It's so nice to have someone with such a firm grasp of history in charge of the country

[thewayne]

"In 1917 they say, right, the great pandemic certainly was a terrible thing, where they lost anywhere from 50 to 100 million people. Probably ended the Second World War. All the soldiers were sick. That was a terrible situation."
-- Trump

Comments

[foreverdawning]

Oh gosh is this a real quote?

[thewayne]

Apparently.  I don't know where he said it, but a heck of a thing to say.

[dewline]

It's real.

Context here:

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/trump-1917-flu-pandemic_n_5f31ebfdc5b6960c066b3e1d?ri18n=true

[thewayne]

Thank you!  I read HuffPo from their app, and apparently that had already scrolled past.  Sadly fascinating read.

[foreverdawning]

Thanks for the link but also yikes!

[silveradept]

It is always nice to know that someone is very well read on the matters of history.

[thewayne]

Be nice if our elected officials were steeped in philosophy and history.  Fat chance: they're all attorneys. (IIRC) Gore Vidal's grandfather held elected office back when.  He said that they discussed Roman and Greek philosophers and quoted them in Latin, held civil debate, etc.  None of this "YOU'RE A LIAR!" during the State of the Union address or "Our goal is to make sure he's a one term President" shit.

[dewline]

Seems to me that if you're going to be an effective lawyer, you need to know the history of the country you're working in. Right?

[thewayne]

Now the main requirements are 'what are your connections?' and 'how much and how fast can you raise funds?'

[silveradept]

Philosophy and history would be lovely to have, assuming we're not saying that only the old dead white guys count.

I think it would also be nice to have a Congress and cabinet appointees composed entirely of people who have held no political office at all, but I suspect everyone is entirely suspicious of the competence of people who don't share their cultural upbringing.

[motodraconis]

My eyes are already too sore for the constant eye-rolling every time I hear about Trump's latest moronic uttering.