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This week, some rumination on Trump’s tete a tete with Putin (along with a history lesson for Rob Long), we introduce you to Elizabeth Heng, who is running for Congress in California’s 16th District, we get some #MeToo education from our good pal Mona Charen, (stop whatever you’re doing and buy her book Sex Matters right now) and the city of Santa Barbara declares that if you use a straw in that fair city, you’ll do time. Which sucks. Also, the Word of The Day is spizzerinctum.
Music from this week’s podcast: Sex Bomb by Tom Jones
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I accept your apology. But you need to be careful about what you write. I personally think Gary goes too far. There has, thus far, not been any evidence that Trump committed an illegal act, much less an impeachable one. But, then, Gary never called called for impeachment, unless there is evidence for it. And I do not believe that Rob ever called for it.
I also believe that you do people like me a grave injustice. Because you disagree with us is not a good reason for accusing us of things 0f which we are not guilty. Speaking for myself, I never voted for Hillary, nor would I vote for any Democrat. I do not look backward. I think the things that the President has done (this is not about policy) are hurting our land. You disagree. Fine. I think you are terribly wrong. But I Love this country with all my heart. And because you, and others, disagree with my conclusions is no excuse for you to think ill of my motives.
It’s my opinion. Nothing more, nothing less. Gary and George, at the risk of attributing positions to them that they may not hold, have commented multiple times on the destruction they believe President Trump is doing to the country, conservatism and the Republican Party. I can see the infighting and the adoption of liberal talking points by conservatives and Republicans within the ranks. Rob calling the President mentally unstable, adopting a Democrat talking point, and Gary and George agreeing, when none of the gentlemen have examined the President, nor are practicing psychologists or psychiatrists, is more damaging. As the amount of damage is not something that can be numerically quantified, it is by nature subject to conjecture and opinion. President Trump may feel like a tornado, but we can’t put a dollar value on the damage to public opinion of conservatism or the Republican Party. I’ve stated my opinion. Feel free to state yours.
I said it specifically to Gary, because he knows what I am talking about. It is an old spiritual teaching that the world is our mirror. What upsets us “out there” in the world is when we see something we don’t like about ourselves, something that is more close to home than we know or want to admit. In our religious teachings (Gary and I go to the same denomination of church), it’s all God, “There is only one presence and one power in all the universe, God the good, omnipotent. Amen.” You happen to be God expressing as George. Elsewhere, God is expressing as Donald J. Trump. To see him as an other is not seeing the Truth. When we see him and others through God’s love, we see a larger picture of what is going on within and around us.
Agreed. Gary can be quite funny.
George, I’m not questioning your patriotism or love of country. I was a reluctant Trump voter in 2016. He was the lesser of two evils. But I have been overwhelmingly surprised by how much he has done that is conservative. It has made me happy in my vote for him and has turned me from reluctantly Trump to pro President Trump. If he begins doing more harm than good to this country, I will vote against him. But just like you, it is within my own mind that I determine where that tipping point is. You and I have decided we have different definitions of where that location is. I do not think ill of your motives. I hope you do not think ill of mine. I do think the position you hold is wrong, just as I’m sure you believe my position is wrong.
I will. You continue to attribute to me things I have not said, which is libelous. Please refrain from attacking others? It does your position no good. I could go on all day saying why you are wrong, without attacking you. But I do have better things to do.
I completely agree with this. Watch the Real Vision interview of David Stockman. That whole thing is not what everyone is so wistful about. The next three POTUSs wrecked what little he accomplished all over again, too.
I put a like on this because I respect your thinking it. I very much value God, and His teachings in our lives. But I don’t agree with your thinking, nor do I even understand it. I saw your original Post, and didn’t understand it then. When I look in the mirror I see me. If I were to use it as a metaphor, I would say that, if I had an aspect of Trump in me, and disliked that part of me, then I would agree with you. But I don’t. I am as unlike Donald Trump as I am unlike any person who i charge with being abusive towards others.
All right. We can end it here, without ill feelings. Just, please do me a favor, Patrick? In the future, please don’t write as if you imputing things to people to which they are even implying. The CoC says to try to attribute good faith to others. I have problems with the CoC, but I am willing to live with that.
Listen to the David Stockman interviews on the Tom Woods Show and Contra Krugman around September 2016 and the DC McAllister interview on Whiskey Politics.
Not many do.
The point of the mirror analogy is that if we see something in other people that we do not see in ourselves, then we are fooling ourselves. To know ourselves is to fully know human nature, to know, “There but for the grace of God go I.” We are on a journey to spiritualize our human nature by recognizing our divine nature. We do not do that by denying human nature, but by knowing fully who we are.
Just a question, to see if I can grasp what you are saying: Do you think that there is a little bit of everybody in others?
I think what we see in others is within us. It’s not quite the same thing.
George, I have been trying to interpret, or understand, what your position is on Donald Trump by your current and past writings. Obviously you believe that my doing so is an attack on you personally, or I am lying about you. I have never called you a liar. I never questioned your patriotism. I never questioned your good intent. You respond as if I have. You are right. This is a good place to stop.
I see it as we’re all sinners. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t judge. That’s prudent and protects ourselves and our families. Just need to keep in mind that because we differentiate some sins as worse than others, that does not mean that G-d uses the same scale we do.
I always said you were an interesting guy, and this proves it. I respect the thinking, so far as I understand it. But it sounds to New Age for me. Also a bit solipsistic. We live in a solipsistic time, I believe. And, if we follow this too closely, which sounds so warm and cuddly, there is, I believe, a danger that we won’t do what needs to be done. It is fine and dandy to hope we can all get along. But this is not the way the world works. There is lot of evil out there. And the more we start to believe that “Maybe there is little of me in him, and I am not seeing it”, the less we will want to vanquish that evil. (please don’t jump to the conclusion I am calling Trump evil. As much as I dislike him, and believe he is wrong for this country, I would never call him evil. My thoughts on this go beyond him.)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Charlie. But we part company on this.
George says I have “hatred”.
Again, backwards. I know it is a hard concept for most people. And, no, it does not stop us from acting anymore than it stopped Jesus from throwing the moneychangers out of the temple. It is a spiritual tool. Another way it was expressed was the mote in your neighbor’s eye when you have a beam in your own. It’s basic Christianity, George.
I wasn’t offended. Arahant and I come from a common spiritual tradition, which holds that what we observe in others is a mirror for ourselves.
Ike, Barry, Reagan, H.W., W., Dole, McCain, Romney, Trump, which one of these people is not like the others?
I am not qualified to issue a DSM-V diagnosis, but I know people who are. Their unamious consensus is that there is something really wrong and off with Trump. Their suggestion is that he suffers from an Axis II Personality or Character Disorder. An Axis II Personality or Character Disorder is resistant to change, and cannot be treated with medication. Trump’s Personality or Character Disorder has Strong Narcissism features, but also has borderline and paranoia features which would need to be ruled out. There is a family history of Altzheimer’s Disease which recommends repeated neurological testing for monitoring purposes. While these professions can not formally diagnose Trump without examining him, they also have an ethical Tarasnoff duty to warn, which they have done.
Personally, I think McCain is extremely personality disordered and this has damaged The Republic.
Arahant is accurate. I wasn’t offended, however I can see how what he said would be offensive to others. If I had it to it over, I would have acknowledged his chiding and teasing when I read it.
I forget what system it is, but this is an actual psychotherapeutic principle, too.
McCain is a mixed bag.
He has been my Senator since 1986 and I have met him several times. He is a good, but flawed person.
Like Trump, he has anger issues. But he has a strong sense of himself, and plays well with people on both teams, and can get things done.
McCain is one of the bravest people I have ever met. He saved Iraq by being the point person in the Senate for the surge, only to have Obama throw it all away. McCain is quite stubborn, but is open to arguments.
Every Senate should have a couple of McCains on both sides of the aisle.
He would have been a character as President, but he plays between the lines, which Trump doesn’t. (Trump is shameless, McCain is not.)
Why on earth is McCain worried about getting rid of Obamacare under “regular order”? Then they blame it on Trump.
Every second of Obamacare being in effect is a step toward single payer.
I’m more inclined to believe the doctor who examined him than people who either have an axe to grind because they hate a man they never examined, or who are what we used to call medical prostitutes. Willing to give whatever diagnosis the person paying them wants. Admiral Jackson found no mental health impairments with the President, after an exam. Quacks and charlatans can say what they want. To compare the malpracticing behavior of non-examining medical professionals diagnosing someone from afar to the Tarasnoff duty to warn is misleading Gary. You know that. They know that. Cloaking their actions as some sort of “duty to warn” is an intentional untruth on their part.
McCain wanted Obamacare to be considered in committee, and warned that if it weren’t he reserved the right to not vote for a repeal. He was serious.
The book “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President” comes to the exact opposite conclusion, that there is a duty to warn under Tarasnoff. I believe that you are not a mental health professional; I am not one either. I suggest that you read the book.
To what end? We were still going to get a universal system even if Obamacare was wiped out. Everyone would be covered.
Please take it u with Gary and George. You didn’t provide any data to support your point.. Your opinion is a worthwhile one, but I didn’t see anything you mentioned that logically supports it.