Home Forums FineTunedMac Community Lounge Donald Trump's Fake Sympathy

We are just 20 weeks into 2018 and the tragedy at Santa Fe, Texas is the 22nd school shooting this year in the U.S. where someone was hurt or killed. The gun lobby is already out in full force to protect their interests while the politicians are making the ever-predictable “calls for action”.

Following the Parkland, Florida shooting, President Trump met with a group of the students and afterward said: “We cannot imagine the depth of their anguish, but we can pledge the strength of our resolve”. He also chastised American lawmakers suggesting they were “petrified of the powerful firearms lobby” and that perhaps he was the one to stand up to them because “They have less power over me”, ignoring the fact that he took more than $30 million from the NRA for his election campaign.

Less than two months after his disingenuous promises to America’s youth, Trump was the keynote speaker at the NRA Convention boasting: “Only one candidate in the general election came to speak to you, and that candidate is now the president of the United States, standing before you. You came through for me, and I am going to come through for you.”

Now, following this most recent mass murder, Trump tried to reverse direction and give the impression that he actually cares about the carnage.

However, Trump's fake sympathy was not lost on a Parkland student, Jaclyn Corin, who responded to his latest trite tweet with: “Our children are being MURDERED and you’re treating this like a game.”

Let us hope that enough disgusted or frustrated students become old enough to vote in the near future, and then do vote.

Unfortunately, though, when they're old enough to vote, they're also old enough to buy guns.

Surely, you meant to say "disingenuous" [= insincere, dishonest, untruthful, false, deceitful, duplicitous, lying, mendacious, hypocritical].
And, yes, I know, don't call you Shirley.

And will enough teenagers come of age AND care to prevent a re-election?

Same goes for those who already were old enough to vote, but stayed home on election night the last time?

Time will tell, I suppose.

P.S. I've never quite followed the reasoning that the solution to the gun "problem" is to have more guns around.

If only they were bold and intelligent enough to use them to positive advantage ....

Yup....thanks for the catch....correction made.

Personally I think ingeniously disingenuous may be closer to the mark. Never understimate Herr Trumpness. He has a knack for fooling a lot of the people a lot of the time.

If for nothing else, we've got to give him at least a bit of credit for being perhaps the most accomplished liar of all time.

I'm constantly amazed by his audiences being sucked in by the laughably diametric opposite of what he told his preceding audience.


(It seems to me that there are more syllables in that chorus than I remember being in the song.)

Great lyrics quote. Just great.

"Trump's government has failed [eg, in ameliorating the human catastrophe in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria] not only because of indifference and incompetence, although he abounds in both, but because from the start it has been redirected from the service of the public to the aggrandizement of one domineering man and his shameless grasping extended family."

So opines David Frum in his Trumpocracy : The Corruption of the American Republic (p xiii).

Kinda sounds like Putin and the Russian oligarchs, doesn't it?

My read is that Trump idolizes Putin, is insanely jealous of his thievery, and would match it if he could, but in the end, he's just a penny-ante player...nowhere near in the same league on any level.

Keep in mind that Herr Tromp wasn't trained in the skullduggery and vicious subterfuge of the KGB. He only aspires to it. And he's bad at it.

Although, personal thievery ambitions aside, Trump is managing to accomplish one thing that Putin has already achieved, which is to turn his country into a plutocracy.

Putin is to Trump as Hitler was to Mussolini

I don't think Hitler owned Mussolini as Putin seems to own Trump.

Probably because they didn't have tiny video cameras back then.

Either that, or Mussolini was celibate.

It's almost funny that in a world in which, since time immemorial, the soldiers have gotten the women and the leaders have gotten the wealth, America goes crazy over leaders who are happy with no more than a woman or two. (Trump, though, out-sleezes the others by being a greedy-pig exception who wants both.)

They just get worse and worse. The treatment of asylum seekers and their children seems to make Nazi treatment relating to the "final solution" (Endlösung) almost benign by comparison, considering that it's emanating from the previously most democratic country in the world and is violating international law and conventions in every direction.

I'm guessing that it's almost too late to save the USA. Before we close the doors and turn off the lights, perhaps one last gesture of rationality would be to provide an appropriate comeuppance much like the Italians meted out to Mussolini at the end of WW II ... although I'd prefer a more Hannibal Lecter approach. {really wishful thinking}

Even PM Justin Trudeau has had the biscuit with Tramp and his cotery of douchebags. Perhaps at the G7 meeting in Québec they could all be unceremoniously dumped into a ravine (and then have the rescue parties search for them in the Rockies).

I told you that they should've dumped him in a ravine.

If you haven't figured it out by now, the Tramp is a Russian mole. Problem is that Russia won't (re)patriate him or even provide him with a dacha in the gulag after a lifetime of living the oligarchic good life in the West and training all his acolytes — poorly, because they always get caught out — how to rip off and pull the ked-ridden wool over the eyes of gullible Americans. Putin doesn't like failure. Maybe a little novichuk on the doorknob?

Trump Refuses to Sign G-7 Statement

Trump Turns G-7 Upside Down, Alienating Oldest Allies

[Trump] Calls Trudeau ‘Weak,’ Upending 2 Days of Diplomacy

And talk about backstabbing ...

Trudeau ‘Stabbed Us in the Back,’ Trump Adviser Says

The Tramp and his crew have truly flipped out.

I'm surprised Justin didn't quote his father Pierre who, when President Nixon called him "an (enter the word for rectal orifice)", replied: "I've been called worse by better people."

There's an old saying that you can be judged by the quality of your enemies. Also, never argue with an idiot. People may not be able to tell the difference.

Lyndon Johnson said it best: "Never get into a pissing contest with a skunk."

I feel the urge to purge and to P on his parade:
The Tramp is a petty, petulant, picayune and pathetic putz, in addition to being piss-poor as a president, peculiar and precariously close to mentally imploding (if that hasn't already transpired, possibly prepartum).
If only his presidency were to become quietly and quickly posthumous. RIP.

Most presidents have events that boost or hurt their approval, but it seems the current one’s rating is flat as can be. Like a grid lock, and people won’t change their mind either way, no matter what happens.

I heard it as, "Never argue with a fool. They'll drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience."

This thread has gotten too depressing for me to continue dealing with it, so, as I did with the other PENUS (President Elected Nearly Unanimously, Sir) thread, I'm dropping out.

But as a parting gesture, I'll recall the Village Voice cartoon of the '70's in which Richard Nixon was portrayed as the Sphinx and referred to as "King Sphinxter"...indeed, the most memorable pun I've ever run across.

I submit that it's time to reprise it.

To give you a bit of levity as you depart, I've seen an item that says Triple Crown Winner, Justify, turned down an invitation to visit the White House. His reason was: "If I wanted to see a horse's ass, I would have finished second."

Thanks for that!

It occurs to me that threads such as this and lots of others in this an other venues may be exactly what Trump is counting on to keep himself in office. We vent our spleen and disipate our anger and dismay here rather than actually engaging in the political process. Instead of posts about how terrible "he" is we should be attending political rally's, bombarding not only our Congressional representatives and Senators but our governors, state representatives with letters, phone calls, emails and even our physical presence protesting the actions of Trump and his coterie of sycophants. Supporting more rational candidates for office with our time and money. In general getting off our comfortable backsides and getting engaged in the process.

I admit to my guilt. I am a former a Republican, and a member of the NRA for many years, but by my own inaction I tacitly permitted both to be taken over by hard line extremists who in no way represent anything I believe in or stand for. It is time to act, and take back our party and our nation from the extremists. So hopefully I will be doing what I am calling on you to do, quit waiting for someone else to do it and engage or re-engage in the process.

And I am not going to climb down from this soapbox.

😢 Mr Potus regrets ...

"I don't like taking children away from their parents, but we don't know that they are their true parents. They could be murderers and thieves and so much else. Maybe by doing what we're doing we'll stop this flow of felonious migrants. But since we probably can't, we're going to have to get ahead of this thing and turn our detention facilities into concentration camps with the requisite gas chambers for real deterrents. It almost worked back in the '40s and we're so much wiser and more sophisticated now that it should work just fine. And we'll get them to pay for it too. If only the Democrats would get on board. So sad."

Now Mr Potus is targeting infants and toddlers in his rage to engage.

I know it would be too much to ask him to fall on his sword literally or figuratively for the good of humanity or even the honor of his country, but his administration's actions are about as close to 'war crimes' as one can get in a civil situation.

When all is said and done, everyone — and I mean everyone — who was actively or passively complicit in this outrage needs to be tried in the equivalent to the Nürnberg trials.

In a world closing in on a population of 8 billion, a few hundred lives is a drop in the bucket. It would be for a good cause.

(I know that the logic is somewhat incoherent, but sometimes justice is served in mysterious ways.)

There must be an awful lot of lead in America's drinking water to account for so much mental defectiveness!

As Critics Assail Trump, His Supporters Dig In Deeper

• With President Trump’s approval rating at 90% among Republicans, his supporters say they defend him because they feel criticism of him is constantly overblown.
• Their resilience suggests a level of unity that could help mitigate Mr Trump’s low overall approval ratings and help his party’s chances of keeping control of the House in November.

I have seen this behavior recently in several Christian and non-Christian religious organizations where conservative elements find themselves an ever decreasing minority. They are invariably highly motivated to retain their ascendency and get very organized to dominate and exclude anyone less conservative than themselves from the power structure. As their numbers continue to decrease and they find themselves losing more and more popular support they resort to "anything goes" dirty tricks to hold onto power. While they still have enough representation to be credible they resort to threats to withdraw from the institution and form their own group of the "true faith". In the end they eventually break off into splinter organizations based around everything they are opposed to while the remaining group of loyalists breathes a sigh of relief and goes on about the regular business of the church. Finally, because the conservatives are focused on conflict they begin to feud among themselves and continue to splinter into ever smaller groups of fewer and fewer people.

I am hopeful this scenario that has played out in many religious organizations will play out in politics.

Plus, in general, Conservatives really value their right to vote which is often driven from the pulpits of America. Liberals tend to be a little more apathetic when it comes to heading to the polls.

When voting time rolls around, get to the booth and CANCEL a Republican ballot . . . which is especially crucial in the "swing states."

When SCOTUS rules that congressional districts 300 miles long and for much of that distance are bounded by the left and right shoulders of an Interstate Highway are not discriminatory it is going to be VERY difficult to breakup the GOP hegemony in my home state. Even when virtually all of the major Christian denominations, including Roman Catholic and the Southern Baptist (politics does indeed make strange bedfellows) are opposed to them.

You may just have to start your own militia.
Alternatively, you could pack up and move north of the 49th parallel. You could even stay on the same longitude if you wanted to live in Winnipeg. Just ask for asylum when you cross at Emerson.

Or, someone might have joemike committed to an asylum just for asking to live in Winnipeg. I grew up there and even now remember some -35F winter days and +90F summer days.

And ain't it just grand?! Probably provided you with the true grit which persuaded you to pursue Ogopogo.
Elsewhere on the prairies — dead north of El Paso (52°N) — yesterday it hit 31°C/88°F with humidex 34C/93F.

Jawohl!

The Ignorant Do Not Have a Right to an Audience

I read the article and initially agreed with it, but in when I paused to think, this viewpoint could easily be used to justify denying splinter groups the right of free speech. I would be more comfortable with "The Ignorant Do Not Have a Right to make an Audience Attend, Listen, or in any way enforce their opinion". Even that would need a codicil that although the Ignorant do have a right to their opinion and to free speech, they do not have the right to publicly incite acts of harm or violence to others.

Then the really tricky question arises of WHO ARE THE IGNORANT. It would be all too human to assume the ignorant are anyone whose opinion is different from our own, or anyone who is from an identifiable minority group, speaks a different language, isn't financially successful; doesn't attend our church, synagogue, mosque, meeting, Gurdwara, temple, coven; has a different sexual orientation, their family did not come on the Mayflower, their ancestors were here before Columbus, are a different gender, don't have a degree or diploma, didn't graduate from the "right schools" — I could go on and on, but hopefully you get the idea.

So maybe the best construction of the authors premise would be: "EVERYONE has a RIGHT to free Speech but NO ONE has a RIGHT to an Audience".

That's nowhere implied and is pretty much precluded by the discussion.


I think that's pretty much precluded from the way the argument is presented.


Isn't that what the last sentence states?
"The invincibly ignorant and the intellectual huckster have every right to express their opinions, but their right to free speech is not the right to an audience."

I totally agree that everyone has the RIGHT to Free Speech . . . BUT such should be exercised responsibly. A recent case in point : Roseanne.

Another piece of rotten, incompetent Trumpian scum bites the dust ...

Scott Pruitt Exits, Sticking You With the Tab

If the past is any guide his replacement will be even less competent and more arrogant.

Trump has reached the bottom of the barrel and is starting to dig: Why Breast-Feeding Scares Donald Trump

I read a quip that says that the devil is an optimist if he thinks that he can make people worse than they already are.

Following the orange-tinted Godzilla's perverted 'logic' and attitude towards women, breasts are only there for the grabbing by adults. Nursing infants just get in the way, and they aren't part of his base.

Based on Tsar Trump's comments after the NATO meeting this morning I am convinced he is either:

1. psychotically delusional
2. Is on some really high grade psychotropic drugs
3. both a & b

Maybe the sane citizens of this country should offer to pay for him to take an extended rest at a really first class facility like Menninger's Psychiatric Hospital in Houston.

Or

d. hoping Putin will say: "Thanks Donny. In return, we promise not to release the video."

A much better alternative would be Joseph Mengele's Home for the Irreparably Delusional, and he could get a price break by offering to be an experimental subject. Keep in mind that if he doesn't offer such, they'll do it anyway.

Getting closer and closer to the end of times (ie, the end of Mr Twitchable's time in the cuckoo's nest):

Crossed Signals on Russia Show a President Untethered

Saturday on PBS Diane Rehm show a Putin biographer described how Putin bought Donald Trump. Several years ago Putin identified Trump as a person who might be of use and over the years either personally loaned or arranged tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to keep Trump Enterprises financially afloat. According to Putin's biographer it was Putin who first planted the idea of Trump's run for president and promised whatever help he could give to get Trump elected.

So now we have a president and administration, bought and paid for by Russia.

And the president, as evidenced today in Helsinki, is quite happy to lick Putin's boots.

Any further doubt that shmuck-in-chief is throwing the USA under the bus?!
[I told you that he was a Russian mole. (Can you say "Manchurian candidate"?) Now he's uncloaked.]
Novichok all around for him and his entire administration.

From Trump, Words No President Has Uttered Overseas

Rather than defend America against those who would threaten it, he attacked his own citizens and institutions while hailing the leader of a hostile power.


And yea, I say unto you — once again: Where is Gort when we really need him ?!

How Trump Lost Re-election in 2020

How Trump Won Re-election in 2020

A sneak peek at The New York Times’s news analysis from Nov. 4, 2020.

The oracular moron speaks ... yet again:

Trump Says You Need an ID to Buy Groceries. Shoppers Say, 'Huh?'

Maybe he is afraid they will laugh at what he strives diligently to emphasizes with the over long pointer tie he wears.