(September 19, 2020 at 3:13 pm)arewethereyet Wrote: I do find it interesting that Trump immediately ordered flags lowered and has mostly been respectful. He knows the handling of the death of RGB has the potential to be a minefield or an opportunity to do something decent for a change thereby swaying the undecided and those with short memories over to his side.
Trump's playing poker, while dems are attempting to play chess. Trump will only continue this charade surrounding Ruth Bader Ginsburg death for only as long it will benefit him and further his re-election. He doesn't care if it's decent, respectable, honorable or not - past experience of his dealings says as much, her death is just another card in the deck for him. All outwardly public dealings and public relations are mere superficial appearance to him. Everything in his presidency are just circumstances, events which he is trying to levy in his favor. He has no values, no decency, no compunction whatsoever. He's a sociopath, at best.
I don't even think he's a fascist or authoritarian or libertarian or any other political stripe or following any ideology. I'm not even sure he cares at all. The ultimate nihilist. I think the only thing he really values is his own ego, but I even doubt that. A lot of people are portraying Trump as being stupid, unknowledgeable and not knowing how to lead a country. I think he's very intelligent and knows what needs to be done to appear knowledgeable in his public interactions, despite his superficial knowledge. Reason I think that he's quite intelligent is because if (his perceived) enemies think he is stupid, they get the false impression that they can out-smart him somehow - which he repeatedly has played into his own advantage - underestimating him. He does a comparable bluff with knowledge and public appearance. I even think, if he somehow saw it would be advantageous for himself, would be able to lead the country in his role as a President somewhat compentedly, but because he sees no benefit or reason to towards his own self-interest, he doesn't give a shit about the health of the nation. All his behavior is a bluff, a con. Even if he had good cards, you wouldn't know, because he constantly maintains an outwardly poker face.
