Tag: Trump

American Caesar

No this is not some random review of the book by William Manchester, American Caesar: Life of Douglas MacArthur….rather about what is happening in this country today.

This post is about Trump and his embracing the tenets of authoritarianism…..

Donald Trump was hardly the first U.S. president to voice his support for authoritarians. But while President Richard Nixon saw it as practical to have an alliance with Spain’s dictator Gen. Francisco Franco — arguing that at least El Generalísimo kept Soviet troops out of the streets of Madrid — he never praised Franco as a role model for the United States. Trump and his loyalists, in contrast, have openly praised far-right authoritarians like Hungary’s Victor Orbán, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro.

This open admiration for authoritarianism among Trump supporters is the focus of articles by The Bulwark’s Charlie Sykes and Vox’s Zack Beauchamp. Sykes, a Never Trump conservative, has stressed that one doesn’t have to be a liberal to believe in liberal democracy — and he warns that democracy is something that the MAGA right is outright contemptuous of.

“Something genuinely odd and disturbing is happening on the right,” Sykes observes in his column. “Ideas that would have been unthinkable just moments ago are now being normalized, and if anything, the drift toward authoritarianism seems to be accelerating. This includes the explicit embrace of the idea of an American dictator — an American Caesar. Literally and seriously.”

Sykes cites some specific examples of Trumpian authoritarianism. In Arizona, State Sen. Wendy Rogers, a far-right MAGA Republican, has advocated imprisoning the “entire Maricopa County Board of Supervisors” over a dispute about the 2020 election. And the pro-Trump publication American Greatness has praised Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar.

https://www.alternet.org/2021/08/trump-authoritarianism/

These symptoms have been simmering under the society for 40 years and all it took was the right loudmouth bozo to bring the division to a boil.

Reagan turned the fire up and each election raised the boiling point a little more….until the full boil came with the election of Donald the Orange.

Why is this happening?

Since aggression provokes fear, and fear promotes aggression, a dangerous feedback loop has been established, dividing the nation to such a degree that something like civil war seems imminent. It may be a “cold civil war,” but there will still be violence, destruction, and death. There will also be more gridlock in Washington, which makes any kind of progress impossible. It is hard to calculate the suffering that could have been avoided with a functional Congress, but we can be sure it is substantial. And if the division gets too severe, which is where we are headed, there will be a point of no return. Social chaos and economic collapse will follow, the United States will lose its status as a superpower, and life as we know it, will cease. If the pandemic showed us anything, it is that despite how advanced we are technologically, we are not protected from disaster, and our way of life can change overnight.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-supporters-2654459460/

This nation is at a crossroads and our future depends on which direction we choose….right now the choice is not looking too promising.

Will we survive?

I say we can but it will take some hard decisions and difficult solutions and I do not think we are ready yet to make those choices.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–27Jul21

“The Steal”!

Trump will run in 2024 and the only policy he has is to keep repeating bullsh*t….his campaign will function around two words….The Steal

The big mystery about the 2024 election—whether Donald Trump will run—isn’t much of a mystery after all, according to Michael Wolff. It’s “obvious” he’s running. So writes Wolff, the author of three books on Trump and a Newser co-founder, in a New York Times essay. The author recounts his latest interview with the former president at Mar-a-Lago, including Trump’s reaction when Wolff asked him about plans for a presidential library. Trump’s face flashed “confusion” and then “anger” because the question presumes his political life is in the past. Trump “snarled” the words “no way” three times, writes Wolff. “It is an existential predicament: He can’t be Donald Trump without a claim on the presidency. He can’t hold the attention and devotion of the Republican Party if he is not both once and future king—and why would he ever give that up?”

Trump is still very much in the game, and in the interview he seemed to relish the idea of exacting political revenge on those he feels have betrayed him (especially Mike Pence and Mitch McConnell). He also boasted of his prowess in raising money for House candidates through “telerallies,” which might very well result in Republicans taking back the chamber next year. Democrats might think all those investigations currently underway against Trump will torpedo any 2024 prospects, but Trump’s view is that running for president is the best way to deflect them. “But perhaps most important, there is his classic hucksterism, and his synoptic U.S.P.—unique selling proposition,” writes Wolff. “In 2016 it was ‘the wall.’ For 2022 and 2024 he will have another proposition available: ‘the steal,’ a rallying cry of rage and simplicity.” (Read the full essay.)

This country cannot heal as long as this tool keeps the divisions growing….but that matters not to the RNC or the GOP…..

Party before country.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–09Jun21

From the “Can’t Fix Stupid” Files….

Personally I think the Donald the Orange was a out of touch idiot…..I he does little to change my mind every time he opens his mouth he reinforces my thinking…..

His latest idiocy is about our dependence on computers for everything……

Former President Donald Trump suggested on Monday that the solution to cyberattacks is to stop using computers.

During an interview on Fox Business, host Stuart Varney asked Trump about how the United States should respond to cyberattacks like the one that recently shut down the Colonial Pipeline.

“The way you stop it is you go back to a much more old-fashioned form of accounting and things,” Trump said. “You know, I have a son who is so good with computers. He’s a young person and he can make these things sing and when you put everything on internet and on all of these machines — you never see a piece of paper — I really think that you have to go back to a different form of accounting, a different form of compiling information.”

https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-cyberattacks/

Seriously?

Does he not know why his popularity exists?

Is he unaware how business works these days?

Like I stated he just opens his mouth and proves to me just how out of touch he truly is…..only a complete idiot would make this statement.

Like I continue to state…..You Can’t Fix Stupid!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The “Orange” Return

Saturday that other guy that was president return to the rally circuit….and as usual he rambled and babbled for an hour and a half….and the peasants rejoiced.

Donald Trump on Saturday pushed Republicans to support candidates who are loyal to him in next year’s midterm elections as the former president launched a new more active phase of his post presidency. Trump, 74, teased the prospect of another presidential bid of his own in 2024, but vowed first to be an active presence on the campaign trail for those who share his values in next year’s fight for control of Congress. “The survival of America depends on our ability to elect Republicans at every level starting with the midterms next year,” Trump charged early in what the AP describes as a rambling speech that spanned nearly an hour and a half. Standout details:

  • Trump’s speech to an estimated 1,200 Republican officials, activists, and supporters gathered for the North Carolina GOP convention in Greenville was the opening appearance in what is expected to be a new phase of rallies and public events. His advisers are already eyeing subsequent appearances in Ohio, Florida, Alabama, and Georgia to help bolster midterm candidates and energize voters.
  • Invited to the stage briefly during his remarks, Trump daughter-in-law and North Carolina native Lara Trump announced she would not run for the Senate because of family obligations. “I am saying no for now, not no forever,” Lara Trump said.
  • Minutes later, Trump announced his endorsement of loyalist Rep. Ted Budd in the crowded Republican primary, adding a slap at former Gov. Pat McCrory, who has been critical of Trump’s falsehoods about the 2020 election. “You can’t pick people who have already lost two races and do not stand for our values,” Trump said. McCrory served as the North Carolina governor from 2013 to 2017, but lost elections before and after his term.
  • Trump focused his early remarks on President Biden, referring to “the most radical left-wing administration in history. … As we gather tonight our country is being destroyed before our very eyes.” The former president waited more than an hour to reference the 2020 election, which he described as “the crime of the century.”
  • The Guardian reports he also went after Anthony Fauci, whom he called “not a great doctor but a great promoter. … He’s been wrong on almost every issue and he was wrong on Wuhan and the lab also,” Trump said.
  • The Hill reports Trump zeroed in on China, its pandemic role, and what he believes it owes us. “The time has come for America and the world to demand reparations and accountability,” he said. “China must pay, they must pay.” More specifically, he believes the world should give China a bill for a minimum of $10 trillion. “The damage is far, far greater than that,” Trump said. “As a first step, all countries should collectively cancel any debt they owe to China as a down payment on reparations.”

The lies and bullsh*t has begun again.

All in all it was an hour and a half of hate and lies…..and the peasants rejoiced.

A pathetic display by a master of pathetic displays.

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Come August

Closing Thought–04Jun21

Donald the Orange has made yet another of his ‘brilliant’ and uninformed predictions……it seems this ‘really smart person’ thinks that he will be reinstated as president come August……

Yep he believes that the election of 2020 will be overturned and he can once again sit in the seat of power…(and the peasants danced)….

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times covered President Trump while he was in office, and she now reports that he’s intent on getting back there sooner than people think. On Twitter, Haberman writes that Trump “has been telling a number of people he’s in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated by August.” In subsequent tweets (there’s no Times story about this, at least as of Tuesday morning), Haberman writes that Trump is “laser focused” on state election audits still underway. “It isn’t happening in a vacuum,” she adds. “It is happening as he faced the possibility of an indictment from the Manhattan DA.” Haberman’s initial tweet on this was a reaction to a CNN story about Trump supporters wishing for a coup to restore him to office.

Business Insider notes that Trump allies, including MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, have been pushing the idea that the former president will be somehow restored to the White House, even though no constitutional framework exists for that to happen. And Forbes points out that even former Trump attorney Jenna Elllis, who maintains that the 2020 election was “lawless,” isn’t buying the idea. “The Constitution has only one process for removal of a sitting president: impeachment and conviction,” she writes. “No, President Trump is not going to be ‘reinstated.'”

Will this insurrection continue?

Further information…..https://www.mediaite.com/trump/trump-is-reportedly-telling-people-he-will-be-reinstated-as-president-by-august/

A deluded rejected demagogue who cannot accept that he was thrown out of office and desperately attempting to try an be relevant once again.

Is this a veiled call to arms for the loyalists to Trump?

Even his new ‘platform’ has been a dismal failure like his presidency….and it is now defunct….

“From the Desk of Donald J. Trump,” we hardly knew thee. The former president’s blog ended up lasting just shy of a month. Senior aide Jason Miller confirmed to CNBC that the page has been shut down for good. “It was just auxiliary to the broader efforts we have and are working on,” he told the site via email, though he didn’t elaborate on those broader efforts and said he did not “have a precise awareness of timing.” A week after the blog’s launch, NBC News reported Trump’s posts had garnered about 212,000 engagements—shares, comments, etc.—across Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Reddit, on par with what a single tweet would formerly garner on Twitter alone.

Yet another failure for a failed presidency…..

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Why Trump Won

This will be my last couple of days to post on trying to explain the Trump victory….the American people have spoken…well the electoral college has spoken….I will focus on my forte…international relations and conflict management……that is unless something spectacular comes to light and then I will have to weigh in……after all I am an opinionated SOB.

The dream is DEAD!  This was the closest a woman will get to the White House in my lifetime…..of course I reserve the right to contradict myself…..it is the American way…..

There are millions of people waking up this day and scratching their heads at the loss of the election by Clinton and many are asking one simple question……what happened?

Complicated? Americans just elected to the presidency a candidate who the vast majority don’t like and consider dishonest, lacking the temperament and the experience to lead the country. They chose him even as broad majorities oppose his signature policies from building a wall to mass deportations to tax cuts for the rich and corporations. Complicated doesn’t begin to describe it. Here are some common-sense reflections on this political tsunami.

Source: Why Trump Won | The Nation

Personally, I seldom underestimate the capable voter to demand change…..but the change they demand is seldom real change….just change at the top…..as far as society goes it is never about that…..

The Dems have to an “autopsy” on party politics…apparently what they are doing now is not working……I mean they have lost all control in the states….if they have an agenda then it is not what the American people want….time to buck up and do the right thing……ask the people what is important…..not Wall Street.

Another thing to watch is the GOP…..will they fall in-line with the Trump vision or will they work against him…..my guess is they are cowards and will forgo their principles for the cushy crap offered by Trump.

My major concern is Pence……as a VP he has some power…he is a theocratic politician and I see some religious rights being stepped on…..

Thoughts?

2016: We Have A Winner!

Is this crap over?  Is the long journey into darkness coming to an end?

The electoral college has spoken and Donald Trump will be the 45th prez of the US of A…..

The AP declared Donald Trump the next president of the United States in the early morning hours Wednesday, and Hillary Clinton called him to concede. That concession came soon after aide John Podesta said not to expect one because some states remained too close to call. In fact, NBC News held off calling the race for some time over uncertainty about Pennsylvania, but it eventually put the state in the Trump column and declared him the overall winner with a still-incomplete electoral tally of 278-218. The New York Times, the Washington Post, and others also called it for Trump. The only states still not decided are Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, and New Hampshire.

Donald Trump is now president-elect of the United States—and after his stunning victory, he promises to be president “for all Americans.” In a victory speech at his campaign headquarters in New York that the Washington Post describes as “subdued and humble,” he said it is “time for America to bind the wounds of division” and “time for us to come together as one,” the AP reports. “For those who have chosen not to support me in the past, I am reaching out to you so we can unify our great country,” he said. Trump told supporters that Hillary Clinton had called him to concede. He said she is owed “a major debt of gratitude” for her service and he “congratulated her and her family on a very, very hard-fought campaign.”

Trump went on to thank supporters and family members including his late parents and brother, and to tell the world that while “we will always put America’s interests first, we will deal fairly with everyone, with everyone,” Vox reports. “While the campaign is over, our work on this movement is now really just beginning,” Trump said. “We’re going to get to work immediately for the American people and we’re going to be doing a job that hopefully you will be so proud of your president. You will be so proud. Again, it’s my honor.”

Congrats!  Job well done……time to get to work….promises to keep….

Donald Trump is now America’s president-elect and many commentators are calling it “unthinkable”—but they also admit it is a possibility they should have probably have thought a lot more about. Some early reactions to the historic victory:

  • Trump’s “astonishing” victory “is the greatest upset in the modern history of American elections—convulsing the nation’s political order in ways so profound and disruptive its impact can’t even be guessed at,” writes Glenn Thrush at Politico. He was able to defeat “a better-funded, better-organized Hillary Clinton by surfing a tsunami of working-class white rage that her army of numbers crunchers somehow missed,” Thrush writes.
  • What Trump “has done is nothing short of cataclysmic,” writes Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post. “He has fundamentally reshaped the political map. He has broken the Republican Party into pieces—and its shards still remain scattered everywhere. He has proven that the political polling and punditry industries need a deep re-examination.” But beyond that, Cillizza writes, the victory shows that “many of the assumptions that people have long made about who we are as a country and what we want out of our politicians, our political system and each other are, frankly, wrong.”
  • Conor Friedersdorf at the Atlantic says that he hopes Trump will “rise to the occasion”—but to be on the safe side, people should start thinking now about how to thwart Trump “misbehavior.” “The most important project in American politics for the next four years is safeguarding the rights conferred by the Constitution and the norms of a liberal society,” he writes. “The effort expended by ordinary citizens will determine the odds of that project’s success.”
  • Jim Rutenberg at the New York Times sees the media’s failure to see what was happening leading of to the Trump win as not just a failure of polling, but a failure “to capture the boiling anger of a large portion of the American electorate that feels left behind by a selective recovery, betrayed by trade deals that they see as threats to their jobs and disrespected by establishment Washington, Wall Street and the mainstream media.”
  • Trump didn’t just “vanquish” Clinton, writes Gerald F. Seib at the Wall Street Journal. He “instantly remade the Republican party in his own image. He rewrote some of the GOP’s most dearly held policy and philosophical positions.” Trump has sent the capital into a “zone of uncertainty the likes of which it hasn’t experienced at least since Ronald Reagan’s conservative revolution in 1980,” and is about to become “the most unconventional president in modern American history,” Seib writes.

 

Now the bitching, whining and crying……after that…..but the one lesson taken from this election……polls suck!  They were wrong in 2012 and they were dead wrong in 2016……

The big question now is….what will the Trump cabinet look like?  That should be telling……going to be a fascinating few months….

And the peasants dance…….

Take Me To Your Leader

I have been saying for the start of this election cycle that there was NO one that had any idea about how to be a leader on the world stage.  And so far I have seen leader from either of the two nominees…..

Foreign policy will be big this time around…there is so much crap going on in the world and our choices for handling these situations are limited and not looking so good……

Which candidates show the leadership this country desperately needs?

Let’s start with the GOP candidate for president, Donald Trump……

Many downwardly mobile Americans are confused about what happened to them, which explains the attraction of Donald Trump, who offers few coherent solutions but may have a lasting impact on U.S. relations with the world,

Donald Trump most likely will not be elected President. Still, his historic campaign has sent shock waves through the American body politic. All are asking what it means and what it portends. The focus is on America at home rather than abroad. Foreign policy issues have been overshadowed by anxious domestic concerns.

Moreover, Trump never formulated a coherent view of international issues. Like the average guy, he simply spat out whatever thoughts passed through his head as he had caught snippets of Fox News. Any attempt to discern logic and strategy from Trump’s disjointed exclamations proves frustrating.

Source: A Lasting Trump Stamp on Foreign Policy – Consortiumnews

Nothing about Trump fills me with confidence.

How about the Dems choice, Hillary Clinton?

Hillary Clinton, Democratic presidential nominee, has derided “Don’t do stupid stuff” as a worthless organizing principle of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy.

But her substitute of “Doing stupid stuff” is even worse.

As Secretary of State during President Barack Obama’s first term, Ms. Clinton single-handedly compounded problems of international terrorism, nuclear proliferation, war, refugees, and human rights from North Korea and China to South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa to Europe and Russia.

In sum, Ms. Clinton foreign policy makes former President George W. Bush look like a Talleyrand, Metternich, or Bismarck.

Source: Hillary Clinton’s Foreign Policy: Doing Stupid Stuff | Huffington Post

Another dud in the making…..confidence at ZERO!

Just maybe it is time to re-think the term “leadership”…….

As a retired lieutenant colonel for the U.S. Army, I want to be positive. Even when I’ve identified major conceptual and practical failures in the conduct of American foreign and military policy, I’ve suggested alternatives that could improve the situation. But when looking at the state of our foreign policy in this moment, and given how entrenched the foreign-policy elite in Washington has become, a rational optimism is getting more and more difficult to find.

In practice, the current administration tries to keep a lid on problems by applying limited military power—at least regarding troop levels—over large sections of the globe. These military operations are tactical in nature, designed to achieve small-scale results, without the consideration of how or even whether they support some larger strategic objective.

Source: Let’s Rethink What ‘Leadership’ Means in Foreign Policy | The American Conservative

With confidence lacking there is only one thought that comes to mind……on the international stage this country is so screwed!

Trump Makes Me Yearn For My Syndicalist Days

It is less than 4 days before America goes to the polls and picks their next president…..and their choices are still a mystery….at least to me.

I have been asking myself that question for over a year.  I have seen people that under normal circumstances are level headed and rational…..and then they hitched their fate to the Trump bandwagon.

It has been a mystery…not even the totally committed supporters have any idea why they are a supporter……..they offer up some diatribe about speaking his mind or having balls or other such simplistic dodges…….

But why?

And it’s not gender, age, income, race or religion.

If I asked you what most defines Donald Trump supporters, what would you say? They’re white? They’re poor? They’re uneducated?

You’d be wrong.

In fact, I’ve found a single statistically significant variable predicts whether a voter supports Trump—and it’s not race, income or education levels: It’s authoritarianism.

That’s right, Trump’s electoral strength—and his staying power—have been buoyed, above all, by Americans with authoritarian inclinations. And because of the prevalence of authoritarians in the American electorate, among Democrats as well as Republicans, it’s very possible that Trump’s fan base will continue to grow.

Source: Donald Trump 2016: The One Weird Trait That Predicts Whether You’re a Trump Supporter – POLITICO Magazine

I am sure this will not be a popular explanation….especially for his most ardent supporters…..but if one takes the time to look at it in a rational manner (yeah that will happen) then it does…..it makes perfect sense…..just listen to the rhetoric coming from the mouths of those ardent supporters.

A few thoughts on nationalistic fervor……

“All of nationalism can be understood as a kind of collective narcissism.”
“I distinguish, between nationalism and patriotism.”
“I don’t believe in nationalism. I think it’s a bunch of slogans. It’s a bunch of poor attempts at creating pride. My problem with nationalism is that it becomes exclusionary. We start to exclude people.”
“Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception.”
Just a few thoughts on nationalism……..

Issues like “if I win then my opponent will be jailed” or “if I lose then it is all rigged and therefore not acceptable”……the cries of many 3rd world dictators……

Is the country ready and willing to give up rights/freedoms for security?

Have we been condition to make this all possible?  If so, by whom?

Globalists?  Now that is a subject for a later day….too intense for this one….an insult that could replace “apologist” or “bleeding heart” even “socialist”……

I am old now but the direction of the country makes me yearn for my Syndicalist days……..

2016: Go Ahead Throw ‘Em A Bone

With the election quickly making its way into the psyche of the American people and among my readers there are a few supporters of Donald Trump…..I know I have not been kind to him or for that matter to the other candidate either…..but I like to keep what few readers I have happy…..so from time to time I will throw them a bone…….

There is this professor that is to have supposedly predicted the presidential winner accurately for the last 30 years and this time he is calling the race for….wait for it……Trump.

A professor who has accurately predicted the victor of every White House race since 1984 is not budging from his bet that Donald Trump will win this year.

“By the narrowest of possible margins, the keys still point to a Trump victory,” Allan J. Lichtman, professor of history at American University, told The Washington Post in an interview published Friday.

Lichtman told the newspaper his system revolves around a set of 13 true or false statements about the party currently holding the White House.

The scholar said if six or more statements are false, the incumbent party loses the presidency come Election Day.

“Early on, the keys were inconclusive,” Lichtman said of the 2016 race. “And since that time, that sixth key has turned against the Democrats.”

The decisive factor, he says, is the strength of third-party candidates. Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson could siphon off 5 percent or more of the popular vote, based on current polling.

Source: Prof correct on 30 years of elections: Trump will win | TheHill

There you go my friends….consider this a positive bone….just for you guys….

You are welcome!