Yeah, it’s just the image sums up so much. I’m sure if he’d done it for a longer time someone would have done something.
I was… disappointed, I guess, that he didn’t even bother to take the opportunity to show prudence in such a small matter. Even for eclipse-watching he’s got to be an ass, you know?
…without golf clubs anyway.
Interesting, perhaps, is that Adolph Hitler had a vision problem, as a result of which anything for the attention of the Fuehrer had to be typed using a special typewriter with extra-large print (14pt I think).
The historical parallels continue to mount. The latest is Bannon/Rosenberg.
Seeing the pictures, it’s almost like they are the royal family up their on their portico, with staff down below. Other presidents would have set this up similar to the Easter Egg event as a public thing.
I’m guessing he isn’t. He almost certainly has presbyopia, which pretty much everyone over the age of 40 does. If he does, and he’s too vain for reading glasses, he won’t be able to read much in public.
You consider being able to read 14-point font having a vision problem? I wish I had that kind of vision problem! My uncorrected eyesight tests to counting fingers.
This is what bothers you about them?
I don’t really care that Trump isn’t presidential, whatever “presidential” is supposed to mean. I’m more concerned that he’s a dangerous idiot who could literally turn a Twitter feud into a nuclear war, and that whatever political positions he does have are absolutely repugnant. He stands for very little except open bigotry and expression of aggrieved privilege. He is America’s id.
Meanwhile, if we had a president who was a true progressive and got things done, I wouldn’t care if they were a complete boor. They could wipe their ass on the dish towels for all I care, just as long as they’re able to undo the damage from Trump.
Ask Tiger Woods’ ex-wife which one she prefers.
He’s used reading glasses in public before, although I can’t think of any examples since he took office (you’d think they’d be around when he’s signing executive orders). The stairs and the teleprompters point to uncorrected myopia, though.
He did, as I believe that it was kept a secret during the War. If you are supposed to be a Superman, any deviation is unacceptable.
When Putin makes a slightly unparliamentary remark - he likes to use the occasional folk expression, and it’s a thing with Russians - it’s evidence that he’s deranged. Trump can do it ten times a day and get a free pass. But do you suppose a Democrat could get away with it? Look how Johnson was attacked.
Evidence to whom? Not to me, because my evidence that he’s deranged is that he’s deranged. Not to the Republicans, because they love him and don’t think he’s deranged at all.
…from the Republicans. The Democrats go apeshit and think this is going to be the thing that totally gets him impeached you guys!
Who’s Johnson? Gary Johnson? He was a Republican. He flamed out in the 2012 Republican primaries because he was a relatively sane Republican, and then ran as a Libertarian in 2012 and 2016.
You do have a point about Republicans acting unpresidential versus Democrats acting unpresidential. I really wish the Democrats would stop caring about that bullshit. If both sides are motivated by tribalism but Democrats think acting unpresidential is a bad thing, then acting unpresidential will rile up the Republican base and acting presidential will do nothing for the Democratic base. This is because the Republicans will love that the Democrats are outraged at their president, but the Democrats think acting presidential is just something a president is supposed to do. This shifts the payoff matrix from one where there’s a perverse incentive to piss off the other side, to our familiar one where the Republicans are incentivized for behaving badly. Not saying either is a good or a bad thing, just a possible outcome.
The Republicans like fake outrage, good, let them be outraged. I bathe in Republican tears. Give them some real outrage to go with their fake outrage, some real fear (maybe 1/2 of what I feel day to day) to go with their fake fear. Cut out this “when they go low, we go high” bullshit. I can roll around in the mud with any Republican, and I like it easily as much as they do.
Besides, focusing on proper behavior is a distraction, and implies that we think decorum matters just as much as Terrorist Donny basically recruiting for ISIS and instigating a nuclear war with North Korea. I will gladly play a little dirty to keep all that mess from happening.
[citations needed]
Edit - you may not like him, you and I wouldn’t want to live in his country - but deranged? He’s doing rather well.
By what metric? He’s seems pretty deranged much like the current generation of the Kim family and Trump, although I guess he came by his rich despot brand of crazy earnestly.
As I say, [citations needed].
I try to keep track of Putin just as I do for Macron and Merkel. The last statement I can recall him making on nuclear weapons was that Russian cruise missiles were nuclear capable but of course would never be used that way in the Middle East. The last major statement he made was the truly riveting one that Russia had just paid off the external debt of the Soviet Union and forgiven about $100 billion of external debt, i.e. was now square,. He has also made noises about co-operation on fighting Daesh, stabilisation of the ME and de-escalating the North Korea war of words.
If you consider the takeover of Crimea to be deranged, I have an Iraq invasion to sell you and subsequent US attempts to install puppet rulers. Strategically, keeping Crimea given the destabilisation of Ukraine was a no-brainer.
If “Not rolling over and dying for the US” is your definition of deranged then I really have nothing to say to you. You may not like him, you may not like his nationalism, you may not like many of his supporters, but his calculations appear quite rational given the rise of China and India and the apparent determination of Trump to preside over US decline - though his generals may put a stop to that,
Which is more unpopular, Nazis or fucking with Social Security?
I guess we’re about to find out.
I was thinking about the gratuitous self-love propaganda, lack of any kind of empathy, and the like. I 100% think Putin is a very savvy and charismatic man, and he has leadership capabilities - but just because he’s not cartoonishly incompetent than other billionaire authoritarians doesn’t mean pushing a pop song about himself to the top of the charts and using the church to purge his citizens from their boogeymen isn’t deranged.
He told someone in an interview about how he had caught a record fish in a lake and immediately assumed they had put a lead weight in it to make it heavier. He also said in another interview that of course the “hockey match” was rigged.
But using the church? I think you have it quite backward. In modern Russia Putin governs with the consent of the ROC. There was a reason why the Communist Party tried so hard to suppress it, but it seems to have regained a lot of its power and influence. Pussy Riot seems to have been more about placating the anger of the Church than anybody else.
The status of the ROC seems very like that that the Catholic Church used to have in Ireland, only more so. It’s worth reading up on the history. The ROC intertwines nationalism, patriotism and control, and if Putin upsets it they could make life very difficult for him. Rather like Iran, in fact, where the President holds the job only so long as the Ayatollahs allow him.
In the US, it’s said it is impossible for an avowed atheist to become President. In Russia Putin may hold the job because he protects the status of the church and he is not anti-Semitic - unusual in a Russian politician perhaps - and he adopts the strategic doctrines of the armed forces.
I don’t really think knowing propaganda is propaganda is really the point, but I’m willing to concede I don’t know the details of the ROC’s involvement in Russia’s politics nor do I closely follow the news in Russia.
