Yes, a very troubled man happens to have been elected president of the United States by a discordant group of discontents. It seems we will be stuck with him for longer than many weak stomachs can hold out. Unfortunately there are sick days in the offing.
Calvin Coolidge once said the business of America is business. A true capitalistic statement if ever there was one. Until some wiser judges gained seats on the Supreme Court breaking the hold of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants we were treated with decisions like those that ruled that the laws prohibiting child labor interfered with the right of contract between employer and employee and thus were unconstitutional. Only a Trump-WASP could believe there was equality in bargaining position between a 13-year-old boy sorting coal and the mine owner.
So as they say as stupid thinks stupid does. Our bright star president happened to attend a meeting of the heads of state of the NATO member states. After having been treated like royalty by America’s newly found good friend the Saudis (how many of them were involved in 9/11) who went right to his weak spot his love of himself (he’s so bad Melania refuses to hold his hand); and they sent him off to Israel where Netanyahu also played to his conceit while laughing up his sleeve at his imbecilities; and then on to the Pope for his short private session (Obama’s was 50% longer) where the Pope swallowed hard even to look at him his head swelled so much it was difficult getting him onto Air Force One for his trip to the NATO meeting of equals.
There Trump found himself lost at sea with these other heads of state who were not sycophants. From all reports they were highly unimpressed with the amateur lecturing them. The Brussels meeting was especially not to Trump’s liking because the streets were lined with protesters; he liked his Saudi experience where nary a word was heard from the people while the autocratic sheikhs showered him with praise.
Democracy has a way of puncturing an ego. Did you see how like a hoodlum he shoved the premier of Montenegro out of his way because everyone was ignoring him? Did you notice how the newly elected French leader Macron snubbed him in favor of Merkel and other European leaders?
Trump is totally at a loss dealing with bright people who speak their minds. He likes toadies like the Arab leaders who are looking for things. With free leaders he is incapable of doing other than sticking his head up into the clouds while those around him chat away in a friendly manner. He’s the prototype of the “do you know who I am” type person.
Without the faintest understanding of diplomacy he set about a speech dunning the leaders of these democratic nations so unlike his way of dealing with Xi Jinping. Putin, Duterte, el-Sisi, and the Arab monarchs. Didn’t you notice his contempt for freely elected leaders.
Doesn’t Trump comprehend that we need NATO more than it needs us. it was the peace in Europe that NATO brought about that allowed America to thrive.? Is he aware we brought down the evil empire of the Soviet Union through our alliance with Europe?
That’s the problem with business men who only think of the bottom line and are incapable of placing a value on intangibles like a free, peaceful and stable Europe. Trump is a petty and troubled man. He is unable to see any value in things most free people appreciate. He views everything in dollar and cents.
He could not but notice that he was not considered the leader of NATO. It was Merkel. Of all things, a woman had bested him. She was the one the others were drawn to. Was that is the reason for his foolish attack on the Germans calling them evil because of their auto industry? Does Trump know how many German auto plants have located in America? Is he going to force them out?
Of course, the worst part of his NATO visit was his silence on coming to the aid of a fellow NATO country if one is attacked by Russia. Every president since Harry Truman has made that commitment. Trump waffled on it.
Reagan told Gorbachev to tear down the wall in Berlin; Trump is telling Putin NATO may not have America’s help if it attacks its neighbors. Is that Trump’s way of paying back the favors Russia gave him in his run for the presidency? He’ll let it have Estonia for a bargain price.
One thing is clear. Trump finds friends among the dictators and hostility among the democratically elected leaders. Who ever though America would have such a troubled leader incapable of relating to fellow democratically elected leaders? Who would believe our president is a laughing-stock within the corridors of Europe? Whoever thought our democracy was so fragile that such an embarrassment could occur.
Ed:
I read the NATO article. NATO still pats itself on the back for Libya. After bombing Serbia (1999) for 90 days (it bombed Yugoslavia for a week in 1995), NATO decided that is was no longer a defensive organization (deterring the Soviet Union and home-grown Fascists) but was now an international offensive organization. Bureaucratic metastatic sprawl.
It’s good that NATO has joined us in the war on terror. NATO countries previously assisted us during the Korean War, but not during Vietnam.
At least it acknowledged that America’s Marshall Plan got it back on its feet.
(2) Yes, America had war debt at the end of WWII. Few didn’t. But it wasn’t prostrate like Europe and Japan. Even with the debt, it was the still the World’s preeminent military, industrial and economic power.
I’m getting dizzy.
Here’s a video of Trump mocking people: Watch it with the sound off. Try to guess in which instance he’s supposedly mocking a “disabled” person.
http://video.foxnews.com/v/5123278995001/?#sp=show-clips
Barack Obama’s job approval numbers in the state of West Virginia hit a low of 24%.
In 1946, Harry Truman’s job approval was in the low 30%; in 1952, Harry Truman’s job approval numbers nationally bottomed out at about 22%.
Does that prove they were “unfit” for office?
Trump had a great trip overseas. Trump’s supreme court and cabinet picks have been excellent. The stock market has boomed since his inauguration. (Still up over 6%) April saw 220,000 new jobs. The Keystone Pipeline and Dakota Access Pipeline are back in business. Regulations cut. Tax cuts in the pipeline. Production is up. Illegal immigration is down. Mosul is set to fall. Improved relations with China. Europe getting ready to pitch in more. Sunni states setting up anti-extremist centers. Progress everywhere.
And the “real media” wallows in the muck and mire! (90% negativity on CNN, says Harvard.)
DanC:
You have not read the Harvard Study: What you call “the real media” is considered “fake news” by over two-thirds of Americans. Nearly 70% of American don’t believe your “real media.” It is your “real media” that has become the “joke.”
Again, you justify your epithets against Trump because he has used epithets against others. That’s schoolyard logic. “He started it!”
The illogic is towering. You say “some conservatives” laughed about Hillary’s collapse, so it’s OK for you to mock a senior citizen using a golf cart? I asked if you laughed about her collapse. I didn’t laugh. How do you know Trump didn’t feel a little tired or a little faint? How steep are those hills in Sicily, anyway?
As for Trump mocking the disabled reporter, the video shows Trump making spastic movements as he’s done mocking others who were not disabled. It’s an expression Trump has used describing critics whose arguments are all over the place. You can find examples on youtube. Moreover, the reporter did not have a spastic disease. He had one deformed armed.
But why let facts get in the way of a drum roll.
Trump apologized for his remarks about Carly Fiorino. Will you apologize for your personal attacks?
His comments about a “fat” model, where made to a beauty contestant who put on a lot of weight. His other derogatory remarks to women were made in showbiz-type settings. Admittedly, he’s made some rude statements. That gives you the license to indulge in character assassination?
One study showed 90%-plus of those who voted for Trump would vote for him again; another study showed he’d still beat Hillary; his approval rating among Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents according to Politico (May 16, 2017) was 66%. Rasmussen, which got the election right, has his approval at between 46% and 48% this past week.
Gallup has an overall disapproval of 54%. So what?
Of course leftists (liberal Democrats) question his “fitness”; they questioned Reagan’s and George Bush’s fitness. Remember? You can read all about it!
Bill: This is really weak stuff. No one but members of the Trump Cult refuse to believe he wasn’t cruelly ridiculing this reporter. You say this poor guy only had “one deformed arm”? ? Is this the party line among cult members? So sad.
The confusing mish mash of poll numbers can’t conceal the fact that Trump is a very unpopular president . He’s losing the support of independent voters. That’s a fact. Evidently, somebody’s listening to the media. Otherwise, Trump would be wildly popular, no?
The senior citizen in the golf cart is the president of the United States, not your Uncle Zeke speeding to a bingo game. POTUS needs to project enough strength to convince us — and the world — that he can keep up with Angela Merkel without the assistance of an electric vehicle.
Matt: Let’s, as you say, deal with “what happened.” And also with “what is happening.”
1. NATO countries were flat on their back at the end of WWII. The US was the world’s Supreme Military, Industrial, Agricultural, and Economic Power. US was wealthy. Europe flat broke. US helped create NATO in 1949. Your two theses are flat out false: NATO did not make US wealthy. US already was wealthy. NATO historically needed and today needs the US far more than we need NATO.
2. Economically, the European Union represents about 18% of US exports/imports. Trade represents about 20% of US GDP. Therefore, the US economy is dependent on the European Union for about 4% of its economy. (Remember, about 6 EU countries like Ireland are not in NATO)
3. It hard to support your conclusory statement, “What are we without Europe? Not much!”
In 1946 Churchill’s Fulton speech recognized the US stood at the world’s “pinnacle of power” and the US was the sine qua non of confronting Stalin’s “Iron Wall.” Even Britain knew its power had been sapped; while US then and now recognized Britain was a valuable ally, America would not be cajoled into bolstering Britain’s Empire. NATO was formed in 1949 primarily so Europe could once again stand on its own two feet militarily, with the indispensable backing of the US.
Your rift on the Marshall plan merely confirms my view: The US helped a knocked-out Europe get back on its feet.
Your rift on Germany’s power (jet planes, they already had guided missiles, on the verge perhaps of nuclear bombs) proves the point that without the US intervention Germany may have conquered Europe. You falsely claim I subscribe to Buchanan’s theses that it would be “better” to let Germany and Russian annihilate each other. I merely said that without US intervention, that would be a likely scenario. The point is NATO countries couldn’t stop Hitler on their own, nor could they have stopped the Red Army at the Elba River (Ike told them to stop there) nor could they have forced the Soviet Union to “tear down that wall”. The US was indispensable to those outcomes. Ronald Reagan was indispensable.
I wrote Reagan was “primarily” responsible for the demise of the Soviet Union – – – you ignore the qualifier “primarily” and argue “Did he do it alone?” Again, you miss the point..
You ask if the Soviets would withdraw from Czechoslovakia without NATO. Without the US backing up NATO, the Soviets would likely still be there! Without US providing the very muscle, sinew and backbone of NATO, the Soviet Union likely would still exist.
Hey, every historian recognizes Reagan’s “primary” leadership in ending the Cold War. It wasn’t Jimmy Carter, the anti-Reagan Democrats and the nuclear freeze liberals!
For the future, who is to say that if we follow Chancellor Angela Merkel’s advice to develop more friendly relations with Russia, we wouldn’t more readily defeat Islamic extremists, have a more peaceful Europe and lessen nuclear tensions?
2. Communism: Both before (e.g. Spain, Guernica) and after WWII, Marxist movements thrived. Many leftists were infatuated with Communism. Post WWII, communist movements existed in the United States (the McCarthy hearings) throughout Europe, South America, Central America, the Caribbean (Cuba), Africa, Asia (China and Vietnam.) Who could forget Mao, Ho, Che, Castro, etc? Many liberal Democrats were enamored of Communism and its kin Socialism. Of course, we’re well aware of those movements. We’re also aware that the appeal of Communism has waned, and even in Russia and China today, communism is being rejected. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that even Sweden was lowering taxes, decreasing regulations, and becoming less socialistic. (See below.)
You wrote: “What are we without Europe? Not much.” Today, without Europe, we are the greatest military and economic power on earth.
Now, even Merkel recognizes Europe must stand on its own two feet, and be less dependent on America.
Historically, of course, Americans are primarily of European descent. Today, 67% of Americans are descended from Europeans; 65% of the genes in Hispanic-Americans are from Europe; and @20% of the genes in African-Americans are from Europe. One study reported @ 34% of South Americans/Central Americans are of European descent, and 36% are of partial European descent (Mestizo).
Conclusion: You’ve wandered from your initial premises into a deeper quagmire: At first you said NATO was responsible for the US’s wealth and the US needed NATO more than NATO needed us. Twice wrong! Now you say, “Without Europe” the US isn’t much! Thrice wrong!
Wall Street Journal (May 25, 2017) Quoting a new book, The Fate of the West, by Bill Emmott, WSJ reports, “Sweden by “reducing taxes and deregulating all manner of industries” has made itself more prosperous than it once was, with “more freedom of choice and creativity.”
Sweden is learning: lower taxes, less regulation, smaller government works. Socialism stifles creativity, ingenuity, industriousness, and innovation. Capitalism works.
“US was wealthy. Europe flat broke.”
Not exactly. The U.S. used deficit spending to wage war. Remember all those War Bond drives?
What we did have at the end of the war was intact infrastructure that did not require rebuilding and aged production machinery. Many infrastructure projects today are rebuilds of New Deal projects (WPA, CCC, etc.) that after 80 years of continuous use have worn out. Other projects such as our interstate highway system are post-war projects that require rebuilding as many components only had a 50 year life.
As Western Europe rebuilt, new production machinery was purchased to supplement the machinery that survived bombing. In Eastern Europe, this was exacerbated by the Soviet Union’s practice of shipping the production machinery eastward as territory was captured. In the meantime, our use of old production machinery continued, sometimes placing U.S. manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage.
It is interesting to read NATO’s own perception of their history:
http://www.nato.int/nato_static/assets/pdf/pdf_publications/20120412_ShortHistory_en.pdf
One of the stated three purposes of the formation of NATO was “forbidding the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe through a strong North American presence on the continent”. Perhaps that is overstating Canada’s role while understating the role of the United States.
Bill: Geraldo Rivera is a joke to everyone but the people who watch Fox News. Certainly, no one in the real media takes him seriously.
As for Trump, he has publicly mocked a reporter with a serious physical disability, and called women slobs, pigs, dogs and disgusting animals. Oh, he’s also called women fat — many times. And what was it he said about Carly Fiorina? “Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that?”
Sorry, but you can’t repeatedly trash the physical appearance of others and then expect a grant of immunity, especially when you’ve turned yourself into a giant blimp who can’t even keep up with Angela Merkel.
Hillary Clinton had pneumonia when she collapsed. I’m sure you remember that your boy Trump mocked her then. Conservatives laughed heartily when Trump made fun of her fall.
Trump, on the other hand, did not have pneumonia. At worst, he had a case of the munchies when he lumbered aboard Golf Cart One for the exhausting half-mile trip to a photo shoot. So of course Trump is fair game for ridicule! Even Pope Francis got in on the action by asking Melania what she was feeding her hulking hubby.
I also think it’s reasonable to ask whether Trump is fit enough to carry out the duties of his office. And that’s no laughing matter.
DanC:
I must say, the only “intense hatred” reflected on this site comes from those suffering from TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) or the DTs (Delirium Trumpens).
1. Be serious. Have you read the Harvard Study about the MSM’s blatant biases? Geraldo Rivera, who lived through the ravenous press’s Nixon era, said today’s anti-Trump press mania was the worse he’s ever seen. He described today’s MSM as a pack of hyenas! Harvard confirms that the negativity is unprecedented.
2. As I said: The laughingstock of America are the inveterate anti-Trump liberals, blinded by their biases, who relentlessly resort to hysterical rants and wallow in pettifoggery.
3. Now, you hate Trump because he’s overweight? I thought liberals didn’t engage in, what do you call it, “body shaming.”?
It’s funny how liberals hurl the most insulting epithets at Trump while condemning Trump for calling people names.
4. You think it’s important to point out Trump took a golf cart. Shows a tad bit of shallowness in perception and perspective, wouldn’t you say?
5. In Summary: Judging from the MSM and recent liberal bloggers’ commentary, it seems the most noteworthy things to come out of President Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Israel, Bethlehem, Rome, Brussels, Sicily, et al, were (1) he rode a golf cart (2) he brushed aside the Montenegro ambassador and (3) sometimes he didn’t hold his wife’s hand.
Talk about Quibbling over Trivia!
P.S. The point in sarcastically referencing FDR’s wheelchair was that I would no more make fun of a polio victim using a wheelchair (Yes, we all know FDR had polio) than I would make fun of a senior citizen using a golf cart, especially a 260 lb senior citizen who simply may have been tired.Have you been to any college graduations lately? Golf carts are ubiquitous for transporting seniors. Fiftieth anniversary alumni are Trump’s age. Plus, Taormina, Sicily, is built on a steep hill; temps were in the high 70s. Why make fun of a senior citizen getting a ride?
Did you call Hillary a “laughingstock” when she collapsed?
Mystery man: What you’re talking about is changing times, not a vast, never-ending media conspiracy. Republican-owned newspapers dominated the press during FDR’s time. They were still powerful in Ike’s time, though TV was coming fast. Projecting your intense hatred backward in time does not work. It only warps history.
DanC:
The world’s laughingstock are the nitpicking hysterical liberals who lost the last election.
Trump is 71 years old. He was probably tired.
Was FDR a laughingstock? He needed a wheelchair!
Bill : You’re dead wrong. FDR needed a wheelchair, but he concealed his illness. You never would have caught FDR chasing behind six world leaders in a wheelchair. And let’s not forget that FDR had a crippling disease – polio – not a fondness for cheeseburgers and steak smothered in catsup. So yes, your boy Trump looked like a complete fat fool by showing up in a golf cart. And now he’s old? His age never seemed to be a problem with you guys during the campaign!
FDR wanted the wheelchair hidden and the news media concealed it for him. He was not alone in the deception. He needed help to walk and he needed help to lie as he did in Fenway Park in 1940 stating over and over again that he would not send American boys to fight in a foreign war.
One of the earliest incidents that made me politically aware was in 1956. Ike had been hospitalized for a minor heart incident. Time and others pictured the president leaving the hospital in a wheelchair. My father pointed out to me that for over 12 years no such picture had been printed about FDR and that it reflected dishonest reporting and bias. The media did not want the Eisenhower/Nixon team reelected. Nothing has changed in the ensuing sixty-one years.
The greatest power of the fake news media is choosing to be silent a la FDR. The second is outright lying a la the 98%+ attendance at South Boston High. After that only occasional facts are allowed to be filtered through on any contentious issue. The balance is entertainment.
The most important part of any news story is the question: Why is this being reported? To inform is seldom the correct answer. You should always ask that question. If you do not you might as well be a lamb on its way to slaughter.
“The most important part of any news story is the question: Why is this being reported?”
And that is why I seldom watch any news. News is not news worth hearing. How did we get along with 30 minutes of news a night back then? Amazing now that the evening news on some major channels is a three hour affair. On some it never ends. And most of it is plain garbage.
But we still must know, “How did you feel when you saw your house burned to its foundation, your entire family inside? What was going through your head? Please tell us. We need to report it to the nation. Its news.”
Six leaders of the G7 strolled about 700 yards through the streets of a Sicilian town to gather for their traditional group photo. The 7th G7 leader, U.S. President Donald Trump, chose to ride a golf cart to the ceremony and showed up late because it took a while to round up a golf cart. This man is making the U.S. a laughingstock.
I deal with people from all over the world every day. The US is no one’s laughing stock. Trump is. Its just the way they see it.
By the way, Israel loves the guy.
Sounds like you’re dealing with extremely polite people from the world to me. The perception of the fat American is widespread, and Trump feeds that stereotype.
Of course the Israelis love Trump. He makes Netanyahu look smart!
There are a number of countries that have “The Fat…..” in their names. Germany, for sure. Bulgarians are famous for being tubbies. And Russians are well known drunks but probably not as big a percentage as Icelandic people. Its just that Icelandic folks are nice so we don’t think of them as drunks. Just drinkers.
In general many citizens love America. People from all over the world want to come here before they go anywhere else. In this town, McLean, there are thousands of people from other countries. For the most part they love America. These are diplomatic corps people.
People all over the world have little against each other. It is the governments that quarrel, then send out their children to kill each other.
Bill, What good would America’s industrial might be after WWII if they had no trading partners? Europe was broken and broke; the US (Marshal Plan, IMF, GATT, World Bank etc.) devised a brilliant strategy to switch back to peace-time economy and fight the commies at the same time. NATO would be the shield by which the western economies could recover and get back in business.
You act as if the Russians had no hand in the defeat of the Nazis, but knowing your innate fairness. I’m sure this was an oversight. Marshal Plan demanded that the provision of the goods were American tractors, machine tools etc. The bastion of Western democratic capitalism held off the Soviet expansion (barely) with this under rated strategy. If NATO provided the military protection, Marshal supplied the ideological/economic power that led to the demise of the new enemy–communism. WHo cares if we are paying an unbalanced premium–Matt is right–we have reaped enormous dividends.
Hutch: Agree. Hitler waged a war of extermination against the Russian people, and mercilessly executed the entire Jewish population. But the Russians fought back and tore the guts out of the German army, as Churchill said.
Hutch,
No oversight! We were discussing NATO and the US. Plus, I mentioned Lend Lease and the Marshal Plan.
As far as the Russians, America’s Lend Lease program (food, clothing, raw materials, tools, trucks, planes, etc) also benefited the Russians. Lend Lease to Britain, Canada and Commonwealth Nations, also allowed those countries to divert weapons and materials to the Russians.
Here again, America’s economic, industrial, agricultural, military power was outcome determinative in WWII.
2.
A strong argument can be made that without the US, the Germans would have diverted many more divisions to the Eastern Front and the Russians and Nazis would have annihilated each other. Europe and Russia both would have been crippled and ravaged without the US.
3.
But that’s not the point. The point is Matt made two fallacious statements. (1) The US needs NATO more than it need us; (NATO wouldn’t exist without us!) and (2) NATO brought peace to Europe that allowed the US to thrive. (The end of WWII brought peace; when peace came the US was already thriving as the World’s foremost industrial, economic, agricultural and military powerhouse, and NATO wasn’t even born! )
Without the US, Russia would still control Eastern Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, etc. But thanks primarily to Ronald Reagan the Cold War was won.
4.
And who’s to say, that if after WWII, the US had focused its economic power on this Hemisphere and Asia, and away from Europe, that the US would be any less wealthy?
5. Pat Buchanan said that NATO’s mission ended when the Soviet Union collapsed. NATO was formed to protect western European against the Red Army. Now NATO has expanded to Russia’s border. Some say NATO should include Georgia. Want to start WWIII over Abkhazia and South Ossetia?
.
Modern NATO ran illegal wars against Serbia and LIbya. Who else will NATO be bombing? But that’s another story.
Bill:
Probably it would be best if you did not wed yourself to Buchanon’s ideas that imagine a history perhaps best to call the “who is to say” or “a strong argument could be made” history. One can always suggest something other should be done other than what happened. His idea that we should have stayed out of WWII and let the Russians and Germans annihilate each other is simplistic. What if one or the other won while we sat back? The Germans were on the cusp of developing both production model jet planes and the atomic bomb. Had the war lasted longer they may have succeeded in nuking London. The Russians might have continued on through all of Europe.
The USA depended on NATO to bring down the Soviet Union. You write: “But primarily thanks to Ronald Reagan the cold war was won.” Did he do it on his own? Did he do it in reliance upon our NATO allies? Come on, get real. The placing of missiles in Europe and the ability to use Europe to keep pressure on the Soviets was the way the evil Soviet empire fell. Do you think the Soviets would have stopped with the invasion of Czechoslovakia if there was no NATO. We could not have done that without NATO willingness to cooperate with us. How would he have stood at the wall in Berlin without NATO. Did you hear Reagan ever saying we could go it alone without NATO.
Pat Buchanon’s ideas on foreign policy are fringe ideas based on the “who is to say” type thinking. He suggests when the Soviet union collapsed NATO should have gone away. In 1989 to about 2000 that may have happened. But had it then under Putin Russia would have moved against the Baltics and who knows who else. Who could say if NATO went away all of Western Europe would not be part of the Russian empire. Who’s to say the world might not be a better place if Russia controlled those areas? Who is to say that people need freedom or enlightened ideas and would not be better off without the free (or as you would say fake) press and free speech? Whose to say that all the developments among people who have the ability to think and act freely are worth while?
You think the threat to Europe stopped with the end of WWII. You have no idea how the Soviets tried to undermine the democracies in Greece, Italy, France, Spain and other places immediately after the war. You remember the invasion of Hungary. The USA was thriving at the end of WWII compared to the rest of the world yet it still had massive war debt. It used the Marshall plan which was helping Europe get back on its feet to start to turn its own economy around. As one expert noted: “Possessed of an economy which was larger and richer than any other in the world, American leaders determined to make the United States the center of the postwar world economy. American aid to Europe ($13 billion via the Economic Recovery Program (ERP) or “Marshall Plan,” 1947-1951) and Japan ($1.8 billion, 1946-1952) furthered this goal by tying the economic reconstruction of West Germany, France, Great Britain, and Japan to American import and export needs”
We did concentrate efforts in Asia with Japan and later in Korea. We were at odds with Mao and the Chinese. As for this hemisphere do you mean Mexico? The hemisphere and Europe are totally different; the education and work ethic is totally different. It was through Europe that we became what we are. Today, our bases in Germany and Italy are essential to our defense and the hospitals located there have saved thousands of lives of our service men. What are we without Europe? Not much.
A “troubled man” elected by a “discordant group of discontents”? Lovely alliteration! Are those the same voters Hillary Clinton described as a “basket of deplorables”?
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2016/sep/11/context-hillary-clinton-basket-deplorables/
Such contempt for a large segment of American voters! I am sure that in future elections their level of sophistication will drastically improve when they vote for the same candidate as you do.
https://www.gotquestions.org/Proverbs-26-4-5.html
C’mon Ed. It’s certainly no more contemptuous than the angry white men who think of themselves as the real Americans. “We’ll show those fancy-pants liberals. With thousands of highly qualified white men to choose from, we’re going to go with Trump. Deplorable is definitely the wrong word. Pathetic is a better fit.
George Carlin observed “Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?”
People who voted for Clinton have opinions about Trump voters and other Clinton voters.
People who voted for Trump have opinions about Clinton voters and other Trump voters.
My opinion of both major party candidates was “Ugh!!!”, but I thought the other two candidates were even worse choices. No matter for which of the four you voted, Trump is now the President of the United States.
Have you started organizing support of a candidate for the 2020 election?
Ed: Seems like you’re ducking the whole question by saying that all of the candidates were bad. And if you think all the candidates missed the mark, why aren’t you organizing furiously for 2020?
As much as I considered Trump a sub-optimal candidate, the other three choices were worse. I have no regrets voting for Trump.
Knowing this, if the Democrat Party presents a candidate as bad as Hillary Clinton in 2020, I will vote to reelect Trump if he is a candidate for reelection.
The Wall Street Journal is a pay site, but have a look at this story if you can: https://www.wsj.com/articles/rural-america-is-the-new-inner-city-1495817008
It has the answers to some of the questions I’ve been asking.
So much bile. So much hate. So much irrationality. So many twisted “facts”. Calm down. See a doctor if the symptoms last much longer.
I see Trump’s approval rating is down to 40 percent in the latest Fox News poll — the lowest it’s been since the inauguration. Trump’s cult following — those who strongly approve of him — stands at 28 percent. The president’s weakness in the Fox poll is rooted in domestic policy, and I’m afraid it’s hard to see how his jaunt overseas will strengthen his position with U.S. voters.
You had the teenage boy showdown: The test-of-strength handshake between Trump and Macron. Then there was Trump rudely pushing past the leader of tiny Montenegro to get his puss in front of the cameras.
But the worst moment by far was Trump’s whining about NATO members who fail to pay their fair share. It’s Trump’s job to speak and act like the leader of the Free World. He is supposed to bring a certain degree of class and dignity to the proceedings. It is not Trump’s job to play the role of a greasy bill collector. He should have handed that one off to Rex Tillerson. Even Tillerson’s too high in the food chain for debt collection. Maybe a member of my favorite group — the Deep State — should have been chosen to do some financial arm twisting.
The best line of the trip came when Pope Francis turned to Melania and asked: “What do you feed him?”
May 25
“… 48 percent is more support than he earned in the November election, when he pulled about 46 percent to Hillary Clinton’s 48. But generally speaking, a 48 percent approval rating for a president is not what you might call “high.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/05/25/trump-take-a-moment-to-brag-that-less-than-half-the-country-thinks-hes-doing-a-good-job/
Trump is only mentioning his highest poll number. The average is slightly below 40 percent, so the Fox poll seems to sit about right.
CROOKS, LIARS, AND SPIES: 10 GREAT BOOKS OF WASHINGTON INTRIGUE
ONCE A SWAMP, ALWAYS A SWAMP
http://lithub.com/crooks-liars-and-spies-10-great-books-of-washington-intrigue/
Matt:
Trump’s not troubled. Liberals are.
You write: “Democracy has a way of puncturing an ego.” Yes it does, and when Republicans swept the Presidency, Senate, House, Governorships and local legislatures (these past elections) Liberals’ self-righteous egotism was shattered.
You write: “Trump is totally at a loss dealing with bright people who speak their minds.” He won or held his own in all the presidential debates! No bright people in the business world?
You write: “we need NATO more than it needs us.” NATO wouldn’t exist without us defeating the Nazis in WWII. Europe alone was lost without us! Maybe, America should focus less on Europe and more on this Hemisphere. (According to Politico: the US covers 72% of military spending in NATO countries; and US contributes 22% to NATO’s annual $2 billion expenditures.) NATO could not have stood against the Red Army without the US.
You write: “It was the peace in Europe that NATO brought that allowed America to thrive.” Again the end of WWII brought the peace! NATO didn’t exist in WWII. The WWII peace was brought and ensured by US military might and US industrial power (Lend Lease Program) which were the sine qua non of bringing that peace and keeping it.
You forget that Europe was bankrupt and broken. You forget the Marshall Plan. You put the horse before the cart! (We pulled Europe’s feet from the fire in WWII and WWI, too.) And before NATO was formed, the US already was a world Superpower and an Industrial Dynamo, having recovered from the 1930s worldwide Great Depression and having won WWII.
To repeat: Before NATO was formed in April 1949, the United States was already the world’s foremost military and industrial power, and back then its only nuclear power.
You write; “One thing is clear.” Yes! It is clear that many otherwise intelligent folks
(liberals) have a pathological antipathy towards President Trump, an antipathy that clouds reason and smothers objectivity. It clearly is a form of madness.
2. Since Trump’s election liberals have become increasingly unglued, irrational, hysterical, apoplectic! Even Harvard reports that the liberal MSM, once merely slanted, is now blatantly biased. One Harvard study shows CNN et al giving Trump 90% negative coverage. Another Harvard study showed 70% of ordinary Americans think the MSM is “fake news”: (Today, Harvard reports that 80% of Republicans, 67% of Independents and even 53% of Democrats don’t trust the Press and Media in America.)
Liberals have lost all perspective. The MSM cannot cover this President honestly and objectively. We the American people notice the reflexive biases. Even Harvard notices.
“and then on to the Pope for his short private session (Obama’s was 50% longer) …”
Sir, that is beneath you.
And now for something completely off-topic–
http://legalinsurrection.com/2017/05/obama-administration-admits-to-fisa-court-its-nsa-illegally-spied-on-americans/
They go where the money is. They all do, Democrats or Republicans.
“I was amazed to learn that Trump’s speech to the Arab and African attendees had been written by pro-Israel ideologue Stephen Miller, a young senior White House staffer from California who is an extreme Zionist. How very bizarre.”
Hillary was no better:
During her tenure as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton made weapons transfers to the Saudi government a “top priority,” according to a new report published in The Intercept. While Clinton’s State Department was deeply invested in getting weapons to Saudi Arabia, the Clinton Foundation accepted millions of dollars in donations from both the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the weapons manufacturer Boeing. Christmas presents were being gifted all around. https://theintercept.com/2016/02/22/saudi-christmas-present/