Well, all this is interesting to me, anyway, and that's what matters here. The Internet is a terrible thing for someone like me, who finds almost everything interesting.
Thursday, September 14, 2017
No, he's just crazy
This is why I like Keith Olbermann.
Donald Trump isn't going to change. He's just crazy. He's a narcissist who cares about nothing but himself. He treats his allies as badly as he does his political enemies, because while he requires their slavish devotion, he also despises them for it.
Of course, if you object even slightly to anything he says or does, you're instantly on his shit list no matter how much you kowtowed previously. Trump demands loyalty, but he doesn't give it. He cares nothing about anything or anyone but himself.
And he has zero impulse control. Sometimes, his minders can get him, grudgingly, to read something moderately rational off the teleprompter, but it's never going to last. That always pisses him off (because the rest of the world should see how wonderful he is without all that, right?), and he's only as disciplined as a three-year-old, anyway.
It seems like most journalists either don't see that or else want to pretend that they don't. Of course, recognizing the truth about our president would be 'biased,' huh? Not that his supporters - or any Republican, really - will believe anything but what they want to believe, anyway.
That's the crazy thing. Even if a journalist bends over backward giving Trump the benefit of the doubt, that's never going to be enough. For narcissists and their supporters, it's slavish devotion or nothing.
And you can't be subtle about it, either. Remember when Trump got his cabinet together - on camera - so that each could give a little speech about how wonderful he is? Bizarre, wasn't it? But that's what Trump wants from everyone.
"He would make a drum out of the skin of his mother in order to sound his own praises." --David Lloyd George (about Winston Churchill)
In the way they cover Trump, the media is acting like the woman who is about to marry the asshole drunk everyone warned her about. Her reply to them is always the same..."I'm going to change him." One of my sisters made that same mistake.
Unfortunately, the media isn't going to change, either. They've discovered the mathematical equation of "Trump = Ratings = $$$$." But this is nothing new, since the major networks turned the "nightly news" from a service into a for-profit revenue stream back in the 1970s.
Change of subject....Have you ever had hernia surgery, Bill? Not fun. I "went under the knife" last Friday, so I'm going to be out of commission for a few weeks. Now I get to wait for the fun part.....the BILL. Even though I have Blue Cross/Blue Shield, I'm "guess-timating" I'm going to have to cough up at least $3,000 to cover the rest of it. (Could somebody please tell me again why 'Murics'a healthcare system is SOOOO superior to the rest of the civilized world?)
No, Jeff, that's one... experience I've missed, thankfully. I'm sorry to hear about it - and about the bill. Good luck with the recovery!
The good(?) thing about Trump is that he's so very, very unpopular. Remember, after 9/11, how the media treated George W. Bush? He changed from being a complete joke to being 'Commander-in-Chief,' and the media became terrified of criticizing him.
Hmm,... that's actually rather frightening right now, since Republicans know that even invading a completely innocent country can be a good way to push the *PATRIOTISM* angle which says that no one can criticize a president during wartime (unless that president is a Democrat, of course).
Anyway, my point is that for-profit businesses - including the media - are far less worried about offending a very unpopular president than they would be at offending a popular one. They're still cowardly, often enough, but not quite as timid as they'd be otherwise.
And note that political comedians are making a killing here. Their businesses are making lots of money by criticizing Trump. Don't think that the media can't see that. So as long as Trump remains unpopular, I'm not too worried. (Well, I'm very, very worried, just not about that.)
And given that it's Trump, who can't even keep from ridiculing his own supporters, I don't see any big changes coming in that respect. Unless he decides to start World War III or something...
I'm a skeptic. I think it makes sense to have reasons for what I believe, so I apportion my belief to the evidence. You're welcome to disagree. Please, tell me I'm wrong. I probably don't agree with anyone about everything. Why should disagreement be a problem? Check the Pages section below for series posts and links to book reviews and game posts, as well as contact info. Unfortunately, I rarely blog at all, anymore. So don't expect new posts. - Bill
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true. - Robert Wilensky
It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong - Richard Feynman
The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss, and commit to memory the one, and pass over the other. - Sir Francis Bacon
When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Speculation is perfectly all right, but if you stay there you've only founded a superstition. If you test it, you've started a science. - Hal Clement
No matter how many times a theory meets its tests successfully, there can be no certainty that it will not be overthrown by the next observation. This, then, is a cornerstone of modern natural philosophy. It makes no claim of attaining ultimate truth. In fact, the phrase "ultimate truth" becomes meaningless, because there is no way in which enough observations can be made to make truth certain and, therefore, "ultimate". - Isaac Asimov
The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion. - Treaty of Tripoli, passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate and signed by President John Adams (1797)
I don't doubt the sincerity of dowsers, but even after we've demonstrated that they can't produce results that are any better than chance they'll still go away believing in their abilities... It is like the mother whose son is caught shoplifting on tape. She wonders why someone would want to frame her child by producing a fake video. - James Randi
During many ages there were witches. The Bible said so. The Bible commanded that they should not be allowed to live. Therefore the Church ... imprisoned, tortured, hanged, and burned whole hordes and armies of witches, and washed the Christian world clean with their foul blood. Then it was discovered that there was no such thing as witches, and never had been. One does not know whether to laugh or to cry. - Mark Twain
Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths. - Bertrand Russell
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything. - Friedrich Nietzsche
I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them. - Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.
This is not about proof. Science does not use proof. We favor evidence, and the work consists largely of the slow accumulation of evidence in support of ideas, not magically potent proofs that establish an idea as unassailable. - PZ Myers
No, people don't expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all. - President Barack Obama
The formula was very simple: build this really flexible, really open economy, tolerate creative destruction so dead capital is quickly redeployed to better ideas and companies, pour into it the most diverse, smart and energetic immigrants from every corner of the world and then stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat. - Shekhar Gupta
We are prodding, challenging, seeking contradictions or small, persistent residual errors, proposing alternative explanations, encouraging heresy. We give our highest rewards to those who convincingly disprove established beliefs. - Carl Sagan
We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. - Richard Dawkins
120 million of us place the big bang 2,500 years after the Babylonians and Sumerians learned to brew beer. - Sam Harris
To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man. - Michael Servetus, burned at the stake in 1553
Democracy is not about majority rule; it is about minority rights. If there is no culture of not simply tolerating minorities, but actually treating them with equal rights, real democracy can't take root. - Thomas L. Friedman
We cannot absolutely prove that those are in error who tell us that society has reached a turning point, that we have seen our best days. But so said all who came before us and with just as much apparent reason. - Thomas Macauley, 1830
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and remember we are not descended from fearful men. - Edward R. Murrow
The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence. Science is simply common sense at its best - that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic. - Thomas Huxley
There is no absurdity so obvious that it cannot be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to impose it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity. - Arthur Schopenhauer
Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual. ... Erecting the "wall of separation between church and state," therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society. - President Thomas Jefferson
To be elected in America, no matter from what party, the candidates have no choice but to year after year pledge to lower taxes further and further. We have become the nation of Ken and Barbie, looking good but very poor at the math. - Rack Jite
Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of great spiritual power. We know this because they are capable of being invisible and pink at the same time. Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them. - Steve Eley
We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics. - President Franklin D. Roosevelt
I have been attacked by Rush Limbaugh on the air, an experience somewhat akin to being gummed by a newt. It doesn't actually hurt, but it leaves you with slimy stuff on your ankle. - Molly Ivins
In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican. - H. L. Mencken
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. - Winston Churchill
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2 comments:
"He would make a drum out of the skin of his mother in order to sound his own praises." --David Lloyd George (about Winston Churchill)
In the way they cover Trump, the media is acting like the woman who is about to marry the asshole drunk everyone warned her about. Her reply to them is always the same..."I'm going to change him." One of my sisters made that same mistake.
Unfortunately, the media isn't going to change, either. They've discovered the mathematical equation of "Trump = Ratings = $$$$." But this is nothing new, since the major networks turned the "nightly news" from a service into a for-profit revenue stream back in the 1970s.
Change of subject....Have you ever had hernia surgery, Bill? Not fun. I "went under the knife" last Friday, so I'm going to be out of commission for a few weeks. Now I get to wait for the fun part.....the BILL. Even though I have Blue Cross/Blue Shield, I'm "guess-timating" I'm going to have to cough up at least $3,000 to cover the rest of it. (Could somebody please tell me again why 'Murics'a healthcare system is SOOOO superior to the rest of the civilized world?)
No, Jeff, that's one... experience I've missed, thankfully. I'm sorry to hear about it - and about the bill. Good luck with the recovery!
The good(?) thing about Trump is that he's so very, very unpopular. Remember, after 9/11, how the media treated George W. Bush? He changed from being a complete joke to being 'Commander-in-Chief,' and the media became terrified of criticizing him.
Hmm,... that's actually rather frightening right now, since Republicans know that even invading a completely innocent country can be a good way to push the *PATRIOTISM* angle which says that no one can criticize a president during wartime (unless that president is a Democrat, of course).
Anyway, my point is that for-profit businesses - including the media - are far less worried about offending a very unpopular president than they would be at offending a popular one. They're still cowardly, often enough, but not quite as timid as they'd be otherwise.
And note that political comedians are making a killing here. Their businesses are making lots of money by criticizing Trump. Don't think that the media can't see that. So as long as Trump remains unpopular, I'm not too worried. (Well, I'm very, very worried, just not about that.)
And given that it's Trump, who can't even keep from ridiculing his own supporters, I don't see any big changes coming in that respect. Unless he decides to start World War III or something...
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