, those Trumposts (composts) tend to have some mix of factual errors (or lies), bullshittery, misrepresentations, mudslinging, self-praise (or narcissism), select pretense, ... The populists inhale it nonetheless.

The populists inhale it nonetheless. — jorndoe

Something I find frustrating in trying to understand, and something that causes me much consternation. Reluctantly, I have come to accept that there a great number of ignorant minds vulnerable to manipulation if you inflame hatred strong enough in them.

Looks like Trump has a Nobel Prize... — NOS4A2

I'm kind of surprised that he didn't just make his own.

Looks like Trump has a Nobel Prize — NOS4A2

Yes, and Hitler had Vemeer's The Astronomer - for a while

(He'd plundered it, and added it to his personal collection)

I wish everything I’ve ever hold in my hand would automatically become my possession. Just imagine how successful one would become. I could just grab the declaration of independence and it would become my declaration of independence to with as I please. Or I could just grab the presidential pen and I would be president. Together with the constitution I would own the nation.

Just grab everything… grab grab grab.

Just grab everything… grab grab grab. — Christoffer

I am reminded of Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, and the famous quote from it -

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

The following letter from Trump to Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre was forwarded by the NSC staff to multiple European ambassadors in Washington.

In addition to a poor grasp of history, Trump seems to be saying "Nyah, nyah, you didn't give me the prize, so I am going to start a war."

Dear Jonas:

Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only a boat that landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT

https://x.com/nickschifrin/status/2013107018081489006?s=20

Unpredictability can be a great boon in geopolitics. There was a brief period during which I thought Trump might go against the establishment, but almost from the start of his second term it has been continuity of agenda with zero deviation. The only remarkable thing is his particular brand of domestic kool-aid is more polarizing than anything we've seen in a while.

It looks then that you agree with me that there is a general drift in US geopolitics in the national interest. But this is a meaningless platitude which can be applied similarly to any country. In order to have meaning in this discussion it should be possible to discern the effect a significant change in leadership would make to that drift.

Here we have a leader who has trashed the trust foundational to NATO and is threatening an action which will inevitably result in the end of the alliance. Meanwhile has is reported to have invited Putin to be on the board of his newly formed Palestinian rebuilding council. I heard from a reliable commentator earlier that this council is to be much more than an authority on Palestine, it is to become a global alliance of authoritarian leaders to usurp the role of the UN. Do these sort of development alter your US strategy?

Washington, via Trump, is playing you and other parts of the world like a fiddle. — Tzeentch

If this is your take on Trump's words and actions, then you are living outside of reality as much as Trump is.

Did you have a read of the letter Trump sent to the government of Norway (a couple of posts up)

Here's what Anne Applebaum wrote about it -

One could observe many things about this document. One is the childish grammar, including the strange capitalizations (“Complete and Total Control”). Another is the loose grasp of history. Trump did not end eight wars. Greenland has been Danish territory for centuries. Its residents are Danish citizens who vote in Danish elections. There are many “written documents” establishing Danish sovereignty in Greenland, including some signed by the United States. In his second term, Donald Trump has done nothing for NATO—an organization that the U.S. created and theoretically leads, and that has only ever been used in defense of American interests. If the European members of NATO have begun spending more on their own defense (budgets to which the U.S. never contributed) that’s because of the threat they feel from Russia.

But what matters isn’t the specific phrases, but the overall message: Donald Trump now genuinely lives in a different reality, one in which neither grammar nor history nor the normal rules of human interaction now affect him. Also, he really is maniacally, unhealthily obsessive about the Nobel Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee, not the Norwegian government and certainly not the Danish government, determines the winner of that prize. Yet Trump now not only blames Norway for failing to give it to him, but is using it as a justification for the invasion of Greenland.

Did Vemeer dedicate it to him and finally give it to him? Then the analogy is a stretch, but I guess anything will keep the fantasy alive.

Did Vemeer dedicate it to him and finally give it to him? Then the analogy is a stretch. — NOS4A2

Do you believe Machado gave it up willingly? That would be a naive position.

She dedicated it to him upon winning it. You didn’t know that?

She dedicated it to him upon winning it. You didn’t know that? — NOS4A2

Yes, I knew that. Because she thought Trump could help install her party as the truly democratically elected party in Venezuela, but that wouldn't work for Trump, would it? But, she's still putting her hopes on him. She really has no choice at this time.

You knew this but something something Hitler.

Plunder is as plunder does.

Like I said, whatver it takes to keep the fantasy alive.

whatver it takes to keep the fantasy alive. — NOS4A2

Fantasy? No, Trump is very real, and if you read the analysis of Hitler prepared for the Office of Strategic Services by Harvard psychologist Dr. Henry A. Murray, in 1938 – I believe, if you are living in the real world, you might recognize someone you know, someone who is currently threatening world war -

Murray pegged Hitler’s personality as “counteractive narcissism,” a type that is stimulated by real or imagined insult or injury. According to Murray, the characteristics of this personality type include holding grudges, low tolerance for criticism, excessive demands for attention, inability to express gratitude, a tendency to belittle, bully, and blame others, desire for revenge, persistence in the face of defeat, extreme self-will, self-trust, inability to take a joke, and compulsive criminality. Murray concluded that Hitler had these characteristics (and others) to an extreme degree and lacked the offsetting qualities that round out a balanced personality.

If someone donates their Medal of Honor to me then do I become a war hero?

So the real reason for invading Greenland is that "Your country" didn't give him the Nobel Peace Prize.

The USA is fucked.

I wonder if the experience with beauty competitions plays a part in the reactions.

The USA is fucked. — Banno

Sounds like the US is only Trump… maybe the rest are just slaves in his empire then. Apethetic or by will, they salute to him, and every single citizen stand by his side.

I guess no one will remove him, because everyone aligns with everything he does.

That's a non sequitur.

The USA elected him, twice.

That does not meant they are all in agreement with him.

It does means they are fucked.

I tried to use an overly ironic twist to it all. Because I think the biggest travesty isn’t that a monster is a monster… it’s that so many people in opposition can’t seem to do anything to remove a corrupt, power-abusing politician from power. If this had been any other nation, there would have been hell to pay for his actions. The US was supposed to be the land of the free, who had constitutional power to oppose an abusing government. It’s been the foundational philosophy behind most politics there.

Yet, when shit hits the fan and they get a king behaving like a child and wielding an excess of power, the exact thing the civil war fought against, everyone hides down. The US has always talked the talk, and this is the time to walk the walk. But everyone stands still, and they seem to have become silent.

Except for a few brave ones speaking out in the streets, there’s very little outrage where it matters. The rebelious police, the reluctant military, the whistleblowing secret service agent. The journalist reveal, the pentagon deepthroat, where’s the actual explosion of hits and shrapnel against him? And even with the few who tried, very little happens.

The constitution is a joke, a performance. It doesn’t mean anything anymore. Trump killed it. It’s up to the new US to decide by what measure the US should exist. A closed off authoritarian nation like Russia and China? Or a renewal of the US values, with an updated constitution which prevents people like Trump from taking power? To take power away from the dying neoliberal monster which destroyed most of the US, and make sure the nation is run by actual leaders and representatives of democracy. To form an immunity against the blight of power-abusing charlatans.

He needs to be removed immediately, but no one has the guts to actually do it. There’s no one right now who can argue against his abuse of power. He’s a text book example of breaking the constitution in every way that should matter. So the last chance is to remove him before he destroys the US further. And the ways to do this is diminishing.

Well said.

Amen.

The constitution is a joke, a performance. It doesn’t mean anything anymore. Trump killed it. — Christoffer

Oh please. FDR and Lincoln, two of our greatest Presidents, went far beyond Trump in terms of suspensions of civil liberties and executive overreach. You underestimate America's tolerance for this type of thing.

The degenerate idiot in office just lost 3 court cases on offshoot wind. But that was never the point I guess.

Did you have a read of the letter Trump sent to the government of Norway [...] — Questioner

I don't pay particular attention to anything Trump says or does. It's a waste of time - polarizing bullshit meant to elicit an emotional response whether it's negative or positive, to get people (and entire countries) into an irrational, emotional state of mind.

People who continuously exhibit said responses are being played.

Tbe source of all this is Washington, and Trump's display is meant to convince you otherwise.

It looks then that you agree with me that there is a general drift in US geopolitics in the national interest. — Punshhh

I don't believe it's spontaneous, if that's what you mean.

In order to have meaning in this discussion it should be possible to discern the effect a significant change in leadership would make to that drift. — Punshhh

That's the thing: US foreign policy hasn't meaningfully changed for decades, completely irrespective of whichever clown occupied the White House. Even if they say they want to do things different, they will say A, but do B.

Do these sort of development alter your US strategy — Punshhh

I've discussed my thoughts on this at length in the various geopolitical lounge threads. Without going into too much detail, let me simply say that Washington is clearly rolling out a coherent strategy vis-á-vis Russia and Europe, vis-á-vis the Middle-East, and most certainly vis-á-vis China - strategies with discernable goals and observable behavioral patterns that can be traced back decades.