Could this be the writing on the wall?

[William769]

Trump knows he's going to lose and lose big in November. So his thinking goes something like this, I'm going to screw all these ungrateful people who refuse to love me.

What else could it be? What he's doing is affecting all Americans, not just us blue Americans.

I am at my wits end trying to figure out his end game.

[BigDemVoter]

1. Kind of like a scorched earth policy?

The Nazis pulled that shit at the end of WWII. . . .

[captain queeg]

8. That's the first thing I thought of

At the end Hitler decided the Germans were unworthy of him and thus there was nothing to save.

[ProfessorGAC]

44. The Nero Decree

And there appears to be no Albert Speer to say no.

[sheshe2]

2. Fact.

He knows he is going down.

He will not go down alone. He plans to kill as many of us as he can before he does.

I go down, so do you all.

The man is insane.

Fact.

[William769]

9. I am starting to have sleepless nights.

There has always been partisanship, but now we are on a whole new playing field and this field is dangerous.

We as Americans used to be able to find common ground when the republic was in danger. That's not the case anymore, republicans give him what ever he wants and we're told to sit down & shut-up.

Sorry it's another sleepless night for me and I'm just rambling on.

[sheshe2]

12. I have my sleepless nights.

Mostly I am just severely depressed. I just don't know how we will survive with all those that are so willfully ignorant.

Gotta hit the pillow and try for sleep. I have mom to deal with tomorrow. No rest for the weary.

Love you.

[William769]

13. Pleasant dreams.

[murielm99]

27. Please be as good to yourself as possible.

Things may change for the better after trump is gone. A little bit of sane leadership may make a great difference.

I don't know if I will live to see it. I want all the rest of you to be here for it and to do more than merely survive.

[sheshe2]

52. ...

[DENVERPOPS]

33. Take away the football n/c

[uponit7771]

39. +1

[Marie Marie]

3. I think he is just being himself. His behavior is what it is and what its always been.

It's just that now, he is on a bigger stage and, more dangerously, with power.

[sprinkleeninow]

35. yah, appears heady with power and goin' for broke

so sick...

[C_U_L8R]

4. Lord knows what the heck he's trying to prove

And his legacy is certain shit. But it seems he's determined to go scorched earth on his way down and destroy as many lives as he can in the process. What a loser.

[applegrove]

5. Stopping immigrants will tank the real estate markets for homeowners.

Spread it loud. But not for office buildings and posh hotels and posh neighbourhoods.

[brush]

22. How will stopping imigrants tank the RE market?

How many are buying houses. This virus crisis is more likely to cool it off.

[applegrove]

28. I'm in canada. My dad's two main health care aides/friends, who have bought houses with

Last edited Tue Apr 21, 2020, 03:07 AM - Edit history (2)

with their spouces, are both canadian citizens now. The people who will replace health care aides or gardeners or cooks or farmworkers in the US are not buying a small townhouse as they don't have their spouces here and they will not make enough money as the migrant temporary workers they will be. Immigrants make up 1/4 of nursing home workers and all. That is a ton of houses not being bought. I knew two cook brothers who bought a house and lived in it with their other three brothers while they made and saved money in canada to have nest eggs to go home to Lebanon with one day. As this coronavirus has shown, they are our most important workers. They will be replaced with temporary workers. Wages will go down. Low to mid real estate will go down. And they don't vote. But will pay some taxes while they are here. The moment their contract is up they are sent back to their original country.

Link to tweet

This will be permanent if Stephen Miller has his way. And it looks like he gets his way often. It is about stopping people from voting democratic. It is about power. I'm looking at the long term here if this becomes permanent. Of course in the short term people are not going to buy houses or cars because of the shut downs. But so too stopping immigration will put a chill on the housing market too.

[pnwest]

6. I think he's trying to prepare his base

to rise up and protest if he loses.

[brush]

26. That might be it but it won't work. A recent poll shows that only 30%...

of Americans believe him anymore so there are not enough of them.

IMO a huge reason for his irrational decisions and behavior is stress. All his businesses—hotels, golf courses, even Mar-a-logo, are shut down and not generation any income so he can't make his regular payments to the Russian oligarchs. He was always crazy now it's off the charts.

Like dragging his feet on testing. Any sane person would've gotten a federal system to do that months ago.

[Captain Zero]

38. Yeah is he still turning down or signing over his president paycheck?

who did he 'donate' the last one to?

[Doodley]

7. He thinks he's getting ahead of public opinion. He expects that as time goes on, public

opinion will swing his way and as people struggle more and more to survive they will agree we have to reopen America, and he will do a big "told you so!," thinking he will have a big boost of popularity.

He also thinks he's setting up the governors so he can blame them for everything that doesn't go well, and take credit for everything that goes right. It is typical Trump playbook.

[William769]

10. MSM will make sure that doesn't happen.

I know over the years MSM hasn't been well liked around here but their fact checking of trump has been outstanding.

[Doodley]

14. I agree, I don't think it is going to go well for him, not when cases and deaths increase because of

his recklessness.

[bdjhawk]

25. Re MSM, I don't understand (Well maybe I do)

why they are giving these very small protests such large coverage. I am struck by how much it reminds me of those first “Tea Party “ protests. Yes, one was as “grass roots” driven as the other (like not at all- all were corporate/$$ organized). I live in Chicago and will never forget the first Tea Party protests that received top billing on all of the evening news programs. One of the Tall Ships happened to be in town and a small group of protesters went to Navy Pier and threw in crates of tea. The news channels filmed from helicopters and multiple reporters on the ground. I remember wondering what the big deal was since there were so few people protesting. It didn’t take long to realize that big money from the right wing was organizing all of these little events and corporate media would give it more exposure than it deserved.

[larwdem]

34. agree

MSM will not help us. We with small amount of post get ignored. on DU

[TexasTowelie]

37. The protests are receiving a lot of coverage

because there isn't much other news being created elsewhere.

Most legislative bodies are shut down so there is any discussion about pending legislation in the media. The primaries were abruptly ended. Very little happening in the entertainment segment of society such as sports, musical, television and film industry.

All these areas of society that are shut down provide a lot of extra time for media to fill and nature abhors a vacuum.

[Lulu KC]

11. I think he does know and yes, he'll get worse

before it gets better.
A lot worse.

[TygrBright]

15. MENE, MENE, TEKEL UPHARSIN

When people talk about "the writing on the wall", that is the origin of the phrase, from the Book of Daniel in the OT.

Also known as "Belshazzar's Feast", the story tells of Belshazzar, son of Nebuchadnezzar, ruler of Babylon, who in his boundless arrogance denies the power of G-d, and compares his own rule to that of G-d. At a great feast for all his nobles and princes, at the height of the revelry, a cloud descends and from it emerges a hand, which writes these words on the wall of the feast chamber:

'MENE
MENE
TEKEL
UPHARSIN'

The revelers are terrified and none can read the writing or interpret the event for Belshazzar.

Finally a sage from among the captive Hebrew people named Daniel is brought before Belshazzar, and he interprets the words:

"Your days of rule have been numbered-
You have been weighed, and found wanting,
Your realm will be divided and given to another."

He explains to Belshazzar that this is in contrast to Belshazzar's father Nebuchadnezzar, whose arrogance was humbled by G-d and who repented of his pride and allowed the captives to prosper in his land and even return to their own. But Belshazzar in denying the power of G-d and comparing his power to G-d's has brought upon himself a threefold malign fate:

1. He will die - SOON
2. His realm will not be inherited by his sons
3. Those who do take over his realm will be of a different people from Belshazzar

Regardless of whether one interprets the Book of Daniel as a literal history or a set of Hebrew allegories derived from folktales, there is great human insight in those stories.

Which of course [Redacted] is utterly incapable of grasping as he neither reads nor comprehends humanity.

interpretively,
Bright

[Hekate]

20. Thank you for the relevant story, Bright

You're so bright I gotta wear shades.

[murielm99]

30. This should be an OP.

If I borrow it to introduce an LTTE, would that be all right?

[TygrBright]

48. I'd be honored! Thanks.

[PCIntern]

43. I gave you full credit for a brilliant essay

And posted it on my Facebook page. Thank you for your erudition.

[Celerity]

47. ...

Belshazzar's Feast (Rembrandt) circa 1635 to 1638

National Gallery, London

[pink]

16. I just think that he is a great pile of orange shit and doesn't have a brain. n/t

[Kablooie]

17. I think it's simpler than that.

His people want things to open up so he says okay.
He wants their devotion so he'll support them on anything they want.
If they die, it's not his problem.

The fact he's losing voters probably doesn't occur to him because that is planning for the future and he's not capable of doing that.
He's a toddler and only reacts to what's right in front of him at the moment.
Consequences are not a concept for him.

It's a good thing too because a clever person in his position who is a long term planner might have already dismantled the whole constitutional system and be running a pure dictatorship by now.

[Hekate]

18. He's the type who'll pull everything down with him when he falls. And there's nobody in the GOP ...

...who gives a shit any more. Mitch McConnell could do something about it, but clearly he has his own agenda and is okay with what is happening to the country. McConnell is the one I truly cannot fathom.

[struggle4progress]

19. Um, it's not over until the chicken counts fat ladies in a hatchback

[Cracklin Charlie]

21. Wit's end?

Congratulations, you’re not crazy!

Sane can’t understand crazy...crazy can’t understand sane.

[Caliman73]

23. You are giving him too much credit.

Don't rack your brain trying to figure it out. Trump is not complicated. Once you understand his psyche, he is easy to figure out.

Trump is not a super-villain. He doesn't think ahead like that. Trump's primary motivations are to avoid humiliation and garner praise. Those two things are what drives him. He is reactionary, not a planner. He likely fears losing and maybe is getting worried about losing, but he can quickly put it out of his mind and convince himself that he is going to win. He is running from crisis to crisis trying to avoid getting buried by his fuck ups. What is happening to the US right not is not a plan. It is happening because there is no plan, there is no leadership. Trump is, as I said, trying to win one day at a time. He spends his time trying to avoid the blame for the horrible stuff happening that people are telling him about, and he is trying to make himself look good. He is failing so badly because he is trying to run the country, the way he has run his companies, through chaos and playing people against each other. He is going through this like it is an episode of the Apprentice.

He doesn't have an endgame, except for trying to escape responsibility and make some money.

[SouthernCal_Dem]

24. Spot on. nt

[sprinkleeninow]

36. you're correct in that * reacts to situations by impulse

needs adoration and being seen as a success in everything

except he's a pitiful gross failure and loser who assuming attaining the highest office in he land would bring him all he seeks

[Caliman73]

49. There is NOTHING that will fill the hole inside him.

If he did not have the money he inherited from his dad, he would have been dead or in prison a long time ago.

[Jamastiene]

29. I think it is the other way around, unfortunately.

These protestors are not catching this virus. So, they are getting away with it. He's playing to that. They are too. Somehow, they are getting away with it. He's not the least bit worried. I hope he is wrong though. I hope he goes down hard in November, but I'm having my doubts. We usually end up with Republicans for two terms, at least for the last 40 years or so, except the oldest Bush. I think we are screwed no matter what he does. He's a messiah to them. He gets by with everything. I hope he lives long enough that Karma can at least get him, if it exists. At least, that much would be nice to see. Otherwise, he is going to get by with everything and stupid people vote in much larger numbers than Democrats.

[BigmanPigman]

31. He lives for revenge don't forget.

[Demobrat]

32. I think he just wants to open

things up because his properties are losing money and he can’t afford it.

Money and his image are all he cares about

And as far as the image goes he just says whatever he thinks will prop it up at that moment, as always.

[SammyWinstonJack]

40. That's tRump. Vengeful vindictive make it his mission to get even

for what he perceives as wrongdoing against him. Psycho that he is will try to burn it all down to get even with all of us ingrates.

[brer cat]

41. His only chance is to turn the economy around.

He's willing to gamble our lives in that effort just as he gambled with other people's money running his businesses.

[mercuryblues]

42. Trump is doing this

because he can't do anything else. This is who trump is at his core. He does not know how to help people. Period. He only knows how to help himself. he wanted praise for his handling of this crisis and all he got was facts, which did not support his self aggrandizements.

So he resorted to his other source to self inflate his ego. Punished those who do not praise him enough. He doesn't care that tens of thousands of people are dying because of him. In fact it supports his irrational thinking. If Governors looked up to him more, less people would die. IOW It's not his responsibility.

Another side to this is that trump needs his death porn. He is aroused by it. We have seen this with his response to natural disasters and with the Kurds. Before he was president he inserted himself into many (and always on the wrong side) situations calling for death, like the Central Park 5. It would not surprise me if trump killed a few women for sexual gratification. He also likes taboo sex, porn stars, grab them by the *, young girls, his daughter, raped his wife, other people wives.

Throw into the mix that trump loves money, his money. It is the only physical thing he can show that he is a success. He would do absolutely nothing until he and his "friends" could figure out how to make a buck off of it. it is another way to revel in praise, to stoke his ego. Which is why he is calling this a success, lots of good things happening etc. For him it is.

[Buckeyeblue]

45. He is positioning himself to create a tv station (Trump TV)

They will be a station for a crazy right wing. A 700 Club for the political right wing. Hannity will be part of it. But Trump will go on periodically to rant and rave. The TV station probably works better if he loses. Everyone will be angry.

[hatrack]

46. He doesn't have an "end game" any more than an opening and middle game . . .

All he has is impulses, a cauldron of writhing snakes, a roaring Catherine wheel of rage and sparks and pettiness and flames that never burns out.

All that matters is feeding the void.

It's not that nothing else matters. It's that nothing else even exists .

The only thing that exists is his screaming, howling, fathomless need to be worshiped, feared and pleasured at every moment of every day.

[lame54]

50. Absolutely - Trump lives for revenge

[Polybius]

51. Hard to say, but I think he's too arrogant to think he'll be defeated

He probably thinks he'll win.