The Trump Presidency

[Schmelzer]

You mean their reputation of being Russian criminals and corrupters

Whatever. It does not matter. In a free society, you can talk with everybody, the very idea to have to check before you talk with somebody sounds nonsensical.

That's what you mean by "political correctness". We won't forget.

Ok. The answer which one has to expect in a totalitarian state. In a free society, who cares what you remember or forget?

btw: This is the stuff that you object to when the US does it to other people, remember? But it's just guys talking to people, when it's Putin doing it. He has a kind of Midas touch, with you - everything he touches becomes well motivated and ok in your eyes.

Sorry, no, I'm not objecting if Americans simply talk to other people. The issue becomes more problematic if they pay them, give them weapons, or teaching how to fight other states. But simply talking to other people is nothing I object to.

That's their cover story.
The worry is that the Trump crowd was not fooled at all - that they were willing accomplices, and still are.

Please, more specific:

That they were willing to receive information from somebody else who knows something discrediting Clinton? Such evil information should have been, of course, thrown away, that's evil Clintonhate. And to search for such information should be illegal, minimum 20 years.

That they were willing to receive information even from the evil subhuman Russians? That's already completely evil, without words. Life without possibility of premature release.

Confessions of what looks like criminal behavior, previously denied because it is against the law and disqualifies the perpetrators from public office.

But nobody knows if it is criminal behavior. Because you are not living in a state of law, where everybody knows, or at least is able to know, if some behavior is legal or not. And where it is in any case completely legal to talk to other people. Even of you are the son of some candidate for president.

 

[iceaura]

In the overview, the stakes have been raised: if Trump wins this he wins big.

 

[joepistole]

I think we all know why Pence took the extraordinary measure and formed his own PAC just 5 months into the Trump administration. It's kind of funny in that Trump has already begun raising money for a second term. It's crazy!

Who is delusional: Pence or Trump? I think the answer is obvious.

 

[iceaura]

Whatever. It does not matter. In a free society, you can talk with everybody, the very idea to have to check before you talk with somebody sounds nonsensical.

It is nonsensical. Why are you posting nonsense? Nobody has any problem with anybody just talking with anybody here, that's got nothing to do with it.

Ok. The answer which one has to expect in a totalitarian state. In a free society, who cares what you remember or forget?

You are very careful to forget the right things. Memory is your enemy.
btw: When you propagandize for American fascism, as you do, you aren't a spokesman for a free society. When you disparage the role of memory, as you just did, you are not a spokesman for a reputational society.

Sorry, no, I'm not objecting if Americans simply talk to other people.

But that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about regime change, subverting honest and functional politics, taking people's sound governance away and installing cooperative regimes.

That they were willing to receive information from somebody else who knows something discrediting Clinton? Such evil information should have been, of course, thrown away, that's evil Clintonhate.

More nonsense. Why are you avoiding the issue?

That they were willing to receive information even from the evil subhuman Russians?

That's not the problem. Any American can talk to Russians and get information from them - I do it myself, openly, without controversy.

But nobody knows if it is criminal behavior.

Yes, they do. That's why the perpetrators covered it up, denied it ever happened, are currently working hard to keep as much as they can out of official court records and sworn testimony.

There is no question that it's criminal behavior. The only question is whether we can prove it happened, in court.

 

[iceaura]

Meanwhile, in the world of actual Presidential duties, several observers have expressed puzzlement over an apparent US abetting - even instigation - of conflict between Qatar and Saudi Arabia. It seems that Kushner and Tillerson were on opposing sides, and Kushner was pushing quarrel. There seemed to be no apparent motive.

Clues now emerge: https://theintercept.com/2017/07/10...get-a-half-billion-dollar-bailout-from-qatar/

This is what one can expect from failure to enforce divestments and tax form visibility and other barriers to conflicts of interest.

 

[Kittamaru]

At this point, it bears bringing back up. No - Mexico is NOT paying for that wall...
https://news.vice.com/story/house-gop-confirms-mexico-aint-paying-for-the-wall

The House Appropriations Committee released its spending bill Tuesday, which includes allocating $1.6 billion for a “physical barrier construction along the U.S. southern border.”

The same legislation, which allocates American taxpayer dollars for the construction of the wall, which is not being paid for by Mexico, would cut funding to the Department of Transportation and several other domestic agencies.

Hm... guess an unnecessary wall is more important than trying to fix our crumbling highways...

Oh, and of course, Trump lied. Again. What a shock...

 

[James R]

This opinion from one of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's senior reporters, Chris Ulhmann, went viral a few days ago:

G20: Does Donald Trump's awkward performance indicate America's decline as world power?
Here's the transcript (see link for video, but it's just a talking head):
----
"The G20 became the G19 as it ended. On the Paris climate accords the United States was left isolated and friendless. It is, apparently, where this US President wants to be as he seeks to turn his nation inward.

Donald Trump has a particular, and limited, skill-set. He has correctly identified an illness at the heart of the Western democracy. But he has no cure for it and seems to just want to exploit it. He is a character drawn from America's wild west, a travelling medicine showman selling moonshine remedies that will kill the patient.

And this week he underlined he has neither the desire nor the capacity to lead the world.

Given the US was always going to be one out on climate change, a deft American President would have found an issue around which he could rally most of the leaders. He had the perfect vehicle — North Korea's missile tests. So, where was the G20 statement condemning North Korea? That would have put pressure on China and Russia? Other leaders expected it and they were prepared to back it but it never came.

There is a tendency among some hopeful souls to confuse the speeches written for Mr Trump with the thoughts of the man himself.
He did make some interesting, scripted, observations in Poland about defending the values of the West. And Mr Trump is in a unique position — he is the one man who has the power to do something about it.

But it is the unscripted Mr Trump that is real. A man who barks out bile in 140 characters, who wastes his precious days as President at war with the West's institutions — like the judiciary, independent government agencies and the free press.

He was an uneasy, awkward figure at this gathering and you got the strong sense some other leaders were trying to find the best way to work around him.

Trump is a man who craves power because it burnishes his celebrity. To be constantly talking and talked about is all that really matters. And there is no value placed on the meaning of words. So what is said one day can be discarded the next.

So, what did we learn this week?

We learned Mr Trump has pressed fast forward on the decline of the US as a global leader. He managed to diminish his nation and to confuse and alienate his allies. He will cede that power to China and Russia — two authoritarian states that will forge a very different set of rules for the 21st century.

Some will cheer the decline of America, but I think we'll miss it when it is gone. And that is the biggest threat to the values of the West which he claims to hold so dear."
----
Ulmann was later interviewed by NBC News:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-...s-scathing-g20-report-on-donald-trump/8696236

 

[iceaura]

Side point: the large contingent of Christian fundies who backed Trump might want to notice the Aussie's take on Trump's harming of American leadership - China is likely to step up.

America is the most Christian of the world's powers, by far - and China, which is stepping into the leadership vacuum created by Trump and taking control of the world's major trade routes in the South China Sea, is among the least Christian. So America's Christian fundies are losing access and leverage in Asia, where most of the world's people live.

But that's what you voted for, right?

 

[James R]

The problem is that the people who voted for Trump, by and large, wouldn't have a clue where the South China Sea is (somewhere near China, I guess?) or why it's important. About 70% of world shipping trade goes through there, but it's out of sight, out of mind for Trump voters in Nebraska.

I saw a story on Trump voters on TV the other night. Some of them are blaming the press for the negative assessments Trump keeps getting from thinking people. They think the "liberal press" is out to get him. But a lot of them are apparently solving the problem by just ignoring real news media completely these days. Better to cut themselves off from what is actually happening in the world than to risk hearing people say nasty things about the Orange One.

 

[iceaura]

But a lot of them are apparently solving the problem by just ignoring real news media completely these days. Better to cut themselves off from what is actually happening in the world than to risk hearing people say nasty things about the Orange One.

They cut themselves off like that twenty, thirty years ago.

 

[Bells]

Getting his sleaze on..

Donald Trump has been captured on video commenting on the body of the French President’s wife, telling her she is in “such good shape”.

....

“You’re in such good shape ... beautiful,” the US President remarks as he looks Brigitte Macron, 64, up and down. He then repeats the compliment to Mr Macron, 39.​

Mrs Macron then retreats behind Melania Trump, as though trying to hide from his gaze, and she then indicates to Melania Trump that they should leave and they both walk away.. This comes after a handshake that looked like he was about to wrench her arm off, after she offered him her hand to shake and he tried to hug her. She tries to withdraw her hand and he just keeps gripping it, pulling her towards him.

But the eyeing her up and down and remarking on her looks like she is a piece of meat..

The word leering comes to mind. It is awkward and inappropriate.

This is sleazy. Really sleazy.

 

[spidergoat]

The hilarious thing is, Donald Trump wrote in his book, How to Get Rich, that he hates shaking hands, that he wishes people just bowed instead, it's more hygienic. I recommend this book highly for it's comedic value.

 

[spidergoat]

Former Soviet Counter Intelligence Officer at Meeting With Donald Trump Jr. and Russian Lawyer

 

[Kittamaru]

Getting his sleaze on..

Donald Trump has been captured on video commenting on the body of the French President’s wife, telling her she is in “such good shape”.

....

“You’re in such good shape ... beautiful,” the US President remarks as he looks Brigitte Macron, 64, up and down. He then repeats the compliment to Mr Macron, 39.​

Mrs Macron then retreats behind Melania Trump, as though trying to hide from his gaze, and she then indicates to Melania Trump that they should leave and they both walk away.. This comes after a handshake that looked like he was about to wrench her arm off, after she offered him her hand to shake and he tried to hug her. She tries to withdraw her hand and he just keeps gripping it, pulling her towards him.

But the eyeing her up and down and remarking on her looks like she is a piece of meat..

The word leering comes to mind. It is awkward and inappropriate.

This is sleazy. Really sleazy.

I have to admit, I laughed at my wife's reaction to seeing that video - that she'd give him one warning to let go, and then deck him.

I'd LOVE to see someone do that to him. Sure, it'd no doubt be an immediate prison sentence for any American... but if one could make a convincing argument that they feared for their safety (He wouldn't let me go!), who knows

 

[iceaura]

The hilarious thing is, Donald Trump wrote in his book, How to Get Rich, that he hates shaking hands, that he wishes people just bowed instead, it's more hygienic. I recommend this book highly for it's comedic value.

There's an intriguing aspect to this - Trump did, according to all biography and reliable witness, in fact hate shaking hands and similar germy, dirty conventions. He's got the purity kink. But he is a genuine master of his variety of confidence game, the bully, and that relies partly on physical contact - at least, one needs that in the repertoire for the big leagues.

Scott Adams is right: we've seen this guy learn, over the years and even over the weeks, how to do what he's doing - in the spotlight. We've seen it happen. He has clearly adjusted, quickly and even at his age, to some new circumstances, based on trial and corrected error (he's not orange any more. He's backing off on the hair, gradually and (he apparently estimates) imperceptibly). And in that vein, he appears to have learned how to overcome a personal weakness and shake hands routinely and effectively - to his purpose, which is the bully con. With the gleeful enthusiasm of the newbie he overdid it in the political arena, the major leagues where people watch game film, but consider for a moment the accomplishment: this man does in fact have small weak hands and an apparent balance problem along with the frailties of old age, so he had to learn and practice ways to dominate a handshake as if they were magic tricks or gymnastic stunts. He did - so well they seem natural to him.

 

[joepistole]

There are many things that stand out with respect to the Trump administration, but the one thing that's glaringly apparent is the complete lack of leadership. Trump has outsourced the White House. He has outsourced military a significant portion of foreign policy to the "generals" in the Pentagon. He outsourced his Supreme Court nominee to the Heritage Foundation (i.e. the Koch brothers) and everything else has been outsourced to Congress.

Trump has exhibited virtually no leadership in budgeting or healthcare or with any of his many campaign promises. He has ceded all that to Congress and Congress is deeply divided. Trump doesn't even know what's in his signature piece of legislation, Trumpcare. That doesn't bode well going forward. Trump and his merry band of Republicans may not be able to do even the simple routine tasks like raising the debt ceiling. Now that's a scary thought.

 

[joepistole]

Why is the Trump White House so afraid of cameras? For some time now they have forbidden cameras in the White House briefing room. Why? It's a very strange thing. Are White House staffers trying to hide their identities? Are they ashamed to be associated with this White House? One has to wonder.


http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/19/media/white-house-press-briefing-donald-trump-media/index.html

 

[joepistole]

Trumpcare has been stopped once again in the Senate. Four senators have come out against Republicancare 3.0. Republicans could only afford to lose 2. I was pleasantly surprised to see Senator Moran's continued resistance to Republicancare. In my state, the deep red State of Kansas, any non Republican constituent is normally told to eat shit and die. Yeah, I'm pleasantly surprised. Moran actually had the guts to hold town halls.

Maybe we are seeing the emergence of a new Republican Party? It's probably too much to hope for, but we can hope anyway. We are finally seeing some Republicans buck the Republican Party line.

 

[joepistole]

Trump tried again to simply repeal Obamacare and not replace it. That too has failed. Three Republican senators who have said no to repeal only. That effectively kills the Republican repeal and replace effort, at least for now.

 

[iceaura]

Trump tried again to simply repeal Obamacare and not replace it. That too has failed. Three Republican senators who have said no to repeal only. That effectively kills the Republican repeal and replace effort, at least for now.

It also means that when Obamacare fails, as it inevitably will continue doing under rising costs imposed on increasingly burdened citizens, the Republicans can avoid being blamed by invoking amnesia.