Even if you don’t use Twitter, you’ve probably heard about the amazing predictive powers of Trump’s Twitter archive. For every stupid action Trump takes as president (and there are no other kind), there is an equal and opposite reaction tweet from the Trump Twitter archive. The many Trump tweets criticizing President Obama for golfing or vacationing are just the most obvious examples.
Tonight, Trump will announce a “new” strategy in Afghanistan. If the Nostradumbass principle holds true, Trump will follow the well-worn path of pouring yet more billions into the pockets of kleptocrats, war lords and contractors. Dan Eggen (@daneggenwpost) at the Washington Post pulled up some tweets from the archive:
Dickish backseat driving aside, these tweets express a fundamental break with both the Bush 2 and Obama administrations’ approach to Afghanistan. And while it’s likely that only a handful of certified idiots would have voted for Trump specifically to change those policies, he’s about to expose them for the suckers they are: Tonight, Trump will find a way to walk that shit back while making it all about himself.
Expect much praise for the sagacity of the generals and much more for the wisdom of Trump himself in tonight’s address, with emphasis on how past presidents were total losers but Trump will win because he’s a winner. It will, as usual, be a tapestry of lies. The only winners will be the kleptocrats, war lords and mercenaries, who have been winning all along.
Cheryl Rofer
Word is that he will continue what Obama was doing, send 3900 more troops to train the Afghan army. Will be interesting to see how he announces it. I have a Twitter poll going. Anyone can vote – you don’t need to be on Twitter.
ETA: Oh good! Looks like you can vote right here!
ETAA: Apparently only Twitter users can vote.
The Moar You Know
Dude doesn’t know what “strategy” is. Not in business, not in anything. It’ll just be more spittle-flecked rage, probably at Hillary and Obama.
Should be good for a few horrified giggles and that’s about it.
ETA: “Nostradumbass” – I can’t believe anyone fell for his Afghanistan shit. Since most of Trump’s voters were my age, they don’t have then excuse a young person would – we grew up in the 1980s, the guy was a cokehead, a business failure and a liar, and everyone knew it. Everyone. He was never going to get us “out of” anything, or change anything for the better. He’s not capable of that and never was. Just yelling and lying. That’s all he can do.
Это курам на смех
Eric Prince to the rescue.
germy
The young service people currently being killed in Afghanistan were children when the war started.
I remember, back in 2004 or so, seeing a Banksy poster; a small boy “playing” army. The caption was something like “Playdate Afghanistan”
rikyrah
Jared Kushner’s firm seeks arrest of Maryland tenants to collect debt
Doug Donovan
The real estate company owned by Jared Kushner, son-in-law and top adviser to President Donald Trump, has been the most aggressive in Maryland in using a controversial debt-collection tactic: getting judges to order the arrest of people who owe his company money.
Since 2013, the first full year in which the Kushner Cos. operated in Maryland, corporate entities affiliated with the firm’s 17 apartment complexes in the state have sought the civil arrest of 105 former tenants for failing to appear in court to face allegations of unpaid debt, The Baltimore Sun has found.
That’s more than any other landlord in the state over that time, an analysis of Maryland District Court data shows. Court records show that 20 former Kushner tenants have been detained.
Industry professionals say such arrests, called body attachments, can be the only way to get tenants to pay the money they owe. Kushner Cos. officials say the New York-based firm employs the tactic as a last resort, and follows industry standards and state law.
Brachiator
Betty, I fear your are absolutely right in this assessment. Whatever he says, I expect some gratuitous digs at Obama.
I also expect the GOP leadership to come out in full support, with much emphasis on how Trump’s steely resolve proves that he is indeed super presidenting.
different-church-lady
When he bites the head off a live chicken at the end of the address, will Kelly resign or solder on?
Mike J
@Cheryl Rofer: One, two, and three.
Mike J
@different-church-lady:
That will be when he truly becomes president.
The Dangerman
This. Place all your chips on him outsourcing it to Blackwater or whatever the fuck they are called these days. There will be some novel kickback for Trump’s company.
Also, prepare for a claim that we will keep their oil. Disregard the fact that there is no oil in Afghanistan.
Brachiator
Meanwhile, it appears that women especially dislike Trump for some mysterious reason.
From NPR
germy
rikyrah
Prepare Yourself For Talk of Another Trump Pivot
by Nancy LeTourneau
August 21, 2017
There has always been a sort of manic/depressive quality to Trump’s presidency. I’m not suggesting that the president should be diagnosed with bipolar disorder. That would require a more up-close examination of his daily routines. But we’ve witnessed periods where he seems to go off the deep end emotionally, only to be followed by times when his behavior is actually described as “presidential.”
Last week brought us one of those cycles as it unfolded over a couple of days. Trump’s immediate response to the events in Charlottesville was to suggest that in altercations between white supremacists and counter-protesters, there were “many sides” to blame. Then his handlers got hold of things and scripted a speech in which he condemned racism, only to be followed the next day by unscripted remarks at a press conference where he reverted to his original statement.
……………….
Yesterday we learned that Trump will give a speech tonight in which he is expected to lay out a plan for this administration’s strategy in Afghanistan. Based on what we’ve seen from this president over the last few months, we can expect that to be a very well scripted affair and the media will respond by doing a logical analysis of what he has to say. While it grows increasingly difficult to buy into the charade, there might even be some who will suggest that his remarks were “presidential.” If so, you’ll be able to hear a sigh of relief in their voices that signals the hope that all of this ugliness we’ve witnessed over the past week is finally behind us. I’m sure that is exactly what Chief of Staff John Kelly and his other handlers had in mind when they decided to schedule this speech tonight.
After that, the president is off to Phoenix for a campaign-style speech in which it is very possible that he will announce a pardon for convicted Sheriff Joe Arpaio—a hero to white nationalists. His staff will have their hands full in trying to keep him on script at this kind of event. As we watched throughout the 2016 election, Trump tends to feed off the crowd, which will be stacked with his most loyal supporters.
rikyrah
The Long-Term Effects of Trump Will Be Disastrous for the GOP
Trump and the alt right will be a curse on the GOP for decades to come.
by David Atkins
August 20, 2017
It may be a bit odd, at a time when the Republican Party dominates all branches of the federal government as well as most governor’s mansions and state legislatures, to declare it a political party in dire peril. From one perspective, Trump seems to have saved the GOP from the brink of disaster and infused it with new energy. But the danger signs are flashing brightly nonetheless, and the cure may well be worse than the disease.
While it’s true that a combination of district-level gerrymandering, voter suppression and newfound white-working-class appeal has helped sustain Republican majorities and launch Donald Trump into the White House despite a popular vote loss, the demographic tide remains squarely set against the GOP. And even though minority voters did shift slightly to Trump from Romney per exit polling, people of color have nonetheless been shifting sharply away from the GOP over the last two decades. Millennials, too, despite a similar slight shift to Trump from Romney in 2016, remain the most progressive generation in American politics. Even conservative young people are more liberal on a host of issues than their parents.
These trends have forced Republicans to become much more aggressive in their gerrymandering and suppression efforts to retain statehouses and congressional seats. They have also been the chief reason that Republican presidential candidates have failed to earn a popular vote majority in 6 of the last 7 presidential elections. Only the anti-majoritarian Electoral College has saved the GOP from near annihilation in White House contests over the last 30 years.
These trends are still working aggressively against the Republican Party. Even if Republicans manage to maintain the white working class voters who switched from Obama to Trump in the last election cycle—and that’s a big if given Trump’s precipitous decline in the polls and the large boost Democrats have received against their baseline numbers in recent special elections—it won’t be enough to save Republicans from the slow-rising tsunami of the emerging Democratic majority.
Jeffro
here’s a spoiler: The Secret Service has already blown its budget for travel and overtime because of the Orange Griftmeister.
It’s almost as if traveling to Trumpov golf courses every 4 days costs money, or something.
WaterGirl
@Cheryl Rofer: Trump will do all of the first 3, I’m sure. Can we vote for more than one at a time?
The Moar You Know
@Cheryl Rofer: Not so. Am not a twitter user and it wants me to sign up when I click on my choices. Which would be #1, 2, and 3 but certainly not #4.
Major Major Major Major
@Cheryl Rofer: he’ll do all of the first three.
OT: my husband made a funny! He tweeted about how, in GoT, yes, the Night King seems horrible to us, but we have to understand his appeal to the wight working class.
Quinerly
@Mike J:
But will the chicken be wearing an Obama or Hillary mask? Vote here!
germy
@different-church-lady:
I think he’ll shake his head sadly. (Kelly’s head, not the chicken’s.)
Frankensteinbeck
My guess: Nothing will actually change, and he will take credit for something Obama did. That has been a strong trend. I doubt he will go off-script, because he will feel this ceremony makes him look good and his insecurity won’t push him to defend himself. No bets, though.
WaterGirl
@The Moar You Know: Twitter does pop up the login box, but I clicked the x on that box and then I was on the twitter screen where I could vote, which I did. Maybe try again, and do that?
Brachiator
@rikyrah:
I hate stuff like this. It implies that all Democrats have to do is sit back and let demographics save them. The GOP ain’t stupid. They will do everything they can to stay on top. And Trump will do everything he can to destroy democracy and effective government, leaving nothing but rubble even if the GOP is dislodged.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
that’s good
Cheryl Rofer
@Mike J: I had that complaint from a couple of Twitter followers. Unfortunately, Twitter only allows one vote.
Cheryl Rofer
@The Moar You Know: Thanks! I stand corrected.
germy
I know this is old news, but still:
The Dangerman
Before I vote in the poll, is “show his electoral results” a new euphenism for dropping his pants?
WaterGirl
@Cheryl Rofer: Based on those of us on BJ who have spoken up so far, I would say that 100% believe that 1, 2 and 3 will all happen tonight.
WaterGirl
@Cheryl Rofer: Check out my reply at #22. You just click the x to close the login box, and then you can vote. I don’t have a twitter account and I voted.
gVOR08
@Cheryl Rofer: All of the above except D.
FlipYrWhig
@Major Major Major Major: Wow, that’s GREAT! My Sandernista friend who hate-watches Game of Thrones wouldn’t know what to be more outraged about.
Cheryl Rofer
I think there’s a fair chance he’ll stay on script. He does that in formal settings. But there may be a Twitter outbreak tomorrow if he’s unhappy with what he has to say tonight.
bystander
Like that’s never happened before. Every day.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Yeah, he’ll take most of the time to tell us how awful Obama and Hillary Clinton are. He’ll also remind us how amazing he is and what great work he’s doing, and dazzle us with yet another recounting of his amazing! colossal! monumental! titanic electoral win, which nobody before has ever even come near, much less matched. He’ll tell us that his new plan will bring us wins and make us win bigly, ’cause until he came along, we were all huge losers, but never fear, now we’ll win. He might also whine about how the Russia thing is a big fake and mean people say bad things about him, and all those things are bigly lies. If we’re truly lucky, he might just resign, but I’m not looking for that.
FlipYrWhig
And the pundits said “the interesting thing about this race is that when it comes to war and national defense Trump is running TO THE LEFT of Hillary Clinton.” Pundits suck.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I wonder if they can talk the Giant Toddler into rehearsing. He’s awful on a teleprompter, something between a third grader called to read aloud and an old guy trying to get through the DMV eye chart without his glasses
Hildebrand
I would love for a reporter to ask: “Are you blathering about this Afghanistan foolishness in the vain hopes of distracting the entire nation from your shout-out to Nazis and white supremacists?”
FlipYrWhig
@Cheryl Rofer: Maybe he’ll say “there are plenty of good people with the Taliban, believe me.”
FlipYrWhig
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Because he’s too vain to put on reading glasses and too stupid to know what he’s saying until it comes out of his mouth, which is why he always does that auto-commentary thing where he reads something, then gets it, then says how he feels about it.
Timurid
@rikyrah:
Charlottesville went down the memory hole in world record time…
:(
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: Women know his type.
ETA: Also, we don’t forgive or forget.
Chris
@Cheryl Rofer:
Where’s the “all of the above” option?
Major Major Major Major
@Timurid: don’t worry, there are several upcoming Nazi rallies, plus his Phoenix event.
schrodingers_cat
@Timurid: They may want him to pivot but he is incapable of it.
MattF
@Cheryl Rofer: My initial impulse is A, B, and C. But Trump’s absolute ignorance of policy, coupled with the Trump Prime Directive, “Lie about everything all the time” makes it hard to predict since he wouldn’t recognize lies about Afghanistan in any case, either on-script or off-script.
Kay
I know everyone is sick of this discussion and God knows I’m sick of it too, but this defense is just nonsense:
No one is saying that. No one is saying she ran a perfect race and BUT FOR the NYTimes she would have won.
There were other factors. That doesn’t change the fact that the NYTimes (especially) and political media in general focused on Clinton’s emails to the exclusion of just about anything else.
Why were there no substantive inquiries into Donald Trump? Documents, interviews, investigations. NOT the Access Hollywood tape. Not blather about his personality or character. Substantive verifiable facts – property records, litigation records, interviews with business associates.
Why wasn’t ANY of that done? Because they were obsessed with the emails. and there are only so many hours in a day and so much money.
CHOOSING to obsess on the emails had a cost. The cost was the lack of substantive inquiry into Donald Trump.
Inventor
@Major Major Major Major:
I’ve already stolen that. Love it!
Bluegirlfromwyo
@Cheryl Rofer: Can you pick multiples? Cause he’s going to do all but the last option.
Major Major Major Major
@Inventor: must credit! https://twitter.com/jimmyvooh/status/899643955578494980
Matt McIrvin
There are two possibilities: he’ll stay on script, or he won’t. Most likely he will, which will lead to more fulsome network blathering about the Pivot and Becoming Presidential. This will last for anywhere from 24 to 72 hours, until his next dumbass Twitter eruption or public tantrum. You might as well ignore it and wait until it’s over.
Cheryl Rofer
@Kay: Habermann and Thrush were triggered this morning by someone tweeting “But her emails” at them. Such defensiveness! You’d think they had guilty consciences.
Frankensteinbeck
@FlipYrWhig:
New theory: Pundits decide what they believe about Democrats based on whatever a nominal Democrat attacking other Democrats tells them. It fits all their prejudices, including the Cult of Savvy ego trip.
Elizabelle
You could not pay me to watch Trump. He is harshing my eclipse mellow.
Frankensteinbeck
@Matt McIrvin:
That raises an interesting thought. Is the press’s eagerness to declare him pivoting fading? If it is, and they start showing skepticism that he will ever turn around, just how bad is that for him? Will it have splash effect on other Republicans?
different-church-lady
@Frankensteinbeck:
Other way ’round, methinks.
FlipYrWhig
@Frankensteinbeck: I think it’s more like they like to be counterintuitive and yet _at the same time_ they run after the soccer ball wherever it’s kicked. So someone will come up with a HOT TAKE and they’ll almost all be, like, “Hey, that’s like the opposite of what you’d think, pure gold! kinda wish I’d said it first, but at any rate I’m getting on this bandwagon while there’s still room.” SMH
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Did you see Margaret Sullivan’s excellent column on that topic last week? Meant to front page it, but it’s impossible to keep up these days. Well worth a read here.
Major Major Major Major
@Elizabelle: You could pay me to watch Trump and I would pocket the money and not watch Trump…
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: Clouds are harshing mine. Fucking clouds! I thought you were my friends! [Shakes fist skyward…]
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Oh no. Sitting w some folks from Jacksonville and Amelia Island.
Go away clouds. Have enough of a spectacle that Cracker chickens notice.
Kenneth Kohl
@Elizabelle: same here. I think I’ll watch the Browns – Giants game tonight
Cheryl Rofer
NASA coverage here. Too much talk and garbage comments for me.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@FlipYrWhig: @Frankensteinbeck: If Maureen Dowd follows twitter, and I can’t imagine she doesn’t check on any forum where her name might be mentioned, she’s been getting mocked for her “Donald the Dove vs Hillary the Hawk” column
Mike in NC
Trump will announce that “there are many fine people in Afghanistan, on all sides, believe me” and then explain how adding 4000 more advisors is going to bring “complete and total victory, believe me” and totally not amount to just pissing away more billions of dollars on this unending fiasco. He has all the best generals!
satby
@Elizabelle: I got through Bush the lesser’s entire misadministration without listening or watching him, I can easily do the same with Drumpf. #notmypresident
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: No clouds here but only 65% partial eclipse here. Come over, the weather is nice.
Geeno
@Cheryl Rofer:
FTFY
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat: I read somewhere that
even atuntil 80% you most likely won’t see much noticeable different. Is that true? We are at 93% here, so I have high hopes of seeing something.Chris
@Kay:
I’m certainly saying that, whatever kind of race she ran, BUT FOR the mainstream media combined with Comey, she would have won.
The NYTimes alone isn’t that important, but it’s still arguably the flagship of the mainstream media and certainly one of its loudest and most defining voices.
Major Major Major Major
@WaterGirl: I have eclipse glasses and the sun is definitely 75% obscured :P It’s a little dimmer outside, but the really cool thing is the hugely elongated shadows from between the leaves of the trees.
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: What time is the maximum eclipse where you are? I’d say we are 1/4 of the way through here and I can’t see a difference yet.
edit: I don’t have glasses, but I have this awesome wooden kitchen utensil that has 5 circles but out, at increasing sizes, and I don’t see any change yet with that or the shadows from the trees.
Major Major Major Major
@WaterGirl: 75%. It just passed peak.
ETA: I thought you were west coast?
WaterGirl
@Chris:
Absolutely. All that bullshit email covered and especially Comey gave a whole lot of people who didn’t like Clinton a reason to feel justified in either voting against her or not voting at all.
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: Champaign, IL – think halfway between Chicago and Carbondale, if that helps.
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: Way cool that you had glasses; I didn’t plan ahead.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
See, Trump is making everyone else JUST LIKE HIM.
TenguPhule
@Mike in NC:
Drinking game time:
Sip for claims of strategy without actual details.
Sip for Obama’s fault.
Sip for any mention of Clinton.
Drink for any mention of Bush.
Drink if more bombings are the plan.
Drink if more troops are the plan.
Drink if Prince’s privatization idea gets the green light.
Drink if he says all methods are on the table.
Finish the bottle if he lets slip that the US will be torturing again.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: I was like that before.
@WaterGirl: Oh, cool, I did grad school at UIUC. They aren’t giving out glasses somewhere on campus?
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: Great idea, but google says no. On the bright side, I am a nature girl, so I will be happy with the light play and the shadows.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
All the moral certainties of BJ are crumbling before my eyes.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: I’m more of an ethics person.
Juju
@Chris: And, Hillary Clinton was right about everything. If you could not figure that out before, the last three weeks has been a checklist about all the things Hillary Clinton was right about. From baiting the Cheetoh colored man baby with tweets and starting a nuclear war to being Putin’s puppet, and the comment that had so many pundits pearl clutching, the basket full of deplorables remark. I can’t even count all the things she got perfectly right. She was right about every damn thing.
Steeplejack
@Cheryl Rofer:
I’ve been flipping through all the newsy channels. MSNBC seems the least bad. The Weather Channel keeps interviewing flaky woo types, or at least they were the times I looked. And the NASA people are trying too hard, in that defensive “Hey, science is really fun! I mean it, you guys!” kind of way.
Robert Sneddon
Eclipses aren’t really a “discovering new things” opportunity for scientists; there have been satellite observatories around for decades that could emulate an eclipse by sticking a disc in front of their cameras and looking at the sun. They have the advantage that there’s no atmospheric filtering of many of the frequencies that might be visible in the corona, the most interesting science-y bit of the event.
It’s a spectacle, it’s visible to millions if they care to look up and the conditions are decent and it’s to do with stuff happening outside the atmosphere which is theoretically in NASA’s purview, hence their attempts to make it sound interesting and maybe encourage some young people to think about the Universe around them.
Miss Bianca
@Brachiator: yeah, well…doesn’t change the fact that a lot of those women voted for him, and I have yet to hear a mass chorus of, “we are so sorry we allowed our own misogyny, racism, and general credulousness to screw over all our sisters.”
Then I’d *really* have some hope for this country.