At the end of the Aspen session, a gentleman approached me and asked why I had made the conversation so ad hominem by questioning Trump's fitness. I explained that when we have a system in which the chief executive is endowed with so much power, we regularly find that our fate in crises turns on the character of the president. For that reason, it is not the incivility of modern politics that drives us to question Trump's fitness; it is a respect for the lessons of history and for the national interests his profound deficits put at risk.
At times like this I want to scream at people. Do you get it now? Is it finally sinking in? Do you finally understand that granting government (especially the executive branch) such vast powers creates not just the risk that those powers will be abused but the certainty that they will be abused?
This isn't just a case of a terrible person getting his hands on power he shouldn't have, it's a case of a terrible person getting his hands on power no one should have. That sending the military off on adventures overseas without so much as a please&thank-you from Congress, spying on our communications, imprisoning and assassinating people without due process aren't just powers that can be abused but powers that are by their very nature abusive.
Trump is a lit match but the room was already full of fuel.
At the end of the Aspen session, a gentleman approached me and asked why I had made the conversation so ad hominem by questioning Trump's fitness. I explained that when we have a system in which the chief executive is endowed with so much power, we regularly find that our fate in crises turns on the character of the president. For that reason, it is not the incivility of modern politics that drives us to question Trump's fitness; it is a respect for the lessons of history and for the national interests his profound deficits put at risk.
At times like this I want to scream at people. Do you get it now? Is it finally sinking in? Do you finally understand that granting government (especially the executive branch) such vast powers creates not just the risk that those powers will be abused but the certainty that they will be abused?
This isn't just a case of a terrible person getting his hands on power he shouldn't have, it's a case of a terrible person getting his hands on power no one should have. That sending the military off on adventures overseas without so much as a please&thank-you from Congress, spying on our communications, imprisoning and assassinating people without due process aren't just powers that can be abused but powers that are by their very nature abusive.
Trump is a lit match but the room was already full of fuel.
For 29 years, National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” has celebrated the Fourth of July with a reading of the Declaration of Independence by hosts, reporters, newscasters and commentators.
This testament to the nation’s founding document has previously been uncontroversial. But that has changed in the year 2017.
After NPR tweeted the accompanying text of the declaration line by line, Donald Trump backers (seemingly unaware of the source document) accused the media organization of playing partisan politics and attacking the president. (...)
Wow....that's just so terribly sad for us as a country.
For 29 years, National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” has celebrated the Fourth of July with a reading of the Declaration of Independence by hosts, reporters, newscasters and commentators.
This testament to the nation’s founding document has previously been uncontroversial. But that has changed in the year 2017.
After NPR tweeted the accompanying text of the declaration line by line, Donald Trump backers (seemingly unaware of the source document) accused the media organization of playing partisan politics and attacking the president. (...)
In January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists made its annual announcement on whether the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock would move and, if so, which way and by how much. At the time of the announcement, Donald Trump had been president of the United States for only six days. Even so, the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board moved the Clock forward by 30 seconds, to two and a half minutes to midnight, based in part on Trump’s words and actions during the presidential campaign and the months immediately following his election. Even before he moved into the White House, Trump had, in the board’s view, said and done things that had made the world more dangerous.
Now, about halfway through Trump’s first year in office, it is unfortunately obvious that this negative assessment was correct, if anything underestimating the president’s proclivity for intemperate and careless behavior with regard to matters that threaten the whole of humanity and the future of civilization. Traditionally, the Doomsday Clock is set once, at the beginning of the year, and the minute hand does not subsequently move for light or transient causes. This July 4, the Clock remains at two and a half minutes to midnight, because the Science and Security Board foresaw and factored into its calculations what has very unfortunately come to pass in the past six months.
Just the same, when a long train of abuses—of fact, of science, of logic, of expertise, even of syntax itself—evinces a president’s wanton disregard for the security of every person on Earth, silence is not a reasonable response. Let facts be submitted to a candid world, that its citizens may hold Donald J. Trump to account, in the courts of public opinion and relentless satire, for the endangerment of humanity:
I said that I was not going to participate in the Trump thread, Not all political threads. You wish that to be the case, but its not and never was intended to be.
No meds interfering just to let you know. The stress levels I have had have been rather high as of late for some strange reason and I expressed the need to function at a different level in this thread, by letting it go and trying to move on. . You seem to be spending too much time worrying about me lately. I do not need your's or anyone else's pity.
Since you insist that I mean what I say. Ok. I guess I'll have to try my best to leave this thread for good.
Don't want to have you moderate me and all.
So as much as I would actually like to reply to some questions asked of me below, I'll just leave them go so as to make you and everyone else happy.
Not trying to make it personal. Sorry if it read that way. Should have said, "maybe just having a bad day."
Location: Half inch above the K/T boundary Gender:
Posted:
Jul 3, 2017 - 5:57am
The gloves are coming off against this pariah we call president. This walking, talking, tweeting, vulgarity who somehow managed to get elected. How much damage will our country suffer before he goes? This is a Democratic bill, but I believe it will be his own party that will finally be his undoing.
Malcolm Gladwell theorized on Meet The Press this morning that Trump's otherwise boorish behavior serves to confirm his authenticity to his base supporters.
i see him more as a carnival barker.
Patent medicine salesman. And, literally, Hitler warning us of the threat of the other Americans who aren't "us" while encouraging violence against them.
But it would do people good to briefly scroll through some of the commentary on the pro-Trump FB sites. If they're real comments (and they could be fake) there's a vehement cluster of amazingly angry people. Not that they're not angry, but they're just blinded by this hatred. I thought that with him being elected, the anti-Obama/Hillary/Bernie/elitist/science/liberal folks would be a little more decaf. But the tone is worse than you'd expect, and they're not open for reasoning. That's the point behind this media blitz of "all criticism is FAKE NEWS." It created a cult, tells you to hate the opponent for visceral reasons, and to not listen to anything that would change your mind.
It's a horrible period for America. Bad enough to consider renouncing citizenship, really. This isn't the greatest nation on earth anymore, but home of reactionist bullies. And he is their leader, with no intent to raise the tone. The damage he does to America will resonate for decades.
Location: Perched on the precipice of the cauldron of truth
Posted:
Jul 2, 2017 - 8:53am
Malcolm Gladwell theorized on Meet The Press this morning that Trump's otherwise boorish behavior serves to confirm his authenticity to his base supporters.