I’m listening to Trump stream hot garbage out of his yap in the joint press conference with the Finnish President. I don’t listen to many of these, but my parish priest assigned it as penance for a particularly brutal confession today, so here are some thoughts:
First, if I’m a world leader, I think I’d come down with a bad case of school flu the day before my scheduled visit with Trump. There can be no win being near him when he’s blabbing like an escaped mental patient at a bus stop, and his shit is going to inevitably get on your shoes. A Finnish reporter asked the President Niinistö what favors Trump wanted from him. (Trump’s says “I think you mean the other way around.”) Trump interrupts constantly (at one point, Niinistö said “the question is for me” after Trump blabbed a bit), and he tries to spin carefully cagey diplomatic remarks into “wins” for Trump.
Second, the fucking guy is such a transparent projector. Trump’s being investigated for 2016, therefore Trump is going to launch an investigation in 2016. The NYT just reported that Adam Schiff’s committee met with a whistleblower before the report was filed (happens all the time), and Trump spins it into a secret meeting like the ones he’s had. If you say he did something bad, you did something worse, I’m rubber, you’re glue, lather rinse repeat.
So predictable, so scripted (he’s the most on-script “off-script” politician around), and all bullshit. If you played the Trump drinking game, you’d need a liver transplant a month into it.
I will say, though, that Schiff really got into his head with his little bit of imitation at his hearing. More of that, please.
PenandKey
Schiff likely knows that the way you get under an extreme narcissist’s skin is to make fun of them. They can brush of threats, can handle insults, but mockery? That’s their big weakness.
Kay
Trump uses the foreign leaders as a crutch and always has. He likes how it looks and it lets him avoid the swirling hot mess around him. It looks like “working”.
sdhays
It wasn’t really an imitation, at least what I heard. He was summarizing what Dump said. Basically, “Well, yeah, if you put it like that, I sound like I should be impeached!”
laura
Schiff really got into his head with his little bit of imitation at his hearing.
That ham head is high occupancy what with President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and oh so many more just settled in and providing a constant reminder of what a giant loser he is. Watching the breakdown is a roller coaster of emotions as he really appears to know that the end is nigh whether he stays in office or leaves. A jail cell looms and I’m looking forward to seeing his prison hair because I am shallow that way. Phil Spector’s going to look spiffy by comparison.
[Individual 1] mistermix
@Kay: The last words out of Trump’s mouth at the presser was to say that CNN is corrupt.
Kay
@PenandKey:
Schiff is good. I don’t know anything about him but I am just grateful that someone is rising to the occasion, instead of crumbling. He has a duty. He’s fulfilling it. It seems rare these days. I was beginning to think we weren’t up to this, that failure was, indeed, an option.
Frankensteinbeck
Unfortunately, the US is still a huge, powerful, important nation and Trump is its head of state. Responsibly serving their country’s interests means having to find a way to deal with this senile asshole that doesn’t make an enemy of the US.
Kay
@[Individual 1] mistermix:
The next President should vow never to mention media again. God, I am just so sick of it. Step BACK.
ET
Every foreign leader with a passing interest in personal, political, and national surval (and not being dragged into the shit or being embarrassed) needs to internalize and then memorize/ repeat the following mantra:
Everything tRump touches dies
Everything tRump touches dies
Everything tRump touches dies
Everything tRump touches dies
They also have to physically make sure they aren’t anywhere near him if there is a photog around. And for pity’s sake they need to stop taking him seriously. That way brings nothing but trouble.
[Individual 1] mistermix
@sdhays: Yeah, it was a summary with a bit of spin. Schiff is such a straight man that it kind of surprised me but what a reaction.
Cheryl Rofer
Just a reminder that Helsinki is the capital of Finland. That’s where Trump had that disastrous meeting with Putin.
Any bets as to recordings in Niinisto’s safe?
rikyrah
The Dow is down 459 points.
So much winning…I can hardly stand it.
Jeffro
“I’m rubber, you’re glue” (or rather, “whatever you say Repubs do, Dems do 10x worse!”) IS the entirety of the GOP playbook these days.
Geoduck
“Scripted”? You really think the Shiatgibbon actually plans any of this?
trollhattan
@Kay:
Gonna be hard when “media” includes Fox. And I want the next president to openly and directly address Fox’s role in poisoning the well.
Elizabelle
@Kay:
I have never thought that. I have had faith in Nancy Pelosi and her team. That said, the rot on the GOP side is unprecedented and very possibly some is still unknown. And we have a corrupted Supreme Court. We could still lose. But it won’t be for lack of trying.
But I never thought the Democrats were going to say “never mind.” Never.
I am sick of the Democrats in disarray shit. It’s a crutch for the feebleminded and lazy.
Martin
Have we heard anything about the IG meeting with Congressional staffers?
rikyrah
@laura:
Schiff is not scared. Isn’t bothered one bit by Dolt45
BobS
Trump certainly acted dignified sharing the podium with the Finnish president (who seemed to be chastising Trump with his opening remark).
With respect to the whistle-blower (or any other State Department/CIA/etc. employee who incurs the wrath of the administration for testifying), one hurdle would have to be any personal legal fees they might incur- there are a lot of people with money who are concerned with the creeping authoritarianism in this country (Tom Steyer comes to mind). Is there anything that would prevent a concerned wealthy person from offering to foot the legal fees of a whistle blower?
Jeffro
@Elizabelle: Amen!
If any party is in disarray…I mean, geez folks, look at the Repubs! Other than their Koch-coordinated FoxMessaging, their officials and party in general are a MESS
VOR
@Geoduck:
No, he doesn’t “plan” his outbursts per se, but his pathological narcissism tends to make him predictable.
MattF
Trump has a very limited behavioral repertoire. If he’s threatened, he has no option, but to go with what he’s got– which will be inappropriate, at best. One may wonder how conscious he is of all this– probably not very. The world outside the bubble is merely conjectural.
Elizabelle
This week (today??) is the first anniversary of the political murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
Hell of a day for the orange one to be calling CNN corrupt.
The projection. It’s the side of a tall building. In Imax.
Brachiator
Yep. I probably wouldn’t take his phone calls either.
I try to ignore Trump’s press conferences. I note, though, that each one is probably an admission of guilt to some crime.
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: I was in a hotel room Saturday night. Caught the first minutes of the season opener of SNL, with Woody Harrelson.
Very first skit had someone as Erin Burnett, and first words out of her mouth were disparaging to Democrats running for president (which might be true to Burnett’s character) and I turned the TV right off. I am sick of their both sides shit. Cynical asshats. (Although will never tire of the Tina Fey as Sarah Palin routine.)
Would have liked to see Billie Eilish, though!
Hoodie
@Geoduck: It’s more like a programmed response. He avoids self awareness like the plague (wouldn’t you if you were as grotesque as he is?) and thus has a pretty limited toolkit, mostly just projection and gaslighting. He’s been doing both in this episode, acting like he did nothing wrong in the phone call (gaslighting) and making himself the target of an evil conspiracy when he’s the actual schemer (projection).
mrmoshpotato
@Elizabelle:
You mean Tina Fey just reading speech transcripts. :)
One of Billie’s performances is on SNL’s YouTube channel.
Ruckus
@MattF:
My crude way of saying this is that he thinks the world revolves around the stick that has been stuck in his ass for around 70yrs. It’s why he’s full of shit and still thinks the world revolves around him.
rikyrah
I see Warren as 2016 repeat…not 2008
Bernie tied in Iowa and won big in New Hampshire, massive blowout. That didn’t change Black voters in the south outlook. They still went big for Hillary. Warren can’t rely on white voters in Iowa and New Hampshire. She needs to change Black voters’ in south minds now t.co/i4BfNKzvaD
— Marcus H. Johnson (@marcushjohnson) October 2, 2019
Brachiator
@VOR:
And yet, few have been able to use this information to anticipate Trump and to check him. Instead, people have to wait for an inevitable screw-up on Trump’s part.
@MattF:
Yeah, but he uses it to maximum benefit. And the key here is how he uses people. He doesn’t just hire goons for big money. People are actually loyal to him even though he often skips out on paying them. You have to wonder why they keep falling for his con.
And as president he hit the jackpot. He abuses presidential authority to demand loyalty and force people to protect the office of president no matter what they may think of Trump himself.
And it is strange how he can get people to debase themselves as they fight for him. NJ governor Christie, Rudy G, even Mittens Romney, had some reputation for toughness or at least some degree of integrity before they ended up groveling before Trump.
John McCain may be one of the few Republican politicians who consistently rebuffed Trump’s bullshit.
This doesn’t make Trump invincible. It only says that he knows how to manipulate certain types of people, and he has no qualms about using them and then disposing of them.
laura
@rikyrah: RICO cases need a solid RICO prosecutor with experience and convictions. That’s Schiff for sure, and ham head must be aware of that.
laura
@rikyrah: Harris’ ground game is strong and I hope.she comes roaring out of the pack of candidates when the primaries begin. The debates are not going to determine the candidate, the primaries are, and I’m looking foward to casting my primary ballot for Kamala Harris, and she’s got a plan and staff and has prepared well to crush after Iowa and New Hampshire.
But you probably knew that already ?
waspuppet
Imagine how weak a person you’d have to be to think Donald Trump is tough.
waspuppet
@VOR: The fact that his vocabulary is down to about 50 words makes things a little more — um, uniform.
Brachiator
@waspuppet:
Trump actively tries to recruit people like this. They probably feel flattered to be asked to join his fraternity. Those who wise up get out as fast as they can. The others are loyal until he decides to dump them.
piratedan
@rikyrah: I’ll say this for Marcus, he apparently tweets the same thing worded differently everyday…
yet, I saw two references to polls that imply that Warren is picking up support from Black voters being peeled off of Biden, so ymmv.
hitchhiker
Agree. I generally appreciate the calm & measured commentary from Preet Brahara and Anne Milgram, but they were doing the head-shaking parent routine over this one. Their position was that Schiff had screwed up and given trump something to point at as unfair and dishonest.
Mine is that Schiff gently mocked him for his bald-faced thug routine, and that it’s gotten way under his skin. The truth is that trump was going to bluster and swear and throw poop at the walls no matter what Schiff did. He’s caught.
dww444
Okay, I’ve a question I bet someone here can answer. I was just watching Chuck Todd a few minutes ago on his show replay some of Trump’s presser with the Finnish leader. Todd was remarking how crazy Trump was in attacking Adam Schiff the way he was doing, even though Todd amends, “some of the decisions that Adam Schiff has made brought that treatment on himself.”
What’s behind those remarks of Todd’s? Is he implying that Schiff has made bad decisions, thus deserving some of Trump’s ire? If so, what specific decisions of Schiff’s is he referring to?
dww444
@PenandKey: a la Obama’s 2011 WHCD classic Trump takedown. I’ve no doubt that is part of the reason we ended up with a President Trump.
Jinchi
To be fair, if you play any drinking game for a month, you’re going to have serious health problems.