Trump 7 - Cheeto in Charge

[RoseWilder]

2 hours ago, AlwaysExcited said:

Well, Trump got his 270 elector votes. 
Congrats, Ivanka, the first de-facto female president of United States. Enjoy all the work, while your daddy enjoys all the attention. 

I didn't believe the electoral vote would change anything, and yet I feel strangely depressed by this news. I just can't believe that Russia has taken over our government and no one is doing anything to stop it. 

[candygirl200413]

I'll see if I can find it again, but I saw on twitter how Newt Gingrich was saying that the office of ethics should you know "really" tweak all their rules about ethics for Trump cause you know Trump has no ethics. So essentially what I just got from the title (I'll admit I did not read the article yet but just get his vibe) that he essentially does not want ethics for Trump.

Again I'm not surprised but at the same time I"m just like we are really doing this, he's officially in charge.

[JMarie]

54 minutes ago, candygirl200413 said:

I'll see if I can find it again, but I saw on twitter how Newt Gingrich was saying that the office of ethics should you know "really" tweak all their rules about ethics for Trump cause you know Trump has no ethics. So essentially what I just got from the title (I'll admit I did not read the article yet but just get his vibe) that he essentially does not want ethics for Trump.

Again I'm not surprised but at the same time I"m just like we are really doing this, he's officially in charge.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gingrich-suggests-trump-pardon-advisers-who-break-the-law/ar-AAlL1a9?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp

[Childless]

I'm not wondering if impeachment is what the Republicans have been planning since he won the primary.  It would explain why Pence would agree to be his running mate.  If they told him to accept the offer and within the year he'd be president, I could see him holding his nose and saying yes even though Trump stands for just about everything Pence is against.  Not that Pence is a better option than Trump.  He did a good job of trashing Indiana, I'm under no impression he'd do anything different with the country.  For the Republican rank and file though, Pence would make a much better president in their eyes.  I'll be interested to see how long it'll take them to start the impeachment process after the inauguration.  There are definitely impeachable offenses already for Trump and he hasn't even taken office yet.  Maybe they do have proof of Russian involvement in the election and proof that Trump knew about it, but are holding the information back until after the inauguration to be sure they can get Pence into office rather than Clinton.

[RoseWilder]

4 hours ago, Childless said:

 Not that Pence is a better option than Trump.  He did a good job of trashing Indiana, I'm under no impression he'd do anything different with the country.  

Pence would be a horrible president. I'm under no illusions about that. But I think he's probably already going to be the president in a lot of ways, whether he officially is or not, since Trump has no interest in doing the actual work of being president. 

As for whether he'd be a better or worse president than Trump, I think it would be worse in some ways, because he'll be able to get a lot more heinous laws passed than Trump because more Republicans like Pence than Trump. And, with Trump, there's always the chance he might get mad at some of the Republicans at some point and do the opposite of what they want just to spite them. But I also think Pence would be better than Trump in other ways, because I don't think he'd get us in a war because someone disagreed with him on twitter, or attack private citizens who disagree with him, or spark international incidences on a regular basis the way Trump will. 

Isn't it sad that the bar has been set that low. I'm now sort-of praising Pence for not acting like a two-year-old on social media. The bottom line is that I think our country will be ruined by the end of the four years, whether the president is Trump or Pence. But I think there's a lower chance of us getting nuked if Pence is president. 

[JMarie]

1 hour ago, RoseWilder said:

Pence would be a horrible president. I'm under no illusions about that. But I think he's probably already going to be the president in a lot of ways, whether he officially is or not, since Trump has no interest in doing the actual work of being president. 

As for whether he'd be a better or worse president than Trump, I think it would be worse in some ways, because he'll be able to get a lot more heinous laws passed than Trump because more Republicans like Pence than Trump. And, with Trump, there's always the chance he might get mad at some of the Republicans at some point and do the opposite of what they want just to spite them. But I also think Pence would be better than Trump in other ways, because I don't think he'd get us in a war because someone disagreed with him on twitter, or attack private citizens who disagree with him, or spark international incidences on a regular basis the way Trump will. 

Isn't it sad that the bar has been set that low. I'm now sort-of praising Pence for not acting like a two-year-old on social media. The bottom line is that I think our country will be ruined by the end of the four years, whether the president is Trump or Pence. But I think there's a lower chance of us getting nuked if Pence is president. 

First, Trump says he wants to stay at his homes come January, and not in the White House (and his wife will be staying at their New York residence).  Second, he doesn't want to participate in daily briefings because he already knows everything.  Next, his daughter will be doing the First Lady Duties, since she's willing to move to D.C,, and only her brothers will make up the blind trust (once again leaving out Tiffany, poor Tiffany).  Now he wants to use his own security team, avoiding the Secret Service.

Who knows how he'll behave, and what he'll try to do "his own way" once January 21 comes.

[Howl]

4 hours ago, RoseWilder said:

But I think there's a lower chance of us getting nuked if Pence is president. 

Well, not with an actual nuclear weapon, but I consider the Republican agenda to be the nuclear option as far as citizens are concerned, starting with changing Social Security so that it no longer is and "privatizing" MediCare and MediCaid. 

[Cartmann99]

1 hour ago, JMarie said:

First, Trump says he wants to stay at his homes come January, and not in the White House (and his wife will be staying at their New York residence).  Second, he doesn't want to participate in daily briefings because he already knows everything.  Next, his daughter will be doing the First Lady Duties, since she's willing to move to D.C,, and only her brothers will make up the blind trust (once again leaving out Tiffany, poor Tiffany).  Now he wants to use his own security team, avoiding the Secret Service.

Who knows how he'll behave, and what he'll try to do "his own way" once January 21 comes.

I think after the Inauguration festivities are over, Trump will announce that his family will never live in the White House. If he absolutely has to go to DC for some reason, he will fly home at night. 

Speaking of the Inauguration, I keep reading reports that Trump is having trouble getting big name entertainers to agree to perform at the festivities.

Spoiler

He should have announced a talent competition open to all Trump supporters, and then have the winners perform at his festivities. He could have told his fans that he decided to do this as a way of thanking his voters for supporting him. 

 

[47of74]

37 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

I think after the Inauguration festivities are over, Trump will announce that his family will never live in the White House. If he absolutely has to go to DC for some reason, he will fly home at night. 

Speaking of the Inauguration, I keep reading reports that Trump is having trouble getting big name entertainers to agree to perform at the festivities.

  Hide contents

He should have announced a talent competition open to all Trump supporters, and then have the winners perform at his festivities. He could have told his fans that he decided to do this as a way of thanking his voters for supporting him. 

 

Or get known GOP hacks like Hank Williams Jr, Kid Rock, and Pants Shit Fever Nugent to perform there.

[RoseWilder]

46 minutes ago, Howl said:

Well, not with an actual nuclear weapon, but I consider the Republican agenda to be the nuclear option as far as citizens are concerned, starting with changing Social Security so that it no longer is and "privatizing" MediCare and MediCaid. 

I agree. I just think those things are going to happen either way. 

I don't mean to make any of this sound like I'm in favor of Pence being president. I can't stand him. He ruined our state. I just think he might be a marginally better option than Trump.

It still feels like choosing between cancer and a heart attack. Both options are horrifying. 

[Cartmann99]

Sorry, hit the button by accident!

[JMarie]

1 hour ago, Cartmann99 said:

I think after the Inauguration festivities are over, Trump will announce that his family will never live in the White House. If he absolutely has to go to DC for some reason, he will fly home at night. 

Speaking of the Inauguration, I keep reading reports that Trump is having trouble getting big name entertainers to agree to perform at the festivities.

  Hide contents

He should have announced a talent competition open to all Trump supporters, and then have the winners perform at his festivities. He could have told his fans that he decided to do this as a way of thanking his voters for supporting him. 

 

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/the-wrap/article/Patriots-Day-Star-on-Performing-at-10799317.php

Quote

TheWrap exclusively Wednesday that Trump’s team is struggling so hard to book A-list performers for his inaugural festivities that two talent bookers said they were offered ambassadorships if they could deliver marquee names. The inauguration team has its sights set on top-tier talents like Justin Timberlake, Bruno Mars, Katy Perry and Aretha Franklin, and were willing to pay steep fees for the performers.

A meeting between Trump and Kanye West spurred speculation Tuesday that the the troubled rapper might perform. On Wednesday, news broke that Trump’s team had managed to enlist 16-year-old former “America’s Got Talent” star Jackie Evancho. And earlier this week, the New York Post reported that Italian singer Andrea Bocelli has been personally approached by Trump to perform at the inauguration.

Also Read: Insiders: Trump Team Dangled Ambassadorships to Lure A-List Inauguration Singers (Exclusive)

Last month, The New York Times reported that a representative for Elton John, who supported Hillary Clinton, issued a stern statement denying his client had agreed to perform at the inauguration after a member of Trump’s transition team said the “Rocket Man” singer would take the stage. Garth Brooks is also out.

In a statement to TheWrap, Trump’s team denied offering any ambassadorships. “There is no truth to this insinuation,” said committee spokesman Boris Epshteyn. “First-class entertainers are eager to participate in the inaugural events. The inauguration as a whole will be an exciting and uniting celebration of freedom and democracy. We will be releasing further details at the appropriate time.”

 

The haters are all over Jackie Evancho because she has a transgender sibling.  And Andrea Bocelli said no.  Didn't Tiffany Trump release a song a few years ago?  I bet she's available to perform.

[Cartmann99]

Trump should get Chachi to perform:

 

[47of74]

I see the fundies got a big ol' Orange Toxic Megacolon in their eyes now;

rawstory.com/2016/12/southern-baptists-turn-wrath-against-leader-who-called-out-evangelical-trump-voters-as-hypocrites/

Quote

An evangelical political leader who spoke out against Donald Trump is facing a backlash from the president-elect’s religious right supporters.

Russell Moore, who leads the political arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, bashed Trump and “the old-guard religious right political establishment” who supported him despite “serious moral problems,” reported NPR.

Those religious right leaders — including Mike Huckabee — are now attacking Moore, who’s president of the Southern Baptists’ Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

Some churches and state Baptist organizations are considering withholding funds from Moore’s commission until he’s removed as president.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Gee, I guess it's not a good idea to offer access to the president for $$$, especially since that's what Drumpf and his minions kept accusing Hillary of doing. A couple of excerpts:

Quote

The initial invitation from Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump dangled a rare opportunity for donors willing to pony up $500,000 and more: a private reception with the new president the day after his inauguration and a hunting or fishing excursion with one of the brothers.

“Opening Day is your opportunity to play a significant role as our family commemorates the inauguration of our father, friend and President Donald J. Trump,” read the draft obtained by TMZ.

But days after the details about the high-dollar Jan. 21 “camouflage & cufflinks”-themed fundraiser first leaked, a spokeswoman for the president-elect said Tuesday that neither he nor his adult sons were involved in plans for the event. And the organizers of the function — who include close friends of the Trump brothers — dialed back offers of access to the new president and his sons.

The confusion over the family’s connection to the fundraiser showed the degree to which Trump has failed to set rules that would protect his family from allegations of influence-peddling or draw clear lines between himself and the interests of his children, who will take over management of his business empire, watchdog groups said.

“This is an obvious and ongoing problem that this president will face until he creates a true firewall,” said Lisa Gilbert, director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch.

and

 

Quote

No matter which group benefits from the event, watchdog groups said the arrangement is effectively selling wealthy donors access to the highest office in the land.

“Those people who contribute are not going because they’re dying to spend time with Eric Trump,” said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause. “They’re going because they’re the president’s sons, and they hope that their donations get them something in return.”

LOL, how true, I'm sure nobody really wants to spend time with Eric.

[candygirl200413]

Do you guys ever wonder what will happen for the next presidential election? Like will the bar change or just get progressively lower?

[GreyhoundFan]

8 minutes ago, candygirl200413 said:

Do you guys ever wonder what will happen for the next presidential election? Like will the bar change or just get progressively lower?

I was thinking about that the other day. I believe that the next year will be telling. If (BIG IF) we can get peoples' heads out of their backsides, we may have a chance to revert to a sense of maturity and responsibility. Otherwise, I think it will devolve into even more of a bad reality show, complete with handy toll-free numbers to vote on cabinet members and other important matters.

[47of74]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Gee, I guess it's not a good idea to offer access to the president for $$$, especially since that's what Drumpf and his minions kept accusing Hillary of doing. A couple of excerpts:

and

 

LOL, how true, I'm sure nobody really wants to spend time with Eric.

This made me think of how Mitt Rommel Romney's spawn were licking their chops before the 2012 election.  I could tell they couldn't wait to send the Obama girls packing and how they going to cash in on their old man being in the White House. 

And Agent Fuck's kids make the Romney spawns look like goddamn saints.

23 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I was thinking about that the other day. I believe that the next year will be telling. If (BIG IF) we can get peoples' heads out of their backsides, we may have a chance to revert to a sense of maturity and responsibility. Otherwise, I think it will devolve into even more of a bad reality show, complete with handy toll-free numbers to vote on cabinet members and other important matters.

I think the Orange Toxic Megacolon is just the latest sympton of a country that has gone so far down the shitter (and a pretty full one at that too) that if there are future elections that we're not going to see an improvement in the quality of the candidates.  With the Republicans these days they have no interest in governing any more unless they can dominate and control other human beings. 

[47of74]

Oh this ought to get the Orange Toxic Megacolon going.

washingtonian.com/2016/12/20/travel-group-dc-trump-hotel-one-worlds-worst-new-luxury-hotels/

Quote

Before the Trump International Hotel opened, Donald Trump liked to brag that the business he and his family built inside the Old Post Office would be “one of the great hotels of the world.”

But according to a year-end list of new luxury hotels from a travel group that specializes in high-end accommodations, it’s one of the world’s worst. The Trump hotel rated as the world’s third-lousiest new hotel, according to the membership-only United Kingdom operation LTI-Luxury Travel Intelligence.

“LTI finds the décor a little garish and more quantity over quality,” it continues. Few who have been inside the hotel might argue differently. In Trumpian fashion, the hotel is a pageant of too-muchness, from the gold-colored bathroom fixtures to a $29 bowl of hummus to the crystal spoonfuls of sickly-sweet Hungarian wine that go for as much as $140.

“Service is poor on occasions and lacks confidence,” LTI founder Michael Crompton writes. “The whole experience seems a little forced, and therefore this place is not for the true discerning luxury traveller.”

I sense 5am tweet storms coming from Agent Shithead in the very near future as his fee fees get hurt.

[Howl]

Hmmmmm, Pay to Play by donating to the Trump "charity"?  Seems somebody else got called out for that during the lead up to the recent election.   Pay to Play was considered so awful that there were calls to "Lock her up!". 

And now, this is such incredibly bad news, at least if you are a Senior like me.  However, director of the OMB must be confirmed by the Senate, so there's some hope. 

From Talking Points Memo: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/trump-pick-for-omb-director-wants-to-end-medicare-as-we-know-it

Quote

Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to direct the Office of Management and Budget, has been an ardent supporter of budget proposals that would privatize Medicare and has made overhauling the program a key issue in his approach to governance.

“We have to end Medicare as we know it,” Mulvaney said in 2011.

Supposedly, this "overhaul" of MediCare is required because there's no other path forward....except making US corporations who headquartered in the Caribbean pay their actual taxes, or overhauling the US tax code to close loopholes, or cracking down ruthlessly on MediCare/MediCaid fraud, or forcing Big Pharma to stop price gouging....

Now here's the weird thing, and this points to Pence (NOT Trump) being the force behind the throne: Trump DID NOT support overhauling MediCare and MediCaid during the campaign.  

Talking Points Memo has an article posted that the real fight going forward is going to be between GOP House and GOP Senate and this addresses MediCare, so there's hope.

From "The Real Fight Ahead May Be Between The GOP House and the GOP Senate"

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/showdown-here-are-the-fights-to-watch-between-a-gop-house-and-senate

Quote

But already Senate Republicans have tried to rein in the House's far-reaching agenda and at times thrown their colleagues under the bus. And this comes before the new Congress is sworn in.

Experts agree that the reality is that the Senate is still likely to have the final say in many of the upcoming fights. It's the Senate where Republicans need 60 votes to pass most any major legislative changes. That means Senate Republicans are going to need Democrats to push their agenda through...

...In the lame duck session, Senators have already aggressively rebuffed calls from Ryan and House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-GA) to overhaul Medicare and privatize it as they try to focus on overhauling the Affordable Care Act.

It was just days after the election that Ryan told Fox News host Bret Baier he wanted to make changes to the program. Senate Republicans quickly came out against the plan.

"I think we should leave Medicare for another day," said Senate HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN). "Medicare has solvency problems. We need to address those, but trying to do that at the same time we deal with Obamacare falls in the category of biting off more than we can chew."...

..."Doing anything that is going to change Medicare will probably still scare enough Republicans in the Senate," DiNiscia said. "There is going to be Susan Collins and two other Republicans somewhere who are just not going to go along with changes to Medicare because they are just going to be too scared."

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Here's a good op-ed: Trump voters didn’t take him literally on Obamacare. Oops?

Quote

Donald Trump’s supporters, in conservative writer Salena Zito’s memorable formulation, take him seriously but not literally.

They will be forgiving if, say, he doesn’t literally get Mexico to pay for a border wall, or if he doesn’t literally ban all Muslims from entering the United States.

But in other areas, Trump’s supporters perhaps should have taken him literally — because they now may have a serious problem.

Vox senior editor Sarah Kliff wrote a poignant account last week of her visit to Whitley County, Ky., where the uninsured rate declined 60 percent under Obamacare but 82 percent of voters supported Trump. There, Kliff, a former Post colleague, found Trump voters who were downright frightened that the president-elect would do exactly — literally — what he and Republicans promised: repeal Obamacare.

Among those she found was Trump voter Debbie Mills, a store owner whose husband awaits a lifesaving liver transplant; they got insurance through Obamacare, and Mills is hoping the law won’t be repealed.

“I don’t know what we’ll do if it does go away,” Mills said. “I guess I thought that, you know, [Trump] would not do this. That they would not do this, would not take the insurance away. Knowing that it’s affecting so many people’s lives. I mean, what are you to do then if you cannot . . . purchase, cannot pay for the insurance?”

Mills, who supported Trump for other reasons, figured Obamacare repeal was just talk. “I guess we really didn’t think about that, that he was going to cancel that or change that or take it away,” she said. “I guess I always just thought that it would be there. I was thinking that once it was made into a law that it could not be changed.”

Others who didn’t take Trump literally may soon face the same dilemma. The Urban Institute estimated this month that under the partial repeal plan previously passed by Republicans in Congress, 30 million people would lose insurance, 82 percent of them would be in working families and 56 percent would be white. Among adults who would lose insurance, 80 percent don’t have college degrees.

“The people hit the hardest are a lot of the demographics that went heavily for Trump,” observes Bob Greenstein, who runs the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal number-crunching group.

And it’s not just Obamacare. Take — literally — Trump’s “Penny Plan,” which would reduce non-defense discretionary spending by 1 percent each year for 10 years. It’s one of the more modest of Trump’s promises, yet Greenstein’s group calculates that, once inflation is factored in, it would require the government to cut by a third what it spends on such things as cancer and medical research, highways, air traffic, the Coast Guard, job training, education, Pell Grants, housing, energy, child care and food assistance, the administration of Social Security and Medicare, national parks, NASA, the IRS, Congress and the courts, disaster assistance, global health and diplomatic protection (remember Benghazi?).

Take literally Trump’s promise to exempt public safety (the FBI, border control and the like), and other cuts would have to be even deeper. If you suspend credulity and take literally Trump’s promise to eliminate the entire federal debt in eight years, “you would have to eliminate very large parts of the federal government,” Greenstein says. Who needs a military, anyway?

Many of the functions that would necessarily face the ax under Trump’s promises — job training, education, child-care assistance and the like — benefit groups that were Trump’s strongest supporters. The cuts would disproportionately hurt red states in the South, mountains and plains that receive far more in federal spending than they pay in taxes.

Such actions, undertaken by Trump and his Cabinet of billionaires, bankers and business tycoons, could cause some of those working-class Trump supporters to regret that they didn’t take Trump’s campaign utterances literally.

Already, GOP lawmakers are trying to soften the blow. The current GOP plan to eliminate Obamacare is repeal and delay: postponing implementation of the repeal by as long as three years.

How would things work after repeal? As a preview of post-Obamacare treatment, Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga offered a personal example to the Michigan news site Mlive: When his son injured his arm, he saved money by not taking him to an emergency room, instead visiting a doctor the next day and discovering that it was broken.

Delaying treatment of a broken arm? Trump backers such as those Kliff met in Kentucky may have reason to regret they didn’t take Trump literally before. Mills, the woman whose husband awaits a liver transplant, said she was frightened to learn Obamacare could be repealed without a replacement in hand: “I’m afraid now that the insurance is going to go away and we’re going to be up a creek.”

Seriously.

If it weren't that we all are going to suffer from Agent Orange disease, I'd laugh at those idiots who chanted his dumb-ass slogans and who are now going, "gee, maybe he's not the right person for the job..."

[Cartmann99]

My husband and I were talking about Trump's cabinet picks, and he reminded me that the National Labs are under the Department of Energy. The DOE, which is a critical supporter of basic research in the United States, will soon be headed by former Texas Governor Rick Perry. Perry is the presidential candidate who wanted to get rid of the DOE when he was campaigning to be president.

Info about our National Labs:

https://energy.gov/about-national-labs

Quote

 

The Energy Department's National Labs tackle the critical scientific challenges of our time -- from combating climate change to discovering the origins of our universe -- and possess unique instruments and facilities, many of which are found nowhere else in the world. They address large scale, complex research and development challenges with a multidisciplinary approach that places an emphasis on translating basic science to innovation. Specifically, the National Laboratories:

• conduct research of the highest caliber in physical, chemical, biological, and computational and information sciences that advances our understanding of the world around us;
• advance U.S. energy independence and leadership in clean energy technologies to ensure the ready availability of clean, reliable, and affordable energy;
• enhance global, national, and homeland security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear deterrent, helping to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and securing the nation’s borders; and
• design, build, and operate distinctive scientific instrumentation and facilities, and make these resources available to the research community. 

[47of74]

5 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Here's a good op-ed: Trump voters didn’t take him literally on Obamacare. Oops?

If it weren't that we all are going to suffer from Agent Orange disease, I'd laugh at those idiots who chanted his dumb-ass slogans and who are now going, "gee, maybe he's not the right person for the job..."

Yeah that's where I'm at with the Branch Trumpvidians these days.  If it wasn't for the fact that Agent Fuckface Von Orange Toxic Megacolon is going to hurt all of us I'd say fuck you to the Branch Trumpvidians, this is what you damn well voted for so bed, made, lie.

[formergothardite]

This is what happens when you vote against your own best interest. If it wasn't going to fuck it up for the rest of America, I would think this was the best thing to happen to Tea Party Republicans. Let them experience the world they have been claiming to want. 

[GreyhoundFan]

Someone needs to flush Cheeto's phone down the toilet and break his tiny thumbs, so he stops with the damned Tweets.

Too many highlights and screenshots to share here, but the article is from CNN, so it is visible. This is my favorite part:

Quote

On Wednesday, he again used his Twitter account to rationalize and explain away his loss to Hillary Clinton in the popular vote.

"I would have done even better in the election, if that is possible, if the winner was based on popular vote," he wrote in a flurry of early morning tweets, "but would campaign differently."

But if his preoccupation with the Electoral College is a distraction, Trump has now on multiple occasions since Election Day stepped awkwardly, app open and eyes closed, into a series of weightier foreign and domestic blunders with seemingly haphazard flicks of his smartphone.

WTDH? Hillary is way ahead in the popular vote, how would have have done better if the election was based on the popular vote? Oh wait, I have logic and coherent thought on my side, two factors that definitely don't apply to Cinnamon Hitler.