I am no fan of Brooks, but he looks on the verge of tears here…
His whole arrogant demeanor he normally has is just… gone. That man is very scared of what’s happening and it’s… weird.
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I would do the distinction of “publicly siding with”. They never had problems siding with dictators but they always made the necessary performative gestures of disgust.
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A campaign manager once hired me to do (non-parametric) statistics for her, (probably the strangest gig i ever held) She was fond of referring to “the unreachable third”. Her belief was that there’s approximately a third of society which is proudly stupid and will resist all attempts to enlighten them. Over the decades since i’ve found depressingly little evidence against that conviction. sigh
(this very recent poll is ripped from TMZ, so consider what that means about the prior sample selection therein. for instance, i’ve no clue who “Bhad Bhabie” or “Alabama Barker” are because i’m an ancient nerdy out-of-the-looper)
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Did she find them in that famous basket of deplorables?
Yes, this. I do recognize that a lot of American embarrassment, dismay, disgust and so on, including my own, at yesterday’s event is at least partly a symptom of insularity-induced naivete (no matter how much I actually am aware of historical truths about US foreign “policy”).
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Maybe he’s suddenly very tired of all this So Much Winning® that we’ve been having.
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ETA
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There’s something grimy about Kissinger knowing that term. It’s like he sullies it by association.
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The last minute or so: a nice pep talk starting around 41:50.
From Robert Reich.
In 2002.
Man o man, he called it.
The whole chat is helpful:
“We are the leaders that we have been waiting for. In other words, don’t wait for ‘The Leaders’ .” --Robert Reich
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The military is too disciplined for Donny. He wouldn’t even be able to keep up with boot camp, let alone the rigors of active duty. Even dropped into place as an officer due to connections, the military does not reward ‘leaders’ who are dangerous to the troops and to strategy. At most, he’d have a desk job somewhere. Fancy title, but no real input that would affect anything important. He wouldn’t have the kind of career that would impress voters. And he’d have a lot less money and power too.
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I think that would be a deciding factor.
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Why? Fred’s mafia connections wouldn’t have happened in the military. Fred’s extreme wealth wouldn’t have happened in the military. Lots of high-ranking officers have children who follow them into the military, but they don’t get top level positions due to nepotism…they might get an easier start, but any subsequent promotions have to be earned.
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I should’ve specified how fantastic the idea of the drumpfs being martial beings (who can become rich if they stick w/the right people) was. Forgive me for my oversight?
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Something on the lighter side, perhaps?
Ted wasn’t inherently evil. Damaged, yes; but not to the point where he became evil. Plus, he had Georgette.
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I’m not following, sorry.
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Okay, it was donnies grampa that fled Germany for the US to get out of compulsory military service. My what-if relies on that not being the case. Even if he didn’t have the prized “von” in front of his surname, he could still’ve gotten rich off of being in the military while avoiding active service, then emigrating to the US. He gets into not only real estate, but military contracts. And as a father, he’s a Prussian (the snotty nobles of Germany). His son Fred, takes after that, but doesn’t join the military or get drafted (due to kids or faked condition?), while choosing donnie to carry on after his grandfather. And he does, and he learns to use rank and money to get what his dad wants him to get. He retires soon as he can or fake illness, take your choice. He’s not particularly respected, but he scares people in both the military and business worlds; his emotional/mental processes are pretty much that as they are, with minor adjustments made according to the military being involved.
NOW imagine the GOP noticing him He retired with one-star, didn’t do anything, but their base LOVES him because he’s rich and a soldier (strings are pulled re conflicts of interests somehow). The court him he way they did IRL and we get a military guy in office who only knows how to give orders and have them obeyed and knows nothing about how the US system of government works. (which Truman said about Ike after Ike won the 1st time).
At least the US was sane enough not to get Gen. MacArthur elected, or maybe it was he really knew he was out of his league; think it was both.
SORRY so tl;dr. my mind works in mysterious ways, its weirdness to perform.
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Fred Sr got his start in real estate in the mid 1920’s, so that would have been a terrible time for him to have gotten his start in the German military instead. And it’s unlikely having a career in the military at that time would have been any sort of advantage for Donny to have followed in his footsteps afterward.
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