Trump destroys CNN in new tweet

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

More reality-tv nonsense from the Fake President, because he's incapable of doing the job.


Also, how is the First Lady's campaign against cyber-bullying going, again?

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Badger, don't stop. It saves me from angrily responding and I feel cathartic.

That said, Republicans shouldn't necessarily applaud this. I know a lot of Trumpists are going "hey, he took on the media! We like that!" But consider the inverse - 64% of the public doesn't like Trump's behavior about the media. You guys should bear that in mind this is Trump preserving his base, to the point of alienating everyone else.

The question is why? Either scenario, in my view, doesn't bode well for his core people.

The non-conspiracy theory says that he doesn't know how to do anything else and doesn't know how to broadly assemble a coalition and govern. This kind of behavior is just him doubling down on his fan base and doing what he knows best - riling up people, trying to put on a spectacle, and keeping his people with him, and nothing else. It's continuing the ineffective and stagnated presidency. it amounts to a vicarious release for his supporters but little else. once again, I refer to Trump hardening the opposition, turning off swing voters, and doing it bit by bit. He's also damaging the GOP brand in the next 4-8 years.

The conspiracy theory says that there's more to come on Russia and Trump may figure that to ride out the storm, he should harden his base's opposition to anything. #FakeNews is one way to insulate himself from the storm and he can loudly use that to keep his supporters from abandoning him. If they had to consider the facts.

Neither option is exclusive by the way. Neither, honestly, ends well for his supporters. Presidents need to keep their coalitions broad enough to pass a law, preserve their legacies, and not wind up failed presidents. (Or one term presidents).

Of course, there is the possibility his supporters don't care about the laws passed as much as they care about deportation and trade and the Supreme Court, and fail to consider the broader ramifications of letting the issues fester. I've heard more than one Trump supporter out loud voice support for single payer (to the point where I think the Trumpists wouldn't mind a Bernie Democrat).

I think you're giving his supporters too much credit here. They like feeling good. They like the dopamine hit they get from seeing their tribe/team/side "win" and when anyone who isn't on their tribe/time/side gets hurt.  They don't *think* rationally at all. If they did, even if they all believed completely in what they claim to believe (not that I think they do - their beliefs are just an excuse, a form of self-deception), they wouldn't support Trump because he cannot and will not ever *deliver* for them in any real way. I.e. Trump is a dealer, and his supporters are junkies. He deals in hate and vicarious victory, which his supporters consume to get a neuro-transmitter-induced rush.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

I can't believe this is all real.

We are in the worst possible timeline. This all seems like a huge parody.

More like a sarcastic and bitter cyberpunk dystopia, with a lot of black humor.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

I can't believe this is all real.

We are in the worst possible timeline. This all seems like a huge parody.

More like a sarcastic and bitter cyberpunk dystopia, with a lot of black humor.

We're basically living through Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan comics right now.

Question is, if Donald Trump is "The Beast", will he really be succeeded by the even worse "Smiler"??

The idea of Trump as The Beast has a lot going for it, although I shudder at the all-too-likely idea he'll get two terms. (And I'm not sure Trump does even "the bare minimum" of the job of President that The Beast does.)

But yeah, the idea that Trump will be succeeded by a person who is publicly his opposite, but secretly a murderous and Machivellian complete sociopath seems about par for the course on where our country is headed.

(Oh, and in reality the idea of The Truth is dead and no ones cares anyway.)