Have him watch T’s interview with Hannity. Trump makes it very clear what he thinks about that war, and it isn’t that Putin is the bad guy. Zelensky’s fault.
ETA: @Saint_Cad 3 posts up.
I agree in general about your cereal comment. But in this case I think something much less random is operating.
- trump hates the idea of spending / giving money to other countries for anything.
- trump claims to be against war in general, probably because it’s bad for business.
- trump likes Putin and hopes to grow up to be the Putin of the USA.
- trump probably really is a Russian stooge in the sense of explicitly taking instruction from them in response to bribes, kompromat, or the Putin-wannabe effect.
So 1-3 have the effect of doing things favorable to Russia but not for stoogy reasons. #4 is pure paid Russian asset = total stooge.
From YLE (Your Local Epidemiologist) today:
This is perfectly consistent with what occurred in his previous term. My wife teaches business law. Many of her assignments direct students to look at presumptively reliable government sources of info. In many many instances last time, she saw such sources constrained or eliminated. My understanding is that in at least some instances, his idea is that govt info will be replaced by private entities (aligned with his sycophants.)
Just accelerates the dumbing of the populace, if the information isn’t even made available. But, hell, he probably prefers that the info not even be obtained in the first place!
I wish I could say I was especially prescient about it, but the hamstringing of the CDC, NIH, and other bodies was really obvious. They were advertising this in 100 foot tall blinking neon lights since before the election. The speed at which they’re barrelling straight towards it is the only (mild) surprise.
I was talking yesterday to my across-the-alley neighbor, who is a big-time Trumper. He commented at one point that he’s been glued to the news the last few days because of all the good stuff that’s happening.
So, I’m betting she doesn’t notice that
I think in a few months it will be undeniable. 
Never underestimate the capacity of human beings to engage in denial of reality.
That’s the thing with unintended consequences; they take some time to strike. They guy likes that Trump is shutting down all these agencies, because he has not yet seen what happens when those people aren’t doing their jobs. He thinks they’re not really “doing anything”, so he doesn’t bother to think ahead about it, but he’ll have a few surprises when reality finally hits.
It’s like a kid being happy that their mom said they could eat all the ice cream they want. They don’t see the upset stomach and puking that’s coming in an hour.
Or the obesity, diabetes, and early death that comes much later, too late for “cause and effect”. It’s Biden’s fault for cutting medicare!
No, it won’t.
Yes, that has been surprising and impressive.
I’m not sure I would be able or willing to engage in even pleasantries with someone I knew held such views. I might continue polite neighborly waves, but my intentions are that when I encounter someone who talks about “all the good stuff that’s happening”, I expect to directly tell them I disagree strongly and do nt wish to discuss it.
It was not easy to keep mute, but as the conversation was focused on a topic of mutual concern (someone has been going through our shared garbage container, probably looking for receipts for shoplift/return scams or personal information for identity theft) I was able to redirect back to the topic at hand, and he did not belabor the point.
RFK can be a nutjob all he wants. No one in that admin will listen to anything except money. Trump and his real friends plan to rape the country to ash. Because trump’s followers are single-mindedly selfish (it is the one characteristic they have in common), no one will care until something really bad happens to them. And even then, the rest of the country can die a horrible death as long as their personal need is addressed. Which of course, good luck with that.
You know, if Trump wants to beat China, hamstringing one of the world’s pre-eminent research agencies probably isn’t the way.
Exactly.
As others have said: they absolutely believe that what’s happening is all “good stuff”. That the people who got in the way of Trump looking good need to be taken down.
The RW believe that if you prosper or perish, it’s because you were supposed to: depending on their upbringing they follow either a pseudo-calvinist view that your blessing or suffering was predetermined from above, or a social darwinist view that you “deserved” what you got.
As I stated back 4 years ago, for many of them that after the first couple of months the bodies were not stacked up blocking their suburban driveways, meant things should have reopened and CDC/NIH had slammed the brakes on booming economy for no good reason. Even if the shutdown WAS why there were no bodies stacked in the street in the heartland.
In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.”
~ G. K. Chesterton
China steals so much of our research data, this will at least slow their progress.
Said semi-sarcastically.
Mike Pompeo and Bolton have lost their security, which pleases me. Not that I wish any trouble on them, of course.