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kpete

(72,028 posts)
Tue May 5, 2020, 07:35 AM May 2020

The plan is to have no plan

The plan is to have no plan, to let daily deaths between one and three thousand become a normal thing, and then to create massive confusion about who is responsible— by telling the governors they’re in charge without doing what only the federal government can do, by fighting with the press when it shows up to be briefed, by fixing blame for the virus on China or some other foreign element, and by “flooding the zone with shit,” Steve Bannon’s phrase for overwhelming the system with disinformation, distraction, and denial, which boosts what economists call “search costs” for reliable intelligence.

Stated another way, the plan is to default on public problem solving, and then prevent the public from understanding the consequences of that default. To succeed this will require one of the biggest propaganda and freedom of information fights in U.S. history, the execution of which will, I think, consume the president’s re-election campaign. So much has already been made public that the standard script for a White House cover up (worse than the crime…) won’t apply. Instead, everything will ride on the manufacture of confusion. The press won’t be able to “expose” the plot because it will all happen in stark daylight. The facts will be known, and simultaneously they will be inconceivable.

“The plan is to have no plan” is not a strategy, really. Nor would I call it a policy. It has a kind of logic to it, but this is different from saying it has a design— or a designer. Meaning: I do not want to be too conspiratorial about this. To wing it without a plan is merely the best this government can do, given who heads the table. The manufacture of confusion is just the ruins of Trump’s personality meeting the powers of the presidency. There is no genius there, only a damaged human being playing havoc with our lives.


More:
https://pressthink.org/2020/05/the-plan-is-to-have-no-plan/
21 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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The plan is to have no plan (Original Post) kpete May 2020 OP
Been Saying That For A Couple Weeks ProfessorGAC May 2020 #1
Sound Analysis, Sir The Magistrate May 2020 #2
And it has been a rousing success so far. SamKnause May 2020 #3
Trump's "plan" was all fine and dandy, as long as he was only hurting the right people, and all his sop May 2020 #4
Bingo! He's never had a plan for ANYTHING, why should this be different? FakeNoose May 2020 #5
+1 n/t Laelth May 2020 #6
Yep - after three years of defensive, whiny, paranoid flailing, it's all they know hatrack May 2020 #7
"The Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism" - Naomi Klein (2007) DemoTex May 2020 #8
Excellent book.. mountain grammy May 2020 #14
Worth repeating..... jaxexpat May 2020 #9
Bingo! kentuck May 2020 #10
The plan is to kill us and permanently steal the country for the rw oligarchs. lark May 2020 #11
You got that one eight! McKim May 2020 #15
AND HE HAS HIS "FANS" TO HELP SELL IT blakstoneranger May 2020 #12
The downside for the Trumpers: Eyeball_Kid May 2020 #17
I really don't think he cares a whiff about legitimacy or he wouldn't be using Russia so heavily. lark May 2020 #20
You are on to something. Your line of analysis is worth watching and pursuing. . . . nt Bernardo de La Paz May 2020 #13
GOP plan to confuse the public has worked for 40 years. nt wiggs May 2020 #16
SOP for Trump...nt Wounded Bear May 2020 #18
Good post with a resounding ring of truth. Regarding your line "The facts will be known, and c-rational May 2020 #19
He is a mirror of his constituency. Flops, Flim-Flams, and Fools. Baked Potato May 2020 #21

ProfessorGAC

(65,261 posts)
1. Been Saying That For A Couple Weeks
Tue May 5, 2020, 07:46 AM
May 2020
There is no plan
PINO's entire existence has lacked a plan.
If plans were part of his existence, he'd have lived off 180x the median household income, for 48 years, and still had nearly $4 billion with no debt. No BKO, no silly reality show, no pretend working. Golf at fancy courses with several homes around North America, and a private jet lease to get to & from those.
For 48 years! And still have $4 billion for doing NOTHING.
Clearly there has never been a plan.
Let's be honest, the tool didn't even plan on winning office! I even think the Rs didn't block the nomination process because they thought he'd lose. Their plan was to offer it up as fodder in 2016. It's why many of them fear it now. Now it has actual power & they never thought this would happen. They fear the backloaded revenge.

sop

(10,274 posts)
4. Trump's "plan" was all fine and dandy, as long as he was only hurting the right people, and all his
Tue May 5, 2020, 08:31 AM
May 2020

corporate cronies were corruptly cashing in. "Flooding the zone with shit" won't be sufficient to distract people going forward, now that the "plan" has killed 70,000 Americans and trashed the country's economy.

FakeNoose

(32,833 posts)
5. Bingo! He's never had a plan for ANYTHING, why should this be different?
Tue May 5, 2020, 08:32 AM
May 2020


FYI this meme was made over a year ago, long before we knew anything about Covid-19. Chump has never had a plan, He's never cared about anything except lining his own pockets and making his "friends" rich so they can bribe him. That's why Jared is working in the White House - his job is to collect the bribes.

Now that the Covid Pandemic is a reality, the ineffectiveness of the Chump administration is obvious to everyone. November Third cannot get here quick enough!

hatrack

(59,594 posts)
7. Yep - after three years of defensive, whiny, paranoid flailing, it's all they know
Tue May 5, 2020, 08:54 AM
May 2020

And it's all they're going to do.

jaxexpat

(6,864 posts)
9. Worth repeating.....
Tue May 5, 2020, 09:31 AM
May 2020

"The manufacture of confusion is just the ruins of Trump’s personality meeting the powers of the presidency."
Glad you did.

kentuck

(111,110 posts)
10. Bingo!
Tue May 5, 2020, 09:33 AM
May 2020

"The plan is to have no plan, to let daily deaths between one and three thousand become a normal thing, and then to create massive confusion about who is responsible.."

lark

(23,175 posts)
11. The plan is to kill us and permanently steal the country for the rw oligarchs.
Tue May 5, 2020, 09:43 AM
May 2020

Every single thing makes total sense when looked at through that perspective.

Ensure a full blown pandemic at election time - check.
Ensure rw fringe groups are gunned up, violent, angry and ready to kill at election time - ongoing effort that is showing success because gun shops in the south have no guns or ammo. It is flying off the shelves.
Ensure red states close almost all precincts and don't allow mail in voting except in states like FL. where that process is totally rigged already - ongoing and showing results for rw
Stop early voting - suspect a sneaky plot to stop this as well because they know it lets a lot of Dems vote that otherwise would have a difficult time. Haven't heard any actual efforts for this, but expect it, it will definitely happen.
Declare martial law and stop the election when there are riots from rw'ers trying to stop us from voting. Declare victory and SCOTUS will back him up and America will have been killed.
Why - so they can stop social security and Medicare and and steal all the workers money for the oligarchs, it's already been started with the 500 billion then the 2nd giveaway to business last week when it's all going to themselves and other rich rw'ers. They will also end all labor laws incuding 40 hr. work week and OT and child labor laws, all environmental laws, end free public education and all governmental assistance for healthcare. USA will look a lot like Russia by plan when this is over - a few wealthy oligarchs own everything, people barely have enough to eat or places to lives and we die young from preventable diseases and are a sick alcoholic nation. This is what they want.

Only a total blue tsunami can stop them. We have to do whatever it takes to get our votes counted which will probably include extremely long lines (7-8 hrs. worth) if you live in a blue city in a red state. Broward County will be totally fucked in FL. as an example of what will happen.

McKim

(2,412 posts)
15. You got that one eight!
Tue May 5, 2020, 10:03 AM
May 2020

You got that one right! I hope people figure this out by election time.

 

blakstoneranger

(333 posts)
12. AND HE HAS HIS "FANS" TO HELP SELL IT
Tue May 5, 2020, 09:48 AM
May 2020

At first I thought this guy is a genius who plays stupid, but behind the scenes he is a screwed person who can get things done RIGHT! But, nah, he's another dumb, spoiled, never-been-poor, born rich, raised rich, sheltered kid who has never had to really earn anything. He has survived off of his father's true business acumen and reputation. Somehow he cons himself into believing his own bullshit. Which is why he doesn't want truly smart people around him unless they worship him. Instead, he surrounds himself with idiots and dolts so as not to be reminded of his stupidity. They won't tell him that using snakes and alligators in a moat around a wall is stupid, they won't tell him that dropping a bomb in the eye of a hurricane is stupid. His people actually tried to make this happen! They had to be told how stupid the ideas were and didn't apply to practical reality. WHAT ARE WE DOING FOLKS? DO WE REALLY WANT THIS FOR THE NEXT 4 YEARS? BECAUSE IF WE DO, WE MAY NEVER GET RID OF HIM. HE MAY END UP PRESIDENT FOR LIFE!

Eyeball_Kid

(7,435 posts)
17. The downside for the Trumpers:
Tue May 5, 2020, 10:32 AM
May 2020

The plague is coming to TrumpLand. COVID-19 has fertile ground to grow. The Nazi flags and the assault rifles don't intimidate the virus. Trump-humpers will die in large numbers, and the community of Trump-humpers, a good percentage of them, will come to understand the power of death and wonder where their tax money is being spent instead of prevention, mitigation, and eradication. They will blame their Trump-humping governors who will blame the Trumpian feds. And the feds will blame anything that moves. Trump will lose way too much of his support, either by disillusionment or by death. Trump's gamble is his only move. He either gambles with the lives of his base, or he resigns. But he can't win an election ever again. He can declare martial law, but doing so would decimate his fantasies about a vibrant economy, which is his ONLY boast of legitimacy.

lark

(23,175 posts)
20. I really don't think he cares a whiff about legitimacy or he wouldn't be using Russia so heavily.
Tue May 5, 2020, 11:45 AM
May 2020

He wants money and power and praise and he's getting all 3 so he sees no downside. Stopping the election, he will still have the 3 things he wants. He could care less about respectability or he'd be actinh responsibly instead of being the terrorist in charge. The deaths are a feature for him since it's not the oligarchs that are dying.

c-rational

(2,596 posts)
19. Good post with a resounding ring of truth. Regarding your line "The facts will be known, and
Tue May 5, 2020, 11:27 AM
May 2020

simultaneously they will be inconceivable." Inconceivable to many, but not to the DU population. So much of this mess was unfortunately predictable. It will be MSM that will cover for this befuddlement.

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