The Art of No Deal

[DB Roy]

Trump gave them cart blanche to blatantly contradict themselves and not give a damn. I watched 60 Minutes during the 2016 campaign and Trump and Pence were being interviewed by Leslie Stahl who asked Trump why he picked Pence when he savages Hillary Clinton over her minimal support of the Iraq War when Pence was a major cheerleader whose efforts to fund it is what got it off the ground. Trump's response? "I don't care." Point blank, that's what he said. People, for some reason, think this is refreshingly honest. Granted, Clinton would have spun and wriggled every which way to make it sound like she didn't support it (but her support was never more than lukewarm) and that's one reason so many people hate her (a pale second to her being a woman). But what is the difference? Waffling is waffling. Trump waffled and brazenly barks, "I don't care!" Hillary tries to spin it. But, in the end, both waffled. The only reason Trump didn't spin it was because he's too stupid. Trump doesn't spin truth, he just lies. When he's called out on his lies, he shrugs and says, "I don't care. Blow it out your ass." He rode that into the White House.

So now Congress is doing the same thing. Let's reverse ourselves and when the democrats call us out, we'll say, "Screw you. Nobody cares." We'll see if that flies in 2018. It does appear at this time that it won't fly. The same base is there for them Trump and the GOP but the fractured base that deserted the democratic party and let Trump waltz in has licked its wounds and is slowly getting to its feet and is massing to deliver an electoral coup de grace. To which party? We'll find out.

[DB Roy]

In light of the disastrous policy put in place by the Trump White House that mandated the separating of kids from families immigrating illegally or seeking asylum, the republican party may have delivered itself its own coup de grace. For the first time in his presidency, Trump was forced to back down. But he's a con man and someone who must have revenge when someone gets the better of him (then he has has to taunt the other party if he feels he has succeeded). I expect Trump has something up his sleeve. But getting him to back down revealed a major fault: all the while his lackeys were insisting the separations were only temporary, we now see that they had no plan for returning the separated children from their families. The 2300 that have thus been separated will remain so indefinitely. No records were kept. There is no way to know to whom they belong. Their families may have already been deported and these kids may end up in foster care for years--by which time it will be too late. He didn't want DACA kids here so he kidnaps a bunch more illegal immigrants and now has to take care of them.

I have never before saw such a spectacle as we were treated to this past week. Watching Sessions and Nielsen and others defending the detaining of children while Trump suddenly up and decries it--acts as if it were not his idea and that he has heroically arrived to put an end to it. Every manner of outright lie was spoken by Kirstjen Nielsen alone in her efforts to defend Trump who only a short time before shouted at and belittled her in front his cabinet and various guests. Instead of resigning and walking out like everybody else is doing who has any sense, Nielsen has thrown her lot in with the likes of Trump, Bannon, Sessions, Huckabee-Sanders and Stephen Collins. Sessions has likewise been savaged by Trump as of late but couldn't wait to get an opportunity to get back into his good graces and be the puppet AG Trump had appointed him to be but then regretted it when Sessions recused himself from the Russian collusion investigation.

Trump and Nielsen insisted they were only following the law. But there is no such law; it was merely a White House policy put in place by Trump himself. Then they said only congress could fix it but congress cannot fix it because congress didn't create it--Trump did. To end it required Trump to merely tell Sessions to end it. This was an unbelievably bad attempt to force an immigration bill to his liking. This administration actually thought, they could take these kids and use them as a bargaining to chip to get his wall--something the dems were willing to fund if he promised to leave DACA alone. He already had his wall but, no, that wasn't enough for the Master Deal-Maker. No, he had to get his wall and still lay waste to the DACA program by kidnapping migrant kids and putting them in concentration camps. "Give me my wall or these kids will never see their parents again!" Turns out that's going to be the case for many of them anyway whether the dems caved or not.

This has backfired spectacularly and has likely permanently damaged this presidency and the party that has flocked around him when they should have fled. It never occurred to Trump that even many of the insane Christians in his base couldn't support the splitting up of families. Close allies were forced to disparage it. Even corporations have spoken against it (several major airlines recently stated they will not knowingly fly children away from their families). Even law enforcement officers in Texas have refused to allow their cops to moonlight as security guards at these camps. The open hostility thrown at Trump and his toadies by the public is nothing I've ever seen before.

Trump thought it was another example of his brilliant negotiating strategies and has instead turned his presidency from a major embarrassment to a major disaster. And all those who have circled their wagons around him--you will die with him. I have no sympathy for any of them. They all accepted posts in his administration, no one forced them. I will cheer loudly if and when they are sent to prison.

Of course, Sessions didn't help things by spewing bible verse to justify the detention. In fact, I would have to say that that is what really broke it open. Separating children from their mothers and using the bible to justify it--I mean, really. The Christians, who might have remained silent throughout this debacle, couldn't now. They had to speak up and tell Sessions to stuff it. The prestige we have lost around the world may never be recovered fully. Trump is not helping by lashing out at our allies, embracing ruthless dictators and tossing candy at Angele Merkel at the G7 summit. Like I said, this is a guy who HAS to taunt. And we elected this guy as leader of the free world. Unbelievable.

Now his presidency lies wounded and hemorrhaging by his own hand.

[DB Roy]

The only rationale for Trump to refuse a deal that gave him his wall in return for laying off DACA appears to be a Calvinistic approach of Us v. Them. Trump knows his base. That much you have to give him. After all, he IS one of them--just a lot richer. To them, he preaches his own form of the prosperity gospel: "I am what you long to be and, someday, some of you might even get there." They see him as a god or demigod and the rich evangelist leaders with whom he is in collusion all preach Donald-as-god to their followers. I believe it was Pat Robertson who stated that he dreamed he saw into heaven and Donald was sitting at the right hand of god. Ludicrous? Absolutely. But notice how Robertson has usurped Christ's position by giving it to Donald. To any Christian with a functioning brain (and I'm speaking in a relative manner), this should be the most outrageous blasphemy but, no, they believe it. Donald is god. And if you think Trump is going to dissuade them from that belief then you don't know Donald.

Now, to be fair, MOST Christians do not think Donald is god or even the tiniest bit Christlike but you only need a small number of them to believe it to turn an election--the most fanatical, least educated, downtrodden, poverty-stricken, opioid-addicted, unemployed of them. They LOVE Donald and don't care what he does and they have said so many times now. To them, Donald preaches his prosperity gospel: "You don't have the money or the brains to do what I am doing but I will speak for you and give you the America you so richly deserve but which was stolen from you by spics and niggers and libtard democrats and egghead atheist professors teaching in schools YOU would never be allowed to set foot in! I, Donald, speak for you! Only I have have the guts to say what the others never will--that YOU are the true inheritors of the American Dream! You are the superior ones--the white people who built this great country that rich, buck-nigger athletes want to tear down and filthy, smelly Muslims piss on with impunity and shit-colored spics gibbering in Spanish crowd into and then expect you to take care of their lazy, worthless, germ-ridden asses! I will give this country back to you! I will kick them out! I will make America great again!" That's Donald's prosperity gospel. And make no mistake--YUGE numbers of white people LOVE what he is saying. Not just stupid hicks clutching bibles but middle class and college-educated whites who, underneath it all, are at heart bible-clutching hicks who believe America has been stolen from them.

What Donald knows is that his base is far more effective when they are seething with rage and venomous hatred. Happy dumb hicks are hicks who don't vote. Want then to flock to the polls? Then piss them off, stir them up, fill them with rage, motivate them with hate. Calvin believed that good and evil must always be locked in an eternal never-ending battle. One could never vanquish the other. Even if good triumphed over evil, how would you know? How could you be certain that evil didn't triumph? No. One can never defeat the other. Only by being eternally locked in battle can we be certain that evil hasn't triumphed, that good is still alive and fighting for us. Peace and contentment are danger signs.

Donald's Calvinist approach is to not accept any deal that gives him what he wants. If he accepted the DACA deal now to get his wall, two things would happen: part of his base would be furious at him for selling them out on DACA and decide that he might not be god after all and the rest would get their wall and celebrate in triumph and figure they wouldn't need to go to the polls in November because the war was won. This outcome spells doom for Donald who is currently basking in the glory of completely taking over the republican party. So Donald knows how important it is to get the hicks and rubes to the polls to vote--motivate them--"If you don't vote, we won't get our wall and DACA will be the law of the land! Nigger Obama will be ruling you even after he dies!" I suspect the dems may have caved in to the wall demand on that idea--give it to him now and see if he takes it. Well, he didn't and he won't.

Donald shows us how great it is to be followed by total idiots who don't care what he says or does as long as he keeps talking like an uncouth, uneducated, racist asshole (i.e. as long as he keeps talking like them). He can break any promise and they won't care. Remember when Mexico was going to pay for the wall? When was the last time Donald said that? He hasn't mentioned it since the campaign. He knew he was lying through his teeth and that his base would love it. They just want to hear someone say it. They don't have to do it just say it.

So don't sweat it, Donny-lovers, good and evil are still locked in battle--at least until November.

[DB Roy]

So now we see that many of Donald's followers are a fucked-up cult of personality called Q-Anon which was written up in a WaPo article last week and has since rebounded around the internet. Q-anon started--where else?--on 4chan and 8chan. Some poster who identified himself (herself?) as "Q" and claimed to be somebody working in the govt and holding a high clearance but not too high (otherwise, he would know everything, which wouldn't be much fun, instead just some things requiring him to uncover the crumbs and and disseminate them to Q-anon). This person gathered a following on these nutjob boards and called his followers bakers to whom he would leave breadcrumbs to follow that they could assemble until they could bake the loaf that will become "the storm" that they believe Trump referenced in October 2017 when he met with military leaders and mentioned a "calm before the storm." This storm is something apparently apocalyptic when the "deep state" would be outed and destroyed and the rich liberal elites would be left vulnerable and exposed and that would be the time for the people to move against them to free society or what they call "The Great Awakening." The followers of Q call themselves Anons. Their slogan is "wwg1wga" which stands for "where we go one, we go all."

http://impiousdigest.com/you-are-not-wa ... llowing-q/

It could be as laughable as people chasing down pokemons except it isn't. The breadcrumbs and all that shit don't matter a wit. What matters is that many people fully believe it. Even certain celebrities as Roseanne Barr and Curt Schilling believe it and are Anons actively engaged in following the breadcrumbs. Remember when Edgar Maddison Welch walked into the Comet Ping Pong Pizzeria in DC and opened fire? He was an early follower of Q on 4chan. That should prove that the whole Q thing is a load of shit. Welch himself was quite angry upon discovering the pizzeria had no basement and no children in need of rescue. Luckily, nobody had to die to prove it. Next time, I wouldn't count on it.

So how does Trump feel about Q? As usual, he can't denounce them. When Sarah Sanders was asked about it, she cryptically replied, "The president condemns and denounces any group that would incite violence against any individual." Q has not, to my knowledge, incited any violence against an individual. What Q-Anon believes is that Trump is waging a "Deep State War" against these entrenched government officials who are all pedophiles. Trump enlisted Mueller to actually expose the democrats (all obvious pedophiles) under the guise of investigating Russian collusion in the 2016 election.

Since he is framed by Q as a man fighting tooth-and-nail against pedophiles, Trump remains a hero to his following regardless of whatever else he does. Trump for his part does not ever talk about Q at least publicly. Trump, however, cannot condemn them. They are part of his most loyal base and keeping them is crucial to him. Trump is always careful never step on those who publicly support him whether they be dictators or white supremacists who have committed murder.

Trump cannot distance himself from Q-Anon because they follow his every lead. He calls the media the enemy of the people and you get:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXMAmMItRtk

Q is just made for those weak-minded individuals that revel in conspiracy theory and so they are inherently dangerous people. The more laughable and convoluted their theories are just makes it that much worse. If the idea that Mueller is actually digging up dirt on the Clintons and Obamas and secretly tracking their allies in hopes of exposing them as pedophiles and/or cohorts of Putin don't give them pause about the soundness of their cause then what will?

How certain can we be that the Las Vegas shooting, for example, wasn't inspired by Q? Stephen Paddock wasn't a Muslim or sympathetic to them. He was, in fact, the kid of guy that votes for Trump and who would likely be an Anon. To this day, no motive for the shooting has been uncovered and that's certainly a bit strange. He didn't just wake up one day and decide to kill people. Was he ideologically manipulated into doing it by someone smart enough to leave no traces that can be followed back to them? If so, you just have to wonder who that was. Could Q be run by a group that preaches to large numbers in hopes of netting themselves that individual that can be manipulated into committing extreme violence--the kind of violence that alarms communities, puts them on edge, pits society against itself? How long has this been carried out? Maybe I'm just as bad as they are and there is really nothing to it but someone is posing as Q and they are leading a mass of idiots through surreptitious means. That much can't be denied. And Donald Trump gave birth to them and that can't be denied either.

If they commit major violence that can be laid at their feet, what will that do to Trump's standing? He can't separate himself from them. He did everything in his power to make a group like them and he has to stand or fall with them. How long before they all fall down?

[DB Roy]

The thing that makes me angry is that we wouldn't be suffering Trump if just one of the other republican candidates had been man enough to stand up to him and I mean specifically Jeb Bush or Ted Cruz but any of them could have done it. Even Carly Fiorina could have done it. It might have been best if she did it. Did what, you ask? Donald crossed a lot of lines that politicians don't usually cross because they get you in trouble. But nothing was happening to Trump. In fact, he was getting stronger from doing it. His core followers loved it, the media played up on it and his poll numbers moved up when they should have went down.

But what specifically did Trump do? He went after the other candidates' spouses and attacked Fiorina's looks. For instance, he accused Bush of being soft on immigration and then told him, "Maybe because your wife is brown." Bush's wife, Columba, is Mexican-American. My wife is Mexican too (and very brown) and let me tell you something: If Trump said that to me, I'd have calmly walked over to his podium and slugged him so hard in the face that his nose would be smashed flat and never heal up right. Then I'd walk back to my podium and say loud and clear into the mic, "Don't EVER talk about my wife again! You have a problem with me, you deal with me!"

WHY DIDN'T BUSH DO THAT???? Just lay Trump out cold! His followers might scream foul but the public would generally support Bush for doing that. I guarantee he would have risen in the polls. If Trump could have stayed in the race after that (very doubtful), you'd watch him slide into oblivion. His nose would heal up crooked and every time you looked at him, you'd see that crooked nose and remember what Bush did to him for running his big, stupid mouth too much. And you'd smirk and chuckle to yourself. "Serves him right!"

See, for the conservative white male, this is all sexual politics. They vote republican and support Donald because they see him as the manly choice. Real men vote conservative and like a MALE candidate who talks tough. Democrats and liberals are just big pansies. When Trump talks boorish and uncouth and crass, they love it because it's not politically correct which they see as libtard pansy-assness in action. Trump fucking all this women just means he's a stud, that's all. That doesn't bother people who subscribe to penis politics. The only opponent of Donald to score any points against him was Rubio with the small hands remark that follows Trump to this day (he DOES have small hands, though!!).

When Bush complained that Donald's language was hurtful and out of bounds, the republican voters just laughed at him. If Bush had punched Trump and knocked him out, though, it would have forced them to rethink who is the real man here. Their guy just got his dick knocked in the dirt and stomped on by a pansy-ass establishment candidate! Maybe Donald didn't know what he was talking about, after all. He never dreamed Bush had it in him and, boy, was he ever wrong! People would STILL be talking about it. Bush would have become a folk-hero.

So what if Trump sues. The Bushes are one of the richest families in America. Their lawyers could litigate that suit into oblivion. Besides, Donald suing just makes him look even more pansy-ass. "I got my ass kicked, I'm telling the judge on you!" And Bush should have articulated it that way to the public using a whiny voice. Trump would have been finished and done. His foray into politics ends in disaster. He couldn't hang with the big boys. He couldn't back his mouth. He tried to be tough and got his ass handed to him.

But really, Carly Fiorina should have slapped him in the mouth and hard as she could. She should have spoken for all women and let him know "This is what we think of you!" Once again, go ahead and sue for assault. That's just saying to the world, "She hurt me, she hurt me!!"

Trump also called Ted Cruz's wife ugly. Of course, Cruz is far too sissy and greasy to stand up for her. I think even Bush would have punched him out if he called Columba ugly. Okay, not really, but it's a slight possibility.

Something as simple as that would have ended Trump's political career forever in the most embarrassing and hilarious way possible but not one of them was man enough to do it. I mean, Rick Perry could have punched Donald and said, "Don't ever insult somebody else's spouse! I don't care who it is!" Any one of them could have done that. No wonder the voters hate the establishment. No wonder.

[Harry Marks]

Well, that's an interesting approach to politics. When they go low, hit below the belt. Why not?

I am tempted to say, "the backers of penis politics get what they wanted," i.e. screwed, but the rest of us get hosed in the deal.

[Harry Marks]

The followers of Q call themselves Anons. Their slogan is "wwg1wga" which stands for "where we go one, we go all."

Remember when Edgar Maddison Welch walked into the Comet Ping Pong Pizzeria in DC and opened fire? He was an early follower of Q on 4chan. That should prove that the whole Q thing is a load of shit. Welch himself was quite angry upon discovering the pizzeria had no basement and no children in need of rescue. Luckily, nobody had to die to prove it. Next time, I wouldn't count on it.

So if one person brings an assault rifle to a pizzeria because it's really a pedophile ring, they all will. Why is it that the most sheep-like people seem incapable of sheepishness? I mean really, people who believe the most ridiculous things about their "enemies" are the easiest to actually trick into some kind of bizarrely stupid action.

There's no need to threaten people to get them to line up in conformist conspiracy. They are longing for a pretext.

Q is just made for those weak-minded individuals that revel in conspiracy theory and so they are inherently dangerous people. The more laughable and convoluted their theories are just makes it that much worse.

How certain can we be that the Las Vegas shooting, for example, wasn't inspired by Q? Stephen Paddock wasn't a Muslim or sympathetic to them. He was, in fact, the kid of guy that votes for Trump and who would likely be an Anon. To this day, no motive for the shooting has been uncovered and that's certainly a bit strange. He didn't just wake up one day and decide to kill people.

Okay, my mind is feeling weak. Sure, it could be that such people are ginned up to the job by some Western version of ISIS, maybe paid by Richard Spencer, using funds from Robert Mercer or Vlad the Impaler. Interesting to speculate about what goal such an agent provocateur might have been used for. But truth be told, I would rather just work with the simplest and most obvious explanation, which is that he woke up one day and decided he wanted to kill as many people as he could, than go down that rabbit hole.

Could Q be run by a group that preaches to large numbers in hopes of netting themselves that individual that can be manipulated into committing extreme violence--the kind of violence that alarms communities, puts them on edge, pits society against itself? How long has this been carried out?

And of course, you don't even have to go that far. You can be exposed as a total fraud and there will still be lots of people eager to follow you if it means they can put communities on edge and pit society against itself, and can be in charge of casting themselves as the answer to it.

[DB Roy]

Well, that's an interesting approach to politics. When they go low, hit below the belt. Why not?

I am tempted to say, "the backers of penis politics get what they wanted," i.e. screwed, but the rest of us get hosed in the deal.

It's really not novel at all. In the past, politics often got rough and tumble. I recall a senator named Charles Sumner who made some remarks during a speech in Congress in 1856 against a South Carolina senator, Andrew Butler, calling him an imbecile. Stephen Douglas whispered to a colleague, "That damn fool is going to get himself killed by some other damn fool." Two days later, a representative from South Carolina named Preston Brooks, a relative of Senator Butler, attacked Sumner with a gold-tipped cane and beat him severely on the floor of the Senate chamber. Sumner spent pretty much the rest of his life recovering and had big swatch of his scalp missing.

Congress was unable to kick Brooks out of Congress. They couldn't get the votes! Instead, he resigned and went back to South Carolina where he was presented with a new gold-tipped cane engraved with the phrase, "Hit him again." In fact, Brooks returned the Congress the following month and remained there until his death in 1857.

When it's an honor issue, the public will give you a pass (Charles Barkley smashed a guy in the face and knocked him out in the parking lot of a bar for insulting his fiance and was acquitted--and this was a black man striking a white man). Bush had the perfect opportunity to get rid of Trump once and for all and he missed it. They all missed it. None of them had the guts proving none of them were fit to be president.

[LanDroid]

I'm somewhat interested in the QAnon conspiracies, have looked into it a little bit. One fact: Q posts started in October 2017. So the pizza gate shooting in Dec. 2016 could not have been inspired by Q. The Las Vegas shooting was on 10/1/17 so that is also extremely unlikely to be influenced by Q, the shooter planned for a long time.

A lesson from the McMartin preschool panic of the 1980s is that when accusations of massive child abuse or pedophilia are claimed, you are most likely looking at a growing hysteria. That should probably be the default starting point, then look for compelling evidence to the contrary. That's what the Q phenom has become, sheer hysteria.

Just when QAnon is getting more into the MSM news cycle, it may be starting to break down. I've seen a few recent posts from Q supporters claiming Q = LARP = Live Action Role Playing = a hoax! (Evidently he made some huge predictions that didn't come true.) However I've also seen a few posts like "Even if Q is LARP it's a good thing because he is bringing us Patriots closer together and making us stronger!" Wow...
Disclaimer: this is after a cursory review, I could be way off...

[DB Roy]

So if one person brings an assault rifle to a pizzeria because it's really a pedophile ring, they all will.

Come again?

Why is it that the most sheep-like people seem incapable of sheepishness? I mean really, people who believe the most ridiculous things about their "enemies" are the easiest to actually trick into some kind of bizarrely stupid action.

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." --Voltaire

There's no need to threaten people to get them to line up in conformist conspiracy. They are longing for a pretext.

They perceive their own threats. Q thinks we're going to be taken over by pedophiles running the democratic party.

Okay, my mind is feeling weak. Sure, it could be that such people are ginned up to the job by some Western version of ISIS, maybe paid by Richard Spencer, using funds from Robert Mercer or Vlad the Impaler. Interesting to speculate about what goal such an agent provocateur might have been used for. But truth be told, I would rather just work with the simplest and most obvious explanation, which is that he woke up one day and decided he wanted to kill as many people as he could, than go down that rabbit hole.

Investigators themselves called it an example of "meticulous planning." So, no, he didn't just wake up that morning and decided to do this. He had planned it carefully for a long time. Then there is the issue of his missing hard drive. What was on it? Could be anything--maybe child porn--but clearly it was something he did not want anyone to know about. But there is no evidence he was motivated by ideology or was linked to any groups at all. The problem is, there is NOTHING to indicate why he killed all these people. The idea that he would have thought conservative white country music fans to be some kind of enemy is pretty far-fetched but then WHY?? They also said his health was bad and his sex life was declining but so what? That's true of a lot of aging people. You don't go on a mass-shooting spree over it. He wasn't in debt. He sent his girlfriend out of the country before the shooting so he clearly wanted her out of harm's way. So why? Nothing about it adds up.

What strikes me is that he is squarely in Trump's demographic. He was even, like Trump, he was a germophobe. He was someone that a group could get access to and work on. The whole thing just makes no sense. In most mass shootings, there are always signs that the shooter was off the deep end and had big problems and felt trapped and helpless--his marriage fell apart (Paddock not married), crippling debt (Paddock had no debt), a Muslim who felt he and his people were being persecuted (Paddock was typical middle aged white man with no known Muslim sympathies), mental illness (Paddock not mentally ill). There is nothing here--nothing. It doesn't make sense. It's as though he might have been controlled somehow by someone. Work on him, get him to destroy evidence of any contact with them. It's possible. I'm not saying it's Q. I'm saying Q is likely part of something larger organization with a Bannon-like idea of toppling the state. We also see plenty of examples of Trump-voters threatening violence if Trump is removed from office and Trump himself has promised as much during his campaign.

And of course, you don't even have to go that far. You can be exposed as a total fraud and there will still be lots of people eager to follow you if it means they can put communities on edge and pit society against itself, and can be in charge of casting themselves as the answer to it.

But why waste opportunities? If lone wolves present themselves why wouldn't a group seeking destruction of the state not make use of them? Teach them how to plan, leave no evidence that can be traced.

It's possible is all I'm saying. I have, in all my years, never seen anything like this presidency. Would that I never see it again. A president with his own fanatical, devoted cult reay to do anything he tells them. I've never seen anything remotely like this.