President Donald J. Trump

[Lord Grantham]

But what is with the weird socks and obsessions with sheds? You can have meeting a perfectly dressed businessman or lawyer in a suit but then you see he is wearing weirdly colored socks? I recall someone wearing some kind of Disney socks (I think)in a meeting and this guy was a Managing Director of a fairly large outfit and in his 60's.

It's a power move. It sends the message that "I can do what I want, I don't give a fuck about what you think about me".
It worked, you're still thinking about it.   

[albrecht]

Richard Dawkins is trying to popularise the idea of odd socks as well. I guess it's the only way you can rebel against convention, but in such a low key way that it hardly notices. Ties too sometimes. Men generally hate buying socks, I know I do, and sometimes the novelty ones are the only pair that don't have a hole in them, so there's that too.

Yeah, I just put it off to the eccentricities that you Brits are known for, but I found it weird. I know ties can be a big deal: club ties, regimental ties, school ties, etc and you aren't supposed to wear one you aren't affiliated with. And then the Scots with their different tartan patterns.

[albrecht]

It's a power move. It sends the message that "I can do what I want, I don't give a fuck about what you think about me".
It worked, you're still thinking about it.

Ha. Could be but he lost his job in the "merger," see even we can be polite and nuanced and not say "take over," not me. So there is that. I don't think so, unless it is an understated, muted British way of doing "rebelling." He, and others, were still wearing suits and ties and working in "the system." And I've seen them on others, not just in that situation. Rebellious? Maybe in a weak way. It is not like some young turk at these tech companies wearing sneakers or a tee shirt to some meeting before the board.  But it is weird and I do still think about it when I see weird socks (not seen so much here though.)
ps: there is a lawyer year with those long "white dreadlocks" calls himself the "rock-n-roll lawyer." Apparently he is relatively successful (mainly DWI or possession cases.) I'm not sure if his strategy is to take it to trial and letting the jury compare himself with his now clean-cut defendant or something? He has billboards.

[K_Dubb]

Yeah, I just put it off to the eccentricities that you Brits are known for, but I found it weird. I know ties can be a big deal: club ties, regimental ties, school ties, etc and you aren't supposed to wear one you aren't affiliated with. And then the Scots with their different tartan patterns.

Oh goodness, I don't dare google what they do with ties!  Who can guess what depravity can spring from this nation weaned on strawberry blancmange in the shape of a rabbits, only to graduate to jam roly-polys when they are breeched?  Nay, I was given fish-head soup in my baby bottle, and pickled herring upon my first few teeth.

[Dr. MD MD]

With respect, sonny. It's called English for a reason. We can use it how the hell we like and it's automatically correct because we invented it and you didn't. We allow you to use it, don't make us take it away from you. You'd feel pretty stupid making polite chit-chat in Old Norse so watch your step, that's all.

Stop using the "word" whilst. I believe the word you're looking for is while. Your welcome. 

[Dr. MD MD]

Honestly, we are to the point where something like that utterly infantile shoe story could cost him as much as anything Mueller can come up with.  He knows it, too; that one cost him a cool million.

What?! You guys are truly deluded. Every muck you've tried to rake has blown up in your face. Compared to congress he's doing great! 

[Dr. MD MD]

I said that English (That is the Kings/Queens (And long may she reign) ENGLISH) is a bastardisation of several languages (Though not Americanshire). Welsh is some abomination that requires too much phlegm to get around even if it were understandable. Gaelic can be as beautiful as a fresh rose if spoken by a flame haired alabaster skinned Irish lady by the name of Máire Brennan...But I digress.

Americanshire is not English, and its all the more galling that I've been told (TOLD!!) several times I speak British. I was even asked if I was sure I was English and not Irish(!). I (as I have to) explain patiently there is no such language as British.

So far my quest to persuade the colonists that revocation of the D of I and the reinsertion of vowels into their heathen version of whatever they call English will be I'm sure met with some whining, but they'll eventually see the light and thank me.

I notice there's an automatic spellchecker now that forces me into British spelling. You must have had something to do with that.   

[Dr. MD MD]

Yes Pud, that one.  Immediately upon hearing it, I thought, "this sounds like it's ripped from the pages of some British tabloid."  It's time to send all the carpetbaggers back home; you've debased our national dialogue enough.

Here, here! No, wait...hear, hear! 

[K_Dubb]

What?! You guys are truly deluded. Every muck you've tried to rake has blown up in your face. Compared to congress he's doing great! 

*Yawn.  Congress's collective approval is meaningless when incumbency is the single biggest factor in determining who wins elections.  It has nothing to do with their power to remove him.  It may even encourage it if they're looking for something to make them seem effective, powerful and bipartisan.

[21st Century Man]

Stop using the "word" whilst. I believe the word you're looking for is while. Your welcome. 

I like whilst better in some instances.  I've used it myself.  I also like to use the word colour rather than color.  It is more colourful! 

[Yorkshire pud]

Stop using the "word" whilst. I believe the word you're looking for is while. Your welcome. 

And it's you're.

You're welcome.

[PaulAtreides]

It's all relative. In comparison to congress and mainstream media he's doing great. 

No, he's not.  Even amongst Saltine Americans, he's slipping.

[aldousburbank]

Few things have given me as much pleasure this year as watching people get all retarded hating on President Trump. I mean some of them were already over the edge stupid but even a few apparently intelligent types just totally fell for the Obama infatuated media hype/hate. Stupid motherfuckers. I'm sitting here laughing while you leak your hate spittle onto your made in China shoes. Have some respect. He's the president of my country. Dipshits. I'm so looking forward to Kid Rock winning in the senate. Good times!


https://youtu.be/5TuZf1j7LdQ

[starrmtn001]

Few things have given me as much pleasure this year as watching people get all retarded hating on President Trump. I mean some of them were already over the edge stupid but even a few apparently intelligent types just totally fell for the Obama infatuated media hype/hate. Stupid motherfuckers. I'm sitting here laughing while you leak your hate spittle onto your made in China shoes. Have some respect. He's the president of my country. Dipshits. I'm so looking forward to Kid Rock winning in the senate. Good times!


https://youtu.be/5TuZf1j7LdQ

+1!

[Yorkshire pud]

Few things have given me as much pleasure this year as watching people get all retarded hating on President Trump. I mean some of them were already over the edge stupid but even a few apparently intelligent types just totally fell for the Obama infatuated media hype/hate. Stupid motherfuckers. I'm sitting here laughing while you leak your hate spittle onto your made in China shoes. Have some respect. He's the president of my country. Dipshits. I'm so looking forward to Kid Rock winning in the senate. Good times!

Awwww bless you. 

[Gd5150]

Few things have given me as much pleasure this year as watching people get all retarded hating on President Trump. I mean some of them were already over the edge stupid but even a few apparently intelligent types just totally fell for the Obama infatuated media hype/hate. Stupid motherfuckers. I'm sitting here laughing while you leak your hate spittle onto your made in China shoes. Have some respect. He's the president of my country. Dipshits. I'm so looking forward to Kid Rock winning in the senate. Good times!


https://youtu.be/5TuZf1j7LdQ

They're bitching about Trump donating a million dollars. There is no end to their psychotic detachment from reality. It really is sad to watch. How so many so-called intelligent people can be so blinded by hate.

You notice the people who've actually lost everything aren't complaining. They're taking matters into their own hands and coming together to deal with things together. That's Texas. And that's real America.

[Yorkshire pud]

They're bitching about Trump donating a million dollars. There is no end to their psychotic detachment from reality. It really is sad to watch. How so many so-called intelligent people can be so blinded by hate.

You notice the people who've actually lost everything aren't complaining. They're taking matters into their own hands and coming together to deal with things together. That's Texas. And that's real America.

Oh purleeeeease! There was a typhoon hit south east Asia three days ago, and they too lost everything, and guess what; they too will deal with things and come together. Its what they do. If you had travelled any further than your local Wendys you'd find that people in other countries pull together too but the difference is they get on with it, they don't have to say its 'because I'm a (Insert state/county/country's name) citizen'. 

Its sickening Trump tried to make it about him. Sure, a million dollars will be welcome, but Sandra Bullock donated the same, and she has a lot less money than Trump brags about having. And him and his family are spending US taxpayer money like its going out of fashion. And though its a terrible event in TX, maybe in ten years or so when its cleaned up they'll be less keen to put houses on flood plains in the rebuild.

[PB the Deplorable]

From Scott Adam's blog (author of Dilbert):


How To Know You’re In a Mass Hysteria Bubble

History is full of examples of Mass Hysterias. They happen fairly often. The cool thing about mass hysterias is that you don’t know when you are in one. But sometimes the people who are not experiencing the mass hysteria can recognize when others are experiencing one, if they know what to look for.

I’ll teach you what to look for.

A mass hysteria happens when the public gets a wrong idea about something that has strong emotional content and it triggers cognitive dissonance that is often supported by confirmation bias. In other words, people spontaneously hallucinate a whole new (and usually crazy-sounding) reality and believe they see plenty of evidence for it. The Salem Witch Trials are the best-known example of mass hysteria. The McMartin Pre-School case and the Tulip Bulb hysteria are others. The dotcom bubble probably qualifies. We might soon learn that the Russian Collusion story was mass hysteria in hindsight. The curious lack of solid evidence for Russian collusion is a red flag. But we’ll see how that plays out.

The most visible Mass Hysteria of the moment involves the idea that the United States intentionally elected a racist President. If that statement just triggered you, it might mean you are in the Mass Hysteria bubble. The cool part is that you can’t fact-check my claim you are hallucinating if you are actually hallucinating. But you can read my description of the signs of mass hysteria and see if you check off the boxes.

If you’re in the mass hysteria, recognizing you have all the symptoms of hysteria won’t help you be aware you are in it. That’s not how hallucinations work. Instead, your hallucination will automatically rewrite itself to expel any new data that conflicts with its illusions.

But if you are not experiencing mass hysteria, you might be totally confused by the actions of the people who are. They appear to be irrational, but in ways that are hard to define. You can’t tell if they are stupid, unscrupulous, ignorant, mentally ill, emotionally unstable or what. It just looks frickin’ crazy.

The reason you can’t easily identify what-the-hell is going on in the country right now is that a powerful mass hysteria is in play. If you see the signs after I point them out, you’re probably not in the hysteria bubble. If you read this and do NOT see the signs, it probably means you’re trapped inside the mass hysteria bubble.

Here are some signs of mass hysteria. This is my own take on it, but I welcome you to fact-check it with experts on mass hysteria.

1. The trigger event for cognitive dissonance

On November 8th of 2016, half the country learned that everything they believed to be both true and obvious turned out to be wrong. The people who thought Trump had no chance of winning were under the impression they were smart people who understood their country, and politics, and how things work in general. When Trump won, they learned they were wrong. They were so very wrong that they reflexively (because this is how all brains work) rewrote the scripts they were seeing in their minds until it all made sense again. The wrong-about-everything crowd decided that the only way their world made sense, with their egos intact, is that either the Russians helped Trump win or there are far more racists in the country than they imagined, and he is their king. Those were the seeds of the two mass hysterias we witness today.

Trump supporters experienced no trigger event for cognitive dissonance when Trump won. Their worldview was confirmed by observed events.

2. The Ridiculousness of it

One sign of a good mass hysteria is that it sounds bonkers to anyone who is not experiencing it. Imagine your neighbor telling you he thinks the other neighbor is a witch. Or imagine someone saying the local daycare provider is a satanic temple in disguise. Or imagine someone telling you tulip bulbs are more valuable than gold. Crazy stuff.

Compare that to the idea that our president is a Russian puppet. Or that the country accidentally elected a racist who thinks the KKK and Nazis are “fine people.” Crazy stuff.

If you think those examples don’t sound crazy â€" regardless of the reality â€" you are probably inside the mass hysteria bubble.

3. The Confirmation Bias

If you are inside the mass hysteria bubble, you probably interpreted President Trump’s initial statement on Charlottesville â€" which was politically imperfect to say the least â€" as proof-positive he is a damned racist.

If you are outside the mass hysteria bubble you might have noticed that President Trump never campaigned to be our moral leader. He presented himself as â€" in his own words “no angel” â€" with a set of skills he offered to use in the public’s interest. He was big on law and order, and equal justice under the law. But he never offered moral leadership. Voters elected him with that knowledge. Evidently, Republicans don’t depend on politicians for moral leadership. That’s probably a good call.

When the horror in Charlottesville shocked the country, citizens instinctively looked to their president for moral leadership. The president instead provided a generic law and order statement. Under pressure, he later named specific groups and disavowed the racists. He was clearly uncomfortable being our moral lighthouse. That’s probably why he never described his moral leadership as an asset when running for office. We observe that he has never been shy about any other skill he brings to the job, so it probably isn’t an accident when he avoids mentioning any ambitions for moral leadership. If he wanted us to know he would provide that service, I think he would have mentioned it by now.

If you already believed President Trump is a racist, his weak statement about Charlottesville seems like confirmation. But if you believe he never offered moral leadership, only equal treatment under the law, that’s what you saw instead. And you made up your own mind about the morality.

The tricky part here is that any interpretation of what happened could be confirmation bias. But ask yourself which one of these versions sounds less crazy:

1. A sitting president, who is a branding expert, thought it would be a good idea to go easy on murderous Nazis as a way to improve his popularity.

or…

2. The country elected a racist leader who is winking to the KKK and White Supremacists that they have a free pass to start a race war now.

or…

3. A mentally unstable racist clown with conman skills (mostly just lying) eviscerated the Republican primary field and won the presidency. He keeps doing crazy, impulsive racist stuff. But for some reason, the economy is going well, jobs are looking good, North Korea blinked, ISIS is on the ropes, and the Supreme Court got a qualified judge. It was mostly luck.

or…

4. The guy who didn’t offer to be your moral leader didn’t offer any moral leadership, just law and order, applied equally. His critics cleverly and predictably framed it as being soft on Nazis.

One of those narratives is less crazy-sounding than the others. That doesn’t mean the less-crazy one has to be true. But normal stuff happens far more often than crazy stuff. And critics will frame normal stuff as crazy whenever they get a chance.

4. The Oversized Reaction

It would be hard to overreact to a Nazi murder, or to racists marching in the streets with torches. That stuff demands a strong reaction. But if a Republican agrees with you that Nazis are the worst, and you threaten to punch that Republican for not agreeing with you exactly the right way, that might be an oversized reaction.

5. The Insult without supporting argument

When people have actual reasons for disagreeing with you, they offer those reasons without hesitation. Strangers on social media will cheerfully check your facts, your logic, and your assumptions. But when you start seeing ad hominem attacks that offer no reasons at all, that might be a sign that people in the mass hysteria bubble don’t understand what is wrong with your point of view except that it sounds more sensible than their own.

For the past two days I have been disavowing Nazis on Twitter. The most common response from the people who agree with me is that my comic strip sucks and I am ugly.

The mass hysteria signals I described here are not settled science, or anything like it. This is only my take on the topic, based on personal observation and years of experience with hypnosis and other forms of persuasion. I present this filter on the situation as the first step in dissolving the mass hysteria. It isn’t enough, but more persuasion is coming. If you are outside the mass hysteria bubble, you might see what I am doing in this blog as a valuable public service. If you are inside the mass hysteria bubble, I look like a Nazi collaborator.

How do I look to you?


  http://blog.dilbert.com/post/164297628606/how-to-know-youre-in-a-mass-hysteria-bubble

[Yorkshire pud]

^^^You wrote all that yourself? Hysterically? Wow....

[PB the Deplorable]

^^^You wrote all that yourself? Hysterically? Wow....

Um, no.  Copy and paste.

[Yorkshire pud]

Um, no.  Copy and paste.

You're not even putting your name to it? You never fail to disappoint me.. How can you be so heartless? 

[PB the Deplorable]

You're not even putting your name to it? You never fail to disappoint me.. How can you be so heartless? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOc5K3gZREg 

[paladin1991]

Well not exactly. The reason Mueller is doing what he's doing started with Flynn. It was known by Trump (because Obama and others including the then DAG told him) Flynn wasn't to be trusted, and why, although Trump would have known about Flynns love in with Putin and Turkey. Yet Trump still gave him the job as NSA. The then DAG had approached the Trump circus and told them Flynn was in peril of being compromised by the Russians. Trump ignored her, and only had Flynns resignation/fired him because apparently Pence had been blissfully ignorant about the whole thing due to Flynn lying to him (16 days after the DAG had told Trump, yeah right!) Because Pence had only been Trumps number one in the campaign, how would he possibly know!

Sessions had to admit he'd not been totally honest on his initial statement about connections with Russia. Jared (no family in the WH so Trump said, remember?) too lied on his security clearance application, twice.

You see the pattern now? Comey was looking at this stage into Flynn. Trump fired Comey because of it, although he'd previously had the AG and DAG draft a memo that Comey should go because he'd not been nice to Clinton in the campaign, you believe that shit? Neither does anyone else.

Since then Jr and Jared, Manifort, and several Russians (at least two with Kremlin connections) were found (because dumbass Jr admitted to it after the emails had been given to the press-by whom? Jared?) to have arranged a meeting to find shit on Clinton provided by the Kremlin, erm, discuss adoptions!

Then Jared wanted an exclusive secret channel to the Kremlin using the Russian embassy! It seems now because he's in serious debt to the tune of $600million and needed a below the table means of getting money- its illegal to get funds from Russian banks so he didn't want that little deal made known.


There is of course much more that has been revealed and not denied, well at first it was, but in true Trump circus fashion modified to 'So what if we did? We didn't mean any harm, we're new to this WH dynasty shit and still finding our feet, feel sorry for us'

And then the king pin himself.
It was Trump himself who brought the light on himself because he can't help himself. Even if its detrimental to himself; He has no filter, no stop valve. He bragged about wikileaks revealng things in the future tense, and how Russia should reveal 30000 e mails about Clinton.

Him and his family are too stupid and too gilded to have ever needed to think strategically, they just click their fingers and expect it to happen, or make right what they do wrong. Trumps insatiable tweeting about random often unconnected topics that relate directly to him either negatively or in his mind positively show a self absorbed narcissist. Grown ups tend to take notice of their children trying to point to a shiny thing to distract the fact they smashed an ornament. The Grown ups that are far more intelligent than Trump could ever possibly hope to be have noticed, and still Trump points to the shiny thing, because he's terminally stupid.

If the Democrat party disbanded tomorrow, Mueller will still be quietly carefully finding the trail, piecing it together. Manifort will sing. Flynn will sing..and the whole house of shit will come crashing down.

*yawn* When you wax hysterical it is mildly interesting.

[paladin1991]

Whoa there, Mr. Vashtar. Some of your fellow countrymen have vested interests over here...right Pud?

Wait.  What?    '...right Pud? '  WTF, Chuck?  You been playing me pud?  You live here, don't you?  Ah, now your argumentation takes on some gravitas.  Hmmmm, yeah.   Now I see.  Where do you live?  NYC?  California?

[paladin1991]

He's a traitor.

Cuntfirmation.   The pud is and expat.  Or have you become naturalized?  Come on out of the closet, pud.   

[paladin1991]

Yeah but CA might declare independence, and as its the biggest net contributor to the US economy by far, the wall won't be that big...maybe enough bricks to go round Mara Lago and NY Trump tower. I see that working out actually.

Ah ha.  Cali it is.  Where abouts?  When did you bone out on England for the safe zone that is Califoprnia?  Why the fuck didn't we get together for beers?  Dude we would have been laughing at each other all night.

[paladin1991]

The thing is, Pud, nothing has come out since the election that is the equivalent of the Nixon smoking-gun tape that causes some significant portion of his base to turn away in disgust.  Mueller can root around all he wants but unless he accomplishes a similar feat it will end in censure at best.

The other route is for Trump to screw up to the point where Congress looks for an excuse and pulls one out of Mueller's truffle bag.

No dubby.  Don't try and explain the obvious to the idiots. 

[21st Century Man]

*yawn* When you wax hysterical it is mildly interesting.

From Scott Adam's blog (author of Dilbert):

How To Know You’re In a Mass Hysteria Bubble

Poor Pud.  I hope he comes out of it soon.

[paladin1991]

He's trying to suck up to you wankers, pay no attention. English was good enough for Adam and Eve so it's good enough for me. I regularly get into fights with Yanks over this impertinence. The number of scrota I have demolished horked down my gullet over the years last week must have reached three score in figures by now.

FIFY

[Dr. MD MD]

Oh purleeeeease! There was a typhoon hit south east Asia three days ago, and they too lost everything, and guess what; they too will deal with things and come together. Its what they do. If you had travelled any further than your local Wendys you'd find that people in other countries pull together too but the difference is they get on with it, they don't have to say its 'because I'm a (Insert state/county/country's name) citizen'. 

Its sickening Trump tried to make it about him. Sure, a million dollars will be welcome, but Sandra Bullock donated the same, and she has a lot less money than Trump brags about having. And him and his family are spending US taxpayer money like its going out of fashion. And though its a terrible event in TX, maybe in ten years or so when its cleaned up they'll be less keen to put houses on flood plains in the rebuild.

What's really sickening is your obsession with demonizing Trump. It's why an idiot like you doesn't realize your posts help him more than hurt him.