Trump is taking a road trip to Mexico to meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. Josh Marshall explains why this is a bad idea:
It’s a general rule of politics not to enter into unpredictable situations or cede control of an event or happening to someone who wants to hurt you. President Nieto definitely does not want Donald Trump to become President. He probably assumes he won’t become president, simply by reading the polls. President Nieto is himself quite unpopular at the moment. But no one is more unpopular than Donald Trump. Trump is reviled. Toadying to Trump would be extremely bad politics; standing up to him, good politics.
Put those factors together and Peña Nieto has massive and overlapping reasons to want to embarrass Trump. At a minimum since he’s probably not eager to create a true international incident, he has zero interest in appearing in any way accommodating or helpful. The calculus might be different if Trump seemed likely to be the next US President. Mexico is a minor power with the world colossus on its doorstep. But a Trump presidency seems unlikely. Far likelier, Peña Nieto will need to build a relationship with Hillary Clinton. These factors combined make for an inherently dangerous political situation for Donald Trump, especially since the atmospherics of this meeting will be the backdrop for Trump’s evening speech which is itself an incredibly important moment and one in which he has set for himself what is likely an impossible challenge.
And here’s the punch line:
Trump is apparently traveling to Mexico with Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Jeff Sessions as his minders.
The Trump campaign has been one long exercise in shark-jumping, but this is epic even for Trump.
“Stupid is, as stupid does…”
I know why t-RUMP waited until the last minute to announce this visit to Mexico:
If he’d have given us more time, maybe a couple of hundred million of us would have rushed to the border, and put a wall up so he couldn’t come back!
I hope the Mexican President gives t-RUMP some nice “special” Mexican water, and when t-RUMP’s giving his immigration speech tonight, he’ll shit, piss, and barf all over himself on national TV!
Now THAT, I’d spend money to watch on PPV!!!
I saw a thing on the teevee a few days ago about the tunnels the coyotes use to smuggle people across the border. Yes, tunnels. The wall is obsolete before it is even built.
Oh, and how much would I love it if Mexico’s President, Nieto, told one of his chef’s to create a (completely NON-Mexican) taco bowl, and shove t-RUMP’s face in it, when it’s brought out!!!
I’d also pay for that, on PPV!
It’s the “I’m not Hitler more like Mussolini†tour?
Rudy ? WTF ?
Rudy the skull..He’d be better suited as a greeter for a funeral parlour. There’s nothing like sincere condolences. Rudy is puke city.
I can’t claim it and cannot attribute it, but some enterprising person suggested that the Mexican president invited Trump so that Mexico could sell Trump a time share. (It makes more sense if you know the scam Trump ran on selling timeshares in Mexico)
Every time you think the Trump campaign has reached peak stupid, they raise the bar.
I might not have mentioned this before…but Trump is a big bloated obnoxious bag of shit. To listen to his maniacal ravings about how when he assumes office that suddenly utopia is going to break out and peace and harmony is going to settle upon the land. Lawlessness will be no more.. That’s crazy in itself, but to think that he has millions of devout followers who suck up every morsel of his bullshit, is by far crazier.
I really don’t get it! Something is amiss in my universe. I used to pride myself in my ability of abstract reasoning and sometimes I would engage in mental excursions that would take me to the outer boundaries of the universe where I would comprehend the incomprehensible. And yet with all my mental prowess at full bore I cannot even begin to comprehend the simple logic of how one makes America great again. I guess it can only be understood on a pheromonal level.
Swami, it sounds like you might benefit from a stiff G&T, especially in the canicular, Floridian afternoons. The venerable Wooster referred to the “hour when an English gentleman avails himself of a bracing cocktail.” Evidence indicates that “Florida Man” likes to “kick back and chill” frequently, evidently, he often starts before the sun has passed the yardarm.
Swami’s post points out something essential. Maybe nobody is thinking quite right. My right wing friends seem to relish simple and direct verbal barbs and “gotchas.” They fill the social media with word salads stringing together terms like “libtards” and idiots. These usually cite something from Breitbart, Daily Caller or Glen Beck. It’s no coincidence that the most vitriolic and dismissive give no evidence of having more than two brain cells to rub together, but, in fairness, they MUST. Something else has to be going on. We’re divided into two main camps and we occupy the same real estate, but different worlds. We level similar charges at each other. I think their sources are bogus, they think my sources are bogus. We’re at an impasse. I blame them and they blame me. It all gets very dreary and taxing.
Alas, I do truly believe that they are being herded by misinformation more than our side is. This stems from the fact that the “news” is a product produced for a class of consumers. We turn everything into a business. It’s easier to sell the news if it contains something scandalous and menacing, while it confirms the right biases. The same goes for our democratic processes. The democratic processes of proposition, debate and making policy, have been replaced by “Wrestlemania.” It’s good for the bottom line. As hard as we try, it’s almost impossible to avoid having our cognitive processes corrupted. The only hope we have is to be aware the extent of their corruption and try to deal with it. This leads full circle to the concept of the stiff gin and tonic.
“The Road to Stupid,” is paved with bigotry, intolerance, stupidity, ignorance, hate, and fear.
The following article finally showed me why Trump wants 11 million illegals out of the US. Getting rid of them will lower the racial percentage of the US represented by each illegal. Then future immigration will be based on the percentage of the population of the US represented by the different races. White supremecy forever.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-schmeltzer/trump-makes-white-nationa_b_11814808.html?
The key to dealing with the soulless machinations of socialized sociopathy in a world with ever increasing population and technology, for the good of the many, is moderation. Disciplined, hard working intelligent competent moderation. Boring. More exciting for the mundane life to a freedom fighting radical. Or some other radical.
Or maybe dogma causes dementia, I dunno.
As Chinese medicine recommends: Moderation in all things. But we humans do loves our drama.
Seems like moderation is everywhere in the world, even dealing with air and water there can be too much or too little. But I don’t think they’re always trying to game the system for their own benefit.
Trying to think of a catchier phrase. Dogma develops dementia? I base that on people being plastic. Exercise one area and you get stronger there. Ignore it and it’ll atrophy. I’ve observed that over time, dogmatics start sounding pretty retarded because their critical thinking muscles have gotten so flabby. (I’m sure moderation might apply there too but I’m not that far yet…)
Trump’s demeanor and mannerisms at a podium are very reminiscent of Il Duce, Benito Mussolini.
Pretty much, Dan !
Dan …I’ve made that exact same observation and was thinking about commenting on it. You beat me to it..Looking back in my mind at old newsreels of Benito mugging with self satisfaction and self approval it’s not hard to see the same facial gestures and mannerism. It’s sorta like a universally unspoken language. His countenance.
Another thing that puzzles me is when Trump announced he was calling for a ban of all Muslims entering the United States.. He goes..”I, Donald J. Trump, call for a complete and total ban of all Muslims entering the United States.” What is with the “Donald J. Trump” thing? Is that supposed to impart some mystical power from on high? Like Donald J. Trump has spoken and as it is spoken so shall it be?
And the coif dwelt among us?
goatherd …I’ve abstained from all manner of distilled spirits…I haven’t partaken of either the grape nor the grain in over 40 years. I don’t say that as a moral boast, but more as an admission and reaffirmation that alcohol kicked my ass good in the ten year period of my consumption. Events in my life at the time I was drinking made it clear that the two sure probabilities of either death or jail awaited me had I continued in my alcoholic ways.
I do enjoy my herb though.. I’ve been a seasoned veteran in the war on drugs with over 50 years in the trenches to my credit without becoming a legal casualty. Sometimes I feel like an Audie Murphy in the war on drugs. Rockefeller, Hoover, and Nixon are molderin’ in the grave as I go toking on.
You made the right decision, Swami. Think of my suggestion as being for a metaphorical G&T, heck, that could be an hour of two of meditation in place of any substance.
Regarding Il Duce:
I had a surprise a few months back when I came across an article written by Benito Mussolini. I accepted the conventional view that he was the classic “dim bulb,” but, the use of language, etc, said otherwise. It’s not unlikely that, like Trump, he had a clever ghostwriter or an inventive translator.
Back when I was in school, my Slavic Arts and Letters professor didn’t particularly admire a certain Ukrainian poet who was popular at the time. (I liked the guy’s work.) He remarked that, “he was the only poet better in translation than in his native language.” Maybe that’s true of Mussolini, too. I am sure it would be true of Trump, even with a ghostwriter.
When Trump works the crowd, he really does seem to be channelling Mussolini. I never thought of Mussolini as a world class conman, he seemed a different sort of sociopath, but only slightly so. The skill at targeting the weaknesses of opponents and the drive to manipulate people can certainly help an up and coming fascist.
Meanwhile, Trump’s trip to Mexico is still a mystery. Before the trip, there were a lot of ‘What is he thinking?” type articles, and I admit, I don’t know what his angle was, but, one thing you can be sure of, is that he HAD an angle. As I have said before, a conman can convince anyone that they are smarter than he is. At that point their defenses go down and they become attached to the idea of their relative intelligence, which becomes the tether that the conman uses to lead them, maybe to the Promised Land or down the road to Stupid. Either way, they’re not coming back as quite the same person.
Trump seems to be playing the fool, and his opposition seems to be becoming overconfident. That could shave a few points off of HRC’s margin. We can also be sure that there will be an “October surprise,” and that it’s going to be a doozy.
goatherd,
You’ve made me very curious.
Who was the poet?
If he said he was Taras Shevchenko, then that prof’s nuts!
Cund, for some reason he thought Yevgeny Yevtushenko was getting some undeserved acclaim here in the states. I think that part of it was jealousy. But, my teacher was Polish, and had been impressed into the Soviet army during WWII, so there were “issues,” between him and the Soviets, and he felt that the cultural works of other Slavic people went relatively unrecognized, particularly in the west, because Russia had taken the spotlight.
I actually think the “better in translation, than in his native language” quip is very clever, even though I was as smitten with Yevtushenko as everyone else and I went to see him read. In those days I was a mad young poet, nothing came of it of course, but, even back then I liked a bit of schmaltz, as I still do.
He also said that if you could read them in the original language Henryk Sienkiewicz made Dostoyevsky “look like a rough craftsman.” You would be a far better judge of that than I would be, But, I admired him and enjoyed his classes even though most of the real worth of them was way above my head.
The same professor had a great Slavic sense of humor. He claimed that he once won a wager where he was challenged to tell jokes for ten hours straight. “It was easy, because, for example, I know one joke, that if you tell it properly, it takes two hours.”
Okay, I know this is puerile, I know that it’s wrong to laugh at other people’s expense, I know we have to bury the hatchet and start getting along. But, …
https://youtu.be/ppIQMIUy61w
goatherd,
Yes, it’s a great line, but…
Yevtushenko has Ukrainian roots, but he was raised in the Soviet system in Irkutsk, and didn’t clearly identify with Ukrainians back in the Soviet era, when the Ukrainian language was largely forbidden.
When he wrote “Baba Yar,” he became an international sensation, it was a great poem – in Russian, Ukrainian, AND English.
Your Professor should have known that.
I acted in a play by Yevtushenko, back in the mid-90’s.
He came to the performance – its US premier – and LOVED my performance!!! The rest of the production, got a, “Meh…” from him.
We had a few shots of vodka after it.
He told my parents that I was one of the best actors that he’d ever seen!!!
He wondered why I wasn’t on Broadway?
That, and a few bucks, would buy me a cup of coffee.
Yes, as I said, I was smitten with Yevtushenko’s work too, more than that, it moved me. The reason that I didn’t initially include his name is that I didn’t, and don’t, share my teacher’s opinion. But, I do like the barb.
Still, that particular professor was one of the most memorable souls I’ve ever met. He had a face like mottled leather and he rolled humpbacked cigarettes out of black Balkan tobacco. He was at Stalingrad. All in all, he was a very memorable person. I am grateful to have known him, even though I didn’t know enough to agree or disagree with him. I was just there to listen.
Acting in that play must have been quite an experience. My own acting career ended before it started when I was passed over for the part of George Ross, Betsy Ross’s husband in our third grade Flag Day presentation. I never really recovered from that and have had stage fright ever since. Fortunately, that’s not much of a loss to humanity.
A few vodkas with Yevtushenko would also be a hell of a treasure, a lot better than my “blind date” with Wendy O. Williams of the Plasmatics. She had this thing for miniature golf!
Wendy O?
FSM, I almost forgot the derision I got from my friends – after about 157 beers back in the mid/late 70’s – when I had a brain-fart, and called her, “Cindy O. Williams” – the other cute woman in “Laverne & Shirley!”
That, and my moronic question to my (late) best friend, back in ’76, when NYS changed its law, and said you could take a right-hand turn at a red-light if there was no on-coming traffic:
“Can you do that at a ‘STOP” sign, too?”
The second that idiotic question escaped my lips, I knew what a “MORAN!!!!” I could be.
A few beats later, we laughed so hard, we had to pee!!!
Later, we argued over who drove whom home the night before.
And when we picked-up another buddy, he said, “I had the hardest time last night getting you two drunks out of the car!!!!”
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good times!
(Because we didn’t kill anyone…).