There is a certain delusional appeal to the idea that "desperate times call for desperate measures." Especially when combined with a promise to make things "right" again. It's all been done before. The obvious elephant in the room is that things could take a rather nasty turn for the worse, only adding further to the desperation (which of course is also casually dismissed by saying that things cannot possibly get any worse).
In "desperate times" cooler heads must prevail, not blustery con artists like Don the Con.
2008- it was a very good year. For cons and lies Until we surmised It was a bad surprise And it lead to our demise We gouged out our own eyes
There is a certain delusional appeal to the idea that "desperate times call for desperate measures." Especially when combined with a promise to make things "right" again. It's all been done before. The obvious elephant in the room is that things could take a rather nasty turn for the worse, only adding further to the desperation (which of course is also casually dismissed by saying that things cannot possibly get any worse).
In "desperate times" cooler heads must prevail, not blustery con artists like Don the Con.
Trump seems to lurch from one controversy or lawsuit to the next. He's either bragging about how wonderfully he did how someone has a personal grudge against him and is ripping him off.
And it's always All About Him.
I cannot imagine four years of this bloated toad. His vague promises of making America great again are as predictably worthless as his Trump University courses. I can understand not liking the 16 other GOP candidates or Hillary Clinton, but this guy? His world is built on lies and his addiction to the media. If the world stopped paying attention to him, Trump would probably kill himself.
Kurtster takes us way back to Vietnam and the exaggerated body counts. Much of our presence in Vietnam was built on lies and myths. It took dogged reporting and bold acts like the printing of the Pentagon Papers to expose the reality of the war to Americans.
The best way to keep politicians honest is to demand transparency and accountability. When politicians' statements don't add up or don't tell the whole truth, demand more information. All three remaining candidates have more explaining to do.
Thomas Friedman has this to say about Bernie, Hillary and Trump:
Clinton’s Fibs, and Her Opponents’ Double Whoppers
All lying in politics is not created equal. I think the ideology Bernie is selling is fanciful, but underlying it is a moral critique of modern capitalism that has merit and deserves to be heard. But Bernie is not being truthful about the costs. What is grating about Hillary is that her prevarications seem so unnecessary and often insult our intelligence. But they are not about existential issues. As for Trump, his lies are industrial size and often contradict each other. But there is no theory behind his lies, except what will advance him, which is why Trump is only scary if he wins. Otherwise, his candidacy will leave no ideas behind. It will just be a reality TV show that got canceled.
And, seriously, instead of cartoons and bluster and memes and bullying - are there good responses to problems like this that would sway someone with an open mind.
Not saying I have one, but still I notice a distinct lack of thoughtful responses to concerns like his. Lots of faith, lots of promises, lots of finger pointing that the other candidates are worse. Sigh.
There is a certain delusional appeal to the idea that "desperate times call for desperate measures." Especially when combined with a promise to make things "right" again. It's all been done before. The obvious elephant in the room is that things could take a rather nasty turn for the worse, only adding further to the desperation (which of course is also casually dismissed by saying that things cannot possibly get any worse).
In "desperate times" cooler heads must prevail, not blustery con artists like Don the Con.
Curious. Who supposedly said that? I'm not finding it, after a quick search.
I took a great liberty in exaggerating the daily body counts we got from Johnson (and McNamara) every evening on the 6 O'clock News. The nightly exaggeration of the Viet Cong body counts is historic. We would lose ten and they always lost a hundred or a thousand. I think they were killed off twice if you added up all the numbers. Shameless lying as we know now. One of the first modern reasons to no longer trust our modern government. That and all the lies they told about drugs. Refer Madness was resurrected and played to death to our parents and what not who took the movie seriously to scare the bejeezus out of them.
According to court documents, students at Trump University paid up to $35,000 and Trump never appeared. So my question is: how much is each of us willing to pay, right now, to have Trump never appear again? #priceless
It’s uncanny how much Trump’s sham university sounds like his campaign. Trump U salespeople were encouraged to pitch the three-day Gold Elite package to student-clients for the low, low price of $34,995 dollars, pushing clients to max out credit cards or tap other assets to pay for it even if it put them financially at risk. (The Silver Elite package ran $19,495, while the Bronze Elite dinged students a mere $9,995.) An early part of the pitch included the “blast phase” that focused on “giving your clients hope again”.
And, seriously, instead of cartoons and bluster and memes and bullying - are there good responses to problems like this that would sway someone with an open mind.
Not saying I have one, but still I notice a distinct lack of thoughtful responses to concerns like his. Lots of faith, lots of promises, lots of finger pointing that the other candidates are worse. Sigh.
According to court documents, students at Trump University paid up to $35,000 and Trump never appeared. So my question is: how much is each of us willing to pay, right now, to have Trump never appear again? #priceless
It’s uncanny how much Trump’s sham university sounds like his campaign. Trump U salespeople were encouraged to pitch the three-day Gold Elite package to student-clients for the low, low price of $34,995 dollars, pushing clients to max out credit cards or tap other assets to pay for it even if it put them financially at risk. (The Silver Elite package ran $19,495, while the Bronze Elite dinged students a mere $9,995.) An early part of the pitch included the “blast phase” that focused on “giving your clients hope again”.
‘I Can Watch It on TV’: Excuses for Republicans Skipping a Donald Trump Convention
A wave of prominent Republicans have announced their intention to skip the party’s national convention in Cleveland this summer, the latest sign that Donald J. Trump, who last week secured the delegates needed to clinch the Republican presidential nomination, continues to struggle in his effort to unite the party behind his candidacy.
The list of those who have sent regrets includes governors and United States senators — almost all facing tough re-election fights this year — and lifelong party devotees who have attended every convention for decades. Some are renouncing their seats like conscientious objectors.
Trump is a liar. Hmmm. Sounds very presidential to me.
I did not have sex with that woman.
You can keep your doctor.
I am not a crook.
Iraq has wmds.
and my all time favorite ...
we killed a million VC yesterday.
I think it's true that all Presidents lie. It's part of keeping the populace sedate. We all pick what things we don't tell others, and Presidents get called out on it more publicly than most.
But with each of those examples, none of those Presidents started by being overt liars, obviously untrustworthy, politically inept, and measurably under experienced.
So this is more than a one-note song, more than a single litmus test. That's what's so disappointing about his support: most of it is "he's not establishment." Well, neither is Paul Westerberg, but that doesn't mean I want him to run the nation.
To be fair, I think Trump's just a bully. I don't see manic-depressive. OTOH, Newt Gingrich certainly seemed to be.
Oh, I agree. DonDon's too low-energy to be manic depressive. Depressive, possibly yes: many depressives express their depression as anger and a persecution complex. Trump constantly tries to paint critics and enemies as driven by some personal grudge against him.
Wow, you cannot turn around without bumping into another story of Trump's lies and deceptions. Trump's former employees are speaking out against him in court. Oh, and look: Trump is crying that the judge is biased against him because he's Mexican. Even though the judge was born in Indiana.
Former Trump University Workers Call the School a ‘Lie’ and a ‘Scheme’ in Testimony
(excerpts of article follow):
In blunt testimony revealed on Tuesday, former managers of Trump University, the for-profit school started by Donald J. Trump, portray it as an unscrupulous business that relied on high-pressure sales tactics, employed unqualified instructors, made deceptive claims and exploited vulnerable students willing to pay tens of thousands for Mr. Trump’s insights.
...
Mr. Trump, who started the university in 2005, owned 93 percent of the now-defunct company. From the start, he acted as its chief promoter, rather than day-to-day manager, selling it as a tool of financial empowerment that would improve life for thousands of ordinary Americans. It would, he said, “teach you better than the best business school,” according to the transcript of a Web video.
Within the documents made public Tuesday were internal employee guides encouraging customers with little money to pay for the tuition with their credit cards. “We teach the technique of using OPM ... Other People’s Money,” explained the internal instructions for salespeople. The documents pushed employees to exploit the emotions of potential customers. “Let them know you’ve found an answer to their problems,” read confidential instructions to salespeople.
The most striking documents were written testimony from former employees of Trump University who said they had become disenchanted with the university’s tactics and culture. Corrine Sommer, an event manager, recounted how colleagues encouraged students to open up as many credit cards as possible to pay for classes that many of them could not afford. “It’s O.K., just max out your credit card,” Ms. Sommer recalled their saying.
Jason Nicholas, a sales executive at Trump University, recalled a deceptive pitch used to lure students — that Mr. Trump would be “actively involved” in their education. “This was not true,” Mr. Nicholas testified, saying Mr. Trump was hardly involved at all. Trump University, Mr. Nicholas concluded, was “a facade, a total lie.”
...
Mr. Trump started the for-profit Trump University just as the overheated American housing market neared its peak, promising that its classes would impart his wisdom about real estate and moneymaking to the general public.
But dozens of complaints about the school rolled into the offices of attorneys general in Florida, Texas, New York and Illinois, officials said, prompting multiple investigations and, eventually, the lawsuit from former students in California.
Mr. Trump had fought Tuesday’s release of previously sealed documents in the case. In an apparent attempt to discredit the judge in the case, Gonzalo P. Curiel, Mr. Trump called him biased and a “hater of Donald Trump,” and he sought to draw attention to the judge’s ethnic background — “we believe Mexican,” Mr. Trump said. (Mr. Curiel was born in Indiana; he is of Mexican descent.)
Donald Trump throws a temper tantrum and calls the media "sleeze" and "dishonest" for daring to ask about the money he promised to Veterans — and hilariously all the checks he points to as proof are dated the EXACT SAME DAY as the Washington Post article calling him out on it.
Boy, you think he's pissed at the press NOW? Wait'll they start asking President Trump where all that money Mexico sent us for the wall went...
~Jim Wright
Donald Trump is a miserable, narcissistic, lying sack of shit.
Manic-depressives often have destructive cycles of behavior. Looks like psychopathic narcissist crybabies do too.
Donald Trump throws a temper tantrum and calls the media "sleeze" and "dishonest" for daring to ask about the money he promised to Veterans — and hilariously all the checks he points to as proof are dated the EXACT SAME DAY as the Washington Post article calling him out on it.
Boy, you think he's pissed at the press NOW? Wait'll they start asking President Trump where all that money Mexico sent us for the wall went...
~Jim Wright
Donald Trump is a miserable, narcissistic, lying sack of shit.
Donald Trump Soured on a Deal, and Hong Kong Partners Became Litigants
...
“I beat China all the time,” Mr. Trump declared in a speech the day he announced his candidacy. “I own a big chunk of the Bank of Americabuilding at 1290 Avenue of the Americas that I got from China in a war. Very valuable.”
Mr. Trump does have an investment in the building, an office tower near Rockefeller Center. But court documents and interviews with people involved in the deal tell a very different story of how he ended up with it.
It began when a group of Hong Kong billionaires, including one who has been called the Donald Trump of China, helped rescue Mr. Trump from the verge of bankruptcy by investing in one of his properties in Manhattan.
...
But when his Hong Kong partners sold the property without his support, Mr. Trump waged a bitter, long-shot legal battle against them. And far from winning his share of the Bank of America building, according to court documents, he had to settle for it after losing in court. In the end, Mr. Trump’s alliance and eventual rivalry with some of Hong Kong’s richest men proved to be a tale of Mr. Trump at the extremes. It showcased his unflagging confidence in his ability to turn a bad financial situation around. But it also underscored his willingness to destroy a fruitful relationship with aggressive litigation.
...
But in the interview, Mr. Trump sounded almost wistful about his former partners, marveling at the money they had made together and at the fact that they no longer spoke. He acknowledged that his former partners might have gotten the best deal possible on Riverside South, after all.
“It’s too bad that this happened,” Mr. Trump told a reporter.
“If you speak to Vincent and Henry, tell them I think they are fantastic people,” he said. “You let them know that Donald Trump has great respect for them, O.K.?”
