I wonder if there’s any truth to the rumor that whenever Trump publicly humiliates a fellow winger that winger is instructed to shout “thank you, sir, may I have another?”
Trump’s decision to not release a statement about Puzder’s withdrawal says a lot about his leadership style. He always wants to wash his hands of things that reflect poorly on him. He didn’t even tweet out well wishes. He just pretended like it didn’t happen.
In all seriousness, I do think there’s some side of the winger psyche that craves being hurt and dominated by a strong man (or woman, I’m sure they’re all lining up to be abused by Sarah Palin on Earth 2).
The Other Bob
Whenever possible, (Fac*book, blogs, etc) I don’t mention just “Trump”. I always say “Republican Trump”. I want to tie him forever to the Republican Party, those who nominated him and continue to protect him today.
Kryptik
So much of modern conservatism seems to hedge toward idolization of strong ‘daddy’ figures and the like. The idea that a figurative (and sometimes literal) beating is necessary to put people on the ‘right path’. The obsession with punitive measures as the only sure, true way to set things right that you see with the tax cut obsessions and hell, even Trump’s assurance that something is right because it’s going to ‘hurt a lot of people’
Mike in DC
Really need to get a couple thousand people to wear Trump shirts and MAGA hats and infiltrate his next rally. Then boo him and start chanting “tax returns”, “russia”, etc.
dr. bloor
Oh, hell, the collective psyche and shared DNA of the entire right wing is classic sadomasochism.
oldster
And it has an effect on recruitment, no doubt about that. If you have an ounce of self-respect, and have watched the fate of Chris Christie, Mitt Romney, and now Puzder, then you are not going to apply for a job.
Which is a good way of ensuring that Trump continues to surround himself with lap-dogs.
Oh–but the one clear failure who he has publicly stuck up for and stood by?
That would be Putin’s other stooge, Mike Flynn.
He’ll criticize anyone but Putin. And he’ll humiliate anyone but Putin’s servants.
That’s the thing about Trump–he might wish he were Sauron, but he knows that he’s Grima at best.
Major Major Major Major
The people I know who are actually into BDSM, including literal bootlickers, would never vote for these sick fucks.
Yarrow
I thought it was known that the wingnuts were the more frequent visitors to the S&M bondage places in D.C.? I don’t know what the correct name for that kind of establishment is.
?eric
@Yarrow: GOP caucus room, US House of Representatives.
jake the antisoshul soshulist
See Authoritarianism. There is an obsession on the right with punishment and reward. Think about the complaints about “The Welfare State” punishing success and rewarding failure. Think about the basis of “individual responsibility”
I don’t know how popular it is now, but at one time “fire and brimstone” sermons were very popular. The more graphic and terrible the punishments of Hell were portrayed, the better. The right wing does not have a problem with authority as long as it is aligned with their views.
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: But since you know them, you only know the ones who are willing to talk about their activities. There’s probably a whole other group that won’t talk about what they do. There may be more voters for these sick fucks in the latter group.
James Powell
@oldster:
Christie’s a blowhard and a clown. Puzder is a businessperson and they are generally not good at politics. I have to admit I was very surprised that Romney lay down and let Trump wipe his feet on him. Romney’s not stupid. Was it vanity?
debbie
Then Trump’s foolish to think Flynn reflected well on him.
Woodrowfan
@Yarrow: “Metro Station”
MattF
Is there any doubt that we’re seeing a family drama being played out?
Yarrow
@oldster: I thought Christie was coming back for more. I know I read he was scheduled to meet with Republican President Trump this week.
Major Major Major Major
@Yarrow: I think it’s more that Trump is a classic sadist, like many CEO types, and everybody else is venal and used to it enough to tolerate it in the pursuit of money and power, not that they actually enjoy it.
mai naem mobile
@James Powell: supposedly it was so that his sons could run for office down the road. I think Crazy Eyes Romney Son is looking at running for Utah governator.
LAO
@MattF: IDK, feels more like the Hunger Games to me, but there is no one to root for but injuries.
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: Well, him being a sadist is certainly true. I’m not sure about the rest of them. At what point do they get off the train and say “Enough!”?
tobie
@Major Major Major Major: He’s got no manners. He’s crude, crass, and mean. It’s that simple. As far as he’s concerned, Puzder is a loser; he’s a winner; ergo he doesn’t want to be associated with his own nominee.
MuckJagger
@Kryptik: This. I’ve got a friend back home — and he’s been a friend for almost 50 years, so dropping friends like that is just something I’m not interested in doing — who has *probably* been helped by the government more so than anyone else I know — got his general discharge upgraded over time to an honorable; got parole when he went to jail (and he’s been a model citizen for 25 years now, so to say he learned from his time would be accurate); got VA healthcare benefits when he needed them; got some VA school benefits during the Great Recession; got the IRS to forgive something like $10,000 in back taxes — but he’s one of the LOUDEST voices for drug testing of welfare recipients; how welfare recipients are ripping him off, etc. The disconnect can be staggering sometimes
But if someone needs a favor — say, a ride somewhere, or help moving to a new apartment or house — he’s usually the first guy at your doorstep. Can be awful tough to consolidate both halves.
Major Major Major Major
@Yarrow: when they stop losing money or elections. So far though they control the government.
Cain
Ryan is blathering in a press conference, saying half truths all over the place.
MuckJagger
@Yarrow: How low is that freaking bar when Chris Christie represents a step up?
Feebog
Ignoring Puzder is just part of Trump’s NPD. The only relationship he has with people is transactional. As long as someone is doing something for him or with him, he will recognize them. Once they have lost that status they may as well be a lamp shade. Sad.
? Martin
@MuckJagger:
Welcome to my entire fucking family.
? Martin
@Feebog: Precisely.
Brachiator
Puzder is a fellow plutocrat buddy of Trump’s, and as CEO of CKE Restaurants has dished out his share of misery to his employees.
But Trump has seemed less cruel to Flynn and to Puzder than to those he perceives as competitors. And even here he keeps people like Christie around.
scav
@? Martin: Still, showing up to help to people they know or family just means A) they’ve been personally vetted, so control is maintained and B) likely to be similar to the helper (and thus “worthy” of help).
MattF
Jen Rubin notes (after pounding Rep. Chaffitz into the ground) that Trump just received a valuable trademark from the Chinese government. Right after reaffirming the one-China policy. Emoluments for everybody!
MomSense
@Mike in DC:
That sounds like a job for ninjas. I don’t think those rallies would be safe for the rest of us.
mai naem mobile
@Brachiator: Dolt 45 is nicer to Flynn because Flynn probably knows some stuff about Dolt that Dolt would rather not get confirmed by Flynn i.e. Hookers,golden showers and money owed to the Russians.
Frankensteinbeck
Conservative arguments are based on domestic abuser logic. Blaming the victim. Claiming they hurt others to build character. Calling themselves brave for choosing cruelty over kindness. This is absolutely everywhere in their positions, so of course they also act codependent. Abuse is their worldview.
Edit: And ‘Do as I say, not as I do!’ That’s another.
Raven Onthill
If a powerful man (it has to be a man) is in charge, there is no need for them to take responsibility for that man’s abuses.
But I think Pudzer mainly was abandoned because he was insufficiently racist, and not with El Cheeto’s plans for mass deportations.
Mom Says I'm Handsome
Doug J can write post titles for eternity. “The Puz That Refreshes” — heh, indeedy.
MattF
@Frankensteinbeck: Also, playing favorites, pitting family factions against each other. It’s all copied directly from a diorama in the Museum of Psychopathology.
NorthLeft12
@The Other Bob: I take the time to identify your current President as Deadbeat Donald whenever his name comes up. I agree 100% with you about ensuring that he is tied to the Republicans. He is not doing this in a vacuum. He is supported and encouraged and led by Republicans. The Republicans are using this doofus as their patsy, blaming him for the implementation of some of the most heinous policies which nonetheless they vote for.
If this administration flops badly due to the sharp veer to the right policies and the general public’s opposition to it, they will point at Deadbeat Donald and act as if they were helpless hostages/witnesses to his actions.
Major Major Major Major
@Frankensteinbeck: good call. Codependency is very different from kink.
Brachiator
@NorthLeft12:
Blaming him? Shit, they are praising him. And the Tea Party Republicans see a special opportunity and are pushing Trump even harder.
For example, Tea Party Republicans loved Pudzer because he was against the minimum wage. But they hated him because he favored immigrant guest worker programs. Tea Party Republicans believe that it is more patriotic to exploit poor Americans than to bring in poor Mexicans. to be oppressed.
Major Major Major Major
@Brachiator: well yeah, it’s just common sense to exploit America first!
SiubhanDuinne
Supposedly he’s announcing/introducing his new Labor nominee any minute now at what is billed as a “news conference.” Will the press have an opportunity to ask questions? Any about Puzder and if he even answers I’m guessing the response would be not unlike what he said yesterday about Flynn — “Press so mean, Puzder treated very, very unfairly, who leaked all those terrible, totally fake things about him to the failing media?” etc. But far more likely there will either be no questions, or he’ll simply ignore any about Puzder.
Betty Cracker
Saw speculation on Twitter that Trump is going to nominate Rubio for Labor Sec. He met with Rubio last night. Rubio doesn’t like being a senator, and the odious Rick Scott would appoint his replacement. The fact that Rubio is completely unqualified is obviously not an obstacle for a Trump cabinet appointment. I wouldn’t be surprised.
Miss Bianca
@Major Major Major Major: word. was just about to express a similar sentiment.
amk
uh oh, time will now join the FAKE NEWS media.
EBT
@Yarrow: The word you want is dungeon.
Frankensteinbeck
@Major Major Major Major:
The internal logic is ‘Better white people suffer than colored people exist’, but the external logic is stuff about discouraging laziness and how the deserving (which they assume they are) will benefit. More abusive thinking.
Hawes
Well, if you’re a conservative and only wearing one wetsuit, you aren’t really trying.
Miss Bianca
@Betty Cracker:
Well, that and the fact that it might muzzle Rubio as one of the few R voices in the Senate actually willing to call for investigations into the Russian Connection. Double win!
EBT
@MuckJagger: If he is a friend he can take correction. If he freaks out and pisses off, you never had a friend you had someone you could use.
Amir Khalid
As a bully, Trump is terrified of looking weak. It is among a bully’s greatest fears — and weaknesses, It’s a fear that exposes the bully; and it makes him vulnerable to manipulation by those who know what he fears and how to use those fears against him.
Iowa Old Lady
@Betty Cracker: Little Marco? The one who said Trump was the one who was “little”? Forgive and forget, I guess.
SiubhanDuinne
@amk:
When he proudly announces those counts of how many times he has appeared on TIME’s cover, does he count things like this (and those two “meltdown” cartoon images from the campaign), or only the marginally more flattering ones?
SFAW
@SiubhanDuinne:
Even if he deigned to allow questions, what make you think he’d take any from non-Fox-like outlets? I saw something 1-2 days ago that, these days, he’s only taking questions from friendly media.
Mike J
@Frankensteinbeck:
It’s interesting that they think that programs to help the poor will discourage work, but at the same time dislike the minimum wage.
MomSense
@Frankensteinbeck:
It is absolutely domestic abuser behavior. I think this is a big factor in why so many of us find 45s administration traumatic. Seeing this behavior amplified by the office, the stakes, the attention is triggering for many of us.
MattF
@Amir Khalid: And… not just weak, but SMALL.
Mike J
https://thinkprogress.org/washington-supreme-court-arlenes-flowers-d15c3d7f3150#.574x2bi20
Ian
@Betty Cracker:
I’m not positive, since it is Florida we are talking about, but most states require a special election within 2 years. Since Rubio just won his election, this may give us another bite at the apple.
Does Florida do special elections or does the governor appoint for the whole term? I am trying to remember from the last time when Crist was governor and got to fill a seat.
NeenerNeener
@Iowa Old Lady: Maybe Puzder wants the 30k he gave Rubio back.
Iowa Old Lady
Washington Post says it will be Alexander Acosta. Apparently he’s a law prof and was once on the NLRB.
SiubhanDuinne
@SFAW:
Good point. Maybe he’ll call on that new guy, the smarmy little punchable prick from Gateway Pundit.
ThresherK
@Mike J: “There is nothing which will motivate the poor like threatening them with less, and nothing which will motivate the rich than rewarding them with more.”
(I have no idea who I ripped that off from.)
Mike J
@Iowa Old Lady: Holy shit, he almost sounds qualified. No doubt evil, but competent. Why would Trump want him?
scuffletuffle
A “t” fell out of your title, Doug.
GregB
@Mike J:
Also that giving anyone money that was not earned through work is morally corrupting but believe in removing any taxes on inheritance.
Iowa Old Lady
@Mike J: My very thought
SFAW
@SiubhanDuinne:
… who will promptly piss himself at the thought of being called on by the Emperor.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
Trump will string him along for a while and then drop him. He won’t pick anyone who’s spoken negatively of him.
JPL
@Iowa Old Lady: Maybe Trump has played golf with him. It’s the only thing that I can think of.
Brachiator
@Major Major Major Major:
Make America Feudal Again!
JMG
Little doubt that Acosta was the guy suggested by GOPers in Congress and party apparatchiks, but Trump wanted rich guy friend. So just to get rid of embarrassing failure, in goes Acosta. Almost feel sorry for him. Trump’s gonna freeze him out as much as he can, since he’s a living reminder of a failure.
Calouste
@Iowa Old Lady: He is also Hispanic. And keeping in mind that one of the objections the Republicans had against Putz (or whatever his name is) that he was too immigration-friendly, this might be heading in the same direction.
Spanky
Uh huh.
WereBear
@Kryptik: I tend to blame an authoritarian upbringing.
Someone bigger than you, who is always right, and beats you for arguing or misbehaving or just ‘cuz. It’s a deeply abusive setup and people cling to it because it’s a known quantity.
And that kind of upbringing saps your courage so you don’t get a chance to imagine a different way of life.
Mind you, they are still stupid and mean. But I like to think there’s a reason.
Starfish
The small hands thing has been overplayed; but his hands do soft, like the hands of a person whose never done a day of work in his life.
Jack the Second
@MuckJagger: Any chance the missing ingredient is racism?
dww44
@Betty Cracker: At any point would a special election be called for?. If not, shouldn’t this make Florida voters angry? That Rubio would bail at first opportunity to get another job and Floridians would be forced to endure virtually 6 years of an unelected Senator?
Steeplejack
@Spanky:
What does Feinberg know about intelligence or the “intelligence community”? Nothing, according to Wikipedia. Although he was in ROTC in college in the early ’80s. So maybe that’s it.
But he’s a billionaire and a long-time Trump crony, so it’s all good.
Miss Bianca
@dww44: y’know, Rubio strikes me as dumber than a bag of hammers, but I find it hard to believe that even he would be dumb enough to leave his Senate seat for a job in the Trump administration, given the way things seem to be going.
Calouste
@Spanky: I think we are going to hear a lot more about Feinberg and Cerebus in the near future. Mostly stuff they don’t want out in the open. If you want to catch leakers, you need someone who is clean so they can’t be affected by leaks themselves, and no billionaire falls in the category, certainly not the ones that are acquaintances of Lump.
tobie
One has to wonder why anyone with a brain would join an administration that may go down in infamy within two years.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
WTF? I don’t know. I could see Trump doing a Romney number on Rubio, dangling the prospect of a cabinet job in front of him just for the fun of yanking it away.
DocSardonic
Should Rubio get nomination, the Walking Dildo will appoint himself to fill in and run in the special as the incumbent.
SiubhanDuinne
@dww44:
I don’t know Florida law on this specifically, but I believe in most states the appointment would be only until November 2018, at which point there would be a special election for the remaining four years of the Senate term. That happened a few years back in SC after Jim DeMint left and then-Gov. Nikki Haley named Tim Scott to replace him; Scott won the special, and subsequently won a full six-year term.
Brachiator
@tobie:
It will be one hell of a ride. Better than a roller coaster at Magic Mountain.
But apart from that, the GOP is relishing their opportunity to remake America in a purely conservative image, and gain control of the Supreme Court for the next 25 years.
lollipopguild
@Mike J: Baronelle?????
DocSardonic
My apologies..I was incorrect. The Walking Dildo would serve until the next general election in 2018. Relevant statute below.
The 2016 Florida Statutes
Title IX
ELECTORS AND ELECTIONS
Chapter 100
GENERAL, PRIMARY, SPECIAL, BOND, AND REFERENDUM ELECTIONS
View Entire Chapter
100.161 Filling vacancy of United States Senators.—Should a vacancy happen in the representation of this state in the Senate of the United States, the Governor shall issue a writ of election to fill such vacancy at the next general election; and the Governor may make a temporary appointment until the vacancy is filled by election.
History.—s. 4, ch. 26870, 1951; s. 17, ch. 28156, 1953; s. 12, ch. 77-175.
Mike J
@lollipopguild: Unanimous against her.
Brachiator
@Spanky:
Cerberus, the Hound of Hades that prevents escape from the Underworld. Sounds fitting for Feinberg’s possible role in the Trump Administration.
SiubhanDuinne
Holy fuck, he is whining that Mick Mulvaney’s confirmation was “weeks late, I have to say that, weeks late.”
He spent more time on that than on the Acosta announcement.
Now bragging about polls and the “incredible accomplishments” of his presidency. And of course a swipe at the press.
PaulW
I’m seeing calls on Twitter to have people BOYCOTT and not show up for Trump’s airport rally this Saturday.
There’s a worry going around that any anti-Trump march will get turned into an excuse to crack down on protests in general.
It still makes sense. Any attention given to Trump is a bad idea, because he eats that up like pokemon candy. Better to give him empty seats and empty streets. Look at how the Inauguration void hurt him personally.
SiubhanDuinne
“The press is out of control, the level of dishonesty is out of control.”
Mnemosyne
@MattF:
Nope. Everyone needs some goddamned therapy, stat.
I’m now thinking that it’s not a coincidence that the one cousin I know voted for Trump has a narcissistic mother. Trump’s behavior probably felt very normal to her.
PaulW
@SiubhanDuinne:
Bragging about polls?
Both Gallup and Pew Research has him falling to 40-39 percent approval.
His biggest accomplishment so far has been to issue a travel ban and deportation push that’s literally breaking apart families and our nation’s faith in itself.
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: All I’m hearing is whine, whine, whine and it’s not even five o’clock. It’s a mess, a mess, a real mess.
SiubhanDuinne
“I inherited a MESS. At home and abroad, a MESS. We’ll take care of it, folks, just want to let you know. I inherited a MESS.”
“My meetings with foreign leaders have been more productive than you could understand.”
And something about “my daughter Ivanka.”
PaulW
I have been getting some odd phone calls from employment agencies pulling up my decade-old resume on Careerbuilder.
It’s like, guys, it’s not 2010. I’ve got a job now. I thought I updated the site to reflect th…
(notices he left the Public Viewing option on)
(quietly turns off the option)
lollipopguild
@SiubhanDuinne: Anyone who is not kissing his ass is “out of control”.
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: He is practicing for his rally.
PaulW
@SiubhanDuinne:
bwhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah gasp hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahaaaaaa
SiubhanDuinne
And a couple of paragraphs about his amazing Electoral College win.
And a plug for his Melbourne rally this Saturday.
And whining that Dan Coats hasn’t yet been approved.
And the Democrats have “screwed things up royally.”
SenyorDave
@SiubhanDuinne: “I inherited a MESS. At home and abroad, a MESS. We’ll take care of it, folks, just want to let you know. I inherited a MESS.”
In addition to all his other faults, he’s truly a classless piece of shite
lollipopguild
@SiubhanDuinne: Wank, wank, wank along the highway…….
? Martin
@PaulW: I’m impressed at the degree of broad push-back coming here in CA. There was general opposition to the raids back under Bush and Obama, but I’d say the general public kind of accepted it. They aren’t really accepting it now. We had an ICE checkpoint nearby and I heard about it from half the people I know – none of whom were latino. There’s a broad opposition to ICE that I’ve never seen before.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
I agree, except today he sounds, dare I say it?, kind of low-energy. Breathy and uninterested and exhausted. But most of the words, yeah, pretty much. And it does seem to be the case that big noisy crowds really energize him.
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
Said the most dishonest man, ever.
raven
@MuckJagger: I have plenty of friends and relatives just like that.
Peale
@SenyorDave: I’m gonna retierate – there will not be one measure of “mess” that won’t be “worse” in four years. So look at any positive trend as of January 20 and expect it to be negative by the end of the first term. Any negative trend, expect also to be worse.
JWR
Pretty sure Trump gets all of his news from Gateway Pundit.
~sigh~ I don’t know whether to laugh, or to cry, at this “fake” news presser, (though I’m pretty sure it’s a combination of both.)
JMG
To use the ancient baseball expression, Trump has about the biggest rabbit ears imaginable. Doesn’t he understand that when he rants against the press, said press is delighted and gets to work making him madder? Or that ranting about leaks inspires more leakers? Those are rhetorical questions, obviously.
SiubhanDuinne
Excuse me, but wasn’t this supposed to be about his nominee for Secretary of Labor? He gave Acosta two boilerplate sentences at the beginning, the rest has all been about the wonderfulness of He, Trump, and the awfulness of Isis and Democrats and the press.
JPL
@debbie: I turned him off. He’s giving a campaign rally and I imagine he will not take questions.
Mike J
@SiubhanDuinne:
Meanwhile, Haley says at the UN that the US is absolutely 100% committed to a two state solution.
Peale
@Mike J: Which is what he told the King of Jordan two weeks ago. Christ. I’m sure he told Abe that Japan could have its old Empire back and will tell Korea that it can fire away at the North whenever it wants to.
debbie
@JPL:
Don’t blame you. I can’t even listen to his voice at this point. He’s sickening and disgusting.
tobie
“I had the greatest Electoral College victory since Ronald Reagan.”
The guy is reading form notecards! This means his staff is as delusional as him and denies easily checkable facts. We’re flying headlong toward becoming Turdistan.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
I think we’re also hearing pretty much verbatim what he’ll say in his non-SOTU address to Congress later this month.
Timurid
@SiubhanDuinne: He’s projecting hard enough to show Powerpoint slides on the Moon.
danielx
What, no mention of his incredible 304 vote electoral college victory?
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
What is with this crap, “more productive than you could understand”? I understand far more than you, apparently, because I know you got 304, not 306, electoral votes.
SiubhanDuinne
Well, just as the questions started, my stupid NPR station cut away in favor of local programming.
maurinsky
Love the thread title. One of my all-time favorite songs. Elevator, going UP!
Peale
@tobie: They really do want to erase all the Bushes from history.
The Moar You Know
Boy, some of the things about abuse victims on this thread is ringing my bell but good.
Only members of my family who voted Trump were my mother and stepfather.
Both the victims of childhood abuse and both had parents that were the walking definition of “narcissist” and of course they ended up narcissists themselves. And they don’t see a problem with anything he’s done.
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
Good. When he pulls that number “306” out of his ass, I expect multiple Dems to shout out, “You Lie!”
Starfish
@PaulW: Well, he could also misrepresent protesters as supporters.
There is an action to send him pink postcards representing his pink slip on March 15, and I think that is giving him too much of the attention he craves.
JPL
I have to apologize, since I just read that he is taking questions.
lollipopguild
After awhile trump is masturbating in public with his clothes on.
danielx
@SiubhanDuinne:
Well, he HAS managed to avoid taking a shit on the Oval Office carpet, as far as we know.
SFAW
@PaulW:
He meant they were productive for his business. As in, that copyright thing with China.
I’m hoping the Emoluments Clause gets renamed the “Whiny, Lying, Grifting Shitgibbon” Clause in his “honor.”
Hey, Mitch, you treasonous, seditious fuck! How about thinking of the COUNTRY ahead of yourself and your Partei for a change? You fuck. And that goes double for your little dog, ZEGS.
tobie
If the teacher’s union still has any power, they should encourage all teachers in Florida to call parent-teacher conferences at their school this Saturday. Eat into whatever crowd he can get.
Patricia Kayden
@Cain: “Half truths”. You mean lies. That’s like half poison.
Mike in DC
@Peale:
“They’re building a co-prosperity sphere. Everybody wins.”
Patricia Kayden
@SiubhanDuinne: What accomplishments? Trump’s presidency has been a disaster so far. And it’s likely to get a lot worse as time goes by. Cannot imagine four years of this.
SFAW
@danielx:
Good thing you added that qualifier.
clay
I really doubt it will be Rubio, but I’d love it if it was… the Dems would make the confirmation hearings very fun to watch.
“So, Mr. Rubio… When you said Mr. Trump was “dangerously unfit to be President”… what, exactly, did you mean by that?”
lollipopguild
@clay: Rubio could simply say that all of his previous statements about trump are inoperative.
rikyrah
Who Is Guarding the Guardians?
by Nancy LeTourneau
February 16, 2017 11:16 AM
…………………………………………………….
These three examples demonstrate why the current activities of ICE are so chilling. They have targeted a person who was cooperating with law enforcement, a vulnerable young person who should be protected by DACA and a victim of domestic violence. That is why Linda Greenhouse asks, “Who Will Watch the Agents Who Are Watching Our Borders?”
That uncomfortable question came to mind as I read articles over the past week of the growing numbers of raids, roundups, the knocks on the door, the flooding of “target-rich environments,” a phrase an anonymous immigration official used in speaking to The Washington Post. What’s a target-rich environment? “Big cities,” the official explained, “tend to have a lot of illegal immigrants.”
Clearly, with President Trump’s executive orders having expanded the category of immigrants deemed worth pursuing and deporting, the gloves are off…
It matters because along with entrusting our immigration enforcers to keep us safe, in the president’s often-tweeted phrase, we also entrust them with the responsibility of treating unauthorized immigrants not as prey but as human beings entitled to dignity, even if only minimally to due process…
The Roman poet Juvenal asked: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who will guard the guardians? We need to ask that question now, urgently. I fear the answer.
? Martin
Trump just called out on the EC lie by a reporter, Trumps response ‘I was given that information. I don’t know.” He doesn’t care that it’s a lie.
Cermet
This new Labor Sec pick, Alexander Acosta has a rather extensive background in Federal Service as well as being a US Attorney who actually appeared to handle the job well: he took out a lot of evil fucks: “Acosta also emphasized health-care fraud prosecutions. Under Acosta’s leadership, the District also focused on health care fraud and because (sic) the top district in the nation in health care fraud prosecution, charged more than 700 individuals responsible for more than $2 billion in fraud.”
He believes in Federal regulations rather then Legislative laws – rather different compared to most thugs. Not necessarily someone who will align with labor but not a greedy enslaving industrialist.
Mike J
@? Martin: It’s the single most important thing ever, but he’s not really up on the details.
pamelabrown53
@SiubhanDuinne: #96
“…inherited a MESS”. What unbelievable fucking gall. Compared to what President Obama inherited, he’s “inherited” nirvana. This man is frightening in his willingness to spout sewage in the face of reality.
SiubhanDuinne
@danielx:
Doing a lot of heavy lifting, that “as far as we know.”
rikyrah
Trump Is Proving to Be the Embodiment of Everything Republicans Have Stood For
by Nancy LeTourneau
February 13, 2017 4:08 PM
During the presidential campaign, there were those who thought that a Trump presidency would be at odds with Republicans on some issues. So far we’re seeing no signs of that.
He promised to “drain the swamp” and has filled it with the rich and powerful on Wall Street. He talked about creating jobs with a big infrastructure program, which doesn’t appear anywhere on the horizon right now. And he pretended to be isolationist in his foreign policy, but seems to be relying on Steve Bannon for advice – someone who is not only intent on igniting a global war on Islam, but is rumored to believe the United States is headed toward an inevitable confrontation with China and Iran. When it comes to Trump’s National Security Council, the NYT goes on to report that “Many of the first ideas that have been floated have involved military, rather than diplomatic, initiatives.”
That reality is undergirded with something Paul Krugman wrote today. Putting it in today’s parlance, it amounts to the idea that ignorance is a feature, not a bug.
I would make one distinction that Krugman didn’t. While the Trump administration has shown a remarkable level of incompetence, what we’re talking about is ignorance – which is one of the things that leads to incompetence. It is the embrace of the two that led me to write about the death of pragmatism.
The exclusion of knowledge and competence is something Republicans have embraced for quite a while now – as is demonstrated by the fact that Krugman’s list pre-dates Trump.
? Martin
So here’s where we are heading.
I don’t even…
PPCLI
@PaulW:Also, any press attention to protests would take attention away from the ongoing dumpster fire that is Trump and his people. Never stop your opponent when he is destroying himself.
Calouste
@Patricia Kayden:
Achievements:
Fastest cabinet-level official to resign.
Shortest tenure for National Security Advisor, beating the previous record by more than 100 days.
First President to appoint an acting National Security Advisor.
rikyrah
Why Trump’s Wall Won’t Keep Out Heroin
By SAM QUINONES
FEB. 16, 2017
SINALOA, Mexico — Not long ago I met a small-time rancher here in the birthplace of Mexican drug trafficking.
I asked him if he ever made it to the United States. He said he had been deported several years ago and couldn’t return. He was caught smuggling black-tar heroin in his shoes at the Tijuana-San Diego border crossing, he said. Wasn’t much — not quite a kilo. He did this to raise the money to buy a couple of cows, or a tractor.
In Sinaloa, he said, cobblers do a thriving side business cutting compartments in the soles and heels of shoes and filling them with heroin. There’s a market for this work because so many farmers and ranchers — conservative folks, respectful of tradition — subsidize their small-time agriculture with drug money.
……………………………..
Walls, in fact, have been shown to stop people. Illegal crossing has all but ceased in Tijuana because of two walls, including one that starts in the Pacific Ocean and runs for more than 14 miles before hitting a mountain.
But walls have not stopped drugs, especially heroin. It is the easiest drug to traffic in small batches across a border because it is so easily condensed — and easy to cut later. The rancher from Sinaloa told me he put a little more than a pound and a half of heroin in those shoes, clearing as much as $12,000 in a single trip to the States. You could never fit enough cocaine, meth or marijuana into a shoe to make it worth the risk. “They’re too voluminous,” he told me.
Larger Mexican drug operations, of course, ship bigger quantities hidden in trucks, particularly for long-distance hauls to the East Coast. The United States cannot check every one of the millions of trucks that cross north every year.
……………………..
A lot of heroin trafficking happens a kilo or two at a time. Other ranchers told me they used hollow hammers, toothpaste tubes, a woman’s hair, backpacks or the carburetor of a truck. No wall stops that kind of trafficking. It probably won’t stop trafficking in fentanyl, either, the synthetic opioid vastly more potent than heroin.
Miss Bianca
@Cermet: Wait, what the hell? Trump actually wanting to appoint someone who’s qualified for the job? What’s up with that?
Yarrow
Wow. I just saw him on the TV. Had no idea he was doing a press conference. Totally delusional. Is he taking any questions?
Frankensteinbeck
@Peale:
Minorities will have suffered more. That is an improvement by the definition of his voters, and the specific improvement he was elected to bring.
khead
Wow, what a shit show.
Gin & Tonic
@Yarrow: Yes. He is completely unhinged.
He says he got more EV’s than anyone since Reagan. He’s actually gotten fewer than anyone since Reagan.
Tenar Arha (same Tenar, more Nameless Ones)
@PaulW: I’m not sure if protests will help in this case. Really not. But I can’t help thinking about a podcast I heard where they quoted a “Meet the Press” where the panelists kept asking MLK to stop the protests. And he kept returning to what the protests represented.
Cheeto lives for “worshipful” attention but can’t handle opprobrium. (cf Women’s March) Symbols of the actual resistance are important signifiers that he doesn’t have a majority, not only for him and his supporters but for the people who are and will be hurt by him. So, I’m leaning slightly towards: since people will protest him, better that they have the safety and fellow feeling in numbers. If that means a large outside the airport counter protest, then so be it.
As for the what if of violence, I believe we’ve reached a point where the current iteration of the Republican party is willing to manufacture pretexts from engaged town halls where people are actually talking to them (cf Chaffetz & it’s okay to run over protester bills). I don’t see how it helps us to cut off one of the things that actually has worked so far to bring attention to how little his/their regime has in actual support.
ETA added /their
Brent
@Patricia Kayden:
Not really. I have no idea what Ryan is saying but of course statements can be partially true or technically true but fundamentally misleading. Are those lies? Sure they are.
But I do think its important to distinguish the normal sort of political dishonesty which mostly traffics in half truths and the fundamentally weird and paradigm breaking dishonesty of what Trump does which is to consistently repeat the exact opposite of the truth. The former can be combatted with normal political pushback within the context of our discourse. The latter requires an altogether more radical attack and resistance based methodology.
Just my two cents.
Yarrow
He actually just said, “Half his job is putting out lies….by the press.” I think he was talking about Spicer?
LAO
Made me Laugh!
PsiFighter37
The dude from CNN was pressing the hell out of him.
? Martin
@Cermet: Might want to check in on Ari Berman’s latest tweets.
Jeffro
Just got back from lunch…the cafe were I was at had two TVs on, one was Fox and the other was MSNBC, I’m pretty sure.
At one point the two chyrons said, “Trump: ‘My administration is running like a well-oiled machine’ ” and “Trump: ‘I inherited a huge mess when I came into office’ “. And I just started laughing, because that’s what you do when you realize you have somehow been cast in a very bit part for an absurd cosmic sitcom.
I don’t know who’s watching out there, but I hope they’re enjoying the show…
Frankensteinbeck
@pamelabrown53: and @SiubhanDuinne:
Again, he did inherit a mess, by the definition of his voters. A black man was in charge. Minorities were highly visible and the attempts of white men to abuse them were being punished. They felt like in some cases, minorities were actually equal to or above them. By itself, that qualifies as a horrible (to many dystopian) mess, but also if a black man was in charge, it was just obvious that everything else was horribly wrong. It’s not possible for a black man to do things correctly. They certainly know the crime rate is skyrocketing, because they see more scary criminals on the street every day. They know that voter fraud is huge, because they see so many people voting who don’t look like citizens.
They really think this way, folks. It’s a whole different world from us.
Gin & Tonic
@Gin & Tonic: Well, so I was wrong. The only *worse* showing since 1980 in EV’s before 45 was W. Here are the totals
1980: 489
1984: 525
1988: 426
1992: 370
1996: 379
2000: 271
2004: 286:
2008: 365
2012: 332
2016: 304
Sad!
Immanentize
@? Martin: Especially as there are special visas for victims of abuse so that their abuser cannot use their immigration status to keep them in the abusive relationship. What was ICE thinking?
Aleta
WTF WTF WTF WTF does the T think he is TALKING about.
? Martin
@Brent: Lies are untruths that you knowingly tell. I can say that Trump is the most unpopular president at this point in their term, but I don’t *really* know that because I’m unaware of polling prior to Truman, but someone may point me to a poll prior to that time that proves me wrong. I didn’t intend to spread an untruth, I was ignorant of other information.
However, if I tell you that I’m married to Janelle Monae, that’s a lie. I know that I’m not.
Between them is a category that should be called lies but sometimes are not, which are deliberate ignorance, which is what Trump claimed today. He made his EC claim, but it was an easy claim for him to factually know. That he doesn’t know it is his choice – he chooses to not know that very simple fact because it benefits his ego to not know it. That’s a lie. Laziness or avoiding reality is not a justification, and that scales with responsibility. I wouldn’t bust my kids for that kind of thing, because who fucking cares. But if you are on national TV, worse, if you are the President of the US on national TV, lazily spreading misinformation, that’s a lie. That’s unacceptable and inexcusable.
? Martin
@Immanentize:
That Trump and Sessions have given them a blank check. They don’t give a shit about the consequences to local law enforcement for the secondary effects of this action.
trollhattan
@Gin & Tonic:
That is SAD! “I won more electoral votes than George Dubya Bush, twice!” The hell’s the matter with…let me rephrase, is anything right with this man? Anything?
Mike in DC
@? Martin:
Regular presidential polling started in 1937. As far as I can tell, Trump is off to a historically poor start. The one pollster that has him above 50 is Rasmussen, and their methodology has a heavy Republican skew.
Peale
@? Martin: Yep. When you wrote about DACA work permit holders being deported even though their class of permits hasn’t been officially rescinded yet by an EO, I got to thinking that maybe they have, but Trump has decided to issue these EOs secretly for “National Security” purposes.
pamelabrown53
@? Martin: #145
Martin, if you get to see my reply on this dying thread: please post your comment in a new thread. As a person ho lived in El Paso for a dozen years, my adult son lives there. His first wife and my grand kids are Mexican Americans. His second wife is a Mexican green card holder. El Paso is predominately latino and this sort of shit is sending deep shockwaves.
Aleta
Reporter asks about bomb threats (48-60) recently called in to Jewish CCenters, and Trump goes off on how insulted he is.
Jeffro
I’m gonna have to go and read the transcript tonight with with a Bud or three, I hear it was a real doozy. Let ’em have it, IC! Go BE DRAGO on this “rocky” excuse of an administration!
Cermet
@? Martin: And I haven’t forgot he is a thug; doesn’t mean he can’t do a better job than many other thugs. He had to please his masters and will but he does appear like he knows how to run the agency and appears far better than the nutcase that was being offered. The only real issue is he gonna run it to destroy labor or try and run it as a Agency that is not fully against labor. Still, he has experience and does believe in the agency’s job. Also, did do a decent job as a US Attorney. Beyond that, no idea until others with more knowledge weigh in.
1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)
@DocSardonic: Well, the Secretary of Labor is 9th in the US Presidential line of Succession, and two of the people between him and the Oval Office are Acting Secretaries not previously confirmed by the Senate. Ordinarily I’d say that was a long shot, but we can’t be sure Pence, Ryan, or Sessions have clean enough records that the IC can’t take them down, and who knows what’s out there on Tillerson, Mnuchin, and Hatch. That would leave the 666-year-old Mattis between Rubio-as-labor-secretary and the big seat…so how ambitious is Mattis? Or healthy?
Brent
@? Martin: I don’t disagree with any of that. I believe the original context was with regard to Ryan speaking “half-truths.” Again, I have no idea what Ryan was even saying. I haven’t seen it. I was only making the point that while half truths are lies (they certainly fit the definition you provide above), they are qualitatively different from what Trump does in important ways.
Trump, it needs to be pointed out, is not engaging in the normal political tactic of “shading” the truth in a way that favors his point of view. Most of what he says never comes within sniffing distance of an objectively true reality. Thats something fundamentally different in our political discourse and needs to be treated that way.
That is certainly not to say that I don’t recognize that Ryan is full of crap.
Ian
@Gin & Tonic:
Don’t make the mistake of forgetting our buddy boyo- the maladministration.
Miss Bianca
@? Martin: Oh, whew! For a second there, I thought the one thing I could count on in this crazy world – that given a choice Trump would pick either the least-qualified, most venal, or if possible both, candidate for any Cabinet position – was about to be proven false.
ETA: Not that there would have been anything *wrong* with that, of course.
The Lodger
@Betty Cracker: Secretary of Labor in a GOP administration is the very definition of a nothing job. If Rubio takes it, he must loathe the Senate.
SiubhanDuinne
One more on 45’s presser. I didn’t see/hear this, but read it in two different places: Apparently he pointed to an African-American reporter and asked her if members of the Congressional Black Caucus are “friends of hers.” Don’t know what the context was — possibly exculpatory. But as a sound bite it sure comes across as utterly clueless and tone deaf.
SiubhanDuinne
@pamelabrown53:
Tom Levenson has a newish thread up specifically about this.
? Martin
@Brent: Except that where Trump can probably fairly claim ignorance of the truth, Ryan often can’t. Ryan isn’t dumb, and he isn’t unstudied. He really does know what the hell he’s talking about, so when he says something that isn’t true, he full well knows it isn’t true. Does Trump understand the finer details of how US refugee visas work? No. Should he? Yes, but he really doesn’t know. Ryan really does know.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jeffro:
If you don’t mind sullying yourself by clicking on the NYT, this is fairly comprehensive (still partial as of this comment; I think they’re updating the Q&A in chunks).
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/16/us/politics/donald-trump-press-conference-transcript.html
Tehanu
@debbie:
I have marker pens on the breakfast table just so I can blot out his face when i read the paper (yes, dead tree, yadda yadda, I’m old). He only has two expressions: self-satisfied smirk or twisted with screaming rage, and they’re both nauseating.
@SFAW:
Couldn’t agree more.