Trump 25: Stephen King’s Next Horror Story

[fraurosena]

Uhm.... you do know that you and the State Department are the ones that are responsible for US foreign policy, not the media, right? Right? 

[formergothardite]

10 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Uhm.... you do know that you and the State Department are the ones that are responsible for US foreign policy, not the media, right? Right? 

I really don't think he does. The NY times having a weak an ineffective foreign policy doesn't matter one tiny bit because they aren't the ones creating it. He is probably waiting for Fox and Friends to write the foreign policy for him. 

[Cartmann99]

On 11/12/2017 at 7:54 AM, GreyhoundFan said:

I am measuring my balcony to see if there is room for a still, so I can just manufacture my own adult beverages and save money.

I'm imagining a cheesy infomercial starring Ron Popeil for a still. Order now and get a years supply of GLH!

 

[GrumpyGran]

6 hours ago, fraurosena said:

I wonder which tactics were used to force him to watch CNN?

Maybe his friend Duterte forced him to watch it by threatening to plant drugs on him.

[fraurosena]

49 minutes ago, GrumpyGran said:

Maybe his friend Duterte forced him to watch it by threatening to plant drugs on him.

Or it was Duterte's payback for that serenade, maybe?

[formergothardite]

Cards Against Humanity has taken on Trump. I'm not sure how this will actually work but it is amusing.

https://www.cardsagainsthumanitysavesamerica.com/

Quote

 

CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY
STOPS THE WALL

Donald Trump is a preposterous golem who is afraid of Mexicans. He is so afraid that he wants to build a twenty-billion dollar wall that everyone knows will accomplish nothing. So we’ve purchased a plot of vacant land on the border and retained a law firm specializing in eminent domain to make it as time-consuming and expensive as possible for the wall to get built.

On Day 1, all Cards Against Humanity Saves America recipients will get an illustrated map of the land, a certificate of our promise to fight the wall, some new cards, and a few other surprises.

 

 

[Rachel333]

I always enjoy Gollum J Trump's take. 

 

[fraurosena]

Oh! How totally unexpected. Not.

 

[VixenToast]

21 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Oh! How totally unexpected. Not.

 

Makes me think of those Twix commercials. Haha. But irl.

[GrumpyGran]

14 minutes ago, VixenToast said:

Makes me think of those Twix commercials. Haha. But irl.

It was weird. And somehow creepy. Why does he keep staring at the camera while he's getting the water? He has the strangest public presence. It's like he thinks he's attractive or something.

[fraurosena]

42 minutes ago, GrumpyGran said:

It was weird. And somehow creepy. Why does he keep staring at the camera while he's getting the water? He has the strangest public presence. It's like he thinks he's attractive or something.

Think of him what you will, but Marco Rubio's comeback was pretty damn good.

In case you don't remember, the TT dissed Rubio relentlessly for needing a sip of water during a speech. Here's a WaPo article about it:

Trump, who labeled Rubio a ‘choke artist’ for needing water during speech, needs water during speech

Quote

A few years back, Sen. Marco Rubio got a little parched and needed to awkwardly swig from a bottle of water during his Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union address. For this, Donald Trump relentlessly ridiculed Rubio — spotlighting the incident at least eight times.

On Wednesday, Trump met karma.

While speaking at the White House about his trip to Asia, Trump bent down behind the podium briefly, before reemerging and explaining that there was no water down there. “They don't have water,” Trump said. “That's okay.”

Eventually, someone produced a bottle of water, which Trump gladly accepted and drank from. Then he did it again a couple minutes later.

This is something that would be unacceptable to the Old Donald Trump — a sign of a weak constitution.

Back in February 2016, Trump gesticulated while imitating Rubio: " 'I need water. Help me. I need water. Help.' "

He then added: “This is on live television. This total choke artist ..." He later tossed the bottle over his shoulder as the crowd roared.

Apparently, Trump believes people who need water during speeches are choke artists. In other words, by extension . . .

And then there are the tweets:

 

[dissing tweets by TT]

Trump also referenced Rubio's need for hydration in a September 2015 appearance on “Morning Joe.”

“I've never seen a person sweat — I've never seen a guy down water like he downs water,” Trump said. “I've never seen — they bring it in in buckets for this guy.”

How embarrassing.

Rubio, meanwhile, did a brief, more dignified victory dance.

 

[GrumpyGran]

2 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Think of him what you will, but Marco Rubio's comeback was pretty damn good.

(In case you don't remember, the TT dissed Rubio for needing a sip of water during a debate last year)

Do you think he was trying to mock Rubio? His brain is such a scramble of lunacy that he may have been trying to make fun of Rubio because he had a conversation about him before he came out to talk to the press. He doesn't understand that nobody gets it and he just looks strange. Has he ever needed water before? He doesn't look to me like an organism that needs water.

[fraurosena]

2 minutes ago, GrumpyGran said:

Do you think he was trying to mock Rubio? His brain is such a scramble of lunacy that he may have been trying to make fun of Rubio because he had a conversation about him before he came out to talk to the press. He doesn't understand that nobody gets it and he just looks strange. Has he ever needed water before? He doesn't look to me like an organism that needs water.

To me it just looked like he was spruiking Fiji water. Maybe he's had a donation from them, or he's buddies with one of their execs? And by the way, although they're marketing themselves as 'the wonderful company', they're shady as hell and have been sued for greenwashing, so they surely would appeal to the TT.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump wants to upend 230 years of constitutional principle"

Spoiler

Okay, it’s official. President Trump wants to upend 230 years of constitutional history and principle to run the U.S. justice system like a banana republic, or perhaps more aptly like what now passes for the rule of law in the country he aspires to emulate, the Russian Federation.

What the Founding Fathers built with a written Constitution and 85 Federalist Papers, the president is trying to tear down 140 or 280 characters at a time.

For months, Trump has been trying to divert attention from the walls closing in on his former campaign chairman, his former national security adviser and his own son Donald Trump Jr., who are caught up in the investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Trump has practiced some of the favorite tactics of his role model Vladimir Putin, labeling any damaging revelation as “fake news” and practicing a refined form of “whataboutism.”

I have been one of the favorite targets of the latter. Whenever Trump gets close to Putin, as he did in Vietnam this weekend, and is asked about Russian efforts to help elect him and damage Hillary Clinton by, among other things, criminally hacking my personal email account, he responds by asking: What about the Clintons? What about John Podesta? The Justice Department should look into them.

“Whataboutism” is reliably useful for triggering breathless speculation by the president’s allies on Fox News, in the alt-right media and among Russian trolls.

But what appeared to be a typically Trumpian media damage-control strategy has taken a more lawless and sinister turn. This week, it was reported that Attorney General Jeff Sessions — in an apparent effort to appease Trump — is considering appointing a special counsel to investigate Clinton’s role in approving the purchase of Uranium One, a company that owned uranium mines in the United States, by Russia’s nuclear energy agency. This matter was thoroughly and exhaustively examined by the mainstream media during the 2016 campaign, leading to the definitive conclusion that Clinton played no role.

That didn’t stop Trump from pounding his “beleaguered” attorney general, as recently as Nov. 3, to demand that the Justice Department open a criminal investigation of his defeated opponent. And now it appears that Sessions, weakened by the constant attacks from the president he serves, could succumb to that pressure.

In an almost tragicomic echo of Richard Nixon’s statement to John Dean, “it’s wrong, that’s for sure,” Sessions in testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday said “the Department of Justice can never be used to retaliate politically against opponents, and that would be wrong.” Except that seems to be precisely what is going on.

This is what authoritarians and tyrants do. They use the instruments of state power, particularly the wrath of the prosecutor, to rain opprobrium down upon citizens with whom they disagree. It is what Putin did by using the Russian penal system to break the back of Sergei Magnitsky’s anti-corruption campaign and end his life. Our constitutional system of limited power, checks and balances and individual rights has protected us from such abuses of power. Trump is putting that system to the test.

The first line of defense against authoritarianism is an independent Justice Department committed to the rule of law. In 1940, Attorney General (and future Supreme Court Justice) Robert Jackson, in a famous speech to U.S. attorneys in the Great Hall of the Department of Justice warned that when “the prosecutor picks some person whom he dislikes or desires to embarrass, or selects some group of unpopular persons and then looks for an offense, that [is where] the greatest danger of abuse of prosecuting power lies. It is here that law enforcement becomes personal, and the real crime becomes that of being unpopular with the predominant or governing group.”

Sessions would do well to read the Jackson speech, and I would hope that he has the mettle to stand up to our imperious president. But his conduct in office does not give me much reason for hope.

As a younger man, when I came to work as a trial attorney at the Justice Department, it was impossible to enter the building without seeing the murals that majestically but plainly reminded us of our traditions and our duty. Justice is a hallowed place, if we keep it that way.

But if Sessions yields to pressure from the president and the president’s House Republican allies, it will be a dark day at the department I once proudly served. The rule of law will have been weakened, and our country will be in further peril.

Sadly, telling the TT that an action is what tyrants do would just make him want to do it more.

[GreyhoundFan]

"The sorry state of Trump’s presidency: Too nervous to chase an alleged predator from Senate race"

Spoiler

Politico calls it a “wrenching” decision. To attack North Korea? To fix the Obamacare exchanges? No: President Trump is flummoxed over the call for him to demand Roy Moore, accused by multiple women of inappropriate sexual conduct when they were teens, leave the Alabama Senate race.

The state of the GOP is such, and Trump’s own moral unfitness is such, that a no-brainer for any other president becomes a perilous decision for a president elected despite accusations (by more women than have accused Moore publicly) of sexual aggression, which allegedly occurred more recently than Moore’s alleged actions.

Trump could be repudiated by voters in Alabama, certainly no swing state, if they vote for Moore despite Trump’s plea. Other Republicans could blast him for giving way to some kind of vast left-wing conspiracy (one so vast as to include a cop who heard that a shopping mall banned Moore for bothering young girls, a fellow prosecutor who recalls him “dating” teens when he was in his 30s, multiple women and The Post). True, the Republican National Committee has ended a campaign fundraising deal with Moore, but that is a far cry from Trump declaring sexual predation to be disqualifying.

If voters listen to Trump and abandon Moore, who does that leave in the contest other than Doug Jones, whose election would move Democrats one notch closer to taking the Senate majority in 2018? Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wants beleaguered Attorney General Jeff Sessions to run. That has no less than four problems: Sessions would have to quit immediately; Trump would pick a new attorney general who could fire special prosecutor Robert S. Mueller III or impede his investigation; Sessions might not win; and Sessions would be a free agent, no longer deterred by any executive-privilege restraints in either testifying before Congress or spilling whatever he knows to Mueller. And there is a fifth — Trump would reignite debate about his own accusers and the merits of their claims.

Republicans demanding that the previously accused harasser demand the accused sexual predator to get out of the race make fools of themselves. Trump allegedly groped and assaulted multiple women who detailed their accounts. Teen pageant contestants said Trump barged into their dressing room while contestants were changing — but Hillary Clinton was less fit to be president, these Republicans insisted. Their newfound faith in women accusers is convenient but would prompt them to answer tricky questions as to why they did not demand Trump step down in favor of Mike Pence. (Democrats should demand both Moore and Trump leave, if we are now arguing that sexual misconduct is disqualifying.) This would not be so nearly entertaining if not for the Republicans’ constant resort to “whataboutism.” (Yes, Trump, but what about Hillary’s emails! Yes, Trump, but Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky!) For those of us who favored impeachment for Bill Clinton, believed Trump unfit (not solely because of his alleged sexual conduct) and find Moore monstrous (not only because of Moore’s accusers), it is small satisfaction to see the GOP tied up in knots.

The only GOP principle is to win at all costs, defend any member of the tribe — until he is a threat to the tribe. Too bad Republicans didn’t realize Trump was such a threat to the GOP (not to mention the country). Whether they lose the seat or win it with Moore, they face the wrath of many voters, especially women convinced these people are unfit to watch their daughters, let alone hold office. And if Sessions, the man of so defective a memory as to raise questions about his capacity for such a high post and who has gone after immigrants without a shred of humanity, were to be pushed out of office, well, that would be political karma on stilts.

"...political karma on stilts." Good one.

[Rachel333]

The picture was gross, but Trump is such a hypocrite, both in how he treats Republicans vs. Democrats accused and, most notably, by how he treats women himself.

 

[GrumpyGran]

11 minutes ago, Rachel333 said:

The picture was gross, but Trump is such a hypocrite, both in how he treats Republicans vs. Democrats accused and, most notably, by how he treats women himself.

 

Seems a little obsessed with the pictures. And it's "Frankenstein" you idiot!

[church_of_dog]

13 minutes ago, GrumpyGran said:

Seems a little obsessed with the pictures. And it's "Frankenstein" you idiot!

DJT’s response is ridiculous!  Including but not limited to the misspelling.

And actually it’s Franken.  Unless you meant:

 

in which case I bow to your style of humor!

[Rachel333]

I guess "Frankenstien" is Trump's nickname for Franken, like "Pocahontas," "Lyin' Ted," "Crooked Hillary," "Little Marco," "Little Rocket Man," and more. I'm sure Trump thinks he's incredibly clever for it.

[fraurosena]

2 hours ago, Rachel333 said:

The picture was gross, but Trump is such a hypocrite, both in how he treats Republicans vs. Democrats accused and, most notably, by how he treats women himself.

 

Well that tweet shows the world exactly how the TT’s mind works. I have the impression ( which could be wrong) that Al Franken’s photo was meant to be funny. I don’t think he was grabbing for her breasts because it turned him on. His head is turned to the camera and he has a stupid grin on his face. Was it inappropriate? Very much so. And he certainly should not have done it. But I think that was all it was. A misguided prank.

The presidunce however, immediately thinks of going further. Of where he would grab next. Of what he would do to the woman. Yuk.

[GrumpyGran]

8 hours ago, fraurosena said:

The presidunce however, immediately thinks of going further. Of where he would grab next. Of what he would do to the woman. Yuk.

Yeah, the Franken picture isn't following the Trump sexual assault playbook at all. What's the fun if she's asleep. She needs to be awake so she can appreciate that she was assaulted by a millionaire.

[GreyhoundFan]

From the AP about the Hypocrite-in-chief: "Selective outrage: Trump criticizes Franken, silent on Moore"

Spoiler

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is displaying selective outrage over allegations of sexual harassment against prominent men in politics, as his own tortured past lingers over his response.

Trump moved quickly Thursday to condemn accusations against Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken as “really bad,” but he has remained conspicuously silent on the more serious claims leveled against Roy Moore, the Republican in Alabama’s special Senate race who faces allegations he sexually assaulted teenage girls decades ago.

Trump has repeatedly declined to follow Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan in calling on Moore to quit the race. Both had said they believe Moore’s accusers.

With the nation confronting revelations of sexual impropriety by powerful men in entertainment and politics, Trump is an inconsistent as well as an unlikely critic of alleged offenders.

More than a dozen allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct were leveled against him in the waning days of the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump was caught on tape in conversation with “Access Hollywood” boasting in graphic detail of sexually harassing women.

Trump has repeatedly dismissed the allegations against him as fake news, most recently telling reporters on Oct. 16: “It’s just fake. It’s fake. It’s made-up stuff.”

That didn’t deter Trump from scoring a blow on a reeling detractor.

Leeann Tweeden, now a Los Angeles radio host, on Thursday accused Franken of forcibly kissing and groping her during a 2006 USO tour. She released a photo showing the comedian turned senator posing in a joking manner with his hands on her chest as she naps wearing a flak vest aboard a military plane.

In a pair of tweets Thursday night, Trump spotlighted the accusations against Franken, saying the photo “speaks a thousand words.”

“Where do his hands go in pictures 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 while she sleeps?” Trump tweeted. “And to think that just last week he was lecturing anyone who would listen about sexual harassment and respect for women.”

Hours before the tweets appeared, Franken moved swiftly to apologize and embrace bipartisan calls for an ethics investigation into his actions.

As Trump assailed Franken, Moore was digging in, pledging to fight the accusations against him as the state GOP in Alabama reaffirmed its support for the embattled candidate. Two women have come forward by name accusing Moore of initiating sexual contact with them when they were 14 and 16, respectively.

On Tuesday, the Republican National Committee pulled its financial support for Moore, following similar action last week by the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The White House said Trump supported the RNC’s decision, which came as the party absorbed polling data showing Moore trailing Democrat Doug Jones in the Republican stronghold.

In recent days, GOP officials sought to explain away Trump’s refusal to call on Moore to step aside as an effort not to add more fuel to the anti-establishment fires boosting Moore’s campaign. They also suggested that Trump was wary of wading into issues of sexual impropriety given the previous claims against him. But the strike against Franken indicated a more political rationale. The former “Saturday Night Live” writer and cast member has been an outspoken critic of Trump’s administration.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders repeatedly declined Thursday to say whether Trump believed Moore’s accusers, even after the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, told The Associated Press that she had no reason to doubt their claims against him.

“He thinks that the people of Alabama should make the decision on who their next senator should be,” Sanders said of the president, who dodged questions from reporters on the subject twice earlier in the week. Sanders also refused to say whether Trump was pulling his endorsement of the candidate.

I'm sick and saddened by the Franken situation, but honestly, I can't imagine that allegations about other politicians (on both sides of the aisle) won't come out soon. Especially since sexual harassment is more about power, and politicians love power. At least Franken didn't scream "fake news" like the TT and Moore have done repeatedly. And, I'm sorry, but Franken's gross actions with/against an adult woman are nowhere near as horrible as Moore's dogged pursuit of children.

[Rachel333]

Remember that Trump has actually raped at least one woman and has been accused of more. Franken hasn't been accused of that. 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump is in deep with Saudi Arabia. That’s dangerous."

Spoiler

LONDON — President Trump gave a speech this week grading his Asia trip. Not surprisingly, he thought it was a “tremendous success.” “Our great country is respected again in Asia,” he tweeted. All recent polling data from the region suggests the opposite. A core focus of Trump’s trip was Japan and South Korea, but only 17 percent of South Koreans and 24 percent of Japanese express confidence in him, down from 88 percent and 78 percent who expressed confidence in President Barack Obama during his second term. Trump’s rhetoric of self-interest and “America first” was seen by Asians as a sign of retreat, in contrast to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s more open, outward-looking and ambitious agenda.

However, Trump’s foreign policy faces a new challenge that could further disrupt the Middle East, already the most unstable part of the world. Trump has given the green light to an extraordinary series of moves in Saudi Arabia that can only be described as a revolution from above. Some of them suggest real and long-needed reforms. But all appear to have the risk of destabilizing Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia’s new crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has moved to consolidate power in all directions, jailing conservative clerics on the one hand and advocates of political reform on the other. His most recent targets have been some of the kingdom’s most powerful princes, including the head of the National Guard as well as the billionaire investor Alwaleed bin Talal, on allegations of corruption. A senior Arab statesman and businessman told me the reasons given seem suspect. He said, “Every prince in Saudi Arabia has partaken in the institutionalized corruption that is embedded into the system. If this was really about corruption, Alwaleed is the last Saudi prince you would go after.”

If fighting terrorism were a paramount concern, you would not humiliate Mohammed bin Nayef, who was crown prince until he was replaced by Mohammed bin Salman in June, and whose bank accounts have now been frozen. For the past decade, Mohammed bin Nayef worked closely with Washington in prosecuting the war against al-Qaeda and similar terrorist groups and was routinely and lavishly praised by American officials. But far from speaking out for this longtime ally, Trump actually tweeted his support for the purge, which has so far been carried out without specific charges or due process.

Saudi Arabia has historically rested on three pillars of stability. There’s the royal family, a large loose group with 15,000 to 30,000 members, which has intermarried with a second pillar of Saudi society, the tribes. These two ally with the final pillar, the country’s ultra-orthodox religious establishment, whose power has grown over the past four decades. Mohammed bin Salman has been saying the right things about religious moderation and has taken on all three pillars. In doing so, he is altering the very structure of the Saudi regime, from a patronage state based on consensus to a police state based on centralized control.

Time will tell whether it will work.

But the greater puzzle and danger is that while following this bold and risky domestic agenda, the crown prince has made a series of aggressive moves abroad. He has escalated Saudi intervention in Yemen, with bombing strikes and air, land and sea blockades. He has tried to quarantine Qatar, hoping to turn it into a submissive satellite state. He has apparently forced the Lebanese prime minister to resign, hoping to destabilize the Shiite-dominated government. All these are part of an effort to fight back against Iran’s growing regional influence.

These are blunt tools for the complex challenge that is the Middle East. The Saudis are attempting to dislodge the Iran-backed Shiite group Hezbollah from its position of power in Lebanon and punish Qatar for its alleged ties to the group. But for several years, the Saudis and Americans have been in an unspoken alliance with Hezbollah against the Islamic State, which is being defeated largely by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces and Iran-backed Shiite militias. Iran’s influence has been nefarious in some areas and helpful in others.

In any event, the Saudi strategy does not seem to be working. The war in Yemen has turned into a disaster, creating a failed state on Saudi Arabia’s border that is seething with anger against Riyadh. Qatar has not surrendered and doesn’t seem likely to anytime soon. So far, the Shiites in Lebanon have acted responsibly, refusing to take the bait and plunge the country into civil war. But everywhere in the Middle East, tensions are rising, sectarianism is gaining ground and, with a couple of miscalculations or accidents, things could spiral out of control. With Trump so firmly supporting the Saudi strategy, the United States could find itself dragged further into the deepening Middle East morass.

Sadly, Agent Orange neither grasps the situation, nor cares. All he is concerned about is whether people "roll out the red carpet" and flatter him.

[GrumpyGran]

46 minutes ago, Rachel333 said:

Remember that Trump has actually raped at least one woman and has been accused of more. Franken hasn't been accused of that. 

The entry in his Sleeze Resume that I particularly love is that he admitted to going into the dressing rooms of teenage girls during beauty pageants and was gleeful about how much he enjoyed it. He has a strong obsession with young girls himself.