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Originally posted by second:

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Here's a quarter. Go call somebody who cares.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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And that is why you lean Republican, 6ixStringJack. You don't care.

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

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Originally posted by second:

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Here's a quarter. Go call somebody who cares.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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And that is why you lean Republican, 6ixStringJack. You don't care.

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No. It's because Democrats focus on all the wrong things and say the same dumb rhetorical arguments over and over again while offering nothing to the people and getting nothing done.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
But! Russia!
But! Stormy!
But! Tax Files!

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Hey look. Another 10 paragraph unrelated segway with a quote and an insult to start it off.

If we can't say anything else good about you Second, at least you're consistent and predictable.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Originally posted by second:

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Hey look. Another 10 paragraph unrelated segway with a quote and an insult to start it off.

If we can't say anything else good about you Second, at least you're consistent and predictable.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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6ix, you're consistent, having written: "No. It's because Democrats focus on all the wrong things and say the same dumb rhetorical arguments over and over again while offering nothing to the people and getting nothing done."

The consistent part, 6ix, is that you did not write "It's because Democrats and Republicans focus on all the wrong things . . ."

It is also consistent that 6ix didn't note the GOP passed a few bills, over the objections of 99% of the Democrats in Congress, and those GOP sponsored bills "offered nothing to the people". It is as if 6ix has no idea how the GOP screwed him. There is your insult for the day, 6ix. Now for the analysis: Without ever having met him in real life (but I have met men who are similar) I feel confident predicting that 6ix has in the past and will continue indefinitely into the future using his invincible ignorance on material questions about getting ahead in America to sabotage his own life. And he will continue to blame both Democrats and Republicans for his own failures, but mostly blame the Democrats. That is no way to go through life, 6ix, unless you want to stay on the bottom of the hierarchy, wandering the roads alone and unmarried in a crappy old vehicle until you die, with rotten teeth, decades younger than the average white male in Texas who has enough money to buy a good vehicle and to go to the dentist and the doctor once a year.


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

We're all on the bottom of the hierarchy, Second. Nobody believes that you have any money either. The middle class is a dying dream, and it won't be too long until everybody here is much closer to the bottom with me.

If I woke up tomorrow and changed my mind on everything Politics and decided that the Democrats are completely right, as you suggest everybody should, just how is that going to change anything in my life?

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Originally posted by second:

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Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
But! Russia!
But! Stormy!
But! Tax Files!

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But! You are full of shit, JewelStaiteFan, as is failed presidential candidate Rick Santorum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Santorum#2016_presidential_run who couldn't compete with Trump as the biggest racist, but he does the best he can:

Rick Santorum on Sunday blamed former President Barack Obama for increasing racial tensions in the nation.

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Nothing changes for the better in lower 50% of the population because the GOP ...Democrats ... politicians elite is the majority in power.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
"Maybe if the Democratic Party wasn't so toxic it would have more support."

Jack, we disagree on a lot of thing... OK, almost everything ... but I'm 100% with you on this.

And speaking of Hillary, as the perfect exemplar of everything wrong with the party, in this situation the cream did not rise to the top. Nope. The scum floated up.

SECOND is a troll because it constantly misrepresents what people post, fails to address their actual positions, and resorts to personal attacks when its brain isn't working (which is most of the time).

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Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:

I feel like the scum coagulated at the top. You know poop can float, right?

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I want to be clear on one point: Americans remain our partners, our allies, and our friends. The American people [are] not the target of today’s announcement. We hope that eventually common sense will triumph. Unfortunately, the actions taken today by the American government do not seem to be headed in that direction. This is not the American people. We have to believe that, at some point, common sense will prevail. But we see no sign of that in this action today by the US administration.

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Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:

I feel like the scum coagulated at the top. You know poop can float, right?

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Originally posted by second:
Trump Sure Seems to Like Russia a Lot, Doesn’t He?

Over the course of 16+ months, President Trump has acted consistently and with some success to destabilize and break up the western alliance — both its formal manifestation in NATO but also its less formal dimensions in trade and other partnerships. He has also worked consistently on really every front to advance the interests of Russia.

Less obviously to many Americans, he’s been doing something similar in East Asia. The U.S. alliance with Japan and South Korea…is not simply to protect against North Korea. It is to build a series of security relationships with countries on that periphery to act as a counterweight to the regional (perhaps world) great power, China.

….The last twenty four hours of attacks on our closest allies capped by President Trump’s seemingly out of the blue demand to bring Russia back into the G-7 (making it again the G-8 which it was for most of the post-Cold War era until Russia was expelled over the annexation of Crimea) simply brings the matter into a newly sharp relief. If candidate Trump and President Putin had made a corrupt bargain which obligated President Trump to destabilize all U.S. security and trade alliances (especially NATO, which has been Russia’s primary strategic goal for 70 years) and advance the strategic interests of Russia, there’s really nothing more remotely realistic he could have done to accomplish that than what he has in fact done.

Take a moment to let that sink in. I need to take a moment to let it sink in. It’s shocking to me. It’s shocking to me what’s happening….We have a President who clearly got a great deal of assistance from Russia in getting elected….He’s doing all the stuff he’d have been asked to do if such a corrupt bargain had been made. At a certain point — and I’d say we’re clearly at or past that point — it really doesn’t matter whether we can prove such a bargain was made. I’m not even sure it matters whether it was explicit or even happened. The bank robber helped the teller get the job and now the teller just won’t seem to lock the safe or even turn on the alarm. We can debate forever whether the teller is just absent-minded or has some odd philosophical aversion toward locks. The debate may be unresolvable. It truly doesn’t matter.

www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/06/donald-trump-sure-seems-to-like
-russia-a-lot-doesnt-he/


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

LOL...

There's still been zero evidence that Russia helped in the election at all.


Fuckin' Leftists. Hillary lost. Get over it already.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Nevertheless, Vladimir Putin is unquestionably a bad guy: he rigs elections, he tosses critics into prison, he’s built his populist cred on horrifically homophobic policy, he shuts down any media he doesn’t control, he threatens his neighbors, and he rules as an autocrat.

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It’s certainly no wonder that Trump seems to admire him. It’s pretty plain that Trump would like to rule that way too if he could figure out a way to do it.

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But it’s worth noting that this isn’t just about Russia. If Trump came to office and started doing everything in his power to help France and hurt the rest of Europe

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An American president isn’t obligated to literally ignore the interests of the rest of the world,

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Nevertheless, Vladimir Putin is unquestionably a bad guy: he rigs elections, he tosses critics into prison, he’s built his populist cred on horrifically homophobic policy, he shuts down any media he doesn’t control, he threatens his neighbors, and he rules as an autocrat.

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You seem to be speaking from complete and utter ignorance of Russia, like most people.

When Putin came to office, Russia had taken the worst drubbing of its recent history. It had just been treated to "shock treatment" from the western world that saw it economy de-industrialize and collapse by 30%, life expectancy drop by 6-7 years, mob bosses swoop in and claim vast swathes of Russian assets under the guise of "privatization", it's territorial claims shrink by 14% and its military sink into rusty oblivion. It was the kind of collapse that many are predicting for the United States. Putin reversed all that. The GDP rose by 200% (after falling under Yeltsin) and unemployment dropped by half. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/12/putin-generation-r
ussia-soviet-union/ Putin's popularity is a bread-and-butter issue, as well as a national-pride issue. Only lately, under economic sanctions and political pressure from the West, has Putin used the Orthodox Church and militarism to glue the society together. But a man (and his staff) who dragged Russia out of the depths by the scruff of its neck is admired by many.

Also, There is far more diversity in Russian media than you imagine.

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It’s certainly no wonder that Trump seems to admire him. It’s pretty plain that Trump would like to rule that way too if he could figure out a way to do it.

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The USA is on a financial slippery slope. We might NEED a leader who could "rule that way" ... and be damn grateful for getting one ... if our finances collapse like some are predicting (and I happen to think they are right).

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But it’s worth noting that this isn’t just about Russia. If Trump came to office and started doing everything in his power to help France and hurt the rest of Europe

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Hello??? What has Trump done to "help Russia"? BE SPECIFIC.

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An American president isn’t obligated to literally ignore the interests of the rest of the world,

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YES HE IS, if those interests are counter to ours. I have often asked What are America's interests? It is a question that you have DEEPLY ignored. I'm glad to see that you're FINALLY getting around to the topic, but I'm sure your interest will last until the next anti-Trump screed, and then you'll be off and riding that hobby-horse. A piece of friendly advice: Until you define "our" interests, you should probably keep your mouth shut before proclaiming that Trump is working against them because otherwise you'll sound like an idiot.



-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

As long as you insist that everything is the Republicans'/ Democrats' fault, then you fail to grasp the REAL problem with American politics.

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Nevertheless, Vladimir Putin is unquestionably a bad guy: he rigs elections, he tosses critics into prison, he’s built his populist cred on horrifically homophobic policy, he shuts down any media he doesn’t control, he threatens his neighbors, and he rules as an autocrat.

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You seem to be speaking from complete and utter ignorance of Russia, like most people.

When Putin came to office, Russia had taken the worst drubbing of its recent history. It had just been treated to "shock treatment" from the western world that saw it economy de-industrialize and collapse by 30%, life expectancy drop by 6-7 years, mob bosses swoop in and claim vast swathes of Russian assets under the guise of "privatization", it's territorial claims shrink by 14% and its military sink into rusty oblivion. It was the kind of collapse that many are predicting for the United States. Putin reversed all that. The GDP rose by 200% (after falling under Yeltsin) and unemployment dropped by half. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/12/putin-generation-r
ussia-soviet-union/ Putin's popularity is a bread-and-butter issue, as well as a national-pride issue. Only lately, under economic sanctions and political pressure from the West, has Putin used the Orthodox Church and militarism to glue the society together. But a man (and his staff) who dragged Russia out of the depths by the scruff of its neck is admired by many.

Also, There is far more diversity in Russian media than you imagine.

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It’s certainly no wonder that Trump seems to admire him. It’s pretty plain that Trump would like to rule that way too if he could figure out a way to do it.

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The USA is on a financial slippery slope. We might NEED a leader who could "rule that way" ... and be damn grateful for getting one ... if our finances collapse like some are predicting (and I happen to think they are right).

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But it’s worth noting that this isn’t just about Russia. If Trump came to office and started doing everything in his power to help France and hurt the rest of Europe

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Hello??? What has Trump done to "help Russia"? BE SPECIFIC.

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An American president isn’t obligated to literally ignore the interests of the rest of the world,

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YES HE IS, if those interests are counter to ours. I have often asked What are America's interests? It is a question that you have DEEPLY ignored. I'm glad to see that you're FINALLY getting around to the topic, but I'm sure your interest will last until the next anti-Trump screed, and then you'll be off and riding that hobby-horse. A piece of friendly advice: Until you define "our" interests, you should probably keep your mouth shut before proclaiming that Trump is working against them because otherwise you'll sound like an idiot.

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How much did Putin pay you to shift the blame to Americans? So long as incompetent Yeltsin was in charge, Russia was doomed.

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In the wake of the 1990’s, the future of nascent post-Soviet Russia was in the hands of four groups of reformers, who were entrusted with applying a medicine known as “shock therapy” to a collapsing patient. These “doctors” were

independent foreign advisers,
the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
the US government, and, most importantly,
President Yeltsin’s administration (Aslund 2007a, 2007b).

Only the fourth was an internal group; the other three were external to the country. All four groups were, for the most part, committed to shock therapy. While no one was more invested in the cause than Yeltsin’s administration, the West, with its accumulated capital and experience, could have played a decisive [helpful] role – but it did not....

To understand how the doctors attempted to assist Russia, we must first understand the theoretical model from which they operated. The term “Shock Therapy” was an invention of the media and a modification of Milton Friedman’s phrase “Shock Policy.” Jeffrey Sachs (2000), a professor of economics at Harvard, argues that Ludwig Erhard’s quick liberalization of price controls and government spending cuts in 1947-48 West Germany served as an inspiration for the shock therapy model.[1] Yet shock therapy, as it is now known, was first pioneered in Chile in 1975 by the “Chicago Boys”[2] following Augusto Pinochet’s coup and then in Bolivia in 1985 under Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. Soon after, Eastern European countries followed suit: Poland in 1990, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria in 1991, Russia, Albania, and Estonia in 1992, and finally Latvia in 1993 (Marangos 2004).
Shock therapy is often associated with John Williamson’s Washington Consensus,
http://geohistory.today/russia-shock-therapy/

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Yeltsin could never wrap his brain around the proverb: A fool and his money are soon parted.

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Putin, not brain damaged like Yeltsin, actually knows what he is doing, which makes all the difference in Russia’s improved fortune. Wouldn’t it be great to have an American President with a brain functioning half as well as Putin’s?

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There are graphs available to show increasing inequality in Russia during the Yeltsin years. You can see that Putin only partially undid what Yeltsin had done when his alcoholism caught up with his brain.

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In the same article, you can also see that Republicans did a Yeltsin to the United States and the GOP does not have the excuse that it was drunk while doing it.

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To your questions, What has Trump done to help Russia? What are America's interests? Answer:

Over the course of 16+ months, President Trump has acted consistently and with some success to destabilize and break up the western alliance (both its formal manifestation in NATO) but also its less formal dimensions in trade and other partnerships.

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He has also worked consistently on really every front to advance the interests of Russia.

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Less obviously to many Americans, he’s been doing something similar in East Asia. The U.S. alliance with Japan and South Korea, which in recent years we’ve taken steps to extend to other states on the periphery of the East Asian landmass (which is basically to say, China) is not simply to protect against North Korea. It is to build a series of security relationships with countries on that periphery to act as a counterweight to the regional (perhaps world) great power, China. Allies in the region are closely watching President Trump’s apparent desire to remove U.S. troops from South Korea for that reason, among others.

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The last twenty four hours of Trump's attacks on our closest allies capped by President Trump’s seemingly out of the blue demand to bring Russia back into the G-7 (making it again the G-8 which it was for most of the post-Cold War era until Russia was expelled over the annexation of Crimea) simply brings the matter into a newly sharp relief. If candidate Trump and President Putin had made a corrupt bargain which obligated President Trump to destabilize all U.S. security and trade alliances (especially NATO, which has been Russia’s primary strategic goal for 70 years) and advance the strategic interests of Russia, there’s really nothing more remotely realistic he could have done to accomplish that than what he has in fact done.

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at to let that sink in. I need to take a moment to let it sink in. It’s shocking to me. It’s shocking to me what’s happening. Now I said above “remotely realistic.” A critic of what I wrote above might note that Trump could, in fact, have taken steps to abrogate the NATO treaty commitments. He might have said publicly that the U.S. would not aid the Baltic states or Poland against a Russian invasion. We can also note that he has approved very limited sale of weaponry to Ukraine, which is of course still battling Russian proxy forces in the eastern part of the country. But the things he could have done but has not done really to me fall into the category of things that are unnecessary and probably still beyond what the President could remotely get away with.

Sanctions are an instructive example. The administration did finally impose a limited version of the sanctions Congress authorized early in Trump’s presidency. But on every sanctions front, it has been always absolutely as little as possible and always kicking and screaming. He has also been surrounded by people like H.R. McMaster and many others of a similar outlook, who clearly aren’t friendly to the strategic interests of Russia. So Trump has been operating to a degree within the constraints of U.S. public opinion and the heavy remonstrations of his top advisors. And yet … at every opportunity, he did everything he could realistically do to advance that agenda.

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Back to the main point. We have a President who clearly got a great deal of assistance from Russia in getting elected.

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We can argue about how important it was to his victory. But the reality of the help is not in any real dispute. His campaign at a minimum had numerous highly suspicious contacts with people either in the Russian government or acting on behalf of the Russian government while that was happening.

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That is a very generous interpretation.

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He’s doing all the stuff he’d have been asked to do if such a corrupt bargain had been made.

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At a certain point – and I’d say we’re clearly at or past that point – it really doesn’t matter whether we can prove such a bargain was made. I’m not even sure it matters whether it was explicit or even happened. The bank robber helped the teller get the job and now the teller just won’t seem to lock the safe or even turn on the alarm. We can debate forever whether the teller is just absent-minded or has some odd philosophical aversion toward locks. The debate may be unresolvable. It truly doesn’t matter.

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Oh, that's right .... you're fabulously rich, and so of course you would NEVER blame the wealthy or the policies that made you so.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:

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Oh, that's right .... you're fabulously rich, and so of course you would NEVER blame the wealthy or the policies that made you so.

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And SECOND's avid support should make anyone with half a brain mistrust the democrats even more.

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Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:

Does it seem ironic that the Libs which whine about Putin now saw no problem with Slick Willie pulling the rug out from under Russia and Yeltsin, right at the most critical time for transforming into a potential bastion of freedom, Democracy, and industrious economy?
All those decades of work by reasonable folk to end The Cold War, only to be squandered by the Perpetrator-in-Chief.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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How much did Putin pay you to shift the blame to Americans? So long as incompetent Yeltsin was in charge, Russia was doomed.

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How much do you get paid to act like an idiot? Oh, that's right .... you're fabulously rich, and so of course you would NEVER blame the wealthy or the policies that made you so.

But, unlike you, I have a less corrupt view of the world, and I happen to (a) know quite a but more about economics than you do and (b) pay a lot more attention to world political economics than you do AND (c) I remember, very clearly, the USA media gleefully tooting its horn about how we were going to "reform" the Russian economy.

And fortunately, I'm not the only one who remembers recent history!

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Now watch, kiddos, and see how my last post goes completely ignored.

Methinks I hit the nail on the head.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Originally posted by second:
Instead, I took it to the officers and I got punished, with much drama. After, I did not shoot water buffalo, although if you do not talk about it, you can do it.
Since then, I’ve learned I can’t fix what is wrong with other people’s "thinking".
Since then, unlike Vietnam, I can't be touched by the thinking of other people. And not only am I immune from other people's thinking, I experience no negative consequences from any mistakes in my own thinking.
Being rich makes me right. Being rich lets me think it's everyone else who's fucked up. Being rich means I can tell everyone to fuck off. Being rich makes it OK for me to be a pompous, deluded, self-righteous asshole.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Is this where SECOND derails an entire topic to talk about George Soros? Oh wait, that happened in ANOTHER thread http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=62134.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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How much did Putin pay you to shift the blame to Americans? So long as incompetent Yeltsin was in charge, Russia was doomed.

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How much do you get paid to act like an idiot? Oh, that's right .... you're fabulously rich, and so of course you would NEVER blame the wealthy or the policies that made you so.

But, unlike you, I have a less corrupt view of the world, and I happen to (a) know quite a but more about economics than you do and (b) pay a lot more attention to world political economics than you do AND (c) I remember, very clearly, the USA media gleefully tooting its horn about how we were going to "reform" the Russian economy.

And fortunately, I'm not the only one who remembers recent history!

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
We already had Norm and Norma. Only their names were Barack and Michelle. Unlike Signy's take on Norm and Norma, I don't think that they have mush for brains at all. On the contrary, I think that people that are as polished as that are likely as intelligent as they are dangerous. Who doesn't love somebody who always says exactly what everyone wants to hear?


I'll admit that Second's segway there wasn't as annoying as his usual segways, and the insults were rather muted. It still didn't address the actual post I made though because he knows that I'm right.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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I know you are wrong. All politicians, Democrat and Republicans, operate under the same restriction that prevent keeping their promises.

Why can’t politicians follow through on their most heartfelt promises? Because the voters would murder the politicians if they went all the way, no matter what, to keep their promises. LBJ and Nixon promised a win, but America lost the Vietnam War because Americans wanted to quit when their deaths got to 50,000. Even if Nixon was willing, Americans weren’t willing to throw more bodies at that war because they didn’t care enough about the Vietnamese.- SECOND

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Americans just didn’t like the Vietnamese enough to do what was necessary to win.

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
We already had Norm and Norma. Only their names were Barack and Michelle. Unlike Signy's take on Norm and Norma, I don't think that they have mush for brains at all. On the contrary, I think that people that are as polished as that are likely as intelligent as they are dangerous. Who doesn't love somebody who always says exactly what everyone wants to hear?


I'll admit that Second's segue there wasn't as annoying as his usual segue, and the insults were rather muted. It still didn't address the actual post I made though because he knows that I'm right.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Originally posted by JJ:
Russian elites met with NRA in lead-up to 2016 election

Prominent Russians were in contact with the National Rifle Association (NRA) during the lead-up to the 2016 election, McClatchy reported.

The Russians who met with NRA representatives during the 2016 presidential campaign included members of President Vladimir Putin's inner circle as well as the Russian Orthodox Church, according to the news outlet. Reportedly among the individuals identified are the former deputy prime minister overseeing Russia's defense industry, Dmitry Rogozin, and Sergei Rudov, the leader of the St. Basil the Great Charitable Foundation - one of Russia's largest philanthropies.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/russian-elites-met-with-nra-in
-lead-up-to-2016-election-report/ar-AAyvdI1

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
I couldn't help but notice that SECONAL STILL ignored Jacks' post:

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
We already had Norm and Norma. Only their names were Barack and Michelle. Unlike Signy's take on Norm and Norma, I don't think that they have mush for brains at all. On the contrary, I think that people that are as polished as that are likely as intelligent as they are dangerous. Who doesn't love somebody who always says exactly what everyone wants to hear?


I'll admit that Second's segue there wasn't as annoying as his usual segue, and the insults were rather muted. It still didn't address the actual post I made though because he knows that I'm right.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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And that's because ...

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Americans just didn’t like the Vietnamese enough to do what was necessary to win - SECOND

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Who doesn't love somebody who always says exactly what everyone wants to hear?- SIX

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I'm still trying to figure this one out

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Americans just didn’t like the Vietnamese enough to do what was necessary to win - SECOND

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What does "liking" have to do with "winning"? SECOND? Care to explain?

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Who doesn't love somebody who always says exactly what everyone wants to hear?- SIX

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<<< THIS

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I'm still trying to figure this one out

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Americans just didn’t like the Vietnamese enough to do what was necessary to win - SECOND

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What does "liking" have to do with "winning"? SECOND? Care to explain?

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
I'm assuming we didn't 'like' the Vietnamese enough to keep bombing and poisoning them into oblivion. Does anyone beside me remember 'body counts', which was our measure of success in Vietnam?

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SECOND .... I'm still vastly confused by your statement, which seems to conflate "liking" with "winning". I'm sure you have an explanation that makes sense, since you seem to have derived lessons from your Vietnam experience which have stood up to decades-worth of experience.

So, at least one of us is confused. Help me out here and tell me what you meant.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

As long as you insist that everything is the Republicans'/ Democrats' fault, then you fail to grasp the REAL problem with American politics.

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876

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Trump Takes the Politics of Resentment to the Global Stage
by Nancy LeTourneau, June 12, 2018

Jeffrey Goldberg went in search of the “Trump Doctrine” on foreign affairs. Here is the description that struck him as the best distillation: I was talking to this person several weeks ago, and I said, by way of introduction, that I thought it might perhaps be too early to discern a definitive Trump Doctrine.
“No,” the official said. “There’s definitely a Trump Doctrine.”
“What is it?” I asked. Here is the answer I received:
“The Trump Doctrine is ‘We’re America, Bitch.’ That’s the Trump Doctrine.”

It struck me almost immediately that this was the most acute, and attitudinally honest, description of the manner in which members of Trump’s team, and Trump himself, understand their role in the world…

“We’re America, Bitch” is not only a characterologically accurate collective self-appraisal—the gangster fronting, the casual misogyny, the insupportable confidence—but it is also perfectly Rorschachian. To Trump’s followers, “We’re America, Bitch” could be understood as a middle finger directed at a cold and unfair world, one that no longer respects American power and privilege. Or apparently the jobs, sustenance, health and lives of the average American.

What Goldberg just did is provide a perfect example of the politics of resentment, which is what attracted Trump supporters to him in the first place. Josh Marshall explained it this way:

People continue to marvel how a city-bred, godless libertine who was born to great wealth could become and remain the political avatar of small town and rural voters of middling means. The answer is simple. Despite all their differences, Trump meets his voters in a common perception (real or not) of being shunned, ignored and disrespected by ‘elites’. In short, his politics and his connection with his core voters is based on grievance. This is a profound and enduring connection. Why is there no analysis as to whether or not the average American has vital, life-altering things to be aggrieved about? OH! THAT'S RIGHT! We're just supposed to ASSUME these perceptions are not real, because they've been rhetorically dismissed.

The president and his supporters aren’t just raising their middle finger to American “elites,” they’re doing it to pretty much the entire globe. Jay Bookman described the politics of resentment as “a bone-deep cultural resentment that probably does not originate in politics, but that finds its outlet and expression in politics.” God forbid anyone examine the economics of this 'resentment'.

Another person Goldberg talked to described the Trump Doctrine this way:
“People criticize [Trump] for being opposed to everything Obama did, but we’re justified in canceling out his policies,” one friend of Trump’s told me. This friend described the Trump Doctrine in the simplest way possible. “There’s the Obama Doctrine, and the ‘Fuck Obama’ Doctrine,” he said. “We’re the ‘Fuck Obama’ Doctrine.”
Yes, people are dying younger to spite Obama.

There is a bone-deep resentment that Donald Trump shares with his supporters and Barack Obama symbolizes everything they resent: a well-educated successful black man with the middle name “Hussein” who held the most powerful office in the world. Because, the whole no good jobs situation ... it's not really a factor. As Andrew Breitbart famously said, “politics is downstream from culture.” As Bill Clinton famously said, "it's the economy, stupid". That is the origin of the resentment that is finding it’s expression not just in domestic politics, but in foreign policy as well. These folks are giving a giant middle finger to the whole world and don’t give a shit about the consequences. The problem is, they've been given the middle finger, and have been living with the consequences too long.

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