monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

@layman,

You're one of blatham's "numbskulls"; the equivalent of Hillary's "deplorables"

Wear it as a badge of honor.

@blatham,

During my working years, I used to subscribe to the WSJ. I didn't realize back then that it was a right leaning blog, and felt it had some good articles on finance and business.

2 Replies

@cicerone imposter,

It does do some decent reporting; it's the editorial page that's conservative,

0 Replies

@Finn dAbuzz,

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

You're one of blatham's "numbskulls"; the equivalent of Hillary's "deplorables"

Wear it as a badge of honor.

Good point, Finn!

It's like the lawyer I quoted who said that if the Ninth District of the Federal Appeals Court ruled against you, then you knew you had a good case.

1 Reply

@Finn dAbuzz,

Quote:

And this is the state of the MSM: Because the DOD could be funneling government money directly to Mr. Trump’s commercial interests, we should all consider that it has or will.

That "could" is noted in the coverage I linked. But what you ignore here is all the other pieces of evidence that suggest the very real possibility (or probability) that Trump and family are going to use this position to enrich themselves. So he doesn't get off the hook and the media don't land on one.

0 Replies

@Finn dAbuzz,

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

For good or bad, Trump has moved us to a new place in our politics. Success breeds imitation and watch and see how many "plain speakers" appear on the national stage.

You could, I suppose, argue that Trump is merely "imitating" plain speakers like Harry Truman and Andrew Jackson. Trump aint the first one to come along.

1 Reply

@layman,

Speaking of good ole Harry Truman, he, like any other human being, tended to be quite "protective" of his own daughter, ya know?

Quote:

“I have read your lousy review of Margaret's concert. I've come to the conclusion that you are an eight ulcer man on a four ulcer job. Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes and perhaps a supporter below.”

Of course if Trump does the same, then he's "utterly crazy."

0 Replies

@Finn dAbuzz,

Quote:

Where was Tapper's outrage when Obama was lying?

I suppose the difference you might have addressed if you wanted to do this evaluation with integrity would be to compare the known lies of Obama over eight years to the known lies of Trump over, say, three or four days (any three or four, you choose). Your suggestion of equivalence or your suggestion that Tapper (or the media generally) are treating Trump differently in the matter of honesty simply as a consequence of bias is not going to win you a blue ribbon.

Earlier, you used the phrase "stream of consciousness" to describe what comes out of his mouth (or twitter fingers, I suppose). I'm not sure what you mean to suggest by that usage. We all type and speak (where words are previously composed) the same way. What bears attention is the content. "stream of consciousness" provides to valid or reasonable excuse for the content of Trump's thoughts.

2 Replies

@cicerone imposter,

Quote:

During my working years, I used to subscribe to the WSJ. I didn't realize back then that it was a right leaning blog, and felt it had some good articles on finance and business.

I think all serious media watchers and newspaper readers (certainly the ones I attend to) acknowledge that the WSJ does a lot of very good reporting. But it's also acknowledged that there's a difference between their reporting staff and their editorial staff. One of the promises that Murdoch made when he took over the paper was that he wouldn't influence the reporting sector. And I've been pretty pleased with his behavior that way. But the complaints from reporting staff noted in the piece I linked are a protest that the senior editor now is trying to influence the reporting in favor of Trump.

Next week's townhall will be closely watched. I'll certainly be interested and I'll drop in here with any good coverage I find.

0 Replies

@Finn dAbuzz,

Quote:

Our last president was so conscious of what he was saying that he was an "uh" pause machine.

True that. The opposite of Mr. Trump's free form word association on the fly. And then we had W. His leaden cadence and mangled vocabulary was a style all his own as well.

I wish we could freely comment on this sort of thing without being labeled "haters" though. I don't support the guy. But "hatred" is entirely too personal an emotion to spend on the two-dimensional figures we see in the papers and on our screens. I do think his speaking style reveals aspects of his character that are disturbing considering his office — impulsiveness for one.

Quote:

Success breeds imitation and watch and see how many "plain speakers" appear on the national stage.

I'll be sure to remark on it!

2 Replies

@blatham,

Quote:

I suppose the difference you might have addressed if you wanted to do this evaluation with integrity would be to compare the known lies of Obama over eight years to the known lies of Trump over, say, three or four days (any three or four, you choose).

So the fact that the MSM never called Obama out for his lies doesn't tell you anything? In fact the media echoed Obama's lies and turned them into news. How many times did we hear the lie about the percentage of firearm sales that take place without a background check. Obama said it, the media reported it and never corrected him and it became the "true" stat. I'm sure you still think that stat was accurate and still is accurate.

0 Replies

@Finn dAbuzz,

Finn d'Abuzz wrote:

For good or bad, Trump has moved us to a new place in our politics. Success breeds imitation and watch and see how many "plain speakers" appear on the national stage.

An example of Americans imitating the plain spoken Trump who was successful in winning the US presidency.

Customer reportedly tells San Antonio restaurant: We won’t come back because the owner is ‘Mexican,’ ‘America First’

Quote:

Customers at an Italian restaurant near one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in San Antonio allegedly left a racist message for the restaurant’s owner Friday, vowing not to return because he is Mexican.
“The food was tasty and the service was attentive,” the customers reportedly wrote on a receipt left at Di Frabo Ristorante Italiano near the Dominion development on Friday. “However, the owner is ‘Mexican.’ We will not return.
“America First,” the note concluded. The customers racked up a $53 tab before leaving the racist message.
The phrase “America First” has risen to prominence under President Donald Trump, who repeatedly used the phrase since he first launched his presidential bid in 2015.

2 Replies

@Finn dAbuzz,

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

Part of Obama's appeal was that he was an articulate black man (Remember it was Joe Biden who declared him articulate and clean).

If there was ever an honest analysis of the President who received the most votes "solely because of his race," Obama would win by a landslide.

1 Reply

@layman,

You really don't understand US politics. Obama won twice.
CNN had Obama's approval rating at 60%.

1 Reply

@InfraBlue,

There have been incidents like that before, of course. Trump is giving licence to overt acts of bigotry.

But Finn might have been talking about politicos following in Trump's path here and I think that's a certainty. If he can get away with a constant stream of lies, why can't I? If he can violate long-held norms, then I can too.

0 Replies

@cicerone imposter,

cicerone imposter wrote:

You really don't understand US politics. Obama won twice.

Really!?

Like, who knew?

Your point?

2 Replies

@layman,

Your attempts to defame Obama is laughable on the face of it; I just wanted to stuff it in your face!

1 Reply

@layman,

No. That Trump tried to disqualify a judge tells us more than we need to know about this ignoramus. He shows how ignorant he is of the Constitution.

0 Replies

@hightor,

Quote:

Quote:
@Finn dAbuzz,
Quote:

Our last president was so conscious of what he was saying that he was an "uh" pause machine.

True that.

I'm going to challenge this. First, there seems to be a suggestion by Finn that Obama's speech might have had pauses so that he could censor himself to be politically correct. If I have mistaken that, I apologize.

But such a speech pattern is very common with most people who just take care to phrase their thoughts in a manner which both duplicates their thinking and which will be as clear as possible to an audience. Chomsky, for example, speaks this way and so did pretty much every one of my profs and likewise very smart people in other spheres (listen to Larry David, for example).

There's a speech habit Trump uses that I've written about before - his constant repetition of words and phrases. "The man is amazing. Just amazing. Smart as anything. It's just amazing" (I made that one up but I've quoted many instances before exactly like that). Nobody else I've ever heard talks like this. And so I've been very interested in what he's doing here.

My conclusions are tentative but I like them. First, it functions as filler. He often doesn't know what he's talking about but if he keeps talking, he hopes (consciously or not) that he'll sound authoritative. Second, it seems to also function as a means of holding the floor for a greater part of a conversation thus allowing fewer spaces for challenge or contradiction. Third, it looks to be a species of bullying through the repetition of the claim.

4 Replies

@blatham,

Anyone with any idea of the English language knows that Trump speaks in fragments. He'd flunk English in any grade school.

http://www.liberalamerica.org/2016/07/22/this-speech-expert-thinks-trump-has-a-disorder-heres-why-video/

1 Reply

monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know