Things that make me say hmmm......

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What made me say "hmmmm...." the most this week was, of course, Trump and his shenanigans. 

One of the most pathetic things about Trump is his obsession with winning prizes. 

What kind of childhood did he have, that only external "validation" matters and it doesn't matter if its a lie?

Remember when it was found out in 2017 that he lied when he said he had been considered for Time magazine's Person Of The Year and he had made a fake Time cover for display at Mar-A-Lardo? 

And remember when last month he stole a gold medal from a soccer team?

As he ages, he is actually getting worse - he thinks he can get a Nobel Peace Prize just like Obama did:

Trump cold-called a Norwegian minister to ask about his bid to win a Nobel Peace Prize.

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— Politico (@politico.com) August 14, 2025 at 9:53 AM

Current mood in Norway regarding Trump and peace prize

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— alfhvatne.bsky.social (@alfhvatne.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 4:39 PM

Norway can do the funniest thing in human history by awarding Donald Trump the first-ever Nobel Peace Prize Participation Trophy.

— Rex Huppke (@rexhuppke.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 4:33 PM

and this:

You forgot the part where he said he was pissed he didn't get a Kennedy Center Honor, that he felt he deserved; so he put it on his list to become Chairman so he could award; HIMSELF, a Kennedy Center Honor.

— != 2b 'trifled' with (@TheBestBradlee) August 14, 2025

This is priceless:

Tom Cruise rejecting an award from Trump and blaming "scheduling conflicts" has to be the most pain the Clown-in-Chief has felt in a while.

- Charlotte Clymer

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In real news today:

Trump, who will greet the war criminal, personally, working on making Chamberlain look good. Yo, Donnie, if you arrest Vlad on the spot and ship him to the Hague, the entire world will nominate you for a Nobel.

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— Fifth House Sun (@fifthhousesun.bsky.social) August 15, 2025 at 12:27 PM

I thought Krugman hit the nail on the head, so to speak:

Paul Krugman 

MAGA’s Feelings Don’t Care About Your Facts 

Reality is what Trump says it is 

Just under two weeks ago the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a sharp slowdown in job growth — consistent with independent surveys that also show a slowing economy. Donald Trump responded by firing the Bureau’s head and wants to replace her with an unqualified right-wing hack — let’s be honest, OK? — whose big idea for dealing with troubling job numbers is to stop releasing them.
This week Trump seized control of the Washington DC police force and sent in the National Guard to deal with what he claims is a runaway crime wave, even though crime in the District has been falling rapidly.
What these two stories have in common is this: MAGA’s feelings don’t care about your facts. And the rejection of data Trump doesn’t like will surely extend to many areas beyond jobs and crime.
...So which facts will be rejected in favor of feelings next? Trump’s tariffs are already starting to show in the inflation numbers, and the vast majority of independent economists believe that we’ll be seeing a lot more of that in the months ahead. Or maybe we won’t be seeing it. If a Trumpified BLS can stop releasing employment data, surely it can stop releasing price data too. Canceling those monthly reports would clearly be illegal, but who thinks that matters?
Then what? My guess is that the next frontier in feelings-over-facts will involve public health.
I’m not sure how many Americans realize how low our life expectancy is compared with other rich countries. The divergence began under Ronald Reagan, and was already a chasm even before partisanship led many Americans on the right to reject Covid vaccines...
...we now have an anti-vaxxer, who reportedly doesn’t even accept the germ theory of infectious diseases, serving as America’s top health official.
....All in all, we’re clearly entering an era of policy driven by feelings rather than facts. But facts always win in the end.

To summarize Krugman:

The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.

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— Sister Golden Bear (@sistergoldenbear.bsky.social) August 15, 2025 at 12:26 PM

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Margaret Atwood doesn't pussyfoot around the truth:

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Sure, Donny, sure...

And Mark Carney laughed.

Then Canadians laughed even harder. https://t.co/3FNTuCEKX4

— Douglas Connors - Kindness Is Power (he/him) (@calmecam) August 14, 2025

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A "go" bag? This may be a good idea, actually.

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Reality has a liberal bias, doesn't it.

“Substack is so left-leaning.” Well, it’s a text-based platform, so it naturally favors the literate.

- Charmagaj

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