Pres Trump also said, "I would love to be able to bring back our country into a great form of unity. Without a major event where people pull together, that's hard to do. But I would like to do it without that major event because usually that major event is not a good thing." https://t.co/3oBK9JXyvv
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) January 30, 2018
'I'd LOVE to have approval ratings in the 80s,
I'd LIKE to not need another 9/11 to get there.' https://t.co/0zytXHmxdn
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) January 31, 2018
haha he 100 percent hopes a 9/11 happens soon https://t.co/aCu7MdI5sX
— slackbot (@pareene) January 30, 2018
NBC released this before last night’s stunt show:
Donald Trump is telling friends and aides in private that things are going great — for him.
Some reasons: He’s decided that a key witness in the Russia probe, Paul Manafort, isn’t going to “flip” and sell him out, friends and aides say. He believes Robert Mueller, who heads the investigation, can be crushed, if necessary, without being fired. Sweeping tax and regulatory cuts will juice the economy and get him re-elected in 2020, he is predicting. He thinks he’s learned how to handle the dysfunction of Congress. And he’s even come to like the White House, the bad plumbing and drafty halls notwithstanding. “I love this place!” he told one friend.
In other words, as he prepares to deliver his first State of the Union address on Tuesday night, the president is very pleased to report that the State of Donald Trump himself is nothing short of fantastic.
“He called to congratulate me on how brilliant and prescient I was to tell him to run for president,” said one friend, who asked not to be identified, laughing at the thought. “What he was really doing was flattering himself by flattering me. But for him, it was a long and very enjoyable monologue.”
Trump has yet to sell the country on the value of his stewardship…
“You have to understand that you are dealing with a guy whose most fundamental, minute-by-minute fear in life is of boredom,” said a friend. “He’s decided that the presidency is the best way in the world not to be bored.”
If only the rest of us could feel such assurance.
Count on the professional comedians to take the measure of this amateur…
How ungrateful can a man be? In his long inauguration address Trump did not spend one minute to thank the people who helped him get elected, his dedicated Russian allies and their peerless leader, Vladimir Putin. I have just lost all respect for POTUS the Putz,
— carl reiner (@carlreiner) January 31, 2018
The consensus is that Trump read his speech yesterday very well
Maybe, to build on this, he could try a book
— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) January 31, 2018
Jerzy Russian
A unifying event could be his being removed from office. I could rally around that.
Feebog
This is like an ongoing nightmare where no matter how desperately you want to, you can’t wake up.
Citizen Alan
I’ve sworn off Facebook for at least a week, and if I can break the addiction forever. It’s too toxic. I came very close to telling a perfect stranger who happened to be a snide sarcastic Trump supporter (Libtards areall sore loooosers!) That I hope he burn to death in a fire. And I’m really tired of feeling so much hatred for strangers no matter how awful they are. And like I said before, the thing I hate them for most is that they made me hate them
Mike in NC
I fondly remembered how fresh the air felt on the day Nixon resigned in disgrace. Want that smell again….
Cheryl Rofer
Don’t look now, but Devin Nunes is at it again.
Cheryl Rofer
clay
Has anyone seen any analysis on the House Intelligence Committee’s transcript regarding their ‘memo’ vote? I’ve only seen the briefest of excerpts from it.
Regarding the thread topic, Trump has long been able to convince himself of anything, so it’s little surprise that he thinks everything is rosy. However, I do wonder whether this:
would show potential witness tampering, and obstruction, respectively.
Oop, hang on… breaking news: Schiff says Nunes made “material changes” to the “memo” before sending it to the WH.
Cheryl Rofer
NotMax
Shocked, shocked.
Amir Khalid
John Cleese is a smart and wise man, but it seems overoptimistic of him to suggest that Trump try to read a book.
Cheryl Rofer
@clay: Here’s the transcript.
This is more of a summary than analysis, but here you go.
clay
@Cheryl Rofer: That’s what happens when dumb people try to conspire.
NotMax
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…
dmsilev
@Cheryl Rofer: That ‘If’ is doing a lot of work…
randy khan
@Cheryl Rofer:
That Nunes is in over his head is not news.
chris
@Cheryl Rofer: Is altering the memo a criminal offence?
rikyrah
Hope Hicks….Bobby Three Sticks on line 1
Jeffro
@Cheryl Rofer: Dems learning not to pull their punches anymore: Nancy Smash! was asking “what do the Russians have on Trump?” yesterday. MOAR PLEEZE!!
MisterForkbeard
@chris: Depends on what’s in it. He definitely sent information to Trump in the name of Congress that hadn’t been approved by Congress.
mad citizen
Like most everyone here, I’ve felt like crap a lot of the time since election day 2016, but this statement by Trump [But I would like to do it without that major event because usually that major event is not a good thing.”] is the smartest thing I’ve ever heard attributed to him. It shows some amount of knowledge and a wee bit–maybe on the “No S*&t Sherlock” level, but still a bit–of analysis.
Unfortunately, he has shown little inclination to act on his statement, because he is The Laziest Man on the Face of the Earth.
danielx
Harking back to an earlier thread…
Give totes props (as the younguns say) to WaPo for their coverage of the ongoing dumpster fire that is the reign of shortfingers. However…for the last twenty-six years at the Post, crapping on anyone named Clinton for any reason or none has never been anything but a career-advancing behavior.
TenTwenty years from now we will still be hearing about those fucking emails; you heard it here first.Also too, before I forget….
@Cheryl Rofer:
From evidence to date, it would appear that Nunes would be in over his head in six inches of water.
I just couldn’t help myself.
Cheryl Rofer
@chris: I doubt that it’s criminal. It’s certainly a breach of trust with his fellow Representatives.
Agree with MisterForkbeard. Depends on what’s in it. But presumably it was classified already and has been handled properly, so probably not.
chris
@clay: Dumb? Maybe not, but wilfully ignorant for sure. I learned a new-to-me ancient Greek word today, amathia. There is no equivalent in English. A pity because it fits Republicans to a tee.
Jeffro
How’s this country supposed to get any work done with all the dumpster fires occurring at the WH on a regular basis?
Or perhaps I’m missing the point by posing it as a question. As a statement: This Great Country STILL Gets Its Work Done Despite the Dumpster Fires Occurring at the WH on a Regular Basis!
DROP THE CHARGES, B3Stix, DROP THEM ALL!!
Omnes Omnibus
@Jeffro: You mean file, not drop, right?
clay
@Cheryl Rofer: Thanks for that link. Interesting — and telling — that most of the Republicans didn’t speak at all during the meeting. Like they knew there was nothing they could say to justify what they did.
clay
@chris: Undoubtedly there are many Republicans who fall under the ‘willfully ignorant’ category. Your Paul Ryans, and whatnot. But I’m pretty sure Devin Nunes is just plain dumb.
Cheryl Rofer
Cheryl Rofer
Duane
200 republican politicians involved in a train wreck. They all survived.
So much for that infallible god thing. However, after that ballfield shooting and now this, they might want to avoid gathering in groups. Makes it too easy for the meteor.
chris
@clay: Well, we certainly know that all you need to get elected is a colossal ego and a blatant disregard for the truth. Smart doesn’t seem to matter.
Cheryl Rofer
@Jeffro:
I think we’re suffering some, but yes, for the most part, people are keeping things going.
It will feel like a vacation if we can ever end this chaos.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
I saw clips of it and he looked medicated. Either tranquilizes or mood stabilizers.
danielx
@Mike in NC:
You got that right. Like kicking an evil king off throne, which throne was not his property. Done without bloodshed it was, too. But it ain’t gonna happen again unfortunately, not least because a significant portion of the populace thinks Trump is the God-given response to everything they hate. Even more unfortunately, there’s a high overlap between the concentrated gun ownership populace* and the god-bothering populace, or so I would hypothesize. You can draw whatever inferences to choose….
*Concentrated gun owner populace is an arbitrary phrase made up by me. it’s a kind of weird index made up of the number of guns per household per hundred thousand population and median income and concentration of the same geographic area in which that populace resides.
Omnes Omnibus
@danielx: If you own 200 guns, you still can’t really use more than two at a time.
Gretchen
Has Mueller interviewed Hope Hicks yet? I can’t imagine she will do well when it happens. She’s 29 years old and has spent her entire career in fashion, going up against the best prosecutors of a generation. That can’t possibly go well. The guy who quit the minute she said the emails won’t get out is the smart one in this story.
danielx
@Omnes Omnibus:
It would be easy but contemptible for me to say that for those folks measure their person hood in terms of the numbers AND size of what they own, so I won’t. I will say that barring a total societal breakdown (in which case we’re all pretty much fucked), simple possession of weapons makes them feel more powerful than is actually the case. Assuming they are semi-sane to begin with.
Omnes Omnibus
@danielx: I am talking about practical consequences. Me, with my 12 ga can stop that guy. No matter how many guns he owns. Relax.
danielx
@Omnes Omnibus:
S’all good, but I have have had shown to me and seen with mine own eyes a hidden cabinet with half a dozen Barretts in it. That’s roughly 60k worth of metal…
ETA: I totally agree with your basic premise. But then we are reasonably rational folks, and others are not.
Waspuppet
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: He has two modes of public speaking: Balcony Mussolini and Bored Wikipedia.
And speaking of bored:
Most people don’t mind a little boredom. It can spur creativity and fresh big-picture thinking. Anyone who can’t stand a few minutes alone with their own thoughts doesn’t want to think about who they are and what they’ve done.
retiredeng
I didn’t watch the speech. But Stephen Colbert mocked Trump for clapping for himself repeatedly. All I could think of is a trained sea lion act.