TRUMP UNCHAINED- "You are a king," Donald Trump's father reportedly told him."
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
http://prospect.org/article/trump-unchained
You are a king," Donald Trump's father reportedly told him . And the thing about being a king is that nobody gets to tell you what to do.
It's becoming clear that few parts of the president's character are as important as how harshly he reacts to any attempt to constrain him. He grew up in wealth, and without any sense of obligation to anyone. As the head of a private company, he had no board of directors overseeing him and no one to answer to. And today, the very idea that someone might try to push him in one direction or another—let alone force him to do something like testify before a grand jury or reveal his tax returns—seems to fill him with rage.
Seldom has a leader mattered more as an individual, divorced from institutional imperatives, party commitments, international alliances, traditional norms, and historical forces. Indeed, that was part of the appeal Trump made to voters, and the thing that made many in his party suspicious of him. He'd be unpredictable, unmoored, and in the best interpretation, unsullied by a corrupt system.
It turned out, of course , that he is far more corrupt than the system he claimed he'd clean up; it's just that his corruption is purely personal. And as he rampages across the globe, we're seeing what a truly unconstrained president looks like.
Right now, he is vigorously challenging the very idea that America should need or want alliances, or even friends. "America First" turns out to mean America alone, to such a degree that Trump is doing everything in his power to alienate and antagonize the countries that share our democratic values and with whom we've spent decades attempting to build an international system that could foster peace and stability. While continuing to act as though his fondest wish is to win the affection of every authoritarian thug around the world—none more so than Vladimir Putin —Trump has decided to pick a fight with Canada. Canada, for God's sake.
And not just them. Before departing for the G7 summit, Trump announced that Russia, which was expelled from the group after the invasion of Crimea, should be allowed back in. And why? He couldn't really say. The fact that Russia was a member between 1998 and 2014 was something of a mistake to begin with; it happened because Bill Clinton and Tony Blair thought it would help foster democracy there and integrate them into the international system. That didn't work; Vladimir Putin has ruled the country for almost two decades, and he regularly tries to destabilize the G7 nations. Furthermore, the G7 is an assemblage of the most important economic powers among western democracies, and Russia is neither a democracy nor an important economic power.
So after that bizarre suggestion, Trump went to the summit and proceeded to act like the spectacular jerk we've all come to know. He arrived late, berated the other leaders for allegedly taking advantage of the United States, then departed early, sending out some insulting tweets on his way. "To the United States' closest partners, the pattern has become disturbingly familiar," The Washington Post reported . "Trump's abandonment of the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear agreement and his decision to impose protectionist tariffs on European steel and aluminum products have established a level of animosity between the United States and Europe that, by many measures, surpasses even the rift over the Iraq War."
Afterward, some of Trump's aides, in the apparent belief that the way to gain their boss's favor is to enact a public performance of Trumpian belligerence, went out to attack Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who had committed the offense of repeating what he had been saying for weeks, that if the United States goes ahead with tariffs on Canadian goods, Canada will respond with equal tariffs on American goods. "It is a betrayal. That is a double-cross," huffed economic adviser Larry Kudlow. "There's a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad-faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door," said trade adviser Peter Navarro. As conservative foreign affairs columnist Max Boot noted , "No U.S. officials have ever spoken this way about any U.S. ally, ever. These are the kind of words that normally precede military action."
Is there a logic at work here? Some have argued that while Trump may not be acting at Vladimir Putin's behest, he certainly is carrying out all of Putin's goals, doing what he can to weaken the structure of the entire Western alliance. But it's hard to believe that there's some grand plan at work. It may be more likely that Trump simply sees every existing institution and arrangement, whether it's the Justice Department or the G7, as a constraint on his ability to do whatever he wants.
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Question to moderator....does this thread have any legitimate value?
For fuck's sake, stop whining.
So, his father said something 60+ years ago or so? You are scraping the bottom of the barrel for things to insult the president about. For shame.
Spike, how does it feel to be a lackey of Donald Trump?
The article is filled with specifics, such as
Trump wants Russia back in the G-7? Why? Russia is not considered an economic power, and it has spent considerable effort to try and undermine the stability of many of the G-7 countries. Trump wants them back in because he wants it, not because there is a good reason.
I don't know, you tell us, after all it's what your side uses all the time for some in the Democratic Party.
There is nothing in the article that is not accurate. You are floundering badly in your desperation to distract from the truth about your supreme leader.
Really? Deflect instead of answer a question? And, try to insult someone at the same time? WOW.
And, as I said in my original post in this thread, it is your side that uses supposition, innuendo, rumor and, conjecture to try to delegitimatize a Democrat and, Democratic political points.
I got so fucking tired of hearing "the G7 used to be the G8, something happened and Russia was kicked out …". This guy has turned idiocy into an art form. You can tell that he only learned about the former G8 just recently, and the only thing that he retained is that Russia was disinvited. Poor, poor Russia. My atheism is wavering. I'm starting to think that there is a god, and that Trump is its way of punishing humanity across the globe.
I think Trump said he wants Russia back in the G-7 (8) in order to rub everyone's nose in his collusion with the Russians.
In his second year in office Trump is letting his dictator fantasies come to the surface. What frightens good people is that his lemmings are ready to sacrifice this nation to Trump's authoritarian personality.
Republicans willing to suspend 2020 US election if Trump asks, poll shows
Bottomless stupidity.
So more than half of Republicans are morons. What the hell has happened to our country?
The morons got what they wanted now they want to go further.
So, I guess the "illegal voters" would be anyone who doesn't support Trump and, his agenda, in other words 66% of America.
According to the latest research done by the Pew Research Center, 48% of all registered voters in the U.S. consider themselves or are registered as Democrats, with only 44% registered as or consider themselves Republican.
So, "...52 per cent of those Republicans would agree with postponing the election if the President felt it was necessary.", according to the seeded article. That's less the 23% of all registered voters....in other words, wtf cares!!
Eventually, the majority will win out in the end. The old, white guys are dying out and will be replaced by college-educated voters who actually care about their fellow Americans, not so much about themselves. The wave will start with the Dems taking back the House in January 2019, and if Trump even makes it to the 2020 presidential election, he'll be sent packing with a humiliating defeat by someone other than Hillary Clinton (Dems, I hope you learned your lesson about nominating someone who's "damaged goods"....ANYONE but Hillary would have won against Trump in a landslide).
Anyway, getting back to the subject of postponing, or even eliminating general elections in 2020....does that even surprise anyone that Trump's administration is considering that? You know, it was only 2 years ago that the right was screaming about Obama was going to change the term limit and election laws so that he'd be "king" of the U.S. for as long as he wanted. But, since Trump is actually looking to do that, it's now quite okay with the Republicans.
I suspect if his father had taught him he was a failure he never would have been so successful. The lesson here is to help your children develop self confidence and the sky is the limit.
Without daddy's money, Trump would have been bagging groceries. His list of failed business ventures is looooong.
He's never had to answer to a board of directors? Ever?
There’s more than one way to skin a cat. Sure he could have gone public and puts tons of money into his own pocket with the IPO. That isn’t always best for the company as we learned when Steve Jobs was fired from Apple by his own board.
King nothing is much more accurate...for the Metallica fans out there.
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The author obviously didn't read an important review to what he linked in his article:
(Emphasis is mine.)
Hey there, XP ... I meant Paul Waldman, the seeded article's author. He's the one who originally embedded the (Amazon) link to Hurt's unauthorized biography. The seeder just copied/pasted, but obviously didn't read Maslin's unflattering NYT book review either.
(I totally messed up how I wanted to post this. I meant to directly reply to XP's comment 7.1. Need more morning coffee! )
Trump has unleashed not only a great deal of hatred that was already clear after America elected a biracial President, but he has not healed the divide that existed, he has opened the divide worse than ever was.
Trump has admitted he loves chaos and that is what he has done to America, with the blessings & guidance of Steve Bannon and they set out to destroy the Republican party and the Constitution. They do not value anything at all but money.
And by the time Trump voters have all these harsh policies hit their jobs and hit their wallets and they lose healthcare and lose their ability to speak out because Trump will create a dictatorship environment where no one can speak out they will be stuck with their red hats in place of their "tea party" 3 cornered hats wondering what happened.