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(12-17-2016, 11:19 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: (12-17-2016, 11:14 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote: My most valuable tools are all vehicles of some sort. I've spent the bulk of my life making the types of decisions that either avoid suffering or sharply reduces the amount of time that must be spent suffering. I don't know what gives the impression that I come from/represent a mindless, joyless world that's focused/fixated more on suffering than love.
Try reading your stuff objectively, for emotional content rather than political memes. You come across as hostile and confrontational, dissatisfied. This might not be your intent, but I can quite understand where the impression comes from.
Objectively speaking, you should be able to figure out/ understand why I come across to you and other blues as someone who can be that way. I get the impression that blues aren't used to being the ones who are on the front line, so to speak.
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(12-18-2016, 12:48 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote: (12-17-2016, 11:19 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: (12-17-2016, 11:14 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote: My most valuable tools are all vehicles of some sort. I've spent the bulk of my life making the types of decisions that either avoid suffering or sharply reduces the amount of time that must be spent suffering. I don't know what gives the impression that I come from/represent a mindless, joyless world that's focused/fixated more on suffering than love.
Try reading your stuff objectively, for emotional content rather than political memes. You come across as hostile and confrontational, dissatisfied. This might not be your intent, but I can quite understand where the impression comes from.
Objectively speaking, you should be able to figure out/ understand why I come across to you and other blues as someone who can be that way. I get the impression that blues aren't used to being the ones who are on the front line, so to speak.
I was not discussing tools; I was discussing the reality of living in an Empire which tolerates certain behavior. It is unlikely that a Trump Administration will curtail the right to travel within America because such a right is necessary for the smooth functioning of the economy. But if Donald Trump and his political stooges choose to clamp down on political speech hostile to crony capitalism, then being able to travel from Phoenix to Philadelphia easily will not help one. It is not you, but Donald Trump and other Republicans, whom I distrust with the responsibility to avoid imposing upon Americans the norm of mindless, joyless life in which love means little more than the willingness to suffer for economic elites just to do avoid harm to loved ones.
Relocation has never been cheap. Even in the days of covered wagons the journey West to 'new' farmland recently stolen from the First peoples has involved purchase of land or property and an arduous and often dangerous travel. The reality of being cash-poor and object-rich is the norm of American life because we Americans have found such safe. Moving is cheap if one can put all one's possessions (or at least those that one most needs) in a suitcase while going from a furnished apartment in Fort Wayne to Fort Worth. Relocating even from Austin to San Antonio is costly if one has the usual accoutrements of middle-class life, even if a trip between the two cities by car is inexpensive.
You just do not understand why someone as liberal as I can find the bigoted rhetoric, sheer nonsense, tyrannical tone, and dodgy language of Donald Trump can so put me off. Bigots have never fostered concord, but they have certainly imposed pointless suffering. Objective reality is the fundamental tool (and in that sense more metaphoric than tangible) of making wise decisions that work for multitudes on issues from effective schools to environmental quality. I have seen plenty of footage of tyrannical government and the predictable harm that it does; I see more in common between Donald Trump and Benito Mussolini than between him and Ronald Reagan, and I dread an American who praises foreign tyrants. I may have never served in the Armed Forces, but I am satisfied that the honor code (the wording is different between the Academies differs, but it means the same) of the Service Academies is a good standard for people with responsibilities for the dignity, safety, and prosperity of others applies:
Do not lie, cheat, or steal; do not tolerate lying, cheating, or stealing by others.
So 'low' a profession as school-teaching, in which a teacher has responsibility for the welfare of children makes such mandatory. This applies to police, fire-fighters, engineers, pharmacists, dentists, accountants, physicians, attorneys, and research scientists. Of course it is not enough, but it is necessary if not sufficient to avoid creating worse problems than those that one solves by some shady fait accompli. Deceit, chicanery, and theft always create problems that require even more dishonesty to cover up.
OK, one is not lying if one tells something that one firmly believes yet is utterly untrue (as with the garden-variety racist or religious bigot) or if one is brainwashed. But it is up to us as responsible adults to recognize that something contrary to our base of knowledge is unsupportable.
Do I trust Donald Trump with anything that I cherish? No. In view of what he has said of women, I would not want my daughter or grand-daughter to participate in a pageant in which he has a presence. I would not want to do business with him. Warren Buffett? T. Boone Pickens? Bill Gates? Sure.
With Donald Trump as President I expect nothing but trouble. We will soon have a contrast between him and Barack Obama, who was honest (if secretive) instead of dishonest and flamboyant as Donald Trump is, and by 2020 we Americans will want a President who promises the integrity and competence of Barack Obama. The problem with Donald Trump isn't his economic or social agenda; a new Administration with a co-operative Congress can undo the administrative and legislative damage. The problem is with an insane foreign policy and a willingness to short-circuit the checks and balances of our political heritage.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
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12-18-2016, 07:48 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-18-2016, 07:51 PM by Eric the Green.)
(12-17-2016, 11:14 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote: (12-17-2016, 02:27 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: (12-17-2016, 01:24 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote: (12-17-2016, 02:32 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: Donald Trump's America will make many of us regret being Americans.
Being 'butt hurt' and disliking it is a normal response to being paddled.... most of us will be raped financially on behalf of the cronies of a ruthless elitist. The best that anyone can do when not working more hours for much less is to numb oneself with stupefying media and drink. I do not know whether I could survive the four years of Donald Trump because I am young enough to think but too old to be a workhorse. I am not sure that I will have any desire to live in the new, vile America.
One will have to be very rich or very stupid to like Trump's glitzy, mindless, soulless world. There will be plenty of dissidents, probably because we Americans are unaccustomed to any form of tyranny. OK, being from a Communist state or such a nightmare as Pinochet's Chile... or if one is old enough, being black in Kukluxistan.
Profits will not be turned into job-creating plant and equipment in America. They will most likely be spent on palaces and castles whose only job-creating characteristics once built is that they will need battalions of domestic staff (dirt-cheap, of course) to staff them.
The best advice to those who have no choice except to remain is to keep the means of ending it all readily available. It will be that bad. Some of us are just not made for a mindless, joyless world in which 'love' means little more than the willingness to suffer for something awful. Maybe we can find some meaning in life by protests and demonstrations. Using one's mind will be itself a subversive activity perhaps more subversive than burning a US flag or defacing the image of the Great and Infallible Leader.
No one has been forced to stay here. We all have the freedom to leave here. How many Americans have a true interest in ruling someone like you?
Getting around within the United States is easy. Relocating is costly. Becoming an expatriate requires that one have very specific skills.
It helps to be cash-rich and object-poor, which American middle-class people rarely are anymore. Dollars are the most marketable of commodities available. Antique furniture isn't so financially liquid. Selling a house? Lots of luck outside of the hot real estate markets. For many people their most valuable asset is a car.
Now what do you find so wonderful about a "mindless, joyless world in which 'love' means little more than the willingness to suffer for something awful?" Why should people find such to be a good thing?
I expect Donald Trump's America unspeakably offensive -- hierarchical, repressive, inequitable, vulgar, and stupefying. Maybe even dangerous. That's what one gets when the Leader has no virtues.
My most valuable tools are all vehicles of some sort. I've spent the bulk of my life making the types of decisions that either avoid suffering or sharply reduces the amount of time that must be spent suffering. I don't know what gives the impression that I come from/represent a mindless, joyless world that's focused/fixated more on suffering than love.
The things you do in your personal life are not in question, such as your heating business if I remember correctly. Your intentions and how you live your life is not for me to judge; in any case it's probably fine. It's just that you represent (or are an example here of) those in America who vote for a joyless, mindless world fixated on more suffering than love. It's the issue of what ideology and candidates you support. That's not really, necessarily, a personal issue. It's about the attitudes that shape your political behavior. No doubt, when it comes to your personal life, your political and cultural attitudes are probably a relatively small part of it. But there's no question about what you vote for: a mindless, joyless world that creates more suffering is as apt a description as any of what you vote for and advocate.
Government policies have consequences. The consequences of Republican policies are: mindless, joyless worlds of more suffering.
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Quote:Do not lie, cheat, or steal; do not tolerate lying, cheating, or stealing by others.
This, of course, is the rationale for the War On Terror - which will henceforth, presumably, be called by its true name, War On Islam, once that sworn enemy of political correctness, Donald Trump, is sworn in - the point being that just about all Muslims either commit terrorist acts or tolerate terrorist acts by other Muslims, with about 95% fitting into the latter category, but still.
"These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation" - Justice David Brewer, Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 1892
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(12-21-2016, 11:10 AM)Anthony Wrote: Quote:Do not lie, cheat, or steal; do not tolerate lying, cheating, or stealing by others.
This, of course, is the rationale for the War On Terror - which will henceforth, presumably, be called by its true name, War On Islam, once that sworn enemy of political correctness, Donald Trump, is sworn in - the point being that just about all Muslims either commit terrorist acts or tolerate terrorist acts by other Muslims, with about 95% fitting into the latter category, but still.
You need to take another look at what you believe; a serious look.
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12-21-2016, 02:27 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-21-2016, 02:31 PM by Eric the Green.)
(12-17-2016, 09:08 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote: Eric the Green Wrote:Rags risks being uninformed. I guess you do pretty well, considering where you live.
Ooohhhhh.. "where you live". Yeah, OK, I don't mind. I can't really move anyhow 'cause it costs too much.
Like I sed, if I could have a redo, I'd be in Leadville now.
Like you say, being 90 miles from any MSM, I guess you do pretty well.
Quote:Have fun fighting. The DNC shouldn't have cheated on Bernie you know. Yes, I'm aware of the current big
red bait thingie going on. I paid attention what was leaked, no how it got leaked. Sorry.
Most of what was leaked was either meaningless or distorted and taken out of context. It amounts to fake news. What the DNC did to Bernie was of little consequence. Resentment over it is not fruitful or relevant.
Quote:Syria? A lot of that was spillover from the bad choice to overthrow Saddam.
Again, you say this because you are not informed enough, and believe conspiracy theories. NO, the overthrow of Saddam has little to do with what's happening in Syria. Unless you want to give George W Bush credit for inspiring rebellions for "freedom" with his war of choice on Iraq. I don't. I give the people of Syria credit for their uprising. The desire for freedom is a natural thing in this modern world. I do not like it when people attribute peoples desire for freedom and a better life to a mistake committed by the United States or some other world power. NO, the people wanted their freedom, and took their inspiration from their fellows in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. That's called "The Arab Spring," remember? No, the Iraq War was not people rising up for freedom. It was imperialism by the USA, on the grounds that the USA had a choice to create "The New American Century."
Quote:Wars of choice = intervening in a country that does not pose a threat to US citizens in the USA. Btw, the refugee crisis in Europe is to a large degree do to the US decision to off Qaddafi. All wars of choice bring nothing but sorrow....
I of course agree about wars of choice. No should do. The refugee crisis has little to do with Libya and Qaddafi, which the USA didn't "off," but mainly helped prevent Qaddafi from wiping out his people. It does help to be informed about these things. Many non-Hillary voters were duped by the idea that the USA offed Qaddafi. NO. The people of Libya did that. The USA and even more Europe merely acted in Libya to prevent a genocidal suppression of revolt, and did not start or fight a "war" there.
We should have done something similar in Syria. Maybe not direct bombing; less probably an option because Syria is a Russian ally. But the Syria uprising and its brutal and genocidal suppression is what is responsible for most of the refugees. Not Bush's invasion of Iraq, NOR the Islamic State that resulted from it. Which is obvious to anyone who keeps up with the News and is informed about what's going on. The revolution against Assad was probably folly, but it was not a USA war of choice, but a revolution against a tyrant by his own people.
Quote:Quote:You don't watch the MSM, so you don't know a thing about it. They are adapting to Trump more than opposing him; much less crying. The only bright spot is the late night comedians. Besides, in this case, handwringing is virtuous, but especially if after we dry our tears, we start fighting the Trumpster dumpster.
I got a pretty big sample on this forum, Eric.
I doubt that. I think TV watching is very rare on this forum, for example.
Quote:Quote:Hillary was about the best that we were going to get from America today. That's the difference between me and some folks. This is America. I've been around a while, and disappointed before. There are never any really good choices for America, as far as leaders go. No, we have to suck it up and support the better of the two evils. Because--- this is Amerika. Americans are incapable in these times of choosing good leaders. That's just something to take for granted. They just proved it again, as if it needed proving again. But after 2004, that's just what I have concluded, based on solid evidence. Americans just don't know how to do it; period.
I didn't think so. I voted blank for POTUS, and then a straight D on down from there.
It's not about you; it's about Trump voters.
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Well, one lie down...
CNN Wrote:"Drain the swamp" was a refrain of Donald Trump during the presidential campaign, but Newt Gingrich says the president-elect "doesn't want to use it anymore" now that he's knee-deep in alligators.
"I'm told he now just disclaims that. He now says it was cute, but he doesn't want to use it anymore," Gingrich, who informally advises Trump, said Wednesday on NPR's "Morning Edition."
With friends like Newt...
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
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12-21-2016, 06:39 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-21-2016, 06:40 PM by Ragnarök_62.)
(12-21-2016, 06:21 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: Well, one lie down...
CNN Wrote:"Drain the swamp" was a refrain of Donald Trump during the presidential campaign, but Newt Gingrich says the president-elect "doesn't want to use it anymore" now that he's knee-deep in alligators.
"I'm told he now just disclaims that. He now says it was cute, but he doesn't want to use it anymore," Gingrich, who informally advises Trump, said Wednesday on NPR's "Morning Edition."
With friends like Newt...
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/artic...amphibians.
Newt has always lied about "drain the swamp". Newts don't like their swamps drained. 
---Value Added
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(12-21-2016, 11:10 AM)Anthony Wrote: that just about all Muslims either commit terrorist acts or tolerate terrorist acts by other Muslims, with about 95% fitting into the latter category, but still.
Your bigotry is disgusting.
#MakeTheDemocratsGreatAgain
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CNN is trying to bring in a new phrase for Trump's style of Big Lie... " Gaslighting". The term comes from an old movie...
CNN Wrote:If you've never heard the term, prepare to learn it and live with it every day. Unless Trump starts behaving in a radically different way after he becomes President, gas-lighting will become one of the words of 2017.
The term comes from the 1930s play "Gas Light" and the 1940s Hollywood movie version (Gaslight) in which a manipulative husband tries to unmoor his wife, played by Ingrid Bergman, by tampering with her perception of reality. He dims the gaslights and then pretends it's only she who thinks they are flickering as the rooms grow darker.
That's only the beginning. He uses a variety of truth-blurring techniques. His goal is to exert power and control by creating doubts about what is real and what isn't, distracting her as he attempts to steal precious jewels.
The illustrations of Trump's gas-lighting performances are to a great degree well known. The article just brings various incidents into a common focus and tries to attach a new descriptive phrase to the technique. Possibly worth a read.
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
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(12-21-2016, 02:08 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: (12-21-2016, 11:10 AM)Anthony Wrote: Quote:Do not lie, cheat, or steal; do not tolerate lying, cheating, or stealing by others.
This, of course, is the rationale for the War On Terror - which will henceforth, presumably, be called by its true name, War On Islam, once that sworn enemy of political correctness, Donald Trump, is sworn in - the point being that just about all Muslims either commit terrorist acts or tolerate terrorist acts by other Muslims, with about 95% fitting into the latter category, but still.
You need to take another look at what you believe; a serious look.
How do you explain the fact that of the world's 59 majority-Muslim nations, only three recognize the right of the adherents of another faith (Judaism) to exist - and all three of those had that recognition extorted from them by three different U.S. Presidents: Turkey by Harry Truman, Egypt by Jimmy Carter, and Jordan by Bill Clinton?
And doesn't it logically follow that if you do not recognize someone's right to exist, that you believe that to kill them is morally acceptable?
"These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation" - Justice David Brewer, Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 1892
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(01-18-2017, 12:04 PM)Anthony Wrote: (12-21-2016, 02:08 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: (12-21-2016, 11:10 AM)Anthony Wrote: Quote:Do not lie, cheat, or steal; do not tolerate lying, cheating, or stealing by others.
This, of course, is the rationale for the War On Terror - which will henceforth, presumably, be called by its true name, War On Islam, once that sworn enemy of political correctness, Donald Trump, is sworn in - the point being that just about all Muslims either commit terrorist acts or tolerate terrorist acts by other Muslims, with about 95% fitting into the latter category, but still.
You need to take another look at what you believe; a serious look.
How do you explain the fact that of the world's 59 majority-Muslim nations, only three recognize the right of the adherents of another faith (Judaism) to exist - and all three of those had that recognition extorted from them by three different U.S. Presidents: Turkey by Harry Truman, Egypt by Jimmy Carter, and Jordan by Bill Clinton?
And doesn't it logically follow that if you do not recognize someone's right to exist, that you believe that to kill them is morally acceptable?
Are you saying that most of the 59 majority-Muslim nations actually kill people in their country that aren't Muslim?
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Reality check. How many people attending the inauguration? Trump attacks the press for inaccurate reporting? The gas lights are flickering?
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
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01-22-2017, 11:12 AM
(This post was last modified: 01-22-2017, 01:55 PM by pbrower2a.)
(01-22-2017, 07:40 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: Reality check. How many people attending the inauguration? Trump attacks the press for inaccurate reporting? The gas lights are flickering?
Big, pointless falsehoods. His popularity begins freakishly low for a new President, and he contradicts objective evidence that he is unpopular.
Direct contradiction of objective reality in knowledge of its falsity is the most obvious form of lie. At the least odious someone can simply be wrong, but most people who are simply wrong (unless there is a cultural cause, like fundamentalist Christianity that precludes acceptance of evolution and a rational timeline of history, and one must excuse that) can be corrected with some forgiveness and empathy. Direct contradiction of truth in the delusion that objective reality is a phantasm is similarly dangerous. With a political leader it can have consequences of personal tragedy, as with Tsar Nicholas II, Benito Mussolini, or Nicolae Ceausescu believing what their flunkies tell them, to wit that they are beloved figures when the People in fact hate their guts. One way or the other, whether lie or delusion, a direct contradiction of reality can be harmful those who depend upon objective reality to make their decisions.
Were I in a supervisory function at work, and one is not a genuine supervisor without the ability to fire someone for cause, I could fire someone quickly for one of six things:
1. Sexual harassment
2. Embezzlement or reckless stewardship of company assets
3. Violence or threats to a co-worker
4. Infamous behavior off the job (like being busted for shoplifting, spouse abuse, or sexual offenses)
5. Cheating, attempted extortion, or stealing from a vendor (including making a fraudulent claim for insurance benefits)
6. Deliberate or reckless deceit about something germane to the smooth functioning of the operation
There might be some innocent reason for under-performance, let us say of a store that has lost easy access from a major highway due to a construction project or while the building is being remodeled. Firing the store manager would not solve the problem if one has evidence of good performance under the circumstances (such as that the sales volume per transaction is above average, indicating that people who actually get to the store are getting good service).
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
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Did you catch Kelly Ann's commentary on Sean Spicer's trainwreck?
She called what he said, "Alternate Facts"
We are truly in a world of trouble with this bunch. I'm torn between hoping for two years of disaster followed by voting the whole gang out of office in the House, and hoping that too much damage is not done. The latter could result in having to watch this lunatic and his bootlickers for a whole four years.
[font=Arial Black]... a man of notoriously vicious and intemperate disposition.[/font]
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(01-22-2017, 05:24 PM)TnT Wrote: Did you catch Kelly Ann's commentary on Sean Spicer's trainwreck?
She called what he said, "Alternate Facts"
We are truly in a world of trouble with this bunch. I'm torn between hoping for two years of disaster followed by voting the whole gang out of office in the House, and hoping that too much damage is not done. The latter could result in having to watch this lunatic and his bootlickers for a whole four years.
After campaigning against political correctness, it has been noted that 'Alternate Facts' is a politically correct term for 'lies'.
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
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(01-22-2017, 05:24 PM)TnT Wrote: Did you catch Kelly Ann's commentary on Sean Spicer's trainwreck?
She called what he said, "Alternate Facts"
We are truly in a world of trouble with this bunch. I'm torn between hoping for two years of disaster followed by voting the whole gang out of office in the House, and hoping that too much damage is not done. The latter could result in having to watch this lunatic and his bootlickers for a whole four years.
There are any number of words used to describe Trump by those who dislike him. I distrust two of them, 'fascist' and 'demagogue'. They don't seem telling to me, though I'm not inclined at this point to argue against them.
I keep coming back to ' narcissist'. He has a high opinion of himself and reacts poorly to those who disturb that self image. Thus, he'll try to do things that he hasn't the skills to achieve while attacking and demeaning those who tarnish his exaggerated self image.
After the smear campaigns directed at Obama and Hillary, the press isn't going to coddle his self image. The old tradition of coddling the president, of hiding his flaws, is long gone. If he shows a flaw or a lie, they'll be on it. Meanwhile, I can see Congress splitting three ways. There are Republicans who will be trying to ride Tea Party coat tails, and there will be the Establishment corporate types, and... Isn't there another group? There might be a potential to make two of the three happy with him, but I'm not sure he has the people skills to pull it off.
I'm still dubious, but enough other people here are predicting doom and gloom that I don't feel the need to join them yet.
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
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(01-22-2017, 05:24 PM)TnT Wrote: Did you catch Kelly Ann's commentary on Sean Spicer's trainwreck?
She called what he said, "Alternate Facts"
We are truly in a world of trouble with this bunch. I'm torn between hoping for two years of disaster followed by voting the whole gang out of office in the House, and hoping that too much damage is not done. The latter could result in having to watch this lunatic and his bootlickers for a whole four years.
It's as if Donald Trump and those around him can make something true if they wish it so. Because climate change is inconvenient as a concept to people who want accelerating growth in fossil-fuel consumption, global warming cannot happen. It's like the idea that if Barack Obama cannot be a good President, he must be ineligible... born in Kenya?
Basic reality cannot be wrong; it cannot change no matter how strongly one wishes. The arrow of time goes one way, and that cannot change biographical reality or historical fact. Logical contradictions are beyond reconciliation.
Fasten your seat belts; we're in for a bumpy ride.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
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(01-23-2017, 12:14 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: (01-22-2017, 05:24 PM)TnT Wrote: Did you catch Kelly Ann's commentary on Sean Spicer's trainwreck?
She called what he said, "Alternate Facts"
We are truly in a world of trouble with this bunch. I'm torn between hoping for two years of disaster followed by voting the whole gang out of office in the House, and hoping that too much damage is not done. The latter could result in having to watch this lunatic and his bootlickers for a whole four years.
There are any number of words used to describe Trump by those who dislike him. I distrust two of them, 'fascist' and 'demagogue'. They don't seem telling to me, though I'm not inclined at this point to argue against them.
I keep coming back to 'narcissist'. He has a high opinion of himself and reacts poorly to those who disturb that self image. Thus, he'll try to do things that he hasn't the skills to achieve while attacking and demeaning those who tarnish his exaggerated self image.
After the smear campaigns directed at Obama and Hillary, the press isn't going to coddle his self image. The old tradition of coddling the president, of hiding his flaws, is long gone. If he shows a flaw or a lie, they'll be on it. Meanwhile, I can see Congress splitting three ways. There are Republicans who will be trying to ride Tea Party coat tails, and there will be the Establishment corporate types, and... Isn't there another group? There might be a potential to make two of the three happy with him, but I'm not sure he has the people skills to pull it off.
I'm still dubious, but enough other people here are predicting doom and gloom that I don't feel the need to join them yet.
Well, I wouldn't underestimate his ability to get things done behind the scenes. Plus, he seems to be able to easily bait/ upset biased professionals with careless tweets and disrupt/mess up an entire news day at CNN. You guys should be familiar with the tactics that he's using against a biased group of people who are supposed to be fair and objective. I don't know who has the higher opinion of them self, Donald Trump or the liberal press.
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