{"id":136697,"date":"2018-06-09T11:25:20","date_gmt":"2018-06-09T17:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=136697"},"modified":"2018-06-11T07:09:30","modified_gmt":"2018-06-11T13:09:30","slug":"the-politics-of-despair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/06\/09\/the-politics-of-despair.html","title":{"rendered":"The Politics of Despair"},"content":{"rendered":"

I admit, I whipsaw around as to what motivates Trump. Is he a massive narcissist? Is he a cunning plutocrat? Is he a parochial xenophobe? Is he the hapless puppet of Russian oligarchs? Is he willing tool of them? Is he a rabid neocon warmonger? Is he an anti-government iconoclast looking to line his own pockets along the way? Is he a racist white nationalist with a fondness for the Bad Old Days? Is he an idiot holding a loaded pistol? Is he a fiendish genius with the keys to the kingdom?<\/p>\n

Is he simply Loki in an unattractive disguise, spreading mischief and\/or evil? Puck putting on the ass’ head himself, playing chaos-bringer and chortling about what fools these mortals be?<\/p>\n

I think the greatest danger of someone like Trump, who not only pushes buttons in all directions, but positively delights<\/i> in doing so, is that people will get so fed up they just throw up their hands and say, “I can’t even,” and walk away from confronting him and his cohorts, walk away from reminding not just themselves but others around them that this is not<\/i> normal, and this must<\/i> be stopped, walk away from the processes in place to do something about it (including voting come November to kick the political legs out from under this dolt).<\/p>\n

Despair is the greatest enemy. Because Trump has just enough followers who are wildly enthused about (cherry-picked aspects of) what he does, that unless people stand up to him he will continue to, not just let it all burn to the ground, but heave cans of gasoline into the fire, all the while smirking from whatever the source of joy he finds in doing so.<\/p>\n


\n
\n<\/a>
\nTrump Says U.S. Will No Longer Be \u2018Piggy Bank That Everybody\u2019s Robbing\u2019<\/a><\/span>
\nAt the end of a contentious meeting of the Group of Seven nations, Mr. Trump railed about what he called \u201cridiculous and unacceptable\u201d tariffs on American goods.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Original Post<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I admit, I whipsaw around as to what motivates Trump. Is he a massive narcissist? Is he a cunning plutocrat? Is he a parochial xenophobe? Is he the hapless puppet of Russian oligarchs? Is he willing tool of them? Is he a rabid neocon warmonger? Is he an anti-government iconoclast looking to line his own … Continue reading “The Politics of Despair”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,1071],"tags":[1077],"class_list":["post-136697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts","category-trump","tag-trump"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/trump-g7-2018.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":136116,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/13\/trump-is-his-own-worst-enemy-his-opponents-best-ally.html","url_meta":{"origin":136697,"position":0},"title":"Trump is his own worst enemy, his opponents best ally","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 13-Apr-18 2:44pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Donald Trump continues to do more to both publicize and lend credibility to Comey's memoir than any other imaginable factor. His tweeting and public rhetoric not only ignores the Streisand Effect, but validates every point that Comey makes about his personality. Comey says Trump is untethered from truth; Trump asserts,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/trump-across-the-table.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24243,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/05\/the-joker-is-trump.html","url_meta":{"origin":136697,"position":1},"title":"The Joker is Trump","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 5-Dec-11 10:48am","format":false,"excerpt":"Donald Trump is a modern-day P.T. Barnum -- except that Barnum was actually a much nicer guy in fact. Anyway, as he coincidentally is flogging a new book, he's busy setting up a \"debate\" with the GOP candidates ... and, of course, mocking those who've said they won't be there.And,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129590,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/01\/trump-vs-trump.html","url_meta":{"origin":136697,"position":2},"title":"Trump vs. Trump","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 1-Feb-16 5:40am","format":false,"excerpt":"If anyone doubts that the support for Donald Trump is some sort of visceral emotional thing, vs. a rational evaluation of policy positions and consistent ideological track record ... um, yeah, here you go. View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136393,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/11\/the-trump-of-the-deal.html","url_meta":{"origin":136697,"position":3},"title":"The Trump of the Deal","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 11-May-18 9:04am","format":false,"excerpt":"So basically Trump demonstrated leadership by not engaging with Iran, by avoiding negotiations with our frenemies China and Russia, and getting our actual European allies to agree to all sorts of concessions and come supplicate themselves to keep the deal in place, only to throw them under the bus. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/trump-making-a-point.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":136544,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/24\/trump-got-played-by-kim.html","url_meta":{"origin":136697,"position":4},"title":"Trump got played by Kim","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 24-May-18 4:04pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Kim comes out as a negotiating peer of the US, and arguably as earnest a peacemaker\/seeker as Trump. Great deal-making, Mr. President. Art of the Fail Art of the fail. View original","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/trump-kim.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":135414,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/26\/trump-suggests-everyone-read-bizarro-right-wing-web-site.html","url_meta":{"origin":136697,"position":5},"title":"Trump suggests everyone should read bizarro right-wing web site","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 26-Nov-17 11:58pm","format":false,"excerpt":"To be fair, his recommendations are specifically about a list of How Incredibly Great a President Trump Is. But the the site publishing that list is, how does one say, incredibly goofy. Trump recommends reading this insane website MagaPill gets the POTUS seal of approval. View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/unnamed-35.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136697"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136721,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136697\/revisions\/136721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}