Donald Trump, the road that might not lead to the White House!

[Casually Red]

On Politico ‘He Has This Deep Fear That He Is Not a Legitimate President’
The qualification that gave American's confidence in Trump was his well advertised business genius. His business employs about 22K people and has an estimated revenue of 55 billion but at its core it does seem to be run like a typical family SME with a shouty micro managing boss.

This is no small thing but isn't Rex Tillerson at Exxon which is more like a modern East India Company running much of US global energy policy with a quarter trillion dollars of revenue a year.

Reckons that the only people he listens too in his current business dealing are his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner. and that won't change in the White House. Loves to be in the spotlight even as the bad guy. No appetite for bad news that just gets flushed away. Putin, a former KGB colonel, every day goes patiently through a folder of intel reports. Likely they are a bit paranoid and crafted to please but he's not as insulated from the real world as the book reading adverse Trump is going to be. He's a man who believes information is power not just in directing blizzards of misinformation at his foes like Trump.

There's already a scandal in CENTCOM with analysts complaining there stuff on IS was being cooked to present a sunny picture to the higher ups including the often bubble dwelling Obama. It's already evident the intelligence agencies are going to have a big problem with Trump. Nixon also had a very bad relationship with the agencies but was very well informed on world affairs. When Stalin didn't like what the NKVD told him he used to have his hard working spies shot or sent to the gulag. That included hard evidence that the Nazis were going to invade that he refused to believe. The spooks learnt to survive by supporting his conspiracy theories. I think it's going to be that sort of relationship.

My theory is he listens to Alex Jones a lot . As in really listens..and a lot . I honestly believe that .

I'd have a very large bet that the very first things Trump is going to do is grab the files to see who killed Kennedy and do UFOs exist . Unfortunately if he did decide to tell the rest of us we wouldn't believe the headcase .

 

[not-bono-ever]

Bet you Trump would call himself king of scotland if the thought occurred to him

Idi Amin had a Victoria cross didn't he ? self awarded of course . I am sure Trump could do the same. I wonder what he would award himself ?

 

[The Octagon]

Is it too much to hope that the assassin will pick off Farage at the same time?

Now I'm wondering who the Designated Survivor is...

Probably Ivanka, just to really annoy Hilary when there's a female President after all.

 

[camouflage]

Just saw this on the Guardian's feed thingy, relevant bit underlined:
I'd like to think there will be a surge of protest and industrial unrest that makes things ungovernable, but wont hold my breath. I suspect though that if anything does it will be stuff like this - utter utter fuck ups that arise out of his family business way of running things, along with all the swivel eyed incompetents in his cabinet - none of which is likely to play out well with the separation of powers. It may even be that Trump's biggest danger is being faced by a Senate and House dominated by his own party, none of whom want to lose their seat in 2 or 4 years. They might be the ones who make things 'ungovernable'.

Anyway... after all the (correct) focus on the fact that the Democrats and liberal elites created the conditions for Trump, fucking hell, Trump! Not the first sexual predator in the White House, not the first racist, not the first populist, not the first deregulator - but fucking hell, what a vile mix of all these. A lot of people are going to be hurt.

To be honest I hope Trump surprises us all and actually does a rather good job of being POTUS, there'd certainly be less hurt all round if that happened. What Trump has going for him is precisely the kind of pig-headed unabashed stubborn egotistical erm.... let's call it 'courage' (with quotes) to take on the kind of established interests that one needs to be a "strong leader" when for example taking on the CIA or Wall Street (that he may despite himself have set himself up for a clash with of some sort at some point). They say only Nixon could have gone to China, Nixon was a jerk too, but his precise nature of jerkiness was what made going to China possible. Trump may well "go to Russia" and we could end up dialling the tension between Washington and Moscow right down, and to my mind it's been pretty embarrassing how blatantly the champions of the New Cold War Death-Cult have been throwing about whatever shite they could think of to prevent such a thing from happening (crazily enough, people who consider themselves reasonable have been happy to get behind the effort... scary really,the psychology of crowds). Even if that does happen though, there's still the worrying things Trump says about China, so who knows what sort of mess will be made.

Ironically a couple of Cold War era African leaders have been mentioned who probably had a far more erm... amicable relationship with the CIA than Trump so far seems to. But true, no-one wants some weird new far right order in Washington... it's better when that kind of white-supremacist Exceptionalist shit is masked as 'Liberal/Progressive' or something like usually. Still not sure though how much of Trump Reich is just spill-over from the Killary campaigns "Project Fear". It's sure to be an interesting 4 years either way.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Four hours to go, and this thread title will need changing!

 

[Pickman's model]

To be honest I hope Trump surprises us all and actually does a rather good job of being POTUS, there'd certainly be less hurt all round if that happened. What Trump has going for him is precisely the kind of pig-headed unabashed stubborn erm.... let's call it 'courage' (with quotes) to take on the kind of established interests that one needs to be a "strong leader" when for example taking on the CIA or Wall Street (that he may despite himself have set himself up for a clash with of some sort at some point). They say only Nixon could have gone to China, Nixon was a jerk too, but his precise nature of jerkiness was what made going to China possible. Trump may well "go to Russia" and we could end up dialling the tension between Washington and Moscow right down, and to my mind it's been pretty embarrassing how blatantly the champions of the New Cold War Death-Cult have been throwing about whatever shite they could think of to prevent such a thing from happening (crazily enough, people who consider themselves reasonable have been happy to get behind the effort... scary really,the psychology of crowds.

Ironically a couple of Cold War era African leaders have been mentioned who probably had a far more erm... amicable relationship with the CIA than Trump has so far seems to.

why don't people believe politicians when they tell you what they're going to do? all too frequently they go ahead and do what they say. but it's all this nonsense magical thinking of 'well, he'll grow into the job'. the fucking man's SEVENTY years auld, do you think that he's going to change his spots now? he's not a callow youth entering into his first job, he's not going to go 'oops, perhaps i'd better listen to the adults and do what they suggest. his ENTIRE FUCKING CAREER ought to give you some insight into how he's going to behave.

frankly it's embarrassing enough seeing seasoned commentators coming out with that sort of guff without seeing it on urban too.

 

[camouflage]

why don't people believe politicians when they tell you what they're going to do? all too frequently they go ahead and do what they say. but it's all this nonsense magical thinking of 'well, he'll grow into the job'. the fucking man's SEVENTY years auld, do you think that he's going to change his spots now? he's not a callow youth entering into his first job, he's not going to go 'oops, perhaps i'd better listen to the adults and do what they suggest. his ENTIRE FUCKING CAREER ought to give you some insight into how he's going to behave.

frankly it's embarrassing enough seeing seasoned commentators coming out with that sort of guff without seeing it on urban too.

Cancel the war with Russia? I hope so. Fuck what happens in the US, I'm concerned about keeping London where I live unmenaced by ICBMs.

I don't think Trump wants a military confrontation with China, I reckon a trade-war is what he's after there. And after China hands the US their asses back it'll be fine.

 

[Pickman's model]

Cancel the war with Russia? I hope so. Fuck what happens in the US, I'm concerned about keeping London where I live unmenaced by ICBMs.

you should be praying the septic missile shield works then

 

[camouflage]

you should be praying the septic missile shield works then

No chance, Sky Pie... been a nice run for the Lockheed gang but fuck all use if things ever got nasty. The kind of delusions that Exceptionalism provides is not the least of its many dangers. The best way to shield ourselves from an apocalyptic exchange is to be on reasonable terms with Russia and China, fuck all this simple-minded ideologically driven demonizational talk. Perhaps I'm only saying that because I'm a realist rather than one of your ideologically demented Crusader types, shrieking at the world for daring to see things differently than I do and insisting like Canute that the sea itself obey my Globalist-Right (magically Leftwing/Progressive) dictats and expectations.

 

[Libertad]

you should be praying the septic missile shield works then

Fylingdales will be kept on their toes.

 

[Pickman's model]

No chance, Sky Pie... been a nice run for the Lockheed gang but fuck all use if things ever got nasty. The kind of delusions that Exceptionalism provides is not the least of its many dangers. The best way to shield ourselves from an apocalyptic exchange is to be on reasonable terms with Russia and China, fuck all this simple-minded ideologically driven demonizational talk.

i get on fine with russian and chinese people.

sadly our government doesn't seem to have the same interpersonal skills when they interact with their russian and chinese counterparts.

 

[Pickman's model]

Fylingdales will be kept on their toes.

(((toes)))

 

[sleaterkinney]

yeh don't ask weltweit what he thinks, let's change the thread title without reference to the op

why

Naah, lets kill it. It's repute is worse than Hillary Clintons.

Calm down Snowflakes.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

We are going to close this embarrassment of a thread once the shit actually takes office, aren't we?

Wouldn't we just have to start another embarrassment of a thread?

 

[camouflage]

Calm down Snowflakes.

It's a really interesting read when you start the thread again from page 1, knowing what we know now. It's like a slow motion reply of a car-crash that no one in the bubble saw coming.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Bet you Trump would call himself king of scotland if the thought occurred to him

I'm thinking he's after "King of America."

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Snowflakes.

I'm really coming to hate that word. Its become nothing more than a swift way to dispose of people who have valid concerns.

 

[Idris2002]

I'm thinking he's after "King of America."

"He thought he was the king of America,

But it was just a boulevard of broken dreams,

A trick they do with mirrors and with chemicals -"

 

[Pickman's model]

Calm down Snowflakes.

so pointing out it would be courteous to run a proposed title change by the thread starter now means i can't cope with people having differing opinions. fuck off.

 

[belboid]

Wouldn't we just have to start another embarrassment of a thread?

We should give a new, democratically chosen, thread a chance, it might just surprise us.

 

[Libertad]

We should give a new, democratically chosen, thread a chance, it might just surprise us.

 

[CrabbedOne]

why don't people believe politicians when they tell you what they're going to do? all too frequently they go ahead and do what they say. but it's all this nonsense magical thinking of 'well, he'll grow into the job'. the fucking man's SEVENTY years auld, do you think that he's going to change his spots now? he's not a callow youth entering into his first job, he's not going to go 'oops, perhaps i'd better listen to the adults and do what they suggest. his ENTIRE FUCKING CAREER ought to give you some insight into how he's going to behave.

frankly it's embarrassing enough seeing seasoned commentators coming out with that sort of guff without seeing it on urban too.

Bashar Assad wearily observed US Presidents really can't be trusted to do what they said they would on the campaign trail. He was of course right.

What they say when campaigning is often criticism of the rival incumbent regime but they often find what they do is dictated by real world constraints. After Clinton's interventions Bush promised a "humbler foreign policy" and probably intended to confront China over Taiwan but ended up invading the neocons lower priority Iraq instead when a window of political opportunity presented itself. Obama campaigned on reversing Bush's policies tried too and ended up fighting in even more theatres and not even closing Gitmo.

However Trump appears to exist in a weird made up "reality" based on alt-right media sources. America has played The Joker. Trump will wing it as ended up doing with his Atlantic City casinos that went bust as he really had no understanding of the business. He may get lucky or not. He's a lucky man not without resources. It's just a wild spin of the roulette table. The only thing I don't doubt is he'll come out the other side much richer.

 

[CrabbedOne]

On Lawfare Trump v. National Security Facts

In her post “On Bullshit and the Oath of Office,” Quinta Jurecic joined several other commentators in reflecting that President-elect Trump is a bullshitter — in the technical sense of the term as defined by Harry Frankfurt in his classic essay On Bullshit. Trump, she explained, “gives every appearance of proudly moving through the world without ever bothering to consider how concepts of truth or falsehood might potentially shape his behavior.” Jurecic’s enlightening contribution was to reframe this description of the President-elect’s relationship with the truth in the realm of law: “How will his incessant bullshitting affect his ability to carry out the duties of his office?”

Assuming Jurecic is correct that Trump is a bullshitter, and assuming as a corollary that bullshit will therefore infuse Trump's actions and interactions with the other branches and levels of government, there is a broader question to consider: How will Trump’s bullshit affect others’ abilities to carry out the duties of their offices?
...

In Bullshit we trust!

That can work of course. Remember Comical Ali.

Until it doesn't.

Quite small hands actually.

 

[CrabbedOne]

On TNI In 1829, the Craziest Presidential Inauguration in History (The President Escaped from a Window) Went Down

...
A chain that was holding the crowd back suddenly snapped, and people began swarming the Capitol portico to congratulate their leader. Security attempted to contain the mob, but to no avail.

Jackson slipped through the crowd and stepped into an awaiting carriage. He made his way to the White House, where he was supposed to informally meet with supporters, but this event also got out of hand. A mad dash of well-wishers ambled into the building to see the new president.

One spectator mockingly remarked, according to Remini, that the people who filed in were an “uninterrupted stream of mud and filth … many subjects for the penitentiary.”

Revelers dropped food, toppled chairs and tables, fell into bowls of punch, shattered glasses, and spilled alcohol all over the presidential mansion. The floor became nearly a lake of wine and melted ice cream.

And there was such pushing, shoving, and tussling that the newly elected president was almost crushed under the weight of the commotion.

Jackson somehow escaped the enveloping mass by ducking out of a side window.

Remini summed up how this inauguration, as wild and uncouth as it became, set a uniquely American precedent for the way we welcome our presidential leaders.
...

Well that sets a pretty low bar.

 

[brogdale]

We could just jump straight to the "Trump assassinated" thread?

Lordy.

Scots comedian Limmy has been 'reported to the FBI' after he tweeted about the assassination of Donald Trump.....

 

[8den]

Lordy.

​

Fairly common, Mark Thomas had an offical caution and he suggested the murder weapon should be paper maiched out of Erron shares (it was during Dubya term)*



*Pauses to whistfully remember Dubya's term.

 

[J Ed]

Fairly common, Mark Thomas had an offical caution and he suggested the murder weapon should be paper maiched out of Erron shares (it was during Dubya term)*



*Pauses to whistfully remember Dubya's term.

You really do write a loathsome series of things on here.

 

[sleaterkinney]

I'm really coming to hate that word. Its become nothing more than a swift way to dispose of people who have valid concerns.

I was joking.. You can only laugh at a time like this.

 

[Pickman's model]

I was joking.. You can only laugh at a time like this.

i like to laugh at other times too

 

[J Ed]

Teenagers on TV knocking over rubbish bins, smashing up shops on telly in Washington DC