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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Re: Internet: That was mostly just a little jab here and there. While I'd stop short at calling something like TV Tropes a "great place for a meeting of the minds", the internet has done some pretty cool things.
Can we stop discussing Republicans as one mammoth party? Not as an attempt to defend them at all, but just to understand that, if we're basically entering into 2-8 years of one-party dominance, those slight difference between the alt-right and the establishment and the moderates and the evangelicals and all the other fractals are going to become really, really important very, very shortly into Trump's term. For example, where the alt-right sees porn as a fine and dandy thing, the evangelicals would be far more strict on sexuality, which has real world effects into how the two would treat sex-ed differently.
Also folks he's not getting impeached. It would be literal political suicide for the Republican party, who up until 11 days ago were considered all but dead, to crucify the man who resurrected hope in the Republican party (and without conceding any ground to progressiveness, mind you). Trump would literally have to straight up sell the entire nation to Russia outright in order to get to the stage where such a thing would be on the table.
So concerning Trump's extremely controversial white supremacist Cabinet picks...do you guys think he picked them because:
a) they did him a solid in the past, and he's repaying them now. Typical cronyism.
b) he's hellbent on furthering white supremacy
c) he's too insecure and paranoid to bring in anyone who didn't spend over a year sucking up to him
d) some combination of the above
We can definitely rule out merit.
edited 18th Nov '16 10:35:08 PM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprisedProbably a combination of A and C for the most part, leaning towards A. Trump has a history of rewarding his highly placed cronies, he considers it key to building needed relationships.
Most people call it corruption but its clear that little things like law don't apply anymore (at least to Republicans).
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.Partly but it seems like if that were completely true then Gingrich would've gotten a Cabinet position. He didn't.
I think Trump is a racist but he doesn't care too much about making America a whites-only nation. It's more that his advisors are racists.
I think he's enjoying watching the Republicans that opposed him humiliate themselves for him.
....I think the truth is that he's just listening to his awful advisors on who to pick and going off of his gut.
Trump has final say but it's Pence, Kushner and Bannon that are making the picks and playing the game of thrones.
edited 18th Nov '16 10:42:30 PM by MadSkillz
If that's really the case, I hope Trump pays more attention to Kushner. He's not a good guy by any means, but he's a more typical establishment guy. He's probably not gonna push too hard for any religious zealotry stuff like Pence or alt-right bigotry like Bannon.
edited 18th Nov '16 10:46:09 PM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprisedHere's a pretty good article on Jared Kushner.
Here's a snippet:
People who know Kushner say that like Trump, he sees himself as an outsider who, despite his Ivy League pedigree, scoffs at intellectual and cultural elites, and believes that, despite a mixed business track record, he possesses a “golden touch.”
Kushner — who married Ivanka Trump in 2009 at the Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey, with the bride wearing an Ivanka Trump Collection six-carat cushion cut ring on her finger — is now poised to play a powerful role in his father-in-law’s White House. Whether he decides to take a job inside the administration or not, he will be one of a small circle of people who have the president’s full trust and his ear.
One Trump insider described Kushner as “the most powerful person after Donald himself” on the campaign and now in the transition team, because “nobody wants to cross the family.”
Kushner has recently lost a noticeable amount of weight, as he has become consumed in the frantic day-to-day of the transition. But he appears to be along for the ride.
“He drank the Kool-Aid,” shrugged one friend who supported Hillary Clinton’s campaign, but remains complimentary of Kushner. “He thought Donald had a shot at being president, and that he had a shot at helping him.” Kushner is loyal to his family, and his view on Trump’s more extreme comments, like a Muslim ban, the friend said, is: “That’s not him. Relax, he’s just saying these things to get elected.”
He's Trump-lite but he also doesn't think his father-in-law is serious about what he's said and supports gay rights and has given money to Democrats that supported the legalization of illegal immigrants.
On the other hand:
But he's also the grandson of Holocaust survivors. They're probably rolling in their graves at what he's doing though by courting the alt-right.
edited 18th Nov '16 11:05:57 PM by MadSkillz
It seems like Kushner is trying to help Trump but they're both being manipulated by Steve Bannon who wants to destroy the conservative party to bring in his own version of an alt right party.
Trump wants to bring Jared Kushner into the White House.
But so far nepotism laws prevent him from doing so but they're trying to find a way around that. I think that if the Republicans really wanted to, they could use that as their impeachment material against Trump so they could bring Mike Pence in.
“Pence showing up caught Trump off guard and pretty much boxed in the decision,” the source told CBS News.
And yeah, Trump naming Mike Pence as his VP was also due to Kushner.
Actually, it looks like Kushner's advice is leading to some of the worst decisions that Trump makes.
I wouldn't be surprised if he was the one that proposed Jess Sessions for AG or if Bannon suggested it to him to whisper it into Trump's ear.
edited 18th Nov '16 11:25:34 PM by MadSkillz
Anyone else get a huge chill running through their body when they read this? Like, no matter what the guy's like, the fact that that's the attitude in there is terrifying to me.
We're about to be saddled with an administration rife with incompetence, bigotry, nepotism, corruption, religious fundamentalism, warmongering, and regression that takes cues from The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, House of Cards, Veep, and Idiocracy.
This is fine. This is totally normal. This is definitely not the end of American democracy as we know it. <Broken Smile>
edited 18th Nov '16 11:56:25 PM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprised

It tells me I have to subscribe to read.