oski003 said:

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...... Perhaps, there were a lot of cartoons mocking nazis which led to their uniforms being cartoonish. Officer uniforms are pretty silly for all countries.

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The Nazis were amongst the most evil people of all time. With that said, I thought they had the best uniforms and coolest military equipment in WWII. Their helmets were the forerunner of the modern US helmet, the STG 44 was the first assault rifle and they had jet airplanes at the late stage of the war.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/nazi-germanys-5-most-lethal-weapons-war-19575?page=0%2C1



http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_german_army_equipment.html#9

Not just uniforms but cars- Volkswagen, the people's car- rallies, etc. Masters of design and murder

oski003 said:

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mikecohen said:

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Anarchistbear said:

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blungld said:

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I keep asking myself, what becomes of the swathes of low-information Trump supporters--not the supporters who are just knee jerk GOP or are gaining financially, but the cult-of-personality-authoritarian-loving, immigrant-and-gay-and-Liberal hating folk who have no real idea what makes America great and abuse the words like freedom, faith, and patriotism. I think America will regain its sanity and that Trump and Pence will end up in jail...but what becomes of the rally going Trump crowds?

Will those people return to their lives of subordination? Will they feel any shame as German Nazi sympathizers did, disappearing into other countries or background of civil society again? Or will they become defiant looking for the next Trump or starting civil war in some form or another? I can't help wonder if the GOP NRA strategy was in some way to arm their brown shirts, and to have their uncivil militia handy if it comes down to guns in the street against the evil leftists.

I suspect we will at the very least have many acts of indiscriminate violence by the loving Christian white supremacist good guys with a gun who are so much better than those Islamic zealots. We'll see.

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Who are these people you keep demonizing in knee jerk stereotypical fashion- gay hating, Nazis, brown shirts, low information, etc. I know Trump voters- a lot of them as I live in the South for part of the year-but they are complicated human beings. Are these the Trump voters you know? Or are you dealing in cartoons?

And why do those Trump voters who benefit financially or are hard core GOP get a pass? Why aren't WIAF and others also brown shirt low information voters preyed on by an authoritarian cult ? Or is it just the unknown and uneducated who are demonized?

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You may recall that I have attributed Trumpist voters as having the virtue of expressing a massive hole in our politics created largely by financial hegemony which, as a first principle, prevents those on the left who would want to address the current, gross maldistribution of wealth and power from doing anything much about it (which essentially leaves out these peoples' needs, since the right has no interest in addressing them anyhow - not to mention workable ideas of how to address them). But I do think that, in order to sincerely support what Trump does and says (as opposed to the Russians and the big money people), you do have to be living in a cartoon world; and I'll say it: Think of Nazi Germany in which the whole country was dressed up in these cartoonish 1930s quasi-super-hero uniforms believing in the most insane predicates and living the most insane delusions capable only of mass destruction.

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Why should we think of nazi Germany and cartoonist super hero uniforms? What does that have to do with anything? Perhaps, there were a lot of cartoons mocking nazis which led to their uniforms being cartoonish. Officer uniforms are pretty silly for all countries. The current presidency is not like the Nazi Regime. If anything, China is like 1930s Germany. US is making nice with Russia because China is the real problem, and Russia is the only country in that region with a military that can counter China. On the other hand, if Russia back China's imperialistic expansion and uses a confrontation with China as an opportunity to regain its lost glory, we are in trouble. The previous administration and its supporters do not want to admit that China is a real threat.

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The reason for thinking of those cartoons is to illustrate that masses of people believing in, and oppressing all others based on, the most insane ideas is not only possible but is nurtured by the ever-growing starvation of public education for funds, plus the ever-accelerating maldistribution of wealth and power, robbing out country of the creativity which is possible in any humans but which needs more than subsistence economic support -- those two things together creating growing masses of people incapable of thinking past their easiest prejudices.

The major geopolitical differences between now and the 1930s is the mutually assured destruction that would accompany actual war among the big powers; and I think that everyone (maybe except for American Neocons and Exceptionalists) see and are governed by that.

So, the threat that China poses is economic, because of their growth; and it is certainly worthwhile to do anything meaningful to oppose their gross lack of fair play in that area, especially in commercial and other cyber-spying and oppressive conditions for participating in their domestic economy. Plus, one should not leave totally uncontested to China the playing field of the economies of the developing world, which will definitely turn into political alliances when those economies reach a certain point. All of this is stuff we can do (if we bring the public and private sectors together - which will require the bi-partisanship that the Republican Party is incapable of.

Anarchistbear said:

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Not just uniforms but cars- Volkswagen, the people's car- rallies, etc. Masters of design and murder

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Have to point out that Volkswagen was a Jewish company, taken over (quiet as its kept) by the National Socialist German Workers Party.

""America First is now as much a reality as it is a slogan." CFR President Richard Haass tells me.

As a memorable freeze-frame of these historic, consequential days, check out Haass' catalog of our upside-down, looking-glass world:

"Allies are adversaries and adversaries are friends."
"Autocrats are preferred to democrats."
"Unstructured summits with foes go more smoothly than organized summits with friends."
"A vague promise to get rid of North Korea's nuclear weapons is acceptable while a specific agreement that precludes Iran's nuclear weapons is not."
"It is acceptable for others to interfere with the politics of America's democracy, as the president is increasingly prepared to interfere in the politics of other democracies."
"Protectionism has replaced free trade."
"Unilateralism is favored over multilateralism."
And, when it comes to style:

"Diplomacy is about personal relationships."
"The president is at once his own chief of staff, spokesman, national security adviser and top diplomat." Axios

Here's Pompeo on Iran. If you substituted Russia for Iran, it would all still be true but why can't we be friends with Russia?

Quote:

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"The level of corruption and wealth among Iranian leaders shows that Iran is run by something that resembles the mafia more than a government," the secretary of state said. "While it is ultimately up to the Iranian people to determine the direction of their country, the United States ... will support the long-ignored voice of the Iranian people."

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Enemies list? Security clearances pulled? When can we expect his version of the Reichstag fire?

"What are the unintended consequences of a U.S. president simultaneously starting trade wars with China, the European Union and Canada, putting Russia first over America first, preferring Putin and other autocrats over our traditional democratic allies, slashing corporate taxes and supercharging the national debt without any compensating tax increases or spending cuts, thereby putting pressure on interest rates and the trade deficit ignoring climate change and eliminating all restraints on the exploitation of fossil fuels, breaking the Iran nuclear deal and now threatening war with Iran, limiting immigration into our already tight labor markets, steadily eroding Obamacare and violating so many norms of how a president should behave toward his staff, allies and Americans not from his own party?" Thomas Friedman


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/24/opinion/trump-republicans-russia.html

I think that may be a run-on.

Not only is Trump "transactional", he's also bilateral...meaning he only likes to deal with one other party at a time as opposed to multilateral because:

a) he has more power going one-on-one, i.e., bullying, leverage, eccentric behavior
b) he's not smart enough for multilateral agreements which requires complex thought, cooperation
c) goes hand in hand with transactional
d) this is what you get when a dumb, vain real estate arsewhole becomes POTUS

"On the first couple's recent trip overseas, Melania Trump's television aboard Air Force One was tuned to CNN. President Trump was not pleased," the N.Y. Times' Katie Rogers and Maggie Haberman report.

"He raged at his staff for violating a rule that the White House entourage should begin each trip tuned to Fox ... and caused 'a bit of a stir' aboard Air Force One." Axios

Trump goes on unannounced road trip with Melania and Barron.

bearister said:

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"What are the unintended consequences of a U.S. president simultaneously:

1) starting trade wars with China, the European Union and Canada,
2) putting Russia first over America first,
3) preferring Putin and other autocrats over our traditional democratic allies,
4) slashing corporate taxes and supercharging the national debt without any compensating tax increases or spending cuts,
5) thereby putting pressure on interest rates and the trade deficit,
6 ignoring climate change and eliminating all restraints on the exploitation of fossil fuels,
7) breaking the Iran nuclear deal and now threatening war with Iran,
8) limiting immigration into our already tight labor markets,
9) steadily eroding Obamacare and
10) violating so many norms of how a president should behave toward his staff, allies and Americans not from his own party?"

Thomas Friedman


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/24/opinion/trump-republicans-russia.html

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Fixed it for Mr. Friedman.
And I'll add that regarding point 10, Trump violates norms of how a president should behave toward also Americans from his own (alleged, because the truth is his party is a party of SELF) party AND EVEN his own wife.

bearister said:

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Don Lemon discussing the above stats right now.

So when Trump wins those states in 2020, how is any effort to question ballot results to the contrary going to go down?

I suspect/fear that the Trump - Putin "fix" will go all in and try to accomplish exactly that!

Shots fired again against our free press; our democracy takes another hit. Wonder if Fox will step up through actions (through some act of solidarity) to help have this decision reversed. Answer in advance: no.

Fox News actually did step up and make a statement in support of CNN. I thought it was a positive gesture from their news division.

Yeah, I heard about that. Seems like there has to be a stronger gesture to make a difference. Some sort of boycott or walkout could work, but would be problematic for other reasons and probably couldn't be sustained. Fox would have to be on board for this to have any chance of working.

Unit2Sucks said:

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Fox News actually did step up and make a statement in support of CNN. I thought it was a positive gesture from their news division.

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The next thing you know Fox News will publicly concede that 2 + 2 = 4. What say the Thumb with Hair and Tucker?

Trump getting royally F'd from all angles tonight. No need to elaborate. A gift in honor of tomorrow's one-year anniversary of this thread.

Remember this guy...

concordtom said:

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bearister said:

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Don Lemon discussing the above stats right now.

So when Trump wins those states in 2020, how is any effort to question ballot results to the contrary going to go down?

I suspect/fear that the Trump - Putin "fix" will go all in and try to accomplish exactly that!

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It is also important to note that Trump's approval rating is at 41.3%, at this point in his presidency Reagan was at 42%. Reagan won the 1984 election in a massive landslide victory.

(scroll down for president to president comparisons) https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/

golden sloth said:

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concordtom said:

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bearister said:

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Don Lemon discussing the above stats right now.

So when Trump wins those states in 2020, how is any effort to question ballot results to the contrary going to go down?

I suspect/fear that the Trump - Putin "fix" will go all in and try to accomplish exactly that!

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It is also important to note that Trump's approval rating is at 41.3%, at this point in his presidency Reagan was at 42%. Reagan won the 1984 election in a massive landslide victory.

(scroll down for president to president comparisons) https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/

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At this point in Reagan's Presidency the country was mired in a massive, temporary, Fed induced recession and interest rates were about 18% or so.

By 1984 and the election Reagan's approval was above 50%

Reagan...meh, king of trickle down bullshtt and playing the fake pay down the deficit card.

HAHAHAHA

Another Bear said:

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Reagan...meh, king of trickle down bullshtt and playing the fake pay down the deficit card.

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To me, the tipoff to the massive corruptibility of our system (suggesting that, eventually, there will have to be, and conceivably could be, either some massive improvements or something new and better - be it here or elsewhere -- although Canada's system is probably already better, in many if not most ways) was when David Stockman, in the Reagan Administration as the chief Deficit Hawk (and now even much worse) revealed publicly what wound up completely appalling him about Reagan, which was that, in deciding on the budget items, Reagan paid absolutely no attention to the size of the deficit (which was ballooning based on his choices), but decided solely on what was politically popular - also regardless whether the policy made any sense or not. Of course, now, what we have is exponentially even worse. The decisions are based strictly on what is politically popular with either Trump's 38% base and/or Wall Street (to the extent that the latter is willing to threaten withholding its power from Republican office holders) - Trump having close-to no meaningful ideas himself, separate from what will make the crowd clap and the money flowing; and those ideas he has (e.g., about trade and tariffs) are so stupid they do nothing but harm -- although of course the ideas of the base and of the 1% also do mostly harm.

mikecohen said:

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..Trump having close-to no meaningful ideas himself, separate from what will make the crowd clap.....

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I'm thinking that is Ward Cleaver in the middle of the second row with the jumpy eyebrows.

GOP and deficits are the biggest lie and canard in American politics. No GOP POTUS has ever reduced the deficit in modern post WWII...yet those mofos yap about it like religion. Conversely Bill Clinton did set-up a deficit reduction plan and it was going to work..until the GOP crapped on it again...and started two unwinnable wars that project to $3 TRILLION dollars...and counting.

In other words, GOP all talk, no go...the party of NO. The party of nothing. The party of no ideas. Trump is simply the logical conclusion.

dajo9 said:

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golden sloth said:

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concordtom said:

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bearister said:

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Don Lemon discussing the above stats right now.

So when Trump wins those states in 2020, how is any effort to question ballot results to the contrary going to go down?

I suspect/fear that the Trump - Putin "fix" will go all in and try to accomplish exactly that!

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It is also important to note that Trump's approval rating is at 41.3%, at this point in his presidency Reagan was at 42%. Reagan won the 1984 election in a massive landslide victory.

(scroll down for president to president comparisons) https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/

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At this point in Reagan's Presidency the country was mired in a massive, temporary, Fed induced recession and interest rates were about 18% or so.

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Yup. Reagan was unpopular in a bad economy. Trump is unpopular in a pretty decent economy. What happens if it goes bad? It probably will at some point, just because of basic economic cycles.