This is probably the most opinionated thing I’ve ever said in public. Not sure I should say it, but I guess everybody bubbles over a little. I don’t know why the Trump/Pence football PR stunt seems like the last straw for me. Maybe it’s just because they go from the still more respectable “clueless and not very nice” people, to two people who are legitimately and with forethought kicking their voters in their head. It’s just despicable. Forget about the wasting of taxpayer money for this stunt, but the very fact that they are intentionally trying to divide people as a form of theater…bad theater, is truly embarrassing. It’s like they know the harder they kick their voters in the head the more their base holds on. Because if they give up on him now they would have to admit that they’ve been kicked in the head all this time. And the thing is it, I get it. We’ve all had it happen before. We’ve all got sucked in more than we should and the embarrassment is too much to bear. But the embarrassment always gets you in the end anyway, and you always suffer more than you should by sticking with something that you thought understood well, but isn’t really what you thought it was. I know it sounds like I’m blaming those who voted for Trump, but I’m not. Also, I might be just as stubborn had I been duped so badly.
It takes a corrupt system to begin with to get this Trump/Pence winning combination as leaders. It’s been built over years from politicians from both sides of the aisle. We all get that many of you who voted for Trump were reaching for somebody who you thought was an outsider, who could challenge the status quo. What ended up winning was much different. What ended up winning was the very set of values that corrupts those with power. Trump didn’t come to end dysfunction, he IS dysfunction. The only sense I can make out of any of it is that the rich white in America were bored and just wanted to see people fight.
But maybe my cynicism is wrong and in some grand design these soulless people will have us all joining the protesting NFL players and getting down on one knee, and a new golden age for this country will dawn. My fear, however, is that if we keep accepting unintelligent and compassionless leadership, eventually somebody whose more competently ruthless will come along and the only knee we’ll get down on is one of servitude and the great American experiment will be over. They want you to believe that freedom is bullying people into obedience. This paradox has to become clear to everybody. You can just as easily be a slave to the state as you can be a slave of it. There are no real winners here. I promise there will be no “I told you so’s”. There is no joy in it knowing every minute this level of dysfunction remains in office we are one step closer to a lot more suffering and that’s just not a place worth going to if we can avoid it.
I hope we can avoid it.
Cloak Unfurled 
The key word here is embarrassment. You’re spot on. It’s hard to admit you’ve been had.
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Agreed, thanks John. I mean I’m not going to pretend like everybody is conscious of such feelings, but some have to be. It’s pride swallowing time. I just hope some come to realize this.
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I saw an interview with a retiree a month or so ago. She said exactly this: her friends, who mostly all voted from Trump, cannot bring themselves to admit they were had. Emotionally, it’s hard, if not impossible.
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Makes sense. Most of the people who I know regretted it did so right after the election. I think it does get harder with time because he keeps upping the ante…almost testing what ridiculous shit you’ll let pass just so you don’t have to admit you were wrong.
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Well voiced Swarn. Agreed on all points. It seems every week — when I honestly TRY to avoid the latest debacle coming out of the White House and can’t — I’ve returned to 2004 and watching ANOTHER horrible, shaming, nonsense episode of “The Apprentice.” 🤢 Please, please, PLEASE give me a break! NO… YOU’RE BIGLY FIRED!!!
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Their strategy is to distract. You aren’t discussing any of the things their are doing that are important, are you? They don’t give a damn about most of the things theya re doing. I suspect Trump doesn’t understand anything that is nuanced (North Korea, Iran, Russia), but he is a master distracter. I pay no attention to what he does or says as none of it has nay meaning. I watch to see what actions his administration does and respond to that. A grandstanding visit to a football game is unworthy of our attention. Think about how cool it would have been had it not even made the news. No “Pence went to a game” No “Pence left early.” No we asked so and so for a response. Instead we addressed things of substance, like the wars we are waging around the globe (Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq (we’re are still in fucking Iraq!), where else?)
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You might be partly right, but I would disagree for several reasons.
If it is a distraction the fact remains that the way we digest media isn’t going away. I can’t pretend that this isn’t part of daily life and so it seem just as important to be critical of what political leaders are doing especially if they are consuming their time with distractions over the substantive work their job requires. The executive branch has a function and this isn’t it. To me that matters.
Second I would say it’s more important not to be consumed with distractions, but it’s possible to address the danger that you think distractions cause while also promoting information about more substantive issues.
But more importantly I don’t know that this qualifies as a distraction. Again the fact that this is going to be reported is a real thing and it’s going to have a real impact on our society. It’s divisive and destructive and pointing that out seems important. Second, I thought his transgender ban was a distraction and then it turned out he was serious. To me, if he was trying to simply distract us there are less harmful distractions that could still have us looking the other way if he was only doing it to make sure we don’t notice what the rest of the nefarious Republicans are doing. But this “distraction” has real consequences. A group of American citizens are protesting to turn the nation’s attention towards the violation of 4th and 14th amendment rights of African-Americans. And the leader of our country is driving a big divide through people and de-legitimizing that message. To me that is important to talk about. It’s not just about a football game, it’s about the highest elected position in our country trying to suppress the genuine concerns of many of its citizens.
Finally I find value in consistently pointing out that this behavior is not normal, it’s not acceptable, and that this is how con men work. You have to continually expose frauds until people see it. Some maybe never well, but while a good portion of the people are being conned, to me, that’s not something to ignore.
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” It’s not just about a football game, it’s about the highest elected position in our country trying to suppress the genuine concerns of many of its citizens.”
Well said, Swarn. I couldn’t agree more. Robert F. Kennedy once said:
“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
—-
Keep sending out those tiny ripples of hope, my friend.
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Thank you Victoria. I appreciate your words!
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There’s the one he seems to be trying to goad Little Rocket Man into starting.
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Swarn, first … pretty much everything (legislatively) tRump has done has been to “remove” Obama from memory.
Secondly, I must agree with Steve … to a point. tRump has proved to be a great distracter, but much of the reason this has happened is because we’ve allowed it to happen. We lap up every news article, listen to every pundit on TV, and read every tweet … and then discuss it on Facebook, Twitter, and blogs ad nauseum.
And finally — as multitudes have already expressed, he LOVES attention. Anything he can do that will direct the “fake news” in his direction, that’s what he’s going to do. It doesn’t matter one iota to him if it might bring about World War III … so long as all eyes are on him, he’s happy.
And the worst part of all this? Too many of us are allowing it all to happen.
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Like I said to Steve I don’t think these “distractions” are harmless and I don’t think it’s wise to not address them in some way. You can read my response to Steve. Pointing out the danger that Trump represents and pressing people to pressure the Republicans in congress to take action against the executive branch to get rid of Trump as fast as possible. The harm he is causing is real, and I don’t think it’s something that can simply ignore so we can discuss the situation in Yemen.
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I can’t respond because I won’t stop ranting.
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Yeah…I try to do it sparingly myself…otherwise I wonder if I’ll ever stop!
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I understand your frustration, but why do you believe that Trump’s supporters are dissatisfied with him? Notwithstanding his inability to enact any legislation, he’s more or less followed through with what he said he was going to do.
I’m also hesitant to assume he’s unintelligent. He did get elected and he’s able to keep himself at the centre of controversy and one day we’ll find out what he was really up to.
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Well I guess that it depends on how you define intelligent. I mean it’s seems possible to know nothing about the job you’re doing but still con people into believing you can do it. Personally I don’t even think he’s a good con man, but clearly others do.
Also I’m not sure what you mean:
Notwithstanding his inability to enact any legislation, he’s more or less followed through with what he said he was going to do.
How does one follow through with what they did by not getting any of the legislation enacted. Anybody can propose crazy ideas, and then try to propose them only to get shot down. So I guess you could say, yes he did try to build a wall…but it was a stupid idea, and if he did actually build the wall…it was be even more stupid to actually do it.
Oh I think many of supporters will stick with him even if he literally takes them off a cliff with him, I am sure there are some who are not dissatisfied at all. But here’s the thing…you don’t have to spend taxpayer money for PR stunts to try and get border walls built. You don’t have to give speeches telling NFL teams to fire black players who are protesting legitimate causes to try and get your tax plan through. You don’t have to call news outlets Fake News every press conference to try and implement a ban on immigration from muslim countries. The fact that he does these things causes great long term damage to productive discourse and divides people further.
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Well I guess that it depends on how you define intelligent. I mean it’s seems possible to know nothing about the job you’re doing but still con people into believing you can do it. Personally I don’t even think he’s a good con man, but clearly others do.
Maybe he’s an amazing con man. Maybe he’s conned you into calling his supporters unintelligent and uncompassionate. (I know you didn’t actually say that, but you did use those words next to other words.)
How does one follow through with what they did by not getting any of the legislation enacted?
He followed through in spirit, which I think is all he intended. If legislation gets done, he looks good, if it doesn’t it’s because of the swampiness of Washington.
The fact that he does these things causes great long term damage to productive discourse and divides people further.
Yes. Maybe that’s the plan. Something like:
Get elected president Divide country ??? Profit!
I’ve stopped paying attention to what Trump says (at least literally), because it doesn’t make sense, and started paying more attention to what he does and how people respond and assume that it’s all intended because, frankly, I have a harder time believing that he Clouseau’d his way into the Whitehouse.
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So actually what I said is “we” need to stop electing unintelligent and uncompassionate leaders. As the paragraph starts such people exist on both sides of the fence. Hell I don’t think Hillary Clinton came across as overly compassionate even if I thought she was sympathetic to particular concerns. It’s the lack of compassion that is more concerning perhaps than the intelligence itself. Many politicians seem to have degrees, often to a Masters level or a law degree so that requires some intelligence provided it wasn’t just money that got them through. But many aren’t using it and more importantly they are claiming expertise in areas in which they have none. I don’t consider that wise or intelligent. We have people who run the sci- tech sub-committee in congress who don’t have science degrees and consult non-scientists or non-experts on important scientific issues. There is no reason why we should keep re-electing such people.
Now does it make the voters unintelligent. I would say a certain portion yes. There are an extremly large amount of uninformed voters on both sides. And politicians play to populism rather than having honest discussions about the issues. So yes it’s easy to be duped and exploited which is what I tried to point out in my rant here. We’ve all been driven to emotional states that cause us to not make the best decision. We’ve all had times we went a little too far and sometimes carried on with a particular idea to avoid the embarrassment of admitting we are wrong. That course of actions has consequences…and when what we are wrong about are the people running our country the consequences are even more dire, and this president is the pinnacle of a bad idea that has been elected to the highest office because he was excellent at manipulating people.
And yes he is clearly trying to get rich and the expense of all of us. That’s a problem, which is what I’m saying.
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Also if it is all intended…he’s even fooling his staff, because the reports out of the whitehouse are that he is becoming increasingly unstable. But it’s not that I don’t think there is intention to a lot of what he does, but intention doesn’t matter at some point. He is simply dangerous and it has to be stopped. Congress and the voters CAN stop it.
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