Trump poised for a Coup?

[Moksha]

Replacing Pentagon leaders with crazies?
Having States submit a Trump set of electors?
Elevating Shades to Grammar Tsar? (I might have made up that last one).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiSji18DifE

[Gunnar]

That's terrifying because I have no doubt that Trump really wants something like that to happen. Are there really enough Republican so loyal to trump to make such a tyrannical takeover possible? I hope not!

[Jersey Girl]

I don't think so, flightless bird. The monkey's flinging poo out his cage.

[Meadowchik]

Replacing Pentagon leaders with crazies?
Having States submit a Trump set of electors?
Elevating Shades to Grammar Tsar? (I might have made up that last one).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiSji18DifE

For some perspective, the difference of the popular vote in 2016 was half of one percent, and so far the 2020 popular vote is more than three percent in favor of Biden. Now we have the sitting President refusing to concede, which is already major disruption of norm and policy, but we have his officials also skirting policy. Barr is ignoring DOJ policy in allowing investigations to be undertaken before the votes are certified. General Services Administration official Emily W. Murphy has refused to recognize Biden as the incoming President and therefore withheld the briefings and government secured offices normally provided President transition teams. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated, "There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration."

This is far and away separate from accepted norms, and without any concrete evidence justifying the it. Even in 2000, Both Bush and Gore were given access to briefings, allowing the votes to be properly counted and then elections certified. This is concerning.

[Jersey Girl]

I've been following all of this mess like it's my job. Thinking about what I've been reading in the news, some commentary I've listened to and thinking back on Mary Trump's analysis of the family and Cohen's detailed outline (is that a thing?) of DJT's business dealings. Writing this out to organize my thoughts, make predictions, and see if it matches what happens in reality.

Gaslighting and pouting:

No, I don't think he is poised for a coup but I do think he'd like to gaslight us into thinking that. He's apparently MIA with regard to daily duties. I think I may have even posted that he'd do that--not lift a finger with regard to anything including the pandemic. I think with Covid, he's just going to sit there and do not a damn thing at this point. Maybe...and this is a small maybe...he'll try to take credit again for the Pfizer vaccine like he has on Twitter. But..I lean more towards him knowing it's over for him (I absolutely believe he knows this) so he's not going to even bother to promote his administration any more. He'll just sit there, pout, do his rallies, and let it ride until Jan.

With the Pentagon firing's and replacements, I think it's posturing. He's engaging in threatening behaviors to make us think he's about to do something crazy drastic with his power.

In the end, what he's really doing is discarding us. Narcissists like him (note: not all narcissists. There are functional narcissists and he's not one of them.) when they clearly see they can no longer get their narcissistic supply from a relationship, discard the relationship. They often if not always, have another source of supply waiting in the wings. Watch my comments on his network and a 2024 run, because that is where I think his new source of supply is.

Rallies:

He's apparently doing to start holding rallies. I think the purpose is at least two-fold.

1. He needs the narcissistic supply he gets from holding rallies--the adulation.
2. He's gearing up his fund raising potential.

Fundraising:

If you examine his PAC fundraiser, he's raising funds for much needed income (because he's ass deep in debt and single handedly destroyed his own brand), trying to fund his planned scheme to start a news channel of his own, and the left over crumbs (after someone has donated 5K) go to the GOP. He doesn't give a crap about the GOP. He gives a crap about the GOP. The GOP is perceived as turning on him. Is he going to mount a 2024 campaign? He might be...he also might be getting himself a pile of money for attorney's fees to get him through the next year or more of personal lawsuits and indictments.

Connection between election related lawsuits and his past and current behavior:

I think he's doing what he always does. He threatens to sue and he does. He puts up a fight and then...he settles. I think the election related lawsuits are exactly that. He's losing them one by one already. I think that if he sees he's pulling in money via fundraising, that's where the settling comes in. He'll give up the fight about the election in real time, but is right now funding another fight, one he'll carry out over his own news network by poisoning the Biden administration until 2024. His base will be critical to the network both funding it and following it. Making it popular and lucrative.

Running again in 2024:

Will he do it? I tend to think he will not. But, he could. If he does, keep in mind that he'll be older than Biden by then. The same Biden he regularly criticized on account of his age. I really, really, think he's trying to see if he can get a network off the ground and just holding the 2024 out like a carrot to his base--so they keep supporting him. I think he's actually just re-imagining his brand and therefore, a source of steady income. In the mean time, he'll use his base for financial backing and narcissistic supply.

Narcissistic Injury:

He's getting this in spades right now like he's never gotten it in his LIFE. He'll continue to spite everyone and everything he thinks is the cause of the injuries. He'll discard the perceived source of his injury--the United States of America with the symbol of Biden at the helm and he'll try to injure it and Biden in return. He'll never engage in a peaceful transition of power. He'll do everything in his power to thwart and trip up the construction of the Biden administration. Even though he knows that Biden will ultimately power up his administration, possibly with delays on account of Trump's antics, he'll do whatever he can to at least temporarily injure it and continue to try to injure it via his planned network. He'll never, NEVER, admit he is at fault or EVER admit that he lost the election. He'll claim to his literal dying day that the election was stolen from him.

Exit:

I heard Michael Cohen forward a theory on his exit. I think it fits. He says that when the First Family goes off to Mar a Lago for the holidays, he'll just stay in Florida and never return. He will NEVER attend the inauguration and that is just as well for the incoming President and VPOTUS. He and his toxicity aren't wanted or needed there. He'll go to Mar a Lago and the government will pack up his crap and deliver it to him there on Inauguration Day or sooner if he requests it.

Stephen Colbert ingeniously coined a phrase about the Biden administration. He called it the de-skankification of the White House.

He is not wrong.

Is DJT entirely predictable? No. He thrives on unpredictability. That's what narcs do. But...he does have patterns of behavior we can use, or I have used, to forward a theory about what might be about to happen and why. I think it will be more complex than what I imagine, but I do think the bones of his strategy are at least somewhat predictable based on his past patterns of behavior.

And we'll just see how that goes...

[Meadowchik]

That sounds reasonable, Jersey. And yet, all signs pointed to Trump initially not really intending to win in 2016.

And what we are seeing is not just one dysfunctional narcissist acting alone. We are seeing a dysfunctional narcissist as a figurehead of a political machine that has become more corrupt in the last four years with major players feasibly facing serious legal consequences, and with major players already taking concrete steps toward destabilization.

Granted, I agree that it might be gaslighting serving other purposes. In fact, I really do not care to predict at all. What matters to me is that an election is a fragile moment in any government and the moves being taking currently should put us on our guard. We cannot rely on predictability.

[Res Ipsa]

This column by Jennifer Rubin leads me not to worry about a coup. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... far-worse/ Trump and his enablers (whether true believers or cynics) don't have much backing. When 50% of self-identified Republicans agree that Trump lost the election, there just isn't that much oxygen for coup to ignite.

It's interesting to see the never Trumpers backing the Democrats in the Georgia Senate runoffs. That centrist Republicans recognize the toxicity of the extremist Trumpists is a good thing, I think.

[Jersey Girl]

Meadowchik I'm a human behavior junkie. Totally, completely, and ever shall be. I have a hunch that many or most in the GOP machine will ultimately end up accepting the Biden win but at the same time, they'll covertly continue to back Trump but not because they "believe" in or have confidence in Trump, but because they see backing Biden right now and then possibly backing Trump in the future, as a way to maintain their own perceived power.

One thing that has bothered me was the obstruction with regard to transition funds. It really pisses me off, but I am certain that it's now a situation of "every man for himself" so some will go along with Trump to temporarily save their own asses while some will be job seeking, possibly both at the same time.

One commentator (I can't recall who it was) said that if the Administration won't release those funds then someone like Mike Bloomberg can front the money. That sounds good on paper, but it won't pave the way for the needed security briefings and clearances for the transition team.

Anyway, I don't think anyone can accurately predict Trump and that includes Trump himself. I do think there are observable and documentable behavior patterns that we can see and try to match what we know to be true about reality to those. I allow for the fact that there could be more to the reality that we see on the surface, so that creates a variable we can't factor in.

That's what I tried to do in my above post.

Did I ever mention that I think Trump has dyslexia? I do.

[Jersey Girl]

p.s. Look at Mike Pompeo when he says there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.

He's shaking his head, "no" when he says it and vocalizes a little laugh as if he can't believe what he's saying because he knows it's absurd.

[Res Ipsa]

Meadowchik I'm a human behavior junkie. Totally, completely, and ever shall be. I have a hunch that many or most in the GOP machine will ultimately end up accepting the Biden win but at the same time, they'll covertly continue to back Trump but not because they "believe" in or have confidence in Trump, but because they see backing Biden right now and then possibly backing Trump in the future, as a way to maintain their own perceived power.

One thing that has bothered me was the obstruction with regard to transition funds. It really pisses me off, but I am certain that it's now a situation of "every man for himself" so some will go along with Trump to temporarily save their own asses while some will be job seeking, possibly both at the same time.

One commentator (I can't recall who it was) said that if the Administration won't release those funds then someone like Mike Bloomberg can front the money. That sounds good on paper, but it won't pave the way for the needed security briefings and clearances for the transition team.

Anyway, I don't think anyone can accurately predict Trump and that includes Trump himself. I do think there are observable and documentable behavior patterns that we can see and try to match what we know to be true about reality to those. I allow for the fact that there could be more to the reality that we see on the surface, so that creates a variable we can't factor in.

That's what I tried to do in my above post.

Did I ever mention that I think Trump has dyslexia? I do.

I don't think you've mentioned dyslexia before. I'd be interested to hear your thinking on that.