US Politics January 2018: "You All Just Got A Lot Richer"

Rolling US Politics Feb 2019 - "With friends like these, who needs enemies."

But there may be some persuadable audiences out there who conclude that whatever flaws the book itself has, the basic image of a Toddler-in-Chief rings true.

― failsun ra (Ye Mad Puffin)

that's the thing, isn't it, it's all about persuadable audiences. everything boils down to the long, hard task of reaching out to the diehards (because the street doesn't go both ways; i'm not sure there's anybody who distrusted the president in january 2017 who is now thinking "nah, he's a stable genius"). trump supporters are, right now, the only people who matter, and until we get republicans - not just "trumpists", to whatever extent they're differentiable from republicans - out of positions of power, there's not really much else to be done politically.

or anything even to talk about, really. we fill up threads like these with half-assed jokes and idle speculation because what else is there? personally i don't think idle speculation is of any benefit and have other places to make half-assed jokes, so i'm not a regular around here, only when i'm bored and too lazy to find something else to do.

so you're above this is what you're saying

rushomancy, I agree that it's about persuadable audiences, but I disagree with the next bit.

That is,, I don't regard diehards as persuadable (in fact those terms are opposite in my mind). If you're persuadable you're not a diehard; if you're a diehard you're not persuadable.

Republicans who voted R in 2016 because they always vote R (but are not otherwise Red-Hat nutjobs) strike me as possibly persuadable away from Trump. Not necessarily towards Democrats. I want them to be disgusted, demoralized, and either stay home or blow their votes on principled third-party

And I don't think Trump supporters are "the only people who matter." As has been noted here many times, left/liberal/progressives and Dem-curious folks who stayed home are a more fertile and better source of votes than the same fucking Trump people we keep hearing about.

Republicans who voted R in 2016 because they always vote R (but are not otherwise Red-Hat nutjobs) strike me as possibly persuadable away from Trump

which is why Nicole Wallace, Michael Steele, Jennifer Rubin, Joe Scarborough, and the other conservatives to whom MSNBC cedes considerable airtime get no credit from me for courage

fwiw I’m glad rushoman has found other things to occupy his head space since IIRC he was having a real hell of a time on the post-election threads a year ago

Red Hat Linux should sue the GOP imho

Something Bannon didn't apologize for:

-Suggesting Kushner is a money launderer and that Mueller could nail him and the president for it through Deutsche Bank.

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) January 7, 2018

Stephen Miller has the affect of a prematurely-balding high school student who recently took an entire box of cold medication and is in the midst of delivering the debate that will cost his forensics team the chance to go to regionals.

"fwiw I’m glad rushoman has found other things to occupy his head space since IIRC he was having a real hell of a time on the post-election threads a year ago

― El Tomboto"

yeah, it was a rough time. since then i've moved across the country, got a new job, bought a house, started drinking more, completely restructured my personal belief system. been a busy year.

"so you're above this is what you're saying

― j."

not really - i mean if i was above this i wouldn't be reading or posting in this thread, would i? if i were to rephrase myself, i'd say that i'm trying to develop a less immediate approach to political engagement, which obviously doesn't play well in this thread.

"rushomancy, I agree that it's about persuadable audiences, but I disagree with the next bit.

That is,, I don't regard diehards as persuadable (in fact those terms are opposite in my mind). If you're persuadable you're not a diehard; if you're a diehard you're not persuadable.

Republicans who voted R in 2016 because they always vote R (but are not otherwise Red-Hat nutjobs) strike me as possibly persuadable away from Trump. Not necessarily towards Democrats. I want them to be disgusted, demoralized, and either stay home or blow their votes on principled third-party

And I don't think Trump supporters are "the only people who matter." As has been noted here many times, left/liberal/progressives and Dem-curious folks who stayed home are a more fertile and better source of votes than the same fucking Trump people we keep hearing about.

― failsun ra (Ye Mad Puffin)"

i'm sorry if this sounds cynical, but in a certain sense it's easier to destroy political consciousness than it is to instill it. i say this as someone who has had certain practical questions about the sustainability of our current system of government and someone who has, over the past year, gained a great deal of empathy for people who disengage from political action.

direct political engagement is stressful, often confrontational, causes people a lot of upset, much of it unneccessary. i used to disdain and hector who didn't vote, people who didn't watch the news, and i don't think that had any productive point whatsoever. for most people, there are other, more effective ways to change the world besides direct political action.

what i see about trump as an opportunity, and i think that we will wind up whiffing this, is that trump provides a unique opportunity to smash the republican party ideologically, and i believe that smashing the republican party ideologically is more important than getting trump himself out of office. because at the end of the day trump is symptomatic of a tendency towards uncompromising political cruelty. so for the democrats to attempt to sell people the lie that you can be a republican without being a trumpist, to try and salvage the dregs of the party, is ultimately for them to sign their own death warrant.

I agree with smashing the GOP in November 2018 and to tie Trump and the GOP together -- a task made easier in the last few weeks, I might add. But you won't kill the party.

Not with that attitude

Hey, has anyone done a taxonomy of Fire and Fury vs. The Power and the Glory vs. The Sound and the Fury vs. Blood and Soil?

I think The Sound and the Fury is the one that features an idiot man-child, and is otherwise full of virulent racism and inappropriate sexual desires.

the fire and the fury is the theme song to "the wire". "the power and the glory" is a prog-rock concept album about richard nixon by gentle giant (their best album). i don't know about those other two.

btw if i was too subtle, i posted a dl link way back upthread with an gratis epub copy of fire and fury for those of you curious to browse and discard

i know most of the time ILX frowns on that kinda activity but if there were ever a case where it seemed appropriate, this is it
i don't wanna enrich ANY of the players in this game

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/fire-and-fury-is-a-book-all-too-worthy-of-the-president/

The President of the United States is a deranged liar who surrounds himself with sycophants. He is also functionally illiterate and intellectually unsound. He is manifestly unfit for the job. Who knew? Everybody did.

So why has a poorly written book containing this information, padded with much tedious detail, become an overnight sensation, a runaway best-seller, and the topic of every other political column, podcast, and dinner conversation? It seems we are in bigger trouble with reality perception than we might have realized.

it would be a little ironic if a president who doesn't read is ultimately taken down by a book. i doubt it'll hurt him too much, though. i haven't checked in on the conservosphere but i'm assuming that they're convincing themselves that nothing in the book is real

if this is all some kind of next level put-on orchestrated by bannon then shame on me for falling for it but damn this is addictive reading, just one obnoxious anecdote after another. for real this book is making trump somewhat sympathetic, like a lovable silver spoon cad protagonist in an adam sandler or chris farley (RIP!) movie (who don't get me wrong never in a million years would i vote for, nor do i approve of adam sandler, just recognizing that there is an appeal there that isn't entirely false consciousness / greed). the disdain real billionaires and everyone really who knows him has me -- god save my soul -- sort of rooting for him in a way i never have before

btw if i was too subtle, i posted a dl link way back upthread with an gratis epub copy of fire and fury for those of you curious to browse and discard

Masha Gessen, a staff writer, has written several books, including, most recently, “The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia,” which won the National Book Award in 2017.

oh, let's click this link

Frequently bought together
The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia
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Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House
Total price: $34.71
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the disdain real billionaires and everyone really who knows him has me -- god save my soul -- sort of rooting for him in a way i never have before

the shocking twist that no one could have expected in 2018!

it's like rodney dangerfield is back from the dead to assume the presidency

He was the winner and now expected to be the object of awe, fascination, and favor. He expected this to be binary: a hostile media would turn into a fannish
one.

And yet here he was, the winner who was treated with horror and depredations by a media that in the past, as a matter of course and protocol, could be depended on to shower lavish deference on an incoming president no matter who he was. (Trump’s shortfall of three million votes continued to rankle
and was a subject best avoided.) It was nearly incomprehensible to him that the same people — that is, the media — who had violently criticized him for saying he might dispute the election result were now calling him illegitimate.

Who knew? Everybody did.

This is both untrue and smugly superior. If everybody knew this the world would look different than it does today. This is the writing of a person in an information bubble, within which everyone does know Trump is manifestly unfit. The writer fails to recognize there are more than 300 million Americans and at least 50 million of them are actively supportive of Trump and perhaps another 100 million are only vaguely aware of his words and actions.

So why has a poorly written book containing this information, padded with much tedious detail, become an overnight sensation

Simple answer: hope that maybe by breathlessly reporting all the most horrific details from the book, they will penetrate the minds of a few million more citizens, and convince them of what the writer seems to think "everybody knows".

a racist sexually predatory rodney dangerfield who's probably the biggest traitor in american history, if not the anti-christ, that is

the disdain real billionaires and everyone really who knows him has me -- god save my soul -- sort of rooting for him in a way i never have before

the shocking twist that no one could have expected in 2018!

― Karl Malone, Sunday, January 7, 2018 2:57 PM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

A Presidency of Dunces

doubtful that donald j. trump is as big a boethius fan as ingnatius j. reilly

I find myself feeling the Obama years to have been a wasted opportunity to turn against the right. Healthcare coverage was expanded without changing its delivery through employment and private insurance companies, the things that make the healthcare system so hated. This protected those who work in the industry, it was a conservative move. Since keeping what people hate makes people hate you, the country now has an “outsider“ for president. Obama was elected as an outsider (yes, I know that you all know he wasn’t one). Why trust another Dem to change the hated system? Dems are boring, they fix little things while shitty things stay shitty or get shittier. This moron is president because people want excitement, “change” I guess. I know this is all obvious but I’ve been wanting to say something about why I’m so pessimistic about the USA.

I think people were pretty upset about the possibility of GOP repealing Obamacare. Like, doing so would adversely effect their lives in a significant way. It’s good to cover people with pre-existing conditions imo.

trump provides a unique opportunity to smash the republican party ideologically, and i believe that smashing the republican party ideologically is more important than getting trump himself out of office. because at the end of the day trump is symptomatic of a tendency towards uncompromising political cruelty. so for the democrats to attempt to sell people the lie that you can be a republican without being a trumpist, to try and salvage the dregs of the party, is ultimately for them to sign their own death warrant.

^tend to agree and it's why even if Dems retake congress in 2018 (which i honestly don't think they will) i actually hope they don't impeach him. Pence is worse and the GOP's fealty to Trump and his unique brand of dysfunction is a great punching bag

not that i have any illusions about the GOP being "destroyed" or establishment Ds pulling back from their neolib fuckery

The Fake News Awards, those going to the most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media, will be presented to the losers on Wednesday, January 17th, rather than this coming Monday. The interest in, and importance of, these awards is far greater than anyone could have anticipated!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018

I’m amazed people still do the “I’m actually more scared of Pence” thing given the whole openly threatening nuclear war stuff. Also (I don’t think it will happen either) but the circumstance of Pence becoming president due to a Trump impeachment would leave him and the GOP in a very weakened state. That might have something to do with why the GOP is talking about purging the FBI and stuff like that, essentially in lock step to do anything they can to prevent it instead of just...you know...letting the Pence presidency happen.

i'd be satisfied with the Dems taking one house of congress, ideally the senate, and just being able to freeze up the express train of garbage policy and appointments. plus there would then be at least one fully-functioning russia investigation whatever trump does.

The pump is kind of primed for Pence being a 21st Century Gerald Ford.

Also, rmde at a sitting US President expending energy and attention to a bullshit awards thing of their own design on Twitter.

it's not that i'm more scared of Pence, more that a solid majority's revulsion when it comes to Trump is pretty much the only thing the Dem party has going for it

Postponing the FNAs when he could so easily have been done with them in a couple tweets tomorrow night. Now I expect award statues.

The Dems are much more likely to take the House :( The nightmare scenario is another Supreme Court Seat opening, fingers crossed.

Everyone hates the regular GOP party as well, that's why Trump could take it over. The difference between Trump and Pence is that while they're both widely hated, Trump has a hardcore personality cult that Pence lacks. No way Pence wins in 2020, which I honestly can still see Trump doing.

I was watching Dawson City: Frozen time last night. There is a bit where you a see a pic of the saloon/brothel that was opened by Trump's granddad during the gold rush. The language in the advert for it went something like: We are the newest and best in town and here to stay. I might not be doing it justice here, but it struck me as very Trump-like language at the time. But arrogant arseholes beget arrogant arseholes etc..

The pump is kind of primed for Pence being a 21st Century Gerald Ford.

^tend to agree and it's why even if Dems retake congress in 2018 (which i honestly don't think they will) i actually hope they don't impeach him. Pence is worse and the GOP's fealty to Trump and his unique brand of dysfunction is a great punching bag

not that i have any illusions about the GOP being "destroyed" or establishment Ds pulling back from their neolib fuckery

― constitutional crises they fly at u face (will)

see, i can't talk about this stuff without moving into prognostication mode, which after 2016 i'm significantly more loath to do, but some general observations:

1. it's pretty much impossible to say right now how robust neoliberalism is as an ideology. all the institutions which are being wrecked by trumpism are the institutions which were most heavily invested in the maintenance of the neoliberal consensus. these institutions will continue to exist and will continue to advocate for neoliberal policy... but will it matter? neoliberalism continues to be strongly tied to clinton, who is as reviled as she ever was.

2. 2018... one of the paradoxes of democracy is that the easiest way to undermine it is to create the impression that elections aren't fair/free and/or don't matter. it's pretty difficult not to have one of those impressions these days. at that point all discourse is simply deciding on the form of the destroyer. a lot of things remain possible right now, even if some of the possibilities that existed in january 2017 have been closed off, but again, the short-term effects of the wholesale demoralization and disengagement of large swaths of the republican base should not be discounted.

3. impeachment is one of the greatest challenges to the democratic party right now and will, i think, remain a strong point of contention. one of the, in retrospect, stupidest things the democratic mainstream did in 2016 was to respond to trump's show-trial baiting with a strongly worded denunciation of the corrosive effect to democracy of trying your political opponents. the principle doesn't hold when you're running against literal criminals, guys.

there will, i predict, a strong centrist belief that an impeachment trial should not be seen as _political_, in deliberate ignorance of the long-established principle that impeachment is, by design and by its nature, political in nature. i don't give a shit if impeachment happens or not, but _somebody_ needs to be finally held responsible for this horseshit. i am hereby announcing my intent to come down hard on any talk of "healing" or "forgiveness" that doesn't include anybody being held responsible for this goddamn nightmare.

He bumped the Fake News Awards!?! Wow, bummer. I guess that makes room for a couple more weeks of competition! You can do it, CNN!!!

it's not that i'm more scared of Pence, more that a solid majority's revulsion when it comes to Trump is pretty much the only thing the Dem party has going for it

― constitutional crises they fly at u face (will)

Not having a presidential race frontrunner is not the same as not having an agenda. Doug Jones had one. The Virginia legislature candidates had one.

🐦[The Fake News Awards, those going to the most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media, will be presented to the losers on Wednesday, January 17th, rather than this coming Monday. The interest in, and importance of, these awards is far greater than anyone could have anticipated!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018🕸]🐦

Prez has definitely been relieved of tweet duty. There is no way this new syntactic complexity is forming under that surgically reduced scalp.

also, Hope Hicks or whoever you are, no one was anticipating the president would be giving out awards. No one was anticipating any of this.

"I completely forgot I even posted this thing and now people are talking about it so I better make some shit up quick"

"Bring on The Redundies, or The Reductees, or whatever the fuck we're callin' these things..."

wait, the awards will be presented to the losers? that’s not how awards work iirc

What about The Biggest Loser!?

Or the Razzies! Either way, I'm in. Who is presenting? What will they be wearing? Who is performing? What network will it be on!?