I'm sure AuntiE would enjoy your cat meme being sent to her.

Yes, indeed, he is.

Tom, a previous posting of mine spoke of those feelings about Trump:

"My feelings for Vets (especially 'Nam Vets) run deep. The below links/articles & my following comments may help explain a major source of my disdain for Donald Trump. I doubt my lack of regard for him will ever change, though I regret that it often creates a schism between myself and others.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=donaldstrumpspersonalvietnam&cvid=a41d5983f0f94daaa1d225ba1510d899&FORM=ANAB01&PC=HCTS

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/times-trump-insulted-u-s-veterans-military-service-article-1.3204210# (Taken from above link)

Regarding Donald Trump's interviews on the Howard Stern Show over twenty years ago, I wrote the following:

In the field, particularly, but also on the hospital ship USS Sanctuary in 1968, I saw kids my age whose bodies were ripped apart by gunfire from rifles or automatic weapons, artillery rounds, mortar rounds and booby traps from the enemy in Viet Nam. My lesser wounds allowed me times to walk through the wards visiting those who were left without arms, legs, g*****ls or had suffered damage to various body parts---including their facial structure and features. Many had also lost all sense of who they were before incurring such wounds, from psychological and emotional damage. A kid younger than I from a bed near mine ended up dying. IMO, he died of a broken heart. Sometime before, he had received a 'Dear John' letter from his fiancee back home. That letter (again, IMO) destroyed his will to live. This, after he had struggled mightily to achieve a certain degree of recovery, enough for having been scheduled to go on to Japan for better treatment and surgery necessary to guarantee a somewhat normal life.

For Trump, in any way, to compare the dangers of dating from STDs, etc. to the experiences of young men who sacrificed their lives or body parts in combat service to their country in Viet Nam or any war was/is abominable to me. When I first became aware of his comments, I was livid with anger. This many years later, I am reminded of Trump's callousness and obvious disregard for the feelings of friends or families who lost loved ones in that or any war.

Wh**ever one chooses to call his tone---mocking, sarcastic, or just down-right thoughtless, I cannot/will not forgive him. Neither could I tolerate his belittling of John McCain's service or the associated belittling of all POWs for getting captured. I can't listen to anyone who tells me he didn't demean them with his all-encompassing remarks. I watched while listening to his own words. I personally have met/know two living POWs (One died since this was written) and knew a survivor of the Bataan death march of American POWs in WWII. The last died a number of years ago, but the other two survived tortuous treatment by their captors and remain with us today. By surviving, they each were able to return and have families that, no doubt, help each forget the months and years of their imprisonments.

Trump's statements exceeded stupid or in jest, especially since he was playing to an audience and being recorded, both for radio, TV---and, for posterity. He was, at that time, around the age of fifty, an age most would have shown some maturity and empathy for those who did not have his good fortune in escaping service before, during and after college, but instead served their nation. Again, the families and friends of those who either didn't return from that horrific war, or, returned physically and/or psychologically maimed did/do not need to be hearing of Mr. Trump's bravery and courage in the dating game being equated to other's service to country.

IMHO, President Trump's patriotism is about as thin as the outer skin of an onion."

George Monbiot

US culture is an incubator of ‘extrinsic values’. Nobody embodies them like the Republican frontrunner

Many explanations are proposed for the continued rise of Donald Trump, and the steadfastness of his support, even as the outrages and criminal charges pile up. Some of these explanations are powerful. But there is one I have seen mentioned nowhere, which could, I believe, be the most important: Trump is king of the extrinsics.

Some psychologists believe our values tend to cluster around certain poles, described as “intrinsic” and “extrinsic”. People with a strong set of intrinsic values are inclined towards empathy, intimacy and self-acceptance. They tend to be open to challenge and change, interested in universal rights and e******y, and protective of other people and the living world.

People at the extrinsic end of the spectrum are more attracted to prestige, status, image, fame, power and wealth. They are strongly motivated by the prospect of individual reward and praise. They are more likely to objectify and exploit other people, to behave rudely and aggressively and to dismiss social and environmental impacts. They have little interest in cooperation or community. People with a strong set of extrinsic values are more likely to suffer from frustration, dissatisfaction, stress, anxiety, anger and compulsive behaviour.

Trump exemplifies extrinsic values. From the tower bearing his name in gold letters to his gross overstatements of his wealth; from his endless ranting about “winners” and “losers” to his reported habit of c***ting at golf; from his extreme objectification of women, including his own daughter, to his obsession with the size of his hands; from his rejection of public service, human rights and environmental protection to his extreme dissatisfaction and fury, undiminished even when he was president of the United States, Trump, perhaps more than any other public figure in recent history, is a walking, talking monument to extrinsic values.

We are not born with our values. They are shaped by the cues and responses we receive from other people and the prevailing mores of our society. They are also molded by the political environment we inhabit. If people live under a cruel and grasping political system, they tend to normalize and internalize it, absorbing its dominant claims and t***slating them into extrinsic values. This, in turn, permits an even crueler and more grasping political system to develop.

If, by contrast, people live in a country in which no one becomes destitute, in which social norms are characterized by kindness, empathy, community and freedom from want and fear, their values are likely to shift towards the intrinsic end. This process is known as policy feedback, or the “values ratchet”. The values ratchet operates at the societal and the individual level: a strong set of extrinsic values often develops as a result of insecurity and unfulfilled needs. These extrinsic values then generate further insecurity and unfulfilled needs.

‘From his endless ranting about ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ to his reported habit of c***ting at golf, Donald Trump is a walking, talking monument to extrinsic values.’

Ever since Ronald Reagan came to power, on a platform that ensured society became sharply divided into “winners” and “losers”, and ever more people, lacking public provision, were allowed to fall through the cracks, US politics has become fertile soil for extrinsic values. As Democratic presidents, following Reagan, embraced most of the principles of neoliberalism, the ratchet was scarcely reversed. The appeal to extrinsic values by the Democrats, Labor and other once-progressive parties is always self-defeating. Research shows that the further towards the extrinsic end of the spectrum people travel, the more likely they are to v**e for a rightwing party.

But the shift goes deeper than politics. For well over a century, the US, more than most nations, has worshipped extrinsic values: the American dream is a dream of acquiring wealth, spending it conspicuously and escaping the constraints of other people’s needs and demands. It is accompanied, in politics and in popular culture, by toxic myths about failure and success: wealth is the goal, regardless of how it is acquired. The ubiquity of advertising, the commercialization of society and the rise of consumerism, alongside the media’s obsession with fame and fashion, reinforce this story. The marketing of insecurity, especially about physical appearance, and the manufacture of unfulfilled wants, dig holes in our psyches that we might try to fill with money, fame or power. For decades, the dominant cultural themes in the US – and in many other nations – have functioned as an almost perfect incubator of extrinsic values.

A classic sign of this shift is the individuation of blame. On both sides of the Atlantic, it now takes extreme forms. Under the criminal justice bill now passing through parliament, people caught rough sleeping can be imprisoned or fined up to £2,500 if they are deemed to constitute a “nuisance” or cause “damage”. According to article 61 of the bill, “damage” includes smelling bad. It’s hard to know where to begin with this. If someone had £2,500 to spare, they wouldn’t be on the streets. The government is proposing to provide prison cells for rough sleepers, but not homes. Perhaps most importantly, people are being blamed and criminalized for their own destitution, which in many cases will have been caused by government policy.

We talk about society’s rightward journey. We talk about polarization and division. We talk about isolation and the mental health crisis. But what underlies these trends is a shift in values. This is the cause of many of our dysfunctions; the rest are symptoms.

When a society values status, money, power and dominance, it is bound to generate frustration. It is impossible for everyone to be number one. The more the economic elites grab, the more everyone else must lose. Someone must be blamed for the ensuing disappointment. In a culture that worships winners, it can’t be them. It must be those evil people pursuing a kinder world, in which wealth is distributed, no one is forgotten and communities and the living planet are protected. Those who have developed a strong set of extrinsic values will v**e for the person who represents them, the person who has what they want. Trump. And where the US goes, the rest of us follow.

Trump might well win again – God help us if he does. If so, his victory will be due not only to the racial resentment of aging white men, or to his weaponization of culture wars or to algorithms and echo chambers, important as these factors are. It will also be the result of values embedded so deeply that we forget they are there.

True 'nuf, but Tom is not one of those whom you describe.

Coming from OPP's biggest 'troller'...that's damn funny.

L-T, this is one of those times in which we are in total agreement.

That appears to be a distinct possibility.

AuntiE will likely appreciate your offerings, but her notorious 'Mack The Cat' would likely be suited for Broadway's 'Guys & Dolls'...gangsta style.

I wouldn't think so, Padre. Arguably, the first rap hit song was the following, in 1979....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKTUAESacQM

BTW, Padre, here's a tearjerker of another kind...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7KU7Zvjp0Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FdWRsHeV98

Bonus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xRCbdFrSSc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBO7q_paUU8

Thanks, Frosty I'm now thinking about getting a time-share set-up for a Norwegian getaway.