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The way Donald Trump won the primaries was basically by outrage-baiting the liberals.
This seems like Bad Bunny adopting the same playbook. The more Trump tweets about how horrible the halftime show was, the less he spends on issues where he can actually do damage.
There are important differences between Westeros and the US, though. A liberal democracy will always have to tolerate that someone is degrading the country.
The US had always a bit of its own style in displaying power. Where the USSR or China would have big military parades, the US had nothing of that sort.
A basic rule of social classes is that if you need to conspicuously advertise your class, you are not very secure in your class. A well-established member of the upper class can just buy food from a hot dog stand, because he does not need to fear being mistaken for one of their usual customers by other members of his class.
The US did not have military parades because its military power was not in doubt. It did not need to bedazzle visitors with opulent presidential palaces (the White House mostly being from an earlier era).
Also, no halftime show can match the self-degradation of the US displayed during the 2025 presidential election and the presidency which followed, where any responsible top would long have used their safe word to stop the scene. Between Biden's dementia and Trump being Trump, it definitely turned the US into laughingstock. Clinton's Oral Office sounded straightforward respectable in comparison to Trump's toddler tantrums about not getting a Nobel or Greenland. He could spend half the federal budget on rebuilding the White House out of gold and it would not change a thing in the international perception of the US.
TBF I'm reasonably sure Trump could spend half the federal budget literally curing cancer or solving fusion energy and it would not change a thing in the international perception of the US, as long as he's still otherwise Trump.
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Hopefully Trump is distracted enough he doesn't go forward with the very likely and comically stupid attack on Iran (round 2).
The US doesn't have large military parades through the capital because it doesn't have a consistent history of doing large military parades, especially outside of wartime. American military power was very much in doubt during periods of the cold war at least at much in doubt as the Soviets during various periods. No one doubted Soviet Military power for larges stretches and the parades continued every year.
I hear this a lot, but then I see the rest of the world except for a handful of countries capitulating to American demands and quickly.
Does the laughing happen after they do what they're told or before, they quickly stop, do what they're told, say 'thank you, may I have another,' and then begin again afterwards?
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I maintain that the only people who cared about Clinton's shenanigans in his office were conservative Americans and even for them much of it was just a performative way to express their existing dislike of Clinton.
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