The Dangerous Case Of Donald Trump

[Jaguar]

I think the truth of the matter is that we still have a lot of issues that will still be there in the unlikely event that Trump is removed from office. Focusing exclusively on Trump is a flawed way of approaching the problems we face as a society.

I don't know where you could have gotten the idea anything I posted was about 'removing' Trump from office. In case you forgot, we have the Senate. They all had their GOP heads go through the windshield of a car. Damaged goods.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

Why? Trump isn't.

Because with this you have basically proven him right. Everything that happened is God given "fuel" for his campaign and his base (the idea that USA should stand alone).
Sometimes "winning" simply requires not doing what your opponent does and therefore I think that the allies simply shot themselves in the foot there. The guy thrives on scandals, conflict, divisions and controversy from the day one and they have given him exactly that.

It is infuriating that the orange menace's administration points out incivility that exponentially pales in comparison to what Shithead In Chief tweets out on an hourly basis, but ultimately yeah - this largely inconsequential breach of civility just gives them fuel to drown out the more important complaints (i.e. they use it to play up "derangment syndrome" as means to dismiss the more consequential and warranted criticisms / drown out the 'signal' with a lot of noise, and strengthen the cult base).

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Today at a company holiday dinner, I had to sit next to several people who decided to start bitching about Pelosi and how people need to just let Trump do his job. I had to sit there biting my tongue. They were complaining about snowflakes who complain about trump, but the funny thing was how butthurt and whiny they sounded whilst complaining about democrats. One of them said "I don't really like to talk about politics at work" and yet they sat there droning on and on and on and on about politics.

I don't really have a lot of love for Pelosi and the democratic establishment, but I'm tired of this attitude from people that we should just blindly follow glorious leader and let him "do his job." have none of these people been educated on the basics of constitutional law and checks and balances? Falling in line and allowing a President to do what they want seems entirely contradictory to the system our founders created, and I bet a thousand dollars some of these same people bitched and moaned about Obama overreaching and being a fascist. Investigating alleged overextensions of executive power is key to the survival of a democratic republic.

Glass houses....

Maybe this should have been posted in the rant thread, just didn't want to bring politics into the fluff zone.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

In case you forgot, we have the Senate. They all had their GOP heads go through the windshield of a car. Damaged goods.

This is why I used the phrase "in the unlikely event."

 

[Jaguar]

It got back to me a woman said, "Why don't they just leave that poor man alone?" Poor man. Trump? Get serious. What's next - a woman feeling sorry for Harvey Weinstein?

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Harvey Weinstein is a cunt, and so are washed up, talentless actress Rose McGowan and pedophile Asia Argento. Can't believe that came from Dario Argento's nutsack.

 

[ceecee]

It is infuriating that the orange menace's administration points out incivility that exponentially pales in comparison to what Shithead In Chief tweets out on an hourly basis, but ultimately yeah - this largely inconsequential breach of civility just gives them fuel to drown out the more important complaints (i.e. they use it to play up "derangment syndrome" as means to dismiss the more consequential and warranted criticisms / drown out the 'signal' with a lot of noise, and strengthen the cult base).

Exactly. The - they go low we go high - is cringy bullshit and it sounds even worse now. But I laugh at the people that scream CIVILITY NOW! and that's the ridiculous centrist Dems just as much as the idiots carrying water for the GOP. The media could do a great service by simply not reporting the majority of the tweets and bullshit but they won't. Clicks and ratings plus the myth of objectivity.

As far as NATO was concerned - Trump ran crying to the bathroom in the UK because some dudes talked shit about him behind his back. Then he ran away, got on a plane sniffling and wiping his nose on his fucking sleeve. What an amazing leader he is. He deserves to be laughed at everywhere he goes because he is a joke and so is this country. The End.

The only deranged people I see are the ones that think someone attacked Barron Trump or the clowns on Fox bitching about reusable water bottles.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Exactly. The - they go low we go high - is cringy bullshit and it sounds even worse now. But I laugh at the people that scream CIVILITY NOW! and that's the ridiculous centrist Dems just as much as the idiots carrying water for the GOP. The media could do a great service by simply not reporting the majority of the tweets and bullshit but they won't. Clicks and ratings plus the myth of objectivity.

I get annoyed by hearing media personalities acting outraged by all this when they helped catapult him to such high office to begin with, or act like they're the "defender of the facts." Media, or at least television media, is not about facts or information, it's about stories. If they cared about facts or information, they would occasionally discuss things going on in the world that weren't Trump-related. But that's not the hottest story.

Maybe there was a time when television journalism was not about that, but it sure as shit hasn't been in my conscious lifetime. The O.J. Simpson media circus happened in early elementary school, for instance.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

I get annoyed by hearing media personalities acting outraged by all this when they helped catapult him to such high office to begin with, or act like they're the "defender of the facts." Media, or at least television media, is not about facts or information, it's about stories. If they cared about facts or information, they would occasionally discuss things going on in the world that weren't Trump-related. But that's not the hottest story.

Maybe there was a time when television journalism was not about that, but it sure as shit hasn't been in my conscious lifetime. The O.J. Simpson media circus happened in early elementary school, for instance.

Matt Lauer was practically sucking Trump's dick when he interviewed him in 2016. The contrast between his easy going approach to Trump versus his interrogation of Clinton was shocking. It wasn't hard to ignore because he interviewed one right after the other in the same evening. Fuck Clinton too, but it was obvious Trump was getting easy softball questions while Clinton was being subjected to tougher questions. Lauer also spent over half of the interview focusing on her emails. Both of them should've gotten tough questions because journalists aren't supposed to jerk off political candidates, they're supposed to cut through the bullshit and rhetoric to find out if the facts match up with the hearsay and rhetoric. Yet somehow people have it in their head that NBC is some far left propaganda machine. Lauer was always a joke, a softball morning news guy more suited to interviewing Kardashians and hosting cooking segments. It was kind of adorable how he tried to play at being a hard hitting investigative journalist. Bryant Gumbel was always a way better newsman than Lauer. Shame he went off to do boring sports news specials for HBO. For a morning news host, he was a good anchorman.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Matt Lauer was practically sucking Trump's dick when he interviewed him in 2016. The contrast between his easy going approach to Trump versus his interrogation of Clinton was shocking. It wasn't hard to ignore because he interviewed one right after the other in the same evening. Fuck Clinton too, but it was obvious Trump was getting easy softball questions while Clinton was being subjected to tougher questions. Lauer also spent over half of the interview focusing on her emails. Both of them should've gotten tough questions because journalists aren't supposed to jerk off political candidates, they're supposed to cut through the bullshit and rhetoric to find out if the facts match up with the hearsay and rhetoric. Yet somehow people have it in their head that NBC is some far left propaganda machine. Lauer was always a joke, a softball morning news guy more suited to interviewing Kardashians and hosting cooking segments. It was kind of adorable how he tried to play at being a hard hitting investigative journalist. Bryant Gumbel was always a way better newsman than Lauer. Shame he went off to do boring sports news specials for HBO. For a morning news host, he was a good anchorman.

Oh yeah, and don't forget that SNL had Trump on twice as a host. The first time I suppose was forgivable because he was just a dumb reality TV show host (although I remembered that episode and it was terrible). The second time when he was a Presidential candidate? Not so much.

NBC does seem to have produced the lion's share of all the quality sitcoms of the past 30 years, I'll give them that. Seinfeld, Community, Parks and Rec, the Office.. all good shows.

 

[Virtual ghost]

It is infuriating that the orange menace's administration points out incivility that exponentially pales in comparison to what Shithead In Chief tweets out on an hourly basis, but ultimately yeah - this largely inconsequential breach of civility just gives them fuel to drown out the more important complaints (i.e. they use it to play up "derangment syndrome" as means to dismiss the more consequential and warranted criticisms / drown out the 'signal' with a lot of noise, and strengthen the cult base).

Exactly. The - they go low we go high - is cringy bullshit and it sounds even worse now. But I laugh at the people that scream CIVILITY NOW! and that's the ridiculous centrist Dems just as much as the idiots carrying water for the GOP. The media could do a great service by simply not reporting the majority of the tweets and bullshit but they won't. Clicks and ratings plus the myth of objectivity.

As far as NATO was concerned - Trump ran crying to the bathroom in the UK because some dudes talked shit about him behind his back. Then he ran away, got on a plane sniffling and wiping his nose on his fucking sleeve. What an amazing leader he is. He deserves to be laughed at everywhere he goes because he is a joke and so is this country. The End.

The only deranged people I see are the ones that think someone attacked Barron Trump or the clowns on Fox bitching about reusable water bottles.

Just for the record my point was more among the lines "pick your fights". Everything that happened is mostly because someone thought that the situation will solve itself out with improvisations. From the day one they fight Trumpism mostly with BS and drama that simply aren't winning any real fights.


The reason why I don't see Trump as absolutely the worst person in the room is because the whole atmosphere there was on the level "let them eat cake". In my country presidential elections are in 2 weeks and we still didn't have a presidential debate and it seems we wouldn't. Serbian leadership as we speak is once again in Moscow. Italy is two steps from snap elections where far right will probably take power (and therefore destiny of Eurozone). Visegrad and especially Tukey don't really care about democracy anymore. Spain, UK and Germany are falling apart from within, China is economically moving in big time ..... etc. While these people are having a party (or going home) as they have all the time in the world. Therefore the actual problem seems to be much wider than Trump, when you sum it all up I don't really see people that can counter China's exports backed by Russian intelligence. For me all of that was simply the moment of truth when you fully grasp that democracy in your part of the world is simply doomed.

 

[Nicodemus]

Well, I'm in the minority who thinks that Trump's GOP is less a shocking unprecedented development and more a further evolution and intensification of past trends. Given that, it may not be productive to reuse tactics that proved ineffectual in the past.

It is the people, not the messages, that make the difference. Do you seriously believe anybody but Trump could have won in 2016 using his tactics? Hillary lost because he has tons of baggage and no charisma to make up for it.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

Just for the record my point was more among the lines "pick your fights". Everything that happened is mostly because someone thought that the situation will solve itself out with improvisations. From the day one they fight Trumpism mostly with BS and drama that simply aren't winning any real fights.

I think this was actually the point I was getting at too. He uses the chaos generated by the largely inconsequential (in the bigger picture) events to strengthen his base, so that they'll simply swallow it whole like good little minions when he says "dismiss what the haters say" about the truly merited grievances about what should be considered unacceptable by everyone. He (and his administration of super-yes men) know how to spin chaos to make him into a victim that deserves blind loyalty. He uses that loyalty to control GOP politicians because GOP politicians need the vote of his minions (and he smears anyone who doesn't fall in line) - removing him from office (via impeachment) might be possible if the Senate vote could be anonymous and GOP senators could focus on right/wrong instead of left vs right. This is all possible because he uses the chaos generated by the lesser important stuff (in the big picture) to strengthen blind loyalty in his base.

ETA All that being though, I do wish more world leaders - and past domestic GOP leaders (who are retired, and therefore no longer need the vote of his base) would come forward and make prepared statements about him - rather than expressing their incredulity privately amongst themselves in gossipy way. Prepared/measured comments about him could actually be helpful.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

It is the people, not the messages, that make the difference. Do you seriously believe anybody but Trump could have won in 2016 using his tactics? Hillary lost because he has tons of baggage and no charisma to make up for it.

People said he would destroy the Republican party if he won the nomination, evidently unaware of the fact that a large chunk of Republican voters wanted exactly what he was selling. How they missed that is beyond me.

 

[Jaguar]

People said he would destroy the Republican party if he won the nomination

It may as well be the mafia.

 

[Nicodemus]

People said he would destroy the Republican party if he won the nomination, evidently unaware of the fact that a large chunk of Republican voters wanted exactly what he was selling. How they missed that is beyond me.

He has destroyed the Republican party. Wait for what happens once he is gone. It will require major change to remain relevant without Trump, simply because it no longer stands for anything beside Trump.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

He has destroyed the Republican party. Wait for what happens once he is gone. It will require major change to remain relevant without Trump, simply because it no longer stands for anything beside Trump.

Naw, think somebody even shittier will come along unless the paradigms radically shift. People made similar proclamations when Obama was elected.

With Biden likely to run away with the nomination, this will not happen yet.

 

[Nicodemus]

Naw, think somebody even shittier will come along unless the paradigms radically shift.

Trump could pull off the scandals-don't-touch-me stuff because scandal was already baked into his public persona. Nobody was surprised that Trump is a selfish, cheating, sexually assaulting, scamming asshole. People knew that all along. You would need somebody like David Duke to pull off something similar. And I genuinely believe David Duke would probably make a better president than Trump.

People made similar proclamations when Obama was elected.

Stupid people.

With Biden likely to run away with the nomination, this will not happen yet.

Biden is easily beating Trump in the polls. There is no reason to believe people are lying about their support for Trump anymore. Hell, the polls were pretty accurate even in 2016. Hillary lost due to a few thousand votes in two or three states.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Biden is easily beating Trump in the polls. There is no reason to believe people are lying about their support for Trump anymore. Hell, the polls were pretty accurate even in 2016. Hillary lost due to a few thousand polls in two or three states.

I just don't think the Democratic establishment is capable of successfully challenging the alt-right. Perhaps I'll be proven wrong. But this is my hypothesis for now.

 

[Nicodemus]

I just don't think the Democratic establishment is capable of successfully challenging the alt-right. Perhaps I'll be proven wrong. But this is my hypothesis for now.

Whoever gets the Democratic nomination will receive support from all factions of the populace who are seeking to protect democracy. And if Democrats actually come out to vote, Republicans don't stand a chance. Remember: In absolute numbers, there are a lot more Democrats, democrats, liberals, and people of decency in the US than there are Republicans. That is why they need voter-ID laws and gerrymandering.

There has not been a new Republican president winning the popular vote since 1989!