If I were advising the Indian and Brazil / Argentina, I would go back to being non aligned.
Clearly , being America’s friends is more harmful than being their enemies.
This was on a friend’s FB page:
An anguished question from a Trump supporter: ‘Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?’
The serious answer: Here’s what the majority of anti-Trump voters honestly feel about Trump supporters en masse:
That when you saw a man who had owned a fraudulent University, intent on scamming poor people, you thought “Fine.”
(Trump University settlement finalized by judge at $25 million)
That when you saw a man who had made it his business practice to stiff his creditors, you said, “Okay.”
(Trump Hotel Paid Millions in Fines for Unpaid Work)
That when you heard him proudly brag about his own history of sexual abuse, you said, “No problem.”
(List of Trump's accusers and their allegations of sexual misconduct - ABC News)
That when he made up stories about seeing Muslim-Americans in the thousands cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center, you said, “Not an issue.”
That when you saw him brag that he could shoot a man on Fifth Avenue and you wouldn’t care, you exclaimed, “He sure knows me.”
(President Donald Trump could shoot someone without prosecution: Lawyer)
That when you heard him relating a story of an elderly guest of his country club, an 80-year old man, who fell off a stage and hit his head, to Trump replied: “‘Oh my God, that’s disgusting,’ and I turned away. I couldn’t—you know, he was right in front of me, and I turned away. I didn’t want to touch him. He was bleeding all over the place. And I felt terrible, because it was a beautiful white marble floor, and now it had changed color. Became very red.” You said, “That’s cool!”
(Donald Trump Shared a Hilarious Story About Not Wanting to Help a Dying Man | GQ)
That when you saw him mock the disabled, you thought it was the funniest thing you ever saw.
(Donald Trump Criticized After He Appears to Mock Reporter Serge Kovaleski)
That when you heard him brag that he doesn’t read books, you said, “Well, who has time?”
(The President Who Doesn't Read - The Atlantic)
That when the Central Park Five were compensated as innocent men convicted of a crime they didn’t commit, and he angrily said that they should still be in prison, you said, “That makes sense.”
(What Trump has said about the Central Park Five)
That when you heard him tell his supporters to beat up protesters and that he would hire attorneys, you thought, “Yes!”
(Trump's endorsement of violence reaches new level: He may pay legal fees for assault suspect)
That when you heard him tell one rally to confiscate a man’s coat before throwing him out into the freezing cold, you said, “What a great guy!”
That you have watched the parade of neo-Nazis and white supremacists with whom he curries favor, while refusing to condemn outright Nazis, and you have said, “Thumbs up!”
(Trump's Tweet About Unite the Right Fails to Name Nazis - The Atlantic)
That you hear him unable to talk to foreign dignitaries without insulting their countries and demanding that they praise his electoral win, you said, “That’s the way I want my President to be.”
(Here's A List Of Countries And Leaders Trump Has Insulted Since His Election | HuffPost Latest News)
That you have watched him remove expertise from all layers of government in favor of people who make money off of eliminating protections in the industries they’re supposed to be regulating and you have said, “What a genius!”
(https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/12/29/138-trump-policy-changes-2017-000603)
That you have heard him continue to profit from his businesses, in part by leveraging his position as President, to the point of overcharging the Secret Service for space in the properties he owns, and you have said, “That’s smart!”
That you have heard him say that it was difficult to help Puerto Rico because it was in the middle of water and you have said, “That makes sense.”
That you have seen him start fights with every country from Canada to New Zealand while praising Russia and quote, “falling in love” with the dictator of North Korea, and you have said, “That’s statesmanship!”
(https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/02/politics/donald-trump-dictators-kim-jong-un-vladimir-putin/index.html)
That Trump separated children from their families and put them in cages, managed to lose track of 1500 kids, has opened a tent city incarceration camp in the desert in Texas - he explains that they’re just “animals” - and you say, “Well, OK then.”
(More than 5,400 children split at border, according to new count)
That you have witnessed all the thousand and one other manifestations of corruption and low moral character and outright animalistic rudeness and contempt for you, the working American voter, and you still show up grinning and wearing your MAGA hats and threatening to beat up anybody who says otherwise.
What you don’t get, Trump supporters, is that our succumbing to frustration and shaking our heads, thinking of you as stupid, may very well be wrong and unhelpful, but it’s also…hear me…charitable.
Because if you’re NOT stupid, we must turn to other explanations, and most of them are less flattering.
- Adam-Troy Castro
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So you are saying I could get 100mil without becoming @Bekloppt new brother in law?
A true but the one for me is his supporters that arent wealthy believe he will help them.
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You may know similar people, but where I am from in West Wales there was a growing sense of anti-Westminster sentiment through the austerity years. The idea, fairly reasonably arrived at, is the only things government ever does for the country focuses attention on London and the further away you are the more ignored you are. A significant segment of the Brexit vote came from these people who understood Brexit would come with significant downsides, but those downsides would be concentrated towards those who have had the most benefit over the years. To them, the post-brexit problems would be an equalizer…a way of making the haves experiences what those in the ignored provinces have felt.
That sort of thinking is a significant part of the Trump support. The belief that government can do anything productive is so low in many that the only thing they can think of government doing is hurting people. Their vote then becomes a way to target which people they want government to pay attention to hurting, and in that Trump’s message is appealing to a large swatch of people.
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Carter’s memoirs are generally regarded as the most interesting of any president, and while I havent read them in full I have read segments of them. They are more or less published diary entries, and there is one where he reconciles with himself the importance of informing Regan on his decision to finalize the Panama Canal treaty because he knew the decision was a relevant election issue and felt it was fair Regan was properly informed.
I dont know if it was that people were different then, or that Carter was really just a man apart. Because if we read comparable contemporary thoughts from Regan they would not read the same way.
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Hear hear. Fuck the deplorables, they are not ‘decent people’
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Yeah, although I suspect the rumbles may have started earlier. And it is this anti sentiment that the populists feed on.
We seem to be stuck in a downward spiral where people continually support for the more absurd as each layer fails.
Trump will fail and then what?
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It’s grim. During his first term I was conflicted about impeachment. While it was absolutely warranted a big part of me felt there was something underlying Trump’s 2016 victory that needed to be defeated even more than Trump the person did. It felt like removing him would not fail to defeat the movement, but would embolden it by convincing them of their righteousness (the elites ARE out to get us). Instead he had to be shown as a failure who did damage to the country. That was demonstrated to a degree I never could have imagined when he was first inaugurated, and yet he now back stronger and more popular than ever. His list of failures and ways he damaged our civic life have been rewritten in real time, wiping those failures from collective consciousness of seemingly a majority of the country. I just don’t know where society goes from here.
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Is it because any of the terrible decisions and policies Trump enacted has either not had a material impact on their lives, or they are in a cognitive dissonance spiral whereby anything bad is “the liberals’ fault”?
They keep bleating on about the economy/inflation/fuel prices etc. I don’t remember if those markedly improved in Trump’s term as compared to Obama’s.
I think the key to all this has been facebook, twitter and some of the lesser social media apps. Once the misinformation started flowing there is no stopping it. And now less than ever (Thanks Mark you arsehole!). Remember the Tea Party segment of the GOP? And Trump starting the other-blaming, first with the birther bullshit about Obama?.
Same kind of shite was a huge reason for Brexit.
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And the single biggest, most damaging, dismissive phrase to deflect any genuine concern or reason for punitive steps towards Trump? His heretofore (and still) indestructible shield?
“Fake news”
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I remember him first using it about anything that was in the least bit critical of him , but demonstrably true , and thought ; ‘he’s never gonna get away with that’. And lo and behold … he did.
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I think they’ll bend over backwards to try and keep fuel prices down at the expense of everything else. A good news story for everyone and a distraction.
I dont know how sensitive the US public is to interest rates to be honest. I expect that to stay low or even get lower in the early part of this year. The US has a big lump of debt to refinance but what happens after?
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Iv got to admit, I do not know how he has gotten away with the “Fake news” defence. I am guessing Solicitors/Lawyers across the country are now telling their clients to stop saying “no comment” and instead say “fake news”.
And he and his supporters are the worst ones for spreading ‘fake news’, see the California fire for the latest example.
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It’s why I’ve largely disengaged from politics ; wtf is the point once facts (or the law) no longer matter ?
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He just keeps repeating it in response to even actual convictions handed down by a court of law. Especially at those rallies which he loves. And the next move is to attack the federal prosecutors and judges by saying they’re corrupt, painting himself as a martyr. And then there’s the excuse of the “deep state” which has terrible real-life consequences of his appointed cronies hitting US government departments.
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That’s largely where I’m at. I haven’t seen the news since Trump won the election. Obviously I am aware, at least somewhat, of what’s going on… but it all seems pointless right now. Truth. Facts. Law. All doesn’t matter.
Edit
Wholly unsuited people in government, from the top down. Unqualified. Norms and protections being ripped up. Oligarchs caving in to the emperor. Soon enough they will be carving it up for themselves, more than they already have done. Allies will be enemies. Enemies will be allies. Atrocities will be overlooked.
Ugh. No thank you.
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It is genuinely hilarious how hypocritical Musk is about free speech
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