This is an absolutely brilliant piece of writing

[DemocratSinceBirth]

From the beginning, people around me talked nonstop about the end.

How long could Donald Trump’s presidency possibly last? Would impeachment or the 25th Amendment undo him? Before Trump, few of us even knew of the 25th Amendment, which allows the vice president and a majority of the cabinet to decree the president unfit. But suddenly everybody was up to speed, and no sooner had Trump been inaugurated than the “would you rather” question du jour became him versus Mike Pence. All-purpose lunacy or religious zeal: Choose your governance. Pick your poison.

....



No one can yet say how or when it ends. His dim namesake’s antics, evasions and omissions have reinvigorated talk of impeachment, but Republican lawmakers’ statements last week don’t support that scenario. With rare exception, the sternest words came from the most predictable quarters and hardly rose to the level of revolt. Maybe that’s a relief. Can you imagine Trump, with his thin skin and martyr complex, in the throes of impeachment? He’d wail and thrash and tear down everything around him. I mean, more than now.

...


What happens to a democracy whose citizens not only lose common ground but also take a match to the idea of a common reality? Thanks in part to Trump, we may find out. He doesn’t care about civility or basic decency, and even if he did, he lacks the discipline to yoke his actions to any ideals. The Democratic strategist Doug Sosnik expressed it perfectly, telling me, “His presidency is what happens when you have road rage in the Oval Office.”

...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/15/opinion/sunday/six-long-months-of-president-trump.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region


Adios, America. You weren't perfect but you were earnest and tried.

[longship]

1. Author: Frank Bruni

I think attribution is called for here.

It is well written.

R&

[cwydro]

6. I love Bruni.

He's been all over this administration.

[SusanaMontana41]

30. Yes he sure has.

Even if he were the only NYT columnist I liked -- he's not-- Bruni is worth the price of admission.

[madaboutharry]

2. I once thought the only reason his children

have stayed close is for the money. Now it is obvious that the Trump children are just like their father. The entire family is bankrupt of all decency and ethics.

And everyone of them, Donald, Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka, and Tiffany has a degree from The University of Pennsylvania. (Well, Maybe Tiffany is smart.)
An Ivy League university has given these mediocre people degrees. And Harvard took a $2,500,000 bribe to admit Jared Kushner. And then he was admitted to NYU Law School. This crowd never had to play by the rules the rest of us have to play by. They have gotten away their entire lives with doing whatever they have wanted to do and have never paid any consequences. This is why Trump, Don Jr. and Kushner are in so deep now. Their heads are probably reeling from the fact that they aren't getting a pass, that suddenly someone is saying the word no to them.

[politicaljunkie41910]

8. Children usually get their morals and their value system from their parents. Enough said.

The women in their lives are weak because they have always had to cow tow to Trump because he held the purse strings; something they all quickly grew accustomed to in order to maintain their affluent lifestyle. None of them were willing to give up that lifestyle to challenge their husband/father on his lack of morals and integrity, when it might have mattered. Instead they took on his morals and his lack of values and integrity, and they are all now, essentially, cut from the same cloth. So as the saying goes, "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig."

[Stellar]

29. As the saying goes.,.

The fruit never falls far from from tree.

[alterfurz]

46. or as my old granny used to say...

"The road apple does not fall far from the horse's patoot."

[flibbitygiblets]

53. "The turd never falls far from the asshole"

Just helping the meme here.

[Cheviteau]

32. Tiffany is Smart...

...if for no other reason than she keeps her distance from the rest of the idiots in her family. She doesn't even like to have her photo taken with them. One can see the stress she's under when she feels obligated to be with them. I kinda feel sorry for her in a way.

[maddiemom]

34. I imagine the financial support (the only kind of support she gets from him, I imagine)

and her own obvious intelligence (she's admitted to Georgetown Law School) is helping her bear up. Although his older three apparently did well in college, I don't believe any of them have more than a bachelors degree. Chelsea Clinton, OTH, has a doctorate, from Oxford.

[Doitnow]

35. I feel sorry for young Baron, who must have his own computer and probably reads

what the public thinks of his family. Notice how he ducks away from photographers' view when pictures are being taken. I wonder how long that feeling will last.

[MFM008]

55. They should have thought of that..

Maggot only USES those kids as tools.
Who the fuck says your kid is a "quality" person.
Took him a week to be handed a better script.
Every last one of these parasites need to be dragged off by the black moaning misty spirits from hell in the movie " GHOST ".

[not fooled]

50. Marla must have spent enough time

clueing Tiffany in about her father to ensure that Tiffany had a realistic worldview

of the dysfunctional dump and his closely-held children.

Tiffany wisely chose to not attempt to join the inner circle. Which consists--as we have ample evidence (and did before the election)--of lying, cheating in business, projecting a vapid exterior (yeah, iwanna, I'm looking at you), having to show abject subservience to a crazy old man, etc. etc. etc.

[kacekwl]

38. Oh it is about the money.

When your concern is chasing or keeping the money ethics and morals go out the window.

[Maraya1969]

3. Only 16% of Americans want Trumpcare. And it is only losing by a couple points

The Republicans don't work for the American people.


http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/06/poll-trumpcare-is-incredibly-unpopular/

[BigmanPigman]

37. They work for the Pharm and Insur Co lobbyists and Satan himself.

[not fooled]

51. The koch brothers don't want

the Federal government involved in providing healthcare. It's that simple. The puke congress is bought and paid for and if they break rank the kochs will withhold funding.

We have a country taken over in many respects by a couple of crazy-ass greedheads. They can't die soon enough.

[wishstar]

4. Good summary- and realistic description of challenges when Trumpsters have alternate reality

Trumpsters are not only normalizing his crudeness and dishonesty, but elevating Trump in their perception as a strong leader fighting back against what they see as fake media and corrupt political opponents.

Trumpsters remain steadfast, believing their false stories and exaggerations about Pres. Obama and continuing to perpetuate nefarious and malicious rumors about the Obama WH and HRC, to counter the reality of dysfunctional pathological Trump who is making a mockery of the Presidency and American democracy. They refuse to acknowledge Trump's serious character flaws and are continually being reinforced in their beliefs by his daily tweets. In their minds, his only mistakes are benign minor missteps understandable as a CEO not familiar enough yet with politics.

[Amaryllis]

47. right wingers are hypnotized and rendered delusional by the likes of FAUX. But I am

preaching to the choir.

[spanone]

5. K&R...

[nolabear]

7. Apropos of nothing but self aggrandizing, Doug Sosnik is an old friend.

Haven't seen him in years but it's good to see him starting to pop up again. He's good people.

[mcar]

9. Great and depressing

[Dustlawyer]

10. Donald Trump is a symptom of our dying Democracy as is Mitch McChinless and Paul Ryan.

The Special Interests control our representatives to the point where they will overlook an inept, crass, racist, ignorant, narcissist who has ruined America's standing in the world and has started to dismantle our government, selling it off to the highest bidders. McConnell has no soul, no empathy, it is all reduced to pleasing the Koch brothers and their ilk.

Representative Democracy has been dead for several years now. Our politicians represent Donors, not us. Our corporate owned media spews propaganda to our poorly educated masses, rendering a united push back against this take over next to impossible. They have even divided liberals over Progressive vs. Establishment. The Trump era is about fast forwarding the desires of TPTB. Whereas they were patiently whittling away our rights and taking our tax dollars, now it is wholesale slaughter. Each cabinet member is the person most out to destroy the agency they are in charge of.

We have let our Democracy fade away and don't truly realize it!

[luvtheGWN]

11. You've boiled it down to the cold hard truth.

As someone on NPR noted a few months back, the US has returned to the gilded age, the only difference being that, back then laws were gradually put in place to bring more parity and to prevent monopolies and the destruction they caused for the working class and the poor. Now, those laws are systematically being shredded by the leaders of the 21st century gilded age.

It is to weep.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

16. We all know we always had a flawed democracy.

But at least most of Chump's predecessors including Richard Nixon paid lip service to pluralism, the rule of law, due process, and sanctity of the ballot.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

13. The status quo was infinitely preferable to this.

Making the GOP pay at the ballot box for their mendacity and perfidy is necessary if we are to begin to fix the damage.

[riderinthestorm]

20. +1 nt

[misanthrope]

54. That fear isn't new

Some of us have seen it approaching like slowly rising tide.

[ariadne0614]

56. Noam Chomsky explained it in 1988.

[link:

|

[CanSocDem]

57. Good post.

Nice to see Chomsky back when he had energy and convictions. Nowadays, when he speaks it is as if he's given up...


.

[Gothmog]

12. Great editorial

[ananda]

14. America was earnest and tried?

I'm not so sure any more.

[saidsimplesimon]

15. Thank you DSB and Bruni

[FreepFryer]

17. "Adios, America"? That's some unnecessary and discouraging BS to paste at the end.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

18. Just a figure of speech, nothing more and nothing less.

But even if we depose him the damage to America's esteem is irreversible. Other nations elect mendacious clowns, not us, and they are usually found in banana republics.

[Nitram]

22. Just a figure of speech? It is an absurdly defeatist figure of speech.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

23. I'm sorry you feel that way though I do think your anger is misplaced.

In the interest of comity I won't return it.

[Nitram]

24. I didn't intend to suggest that I was angry. I'm not.

I'm sorry if my plain speaking hurt your feelings.

[FreepFryer]

25. Agreed, Nitram. Thanks for chiming in. DSB's comment was totally unnecessary and detractive...

...but I ain't mad neither

[DemocratSinceBirth]

26. People get upset about all the wrong things.

I abide by my statement that America will never be the same even if we depose Trump. The damage that mendacious and malignant clown has inflicted on our nation and the world is incalculable, just like his benefactors in Moscow planned it.

[Nitram]

28. Are you upset DSB? I thought we were just expressing our opinions in a safe environment.

Isn't it a little passive-aggressive to suggest that someone who disagrees with you must be angry or upset?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

31. I'm not upset with anyone but the malignant and mendacious clown in the White House.

[CrispyQ]

19. "Some will cheer the decline of America, but I think we'll miss it when it's gone." Chris Uhlmann

[Nitram]

21. I'm not ready to give up. This is a dark, pessimistic view that fail to consider that Mueller's

probe has months to go. America has just started to fight. We may be slow to react, but once we're up to speed we are tough to beat.

[FreepFryer]

27. Every single post here admonishing us to give up only steels our resolve further. It's validation.

[Nitram]

36. Is it realistic to be pessimistic about where we are?

No, the fact that Mueller's team is stacked with intelligence, experience and skill in the fields of organized crime, financial crime, and witness-flipping bodes very well for a successful outcome. The fact that Don Jr was stupid enough to release incriminating emails and publicly admit to incriminating actions is a huge boost to public support of Mueller's investigation.

We do understand the stakes. Please stop insulting our intelligence.

[FreepFryer]

39. +1. (n/t)

[maxsolomon]

40. That was not my intent.

But go ahead and take offense.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

45. Berlusconi was a crook and a boor but unlike Trump he didn't try to set Italian against Italian.

That is Chump's biggest crime.

[BlueJac]

41. Most people's eyes have been opened..........

but I know from the past, that memories are short lived, and participation in the process is always low. People must vote, and sitting out an election can bring on the nightmare we are experiencing. My head has been spinning all year!!

[yonder]

42. "...his lidless grandiosity and bottomless vulgarity..."

thanks DSB

[mountain grammy]

43. Excellent! but I disagree with his conclusion.

We are all going to die.

[ismnotwasm]

44. K&R

[Honeycombe8]

49. Excellent. And sad. nt

[Blue_Tires]

52. What can I say? I tried to FUCKING WARN EVERYBODY!

If nothing else, can we please have a national moratorium on taking faux-populist, unqualified publicity whoring joke anti-candidate candidates seriously?