True, and funny, but knowing how to wear a suit is near the bottom of the list of job requirements. Trump’s tawdry attire is at the low end of acceptable. Meanwhile his fund of knowledge related to the presidency is, if anything, negative. Would you really like him better if he looked smashing?

I find reading those answers helpful as part of my personal effort to figure out what has happened to US politics. My initial conclusion is that there are actually many different major reasons why people voted for Trump. In your sample replies we can detect — in separate messages — racism, nationalism, naive…

But Trump’s election is the will of the people! They were fed up with eight years of good results from a charming, smart black guy. To get the bad taste out of their mouths, they decided to make sure their next president had the mind of a conniving white fourth-grader. So you see, there is no mystery at all.

Eventually the US public will have to learn to stop believing all the absurd and outrageous lies screamed out to the world by the likes of Alex Jones. No one can protect people from such widely disseminated falsehoods if they will not start to use judgement about what to believe.

I do not think Kellyanne believes a single word of what she says. Lawyers are not obliged to believe any of their clients’ assertions; why should she?

Oh, any names will do. The people behind the names just have to be sadistic, bloodthirsty. Time will tell which of Trump’s henchmen have all the best characteristics of the genre. There is already plenty of competition among them.

What a fascinating comment on Coulter’s part. Is she in the DAR? Is she a Nazi? Her criterion could only be checked by looking into genealogical records. But anything she writes is really only intended to make reasonable people angry. It is called “agitprop.” At least, that is my interpretation of agitprop: spreading…

I think that is what press spokespersons do for a living. What they say is like plaster smeared over a battered old wall. It just tries to cover up holes.

He is perfectly right, of course, and he does a good job of listing a few of the statements that should have disqualified Trump many months ago. But what can Ireland do? Denouncing Trump and America will have little or no effect on Trump or his “cabinet” of mentally disordered individuals.

If liberalism becomes extinct, it will be because we liberals found a better political philosophy. We have to change with the seasons too. It is not possible to put an end to liberalism. It is an attitude that comes naturally to many people.

Ellie Shechet, thank you for an interesting and informative article. Using an arm’s-length but still engrossing narrative form, you have elucidated something about youtube fandom in particular and internet social media in general.

There is no good way to tell, because it takes the polling results about a week to catch up with events.

Historical comparisons are hard to calibrate, because we did not have a nuclear button before the middle of the 20th century. The US President possesses powers far beyond those of any mere national leader in human history.

Well said.

Is the whole point of this playground in Berkeley the high risk? I don’t quite see what is gained by putting kids in danger. Surely the important thing is what they get to do, not how hazardous their day has been.

I can’t say whether it’s fair, but I do think it is necessary if the Republicans keep blocking everything.

They should and, I hope, would limit the filibuster. Anyway, I think there was an agreement at one point not to filibuster Supreme Court judges. The Dems might be able to bring that back.

It is pathological to talk about one’s own increased grandeur in the middle of a disaster.

I cried SO hard when I saw this. My wife had to comfort me. We lost our daughter age 25 in 2011. To see the tears in the poor girl’s face was just too much. Now she has someone to comfort and love, who has gone through what she has.

Does not strike me as funny but then I am a 65 year old man.