January 10, 2017

The tao of the demagogue: destabilizing the government

A demagogue needs to insure that he is the only power source in the country. He must undermine the existing government and chaos is an important tool.

Ambiguity: his pronouncements are deliberately chaotic. There point is not to articulate any policy, but in fact to make sure that no policy is stated, creating fear, uncertainty and misdirection.

Purging the bureaucracy: ridding the civil service of experienced and knowledgeable people and replacing them with people who are loyal to the demagogue.

Disrupting the usual norms and protections:

One example is the Trump's orders to the nuclear security employees and embassy personnel to immediately leave their jobs on inauguration day. There is no gain in vacating these positions without proper transfer of information, etc. This makes these agencies vulnerable to any outside power who wants to exploit American weaknesses.

January 10, 2017

The tao of the demagogue: the tweet as threat

All demagogues need to consolidate their power and silence their opposition. Scare tactics work best.

Drop a tweet the makes a company lose stock value and you've told every other company that the same could happen to them.

Drop a tweet that incites death threats and you've told every journalist, union leader that they had better think twice about criticizing Trump.

And we can see that this is working with journalists and companies. The media hesitates to "seem" biased. The companies let Trump take credit for imaginary job growth.

These tweets need to be called out for what they are. When one person has the power to kill a company or a person by what they say, we are all at risk.

January 8, 2017

Is there a way to stop the confirmation of nominees who have not received the

certification from the OGE? It sounds like the nominees are required to have this certification before their Senate hearings. Is this just another "norm" that the Republicans can ignore?

December 23, 2016

Trump's tweets are not random, but are induced by his coterie of rwnjs.

I posit that Trump's transition team is making sure that Trump is kept uninformed and angry about issues that they want to promote.

The more ambiguous the tweet is the more uncertainity is created. His first negogiating skill is to create fear and uncertainity in his victims.

He has already shown that his tweets can change the stock of a company and now all companies have felt the chill. He has already shown that his tweets can generate death threats for a individual and we all should fear a president who willing to use such power.

October 14, 2016

If RNC repudiates Trump, he is still on the ballot so what does it mean?

People get to vote for him, right?


The big donors are asking the party to drop him . . .

October 8, 2016

HOw the republicans can use electors to write in Pence.

http://electionlawblog.org/

Rick Hansen at Elelctionlaw blog has a couple articles about ways that the Republicans could use the Electoral College to try to get Pence instead of Trump as their candidate.

"But if Trump withdraws, and in fact even if he doesn’t, there is one other possible way out: the Electoral College. When we cast our votes for president they are actually cast for electors from each state (based roughly on population size) who then cast ballots for president. If Trump is chosen in some states, those electors could vote for Pence, or Romney, or Kasich, or whoever. There are some laws that bar “faithless” electors from casting votes for anyone who did not win the popular vote in a state, but I have a hard time believing either the Republican-controlled House or a court (because it raises a political question) would stop the actions of a faithless elector. Ned Foley games out how conflicts would work under the Twelfth Amendment; the bottom line is that if Trump got more votes than Clinton and Republicans control we could well end up with a President Pence. (When no one gets a majority in the Electoral College the House votes on a one state delegation, one vote rule.)"

September 27, 2016

Next debate: 10/9. What is Trump's campaign's way forward to next debate?

Can Trump be any different than he was this time?

How can they make sure he just won't go off the rails again?

I don't think that personal attacks worked for him this time, whether it was Rosie O'Donnell or Miss Universe, so I think going low would be a disaster.

September 27, 2016

Trump can't help it . . .but those who enabled him deserve to have their names attached to every

debate video clip as they are played and replayed . . .

Reince, Ryan, Ivanka, it isn't the game you think it is . . .take your toy and go home . . .

September 16, 2016

How to prevent Trump from taking over debate.

With the present plan, Clinton will spend her time fact checking Trump and not getting her own ideas out there.

A better way is to have the questions given to the candidates before hand and there are strict time limits for the answers and rebuts. Each candidate can decide how much time to spend on their own ideas or opponent's.
. The questions are the same for each and should cover major issuess.

Example:

Abortion
How does your plan differ from your opponent?

How will you balance your budget?

What civil rights areas are you interested in protecting?

Candidate 1 speaks, candidate 2 speaks, candidate rebuts, candidate 2 rebuts.

September 15, 2016

Is there anything in WI John Doe documents that is criminal?

Judges' refusal to recuse themselves?

Walker telling donors to give to the PAC?

Or is further investigation necessary?