It seems that there is love lost between Trump and Murray. Trump saving the coal industry? LOL not so fast.
"Murray’s company is seeking a two-year moratorium on closures of coal-fired power plants, which would be an unprecedented federal intervention in the nation’s energy markets. The company said invoking the provision under the Power Act was “the only viable mechanism” to protect the reliability of the nation’s power supply…
…The Energy Department has already informed Murray it will not invoke the law, an official with knowledge of the decision told the AP."
Somehow I can actually hear him say this: “Rest assured that you will be able to look into your children’s eyes and know that their children and their children’s children will be conducting military operations in a country that’s far more stable than it once was.”
I’m not a fan of Towhey, so I’m a little biased, but I don’t think working for Rob Ford is even vague qualification for giving advice about Trump. I understand why people would want to make that comparison, but Ford was actually very relatable as a human being. People weren’t writing “Ford is a Void” articles or otherwise suggesting that we give up on trying to understand him because he is not understandable in familiar terms. Ford was a very privileged person with substance abuse problems who actually had quite a bit of empathy for other people even if I think he wasn’t smart enough to put it to effective use. He said things that were untrue either because he was lying or because he was uninformed. He behaved in an uncooth manner because he was uncooth (and often because he was drunk or high).
Trump exists on an axis perpendicular to truth, to etiquette, to empathy. The idea that Towhey would be able to handle him seem pretty foolish to me.
Hmmmm ala Noriega? 24/7 blasts of negative news narrated by Kathy Griffin (for the annoying voice) directed at the WH until the deed is done? I hear Kathy needs the work.
In addition to the basic body language he keeps saying things like “Have a Good Time!” to people stranded in a shelter. Or, ‘it’s going great‘ to people who’ve just lost everything. Or, look at this huge turnout to people who … well, you get the idea. When it comes to acting human or compassionate it’s like the part of his brain governing that species of behavior has been removed.
This is kinda the reverse of that, but I’m reminded of a bit in one of the Oliver Sacks books.
It’s a chapter covering aphasia (neurological language impairment). He tells a story about being in a room with a bunch of people with severe receptive aphasia (i.e. they can no longer decipher language with any fluency).
They were watching a speech by Ronald Reagan, which was reviewed in the mainstream press as being serious, important and well-delivered.
But the roomful of aphasics spent the whole time cracking up with laughter.
They couldn’t understand the words, but they could very clearly perceive all of the carny-barker con-artist tricks of non-verbal rhetoric that he was using (pacing, intonation, body language, etc). They were all apparently astonished that anyone could believe such a blatant crook.
Hmm. Okay, I’d have to read that. Since they were aphasic, I’d wonder at how that detailed conclusion was reached. (I don’t disagree, and I want to believe, but that’s when I like to be careful.)
That’s my vague recollection of a book I read fifteen years ago, BTW. And Oliver Sacks is worth applying scepticism to; his standard schtick is to stretch very limited case-study evidence into grand speculative hypotheses.
OTOH, aphasia is not always total, and it doesn’t hit all modalities equally. Folks usually work out some method of functional communication.
