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> Trump works transactionally Why can't we just call this corruption? Is there any other, more charitable, interpretation of "transactional"?
by ot 1y ago
> Trump works transactionally
Why can't we just call this corruption? Is there any other, more charitable, interpretation of "transactional"?
- pavlov 1y agoI suppose the charitable interpretation is that Trump favors transactions that offer short-term benefits to the country, rather than America’s traditional investments into long-term goals that tend to be more nebulous (“soft power” etc.) Of course, one look at Trump’s actual transactions in office should dissuade of that notion. After he made the preliminary trade deal with the EU, he bragged on TV that Europeans are investing $600 billion and Trump himself gets to decide where the money goes. It’s baffling that anyone would assume that’s how any of this works, but he clearly thinks the point of these transactions is to get more power and wealth for himself.
- jrs235 1y ago*Trump favors transactions that offer short-term benefits to himself (via maintaining or expanding power or money). FTFY.
- balamatom 1y ago>It’s baffling that anyone would assume that’s how any of this works. It's because the president said it on TV.
- pavlov 1y agoIs that a recursive loop? The president thinks that’s how it works because the president said so on TV. I can believe that kind of reinforcement happens. Trump watches Fox News, sees himself saying X, and thinks “yes, it’s very good that {X}.”
- burnt-resistor 1y agoWhen malignant narcissist psychopathic pedophile criminals take power, they don't have a constructive plan for maximum long term benefit to society because they don't know anything and DGAF except that which benefits them personally.
- balamatom 1y agoWhen every politician is a TV show, the genre-savvy one wins.
- balamatom 1y ago>Is that a recursive loop? The president thinks that’s how it works because the president said so on TV. He's probably exactly this stupid, but in regards to the sentence >It’s baffling that anyone would assume that’s how any of this works. I was referring to the rest of the anyone.
- actionfromafar 1y agoTransactional at best. Not sly mob-leader transactional, but toddler transactional. Edit: to his own detriment. Why bother with "deals" when you know it can change at any moment. Just put on a golden dog and pony show for the King and hope for the best.
- jfengel 1y agoAn article on HN yesterday calculated that he has made $2 billion on these various deals. Sounds like it's working great for him.
- actionfromafar 1y agoYeah, good for him. Bad for the country. But he’s hardly a patriot.
- burnt-resistor 1y agoHe's meeting with Komprat holder daddy to give an palm up handshake to discuss Ukraine's surrender of land without Ukraine.
- tempodox 1y agoIt has become so normal, nobody is even calling it corruption any more. See also: “regulatory capture”.
- burnt-resistor 1y agoCentimillionaires and billionaires, rather than creators of value, are varying degrees of exploitative extractive from consumers and capturing of value rather than paying workers fairly. 60 years ago, companies offered workers stability and defined benefits retirement plan, less political influence, and reasonable CEO:worker pay ratios. This isn't sustainable because the country club Tea Party WASPs are running the asylum by turning a former superpower into a third-world country pariah.