Robert Ariail for January 07, 2018

The snap of the trap.

The tie that binds.

He’d chew off his own tie to get out of the investigation into his wrong-doing.

He now wants to get rid of the first amendment. His buddy, Alex Jones is pushing Neo Nazi books to kids, those are okay.

A lot of has been said about a book which few have actually read.

“It’s all lies. And you can’t tell anyone what was said because you signed a non-disclosure agreement.”

‘Nothing in the book is true, and my lawyers are stopping the publication,’ said the Orange Arrogance.

@OldCoal – you’re right that there is nothing new here. What is different appears to be several things: First, in DC, you protect relationships, but Wolff has burned all his bridges by printing the unvarnished truth. And he has audio, which is always scary to a media creation like Trump. The fact that it was not in a “locker room,” but in the White House makes it that much more compelling. It feels a little like the #metoo movement, in that once one person has come out and REALLY said enough is enough, now the more respectable media outlets are shamefacedly admitting, yes, they knew all this, too.Second, that Trump doesn’t seem to be escaping this. The fact that this caused a breach between him and Bannon, for example, and his increasingly desperate attempts to undercut the books, just look lame. As for what will happen…? Not sure that it will matter unless this can force Trump into an MRI, and I doubt that will ever happen. (It should have happened to Reagan, who showed clear signs of Alzheimer’s late in his FIRST term, and was dramatic enough that his second term showed clear differences in actions and thoughts.) McConnell made the brutally cynical statement a while ago, that “he’ll sign anything we put in front of him.” So as long as Trump sees any GOP bill as a “win” that he can proclaim to his followers, NO MATTER WHAT IT IS, McConnell has no motive to get Trump out of office. It will take something really dramatic — like his head literally exploding.I can only hope that it will help sway the American people to start voting for people who do not support this appalling excuse for a human being.

Trump is due for a physical exam at Walter Reed on Jan 12. I have heard that there is a group of Congresspeople who want to push for a mental health evaluation at that time.

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/04/politics/psychiatrist-congress-meeting-trump/index.html

Respect for the truth comes close to being the basis for all morality. —-U Thant

Trump has said that he and Congress, meaning probably McConnell and Ryan, have a very aggressive agenda in the new year and is definitely going to be pushing for a restriction on the First Amendment because of this book. That’s the beginning for the containment of freedoms and if it passes you can kiss all of our freedom goodbye because we will have a dictator in the Oval Office. The first of our civil rights to really come under Fire by Trump and Congress. When you’re not allowed to say what you think, what you know is true. When you lose your first amendment rights is tyranny far behind? McConnell has already shown that he’s willing to jail people who laugh at him when he jailed that audience member who snorted a laugh during one of his speeches. Freedom of the press has been a Mainstay of America for more than 200 years. We have libel and slander laws which means that most authors are very careful about what they print. Reporters and authors usually have facts to back up their statements. Television reporters get suspended or fired for false reporting of news, for fake news. Authors who don’t have facts to back up their allegations in a book can be sued for libel. A Crackdown on freedom of speech is only the beginning of a Nazi type state whereby the tyrant is unopposed by facts, where citizens are not allowed to complain about tyranny or the condition of the government.

wait, wait, I need a refill of my popcorn

A Dunning-Kruger Effect review for Trump www.facebook.com/TEDEducation/videos/1805241286155736/

@Martens, don’t bet on it unless there is overwhelming pressure — and even then, Trump isn’t famous for listening to anyone, especially those who might question his “genius.”

I am sadly reminded of my father in his latter days, when he had suffered memory loss, probably due to extensive alcohol abuse, and categorically refused to accept the diagnosis, even though he asked me (a psychologist — but not a clinician) to come down and sit with the neurologist. (For those who care, I think he was probably showing signs of Korsakoff’s Syndrome.) The scary thing was that he couldn’t even acknowledge that there was any problem, and grew angry with anyone who asserted otherwise. This seems very, very familiar now, watching #45.

@Key West: I think that what you seem to have missed is the fact that Wolff has tapes of his interviews to back up the book which is why Trump has decided that he can’t sue. Instead he just postulates that the slander and libel laws are too weak. In other words every word of the book supports what the majority of us already knew…he’’s an illiterate dimwit.

Watched a few minutes of “The Apprentice”, once. It was all I needed to know Trump was a total narcissist, and jerk. It’s not “hate”, but recognition of a dispicable excuse for a human being. HIs actions since that time have only confirmed that. The last time somebody tried as hard as Trump and crew to “Make America Great”, there was a red meatball on their flags, on December 7, 1941.

Leave it to Republicans to breathlessly latch on to the ramblings of a narcissistic-psychotic’s lying tweets as their new bible. www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/

Right-wingers are terrible editors. The two above don’t know the difference between nuance and cherry-picking!

Any historian — let alone any journalist, even a relatively sleazy one like Wolff — can tell you that there are times you present what two people say and whatever evidence is available, and leave it open to discussion. That does not mean “false in one thing, false in all,” because you distinguish which points are clear and which points are in doubt.

You can also make the case that what he is documenting is not the absolute truth of what happened through people’s statements, but the absolute truth that everyone in this White House is incompetent and lying most of the time, and you can see it in their statements — they only agree on one thing, which is that Trump is incompetent.

DagNabbit said, “….the media have lost all objectivity and neutrality – they hid all of Obama’s asinine comments and behavior….” Quite right, Dag; if there is no evidence whatsoever of Obama’s rotten behaviour, that is proof positive that it exists and the media hid it.