***Official Political Discussion Thread***

cuban triggered by draymond:



i'm fairly convinced at this point that cuban would be as bad as trump if he ever entered politics.
 
People gotta realize one thing -

foreign intelligence is older than gunpowder.
Most states have had intelligence agents in one form or another for centuries before police forces or standing armies.

The intelligence services have had centuries to figure out what factors are most likely to make an individual act against their country's interest.

In the USA we call this M.I.C.E.

  • Money (or lifestyle)
  • Ideology (or disaffection / disillusionment)
  • Coercion (or compromise / blackmail)
  • Ego (or status / influence / social proof)
If someone is recruitable it'll most likely be one or a combination of these factors. It's just a matter of deciding which lever is most likely to work.

In the Trump administration Ego is going to be a big factor - and not because I think everyone that works for Trump is a narcissist. It's rather because Trump has a hollow administration, with many senior posts lacking even Senate nominations.

Ironically, the hollow administration bubbled up in the news again this week. But there have been a barrage of news articles, going back to February, about this unprecedented low-staffing situation. So this hasn't gone unnoticed by foreign observers. In addition, if we're talking about the campaign, everyone saw the hollow administration coming - at that time, it was called the "Never Trumper" or refuse-to-join movement.

Trump's hollow administration exists because of four factors - any one of these would hurt, but they're a perfect storm in combination -

  • Trump's policy ideas lack buy-in from the wider Republican world of institutions & experts

  • Trump has zero executive or legislative experience and hasn't formed relationships

  • Trump is a chaotic manager who has a mutually distrustful relationship with the executive branch agencies

  • Trump's administration is under criminal investigation
All of these things dissuade people from working for Trump.

As President, Trump has built a cancerously White-House-centered operation, often bypassing or throwing shade on his own Cabinet. He governs by tweet and whoever gets closest to him - regardless of their qualifications or official position - governs what he tweets. Not only is this proven (as in the many cases where Trump immediately tweets about a certain subject immediately, as in minutes, after a TV program about that subject aired) but Trump makes no effort to disguise it.

All of this constitutes what we could call the

Mar-a-Lago-ization
of the federal government - the construction of an informal process alongside the official process and deliberately signalling that all real power rests in the informal process. Once you understand this is happening, examples abound. For example there's a Reddit headline right now about Trump simultaneously declaring Native American Month and tweeting a racist Indian slur at a Senator. Official, unofficial - get it? This was also on full display when Trump gave "official" and "unofficial" responses to the Charlottesville attack. The media was confused by Trump's mixed messaging but Trump's base understood that Teleprompter Trump is a Nothing. Totally meaningless. Meanwhile, "Real Trump" made very clear how he felt.

So we have the cultivation of an informal process of government in a hollow, closed-circle administration with low staffing. Now look at all of this through the eyes of a foreign intelligence agent. What levers do you see in this situation? Money, Ideology, Coercion, or Ego?

That's right - Ego is the big one. There is a huge Ego incentive for low level policy aides like Papa Dop. You can see the appeal for a 30 year old guy of being potentially "Trump's point man" on an entire country, to say nothing of that country being Russia, and it seems likely that his "The Professor" contact wormtongued exactly that into his ear: "Think of all the rungs you could skip!" The fact that Trump visibly rewards loyalty (Sessions is AG solely because he was first GOP to endorse) regardless of qualifications (look at Hope Hicks) doubles the enticement.

I would not be surprised if many younger, low level Trump aides have been "recruited" in this way. Not just by our enemies like Russia btw.
 
Saudi Arabia's capital city Riyadh almost got hit with a ballistic missile :stoneface:
Houthi rebels fired a ballistic missile at a Riyadh airport but the Saudis managed to intercept it over the north-eastern side of the city.
 
If Dems are the party of rich elites wth are Repubs the party of?
On right, it is a deflection. The Republican part has been the party of business elites for a minute.

On the left t is more complicated.

It is just the normal leftist criticizism of Dems by leftist. Basically the GOP is the party of multimillionaires and billionaires and the Dems are the party of people make 300k to a couple million.

If you read magazines like the Jacobin and listen Chapo Traphouse, you will hear like assertion being made.

Furthermore the left will criticize the Democratic party for using social issues again their fight for economic justice.

White liberals and white leftist use minority issues as swords to attack the other side, and shields to protect themselves from attacks. White liberals are more skilled than leftist. So leftist complain when they get stabbed, all the while ignoring their own actions. The right is all round **** on minority issues though.

Obama really ****** leftist too in that area. Because conservatives and leftist both want to call him elitist. The left for more innocuous reason. But black people catch on that the right is calling him uppity, and the left instead of stopping, just claim they are not racist and say more dumb ****.
 
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might wanna listen to rex on this one.

Democrats been da bicoastal elitist class for at least 20 years...its not even his opinion, he's referencing that from political analysis thats been said already.
Rex was referring to their economic policies. Not their political appeal.

You don't understand the economic policies of either side. Because Republican policies are not that help the working man.

Please refrain from trying to talk to me about this.

Thank you
 
Saudi Arabia's capital city Riyadh almost got hit with a ballistic missile :stoneface:
Houthi rebels fired a ballistic missile at a Riyadh airport but the Saudis managed to intercept it over the north-eastern side of the city.
Alot going down rn





 
depends what constituency you're talking bout.

you can argue da repeal of regulations has preserved certain jobs that would've been regulated outta existence.
And you could argue things like unions, a federal jobs guarantee, labor courts, EIC, and single payer would do a whole lot more for the workers. In many more industries
 
DNutfHIVAAEEwjl


fake but hilarious still
 
Donna Brazile: I considered replacing Clinton with Biden as 2016 Democratic nominee



By Philip Rucker November 4 at 7:47 PM


explosive new memoir, Brazile details widespread dysfunction and dissension throughout the Democratic Party, including secret deliberations over using her powers as interim DNC chair to initiate the process of removing Clinton and running mate Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.) from the ticket after Clinton’s Sept. 11, 2016, collapse in New York City.

Brazile writes that she considered a dozen combinations to replace the nominees and settled on Biden and Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.), the duo she felt most certain would win over enough working-class voters to defeat Republican Donald Trump. But then, she writes, “I thought of Hillary, and all the women in the country who were so proud of and excited about her. I could not do this to them.”

Brazile paints a scathing portrait of Clinton as a well-intentioned, historic candidate whose campaign was badly mismanaged, took minority constituencies for granted and made blunders with “stiff” and “stupid” messages. The campaign was so lacking in passion for the candidate, she writes, that its New York headquarters felt like a sterile hospital ward where “someone had died.”


https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...dab5a0ab381_story.html?utm_term=.7e77448939f7

this broad been nursing a grudge since da DNC left her out to dry once da podesta hack exposed her funneling CNN townhall questions to Hillary.
:lol:
 
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