What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[Razgovory]

Legal Eagle loses his shit over Trump's pardons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMiOMNIRs3k

Yeah, these pardons are disgusting and there is nothing anyone can do.

[Valmy]

I mean the Texas Republicans selected a war criminal to be their leader. Trump and his followers might view abusing human rights as a positive.

I am referring to Trump pardoning the Blackwater massacre prople there, not the other evil pardons just to clarify.

[Darth Wagtaros]

I mean the Texas Republicans selected a war criminal to be their leader. Trump and his followers might view abusing human rights as a positive.

I am referring to Trump pardoning the Blackwater massacre prople there, not the other evil pardons just to clarify.

You can't own the libs without getting your hands dirty. Real Americans understand that these guys were just doing their jobs keeping the savages away from teh Real Americans.  Leftists would want them to come over here and kill people. Leftists hate America. Therefore making Leftists angry is patriotic.  Its all as simple as that.

[Razgovory]

I mean the Texas Republicans selected a war criminal to be their leader. Trump and his followers might view abusing human rights as a positive.

I am referring to Trump pardoning the Blackwater massacre prople there, not the other evil pardons just to clarify.

Based on what Trump said about the earlier pardon I think he really does believe that they are a positive.  Trump said of a another war criminal "He was just doing what he was trained to do".  I really believe that Trump believes that the main job of a soldier is killing.  Anything else is just political correctness.

[Solmyr]

Interesting Twitter thread speculating on Trump's outlook on truth and reality: https://twitter.com/AmandaMarcotte/status/1345857134802710530

I don't think Trump "believes" things, in the same way you or I might. He simply doesn't think truth matters. He says things he imagines will help him, and rejects things he thinks won't help him. There is no reality outside of his self-interest.

It's hard for normal people — especially those of us with post-Enlightenment liberal educations — to imagine evaluating claims without including some semblance of concern over whether it's true. But Trump simply doesn't care about truth, at all. So he doesn't think about it.
What I got from that call is not that Trump "believes" the votes exist. He hasn't really given that a moment's thought. His belief is in power — and the ability of those who have it to create "reality". As Michael Cohen said, Trump speaks in code.
So "find the votes" means "make them up if you have to". Belief has nothing to do with it. Trump's business acumen was invented by TV producers and by Roy Cohn. He has existed his whole life on lies. So he simply doesn't understand being hamstrung by empirical facts.
This is where the hatred so many have for postmodernism is misplaced. Postmodernists didn't will into being the idea that reality is socially constructed. They just identified a phenomenon that was already true in the world. And some people, like Trump, are maximal examples.
What is a "successful" businessman? Well, success is a social construction — enough people believe in it, and the difference between "true" success and the one constructed of belief collapses entirely. Which is what literally happened for Trump.
So *of course* Trump thinks an election can simply be rewritten, so long as everyone just agrees to commit to a new truth, where he "won". And that is what he's trying to get Raffensperger to do: Make him the winner, in the same way Mark Burnett made him a successful businessman.
It probably does help to be a sociopath in these instances. The lack of empathy for other people shuts the sociopath off from understanding why others have attachment to empirical reality. All he does is see that as another obstacle between him and his goal.
Most of us would struggle to bully a person into denying reality, because imposing the pain of cognitive dissonance is tough for those with human empathy. Trump thinks nothing of it — likely doesn't even think about what the person he's bullying is thinking.
Gaslighting is a breeze when you have no feeling for others. You are unconcerned with their feelings. All you know is that the words coming out of their mouth aren't what you want to hear, and you will continue to bully until that changes. That is what I hear on that call.
I do think, in the weird and unconnected way Trump "believes" things, that he believes that someone in the GOP has the secret path to steal this election. But his lack of curiosity around what that looks like is another indication that empirical reality is not important to him.
The only other thing I'll add is that one reason much of the right wing base goes along with this is that they simply don't prioritize empirical reality the way the rest of us do. It's a lot like the concept of "faith", and the valorizing of believing things that aren't true.
This didn't start with Trump. Remember this quote? Literally about how empirical truth matters less than power. This is true to an extent, since power is powerful. But as Bush learned and Trump is failing to learn, sometimes power doesn't trump facts.

I'm probably hitting the limits of Twitter and also my own ability to articulate philosophical concepts, but what is helpful here to understand that some folks simply don't see truth as important and don't factor it into their discourse in the way you or I might.

[Josquius]

Certainly aligns with what we see coming from Trumpies and associated types this past 5 years+

Its interesting really. As much as you always see complaints about Orwellian states whenever CCTV cameras are put up or some other strengthening of police powers goes on, you don't see much in the way of complaints about the true horror of Oceania in rewriting the past.

[The Larch]

This is really small potatoes in comparison with the Georgia tape, but apparently Trump is planning to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to congressmen Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan.

[Admiral Yi]

If I were to rank Trump's wrongdoings by seriousness I would put debasing the Presidential Serving of Freedom Fries dead last.  It has always been a nothingburger.

[Monoriu]

If I were to rank Trump's wrongdoings by seriousness I would put debasing the Presidential Serving of Freedom Fries dead last.  It has always been a nothingburger.

What would you rank first?

[Admiral Yi]

What would you rank first?

Not sure.  This Georgia call makes the short list.  So does Ukraine aid.

What do you thiink?

[Eddie Teach]

Ukraine, that we know of.

[Barrister]

The US Attorney for North Georgia (a Trump appointee) resigned today without comment.

This follows the US Attorney for Middle Georgia (another Trump appointee) resigning Dec 11 without further comment.

https://www.ajc.com/news/breaking-us-attorney-for-north-georgia-resigns-effective-immediately/UDJNKRKKLRFILC4NC5QKWEUKXM/




Edit: added link

[Solmyr]

Clearly, the Deep State blackmailed these patriots into resigning.

[DGuller]

What's the point of resigning immediately, if you're not even going to comment on it?  If you got an illegal order, then say something publicly, so that it would be harder for the more pliant replacement to carry it out. 

And why resign anyway in such situations?  Why not just stall passive aggressively until you're fired?  If you think it's your duty to resist illegal orders, that would be a more effective way to resist.

[celedhring]

It seems to me they could just be "look, I don't want anything to do with this mess" rather than principled opposition.