- Reaction score
- 13,945
- Points
- 1,160
The Transactional Donald
"Trump is playing three-card monte with the American people and taxpayer money. In the classic street hustle — distract, deceive, extract — the dealer shuffles three cards while the victim or mark tries to follow the Queen.
"You never win. The game is designed so the operator controls the outcome, using sleight of hand and accomplices who pretend to win. It’s been illegal in many jurisdictions because it’s fundamentally fraudulent: theft through deception rather than legitimate chance.
"Three-card monte isn’t gambling; it’s theater. Trump is the dealer who turned politics into performance art. The cards are policy props — shutdowns, bailouts, dividend checks — and the mark is the American taxpayer, an unwitting audience who thinks they are participating in governance when they are actually watching a con."
....
The article gets it wrong to this extent. The mark isn't the American people. At least, not just the American people. It is the entire global order.
Such a shuffling of the international cards is rarely seen outside of a world war and the deaths of millions.
So far World War 3 has not reached the mortality levels of 1 and 2.
"Trump is playing three-card monte with the American people and taxpayer money. In the classic street hustle — distract, deceive, extract — the dealer shuffles three cards while the victim or mark tries to follow the Queen.
"You never win. The game is designed so the operator controls the outcome, using sleight of hand and accomplices who pretend to win. It’s been illegal in many jurisdictions because it’s fundamentally fraudulent: theft through deception rather than legitimate chance.
"Three-card monte isn’t gambling; it’s theater. Trump is the dealer who turned politics into performance art. The cards are policy props — shutdowns, bailouts, dividend checks — and the mark is the American taxpayer, an unwitting audience who thinks they are participating in governance when they are actually watching a con."
....
The article gets it wrong to this extent. The mark isn't the American people. At least, not just the American people. It is the entire global order.
Such a shuffling of the international cards is rarely seen outside of a world war and the deaths of millions.
So far World War 3 has not reached the mortality levels of 1 and 2.
