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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 10 of 10. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by sigismund on April 19, 2011, at 21:46:06
"I hate what's happening to our country," he told CNN's State of the Union. "We are not respected. We're scoffed at. We're laughed at. We are a whipping post for the world."On how he would deal with Libya, Mr Trump, 64, said: "Either I go in and take the oil or I don't go in at all. We can't be the policeman for the world."
Asked to clarify if he would take the oil, Mr Trump said: "Absolutely. I'd take the oil. I'd give them plenty so they can live very happily. I would take the oil.
''You know, in the old days when you have a war and you win, that nation's yours."
Mr Trump also derided rival Republican Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and venture capitalist who is expected to run for the nomination, as "a small-business man".
"I'm a much bigger businessman," he added. "And I have a much, much bigger net worth."
"I wish I didn't have to do it," he told State of the Union. "I would prefer not doing it, but I love this country"I am giving it serious, serious thought. And I'm honoured by the polls, because people agree with what I am saying."
But White House advisers and top Republicans continue to dismiss Mr Trump's presidential ambitions as a publicity stunt.
Mr Obama's right-hand man, David Plouffe, recently mocked Mr Trump's antics as a "sideshow", while the influential Republican strategist Karl Rove, a Fox News contributor, said at the weekend that the businessman could have been an "interesting candidate and could have contributed to the dialogue".
"But his full embrace of the birther issue means that he's off there in the nutty right and is now an inconsequential candidate.
"I'm shocked. The guy's smarter than this. And the idea that President Obama was not born in Hawaii, making that the centrepiece of his campaign, means that he's just a joke candidate."
Posted by sigismund on April 20, 2011, at 16:40:42
In reply to Trump This....Karl Rove lets the side down, posted by sigismund on April 19, 2011, at 21:46:06
>"I hate what's happening to our country," he told CNN's State of the Union. "We are not respected. We're scoffed at. We're laughed at. We are a whipping post for the world."
Taking the oil of other countries is not the best way to win respect. The Marshall Plan did that.
There was a time, a long time ago, when the respect and affection flowed naturally.
This song (I was surprised to learn) is about the moon landing, and the lunar excursion module, LEM, and was one of my favourites.It's been a long way down. It is so hard to have any optimism whatever. I'm so glad I'm not younger. The decline will bring out the worst.
Posted by floatingbridge on May 9, 2011, at 1:02:39
In reply to Trump This....Karl Rove lets the side down, posted by sigismund on April 19, 2011, at 21:46:06
"You know, in the old days, when you haveva war and you win, that nation's yours."
Nostalgia for the old days. It was so refreshingly easy then, huh?
He really isn't being taken seriously. Fox news just alarms people. And since alarming people gets attention, it been taken up by CNN, etc. Of course I was alarmed and sat up and read the news.
I cannot believe the birther issue was taken up again. There are uglier things circulating though. Obama might be homosexual. Yes, people discuss this. It can still come down to insulting someone by calling them gay. Or if they aren't gay, they are a pussy. Lovely colloquialism.
I remember trying to get a freshman English class to just consider why being considered gay was the worst insult
imaginable. "Because it is!"I did not change the world that semester.
Btw, commenting on the comment by David Ploufe, smart isn't always intelligent.
Finally found the politics board. Very empty over here. I thought it had been removed.
Hope you're well.
Posted by sigismund on May 9, 2011, at 16:24:50
In reply to Re: Trump This....Karl Rove lets the side down » sigismund, posted by floatingbridge on May 9, 2011, at 1:02:39
I did enjoy this...........
But the president decided Saturday night to have some fun at the expense of the mop-haired Trump, who was in the crowd, warning his audience that he was going to show his 'official birth video' as added proof of his actual birth.
'I warn you - no one has seen this footage in 50 years, not even me,' Obama quipped.
Then, on a huge screen at the cavernous Hilton banquet room came the opening scenes from the cartoon movie Lion King, showing baby Simba being born to his Kenyan Lion King father.
The audience erupted in laughter.
Just to make sure the cartoon excerpt would not be taken seriously by his conservative detractors, Obama added: 'I want to make clear to the Fox News table that was a joke. That was not my real birth video. That was a children's cartoon. Call Disney if you don't believe me. They have the original 'long form' version.'
Posted by floatingbridge on May 9, 2011, at 17:11:17
In reply to Re: Trump This....Karl Rove lets the side down » floatingbridge, posted by sigismund on May 9, 2011, at 16:24:50
That's good! This really happened? If so, very good :D
A sense of humor. How refreshing. I might be able to handle some news again
Will you be my overseas correspondent?
Now that I actually found the politics board. That shows my level of preoccupation. I thought it had existed, then was axed.
Though it's awfully empty.
Did you ever go into old houses or caves or even school halls and shout 'echo!'?
Posted by sigismund on May 10, 2011, at 3:43:31
In reply to Re: Trump This....! » sigismund, posted by floatingbridge on May 9, 2011, at 17:11:17
>Did you ever go into old houses or caves or even school halls and shout 'echo!'?
Here? Of course.
Like many Australians I am ashamed of our politics and have decided to switch off and listen to music from the baroque period instead. I will not listen to the arguments between Tony Abbot and Julia Gillard.
>This really happened? If so, very good :D
But that did happen. It was at that event where the president does some relatively informal thing with the media.
I have limited expectations of the democratic process but I do have some.
Posted by floatingbridge on May 10, 2011, at 11:00:47
In reply to Re: Trump This....! » floatingbridge, posted by sigismund on May 10, 2011, at 3:43:31
Sorry about the reasons for listening to baroque music, but not about the listening itself. I've been on a Bossa Nova kick.
Favorite baroque composers or pieces?
For the most part, I usually vacillate. between shock, disbelief, and utter embarrassment when I tune into events in my country. I wish I could say my country was more of a team player (of benevolent activities). I had become disillusioned with President Obama, however my husband remains optimistic, and pointed out we did not send troops to Libya. Whew.
I still am not sure why the United States cannot disengage from Iraq. I know there is no stability in place, but we should have never. And then, no one else is stepping in to help.
I read the above post about JA. I had heard him on Democracy Now, an
excellent show in my own opinion. I haven't had the available time with my son home to listen. I am not up to explaining waterboarding to a seven year old who is very intelligent yet insists on believing in Santa Claus because he lives in a enchanted world.Waterboarding was hotly debated here for some time in ridiculous and intellectual terms. Another example of doublespeak. That waterboarding was actually a form of coercive torture and not a fraternity hazing technique. This dates my last real bout of paying attention to about 1.5-2 years ago.
Reading about JA above (I abbreviate because of on posters contagious paranoia. Like anyone cares what I write.) so then needed to read why he was arrested. I was saddened and
sobered. Not shocked by any means
regarding the US comments--I think we are sometimes like a banana
republic regarding the business interests that place so much pressure on the politics here--of course there are
organizations that thrive on absolute secrecy. Kind of saddened that,
ultimately it came down to unhappy sex between consenting adults. And then the situation started to be spun by Others With Interests and those who love scandal. I'm assuming that was the reason for imprisonment.I am still alarmed, very alarmed, when people talk about assassination as a viable option. As if it were legal in our country (it isn't). But then, there is legal theory and then there is practice :(
Have you read "Shock Doctrine"?
I still like Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird. Yet the world is more like
aTennessee Williams play at times.
Posted by sigismund on May 10, 2011, at 12:49:11
In reply to Re: Trump This....! » sigismund, posted by floatingbridge on May 10, 2011, at 11:00:47
Well, I have always liked this.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb-xyh5f5x4
part of a kind of contest between Thomas Tallis and Alessandro Striggio. I'm not that keen on visions of the Christian heaven, but this feels so heartfelt, almost pleading. My son prefers Tallis's Spem in Alium. I'm very fond of Handel and Bach.
I wouldn't want to have to explain waterboarding to a 7yo who believes in Santa Claus either. My main problem with President Obama is that he never got financial regulation as the quid pro quo for bailing out the banks. We saw "Inside Job" where the young Harvard academics who were also government insiders were shameless when it came to conflict of interest. They didn't even see conflict of interest. Perhaps it is a concept that is in some way unacceptable today....sort of kind of the residue of our marxist heritage (someone could be saying this, you know). We also saw "Gasland" which reminded me of Cormac McCarthy in the great sadness felt for the destruction of the environment.
So Shock Doctrine is Naomi Klein (not to be confused with Naomi Wolf). I haven't read it. Our leaders are sometimes good at using a situation to advance their agendas. I was interested in the responses to bin Laden's death. Robert Pinsky was on. He was great. The younger nun was fine. But the young kid talked about evil. The attacks were dreadful, spectacular and irreducible to the number of dead, I suppose. I have to suppose that because when 3000 or so Indians died by poisoning from Union Carbide they were finally offered some small amount of money as compensation, telling you what everybody knows. What I find particularly bad is when a leader uses a catastrophe as a pretext for an unrelated agenda. I don't see why the US should be required to protect the Libyan democracy people either. It was horrible to contemplate Ghaddafi's troops entering Benghazi, but outcomes are so hard to predict accurately.
Posted by floatingbridge on May 10, 2011, at 13:19:05
In reply to Re: Trump This....! » floatingbridge, posted by sigismund on May 10, 2011, at 12:49:11
Thanks. I didn't know Striggio, but suspect my husband does. Tallis, yes :) didn't know about the contest.
Well you've posted more for me to Google. That's good. I have a bit more brain lately. Gasland, don't know. Might have to skip because it already sounds like I'd need to bring a paper bag along to breath into and then wonder why I was insane enough to have a child.
Oh. The bank thing. I had forgotten that I was holding that against Obama. Now that was/is really something that I am, as
a citizen, still paying and paying for. The outrage among my peers was incredible, but we just had to stuff it because...what could we do? Yes, that goes back to, I don't know, something touched upon earlier somehow, maybe when I expressed my opinion that we don't
always have to even pretend to have a conversation. Like there is no conflict of interest.I am still catching up about bin Laden. Haven't read, only husband saying 'they got him' and me saying what, they sent in assassins, and him saying no, navy seals, and me saying, what? was it near water?, and him explaining that navy seals do everything now, and that they had planned to capture him and everything went *wrong*, at which point I'm thinking Waco, TX, and ask, as if it were Elvis, how do they know it was him, and then I sense my son's radar kicking in from the back seat, so I give my husband the eyeball as he's telling me they took out *the body* and id'd it with photos and DNA.
Sooooo. Maybe that's tonight's reading....
Posted by floatingbridge on May 16, 2011, at 20:13:06
In reply to Trump This....Karl Rove lets the side down, posted by sigismund on April 19, 2011, at 21:46:06
sigi, I read the transcripts of Pinskey, the Reverend, and the student. Pretty representative, I hope, both regarding Pinskey and the Reverend. I esp appreciated her remarks, her having ministered to the victims of 9/11 and their families.
The student. It's hard to put my finger on it. Something made me uneasy.
Maybe that she had this figure for evil--
that even in mid-sentence the logic (or identity?) was slippery. She almost sounded coherent. But not quite. I
suppose that's accurate, her representation of many citizens. At least that is my opinion based on observations.As I think about it, maybe it is the narrative of a child entering the age of rational thought who had no exposure to real discussion, (because any dissention could become subject to ridicule or accusations of treason) unless they were lucky enough to be ministered or exposed to someone like the Reverend on PBS who helped people move their grief and horror. In theory, an unprocessed traumatic narrative has a similar feeling of non-coherence. I don't
like to think of any citizenry living with an unhealed trauma. Especially a super-
power.Or at least one so enamored of justice and weaponry
I grew up with Hitler presented as the face of evil, but he was dead and we
were heros of the good war. (There's that influence of my cursory reading of Chris Hodges again....)That's just my opinion here on the
politics board.Thanks for talking about current events.
It's good to have a thought every so often.
This is the end of the thread.
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