He is the most unusual goddamned politician this country has ever seen.
...
He is the unsurpassed master of the new political art of tweeting and those 140 characters or less jabs hit us right in the cerebral cortex and how high do you want us to jump, Mr. Trump?
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"Here’s how. First, our military will continue to hunt down terrorist plotters in any country where it is necessary.
"Second, we will continue to provide training and equipment to tens of thousands of Iraqi and Syrian forces fighting ISIL on the ground so that we take away their safe havens.
"Third, we’re working with friends and allies to stop ISIL’s operations, to disrupt plots, cut off their financing, and prevent them from recruiting more fighters.
"Fourth, with American leadership, the international community has begun to establish a process and timeline to pursue cease-fires and a political resolution to the Syrian war.
"This is our strategy to destroy ISIL."
...
He is the unsurpassed master of the new political art of tweeting and those 140 characters or less jabs hit us right in the cerebral cortex and how high do you want us to jump, Mr. Trump?
...
Trump only has the support of about 25% of the Republican electorate but I guarantee you this: there is a larger segment of the American electorate as a whole who have had the subliminal message of "In charge," "In charge" drilled into them even this early that they believe the mother-fucker is going to get things DONE! http://publicoccurrenc.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-amazing-mr-trump.html
“It’s O.K., it’s O.K. to be afraid. When bad things happen, it does cause anxiety and fear. But then you pull yourself together and, especially, if you want to be a leader of our country, and you say: ‘O.K., what are we going to do about it? How are we going to be prepared?’”
Could not get to sleep last night.
Know why?
Trump.
Mother-fucker's really in my head, man.
There is not one single Trump proposal that I support.
I opted out of political advertisements appearing on this site because Trump ads were appearing.
Yet, he is the only presidential candidate ever to keep me up at night thinking.
Trump makes specific proposals-build a wall; bar all Muslim immigration-that you can react to-No, building a wall is lunacy, you lunatic.- and think about-No, not all Muslim immigration; some maybe? I don't know, let me think about it till 3 am. Other politicians, not so much.
Hillary Clinton:
O.K., first of all it is not "O.K. to be afraid," you fucking tone-deaf mo-ron.
"You pull yourself together and...if you want to be a leader of our country,..you say: "O.K., what are we going to do about it? How are we going to be prepared?"
O.K., you want to be the leader of our country, what are you going to do about it? How are you going to be prepared? Prepared for what? For coping with fear, or removing the cause of the fear?
She never said. Hillary Clinton has nothing to say.
Obama:
"Second, we will continue to provide training and equipment to tens of thousands of Iraqi and Syrian forces fighting ISIL on the ground so that we take away their safe havens.
"Third, we’re working with friends and allies to stop ISIL’s operations, to disrupt plots, cut off their financing, and prevent them from recruiting more fighters.
"Fourth, with American leadership, the international community has begun to establish a process and timeline to pursue cease-fires and a political resolution to the Syrian war.
"This is our strategy to destroy ISIL."
To which I wrote on December 6:
"That's it? No. Not enough."
To which Trump tweeted the same night:
"Is that all there is?"
Trump sucks all the air out of the room. Other politicians don't know how to respond. Attack him? Don't attack him? He has set the agenda for political discussion. The others have to react. He is a master at seeing the other guy's, or gal's, weakness. He is a master of cutting right to the point, of reading all the fine print but not losing sight of the forest, extracting whatever kernels there are and rendering decisive judgment: "Is that all there is?" It was the perfect sound bite, to use President Clinton's phrase, and Trump was right!
“The elite political community has been struggling to figure out how to deal with him because they don’t fundamentally understand the phenomenon,” said David Axelrod, former senior adviser to President Obama. “He’s speaking to something that they’re just getting their arms around.”
That is nail-on-the-head accurate. The undersigned is not burdened by being a member of the elite political community, nor with too many brains, but even removing those impediments has not led to understanding. I think we get close to it with "controlled chaos," with "visceral," but I don't know what "it" is.
In Waterloo, Mike Russell, 60, called Mr. Trump “an idiot.” But when he was asked if he thought Mrs. Clinton had been aggressive enough in outlining her plan to defeat ISIS, Mr. Russell paused.
“I don’t know,” he said. “That last deal in California, that changes the game.”
The Washington Post wrote that the bedeviling thing about Trump's statements is that there is often a kernel of truth in them: "thousands of celebrating Muslims in New Jersey after 9/11," no, not thousands you demagogue but a handful; "ban all Muslim immigration." Mike Russell gets closer: Trump is something of an idiot, Hillary Clinton has nothing to say and the game has changed. Political elites have been slow to recognize that the game has changed, and David Axelrod is right that there is a "phenomenon" out there that other politicians "are just getting their arms around," but it is not Trump, Axelrod is wrong about that, it is not San Bernardino, Russell is wrong about that, it is the feeling that America "doesn't work anymore," my phrase; it is the Tea Party, Obamacare, Russia, the Islamic State, "no drama Obama," fear-is-O.K.-Hillary, waffling Scott Walker, nice "low-energy" Jeb! there is anger and discontent and disgust out there that is measurable, maybe fear now, too, there has been anger and discontent for as far back as the founding of the Tea Party, it is a whole constellation composed of those elements off the top of my head that the political elite are "just getting their arms around."
But this constellation of discontent exists almost solely in the universe of the Republican Party. There is potential for this constellation to expand; hell, I, a non-Republican feel some of it (hell, it is what turned me into a non-voter); Mike Russell feels some of it, but there is no potential for the appeal of Trump to break out further; he is "contained" within the Republican Party, the smaller of the two political parties. There is potential for Trump's appeal to break out further within the Republican Party but it is not going to be enough to win the nomination.
The constellation of discontent will not expand enough to elect a non-"idiot" substantive clone of Trump, like Ted Cruz, president. It was not enough to prevent Barack Obama's reelection. Hillary Clinton is going to be the next president and everybody else, including the undersigned, can go suck an egg in our constellation of discontent.
The constellation of discontent will not expand enough to elect a non-"idiot" substantive clone of Trump, like Ted Cruz, president. It was not enough to prevent Barack Obama's reelection. Hillary Clinton is going to be the next president and everybody else, including the undersigned, can go suck an egg in our constellation of discontent.
This is Public Occurrences.
