US Politics: holding our breath waiting to see what happens next

[Guy Kilmore]

14 minutes ago, Kalbear Total Landscaping said:

That's possible - but I suspect the rallies are always going to be a 'will he or won't he' type of thing. Like he'd announce that he'll have a bunch of rallies and at one of them he'll announce if he is or isn't running again, so you're going to just have to come out and show up and see (and cover it via press). 

But ultimately I think he knows that he doesn't get the attention without the campaigning. He won't be covered on national news and won't get the millions of people and the flags and truck rallies if he's not running. Him just, ya know, talking at people or having his own news organization isn't going to give him that rush again. 

The second part is the interesting calculus for a narcist.  Where will he risk losing and where will he push it to get the high.  To the first, I agree.

Maybe, just maybe he gets what he needs with being the guy everyone has to kiss the ring of.

[Fragile Bird]

1 minute ago, Tywin et al. said:

Yep, this is the most obvious answer. He’s either going to launch his own network or essentially take over Fox or OANN and get his own show. I think he’ll try to get a subscription network myself, because he’s always here to grift clueless idiots.

I don’t think he’ll be on Fox, I think he spent months trying to undermine Fox to his base for a reason. He showed up when he needed to use them, but the rest of the time he was belittling Fox just the way he belittled all rivals, the key word here.

In terms of narcissism, there was a lot of talk that Tucker Carlson is going to make a serious political run, and I wonder if in Trump’s little brain he was thinking “stay out of territory that belongs to my family”.

[VigoTheCarpathian]

12 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

Trump just needs some shitty tv slot, they can call it something ridiculous like The Presidential Hour and he can rant and rave like Limbaugh and Hannity and have caller sand guests kiss his ass.  Will keep him busy and out of the way.  He'd still be annoying but his audience for this shit has been there for 40 years and they aren't going away anytime soon 

If we could get a TV show and a radio show for him (“Trump and Sources of Narcissistic Supply”, because he had no friends), competing in the directly with Hanitty/Tucker, and Rush Limbaugh, and watch those enablers be devoured at their own game like a mother spider by its young...that’d be a lovely Christmas present.

[Ormond]

6 minutes ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

In other news, WaPo reports that about 130 of the Secret Service is being quarantined after contracting COVID or being in close contact with others who have. That's about 10% of their entire force, the primary driver is them being at the various superspreader Trump rallies. I cant imagine many of them would relish the opportunity of dragging the narcissist in chief out of the residence come January 20, 2021.

I can imagine there would be some of them who would quite relish doing that precisely because they'd be angry at his behavior causing 10% of their colleagues to catch this disease. 

[Fragile Bird]

1 minute ago, Ormond said:

I can imagine there would be some of them who would quite relish doing that precisely because they'd be angry at his behavior causing 10% of their colleagues to catch this disease. 

I bet they don’t get suites at Walter Reed or access to Regeneron’s treatment either.

[Sci-2]

10 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

Alito's politically charged address draws heat
The Supreme Court justice warned that not only is freedom of belief under threat, but freedom of expression is as well.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/13/alito-speech-religious-freedom-436412

 

It seems to me this is the slippery slope of not allowing gay marriage.

Today it's religious belief against gay marriage...but what about re-marriage? I've seen that one put in quotes by hard-core Catholic types.

And why not refuse to validate a Hindu marriage, or a Wiccan marriage? After all those religions are also false, possibly orchestrated by demons right?

Alito's tantrum is disturbing, as it seems allied with that group of people that seem happy to let Trump bunker in the White House so long as they can achieve their Christian Dominion.

[IheartIheartTesla]

2 minutes ago, Ormond said:

I can imagine there would be some of them who would quite relish doing that precisely because they'd be angry at his behavior causing 10% of their colleagues to catch this disease. 

Sorry, I meant to say 'wouldn't relish', which is the opposite of what I actually said

There has been a really slow trickle of GoP senators and elected officials easing towards a Biden administration. The intelligence briefings etc. would go a good way towards normalizing the transition as well. The certification of results to me is the biggest step in all of this.

[Kalbear]

Breakdown of Dem house losses. the tl;dr on this: healthcare wasn't a winner like it was in 2018, defund the police and socialism were effective attacks, and DCCC relied too heavily on polling that indicated tight races in places that couldn't be won (like Texas). 

Biden should work tirelessly to increase police funding and support. 

[Fragile Bird]

6 minutes ago, Kalbear Total Landscaping said:

Breakdown of Dem house losses. the tl;dr on this: healthcare wasn't a winner like it was in 2018, defund the police and socialism were effective attacks, and DCCC relied too heavily on polling that indicated tight races in places that couldn't be won (like Texas). 

Biden should work tirelessly to increase police funding and support. 

Isn’t that exactly what I said days ago? Trump did some things very well, like hanging the destruction of society on the Democrats because police forces were going to be eliminated. And the evils of socialism!

[DMC]

1 hour ago, Ormond said:

I don't know what she means though that he "would have to play a secondary role".  If he is able to take over the machinery of the Republican party, he wouldn't be secondary within the party or within his followers. 

Yeah I don't really get that part of what she said either.  Not only because of what you said - running, or even considering running, will still feed into his need to be the center of attention - but also because being "pundit in chief" is much more of his thing than actually being president anyway.  His first real..foray into politics was decidedly a "secondary" role - calling into Fox & Friends whenever he felt like it to whine about Obama and gin up racists.  Now he gets to go back to doing that AND take credit for anything going well while blaming anything not going well on Biden stealing the election from him.  That's a pretty ideal position for him.

37 minutes ago, Guy Kilmore said:

He will flirt with it, he will get people to beg him too, but if he can keep people adoring him and not put himself at the risk of losing I think that is the path he will walk. 

Yeah, one thing I definitely agree with is he will almost certainly at least flirt with running for a very long time (and pretty much already has).  Not only is this "rational" for someone in his position - in dire need of making a large amount of money the next few years - but it conforms to his behavior over decades of flirting with running in order to gain attention.

Whether he actually does?  Who knows.  The election was definitely close enough where he'd undoubtedly be the prohibitive favorite to win the primary at leas to start.  Still think it still depends on whether he can convince himself - as well convince others and have others convince him - that it's worth the risk of another loss and that he can actually win.  I also think the amount of effort it takes to win and actually hold the office is still going to be a mitigating factor.  I strongly suspect even he realizes now that presidenting is really hard (even when you barely do that job) and will never get daddy to love him.

29 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

He’s either going to launch his own network or essentially take over Fox or OANN and get his own show. I think he’ll try to get a subscription network myself, because he’s always here to grift clueless idiots.

Certainly appears FNC's Arizona call has already given him his impetus to take them on, not unlike Obama at the WH correspondents dinner.

24 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

He showed up when he needed to use them, but the rest of the time he was belittling Fox just the way he belittled all rivals, the key word here.

Over the last few months, he was mostly just belittling/whining about Fox even when he went on Fox.

23 minutes ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

The intelligence briefings etc. would go a good way towards normalizing the transition as well.

Yeah Lankford promising to "step in" if Biden is refused intelligence briefings was a good start.  We'll see if he follows through.

[kairparavel]

18 minutes ago, Kalbear Total Landscaping said:

Breakdown of Dem house losses. the tl;dr on this: healthcare wasn't a winner like it was in 2018, defund the police and socialism were effective attacks, and DCCC relied too heavily on polling that indicated tight races in places that couldn't be won (like Texas). 

Biden should work tirelessly to increase police funding and support. 

Funding of what, exactly? Military storm  trooper gear and flash bangs? Or proper screening methods, unconscious bias training, deescalation techniques, community liaisons, social workers, case workers/facilitators and the spines to fire bad actors?

[DMC]

4 minutes ago, kairparavel said:

Or proper screening methods, unconscious bias training, deescalation techniques, community liaisons, social workers, case workers/facilitators and the spines to fire bad actors?

He literally ran on increasing funding for some/most of this:

Quote

"I don't want to defund police," Biden said. "I want to get police more money in order to deal with the things they badly need from making sure they have access to community policing, that they have also in the department's social workers, psychologists, people who in fact can handle those god awful problems that a cop has to have four degrees to handle."

I do not think, unfortunately, any of that money is earmarked to surgically reinforce the spines of those in position to fire bad actors. 

[kairparavel]

It's kind of hilarious, to me at least, that Defund the Police is criticized as a slogan, in particular because you have to explain that money is being shifted to non-police resources but the police still exist in some capacity, but Fund the Police gets a pass even though you have to dig deep into it to understand that 'the police' or 'officers' are not 'getting fat stacks of cash' but instead money is being allocated for non-police resources, while the police still exist in some capacity. 

But I see the other side a bit because when I see Fund the Police, I get a visceral reaction to it.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

49 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

I don’t think he’ll be on Fox, I think he spent months trying to undermine Fox to his base for a reason. He showed up when he needed to use them, but the rest of the time he was belittling Fox just the way he belittled all rivals, the key word here.

In terms of narcissism, there was a lot of talk that Tucker Carlson is going to make a serious political run, and I wonder if in Trump’s little brain he was thinking “stay out of territory that belongs to my family”.

I think Fox is unlikely, but I figured I’d include it as a possible example. But to your other point, if Carlson runs for a serious office and wins, shut the country down. We’ve failed. The grand experiment would be over.

[argonak]

3 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

I think Fox is unlikely, but I figured I’d include it as a possible example. But to your other point, if Carlson runs for a serious office and wins, shut the country down. We’ve failed. The grand experiment would be over.

If that's where you're drawing the line, don't look too closely at the current crop of GOP legislators.  They're not exactly paragons of humanity as it is.

[DMC]

So looks like the Million MAGA March (*insert kill myself emoji*) is all set for tomorrow at noon:

Quote

The Million MAGA March and Stop The Steal are planning to rally at Freedom Plaza at noon Saturday, then march to the Supreme Court. Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters that D.C. police are monitoring a caravan of Trump supporters who are reportedly headed from Texas to D.C.

“We see some folks that are communicating on social media suggesting that they’re going to bring firearms into our city,” Newsham said. “You cannot open carry in the District of Columbia, anywhere in the District of Columbia.”

 

[OnionAhaiReborn]

From that Politico article:

A dozen races remain uncalled, and Democrats caution they won’t have all the answers for months. But many in the party are warning that the biggest priority for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee must be overhauling its message. They say it needs to craft a

proactive campaign that counters GOP attacks on everything from Medicare for All to fracking — if they have any hopes of keeping their majority in 2022.

Turns out that's not what proactive means! And this is the problem with centrist Dems, they want to focus on disavowing- and silencing- proposals to their left, but they have no idea how to make a compelling case of their own because, fundamentally, they're pretty ok with the status quo. So the only thing left to animate Democratic leaning voters is Republican excess, which only works when they get into power every so often and do a ton of damage, as Trump has. And when on top of that you go out of your way to portray Trump as an aberration, rather than a natural continuation of a path the Republican Party has been on for a long time, as Democrats have the last four years, culminating in the wholehearted embrace and platforming of purportedly virtuous never-Trump Republicans, you get a repudiation of Trump but not his party. 

[Fury Resurrected]

At work yesterday we were talking to a client who was in the later stages of getting a job with the secret service, and he gave some pretty helpful insight. He was explaining that while they obviously protect the President, a less obvious- but just as important- part of their work is protecting the office and idea of the Presidency. He was saying that if on January 20th, if Trump doesn’t want to leave the White House, the secret service would forcibly remove him from the building through tunnels below and we would never hear about it. He was explaining that they are heavily trained in what to do about some type of coup and it would not matter if a bunch of Kyle Rittenhouses and the Boog were outside the White House or not, the Secret Service would make sure he goes.

[DMC]

4 minutes ago, Fury Resurrected said:

He was saying that if on January 20th, if Trump doesn’t want to leave the White House, the secret service would forcibly remove him from the building through tunnels below and we would never hear about it.

Oh I'm sure Trump would make sure we'd hear about it.

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, larrytheimp said:

Trump just needs some shitty tv slot, they can call it something ridiculous like The Presidential Hour and he can rant and rave like Limbaugh and Hannity and have caller sand guests kiss his ass.  Will keep him busy and out of the way.  He'd still be annoying but his audience for this shit has been there for 40 years and they aren't going away anytime soon 

And look where 35 - 40 years of Rush etc. ranting and raving has gotten us down the road.  You think adding him to this will not keep this cray cray relentlessly increasing?