How stupid is Trump?

Yup. Seems to me his major schtick it sealioning.

In Internet debate it is a reasonable courtesy to indulge what might be sealioning for a bit...until it becomes obvious that sealioning is all that will be forthcoming.

Brandon, unfortunately, has reached that point.

He reached that point a few years ago. My thread on sealioning was inspired by him.

I'll have to check when I made it.

It was eight years ago yesterday. (31/01/'17)

And he'd been sealioning for a while before that.

Hate to make more work for you, but I'd love to read it. If you get some time, get me a link.

https://able2know.org/topic/365993-1

Actually, you can have a decent discussion with him about non-political topics such as classic rock, physics, old TV shows, science fiction tropes, or NYC.

I don't know, his top writer is Roger Zelazny, who is alright, but he's hardly at the pinnacle of literature, or his genre.

Zelazny is no Phillip K Dick, Brian Aldiss, Michael Moorcock, (when serious) JG Ballard, Isaac Asimov, William Gibson or William Burroughs.

Thanks, Izzy. Interesting thread.

I learned of the term, sealioning, rather recently. I have known of the technique since about 6 months into my visits to the Internet. Some people use it almost every discussion. Glad it has a name.

Trump kicks off the trade war. Interesting he went after Mexico and Canada harder than China

It doesn't officially kick in until Tuesday. I think he's getting cold feet. He'll probably announce that the all the targeted countries gave in and claim to have won a great victory even if nothing happens.

I understand a number of Northern States are heavily reliant on Canadian energy.

That is a significant bargaining chip.

Trump said that China, Mexico and Canada would face tariffs because “all three haven’t treated us very well”: China because it allowed a fentanyl industry to manufacture illicit drugs for export to the United States, Mexico for what he said was allowing a porous border, and Canada for an “unfair” trade imbalance.
Trump has also set sights on Panama, because of the canal; Brazil, India and others, threatening them not to pursue attempts to reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar; and the European Union, which he said “has treated us so terribly.”

In former times, monarchs had started real war for such reasons. But since Trump takes aim at Greenland, an autonomous territory and part of the Kingdom of Denmark - who knows, what he will do next.
In any case, he ‘annoys’ America's - formerly - closest friends and allies the most.

(The Guardian cartoon)

When he bombed IS in Somalia yesterday he said it was for the security of the US and its allies.

I remember thinking, "What ******* allies? Other than Israel we're all rivals now."

This is total batshit insanity – you only have to watch a few minutes...

Toronto Raptors fans continue trend of booing US anthem in Canada
(espn)