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the GOP is on track to retain the senate and has a supreme court majority - in theory these are things that would help trump but you're also seeing GOP leadership coming to the conclusion they don't necessarily need trump (or at least trump-in-power) to harness his populism or to completely hamstring an incoming biden administration that is already playing the suck-up "bipartisan" game for them anyway. like, are any of them really ready to balkanize the US over donald trump (or more specifically to stop joe fucking biden? of course not).
and even from trump's perspective - this is a guy who is dumb as fuck and his reputation for taking his ball and going at the slightest sign of adversity is legendary - when the rubber hits the road, what do you think is more attractive to him? risking life and limb and an actual military action for 4 more years? or negotiating some immunity/pardon as a goodwill measure and then fucking off to make tons of money running Trump TV for 10 years or more?
i genuinely thought shit might pop off on election day and it didn't - in fact the opposite happened and despite both sides converging during a tense moment Philadelphia ended up turning into a mini-dance party. it's hard to visualize anything that could be incendiary enough to generate enough popular support (even among chuds) to galvanize a coup. i guess if i'm wrong you can screenshot this and be like "lol u thought" but - nah.
No lol, he's just throwing a temper tantrum. Trump is too stupid to actually pull off a coup.
he fell into it ass-backwards because he's a savant at being famous, but it won't help him pull off a coup
yeah i'm still increasingly convinced he just did it to bolster his name so he could spin up a right-wing media empire to challenge Murdoch or something but somehow fucked up spectacularly and ended up here
When he ends up not doing a coup, are you gonna take the lesson and stop making hyperbolic predictions or are you gonna keep doing it anyways? Because I don't see many of the "leave America while there is time, there will be mass violence and war after the election" really taking to heart the lesson. There is literally 0 reason for a coup to happen other than "Trump wants it" which isn't good enough.
He's transparently trying to do a coup and mocking him as incompetent instead of taking it seriously is how you end up with him winning again.
I don't think he can do a coup. I don't think he has the support. He's still trying, and that's still a really fucking bad thing.
Is Bill Barr just a savant at being famous?
He's not "trying" to do a coup. That's not how you "try" to do a coup. It's not a serious effort and it's absolutely nothing to worry about. It doesn't matter if he is competent or not. A coup does not happen just because some moron wishes it, even if they are president. Trump probably knows it. That's not why he is doing all the noise.
No a coup takes planning. Moving your peple into position. Drumming up support. maybe manufacturing a narrative to try and give it some legitimacy.
Trump getting elected was somewhat a miracle. 2016 should have been an easy win for Hillary, but she somehow managed to lose to Donald fucking Trump.
2016 should have been an easy win for the democrat, there could never have been an easy win for Hillary because almost everyone who doesn't live in New York, DC or San Francisco hates her fucking guts.
On almost complete accident, though. He was (reportedly) not trying to win and (reportedly) wanted to parlay the run at president into a news network.
So did Bush 2. I don't think you need to be smart to do that. You just need someone smart to run shit. Bush had Rove and Trump had Conway.
True. But what he doesn't have is the backing of capital or the media. There just isn't enough to get the bourgeoisie and the general PMC to go along with it.
What he probably doesn't have is enough control over the military.
You're talking about media while his supporters are soaking up OANN on facebook (and worse for the younger ones).
Those are both fair points but if the BLM protests and the right wing reactions to them taught me anything it's that most trump supporters are to fat and lazy to do the boogaloo. They would get in board if it's done for them but we're talking about his most devoted and those willing to take to the streets for nights on end. Without capital, a larger media support, and the military I don't see it happening. Then again, I thought Hillary would win in 2016 so there's no reason to think I'm right but that's my guess.
Honestly, the newest Ep of TMBS got into this a bit but I think capital will find more opportunities without Trump, especially while giving some suggestion of stability amid the pandemic and coming economic crash. I'll link it here. It's worth a listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsACy2PDDLI
Trump is such a wild card that its really hard to tell how much is just "show and spectacle" and what might be an honest attempt at a coup.
I've never given Trump much credit for actually wanting anything beyond attention and adulation, so like, how much work would he want to have to do to get a coup going?
It doesn't really seem like there is a block of behind the scenes power brokers wanting him to stay as a figurehead either. The long game right wingers already got more Tax Cuts and the Supreme Court packed so they don't really need him any more. Biden is a calm conservative which might be better for the stock market and business deregulation projects.
He'll be removed from the White House but spend the next four years insisting to his supporters that he's the legitimate President in exile after the Deep State performed a coup for Joe Biden, and the hogs are going to become even more like Mad Max characters. He'll have his own cabinet of loyalists, probably a lot of Q anon supporters, and like others said he'll basically be the anti-President.
In a stroke of irony the government of Venezuela is going to recognise him as the legitimate president and hand over the US embassy in Caracas to him.
Capital wants Biden
It wants a retrenched empire for the cosmopolitan bourgeoisie whereas Trump represents the local booj. They seem him as a liability
However if Trumps coup gains traction they will switch quite quickly to supporting Trump because if Trump absolutely hunkers down they won't want Biden pushing "too far" to discredit bourgeois democracy
In all honesty I'm excited :sicko-yes:
Yeah can't wait for people to die over which braindead boomer oversees the last days of the worlds largest pyramid scheme. Real exciting.
Revolution ain't a tea party
Under Heaven there is chaos - the situation is perfect
Revolutions are the locomotive of history
The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains
You cannot make a revolution in white gloves
etc. etc. ad infinitum
And honestly, if you end up dying for either Biden or Trump who cares
This isn't a revolution, there will be no change in who holds power in the United States over this.
You can keyboard warrior all you want, and quote whatever revolutionaries you want while you're checking your phone on the toilet but even though you may not be actual people are affected by this.
And honestly, if you end up dying for either Biden or Trump who cares
Yeah who cares about innocent people caught in the crossfire. Fuck them, right?
Yeah who cares about innocent people caught in the crossfire. Fuck them, right?
If they're democrats or republicans why do I care?
They've cheered for the slaughter of peoples across the entire globe and in the case of Dems wouldn't even promise to give people healthcare during a pandemic
Fuck them, right?
Yes.
You realize it's going to be more than just Democrats and Republicans who get caught up in this, right? This isn't a movie where only those involved in the storyline get hurt.
And do you realise when we post a flag of US on fire its not to be an edgelord?
I wish balkanisation process could be peaceful (which is more than what USians gave Yugoslavia, iraq syria libya)
Unfortunately it could never be peaceful - doesnt mean i dont still want US to balkanise
And do you realise when we post a flag of US on fire its not to be an edgelord?
Then I hope you're out doing something about it, putting your own life on the line. Because otherwise that's all you are.
Edgy.
If they’re democrats or republicans why do I care?
150 million people voted for either the Dems or Republicans in the last election. A majority of the adult population of the United States. If you want to be a communist in any sense other than internet posturing, a big chunk of that number is the working class you need to engage with politically.
The Democratic and Republican parties, as state-aligned political vehicles, are not interchangeable with the millions of people who vote for them because they are effectively the only two options available in bourgeois elections in the US. They aren't even parties in the sense that membership is available, and it's not like voters' preferences actually determine the vast majority of what those parties do when in power (case in point: healthcare).
150 million people voted for either the Dems or Republicans in the last election. A majority of the adult population of the United States. If you want to be a communist in any sense other than internet posturing, a big chunk of that number is the working class you need to engage with politically.
150 million members of the labour aristocracy that have long ago decided that their material wealth is tied to US imperialism which manifests (far outside the realm of political parties) in putting dead animals on the porch of the soldier that stopped My Lai massacre in the Vietnam invasion (while decorating the soldiers that did it) right up to telling half the population their "unamerican" for protesting the Empires Wars
Edgy.
You can call it edgy all you like but if you ever pointed out to the majority of Americans how the US has turned the rest of the world into a slave labour camp to satisfy they're endless material greed they're general sentiment is "sucks to be them".
If you or me were ever to point out to the average American that 12 million Russians died during the 1990s of capitalist restoration helped on by the US - do you think the average American would respond with empathy?
Or do you think they'd respond with "sucks to suck"
No, then why should I?
Do I think the US empire can ever decline in such a nature to avoid a catastrophe like what the Russians went through?
No - then, sucks to suck
If you want to be a communist in any sense other than internet posturing, a big chunk of that number is the working class you need to engage with politically.
Not american so sucks to suck. And even if I was I'd accept that my role as a communist in America is to bring the Empire to its knees - not organise for higher wages on the Death Star
To bring the empire to its knees is going to require a massive organized force, like say the US working class organized in its own class interest.
Your analysis of imperialism and labor aristocracy is absolute trash. Is the astronomical wealth generated by US capitalism flowing into the hands of the more than 40% of Americans who can't afford a $400 emergency expense? Does it lie with the 1/4 American households that have faced food insecurity in 2020? The objective majority of American workers who live paycheck to paycheck?
Or has it been reaped by the capitalists, the class whose interests give rise to imperialism and who own the apparatuses of imperialism and who pocket the profits of international capitalist exploitation?
You bullshit your way into the idea of a 150 million person "labor aristocracy," obscuring class divisions during what is probably the most intense period of class differentiation in US history: the period after the postwar boom where living standards for the US working class is declining, while the capitalists hoard wealth in historic quantities.
Are you so terminally online and disconnected that you think most working class Americans celebrate the My Lai massacre, or even know what that was?
If you or me were ever to point out to the average American that 12 million Russians died during the 1990s of capitalist restoration helped on by the US - do you think the average American would respond with empathy?
Yea I'm pretty sure I could get quite a few empathetic responses from pointing that out. I'm a trot, so I literally and routinely have friendly conversations about socialism with strangers on the street and at protests, and it helps that more than 50% of people under the age of 30 in the US are sympathetic to socialism. Being that you're not from the US, did you miss that 25 million people protested against racism and police brutality in the US this summer? Quite a few of those people are looking for a way out of a racist capitalist status quo.
You on the other hand, hold American workers responsible for the crimes of their ruling class in a way that 1) is bullshit, not grounded in conditions or consciousness as they actually exist, and 2) isn't going to win anyone to your position. So I can see how you might struggle to build a connection.
not organise for higher wages on the Death Star
Yikes. In retrospect, I'd actually like to see you explain to folks who are legitimately struggling to provide a comfortable life for themselves and their families that, by virtue of being born in the US, they work on a project equivalent to the death star and do not deserve basic improvements to their quality of life.
Hey dude, Foucault might have been on some lib shit but he was right that power and the state just reassert themselves. I don't think he's doing a coup. He's not that invested and he's need media to get on board with capital to back him.
Jesus Christ stop with the terrible analysis, when will you people learn?
Capital wants Biden.
Trump sends in a team of marines to beat a single digit billionaire to death.
Capital is fine with Trump.
Oh what's that the most self serving of capitalists is going to exhibit class loyalty when he has an advantage?
Oh well I guess I'm wrong then.
You are surprised to find me so calm in the midst of crime? Let me then say a few words apropos. I fain would have you become as apathetic as I—and I think you soon shall. I noticed yesterday that you were struck, even startled, by my equanimity in the thick of the horrors we were committing and I seem to remember that you accused me of lacking pity for the men our debauchery sacrificed.
Oh, Juliette, banish all doubt thereof: Nature has arranged everything, informed everything, hers is the responsibility for all you see and all there is. Has she given equal strength, equal beauty, equal grace to all the creatures wrought by her hand? Of course not. Since she desires that each particular thing or constitution have its particular contour or hue, so also she wills that fates and fortunes be not alike. The luckless ones chance puts in our clutches, or who excite our passions, have their place in Nature’s scheme as do the stars in the firmament and the sun that gives us light; and ’tis as certain an evil one commits in meddling with this wise economy as ’twould be were one to confound cosmic operations, were that crime within the scope of our possibilities…
Nah he knows he's gone. He'll go eventually but he'll keep pretending he is the legitimate president after he is gone and his fan base will lap it up. That's who all the noise is for, the crazed chuds.
To be fair I've also been looking forward to calling him "president in exile Trump"
I would not be surprised to find out he's on a coke and burger bender and is flailing. I really don't see how they can pull off an actual coup with no ground support and against the interest of capital.
-2018
-wake up feeling sick after a late night of playing video games
-excited to play some halo 2k19
-"xbox on"
-...
-"XBOX ON"
-"Please verify that you are "annon332" by saying "Doritos™ Dew™ it right!"
-"Doritos™ Dew™ it right"
-"ERROR! Please drink a verification can"
-reach into my Doritos™ Mountain Dew™ Halo 2k19™ War Chest
-only a few cans left, needed to verify 14 times last night
-still feeling sick from the 14
-force it down and grumble out "mmmm that really hit the spot"
-xbox does nothing
-i attempt to smile
-"Connecting to verification server"
-...
-"Verification complete!"
-finally
-boot up halo 2k19
-finding multiplayer match...
-"ERROR! User attempting to steal online gameplay!"
-my mother just walked in the room
-"Adding another user to your pass, this will be charged to your credit card. Do you accept?"
-"NO!"
-"Console entering lock state!"
-"to unlock drink verification can"
-last can
-"WARNING, OUT OF VERIFICATION CANS, an order has been shipped and charged to your credit card"
-drink half the can, oh god im going to be sick
-pour the last half out the window
-"PIRACY DETECTED! PLEASE COMPLETE THIS ADVERTISEMENT TO CONTINUE"
-the mountain dew ad plays
-i have to dance for it
-feeling so sick
-makes me sing along
-dancing and singing
-"mountain dew is for me and you"
-throw up on my self
-throw up on my tv and entertainment system
-router shorts
-"ERROR NO CONNECTION! XBOX SHUTTING OFF"
-"PLEASE DRINK VERIFICATION CAN TO CONTINUE"
I think it's as simple as: Trump plans to hole up in the white house, and he thinks if he has a couple of his guys in senior leadership positions in the military, they won't physically remove him so he gets to be president forever.
It's kinda like in Forgetting Sarah Marshall when Jason Segel refuses to get dressed because once he's dressed his gf is gonna have the conversation with him where she says she wants to break up.
I too expected far more violence, but as it turns out Trump is too incompetent even to turn his fanatical supporters into helping him forcefully hold power.
Of course he's not gonna pull off a coup. The military has no reason to support a Trump coup, and while the police might want to there's nothing to suggest it's going to happen, half his own staff are openly calling for him to concede, and if anything was going to happen we'd know about it by now because the Trump administration has more leaks than a collander.
Those two things are not mutually exclusive, but I agree with mister Carter.
Imagine voluntarily stepping down after all this? Real beta shit.
