Trump's Card

[ursus arctos]

There is no Silver Bullet

[San Bernardhinault]

That needs to be stamped in bold letters on the forehead of everyone who broadcasts to the #resistance.

[anton pulisov]

I like how he says "Weapons of mass destruction"

[E10 Rifle]

We need political remedies for it too, to make it more likely to happen. The trouble with investing too much hope in Mueller was always the naivety in thinking that legalistic, constitutional means would be the most effective way of toppling Trump, and that the Russia stuff was why he won. None of that is the case. You need a popular grassroots movement.

I found quite a lot to agree with in this. Would be interested in US posters' views.

[ursus arctos]

It's quite good

[ursus arctos]

Because admitting that requires that one accept some degree of personal responsibility for having at least failed to prevent (and for many, having actively contributed to) the situation getting that bad.

[San Bernardhinault]

Every time I heard or read someone say something about Trump being a Russian puppet or stooge I wanted to bury my head in my hands and scream. Why did it take so long for people to realise that he won the 2016 election because things had gotten so bad for so many people that electing him seemed like the right thing to do?

I want to scream when I read this, too, though. Because for 90% of the people who voted for Trump, things were absolutely fine. It lets these people all off the hook, by focusing on the small number of previously Democrat voters in the rust-belt who changed their votes. Trump won mostly because regular, wealthy Republican voters really couldn't give a flying fuck about his racism and corruption and stupidity, provided there was a chance of tax cuts.

[San Bernardhinault]

I totally agree about MSNBC, though. It has basically become unwatchable at times, as the anchors try and create conspiracy web weaves out of the tiniest pieces of information which they extrapolate and extrapolate to suddenly bringing down the entire Republican party. It's almost like a #resistance (I don't wan't to use liberal or left wing here) version of the old Glenn Beck flow-charts.

[anton pulisov]

Trump won mostly because regular, wealthy Republican voters really couldn't give a flying fuck about his racism and corruption and stupidity, provided there was a chance of tax cuts.

But those are regular Republican voters who always vote Republican. They'd vote Republican if the candidate was an actual axe murderer. They are never going to vote Democrat, so there is no point focussing on them. The insanity of the Democratic 2016 election strategy is that they actually tried to go after solid Republican votes instead of the Democratic base, swing voters or non-voters. They thought they were being clever and blind siding Trump. They were greedy and thought they could hammer him in Republican states and win in a landslide. In that process, they hung out their own base to dry.

[E10 Rifle]

Because admitting that requires that one accept some degree of personal responsibility for having at least failed to prevent (and for many, having actively contributed to) the situation getting that bad.

Obvious parallel there with the liberal complacency that led to Brexit.

[ursus arctos]

Very much so.

Reg's point on how the egregious abstention rate reflects hopelessness and a profound sense of inability to affect change is an a very important one and one that gets scandalously little attention over here. We also have to acknowledge that that rate also reflects a host of voter suppression efforts that are at the very heart of GOP electoral strategy.

SB's 10 percent figure may be right if we are talking about genuine economic precarity, but is definitely low if the focus is on Republican voters who feel at risk.

If Fox News is anything, it is a 24/7, 365 days a year juggernaut dedicated to convincing its audience that people who aren't like them are out to get them and their stuff. Much of the time it is manifestly overt and when it isn't, it remains the prime undercurrent. It even is a primary message of their advertisers.

In a way, what Ailes did was to take the NRA strategy of hijacking gun policy against the will of large majorities by convincing a small, but rabid, band that the Feds were coming to take their guns to the entire political process.

We also need to add to that the perverse, but virulent, form of status anxiety that has taken hold of many affluent people in this country, as most recently illustrated by the college admissions scandal.

[Satchmo Distel]

The thing about Maddow, as the article astutely shows, is that she knows there's no silver bullet (she's too intelligent and well-read to believe otherwise) but cons her audience into believing there is one.

What I can't understand is how such a one-trick pony approach to journalism still gets ratings. It's the same stunt pulled five nights a week with the same self-satisfied smirk. It might work in the slots occupied by obvious cranks like Al Sharpton and Joy Reid (Saturday mornings) but how does it work at primetime? I'm baffled as I never made it past the 10 minute mark in any of her shows even in 2016, before her schtick became obvious and I gave up on MSNBC.

I'm also puzzled as to why Chris Hayes professes to love her because he seems to be quite self-aware, even though his own show has that same "stay tuned, big story coming" fraudulence (Hayes' excellent "Why Is This Happening" podcast unwittingly admits this by being such a contrast).

[Gerontophile]

In the context of a country with a population the size of the States, that 10% is a hugely significant number. The argument also omits the fact that Christ knows how many eligible voters declined to participate in the democratic process because they had so little faith in its ability to look after them.

Well, there is evidence for a significant number of people having their vote 'uncounted' for one reason or another. And even if that didn't affect the presidential result, it did with other races.

[anton pulisov]

Saw some Keith Olbermann recently. He was decent during the Bush years.

He has completely lost his mind now.

[ursus arctos]

[URL]https://twitter.com/ryanjreilly/status/1111709488720027656?s=21[/URL]

[San Bernardhinault]

I have been wondering whether Barr knows that dodgy stuff is coming from the Mueller report and it can't be contained fully, and therefore released his letter with the only positive spin he could create in order to get ahead of it and have a few days of good news.

[ursus arctos]

[URL]https://twitter.com/revrrlewis/status/1111598059643908097?s=21[/URL]

[MsD]

Er, #trumpdementia is trending.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Wrong thread?

[ursus arctos]

I presumed that the dog has been following news from these shores.

[linus]

I have been wondering whether Barr knows that dodgy stuff is coming from the Mueller report and it can't be contained fully, and therefore released his letter with the only positive spin he could create in order to get ahead of it and have a few days of good news.

That's the kind of soap opera conspiracy train of thought that kept Maddow afloat for the past two years. Even on this board there were many posters who were so distraught after the elections that they actually believed the Russian conspiracy theory, which is such a freakin joke given how marginal Russia is, and how corruptible the whole process is, whether electronic tampering of the ballots or through the pervasive the influence of lobbies.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Chomsky. Ugh.

[San Bernardhinault]

That's the kind of soap opera conspiracy train of thought that kept Maddow afloat for the past two years. Even on this board there were many posters who were so distraught after the elections that they actually believed the Russian conspiracy theory, which is such a freakin joke given how marginal Russia is, and how corruptible the whole process is, whether electronic tampering of the ballots or through the pervasive the influence of lobbies.

What do you mean by "Russian conspiracy theory" here? There was definite active Russian attempts to delegitimise the results of the 2016 election (and, to a large extent it was successful). That is known, and appears to be confirmed by the Barr letter. We know that there were conversations between members of Trump's team like Manafort and Russians like Kilimnik. We know that we were lied to about the Trump tower meeting.

If you mean "Trump is a knowing agent of the FSB", then yes, the Russian Conspiracy Theory appears to be palpable bollocks. If you mean Russia actually won the election for Trump, that seems unlikely and is certainly unprovable, but it's also not important. If by "Russian Conspiracy Theory" you mean "Russian interference in the US election" or "interactions between the Trump campaign and Russians", then I think you are going to need more evidence that it's a "freaking joke".

[Lang Spoon]

+1 to Ton Ton and SanB. There is no more tedious wrong headed cunt on the left than fuckin Chomsky. His linguistic theory is now bollocks, most of his politics are going the same way down the shitter. It is more than possible for Maddow etc to have exaggerated collusion and still collusion to have taken place.Putin is one of the worst cunts in the world and has taken advantage of circumstances to increase influence. Only the sort of eejit that thinks global warming a conspiracy and Russian policy in Chechnya a noble cause would refute that.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

This is an extremely off the wall reason to do something rather sensible. God alone knows what they're up to really.