Michael Wolff’s sensational exposé of the supposed chaos of the Trump White House is no doubt largely a mix of fantasy, exaggeration, and some accidental truth. The postmodernist author even admits that his own methodologies defy verification, and so leave it up to the reader to distinguish his facts from fiction.
Wolff’s theme is that Trump is hopelessly petty, childlike, and uninformed. The few adults in the room around him—primarily, we are asked to believe, Wolff’s chief source, Steve Bannon—must cajole, pamper, and flatter him to get anything done, when they are not backstabbing one another.
Fair enough—Trump certainly may be naïve and uninitiated. No one doubts that he is thin-skinned and far too often goes down Twitter cul de sacs. But Trump’s naiveté is not quite what Wolff thinks.
Rather, no sane president should ever have let a writer with Wolff’s dubious and often discredited background into the White House. That such a rogue was even allowed through the door raises the question of administration sobriety.
Wolff at the Door
Not since the late Michael Hastings of Rolling Stone charmed his way into General Stanley McCrystal’s inner circle—only to trash his benefactors—has an executive team apparently proved so naïve with reporters. Certainly, in letting Wolff talk “off the record” to high officials, the Trump Administration showed poor judgment. That Wolff claims he easily got such haphazard access, if half true, could be a testament to Trump’s ego or the ego of those around him, such as Bannon. Did they really believe that they could charm and flip almost anyone—even among a media whose stories and reports are 90 percent negative to Trump?
Of course, any president lax enough to let a Wolff through the door inevitably would be embarrassed by the results, given that all administrations can be petty, even gross.
Lyndon Johnson had a repulsive habit of referring openly to his sexual organ as “Jumbo”—and occasionally displaying it to startled staffers—a felony in our present culture. Worse still, he often gave dictation while defecating on the toilet.
John Kennedy crudely seduced dozens of his own female staffers. One, Mimi Alford, who came to work a 19-year-old virgin, wrote an entire memoir of her mechanical trysts inside the White House with JFK, including his inaugural seduction, which, by any contemporary definition, would now qualify as sexual assault. She lamented that he once had pawned her off to fellate one of his aides. A perverted rapist as our beloved commander-in-chief? No need to imagine a Wolff version of the Clinton White House.
I could an imagine a Wolff in FDR’s White House circa early 1945 having a field day: jazzing up the clandestine nocturnal trysts between the wheelchair-bound president and his mistress Lucy Mercer. His daughter Anna would be exposed as the go-between, the upstart young proto-Ivanka who had moved into the White House and became virtually a ceremonial First Lady.
All the while the Roosevelt team would struggle to lie to the press about the president’s sky-high blood pressure, chain-smoking, martini drinking, and growing feebleness. In place of Steve Bannon’s shoot-from-the-hip notions of geopolitics, a Harry Hopkins or freelancing and estranged Eleanor Roosevelt could offer mini-interviews on the administration’s successful politicking with good old Uncle Joe at Yalta. The difference is that FDR had the press in his pocket and even was too crafty to trust any of his “friends” with unfettered access.
Petty and Petulant vs. Sober and Judicious?
For all his gossip and intrigue, Wolff offers little insight into why such a supposedly disruptive and dysfunctional campaign team won the presidency. The victory, according to Wolff, was to the surprise of Trump and his advisors themselves! The logic of Wolff’s argument is that a pathetic Trump team that did not really wish to beat Clinton, Inc. If true, that paradox would say what exactly about Hillary’s fate? That wasting a mere year to win something you do not want is preferable to spending 17 years scheming in vain for your life’s ambition?
Wolff’s ogre purportedly sloppily eats Big Macs in bed, golfs more than Obama did, has no hair at all on the top of his head, and at 71 is supposedly functionally illiterate. OK, perhaps someone the last half-century read out loud to Trump the thousands of contracts he signed. But what we wish to know from Wolff is how did his trollish Trump figure out that half the country—the half with the more important Electoral College voice—was concerned about signature issues that either were unknown to or scorned by his far more experienced and better-funded rivals?
Why did not a well-read Marco Rubio or later Yale Law graduate Hillary Clinton focus on unfair trade and declining manufacturing, illegal immigration, unnecessary and optional overseas interventions, and the excesses of the deep administrative “swamp” state?
Who discovered these issues or knew how to develop them? Was it really the feisty Corey Lewandowski? The genius Paul Manafort? How, then, could Wolff’s idiot grasp that these concerns were the keys to flipping purple swing-states that had previously been written off as reliably Democratically patronized clinger/irredeemable/deplorable territory by far better informed and more tech-savvy campaign operatives?
Once Trump was in power, how does Wolff explain the near phenomenal economic turnaround in the latter part of 2017? Does he not see that the stupider you make Trump in his successful first year, by inference the even stupider you make the supposedly smarter actors in their many failed years?
Although psychological in part, the upswing is not accidental. So far economic robustness seems predicated on massive deregulation, the expectation and then the reality of comprehensive tax reform and reduction, wooing home capital and industry, expanded energy production, loud business boosterism, recalibrating foreign investment and trade, and declining illegal immigration. Did Trump do that between scarfing down cups of Häagen-Dazs? Did his team act on their own while Trump was too busy scraping the crumbs out of the bottoms of his barrels of KFC?
Why did not the supposedly far more sober and judicious Obama comprehend how to achieve 3 percent GDP growth. Could not Larry Summers or Timothy Geithner have ushered in record consumer and business confidence? Why did not black employment reach 2018 levels in 2013?
Is not a man like Obama who eats arugula instead of daily swigging a dozen diet sodas far more studious and intellectually curious on all matters economic? Are we dunces really to believe merely building a high-rise in Manhattan takes more savvy than editing in near absentia the Harvard Law Review?
Abroad, why did not the supposedly worldly Hillary Clinton as secretary of state tweet her support for the Iranian revolutionaries in the streets in 2009—in the manner that a supposedly buffoonish and semi-literate and combed-over Donald Trump instinctively did in 2018? Presidencies in purported shambles, after all, are supposed to leave the country in greater shambles.
Buffoon or Revolutionary?
Absent, then, in Wolff’s supposed Confederacy of Trump White House Dunces is any explanation how such supposed clueless amateurs reset economic and foreign policy in such a way as to achieve startling improvements in less than a year at home and abroad.
And that is the quandary is it not? The dunce Trump in his first year was supposed to prove an irrelevant dumbo, not a skilled conservative revolutionary who threatens to nullify 2009-2017?
The lurid revelations of Trump White House chaos make no sense, given the Trump electoral success and first-year record of governance—unless the stories are either fake news or perhaps a quarter true.
If the latter, then the answer might be while the Trump West Wing could at times resemble the pages of Suetonius’s Twelve Caesars, the Trump team—his cabinet officers and economic and national security advisors—were not only not much involved in such Bannon intrigue, they were most likely completely free from it.
Or cabinet heads won unsurpassed latitude from a supposedly novice and naïve West Wing—and benefitted through its directives to act boldly and without worry about past centrist protocol or having their initiatives being overridden by a control-freak president.
But that possibility, in turn, raises a further question: how can a vain man who is in constant need of reassurance from everyone from Rupert Murdoch to Joe Scarborough know enough to appoint the likes of a James Mattis, H.R. McMaster, or Nikki Haley? Would it not be more likely that Michael Wolff’s Howard Hughes-like Trump would have appointed his sister to the Supreme Court, or avoided the likes of the bulldoggish ramrod John Kelly as his chief of staff?
Furthermore, given that Wolff argues that the Trump inner circle seems to be little different from the Trump of “The Apprentice” reality TV fame, why, then, would half the country vote for someone who has orange skin and combed over yellow hair, and is supposedly paranoid to the degree of eating junk food out of fear of being poisoned?
What does that ribaldry say about the voters lack of confidence in the more normal Harvard or Yale Law alternative nursery of properly schooled presidents? Is Trump’s crudity tolerable given the 2016 alternative of breaking federal law by setting up a home-cooked email server, and lying about it, but doing so with the fawning admiration of bicoastal elite culture?
If, in reductionist terms, half of the country accepted the crude antithesis of refined New York-Washington establishment expertise, why exactly was that?
Could it be that for all the sophistication, education, and training of a Hillary Clinton or Susan Rice, they could be even cruder in their own way—whether lying about deaths in Benghazi or scapegoating and jailing a video maker on a trumped up charge of parole violations? Was it that voters did not trust the establishment’s collective judgment on the Iran or Bowe Bergdahl deals, or Hillary Clinton’s “We came, we saw, he died” sick giggle of an idea of a brutally murdered Gadhafi and bombing Libya to smithereens—and then leaving?
In short, an isolated Trump campaign and initial administration were, by the definition of its very character and intent, going to be very weird and strange—and orphaned from the halls of supposed expertise and sober establishmentarian protocol. Was that not the point of Trump’s blind Samson with his arms around the pillars of the Temple of Dagon campaign?
What few people—Wolff least of all—understood is that amid the supposed chaotic palace intrigue, Trump on his own chose to receive some good advice from Mike Pence, congressional Republican leaders in the House and Senate, conservative activist organizations, the legal team in the White House, and others. Thus he made good political and legal appointments and liberated them with wide parameters and trajectories.
Wolff’s disclosures, if a few are even marginally true, are messy and the stuff of caricature—but not as funny and depressing as the fact that someone of Trump’s background and temperament saw more clearly than his supposed betters where the country should be headed and who might lead it in such a direction.
If that be chaos, then Trump made the most of it—and at least for now the result is preferable to the mannered mediocrity of the past. Such an admission says lots more about those who think they should be in power than it does those who voted for their antitheses.
Content created by the Center for American Greatness, Inc. is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a significant audience. For licensing opportunities for our original content, please contact licensing@centerforamericangreatness.com.
Angelo Codevilla brilliantly explained what Hanson has expanded upon: we have a Ruling Class and a Country Class, and no member of the latter will ever be accepted by any member of the former, regardless of wealth, temperament or IQ. And make no mistake: millions of “deplorable” Americans don’t give a hoot what the self-professed, self-aggrandizing “best and brightest” think.
Well we’ll see in 2018. Trump will need to be Tua to beat the MSM, the republican Establishment and the hate-filled Left. But, we’ll see.
He already did so, remember?
Hahahhaa… I do remember last time! But, soon it will be this time. So, like I said, we will see. Hopefully, he can do it all over again.
Roseanne says she would be a better president than opa. I agree.
The left no longer has a mind to lose.
Unfortunately, it really doesn’t matter who the MSM, and the Left (or, for that matter, the republican Establishment) nominates in 2020. The election will be close unless the economy, North Korea, Iran, DACA and infrastructure are settled or pass. Most of all, the economy must undeniably be booming in 2018 – before November gets here. Facts. Let’s hope.
I concurr, but I hope and pray we are wrong. I thought the brainwashing of what was once a great country was complete. But I was wrong Nov 2016. I was never an optimist anyway.
Actually, while there most certainly very effective propagandising (for a totally illogical on the face of it, but nonetheless proven effective propaganda technique used by, among others, the former Soviet KGB, know as “Whataboutism” – which really is a thing despite the rather silly name, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism). But I think it’s very important for all to be away that there’s another proven mechanism by which an otherwise intelligent person, can get themselves, all by themselves, to the point where they have a strongly help opinion that persists in the face of credible facts to the contrary, than is known as Confirmation Bias. The effects of the limiting case of Confirmation Bias are pretty much like what I assume you mean by “brainwashing,” except no second party is needed thus there’s no “other” to lay them blame on, and there’s no way I know of to crack the limiting case of Confirmation Bias other brainwashing! There may be one or more other way than brainwashing, I just don’t know about it. Which does not get me down because there’s an infinite universe of stuff I don’t know anything about. But check this out; it’s an inherent defet in human cognition and is also the realization of the insidious effects of Confirmation Bias that they do “double blind” drug tests: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias. In the same vein, for other inherent defects in human cognition, see Noble Prize Winning psychology(for Economy, not psych Dr Daniel
You’re wrong about Iran because you left out Saudi Arabia. You need to start from the fact that these two regional, grade-b, (and both quite oil rich) super-powers are locked in a battle where both sides will accept only total surrender of the other side. As with the USA and the USSR, most of this war is being fought in the form of proxy wars. Our total disruptions of Iraq – a buffer state between the two of them – was the stupidest possible move we could have made. It is said that those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. To which I add, those who do study history are doomed to make brand new mistakes. By they way, here is a sample of Arabic humor. Reportedly the Phophet liked a good joke but, as in all things, he advised moderation. So Arabic humor tends to be low key. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it’s anti-American but I still think is pretty funny! Gamal Abdel Nasser (for those who were not around in the 1950’s he was the second president of Egypt after they overthrew the puppet ruler the British had installed) once said, “You Americans don’t make simple mistakes. You make very complicated mistakes. Which causes the rest of us to wonder if we are mission something.”
Me personally, I’d narrow “booming economy” a bit to “significant increases in wages of the middle and working classes.” I can wait a bit for the residential housing market to pick up as long as the middle and working classes have cash coming in because they very likely will have to catch up with pressing, quotidian expenses at first that they had been putting off while the economy was bad before they can even think of long-term, big-ticket investments such as a new home.
Trump always has his card to play. I think I see him pulling it out now.
trumpy would do us all a favor if he just ‘retired’.
His hate, childishness, incompetence, lying, and divisiveness is destroying America. Hard telling if America can survive the sleaze of obama followed by the sleaze of trumpy.
HB
…speaking of himself here… hahahahha
“divisiveness destroying America”…..
Where?
Where is the destruction?
Where is the blood in the streets?
Where is the untreated injured?
Where is the socialist generated poverty available world wide?
Where?
Proof?
Evidence?
Idiot.
You project more than an IMAX theater…
Kudos! An original and very clerver insult that contains neither scatological nor incestuous elements. Serioulsy, way to go! The last time that I can remember an original insult of your quality level was when Gore Vidal called William F Buckley (on live nationwide TV, no less!) a “crypto-Nazi.” I have absolutely no idea what that means, but whatever it means, it can’t possibly be good! And before that? Hmmm… When the insufferably witty Oscar Wilde said of someone something like, “He knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.” Ooff! If someone laid that on me, I wouldn’t be able to show my face in public ever again. You know you don’t think of something cutting to say until way after the discussion is over? Well I can’t even to that. My idea of a riposte is: [dead air] Oh yeah? That’s it. That’s all I ever had. Now that I think about it, when someone verbally bullying your or badgering you, how about just repling over and over what I saw on a lawyer TV show: Asked and answered. Asked and answered. Asked and answered. Asked and answered. I’ll bet if you did that right, the other guys head would explode like in “Scanners”! (Which low-budget special effect was achieved by the SFX guy, from out of the frame, shooting a dummy, blood bag head with a 12-gage shotgun! Oh, oh, oh! I just remember another one. This guy was trying to get me to do something stupid and I said, “No way dude. I have better things to waste my time on than that.”
Thanks! Unfortunately almost all the o.p.s are drive-by “bungee posters”, they jump into a thread and back out, never seeing the responses.
How’s this?
Don’t innovate; conglomerate
First of all, “knowledge workers” are living in a dreamworld where they think that their jobs are immune from the trend to automate (or semi-automate) those jobs that can be automated (or semi-automated) and those jobs that can’t, are being ruthlessly de-skilled. Semi-automated jobs would include all forms of computer aided design.
Many of those who voted for Trump because their jobs disappeared or which jobs now pay less understand what that feels like. The just don’t know who to blame (time and motion experts, industrial engineers, quality assurance personnel, etc). So too do “Knowledge workers” such as real estate agents, travel agents, stock brokers, accountants, and etc, who have seen the number of their jobs decrease as well as those that remain semi-automated and therefore paying less. One of the reasons Wal-Mart can sell goods so inexpensively is that the company invested heavily computerized modern materials handling and accounting. And American Exceptionalism does not extend to omputerized modern materials handling and accounting. Such techniques work anywhere in the world equally well.
Take the current foolish campaigns to teach our children how to program computers. The hardware tools of the trade necessary to become a programmer are: a decent PC, an Internet connection, and a place to plug it in. All the tools for developing programs are free. So the US Bureau of Labor Statistics quite rightly predicts that applications programming is a shrinking field in the US that will get lower and lower paid because the cost of entry is so low that virtually anyone in the world who has the requisite smarts can get into the programming business. And American Exceptionalism does not extend to the requisite smarts for programming. Such smarts are evenly divided across the human race.
In the automotive field, all the major manufacturers are moving in the direction of having one design group that develops “platforms” (basic cars that can be adapted to various markets with different engines, trim, accessories, and so on) and the tooling and factories to produce them. Those working with such groups might be as highly paid as before, it’s just that the automotive makers need far fewer of them. And as the higher quality of the Japanese cars that gained a marketing beachfront in the US in the aftermath of the 1973 OPEC “oil crisis” proved, American Exceptionalism did not, and still does not extend to the design and assembly of automobiles. Currently the Buick division of what is left of General Motors is the only US auto maker that consistently ranks with German and Japanese cars in Consumer Reports quality and reliability ratings.
How many microprocessor design groups are needed? You mean besides the ones at Intel, AMD, and ARM? And do they lay out the masks manually like the ones for the 8080 and the Z80 were done? No. Today they get a lot of help from software.
Basic industrial products such as aluminum or steel? The primary raw material needed to produce aluminum is not bauxite ore, but kilowatt-hours and lots of them. Which is why the socialist Hydro Quebec, which Province of Quebec-owned massive hydropower system has lots of extra kilowatt-hours to sell, is why aluminum refining it done in Quebec and won’t be done in the US any time soon. Steel? Making common steels is a low-margin business. But specialty steels? Smith & Wesson, in Springfield, MA, does about 30% of its business in specialty steels and heat treating.
So between automating, semi-automating, de-skilling and rent seeking – all of which are accelerating at exponential rates – it’s a very good question if there will be enough people left who are making good enough money to afford all the stuff that is being produced.
This is not a joke.
That Trump and his advisors think they can do something about these trends on a nationalistic basis is a joke. Especially if Trump listens to the generals and funds a military establishment that can fight two or more major campaigns anywhere in the world at once. The Dutch, Swiss, Swedish, French, Korean, and Japanese (among others) multinationals seem to be able to do business around the world without such an expenditure.
Yeah, but then there are all those threatening threats that are threatening us so threateningly. So what’s a military-industrial complex to do?
From the Oxford Dictionary of the English Language
de-skill, verb
1. reduce the level of skill required to carry out (a job):
“advances in technology had deskilled numerous working-class jobs”
2. make the skills of (a worker) obsolete.
First Known Use of de–skill: 1941
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking
Rent-seeking
In economics and in public-choice theory, rent-seeking involves seeking to increase a corporation’s or an individual’s share of existing wealth without creating new wealth. Rent-seeking results in reduced economic efficiency through poor allocation of resources, reduced actual wealth creation, lost government revenue, increased income inequality, and (potentially) national decline.
Attempts at capture of regulatory agencies to gain a coercive monopoly can result in advantages for the rent seeker in the market while imposing disadvantages on (incorrupt) competitors. The idea was originated by Gordon Tullock and the term was coined by Anne Krueger.
Description
The idea of rent-seeking was developed by Gordon Tullock in 1967. The expression rent-seeking was coined in 1974 by Anne Krueger. The word “rent” does not refer here to payment on a lease but stems instead from Adam Smith’s division of incomes into profit, wage, and rent.
Don’t innovate, conglomerate
Adobe: to date Adobe has bought 45 companies
Apple: to date Apple has bought 82 companies and an interest in 3 other companies
Microsoft: to date has bought 197 companies and an interest in 67 other companies
When a conglomerate buys another company, no wealth is created, it’s a zero-sum transaction. And typically the number of jobs decreases because, after a review, they fire half of every job that they have two of after the merger.
From the Oxford Dictionary of the English Language
deskill, verb
1. reduce the level of skill required to carry out (a job):
“advances in technology had deskilled numerous working-class jobs”
2. make the skills of (a worker) obsolete.
First Known Use of de–skill: 1941
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking
Rent-seeking
In economics and in public-choice theory, rent-seeking involves seeking to increase a corporation’s or an individual’s share of existing wealth without creating new wealth. Rent-seeking results in reduced economic efficiency through poor allocation of resources, reduced actual wealth creation, lost government revenue, increased income inequality,[1] and (potentially) national decline.
Attempts at capture of regulatory agencies to gain a coercive monopoly can result in advantages for the rent seeker in the market while imposing disadvantages on (incorrupt) competitors. The idea was originated by Gordon Tullock and the term was coined by Anne Krueger.
Description
The idea of rent-seeking was developed by Gordon Tullock in 1967. The expression rent-seeking was coined in 1974 by Anne Krueger. The word “rent” does not refer here to payment on a lease but stems instead from Adam Smith’s division of incomes into profit, wage, and rent.
Don’t innovate, conglomerate
Adobe: to date Adobe has bought 45 companies
Apple: to date Apple has bought 82 companies and an interest in 3 other companies
Microsoft: to date has bought 197 companies and an interest in 67 other companies
http://www.designnews.com/automation-motion-control/mechatronics-blended-engineering-robotic-future/199011163046152?cid=nl.x.dn14.edt.aud.dn.20161128.tst004c
You never read the article before you post your drivel, do you?
This comment section is for mature audiences only.
You have disqualified yourself AGAIN.
So, you are a trumpy lover… eh?
Are YOUR promises any good? Or… do you just lie all the time?
eh?
HB
Your mind has been molested by the Democrats so many times, you can only get satisfied by beating your head with a 2×4.
Use a little KY on it and shove it! I’m sure you’ll like that better.
You know the old “moron” joke? Why did the moron hit himself on the head with a hammer? Because it felt so good when he stopped. Actually that works. Hitting yourself on the head will not make you more alert. But if you quit before you knock yourself unconscious or give yourself a depressed skull fracture, it will release endorphins aka natural heroin. And I might add that one man’s terrorist/insurgent is another man’s freedom fighter, one man’s KY-Jelly-aided molestation is another man’s true romance. At this point, it might be advantageous to formally define “homophobia.” Homophobia is the persistent pervasive fear that when you try it, you’ll like it.
Factual life experiences are always SO INTERESTING!
Is that all you got?
If you have to, sit down, put your head between you knees, and breath in and out of a paper bag until you can take to heart that the Republic will survive. It survived LBJ, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, Millard Fillmore (actually I don’t know anything about him but I was on a roll!). We are a nation of immigrants (except for Native Americans, descendants of slaves and transported “criminals” as well as all those of Mexican ancestry who who living in the half of Mexico we got with the Treaty of Guadalupe, aka the Mexican Concession, upon the cessation of hostilities of the Mexican-American War – which is to say all of parts of Texas aka Baja Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma aka Alta Texas, Nevada, and Utah. Oh, and California too.
But what will Trump have to do about those of the Left who are not filled with hate, please?
Nice try. The idea that Trump is not ruling class is absurd, just a lame attempt to give regular people an atavistic reason to keep following him blindly.
Well, there was a guy who was pretty good at physics awhile back that said to repeat the same action while expecting a different result was the definition of insanity.
Behold n korea and the brain trust from havud yale princeton etc.
The list is a long one. It started well before a senator from ny, DP Moynihan, stated the obvious.
Yours Blindly,
Mr. Magoo
PS. Michael Pillsbury wrote a book not too long ago that basically was a 200 + page apology.
https://www.amazon.com/Hundred-Year-Marathon-Strategy-Replace-Superpower/dp/1250081343
Pretty damning reading .. especially when read by an ex machinist.
Read Codevilla’s piece. You’ll (hopefully) wake up less ignorant tomorrow.
This parallels the British class system, where we the working class voted to leave the EU and our ‘betters’ keep telling us we are no better than a bunch of rednecks! Go Trump, 7 more years
Only to get killed fighting for and saving the Queen and running NATO for them. Who knew that a democracy would also have a monarchy that broods children as walking museums.
That is exactly what the monarchy feared and has come to pass.
Could you have possibly intended “breeds” rather than “broods”? Breed, verb: to cause (an animal) to produce offspring, typically in a controlled and organized way. Brood, verb: to think deeply about something that makes one unhappy.
Hillary said Democrats ae dumb so, easily manipulated and Republicans are a “basket of deplorables” . If she knew what I call her, her face would turn red but I am too classy to say.
Just in case there is one person who does not know this foolishness is a scam, it’s a scam If you don’t believe me, just as any member of the Nigerian Royal Family!
Not a concept the elite like, American politics break much better for the ruling class if they can divide us on race.
The only self-professing their brilliance is the sociopath you people put in the Oval Office.
Enjoy the next 7 years, progturd.
Oh I’ll enjoy seeing your butt-clown of a leader thrown out of office well before 2020.
I hate to think that anyone would believe the Clintons have class.
My all-time favourite quote, “Enough quotes! Tell me what YOU think!” – Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Our political system became a two headed Leviathan. One head was blue, one was red. They circled the water hole and drank. The red one pretended to be red, white and blue to it’s constituency…but accepted water from the more powerful blue head. Eventually, the citizens began to wake up and realize there was limited water for them, that the water was being taken by Leviathan. The citizens need to realize that Leviathan will not just walk away from that water hole. He must be pushed. He will say anything, maintain any lie, deny any challenge, to drink just one more day. The quicker the citizens give themselves the steel to push Leviathan away from that water hole, the quicker the crisis will pass.
What had Barack Obama actually accomplished in life to qualify him as POTUS? NOTHING!
What had Hillary Clinton actually accomplished in life to qualify her as POTUS? NOTHING!
What had Donald Trump actually accomplished in life to qualify him as POTUS? Much, much more in the private sector giving him the ability to manage large projects, select people to accomplish his agenda and for the most part get things done on time and under budget! And the article failed to mention graduating from Wharton! As suppose Mr. Trump can read and write after all!
THE Elephant in the room is STILL there.
These tempests contrived by the anti – Trump Royalists conceivably ploys to avoid any interest in that elephant.
By any “crazy” memb/ s of the “stupid citizens, that basket of deplorables”. Of if preferred of that “VAST Right Wing Conspiracy”?
Obama as TWICE President, foremost “representative AND Officer OF The Law” OF “the Republic of the United States of North America”. REPUTEDLY based on The Rule Of law, NOT lawyers.
His election advanced by Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton and the “Democratic” PARTY of the 2008 DNC, Interestingly ALL three of the cast reputed lawyers.
The reason for the selection reported by the unquestioning, uncritical and incurious Media, “Because it was TIME for an Afro – American”. THIS Afro – American. Of UNCERTAIN and to date Unknown provenance.
That selection therefore unequivocally based on the candidate’s race.
Which in this nation based on the Rule of Law is SPECIFICALLY disallowed.
By the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII, that disallows selection for ANY job in this nation in this 21st century on discrimination for race ANY race.
But as the “Honorable” Mrs. Clinton, lawyer extraordinaire enabler of Obama’s candidacy and election is reported to have judged, “WHAT difference does it make NOW anyway”?
Might Obama’s election to “The Office of President” be the First Move in the promised “Intent” to FUNDAMENTALLY transform the nation, this REPUBLIC, into “something completely different”?
Engrish hawd.
Well, in fairness, Hillary’s disastrous health care grab resulted in a Republican House for the first time in half a century. She did destroy Libya, widen the war in Syria, arm the “moderates” that became ISIS and is response for unleashing a humanitarian crisis that has sent thousands to their deaths in the sea and now threatens to destabilize Europe which has no homes, wives or jobs for the millions of poor, angry and uneducated “migrants.”
No, what gave the Republicans control of the House was that Clinton and the Democrats passed a tax increase in May of 1993, right before the start of the mid terms. The HillaryCare bill was not presented to Congress until after the mid terms and after the Republicans won control of the House.
that is flat out wrong. by the time the 1994 midterm elections took place the Clinton Health Care plan had already been destroyed and Senate Majority Leader Mitchell had declared it dead. a lawsuit filed in February 1993 by doctors and Physicians Group was moving through the courts. Hillary had been slapped down by the Congress and the people leading to the big GOP gains in November of 1994.
You’re right. I was off a year, but you’re wrong about the cause of the Republican wave. It was the tax hike that won for the Republicans.
Absurd.
Yet true.
Agree, electing a man(?) wholly unqualified to be dogcatcher in Podunk Idaho- in the form of Preezy StompyFoot McButtPirate Obama WAS absurd.
What do you mean? Barack Obama, as a Democrat, won a state legislative office in Illinois, by dubious means. Hillary Clinton, as a Democrat, won a Senate seat in New York, by dubious means. Plus, you know, like they both got all kinds of participation awards from impressive sounding name organizations, commissions and such.
Hey Don you forgot –
Trump’s 4 bankruptcies in the casino business,
Trump Shuttle bankruptcy,
Trump Tower Toronto bankruptcy,
Trump bribing the NYC DA to keep his kids from being charged with fraud over Trump SOHO,
Trump being kicked out of Trump SOHO,
Trump’s failure with Trump BAJA,
Trump being kicked out of Trump Panama Club for stealing from the condo owners,
and finally Trump University where $30K got you a picture with a Trump cardboard cutout.
But I will give Trump credit for beating out the “Real Housewives” and “Jersey Shore” in the reality TV market, although he lost to the Kardashians.
I give Trump credit for beating the Republican SwampDwellers and Democratic Presidential HouseWife. Brilliantly done.
I give trump credit for recognizing and taking advantage of people’s anger and bigotry to con them into voting for him.
Those are actually parts and pieces of business. Some succeed and some fail.. But you see, he DID.. Thats more than all of your democratic candidates combined..
If you’re talking about “he did” meaning he became rich, then you’re right. He became rich of the backs of the common man, off the backs of small business, by lying and cheating those people. And you’re right, no democratic candidates can claim the same, maybe because they at least had some ethics.
As Thomas Sowell said, “Barack Obama never ran anything but his mouth.”
Well he successfully file for multiple bankruptcies and stiffed a lot of small contractors so there is that
What exactly did he ever achieve in the private sector except a string of cons, bankruptcies and lawsuits? Just ask a graduate of Trump University what Trump “accomplished” aside from screwing them over. Prior to becoming president, the man never held a job that he actually had to apply for, and only got into Wharton because he had a rich daddy, whose money he inherited. Doesn’t exactly scream “self made” to me.
Bright people talk about ideas. Average people talk about events. Mediocre people gossip – talk about people.
The “elites” spend their time gossiping. This book-length gossip sheet merely provides fodder for those sheep.
With the Russian collusion fairytale M plodding, they N needed a fresh set of lies to keep their low info base energized.
I believe that the fact that this book was rolled out on the same day the FBI & DOJ agreed to release the documents concerning the 0bama administration’s surveillance of candidate Trump to the House Intelligence Committee, is no coincidence,
By the time Pres. Trump is done erasing King Obama’s Pen and Phone legacy all that will be left is that Obama completely corrupted his Executive bureaucracy, including the Intel. Agencies, all 17 of them.
The fact that a successful capitalist is blowing the doors off the legacy of a failed statist – all in just one years time and especially when they thought that they were on the precipice of having a lock on their long term dreams of a leftist social utopia – is driving them bonkers.
Although that was a pretty short drive to begin with, I am enjoying this immensely.
Is that you Earnest T.? Andy and Barney would like to talk to you.
Is that you, Barack? I think the American people would like some answers.
He’s not a successful capitalist. He is a con man from Queens that no Manhattan investor will touch and no American bank will lend to. His net worth is a fraction of his claim If he had put his inheritance into Municipal bonds he would be better off. Trump University: need I say more?
Every democrat president since JFK (with the possible exception of Carter) parlayed their time in office into enhanced personal wealth.
Trump, like most other Republicans will not only not benefit from his time in the White House,, he will be taking a huge financial hit, but the average American will be the real winners.
You’re welcome.
Rubbish Trash and Garbage. Kennedy needed no extra wealth; had plenty. Johnson ditto. Carter: straight as an arrow; Clinton: not so sure. But that is not the point. Trump is a con man; Meuller is going to show how filthy he really is. And by the way. Business success in unimportant: our best Presidents were not: Lincoln, FDR, T. Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower. Our worst: Hoover, Bush, Trump were all supposedly successful businessmen. Meant nothing.
2017 was the year they tried to convince you Trump was just like Putin.
2018 will be the year you see proof hay 0bama operated just like Stalin.
“The average American” isn’t getting a damn thing from the Trump presidency. He likes to talk about “the forgotten Americans” who put him in office but he forgot about us on election night. Note that NONE of the people who actually supported him are in the Administration any longer. Instead, we have Jared and Ivanka.
Come back in 6 months and lie to us and say that you got no tax break, zoomie.
And let’s not forget that he got his start through a $1,000,000 graduation gift from his father. If my father had given me a million dollars upon graduation I would own three Taco Bells today.
A conman with an estimated wealth of $3.5 billion and a much younger wife. In the USA that is called successful capitalism.
A snake oil salesman with highly questionable net worth, a string of frauds and bankruptcies, and a ZERO credit rating in America. He also has a miserable wife who looks like she is ready to bolt and a string of groping charges as long as your arm. In the USA that is a financial, marital, and moral fiasco.
no.. thats still successful capitalism..
No what you stated is a dhimmiKKKrat propaganda lie. Do try harder, sweetie.
Yes a bellowing baboon will surely solve our problems.
Business skyrocketing? Check
Unemployment way down? Check
Major tax code revision with more money in the hands of middle and lower class individuals? Check
ISIS on the run? Check
China cooperating with the U.S. by rejecting North Korean coal shipments? Check
Looks like you have been Checkmated!
Best first year in my lifetime. And Eisenhower was in office when I was born.
usually I love VDH. However to even mention the book by wolf is simply a waste of time. Nobody with a brain will read it, and those that do, have opinions of which we are already aware and consider irrelevant.
Semper Fi,
’65-’87
Certainly, to publish this rather verbose refutation here does no good at all. This choir needs no more preaching. The significance of the Wolff book is to set a tone, not set out an argument, and its intended audience is the middle ground, the waverers who have noticed the incessant twittering and have begun to wonder. The ancien regime was done far more damage by back-alley printers running off lurid descriptions of the queen’s sapphic indulgences with Mme. de Lamballe, than it ever was by the carefully reasoned arguments of more elevated writers.
Dr. Hanson, you’re confusing the issue with logic; a failing that is forgivable, coming from a philosopher.
Of course, your question “How would and could Donald Trump accomplish what he has if Michael Wolff’s characterization is true?” begs the question, “Why would any sane reader believe a single word of Wolff’s book?”, which clearly was your didactic goal.
I once read that novelists create fiction to take revenge upon the world. Michael Wolff has missed his calling.
Wolfe did it for the money. Guaranteed money maker as it MUST appear on the coffee table of every doctrinaire Liberal. And there are many.
Fortunately, those who don’t want to reward Wolfe can read a pdf version posted on wikileaks.
I find it interesting that Mr. Bannon, once a reviled alt-rightist (whatever that means) disparaged by everyone of the leftish persuasion (who cheered and gloated when he was removed from his WH position), is now the much-quoted go-to purveyor of honesty and truth.
…as they say, If the Left didn’t have double standards…..
Comey is another whom they treated situationally.
I believe “strange new respect” is the traditional phrase used.
The left doesn’t have double-standards. They have triple-standards………..”one for you, one for me, one for “them””.
Silly.
Well, he’s a Republican, don’t you know? Therefore everything he says, as long as it’s anti-GOP, is to be believed.
Not so much though, when he’s saying something nasty about liberals. Then it’s “What do you expect out of a Republican?”
You still praising him or did you also reverse course?
A discussion of the 25th Amendment and the removal of Donald Trump over the issue of fitness, is an attempt to incite a bloodless coup, to win what was lost by the ballot.
It’s nothing more, and nothing less than an attempt to overturn the results of a democratic election.
The Blue State knuckleheads don’t realize that, when ballots no longer count, the bullets count.
AMEN
“the bullets count”??? What does that mean?
It means we have a Second Amendment to deal with statist tyrants.
And the state has ways of tracking and dealing with vigilate nut cases.
The Deep state you mean. Because the clear intent of Obama and HC were to overturn our Republic… and based on your comments you’d happily abet that.
You Fascists always turn to ‘the state’ to enforce your subversions, we get it. That’s why Trump won and why he is dismantling your crime organization. You don’t care ONE BIT about this nation.
Deep state. Big fiction.
How, might I ask?
Don’t know, but I sure hope and expect they have a bead on some of the survivalist anti government crazies.
Or to deal with ignorant bullying goobers like well you.
No they don’t realize, because they cannot comprehend anything so important they would be willing to kill and die for it, like America.
Liberals can’t stand not being in power. They feel helpless, they feel robbed and will do anything to gain back that power they believe is rightfully theirs.
Think about it – they believe humans will always make bad choices and in order to survive we need a strong central government to guide and protect us.
They get very angry if people can’t see things their way -they are right, we need them, according to their thinking.
So be VERY careful – they will stop at nothing to get back the power they were stripped of and is rightfully theirs.
Because the only thing they value in life is power.
Just so.
Some may or may not truly “feel helpless … robbed[,] and will do anything to gain back that power they believe is rightfully theirs.” Some may or may not truly “believe humans will always make bad choices and in order to survive we need a strong central government to guide and protect us.”
But absolutely and consistently, the only thing they value is power.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.” cs lewis..
Our traitor class has impeccable manners but belongs nowhere near power.. How are so many well-educated fools able to ignore this?
PLEASE Stop entertaining this stupid topic. President Trump is smarter than all these idiots and smarter than most. period!!!
Yet another piece praising the stable genius.
Don’t forget to Google “Center for American Greatness”, which sends you directly to this website: https://www.donatetotrump.com/
Win a private tour of the White House with President Trump.
Donations: 145,726 patriots in the past 11 hours.
“I never give money to politicians. That’s why I donate to Trump.”
— Jack D. Masterson, Retired 4-Star General
There is no “Jack D. Masterson, Retired 4-Star General” in any military personnel database.
“There is no “Jack D. Masterson, Retired 4-Star General” in any military personnel database.”
I could see liberals progressing to the point where they simply deny that Trump exists at all. Might help them get through the day.
Liberals have their own problems, but so-called populists who support Trump should ask themselves why Trump and the Republicans would deliver Wall Street a bill that showers them with tax cuts and leaves scraps for coal miners and farmers. How soon we forget but it should be noted that the corporate tax cuts are permanent and the individual tax cuts, meager as they are, are temporary.
His supporters should also take note of the fact that Trump will attend Davos. While not in the least shocking, it’s nevertheless troubling that the man who claims to have to Washington to tear down the establishment has done nothing as potus except enrich the establishment. And now he’s eating their fois gras with them in the ultimate establishment paradise — Davos, Switzerland.
I wonder what Jack D. Masterson, “Retired 4-Star General”, would say about that?
Corporate tax cuts are paid by the consumers of that corporation’s product.
Libs are clueless about economics.
Yes, you libs are clueless about corporate taxes. Corporate taxes eat into profit margins of corporations, whose products are purchased by consumers.
Let me give you an example of how this works:
Say ABC Corporation earns $1000 million gross and has a pre-tax profit of $10 million. Under HR the corporate tax liability was reduced from $3.5m to $2.1m. That’s great news for the American economy as a whole for a variety of reasons that are beyond the scope of this blog. The $2.4 million that ABC has saved in corporate taxes it no longer has to pay the federal government can indeed be returned to consumers in the form of lower prices to consumers for its products, but it’s not necessarily the case that corporations will lower their product prices. Maybe, but maybe not. But it’s also the case that corporations may choose to invest in growing their businesses and/or returning additional value to its investors. We’ll have to see how each corporation chooses to use its increased after-tax profits but early reports are most that large corporations will reward their investors in various ways (increasing dividends, stock buybacks and the like) and will not, in fact, lower their product prices. We shall see, but the point is that it is bad forecasting to predict that consumers will necessarily enjoy lower prices as a result of the tax cut bill. It’s better forecasting to predict wage increases, but most economists are predicting modest wage inflation.
We do anticipate rising wages (a good thing) in sectors that employ low-skilled workers but with rising wages we’ll likely see rising prices for products those low-skilled workers buy. But there is no economic theory that suggests that corporate tax cuts will result in deflation. In fact, we expect rising prices for consumer products, which is a strong indicator, at least up to a point, of economic growth. The very people Trump went to Washington to fight for got scraps out of HR 1, which was all about growing profit margins for Wall Street, not Main Street.
Please note that the corporate tax rates were cut by 40% and made permanent whereas individual tax rates were reduced for low-income filers by an average of 5-10%. If there ever were an occasion for Wall Street bankers to break open a stogey and have a good laugh, it was the enactment of HR 1. But then again, Trump never has been the enemy of Wall Street, has he?
Growing profit margins for Trump’s close friends at Blackstone and KKR may be ok for some (does anyone here remember Trump’s promise to end the “carried interest loophole?..so much for another forgotten promise), but it doesn’t do much for voters who attend Trump rallies and chant “Lock Her Up!”
I’m betting that Wolff wins a Pulitzer, and Oprah wins a Nobel Prize.
And I am hoping that Trump wins an Impeachment.
Maybe this time they’ll award the Nobel Peace Prize to Oprah in anticipation of her being elected. Awarding it right after the election didn’t work out so well the last time.
You don’t win pulitzers for books. And Nobel Prizes are not awarded to people who arrive 35 years late to the realization that Hollywood producers have gotten away with rape
*activates cellphone flashlight app*
*raises it above head*
*CHEERS WILDLY*
President Trump isn’t crazy, he drives lefties crazy.
No; he’s crazy. Bone fide, clinically, mentally, psychologically, totally, dangerously crazy.
From the person who supports Obama and the Clintons, it is to laugh.
You are certifiable or just evil, maybe both.
And you are a mental health professional who examined him when?
The only thing in shambles is our Ivy League educated “elite” and their shitlib lapdogs in the media.
Well perhaps to your chagrin I am not in shambles- POS Goober
Haley is the most barking mad loon to appear in decades. The good news is that she has destroyed the idiot idea of global hegemony, saving the tax payer trillions of dollars
I think she is attracting scorn all over the globe. America’s influence in the world is approaching zero.
No, she’s not having America bend over for the tyrants and terrorists like the previous occupants of the white house
She’s a punchline. A bad joke. Taken as seriously as the mosquitoes in the foyer.
Which tyrants and terrorists? The ones we like or the ones we don’t?
Excellent article. Love your logical sarcasm. Proves to me that Trump is crazy like a fox. Plus the so-called elite liberal establishment and fake news media are being played like a violin by Trump. Their latest ploy to invoke the 25th amendment is also doomed to utter failure. The American public will predictably see through their unhinged attempts such as this piece of trash written by Wolff – particularly as they benefit from the new tax cuts – resulting in huge wins for the Republicans in 2018 and 2020.
All those who doubt Trump’s mental condition should watch his speech in TN yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NqQvwD3Aho
Compare that to any speech by a true nutcase like Pelosi and you will get the picture. Nutty Nancy can not make it through 10 seconds of pre-prepared sound blurbs without falling apart and becoming incoherent, and Trump can speak for a half hour straight and never stumble a single time.
Yes, fatty is mentally unfit for office.
Samuel Clemons would be proud of such of such a stinging retort. You sir are an intellectual giant.
Trump has set historic lows for verbal communication. Basically, he is a semi-literate child. I think the terms used by christket are appropriate, maybe even a bit too abstract for Donny Bone Spurs. I would offer a translation that he might grasp: ” you’re effing nuts and gotta go”.
Dr Hanson, once again with great insight and clarity tells the truth, and that is exactly how I see it also, thanks Dr.
When Abraham Lincoln was told that Ulysses Grant was drinking whiskey again, Lincoln was said to have retorted, “then find out what kind and buy a barrel for my other generals”.
The same theory should apply to Trump… if swilling diet sodas and eating Big Macs is what makes Trump tick, he should set up a McDonalds in the White House for the rest of his staff.
Mr. Hanson states the case with perspective and wisdom. I see it exactly the same way.
The most delicious side to this story is the way the press is treating Wolfe like he is Moses showing up with his tablets etched in stone.
The interviews, they slay me.
Christiane Amanpour: http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/01/08/intv-amanpour-michael-wolff-trump.cnn
This is pure political theatre and it is so fun, I can hardly stand it.
“He is a fool who thinks he is wise, and a wise man knows he is a fool”. William Shakespeare
Let the left and the establishment who have seen power wrestled from them by a totally insane and barking mad uneducated billionaire continue with the impeachment of this presidency by any means continue. We will see what happens at the end of this year when the majority of electorate determine who is truly mad. Make America Great Again
It’s Oikophobia writ large. What? McDonalds? What diet Coke? What hangs out with plumbers, contractors and Miss America contestants? What doesn’t value the fake humility and fake self deprecation that is tied up in virtue signaling moral and intellectual superiority that doesn’t really exist? It’s actually pathetic that these rubes would rather convince themselves that Trump is [fill in the blank] then face the terrible truth that they are vacuous, shallow and inferior morally and likely in some cases intellectually to the plumbers and contractors that Trump might hang out with.
Apparently the left has nothing better to do, so why not question whether Trump is crazy? However, they might want to be more circumspect in their pronouncements because that concept may be true but not exactly as they imagine it. Trump is probably “crazy” as a fox.
The evidence is overwhelming. Crazy. Like a loon; not a fox.
Where did you attain that PhD in Psychology you seem to be waving?
You’ve never been close enough to the President to smell his aftershave much less make such ridiculous claims. The person you backed, either the Criminal Clinton or the Social/Communist Sanders, lost.
The thing is Cahrlie, that people in Japan, Fiji, Nigeria and Siberia all know he is crazy. You don’t need to get close – just watch him on TV and read his stupid tweets. Crazy, nuts, insane, psycho,deluded, impaired, loony. Anyone with two active brain cells can see it.
Quite frankly Scooter, I seriously don’t give a hoot what any country in the UN or NATO think about how this Republic is getting turned away from the disaster of a Social/Progressive future.
President Trump is doing just fine as far a I and the citizens who put him into office are concerned. If you don’t like the way this Republic was taken in 2017, too bad cause 2018 will be more of the same and more.
You Progressives wanted open boarders, more illegals and more debt. You lost. New tax codes, and removal of Obama’s illegal and economy killing wealth re-distribution….reference Venezuela for the future that Socialism brings. This Republic is a Capitalistic/GOD fearing nation, and I sincerely hope you don’t like it.
Carlie: may I remind you: you’re dumb. You don’t even know what Social/Progressive means.
I hope to not insult you as I’m quite sure others have called you a Socialist/Progressive/Moron before, so I’ll not be the first.
Yes Moron, I do know what a Social/Progressive is and what their goals WERE in this Republic. Too damn bad all those Progressive/Socialist laws and bills of your GAWS Obama are now history. Gone up in Trump smoke…..you’ll never be that close again….tough.
Charlie: on a personal note…did you graduate high school?
Have you gotten your GED from “SOROS U”?
You bore me little socialist…run along, I think there’s a rally missing a fool.
I’ll take that as a “no”. Not surprised.
LOL…FU
Stop tossing around words you don’t understand. You’re like a lot of Trumpsters. You bought the BS from a consummate con man.
You are like a bad cold, you won’t go away….and you have nothing to tell me that is worth listening to.
I’m refusing to play anymore Idiot, so again…FU.
Your not much of a scientist.
Don’t need to be. Any living creature above the squirrel can spot a nut case like Trump. No science needed; just eyes and ears.
Crazy like a fox bodes well.
He will be gone in 6 months.
Enjoy your constipation, it’s gonna hang around a long time. In fact, if the left can’t suck up their temper tantrum they are on the road to guaranteeing a two term Trump presidency.
By the summer Trump will be back to hanging around ladies locker rooms and bankrupting companies.
I see you stand firmly by the credo ” neither a great scientist nor a competent prognosticator be.”
You can rationalize all you want Mr. Hanson, you are nothing but a sycophant for a truly terrible person who is leading our country to disgrace, at the very least. Mentally ill or not, there is not and has never been any justification for this awful awful man who is truly putting our future in peril.
How is regaining respect for America abroad, making Americans safer at home, and making Americans richer leading the country to disgrace?
Face it, you lost! Your illegal sources of funds like legal settlements that funneled billions to you guys has ended, that sue and settle has ended, that the EPA is not ladling out gravy to your academic friends, and that SCOTUS is likely to end mandatory public service union membership and the resultant dues that go to you guys. That is why you are upset.
You think we’re respected abroad? Nothing could be further from the truth, everyone is either laughing at us (China) or horrified (most of our allies).
You are as delusional as your Dear Leader.
Yes, we know you cannot offer proof of your claims, but my post is accurate. You’re just upset that you have been shooed from the trough.
I travel a lot, and America’s perception abroad is at an all time low. Most of the world pities us, and the rest think we are a nation of Neanderthal led by a barbarian.
I agree. I can’t understand how any rational responsible person can defend the brutish, belligerent, and hostile rantings on this lunatic President. Totally aside from Party, and I have supported both over the years, the man is a clear and present danger to America and the world.
In a simple word: “yes”.
We’ll try to keep it simple so you can follow along.
Thanks. Once Mueller reports it will be simple. Trump out. Very simple: Crazy; crooked; collusion: simple.
I’m quite sure there is a bookie in Vegas who’ll take your bet…..please go all in, cash in your blooming 401k also.
Don’t bet your trailer against it, Charlie my boy. You’ll be homeless.
I’m confident that President Trump will be around for seven more years.
All the folks like yourself are very reluctant to disclose who they voted for as you seem to dislike Trump so much and consider him crazy among other faults. Who did you rather see as President, the Criminal Clinton or the Social/Communist Sanders?
Simple question…simple answer requested……
You’re a dreamer Charlie. Trump won’t last 2018. Mueller is going to slice him up like a radish. He will resign/impeached by summer.
So….who did you vote for?
You’ve joined along list of “Trump haters” who will not disclose who they would prefer to see in the White House. Criminal or Commie….pick one.
Like I said previously…put your money where your doublewide is.
Anyone Charlie. I would prefer to see my hamster in the White House than Trump.
LOL….you’re just a very unhappy Social/Communist who’ll never admit which loser you preferred….ya, I get it…loser.
Suggestion: between charlie and horse insert the words “dumb as a rock”
I’ll certainly consider that your last word loser….I’ll guess you voted for Bernie.
You support everything that is Socialist…..loser.
Trump is clever – he just doesn’t communicate the same as 90% of all Americans. He’s one of the 9% who are like me – Howie Mandel and others – he lacks the “filter”. He says what he’s thinking at that moment, and sometimes that isn’t taken well. If he’s got a thought or idea, it has to be expressed there and then. He knows things but if asked a question can’t respond with the answer on the spot. It may pop into mind in a few minutes or an hour later. He bores easily – thus the constant move from place to place. His mind is always going 100 miles an hour. He knows a lot because he can’t shut out the input – the constant stream coming at us at all times. Most can pick and choose, he’s got to take it all in because he can’t block it. So he actually takes in more than the average person.
Is he crazy? Well, if clever and cunning is crazy I guess I want to be crazy.
He’s perfectly sane, but very misunderstood – like a certain percentage of us who have the these traits that comes from a non-functional executive function of the brain. We are smart, but don’t usually choose the path that is in our own long-term best interest socially – and we don’t deal well with personal attacks – we are defensive.
Some call it ADHD…………………
Remember when Howie tweeted during AGT about bulimia? It was meant to be a joke – but in society you don’t joke about such things – the guy was slammed within minutes. Howie often has to explain his words or retract things. And I’ve been in more online fights than I care to admit. It’s just us. We aren’t bad, we’re just drawn that way………
A rambling string of barely coherent nonsense.
Any reader of recent history would know that the 25th was enacted as a reaction to Eisenhower’s heart attack and physical inability to function (resulting in Mamie running the country) and was not meant to be used as a coup by those that disagree with an election.
I am always reminded by the left of the 1984 maxim:
“The future is certain, it is the past that keeps changing.”
I think it related to Kennedy actually as in what if he survived the assassination attempt but was incapacitated. Never heard the Mimi narrative before.
The electorate tired of the educated idiots on the left who displayed unethical and pathological behaviors. They skirted the Contitutional limits and procedures to impose their utopian ideas on the public. In their feigned wisdom they advocated a neomoral paradigm while condemning age old Judeo-Christian values.
The insanity of Wolff and his fellow Hillary supporters is obvious in their inability, like in the hanging chad controversy, to accept the results of the election and using any means necessary to disrupt the Trump administration.
Wolff and his ilk will soon be eating crow and humble pie as the dishonest, unethical, and criminal lengths of their opposition is revealed.
Drivel.
To quote the sainted Ronald Reagan, “It’s not that our liberal friends are ignorant, it’s that they know so much that isn’t so.”
Reagan was a fool. Maybe our dumbest President, except perhaps for Trump.
Reagan was a wise man, you are a fool.
Wise like a ventriloquists puppet.
“The strongest argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.” W Churchill (?)
CONGRATULATIONS bcml, took you a matter of seconds, a new record. Fortunately, for you, idiocy is a civil right. No need to worry.
You’re obviously no relation to the famous bluesman by the same name. You should chafe your handle: May I suggest “$hitforbrains”. Dismissed little fella, adults are trying to communicate ere. Find a site for slow 10 year olds. You’ll fit right in.
Just the best article dealing with political reality I have ever read anywhere. Mr Hansen is by far, the best political analyst with the highest writing skill of anyone I have read. Thank you so much.
Who do you believe about Trump? My book or your lying eyes?
No, he’s not crazy. He’s just a hateful, spiteful, ridiculous racist-bigot who poned a morally bankrupt Republican Party.
The only people that are going to do anything about it are the Democrats and liberals of this country. We can’t make any mistakes the next couple of election cycles.
We have to stop the madness in 2018, and then end the madness in 2020. It’s all on us….
You’ve already created the seeds of destruction of the US constitution. To be honest , you lot are a fcking disgrace. Where the West had any hope was for a strong US with a strong sense of identity and purpose. Now because of this attempted coup d’etat by special prosecutor you have destroyed America. I hope you are proud of yourselves
The mistake you fools made was embracing Marx while giving Jefferson the finger.
Trump is worse than “crazy,” he’s a complete and total a**h*le, an organ sack of bad traits. Calling Trump mentally ill is a disservice to people with mental illness.
We found the one who is actually mentally unfit.
I’m sure the good Doc Hanson has way under estimated the complexity of erecting a highrise in nutty New York with all the unions and permits…..to say nothing of the political connections that needed greasing. Obama’s “savvy editing” of Harvard Law Review is speculating what level of contribution he actually made to the production of paperwork.
If President Trump is crazy then I want to be crazy too ! Thank you VDH !
I haven’t read Wolff’s book and don’t intend to, but from what I’ve seen, there doesn’t appear to be anything in it that hasn’t already been reported in the media, including Steve Bannon’s retort to left-wing Jewish convert Democrat Ivanka, so there’s no reason for shook. What Dr. Hanson, who is a historian and far removed from the typical Trump voter (as are most, if not all, of the American Greatness writers) should remember is that the Flight 93 election wasn’t about putting a competent pilot at the controls, it was about defeating the terrorists. Look, Donald Trump didn’t “win” the election, Hillary Clinton lost it – because the entire country, except for metropolitan liberals, have known for decades that she, along with her husband – and apparently her daughter as well – are accomplished crooks. (Many, many Clinton voters know it too but voted for her because she’s a woman and a Democrat.) As for Steve Bannon, he is the one who really saw what the election was about and realized that Trump’s winning issues were immigration and “draining the swamp.” Bannon went to the White House believing that Trump would make efforts to truly change government but was thwarted when Trump started bringing in Bush neocons and leaving Obama appointees in crucial positions. (One of the clues as to how Trump thinks is his dependence on retired generals, particularly Marines. He’s never been in the military and doesn’t realize that there’s no more political organization than the military, where who knows you determines how far you go.) He’s made some efforts along the immigration line but as for draining the swamp, he’s not only not draining it, he’s becoming another cottonmouth. I was excited that Trump won because his victory meant Hillary was toast but not because I was expecting him to initiate great changes – he hasn’t. My main concern about the Wolf book is that it’s going to provide ammunition for the resistance, NeverTrumpers and Democrats set on impeachment or 25th Amendment action. The one good thing about Donald Trump’s presidency is that it’s not Hillary Clinton’s. Let’s just hope the Democrats don’t wise up and run a genuinely moderate candidate against him in 2020. If Jim Webb had been their candidate this last time, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
I love Dr. Hanson.
Who in their right mind states “I am a stable genius?”
Somebody who loves to troll the media and the left. The explosion of hysteria over his comment was both predictable and amusing.
Trump isn’t a traditional ‘dignified’ leader and never will be (most of our ‘dignified’ leaders were very skilled at acting dignified rather than actually having any dignity). He’s the leader we both need and deserve in this degenerate age.
So, why in this degernate age… do we ‘need and deserve’… a degenerate ‘leader’ like trump?
Isn’t that throwing fuel on the fire?
HB
We deserve, because basic decency and dignity no longer attracts voters.
We need, because unlike pretty much every politician he isn’t afraid of the media and will do unthinkable things like keep his campaign promises.
Keep his campaign promises? Are you kidding?
Like what? Balancing the budget? Pay off the national debt? Investigate hillery?
All trumpy is doing is the liberal populism ‘spend’, ‘spend’, spend’… and twitting about how great his thinks he is.
HB
Lol, it takes a special kind of dumb to ignore his accomplishments in just one year against the full might of the Democrats, media, deep state and many in the Republican establishment. He’s kept more of his campaign promises in just one year than most presidents have in their full term.
Like what? A tax cut that gave twice as much percentage wise to the trumpy rich… and saved trumpy millions?
Come on, tell us!
HB
Lol, typical lefty. All wealth is the government’s to dole out as they see fit.
Of course the rich get a bigger slice of the tax cut pie, dufus…. it’s because they pay by far the largest portion of taxes, duh.
well, YOU deserve a “degenerate leader like Trump” MANY welcome him. Tough to be you.
All you have are insults. Go away, little one.
HB
Weak material “HB” – you need to bring in the next shift Hurt Butt.
Who in their right mind wears a pvssy hat?
john – you can not be that obtuse or your autonomic functions would cease.
The mainstream media/democrat/leftist talking points revolve around Trump being an idiot and a dolt, who has no abilities. Whatever Trump may be, the question is, what was the alternative?
– Did Trump run up $20 trillion in debt?
– Did Trump bleed Social Security dry, by dumping it into the general fund?
– Did Trunp lard up government payrolls, and implement draconian union “management” rules?
– Did Trump pervert the IRS, FBI, CIA, DOJ, etc?
– Did Trump oversee the dissolution of federalism?
– Did Trump invite 20 million illegals into our country?
– Did Trump have ICE cease and desist in deportations and enforcement?
– Did Trump destroy healthcare by passing Obamacare?
– Did Trump vote to send our troops to war – nearly unanimously – only to constantly knee-cap our fighting soldiers while their enegaged with the enemies?
Yet, these fools consider Trump to be the idiot? The only idiots are those who accept the status quo, outlined above.
Trump was busy supporting hillery clinton and her democrats during all that time.
HB
Then he kicked Hillary’s tail. That worthless trash got her clock cleaned by a neophyte. Hahahahahahah!!!!
Do you think trump knows what he is doing?
HB
He’s doing it, and Things the smartest people of all time couldn’t get right are now being rectified.
ISIS: From “ it will take at least a decade“ to their losing 9/10 of their territory within a year of Trump taking office.
Mideast: From “Leading from behind“ to Saudi Arabia beginning historic reforms for the first time in ever.
NK: from appeasement and willful underestimates of the threat to North Korea asking to join the winter Olympics.
If that’s crazy, then we need more crazy in the White House.
LOL !
Are YOU a ‘trump u’ graduate?
Hehehe
HB
Let’s see: Trump became a billionaire in the most difficult real estate market in the world, NYC. How many golf courses and resorts has Trump successfully built and opened? How many other people have turned their name into a marketing moniker, valuable enough to rent to other people’s projects? Trump kicked the tails of 17 Republicans, and one sick, demented, depraved, felon of a harpy leftist.
And now he is crushing Congress and the Senate.
The more pertinent question would be: Do YOU know what he’s doing? Most of the idiots – particularly of the left and leftist media (redundant, I know) – are being managed by Trump’s tweets. Meanwhile, Trump and the Republicans are cutting the Oprah-sized government fat, taxes, bureaucratic bloat, and general stupidity of the Feds. Right…Trump is a moron, who doesn’t know what he’s doing…Hahahahahahahahah!!!
Utter BUNK. You russian trumper trolls should get some new material. Your lord trump is not hiding his finances because they are good. To wit:
For 10 years between 1995 and 2005, Donald Trump ran Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts — and he did it so badly and incompetently that it collapsed into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. His stockholders were almost entirely wiped out, losing a staggering 89% of their money. … A review of the company’s public filings show that over that period, while his ordinary investors were getting hosed, Trump himself was siphoning millions out of Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts through salary, “bonuses”
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/its-worse-than-you-think-trumps-business-disaster-2016-03-04?
You don’t have a clue as to what you are pitching.
HB
Every sentient being can smell the goods you’re pitching. Are you another Soros Nazi Bot?
And some troll ‘sniffers’… just smell…
HB
Not a single accusation in that book seems out of character for what we know of Trump. Trump has no moral compass at all and eventually I think the Mueller investigation will catch up with him. Mueller is keeping things close so we don’t have any idea the extent of what he knows. We do know there are convictions and indictments already and more indictments reportedly to come.
“not…out of character”
I remember hearing during the campaign that Hillary’s staff learned to put away ashtrays and drinking glasses before giving her bad news.
Trapper, your childish dependence on Mueller proves you have little knowledge of reality starring Mueller. Research and recall Robert Mueller was FBI Director during the Clinton disinformation campaign over the death of a US Ambassador in Benghazi. CBS reporter David Martin reported a team of FBI Agents were “…first to arrive on the scene in Benghazi, Libya to sift through the wreckage for evidence”. That FBI team evidently helped US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton deflect blame for four American deaths and avoid the awkward truth that Clinton had dispatched
her Libyan Ambassador, Chris Stevens from his very secure Embassy in Tripoli to an unprotected US Consulate in Benghazi as her liaison for transferring thousands of SA-7 heat-seeking missiles from Libyan armories to Syrian Rebels.
http://www.businessinsider.com/us-syria-heavy-weapons-jihadists-2012-10
What do you, Trapper, know of Robert Mueller’s moral compass? Please explain.
I know that Benghazi was investigated multiple times and nothing came from it. I know that Mueller served his country honorably, something Trump never did and bragged about not doing. I know Mueller has been a public servant for years and received praise for his fairness and decency from both sides right up until the Republicans recently started to fear this investigation was actually going somewhere. I know he’s got a ton more credibility than the president who has been little more than a con man all his life.
We learned how inept the Obama/Hillary team was in foreign policy and it was confirmed they would lie regarding just about anything.
That investigation also discovered the illegal email server that eventually contributed to her defeat.
The server should have disqualified Clinton, she was an awful candidate. Doesn’t make Trump any less awful a president or human being. Anyone supporting Trump really shouldn’t be complaining about lying.
Great. A whole slew of unanswered questions begging for some logical response: THE RUSSIANS!
;-)
The ruling elite that Trump has disenfranchised and outed as completely bankrupt are the ones headed for the booby hatch. How, in the heck, with all their gilded pedigreed credentials did this ever happen to them? Their worthless posing and lack of substance has run this nation into demonstrable and accelerating decline. They should be shunned and scorned for what they have done and never allowed real power again. Shame on them.
Not sure why we are saying the “elites” are sophisticated, Obama, Hilary, etc….etc. when younger were more like the ANTIFA types than anything remotely sophisticated and they are the same people but wearing suits and pantsuits.
Hmmm. An entire column that consists of saying, over and over, ‘The fact that it hasn’t happened yet is proof that it won’t happen.’
That’s the thing about existential events. They don’t happen…until they do.
Of course the most accurate prediction of future events is past events.
And pigs can fly right?
Leadership:
When we predict a leader on the basis of glib refinement, civic prowess or academics these indicators often fail. Why is this?
All parts and no engine.
More than a half-century ago Captain John Metas USMC was different – gruff, pitiless and full of thunder. His eyes pierced pretence, not critical of fault, but impatient with too-gradual ferocity.
We Marines in Bravo Company considered ourselves unlucky subjects of his abrasive scrutiny and unreasonable expectations. He was our curse and talisman – he forged our minds into an instrument of his near-demonic obsession. We sensed there was a reason this stern, passionate WWII Combat-Commissioned- veteran of Carlson’s Raiders and Saipan filled our hot, dusty days with endless effort, demand and harsh epithet.
At first we complained. But older Marines and Sergeants just smiled and nodded knowingly. Attitudes changed. We coalesced. We began to ride the fiery wind, to revel in our new Brotherhood. He was one of us after all. Understanding began – a bond among warriors of mythic strength that no one could put into words. We could not; we would not. An alloy stronger than its metals, Leader and Led became the same.
Eventually we followed him into Hell. We lost half our number in that year. No regrets. We would follow Captain Metas again no matter the future, no matter the death. He was our Leader.
This is commemoration, not comparison. Today’s scope is larger, the focus less intense, but this day, this circumstance takes my mind back to a dreadful glory and then complels the intrusion of our President Trump and our beloved United States.
The essence of Leadership must combine subject, object and predicate as dynamic parts of an intended result rather than a plan, an accident or merely a fortunate epiphany. Leaders need context the way stars need the night and we Americans are fortunate in our condition at the beginning of 2018.
The distinction is literally mystical – Donald Trump is obviously the essence of rare dynamic interaction among minds in special circumstances. Great Leaders are alloys of men and a purpose – instruments of vast success and often spectacular failure, but above all they are eloquence in word and deed. Great Leaders – conjurors if you will – become grand self-fulfilling productions in the minds of their men who then magnify and fulfill the magic.
Semper Fidelis, Captain Metas; may your fiercly eloquent spirit inflame our President.. our Leader.
Absolute and UTTER BUNK.
trump was a draft dodger… that could not even remember why he got his fake deferment. Not to mention wife-beater, scam artist, business cheat.
That YOU compare trump to your ‘Capt. Metas’… is an insult to the Marine Corps I knew.
HB
All the Marines I know would have the moral courage to use their names when calling people names. Grow a set and use your name or cease impersonating a member of The Corps.
All the smart people I know in IT… and I know a LOT… would tell YOU that is the stupidest thing to do for Account Security. You ever hear of Hacking? Stalking?
Face it, bud, that is a dodge you are throwing out to avoid being called out – YOU are no Marine and your ‘example’ of ‘trump’ runs 100% counter to Marine Ideology. Your lord trump would not even make it thru the first week of basic.
HB
Your bluster gives you away, Pogue. I was Bravo Company, !st Battalion, 2nd Marines, 2nd Division based at Lejeune early 60s – before going other more interesting places you’ve obviously never visited. But come visit me in Tucson, I’m in the book. We’ll talk about the Corps and you can call me out. I’ll take you to St Mary’s Hospital in the back of my Pickup.
Bluster my foot – You are the one doing the fake bravado, and advocating stupid, dangerous measures. If YOU were a REAL Marine, YOU would be advocating measures for safe blogging. Have YOU even checked Disqus standards for blogging?
Get lost you blustering Fake.
HB
Which of the several posters under “HB” is writing tonight HB. You are pathetic, but mildly entertaining,
Ah yes, more from the “blusteryfluff”: You lost, you’re pissed. Let me see if I can make it even worse for you:
DJT will make 1-3 more SCOTUS appointments. This means that for DECADES decisions will be “conservative”. THAT is going to hurt you and your ilk. BAD. Think DELIVERANCE BAD.
Seems other Marines don’t think you were a Marine and I’m certain you’re about as “conservative” as McCain.
Utter Bunk. And tiresome.
You are supporting a ‘president’ that is a proven liar… scam artist… coward… incompetent… and you fail to ‘justify’ such a piece of trash.
All you have left are insults… just like trumpy during the campaign.
HB
Moronic reply.
Mr. Heuister was talking leadership, not military service. Though great military leaders require this level of leadership, great leaders need not be in the military.
Bunk.
YOUR heuisler troll is a fake. YOU are a Fool.
Now, STOP annoying the adults in the room.
HB
Lying? LOL As if you were a history buff or a marine
“a skilled conservative revolutionary who threatens to nullify 2009-2017”
The dim communists know this full well and realize that this means exclusion from power for the foreseeable future. Such is their desperation, that they have put themselves on a path designed to lead to violence. But what do they expect the 50 or 60 million armed conservatives in our country to do should push come to shove? I must conclude that the dims would rather die than live without arbitrary power.
I always remind my D friends that conservatives own probably 80% of the guns in this country. And if you count real weapons of revolution like ARs, that number is probably higher. Daddy’s old plinker that he handed down isn’t going to cut it when I show up with my Ted Nugent size arsenal. As somebody said below “when ballots don’t count, bullets count”.
It amazes me that the “establishment” either does not get or at least acts like it does not get why Trump was elected in 2016.
They are so smug that they fail to realize that in the eyes of about half of the country, these elites are seen as purposefully driving the country right into the ground. Great things like letting our manufacturing base deteriorate and flee the nation. Spending trillions so that people can live without holding a job rather than working on ensuring people can get a job that allows them to survive. Too many policy and cultural failures by the elites to go into but instinctively Americans know this is wrong and have rejected this for Trump’s solutions. He may be crude and rude, but he is seen as the only person pointed in the direction we want to go. This is something DC keeps failing to see.
trump points out ever so succinctly… that trump represents the failure and decadence of the American People.
Will we ‘fix’ ourselves… or will we continue to sink into the moral mud and morass that begin with obama?
HB
Sure why not. The ISIS are running and Kim is talking to South Korea and laying off his hands from the small button.
And don’t worry Obama and the FBI have switched the nuclear codes and left the BIG BUTTON with nothing underneath on Trump’s desk to press.
Can’t wait for the movie, I thought it would be out by now.
I have a question for you, VD. Can you remind me of who it was that put Sloppy Steve on the National Security Council? Do you think it was a, like, really smart person? And I want you to put your hand on your heart when you answer this.
Sloppy Steve is a great actor, he is gone, Trump has firmed up his base and can make a credible move to the middle. Face it with hindsight Trump outplayed you guys and always will.
The wolf book, broke the Russian collusion fever, I know listen to #never-trump talking heads giving the president the benefit of the doubt. It moved Trump more to the middle distancing him from Bannon. It nailed CNN and MSNBC as the fake outllets they are. If Trump didn’t commision this book with his former producer Wolf (on a real estate show) , he should have. God Bless Trump the worlds greatest Troll.
“The wolf book, broke the Russian collusion fever” If you are right, any day now we shall find out that Mueller & his entire staff has closed up shop & gone home. Maybe they sneaked of of town when no one was watching or maybe the ‘Russian collusion fever’ is spreading everywhere but you just missed the ever expanding investigation. The comments about CNN & MSNBC make no sense whatsoever and you can’t possibly explain why it does make sense. BTW, re your ‘listening to
“#never-trump talking heads giving the president the benefit of the doubt” is nothing more than your wishful thinking and vivid imagination acting up again.
“Is Trump Crazy?” He is if you’re a frightened Democrat worried about your lying agenda being exposed and subsequently your job!
Not only is he completely insane, he’s also very, very stupid.
I disagree. Not only is he not insane, he also is not stupid. Simply put he is nothning more than a 71 yr old man who every day displays the impulses and behavior of a 6 year old child. And every child with the powers that Trump posesses can be very, very dangerous.
“Noprah 2020” bumper stickers going on sale next week at Amazon.
Dr. Hanson mentions Trump made good politcal and legal appointments.. He seems to have willing blindness on some of Trumps picks for the Federal bench. They couldn’t answer basic questions. Which politcal picks have been good?
Start with Neil Gorsuch, then extract your head from your anuss.
Apparantly Trumps daily lying seems to have escaped Dr. Hanson
The aptly named “Sparky” misses a great deal.
Dr. Hanson’s article can be summed up by the old quote, “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?”
hey guys,,, can i say something that is not related to this post? Whatfinger links to popular mechanics used to love them… now you can’t see the article till you you jump through a bunch of hoops… tried to contact them to complain,,,, yup you guessed it have to jump a bunch of hoops toooooo…. so i guess i am bitching about it here cuzzzz they won’t allow on their site,, and I’m pissed… wow, talk about a bunch of nimrods… sorry,,, but it really ticked me off. I’m bad,,, but so is popular mechanics,,, crap,,, i grew up with their magazine… now they are soon to join the dustbin of history. so sad.
I’m coming to the conclusion that in addition to being a fantastic president, Trump is a 3-D troller.
You forgot to mention,,,,,,,,, or it got past me,,, he beat out 14 other candidate’s to do this..
Leave it to Hanson to provide the ultimate analysis on the Trump phenomenon and the failure of the pathetic libs/lefties/”progressives/Democrat jackasses to hurt Trump. Thank you, sincerely, thank you, Mr Hanson/AG.
Brilliant, just absolutely brilliant!
Hanson has a way of coming up with wonderfully terse descriptions of things.
For example, ‘mannered mediocrity’ describes all too well the leadership of this country since the time of Reagan — especially, Trump’s immediate predecessor!
“….no sane president should ever have let a writer with Wolff’s dubious and often discredited background into the White House…..”?!?!?!?
This happens every day there is a “Press Conference” and the media hounds are permitted access to the White House.
One thing this country doesn’t need is ‘freedom of the press’. What were the founders thinking when they wrote the 1st amendment to the Constitution? Trump MUST be free to do what ever he thinks is good for him,er the nation.
Your reality check is in the mail for that brilliant contribution!
Certified I hope. I usually only take cash. Soros ALWAYS pay me in cash!
All the name calling and accusations in the world has not yet been able too discredit President Donald Trump’s spectacular achievements.
Comey is another whom they treated situationally.
Someone needs to ask the question: Is Nancy Pelosi fit for service. She stammers, shakes and speaks about things that have no bearing on the situation. Before anything is addressed for our President, this needs a serious evaluation.
“Crazy” is not a useful term when discussing mental disorders seriously. Basically there are two types of mental disorders: psychoses, such as schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder, that are caused by physical defects in the brain that can be treated but not cured, and personality disorders, that are learned behaviours (that sometimes can be un-learned/cured). When unusual behaviour or behaviours rise to the level of a personality disorder requires a through evaluation and history of the possible disorder (and possibly other disorders become they often come in constellations) by a trained professional to make a diagnosis. And not by bloviating arm-chair psychologists using argumentium ad ignorantiam or probatur assertio frequens to make a diagnosis. Also a 10-minute preliminary screen for overt signs of dementia is not probative, one way or the other, either. Take for, example, the very rare (one percent or less of population) Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). The damage this personality does to an NPD sufferer and to those involved with an NPD sufferer is almost always severe. While an NPD sufferer’s behaviour is unusual, it’s not “crazy” in the common sense of that word. Here is a bit of background on the words themselves plus a list of symptoms and exposition I coped from the Mayo Clinic’s site about NPD:
In the original ancient Greek parable, poor Narcissus offended the Greek gods somehow and so they put a spell on him that made him fall in love with the first person he saw. The first person he happened to see was his own reflection in a pond. So he starved to death because he could not tear his gaze away from himself. No, Narcissus was not a narcissist!
From the OED: Histrionic: 1. of or pertaining to actors or acting. 2. deliberately affected or self-consciously emotional; overly dramatic, in behaviour or speech. Note the surprising first definition which is listed first in the OED because it appeared first in English, not because it is the “best” definition as some might assume. The second definition is the one that actually applies to the former DSM-IV Narcissistic/Histrionic personality disorder.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
(formerly Narcissistic/Histrionic Personality Disorder)
NPD/HPD is in the DSM-IV
NPD is in the DSM-V
NPD/HPD is characterized by dramatic, emotional behaviour, in the same category as antisocial and borderline personality disorders.
NPD/HPD symptoms may include:
* Believing that they are better than others
* Blaming everyone but themselves for their failures
* Fantasizing about power, success and attractiveness
* Exaggerating their achievements or talents
* Expecting constant praise and admiration
* Believing that they are special and acting accordingly
* Throwing a prolonged, histrionic fit when confronted with their own shortcomings
* Failing to recognize other people’s emotions and feelings
* Expecting others to go along with their ideas and plans unquestioningly
* Taking advantage of others
* Expressing disdain for those they feel are inferior (which is essentially everybody)
* Being jealous of others
* Believing that others are jealous of them
* Setting unrealistic goals
* Being easily hurt and rejected
* Having a fragile self-esteem
Although some behaviours of an NPD sufferer may seem like having confidence or strong self-esteem at first blush (NPD sufferers are big on “show” for making good first impressions), it’s not really the same and this quickly becomes apparent once you get to know an NPD sufferer. NPD crosses the border of healthy confidence and self-esteem into thinking so highly of themselves that you put themselves on a pedestal. In contrast, people who have healthy confidence and self-esteem don’t value themselves more than they value others.
NPD sufferes often come across as conceited, boastful or pretentious. They often monopolize conversations. They may belittle or look down on people they perceive as inferior. They may have a sense of entitlement. And when they don’t receive the special treatment to which they feel entitled, they may become very impatient or angry. They may insist on having “the best” of everything. For example, the best car, the best athletic club, the best education, the best ideas, the best medical care, the best social circles, and so on.
But underneath the thin veneer of all these behaviours often lies a fragile self-esteem. Such people obviously have trouble handling anything that may be perceived as criticism. So therapists agree that the condition is, for all practical purposes, untreatable. That’s because the first step in any treatment of a mental condition is to admit the you yourself have a problem – which an NPD sufferer is not only incalculable of, but even hinting that to an NPD sufferer that they have the problem of being an NPD sufferer, triggers an extreme reaction of the condition itself.
Neither a federal republic, or a parliamentary republic, or a presidential republic are either inherently good or inherently bad. It all depends on how they are run. And as is correctly observed, much of the Federal Constitution limits the powers of the Federal government. And without a doubt, there have been abuses of Federal power, some of them just flat unconstitutional. Thus state power is advanced as that which will enforce the limits on Federal power.
OK, so far so good (As in, “My plan is to live forever. So far so good.”).
But it also cannot be denied that there have been serious abuses of state, county, and local powers, with some of these “abuses” being nothing more that government-sponsored criminality up to and including murder (lynchings that went unpunished).
So what enforces the limits of the powers of the state, county, and local governments? The hanging question first posed by the Roman poet Juvenal, “Quis custodiet ispos custodes?” is commonly mistranslated as “Who watches the watchers.” Literally, it’s actually, with some extra words inserted because of differences between Latin and English grammar, “Who will guard the guards themselves?” But the sense of “custodes” is more akin to “custodian” – not in the sense a janitor [!] but one who has been granted the legal custody of a minor child. So who indeed has custody of those who have the custody of our freedoms and way of life they ensure?
That’s a poser, is it not?
My two cent’s worth (and it may not be even worth two cents) is that those advocating hewing exactly to the Constitution (and presumably the first ten amendments too) as written really ought to consider that if the United States could somehow turn back the clock to the United States exactly as it was after the ratification of the Constitution and the first ten amendments, a sample of what that would be like would mean:
o Slavery would be legal
o Women could not vote
o There would be no public health
o There would be no public libraries
o There would be no public highways, just private toll roads
o There would be no public fire departments
o There would be no police departments
o There would be no district attorneys
o There would be no penitentiaries
o There would be no pubic education
o Establishment of religion would be permissible at the state level
o The Supreme Court of the United States could determine the Constitutionality of all statutes passed by the legislature
o Decisions of courts of review would become part of the Common Law, even absent a statute to interpreted
o The Federal government would be running the Post Office
o There would be no Federal Income Tax
o And so on…
Those who think Trump can be shamed or thwarted by rubbing his nose in his misdeeds or lies, are laboring under two false convictions.
o Firstly, Trump is a narcissist as defined in the DSM. Narcissism is a very rare personality disorder so most people don’t recognize a narcissist when they encounter one and most people do not know the characteristics of this severe, virtually un-treatable personality disorder (even the slightest attempt and treatment triggers the disorder).
o Secondly Trump is a bullshitter as delineated in, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Princeton University, Dr Harry Frankfurt’s seminal academic paper, “On Bullhsitting.” (http://www.stoa.org.uk/topics/bullshit/pdf/on-bullshit.pdf)
In his paper, Dr Frankfurt points out that both truth-tellers and liars have something in common that they don’t share with bullshitters like President Trump, to wit, both truth-tellers and liars, each in their own way, care about the truth. The bullshitter is concerned only with the effect his or her bullshit has on listeners. They are totally unconcerned and indifferent to the truth or falsity of their bullshit .
This can easily be observed if you contrast the behavior of a liar with the behavior of a bullshitter when you confront them with proof of their lies. The liar will do everything he or she can to refute or evade your allegation. The bullshitter will simply shrug and walk away.
Note that whataboutism is not the same thing at all as refuting allegations. Despite the silly sounding name, Whataboutism realiy is a thing. I fact Whataboutism is a well known tool routinely used by propagandists such as the Disinformation Directorate of the former Soviet KGB and Fox News. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism) to at least muddy the waters, but ultimately to fllim-flam those subjected to Whataboutism into feeling that everyone has been reduced the the moral and ethical level of those the propagandists are attempting to defend. After the propagandists have gotten the victims of their whataboutism in thos state, the victims will perceive anyone who has the temerity to merely cites credible facts about the surrilously low character, morals, and ethics of their paymaster is perceived by their victims as a hypocrite.
As Dear Abby used to advise, “Wake up and smell the coffee!” But in some folks’ cases, they have been beating their one drum so loudly and for so long, that they have deafened themselves. In their cases, it might be advisable to invoke a National Emergency and re-activate the WWII Donut Dollies to provide mass quantities of hot mocha java to the SIHI (Self-Inflicted Hearing Impaired).
The United States of America has a goverment of the people, for the benefit of the elite, by lawyers
Piecemeal reactive efforts against individual harms caused by the corporate elite or their bought-and-paid for government stooges are feckless. In the face of massive, concerted, coordinated, well-organized and well-funded efforts by the corporate elite and their apologists, lickspittles, toadys, and running dogs to at first nullify, and intimately subvert, democracy with their only goal, and indeed, as constituted by the elite for the benefit of the elite, the golem that is the incorpated (literally, a real person that exists only on paper) limited-liability (as in Calculus, this particular limit is zero liability), of lining their pockets.
Those who want to restore democratic authority over corporations, revive real grassroots democracy, and establish appropriate limits on corporate influence are going to have to fight fire with fire. Which means working for systemic change, instead of reacting to ploys from long-standing corporate agendas as they appear.
In other words:
Eschew Whack-A-Mole!
Take, for example, an example of Doublespeak that even George Orwell would ruefully admire:
Free Market Capitalism
As the well known smartass Voltaire said of the Holy Roman Empire (whatever the heck that was), “It’s neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire), so-called “Free Market Capitalism” has nothing to do with freedom as commonly understood (except for those poor benighted souls whose lives were changed forever when they read their first Ayn Rand novel). It’s a nasty, selfish, ego-centric freedom that includes the freedom to live in a cardboard box in an alley and dine from Dumpsters. It also includes the freedom to get sick and die if you can’t afford medical care and being too old to work, or too crippled to work, or too mentally ill to work, or too young to work is no excuse for not paying your own way. Why? Because that would mean less profits!
As for markets, their idea of a “market” (if not a monopoly, they’ll settle for a oligopoly, such as our free market capitalistic Internet Service Providers that actually own only the “last mile” of the Internet, who, collectively prove once again, that Free Market Capitalism is the best way to allocate resources by gifting Americans with one-third the bandwith at three times the price compared to all other Western democracies (this is right out of Orwell’s Doublespeak Dictionary, an appendix to his “Brave New World”).
As for capitalism?
First, why is it an “ism” at all? It’s just good business, after all. Little kids running a lemonade stand understand they have to take in more than they spend. But the devil is in the details. While there has been much in the press lately about the massive diversion of earnings from those doing the work to the elite, that began during the Regan administration, and has been increasing at an accelerating rate ever since (since in the USA money equals power and power equals money, it’s equally valid to cite the diversion of power from those doing the work to the elite too).
But what is virtually not remarked upon is an equally massive shift of profits into the pockets of the elite. For capital to grow (I.e., capitalism), only after overhead, salaries, investments in new facilities, new products, research and development, buying other companies, and so on, are covered, should dividends be declared. It’s clear that in addition to robbing those doing the work blind, the elite are also looting their own corporations.
That would seem to be a short-term strategy. But it’s not. Further increasing unearned profits are all the government handouts (our money) to the elite in the form of public assistance for underpaid employees, government funded R&D, tax breaks, price supports, H1B visas, tarries, and – ultimately – a government bailout. Any anything finances by selling government bonds could be said to be robbing Peter to pay Paul, but with a time delay between the paying and the robbing except that it’s those who do the work who are Peter and it’s the elite who are Paul.
As a grotesque example of how much of democracy that the corporate have eaten away at, lately it was in the news that after millions of Americans, exercising their constitutional right to petition their government (the Federal Communications Commission in this case) clearly expressing their need for Net Neutrality. Among the many offices that the elite bought and paid the Trump administration, was appointing the former lobbyist for Verizon as the Chairman of the FCC who promptly trashed Net Neutrality, citing as justification that Net Neutrality would dampen competition among ISPs (do any of you have more than a choice or two in ISPs? My only choice is Comcast, the most hated – deservedly so IMHO – company in America … hated even more than car rental companies, cell phone companies, and used car salesmen!)
This is far from the first time the the corporate elite put one of their foxes in charge of our hen-house. In fact, it could be said that’s their SOP.
For example, President George W Bush’s third choice for Secretary of the Treasury (the first two kept saying his economic policies were crap) was the CEO of Goldman Sachs, one of the major beneficiaries of the Bush’s 2007 Economic Meltdown. As part of his promised draining of the swamp, President Trump appointed who as Secretary of the Treasury? Right. The current CEO Goldman Sachs.
And back in the day, government-sponsored meddling with the freedom of the Free Enterprise System (aka anti-trust), broke up the Rockefeller’s Standard Oil multinational-empire into separate companies. For eample, Standard Oil’s brand of gasoline station, Esso, became the company Exxon, with a nifty logo designed by the famous Franco-American designer Raymond Lowey (he also designed the Shell Oil logo).
But later Exxon and Mobil were allowed to merge.
Now, here are some fun facts about the extractive industries that might suprise some folks: Russia, which holds some of the largest proven oil reserves, also holds the world’s largest natural gas reserves – and what-the-heck the second-largest coal reserves in the world – is the second biggest oil supplier in the world after Saudi Arabia. So the CEO of ExxonMobile had one of those sweet deals all set up and ready to go with Russia, modeled after the the Arabian-US “joint” venture (we did the work and pumped the oil while the Saudi’s got some of the proceeds) which was originally called the Arabian-American Oil Company, or Aramco, but now is called the Saudi Arabian Oil Company. I might add that Arabia was known as just Arabia (al’Arabia in Arabic) until the Saudi family took it over and named it after themselves. And Trump thinks he knows branding!
But then that pesky Vlad the Impaler (Oops! Sorry! Wrong Vlad! That’s Dracula!). I mean Vlad the Neo-Cold-Warrior annexed the Crimea (which was soaked with Russian blood during the Great Patriotic War as the opening act in the decisive Battle of Stalingrad – during which bloodbath, by the way, Nikita Khrushchev served on the front lines as a political officer, an office peculiar to the Red Army).
In response. that well known foreigner, Muslim, red-diaper-baby Communist, and all-around hater of America, President Barack Obama, imposed sanctions on Russia which included canceling, despite vociferous objections by the CEO of ExxonMobil, the ExxonMobile-Russia deal. Need I mention the former occupation of our current Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson?
Which brings us to Powell Memo (cont)