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Comment by JumpCrisscross | Hacker News Reader

> he did destroy several political dynasties by now: Romneys, Clintons, Bushes, some argue even Obama's minions are dead in the water

This isn’t vindictive, though. In some cases it was straight-up competition.

> If Zuck insufficiently bends the knee, that's what's going to happen

This is transactional, possibly corruptly so. But it’s not really revenge as much as exerting control. If there were nothing Zuckerberg could reasonably do to avoid Trump’s wrath on account of what Zuck did in 2020, that would be vindictiveness.

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Those dynasties - problematic as they inherently are - have survived presidencies in both parties over the decades. I would argue its destruction and I'm pretty sure folks like Ted Cruz, Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham when they think no one is listening, would agree. They've bent so far and so deeply to stay afloat.

Cruz and Graham know all too well that they will politically outlive Trump and whoever comes next. They look at each occupant of the White House like it is a future ex-wife, get good prenups, milk it for the good times and wait out for the next one. They could generally care less who is there and they know it, suck up a bit and ride it out :)

Cruz might. Graham won't take the wind-down of the "forever wars" well, and will therefore be ostracized.

One can hope @ein0p!!

the forever wars are not winding down :)

and if graham is pissed all he has to do is wait for 2028 :)

We'll see I guess. Trump at least got us out of Afghanistan. There are early signs that he managed some kind of a (temporary) settlement in Gaza also, even before inauguration. Will he wind down everything? Probably not. But by god, someone should at least try. We can't keep spending trillions we don't have on killing millions of people halfway across globe for no good reason.

you mean Biden got us out of Afghanistan, right? :)

Trump negotiated getting out of Afghanistan, withdrew most of the troops but left Biden with getting the last presence out without any manpower for an orderly exit, which was a very stable genius move on his part. Biden was in a lose lose situation: he could either bring back troops to cover the exit and get everything out (unpopular), or just leave in a messy uncovered exit (also unpopular). It was pretty much lose-lose for him at that point.

Absolutely. Wild, isn't it?

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