With every announcement of a cabinet nominee, the news gets more depressing and surreal. Trump is deliberately naming agency heads who oppose the missions of the agencies they will control–nominees who can be expected to eviscerate efforts to address climate change, undermine public education and favor saber-rattling over diplomacy, among other disasters.
All of them are contemptuous–or ignorant–of demonstrable facts.
Case in point: Andrew F. Puzder, the fast-food chief executive Trump has chosen to be his secretary of labor. As The New York Times has reported, Puzder has a “passionate disdain” for both the Affordable Care Act and efforts to raise the minimum wage.
He says the law has led to rising health insurance premiums, “reducing consumer spending, resulting in a reduction in restaurant visits.”
He has also argued that the act has given businesses an incentive to cut back on full-time workers to avoid the costs of providing them with insurance, as the act frequently requires.
The problem is that the available data largely disagree.
Fast food sales are actually up since the ACA took effect, and there is no correlation between employment growth in the industry and health insurance premiums. States where premiums increased more did not tend to have lower employment, and the percentage of people who are forced to work part-time even though they prefer to work full-time has fallen dramatically since the Affordable Care Act was enacted.
He is similarly wrong about the effects of raising the minimum wage; employment has actually increased in the wake of most such raises.
Puzzler doesn’t know what he is talking about, so he will fit right in with the other cabinet nominees, and with Trump and his voters.
It turns out that most of those voters inhabit our new “post-fact” society. A survey fielded after the election may illuminate the gap between those voters and reality.
* Unemployment: Under President Obama, job growth has been quite strong, and the unemployment rate has improved dramatically. PPP, however, found that 67% of Trump voters believe the unemployment rate went up under Obama – which is the exact opposite of reality.
* Stock Market: Since the president was elected, the stock market has soared, nearly tripling since the height of the Great Recession. PPP found that 39% of Trump voters believe the market has gone down under Obama – which is also the exact opposite of reality.
* Popular Vote: As of this morning, Hillary Clinton received roughly 2.7 million more votes than Donald Trump, but PPP nevertheless found that 40% of Trump voters believe he won the popular vote – which is, once again, the exact opposite of reality.
* Voter Fraud: Even Trump’s lawyers concede there was no voter fraud in the presidential election, but PPP found that 60% of Trump voters apparently believe “millions” of illegal ballots were cast for Clinton in 2016 – which isn’t even close to resembling reality.
* Soros Conspiracy Theory: A whopping 73% of Trump voters believe George Soros is paying anti-Trump protesters – though in reality, George Soros is not paying anti-Trump protesters.
The survey goes a long way toward answering the question repeatedly asked by so many anguished Americans: why on earth would anyone vote for this monumentally unfit, unethical buffoon?
Americans live in the age of confirmation bias, where you can find sources on the Internet supporting your preferred worldview, no matter how ridiculous or flat-out insane. Propagating the Big Lie has never been easier.
The strategy of the Big Lie comes to us courtesy of the Third Reich; as Joseph Goebbels helpfully explained it,
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.
Joe Nocera wrote a column a few years ago in The New York Times, explaining our more sophisticated modern Big Lie techniques,
You begin with a hypothesis that has a certain surface plausibility. You find an ally whose background suggests that he’s an “expert”; out of thin air, he devises “data.” You write articles in sympathetic publications, repeating the data endlessly; in time, some of these publications make your cause their own. Like-minded congressmen pick up your mantra and invite you to testify at hearings.
You’re chosen for an investigative panel related to your topic. When other panel members, after inspecting your evidence, reject your thesis, you claim that they did so for ideological reasons. This, too, is repeated by your allies. Soon, the echo chamber you created drowns out dissenting views; even presidential candidates begin repeating the Big Lie.
Thanks to fake news and the Internet, Big Lies have become much easier to sustain.
Thanks to uncritical, uneducated citizens who lack both civic and media literacy, facts, credibility and reality no longer matter.
The rest of us are screwed.
Agree w all of the above. Where do I seek asylum?
The best example of this is WikiLeaks. Assange gained a reputation as a whistle blower when in reality he was either a pawn of Russia or a sellout to the highest bidder all along. In the WikiLeaks example it was us liberals who believed.
Forgot to ask whether the Trump election has created the next stock market bubble which will burst when a majority of his supporters realize he ‘s just another pathological liar.
In a ‘free’ society with the first amendment, there is another thing that is seldom, if ever, mentioned. “Ethics”. Freedom has its responsibilities, too, and being ethical is one of them.
We are about to witness the ability of the Trump Administration to push and maintain Donald’s biggest lie so far: the “CIA is wrong about Russia interfering in the election on behalf of Trump”. Yep, the greatest buffoon of all time is taking on a super secret agency capable of literally destroying him and making it look like an accident, or suicide, or the act of a foreign country. You go Donald!
Our current precarious position as Americans goes beyond Trump, Pence and those frightening cabinet appointees. We are in the position of having little option other than to rely on our weakened Democratic members of Congress and their ability to sway the weaker Republican members to go against the GOP when or IF it comes time to accept – or deny – those frightening Trump cabinet appointees.
We have learned over the past eight years that the President does not run this country; the Congress does, under the standards set in the Constitution and the Amendments. By the way; please read the XII Amendment if you didn’t understand why the recounts are vital and why Trump & Co. fights to prevent them. I have some hope that at least those Republicans who disagreed with the choice of Pence for vice president, voted against him…ALL votes for ALL candidates must be reported by Electoral College members to the President of the Senate. Indiana Electoral College members cannot vote for Pence. Of course the Senate President is McConnell who we cannot trust on any level.
We may be screwed by the final outcome but I would rather know why, how and by whom; read that XII Amendment and keep your fingers crossed.
This simply the Bible (which no one hardly believes in anymore) fulfilling itself. We have just watched our government go from (on the grandest scale) “of the people, by the people, and for the people” to “of the money, by the money, and for the money.
The elect (hateful “Christian” faaaaar riiiight) has bought wholeheartedly into the Beast’s program, even though he exposed himself to be a false “prophet”. He used their hate, prejudices, and fears of being over run by the minority population (even Russian hacker information) to win an office that he knows nothing about, cares nothing about. All of the players he’s picked are anti whatever the post they’ve been selected for.
However, this does explain why “judgment will begin at the house of God”. These people will be punished for following a false prophet (Beast, if you will), then the rest of the ignorance will be judged.
I, for one, will be spending more time reading Daniel and Revelation, because the similarities are mind boggling!!
I’m preparing to seek asylum where it truly counts… in the Lord!!
“With every announcement of a cabinet nominee, the news gets more depressing and surreal.” This statement is why I have not had much to say in comments on this blog. Each day brings additional depressing news. I feel like I am living in an alternate reality that I can’t escape.
Sheila, I am not sure what “PPP” is that Ed Brayton referenced in his article that you are referencing. Is it Pew?
Regarding this statement: “the percentage of people who are forced to work part-time even though they prefer to work full-time has fallen dramatically since the Affordable Care Act was enacted.” I take issue with this – although I agree that the ACA has not affected FT vs PT employment, PT employment has risen dramatically since 2009. Corporations recognize that vast numbers of unemployed people enables them to take advantage of this situation. This, in turn, rewards the C Suite and stockholders.
In my opinion, the GOP and their alt-right plutocrats have managed to create a wave of lies over the past three decades that became even easier to spread with the internet. They have created carefully calculated lies that have increased their power and fortunes and they continue to add to these lies to increase their power over the citizens who refuse to make the effort to investigate if there is any truth to them. The people who choose to be lead by someone in authority have blindly followed their “leaders” and have refused to listen to anyone that disputes the lies. It is as if their small minds are incapable of handling any additional information or incapable of sorting out what is true and what is not.
Unfortunately, the rest of us are forced to be drug along into this God-forsaken mess!
Theresa Bowers,
“Yep, the greatest buffoon of all time is taking on a super secret agency capable of literally destroying him and making it look like an accident, or suicide, or the act of a foreign country. ”
I really, really like your theory and hope it comes true!
I am going to jump back in here with a Constitutional problem I believe needs to be addressed; the current election quandary is not about political differences, it is about basic humanity, honesty, experience, qualifications and moral turpitude. The puny qualifications for president as stated in the Constitution; Article II, included in Section 1, qualifies Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Lizzie Bordon and Donald Trump. There are no qualifications regarding race, gender or religion, which is as it should be. But neither are there any requirements for honesty, experience, qualifications or morals. Section 2, regarding Presidential appointees also includes NO qualifications but does require consent of the Senate.
After January 20, 2017, IF Trump and Pence are inaugurated, the government of the United States becomes a privately owned corporate organization. “The Big Lie(s)” will be the order of the day but will be the least of our worries; survival of the fittest will become our primary objective.
The media has to take some responsibility for this debacle. They spent more time focusing on Hillary’s e-mails than they did on Trump’s outrageous lies. They were trying to be “balanced”, Even the venerable New York Times ran headlines that made it seem as though Hillary had done shady deals with the Clinton Foundation. If you read the story, there was nothing there, but few people read past the headlines, so the verdict was guilty as charged (or not charged). When Trump lied, they said nothing.
Now the media experts I have watched are saying it was propbably wrong to give Trump all the free coverage he got and probably wrong not to point out the lies. Probably? Is that the best response they can give? How about a pledge to NEVER do that again? We need a press that actively shouts that the emperor has no clothes.
Trump now tells us in effect that the CIA and our other intelligence services are lying to us and that we should believe his take on Putin and his non- interference with our recent election as gospel because he (Trump) is “smart.” He has even nominated an Exxon-Mobil CEO (an old buddie of Putin) as Secretary of State.
However, reality as an objective matter cannot be ended by political chatter; it persists independently of all attempts to deny its existence or to gloss over its effects. What we are seeing with Trump is his attempted insertion of a new reality that has no relation to objective reality. He is trying to bring us to accept a new reality he has hatched in his narcissistic world in order to get our approval for his activities in our world.
I reject his mind games, of course, because if we take his mind benders to their dry logical end, we should not be surprised to see our democracy come to an end sooner than its present trajectory suggests as he invites Putin to the White House, plays his race/gender card and with such and other antics divert our attention from the total corporate takeover of America, my greatest fear, greater than Iran, a Crimea-swallowing Putin or anything or anybody else.
Trump’s appointment to his cabinet of billionaire ideologues, a fascist, and others who are on record as opposed even to the existence of the agencies they have been appointed to run are uncomfortable harbingers of what he has in mind and tell me that he is part of the corporate scheme to incorporate America and its people into some kind of asset that can be securitized on Wall Street as unregulated capitalism takes over not just our economy and government but the people themselves. In this connection, I am reminded of what my all-time favorite economist, John Maynard Keynes, had to say about capitalism. He said “Capitalism is the astounding belief that the wickedest of men will do the wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.”
I am clinging to a dwindling belief that capitalism can still work if appropriately regulated to fit the public interest, but in view of Trump’s appointments and his discussion of tax cuts and less regulation of Wall Street, I conclude that it will not work as he is fashioning it and that it may fail along with democracy as we descend into a self-inflicted Third World status. Our task is clear; Trump, his policies (if they can be called policies rather than top-down edicts) and his appointments must be rejected if what is left of our democracy is to survive. I see no other alternative to America’s incorporation or ultimate survival as a First World state.
I keep sitting here twiddling my thumbs about President-Elect Trump. Is there anything that we can do at this point? Is there a way to impact the electoral college vote?
Gerald,
Our task is clear; Trump, his policies (if they can be called policies rather than top-down edicts) and his appointments must be rejected if what is left of our democracy is to survive. I see no other alternative to America’s incorporation or ultimate survival as a First World state.
Ditto.
Sue,
There is plenty to be done… NOW. Contact your representatives in Washington and let them know how strongly you oppose the nominees that Trump has put forth. Ask if both parties were wrong about Russia all along. If they were not wrong, than Tillerson should not be confirmed as Secretary of State. Period. And while at that tell your representatives that the people need to know what Trump’s connections are to Russia. Be firm and polite. Do something, but do not let this time go by without letting your voice be heard.
In my posts, I refer to the “big lie” as “drinking the kool aid”. People did not pay attention except for the “big lies” being spread by the extreme right. I think a lot of people resented the fact that a black man was president. As a result of that fact, those people jumped on the bandwagon of trump to make sure that the black man would go away. They believed ALL the lies! Instead of “Looking” at those individual situations they just gobbled up the GOP lies as truth. We are so screwed. I see our government, and our way of life as we have known it, spiraling down, down, down…..We are now “owned” by Corporations. And it makes me so very sad. The damage that can and will be done to the American people is inevitable. God bless us all.
Sue; Theresa’s advice is excellent, it is also one of the few actions any of us can take at this point…other than continuing to make our voices “heard” on blogs such as Sheila’s and on social media sites. I have suggested reading the XII Amendment to better understand the responsibility of the Electoral College. I will copy the first paragraph in case you don’t have a copy of the Constitution.
XII Amendment:
“The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate.”
That is the first sentence/paragraph but contains much basic information; contacting them is also taking direct action. You can Google AskTheElectors.com for the names and E-mail addresses of each states members. I have sent four E-mails to those in Indiana; two returned as not being valid addresses, Laura Campbell and Chuck Williams. Posts on Facebook stated they have been inundated with thousands of E-mails, letters and phone calls so many are taking this action.
Nona,
“In my posts, I refer to the “big lie” as “drinking the kool aid”. People did not pay attention except for the “big lies” being spread by the extreme right. I think a lot of people resented the fact that a black man was president. As a result of that fact, those people jumped on the bandwagon of trump to make sure that the black man would go away.”
And, in addition to the black man, those “Nigger love’n Jews.”
How odd some people are in an uproar about Russian Hackers influencing our election and leadership. Blame it on Wikileaks, Snowden, or Putin anyone but America. The USA has been doing this regime change with more violence through out the 20th and 21st Century than any other country on the face of the earth. As long as the USA imposed Regime Change in Latin America, Asia, or Africa, Americans bought the lies. American interests we hear so much about should be translated into reality, it was Corporate Interests. Did we find those WMDs yet???
Gerald, 8:54 good comments. America has been slipping into Corporatism for decades. Russia is a huge opportunity for the Multi-Nationals – Drill baby-Drill and some Goldman Sachs offices. As you posted from Keynes- “Capitalism is the astounding belief that the wickedest of men will do the wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.” Given this we should not be surprised if someone from the RJ Reynolds Tobacco is appointed Surgeon General, or the head of a corporate delivery company is appointed Post Master General.
The Trumpet is the Manchurian Candidate not for Putin or the Russians, but for Crony-Capitalism and Corporatism.
A. Lincoln with his usual insight said – “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
The McMega-Media played into the Trumpet’s hands – Trump was and is a brand name for a Profit Center for the McMega-Media. Trump knew the fatal weakness of our intellectually vacant McMega-Media – It was Profit.
Sadly, though resistance to the Trumpet will not come from the Democratic Party – Pelosi and Schumer are not going up the hill instead they will sit in their respective bunkers.
I’m not letting up on my purported “SYNDROME” for the next 40 days or so, just to please Donald Trump’s strategists and the Jewish establishment.
syn-drome (sin’ drom’) n. [<Gr syn-, with +dramein, to run] a set of symptoms characterizing a disease or condition.
When will the “little girl” point out that the Emperor HAS NO CLOTHES???
“But he hasn’t got anything on,” a little child said.
“Did you ever hear such innocent prattle?” said its father. And one person whispered to another what the child had said, “He hasn’t anything on. A child says he hasn’t anything on.”
“But he hasn’t got anything on!” the whole town cried out at last.
The Emperor shivered, for he suspected they were right. But he thought, “This procession has got to go on.” So he walked more proudly than ever, as his noblemen held high the train that wasn’t there at all.
Stay present – To be silent is guilty.
Resist Resist Resist
Let’s see how far Trump/Pence can go WITHOUT being able to play their TRUMP CARD of ANTI-SEMITISM.
Please don’t be fooled because he has a Jewish son-in-law or has Benjamin Netanyahu’s endorsement. Trump’s idol was Roy M. Cohn, the Jewish operative who was Chief Counsel for the anti-Semitic, Senator Joseph M. McCarthy’s Senate subcommittee.
“During the summer of 1953 McCarthy thrashed about for new targets. He held a one-day hearing on a bogus “plot” to assassinate him. He told reporters that he intended to subpoena former President Truman to testify about a super secret list of spy suspects which he charged the Democrats had suppressed. In mid-July, after he was thrown onto the defensive in a rough procedural battle over control of the subcommittee staff, he countered with a series of sensational proposals to investigate the Atomic Energy Commission, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the military establishment.”
“The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate” by Robert Griffith (Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press,1970) pp. 212, 216.
Doesn’t this all sound very familiar? Or is it just me.
Thanks for picking up on the themes that I have published and shared with you. You are correct in defining the fake news bonanza in our political sphere and journalism and news. Joseph Goebbels would be proud of the Republican narrative and would hire Kellyanne Conway as his #2.
If Trump has me placed in a CONCENTRATION CAMP, one day, like Adolph Hitler did to his nemesis, the attorney Hans Litten, I hope it will at least have a golf course, two or three holes, like most of Trump’s other projects.
Hans Achim Litten (June 19, 1903 – February 5, 1938) was a German lawyer who represented opponents of the Nazis at important political trials between 1929-32, defending the rights of workers during the Weimar Republic.
During one trial in 1931, Litten subpoenaed Adolf Hitler, to appear as a witness, where Litten then cross-examined Hitler for three hours. Hitler was so rattled by the experience that, years later, he would not allow Litten’s name to be mentioned in his presence. In retaliation, Litten was arrested on the night of the Reichstag fire along with other progressive lawyers and leftists. Litten spent the rest of his life in one German concentration camp or another, enduring torture and many interrogations. After five years and a move to Dachau, where his treatment worsened and he was cut off from all outside communication, he committed suicide.
See Wikipedia for more than the brief bio of Litten.
Donald Trump needs to be placed on the docket in the Court of Public Opinion right now. There’s no license needed to prosecute in that court. Why wait for another Nuremberg?
Your points are excellent, and here is the scariest part: Trump delegates everything, so the mice really are guarding the cheese here. He appears to have ADD or ADHD. SNL did an excellent opening sketch 2 weeks ago that highlights his inability to concentrate, and his late night tweeting supports the notion that he is hyperactive and compulsive about retaliating against people who criticize him. It might be different if he was “hands on” and controlled what these clowns running government agencies will be doing, but he isn’t even interested in daily security briefings, much less overarching policy considerations.
We are truly screwed, but maybe that will be what it takes to wake people up. Just today, the internet had a piece about scientists finally discovering what caused the toxic fog in London in the 1950’s that killed lots of people and sickened many more. It resulted from a highly toxic form of air pollution due to combustion of coal, along with automobile and other pollution mixing at an inopportune time with a temperature inversion and heavy fog. The Alpha Orangutan announced that coal mining and burning will start anew [pandering, of course, to voters in PA, W.VA and Ohio], and with the EPA being in the hands of an anti-EPA activist, something like the toxic London Fog could happen here, killing many people. That’s just one example of what happens when regulations are disposed of. Maybe that’s what it’ll take.
Just read CNN’s breaking news banner headline, “White House strongly suggests that Donald Trump is beneficiary of Russian meddling in US election”.
My eyes fell immediately on two words, “strongly suggests”, and almost as quickly I remembered another strong suggestion re: Benghazi from the WH administration in September, 2012. From Sept 11-12, 2012, until Sept 20, 2012, after eight days of repeating that a low budget video mocking Islam caused the attack, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney finally stepped forward and said: “It is, I think, self-evident that what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack. Our embassy was attacked violently, and the result was four deaths of American officials.”
At present, I take such bold WH statements with a grain of salt, neither believing nor disbelieving widely circulated hypotheses designed to explain the unexpected. We are not witnessing the Apocalypse, and speaking personally, I don’t wish to become Chicken Little.
Natacha,
“We are truly screwed, but maybe that will be what it takes to wake people up.”
You’re right. That’s what it takes. But timing is the important factor. You don’t want to wake up too late.
Trump is “digging his own grave” as well as ours. We have to make damn sure that, metaphorically speaking, he is buried first. That should be our 24 hour a day goal until January 20th. Don’t forget we have the government on our side right now.
Trump’s main strategy is playing “both ends against the middle.” But that doesn’t always work. Jackies Moore’s recording of “Both Ends Against the Middle” on YOU TUBE is a lyrical testament to the failure of that type of strategy.
Marv: I wish I believed that Trump has a strategy other than stroking his ego: “look at me, I got the biggest, most powerful job in the world”. People come to him with suggestions about persons to appoint, so he does it, but doesn’t know their background, what their positions have been, or, most importantly, what their agenda might be. Scariest of all, he really doesn’t care. After all, that lying mutt Kellyanne thinks up cover stories and ways to pivot when any of his surrogates is handed a serious question reflecting on his fitness for office. Did you see Chuck Todd questioning Rance Priebus on “Meet the Press” about Russian hacking and the effect on the election on Sunday? Pivot, lie, don’t answer, that’s the Kellyanne formula. That’s what you can expect press conferences to be, if the Orangutan actually holds some, which he’s threatening not to do. He’s not planning to be in Washington very much, and his Slovenian concubine isn’t leaving New York.
Alpha Orangutan ran for the Presidency as an ego trip. He loves public adulation, a sign of his inner insecurities and low self-esteem, and regardless of the front he puts out, he has low self-esteem. He paid someone to come up with slogans and promises to get people who could be duped to vote for him, along with racists, xenophobes, anti-Semites, misogynists, and other deplorables. He was as shocked as the rest of us when he won, but only because of the Electoral College. Insecure people with low self-esteem and whose egos are easily threatened are dangerous. This one also has ADD and/or ADHD. I am truly worried.
BTW: “South Park” did an episode on Trump, and it was hilarious: people coming to him with crisis after crisis, and his response was: “Why the hell are you asking me?” Funny, but scary.
Can you imagine my state…watching Rome while it burns to the ground from here? Rome being my home country. Gaaaa, it’s amazing I can get anything done since November 8th and feeling completely helpless and hopeless.
Natacha,
We’re definitely only the same wavelength on this one.
My present wavelength finds me exploring the potential merits of political nihilism. I’ve even thumbed through my old paperback copy of Richard Farina’s 1960’s novel, “Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me”, described best as the Hallelujah Chorus performed by 200 kazoos.
I’ve settled into an uneasy agreement with a very short article written by a man with an impressive-sounding title, Donald Boudreaux, a senior fellow with the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. For sure, Dr Boudreaux writes a jaundiced small take on our current political situation.
https://fee.org/articles/how-politics-is-like-a-nigerian-email-scam/
Has it ever occured to anybody that Trump may have no choice but to put down CIA and other agency intelligence and praise Putin as “a strong leader?” Could it be that Trump has business interests and loans out the gazoo with Russian oligarchs and banks and that that (in addition to his non-payment of taxes over the years) is why he will not release his tax returns? Could it be that Putin has Trump over the barrel since all he has to do is threaten Trump with an admission that he (Putin) did in fact work for Trump’s election and that Trump knew it and that if Trump does not accede to his wishes in matters of foreign policy, and more specifically, NATO, he will spill the beans? Has it occurred to anybody that Putin has Trump right where he wants him and can blackmail him whenever he pleases even if he has to lie to do it since any such statement from Putin would quickly impeach and remove Trump from office and probably result in his prosecution for sedition and/or treason?
I am not a right or leftwing conspiracy nut, but just thinking of such possibilities as I have cited above in trying to understand why Trump seems more pro-Russian than pro-American, a sick exercise in and of itself, does afford me some understanding of how we could have ever arrived at a point where a president or president-elect could diss his own intelligence agencies. Trump needs to explain why he praises Putin as a “strong leader” worth emulation but doesn’t believe his own intelligence agencies other than by his tiresome attempts to politicize the process, which are at best attempts at diversion (let’s change the subject) rather than explanation. Are you blackmailed, Don, and if not, why are you telling us in addition to knowing more than all the admirals and generals, that you are “smart” and thus don’t need intelligence briefings on a regular basis since smart people need information, too? What, sir, are you trying to prove?
Gerald,
This is getting worse by the day.
BSH,
“My present wavelength finds me exploring the potential merits of political nihilism.”
I agree. We’re not all on the same wavelength when it comes to the dangers of Donald Trump. That doesn’t bode well for America’s future. To some of us, he represents FUTURCIDE.
bode (bod) vt. bod’ed, bod’ing [<OE boda, messenger] to be an omen of –bode ill (or well) to be a bad (or good) omen
Yes, Gerald I have actually thought that. If the RNC was hacked by Russia, there’s a good bit of blackmail opportunities right there.
The dream of Republicans since Reagan is being realized – life without government which, as he pointed out, only causes problems, never solutions.
Trump’s takeover of government requires it to be weakened first so his first goal is a cabinet with the proper mix of inexperience, incompetence, ineptitude and disdain for all government missions.
To that he must secure a Congress loyal only to him personally. Fascism 101. They are whimpering in his hands now greatful for him saving them from obscurity with his massive infusion of lies.
Everything is going in favor of the Trump Dynasty, the political equivalent of entertainment’s Duck Dynasty.
Are really going to let this happen?
My wife , and I’s combined disqualifies her for free health care. – we don’t make ENOUGH to qualify for ACA. They told us so . ACA IS a scam. I am a Ultra left wing socialist. I Voted for Trump.
Everything the Sheils Kennedy crowd says about Trump – YO’RE alredy guilty of.
That old axiom from the Sixties , ” takes one to know one” still holds true.
What do you mean you don’t make ENOUGH to qualify for ACA? I have never heard of a high income level to qualify for ACA…or anything other than Medicaid. Do you mean the plan they offered cost more than you could afford? If you live in Indiana and tried to find health care through the state system, which you must do and be DENIED BY EVERY COMPANY IN THE STATE SYSTEM to be ALLOWED TO APPLY TO ACA, were you qualified for any other health care through the state system and allowed to apply to ACA? My daughter-in-law was denied to apply for ACA when the state system, after a seven month wait, qualified her for a plan that cost THREE times the monthly premium she had been paying plus a 30% increase in her annual deductible. She had dropped her coverage trusting the state to provide her with a more reasonable rate; because they didn’t notify her till June, she was fined $900, which was deducted from her tax refund, for being without required health care for the year. Apparently you didn’t qualify for Medicaid if your combined incomes disqualified your wife for “free health care”.
There are three kinds of children’s lies now, not those of Dead Austrians and Europeans: Those of commissions, omissions and missing the mark. There is no excuse at ALL for Hillary Clinton’s paid agents and voluntary supporters to have LOST SO MANY States, nor any Republicans’ failures to come up with any candidates BETTER than Donald Trump for months. I heard more calls from paid volunteers who did not even share call lists and to me, asked are you the wife or the mother as the co-owner of any community property AT MY HOUSE not their business location. Multiply that by mothers and daughters of any call center, office or agency workers, like those of us who volunteered time and money before! Also, there were so many references to Trump and Nazis, it brought up that Austrian science at that time, the FGreudian slip. As with the McCarthyites and the Nixonites, missing the mark seems easy enough at DC.
Phyllis s,
” There are three kinds of children’s lies now, not those of Dead Austrians and Europeans: Those of commissions, omissions and missing the mark….. As with the McCarthyites and the Nixonites, missing the mark seems easy enough at DC.”
Missing the mark has been the “American Way” as you have so well pointed out. That way you can keep your position and your $$$. And best of all, you receive no serious retaliation. The best example of this obnoxious routine has been the actions of the Southern Poverty Law Center and their partner the Anti-Defamation League. No wonder democracy, for the time being, is now pretty much “dead in the water.”
Will this “shitty game” ever stop?
ob-nox-ious (eb nak’shes, ab-) adj. [<L. obnoxiosus <ob-(see OB-) + noxa, harm] very unpleasant; offensive; repugnant–ob-nox'ious-ly adv. –ob-nox'ious-ness n.
Webster's New World Dictionary and Thesaurus