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UPDATE III: "Let’s not mumble or whisper about the central issue facing our country: What is this democratic nation to do when the man serving as president of the United States plainly has no business being president of the United States?
The Michael Flynn fiasco was the entirely predictable product of the indiscipline, deceit, incompetence and moral indifference that characterize Donald Trump’s approach to leadership.
Even worse, Trump’s loyalties are now in doubt. Questions about his relationship with Vladimir Putin and Russia will not go away, even if congressional Republicans try to slow-walk a transparent investigation into what ties Trump has with Putin’s Russia — and who on his campaign did what, and when, with Russian intelligence officials and diplomats. . .
[T]he Trump we are seeing now is fully consistent with the vindictive, self-involved and scattered man we saw during the 17 months of his campaign. In one of the primary debates, Jeb Bush said of Trump: 'He’s a chaos candidate and he’d be a chaos president.' Rarely has a politician been so prophetic. . .
As a country, we now need to face the truth, however awkward and difficult it might be. "
Read the Washington Post, Admit it: Trump is unfit to serve.
UPDATE VII: [N]ow things have gotten real, and all indications are that the people in charge have no idea what they’re doing, on any front.
In some ways this cluelessness may be a good thing: malevolence may indeed be tempered by incompetence. It’s not just the court defeat over immigration; Republican ignorance has turned what was supposed to be a blitzkrieg against Obamacare into a quagmire, to the great benefit of millions. And Mr. Trump’s imploding job approval might help slow the march to autocracy.
But meanwhile, who’s in charge? Crises happen, and we have an intellectual vacuum at the top. Be afraid, be very afraid."
Read The New York Times, Ignorance Is Strength.
UPDATE VI: "About a century before Trump was born, P.T. Barnum was drawing crowds and headlines with his large personality and ego, skilled dealmaking and shameless hoaxes. Both men are known for skirting around the truth, using exaggeration and in some cases, downright lies to garner attention (and in Barnum’s case, ticket sales). Their careers, in some ways, followed similar paths — both entrepreneurs dealt in land development and entered politics, and both used their entrepreneurial pursuits to become household names appealing to the common man. Both suffered the financial blows of bankruptcies and court fights. . .
Barnum [once] wrote. 'Put on the appearance of business, and generally the reality will follow.' . .
'Barnum was loud, brassy, full of bombast, vulgar, childish, surely just a little crooked — the ultimate, delightful phony from a delightfully phony era,' wrote David McCullough in a 1973 review of a biography of the man. 'If Barnum’s game was a shell game, nobody minded — so long as he was inventive about it, so long as he had a sense of humor.'
Barnum launched his fame with a hoax. In 1835, he purchased Joice Heth, a blind slave who claimed she was the 161-year-old former nurse of George Washington. Crowds lined up in New York and other parts of New England to see the woman, who Barnum advertised as 'one of the greatest natural curiosities ever witnessed,' according to an obituary of Barnum in the New York Times. After the woman’s death the following year, the truth came out in a public autopsy that she was likely no older than 80. But even then, Barnum reaped the benefits, staging the public autopsy and charging 50 cents for admission. . .
But 'the bogusness of Joice Heth did not matter,' wrote Barnum biographer Irving Wallace. 'Barnum gradually came to be more admired than resented, for the people desperately needed what he had to offer.' . .
The two showmen wrote books on similar topics with surprisingly similar titles; Barnum’s 'The Art of Money Getting' and Trump’s 'The Art of the Deal.'"
Read the Washington Post, Out goes P.T. Barnum’s circus. In comes — Donald Trump.
UPDATE V: Read the Washington Post, One chart shows how Obama’s job performance compares with his predecessors.
This is the chart:
Then the Washington Post, How Donald Trump could create a financial crisis.
UPDATE IV: Read the Washington Post, In final jobs report of Obama administration, U.S. economy adds 156,000 new jobs in December, which notes that "[t]he report marks the 75th straight month of job growth — the most extended streak the country has seen since 1939."
UPDATE III: "Trump loves to play the reality TV host promising next week's big reveal, but he never has the goods".
Read Salon, Donald Trump’s reality TV bamboozle: A political style shaped by "The Apprentice".
UPDATE II: Read Reuters, Jobless claims fall to near 43-year low. , which notes "[i]nitial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 28,000 to a seasonally adjusted 235,000 for the week ended Dec. 31, the Labor Department said on Thursday. That was close to the 233,000 touched in mid-November, which was the lowest level since November 1973."
Read also:
Obama the Socialist Failure, More Proof,
Obama the Socialist Failure: Lower Unemployment, Deficits, Gas Prices and Inflation (What More Could He Do To Destroy America) and
Obama's Failure to Fulfill Republi-CON Predictions.
UPDATE: "[E]conomic recovery, rebuilt auto industry, 15 million new jobs, less foreign oil, cheap gas, more clean energy, fewer troops overseas, Osama bin Laden dead, agreements on climate change and Iran’s nukes, higher incomes, less poverty, same-sex marriage legalized, millions more insured. . .
But Americans thought the country was on the wrong track, and voters demanded change. They rejected Obama’s handpicked successor in favor of the man who led the campaign challenging Obama’s legitimacy as a natural-born American.
Read the Washington Post, The farewell message Obama wishes he could give: 'You’re welcome!'
So-called pro wrestling is a long time fantasy entertainment of Americans.
"Donald Trump is running the nation’s show now, [former pro wrestler Shane 'The Franchise'] Douglas thought — an all-American entertainer, just like himself. . .
He added: 'The fans don’t care if this is all real or fake, but they want to be entertained, and they don’t want to be insulted.'
Trump’s critics look at the president and see a con man — someone who has made a lot of empty promises to struggling Americans, and those nostalgic for a time and place that may never really have existed. They see steps like encouraging the Carrier heating and air conditioning company to keep a few hundred jobs in Indiana as stunts, and fully expect Trump’s supporters to feel nothing but disappointment once they see it for what it really is."
Read the Washington Post, Every pro wrestler respects a good shtick. That’s why this one voted for Trump.
Another fantasy is about to take charge of government, and time will tell.
