Resistance Is NOT Futile: Five Ways Donald Trump Can Be Contained -- Jonathan Alter

[DonViejo]

We all know the problem: a president who gives aid and comfort to white supremacists and is thoroughly unsuited for the office. The question is what do we do about it.

JONATHAN ALTER
08.18.17 12:00 AM ET

In 1946, George F. Kennan, a 42-year-old deputy chief of mission in Moscow, sent Washington a classified cable that came to be known as “the Long Telegram.” There and in a later article in Foreign Affairs magazine under the pseudonym “X,” Kennan outlined a new policy toward the Soviet Union that would guide both parties for nearly half a century.

Kennan’s idea was to “contain” a dangerous Soviet Empire “by the adroit and vigilant application of counterforce at a series of constantly shifting geographical and political points.” The U.S. moved aggressively—often too aggressively—to put the Soviet regime under such stress that it would result in “either the break-up or the gradual mellowing of Soviet power.”

“Containment,” though later partially repudiated by Kennan, was a huge historical success. Instead of another World War—a real possibility—we had a Cold War that ended with the peaceful collapse of the Soviet Union—once as remote a possibility as impeaching Donald Trump is today.

Now our country faces a crisis of a different kind, though it was bracing to hear former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta say last week that Trump’s brinksmanship over North Korea was bringing the world closer to nuclear war than at any time since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/resistance-is-not-futile-five-ways-donald-trump-can-be-contained

[BigmanPigman]

1. I must be on the right track since I have been calling for 4 of the 6 ways to resist.

Dems just started another one yesterday by starting to censure him.
Boycotts by companies, organizations, individuals, etc. (individuals are too into consumerism to do it yet)
Impeachment marches (again, last one was July 2) that are bigger than the Women's March but by Labor Day will be tough.
Get Barbara Lee's bill through the House after Ryan killed it in a secret non-vote. Limit his power in starting war (worked on for 16 years by Lee).
Restrict his Nuclear War power. That should be fairly easy to pass.
Get the House to finally approve the Dem bill for an Independent, non partisan Independent Commission to investigate 45 (like the 9/11 Commission).

[Nitram]

2. The problem is that containment required mollifying vicious right wing dictators because they were

anti-communist, and aiding the overthrow of democratically elected leaders because they were socialist. One of the biggest mistakes in Vietnam was that we propped up a reviled dictator. You can add to that the coups in Iran and Chile. In Central America we supported whoever would give American fruit companies free reign to exploit the local workforce (from whence came the term "Banana Republic&quot . We are still paying for the mistakes we made during the cold war.