Trump

[stormwyrm]

This is the Trump Tower:

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

It is interesting to note that the Tarot Major Arcana were the original sense of trump cards, before the cards became more widely associated with fortune telling than card games.

A.E. Waite's interpretation of The Tower card is quite an apt description of the entire Trump presidency: "16. THE TOWER.--Misery, distress, indigence, adversity, calamity, disgrace, deception, ruin. It is a card in particular of unforeseen catastrophe." Well, the pandemic was not quite unforeseen but still...

[Haibane]

I would like to apologise unreservedly for my earlier remarks regarding religion. My attitude to most organised religions is deeply negative due to my own personal unhappy experiences. If I say that I am an ex-smoker who is virulently anti-smoking that is a directly applicable analogy. A friend was murdered at the Manchester Arena so please forgive me if I show no patience with violent religious extremism.

I won't go into the details here, this is not to the right time or place, however I do offer my apologies to any who I may have offended.

However regarding the point that TheGlyphstone raised concerning science and religion today vs previous centuries I hold the view that during the Renaissance and Enlightenment scientific developments occurred (and would have occurred anyway had there been no such thing as organised religion) as a process that was part of the human state we had reached at that point in our development. That the church attempted to quash, restrict and halt scientific enquiry cannot be argued against as Galileo, Copernicus and others found. The likes of Newton and his near contemporaries were men with an insatiable curiosity (and there were economic and social forces at work as well at that period that allowed 'amateur' gentleman scientists to emerge) and this state of mind was partly nurtured by those who had gone before, Martin Luther among them, who had questioned the authority of the church.

Experimental science was born not because of the church but in spite of it and the church today fosters scientific study only because it has to for reasons of credibility, to do otherwise is to keep holding onto a narrative that was exposed as false 500 years ago.

I'll step away from the subject now as we have wandered very far off course, but I did want to highlight the issue about those who through the Enlightenment gave us modern science against a background of a church that clung to beliefs that science was shortly to render unsustainable, except, of course, through faith.

[TheGlyphstone]

Galileo, specifically, was far more complicated than most people know, and boiled down to more internal church politics rather than a simple matter of being a scientist. But otherwise I'll freely drop the issue as irrelevant and allow your opinions to stand as they are.

[TheHangedOne]

"Trump Supporters in Georgia Ask RNC Chair Why They Should Vote in Runoffs When System Is 'Rigged'"
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-supporters-georgia-ask-rnc-chair-why-they-should-vote-runoffs-when-system-rigged-1550938


Ahahahaha!

[Laughing Hyena]

"Trump Supporters in Georgia Ask RNC Chair Why They Should Vote in Runoffs When System Is 'Rigged'"
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-supporters-georgia-ask-rnc-chair-why-they-should-vote-runoffs-when-system-rigged-1550938


Ahahahaha!

Because of the constant shade thrown by Trump upon the election he just made those whom follow Trump and not the Republican Party essentially withdraw. Trump just damaged his own supposed party. But lets be clear Georgia shouldn't rest on it laurels and every vote counts in deciding what happens the next four years. That midterm also becomes critical.

[Lexandria]

For a while #GOPBoycott was trending on Twitter about boycotting the runoffs. Mostly folks trolling the GOP, but.. You know, maybe some folks took it seriously? I'm hoping so >.>

[Haibane]

Wow. Such great news. If the Democrats can win both Georgia seats life will be very exciting for Fixing Four Years Damage.

The thing with these conspiracy nutters is they just lap it up, so even if some ignore it, nonsense like this will spread among them and some therefore probably won't vote. But, yes, as has been pointed out, laurel-sitting would be a huge mistake. Better to win both seats by big margins than just scrape through (or much worse, just fail to scrape through).

[legomaster00156]

I don't think our victory should depend on duping our opponents into not voting.

[Missy]

While I agree, I think it's just great how much of a ridiculous joke Trump really is, who do I need to dupe when he does it to himself and everyone who follows him?

I mostly just laugh at the irony.

[Beguile's Mistress]

I totally agree.  We shouldn't have to trick people to get what we want.  But...let's not tell the opposition what we are seeing until it is too late for them to do anything about it.  I do love the phrase 'hoist on their own petard.'

[Haibane]

I don't think our victory should depend on duping our opponents into not voting.

The Republican idiots are the ones duping themselves. Its quite out of intelligent people's control!

[clonkertink]

This could very well be the most poetic way to close out the Trump era. It began trolling, and it ends with equal and opposite trolling. Memetic warfare.

[gaggedLouise]

I totally agree.  We shouldn't have to trick people to get what we want.  But...let's not tell the opposition what we are seeing until it is too late for them to do anything about it.  I do love the phrase 'hoist on their own petard.'

Mmm, or "hoist from his own yardarm", another allusion to the age of pirates. :)
'
In the interview on Fox by Bartiromo (who was as obsequious as Fox used to be to Trump), Donnie made blatant allegations that FBIO and even the DOJ had been part of the plot to rig the election and ouster him from the White House: "may´be they were, I don't know, we'll see". Can you think of any president who would have chosen to toss out accusations of subversion and treason from within his own DOJ,  on the tv, instead of first carefully discussing them with the department itself??

But then Trump doesn't have any proof, any evidence of the stuff - he's just laying out smoke screens.

Assuming in theory that Trump would manage to win a second term, I figure Bill Barr would get axed sooner rather than later for not having pleased his master.

[Haibane]

That's Trumps way of doing things and it always has been - just say something whether it means anything or not. Get it out there and see if it gets any support. If it doesn't just forget he ever said it and brush it under the carpet (like his earlier claims that COVID wasn't a problem) and if it does, then it must be right. Its how he ran his business empire and its why he sacked so many government staff early in his presidency - he just thinks he can run the whole show himself and doesn't need anyone to give him help or advice. As a CEO he'd just shout instructions and hire and fire people and it would be done. Unfortunately you cannot run a country in the same way and because he's been frustrated in his efforts to do what he wants his psychological make up has led to him become more and more difficult to deal with, and its why these stories of voter fraud gain traction, his ideas get support from his cult and that makes him think he's right to assert it, so it spirals higher and higher. The opposite trend can be seen regarding the recent spate of failed lawsuits - he gets no traction or progress and so his legal team are inept and making him look bad. In the case of Sidney Powell he distanced himself from her when her claims to bring a "Biblical" lawsuit evaporated. Its the classic egotistical/narcissist response to adversity. "I'm not wrong, those helping me are."

Its very clear from a simple psycho-analysis of the man's behaviour how he thinks and behaves and its also clear that he isn't fit for office. He may not be ill but he has behavioural patterns that make him unfit.

[Kurogane]

That's Trumps way of doing things and it always has been - just say something whether it means anything or not. Get it out there and see if it gets any support. If it doesn't just forget he ever said it and brush it under the carpet (like his earlier claims that COVID wasn't a problem) and if it does, then it must be right. Its how he ran his business empire and its why he sacked so many government staff early in his presidency - he just thinks he can run the whole show himself and doesn't need anyone to give him help or advice. As a CEO he'd just shout instructions and hire and fire people and it would be done. Unfortunately you cannot run a country in the same way and because he's been frustrated in his efforts to do what he wants his psychological make up has led to him become more and more difficult to deal with, and its why these stories of voter fraud gain traction, his ideas get support from his cult and that makes him think he's right to assert it, so it spirals higher and higher. The opposite trend can be seen regarding the recent spate of failed lawsuits - he gets no traction or progress and so his legal team are inept and making him look bad. In the case of Sidney Powell he distanced himself from her when her claims to bring a "Biblical" lawsuit evaporated. Its the classic egotistical/narcissist response to adversity. "I'm not wrong, those helping me are."

Its very clear from a simple psycho-analysis of the man's behaviour how he thinks and behaves and its also clear that he isn't fit for office. He may not be ill but he has behavioural patterns that make him unfit.

Very well said, Haibane.
I would only offer that trump was known to operate similarly in his businesses AND those methods were equally ineffective, hence the numerous bankruptcies.  No matter in politics or in business, smart people do not respond well to tyrannical rule. Only Yes Men stay around and pretty soon, the world sees that the emperor has no clothes.

[Callie Del Noire]

Very well said, Haibane.
I would only offer that trump was known to operate similarly in his businesses AND those methods were equally ineffective, hence the numerous bankruptcies.  No matter in politics or in business, smart people do not respond well to tyrannical rule. Only Yes Men stay around and pretty soon, the world sees that the emperor has no clothes.

Yeah. The only reason he’s made it so far his debt has been a hammer to beat the banks with up to this point. That is rapidly changing.

[Mithlomwen]

This could very well be the most poetic way to close out the Trump era. It began trolling, and it ends with equal and opposite trolling. Memetic warfare.

One can only hope. 

*crosses fingers*

[Haibane]

That delicious phrase "memetic warfare" ought to go in the dictionary.

[Missy]

That delicious phrase "memetic warfare" ought to go in the dictionary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memetic_warfare

[Mithlomwen]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memetic_warfare

That is awesome. 

[Haibane]

Indeed it is. He rose by it, may he fall by it. The Karmatic circle closes.

[Beguile's Mistress]

*nods*  What goes around comes around and if you aren't careful you'll bear the marks.

[Haibane]

Arizona has certified its vote tally - for Joe Biden.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/30/politics/joe-biden-arizona-certification/index.html

Trump was, in the telling of one close advisor, like "Mad King George, muttering, 'I won, I won.' "

I take offence at that, King George III was certifiably a very ill man. Trump though, is just sick.

[Envious]

More like "blah blah blah."

[Deamonbane]

Looks like Trump is already considering a 2024 presidential run.