09-29-2018, 06:41 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-29-2018, 06:51 PM by Classic-Xer.)
(09-29-2018, 09:18 AM)David Horn Wrote:Oh, I think you're down playing Trump as usual. Trump is both clever and cunning. I mean, look at the way he's been playing the liberal media. The guy is a master tactician who is very familiar with the tools of the modern age. He has a large American following who is vocal who aren't afraid to call liberals idiots and fun of them and hurt their precious blue feelings.(09-29-2018, 05:48 AM)Galen Wrote:(09-27-2018, 03:40 PM)David Horn Wrote:(09-27-2018, 08:35 AM)Bill the Piper Wrote: ... Trump is an American version of Stalin - a brutal strongman who pretends to represent the working class. It's no coincidence that both make heavy use of the national identity concept.
The one side note that needs to be added: Trump sounded like this in the 1970s, 80s, 90s and ever since. He's more like Bubble Boy -- never in the real word, only the one of his own creation.
You are correct that Trump has been saying pretty much the same things for decades and even into his 2016 campaign. It was also pretty clear to me that he was trying to carry out his campaign promises early in his administration. Frankly, something that I am not used to seeing elected officials, particularly the President, actually do. It also seems to me that the permanent bureaucracy is doing everything it can to maintain the status quo.
First, Paul Craig Roberts believes that the current actions of the administration will break Pax Americana. In this it would appear that he is correct. Given the number of thing going on, excessive public and private debt is but one, that look like late stage empire this outcome is probably inevitable even without Trump.
Second, he also believes that Trump is unaware of this going on. This presumes that Trump is an idiot and in my experience idiots do not maintain business empires lasting the better part of half a century. Maintaining any amount of wealth requires considerable foresight and idiots just can't manage that. Also, he has had to have dealt with recalcitrant employees through the years in his own businesses and in the private sector it is much easier to get rid of such people. If he is that bad a judge of people he would have went under years ago since he would have systematically surrounded himself with yes men and sank himself that way. This did not happen.
Actually, Trump is a poor businessman who succeeds by ignoring the rules and, frankly, the law as well. At that, he's still managed to bankrupt himself more than once, saving himself through nefarious business activities, money laundering being the most obvious. So your premise fails. Trump is not clever. He's cunning, but so is a wolf. I doubt we would elect the head of a wolfpack to the office he holds, so why Trump?