Brain read it as “linked to” and still said, “Yup, that tracks.”

There it is.

Nothing these people say means anything until you follow the money.

Absolutely. Power and leverage as a means to profit. That’s it. Trump is not a statesman, he’s not an economist, he doesn’t have some grand vision for a utopian America that can weather the coming climate onslaught. He sees a place he can apply pressure regardless of absolutely any other consideration and does it until someone offers him money to stop.

This is what contemporary evil looks like.

This is the part the media and the economists get wrong. This was never about trade or the economy. Trump understands neither. What he does understand is power. Control. It is how he has always “negotiated”. Find some pressure points you control, press on it (even if it makes no sense or, worse, actually causes suffering) and then wait for someone to offer something and declare victory.

No grand plan, no scheme, no 3d chess, no deep thought. Just flex and collect.

DVI-L chef’s kiss

And a copy of “The Art of the Deal” alongside an illustrated translation of “Mein Kempf”.

Yeah, that’s fair.

Amazing. Thanks.

Recommendations?

I was expecting something subtle, some sort of resistance from within type stuff.

Warehouses, barracks, offices, hotels, and factory buildings are outstanding targets for simple sabotage. They are extremely susceptible to damage, especially by fire.

Not so much.

“Revealed”

Fuck you. Fuck anyone surprised by any of this. They wrote it down. They lied to your face and laughed when they were called out. If you are feigning surprise you’re either willfully ignorant or outright mental.

Belly rubs, immediately.

This. Waiting to see what happened. There are no good guys in the story but I would bet it is more complex and fucked up than we’re guessing.

Sounds like the words of someone suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.

Nobody gets to be shocked. Nobody gets to be surprised. This was all literally written down and circulated. I will “go nuclear” on any MF’er who has the gall to say to my face that they didn’t expect some bullshit the Trump administration pulls.

Not as a united nation, no. I think this is the start of the dissolution of the US as a single entity. The divisions will become clear soon.

This so much. If you can’t articulate it I’m going to make sure it stays your problem, not mine.

9787393

I’m attending an all day workshop tomorrow with a bunch of leaders at my job and I expect this is a better summary of the upcoming proceedings than anything else in existence.

When things like this don’t make sense there is a tried and true method that usually sheds some light on it: Follow. The. Money.

I don’t claim to have some knowledge of some deep state actors or even understand the nuances of late stage capitalism. But, I do understand some writer, reporter, or publisher not wanting to have to explain to their family that they’re moving to a van down by the river because they wouldn’t write an article that didn’t explicitly call bullshit on some billionaires people-based checkers game. It is easy to compromise on a story, then another.

That’s just my hypothetical for this comment, but extrapolate to everything else we’re seeing that just seems batshit insane and yet is being reported on as nothing more than slight variations on business as usual or two sides with slightly different ideological views. You start to feel like the only sane person in the asylum and it drives you mad.