I have a different take on Trump's apparent failure to realize that a foreign leader might be asleep when Trump wants to call him or her up. The main thing, IMO, is that Trump simply does not care. Trump knows about time zones. He is aware that the world revolves. He just thinks that it revolves around him.
I don't know why people want to think that Trump is stupid or demented. He is amoral, self-absorbed, impulsive, authoritarian, and autocratic. He is also a bullshit artist. Those things explain a lot. It's usually not that he does not know something as that he does not care.
Well, we already know he slept through school, but this is his first ever actual job. I’m a lowly middle manager, but I’ve been on the phone to China, Germany, Spain, Australia. That’s what the work world is like. China’s not so bad; twelve hours off from me. Easier than California, but for the fact that the answer to every question put to the Chinese seems to be “yesâ€, meaning “noâ€. But, you get used to that, too.
When tRUMP becomes "The Most Excellent Greatest Emperor of Earth of All Time. ALL of it! GREATEST! Everybody says so!" the time will be whatever the f*ck time he wants it to be!
OT – There's stuff happening with President Bone Spurs (PBS) and Mayor Bug Eyes (MBE) and it doesn't look accidental to me.
First MBE changed his story and denied changing it – the tape is there. In the first version MBE said on camera that Trump did not order Comey to go easy on Flynn, he merely offered his opinion. In the new version of history, MBE never said that. The new gospel us that Trump never said it and Comey is lying. (Ignore the contemporaneous notes distributed to senior people in the FBI about the discussion and exact words.)
Second, PBS made one statement about the meeting with the Russians at Trump Tower run by Don Jr. In the first version, there was no exchange of information and no follow-up meetings, thus no crime. In the new version by Trump today, there was a subtle difference. Since Trump is incapable of subtlety, there is method here which bears examination. The new statement says that as far as Trump knows, there was no follow-up meeting.
Is anyone else as nasty and suspicious as I am, inclined to think the new version proves there WAS at least one follow-up meeting and Trump thinks that Mueller knows it. The changing stories are semaphore (ship to ship communications by flag) if you can read the language.
Trump knows about time zones. He is aware that the world revolves. He just thinks that it revolves around him.
@doug – Rachel spent quite a bit of time listing the top people at the FBI who've A: either been fired or forced out and B: were folks James Comey confided in shortly after Trump pressured him to go easy on Flynn. Rachel ran the tape where Comey identified these people, repeatedly, before Congress. Strzok, who was fired today, was one of the last of them. Now only one of about six remains.
It's more than Trump's vindictiveness and need to destroy anybody who will oppose him. He can much more easily pretend that he never said anything about pressuring Comey about Flynn. The people Comey confided in have almost been entirely removed, with threats of prosecution / persecution to follow.
Besides covering up an immediate problem, it sends a powerful message to those in government to think twice about crossing Trump.
Firing Comey and Strzok doesn't destroy them or silence them; it frees them. Trump forgets that there's life out of his sight.
Re time zones: a round world cannot have a single capital city, for wherever you put the capital, there will always be a place where it's wide-awake noon whenever it's the sound-asleep wee hours in the capital; so that place will always be ahead of the capital.
In Trump world it is the little people who do knowledge. Those naturally hardwired for top survivor status "know" that winning is all that matters, that the only game worth playing is winning. From their perspective everybody else is a stupid fool.
Well, it seems to me that since Trump became president*, America has done nothing but lose. It will get worse before it gets better.
I have a different take on Trump's apparent failure to realize that a foreign leader might be asleep when Trump wants to call him or her up. The main thing, IMO, is that Trump simply does not care. Trump knows about time zones. He is aware that the world revolves. He just thinks that it revolves around him.
I don't know why people want to think that Trump is stupid or demented. He is amoral, self-absorbed, impulsive, authoritarian, and autocratic. He is also a bullshit artist. Those things explain a lot. It's usually not that he does not know something as that he does not care.
It's little details like these…
Today’s Best Comeback Award to John Kasich.
Well, we already know he slept through school, but this is his first ever actual job. I’m a lowly middle manager, but I’ve been on the phone to China, Germany, Spain, Australia. That’s what the work world is like. China’s not so bad; twelve hours off from me. Easier than California, but for the fact that the answer to every question put to the Chinese seems to be “yesâ€, meaning “noâ€. But, you get used to that, too.
When tRUMP becomes "The Most Excellent Greatest Emperor of Earth of All Time. ALL of it! GREATEST! Everybody says so!" the time will be whatever the f*ck time he wants it to be!
OT – There's stuff happening with President Bone Spurs (PBS) and Mayor Bug Eyes (MBE) and it doesn't look accidental to me.
First MBE changed his story and denied changing it – the tape is there. In the first version MBE said on camera that Trump did not order Comey to go easy on Flynn, he merely offered his opinion. In the new version of history, MBE never said that. The new gospel us that Trump never said it and Comey is lying. (Ignore the contemporaneous notes distributed to senior people in the FBI about the discussion and exact words.)
Second, PBS made one statement about the meeting with the Russians at Trump Tower run by Don Jr. In the first version, there was no exchange of information and no follow-up meetings, thus no crime. In the new version by Trump today, there was a subtle difference. Since Trump is incapable of subtlety, there is method here which bears examination. The new statement says that as far as Trump knows, there was no follow-up meeting.
Is anyone else as nasty and suspicious as I am, inclined to think the new version proves there WAS at least one follow-up meeting and Trump thinks that Mueller knows it. The changing stories are semaphore (ship to ship communications by flag) if you can read the language.
Trump knows about time zones. He is aware that the world revolves. He just thinks that it revolves around him.
@doug – Rachel spent quite a bit of time listing the top people at the FBI who've A: either been fired or forced out and B: were folks James Comey confided in shortly after Trump pressured him to go easy on Flynn. Rachel ran the tape where Comey identified these people, repeatedly, before Congress. Strzok, who was fired today, was one of the last of them. Now only one of about six remains.
It's more than Trump's vindictiveness and need to destroy anybody who will oppose him. He can much more easily pretend that he never said anything about pressuring Comey about Flynn. The people Comey confided in have almost been entirely removed, with threats of prosecution / persecution to follow.
Besides covering up an immediate problem, it sends a powerful message to those in government to think twice about crossing Trump.
Firing Comey and Strzok doesn't destroy them or silence them; it frees them. Trump forgets that there's life out of his sight.
Re time zones: a round world cannot have a single capital city, for wherever you put the capital, there will always be a place where it's wide-awake noon whenever it's the sound-asleep wee hours in the capital; so that place will always be ahead of the capital.
In Trump world it is the little people who do knowledge. Those naturally hardwired for top survivor status "know" that winning is all that matters, that the only game worth playing is winning. From their perspective everybody else is a stupid fool.
Well, it seems to me that since Trump became president*, America has done nothing but lose. It will get worse before it gets better.