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It's such a joke that we're even having to discuss this. Has there ever been such a thin-skinned, self-absorbed leader of a major power before? Even his biggest
by huhkerrf 9mo ago
It's such a joke that we're even having to discuss this. Has there ever been such a thin-skinned, self-absorbed leader of a major power before? Even his biggest fans have to admit, if only to themselves, that he acts like a toddler.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- soulofmischief 9mo agoSome people care about good institutions and would like to preserve them.
- analog31 9mo agoYes, there has. It's no joke.
- marcosdumay 9mo agoHum... There some irony for it being a peace prize, but giving it to Trump doesn't make it the worst on that list.
- nkassis 9mo agoHenry VIII* or Louis XIV?
- kens 9mo ago> Henry VII What do you have against Henry VII? From Wikipedia he seems to have been a good king.
- dilawar 9mo agoThe current prime minister of India once announced that he has Ph.D. in "all of the political science". Asked for proof, they produced his degree from Delhi University. No one who got their degree at that place during that time can't recall seeing him in the classroom! But that's nothing compared to this man. I usually avoid his news but seeing him grabbing fifa peace price wasn't a good sight.
- murukesh_s 9mo agoIn his defence, Modi's was external degree - i.e remote degree - so no one sees in the class room.
- lostlogin 9mo agoConvenient.
- jstummbillig 9mo agoCommon
- profsummergig 9mo agoPeople from non-privileged backgrounds in India often have so called "correspondence" degrees (remote), the privileged will not empathize.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- pjc50 9mo agoThe fifa prize was a very public bribe: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/us-attorney-dropped-fifa-bribery-case-at-trump-officials-behest https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/us-attorney-droppe...
- nephihaha 9mo ago
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- avs733 9mo agoI’ve started to refer to it as the “Tony Soprano presidency”. It fits so much of the logic.
- nephihaha 9mo agoBut Tony was a good businessman and also regretted entering certain aspects of the family business. My vote is for 13 year old boy's fantasy presidency.
- iwontberude 9mo agoA convenient explanation for Trumps ephebophilia/pedophilia.
- nephihaha 9mo agoNah, I was thinking more of busty (adult) blondes, owning a massive business and conducting international affairs like an eighties action movie.
- shubhamjain 9mo agoConsidering his approval rating is still in low 40s, and not 0, tells you volumes about the average American mind.
- treetalker 9mo agoBefore leaving the house, I find it helpful to imagine the median intelligence level in my geographic area (local, or country as a whole) and then recall that about half the population has a level below that point.
- saila 9mo agoThe issue isn't intelligence per se. It's ignorance (often willful ignorance), dogmatism, media illiteracy, political illiteracy, etc. There are many intelligent (but evil) people in the Trump administration and not every Trump voter is a dunce. Framing them all as stupid isn't useful, because it doesn't help us understand and counteract what's happening.
- treetalker 9mo agoI agree with this. I was describing what, for me, is something akin to a stoic practice.
- jacquesm 9mo agoI keep reading in the news that Trump now polls the lowest ever for any US president, then I check Nate Silver and he's been hovering around the same value for the last 90 days or so.
- jeppester 9mo agoThat was my main learning from the last election: The difference between Americans and Europeans truly is much greater than I'd ever expect. I really thought that it was impossible for Trump to get elected again. Everyone was warned, yet they wanted him back.
- 9mo ago
- tombert 9mo agoAre you saying that bombing multiple countries for little to no reason, trying to force a regime change in Venezuela, and threatening to steal Greenland by force isn’t peaceful????
- nephihaha 9mo ago[dead]
- tombert 9mo agoHe got the prize before he did much mongering though. Also he didn’t try to overthrow an election he lost.
- nephihaha 9mo agoThe peace prize is supposed to be about international matters. But somehow many people overlook his warmongering which comes close to Dubya's. Also his Standing Rock betrayal was disgusting.
- saila 9mo agoI agree that Obama wasn't as great as a lot of people make him out to be, but what does that have to do with the current situation?
- ripe 9mo ago> He got the prize before he did much mongering though. He and Nixon did plenty of mongering already in 1971, when they firmly backed and tried to cover up Pakistan's military atrocities in what is now Bangladesh. 10 million refugees didn’t prevent the Nobel committe from giving him the prize in 1973.
- tombert 9mo agoI think you might be replying to the wrong comment. I was talking about Obama. I do not believe Obama was doing a lot with Nixon in 1971, considering he would have been like 10 years old at that point. Not defending Kissinger at all.
- apexalpha 9mo agoHave you ever wondered why poor countries are often littered with statues of their leaders? A life of wealth, 0 consequences and only yes-men around you tends to produce these self absorbed people.
- agumonkey 9mo agoisn't that crazy that the United States revert to that level in less than 10 years ?
- randycupertino 9mo agoTrump taking the peace prize from Machado is a page out of Putin's playbook when Putin stole a superbowl ring from Bob Kraft, the owner of the Patriots. US secret service had to get involved and tell Kraft to drop the issue and let Putin have it. https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/heres-how-vladimir-putin-stole-a-super-bowl-ring-from-the-patriots-robert-kraft/ https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/heres-how-vladimir-putin-... > "I took out the ring and showed it to [Putin], and he put it on and he goes, 'I can kill someone with this ring,'" Kraft said in 2013. "I put my hand out and he put it in his pocket, and three KGB guys got around him and walked out." > Despite the fact that Putin walked off with the ring, Kraft still wanted the $25,000 piece of jewelry returned. However, he ended up giving up on his quest to get the ring back when White House called and told Kraft that starting World War III over a Super Bowl ring probably wouldn't be the best idea. > "It would really be in the best interest of US-Soviet relations if you meant to give the ring as a present," Kraft said he was told on the White House call in 2005. "I really didn't [want to]. I had an emotional tie to the ring, it has my name on it. I don't want to see it on eBay. There was a pause on the other end of the line, and the voice repeated, 'It would really be in the best interest if you meant to give the ring as a present.'" > Days later, a statement came from Kraft, and all of the sudden, the owner's stolen Super Bowl ring was now officially a "gift" to Russia. > "I decided to give him the ring as a symbol of the respect and admiration that I have for the Russian people and the leadership of President Putin," Kraft's 2005 statement said.
- nerdsniper 9mo agoThat moment actually has a better Trump analogy, the time Trump stole the FIFA Gold Club World Cup trophy and FIFA had to eventually decide to make a statement that they were giving it to Trump - which is unlike anything that’s ever happened before for a FIFA trophy. https://www.reddit.com/r/football/comments/1lzzsmc/trump_kept_gold_club_world_cup_trophy_for_himself/ https://www.reddit.com/r/football/comments/1lzzsmc/trump_kep...
- sdeer 9mo agoThin skinned, self-absorbed? Kaiser Wilhelm II comes to mind.
- romanhn 9mo agoThe post itself contains a fascinating historical precedent that maps pretty well to the current situation: Knut Hamsun (Literature Prize 1920): In 1943, the Norwegian author Knut Hamsun travelled to Germany and met with Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. After returning to Norway, he sent his Nobel medal to Goebbels as a gesture of thanks for the meeting. Goebbels was honoured by the gift. The present whereabouts of the medal are unknown.
- agumonkey 9mo agoit's quite incredible that trump put himself on the list of autocrats being given others prizes
- realo 9mo agoHum... the word "autocrat" might be too polite, and some in the Trump fan club might actually not understand it's meaning completely. I would suggest "fascist", instead.
- agumonkey 9mo agoI'll give you that. ps: there should be a discussion on the overall group behind him too (project25, techbros, orban links etc)
- Levitz 9mo agoDid we have to discuss this? Machado gave Trump her medal, there's no much more to it.
- jacquesm 9mo agoNot to help you with your sleeping patterns but: a toddler that could overnight decide to instruct US hosting providers and other infrastructure companies that they can no longer serve EU customers, that the .COM registry domains can only be registered by US entities, that any country owes the US any part of its territory 'or else'. The Nobel Prize is a footnote, it should have never happened, but there are much worse threats on the horizon.
- pjc50 9mo agoYeah, every time something like this happens, it becomes more necessary to boycott US services simply because you cannot guarantee their continuity or non politicization.
- pegasus 9mo agoThey did mention the toddler in question is leader of a major power, so I don't think what you're saying is going to surprise GP.
- jacquesm 9mo agoMost leaders of major powers are reasonably sane. This one may wake up in the middle of the night with a bad case of indigestion and order it so. I'm pretty sure that if any one of those three comes to pass a lot of people will be surprised and caught flat footed. And there will be nobody that stops it.
- samiv 9mo agoThe "or else" is actually on rather shaky grounds considering the national debt. For the sake of argument if certain countries decided to stop buying US treasury bonds the federal state would be insolvent about 5s later. Certainly a default of that size would destroy the economy in every single country pretty much except maybe Cuba and North Korea. The EU (and Europe) will have to lean East until Germany remilitarizes. US will find itself alone with enemies on all sides.
- jacquesm 9mo ago
- dh2022 9mo agoHow about Wilhelm II, the last German Kaiser? Some strong parallels - both were thin-skinned, both were idiots with a short attention span, both damaged relations with traditional allies (in Kaiser's case, these allies were also his relatives), both yielded large power aimlessly. Hopefully Donnie does not start a world war....
- lazide 9mo agoPersonally I give it a year or less, at the pace things are going.
- dh2022 9mo agoThere is a difference though: Kaiser’s power was un-checked. Currently there are some GOP senators who are looking to check Donnie’s ambitions. a couple of GOP senators said they will not even look at Donnie’s candidate for Fed Chairman role until the current investigation into Jerome Powell stops. And two other GOP senators are pushing a resolution to prevent Donnie from attacking any NATO countries. Let’s see how it goes.