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You are here: Home / Politics / Impeachment / Not the Onion: signing statement edition

Not the Onion: signing statement edition

by David Anderson|  August 2, 20175:17 pm| 124 Comments

This post is in: Impeachment, Open Threads, I Can't Believe We're Losing to These People, Not Normal

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OMFG this signing statement by Trump on the sanctions bill: https://t.co/ffKSV3kmT8 pic.twitter.com/dA9NRe7y6e

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) August 2, 2017

Read it and bang your head into the wall until the darkness engulfs and silence descends.

Open thread

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Previous Post: « Rainy Wednesday (Open Thread)
Next Post: Open Thread: Possibly the Saddest “Pivot” of This Sad Week »

Reader Interactions

124Comments

  1. 1.

    hitchhiker

    August 2, 2017 at 5:28 pm

    Wow.

    An adult with a White House job wrote that.

    Holy shit.

  2. 2.

    Bex

    August 2, 2017 at 5:28 pm

    Charlie Pierce thinks Bannon wrote it…except for the last sentence.

  3. 3.

    EdTheRed

    August 2, 2017 at 5:28 pm

    OMG, “branchs”…they don’t proofread *anything*, do they?

  4. 4.

    ruemara

    August 2, 2017 at 5:28 pm

    I read some of it and I don’t know why I’m sober. I can’t believe anyone looked at this man and thought “president!”

  5. 5.

    Jeffro

    August 2, 2017 at 5:29 pm

    Cohen-Watnick just got canned

  6. 6.

    EdTheRed

    August 2, 2017 at 5:30 pm

    Also, this statement was obviously dictated by Trump…and the fact that no one, not even “his” generals, could talk him out of issuing it does not bode well for the “pivot!” crowd.

  7. 7.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 2, 2017 at 5:31 pm

    This is the kind of stuff that makes me wish that a time machine could be invented so that I can visit Nazareth in the Year Zero bearing a large rock and a note in Aramaic saying:

    “Does she really think you’re stupid enough to buy a line of shit like that?”

  8. 8.

    Shalimar

    August 2, 2017 at 5:31 pm

    It’s like what a high school student would write for Debate class. Pathetically amateur. This is not what a signing statement is supposed to sound like.

  9. 9.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    August 2, 2017 at 5:34 pm

    Just wanted to let you all know I am alive and well and going through more medical tests in two months than I have been through in 25 years in the US. Apparently apart from the heart problem there is nothing wrong with me. I will have Internet access on August 16 and will update everyone then. It is so good to be home!

  10. 10.

    Shalimar

    August 2, 2017 at 5:34 pm

    @Jeffro: For someone who is supposed to be on the verge of getting fired himself, McMaster has been surprisingly effective at rooting out ideologues in the last few weeks.

  11. 11.

    dmsilev

    August 2, 2017 at 5:35 pm

    I love the gratuitous insult about the ACA repeal debacle near the beginning. Man, he really is pissed that he hasn’t gotten to do the big signing ceremony thing for, well, just about any bill. Maybe, and I’m going out on a limb here, he isn’t the master dealmaker that he thinks of himself as.

  12. 12.

    Droppy

    August 2, 2017 at 5:36 pm

    This bill is so great. I am going to sign it, but first, I’m going to give a statement, a major statement: this bill is terrible. I hate this bill. I’ve written some of the best bills, great bills I negotiated, so I know great bills, and this is one when I sign it, but it’s not one when it was written because it isn’t a very good deal, which I could have made it. So I’m signing this bill which is a terrible, terrible deal because I will sign another bill which is tremendous and will fix this bill, the one I’m signing, not the one that will be the what many people will call the winning bill.

  13. 13.

    different-church-lady

    August 2, 2017 at 5:36 pm

    Repeat from the thread below:

    I reached two conclusions this morning.

    a) Trump is insane. (Actually, I reached that conclusion over a year ago)

    b) Anyone who voted for him is also insane.

    It’s (b) that ought to scare us more.

  14. 14.

    different-church-lady

    August 2, 2017 at 5:36 pm

    @hitchhiker:

    An adult with a White House job wrote that.

    No: a child with a White House job wrote that.

  15. 15.

    Starfish

    August 2, 2017 at 5:37 pm

    @Litlebritdifrnt: I am confused. What happened? Where are you? Are you okay?

  16. 16.

    Shalimar

    August 2, 2017 at 5:37 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Assuming you would find anyone there who had a clue what you were talking about. I think the circumstantial evidence gets stronger every year that Jesus was a composite fictional ideal human rather than an actual living person.

  17. 17.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 2, 2017 at 5:39 pm

    And again I say:

    This is not normal, people.

    NOT.

    NORMAL.

  18. 18.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 2, 2017 at 5:43 pm

    @Jeffro:

    Help me out here. What are the implications of this? What is the back story?

    (I vaguely remembered seeing the name before, but I had to Google to remind myself who he is.)

  19. 19.

    Betty Cracker

    August 2, 2017 at 5:44 pm

    The Russians are pissed off that they’re getting no mileage out of the lemon — orange? — they purchased:

    Russian Prime Minister Mocks "Outwitted" And "Weak" Trump Over Sanctions https://t.co/jJRmu9ujm2

    — David Mack (@davidmackau) August 2, 2017

    I can only hope this portends the release of the Russian pee hooker tapes. C’mon, Vlad and Dmitry. [Trump bully voice]
    What the hell do you have to lose?

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Glad you’re okay!

  20. 20.

    Yutsano

    August 2, 2017 at 5:44 pm

    @Litlebritdifrnt: You went back home to England? I thought there were too many barriers with DH for that to happen.

  21. 21.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 2, 2017 at 5:44 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: But the FTFNYT insists that it is normal. As do the rest of the vermin of the Village.

  22. 22.

    different-church-lady

    August 2, 2017 at 5:45 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Our basic problem here is that roughly 63 million Americans decided that “not normal” was what they quite deliberately wanted.

    I think we can safely assume that at the very least 50+ million still want it.

  23. 23.

    sharl

    August 2, 2017 at 5:45 pm

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Yaaay, good to hear from you, and sounds like good news on the health front! I hope life back in your Great Britain homeland continues to find you well.

  24. 24.

    david spikes

    August 2, 2017 at 5:46 pm

    Thought provoking that this is the only, actual, real, not bullshit major piece of legislation in the last six months. And Trump fought it, hates it now, but has to sign it. The master of deals, the getting things done guy.
    At a certain point, the lies, the delusion, the vainglory, and the craphounds and shitheels who enable it, it just becomes impossible to process-they’re all crazy and they literally don’t care.
    Will keep repeating to self: Fuck them, fuck all of them.
    On a lighter note. Jareds intern speech was billed as part of a summer lecture series. Can we get a list of future speakers and their topics? Certainly Ivanka on being a strong, independent woman who doesn’t let anybody run her life.

  25. 25.

    hellslittlestangel

    August 2, 2017 at 5:46 pm

    Despite the absurd horror of the last 6 months, I still find the “not The Onion” disclaimer to be helpful when current events get this utterly fucking stupid .

  26. 26.

    MisterForkbeard

    August 2, 2017 at 5:46 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Nah, Trump knows the Russians secretly love him after all and are only doing this because they have to. I mean, Vlad is the only one that will talk to him at Summits! They’re besties!

  27. 27.

    Bobby Thomson

    August 2, 2017 at 5:46 pm

    Although Richard didn’t do it, this seems as good a place as any to slag the practice of commenting “This is not normal.” after Trump’s every act. It’s a vacuous statement that isn’t even pejorative. If you mean that something is illegal, or immoral, or unethical, or ridiculously stupid, use those words.

  28. 28.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 2, 2017 at 5:47 pm

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    I’m so glad to see your nym and see you commenting!! I asked about you a few months ago but don’t think there was ever an answer. So glad you’re back safely and sanely on your side of the Pond and hope you will resume your former role as a frequent, caring, sometimes caustic BJ jackal.

    (What happened to all the critters?)

  29. 29.

    different-church-lady

    August 2, 2017 at 5:47 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: It is rather stunning to see the NYT play their headlines and ledes “straight” in the face of this overwhelming insanity.

  30. 30.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 2, 2017 at 5:48 pm

    @dmsilev:

    Maybe, and I’m going out on a limb here, he isn’t the master dealmaker that he thinks of himself as.

    Don’t go breakin’ my heart, dmsilev.

  31. 31.

    schrodingers_cat

    August 2, 2017 at 5:49 pm

    @different-church-lady: Vichy Times is one of the institutions responsible for the person now in the White House.

  32. 32.

    Bobby Thomson

    August 2, 2017 at 5:51 pm

    @different-church-lady: this.

  33. 33.

    david spikes

    August 2, 2017 at 5:51 pm

    @Betty Cracker:” Weak, outwitted, foolish.” Nice.
    There hasn’t been a real Twitter explosion for a few days-when it comes it’s going to be a beaut.

  34. 34.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 2, 2017 at 5:52 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    @different-church-lady:

    **looks desperately around for sanctuary**

  35. 35.

    Gelfling 545

    August 2, 2017 at 5:52 pm

    @Shalimar: Sister Mary Fabian, RSM would have kicked our butts if we produced anything that pathetic in HER Rhetoric and Debate class. We’d have been rewriting for days.

  36. 36.

    Major Major Major Major

    August 2, 2017 at 5:53 pm

    “by limiting the Executives flexibility”

    …I knew they didn’t have a good editor, but they must not have a proofreader either, I guess.

  37. 37.

    lollipopguild

    August 2, 2017 at 5:53 pm

    @different-church-lady: People voted for Trump for a lot of different reasons. He lied his ass off and people heard what they wanted to hear from him. He promised things that were total opposites of each other so people heard what they wanted from him. He went Full White Racist in a way we haven’t seen since George Wallace back in the 60’s and a lot of people heard what they wanted from him. He made all kinds of BS promises and people heard what they wanted from him. The lying ass Right Wing Media helped him every step of the way. Many of the people who voted for him KNEW he was lying to them and voted for him anyway. A fair number of his voters hate America as it currently exists and want him to burn it all down and take us back to The Golden Age of 1950-1920-1890-1850. Most of these people are going to be disapointed in one way or another. They wanted a Ragegasam and they got it. It is up to us to do everything we can to hold things together and rebuild when the time comes.

  38. 38.

    sharl

    August 2, 2017 at 5:54 pm

    In case it hasn’t already been noted upthread, there was an “unofficial” signing statement – the one in David’s post – and the legal version.

    Daniel W. Drezner‏ @dandrezner

    Confirmed this was a Trump signing statement: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/08/02/statement-president-donald-j-trump-signing-countering-americas …. But it was one of two. Here’s the legal one: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/08/02/statement-president-donald-j-trump-signing-hr-3364.

  39. 39.

    Schlemazel

    August 2, 2017 at 5:54 pm

    @Litlebritdifrnt:
    well that is good news I guess, hope it justs gets better from here on

  40. 40.

    david spikes

    August 2, 2017 at 5:55 pm

    @different-church-lady: They’re keeping their powder dry for the release of HRC’s book and its intolerable threat to the integrity of just about everything.

  41. 41.

    Schlemazel

    August 2, 2017 at 5:56 pm

    @Jeffro:
    I know I am just being lazy but when I looked up his story I could not make heads or tails of what this really means. Whats your take?

  42. 42.

    Betty Cracker

    August 2, 2017 at 5:56 pm

    @Bobby Thomson: I disagree. IMO, one of the chief dangers of the Trump era is that the relentless onslaught of illegal, immoral, unethical and stupid behavior so overwhelms us that we get used to it — that we come to regard the daily avalanche of lies and malfeasance as normal. “Not normal” is perfectly serviceable shorthand to remind us that we should never get used to this. It has a separate meaning from calling out the nature of the behavior itself.

  43. 43.

    leeleeFL

    August 2, 2017 at 5:56 pm

    @hitchhiker: not A White House job, THE WHITE HOUSE JOB!!!!!

    Sweet Sister Frances, we are so completely screwed! I cannot even any f’in more.

    I think I need to get a prescription for a anti-anxiety something. And, mind you, I do not watch the news.

  44. 44.

    lgerard

    August 2, 2017 at 5:56 pm

    By limiting the Executives flexibility, this bill makes it harder for the United States to strike good deals for the American people

    That is some Jeffersonian level of discourse right there!

    I am really nonplussed by the new alt-right epithet Cosmopolitan

    Moar Stephen Miller please

  45. 45.

    debbie

    August 2, 2017 at 5:57 pm

    Hey, assholes. Apostrophes. Use them, you stupid fucks.

  46. 46.

    Major Major Major Major

    August 2, 2017 at 5:57 pm

    @david spikes: I heard that Hillary doesn’t even have the common decency to accept blame for all of mankind’s ills and kill herself in the end.

  47. 47.

    different-church-lady

    August 2, 2017 at 5:58 pm

    @lollipopguild: In other words, like I said: insane.

  48. 48.

    david spikes

    August 2, 2017 at 5:58 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: Flexibility-is this a Bannon joke?
    “We’ve got the most flexibility the best flexibility, why one of my executive assistants is so flexible. . . . . . can’t go on, visualization made me go blind for a moment.

  49. 49.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 2, 2017 at 5:58 pm

    @lgerard:

    I am really nonplussed by the new alt-right epithet Cosmopolitan

    HGB must be spinning!

  50. 50.

    Mnemosyne

    August 2, 2017 at 5:58 pm

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    Phew! I think some folks were asking about you a couple of weeks ago, so thanks for checking in. ?

  51. 51.

    Major Major Major Major

    August 2, 2017 at 5:59 pm

    @lgerard: ‘cosmopolitan’ is not a new alt-right epithet, it’s been around as long as ‘globalist’ and means the same thing.

  52. 52.

    Gelfling 545

    August 2, 2017 at 5:59 pm

    @Betty Cracker: I agree. One pf the greatest dangers of the Trump regime is thst people will no longer find this behavior remarkable. It is good to note that shpuld not be accepted as falling within the norms of rational government.

  53. 53.

    different-church-lady

    August 2, 2017 at 5:59 pm

    @sharl: We’ve been getting played a lot lately.

  54. 54.

    Schlemazel

    August 2, 2017 at 6:00 pm

    @debbie:
    O’K’ w’e’ w’o’u’l’d’nt w’a’n’t’ t’o’ u’p’s’e’t’ y’o’u’

  55. 55.

    Yutsano

    August 2, 2017 at 6:00 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: She truly is history’s greatest monster.

  56. 56.

    Gin & Tonic

    August 2, 2017 at 6:00 pm

    @Jeffro: About fucking time.

  57. 57.

    Yutsano

    August 2, 2017 at 6:00 pm

    @Schlemazel: Apostrophes not Klingon!

  58. 58.

    schrodingers_cat

    August 2, 2017 at 6:01 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Who is this?

  59. 59.

    different-church-lady

    August 2, 2017 at 6:01 pm

    @different-church-lady: FYWP won’t let me edit 53: want to add that Poe’s Law is tripping us up a lot in the past 24 hours. We have to be careful about what we run with, because there isn’t anything that’s too absurd to be true anymore.

  60. 60.

    lgerard

    August 2, 2017 at 6:01 pm

    @debbie:

    spellcheck = political correctness

  61. 61.

    Bobby Thomson

    August 2, 2017 at 6:01 pm

    @Betty Cracker: nope. I’m not normal, and I think most people like to think the same about themselves. And in politics, corruption and inertia are normal. Saying something isn’t normal is a completely empty statement.

    ETA: it won’t persuade anyone not already on your side. A Trump voter hears that and thinks, “Damn right! Normal got all our jobs sent to China!”

  62. 62.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 2, 2017 at 6:01 pm

    @debbie:

    Hey, assholes. Apostrophes. Use them, you stupid fucks.

    Oxford commas, also too, for fuck’s sake.

  63. 63.

    Starfish

    August 2, 2017 at 6:02 pm

    @debbie:

    Hey, asshole’s. Apostrophe’s. Use them, you stupid fuck’s.

    There. I fixed it. *flee*

  64. 64.

    different-church-lady

    August 2, 2017 at 6:02 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: also COMMA too. Jesus…

  65. 65.

    debbie

    August 2, 2017 at 6:02 pm

    @dmsilev:

    Mara Liasson, NPR’s resident lover of the GOP, noted that Trump couldn’t even negotiate with himself.

  66. 66.

    germy

    August 2, 2017 at 6:05 pm

    NSC’s Senior Intelligence Director Ezra Cohen-Watnick Fired

  67. 67.

    Gin & Tonic

    August 2, 2017 at 6:05 pm

    @lgerard:

    I am really nonplussed by the new alt-right epithet Cosmopolitan

    An old Stalinist epithet. It means “Jew”.

  68. 68.

    Major Major Major Major

    August 2, 2017 at 6:06 pm

    @Bobby Thomson: IMO you are completely wrong. “This is not normal” encompasses all of the things you are saying it doesn’t, in the mind of the median viewer.

  69. 69.

    Schlemazel

    August 2, 2017 at 6:07 pm

    @Yutsano:
    I am trying to get a gig in the WHite House, I think I can last 10 days & then fall into some bullshit job at FUX News

  70. 70.

    leeleeFL

    August 2, 2017 at 6:08 pm

    It’s worse!!!!! Rick Perry is being considered for Homeland Security. It’s on TPM, I shit you not!

  71. 71.

    lgerard

    August 2, 2017 at 6:08 pm

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I must of missed that. Then again, it is hard to keep up with crazy people.

  72. 72.

    debbie

    August 2, 2017 at 6:08 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    There was also a misplaced comma, but as soon as I saw the lack of commasizing, I stopped reading. This is, once again, an indictment of the American education system. What are those interns good for anyway?

  73. 73.

    Gin & Tonic

    August 2, 2017 at 6:08 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: 31-year-old Bannonite on the NSC. Leaker to Devin Nunes.

  74. 74.

    sharl

    August 2, 2017 at 6:08 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: As if we didn’t need another example of the insane twists-and-turns with this Administration, this piece came out just a little over a week ago:

    The Man McMaster Couldn’t Fire
    Thirty-one-year-old Ezra Cohen-Watnick holds the intelligence portfolio on the National Security Council—but almost everything about him is a mystery.

    Another loss by the Bannon/Breitbart faction, from what I can tell. McMaster also recently fired some other (lesser) trash-talking subordinate from the same alt-right’ish camp; I saw reference to that earlier today, but forget where it was (a Pentagon guy is all I remember).

  75. 75.

    joel hanes

    August 2, 2017 at 6:08 pm

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    there is nothing wrong with me

    That has certainly always been my impression, at least of your online personality.
    Delighted to see you back in the comments.

  76. 76.

    schrodingers_cat

    August 2, 2017 at 6:09 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Hey I knew that from West Wing!

  77. 77.

    lgerard

    August 2, 2017 at 6:09 pm

    @leeleeFL:

    But he has done such a great job at, em, uh……..what’s that place?

  78. 78.

    debbie

    August 2, 2017 at 6:10 pm

    @germy:

    Odd that the accompanying photo is of McMaster.

  79. 79.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    August 2, 2017 at 6:10 pm

    Funny, that signing statement didn’t mention his 6 bankruptcies, how he blew a 200,000,000 dollar inheritance, how he drove 3 ca$in0s into the ground, how killed off an entire American football league, and how he relies on illegal Russian money laundering to stay afloat

    It must of been an oversight.

  80. 80.

    Gelfling 545

    August 2, 2017 at 6:10 pm

    @Gelfling 545: “that it should not be accepted” Apparently I don’t have pernission to edit which makes me wonder who does. Ipad typing takes a lot of editing, at least for me.

  81. 81.

    Miss Bianca

    August 2, 2017 at 6:10 pm

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Welcome back! So good to hear from you, altho’ sorry to hear about the medical tests!

  82. 82.

    MCA1

    August 2, 2017 at 6:11 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: So, we’ve got not one, but two separate instances of no apostrophe on a possessive in a single statement, out of the WHITE HOUSE. All of this is not to overshadow the pettiness and whininess in tone. Which itself should not overshadow the basic logical error underlying the whole fucking argument they’re trying to make: it’s a sanctions bill. You don’t “negotiate” sanctions with a foreign country. It’s not a “deal” in any sense of the word. It’s retaliation and incentive setting.

    Just humiliation after humiliation. Morons Are Governing America.

  83. 83.

    debbie

    August 2, 2017 at 6:11 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    i didn’t realize that he was the one who leaked to Nunes. Can I assume he was exempted from Trump’s condemnation of leakers?

  84. 84.

    A Ghost to Most

    August 2, 2017 at 6:11 pm

    @different-church-lady: yep. Rump is a symptom; “conservatism” (revanchism) is the disease.

  85. 85.

    germy

    August 2, 2017 at 6:12 pm

    @sharl: They fired watnick??

    “This aggression will not stand.”

  86. 86.

    lgerard

    August 2, 2017 at 6:12 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    that makes sense

  87. 87.

    germy

    August 2, 2017 at 6:13 pm

    @debbie: Yes, I thought that was strange. Maybe they couldn’t find a photo of him (he kept a low profile)

  88. 88.

    patrick II

    August 2, 2017 at 6:13 pm

    Bernie and Rand Paul were the only senators who voted against this bill and for Bernie it was because of the renewal of sanctions on Iran. So, what are the new sanctions? How are they different than the old ones? I can’t imagine Russia or China joining in — what about Europe? Is there a trigger? Other than generally pissing Iran off, will they have much affect? How do the sanctions in the new bill affect the Nuclear deal?

  89. 89.

    debbie

    August 2, 2017 at 6:13 pm

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    I don’t remember any of Obama’s signing statements including a single syllable about Obama’s perceptions of his own excellence. Did I miss something?

  90. 90.

    germy

    August 2, 2017 at 6:14 pm

    Laurene Powell Jobs is buying the Atlantic magazine.

  91. 91.

    NotMax

    August 2, 2017 at 6:15 pm

    And they spent like a week to refine this deathless brainless prose?

    @debbie

    Musical apostrophenic interlude: B ‘postrophe,, K no ‘psotrophe, l-y-n

  92. 92.

    Gin & Tonic

    August 2, 2017 at 6:15 pm

    @patrick II: No. Rand Paul voted against it too.

  93. 93.

    germy

    August 2, 2017 at 6:17 pm

    Amy McGrath, Democrat for Congress in Kentucky. Remember that name https://t.co/CXpXf4HHCn— Mamie Van Doren (@Mamievandoren) August 2, 2017

    Van Doren is in her 80s now. She’s particularly… frank… when it comes to #45.

  94. 94.

    david spikes

    August 2, 2017 at 6:17 pm

    @[email protected]Gin & Tonic: But are they rootless? All the best cosmopolitans are-or is the cocktail the best cosmo, or Christ, you don’t think they’re talking about magazine. . do you?
    Mad, I’m going mad, I tell you.

  95. 95.

    patrick II

    August 2, 2017 at 6:18 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:
    Yeah, I remembered and updated the comment. But still, what do those sanctions mean.

  96. 96.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    August 2, 2017 at 6:18 pm

    @debbie: somehow he never mentioned being the first black president of Harvard Law, a best selling author, a constitutional law professor at a leading law school, and a Nobel Laurent.

  97. 97.

    Betty Cracker

    August 2, 2017 at 6:18 pm

    @Bobby Thomson: We’ll have to agree to disagree. “Not normal” resonated so strongly with me in the early days of this nightmare that I made a “Not Normal” tag for the blog, and I am usually reluctant to create tags since there are too many already. I’m not alone either; it resonates with plenty of other people, if the frequency with which it comes up in conversation, on signs, etc., is any indication.

  98. 98.

    Gelfling 545

    August 2, 2017 at 6:19 pm

    @Jeffro: Damn. He’s not on my Bingo card! https://m.imgur.com/t/trump/3WAXf

  99. 99.

    sharl

    August 2, 2017 at 6:19 pm

    @debbie, @germy:

    The Atlantic story I linked (#74) noted that there is little information, including photos, to be found for this guy. The always diligent Laura Rosen came up with one, which is the only one I’ve seen (though I haven’t been looking).

  100. 100.

    Shalimar

    August 2, 2017 at 6:19 pm

    @different-church-lady: We aren’t getting played in this instance. This is something the White House put out. There is no such thing as an “unofficial signing statement.” That is called a press release. This isn’t normal. None of this is normal.

  101. 101.

    debbie

    August 2, 2017 at 6:21 pm

    @NotMax:

    And they spent like a week to refine this deathless brainless prose?

    I’d bet it was very last minute. I’d bet Trump was storming around and refusing to either sign or veto. I’d even bet he was thinking of not signing it, but letting it be enacted without his signature. It must have taken lots of convincing to get him to see that that would be not be perceived as the act of a tough negotiator but a sly wink at his own complicity.

  102. 102.

    Jeffro

    August 2, 2017 at 6:23 pm

    @Schlemazel: @schrodingers_cat: @germy:

    He’s been part of the problem let’s put it that way

  103. 103.

    debbie

    August 2, 2017 at 6:24 pm

    @sharl:

    Thanks. I wasn’t expecting to see a Jared almost-clone.

  104. 104.

    Central Planning

    August 2, 2017 at 6:26 pm

    @MCA1: “sanction’s”.

    Apologies to everyone.

  105. 105.

    sukabi

    August 2, 2017 at 6:26 pm

    @hitchhiker: I’ll guarantee the ONLY part of that statement that Drumpf wrote is the bottom sentence….and any other instances where there is an invocation of biggest crowds ever.

  106. 106.

    jimmiraybob

    August 2, 2017 at 6:31 pm

    Are we sure that the error isn’t from running a Russian document through Google translates?

  107. 107.

    Bill Arnold

    August 2, 2017 at 6:34 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    …one of the chief dangers of the Trump era is that the relentless onslaught of illegal, immoral, unethical and stupid behavior so overwhelms us that we get used to it…

    Yes. In geek-ese, that would be something like 3 sigma outlier not normal, in several dimensions. IMO.
    Also, the Goldwater rule exists for a reason, but oh my is it hobbling current discourse[1]. (To be clear, I think he should resign for health reasons for his own good (trying to care, here), i.e. the job appears to be damaging his health, including brain health.)

    [1] e.g. why not something like an anomymized large poll of practitioners. (details to be worked out.)

  108. 108.

    Major Major Major Major

    August 2, 2017 at 6:40 pm

    @Bill Arnold:

    3 sigma outlier not normal, in several dimensions

    Or, for a lay audience, you might say something like “not normal”.

  109. 109.

    Bill Arnold

    August 2, 2017 at 6:44 pm

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Or, for a lay audience, you might say something like “not normal”.

    Sorry about that, been reading some related papers. :-)

  110. 110.

    Major Major Major Major

    August 2, 2017 at 6:52 pm

    @Bill Arnold: Trump winning the election at all was something like two sigmas out already, so we’re pretty far beyond three at this point IMO.

  111. 111.

    mai naem mobile

    August 2, 2017 at 7:03 pm

    @Litlebritdifrnt: I was wondering what happened to you after you posted being back in the UK. Glad you’re ok.

  112. 112.

    Fester Addams

    August 2, 2017 at 7:09 pm

    @Jeffro:

    Cohen-Watnick just got canned

    Replaced by Dunning–Kruger.

  113. 113.

    sharl

    August 2, 2017 at 7:15 pm

    @sharl: Hah, here’s the deal on that other, lower-ranking NSC staffer I couldn’t recall above (#74), who McMaster actually fired a couple weeks ago; I still had that browser tab open with that story.

    An NSC Staffer Is Forced Out Over a Controversial Memo
    The document charges that globalists, Islamists, and other forces within and outside the government are subverting President Trump’s agenda.

    A top official of the National Security Council was fired last month after arguing in a memo that President Trump is under sustained attack from subversive forces both within and outside the government who are deploying Maoist tactics to defeat President Trump’s nationalist agenda.

    His dismissal marks the latest victory by National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster in the ongoing war within Trump’s White House between those who believe that the president is under threat from dark forces plotting to undermine him, and those like McMaster who dismiss this as conspiratorial thinking.

    Rich Higgins, a former Pentagon official who served in the NSC’s strategic-planning office as a director for strategic planning, was let go on July 21. Higgins’s memo describes supposed domestic and international threats to Trump’s presidency, including globalists, bankers, the “deep state,” and Islamists. The memo characterizes the Russia story as a plot to sabotage Trump’s nationalist agenda. It asserts that globalists and Islamists are seeking to destroy America. The memo also includes a set of recommendations, arguing that the problem constitutes a national-security priority.

    Oy, nuts and wack-a-loons as far as the eye can see…

  114. 114.

    TenguPhule

    August 2, 2017 at 7:35 pm

    @hellslittlestangel:

    Despite the absurd horror of the last 6 months, I still find the “not The Onion” disclaimer to be helpful when current events get this utterly fucking stupid .

    The day is coming when reality and the Onion will be impossible to tell apart.

  115. 115.

    TenguPhule

    August 2, 2017 at 7:38 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    because there isn’t anything that’s too absurd to be true anymore.

    Other then Republicans are not monsters. That will always too absurd.

  116. 116.

    TS

    August 2, 2017 at 8:01 pm

    @debbie:

    I don’t remember any of Obama’s signing statements including a single syllable about Obama’s perceptions of his own excellence. Did I miss something?

    The world fully recognizes President Obama’s excellence – trump has to keep bringing up his brilliance cause no-one else has reason to mention same.

  117. 117.

    burnspbesq

    August 2, 2017 at 8:55 pm

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I knew they didn’t have a good editor, but they must not have a proofreader either, I guess

    I hear they hired them away from Greenwald.

  118. 118.

    Bobby Thomson

    August 2, 2017 at 9:35 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: we disagree.

  119. 119.

    Bobby Thomson

    August 2, 2017 at 9:38 pm

    @Betty Cracker: it is used a lot, but I haven’t seen it gain traction outside the set of usual suspects and other DFHs. So yes, agree to disagree.

  120. 120.

    Gvg

    August 2, 2017 at 10:36 pm

    @Bobby Thomson: you missed the back story and this phrase short hand for warnings from experts on how authoritarians took over their societies. Journalists from Russia, academics from various other countries, etc. They began befoe the election when I was still sure Trump would lose in a blowout and thought they were alarmist, but here we are. They said the insanity of bullshit fountaining was deliberate and made normal busy people overwhelmed so they lost track of what used to be normal. They said you needed to keep track of what we used to consider normal descent behavior or we would find ourselves changed for the worse. Other people took it to heart and I have noticed many people on many sites saying that phrase a lot. So much IS happening just like we were warned too. It’s just tying to keep track of how we used to expect government officials to behave without having to be arrested to stop. Used to, 6 months ago…so long, another life. I think one of the warners was Sarah Kendizor (spelling?)

  121. 121.

    Uncle Cosmo

    August 2, 2017 at 11:44 pm

    @Starfish:

    There. I fixed it. *flee*

    IOW,

    Exit, pursued by a b’ar

  122. 122.

    Uncle Cosmo

    August 2, 2017 at 11:45 pm

    @debbie: FTR that commentator’s name is spelled

    Mar-a-Liarspawn

  123. 123.

    RobNYNY

    August 3, 2017 at 4:27 am

    @Gin & Tonic: But odd coming from Miller, who is Jewish.

  124. 124.

    rikyrah

    August 3, 2017 at 4:39 am

    @Litlebritdifrnt:
    Glad to see you posting ?

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