Orange Ceasar Rises

[Rank Stranger]

Gather around brothers and sisters, I'd invite you to don a tinfoil hat or aluminum colander as is your preference.  Faraday-cages of all sorts are welcome.

I was sitting on the back porch looking at Mars a few minutes ago, and I wondered if Trump is already our new Putin.  Well he can't be Putin, but he can be some vulgar orange approximation.


I think he has a lot of the building-blocks in place.  Sure, half the country hates him- but the other maybe slightly smaller half thinks he's some Gary Busey-ish incarnation of America-Jesus.  He's got a pandemic situation where norms are being broken all over the world- after he's broken a slew of norms here already.  And suffered few real consequences beyond social-media shaming.

This is a man for whom very little has ever been off limits.  Born into and navigating a world that most of us don't have much experience with.  We may think that becoming the next Mussolini would be too infamous for him to seriously consider.  But I don't think that's an assumption he'd share at all.

This is a man that's had pretty much everything that money can buy.  Except perhaps real power- prior to 2016 that is.  Now that he's had a taste of it, he'll never let it go voluntarily.  

I think he's all in.  The only question now is whether or not Trump is competent enough to steal an election.  Preferably by the courts.  By state legislatures if necessary.  And the only limit to a series of escalations that could go higher than that.

I think people on the Left- and I've arguably been on the left since the Obama Regime- have seriously underestimated the wisdom of electing a transactional, sociopathic leader like Trump.  That reptile-quick political instinct he has is just part of a larger package.  He's a man that will never stop out of courtesy, or precedent, or patriotism, or even woman's consent.  He only stops when he can no longer move forward.

Donald Trump will escalate this fight far beyond the courts if he's able to do it.  And that's the question really- can he pull it off?

This holiday season is going to be insane.

[Angrboda]

Trump can't be Putin. Putin is competent and accomplished. Trump doesn't worry me so much as the long list of lickspittles greedily licking their lips at making Trump dictator, dead or alive.

[Rank Stranger]

I hope you're right.

But one thing I'd say is that a man with his kind of money doesn't need to accomplish much personally. He just needs to pay people who will. Or find ambitious ideologues who will swear fealty to him- like Barr. Fuckery-by-litigation has been a big part of his career.

I don't know if he can pull it off, but I'm pretty sure he'll try until all options are exhausted.

[Anomalocaris]

Trump can't be Putin.  Putin is competent and accomplished.  Trump doesn't worry me so much as the long list of lickspittles greedily licking their lips at making Trump dictator, dead or alive.

That’s because the people over whom Putin exercises tyrant does not combine sublime dim wit with strident self absorption to such a high degree that they would think the second amendment offers sufficient bulwark against tyranny.

You don’t live amongst a less dim witted and self absorbed people such as the Russians, or such as most people in the world but Americans.    You live amongst people half of whom think no tyranny is tyranny so long as they are told they personally are assured they can keep their pop guns.   So you should most definitely fear trump.

[Rank Stranger]

I think riot-season is almost upon us.

[Anomalocaris]

I think riot-season is almost upon us.

Riots that are not organized carefully, pressed with ruthless determination, conducted with willingness to sacrafice lives, and stand in complete readiness to proactively and ruthlessly escalate, in other words, riots that is not conducted like a war,  is totally worthless against even a far conscientious opposition than the collection of forces that currently support trump.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I’m quite cheered by the comparison of Trump to Caesar. After all,

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Boru

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Anyone who posts a picture of a barechested Trump will be taken out back and shot. Then brought back in, taken back out again, shot again, ...

[The Architect Of Fate]

Oh, come on people Trump,s not Cesar. He's freaking Nero. He's an overweight narcissistic crybaby with delusions of grandeur who hates losing And no sense of humanity or decency. It fits like a glove.

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I’m quite cheered by the comparison of Trump to Caesar. After all,

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Boru

Except Nero is a better comparison

Gaius Julius Caesar was an avid statesman and an excellent general (Trump is neither of these things)

Nero was an overweight man child with delusions of grandeur that didn't match his competence, And an insatiable need to be the center of attention. Mixed with authoritarian tendencies and a penchant for excessive cruelty (Trump to a tee)

[Pat Mustard]

I’m quite cheered by the comparison of Trump to Caesar. After all,

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Boru

Asterix Caesar!