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Trump
Hozan
Veteran
I know politics isnt a good topic to get into and I completely respect peoples diverse opinions but I have to say Trump really worries me.
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Climate change denial, racism, misogyny, total lack of mindfulness. Im not in the USA and I dont have a vote but I hope impeachment happens or at the worst a 4 year term.
What messages are our younger generation learning in a world of "alternative facts" ( what we used to call lies) and " post truth"
The Dem Party needs to get much better organized, motivate its base to elect Dems to local office and Congress, and they need to do a better job of picking Prezidential candidates. They need to do better than Clinton or The Bern. Their candidates also need to do a better job of communicating their platform to voters, instead of putting so much energy into fending off the competition.
@Hozan says
Yeah, he's giving me ulcers and has turned me into a bloody activist, signing petitions and writing letters half the morning. Everything he does is bad, but I am most concerned about his disdain for and disregard of the environment. At this rate we will soon be enjoying all the environmental safeguards of the 19th century, but with a human population seven times larger than we had then.
Trump worries you? Or you worry yourself?
She is a politician. A noisy non-importance. Focus on activism by all means. Good plan but despite Rump not because of ...
Iz my quiet plan ...
I guess I worry more about the hoards of followers he has that feel brave in the face of his election. And what we are going to do about them. And, what the next election will be. If the "other side" doesn't get their poop in a group, he's going to win again. Liberals are very split, and fighting with each other as much as they are fighting against Trump. There are not enough of us to split down the middle and still beat him. He's already campaigning. We don't even have a clue who might be our savior. I wish I had skills another country might find useful, LOL.
There are many, many small groups in every city in American working against him. Making millions of calls, sending emails, writing letters. But organization is needed. I don't think it's there yet.
@lobster poses the question
Ah, excellent question. If we worry, we worry ourselves of course. My poor wife worries enough for both of us, so mostly I don't bother, truth to tell. Just another blissfully uneventful day in the salt mines of samsara. I take it you have managed to overcome your own fulminating stage?
@Fosdick I am not a very political person. It is not something I am involved in too directly. I was shocked by Brexit and Trump.
I like Americans.
A lot.
I trust them. I trust their diversity.
'We the people.'
Good plan. Everything will be fine. It will be fine because of Americans and the world getting on with their real lives ...
So in essence I feel every day Trump achieves less and less. Not worried by him but I am worried for him. Here is the likely outcome ...
Trump health care plan crashes and burns
So what happens to healthcare now in America? If you don't have Obamacare, what DO you have? Can anyone afford to get better when they get sick?
It's unfortunate how much it varies by states. Our state has really good programs for low to lower-middle class people, from free to sliding scale. They are administered now through the ACA application process, but at least there are options for people who don't make enough to afford what the marketplace has. Other states apparently don't have very good options for people who fall just outside the medicaid requirements but can't afford much else. @dhammachick most people still get their insurance through employers, Obamacare/ACA is mostly for those who don't have that option, so they are like people who own small businesses or work for places not large enough to offer insurance. People still have what they did before, if Trump's plan passed 24 million would have lost what they have already. We can build on what we have, tearing it down wouldn't have been a good option.
ACA needs some work. But that said, a lot of the problems with it are due to greedy insurance companies and not due to ACA itself. Republicans thought it would be so simple to just do what they want without caring who they threw off insurance as long as those on it got a better deal. I'm glad that didn't happen. And glad they learned it's much harder than it looks to really come up with a plan. I think for us to see a truly good plan that'll serve most Americans, our health care system needs to be reworked. Not just the way we pay for it. How they bill and the complete lack of regulation of costs and prescriptions needs to change. A lot of the chasm between the insurance companies taking part in the ACA and providers is cost. They want to pay less but the providers need more to keep the door open, especially when insurance companies pay a fraction of the listed cost. It's really a ridiculous system and the whole thing needs to be fixed.
As an American Trump occurs to me as a toddler trying to help in the kitchen. He himself doesn't bother me as much as everyone else.
What does bother me? I have run into a lot of egos. People who are afraid to admit when they are wrong, about anything! The pan catches on fire and your roommate swears they didn't do it even though you watched them. The person who argues with you even though you are agreeing with them. When you are truly kind to people only to have them accuse you of trying to manipulate people.
People are angry and I'm not sure a lot of these people know how to calm down. They just feel like they have to defend everything they stand for. I have been accused of just not getting anything at all because I'm so calm. It's unfortunate that one person told me I shouldn't think because I'm bad at it, another told me that a lepus (scientific term for rabbit) does not exist and I shouldn't talk about anything that doesn't exist, and that I don't understand what it's like to be poor even though I've been on disability for a decade with food benefits.
I just wish people around here where I live could calm down enough to think straight but alas thinking seems to have gone out of fashion.
Mindful thinking is certainly gone out of fashion @skyfox66. Thinking or overthinking not in a mindful way is the source of so many of our problems. The evolution from the simian brain has left us so neurologically wired that to be honest meditation is an essential tool that all humans would greatly benefit from irrespective of race or culture or religion
We live in interesting times.
In a sense we have to present our thinking and calm in a way that is acceptable to others. That is the bodhi ideal. As somone who not only believes in very rare garuda-rabbit cross breeds, jackalopes etc (Not necessarily from this dimension), I am very often wrong and people need to put me right. Strangely doing so is very calming for them ...
I used to go insane over American politics. Paralyzed, unable to go through life.
Then I realized that there is a medicine against Trump anxiety-- and that medicine is doing something personally to stir my country in a better direction. So I have made it a habit to weekly donate money to organizations/people who are working on that.
In my case, I feel, the cause of the anguish was not Trump but rather my confusion with regards to the role I have to play. Once that role becomes clearer, Trump is percieved more like crappy weather rather than this terrible demon from which there is no hiding.
Don't worry, do something instead!
@skyfox66
Har har - I had a very similar conversation with someone 40 years ago, involving the distinction between lagomorphs and rodents. I'd be very reluctant to believe that thinking has ever been in fashion. Too much work - so much easier to just react on impulse. Still, we have to try.
When in trouble, when in doubt
Run in circles, scream and shout.
https://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lepus_(disambiguation)&ved=0ahUKEwicwsC7uvfSAhWrA8AKHURQBhoQFghXMA4&usg=AFQjCNEBnJ6AQIXrLKSGSPt8rwzvHRy4Pw
Lepus are hares.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit
In Italian, a rabbit is a 'coniglio' (Ko-neee leeo) a hare is a 'lepre' (Lepp-reh).
You clearly have not seen the amazing film that is The Night of the Lepus.
Trump is a deliberately ignorant and extremely arrogant narcissists. He has learned the art of manipulation well. What makes him dangerous is that he does not seem to rely on reality nor care if his actions and words endanger or even result in the death of others. Also, the folks he keeps around him are or appear to be just as hedonistic and blind to the suffering they have, are and intend to inflict on millions of Americans and countless others.
This person has effectively given permission to bigots and racists to act on their hatreds and paranoia.
While I certainly can't control Mr Trump or any of his minion, I can act to counter the anger,fear and pain they are inflicting. I may be little more than a pebble on a pond, but this pebbles add up...
The lunacy will pass and the damage eventually repaired, if we do not sucume to it...
Victory to the people
Peace to all
Hopefully the Farting Trumpet won't be able to get any of his silly ideas approved by the legislature, or the ones that do will be watered down.
@SpinyNorman i hope you are right but he's basically dismantled the EPA and is in the process of taking apart all progress on climate change initiative. Bad enough....lets hope he doesnt get an itchy trigger finger in relation to North Korea...
The man, in my opinion, is seriously flawed, and has a personality/character 'disturbance' that seems to be completely ignored or unappreciated by those around him.
Given his current position of power, those next to him will either turn out to be sycophants, or get pushed out and ignored, depending on their will, character strength and opinion.
It will only be when he chooses to do something so utterly crazy, and totally against any kind of humanitarian benefit, that some will consider he nees severely reining in.
At the moment, he is exactly like the Emperor showing off his new suit. Which although the majority claim to see as luxurious and elaborate, others already see in 'birthday' guise....
My feeling is very much the lack of constructive impact, apart from the noise and bluster, many Western politicians make on our lives. It is their ignorant, inept attempts that can be self defeating or oppressive.
Trump has turned power politics into a comedy routine. Perhaps it always was so ...
@Lionduck I get a sense that Trump is more a minion than a master. I think Paul Ryan and Steve Bannon are running the show much more. Hopefully the failure of Ryan's healthcare bill knocks him down a notch and he sees they won't be able to foist the country out from its citizens as easily as he thought. There are lots of people working towards good things. I don't know how long it'll take us to recover from his climate change policies. I hope he only gets 4 years. That they can actually say that jobs are more important than taking care of the planet is mind blowing to me. It just gives you a good idea how very little ANY of them has ever spent time in nature or considering what goes into life on this planet. The changes are obvious in virtually every area that someone has bothered to pay attention to. And they are only accelerating.
For every action there is an opposite. Monday's are just another day, it is our perspective of Monday that to us makes it good or bad...
The best thing about Trump I see, is his rattling the cage. He has stirred up people, the good , bad and ugly ( and stupid). It will cause those who oppose him to get the act together because..."only the strong can survive...Grand Master Flash & the furious Five".
My hope is that Trump is like an infection to our democracy. We will get sick but our defenses will be activated and if we survive we will be stronger for it.
Let's teach those poor white kids to dance . . . soon . . .
Cue dinosaur . . .
Yes, it's true!
https://qz.com/893501/an-epidemiologist-explains-how-america-came-down-with-the-trump-virus/
He has infected some of our British politicians unfortunately.
Sweden is infected with the same strain...
It's interesting to observe polling about Trump's approval. He dipped to 35%. But all i see online is tons of people supporting him. I suspect the polls aren't calling the right people, because those people either hang up on pollers or just don't participate. We underestimated everything with Trump before (on a poll and media level, I saw his win coming a mile away watching his rallies). I suspect we are kind of doing it again. Because the numbers don't match up with what you see when you talk to people.
The Baghdad Bob Report:
Some reporter in one of our daily Tabloids was listing all the things that have gone seriously wrong during the short time he's been president: What with Obamacare, vote rigging scandals involving the Russians and other issues surrounding him, there's real political doubt he will be able to hold on for a year....
There is a lot of doubt over here, too. But Pence wouldn't really be an improvement, either. The whole lot of his administration needs to go so that Bannon and Ryan stop having the influence they have (though Ryan looks like a fool after his healthcare debacle). To go from one minion to the next would result in much changing, other than the fact Pence is a bit more of a professional individual who at least wouldn't likely waste his time with idiotic wars with the media and so on. But policy wise he'd be no better. Also, don't forget that Trump and some other republicans recently determined that jobs are more important than a healthy planet. Because, you know, propserity will be important when we are all under water.
Still something that is good is that Europeans see the result of Populism. That he Alt right movement is slightly in decline in popularity here is I think in some part trumps doing.
Putting all political observation aside, I credit the Trump phenomenon with making me realize that I had been engaging in the following unskillful behaviors:
1) Spending too much time consuming "news," which prevents me from thinking.
2) Focusing my energy and attention on distant events over which I had no control and whose direct impact on my life and of those I cared for I greatly overestimated. The term "idiot compassion," which I encountered on this forum, seems analogous. Maybe "idiot focus" would make sense, i.e., trying to develop an understanding of the whole world while failing to observe my immediate surroundings.
I've pulled away from social media altogether, and I've nearly broken myself of the habit of checking the news many times throughout the day. I find that news of important events finds its way to me regardless, and by all observable measures, I am just as informed now as I was before. My blood pressure is about ten points lower, though.
So thanks for that, Mr. Trump.
President Trump is a nationalist. Very far from a populist. He lacks spleen but not words. However Steve Bannon is an extreme nationalist who at this point is not really as much of an influence as people believe. I only fear those who are the power behind the throne. One mans opinion.
Well said @Refugee
The vitriolic, hateful, excited, scandulous, noisy are easy to find.
I too was watching/following the news/propaganda/gossip and it is irrelevant to our actual daily experience ... It is a kind of mind drug.
My daily companion (a cushion) says nothing. Just sits there supporting me ...
It isn't always irrelevant though. Much of it, yes. But some of the things Trump has already signed have already put into motion things where I live that had been protected by Obama (mining, removal of protections for bears and wolves in their dens and other things). The pipelines. They aren't trivial and they have an immediate impact on a lot of people. I think it's a big selfish to say "well, nothing he does impacts me so why should I care?" They impact you even if you don't realize it yet because that is just how it works. My part of the world is one in which the climate change is having a drastic effect. I can see it year to year, and so can anyone else who spends time here. Seeing what impact Trump's decisions have over the next years will be...interesting. If you think none of it will have a swift impact on you, sorry, but you are being naive and blissfully ignorant.
@karasti
I am not sure whether you are responding to me or lobster or a combination of our posts. For my part, I was not in any way intending to communicate that the events are trivial or not worthy of consideration. My post was about my own allocation of attention and how it was affecting me negatively.
I have spent countless hours contemplating the impacts of climate change, etc., and there are many issues about which I care deeply yet am reluctant to discuss with others since words like "ignorant" tend to get bandied about with wild abandon whenever political hot topics are being discussed. Spending a large portion of my day following the news obsessively, however, was doing me no favors and was, in my estimation, a misallocation of my attention.
That was all I was saying.
Small minds discuss events and people. Great minds discuss ideas.
-Eleanor Roosevelt
One individual in power is not the issue. The rise of right-wing ideology (and its growing popularity all over the world) is the real issue. Why did the left/liberals fail? Is this vacuum being filled by the right wing forces?
Discussing such ideas would be productive. Focusing on one man/his vile behavior (and ignoring the whole context of political atmosphere, ideological framework) is illogical.
@Refugee Not really in response to anyone in particular, just a general attitude a see a lot where people (lots of them) are drawing conclusions of "what he is doing isn't causing a direct impact to my life, so, why should I worry about any of it?" Except there are people being immediately, directly impacted as a humans, especially as Buddhists, it is our business to care, IMO. I'm not saying you, or anyone else, has to immerse themselves in awful news media by any means. I fully support anyone removing themselves from that environment. It's not paying attention or not to news that bothers me at all. It's the attitude of "I don't see an impact, why should I care or pay attention?" that bothers me.
@techie I think it's easy to focus on the one in-your-face person but that anyone ignoring the general rise of the "alt right" and similar factions is just lying to themselves. I think it's hard to know how to look at it and understand how it came to be and what any of us can do about it. It's easier just to be mad at the guy on the front page. But his election is only a symptom of the problems we face.
That makes sense. It's all relative, I suppose. Where I am, I see precisely the opposite of what you see. Around these parts, there's been a huge surge of activism and sudden interest in political participation in reaction to the election. If anything, rather than the nonchalance you find so worrying, most of the folks around here are just shy of having a coronary. I think the attitude you cite ("I don't see an impact, why should I care or pay attention?") is disturbing no matter what faction is in power.
@Refugee We have a small group of people who are active in letter writing and phone calls, but there are maybe 20 of us out of an area with 5,000 or so. It's largely a conservative area that is hell bent on bringing new and risky mining to an economically depressed but currently federally protected area. When people are desperate for jobs, everything else kind of goes out the window. Obama and his administration put orders in place to disallow it, along with our governor. But he will be outgoing next year as well and conservatives have lost their patience with him. Our state (MN) has voted democrat all but like 2-3 times in the past 100 years, but it's due to urban areas while just like the rest of the US the vast majority of geographical area is republican and they are hardly waiting for Trump to continue to free up what they want. And it's going to have a major impact on day to day life here. While I totally understand that for a lot of people there won't be direct and visibly felt changes in their lives, for others there will be. And they are scared. Should they be? I guess I don't know. We'll find out I suppose. All it takes is urban people to have a reason not to vote (Hillary Clinton) and rural people to feel they found a champion, to shift everything. The stakes are high here right now. I hold out the hope that our progressive nature as a state will carry us through. But those of us living in rural and conservative areas feel vigilance is a must.
The Buddha did go to the battle field, to council warring kings not to engage. What we have to offer is mind clarity, concentration, ethical behaviour etc. Politics (personally) I have little confidence in, whatever the flavour ...
I wasn't sure where to put this... Felt it's a good a place as any. Hope you can all play it.
The speaker is Ben Ferencz, who was a Nuremberg Trials Prosecutor.
Trump is of course employed by Dr. Evil.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2017/apr/07/us-syria-response-donald-trump-assad-pentagon-live