Cont: The Trump Presidency: Part 23

[Segnosaur]

Why Does Trump Want a Second Term?

The president can’t answer basic questions about his agenda and isn’t trying to appeal to new voters. So what’s his goal?

I would say its a combination of:
- ego (he needs the adoring fans/suck-ups in congress and cabinet)
- greed (holding the presidency helps keep taxes low and allows him to continue to skim money from both the government and from bribes)
- self-preservation. (Trump has committed multiple crimes. Without the office of the presidency, and a corrupt DoJ to protect him, Trump might end up getting hit with various civil and criminal cases.)

 

[dmaker]

Or Trump just doesn't care to campaign properly since he plans on stealing the election by claiming rampant voter fraud and will be supported by the DOJ under Barr.

 

[JoeMorgue]

Or Trump just doesn't care to campaign properly since he plans on stealing the election by claiming rampant voter fraud and will be supported by the DOJ under Barr.

That's still what scares me.

Trump could not be caring about a second term because he thinks/knows he's gonna have one regardless of how the election turns out.

 

[Segnosaur]

Or Trump just doesn't care to campaign properly since he plans on stealing the election by claiming rampant voter fraud and will be supported by the DOJ under Barr.

Or there is the possibility that he just isn't smart enough to campaign properly. He (falsely) thinks "all this worked in 2016 so will work in 2020". He doesn't realize that the political environment has changed, and even if he did he's not focused enough to actually adjust his campaign.

Remember, Trump's campaign in 2016 was run extremely poorly. He did squeak out a victory, but it was against an opponent who had been smeared continuously for over a decade. We aren't seeing anything significantly different now than we saw in 2016.

(Note: my earlier post was answering the question "why does Trump want a second term"... your posting is more about "why is Trump's campaign a Dumpster fire")

 

[bonzombiekitty]

Remember, Trump's campaign in 2016 was run extremely poorly. He did squeak out a victory, but it was against an opponent who had been smeared continuously for over a decade. We aren't seeing anything significantly different now than we saw in 2016.

All the holes in the swiss cheese managed to line up in 2016 to cause catastrophic failure. I'm cautiously optimistic that it won't happen this year.

 

[JoeMorgue]

So here's a dice rolling in the dark we can only make vague guessing at.

Has Russia benefited enough out of Trump to make risking tampering in the election as worth it in 2020?

 

[dmaker]

Fair point, re: my comment was more about campaigning and not why he would want a second term.

To that point, specifically regarding ego, I would add the obvious remark that he cannot stand losing at anything.

 

[varwoche]

Or there is the possibility that he just isn't smart enough to campaign properly. He (falsely) thinks "all this worked in 2016 so will work in 2020". He doesn't realize that the political environment has changed, and even if he did he's not focused enough to actually adjust his campaign.

Remember, Trump's campaign in 2016 was run extremely poorly. He did squeak out a victory, but it was against an opponent who had been smeared continuously for over a decade. We aren't seeing anything significantly different now than we saw in 2016.

(Note: my earlier post was answering the question "why does Trump want a second term"... your posting is more about "why is Trump's campaign a Dumpster fire")

I concur. Never mind N dimensional chess. He's an imbecile who might know how to play tic-tac-toe. The 2016 political universe was aligned for a dim-witted reality show racist grifter.

 

[zorro99]

The Week It Went South for Trump

Peggy Noonan

He hasn’t been equal to the crises. He never makes anything better. And everyone kind of knows.

His long-term political malpractice has been his failure—with a rising economy roughly 40% of the country. He failed because he obsesses on his base and thinks it has to be fed and greased with the entertainments that alienate everyone else. But his base, which always understood he was a showman, wanted steadiness and seriousness in these crises, because they have a sense of the implications of things.

He doesn’t understand his own base. I’ve never seen that in national politics.



https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-we...33?redirect=amp#click=https://t.co/XINd3Ywz83

 

[The Great Zaganza]

The point of having a second term is to let the statues of limitation run out.

 

[Horatius]

So here's a dice rolling in the dark we can only make vague guessing at.

Has Russia benefited enough out of Trump to make risking tampering in the election as worth it in 2020?

I think Russia has never actually cared about Trump winning or losing. For them, it's just stirring the pot, getting Americans riled up enough about each other that they waste all their time fighting domestic fights, not fighting foreign fights.

Sure, Trump winning turned out even better for them than anyone ever thought it would, but they'll come out ahead in the pot-stirring no matter who wins.

Trump wins? Well, it's four more years of Trump. The negative effects of that on the US are obvious.

Trump loses? Then you have a Biden presidency that has to deal with the usual GOP BS, on top of the ~40% of the population who voted Trump and are pissed off he didn't win. Every maskless MAGAHat in the country will be doing their damnedest to screw up everything Biden touches, just to own the Libtards. You think you're seeing a lot of screaming temper tantrums from them now? Just wait until they see that they're not actually a "Silent Majority".

 

[blutoski]

The point of having a second term is to let the statues of limitation run out.

More statues to tear down!

 

[Trebuchet]

I wonder if that would make a good campaign ad for Gohmert's democratic opponent...

Show a video of him acting up in the hearing... then have a narrator say "You wouldn't let your children act like that in public.. so why are you letting your congressman?"

The only way Gohmert is leaving is if the party finally has enough of him and puts a merely extreme right-winger up against him in the primary, like Steve King.

 

[blutoski]

I think Russia has never actually cared about Trump winning or losing. For them, it's just stirring the pot, getting Americans riled up enough about each other that they waste all their time fighting domestic fights, not fighting foreign fights.

Sure, Trump winning turned out even better for them than anyone ever thought it would, but they'll come out ahead in the pot-stirring no matter who wins.

Trump wins? Well, it's four more years of Trump. The negative effects of that on the US are obvious.

Trump loses? Then you have a Biden presidency that has to deal with the usual GOP BS, on top of the ~40% of the population who voted Trump and are pissed off he didn't win. Every maskless MAGAHat in the country will be doing their damnedest to screw up everything Biden touches, just to own the Libtards. You think you're seeing a lot of screaming temper tantrums from them now? Just wait until they see that they're not actually a "Silent Majority".

I do think they have an interest in an administration that will relieve sanctions and unfreeze assets for specific members of the oligarchy, though.

I suspect that in addition to giving the RF some strategic benefit from weakening Western alliances through political chaos, there's a more banal personal wealth interest among those on track to being the nobility during this transition to a Russian monarchy.

 

[timhau]

"My favorite conspiracy theory has always been that idea that democracy is all one huge sham and that the world is really run by this secret cabal behind the scenes. Man I hope that's true. Because otherwise my life depends on masses of random goobers managing to elect someone competent, and that's about as likely as a drunk man pissing an exact replica of the Mona Lisa in a snowbank." - Scott "Before he went totally troll insane" Adams.

Overall, Americans have been pretty good pissers throughout the years compared to the dump they took in the snow in 2016.

 

[Bob001]

Dear Leader, hero of the people:

The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to strike down what remains of Obamacare after waves of Republican legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act, telling the court in a brief filed late Thursday that “the entire ACA must fall.” The move comes as hundreds of thousands of newly out-of-work Americans have used the Obama-era health care law to get coverage during the coronavirus pandemic. Dismantling the law, an obsession of Republican lawmakers for a full decade now, would leave more than 20 million people without health coverage.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics...lidate-obamacare-affordable-care-act-aca.html

 

[Bob001]

.....
Remember, Trump's campaign in 2016 was run extremely poorly. He did squeak out a victory, but it was against an opponent who had been smeared continuously for over a decade.
.....

.... and who still thought she was sure to win and campaigned that way. Biden won't make the same mistake.

 

[Trebuchet]

Or Trump just doesn't care to campaign properly since he plans on stealing the election by claiming rampant voter fraud and will be supported by the DOJ under Barr.

And the courts, those having been pretty heavily packed with right-wingers.

Just wondering aloud: Neither Justice Alito nor Justice Thomas is particularly old, 70 and 72 respectively; but I wouldn't be surprised to see them step down if Trump loses so he can appoint a couple of younger conservatives. Not the slightest doubt Mitch would confirm them.

 

[Segnosaur]

The Week It Went South for Trump

Peggy Noonan

He hasn’t been equal to the crises. He never makes anything better. And everyone kind of knows.

His long-term political malpractice has been his failure—with a rising economy roughly 40% of the country. He failed because he obsesses on his base and thinks it has to be fed and greased with the entertainments that alienate everyone else. But his base, which always understood he was a showman, wanted steadiness and seriousness in these crises, because they have a sense of the implications of things.

He doesn’t understand his own base. I’ve never seen that in national politics.

While i agree with part of what was written (such as Trump failing because he is obsessed with his base), I have to disagree with the suggest that the "base understood he was a showman/wanted steadiness in these crises".

Trump's supporters are not a completely monolithic group, but he still enjoys widespread support among Republicans. He has lost some voters (perhaps enough to cause him to lose the election), but his faithful have stood by him even after all his screw-ups. (His approval rating is still in the 35-40% range... not really that far off from his average approval for the first 3 years of his term.)

His supporters have no "sense of the implication of things". They will probably only respond when they themselves are personally harmed by Trump (and perhaps not even then, since many are not smart enough to understand cause and effect...)

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

https://twitter.com/davidamichaels/status/1276196664798306304

SEC Chairman Clayton tells House lawmakers his nomination to be US Atty for SDNY does not require his "current attention." Plans to remain SEC Chairman for now

Bear in mind, that his appointment was considered so urgent that Berman had to be ousted ASAP last weekend - with Barr first claiming he'd resigned and then, when he said he'd done no such thing, that Trump had fired him. Now it appears that it's actually all fine.