What's Trump's next move?

[pmward]

Looks like Barr will "step down" after a private meeting with Trump at the White House.

[doodle]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/15/politic ... ndex.html

I have a feeling that Trump is going to regret ever entering into politics. He might think he is the biggest baddest thing to walk the planet but to me he looks more like a water buffalo wading into piranha infested amazon waters. I think he's going to get shredded. He's pissed way to many people off.

[Tortoise]

I think [Trump's] going to get shredded.

[SomeDude]

Damn.

Keep in mind Trump has achieved that physique on a pure McDonalds and Regeneron diet.

[pmward]

It's all those stem cells!!

[Mountaineer]

It's all those stem cells!!

Science, technology, engineering and math?

[glennds]

Next move? A coup attempt. Get ready.

Last night's video on the stimulus bill served no other intended function but to galvanize Trump supporters in advance of a bold (reckless?) move. He needs his supporters to believe that he and only he is their advocate. The rest of government cannot be trusted. Not Congress, not the Courts, not the Republican party, and not the Constitution either. Because he is about to take a stand against all of the above.

What he has on his side are the powers of his office, and that part of his support base that will accept anything he does as justified. Will that be enough to suspend democracy?

[SomeDude]

Next move? A coup attempt. Get ready.

Last night's video on the stimulus bill served no other intended function but to galvanize Trump supporters in advance of a bold (reckless?) move. He needs his supporters to believe that he and only he is their advocate. The rest of government cannot be trusted. Not Congress, not the Courts, not the Republican party, and not the Constitution either. Because he is about to take a stand against all of the above.

What he has on his side are the powers of his office, and that part of his support base that will accept anything he does as justified. Will that be enough to suspend democracy?

Have you looked at the bill glennds? What do you think of it? It's 5,593 pages.

$86M to Cambodia
$130M to Nepal
$135M to Burma
$453M to Ukraine
$700M to Sudan

$1BN to the Smithsonian for a woman's history museum and American Latino Museum.

$40M to the Kennedy Space center which is still closed

money for a commission tasked with educating "consumers about the dangers associated with using or storing portable fuel containers for flammable liquids near an open flame.

a "statement of policy regarding the succession or reincarnation of the Dalai Lama"

money for a "resource study of the Springfield Illinois race riot" - this riot took place in 1908

$10M for Gender studies programs........in Pakistan.


You think opposition to this bill is related to martial law? Maybe. Does that mean you think this bill should be signed? Would you sign it?

[glennds]

Next move? A coup attempt. Get ready.

Last night's video on the stimulus bill served no other intended function but to galvanize Trump supporters in advance of a bold (reckless?) move. He needs his supporters to believe that he and only he is their advocate. The rest of government cannot be trusted. Not Congress, not the Courts, not the Republican party, and not the Constitution either. Because he is about to take a stand against all of the above.

What he has on his side are the powers of his office, and that part of his support base that will accept anything he does as justified. Will that be enough to suspend democracy?

Have you looked at the bill glennds? What do you think of it? It's 5,593 pages.

$86M to Cambodia
$130M to Nepal
$135M to Burma
$453M to Ukraine
$700M to Sudan

$1BN to the Smithsonian for a woman's history museum and American Latino Museum.

$40M to the Kennedy Space center which is still closed

money for a commission tasked with educating "consumers about the dangers associated with using or storing portable fuel containers for flammable liquids near an open flame.

a "statement of policy regarding the succession or reincarnation of the Dalai Lama"

money for a "resource study of the Springfield Illinois race riot" - this riot took place in 1908

$10M for Gender studies programs........in Pakistan.


You think opposition to this bill is related to martial law? Maybe. Does that mean you think this bill should be signed? Would you sign it?

I wasn't posting in support of the bill. I'm not saying the bill is good or bad, or that Trump is right or wrong in objecting to it. Yes, it sounds like there are all kinds of questionable line items in the bill, but I confess I haven't read it.
I'm just making a prediction on what I think his next move will be and how his position on the bill connects to it.
It could be that his objections are limited to the bill content with no other motive and that he is not planning anything but a graceful exit. In this case my prediction is wrong. We'll see.

[Dieter]

Next move? A coup attempt. Get ready.

Last night's video on the stimulus bill served no other intended function but to galvanize Trump supporters in advance of a bold (reckless?) move. He needs his supporters to believe that he and only he is their advocate. The rest of government cannot be trusted. Not Congress, not the Courts, not the Republican party, and not the Constitution either. Because he is about to take a stand against all of the above.

What he has on his side are the powers of his office, and that part of his support base that will accept anything he does as justified. Will that be enough to suspend democracy?

Have you looked at the bill glennds? What do you think of it? It's 5,593 pages.

$86M to Cambodia
$130M to Nepal
$135M to Burma
$453M to Ukraine
$700M to Sudan

$1BN to the Smithsonian for a woman's history museum and American Latino Museum.

$40M to the Kennedy Space center which is still closed

money for a commission tasked with educating "consumers about the dangers associated with using or storing portable fuel containers for flammable liquids near an open flame.

a "statement of policy regarding the succession or reincarnation of the Dalai Lama"

money for a "resource study of the Springfield Illinois race riot" - this riot took place in 1908

$10M for Gender studies programs........in Pakistan.


You think opposition to this bill is related to martial law? Maybe. Does that mean you think this bill should be signed? Would you sign it?

My understanding is the above includes the 12 general funding bills passed at the same time.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... rlines-aid

Does seem interesting that the Republican President didn't seem to work more closely with the Republican Senate on the amount of direct payments. So, yeah, seems possible Trump is doing this just for posturing about how great an advocate he is for the American people.

[SomeDude]

I wasn't posting in support of the bill. I'm not saying the bill is good or bad, or that Trump is right or wrong in objecting to it. Yes, it sounds like there are all kinds of questionable line items in the bill, but I confess I haven't read it.
I'm just making a prediction on what I think his next move will be and how his position on the bill connects to it.
It could be that his objections are limited to the bill content with no other motive and that he is not planning anything but a graceful exit. In this case my prediction is wrong. We'll see.

Totally fair.

And agreed.....this is Washington. There is literally no move that is disconnected from politics. Trump is in what amounts to a fight for his literally life, let alone his political life. That MUST influence every decision and every nuance of every communication at this point, regardless of the merit of it.

[SomeDude]

Does seem interesting that the Republican President didn't seem to work more closely with the Republican Senate on the amount of direct payments. So, yeah, seems possible Trump is doing this just for posturing about how great an advocate he is for the American people.

On that point I would say wealth redistribution in the form of paying people to not work does not help the Americans but for God's sake stop sending OUR money to foreigners.

That alone should kill this bill dead as a doornail.

It had support from both Repukes and Demonrats which is good enough for me to know it's horrid.

[sophie]

$86M to Cambodia
$130M to Nepal
$135M to Burma
$453M to Ukraine
$700M to Sudan
$1BN to the Smithsonian for a woman's history museum and American Latino Museum.
$40M to the Kennedy Space center which is still closed
money for a commission tasked with educating "consumers about the dangers associated with using or storing portable fuel containers for flammable liquids near an open flame.
a "statement of policy regarding the succession or reincarnation of the Dalai Lama"
money for a "resource study of the Springfield Illinois race riot" - this riot took place in 1908
$10M for Gender studies programs........in Pakistan.

Pork barrel politics, as per usual. Sure, as long as we're printing money why not print a little more and fling it in a few random directions unrelated to the purpose of the bill?

I'm interested to know whether the natural guess is correct that these porky little tidbits were mainly put there by House Democrats. I would not be surprised if it turned out to be a bipartisan effect. In fact, a list of the ridiculous bits of spending attached to the name of the contributor, published on the front page of a major newspaper, would be awesome (and yes I know, will never happen).

[SomeDude]

$86M to Cambodia
$130M to Nepal
$135M to Burma
$453M to Ukraine
$700M to Sudan
$1BN to the Smithsonian for a woman's history museum and American Latino Museum.
$40M to the Kennedy Space center which is still closed
money for a commission tasked with educating "consumers about the dangers associated with using or storing portable fuel containers for flammable liquids near an open flame.
a "statement of policy regarding the succession or reincarnation of the Dalai Lama"
money for a "resource study of the Springfield Illinois race riot" - this riot took place in 1908
$10M for Gender studies programs........in Pakistan.

Pork barrel politics, as per usual. Sure, as long as we're printing money why not print a little more and fling it in a few random directions unrelated to the purpose of the bill?

I'm interested to know whether the natural guess is correct that these porky little tidbits were mainly put there by House Democrats. I would not be surprised if it turned out to be a bipartisan effect. In fact, a list of the ridiculous bits of spending attached to the name of the contributor, published on the front page of a major newspaper, would be awesome (and yes I know, will never happen).

There would probably be 535 names attached, although maybe Rand Paul would be off it?

[Dieter]

$86M to Cambodia
$130M to Nepal
$135M to Burma
$453M to Ukraine
$700M to Sudan
$1BN to the Smithsonian for a woman's history museum and American Latino Museum.
$40M to the Kennedy Space center which is still closed
money for a commission tasked with educating "consumers about the dangers associated with using or storing portable fuel containers for flammable liquids near an open flame.
a "statement of policy regarding the succession or reincarnation of the Dalai Lama"
money for a "resource study of the Springfield Illinois race riot" - this riot took place in 1908
$10M for Gender studies programs........in Pakistan.

Pork barrel politics, as per usual. Sure, as long as we're printing money why not print a little more and fling it in a few random directions unrelated to the purpose of the bill?

I'm interested to know whether the natural guess is correct that these porky little tidbits were mainly put there by House Democrats. I would not be surprised if it turned out to be a bipartisan effect. In fact, a list of the ridiculous bits of spending attached to the name of the contributor, published on the front page of a major newspaper, would be awesome (and yes I know, will never happen).

My assumption for Sudan is that it's tied to the Trump administration work to normalize relations with Israel. The following has a little more info, but doesn't actually spell out who involved: https://www.usnews.com/news/world/artic ... p-pay-debt

I'm truly interested in the source.

Ukraine I would assume to be Democrats ; help Ukraine against Russia.

[Pointedstick]

Next move? A coup attempt. Get ready.

Last night's video on the stimulus bill served no other intended function but to galvanize Trump supporters in advance of a bold (reckless?) move. He needs his supporters to believe that he and only he is their advocate. The rest of government cannot be trusted. Not Congress, not the Courts, not the Republican party, and not the Constitution either. Because he is about to take a stand against all of the above.

What he has on his side are the powers of his office, and that part of his support base that will accept anything he does as justified. Will that be enough to suspend democracy?

Trump clearly wishes he was a king, but not an authoritarian dictator--the latter requires a personal brutality that Trump just doesn't possess. His actions instead indicate a personal squeamishness around the use of violence and terror that every dictator needs to deploy against his own inner circle to gain and maintain power. This makes it all the stupider that Trump communicates so frequently using language that encourages violence. He's not willing to start anything, so instead, any coup or civil war would be a bottom-up thing, initiated by paramilitary groups who have been lapping up Trump's charged language for the past five years. But Trump himself would actually hate it, I think. He's not a military leader. The paramilitaries would look to him for guidance and he would have no idea what to do. I suspect Trump only uses such incredibly dangerous and inflammatory language because doesn't really understand the power that his words have over others. It's all just a big joke to him, and the people who worship him haven't figured this out. They are following the world's biggest troll, not understanding that they're being trolled too. I've lost hope that they ever will.

As a result, any civil war or coup would fail spectacularly due to a lack of support from the USA's formal institutions of violence. Some individual fascist-minded soldiers and cops might peel away and join the militias, but the military and police forces on a whole would not support them. The generals, officer corps, police chiefs, and sheriffs have already been indicating this. As a result, the paramilitaries would get massacred if they start shooting. And I do mean massacred. Like, blood-running-red-through-the-streets massacred. Obliterated. Extinguished. Bereft of life. It would be over laughably fast.

A lot of right-wing lunatics have fever dreams of civil war these days, but I firmly believe that this is a "be careful what you wish for" situation. I think in their hears of hearts, they get this too, which is why they're not going to start one. Most of them are as cowardly as their craven, simpering leader. The whole militia movement is basically right-wing cosplay.

Or at least that's what I hope. But maybe I'm wrong. I didn't expect how many people would die of COVID out of denial that it even exists and refusal to follow basic safety advice. Lot of Darwin award winners out there.

Still, even in this circumstance, the militias would be wise not to overestimate their level of support. There are a lot of people with guns who have more loyalty to the political principles of the USA than they do an emotionally stunted tantrum-prone man-child troll who leaves office in less than a month. And they're not the only ones who have spent the last few years psychologically and physically preparing themselves for violence.