If you have two children of approximately the same age, one is of average intelligence with normal capabilities for her age, and the other is developmentally delayed, has difficulty with the fine motor skills, then you have a different set of expectations for each. Alicia, the fist example, might be expected to not spill her food, chew with her mouth closed, place her napkin in her lap and use it as necessary, while Sammy is praised if he merely manages to get the food onto the spoon and into his mouth. We set the expectations for our children, our friends and our family members based on their abilities.
We should not have to lower our expectations for the president of the country based on his past behaviour. The bar shouldn’t be moved up or down depending on who is speaking – Donald Trump is not a child, but a world leader, albeit a highly unqualified one.
I have read many opinions of Donald Trump’s debate performance this past Thursday night, and far too many gave him an A+, praising him simply for not constantly interrupting Joe Biden, and for toning down his bombast somewhat. People … this is the ‘man’ who has spent four years as president of the United States, the ‘man’ who holds our very lives in his hands … and he is to be congratulated for toning down his vitriol, while still maintaining a steady stream of lies and partial truths? He still continued to completely ignore the moderator who repeatedly had to say, “Okay, we’re moving on to the next question now”. He repeatedly smirked and made other facial gestures reminiscent of a teenage boy. And he lied … over and over and over again.
The first sentence out of the gate was a lie when he claimed more than two million Americans were “expected” to die from the coronavirus, therefore America’s current death toll of 220,000 isn’t so bad. From there on, he lied consistently for the entire 90 minutes, about the Russia investigation, climate change, Hunter Biden, the pandemic, and much more. But rather than call out his lies, the press, for the most part, has chosen to focus on his lower-than-usual level of bombast. This, then, is how they would judge the president? He can lie ‘til he’s blue in the face, as long as he is reasonably calm?One person gave him kudos, saying she was “very impressed” with his “self-control” … excuse me, but world leaders are expected to have self-control … all of the time, not just for 90 minutes once in a while. If he finds self-control so difficult, why in hell are we entrusting him with the nuclear codes? Why do we allow him to attend meetings and events with other world leaders? Why do we allow him to sit in the Oval Office?
There is a standard to which we hold our elected officials accountable, and it is a bit higher than simply not bulldozing, bullying and threatening. It is a standard that Joe Biden met when he said …
“I’m an American president. I represent all of you. Whether you voted for me or against me. And I’m going to make sure that you’re represented. I’m going to give you hope. We’re going to choose science over fiction. We’re going to choose hope over fear.”
This, my friends, is — or at least should be — the way we expect a president to speak … giving us hope and encouragement, not differentiating between democrat or republican, but speaking to all of the people. Donald Trump speaks only to his base, and makes it abundantly clear that he is not considering the rest of us, doesn’t care about the rest of us. Being ‘presidential’ is a standard that Donald Trump is incapable of meeting, but we cannot simply say, “Oh, well, at least he didn’t use vulgar language or interrupt Joe Biden more than a few times, so he wins!” No, no, no, and again no. Trump was Trump and that is not good enough for this nation. It is a sad state of affairs when we have gone so low that we hold our collective breath when he opens his mouth, and are relieved when he manages not to say something totally stupid.
I had no intention of writing more about the debate, but I couldn’t let the undeserved praise for Trump, as well as the media’s lack of conscience go unnoted, for it is simply wrong. No, he wasn’t presidential, he was his usual oafish self, as dishonest as ever, just not quite as loud and obnoxious. What a standard, eh? Perhaps next time ‘round, the GOP will offer up Jeffrey Toobin as their candidate of choice.
The great American Tragedy is that Trump has been supported by so many people. This speaks volumes about the split in the nation. And it bears repeating. A true president would attempt to unite a nation. Trump has revelled in division and his supporters who are in effect his masters encourage this.
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I agree. This is what still astounds me … that people still support him, despite the blatant corruption, the hundreds of thousands of lies, the misuse of our hard-earned money, and … his horrendous bungling of the pandemic, leading to more than 230,000 deaths thus far. Tonight, the split in the nation just got wider with the rushed confirmation and swearing in of a homophobic, misogynistic woman to the Supreme Court. Tonight, I believe that there will never be a narrowing of the gap between democrat and republican, or to call a spade a bloody shovel, of people with consciences vs people who will rob us blind given half a chance. Yes, Trump thrived on and enhanced these divisions, and tonight he is no doubt in his Ivory Tower laughing with glee for putting yet another notch in the bar of destruction of what was once called a nation. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
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What you are witnessing Jill is a common enough occurrence in the History of nations.
The attempt to supress one group by another.
In this case rather than following a set of beliefs entrenched and rigidly adhered too, in say a theocracy, the followers of Trump are united in what they as opposed to, which is Liberalism in its manifold forms. So in other words:
1.Women know your place (ie what men tell you)
2.Those ‘other people’. Get back to serving ‘Us’
3. LGBT- a horror unspeakable.
4. Free expression in the arts- Perversions.
5. Guns- Lots more guns is always the answer.
6. Rich people. Well, they must have deserved it. I gotta be rich too.
7. Immigrants- Send ’em back!
8. Religion – Our church, all the rest are the works of The Devil.
9. Politics- You’re our guy. Now do as we tell you by shouting a lot.
There’s more but it gets depressing
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Your analysis is spot on … disturbingly so. Yes, it’s already depressing … and dismaying that the majority of people are being bulldozed by the narrow-minded, greedy minority. Money, it would seem, can buy politicians, make them bury their consciences in the back yard. And religion — religion is used as a weapon, a threat. The whole thing is a mess and the people trying to actually clean up the mess are being shunned, ridiculed and denigrated. Perhaps it has always been so, though to a lesser extent, but I’m really tired of it.
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It has always been so Jill. The USA is not unusual in this respect. Living through an episode is a hard call.
Sometimes I just leave it be, shrug say to myself ‘I have a fair idea what are the possibilities’ and resolve to look after me and mine. Some may say I have given up I say ‘Not really, just realistic to my position and limitations,’
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You’re a wise man … there comes a point when you have done all you can do to change the status quo and it’s best to deal instead with the things that you can have a degree of control over. Personally, I hear my wolf pack calling … 🐺
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Ever seen the film ‘Balto’ Jill?
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No, I don’t think I have … was that an animated movie?
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Yep! Did the extract make it through WP’s morass?
If it didn’t check out YouTube, just enter ‘Balto’…. based on fact too.
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Last night, there was no clip, but it was here tonight … odd that! I found, as I watched this clip, that I had a strange desire to howl … arrrrrroooooooooooooooooo! I really did want to howl … but, the girls would have thought I’d finally gone off the deep end, so I bit my tongue and settled for a silent howl. Thank you, Roger … and … ARRROOOOOOOOO
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When we watch the film, at that point Sheila does tend to join in the howling.🐺🐺
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Awesome!!! I’d love to watch it with you & Sheila and then I could howl without being frowned at! 🐺
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🐺Aoooooooooooo! (Across the Pond)
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Naturally, I had to go “in search of …”, found the entire movie on YouTube, and started watching it, especially once I saw that Phil Collins was one of the voices! I shall finish it in the morning, for it is late, I am exhausted, and still have some 50 comments to finish responding to. Thanks again, my friend … I think I’m gonna enjoy this one a lot!
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Right up there in my Top Ten movies. Really uplifting and such a good cast.
Apparently the reason why it didn’t get awards etc was because Toy Story 1 came out the same time and kinda blew things away.
Balto is definitely a classic of the Old School Animation.
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What I’ve seen of it so far, I think I like it much better than Toy Story!
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Yeah me too😃
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Reblogged this on Musings on Life & Experience and commented:
The bar has been set extremely low for Trump.
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Thank you, Suzanne! Much appreciated!
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Trump seems to understand his voters. The lower he sinks, they go much lower than him
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It’s almost like a competition to see who can sink the lowest.
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if you don’t want an old white man as president, vote for the libertarian who is neither old or a man.
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Any vote other than for the two major party candidates is a throw-away vote.
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Actually it’s a vote for trump
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I posted on Twitter also.
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Thank you for sharing it!
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Totally agree. Lies, lies, smirks, so irritating.
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It is irritating, and can you imagine if any other president, but especially if President Obama had acted that way in any situation? They would have impeached him for it … heck, I think they wanted to impeach him for wearing a tan suit one time!
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The biggest surprise for me was hat even in the debate he was negative and abusive, People have bee laughing at his campaign and at the debate his team had warned him to change tack and not personally attack his opponent, nor interrupt him. He made a slight effort not to interrupt though I thought his mike should have been muted a couple of times. But he stuck to his style of throwing mud at Biden constantly., everything negative. Not one did he talk of policies and the future. The lies were present of course like he has an alternate medical plan for ACA and pre existing conditions will be assured. I laughed out loud at him saying he wants to present his tax details as soon as he’s been audited. A rubbish President antagonistic towards allies does the U.S. no favours.
Cwtch
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I also could hardly believe what came out of his mouth. When is he going to be stopped?
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Well, I hope he will be stopped by the results of the election in a little over a week, but then he still has over two months in office, during which he could conceivably cause irreparable harm. And, even after he’s out of office, I have a feeling he’ll still be a major topic of conversation in the media and we will still have to see his ugly mug on a daily basis. Sigh.
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Yuck!
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My sentiments exactly!
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It didn’t surprise me in the least. In his warped mind, he thinks that proves how ‘smart’ he is, though in my mind it proves only how abrasive and abusive he is. He didn’t interrupt Biden too much, but he sure as heck was rude to the moderator. Prior to the debate he had said that the moderator would be against him because she’s a registered democrat. Sigh. He cannot put partisan politics aside even for a minute. No, he’s done us no favours, nor will he ever, whether re-elected or not. Sigh.
Cwtch
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Funny that you start your post with the topic of small children…Trump resembled nothing so much as a petulant toddler throughout the debate…his body language, his facial expressions. “Wahhhh, they’re picking on me!” I agree–is this really the low standard we are now proud to meet??
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Exactly! I sometimes saw a petulant toddler, other times a surly teenager, but never once did I look at him and see a grown man, a leader, for he is neither of those.
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Remember when we used to have leaders who were adults…?
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Um … yeah, vaguely. Oh wait … was it only four years ago that we had a president who could speak in whole sentences, who didn’t throw temper tantrums, who had the interests of the people at heart, and who cared about the planet? Seems a lifetime …
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*sniffle* I heard another speech from Barack today. I miss him sooooooo much.
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I know! My fondest wish is to wake one morning to find this has all been a bad nightmare, that Obama is still president, and all is well with the world. Sigh.
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Exactly. His behavior is like a three year old.
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Bits I saw it was like watching a caring, but slightly tired headteacher v a crap used car salesman who fiddled his tax returns.
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That’s it exactly! I think the likelihood is that Joe Biden won’t live to see the end of his term, but his vice president, Kamala Harris, will then step in and she is young, with the same values as Joe has. Perhaps it’s time we stopped sending old, white men to the Oval Office.
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Jill, Max Boot used the right term to define the Trump campaign as the “sleaziest.” He indicts his old party for what it has become.
I had a low bar of expectations for this president, but he has managed to often go lower. One thing about those who practice deceit and corruption, they can always be more corrupt and deceitful. That is truly sad to say about the president. Keith
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I agree! Like you, I had low expectations for Trump and predicted his behaviour and actions once he took office, but not even in my worst nightmares did I predict what became the reality. Fingers crossed for a long-overdue change come January.
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Couldn’t have said it better myself!! 👍👏👏👏
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Thanks Nan!
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