In 2008-2009, Barack Obama’s transition team repeatedly invoked the norm that the United States has “only one president at a time” to explain why Obama was staying silent on issues like the Gaza War. That “constitutional principle,” Obama’s incoming press secretary said at the time, is “extremely important in the arena of foreign policy,” where it must be “clear who is speaking on behalf of the United States.” Noting the “delicate negotiations” that were occurring at the time between Israelis and Palestinians, Obama argued that “we can’t have two voices coming out of the United States when you have so much at stake.”
Yet in the waning days of 2016, two conflicting voices on high-stakes international issues is exactly what we have. Barack Obama is vowing to retaliate against the Russian government’s interference in the U.S. election; Donald Trump is questioning whether Russia interfered and thanking Vladimir Putin for his “very nice” Christmas card. Obama’s Pentagon demanded that China return a U.S. underwater drone seized in the South China Sea; Trump elevated the incident to an “unprecedented act” and then suddenly reversed course, suggesting the Chinese just “keep” the darn thing. Obama is dismantling a registration system for visitors from many Muslim-majority countries; Trump might soon revive it.
The bigger picture with this isn't just the ignoring of norms (because maybe these norms will be codified into law if they're actually important now), it's that if people don't see what's going on then ignoring norms confers great power. If both sides adhere to a norm, then things are balanced since the rules are known. If one side completely ignores norms but the other side still tries to adhere to them, then that's a huge advantage.
Normally politicians will say "never lie". They can misrepresent the truth, spin things, or just completely avoid or ignore the question, but an outright lie was seen as damaging. That's partially because the person could be shamed by their opponents and the media and (well presumably) the voters. Trump has no shame, he cannot be shamed, so he and his aides lie constantly. Trump lies because it's a classic manipulation tactic for narcissists. If you lie then no one knows what you're going to do or say so they're constantly paying attention to you. And Trump's proven voters don't care about lies, if they believe you represent a change for the better for them they'll vote for you.
So while part of me thinks it's important for the media to record Trump's words and identify lies, investigate corruption, hold him accountable, the previous methods of accountability (shining a light on the shameful act) don't work. So Democrats are going to have to approach accountability from a different angle and the media is going to have to be different too, if they try and stick to the norms they've had for the past 40 years they'll get even more circumvented by propaganda than they already are.
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
At this point the US and Russia both have about 5000 nuclear weapons of various sizes and yields. So expanding is a stupid statement, we're merely talking about how far the rubble flies more then anything else. You'd think that the prudent move would be to modernize the Nuclear arsenal and shrink it.
And China with their 250 weapons and India and other members of the nuclear club will follow suit and need to expand.
Welcome to the bad old 80's the doomsday clock is set to 3 minutes to midnight, the closest to Armageddon was 2 minutes back in the 60's. Can Trump beat the record?
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
At this point the US and Russia both have about 5000 nuclear weapons of various sizes and yields. So expanding is a stupid statement, we're merely talking about how far the rubble flies more then anything else. You'd think that the prudent move would be to modernize the Nuclear arsenal and shrink it.
And China with their 250 weapons and India and other members of the nuclear club will follow suit and need to expand.
Welcome to the bad old 80's the doomsday clock is set to 3 minutes to midnight, the closest to Armageddon was 2 minutes back in the 60's. Can Trump beat the record?
Think the problem with using a nuclear arms race to try and stress other countries economically is that even if you "win", it creates on environment ripe for proliferation after the race ends.
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"A pessimist thinks things can't get any worse. An optimist knows they can."
Last edited by FlamesAddiction; 12-24-2016 at 10:35 PM.
The delusions of grandeur are already bordering on out of control.
Quote:
Donald J. TrumpVerified account @realDonaldTrump 3h3 hours ago
The world was gloomy before I won - there was no hope. Now the market is up nearly 10% and Christmas spending is over a trillion dollars!
It's gonna be pretty funny when Fahrenthold wins the Pulitzer for proving these claims are lies. (Also, recieved...does he really not have spell check on his phone or browser?)
Quote:
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 32m32 minutes ago
I gave millions of dollars to DJT Foundation, raised or recieved millions more, ALL of which is given to charity, and media won't report!
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 19m19 minutes ago
The DJT Foundation, unlike most foundations, never paid fees, rent, salaries or any expenses. 100% of money goes to wonderful charities!
Gee whiz Don, if only there was some way for people to see proof of all your charitable donations. Some set of forms you turn in to the government every year that shows what you have donated...
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What I find weird about his actions, twitter, interviews post election results, is it's like he still thinks he's campaigning and trying to win votes. I haven't paid this much attention to a president-elect post win to know if others have done this, but I just find it very odd. That delusions of grandeur post that Senator made is a prime example.
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How do you think the US - Israel issue will play out. There appears to be a large divide between Obama's approach and Trump's approach - and Obama seems to be tying some hands on his way out of office.
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"OOOOOOHHHHHHH those Russians" - Boney M
How do you think the US - Israel issue will play out. There appears to be a large divide between Obama's approach and Trump's approach - and Obama seems to be tying some hands on his way out of office.
Well, this is interesting and probably fairly representative of how Europe sees the latest Netanyahu melt down. Bibi is running out of friends.
How do you think the US - Israel issue will play out. There appears to be a large divide between Obama's approach and Trump's approach - and Obama seems to be tying some hands on his way out of office.
I think Israel will regret Trump's election pretty quickly, he's going to be a bull in a china shop when it comes to foreign policy and Israel's always done what ever it wanted regardless of consequences to the US, they will piss him off inevitably and then, unlike previous presidents, he will try and yank there subsidies.
