5 ms·

He mostly stole it from his idiotic voter base, so it's a net positive in my book.

by thrance 8mo ago

dantillberg 8mo ago
That's what I thought as well at first, but I've come to think that is just the cover story. While some of his base likely did buy in, I expect that _most_ of the inflows were from individuals or groups looking to influence the administration (aka bribes).
- thrance 8mo ago
  Yet he didn't feel the need to hide the plane he received from the Saudis, or the gold bars he got from tech companies. Hell, he even bragged about those. Because there's no one able and willing to stop his naked corruption, he has zero reason to hide it. Shamelessness is his signature, after all. No, his coins were organically fed by people who believe his lies.
  - autoexec 8mo ago
    He doesn't have any shame, but some of the people bribing him may not want to be so public about that. His bribecoins gave them the ability to funnel money without having to worry about any fallout (legal or reputational).
  - lavezzi 8mo ago
    > Yet he didn't feel the need to hide the plane he received from the Saudis, or the gold bars he got from tech companies. You are willfully obtuse if you believe these are equivocal examples. And not that it matters, but the plane in question was 'gifted' from the Qatari royal family, not 'the Saudis'.
cheema33 8mo ago
> He mostly stole it from his idiotic voter base, so it's a net positive in my book. Some of it was done to receive bribes in exchange of favors from the govt. We all paid for that shit.
palmotea 8mo ago
> He mostly stole it from his idiotic voter base, so it's a net positive in my book. Have some empathy. With your attitude, we'll have many more Trumps to come.
- xrd 8mo ago
  I agree with your sentiment but I no longer think empathy is a good long term plan. One of my favorite books is Excellent Cadavers. It's about two judges in Sicily who systematically rooted out the Mafia. And were both assassinated for their work. The moral is: action is necessary. Trump is hoping we all stop at trying to find empathy for his team.
  - palmotea 8mo ago
    > Trump is hoping we all stop at trying to find empathy for his team. I'm not talking about his team, I'm talking about the people who voted for him. For instance, he wouldn't have even got off the ground if free trade hadn't decimated the US manufacturing sector. I won't fault anyone with a blue-collar job for voting for him, because the choice was him vs. some neoliberal. When the choices are bad, I understand making a desperate move. And now we have even worse polarization, which fuels his type even more. More and deeper polarized "action" (like the snide remark I responded to upthread) is not the way to make things better.
    - xrd 8mo ago
      That's a good point. I totally agree.
    - atmavatar 8mo ago
      > For instance, he wouldn't have even got off the ground if free trade hadn't decimated the US manufacturing sector. I won't fault anyone with a blue-collar job for voting for him, because the choice was him vs. some neoliberal. And I would agree with you for the 2016 election. However, when Trump lost more manufacturing jobs under his first term than were lost under Obama despite all his bluster about saving and restoring said jobs, and his administration's only legislative win was a big tax cut for the wealthy, it's no longer a valid reason to vote for the guy in 2020 or 2024. And, the joke's on any who did vote for him a second and third time: he's lost even more manufacturing jobs. The tragedy is if you look at the actual data, manufacturing jobs generally recover under Democrat administrations, and they tend to be lost in significant numbers under Republican administrations. People are more easily swayed by memes and sound bites than actual data, though. See: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/manemp https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/manemp

He mostly stole it from his idiotic voter base, so it's a net positive in my book.

by thrance 8mo ago

He mostly stole it from his idiotic voter base, so it's a net positive in my book.

That's what I thought as well at first, but I've come to think that is just the cover story. While some of his base likely did buy in, I expect that _most_ of the inflows were from individuals or groups looking to influence the administration (aka bribes).

thrance 8mo ago
Yet he didn't feel the need to hide the plane he received from the Saudis, or the gold bars he got from tech companies. Hell, he even bragged about those. Because there's no one able and willing to stop his naked corruption, he has zero reason to hide it. Shamelessness is his signature, after all. No, his coins were organically fed by people who believe his lies.
- autoexec 8mo ago
  He doesn't have any shame, but some of the people bribing him may not want to be so public about that. His bribecoins gave them the ability to funnel money without having to worry about any fallout (legal or reputational).
- lavezzi 8mo ago
  > Yet he didn't feel the need to hide the plane he received from the Saudis, or the gold bars he got from tech companies. You are willfully obtuse if you believe these are equivocal examples. And not that it matters, but the plane in question was 'gifted' from the Qatari royal family, not 'the Saudis'.

cheema33 8mo ago

> He mostly stole it from his idiotic voter base, so it's a net positive in my book. Some of it was done to receive bribes in exchange of favors from the govt. We all paid for that shit.

palmotea 8mo ago

> He mostly stole it from his idiotic voter base, so it's a net positive in my book. Have some empathy. With your attitude, we'll have many more Trumps to come.

xrd 8mo ago
I agree with your sentiment but I no longer think empathy is a good long term plan. One of my favorite books is Excellent Cadavers. It's about two judges in Sicily who systematically rooted out the Mafia. And were both assassinated for their work. The moral is: action is necessary. Trump is hoping we all stop at trying to find empathy for his team.
- palmotea 8mo ago
  > Trump is hoping we all stop at trying to find empathy for his team. I'm not talking about his team, I'm talking about the people who voted for him. For instance, he wouldn't have even got off the ground if free trade hadn't decimated the US manufacturing sector. I won't fault anyone with a blue-collar job for voting for him, because the choice was him vs. some neoliberal. When the choices are bad, I understand making a desperate move. And now we have even worse polarization, which fuels his type even more. More and deeper polarized "action" (like the snide remark I responded to upthread) is not the way to make things better.
  - xrd 8mo ago
    That's a good point. I totally agree.
  - atmavatar 8mo ago
    > For instance, he wouldn't have even got off the ground if free trade hadn't decimated the US manufacturing sector. I won't fault anyone with a blue-collar job for voting for him, because the choice was him vs. some neoliberal. And I would agree with you for the 2016 election. However, when Trump lost more manufacturing jobs under his first term than were lost under Obama despite all his bluster about saving and restoring said jobs, and his administration's only legislative win was a big tax cut for the wealthy, it's no longer a valid reason to vote for the guy in 2020 or 2024. And, the joke's on any who did vote for him a second and third time: he's lost even more manufacturing jobs. The tragedy is if you look at the actual data, manufacturing jobs generally recover under Democrat administrations, and they tend to be lost in significant numbers under Republican administrations. People are more easily swayed by memes and sound bites than actual data, though. See: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/manemp https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/manemp