The Mess

[Smitty-48]

That's a knife hand fight. Someone's about to get cut.

Meat helmets on in the ranks there.

Mattis v Petraeus, wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall for those briefings, cue the peacock wars. I wonder who would win CQC? Mattis has the agression, but Patraeus is a wirily little fuck.

[Fife]

X

[Hwen Hoshino]

Well said I suppose, with the caveat that, a Mattisian Grand Strategy would no doubt be in direct contravention of the isolationist desires of Trump's base. To adopt a Mattisian Grand Strategy would be a de facto Flip Flop of serious magnitude. <clutches pearls>

But the thing is Trump isn't an ideologue. This isn't a Ron Paul figure we are talking about.

Trump is a salesman and the average Trump supporter wouldn't see any Flip Flop, because, and let's be honest, people don't follow security policy. After all, wasn't Bush supposed to focus on the US and not on Foreign Policy? If Trump picks a 17 year veteran from GS and will listen to Jamie Dimon and similar Wall Street fat cats, he surely isn't on the Crusade that some people thought he was when listening to him on campaign (or looking at the campaign ads).

It might be behind closed doors a Mattisian Grand Strategy, but likely it would be called Trumpian, part of the Trump doctrine. Or sold as one. But for Trump a "US Grand Strategy" would feel better than just a "doctrine" among others.

Besides, if Trump would try to approach for example Russia, then it would be good that the Russians know that there is a serious old-school cabinet behind Trump. And he has one ace in his pocket when meeting Putin: the Russian people love him. That's something one should use, just like Gorbachev used a similar liking of the West. I'm not sure if Trump can use that card well or not. If there would have been the lightweights of only the Christie-Giuliani-Gingrich type crowd in the cabinet (which now obviously isn't going to happen), Russia could have mop the floor with the new American administration. I don't think that will happen.

Anyway, it's interesting to see what the pick for secretary of state will be.

Petraeus with Mattis when changing guard in Afghanistan:

And after all, Trump wants to make America Great Again. Well, if the domestic thing and the economic side don't play so well, guess what field there is for the President to play on?

I bet Trumps unfavorables are way higher than Putin, if he does not start delivering he will be in serious trouble.

[Smitty-48]

@ssu

Well of course I was being tongue in cheek, of course Trump is not an ideologue, and of course you are exactly right, in that Trump's base is not really married to anything other than MAGA, and they will stick with Trump through thick and thin, if only to stick it to the liberals in the end. No doubt he will rack up sufficient MAGA points to offset any Flip Flops, and although the Concern Trolls will point them all out ceaselessly, it will be to no particular avail for them.

[Hwen Hoshino]

@ssu

Well of course I was being tongue in cheek, of course Trump is not an ideologue, and of course you are exactly right, in that Trump's base is not really married to anything other than MAGA, and they will stick with Trump through thick and thin, if only to stick it to the liberals in the end. No doubt he will rack up sufficient MAGA points to offset any Flip Flops, and although the Concern Trolls will point them all out ceaselessly, it will be to no particular avail for them.

Why do you call them concern trolls? Why cannot they just be peeps with different opinions?

[Okeefenokee]

because of the way they've been behaving.

[Smitty-48]

Why do you call them concern trolls? Why cannot they just be peeps with different opinions?

Because I think Concern Troll is an excellent short hand to more accurately describe liberal partisan hack propagandists.

[Hwen Hoshino]

because of the way they've been behaving.

All of them? Reason magazine for example has consistent positions. Why are they concern trolls?

[Smitty-48]

"A concern troll is a person who participates in a debate posing as an actual or potential ally who simply has some concerns they need answered before they will ally themselves with a cause. In reality they are a critic."

This is in effect how it works, whether it's here on a forum, or the main stream media, concern trolling is a thing, and we accurately describe it for what it is. It would include libertarian concern trolling as well as liberal.

Now, if any source comes out and speaks the truth; "I despise Donald Trump and everything he stands for and find his base to be deplorable, and as such will relentlessly criticize anything and everything they do, no matter what that may be, in order to try to whip up any opposition to it I can therein"? That, is not a concern troll.

[Ex-California]

Are you going SJW on us Smitty?

The concern trolling phrase is a favorite of fat activists. When someone worries about their health or weight they say it is "concern trolling"