KS wrote:Yes, there was locker room talk about sex, but at least Trump...

Of course, and most of us are familiar with the sort of person who says these things in locker rooms. We all know a pervert or two from high school and college, right? These are the types of people that actually go out and do perverted things. Just like the women have accused Trump of doing.

Calling attention to the potential crimes of others(like Bill Clinton) does not excuse Trump. If they're guilty of being a pervert, pointing to another pervert doesn't change that.

So for the past year we've watched the infantile media squalling about Trump because their pride got a boo boo.

The media is squalling about Trump because he's a terrible person, in so many different ways. The examples are legion.

I like the statement of George Orwell: the hardest thing to see is what is right before our faces. Now please don't anyone think that I'm claiming immunity to this kind of blindness. But I can't avoid applying Orwell to the fact of Donald Trump's genuine and acute destructiveness. It isn't immediately apparent to all that our president engaging in a taunting match via twitter with a rogue nuclear power, is a siren blast telling us he's unfit for the office?

I don't understand how he can tell a bald faced lie on national television and his followers don't care. In his defense, I think he's just really dumb and doesn't know the truth in many cases. But in others, the things he lies about are thing he should know.

Just look at page 1 of politifact, out of 25 pages. http://www.politifact.com/personalities ... st=speaker

Of all his statements, 164 were listed as "false"(the largest category), and 21 were listed as "true"(the smallest category).

Thus begins the era of idiocracy.

Interbane wrote:. . . But in others, the things he lies about are thing he should know.

I have a strange theory that Trump simply can't tell the difference between fact and fiction and, therefore, isn't really lying, per se. He's simply spouting out the nonsense—a kind braggadocio—that he perceives as truth. He doesn't have the faculty for critical thinking to be able to sort out the wheat from the chaff. He always just shoots from the hip.

Michelle Goldberg, in the WSJ, says it pretty well in her review of Michael Wolff's new book, Fire and Fury.

Wolff’s reporting shows, [Trump] has no executive function, no ability to process information or weigh consequences. Expecting him to act in the country’s interest is like demanding that your cat do the dishes. His enablers have no such excuse.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/opin ... egion&_r=0

The article is probably behind a paywall.

DWill, I have thought of Orwell many times this past year, especially when Trump last month issued a list of words that the CDC is not allowed to use. Although to be fair, it's not clear if the order came directly from Trump or if it came from one of his underlings. Even so, Trump has shown many times that he naturally leans towards totalitarianism, whether he knows what that is or not.

KindaSkolarly wrote: With luck and persistence 2018 will see the dismantling of the major human trafficking rings.

I would lay 5 to 1 odds against this event occurring. If it depended on Trump caring about the issue, the odds would be even longer.

geo wrote: I have a strange theory that Trump simply can't tell the difference between fact and fiction and, therefore, isn't really lying, per se. He's simply spouting out the nonsense—a kind braggadocio—that he perceives as truth.

I don't find this strange at all. I think it is simple description. The connections that most of us have in our brain to "truth" don't function in his, and instead "truth" means "things I want other people to believe."

Expecting him to act in the country’s interest is like demanding that your cat do the dishes.

Pretty accurate.

His enablers have no such excuse.

But these are people who made the choice to sell out their integrity years, if not decades, ago. No need for an excuse, in most cases. I make an exception for the generals, but they are fairly obviously trying to keep the ship afloat and have long experience accepting a fairly goofy chain of command. Their goal justifies their compromise.

I think, however, I will sit out the new Michael Wolff book that's been so all over the place. I'm not comfortable with the reputation of the author or what he said about his methods in writing the book. Even though I firmly believe that Trump in the White House is bad for the country, allegations of him being so out of control, and of dysfunction in the W.H., can create a distorted picture of the probable reality. In all likelihood, Trump is often able to conduct a meeting reasonably well and to act basically like a normal person, albeit one with a distinctive personality. It really isn't a bad idea, IMO, to adjust one's impression for a certain amount of media over-amplification.

DWill wrote:I like the statement of George Orwell: the hardest thing to see is what is right before our faces. Now please don't anyone think that I'm claiming immunity to this kind of blindness. But I can't avoid applying Orwell to the fact of Donald Trump's genuine and acute destructiveness. It isn't immediately apparent to all that our president engaging in a taunting match via twitter with a rogue nuclear power, is a siren blast telling us he's unfit for the office?

what exactly are you talking about?
how has america turned Orwellian specifically because of a Trumpian policies?

frankly our checks and balances have been effective in several instances.


People throw around Orwell's 1984 too recklessly of late. I doubt most of the people that scream this is turning into a 1984 State have even bothered to read the book cover to cover.

if you want a somewhat more accurate comparison read A Brave New World. There are more parallels in that book to consider.

This type of liberal fear mongering is irresponsible

While liberals continue to cry and lament what a horrible nightmare they are suffering, how "the Nazis have taken over" how we are now living in a true dystopia (reality does not match these dramatics) here is a ranking of the 10 worst presidents in history.

I don't know how President Harding did not rank closer to the top spot, but I encourage all you drama queens that probably have money in the bank, a nice home, a good job, and a big soft recliner to cry on to do a little research here.

Trump acts like an idiot. There's no question about that. He's unfiltered, crass, rude, and unpresidential, to say the least. Despite what your crystal balls have revealed to you, he has yet to, say, send 19 year olds to their deaths (aka Vietnam).

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/who ... tates.html

I remember a political article I read on Al Jazeera's website shortly after Trump won. The author commented about American's being "politically spoiled" and how we've developed some entitled expectation that everything must go our way politically at home and abroad, and if it doesn't we come apart at the seems.
In fact, Americans have become the softest people on the planet. Citizens of other nations live regularly with the fear of economic ruin, REAL tyrannical corruption and cruelty, border invasion, etc.

Grow up, liberal america. All the wailing this past year has become an international embarrassment in the eyes of people abroad that really are a hair away from mayhem.

ant wrote:

DWill wrote:I like the statement of George Orwell: the hardest thing to see is what is right before our faces. Now please don't anyone think that I'm claiming immunity to this kind of blindness. But I can't avoid applying Orwell to the fact of Donald Trump's genuine and acute destructiveness. It isn't immediately apparent to all that our president engaging in a taunting match via twitter with a rogue nuclear power, is a siren blast telling us he's unfit for the office?

what exactly are you talking about?
how has america turned Orwellian specifically because of a Trumpian policies?

frankly our checks and balances have been effective in several instances.


People throw around Orwell's 1984 too recklessly of late. I doubt most of the people that scream this is turning into a 1984 State have even bothered to read the book cover to cover.

if you want a somewhat more accurate comparison read A Brave New World. There are more parallels in that book to consider.

This type of liberal fear mongering is irresponsible

I don't disagree and believe there is a misunderstanding. Would that have been avoided if I had written, "can't avoid applying Orwell's statement"? Orwell's writings include a lot more than what is called Orwellian today.