Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Not all heroes wear capes.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

“woke” is the new caravan.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

This fight is for everything.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

In my day, never was longer.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

You are here: Home / The Reichstag fire next time

The Reichstag fire next time

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We’ve all seen this movie before — an unpopular and ill-prepared president takes office after a disputed election — so we know what happens next. There will be some sort of international event, perhaps a terrorist attack, perhaps something else. It doesn’t have to be anything all that large-scale this time around. Although the event will have been caused at least in part by the ineptitude of the sitting president, the media will attempt to blame Democrats and to get the country to rally around its steely-eyed missile man-in-chief

I don’t honestly know if it will get off the ground this time, in terms of getting the public to rally round Dear Leader. The media doesn’t have its tongue as far up Trump’s ass as it did up Bush’s, even before 9/11. But we need to think about what we can do to keep it from getting off the ground.

Reader Interactions

141Comments

  1. 1.

    Cermet

    Scary thought; think they (the powers that need this) will wait for He who shall not be named impeachment, first.

  3. 3.

    Ian G.

    an unpopular and ill-prepared president

    Honestly, I think that’s being unfair to W. Nobody, even Democrats, loathed him on Day One the way Trump is loathed by everyone outside the 27% cocoon. And Trump’s level of unpreparedness is on another level from W. He wouldn’t be ready to take over as supervisor of some town in rural Wyoming that has 20 people living in it.

  4. 4.

    Doug!

    @Ian G.:

    He had very low approval ratings compared with other incoming presidents. I don’t mean to suggest they are as bad as Trump’s.

  5. 5.

    Schlemazel

    What of an attack on a Trump property? Would that work in this scenario? I think that is most likely & you could not pay me to stay at one of his places now even if I supported him.

    @cosima:
    This would be a good first thing to get the marchers on. Lefts fire this machine up!

  7. 7.

    PaulW

    fool me once shame on you.

    fool me twice shame on you because damn you stop fooling people.

    The reason why Bush’s popularity went up after 9/11 was because people wanted to rally around the leadership to, you know, lead us. At the time we didn’t know that the White House didn’t respond in time to the daily briefing warnings, and we didn’t realize how eager Bush and Cheney wanted to turn the attack into an excuse to invade Iraq.

    This time, a majority of Americans know better. We’ve seen this movie already, and if an attack comes we are not going to blindly join in on the drumbeats to war and blind devotion to faux patriotism.

    And there is no goddamn way enough of us are going to rally to this lying ferret-haired tiny-fingered cheeto-skinned shitgibbon.

  8. 8.

    PVDMichael

    I certainly don’t wish for anything bad to happen… but the American people will need to be reminded that Trump was tweeting about crowd size, Apprentice ratings and meeting with Kanye West instead of prioritizing the naming of his national security infrastructure.

  9. 9.

    Jeffro

    There is nothing, no attack or other world event, that could make me rally to this clown and accept him as our president.

  13. 13.

    Repatriated

    But we need to think about what we can do to keep it from getting off the ground.

    Yesterday was the first step in what needs to be done, and they did it to themselves. To consolidate power after a crisis relies on institutional credibility, to both be believed when designating blame, and to be trusted to properly resolve the crisis. Trying (and failing) to browbeat the media into conveying blatant and easily disproved lies on Day Two kicked a hole in their credibility.

    In a crisis where the facts are unknown (or too complex to easily understand), people rely on their existing opinion and the credibility of leaders they’re already aligned with. On the whole, I don’t think that the new Administration has much “benefit of the doubt” left to work with in mobilizing public opinion back into their camp.

  14. 14.

    Belafon

    Ask people this: Do you think Trump would work harder to prevent an attack or to boost his approval ratings if one occurs? Do you trust him to tell you the truth about what has actually happened.

  15. 15.

    CarolDuhart2

    Shrub didnt’ go out of his way to insult who groups and turn people against each other, either. He was lazy and clueless and crude, but he still wanted at least some of us to go along. And sort of like him.

    1) Keep things non-violent in both rhetoric and behavior.
    So far, so good, but tempers can fray at times and people can say some dumb things.
    2) Intersectionality is our best friend. Make it clear that we can’t be turned against each other, and a reichstag fire event is less likely to succeed.
    3) There are groups that yearn for a Revolution and want another Castro. Their method is to blow something up and think that that would start it. Make it clear they are very fringe groups. BTW, this is another reason to be working with elected officials and staying close to the Democratic Party. If the main opposition is seen as working inside the system, they are less likely to be blamed for the inevitable shooting, bombing, whatever.

  17. 17.

    zhena gogolia

    I resisted looking at that Spicer presentation until just now when BJ wasn’t working and I was reading the WaPo site and looking at some videos. Watching that little twerp lie his face off caused me a serious anxiety attack. THIS SHIT IS REAL.

    This is so damned scary. WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO US?

  20. 20.

    Another Scott

    @Major Major Major Major: It would be interesting if Twitter decided that Donnie was somehow violating their terms of service (e.g. inciting violence or something) and pulled the plug on his account.

    Of course, they could construct something similar, but it would put a dent in his propaganda for a while.

    Hey, I can dream, can’t I?

    :-(

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  21. 21.

    Corner Stone

    @zhena gogolia:

    I resisted looking at that Spicer presentation until just now when BJ wasn’t working and I was reading the WaPo site and looking at some videos. Watching that little twerp lie his face off

    And his jacket didn’t fit him at all! What the F is wrong with these people?!

  22. 22.

    Immanentize

    I think the best thing to innoculate the country from this type of effect is to be constantly predicting that Trump will do it. You may sound like a Cassandra, but it does help delegitimization any such attempt. Because people know that Trump and his team are just the kind of people to try that shit.

    PS. Putin is laughing his ass off at the plan to move our Embassy to Jerusalem. We will just make ourselves so vulnerable.

  28. 28.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    I would be rather surprised if Spicer lasts long. That sort of vitriol and blatant disregard for truth comes at a cost. When your integrity is nil, when you are despised, it’s hard to function effectively, professionally, socially, emotionally.

  29. 29.

    Corner Stone

    @Another Scott: Twitter is begging for new account sign ups so they can sell themselves to someone. No way they discourage the ignorant hordes by banning Trump.

  33. 33.

    cosima

    Have you all watched the Roger Waters concert video in Mexico 100 times yet? It is so good that you will need a cigarette (or two) after. Guess that we can assume that he will not be doing concerts in the US for a while. It was truly epic. If he can do that concert around the world he will be a hero.

  45. 45.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    Look at how Putin stifled dissent in Russia, and in Crimea. That’s the model that Trump will use.

  47. 47.

    cain

    Check it out a repeal of the U.S. participation in the United Nation. Plus, the U.S. is officially going to recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel.

    Changes, they are a-coming…

  48. 48.

    Immanentize

    @Comrade Scrutinizer: The United States is not Russia. We don’t have the structures or central government control that Russia has. Not that it can’t happen, just will be harder. And Putin was very popular there….

  50. 50.

    Schlemazel

    BAH! Now I am being told I can’t edit my own comment because I don’t have permissions. FYWP.

  52. 52.

    Schlemazel

    @cain:
    Maybe he can also make the US position that there are 2 Chinas. Might just as well set the whole world on fire

  53. 53.

    Yarrow

    I’ve been out of town for the weekend and just got back. Getting caught up on the marches. Amazing stuff. The trip was scheduled before the election so I couldn’t participate at all but have been cheering everyone along from afar. I’m so proud of everyone for making their voices heard! Many thanks to all who marched and all who knitted hats and everyone who cheered them along!

  54. 54.

    cosima

    @James Powell: Thanks for doing the heavy lifting. I ‘sent’ it to my daughter and got a response of ‘I can’t see anything’ so links aren’t my strong suit. Glad that you could cover for me.

    Roger Waters now has to be added to my list of heroes. I’ve always been a big Pink Floyd fan, but wow, he didn’t pull a single punch on that one.

  56. 56.

    cain

    @Schlemazel:

    @cain:
    Maybe he can also make the US position that there are 2 Chinas. Might just as well set the whole world on fire

    He’s going to.. the entire world is going to reconfigure itself, and it will be the U.S. that will be the threat to us all with its ally Russia. We are going to have to put a stop to this, and hard.

  57. 57.

    Hal

    I don’t know. Trump is so deep in the hole approval wise I don’t see how he magically digs himself out with some crisis he will undoubtedly be completely incapable of handling.

    I’m going with him pissing off McConnell and Ryan by not going along with their plans 100%, and following some weeks long, unhinged twitter rant, he’s facing impeachment.

  58. 58.

    Mike in NC

    Trump told CIA workers that he still thinks we should steal all of the oil in Iraq, so there’s that.

  63. 63.

    James Powell

    @Immanentize:

    We don’t have the structures or central government control that Russia has. Not that it can’t happen, just will be harder.

    It would be harder and probably impossible to impose the paradigmatic police state, but huge portions of the US are run independently of most late 20th century political developments. A couple thousand counties are single-party Republican fiefdoms effectively owned by a handful of rich people or a couple of corporations. They have the sheriffs and prosecutors and judges we’ve all read about. The only institution available to protect citizen’s rights has been the federal Department of Justice. One does not expect much help from Sessions or any of the US Attorneys.

  64. 64.

    Alain the site fixer

    @Immanentize: Ugh. I’ll be getting the buttons fully working Tuesday; I’m hands-off until then now that we’re back to pre-update status.

  68. 68.

    Yoda Dog

    @raven: Everyone (including me) has been sleeping on the falcons all year but they’ve been the best team from wire to wire and they’re going to win the SB, I’m betting.

    Also wow, I didnt realize Benedict Arnold was so tall..

  70. 70.

    Alain the site fixer

    @chris: Unwarranted praise – I screwed up: I made a mistake and trying to go back to a known good version, killed the site entirely and took it down for 1.5 hours. I’m just glad I didn’t get a yelling phone call or two from John.

  71. 71.

    Gelfling 545

    I just wanted to mention that I learned at the march here yesterday that there is a Dr. Barnett Slepian Memorial Fund in Memory of the Ob Gyn doctor who was murdered here by “pro-life” terrorist.

    The fund provides funding for doctors to receive trsining for those doctors who whish to provide comprehensive health care for women. As you may know, few doctors are receiving training in the methods of terminating pregnancy at this time. They are at Slepianfund.org.

  73. 73.

    p.a.

    The violence that may result from the Jerusalem move will be utterly his admin’s fault, and the result of the right’s masturbatory generations-long delusion. They must be made to own it. Unfortunately the Dem party may not be much help since it is almost as far up Israel’s ass, despite the repulsive Netanyahu’s pro-Republicanism. Also too, to really have an effective pr campaign slagging the Rethugs over this we may find ourselves getting public thumbs-ups from some latent and blatent anti-Semites.

    Would like to hear from Adam on the move implications.

  76. 76.

    Roger Moore

    But we need to think about what we can do to keep it from getting off the ground.

    One thing we can do is to keep pointing out his obvious lies every time he makes them. He’s burning through whatever credibility he might have had* by engaging in obvious stupid lies about stuff like the attendance at the inauguration. We need to keep pushing the idea that he lies about everything, because it will make his lies about the Reichstag fire easier to spot.

    *With the general public. With the 27%, there’s nothing he could do to hurt his credibility other than go against their narrative.

  78. 78.

    debbie

    I don’t think the media will be as quick to fall in line with Trump after the past couple of days.

  79. 79.

    Peale

    @Hal: the moderate republicans who don’t like his tone will boost him. If you’ve ever been to an event that draws larger than average republicans, you get started with prayers for fallen veterans, then prayers for existing soldiers, then a ceremony for disabled veterans, then something for “first responders” then another prayer for then men in blue. There isn’t much room in there for prayers for teachers or world peace or whatnor. Modern republicans are a celebration of violence. So if Trump’s “let’s put big tariffs on china and threaten china in Taiwan” “trade” renotiariom fails catastrophically (and it will) expect those “moderate Republicans” to rally around the ruins.

  80. 80.

    bemused

    @Hal:

    If there’s truth to what Robert Reich heard from a former Congressman that GOP is planning to pull the plug on the dicktator, they better get on it.

  81. 81.

    Yoda Dog

    @raven: Indeed. I’m into playing fantasy and last year Ryan was one of my main picks to outperform expectations. One year too early! D’oh!

  83. 83.

    Yarrow

    @bemused:

    If there’s truth to what Robert Reich heard from a former Congressman that GOP is planning to pull the plug on the dicktator, they better get on it.

    I’ve been out of town and barely able to skim things while I was gone. Could you elaborate or is there a link?

  84. 84.

    SFAW

    @Yoda Dog:

    Also wow, I didnt realize Benedict Arnold was so tall..

    If you’re talking about certain traitorous FBI directors, then you should apologize to the memory of Arnold — who actually DID serve honorably, before becoming a traitor.

  85. 85.

    Peale

    @bemused: I know it will suck, but Grump needs to do more visible damage before that happens. Otherwise the voters will just elect another one.

  87. 87.

    RepubAnon

    @cain: I don’t think it’ll pass. After all, if the US was to leave the UN, we’d lose our seat on security council. Israel would lose their protection against UN sanctions – and so would we.

    On the other hand, the House Republicans are crazy enough to pass it under the theory that the Democrats would filibuster – thus firing up the Republican base while blaming Democrats. It would be interesting if the Democrats failed to filibuster.

  88. 88.

    randy khan

    @cain:

    That bill, or something like it, is introduced by some Republican in every Congress. I won’t say it won’t get through this time, but I don’t think it’s gotten much traction even in the crazified House in the past.

  89. 89.

    Chris

    @p.a.:

    The violence will simply be proof that those fucking hajjis are savages who can’t be reasoned with and respond to everything with violence.

  92. 92.

    Peale

    @cain: if the French elect le pen, I’m trying to imagine the fallout. Europe will be such a mess that I wonder how quickly the Germans will be forced to blow up NATO and the EU to secure themselves.

  95. 95.

    randy khan

    I certainly can imagine that Team R would try to take advantage of some kind of terrible event. That said, it’s worth remembering that the Bush Administration actually played things pretty well after 9/11 – the speech to Congress was pretty close to pitch perfect, there was a lot of actual effort to support New York, and they initially targeted only AQ and the people hosting them in Afghanistan. He wobbled a bit the first couple of days, and I remember a lot of people wondering why he didn’t give a big speech sooner, but within a week they were back on track.

    Now ask yourself if you think there’s any chance that would happen in the Trump Administration.

  97. 97.

    randy khan

    @cosima: One call from Netanyahu would kill it, and it’s hard to imagine he wouldn’t make that call.

    If it gets out of committee, I’ll take it more seriously. Right now it’s not in my top 50 things to worry about.

  98. 98.

    Yoda Dog

    @debbie:

    I don’t think the media will be as quick to fall in line with Trump after the past couple of days.

    No, me neither. And he can’t pull off leveling this mountain of propoganda at us without the media’s cooperation; at least some to some degree. Shit like “alternative facts” is going to prove a bridge too far. Arrogance and adversarialism is all these people know and they’ve overreached on day fucking 1. He’s too incompetant and overconfident to pull this out from here and he’s going to crash and burn, IMO. It’s only a matter of when.

    I know Im pulling out “alternative facts” from now on, whenever some winger starts adlibbing reality as they inevitably do..

  99. 99.

    liberal

    Giving money: I can’t really donate much time, since I have small children and my spouse and I both work, but I can give money.

    What I’m a little confused by is all the discussion on “where to give.”

    ISTM that regaining the levers of the State is the only way to really fix this mess. And the only way to do that is through the Democratic Party.

    So why wouldn’t the Democratic Party be the obvious choice for contributions? Yeah, it’s not really an election year, but lots of people have complained about the party whithering away in places like Ohio.

  100. 100.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    @Corner Stone:

    I hear you. But Ari at least came across as intelligent, not merely petulant. He lasted, what, four years? I just think Spicer is a lightweight who will be mocked, making him ineffective.

  101. 101.

    Ian G.

    This may have been mentioned earlier, but has anyone see Sheriff David Clarke’s multiple references on Twitter to the Women’s March in DC as a “riot” and a “breakdown in social order”? It has been ridiculed mercilessly on Twitter (Frum and Radley Balko have gone after it hard), but it’s absolutely hair-raising that the chief law enforcement officer of a major county in the US is describing peaceful dissent in the language used by the governments of Iran or China or East Germany. What fucking country am I in again?

  102. 102.

    Yoda Dog

    @SFAW: I’m sorry, Benedict Arnold.

    DIAFF, Comey. Seriously. He’s the worst fucking one of the whole nazgul clan up there and may I one day live to see him prosecuted for treason.

    ETA: He’s probably not actually the worst one, but his face makes go into contortions of rage, especially toothily grinning and shaking paws with the pretender president he helped install.

  103. 103.

    liberal

    @debbie: I’m not so sure. I originally was pretty stoked, because the online WashPost used the term false/falsely three times (IIRC) in references to Spicer’s shitshow. I looked at it later and it seemed like it had been watered down a bit. Though maybe I’m wrong.

  106. 106.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    @randy khan: Don’t make Bush into something he wasn’t. Bottom line on 9/11 is that it gave Bush the excuse to go into Iraq, and he went all in on it. AQ and Afghanistan were just window dressing.

  107. 107.

    J R in WV

    @Alain the site fixer:

    My computer has an “End” button and a “Home” button that takes me to the bottom and top, respectively. So no big deal.

    There are probably other key combo’s with fn or ctl that do it too, I’m to lazy to look those up and remember them until the labeled keys break or get stuck with Hot Choc cat tracks.

    Thanks!

  108. 108.

    bemused

    @Yarrow:

    It’s on Reich’s FB page. A few months back, Reich had lunch with a former R Congressman asking him why Republican lawmakers weren’t disavowing Trump and Rep said they’re terrified of their Trump supporting constituents, that they are in physical danger. This week Reich said Rep told him Republicans are going to get all the goodies they want, tax cuts, more defense spending, cut poverty programs and work on SS/Medicare. They think Rump is insane and will do something very boneheaded, impeachable, get him out, Pence in and blame everything on Rump.

  109. 109.

    Kathleen O'Neill

    @lamh36: First, thank you so much for replying to my Tweet request asking how to “Unfollow” (ducks head in embarrassment that I had to ask question). Apologies for taking so long to say thanks but I have other hi tech deficiencies.

    Regarding video, those guys need to get a room at Trump Tower.

  111. 111.

    Taylor

    @bemused: That was the plan in Germany in 1933, wasn’t it?

    So what we should be looking out for is a Night of the Long Knives.

    Opinions on who our Ernest Rohm is, on a postcard please…..

  112. 112.

    Bill Arnold

    @Cermet:

    Scary thought; think they (the powers that need this) will wait for He who shall not be named impeachment, first.

    Did you all read the transcript of his speech at the CIA? (better than the one Adam posted). I won’t comment. Somebody at Haaretz did though, saying something like “bizarre and rambling”.
    Anyway, agreed. One mainstream script is President Pence, then civil unrest maybe coupled with a major terrorist incident and/or incident leading to war (false-flag or orchestrated or allowed, doesn’t matter), then civil rights crackdown, with unrelenting propaganda attempts the whole time to attempt to normalize it all.
    Won’t work, I’m pretty sure. Resistance to propaganda in the US is increasing fairly obviously, notably in the press, plus there is some interesting work in the tech world.

  113. 113.

    randy khan

    @Comrade Scrutinizer:

    I may have botched it, but my point was that Bush did much better than we could expect Trump to do. He did a fair bit wrong, including the terrible reaction on 9/11 and the delay before the speech, at least in terms of what he needed to do to bring the country together. And nothing at all excuses how the Bush Administration used 9/11 to drag us into Iraq.

    All of that considered, it’s not easy to imagine Trump doing even that well. Considering that he lacks much in the way of a reservoir of goodwill to draw on, it could be the effective end of his Administration.

  114. 114.

    cosima

    @Major Major Major Major: Wow, that’s an interesting site. I notice that there were 2 political WaPo articles from today that went through several changes — one about Lying Spice, and another about an executive order that shitgibbon signed related to Betsy DeVos. http://newsdiffs.org/browse/washingtonpost.com

    Did he have to sign an EO to get his bloody nominee off the hook for something? WTF is that about? I’m clicking on their main link to the article and it’s going nowhere.

  115. 115.

    Kathleen

    @lamh36: First, thank you so much for replying to my Tweet request asking how to “Unfollow” (ducks head in embarrassment that I had to ask question). Apologies for taking so long to say thanks but I have other hi tech deficiencies.

    Regarding video, those guys need to get a room at Trump Tower.

  116. 116.

    cosima

    Re: my comment about newsdiffs.org — one strange (or not-so-strange in today’s world) thing is that if you type newsdiff.org (without the ‘s’ after diff) you get a site under construction. That would be one way to discourage people from getting that info, to get to that page and give up.

  117. 117.

    J R in WV

    @Ian G.:

    Sheriff David Clarke isn’t the chief LEO for Milwaukee. He run the county jail and his deputies cover a few miles of highways that aren’t actually inside the city of Milwaukee. But the city covers 90+% of the county, and is the primary government in all that space.

    So his (Sheriff David Clarke) whole budget is to run the county jail, which also serves city’s law enforcement and justice system.

    He also obviously has never read and understood the US Constitution [which I expect he took an oath to protect and defend, petty stupid not to study the subject of an oath!] or he would know that a peaceful demonstration like Saturday’s is specifically protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution.

    Probably the most peaceful demonstration of its size in the world’s history. Literally millions of people in this country and more around the world, and no arrests at all that anyone has found.

  118. 118.

    Major Major Major Major

    @bemused: I don’t follow their logic. They weren’t going against Trump a few months ago because they were scared of their constituents and now that they’re not physically proximate they’re willing to buck them?

    Don’t they travel home? Aren’t humans ambulatory? Elections…? Anyone?

  119. 119.

    cosima

    @Kathleen: If you were unfollowing an account now co-opted by an orange shitgibbon, make sure that you block it. That account is somehow managing to retain its followers, and has to be actively blocked to prevent being counted as a follower.

  120. 120.

    jharp

    I’m no fraidy cat but I really do expect a terrorist attack.

    If terrorists thought they could goad George W. Bush into doing something stupid what do you suppose they are thinking with Trump at the helm?

  121. 121.

    Yarrow

    @bemused: Thanks for the reply. I don’t think they’ve thought it through. You can’t control an authoritarian fascist. And as Taylor said, we need to be on guard for a Night of the Long Knives.

    I hope yesterday’s marches made them also recognize that they need to be “afraid” of the rest of their constituents who have woken up. That districts that aren’t strong R can probably be turned with a few more Dem voters. And look at that. They marched yesterday! There is much for Republicans to fear and it’s not just their teabagging voters.

  122. 122.

    PsiFighter37

    @jharp: They probably think he’ll drop a nuke somewhere. I would expect terrorists think he will do something so insane such that all bets are off.

  123. 123.

    Yarrow

    @jharp: We won’t necessarily know it’s coming either since our intelligence community is dark due to not getting info from allies.

  124. 124.

    bemused

    @Peale:

    Republicans play risky games. Always go in like bulls in a china shop, supremely confident their plans will work out perfectly for them.

  125. 125.

    NeenerNeener

    @jharp: They’re thinking all his properties around the world look like great targets.

    And it will be his fault for not divesting before running for president.

  126. 126.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @Ian G.:

    He is the “chief law enforcement officer” of a jail, basically. Can’t remember the exact details, but his jurisdiction is surrounded/​superseded by another that does all the heavy lifting. He’s a paper tiger and a poseur.

  128. 128.

    J R in WV

    @cosima:

    I’m pretty sure those were Executive Orders to install people as Secretaries of their respective agencies, but I’m making assumptions there. Was Betsy approved by the Senate by then? If so, perhaps my surmise is correct. If not, I’m full of it, well – not full, just a little around my toes!

  130. 130.

    Another Scott

    @RepubAnon:

    After all, if the US was to leave the UN, we’d lose our seat on security council. Israel would lose their protection against UN sanctions – and so would we.

    You mean there are actual benefits to being a big fish in international affairs?!!1 Why it’s almost like we designed it that way from the beginning!!1

    Funny how that works. ;-)

    Seriously, this is a deadly important point that the reporters need to pester every UN-hating Teabagger about when they report on this story.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  131. 131.

    Another Scott

    @randy khan:

    That said, it’s worth remembering that the Bush Administration actually played things pretty well after 9/11 – the speech to Congress was pretty close to pitch perfect …

    All the screaming about terrorism that awful day had me wondering to myself – how on Earth are they going to define the problem so that it’s tractable? It can’t be just “terrorism” or we’d be going after the (new?) IRA and Aum Shinrikyo and the Basque Separatists and the nutters in Idaho.

    “Terrorists with Global Reach” was the phrase they came up with, and it was as good as could be expected, I guess. Though, given the fact that any “terrorist” can get on a commercial flight, it left a lot of wiggle room, also too…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  132. 132.

    Chet Murthy

    @Another Scott:

    Of course, they could construct something similar

    Aaaaaaaahahahahahahaha! No, I doubt that greatly. (Not that it matters — ain’t no way the capitalists will do their duty as patriotic Americans.) E.g. I remember reading an article about the author of sendmail (the first mail-transfer agent for TCP/IP). In that article, he notes that it gave him some satisfaction, that all those right-wing nutjobs were using a program written by a *gay man* to send their hateful screeds around.

    There’s a reason the reality-based community is better at these things: it requires being in touch with reality.

  133. 133.

    sdhays

    @bemused: I think that’s delusional, although I’ll readily believe that parts of the Republican leadership believe it. I don’t care what Trump does that’s “impeachable” (we’re already there, quite frankly), his supporters that these feckless morons were terrified of before won’t care. I just don’t believe that a Republican Congress would dare impeach a Republican President, no matter the provocation.

    Happy to be wrong…

  134. 134.

    Adrift

    @Taylor: So what we should be looking out for is a Night of the Long Knives.

    I’m fast forwarding to the end of this shitshow and wonder who will be Twitler’s Eva Braun, Transylvania Tart or Electra. My money is on the Transylvania Tart booking it to Slovenia with her spawn (named after a magazine, really??) and Electra winning the booby prize being trapped in the bunker with her father.

  135. 135.

    NeenerNeener

    @sdhays: If they can convince him to voluntarily resign “for health reasons” then his supporters should be ok with it and everyone saves face. The question is what would be sufficient inducement for him to fake a heart attack. He might decide the job is more work than he wants to do and more scrutiny of his private life than he really wants, and quit without them paying him to go away. Then again, maybe he’s holding out for a 20 billion dollar payoff.

  136. 136.

    Chet Murthy

    @Major Major Major Major:

    While Twitter of course has no obligation to be democratic

    I feel I must pushback a teensy tiny bit, M4. If by obligation you mean “legal obligation”, you’re right. But citizenship is about more than legal obligations. It isn’t for legal obligations, that a young man (a boy, really) from Wisconsin rappels out of a helicopter to rescue Americans overseas in some state that’s collapsing. And I think we should all keep that in mind that corps and individuals have responsibilities to each other that exceed the law.

    (1) All corporations exist by act of government. The corporate barrier is a gift fro goverment (from all of us) to the shareholders. That the first reason that corporations have a responsiblity to act in a manner that perpetuates our Republic. To put it pithily, they get to privatize the gains and socialize the losses. There’s a price for that, and it is that corps must act for more goals than just shareholder value.

    (2) Just to nip this in the bud: the cult of shareholder value (which started in the 70s with a couple of famous artcles by Friedman and Jensen&Meckling). Needless to say, their arguments continue today to be hotly disputed in many, many areas of academia and public policy. It surely isn’t settled economics or law or anything.

    (3) Twitter is composed of humans, and of (I’m betting) largely American citizens. They also have responsiblities as patriots.

    Let me give a different example, further along the spectrum towards perfidy: the shitstains at Purdue Pharma have a *responsiblity* to ensure that their products don’t cause widespread harm. As did the cigarette makers. Neither lived up to that responsibility. No, there’s no *legal* stricture. But there’s no law saying you gotta be a patriot. Or at least, it shouldn’t be necessary.

  137. 137.

    joel hanes

    This just in:

    Donald Trump is NOT a steely-eyed missileman, and only a damned fool could mistake him for such.

  138. 138.

    Lizzy L

    @J R in WV: DeVos has not been confirmed by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. If you go here you’ll find a list of the members and their websites. If any of them are your Senators, take a moment to contact them, especially if they’re Republicans!

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