An old friend contends that those who contest Trump and his policies must have committed harmful acts against the president.

Here’s another viewpoint on the subject that he may wish to consider: About half of this country, and the vast majority of those in the rest of the developed world, believe, based on what they can observe about his actions and statistics (see left), that Trump is a garden-variety criminal sociopath, aka an “anti-social personality.”

Further, they believe that people who support Trump at this point have what could be called a “low confront of evil” or an “ethics blind spot.” Of course, most “never-Trumpers” put this more coarsely and bluntly, using words like “fools.”

Now, let’s be fair.  Isn’t it possible that all this attack against Trump is a “witch-hunt,” in which an innocent and productive member of society was unfairly persecuted?   Sure.  But how likely is it that four different independent grand juries, composed of people just like you and me, handed down four separate indictments including 91 felony counts, simply because it had become fashionable to hate a former president?  We’re to believe that they violated their oath and their personal integrity because it was “the thing to do.”  I’m skeptical, to say the least.

Whatever the case, one thing is certain: either Trump supporters or his detractors have been conned, and this country has never experienced anything remotely like this in its past.

I’ve spoken with folks from dozens of countries around the globe on this topic, and here’s what they tell me, almost to a person, “We simply feel sorry for you. We recognize that, throughout history, many world democracies, some tiny, some huge, have gotten swallowed up by ignorance and hate, but we never, in a million years, imagined that this could happen in the United States.”

 

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I’d love to think that what John Brennan says here is true, but there is no reason to believe that.

If the United States as a nation were going to regard Trump this way, it would have already happened.

The idea that Americans are going to have some sort of mass epiphany is a pipedream.

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Someone on social media asks: How would conservatives react if this were Obama’s record?

It truly is remarkable that half of the United States really doesn’t care that they elected one of the worst human beings imaginable.

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Every American with a good and honest heart beating in his chest knew that a second Trump term was going to be a catastrophe, but I really don’t think anyone saw this coming.

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As shown at left, if it were a country, California would have the fourth largest GDP on Earth.  It’s weird to hear people say that over-regulation is causing people and businesses to relocate to places like Texas.  I want to ask them if they’ve ever been here, or if they can even find our state on a map.

Speaking of the Lone Star State, a colleague recently pointed out that Russia’s GDP is smaller than that of Texas.  We hear so much about the butcher Putin, but so little about his people’s suffering.

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The reader who sent me this asks, “Why don’t pictures like this ever trend?”

It’s because everyone who has even a basic understanding of the world oil market knows that this is pure stupidity, aimed at the most uneducated Americans who constitute the core of Trump’s base.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that idiocy like this can’t “trend.”  It’s not as if our country has a lack of ignorance.  We did re-elect Trump, didn’t we?

Someone asked me recently to explain why Big Oil isn’t thrilled that Trump has opened up our pristine wildernesses to the extraction of crude.  The answer, of course, is that oil executives  making 8-figure annual incomes actually do understand how to make money.  That’s how they attained their positions, and, sadly, it’s their only purpose in life.  They know that spending hundreds of billions of dollars in new infrastructure, while driving up supply and thus lowering prices at the pump, isn’t a strong idea.

 

 

 

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The cartoonist here makes a good point.

Trump and his team commit so many crimes in an average week that Americans, with their fantastically short attention spans, can’t stay focused on any one atrocity.

This, of course, is exacerbated by the for-profit media that needs to ensure a maximum of public outrage at all times, from both the left and the right, and this requires new subject matter on a daily basis.

 

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Using individual extreme weather events as evidence of climate change is not a scientifically accurate thing to do, but this is a lot of tornadoesIndiana averages 22 per year, and they are already at 44.

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Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich poses a good question here.

At this point, it appears that the billionaires can do anything they want, insofar as they own all three branches of the U.S. federal government.

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In response to the question posed at left, yes.  I would say that this applies to about 60% of Americans and probably 95% of people from the rest of the developed world.

An old friend told me, “The problem is that he always wins.”

My reply: “So far, but keep in mind that everyone is undefeated until their first loss.”

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