The as-seen-on-tv scams are a long-established behavior with Trump. These look like some hustler came to him with the plan and he licensed his name for his usual cut. Hey, free money and somebody else pushing the Brand, why not? This is a billionaire who cashed a 13 cent check from Spy magazine, after all. It's usually a fool's errand to disagree with Emptywheel, but the extra sting of losing to a black woman will pale before the knife of losing the election and the presidential shield which is the only thing that can make everything go away, plus all that money just sitting there.
The mind-bogglingly stupid way they are running the campaign can only be explained by epic widespread madness (Trump is covering that by himself), and/or total reliance on the plan to game the Electoral College. Hammer the base without mercy, hope there's enough hate and fear out there to make it plausibly close (a pretty safe bet, that), ratfuck the vote counting enough to justify the lawsuits standing at the ready, and go. Is there any other explanation that comes close to explaing the circus?
"God complex" gives Trump a little too much credit, I think. The oft-cited "narcissist" is a little closer to the mark. He doesn't care about the rest of the world enough to consider himself a god.
That's about how I see it, though I see it less as 'stupid' as 'rich-kid–typical lazy because he figures he doesn't need to bother with expending any more effort'. Working hard when you know the fix is in is for 'suckers and losers, like the ones at Omaha Beach'.
If I did 'hope', I'd hope he were wrong; as it is, I try to estimate odds and try to revulse away from letting my desires affect my estimation. At the moment I'd give Trump's plans about 60% chance of working because I see no reason to think they won't, as that would require either ethics or cussedness I don't see in the Vichy Republicans. I still try as hard as I can to stop that, mostly with money, the blood of victory, notably if you have to hire legions of lawyers, because I think those odds would be worse if people didn't use what resources they can.
I've tried to stress that never-Trumpers are not motivated by ethics, but survival. There may be some sentimental attachmemt to some sort of Mayberry RFD democracy, but politics ain't beanbag. Trump has aimed his own Operation Warp Speed at shrinking the Republican voter base down to a rabid core absolutely faithful to him and him alone. Any semi-competent CEO knows sooner or later you need a sucession plan, if only to get the Board off your back. Who succeeds Trump? Who will his base support? They have finally figured out Trump is not a man you can do business with, but the Catch-22 is they are paralyzed with fear at the idea of alienating his base, which used to be their base and they clearly hope to get it back someday. So they at most condemn them man while promising to vote for him. Profiles in Courage, 2024.
This is exactly how Trump got control in the first place: all his competitors knew they'd need his followers and knew that any kind of reasonable criticism of him would result in his telling them not to support them, so each wanted someone else to bell the cat and let them be a free rider.
Yeah, I’ve had the same thought. He’s throwing so many obvious grifts out there — the sneakers, watches, books, nft trading cards, coins and whatever else I missed — because he thinks he’ll lose so he may as well throw it all against the wall.
As I hold that Clinton lost to Trump largely out of poor decisions rooted in an inability to believe that an adult capable of feeding themselve could _possibly_ prefer him to her, resulting in what Bob Dylan didn't call 'an Idiot Win', there'd be poetry in Trump losing to the current Her because he couldn't conceive of losing, e.g. if the fix turned-out not to be quite as in as he'd thought.
My first reaction when I saw that watch was, "I should run a pro-Trump grift. Why not? Get a factory in China to run off a similar gewgaw, charge just $10,000 for it. Sell 50 of them and take the next four years off."
Literally why not.
Anyway I gather the lesson the GOP took from J6 was "Wow, it almost worked!" And so the test our nation faces is most likely going to be "How many Republicans in positions of responsibility will go along with blatantly thwarting democracy?" It's a weird place that I find myself: Optimistic that the coup will fail! Darkly pessimistic because a coup is certainly in the wings, ready to roll, and is going to get backed by a hell of a lot of real adult Republicans who know better but live in a weird fear I will never understand.
Could you clarify a question of dogma? Would it be acceptable if the people that Trump authorized to be in the country (Haitians) only ate the cats of women who haven't procreated without use of IVF?
Surely reducing the number of cats available to Childless Cat Ladies is a societal good.
Were there any sharks circling, my contention is he jumped them when he confabbed with Zelensky last week. Queens Man's base, if they pay attention to him, have been informed that Zelensky is a losing loser. For Queens Man to make a big deal of deliberately setting up a meeting with the losing loser is a losing loser move.
Chump in the Dumps.
The question is, how do we take down the 2025ers? I mean, for-profit prison time spent decommissioning bumpstock-modified rifles is too good for them.
There is research on the subject of denial, ism, and following a cult leader. When the cult, leader fails, or the spaceship does not arrive, the cult leader claims that the belief in the enterprise, save the world or says that the election was stolen. He then uses this to attract new members or to protect the faith of those who followed him.this is not unusual.
The as-seen-on-tv scams are a long-established behavior with Trump. These look like some hustler came to him with the plan and he licensed his name for his usual cut. Hey, free money and somebody else pushing the Brand, why not? This is a billionaire who cashed a 13 cent check from Spy magazine, after all. It's usually a fool's errand to disagree with Emptywheel, but the extra sting of losing to a black woman will pale before the knife of losing the election and the presidential shield which is the only thing that can make everything go away, plus all that money just sitting there.
The mind-bogglingly stupid way they are running the campaign can only be explained by epic widespread madness (Trump is covering that by himself), and/or total reliance on the plan to game the Electoral College. Hammer the base without mercy, hope there's enough hate and fear out there to make it plausibly close (a pretty safe bet, that), ratfuck the vote counting enough to justify the lawsuits standing at the ready, and go. Is there any other explanation that comes close to explaing the circus?
That’s it
Is the god complex already baked in all of that, or is it just separate from all the grifting?
"God complex" gives Trump a little too much credit, I think. The oft-cited "narcissist" is a little closer to the mark. He doesn't care about the rest of the world enough to consider himself a god.
No.
That's about how I see it, though I see it less as 'stupid' as 'rich-kid–typical lazy because he figures he doesn't need to bother with expending any more effort'. Working hard when you know the fix is in is for 'suckers and losers, like the ones at Omaha Beach'.
If I did 'hope', I'd hope he were wrong; as it is, I try to estimate odds and try to revulse away from letting my desires affect my estimation. At the moment I'd give Trump's plans about 60% chance of working because I see no reason to think they won't, as that would require either ethics or cussedness I don't see in the Vichy Republicans. I still try as hard as I can to stop that, mostly with money, the blood of victory, notably if you have to hire legions of lawyers, because I think those odds would be worse if people didn't use what resources they can.
I've tried to stress that never-Trumpers are not motivated by ethics, but survival. There may be some sentimental attachmemt to some sort of Mayberry RFD democracy, but politics ain't beanbag. Trump has aimed his own Operation Warp Speed at shrinking the Republican voter base down to a rabid core absolutely faithful to him and him alone. Any semi-competent CEO knows sooner or later you need a sucession plan, if only to get the Board off your back. Who succeeds Trump? Who will his base support? They have finally figured out Trump is not a man you can do business with, but the Catch-22 is they are paralyzed with fear at the idea of alienating his base, which used to be their base and they clearly hope to get it back someday. So they at most condemn them man while promising to vote for him. Profiles in Courage, 2024.
This is exactly how Trump got control in the first place: all his competitors knew they'd need his followers and knew that any kind of reasonable criticism of him would result in his telling them not to support them, so each wanted someone else to bell the cat and let them be a free rider.
Yeah, I’ve had the same thought. He’s throwing so many obvious grifts out there — the sneakers, watches, books, nft trading cards, coins and whatever else I missed — because he thinks he’ll lose so he may as well throw it all against the wall.
As I hold that Clinton lost to Trump largely out of poor decisions rooted in an inability to believe that an adult capable of feeding themselve could _possibly_ prefer him to her, resulting in what Bob Dylan didn't call 'an Idiot Win', there'd be poetry in Trump losing to the current Her because he couldn't conceive of losing, e.g. if the fix turned-out not to be quite as in as he'd thought.
Oh, there'll still be poetry either way
Sure, like Mayakovsky in 1919 or Mayakovsky in 1930, depending.
My first reaction when I saw that watch was, "I should run a pro-Trump grift. Why not? Get a factory in China to run off a similar gewgaw, charge just $10,000 for it. Sell 50 of them and take the next four years off."
Literally why not.
Anyway I gather the lesson the GOP took from J6 was "Wow, it almost worked!" And so the test our nation faces is most likely going to be "How many Republicans in positions of responsibility will go along with blatantly thwarting democracy?" It's a weird place that I find myself: Optimistic that the coup will fail! Darkly pessimistic because a coup is certainly in the wings, ready to roll, and is going to get backed by a hell of a lot of real adult Republicans who know better but live in a weird fear I will never understand.
Sherwin-Williams is good paint but I prefer Benjamin Moore!
Windsor and Newton
It's Winsor, not Windsor. Off with your head!
Dunn Edwards
Olympic Stain!
Could you clarify a question of dogma? Would it be acceptable if the people that Trump authorized to be in the country (Haitians) only ate the cats of women who haven't procreated without use of IVF?
Surely reducing the number of cats available to Childless Cat Ladies is a societal good.
We can only hope (and organize and work).
Were there any sharks circling, my contention is he jumped them when he confabbed with Zelensky last week. Queens Man's base, if they pay attention to him, have been informed that Zelensky is a losing loser. For Queens Man to make a big deal of deliberately setting up a meeting with the losing loser is a losing loser move.
Chump in the Dumps.
The question is, how do we take down the 2025ers? I mean, for-profit prison time spent decommissioning bumpstock-modified rifles is too good for them.
There is research on the subject of denial, ism, and following a cult leader. When the cult, leader fails, or the spaceship does not arrive, the cult leader claims that the belief in the enterprise, save the world or says that the election was stolen. He then uses this to attract new members or to protect the faith of those who followed him.this is not unusual.
This time for SURE!
0.) 'And your prophecy fails/And negativity wonʼt pull you through'
1.) Until Fred Sr decided that Fred Jr were an Unworthy Vessel, wasn't his nickname for Donald 'The Great Disappointment'?
Nice take, and glad to see you on the substacks.
-- Dubiousraves, old Twitter friend