monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

A gremlin was chewing at my A2K account and haven't been able to post for a couple of days. The techie boys are working to fix but in meantime, I'll post under the name above.

As it's new account, everyone I had on ignore became visible. Good god! Why any of you keep these people visible is beyond me.

Obviously, the big rightwing thing right now is "the media are not to be trusted but Trump is to be trusted". This is now the main propaganda thrust and it has the purpose and function of excusing or justifying anything Trump (or his people) say and do. As the founders understood, a free press (which means free to report on and criticize those in power, particularly the head of government) is absolutely critical to maintaining a functioning democracy and that's what makes this particular propaganda initiative so dangerous. Len Downie Jr has a good editorial up at the NYT this morning on this issue
NYT

Also, it appears that David Corn was the first reporter to be contacted re the "dossier" on Trump/Russia. That was on October 1. Here's his account of that contact, what he published at the time and what he (and then others) did not publish and why. You should read this: MotherJones

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There's a hell of a good discussion with Gail Collins and Frank Bruni available at the NYT at this link right here
They are in discussion in front of an audience and taking questions (damned smart questions, too). I highly recommend it.

I hadn't previously followed Frank Bruni for no good reason. I won't make that mistake again. He's a bright boy.

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@reasoning logic,

reasoning logic wrote:

Thank you for sharing the link. Did you watch the video in the link? It was crazy. That is post of here in the USA. Some of that is taking place here now.

Not sure which video you're asking about, RL. I watched a lot of the Bafrain video, then turned to the lengthy interview of this reporter, which is quite revealing.

She is a very articulate person with a fascinating story to tell. It's hard to doubt her sincerity and veracity.

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There's an editorial up at the WP arguing that "Trump’s nominees are right: The United States can’t go backward on torture"

Well, yes. Unless, of course, one wants to ignore American and international law. Or if one thinks it a fine thing to legalize and make morally acceptable the torture of Americans by other nations or political actors.

But there's no way of knowing what Trump himself actually thinks about torture regardless of what he's said about it - if he's even thought about it for more than five minutes. It's not that he's open-minded. It's that he has no apparent consistent philosophy on much of anything that isn't about himself.

He's said only idiots think torture doesn't work. Then he chats to Mattis and says, maybe it doesn't work. Tomorrow, if he deems it something he should say, he'll say get on with it boys. He might say that publicly but allow his appointees to operate in exact reverse of what he is saying he has instructed.

There are two main things going on in all of this. First, his urge to say anything that gets applause from the enraptured. Second, his unprecedented laziness in study and thus his inevitable tendency to let others do all the real work (while he's busy promoting himself).

But there is another factor in this that is frightening. That his is constant tendency to react to perceived slights and to behave in a manner that always (by which I do mean always) as the big alpha who will crush those who do or say something he deams threatens his alpha dictator thing. Start a war? Maybe. Torture? Maybe. Have protesting citizens shot? Maybe.

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@temp-blatham,

temp-blatham wrote:

. Start a war? Maybe. Torture? Maybe. Have protesting citizens shot? Maybe.

All of the above, Blathy. Good thing you're in Canada. Trump may not get to Canada for a month or two. You will have a little more time to relocate to some small island or other very remote part of the world. Any other place, and you're toast.

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@temp-blatham,

As Kellyann Conway said, we have to look at Trump's heart, not what he says.
I wonder how many cases she has won with this kind of instruction to the jury.

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@temp-blatham,

Quote:

Start a war? Maybe. Torture? Maybe. Have protesting citizens shot? Maybe.

HRC had all that & more planned for America, and the world.

Trump voters said "HELL NO!" to HRC.

Other than the Russians & the DNC, did anyone really want HRC to be POTUS?

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Quote:

Donald Trump is normalizing paranoia and conspiracy thinking in U.S. politics

Political scientists long assumed that U.S. institutions were more open and sturdier than those in other countries. One manifestation of that robustness, the theory went, was that U.S. politics appeared largely free from troubling symptoms like conspiracy thinking. Foreigners — particularly in less-developed countries — might attribute the actions of their leaders to shadowy forces like the CIA or Israel’s Mossad, but Americans knew better than to think that offstage actors could have such influence on them.

That belief is no longer tenable. Conspiracy thinking has been normalized in American politics in a way that almost nobody could have expected a year ago. Today, it is plausible to think that U.S. politics could soon resemble cultures that most Americans once regarded as conspiratorial or paranoid.

...In December, an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll found that 86 percent of Democrats were worried by Russia’s interference in the election, while only 29 percent of Republicans were. Similarly, in January, a separate poll found that partisan views of the CIA were equally polarized, as 46 percent of Democrats, but only 29 percent of Republicans, approved of the agency.

WP

These tendencies long predate Trump and they are most commonly a phenomenon of the right (even if not exclusive to the right). Fox, Limbaugh, Coulter, etc etc set the stage for Trump. That's why they have tended to be his most steadfast supporters. They think the same way. It's a stridently authoritarian mindset.

Authoritarian types have a problem with most institutions. It's institutions which stand in the way of their desire to control society or some part of it, so their natural tendency is to want to strip away or marginalize or drastically alter those institutions. That is, the ones which they believe are a threat to them and their plans.

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@temp-blatham,

Quote:

Fox, Limbaugh, Coulter, etc etc set the stage for Trump. That's why they have tended to be his most steadfast supporters.

You really dig that fake news, don' you.
Coulter was the only early adopter of Trump, the others were late adopters of Trump.

Limbaugh was mostly a Cruz supporter, and FOX supported everybody at one time or another.

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@cicerone imposter,

Conway is a new level of an old thing. I've not seen anyone as amoral yet so effective as she is. Bruni (in that discussion with Collins I linked above) has very smart things to say about her. She's one of the individuals on the scene right now who is making America a much worse place. She's fit into Goebbel's operation with no problem at all.

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@Frugal1,

6 more days & the nation will celebrate!

Quote:

Just a few more days...

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@temp-blatham,

temp-blatham wrote:

Donald Trump is normalizing paranoia and conspiracy thinking in U.S. politics

Yeah, sho nuff, Blathy. You never miss an opportunity to breathlessly announce that Trump will establish a Nazi regime and exterminate all cheese-eaters.

Thing is, that aint really paranoid. For once you got something right.

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OK. Looks like the boys (or girls) solved the glitch.

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@Frugal1,

bullshit as usual, 3 million more voters wanted Hillary than Trump, and still do. Trumps's support demonstrably keeps dropping before he's even inaugurated.

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@MontereyJack,

MontereyJack wrote:

bullshit as usual, 3 million more voters wanted Hillary than Trump, and still do. Trumps's support demonstrably keeps dropping before he's even inaugurated.

"Demonstrably?" Really? Why doncha just haul off an demonstrate it then, eh?

Kinda strange that the left-wing propaganda outlet, "Politico," is sporting this headline, eh?:

Poll: Trump's popularity soars after election

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/donald-trump-popular-poll-231694

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@MontereyJack,

John Lewis has spent fifty years telling it like it is. Trump has spent fifty years telling it like it isn't.

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@layman,

I have. Look at the drops in just about all of his numbers since the election. Three points here, six or ten points there.

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Watch this one. This is as Pravda as it gets.

Quote:

Pro-Trump TV Network Has Big-League Dreams
Right Side Broadcasting started as a one-man live stream operation. Now, it’s coming to D.C., and it’s got the president’s ear.

Politico

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@MontereyJack,

MontereyJack wrote:

I have. Look at the drops in just about all of his numbers since the election. Three points here, six or ten points there.

Really? Once again:

Layman wrote:

Kinda strange that the left-wing propaganda outlet, "Politico," is sporting this headline, eh?:

Poll: Trump's popularity soars after election

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/donald-trump-popular-poll-231694

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These two are pathetic.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C2JVTu6VIAAJm7D.jpg

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