Among the less celebratory perceptions of the Fourth Quarter has to be the recognition that the world hasn't changed. I think it was Avraham Friedman (who blogs from the Middle East mostly about Viktor Frankl and the ideas that grew in Frankl during his years in WWII camps) who cited one of his students as reporting that 'birthdays are those days when the Creator has indicated by the birthday-person's birth that the World just couldn't continue without them.' Maybe the Fourth Quarter begins with the recognition that -- in spite of the fact that you haven't, yet, brought peace to the world and cured cancer -- the World will, indeed, go on without you and that if the Creator thought you were going to change it all, She oopsed.
So, I've lived for all this time and politicians are still hoodwinking the public and, likely, lying to themselves. I've preciously suggested that the National Debt might be remediable were we to charge admission to public floggings of all those who intentionally tell mistruths to the voting public.
I don't wish to diagnose Mr. Trump (DT) but I do have reactions to what he says and how typical it is for his statements to represent others as having done what many believe he does regularly. I suppose, that is, that the most forthright comment he makes is that he is "a Counterpuncher" ... but in a different sense than the one he uses.
His most recent attack on a judge whose parents were Mexican immigrants is not untypical. Let me explain. It works something like this:
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Punch: DT promises to bring the Mexican Government to its knees by forcing it to build the now infamous DT's wall and suggests that that Government chooses to send all its dregs to the USA. In short, he depreciates the power and the decency of Others ... an aggressive act.
Counterpunch: DT concludes that the judge/offspring of one so-aggressed-upon is incapable of judicious thinking because DT has aggressed upon him and he, the judge, is therefore predisposed to aggress against DT.
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Let's see: According to his reasoning, Mexican, Women, Muslims and Democrats would all need to recuse themselves in legal/judicial matters related to DT's alleged fraud in the Trump University case. It would be facile, too, to say something insulting about all other groups, while he's at it.
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Let's see: According to his reasoning, Mexican, Women, Muslims and Democrats would all need to recuse themselves in legal/judicial matters related to DT's alleged fraud in the Trump University case. It would be facile, too, to say something insulting about all other groups, while he's at it.
But lemme give some other examples:
DT is an extreme pragmatist ... the kindest way I can describe someone who will say whatever it takes to get a job done. It is not so much the Pragmatism is un-American but our Constitution and its Bill of Rights demand of us that we temper that Pragmatism with Rules. DT must have a degree of intelligence and a basketful of guile to accomplish what he has.
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Punch: Like many of us -- myself included -- we did what we could to avoid military service during the Viet Nam era. They were, indeed, complicated times and the issues surrounding such decisions were equally difficult to parse. M & I were "Waist Deep (not) in the Big Muddy" during those years but in diapers. DT, I can only surmise, may well have been among those who had connections that permitted him a pass. I don't know.
Counterpunch: Sen. McCain is not a War Hero. War Heroes are those who don't get captured, according to DT.
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Punch: DT has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to single out women for derisive comments, foul and demeaning descriptions and attempts to undermine their careers. Undoubtedly, he has helped women, as well.
Counterpunch: Let's talk about Bill Clinton. By the way, I do hold Clinton responsible for Gore's loss in 2000 ... I can't help believing/considering that he he kept his trousers buckled, many -- even if a small minority -- would have voted for Gore and, perhaps, the mess we are in would be less of a mess. Perhaps?
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Punch: The Drumpf's came from Germany, apparently .... a country that was, indeed, brought to its knees by the Allies ... twice. I don't know what the youngster/man thought of himself in the post-War era growing up in Queens. If your grandpa speaks with a middle-European accent, who are you? Who knows? Was there Shame? Guilt? Reparations such as many very wealthy people offer (the Koch brothers are a simple example or the Kimmels or the owners of Comcast who support the Arts and build Hospitals) are not familiar to me with the DT's name upon them.
Counterpunch: Implying that Obama is not eligible to serve as President ... not an American.
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Punch: DT's rhetorical device of denying and saying something at the same time is well-known to the listening public.
"I'm not saying that s/he's A-B-or-C but she's at least A-C and maybe D-C!"
"I'm not sayin' you should beat up these protesters but back-in-the-day, they'd be carried out."
"I'm not sayin' that he was born in Kenya, but ..."
The famous list goes on.
I think it's fair to say that DT often peppers his talk with conflicting or paradoxical positions.
I could but I won't .... Inuendo but not ....
Counterpunch: "Lying Ted" ... "Lying Hillary" ....
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Punch: DT very cleverly gets all the major news networks to cover his campaign in what seems obvious was an enormously unbalanced way. He uses outrageous behaviors and comments to accomplish this. The Left and the Right give him 10's of Millions of Dollars of air-time during which they inevitably talk about the over-the-top and offensive comments he has made. The other 20 candidates (D and R, alike) are arguing about quotidian and boring 'crap' like policy. The Networks take the bait.
Counterpunch: "The Networks are against me" and each and every comment is permitted to more or less fall by the wayside. Can we really have a president who says the things he has about women? I suppose we can, after all he's been treated unfairly. ... OMG!
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I welcome others to send other examples which I shall append in your name (hhcovitz@aol.com) ... In any case, it is a disheartening component of Last Quarter living to see these same techniques used so openly with the public as they have been in many previous Strong-Man Led Regimes. Mid-Fourth-Quarter? and I've changed the World very little, if at all. I do hope I've on a much more local level influenced those people I've loved.
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I welcome others to send other examples which I shall append in your name (hhcovitz@aol.com) ... In any case, it is a disheartening component of Last Quarter living to see these same techniques used so openly with the public as they have been in many previous Strong-Man Led Regimes. Mid-Fourth-Quarter? and I've changed the World very little, if at all. I do hope I've on a much more local level influenced those people I've loved.
