...Trump might blow the race to Joe
By acting crazily.
Christmas Eve found Donald
Roasting no chestnut
Trump’s deranged for Christmas
He’s in a nasty rut!
Here is what the man who wants to be trusted to hold the most powerful job on earth sends out to the public…
Yeah, that’s certainly a reassuring, statesmanlike, moderate and dignified Christmas message certain to reassure voters that if elected, he will use his power judiciously, wisely and without rancor or unrestrained passions…
Fortunately, writing about Trump is appropriate for Christmas, since he is the only U.S. President or candidate for President to appear in a Christmas movie. That, of course, was “Home Alone 2,” the sequel to “Home Alone.” I watched both in the last 24 hours, and concluded that the sequel is funnier, largely because it went to great lengths to top the violent slapstick in the first film and succeeded, but also because New York City at Christmas is such a perfect backdrop for any story. The movie also makes better use of Daniel Stern, who has a hilarious scream.
For me, however, what sells the sequel is its evocation of the magnificent down own Manhattan F.A.O. Schwartz store, now extinct, renamed “Duncan’s Toy Chest” in the film. It was really a magical place, as was the Boston F.A.O. Schwartz, where I would spend an entire day exploring in the week before Christmas when I was a kid. The combination of the big box stores and the internet colluded to make the F.A.O. Schwartz experience unprofitable: kids today probably think the store McCaulay Culkin saves from the hapless burglars on Christmas Eve was pure Hollywood fantasy. It wasn’t. There really was a toy store like that.
We will never see the like again.
Ethics Alarms 
Daniel Stern once wrote on his Facebook page that the electrocution scene went longer than it was meant to. The plan was for him to shake around for a bit until the director said “cut”. So he grabbed the faucet handles and did his thing, but no “cut”. He thinks “maybe I’m not giving him enough”, so he shook harder and screamed louder. Still no “cut”. Then he got tired of waiting and decided to just fall over to force an end to the shot. Still no “cut”. So he finally looked in the camera’s direction, and saw that the reason the director wasn’t saying anything was because he couldn’t stop laughing!
Merry Christmas Jack to you, your wife and your son. You well reasoned voice as been a nice change to the grind the culture and political wars have brought. Been following you since 2016 and as long as you keep writing I’ll keep reading.
Everything Trump broadcast was relatively true. However, the problem lies not with Trump but with the average American voter. Voters do not seem to want statesmen anymore. They want to elect those who appear to be the electorate’s protector from the machinations coming from the other side.
There does appear that the left is actively employing the Cloward and Piven strategy to undermine the US by overwhelming significant parts of the economy. The left uses Trump’s words to validate their claims that he will be a monster or dictator despite the fact we know that he did none of what they claim will be when he actually had the opportunity.
Both sides are using inflammatory rhetoric but of the two candidates only Trump is chronicling what he believes is being done to him. Biden merely has to claim the allegations leveled against him are lies yet far more evidence exists to suggest that what Biden call lies are actual truths.
Of the two candidates only one has the power of the government to use its resources to harm his opponent. Can we claim that the one who must continually play defense is the one who must display restraint while those on offense do so through proxies?
Until the American electorate becomes willing to understand the important issues at hand that affect the country as a whole instead of only their parochial interests will things change.&
Jack, most everything you’ve listed that black box that Trump asserted is true. Apparently you’d rather he just keeps quiet about it, but as you know, that isn’t Trumps style.
Regarding your preface to that black box about a man who wants to be trusted to hold the most powerful job on earth. Well, he already held that job and the result was domestic prosperity and world peace and stability.
I know you have little use for Trump and would even prefer a less capable president as long as he observed rules of decorum and played the game of politics the way it’s always been played. I can live with Trump and all his unfiltered rhetoric as president because he’s already demonstrated he can deliver tangible results, something this country desperately needs right now.
Ed, that rant is signature significance. The rhetoric, the tone, the hyperbole and the all caps “shouting” are not the product of a trustworthy character. Nor is it rational to hand ammunition to your critics and enemies. I wouldn’t hire a mid-level manager who posted a message like that. Would you? And yet you’d trust him to be President?
As well as many of Trump’s policies worked, his demeanor and methods are as responsible for the schism and disunion in the nation as the Democrats’ conduct, and that is an existential threat. The government cannot function with the White House perpetually at war with Congress, and with Trump, that is all we will ever get.
But everything in the statement is true.
The stuff in the box being true is responsible for the disunity in the country, along with a million other unpleasant truths. Two tiered justice is not a recipe for for unity. Persecution of one’s political opponents is not a recipe for unity. Red speeches, censorship and rigged elections are not a recipe for unity. Totalitarianism is not a recipe for unity. Destroying the economy in the name of a ridiculous climate religion is not a recipe for unity. Calling everyone who disagrees with you a racist, transphobic, misogynist, xenophobic, deplorable, and evil is not a recipe for unity.
If Trump ceased to exist I would still hate the left with the passion of the million burning dumpster fires they are because everything I hear them say and watch them do is hateful, spiteful, hypocritical, stupid and cruel. The disunity is responsible for Trump, not the other way around.
I agree with how you describe Trump. I would love to have an better choice, and it may still be possible.
But, despite the third/fourth/etc candidates, the election is basically a binary choice. We have to choose between Trump and Biden, not between Trump and a good choice for the office. It is a lesser of two evils election, similar to 2016.
In 2020, I found some buttons that read “Cthulhu 2020 — the greater of two evils”. They were funny, but they did hit a nerve.
We are on track for an election where there are no good choices, but someone is still going to be elected. However, I do think that if either party can somehow field a better candidate, hopefully someone who doesn’t have one foot in the grave already, that party will have a significant advantage. I hope it’s the GOP.
I feel like I have to use Jack’s line about “stop making me defend X”
“his demeanor and methods are as responsible for the schism and disunion in the nation as the Democrats’ conduct, and that is an existential threat.”
The problem with that I see with that statement is that it states that his demeanor and methods are being seen in a vacuum. We have never had the resources of the government used to prevent a candidate from beating the incumbent’s chosen candidate and then working to unseat the newly elected president before as far as I know.
Before I can accept that his current behavior is beyond the pale, someone must explain to me how exactly he is to campaign in a manner keeping with the decorum desired while simultaneously having to defend against the combined resources of state and federal government officials who are intent on prosecuting him for any reason whatsoever as either revenge or to prevent him from winning again. As long as the prosecutions are continuing against him I don’t see how a statesman like message will cut through the Left’s constant messaging that he is a racist, misogynist, xenophobe, anti-Semite, traitor, rapist, etc. My issue is I want lest critique and more recommendations for effectively communicating his messages that should include the persecution taking place. I need to see a better way before I condemn.
I could argue that his message in all of this is that he is just the tip of the left’s spear and that we should all be threatened by the Kraken that is what the government has become. That is what many of his supporters believe and the behavior of the government is reinforcing that belief by allowing riots by Antifa and the Left while hunting down anyone who was near the Capitol on January 6. We have Kamala, Pelosi and others on video saying that uprisings are warranted and should continue, yet Trump is being prosecuted for inciting an insurrection which was hardly an insurrection. We have a mere trespasser shot and killed and the Capitol police officer is heralded as a hero while we are seeing riots in the streets, millions in payouts to families of criminals and cops fired or prosecuted for following their training when the drug addled dies when resisting. We are told that climate change will require us to drastically spend more on HVAV and transportation with fewer options while the elite travel globally in first class on our dime at the drop of a hat.
The American people’s senses have been dulled by the violence and mayhem real and fictional they witness daily to such a degree that politicians know they have to break through the noise to get their messages across and that they have to repeat them over and over again before they take hold in the consciousness of the electorate. That is why we have the big lie. In that respect, I can understand why he writes those messages and seeks vindication.
It is a shame that politicians have to resort to this but as Tom P stated below hoping that the electorate would educate themselves on the critical issues is not going to happen. That is why I am not ready to lay the responsibility of Trump’s behavior as a campaign tactic entirely at his feet. It would be nice if we had an Eisenhower at the helm but the American people have evolved since the fifties. No one wants a Cicero they seem to want their own Caesar yet they wind up with Bevis and Butthead.
Tom P’s comment in this thread decisively addresses your point, no?
And this, Chris: a following post read,
“Merry Christmas to all, including Crooked Joe Biden’s ONLY HOPE, Deranged Jack Smith, the out of control Lunatic who just hired outside attorneys, fresh from the SWAMP (unprecedented!), to help him with his poorly executed WITCH HUNT against ‘TRUMP’ and ‘MAGA,’ and “World Leaders both good and bad, the SICK thugs with their Open Borders, INFLATION, Afghanistan Surrender, Green New Scam, High Taxes, No Energy Independence, Woke Military, Russia/Ukraine, Israel/Iran, All Electric Car Lunacy, and so much more, are looking to destroy our once great USA. MAY THEY ROT IN HELL. AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Do you really think it is appropriate for a national leader to express himself like that in public? If so, what WOULD you find inappropriate?
We get that which we sow.
If we want our leaders to behave in an ethical manner we have to stop feeding them. Again they are a reflection of those who support them.
The problem is we have far too many unethical Americans who like bullying the other side.
To suggest that I am defending Trump’s words is missing the thrust of my comments. We create the monsters that want to serve us so they can devour us. To blame the monster we ourselves create we will just continue delude ourselves that we are not to blame.
I don’t see how anyone but Trump is responsible for creating Trump. He greased the skids to a point where we have a viable Presidential candidate who tells all those opposing him to “Rot in Hell” on Christmas. He had every opportunity to do accomplish the same policy goals while maintaining civility and still playing the “outsider.” Once elected, he could have conformed to the standards of the office—it’s just not that hard. He took advantage of and abused the fact that the alternatives to him were unacceptable to so many.
May I counter that Trump is not a dictator who forced a schism. And, even without Trump there is hardly any less at war between the WH and the Congress.
Rather concerning schism, it is the latest contempt for civilization which the Left vomits in response to Trump. Trump posts in all caps, the Left exhausts the English alphabet for evil conspiracy. The Left are free anytime to take the moral high ground and display their righteousness.
Perhaps I am blind, but the Right go looney nazi extreme when Trump was elected. The Left have decorum but they also have fascism etc. no?
Is Trump such a good leader that his followers behave just like him if not more, who’s the leader and who’s the follower?
Both Chris and Ed assert that what appears in the black box is true. While I agree that it is probably mostly true, I have a severe issue with Trump’s candidacy this time around. If you look beyond his rhetoric, when he ran against Clinton his campaign focused on what he was going to do for the American people. When he became President, he tried to deliver on most of his campaign promises.
This time around his rhetoric focuses on his need for personal vindication. While I concede that what the Democrats, MSM, and the Washington establishment did and is doing to him was unethical and disgusting, I cannot support a candidate whose narcissism appears to be his primary purpose.
Regarding Chris’ wish for the electorate to focus on important issues, I too wish this. Regrettably, this is not possible for two main reasons. Human nature and politician’s exploitation of human nature. Many argue it is wrong to stereotype people and I agree it is inaccurate to say all individuals conform to stereotypes. I do submit stereotyping can be accurate, however, for most people or a segment of people. The two aspects of human behavior I believe are true for most people are the following.
Most people, regardless of income, want something they value for nothing or next to nothing. Politicians regularly promise some benefit to some segment of the electorate for little or no cost and promise Corporations and The Rich need to pay their fair share. Never have they stated what their fair share is.
The second truism was best summarized in a line in Dan Brown’s novel “The Davinci Code”. “Men go to far greater lengths to avoid what they fear than to obtain what they desire.” This aspect of human behavior is exploited by politicians when they engage in negative campaigning. They use both tactics because they work.
“Your actions are so loud I can’t hear what you say.”
Yes, he says mean things. He’s called them out and they have attacked. That too is signature significance.