Freaked Out Friday: Guest Commentator

Posted By: Kathleen DavidPosted On:

Jerry Chandler here doing a Freak Out Friday fill-in to cover for Peter’s rather hectic schedule this weekend. Let’s go ahead and dive in.

1) “You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”

I think many of us wanted to ask that of Trump this week. Sadly, we already know the answer. If Trump did nothing else in the last week, he definitively answered that question by making it clear that he has none.

Services were held for Sgt. La David Johnson Saturday. Trump took to Twitter first thing in the morning not to comment on the Sgt.’s service to his country or his sacrifice, but rather to launch more attacks on Rep. Frederica Wilson and by extension the family. He continued to insult Wilson and the family throughout the week, repeatedly claiming their version of the call and their stating that they found it offensive at the time were lies despite multiple witnesses to their end of the call as well as John Kelly’s comments last week basically confirming Wilson’s description of the call with regards to Trump’s wording.

I have made no secret over the years of my disdain for Trump, but I would have been more than happy to have given him all the credit in the world for doing the right thing this week. All he would have had to do was apologize. All he would have had to do was say that he spoke in an inartful manner during the call, meant no offense by it, but realized after the initial criticism of his call that his choice of words could indeed have inadvertently caused greater pain to a widow so soon after the loss of her husband and then let the issue go.

It would not only have been the decent thing to do, but it would have been the politically intelligent thing to do. Had Donald Trump come out early in the week and made such a statement, you can’t attack him over the matter after that without looking like a partisan hack. But he didn’t, and he’s gone well past the point where any such apology would be effective. He didn’t do it because to do this, to show this simple act of decency, intelligence, and class, would require Donald Trump to make the admission that he made a mistake or got something wrong in this even if only by sincerely but poorly chosen wording. That’s not something his ego will allow. So what we got was another week of watching the man who sits in the single most powerful elected office in our country attacking a Gold Star family and their longtime family friend in their time of grief.

We know the answer. You have no sense of decency, sir.

2) He knew him before he didn’t know him.

Tuesday saw the Senator from Arizona, Jeff Flake, give a blistering speech on the chamber floor, pointedly attacking what the Republican party and politics have become in the age of Trump. In many ways it was reminiscent of another speech given by Sen. Margaret Chase Smith on June 1, 1950. Her “Declaration of Conscience” address, given in the same chamber, was a powerful denouncement and indictment of what her Republican party was seemingly becoming and the man behind the change, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy.

Trump’s response was to claim the first time he saw Flake on TV he thought he was a Democrat and to claim that Flake was against him and had come out with his book, Conscious of a Conservative, long before Flake got to know him; even before the campaign. Mind you, this was in the same press scrum where Trump had claimed to have one of the great memories of all time to support attacking a Gold Star family.

That claim becomes particularly hilarious when you look at two facts. Flake’s book was published in August of 2017, and Jeff Flake very publicly questioned and criticized Trump in front of other Republicans when the two met in July of 2016. This was covered by the media back when it happened. Additionally, Trump’s documented comments at that time also showed that he knew who Jeff Flake was even back then.

On some level, it seems a small thing, but it becomes yet another example that Donald Trump will lie about anything no matter how foolish it makes him look. Whatever comes into his mind in the moment, Donald Trump will say it regardless of whether or not he and everyone else listening knows it to be untrue. In the guy down the street, it’s an annoying if perhaps comical character flaw. In the President of the United States, it is a character trait that more and more undercuts the ability of anyone, from the average man or woman on the street to other world leaders, to be able trust anything Donald Trump says.

Did he do anything right? Yes, to a degree.

Thursday, Trump attempted to put the opioid abuse crisis in this country in the spotlight. He came out and declared a nationwide public health emergency to combat the opioid crisis at a White House event.

He took criticism from some quarters for not issuing a national disaster declaration, an act that would allow a greater scope of funding to address the issue. A declaration of a nationwide public health emergency will not automatically be followed by the additional federal funding for the crisis that some see as needed. While his action will not allow the federal government to immediately tap into funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund to combat the opioid crisis, his order will still expand needed access to telemedicine in rural areas, instruct agencies to curb unnecessary bureaucratic delays for dispensing grant money, and allow agencies to shift some federal grants towards fighting the crisis.

There will always be- sometimes quite valid -complaints that actions like this are not enough. But the fact is that this is at least a good start. In taking this step, Trump did the right thing this week. Hopefully, it will be the right first step of many by the administration to help the country combat this problem.

20 comments on “Freaked Out Friday: Guest Commentator”

  1. And then there’s the stunt pulled just today: Openly accusing any woman who claims Trump harassed them is a liar. There’s just no words. Well, there ARE, but I want to keep this post family friendly.

    1. Hmmmm…
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      Who are you gonna believe? The women who accuse Trump of past sexual harassment and assault or Trump, a man caught on tape bragging about sexually harassing and assaulting women and getting away with it?
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      I don’t know. Ðámņëd tough call there.

  3. ” but I would have been more than happy to have given [Trump] all the credit in the world for doing the right thing this week. All he would have had to do was apologize.”

    And yet, who would believe him? Who would accept it? Trump has made his bed of lies, dishonesty, and insincerity, and now he lies in it. He could make a speech that water is wet, that the sun is yellow, and that an hour is 60 minutes; and I wouldn’t believe what he said.

    This is absolutely NO excuse for his not doing the right thing – but “right” and “sincerity” are not in his character, and at this point, he has demonstrated it to the world. When was the last time a dictator was recognized for being SO blatantly despicable and untrustworthy? The whole world is watching!

    1. In this case, does belief in his actions really matter?
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      They held services for Sgt. Johnson on Saturday. Let’s say in this alternate timeline that Trump wakes up, comes to his senses, and tweets no attacks on Wilson. Instead, he tweets a few times recognizing Johnson’s service and the loss to his family. That evening, Trump issues an apology. He says he’s very sorry for the pain and discomfort he caused the family, he never intended offense or further pain, but realizes that his words may not have been chosen wisely or appropriately under the circumstances. Then he doesn’t launch another attack in any way, shape, or form after that.
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      He might not have been the least bit sincere in doing it, but at that point anyone still attacking him just looks like a partisan jáçkášš. Besides, compare that scenario to the real world. Trump launched attacks on the day of services held for Sgt. Johnson. Trump attacked Wilson and the family during the week. Trump whined while still lying about the call until late in the week. We watched the President attacking a Gold Star family in the days following the burial of their loved one.
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      If you could go back and choose which of those two scenarios you would have liked to have seen and make it the real one, which one would you have chosen to be what we saw?
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      There are things that politicians I like do where I doubt their sincerity when they stand before the cameras and talk abut it. The question becomes one of are they doing the right thing.
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      If Trump had chosen to stop attacking a Gold Star family and their longtime friend and instead issue an apology and walk away from trading back and forth barbs with people over the matter, it would have been the right thing to do. I could have at least given him credit for doing the right thing vs the tragic spectacle we actually got to see this week.

    1. I was wondering if Sarah Huckabee Sanders really realised what blatant and transparent lies she was going to have to spout and appear to believe before she took the job?
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      And then i thought that her daddy urged her to take it so that at least one member of the family would actually get to work in the Oval Office…

      1. Motes and beams.
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        From both directions … but one side is actually doing something about its own bad ‘uns.

      2. One side is able to admit it has bad seed without crumbling into a pillar of salt. The next time a GOPer admits someone on their team is capable of being wrong will be the first time.

      3. Now, Neil, that’s not at all true. Just look around.
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        Why, there are a ton of conservatives, some who commented here regularly during the W Bush years, who freely state that W got was wrong on many things. Granted, they waited until he was out of office and to start really condemning him and while he was in office they defended the same things they now condemn.
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        And, why, there are a number of conservatives out there, some who posted here in the past, who freely and openly state that Palin is a dunce and wrong about much. Granted, they waited until she was as politically viable and useful to the cause as a shattered wine glass to do. And, granted, they spent her early national stage years with their heads so far up her ášš they could see her tonsils, but, still, once she wasn’t deemed useful enough to defend anymore…
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        Hëll, we’re probably a generation or two away from the common Republican talking point being how Reagan was a RINO who screwed things up.

  5. This Friday maybe so much dámņ fun.
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    Monday starts off with=
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    Two indictments
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    The revelation of an arrest earlier in the month and a guilty plea of lying to the FBI on matters of communicating with Russians about Hillary’s hacked emails before it was publicly known that the DNC had been hacked and the emails stolen and an email that specifically talks about using low level campaign staff and not “DT”
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    Trump’s transgender military policy change has been blocked by federal court
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    .
    .
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    And Sarah Huckabee Sanders is starting out the press briefing on this huge news day by telling a brain dead story about reporters drinking beer together and paying the bill in tiered tax style. Following that she starts talking about GPS and flinging poo.
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    Gonna be a fun week.

  6. Hooboy… Another terror attack in NYC and Trump’s finger pointing instead of doing anything even remotely helpful. Meanwhile, he’s probably squirming as three of his flunkies are now squarely in Mueller’s crosshairs. GO GET ‘EM!

    1. Did you notice the difference between this event and another recent event like it in America?
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      When a white supremacist gets in a car and runs down and kills American citizens, Trump doesn’t talk about it for days. When he finally does, he declares that he was waiting for all of the facts to come in before speaking because, unlike that fake news out there, he waits for all the facts and is more informed than even the press. And, golly, you know, this was bad but there are bad actors on both sides and those bad people weren’t like those fine, decent people (the ones with torches screaming racist šhìŧ) that were there the night before.
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      How long did he wait to speak on this and start demonizing Muslims and people who came into this country from countries not even on his Muslim ban list?

  7. Consider this notice to all Hillary bashers and Trump idiots: If your postings get hung up to be moderated, I’m done okaying them. They’re going straight into the trash. Twenty eight months of investigations into her proved nothing and I’m fed up with you quoting ancient disproven claims that you read off right wing “news” sites. It’s over. Find someone else’s website for your stupidity.
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    PAD

    1. How many posts bìŧçhìņg about you “suppressing free speech” have you gotten in response to this?

  8. Speaking of the hypocrisy I mentioned to Aaron above…
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    “So when it was a Nazi, Trump needed more facts,” Noah said. “When it was a Muslim, that was the only fact he needed.” Other than being a “fundamentally dishonest person,” the host deduced that the president learned this technique from “the Trump intelligence briefing, aka Fox News.”
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    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDF3tv1JYRA

    1. Yeah, I’m an avid viewer of TDS. I’m forced to rely on it and other parody news sources like the Late Show, Opposition, Last Week Tonight, and Full Frontal for information without spin or bias. Their only real goal is to make fun of EVERYONE.

    1. …not to mention that he has three passports {that we know of – that’s just the ones they know about that have his real name on them, no telling how many others he might have managed to get under other names} and had also applied for other passports at least seven other times during the past ten years…
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      …and that he set up and used false identities while traveling abroad…

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