Living in a cartoon world

In retrospect, one of Trump’s most revealing statements occurred during the campaign, when he responded to a question about Putin’s atrocities by pointing out that the US isn’t so pure either.  You might think that was Trump showing his knowledge of Noam Chomsky. I doubt it—Trump doesn’t read.  Instead, I believe that Trump gets his ideas from Hollywood films.  In real life, the President doesn’t order the CIA or NSA to go around assassinating America politicians, journalists and businessmen who oppose him.  The CIA doesn’t kill President Kennedy.  But in Hollywood all of these things do occur, as the big, faceless, amoral and powerful federal government makes an almost perfect villain.  Trump confuses movies with real life, and actually thinks the US government is as amoral as what is portrayed in films, as amoral as Putin’s government.  Thus Trump is surprised when the generals tell him he can’t just drop nuclear bombs on people he doesn’t like, and we can’t just steal Iraq’s oil.

Trump is a spoiled billionaire, who doesn’t have a sense of what things “just aren’t done.”

Trump thought the Dems would be elated by his firing of Comey, because many Democrats had called for the same—outraged by the FBI director’s treatment of Hillary in the final stages of the campaign.  What Trump didn’t understand is that certain things just aren’t done.  And one of those taboos is firing the head of the FBI because you are angry that he is investigating links between the Russian government and some of your top campaign officials.  I see this same flaw in many commenters; they underestimate the importance of process, and focus entirely on content.  Comey may have deserved being fired (I have no opinion), but it is not acceptable to fire a top law enforcement official because that person is investigating your administration.

It’s just not done.

PS.  Or at least it wasn’t acceptable in the past.  If it now becomes acceptable then that will be one more indication that we are becoming a banana republic.  The GOP of 1974 would not accept Nixon’s abuses of power.  How will the GOP of 2017 react?

PPS.  And how will voters react in 2018?  If I were the GOP I’d be much more worried about Obamacare, which probably won’t be repealed.  GOP candidates running in 2018, and promising to repeal Obamacare, will be laughed at.  It’s not good when your own supporters laugh at your promises.  Expect the Dems to retake the House–then the investigations will get serious.  I can’t wait!!


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37 Responses to “Living in a cartoon world”

  1. Gravatar of ChacoKevy ChacoKevy
    11. May 2017 at 08:11

    Trump Challenge! How far can you read before your head hurts? I got to the part about pump priming. http://www.economist.com/Trumptranscript

  2. Gravatar of Scott Freelander Scott Freelander
    11. May 2017 at 08:56

    Scott,

    We hope the Democrats will get serious if they win control of Congress. I am concerned they are still too cowardly, corrupt, and incompetent to do what is obviously the right thing morally and politically. In this sense, the far left can do the country a great service by refusing to tolerate Trump.

  3. Gravatar of SilasLock SilasLock
    11. May 2017 at 09:25

    ChacoKevy, I managed to read the whole thing. I think I need to vomit now.

  4. Gravatar of ChacoKevy ChacoKevy
    11. May 2017 at 09:53

    @Silas,
    I went back. I have a new favorite part:

    “But when you used to say the hard right of the Republicans can’t be trusted to look after people…

    They came through.

    They came through? So do you still have to keep them in line.

    I’ll be honest with you…Did anybody ever hear of a guy named Mike Pence? Vice-president of the United States?

    Mike Pence, the vice-president, enters the room: Morning all.

    President Trump: Central casting.
    Mr Pence: Please sit, sit, sit.”

    He had the Vice President waiting on the other side of the door, waiting to hear his name called for a dramatic entering of the room! No doubt a trick Trump picked up from his WWE wrasslin’ days.

  5. Gravatar of Cooper Cooper
    11. May 2017 at 10:32

    My problem with the #TrumpRussia investigations is that it’s nearly impossible to separate fact from fiction in the midst of a media meltdown.

    Just to pick one example, look at all the stories over the last 48 hours that claimed Comey was fired for requesting additional resources for the investigation. Apparently that’s not true. http://abcnews.go.com/US/acting-fbi-chief-pushes-back-wh-assertion-rank/story?id=47346236

    Will anyone retract that allegation? Nope! They’ll move on to something else.

    How do we know this recent stories are any more credible than the “hooker pee tape” from the dossier back in February?

    I won’t believe anything until I see a criminal indictment. Until then, Trump is as guilty of treason as Hillary Clinton is of whatever she did with that private server. Lots of smoke, no fire.

    If I were a partisan Democrat politician, I’d be behaving in exactly the same fashion regardless of whether or not I thought Trump was guilty of criminal activity. Call Trump a Russian spy enough times and you might get 51% of people to believe it.

  6. Gravatar of Benny Lava Benny Lava
    11. May 2017 at 10:44

    It will take a miracle for the Democrats to retake the House. The basically need to reapportion congress before they have a shot. That won’t happen until 2020 and they will need to win back a bunch of states.

  7. Gravatar of Christian List Christian List
    11. May 2017 at 12:04

    So what exactly is your point and/or the point of the Democrats again? That the Democrats wanted Comey to be fired for months but now that he is actually fired, people are supposed to believe that Democrats actually meant this as a joke? Ha, ha, very funny.

    It’s likely that most Trump voters (if not all) will view this as typical left-wing hypocrisy at its very best. It’s also likely that this won’t hurt Trump one bit in the long run, maybe even help him amongst his base. If Democrats and the media were smart, they would focus on issues where they can really hurt him.

    Democrats and their media outlets don’t seem to realize that their focus on a Russian conspiracy (true or untrue) won’t help them one bit. Obama should have reacted to it when it was still meaningful but he blew it. Now it doesn’t change anything expect that it makes the Democrats look like sore losers.

    Focusing on the “Russian conspiracy” is just Marie-Antoinette-talk. The relevant voter groups do not care about this at all. They will just get tired of any criticism directed against Trump, justified or not. The strategy of throwing dirt at anything Trump is doing backfired heavily during the campaign, I don’t see why it would work now.

  8. Gravatar of Christian List Christian List
    11. May 2017 at 12:15

    I agree with your last PPS. Issues like healthcare seem to be the Achilles’ heel of Trump and the GOP right now. If the Left was smart, they and their media outlets would focus on that. But they don’t. I assume losing to someone like Trump is the very definition of incompetence.

  9. Gravatar of Jose Jose
    11. May 2017 at 14:28

    If what is important is the process, it does not matter who is the FBI’s director. The institution will follow through with the ivestigation, don’t you think?

  10. Gravatar of Major-Freedom Major-Freedom
    11. May 2017 at 15:49

    Whenever I need to get a glimpse of what it might feel like to be completely consumed with envy of another person, I come here to read what Sumner writes about Trump.

    “Trump doesn’t read”. Trump writes, and Trump is an unresting billionaire who sleeps only 4-5 hrs a night. Read what Trump said about being awake more than your competitors. Hate to break it to you Sumner, but you are more spoiled than Trump, as you work less than he does, and Trump’s market doesn’t have tenure.

  11. Gravatar of Major-Freedom Major-Freedom
    11. May 2017 at 15:58

    “And one of those taboos is firing the head of the FBI because you are angry that he is investigating links between the Russian government and some of your top campaign officials”

    That’s fake news. That is what the left wants you to believe. The Russia collusion story is a hoax. If you read ALL of the evidence, you would be laughing at it by now.

    You don’t want to even try to learn the real reason Comey was fired, because you know it’s a dark place that you are too scared to be in. You never did admit you were wrong about Trump saying the Obama admin spied on him, and tens of thousands, at least, of other American citizens. That has been proven true, and Susan Rice refuses to testify to Congress for precisely this reason. Comey is related to all this. You are brainwashed.

    Bill Clinton fired the head of the FBI in 1993, and top Democrats in late 2016 and early 2017 called repeatedly for Comey to step down / be fired. Now he is fired, and the crocodile tears you are shedding are as fake as CNN.

  12. Gravatar of Major-Freedom Major-Freedom
    11. May 2017 at 16:05

    Where is Sumner’s outrage at the MSM’s coverup of pedogate, or Obama’s multi billion dollar slush fund scandal, or Clinton’s aides literally smashing their electronics and computers with hammers after an investigation was announced, or Obama paying ransom to Iran, or…it goes on and on and on and on and on. And on. And on and on.

    Stalin once said one death is a tragedy while a millions deaths are a statistic.

    The deep state is real, it is against you and me, oh, and yes, the CiA most certainly involved in the Kennedy assassination, sheep.

  13. Gravatar of Major-Freedom Major-Freedom
    11. May 2017 at 16:30

    The acting FBI director said today that there has been no attempts to stimy the FBI’s investigation of Russian interference in US elections

    In other words, firing Comey had nothing to do with trying to stop it from investigating.

  14. Gravatar of Major-Freedom Major-Freedom
    11. May 2017 at 16:43

    In the fake news filled blog post “France Rejected Bannonism” I commented that the day after Bill Clinton fired the head of the FBI, in July 1993, that Clinton associate Vince Foster was found murdered (for those who don’t want to be brainwashed: Foster suicided by the Clintons).

    Now look at this:

    http://i.magaimg.net/img/ik8.jpg

    Trump knows…

  15. Gravatar of E. Harding E. Harding
    11. May 2017 at 16:52

    Instead, I believe that Trump gets his ideas from Hollywood films. In real life, the President doesn’t order the CIA or NSA to go around assassinating America politicians, journalists and businessmen who oppose him. The CIA doesn’t kill President Kennedy. But in Hollywood all of these things do occur, as the big, faceless, amoral and powerful federal government makes an almost perfect villain.

    What’s true in America is true in Russia.

    as amoral as Putin’s government

    Putin’s government is the most moral of any important one. The U.S. government is one of the least. Did Russia overthrow the government of Georgia or Ukraine just because of disagreements with them? No. Russia isn’t in the business of regime change. That’s the U.S.

    the generals tell him he can’t just drop nuclear bombs on people he doesn’t like, and we can’t just steal Iraq’s oil

    -Do they? Because Trump really can drop nuclear bombs on people he doesn’t like. And the U.S. really can steal Iraq’s oil.
    “The GOP of 1974 would not accept Nixon’s abuses of power.”
    Who was the last President to fire the head of the FBI? Anyone remember?

  16. Gravatar of Major-Freedom Major-Freedom
    11. May 2017 at 16:58

    According to the leaked emails published by Wikileaks (who it should be emphasized have a PERFECT track record in the truth of their publications in over 10 years of operation), pedophile/murderer John Podesta (who by the way was advisor to Hillary Clinton and was “this” close to becoming SoS, and who by the way also broke the law by failing to disclose ownership of 75,000 shares of a Kremlin linked energy company in Russia) came up with the Russia hoax story less than 24 hours after Hillary lost the election:

    https://i.redd.it/8y2tds8caywy.jpg

    Comey, by the way, was presented with mountains of evidence against Hillary and stopped the investigation, yet there was no evidence at all of “Trump colluding with Russia” and the investigation continued.

    Oh and other real, non fake news today, it is being leaked now that many FBI agents were furious over Comey refusing to investigate Clinton.

    But yeah, MUH RUSSIA

  17. Gravatar of Major-Freedom Major-Freedom
    11. May 2017 at 17:06

    E. Harding:

    “Who was the last President to fire the head of the FBI? Anyone remember?”

    Ooh ooh, I do! Bill Clinton.

    The rapist.

    The guy whose wife Sumner said he “despises” (but never actually explained how or why, interestingly) but probably secretly wanted to win the election.

    Clinton also fired every single state attorney right after he won the election, which a trump also did that the left had a meltdown over.

    I heard something the other day, so true:

    If the left didn’t have double standards they wouldn’t have any standards at all.

  18. Gravatar of Major-Freedom Major-Freedom
    11. May 2017 at 17:16

    https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4669234/lankford-questions-mccabe

    Director of the FBI minutes ago stated that there had been no interference into the Russia investigation nor has there any need for additional resources.

    Front page of the NYT is again FAKE NEWS.

  19. Gravatar of Major-Freedom Major-Freedom
    11. May 2017 at 17:22

    https://i.redd.it/xvw43xyljbpy.png

  20. Gravatar of Major-Freedom Major-Freedom
    11. May 2017 at 17:23

    https://i.redd.it/jcce6gv84vwy.jpg

  21. Gravatar of Major-Freedom Major-Freedom
    11. May 2017 at 18:01

    Before Comey was fired, he told Congress that the Russian probe did not include Trump or his aides.

  22. Gravatar of Patrick R. Sullivan Patrick R. Sullivan
    11. May 2017 at 18:59

    Comey got fired for making a fool of himself during his recent congressional testimony. Trump was right to can him for incompetence.

  23. Gravatar of Christian List Christian List
    12. May 2017 at 00:33

    Maybe the Democrats and their companioned media outlets should try reverse psychology for once. Praise Trump now and then, this might confuse his base a lot. So far the extreme polarisation of the political scene did not harm Trump at all, quite the opposite is true, it got him elected.

    Side note: Even the editors from National Review think that Comey had to go, one way or the other.

  24. Gravatar of Major-Freedom Major-Freedom
    12. May 2017 at 03:17

    After Comey’s firing, Susan Rice’s lawyers began making plans to protect themselves from legal repercussions.

    I wonder whether Comey was covering up illegal activities of the Obama admin…hmmmm…hard to say…

  25. Gravatar of Major-Freedom Major-Freedom
    12. May 2017 at 03:23

    Learned the other day that not one White House press briefing journalist is a registered Republican.

    The President of the white house correspondence association should be canned.

  26. Gravatar of Mike D Mike D
    12. May 2017 at 03:45

    How long until Major-Freedom shows up at a pizza place with an assault rifle to lodge these grievances?

    Or are you more of a cabin in the woods, 600 page manifesto type of guy?

  27. Gravatar of Benny Lava Benny Lava
    12. May 2017 at 05:24

    Honestly I wish Scott would delete those posts. It is basically spam at this point. Sad!

  28. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    12. May 2017 at 06:30

    Wow, todays comment section is worse than Harden’s performance last night.

    Patrick, You said:

    “Comey got fired for making a fool of himself”

    Trump fires people for making a fool of themselves? That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all year! Touche.

    Christian, As usual, you completely miss the point. This has nothing to do with whether Comey deserved to be fired.

    You said:

    “So what exactly is your point and/or the point of the Democrats again?”

    If you don’t know, then why would I want to waste time answering your question?

  29. Gravatar of Scott Freelander Scott Freelander
    12. May 2017 at 07:24

    How do you guys like the fact that not only was Trump stupid enough to let the Russian Ambassador and Foreign Minister into the Oval Office with recording equipment, but then was dumb enough to publicly declare he’d been fooled by them.

    This is such extreme incompetence, that it’d be too unbelievable for fiction.

  30. Gravatar of msgkings msgkings
    12. May 2017 at 09:02

    @ssumner: Harden….(E)Harding…coincidence or something more?

  31. Gravatar of Jim Glass Jim Glass
    12. May 2017 at 09:55

    Patrick, You said: “Comey got fired for making a fool of himself”an

    Trump fires people for making a fool of themselves? That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all year! Touche.

    Trump said he fired Comey for being, in Trump’s words, a “showboat” and “grandstander”.

    Ha, ha! That’s even funnier. Trump has no tolerance for any behavior like that!

  32. Gravatar of As Critical as I've Been of Comey the Shabby Way Trump Fired Him Was Criminal | Last Men and OverMen As Critical as I've Been of Comey the Shabby Way Trump Fired Him Was Criminal | Last Men and OverMen
    12. May 2017 at 11:33

    […] http://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=32456#comments […]

  33. Gravatar of Christian List Christian List
    12. May 2017 at 12:51


    Christian, As usual, you completely miss the point. This has nothing to do with whether Comey deserved to be fired.

    When someone gets fired the average voter wants to know one thing: Did he deserve it or not? As I already said: The Trump critics should stop overcomplicating things all the time, or otherwise they will never win.


    If you don’t know, then why would I want to waste time answering your question?

    It’s a pretty common concept to ask a question when you don’t know the answer to it. If I knew, I would not ask the question in the first place. Pretty tricky concept, I know.
    Why you should answer? Well, you wasted so much time with these Trump posts so I concluded that one sentence more from you cannot make it any worse.

  34. Gravatar of Major-Freedom Major-Freedom
    12. May 2017 at 18:14

    Mike D:

    “How long until Major-Freedom shows up at a pizza place with an assault rifle to lodge these grievances?”

    Haha, that guy was a paid actor. You are clueless. Did you know he had an IMDB page? He is a crisis actor. Do you know who he is related to? I won’t spoil it for you. Oh, and since that was discovered, they scrubbed his IMDB page, but you can still view what it used to look like if you were smart at internetz. I won’t hold my breath though.

    Did you know that the street camera pointing at the pizza shop 24/7 was suddenly turned away from the shop 10 minutes before the actor entered the shop, and stayed that way until rig after the event, when it suddenly pointed back at the shop and has been that way ever since?

    Hahaha

    But let’s suppose that fake payops was real. OK, then to answer your rhetorical question: I will do that right after you drive a truck through a crowd of Christians celebrating Christmas, or right after you rape a 14 year old because you don’t understand that no means no in civilized society, but if you can get a communist judge to give you a pass for cultural differences, then we’ll talk.

    Go back to sleep.

  35. Gravatar of Major-Freedom Major-Freedom
    12. May 2017 at 18:15

    Sumner’s half right. The comments from some people are terrible, but he forgot to mention what he himself writes.

  36. Gravatar of Major-Freedom Major-Freedom
    12. May 2017 at 18:19

    “If you don’t know, then why would I want to waste time answering your question?”

    Ah yes, the high school teenager “If you don’t know, then I’m not telling you” gambit.

  37. Gravatar of Major-Freedom Major-Freedom
    12. May 2017 at 21:31

    “What Trump didn’t understand is that certain things just aren’t done. And one of those taboos is firing the head of the FBI because you are angry that he is investigating links between the Russian government and some of your top campaign officials. I see this same flaw in many commenters; they underestimate the importance of process, and focus entirely on content. Comey may have deserved being fired (I have no opinion), but it is not acceptable to fire a top law enforcement official because that person is investigating your administration.”

    In other words, all a Director of the FBI needs to do is announce that the President is “under investigation”, and that Director can never be fired, because it doesn’t matter what the reason actually is, you can have fake news and fake bloggers spin the narrative that the reason the Director was fired was because of the investigation, and not because of the actual reason

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