A Trek’s Rest Thought:
Having read Frank Rich’s article in the New York Magazine: “Roy Cohn, Donald Trump, and the New York Cesspool” the line identifying Trump as “an enduring strain of political evil that is as malignant in its way as the AIDS virus, just as dangerous to the nation, and just as difficult to eradicate” was telling.
The article tells of the truly corrupt New York City movers and shakers of our nation’s activities where party politics are irrelevant and godless, other than worshiping “the god of the deal” to crookedly enrich themselves.
Trump took Cohn’s evilness and magnified it. The supreme irony is his biggest supporters are those who profess to oppose evil – the Evangelists. Not only is that so ironic but think how these Southern states supporters are backing a New York City Yankee whose life long beliefs run absolutely contrary what they told us were their beliefs.
The Trump/Evangelical marriage could only have been made by the Devil.
Could you imagine Iran holding that note ?
‘China’ is easily broken . China is not .
Lot of butter there . Mao butter, please !
Reagan, who made it alright for a “conservative” Republican to make the US the biggest debtor in history, after being the riches creditor, defeated a morally (and economically) bankrupt entity that was on its last legs. He waved SDI and they folded. Then Nixon comes along and makes nice with slave holding brutes of China. And here we are–how much paper do the Chinese hold on the US thanks to Tricky Dicky?
If we had stuck with the GATT and kept the Chinese out, they would have rotted from within. Instead, they are not only allowed at the table, but are granted MFN and laugh all the way to the bank.
Democrats can share their disasters with the gods of conservatism.
Rich of the NYT is about as credible as Duranty of the NYT was during the terror famine in Ukraine. All Americans should be thankful for the Evangelicals. They were the ones that gave us Reagan, the strong anti communist who led us to victory in the cold war. Most of the Democrats at that time opposed Reagan’s program. Kennedy,O’Neil Frank and Boland did everything they could to frustrate his measures. Fortunately the Liberals failed and Reagan’s military buildup was enacted. Today over 100 million Eastern Europeans are free thanks to Reagan and the Evangelical Movement. Are the Poles, Ukrainians and Slovaks better off being liberated by the Gipper or should they have stayed in Soviet bondage ?
Make that, the Roosevelt/Truman imposed Soviet Bondage. Give credit where credit is due for the plight of the Poles, Ukrainians, Slovaks, et alii.
well, he co-wrote it . . .or at least he read it . . .what does President Trump read on Air Force One?
The question is like the song Wild Thing said, “Wild thing, you move me!” What moves Donald Trump?
We don’t know. Hutch is right. Let’s admit it, one and all, even me who voted for Trump. We don’t know what’s bedrock, there. We don’t even know if there is bedrock.
” Well he co-wrote it … or at least he read it ….”
That sounds like a real lawyer, your Honor, gimme that guy !!!
PRICELESS !!!
AND THAT’S A GOOD THING !!!
Donald Trump’s Higher Plane is AIR FORCE ONE !!!
VROOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM !!!!!!!!!
Speak for yourself, Billy Butler Yeats !!!
Hutch, in a nutshell, you’ve posed the correct questions . . . those are the matters that should be probed . . .the fact is we knew with JFK, MLK, RFK, Carter, Humphrey, Reagan, Obama . . .all achieved and fell short of their ideals . . .but we sensed their bedrock principles, motives, “beliefs” . . .with President Trump, we don’t know . . .we know he stands for some conservative values but acts as a neocon at times . . .we know he’s tactless and acerbic at times . . .his bedrock values, “the higher plane”he envisions? You are 100% correct, on the money, with the right questions, and we just do not know what the answer is . . .at least don’t . . .He hasn’t written “Profiles in Courage” . .he hasn’t even professed deep biblical faith like Jimmy Carter who said he had “lust in his heart” as we all do, as W.B. Yeats put it: “Why do lust and rage attend old age?” The answers: Lust, in case you’re the last man standing; Rage, in case you’re one of the last two men standing and Felicia’s gonna chose the winner . . .I’m talking propagation and saving the human race, not saving face . . .
Trump may be a businessman without deep convictions about anything . . .he loves his children . . .he loves his wife . . .he sacrificed a billion dollars some say to run for office and become the Commander in Chief . .but that could be stark ambition and ego
Hutch, you pose the right questions
Redux : JFK hasn’t even written Profiles In Courage.
What “beliefs” does Trump espouse? What transcendence does he find in his machinations? What higher plane does he strive for?
This sad article does nothing more than list pet hates. Trump is German-Scottish, not Yankee. You hate Yankees. Therefore Trump is a Yankee. Trump leaning Evangelicals supposedly hate Evil. You hate Evangelicals. Therefore Evangelical support of Trump is a moral sham. Is one to suppose that You embrace Evil?
[Aside, everyone hates Evil. Aristotle teaches that man is inclined towards good and wrongdoing comes from error, in Theology in essence it is a rejection of Logos.]
Hilliary lost in 2016. Accept it.
Interesting: ” Yankee ” is not an ethnicity, yet the ethnic groups from which that cultural icon was derived were definable, and exclusive in limit. This was no conspiracy ; just demographics. Donald Trump’s ethnicity has been proudly borne by many a Yankee , “Swamp,” and traditional. Yet, “Yankee” generally refers to New Englander’s of English ancestry. And we haven’t even gotten to the Boston Brahmins and the superior moral world they wielded their eponymous priestly caste authority in.
Not every Yankee was a Brahmin .
Every Brahmin was a Yankee .
Unconsciously, our Moderator, while not committing a solecism, has played tellingly on this bit of nomenclature.
Calling Trump a “Yankee” salutes both the Yankee and the Brahminical traditions. Paradoxically, the intended insult becomes a supreme compliment !
Still not HRC.
Ed, what you wrote counts for so much. For all of Trump’s accomplishments in the Oval Office — past, present and future — the fact that Trump is not HRC is of tremendous importance, a key to understanding the real impact he has had and will have on our republic. Not having HRC in office represents a YUGE dividend paid daily to this country. Any proper discussion of politics and evil ought to start (and probably end) with the name Clinton.
Frank Rich could be the troubadour of the #nevertrump move. You need to take him with a Xanax.
* That is ” record unemployment ‘ as : The United States of America has achieved nearly full employment in Donald Trump World !!!
It is a deranged ball of contradictions , the World .
People who bring sense to it should be exalted . Trump is making sense !!!
Sure , record unemployment , peace in the offing on the Korean Peninsula , a Town that really did , as another New York Yankee, The Joker, said … “Need an enema” ( and is getting one ! ) and a Nobel Peace Prize for a , deserving , American President .
What a Faustian bargain maker this guy is !
Trump has nothing to do with anything you give him credit for.
Dave , I am not a fellow traveler. Yet, I respect your right to travel and your political passions as expressed here. I am not a correspondent when partisan pot shots are taken and everyone leaves the table as convinced of the correctness of their views as when they sat down for the communal nosh .
Find other grist on the blog , then , ,Dave, for your witty mill. If you disagree with a comment of mine of a political nature ,as you undoubtedly will, know that … I … know that.. you are almost certain to disagree. And your objection general is duly noted .
Not a partisan you say but a Trump apologist and groveler you hold yourself out to be.
Dave, who did he appoint to SCOTUS? Will you give him credit for that? And why not a least a crumb of credit for North Korea setting its clocks to South Korean time and Kim deciding to become a good guy, or at least a better guy, a more amenable guy, a guy willing to pow-wow? Nothing to do with Trump and Trump’s picks, Mattis, Kelly, Pompeo?
JFK hasn’t even written Profiles In Courage .
No because that SCOTUS seat was stolen and Gorsuch from what I understand tends to rule in favor of corporations over the little guy.