He’s stepping on state jurisdiction, and I think we can guess which polling locations. The governors in those states should snap back hard.
The mockery it makes of the idea that the President doesn’t personally direct federal law enforcement is lost in the background stench.
There should be some civil rights era precedent about that, squelching the vote though intimidation.
and every Aussie dive master I’ve been diving with say it as:
Shack Week
It’s a pretty safe bet that the alt right are the ones being targeted by him
This one probably belongs under “God damn you 2020” thread
How is that going to work? Everyone knows the character by now.
But the Americans misplayed their hand so often, so aggressively, that they isolated themselves from people not on policy, but on just being unpleasant.
Diplomacy is the field where the Trumpians maybe failed the most. They just can’t help themselves being cruel and threatening. And that doesn’t work if the other sides are your (near) equals and not your subjects.
Plus they see everything as a zero-sum-game.
To be fair they are merely continuing, albeit exacerbating, the policy of the Bush years. US only has soft power with Democrats in the White House now. The republicans are incapable of dealing with allies in a civil manner. And they have been since Pere Bush finished up. He got the allies to pay for his gulf war.
Clinton could talk the hind legs off a donkey and Obama was so popular that a leader would be wary of crossing him, it would be unpopular with their own people. Bush was derided and hated and kind of laughed at too. Trump has long gone past a figure of ridicule to one of utter disgust and contempt.
Yes, but even the Bush administrations knew that they had to play the game. The US has always (at least from the early 20th century on) believed that the rules of international diplomacy don’t apply to them, but they were willing to at least pretend they did and that meant that they were able to persuade governments that were roughly on their side but felt they couldn’t go along with them for reasons of unpopularity with their own voters, to find ways to support their positions without losing voter faith. The new brash Trump way of dispensing with the pretense strips away this plausible deniability. Even if you want to put sanctions on Iran (and I don’t think any country outside the US actually does) you cannot do so if you will be perceived by your own population as having been bullied into it by the US and specifically the extremely internationally unpopular Pompeo. That’s what loses people elections.
Don’t think Pompeo has the international profile even of Bolton, who was recognised and hated. Pompeo disgusts international leaders and diplomats pretty universally but the populations don’t care about him. Trump does the heavy lifting in that regard. He’s loathed as much internationally as he is in the US but he doesn’t have support outside of fringe fascist movements. I mean even the English Tories despise him, they are loathsome but he disgusts even them.
It would be out of character to think they aren’t specifically ordered to be unpleasant. That’s his negotiation style. It’s his whole idea of “dominance”.
Dubya was disgusting with his “You’re with us or against us” attitude, but Trump takes it a step further to “You are subservient or you are an enemy.” How a person like that makes it through the day with all his teeth amazes me.
Unbelievable. When people are suffering from this whole hellish time, and she wants them to skip meals to keep her in power.
This prodded me to peruse her wikipedia page and golly, what a piece of work, policy-wise; about as vile as they come.
Maybe they could sell a kidney too?
Only if she donates both of hers first…
I think that’s the same mechanism at play as the one I described above. The Tories are cruel but they very much like to perpetuate the fantasy that they are benevolent overlords that, due to their breeding and natural right to rule, and due to their entirely deserved connections and education, are the best equipped to govern over the ignorant populace.
Trump does away with this pretense. He is clearly of their ilk but doesn’t bother with — indeed, isn’t mentally capable of — keeping up appearances. So they do hate him for having handed to him what they can only dream of, while being a boorish simpleton who doesn’t play the game.
Who knows, maybe there are even still a few Tories that really do think they’re good people helping the country and Trump makes it harder to keep up the cognitive dissonance…
