Robert DeNiro on Trump

[finnbow]

DeNiro was supposed to deliver a speech at a "Stop Trump Summit," but he came down with COVID. Instead, he released a statement. Here it is:

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"I’ve spent a lot of time studying bad men. I’ve examined their characteristics, their mannerisms, the utter banality of their cruelty. Yet there’s something different about Donald Trump. When I look at him, I don’t see a bad man. Truly.

I see an evil one.

Over the years, I’ve met gangsters here and there. This guy tries to be one, but he can’t quite pull it off. There’s such a thing as “honor among thieves.” Yes, even criminals usually have a sense of right and wrong. Whether they do the right thing or not is a different story — but — they have a moral code, however warped.

Donald Trump does not. He’s a wannabe tough guy with no morals or ethics. No sense of right or wrong. No regard for anyone but himself — not the people he was supposed to lead and protect, not the people he does business with, not the people who follow him, blindly and loyally, not even the people who consider themselves his “friends.” He has contempt for all of them.

We New Yorkers got to know him over the years that he poisoned the atmosphere and littered our city with monuments to his ego. We knew first hand that this was someone who should never be considered for leadership. We tried to warn the world in 2016.

The repercussions of his turbulent presidency divided America and rattled New York City beyond imagination. Remember how we were jolted by crisis in early 2020, as a virus swept the world. We lived with Donald Trump’s bombastic behavior every day on the national stage, and we suffered as we saw our neighbors piling up in body bags.
The man who was supposed to protect this country put it in peril, because of his recklessness and impulsiveness. It was like an abusive father ruling the family by fear and violent behavior. That was the consequence of New York’s warning getting ignored. Next time, we know it will be worse.

Make no mistake: the twice-impeached, 4-time indicted Donald Trump is still a fool. But we can’t let our fellow Americans write him off like one. Evil thrives in the shadow of dismissive mockery, which is why we must take the danger of Donald Trump very seriously.
So today we issue another warning. From this place where Abraham Lincoln spoke — right here in the beating heart of New York — to the rest of America:
This is our last chance.

Democracy won’t survive the return of a wannabe dictator.

And it won’t overcome evil if we are divided.

So what do we do about it? I know I’m preaching to the choir here. What we’re doing today is valuable, but we have to take today into tomorrow – take it outside these walls. We have to reach out to the half of our country who have ignored the hazards of Trump and, for whatever reason, support elevating him back into the White House. They’re not stupid, and we must not condemn them for making a stupid choice. Our future doesn’t just depend on us. It depends on them.

Let’s reach out to Trump’s followers with respect. Let’s not talk about “democracy.” “Democracy” may be our holy grail, but to others it is just a word, a concept, and in their embrace of Trump, they’ve already turned their backs on it. Let’s talk about right and wrong. Let’s talk about humanity. Let’s talk about kindness. Security for our world. Safety for our families. Decency. Let’s welcome them back. We won’t get them all, but we can get enough to end the nightmare of Trump, and fulfill the mission of this “Stop Trump Summit.”

[Ike Bana]

It's good but IMHO a waste of energy. The 46%ers are a combination of racists, bigots, xenphobes, sexists, single issue religious fanatics (abortion/gay sex), the mega wealthy who want freedom from taxes, and a healthy number of morons.

As for Trump, he's all that DeNiro describes. And clinically Trump is a malignant/hostile narcissist who satisfies every one of the diagnostic criteria...with an identifiable streak of the anti-social personality disorder. But there is one other very important thing...

Trump is completely transactional. Any interaction with others including his children has a focus for him as to whether he comes out on top or not. Every goddamn interaction. Which causes me to assess that what Trump's goal, minute by minute in his life, what he is always looking for, what excites him and satifies his sick desires more than anything, is remaining always on the altert for the next poor schmuck who crosses his path that he can fuck over.

[Rajoo]

Social media instead of reality has defined Trump to his followers. I often pick a current news item, look for it in Fox News (print) and diligently read the readers comments. Its amazing the level of disinformation they have been fed and swallowed. Trump in the WH would not have 'allowed' Putin to invade Ukraine, the Arab world would be shaking in fear of Trump that the Hamas would not even consider lobbing grenades let alone rockets and missiles into Israel. This is the world we live in. Trump is their god and savior from the evil Democrats who control the Deep State and worst of all, our constitutional government and its laws are their biggest threat and they do not respect it.

The cult will now call for a boycott of all DiNiro movies along with death threats.

As long as Trump is around, this country is fucked.
The only available antidote to Trump is the multiple indictments and lawsuits and hope one of them sticks in a jail, will even settle for home confinement with no internet privileges or exile. Trump is evil and very little can be done to sway the opinion of the Trumplicans.

[Ike Bana]

I dunno. Seems to me the only antidote to Trump is being rid of people who would buy into Trump. And that's not gonna happen. We already have a political party full of politicians waiting in line to take up the pitch of a Donald Trump...and a country half full of assholes who will buy into it.

[Ike Bana]

The problem is the people. Every country has the government it deserves. If what Trump is pitching had no audience to eat it up...for whatever the various individual reasons, he would have been old news 40 gears ago. Its always on the people. It was on the Russian people in 1918. It was on the Italian people in the 1920's. It was on the German people in the 1930's. It was on the American people in the "love it or leave it" Vietnam years. It's on the American people now, in the "election fraud" days.

[Rajoo]

^^ "Problem is the people", but how are you going to change their minds when they are being force-fed disinformation 24/7 via the internet.

Problem is they do not know any better and therefore, they are convinced what they know is the truth and everybody else lies.

Vaccines preventing Covid? Lie.
Global warming? Lie.
Biden is honest? Lie.
Trump lost 2020 election? Lie.
Trump is evil? Lie.

[RickeyM]

Originally Posted by Rajoo

Social media instead of reality has defined Trump to his followers. I often pick a current news item, look for it in Fox News (print) and diligently read the readers comments. Its amazing the level of disinformation they have been fed and swallowed. Trump in the WH would not have 'allowed' Putin to invade Ukraine, the Arab world would be shaking in fear of Trump that the Hamas would not even consider lobbing grenades let alone rockets and missiles into Israel. This is the world we live in. Trump is their god and savior from the evil Democrats who control the Deep State and worst of all, our constitutional government and its laws are their biggest threat and they do not respect it.

Like I said before, radicalized. tRump didn't do it he just capitalized on it.

[RickeyM]

Originally Posted by Rajoo

^^ "Problem is the people", but how are you going to change their minds when they are being force-fed disinformation 24/7 via the internet.

Problem is they do not know any better and therefore, they are convinced what they know is the truth and everybody else lies.

Vaccines preventing Covid? Lie.
Global warming? Lie.
Biden is honest? Lie.
Trump lost 2020 election? Lie.
Trump is evil? Lie.

... and how dare we tell them otherwise!

[Ike Bana]

Originally Posted by Rajoo

^^ "Problem is the people", but how are you going to change their minds when they are being force-fed disinformation 24/7 via the internet.

Problem is they do not know any better and therefore, they are convinced what they know is the truth and everybody else lies.

Vaccines preventing Covid? Lie.
Global warming? Lie.
Biden is honest? Lie.
Trump lost 2020 election? Lie.
Trump is evil? Lie.

Scapegoating is what humanity does best. Tribalism and religiosity does it. Russian communists did it. Italian fascists did it. German nazis did it. And 1950's Americans did it...beginning with McCarthy, continuing in Vietnam, exploding with "bad gubmint...bad!!!" Reagan bullshit. Finalizing with Tea Party/MAGA mind numbing populism where anybody who isn’t white and christian is the problem. I have no hope for this country ever being any better.

Humanity are locusts, with a little bit of intelligence and way too much trchnology. Sooner or later wherever civilization emerges, everything dies. Including us at some point. And then the planet will go back to its pre civilization state and the noble beasts and bugs will once again live free of the scourge of humanity.

[Ike Bana]

Originally Posted by RickeyM

Like I said before, radicalized. tRump didn't do it he just capitalized on it.

There was a time when the media by which we got our information had a code of ethics. It wasn't perfect because humanity is imperfect. But it was in place. It took a while to expose Eugene McCarthy, many people were hurt, lives were irrevocably damaged...but McCarthy was eventually exposed. Not anymore. In today's world of worldwide digital media there's no code at all. Want proof? You don't need Trump or Putin or Khameni. Fucking Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. There's all the proof that any reasonable person needs that there's no code anymore. A fucking scorpion has more ethics than Robert F. Kennedy Jr.