I'm not even going to delve deep into the "press conference" Trump held today, in which there were paid cheering sycophants, props, and a spokesman was brought in to explain his business entanglement. Bread and circuses. However, a CNN reporter (whose question Trump simply refused to address) was told afterward by Sean Spicer, Trump's press secretary, that if he asks similar tough questionsin the future, he will be kicked out of the press conference. Seriously people, wake-up. This isn't some run of the mill guy you may or may not agree with. This is not normal.
Gaslighting is a term from a movie made in the 1940s. Essentially, a man psychologically abuses his wife by lying to her about the obvious truths she sees with her own eyes, to the point where she starts to think she is going insane. He manipulates events purposefully to drive her to this point. For an example people might be more familiar with, there is another movie in which the male lead is caught red-handed in bed with another woman by his wife. When she asks him what is going on, he simply keeps insisting that there is in fact no woman in the bed with him, gets up, gets dressed, and walks downstairs, sits in his chair, and asks his wife what is for supper, simply never acknowledging the other woman in his bed. His wife meekly goes into the kitchen to cook for him. The implication being that simply denying the reality of what she just saw is easier to deal with than the obvious truth that her husband is not only a liar and cheater, but a psychological abuser as well.
Trump is doing this on a national scale. He and his team simply DO NOT care if they are caught in a lie, because they don't acknowledge that anything they have said or done before even matters. The only thing that counts is the current moment they are speaking, and even that will likely change by the end of the interview they are involved in. So we can have tape of Trump mocking a disabled reporter. It doesn't matter, because, they will simply deny it happened, and about 33% of the country will believe it, and another 15% will say "well, maybe he didn't, who knows, and anyway, what about Hillary's emails??"
So the lawyer that trump brought out to explain how it is not an ethical problem for Trump to still own his businesses and make money off of them but not talk to his sons about running them apparently works for a law firm that was awarded Russia's firm of the year for 2016
Morgan Lewis has been recognized by Chambers & Partners’ 2016 Chambers Europe guide as Russia Law Firm of the Year in March
To the first, I was guilty of this myself when I was younger. Not so much the presentation, but trying to bullshit you way through an essay exam despite having not studied a lick. You know what the general topic is, you know 3 or 4 key words in relation it, but absolutely zero about the meat of the subject. Trump mentions a policy issue, says the word tremendous 5 or 6 times, and then filibusters with word salad (that isn't even proper English speech) until the audience is just so damn gobsmacked at what they are listening to that they tune out. The man doesn't know ANYTHING about what he is walking into. Nothing.
For the second, I did work in the restaurant industry for a little over a year, and one thing I learned is that people who ask to speak to a manager RARELY have more than a insignificant, petty complaint that barely rises to the level of alerting your waiter, much less their superior. More often than not, these people are a.) trying to get a free meal or b.) they walked into the restaurant looking to make trouble for someone. When I go to Perkin's or Chilli's, sometimes it tastes really good, and sometimes it sucks. I've been given the entirely WRONG entree on occasion, and simply ate it anyway, because, in the end, who cares?? Unless your server walked up to you and smacked you in the back of the head with a frying pan, or has been incredibly rude or incompetent, asking to speak to a manger is usually nothing more than someone who is already pissed off trying to get someone else in trouble. One comes to mind who complained about the veal one week, got it free, then came back the next week and ordered the same thing, complained AGAIN, at which time our manager told her there was nothing WRONG with it, that's just the way it was prepared. Aside from that, wanting to speak to a manager makes them feel more important than the person who is waiting on them AND the rest of the customers in the restaurant. My gut feeling would be that every single person I saw at that job asking to speak to a manager, if they voted, voted for Donald Trump. Because they acted exactly like him.
I think there is a less than 50% chance the golden shower portion of this is true. I'm not interested in that in the least at this point. There is a great story about Lyndon Johnson, who basically told an aide to spread the rumor that his opponent in a Congressional race was having relations with his pigs. His aide said "we can't do that Lyndon, it isn't true", to which Johnson replied "of course it isn't true, but I want to make the son of a bitch DENY it". Trump has played dirty pool with every single person who has ever gotten in his way his entire adult life (and probably his adolescence as well). Make him stand up at a press conference and offer the excuse that it couldn't have happened because he's a germaphobe. That in itself has given the story more legitimacy than it may have ever deserved. But that's the thing, Trump is absolutely INCAPABLE of letting any perceived slight on his greatness go unanswered. He'll attack Oscar-winning actresses, Gold Star families, former beauty queen contestants, union heads.....basically anyone. It's part of what makes him such a dangerous person. He flies off the handle over nonsense. What's going to happen the first time a crisis hits??
People are also saying Buzzfeed was irresponsible for putting out the document. Why?? They made no claims to it's authenticity, they simply gave the American public a look at what has been floating around Washington and the media for MONTHS (at a time, mind you, when every single whisper about Hillary's emails was treated as a earth-shattering event). Yet the press somehow managed to keep a lid on the Trump rumors. What a shock. Trump may sue Buzzfeed. But it would be a chilling historical precedent #1 because the President of the United States has almost NO standing to make a defamation suit, and the idea of the President suing the media in such a way would be yet another sign of where we are surely headed.
"I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day.
An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day!
This day we fight!!
By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!!!"
Last night at 1:30 in the morning, the Senate took the first steps to repeal the ACA. Among the amendments voted against were making sure the ban on pre-existing conditions stays in place, and a vote to defund S-Chip. Which is healthcare for children. Anyone who did so is a monster, plain and simple. Special shame as well for the 12 Dems who voted against the importation of cheaper drugs from Canada. The typical suspects, whose cowardice is why Democrats get a bad name.
People are also saying Buzzfeed was irresponsible for putting out the document. Why?? They made no claims to it's authenticity, they simply gave the American public a look at what has been floating around Washington and the media for MONTHS (at a time, mind you, when every single whisper about Hillary's emails was treated as a earth-shattering event).
How can anyone trust anything BuzzFeed publishes at this point? What if they find something actually damaging about Trump next week and can back it up with credible sources? It will be viewed as if it were just as suspect as what they already published despite being authentic. They have become The Boy Who Cried 'Wolf'.
Would you want someone publishing something untrue about you? I suppose this is what we have come to, though--the age in which scandal and salacious rumor are treated as fact. I shouldn't be surprised, though, given how much time people devote to soaking up every piece of celebrity gossip they can find. It was only 100 years ago when William Randolph Hearst was publishing similar stories, trying--sometimes succeeding--at influencing national politics. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
People are also saying Buzzfeed was irresponsible for putting out the document. Why?? They made no claims to it's authenticity, they simply gave the American public a look at what has been floating around Washington and the media for MONTHS (at a time, mind you, when every single whisper about Hillary's emails was treated as a earth-shattering event).
How can anyone trust anything BuzzFeed publishes at this point? What if they find something actually damaging about Trump next week and can back it up with credible sources? It will be viewed as if it were just as suspect as what they already published despite being authentic. They have become The Boy Who Cried 'Wolf'.
Would you want someone publishing something untrue about you? I suppose this is what we have come to, though--the age in which scandal and salacious rumor are treated as fact. I shouldn't be surprised, though, given how much time people devote to soaking up every piece of celebrity gossip they can find. It was only 100 years ago when William Randolph Hearst was publishing similar stories, trying--sometimes succeeding--at influencing national politics. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
They made no claims to the veracity of everything that is in the report. They went out of their way to say so. The story was the report itself, it's existence, and the fact that it's been floating around for months.
If we live in an age where Trump can lie on a practically hourly basis, and get away with it, what chance do you think opponents of his have if they constantly take the high road?? The high road is filled with road-kill of people who got ran over with a semi. I'm interested in anything that can damage him. I'm no longer even remotely worried about objective truth, because Trump's ascension has told us that such a thing doesn't matter. If I'm playing Monopoly and my opponent, before the game starts, grabs all 4 railroads, Boardwalk and Park Place, and $1000 extra cash, do i sit and take it and follow the rules?? Or do I tell them to kick rocks and grab the entire stack of $500 bills and all the reds and greens?? I know what I'm choosing.
I feel that people are too sensitive. Millennials especially. Let's face it: they've been raised by a society that has done nothing nothing but fill their heads with lies. They tell them how special they are, give them trophies just for showing up and ensure them always that, no matter what, they're always a winner. So naturally, when these kids hit the real world and find that they are nothing but walking fleshbags, that equality is a social construct, and that reality doesn't care about people's feelings, they lash out in defense of their delusions. They run for safe spaces - they construct a reality more befitting their own skewed values, and what's more, they petulantly demand that others live in that reality, too. That's the problem facing the west today.
In truth, your values are just as worthless as you are. Morality is a construct - personal rights do not exist unless they can be enforced by the strength of one's own arm. No gods, no morals, no rights, only the strong and the weak. Everything else is illusory. These are facts - metaphysics and humanist mumbo-jumbo is nothing but the playground of inferior specimens.
Personally, I prefer a society that functions as a meritocracy, but one that meets basic needs and provides everyone with a level playing field. I do not believe this is possible under capitalism. I believe capital and the means that produce it should benefit, first and foremost, the productive. And to accomplish this I believe in total nationalization.
I feel that people are too sensitive. Millennials especially. Let's face it: they've been raised by a society that has done nothing nothing but fill their heads with lies. They tell them how special they are, give them trophies just for showing up and ensure them always that, no matter what, they're always a winner. So naturally, when these kids hit the real world and find that they are nothing but walking fleshbags, that equality is a social construct, and that reality doesn't care about people's feelings, they lash out in defense of their delusions. They run for safe spaces - they construct a reality more befitting their own skewed values, and what's more, they petulantly demand that others live in that reality, too. That's the problem facing the west today.
In truth, your values are just as worthless as you are. Morality is a construct - personal rights do not exist unless they can be enforced by the strength of one's own arm. No gods, no morals, no rights, only the strong and the weak. Everything else is illusory. These are facts - metaphysics and humanist mumbo-jumbo is nothing but the playground of inferior specimens.
Ah, the inevitable "participation trophies are destroying western civilization" argument I have been waiting for. Actually, one of my great memories of elementary school was getting the third place white ribbon two years in a row at a race in the school track meet, and being determined to win blue (first) in the third and last year I could. I did. So I generally think participation trophies are ridiculous. I also think they have no bearing on society whatsoever.
I still have no idea where these safe-spaces are outisde of certain college campuses. Are they at interstate truck stops?? Certain historical landmarks?? They should really be marked on Google maps so we all know where they are.
People are also saying Buzzfeed was irresponsible for putting out the document. Why?? They made no claims to it's authenticity, they simply gave the American public a look at what has been floating around Washington and the media for MONTHS (at a time, mind you, when every single whisper about Hillary's emails was treated as a earth-shattering event).
How can anyone trust anything BuzzFeed publishes at this point? What if they find something actually damaging about Trump next week and can back it up with credible sources? It will be viewed as if it were just as suspect as what they already published despite being authentic. They have become The Boy Who Cried 'Wolf'.
Would you want someone publishing something untrue about you? I suppose this is what we have come to, though--the age in which scandal and salacious rumor are treated as fact. I shouldn't be surprised, though, given how much time people devote to soaking up every piece of celebrity gossip they can find. It was only 100 years ago when William Randolph Hearst was publishing similar stories, trying--sometimes succeeding--at influencing national politics. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
They made no claims to the veracity of everything that is in the report. They went out of their way to say so. The story was the report itself, it's existence, and the fact that it's been floating around for months.
If we live in an age where Trump can lie on a practically hourly basis, and get away with it, what chance do you think opponents of his have if they constantly take the high road?? The high road is filled with road-kill of people who got ran over with a semi. I'm interested in anything that can damage him. I'm no longer even remotely worried about objective truth, because Trump's ascension has told us that such a thing doesn't matter. If I'm playing Monopoly and my opponent, before the game starts, grabs all 4 railroads, Boardwalk and Park Place, and $1000 extra cash, do i sit and take it and follow the rules?? Or do I tell them to kick rocks and grab the entire stack of $500 bills and all the reds and greens?? I know what I'm choosing.
People are also saying Buzzfeed was irresponsible for putting out the document. Why?? They made no claims to it's authenticity, they simply gave the American public a look at what has been floating around Washington and the media for MONTHS (at a time, mind you, when every single whisper about Hillary's emails was treated as a earth-shattering event).
How can anyone trust anything BuzzFeed publishes at this point? What if they find something actually damaging about Trump next week and can back it up with credible sources? It will be viewed as if it were just as suspect as what they already published despite being authentic. They have become The Boy Who Cried 'Wolf'.
Would you want someone publishing something untrue about you? I suppose this is what we have come to, though--the age in which scandal and salacious rumor are treated as fact. I shouldn't be surprised, though, given how much time people devote to soaking up every piece of celebrity gossip they can find. It was only 100 years ago when William Randolph Hearst was publishing similar stories, trying--sometimes succeeding--at influencing national politics. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
They made no claims to the veracity of everything that is in the report. They went out of their way to say so. The story was the report itself, it's existence, and the fact that it's been floating around for months.
If we live in an age where Trump can lie on a practically hourly basis, and get away with it, what chance do you think opponents of his have if they constantly take the high road?? The high road is filled with road-kill of people who got ran over with a semi. I'm interested in anything that can damage him. I'm no longer even remotely worried about objective truth, because Trump's ascension has told us that such a thing doesn't matter. If I'm playing Monopoly and my opponent, before the game starts, grabs all 4 railroads, Boardwalk and Park Place, and $1000 extra cash, do i sit and take it and follow the rules?? Or do I tell them to kick rocks and grab the entire stack of $500 bills and all the reds and greens?? I know what I'm choosing.
You just killed all the credibility you had here.
So let's get this straight. Trump runs a campaign based on lies and bigotry. He has shown no signs he will govern any other way. During the same time the FBI went public late in the campaign with insignificant information concerning duplicates of Hillary's emails (all of which were already investigated) being found on the computer of her top aide, they also had this dossier on Trump. Some of it is undoubtedly false, some of it more than likely true. One was pushed into the home stretch of the election season, the other buried even though everyone knew about it. We have no idea if what is in that report is true or not. What we do know is that the FBI's insertion into the campaign on behalf of Trump now looks 10x worse. And I'm supposed to care if the sexual-assaulter in chief has now FINALLY gotten a taste of his own medicine?? You can throw my credibility into the Grand Canyon if you want. Small price for not being willing to bring a feather duster to a gun fight.
I really don't see the point in arguing politics on a Baldur's Gate thread, even in the off-topic section. Some people just love to argue and everyone wants to enforce their own values it seems. Provided you're not explicitly racist I don't care what you believe, as I myself hold extreme beliefs. But it's because people do care - that people want to project and see their values projected from the highest of places that societies collapse into anarchy and chaos. And it's for reasons like this that the world is so screwed up.
Personally, I don't care if you're a communist, an autocrat, a republican, a democrat - whatever. We're all united here, presumably, by our love of Baldur's Gate. A thread like this is just a way to create animosity and bad feelings because it will inevitably spill over into the other sections. "There's that commie - I think I'll rag on his character build" or "there's that fascist - don't want to talk to him!". This thread was a bad idea and an even worse idea to let it continue, but that's just my two cents.
I really don't see the point in arguing politics on a Baldur's Gate thread, even in the off-topic section. Some people just love to argue and everyone wants to enforce their own values it seems. Provided you're not explicitly racist I don't care what you believe, as I myself hold extreme beliefs. But it's because people do care - that people want to project and see their values projected from the highest of places that societies collapse into anarchy and chaos. And it's for reasons like this that the world is so screwed up.
Personally, I don't care if you're a communist, an autocrat, a republican, a democrat - whatever. We're all united here, presumably, by our love of Baldur's Gate. A thread like this is just a way to create animosity and bad feelings because it will inevitably spill over into the other sections. "There's that commie - I think I'll rag on his character build" or "there's that fascist - don't want to talk to him!". This thread was a bad idea and an even worse idea to let it continue, but that's just my two cents.
It hasn't actually been that bad, certainly not compared to anywhere else on the internet. And that's coming from the person most out on an island in this thread the last few months.
I'm interested in anything that can damage him. I'm no longer even remotely worried about objective truth, because Trump's ascension has told us that such a thing doesn't matter.
That is a shame but I certainly won't try to dissuade you from your point of view.
On the other hand, no one will be able to engage you in any sort of legitimate discussion because you are not worried about objective truth.
Meanwhile, the Dept. of Justice has opened an investigation into the FBI's handling of the Clinton e-mail server issue, specifically Director Comey's wishy-washy, back-and-forth meandering over the issue. I am uncertain how much progress they are going to make over the next week because I suspect this investigation will be stonewalled or put on the back burner later this month. Truthfully, Director Comey should tender his resignation effective immediately.
I'm interested in anything that can damage him. I'm no longer even remotely worried about objective truth, because Trump's ascension has told us that such a thing doesn't matter.
That is a shame but I certainly won't try to dissuade you from your point of view.
On the other hand, no one will be able to engage you in any sort of legitimate discussion because you are not worried about objective truth.
This right here ^
Your previous comment @jjstraka34 , you are starting to sound just like that which you have been railing against for a large chunk of the thread. “He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster . . . when you gaze long into the abyss the abyss also gazes into you” ― Friedrich Nietzsche
While we have certainly not seen eye to eye, I have made it a point to read all of your posts here. Your views challenge my own and make me think of things from different perspectives. While I certainly don't know you personally, what you have shown me in this thread is better than this.
Comments
"Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes"
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/10/opinions/donald-trump-is-gaslighting-america-ghitis/index.html
Trump is doing this on a national scale. He and his team simply DO NOT care if they are caught in a lie, because they don't acknowledge that anything they have said or done before even matters. The only thing that counts is the current moment they are speaking, and even that will likely change by the end of the interview they are involved in. So we can have tape of Trump mocking a disabled reporter. It doesn't matter, because, they will simply deny it happened, and about 33% of the country will believe it, and another 15% will say "well, maybe he didn't, who knows, and anyway, what about Hillary's emails??"
Morgan Lewis has been recognized by Chambers & Partners’ 2016 Chambers Europe guide as Russia Law Firm of the Year in March
https://www.morganlewis.com/news/chambers-partners-names-morgan-lewis-as-russia-law-firm-of-the-year
To the first, I was guilty of this myself when I was younger. Not so much the presentation, but trying to bullshit you way through an essay exam despite having not studied a lick. You know what the general topic is, you know 3 or 4 key words in relation it, but absolutely zero about the meat of the subject. Trump mentions a policy issue, says the word tremendous 5 or 6 times, and then filibusters with word salad (that isn't even proper English speech) until the audience is just so damn gobsmacked at what they are listening to that they tune out. The man doesn't know ANYTHING about what he is walking into. Nothing.
For the second, I did work in the restaurant industry for a little over a year, and one thing I learned is that people who ask to speak to a manager RARELY have more than a insignificant, petty complaint that barely rises to the level of alerting your waiter, much less their superior. More often than not, these people are a.) trying to get a free meal or b.) they walked into the restaurant looking to make trouble for someone. When I go to Perkin's or Chilli's, sometimes it tastes really good, and sometimes it sucks. I've been given the entirely WRONG entree on occasion, and simply ate it anyway, because, in the end, who cares?? Unless your server walked up to you and smacked you in the back of the head with a frying pan, or has been incredibly rude or incompetent, asking to speak to a manger is usually nothing more than someone who is already pissed off trying to get someone else in trouble. One comes to mind who complained about the veal one week, got it free, then came back the next week and ordered the same thing, complained AGAIN, at which time our manager told her there was nothing WRONG with it, that's just the way it was prepared. Aside from that, wanting to speak to a manager makes them feel more important than the person who is waiting on them AND the rest of the customers in the restaurant. My gut feeling would be that every single person I saw at that job asking to speak to a manager, if they voted, voted for Donald Trump. Because they acted exactly like him.
Irrefutable proof that Trump received a golden shower:
People are also saying Buzzfeed was irresponsible for putting out the document. Why?? They made no claims to it's authenticity, they simply gave the American public a look at what has been floating around Washington and the media for MONTHS (at a time, mind you, when every single whisper about Hillary's emails was treated as a earth-shattering event). Yet the press somehow managed to keep a lid on the Trump rumors. What a shock. Trump may sue Buzzfeed. But it would be a chilling historical precedent #1 because the President of the United States has almost NO standing to make a defamation suit, and the idea of the President suing the media in such a way would be yet another sign of where we are surely headed.
A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day.
An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day!
This day we fight!!
By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!!!"
SAY WHAT?
"All the dress shops are sold out in Washington. It's hard to find a great dress for this inauguration."
-- Donald Trump
"We have 200 dresses, if not more, in stock."
-- Mae Shipe, owner of Mae's Dress Boutique
"There's never been less demand for inaugural ball gowns in my 38 years."
-- Peter Marx, owner of Saks Jandel
Would you want someone publishing something untrue about you? I suppose this is what we have come to, though--the age in which scandal and salacious rumor are treated as fact. I shouldn't be surprised, though, given how much time people devote to soaking up every piece of celebrity gossip they can find. It was only 100 years ago when William Randolph Hearst was publishing similar stories, trying--sometimes succeeding--at influencing national politics. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
If we live in an age where Trump can lie on a practically hourly basis, and get away with it, what chance do you think opponents of his have if they constantly take the high road?? The high road is filled with road-kill of people who got ran over with a semi. I'm interested in anything that can damage him. I'm no longer even remotely worried about objective truth, because Trump's ascension has told us that such a thing doesn't matter. If I'm playing Monopoly and my opponent, before the game starts, grabs all 4 railroads, Boardwalk and Park Place, and $1000 extra cash, do i sit and take it and follow the rules?? Or do I tell them to kick rocks and grab the entire stack of $500 bills and all the reds and greens?? I know what I'm choosing.
In truth, your values are just as worthless as you are. Morality is a construct - personal rights do not exist unless they can be enforced by the strength of one's own arm. No gods, no morals, no rights, only the strong and the weak. Everything else is illusory. These are facts - metaphysics and humanist mumbo-jumbo is nothing but the playground of inferior specimens.
Personally, I prefer a society that functions as a meritocracy, but one that meets basic needs and provides everyone with a level playing field. I do not believe this is possible under capitalism. I believe capital and the means that produce it should benefit, first and foremost, the productive. And to accomplish this I believe in total nationalization.
I still have no idea where these safe-spaces are outisde of certain college campuses. Are they at interstate truck stops?? Certain historical landmarks?? They should really be marked on Google maps so we all know where they are.
Personally, I don't care if you're a communist, an autocrat, a republican, a democrat - whatever. We're all united here, presumably, by our love of Baldur's Gate. A thread like this is just a way to create animosity and bad feelings because it will inevitably spill over into the other sections. "There's that commie - I think I'll rag on his character build" or "there's that fascist - don't want to talk to him!". This thread was a bad idea and an even worse idea to let it continue, but that's just my two cents.
On the other hand, no one will be able to engage you in any sort of legitimate discussion because you are not worried about objective truth.
Meanwhile, the Dept. of Justice has opened an investigation into the FBI's handling of the Clinton e-mail server issue, specifically Director Comey's wishy-washy, back-and-forth meandering over the issue. I am uncertain how much progress they are going to make over the next week because I suspect this investigation will be stonewalled or put on the back burner later this month. Truthfully, Director Comey should tender his resignation effective immediately.
Your previous comment @jjstraka34 , you are starting to sound just like that which you have been railing against for a large chunk of the thread.
“He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster . . . when you gaze long into the abyss the abyss also gazes into you”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
While we have certainly not seen eye to eye, I have made it a point to read all of your posts here. Your views challenge my own and make me think of things from different perspectives. While I certainly don't know you personally, what you have shown me in this thread is better than this.