Hello @davidpakman, thank you for talking about this and keeping us informed. I think you're right, one way to try to mitigate this is for the Democrats (and Independents, etc.) to try to win the elections next year and regain control of Congress. But aside from that, I don't know what else can be done...these are definitely interesting times we are living in. I'm hoping for the best.
Donald Trump was never an "outsider." He was always going to be a plain old Establishment Republican from Day One.
He played outsider to regain credibility for the Republican Party and to lure in a chunk of independents who were sick and tired of business as usual. There was even a Fake News quote online to bring independents in: Donald Trump once said that he would run as a Republican because that base is so dumb that he could win.
At the same time, all of the conspiracy boards online were taken over by the same kinds of Republican partisans who once attacked Al Gore after the 2000 stolen election. Alex Jones in particular went from things like "9-11 was a false flag operation" to the evils of communists, liberals, and the hated SJWs. Maybe Alex Jones was the false flag operation!
Republicans -- at least key Republicans -- knew this all the time. They set him up as the anti-Bush, filled the primaries with the usual Koch and Bush suspects, and assured Donald Trump would be the stand out. These people were rewarded with cabinet positions, Jefferson Sessions, Mike Pompeo, vote thief Kris Kobach.
As they were pondering over how to keep Donald Trump from winning, the answer was in plain site: run fewer candidates. All it would have taken to accomplish this was to tell them to get out or lose funding -- in other words, exactly the kind of threat we saw to those who would oppose the tax cut bill just passed yesterday. Does anyone honestly think they did not know this or could not do this?
The smoking gun to show without doubt that the oligarchy was behind them occurred in the wee hours of November 9, 2016. The stock market went crazy, rising like never before in a rally that continues to this day.
Since then, Donald Trump has reverted to the Establishment Koch Brothers Reactionary Agenda. Gone is the terrific health care for everyone, no wall seems to be coming, international trade has not been seriously modified, etc.
In the end, Republicans will keep their fake outsider as long as they can. Donald Trump will be used to promote the Herbert Hoover Republican agenda as long as they can defend him without massive political damage.
Then, they will cast Donald Trump out, distance themselves from him, pretend they are the moderates or the adults, even taking credit for saving America from Donald Trump. But they won't undo the damage. They will be laughing all the way to the bank. The LARP worked. Republicans got what they wanted and saved their party to do it again yet another time.
The last time Republicans did the fake outsider thing was only six years ago with the Tea Party. How easy it is to rebrand and reflavor oligarchy. Fooled again.
Hello @davidpakman, thank you for talking about this and keeping us informed. I think you're right, one way to try to mitigate this is for the Democrats (and Independents, etc.) to try to win the elections next year and regain control of Congress. But aside from that, I don't know what else can be done...these are definitely interesting times we are living in. I'm hoping for the best.
RE: 2017 Worst Year Of My Whole Life.
Not Trump but the Republican party. And they've been doing this for a long time. You should interview Greg Palast.
Donald Trump was never an "outsider." He was always going to be a plain old Establishment Republican from Day One.
He played outsider to regain credibility for the Republican Party and to lure in a chunk of independents who were sick and tired of business as usual. There was even a Fake News quote online to bring independents in: Donald Trump once said that he would run as a Republican because that base is so dumb that he could win.
At the same time, all of the conspiracy boards online were taken over by the same kinds of Republican partisans who once attacked Al Gore after the 2000 stolen election. Alex Jones in particular went from things like "9-11 was a false flag operation" to the evils of communists, liberals, and the hated SJWs. Maybe Alex Jones was the false flag operation!
Republicans -- at least key Republicans -- knew this all the time. They set him up as the anti-Bush, filled the primaries with the usual Koch and Bush suspects, and assured Donald Trump would be the stand out. These people were rewarded with cabinet positions, Jefferson Sessions, Mike Pompeo, vote thief Kris Kobach.
As they were pondering over how to keep Donald Trump from winning, the answer was in plain site: run fewer candidates. All it would have taken to accomplish this was to tell them to get out or lose funding -- in other words, exactly the kind of threat we saw to those who would oppose the tax cut bill just passed yesterday. Does anyone honestly think they did not know this or could not do this?
The smoking gun to show without doubt that the oligarchy was behind them occurred in the wee hours of November 9, 2016. The stock market went crazy, rising like never before in a rally that continues to this day.
Since then, Donald Trump has reverted to the Establishment Koch Brothers Reactionary Agenda. Gone is the terrific health care for everyone, no wall seems to be coming, international trade has not been seriously modified, etc.
In the end, Republicans will keep their fake outsider as long as they can. Donald Trump will be used to promote the Herbert Hoover Republican agenda as long as they can defend him without massive political damage.
Then, they will cast Donald Trump out, distance themselves from him, pretend they are the moderates or the adults, even taking credit for saving America from Donald Trump. But they won't undo the damage. They will be laughing all the way to the bank. The LARP worked. Republicans got what they wanted and saved their party to do it again yet another time.
The last time Republicans did the fake outsider thing was only six years ago with the Tea Party. How easy it is to rebrand and reflavor oligarchy. Fooled again.
Trump was an outsider. He was a joke and burned all his bridges with American credit lenders, no one in Washington or Wall Street took him seriously.
There are some days you win and some you lose. If this tax plan is signed into law we will all lose.