Wannabe Dictator

[Aqua Letifer]

Of the ride-or-die Trump supporters, how many of them are uncomfortable with their circumstances?

• They feel okay with what they're able to provide for their families and don't feel financially threatened.
• They don't feel vilified by large numbers of liberals
• They feel free to pursue their values, interests and beliefs in public without having to put up with some asshole judging them for it.

And yet everyone's so perplexed and baffled by Trump's popularity.

[Horace]

Yep. Punching down and the glee therein for the mainstream virtuous set, has never been more obvious than in the Trump era. It’s because there’s an “existential threat”, so they’re cornered into being sneering assholes. They really don’t want to be. Never mind the drool, they just have rabies.

[Renauda]

Frankly, I believe that populist Jacobins on the left and MAGATs populist ersatz conservatives on the right are both rabid drooling beasts that the pose an “existential threat”’ to liberty and the common good. Together they deserve punching down with equal derision and sneering glee at their misinformed ideas, political illiteracy and rather unhinged minds.

[taiwan_girl]

@Renauda said in Wannabe Dictator:

There is a pattern among senior officers who worked either directly with Trump or close to him. To a man, they pretty much despise him not only as a leader but as a person as well.

And some more from John Kelly
https://www.salon.com/2024/03/11/he-said-hitler-did-some-good-things-ex-chief-of-staff-says-praised-hitler-in/

Former President Donald Trump praised German dictator Adolf Hitler while in the White House, former chief of staff John Kelly told CNN.

Trump repeatedly praised authoritarian leaders while serving as president, Kelly and other former senior advisers told CNN’s Jim Sciutto. Trump praised Chinese leader Xi Jinping, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the former aides said. But his most unnerving praise was for Hitler.

“He said, ‘Well, but Hitler did some good things.’ I said, ‘Well, what?’ And he said, ‘Well, [Hitler] rebuilt the economy.’ But what did he do with that rebuilt economy? He turned it against his own people and against the world. And I said, ‘Sir, you can never say anything good about the guy. Nothing,’” Kelly recalled, according to Sciutto. “I mean, Mussolini was a great guy in comparison.”

“It’s pretty hard to believe he missed the Holocaust, though, and pretty hard to understand how he missed the 400,000 American GIs that were killed in the European theater,” Kelly added. “But I think it’s more, again, the tough guy thing.”

It wasn’t just Hitler’s economic policies, Kelly said. Trump also expressed admiration for Hitler’s hold on senior Nazi officers as he lamented his own lack of staff “loyalty.”

“He would ask about the loyalty issues and about how, when I pointed out to him the German generals as a group were not loyal to him, and in fact tried to assassinate him a few times, and he didn’t know that,” Kelly recounted. “He truly believed, when he brought us generals in, that we would be loyal — that we would do anything he wanted us to do,” Kelly added.

[Jolly]

Ah, yes. Pearls of wisdom from Salon.

Carry on...

[taiwan_girl]

@Jolly Are you saying the the article is misquoting John Kelly and he did not say that?

Here is from the guy that spoke directly with John Kelly.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/11/politics/trump-despots-advisers-sound-alarm/index.html

“He thought Putin was an OK guy and Kim was an OK guy — that we had pushed North Korea into a corner,” retired Gen. John Kelly, who served as Trump’s chief of staff, told me. “To him, it was like we were goading these guys. ‘If we didn’t have NATO, then Putin wouldn’t be doing these things.’”

“He’s not a tough guy by any means, but in fact quite the opposite,” Kelly said. “But that’s how he envisions himself.”

[Doctor Phibes]

@Jolly said in Wannabe Dictator:

Ah, yes. Pearls of wisdom from Salon.

You're shooting the messenger? I'm surprised at you, Jolly.

[Jolly]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Wannabe Dictator:

@Jolly said in Wannabe Dictator:

Ah, yes. Pearls of wisdom from Salon.

You're shooting the messenger? I'm surprised at you, Jolly.

Thought you'd show up on that one. Yep, guilty. But I don't make a habit of it, as some do.

[Jolly]

BTW, I think we are going to see a lot more hit pieces, particularly if Trump can widen his lead. Biden is already on a swing state tour.

Going to be interesting to see how well he holds up.

[Renauda]

@Jolly said in Wannabe Dictator:

@Doctor-Phibes said in Wannabe Dictator:

@Jolly said in Wannabe Dictator:

Ah, yes. Pearls of wisdom from Salon.

You're shooting the messenger? I'm surprised at you, Jolly.

Thought you'd show up on that one. Yep, guilty. But I don't make a habit of it, as some do.

I think Gen. Kelly in his capacity as former Chief of Staff to Trump, is credible even if the media outlet reporting his statements can be dodgy to some, myself included.

[Mik]

@Jolly said in Wannabe Dictator:

BTW, I think we are going to see a lot more hit pieces, particularly if Trump can widen his lead. Biden is already on a swing state tour.

Going to be interesting to see how well he holds up.

The ancient Chinese curse applies here. We're seeing as far as I know unprecedented things in national politics, and probably the best opportunity for a third party to arise.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Jolly said in Wannabe Dictator:

Thought you'd show up on that one. Yep, guilty. But I don't make a habit of it, as some do.

Right, so I dismiss Daily articles pretty much across the board*. You only dismiss articles because of the source when you don't like them?

*Unless they're critical of Trump, obviously. A man has to have some standards.

[Jolly]

Nope, you always shoot the messenger, on anything you don't agree with.

Always.

[Jolly]

@Mik said in Wannabe Dictator:

@Jolly said in Wannabe Dictator:

BTW, I think we are going to see a lot more hit pieces, particularly if Trump can widen his lead. Biden is already on a swing state tour.

Going to be interesting to see how well he holds up.

The ancient Chinese curse applies here. We're seeing as far as I know unprecedented things in national politics, and probably the best opportunity for a third party to arise.

You're seeing a different party in the GOP. It's undergoing a pretty significant overhaul.

[Renauda]

@Doctor-Phibes

Right, so I dismiss Daily articles pretty much across the board…

That hardly qualifies as shooting the messenger. The Daily Mail edits and reports what it considers news stories. As a source of news it is the choice, style and editing of the reporting that is questionable.

More often it is a garbage in, garbage out scenario that is not exclusive to the Mail. All sources need to be questioned and, if possible, corroborated. If the source is not trustworthy then how can one trust the messenger that brings it? You cannot.

[Jolly]

@Renauda said in Wannabe Dictator:

That hardly qualifies as shooting the messenger. The Daily Mail New York Times edits and reports what it considers news stories. As a source of news it is the choice, style and editing of the reporting that is questionable.

More often it is a garbage in, garbage out scenario that is not exclusive to the Mail. All sources need to be questioned and, if possible, corroborated. If the source is not trustworthy then how can one trust the messenger that brings it? You cannot.

FIFY.

Well, except for the time the NYT just makes things up.

[Renauda]

@Jolly

I wouldn’t know. I don’t read or subscribe to the NYT. Certainly never linked to it here. Never have. Probably never will. Not a big fan of American slick media, although there was a time years ago I regularly read the CS Monitor.

So you haven’t fixed anything being that there was nothing to fix. But you have tried, like always, to get in the last word.

[taiwan_girl]

@Renauda said in Wannabe Dictator:

@Jolly said in Wannabe Dictator:

@Doctor-Phibes said in Wannabe Dictator:

@Jolly said in Wannabe Dictator:

Ah, yes. Pearls of wisdom from Salon.

You're shooting the messenger? I'm surprised at you, Jolly.

Thought you'd show up on that one. Yep, guilty. But I don't make a habit of it, as some do.

I think Gen. Kelly in his capacity as former Chief of Staff to Trump, is credible even if the media outlet reporting his statements can be dodgy to some, myself included.

Exactly. Although I am not a historian person, I doubt that there is any other US president, where so many people who have worked VERY VERY closely with President Trump (on a daily basis), have come out and said he is unfit to be president.

(I am not talking about the #3 cousin of the wife of the housekeeper who cleaned the White House that said President Obama was a terrible guy, but people who probably saw President Trump more than his wife)

[Jolly]

Well, he may be unfit, but at least he knows what a fax machine is...

[taiwan_girl]

LOL There was a story I read once about George Bush (1st) who did not know what a price scanner was. He was amazed when he saw one in action.

But to their defense, I think that very rich famous people really lose track of what it is like in the common world. When was the last time President Biden/Trump etc. had to handle money? stand in line at the bank? call for a repair man? book a trip ticket? stand at airport baggage claim waiting for a suitcase? etc etc etc

(another story I heard about President Bush (1st). He was asked what perks he missed most about being president. He said it wasn't the big house, big plane, etc. Anybody rich enough can have those. It was the fact that as president, he never ever had to wait in traffic!!! LOL)