By Diane Roberts
“You know, I do the weave. You know what the weave is? I’ll talk about like nine different things, and they all come back brilliantly together, and it’s like, friends of mine that are, like, English professors, they say, ‘It’s the most brilliant thing I’ve ever seen.’” — Donald John Trump
I am an English professor, a person who professes the English.
I do it good, too.
I am not yet fortunate enough to be one of Donald J. Trump’s hundreds, nay, thousands, of English professor friends. But I hear they sit around in a crystal-draped, silk-carpeted room at Mar-a-Lago, drinking Diet Coke, eating cheeseburgers, and discussing literary theory: whether they think Kubla Khan’s “stately pleasure dome” in Xanadu could possibly be as nice as the Grand Ballroom at Bedminster, and whether Blake Lively’s breasts are real.
Sounds like an awesome time.
Anyway, although I am not part of the inner circle, I am nevertheless an expert on language (and Diet Coke), and I am here to tell you that when it comes to “the weave,” Donald J. Trump is the master.
“The weave” is when you “mash up” (as the kids say) a whole bunch of things, kind of like carrot, apple, and broccoli baby food.
(I know: Broccoli has no business in carrot puree, and it might gross you out, but you still have to eat it).
“The weave” is a primo move in what we English professors call “the rhetoric.”
As our Golf Cart Demosthenes explains, “You get off a subject to mention another little tidbit. Then you get back onto the subject, and you go through this, and you do it for two hours, and you don’t even mispronounce one word.”
Not one word!
‘The best words’
Except for certain really hard words nobody can pronounce, words such as “Venezuela,” “acclimated,” “infrastructure,“ and “Hamas,” although on that one he may have actually meant what he said, which was “hummus.” It was lunchtime, after all.
No one needs those words. They are not Trump words, and as he so eloquently puts it, “I have the best words.”
Some fake media type asked a question about inflation the other day, a totally unfair and rude question, but Donald J. Trump graciously replied with this dazzling “weave” locution: “You take a look at bacon and some of these products — and some people don’t eat bacon any more. We are going to get the energy prices down. When we get energy down, you know … this was caused by their horrible energy — wind. They want wind all over the place. But when it doesn’t blow, we have a little problem.”
If Samuel Beckett were alive (which he isn’t) he would be in awe of this monologue with its startling juxtapositions and its Dadaist energy.
And no matter what anybody says, it makes perfect sense, especially if you’re high.
We are truly blessed in the oratory department this political season with Donald J. Trump; we are perched on the Parnassus of campaign discourse.
Nobody’s ever seen anything like it.
Batteries, sharks
As an English professor (and an expert on all the things), I can attest to the fact that his level of magniloquence is truly unprecedented in the history of the galaxy.
In June, he delivered a speech on a serious issue so many of us face, which is what if you’re in a an electric boat and the battery is so heavy it makes the boat sink and there’s a shark right there.
Can you electrocute the shark even if the battery is under water?
“You know what I’d do if there was a shark or you get electrocuted? I’ll take electrocution every single time. I’m not getting near the shark. So, we’re going to end that, we’re going to end it for boats, we’re going to end it for trucks.”
That’s all you need to know, am I right?
Yet some English professors and so-called “pundits” (who know nothing about sharks, bacon, horrible wind, or trucks) attack Donald J. Trump’s “weaves,” calling them “word salad,” “bizarre ramblings,” “crazy,” “bollocks,” and (so rude) “incoherent vowel movements.”
These rude, terrible people aren’t even intelligent enough to realize sharks, batteries, bacon, and wind are huge problems here in America.
They also don’t realize that Donald J. Trump’s uncle once taught at MIT, which means he, Donald J. Trump, has to be one of the most intelligent beings on this or any other planet, “because of MIT, my relationship to MIT,” he says. “Very smart.”
See, brains seeped out of MIT into the uncle, then when the uncle came to Manhattan to go clubbing with his glamorous nephew, brains seeped out of him into Donald.
(Pretty sure that’s how it works, anyway).
Nobel-worthy
In case this is too complicated for you, his campaign spokesmodel Karoline (with a “K”!) Leavitt explains: “President Trump speaks for hours, telling multiple impressive stories at the same time. Kamala Harris could never.”
I bet Kamala Harris has, like, ZERO English professor friends.
Plus, nobody will ever say her words remind them of James Joyce or William Faulkner, whose writing is extremely similar to Trump’s speeches, except maybe not as great.
If you don’t believe me (which would be stupid, since I know what I’m talking about), check out this passage from The Sound and the Fury: “I returned up the corridor, waking the lost feet in whispering battalions in the silence, into the gasoline, the watch telling its furious lie on the dark table. Then the curtains breathing out of the dark upon my face, leaving the breathing upon my face.”
William Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for Literature, which Donald J. Trump could totally win, too, and will, as soon as he’s president and we buy Sweden.
When it comes to being articulate, he cannot be beaten or equaled or any other word which might imply he’s less than a silverback with a golden tongue.
‘Word salads’
Florida’s own completely lucid Gov. Ron DeSantis agrees, and says that when it comes to tomorrow’s debate, Donald J. Trump will win bigly over Kamala Harris’ “90 minutes of word salads doused with platitudes.”
In contrast, when our governor serves up his word salads, he offers not just platitudes to dump on them but a choice of metaphorical dressings, including Ranch and Honey Mustard.
Ron DeSantis has been practicing the Donald J. Trump “weave” method, but he hasn’t quite got the hang of it yet, as you can see when he tried to explain his education policy:
“We got a lot of scholars together to do a lot of standards and a lot of different things.”
Good effort, but no mention of bacon. Grade: B-.
As an English professor, I often reflect on how Emily Dickinson, Jane Austen, Victor Hugo, and Charles Dickens would have envied Donald J. Trump and his weave-y fabulousness, as demonstrated in this masterful disquisition on our most beloved cannibal, delivered at a campaign rally:
“The late, great Hannibal Lecter. He’s a wonderful man. He oftentimes would have a friend for dinner. Remember the last scene? ‘Excuse me, I’m about to have a friend for dinner,’ as this poor doctor walked by. ‘I’m about to have a friend for dinner.’ But Hannibal Lecter. Congratulations.”
And here’s his profound assessment of America, presented in New Jersey last month: “You have millions and millions of dead people. And you have people dying financially, because they can’t buy bacon; they can’t buy food; they can’t buy groceries; they can’t do anything. And they’re living horribly in our country right now.”
Roll over, Billy Shakespeare, and give Charlotte Bronte the news.
I’m an English professor, hoping one day Trump University will come back and I can get a job there, and maybe Donald J. Trump will be my friend.
Diane Roberts is an 8th-generation Floridian, born and bred in Tallahassee. Educated at Florida State University and Oxford University in England, she has been writing for newspapers since 1983, when she began producing columns on the legislature for the Florida Flambeau. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Times of London, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Oxford American, and Flamingo. She has been a member of the Editorial Board of the St. Petersburg Times–back when that was the Tampa Bay Times’s name–and a long-time columnist for the paper in both its iterations. She was a commentator on NPR for 22 years and continues to contribute radio essays and opinion pieces to the BBC. Roberts is also the author of four books.
Jim says
No one has ever been a better speaker than Donald. No one. Men, big, strong men say “Sir, you are the best orator in the world, maybe even of all time, Sir”. And then they cry because he has moved them so much. Women tell him “Sir, we don’t want to have control of decisions over our bodies; we need men, strong men, to tell us what to do, Sir”. And then they also cry because that’s what you do after speaking to DJT.
Why during the debate (which he won – bigly), telling a particularly impressive story, he got the whole country to start watching for Haitian dog/cat nabbers who are “eating the pets”. It’s true. DJT said it so it’s true. Just because not a single fact has been presented to support a former president’s “impressive story” doesn’t detract from the story telling. Why, who wants any facts to get in the way of a good story?
And I must say to the author here… I do not question that DJT has discussions with English professors all day every day and every one of them says he’s brilliant! Now, it could be that they marvel at the fact that he speaks gibberish to an adoring crowd that doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about but cheers madly for him. And it could be that the last time DJT spoke to an English professor was his freshman year of college. That’s entirely possible. But that would imply that DJT is lying and we all know there is absolutely no evidence of that, right? Right?????
Laurel says
I actually have a good friend who is an English Professor! When we talk about Trump, it usually conjures up laughter!
Well, what Trump is good at is to distract his people from issues and plans that need defining…should they get beyond concepts.
I’ll take the shark. That’s a no brainer. World wide, shark attacks ended in 14 fatalities last year. According to Cleveland Clinic, about 1,000 people die each year from electrocution.
Where’s the boat? Let’s go!
Trump is the DaDaist of words. That’s so true.
Sherry says
Thank you Diane. . . my laugh of the day.
Not so funny, though, when you consider the tragedy that so many of our fellow citizens still mindlessly continue to support such a completely incoherent, convicted felon, conman.
Word salad. . . umm, umm good. . . pass the mayo please!
Kim Pandich Gridley says
For years now, I have remained silent while reading the multiple attacks on Trump and his followers, but I have finally reached my breaking point. I am a moderate, not a right wing extremist. I count Democratic leaders, Mike and Diane Cocchiola as friends and good people, and I’m pretty educated. Does a doctorate count? How about 40 years in English education and local administration? Is that sufficient, Ms. Roberts?
So today there was yet another assassination attempt on Trump’s life. I’m guessing that Ms. Roberts quite possibly would have been happier if that attempt had been successful, although I’m quite sure that neither she, nor her acolytes would admit it. (Thoughts and prayers, perhaps? OK, that’s mean.)
Forgive my plagiarising Ronald Reagan but I have one question: Are you better off now than you were 3.5 years ago? I’m not. I look at inflation, crime and the border and I’m scared of where we’ll be in four years if things don’t change.
I do not want to have Donald Trump over for dinner. We’re not going to be best buds. I agree that he is a narcissist, but good Lord, can we please focus on what we know to be facts? Kamala was the first to drop out of the primaries in 2016, having gotten virtually no votes. She claimed that Biden was as sharp as a tack, before she participated in a coup to oust him from office. She’s refused to submit to a real, hard hitting interview, complete with follow-up questions. You might despise Trump but you can’t deny that he takes all questions, despite how unfriendly the interviewer might be. Can Kamala say the same?
I don’t need to like Trump personally and I know he says some really stupid things, but I can’t stay quiet anymore after another self-proclaimed (albeit deranged) left wing liberal tried to kill him.
I expect I’ll be attacked, including by Pierre, but the optimist in me hopes that we can agree to disagree as is the case with many members of my family and friends. I just wanted another viewpoint besides Ms Roberts’ to be heard. Thank you.
Kim Pandich Gridley
Jim says
Yo, moderate, pretty educated Kim… Bone up on your facts before you put it in writing. If you’ll check, crime is down from DJT’s time according to the law enforcement agencies that track that.
And “You might despise Trump but you can’t deny that he takes all questions…” is disingenuous at best. He routinely disses those who ask as “nasty” or something else just because he doesn’t want to address the question. And if you think he “answers” all those questions he takes, well I’d suggest a hearing and comprehension test.
And this isn’t intended as an “attack” on you for your opinion. If you like DJT despite the lying, narcissist (you agree), me-first person he is, that’s your prerogative. However, like you, I too am tired of listening to people defend such as despicable person as a viable candidate for president.
Ed P says
Jim…aka fact checker,
The crime stats are at best dubious because the FBI asked law enforcement agencies to transition away from the system used for decades. In 2019 89% of agencies covering 97% of the population submitted data. In 2021 it plummeted to 63% of agencies overseeing just 65% of population. Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York all failed to submit crime data. Then the FBI pivoted in 2022 allowing agencies to report via legacy systems so estimations were in order. Additionally, cities struggled with the new system and used projections to complete the report. Do I believe crime is down, no, maybe, maybe not?
And your comment that it is not an attack is also disingenuous because from my kitchen table, you did just that. It’s like when someone says,”I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but”
Remember, opinions are just that, opinions. How can you decide they are right or wrong? I respect and accept everyone’s opinions,
And just like you, I don’t always agree….neighbor.
Laurel says
Ed P.: About crime, maybe it’s not down. When a man can steal forty some boxes of top secret documents, take them to his club where he can show them off, or members, and their guests, can possibly have access to them in the bathroom, then, the “Federal Judge” who the thief appointed can dismiss the case…there still is plenty of crime. So, maybe you are right.
feddy says
But Mr. Biden can have boxes of classified information in a unsecured garage in his home which Hunter was renting, boxes at his beach home and boxes in Penn University office which Hunter and other business associates had access too.
Laurel says
Freddy: Do you think someone may be lying to you?
Just how many boxes, and where did you get this *information*?
Ed P says
Laurel,
Come on
Laurel says
“Come on” is not an answer.
Sherry says
@ feddy. . . How about learning actual FACTS which are beyond the tripe that Fox feeds you every day:
This from the report of Special Council Robert Hur 2024:
The exception is former President Trump. It is not our role to
assess the criminal charges pending against Mr. Trump, but several material
distinctions between Mr. Trump’s case and Mr. Biden’s are clear. Unlike the evidence
involving Mr. Biden, the allegations set forth in the indictment of Mr. Trump, if
proven, would present serious aggravating facts.
Most notably, after being given multiple chances to return classified
documents and avoid prosecution, Mr. Trump allegedly did the opposite. According
to the indictment, he not only refused to return the documents for many months, but
he also obstructed justice by enlisting others to destroy evidence and then to lie about
it.
In contrast, Mr. Biden turned in classified documents to the National Archives and
the Department of Justice, consented to the search of multiple locations including his
homes, sat for a voluntary interview. and in other ways cooperated with the
investigation.
Laurel says
KPG: I can tell you that I have never, ever, in my entire life, heard people make so many excuses for a criminal, and a con.
As for the “left wing liberal,” there are plenty of sick people out there, and this one does not represent anyone from either partly, though you are clearly comfortable claiming so. We knew that was coming. Poor victim Trump. But your darling Trump wrote on Truth Social “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” You know damned good and well that he just placed a target on her for some lunatic to attack, for telling her fans to register to vote. She did not say who to vote for, but said who she wanted to vote for. What a guy! The one you want!
If you want to talk about a “coup,” talk about January 6th.
You want to talk about the lives he has ruined who were brave enough to testify against him?
The “narcissism” you are comfortable with is a clinical mental disorder, requiring psychotherapy.
Inflation is below 3%. Crime is lower under Biden than under Trump. Now, do you want to discuss Haitians eating pets? How do you adjust for such craziness?
How does the border effect you? You do realize that only border Florida shares is with Georgia and Alabama, right?
As a woman, I am far better off under Biden than I was under the pussy grabbing, adulterer, and sexual predator, and I don’t want to be subject to the Heritage Foundations’ Project 2025, which is the Trumplican plan. Trump claims to know more about everything, than anyone, yet he claims he knows nothing when cornered.
No thanks, I am exhausted with Trump’s self inflicted “witch hunt,” ” witch hunt,” “witch hunt!” “Rigged,” “rigged,” “rigged!” I am exhausted with his attack on the Capital. I am exhausted with his drama. I am exhausted with his “better than anybody.” I am exhausted with his victimization. I am exhausted with his lies. I am exhausted with his crazy ass awkward, crazy childless cat ladies Vance and conspiracy spreader Laura Looney, little Nazi Steven Miller, and alt right Steve Bannon. I am exhausted with his mob boss behavior, which goes way back. I am exhausted with his bigotry.
I don’t care how educated you are, if you think that this is normal, and the way to run the United States of America, I question your opinion.
Sally says
In addition what is really scary, is that Trump is not particularly healthy and how can the Republican Party allow him to put someone like Vance in line for the Presidency? He has no experience governing and has some pretty crazy ideas – all to bring us Bach to the Middle Ages!
Kim Pandich-Gridley says
Hi Jim and Laurel,
Thank you for your responses. I do still wonder, however, why roughly half the country is still supporting Trump. I read NPR, Reuters & CNN every day so I’m open to other opinions, including yours. But I was still better off under his Presidency and that’s a fact that I know to be true. But again, thank you for your response and lack of personal attacks.
Laurel says
During Covid? I will say that it was good that you didn’t take any of his *cures.*
Please, do tell just what you do like about Trump, and why you, and why “roughly half of country is still supporting Trump”? Please, be specific. Also, how do you rationalize his talk and behavior away? I do still wonder. I really want to know, because I have never seen such a train wreck in my life.
Are you in favor of narcissistic psychopaths running our country? Do you not know what he is, or you do not care?
I am most definitely not.
Laurel says
I most definitely do not want a narcissistic sociopath running our nation.
Laurel says
And poof, she’s gone!
Sherry says
@kpg. . . Can you please tell us “precisely” how it is that you were “better off” under the trump presidency.
Thank you for being open minded enough to read NPR, Reuters and CNN. May I ask you if you also watch/read FOX or Newsmax and what percentage of your news gathering time you spend with each outlet?
It has been my observation that over 40% of our fellow citizens gather their news information solely from far “right winged” media outlets. Fox is the most-watched television news channel in the United States, and has been for more than 22 years. Although Fox admitted to “LYING” about the last Presidential election and settled for 787 million with Dominion, millions still depend on Fox as their “only” source for news. In my opinion, that is precisely why so many still support trump.
Let me ask you a couple of hopefully thought provoking questions. Do you really choose to live your life according to what is merely “popular”? How is it that you can support a man who was found “Guilty” of Sexual Assault, and “Defamation” against the woman he assaulted? Why are you trusting and supporting a man who was “Convicted” (34 counts) for “Lying” on business records? Why are you still trusting supporting a man who was found “Guilty” of Fraud (AKA) Lying, in a separate case, under different circumstances? How can you continue to trust and support a man who incited a violent insurrection against our government, police officers and democratic processes? Why are you still trusting and supporting a man who was “Impeached” TWICE while in office? Why are you still trusting and supporting a man who continues in spreading ludicrous, racist “Lies” about “Legal” immigrants killing and eating dogs and cats, although all the local and state officials are begging him to stop due to bomb threats he is creating with those lies?
Looking forward to your thoughtful, credentialled fact filled response.
Thank you!
Ed P says
Laurel,
Really, how does the borders affect us since Florida only borders Georgia and Alabama?
Let’s turn the tables and ask you to precisely explain your word salad.
January 6th was not coup…please expand.
Not all levels of narcissism are a mental health issue. Lyndon B Johnson and FDR had pretty grandiose narcissism. Most great leaders has a healthy dose, if you think Trump has too much, it doesn’t mean it to the level of a metal illness. Or do you know that too?
Then you tell Kim you don’t care how educated she is while you’ve run off the rails.
Laurel says
Ed P:
1.) Florida borders with Alabama and Georgia, not “Haitia.” This whole immigrant terror created by Trump is nothing more than fear tactics much the way Hitler painted the Jews. Immigrants do not effect my life, in a negative way, one iota.
We know a woman, here in the Hammock, who is terrified of immigrants! Of what, all the immigrants here in the Hammock? Trump and Vance have no conscience, or honor, in making up admitted lies about immigrants to instill fear in people to control them for personal gain.
2.) Did you not understand what I wrote?
3.) When people attack the Capital of the United States of America, and try to stop the certification of a legal election, where there is no proof of illegal voting, that’s a coup. What about that do you not understand?
4,) “Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental health condition in which people have an unreasonably high sense of their own importance. They need and seek too much attention and want people to admire them. People with this disorder may lack the ability to understand or care about the feelings of others. But behind this mask of extreme confidence, they are not sure of their self-worth and are easily upset by the slightest criticism.
A narcissistic personality disorder causes problems in many areas of life, such as relationships, work, school or financial matters. People with narcissistic personality disorder may be generally unhappy and disappointed when they’re not given the special favors or admiration that they believe they deserve. They may find their relationships troubled and unfulfilling, and other people may not enjoy being around them.
Treatment for narcissistic personality disorder centers around talk therapy, also called psychotherapy.
Narcissistic personality disorder affects more males than females, and it often begins in the teens or early adulthood. Some children may show traits of narcissism, but this is often typical for their age and doesn’t mean they’ll go on to develop narcissistic personality disorder.” – Mayo Clinic
Sound familiar? Since you know so much about mental health issues, and interject “healthy narcissism,” would you like to explain your version of reality to Mayo Clinic?
5.) I do question people who ignore facts, and promote a man who is clearly self serving, at the expense of our country, and I definitely do not want to support a narcissistic sociopath for President. I asked her why she did, and she did not answer, which is common. So, why do you?
Ed P says
[Caution: this comment is maliciously false.–FL]
Laurel,
Is your response a satirical response?
The 10,000,000 plus illegals ( maybe twice the estimate) have dissipated into every community in America. Some towns have had a higher concentration than others.
For example Springfield Ohio, 20,000 Haitians with 1600 school age children who do not speak English nor Spanish. They don’t border Haiti.
All illegals are not criminals that we should fear, but they do bring many issues that must be addressed.
The January 6 riots were not coup. They did not seize power. Just your version of spreading disinformation.
Now you are disparaging people who disregard facts.
Your comments do just that.
Finally, narcissistic grandeur is not the same as being certifiably mentally ill.
Pierre Tristam says
Ed P must be hankering for getting banned. He may soon get his wish if he continues the trolling disinformation–even as he accuses a fellow-commenter of disinformation. Classic hypocrisy. The comment above would normally be withheld. Let’s use it as an example of Ed P’s cynical, racist abuse of this space.
He would have you believe that Springfield, Ohio, a town of 60,000 people at most, is one-third Haitians, and that all those Haitians are “illegals.” Of course he’ll come back and say he never called them all illegals. But of course he did. They are among those millions “who have dissipated into every community in America.” (We’ll let pass the Freudian error of dissipate, though the word is more accurate than he knows, even though he did not intend it that way.) Let’s let Mike DeWine, governor of Ohio and Springfield native, school Ed P on Springfield: “Springfield has a rich history of providing refuge for the oppressed and being a place of opportunity. […] Springfield is having a resurgence in manufacturing and job creation. Some of that is thanks to the dramatic influx of Haitian migrants who have arrived in the city over the past three years to fill jobs. They are there legally. They are there to work.”
But because of the kind of bullshit Ed P repeats and spreads even here, “Bomb threats — all hoaxes — continue and temporarily closed at least two schools, put the hospital on lockdown and shuttered City Hall. The two local colleges have gone remote. I have posted Ohio Highway Patrol troopers in each school building in Springfield so the schools can remain open, teachers and children can feel safe and students can continue to learn. […] As a supporter of former President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance, I am saddened by how they and others continue to repeat claims that lack evidence and disparage the legal migrants living in Springfield. This rhetoric hurts the city and its people, and it hurts those who have spent their lives there.”
Ed P loves to pontificate about facts. He’s full of shit. Disingenuous shit at that, considering how no one has any excuse to be misinformed these days, making his disinformation malicious and malevolent. No no Ed P, not here. Get your Tucker-puckered jollies elsewhere.
Ray W says
Hello Mr. Tristam.
This morning The Atlantic published an editorial titled: Lies About Immigration Help No One.
The final paragraph, intended to sum up the points asserted in the main body of the column, reads as follows:
“American voters have consistently indicated that they want order at the southern border, yet many economists agree that the large amount of immigration the U.S. experienced in recent years is a major reason the economy bounced back from the COVID-related downturn faster than that of any other nation in the world. This complex picture of immigration and its implications calls for the hard work of policy making and statesmanship. Again and again, misinformation and fearmongering have only made things worse.”
Make of this what you will. Me? Ed P has it backwards. Immigration is a good thing, not a bad thing.
Ohio’s governor defends immigration as a positive, a blessing, for his state. Springfield’s mayor defends immigration as a positive, a blessing, for his city. Springfield factory owners defend immigration as a positive, a blessing, for their companies. Yet Ed P is compelled to repeatedly spread misinformation and disinformation about immigration, so as to create an overall negative picture of immigration.
Let’s get back to basics. A good thing does not have to be perfect; it can have surmountable problems and still be a good thing. The problem is whether the political will exists to solve the problems sufficiently so as to make a good thing better.
On the other hand, misinformation and disinformation and fearmongering cannot ever be described as good things.
Yes, from a population whose entry spans decades, the undocumented populace in the U.S. has spread into every community across America. Yes, they may number some 10 million or so, but according to credible government figures (Census, for one) the actual number is far lower. When current immigration law requires voluntary removal to their home countries before they can apply for lawful status, thereby forcing each one to decide between leaving wives, children, extended families, communities to go to a home country they may not have ever seen as adults, and waiting for years to possible lawful reentry, the choice for many is simple: stay undocumented.
But the author of the column has a point. Misinformation and disinformation do not make things better. They make things worse. Everyone suffers when Ed P caustically spreads misinformation and disinformation. He repeatedly calls it truth, as if distorting the definition of truth is a good thing.
As an aside, Ed P, January 6 meets the definition of an attempted coup. Had it succeeded, it would have been a coup.
Cambridge Dictionary defines coup as “an unexpectedly successful achievement or a sudden illegal, often violent seizure of power from a government.”
Dictionary defines coup as “a sudden, violent, and unlawful seizure of power from a government.”
Given the two similar definitions, how can you claim to utilize common sense when you obviously don’t?
Perhaps this pinpoints the reason for Ed P’s many distortions over the past many months. Ed P repeatedly claims that his is a life of common sense, even though in those same comments he repeatedly and consistently presents as astoundingly wrong in what he claims truthfulness, undermining his very claims of common-sense thinking.
As for the subject of narcissism as raised by Laurel, I prefer to think of myself as currently exhibiting traits of “positive” and “healthy” mild delusions of grandeur. Maybe I am wrong about that. Maybe I should never have thought Ed P capable of engaging in the exercise of intellectual rigor in the effort of following reason to whatever end it takes him.
Sherry says
A huge Thank You to Ray W!
Stubbornly spreading morally corrupt, twisted, misinformation/disinformation is NOT intellectually honest, although it may be termed as rigorous.
Laurel says
Ray W.: “As an aside, Ed P, January 6 meets the definition of an attempted coup. Had it succeeded, it would have been a coup.” Yes, thank you. I saw that distinction afterwards. I stand corrected, and will not mess that up again.
When we were kids, we would sometimes call a kid we didn’t understand “conceited.” Maybe the kid was, maybe the kid wasn’t. Either way, it had absolutely nothing to do with being a narcissistic adult, and I think we do know the difference. I have never seen such narcissism as in Trump! I would imagine him to be a case study!
I would like to think that people think well of themselves, and I do think that is healthy, but cannot imagine a 78 year old, extremely narcissistic man have a “healthy dose of narcissism” and consider Trump as such an example.
Sherry says
Thank You Pierre! You are most certainly right on in your understanding of despicable “trolls”!
Laurel says
Pierre Tristam: I lived in a city, Lake Worth (now known as the City of Lake Worth Beach) that has a lot of immigrants from Central America. For me, about as annoying as it got was the billboards started advertising in Spanish, and Spanish music and ads came over the audio systems in stores. That’s it! Any issues Lake Worth had, they had before the Central Americans came in. As I have written here before, the immigrants would travel in groups to keep from getting robbed themselves! They spent their days doing mostly lawn care, and odd jobs, for people who wanted their help, at a reduced rate. They show up and they work hard. No fooling around, no excuses.
There is also a large Haitian population in South Florida. They didn’t seem like bogey men and women either. They often worked in restaurants, and as nursing aides. They, too, were trying to improve their lives.
Trump just told the Jews that if he loses, it will be their fault. He said that the “enemy” will win. The “enemy” is our family members, our friends and our coworkers. Who else?
What is happening to us?
I have a hard time fathoming the fear that people have. This area is absolutely the whitest area I have ever lived in, in Florida! Yet Trump has the locals here thinking somehow these people are infecting or poisoning our blood. It’s so crazy, and so very ignorant.
Since I have lived around Cubans, Haitians and Central Americans, not to mention African Americans in the 50’s and 60’s, this fear boggles my mind! Yet, Trump, and Vance, thrive on this made up issue, and doubles, triples and quadruples down on this created fear. I think it, and he, is absolutely devastating to our country. This is not to help us, this is for personal gain.
It’s simply not right.
BillC says
Could it be that EdP is just a Russian AI chatbot troll? Sure seems like one!
Sherry says
A huge Thank You Laurel! Excellent response and analysis!
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
“Are you better off now than you were 3.5 years ago?”
Hell yes I am! Guess you forgot about a “leader” that ignored the pandemic while we were all searching for toilet paper. Then clowns he surrounded himself with were pushing snake oil remedies for the pandemic. Am I better off, yes my IRA is doing great.
Ray W says
Hello Kim Pandlich Gridley.
You have me confused. I can’t quite recall when President Biden first ran for president. It might have been as early as 1918. He kept dropping out, sometimes early in the race. Yet here he is, serving as our president. What exactly does dropping out of a primary race in 2019 have to do with running for president in 2024? Is it that she was pragmatic then and she is pragmatic now?
I can’t argue against you perceiving yourself as worse off now than you were four years ago. No one should. Many others perceive themselves that way, too. But the collective “we”, the American “we”, are far better off today than we were four years ago. Yes,
I disagree with the admittedly weak inference you draw that Democrats, alone, wish for the success of either of the two assassination attempts on former President Trump. For almost four years now I have opposed the vengeful and the violent among us. I have repeatedly denounced any political leader who desires political violence as a means to an end. I really didn’t comment on the FlaglerLive site until a local Republican politician took to the radio to ask just when would it be time to begin beheading Democrats. During our governor’s run for president, he promised that, if elected, he would “slit throats” upon taking office. Our former president claims he is our “retribution”, that he will “crush vermin”, that blood will flow if he is or is not elected. The North Carolina Republican candidate for governor tells rally attendees that “some people need killing.”
Since early 2021 I have cautioned FlaglerLive readers that we are entering into an age of political violence unlike any we have experienced for a century or more; it will likely last decades. I first warned my elder daughter of this in 2015. I have never argued that Democrats would not avoid being swept up in the rhetoric of vengeance, of retribution, of retaliation, that is being perpetrated by today’s so-called conservative leaders but make no mistake: the exhortations to political violence have long been coming from the right. A Republican Senator tells followers to throw protesters from bridges. A Republican Senate candidate, at a rally, tells people to strap on Glocks before leaving home to vote. No one can deny the exhortations to political violence by Republican leadership that was January 6th. No one can deny these things.
We are being herded toward a maelstrom of political violence by people who seek to gain political power from their fomenting hatred for certain of our fellow citizens. Certain FlaglerLive readers have become unmoored from the three foundations of reason. People throw away some or all of the intellectual rigor they once possessed. Mainstream thought is now called “radical”, with no basis for that assertion in the plain meaning of the English language. So many miss what is right in front of us.
Which brings me to the most unusual part of your comment. Before tens of millions of viewers, Vice President Harris stood before two reporters and answered questions. Maybe some didn’t like the answers. Maybe some thought some answers were either non-answers or evasive answers. But prominent Republican after prominent Republican say she walked all over our former President. Anyone can believe what they want, but no one can say she didn’t submit to questions on the nation’s biggest stage. And our former President announced no more debates.
Dark money campaign contributions says
Rump ushered in the misinformation age. Facts apparently no longer matter to their base even if there are volumes of evidence to prove their lies. Apparently gop supporters don’t understand that what you say matters they preach hate and discrimination and the religious love him. Tell me again how immigrants eating dog and cats isn’t just being blatantly racist. GOP and their nazi loving base eat it up. What will they do when he looses again? Not like they will accept defeat so stage another coup? Or maybe just ask the governors to find more votes for him. Vile evil and corrupt and the republicans love it!
John says
Neither of them belong in politics that are not for the people or this country they are only out for themselves.
Bill Carter says
Fantastic article. Sending it to a couple of my friends who are English professors (small “p” because they only profess to know English).
Sherry says
2017- Donald Trump has a “dangerous mental illness” and is not fit to lead the US, a group of psychiatrists has warned during a conference at Yale University.
Mental health experts claimed the President was “paranoid and delusional”, and said it was their “ethical responsibility” to warn the American public about the “dangers” Mr Trump’s psychological state poses to the country.
Speaking at the conference at Yale’s School of Medicine on Thursday, one of the mental health professionals, Dr John Gartner, a practising psychotherapist who advised psychiatric residents at Johns Hopkins University Medical School until 2015, said: “We have an ethical responsibility to warn the public about Donald Trump’s dangerous mental illness.”
Dr Gartner, who is also a founding member of Duty to Warn, an organisation of several dozen mental health professionals who think Mr Trump is mentally unfit to be president, said the President’s statement about having the largest crowd at an inauguration was just one of many that served as warnings of a larger problem.
Donald Trump responds to Paris shooting: ‘It looks like another terrorist attack’
“Worse than just being a liar or a narcissist, in addition he is paranoid, delusional and grandiose thinking and he proved that to the country the first day he was President. If Donald Trump really believes he had the largest crowd size in history, that’s delusional,” he added.
Sherry says
Please note. . . it was 2017 when mental health experts called trump “paranoid and delusional. . . saying he had a dangerous mental illness”. . . Can you just imagine what they would say about him 7 years, and several “Guilty” verdicts later?
Ray W says
Hello Sherry.
I know this is not directly on point to your reference to the delusions of the powerful, but years ago when I read this passage, my mind coalesced over the idea of the importance of our leaders maintaining a solid ground of political reality. I am not saying that the American liberal democratic Constitutional republic, one thousand years in the making, mirrors the fusion of church and state that was tsarist Russia. But it is worth pondering the thoughts of a reporter who came of age in WWII Poland and spent his early years in Africa covering rebellion after coup after insurrection as the foreign affairs reporter for the Polish state news agency.
Ryszard Kapuscinski, in his work depicting the Russian Federation after the fall of the Soviet Union, titled Imperium (which means “absolute power”), wrote of the dark ages endured by the Russian people during the latter stages of the czars and the early decades of the communists:
“The czar has been considered a god, literally, for centuries, for Russia’s entire history. Not until the nineteenth century was there a czarist decree to remove the portraits of the czar from the Orthodox churches. A czarist decree! Without it no one would have been so bold as to touch such a portrait, or rather, icon. Even Bakunin, that anarchist and subversive, Jacobin and dynamiter, calls the czar ‘the Russian Christ.’ And just as the czars are the vicars of God, so Lenin and Stalin are the vicars of world communism. Only after Stalin’s death does the slow process of secularizing the rule of the Almighty begin. Secularization — and with it the gradual erosion of omnipotence. Brezhnev complained about this. In the fall of 1968, criticizing Dubcek and his people, who wanted to reform the system in Czechoslovakia and as a result drew Soviet tanks down upon their heads, Brezhnev lamented: ‘You thought that because you are in power, you can do whatever you please. But that is a great mistake! Even I cannot do what I would like — of all the things I would like to have come true, I can perhaps realize barely a third.’ (Zdanek Mlynar, The Frost from the East).
A few FlaglerLive commenters repeatedly claim that Democrats are socialists, or communists, whenever the impulse strikes, yet they have zero clue about what socialism or communism really is. It is the wielding of absolute political power in a totalitarian system. Since ratification, America has never seen that level of political power wielded by any one political administration — yet.
But there are times in the life of a democracy when the gathering of absolute power is warranted. In his second volume of six on WWII, Churchill describes a desperate measure adopted by the British government on May 22, 1940, just before the disaster and miracle that was Dunkirk:
“This was the moment when my colleagues felt it right to obtain from Parlaiment the extraordinary powers for which a bill had been prepared during the last few days. This measure would give the Government practically unlimited power over the life, liberty, and property of all His Majesty’s subjects in Great Britain. In general terms of law the powers granted by Parlaiment were absolute. The Act was to ‘include power by Order in Council to make such Defense Regulations making provision for requiring persons to place themselves, their services, and their property at the disposal of His Majesty as appear to him to be necessary or expedient for securing the public order, or the efficient prosecution of any war in which His Majesty may be engaged, or for maintaining supplies or services essential to the life of the community.
“In regard to persons, the Minister of Labour was empowered to direct anyone to perform any service required. The regulation giving him this power included a fair wages clause which was inserted in the Act to regulate wage conditions. Labour supply committees were to be set up in important centers. The control of property in the widest sense was imposed in equal order. Control of all establishments, including banks, was imposed under the authority of Government orders. Employers could be required to produce their books, and excess profits were to be taxed at 100 per cent. A Production Council to be presided over by Mr. Greenwood was to be formed, and a Director of Labor Supply to be appointed.
“This bill was accordingly presented to Parliament on the afternoon of the 22d by Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Attlee, the latter himself moving the second reading. Both the Commons and the Lords with their immense Conservative majorities passed it unanimously through all its stages in a single afternoon, and it received Royal Assent that night:
“For Romans in Rome’s quarrel
Spared neither land nor gold,
Nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life,
In the brave days of old.
“Such was the temper of the hour.”
Sherry says
Good Morning Ray W., Laurel, Jim, Skibum, Nancy N., Pierre and others who are reasonable sane citizens. . . off traveling for 6 weeks. . . intentionally to be out of the country during the madness of the election. We’ve already voted for Kamala and Tim. . . and would encourage you to do the same. Later Gator!
Laurel says
Enjoy!