Tweets from a lunatic

[katharath]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/us/politics/trump-ad-100-days.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

Absolutely crazy.

 

[katharath]

The fallout from the wreckage caused by this administration is going to haunt us for a very long time

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcar...tion-advocate-to-lead-federal-family-planning

In a Huff Post article, this woman is claimed to have stated that there is an "undisputed" link between abortion and breast cancer.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...82ae4b05c397680d921?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

Yep. Serious damage is happening because America elected an idiot.

 

[siamese3]

Someone's feeling sensitive tonight... must also be up late watching the boob tube!

 

[Matata]

Laughed so hard I snorted.

 

[mary poppins]

Bahaha, Stephen Colbert just said Trump is becoming a pricktator who attracts more skinheads than free Rogaine.

 

[t-c]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/us/politics/trump-ad-100-days.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

The scary thing is if he governs as Candidate Trump and not President Trump. According to the Washington Post one of the reasons he decided to negotiate on NAFTA was because he was shown on a map who would get hurt if he backs out completely: mostly his base. And, like I've said before, his tax plan's removal of the state and local tax deduction preferentially hits blue states. I really really hope this is not a pattern.

 

[t-c]

Click on the title to go to the original article.

This is not a normal president
By Jennifer Rubin

Republican consultant Ana Navarro on CNN’s State of the Union aptly summarized events on Saturday: “You had Trump, President Trump in Pennsylvania, speaking to his base, feeding red meat to the base and being divisive. You had the press celebrating the press standing up for journalism and you had the resistance marching in sweltering heat in Washington for climate change and against Trump.”

It’s normal for activists to march in favor of their causes (climate change was the issue this week). It’s certainly normal for the press to defend the First Amendment. What is not normal is for the president on his 100th day in office to rant and rave about the media in a campaign-style screed. It’s not normal for the president of the United States and leader of the Free World to declare: “Media outlets like CNN and MSNBC are fake news. . . . They are a disgrace.” It’s not normal for a president to stand in front of a crowd citing poll ratings — about the press. And it’s sure not normal to read the poem “The Snake” to describe illegal immigrants.

President Trump remains an angry, irrational figure, someone who still must stir up hatred — against the press, against immigrants, against Democrats — to enliven his base. Rhetorically, he is still the candidate of the resentful America First crowd, not the president of the entire country. His rambling, incoherent and factually deficient remarks in Harrisburg, Pa., remind us of the pathetic emptiness of the message — I’m with you because I hate the same people you do.

It’s not normal to rack up a record 488 falsehoods in the first 100 days in office and to repeat the same falsehoods over and over again. It’s not normal for a president to continue to question a foreign power’s responsibility for its well-documented, comprehensive effort to sway our elections. Yes, he is still doing that despite what all his national security advisers tell him.

It’s not normal for the public to doubt whether Trump even knows what is in his own proposals. He insists Trumpcare protects preexisting conditions. He claims his taxes would go up under his plan, which lowers his rate to 15 percent (he’s a Svengali of pass-through companies) and abolishes the alternative minimum tax. It’s not normal for a president to be surprised that health care is complicated or being president isn’t easy.

It’s not normal for a U.S. president to praise and congratulate dictatorial leaders, as he does with President Xi Jinping of China (“a very good man”) and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. (Good men do not lock up political dissidents.) Normal presidents do not go out of their way to cheer the leader of the National Front, a party that is still infested with anti-Semites and whose leader denied the role of France in the murder of French Jews during WWII. It’s not normal to invite for a White House visit a human-rights abuser and anti-American demagogue who has presided over thousands of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. (Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley at her confirmation hearing correctly described extrajudicial killings under Rodrigo Duterte as a gross abuse of human rights.)

And yet Republicans in Congress and in the commentariat ignore, minimize or don’t care about all that. Great job! Give him an A! Hey, there’s Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, you know! Whatever standards — Constitutional, personal, ideological — Republicans once upheld have been thrown overboard. They cannot bring themselves to enforce the emoluments clause or compel Trump to disclose his taxes or crack down on the blatant conflicts of interest throughout his administration.

During the first 100 days the Republic has survived, but the GOP, permanently we think, has been morally compromised and intellectually corrupted, just as many of us warned. “Everything Trump touches dies,” GOP consultant Rick Wilson is fond of saying. Trump’s victims now include a respectable Republican Party.

Jennifer Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Washington Post, offering reported opinion from a conservative perspective.

 

[ksinger]

Interesting article., thanks. You reference another one of my favs, critical thinking. So important, and yet, IMO, another reason we are in the mess we are in today with folks not being able to differentiate
opinion pieces from fact.

However, the reality is that while a lot of people rant on endlessly about how we're not teaching critical thinking, another lot of people - a portion of which are actually part of the first lot - don't like it when their kids turn that critical thinking on their own parents' sacred cows. If you teach kids to question and to think things through enough to support their own stances, they sometimes find the stances they inherited, are not what they would think....if they could think. This can be extremely upsetting to parents who are deeply invested in having their kids be little clones of them in the idea department. I've seen this mindset in action more than once. Teach 'em how to think but not too much or they'll start asking uncomfortable questions.

 

[siamese3]

Kath, I just wanted to say thanks for starting this thread. I also want to thank all of the posters that add to it. For me, DJT being elected to the highest office in our democratic republic has been so surreal. So upsetting. It has nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with common sense, decency, having some sort of moral compass,. It simply makes me feel better to know that there are people that feel the same way that I do. It really makes me feel better to at least get a laugh out of some of this. To blow off steam. Sometimes when I post in this thread, I think to myself, egads.. enough already, but it is just a never ending deluge of unbelievable-ness. I couldn't access a better word. Anyway, you all make what is going on more endurable.

 

[siamese3]

However, the reality is that while a lot of people rant on endlessly about how we're not teaching critical thinking, another lot of people - a portion of which are actually part of the first lot - don't like it when their kids turn that critical thinking on their own parents' sacred cows. If you teach kids to question and to think things through enough to support their own stances, they sometimes find the stances they inherited, are not what they would think....if they could think. This can be extremely upsetting to parents who are deeply invested in having their kids be little clones of them in the idea department. I've seen this mindset in action more than once. Teach 'em how to think but not too much or they'll start asking uncomfortable questions.

You raise such a important point. I think that the ultimate goal of parenting should be to raise children to be truly their own person. Acceptance of the uniqueness of a child, their ability to makes their own choices, to think and form their own opinions, I imagine is very, very hard. The actual act of having children is the easy part, raising them, now there's the hard part. I know that I would have failed. (At least to achieve what I would have wanted) Way to much baggage is my closet.

 

[ksinger]

You raise such a important point. I think that the ultimate goal of parenting should be to raise children to be truly their own person. Acceptance of the uniqueness of a child, their ability to makes their own choices, to think and form their own opinions, I imagine is very, very hard. The actual act of having children is the easy part, raising them, now there's the hard part. I know that I would have failed. (At least to achieve what I would have wanted) Way to much baggage is my closet.

When I was 6 I had a friend who lived next door. Her family was Baptist. Naturally, they invited me to go with my friend. My mom allowed it - they were nice people and she was not really familiar with the Baptist teachings. On one of the trips to her church, they showed us a movie about the rapture - think a prehistoric Left Behind movie, complete with abandoned cars, children without parents, that sort of thing. I was freaked. I knew I wasn't always good, and I was terrified that my mother (who was good in my eyes) would be taken away and I'd be alone!

So after a few days of her normally sunny child moping around, she said, "OK, what's wrong?" And I dished - she'd be gone, I'd be here!!!

My mom, that lovely no-nonsense "recovering Catholic", said to me, "OK, first thing, I don't believe that and I'm not going anywhere. Second, I don't approve of people who try to scare children, so if someone scares you, you come talk to ME about it first. You do not have to believe something just because it's something an adult told you. You have a good mind and you can use it to make your own decisions."

It was a long time ago, but I have a vivid memory of it, because being told you didn't have to believe adults all the time was pretty heady stuff for a 6 year old in 1968, long before "critical thinking" became a buzz phrase.

I would think raising a thinking kid is only hard when you haven't engaged in thinking deeply yourself. My mother was not highly formally educated, but she was a deep thinker about a lot of things, and read a lot, and had left the Catholic Church (due to the hypocrisy and ugliness witnessed while part of it), which is pretty dang daring after 12 years of parochial school. So she knew just how hard it was to think away from her raising, and so wasn't personally threatened at the idea that I might think away from her one day too. We had great conversations about life, the universe, and everything, especially when I was a teenager. She always wanted to hear what I thought and why, and never punished or disapproved of what I was thinking. A lot of kids get heavy pressure to conform mentally. I was lucky that I did not.

Good memories.

Gosh, missing my lovely mom today, can you tell?

 

[siamese3]

When I was 6 I had a friend who lived next door. Her family was Baptist. Naturally, they invited me to go with my friend. My mom allowed it - they were nice people and she was not really familiar with the Baptist teachings. On one of the trips to her church, they showed us a movie about the rapture - think a prehistoric Left Behind movie, complete with abandoned cars, children without parents, that sort of thing. I was freaked. I knew I wasn't always good, and I was terrified that my mother (who was good in my eyes) would be taken away and I'd be alone!

So after a few days of her normally sunny child moping around, she said, "OK, what's wrong?" And I dished - she'd be gone, I'd be here!!!

My mom, that lovely no-nonsense "recovering Catholic", said to me, "OK, first thing, I don't believe that and I'm not going anywhere. Second, I don't approve of people who try to scare children, so if someone scares you, you come talk to ME about it first. You do not have to believe something just because it's something an adult told you. You have a good mind and you can use it to make your own decisions."

It was a long time ago, but I have a vivid memory of it, because being told you didn't have to believe adults all the time was pretty heady stuff for a 6 year old in 1968, long before "critical thinking" became a buzz phrase.

I would think raising a thinking kid is only hard when you haven't engaged in thinking deeply yourself. My mother was not highly formally educated, but she was a deep thinker about a lot of things, and read a lot, and had left the Catholic Church (due to the hypocrisy and ugliness witnessed while part of it), which is pretty dang daring after 12 years of parochial school. So she knew just how hard it was to think away from her raising, and so wasn't personally threatened at the idea that I might think away from her one day too. We had great conversations about life, the universe, and everything, especially when I was a teenager. She always wanted to hear what I thought and why, and never punished or disapproved of what I was thinking. A lot of kids get heavy pressure to conform mentally. I was lucky that I did not.

Good memories.

Gosh, missing my lovely mom today, can you tell?

I really love that story. Thank you so much for sharing it. It's wonderful to have a mom (family) that you love and respect enough to miss. Makes me teary.
This sentence is something what really resonates with me, "I would think raising a thinking kid is only hard when you haven't engaged in thinking deeply yourself. My mother was not highly formally educated, but she was a deep thinker about a lot of things, and read a lot.."
I love people that can think and reflect and change, deep thinking leads to more openness and acceptance of others (and yourself) in the world. I personally get frustrated because it's hard for many people to stop and think. To reflect. It takes work. Ugh. Easier to not think. Good relationships take work, engagement and honesty. Nothing is magic. Your mom sounds like she was an amazing person and I can see it in your posts, through you.

 

[katharath]

Kath, I just wanted to say thanks for starting this thread. I also want to thank all of the posters that add to it. For me, DJT being elected to the highest office in our democratic republic has been so surreal. So upsetting. It has nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with common sense, decency, having some sort of moral compass,. It simply makes me feel better to know that there are people that feel the same way that I do. It really makes me feel better to at least get a laugh out of some of this. To blow off steam. Sometimes when I post in this thread, I think to myself, egads.. enough already, but it is just a never ending deluge of unbelievable-ness. I couldn't access a better word. Anyway, you all make what is going on more endurable.

I hear you. I was just thinking yesterday (again) how much I love this thread. I love the contributions in here from all of the people (yes, mostly women) on this board, many of whom I respect so much.

I love how this thread has evolved, and that we discuss many different topics within it.

So, you're very welcome - but thank YOU - and our other wonderful contributors - for keeping it alive!

 

[SMC]

 

[katharath]

More idiocy from our idiot president.

 

[ksinger]

I really love that story. Thank you so much for sharing it. It's wonderful to have a mom (family) that you love and respect enough to miss. Makes me teary.
This sentence is something what really resonates with me, "I would think raising a thinking kid is only hard when you haven't engaged in thinking deeply yourself. My mother was not highly formally educated, but she was a deep thinker about a lot of things, and read a lot.."
I love people that can think and reflect and change, deep thinking leads to more openness and acceptance of others (and yourself) in the world. I personally get frustrated because it's hard for many people to stop and think. To reflect. It takes work. Ugh. Easier to not think. Good relationships take work, engagement and honesty. Nothing is magic. Your mom sounds like she was an amazing person and I can see it in your posts, through you.

That's very sweet of you to say. Thank you. And yes she was an amazing person. And she had an almost magical way with children, they simply adored her and wanted to do whatever she required so they could be around her. Of course, she made stuff pretty darn fun, she was very creative and could always think of fun activities for kids to keep them busy. (I think that came partly from helping raise her younger siblings (she was one of 6 kids) after her father died when she was 13.) She ran a tight ship, but she was never mean or unreasonable. I had a good gig, and knew it, even as a kid.

 

[jaaron]

 

[AGBF]

I didn't know what thread to put this in, but I decided that this would be a good one. I had never seen this theory before and at first it seemed bizarre to me. After reading the article, however, it didn't seem so farfetched. Apparently the author of the piece is a physician. He may be wrong, but sometimes people in a field who have seen something occur many times get a feeling for when and where it may pop up. He could be right in his hunch. I guess there would only be one way to know: a blood test.

AGBF

Link...https://newrepublic.com/article/140702/medical-theory-donald-trumps-bizarre-behavior

 

[siamese3]

I didn't know what thread to put this in, but I decided that this would be a good one. I had never seen this theory before and at first it seemed bizarre to me. After reading the article, however, it didn't seem so farfetched. Apparently the author of the piece is a physician. He may be wrong, but sometimes people in a field who have seen something occur many times get a feeling for when and where it may pop up. He could be right in his hunch. I guess there would only be one way to know: a blood test.

AGBF

Link...https://newrepublic.com/article/140702/medical-theory-donald-trumps-bizarre-behavior

Interesting read Deb, thanks for posting.

 

[t-c]

I didn't know what thread to put this in, but I decided that this would be a good one. I had never seen this theory before and at first it seemed bizarre to me. After reading the article, however, it didn't seem so farfetched. Apparently the author of the piece is a physician. He may be wrong, but sometimes people in a field who have seen something occur many times get a feeling for when and where it may pop up. He could be right in his hunch. I guess there would only be one way to know: a blood test.

AGBF

Link...https://newrepublic.com/article/140702/medical-theory-donald-trumps-bizarre-behavior

I don't think Trump has mental problems/disease. I think he's uninformed, unprepared, unprincipled, and too lazy to make the effort to do better. He's basically a student who had always coasted through classes, but now is getting called out.

Combine his ignorance, unreadiness, and laziness, with a huge ego and the belief that he's smarter than anyone (than previous presidents, than interviewers, etc) and you get this shit show. You get Trump granting interviews likely thinking he would be able to control the narrative (like he did during the campaign) but getting flustered now that reporters and the public are demanding substantive answers.

Because of his insufficient understanding of the nuances of and his lack of position on issues (driven by having no guiding principles and ignorance) he can't give intelligent answers. He can't even stick to talking points because he's too lazy to learn them well enough. He therefore either reverts to campaign mode (when he was given a pass by reporters) or parrots things he's heard even though he doesn't understand them.

That bizarre Andrew Jackson tangent was probably just something he heard someone talk about and that someone may have had a point, but when Trump tried to make the same point he failed comically because 1) it was not his idea and 2) he hadn't thought about or learned the arguments well enough to be able discuss it intelligently.

I think he seems to have gotten worse because he's being (more aggressively?) questioned and he's really stressed by the job. (In my dotage, I find my brain doesn't function as well as it used to under extreme stress.)

Anyway, I wouldn't mind if Trump is declared mentally incompetent, but I think he's merely incompetent.

 

[Dee*Jay]

I don't think Trump has mental problems/disease. I think he's uninformed, unprepared, unprincipled, and too lazy to make the effort to do better. He's basically a student who had always coasted through classes, but now is getting called out.

Combine his ignorance, unreadiness, and laziness, with a huge ego and the belief that he's smarter than anyone (than previous presidents, than interviewers, etc) and you get this shit show. You get Trump granting interviews likely thinking he would be able to control the narrative (like he did during the campaign) but getting flustered now that reporters and the public are demanding substantive answers.

Because of his insufficient understanding of the nuances of and his lack of position on issues (driven by having no guiding principles and ignorance) he can't give intelligent answers. He can't even stick to talking points because he's too lazy to learn them well enough. He therefore either reverts to campaign mode (when he was given a pass by reporters) or parrots things he's heard even though he doesn't understand them.

That bizarre Andrew Jackson tangent was probably just something he heard someone talk about and that someone may have had a point, but when Trump tried to make the same point he failed comically because 1) it was not his idea and 2) he hadn't thought about or learned the arguments well enough to be able discuss it intelligently.

I think he seems to have gotten worse because he's being (more aggressively?) questioned and he's really stressed by the job. (In my dotage, I find my brain doesn't function as well as it used to under extreme stress.)

Anyway, I wouldn't mind if Trump is declared mentally incompetent, but I think he's merely incompetent.

T-C, you have said it all and said it well. And I do believe I just might love you!

 

[Matata]

 

[katharath]

LOLOL I almost posted turtle thing too, but got distracted and forgot.

 

[siamese3]

OMG.. I simply love the DJT and the turtle on the post comparison.

 

[katharath]

Me too, Jon. Me, too.

 

[E B]

Me three, @katharath - especially with video of cases of beer being rolled in to "celebrate."

None of the 7 reps in Hillary-won districts in CA voted against it. Seems like a pretty YUGE mistake. For a lot of them, actually. It's not going to pass the senate anywhere near as-is and the CBO score is said to be out sometime next week. All for what?

 

[katharath]

Me three, @katharath - especially with video of cases of beer being rolled in to "celebrate."

None of the 7 reps in Hillary-won districts in CA voted against it. Seems like a pretty YUGE mistake. For a lot of them, actually. It's not going to pass the senate anywhere near as-is and the CBO score is said to be out sometime next week. All for what?

It is a sickening display of foolishness. Of course I hope the Senate stomps all over it but at this point, who knows? I honestly didn't think it would get this far; every time I think "oh, Americans aren't THAT stupid, this bad thing won't happen" they come along and prove that yes, they really are that stupid, and HELL YES let's show it!!!

 

[Calliecake]

My husband just told me to calm down because he feels there is no way the senate will pass the Trump health plan. This just makes more nervous because he said repeatedly that America would never elect this moron. I just read that pregnancy will cost 425% more with Trump's plan and that sexual assault will be considered a pre existing condition. Unflipping believeable. Keep telling us the GOP isn't misogynistic!

 

[lovedogs]

I feel physically ill that this horrific bill passed in the house. I can't believe so many GOPers from CA voted for it. I just donated a bunch of money to an organization that gives donations to whatever Dem rep runs against them. It was an easy way to give $ to help their challenger, and I gave to each CA person who is up for re-election in '18.

 

[SMC]

My husband just told me to calm down because he feels there is no way the senate will pass the Trump health plan. I just read that pregnancy will cost 425% more with Trump's plan and that sexual assault will be considered a pre existing condition. Unflipping believeable. Keep telling us the GOP isn't misogynistic!

I saw this too. I'm also hoping it won't pass in the Senate, but the only thing that current events have taught me in the past year is not to put any hope in our government to make sane and logical decisions for women.