Trump has violated the first and most important rule of the D.C. political system. He actually did or tried to do what he campaigned on. Millions of new Jobs., Unemployment is the lowest in half a century and for minorities, the lowest ever, Jobs for the handicapped which were falling prior to him, rose 7-11%. The economy is thriving and pensions are are improved. According to a previous NYT opinion, he is the reason the ISIS Islamic State was defeated. He actually sat down with Kim to see if there is a way to denuclearize Korea. Success or failure, he tried. What ever words you use, the reason for this impeachment process is purely political. The Democrats want him off the ballot next year. They don't care about High Crimes. They don't think they have anyone to beat him can beat him.
19
How true. He built the Wall all along the southern border. Mexico paid for it. He repealed and replaced Obamacare. He got Congress to approve a trillion-dollar infrastructure repair program and we can see the results in improved airports, roads and bridges. He said he’d reduce the national debt and have it down to zero by the end of his second term. Truly wonderful. Uh, oh, wait....
259
The United States has a 984 billion dollar projected budget deficit for 2019. All the talk of a great economy is happy talk geared to artificially raise the markets. The man is out of control. He will bankrupt the United States financially the same as he did to his companies in his personal life.
212
Is it possible that Trump did some good things and some truly terrible things?
12
We need to implore the Senate to conduct their vote anonymously. Call me naive, but I still believe there are a few Republican Senators who would vote to remove if they could vote without public and Trumpian reprisals. They're clearly cowards, but I don't care. If the only way they'll have the guts to do the right thing is if they do it anonymously, then so be it. At least the monster will be slain.
82
Pelosi has more than his presidency in a vice grip
73
Yet Maureen equivocated Trump with Hilliary in her 2016 pieces. Strange.
31
I'll stick with pathological liar.
15
So, Maureen, STILL think he was a better choice in 2016 than Hillary?
64
What does he see in the mirror?
5
Impeachmemt- Obama never did that, what a loser, see how much better Trump is than him.
15
Maureen,
Seppuku was regarded as the honorable thing to do in samurai Japan, when 1) faced with an insurmountable ‘new reality’ (e.g. capture); and 2) a samurai conquered their fear of pain and death, and did it to themselves in service of that ‘honor.’ Honorable is about the furthest thing from a Trump descriptor. The word you’re looking for is, instead, ‘hamartia.’
45
As Trump brings down Trump he brings the country and world opinion of the our country down with him. The damage maybe irrepable. That being said we must confront the painful reality that the election and Presidency of Trump will forever be a symptom of the cancers of racism, economic disparity, greed and complacency.
70
Just because Trump has proditomania does not mean that intelligent people are not out to remove him from power.
17
Trump asked a foreign power to interfere in our elections not once but twice. He got away with it the first time. Are we going to let him off again?
Trump asked a foreign power to interfere in our election in 2016 when he said, “Russia if you’re listening ...”. His supporters defended him saying that he didn’t know enough, he is not a politician, ... etc. Mueller reported that there was not enough evidence to indicate a conspiracy. The very next day Trump indulged in the same behavior, this time with Ukraine. Courageous testimony from our career diplomats told us that he tried to bribe the newly elected Ukrainian President to provide him dirt against a political opponent in exchange for the Security Aid duly approved by a bipartisan Congress which he withheld ... until he was outed.
This time the case against Trump is overwhelming. His defense? Nothing of substance. That he was actually fighting corruption. Really? In this ONE company Burisma? There’s no Quid Pro Quo, he says, ... after all wasn’t the aid released. Yes, once he was outed. The fact that he wasn’t successful in getting what he sought is not a defense. Attempted murder is still a crime.
The Republican strategists and talk show hosts say look at the polls, to convince us that the public has no stomach for impeachment.
Remember what Cohen told us - Trump rigged polls to favor him.
👇
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/01/17/politics/michael-cohen-poll-rigging/index.html
28
Does anyone think a deranged president like Trump will leave the Whitehouse after being essentially told by the Republicans that he can get away with whatever he wants, just by claiming" a lot of people said..."
32
I kind of have a feeling that more angry democrats and independents will not tolerate the flim flan man too much longer. Lying. cursing and disparaging good and decent people does not bode well.
25
what makes every republican plus fear him? what is the hold he has ?
29
This is what you get when you marry uncontrolled ego, narcissism, pettiness and power..
More uncontrolled ego, narcissism, pettiness, unparalleled abuse of power coupled with victimhood and the idea that those employed by our government work for you, personally, not we, the people.
25
The big question is once Trump is acquitted by the Senate, what’s the next rabbit hole liberals will go down in their quest for absolute power?
3
It is a "damp, drizzly November" in the nations soul.
12
You know, we have to start thinking about keeping the House Majority and not putting the Class of 2018nat risk. Otherwise we could find ourselves with Trump re-elected and the Republicans in control of both halves of Congress.
Impeachment has basically been excised from the Constitution.
4
It appears that Trump was right.
He could shoot someone on 5th avenue, and he wouldn’t lose his base, which includes Republican members of Congress.
They will all support Trump over the Constitution, the country, snd the Rule of Law.
They will willingly and deliberately betray their oath of office.
60
Trump supporters, like myself, have always been concerned about his propensity to sloppy risk-taking. He may, well, give his opponents the ammunition they have, and would have, with, or without merit, sought since his election win. It is the flip-side to his refreshing frankness, impoliticness, anti-PC courage, and, of course, other traits, which are not so worthy. Trump supporters, like myself, are probably quite willing to forgive this technical impropriety, because he is so great, in so many ways. And, frankly, I'd like to see an investigation indict or exonerate anyone for any crime. Why should a political foe be off-limits for investigation? As for Fake News, that tag has done a service to America, who should know that extant, Leftist, Progressive bias taints much of the news.
5
If Trump is Ahab: His GOP defenders and parroters of his fantasies are Starbuck, the mate who led the fated crew on the chase, as (the deceased) Ahab beckoned. Is the USA and our Constitution the Pequod, Ahab's doomed ship, or Ishmael, who survived and lived to tell the tale?
4
As the African-American theologian Howard Thurman observed, "evil eventually sows the seeds of its own destruction." Our President's own immorality has predictably succeeded in destroying him.
32
"I'd smite the sun if it insulted me." Thus spake Captain Ahab. It is an insult to Captain Ahab to compare Trump to him, albeit Ahab was a fictional character. If Trump were a literate person, he likely could have recalled these words of Ahab's and then come up with the concept of just striking out at anyone that insulted him, but he is not literate, he is not honorable, he is not self-reflective or philosophical; he is totally self-absorbed and fearful. The White Whale is a symbol of my immense loathing of little Donnie.
21
Realizing the beatdown that a tyrannical ruler (such as a monarch) can put on a country, the Founding Fathers should have paid more attention to the process of removing such a miscreant.
Right now we have a situation where:
1) A sitting President cannot be indicted - as confirmed by Robert Mueller/DOJ.
2) Potential witnesses can flat out refuse to attend Congessional hearings.
Result: he/she stays. A serious lack of attention to detail by the FFs that needs to be rectified real soon.
18
Truth, for Trump, is like looking directly into a brilliant sun. Even with eye shades Trump cannot bear to look up at it. So he lives his life in the dark caverns and tunnels of made up facts and rails against the penetrating sun. But the truth, like the sun, eventually overcomes the darkness. Trump is just an ink stain on our national fabric and eventually his exposure to the sun will fade the stain from view.
9
I always thought that proditomania was related to prodition,
And to think....the GOP have been gloriously schmoozed to the White House screening room to watch, of all movies, the R-rated $1 billion "Joker".
" A clown-for-hire by day, he aspires to be a stand-up comic at night...but finds the joke always seems to be on him. "
My tax payer dollars supporting a middle school sleep-over?
Let's hope the joke is on Trump.
12
This is good Maureen, you really come close to it. I thought possibly that Mitch and the republicans had finally said, "Donald, a little too far this time" (by tweeting during Yovanovitch's testimony), and hauled him off to Walther Reed for a psych evaluation. This is exactly the point. Donald Trump is so severely compromised psychologically, not only causing absolute harm to our country in untold ways, he is unequivocally impaired to the extent that by his very own hand, he harms himself. He presents of average intelligence, perhaps slightly above, and although reportedly educated at the Ivy level, he shows an almost total dearth of history and literature. He seems barely able to write a complete sentence grammatically, nor is he able to articulate in a coherent manner. So what we have left is his impaired psychological status. And it is indeed impaired. Consumed by paranoia and gross insecurities, he seems unable at most times, to perceive objective reality at almost any level. The psychiatrists told us this folks. Why didn't we pay attention?As his delusional veil of omnipotence and grandiosity is increasingly pierced by the ongoing investigations, we are at peril. We should be duly warned.
20
As in the business enterprises into which he entered as a private citizen as well as his private life, Trump’s own hubris will be his downfall. Continue giving him enough rope and he will most assuredly ‘hang’ himself.
11
What will sink him? Or, which exit from the presidency will he choose?
Was the November 16 visit to Walter Reed a pretext for a "medically-related" mid-term resignation?
Resignation if tax returns/financial records evidence Russian influence over him?
Withdrawal as a nominee for reelection if repeated polls show his support sinking into the mid-30s? Or, if repeated polls show Republicans losing the Senate majority only with him as the nominee, but maintaining the majority if any other plausible nominee heads the ticket? (The latter amounts to the "Resign" or "Withdraw" or "We'll convict you" ultimatum.)
Humiliating defeat in the general election? (Recall Fred Trump's admonition to him: always win)
6
Retired litigator here: Hearsay is generally a witness testifying about what another person said or did when that other person is not a party and not present to be cross examined. It is offered for the truth of the declaration. Besides there being dozens of exceptions to hearsay, the Federal Rules permit much hearsay and it is only subject to the weight to be given to it. In Great Britain there is no distinction such as hearsay. You can testify to what another person said or did and the weight to be given depends on your overall truthfulness.
The term, like quid pro quo (also misused),has been bantered around by Congressmen, who by definition though they may be lawyers are not litigators but politicians. Cong. Jordan, for example, claims he graduated from one of the least regarded law schools in the country, but never took the bar exam. One might surmise it is more accurate to say he never passed a bar exam, and he has shown the nation why in ample and myriad ways these past two weeks.
35
Seriously people. Just read Trump's policies including the most important ones. Trump's policies enacted by Obama in which Trump tried and is still in trying to overturn. Read them and weep. Pay attention to what is really going on..And share them with everyone you know.
9
I agree that the many scurrilous charges against him as to 2016 may be Trump's white whale, so the premise of this article is correct, even if some implications are wrong.
Even paranoid people have enemies after all. Without detracting at all from the conclusion that Russians conducted cyberwarfare and social media warfare against the US in 2016, trying to disrupt the body politic and continue to do so, there are important unanswered questions about some aspects of the "DNC Server" matter. Number one is the fact that the DNC would not allow the FBI to examine the server. A second anomaly is the publised opinion of cyber experts concluding the footprints on the server breach indicated it was an inside job. Perhaps the role of Crowdstrike and DNC is irrelevant to the important unanswered server questions, perhaps not. Trump has not forgotten the very public denigration he received from Ukrainian officials during the campaign, nor the indications that a Ukrainian DNC consultant has connections to some of the people behind the dossier funded by Clinton. He is weary and wounded after the constant "conspiring/colluding with Russia" accusations, now debunked by Mueller and unsupported by any tangible evidence. Who can blame him? Too bad for him but maybe Dowd is right that it will resolve one feature of our great national schism-this Presidency. Nevertheless, the schism will remain and will be deeper than ever.
1
Woodrow Wilson had a stroke in October 1919 and was incapacitated the rest of his presidency, but the true extent of his deteriorated health was kept secret. FDR was barely functional his last few months and died in office; his true health status kept secret until the end. Dwight Eisenhower had a well publicized heart attack at the end of his first term but won reelection in a landslide, even though he seemed to have weathered it well enough to finish his second term without any major issues. Ronald Reagan may have exhibited indications of the Alzheimer's that eventually killed him the last part of his presidency, but it's effects on his duties in office is debatable.
The difference now is not secrecy. There have been books written and eyewitness accounts of Trump's mental health deterioration. And it seems this WH couldn't stop a leak if it was wrapped in stainless steel. The change seems to be a fundamental "acceptance" and total willingness of those in the highest levels of government and the American people to defend and rationalize it.
Trump's bizarre behavior has been so normalized and his use of social media to manipulate and marshal support among his followers (which goes to keeping his lackeys in Congress in line) so complete the only way he'd be removed is a total health meltdown, which could still very well happen. But I can also even see him being reelected in spite of all the evidence that he's totally unfit to stay.
15
The GOP cannot control this monster of their own making. The party elites know that and have at least some level of concern.
But the real problem is the 30-40% of Americans who still support the monster. They have been inoculated against the truth to such an extent that they don't even want to consider it. It's rare for people to return from that extent of delusion, especially when it's driven by fear and anger.
Even if we survive Trump as a nation, we still have a huge problem.
25
"Trump will not stop until he brings down Trump."
He won't stop even then. He will never stop. And even after one day he dies, his heirs will continue.
He will carry on after he's no longer president - no longer with the power of his office, but still a troublemaker with a devoted mass following.
14
@Chanzo Absolutely correct. The stable genius of unmatched wisdom is quoted in this article as saying
“The F.B.I. went in, and they told them, ‘Get out of here, we’re not giving it to you,’” he said on Fox. “They gave the server to CrowdStrike, or whatever it is called, which is a company owned by a very wealthy Ukrainian. I still want to see that server.”
I like Obama but if he said something that dumb I would oppose him immediately. Fox lemmings seem incapable of any objectivity at all.
15
Perhaps Trump 's white whale is reflected in the disposition of the people of the United States at this inflection point in history. As citizens, we have the collective responsibility to decide if the democratic Republic that has evolved in the United States for over two centuries will continue. If so, individually and collectively, we then have to the address the equally compelling issue of what we are willing to do to keep it. Of the many political systems in the world, none are as compelling as the democratic
model practiced in the United States.
4
Why must we go through this uncertain process to fire an incompetent employee who happens to be the President of the United States? Ordinary Americans lose their jobs doing far less harm.
We need to vet candidates much more seriously, including giving them a thorough independent medical and psychological examination. If it takes a Constitutional amendment to accomplish this, so be it.
Trump's reactions are so off-the-wall predictable. What really disturbs me is how my and all other Republican representatives cower before him like frightened puppies.
Is winning your next election more important than losing our nation?
32
There is an irony here that is difficult to grasp. Trump fears impeachment. It is the one institution that he actually respects. He cannot stand that his legacy will be forever tarnished by this single act.
11
I think Trump went to Walter Reed because he had a medical emergency, a scare, that could not be handled by the 24/7 medical staff at the WH.
The WH characterized it as “Phase 1 “ of his routine annual physical which is a lie and the only thing routine at this point.
Phase 1 however is ominous and suggests Trump requires continued monitoring as a result of the scare.
He is clearly mentally ill and now there may be a physiological threat which will only exacerbate the former. The 25th Amendment is there for a reason just like Impeachment.
36
For someone who campaigned on putting "America First", Mr. Trump sure spends an inordinate amount of time inserting himself into the affairs of other countries.
Perhaps that will be his downfall.
27
In my life time, I don’t think that Republicans really ever had problems with authoritarian governments, only communist ones. Their embrace of Russia and Putin makes perfect sense given that Putin proclaims to be a defender of Christianity (which he is not, beyond his ability to control the Church in Russia), supports gun rights (he doesn’t really support them in Russia) and is strongly conservative on social issues (race, gender). Putin is also ruthless, something that appeals to those trying to project Trump as a strong leader. But both Trump and Putin are ruthless only as thugs, not as true leaders.
29
"A lot of Republicans have dirtied themselves defending Trump, and their party will not easily recover from perverting its values."
For me this was the most important part of the article. Trump and Putin have easily captured the entire Republican Party apparatus to do their dirty work. The extreme divisions they have provoked are part of Trump's sinking presidency, but it will also sink the Republican Party. The base is shrinking and the GOP has done nothing to broaden it.
Trump is going to be impeached but his party will let him off the hook. Both Trump and his party will suffer in any case. Playing out right before us is the destruction of the Republican Party writ large. Slowly as the ground beneath them begins to shift the cracks in will open and swallow the entire group of angry old white males. This debacle is about all of them not just Trump.
38
The thing with tragic heroes, be they Captain Ahab or Walter White, is that while they ultimately are defeated by their own obsession, the collateral damage is very great.
Moby Dick defeated Ahab, but Ahab's ship the Pequod went down as well with all hands but one.
24
The Republican party has not "perverted its values." Rather, it's been simply making them transparent to everyone as of late.
32
No Way - No How . . . is Trump going to Leave the White House!
His base would rather be under a Russian Dictatorship than under Democratic Leadership.
Regardless of the outcome of the 2020 election - and regardless of many more transgressions Trump accumulates in contrast to our Constitution -
He will have to be physically dragged out of the White House, and we can be sure that his gun-toting base will take to the streets.
It is very possible that we are heading to another Civil War !
7
Any bets on how many House Democrats will vote NO on impeachment?
The over-under is rising and is currently at 12.
2
As a recent book on dictators points out, Trump suffers from pathological insecurities that lead to narcissistic authoritarian behavior.
Those insecurities also force him to mould himself around what his supporters want to hear and to kowtow to dictators.
8
There are two donnies: the sterling "stable genius" he believes himself to be and the destructive and cruel malignant narcissist he really is. His white whale is the truth of that toxic persona that at least two thirds of us can see. Let us hope that that creature will swallow him whole and take him to the bottom of oblivion.
16
"A lump of coal in his stocking"? I like to think of it as Santa's elves as busy as can be... milling away at his self-gifted Christmas present... a brand new shiny impeachment.
With all the bells and whistles of course.
6
Trump has a high-conflict personality (HCP). This means he has a ongoing pattern of all-or-nothing thinking, unmanaged emotions, extreme behavior or threats, and a preoccupation with blaming others. He must always have a target of blame, whom he regularly bullies, harasses, blames, humiliates, annoys and spreads rumors about, and subjects to many other adversarial behaviors. This pattern increases and maintains interpersonal conflicts.
Trump speaks in extremes most of the time, such as all-or-nothing terms. People are either all good or all bad and he refuses to reflect and see himself as part of any problem.
No wonder he went to hospital, a portly elderly man, no exercise, poor diet and a seething mental obsession that everyone is out to get him. It has been theorized his rambling monologues and inability to form certain words are the result of a series of small strokes.He may not make 2020.
33
How come this Trump individual's hair looks like it came out of a cotton candy spinner?
10
Edmund Burke stated “all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”
24
Of course most Republican senators know trump is a criminal and a buffoon. He is doing enormous damage to the GOP and the country. The impeachment will likely be their last chance to get rid of him. I understand that individually they cannot speak up or defy him or they will get primaried and lose. The impeachment vote is the only chance for them to act in a group and rid themselves of this madman. Hopefully there is a secret pact among enough of them to convict.
14
@Budley The Republican support for little Donnie in the U.S. Senate appears to stem from Senators' fear of losing their jobs. As if they couldn't afford to lose their jobs! We need patriots in the Senate, not money-grubbers. Words that will never come from today's GOP senators - I regret that I have but one job to lose for my country.
11
Dystopic societies have been the thing of books and plays. But we are now living in one.
22
First of all, Devin Nunes is not qualified to be in intelligence committee,let alone be a ranking member. His questions at the hearing were awkward and unintelligent . Each time he would come back to his false narrative that Ukraine was responsible for 2016 election interference. A parrot indeed(echoing his boss's line). He has background in Agriculture with experience in Farming. He has no legal expertise. No wonder he looks out of place amongst the more qualified people. It's not surprising then that he is literally sweeping the floor the president walks on. Making up for lack of his qualifications in his most humble way.
25
President Trump will not bring down Trump and neither will his detractors. He is tough and strong and will prevail through his presidency and into his next in 2020. He will bring down his enemies as he has shown he is capable of doing many times over.
2
Apparently it’s become necessary to explain to trumpists, again and again and again, that it is a Bad Thing to have a President who thinks of more than half the country as his chief enemy.
Not Putin, not Xi, not Kim, not a whole long list of dictators and thigs, not global warming, not our crumbling infrastructure, not a long list of other serious problems—his fellow Americans.
It’s shameful, and it’s dangerous, and you should know that.
19
@KMW
Boa constrictors are "tough and strong." Trump strangles democracy in his coilings.
7
Help me understand this secret server. The DNC has a server with self-incriminating material on it. Instead of erasing it or burning it, the DNC hides it in Ukraine? Why would it do that? Why Ukraine? Following Trump's logic is as oxymoronic as it gets. Just saying Trump's logic makes my head hurt and the head of my dead high school English teacher. Any help with an explanation of this mystery would be appreciated.
17
I wish that all writers would stop demeaning timeless works of art by trying to insert Trump into their narratives. Trump is a cheap suit, a paper tiger, who will be remembered, if at all, for dragging a major political party down and fooling more people for longer than most. TV nation, you have your king. The rest of us, the majority, wait in exile. Democracy? Not here, never was and it ain't now.
When a system is based on honor, and honor fails, what then? We're about to find out.
20
"He’s hellbent on harpooning himself, chasing that which will sink him."
For better or worse, I fear that he is also now the nation's white whale.
And we have now collectively entered and established a relationship with a man whose career and character is defined by just trying to stay one day ahead of his creditors in the murky backwaters in which he swims.
No one has ever come out better for entering a relationship with Donald J. Trump. No one.
At this point, the best outcome is probably for him to harpoon himself.
19
My word of the day? Delusional. As in every Republican voter or member of Congress or the Senate still defending Trump.
25
"After climbing up in politics by putting down Barack Obama as an illegitimate president, Trump is so terrified of being seen as an illegitimate president that he acts out in ways that cause more people to see him as an illegitimate president."
Bravo.
23
This is the "Fall of the American Empire" - think back when the USSR fell and afterwards their leader was an alcoholic (Yeltsin).
It seems fitting that in the US it would be a narcissist.
Interesting how the country's downfall is a reflection of its pathology.
17
As ever I think the person we are disparaging is just a small part of the problem.
The person we should be appalled by and reviling is Mitch McConnell. Donald Trump isn't very smart. I doubt he has a clue the trouble he causes with his constant need for love and attention. McConnell on the other hand knows exactly what he's doing. So in famous words of another American faced with some so vile:
Sir, Have you no shame?
35
Thank you, again, Maureen! Sadly, you’ve provided us with perfect vocabulary for the (hopefully short) Trump era.
4
Maureen Dowd is right about Trump. He holds the most powerful position in the land and he does not tell the truth. This could be the start of Orwell's "1984". What is the truth? 2+2 = 4 or does it? My twitter account leans left and even I get Russian Bots. A divided America will not stand.
Disinformation works. If you have a desire to believe something you will want to reaffirm your own belief. Even double down on it. That is human nature. We have a media literacy problem. If that problem is not addressed, we could see the end of democracy.
I just hope the truth wins out in the end. Happy Thanksgiving.
6
Several comments here have brought up how those who voted for Trump believed that if he were to prove unsuited to the job of POTUS, that surely our system of checks and balances would ensure minimizing any damage he could/would do to our country and the world. It seems to me that this way of thinking is a way to avoid responsibility for the consequences of voting for this madman. Thus, it makes many of those who voted for this cretin very similar to him in that they are attempting to deflect responsibility for their actions onto someone else.
8
Trump’s reelection campaign can trumpet (pun intended) these major accomplishments:
Massively increased national debt
Gutted environmental regulations
Conceded to Russia around the world
What a great record for Republicans!
20
Trump may be unnerved because he might just be realizing how little he knows. He is so far over his head the Titanic appears to be in shallow water. I don't imagine he could find Ukraine on a labeled map. When Sondland told him he was in Kyiv, it was pretty clear Trump wasn't sure he was in Ukraine. He clearly hasn't a clue that CrowdStrike is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, and that they had a contract with the DNC. He apparently doesn't use a computer (in 2019 how is that possible), and likely wouldn't know a server if it fell out of the sky and landed on his coiffure. Which actually sounds like a fine idea.
24
Trump might just be the first President to be impeached once, get away with it. Then do something equally outrageous and get impeached again.
13
“In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely and without a passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers.”
― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, or, the Whale
This is why I look for Ms. Dowd’s byline each week. Comparing him to both Ahab and the white whale is brilliant. It’s a clever way to characterize the obsession of this president and the crew he commands, on a journey that reeks of impending doom.
Of all the terms we learn here, and they seem to be very applicable, the one that hits the mark best is the one that ought to, when googled, provide a mention of Donald Trump. That word is - crackpot.
7
Nice piece by Maureen Dowd. I'll remember that"gloriously bracing Fiona Hill" for a long time.
There is an aspect of Ahab that curdles in Trump but it goes beyond "CrowdStrike, Ukraine, the DNC server" and I thought at the time Bossert wrote that that he didn't quite grasp the enormity of Trump's malignance. Here's Melville summing up Ahab's (and with uncanny prescience, Trump's) personality:
"All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified and made practically assailable in Moby Dick."
In any drawing together of Ahab and Trump it's surely obvious that the white whale is the American state itself, the American people themselves representing, for all its faults, for all their faults a sublime idealism bent on wringing goodness, fairness, truth and justice out of the raw material of Man's baser nature. Against this noble mettle Trump opposes the only thing that all demagogues and fanatics have to offer - his own existential despair which seeks to destroy itself by destroying America. It's still too early to predict that he will fail.
3
Merriam-Webster lists "trending words" on its homepage, which are an entertaining snapshot of the day's concerns. Trending words at the moment are:
braggadocio - Sondland testifies before Congress
bribe - Pelosi outlines evidence of bribery
insidious - Sondland revises Ukraine testimony
lynch - Trump compares scrutiny to lynching
egregious - Text messages reveal that Boeing was aware of problems
3
His conditions - mental and physical - will only get worse. He can't handle the job, and he knows it. But he's got to get reelected to avoid doing a perp walk. This puts him - and us - in a pickle. We could be headed toward the weirdest and most fantastic presidential scenario in the nation's history: he simply flees the country if he senses that he'll lose "bigly" the 2020 election. From now until next November, if a sizable majority of the electorate make it loud and clear that they loathe him, he'll panic and leave. Sounds crazy? Sure it does. But these are crazy times. And remember: Trump is a coward, and cowards always run from adversity.
13
@Dennis Quick
From your mouth to god's ear, even though I don't believe in god. He can't flee ferociously fast enough for me.
3
This is obviously the lead up to next weekends column where she reports on her brothers take, delivered over Thanksgiving dinner.
Bro is gonna say something like “so what, he’s a great President”.
5
For 3 years, everyone on the left and a very large number of their media mouthpieces have been after him. As the old saying goes, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.
No need to “get him.” From firing comey to this mess of blatant self-dealing, trump does a fine job of makes his own messes to step in.
9
A wonderful word site! Good that you found it Maureen
3
I cannot reside in these United States any longer.
3
The beginning of the end for Nixon really started with the resignation of vice president Spiro Agnew. Agnew took a deal that would spare him and his family from embarrassment.
If the Democrats were smart (which they are not) they would go after Mike Pence because he is filthy dirty, and no match for them. That's doable. Then there might actually be a better chance of weakening Trump.
People have long forgotten about Agnew but he was a horribly corrupt man. Fun fact: After Agnew resigned, Frank Sinatra loaned Agnew $200,000 to cover his legal bills and living expenses. Apologies to Sinatra fans.
4
He's minutes from challenging himself to a duel......
6
Miriam Webster’s word of the day today seems also appropriate: billingsgate.
4
I am often distressed by the Trump madness and the GOP backing the crazy. I do get comfort in the realization that Donald is 73 and apparently "there's a lot of things the matter with" him..(his own words). Donald lies most of the time but blurts out strange insights and truth randomly. His sons are imbeciles basically, and no one takes Ivanka seriously, and they'll dry up quickly. This will pass, and those Republicans will have to live with mud on their faces.
11
No question, the "silver lining" in the dark clouds of the Trumpian presidency has been the remarkable increase in my vocabulary. I was a bit surprised that Ms. Dowd couldn't find a place for "logorrhea", a recent addition to my vocabulary from a previous NYT editorial.
1
Trump's white whale is truth -- his personal demon -- something he cannot slay, though he, like Ahab, shall die trying. And all familiar with "Moby-Dick; or, The Whale," can agree that Trump is somewhat a personification of Ahab.
Ahab's real power is not that he is captain of the Pequod (nor that Trump is president of the US), but that he, Ahab (like Trump), has an uncanny power to beguile and mesmerize (as the Pequod's crew swears an oath to follow Ahab to kill the white whale, the GOP and a third of our nation raise their blurry eyes and swear an oath to follow Trump to kill truth).
The allegorical message of the novel is frightening for our nation. The white whale (truth) survives. But the Pequod sinks with but one survivor. Is that to be America's fate?
2
What a fantastic writer. Maureen Dowd makes my NYT subscription worth every cent. Give her a raise please!
1
When it's all over and Trump is sitting in his Mar A Lago estate.....Ivanka and Don jr and Eric will all be there running up to him and saying over and over..."Yes, daddy, you are always Mr. President to us" and in comes Lindsay Graham in shorts, golf shirt and tons of white sunscreen smeared all over his nose saying "Can't we just go out and play a round? Why do you have to sit there and sulk?" And all the supporters in their overwhelming grief spend their vacations travelling to their hero's estate. Never getting to see him, but spending lots of money at the gift shop.
10
Trump’s immaturity is flabbergasting. He equates Speaker Pelosi to a “bedbug”. We have a president whose mind was arrested back in grade school with cooties. I’ve met many a narcissist but it’s unusual to find one who at age 72 finds joy in the ridiculous name calling of recess. But he knows his base relates! And that’s what this is all about.
17
Trump is a manipulator and a con man who gaslights people on a daily basis. Republicans in Congress seem to have been easily manipulated by this President and the dedication to the Constitution, the American people and national security went right out the window.
4
Seppuku? I wish, but doesn’t that imply some sort of feeling of shame or honor, neither of which the inhabitant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue possesses?
3
To simplify the A.Word.A.Day exercise Moby Don is like Ahab mentally ill suffering from what psychiatrists call Narcissistic Personality Disorder formerly known as another of those A.Word.A.Day terms, "megalomania." Sadly, Trump's Republican House shipmates on the Pequod have also been harpooned on the same white whale "fictional narrative" that Fiona Hill warned about that it was Ukraine, not Russia and pal Putin, that meddled in the 2106 election on behalf of Hillary Clinton, and not Trump. Trump may be a wounded harpooned whale himself, but his Republican Senators are all on board with First Mate Lindsey Graham in trying to harpoon the Constitution to set him free. So, the question of seppuku remains: Will it be Trump or those who still believe in the rule of law and not the rule or Trump who will dragged down to the dark depths of history?
3
We have an immoral, inadequate narcissistic psychopath as “president,” and 35% of the country seems to be okay with this. I’m truly glad to be in the last third of my life, because god only knows what’s going to happen to this once great country.
I get so tired of hearing the pundits insist that Americans are smart. No, not really.
14
The adult child of abusive parents.
12
Maybe Trump went to Walter Reed because he had shoved a marble up his nose, like a lot of other toddlers do.
17
Trump is understandably full of self loathing. He's a vile shell of a man who has to pay for sex and companionship.
He constantly boasts and denigrates other people to overcompensate for his feelings of inadequacy.
The people he hates the most are the ones who possess all of the qualities he doesn't, intelligence, competency, compassion, likability etc.
11
the pernicious nonsense of Trump and his faithful ones is legitimized by Fox media who wants to be a platform of lies and deceit
3
Sorry, the ever fearful Trump will never truly commit "Seppuku" , which was traditionally regarded as the ultimate fearless expression of personal sincerity and submission to authority.
2
So Little Lord Misanthrope Misogynist is setting himself up for a fall and getting ready to disembowel himself just so the rest of us will feel as sorry for him as he does while shedding crocodile tears for himself, all by himself. Gosh, while he and his juvenile enablers led by Dwiddling No-Nothing and that oh so fearsome failed college grappler. lil' Him Lordin are acting as talentless court jesters, their monarch claims to have wild dreams and that scary people are out to get him, oh my! Tell that to the blameless, brave people who have fled their dangerous countries such as Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, yearning for for timely hearings so they and their kids can escape homicide; and who are huddling in dilapidated tent cities below our oh, so threatened Southern border. I am also certain the families of dead Kurdish fighters who rolled up ISIS for US, are also feeling sorry for Lil' Lord M. M., who feels so threatened by Miss Hill and her scary gang. Tell it to all the millions of families who go to bed hungry in America and watch them weep, not for a spoiled brat of a POTUS, but for their own slowly starving children. Poor Donald's pain? Death by a thousand lying, self inflicted cuts pales mightily. Ahab indeed.
1
Ms Dowd, never forget that you, in 2016, had a hand in this disaster. With your denigration of the Democratic candidate, you had a part in this election result.
Please don't do this again in 2020.
16
Trying time for American.
American news, "alternate facts" for lessor countries (North Korea, China, Russia etc).
Trump won't stop because he can't stop. It should be obvious by now to acknowledge that his behavior is pathological - because he behaves in extreme and unacceptable ways, and has very powerful feelings which he cannot control. Looking back at his years of lying about Barack Obama's birth certificate in order to try to delegitimize his presidency - I think he showed a chronic, almost pathological jealousy of our first black president. Trump is a sick man.
12
Perhaps the Congressional Republicans actually fear some bogieman of Socialism, liberalism, ethnic diversity, the browning of America, taxation, federal safety nets & regulation. Perhaps they are terrified of losing power, wealth, dominance.
The mental wall they have employed seems born of their feeling cornered, but unravels fundamental principles of democratic process, reason and accountability. They appear to embrace Trump's frantic fakery (nonsense shouted in anger) as a necessary wall against Democrats- despite their shredding of basic decency, honesty and the national security.
Only when one enters onto the paranoid landscape, built on an a adamant need to ward off all perceived 'attacks' does the brittle logic of Trump's con artistry (via Roy Cohn and US Mafia and Russian FSB thuggery) take over....and play to an exhausted public. Like all demagogues, the goal is marketing/propaganda, not truth or reality.
Perhaps Nunes,Jordan&Stefanik truly believe US interests are best served by enlisting Russian disinformation- as long as it favors Republicans--playing dirty is necessary to win. They'd insist-Democrats are hypocrites to protest...or maybe only suckers put country first when POTUS demands he be the sole focus of loyalty.
Will America rise up now or in November?
4
The heroic, unfathomable, Protean mendacity, vileness, and stupidity of this impostor are abundantly documented, not the least by Ms. Dowd.
But as for her word of the day -- seppuku ... we should be so lucky.
This was often a privilege of noble, dedicated, and courageous warriors or civil servants who had been wronged or disgraced by others, or shamed by their own non-virtuous actions.
Had this revolting impostor one shred of dignity, courage, or self-awareness, or an ounce of care or regret for the irreparable damage he has done to my Republic, seppuku would be the best option for him, and I would gladly hand him the short knife.
But he does not. And we are all adrift on the Pequod.
1
Thomas Bossert is right about the conspiracy theories being Trump’s white whale. Melville could have been describing our 45th President;
“All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby-Dick.”
1
While watching an excellent Netflix WW II documentary series, an episode focused on Hitler's rise. The professor narrator characterized the dictator's manifesto as "make Germany great again." Not knowing when the series was produced, I can't say whether or not this turn of the phrase phrase was coincidental or planned. Either way, intentional or not, it eerily fits. Game plan: first paint a dystopian picture. Remember:
"But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists: Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system, flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge; and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.
This American carnage stops right here and stops right now."
Emphasize popular victim-hood, find a scapegoat, promise jobs and a better life, repeat the same simple falsehoods over and over until they are accepted as fact, look for ethnic purity (like people from Norway), demonize those of a different color as murderers, rapists and drug dealers, find equal goodness in extremists and most of all, state that there is only one person capable of fixing all this--you.
The NYT screens comments and probably rejects any Hitler comparisons as too controversial to print. Trump is not Hitler; he is Trump and that should be no solace.
5
You know, I think all you times readers and other East and west coasters are the ones that are feeling a little nausea. Meanwhile while all this “news “ is going on with faux impeachment and other Trump “maladies”, the country is doing better than it ever has been since World War II; there are no additional foreign adventures; were not going to pay for everything anymore; were not the worlds cop and the rest of the world is on notice that this guy could do anything so watch out. Is that a problem? I don’t think so but ask the entrenched Washington government functionaries and guess what? They hate that. Too bad, Get a real job.
1
Perhaps it's the high cholesterol embedded in his brain that brings out crazy . The man is not normal and his ranting has reached a point where it is exhausting . Instead of indoctrinating it has reached a point where more people are beginning to see clearly ; it is when enough is enough that they get fed up and it turns . The Republicans that have dirtied themselves will rue the day they became sinons as they look very grobian ; chief among them Devin Nunes . Very crazy eyed .
2
The Atlantic: "Democrats Know Trump Won’t Be Removed. They’re Still Amped About Impeachment. They see the process as good for American democracy—and for their party’s chances in 2020."
Doesn't matter if the GOP Senate blocks impeachment. Future students of history, here and abroad, will at least know that 1 U.S. party respected the rule of law, no matter what GOP voters think.
But if the House Democrats hold back from impeachment, this will increase our cynicism, our loss of faith, and throw the country into turmoil for generations. Future swamp creatures will be drawn to the surface to try for power.
The country will be torn apart worse if our elected officials don't impeach, than if they do. So, let the country be divided for now. Let's stick up for rule of law, and thus create an ultimately more positive effect on our political culture.
4
So much is being said about the new Wisconsin polls where Trump is leading. I just us all to remember what his previous personal lawyer testified to. Please see link.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/01/17/politics/michael-cohen-poll-rigging/index.html
3
“ He’s hellbent on harpooning himself, chasing that which will sink him.” I am not so sure. Every harpoon that Trump has seemingly aimed directly at himself has instead gone through the heart of American democracy. He became a politician by pushing birtherism; he launched his campaign by attacking Mexican immigrants (while allowing that some of them might be good people); in the course of the 2016 campaign he attacked John McCain and a gold star family and shrugged off the Access Hollywood tape: the result: zero political damage. Once in office, he told 13,000 lies, and damaged the lives of farmers who had voted for him. He got punked, in Kamala Harris’s phrase, by Kim Jong Un. The result: zero political damage. He gave neo-Nazis a pass, with equally non-existent political damage, after the Charlottesville rallies. He even took Putin’s side over that of U.S. intelligence agencies with Putin standing next to him. In sum, Trump has harmed farmers, Mexican immigrants, gold star families,Jews, African Americans, U.S. national security, and the truth itself without suffering political damage with the GOP or with his base. Trump is more white whale than Arab. He has sunk every principle that should have harpooned him.
3
"Call me Ishmael." A better start might be, "They call me The Donald..."
Through no fault of yours, MoDo, nor the NYT, shortly after your byline appeared, the news broke. I'm won't use new words, I want to keep this simple.
Ruth. Bader. Ginsburg. Was hospitalized. Her story will move to the top of the Sunday talk shows. Topic two, impeachment. No time for the dozens running for the Democrat nomination.
Will Mitch stop everything in the Senate, to have hearings on a new Justice? Will the Democrats throw everything at the yet to be named person to stop the nomination proceedings? Or, will they go with a fast vote, to get on with the trial?
What is the word for someone that teases a pet with a laser pointer? Is the owner cruel to keep the pet occupied? Is the pet at it's best intelligence to never stop chasing the dot? This would be a good job for Roger Stone, if Federal convictions aren't a liability. Stone might send out 2 or 3 tweets a day, just to keep the MSM talking. About. Anything. That. Demonstrates. Their. Shallowness.
OMG. I forgot about the December 9th release of the DOJ IG report. It will be released a little at a time, until then.
What is the word for "Jeff Sessions is back in the game."
1
Trump was wrong, Maureen. YOU have the best words!
2
President Trump "hurt"???!!!! I think in order to be hurt I'm pretty sure one has to have feelings. I for one have seen no evidence of feelings. He is an empty vessel.
7
Only an honorable and courageous person would be capable of Seppuku. And as well all know Trump possesses none of those qualities. I would suggest on the other hand something more befitting, Lingchi.
1
@archimedes I think Lingchi accurately describes what is happening to our republic.
1
And as if his week wasn't getting bad enough for trump, we now have the spectacle of an apparent mutiny by the Navy. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/23/us/politics/navy-discipline-edward-gallagher.html
1
“…calling Pelosi — who has his presidency in a vise grip — “totally incompetent” and “crazy as a bedbug.” There he goes again with classic trump projection! How can he lack even a modicum of self-awareness? His defense mechanisms know no bounds. Scary.
He writes, “I never in my wildest dreams thought my name would in any way be associated with the ugly word, Impeachment!” This further confirms that he is out of touch, that he is the one “crazy as a bedbug”! Scary.
8
Putin is coming away a huge winner with Trump. Instead of just Trump being a "useful idiot" in the White House, Putin ends up with the whole Republican Congressional membership as "useful idiots" believing -anything- and -everything- except the plain evidence and reality in front of them. Why do so many things Trump does end up benefiting Russia and Putin? And why are all the other Republicans so enmeshed in the Cult of Trump that they believe all of his lies? Putin wins again, two-for-one with Trump.
6
I’m so tired of this corrupt individual and his GOP sycophants.
6
Trump hasn't a shred of honor; he will never commit Seppuku.
He IS however trying his best to murder Democracy, having already murdered any threadbare morals or ethics within the Republican Party.
2
"Donald Trump is a rodomont. Not to mention a grobian. And, of course, a Sinon suffering from proditomania."
We could just simplify it to, "Nincompoop" That we all understand.
3
God help the United States of America.
8
If I may complete the FOX/Trump/Doocy interaction. The most telling part of that was actually Doocy's response when Trump was yammering on about the DNC server being in Ukraine. While the three sat there with their phony smiles plastered on their faces, betraying what their eyes were saying, 'This guy is nuts,', Doocy interrupted Trump and very weakly asked him about the server-in-Ukraine claim, "Are you sure that's true?" Well, give that man a Pulitzer! Such heavy-hitting journalism! We need more of that, journalists asking their insane interviewees if they're sure what they're saying is true....when the journalist knows it is not true. You go, Steve...to journalism school. Trump: "And Hillary ate babies!" Steve Doocy: "Are you sure that's true, sir?".
3
Of course Donald Trump is a rodmont, a grobian and a Sinon, suffering from proditomania. All of these characteristics are inherent to people like Trump, who are afflicted with attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as well as extreme present hedonism (APH).
1
As the owner of Doral, Donald does know his bedbugs.
8
Dowd is like Pelosi's admiring little sister. As the neo con destruction of the Democrat's reputation as peace makers and followers of rule of law continues with gusto. Of course CrowdStrike did the lame incomplete biased investigation that claimed unsurprisingly that the Russians hacked the DNC with zero evidence. The FBI didn't investigate and Mueller dutifully indicted unknown Russians as Trump was to meet Putin. Interestingly that same day Pelosi and Schumer made their infamous belligerent tirade about anybody dealing with the Russians was guilty of treason. How long is Dowd going to try to make the Ukraine controversy all Trump's fault when in fact the Clinton clique in the State Dept. aided and abetted the right wing nationalist coup tinged with anti-Semitism that overthrew the legally constituted gov't and launched an ethnic war with Ukrainian Russians. The US is useless in the peace negotiations to end the conflict. Dowd and her friends demand to keep the Ukrainians fighting an ethnic war while Zelensky is working for a peace settlement. Yes Zelensky is now being represented as doing Russia's business while the French and Germans work to stop the war and end the ridicules US efforts to demonize and isolate Russia.
@c harris
“CrowdStrike”
“The FBI didn’t investigate”
“the legally constituted gov't”
Alternative “facts”
Russian disinformation
Big Lie propaganda
4
Committing seppuku ain't gonna happen with Trump. It would indicate that he had some sense of honor and shame, traits as yet undiscovered in ol' 45.
Pelosi is crazy as a bedbug? The trump should know given his extensive experience with the biting bugs. Anybody know if doral is free of bedbugs yet? Imagine how horrified Jack Nicklaus must have been when he saw the pics of Eric Linder covered with bed bug bites and welts from a night sleeping in Jack's namesake luxury doral villa! Oh the horror!
4
Opprobrium.
Call me Ishmael...but a better metaphor is a bloated Biff of the future(Donald Trump) being bested by Marty(Adam Schiff) and escaping on a hoverboard...everything Donald Trump touches dies, and one day, we can export his whole crooked family to a dacha in Sochi, and never hear their Quisling name again
5
Thank you for the link A.Word.A.Day I can now sound like a snooty, unpopular erudite elitist!
Let's say Trump is innocent of everything--Big Leap--But if true--proditomania remains--huge monkey on his back. The President needs full functioning skills--must see all variables to the equation or nothing will be solved. When it's all about "meee" and what are you doing to "meeee" everything is upside down. Please let's give Trump a Rest in 2020--he needs it.............
My word is simple: Cracypants ! Crazypants, McConnell and the Republicans have obviously been "stonewalling" any attempt by Congress, to protect our elections from Putin and Russian interference !
The Democrats, meekly as usual, refuse to speak out and accuse the Republicans of doing so! All Democrats must declare, on a daily basis, that Trump, McConnell and all Republican politicians are aiding and encouraging Putin and the Russians to attack our election system ! During the 1950’s and 60’s in America, those sympathetic to communism and Russia, were called “Pinko’s”! Democrats should be saying; “the Pinko Republican party is now the party of Putin”!
We are also tired of hearing Democratic politicians in the media and in Congress, referring to Republican politicians as; "my colleagues on the other side of the aisle", (or is it "isle").
If Democrats have "colleagues" who support Russia over the United States, then they don't deserve our vote !
2
Did anyone else hear that President Nixon’s photo at the American Embassy in New Delhi was displayed in the men’s bathroom?
1
So, ok. I didn't really believe this about our health care system, but it's true. Yesterday my son woke up covered with and vomiting blood. He is 48 with 4 young children and no health insurance. After emergency took him to E.R they diagnosed him with spot on lung most likely lung cancer. Smoking of course. They told him to get a specialist asap. It just doesn't look good. They basically threw him out and said they can't help him. Thanks to our shyster crooked governor and all the other millionaires in the Republican party they have deliberately let Medicaid and other health policies get strip down to nothing. I hope that those 4 little boy's of his have good memories to remember they're day with. And this is now our America?
Phew! I don't know of anything else to say anymore about the person in the oval office. Well said, Ms. Dowd.
2
All this vitriol against a man you endorsed. Whatever you write was clearly described by Hillary Clinton before the election. Most people saw it. To endorse such a vile person is still an enigma to me.
5
Trump knows that:
1—he is an illegitimate president
2—the majority knows that he is an illegitimate president
3
Personally, I can't wait for that harpoon to finish its job.
Maureen, check out the Merriam-Webster word of the day. Not as erudite as A.Word.A.Day but fun.
1
"Trump keeps rambling about that D.N.C. server."
Yep. Kind of like the columnist who did the same thing about Hillary's emails during the entire 2016 election.
2
Gregory Peck was a statesman Lincoln and an obsessed Ahab. Google search also described Ahab as an ungodly king who insisted he was godly. He was known for his narcissism .Maureen, can we call you Ishmael?
I'm still having trouble with President...Trump; talk about your quintessential oxymoron.
3
I haven’t even read the article and you’ve lost me with four SAT words in the first paragraph. Two of them, my iPhone’s dictionary doesn’t know!
That might make you seem smart to some, but it’s dumb because people don’t finish articles they can’t understand.
You lost me at “go” (or, I guess, “grobian” - which my dictionary actually thinks should be capitalized, btw)! I hope I didn’t miss anything important in your article that I didn’t finish!
1
Maureen, Trump is an extremely dangerous man who has no interest in and use for the truth whatsoever. The Republicans who have enabled him have done much more than dirty themselves. They have lied to the American people on behalf of a cheating grifter who is in way over his head. They are abetters in his corruption. He is not fighting demons. He is conducting business as usual. I guess he didn't realize he'd be under a lot more scrutiny now as President.
People who know him know there's nothing "genuine" about him other than his extreme narcissism. Please stop portraying him as some tragic figure who couldn't overcome his demons. He has been a cheater his whole life. He is probably a psychopath. And millions of Americans have bought into his lies
6
Now that Mike Godwin, creator of Godwin’s law, has allowed that it’s okay to compare Donald Trump with Adolph Hitler without making a reductio ad Hitlerian argument, it’s worth mentioning that Hitler’s rise to power was abetted and sustained by an unofficial corps of thugs known as the SA. Trump has his own thuggish minions and appeals to them virtually every time he speaks. It’s no laughing matter, Maureen, and he really may lock up people like you and Joe and Nancy if the Electoral College gives him another four years. It’s well past time to take the threat he poses seriously.
2
What DID happen to the DNC server?
How about this word when it comes to Donald Trump? L-I-A-R.
9
Quite frankly, I am extremely discouraged. During the 2016 election campaign, Trump bragged that his supporters would stick with him even if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue: It is now clear after the last two weeks of the impeachment inquiry that Republicans in both the House and the Senate will similarly stick with the president for virtually any crime. Is there any kind of testimony that could shake Trump's support?
At least twice during the inquiry, Devin Nunes, in trying to deflect from the damning evidence, claimed Democrats were trying to get nude photos of Trump. Yes, nude photos of Trump. Nunes never said why nude photos of Trump might be of use to Democrats. Like the quest to replace Russia's interference with the 2016 election with Ukraine, the accusation of wanting nude photos was just a wild deflection: There is nothing the Republicans won't claim in defending the president.
It is all sickening and frightening. How can this end well? As David Frum predicted not long ago, "If Trump goes down and he will eventually go down, he will take everything and everyone with him."
8
If Trump is removed, all of Maureen Dowd's campaigning will have been for naught.
Trump was a democrat. Then he changed to independent. Then he changed to republican. Then he changed to democrat again, then he changed back to republican when he decided to run for office. Actually, Trump is nothing but Trump. I recall him saying “I will run as a republican because they are stupid enough to to vote for me”. If he had run as a democrat, he may have won also. I am just glad that it is the Republican Party that he chose to run under.
He has shown us what that party really is today.
4
Regardless of anything else during these times, my vocabulary has vastly expanded - curiously though what do you suppose a vacuous person living on Pennsylvania Avenue might think these words mean?
1
Putin's asset and the GOP's darling will surely enjoy a peaceful holiday with his immediate family.
His sons, daughters, and wives or Natashas are carefully groomed to never threaten his intellect and raise his blood pressure. The only thing that really seems to set him off in a visceral way are
1) Women who rub his nose in his mediocrity and incompetence (Hill and Yovanovitch)
2) Minorities who accentuate how he lacks class and breeding (Obamas and company)
He'll have a happy holiday as long as he's surrounded by his own kind!
2
Alice in Wonderland was incontinent?
I was thinking more of The Nun’s Story meets Yosemite Sam in The Devil’s Advocate.
The Dems need The Terminator.
Remember "The office makes the man"?--meaning men rise to the occasion; the office brings out the best in you.
Well--POTUS brings out the best in Trump--as vulgarian rodomont he's a champ.
And he's turning the WH into a what?
2
Once again, I ask Maureen Dowd did all this that we are seeing now, inform your decision to harangue Hillary during the election?
It is difficult to fathom that a woman of your intelligence did not see Trump for who he is.
Your disdain for Hillary overtook your common sense.
5
@Joan
Yes, totally agree Maureen Dowd and James Comey certainly helped get Trump elected by the thinnest of margins. They influenced many voters to sit it out.
1
Maureen Dowd's article was bigly well written.
I believe he went to Walter Reed not for his heart but for his head.
3
I had to look up all your big words. With "grobian" you hit the jackpot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grobian
Indeed Mr. Trump's effluvia are a akin to a continuous assault
of micturition, flatus and vomitus.
1
Thank you.
https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini#Quotes_about_Mussolini
Billy Don Moyers, aka Bill Moyers, press secretary for LBJ, is a bit older than I am. He is 85. And he is a wise man. On MSNBC last night he spoke of DJT and he said he was worried. I do not remember his exact words, but it was clear. Bill Moyers said he has not been this worried about the USA, ever.
I am frightened... because Americans and the likes of Rep. Elise Stefanik of (R) NY 21, our district, lack what it takes to read this president ... and themselves. They suffer from the same sort of anger and ignorance that elected Mussolini and Hitler over 80 years ago.
We must ask the obvious. What’s wrong with Americans that this man and Hillary were the choices in 2016?
And now we have Sen. Sanders claiming it’s a disgrace that one of our most successful, a man that started with nothing... is offering to do his best at 78.
Our founding fathers hoped that the most successful would run for senator, governor, and president.
Some of us seem to fear the successful. I do not.
1
Maybe that Ukrainian man in the subway on Seinfeld knows where the server is hidden!
2
One man, Trump, can have a white whale, but how can the entire gop have the same? And then there’s that 40 something percent of the electorate. Them, too? All very disturbing. Are we all of the same species? Did Hitler escape in the guise of a dormant secret germ warfare that is now infesting the globe? How does this end? One day of watching the hearings is not good for our mental health. That I know.
so Giuliani, it is reported, says he's not worried - he has "insurance." hmm, what could that mean? get out of jail card from POTUS? a "finding" or executive order" from POTUS? sounds like Tom Clancy.....
Maureen has always been my wordsmith. I marvel at her use of the English language. And now it seems we have a whole dictionary just to describe president T.
You can fight over what’s left, after you take care of the children.
Oh you Maureen did it again. Love you. However, there is an element of honor inferred in Seppuku. Such a quality is beyond ( if
I only had a brain) Trump.
2
Doesn’t matter if it’s his White Whale,he’s America’s and the Worlds Albatross.We are a sinking ship being overcome by fox propaganda and the Republican Party Which is he equivalent of the SDS and other radical groups from the 60’s.This Roy Cohn disciple is going to stay afloat to America’s damnation.
2
Harpooning himself? Tortured metaphor to say the least. Pedantic efforts with arcane words? Hiding behind 25 cent words instead is lazy writing as well. Instead of writing the usual "Here's what to hate about Trump this week column" it might be more topical and interesting to focus on the weird alternatives being served up by the Democrats.
We all know Trump is an idiot. The problem is finding a reasonable sounding alternative. This despite the masssive policy problems of the GND, Medicare for All, etc.
Continue to be witty and clever. Stop boring us by beating a dead horse.
Seppuku was the suicidal act of a samurai who had failed or dishonoured himself. To use it in reference to the president is an insult to samurai.
10
Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought
and the thought has found words. -Robert Frost
Grobia
: a slovenly crude often buffoonish individual:
boor, lout
Rodomont
: a vain or blustering boaster :
braggart, braggadocio
Sinon
: one who deceives and betrays by false tales :
one guilty of perfidy
Proditomania
: a phobia that others are conspiring
against one.
Chirocracy: a government that rules by a 'strong hand’
or by physical force
Seppuku: often referred to as harakiri is ritual suicide
by disembowelment.
thx MD :-) found words
5
Trump won't survive 2020. Bloomberg will be the Democrat nominee and pummel Trump into an historical footnote of an impeached crackpot ersatz President with a fullislad of ads and clever use of social media while Trump obsesses over Clinton and imaginary DNC servers in the Ukraine and his wall.
4
Thank you for the vocabulary lesson.
Seppuku japanese word the only one I recognized.....
Best lock him up before he hurts himself.
2
Ms Dowd a new word for today , it seem as though it was coined to describe Trump .
Mythomania. a word used to describe A Pathological Liar.
2
" Oh great White House, I stab @ thee! "
1
There once lived a man, mean and vile,
who spend his whole life in denial.
He thought he was great,
never saw that his fate
was to be just a poor egophile.
3
Agree completely
Word!
3
Will there be an A.Word.A.Day for a columnist who helps an Ahab get elected by trashing his opponent and his predecessor in office? If there is, it might be a "dowder."
3
Mo, you are a little late to the party as usual. Word a Day has been delighting its subscribers for 25 years. Let me clue you into a new one, Penzeys Spices. Bill Penzeys has been campaigning against Trump for long over a year and making money doing it.
"I never in my wildest dreams thought my name would in any way be associated POTUS!” he wrote. Bare knuckels? I hate blood. I have people, strong people, they tell me. Trump 's wildedt dreams? They're worth millions"
You nailed it better than any article I read about this buffoon. Trump=destructive personality. No medication will help this individual. Lost case , unfortunately.
“their party will not easily recover from perverting its values.”
Have been hearing this for almost 50 years, since Nixon welcomed the bigot segregationist former Dems into the repub big tent.
Hasn’t happened yet. The Jim Crow fascist confederates won. They keep winning.
If Trump wins again, USA and many other democracies are finished. VOTE! Hold your nose if you must, but VOTE.
Pelosi, “crazy as a bedbug.” Has she been sleeping at Doral?
The Republicans who were Republicans before "Republican was cool" have been waiting for Trump for the last 40 years. His cartoonish belittling of his opponents thrills them to their cores. His ad hominem attacks of immigrants fixate their fears even though the ones I know use those same illegals to build their fences, haul their hay, and do all the jobs they don't want to do and don't want to pay a liveable wage to an American to do. Their blindness to the corruption of his family, his administration and to him is insignificant compared to their perception of him as the Savior of mankind. They are Trump's useful Idiots. Pelosi, “crazy as a bedbug.” Has she been sleeping at Doral?
The Republicans who were Republicans before "Republican was cool" have been waiting for Trump for the last 40 years. His cartoonish belittling of his opponents thrills them to their cores. His ad hominem attacks of immigrants fixate their fears even though the ones I know use those same illegals to build their fences, haul their hay, and do all the jobs they don't want to do and don't want to pay a liveable wage to an American to do. Their blindness to the corruption of his family, his administration and him is insignificant compared to their perception of him as the Savior of mankind. They are Trump's useful Idiots.
3
collateral suspicions turn into pernicious perdition.
this fit to print!
1
Trump is playing the game of how far can I go before sane people take me down. And because the Republican Party is so full of hypocrites and liars that would be quite far. Somewhere in the chamber of his gun he has saved a bullet for himself.
1
I wonder if Maureen ever feels remorse for all those columns attacking Hillary Clinton? Yes, it's a good thing we ended up with this mess in the White House. Anyone but Hillary.
4
Trump has nothing so grand as Ahab's obsession. He is merely singing for his supper, as hard as as he can, not able to believe that he hasn't been thrown out yet. Your boy (sorry Mo, you basked in Trumpiness far too long) is nothing but a toy of criminals and criminal regimes. What he did to put himself, and us, in this obscene predicament - who knows? Please try to redeem yourself.
1
“The perfect sucker.” This should be inscribed on his tombstone.
Thanks for the column, but please no seppuku - this would reqire, if done traditionally, a second person to strike off Trump’s head with a good katana after he had stabbed and slashed his own gut with a kodachi - the shorter sword carried by traditional Samurai - the reason the act is oft called by the vulgar “harra-kari” (belly cutting). (Note - the Nihon r-sound is properly pronounced by making that sound with the tongue positioned for the sound of a spoken L. Not good for occidental palates.
Now I’m sure we can all come up with a list of Trump Loyalists who would deliver the second blow, after Trump had, in his mind, suffered sufficiently for his malfeasance, or lost consciousness.
But #2 would take the undeserved rap for murder, manslaughter or aiding a suicide.
Hmm, Pence, Barr ... heck, why not?
A small disagreement....seppuku was an honorable death...painful and honorable...nothing about the current president is honorable.
2
"Call me IshmaeI?" Ok, Maureen, you are Ishmael.
“The White Whale swam before him (her) as the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating them, till they are left living with half a heart and half a lung.”
"In essence whiteness is not so much a color as the visible absence of color; and at the same time the concrete of all colors; is it for these reasons that there is such a dumb blankness, full of meaning, in a wide landscape of snows — a colorless, all-color of atheism from which we shrink?"
"He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it."
"Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee."
Going after Burisma is just Trump's smokescreen to divert attention from his own scandal in Ukraine involving Naftogaz.
The plot thickens with Giuliani, Perry and others trying to take over and control state run Ukrainian gas company for profit and to benefit close associates. More information on how Trump's associates tried to shakedown Ukrainian energy officials: https://apnews.com/d7440cffba4940f5b85cd3dfa3500fb2
So District prosecutors are now looking into how Guiliani's boys were at the center of the shakedown and GOP influence peddling when it came to the Ukranian gas company Naftogaz:
https://time.com/5737518/ukraine-naftogaz-ceo-preparing-giuliani-probe-testimony/
The column is “scintillating” even if the subject is such a “Snodgrass.”
It all stems from his mother was not being able to suckel him. Hence, he obsesses over with women with big breast.
Google "trump's troubled childhood".
1
So the DNC paid Ukraine to hack itself and help Trump win the election? So that—they could—impeach him—hmmm.
Bedbugs, frankly, make more sense.
Crowdstrike, by the way, was founded by some guy from New Jersey who does not appear to weigh four hundred pounds, and a Moscow-born naturalized American whose family immigrated when he was fourteen. Why do I have to look that up? Why is that not pointed out by the Fourth Estate every time this Sinon utters it.
2
Well, well, well.
“I never in my wildest dreams thought my name would in any way be associated with the ugly word, Impeachment!”
Here’s a couple more ugly words: the 21st Century Bernie Madoff!
Throw the bum out!
It would be so encouraging (yet frightening)if Trump’s behavior had gotten to point of turning off Congressional sycophants especially among the populace denying possible martyrdom.
But as with parliament officials under regimes of Mussolini and Hitler, Republicans (seventy-four years later) also blindly backing Trump, suggest; they will ignore history and be for him even if it cause America’s collapse.
1
Trump is a lying braggard, not to mention a fictional patron saint of vulgar, coarse & despicable people. Without blinking an eye, 45 is guilty of perfidy, where the Mob Boss suffers from a phobia that others are conspiring against him. Outside of Obama, Pelosi, Schumer, Bernie, etc. Amerika looks rudderless and as Bret Stephens mentions in his NYT editorial, Amerika is looking more like the Ukraine, steeped in a corrupt kakistocracy…Vote in 2020, like your life was hanging in the balance (mine is by absentee ballot)!
1
Bravo!
I read so many here saying Bloomberg can beat trump. The world of real politik must be brought in here without sounding antisemitic which I know all of you will understand. If any of you think another NewYork City rich guy, this one a real billionaire, who is Jewish can be elected President of the United States oh man your naivette is astounding. Do any of you ever travel? Around America? I have lived and worked in most of America except Pacific NW. Even a horrible piece of ignorant buffoonery that is trump will destroy a NYC Jewish Democrat. It's really quite simple when you think about it. Biden will destroy trump and trump knows it.
1
Trump is just being the same old Trump he’s always been, as recorded by the NYC press. A “ rodomont...... a grobian....a Sinon suffering from proditomania.” to the nth!!! degree.
The difference is that, although NYC is a big pond for a regularJoe, it was easy for Trump to manipulate - it’s always about money. The WH and national press, notwithstanding the special interests that want him re-elected, are too big and complex to clean up by ordering his helpers to throw the bodies in the river, as “Ambassador” Sondland, Volker, Giuliani and the shrecks: Lev Parnas and Oleg Fruman and, of course, Devin Nunez have demonstrated. By contrast, Dr. Fiona Hill, Ambassadors Yovanovitch, Taylor, Mr. Holloway, Holmes, Kent, Ms. Williams and others are to formidable harpoon.
What’s itching Lindsey Graham anyway?
1
Once you get to the O's:
obstinate ochre ogre obdurately ogling others
Seppuku indeed, Mo - but as 'Individual-1' leads his party of Sinons over the cliff, the only thing we bemoan is if one of the frowards escapes.
Moving on: please be sure to hold your brother Kevin's feet to the fire this year at your T'giving festivities - ask him to read any news article of the day with a D.C. dateline, inserting the name 'Hillary' or 'Obama' wherever the name of Mayhem 45* appears.
If Kevin can do that with a straight face, pretending that all this will be acceptable behavior from the next Dem POTUS who moves her child and son in-law into the West Wing, while running a bed-and-breakfast down the street for foreign potentates and donors to avail themselves of, then Kevin gets a great big bonus slice of 'punkin' pie!
1
Trump is democracies' answer to the Chavezs, Kims and others of today and the Hitlers and Stalins of days past.
They either cripple their countries or destroy them and also in the end usually (not always) go down with them in some way, shape or form.
1
What a wonderful fantasy for me this morning. As bad luck would have it, however, the followers of Jesus Christ, the all forgiving Lamb of God, will turn out en masse in horror of the hellfire they have been promised by their collection plate parasite pastors should they fail to show.
On the upside, I took four trips to the dictionary to learn some words and flush some amyloid plaque.
Our national anthem ends with the line “the home of the brave”. But when we see our elected representatives confront the facts describing the crimes committed by a president we see them shrink from the responsibility put on their shoulders. Partisanship is not simply the gaming of experience, it is not simply tribalism as a political style, it is at its heart the fear to think for oneself. The fear to make a stand on principles that you want to live by. It is the last refuge of the political coward and cowards have always been with us. But leadership is the domain of hero’s, people who in the end will go their own way though hell bars the door. The image of John McCain comes to mind as he schooled his own supporters that Barack Obama was a good man and not an enemy of the country. John McCain as he cast the final vote to save affordable healthcare from the Republican mob. One never wondered about his courage because he quietly wore it every day of his life. But now we can’t turn away from the spectacle of the majority of the Senate cowering in front of a cheap real estate conman, hiding from TV cameras, sputtering ignorant nonsense when asked simple questions. They only have one job and that is to protect the country and it’s constitution from liars and enemies of the people. It is astounding to see anyone that ruled by fear. These are people who now have no home. They are strangers and illegal immigrants in the home of the brave.
1
Planning anything is not the Pretend King Trump's way of dealing with anything. If the Democrats want 2020 and we want some sort of competent government, we need to accept he has mental issues and therefore not capable of reasoning. He is not the master but the puppet. Those pulling on the strings have lost control so they need him to hang on for those Supreme Court Justice seats that are for life and other underhanded policies to be initiated. They are playing a game with their Trumpistas and they need to deliver. The GOP doesn't care about any of their concerns their bottom line is money and power. Their eye is on leading this country down a corporate path where businesses rule and democracy does not exist. This is real folks not some TV drama. Our complacency is driving their confidence in making their fake world a reality. Election 2020 will be the most important moment during this period of US existence, those who understand the significance have a duty as citizens to enlighten as many as we can. This a free country and to keep it this way will mean to come out of our ho hum lives to determine our future and safeguard our children.
3
He is just a moron, he does know anything, acts like he has ADD, does not read, does not listen and just does not care. For the life of me, why do these Republicans keep burying their head in the sand and pretend he is normal. He is not normal and every time he rants, tweets, insults, berates and spews his hate of others he is taking a lot of people down with him. Why can't we just get rid of him and keep on with our lives. He does not represent America and America is better than him. Like a lot of my fellow countrymen I am tired of being played like a pawn by this president who just does not care and is a national security risk to us all.
22
@SDW
Why? M O N E Y
Now and in the future.
Follow the money and the story will unfold.
Let's see all their tax returns
3
@sdw. Trumps followers are racist, greedy, homophobic, misogynistic, rubes. It’s as simple as that. These simple-minded bigots are running the country through a fluke of our flawed electoral college system. We are indeed at a major crossroad in the history of our country. If we can keep it. Vote.
5
Reality outran apprehension, impeachment stood upon his quarterdeck.
2
When all two thousand comments contained in this article condemn the President it intentionally speaks of a false bravado as deemed in a communist manifesto,which this publication of liberal propaganda actually is.
1
1. They don’t.
2. Nobody intentionally displays “bravado,” as the word means that you’re trying to up a brave front in which you don’t really believe. If you’d like to see the thing in action, watch Donald bluster his way through a press conference—though, I will grant you, it’s generally hard to tell if he’s running a knowing con or simple so stupid and egotistical that he himself believes his own jabber.
3. You wouldn’t know a communist manifesto if Marx and Engels ran up and started swatting you with it.
5
@Alan Einstoss
Only you are real? Nope.
Unlike Fox, the NYT does try to include a variety of opinions, and it does fact checking. Trump and his enablers and dupes are in the pockets of wealth, corruption, and destroying the planet for short-term profit.
Trump is a disgusting dishonest corrupt antipatriot, bent on taking what he can and dismissing anything that gets in his way.
Bankruptcies, failures to pay workers, 3500 lawsuits, promoting hatred and feeding his vanity, the story is plain for all to see.
5
Such wonderful words to describe our President. Our national obsession. Our indomitable Trumpy Bear. He does so like to cut of his nose to spite his face, but, perhaps, the word of the day, seppuku, best ecapsulizes his Ukrainian, CrowdStrike, Clinton/Bidden obsessions. Actually, self-immolation may be closer to the mark.
1
Trump haters are the Ahabs of the country, not Trump. Ms Dowd and all the others here are obsessed with him, write about him every day, complain about him every day. They cannot remove his image from their daily lives. He is your own Moby Dick, not the other way around. And you will suffer defeat, too, because of this incessant desire to defeat him.
2
Could you explain how the “not the other way around,” bit works? Because Dowd’s point is that Trump is Ahab and Moby at once, and it’s kind of hard to see how flipping that around helps you much....
@BT
Perhaps if he didn't tweet hundreds of times per day. Now, THAT's obsession.
IF the other "useful idiots"support him then the main"useful idiot"will survive. Nunes, spreading the Russian propaganda direct from Putin, and FOX certainly involved. Graham, a true believer in the Russian story.
Imagine what these guys would do if Obama had done anything like this.
3
Nationwide mass protests anyone? If you think he is indeed a rodomont, grobian and Sinon why don't you all take a stand? Just a few people in front of his hotels or the White House won't cut it. Take a page from Lebanon, Hong Kong and Iraq.
Maybe you just deserve this kind of leader...the apple doesn't fall far from the tree after all
Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about adultery. Trump did that, bought silence, lied about the bribe, and bragged about sexually assaulting women and being a Peeping Tom of teens...and all this pales next to his being Putin's Pinata.
10
Best column Maureen Dowd has ever written.
4
More hand-wringing from his biggest booster.
Don't insult my intelligence, Ms Dowd. You're still doing handsprings. Ha ha - take that, Bill!
Took you this long to learn about AWAD?!?! I've been subscribed for a decade and a half at least. So much for NYT -op-eders. Maybe I have a future at the NYT, NOT.
Dear Donald,
Please don’t give away Syria, allow Turkey to roam, blame Ukraine, deny our own government research on Vlad’s 2016 games, give away your respect, disrespect our military members, disrespect our Ambassadors with far greater talent, skill, and experience than you have, disavow teamwork, disrespect the middle class in favor of wasting jet fuel for Mnuchin and others to act ‘rich’, waste tax money golfing, begin office hours at 11 a.m., don’t read the daily briefs taxpayers have paid for you, verbally abuse women including Ambassadors with far more experience and skill than yourself, verbally abuse women with less experience than yourself, verbally abuse experienced military members because their skin is not as white as you would like even though they have served many more months than you have for this country.
Be a big boy, you are at least 260 by now.
Know your weaknesses, be at least humble enough that you don’t bluster and lie your way through life, be respectful to others as equal to you, and don’t run for offices you haven’t a good number of skills to carry out.
Respect yourself enough to notice it’s time for you to get out of “public service”, which you’re not in by evidence of your behaviors, and go retire to your nice campground in Florida. They have a good restaurant and the breezes are calming.
Love,
Mom
3
Trump's insults are usually self-referential. I noticed three examples just in this article.
(1) illegitimate President
(2) Totally incompetent
(3) Crazy as a bedbug
I wish somebody at the Times would write an article focusing on this bizarre quirk of his personality.
2
@Charlesbalpha Immature innuendos filled with fear against Trumps reelection ,which is nearly certain at this conjunction.Not one comment of condemnation is bright or sharp enough to slice through the mud of the swamp.
@Charlesbalpha
This is technically known as “projection.” It is indeed part of Trump’s profound personality disorder, and has been discussed many times. Try looking up “malignant narcissism.”
Another example of projection is contained in Alan Einstoss’s reply to your comment, e.g., “immature innuendos” and “not one comment... is bright or sharp enough,” which actually both apply to his own sputtering, not-quite-English rant.
whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad
- Sophocles in 'Antigone'
5
Good Thinking Maureen... you’re at the top of your game now.
My question of the day: Seppuku for whom? Him or our nation?
1
Ms Dowd makes me look words up in nearly every column. Here, she really does it. Who needs a word a day? Just read Maureen Dowd. I wold love to have lunch with her.
Trump has already been “brought down.” Now he is working to bring America down. He’s like Hitler, thirsting to burn Paris after the war was long lost. If it weren’t for the decency and integrity of the civil servants who testified last week, I’d be certain Trump would indeed totally wreck the nation. After hearing last week’s testimony, especially Fiona’s, I think there may be hope. Slim hope, but hope nevertheless.
4
The longer this nonsense goes on the more it becomes clear that the incurious, ignorant electorate is to blame. Americans are divided because half of us cant believe the massive amount of ignorance and stupidity emanating from our own neighbors and communities. Many Americans dont know basic facts about their own government, history and in fact are mentally and emotionally crippled like the idiot in the WH. If voters had any sense that they are jeopardizing the very stability of this system of government, perhaps they would be alarmed. They aren't. This is a country where half the population doesn't vote! Trump is a lunatic in addition to being cruel, stupid and plain unfit to be a human being. Shame on us for allowing such ignorance and stupidity to flourish in our society.
6
The biggest surprise of this column is that Maureen Dowd was not already a subscriber to the esteemed A.Word.A.Day.
2
Simply stated Trump is a deeply disturbed, fairly unintelligent, and shameless idiot.
Everything he touches withers away and dies in his anger and paranoia. Pity the sycophantic Republican Party, and above all America which must endure all this angst. I predict that the day he leaves office full of his sound and fury all Americans will sigh a collective sense of relief and will be glad to never hear from him again.
2
Can you say, “Megalomanic?”
Vocabulary Lesson Circa October 2016
He’s a megalomaniac, egomaniac
Just a pompous blowhard
And he’s dancing around the truth
Wherever he goes
Without the soul to be a President
Spouting hate like love notes
Corrupting greatness in our nation
Turning compassion into ridicule
Mockery, deception, misogynist enterprise
Masquerading in God’s truth when he’s
Just feeding us lies
An arsonist setting fire to the heart of our nation
He’s a ticking time bomb ready to explode
There’s a moment in time when you must rise up and stand tall
Can’t remain ignorant and blind, or we all fall
If you want to survive America your better open your eyes
He’s a maniac, a megalomaniac
Who can’t uphold truth from lies
He’s a danger to our country and the world
He’s a megalomaniac
https://youtu.be/NgYgubiya2s.
the bells toll thru the dreamhole
as soulcases shiver in dread
from the sea the whale is flung
on top of us has brung
an ocean of hate that will drown
the sleeping heart
Awake MAGAs
your king is undone
1
I weep for the millions of children growing up in our country now. I weep because they will grow up believing that our country has always been run by a lawless president and his equally lawless sycophants. I listen to the news every day and all I hear are his lies and his boasting and his lies and his lies and his lies. Does this man know any other way of communicating? He is an abomination and a huge blot on our country and his party is following him like the lemmings without any reason. How sad we have become.
4
Has anyone noticed that any fact appearing anywhere in printed form can be repeated by others until, inevitably, it competes with the truth for credibility?
The actor-politicians who perpetuate deliberately this misinformation do so from evil motives: They have ideological axes to grind, and they simply do not have time to vet each bit of information or it's provenance, so they pick the bits of information/misinformation they think will be most effective and rely on simple repetition, no matter how irrelevant, do to the rest.
As witness to Nuñes :
1 - never missing a chance to speak about the committee on which he sits with contempt and
2 - to drum up conspiracies with deadpan delivery, as if they were somehow relevant and
3 - continuing to basin his defense on rules not favoring his side and not being able to call a host of irrelevant witnesses when the rules being followed were written by Republican lawmakers during the last presidential impeachment,
And Gym Jordan:
4 - continuing to wrestle the facts into an indescribable, twisted pretzel with stunning, although mighty peculiar, acuity that, at the same time, defiles and defies legal logic,
-- it's no wonder why they stopped asking questions and only made misleading speeches. They were there and heard the testimony. Even so, it's clear they have given up on those and all other facts and no longer care about them. And so they're resorting to hammering home the distraction of irrelevancy as their defense.
1
The most recent "a-ha" moment I have seen is the reasoning behind Yovanovich's recall from her Ukrainian post. The fear in the State Department was that Trump was about to unleash a tweet storm on her because she was still at her post. That would ruin any confidence that Ukraine might have about our support, thus benefiting Russia.
So even the "deep state" (read conscientious civil servants) contributed to this mess - not unwittingly - and in the end the Russian goal seems to have been met. I don't know that there's anything seriously wrong with Trump from a physical medical perspective, but the cancer he sows on this country seems to have metastasized. I fear that, unless he can harpoon himself with further misdeeds, the prognosis is terminal for our country. We will not rest In peace.
1
Disgusting....Disappointing...Demonstrably Delusional.
Impeached or not,....Vote. Him. Out.
5
Ms Dowd is fustian to use such flowery language!
Bloomberg-Klobuchar
Bloomberg-Deval Patrick
Bloomberg-Sherrod Brown
These slates can.
Klobuchar will finish off the pieces of Trump left over from Nancy Pelosi's slicing and dicing.
Despite the NYTimes bias against Mayor Mike he did a good job as Mayor.
Same for Deval Patrick as Gov. of Mass.
Pay no attention to Bernie and AOC. They are part of the same left wing losers that cost Al Gore Florida in 2000.
Joe B allowed Princess Hillary to run and lose because she, and Bernie, were the only Dems that could lose in 2016.
BTW Rep. Omar is still ant-semitic IMO
1
It’s clear he’s clear-eyed in his full out betrayal of America due to some deal he made with Satan with the backing of Putin.
2
@One World
More like, "some deal he made with Putin with the backing of Satan."
Trump knows he is an illegimate President, what he did not expect was to get caught for the proditomaniacal predator he is.
5
Maureen I was with you until the last line. Wishing in widely read print for the president to ritually kill himself should be beneath you.
1
I humbly disagree.
@Rachel Thompson
It’s metaphorical. As in “destroy himself.”
1
I hope The American people take on the white and orange whale who is acting as an agent for Putin. The white whale for the Congressional Democrats is truth, honesty, the Constitution and the rule of law.
3
The Oval Office occupant's sociopathic contagion has involved the entire republican party...and is spreading.
2
I happened to watch 'A Fish Called Wanda' again recently and realized that Trump is the real life version of Kevin Kline's character.
An astonishingly stupid person who expends all his energy to avoid being called 'Stupid'.
3
Seppuku. We should be so fortunate.
3
As we've all read many times now, Trump is the symptom, the disease is the ignorant, racist, morally decrepit Trump voter who is also a GOP voter. The only known cure for the disease is to vote out Republicans. Every single one of them.
6
Trump is indeed Ahabian in his pursuit of the Great White Racist vote and this makes the Republican Party his Pequod Squad heading to Davy Jones’ Locker.
2
45's senseless drivel against Marie Yovanovitch is very similar to your senseless attacks against HRC, during 2016. Oh well, here we are.
7
I love reading Ms. Dowd's pieces. I just wish I didn't have to see the abhorrent, abominable, appalling, awful, disgusting, distasteful, dreadful, gross, grotesque, horrible, horrid, loathsome, nauseating, nauseous, noisome, repellent (also repellant), repugnant, repulsive, revolting, sickening image at the beginning of the piece.
4
It is nearly Thanksgiving, Ms. Dowd. Time for your brother to show us how dense he is, or you Miss Dowd could deprive him of the opportunity to do that and let him call Fox instead and tell them how great he thinks our president is.
4
If only M s. Dowd hadn't been so blinded by her hatred of the Clintons that she hadn't helped this lifelong crook get elected.
7
Please, we get it. Can you find something to write about other than DT.
3
@brian. There is nothing more important at the moment than exposing our traitorous president and his sycophantic supporters. He must be removed or our constitution and country are toast. Go to a movie if you need a diversion, and leave the gate of our nation to the people who care.
1
I have never before thought that a President's actions could seriously threaten our country's security and our standing in the world, but now I worry about it every day with him and the Republicans, who all seem to be useful, reckless idiots.
4
One day the Republican Party will pay dearly for this craven display of yellow belly cowardice. But for now it's infuriating to see the criminal moron Donald Trump corrupt with impunity. Shame on the Republicans .
4
Trump is the ultimate "useful idiot". Indeed Putin has turned all of Trump's supporters, via Fox News, into useful idiots as well, all of them unknowingly carrying water for Putin while believing they are defending the country from an attack by domestic leftists. Game, set, and -- if Trump is re-elected -- match goes to Putin!
4
Let him sink to the bottom of the sea like a rotten tomato from a garbage truck. The man is a pervert, psychotic.
3
Yes, trump was Putin’s useful idiot from day one. But if The United States falls, it will be caused by all those who in their fantasy minds thought they were true Americans. Ignorance will have destroyed our country.
4
Dear Maureen Dowd: your friends thought you'd become a fan of Anu Garg's "Wordsmith", Garg's extraordinary go-to daily website that teaches us A.Word.A. Day. So subscribing you sub-rosa wasn't a conspiracy, just a word to the wise about intelligent words that cast light on our lives in our inboxes every morning and start our days off thoughtfully and sometimes with a bang or a smile.
Garg's past week's words illuminated the foibles and failings of our president, Donald Trump. Vulgarian (per Graydon Carter's "SFV" in SPY magazine), Rodomont, Grobian, Sinon, etc. You have written that Trump is Captain Ahab and his white whale (Moby-Dick) is himself. That he will commit 'seppuku' in the end. Hara-kiri.
Herman Melville never lived to see today, but he could have written another great American novel about our 45th President and "Starbucks" America today. Trump won't live forever, he'll bring himself down sooner or later. May he not reign as long as President for life Robert Mugabe did in Zimbabwe for 30+ years. Eventually Trump/Ahab will become Ozymandias-in-full. Forgotten.
For all of Bolton's bluster and being the tough guy who wants to go to war with just about everyone, it would appear he is nothing more than an empty suit waiting to cash in on his "explosive" tell all book. Well sir, you are a coward full stop.
Others stepped up and did their duty to their country and to uphold their oath of office. You choose to step up to the wicket to deposit your book advance. Spineless shameless useless human being.
7
Seppuku is for samurai. 45 is no bushido follower.
4
Dear Maureen, seppuku is a good word, indeed
I’m sick of Maureen Dowd’s columns about Trump. I’m sick of opinion pieces about Trump. I’m sick of people talking about Trump. We need to get rid of him as soon as possible, and it’s now the fault of Republicans that we cannot do so. He is a thief, a crook, a liar, a fraud, and an idiot. This is our president.
2
@robgee99. Then stop reading, come up with a game plan, and do it. Stop complaining; we’ve had enough of that from the Ruspublicans. You could write letters, make phone calls, protest, design t-shirts and stickers, rally on a soapbox in the park. Campaign for your favorite candidate. Or you could write a column for a newspaper that informs millions, if you’re smart enough that is. At the very least, go to ITMFA.org and buy a hat. Planned parenthood, the aclu, and the refugees assistance project will thank you. As a bonus, when someone asks what ITMFA means, you get to tell them.
“Seppuku”?
Ms Dowd really knows how to drive the knife in.
1
I am very impressed by all the brilliant comments, though he is not legally gone probably until January 20, 2021.
The damage he will have done probably can not ever be fully cleared, and so I semi congratulate our nation for, say, perhaps half self-destroying itself.
2
I think and feel—strongly—that Trump is, among other things, a creep. I would not put much of anything (particularly on the spectrum from bad to worse) past him.
But it doesn’t serve our long- or short-term interests, as a country, to call him names or simply vilify him.
Why anyone likes, admires, trusts, or supports the man beats me. ‘Tis a fact, though, that millions of Americans support him, almost as if he can do no wrong. ‘Tis also a fact that that’s the only reason he’s in power, and, therefore, a person worthy of all the attention the media gives him.
What’s going on?
Why do people—or maybe I should say why does anyone—support him?
Are there any limits to said support—lines, which, if he were to cross them, his supporters would no longer support him?
Understanding is impossible without listening.
Somebody in the mainstream media should listen to his supporters, try to understand why they support him, and help those of us who think and feel as I do, that the man’s very bad news, understand those of us who like and support him.
Maybe, then, we as a country will be able to come together, and learn from this profoundly dysfunctional mess we’re in.
4
@David
"Somebody in the mainstream media should listen to his supporters, try to understand why they support him, and help those of us who think and feel as I do, that the man’s very bad news, understand those of us who like and support him."
Trump's tragic flaw is his tremendous insecurity: not being the smartest kid in his class, as he always wanted to be; not being accepted by the intellectual elites; not being as likable or loved, as always wanted to be.
Many of his more passionate followers have similar feelings. Trump built his way to prominence despite obstacles -- the Trump name / brand has been raised skyward on his hotels and towers. His followers see his career as the sign of success in a society that never gave Trump -- nor them -- the acceptance and love they crave, which are basic human needs.
Even being president of the most powerful country in the world -- an unparalleled achievement -- has not given Trump the satisfaction he wants because in the eyes of so many it's tainted. His most passionate followers feel the same sense of rejection, of never having made it big ... and they blame someone else.
The cure: Give Trump and his "base " a little love.
"Our Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace: where there is hatred let me sow love."
Up for the challenge?
1
@david. Racist, greedy, rubes. Next...
1
The most interesting point is in the first part of Ms. Dowd's article - we call were signed up, unwillingly, for "Word A Day" by someone. That is, every single person that I know, and my entire family, started to receive this unwelcome "Word A Day" recently!
Given how unwelcome extra email is, I assumed it was part of Trump propaganda, and it was relegated directly to the spam folder. Is this mysterious "A Word A Day" from the Trump campaign, seeking to divide Americans again? Sounds like they have his number!
It's my recollection that Melville's yarn was the unravelling of the Pequod and all aboard her. The whale swam away, wounded, but not mortally so, and unaffected.
1
While watching an excellent Netflix WW II documentary series, an episode focused on the dictator's rise. The professor narrator characterized the dictator's manifesto as "make Germany great again." Not knowing when the series was produced, I can't say whether or not this turn of the phrase was coincidental or planned. Either way, intentional or not, it eerily fits.
Game plan: first paint a dystopian picture.
Remember: "But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists: Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system, flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge; and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now."
Emphasize popular victim-hood, find a scapegoat, promise jobs and a better life, repeat the same simple falsehoods over and over until they are accepted as fact, look for ethnic purity (like people from Norway), demonize those of a different color as murderers, rapists and drug dealers, find equal goodness in extremists and most of all, state that there is only one person capable of fixing all this--you.
Trump is not that particular dictator; he is Trump but that should be no solace.
5
I still prefer Dotard
6
The entire country is poltroon - ish. How about that blowtorch? Mi
1
Seppuku, which I learned from reading "Shogun" decades ago, can't come soon enough.
2
Trump? Harakiri? We should be so lucky. You know what that Walter Reed visit was about. His bone spurs were acting up.
7
@Íris Lee I see the hospital visit as a publicity stunt, quintessential 45: When the going gets touch, create a distraction.
This week should be interesting with the word coming out that Nunes himself was trying to get dirt on Biden from a Ukranian ousted from his own country........for ...............corruption.
Whatever we do, we must not sew division otherwise, Putin wins.
4
How ironic to use such exalted words to describe an obtuse president with a very limited English vocabulary.
The word proditomia might have Latin meaning of paranoia
but is even more forceful in its Greek derivative off the word
prodotis which means traitor.
His attempt to subvert American values through his twisted
mind is in itself a national crime. He uses traitor loosely in describing his adversaries but is blinded in how it reflects
straight back at him.
9
I do not know who I luv more, you Maureen or Gail and both of your equally seriously and hilariously get with it people commentaries on the ever more bizarre depths that this country is sinking into. Looking at the picture of The President in your column, yes male pattern baldness is one and trying to cover it up is another. Losing your mind at the same time as President is dangerous.
4
Bolton called Gouliani a "hand grenade." Dr Hill did not demur about what she thought that meant. She reaffirmed what was testified about how Bolton reacted to Sondland's comments in the meeting with Ukrainian diplomats. I think Bolton testifying that there was, in effect, bribery would be the "close" of the game.
Donald proved that he is more than willing to subvehiculate* friends and foes alike.
* throw some one under the bus.
4
One thing is certain Maureen; Trump is so bad, that all the bad people that would hurt him love him. He's kind of like the Jack Nicholson type, you know, rambunctious, entertaining, crazy, dangerous. I can't imagine him ever being in danger.
We are.
2
This is illogical:"“The F.B.I. went in, and they told them, ‘Get out of here, we’re not giving it to you,’” he said on Fox. “They gave the server to CrowdStrike, or whatever it is called, which is a company owned by a very wealthy Ukrainian. I still want to see that server.”
In his theory the "they" is the DNC, right? Trump is saying they gave their server- that they were told was hacked- to Ukrainian? In other words, he believes that they physically gave a server, with all their emails, to someone in another country just so the Russians would be blamed?
Pea brain.
3
@Lil50 - I wish a reporter would ask him this question.
Of course those of us with more than two working neurons know that Trump is like the wizard of OZ. He is a vain ignorant little man with low normal intelligence who infects others with his fantastic views of the world as he sees it, not how it really is. When we watch Republicans like Nunes and Ratclift and pitbull Jordan from Ohio we see just how powerful a Grobian Trump really can be.
2
And, all this time, I thought Grobian was that singer.
Silly me!
2
Well here's one opinion piece Trump won't read; too many "biggie" words.
4
Yes, Mr. President. Seppuku, please -- and in the middle of Fifth Avenue, OK?
You certainly won't lose my vote.
5
Bravo Dowd, it takes a steely red head to tease out this
mess, and you nailed it.
Trump's white whales are many.
He is the greedy monkey, the self-seeking zealot screeching, and crying, stuck like glue with his shameful handful, ensnared by his bottomless needs.
The pathetic thing is that we all see it, we see that grubby fist all balled up, we know its full of awful truths.
This willful fool has no intention of freeing a finger.
It can't be long now, cause and effect will have its way.
3
“I never in my wildest dreams thought my name would in any way be associated with the ugly word, Impeachment!”
And none of the other things he's done, he seems concerned about...business cheater, liar, random P-grabber, cheating husband, absent father...
3
There is no personal tragedy in the political downfall of this president in the sense that there is no value in his presidency. He is a vile man surrounded by self-serving, equally
vile flunkies.
6
It is, actually, over. Trump has shown himself to be a vile, weak, stupid and stunningly ineffective president, and those attrbutes are the ones that history will remember. And while Trump will not be convicted by the Senate, that does not erase Trump's crimes, it merely adds accomplices.
Our short-term goal is to stop this ignorant sociopath from destroying out country. Once we accomplish that, we can look forward to years of public ridicule Trump will be subjected to when all the stories come out about this insane administration. It will be fun!
2
"Seppuku. My word of the day."
Perhaps seppuku (Japanese ritual suicide) applies more to Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats. Take a look at these poll results (which aren't from Fox or Rasmussen):
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/471723-independents-souring-on-impeachment-underscores-risk-for-democrats
1
It’s simple Trump is nuts, His supporters don’t care.
6
If Trump were not president, he would be dismissed as a tinfoil-hatted conspiracy nut. That he is in charge of anything, let alone nuclear weapons and the largest military in the world, is terrifying.
Republicans are selling their souls for a pot of fools gold. Absolutely shameful.
6
Saw the Mister Rogers movie today. Mr. R created a fantasy world to instruct, The Fake President constructs a fantasy world to delude.
5
How’s he going to like the title, “worst president in the history of the United States” - ?
4
Trump I.N.C. Impeached Not Convicted The new Trump brand marketing coming soon in big gold letters to a building near you
1
According to this president's history, he is and was always destined to be the one to destroy himself, albeit doing a huge amount of damage along the way.
That has been his pattern throughout his career as numerous biographies have recounted, dive bomb into some landscape and raze it leaving behind a trail of victims and then move on to the next group of marks. That partially explains why he is a major national security risk beyond his gobsmacking ignorance and lack of qualifications for the job; after the 80's he couldn't get financing from reputable US sources and went abroad.
Trump has also survived by finding sponsors who recognize his raw talent as a con artist, his only but formidable skill set, from Mark Burnett to Putin.
The irony now that he has reached the pinnacle of influence replete with all of the associated powers, per usual creating a a gigantic pile of wreckage in short order, when he implodes this time, he will be hard pressed to find new victims outside of his mostly impecunious base and once out of his office, he will be of no use to the dictators he cultivates, no longer useful as an idiot.
4
Will someone in the White House please go out to a garage sale and get a used server or something that looks like a server and gift wrap it for Tboy's Christmas tree? Sweet Jesus, please!
4
@RonBlood - That's the best idea I've heard in a long time.
Well, Ms. Dowd, we can only hope so.
if it's a kangaroo court, does that mean the Republican congress members are kangaroos also?
Trump said he never thought his name would be linked to impeachment, why not, his name was linked to bankruptcy's 6 times....
2
Treason (U.S. Code 2381):
"Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States."
(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 807; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(2)(J), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2148.)
3
He doesn’t need a harpoon ti catch the white whale. All he needs to do is look in the mirror. The suits keep getting bigger, the coats a little blousier, and the trips to Walter Reed will become more frequent.
Seppuku by KFC Buckets and Big Macs sounds fine to me . . . Way better than four more years, or four more terms.
Keep kidding friends it is time to start sending KFC gift certificates to his office.
4
Maybe it is time for all of us to look up the meaning of the word "treason".
1
Labeling someone "Froward" is cute. A "Grobian" -hilarious.
Sure, if the referenced individuals were named Andre Gromyko and Nikita Kruschev. To honestly be assessing your and mine president with pretty much all Americans concurring with these terms as descriptive of this Buffoon is not cute, or funny. Its embarrassing and cringeworthy.
Paging Mike Pence! Get your friends in the Senate to turn on Trump and you will be President! Ask your wife if you don't believe it!
@Wally - Nope. Pence will go down with Trump and he knows it.
Why bother using these multisyllabic words to describe Trump? Our Nonreader-in-Chief is only concerned with a monosyllabic word: me...
6
What I find astonishing is not that this bombastic, bloviating buffoon continues his megalomaniacal sociopathology. It is that anyone at all still supports him. Then again, if there were a cure for crazy ignorance there would be no more Republicans.
2
Trump is bringing down the Republican Party, the Pequod. "What we learned from the hearings most is how throughly depraved the party is.
1
Said the president “I never in my wildest dreams thought my name would in any way be associated with the ugly word, Impeachment!”
Rape, bribery, and fraud, yes, but impeachment no. Yikes.
4
Hello Maureen
You started your piece with some tricky vocabulary words on the man with almost no vocabulary.
So here’s my go at it:
Trump is a purblind arrogator using claptrap to maintain his kakistocracy.
CLAPTRAP:
1 pretentious but insincere or empty language.
2 any artifice or expedient for winning applause or impressing the public.
ARROGATION:
1 to claim unwarrantably or presumptuously; assume or appropriate to oneself without right.
2 to attribute or assign to another; ascribe.
KAKISTOCRACY - government by the worst persons; a form of government in which the worst persons are in power.
PURBLIND - slow or deficient in understanding, imagination, or vision.
3
Try the word demonic.
When Trump was hurling insults at an ambassador on twitter while she testified in the impeachment process it reminded me of a scene from “The Exocist” where the demon was hurling insults at the priest as the priest exercised him. Then coincidentally I was reading “In the Garden of the Beast”, the story of Americas first Ambassador to Nazi Germany beginning in 1933 and how the Nazi employed state power and insults to destroy democracy. It all seems so uncanny and similar.
He is certified as a synonym for fraudster.
A fraudulent university
A fraudulent charity
A fraudulent casino operations
A fraudulent money-laundering schemes
And yes, he is an illegitimate president.
What is synonym for illegitimate president?
Donald J Trump
6
On top of his paranoia, he may also have narapoia,
"the feeling that you're out to get someone" without knowing whom.
1
We should add “fatuous” and “sociopath” to your list...
1
Sarpoufulous. An adjective describing a person who is sarcastic and superfluous at the same time.
I prefer more commonly understood words to describe this criminal.
Traitor. Compromised. A Bully and a Coward. Infectious. Reptilian. Dangerous. And so forth.
The time for intellectual exercises is over. This tyrant must be removed from office.
1
Where is the rot greatest? Is it Trump, his parasitic family, spineless GOP congressional representatives or the people who voted all of the above into office? The people who willing give them power. The Trump voter.
3
I wish conservatives would form a new party and let the Republican party implode. I agree that the GOP may never recover, and worse yet, may never desire to. It may seem odd that a progressive moderate like myself would like for the opposition to regroup into something respectable, something believable. But it breaks my heart to see it devolve into Caligula's Rome.
7
It is both hard to accept and understand how the republicans in the house and senate, as well as the entire country, cannot stand up to what Trump really is. He's an authoritarian (dictator) in training with Putin, Erdogan and Kim Yung Un teaching him the ropes. In the past three years he has made a mockery out of our democracy by repeatedly obstructing justice, lying constantly and using bribery to get a foreign leader to help him defeat an opponent in the next election. He has destroyed America's foreign relations with long standing allies by pulling out of hard fought treaties and agreements, and he operates like a "bully in a china shop" with chaos, conflict and confusion that has our ship of state mind numb and running upside down at this juncture. If you look at him from the political, criminal and or mental standpoint, he is the worst president in our nations history and he simply needs to be impeached and removed from office---period!
6
I watched almost all the public testimony. I've read coverage and backstory from NYT, WAPO, and even National Review to try to get all sides. I tried to check my own biases by asking myself how I would feel if the same evidence by the same people had been presented against Barack Obama (answer: heartbroken and angry but nonetheless reluctantly in favor of impeachment).
I'm unable to see how anyone of sound mind and honest intent can deny that leaving Trump and his officials in office puts our democracy in peril.
How is it possible, then, that the net effect of the hearings has been to significantly reduce the numbers in favor of impeachment with the largest change being among independents? ( see https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/impeachment-polls/ )
Folks, we're in trouble.
11
and don't forget KAKISTOCRACY.
1
Blame the naivete of our founding father's for Trump. In all of their spirited philosophical debates about democracy, the inalienable rights of man, freedom, the pursuit of happiness , free speech, separation of powers, and a more perfect union, they erred. Innocently I presume. During their late night debates they never anticipated that a person like Trump so lacking in character, qualification and experience might ever get elected, much less run. If they had they would have set forth far more detailed qualifications for the office beyond age and being a natural born citizen. Now, with Trump, we have the opportunity to set forth minimum qualifications so that no one like him is ever elected again. Those qualifications would include age, citizenship, related experience, education, with no history of financial fraud, bankruptcy, racial discrimination or tax evasion. Now, with Trump, we see the error of their ways. And we can correct it.
4
I'll state it again: Trump has ample behavioral features of a personality disorder (Cluster B), longstanding, as well as a more recent neurocognitive disorder (mild, for the time being--formerly dementia). Given that people with personality disorders have the total lack of insight capacity, the only problems they have is other people having problems with them--and other people regularly do! Here is the impression of having having someone not only unsuited for that office but also having used features of a disorder to con many people into voting him into it. Such personality disordered people can be very persuasive, even charming like Ted Bundy, until enough time passes and the basics of that person's behavior (mentality) are eventually revealed. It's been symbolized in novels and movies showing how attractive some people look until getting too close and too late to avoid, revealing they're vampires. It's interesting that the political/Constitutional way of managing such things mirrors the clinical/judicial. Given the lack of insight and intractability of the behavior, the most compassionate approach is "behavioral quarantine," i.e., removing the person from general association with others, either with incarceration because of conviction of crime (typically) or at least court-ordered behavioral monitoring like Epstein was supposed to have. These are the responsible approaches, but such remain to be seen for a master con artist given immense (but not limitless!) power.
6
Why can't the Republicans let go of their Trump fixation before he destroys the institutions of government and the fundamental principles stated in the U.S. Constitution? Trump has turned the GOP into a coolade drinking cult that will sacrifice itself in order to protect its Dear Leader. When did this ever happen before? No other president has demanded total loyalty to his every action (It was a "perfect" phone conversation) and gotten it from a party that initially scorned and repudiated his candidacy.
Now the Republican Party has repudiated many of its former fundamental policies (smaller government, free trade, rational immigration, federalism, cooperation with Congress & a belief in checks & balances, and a presidency limited by law & anchored to the truth). All because the electorate wanted to give an unorthodox candidate a chance. We can now see how that has turned out.
6
@JAM As long as Trump continues to have even a marginal poll lead the Republicans will continue to support him. Such is democracy in The Awful Age. What would change things is a few, or even one, courageous senior Republican to speak up. Cometh the hour; cometh the man. Oh my God, I hope and pray so.
2
@jimsir Look for Mitt Romney to lead the charge and for Mitch McConnel to shepherd a unanimous Republican vote against Trump if the Senate hears from John Bolton & Mike Pompeo. There are more Trump revelations to come.
Ultimately, the inquiry is a window into the character of Donald Trump, as if a bigger window was needed to reveal the kind of person he is. Forget the voluminous lies, deceit and wanton mayhem. This is a man who doesn't simply criticize or disagree with his adversaries, but actively pursues vendettas against them to destroy them personally, professionally and politically. Some of these vendettas are years old and ongoing. Cases in point are his chronic trashing of Obama, Clinton and Biden. His henchmen and supporters are perfectly fine with it all.
You can go on forever listing the damage done by Donald Trump acting out his damaged personality and massively distorted ego, but his hateful treatment of people he perceives as the enemy - political rivals, women, immigrants, Muslims, among others - is at the top of the list in bold.
The kind of person you are used to matter. One's action used to define them and the simple difference between right and wrong could be easily determined using age-old wisdom and common sense. But no more. Those days are long gone, at least to Republicans. To today's Republican Party and its supporters, right and wrong have diffused into a politicized blur, and character doesn't count.
It's going to take years, if ever, for the stench of Trump's presidency to leave the Oval Office. I only hope that we have a country left to enjoy the fresh air once it's cleared.
6
While Ms. Dowd is confident that that Trump and Republican politicians will eventually destroy themselves and truth will finally get our country back to valuing FACTS, I'm not so sure.
Republican politicians continue to support him, no matter what. If attempting to withhold military aid until a foreign power gives you dirt on a political rival isn't impeachable, ?what is? Have we, as a country, allowed these outrageous behaviors and policies to become the new "normal"?
3
Ms Dowd said Trump sees the world through the eyes of a paranoid person, I agree.
Guilt often leads to paranoia.
The recent public interviews of both Trump and Giuliani are quite alarming .
Last week Giuliani said ,that he had insurance in case Trump turned on him; Giuliani 's lawyer jumped in and said "my client was joking ", but he clearly was not.
Yesterday Giuliani again affirmed Trump could not turn on him,because he had insurance.
Amazingly Trump had no comment on Giuliani 's blunt threats.
Giuliani also said yesterday ,he is going to leave a note in case his body isn't found.
Trump and Giuliani seem to be self destructing, both incriminate themselves every time they speak.
This is probably going to get worse.
3
Or better, depending on how you look at it.
Totally agree with Dowd. Rick Wilson's book title "Everything Trump Touches Dies" is not limited to others who made the fatal mistake of aligning with Trump. Trump will bring himself down, not with the help of sycophant Republicans who are circling the wagons around him but by Trump himself by alienating everyone but his most steadfast base in the 2020 election. Trump's self destruction is a function of his inferiority complex. He has himself convinced that he cannot win fairly and his attempted bribery and extortion will result in his impeachment.
5
The Republican's in Congress, who support this vile presidency, were briefed by our own intelligence services on the fact that Russia, led by Putin, was the country pushing the lie that it was Ukraine that waged cyberwar on our 2016 election. The Republicans accept Russia/Putin's word over our own intelligence agencies and in the face of then candidate Trump's casual acceptance of Russia's attack on us; an attack that benefited him. Trump and Republicans are betraying our country with their narrative, and they refuse to back down. I cannot understand this, and I despair at being led by these Republicans. This party is complicit with our enemy. We must understand this and vote them out of all offices, as punishment for their betrayal.
6
Trump caught in the headlights full on. Strangely, maybe insanely he is exactly where he is most fulfilled and rightly vilified at the same time.
In the glare it is difficult to clearly see his many enablers or even more important the underlying, endemic, and profound political dysfunction that made his perverted presidency possible. Those conditions will not suddenly vanish no matter the outcome of the current effort to impose accountability.
What follows Trump will still be America’s profound division and the incapacitation that is guarantees and perpetuates.
2
I find it odd that trump fears impeachment when he knows the Senate won't eject him from office.
3
@C Lee
I wonder if it is because at some level he knows that the electoral losses in 2016 that replaced Ryan and Nunes with Pelosi and Schiff are the result of his own failure to do the actual meaningful things he promised to do (health care for all, better and cheaper than Obamacare; millions of high paying factory jobs; thousands of coal jobs; and so on). Perhaps he considers impeachment an affront, and he knows that he helped put in place the Democratic majority in the House that will deliver it. Nah. It is all ego.
2
The thing is SOMEONE is going to prison for all of this. The question is: “Will they roll over to save themself?”
6
Trump needs to quit trying to "run" the country, and start trying to "lead" it. Unfortunately, he doesn't know how to do either one!
8
Maureen makes us laugh through our tears. All those great words! But the real tragedy is not that we elected as president an unhinged narcissist but that nearly every Republican in Congress is prepared to exonerate him. Various psychologists have given a diagnosis of Trump. But what causes Republicans in Congress to give him unflinching support? Maybe it's something in the water...
2
Trump in his wildest dreams never thought his name would be associated with an ugly word like Impeachment? That’s the least of the ugly words he will be associated with. There are his own words, the childlike, nasty Twitter rants, the hateful rhetoric at his rallies, all recorded for posterity, the history books, documentaries and movies. He made his bed way before impeachment possibility.
6
I have long believed that it was Trump's destiny to destroy himself, due to his uncontrollable hubris and frail and gargantuan ego.
However, I am truly concerned we are approaching the last exit for this guy to do so, at least while we still have a chance to redeem our nation.
He just bulls ahead blindly towards his never ending self aggrandizement and Trumper fealty, the terrifying new normal threatening to forever take root.
He is inexhaustible.
I hope we have enough energy to outlast this monster.
If we don't we may very well be doomed.
4
Trump has learned from Roy Cohn, reality TV and professional wrestling - his three greatest influences - that to survive and thrive in the public arena, one needs a strong enemy, real or fabricated, to battle at all times. The impeachment has given him an opponent to engage on an epic scale, giving his presidency and plight an unearned grandeur. I'm not sure what the alternative is but treating him with pity and concerned hand-holding from all parties might expose him as the impotent, mentally-deteriorating old fool he truly is.
4
Republicans were fiscal conservatives until duped by Iran into starting an unfunded war in Iraq. Republicans used to serve Americans until being duped into serving Russian interests. Well played Vlad, well played.
Now what?
3
@Loreley
Well... now Vlad is free to realize his dream of reestablishing the Russian Empire unchecked. It might not be a Soviet one, but it will be ugly.
1
Regardless of his guilt in this latest scandal, we really just don't have the luxury of time to have another 4 years of this do nothing to progress our country president. We are falling SO far being in many important areas that we can't have this low impact dunce serve another term.
3
If Ukraine has the mythical DNC server, they should, and I think would, move heaven and Earth, scouring under every rock and dredging every lake to find it. And why wouldn't they? It would be the pearl beyond price for Trump to lay his tiny little hands on it. He would be in debt to Zelinsky forever - providing White House visits and probably three Trump hotels just to glimpse it.
Devin Nunes would do a back flip in that Speaker dias, Steve Bannon would be invited back into the White House fold. The Republican Party would rule for a thousand years!
With something of so much political value, one would think a genuine search for it would have started three years ago, begging Putin for details.
But alas, all of these things did not happen and the server will never be found. Trump does not want to catch the White Whale - he only wants to go fishing.
1
maureen...glad you're signed on for Word a Day. i've been getting them for 8 years...and YES! Anu Garg, our esteemed webmaster/creator is a very liberal fellow, with a wry sense of humor. he has done this not-so-veiled anti-Drumpf word-week often the past 3 years. and i like him even more for it. [he responds to emails, btw...]
What does it tell us that in the midst of impeachment, Donald Trump choses to exonerate war criminals? A bit of projection?
5
@Bh
I think he genuinely admires war criminals.
1
The most amazing thing is not that Trump is the liar, racist and traitor that he demonstrates daily. It is that formerly sane republicans are now so cowed by fear of his tweets that they will parrot almost any lie, conspiracy theory or alternate reality to protect him. Four more years of Trump will leave this country, the world and our planet in shambles. History will treat the republicans badly, but it will be too late unless somehow a shred of sanity can be found by the next election.
4
Notice how Mike Pence is trying oh-so-hard to avoid being associated with Trump and his corruption?
But Pence definitely is implicated in the Ukraine scandal. His name is tainted. Keeping a low profile and avoiding the press won't help him.
Memo to Mike Pence: "No comment" means "I'm guilty."
4
'“I never in my wildest dreams "
Now THERE'S a place no one ever wants to see.
2
Seppukku. Great word. Maybe A Word A Day's Anu Garg will come up with four more related Japanese words describing this administration's tendencies toward mass suicide, which in the process is also murdering our democracy.
Trump can harpoon himself all he wants.
I'm for giving him daily deliveries of harpoon.
The tragedy is this Ahab is taking the ship down with him.
Stubb: " Ahab beckons. He's dead, but he beckons."
I am going to sign up for A.WORD.A.DAY for sure.
I had to look up the defintions in your opening paragraph. I know the meaning of your last "word of the day". Unfortunately, Trump is amoral and has no sense of shame. Ritual suicide is not the exit strategy of a malignant narcissist . Trump will sacrifice our nation to save himself.
2
If you know any Republicans shut them out. They have lost the right to be involved in any conversations or events. They are betraying this country.
The Republican Party is defined as "The corrupt leading the ignorant."
Your Republican family and friends do not just have a different opinion; they are supporting treason.
3
@Brother Shuyun
Although I detest President Putin’s Poodle and the rest of the crooks that are the GOP, I gotta say that the only thing that kind of comes close to meeting the test for treason is the abandonment of the Kurds. It is still a stretch to say that he provided material support to an enemy (ISIS), in time of war, against whom Congress has authorized use of military force.
The whole Ukraine thing does not yet meet that test.
As long as their are massive propaganda machines called Fox News and Breitbart spreading lies reinforced by social media we will have a significant population that believes all of their problems are caused by "the others" - foreigners and the so-called liberal elite.
This Big Lie method is used by Trump and the Republican Party is the same technique that has been used for a hundred years promote fear and hatred of "the others" for political gain. We witness 40% of the population including devout Evangelists that see Trump as their "savior".
A great sickness has fallen on our land and it is called the Republican Party. The most visible symptom of this disease is Donald Trump.
2
@Jefflz
The problem is not Foxbart. The problem is an uncritical population of rubes. We can no more do something about that than the Weimar Republic was able to do something about Hitler’s rallies
1
Famed cartoonist Thomas Nast used the donkey in his newspaper cartoons, helping to establish it
as the symbol of the Democratic Party. And it was Nast who provided the Republicans with their elephant.
In an 1874 cartoon, Nast drew a donkey clothed in a lion's skin - scaring off the other animals at the zoo.
All the animals, except for the fearless elephant, which was labeled "the Republican vote."
The elephant has three times as much brain as a human. Nevertheless, he walks around naked and has ears like bath towels and has a nose longer than Pinocchio's. The elephant fits today's Republicans.
Are you trying to elicit sympathy for Donald Trump by comparing his presidency to some sort of Ahab-ian tragedy? He deserves everything he gets and then some. He’s a victim of his own hate and ignorance.
1
"The pattern of his pro-Putin, pro-Russia, anti-FBI, anti-intelligence community actions are so one-sided, and the lies and obfuscation surrounding every single Russian meeting and conversation are so consistent, that if this president isn’t actually hiding a massive conspiracy, it means the alternative is worse: America elected a chief executive so oblivious to geopolitics, so self-centered and personally insecure, so naturally predisposed to undermine democratic institutions and coddle authoritarians, and so terrible a manager and leader, that he cluelessly surrounded himself with crooks, grifters, and agents of foreign powers, compromising the national security of the US government and undermining 75 years of critical foreign alliances, just to satiate his own ego." _Wired
1
In keeping with the literary slant of this column, it looks like the Ukrainian Affair has become Trump's albatross.
Good one “Seppuku” meaning hari-kari, that being a ritual act to save face. Although nothing face saving about Trump’s tweets, lies, exaggerations, womanizing, relations with dictators and the House of Saud, caging children, nepotism, and on and on. More like shooting himself in the foot and saying Obama pulled the trigger.
This presidency is threatening our democracy and of course so many people are outraged.
But where is and was the outrage when black people are killed by policemen who get away with it.
Every black person lives in fear everyday of being killed, not to mention living a life with far less opportunity than whites.
We have fallen far short of our responsibility and the energy being generated against this president should have made itself visible a long time ago concerning black lives.
Ms Dowd I have found the perfect word that nails Trump, it goes back to Shakespeare's 'Julius Cesar'.
Palter.
“To act insincerely or deceitfully,” “to use trickery,” or “to equivocate” .
I have one more, that has actually been used as a pointed comment toward.
Dissemble. To hide under a false apperance.
The first order of business is to support candidates in the 2016 election who are sane and plan to help, rather than continue to dissemble and obstruct.
—Tom Toles, The Washington Post, 22 April 2016
4
Word of the Day: Fascism, which is what we will be facing if he's not stopped now. Right now.
10
Deranged. I keep thinking of "The Emperor's New Clothes".
5
I am convinced that the people who follow Trump are racists. I believe that people who own stock or have a 401(k) see their portfolio increase. Most of not all of them watch Fox news and are convinced by Trump that ABC,NBC,CBS, CNN, and MSNBC are "fake News."
As we all know the Russians are coming or have come to once again interfere with the 2020 elections. I am not sure we can do anything to stop them.
3
The Trump base is motivated by fear and resentment. Fox News and talk radio have the formula to supply a constant diet of what they want. In return, they get eyeballs for ad revenue that fills their pockets with cash.
1
Yes, there are all sorts of words to describe our . . .our what? Scoundrel is the word in Italian, braggart is the word in New York City, bully is another word, and so on to include psycho, thief, narcissist, decrepit, monstrous and more. What we in America have is a sickness. The causes are diverse, from the electoral college, to graft, to ongoing racism, fascism and intolerance. That sickness needs to be eradicated and excised from our body politic — or, at least, an effort made, whether, as now, by impeachment or tomorrow by voting.
1
Seppuku. Trump or ours?
Trump is only troubled because he may get removed from office (extremely unlikely) or censured (unlikely) in a Senate trial.
However there is no comprehension of the ethical or moral issues involved because as George Conway III so compellingly puts forth in The Atlantic Trump is a narcissistic sociopath.
Virtually all Republicans in Congress realize this but place keeping their seat ahead of speaking the truth about this unprecedentedly unfit and dangerous individual.
6
Thanks for the lead (-ership, too); looked up all four words,
pre-4th sentence. Hope we grow beyond "grobian."
Then just using your defs - and a little imagination - realized that "chirocracy" might also be government by palm to forehead . . .
@ least that's what happens to me with the frowardity.
1
You wrote what I have been saying for years. Trump’s mental illness has taken the US down to the gutter. I believe he is a Russian asset, but too ignorant to understand how he is being manipulated. He transfers everything he does to other people. So, if Trump says “Clinton did this or Biden did that,” he is telling us he has done all those things. His conspiracy theories are based on laws he already broke or in the middle of breaking. Trump is a humorless, morally bankrupt, shell of a man who destroys everyone and everything he touches. The GOP needs to wake up.
6
I have nothing but respect for Maureen Dowd and other principled columnists at the NYT. They write the truth.
But I am frankly sick to death of reading what is essentially the exact same truth over and over: the President is a fool. Any citizen paying the slightest attention already knows this. The President lies. We know, we know. The President is enabling Russian efforts to control / upend global politics. We know. The President (with his party) poses an active, ongoing danger to US national security, the US rule of law, and the vote of millions of Americans. We know! The President is using his office to line his own pockets and enhance Russian goals, and that is all he's doing; other urgent issues of compelling concern to US citizens languish ignored and dismissed. The President and his Senate hench-thug Mitch McConnell block progress toward rectifying extreme economic inequality, toward ameliorating climate change, toward reducing lethal gun violence, toward supporting the health of citizens, toward addressing the addiction crisis and a daunting list of other problems. We know!
Here's what we actually need to hear from all these intelligent, informed, articulate pundits: STOP READING THIS AND GO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS MESS.
6
Trump remains but a symptom of what one hopes is the last gasp of white supremacy gone mad. I have faith that most white people recognize that white supremacy is a cancer, has always been a destructive force in this country. Those who romanticize it, who say white people made America great, are completely delusional, conveniently ignoring all manner of crimes against humanity. Our collective future lies in repudiating white supremacy, beginning with Trump. He must be defeated, just as the confederate soldiers were defeated. But this time, no mercy on those who supported and abetted his crimes. None. At. All.
2
Seppuku is not an appropriate word for Donald Trump. Seppuku is done by a disgraced samurai in order to reclaim his honor.
Trump is a disgrace, but he can't reclaim his honor, for he never had any to begin with.
5
Problem here is sane people are watching and dealing with a very sick man who needs lots of help. He probably needs a year or so away from Fox, Twitter, CNN and MSNBC.
3
Even elite insiders like Maureen are groping for new words to explain what's going on. When hopeless sets in, guess we should play word games?
I too liked Fiona Hill's steely delivery of the truth.
She wasn't glib or flip when warning to not spread lies and propaganda to Jordan and Nunes. Unfortunately, it's way too late. We are Ukraine.
2
A terrible predicament: A leader worse than Netanyahu, but we can't get rid of him.
I have to go see "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood."
4
Vladimir Putin hit the jackpot with Trump. He makes a perfect sucker for the former K.G.B. spy.
Trump himself is the KGB (GRU?) spy -- he has regular super-private calls and meetings with Putin, his spymaster- handler, and always comes out spouting new Russian propaganda. All that will be researched and reveled in a few years (why not NOW?!, all you journalists looking for ticket to fame and riches ) it is THE story of he Trump era (oh please God do not let it be an "era", let it be merely a particularly degraded moment in our history)
When Himself falls, it will be epic ("the greatest fall anyone has ever seen" , and may the entire Republican Party fall with him into the flames of the place from whence they came and to which they have sought to take us all.
1
Another ugly word he probably never thought would hang around his neck: bankruptcy.
And another: con man.
Maybe 63 million voted for him but more than that knew what he was and were not fooled.
Another one coming: loser.
1
Who is the whale: the Bidens, the impeachment hearings, or Trump himself? Read Moby Dick and other Ahab sources to decide. Ahab spelled backwards is baha - a type of hering aid. Perhaps that is symbolic. Trump doesn't hear anyone but hemself.
What a difference between two individuals.
President Obama endured ugly racist lies, including Trump’s birther nonsense; Republicans whose first and last goal was to make him a one term president; a Congress so obstructive that they did nothing and threatened to sue him for picking up their slack; a Senate leader who brazenly stole a Supreme Court placement from him; morbid falsehoods about his signature healthcare reform; and so on. Yet President Obama never whined, or belittled others’ character, or painted himself as a victim. He carried himself with dignity, integrity, honesty, and he never stopped being our nation’s leader, no separating his supporters from his detractors.
But Trump? Incessant whining, lying, conspiracy theories, attacks and self-indulgent victimization. If this conduct weren’t bad enough as is, the other distinction between him and his predecessor is that all Trump’s facing are the consequences of his own abusive and irresponsible use of office. Trump is his own enemy in all this.
2
Seppuku -"the honorable method of taking one's own life practiced by men of the samurai (military) class in feudal Japan."
If Mr. Trump ever chooses to do anything honorable I will be amazed.
2
Attack, bully, bluster, insult, degrade and obfuscate. Never apologize or admit you're wrong. Attack your attackers and accuse them of what they accuse you. Insult and denigrate your opponent physically and mentally. Lie, cheat, deny and obfuscate with befuddling rhetoric. Be aggressive until it wears out the protagonist.
All these tactics are Trump's main battery of defense. They comprise his collected intellect and learning--his roadmap for success. It worked in his private world and he projected that success (?) into his presidency.
Trump's is a crass and sordid philosophy which he will employ till the end. It's his nature.
2
We can only hope that Trump continues to obsess over that white whale, and that it sinks him. This shambolic, retrograde administration needs to end.
2
Maureen Dowd’s pointed description of Trump determined to harpoon the whale of conspiracy himself represents a prequel to what we may see in a Senate trial. Surely we will hear more myth and conspiracies paraded. Fiona Hill’s cautionary note to the nation that “truth is questioned” will be forgotten as the Republicans reach to support Trump’s mind-bending allegations. I am reminded of the old question, “Are you mean or stupid?” As I view the group of syncophants surrounding Trump I must alter that epithet to “Are you mean, stupid or loco en la cabeza?”
1
Expect all but one of us to go down with the ship of state.
Excellent column, IMHO, but I still think Spanky is most accurately decribed by the most commonly-employed epithet: Two syllables, starts with 'a,' and ends with 'e.'
1
Trump is a con man, pure and simple, like the prosperity preachers who convince red state rubes that they need a second private jet to "spread The Word." His entire life has been based on lies, creating an alternative reality he himself now believes. The real evil-doers here are his Republican enablers who know Trump for what he is, do not believe his lies, know that everything he touches he corrupts and yet let him get away with it purely for political gain. They're even willing to sell out our country to Russia if Trump tells them to.
3
Several thoughts:
-- He must have serious blackmail on former adversaries such as Lindsay Graham. Otherwise, why the 180?
-- He must be physically ill, whether from disease/early dementia, or substance abuse. Otherwise, why the rambling?
-- He must be up to his hoo-hah in debt to the Russians. Otherwise, why the kowtowing?
-- He must know his "show" is about to be cancelled. Otherwise, why the frantic name-calling and vindictiveness?
-- He must have some MAJOR mommy and daddy issues. Otherwise, why ANY OF THIS INSANITY?
2
Ever since Trump became president, from time to time, I've felt like I am a passenger on a plane that has been hijacked by a maniac who doesn't really know how to fly the plane. I don't think he will intentionally crash the national plane into something, but because of his basic incompetence and craziness, we could all be killed. I just hope the actual crew can be liberated in time to bring the craft to a safe landing.
2
Right job, wrong captain. We've got Captain Queeg in the White House. Ahab was maniacal on a mission for a whale that was real. Queeg was sailing a ship in circles and knew there was a conspiracy to steal cover up who stole the strawberries.
3
I think more common and recognizable words describe the President well enough without searching for the obscure ones you mentioned. How about the following. Egomaniac. Narcissist. Buffoon. Liar. Cheater. Philanderer. I think that does a pretty good job of defining our President.
3
I would like this story to begin me with, “Call me Fiona”.
4
I love/hate everything about this column. Thank you MD.
Does anyone know? Can he pardon himself?
I am completely disgusted because the Trump administration is a culture of deceit. I define “honesty” as a total and complete lack of intent to deceive. These people fail that definition miserably. Trump has shown how Republican members of Congress place re-election above anything else, and will look the other way while he shamelessly lies to us daily. Honor codes and Christian values conveniently get put aside in furtherance of an ignorant and boorish man we foolishly elected President.
2
From your mouth to God's ears. Soon if you please.
Thank you for the terminology tutorial, Maureen. Should you ever be alerted to the term, best summarized by the attitude of "my mind is made up, don't confuse me with the facts," please let us know.
Thanks!
P.S. "Dangerous" and "nutcase" don't count.
As long as he takes out Pence first . . .
"Others included rodomont (a vain boaster), grobian (a buffoonish person) and Sinon (one who misleads and betrays). Also chirocracy (a government that rules with a heavy hand) and froward (difficult to deal with or contrary)."
Oh, thank you, Maureen. What perfect words to describe our madman president!
I enjoy reading Ms. Dowd partly because it seems I always have to look up at least one word in her columns. So this was a treat. It would have been better, however, if she had used these or similar words to describe him before he was elected. He hasn't changed, but it seems her opinion of him has. Minacious.
3
He is very, very, very ill. There are 2 possible cures.
1. Impeach & convict.
2. Vote him out.
The Senate will fail to do its duty, so it will be up to the American people to do theirs.
Can we hold on 'til November 2020?
we need more than thoughts & prayers.
2
Maureen, you slay me with your wordsmithing. To elaborate a bit on “grobian,” Wikipedia begins by saying, “Saint Grobian was a fictional patron saint of vulgar and coarse people.” Bingo! This one ticks all the boxes: Fictional, like almost everything that comes out of the man’s mouth (no need to expound on vulgar and coarse). But the religious reference is rich. I can just imagine Trump and his merry band of sycophants standing around in the Oval Office with Paula Jones (Trump’s “spiritual advisor”) asking Saint Grobian for intervention and mercy in the days ahead in the impeachment process.
2
Excellent! Truthful and so witty. Following your first paragraph: can anyone imagine Trump doing Jim Carrey’s character in the movie Liar Liar? Uf!
I think the most compelling comment of the hearings was from Fiona Hill when she warned of Russia’s continued involvement in our politics
I believe that Trump is the useful idiot, being manipulated by Putin
The result, political turmoil, nothing gets done
Democrats should consider a bargain with the Republicans, censure vs. impeachment by both houses....A clear statement that Trumps acts were wrong.....possibly getting bipartisan support
In return an agreement to aggressively thwart Russia’s efforts in 2020
Perhaps by passing regulations on Facebook’s news content and political ads, forcing them to meet journalistic standards
2
Treason would be my word for this 45th presidency. Trump has been a tool of Putin, the former KGB spy and now cold war revivalist, at least as far back as his birther nonsense in 2011.
Treason does not exist as a crime without a state of war, and a 'cold war' is undeclared. But it's a virtual war with real casualties, truth first among them but with misinformation its near cousin. So Trump is a virtual traitor by parroting Putin on Crimea, Syria, North Korea, NATO, the 2016 election, and Ukraine. In fact, Trump has never contradicted Putin or crossed him when he had a choice.
Trump’s obsequiousness to Putin In Helsinki was not a mistake. It was just too obvious. After all, Trump is bumbling fool with all the craftiness of a malignant 6th grader. And witness his latest Ukraine gambit. He leads a brain trust consisting of Rudy ‘the grenade’ Giuliani, Gordon ‘the clueless’ Sondland, Mike ‘end times’ Pompeo, and Mick ‘get over it’ Mulvaney. Need I mention Lev and Igor?
No matter if Trump is an incompetent traitor. He’s Putin’s knowing tool, not his friend or ally. And he happens to be the most effective implement of Soviet aggression in a hundred years of conflict. Virtual or not, that’s treason in my book.
4
Where's the honor? Your word of the day does not apply.
3
He’s delusional. It is up to others to stop him.
2
So Republicans trashed their Christian values, allowing themselves to be complicit to placing children in cages. And they ejected their commitment to moral character by embracing a foul-mouthed racist and misogynist. And they abandoned their defense of probity by allowing amazing deficits. And they rejected the Asian, Hispanic, and Millenial middle classes by othering the future of the country. They trashed science, supported a tax cheat.
Will it be difficult to claim any values back? You bet!
3
Calling Pelosi a bedbug seemed a bit childish. But I must admit it the president is an expert on anything, it's bedbugs.
2
I have a special word to add to our vocabulary It should make Trump happy to have a word coined after him: TRUMPEACHMENT.
2
People like Trump is why there is an impeachment clause. Way back when there were no parties and it was seen as a real blow to democracy when the emerged. Now if your party is in power the president can kill someone on fifth avenue so long as the dead person is someone the party wants killed. Congress used to be a separate branch of government now it is a branch of the executive. That is why party politics was seen as bad.
1
NAILED IT. Every sociopath/criminal ultimately seeks to be found guilty as PROOF that he is not an ordinary citizen but is, as criminals refer to themselves "a player".
So, does he believe the Crowdstrike fantasy? No way, but he enjoys convincing toadies like Nunes to believe it. Has he been in touch with capo di tutti Putin every step of the way? Of course.
Why? Who cares. He is the security threat the Bolton tweeted about today, grave and growing.
3
To my GOP friends - where you suspect conspiracy, you will often find garden-variety incompetence. Enter Rudi.
2
Agreed!
I feel like we are in a Tom Clancy novel, and we've reached the point where our hero Jack Ryan is trapped, the Russians are closing in, the good guys who might help our hero are all either tied up with other emergencies or are trapped by other Russians. We cannot see where this will end, and it isn't really a novel so we can't be sure some friend of Mr. Ryan will conveniently appear, or that Jack will come up with some genius ploy.
I've lost all sympathy to trump for his various mental frailties. His personal meanness and cruelty have melted away any empathy I might have once felt for him. He's got formerly honorable Republicans defending him in the face of FBI and CIA confidential briefings that say that Russia and only Russia hacked the 2016 election, and THEY KNOW their claims about Ukraine are nothing but lies. The whole darn bunch of them are conspiring to destroy our country and hand over world dominion to the Russians and slimey little Putin. It's time for a real Jack Ryan to pull something out of his hat to save us. I suppose at some point Lindsey Graham will suggest they use Chinese style camps where Democrats can be sent to be reprogrammed to believe that trump is thin, healthy and honest. We'll have to swear the president doesn't stink and that he's the most amazing human since Adam. Seems Lindsey's already spent several weekends at such a camp. How else to explain his insane loyalty?
2
Trump is a Putin puppet. That’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s our nightmare reality. There is simply no other logical reason as to why, as Pelosi accurately put it “All roads lead to Putin” ALWAYS for Trump.
3
Well now, so the Slouching Vulgarian who occupies the oval office pronounces Nancy Pelosi "as crazy as a bedbug." Hah! This is a topic of which he knows something: bedbugs, that is.
His Doral hotel property was infested, and the story was hot news in August. His baseline lack of judgement is on further decline. Here he re-introduces the subject of bedbugs because he is impulsive and displays again that he does not learn from experience. So he illustrates yet again how he is his own worst enemy as he inflicts damage to himself and the office of the prez.
His distraction with name-calling (3rd grade level) is what he does; he applies his outbursts of idiocy to control the news cycle, at the expense of critical national & global issues like North Korea, China trade/tariffs, climate change and myriad others. Take your pick....
Thankfully, Noonan serves up yet another opinion piece that forges ahead with her insightful writing and truth-telling.
1
Think Captain Queeg in Caine Mutiny.
3
The man does not work alone. It takes a village to raise an idiot.
The enablers in the Republican party are fearful of the light of day and they should be. The only way forward for them is to cry louder and beat their chest harder for their messiah.
However, they know he's not the real messiah, but they recognize that the villagers think so, and like all bent priests, that's good enough.
America has survived much worse than this, but there was no Facebook then - the social media platforms are the main weapon to destroy the truth.
In the end, the real sin from the GOP is the conscious act of disseminating lies and enforcing lies - that is what destroys every democracy.
It's different now, you can feel it.
4
November 23, 2019
“I do not think psychoanalysis has a scientific basis. If we can't explain why a cockroach decides to turn left, how can we explain why a human being decides to do something? “
Noam Chomsky
/www.brainyquote.com/topics/psychoanalysis-quotes
JJA
1
I'm happy to see that the Times and a growing number of others are using the Ukrainian name for its capital, Kyiv, and not the Russian one, Kiev.
Best way to pronounce it? Rhyme it with "Steve."
3
This is what happens when you let the education system deteriorate to perhaps the worst in the "western" world as measured by independent experts. This is what happens when no one wants to pay taxes to support "socialist" goals like a common decent education for all. Only a nation of fools would have elected such a horrible man as trump. Only a nation of fools would defend him or his actions. Only a nation of fools would not save themselves by impeaching and removing and jailing him.
6
Would he? Could he? With a sword?
1
He couldn’t imagine impeachment because until this he’s always gotten away with his criminality as many rich white men do. I hope he gets impeached but I don’t expect any of the Republicans to honor the oath they took to their country. Sad times.
2
What Putin and Trump understand is that people believe what they want to believe. And if that can be exploited, facts do not matter. It's the art of propaganda. It's the art of seeding envy, rage, jealousy, racism, greed. The art of keeping power, the art of evil. Find the cultural weakness, plant the seed, and water it. Water it with purpose to deceive. The dictators of history are masters of this exploitation.
https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/exploitation
4
@PE "A man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest." The Boxer, Simon and Garfunkel
If Trump had ever read (and understood) Moby Dick he would have been armed against obsessive self-sabotage, at least to the degree of being able to name it. But he was too lazy, unintelligent, and arrogant to bother in his youth. And in his dotage he can barely pull himself out of bed and get dressed by noon. A human being lacking so much as a single redeeming quality, he should never have been made president.
3
Trump's white whale, if analogous to Moby Dick, will cause not only Trump's demise but also our Constitution's. Ahab's ship, the Pequod, is like our Constitution and the outcome for the Pequod was not good:
"At the end of ... Moby Dick, the White Whale (Moby Dick) rams into the Pequod, sinking her and killing all aboard, except Ishmael. Ahab also perishes when he gets tangled up in a harpoon line and is dragged out to sea. It is, in short, a brutal ending that offers no solace for the reader." (from enotes.com)
The demise of our Constitution is what I fear. While Trump and his supporters continue to pursue the White Whale, our Pequod feels like it is sinking as all of us aboard watch in horror.
2
Ever play Chutes and Ladders with your kids? Trump is in a perpetual games of Chutes--no Ladders.
Just because you have proditomania, it doesn’t mean that everyone isn’t out to get you.
"But we do know the name of one severe malady the president has: proditomania. A.Word.A.Day defined it as the feeling or belief that everyone is out to get you."
He has no one to blame but himself.
1
That word from your mouth to God's ear!
Your name, sir, will forever be etched in the deep corner of history reserved for the lowest of the low, the very bottom of humanity who distinguish themselves not simply by their ignorance and incompetence, but by their embrace of evil.
3
What!? Impeachment is a pretty word, like fines, asset forfeiture, conviction, prison, stroke.
2
Thanks for the delicious vocab. I only take exception to your word of the day. Seppuku is a ritual suicide, part of the samurai code of bushido, that is intended to obviate the shame brought on oneself, one's family or one's country. In other words, an action steeped in the concept of personal honor, something completely foreign to the Rodomont In Chief. I think harikari is the word you were looking for. My word for the day is Irony. The "tough guy", unknown to himself, is actually a stooge, dupe and puppet of Mr. Putin.
3
. . peak Trump pique.
A constant state.
Let me call you, Maureen, Ishmael. Truly Trump is as obsessed as Ahab who himself was considered as was the biblical king an ungodly man of God. Gregory Peck was a Lincoln and an Ahab. Trump is no Republican Lincoln. Maureen, you led me into the internet rabbit hole.
Maureen has sent me to my dictionary. Seppuku is quite a word and it supports my initial thoughts when I heard Trump went to the hospital last weekend. Color me skeptical but I believe he's readying a 'medical resignation' just in case. The farce continues.
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“But we do know the name of one severe malady the president has: proditomania. A.Word.A.Day defined it as the feeling or belief that everyone is out to get you.”
It’s not quite everyone that’s out to get him but he’s half right with around 50% of voters in favor of impeachment.
1
Another fine article by Ms Dowd, and I learned five new words!
1
Et tu, Will Hurd, Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins? You KNOW what to do and yet refuse to do it. You would earn the nation's undying gratitude AND get bigger money than you could ever get on K street or from the Russians.
Trump is a tourist in his own mind. A bad tourist.
1
Call us all Ishmael.
1
Trump is a very sick man. Perhaps he can use an insanity defense at his trial in the Senate. But he could not destroy our institutions without help. And Republicans who are aiding and abetting his behavior are not sick. They are selfish, craven, amoral traitors. The best they can claim is that they were brainwashed. Your word for the day, Seppuku, sometimes referred to as harakiri, is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. Well, Maureen, regarding the current GOP, all I can say is we can only hope...
1
Roughly paraphrasing Bruce Springsteen " I woke up this morning with stones in my mouth...it was only the lies you told me ". Donald Trump's serial mendaciousness is a stone in the American political consciousness. He behaves like a political crime boss, aided by ethical bottom feeders Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan, and the disgraceful Lindsey Graham.
1
Sad story coming up.
Regarding Lord Randolph Churchill--father of you-know-who. Resigned from Lord Salisbury's cabinet in a sudden fit of temper. Began physically and mentally to disintegrate.
(The cause was syphilis--or something close to syphilis.)
At a dinner party where one of the guests was an American. A pheasant or something was served. It had not been properly cut up--so the butler deftly whisked the plate away--to insure it was done right.
"E-e-e-e-e-e!" screamed the disappointed Lord Randolph. "I want some of that."
"It's all right," murmured his host placatingly. "He'll bring it back soon. I'm glad you like it."
The American (later) turned to a fellow diner. "Did you notice anything ODD about Lord Randolph Churchill?"
So had he?
Oh no. No no. Nothing unusual. Par for the course.
And they all said that.
"He died by inches," said a colleague after his death. "In public."
I am not saying Mr. Donald J. Trump has syphilis or anything like that. Please don't misunderstand me.
But sakes, Ms. Dowd. He is going to pieces--very loudly and at length--in public.
The threat of impeachment must be horrendous. Even if (as president) you happen to be INNOCENT.
Does Mr. Trump suspect--way deep down (where no one can see it)--
--"Innocent? Me?--
--"NAH!--
--"Not THIS child!"
Cheer up, sir.
We don't think so either.
Ah, Maureen, thank you for the laugh today, or should I say
A.Laugh.A.Day. I remember when I received the print version from my Dad to improve my vocabulary in high school. Seppuku indeed.
You are spot on, Ms. Dowd. If Trump is reelected I believe he will quickly do something so extreme, so dangerous, that he will be impeached again (if a president can be impeached twice?) and removed, because the next time even the GOP will fear and loathe him. Trump is blind to his self destructiveness, so he will keep doing stupid things. I've had bosses like him and they always self destruct, eventually, after inflicting great damage to those around them.
2
There is a relationship between Trump voters and education and race. The more uneducated, older whites in a district the better the chances that they are Trump voter and republicans. These people are the economic losers of the 21th century and when a Messiah gives them the political opioids of bigotry, misogyny, christian fascism as the reason of their misery, the go opioid crazy. Murdoch's faux news, the hate for profit racket is their dispensary. A country that allows the political opioid addicts to determine our leadership is doomed to eventual destruction. We need to treat the Trump voter as we do chemical opioid addicts and provide similar solutions.
1
On the money Maureen. As someone who grew up in NYC when Trump was growing Daddy's business, we all new he was a Queens boy who wanted to be a Manhattan boy. He disgraced Firth Ave with that awful building by tearing down a designated NYC landmark. Still doing the same today. NYC survived, but I hope the U.S. can. Yutz. My word of the day.
1
Seppuku is an act of honor. I suspect that does not apply here.
A better word-of -the day would be hamartia.
1
I began my most recent letters to my republican senator and representative with: “Comrade ______. “ I explained how upsetting it was to use the term, but their support of the Trump/Putin team rather than protecting Americans and the Constitution warranted their more Russian - like title.
1
In my youth I was always drawn to the great Russian writers, especially, Dost. whose understanding and portrayal of character was extraordinary. In addition, my first true love was Russian, his mother's family, white Russians, had fled to Yugoslavia, after the revolution, where they lived until WWII. His father was Ukrainian, who served in the Soviet Army and then defected, leaving a wife and child, and joined up with the Vladisfla Army serving under Hitler in an attempt to defeat Stalin. His parents met in a displaced persons' camp after the war and through back channels (first Canada) made it to the US. I bring this up because their complicated lives were filled with compromises and conflict that made Dost. characters prove to be real and alive. The history of Russia and Eastern Europe is filled with conspiracy theories and betrayals culminating in the KGB and oligarchs. Even my first loves older brother was an interpreter and interrogator in the Marines during the Vietnam period. Fast forward to today where we see Ukraine trying to break away from their corrupt history and tie to Russia while the United States president actually attempts to undermine it. Could it be that certain Russian operatives, under Putin, have been able to hypnotize Trump and others to do their bidding?? Like the mad priest, Rasputin, (also with Putin in his name!). Just another fantastic conspiracy theory but who knows for sure???. Only the Russians know.
The funny thing is Trump has probably never opened a dictionary in his entire life.
He is a deranged man that needs serious psychiatric care.
Maybe he will get some in prison?
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Maureen, given your recent subscription to A.Word.A.Day here is a classic from July 2013 with equal relevance to the topic at hand: mumpsimus (noun) 1. A view stubbornly held in spite of clear evidence that it's wrong. 2. A person who holds such a view.
2
Seppuku? More like suicide-bomber. The question is how far is his reach? His circle? The GOP? The Country? The World? Let's disarm him at last and put him in a safe space with a toy phone connected to a fake twitter account.
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Instead of the obsession of Captain Ahab of Herman Melville's ' Moby Dick' I think that the madness of Captain Queeg of Herman Wouk's ' The Caine Mutiny' might be more apt.
The insidious nature of Vladimir Putin's hacking, interfering and meddling in the 2016 campaign and election primarily focused upon the ' truths' about black African American lingering color aka race educational health housing and socioeconomic issues.
And the Russian bots and bodies cleverly and covertly hid themselves. While black turnout was down 11% from peak Obama.
2
My word for the day is related to the Republican Party; Extirpate.
Watching Meet the Press and CNN talk shows this morning.
Just like Locker Room Tapes and Mueller Investigation, Trump seems to be winning this impeachment battle decisively.
Schiff/Pinocchio looked like a frightened deer looking in the headlights when he was asked whether he would testify to the Senate (and be forced into lying to Congress and likely prison over his whistleblower lies).
P.S. You can tell that Trump is winning also because it is not even close to being a headline anymore on NYT.
Now, now. Voluntary disembowelment is not necessary to bring him down. A two-word resignation letter works just as well.
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"“I never in my wildest dreams thought my name would in any way be associated with the ugly word, Impeachment!”
Translation: I never imagined any limit to my impunity!
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Let's talk politics and religion during Thanksgiving and ignore the talking points the Republicans will be broadcasting this coming week, as they always do to control your mind and those of your families. Let's not be a Pequed.
“I never in my wildest dreams thought my name would in any way be associated with the ugly word, Impeachment!”
Should have thought twice!
That trump “sees the world as vicious and life a matter of survival” is quite odd for a man who inherited $413 million from his father and has never lived a day of privation — or real work— in his life. What is vicious is the extent of his multi-faceted illnesses: those are what drive this absolutely, positively insane, criminal, treasonous tatermalian.
2
My word is COWARDS.
The present group around Trump including every senator or congressperson who supports actively or passively by not fulfilling her or his "solemn" oath is a Coward. They are totally self serving and being driven by fear for their own well being.
They are not the ones you would like to have by you in a hurricane.
The unavoidable destiny off the Coward is to be thrown under the bus by a bigger Coward.
1
Reality outran apprehension, impeachment stood on his quarterdeck.
Your opening paragraph said it all, and brought an out loud laugh while reading. All words that perfectly describe Trump and company! Thanks for an uplift in these moronic times.
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Words fail me that the party of Ike and Reagan is now a conscious promoter of Russian propaganda. I guess if they believed Obama was born in Kenya .... they will believe anything. Shame on them and generations of Americans will remember.
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Yes, Ms. Dowd. You would think that a president who has committed all the immoral and despicable acts you describe and daily tramples underfoot Christian principles, the rule of law, and our basic moral and democratic values, would be well on his way to committing political suicide. There’s just one problem with your prognosis: Republicans not only continue to praise him, they worship him more vociferously the more brazen his immoral acts become.
It seems to me, Ms. Dowd, that you are missing the frightening reality of modern America: the members of the Republican Party have become untethered from any of the moral anchors that presumably govern our basic character—and our politics. We look to history for the justification for our alarm. When I watch Republicans at a Trump rally cheering loudly at someone who tells outrageous lies, commits character assassination, and speaks words of overt racism, xenophobia, and misogyny, I see the German masses at one of Hitler’s Nuremberg rallies. I see the white faces laughing and having a good time gathered around the body of a lynched black man. I see white adults spitting in the faces of black children desegregating a Little Rock school. I remember white Southern politicians singing more loudly in the segregationist choir even as the violence and bombings exploded during the Civl Rights struggle of the 1960s.
There is something wrong with Republicans, and in their sickness, they may re-elect this cretin. America will not survive.
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"Vladimir Putin hit the jackpot with Trump. He makes a perfect sucker for the former K.G.B. spy."
And trump is doing it all for free. What a bargain.
2
"...“I never in my wildest dreams thought my name would in any way be associated with the ugly word, Impeachment!” he wrote..."
Simple, Mr. Trump. Because your wildest dreams have never had anything to do with reality.
2
Totally agree Trump is possessed with conspiracy theories rambling randomly in his head but if you look at this hodgepodge of an article rehashing same old lines said a thousand times, somebody else is possessed with Trump in their head. Ms Dowd is a talented communicator- move on to another subject!
1
Trumpism has been like a blue light shined on a nationwide spraying of fascist Luminol. Hidden in what many of us thought was a modern, pluralistic society is an ugly authoritarianism that threatens to undo the entire American project.
1
There is no flaw. Trump is master of creating shiny objects to deflect from his real agenda and his cohorts.
Real story with Ukraine is Naftogaz and Giuliani and Rick Perry associates trying to bankrupt it and take it over.
Burisma and the Bidens is just a shiny object to deflect attention.
See https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/11/06/head-ukraines-gas-company-has-been-shot-pilloried-tv-attacked-by-giuliani-associates-its-all-days-work/#comments-wrapper.
"The DNC server is in Ukraine"nonsense is a charade to deflect from Putin's war with Ukraine, and Trump's subservience to Putin.
GOP enthralled with Trump's shiny objects and how he wows his base.Winning the trial in the Senate will just get him reelected.
A few years ago I was struggling to determine whether Trump was a Russian asset or a useful idiot (KGB term for someone who serves the Motherland without actually knowing it). I settled on the latter because I realized that Putin, realizing Trump was narcissistic and most likely uncontrollable, settled on simply nudging him along to further the objectives of Mother Russia.
Although I still doubt Trump has a formal charter, he has become the most effective Russian asset of all time. From throwing the Kurds in Syria under the bus, to undermining the State Department, to maligning Ukraine's nascent democracy, to now subverting the military chain of command, all in the last few months, POTUS is the gift that keeps on giving. Vlad should have a very happy Christmas.
1
I looked up “seppuku” and saw it defined as “honorable suicide.” There’s nothing about Mr. Trump that is honorable.
1
Fiona Hill, a working class immigrant who educated herself leaves more patriotism in the toilet each day than trump will ever possess in a lifetime.
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Best in a while Maureen! Full of good analysis and new words to consider.
Let's look at the positive.
The public was re-introduced to a smart, strong, highly articulate woman, who shined a bright light into the dark corners of Washington this past week.
I think we should all take a moment and congratulate this wonderful woman for a job well done. She was extremely impressive under fire.
She has a very bright future ahead of her.
Elise Stefanik U.S. Congresswoman.
1
You got me 😊 I was sure you were speaking of Fiona Hill.
1
One way or another, Trump as Ahab won't be around much longer. And most of his followers have a serious date with reality ahead of them, when they realize his presence in the White House hasn't bettered their lives in any way. Others of his followers are locked in an alternate Faux News reality, and they will be casting about for his replacement (maybe someone worse) when Trump is gone.
1
It has long been pointed out that Trump's agenda is, for the most part, the longstanding agenda of the Republican Party. His opposition to Latino immigration is in keeping with Republican policy, and his insistence on building a wall merely takes that policy to an absurd extreme - but one that appeals to many voters. He's anti-abortion (though he once was pro-abortion), and he rammed thru a big tax cut that benefits the rich. He has appointed large numbers of right-wing judges. His protectionist tariffs are contrary to Republican free-trade values, but they do appeal to populist xenophobia, and Republicans have often whipped up fears of foreigners in order to win elections. His foreign policy initiatives are the least Republican aspect of his administration, but again they do conform to the populist desire to see America throw its weight around in the world - the same impulse that causes American crowds to chant "We're number one!" at Olympic events. His main strength at present is the continuing strong economy, but Republican presidents are in the habit of starting wars and running up the national debt, leaving Democrats to clean up the mess and prepare for the next Republican boom.
What will happen to the Republican party when Trump is gone is not clear, but he has demonstrated that a thug can be elected president, if conditions are right. Actors and entertainers are likeliest to catch on - I propose that Democrats draft Tom Hanks: he'd win in a walk-over.
4
Our society has any number of people who quietly are self-destructing due to various mental issues. But for someone like this to be president of the US and demonstrate his mental issues to the world is beyond comprehension. Worse yet is that there were plenty of indications of his problems and incompetency during the primary, but nevertheless a large number of voters joined his cult. Jim Jones and David Koresh would be quite impressed at his feat.
11
To give but one example of media hypocrisy about illegalities in politics, can someone explain to me why when the DNC server was alleged by them to have been hacked, they refused to give the source of evidence (the server) to the FBI, and then contracted with a private, perhaps even shady company like Crowdstrike, to do forensic analysis? And why is it that on the basis of their apparently secret report, any alternative conclusions about whodunit are dismissed as ‘debunked’? Asking for a friend...
Very good. Great words, all the best words (unlike Trump). But his grubby tweets never rise to the level of rodomontades. I'm tempted by that word a day thing ...
He is indeed Putin's fever dream.
Making America smaller and meaner every day.
8
Maybe his great white whale is truth, a force with which he is forever grappling in order to kill. The truth is beginning to pull him down into the depths already.
532
@Snip
Trump may want to kill truth, but I think he understands that his rabid base won't recognize truth when they see it. They haven't so far, just like his party. Trump may flounder with the whale when Moby arrives, but the millions of Americans following him will try to keep him afloat for as long as they can. Our problem is not only Trump, it is the 40 per cent who cheer his every tweet.
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@Snip And the GOP with him...
32
@Rick Morris
I'd guess that many of Trump's base see his defiance of the rule of law as support of their own views, ie 'no speed limits, building codes, sanitary protocols'. I wonder if they've considered what it means when the president and his henchmen can 'do anything he wants' without regard for the rule of law? Would any of them be willing to give up their homes and land (or family) just because someone in Trump's favor 'wanted it'?
47
Even many people who voted for Trump knowing his propensity for lying believed that it would all be okay because in the US, Congress and the Supreme Court would put a check on Trump.
What many of those voters are expressing their surprise that instead of the Republicans in Congress providing a check for Trump, it is the other way around. It is the Republicans in Congress who believe their job is to enable Trump to break the law and lie to the American people.
And now we are about to see if the Republicans on the Supreme Court believe it is their job to enable Trump to break the law and lie to the American people.
12
It looks like Trump IS all the things he is being described as being. The thing that blows my mind is the amount of people that still support him. Something is really the mat†er with us. WHAT the matter with us is the question that needs answering.
21
How anyone listening to and observing the failing and cruel policies of this man, cannot see the scary disfunction is beyond me. So many Americans living in denial and delusion. Sad.
20
@Marylee
The answer I heard from an interview with evangelicals on NRP was "Trump gives us what we have wanted for years," and they say they know he is deranged and behaves badly.
But, for the first time in a long time he has held out the hope to his evangelical base that he can make this a 100% Christian nation (prayers in the schools, total ban on all abortions and women's rights, etc.)
Not stated, but one message I got from those interviewed was that instead of being looked down on and made fun of, post-Trump and all his upending of American democracy and the American dream, they will be in charge of ruling the politics and the culture of our country. Not really Jesus' values, which is more than puzzling.
3
Conspiracy theories are what you get when you elect a president who either can't or won't read reports, who wants his daily briefings delivered in cartoon style, who refuses to ask questions, or listen carefully to anyone he thinks is "unimportant," and whose greatest interests appear to be celebrity gossip and looking at nude beauty contestants. The man has the emotional intelligence of a squeaker toy, yet a percentage of people in this country actually voted for him. It speaks very poorly about the judgmental abilities of that percentage of the electorate, and makes me wonder why our educational system is failing them so spectacularly. Of course, the rise of private, radically right-wing religious schools over the past few decades does help to explain some of the willful ignorance among voters, but not everyone who voted for Trump is an evangelical schooled outside of the public education system. Jefferson believed that education was the key to producing informed voters, so how do we improve our education system so that students learn how to read, to understand what they read, how to think critically, and, most important of all, to understand the importance of basic societal ethics? Where are our philosophy, history, and sociology teachers? Relegated to the Trumpian dustbin of "boooring" and "not profitable"! Emphasis on STEM in recent decades has robbed students of opportunities to gain the knowledge required for being a citizen of a democracy.
17
@Allison Two issues I believe have significant causal effects on the education system.
One is lack of parental involvement. My wife taught in an inner city high school in St. Louis from 1969-1980. The student body was 85% white, 15% black, and virtually all students came from blue collar homes. At parent teacher conferences, the lack of parental interest in and respect for education was predominant and it may be even worse today. If kids' home environment doesn't stress education as a means to escape the lower economic strata and become a better person, I think it's very difficult for most kids to rise above that.
Second, receiving enough funding for public schools. Property owners, both residential and commercial, continuously seek ways to avoid higher property taxes, of which a large portion of supports public education. Ballot initiatives to raise property taxes are routinely defeated. Not enough of the citizenry, both individual and corporate, is willing to participate in sustaining and improving public education.
I don't see either of these situations changing any time in the near future.
3
@RU Confused: I agree with both of your points. My mother taught school in an inner city in the 1960s. She spent a great deal of her time making home visits to see the parents of her "problem" students. These visits were often very productive, as they established a personal relationship with the family, who in turn became more trusting of the school system, and worked harder to encourage their children to study. They also gave my mother more understanding of the problems the families faced -- most of them economic in nature. I raised a son in the public school system in two different states and never once saw a teacher bother to visit parents who would not come to to the school for teacher conferences. But for decades teachers have been overburdened with administrative work that has nothing to do with teaching or helping students, so, in one sense, I don't blame them for their lack of initiative. Relieving teachers of administrative work and requiring them to spend more time on the personal side of education would be helpful. But that requires funding for teacher aides and once again, we run up against the problem of funding schools through property taxes. The property tax issue is only going to get worse as more private property is taken out of the hands of individual families and consolidated into the hands of corporations that seek to pay as little in taxes as they possibly can. Late-stage capitalism at work! ;-)
3
@Allison And, to think he beat Hillary. And, every attempt to bring him down, since. Yeah, I don't get it.
2
Thank you, Maureen, for introducing these new words into my vocabulary. It's sad that they all describe a terrible human being who happens to be our president. What words would you use to describe all those who support him, and will continue to do so, until they also drown?
15
Not like i have ever committed sepuku. But the way I relate to it, it would be meaningless if done so mindlessly. Trump and "mindful" are an oxymoron. If he creates his own demise in this world it will come about with the unconscious deliberation of a junkie. I wonder if "a word a day" has a word for that.
5
Trump, the Republicans, the Democrats and some unknown measure of the American people are stooges of Putin.
He planned for this, his minions executed it and we are falling for it.
He’s used our weakness against us.
The one weakness most exploited is the American people’s willingness to tolerate mediocre to corrupted political leadership.
Once we bottom out, our votes will fix this.
That day is coming.
Nearly all of them have to go.
2
No, he won't stop until he brings down everyone around him, including himself. While I agree that he has been the perfect tool for Putin (The Russian Candidate), he also took advantage of the vast hatred and rising racism that occurred during Obama's two terms.
His visit to Walter Reed is an omen to be sure. It is not possible that carrying around this much hate and venom does not have serious ill effects on the physical and psychological being. He is sick, and his malignant egotism and pathology will most likely be the cause of his demise versus anything that we, the House or Senate can do to him. He will die on his sword.
9
@lmr526 I consider all of this (well, most of it anyway) to be simple 'blacklash'. It is rending this country assunder. Let it go. Obama was a competent and responsible president and he was black. Get over it!
1
You Americans elected a person that lost the popular vote by millions. Now be prepared for a president that will never willingly give up power by claiming that the election was "rigged".
Get rid of the electoral college to restore democracy.
16
I am afraid that Trump will destroy our form of democracy. Years from now, historians will determine that America was destroyed not by outside forces but from within and will further ascertain that this self inflicted destruction was abetted by our fellow citizens who gleefully voted for our self- immolation as a nation.
"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."- John Adams
10
Firing Ambassador Yovanovitch because she is an Obama person reveals how little # 45 knows about the history of the American presidency.
No surprise given his antipathy to facts, or for that matter the truth.
When FDR confronted the prospect of global war — in advance of Pearl Harbor — I’m nominated two high visibility Republicans to join his cabinet.
Henry Stimson became Secretary of War. Previously he served in the Cabinets of President Taft and then President Hoover.
Frank Knox — the Republican vice presidential nominee in 1936 — became Secretary of the Navy.
Knox accepted the nomination but reminded that his newspaper in Chicago published editorials taking sharp exception to the New Deal.
FDR answered: your newspaper can issue whatever editorials it wishes but I need you in my cabinet.
If Donald J. Trump — self anointed very smart person — read history books it might temper his ill-informed opinions.
Unlikely given what we know about his aversion to reading.
8
@Michael Ebner Reading without comprehension will not beget understanding.
Seppuku was part of an honor system among nobles and knights. It actually took courage. It would be tarnished by any association with The Don. Oh and there aren't any Republican Values; there is only rabid self-serving. Conservatives have values, their Party has none.
10
He will not only sink himself - which half of America and most of the world would welcome rather than deplore - he sinks the Republican Party and his base with him.
Whilst the Republicans do not deserve any better for their pathetic self-serving cowardice in supporting this man, the Americans who are his manipulated, ill-educated, misinformed and economically betrayed base should deserve better.
If anything Trump should be remembered for it is the fact that America is finally forced to accept and understand that it has a lot of work to do to help those in its society, whose economic and mental wellbeing has been forgotten for a very long time by both parties in their quest for power.
3
Thank you, Ms. Dowd, for providing new vocabulary to describe this president. I had run out of words.
8
Dan Bali’s writes today in Wapo that the numbers are moving in Trump’s favor in Wisconsin. That is numbers re impeachment anf\fed numbers re2020.
Taking a break from Trump, Trumpism, and the evil-doers in the lying, lost-its-soul Republican Party and Foxed-Up News. Also, I have had it with the Trump base that closes its eyes, holds its ears, and hums every time Trump's flagrant malignancy, destruction, and human indecency is pointed out to them.
My mother repeatedly told us "the pen is mightier than the sword," so "use your words not your fists." And, Maureen is masterful at wielding her mighty pen like a Honjō Masamune (look it up!)
Maureen's vocabulary and Irish love of literature and the human story reminds me of my mother, whom I have written about in comments.
My mother was the 4th child of 6, and the product of a feisty, colorful Irish immigrant bar-owner father in Washington, D.C., who broke with the Catholic Church many times, and a quiet Quaker mother who craved peace in a chaotic household.
Papa never knew or cared about the child development literature that said don't play favorites with your children, and my mother was his favorite. So he gave Mom literature to read and discuss with him, and he would take her to the theater to see plays, but no one else in the family.
Papa's special fascination with politics was passed on to Mom (then to me). Mom told us the most interesting drama is real-life politics and politicians. Sometimes she told us fairy tales, but lots of times her stories were about long-dead or living politicians, with lessons to be learned.
How did Trump become our White Whale?
4
This little man has corrupted the American Dream, the belief we can be independent thinkers, yet stand together as one against wrong and evil. Frightened people are united under him as a Wall against change and science. He has proven that our real American selves aren’t as advanced and blind to social injustice as we believe, and religious bigots want the type of authoritarian state they decry in places like Iran. The Cheshire Cat in Russia is pleased to be the one to make us turn on ourselves through this little man.
10
This is, unfortunately, the end result of a ratings driven news media that gives attention to and values drama, conflict, outrageous acts, and flavor-of-the-month personality over boring intelligence and sobriety.
There were 16 other Republicans running in the 2016 primary, yet the media chose Trump.
This profits-driven electronic system was put in place without a whole lot of thought by Commerce Secretary in 1926.
if it is not too late, we really need to figure out a way to remove media profit incentive from deciding how we are to choose who runs our country.
11
Trump has proven one thing. Intractability coupled with narcissism fueled by avariciousness is viewed as a greater threat by many than calculated sinister group think leading to war & the squandering of trillions to enrich the military industrial complex.
History won't be quite as hard on Trump as is commonly thought. An aberation in today's quest for a scapegoat to unload cumulative blame on American societies social inadequacy & historic familial & tribal culture can only lead to a better & just nation after he leaves the scene. An honest fragmentation leading to national conciliation is the reality.
Trump wants a Senate trial just like he "wanted" to sit for an interview with Mueller. It sounds very brave on his part, and it gets him through the moment, but he actually has no intention of doing it. He is manipulative, a coward, and all those new words of the day Mo described in this article.
10
Or we could look at the other great American novel and ask: “What if the Duke and Dauphin had been elected mayor and magistrate instead of being tarred and feathered?”
3
Trump couldn't do what he wants without McConnell and Barr. They are the three most dangerous men in the world.
19
Trump has brought peace and prosperity while Democrats have brought conspiracy, scandal, and panic. See you in November.
1
@Michael Livingston’s: Do they have elections in Russia in November?
1
@Michael Livingston’s
Some kind of alternative universe, right-wing reverse brain wiring that projects one's political party and leaders' worst faults onto the opposing party and its leaders.
It's a defense mechanism--against what is the question?
1
@Michael Livingston’s "Live, at the Comedy Store tonight!"
2
Nice, civil and accurate commentary about the worst President the US has ever had.
13
Ms. Dowd, I really enjoyed this column for three reasons: the vocabulary lesson, the plain truth and nothing but the truth, your clever way of restating he’s his “own worst enemy” ... in Shakespearean proportions. House Impeachment is step one of the trumpian demise.
4