1. Stay classy, Donald.
2. Yes, I agree, it is refreshing to have a politician on the scene who does not hide his true self, does not calibrate his words and opinions to what people want to hear or what journalists and pundits will approve, does not suddenly speak in a Southern accent in front of crowds south of the Mason-Dixon line or pose as a lifetime Yankee fan in the Big Apple. Okay, it’s a novelty to have an asshole who has the integrity to openly behave like the asshole he is.
BUT HE’S STILL AN ASSHOLE.
How are people missing this?
3. One theory is that Trump has chosen this week to go all out to see if there is anything he can say or do so beneath the dignity of the office he is seeking and so repugnant to core American values that the idiots supporting him will finally wake up and say, “What was I thinking?”
If so, his experiment is working well.
And yes, it is fair to identify anyone who supports Donald Trump at this point as an idiot.
4. Please ask the Donald Trump fans at your Thanksgiving dinner whether this is really how they want to see their President behaving in public. If #2 above is correct, I assume that he’ll eventually don a Hillary mask, glue a herring to his forehead, and recite dirty limericks while riding on the Spinning Teacups ride in Disneyland nude. Hell, why not?
5. Imagine:Democrats decided that they didn’t want Howard Dean to be President based on this…
Donald Trump makes Howard Dean look like Henry Higgins.
I’m not sure what this says about the tolerance of Democrats who support awful people for President as opposed to Republicans who do. Democrats are more sensitive to embarrassing public conduct than Republicans, perhaps?
6. If none of the Republican contenders have the wit, timing and credibility to effectively eviscerate Trump for conduct like this, none of them deserve to be President, and Republicans do deserve to be humiliated by having to nominate this crypto-fascist boor.
Here, I’ll give them inspiration again:
7. It’s fascinating that all of this came out of the media’s furious efforts to prove Trump didn’t “see” New Jersey Muslims celebrating the fall of the Twin Towers or people jumping out of the burning skyscrapers as he claims. I assume that lots of Muslims in the U.S.—not a high percentage, but lots—did celebrate, and we know people did leap to their deaths. Among the myriad mistaken and outrageous things Trump has said, saying that he witnessed these are among the most trivial. Hillary’s statement that Muslims have nothing “whatsoever” to do with terrorism is a far more troubling/ dishonest/ridiculous statement, and has been given a pass by the news media. The unforgivable statements, arguments and absurd analogies issuing from all over about the Syrians and terrorism–Climate change policy will fight ISIS! Being sensible about accepting refugees will aid ISIS recruitment! The Pilgrims were refugees! Mary and Joseph were refugees! The more steps we take to guard against terrorism, the more determined the terrorists will be to attack!—are no less irresponsible than Trump’s various unconstitutional and totalitarian nostrums, but the news media is endorsing those, while pretending that Trump is the only fool in this debate. Not that I mind Trump being ganged up on, but journalism isn’t supposed to favor one fool over another.
8. To take the risk of crawling into Donald Trump’s head for a moment…YECHHHH! It’s full of garbage, brown ooze, pin-ups of…his daughter???… old Hustler magazines, Weekly Readers, and a Monopoly Board…it’s clear how he would justify this episode. People do mean imitations of him all the time, so why can’t he imitate reporters who move their arms funny?
I don’t think there is a single rationalization on the list that Donald Trump doesn’t sincerely believe justifies unethical conduct.
9. Finally, this is simple common sense and responsible conduct: Trump’s impressions are terrible. If you can’t do impressions, don’t do them. Kevin Spacey does good impressions. Anthony Hopkins is terrific. Trump is poor at it even for an amateur.
Ethics Alarms 
Dean was on his way down before the Scream. if my memory serves me the Scream was part of a concession speech. The Trump/Dean analogy works, though, as Dean was a 2003 story. The perfect antithesis of the incumbent president who faded once the poll takers became voters.
Just like Dean and the Scream, Trump will no doubt do something in January or February that people will attribute to his downfall, but the downfall is coming.
I had forgotten that Dean had just lost. I wrote at the time that the scream itself was nothing, but it was just the moment people decided that this guy wasn’t it. The theory is that Trump, like Hillary, has done and said so many things that should have disqualified him that he’s inoculated. He’s not. It’s a cumulative process.
I’m an idiot. Always have been.
Trump is a breath of fresh (fetid) air. And, at this point time, I’m willing to accept that acrid smell. Cause, maybe, that’s what’s needed.
But!
When The Donald brought back the specter of torture, I disowned him. Publicly.
I’ve been studying Huna the last few months. Maybe that has something to do with my decision.
I doubt it. Torture, for ANY REASON, is beyond my pale.
Guess I’ll be sitting out this election.
He’s incapable of critical thought. Ethics thought too: his justification for waterboarding: “They do worse to us.” He really thinks this is a valid argument.
It’s not a justification, just a brush-off, like “I won’t tell if you won’t!”
The only wasted vote is the one that is not cast. I cannot vote for Clinton and I will not vote for Trump, but I will vote for somebody. Barrack Obama was re-elected because people who thought Romney was not conservative enough stayed home. If that happens again, I’m afraid we are lost.
YES! YES!! YES!!!
Estimates are that a small group of Muslims (probably less than 100) did celebrate 9/11 in New Jersey. Trump is an unethical demagogue and loves to whip people up! I hope you have a crappy Thanksgiving Donald!
I thought it was HAPPY thanksgiving? God, all this time, people have probably been laughing at me behind my back.
Maybe he’s a democrat plant to make Clinton look palatable by comparison.
He won’t because that’s a logical impossibility, a contradiction in terms. Anyone wearing a mask and a forehead-herring is, by definition, not nude.
Good point.