This is worse:

"Trump went on stage at a rally in Mississippi Tuesday, mimicking Ford’s Senate testimony and attacking her for gaps in her memory.

“I don’t know. I don’t know. What neighborhood was it? I don’t know. Where’s the house? I don’t know. Upstairs? Downstairs? Where was it — I don’t know. But I had one beer, that’s the only thing I remember,” Trump said in his impression of Ford’s testimony.

That's really disrespectful. Not that it surprises me, but an elected official usually doesn't mock a citizen in public, particularly one claiming to have been the victim of a crime. Trump just doesn't care.

This is worse: — Relativist

I mean is it surprising that a guy who publicly mocked a disabled reporter, called some people "low IQ", openly considers journalists to be the "enemy of the people", and a Sunday shopping cart list of whatever else, will deride the victim of a credible sexual assault case? It shouldn't be surprising, it's not abnormal, etc. this is simply the character of Trump. It's who he is. Personally, I think this display was mainly to detract from the New York Times story, but as stated, it's also not out of character either.

It shouldn't be surprising, it's not abnormal, etc. this is simply the character of Trump. It's who he is. — Maw

Trump is the most transparent politician ever. All the reporting, the books about him and his administration and also his actions, speeches and tweets paint a unified picture of this narcissistic, soft-skinned liar.

But that transparency doesn't mean a thing to his supporter who so much hate the leftist establishment. Doesn't matter that objectively he is a rather poor President: those who critisize Trump have to be pinko liberal Hillary voters swallowing everything that the fake news tells about him.

I agree. What makes me sadder is that so many people are perfectly fine with his behaviour. Rewatching the video of Trump ridiculing Ford, I was focussed on the women sitting behind him, smiling and laughing as he made these comments.

There have always been crackpots, but none has ever been this popular.

Trump just doesn't care. — Marchesk

I think much of his reaction is due to this hitting home. Imagine if every woman he ever behaved inappropriately with came forward. He wants accusers to be considered liars until proven truthful.

This is nice too: Let's not try to fight global warming because it's hopeless

On a positive note, at least the Trump administration admits to global warming... :roll:

The ramifications of global warming within the next 80 years will be far more detrimental to civilization than the non-skeptic public understands.

Trump came out and revealed to us that "the denial was very very strong" so we can all stop falsely accusing Saudi Arabia of butchering journalists.

It's really reassuring to know that we have a sitting president who can walk straight up to the world's largest tyrants and expertly force them to tell the truth.

What reason on earth would there be for someone to strongly deny something they didn't do?

Once someone strongly denies something, nothing can be done. It's game over.

I noticed amongst Trumps customary lies, confabulations and self-pitying remarks in his Sixty Minutes interview, the casual accusation that the scientists who drafted the IPCC report ‘have a political agenda’. So there you go - the clarion call to global action by hundreds of qualified and serious scientists, drawing on millions of pages of data, observations and reports, casually brushed aside, ‘they have a political agenda’. He doesn’t even have to make an effort to dismiss it, just casually dumps it in the bin, ‘next subject?’

There's no hierarchy of truth with Trump; no spectrum of reliability. He lives in the volatile moment where truth can be redefined with a hand wave.

Just a few moments ago I watched a video of him denying that ever promised to donate 1 million dollars to charity if Elizabeth Warren would release her DNA test results showing she was native American. He called her Pocahontas for years, and when she finally gets a DNA test and is asked about he suddenly he doesn't care and never promised to donate anything to anyone...

But he did admit it here: https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/217907

In that 60 Minutes interview, Trump came across as deranged. He lied constantly, without any hesitation, and could not answer the simplest of questions put to him. His entire interview basically consisted of one lie after another, as if the USA has turned into something like North Korea.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Trump compared the case of Khashoggi, whom Turkish officials have said was murdered in the Saudis’ Istanbul consulate, to the allegations of sexual assault leveled against the supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing.

“I think we have to find out what happened first,” Trump said. “Here we go again with, you know, you’re guilty until proven innocent. I don’t like that. We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh and he was innocent all the way as far as I’m concerned.” — The Guardian

America’s top diplomat has just told the world’s tyrants that they can do anything they want, even murder a prominent American resident, as long as they’re generous to President Trump.

The message was sent in the form of an official readout from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s meeting on Tuesday with Saudi King Salman:

"The Secretary thanked the King for Saudi Arabia’s strong partnership with the United States. The Saudi and the King discussed a number of regional and bilateral issues. The Secretary also thanked the King for his commitment to supporting a thorough, transparent, and timely investigation of Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance."

Pompeo, you will recall, was dispatched to Riyadh to tell King Salman in no uncertain terms that he had to come clean on what happened to Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist who hasn’t been seen since Oct. 2, when he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. It is now all but certain that Khashoggi was tortured and killed.

Yet now we see—from the State Department readout and from the photos of the meeting, which show the secretary and the king shaking hands and smiling broadly—that Pompeo’s mission to Riyadh was nothing more, or less, than a visit of reassurance that everything will soon return to normal as long as the key players devise a cover story that isn’t quite 100 percent inconceivable (and 99.4 percent is good enough). — Slate

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is starting to float a trial-balloon explanation for its apparent slaying of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, The Daily Beast has learned, in hopes of escaping the consequences of an episode that has shaken whatever geopolitical confidence existed in Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

According to two sources familiar with the version of events circulating throughout diplomatic circles in Washington, the Saudis will place blame for Khashoggi’s murder on a Saudi two-star general new to intelligence work. That line is in keeping with President Donald Trump’s Twitter-borne speculation that “rogue killers” may be responsible for whatever happened to Khashoggi inside Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate on Oct. 2. — The Daily Beast

...as if the USA has turned into something like North Korea. — LD Saunders

Trump is not the USA...

neither is Kim North Korea but still.

The relationship between the people and the 'leader' isn't the same either...

in the context of the propaganda being swallowed up by the American public thinly veiled as "news" the similarities are striking.

Some of the American public...

The latest tale—regurgitated by President Trump—that Khashoggi was killed by government “rogues”—is belied by the evidence: among the fifteen members of the hit team that went to meet Khashoggi in Istanbul was a pathologist with a bone saw.

New Yorker.

As I said, strikingly similar. Your insistence on the contrary is a nice demonstration of my point. Please continue. :joke:

As I said, strikingly similar. Your insistence on the contrary is a nice demonstration of my point. Please continue. — Benkei

One difference is that the US could completely destroy the Netherlands right now. NK is a few months away from that capability.

Why don't you leave your inane hypermasculinity right next to your insecure five year old id which came up with that threat?

Why don't you leave your inane hypermasculinity right next to your insecure five year old id which came up with that threat? — Benkei

Wow. Touched a nerve. I'm not the threat, Benkei. I agree with what you wrote. Revisit your opinion and see if you can figure out where the threat is really coming from.

:razz:

Creativesoul: I never stated that Trump was the USA. However, Trump is president of the USA and he does act a lot like the leader of North Korea --- who also has an ego a mild wide and constantly lies his ass off. The fact the American people elected this liar, who even lied about his height, and who claimed that it stopped raining when he gave his speech when he was sworn in as president, two factual claims that are easily verified as false, tells me that America is accepting conduct from our president that three years ago I never thought possible, that such conduct would only be tolerated in places like North Korea. For a large percentage of Americans, although I am hopeful it is not the majority of us, the truth about the most basic facts no longer matters. For them, what matters is how they feel about the "facts" and what their leader wants them to believe about the "facts."

As I said, strikingly similar. Your insistence on the contrary is a nice demonstration of my point. Please continue — Benkei

Ah... come now, let's be reasonable.

Propaganda is in every society. In each, there are some people who believe that the propaganda itself is true. Some others who believe that the propaganda is true will also believe that because it is true, so too is some other thing that they already believe.

Strikingly similar.

I detest Trump not as just a person prone to perform immorally, but also as evidence - prima facie, no less - of what can happen in a society when all the moves have been made, when all the legal groundwork has been set, when the people have been led to accept some corruption, that allows a government to legitimize monetary/financial bribery.

In the guise of free speech no less.

I want the origin of each and every dollar spent as a means to elect this man... Trump... to be traced.

Citizens United did not offer the power of free speech to foreigners. We know that the Republican Party didn't spend much at all prior to the general. Trump says it was out of his own pocket. That's one of his trademarked lies.

Creativesoul: I never stated that Trump was the USA. However, Trump is president of the USA and he does act a lot like the leader of North Korea --- who also has an ego a mild wide and constantly lies his ass off. The fact the American people elected this liar, who even lied about his height, and who claimed that it stopped raining when he gave his speech when he was sworn in as president, two factual claims that are easily verified as false, tells me that America is accepting conduct from our president that three years ago I never thought possible, that such conduct would only be tolerated in places like North Korea. For a large percentage of Americans, although I am hopeful it is not the majority of us, the truth about the most basic facts no longer matters. For them, what matters is how they feel about the "facts" and what their leader wants them to believe about the "facts." — LD Saunders

It's the inevitable consequence of monetary corruption in government.

A poorly informed people.

A Supreme Court which paves a legal path to offering a foreigner the power of free speech during a general election is one which has just reduced the inherent power of American citizens' free speech. That's a mathematical fact.

Free speech is an inalienable right. The inalienable rights of being an American belong to all Americans, and to no other people. Any law that allows unlimited untraceable campaign contributions has offered any and all foreigners who have the financial means to have much more powerful freedom of speech - at a time when this American freedom is exercised at it's most - than the large majority of American citizens themselves.

really, this was a problem even before Citizens United though.