Bluster, the currency of credibility!

So I sat and listened to his whole speech, being aware of the "taken out of context" escape clause. He opened with a moment of silence for the victims of the Paris attacks, mentioned one of the terrorists was from Syria and then mentioned Obama is considering bringing 250,000 refugees from Syria. Something about “we all want to help, but...” And then the piece that has been sitting in my head for the past couple of days.

"If the people in that concert hall had been allowed to carry... it would have been a much, much different situation."

A number of things about that comment have been bothering me, and I'm not sure which is bothering me more. The fact that a man who is putting his hand up to lead the most powerful country on the planet is saying this, or the cheering from the crowd of people who are lapping it up!

Is the ignorance of the leader greater than the mass ignorance of the followers? Or does one prompt the other?

And then after talking about the beautiful "Trump Wall" he plans to build along the Mexican border, he brought onto the stage a group of people whose loved ones’ lives had been taken by "illegals". These people stood and shared, in graphic detail, the details of how their sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters were killed by "illegals", most of them... by GUN violence! They all left the podium to cheers from the crowd as they thanked Mr. Trump for being the only one who cares.

What the heck!

Things would have been "different" in Paris if they "had been allowed to carry" and THEN a stage full of American citizens sharing how their families had been destroyed by gun violence!

In a Facebook post responding to this same Trump rally I wrote:

Dear Mr Trump, in our school we teach our students to think before they speak. We have some spare seats in our AP Stats classes where you can come and practice. Oh, and while you are at it, we could help you understand some statistics - here they are! (http://www.nationmaster.com/…/United-St…/Crime/Violent-crime). Whatever you do, don't cut funding to education - because if you are any example, we need all the money we can get!

I missed the point!

Only by watching the whole speech did I see where the real horror lies. Trump is not ignorant. He is extremely astute!

What I see is a man extremely adept at manipulating the emotions of his listeners. At this Texas rally he spoke about guns, illegal immigrants, oil, refugees, winning wars, war veterans, friends of his in the area, beards, Eisenhower, border walls, immigration, let's make America great again, courts, lawyers, sarcasm, everyone's gonna be happy, jobs, beating Japan, terminating ObamaCare, not caring about insurance companies, winning... and the list goes on.

He doesn't care if what he says makes sense, is based on fact, is practical, can be substantiated, is possible, or is financially viable - and he doesn't need to! He tells people what they want to hear. He uses sarcastic humor. He is at the same time selfdepreciating and self-agrandising. He is self-funded. And he is supremely confident! He is all bluster and no substance - and that is what is supremely concerning.

"Bluster" has become the currency of credibility. How are the presidential candidate debates judged? On who presents best. On who exudes the most confidence. On who has the best "bluster".

There was a very big room full of people listening to this speech, hootin' and hollerin' as Trump delivered this "Trump is what you need" speech.

Trump is the King of Bluster, and Kings have been built on less! 

  If you want to check it out yourself, here it is...

And the fact that you can no longer access the video says it all!!!!!