The New Coffee Room

"Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem.
For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace - all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.
So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing - not once, ever.
I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility - for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman.
But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is - his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers.
And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults - he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface.
Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront.
Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul.
And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist.
Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that.
He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat.
He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.
And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully.
That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead.
There are unspoken rules to this stuff - the Queensberry rules of basic decency - and he breaks them all. He punches downwards - which a gentleman should, would, could never do - and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless - and he kicks them when they are down.
So the fact that a significant minority - perhaps a third - of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think 'Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
You don't need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.
This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss.
After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.
God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid.
He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart.
In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws - he would make a Trump.
And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish:
'My God… what… have… I… created?
If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set."

@Jolly said in Mr. Clemency:

No.

I'd have to agree with you.

I enjoy nothing about Trump, even the humour he generates is grim.

Avian flu is a bugger. Fingers crossed you aren't having to import all your eggs from China by the end of Trump's reign.

More of Trump doing his thing:

At the National Institute for Health all purchasing has been frozen. All! No PPE, no liquid nitrogen, no mouse food. Long term studies that have running for years are a risk. Work on the possible Bird Flu crossover has stopped.

All overseas aid, except direct food aid, has stopped. Disease prevention, water treatment, drug supply all stopped. The long negotiated Gaza ceasefire has got US aid workers in place, they can now do nothing. The US provides anti-retroviral drugs to 25 million HIV patients in Africa, including 500,000 children. All that is stopped, instantly.

@NobodySock

And yet given a vote, a majority of Americans have effectively found him not guilty; and trusted him to be their boss.

Do you think a focussed legal trial would have produced a different result?

Patience
Just started watching this new crime drama.
Set in York, a lovely city not far down the road from us.
Seems promising.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patience_(TV_series)

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt31495377/?ref_=ttpl_ov

I'm surprised he hasn't adopted and integrated his conviction as a battle honour, as people do when earning a degree.
JVance (BA)
DTrump(BS, CF)

I have to admit that when I hire a plumber, I don't care that he is a braggart, a bore, vain, needy, unfaithful to his wife, downright dishonest and a convicted criminal, just so as long as he fixes the heating.

Trump is a flawed man but Americans have employed him to do a job.

He is a great actor.

Sometimes that's all you need to transform a modest show ('As Time Goes By' and 'Vicious' comedies come to mind).

I can't recommend any current mysteries. I'm currently watching an old police series starring David Jason called 'A Touch of Frost'

Hilary Clinton was outwardly laughing at some of the ridiculous things he proposed.

Still, the Rotunda speech was better than his mostly(?) unscripted, rambling, rather smug, lie-filled second speech. He's a convicted felon so no surprises.

I sincerely hope his actions do help your country and improve all of your lives. It's a second and highly significant chance to do good; his place in history is already assured, fingers crossed it will read well.

Wow, the prophet has spoken and everything is now or will soon be, simply wonderful.

Thankfully no rioting this time.

Now you can
"Ask Nut what you can do for your country"

Quite a lively atmosphere. Mrs T got a lovely air kiss. Vance is looking puggish (or maybe shitzu-ish, does he own a dog?)

I counted 17 uniformed terrorists on and around the Red Cross vehicles.
Unfortunately the hatred probably means Hamas numbers/sympathisers are greater than before 7th October.

That's a very white room.

It's only 100% for the next 10 days, then The Trumpton will, well, he'll do whatever the hell he feels like doing.

Maybe send the wife to stomp fires out with her 6" stilettos.
Or perhaps he'll actually legalise waterboarding thinking it'll help.

Whose does for the next 4 years.
Its a done deal, only Trump matters. And Mr Musk, until they inevitably clash & fall out.

I am a long term fan of The USA, its world influence & foreign policies, though currently watching with some concern at their home affairs.

@Horace
Still not as happy as me, nothing could ever tempt me to be President/PM.

Obama is 63 though looking older after his service; let's face it the other members of the club could fall off the twig anytime.

Who was the old woman, family member, who nodded off? That had us laughing.

David Osborne played piano very well; wish we could have heard more of him and less "commentary".
It is a time to put aside the political crap for a couple of hours and pray for and recall the deceased, and support those left behind.