Current Affairs Donald Trump POS: Judgement cometh and that right soon

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DanEFC92 said:
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In America, it's never the right time to ask why.

More of the usual then, I suppose
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LinekersLegs said:
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Bannon is one of the few people in US politics who aren't deathly boring to listen to. Virtually anyone else in Washington would go to great lengths to avoid this sort of clarity. And he can certainly diagnose what's wrong with the corporate duopoly, though that's shooting fish in a barrel at this point. Of course, the alternative he envisions is just as grim, but as the line goes, "say what you will about the tenets of National Socialism, but at least its an ethos." It has been a long time since national-level politics in America has had one of those.

Unfortunately for him, if the bar for change was low enough that even a lazy coke-addled internet fumer could clear it, it would have already happened long ago. Destroying the Republican Party might seem impressive, but Trump supporters hate Ryan and McConnell as much as anyone on the left, and isolating what is at this point no more than a glorified patronage ring/butler service for hedge funds and oil companies isn't such a challenge. Filling the ensuing void is, however, which is why save a few token nutters like Gorka or Flynn, they had to turn to generals and the usual Goldman Sachs henchmen just to meet basic staffing requirements (and they still haven't even made critical appointments like Ambassador to Seoul or a Sec. State for East Asian Affairs - can't imagine why that might be important)

A relative smattering of teenage outcasts who think Pepe frogs are punk is enough to draw media alarm and clicks, but it's well, well short of a political movement. And in any case, Trumplings also don't have the numbers, and have always needed country club Republicans just as much as country club Republicans need "lets shoot automatic weapons at the hurricane" guys.

Did he have anything to say about Trump's supposed "pivot" to the Dems? I haven't seen the whole interview.

It's good politics, obviously, because anyone who has a soul hates mainstream Republicans and there's no reason why Trump should be beholden to a party with such a negligible popular support base. But it's probably a mistake to read anything long-term into this, or anything else when it comes to Trump. More so than even Hillary Clinton, he is in politics entirely out of selfishness. He's not here to change or accomplish anything - which he is 80% too lazy and 20% too dull to deliver, in any case - but to simply to satiate his ego and mollify his insecurity. He's in it to always be the centre of attention, to be lavished with gifts by the Saudis, and to play with neat toys like fire trucks or the entire armed forces. It's like telling a child that every day gets to be his birthday. He'd be a great European-style Head of State, because he certainly embodies the vision of America that many Americans want to project. But between the ears, there's just nothing there.

So it's probably always premature to project any kind of long-term thinking or strategy on his part, because he's capable of neither.

That said, one thing to consider is that in "reaching across the aisle" and "transcending partisan interests aside for the greater good," the media will absolutely fawn over him - and he will just eat this up, like the crude stimulus-response mechanism that he is. There may be nothing that motivates him more than seeing himself affirmed by television.

Conservatives have really outdone themselves in terms of comic relief by anointing freelance twitterers with fresh BAs to be "THE DEEP STATE." This is what a deep state actually looks like, or in the American context, this (tl;dr). And of course, though laziness and brand synergy, Trump has given the actual deep state unprecedented influence over policy, which it has used to pursue the usual ends: slaughtering civilians worldwide, throwing more weapons at despots, helping bring starvation and cholera to Yemen etc. And engineering the next great financial collapse.

What conservatives get wrong though is that far from wanting Trump to fail, the mainstream media actually really wants him to succeed, and not fail - so long as he does so in accordance with what they consider success, which is, in a nutshell, re-enacting The West Wing. They don't care about policy, so as long as their requirements for decorum are observed. This is why they keep falling over themselves proclaiming "The Moment When Donald Trump Became President" each time he absent-mindedly lobs some bombs at the Middle East, or successfully reads from a teleprompter. Bipartisanship is the apotheosis of mainstream media values, and since Trump absolutely laps up talking heads' praise and obsequiousness, there may yet be some wind in the 'co-operating with Dems' sails.

Finally, another thing which I haven't seen given much consideration is the problem this could actually cause for Dems. Having invested so much in portraying Trump as dumb Hitler, mainstream Dems in an awkward spot by co-operating with him, because apart from #resistance and a hard-wired compulsion to preserve the status quo, they are totally vapid, and have absolutely nothing constructive to offer. If they are now going to work with Trump rather than #resist him, what are they even for?

Hard to be taken seriously when you've postured like you're Winston Churchill, only to reveal after the war has begun that you were actually just Neville Chamberlain all along.
 
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abelard said:
Did he have anything to say about Trump's supposed "pivot" to the Dems? I haven't seen the whole interview.
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That said, one thing to consider is that in "reaching across the aisle" and "transcending partisan interests aside for the greater good," the media will absolutely fawn over him - and he will just eat this up, like the crude stimulus-response mechanism that he is. There may be nothing that motivates him more than seeing himself affirmed by television.

Finally, another thing which I haven't seen given much consideration is the problem this could actually cause for Dems. Having invested so much in portraying Trump as dumb Hitler, mainstream Dems in an awkward spot by co-operating with him, because apart from #resistance and a hard-wired compulsion to preserve the status quo, they are totally vapid, and have absolutely nothing constructive to offer. If they are now going to work with Trump rather than #resist him, what are they even for?

Hard to be taken seriously when you've postured like you're Winston Churchill, only to reveal after the war has begun that you were actually just Neville Chamberlain all along.
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Don't think Bannon said anything about the debt deal but he was most unhappy about DACA, felt the recipients should self deport when their visas ran out and that punting the decision to congress could ignite a civil war in the Republicans that could cost them the house.

Personally don't see it as much of a problem for Dems, at least compared to their own internal divisions between the Bernie &Clinton wings. They are playing with house money here given their lack of control of Congress - they can quite plausibly work with Trump on DACA/infrastructure/debt limit rises whilst resisting strongly cuts to social services/killing Obamacare and all the while muttering darkly about Russia.

Indeed if they did get some tangible achievements like DACA past congress they would be able to avoid the situation that Republicans found themselves with Obama in being against everything and not really for anything.
 
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...ary-clintons-book-what-happened-clear-message

Good article on why Clinton and her ilk still don't truly understand what did them in

This part in particular stood out to me

Besides, to take populism seriously might also mean that Bernie Sanders, who was “outraged about everything,” might have had a point, and much of What Happened is dedicated to blasting Sanders for challenging Clinton in the Democratic primaries. Given that he later endorsed her and even campaigned for her, this can only be described as churlish, if not downright dishonest.
 
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