.
To be honest, I’m surprised none of the Trumplodyte Army has taken noisy public outrage against Olbermann’s remarks yet. It’s an interesting clip, and you might want to forward it to those of your Trump-curious (let’s say) acquaintances who haven’t demonstrated themselves so toxic that you’ve just cut all ties…
Arclite
Maybe there’s no Trumplodyte backlash because what Olbermann says is all true.
Arclite
Is there a movie like Master and Commander that takes place in the first half of the 20th century?
greennotGreen
Trump supporters’ response: “Lalalalala I can’t hear you!”
James Powell
@Arclite:
Run Silent, Run Deep
patrick II
@Arclite:
I don’t know exactly what parallels you are looking for, but “Run Silent, Run Deep” with Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster had two stars playing lead in a WWII submarine drama. It had a running sea battle against a deadly enemy, portrayed tactical knowledge about submarine warfare, and had an excellent battle to end the movie.
James Powell
@greennotGreen:
I believe they are all still in the “We won, suck it libtards!” stage.
Lalalalala comes after they begin to sense that their beliefs are in conflict with reality.
Viva BrisVegas
@Arclite:
Sink the Bismark!
The Enemy Below.
Viva BrisVegas
@James Powell:
I hope reality realises what it will be up against.
hitchhiker
CNN has a story up about how young Jared Kushner privately assured his rich friends during the campaign that DT didn’t really mean any of that cray-cray shit. It was just for the rubes. The tweeter brigade immediately attacked CNN, the dishonest media … see how this works? Nobody has authority. Chaos is exactly the outcome ol’ Vladimir wanted, but even he couldn’t have imagined this level of success.
Mike J
In Which We Serve
CM
To KO, I say simply, “Yes.” Good comparison of Trump to Edwards and especially Weiner, because the latter seemed unwilling to go away quietly. Good point at the end: it will be up to the Republicans to use either the 25th Amendment or the Impeachment clauses to save this nation and the world from the urges and whims of Trump.
On one hand, Trump is already (and has long been) showing symptoms of some of the issues addressed by those who added the 25th Amendment. On the other, Trump is already violating the Emoluments and the Treason clauses of the Constitution (as well as committing other “high crimes and misdemeanors”).
However, although Trump may have slipped past his Democratic opponent in the general election because of the peculiar math of the electoral vote mechanism, he absolutely destroyed the many Republican officeholders he faced in the long series of primary elections. I thus have no confidence in the Republican electorate or establishment, and I fear for my country.
Damien
I wish nothing but ill on every single trump voter from now until eternity. May everything they cherish most in this world burn to cinders in front of them while they keen impotently.
Calouste
@hitchhiker: Yep, the election of the shitgibbon is not the goal of Putin. I doubt he has forgotten how the Molotov-Ribbentrop, Russia’s previous “friendship” with a right-wing nutjob dictator, worked out. Vlad’s goal is internal strife in the US, to leave it unable to respond when Vlad starts pushing out Russia’s borders, with a stretch goal of a US civil war or the country falling apart. A shitgibbon scandal that makes Watergate look like Sunday school would work well for that. (Does anyone thinks that if something the scale of Watergate happens in the next 4 years, it would have any effect whatsoever? We’ve practically had it already with the Russian interference.)
Calming Influence
Not normal. All you 20, 30, 40, even 50-somethings: this is not normal. As someone over 60 I’ve seen a lot of history, and have been involved in politics most of my life. In our country’s history we have never elected a president as unqualified for the office as Donald Trump. But even more importantly, we have never elected someone as dangerous to our country as Donald Trump. He seems,from his own words and evidence from the news media, to be controlled by the dictator of a country that has been our enemy for most of my lifetime, and that county has nuclear weapons.
Russia is not our friend. Trump is a “useful idiot”. Yeah. Google that shit.
opiejeanne
I think I ditched all of those acquaintances & family members during the Obama administrations because they were so toxic then. I consider anyone who voted for him to be my enemy, which sounds a bit dramatic, but they can have no claim on my friendship nor will I acknowledge those very distant counsins’ relation to me.
Calouste
@CM: The problem for Republican officeholders is the same as for the other 16 dwarfs in the primaries: going against Trump gets a lot of his voters riled up against you, and will get you out of office. Everyone in the primaries realized they needed to band together against the shitgibbon, no one was willing to be the first into the breech.
Still no excuse for people like John McCain though, who just got elected to a new 6 year term and might not run again, even if he lives that long (he’ll be 86). Although he probably is afraid that some Trumpoid is going to make sure he won’t live that long. He is in Arizona after all.
Calming Influence
@hitchhiker: Can someone die of poison ivy? Because I don’t want anyone to die of poison ivy.
bjacques
Caine Mutiny
HMS Ulysses, by Alistair Maclean. A movie seriously needs to be made of this. My favorite character was Gorbals Wullie.
ThresherK (tablet)
@Viva BrisVegas: I don’t know if the “conflict with reality” is the case. Metaphorically, it might be a hangover, when they realize that all the bile and spite has not improved their lot in life one bit. Binge drinking can feel good for a short time but at a certain point it wears off.
And that’s coming from a guy who used to call W “America’s binge-drinking buddy”.
TriassicSands
My guess is that Olberman is talking to an audience of essentially zero. No one who needs to hear that kind of opinion is interested in listening to it.
As for Olberman’s conclusion — I don’t really buy it. I expect Trump to mess up a lot. But I think he will have people baby sitting for him and covering his butt round the clock. If, at some point, he tweets something that threatens to cause an international incident, I think “they” (could be his kids, could be his advisors) will take his phone away from him and smooth things over.
I fully expect Trump to commit impeachable offenses and I expect the Republicans will look the other way. But there is a chance, small, but real, that Trump will alienate House Republicans so much that they will decide their individual and group fortunes will fare much better with Pence as president. I am not predicting that will happen, but Trump — and, yes, there is something really, really wrong with him — is so damaged and so volatile that he could go too far at the right time…
I certainly wouldn’t look forward to having Pence take over, but I would like the honor of referring to Trump as the “disgraced ex-president.” (It’s possible that the left will do better with Trump at the helm. He has a way of soiling everything he touches.)
When I look in the crystal ball, the future is murky and cloudy and very uncertain. The problem is that of the possibilities I can imagine happening, all are bad.
CM
@Calouste: No excuse.
As a result, as I have watched the rise of Trymp over the last year and a half, I have been saying over and over that I now know how a certain “leader” rose to power in Germany.
Daily now, we see how various elements of the Republican Party think they can use Trump and his supporters to pursue their goals, on the business side, of tax cuts and de-regulation; on the theological side, of a restoration of “Biblical” standards regarding women and gays; and on the populist/nationalist side, of the restoration of a white America with good jobs in coal mines and steel factories that “bombs the shit” out of any enemy and “takes their oil”.
And so now our future rests with the consciences of Senators such as McCain & Collins & Murkowski & Graham, the memories of men like Mattis of the oath they once took, and the legal reasoning of a Justice Roberts or Kennedy that led them to support health care or gay rights.
At this point, I will settle for a Senator such as Rubio or Cruz that just wants to get even with the man who insulted his manhood and/or his wife and family.
TriassicSands
The sad thing is that Hitler was a much more compelling figure than Trump (though both are buffoons if you’re not a believer), and the situation in Germany was much, much worse than what is taking place in the US.
I’m afraid we don’t have the institutional safeguards to protect us in a two party system, when one party gives up on democracy and focuses on nothing but power.
That said, there is no safeguard for an electorate like the one we have now. Hamilton thought the Electoral College would be that safeguard, but the way things have developed over time, it was the safeguard itself that betrayed us. Even so, if the EC had behaved the way Hamilton thought it should, we would have had a real crisis on our hands.
Gator90
@CM: I try to imagine offenses that could prompt Republican congresspersons to actually vote for impeachment, and I can only come up with acts so unspeakably vile that even Donald Trump is fairly unlikely to commit them.
rikyrah
@Damien:
ICAM. Their vote for him reflects THEIR lack of character.????
Cermet
No matter what unelected but selected Donald Dump does, the thugs will always look away until and unless it could cost them an election; none of which is likely since the average dump voter is far too stupid to understand complex issues like reality.
NotMax
@Arclite
Unclear what parallels you are looking for, but here’s several British films:
The Battle of the River Plate
We Dive at Dawn
The Cruel Sea
Western Approaches
NeenerNeener
I still think Trump will fake a health crisis and resign, either because he starts to resent the day-to-day grind of “presidentin” and the relentless mockery of half the world, or because Ryan & McConnell approach him with an impeachment/25th amendment threat and this allows him to bow out gracefully.
terben
How about The Caine Mutiny?
Cleardale
I don’t think trump with fake a health crisis, for a simple reason. He attacked Clinton’s health. Every single thing he has attacked others for doing or being, has been projection. Everything. The only thing we have to say he is healthy, is dr. feelgood comparing him to dead presidents, and saying hey people die, there are replacements.
sigaba
@Calming Influence: Poison ivy can trigger anaphylaxis. Also if it’s untreated it may develop into sepsis.
I won’t hate Trumpers, but I can only keep myself on the light side by assuming they’re all joking. A vote for Trump is an act only properly construed in jest.
sigaba
@NeenerNeener: Trump won’t resign, he has things arranged such that he never has to come in to work and Pence will do all the grindy stuff. He’s cagey on wether he’ll ever even MOVE IN to the White House.
When things go wrong he’s perfectly situated to blame his subordinates for all those bs reasons guys like him always blame the assistant, and Congress will accept his explanation.
I disagree with KO in one point, the Rs will never impeach him, he’s more popular than them and while they might be able to survive in a world without him, they’d be in a world of hurt running against him.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@sigaba: I am sure that’s Trump’s plan, I am also sure likely with everything else in this Trump will be smacked in the face by reality. After all, why would Peance do all the work, take all the blame and Trump get all the glory?
NeenerNeener
I’m watching last night’s Sherlock now. Culverton Smith = Donald Trump. Wonder if Donnie noticed.
Chris
@NeenerNeener:
I think it’s much likelier that he simply slows the day-to-day grind to a minimum by offloading more duties onto others than any president has in historically recent times. The mockery of the rest of the world won’t force him to stop; he’ll just keep his position and use it to punish them for looking down on him. And no one is going to threaten him with impeachment, because virtually every Republican in Congress knows that Trump can sic enough voters on them to unseat them if he wants to.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@efgoldman:
Do I sense a “No could have anticipated…” coming soon to the Trump administration lol
Chris
@TriassicSands:
There was always something charmingly naive in the belief that illiberal antidemocratic populism could be checked by an illiberal antidemocratic institution.
Chris
@Gator90:
The only thing Trump could do that might motivate large sections of the GOP to move against him would be if he turned out to be some sort of William Jennings Bryan/Teddy Roosevelt figure who, whatever their views on other topics, did take the economic populism/anti-elitism moderately seriously.
(Spoiler Alert: he won’t).
But there, again, you run into the problem that Trump can easily have the vast majority of Republicans who move against him primaried. It’s not like most of these people give a shit about Norquistism – they barely even know what it is.
Timurid
@Arclite:
Das Boot
sufferinsuccotash, normalized
@Arclite: The Caine Mutiny. :)
Srsly. We may be dealing with a 21st century version of Capt. Queeg, e.g. someone who might not be clinically insane but whose emotional makeup renders them totally unfit to exercise authority in any situation where peoples’ lives might be at stake. The Presidency, for example.
Shana
@NeenerNeener: Watched Sherlock last night too. My thoughts exactly, “Hey, he’s Trump.”
Kristine
@Shana: Yup–my thoughts as well.
Larkspur
@sufferinsuccotash, normalized: The thing with Captain Queeg is that he used to be a good man, an effective leader. Then he went off the rails and the men under his command did what they had to do, even though it went against all of their training in discipline and obeying orders and using the chain of command.
I forget which character said it, at the end, and I forget the exact words, but the import was that no feeling of success or exhilaration should accompany Queeg’s downfall because he was a man who had been broken in WWII, and he couldn’t recognize it, and his superiors didn’t recognize it, and it was left to his men to remedy the disaster. Had Queeg ever presented with the same personality disorders he ended up with, he’d never have gained command of a ship.
Trump was never as good or effective as Queeg once was; no series of events “broke” him; it was pretty damn clear who Trump was, who he’s always been, and we made him president anyway. And I have to say “we” because it happened under our watch.
Chris
@Larkspur:
Real life villains are almost always anticlimactic for those of us who like good fiction. Terrorists are rarely as interesting as Magneto, dictators are rarely as brilliant as Palpatine, and corrupt corporate executives are rarely as awesome as Goldfinger.
John Rogers, creator of “Leverage,” when asked about the fact that his villains were never terribly nuanced or interesting: “The single, unpleasant truth is that most people, particularly criminals, are NOT complex. They are shallow, greedy sons of bitches to whom we attribute genius planning or complex motivations in order to preserve a false sense of order in our universe.”
sufferinsuccotash, normalized
@Larkspur: The character was Maryk’s defense counsel Barney Greenwald. During the court-martial, one of the psychiatrists who examined Queeg and found him clinically sane admitted under Greenwald’s cross-examination that even though Queeg was legally sane he clearly lacked the emotional stability to exercise command of a combat vessel. The shrink went on to acknowledge that under peacetime conditions the Navy would probably never have given Queeg such a command, but that in wartime you have to make do with what you have in terms of personnel. “It’s another war risk”, he concludes.
This is the parallel I was thinking of concerning Trump. We’re taking a major risk with this dude.
Bill
I love Keith, and he’s right that Trump is not well. But it will be a cold day in hell before Trump supporters acknowledge it. That’s not how cults of personality work. They will follow him to whatever insane destination his whims take us.
I don’t see any of this ending well for our country.
Larkspur
@sufferinsuccotash, normalized: That is a far more accurate description. I knew there was pity involved, but had forgotten that the main point was fitness during wartime being inevitably calculated differently than during peacetime. Which makes your parallel apt, obviously. And more chilling. Thanks.
leeleeFl
@NeenerNeener: Wonder how fast they wrote the script?! I was not surprised, but very impressed! I got the evil sister early…..I did’nt trust her in the first episode. Loved how Sherlock still hears from the Woman! Wonder how John fares next Sunday!?
Stacy
Trump will never leave willingly because he’s never wrong or makes a mistake. Leaving would be the ultimate proof that he’s wrong. Plus the idea that he couldn’t handle the job after the black guy had it? Nope, not going to happen.