Predictions

[Alan]

All I wish is for donald to be gone.... drama to cease... and life to have some semblance of order. They can drag him out feet first for all I care.

I don't know that drama will ever cease, it's become too ingrained in our national zeitgeist. I think the best we can do is re-focus that drama in a direction that's less hateful to those we disagree with.

[bae]

Yeah. They’d be rousted out pretty quickly. This isn’t Seattle, after all.

The CHAZ in Seattle was 6 city blocks (at 1.45 acres/block) and a small city park (7.37 acres). About 16 acres. The White House grounds is about 18 acres.

[LDAHL]

The CHAZ in Seattle was 6 city blocks (at 1.45 acres/block) and a small city park (7.37 acres). About 16 acres. The White House grounds is about 18 acres.

I would think that a Trumpista version of the CHAZ wouldn’t be met with the same craven insistence that we must not “escalate”.

[jp1]

My prediction is that now that trump has fixed the dishwasher problem the June cleaver demographic is going to flock to him.

[catherine]

There is an article in the NYT today: "Trump is Giving Up."

First of all, I can't believe that. He is hard wired to win at any cost.

But, I wonder if he is redefining his idea of a "win"? Maybe his idea of a win is to get out of Washington and return to his world of glitz and glamour in NY and Florida and flee the battering ram of Congress and the media. I still believe he never expected, nor wanted, to win in 2016, and Melania certainly didn't want him to win.

So, I think Rob alluded to this in another thread, but maybe he is really trying to be as outrageous as possible so he doesn't get voted in? I think it's an interesting hypothesis. He still gets to keep his base (now the minority), and he might pay lip service to a "rigged election" but I believe that by that time he'll be planning his next business deal from Trump Tower and reassembling his coalition of family and friendly sycophants.

[Rogar]

There is an article in the NYT today: "Trump is Giving Up."

First of all, I can't believe that. He is hard wired to win at any cost.

But, I wonder if he is redefining his idea of a "win"? Maybe his idea of a win is to get out of Washington and return to his world of glitz and glamour in NY and Florida and flee the battering ram of Congress and the media. I still believe he never expected, nor wanted, to win in 2016, and Melania certainly didn't want him to win.

His behavior recently does seem increasingly bizarre and you could be right. I've attributed it to his mental capacities becoming further unhinged. It seems to have gotten worse after his bout with Covid.

[Alan]

I still believe he never expected, nor wanted, to win in 2016, and Melania certainly didn't want him to win.

I've always believed that he ran in 2016 to strengthen his brand exposure and was as surprised as the rest of us to actually win.

[catherine]

I've always believed that he ran in 2016 to strengthen his brand exposure and was as surprised as the rest of us to actually win.

Exactly.

[frugal-one]

Don't think he would be campaigning as hard if he didn't want to win.

[catherine]

Don't think he would be campaigning as hard if he didn't want to win.

Well, there's something called self-sabotage: "Sabotage is the act of destroying or undermining something, often in a covert manner." So maybe he's doing what he's "supposed" to do, but he really doesn't want to do it, so he acts in self-defeating ways. His subconscious is driving him to lose, maybe?