A lesson to the press: Trump team says one thing to the media, waits for favorable coverage, then hours later winks at his base https://t.co/jIXWpSKYbp
— Pema Levy (@pemalevy) November 22, 2016
UPDATE: Trump says he won't take Clinton investigations off the table https://t.co/3fnerCWRSV
— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 22, 2016
There’s some of this, sure, maybe a lot. But don’t dismiss likely cognitive decline, either. He can’t remember shit https://t.co/6YOnIN2siJ
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 22, 2016
I think Trump has Kushner or 1 of his kids w him at all times so they can confer on what he did, bc he can’t remember/keep things straight
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 22, 2016
…speaks for what he did, if he can’t remember or keep it straight? Who corrects Trump? Not everyone he says wrong will be to his advantage
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 22, 2016
And if he is suffering cognitive decline, another question is, when is he confused, & when is he being a dick? Often both will be plausible
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 22, 2016
…than Trump is. Plus, Reagan had been a two-term governor of California, and he had a cadre of experienced and skill aides around him…
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 22, 2016
…and unlike Nancy Reagan, Melania probably will be barely engaged.
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 22, 2016
I was old enough to be paying attention during the Reagan years. He was surrounded by criminals and grifters (i.e., Republicans), but most of his top-level aides were experienced professionals who wanted to keep the political machinery running well enough that they could keep looting the Treasury over the long term. (Look at his VP, Poppy Bush, who wanted to be Reagan’s replacement and to hand the Oval Office down to his worthless descendents.) His wife Nancy didn’t just love him fiercely, she had an abused child’s instinct for sensing who was on her dear Ronny’s side, and who couldn’t be trusted. His kids didn’t like her, nor she them, but the whole clan had in common a drive to protect the old man from cruel “outsiders”, even when they didn’t trust each other. And Reagan’s entire life had been about serving as a genial figurehead, someone who could hit his mark and recite a script no matter how dire his mental state or unfriendly his audience.
Trump, on the other hand, doesn’t have anyone but (mostly failed) criminals and grifters to call upon professionally. No two of his “team” seem to be pulling in the same direction except coincidentally, and not one of them has a timeline longer than 2018 (if that). His adult kids have been singularly unsuccessful in their own careers, outside of tapping Daddy’s bank account(s) — and that includes Jared Kushner, whose main accomplishments seem to be not getting thrown in jail for his “real estate development” business, and spending millions of his disgraced father’s money to buy into the fringes of NYC society. Trump’s current wife has already made it clear she’ll spend as little time as possible in Washington, not that anyone can blame her for prioritizing her own investments over the old man’s latest dangerous whimsey. And Trump’s career has been about acting the keep-’em-guessing business-bully, someone who could be relied upon only to be unreliable… or, as it might be politely phrased, unpredictable. Buckle up, everybody!
I’ve never watched either House of Cards or Game of Thrones, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s already some Trump-in-the-White-House mashups of the two germinating…
Debbie(aussie)
Makes Sir Terrys’ “Interesting Times” fairly tame by comparison.
So sorry about this horrendous result Juicers. I have been reading all, but what can one say. Take care of each other and know that there are more than a few of us who are horrified right along with you. Deb
Major Major Major Major
Nope. Nope nope nope. For my own sanity and security, Trump has been moved from ‘presumed stupid’ to ‘presumed evil’.
Well I want to be wrong…
Blue mouser
Sorry to be OT but since this is an open thread, Anne Laurie, did you mention once that you watched Genshiken?
opiejeanne
@Major Major Major Major: I have had him in the presumed evil AND stupid columns for several weeks now.
Honestly, I’m kind of losing my mind a bit here; actually musing about buying up a case or two of baked beans, canned peaches, water, flour, sugar, etc, maybe finally building that chicken coop for a source of eggs. I wanted chickens anyway but the coyotes and other predators here are very determined so we’d have to build with that in mind.
seaboogie
@Major Major Major Major: I think you underestimate him – ’tis possible to be both stupid AND evil. It is possible for two things to be true at the same time.
opiejeanne
Maybe I’ll ask Santa for a good bicycle for Christmas.
seaboogie
@opiejeanne: Baked beans and (what are obviously the fixings for) peach pie – count me in! I’ll bring some wine…
Some Dude
I’m keeping an eye on gog.com and the steam store for game deals this holiday season. If I can score well enough at those two sites, I should be able to stay sane for the next two years, while spending significant amounts of time not watching Trumpnado. I’m starting to believe that the phrase, “how bad can it get” is now an official challenge to prove to me that, even before he takes the oath of office, his Presidency will become a textbook example of what not to do – extreme edition.
opiejeanne
@seaboogie: Peach pie from canned peaches? Horrors!
The canned goods and staples are my response to fear of some vague catastrophic failure, which probably won’t happen.
We grow apples and pears, might be able to trade with a neighbor who has figured out how to grow peaches here, but I’d really rather eat peaches raw. I have made really good peach pies when we lived where we could grow peaches. I know that there are “banana belts” not far away where people have nectarines and peaches, but we are not in one ourselves.
We’re down to our last 5 apples from this year’s crop. Had to discard all from one tree because the fruit was all bad. Another one is still young and produced no fruit this year. The two that really produced were eaten and made into pies. We still have comice pears in the garage fridge but the last of the seckels became pear butter today. Seckels are little sugar bombs, cute half-size pears. The house smells like perfume now.
janelle
QUOTE: “His kids didn’t like her, nor she them, but the whole clan had in common a drive to protect the old man from cruel “outsiders”, even when they didn’t trust each other.”
I assume you are talking about Maureen and Michael Reagan. Noted liberals Ron, Jr. and Patti Davis are both Nancy Reagan’s biological children with Ronald Reagan.
OGLiberal
I’m still having a hard time swallowing the fact that most of the people I grew up with voted for Trump. Not my family but everybody outside of it. I’m at the point where I want to exit Facebook (I’m a very inactive Facebooker) and tell them why. I’m at a point where I will put long time friendships at risk because if you voted for Trump, there is something fundamentally wrong with you.
Am I wrong?
Geoduck
Along with everything already discussed, remember that Trump also always tries to tell his listener of the moment what they want to hear. That’s his whole schtick. What he actually wants/believes/plans is entirely irrelevant. He probably has no idea if he’s going to investigate Hillary or not.
OzarkHillbilly
It doesn’t matter what column you put him in, the result is the same.
Arclite
Can’t remember? Jesus, it’s like Reagan all over again. A less stable, more fascist version of Reagan.
Anne Laurie
@janelle:
Patti and her mom had a very strained relationship when Reagan was in office (though they seem to have made it up later). Patti was ‘acting out’, and Nancy felt that stunts like posing for Playboy were needlessly hurtful to The President’s Image. Not to mention telling every reporter who would listen that her mom only got pregnant to force Ronnie into marrying her (which probably wasn’t true, quite).
Even Ronnie Jr — who was the darling of Nancy’s heart, second only to her husband — didn’t always get along with his mom while she was defending the old man’s every cruel action. IIRC, young Ron was trying to become a professional ballet dancer at the time, and the Reagan anti-response to the AIDS crisis was more personal to him than ‘just another bad thing that happens to Those People’….
OzarkHillbilly
@opiejeanne: Plans for building a predator proof chicken coop can be found in Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens“. I had a weasel find the weakness in mine, but I fixed that and do not expect a return visit to be fatal.
Joyce H
@OGLiberal:
Well, you’re not wrong, but the fundamental wrongness might be something fairly simple. One thing we all need to keep in mind is that half of the population is of below average intelligence. I personally find it hard to believe that anyone could have watched Trump campaign and listened to him at all, and could imagine for a moment that he had what it takes to be even an adequate president. But remember that there are lots of people, LOTS of them, who simply don’t watch or read the news. All the information they would have about the election was what they saw in ads while they were watching other shows. The Clinton ads were pretty devastating, but I’m sure that plenty of Republicans are automatically suspicious of any information coming from Democrats.
Also remember, and I do think this is key, that Trump PLAYED THE PART of a savvy hard-charging businessman on television for fourteen years, in a highly rated television show, and many in that show’s audience believed that what they were watching was real.
So the wrongness isn’t necessarily evil. It could be a combination of stupidity and ignorance. It’s a shame when people pay no attention to a campaign but then go out and vote anyway, but it happens.
Of course, there are also plenty of people who voted for Trump because they simply liked his appeals to bigotry and hatred, but I don’t think you should start out by assuming that the Trump voters you know and like are part of that group.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: true
JPL
This is from the nytimes transcript of the meeting with Trump
Arclite
@Some Dude:
Both GoG and Steam should have sales in about a month. Steam used to have a Thanksgiving sale, but I think they stopped last year since they’d just had one at Halloween, and will also have one at Christmas/New Years. Game recs:
– Civ 5: Yes, Civ 6 just came out, but Civ 5 with its expansions is a mature and gorgeous game. There are many difficulty levels, and also many ways to win: religious victory, scientific victory, diplomatic victory, etc. Each game can last 10s of hours, and there are dozens of civilizations to choose, each with its own advantages.
– Cities: Skylines: The game that SimCity should have been: vast maps, tons of building types, a solid AI, and a massive amount of mods make this the most complete city builder ever. Build an ecotopia or an industrial wasteland. Snowfall and After Dark DLC is already out with the apocalyptic Natural Disasters imminent. Bring on the meteor!
– Rimworld: Your crew of three has crash landed on an alien planet, and you must create a colony to survive and build a ship to escape. It sounds straightforward, except that everything is procedurally generated, including your colonist personalities and random events. It can be hard to predict how they’ll react to the environment and to each other.
All these games offer long play times with near infinite replayability, good for distracting oneself during those long Trump years. Other suggestions:
Skyrim – a massive fantasy RPG with 100s of hours of content. Thousands of mods, and it just came out with an updated graphics version.
Endless Legend – a fantasy version of Civ that does things a bit differently.
Fallout New Vegas – If you can’t stand elves but like RPGs, this post apocalyptic game will scratch that itch. Again, 100s of hours of play. Bonus: it serves as training for when Trump drops the nukes, and can be had for $5.
FTL – Amazing starship sim. So many ship types, so many different tactical options, so much replayability. Captain’s Mod transforms it into a new game. Can be had for under $5, and will run on any machine.
Witcher 3 – said by some to be the greatest RPG ever made. ‘Nuff said.
raven
@Arclite: What in the hell are you talking about?
bemused
Hillary will be so disappointed that Trump won’t be helping her to “heal” after all.
Arclite
@raven:
=D
SomeDude said he was going to get some games during the winter sale to distract himself from the Trump Presidency. So I made some recommendations.
rikyrah
You really should get Netflix and watch House of Cards. Luvvie of the Awesomely Luvvie blog wrote on her Facebook page that we are in the midst of a real life House of Cards.
Arclite
Change.org petition needs only 3,000 more sigs to be complete. Won’t you sign?
raven
@Arclite: Ah, I got lost in the weeds!
trnc
Is there a site somewhere for predicting legislation and executive orders to be signed by Trump that haven’t yet been announced? We all know he’ll be signing into law tax cuts for billionaires who already pay zero income taxes and nullifying most of Obama’s executive actions, but here’s other early action I expect to see:
– An EO ordering all federal business to do use Trump owned/branded services and merchandise where it applies (obviously with a disincentive to save federal dollars)
– Repealing the laws or policies that require foreign made merchandise to be labeled with the country of manufacture
– Besides traditional union busting, tort reform that explicitly makes it easier for businesses to screw employees
– Lowering or abolishing the federal minimum wage
(Cross posted at TPM)
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Geoduck:
He doesn’t investigate anybody, nor decide whether to do so. The Department of Justice is the investigatory/prosecutory agency. Can he argue/demand/bully that it happen? Sure, and his toady AG may even “investigate.” But it’s not a presidential decision;it’s a legal determination – and an honorable AG would note that a (pretty hostile) agency already investigated.
Again, it’s not a presidential decision. This isn’t normal. He’s talking like a dictator.
Dadadadadadada
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): An honorable AG would make the determination, but this country will not have an honorable AG. We’ll have Jeff Sessions, or someone worse.
Iowa Old Lady
There’s a giveaway of Deep as a Tomb running on Goodreads right now. Win a free copy.
Matt
At this point, the response of the press corps should be to run an all-channels discussion of “how to tell if somebody is gaslighting you and what to do about it” featuring both experts and survivors. We’ll know it was successful when divorce rates in Trumpkin counties go up 50% overnight.
low-tech cyclist
What, nobody’s mentioned Section 4 of the 25th Amendment yet?
Might as well C&P it in here:
So we could have (a) Acting President Pence, and (b) a battle royal in Congress between VP Pence and President Trump in the early stages of dementia for control of the office of the Presidency.
Where do I buy popcorn futures again?
Lurking Canadian
In Rome they knew how to deal with a situation like this, but there’s never a Praetorian Guard around when you need one.
Iowa Old Lady
@low-tech cyclist: That sounds like fun.
Xenos
@Lurking Canadian: I, for one, am not in the mood to watch “I, Mikepencius” play out in real life.
artem1s
Trump clearly has a personality disorder. Anyone who has experience with one knows that the biggest trap you can set for yourself is trying to modify your behavior based on getting the PD to behave or tell you the truth. Trying to guess what he will or won’t do, what he means or doesn’t mean, what he remembers or doesn’t remember is completely dysfunctional and co-dependent behavior. It feeds into the chaos that PDs love to use to get attention. The press needs to decide how they are going to report the transition and the administration and stop worrying about what the reaction will be. Good news is, they will get clicks no matter what. They don’t need to be inside the WH or have access to get news. It’s going to be raining down on everyone. The Dems need to do the same. Ryan and the Freedum Caucus are the enemy. Trump should be ignored. He can’t be counted on even if you think you can use him to manipulate Congress. Having him ranting and raving in the background of everything Congress does is probably going to help more than hurt most of the time too. Time to do what should have been done all along. Keep pointing out the not-normal and block the amoral and criminal behavior as much as possible, but don’t expect that he is going to be a functional part of the government going forward. Ignore him.
Davis X. Machina
@opiejeanne: Obama was your new bicycle, You’re not only not getting one but Eric Trump’ stealing that one off your porch right now…
Barbara
Evidently, Trump’s kids have to be around him because they are the only ones who can be trusted to cover for his loss of cognitive function, most likely memory but probably reasoning as well. So, basically, we just elected our crazy uncle who is on the downward slope of his ability to live independently in the world.
opiejeanne
@OzarkHillbilly: Thank you. Did you lose all of your hens?
We have seen a weasel in our neighborhood twice recently and other neighbors have seen it, in places both north and south of our property. Pretty sure it dug out a rabbit’s nest a few months ago.
We also have raccoons and they are very clever with latches. A friend with hens and ducks and a double latch system watched on her security camera as a pair of them cooperate to get the gate open. Haven’t seen opossums or skunks here, but other visitors to the neighborhood include bobcats, a puma, and a black bear.
GrandJury
The worst part of all this is that plan B is Pence. Someone who is actually worse than a declining memory, reasoning impaired narcissistic asshole.
Doubt it was intentional but it’s actually a brilliant firewall to prevent Dr. Orange from getting impeached. Dems don’t want it because plan B is worse.
Davis X. Machina
@JPL: We appear to have elected a box of Refrigerator Poetry Magnets™.
gene108
@JPL:
I have come to the conclusion a good many Americans like politicians, who use small words, short sentences, and who veer into speaking gibberish, at times.
It makes them feel comfortable in their own limitations.
As much as we mocked Bush, Jr’s incoherence with words, I think it really did appeal to people. It’s like, “here’s a politician, who doesn’t act smarter than me.”
opiejeanne
@Davis X. Machina: Aw, man!
Heh. Clever site.
Also, Oh to be so young as to think the polarization only started getting bad when Bill Clinton was in the WH.
Thoroughly Pizzled
@Lurking Canadian: Nah, that is one can we NEVER want to open. Not even for Trump.
JPL
@gene108: Trump’s not acting. I tried to read the transcript at the NYTimes and gave up.
JAFD
To duplicate from Mr. Mayhew’s “What do we do next year” thread:
For anyone seeking five minutes of distraction: There’s a board/card game on various science fiction themes, Race for the Galaxy. A computer version – PC, Linux, Mac – is available for free at
http://keldon.net/rftg/
The rules for board and computer game are downloadable at
http://www.riograndegames.com/uploads/Game/Game_240_gameRules.pdf
More on the game at
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/28143/race-galaxy
(and if you are interested in games, and know not of BoardGameGeek.Com, be enlightened.)
and a version of the rules, formatted to printout in 12-point text – easy reading for old eyes – at
http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/48832/readable-race-galaxy-rules
Hope all of you, and your family and friends and pets, have a joyful Thanksgiving.
Это курам на смех
Yesterday Rump “renounced” his Klan and neo-Nazi supporters and swore that Steve Bannon did not represent the alt-right movement. He then asserted that if he had thought Bannon had anything to do with alt-right, he never would have hired him.
CNN’s reporters then slobbered all over the new, improved president-elect.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I don’t recall Reagan contradiction himself constantly like Trump does.
But Trump is a is a CEO – he’s never had to bother to explain himself or even be accountable to anyone in his life . Keep in mind CEO’s are like dictators of banana republics. Reagan was an actor who drifted into politics so Reagan was always explaining himself.
The Moar You Know
Hit voting age at the end of his first term, first election I voted in was Reagan vs. Mondale. I don’t get too bent out of shape about Dem losses since then, that was the worst one I’ve ever seen.
God curse the lot of you for making me say something nice about the guy, but here we are; Reagan had experience and a team of professionals backing him up so he could get his naps in. They understood America, above all else, needs stability. Trump has none of those things. It’s like comparing the Mafia to a local street gang. They just aren’t comparable in either professionalism, ability, or goals.
RepubAnon
@Major Major Major Major: I’d guess Trump is in the ignorant but canny con artist category. His attention span is limited by whether the audience applauds, or whether he sees a way to cash in on the situation.
Right now, he’s in the “applause / cash in” phase. He knew that making a meaningless promise not to persecute (er, I mean prosecute) Hillary would gain applause from the DC press corps (same motive as an abuser buying flowers for the beaten spouse). He also knows that a Clinton Investigation, however silly, is a useful trick to keep in his pocket for when some investigation of Trump’s unethical practices starts getting too much press: “New facts cause Trump to re-think a Clinton Special Prosecutor…”
Don’t make the mistake of thinking him stupid – it’s more that if he can’t make a buck off it, or get a crowd’s applause, he’s not interested. It’s CEO-Think: all about maximizing profits for Trump, Inc.’s shareholder: Donald Trump.
sherparick
@Joyce H: First, as the initial entry, it is the eternal question, “stupid or evil.” I always think it is a mixture.
Part of party politics is tribal identity. Right now, for the great mass of white, middle class and working class people, part of that tribal identity is “Republicanism” and “Conservatism” as those ideas evolved in the 1970s and 80s in reaction to the revolution of the 1960s & 70s. Basically, outside the racists core, they vote the way they do because they buy the meme that “Democrats tax them to give stuff to people (and we know who those “people” are) who don’t work.” It has been working for them post war rising tide ended in mid-seventies and incomes have stagnated.
(and 1960s and 70s were revolutionary times for the United States. In 1960 it was perfectly legal to black man and give as your reason he was black; to fire a woman who got married or pregnant and to openly state that was the reason; 90% of medical students and law students were men; quotas existed for how many Jewish students were allowed; etc. etc. Twenty years later this had all been changed.)
Also, this was a time period of a generation that had gone through WWII or had come of age in the shadow of that hideous struggle. Because of the racism of the Nazis, Facists, and even the Japanese Imperialists, and their taking those ideas to “logical conclusions” and the resulting horrors, and then LOSING, discredited the whole idea of racism for a generation or two. But as we can see, (and I now appreciate J.K. Rowling’s books a bit more because of how she suggests that these bad but very flattering ideas if you hold them and find yourself a member of the “master race,” will keep coming back.) they are coming back with a vengeance.
Feebog
The Mrs. and I were watching a clip of Trump last night and both of us were struck (once again) with his limited and almost childish vocabulary. He doesn’t seem to be searching for words, or forgetting what he is saying mid-sentence. Rather he seems to have a very limited vocabulary. Is this the reason he repeats himself during rallies? Or does he do that so he can gather his thoughts for the next thing he intends to say?
Origuy
@Arclite: Don’t forget about humblebundle.com. They offer deals on bundles of games and a portion of the proceeds goes to charity.
LongHairedWeirdo
Yeah, St. Ronnie was famous for being able to say in a friendly, non-threatening way, that it was okay to be racist.
They’ve been looking for someone else to be friendly, non-threatening, and make it okay to rob the working class of any last vestiges of dignity. This is why they want to revoke Obamacare. An employee who has health insurance might quit and start their own business – or, just find another job. It’s scary, because to a Republican, the only “freedom” they bring is that of Bobby Mcgee – having nothing left to lose.
sherparick
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Reagan was also President of the Screen Actor’s Guild, a Union, (something he always liked to highlight as he smashed unions) and Governor of California for 8 years, when the Republican Party of California was still filled with “moderates” and “liberals.” Hence, basically was a part-time politician from the late forties to the mid-sixties and a full time politician after that. Trump not only has been a CEO, but the CEO pretty much of a privately held family enterprise, with not board of directors or shareholders to which, in theory, a CEO is accountable. And he appears to see the Presidency as a new acquisition for the family enterprise, but with an Army and the FBI attached.