Earlier this week, Rachel Maddow suggested that the Trump shutdown, which President Pelosi has finally ended, was masterminded by Putin. Maddow argues that given what Trump has already done to help Russia, from relaxing sanctions to weakening the NATO alliance to acting like Putin’s doormat in Helsinki, what else could Trump possibly do to please Putin? How about throwing the US government into chaos by shutting it down? Of course, Putin would like that, as it fits nicely into the age-old strategy of divide-and-rule or, as it is also called divide-and-conquer. Compared to the US, Russia and Putin have much less power in the world. Just because someone doesn’t have as much power, it doesn’t mean they can’t conquer the more powerful. Since the Roman days (and likely earlier), rulers have been using the divide-and-rule strategy to weaken their enemy and conquer them. From Wikipedia: The concept refers to a strategy that breaks up existing power structures, and especially prevents smaller power groups from linking up, causing rivalries and fomenting discord among the people. Well, that sounds familiar. Trump has been trying to rip NATO apart since he got into office, and when he’s not doing that, he’s pissing off our allies around the world, from Canada to France to Germany. It is pretty clear that he has been “fomenting discord” at the international level, something that weakens the powers that might oppose Russia. By weakening and isolating the world powers, it provides an opportunity for Putin to seize greater control. It’s clear that Trump himself use this same strategy to maintain his power. In that same Wikipedia article, it connects the divide-and-rule strategy to narcissism, which is very interesting: A primary strategy the narcissist uses to assert control, particularly within his/her family, is to create divisions among individuals. This weakens and isolates them, making it easier for the narcissist to manipulate and dominate. Some are favoured, others are scapegoated. This reads like something out of the Trump handbook on how to run an organization. By all accounts, the White House is in a constant state of chaos, which suits Trump, the narcissist-in-chief, just fine. Since this Wikipedia article is illuminating, let’s examine a few more parts. It further describes the elements of the divide-and-rule technique: aiding and promoting those who are willing to cooperate with the sovereign This explains why Trump demands loyalty and regularly hires people who are willing to go on Fox News and praise him. But here is the most interesting part of the Wikipedia article, the part that jumped out at me and made me start thinking that Putin wants the wall as much as Trump does: encouraging meaningless expenditures that reduce the capability for political and military spending Holy crap! If that isn’t the definition of building a ridiculously long wall along the southern border, I don’t know what is. Clearly, Mexico was never going to pay for the wall, so to get it built will require the US to spend a lot of capital and energy. And while we are spending capital and energy on building a wall, what are we not doing? Spending more on the military. If the US government is spending millions building a wall while also running the largest debt in the world, surely this has to have an impact on military spending. The federal government classifies […]
Donald Trump is now officially playing with fire. And our economy. Hopefully, we can recover from the mess he is making.
The University of Michigan...
Presenting: the worst take of all time. The record-holder and now-and-forever champion. The Holy Grail of Both Sides-ism. The dumbest thing you have ever heard. The...
The national televised address by President Donald Trump was widely denounced on Tuesday night after his performance from the Oval Office—in which he used...
Some real-time reactions on Twitter to Trump’s Oval Office fear-fest:
https://twitter.com/isteintraum/status/1082820023314452481
https://twitter.com/jeffjarvis/status/1082819793785360384
https://twitter.com/JohnAmato/status/1082820080361103361
https://twitter.com/rudepundit/status/1082820628091088899
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1082820642523828227
https://twitter.com/CharlesMcNulty/status/1082820314159927296
https://twitter.com/JoeSudbay/status/1082820697171337216
https://twitter.com/Haleaziz/status/1082820852066865152
https://twitter.com/KatyTurNBC/status/1082821686251192321
https://twitter.com/mviser/status/1082821383267278848
https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/1082823306665959428
Not one dime for his racist wall!
