Cedric,
You are wise and intelligent as always. It's always a pleasure to hear you converse on any topic.
I don't really have love for either party because I think they are both 2 sides of the same coin in most respects. The DNC is simply the 1 of the 2 major parties more likely to fight for black issues. And the fact that all the racists joined the other party, switching in order to do so, is evidence of that. In most elections I simply vote for people more likely to share my interests. If the candidate is black they are more likely but with republicans that support might take different forms. I don't count them out but when you vote with racists I have to be suspicious of you. Because we were forced to get on the boat. They weren't forced to be in a party occupied by that many racists.
Politics can, in some ways, be boiled down into "how do we treat new ideas?"
Conservatives don't like new ideas. They want to keep things as is. That's not what you want if you think there is a system of white supremacy that is oppressing a large group of people. Clinton and Biden... they're both mainstream democrats or what we could call Wallstreet democrats. They believe in new ideas but in small incremental changes like sipping a Red Strip beer instead of drinking it. So even though Hillary was in favor of universal healthcare, according to Michael Moore's documentary on the subject, she got bought off pretty early in the process. And that's the thing. If you believe in slow change then its easier to justify waiting and waiting to see which way the wind is blowing. That's what a lot of democrats do and Progressives like me, people who want big bold changes, are tired of it. Because they actually are cheating and corrupt in their cheating. Bernie should have won, but they're scared of him. So yes, I happily did a protest vote against the DNC, not just against Hillary herself. Because I wanted them to know they can't just crown people. Unfortunately, I don't think they learned that lesson in 2016 and I can't afford to teach them when it's another 4 years of Trump on the line.
My feeling is that we should all be independent voters but if you are voting for what's best for the black community then I feel like we should always oppose the white supremacy vote and voter suppression because the more people they put into office the more control they have and the easier it is for them to maintain racism. But yes, I thought the Green Party was strong in 2016 and if only elections weren't so much about money... then Jill Stein would have been a good candidate.
Back to Trump...
I was just saying earlier today how the GOP thought they could control Trump. They were wrong. Trump is in it for self and only thinks of wealth and power and since he already had wealth he went for power. Not to mention I was saying that I thought he was probably a sociopath years ago and even Mary Trump is now saying it's true. Of course people should have believed it when Tony Schwartz said it. All these people, once they know Trump they see past all the marketing hype. He's basically like Palpatine if Palpatine had brain damage.
But the problem is that there is a way to control Trump. Just one. The only thing Trump is afraid to lose, probably isn't even his family or his children. It's his money. I believe Trump is leveraged too much on real estate. It's all good when his brand is high and people want to drop $$$ to have that experience, but maybe that's why he was a democrat because he was living in New York and he was rubbing shoulders with a lot of rich people who were probably more liberal. But that doesn't mean he really ever shared that ideology. Like now, there's no real reason to believe he is a Republican. He basically hijacked the party with Trumpism.
Now this is appealing to a lot of people on the right who agree with some conservative values, like pro-life and guns, but they also don't like and don't trust the GOP. So Trump looking out of control is appealing to them.
But Trump always acts under control when it comes to one person; Vladimir Putin. He called Kim little rocket man. But Putin he will never make an insulting nickname for. Why? Because Putin controls his cashflow.
Putin isn't a fool. Publicly, your Empress is probably right. But Putin, I believe, is a deep thinker and strategist. He is like a Mafia boss, hiding wealth and power in his organization; in the "dons". So some of them help him launder money and I believe they were using Trump properties in their money laundering, to clean money for Putin. And if the US government really found that out and investigated that they could seize enough of Trump's assets that he would be ruined. At the same time time, banks were willing to lend Trump money. Whether Trump was sent a prostitute or not, I don't know. I tend to believe that he was but it doesn't matter. If Trump got loans from Russia it was probably Putin's money. Even if it wasn't Putin controls it like it is. And when Trump proposed a Trump tower in Russia they offered Putin a suite fit for a king. Why would you ever feel the need to bribe a president like that if it wasn't his money that you were seeking?
When Russia hacked our elections it wasn't a guy in his basement. It was a coordinated attack that originally made to look like the work of one hacker. But they used Julian Assange to leak whatever they had stolen. So Russia has been doing cyber warfare for a long time. This is just what was made public knowledge. And I think the only reason why it became public knowledge is because US intelligence failed to stop it and so it had to turn to Americans to warn them directly.
Putin still understands conquest. Have you ever played the game Risk? I think he's still in that mode of thinking because the more territory he owns the more taxes he collects, the more personal wealth he builds. However, NATO and the US allies stand in the way, as a checks and balance, on the world stage for any power threatening others (but mainly themselves). Every global conqueror wants to maintain their conquered territories because of taxation. So Putin annexing Crimea... that's just simply what it was and he knew Trump wasn't going to do anything because he has control over Trump's money. And when I say that I don't mean Putin could take all of Trump's money back. No, what I mean is that Trump's assets is like a house of cards that is maintained by his accountants. If his properties were doing well enough on their own they wouldn't need bank loans. But generally, investors use banks to acquire more assets than they could buy on their own. If they have a low interest rate then it creates a large amount of cashflow from all the people paying rent even though the owner could be deeply in debt. Trump has been in debt for a long time and is afraid of another bankruptcy because if Russian banks come for their money he doesn't have enough to pay them back without liquidating. And who knows how much he would actually have to liquidate to pay back what he owes.
It's possible that he ran for president in the first place because Putin wanted him to. That may be a stretch but who knows? Putin may have been confident he could help him win. But even if that's not what happened, I do think Putin, being ex KGB, is very familiar with the idea of turning an asset. At the same time, Trump is predictable and easy to control if you push the right buttons. But I also think it is possible that Trump himself thought, after someone explained it to him, that he could make a lot of money by running for office because he could ask for millions in donations and funnel a lot of it to his own foundation where it would essentially disappear in the laundry. Like other said, he may not have even been trying to win initially.
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