There’s been lots of head scratching over Trump’s hostile behavior toward the Australian PM during their recent phone call, which Trump cut short after angrily denouncing a prior agreement to take in stranded refugees. I saw a theory on Twitter from Karin Robinson (@karinjr) that sounds more plausible to me than other theories I’ve seen bandied about. Here it is in paragraph form:
You guys: I have a theory about Trump’s weirdly angry call with Australian PM that’s so stupid & implausible I’m almost sure it’s true. Turnbull has famously cracked down on immigration himself and is from the right of center party in Australian politics. BUT He is the leader of a what’s called “the Liberal Party”. Trump didn’t have anyone from the State department on the call. He had Bannon & his son in law Kushner.
I reckon he vaguely heard Turnbull was head of “the Australian Liberals” and thought that meant he’d be a lefty… Maybe he even heard Turnbull had been drawn into immigration ban controversies in his country, without bothering to learn on which side. In short, I consider it not only possible but likely that the President of the United States does not know and is not given basic facts about the world, and is making snap, angry judgments based not only on absence of knowledge but wild overconfidence despite lack of it.
It really could be something that dumb. That’s the scary part.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Hmmmmm, sounds like what we’d call back at the USMC Command & Staff College “a blinding flash of the obvious.”
Bannon and Kushner their for the call. Oi vey.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
From what I’ve been seeing, the Australians are fucking pissed, even the ones who hate Turnbull. Their attitude is that only they get to insult him, not a “man” like Trump.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Oh, and from what I’d gathered, Bannon did the leak “with approval” to prove how “tough” Cheeto Benito is.
aimai
I’m waiting to see which is the first foreign leader to say, out loud, “Trump is crazy. Literally mentally unsound.” Someone who has been on one of these phone calls with him is going to say it, and then it can’t be unsaid.
piratedan
so apparently Trump truly reflects the people that elected him, stupid, ignorant and so sure of their own grasp on the world that they assume every label is accurate.
Michael Demmons
I have the same theory about everything:
You guys: I have a theory about Trump’s _______ _______ __________ _______ that’s so stupid & implausible I’m almost sure it’s true. ___________ has ______ _______ _________ and is ________ _______ ______ ______ ________. BUT He is ______ ______ ______ _______ _____. Trump didn’t have anyone from the State department on the call. He had Bannon & his son in law Kushner.
I reckon he vaguely heard ______ ________ __________ __________ and thought that meant ____ _____ ______. Maybe he even heard ________ _______ ________ ________ _______________, without bothering to learn ________ ________ ________.
In short, I consider it not only possible but likely that the President of the United States does not know and is not given basic facts about the world, and is making snap, angry judgments based not only on absence of knowledge but wild overconfidence despite lack of it.
Hungry Joe
I guess Trump has decided to violate the Randy Newman Doctrine:
“We’ll save Australia / don’t want to hurt no kangaroo / We’ll build an all-American amusement park there / They got surfing too!”
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
My favorite Australian writer is a Brisbane columnist and author. He did a marvelous piece on how the call would have gone with Paul Keating, a former PM known to be salty.
I had to look some of the insults up.
Corner Stone
I am reminded of nothing else, so much as this
Bart getting into more trouble in Australia.
Gin & Tonic
The American reports say that he was angry, or that he “shouted” but in Europe I’m reading that he threw the handset. Wondering if that’s actually the more accurate, and where that leak is coming from.
But this is another sideshow. It distracts from the other report/leak about that day, that the audio recording was turned off during the call with Putin. Why would that be, I wonder? Like a cop turning off his body cam before a traffic stop.
NotMax
The audacity of dope.
bemused
He’s so incurious and has a one minute attention span at best. All he can focus on is election results and crowd sizes.
Waratah
I laughed and suggested this to my sister in Australia last night that Trump probably thought the Liberal party was equivalent to the Democratic Party .
Lapassionara
Sounds plausible, but I think it is also possible that Trump just lost his temper and started bullying because that is how he acts and who he is. Both malevolent and incompetent.
jeffreyw
The Dunning–Kruger effect, imagined as a neutron bomb.
J R in WV
All too probable, isn’t it. This guy is head of the Australian Liberal party, what else could that mean? Must be like the squishy leftwing Democrat party here. No question about it! That State Department, that we spend $65B+ every year, that’s just for show, not because they might know something we don’t know. Because WE know best, every time!
We are so screwed. If I was a foreign leader, and knew Trump was scheduled to call, I would have witnesses and a recording. It would be incompetent not to.
I would release the whole thing, with witnesses’ statements, the tape, and all, if there was the least question about anything, instantly. Because the Trump White House staff would be lying from the get-go. Better to have your recording out there before the Trump collaborators can get their lies together.
Jeffro
@Gin & Tonic: You almost have to wonder if it was a heads-up about Russia stepping up its attack on Ukraine…
…which is why McCain’s letter to Trump asking the US to assist Ukraine is going to force multiple issues to a head, quickly.
ArchTeryx
Yep. In most of the world, “Liberal” means “right of center” – one of the few exceptions I know of is Canada, where “Liberal” means “centrist” but not nearly “left” (that’s the NDP).
The conservatives had a nearly unbreakable lock on the Canadian Parliament until the NDP voters virtually all threw their support to the evil centrists, causing the Liberals to wipe the Tories out in a landslide and take over the government, with the few remaining NDP seats governing partners. After 12 years of ever-escalating conservative rule, most of the purity ponies found religion and as a result, they have a say with how Canada is now run.
Our own leftist voters could stand to learn a few things from Canada too.
Jeffro
@Waratah: This is almost certainly half of it. The rest is, he’d already had what, four phone calls that day? Five takes a lot of stamina, I guess.
trollhattan
Shit, does this mean Trump thinks “Labour” is the right-to-life party?
jeannedalbret
@Gin & Tonic:
Stupid or Evil…this fits the profile of flooding news with sensation while the real skullduggery takes place. Who, if anyone, in our system of laws or 4th estate is investigating this?
eta: and did I hear Spicer say he would be holding pressers for a few days?
dedc79
@Corner Stone: I was reminded of a different scene from the same episode when Gorsuch was nominated and people were saying the Dems should substitute the name Garland for Gorsuch at every opportunity.
geg6
@Gin & Tonic:
Probably about his “modification” to the Russia sanctions that allows Russian intelligence to buy IT equipment. No big deal, we’re told. Sanctions are often modified. Nothing to see there.
Waratah
@Jeffro: I am amazed he was able to make more than one call.
NotMax
@Jeffro
Maybe his geek chorus took an unscheduled break from cheering and applauding for a potty run.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Trump’s razor. Of course it’s that dumb.
dlw32
I find it likely that the Aussie PM told Trump he was expecting the US to abide by the agreement and Trump said, “But I’m the greatest negotiator! You have to agree with me or I’ll throw a temper tantrum.” And when the Aussie called his bluff, our narcissistic, emotionally-stunted, whiny little bitch-in-chief started tossing his feces around the Oval Office.
That was my initial assumption anyway
Jeffro
Speaking of plausible theories…with his embrace of Franklin Graham Jr, the nomination of Gorsuch, this whole nonsense about letting preachers get political in the pulpit and stay tax free…Trumpov sure has figured out who the dumbest, most loyal part of his base is, hasn’t he?
Nickel bet says he screws it up before February is out with some insulting comment about evangelicals while still on a hot mic…
J R in WV
And turning off the recording for the phone call with PUTIN!
That’s gonna burn them eventually.
What did he know, and when did he know it? Oops!
Iowa Old Lady
@Jeffro: Last I heard, Trump was dismissing McCain and Graham as “failed” senators who were trying to get us into war. So I’m asking seriously rather than snarking: Can McCain force anything?
Jeffro
@Waratah:
He was probably taking it easy between a taco bowl and a KFC bucket…decided to knock out a call while his mouth wasn’t full.
The Moar You Know
I think this is wildly overthought. I think Turnbull said “no” to Trump, didn’t back down, and the orange guy did what he always does, which is snap.
Unlike any other situation in his life, where he’s always been able to set things up so he’s the winner, Trump is going to get a lot more “no” than “yes” and he won’t be able to bully the people telling him “no” into doing any different.
Waratah
@trollhattan: probably if he even knows of the Australian labor party
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Nah.
He’s a 70 year old man who’s just not used to working on Saturdays and probably hasn’t sexually assaulted anyone since October.
So he was naturally cranky.
On the other end, Saturday was the final of the Australian Open which is a big fucking deal down there. Imagine having a Labor Day party and someone calls up and is simultaneously hostile, whiny, and annoying.
JPL
He’s suppose to be at Mar Lago this weekend, so maybe he’ll relax and leave us alone.
Jeffro
@Iowa Old Lady:
Force, no.
But McCain just got re-elected and knows that one way or another, his term will out-run Trump’s. If Trump doesn’t/can’t/won’t get Putin to knock it off (I can hear Putin laughing already), then McCain will escalate and ask “why”? Publicly and probably repeatedly. Trump probably won’t take that well, and then we’re off to the races…
“Why won’t President Trump tell Vladimir Putin to stop attacking our ally?”
“McCain is WEAK on national security and always has been! No wonder he lost to Obama badly! Sad!”
“Senator Graham and I stand firm in support of our allies in Ukraine and call upon President Trump to denounce murderous Russian aggression”
“I don’t know where McCain gets his information but he’s wrong for Arizona and people there deserve better! #MAGA”
And so on…
So, that’s kind of the thing that McCain can ‘force’…
NotMax
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
“Remind me to mention that the Australian chick at Miss Universe had a helluva rack.”
Teddys Person
@Jeffro: KFC is now offering something called Georgia Gold Chicken. Seems right up Trump’s alley.
The Moar You Know
@Iowa Old Lady: Nope. The numbers are not there. They need at least a third, and they don’t have one. McCain and Graham will be howling in the wilderness for the rest of their terms, and stunned Dems will find themselves largely agreeing with the two unpleasant men for that time.
p.a.
“Sir” (leader of country x) “President tRump on a call from Washington.”
“OK. Get everyone in here. Do you know how to work this speaker phone? Come on come on, hurry in. Now, anyone who laughs out loud so he can hear gets shipped to the Outer Province doing soil samples. Ready?
“Hello, Mr. President*…”
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Iowa Old Lady:
He’s a complete failure.
34 fucking years in washington and he’s done squat. Big fat donut hole.
TenguPhule
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Even scarier, they might have been as ignorant as Trump at the time.
TS
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
I’m an Australian who fits your description of not being fond of Turnbull – nor do I agree in any way with out current policies in regard to refugees who reach our shores. My initial thoughts in regard to Turnbull’s statements re Trump was that Turnbull sure had the wool over his eyes if he ever thought Trump was going to honor the deal made with President Obama.
After the last phone conversation the reactions of many are utter amazement that our world has truly turned upside down. The belligerent, dumb, hateful words we never expected to hear from a President of the United States were directed at a millionaire PM whose political views have more in common with the Trump than with Barack Obama . We are a county of 23 million, without massive US help our military strength is ziltch. We have supported the US in every one of its ventures since WWII – even Iraq despite strong public opinion against same.
If Trump has heard of Kangaroos & koalas that would be his sum knowledge about Australia. That our PM expected anything different shows his naive & unrealistic views of the current state of US politics. He has been brought into reality with a thud.
Droppy
Sounds plausible, but not quiiiiiite dumb enough. Is there something just a little dumber? Can we get a little more dumb over here? Then you might be on to something.
TenguPhule
@Jeffro: I’ll take that bet and double down, he throws more red meat to the RWF brigade in exchange for “godfearing” men with guns at his personal beck and call before the end of May.
Pogonip
@Teddys Person: I had a sample. It’s oversalted chicken with mustard.
Immanentize
@Jeffro: Do you really think there is “NO” recording of the conversation? CIA and NSA still have patriots working.
Peale
I think what happened is that Trump finally figured out that the refugees aren’t actually coming FROM the countries on his banned list. That refugees are a lot more complicated than banning travel to and from countries. And that the people he thought he was banning to punish other countries may involve many many little talks with many leaders.
Also, too, still doesn’t get the difference between an “illegal” alien and a refugee. Someday, maybe, it’ll sink in.
ETA: I bet he thought that Australia was sending him white European refugees, you know “Australians”, which would be fine and he got mad when it turned out that that weren’t. He probably doesn’t quite grasp why there would be so few white middle class Australians living in camps.
Terrible, terrible, what’s happened in Australia! The civil war. The endless flooding. The recruitment by armed gangs. No wonder they want to get out.
danielx
Very plausible, since one of the impressions I’ve gotten of the talking yam is that he feels if he doesn’t already know something, it’s not worth knowing. Because he’s very very bright, doncha know.
TenguPhule
@Pogonip: A Bannon chicken, in other words.
muddy
He was probably sundowning.
Teddys Person
@Pogonip: Recently saw the commercial. Literally, a gold man in a gold house eating gold chicken. It reminded me of photos I’ve seen of Trump’s house and got me thinking that perhaps Trump’s orange hue is a feeble attempt to give the impression that he’s made of gold.
p.a.
@Immanentize: … speaking of which, whither the IC report on tRumpist tReason? Too soon? Still digging? Or waiting for when he’s < 30%?
Miss Bianca
@trollhattan:
I think you’ve just won the Internets for today!
@p.a.: you’re a close second!
ChrisB
@Michael Demmons: Mad Libs, Trump Edition.
grammypat
Does trump have businesses in Australia? Mexico? If not, he doesn’t care about the countries or the people running them. Has he insulted any of the countries where he does have business interests? End of story if there’s nothing in it for him personally.
Teddys Person
Uh oh, Nikki Haley just dissed Russia at the UN.
Steeplejack
@JPL:
Mar-a-Lago? You mean the “winter White House,” per Fearless Leader himself.
NotMax
@Teddys Person
The sheets being spit out of the fax machine going “thunk” onto the floor is a nice touch.
dedc79
Protests work, folks:
les
@Iowa Old Lady:
At this point Grampa Walnuts is lucky to force a BM. I can’t remember the last time he did anything but momentary bluster. He’ll be back in line soon enough.
TenguPhule
@dedc79: Only as long as you can keep track of it in plain sight. Look for them to try again and again, only hidden in other bills and legislation.
Remember, evil only has to win once.
Miss Bianca
@dedc79: And never forget, a large reason why he backed off this is that HUNTERS protested. A reliably-Republican-leanning voter base. He may be dumb, but he’s not suicidal.
Jack the Second
@Jeffro: I know I’d be drained after four hour-long phone calls with world leaders. I mean, I wish we would have gotten a President who could deal with that and more, or at least respond gracefully when tired, but still, sounds mentally exhausting.
Mnemosyne
@J R in WV:
You know Putin has his own recording. Because he’s not a fucking idiot like Trump.
VOR
@bemused: According to the Washington Post, he brought up election results and inauguration crowd sizes on his calls with Pena Nieto of Mexico and Turnbull of Australia. Why does he think foreign leaders would care about that? And why does he think he can gaslight foreign leaders?
Agree the lack of briefing or involvement from State is a concern. He should have known Turnbull was likely to bring up this refugee issue. Just seems like amateur hour.
Iowa Old Lady
@Jack the Second: How long can Trump keep up the frantic pace of the last two weeks? He doesn’t seem to me to be a man used to working long hours in a stressful job.
mdblanche
@Peale: He thought all they want is life beyond the thunderdome.
NotMax
@Jack the Second
From now on the first 20 minutes will be spent listening to insipid Muzak and repeated assertions that “Your call is very important to us.”
Villago Delenda Est
@jeffreyw: Ayup. This might as well be called the Dunning-Kruger Administration.
les
@Jack the Second:
Yeah, but you would have worked to know things in advance, and would have been trying to achieve agreements that would work for lots of people, and would have started with a sense of respect and decorum, and would have been negotiating and stuff. The Donald’s not into any of that shit.
Teddys Person
@Jack the Second: Being belligerent while ignorant is quite draining.
NotMax
“Welcome to the Trump Hotel.”
“G’day, mate. We’d like a room with a view.”
“Ah, visiting from Down Under? You’re certainly in luck. We can offer you a choice of select views. Let’s see now – do you can looking out on the dumpsters or the loading dock?”
hovercraft
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Of course they leaked it, they think it shows how tough and macho the moron is. Instead they showed him to be a petulant brat who doesn’t know a goddamn thing about basics like “liberal” doesn’t mean the same thing in other countries. They know the right wing buzz words, socialist, liberal, but they don’t correlate with the right wing stereotypes of what they think mean. I mean does this moron know that Angela Merkel is the leader of the Social Democrats, and that they are conservatives?
Just One More Canuck
@J R in WV: yes, just because it was turned off on the White House end of the line doesn’t mean it was turned off in the kremlin – when the Tangerine Turd stops being a useful idiot, it could see the light of day
NotMax
@NotMax
Damn. No edit function. Fingers typed ‘do you can’ instead of ‘do you prefer.’
Bad fingers, bad.
Feebog
@muddy:
After our discussion on this symptom in another thread I did a little reading about this. I couldn’t find any news source that said exactly when the call to the Aussie PM was made, but there were reports that this was the fourth lengthy call he was scheduled to make. The most frequent signs of sundowning are irritability, an inability to concentrate, and fatigue. Sure sounds to me like all three were in play during the call. NPD, ADHD and early stage dementia. All wrapped up in a lovely orange package.
? Martin
@VOR:
Scary answer? He’s not gaslighting. He’s accurately conveying his priorities and his factual view of the world.
Roger Moore
@JPL:
It doesn’t matter what Trump does on the weekend; Bannon will still be busy.
Mnemosyne
@NotMax:
Muzak must be of “The Girl from Ipanema.” Gotta go for the classics.
Corner Stone
@Just One More Canuck: “Yes, Mr. Putin. Of course, President Putin. Yes. Yes. There’s…there’s no need for that, sir. No, sir. Yes, my President. Thank you. Thank you, that was beautiful and very classy of you, sir.”
Mike in NC
Trump prefers to hang with other Masters of the Universe types, millionaires and billionaires. Refugees and immigrants are only held in contempt, especially if they don’t have white skin.
Barbara
@Feebog: From Washington Post:
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
This version.
Roger Moore
@The Moar You Know:
They need that to get votes. But McCain is still on important committees in the Senate, including chairing the Armed Services Committee, so he can cause quite a ruckus if he wants to. He’s promised to investigate Russian involvement in the election, and if Trump gives him reason he could get serious about digging instead of covering up. Depending on what he turns up, the rest of the caucus might feel it was easier to do something about Trump than look like collaborators.
PPCLI
@hovercraft: Merkel is the head of the Christian Democratic Union. The Social Democratic Party is the left-wing party. (Of course, the German Christian Democrats are to the left of the U.S. Democratic Party, but we are speaking relatively.)
J R in WV
@Just One More Canuck:
Of course, I know this. Also the NSA has copies of these international calls, they’re required to copy international calls. But the Trump White House, they don’t have a copy of the call with Putin? Really?
Is Trump/Banning really that stupid? Obviously so…
Roger Moore
@Immanentize:
I’m gonna bet Putin kept one for kompromat.
Chris
Of course it could.
And not just from Trump. The party is currently populated by people who think “HURR DURR THEY WERE CALLED NATIONAL SOCIALISTS SO THEY’RE LEFT WING!” is a sound political science thesis statement.
Chris
@Jeffro:
The problem is that with almost the entire GOP having disappeared up Trump’s ass, it would only be McCain, Graham, and possibly a very small number of other senators. All the rest of the help would have to come from Democrats.
The question then is whether these assholes can hold their nose and work with Democrats against virtually the entire Republican Party. I’m afraid the answer might be “no;” after all, we’re in the mess that we’re currently in largely because Republican elites couldn’t bring themselves to support a Democrat even against a manifestly mentally unbalanced white supremacist.
NotMax
@J R in WV
Mostly repetition of “Vladimir Putin is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.”
Roger Moore
@Corner Stone:
“Thank you sir, may I have another! Thank you sir, may I have another!”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@J R in WV: The NSA rules don’t apply to Mi6.
rikyrah
Dolt45 has no pictures of family in the Oval.
martian
The liberal/conservative confusion sounds very plausible, but I wouldn’t assume nobody gave Trump the correct info or even a proper briefing. At this point, I question whether Trump can actually retain and integrate new information. They told him, he forgot. Or the new information could only weakly imprint and was easily overwhelmed and submerged when he got emotional.
I’ve know a lot of old people who got super rigid – possibly as part of a general decline in their faculties – and they became unable to integrate new information in a way that wasn’t easily overwhelmed by their old patterns and understandings, especially so if there was some extra reason to be disinclined.
dedc79
How many times over the last 8 years did we hear Republicans claim the proper way to prevent mass shootings was to tackle the mental health component? I ask because:
Brachiator
@geg6:
What? The IT equipment they used to hack the presidential election wasn’t good enough?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Chris: Actually, if there was ever a GOP president to trigger a revolt from GOP congress critters it’s Trump. But even if it happens I suspect they will be sneaky about it.
GregB
Is this the beginning of the official Donald Trump Hate Tour sponsored by Carl’s Jr.?
spc
Also might have been staged to make Turnbull look weak since his position hands by the thread of one MP. He’s a little more inclined to be center-right naturally but has been pushed further right by his weak position. I’m sure the WH would rather have a shot at an even further to the right government in Canberra. Bannon needs conscripts for his “clash of civilizations.” On the other hand, maybe it was just Trump being a jackass as usual.
Bjacques
As usual the liberal media gets it backwards. It was Turnbull who called Trump, repeatedly. Here are the real recordings, courtesy of Wikileaks:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_uURZinfbdI&persist_app=1&app=m
Chris
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Well, yeah. They have all those voters to worry about. Which is why even in the most optimistic scenario, I only foresee a tiny handful of Republican defectors.
NotMax
@rikyrah
Doesn’t need no es-stinkin’ pictures since the emergency beacon to summon them was installed on the roof.
lurker dean
this is interesting, trump allegedly telling israel to stop building settlements because he’s for 2 state solution. it’s only on one site i could find, so i’d take with a grain of salt until other sites confirm.
http://live.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Trump-warns-Israel-Stop-announcing-new-settlements-480446
Brachiator
@Chris:
To the contrary, we are in the mess that we are in because Trump represents the GOP’s heart’s desire.
They love Trump. Unlike the official wing of the GOP, which is distant, patrician, elitist, Trump can sucker the shit out of the ignorant rubes that make up his base. They love what he is doing. Just eating it up. They don’t see, don’t care about any dangers or problems.
In return, the Republicans are getting everything they want. The chances are good that Trump will be able to appoint 3 justices to the Supreme Court. Three. And insure a conservative majority for decades to come. Foreign policy, tax legislation. Republicans rule. Why would Republicans vote for Democrats when they hate everything that they stand for, and double hated Hillary Clinton (and no, Bernie would not necessarily been a savior).
He is the American Dream, namely that you can be bone stupid and still rule the world as long as you are the baddest person in the room. America First! Fuck yeah!
Peale
@mdblanche: I’m not really kidding though. I think he thinks that refugees and illegals and poor immigrants are the same thing. All undesirable and all illegal because they take things and are terrorists. He wants “immigrants” but only the “good kind”. The kind who golf. And so he doesn’t understand refugees at all. You don’t “punish” Iran by refusing to take its refugees. You punish, say, Austria, where quite a few of the Iranian refugees pass through. For Syrian refugees, you actually break an arrangement that you have with Jordan or Turkey. Those Somali refugees probably come from Ethiopia. The Bhutanese refugees are actually from Nepal and India. Maybe he’ll rethink his problem here. But yeah, I really do think the reason he got mad is because when he heard about the refugee agreement with Australia, he thought it would be white sheep farmers.
trollhattan
@Roger Moore:
I’m awaiting this call.
Baud
@Brachiator: I don’t understand. You’re saying the Republicans would vote for someone impure simply because it would advance their agenda?
Get! Out!
Joyce H
My honest opinion is that in Trump’s mind, swanking around barking out orders and blowing his stack and slamming phones is demonstrating ‘leadership’. See, that’s why that Obama feller was so weak – he didn’t rage at people and hang up on them.
His supporters probably love it too; they also think that’s ‘leadership’. Just like they think his sickeningly ornate and tacky digs at Trump Tower is ‘classy’. He’s exactly like what a lot of lower class losers would be if they suddenly became rich and powerful.
debbie
Karen’s over-thinking it. Fearless Leader loses it whenever someone doesn’t fold like a cheap suit. Plus, Turnbull is saying he didn’t hang up, so Fearless Leader has been caught in another lie.
NotMax
Iranians knew precisely where to poke the shiv in.
Chris
@Brachiator:
Yep. Which is why Goopers were never able to effectively attack him. They couldn’t convincingly make the case that a white supremacist vulture capitalist who prided himself on ignorance and pointless bluster was in any way a contradiction of modern conservatism. Certainly not after they elevated the likes of Sarah Palin, George W. Bush, Dan Quayle and Ronald Reagan.
Which isn’t to say that they couldn’t have made a real difference in fighting Trump, if they’d actually opposed him in the general as well as the primary. But no. That’s not how they roll.
@Peale:
Well then, he’s in… well… not “good company,” but the kind of company he likes. I don’t think most Republicans, or most white people for that matter, really make the distinction either. They’ve just got a fuzzy picture in their heads of brown and black Others coming to America simultaneously bringing crime, disease, terrorism, and job theft, while liberals greet them with open arms and give them heartlandese money. The exact detail of who these people are doesn’t really matter to them or to Trump.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
I’ll bet he added some new mirrors, tho.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Brachiator: Or you are John McCain, almost president, looking at retirement when the possibility suddenly possibility arises of getting the title of “Man who saved country from treason” springs up.
Mnemosyne
@dedc79:
Can’t have a Reichstag Fire without a crazy guy to start it.
Betty Cracker
@NotMax: I had the same thought when I saw that. Every malign actor will be able to play Trump like a kazoo.
Miss Bianca
@trollhattan: I’m telling ya…”Dr. Strangelove” is looking more and more like a documentary with every passing day.
NotMax
@Peale
Germane (maybe Adam will see this and front page it).
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
Fix’d that for you.
Peale
@Chris: I don’t mean to go all Broder here. But white liberals kind of have the nice version of that story. You know. Like every Mexican you meet somehow got here by swimming the Rio Grande and walking through the desert. Or every immigrant from a war-torn country came as some kind of huddled mass. There’s a lot of non-huddled mass immigrants. Not everyone who left home from a developing country because they weren’t happy living where they were came here to escape dire poverty, famine and harsh conditions. Like every immigrant success story isn’t rags to riches.
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
The problem is, Trump will be Dmitri in that phone call, and Putin will be Merkeley, gods help us all.
Patricia Kayden
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Yes, it is so tough to call an ally, shout at him incoherently for a few minutes and then hang up the phone on him. So tough. Amazingly tough.
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: When you are a 5,000-year-old civilization, you’ve learned a few tricks along the way. Which is why I suspect that after any interaction with Xi Jinping, little Donnie’s watch and wallet will be gone and he’ll have no idea what happened.
ruckus
Not only plausible, a very high level of probability that the Republican president is that fucking ignorant.
debbie
@NotMax:
I thought Milo was Bannon’s soulmate, but this guy must be the one.
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
And I’ve fixed it a bit more ;)
Kathleen
@trollhattan: Are we facing a mine shaft gap also?
Patricia Kayden
@Gin & Tonic:
No one wants their love talk splashed all over the public. Too embarrassing.
Peale
@NotMax: Yes. I’m not sure what we are going to be able to do about this. But the goal of this administration is to reduce the number of brown people in the country and interfere with the pipeline. My guess is that we’ll have a lot of very big fights on our hands if we want to, say, continue naturalizing people. We might as well get used to having a reduction in the number of visas from non-white countries, even though the reason those entries are high is because there are so many recent immigrants reuniting families. That’s bad, but at least it could be undone. A process to remove massive numbers of people, declare formerly legal immigrants illegal, change the definition of citizenship to eventually create a large pool of stateless things – that’s part of the plan. We probably should focus on protecting the legal immigrants who are already here, protect their naturalization, and hope that we can change the laws back when the time comes.
debbie
Arnold’s having none of Trump’s empty swaggering:
hellslittlestangel
@aimai: I do believe that will eventually happen. I’m even surprised it hasn’t happened already. President Nieto, speak up — tens of millions of Americans will love you for it.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Joyce H:
You know, I was noticing that Trump is also weakening the accounting and oversite stuff. The first instinct is suspect Trump wants his looting to not be challenged, but now I wonder if it’s because trump is really that stupid as to think he doesn’t need auditing because he will just fire anyone who misappropriating funds. After all, it was noted Trump was able to lose money on some sure bet properties.
Brachiator
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
The McCain and Graham Hour of Opposition is weak tea.
Besides, as soon as Trump shouts “We’re going to go to war with Iran!” McCain will start leaping and wagging his tail with joy like a puppy who’s finally caught a ball in his mouth.
Patricia Kayden
@dedc79: So Republicans love guns so much that they believe that mentally ill people deserve to have them. Makes so much sense. /s
SiubhanDuinne
@Jeffro:
And Jerry Falwell Jr. is going to head up a task force on higher education.
randy khan
Since it’s an open thread, I proffer this:
Comcast (yes, really) protest against immigration EO
It’s actually not as big a surprise as it might seem, given how the entire tech community hates the EO. Google had a similar protest, and Apple is considering filing a suit to block the EO.
Corner Stone
@Peale:
I am…ummm…Trumped into incoherent stammering when I read this. What?
Miss Bianca
@debbie: you know, I never thought I’d hear myself say this, but…
“YOU GO, ARNOLD!”
Patricia Kayden
@The Moar You Know: But during the election cycle, didn’t Trump boast that he has great negotiation skills? Wasn’t that the premise of his best selling book, The Art of the Deal? ‘Twas another one of his lies.
Robert Paehlke
I wondered why he trash talked a kindred spirit. I was actually made because I figured that this would boost Turnbull’s reelection chances. I still think that that is true. Also he might have known that Trudeau in Canada is a Liberal and actually is liberal (though in Canada that is at the center of the political spectrum with two parties to his left). But, I think this new explanation makes the most sense. I hope he kisses and makes up with Turnbull which should finish him off in the next election.
debbie
@Miss Bianca:
I was glad he responded. Bet it generates a couple ludicrous midnight tweets.
Mnemosyne
@randy khan:
I am hearing some interesting rumblings in entertainment industry circles. More, I cannot say.
Jeffro
@SiubhanDuinne:
You’re absolutely right…I was thinking of Graham Jr and higher ed, but had my wires crossed, but that’s another one.
Where else could Trumpov get the kind of slavish adoration, the kind of magical thinking, that one sees in the religious right? Cruz must grind his teeth to powder every night knowing he lost to this guy.
randy khan
@Mnemosyne:
I can hardly wait.
Jeffro
@Teddys Person: If they had some true Carolina Gold, god help me, I’d probably be right there with him
Mnemosyne
@randy khan:
Also keep in mind that, last I heard, Apple alone has more cash on hand than the federal government does.
What do we do when corporations are the ones standing up to the fascists instead of cooperating with them? It will be an interesting question. The government is not nearly as powerful as the libertarians want you to believe.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jack the Second:
If Hillary had prevailed, one huge advantage right now would be that she wouldn’t have had to start from scratch with most of these world leaders. She had history, if not with every individual, at least with their countries and policies and politics and issues. Republican President* is beginning his entire presidency from the intersection of Square One and Jump Street.
dm
@Kathleen: Wow! Jobs for coal miners!
@Mnemosyne: Sort of like cheering on the CIA?
@Peale: I don’t know about that. The (contemporary) immigrants I know personally came as college or grad-students.
@Gin & Tonic: I wonder if there are other parts of the US government that might have recordings of that phone call. And if there aren’t already, will there be for the next call. I assume it doesn’t require a FISA warrant as there’s an explicit-consent-to-monitoring on government computer systems, there might also be an implicit one on secure (I assume this was) phone lines. Not sure about compartmentalization though….
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
He has a YUUUGE portrait of Andrew Jackson, though.
Aleta
In his mind (as opposed to reality) it’s an insult to his status to be forced to carry out an agreement that Obama made when (in His mind) He The Trump was already the real President. Plus he doesn’t think in terms of continuity. Instead he feels it would be following Obama’s orders, which would damage his #1 position in the hierarchy of the world. Maybe it’s like a competitive ragey biological father who must undo whatever the new stepfather does for the kids, for no reason other than an overwhelming need to assert his higher status.
hovercraft
@PPCLI:
Oops, my bad, this stuff is so confusing ;-) and I consider myself a relitvily well informed person, FSM help us, the Shitgibbon is a lot less informed than I am. SAD!
Aleta
@SiubhanDuinne: He showed the abc reporter a hallway with a giant picture of Ivanka slow dancing at the inaugural and two blown up pictures of the crowd, at a wider angle than the press photo. (Maybe the ones he demanded the NPS director to produce for him.)
Mnemosyne
@dm:
Pretty much, yeah. I say we are in no position to scorn help at this point, though we need to maintain our basic distrust.
(Edited for clarity)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SiubhanDuinne: Kind of surprised he doesn’t have one of Richard Nixon.
dm
@Mnemosyne: Been there, done that.
When banks realized that pressurized-water nuclear power reactors were a Bad Investment, I knew the anti-nuclear power movement had won (maybe a little too well — even research into inherently safe reactor designs was killed).
hovercraft
@PPCLI:
Oops, my bad, this stuff is so confusing ;-) and I consider myself a relatively well informed person, FSM help us, the Shitgibbon is a lot less informed than I am. SAD!
Mike G
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Hilarious! That stream of insults could only have been aimed at Andrew Peacock, the dandy-ish opposition leader at the time and an aficionado of tanning beds and fancy couture. An entire book of Keating’s insults was compiled after he left office.
Ruckus
@Miss Bianca:
We could do far, far worse, and just did.
Not that I’m for Arnold at all but he is a lot more level headed than the Republican president failure.
father pussbucket
@Mnemosyne:
So now Putin will blackmail Trump by threatening to reveal that he’s blackmailing him?
Mnemosyne
@father pussbucket:
There’s a difference between suspecting and knowing, and that difference is called “impeachment.”
SWMBO
@?BillinGlendaleCA: How about a life size portrait of Putin? Maybe riding a bear? Shirtless. With an AR15 in one hand?
KarinJR
@hovercraft: Um… Angela Merkel is the leader of the Christian Democrats. The Social Democrats are to the left of her, but she has worked closely with them in coalition.