DickKessler
DickKessler's JournalDick Cheney's "unitary executive theory" made Donald Trump's authoritarianism possible.
So for however much he and his family despise(d) Trump, never forget that it was he who more than anyone else laid the groundwork for Agent Orange’s ongoing authoritarian takeover. And not just back going to the second Bush Administration and the Global War on Terror but further, to Cheney’s full-throated defense of the Reagan administration in the House Intelligence Committee’s minority report on Iran-Contra when he was the ranking member on that committee.
Hell, go even back further, to his time in the Ford administration, as Congress started asserting itself in the wake of Watergate, Cheney consistently argued that in matters of national security and foreign policy, the President has basically unlimited authority. It should be obvious how dangerous this line of reasoning was, and how someone with even less respect for the Constitution and Congress than Cheney would take advantage of it to claim an unprecedented amount of power for himself and his own corrupt interests. That’s the world we are living in now.
The good thing about Cheney living to this point is that he could see what his legacy is: an unrestrained President Donald Trump, a man who has nothing but contempt for the Cheneys, and the Republican Party having excommunicated them, the Bushes, and other fixtures of the Republican old guard in favor of Cult Leader Trump. In a way, it seems only fitting.
Rot in Hell, Darth, and give my regards to Rummy.
The level of cowardice and short-termism from so many institutions in response to Trump 2.0 is infuriating.
Do these media orgs, politicians, universities, museums, etc. honestly think that appeasing this man and his regime will save them? When has that strategy EVER worked with narcissistic authoritarian bullies like Trump?
Unless we’re talking about the billionaire class that has so much unaccountable power anyway, in which case Trump has been very good for them and their bottom line. Who needs inconveniences like democracy or the rule of law when regulations are disappearing and a new round of massive Republican tax cuts are on the horizon? Not to mention the promise of preferential treatment for those businessmen who can provide Trump with the biggest bribes. Must be nice!
The point is, these past several months have been a real eye-opener in terms of how few powerful people and institutions give a shit about our democracy. They’ve gone “mask off” as they say. Or to be more generous, they’re feckless cowards whose integrity is worth less than nothing.
I guess we’re the only ones who can save us.
The Warren Commission was also not informed about how both JFK and RFK sought Castro's assassination.
Operation Mongoose was a Kennedy administration covert action project via the National Security Council and CIA.
The public exposure of such didn’t come about until the 70s and later.
God...Trump looks and sounds like absolute shit.
And his fake anecdotes are getting dumber and stranger. Something’s wrong with him even beyond his usual malignant narcissistic bluster and bullshitting self.
I definitely think he’s senile. I’m sure the media will cover Trump’s cognitive decline like they covered Biden’s (alleged) decline. 
A big part of Bernie's appeal is that he's not a Democrat, or at least not "Establishment."
An awful lot of people don’t like either party.
Prior to 2016, I remember people making jokes about America being “under the Bush and Clinton dynasties.” That was when it seemed likely that Hillary would be facing Jeb! in the 2016 presidential election.
Well, Republican voters rebelled against their Establishment in the primaries by supporting Trump, who openly mocked the Bushes and talked about how stupid and horrible Dubya’s Presidency was—and a lot of Republican voters absolutely loved him for it. That and the fact that he was “not a politician”, at least not in the conventional sense. In this regard Trump’s complete lack of prior experience in government at any level was an asset.
After all, Republicans love nominating businessmen, like Dubya or Romney, and they love a celebrity, like Reagan. Trump is both businessman and celebrity, and he’s not afraid to be a contemptuous asshole to the people who Republicans hate. He’s a classic “populist” in that way.
Moreover, the seeming contradiction of a billionaire trust funder having the support of many working class voters isn’t so mysterious when you consider how this is America, the land of business hucksters and get-rich quick schemes and the Prosperity Gospel, etc. And the Trump family history in America—from Frederich and Elizabeth Christ Trump to Fred and then Donald—has demonstrated just how successful that kind of vulgar, predatory capitalism (buying up a lot of real estate, licensing the family name to be used by other developers, reality television, and of course, cheating the government out of untold amounts in tax revenue) can be in this country. Support Trump, and maybe, just maybe, you too will be very rich.
But that works for Trump and the Republican Party. Democrats are different. So while Bernie’s form of principled left-wing populism is popular among a significant chunk of the Democratic base, it clearly isn’t the level of support that can win the party’s nomination for president, at least if 2016 and 2020 are any guide. We’ll see if someone else (who’d have to be considerably younger than the octogenarian Sanders) will take up his baton and actually win the nomination in 2028.
For Trump, everything is zero-sum.
Trump’s view is that the “killers” win and have others pay them tribute, while only “suckers and losers” pay—whether it be paying off a loan or paying taxes—and/or allow themselves to be “ripped off” by foreign countries (free trade deals, international alliances) or foreigners in general (immigrants), and so it’s better to be a “killer” like Roy Cohn, Vladimir Putin, Mohammed bin Salman, Jair Bolsonaro, or indeed, Donald’s father Fred Trump.
Better to be a grifter than a sucker—that’s the narcissistic, sociopathic, zero-sum mentality of people like Trump. And if George W. Bush was Mr. “Us vs. Them”, Donald Trump is Mr. “ME vs. Them (read: everyone else).”
It seems to me the Trump-Vance strategy is to get massive turnout of "the five Cs"
Cultists, Crazies, Conspiracists, Creeps, and Christofascists.
But I’m not convinced that’ll be enough for them to win. They’re a bunch of WEIRD, sick fucks and most Americans—most voters, and most people in general—are repulsed by this “very online” Nazi or Nazi-adjacent shit.
They don’t even realize how weird, creepy, and off-putting they are, because they only talk to each other. Guys like Vance, Musk, Don Jr., and the mush-brained 78-year old asshole himself are so up their own asses, high on their own supply of fascist memes and far-right conspiracy theories…they’ve all but completely lost touch with reality.
Don’t get me wrong, they’re every bit as dangerous as they’ve always been, and we should never underestimate the threat they pose, but man…they just seem increasingly pathetic on a number of levels, especially since Democrats have been reenergized and got on the counter-attack w/Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. The GOP really don’t know how to deal with them, so they’re just doubling down on being gross, creepy, and WEIRD far-right extremist bigots—how unoriginal. 
We really can beat them.
The media would not have focused on the cookware if it had been any previous VP.
That’s for damn sure.
This is not about one person or another. Unlike the other side, we are not cultists.
We are better than that. We value our democracy and our country too much to be that way. Joe knows this…and so does Kamala. I have great respect and admiration for both.
Now, let’s get on with it and defeat that wannabe fascist cult!
There's no love in that family. Fred Trump made sure of it.
Donald takes after his father, and Melania is just as bad in many ways.
And the Trump children—at least, the three eldest—are just pathetic little brats competing for their father’s favor. They’re not competing for his love, because again, there’s no love in the Trump family.
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Member since: Sun Aug 22, 2021, 01:00 PMNumber of posts: 407