3 Trump: Parables, Politics, Panic

[religiouslyconfused]

Eastwood is a terrible person! 

[VelociRapture]

4 hours ago, EmmieJ said:

Sorry you went through that unpleasantness.  Some years ago, when the Tea Party stuff was starting up and gaining popularity, I had a couple of FB friends (former good friends from high school) who were all gung ho tea partiers.  I didn't say anything directly, but I did unfriend them.  I just don't want to see that sort of crap on my FB feed.  I also have no time for people who want to deny rights to others based on their skin color, their sexuality, their religion, or any other reason.  The final straw for me with Trump and any who still support him, is his attack on the Khan parents.  Anyone who still supports that POS after those remarks deserves contempt and dis-friending.

Thank you. I keep getting anxiety over it for some reason. I'm highly non-confrontational, so this was really very difficult for me. Talking here and to my husband and family has helped a bit. So will time.

5 minutes ago, samurai_sarah said:

Dear Mr Eastwood,

I think you're a bloody fucking wanker.

Hoping that's straightforward enough for you,

samurai_sarah

.... Marry me? Please? 

[SpoonfulOSugar]

25 minutes ago, samurai_sarah said:

Dear Mr Eastwood,

I think you're a bloody fucking wanker.

Hoping that's straightforward enough for you,

samurai_sarah

I just love it when you are so sweet and innocent!

Seriously.

I don't know what the equivalent to LOL would be, but I just snorted Coke out my nose.

Audibly.

[RoseWilder]

And now it's time for your evening poll round-up - 

Clinton is ahead of Trump by 9 points in an NBC poll and she's even pulled ahead of Trump with men. She's only ahead with the men by 1 point in this one:  

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/clinton-trump-nbc-poll-226696

And another national poll has Clinton ahead by 15 points. She's also made strides with whites and men in this one. She's ahead of Trump by 8 points WITH MEN and by 3 points with white voters: 

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/clinton-trump-poll-226691

Holy crap, when Trump is falling behind Clinton even with the men you know he's up a creek without a paddle. 

Fivethirtyeight now has Clinton's chances of winning at 79.9% and Trump's chances at 20.1%

[religiouslyconfused]

Maybe the GOP is regretting their decision to nominate Trump.

[Natalie22]

47 minutes ago, religiouslyconfused said:

Maybe the GOP is regretting their decision to nominate Trump.

In fairness, the people running the GOP never wanted Trump.  They just have to reap what they've sown for the past several decades.

[AnywhereButHere]

I've heard some very unsubstantiated rumors that Trump would drop out of the race. If that does happen, would that leave it open for someone like Ryan or Pence (Manafort made a not so lovely Freudian slip on Morning Joe calling him President Pence...) to jump in and reap the benefits of a grateful republican electorate? I'm really not liking that either.

My husband thinks that Trump is too arrogant to throw in the towel, and since the headship is always right (snort), I'll go with that.

(Sorry - he called him President Ryan. This election has me so confused!)

[Mecca]

Clint Eastwood should take a seat in that empty chair he used in his 2012 RNC speech. 

[Jucifer]

I remember when the phrase 'politically correct' came into being in the late 80s/early 90s. 

The accusation of political correctness has always seemed to me like a tool to shut down opposing points of view.by the right wingers.  

 

[VelociRapture]

13 hours ago, RoseWilder said:

And now it's time for your evening poll round-up - 

Clinton is ahead of Trump by 9 points in an NBC poll and she's even pulled ahead of Trump with men. She's only ahead with the men by 1 point in this one:  

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/clinton-trump-nbc-poll-226696

And another national poll has Clinton ahead by 15 points. She's also made strides with whites and men in this one. She's ahead of Trump by 8 points WITH MEN and by 3 points with white voters: 

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/clinton-trump-poll-226691

Holy crap, when Trump is falling behind Clinton even with the men you know he's up a creek without a paddle. 

Fivethirtyeight now has Clinton's chances of winning at 79.9% and Trump's chances at 20.1%

You know he's up shit creek without a paddle or life jacket when Dakota Meyers - Medal of Honor awardee and husband to Bristol "The Gays are Ebil" Palin - says he needs to apologize for his response to the Khans. 

[Howl]

I just read a NYT op-ed piece  posted today by the conservative columnist David Brooks.  I seldom agree with Brooks, but he's a fundamentally decent man who has been disgusted and appalled by Donald Trump.  The column focuses on when GOP politicians, who so far have tried to sidestep the Trump issue, will need to take a stand.  On the way to that point, his psychological analysis of Trump might be the best thing I've read so far about the crazy that is The Donald.  He lists the psychiatric anomalies that point to mania and points out why these traits are a disaster for the presidency and cannot be changed.  

Quote

Over the past few days, Trump has destroyed this middle ground. He’s exposed the wet noodle Republicans as suckers, or worse. Trump has shown that he is not a normal candidate. He is a political rampage charging ever more wildly out of control. And no, he cannot be changed.

He cannot be contained because he is psychologically off the chain. With each passing week he displays the classic symptoms of medium-grade mania in more disturbing forms: inflated self-esteem, sleeplessness, impulsivity, aggression and a compulsion to offer advice on subjects he knows nothing about.

His speech patterns are like something straight out of a psychiatric textbook. Manics display something called “flight of ideas.” It’s a formal thought disorder in which ideas tumble forth through a disordered chain of associations. One word sparks another, which sparks another, and they’re off to the races. As one trained psychiatrist said to me, compare Donald Trump’s speaking patterns to a Robin Williams monologue, but with insults instead of jokes.

Trump insults Paul Ryan, undermines NATO and raises the specter of nuclear war. Advisers can’t control Trump’s brain because Trump can’t control it himself.

He also cannot be contained because he lacks the inner equipment that makes decent behavior possible. So many of our daily social interactions depend on a basic capacity for empathy. But Trump displays an absence of this quality.

He looks at the grieving mother of a war hero and is unable to recognize her pain. He hears a crying baby and is unable to recognize the infant’s emotion or the mother’s discomfort. He is told of women being sexually harassed at Fox News and is unable to recognize their trauma.

The same blindness that makes him impervious to global outrage makes it impossible for him to make empathetic connection. Fear is his only bond.

Some people compare Trump to the great authoritarians of history, but that’s wrong. They were generally disciplined men with grandiose plans. Trump is underdeveloped and unregulated.

He is a slave to his own pride, compelled by a childlike impulse to lash out at anything that threatens his fragile identity. He appears to have no ability to experience reverence, which is the foundation for any capacity to admire or serve anything bigger than self, to want to learn about anything beyond self, to want to know and deeply honor the people around you.

Full text here:  Trump’s Enablers Will Finally Have to Take a Stand

So far, we've all been treated to the clown car that is the Trump campaign; this puts it all together and all the signs point to a psychiatric disorder. 

[samira_catlover]

On 8/3/2016 at 9:31 PM, SpoonfulOSugar said:

And she eats puppies and small children.

Hopefully, only well-done (the way DJT destroys nice steaks), and with a good sauce....

[RoseWilder]

This article makes a pretty compelling argument for why both conservatives and Bernie-or-Bust people should work to defeat Trump: 

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/08/why-conservatives-and-progressives-share-an-interest-in-a-huge-trump-loss/494609/

[Imagine20]

The fact that there's even a sliver of a chance that Trump could be President with his finger on the button scares me to death. The hatred that he's unleashed in this country won't go away when he's defeated. He's made it okay to be openly racist and misogynistic and that won't magically end the morning after the election. 

In some ways, he's an overgrown child. His way to reverse course lately is "I was joking." What 70 year old talks like that? 

[RoseWilder]

40 minutes ago, Imagine20 said:

The fact that there's even a sliver of a chance that Trump could be President with his finger on the button scares me to death.

I actually think it's good that people are so scared, and that they stay scared despite what the polls are showing, because I don't want anyone to get complacent about this election and not show up to vote becasue they think Hillary already has it in the bag. 

I'm not letting the positive polling stop me from donating, volunteering and talking to people I know who are on the fence about who to vote for. I think we have to keep working just as hard as ever, no matter what, from now until election day. 

[VelociRapture]

A group had filed an FOIA request to clarify Melania's immigration story:

http://www.people.com/article/melania-trump-immigration-status-questioned-public-records

I feel like it would be so entertaining to witness what must be the absolute chaos in the campaign's headquarters right now. I mean, has a candidate ever had such a bad week or two during a campaign ever?

[RoseWilder]

30 minutes ago, VelociRapture said:

A group had filed an FOIA request to clarify Melania's immigration story:

http://www.people.com/article/melania-trump-immigration-status-questioned-public-records

I feel like it would be so entertaining to witness what must be the absolute chaos in the campaign's headquarters right now. I mean, has a candidate ever had such a bad week or two during a campaign ever?

Trump was bragging a few weeks ago that his campaign was so beautiful and flawless that people would be writing books about it. I agree that people will be writing books about it, just not for the reason why he thinks. When he loses (I can't even bear to write "if he loses") I would absolutely read a book about it. Of course, I dont want any of the campaign people who are enabling him to make a ton of money off it, so I'll wait till it shows up in the discount bin at the dollar store (on a side note, there's an online discount bookstore that is selling Ben Carson's autobiography for 59 cents. After Carson's crappy comments that the Kahns should apologize to Donald Trump, it warmed my heart to see his book being sold for only 59 cents.)

I would love to see/read what it's really like at campaign headquarters. Paul Manafort has been insisting all over TV that everything is fine and things are going well, but I'm sure things are in total chaos right now. I'm picturing it being like a room full of nap-deprived toddlers with no adult supervision. 

[VelociRapture]

1 hour ago, RoseWilder said:

Trump was bragging a few weeks ago that his campaign was so beautiful and flawless that people would be writing books about it. I agree that people will be writing books about it, just not for the reason why he thinks. When he loses (I can't even bear to write "if he loses") I would absolutely read a book about it. Of course, I dont want any of the campaign people who are enabling him to make a ton of money off it, so I'll wait till it shows up in the discount bin at the dollar store (on a side note, there's an online discount bookstore that is selling Ben Carson's autobiography for 59 cents. After Carson's crappy comments that the Kahns should apologize to Donald Trump, it warmed my heart to see his book being sold for only 59 cents.)

I would love to see/read what it's really like at campaign headquarters. Paul Manafort has been insisting all over TV that everything is fine and things are going well, but I'm sure things are in total chaos right now. I'm picturing it being like a room full of nap-deprived toddlers with no adult supervision. 

But it is beautiful and flawless! Beautifully chaotic and flawlessly dysfunctional! 

[RoseWilder]

2 hours ago, VelociRapture said:

I mean, has a candidate ever had such a bad week or two during a campaign ever?

I read an article yesterday that discussed this very thing. The general consensus of those interviewed was that this week was the worst in modern history: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-campaign_us_57a4dd32e4b056bad2157ba0

My favorite part of the artilce was the part about the barrel. 

[Howl]

When high profile Repubs are saying they will vote for Trump, you know with certainty the whole Trump train has derailed.  Train. Wreck.

What I can't figure out is why Trump is ONLY 15 POINTS down.  See Train. Wreck. in the above paragraph.  This means that many, many people still think that he's A OK, peachy keen, Mighty Fine and will lead us to Greatness, and not over a cliff. 

[Cartmann99]

Trump had a rally tonight in New Hampshire:

Quote

 

"Unstable Hillary, she lacks the judgment, temperament, and moral character, to lead this country," Trump said at his rally. "She is a totally unhinged person.”

"Her greatest achievement is getting out of trouble, it's true," Trump said, that prompted "lock her up" chants.

"She is a horrible, horrible human being," Trump said. "She’s incompetent and I don’t think that you can even think of allowing this woman to become the President of United States."

 

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/trump-clinton-is-a-totally-unhinged-person-226761#ixzz4GbtWC6WK
 

Hello pot, meet kettle. 

[religiouslyconfused]

Zampolli would probably be a connection in the Melania Trump debacle as he used to run a modeling agency that Melania was a part of. He was involved in the Eastern European-US model trade, and is rumored to have ties with Trump himself. 

[Jucifer]

Interesting insights about Trump's personality.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-all

[Howl]

Many months ago during the presidential primaries, I was pondering why any evangelical would support Trump over Cruz, who should have been Mr. Über  Evangelical -- really, Ted was waving red evangelical meat in front of the hungry pack.   An article pointed out that evangelicals in general wanted power to move their agenda forward and they did not perceive Cruz as powerful.   But, they DO see The Donald as powerful and a potential avenue to evangelical dominance.  So, lots of cognitive dissonance, but hey, people overcome that all the time, right? 

Anyway, interesting article on AlterNet titled 

From 'Tiny Hands' to Melania's Nude Pics: What Do Trump’s Evangelical Supporters Make of the Sexual Quirks of His Campaign?

The issue of evangelical desire for authoritarian power is discussed.  

I'm getting real interested in the Melania Trump visa issue:  1995 vs 1996 and if she was here working illegally as a model in 1995, it will be found out.  However, as this was being flogged in the news, there was a discussion about models who worked for free to get their names and images  "out there" as the first step in a modeling career, and speculating that this is what Melania did in 1995.  Interesting times. 

Julian Assange is claiming that WikiLeaks is working on hacking Trump's tax returns. 

The Donald is sooooooo Putin's Bitch.  So I googled "Is Donald Trump Putin's Bitch?" and this is what I got:

Quote

Trump is Putin's Bitch! - craigslist

asheville.craigslist.org › community › politics

Jul 26, 2016 - Looks as if the Russians have a Grand plan to destroy the West... Help get Donald J.Trump elected! Putin realizes that Bromancing such a ..

When I clicked on this link, darn it, it had been flagged for removal.  Anyway, to be continued, and continued, and continued.....

[Peas n carrots]

When high profile Repubs are saying they will vote for Trump, you know with certainty the whole Trump train has derailed.  Train. Wreck.

What I can't figure out is why Trump is ONLY 15 POINTS down.  See Train. Wreck. in the above paragraph.  This means that many, many people still think that he's A OK, peachy keen, Mighty Fine and will lead us to Greatness, and not over a cliff. 

Agreed. Not only does Hilary need to win, she needs to absolutely crush Trump to send a message to his supporters. They need to know the majority of Americans do not support their racism and misogyny.