h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It would seem that things are about as out of control as they can get.

Yes, N Korea have plenty to do before they could launch an attack on a major country but they show no signs of backing off.

The leadership have no concern for the welfare of the N Korean populace so aren't really bothered if they starve or freeze to death.

Are the Chinese planning to 'remove' him? The Russians? The Americans?

PP.

In the early 1960s, the Chinese leadership were remarkably unconcerned about millions of starving Chinese. In the 1930s, starving Ukrainians were of little concern to Russian leaders.

Those are among the role models for Kim Jong Un -- not that he's likely to have looked around for a path to follow.

It would be much safer (and easier) to remove Donald Trump.

Would Republicans vote for impeachment? I think they're getting disillusioned with Trump. Don't ask why it has taken this long for it to happen....

The problem is that Trump's doing pretty much what he said he would do and behaving now as he behaved when he stood for election. I can't think of any politician that's ever done that before. He needs a Sir Humphrey to put him straight in thee matters.

If Trump keeps making deals with Democrats, or keeps any deals with Democrats, the Republicans would definitely support impeachment. Short of that I believe he actually could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and they wouldn't do a damn thing. He still signs the bills they manage to put in front of him.

"Would Republicans vote for impeachment? I think they're getting disillusioned with Trump"

They're not "getting" disillusioned with Trump. Are memories so short? The Republicans never had any illusions about him in the first place. They threw everything they had at him, over a period of a whole YEAR, to try to make someone, ANYone their candidate other than him. And he *destroyed* them.

Consider: in June 2015, the obvious candidate was Jeb Bush. He had the background in politics, he had the name recognition, and oh yes, he had millions and millions of dollars. Nobody with any sense would have bet against him... until Trump entered the race. And even then, with very few exceptions, practically everyone in the world treated Trump's run like a big joke. So what he did was, he went straight for the throat of his biggest threat - Bush - and annihilated him. He *humiliated* him, over and over again, until he had to pull out of the race. Trump achieved something amazing - he made me feel sorry for an entitled right-wing millionaire. And that, remember, was the absolute best the Republicans had to offer. All the other candidates were second-stringers, and sure enough, one by one, Trump shot them down. And people still laughed and treated him as a joke. Still laughing?

I don't think the Republicans would vote for impeachment. When I said it would be safer and easier to remove him, I meant it in exactly the same way the subject line does - I meant it would be safer and easier to kill him.

I hope I'm wrong. I hope the world is not truly like the badly-written prequel to a dystopian sf novel it currently feels like. I hope that Trump putters on for another three years, then gets ground into the dirt by Elizabeth Warren.

However, I can reasonably foresee one of two other scenarios coming to pass which would more accurately fit the way the world is going:

(a) Trump reigns on for another three years. For 2020, the Democrats nominate Hillary again, because it's HER TURN, DAMMIT. This time Trump wins the popular vote as well as the electoral college (just like Bush did in 2004), and signals "four more years!". In 2024 the Democrats, a weakened and demoralised force, nominate Chelsea Clinton because it's HER TURN DAMMIT, and in return the Republicans are forced by the President to nominate Ivanka Trump, who storms to victory by promising to build a wall along the Canadian border. She wins again in 2028 and starts small nuclear war to celebrate. Every President of the USA for the rest of the century has the surname Trump.

OR:

(b) Trump is assassinated in his first term, with the blame placed on Mexican Muslim antifa terrorists (while actually being the work of a small cabal within the Secret Service). Mike Pence announces a state of emergency, declares martial law and repeals the First Amendment and makes official the Christian theocracy the USA has been all along anyway.

Please, tell me either of those things is less believable than the fact I'm talking about President Trump in the first place.

Welcome to the Idiocracy.

The removal of Trump by whatever means would be seen by Kim Jong-un as a victory for his bonkers regime.

PP.

Anything other than the death or deposition of Kim Jong Un is a victory for him.

I've watched Republicans for a very long time. As politicians they seem to have a rather long fuse. If they had no illusions about trump in the first place, they probably couldn't take him seriously, despite the pummeling he gave to other republican candidates.

Now he's doing what he said he would do. Worse, he has no loyalty to the party under whose banner he ran. This violates the Texas maxim "Ya gots ta dance with them what brung ya" [my thanks to Molly Ivins for that]. And, it violates Reagan's 11 commandment that you don't criticize other Republicans. And certainly you don't do deals with democrats when republicans have rejected your plans.

So, yes, they could reluctantly and very slowly turn. En masse, they might accomplish what individual candidates couldn't.

I'd like to see the Democrats take back one or both houses of Congress next year, but we can't take it for granted that this will happen. Democrats are just as capable of shooting themselves in the foot as Republicans are.

"Democrats are just as capable of shooting themselves in the foot as Republicans are. "

They nominated Hillary Clinton as their candidate. That's not shooting yourself in the foot, that's sawing off your foot, sellotaping it to the side of your head, THEN shooting yourself through it. It's hard to express my contempt for US Democrats in general for that act.

You're too modest about that. I think you did it well, and with ease.

A year on... and the world seems a safer place, does it not? I mean this seriously - Trump ridiculed him then met him, then SK and DPRK got into unprecedented talks, and... we're all looking somewhere else right now. Can Trump take credit for that? It's hard to deny.

The president is a figurehead. Teddy Roosevelt called the Presidency a "bully pulpit." Trump has been carried aloft by an aging demographic reacting to future shock.

There's a pattern in which the President's party loses congressional seats during midterm elections. It's likely that Congress will have more Democrats than it had before. This scenario has played out many times over the years.

Trump's threat to deny citizenship to American-born children of aliens is a nonstarter. The 14th amendment to the Constitution stands in the way. Besides, what about the children of people that Trump likes? They would be punished as well.

Trump has given conservatives as much as is humanly possible. They have to support him, even as they loath his vulgarity and insult-mongering.

"A year on... and the world seems a safer place, does it not?"



Well, it doesn't seem any MORE dangerous, so there's that.



"I mean this seriously - Trump ridiculed him then met him, then SK and DPRK got into unprecedented talks, and... we're all looking somewhere else right now. Can Trump take credit for that? It's hard to deny."

An overgrown child who's infamous for his political bluster makes some blustering threats and then doesn't follow through on them -- repeating the same pattern he's demonstrated multiple times before -- and somehow the OTHER overgrown child gets credit for holding him in check, even though he did absolutely nothing.



What is the DEAL with this guy?



"The president is a figurehead."

I WISH that were true.



"Teddy Roosevelt called the Presidency a 'bully pulpit.'"

Which, at the time, meant "good" pulpit; from which place he could successfully spread his thoughts and opinions. He never said the Presidency was a figurehead, he LOVED being the President and thought it was great!

(Check the part on U.S. slang): http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bully



"Trump has been carried aloft by an aging demographic reacting to future shock."

May they all soon succumb to old age....

As much as I've admired Teddy Roosevelt, having read two biographies, I never parsed "bully pulpit" in the sense that Teddy loved to use the word "bully". I suppose Trump would call it "the GREATEST pulpit, a really good pulpit, no pulpit is better than mine."

The Korean war is in the state of ceasefire, the war technically has never finished.
He could resume the fighting at any time as a resumption of hostilities.
All the better for them as they are better armed now and he has used the time to improve his defensive abilities. He will fight to the last Korean.

"May they all soon succumb to old age.." [Mr. X]

I would settle for some form of dementia that makes them forget to vote.

"Trump's threat to deny citizenship to American-born children of aliens is a nonstarter. The 14th amendment to the Constitution stands in the way."

You think that would stop him? I mean... it might. I certainly wouldn't rely on it though.

"Besides, what about the children of people that Trump likes? They would be punished as well. "

No, silly, of course they wouldn't. All the people who Trump likes have hundreds of millions of "the law doesn't apply to me" vouchers, otherwise known as "dollars".

"An overgrown child who's infamous for his political bluster makes some blustering threats and then doesn't follow through on them"

Did you miss the bits where they successfully tested ballistic missiles and a functioning nuclear weapon? I don't think that counts as not "following through" unless the only thing that would satisfy you is an actual war.

Re: aging demographic... how many Leave voters are already dead? I'm starting a thread about this.