelligence and Judiciary, asking them to provide detailed arguments for why they need the president’s tax returns to conduct their probes.


‘Every day the American people and Congress learn more about President Trump’s improprieties, from conflicts of interest to influence peddling, potential tax evasion and violations of the Constitution — all roads leading back to President Trump’s finances,’ said Ashley Etienne, spokeswoman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi”.

What are the chances that this will happen?

[ursus arctos]

I would say it is more like than not that the inevitable privilege and contempt fights will allow the administration to run out the clock before the 2020 election.

[Sporting]

Thisi is an interesting read:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...by-dave-eggers

...but jesus it's depressing as hell.

His speech was, like all his speeches, mesmerising. There is virtually nothing he won’t say, so when he’s off-script, there’s no way to stop watching once you begin. He touted the fact that he’d not only freed prisoners from North Korea, but that he’d brought back remains. “Remains are coming back. Remains!” He did not say whose remains had come back. He went into great detail about third-term abortions, and told the audience that Democrats advocated the killing of babies after their birth. At that, the crowd booed louder than at anything all night. He praised law enforcement officers, in particular those working for ICE, and then said that hi-tech tools were fine in the fight against illegal immigration, but “there’s nothing better than a German shepherd”.

[NHH]

Indeed - I find it fascinating that the parallels to Nazism are so abjured with him. Hitler's madness is evidenced mostly by his speechifying; it was there that the truth of the man was revealed and he did his best work. By comparison, he was an almost absent dictator: lazy, prone to hideous caprice etc etc with a massive streak of hypocrisy running through them, maintained by a state that worked in parallel with a series of non-state actors who would brook no criticism and for whom nothing was beyond the pale in defending the regime. All he's missing is an organised paramilitary army (who we know would be very quick to be formed from the existing militias) and a crisis through which to suspend the fucking constitution.

[ursus arctos]

Hitler could focus for a few hours at a time and had a genuine gift for oratory. 45 free associates and is very low energy.

[NHH]

Yeah, but if what he's got works, it works. I think Trump's oratory whilst not classically 'good' is a) good enough and b) actually very well suited to the discourse of the people he's appealing to at some fundamental level.

[ursus arctos]

Dunno

His crowd size isn't what it was during the campaign or immediately after the election, and the people who go now define themselves as part of the cult. I'm not sure it matters what he says as long as he provides prompts for "Lock her up" and the other "hits".

[WOM]

As an aside, fuck Rick Harrison from Pawn Stars...which I will no longer be watching.

[Sporting]

Pray tell more.

[WOM]

He spoke at the CPAC the other day. "I'm a Trump man...." and went on a rant about the evils of 'socialism'. Fuck him. Fuck him to hell.

[elguapo4]

He spoke at the CPAC the other day. "I'm a Trump man...." and went on a rant about the evils of 'socialism'. Fuck him. Fuck him to hell.

He was never backward about talking about his love of Reagan on the show before, I'd have been surprised if he wasn't a Trump man, both American Pickers voted for him as well, Danielle most certainly did not.

[WOM]

Please tell me you're speculating about the Pickers.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/RottenInDenmark/status/1101845377920073728?s=19

https://twitter.com/RottenInDenmark/...920073728?s=19

[San Bernardhinault]

That's more depressing than Trump's speech. My guess is that if you removed the artificially inflated property wealth out of that, then every cohort - even the elderly - would be poorer. The over 60s are only "richer" than the 80s because they've paid off the mortgage on the house that was cheap when they bought it and is now ridiculously overvalued.