It's neither weird nor knee-jerk (i.e. involuntary)
It's conditioned reflex (aka: "talking points") - designed to be employed so as to evade and deflect

Makes meaningful discussion an exercise in futility

The Trump scamming continues.
He bought them from Barnes and Nobel...at retail..gets royalties (not legal) and bumps his book on the best seller list. Could have bought them from the publisher for 40% off and no royalties. Add that to all of his other businesses that are profiting from his donors campaign contributions and he is scamming pretty well.
Donald Trump Used Campaign Donations to Buy $55,000 of His Own Book - The Daily Beast

Didn't Sarah Palin do something similar? I have to admit that I laughed when I saw her book in the dollar store.

Another example of his financial masturbation. What a scam artist! His unscrupulous avarice is as insatiable as his thirst for adulation.

On another note...the Daily Beast article you link to says the freebee swag bags containing the Trump tome in question, handed out to Republican convention delegates - also contained "plastic fetus figurines".




Boggles the mind....keychain?...refrigerator magnet?...rear-view mirror doo-dad? How are the delegates using their fetus figurines?

Edit: The irony would have escaped him - but Trumps book "Crippled America" was a fitting swag-bag companion for the fetal dingle dangle

I saw the Carson interview in its entirety. When asked if Donald Trump should also release his medical records, Carson's answer was a resounding YES/Definitely. He also commented that no physician (or anybody else for that matter) should be diagnosing Hillary from a distance.

There is a discussion to be had with regard to ageism. There are other jobs (air traffic controller, police officer, military, etc.) that reject applicants on the basis of age.

Carson may be a religious nut and a generally loopy individual, but his answers regarding this particular issue (Hillary's alleged "illnesses") were perfectly rational, respectful and respectable.

Trump is exactly like every abusive boyfriend/husband since the beginning of time. He's beaten us over the head with the immigration stuff and he's battered every single ethnic group in sight. Now that he wants to make nice with us, he acts like all that never happened, he's a nice guy! A gentle person. He doesn't want to hurt anybody. As a matter of fact, we're the ones that are crazy for ever thinking differently of him.

It wont work. He's assuming that Hispanics and Muslims are stupid gullible people. More fool him

Nice of him to finally remember his training. It's an ethics violation to diagnose from a distance. The psychiatric association has very strict rules against diagnosis of candidates from a distance. It goes back to when Goldwater ran.

It is odd that there is a minimum age for president but not a maximum one.

Reminds of the Terry Schiavo case in Florida and Bill Frist declared that he saw video of her and she was not in a vegetative state. Idiot.

Shame the same can't be said for others.

https://www.google.com/search?client...24.VtgsZ_q1jyE

There was a good discussion on npr about it the other day. Can't find an exact link though this one may be related...

Psychiatrists Reminded To Refrain From Armchair Analysis Of Public Figures : Shots - Health News : NPR

Nor would I favour one. But that does make the release of candidates medical records all the more important. Especially this year.

btw - I don't happen to think Trump is physically unhealthy.

Don't wish to opine on his mental health () but seems I have to at least touch on it because it probably accounts for his reluctance (refusal) to release his medical records:

His (fragile!) self-image is coiled round a notion of himself as a macho, super-stud, possessed with he-man invincibility. Anything that negates the self-myth cannot be tolerated.
Hence his decades long "small hands" spat with Graydon Carter.

I think, at age 70, it's entirely likely that Mr. Trump's medical history might reveal some innocuous, non-serious, chronic condition.

But - for a SuperDonald...such revelation would be an existential threat!
Almost as horrific as the exposure of his "small hands".

Speculating on all the above (medical issues, invincibility, stamina, disability etc....leads me to wonder:
How would Trump have dealt with FDR?

This is interesting. It shows how easily Trump can be manipulated. Not something you want in a President.

Donald Trump's Campaign Manager Rose Quickly By Playing To His Ego

I expect to see more of his positions soften over the next few weeks.

Indeed.
Makes for peculiar bedfellows - Putin. Kellyanne and Trump
Will the manipulators be manipulated by the manipulatee?

Darwinesque.
Great material for a wild ballet. Seriously!

Update re: "....positions soften"
Go Rachel

Live stream 10:00AMpst...

Hillary re: the new phenomenon of the Alt-right movement.

Here: