True Diplomacy, by The President of Egypt

cornflake · May 23, 2017

Trump, touring places like the Middle East, and Israel (sitting in a room with the Israeli president, in, you know, Israel, he says he just got back from the Middle East; the Israeli ambassador literally facepalms. It's hilarious), met with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Let us all take a moment, please, to appreciate a true master at work. The next time someone proudly shows you a picture of an ugly baby, or asks if you're happy they're marrying that asshole, or your boss asks if you're fine working with the jerk you can't stand, or how you feel about Bob, who fucked you over in a meeting, try to channel the president of Egypt.

“You are a unique personality that is capable of doing the impossible,” Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi told him during their sitdown. According to the New York Times, a cheerful Trump responded, “I agree!”

Then, perhaps sensing he should think of something nice to say back, the president followed up with, “Love your shoes. Boy, those shoes. Man!”

That is a diplomat.

:Hail:

cbenoi1 · May 23, 2017

"Are you afflicted by the narcissistic personality disorder as defined by DSM-5?"

"Hell yeah!"

-cb

frimble3 · May 23, 2017

cornflake said:
Trump, touring places like the Middle East, and Israel (sitting in a room with the Israeli president, in, you know, Israel, he says he just got back from the Middle East; the Israeli ambassador literally facepalms. It's hilarious), met with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Let us all take a moment, please, to appreciate a true master at work. The next time someone proudly shows you a picture of an ugly baby, or asks if you're happy they're marrying that asshole, or your boss asks if you're fine working with the jerk you can't stand, or how you feel about Bob, who fucked you over in a meeting, try to channel the president of Egypt.

That is a diplomat.

For Trump to say anything that smooth and tactful, he'd need a team of speechwriters, someone to practice the big words with him, and even then, he'd try to ad lib and ruin the whole thing.
Egypt should be proud.

frimble3 · May 23, 2017

cbenoi1 said:
"Are you afflicted by the narcissistic personality disorder as defined by DSM-5?"

"Hell yeah!"

-cb

He might recognize that 'afflicted' and 'disorder' are bad words.
Bet "Do you have a lot of narcissistic traits?" would get that
"Hell, yeah!" and a "Yugely!" as well.

Sunflowerrei · May 23, 2017

Trump really said that about the shoes?

My father likes to comment "new shoes!" (as a joke) when he says he's "preparing for senility."

cornflake · May 23, 2017

Though I forgot to add my now-traditional Trump disclaimer, yes, seriously.

Meeting the president of Egypt, after being "complimented" on his unique personality that can do the impossible,' Trump replied, 'Love your shoes.'

Seriously.

He also, seriously, stood in a room, in Israel, and said he just got back from the Middle East.*

*In case the issue with this is unclear, Israel is in the Middle East. The place he just 'got back from' is <100 miles from where he made the remark.

MaeZe · May 24, 2017

Sunflowerrei said:
Trump really said that about the shoes?

My father likes to comment "new shoes!" (as a joke) when he says he's "preparing for senility."

Trump wasn’t always so linguistically challenged. What could explain the change?

It was the kind of utterance that makes professional transcribers question their career choice:

“ … there is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign, but I can always speak for myself — and the Russians, zero.”

When President Trump offered that response to a question at a press conference last week, it was the latest example of his tortured syntax, mid-thought changes of subject, and apparent trouble formulating complete sentences, let alone a coherent paragraph, in unscripted speech....

STAT reviewed decades of Trump’s on-air interviews and compared them to Q&A sessions since his inauguration. The differences are striking and unmistakable.

Research has shown that changes in speaking style can result from cognitive decline. STAT therefore asked experts in neurolinguistics and cognitive assessment, as well as psychologists and psychiatrists, to compare Trump’s speech from decades ago to that in 2017; they all agreed there had been a deterioration, and some said it could reflect changes in the health of Trump’s brain.

It's an excellent article, with a thorough, thoughtful analysis of Trump's vocabulary and grammar then and now.

rugcat · May 24, 2017

MaeZe said:
Trump wasn’t always so linguistically challenged. What could explain the change?[wuote]

It's an excellent article, with a thorough, thoughtful analysis of Trump's vocabulary and grammar then and now.

In fairness to Trump, he’s 70, so some decline in his cognitive functioning over time would be expected.”

Beg pardon?

I don't see any decline in my own speech, nor in the quality of my posts here on AW, at least from the standpoint of putting words together in a coherent manner.

Although it's true I now sometimes have to think for a moment to pluck the exact right word out of the air, I'm actually a lot more coherent than I used to be. Cognitive decline is a possibility as one grows older, but it's not . . .

Wait a minute, what was my point again?

cornflake · May 24, 2017

Yeah -- I mean I get it's not unusual, but Hillary is, I believe, less than a year younger than he. I don't know if anyone has done the same comparison, but I doubt they'd turn up a similar finding.

Haggis · May 24, 2017

rugcat said:
Beg pardon?

I don't see any decline in my own speech, nor in the quality of my posts here on AW, at least from the standpoint of putting words together in a coherent manner.

Although it's true I now sometimes have to think for a moment to pluck the exact right word out of the air, I'm actually a lot more coherent than I used to be. Cognitive decline is a possibility as one grows older, but it's not . . .

Wait a minute, what was my point again?

Yeah. In my opinion you're every bit as lucid as you were when I read your first post back in--

Oh, lookit the pretty butterfly.

True Diplomacy, by The President of Egypt

cornflake

practical experience, FTW

cbenoi1

frimble3

Heckuva good sport

frimble3

Heckuva good sport

Sunflowerrei

cornflake

practical experience, FTW

MaeZe

rugcat

Lost in the Fog

cornflake

practical experience, FTW

Haggis

Evil, undead Chihuahua