monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

@giujohn,

giujohn wrote:

Penguin takes his car to get it fixed and during the wait it was awful hot so he goes to the store across the street and hangs out in frozen foods for awhile. When he comes back the mechanic says, Hey it looks like you blew a seal. And the penguin wipes his chin and says, No, that's just a little vanilla ice cream.

http://www.takepart.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Seal82570217.jpg

"Hey, I think you've posted this naughty joke in the wrong topic. By the way, we baby seals hate penguins!"

2 Replies

@layman,

You're sick. Get help.

0 Replies

@TomTomBinks,

TomTomBinks wrote:

Really, Layman? Do you honestly think this is a good idea? Is this the kind of nation you want to live in? Why would you delight in such a scenario? f

I didn't say it was good idea. I'm just tellin y'all what's coming--what's on the Trump agenda. Just ask Blathy, ya know? This will be one of the more humane things that psychopath does, I figure. At least they won't be tortured 24/7 this way.

1 Reply

@layman,

Trump's plan doesn't sound so extreme once you understand that these are all murders and rapists that we would otherwise end up executing anyway.

From the standpoint of efficiency, it's actually kinda logical;

1. We save millions, per alien, by not wasting resources convicting them and giving them the death penalty.
2. We accomplish the goal of getting them OUT.
3. We make sure they STAY out, and
4. We deter more cutthroats from coming in.

All in the space of a few measly hours, at minimal expense.

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@wmwcjr,

Is this a joke thread now?

What does Trumps hair and a thong have in common?
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They both barely cover the asshole.

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@cicerone imposter,

cicerone imposter wrote:

From alternate humans.

Are they even human?

1 Reply

@TomTomBinks,

Quote:

Really, Layman? Do you honestly think this is a good idea?

Of course he doesn't. He's trolling you and you ought not to respond.

1 Reply

@nimh,

I really want to think Obama was a great president. As you say, he offers so much. I can't really grasp enough about the US system to know if he could have done better or not, with the legislative bodies in republican hands.

I think as we watch Trump unravel what he did do, I am appreciating more that on climate and equal rights he seemed to have presided over some valuable things....I am thinking he may have achieved more than I thought.

But I cannot see what the adulation is about.

1 Reply

Quote:

Last year, Mr. Trump’s former “Apprentice” publicist, Jim Dowd, was interviewed for the PBS “Frontline” election documentary “The Choice.” Mr. Trump, he recalled, would demand that he call up TV-ratings reporters and tell them, “Number 1 show on television, won its time slot,” even if “we were Number 72.”

NYT
Which is why his first and any following SOTU speeches will be bullshit top to bottom. It's why he'll lie again today and again tomorrow.

But he's not just a self-promoter uninterested in the truth (and far less interested in telling the truth). That alone doesn't account for his behavior. He matches the clinical definition of a pathological narcissist (if you haven't read it yet, look it up). That might be fine in a wrestling promoter or a Hollywood actor. As a president, it's not. It's dangerous.

1 Reply

@blatham,

However , so far, it seems to be working for him. His supporters seem to be deaf and blind to his disrespect for truth. Thats what's fascinating. Apparently weve got a borderline psychotic serving as president(maybe not -so borderline). He will be wasting so goddamn much time showing us his thin skin and his inability to talk strait that his "handlers" will probably be running the country.

Dont forget his ADHD as well. ADD is often a gift to creativity but , unless focused and worked over through clinical concentration (or meds), the sufferer quickly loses focus qnd "drive" in completing tasks.

1 Reply

@dlowan,

Nimh and I have some different ideas on this it seems. But that's not surprising as there are different ideas on his legacy spread across the left.

As to "adulation" - the use of that itself is rather problematic.
"excessive or slavish admiration or flattery, obsequiousness" with Latin root meaning to flatter or to behave as a fawning dog.

Obviously, that's not a term anyone would use to self-describe their own attitude towards some individual they respect or deem worthy of high praise. It's a derogation of others' attitudes and opinions and suggests an absence of adequate critical analysis (an an excess of emotional response).

And I just do not see this term being appropriate as regards the attitudes of people I know or read have towards Obama. Respect and admiration, affinity, even love perhaps but the "slavish, fawning" element is not something I see much evidence of. It is not a crime to make criticisms of Obama in the way it is a crime (to many) to make criticisms of Reagan - though exactly what is criticized can definitely cause arguments.

Do you, dlowan, perceive folks over here as demonstrating "adulation" as defined?

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@cicerone imposter,

cicerone imposter wrote:

Your offensive comments about the left proves you feel victimized in a alternative reality. That's because you are totally ignorant how liberals made your life and everybody elses life better. They gave us social security and ACA.

Layman can speak for himself, but I don't see any evidence he sees himself as a victim at all. However you appear to feel this way based on the many suggestions you have made to that effect.

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@farmerman,

The ADHD is important too, yes. He's said that he doesn't want 200 pages, he want 2 or 20 and with bullet points. No nuance for this guy. No books for him either.

But, yes, it is working for him so far. That so many of his fans are thrilled by his behavior and speech is fascinating, if scary. One of the best analyses of that I've seen is from Jay Rosen (I've linked it earlier and I think it's very bright http://pressthink.org/2017/01/send-the-interns/ ).

I think it is certain that others will be actually running the show in many ways that wouldn't be true with any other possible candidate. Because his attention and goals are so superficial, he'll surely continue to behave as he is and he won't wade into complexity, he'll avoid it. That scares me too because of the nature and ideologies of people around him with their longer views and their
radical goals. It's going to be a **** show for a while.

1 Reply

A positive sign.

Quote:

Sales of Orwell’s ‘1984’ spike after Kellyanne Conway’s ‘alternative facts’

Washington Post headline this morning.

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@blatham,

blatham wrote:

I think that's pretty much right, OE. Point 3 and 5 are certainly on the mark. But I wouldn't attribute point 7 to Trump (though certainly it applies to a fundamental contemporary GOP strategy so perhaps a moot argument).

So Trump just tweeted:

Quote:

I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and....

even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time). Depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!

In that regard, I'll have to go ahead and say that point number 7 is now firmly on the "Trump will attempt to do this" list.

1 Reply

@blatham,

Thanks, Ive been leaning toward that eventuality and have become inured to "My life within the plot line of 1984"

1 Reply

Quote:

Veterans of previous White Houses say they can recall no precedent for what Trump and his top aides are doing. They worry about the implications of this untethering from the truth when big decisions must be made about dealing with terrorism or charting the course of the economy.

“The degree to which they are creating their own reality, the degree to which they simply make up their own scripts, is striking,” said Peter Wehner, a Trump critic who was a top strategist in the George W. Bush White House. “It’s a huge deal, because in the end you really can’t govern, and you can't persuade people, if you do not have a common basis of fact.”

you can’t p WP
This directly relates to what I was arguing above. But I see zero evidence that Trump wants to "govern". He doesn't want to (or is incapable of) listening to long and complex briefings, he doesn't want to do the reading that's inevitably necessary, he doesn't want to listen to multiple speakers talking while he sits quietly and attentively. He doesn't want to sit with groups of people and slowly, carefully work through to some consensus or some tough arrangement. He doesn't want to lay out long term strategies to have some difficult policy implemented.

And he certainly doesn't want to shut out the "noise" of the media and people's opinions of him. That noise is where he lives. That is what he cares about. And it's at the most superficial and present-time level. It's why he's obsessed with TV news. It's why essays and books aren't his thing - Twitter is his thing.

The aspect of Trump and his people just making **** up as deemed convenient is better described by Rosen than I could manage. And a key part of Rosen's argument/observations is that Trump does NOT want to unite citizens, he does not want to have or promote a "common basis of fact". He got where he is by promoting severe divisions in American society and through a blunt rejection of facts and the means to establish them.

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@layman,

layman wrote:

cicerone imposter wrote:

The "left" and "cheese eaters?"

Anyone, left or right, who makes a career out of playing the victim 24/7 is a damn cheese-eater.

If you called me a lefty or a CE I'd have to hunt ya down and kill you, your entire family and you dog, then burn your house down.

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@farmerman,

Find a quaint old library, a pretty female to have assignations with, and set aside an hour a day to increase your affinity for rats.

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@old europe,

Quote:

In that regard, I'll have to go ahead and say that point number 7 is now firmly on the "Trump will attempt to do this" list.

I will have my mother send you a batch of cookies and do the "we're not worthy" bow.

You know, I recognized when I wrote it that there was a weakness in my argument. Because voter suppression strategies are so key to the GOP's electoral hopes and because claims of voter fraud have been the propaganda means to implement such strategies, that those around him (Pence, Preibus, etc) would be unlikely to let this opportunity just pass them by. But I'm already so verbose, I sometimes shut my brain down.

The cookies are oatmeal with chucks of cheese. You may like them.

0 Replies

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