Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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General John Kelly: "He said that, in his opinion, Mr. Trump met the definition of a fascist, would govern like a dictator if allowed, and had no understanding of the Constitution or the concept of rule of law."

Friday, January 24, 2025

GUEST POST BY DAVE MILLER

 


Donald Trump is Intellectually Lazy




It’s not that he doesn’t have a lot of energy. He does. It’s that he is unwilling to do the hard work of preparing and digging into arcane facts to get the real story that leads to better policy.


Famously during his first administration, he refused to even read the PDB, or Presidential Daily Briefing. He is quoted by aides as preferring just highlights and even pictures as opposed to pages of type and words.


We’ve seen this in his supporters many times. When faced with an argument based on data, they will respond by rejecting the data as out of hand, made up or false, instead of even looking at it. They are so sure of their convictions, there is no need to read anything.


And President Trump is cut from the same cloth. How else to explain his pardons of all the 1500+ J6 rioters?


As recently as a few weeks ago, Vice President elect JD Vance said of the pardons, “if you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned”. Even Trump had said on numerous occasions that he’d be looking at it [the pardons] on a “case by case” basis.


So what happened? Why did Trump suddenly decide to go big and issue sweeping pardons of even the most violent of the protestors?


The answer may lie in a report from Axios News where they report that in the middle of reviewing each case, Trump simply stopped, looked up and said “F#*k it, Release them all”. 


And with that, it was done.


Was Trump bogged down in the prisoner profiles? Sure. Were there a lot of them? You bet. And when faced with the reality of having to read and review the facts on over 1500 cases, he refused. He said no, because Trump has never been a briefing paper kind of guy.


President Trump was not going to read through all the cases and decided the only way to get out of doing the real presidential work of reviewing those reports was to simply wave his wand and pardon all of the J6 prisoners. All of them, including the bomb throwers, the folks who tasered DC Police, the folks who, according to a GOP Senate report, brutally beat and injured over 120 officers charged with protecting members of Congress and that day, Vice President Pence.


President Trump could have decided to release just the non violent offenders among the group, keeping the most violent behind bars to serve out their sentences. But that would have required work, time and commitment, something Trump has never exhibited in his public life.


Because President Trump is intellectually lazy when it comes to reading, studying, learning new things and doing the hard work of confronting difficult facts. 

9 comments:

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

The number of EOs released since the Inauguration would argue to the contrary Dave.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

btw - A good leader tells his followers what he wants them to do, NOT how to do it. "Release the J6 Hostages".

Shaw Kenawe said...

It doesn't take brains and brawn to sign one's name.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Keep trying to polish that turd; but no matter how hard you try, it's still a turd.

BB-Idaho said...

Good followers tell their leader what to do...bad followers grovel.

JoBama "Truth 101" Kelly said...

Trump could break into FJ's, or one of his/her several monikers house, sodomize his/her dog, and FJ would praise Trump for being an animal lover.

Dave Miller said...

No -FJ, it would not. He just tells his aides to draw it up and he signs it. When asked about the J6 pardon EO, Trump said, on tape, "we'll have to take a look at it", showing he didn;t even bother to read that one.

Is this a case of Trump having to sign an EO to know what's inside it?

Dave Miller said...

Again -FJ... Trump said he'd be looking at each of them to determine whether or not they should all be included. Vance said "obviously" violent offenders should not be pardoned.

Face it, Trump's in charge, this is a screw up and you, like all MAGA unthinking and intellectually dishonest people, are unable to admit you, and your pilitical change agent, are wrong.

Les Carpenter said...

A simple case of deep reification of unethical and mmoral beliefs and behaviors. The man/child president"s intellectual and emotional growth stopped at an early age.