I guess he's done with any attempt to persuade us to come together with him, but then again, what would be the grounds on which he could? There is no core set of principles he could use to appeal to those who find him more objectionable by the day. He's all over the map with everything - foreign policy, health care, economic development, immigration. His view is that we aren't getting behind the impulse du jour, which makes us - well, human scum.The Never Trumper Republicans, though on respirators with not many left, are in certain ways worse and more dangerous for our Country than the Do Nothing Democrats. Watch out for them, they are human scum!
And consider how ate up his base is. I've shared here the sad discovery that a fellow conservative - a great guy with whom I'd swapped stuff to read over the years, with whom I'd engaged in mutual defense when either of us were attacked by leftists in social media exchanges, with whom I shared such extra-political interests as pets, food and music - had unfriended me over the Very Stable Genius. Now that the VSG has exhorting his devotees to deal with us as scum, what's out of bounds for them to do to what's left of our outlets for real conservative discourse? You all know what I'm suggesting, and I'm not out of the realm of possibility.
He's drawn a line in the sand here. We get behind his erratic and self-directed "agenda," because that's the modern Republican Party, bitch.
Well, if that's where we are, then I shall position myself accordingly.
I shall say to anyone in any context that this guy is bad news and needs to go.
I actually liked his moves on Turkey, if it lasts. First thing he's done (or rather not done) thst I like, certainly unlike you. As for impeachment, it appears to be emboldening him which is kinda like waking the bear. I can't see them getting it all done before next Nov tho, so why bother now? It is just inflaming his considerable base within your former party, scum.
ReplyDeleteThat's actually fairly sound analysis, except for the Turkey part (see item number four in the roundup above ("Thank you, Squirrel-Hair")). Also, a lot of folks are thinking impeachment may have a shorter timetable and that we'll be looking at Senate trial before the end of the year.
ReplyDeleteRe: Item 4 in the roundup above: as Trump says, it's time to let the Middle East figure it out for themselves. Surely he won't diss Israel tho, but I wish he would.
ReplyDeleteShort-sighted in the extreme.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you wish he 'd diss Israel? What kind of negative role has it played in the mideast?
ReplyDeleteIntractability.
ReplyDeleteDefinition
ReplyDelete"Intractability" is a controversial concept, which means different things to different people. Some people on the initial BI project team intensely dislike the term, as they saw it as too negative: intractable conflicts are impossible to resolve, they say, so people think they are not worth dealing with. "Do not use a term that undermines everything we are trying to do," argued project member Andrea Strimling.[1]Nevertheless, all BI participants that we have talked to (which includes many 100s) agree that there is a set of conflicts out there that are hard to deal with. "Protracted." "Destructive." "Deep-rooted." "Resolution-resistant." "Intransigent." "Gridlocked." "Identity-based." "Needs based." "Complex." "Difficult." "Malignant." "Enduring."
All of these words capture some of what we are trying to get at, but none capture it all. As we see it, intractable conflicts are those that lie at the frontier of the field -- the conflicts that stubbornly seem to elude resolution, even when the best available techniques are applied. Examples abound: abortion, homosexual rights, and race relations in the United States; and the Israeli-Palestinian problem, Sri Lanka, and Kashmir (among many others) abroad.[2]
https://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/meaning_intractability
[6] For a discussion of intractability in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, see: Stephen Cohen, "Intractability and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict" in Grasping the Nettle: Analyzing Cases Of Intractable Conflict. Chester A. Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson, Pamela R. Aall, eds. 2005. .
ReplyDeleteA branch of applied mathematics called complexity science provides a basic platform for understanding how intractable conflicts assemble themselves into attractors; these are tightly-coupled systems that resist change. Think of how a person's heart rate stabilizes around a certain beat pattern, or how one's blood pressure seeks a particular level, or how bodyweight seems to have a specific set point. These are attractors. And even though they may change temporarily (we may lose seven pounds on a crash diet), odds are they will soon return to their attractor. The five percent of intractable social conflicts evidence the same rules: no matter what we do they always return.
ReplyDeleteThe Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an immensely complicated hundred-year-old conflict that today operates and is reinforced across a multitude of issues, time periods, stakeholders and lands. It has become what Stephen Cohen, founder of the Institute for Middle East Peace and Development describes as "the crucible of multiple conflicts in the region and multiple grievances that feed upon one another and that produce reoccurring eruptions of violence." Unfortunately, every large-scale effort at peacemaking to date—at Oslo, Wye, Camp David, Taba, Geneva, all twenty-six proposals and counting—have been co-opted by the conflict and seem to have only contributed to peace fatigue. In fact, there is some evidence that such efforts only make matters worse with the five percent.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-five-percent/201110/the-mathematics-middle-east-conflict-and-peace
Yeah, if Israel had any decency, it would dismantle its defense forces and let its enemies eat it alive.
ReplyDelete"Eruptions of violence." Cute term. Ad if no one did the erupting.
ReplyDelete"Decouple the conflict. Most enduring conflicts require a period in which they delink from other, more distant conflicts, before peace can emerge. The fate of Israel-Palestine would improve considerably were it to delink from the many other regional and international conflicts with which it is associated. In the 1970s and 1980s, in fact, the Arab-Israeli conflict became less severe as Jordan chose not to take part in the 1973 war and Egypt made peace with Israel."Ibid
ReplyDeleteThe 1948 invasion from all sides - who "erupted" that one?
ReplyDeleteThe 1967 Six-Day War - who "erupted" that one?
The 1973 Yom Kippur War - who "erupted" that one?
The 1982 attacks out of Lebanon, orchestrated by Yassir Arafat - who "erupted" that one?
The early 2000s intifada, in which suicide bombers wreaked carnage on bus stops and pizza parlors - who "erupted" that one?
The tunnels into Israel and pretty much daily rocket attacks out of Gaza after Isreal turned it over to Hamas - who "erupted" that one?
The 2004 war with Hezbollah? - who "erupted" that one?
Which side names town squares after terrorist "martyrs," has children's television programming with the message that Jews must be driven into the sea?
Which entity's leader recently declared that "millions of fighters" would "enter Jerusalem"?
Now why is it again that the US leader ought to diss Israel?
Disengage aka decouple, these Middle Easterners are nothing but trouble. Intractability, that's why. Ahh, but the world will blow up over it, right fundies? Oh happy day!
DeleteYou didn't answer my question, but that's okay, since this whole line of discussion is off-topic.
ReplyDeleteYou asked the question in response to a post of mine. Threads can morph you know. Which question should I answer. You're more Israeli than most Jews I know. Zionist too, so you will never disengage. But America can and I hope we will.
ReplyDeleteWhy?
ReplyDeleteHere's what it looks like to me: You think Israel has been a thorn in America's side, that our alliance has been more trouble than it's worth.
ReplyDeleteHere's your chance to correct me if I'm off-base.
Way more trouble,time and money. Than it's worth? Seems like it. How much longer do we have to wait find out? Intractable! Give it up. Then maybe something will happen to resolve it.
ReplyDeleteWhat a dark and sick worldview.
ReplyDelete