Watch All the President’s Men next. It opens exactly where The Post leaves off, with the Watergate burglary. The last scene of The Post is the first scene of ATPM (which I’ve watched at least 10 times since thump was elected). Jason Robards is a better Ben Bradlee than Tom Hanks.
Regarding the Tea Party and Trump, I’ve said before that a lot of people were dissatisfied with those they voted for while they were mad, so they voted for someone while they were furious and expected him to be better.
If you can make those people dissatisfied with Trump, do you really want to see who they vote for next?
I lived through the Nixon years. I thought his re-election was the low point in US politics until the election of Trump. Nixon was a monster, but I think he genuinely cared about the US and the welfare of its citizens, which is more than I can say for Trump.
The fuck do you take me for, some kind of masochist? I lived through that shit. I came home from school every day, went downstairs and sat in front of Archibald Cox/Leon Jaworski on the 19" B/W TV we had in the rec room. It was a fucked-up confusing time that I think would be better off in the back of the bottom drawer, next to what we are facing today.
Trump is either an anarchist and/or a traitor. Nixon was evil but he was neither an anarchist nor jumping to the call of our nation’s two strongest competitors (to be charitable). I grew up with Nixon and came of age with Reagan.
The thing is, if it were just that, then I’d get it. I’d disagree obviously but I’d at least understand the psychology.
But trump does and says at least 2-3 things a week that should be utterly disqualifying. That anyone with principles, and any interest in truth and credibility should find appalling.
But his supporters don’t care about e.g. contradicting themselves and handwaving something that they claimed was the more important principle last week. Dear Leader can do no wrong.
It’s more than just “I hate brown people, so I like the cut of this racist’s jib”.
It really is some kind of cult. That’s why it’s scary. Where does it end?
The thing is, we’re not actually at war, no matter how much the trumpers want to pretend we are. As for their bigotry, Trevor Noah put it best. He said that they don’t mind being bigots; they just hate being called bigots.
Someone should have notified my maternal grandmother, she never got the memo.
And re. manipulation by Russia: welcome to Spain from the 1960s until… well, until I’ll let you know if I ever see it. So far we’ve managed to survive, we’ll see how we all do.
The biggest thing keeping Trump from hitting the Big Red Button while saying “what does this do?” is that it’s in fact not a Big Red Button; it’s a little more complicated than that. Who knew nuclear launch codes would be so complicated?
I will back this up, although a little extreme, but I won’t believe any trumpeter that claims they think the immigration laws are wrong. Or the ones who actually-- and I will never understand why-- think he is brilliant because he’s rich. (He’s not either.)
A dozen trump supporters standing over smoldering land from sea to shining sea would call it a victory, 'cause the others ain’t left anymore. Win-win. :rolleyes:
I don’t doubt that Trump would nuke a country, just not Russia. There’s just no conceivable way he does that unless you believe he has severe dementia already.
This. Nixon may have been a monster but he was our monster. Trump is nothing but unbridled Id, a three-year old in a power tie.
I was 25 during the Watergate hearings and came home from work every day to watch John Dean testifying. That time does not belong in the back of a drawer–it belongs right out in front, if only because so many people are alive today who weren’t (or who were toddlers) when it happened. They don’t remember the audible sigh of relief that swept across the country when Gerald Ford was sworn in as President.
I think you would find watching All the President’s Men uplifting and inspiring, if only to see what relentless, driven investigative journalism can accomplish. It’s a wonderful movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat even though you know exactly how it comes out. And when you watch it, go to the IMDB and read the trivia section.
Next, watch Mark Felt, about the man who was Deep Throat. A whole 'nother perspective on those times.
My thoughts exactly. Next up would be Stephan Miller. Trump is not quite enough of a Nazi for them. A good first step though.
This part I think is actually true. At least, the Bible does warn of people like Trump. There’s a reason I sometimes call him “an anti-Christ.” You can’t get more diametrically opposed to Jesus’s teachings than him. Fundamentalists aren’t even close, since they still believe in at least the concept of kindness.
I think Nixon believed in occasional presidential excesses because he believed that the ends justified the means. As you and Colibri have said, I think that Nixon’s ends were ultimately a passionate (even if bordering on psychotic), patriotic love for America - or at least his version of it.
Trump is a pathological narcissist, whose end game is to enrich himself and his family. And now that the federal government has him and his clan in its cross hairs, and now that he has a congress that has abdicated its constitutional role as a check on his power, he views the United States government as an existential threat to his existence, and is determined to destroy it (as we’ve known it, anyway).
Even the Mooch has a limit:
In both of these examples, we had two important institutions to protect us from this madness: a robust and professional free press, and federal institutions such as the FBI. We also had a congress that acted as a check on unconstitutional usurpation of power by the President. I don’t know if the same can be said today.
Going back to the issue of the family separations at the border for a moment, it is imperative that ordinary citizens understand the dangerous signal that is being sent. Healthy democracies and libertarian societies don’t act with such cruelty - those are symptoms of societies that encourage authoritarianism and the abuse of human rights. Such abuse might start with “illegal aliens;” it can end with university professors, journalists, or other enemies of the state, who say things people in power don’t want others to hear.
All it would take is the modern equivalent of the red scare.
It’s official: “innocent until proven guilty” only applies to citizens.
I’m not seeing where your link says “innocent until proven guilty”
IOW: children from the other side of the border are not innocent.