No one is in doubt that this man is unfit for office, are they?
Trump’s nuts rant about wind energy: “I never understood wind. You know, I know windmills very much… Gases are spewing into the atmosphere. You know we have a world, right? So the world is tiny compared to the universe. So tremendous, tremendous amount of fumes & everything.” pic.twitter.com/DvkJq9NbWg
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 23, 2019
There has to be some medical/psychological reason to have him removed from office immediately. He is humiliating the whole country.
Oh for fuck sake. I thought our PM SgotNoMoralsson was bad, this just wins the incoherant, pig ignorant prize.
There is: the 25 Amendment. However, that requires the cabinet to remove him, and since they’re loyal to him, that’s not going to happen.
Whatever else you can say about Trump, he’s certainly a very fair representation of his supporters.
He’s an easily manipulated useful idot who allows for efficiently advancing the tea party’s agenda.
No reason to oust a president that is doing your bidding. When he blathers incoherently, his followers praise him because “he tells it like it is”.
This is what you get one someone refuses to learn anything ever, but claims to be the foremost expert on everything.
Did the president of the USA just discover we live on a planet?
O_o
Even a hereditary monarch like George lll was moved aside when his mental illness became obvious, and talking to trees is a lot more subtle than the ravings of King Donald. A madman in charge of America is frightening for the whole world – we should all be afraid, very afraid.
@ Akira And if he was removed you’d have a sycophantic Dominionist as president.
I’m afraid that particular Rubicon was crossed by Ronald Reagan.
As for gibbering incoherence, is he really that much worse than (W) Bush?
To be honest, I’m beginning to think that these traits are required for the office… Once would be a misfortune, and twice seems like carelessness, but three times looks deliberate.
It’s true that my experience of psychiatric illnesses is limited to interpreting for the local mental health trust, and I live several thousand miles from the USA, but Trump doesn’t strike me as mentally ill, just a very spoilt rich man with the intellect of a pygmy shrew with brain damage. Unfortuantely I live in the UK where we have our own problems with a leader who is quite a lot brighter than Trump (although by no means as clever as he and our disgustingly servile media believe), but is also a completely selfish arsehole.
@9 Dunc. I’m begiining to wonder if incompetence and wilful ignorance have become requirements for office in the whole of the English-speaking world, not just the USA. Only New Zealand and Ireland seem to have escaped … so far.
@11
well it does seem to claim the badge of conservative it helps to be an ignorant self-centered asshole at the least who can not help but lie with ease.
uncle frogy
Double-digit million Americans love and support that.
For a brief moment I thought he might have been headed toward a coherent conclusion.
Other countries have manufacturing. Yes.
Other countries pollute. Yes.
Our planet is not boundless. Yes!
And, and, and…
Wind generators devalue your property and kill birds.
Disorganized thinking, thought disorder. It’s a lot more than just a few curious instances here and there. Looks pretty bad from where I sit.
His content free supporters are apparently responding to his Mussolini-esque puffing and strutting.
I am actuakly not so worried about the nukes. As we saw in Syria and Afghanistan the DOD is just doing its thing and ignoring the commander in chief. Of course that is bad but it’s not “Donald Trump starts a nuclear war” bad. It’s “the military is controlling itself” bad, which is a unique new form of bad.
Newsflash:
The current British prime minister (aka BoJo) is now comitted to a hard Brexit, despite the civil service having mapped out the chaos that will result, and the government measures that will be required to deal with it (operation Yellowhammer).
-The entitled slugbrain is breaking all his promises, implementing a far-right agenda and he genuinely thinks he will get everything in order before next election in five years (it helps that he has given the government powers to Gerrymander the hell out of voting districts).
But the chaos will not be limited to high umemployment. All classes of society will feel the consequences. But this proxy for the oligarchy -who has never excelled at anything- is convinced he will pull off an economic miracle because ideology says so.
Do you remember the idiot governor of Kansas? Bojo has an actual nation to play with, för the next five years.
OK, so windmills aren’t made in the US (for that matter, what actually is, these days?), they spew gases of some mystical sort while the fiberglass is formed or something, are noisy, we’re on a planet, but the universe is bigger than our planet and illegally hunting a bald eagle is the same as a windmill in a desert (not) killing a bald eagle, which doesn’t inhabit said desert.
OK, just whatinhell is he on, drug wise? It’s either he is high on something or he’s in a near-constant TIA or stroke.
Encouraging is, at least he can’t activate our nuclear SIOP, that’s more than two pages in targeting instructions and authentication procedures (and he’d have to remember which alphanumeric code group on a card full of such just to authenticate even in person, let alone telephone).
[late night dorm room acid conversation with oneself c. 1071] Whoa have you ever thought about the universe and planets and things and stuff?
Edit needed: obviously I meant 1971. The didn’t have acid, only ergot, in 1071.
gijoel @ 8
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blockquote>And if he was removed you’d have a sycophantic Dominionist as president.
Oh please, stop overestimating Pence. Despite his religious zeal, he’s still a nebbish push-over who will crumble when pressed. He’d never get anything substantive done during his brief term and would not be able to put together the resources and following to win in 2020.
wzrd1: the eagle thing is that the first big wind farm, Altamont Pass in the SF Bay Area, killed a lot of birds, particularly raptors.
We don’t build farms like that anymore: the towers no longer encourage nesting (they’re smooth), they’re further apart, the blades spin slower, and we avoid migratory paths. All lessons learned by that first wind farm.
That old wind farm is apparently being repowered. Every new tower replaces 20 of the 40-year-old ones.
Oh, he’s still yelling about windmills? I was going to ignore this until I saw the same news elsewhere. God, what an idiot.
Does he do this rant in Texas? USA Today from a few months ago:
Well technically, everything except “I know windmills very much” is correct… :)
Encouraging is, at least he can’t activate our nuclear SIOP, that’s more than two pages in targeting instructions and authentication procedures (and he’d have to remember which alphanumeric code group on a card full of such just to authenticate even in person, let alone telephone).
Under Reagan the presidential launch code was ‘00000000’ and Clinton never even took the briefing. If you want to depress yourself about this read Schlosser Command and Control – US nuclear weapons security is theater.
Dunc @ 9: The difference is that Bush Jr knew he was incompetent and did his best to just say and do what his handlers told him! When he rambled it was because he was forced to improvise or forgot the script.
Trump meanwhile thinks he’s a genius and listens to no-one. He’s also got dementia, probably. He didn’t use to be this incoherent. He even slurs his speech now.
Zeppelin@27
You give Dubya way too much credit. He was arrogant and certain in his opinions. He sought the office to carry out familial revenge against Saddam Hussein (mission accomplished!) and rarely tried to hide the fact. His legacy is the longest state of war in US history. And probably Obama could have fixed that if he didn’t think wars should be “smart and sustainable” so there is plenty of blame to go around.
There is a difference, and I’m not even sure how important it is at this point. Bush Jr. “respected the office” and made a point of at least looking like he was doing the job of POTUS. He was willing to strain the constitution, but knew he needed competent legal advice to do it properly. Maybe there is something better about Trump’s exposing what a sham the whole thing is.
We’ve been screwed at least since Reagan took office, probably longer. I don’t know what we’re trying to save in the first place. The US has had its moments in history, and some great thinkers and artists, but if karma means anything, we deserve to pay for our legacy of genocide and slavery. That’s really the core of what it means to be American.
I often wonder what music he is playing air accordian to. Maybe someone can steal his earbuds.
PaulBC @ 28: It’s been many years, admittedly. But in my recollection Bush Jr. generally seemed insecure and confused during public appearances, not arrogant. I never got an impression of confidence or certainty from him (though he read out a lot of speeches whose words were meant to convey these things, obviously).
I’m not saying they tricked him into his many crimes, just that he didn’t come up with them himself. He was obedient, content to carry out a predetermined agenda. Quite unlike Trump who is driven by impulse and ego and listens only to sycophants. John Bolton would have had no trouble getting Bush Jr. to order an invasion of Iran.
#17. Burger – are you classing rather current deal as “hard” or have I missed something. Apologies – I am travelling atm and was a staunch remainer, but wondered if something new had transpired.
Sorry spellcheck !Birger
@ 17 birgerjohansson
Bojo has an actual nation to play with, för the next five years.
Maybe but I would not be all that surprised to see a backbench revolt leading to his disposal à la Thatcher or May or even a non-confidence vote once a lot of Tory MP’s realize just what the idiot is doing (and they notice the pitchforks and torches outside the House).
@ 27 Zepplin
He’s also got dementia, probably. Early stages?
It certainly looks that way. Those speech patterns and memory lapses don’t look good.
Zeppelin@30 It depended a lot on the topic. As Mark Crispin Miller pointed out at the time, Bush could sound confident and lucid if he cared about the topic. If he was talking about his time as owner of the Texas Rangers, he knew his stuff and didn’t stumble at all. If he was going on about “punishing evildoers” there was a kind of force behind his utterances. If it was just shit they made him talk about, he was all about “putting food on your family” and “Is our children learning?” (Whatever, just get me through this thing.) The diagnosis is not really a stupid man, just an intellectually lazy, apathetic one.
Very different from Trump, but I’ll let the historians decide who was worse.
I am the egg man (How do you do sir?)
They are the egg men (The man maintains a fortune)
I am the walrus
Goo goo g’joob, goo goo goo g’joob
PaulBC @35: Topic could certainly be a factor! I’m not American, so I mostly got to see him talking about international issues he clearly didn’t understand. I assumed his relative lucidity when he was moralising (re.”punishing evildoers”) was due to his familiarity with that kind of sentiment due to his religious background and convictions.
Interestingly, up to this point in his life he has had neither, but I hope to fix at least the lack of convictions.
@ ajbjasus: the current deal only lasts until end of 2020. Beyond that the UK has to agree to longer term regulatory alignment — which Johnson seems opposed to — or the hard Brexit will happen then.
So according to Trump, they have to stop a windmill after it kills a certain number of bald eagles. How many times can Trump murder the truth before he has to shut up?
@35: Patton Oswalt made the same observation. He pointed out that Darth Vader would look like an imbecile if you tried to have him be at a photo op with puppies. He claimed that this indicated to him that Bush is actually evil. It’s not unreasonable.
Some musings on the Bush and Trump eras (and the end of the Cold War) that might be relevant.
Tom Engelhardt:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176645/