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Mike 03

Mike 03's Journal
Mike 03's Journal
June 17, 2020

Be still my heart

It is a withering portrait of a president ignorant of even basic facts about the world, susceptible to transparent flattery by authoritarian leaders manipulating him and prone to false statements, foul-mouthed eruptions and snap decisions that aides try to manage or reverse.

Mr. Trump did not seem to know, for example, that Britain is a nuclear power and asked if Finland is part of Russia, Mr. Bolton writes. He came closer to withdrawing the United States from NATO than previously known. Even top advisers who position themselves as unswervingly loyal mock him behind his back. During Mr. Trump’s 2018 meeting with North Korea’s leader, according to the book, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slipped Mr. Bolton a note disparaging the president, saying, “He is so full of shit.”
June 17, 2020

Two Factories - Bruce Springsteen, Warren Zevon

Factory - Bruce Springsteen



The Factory - Warren Zevon

June 16, 2020

Worthwhile article.

We'd be foolish beyond belief not to use the mounting evidence of physical and psychological impairments against this president, just as he will attempt to use far, far less evidence against our candidate. I imagine the Lincoln Project or Mike Bloomberg could do something with this. And it's not like this is the only article. There are hundreds of articles by doctors and psychiatrists (all reputable) making this case.

June 16, 2020

It does, completely.

Republicans are trying to amass as much money and power as possible before society breaks down from global warming (which they secretly believe in but don't want others to believe in) and civil unrest. They think they can "ride it out" while the rest of the world destroys itself.

June 14, 2020

We need to create an environment where good officers don't even want to be

near bad cops. Somehow we need to incentivize good cops to turn in bad cops. The unions often stand in the way of that, as you point out, by creating an environment where they run to the defense of bad officers and shame anyone who criticizes law enforcement, no matter how bad what they've done is.

Instead of there being repercussions and stigmatization for turning a bad cop in, there should be rewards for turning a bad cop in.

June 14, 2020

The Grumpy Princess sings a song for Trump: "You're an Asshole"

This is actually from 2017, but it's funny.

June 14, 2020

It's daunting to think about.

Biden should do one gigantic Executive Order that simply undoes all of Trump's EOs rather than deal with them one by one. That will save him precious months of work.

June 14, 2020

What he does all day

According to the NYT and Fire and Fury:

Seven hours of TV watching before he leaves his bedroom. (approx 4 am to 11 am)
Around 11 AM: Go to the Oval Office and make phone calls to some governors.
Early afternoon: Lunch
?
6 PMish: Retire to his bedroom to eat fast food and watch TV an use an unsecured cell phone to call loyal friends and foreign dictators.

June 14, 2020

There's a lot of interesting information on this.

It's been a while since I read the Richard Evans trilogy on the Third Reich. There was opposition to Hitler, before and as he began to seize power, but the cost of opposing Hitler was great. Also, there was "disbelief" among many (predominantly intellectuals) that Hitler could actually accomplish what he accomplished. It turns out you have to read the diaries kept by Germans in the 1930s to get a better sense of how people really felt about Hitler. Germany became a one party system. Imagine if every person in your town was a Tea Partier. You'd probably keep your head down. You might pretend to be one. You might join the Tea Party knowing you despise it just to survive. Some people did stand up and those who were not put in a work camp escaped Germany. (Many people fled Germany in the lead up to the war, but Hitler made it so you had to be very rich to do this, because he seized peoples assets. He told the Jews, in effect, get out but made it nearly impossible for them to do so. Many fled with nothing.)

There were so many crosscurrents in Germany in the early 30s stemming from the fallout of WWI and economic crisis, Because of this chaos, there was increased susceptibility to a populist dictator who said he wanted to restore Germany to its "former glory" and that there was a conspiracy to destroy Germany. I'm not sure how easy it was to see what exactly was happening as it was happening. It's probably a bit like the way Hemingway described going broke: "It happens gradually, and then suddenly."

I can't recommend highly enough The Coming of the Third Reich and The Third Reich in Power, both by Richard J. Evans. (There's a third book in the series about the war, but the part leading up to it is even more interesting).

One could devote a decade just to studying the ascent of the Nazis.

June 13, 2020

He made an interesting tweet on this

https://twitter.com/TomJChicago/status/1271828256048795650

Text: Trump’s neurological decline leaves him accident prone when doing things like sipping water. Guaranteed he has spilled liquid all over himself b4. The two-handed hold/ push is temporary compensation. Note- he’s never seen chewing & swallowing food. Eventually he’ll need to be fed

Profile Information

Gender: Male
Hometown: Modesto California
Home country: United States
Current location: Arizona
Member since: Mon Oct 27, 2008, 06:14 PM
Number of posts: 16,616
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