The Trump Presidency: Part 21

[MRC_Hans]

You want me to muse on politics? OK.

I think the Democrats are profoundly lost right now. You of course will disagree. They need to keep losing until they sort themselves out. That's probably the main thing.

If I have any political views that I'm certain of I'm with Burke in his Reflection on the Revolution In France. It is very easy to be in favour of liberté, égalité, fraternité... or universal healthcare... the question is how you are going to implement it and how that would play out in the real, complicated, corrupt world we live in. I don't think it is so very wicked to think that it would be implemented in such a way that the downsides outweighed the upsides. If one were to implement it state by state so that its glorious success brought everybody onboard, I'd certainly be in favour.

Is that sufficient? I think you will find me irritatingly equivocal and uninvesting on most topics.

You are aware the universal healthcare has been long implemented in a number of countries, right? And that it works ... well not perfectly, but certainly to great general benefit?

Hans

 

[llwyd]

You are aware the universal healthcare has been long implemented in a number of countries, right? And that it works ... well not perfectly, but certainly to great general benefit?

Hans

In fact there are plenty of such weird things as comparative national health care statistics. And pretty uniformly they do tell us that the US system is both expensive and inefficient. What I seem to remember of Burke is that he did respect facts. He wasn't that conservative in that respect... Shuttit seems to be bit of a lapsed Burkean in that sense.

 

[JoeMorgue]

"bUt UnixerSAL hEALth CAre WERX in OTHeR CoUNtires!"

Yeah and Americans are all stupid and Europeans are all just better than us. I mean we voted Trump into office. We don't get soccer. Our cheese is bad and we drink weak beer. We're all a bunch of stupid hicks firing our guns into the air and sleeping with our sisters.

Again if "Americans are just worse people" is always the excuse, it's always the excuse.

 

[llwyd]

Again if "Americans are just worse people" is always the excuse, it's always the excuse.

Well, Americans are just as good and as bad people than anywhere on this planet. Their social and cultural context is just way worse than in Western Europe. Not to speak of the Nordic countries. We as a species are largely products of historically formed deep structures interacting with our biological nature and we really can't change our circumstances at will simply based on reason. But even if it is really hard to change our social and cultural circumstances, it is still possible - slow, incremental, even partially blind change. Say going from bat-excrement crazy healthcare system to ACA as inefficient and as illogical that system also is. Baby steps.

 

[Mumbles]

Maybe? The reason we are talking about institutional racism and micro-aggressions now is because actual racism has massively declined. Imagine what would happen if somebody tried to put the Black and White Minstrels on the BBC today?

Haha, what? No, the Civil Rights movement was always about institutional racism, the very idea being that racism is so strong, and so one-sided, that it's effects can be seen in laws, hiring, health care, and so forth when measured on a societal level. Blackface is distasteful, but that's mostly because the people who enjoyed it also were the people responsible for the racial wealth gap or policies like Stop and Frisk, which are downright destructive - and fully intentional.

(meanwhile, studies have suggested that microaggressions, manifest over time, are partly responsible for a lowering of lifespans of black and Native Americans, but that's another issue...)

 

[Ladewig]

We’ve already had this politico story posted, right?

A new reporter learns how to use POTUS’s need for attention to get called on in a COVID briefing:

If you’re new to the room, it can take a while to get his attention. A wise colleague recommended that the best way to get called on is to keep your focus on the president when other members of the task force are speaking. Because Trump craves attention, he can find it uncomfortable when the entire room is watching one of his aides instead of him. I kept putting my hand up but was struggling to get called on. Finally, there was a break when one of the doctors spoke. I trained my eyes on Trump instead of the person at the lectern. He scanned the room and noticed, just as I had been advised he would. I made a motion and mouthed something to indicate he should call on me next. He nodded and we seemed to have a deal. Sure enough, he held to it.

At Wednesday’s briefing, I watched an Australian journalist do an even more exaggerated version of the same tactic. He gave Trump a big thumb’s up. It easily secured him the next question.

https://www.politico.com/amp/news/magazine/2020/04/16/coronavirus-briefing-lizza-191856

 

[William Parcher]

Very messy one. As you noticed, there are no clear lines.


I won't say things like "blue states vs red states", since it is such oversimplification to be useless (if only because in most cases cities are predominantly blue and not-cities predominantly red regardless of state).

So pretty much my answer is "two ideologies that cannot coexist anymore".


These positions or their equivalents would be most likely worked out on the go.

I don't think a Civil War is going to happen at all.

We saw "soldiers" show up on the steps of the Michigan Capitol with semi-auto rifles and probably all the ammunition they could carry and they refused to "Liberate Michigan". Their defacto General Trump even ordered them to liberate the state. They refused.

So what stopped them from pointing their guns at the Governor and removing her? Was it simply because their General didn't use the codeword "Boogaloo"?

 

[Andy_Ross]

Trump Tweets

Spending the morning speaking to @fema and Military relative to CoronaVirus. Also, spoke to leaders of various countries including Poland, South Korea and Bahrain. Last night had a very gold conversation with the President of Mexico on numerous topics. Border is very strong!

 

[Bob001]

"bUt UnixerSAL hEALth CAre WERX in OTHeR CoUNtires!"

Yeah and Americans are all stupid and Europeans are all just better than us. I mean we voted Trump into office. We don't get soccer. Our cheese is bad and we drink weak beer. We're all a bunch of stupid hicks firing our guns into the air and sleeping with our sisters.
....

Not all of us. Just too many of us.

 

[newyorkguy]

Trump Tweets...Last night had a very gold conversation with the President of Mexico on numerous topics. Border is very strong!

Solid gold!

 

[Bob001]

You are aware the universal healthcare has been long implemented in a number of countries, right? And that it works ... well not perfectly, but certainly to great general benefit?
....

I note once again that universal health care is not some radical extremist fantasy. Richard Nixon promoted a universal health insurance plan in 1973, but couldn't get it through Congress because the Dems were holding out for single-payer. The Repubs brutal resistance to the relatively moderate ACA is a measure of how far right the right-wing has moved.
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/bl...al-coverage-unexpected-advocate-richard-nixon

 

[Andy_Ross]

Stephen Moore says the right-wing activists protesting stay-at-home orders are — I’m not joking — “modern-day Rosa Parks”

https://washingtonpost.com/national...05ba54-7f4e-11ea-8013-1b6da0e4a2b7_story.html

 

[shemp]

Solid gold!

With the Solid Gold Dancers!

 

[Resume]

Stephen Moore says the right-wing activists protesting stay-at-home orders are — I’m not joking — “modern-day Rosa Parks”

https://washingtonpost.com/national...05ba54-7f4e-11ea-8013-1b6da0e4a2b7_story.html

Yeah, that Michigan lady who wants restrictions lifted so she can get her hair done reminds one of Rosa Parks. All those folks clustered together spreading the virus are the very epitome of the term cluster ****.

 

[Bogative]

Stephen Moore says the right-wing activists protesting stay-at-home orders are — I’m not joking — “modern-day Rosa Parks”

https://washingtonpost.com/national...05ba54-7f4e-11ea-8013-1b6da0e4a2b7_story.html

Oh. My. God. One of Orange Hitler's Gestapo minions dared to compare a bunch of jackbooted Nazi SS storm troopers to Rosa Parks? The lack of historical perspective is shameful.

 

[johnny karate]

Oh. My. God. One of Orange Hitler's Gestapo minions dared to compare a bunch of jackbooted Nazi SS storm troopers to Rosa Parks? Shameless.

Not nearly as shameless as these people putting all of our lives at risk because “Mah rights!!!!11!”.

 

[Paul2]

(meanwhile, studies have suggested that microaggressions, manifest over time, are partly responsible for a lowering of lifespans of black and Native Americans, but that's another issue...)

I would be very interested in these studies. Can you post some links?

 

[kookbreaker]

Yeah, that Michigan lady who wants restrictions lifted so she can get her hair done reminds one of Rosa Parks. All those folks clustered together spreading the virus are the very epitome of the term cluster ****.

Talk to me when her feet are bleeding from walking 20 miles every day.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Trump regarding his son, Barron and opening back up.
"I have a (pause) young boy who goes to school. I'd like to see him go to school."

He doesn't say, "a son", nor does he speak Barron's name.

 

[Aridas]

I don't think a Civil War is going to happen at all.

We saw "soldiers" show up on the steps of the Michigan Capitol with semi-auto rifles and probably all the ammunition they could carry and they refused to "Liberate Michigan". Their defacto General Trump even ordered them to liberate the state. They refused.

So what stopped them from pointing their guns at the Governor and removing her? Was it simply because their General didn't use the codeword "Boogaloo"?

Rather than a Civil War, widespread and notably disruptive acts of domestic terrorism by a miniscule portion of the population and the resulting shock waves of disruption are what's actually to be worried about - and, as you asked, what stopped them from pointing their guns at the Governor and removing her? I could poke at a few things, but... as a more serious question, how long do you think that'll hold? All it might take would be a hostile foreign country paying someone enough to intentionally escalate things further and, well... the fallout is not likely to be pretty.

Not nearly as shameless as these people putting all of our lives at risk because “Mah rights!!!!11!”.

"My right to get a haircut at a salon trumps your desire to not lose your grandpa unnecessarily."

Going further, of course, we're seeing the Dark Triad in full display with those protests, with sociopathy and narcissism being especially evident.