The shake out over the election has just started; so we will devote our meetings to discuss the ramifications of the election as long as it is the primary topic of interest. In the last meeting, we focused on Hillary. For this meeting, we will focus on Trump and what he will do.
Trump has said many outrageous things before he was elected. but since then he seems reasonable. Trump has changed his position quickly and radically in the past, and he really does not owe anything to anyone, at least nothing that he can't renege on. We don't really know if he is crazy like a fox or just crazy. Certainly, he is in a better negotiating position by appearing crazy.
Because things are changing so fast, I will not select the videos for the meeting until the day before. As always I will post the videos shown at the meeting retroactively on the post for the meeting.
--------------------------------- Updated 11/18/16 -----------------------------------
Here are the videos shown at the meeting:
--------------------------------- Updated 11/18/16 -----------------------------------
Here are the videos shown at the meeting:
- Fox News on where Trump starts
- Chuck Todd says Donald Trump Doesn’t Owe Anybody Anything
- Ana Navarro hopes that Trump was playing a character
- It’s now on America’s institutions to check Donald Trump
- Obama says This office has a way of waking you up
- Lesley Stahl on her "60 Minutes" interview with Trump
ReplyDeleteRemember----the election isn't over. The Electoral College doesn't vote until Dec. 19. They could vote for HC!!!!
I think you are referring to THIS petition.
DeleteMost voters have demonstrated that Trump is less attractive than Hillary. It is fortunate this majority have not accepted Trump's arguments. It is unfortunate that our electoral college has resulted in the transfer of power to Trump notwithstanding the vote.
ReplyDeleteTrump, and many among those who voted for him, I would argue, are frightened. What frightens them is, first, change. The last decade has seen more change than we have ever experienced. The importance of the media has declined more rapidly than ever before. No more Walter Cronkite. No more the significance in the persuasive power of the NY Times. Now there is email, and Twitter and Facebook. And so we are now all experts - except we aren't.
The other change in our society is from one in which power resided in a predominantly white Christian male society to one ever more foreign - less white, less Christian, less male. And these two changes have resulted in Trump - a man who promises he will make America great again, and by great he means he will return us to America of our past. Except he won't. He can't nor can any one.
We will, although I hope we will not, pay a price as those who have been part of the former "haves" struggle for what was, and will never again be their dominance. They give evidence that they intend to do so by violating both our Constitution, and the inclusiveness which has made America unique and valued.
The next decade will be one of extraordinary danger. Those among us who believe Trump and his supporters are wrong owe to ourselves and those whom we love, and even to those who have supported Trump our resistance, within legal bounds, to Trump's misguided crusade while at the same time, helping those who have been economically disadvantaged by the rapid change benefitting and besetting us.
Obama has said that the gravity of the job as President can change someone and we should give Trump a chance. Others say that Trump can't change and he should be opposed immediately. The nation is trying to figure out which narrative to believe.
DeleteWhat will Donald Trump do as President? Who knows? But regardless of what policies he ultimately pursues, we find ourselves in a fix, and the first step to figuring our way out may be in trying to understand how we got here. The answer to this question is no doubt a complicated one, but here’s one possible piece of an explanation: We are in the fix that we are in not because the system is broken but because we have accepted as normal the proposition that society exists to serve the needs of the economy (only one institution among many, others being politics, religion, the family, etc.) rather than the other way around, and the economy is not broken. On the contrary, it is working just as designed. The unfettered competition of free market capitalism produces (and replicates) winners and losers, not some pluralistic ideal. And Trump is a logical product of such a system. He is the embodiment of the success of form over substance. After all, he’s gotten rich selling fantasies. We can’t know what he’s going to do because maybe he himself can’t know what he’s going to do until he figures out which product will be the best seller. Which will draw the most customers without exploding in his face?
ReplyDeleteThat is a good point. Trump's network plans only made sense if he lost. Now that he won, he may still be trying to figure out his next move.
DeleteA rather interesting article by Fareed Zakaria. The Article: "Democrats need to focus on the gut, not the head. Psychologist Jonathan Haidt, according to Fareed, "reinforces this view with mountains of research showing that people choose their political views based on their 'tribal' attachments," a point Harry was trying to make this past Thursday, I think.. So what happens to African American, for example, whom you wouldn't think of as being in the same "tribe" as white American.
ReplyDeleteGood points; good article, HERE.
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