RIP, Colin Powell
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@george-k said in RIP, Colin Powell:
The AP says the same thing, albeit more politely.
Well, to be fair, they called him 'exemplary', and they didn't go on about themselves.
What Trump said wasn't just impolite. Impolite is belching during the funeral. He took a shit in Powell's casket.
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@doctor-phibes said in RIP, Colin Powell:
Impolite is belching during the funeral. He took a shit in Powell's casket.
Well, yeah, you're right there.
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From the RWEC:
The best take on this I’ve seen came from a Twitter pal who simply posted a side-by-side of the commemorations of Powell issued by Jimmy Carter, George Bush, Barack Obama, and Trump. All you need to understand the Trump phenomenon is in that tweet. A third of the country will revel in the fact that 45 was willing to speak his mind about a political enemy at a moment when polite society was demanding that tribute be paid. Trump doesn’t stand at attention just because the political establishment tells him to.
The other two-thirds of the country will share a look not unlike the one you’d share with a friend if someone nearby ripped a nasty wet fart.
As brief as this is, it’s a classic of its genre because of how succinctly it summarizes Trump’s approach to people. There’s nothing in here about the election being rigged but apart from that it’s him to a T.
It’s gratuitous since he wasn’t obliged to say anything about Powell’s passing. It’s narcissistic, turning Powell’s death into a complaint about Trump’s critics. It’s petty in that it’s unwilling to honor Powell’s accomplishments, of which there were many. It’s obsessed with media coverage, particularly how other figures are covered relative to how Trump himself is. And it’s dishonest inasmuch as Trump doesn’t actually care about the Iraq WMD debacle or Powell’s role in it. That was the low point of Powell’s public service and so it’s cited here opportunistically, to bolster Trump’s case against Powell to the reader. To 45, there’s only one test of a man’s value: Was he pro-Trump or anti-Trump?If Powell had supported him, Iraq would have been forgotten and Trump would have celebrated his career. Instead Powell was prone to saying things like this, requiring that Trump kick the coffin like he kicked John McCain’s and John Dingell’s. As his favorite Bible verse says: An eye for an eye. Even in death.
That’s another way in which the statement is true to its author. Presented here with a free, easy opportunity to earn a little goodwill from his skeptics by taking the high road with Powell, he couldn’t do it. Although he’s likely to run again in 2024 and will need to rebuild his appeal with swing voters who were disgusted by how his presidency ended, he couldn’t play the elder statesman by offering a few sweet nothings about the late general even as a matter of political self-interest. That’s his 2020 election strategy all over again, less concerned with persuading voters who were leery of him than with getting his own base as hyped as they could be to turn out and vote.
No one will remember his statement about Powell three days from now but little reminders like this that he hasn’t changed a tiny bit since leaving office are useful to his opponents in both parties. To get reelected, he needs voters to agree to endure another four years of daily fart-smelling antics like this. By 2024, I strongly suspect most of the country will prefer to be governed by Republican policies than by Democratic ones but the relentless cringe fatigue that another Trump term would bring to the population will cost him votes. Enough votes to lose? I don’t know. But it’ll cost him votes that a Ron DeSantis or Mike Pence would easily bank.
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@catseye3 said in RIP, Colin Powell:
@george-k said in RIP, Colin Powell:
To get reelected, he needs voters to agree to endure another four years of daily fart-smelling antics like this.
Vital to remember.
To get reelected, he needs voters to agree to endure another four years of daily fart-smelling antics like this
Actually, he needs voters to forget about this.
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@george-k said in RIP, Colin Powell:
Vital to remember.
To get reelected, he needs voters to agree to endure another four years of daily fart-smelling antics like this.
Actually, he needs voters to forget about this.
Ah, right. I was thinking of the rest of us.
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@klaus said in RIP, Colin Powell:
You'd rather saw off a feat of yours than saying anything even remotely critical of Trump, don't you Jolly?
Nah, but the street flows both ways. Nobody criticized Powell for taking a shot at Trump. No, people ballyhooed the statement.
Was Trump being an ass? Yeppers. Was he being vindictive. Yep.
But until coverage is meted out fairly, it doesn't bother me tremendously. And as my grocery bill climbs, as I pay more at the pump and as we receive more mandates from Washington Central Planning, I find myself missing ol' DJT more and more.
Warts and all.
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@doctor-phibes said in RIP, Colin Powell:
He even thinks Powell dying should be about him.
That guy is damaged.
People make hay about TDS but nobody’s Trump obsession is as strong or as deranged as Trump’s obsession with himself.
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@jolly said in RIP, Colin Powell:
Nah, but the street flows both ways. Nobody criticized Powell for taking a shot at Trump. No, people ballyhooed the statement.
Are you really incapable of seeing the difference between having a go at a politician who is still alive, and somebody who has just died?
If you take away the warts, what are you left with?
It's also worth asking what on earth Trump hoped to gain by making this pronouncement. Do you think he won over any voters?
Yeah, I know. Stupid like a fox.
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@doctor-phibes said in RIP, Colin Powell:
What Trump said wasn't just impolite. Impolite is belching during the funeral. He took a shit in Powell's casket.
Trump also eloquently used the phrase "but anyway", which brought his narrative from a 3rd grade grudge to a 5th grade grudge.
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@jolly said in RIP, Colin Powell:
@klaus said in RIP, Colin Powell:
You'd rather saw off a feat of yours than saying anything even remotely critical of Trump, don't you Jolly?
Nah, but the street flows both ways. Nobody criticized Powell for taking a shot at Trump. No, people ballyhooed the statement.
Was Trump being an ass? Yeppers. Was he being vindictive. Yep.
But until coverage is meted out fairly, it doesn't bother me tremendously. And as my grocery bill climbs, as I pay more at the pump and as we receive more mandates from Washington Central Planning, I find myself missing ol' DJT more and more.
Warts and all.
LOL you think he could've controlled any of that?
At some point you'll look back and realized you turned a blind eye to the worst of the worst characters to ever hold the high office. I've said many times before, imagine Obama tried doing/saying the same things in 2012 had he lost to McCain. If Obama fired the FBI director investigating him, if Obama was impeached twice, if Obama refused to accept the election results where he lost in the landslide. You would've called out the idiocy. But since Trump wears a red hat...
BTW do you think Powell would've insulted Trump a few days after his death, had the roles been reversed?
For the record, Powell's "shot at trump" was quite accurate, presuming that's what you're referring to.