I'm still down, physically down (emotionally? — that's a given), and I haven't the energy to do much more than highlight a few of the disordered thoughts of America's imminent catastrophe, as captured in a NYT interview yesterday. ("I don't care about anything having to do with anything having to do with anything other than the country," eloquently said the sexual predator who just effectively lost a $25 million fraud case, as well as the popular vote, who has defrauded the IRS, who has encouraged domestic violence, who wants to "bomb the shit" out of civilians overseas, who has insulted every minority and assorted others, and who won't release his tax returns.)
The revealed workings, as it were, of DJT's shambolic mind are even more horrifying than they were a year ago, before American democracy decided to take an extended break from prudence and rationality. The following presidential "thinking" is what the electorate's holiday from conscience has earned them. It's so absurd, no interjected comments are necessary.
TRUMP: As far as the, you know, potential conflict of interests, though, I mean I know that from the standpoint, the law is totally on my side, meaning, the president can't have a conflict of interest. That's been reported very widely. Despite that, I don't want there to be a conflict of interest anyway. And the laws, the president can't. And I understand why the president can't have a conflict of interest now because everything a president does in some ways is like a conflict of interest…. [T]he president of the United States is allowed to have whatever conflicts he wants.
And there was this:
REPORTER: The Times [reported] in the past 24 hours about meeting with leaders of Brexit about wind farms …
TRUMP: About meeting with who?
REPORTER: Leaders of Brexit about wind farms that might interfere with the views of your golf course …
TRUMP: Was I involved with the wind farms recently? Or, not that I know of. I mean, I have a problem with wind …
REPORTER: But you brought it up in the meeting, didn't you?
TRUMP: Which meeting? I don't know. I might have.
REPORTER: With leaders of Brexit.
MANY VOICES: With Farage.
TRUMP: Oh, I see. I might have brought it up. But not having to do with me, just I mean, the wind is a very deceiving thing…. I don't think they work at all without subsidy, and that bothers me, and they kill all the birds.
And this:
REPORTER: What do you make of the website [that Steve Bannon] ran, Breitbart?
TRUMP: The which?
REPORTER: Breitbart.
TRUMP: Well, Breitbart's different. Breitbart covers things, I mean like The New York Times covers things.
And, this:
REPORTER: And on torture? Where are you — and waterboarding?
TRUMP: So, I met with General Mattis, who is a very respected guy. In fact, I met with a number of other generals, they say he's the finest there is. He is being seriously, seriously considered for secretary of defense, which is — I think it's time maybe, it's time for a general…. I met with him at length and I asked him that question. I said, what do you think of waterboarding? He said — I was surprised — he said, "I've never found it to be useful." He said, "I've always found, give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers and I do better with that than I do with torture." And I was very impressed by that answer. I was surprised, because he's known as being like the toughest guy. And when he said that, I'm not saying it changed my [mind]. Look, we have people that are chopping off heads and drowning people in steel cages and we're not allowed to waterboard. But I'll tell you what, I was impressed by that answer. It certainly does not — it's not going to make the kind of a difference that maybe a lot of people think. If it's so important to the American people, I would go for it. I would be guided by that. But General Mattis found it to be very less important, much less important than I thought he would say.
***
Congratulations, America. Your singular achievement of 2016 has been to make James Buchanan look decisive, and George W. Bush look like a genius.
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