....how anyone can listen to the rambling, disjointed (rather ADHD sounding, actually) self-pitying and narcissistic style of a Trump press conference and not be highly concerned about the fact that he is President of a fantastically powerful, nuclear armed nation. I've seen 10 year olds with better and more sustained coherence when speaking.
What's more, I reckon there's good reason to speculate that it is this very concern - about his mental suitability for the role - that is behind the leaking against him. Can you imagine the frustration a competent intelligence adviser must feel in having to boil down a complicated, multi-party issue into one page of highlights, and even then not being sure if he's absorbed it?
Yet Trump will still have his supporters, and it leaves the rest of us puzzling about the dire effects of everything from the use of the internet as the ultimate propaganda tool for outright liars, the corrupting effect of reality TV, and how the culture wars can overpower everything from science to the perception of reality.
I also hadn't realised how truly awful the apparently highly influential (and very young) Stephen Miller had come across in his media appearances last Sunday until I saw clips of them on Colbert last night. He truly has the creepy, dead eyed look of an android with mental health and anger issues, and yes, Trump praised his performance. Have a look at this, which wasn't even his worst performance:
These are very strange and disturbing times...
Update: I liked John Cassidy's take on the Trump press conference in the New Yorker.
18 comments:
It is creepy. Its simply means the Chaos house has even less credibility each time this guy or the very aging Conway is rolled out to argue black is white.
It is gold for comedians however.
of course if this is a well running chaos house what the hell is it going to be like when it isn't?
in other words, he's not stage managed and likes to talk off the cuff. get a grip, steve
Soony he is loopy. He believes in fake news and never acknowledges when he is wrong.
Fancy our Jason being a Trumpian. Will he be stilan apologist when all his stupid economic policies are addressed.
Jason, I think you fall into some sort of Theil-like category: too smart to worry about things you should worry about - by which I mean, a sense of detachment part derived from your intelligence, which has too much interest in just seeing what good can come out of shaking things up.
For a whole bunch of other people, we don't care to see someone so narcissistic that he believes any self-serving information that his advisers/users tell him, who has never read a book in his life, and has no idea who to take advice from on virtually any issue.
I might remind you that you're defending someone who has held a 30 year grudge against scientists for changing the propellant in his hair spray in order to stop the ozone hole depleting, for goodness sake.
But I'm sure Thiel and you can be very happy on your fortress artificial island in the South Pacific, while the rest of humanity deals with the Trump fallout. (Probably literally.)
I might further add in response to Jason: the fact that there's plenty of evidence that Reagan was starting to have Alzheimer's mental decline at least during his second term shows that, sure, you don't have to be sharpest brain in the room to be the President. But it comes down to who the President surrounds himself with, and who he will take advice from.
With Bannon and his "clash of cultures" paranoia about Islam about to take over the world, intense promotion of protectionism, and quips about war with China, there is no reason at all to feel any confidence that Trump knows who to listen to. I haven't even mentioned robot boy Miller, yet.
There is plenty of evidence to show that Trump's narcissism is such that he will listen to whoever flatters him - making him a prime person for manipulation by eccentric ideologues such as Bannon.
This is, in my books, extremely worrying.
The reaction of captains of industry type figures (like Thiel or Gates) saying they think they can work with Trump gives me no confidence - especially Thiel, who I think very eccentric and of questionable personality traits too. Industrialists don't have a fantastic record of standing up to corrupt or rotten governments if there is enough money in it for them, in case you haven't noticed...
Stop acting like a drama queen, Stepford. Trump's habit is to adlib not roll shit from a Tele prompter. That's how it is so get used to it.
Paxton, you're not offering anything worthwhile..... again.
"I might further add in response to Jason: the fact that there's plenty of evidence that Reagan was starting to have Alzheimer's mental decline at least during his second term shows that, sure,"
You're a Harvard trained neurologist now , Stepford. Wow, big come up in the world from househubby.
JC,
Flynn broke the Logan act and lied to the FBI. That is two offences you goose.
Trump saw nothing wrong with either.
Caught up with either yet?
the fact that there's plenty of evidence that Reagan was starting to have Alzheimer's mental decline at least during his second term shows that,
Elkhonen Goldberg, one of the whiz kids of modern neuroscience, wrote that upon hearing Reagan speak during the Iran Contra hearings, proclaimed: "He has dementia!"
BTW Goldberg, together with the illustrious J. Fuster, started the only brain training website and program that I think has any merit: Smart Brains.
Oh yes Jason, Trumps off the cuff talk is sooo encouraging ....
Donald Trump also answers the following question: What is 2+2?
"I have to say a lot of people have been asking this question. No, really. A lot of people come up to me and they ask me. They say, 'What's 2+2?' And I tell them look, we know what 2+2 is. We've had almost eight years of the worst kind of math you can imagine. Oh my god, I can't believe it. Addition and subtraction of the 1s the 2s and the 3s. Its terrible. Its just terrible. Look, if you want to know what 2+2 is, do you want to know what 2+2 is? I'll tell you.
First of all the number 2, by the way I love the number 2. It's probably my favorite number, no it is my favorite number. You know what, it's probably more like the number two but with a lot of zeros behind it. A lot. If I'm being honest, I mean, if I'm being honest. I like a lot of zeros. Except for Marco Rubio, now he's a zero that I don't like. Though, I probably shouldn't say that. He's a nice guy but he's like, '10101000101', on and on, like that. He's like a computer! You know what I mean? He's like a computer. I don't know. I mean, you know. So, we have all these numbers and we can add them and subtract them and add them. TIMES them even. Did you know that? We can times them OR divide them, they don't tell you that, and I'll tell you, no one is better at the order of operations than me. You wouldn't believe it. That I can tell you. So, we're gonna be the best on 2+2, believe me. OK? Alright. Thank you."
I was just watching the Trump presser: his comments on whether he can or can't "do a deal" with Russia were just embarrassing.
The guy just has no idea when to stop doing the "stream of consciousness" style of response.
Steve, He thought he had won the electoral college better than any other President since Reagan. That is/was simply embarrassing.
Soony reckons we have mediocre pollies here but Trump makes them look positively modern Lloyd Georges!
"Flynn broke the Logan act and lied to the FBI. That is two offences you goose."
Oh , do tell how he broke the law.
"Trump saw nothing wrong with either."
He didn't? is that why Flynn was fired, you humongously stupid person.
After listening to Trump ramble on about how he doesn't really know what Putin is up to, and how it would be good for his approval ratings to just blow up a Russian ship, but that wouldn't be good because it's really best to get on with Russia because, you know I've been briefed about how really really bad nuclear war would be, and you know IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT MEDIA THAT PUTIN THINKS I MAYBE CAN'T DO A DEAL WITH HIM BECAUSE YOU KEEP CRITICISING ME FOR BEING NICE TO RUSSIA and no I'm not going to tell you anything about what I would do because I wouldn't signal my intentions to an enemy and IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT MEDIA: The most likely reaction I can see from Putin is "Wow, he really is a completely bamboozled idiot who I can endlessly manipulate..."
If you think this is a good thing for diplomacy, Jason, you want your head read.
I might add - Putin has no need to fear Bannon's influence - he knows from Bannon's own explanations that he is fully on his side as far as the culture wars go.
of course he didn't JC.
did you not watch the ranting and raving at this very press conference, Well of course you didn't. That is why you are wrong all the time.
did you not see Spicer and hear his explanation of why Flynn left. of course you didn't.
Flynn left because he misled Pence not because he committed at least two crimes.
Once an idiot always an idiot. Once a lazy person always a lazy person.
let us not forget Trump's win in the electoral college was the greatest since Reagan.
Who taught him maths ? JC
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