From the article: "So. We have a vulgar, unstable yoyo with a toxic ego and an attention deficit problem in the White House and now we can see that government by Twitter is like trying to steer a ship by firing a pistol at the waves, not really useful, but what does it all add up to? Not that much, if you ask me, which you didn’t, but I’ll say it anyway."
And more: "He fulfils an important role of celebs: giving millions of people the chance to feel superior to him. The gloomy face and the antique adolescent hair, the mannequin wife and the clueless children of privilege, the sheer pointlessness of flying around in a 747 to say inane things to crowds of people — it’s cheap entertainment for us and in the end it simply doesn’t matter.'
There is a lot more in the piece about WHY trump doesn't matter, but the two bits I share are my favorites.
Unfortunately, he matters quite a lot. He is destroying the State Department, to name just one. Under his orders the Army Corps of Engineers is destroying irreplaceable wildlife refuges in aid of his wall. The son of a friend of mine has been having difficulty since Spring getting his fin-aid because the day-to-day ops of the Education Department are totally screwed up and chaotic. And that's just stuff I've heard about in the past couple days.
My mind balks at the thought of what truly vulnerable people like food stamp recipients and disabled folks who rely on state and federal programs just to survive must be going through. The havoc, the human suffering this one asshole has already caused in seven and a half months beggars imagination. And much of it is irremediable. And we have four-and-a-half more years? Maybe this too will pass, but the longer it lasts, the deeper the scar it will leave on our country, physically and figuratively.
Susan and Catreona, you are both right, and puddle has captured the essence of that. We are all in this together, and that's the place where optimism is given elbow room. We just need all the Americans who don't care for DT to heed the giant wake up call and take action by 2018! But I agree that we can't just let destruction happen for 4+ more years. Fortunately, good people in Congress are standing up and blocking whatever can be blocked. Plus, good people in the Administration are leaking info to the press, like today's leaking of a scientific document to the NY Times, declaring that Climate Change (yes, they used that very term!) is real.
I saw a column today about "Why People Like Me Like Trump." Actually most of the column was about his gratification that people were trying to understand where he was coming from even if they didn't agree with him, while he himself was careful to never use more provocative language than "East and West coast elites." (What? There are no Midwestern elites?) I certainly agree with him there: We all need to be talking to each other. But in the one paragraph where he addressed why he liked Trump, he said that the status quo is broken and we need to get rid of the Washington establishments (both parties). Trump being disruptive and creating controlled chaos was exactly what was needed. When my hair cutter pushed essentially this argument a year ago, my response was that we needed change, but the change we needed was the Bern rather than the Donald. But I don't think Trump is actually creating change. He is creating the illusion of disruption and chaos, but it is all sound and fury. Contrary to what he wants us to think, the government, much less the country, does not spring from his Twitter finger. So I agree with Keillor -- aside from maybe foreign policy, Trump doesn't really matter.
That article is very well written! Thought provoking and true. I don't come away from it with optimism for the future except where all the other Americans are possibly in the midst of a giant wake-up call, politically speaking.
8. Humans are to blame. The federal report left no doubt as to responsibility for a warming climate: “It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid 20th century.” There are no convincing alternative explanations supported by the observational evidence, the report said.
9. Be ready for surprises in the future. The report said that through greenhouse gas emissions and widespread deforestation, humans were conducting an “unprecedented experiment” with the climate system. Although climate modeling has gotten more sophisticated, no model can capture all the elements of the earth’s complex climate. The report warned there was a “significant possibility” of climate surprises in the future, either compound events, where two or more extreme events occur simultaneously, or tipping point events where some threshold in the climate system is crossed. The more the climate is changed — the more emissions continue or increase — the greater the risk of such surprises, the report said.
It makes sense to me that they would change the language to weather extremes, because if you call it global warming you have idiots like Imhoff bringing a snowball into Congress. Right now New Orleans is suffering from terrible floods, and Las Vegas also did over the weekend. I don't see anybody talking about it.
Yeah, so anyway I've long thought they should have called it global climate instability from the start. We have so many really stupid people, thanks to the eroding of our education systems that people still think Global Warming means it should never get cold. God! I'm so so tired of stupid people!
Help! "The threat [from North Korea today] comes just hours after US President Donald Trump warned Pyongyang that if they continued to threaten the US, they would "face fire and fury like the world has never seen." ~ Zachary Cohen, CNN And before that, today: "Trump uses Twitter to promote leaked intelligence on North Korea...The question for the White House is simple: why is the president using his social-media accounts to confirm reports based on leaks of sensitive intelligence?" ~ Steve Benen, MSNBC
This is very serious. It certainly seems to be time to impeach this President for blatant incompetency. Please. Lives depend on it. The future of our great nation is imperiled by his actions.
Trump HAS accomplished one positive thing--he has rescued James Buchanan's reputation! No longer will Buchanan be unquestionably the worst President of the USA.
http://www.twincities.com/2017/08/05/garrison-keillor-we-will-survive-this/
ReplyDeleteFrom the article: "So. We have a vulgar, unstable yoyo with a toxic ego and an attention deficit problem in the White House and now we can see that government by Twitter is like trying to steer a ship by firing a pistol at the waves, not really useful, but what does it all add up to? Not that much, if you ask me, which you didn’t, but I’ll say it anyway."
And more: "He fulfils an important role of celebs: giving millions of people the chance to feel superior to him. The gloomy face and the antique adolescent hair, the mannequin wife and the clueless children of privilege, the sheer pointlessness of flying around in a 747 to say inane things to crowds of people — it’s cheap entertainment for us and in the end it simply doesn’t matter.'
There is a lot more in the piece about WHY trump doesn't matter, but the two bits I share are my favorites.
DeleteUnfortunately, he matters quite a lot. He is destroying the State Department, to name just one. Under his orders the Army Corps of Engineers is destroying irreplaceable wildlife refuges in aid of his wall. The son of a friend of mine has been having difficulty since Spring getting his fin-aid because the day-to-day ops of the Education Department are totally screwed up and chaotic. And that's just stuff I've heard about in the past couple days.
My mind balks at the thought of what truly vulnerable people like food stamp recipients and disabled folks who rely on state and federal programs just to survive must be going through. The havoc, the human suffering this one asshole has already caused in seven and a half months beggars imagination. And much of it is irremediable. And we have four-and-a-half more years? Maybe this too will pass, but the longer it lasts, the deeper the scar it will leave on our country, physically and figuratively.
cat, imagine how much harm he could and would do with his belief system if he were remotely competent. . . .
DeleteSusan and Catreona, you are both right, and puddle has captured the essence of that. We are all in this together, and that's the place where optimism is given elbow room. We just need all the Americans who don't care for DT to heed the giant wake up call and take action by 2018! But I agree that we can't just let destruction happen for 4+ more years. Fortunately, good people in Congress are standing up and blocking whatever can be blocked. Plus, good people in the Administration are leaking info to the press, like today's leaking of a scientific document to the NY Times, declaring that Climate Change (yes, they used that very term!) is real.
DeleteI saw a column today about "Why People Like Me Like Trump." Actually most of the column was about his gratification that people were trying to understand where he was coming from even if they didn't agree with him, while he himself was careful to never use more provocative language than "East and West coast elites." (What? There are no Midwestern elites?) I certainly agree with him there: We all need to be talking to each other. But in the one paragraph where he addressed why he liked Trump, he said that the status quo is broken and we need to get rid of the Washington establishments (both parties). Trump being disruptive and creating controlled chaos was exactly what was needed.
DeleteWhen my hair cutter pushed essentially this argument a year ago, my response was that we needed change, but the change we needed was the Bern rather than the Donald. But I don't think Trump is actually creating change. He is creating the illusion of disruption and chaos, but it is all sound and fury. Contrary to what he wants us to think, the government, much less the country, does not spring from his Twitter finger. So I agree with Keillor -- aside from maybe foreign policy, Trump doesn't really matter.
Putin Didn’t Do It - Click
ReplyDeleteThat article is very well written! Thought provoking and true. I don't come away from it with optimism for the future except where all the other Americans are possibly in the midst of a giant wake-up call, politically speaking.
DeleteI just changed the third photo out front. Have a look!!
DeleteFrom The Hill:
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/345599-usda-office-told-to-use-weather-extremes-instead-of-climate-change
From The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/14/donald-trump-climate-change-mentions-government-websites
From the New York Times:
https://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/?action=click&contentCollection®ion=TopBar&WT.nav=searchWidget&module=SearchSubmit&pgtype=sectionfront#/climate%20change
8. Humans are to blame.
The federal report left no doubt as to responsibility for a warming climate: “It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid 20th century.” There are no convincing alternative explanations supported by the observational evidence, the report said.
9. Be ready for surprises in the future.
The report said that through greenhouse gas emissions and widespread deforestation, humans were conducting an “unprecedented experiment” with the climate system. Although climate modeling has gotten more sophisticated, no model can capture all the elements of the earth’s complex climate. The report warned there was a “significant possibility” of climate surprises in the future, either compound events, where two or more extreme events occur simultaneously, or tipping point events where some threshold in the climate system is crossed. The more the climate is changed — the more emissions continue or increase — the greater the risk of such surprises, the report said.
Saw this and couldn't help thinking it's related to all the tin foil hats we're going to be needing.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-aluminum-idUSKBN1AO2N5
It makes sense to me that they would change the language to weather extremes, because if you call it global warming you have idiots like Imhoff bringing a snowball into Congress. Right now New Orleans is suffering from terrible floods, and Las Vegas also did over the weekend. I don't see anybody talking about it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, so anyway I've long thought they should have called it global climate instability from the start. We have so many really stupid people, thanks to the eroding of our education systems that people still think Global Warming means it should never get cold. God! I'm so so tired of stupid people!
Stupidity is the one thing we can't educate. Sigh.
DeleteI like your terminology. The wording DT's people are trying to use is purely to hush up the whole issue.
I wrote to my Rep and Senators today saying:
ReplyDeleteHelp! "The threat [from North Korea today] comes just hours after US President Donald Trump warned Pyongyang that if they continued to threaten the US, they would "face fire and fury like the world has never seen." ~ Zachary Cohen, CNN
And before that, today: "Trump uses Twitter to promote leaked intelligence on North Korea...The question for the White House is simple: why is the president using his social-media accounts to confirm reports based on leaks of sensitive intelligence?" ~ Steve Benen, MSNBC
This is very serious. It certainly seems to be time to impeach this President for blatant incompetency. Please. Lives depend on it. The future of our great nation is imperiled by his actions.
Trump HAS accomplished one positive thing--he has rescued James Buchanan's reputation! No longer will Buchanan be unquestionably the worst President of the USA.
ReplyDelete--Alan
Mebbe we should just call it Climate Surprise!"
ReplyDelete