It’s impossible to keep up with the avalanche of insanity tumbling down Mount Trump, but two things jumped out at me while I was catching up on the news this morning after a short hiatus. The first is that Trump undermined Spicer’s attempt to walk back the bogus “wiretap” accusation.
Spicer had the unenviable task of convincing a skeptical public that the words Trump used in his insane tweets had an entirely different meaning than what English speakers recognize as the definitions of the terms. He said when Trump used the word “wiretap” in quotation marks, he meant surveillance broadly and that when he said “Obama,” he meant the entire Obama administration. Presumably, we’re also to conclude that when Trump tweeted “bad (or sick) guy,” he meant “bad (or sick) administration.”
It’s ridiculous, of course, but Spicer was dispatched to make that argument because otherwise, the fact that a sitting president just called his vastly more popular predecessor a felon with no proof at all was just hanging out there. But then Trump had to go and undermine Spicer’s work last night during an interview with smirking fraud Tucker Carlson:
I’m zeroing in on the claim that Trump supposedly has evidence that will validate his wild accusations (bold prediction: he doesn’t), but the whole exchange excerpted by @BraddJaffy on Twitter is worth reading because it’s just so…nuts. According to Trump, it wasn’t his absurd accusation that derailed the positive press he was receiving from his crappy speech to congress; it was the machinations of media outlets that are out to get him. According to Trump, he didn’t get the nutso “wiretap” notion from crackpots on talk radio but from the NYT and WaPo. Crazeballs.
The second thing that jumped out at me was what Trump said yesterday about the Muslim ban. As we know, the courts shot down Muslim ban #1, and now they’ve shot down Muslim ban #2, citing Trump’s own bigoted rhetoric on the campaign trail as evidence that, yep, it’s a Muslim ban. Here’s what Trump said about that in Tennessee yesterday:
After a federal judge in Hawaii put on hold President Donald Trump’s revised executive order barring travel from a list of predominantly Muslim countries, Trump complained at a rally in Nashville, Tennessee, that he did not want the “watered-down” version of the order.
“Remember this, I wasn’t thrilled that the lawyers all said, ‘Oh, let’s tailor it.’ This is a watered-down version of the first one,” he told the crowd. “This is a watered down version, and let me tell you something. I think we ought to go back to the first one and go all the way, which is what I wanted to do in the first place.”
So, he’s going to keep punching himself in the face on the Muslim ban — and making it harder for the order to pass muster in future court rulings with dumb comments like the above — and he’s going to keep bullshitting about the “wiretap” issue, even though he beclowns himself with every utterance on the topic. Okay then.
bystander
Trump is telling his brain dead minions who their enemy is: Federal judges.
JPL
Somewhere Sarah Palin is laughing, and saying they thought I was stupid.
Downpuppy
So a Tucker Carlson interview is too much. Who next?
Space Ghost!
MattF
Demonstrating again that Trump has a limited behavioral repertoire. Given any situation, his response is some mixture of lies, bullying and bluster. Because… Well, because he’s a liar, a bully, and a bullshitter. But also because liar, bully, and bullshitter is all he is.
Hunter Gathers
I expect nothing less from the Low-T Beta Cuck Loser.
Can’t get his agenda passed, can’t stop himself from stepping on his own dick for mare than a day, his wife wants nothing to do with him and his kids are scum.
Fuck him right in the ear.
dr. bloor
His inability to admit he was wrong or to back off something, however looney, for fear of looking “weak” is mind bending.
cmorenc
When your own sycophantic RW cheerleaders begin heckling Trump about saying things he can’t back up, and expressing concern that it’s undermining Trump’s credibility – and Trump reacts with totally obtuse, defensive, defiant doubling-down denial – what’s going to happen the first time Trump faces a real fast-breaking international crisis? I hope the top Brass in the military are ready and willing to face Trump down if / when he reacts by insisting on some dangerously stupid reaction, and then doubles down on it in the race of firm advice from the military against whatever disastrous course he’s trying to commit them to.
mak
“Beclowns” is now my favorite word.
I swear, I’ve used the word “clown” more in the past month than I had in my previous fifty-odd years. I’ve kinda settled on it as my description of choice for this clown (see?). It just works – impactful, yet polite enough to use around even his supporters. Fucking evil piece-of-shit nazi moron has now fallen to second place.
Goku
@Downpuppy: Nah he’d never be invited on Space Ghost Coast to Coast, he’s a Z-lister. Sad!
Maybe Zoran could vaporize Trump! That’s an image.
schrodingers_cat
9th circuit has refused to vacate their ruling against the first travel ban
schrodingers_cat
@JPL: If anything he is less qualified and less smart than her. Also, more ugly.
WereBear
The more incompetent he is, the better I like it.
Our worst nightmare would be a smart Bond villain. Getting someone who represents the entire Republican brand be so undeniably, spectacularly, incredibly unsavory… it’s a gift, man, an absolute gift.
JPL
@schrodingers_cat: Sad!
Oatler.
@mak: Send them back to Clown College! #Homerwasrightallalong
germy
The Old Uncle Who Listens To Fox News was elected president. He doesn’t read. He believes everything he hears from fox and from the other fox, bannnon.
Here’s my hope, however slight:
The one person he listens to above all others is his daughter. Maybe she’ll look around and say to herself “Gee, Justin is so… cool. Not like my husband or Miller or Spicer. He’s so nice, and he listens and everything…”
And she’ll whisper some sensible things into daddy’s ear.
.
Nah…
Who am I kidding.
JPL
Tucker Carlson: “The counties who voted for you will do far worse under your plan”
Donald Trump: “Oh, I know…”
amk
when you constantly lie your ass off, you tend to lose the track.
MattF
@JPL: There are signs that Palin learned a thing or two from her experience in the spotlight. Painful, and slow… but actual learning. Trump has been in the spotlight all his adult life, and has learned nothing.
Feebog
Well, you’re calling the shots Sparky, make it happen. It’s almost like he doesn’t even realize he’s the POTUS.
steverinoCT
It’s been said before, but his ranting is like Queeg in the courtroom scene. Except that Queeg eventually realized he was ranting, ground to a halt, and tried to recover.
bystander
@cmorenc:
I’m afraid that leaves us vulnerable to Seven Days in May territory.
I hope Melania has a fidelity clause that she told Trump she’s invoking. Put off divorce for 5 years and get a big bonus…in addition to not sleeping with Twitler.
zach
@JPL:
You’d think so, but, nope, she tried and failed to join this circus by publicly angling for VA secretary and falling on her face in the process… which in itself is stupider than anything Trump has done — no self-interested politician wants anything to do with being VA secretary because no matter how good you are at the job everyone says you’re terrible.
amk
The nut is desperately signalling, fire me, fire me and the corrupt cowardly rethug heels aren’t up to it.
cmorenc
@mak:
Keep in mind that clowns exist in the nebulous region between hilariously ridiculous and terrifyingly, pathologically insane. It’s only the humility in some clown characters that allows them to be seen as funny in a warmly sympathetic way rather than menacingly insane. Trump has zero humility or genuine sympathy in his character, and his clown act is terrifying rather than humorous.
WereBear
Queeg was in the military. His personal crappiness was not called out on the ship; he was the Captain.
Trump has never had to accept reality in his entire life. And it ain’t gonna happen now.
Patricia Kayden
Trump is going after Meals on Wheels. Pretty cold-blooded. Caligula would be impressed.
hovercraft
He cannot back down, he will never back down. This is our best friend for as long as he’s president, ho matter how many minions he sends out to clean up his bullshit, he will always contradict them. They know this stuff is irresponsible, and or unhinged, but since it’s what he really believes and wants to do, he will keep saying it.Tucker is trying to gently tell him that the obvious lies do penetrate even to the rubes, and it makes it harder for them to defend him. The bullshit about maybe he will prove his lies eventually is fooling no one.
So keep phucking that chicken
rikyrah
Ryan Alone
ByJOSH MARSHALL
Published MARCH 15, 2017, 10:37 AM EDT
Here’s where we are. Speaker Ryan from about an hour ago: “This is something we wrote with President Trump.”
In other words, let me invite you back on my sinking boat. Ryan went on to say: “This is something we wrote with the Senate committees. So just so you know, Maria (Bartiromo), this is the plan we ran on all last year.” So he wants to invite a lot of people onboard.
As the Trumpcare/Ryan bill has endured a murderous three days, there’s been a growing move, from various feral and high profile Trump supporters outside the White House, as well as Breitbart News, to say the bill is at least politically a disaster and that Ryan is to blame.
Is this really what Trump and Republicans ran on, as Ryan claims?
Clearly, this is not what President Trump ran on.
The key is that Trump clearly does not know or care enough about health care policy to know whether he was lying or not. Will everybody get care? Of course. And it will be the best care. And it’ll be cheaper. This is just sales flimflam but he said it. Trump was assured it would be awesome and that was good enough for him.
That makes the situation volatile and unpredictable. Trump’s ideological commitment to this bill? Basically zero. Trump’s commitment to being loved and not looking stupid? Incalculable. Trump seems at least temporarily imprinted with the access/freedom Ryan mantra. But there’s every reason to think that is just skin deep. Trump may not care in any deep sense about millions of people losing their insurance coverage. But he did say his genius and deal making power would make things awesome for everyone. He wants everyone happy and loving him. This bill is not good for that agenda.
randy khan
The line about going back to the original order makes me believe he thinks this is some kind of negotiation, and that he’d show strength to the other side by saying “That’s all you get.” It’s like he doesn’t get that courts don’t work that way.
Patricia Kayden
@JPL: She is stupid. Trump and his ilk are just as stupid but unfortunately much more powerful.
germy
@WereBear:
That’s been their dream for thirty years. To find the ultimate charismatic salesman for their bill of goods.
Это курам на смех
The man is mentally ill. His illness prevents him from learning from his mistakes, or from admitting that he made them. His media flunkies and party stooges will never stop providing cover for his blunders. Only three years and ten months to go.
rikyrah
Obamacare Repeal Bill Takes Another Step Forward, Passage Still In Doubt
By ALICE OLLSTEIN
Published MARCH 16, 2017, 10:42 AM EDT
After mere minutes of debate, the House Budget Committee narrowly approved the GOP bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, 17 to 19. Three hardline conservative Republicans on the committee—Reps. David Brat (R-VA), David Gary Palmer (R-AL) and Mark Sanford (R-SC)—joined every single Democrat member in opposing the bill, but were unable to muster the numbers to stop its passage.
The bill had been expected to squeak through the Budget Committee, though the exact number of Republican defections was up in the air. The bill next goes to the House Rules Committee, where it could see significant revisions.
The successful vote to advance the bill comes amid a wave of criticisms of the legislation from the left, right, and center, and admissions from House leadership that it cannot pass in its current form.
Conservatives lawmakers in the House are trying to pull the bill farther to the right, fighting to impose work requirements for people on Medicaid and speed up the freeze of the Medicaid expansion. But moderates in the House and Senate—especially those from states who opted to expand Medicaid to hundreds of thousands of people—tell TPM these changes could drive away their votes.
FlipYrWhig
Let’s just look at this part once again, shall we?
What the fucking fucktastic fucking fuck is this? And this is the way he ALWAYS SOUNDS. It’s where imbecility meets ego and where meaning goes to die.
JPL
It’s 37 degrees out, and I am off to door knock for a candidate for city council. brrr
Patricia Kayden
@schrodingers_cat: Sadly CBP agents aren’t acting as if a Muslim Ban isn’t in effect.
rikyrah
Lips Pursed
Huck: Trump Should Ignore Travel Ban Ruling, Like Jackson With Trail Of Tears
ByALLEGRA KIRKLANDPublishedMARCH 16, 2017, 10:37 AM EDT
President Donald Trump may want to avoid taking legal advice from former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.
After a federal judge on Wednesday ordered a hold on Trump’s revised travel ban, Huckabee urged the President to ignore the ruling, citing Andrew Jackson’s refusal to enforce an 1832 Supreme Court decision affirming the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation. Jackson rejected the decision in Worcester v. Georgia, leading to the forcible expulsion of some 15,000 Cherokee from Georgia along the Trail of Tears. Some 4,000 died on that journey.
According to Huckabee, this is a solid historical precedent.
“Hoping @POTUS tells Hawaii judge what Andrew Jackson told overreaching court,” Huckabee wrote on Twitter. “I’ll ignore it and let the court enforce their order.”
………………………….
Other stalwart Trump supporters have held up Jackson as an example for the President to follow.
William Johnson, chairman of the white nationalist American Freedom Party, told TPM last year that Trump may need to override the judicial and legislative branches to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
“You could have a Trump do what Andrew Jackson did when he defied the U.S. Supreme Court and had the Trail of Tears,” Johnson said at the 2016 American Renaissance conference, a gathering of white nationalists, pointing out that the president “controls the armies.”
Jeffro
Btw it looks like that wacko Gorka might actually…get deported. No joke. He’s a member of a neo-Nazi group that’s not allowed to come here.
Boussinesque
@Downpuppy: I would pay good money to see Trump on Space Ghost Coast to Coast, just because I’m sure it would be absolutely bonkers.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: But the MSM will not call them what they are, White Supremacists. They still continue to beat around the economic anxiety bush.
rikyrah
New polling: Americans are unimpressed with GOP health care plan
03/16/17 09:24 AM—UPDATED 03/16/17 09:42 AM
By Steve Benen
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told conservative radio host Laura Ingraham yesterday, “Donald Trump is so excited about barnstorming America in Democrat [sic] Senate district states where he won [by] double digits like Missouri and Indiana and North Dakota and Montana.” The point wasn’t subtle: Ryan believes Senate Democrats from red states can be pushed to support the Republican health care plan by a president who’s eager to apply pressure.
In theory, that makes perfect sense. In practice, red-state Dems probably aren’t too worried about an unpopular president barnstorming through the country, pushing an unpopular bill.
The new Fox News poll, for example, shows Trump’s approval rating dropping to 43%, down five points from the network’s previous survey. The same poll found the health care plan the president is pushing is even less popular than he is:
“Do you favor or oppose the Republican health care plan that would replace Obamacare?”
Strongly favor: 17%
Somewhat favor: 17%
Somewhat oppose: 14%
Strongly oppose: 40%
schrodingers_cat
@Jeffro: Extreme vetting vets the vetters.
germy
@FlipYrWhig:
He means his speech, his performance got great reviews, but then his enemies in the press started making up stuff that distracted from his great reviews, if you know what I mean and I think you do.
But it was a great opening night. Great box office.
zhena gogolia
I’ve decided I’ll be calling either Ryan or McConnell every day. I’m sure it does no good, but it feels good doing it. You just get to leave a message. I had a message all ready today about how Jesus is going to separate the sheep from the goats, and Ryan’s going to be with the goats and be sent into the fiery pit. But — “The Speaker’s mailbox is full.” Drat!
Mustang Bobby
Reading that transcript, I’m left with the impression that when it comes to speaking without a teleprompter, Sarah Palin should sue Trump for trademark infringement.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
So that Horthy medal that has been seen on Gorka? He is apparently a sworn member of a Hungarian fascist group, a membership which is a bar to entry into the United States.
Yarrow
@MattF:
What in the world are you talking about? She didn’t learn anything unless it’s how to monetize her fame. That she did learn and practice quite well. But in a political sense or a human sense (as in how to be a kind and good person), nope. Not one bit of learning there.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
bemused
I saw Fubar’s rally last night. Instant stomach pains hit me. It was just hellish. He was horrible enough but the crowd sounded like a pack of snarling rabid dogs. They couldn’t wait for him to throw Hillary’s name out there and they screamed “Lock her up”. I couldn’t take my eyes off the batcrap nuts people behind him.
These unhinged people terrify me.
rikyrah
As Muslim ban flops again, Team Trump is its own worst enemy
03/16/17 08:00 AM—UPDATED 03/16/17 08:10 AM
By Steve Benen
Even if no one at the White House has ever been charged with a crime, members of Team Trump are probably familiar with the opening phrases of the Miranda warning: “You have the right to remain silent… Anything you say may be used against you in a court of law.” When it comes to Donald Trump’s Muslim ban, it’s advice the president and his aides should try to keep in mind.
The original version of the administration’s Muslim ban failed in the courts, with judges quoting Trump and his cohorts to prove that the policy was discriminatory. Last night, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson, a federal judge in Hawaii, blocked implementation of the Muslim Ban 2.0, by again citing remarks from the president and his allies.
Raoul
First, great post title.
Second, he beclowns himself with every breath he takes. Every move he makes. And we’ll all be watching him.
germy
Raoul
@germy and joyann:
The same kind of person who slashes $5.8 billion annually from NIH/CDC, since who needs cures or public health anyway?
Major Major Major Major
The radiotubes in the car are doing a piece about how some municipalities (cough Orange County cough) have upgraded luxury jails with big TVs, nicer beds, fewer shivs that inmates can pay to stay at. So that’s upsetting.
rikyrah
btw, in 2009 it was *Obama* who fielded Q’s for hrs re: Obamacare. Trump sends Price to CNN 2nite b/c Trump has no idea how insurance works
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) March 16, 2017
Aleta
Trump’s argument:
First point: The tweet was not a problem.
Because his speech was very successful. The reviews were great. The problem is somebody said something about other things and other people and that’s not right and everyone knows it.
Second point: The tweet was a mistake.
The news is fake. And the tweet was just one mistake out of all his other tweets, which are all great.
Third point: Moreover, the tweet was not a mistake and he will prove it.
Fourth point: Just wait.
He’ll prove it but not now. Later. Or maybe before then. Or maybe before that. They’re working on it now.
YellowDog
The only part of Spicer’s explanation I find remotely plausible is that “tapp” meant surveillance, because I don’t think Trump can spell “surveillance.” I would give Spicer credit if he just said his boss can’t spell. There is ample evidence for that.
MattF
@Yarrow: She’s figured out what ‘crony capitalism‘ is.
I’m not saying I agree with her about 99% of what she says. I’m saying there are signs of a light in the attic.
mak
@cmorenc:
“[M]enacingly insane” describes Trump to a “T,” which is probably why I’m so comfortable using the term to describe him. How many other words can imply both stupid and malicious, while allowing for the possibility of mere cluelessness?
rikyrah
Trump and the Parasitic Presidency
Charles M. Blow
MARCH 13, 2017
We have now passed the 50-day mark of the Donald Trump administration and one thing is clear: There is no new Trump.
There is only the same old Trump: Dangerous and unpredictable, gauche and greedy, temperamentally unsuited and emotionally unsound.
If you were trying to create in a lab a person with character traits more unbecoming in a president, it would be hard to outdo the one we have.
He continues to have explosive Twitter episodes — presumably in response to some news he finds unflattering or some conspiracy floated by fringe outlets — that make him look not only foolish, but unhinged.
………………………………………
As The Hill reported on Saturday, “President Trump paid a visit to one of his golf courses again Saturday, marking apparently his ninth visit to a golf course in the seven weeks since he took office.” The site pointed out, “Trump has made several weekend trips to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., as well, calling the property the ‘Winter White House.’ ”
In February, numerous media outlets pointed out that Trump was spending on travel in a month nearly as much as what the Obamas spent in a year. This doesn’t even include the travel and security costs of Trump’s children or the cost of Trump’s wife and son remaining in Trump Tower in New York, at least for now, which is estimated to cost taxpayers hundreds of thousand of dollars a day.
This was particularly jarring because Trump had been a chief critic of the amount of money the Obamas spent on vacations. Indeed, Trump tweeted in 2012: “President @BarackObama’s vacation is costing taxpayers millions of dollars — Unbelievable!”
No, what is unbelievable is the staggering nature of the hypocrisy of Trump and his current spending and the near silence of Obama’s conservative critics.
Trump appears to view the Treasury as a personal piggy bank and the presidency as a part-time job.
randy khan
@rikyrah:
When people hold up the Trail of Tears as a model, it tells you a lot about them. Next they’ll be talking about how great Plessy v. Ferguson was.
germy
@bemused:
I saw a clip this morning and I felt sick, too. Looked like a big crowd.
I felt a little better after seeing this:
https://twitter.com/Amy_Siskind/status/842188603849596929
The crowds are thinning.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@germy: Most if not all Republicans.
Peale
@randy khan: I don’t think he understands why courts would even care if people who aren’t wealthy are harmed by things like cancelling their student visas or stranding them away from their property and jobs. I mean, its not his property so it isn’t all that valuable. Probably just a modest home in the suburbs or some kind of boring apartment full of worthless possessions. I bet the average immigrant family doesn’t even have much in the way of gold plated toilet seats, so they aren’t really losing all that much.
Corner Stone
@FlipYrWhig:
If you have the stomach to look through basically any speech or answer he gives there are whole segments that sound exactly like that. Look at what he said to the troops back in Feb:
“All over Europe, it’s happening,” Trump said. “It’s gotten to a point where it’s not even being reported. And in many cases, the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it. They have their reasons and you understand that.”
“They have their reasons and you understand that.”
The man is flat out bonkers fucking crazy. And paranoid. And legitimately stupid.
Raoul
@dr. bloor:
It is also likely to be the flaw that torpedoes his presidency and quite possibly leaves him in tattered personal ruins. He could keep up the grifts via his lies, bullying, and bullshit when he was an over-leveraged real estate frontman and TeeVee personality.
But now that his every move is watched and dissected, every associate of his who thrived in shadows has lights turned on them? He is a cornered man, and I think he knows it. He needed that unhinged rally last night to ‘feel better’ because he is fueled by the most gigantic narcissism imaginable, coupled with gargantuan incompetence and incoherence.
Only his MAGAs are dumb enough to feed him praise. And they can’t even half-fill a mid-size arena. For the frickin’ President of the Uuuuunited States. Pathetic, tragic joke. The only question is, how far down can he take America as he unravels?
different-church-lady
Time once again for one of my periodic reminders that there is a critical difference between a liar and a bullshitter.
germy
@Raoul:
Peale
@Corner Stone: The only thing that is going to hold him in place is flattery through what would for other people would be considered bribery. Since he’s a state actor now, it would be known as tribute. That’s about it. He appears sane enough to respond to offers of financial gain. It may be what saves the world/
MattF
@germy: Maybe busking in subway stations.
Peale
@germy: The northwest Rockland County Fair beckons.
Major Major Major Major
@randy khan: Trump’s talked about Jackson as a model, hasn’t he?
randy khan
@Peale:
Hard to disagree with that. I’m sure he weighs the harm to him (which actually is minimal or nonexistent) from these decisions very heavily and weighs the harm to others from his actions not at all.
different-church-lady
@Peale: “PUPPET SHOW AND
SPINAL TAPDONALD TRUMP”FlipYrWhig
@germy:
Even if that’s what he meant, who are the “other people”? He gave a speech and then the media started to talk about the Trump-Russia connection, right? That’s what led to the tweets about wiretapping. That’s not “other people,” that’s his own fool self. Every other sentence out of his mouth is about how “people” and “they” do… things… that are… bad.
Это курам на смех
The Truman Show guy didn’t know that his life was a TV show. The Trump Show guy doesn’t know that his life is not a TV show.
But he will sign anything they put in front of him as long as there are lots of cameras in the room. “Sir, this bill to destroy the federal government is going to get great ratings. They will put you on more magazine covers!”
Yarrow
@MattF: There are no signs of a light on in her attic. Do not be fooled. She did not figure out what “crony capitalism” is. She pays people to write her stuff for her. If she had any input into that column at all she probably told her ghostwriter she was angry with Trump because he didn’t give her a job in his administration when she was one of his first supporters, and told the ghostwriter to do something with that.
germy
@FlipYrWhig:
He talks like every guy in Sales I’ve ever known. The other people are the guys “in production” who fucked up the ad, or the auto dealership service dept. who didn’t understand his instructions.
He sounds like every guy who ever sold me a used car. He sounds like every sales guy in every place I’ve ever worked. He sounds like the realtor I had to deal with when we sold our house.
different-church-lady
@germy: In other words, he sounds like “America”
Aleta
“”This ruling makes us look weak.”
“Which we no longer are.”
“Just look at our borders.”
So no wall needed? Because barring innocent people makes us strong.
Goku
@FlipYrWhig: I like the part where he says they “shouldn’t have been allowed to do that..”
gratuitous
@randy khan: Secretary of Education DeVos is way ahead of the curve on that one. Remember her demented comment about how historically black colleges were evidence of the innate swellness of school choice? Dumbasses, all.
But I like President Trump’s comment to Carlson, “Let’s see whether or not I proved” my scurrilous tweet about my predecessor tapping my phone. The original tweet indicated that he had the goods to back up his allegation right in his tiny little hands. Nearly two weeks later, and his position is “wait another two weeks.” Quelle la fuque? Either you have the evidence to back up your incendiary charge or you don’t, asshole. This isn’t one of your stupid game shows where we all have to tune in for the Big Reveal. This is the President of the United States accusing his predecessor of a high crime.
There’s a difference. I’ll be a lot happier when the political press remembers that someday in the hopefully not-too-distant future.
Yarrow
@germy: I saw a clip of the rally on TV this morning. It looked weird to me, like they’d narrowed it up to make the crowd looked bigger than it really was–I mean they sort of shoved all the people into the middle so on camera it would look like a bigger crowd. Glad to see I was right about that.
Goku
@Corner Stone: Luggenpress!
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: Trump has Jackson’s portrait hanging in the oval office.
FlipYrWhig
@germy: Yep, it’s that kind of macho gladhanding thing. “Those guys, takes all kinds, believe me, we’ve all been there, am I right or am I right?”
Petorado
Reading the Trump – Carlson exchange was an instruction manual into how Trump crafts his own conspiracy theories about the world around him. He really puts a lot of work into making up stories that deny obvious realities.
It’s even stunning to see Carlson, of all people, dropping loud hints to Trump to lay off Twitter because it’s making even his most purple-tongued kool aid drinkers think he’s a fool.
pamelabrown53
@Major Major Major Major: #72.
Didn’t Trump visit Andrew Jackson’s grave to lay a wreath? The white supremacists..er “ethno-nationalists” responded with nocturnal emissions. Undercuts the WWC theory of “economic anxiety”.
Yarrow
@hovercraft:
The “wish he’d be more careful” echoes what I’ve heard anecdotally from people I’d guess were Trump voters. They’re just upset he isn’t dogwhistling like Republicans before him have always done. It makes them uncomfortable.
Jeffro
@gratuitous:
So does that mean a “Trump Unit” (h/t “Friedman Unit”) is two weeks, four weeks, or never? I say never – that’s how long it will take him to back up any given nutso claim of his. What do y’all think?
Kay
I got a kick out of the empty seats at the Trump rally. No one wants to hear about his actual plans. They were coming for “lock her up!”
He still doesn’t really “get” being President. He said that if “my people” are hurt by the Trumpcare bill he won’t sign it.
IMAGINE if Obama had said that? It would be blanket coverage on cable news for 2 weeks. I’ve also noticed that Trump is never described as “arrogant” or “overreaching”. Pray tell, why is that ? :)
Bruce K
@Boussinesque: You know where else I’d like to see Donald Trump?
The “Celebrity Brain Crash” segment of “The Grand Tour”. Jeremy Clarkson actually said he’d love to have Trump on Celebrity Brain Crash.
(This may be rather obscure, but if you feed “Celebrity Brain Crash” into a search engine, you should quickly get what I mean, if you know what I mean…)
Betty Cracker
@Raoul:
Please let this come to pass soon and with minimal damage to anyone not named Trump or associated with his vile brand. Nothing will ever remove the stain of Trump’s election; I fear it is a sign of this country’s terminal decline, a lurch downward that cannot be reversed altogether. But every day he occupies that office makes the decline more precipitous, so the speedy end of his reign is to be fervently hoped for. I want him gone, and I’d relish seeing him and everyone associated with him humiliated and pauperized.
FlipYrWhig
@Kay:
I’ve been thinking the same thing. He _still_, EVEN NOW, has no idea what the president does or can do. I feel like he’s thinking of it as something like Galaxy Quest, where if you do everything you’ve seen on the TV show, the machines actually work.
NeenerNeener
I thought I read somewhere that Twitler had 24 million followers, not 100 million, but I don’t want to get anywhere near his Twitter feeds to verify that.
SiubhanDuinne
@Major Major Major Major:
@Yarrow:
I’d be willing to bet good money that all the Jackson admiration (the selection of the portrait, the description of Trump’s inaugural speech as “Jacksonian”) comes directly from Bannon — in fact, I’d be surprised if Trump had the faintest idea who Jackson was or why he was significant in U.S. history. He recognised the picture because $20 bills, that’s all.
Kay
I went to an “Indivisible” meeting this week. It was good. The “chapter” was formed by two local woman. They are currently meeting in a church but they’re getting kicked out of there so they asked if the local Democratic Party can find them a meeting space, which I think I can do.
I’m still trying to figure out what I’ll do in all this but it was nice to meet liberals I had never met before. The two “leaders” were both Bernie supporters in the primary but Bernie was the first political candidate one of them has supported and she’s 37 so she wants “seasoned” people to help her.
I hate the word “seasoned” but I will help her anyway :)
hedgehog the occasional commenter
@germy: Cheyenne Frontier Days could use a new act.
Miss Bianca
Hey, Tucker, I want Trump to “succeed badly” too, and I didn’t even vote for the orange mofo!
different-church-lady
@Jeffro: It’s the biggest unit. The biggest. Believe me.
Another Scott
I’m not an MD, but this “wiretap” issue is yet another point that illustrates how brain damaged he is.
He read that the Trump Tower was wiretapped by Obama (on InfoWars or Breitbart or in some crazy e-mail forwarded to him), therefore it’s true. Because those “news” sites always tell him the truth. And since other news outlets have had stories about it, they must have come to the same conclusion, because it’s the truth. (He can’t or won’t read other sources for himself to see that they’ve debunked it.)
It doesn’t matter what the CIA or FBI or PDBs say, he doesn’t read those things anyway, because he’s so smart and knows more than them anyway.
I don’t think there’s anything more to it than that. He’s convinced he’s right, he’s not playing games, and he really doesn’t understand why he’s getting so much push-back about it. He’s too brain damaged to understand.
He’s not playing games, he really believes this stuff.
And it’s very, very dangerous to the federal government, the country, and the world.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
sherparick
@Patricia Kayden: Women’s Infant and Children Food Service (WIC) as well. Time for those mewling babies and fetuses to learn “self-reliance” and that there are “no free lunches.” Nothing says “pro-life” better than hungry, malnourished babies and children.
By the way, are brilliant MSM media just let it pass by that Budget Director Mulrovney was gave a speech at the John Birch Society last summer. But her E-mails cries Glenn Greenwald and the NY Times!!! Thank you Comey, Thank you Dr. Stein, Thank you Putin.
germy
@Kay:
Has anyone used the word “feckless” yet?
One of our “far-left” balloon-juice trolls used the word “feckless” to describe Obama. That’s right out of the fox instruction manual.
manyakitty
@Bruce K: Only if he actually crashes into something, though.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: It’s interesting to see how the groups that have sprung up since the election interact with the local Dem organizations. We’re still feeling our way along that path in my area.
Kay
@germy:
Ugh. “Feckless” is such a bad description of Obama.
“Irresponsible” ? Really? Sorry, but that’s not it AT ALL. Try again! I think part of the reason Republicans hated him is because he has the personal characteristics they claim to admire but don’t actually admire.
Miss Bianca
@JPL: “They’re losers, see? I mean, they VOTED FOR ME, for Chrissakes. They should have known that I’d screw them, I screw everybody, that’s part of winning bigly. There’s winners and losers, right? The losers have to lose for the winners to WIN, Tucker, that’s what WINNING is all about!”
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
They asked me a lot about campaign finance, state rules, which I know and I was tempted to tell them they are on the wrong track (they are) but for once I kept my mouth shut. Democrats don’t need fundraisers. They need bodies- people. I’m trying to stay open and not be bossy. I’ll let you know how long THAT lasts :)
Gelfling 545
@schrodingers_cat:
.
Which is a thing I’ll bet you never thought you’d say about anybody.
randy khan
Just a reminder (which many of you don’t need) to keep calling your Congresscritters. I talked to the local offices of all three of mine today about the budget and specifically the cuts in environmental protection, research, programs for poor people (Meals on Wheels is bad enough, but cutting LEAP is just cruel), and cultural funding.
My rep and Senators are all D-side, and having been fighting the good fight, but even there positive reinforcement is good.
FlipYrWhig
@Kay: Somewhere along the way, people got the idea that “feckless” was a polite way to say “dickless.”
zhena gogolia
@Yarrow:
That made me sick to my stomach when I saw it.
hovercraft
The interview is demented, he’s all over the place and has the attention span of flea. Apologies to fleas.
I swear a four year old could give you a more succinct account of the constitution than that gobbledygook.
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah: Yes, Huckabee, you useless umbilical stump…because breaking the law of the land in order to crap on the poor, the powerless and the dispossessed is EXACTLY what Jesus would have advocated!
schrodingers_cat
@Gelfling 545: True. Its like a T voters wanted to say a giant fuck you to O voters. See you voted for the black guy see who you made us vote for.
schrodingers_cat
@Yarrow: Next to Hitler’s portrait?
hovercraft
@zhena gogolia:
Because you are racist against the most oppressed people in America, white people, Jackson did great things for them, he is a hero.
SiubhanDuinne
@Kay:
I expect you can be peppery, though!
Yarrow
@zhena gogolia: Apparently Reagan, LBJ and Clinton also hung portraits of Jackson in the oval office during their terms. So Trump isn’t the only one.
Steve in the ATL
@Kay:
Yeah well the danged EEOC won’t let us call people “old” anymore!
Another Scott
@Aleta: The Border Wall won’t be a “wall”…
His minions won’t be happy. They were promised a giant, beautiful, magnificent Wall…
:-/
There are other reports that he’s proposing to hire lots of lawyers for the project, presumably to try to condemn people’s land on the border to take the land for almost nothing…
Cheers,
Scott.
Miss Bianca
@different-church-lady: thank you for this. first good laugh of the day.
captnkurt
@NeenerNeener:
You’re correct.
hovercraft
@NeenerNeener:
From his comment I think he means follower on all the platforms combined, twitter, instagram, facebook. At least that will be his defense if challenged, but knowing the media, they’ll just adopt that number and tack on the most ever by any president. WIN!!
TriassicSands
From Paul Waldman at the WaPo:
Awhile back I posed a question on BJ. Knowing what you knew about Trump before the election, now that he’s president are things worse, better, or what you expected. I’ve decided I can’t believe anyone who says things are just how they expected them to be.
Trump’s capacity for insanity and incompetence is simply beyond the ability of the mortal mind to grasp. I expected things to be a complete mess. Trump’s total incompetence was obvious before the election. But I’ve never seen anyone as stupid and boneheaded as Trump. He makes Louis Gomert look like Albert Einstein’s smarter brother. Compared with Trump, Betsy DeVos is Madame Curie. It is, in the truest sense of the word, unbelievable.
And the delusions. They just keep coming. One bizarre conspiracy theory or whacked out idea after another. If you say you knew it would be this bad, I won’t argue. I just can’t believe it.
Steve in the ATL
@hovercraft: I believe he’s including the POTUS twitter account in that number
TriassicSands
Help! Our mentally ill adolescent is high on PCP and he’s gotten his hands on the car keys. Right now, he’s speeding down the freeway against traffic at 200mph and he doesn’t even have his hands on the steering wheel.
Oh, no! Now he’s chugging gallon jugs of Everclear and throwing the bottles out the window.
What the hell do we do?
(Making America great again — just like it was before the Civil War.)
Miss Bianca
@FlipYrWhig: and here I thought “feckless” meant “no fecks left to give”. SAD!
Kropadope
@rikyrah:
So they want to impose Medicaid work requirements…but freeze the Medicaid expansion…which mostly benefitted the working poor…
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah: Huckabee and his spawn are perfect examples of people who claim to be “Christians” but are not in any sense of that word what they claim to be.
pluky
@hovercraft: first rule of 12th Step work: you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped.
Villago Delenda Est
@captnkurt: I dare say a healthy percentage of his Twitter followers are there to point and laugh.
Gelfling 545
@germy: Good translation. Where did you study to become fluent in loon?
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: @Kay:
Salty, too!
Got the word from our Democratic Party Central Committee members who attended the state Democratic meeting that a lot of self-described “progressives” got elected to state-level positions. If that means that they’re willing to become part of the solution – and work to get Dem candidates elected state-wide – I say, “great”. However, there is a part of me that wants to say, “wait till someone calls you a sell-out now that you have to oversee how the sausage gets made. Maybe you’ll all be a little more tolerant of us old – sorry, ‘seasoned’ – ‘pragmatical progressive’ farts.”
Villago Delenda Est
@Raoul: The same sort of person who slashes the budget of the Coast Guard, because no one ever uses a boat to enter the country.
Percysowner
@ Jeffro: So we have actual Nazis in the Administration and
@rikyrah:Mike Huckabee thinks we should go for another round of genocide. What has America become?
Jeffro
@Kay:
He’s a complete douche and his biggest fans are douches who just run on spite 24/7. Fortunately, they are a minority of a minority.
Gelfling 545
@MattF: or at least that someone may be attempting to screw in a bulb?
Corner Stone
@Jeffro:
I’ll go with never. Was it in a thread AL had up? or somebody’s twit feed I can’t remember but I saw a reporter called all these different SecState of US states and asked if Trump admin had contacted them re: voter fraud. All of them said No.
Jeffro
@Percysowner: Yup – a real, live Nazi! I can haz national meeedia coverage pleas?
ruckus
@MattF:
It’s a one watt bulb in broad daylight. It may be a light, but it’s usefulness is zero.
D58826
I wonder if that ‘go back to first’ refers to the original EO or his early campaign promise to ban all Muslims from the country
Bruce K
@manyakitty: I wouldn’t mind that, if it was something like the season finale where a Formula 1 driver crashed into a hovercraft propeller (James May spent the rest of the episode squeegeeing the guest off the studio windows).
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Corner Stone: Sam LevineVerified account @ srl 23h23 hours ago
I called all 50 secretaries of state to ask them if they’ve heard from WH about voter fraud
Not one said they had
Kropadope
@D58826:
Both of them, Katie!
catclub
@TriassicSands:
Not exactly.
The Federal Government is a pretty big organization. Virtually all the employees have been coming in to work everyday during the new admin.
So a complete mess, but everything continues to run in some fashion.
Aleta
@Another Scott: Yes I read that the existing section of (fence? wall?) in Texas was very expensive, and involved lengthy court fights, because land had to be taken by eminent domain and Texans fought. By time estimate from that, a wall would take (500 jillion years?) or something–
Kropadope
@Jeffro:
Every time I see that name I think of this motherfucker:
TFinSF
How much of the Instagram? ALL OF IT.
Cermet
@Villago Delenda Est: You just pointed out only part of the truth; in fact, truly over 99% of the people in this country who claim to be christians are really not. Zero christians would support any war, police action or even those who do those deeds – ie the troops; a christian would give far more of their earnings to the poor than that 99% do give. A christian would offer love to all muslims including the terrorist attackers and never agree that they should be executed or anyone tortured. The list goes on.
Jeffro
@Kropadope: Whoa nellie!
Come on, compliant national media! Ask Trumpov about the Nazi on his national security council…and when he jumps to defend Bannon, tell him, “No, the other Nazi…”
Nazis and Russians running our government. And not even running it WELL…sheesh…
Timurid
Quelle surprise…
Betty Cracker
@captnkurt: And many of them are hate-followers. Me, for one!
Patricia Kayden
@sherparick:
And a top Trump spokesman may have pledged allegiance to a Hungarian Nazi org. This administration is chock full of Nazi/White Supremacists.
TenguPhule
@cmorenc:
We will welcome our new Chinese overlords.
Barbara
@Villago Delenda Est: But they do believe bigly in nepotism.
TenguPhule
@catclub:
Only until the new debt ceiling dies stillborn. Then everything begins to grind to a halt. Bigly!
TenguPhule
@TriassicSands:
Every day I come up with the eventual worst case scenario.
Every day I have to revise the timetable forward.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@cmorenc:
This scares the crap outta me… seriously, all snarking aside… and I’m afraid the most likely crisis will involve North Korea, whose leader is as crazy as Trump, has hair as bad as Trump, and has access to nuclear weapons like Trump…
Gelfling 545
@Kay: I joined Stronger Together – WNY here. They seem to be on the right track with getting people to events, coordinating with the county Dem Committee and forming allianced with already existing local groups like the WNY Peace Center, Pilgrim-St Lukes UCC ( which is a sanctuary church), etc. One area of focus is getting more people willing to run against Trump cronies like our unesteemed county sheriff and the deplorable Chris Collins. I feel cautiously optimistic.
TenguPhule
@Raoul:
Iraq, Post-Saddam.
TenguPhule
@Thru the Looking Glass…: And worst of all, more likely to be believed by the international community then Trump.
Gelfling 545
@schrodingers_cat: I expect that’s precisely their reasoning. Well, I say “reasoning”….
Peale
@Patricia Kayden: But we can’t trust those Mexicans to ever integrate into our society because they are too tied to their old country, don’tcha know.
Gelfling 545
@SiubhanDuinne: As a friend of mine says, I’m no spring chicken. I am a well seasoned hen.
Lyrebird
@bemused: Did you see this review of the Florida rally? I’m not in the same worldview as the pastor who attended, but I see why he called it “demonic” and am so glad he did! Can we just get this Republican Admin exorcised already?
RobertB
@Kropadope: Glotka is one of the nicer folks in the trilogy. At least he comes by being a scumbag honestly.
Lyrebird
@TriassicSands: I’m not sure I understand… for more than a few commenters, the “how bad would it be?” calculation was directly related to our volunteering time & efforts and/or sending chunks of change to do everything we could to avoid this day.
The Moar You Know
@TriassicSands: In some ways better (that won’t last), most worse, because that sack of orange crap is incompetent beyond my wildest dreams.
Better: no legislation passed at all. That will change, but he’s so out to lunch that the process of American politics is at an utter standstill. Every day in which nothing gets done is an undeserved blessing.
Worse: I knew he was incompetent. I knew he was petty and vindictive. I knew he was stupid. I did not in my wildest dreams imagine that he was functional but utterly insane. And I mean “insane” in the classic meaning of the word, his mind is literally broken.
Gelfling 545
The is not actually a surprise to anybody but it IS surprising to find it in the Buffalo News.
http://buffalonews.com/2017/03/16/trumps-budget-takes-aim-states-elected/
Thru the Looking Glass...
@TenguPhule: Ya know, when you put it that way… you’re probably right…
I’m waiting for the night security at the WH finds Trump wandering the grounds about 4 am, wearing nothing but an untied bathrobe, tweeting away like mad…
Frankensteinbeck
@Percysowner:
What it always was, a nation where roughly half of all whites will vote for racism over any other issue. Everybody knew this until Reagan assured whites it couldn’t be true and it was so unbelievably rude to call anyone a racist that reasonable people are obligated to accept even the thinnest and most transparently inaccurate excuse.
amk
rethugs dominated senate intelligence committee to the twitler pos : You Lie.
boatboy_srq
So he’s paranoid as well as psychopathically narcissistic.
rikyrah
@Kay:
You should tell Them , from your seasoned POV they need bodies, and give them examples.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@amk: Whoa…
Less than two months into the Trump Years, and his own party is already turning against him in a very public way…
What will we starting hearing next, that Trump was never really a True Republican™ in the first place and is most likely a double agent for the Democrats, installed to deliberately sully the reputation of Conservatism? And Russia? Once again, it’s all just a liberal plot…
Jeffro
Oh hey, I called it (not that it was a hard leap of the imagination): HuffPo headline calling Trumpov’s budget proposal a “Billionaires’ Budget”.
Not much for the peasants, but a whole lotta more security. Billionaires don’t need Meals On Wheels but they do need a mighty, mighty military to protect their wealth.
Keep it up, Trumpov, and your billionaire friends might want to buy out every pitchfork factory & torch bundler…and soon…
Kropadope
@RobertB: In fairness, Jezal was pretty well redeemed by the end, though in a shitty situation. And Logen wasn’t really in control when he did truly horrid shit.
randy khan
@TriassicSands:
My answer to your question is that I thought there was a range of possible outcomes – a best-case scenario in which he turned out to be sort of Javits Republican, a more likely case where he’d govern like a fairly standard current Republican and a worst case in which he actually meant all of that stuff (with the worst case more likely than the best case by a pretty good margin), plus on the worst case side the hard-to-calculate chance that he’d get us into a really awful war.
So far, it’s pretty much worst case, with the added bonus of appointing mostly awful standard current Republicans to the Cabinet. The small bonus in the worst case is that I didn’t really imagine he’d be this incompetent (incompetent, yes, but not at this level), which means that so far he’s actually done less damage than he could have done. It’s not much comfort, though.
SiubhanDuinne
@Gelfling 545:
I like! You may expect to hear me say it about myself in 3… 2…1….
Keith P.
Hey, if Trump wants to burn up political capital and erode his credibility further, I’m all for it.
Aleta
So Trump promised jobs would come to the Appalachian states. But his proposed budget cuts completely defund (along with lots of other programs) many small economic programs that are partially funded in the 13 states under the Appalachian Regional Commission. (It’s to be abolished.) I quickly skimmed their funding chart for this year and saw (these are only a few) that their budget (of about $114 million IIRC) goes not only to
job training programs
–in patient care, EMMT, welding, dental hygiene, auto logistics, culinary arts, and more–
but also to create jobs
–construction projects (sewer extensions and construction, a foot bridge, road extensions, a solar supply chain, bringing wifi to downtowns, trail work), a Mobile Telemedicine Lab, mobile healthcare, waste water treatment, and more–
and to support small farmers
–farm school, farmers markets, cold storage (used by small farms and farmer’s markets), medicinal herb growers, maybe more.
(I also saw funding for dental education, education for victims of domestic violence, nursing equipment, mental health services, medical equipment, culinary arts equipment, solar equipment, lots more.)
And these cuts will put some employed people out of work (just as abolishing the NEA and other programs will). Those people, being skilled with recent work history, will be candidates for any new jobs that might be create.
Republicans: Lied about jobs and workers, unless tied to their own profit.
Corner Stone
BOOM, people! Motherfucking boom!
The Oxford Comma: Great For Listing, Pontificating, And Winning Court Cases
“The milk and cream company based in Portland, Maine, likely never appreciated the serial comma — also known as an Oxford comma — so much as it did Monday, when the lack of that little curved stroke cost the company an appeals court ruling that centered on overtime rules for drivers”
FlipYrWhig
@Aleta: No, see, he’ll replace those sucky things with “something tremendous, believe me, you’ll get tired of telling me how tremendous it is, you’ll call me up and say, ‘Trump, stop being so tremendous, we’re sick of tremendous.'”
germy
@Corner Stone: Always good to see the Oxford Comma in the news.
Patricia Kayden
Here is a series of tweets summing up how devastating Trump’s budget cuts are going to be. He’s really sticking it to all those economically anxious voters who supported him last November..
PST
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: You’ve got to give Gorka some credit for not trying to hide his fascism. I think the bocskai he chose to wear to the inauguration with his medals proudly on display make him look like Neoreactionary Cat. He certainly has the right politics. “The opposite of quality is equality.”
Corner Stone
@Patricia Kayden: There is no way that budget makes it anywhere but the last train stop in Outrageville.
Kay
So nice! His sign says “I’ve made a huge mistake”
Let’s all be friends with him! But not in a scary, stalkerish way. Maybe don’t bother him at all, on second thought.
smintheus
Gorsuch defended Bush’s torture and illegal surveillance policies, wrote an op-ed claiming Bush’s signing statement gave him the right to ignore a new ban on torture, chortled when new legislation stripped courts of habeas corpus oversight, and thought Gitmo was peachy keen. He was the DOJ’s point man for “terror litigation”.
Nice family guy.
Corner Stone
@smintheus: Gorsuch is a highly qualified, moderate, mainstream judge. Period.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
Only you’ll be the one on that deathmarch, you fecking facist Johnson.
geg6
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yes, it’s Bannon. I read several interviews (from the past, apparently Bannon is too awesome to give interviews now) where he expressed his admiration for Jackson.
danielx
Word salad*.
I’ve joked about it, but this is truly government by stream of consciousness. He cannot focus on a single topic for more than a few minutes at a time, unless the topic is a perceived slight to his person or authority. He manufactures his own reality – he thinks something should be true, it ought to be true, therefore it is true. If it turns out not to be true, he never said it in the first place, no matter if there is testimony to the contrary.
*I admit to to being spoiled by Obama, who could read names from a phone directory and make it sound like Churchillian rhetoric.
Aimai
@captnkurt: he has 24 million followers and he is kicking them all off health care.
ThresherK
@randy khan: If he were a Javits Republican, I’d think his ignorance and uncuriousness about how government works (either by the book, or in practice) would nullify any mitigating effects on the GOP he might have.
Just one example: The “soft skill” of counting votes was a hilite of LBJ’s Senatorial career, and that was a big plus when he became President. Not to mention the shoulder-hugging version of persuasion he had.
I’m three time zones away from California, so I haven’t the direct experience, but if Arnold Schwarznegger was ever “worst first-time elected executive officeholder”, I think Trump wrested that title away before February.
smintheus
@Corner Stone: With special qualifications in the area of justifying criminal activity by Republican presidents.
Lizzy L
According to snopes, Meals on Wheels only gets about 3% of its budget from federal funds. So while removing those funds is ugly and immoral, it will not cripple the organization. WIC, on the other hand, is wholly funded (through block grants to the states) by the federal government.
I don’t even want to talk about the Coast Guard. Those jackasses…
randy khan
@ThresherK:
Well, like I said, that was the best case scenario. I didn’t expect it, but he used to be a lot more to the middle than he is today. And, as you say, the level of incompetence would have made a mess even in that scenario.
Yarrow
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
The Never Trumpers have been saying that for awhile now. The problem is, he was the nominee of the Republican Party for President of the United States and he won the election in that role. They had their chance to disavow him and they didn’t. They can pretend he’s not a Republican, but their Republican voters voted for him in their Republican primaries. He is a Republican because he said he wanted to be one and they agreed he was one.
He’s gotten so far being a Republican, that to pretend he’s not one is a fantasy. Of course with their voters they’ll believe anything tossed their way. But It’s going to be a tough job to convince most people he’s not a Republican.
Bill Arnold
@TriassicSands:
I don’t see a link to the Washington post transcript of the Trump/Carson interview, so
Donald Trump’s explanation of his wire-tapping tweets will shock and amaze you
Like TriassicSands, I am embarrassed (and appalled) that this man was elected as and remains the POTUS.
His antics should be ignored, and focus entirely directed on the damage that his administration (including Bannon and crew) and its accomplices in the House and Senate are doing or attempting.
JustRuss
@Corner Stone: Oxford Comma, ignore it at your peril!
randy khan
@Lizzy L:
Of course, with Meals on Wheels, it’s the symbolism that matters. It’s largely a volunteer operation, and both the beneficiaries and the volunteers will be ticked off.
TriassicSands
Let me clarify. The question was meant to refer to Trump, not the cabinet, not the government, but Trump. I’ve got to run again, but let me apologize for not being clear. As I just scanned the responses most of you eventually hit the point I was trying to make — Trump, himself, is worse than we could have imagined.
@catclub:
Complete mess refers to Trump not the entire government.
@The Moar You Know:
That’s what I was asking, though I clearly, in my haste, didn’t make it clear enough.
@Bill Arnold:
I didn’t put the link in. Sorry, I’m running around, in and out, and don’t have much time. You can find the link in Paul Waldman’s opinion column at the WaPo (“Why Is the Trump Presidency Such a Rolling Disaster?”) But you don’t have to read it because…I think you can read any transcript of any interview with Trump and come to the same conclusion — the guy is batshit crazy. His ignorance battles his stupidity and vileness to form a package that is incomprehensively bad. And to make things worse, as was pointed out, his mind is broken.
Gotta go.
catclub
@ThresherK:
Not even close.
There is this guy in the governor’s office in Maine….
Also, Gov Sarah Palin of Alaska.
A Ghost to Most
@TenguPhule:
Actually, I’ve relaxed my timetable back. I hadn’t counted on this much resistance from so many unexpected people, and the sheer incompetence of these people blunts their evil.
Lyrebird
@Betty Cracker: Glad you took a news break,… and glad you’re back to cooking up pretty much the funniest possible take on this dangerous farce of an administration.
You and this judge (quoting from a quote in LGM) made my day:
philadelphialawyer
@different-church-lady: Never bought into that. Bullshitting is a form of lying. Bullshit typically consists of elaborate, distracting, pseudo explanations. But it is still lying. Because the speaker knows it isn’t true. The real distinction being sought here is between conscious lying and reckless disregard for the truth. And the normal terms for those two forms of dishonesty are already established. All the “Bullshitting” guy did was create confusion.
philadelphialawyer
@Yarrow: Jackson did other things besides the Trail of Tears, and I think past presidents and others have admired him in spite of his treatment of Native Americans not because of it, whereas the Trumpies see the Trail of Tears itself as admirable.