monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

@blatham,

blatham wrote:

Remember when George W said his favorite book was Battlefield Earth?

McConnell: "The American people simply will not tolerate" Democrats blocking Trump's SCOTUS nominee

McConnell's favorite is Fascism For Dummies.

This should be beneath even you Blatham. Harry Reid changed the Senate rules to suit Democrat desires to prevent the threat of filibusters for their appointees, and now in the minority Chuck Schumer must live with that. However, the ever loquatious Shumer is now loudly threatening to block Trump's appointments to the USSC ( apparently he can' count) if he doesn't get something in return. It appears he doesn't want to accept what his predecessor Reid in the Senate was so proficient in dishing out.

I hope the Republicans will behave with more comity in the Senate than did their predecessors. We shall see.

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@georgeob1,

Quote:

the self loathing apologetic stance that our happily now departing President projected to the world.

You are one of the most helpful examples I've ever bumped into in pondering the philosophical problems arising from the "brain in a vat" hypothetical.

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@georgeob1,

Oh Dear God, did you think I was submitting an NIE?

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@glitterbag,

glitterbag wrote:

Oh Dear God, did you think I was submitting an NIE?

Sigh ! A pretentious bureaucrat to the end.

No I didn't think of your comments as an intelligence estimate. Indeed I found much of it a confusing mixture of apparent irony and possibly an effort to show off a bit. However, I gave you the benefit of the doubt; stated my questions in areas that were unclear; and addressed the points (if they were that) that you appeared to make. Apparently a wasted effort.

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@georgeob1,

I'm crushed you're disappointed.

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@glitterbag,

What is an NIE?

1 Reply

Quote:

Nixon is a revealing parallel to Trump. Both can be seen as maestros of resentment with a populist anger fuelled by a sense that snooty experts are looking down on them. Unappeasable in their rancor, both men adopted a stance of reflexive hostility toward the professionals who administer the state. This anti-professionalism is very different in spirit from attempts to reform the intelligence community as pursued by Kennedy or Carter. The goal of anti-professionalism is not just to get the bureaucracy to work better, but to subdue it, to bring in under the command of the president so that it lacks the independence to offer analysis that displeases the leader.

LINK

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@blatham,

Quote:

Authoritarianism, totalitarianism, fascism - you choose the proper term. That's where this is going

Yeah, the funny thing is that Trump may not be the one who completes this circle. He may just be the precursor for something much worse. The US has always had a huge strain of fascism to it, waiting for the right time to come out and play*. Not sure (and hoping) that Trump will have time to do too much damage, but he may implement structures that make it easier for another bastard to come along and do serious damage.

Some dude in Bill Maher's show (I forget his name) was saying he believes that our institutions can withstand Trump's more extreme brand of authoritarianism. I hope he's correct, but history shows it doesn't take long, it is conceivable within his tenure - especially when replacing dissenting elements. Although this doesn't address the slower movement to that more extremist element that more or less began under Reagan and accelerated under Bush and Obama's administrations. Its one of the many 'mainstream' elements that go into a bag of reasons for Trump's populist appeal.

*though fascist elements have always been at play, they haven't been allowed a more full reign, mostly mitigated by more moderate elements.

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@georgeob1,

george
Do you think others do not find you "pretentious" or that you don't make "an effort to show off"

How about if you just knock off all the personal insults and snide remarks.

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Authoritarianism, totalitarianism, fascism are what liberal progressive democrats tried to install these last 8 years. It didn't work, and the American people rejected their efforts in a HUGE way.

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@catbeasy,

Yes. The threats have both the faces you suggest.

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@georgeob1,

Quote:

Sigh ! A pretentious bureaucrat to the end.

Really? You calling someone else pretentious? Oh man..

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Quote:

On Wednesday, Mitch McConnell revealed that he has developed a severe brain injury, one that has crippled his ability to form new memories.

The revelation came when the Senate Majority Leader was asked to comment on the prospect of Democrats blocking Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick. When McConnell stepped up to the microphone, it had been less than 24 hours since Merrick Garland’s Supreme Court nomination had expired after a record-setting 293 days of Republican obstruction.

But McConnell appeared to have no recollection of this fact.

“I think that’s something the American people simply will not tolerate,” he said, referring to any Democratic effort to prevent the confirmation of a new justice. “We’ll be looking forward to receiving a Supreme Court nomination and moving forward on it.”

LINK

And as Levitz points out later in the piece, the people DID tolerate McConnell's unprecedented and bald grab for power. There is nothing in McConnell's statement that is honest.

This sort of deceit and disregard for norms in the quest for maximal power is a key hallmark of the fascist or authoritarian or totalitarian (again, choose your word).

1 Reply

@ossobucotemp,

It's an acronym for National Intelligence Estimate - a collection of somewhat ponderous tomes on a variety of issues, formerly published by the CIA with imput from other agencies in a collective effort, and now likely by the new Director of National Intelligence.

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@blatham,

Yea, fascist. Doesn't want our democracy to work.
http://www.salon.com/2016/03/11/trumps_not_hitler_hes_mussolini_how_gop_anti_intellectualism_created_a_modern_fascist_movement_in_america/

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Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin and Hannity on Assange 2010
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obO_6ILuwV8

Worth listening to. This is how propaganda gets done in right wing media.

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@cicerone imposter,

Quote:

Doesn't want our democracy to work.

That is an accurate statement. Everything is about grasping and increasing power.

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@cicerone imposter,

Quote:

Yea, fascist. Doesn't want our democracy to work.

Mob rule (democracy) never works.
The fascist movement 0bama & friends tried to install in this country was rejected in a HUGE way.

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Sociopath Newt Gingrich once called Assange "an enemy combatant".

Now? "down to earth, straight forward interviewee"

Quote:

Trump made his comment about shooting somebody on Fifth Avenue during the primary, a time when he faced fierce opposition from within his party. Since then, the incentives for conservatives to oppose him have weakened, and the incentives to support his ravings, or to redirect any dissent against his liberal opponents, have grown enormously. Trump’s bizarre lies about Russia and Assange are designed not only to defend the legitimacy of his election but also to prove, once again, that his control over the supple minds of the conservative base is total.

LINK

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@Frugal1,

Frugal1 wrote:

Mob rule (democracy) never works.

"Mob rule" is called ochlocracy.

2 Replies

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