Sunday, February 19, 2017

sorry, Susan Lucci

This year the Emmy for best daytime drama performance goes to...Donald Trump.

"How about President Barack Obama's first prime time press conference last night? He was cogent, eloquent, and in complete command of the issues. I'm thinking to myself, what the hell am I supposed to do with that?”—David Letterman
The political performance of the Donald on Thursday was spellbinding. The level of unrestrained crazy was high indeed. The Trump press conference was very entertaining, it was the longest i ever listened/watched him. It was spell binding. He may have known, "I do get good ratings, you have to admit that".

Apparently Trump has "heard" all kinds of crazy. Trump says biggest enemy is the press, especially the  New York Times. A reporter, Peter Alexander, called Trump on his [repeated] electoral vote brag, "biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan". Then Trump said he meant by a Republican. Again he was corrected, "Why should Americans trust you when you accused the information they've received of being fake when you're providing information that's not accurate?"

    Electoral votes 2008 Barack Obama 365
    Electoral votes 2012 Barack Obama 332
    Electoral votes 2016 Donald Trump  304
    Electoral votes 1988 George Bush I  426

The Donald has been on a verbal spree about "fake news" and the "lying press", and many of his followers eagerly agree and applaud that marvelous he. This penchant to label and denigrate a free press has been done before. In 1930s Germany the term was 'Lügenpresse', first it was targeted at the domestic press, but after a while there was no domestic press that was allowed or bold enough to "lie", and the target was the foreign press, such as the New York Times and the BBC.

Plutarch wrote Parallel Lives, a group of biographies pairing a Greek and a Roman with common virtues and vices. Lives and times have similarities. Plutarch was born in the first generation after Jesus. His writing and examination techniques are still applicable. Fascism did not die with Mussolini, and Hitler, and their followers. It is alive. One fascist technique is to demand the destruction of their opponents, because they are opponents. We saw this in Cleveland last summer, where Lt. Gen Michael Flynn got the crowd chanting the demand "Lock her up", and it was repeated throughout the campaign. That was not the only instance. Read some of the life of Dr. Joseph Goebbels, and see how his method is still current.

Antebellum politics is considered as another age of US politics. Some historians argue that the presidents immediately before Lincoln were great failures because they did not hold the Union together, and the South then seceded, and war commenced. But after that cataclysm, it has already become a consensus that george bush jr, has been the worst president. Now, he is beginning to have competition. I almost hazard to guess what will happen. The Republican Party being what it is, has consistently, invariably, put party over country. Both houses of Congress are in their control. There are now eight Supreme Court justices, three are Democrats (the women). Republicans have no problem with a Republican being treasonous, or insane. Gerald Ford once said, "An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of  Representatives considers it to be". ....and President Pence will be no penny bargain either. The next election is 2018, could enough seats in Congress go to the Democracy?

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