Donald Trump: mentally, physically, temperamentally compromised #6

John Dean @JohnWDean | 10:19 PM · Dec 14, 2019:

What’s ironic about Trump being POTUS
that those who elected him do not realize is
he could not pass a federal civil service exam,
not pass the vetting process for a high level appointment,
never pass a confirmation hearing for any cabinet or other post.

HE’S TOTALLY UNQUALIFIED.

He couldn’t pass a citizenship exam either
- VACCINES CAUSE ADULTS @gottaspeakgirl | 11:09 PM · Dec 14, 2019

It is hard to capture how bizarre and frightening Trump’s letter to Pelosi is
Jennifer Rubin | Dec. 17, 2019

On the eve of his impeachment, a stain that obviously torments him more than his enablers have let on, President Trump issued a rambling, unhinged and lie-filled letter* to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). It is difficult to capture how bizarre and frightening the letter is simply by counting the utter falsehoods (e.g., repeating the debunked accusation that Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin was fired for investigating Burisma; claiming Congress is obstructing justice; arguing he was afforded no rights in the process), or by quoting from the invective dripping from his pen.

What is most striking is the spectacle of the letter itself — a president so unhinged as to issue such an harangue; a White House entirely unable to stop him; a party so subservient to him that it would not trigger a search for a new nominee; a right-wing media bubble that will herald Trump for being Trump and excoriate Democrats for driving the president to this point; and a mainstream media not quite able to address a public temper-tantrum (resorting instead to euphemisms such as “scorching,” “searing,” etc.). The letter and the response (or lack thereof) is the perfect encapsulation of the state of American politics — in which one major party has bound itself to the mast of a raging, dangerous narcissist while the other cannot uphold the norms and institutions on which our democracy depends...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/12/17/so-many-hysterical-men/
_________________________________________________________________

6 page letter from Trump to Pelosi:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/letter-from-president-trump-to-house-spea...

________________________________________________________________

Katherine Faulders @KFaulders | 6:52 PM · Dec 17, 2019:

WH lawyers were cut out of the process of drafting Trump’s 6-page letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi about the House impeachment vote, @jonkarl reports. At POTUS direction, the letter was drafted by Leg Affairs Director Eric Ueland, Stephen Miller & counselor to CoS Michael Williams.

_________________________________________________________________

Yep, folks, our articulate President! He's here all night!

Take what Trump said about the late Democratic Rep. John Dingell (and his wife and current Rep. Debbie Dingell) on Wednesday in Michigan (it's long but you need to read all of it):

"Then you have this Dingell. Dingell. You know Dingell from Michigan, you know Dingell, you ever hear of her, Michigan? Debbie Dingell, that's a real beauty. So she calls me up like eight months ago. Her husband was there a long time — but I didn't give him the B treatment. I didn't give him the C or the D. I could have. Nobody would have -- I gave the A+ treatment. 'Take down the flags!' 'Why you taking them down?' 'For ex-congressman Dingell.' 'Oh OK.' 'Do this, do that, do that, rotunda.' Everything. I gave him everything. That's OK! Don't want anything for it. I don't need anything for anything. She calls me up. It's the nicest thing that's ever happened. 'Thank you so much. John should be so thrilled. He's looking down. He'd be so thrilled. Thank you so much, sir.' I said, 'That's OK, don't worry about it.' Maybe he's looking up. I don't know. I don't know. maybe. Maybe. But let's assume he's looking down. But I have him A+, not A, not B+, not B. I have him the A+, and she called me, so nice, oh. I won't go into the conversation because it's not fair to do that. But all you want to say is, let's put it this way: it was the most profuse thank-you that you could ever get. On a scale of 0 to 10, it was a 10. OK. So that was what, February or something. Now they talk about this phony impeachment. And she's out there. 'Well, we have to look seriously at our president because he may have violated the Constitution of the United States. And I can't be happy with that because I love our country. I love this and I love that.' She loves everything. I said, 'She's a no, OK.' No but I look at her and she's so sincere and what happens? 'I vote to impeach Trump.' And you know what — I didn't say — who the hell knew this was even going to come up."

https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/19/politics/donald-trump-debbie-dingell-john-dingell...

He seems to realize when he's mispronounced or stumbled over some words. Wonder what that's all about?

The Daily Show @TheDailyShow | 8:01 AM · Dec 20, 2019:
Trump's Best Words (2019)
2:42 ( https://twitter.com/TheDailyShow/status/1208009403892256768 )

>2 margd: Trump's letter to Pelosi, contd.

Mental health professionals read Trump's letter: A study in "the psychotic mind" at work
Bandy Lee, Justin Frank, Lance Dodes, David Reiss and others unpack a "venomous and vitriolic" historic document

Chauncey DeVega | December 20, 2019 12:00PM (UTC)

...In total, Trump’s "impeachment letter" to Nancy Pelosi is but one data point among many demonstrating that he is mentally unwell and a threat to the safety of the United States and the world...

https://www.salon.com/2019/12/20/mental-health-professionals-read-trumps-letter-...

It’s quite scary to think what would happen if the US were struck by a crisis that required a real president on the job instead of a sock puppet insult dog
- David Frum @davidfrum | 9:49 PM · Dec 27, 2019:

Quote Tweet
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump · 9h
Come on Crazy Nancy, do it! https://twitter.com/john_kissmybot/status/1210686166191812610

___________________________________________________________________________

Repost from Trumpian Lows thread:

George Conway@gtconway3d | 11:57 PM · Dec 27, 2019
Now our psycho president has retweeted the alleged identity of the whistleblower.

Cate McGowan @cate_mcgowan · 6h
...violating the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA).

Karen Myatt @karenamyatt · 6h
...Oh, and he doxxed Pelosi tonight, retweeting photos of her home.

Time for a Baker Act.*

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* The Baker Act is a Florida law that enables families and loved ones to provide emergency mental health services and temporary detention for people who are impaired because of their mental illness, and who are unable to determine their needs for treatment.

https://ufhealth.org/ufhealth.org › baker-act

What I don't understand is how is it that Trump's mental defectiveness is catching? I mean, before he was inaugurated, I don't remember Republican senators and congresspersons looking so universally and overwhelmingly stoopid. Yet, now they do.

By this point, I'd think the Repub leadership would recognize that the ONLY way for them to salvage any appearance of a modicum of adequacy at governing or just old-fashioned politics would be to put together a coalition of House and Senate leaders, and march down to the White House and tell Trump he has to stop with all this "winning." And to save the tattered remains of what was the GOP, he must resign. Just like Nixon, put him on a helicopter. Then, on to the jet that will carry him to Mar-a-Lago and the nearest golf course.

The Repubs are just going to have to face the fact that the Orange Shitgibbon is going to be criminally indicted and no doubt spend tim in prison for actual criminal activity. They seem to forget that, not a few of them will be, too.

However, Trump wouldn't be able to save them from their fate even if he were to remain in office because they're going to be charged with federal and state crimes. I hate to dwell on Turtle McConnell's fate at the hands of KY voters for all his self-enriching illegal schemes and his betrayal of coal miners by supporting the Con-man-in-Chief. So many of them are going to die because of the lack of affordable health care and Medicaid. The FBI's already going after their recently defeated ex-governor for his corrupted pardons for political/monetary gain.

For the best deal they can get from various state's attorneys, they need to jettison Trump.

By my calculation, they have a week to ten days to force him out before it's too late.

>7 Limelite:

"What I don't understand is how is it that Trump's mental defectiveness is catching?"

LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! LOL! ... LOL! ...

"TRUMP FAVORABILITY RATINGS : 42.00" (%)



"PELOSI FAVORABILITY RATINGS : 38.7" (%)

Although a bit... long-winded, proximity has hit upon why Trump is President. There are a lot of people (and not just MAGA-hat wearing imbeciles) who actually like Trump and what he's done (and is doing) to the country.

>9 BruceCoulson:

To which Clintonians and O-bominationians reply,

"Maybe, but, since these people are M-A-G-A-hat-wearing imbeciles, they're not really even aware of what Trump is doing or has done."

and they can take refuge in this view without noticing that it completely describes their own relationships as supporters of the Clinton-Obama "Democrats."

None of us want to think about gangrene, now, do we? That's right, we don't. And we certainly don't want to look at a photograph example of it. It's revolting.

Well, this is a metaphor which is based on the problem of gangrene.

When such a condition becomes too far advanced for less drastic measures, the last-resort-treatment is amputation. In these cases, the alternative to amputation is the patient's death. Very often, a person suffering from gangrene would, if given a choice, prefer to suffer an amputation than to allow it to advance until it proves fatal to him.

But, in this case, it's the poorest and most disadvantaged, the powerless and the pushed-aside (race & "gender" ain't necessarily got anything to do with it any more) who are suffering the gangrene—the side-effect of the wealthiest .01 % 's lavish living-standards. These wealthy, privileged, include all "races," both young and old, men as well as women, etc.

Now, to treat the gangrene of the wretched of society entails the wealthiest, most privileged segments of the society (at least somewhere, even if not in the same society itself where the suffering is occurring) taking a "hit" to their lavish lives' opulence

Obviously and of course, these privileged wealthy, if asked and forced to answer, are going to say they deplore gangrene, that it's terrible. They'll certainly deny that they favor certain others suffering—in theory, in principle they're opposed. In practice, they want as much opulence as they can get; if, in the process of their getting it, others get gangrene, well, quite frankly, too bad for the sufferers, but, by God, let's not have any amputations as long as it is others rather than myself or my own who are doing the suffering and dying.

Trump's election was metaphorically speaking, an "amputation": politically necessary to get rid of some extremely serious case of advanced gangrene. This diseased and dying gangrenous spread was focused in this case in the Democratic party.

Trump was elected.

As a consequence, the most privileged in society, those who enjoy the most comforts and splendor experienced an ever-so-slight tremor of turbulence in their plush, cushy worlds.

And these same pampered, privileged, spoiled brats responded by screaming bloody murder; they pulled out all the stops to reverse the effect of their being required to slightly slow their rapacious predatory Deep-state-based practices.* At every major national press corps institution, the effect was one of a naval vessel's sounding "General quarters! Battle stations! All hands on deck! This is not a drill! Battle stations! Battle stations!"

Bless their god-damned greedy, spoiled-rotten little hearts.

More bad news for the glitterati: the first measures have not proven at all sufficient. More amputations are going to be required—just in order to get to a state where even the first semblance of health can begin to be hoped for.

___________________________

* those same practices of the Republicans or, to be more precise, the non-partisan instances, those in which there is a mutually-shared interest between Democrats and Republicans across party-lines, those, of course, continue, generally speaking, more or less unabated.

But, under the circumstances, in "our" duopolistic only-somewhat-and-pseudo-democracy, this cannot be helped. It is simply not feasible to address both parties' rapacious predatory Deep-state-based practices at one and the same time.

It is only reasonable that the first measures be applied where they have the best (soonest) chances of eventual success: in the once-upon-a-time "frequent-able" Democratic party. Only then can there be an attempt to get the rot out of the Republican party. And when that time comes, you are going to pray for a person like Donald Trump to be available to do it. Fucking ingrates!

To this day some large plurality or even majority of repukelican right-wing scumbags still insist that Obama was born in Kenya and thus an illegitimate President - they also believe he is a secret Muslim - both moron ideas held with no actual evidence for them and held against all the evidence to the contrary.

I don't think the most imbecilic liberals in the country are anywhere near that imbecilic. That is true ignorant shit-for-brains asshole-ism.

So the pun is: Pot Kettle BLACK.

lol.

OUR PRESIDENT, THE MALIGNANT NARCISSIST:

Duty To Warn 🔉 @duty2warn | Jan 5, 2019:
Mental health professionals warn Trump is psychologically unfit. #UNFIT film in post production.
Independent, truthful. To read more, participate: http://unfitfilm.com

A malignant narcissist uses boastful bluster to cover up deep fears and insecurity.
When the fear turns to dread, the bluster turns to distraction.
Trump has lived a life of secrets and deceit and dreads destruction of his fake construct.
After dread comes desperation.
Dangerous.

When Trump peddles fear about a cataclysm like war with Iran, it's because he fears a cataclysm unto himself.
He fears humiliation; exposure of a lifetime of lies.
Malignant narcissists will distract so as to preserve.
People won't matter.
America never mattered.
Only he matters.

"Our President will start a war with Iran because he has no ability to negotiate, he's weak and ineffective, and he is desperate to be re-elected." - Trump, 2011

To protect the lies and secrets, he will bully and cheat to an unfathomable degree.
Because if lies and secrets are exposed, then achievements can no longer rival his grandiosity.
For a malignant narcissist with power, there is no going back.
This is why they never go down alone.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar | 11:36 AM · Jan 8, 2020

“Tolerited”

0:08 (https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1214949044356878338)

_____________________________________________________________

Starts 18:16/19:02:
26:34 "accomplishmishakes"?

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2020/01/08/Watch-live-Trump-responds-to-Iranian-...

ETA___________________________________________________________

He sniffed a lot during a debate or two in 2016 with Hillary Clinton. I wondered at the time if it was cocaine or something.
Sounds like problem might have returned?

Timothy Burke @bubbaprog | 12:04 PM · Jan 8, 2020:
58 times. He sniffed 58 times during his address. Here are all of them.
0:35 ( https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1214955938119127040 )

ETA___________________________________________________________

‘What drugs is he on?’ Trump sparks concern by slurring and sniffling through Iran remarks
Travis Gettys | January 8, 2020

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/01/what-drugs-is-he-on-trump-sparks-concern-by-slu...

https://dangerouscase.org/dangerousness_of_donald_trump/

We have a U.S. president who is psychologically and mentally both dangerous and incapacitated. His presentation is consistent with a person who, when his falsely inflated self-image is questioned, or when his emotional need for adulation is thwarted, lashes out in an attempt to restore his sense of potency and command over others.

All senior military leaders in the chain of command are required to pass yearly psychological as well as physical evaluations. Only the person known as the commander-in-chief is exempt from this requirement, but at this time he is, in fact, the person in most need and who is a maximum danger.

>14 Limelite:

LOL!

I very seriously pity you.

>15 proximity1:

And I don't give you a second thought. LOL!

Trump does not have a foreign policy. He has a series of impulses.
Fareed Zakaria | Jan. 9, 2020

...The killing of Soleimani could be justified as a way to respond to Iranian provocations, but this move, like so much of Trump’s foreign policy, was impulsive, reckless, unplanned and inconsistent — and as usual, the chief impact is chaos and confusion. Trump did not bother to coordinate with the government of Iraq, on whose territory the attack was perpetrated. After the Iraqi government protested and voiced a desire to have U.S. troops leave Iraq, he threatened to sanction the country and stay put until it paid the United States billions of dollars for an air base.

The result: A policy that could well have produced a marked diminution of Iran’s power might well trigger the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, which has been the chief Iranian objective in the region for years.

This is not an isolated instance. Trump began his policy toward North Korea threatening “fire and fury like the world has never seen” and ridiculing leader Kim Jong Un as “Rocket Man.” Soon he was declaring his unabashed affection for Kim — “we fell in love” — and making unprecedented concessions by meeting with the dictator three times...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trump-does-not-have-a-fo...

#17--at most Trump coordinates with McConnell and Graham on his impeachment. Apart from that I don't see him coordinating with anyone except for maybe Pompeo and Barr and once in a while Pence. As far as foreign policy he doesn't keep any of our so-called allies in the loop of whatever he's up to. If he does at all coordinate with anyone it's the likes of Putin, MBS, Netanyahu and Erdogan. For instance he doesn't talk to the Kurds or our allies before he pulls the rug out from under everyone's feet. The same happens with the Suleimani assassination. He says nothing to congress. He would start a war without any advice or any notice to anyone.

"They're saying, 'You should get permission from Congress, you should come in and tell us what you want to do -- you should come in and tell us, so that we can call up the fake news that's back there, and we can leak it,' Trump said. Lot of corruption back there.

"The president added that it would have been impractical to alert Congress, given the 'split-second' nature of the decision to kill Soleimani." ...
______________________
(https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-toledo-ohio-rally-iran-impeachment)

Wildwood, NJ rally, Jan 28, 2020:

Fox News cut away from Trump's rally immediately after his brain short-circuited
( Fox video at https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1222335747992248322 )
- Aaron Rupar @atrupar | 8:48 PM · Jan 28, 2020

Trump's brain misfires when he tries to say the word "witch"
0:08 ( https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1222317443923763200 )
Aaron Rupar @atrupar | 7:36 PM · Jan 28, 2020

He had a large right arm spasm during the me, me , me segment....
( https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1222330254267768833 )
-Little Mariposa @LittleMariposa | 8:45 PM · Jan 28, 2020

"stank(t)uary"
( 0:09 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1224892185583243265)

- Aaron Rupar @atrupar | 10:07 PM · Feb 4, 2020

This vulgar man has squandered our decency
Dana Milbank | Feb. 7, 2020

“Character is the only secure foundation of the state.”
— President Calvin Coolidge, addressing the National Republican Club in New York, 1924.

“It was all bullshit.”
— President Trump, addressing Republicans in the White House and a national television audience on Thursday after his acquittal.

From the birth of the Republic — indeed, from the birth of Athenian democracy — it has been an article of faith that self-governance cannot survive without leaders of character.

“Not much probity is needed for maintaining or sustaining a monarchical government or a despotic government,” wrote the Baron de Montesquieu, whose philosophy inspired the Framers. “But in a popular state, one more recourse is necessary, which is virtue.”

Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist 68, confidently predicted that the Constitution would prevent those with “talents for low intrigue” from reaching the highest office: “There will be a constant probability of seeing the station filled by characters preeminent for ability and virtue.”

Washington, Emerson, Lincoln, even Richard Nixon spoke of the American experiment’s reliance on leaders of character. But this week, our leaders took a decided turn against that belief.

...With Republicans’ latest embrace of this man of the lowest character, they are becoming who he is.

And as our children see our feckless leaders tolerate a president without a fiber of virtue, I fear that we will all become who he is.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/07/this-vulgar-man-has-squandere...

Boris Johnson has been accusing Trump of failing to lead and letting the air out of the global economy......and the Donald doesn't like it. Apparently after their last little tete-a-tete Donald slammed down his phone. It makes sense in a way because when Brexit implodes Britain's economy Boris will need a fall guy and the Donald fits that profile perfectly because for one thing almost every national leader hates Donald as it is and all of them know that Donald is a dumb politician.

So then in a few months not-so-Great Britain's economy will have tanked utterly, with the pound worth about a U.S. quarter - and I can then go on a super cheap vacation to the land of my fore-bearers?

As Austin Powers would say "Groovy, man."

#24--make sure you bring everything you think you'll need---you might not be able to find it there.

Overnight on the President’s Twitter feed:
retweets f-bombs,
defends Roger Stone,
spouts disproven conspiracy theories &
suggests Trump cronies in prison were wronged by the Obama administration,
demonizes leadership at FBI (again),
calls impeachment a coup.

- Joyce Alene (U Alabama Law) @JoyceWhiteVance | 6:21 AM · Feb 11, 2020

Unfit for Office (excerpts retweeted by George Conway @gtconway3d)

“The evidence of Trump’s narcissism is overwhelming—indeed, it would be a gargantuan task to try to marshal all of it, especially as it mounts each and every day.”

“(A)s with his narcissism, all this evidence of Trump’s sociopathy only begins to tell the tale. ... As a 1997 profile of Trump in The New Yorker put it, Trump has ‘an existence unmolested by the rumbling of a soul.’”

“In a way, Trump’s sociopathic tendencies are simply an extension of his extreme narcissism. Take the pathological lying. Extreme narcissists aren’t necessarily pathological liars, but they can be, and when they are, the lying supports the narcissism.”

“As (Dr.) Lance Dodes has put it, ‘People like Donald Trump who have severe narcissistic disturbances can’t tolerate being criticized, so the more they are challenged in this essential way, the more out of control they become.’”

“In particular, ‘They change reality to suit themselves in their own mind.’ Although Trump ‘lies because of his sociopathic tendencies,’ telling falsehoods to fool others, ... he also lies to himself, to protect himself from narcissistic injury.”

“And so Donald Trump has lied about his net worth, the size of the crowd at his inauguration, and supposed voter fraud in the 2016 election.”

“The latter kind of lying, Dodes says, ‘is in a way more serious,’ because it can indicate ‘a loose grip on reality’—and it may well tell us where Trump is headed in the face of impeachment hearings.”

“Lying to prevent narcissistic injury can metastasize to a more significant loss of touch with reality.”

“As @DrCraigMalkin puts it, when pathological narcissists ‘can’t let go of their need to be admired or recognized, they have to bend or invent a reality in which they remain special,’ ...”

“... and they ‘can lose touch with reality in subtle ways that become extremely dangerous over time.’ They can become ‘dangerously psychotic,’ and ‘it’s just not always obvious until it’s too late.’”

“But even that doesn’t exhaust all the mental-health issues possibly indicated by Trump’s behavior.”

“His ‘mental state,’ according to @JustinFrankMD, a (psychiatrist) who wrote a book about Trump’s psychology, ‘include(s) so many psychic afflictions’ that a ‘working knowledge of psychiatric disorders is essential to understanding Trump.’”

“Indeed, as @johndgartner puts it: ‘There are a lot of things wrong with him—and, together, they are a scary witch’s brew.’”

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/george-conway-trump-unfit-offi...

_______________________________________________________________________

What Exactly Is "Malignant Narcissism"? (Excerpts by George Conway @gtconway3d)
Dan Neuharth | May 25, 2019

U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier calls President Trump a malignant narcissist.

“Psychoanalyst and Holocaust survivor Erich Fromm, who invented the diagnosis of malignant narcissism, argues that it ‘lies on the borderline between sanity and insanity.’”

“Otto Kernberg, a psychoanalyst specializing in borderline personalities, defined malignant narcissism as having four components: narcissism, paranoia, antisocial personality and sadism. Trump exhibits all four.”

“His narcissism is evident in his ‘grandiose sense of self-importance … without commensurate achievements.’ From viewing cable news, he knows ‘more about ISIS than the generals’ ….”

“…. and believes that among all human beings on the planet, ‘I alone can fix it.’ His ‘repeated lying,’ ‘disregard for and violation of the rights of others’ (Trump University fraud and multiple sexual assault allegations) ….”

“…and ‘lack of remorse’ meet the clinical criteria for anti-social personality. His bizarre conspiracy theories, false sense of victimization, and demonization of the press, minorities and anyone who opposes him are textbook paranoia.”

“Like most sadists, Trump has been a bully since childhood, and his thousands of vicious tweets make him perhaps the most prolific cyber bully in history.”

“Psychoanalyst and retired Harvard Medical School Professor Lance Dodes said, ‘The best diagnosis for Trump is that he is a malignant narcissist.’”

“‘It contains the narcissistic part, which is no big deal alone —lots of people are narcissistic—but the malignant part is the sociopathy dimension. These terms suggest that Trump is a very primitive man. He is also a man who….’”

“‘… has a fundamental, deep psychological defect. It is expressed in his inability to empathize with others and his lack of genuine loyalty to anyone. You will notice that Trump wants everyone to be loyal to him, but he is loyal to nobody.’”

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/narcissism-demystified/201905/what-exact...

> 27

d. trump, in layman's terms, is clearly a nutburger with extra cheese. It is as plain as the make-up on his fat fucking stupid ignorant-ass face.

Yet his supporters continue to deny this obvious reality - by the most stupid defenses in the world, e.g., saying the criticisms of trump are all based on envy on the part of socialist progressive liberal leftists types, who are engaging in conspiracy to overthrow the last election, that it is the Deep State and hordes of Hilary-admirers behind all criticism, that trump is actually doing a great job regarding jobs (actually, compared to Obama, he is not), his supporters ignoring the added trillions of dollars in debt his policies have caused, etc.

If someone ignores the insanity of a high official and instead manically continues to support him, and has no monetary vested interest in doing so then I think that fact argues for insanity on the part of the supporter also.

On election day this year in November it will be the show-down between the mainly sane anti-trump voter against the obviously insane trump supporter. Who will prove to be the majority that will elect a President? - assuming the electoral college does not fuck us all again.

We shall see. It is going to be a long 37 and a half weeks until then. To help me ignore this crap most of the time I read a lot, watch ancient reruns, movies, and educational TV, and exercise a lot.

What do the rest you do to divert yourselves from the horror? Sex orgies? Actual useful work? Licking photos of trump while beating your meat? (i.e., what DO conservo-repuklicans do all during their waking hours?)

>10 proximity1: this one post was worth wading through another echo-chamber copy & paste thread.

Doesn't anyone READ books anymore?

Think upon the dusty tomes upon someone's shelves, neglected for the glittery websites full of Chicken Little ranting about one man.

I'm heading back to Alistair MacLean. Y'all have fun.

#29--those who would take their cue from Donald Trump wouldn't read anything.

He needed to read this little speech? Follow print with his fingers?

The President does his finger reading shuffle
0:10 ( https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1229149077759070208 )

- Acyn Torabi @Acyn | 4:02 PM · Feb 16, 2020

I have never before seen an adult read by underscoring individual words with an index finger.

That's a severe reading disability. Probably explains why he speaks so slowly when using a Teleprompter. He's seeing 2-3 words at a time, has no idea where the sentence is going, and doesn't know what to do when punctuation pops up. It explains his monotone, too. He's so intensely focused on trying to pronounce what he sees that he has no mental capacity to express any comprehension. Obviously, he has no recollection of the text after he delivers it because there's no capacity available to create short-term memory of what he's read, either.

This reading disability may be indicative of why he lies so much. He really doesn't know nor can he remember what is real and it's impossible for him to distinguish it mentally, either. His standard behavioral pattern is denial (doesn't have a memory), followed by full admission (has no recollection, therefore deed can't be bad, so no harm admitting to it), ending with vengeance (if he can't remember and if it couldn't have been bad because there's no regret for what can't be remembered, then criticism is undeserved and must just be false accusations).

Much of his objectionable personality traits are his compensatory acts to bluster his way through social interactions where language is the primary medium of expression. He hides his inadequacies by attacking others, projecting in order to avoid being seen as the weak and "defective" human being he is.

Trump has a mind that is a terrible wasteland.

#32--kind of like watching an 90 year old driver weaving between cars parked along a street at 10 mph. Like time to take the car keys away for the safety of everybody.

"If an aeroplane goes down with 700 people, they don't cover it. If it's not Trump-related, they don't cover it" --
get a (load) of how megalomaniacal this guy is
0:52 ( https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1230960496213479424 )
- Aaron Rupar @atrupar | 4:00 PM · Feb 21, 2020

Trump is noticeably slurring
0:10 ( https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1230961214009860097 )
- Aaron Rupar @atrupar4:03 PM · Feb 21, 2020

"We are welpin-- ... right? Are we enthusiastic?" -- Trump short circuits
0:11 ( https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1230975269521035273 )
- Aaron Rupar @atrupar | 4:59 PM · Feb 21, 2020

(ICYMI, white folks behind Trump hold signs that read: "Black Voices for Trump.")

“Could somebody at @foxnews please explain to Trump hater A.B. Stoddard (zero talent!) and @TeamCavuto, that I won every one of my debates, from beginning to end,” Trump wrote. “Check the polls taken immediately after the debates. The debates got me elected. Must be Fox Board Member Paul Ryan!”

DJT after watching Neil Cavuto on Faux News to his adoring mouth-breathers attending his CO rally this week.

Fact Check:

Major post-debate polls taken after Trump’s three debates with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton found that respondents believed Clinton won, with her victories ranging from five points to 40 points.

The bloom is off the rose of Fox News, the withering flower of cable TV.

This is from the Las Vegas Rally. When do Republicans begin to acknowledge that their Chosen One’s brain is broken?
0:02 ( https://twitter.com/TrueFactsStated/status/1231355197823299585 )
- Claude Taylor @TrueFactsStated | 6:08 PM · Feb 22, 2020

Proof of the Orange Shitegibbon's paranoia recognized and acknowledged by Trump's own aides. He has a "hit list" of his post-impeachment enemies and is engaged in purges that only just stop short of Stalinist and Hitlerian vengeance histories.

Since Trump's Senate acquittal, aides say the president has crossed a psychological line regarding what he calls the "Deep State." He feels his government — from Justice to State to Defense to Homeland Security — is filled with "snakes."

https://www.axios.com/trump-memos-deep-state-white-house-ce5be95f-2418-433d-b036...

Trump short-circuits while trying to read the word "banker"
0:09 ( https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1234645048542859270 )
- Aaron Rupar @atrupar | 8:01 PM · Mar 2, 2020

Trump’s new attack on Biden exposes his own unfitness
Greg Sargent | March 3, 2020

...Now that Biden might be the nominee, Trump is already casting him as mentally unfit for the presidency. But Trump might not perceive the space to get away with this if the press corps had not thus far failed, in some very fundamental sense, to reckon with just how mentally unfit for the job Trump is himself.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/03/trumps-new-attack-biden-expos...

ETA: Trump Keeps Attacking Biden For His Gaffes, But Has A Fair Share Of His Own | The 11th Hour | MSNBC
•Sep 18, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbUfutUijPg&feature=youtu.be

https://www.amgreatness.com/2020/03/01/new-impeachment-rules-would-snare-obama/

The evidence of Trump's unfitness for the office of president just keeps mounting up with every live TV appearance and every opening of his mouth. Facing the most important national challenge of his administration, once again he illustrates what "struck dumb" due to lack of basic understanding looks like when clothed in a suit.

Here's the Dodo-in-Chief talking to pharmaceutical execs at the WH yesterday. Well, at least talking to the ones who can stand being in the same room with America's leading ignoramus. Largely, time wasted for the executives who tried to pound nails of information and facts into the concrete block that passes for a brain case in Trump.

https://www.vox.com/2020/3/3/21162772/trump-coronavirus-meeting-pharmaceutical-e...

The president is pushing to get a Covid-19 vaccine before the election. It doesn’t work like that.
(SNIP)
Following the meeting, an unnamed administration source told CNN that they thought the scientists and experts were able to convince Trump that a vaccine would not be available for a year or longer.

“I think he’s got it now,” the source told CNN.

But a little while later. . .

"We had a great meeting today with a lot of the great companies, and they're going to have vaccines I think relatively soon. And they're going to have something that makes you better, and that's going to actually take place we think even sooner."

Conservative all over America are heaving great sighs of relief. At least they won't only have to depend on Mike Pence (Coronavirus National Response Czar) praying over them.

What ever happened to the GMOAT?

ETA. If you have video clips please post them now :-)

Trump: CDC "doctors say how do you know so much about this? Maybe I have a natural ability."
0:21 ( https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1236069667657089030 )

- Josh Marshall @joshtpm | 6:22 PM · Mar 6, 2020

(On Trump's left, watch the CDC Director Redfield's face.)

ETA
I can't stop watching CDC Director Robert Redfield,
who was graduated with a BS and an MD from Georgetown,
completed fellowships in infectious diseases and tropical medicine,
founded the Institute of Human Virology,
and did pioneering work on HIV and AIDS.

- David Gura @davidgura | 6:42 PM · Mar 6, 2020

“He’s Definitely Melting Down Over This”: Trump, Germaphobe in Chief, Struggles to Control the Covid-19 Story

Last week Trump told aides he’s afraid journalists will try to purposefully contract coronavirus to give it to him on Air Force One, a person close to the administration told me. The source also said Trump has asked the Secret Service to set up a screening program and bar anyone who has a cough from the White House grounds. “He’s definitely melting down over this,” the source said.

“He’s Definitely Melting Down Over This”: Trump, Germaphobe in Chief, Struggles to Control the Covid-19 Story
Gabriel Sherman | March 9, 2020

Publicly, he sees it as yet another (“Fake News”) media war; privately, he worries about virus-carrying journalists on Air Force One. But cancel his rallies? “I’m not going to do it,” he says.

...“He is trying to control the narrative and he can’t,” a former West Wing official told me.

The problem is that the crisis fits into his preexisting and deeply held worldview—that the media is always searching for a story to bring him down. Covid-19 is merely the latest instance, and he’s reacting in familiar ways. “So much FAKE NEWS!” Trump tweeted this morning. “He wants Justice to open investigations of the media for market manipulation,” a source close to the White House told me. Trump is also frustrated with his West Wing for not getting a handle on the news cycle.

...one person who spoke to the president over the weekend saw the riday CDC) press conference as an ominous sign. “He’s just now waking up to the fact that this is bad, and he doesn’t know how to respond.”

As Trump pushes a nothing-to-see-here message in public, sources said he’s privately terrified about getting the virus...Stories about Trump’s coronavirus fears have spread through the White House. Last week Trump told aides he’s afraid journalists will try to purposefully contract coronavirus to give it to him on Air Force One, a person close to the administration told me. The source also said Trump has asked the Secret Service to set up a screening program and bar anyone who has a cough from the White House grounds. “He’s definitely melting down over this,” the source said.

..Pressure from the public health community is mounting on Trump to cancel his mass rallies, but Trump is pushing back. “He is going to resist until the very last minute,” a former West Wing official said. “He may take suggestions to stop shaking hands, but in terms of shutting stuff down, his position is: ‘No, I’m not going to do it.’”...

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/03/trump-germaphobe-in-chief-struggles-to-c...

_________________________________________________________________

From tweet eruptions to economic steps, Trump struggles for calm amid market meltdown and coronavirus crisis
Philip Rucker, Robert Costa, Ashley Parker and Josh Dawsey | March 9, 2020

President Trump’s administration has contradicted its coronavirus message at least 14 times over the past month.

...Trump’s overall handling of the converging crises — while spreading misinformation and blaming others — has unsettled many of his Republican allies on Capitol Hill and even inside the White House, where some aides acknowledged that the president is compounding problems with his grievances and conspiratorial mind-set...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-struggles-to-calm-nation-amid-mark...

"Mind-bogglingly stupid"

. . .the Trump administration is “strongly considering” federal assistance for oil and natural gas producers wracked by plummeting oil prices as a result of the growing coronavirus outbreak. . .President Trump’s critics see the potential move has just another example of “socialism” for the rich.

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/trump-faces-furious-backlash-after-his-mind-bog...

"White House likely to pursue federal aid for shale companies hit by oil shock, coronavirus downturn"

The federal assistance is likely to take the form of low-interest government loans to the shale companies. . .(SNIP). . .One of the companies hardest hit was Continental Resources, founded by Harold Hamm, a Trump supporter and an adviser to the president on energy issues. It lost more than half of its market value Monday, though it recovered about 8 percent by midday Tuesday. Hamm’s 77 percent personal stake in the company lost $2 billion of its value Monday.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/03/10/trump-oil-bailout/#click=http...

Between corporate socialism and straight up bribery Americans see a schizophrenic president trying to reconcile his Bernie Sanders side with his Richard Nixon Watergate affinity.

But Biden!
_________________________________________________

Nambia. Diversary. Pivittible.

Donald Trump has the best words, but which one is the most best?
We created an interactive bracket tournament to find out.
Voting is now open: http://dailyshowbracket.com

Trump's Best Word Bracket
3:30 ( https://twitter.com/TheDailyShow/status/1237544014825631745 )

- The Daily Show @TheDailyShow | 9:01 PM · Mar 10, 2020

What was up with his breathing?!
#coronavirus
#trumpbreathing
0:04 ( https://twitter.com/NanoEtAl/status/1237914805597601792 )

- SM @NanoEtAl | 9:34 PM · Mar 11, 2020

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ETA

my teenage daughter edited together a version of trump's address with only heavy breathing moments and I honestly don't think I've ever been prouder of her

parental discretion advised

@dyl_seidel
0:30 ( https://twitter.com/schnd/status/1237953926713864192 )

- ǝpᴉuɥɔs | @schnd12:09 AM · Mar 12, 2020

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also, his eyes were red and swollen in meeting earlier in day with bankers:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/besieged-trump-announces-drastic-measure...

BREAKING: The Brazilian official that Trump spent time with over the weekend at Mar-a-Lago and had direct contact with
has tested positive for #Covid_19.

The President of the United States has been exposed to coronavirus. #CoronavirusPandemic

- Amee Vanderpool | @girlsreallyrule11:41 AM · Mar 12, 2020

____________________________________________________________________

This is actually really serious. If Trump isn't quarantined immediately then the whole USA cabinet team are at risk
- Irish ELT @irishelt11:44 AM · Mar 12, 2020

____________________________________________________________________

Nancy Pelosi needs to stay as far from Trump and the other cabinet members as possible.
If they all fall ill, she'll be the only one left in the chain of command.

- Warren2020 @StanWarren2020 | 12:31 PM · Mar 12, 2020

_____________________________________________________________________

Brazilian Official Who Met With Trump Tests Positive For Coronavirus
Rachel Sandler |

Fabio Wajngarten, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s press secretary, has tested positive for Covid-19, according to local media, after returning to Brazil from the U.S. this week.

Wajngarten was in close contact with both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence four days ago at Mar-a-Lago, posting an Instagram photo of himself standing next to Trump.

Trump said he “isn’t concerned” about the situation, according to the Washington Post, and White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said, “Both the President and Vice President had almost no interactions with the individual who tested positive and do not require being tested at this time.”

Florida Senator Rick Scott said he will self-quarantine after being in the same room as Wajngarten. Trump has not made a similar announcement....

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/03/12/brazilian-official-who-met...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ETA
JUST IN - @LindseyGrahamSC being tested for coronavirus after being at Mar-a-Lago
with Brazilian president last weekend. He's self-quarantining "in an abundance of caution"

- Josh Lederman @JoshNBCNews | 4:10 PM · Mar 12, 2020

Good thing for Nancy Pelosi that she and DJT aren't talking. Reports say he's afraid he's got Covid-19 but isn't going to be tested. I can't imagine why; he's already grifted the money to pay for it.

Meanwhile, as relaxed and as natural as a zombie actor playing president on TV, DJT went on TV last night to pile drive the stock market futures deeper in the ground with remarks that had nothing on plans to protect Americans from a virus already established within nearly every state in the nation.

Immediately after the "speech" was over, this is what a hot mic caught as DJT letdown his guard. Story: https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/donald-trump-captured-in-hot-mic-moment-after-h...

Soooooooooooooooooooo presidential.

Breaking News:
An Australian official who met with Ivanka Trump and Attorney General William Barr in Washington last week tested positive for coronavirus
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/world/coronavirus-news.html

- The New York Times | @nytimes5:21 AM · Mar 13, 2020

DEVELOPING:
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s first test for coronavirus has come back positive,
according to reporting by major Rio de Janeiro newspaper.
The results of a second test are expected later today.

- DW News @dwnews | 10:09 AM · Mar 13, 2020

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

https://twitter.com/josediogenes/status/1238467964946591744/photo/1

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ETA
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro Denies Reports That He Tested Positive for Coronavirus
Tom Brenner | Mar. 13, 2020 10:50AM ET

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who met with several U.S. officials including President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence during an official visit over the weekend, has denied that he tested positive for the 2019 novel coronavirus.

Brazilian news outlet Jornal O Dia and Fox News, citing Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo, reported Friday that Bolsonaro had the flu-like virus. He was tested Thursday after his press secretary Fabio Wajngarten, who was part of the visiting Brazilian delegation, tested positive for the virus in a diagnosis confirmed by the president’s office.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who attended an event with Bolsonaro and his press secretary in Miami on Monday, told The Miami Herald on Friday that he had since tested positive for COVID-19.

..Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo, had earlier confirmed his father’s test result to Fox News and said secondary testing was being done on Friday. However, a vague statement was later posted on Eduardo Bolsonaro’s official Twitter account that questioned the test results for the entire Brazilian delegation that visited the U.S. “Too much lies and little information. Coronavirus exam done with the team that were with JB in USA have not yet been completed,” the post read.

...Bolsonaro and Wajngarten were part of a delegation who...dined at Mar-a-Lago with Trump, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien and Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.

...On Sunday, the Brazilian delegation met with U.S. military Southern Command senior leaders, who then traveled to Capitol Hill and the Pentagon. Bolsonaro and Wajngarten also attended a birthday party for Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is dating the president’s son Donald Trump Jr.(Trump toasted her at the event.)

On Monday, the delegation met with Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) at the Hilton Miami Downtown. Scott said Thursday that he would be tested for COVID-19 and would self-quarantine for two weeks...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/jair-bolsonaro-tests-positive-for-coronavirus-days...

>50 Limelite:

There's also hot mic before he went live. Also priceless, and less than presidential.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trevor-noah-daily-show-trump-coronavirus-blooper-...

>52 margd: Trump exposure, contd.
IMO, malpractice on part of president's physician to not insist on testing and quarantine. At the very least, no touching--social distancing!

Third Mar-a-Lago guest tests positive for coronavirus
Anna Fifield and Derek Hawkins | March 14, 2020

Acting Brazilian Ambassador Nestor Forster, who sat at President Trump’s table Saturday night during a dinner at Mar-a-Lago, has tested positive for the coronavirus, the embassy said Friday night. Forster is the third person who visited the president’s South Florida resort last weekend to test positive for the novel virus.

The White House acknowledged the additional diagnosis in a memo released Friday just before midnight. The president’s physician, Sean P. Conley, wrote that Trump did not need to be quarantined or get tested for covid-19 because his exposure was limited and he had no symptoms...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/03/14/coronavirus-latest-news/

____________________________________________________

Four people at Mar-a-Lago with Trump last weekend have now tested positive for coronavirus:
Bolsonaro's lawyer Karina Kufa,
his aide Fabio Wajngarten,
Miami mayor Francis Suarez, and
an unnamed Republican donor.
Probably more.
- Karen Piper @PiperK | 6:13 PM · Mar 13, 2020

>53 amysisson:

But, of course.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1237915816852668418

#54--kind of a modernized version of Poe's Masque of the Red Death. Potential's there anyway.

For sake of many people around Trump, I hope for once we're hearing the truth from the WH:

On a Saturday Night in Florida, a Presidential Party Became a Coronavirus Hot Zone
Peter Baker and Katie Rogers | Updated March 15, 2020

A weekend getaway at Mar-a-Lago put the president in contact with several people who later tested positive for the virus. The White House physician (Cmdr. Sean P. Conley) said the president had tested negative for the virus.

...the White House physician announced on Saturday night that the president had tested negative for the virus, ending a drama that played out for days as Mr. Trump refused repeatedly even to find out whether he had contracted it after exposure to multiple infected people. The result came less than 24 hours after the White House put out a misleading midnight statement saying there was no need for such a test at roughly the same time the president by his own account was actually undergoing one in deference to public pressure.

,,,Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida...attended events at Mar-a-Lago on both Friday and Saturday nights of that first weekend in March, not realizing that he had already been exposed to someone infected with the coronavirus at an earlier political event. Only last Monday, as he rode with Mr. Trump on Air Force One back to Washington was he told, at which point he was separated from the president and other passengers on the plane. He later went into self-quarantine but tested negative.

Several others at Mar-a-Lago that weekend have since tested positive, including some who accompanied President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil to a dinner with Mr. Trump before Ms. Guilfoyle’s birthday party. Fabio Wajngarten, his press secretary, and Nestor Forster, his top diplomat in Washington, were both there and later tested positive. A spokeswoman for Nelsinho Trad, a Brazilian senator who has also tested positive, said he was at the dinner but the Brazilian Embassy denied that. Another member of the Brazilian delegation also tested positive but was not at Mar-a-Lago.

Another unidentified person at Mar-a-Lago the next day for a fund-raising brunch with the president has also tested positive. And on Saturday, Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee who introduced Mr. Trump at a fund-raiser at Mar-a-Lago the night before Ms. Guilfoyle’s party, revealed that she had become sick and was awaiting test results to determine if she has the coronavirus.

Mr. Bolsonaro said Friday that he tested negative, but the health minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, later said the president would be tested again as a precaution. Mayor Francis Suarez of Miami, who met with Mr. Bolsonaro while he was in town, reported on Friday that he had tested positive.

...“These interactions would be categorized as LOW risk for transmission per C.D.C. guidelines, and as such, there is no indication for home quarantine at this time,” Commander Conley wrote. “Additionally, given the president himself remains without symptoms, testing for Covid-19 is not currently indicated.”

...The White House physician (took temperatures of people) who would come into proximity of Mr. Trump (during news briefing), including journalists, one of whom was barred because of high readings.

The president has sought for weeks to play down the severity of the outbreak and been especially sensitive about giving the impression that he himself was at risk. Indeed, several advisers to Mr. Trump on Saturday privately expressed irritation at Ms. McDaniel (RNC Chair) for publicly acknowledging her illness.
Image

...Despite the coronavirus, the president has not changed his practice of greeting guests, according to a member. Mr. Trump believes his willingness to shake hands and connect with supporters helped propel him into office and the club’s unwritten rule is that those who love him or trade on connections with him can come into contact with him.

Among the guests on hand was a who’s who of Mr. Trump’s world, according to pictures and video posted on social media, including Vice President Mike Pence, the president’s lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York police commissioner recently pardoned by Mr. Trump for tax fraud and false statements.

In addition to Donald Trump Jr. and Ms. Guilfoyle, there were other family members present, including Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Eric Trump and his wife, Lara Trump, and Tiffany Trump. Melania Trump did not make the trip to Florida.

...Mr. (Tucker) Carlson was concerned that the president was not taking the coronavirus seriously enough and talked with him about it during the evening, according to a person informed about the conversation. Two days later, on his Fox show, Mr. Carlson warned viewers: “People you trust, people you probably voted for, have spent weeks minimizing what is clearly a very serious problem.”
Image

But the mood otherwise that Saturday night was light. Ms. Guilfoyle, wearing a thigh-hugging gold sequin dress and set to turn 50 two days later, was toasted by one member of the Trump family after another amid purple and pink lighting suffusing the room.

...Mr. Graham and Senator Rick Scott of Florida later went into self-quarantine because of exposure to the Brazilians

...Mar-a-Lago was still open for business on Friday, but Lori Elsbree, the host of a 700-person “celebrity doggie fashion show” and fund-raiser scheduled for Saturday with Lara Trump as honorary chairwoman, said the event had been postponed...the decision was made after the two cases of coronavirus were confirmed and a state of emergency was issued in Palm Beach County on Friday...the organizers, not the club, made the call....

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-mar-a-lago.html

Mar-a-Lago Closed (for decontamination)! Too bad at least 3 people had to test positive for coronavirus beforehand. You can count on the Orange Shitegibbon to open it up again (tomorrow?), even though members are staying away in droves, only showing up when Trump drags his bone spurs to West Palm. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/mar-a-lago-closed-deep-cleaning-coronavirus-v...

With a fluorish and a "HOAX!" Trump will cut another ribbon to reopen his resort after the decon is done.

One of the reasons states are closing restaurants, following the example of mainland Europe is we learned from China's experience that Covid19 spreads most effectively around people seated for a meal at the dining table.

So. Now, according to Pathetic Pence during the AM Task Force update, it's "the President's Coronavirus Guidelines" as the Orange Shitegibbon has put his logo on the CDC guidelines.

Ooops! Pence slipped up in his third mention of guidelines (TV PSA initiative) and correctly identified the guidelines as the CDC's.

Can TDS sufferers learn?!

The #coronavirus crisis has revealed, once again, that @realDonaldTrump is dangerously unfit for office.

#CountryOverParty
0:53 http://bit.ly/33rfZgX

@gtconway3d
@reedgalen
@NHJennifer
@madrid_mike
@SteveSchmidtSES
@RonSteslow
@jwgop
@TheRickWilson

- The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln | 10:36 AM · Mar 17, 2020

As Americans fight for their lives, all he sees is himself.
Image ( https://twitter.com/ConnieSchultz/status/1241937569774022658/photo/1 )

- Connie Schultz @ConnieSchultz | 11:59 PM · Mar 22, 2020

_____________________________________________

Trump snarks Romney being in COVID-19 isolation. "Gee. That's too bad."
0:16 ( https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1241874567695646721 )
- Josh Marshall @joshtpm · 7h

Imagine expressing glee — even veiled as sarcasm — that someone might be infected with a life-threatening illness
that could leave him unable to breath and to possibly die...WHO DOES THAT??
Oh yeah, the President of the United States
- Asha Rangappa @AshaRangappa_ | 8:24 PM · Mar 22, 2020

Hard to imagine, especially on this board.

#62--he'll be looking for a new place when his time is up. Maybe you should invite him to live with you.

Unfortunately, Trump followers are likely to follow his self-interested, uninformed advice--and suffer the consequences...

Trump is playing Russian roulette with Americans’ lives
Jennifer Rubin | March 24, 2020

...Remember, Trump did not order anything closed; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention merely issued (15-day) guidelines about social distancing. The governors have issued orders to protect their own people, measures Trump seems willing to undermine in some weird attempt to avoid blame for the economic crash over which he is now presiding.

When I said Trump is more concerned about economic numbers than human lives, I was not exaggerating. His uninformed, perhaps self-interested declaration (six of seven of his most lucrative properties have been forced to close*) runs contrary to science and common sense...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/24/trump-plays-roulette-with-ame...

___________________________________________________________________

Before Trump called for reevaluating lockdowns, they shuttered six of his top-earning clubs and resorts
David A. Fahrenthold, Joshua Partlow and Jonathan O'Connell | March 23, 2020 at 7:04 p.m. EDT

President Trump’s private business has shut down six of its top seven revenue-producing clubs and hotels because of restrictions meant to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, potentially depriving Trump’s company of millions of dollars in revenue.

Those closures come as Trump is considering easing restrictions on movement sooner than federal public health experts recommend, in the name of reducing the virus’s economic damage.

In a tweet late Sunday, Trump said the measures could be lifted as soon as March 30. “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF,” he wrote on Twitter.

In his unprecedented dual role as president and owner of a sprawling business, Trump is facing dual crises caused by the coronavirus. As he is trying to manage the pandemic from the White House, limiting its casualties as well as the economic fallout, his company is also navigating a major threat to the hospitality industry...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/before-trump-called-for-reevaluating-loc...

____________________________________________________________________

ETA
Trump, in order:
1. every minute of attention to public health is a minute not about himself
2. social distancing hurts his business profit & stocks
3. no empathy, certainly not for workers
4. high unemployment is bad for re-election
5. near total disdain for experts and science

- Jeremy Pressman @djpressman | 8:38 AM · Mar 24, 2020

Please say gun-based roulette otherwise it stigmatizes the Russian-Americans.

Wanna watch a highly trained medical professional's soul get slowly squeezed on national television?
0:38 ( https://twitter.com/NikkiMcR/status/1242231879488716800 )

- nikki mccann ramírez @NikkiMcR | 7:28 PM · Mar 23, 2020

Analysis: Trump struggles to adjust to crisis presidency
JONATHAN LEMIRE, JILL COLVIN and ZEKE MILLER | 3/24/2020

...Trump is rapidly losing patience with the medical professionals who have made the case day after day that the only way to prevent a catastrophic loss of life is to essentially shut down the country — to minimize transmission and “flatten the curve” so hospitals aren’t overwhelmed with critical patients.

The president also has been furious that his efforts to halt the harrowing drop in the stock market have so far proven ineffective. He has been calling friends and economists at all hours and berated aides and reporters who try to persuade him to recognize the severity of the outbreak.

Beyond the crisis, he has been agitated that he can’t run the campaign he wants against Democrat Joe Biden, and he has used daily, hour-long briefings as near proxies for his campaign rallies, guaranteed to attract attention and to maintain the backing of his fervent political case...

https://apnews.com/5dd6b30e03542b435e2716e3e3a483e4

Analysis: Trump struggles to adjust to crisis presidency
JONATHAN LEMIRE, JILL COLVIN and ZEKE MILLER | 3/24/2020

...Trump is rapidly losing patience with the medical professionals who have made the case day after day that the only way to prevent a catastrophic loss of life is to essentially shut down the country — to minimize transmission and “flatten the curve” so hospitals aren’t overwhelmed with critical patients.

The president also has been furious that his efforts to halt the harrowing drop in the stock market have so far proven ineffective. He has been calling friends and economists at all hours and berated aides and reporters who try to persuade him to recognize the severity of the outbreak.

Beyond the crisis, he has been agitated that he can’t run the campaign he wants against Democrat Joe Biden, and he has used daily, hour-long briefings as near proxies for his campaign rallies, guaranteed to attract attention and to maintain the backing of his fervent political case...

https://apnews.com/5dd6b30e03542b435e2716e3e3a483e4

#67---yeah Trump's on the road rally days are done for a while. No one's staging those kinds of events. It doesn't matter so much with Joe who hasn't been seen much in public. It's more convenient for him actually. He can remain unseen while the Donald's front and center now into how to fuck up a pandemic and crater the economy at the same time.

I don't really know how this fucker sleeps at night. Probably very well but there are people dying and more coming because of his wishful thinking stable genius bullshit act.

This guy's ego is the most important thing to him, followed closely by his greed for self enrichment while in office. Hence, these announcements.

I suggest we give him what he wants! Name the Covid-19 pandemic after him!

"TrumPandemic 2020"

“Our country wasn’t built to be shut down. This is not a country that was built for this,” Trump insisted to reporters during a White House press briefing with his coronavirus task force on Monday evening, predicting that “America will again and soon be open for business. Very soon. A lot sooner than three or four months that somebody was suggesting.”

“WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF,” the president wrote on Twitter shortly before midnight on Sunday. “AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!” He then spent much of the morning retweeting posts that proposed Americans return to work in the near future and that advocated for a resumption of daily life in the U.S.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/23/trump-coronavirus-lockdown-skepticism-1...

Jeffrey Sachs: Trump's incompetence is "endangering the American people" during COVID-19

If it were only him... People like that Texan asshole suggesting y'all should kill off old people--Repugnants used to slander Democrats with "death panels" and now they are literally proposing them.

How can you take it, I don't understand... Out with that murderous profiteering garbage, out with all of them.

#NotDying4WallStreet

So this is where Cuomo is really going to have to bump heads with Trump......and IMO in two weeks the situation in NYS and particularly NYC are likely to be catastrophic. There's no way that Cuomo can allow things to go back to normal and without NYS and NYC on board there is going to be no return to normal. Trump would rather thousands and thousands die than lose a nickel out of his bank account. His ability to understand anything revolves around his wealth. He is a stupid and venal man.

If the rich pigs really try to end the lockdown, then you need a universal strike.

The US can't go on as before.

Don't worry, Trump can't lift the lockdown orders that were issued by the governors.

>76 davidgn: But can the governors close state borders?

>76 davidgn: The FL Governor is requiring air travellers from NY and NJ to quarantine for two weeks-- that's functionally close to closing the border?

The Donald sees the world through Dow Jones numbers. Is he going to call out the National Guard to open up the stock exchange and cordon off the area around Wall St. and force all the traders to show up and work together in close proximity? If more and more people are dying in NYC hospitals also in close proximity.......and when the traders start infecting each other?--what happens then? Are stores, businesses and restaurants going to open up all around lower Manhattan just because he decides things are safe enough? He thinks he has to wave a wand--just vocalise his approval that things are normal again and that's going to make things normal again? I think he's spitting into the wind and is full of shit like he's always been. Nothing has plateaued and the numbers are still rising. Some people might be willing to take the chance but not everybody by a long shot and if people are still dying left and right I don't think there will be all that many. And there won't be any cooperation from NYS---and that's Trump's best case scenario. Like usual he's a fucking loser and he should just shut the fuck up.

The economy was the one thing he could always get away with crowing about--all the media are as starstruck as he is about glitzier and glitzier Wall St. numbers. All those precious numbers of his have been wiped away--the thing he would preen about at his rallies to his supporters many of whom don't really have a pot to piss in or have ever owned a share of stock. It's all heading to Shitsville and he's the fucking guy driving it there.

Anyway as far as NYC when we see venues in the Theatre District selling tickets to shows---when you see the New York Yankees playing games in Yankee Stadium to full crowds that's when people are going to feel safe in NYC. If Beauty and the Beast, the Rockettes and the Yankees ain't doing business things are going to be shit. Those are just as much institutions in NYC as Wall St. is if not more so.

Donald's just trying to kill more people.

Trumpism is a death cult and Donnie is its Jim Jones. "Here, drink this." And they swallow it all.

His most ardent followers are mostly old white guys. Don't they get the irony?

Welcome to the United States of Guyana.

Unless no more cases out there, I would need proof of my immunity to venture out-- or maybe a house fire. Hopefully they'll be faster giving us antibody test and assurances of immunity than they were with the diagnostic test.

Fox News is very concerned that this presidential candidate's brain isn't working
2:03 ( https://twitter.com/TheDailyShow/status/1242836333871202305 )
- The Daily Show @TheDailyShow | 11:30 AM · Mar 25, 2020

>65 Kuiperdolin:

LOL!

please say

"A roulette-wheel -like game in which a lethal device is used with fatal consequences for the 'losers' "

because the use of "gun-based" stigmatizes guns and gun-ownership and gun-owners.

It's "Russian roulette". Don't like it? Go back and change history's facts--as we 'know' of them in this case.

(from Wikipedia)

Origin

According to Andrew Clarke, the first trace of Russian roulette can be found in the story "The Fatalist" of 1840, part of the collection A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov, a Russian poet and writer.(2) In the story the protagonist of the novel, Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin, says there is no predestination and proposes a bet emptying about twenty gold pieces onto the table. A lieutenant of the dragons of the tsar of Serbian origin, Vulič, with passion for gambling, accepts the challenge and randomly takes one of the various-caliber pistols from its nail, cocks it and pours powder on the shelf. Nobody knows if the pistol is loaded or not. Vulič asks: "Gentlemen! Who will pay 20 gold pieces for me?", putting the muzzle of the pistol to his forehead. Then he asks Gregory to throw a card in the air and when this card touches the ground, he shoots. Fortunately, nothing happens, because the blow fails, but when Vulič cocks the pistol again, and aims it at the service cap hanging over the window, a shot rings out and smoke fills the room.(3)

This game would spread among Russian garrison officials, becoming a foolish courage challenge. It became a way to alleviate the boredom of these long hours in distant garrisons; it also became an undertaking, frieze, or something that, in the eyes of its players, surpassed the duel. Because it was the age of duels, Lermontov would die a year after writing the story in a duel with a former partner: he was slapped, challenged him to a duel, and died by gunshot.

Since a good number of our lawmakers, including T, are over sixty, maybe they should set an example for the rest of us 60+ers and off themselves. Or maybe do it to atone for their failure to have the country better prepared. Maybe they want set up a Logan's Run event where everyone over 30 is terminated. They could also use the Nazi play book for eliminating undesirables.
Either way they do not belong in office any longer. When the next election occurs all the incumbents should be removed from office.

All those right wing radio and TV hosts who have fomented lies, rumors, and hate campaigns need to be the first to go. Second tranche of the useless should be the Evangelical preachers who invite the spread of the disease by keeping their mega-grifting palaces open. And the ones on radio and TV like Pat RoBBerson who sell snake oil and who think a pandemic is just mass media hysteria. . .oh! one of them already set the example. They're mostly 60+ old white men who don't do anything valuable for the economy, or produce anything useful to combat the pandemic. Sadly, Rush Limbaugh might as well go to the head of the line.

"They'd none of 'em be missed — they'd none of 'em be missed!" -- The Mikado

Our Dunning-Kruger president: Trump's arrogance and ignorance are killing people
When stupid people think they're smart, they do maximum damage. That's where we are with Trump and the pandemic
Chauncey DeVega | April 2, 2020 TC)

...Donald Trump is the Dunning-Kruger president of the United States.

But he is also something much worse than that. Donald Trump is an almost perfect living, breathing example of the Dunning-Kruger effect: a president in a time of plague whose ignorance and stupidity are amplified through apparent and obvious mental illness as well as cruelty, compulsive lying, grand immorality, corruption and evil.

Americans have already died because of Trump's false claims about the novel coronavirus pandemic. Many more will die in the weeks and months ahead...

https://www.salon.com/2020/04/02/our-dunning-kruger-president-trumps-arrogance-a...

This Is What Happens When a Narcissist Runs a Crisis
Jennifer Senior | April 5, 2020

Trump’s catastrophic performance has as much to do with psychology as ideology...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/05/opinion/trump-coronavirus.html

Virus crisis ~

Trump is in the process of flushing his last opportunity to save his
presidential legacy and the family brand down the toilet.

Trump having the naval captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt removed from his command over what ws the right thing to do for the sake of his thousands of sailors for whom he id ultimately responsible has lost the USN.

Sailors showered their displeasure at the PA broadcasting the acting sec'y of the USN on shipboard who trashed their captain in his speech. Hear it here. https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/listen-sailors-yell-profanities-at-trumps-actin...

Trump's lost the USN; this on the heels of the unconscionable pardons of the murderers and other criminally guilty Navy Seals and other sailors.

I imagine the USA is watching and learning. Don't be surprised if Trump loses his "base" among service people in election 2020.

Read and weep:

Here's the official transcript of part of the president's remarks about how smart the coronavirus is, and also how brilliant germs are.
Image ( https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1248811186432413707/photo/1 )

- Daniel Dale (CNN) @ddale811:12 PM · Apr 10, 2020

>90 margd: from the link, speaking of the virus, Trump says: "It's very smart"

Well everything is comparative you know.

>90 margd: Holy crap, it's like someone elected a Valley Girl as president.

:)

#90--if you look at the language of his answer it shows how reactive to this Trump is and how reactive he will always be. He doesn't usually speak glowingly of opponents and it's because this is a battle he's not equipped to handle and this shit popping up here and there has him flummoxed and he has no idea how to deal with it.

FWIW this virus once it got out of China and into Europe would probably have been a major problem for any of his predecessors too. That said he's fucked up just about everything he could possibly fuck up. His messaging before and after has been awful and that's a major part of it. President's need to stand up in moments of crisis---a moment like this doesn't come to all that many of them but when they do come a POTUS either steps up or he doesn't and his legacy for live on that forever. Looking at FDR for instance he dealt with two major crises--the debilitating effect of the 1929 market crash and the subsequent depression and then the Pearl Harbor attack and WWII. He managed to guide us back on the right track on the first and managed to build up the industrial capability of the nation to logistically overwhelm the AXIS powers.......which isn't to say he didn't do some fucked up shit like the internment of Japanese citizens.

>94 lriley:

"Looking at FDR for instance he dealt with two major crises—the debilitating effect of the 1929 market crash and the subsequent depression and then the Pearl Harbor attack and WWII."

Amazingly, more than three years on from the 1929 world-wide collapse of stock-markets and mass unemployment, Roosevelt, from January March, 1933, at first spent months sticking, by misplaced convictions, to Hoover's mistaken and clearly counter-productive fiscal and budgetary policies which were, in essence, "Let it (i.e. the economic crash's effects) 'burn (out)'," as that was the orthodox economic view of the time prior to Keynes' views gaining dominance among policy-makers. Roosevelt was not at first anything like a committed Keynesian. Meanwhile, the nation continued to suffer as he got around to seeing the sense of J. M. Keynes' liberal government-spending plan to provide a motor of activity when the private sector was in a shambles. Millions were jobless with farms and factories failing. Men lined up for work which wasn't to be had. Families lived in dire need and want for food, clothing, shelter, money and work before Roosevelt's relief programs were organized and put into effect.

Keep "three years" in mind because, again, in a second challenge, when it came to standing unified against Hitler's massive and obvious threat, it took F.D.R. from well before September of 1939 to December, 1941 to finally commit to (post-"Lend-Lease") earnest forceful opposition to Hitler--remember, for pity's sake! Roosevelt had already been president for a full term, was re-elected and was most of three years into his second term (1937 - '40)—when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939.

Now imagine that in both of these Roosevelt faced an implacable opposition party and, with a narrow majority in the Senate and only a minority in the House, his opponents twice* mounted a three-year effort to discredit and undermine his every move as president and then mounted a determined effort to remove him, from a successful impeachment through to a Senate trial which was bound to fail to obtain a conviction and removal—and does, in this analogy, as it did against Trump—on strict partisan lines—but Roosevelt's obsessed opponent put him and the country through it just the same.

Imagine all that.

From his first day in office, imagine Roosevelt: hounded, hated and harassed not ony by his opponents and many within his own party but also by much of the nation's most infuential press organs, all of these in vicious disagreement with his policy lines for purely ideological reasons. With stock-markets crashed before he came into office and the world in a depression, in the scenario, his opponents only see these as hardships to turn to their advantage against Roosevelt. When, in December, 1941, with much of the world already at war, including a major U.S. ally, Britain, fighting Nazi Germany, the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt's opponents again blame him, not the Japanese, for the attack's damages and the resulting state of war.

That is the kind of scenario which we'd have to imagine taking place if Roosevelt had been elected and come into office in similarly bitter partisan circumstances—his opposition led by partisan lunatics, and half of the public joining them, incapable of seeing that—as those which Trump faced and faces today.

_______________________________________

* "Twice" : Since we must ask: who here seriously believes that if, as Roosevelt was, Trump were to be re-elected to a second term, Trump's obsessed opponents would in the slightest bit relent from their mania to block and undermine his every move?

Just a few facts:
Donald Trump lost the popular vote in 2016 by +/- three million votes. So he was not, in fact, the popular choice.

FDR faced a great deal of criticism for his progressive policies, much of it from his own class. The powerful Hearst newspaper syndicate quickly turned against him. He was referred to as “ a traitor to his class” and “Jew lover.” After the PearL Harbor attack rumors and conspiracy theories immediately arose that FDR was somehow responsible for the attack. Those unfounded rumors still have currency and believers today.

The United States economy and stock markets began a strong and steady upward trend beginning in 2009. For the next six-plus years, Mr. Obama was president. Mr. Trump, however, has taken full credit, early and often, for bringing the economy around.

When Mr. Obama was elected, Mitch McConnell, the head of the US senate, vowed that he would be a one-term president. McConnell also made it publicly known that he would block every piece of legislation that Mr. Obama proposed. Now there’s some opposition for you.

The gap between the wealthiest and the poorest has steadily increased under Mr. Trump.

And finally:
Supporters of Mr. Trump continually engage in “what about-ism” and deflection from Mr. Trump, rather than dealing directly with criticism of Mr. Trump’s own statements and actions. This leads one to conclude that

a. His actions/statements are indefensible
Or
b. They are defensible but his supporters don’t know how to defend them
Or
c. His supporters don’t care one way or the other and will follow him wherever he leads.

And I’ll close with his brilliant tweet from yesterday:
“Happy Good Friday”

Indeed. I’m sure all Christians have a marvelous party celebrating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Happiest day of the year for them.

Also: FDR not inaugurated till March 1933...

>95 proximity1:

Also: A president can't order all the policies needed to come to be when the crisis is man-made. He depends on Congressional approval to get anything done.

Trump has a public health crisis that he defiantly resisted responding to when he had full authority to release the Federal Government in a full-throated response to combating a natural disaster but said Covid-19 was a hoax; or a Democratic conspiracy; or wouldn't come to America that he'd just made great again, etc., etc., etc.

Compare Trump to Bush I and his idiotic non-response to Hurricane Andrew until the Democratic Emergency Response head in Miami shouted from the roof-tops, "Where's the cavalry?!"

Compare Trump to Bush II and his idiotic deer in the headlights "Huh?" response to 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, which he only peered at from 40,000' until New Orleans officials shouted (literally) from the rooftops, "We're dying here!" Only then did Brownie start ". . doing a heckuva job." I quote Bush II.

Compare Trump and the Republicans' proposals for "response" to the bills that -- once deeply revised to increase benefits to those in greatest need, rather than Wall Street cronies -- to the bills Democrats got passed in spite of Republican pork-chop and opposition.

Compare what Republicans in the Senate want for the next tranche of aid to what Democrats are standing firm for.

Then you will have made comparisons based on comparable powers and behaviors.

Ridiculous ignorance to compare Trump's disastrous willful inaction and obstruction of response to this pandemic to FDR's response to a world-wide man-made financial crash when his response was dictated and limited by law and opposition politics.

“It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it.” I read this somewhere.

>98 Limelite:

I'm now definitively through with opening, looking at or considering your bullshit posts--no matter the topic.

Getting quiet over here.

It’s so hard to deal with actual facts. Name calling and the equivalent of the old playground phrase “I’m gonna take my ball and go home” usually, although not always, stem from a sense of frustration when one is out-argued.

>99 proximity1:

Sure. Until the next time you respond.

DJT appears to believe he was crowned Donald I on January 20, 2017. This is
what happens when a life-long con man becomes an extremely popular cult leader
via the Internet and about 80,000 voters flip the Electoral College vote his way.

>99 proximity1:

Can't take the "You lie!" when you're caught in it? You remind me of another zealnut, the Orange Shitegibbon.

So, I'll quote the man at whose feet you grovel and whose derriere you caress with your orbicularis oris, figuratively speaking of course.

"Who cares?"

STABLE GENIUS: Can you identify an elephant and a camel? Can you say three numbers backwards? Can you draw a clock? If so congrats, you're a stable genius!

This video excerpt is from a sizzle reel of our upcoming film #UNFIT, coming soon.
(1:17) https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1249441625815666689
Read more here: http://unfitfilm.com

- Duty To Warn @duty2warn | 4:57 PM · Apr 12, 2020

Obama had a two year window at the beginning where Democrats controlled both houses. 2011 McConnell became Senate leader. Just saying. But it's correct that McConnell blocked everything though not sure he would have blocked TPP. 2011 was also the year of Occupy and there was the opportunity for the Democrats to respond to what would later become the backbone of the Sanders movement and the Democrats did not and this has helped to divide the party with the mainstream of the Democratic Party pretty much now occupying the center or center/right of the political spectrum.

McConnell is a hypocritical and cynical piece of garbage whose only real interest is maintaining his own power though--there is no mistaking that. He has the best interests of no one but himself. I always think it's pathetic---this shitbird is in his 70's as is Trump and the only thing in their minds is that power dynamic and their bank accounts and the notoriety gained from being in the public eye. It is pathetic. The good of the public is what Public Service should be about not their self serving attention seeking. This is the end result of the gospel of unfettered super capitalism---'it's all about me'.

>105 lriley:

Re: McConnell and Trump's motivations -- I couldn't agree more.

>105 lriley: Thank you for a succinct expression of the situation.

Why, oh why, can we not get over the electorate thinking that old white men can govern us equitably? Clearly they haven’t done the best job so far. Let’s get some young blood and ideas in there.

Leaked CDC report: ‘Significant risk of resurgence of the virus’ under Trump’s plan to reopen the economy.

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/leaked-cdc-report-significant-risk-of-resurgenc...

A joint report produced by the Centers for Disease Control and the Federal Emergency Management Agency has warned that even a staggered reopening of the economy could lead to a surge in new COVID-19 cases in the United States.

The only way to minimize the risks, the CDC argues, is to build an elaborate system to test and trace Americans on a massive scale.
(SNIP)
The problem, however, is that the United States isn’t close to having the testing capacity to pull off such an operation. (testing and tracing operation)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2020/04/15/daily-...
(Behind firewall?)

Trump seems unusually tetchy lately:
Corona?
Stock market?
Unemployment?
Polls*
Hotel industry?
Supreme Court hears arguments on releasing his tax returns to Congress (May 12)?
Judge decides public release of unredacted Mueller report (April 20 at earliest)**

*GOP polling shows Trump's magical lies are failing him.
"private Republican surveys...show him losing ground in key states like Michigan,
where one recent poll has him losing by double digits, according to a Republican strategist who has seen it"

A Key G.O.P. Strategy: Blame China. But Trump Goes Off Message.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/18/us/politics/trump-china-virus.html

- Greg Sargent @ThePlumLineGS6:10 AM · Apr 20, 2020

----------------------------------------------------------------------

New NBC/WSJ poll also breaks out Trump-Biden matchup in 11 battlegrounds (AZ, CO, FL, ME, MI, MN, NV, NH, NC, PA, WI).
Biden 49, Trump 43.
Not meaningfully different than Biden 49-42 edge nationally.
- Josh Kraushaar @HotlineJosh | 8:05 AM · Apr 20, 2020

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

**Meanwhile in DC, a judge who has already criticized AG Barr for misleading the country about the Mueller Report’s findings,
is reviewing the unredacted portions to determine whether they should be publicly released. He previously said April 20 was the earliest he could rule.
- Joyce Alene (U Alabama law prof) @JoyceWhiteVance | 6:31 AM · Apr 20, 2020

https://twitter.com/ZhiZhuWeb/status/1131309219410583553/photo/1
https://twitter.com/ZhiZhuWeb/status/1252201927162683392/photo/1

Maybe another COVID delay plus the usual appeals will stay release of Mueller report?
https://twitter.com/MikeScarcella/status/1244707622097489928/photo/1

0:07 ( https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1254869376538468355 )
- Aaron Rupar @atrupar | 4:25 PM · Apr 27, 2020

Walter Shaub @waltshaub · 13h
Was this a hot mic moment or a response to a question?

Aaron Rupar @atrupar | 4:49 PM · Apr 27, 2020
a hot mic moment. Trump took no Qs. it was one of those events where he goes around the room and gives guests a talk

G221 @TG22110 | 4:50 PM · Apr 27, 2020
“Hello Everybody”. I think

____________________________________________

Trump begins his April 27 #TrumpPressConference with some reading difficulties
0:07 ( https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1254889231887011847 )
- Aaron Rupar @atrupar | 5:44 PM · Apr 27, 2020

The president is unwell. It just has to be said clearly. He’s got serious issues.
Image ( https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1255732239368847364/photo/1 )

America has a nuts person in possession of the nuke codes but it’s verboten because none of us are his psychiatrist. Quite the box we’ve put ourselves in.

- Aaron Rupar @atrupar | 1:34 AM · Apr 30, 2020

Trump and Pence fans (or suckers might be more accurate) drank the Kool-Aid in 2016. May they please drink the bleach in 2020!

I know this is a very "Amnesty International" website especially now that it's free, but I did not expect Dale Selby Pierre to have an account here.

Instead of "making America great," Trump has made America sicker, poorer, and weaker.

Trump admits he was briefed on coronavirus before declaring ‘hoax’ and jetting off on golf trips;
Trump's tariffs are driving job losses and production cost hikes, the Fed says
"Trump's Job Losses Will Exceed The Great Recession’s"
How Trump Is Ending the American Era: For all the visible damage the president has done to the nation’s global standing, things are much worse below the surface.
Waning of American Power? Trump Struggles With an Asia in Crisis

America has never experienced such ineptitude, lack of leadership, and deliberate stupidity. Hence, there is no "again" in Trump's motto of self-congratulatory faux "greatness."

The president is not well: The umpteenth reminders of Trump’s mental state and the consequences
S.E. Cupp | May 05, 2020

...Less than two weeks after unimaginably suggesting injecting disinfectants might help kill off the coronavirus, the past few days have seen him spiral out of control, proving utterly incapable of staying focused on the biggest crisis a president can face. Instead, he has:

Spread unfounded conspiracy theories about the origins of the coronavirus, about former President Barack Obama and about an MSNBC cable-news host;

Made statements that can only be described as delusional, like comparing himself to Abraham Lincoln, inventing a non-existent letter of apology from Joe Biden, and spewing non-science about his favorite drug, hydroxychloroquine;

Attacked two female reporters for doing their jobs, lamenting that they didn’t behave like “Donna Reed,” an actress synonymous with the gender role-abiding, kitchen-dwelling 1950s housewife she played on television more than 60 years ago;

Attacked another female cable-news host, calling her a “3rd rate lapdog”;

And in the middle of the night on Tuesday, at 12:45 a.m., gone on a 234-word rant on Twitter, complaining about an ad released by a Republican anti-Trump group whose leaders include George Conway, husband of his staffer Kellyanne, in which he used words like “deranged loser of a husband,” and “Moonface” to describe him.

It’s a frightening commentary on the slow normalization of this completely abnormal behavior that we can greet the undeniable deterioration of the president of the United States with mere shrugs. And the only concerns from his inner circle seem not to be about the mental instability itself, but the political ramifications of it being exposed in daily press briefings.

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-the-president-is-not-well-20200505-3...

May 10, 2020
Heather Cox Richardson | May 11, 2020

Today the president tweeted a lot, even for him. In one hour this morning, he tweeted or retweeted 52 times. By the end of the day he had averaged a tweet every 7.5 minutes. None of the tweets mentioned the almost 80,000 Americans who have died from Covid-19, or any plans for addressing the pandemic.

...President Barack Obama in the news...oversight of his presidency is approaching a critical moment. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments about whether Congress or state prosecutors can investigate him for potential wrongdoing...

...The importance of the upcoming Supreme Court arguments might have had something to do with today’s tweet storm.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-10-2020

_______________________________________________

As you assess Trump’s crazytown from yesterday, remember that
tomorrow SCOTUS hears argument & will soon decide whether
Trump’s taxes must be released to Congress & Manhattan’s DA.
Every lower court to hear the issues has ruled they must be released. The law is relatively clear.
- Joyce Alene (U Alabama Law) @JoyceWhiteVance | 8:02 AM · May 11, 2020

At this point, who cares about Trump's taxes? I'd rather see him come down with a severe case of COVID-19 and be done with it! There is not a bigger scum bag on the planet! You might not agree with Bush's politcal beliefs or Obama's political beliefs, but they did their job the way it should be done! This current scum bag is all about "ME ME ME". He needs to be done with, and COVID-19 needs to be our hero!

I really do hope that nobody else outside of him gets this virus. We all know that won't happen and many will, but the rest of America deserves a leader that is there to look out for the country, not for his own damn self!

>117 ChessFanatic:

In your current mind set, you're the perfect person to "care about" Trump's taxes. Why? Because the probable tax evasion they document (from what I've read about his shady bookkeeping and shifting valuations of assets) will land him in jail. A la Al Capone.

And where in the USA is the most serious and devastating "hot spot" for Covid-19 other than nursing homes? Right! JAILS.

Be careful what you wish against. ;^)

It would be a waste of our taxes to put him in jail.

Did you miss the part on "severe"? I was implying beyond jail. The "permanent" jail, as in what also describes 40 of the previous 44 presidents (Hint, the 4 that it doesn't "yet" describe are Carter, Clinton, "W", and Obama!)

Duty To Warn @duty2warn | 4:56 PM · May 16, 2020

PARANOIA: In this clip from our upcoming film #UNFIT, we speak to his paranoia and manic preoccupation with disloyalty and conspiracy. It's relevant. He fired yet another IG last night, introduced a new conspiracy earlier this week.

1:26 ( https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1261762547503427584 )

More on #UNFIT here: http://unfitfilm.comm

Trump proclaims he's taking hydroxychloroquine and has been for weeks! Pundits don't know whether to believe him or not. Can it be any wonder it's a toss-up? On one hand, Trump is a pathological liar and it's highly likely he's lying about this. On the other hand, he's best known for his stupidity combined with his affinity for conspiracy theories.

Remember, this is the "drink bleach" advocate and the "inject Lysol" enthusiast. He prefers made up myths to scientific fact. 999:1.

As of a month ago, not a single scientific study has been completed that shows prophylactic hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 is effective in patients or uninfected people in ameliorating or preventing the disease. The first such study only began at Henry Ford Hosp. in Detroit April 9th this year with the enrollment of volunteers. It has about two weeks more to go before testing for results begins.

With all its known side effects and interactions with other drugs and herbs, one can conclude that taking prophylactic hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 is about as safe and science-based as drinking bleach or injecting Lysol. Which leads one to wonder why Trump hasn't boasted about doing both.

#121--there is no way to know for sure whether Donald is taking this or not. There is a possibility that he is just telling people this to get himself off the hook in case people who are already or have decided to take the drug as a preventative or their surviving relatives come back to sue him later on for the harm it will cause at least some of them. There is this plausibility thing then of 'Well, I took it too. Worked for me.'

But maybe he is taking it out of fear, ignorance and/or obstinacy. For people with underlying issues related at all to the heart it often causes arrhythmia. In other words his heart could explode---which would be apocalyptic for him but maybe not so bad for us keeping in mind his days as POTUS may be running short anyway and Michael Pence would replace him. FOX host Neil Cavuto by the way went to lengths to tell FOX viewers not to follow Trump down his potential Jim Jones-ish like rabbit hole so the Donald is mad at him again.

Either/or though this numbskull is determined to make a fool out of himself by deciding something is true when it's not and by playing doctor when he's a nothing but a snake oil charlatan.

But anyway the United States is chock full of morons who believe all kinds of nonsense. The entire crowd who thinks there is something exceptional about people born here. That we are God's chosen people blah, blah, blah--people standing between light and darkness---all the capitalism crap too like it's the chapter left out of the bible. Jesus if he were living today would almost certainly be the richest of the billionaires because America today is just an exact replica of what heaven's like on earth.

Like WHO funding, China disease management, Obamagate etc., Donald's confessed drug of choice is

a) last chance to make a buck from hydroxychloroquine

b) diversion from 90,000 deaths, firing of four Inspectors General, anticipated court release of Flyn and financial documents, etc.
Per Steve Bannon, "the way to deal with (the media) is to flood the zone with shit.”

c) both.

_______________________________________

How to hydroxychloroquine
0:54 ( https://twitter.com/sarahcpr/status/1262583362079936512 )
- Sarah Cooper @sarahcpr | 11:18 PM · May 18, 2020

--------------------------------------------------------------

Here it is on other platforms, thanks for all the late night retweets! also this is hell please vote!!

youtube: https://youtu.be/0dUUkpVpS_k

facebook: https://facebook.com/therealsarahcooper/posts/10159841628583266

instagram: https://instagram.com/p/CAWqrPbALkM/

The last thing Americans or the planet needs is a mentally unfit
president ingesting a medication which may decrease his mental
fitness even more.

>124 Molly3028: - No! That is precisely what we need! I wish he would ingest the bleach as well! He needs to go, and I mean GO! As in for good! The United States cannot tolerate him another day. Here's the problems he has caused:

1) To those of you that don't get the hint at what he's doing, he is strictly benefiting the good ol' boys. Rich, White people from the 50s. He's a racist scumbag doing harm to all people of color (Black, Hispanic, Native American, Asian, Indian, etc) and also doing harm to all White people below HIS poverty line, which is basically anyone who is not a millionaire.

2) He is breaking the law by giving medical advice without a medical degree, advising people to take questionable drugs and to ingest bleach and lysol.

3) If you still don't get a clue about number 1, he has made racist remarks at Black, Hispanic, and the latest case, Asian reporters. The one last week, I think Monday if memory serves me right, he makes racist remarks, starts to call on another, and just walks right now.

4) He is the most uneducated 73-year old on the planet. He doesn't even know that Kansas City is in Missouri! Yes, there is a small piece of the city that is in Kansas, but the Kansas City Chiefs DO NOT PLAY IN KANSAS! So why is he congratulating the state of Kansas for winning the Superbowl?

5) He is manipulating the election again. He is trying to shut down the post office completely before November so that states like California, that already said everyone can vote by mail if they want to, though there will still be live polls. Trump is trying to shut down the post office before November and limit the number of polls to rich white neighborhoods in order to reducing voting by people of color, poor people, and sick people, along with people that don't want to risk being out there in person to vote by eliminating the postal system, just so that he can rig the results of the election again! He doesn't care if only 40% of America is stupid enough to support his brainwashing approach and demand that he be praised like Jesus Christ, he'll just manipulate the election to make it very easy for those 40 percent of Americans to vote, and do all he can to block the intellingent part of America from voting!

He needs to be gone! Not just gone from office, outright gone! As long as that heart keeps beating, evil will continue to prevail in the Disgruntled States of America. We aren't even united any more. Trump has also re-segregated the country!

Come on Trump - Down that entire bottle of Clorox Bleach! Televise it! That's what your next speech should be, nothing more than drinking an entire bottle of Clorox. Learn to be a man of your own words You said drink it! Let's see YOU drink it! Then we'll see how long you can answer questions before you drop to the ground!

>125 ChessFanatic: Actually, I don't think it's against the law to give medical advice without a medical degree. It's against the law in the US to practice medicine without a license, but that's a very different matter, and I don't think anyone would claim that Trump has violated that.

As for Kansas City, I hardly think this counts as even a second-tier screwup for this guy. I mean, if that were one of the worst things he'd done, we wouldn't have a problem here. Other things that are not the biggest problem with Trump would include: he's obese, he's utterly tasteless, he has no sense of humor at all, and his face looks like someone transplanted a rectum where his mouth ought to be.

These things are all unfortunate, but surely there are more important things to concern ourselves with.

>126 kiparsky:

Tell us, please, what concerns you? Just the three "more important things."

Top three? That's a hard call, but if I had to pick just three it'd be his participation in the McConnell program of packing the courts with anti-American judges, his wholesale rollback of environmental regulations, and his tolerance of blatant corruption throughout his administration.

But I would not argue if someone wanted me to include his destruction of American influence globally, his assault on the global trade system (with the attendant destruction of what remains of American farming and industry), his cheering-on of the White Wing.... need I go on?

If we wanted to talk about character issues, certainly his utter disregard for truth - 18K documented lies so far as president! - and his related disconnection from reality would be right up there at the top of the list.

Do you want more? I mean, I apologize if I've left out any of your favorites, but the complete catalog of things things that make Trump unfit to serve as president would be a long list. It's just that I don't think his looks or the fact that he got a trivia question wrong are up at the top of that list.

>128 kiparsky: - It's not about not knowing a trivia question. If he didn't know that Tony Hawk came up with the 900 in 1999, that wouldn't matter.

However, as President of the United States, you should know everything about every state. Which major cities are in which state. What state laws each state has. For example, I can't speak for today, but in the mid-1990s, oral sex was illegal in Colorado. In 2003, spanking your own child was illegal in Massachusetts. If you are going to be President of the United States, you should know all of this. It's like being the CEO of a bank. Just knowing E-Commerce, or just knowing Wholesale Banking, or just knowing Commerical, is insufficient if you are the CEO. Being President is the same concept. It is not enough to just know Florida or New York law. If you are going to be the governor of Florida, you need to know Florida Law, and doesn't matter if you know Kansas law or not. If you are going to be POTUS, you need to know all 50

So the fact that Trump doesn't even know that Kansas City is in Missouri does indeed matter when it comes to his level of job/occupation. If Missouri forbids Quail Hunting (I have no idea if it does or not) and Trump goes to Kansas City and assuming he is in Kansas, and Quail hunts, he has broken the law, and he has no excuse not to know the law as POTUS!

>128 kiparsky:

All good concerns. I share them. But I think you were looking through a deliberately rather narrow window expressing your disapproval of ChessFanatic's post.

I thought he was quite clear in being outraged by a dangerous ignorance in the leader of the most powerful nation in the world. That ignorance, that personality, that narcissism is at the root of many of your concerns.

Let's acknowledge that a president named Trump in all his aspects is a danger to all of us by his words, example, and his deeds. His words embolden people like McTurtle to hand over the power of the Senate checks and balances to his fearless leader in order to stuff the courts with unqualified ideological weasels and in order to tie himself to the Orange Shitegibbon's coattails for reelection -- a strategy that is clearly a pending fatal error. However, when they know they're going down, bad guys want to take as many as they can with them. President Morbidly Obese's example spurs his cultists to be proud of their racial anger and conspiracy sodden stupidity, leading to the deaths of their victims and likely themselves, in terms of Covidiot behavior. His deeds I'm not going to get into; I wouldn't be able to stop.

Suffice to say, we're all on the same pg and are unanimous in despising Trump. We really have no reason to criticize anyone's outrage about any of the latest glaring examples of unfitness he displays. So, cool your jets a bit and save your flaming for the deserving, the people out there eligible to vote who are besotted by a fellow bigot "just like them."

The President is having problems with his speech
0:09 ( https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1262838496294604802 )

- Acyn Torabi @Acyn | 4:12 PM · May 19, 2020

I guess I would have to say that for me, if I wanted to make the case for Trump's unsuitability for the job, I would probably not lead with "he thought Kansas City was in Kansas". And in fact, that's what I did say. No flames. So, I guess... my jets are cool. Are yours?

Not only did he keep everyone waiting yesterday,
but tRump appeared very UNSTEADY at Arlington National Cemetery - not Mr. Strong & Powerful.
Only WEAK & UNSTABLE.
And over-medicated?
#TakeTrumpOffTwitter #MemorialDay #COVID19

0:53 ( https://twitter.com/garybartanus/status/1265285356942839814 )

- Gary Bartanus @garybartanus | 10:15 AM · May 26, 2020

Trump still hasn't totally figured out how to drink water
0:06 ( https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1271820635040362497 )
- Aaron Rupar @atrupar | 11:04 AM · Jun 13, 2020

Kurt Eichenwald @kurteichenwald | 1:25 PM · Jun 13, 2020
Showed this to a doctor. This is a big deal.
“Definite neurological damage of some form.
Could be he has had a small stroke or it could be Lewy Body Dementia.
Other possibilities. He needs an MRI.”

More problems drinking and walking (West Point):

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1271820635040362497
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1271902553417138176

etc...

>135 margd:

You have to love how jaunty he tries to look at the end of the ramp, trying to make up for how frail he looked going down it.

I sent him a little Tweet about it: https://twitter.com/amyann77/status/1271938905953259529

>136 amysisson:

I saw that video. The ramp seemed to really trouble him; he negotiated it the way toddlers negotiate stairs. One-stepping, two-feeting, and always leading with the same foot. In his case, the left. Tres bizarre!

Several neurological disorders come to mind, as well as visual impairments. For example, deteriorating depth perception.

But taken together with his distemper, two-handed drinking, forward stoop and sway when standing, his limited and rapid declining vocabulary, and all his other cognitive and physical disabilities, I think he's suffering rapidly progressing dementia/Alzheimer's.

Mystifies me why fellow Republicans don't take care of this guy, who's an embarrassment to the office and their Party. . .unless they really hate him.

Having a camera around can be a real inconvenience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFcRbttIUNk

>134 margd: & >135 margd:

Maybe it WAS a stroke--note Trump leads with his left leg on the ramp, in addition to problems lifting glass with his right arm.

( Problem with slopes could be exacerbated by lifts in his shoes:
https://twitter.com/RTMannJr/status/1242610462044426240 )

ETA: I wouldn't share this if Trump hadn't been so unceasingly cruel re others' appearance or shortcomings:

and here's Obama walking up the same ramp
it's obviously not "very steep" as Trump claimed
0:11 ( https://twitter.com/jomareewade/status/1272051729614483462 )
- BebopSpaceCowgirl @jomareewade | 2:22 AM · Jun 14, 2020

ETA:

Since everyone seems to be discussing the ramp to the speaker’s platform at West Point, here’s Vice President Biden ascending it in 2016.
0:15 ( https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1272234840432263169 )
- Bill Kristol @BillKristol | 2:29 PM · Jun 14, 2020

I don't see as much wrong with his walk down that ramp as others do. At 66 and in full health, I'd walk cautiously down that ramp in the same manner. Especially, as he notes, there was no handrail.

Trump's ramp-age down the man-made slope must really confuse right wingnuts. They're wondering why Hillary, Obama, Pelosi, and Sleepy Joe aren't all out there doing a spastic mocking performance to entertain us libs.

Guess the Democrats failed once again.

The Times ran a story this week about Trump's views on chokeholds, included this quote

“I will say this, as somebody that, you know, you grow up and you wrestle and you fight and you or you see what happens sometimes if you’re alone and you’re fighting somebody who’s tough and you get somebody in a chokehold,” Mr. Trump said. “What are you going to do, say, oh, and it’s a real bad person and you know that. And they do exist.”

I've got nothing to add.

>142 kiparsky:

Does anybody understand a word of that?

>143 amysisson:

Glad you asked. Is this what advancing dementia reads like?

>143 amysisson: I certainly don't. I mean, it's not even locally coherent.

>144 Limelite: I think you mean "advanced"?

EDIT: As in "he's got the most advanced dementia of anyone, ever!"

I'm not ready to let go of the ramp story yet. Commentary from CNN:

Why the Donald Trump-West Point ramp story actually matters

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/15/politics/donald-trump-ramp-west-point-speech/inde...

What does everybody think about today's bullsh*t speech?

- He claims Obama and Biden did nothing. Uhm, what do you call what they did post-Ferguson?
- He says that he supports choke-hold banning except when the police sees themselves as being in danger. Uhm, how is that different than today? All the police has to say is that he was endangered.
- He follows this up with stock market gain and lowering of unemployment and tooting his horn about additional inaccurate bullsh*t. Let's speak big picture and the truth rather than twisting words to make it sound good. Was unemployment down from April to May? Yes! Is unemployment down long term, over the course of 2020, meaning January 1 to June 16? Absolutely F'ing NOT the case at all!

Anybody that votes for Trump in 2020 is racist and Making America Hate Again! Keep in mind, this is Trump supporters, not Republicans, that I speak for. You can vote your Republican govenor, senator, representatives, etc, all you want. I only knock the racist clowns that vote Trump in 2020!

I spoke to doctors and people close to Trump this week. We're right to worry about his health
Andrew Feinberg | 6/16/2020

...Dr James Merikangas, a board-certified neurologist and clinical professor of neuropsychiatry at George Washington University School of Medicine, said he immediately noticed problems with Trump’s movements when he saw the video (of the president descending a ramp).

“My reaction to that was that he's got a problem with his balance and with his posture,” said Merikangas, who added that he has long noticed issues with how Trump carries himself during public appearances.

“You’ll notice that when the president sits in his chair, for instance, he doesn't lean back against the chair — he always is sort of crouching, leaning forward. With his legs spread apart, this abnormal posture is something you see in people who've got a neurologic problem, though I can't say specifically which,” Merikangas continued. “And his problem with balance with his gait is also something that happens with people who have some sort of degenerative brain problem usually in the frontal lobes of the brain… it certainly is suspicious, the way he was walking.”

While Merikangas declined to offer a specific diagnosis because doing so would require a physical examination and testing, he said that if Trump were a friend, family member or colleague, he would advise him to see a doctor and get an MRI or PET scan.

...Rick Wilson, the ex-GOP consultant who is one of the former Republicans behind The Lincoln Project anti-Trump Super PAC, also said the only way (Physician to the President Sean) Conley (an officer in the Navy’s medical corps who holds the rank of commander) has lasted in his role is by going along with things.

“They clearly look for somebody who is going to be compliant… The obvious centerpiece of what they want is somebody who's going to be on their team and not going to make waves or cause trouble,” said Wilson.

...But regardless of whether voters believe Trump or not, Wilson predicted that there would eventually be a full accounting of the 45th president’s health issues.

“I predict when all this is over, we're going to find out that there have been some health scares and some medical issues that will pop our f**king eyes out,” he said.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/trump-health-ramp-walk-water-white-house-do...

The Demonrats elected a bloke who was literaly in a wheelchair (which for the record I don't mind) and liked him so much they reelected him and made him basically President for life so I suspect their concern trolling about the Donald's ambulation is not in wholly good faith.

>149 Kuiperdolin: "Demonrats"? LOL
Oh, man, that'll show us. You got us good with that one. You come up with that yourself? Pure comic genius! even my eight year old nephew couldn't come up with a better playground taunt.

Oh and, yeah, you're right - while it was embarrassing to have a President who, while professing to be in good health, was physically incapable of walking a quarter of a mile, I don't think anyone claims that that's really disqualifying. What is concerning is the underlying neurological issues and the indication of incipient mental breakdown. As you no doubt noticed in the previous posts that you were presumably responding to. If you didn't, maybe you should be talking to your own primary care provider about doing some screening... it would be a shame to watch your brilliantly honed wit (I'm still chuckling about that "demonrats" crack... ) deteriorate the way Trump has been doing lately.

Seriously though, the man is physically and mentally breaking down before our eyes. I mean, he can't put together a coherent sentence these days. Not that he was ever a Frederick Douglass even on his best days, but literally can't carry a thought through long enough to get it out of his mouth, changes his mind in the middle of a sentence ("I don't understand wind... but I've studied wind more than anyone"). His statement on chokeholds, quoted in >142 kiparsky:, above, is a perfect example. If you think he's got any of his marbles left, go ahead and explain that quote.

But we'll see. Republicans re-elected Reagan when he was clearly in the advanced stages of dementia, so maybe some of them will go for Trump again as well. I think they call it "Trump Derangement Syndrome". Fortunately, the sufferers have been increasingly self-isolating, and it seems to be retreating fast.

It's in entirely good faith from this Democrat. This man makes up lies about others' health, saying it's failing when it's not, and lies about his own health, saying he's the healthiest president ever elected. He bullies people by calling them weak, and mocks disabled people. Well, he's just a hair shy of being disabled himself these days.

In addition, many Democrats today were not around to vote for the bloke in the wheelchair. Whether or not I would have voted for him would have depended on what I thought of his character, policies, and mentally faculties. And speaking of those, Old Man Trump is visibly losing those as well.

Since when has paraplegia equated to dementia (or tertiary syphilis), pathological lying, malignant narcissism, sociopathic personality; racism; anti-Americanism; and oath-breaking criminality?

Since when did physical restriction to a wheelchair become the equivalent disqualification for president of total mental "quadriplegia"?

Health hazards of smoking cigarettes and Republican Kool-Aid drinking comparisons -- now that works.

138 days to election day--216 days until inauguration day.

I don't see how anyone can claim Donald Trump's intellect is declining. To any objective observer he clearly remains one of the best wordsmiths and thinkers of his generation. Nothing suggests otherwise - certainly not some difficulties climbing down a ramp, which, after all, he did eventually climb down : as always the actual results are here ! so his opponents are reduced to making insinuations about the process.

>154 Kuiperdolin: It is my understanding that when walking down a short and gentle slope has become a "process" that presents "difficulties", this is usually taken as an indication that it's worth looking into, in case it turns out to be a sign of underlying neurological issues. But probably this is what they were doing on his emergency run to Walter Reed, right?

To any objective observer he clearly remains one of the best wordsmiths and thinkers of his generation.

Okay, you've made a claim. So let's have you translate the quote in >142 kiparsky: into coherent English. I don't just dare you, I double dare you. And if you're not careful, I'll double dog dare you.

Here it is again, to make it easy:
“I will say this, as somebody that, you know, you grow up and you wrestle and you fight and you or you see what happens sometimes if you’re alone and you’re fighting somebody who’s tough and you get somebody in a chokehold,” Mr. Trump said. “What are you going to do, say, oh, and it’s a real bad person and you know that. And they do exist.”

What subtle nuances and deep insights am I missing from this wordsmith and thinker? Is this maybe some sort of Dylan-esque wordplay that I'm not getting? Or perhaps a kind of beat-poet word-jazz thing, riffing on some theme that I just haven't picked up on?

>154 Kuiperdolin:

You're joking, right?

>156 amysisson: remember, this is the one who thinks that Donald Trump wrote Art of the Deal...

At first glance, I thought the headline was from a Borowitz Report, or something similar. But nope; his ego knows no bounds.

Trump says he made Juneteenth 'very famous'

>154 Kuiperdolin:

Is that you or Trump down there?

Paula Reid---a reporter for CBS asking Trump--'Why do you keep hiring people you say are whackos and liars?'

>155 kiparsky: : not that I believe for a second that you ask that in good faith, but it's a good, vivid description of hand-to-hand combat and its uncertainty, by someone who is has extensive knowledge of the subject through his connections with professional wrestling. The short, disjointed, run-on clauses create a strobospic effect reminiscent of the Martyre de Saint Labre, that mirrors the hectic confusion of the situation, the anaphoric "and"s pummel in the situation of someone (in context, a police officer) who face relentless, unceasing assault and must act to stop it. It's no masterpiece but it's head and shoulders above the shapeless gibberings of any liberal writer of his generation. If some pot-smelling mankin with an acoustic guitar were to publish it with more spelling errors he'd get at least two Nobel prizes for that, and journals would argue for five decades that short clauses are cultural appropriation.

>156 amysisson: : no.

>159 Limelite: : what's your point?

#161--that's pretty funny.

That said....professional wrestling really isn't a sport--it's more of a choreographed ballet performed by fat and/or musclebound men for the entertainment of armchair potato chip eating rejects. That Donald is some kind of expert on professional wrestling really doesn't say a whole lot for him.

>161 Kuiperdolin:

Your original statement: To any objective observer he clearly remains one of the best wordsmiths and thinkers of his generation.

If you truly believe that Trump is either a decent wordsmith or a great thinker, you live in an alternate reality. The man uses the vocabulary of a fifth grader: "really big" "many people say" "believe me" "a perfect call"....

The man is an embarrassment to this country based just on his inability to string a coherent sentence together.

>161 Kuiperdolin: Well, that was certainly interesting to read. Obviously I don't believe that anyone clever enough to come up with that cock-and-bull story would also be stupid enough to believe it, but it was really entertaining and I do appreciate that.

Of course, if someone you loved started talking like that, you would not start trying to make a pretty story out of it, you'd immediately make an appointment with a good neurologist, but since it's just Trump it's all in good fun, right? I totally agree with you on this one: fuck him, he's been an utter bastard for every one of his 74 years, and watching his brain rot and drip out of his ears is fucking brilliant.

Can you come up with one for his comments on Watergate from the Geraldo interview? They go like this:

"Well it's a terrible thing and, you know, I think of Nixon more than anyone else and what that dark period was in our country. And the whole thing with the tapes and the horror show. It was dark and it went on for a long time, and I watched it."

I mean, I'm getting a bit of Beckett in that last sentence. But more than that, I'm getting a strong whiff of sad, pathetic old man feeling the thoughts slipping out of his grasp, knowing that it won't be long before he's more gone than here, and the only mercy left for him being the occasional lucid moments of awareness that sooner or later he'll be completely gone and then and only then will he be spared from the hell that he's drifting into, and every day spending more and more time in.

Fun times! I wonder if Ivanka will be kind enough to put him down when the time comes... or if she's got deeper reasons to hate him than any of us know.

>164 kiparsky:
Once you threw down that double dog dare, well, I just knew that all hell would break loose...

Trump's Tulsa rally turned into a dud. A million people may (or may not) have signed up to attend but maybe 10,000 actually showed up. There was no outdoor speech because there was no outdoor crowd. Plenty of room inside and for those who wanted to socially distance tons of room in the upper stands. The silver lining of course is less people running the risk of catching the Covid virus.

Twitter has it that TEENAGERS snapped up a good portion of the million tickets?

#167--I can believe that. Antifa?

>168 lriley: Teens: 1 million. Trump: 6K?
Trump campaign is blaming media and protesters for blocking people, but reporters say few protesters there.
Looks like political campaigns need to start monitoring TikTok!

TikTok Teens and K-Pop Stans Say They Sank Trump Rally
Did a successful prank inflate attendance expectations for President Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Okla.?
Taylor Lorenz, Kellen Browning and Sheera Frenkel | June 21, 2020

...Brad Parscale, the chairman of Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign, posted on Twitter on Monday that the campaign had fielded more than one million ticket requests, but reporters at the event noted the attendance was lower than expected. The campaign also canceled planned events outside the rally for an anticipated overflow crowd that did not materialize.

Tim Murtaugh, the Trump campaign’s spokesman, said protesters stopped supporters from entering the rally, held at the BOK Center, which has a 19,000-seat capacity. Reporters present said there were few protests.

TikTok users and fans of Korean pop music groups claimed to have registered potentially hundreds of thousands of tickets for Trump’s campaign rally as a prank. After @TeamTrump tweeted asking supporters to register for free tickets using their phones on June 11, K-pop fan accounts began sharing the information with followers, encouraging them to register for the rally — and then not show.

The trend quickly spread on TikTok, where videos with millions of views instructed viewers to do the same, as CNN reported on Tuesday. “Oh no, I signed up for a Trump rally, and I can’t go,” one woman joked, along with a fake cough, in a TikTok posted on June 15...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/style/tiktok-trump-rally-tulsa.html

-----------------------------------

This is what happened tonight. I’m dead serious when I say this. The teens of America have struck a savage blow against @realDonaldTrump. All across America teens ordered tickets to this event. The fools on the campaign bragged about a million tickets. lol. @ProjectLincoln.
- Steve Schmidt @SteveSchmidtSES · 10h

Every teenager I know did this.
- Soledad O'Brien @soledadobrien | 9:10 PM · Jun 20, 2020

Generation Z —-scored a direct hit.
Unknown to me until now, my 18-year-old & his girlfriend just confirmed they were part of the conspiracy. They say it was all over social media—for that age group. (We are all in our own bubbles on social media.)
Glad to see Gen Z engaged.
- Christopher C. Alberto @ChrisAlbertoLaw | 8:25 PM · Jun 20, 2020

The brain behind what might’ve been an extremely successful troll tonight in Tulsa is apparently 51-year-old former Buttigieg volunteer and TikTok user Mary Jo Laupp, of Fort Dodge, Iowa
- Evan Hill @evanchill | 8:18 PM · Jun 20, 2020

-----------------------------------

Compilation of people bragging about a million people signing up for the rally
1:33 ( https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1274548486759833600 )
- Acyn Torabi @Acyn | 11:43 PM · Jun 20, 2020

An Hour Before Trump Rally Scheduled to Begin, Campaign Sends Out Desperate Text: 'There's Still Space!'
http://mediaite.com/a/aoyvz via @mediaite
- Sarah Rumpf @rumpfshaker | 7:37 PM · Jun 20, 2020

-----------------------------------

Radical protestors, fueled by a week of apocalyptic media coverage, interfered with @realDonaldTrump
supporters at the rally.

They even blocked access to the metal detectors, preventing people from entering.

Thanks to the 1,000s who made it anyway!

- Brad Parscale @parscale | 7:30 PM · Jun 20, 2020

#169--that's pretty hilarious.

>166 lriley:

6,200 official tickets punched, IIRC.

#171--I would have guessed about half full but those numbers are about a third full. Donald got punk'd by a bunch of high schoolers and junior high schoolers.

For the people of Oklahoma it's a win as well---instead of having 19,200 people on top of each other and spreading the virus around--the lesser numbers means there is not going to be as much of that. It must have been a bit disconcerting for the attendees though looking around and seeing all the empty space.

>172 lriley:, sadly, photos show that everyone was on top of each other. The Trump cultists weren't spreading out in the available space, and few were wearing masks. (I doubt the majority of his followers know how to wear a health mask safely.)

My wish is for them to all return to their homes across the country with minimum contact with anyone else and to actually stay home in quarantine for the next two weeks.

How likely is that, though? The rally was reminiscent of a terrorist event because of the likely consequences. I keep thinking about what's coming in the next month. How many thousands of Americans will die because of Tulsa? How many more will be ill?

I'm angry that Trump won't be held accountable. He might not understand the consequences, but then he shouldn't be POTUS. He's been unfit for the job since the beginning. He refuses to take responsibility for the safety of the nation and its people.

There's no decent excuse I can think of for him not to be going through impeachment again.

#173--FWIW one of the photos of the event had some guy sitting alone in the upper deck wearing a mask so Oklahoman's only have to worry about the other 6,199.

This should have never been a state by state response---this should have been a national response and it should have been in conjunction with people with real expertise in epidemiology taking the lead. That is the POTUS's failure to do his job--his failure to take the virus seriously--his failure to take responsibility for his mistakes. He's pressured Republican governor's all across the country to ignore the health risks to their populations and turned the entire response into a political sideshow that's all about his own reelection.

As far as another impeachment--that date is set. It's the first tuesday in November. The people are going to decide and really I'd rather leave it up to them than go through another of those because really when it was all over justice wasn't served and the democratic party came out looking pretty weak.

My hope for Trump is an orange jumpsuit. Would Biden and the democratic party let him walk back into his former life? I think there's a chance they will. I have more hope for New York's Attorney General to go after him than anybody else.

>174 lriley: A second impeachment might look political at this late date, but at least the orange criminal would be in a class of his own with two asterisks to his claims of vindication. (And thousands of lives.)

Barr, however...

#175--the first was kind of a public relations disaster for the democrats IMO. Yeah those who already hated Trump (like me and you) were smelling blood but really I think before it was all over Trump bought a lot of sympathy from those on the fence and it seemed to give his chances a boost up in public approval until the virus came along. The Senate was never really there and I think for a lot of people it turned into a game of one upmanship waste of time that the dems knew they were going to lose all along. In retrospect I think the damage that did was pretty much nil--it did keep McConnell and company maybe from approving more judges. The other part of that is I don't think it was ever something really that Pelosi and a lot of establishment democrats wanted to do. It was a half-hearted affair.

By the way a poll a day or two ago by Zogby has 55% of Americans thinking Biden is in the initial stages of cognitive decline.........and still he's up by about 12 points.

Sitting quietly in his basement is working. Biden doesn't need money. He doesn't need to say a word. Joe shouldn't even think about debates. Trump is self destructing all on his own. Every day it seems there is a new fuck up from the White House. Donald has no narrative and he's not running on any kind of policy and he's incapable of handling the crises that have landed on his plate. It's like a wing has been shot off of Air Force One with him on it and the plane is hurtling in a cloud of smoke deathspin to the ground. The thing with the Tulsa rally is like a archery class of 14 year olds shot Trump in the ass with their arrows. That's LOL outrageously funny. Junior High school kids too young to vote have figured out a way not to vote for him. He's a complete embarrassment.

>177 lriley:

Joe Biden is old enough to know that you don't rescue the guy who hung the anchor on his own neck before jumping overboard.

No. Trump's adversaries stole a van, drove to a marine supply, broke in, stole an anchor, then went to national press organs and political groups which were equally eager to get rid of Trump and together they clandestinely devised an illegal plot to tie the anchor around Trump's neck and throw him into deep water even as he was engaged in doing the work he'd been legally elected to office to do. It failed. But the plot's failure is no legal exoneration of the plotters.

Biden was a knowing and willing part of that criminal conspiracy--one which Biden's desperate election bid is, above, before and beyond all else, intended to rescue the conspirators from the prospect of having to face formal indictments, trials, convictions and imprisonments.

(The Federalist) Explosive New FBI Notes Confirm Obama Directed Anti-Flynn Operation | By Sean Davis and Mollie Hemingway
| June 24, 2020
_________________

"Newly released notes confirm President Barack Obama’s key role in surveillance and leak operation against Michael Flynn, the incoming Trump administration national security adviser.

"The handwritten notes, which were first disclosed in a federal court filing made by the Department of Justice on Tuesday, show President Obama himself personally directed former FBI Director James Comey and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to investigate Flynn for having routine phone calls with a Russian counterpart. He also suggests they withhold information from President Trump and his key national security figures.

"The handwritten notes from fired former FBI agent Peter Strzok appear to describe a Jan. 5, 2017, Oval Office meeting between Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Comey, Yates, and then-national security adviser Susan Rice. The meeting and its substance were confirmed in a bizarre Inauguration Day email Rice wrote to herself.

"It was at this meeting, which was confirmed by testimony from Comey and Yates, that Obama gave guidance to key officials who would be tasked with protecting his administration’s utilization of secretly funded Clinton campaign research, which alleged Trump was involved in a treasonous plot to collude with Russia, from being discovered or stopped by the incoming administration." ...

And you lot are like a bunch of co-dependent wives of abusive and alcoholic husbands who dutifully go out to buy booze. When husbands are off at work, you convene and gripe about your neighbors whose example leaves your self-serving delusional lives threatened with exposure to disinfecting sunlight.

That you're still trying to pretend that you actually occupy any morally-respectable ground and have some place from which to so arrogantly lecture others on how Biden is going to come in and clean things up--that part is what I find most revolting about all this.

The coming election won't settle anything because in these circumstances it can't. Things are now so poisoned, so rotten, that we're past the point where the opposing groups respect each other sufficiently to have recourse to peaceful legal means of resolving this division. And that is what this hatched plot to ruin Trump has done. All because you lot refused to accept a legal and legitimate electoral outcome in 2016 and by respecting it, preserve something in the electoral processes of policy-dispute resolution.

>179 proximity1:

All because you lot refused to accept a legal and legitimate electoral outcome in 2016 and by respecting it, preserve something in the electoral processes of policy-dispute resolution.

How can we respect it when Trump doesn't respect it? He spits on the office of President daily. He lies constantly, he bullies, he bribes, he pays hush money, he inflames racial tensions on purpose ("kung flu", for f***'s sakes!), he engages in petty playground battles on Twitter for all the world to see and laugh at. He has trashed the office to which he was elected.

>179 proximity1:

You've got the bald-faced nerve of the worst kind of Trumpty-Dumbpty, spouting off the usual last refuge of those without a leg to stand on either in argument or character. Seeking refuge by blatting off about a conspiracy that is worn out by being put out there over and over by the right wing nut jobs and kicked back in your face over and over by the reality based community is just another example of tying the anchor around your own neck.

No evidence. No standing. No such "conspiracy."

And then to presume to call us co-dependents of "alcoholic abusive husbands." Well, talk about crowning yourself king of the hypocritic misogynist bigots! Pull the mote out of your eye, Buck-o. Trump is the biggest abuser of all kinds and time -- racial, sexual, ethnic, of actual intelligent people, of real political leaders both foreign and domestic, of quaified experts, of able advisors, of ethical career public servants, of military veterans, of parents of military veterans who gave their lives for our country, etc. There's an endless list of his abuses with more to come, no doubt. Yet you continue to be his serf. Have you no standards? How low are you willing to go? Ask yourself what example of respect has Trump ever demonstrated. Worry about your own self-respect.

There's not a living thing on this Earth that owes Trump any respect. One earns the respect of others by being respectful of others. He's not entitled. And his white supremacist supporters are, by any measure of civilized behavior since WWII, ineligible. He's made it his life's work to be a total disgrace. And more and more deluded Republicans who were blinded by the bling in '16, have long ago seen the light and left him. Sad for you. But any American who has the remotest vestige of self-respect has deserted Putin's Puppet. You saw for yourself Saturday night, Trumpist blood flowed from the self-inflicted wounds of 6,200 Kool-Aid addicted bigots who haven't yet realized that the day when they'll be ordered back under the rocks of racism from whence they came is nigh.

There was no legal legitimate election that Trump won. And the evidence that backs my statement up exists in itself and in factual documents of the crimes that the actual criminals, some of whom are convicted and imprisoned still, committed in betraying their country to a totally owned debt-ridden con who was ripe for the blackmailing extortionist's picking. Yep. Vladimir Putin's hand-"picked" candidate. Hell, not even Vlad, or Jong-un, or Xiaoping, or murdering Arab princes, or banana republicans below the Equator, or any of the other various despicable politicians respect him. But you still do?

And you think Democrats should 30.just because. Sorry, you don't get to make demands for any display of decency toward Trump and his bleach addled rabble. For the record, Progressives, Liberals, Democrats, and everyone else who is left of Attila the Hun don't blindly hate Trump. Our hatred is very focused.

>181 Limelite:

... "Ask yourself: what example of respect has Trump ever demonstrated?"

I thought of one immediately upon first reading that question just a minute ago.

That you couldn't think of one is itself testimony to how far gone are you in your blind partisanship. And that is why, even after I've set out the example here, you'll deny it, reject it, refuse to see it as a valid example. I might name several examples. None of them would matter to you because your mind is made up and closed to any examples I'd offer.

While, yes, the office of president of the United States is an office of honor for all those who hold and occupy it, it's also a very grave and very heavy responsibility to bear. There are vast numbers of people who would never accept this responsibility—even if it were offered to them. There are other people who, in the course of our nation's history, have been solicited by leading Democrats or Republicans to announce their readiness to seek their party's nomination, and, being asked, they've declined and passed up what might have been theirs to win. They either didn't want or couldn't bear the responsibility of the office.

Donald Trump chose to place himself in contention for a major U.S. political party's nomination as candidate. He certainly didn't have to run for office. But, in running, he showed he respected the American voting public's judgment and authority enough to place himself before them and be judged by them as either worthy or unworthy, as they saw fit to conclude about him, for the office of president.

Winning a party's nomination (over a field of sixteen others in the running) was just the first step in the process. Trump then took on the work of trying to gain sufficient trust and respect of the voting public beyond his party's ranks to eventually be elected to office and, in doing that, again, he put himself up for these voters to examine, judge and accept or reject as each one of them saw fit, accepting the judgment of each as a precondition of his standing for office in the first place.

All of this testifies to Trump's demonstrated respect for the office, for the voting public and for the electoral processes generally—testifies to these for anyone who isn't too blinded by his or her partisanship to see what is plainly obvious to many others.

You, of course, don't give a damn about any of that. But Trump had to give a damn enough to stand for office, to put himself before his fellow citizens, subject himself to their judgments and, in the end, accept them, win or lose.

He did all that once and is now embarking on repeating the tasks. He's not obligated to again take this on. He chooses to do it. There's respect for the voters and for the electoral processes demonstrated in his choice.

I find it telling about you that none of this could even occur to your imagination. Not only that, you go so far as to contend here that, "There was no legal legitimate election that Trump won." In making such an outrageously false contention, you demonstrate that you lack the respect for the American voting public which I've shown Trump to have and to have had before he was first elected—your denial of that election notwithstanding.

___________________

It occurs to me that this now makes the third or fourth time I've been asked, in essence, this question—by you, it seems to me—and have answered it each time in essentially the same way.

Do please clip and save this one.

>182 proximity1: That's a very stirring picture you paint. So you're saying you believe that simply being enough of an egomaniac to run for President is in itself a demonstration of a respect for the office.

I would have thought that if you respect the office of the presidency, you would want to put the best possible person into that office, and wanting to put an obese and demented failed real estate huckster into that position demonstrates a singular lack of respect for that office, but I suppose opinions can differ on that.

>182 proximity1:

You are uninformed and have chosen to believe the Lyin' Don rather than the trail of evidence and facts. Yet again, you seek refuge in deliberate ignorance, preferring to "believe in" a right wing nut whitewash that they've slapped over the truth you can't handle.

Sit down, get comfortable, take off your tinfoil hat and read the latest, less redacted Mueller report. For anyone who doesn't choose to not see, it's an eye-opener. Yes, Barr has no longer been able to bury an increasing number of facts that only expose additional Trumpty-Dumbpty campaign team and personal perfidy. Like it or not, the mud is still the mud.

ASIDE: Looks more and more each day like Barr may face a swift and justly deserved impeachment for his continual acts of obstructionS of justice.

Your specious insistence aside regarding the election, I repeat: one earns respect, they're not owed it beyond the minimum standard of recognizing someone's humanity. And that's a level of courtesy to which no white supremacist or racist is capable of rising, which is, we see, absolutely fine with you. No one who is NOT a cultist Trump Republican disrespects the office. Everyone who is not a cultist disrespects the man who sits in it mainly for this reason: Donald Trump demonstrates his complete contempt for that same office every minute of his waking life.

Despite your persistent unreasonable demands and repeated demonstrations of being uneducable to the ways of reality, I'm still going to tell you a cold hard truth.

Donald Trump has given the lie to the dream that anyone born in America can be president. Republicans, knowing full well what he was in 2016 voted for him to spite the excellent government and the very democracy and freedom that we knew before he occupied the office. Those voters who did so deserve no respect, either. Seeing the Swamp King standing before them, they assumed the position. Those voters got exactly the deplorable, unqualified, con-man grifter style shafting that they deserved. But now, the rest of us aren't going to put up with the Lord of the Sublitholizards' imposition of aspirational bigoted tyranny. So, get ready to respect that.