TRUMP'S BLUSTER

 

The most difficult class in my college experience was Logic.   It was taught by a professor with demanding expectations.  

This morning as I looked over some Logic notes I was gobsmacked by recognizing similarities to  Donald Trump’s diatribes and logical argument fallacies.    

An argument can either be true or false.   The false argument premises are named in Logic.  

Argument ad Populum:   Everyone says it must be true; or true because many people believe it.

Argument ad Baculum:  A threat of force or coercion;  a negative consequence of holding a contrary opinion.

Argument ad Verecundiam:  The opinion of an authority is used as evidence.

Argument ad Absurdum:  Attempting to approve a premise by carrying it to an absurd conclusion.

Argument ad Ignorantian: A premise that is true because it has not been proven false: is false because it has not been proven true.

Argument Misericordia: Appeal to pity of self or others.

Argument ad Hominem:  Attack the character, motive, or some attribute of the opponent.

Argument ad Nauseam:  If it is repeated often enough it must be true.

Note that whenever Trump opens his mouth one or more of these fallacious arguments will stream out. 

the Ol’Buzzard

 

 

A CHANGE IS GONNA COME

It seems like a long time coming 
but a change is gonna come.





Keep the faith
the Ol'Buzzard

THIS IS A MUST READ - NAN NAILED IT!

NAN NAILED IT.

This is one of the best write up diagnosing the Trump administration I seen.   She hits all the buttons.

Check it out:

ALL THE GOOD NAMES WERE TAKEN


the Ol'Buzzard

RESISTANCE PUBLISHING 1/22/17

Today I sent a letter to the editor to all the major newspapers in Maine and local papers in my area.  

It is not enough to blog about my discontent.  I only have about twenty five people that read my blog and five or six that comment. 

As writers, if we are to actively confront the Trump take over of America we have to reach out beyond our blogs.    We have to publish.  We have to point out ever falsehood and every Republican infringement on our liberty.  

Below is my letter to the editors.  Feel free to copy or use any portion - but please join Resistance Publishing:

As his first order of business on Friday President Trump signed an executive order giving federal agencies permission not to comply with parts of the Affordable Care Act.   The order was not specific, but gave an opening toward undermining the health care that eleven million people depend on.

The aim is obvious: by not complying with critical portions of the law opponents can push the entire Act into chaos; then Republican law makers can say the Affordable Care Act has been a disaster from its concept and use that as an excuse to repeal it without a replacement.  

Those of you who were so afraid of losing your guns should now be afraid of losing your Social Security retirement and Medicare, along with affordable health care.    All of these programs are on the chopping block of the Republican law makers in order to decrease government expenditures; thus allowing a justification for massive tax cuts for the mega-wealthy and major corporations.   

the Ol'Buzzard

ALTERNATIVE FACTS

If you haven’t read George Orwell’s 1984, or haven’t read it lately, you should check it out from the library. 

I keep making comparisons of the Trump Republican administration to George Orwell’s 1984 – but the parallel is so startling that it is undeniable.

“Statistics were just as much a fantasy in their original version.   A great deal of the time you were supposed to make them up out of your head.”

“The essential act of the party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty.   To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient …”

And the warning we should head:

“If all other accepted the lie which the party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became true.   Who controls the past, ran the party slogan, controls the future: Who controls the present controls the past.”

We should be afraid.   We should be very afraid.

the Ol’Buzzard