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In the opinion pages of a local newspaper, another letter writer fabricates this claim of victimhood:
“My fear is that if I wear my Make America Great Again hat in public I may be assaulted. That is what I call ‘real’ fear. True Trump supporters are generally a quiet, hard-working, taxpaying, respectful group of people. We need a little more conversation and a little less confrontation,” she writes. Continue reading FEAR AND VICTIMHOOD IN A BOGUS POTUS AGE
Motivated reasoning and cognitive bias are terms used by psychosocial researchers to describe a tendency among people to filter information, turn off eyes and ears, and consider only the evidence they want to hear.
Everyday in our local newspaper, I read letters to the editor. Letters from hotheads. Letters from bigots who rationalize hatred even as they deny their bigotry. Most remarkable is the inventiveness of people who go to extraordinary lengths to rationalize the irrational and engage in willful self-deception.
Fake news, bogus conspiracies, straw man arguments, exaggerated and embellished claims, errors of attribution, errors of reasoning, denial, projection … all are examples of cognitive bias.
Each week, I see examples of willful self-delusion in opinion letters and online discussions. One reader says: “You make me sick to think that you walk the streets and could be near me. You are probably one of the animals …”; a cognitively biased abreaction.
“The left absolutely hates Donald Trump. They hate him with every fiber of their being, every cell in their bodies, but they don’t precisely know why.” But we do know why! Do you see what we see? Do you see Trump’s defects of character? Do you see the bullying of a disabled man, a travel ban that handcuffs children, a deportation order that sends a hospitalized girl with a brain tumor to a detention center? Partisan bias is cognitive bias when you fail to see the insanity and inhumanity.
Conservative commentator Kathleen Parker condemns his reckless rhetoric. Hothead Trump loyalists denounce Parker as a traitor.
President #45 bashes the press as “an enemy of the people.” Senator John McCain defends a free press as a constitutionally protected right. Hothead Trump loyalists denounce McCain.
There will always be an angry rabble who cast a blind eye on gross misuses of power. Never dismiss a mob whose hunger for red meat is insatiable. If you fail to feed them, they will assail you as assuredly as flies drawn to carrion.
Galloping hissy fits, boorish misuses of words, ad hominem character assassinations, misquotes, harping, carping, nitpicking, accusations, fabrications, deceptions, insults, and angry outbursts — hardly a week goes by without uncouth examples of cognitive bias leaping off page.
Trump pledged to take no salary ($400,000/yr.) if he were elected president. He has received two full paychecks from the treasury, February and March. As of now the White, the Treasury, and the Office of Personnel Management have all declined to respond to inquiries.
NBC – President Donald Trump pledged to forego a presidential salary, but as his second payday approaches, the White House is declining to say if the president has donated any of his earnings yet.
During the campaign, Trump promised he would take “no salary” if elected — a pledge he reiterated after he won.
“I’m not going to the take the salary,” he told “60 Minutes” in November.
The Constitution, however, requires that the president receive a salary, and that it not be reduced during his term. Federal law mandates the president receive a $400,000 annual salary, paid out once a month.
Trump aides have previously said Trump would donate his salary to the Treasury Department or a charity.
MSNBC requested details and documentation about any salary donations from the White House, the Treasury Department and the Office of Personnel Management, which all declined to say whether Trump has donated any of his salary to date. (OPM referred questions to the White House.)
Last month, White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders told the website Politifact that Trump “will be giving” his salary “back to Treasury or donating.” The site noted the White House “declined to answer several inquiries into whether Trump has gotten a paycheck already.”
Under the law, Trump would receive his first monthly paycheck for $33,333 in February, and another $33,333 on March 20.
We’ll wait to see if Trump simply fed the American people another line of his typical baloney or not. If you’re a better don’t bet on Trump’s integrity. You’ll likely be a loser.
Mar 07 2017
WASHINGTON – Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) issued the following statement Tuesday in response to the release of the American Health Care Act:
“This is not the Obamacare repeal bill we’ve been waiting for. It is a missed opportunity and a step in the wrong direction,” Sen. Lee said.
“We promised the American people we would drain the swamp and end business as usual in Washington. This bill does not do that. We don’t know how many people would use this new tax credit, we don’t know how much it will cost, and we don’t know if this bill will make health care more affordable for Americans.”
“This is exactly the type of back-room dealing and rushed process that we criticized Democrats for and it is not what we promised the American people.”
“Let’s fulfill our Obamacare repeal promise immediately and then take our time and do reform right. Let’s pass the 2015 repeal bill that Republicans in both houses of Congress voted for and sent to the White House just 15 months ago. Once Obamacare has been properly sent to the dustbin of history then we can begin a deliberative, open, and honest process to reform our nation’s health care system.”
The smooth horn of Billy Butterfield playing Stardust. From his 1961 recording on The Golden Horn album.
One of my mother’s and father’s favorites. I used to play this on my horn every so often back in the day.
This one’s for you mom and dad. Wherever you may be I know you’re dancing.