Quote:
Originally Posted by Adder
Manafort shared sensitive internal polling data with Klimmick (sp?), a known Russian intelligence asset/agent. State-related Russian actors (including the dearly departed Proghozin (sp?)) then used that data to target ads on Facebook and other social media. At minimum, that was campaign coordination.
Had Manafort flipped (i.e., not been able to count on a pardon), we may have learned of a lot more.
Yeah, they authoritarians often are. They are small-minded people. But sometimes they "win."
January 6 was a clown show because they couldn't get the right people (especially at DOD) to go along with it. They understand that and are already making plans to prevent that sort of thing from happening again.
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Trump was so incompetent his own lawyers had to manage his behavior because he'd "
go ballistic" if he heard something he didn't want to hear.
Sure, Manafort was working with Russians. But Manafort was a very rare professional with some brains (and some really problematic spending habits) among a clown car of nutballs.
A few years from now, Adam McKay will do a black comedy on the Trump years in line with
Vice and
The Big Short. And I think it only fair, and all but assuredly a necessary part of any script, to poke fun at those who fretted endlessly that an evil genius had taken over the White House.
It may be that "democracy" fails in the future. But it won't be because of Trump. It'll be much subtler, and it'll be caused less by his populist tendencies and more by the sellout of the country to corporations by the milquetoast members of both parties. I don't fear a revolution led by the Proud Boys. I fear the one that arguably took place long ago on K Street -- one that grinds away slowly today, capturing all of the important levers of power, controlling all the important mouths in both parties. One that keeps the masses bickering while it lines its pockets.
It's got no name, and it's not a conspiracy. It's just Money. Giant entities with shit tons of it needn't get together and plan anything. They've got shared goals and interests. All they need do is act in their own self-interest and their efforts will dovetail, complementing each other. While the lurid poles of our political discourse fight about whether the trans folks are getting a fair shake or certain books should be banned from high school curricula.
In the teeth of efforts by these same corporate powers and their aligned govt counterparts to massage online speech, and to squelch debate about dubious to often outright fabulist narratives offered by "the institutions" in the lying guise of "saving us from dis/mis/mal-information," I find it had to worry about cranks that slither out from under the rocks of Trumpworld, or its broader universe of MAGAland. Those idiots can be controlled.
Trump is a threat, and a danger. No doubt. He can do damage. But I'd say people like Larry Fink can and are doing a whole hell of a lot more.
