Everyone agrees that President Trump seems to have been exposed as unfit for office in the week of his rash assassination of a top Iranian general. But who is going to act? The public is scared because they know that protest doesn’t work and that it often turns protesters into targets of surveillance. Congress won’t act because they are cowards and are owned by major corporations. And the media won’t do anything for the same reason.
The President Is Crazy. Someone Should Do Something.
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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Wow, Ted. You actually made a mistake. “Everyone agrees …”
Far from it. Trump still has his loyal core (mid-30%) of voters. Same as Reagan (lowest approval rating: 35%. Obama 38%, Clinton 37%. And Nixon had 24% as his low, almost losing that coveting slot to Dubya at 25%).
The public is scared because they know that protest doesn’t work and that it often turns protesters into targets of surveillance?
Well, most of the public doesn’t protest, and much of the public is too uninformed to be scared.
Watching the footage from Occupy Wall Street is instructive. The carnivale atmosphere, the Guitarmy, the children in strollers. What fun it is to protest! And they all carried their phones with them all the time. Right now, the government is going through a dance with Apple to try to make that company open up a cellphone. No paper or news program that I’m aware of is pointing out the real story here: If Apple chooses to, it CAN open your phone for the government, or the government wouldn’t be asking in the first place. Part of me suspects that these “Apple refuses” stories are part of the theater of it all. I bet Apple has already opened the phone (thanks for the huge government contract, by the way) and intelligence is poring over all the contents of it. Keep everyone thinking those phones are unbreakable though. Almost as good as having the computers count the votes (Heinlein used that one in “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress”; it’s the revolutionaries won the election).
Occupy Wall Street was a conversation that many Americans chose not to participate in.
The failure of Occupy Wall Street is the failure of Americans to participate in conversations not moderated by the media.
Americans don’t converse. Conversation is unAmerican.
Most prefer (or have been trained to accept) the superficial.
So election campaigns are superficial.
Ultimately, the problem is that there’s nobody sane who would replace him. Mike “Handmaid’s Tale” Pence? Nancy “Green Dream or whatever” Pelosi? It isn’t that the Prez is broken, it’s the system that put him and all the other “business as usual” oligarchs in charge.
Not to mention that a working majority of the public is crazy enough (in a couple of different directions) to support these clowns.
One of the persistent problems of the Democrats, liberals, progressives, and even some of the Left, is the fixed idea that Trump is crazy (or stupid or ignorant or otherwise mentally non-functional). He is not. He may be a boor and a bully, but he’s also clever and fast on his feet. The delusion that Trump is an idiot is among the things that will cost them the upcoming election.
Thank you, Anarcissie, for introducing an element of realism to the discussion ! I suspect Trump suffers – although it’s mainly others who suffer – from a distinct personality disorder, but the notion that he is «crazy» is a delusion. The problem – not a lack of intelligence, but a lack of wisdom – which is hardly unique to the Trump administration or, indeed, the USA, is general in nature ; as Axel Gustafsson Oxenstierna af Södermöre put it in a letter to his son more than 350 years ago :
Henri
Trump has been impeached, but conviction is not possible. The trial is, however, serving an important function for the DNC: by delaying the trial until now, Sanders and Warren will not be able to campaign in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada, so the DNC figures Joe will win comfortable pluralities in all 3, donations will dry up for Sanders and Warren, and Joe will have it all wrapped up by mid-March. And President Joe will do the same things as Obama, which are about the same things as Trump is doing, but Obama had the decency, like a good cat, to cover up his scat, while Trump brags about it.
And, while the Trial is going nowhere, Trump is in big trouble in November.
Maybe Mitch will want to drag out the trial for the above reasons as well. He at least knows Biden well.
To michaelwme:
That is the most cogent explanation I’ve seen to explain the appartent glaring superficiality of the Dems impeachment.
BUT … why would Trump be “in big trouble in November” Because Biden will be his challenger?!?
I’m listening to KPFA with Ted on Project Censored Show. At least you could move to France if you have to. Much like fugitives from justice like Bikram Choudhoury(noooo….don’t want to compare Ted with that slimeball millionaire, just that slimeball millionaires use that tactic and people who are not millionaires may have to flee)
I just thought of an outlier.
You know how Elizabeth Warren has a documented history of lying her a$$ off? And how that just blew up in her face when she tried to accuse Bernie Sanders of being a sexist?
Okay. Remember how Trump skipped the war by claiming bone spurs but still puts in a solid eight hours every day on the golf course?
What if Trump has a “heart attack”? Either a minor real one or a fake one? I mean, he looks like he’s gonna keel over any minute from one as it is. “Health issues” got him out of the war. No Senate would continue the trial with Trump (really or fakely) in bed with a heart attack. So that would stop the trial handily. Pence takes over for a few months. Trump “miraculously” rallies (“Gotta … represent my … constituents … and continue my … perfect recov … ery) just in time to take the nomination, at which point, again, the Senate wouldn’t dare continue with the trial. If he loses, the trial becomes moot. He leaves office laughing his a$$ off at how the old “bone spurs” saved him again.
Lest anyone think “25th amendment alternatives” are viable, I have copied the relevant sections below. To expect anything useful from it, especially from His Hairness (aka “Trump”) and the GOP, is like expecting congress to radically rewrite election financing
law.
………
Section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.
Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.