Trump’s traits
One short Yahoo article pretty much summarizes Trump. Here are a few excerpts:
The [Republican] governor recalls Mr Trump talking about how much he respected Chinese President Ji Xinping, how much he enjoyed playing golf with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and how well he’d gotten along with Kim Jong-Un, the dictator of North Korea.
“Then, the jarring part: Trump said he really didn’t like dealing with President Moon from South Korea. The South Koreans were ‘terrible people,’ he said, and he didn’t know why the United States had been protecting them all these years,” Mr Hogan wrote. “‘They don’t pay us, Trump complained.'”
Mr Hogan recalled watching his wife’s reaction to the president insulting her home country.
“Yumi was sitting there as the president hurled insults at her birthplace. I could tell she was hurt and upset. . . .Eventually, the couple secured 500,000 tests with the help of the South Korean government. Despite securing testing on their own – per Mr Trump’s instructions to the states – the president was less than congratulatory to the first couple of Maryland.
“The governor from Maryland didn’t really understand [about testing],” Mr Trump said. “The governor of Maryland could’ve called Mike Pence, could have saved a lot of money … I don’t think he needed to go to South Korea. I think he needed to get a little knowledge.”
I’ve got to give Trump credit. Even if I tried as hard as I could, I could not simultaneously be so evil, insulting, selfish, clueless and dishonest all in a few short sentences. He really packs it in!!
Update: Love this ad. Show’s how Trump surrounds himself with criminals, like a mafia boss.
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18. July 2020 at 17:16
This is what it looks like when a representative of the non-college-educated part of the population, who also have 1-2 severe disabilities, governs. I don’t want to evaluate this negatively or positively, it’s simply their rather simplistic approach to things. He is a rather simple guy.
The left is always talking about the need to bring the simple guys, the average guy, the intellectual lower class, more into upper positions, but once they get there, it’s not right either. It’s all just a signaling show.
I also find it amazing how extremely uncritically you continue to take over the narrative of the alleged “criminals”. For me, as an outsider, it looks like a coordinated action by certain American authorities with the aim of harming the President or even taking him out of office completely, which ultimately failed, but will continue in an even more extreme form after he is voted out of office.
This will be the next low point in the extreme American polarization: Not only will the President be voted out of office, but he will be prosecuted with all kinds of questionable accusations of alleged criminal acts. Pretty much everyone who helped him to get into office has been persecuted already.
Let me guess: The “felonies” will include “lying to the FBI” and “obstruction of justice”, for example because he deletes his Facebook and/or Twitter account.
18. July 2020 at 19:11
Christian, You said:
“For me, as an outsider, it looks like a coordinated action by certain American authorities with the aim of harming the President or even taking him out of office completely, which ultimately failed, but will continue in an even more extreme form after he is voted out of office.”
Yes, members of the “deep state”, working together with aliens who arrived on flying saucers.
And I hope you are right about when he is out of office.
18. July 2020 at 21:31
Scott,
It’s just your TDS, confirmation bias, mood affiliation, call it as you want.
Neutrally speaking, what happened there is crazy. Kafka would have a hard time coming up with it. I don’t know any Central European country that has such absurd laws; such a deep state perhaps, but not with such absurd laws and such powerful law enforcement agencies.
One is accused in an allegedly completely apolitical investigation in which allegedly very serious crimes have been committed by a certain President. These crimes are not proven at the end of the investigation, there isn’t even a trial.
Nevertheless, one has to go to prison oneself, for days, weeks, months, years, often many years, because of Kafkaesque “crimes” like “lying to the FBI”- crime creations that are unthinkable in normal constitutional states.
And then one has to be insulted by allegedly libertarian bloggers as criminals, which proves absolutely nothing, except what these bloggers really are and what kind of masks they wear. Your last sentence says it all.
18. July 2020 at 21:32
Trump has surrounded himself with some unsavory people. It is interesting that none of the felons are in jail.
19. July 2020 at 02:23
@Christian:
Pretzel logic, typical. Trump is simple, and the “left” supposedly wants “simple guys in upper positions”, so really the left wanted a Trump. Give us a break.
It’s not this complicated. Trump is terrible. It’s not “the left” that wanted him. It’s the simplest of voters who did.
It’s elitist and will never happen, but Tacitus may be correct that we should not have universal suffrage. Something has to change and maybe that’s it.
19. July 2020 at 04:30
msgkings,
I’m not so sure universal suffrage is the problem. Trump is anathema to me, yet I was unable to secure a college degree when I was young and doing so really mattered. Whereas others in my extended family secured their degrees, experienced considerable success afterward, and many of them continue to back Trump. Likewise for many of those who didn’t.
19. July 2020 at 07:59
Scott is a hypocrite of gargantuan proportion . As part of the Red Guard , he conveniently forgets Obama’s relationships with bomb maker, Bill Ayers, and anti-semites like Rev Wright and Professor Khalidi. One can always find counter examples on the left thAt are worse. What’s the point? The point is that when one believes only in subjective truth like Scott, he can never be wrong . He’s always guaranteed a royal flush that reinforces his moral superiority. Heads I win tails I win. Typical lib.
19. July 2020 at 09:26
Christian, Federal prosecutors have had this view of the law for decades, and it’s getting worse. It’s not personal.
BTW, Trump agrees with this form of aggressive prosecution that you hate—recall “lock her up”?
msgkings and Becky. I seem to recall that the average IQ of Democrats and Republicans is similar, so getting rid of dumb voters actually wouldn’t change very much.
Jg, Reagan is my favorite president, during my lifetime. I guess that makes me a “typical lib” as you say.
And gee, I wonder why his cronies are not in jail?
19. July 2020 at 10:17
I see no reason to get rid of universal suffrage. Candidates like Trump very rarely get a majority of votes in wealthy countries. If we had a run-off like France does, we probably would not have Trump.
Instituting a run-off Presidential election will not be easy. It would require a constitutional amendment, but it is likely far, far easier than ending universal suffrage, or even ending or reforming the electoral college. Of course, reforming the electoral college would also be easier than ending universal suffrage.
I don’t see how to get around the problems ending universal suffrage would involve anyway, even if politically feasible. Who decides who gets to vote, or how votes are weighted? How would the interests of the disenfranchised by represented? How to apply draw the lines so that there’s no unintended bias? These are just a few of what seem to me to be impossible questions to answer regarding limiting voting rights.
20. July 2020 at 06:12
@Christian List
Scott knows there is a deep state. He likes to pretend the term is created by paranoids. If you called it a permanent bureaucracy instead of “deep state” he would agree it exists. He has said in fact that the permanent bureaucracy is very influential —-particularly at the Fed where he has said it is far worse than at the State department.
He did not mention. ‘Deep State” in his essay but linked its existence to flying saucers in his comment to Christian List
I look forward to his description as to how a permanent bureaucracy is different than a deep state.
20. July 2020 at 06:20
It is one thing to pick out all the statements Trump makes that are cringe worthy—-even as his government has done fine despite the best efforts of the Left—-which Scott also is unhappy with——to make it a disaster———but it is quite another to bring praise and credibility to the Lincoln project—-an utter joke of a group—-losing at all levels—-and consisting of people who cannot and will not ever win elections. They are an embarrassment.
20. July 2020 at 09:41
Michael Rulle. If only Trump had run for office saying:
“I’d like to do some neat stuff, but red tape and bureaucracy will prevent me from fulfilling my promises, just as other presidents were frustrated.” If only he’d said that.
Instead he created fantasies of deep conspiratorial forces arrayed against him. LOL.
20. July 2020 at 10:14
Well, he should have known better—but that is what happens when we elect someone who is not connected by party to the bureacracy—-he got lucky–then got unlucky—maybe like Lincoln he can get lucky again in August/September. One thing I agree with—he has not been able to outwit the worst and dumbest opposition since the Democrats of 1864. Who is his Sherman? No one.
21. July 2020 at 05:13
Scott,
Perhaps voters appear even dumber when trade offs are hidden for what is at stake in the voting process. And in the U.S. this is often the case. For instance, Trump wants to reduce payroll taxes. Yet Medicare part A for hospital coverage was already on track for serious problems in about five years. Due to the pandemic, hospital coverage could be derailed to some extent in two or three years. So why has this not gotten more attention on the daily news?
21. July 2020 at 08:18
Becky, This is why the Swiss system is better–voters are better informed.
21. July 2020 at 11:05
Scott,
First of all, thank you for remaining so calm and rational. My last comment was kind of emotional and I hope not personally hurting, but if so, I apologize for it.
I do think it’s a little personal with Trump. Some of these people see him as the incarnation of evil, or at least as the political enemy, so the standards slip and they yearn for some kind of revenge.
I do not deny that Trump is a massive partisan hypocrite. I’m just saying that we should be very different in this regard, preferably the opposite.
And his opponents, who supposedly want to be better than him, should also try harder. It’s kind of pointless to fight evil with evil, and injustice with injustice.