Trump 7 - Cheeto in Charge

[Howl]

OK, I'm not the only person that thinks Trump is gaslighting America.

Quote

Frida Ghitis is a world affairs columnist for The Miami Herald and World Politics Review, and a former CNN producer and correspondent. The views expressed in this commentary are her own.

Donald Trump is 'gaslighting' all of us

(CNN)Is Donald Trump really a "big fan" of the intelligence community, as he claimed on Twitter, or did he disparage intelligence professionals when he repeatedly referred to them and their work in sneer quotes about "Intelligence" briefings and the "so-called 'Russian hacking'"?

Did Trump mock a disabled reporter, or did your eyes, and the Hollywood elite make you think he did?

Did he convince Ford not to move a car plant to Mexico, saving American jobs, or was it all a fabrication for publicity?

Did he win the election with a historically narrow victory, or did he score a "landslide"?

The questions are endless, and the answers, unless you're paying very close attention -- all the time -- can require significant effort to ascertain. Reality is becoming hazy in the era of Trump. And that's no accident.

The fact is Trump has become America's gaslighter in chief.

If you've never heard the term, prepare to learn it and live with it every day. Unless Trump starts behaving in a radically different way after he becomes President, gaslighting will become one of the words of 2017.....

......Mental health professionals have made much of the practice, said to be a favorite of narcissists and abusive spouses. But more recently the tactical tampering with the truth has become a preferred method of strongmen around the world. Gaslighting by other means was always a common feature of dictatorships, but it has found new vogue as a more subtle form of domestic political control even in countries with varying degrees of democracy.

Now Trump has brought it to the United States. The techniques include saying and doing things and then denying it, blaming others for misunderstanding, disparaging their concerns as oversensitivity, claiming outrageous statements were jokes or misunderstandings, and other forms of twilighting the truth.

Recall the presidential campaign. By early summer, Trump had already accumulated a long list of statements he made and then denied making; enough that fact-checkers could hardly keep up. He told his supporters to "knock the crap out" of protesters at his rallies, adding "I will pay your legal fees." When confronted with the statement, he responded: "I didn't say that."

After mimicking a disabled reporter and seeing the video used as evidence against him, he repeatedly denied it, claiming his opponents should be embarrassed to say he did. "I would NEVER mock disabled. Shame!" The denials continued after Meryl Streep brought up the subject this week at the Golden Globes. With the video easily available, Trump's argument boiled down to "Who do you trust, me or your lying eyes?"

and so on.  Full text of the column is here

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/10/opinions/donald-trump-is-gaslighting-america-ghitis/index.html

[Audrey2]

28 minutes ago, JMarie said:

Proof that Trump is deliberately going out of his way to nominate people who are sorely unqualified for their respective positions.

Of course! If the majority of Trump's cabinet and other appointees are sorely unqualified, he will be able to hide in their scandals more than if the emperor were the only naked one in the room. It has been said here and other places that Trump thinks of himself as the smartest in the room (delusional, I know), so he surrounds himself with others who will prove this. 

[formergothardite]

I am starting to feel very hopeless right now. There is so much evil and it seems like it is impossible to deal with it. 

2018 needs to be the year the Republicans are defeated. We can't let them keep so much power.

[purple_summer]

Idk if this is the right thread but I don't care right now. 

 

Reading all the news coming out today (after not following the news for 2 months post election) was probably not a good idea. I've got 99999999 end times scenarios running through my head right now after fighting off nightmares for the past week and my anxiety is going all the way off the rails. I just want someone to tell me things aren't going to get that bad.

[Scribber]

Idk if this is the right thread but I don't care right now. 
 
Reading all the news coming out today (after not following the news for 2 months post election) was probably not a good idea. I've got 99999999 end times scenarios running through my head right now after fighting off nightmares for the past week and my anxiety is going all the way off the rails. I just want someone to tell me things aren't going to get that bad.

I wish I could.

I was raised fundie-lite and have had serious end-time anxiety my whole life. Like medicated for my anxiety over it. And this whole situation?? Is NOT helping.

[purple_summer]

9 minutes ago, Scribber said:

 

I wish I could.

I was raised fundie-lite and have had serious end-time anxiety my whole life. Like medicated for my anxiety over it. And this whole situation?? Is NOT helping.

 

The "what if they were right" moments are terrifying.

[Bethella]

1 hour ago, onekidanddone said:

The Dems need to start on the local level in 2018.  That will help build momentum for 2020

The Dems need to start at the local level NOW, not next year.

[47of74]

Apparently Agent Orange had one of these performed in Russia.

mic.com/articles/165054/what-is-a-golden-shower-here-s-what-to-know-about-the-term-act-and-more#.oE1baaQBG

Quote

Yes, this is gross. But it involves the president-elect. So, please, read on. 

One of the most explosive and embarrassing allegations against Donald Trump following reports by CNN and BuzzFeed is the charge that the president-elect watched a "'golden showers' (urination) show" at a fancy hotel in Russia. Unverified documents posted by BuzzFeed said Trump paid sex workers to urinate on a bed that President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama had previously slept in at a Moscow hotel.

The allegation is unconfirmed and one of many unflattering details in a 35-page document — "prepared for political opponents of Trump by a person who is understood to be a former British intelligence agent" — posted by BuzzFeed. The story followed another by CNN stating that top U.S. intelligence officials had told Trump the Russians have personal information which compromises the president-elect.

The incident with Trump allegedly occurred in 2013, at the presidential suite of an upscale Moscow hotel. The Obamas had stayed in the room on an official government visit, the document contends. The incident was allegedly recorded by Russian intelligence officials, who are said to have cameras and audio devices throughout the hotel.

I feel like this right now having read that about the Orange Fornicate Face....

[CrazyLurkerLady]

I am seriously aghast at the blindness of his followers, especially the ones who I know IRL to be genuinely nice people (though some people I THOUGHT were genuinely nice have shown their true colors recently!). They just deny deny deny and pretend that everything that's happening is just a smear campaign or sour grapes or ANYTHING is better than Hillary (repeated insistences of her being some undefined sort of criminal).

Trump knew exactly what he was doing when he repeated Crooked Hillary over and over and over. He knew that if you say something enough times with enough confidence, people will believe it. No evidence needed. And here we are!
 

People keep saying that his followers will come to their senses when he crashes and burns, but I am legitimately terrified that they WON'T. They have denied, ignored, and explained away so much that I think he could declare himself king, nuke Australia, reinstate slavery, or institute a theocracy with himself at the head and they would just cheer louder. 

[GreyhoundFan]

15 minutes ago, Bethella said:

The Dems need to start at the local level NOW, not next year.

YES -- I live in Virginia and we have our Gubernatorial election this year along with multiple local and state elections. Virginia has been leaning Democrat recently, mostly because of Northern Virginia and multiple pockets throughout the state, but the Branch Trumpvidians in rural areas, especially the southwest and Eastern Shore, are pushing hard. One of the Republican candidates for Governor was Agent Orange's state chairman until he was fired for over-exuberance for Cheeto. This is not someone I want in charge. On the Democrat side, the current Governor is term-limited from running again. The Lt. Governor, who is solid, but not exciting, is the hand-picked successor. A more liberal/maverick Democrat has surprised many by announcing his candidacy out of the blue. While I was pulling for the Lt. Governor, I'm now looking hard at the new candidate as I think someone outside the mainstream might be more successful.

I've also gone to a couple of local meetings of the Va Democratic Party. I figure I may not be the most active person there, but I can lend a hand. I would encourage others to start getting involved sooner, rather than later, to do anything possible to rid ourselves of the right wing nutjobs and their Orange Menace leader.

An interesting article: "How to remove Trump from office"

Quote

Donald Trump is a one-man basket of deplorables. He is a braggart and a liar. He is a bully and a demagogue. He is an ignoramus and a deadbeat, a chiseler and either a sincere racist or an insincere one, and his love for himself is matched only by my loathing of him. He is about to be president of the United States. A constitutional coup may be in the offing.

Since winning the election, Trump has not moderated his behavior. He still behaves like a brat — his childish tweet zinging Arnold Schwarzenegger for failing to get Trumpian ratings on “The New Celebrity Apprentice” being the most amusing example. Many of the others were just plain lies, the most serious being his earlier troubling statements regarding Russian efforts to affect the election. As always, Trump made this about himself — not, as it should be, about a foreign power meddling in our democracy.

Trump turns things on their heads. To him, the hacking story was an example of fake news — not the uncontestably false news that the Russians were spreading, but the news coming from our own intelligence community. Trump lives in a hall of mirrors — but not alone. Reince Priebus, the outgoing Republican National Committee chairman and now another of the moral eunuchs in Trump’s court, said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” that the release of the intelligence community’s finding was “clearly politically motivated to discredit the victory of President-elect Trump.” Priebus, as my grandmother used to say, knows which side his bread is buttered on.

It is folly to think that aides such as Priebus are going to be able to moderate Trump. They are enablers, emptying their consciences and stuffing their egos, and it is even sillier to think that Trump himself will change. He is 70, into the years of ossification, and his political triumph has only convinced him of his inerrant correctness. He thinks he is infallible, a kind of secular pope. Things will go from bad to worse.

One remote remedy is impeachment by the House and conviction by the Senate. It is, as it should be, a laborious process and requires provable acts of treason, bribery or other “high crimes and misdemeanors” — very high bars indeed and difficult to define. In fact, no president has ever gone the whole way: not Andrew Johnson and not Bill Clinton.

There is, however, another way. Under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, the vice president, together with a “majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide” can remove the president for being “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” No doubt the mere mention of incapacitation would summon a horde of lawyers to Washington to contest it or the meaning of every term.

But it is plain that the 25th Amendment does give a role to Cabinet members that is not generally considered when they are up for confirmation. This time, however, they should all be asked whether they are aware of the 25th Amendment and, if need be, whether they would be willing to implement it. Some would say that they do not respond to hypotheticals, but a willingness to abide by the Constitution is not a hypothetical. It is, instead, a grave duty.

Is this going to happen? Probably not. We’ll just muddle through a Trump presidency, as we have some others. But the nature and malevolence of Donald Trump have to be borne in mind. He has shown little regard for the Constitution, as exemplified by statements saying that by definition anything a president does is legal, and he is prone to vulgar statements and tactics. Recall that he was once the most prominent birther, evidence of either racism or a chilling willingness to pander to it. Recall also, as Meryl Streep did at the Golden Globes, that Trump mocked Serge Kovaleski, a physically disabled New York Times reporter, and then denied that he had done anything of the sort. Here was the bully in full repugnance. Here was the liar in full contempt for the truth.

Since his election, Trump has done nothing to allay the concern that he is unfit for the presidency. In about a week, he’ll assume the presidency with all its awesome power. Maybe the only thing that will constrain him is his own Cabinet. Trump goofed. There are some good people in that room.

"moral eunuch", what a perfect name for Rancid Penis.

[ShepherdontheRock]

19 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

YES -- I live in Virginia and we have our Gubernatorial election this year along with multiple local and state elections. Virginia has been leaning Democrat recently, mostly because of Northern Virginia and multiple pockets throughout the state, but the Branch Trumpvidians in rural areas, especially the southwest and Eastern Shore, are pushing hard. One of the Republican candidates for Governor was Agent Orange's state chairman until he was fired for over-exuberance for Cheeto. This is not someone I want in charge. On the Democrat side, the current Governor is term-limited from running again. The Lt. Governor, who is solid, but not exciting, is the hand-picked successor. A more liberal/maverick Democrat has surprised many by announcing his candidacy out of the blue. While I was pulling for the Lt. Governor, I'm now looking hard at the new candidate as I think someone outside the mainstream might be more successful.

I've also gone to a couple of local meetings of the Va Democratic Party. I figure I may not be the most active person there, but I can lend a hand. I would encourage others to start getting involved sooner, rather than later, to do anything possible to rid ourselves of the right wing nutjobs and their Orange Menace leader.

An interesting article: "How to remove Trump from office"

"moral eunuch", what a perfect name for Rancid Penis.

As a fellow Virginian, I'm just as committed to helping out. We CANNOT have a republican governor again, not after Bob McDonnell turned out to be a crook, and bc we need to un-gerrymander this state. Even with NOVA, Henrico and the city of richmond, Portsmouth/Norfolk, Albemarle and the majority black counties near the NC border...we barely pulled off a Clinton win. We need help. 

Granted, I'm in one of the most liberal/wealthy parts of the state, but still. I'm not the most thrilled that it's likely to be democrat I'm not crazy about vs batshit crazy Republican again but...just like McAuliffe was way better than Cucinelli...

Also, @47of74 I love what Andy Borowitz said RE this whole situation:

"If, as is alleged, the Russians are blackmailing Trump with a sex tape, it is important that the tape never be made public, since anyone who views such a tape will never have sex again." 

"Interestingly Trump's career has followed the reverse trajectory of Kim Kardashian's: reality show first, sex tape second." 

[onekidanddone]

1 hour ago, Bethella said:

The Dems need to start at the local level NOW, not next year.

The all politics is local is true.  I live in a blue state with a republican governor.   

55 minutes ago, ShepherdontheRock said:

As a fellow Virginian, I'm just as committed to helping out. We CANNOT have a republican governor again, not after Bob McDonnell turned out to be a crook, and bc we need to un-gerrymander this state. Even with NOVA, Henrico and the city of richmond, Portsmouth/Norfolk, Albemarle and the majority black counties near the NC border...we barely pulled off a Clinton win. We need help. 

Granted, I'm in one of the most liberal/wealthy parts of the state, but still. I'm not the most thrilled that it's likely to be democrat I'm not crazy about vs batshit crazy Republican again but...just like McAuliffe was way better than Cucinelli...

Also, @47of74 I love what Andy Borowitz said RE this whole situation:

"If, as is alleged, the Russians are blackmailing Trump with a sex tape, it is important that the tape never be made public, since anyone who views such a tape will never have sex again." 

"Interestingly Trump's career has followed the reverse trajectory of Kim Kardashian's: reality show first, sex tape second." 

We are stuck with Hogan here in Maryland.  Ugh

[47of74]

56 minutes ago, ShepherdontheRock said:

Also, @47of74 I love what Andy Borowitz said RE this whole situation:

"If, as is alleged, the Russians are blackmailing Trump with a sex tape, it is important that the tape never be made public, since anyone who views such a tape will never have sex again." 

"Interestingly Trump's career has followed the reverse trajectory of Kim Kardashian's: reality show first, sex tape second." 

Yeah, well, that could be a form of birth control.  Just show your partner Agent Orange getting it on and it'll be a real long time before said partner even thinks about sex again.

[onekidanddone]

2 hours ago, purple_summer said:

Idk if this is the right thread but I don't care right now. 

 

Reading all the news coming out today (after not following the news for 2 months post election) was probably not a good idea. I've got 99999999 end times scenarios running through my head right now after fighting off nightmares for the past week and my anxiety is going all the way off the rails. I just want someone to tell me things aren't going to get that bad.

I can't tell you things aren't going to get bad.  I can just say you are not alone.  Not enough Xanax in the world to get through this.

[JMarie]

Two things to chew on:

Greta van Susteren now has a show on MSNBC (no! not MSNBC!)

and

Trump's inauguration will be featuring "soft sensuality"

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/trump-backer-promises-inauguration-will-show-soft-sensuality-and-the-internet-goes-wild-with-mockery/

[formergothardite]

8 hours ago, Scribber said:

I was raised fundie-lite and have had serious end-time anxiety my whole life. Like medicated for my anxiety over it. And this whole situation?? Is NOT helping.

 I'm another one who spent a huge chunk of my life with ends time anxiety. 

 

[Howl]

Quote

 

@ShepherdontheRock said:  

Also, @47of74, I love what Andy Borowitz said RE this whole situation:

"If, as is alleged, the Russians are blackmailing Trump with a sex tape, it is important that the tape never be made public, since anyone who views such a tape will never have sex again." 

Heh!  I've been sure all along that the Russians have one or multiple Trump sex tapes.   The Russians are infamous for honey traps and Trump obviously has a weakness for beautiful eastern European women;  developing dossiers of compromising information (Kompromat) on foreign visitors is just part of what they do.   

Although knowing Trump's egotistical mania about his sexual prowess, the blackmail might be the reverse of what we think:

Russians:  We have a sex tape of  your prowess in the sack with a beautiful woman (or maybe it's two beautiful women).  We won't release it until you do everything we ask.

Trump: OK, OK, tell me whatever you want me to do. I'll do it, I'll do it. Americans must know the truth about my yuuuuuge bigly most best sex tape with Russian babes. 

[GreyhoundFan]

6 hours ago, JMarie said:

Two things to chew on:

Greta van Susteren now has a show on MSNBC (no! not MSNBC!)

and

Trump's inauguration will be featuring "soft sensuality"

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/trump-backer-promises-inauguration-will-show-soft-sensuality-and-the-internet-goes-wild-with-mockery/

I read that about the 'soft sensuality' and almost threw up. Hey, that could be a diet device!

 

43 minutes ago, Howl said:

Heh!  I've been sure all along that the Russians have one or multiple Trump sex tapes.   The Russians are infamous for honey traps and Trump obviously has a weakness for beautiful eastern European women;  developing dossiers of compromising information (Kompromat) on foreign visitors is just part of what they do.   

Although knowing Trump's egotistical mania about his sexual prowess, the blackmail might be the reverse of what we think:

Russians:  We have a sex tape of  your prowess in the sack with a beautiful woman (or maybe it's two beautiful women).  We won't release it until you do everything we ask.

Trump: OK, OK, tell me whatever you want me to do. I'll do it, I'll do it. Americans must know the truth about my yuuuuuge bigly most best sex tape with Russian babes. 

I would think the biggest scandal would be if it was a beautiful woman and a beautiful man with Agent Orange -- most extreme right wingers would wig out about two men and a woman. Bonus would be a demonstration that Cheeto isn't "yuge" or "bigly".

 

[Scribber]

I am seriously aghast at the blindness of his followers, especially the ones who I know IRL to be genuinely nice people (though some people I THOUGHT were genuinely nice have shown their true colors recently!). They just deny deny deny and pretend that everything that's happening is just a smear campaign or sour grapes or ANYTHING is better than Hillary (repeated insistences of her being some undefined sort of criminal).
Trump knew exactly what he was doing when he repeated Crooked Hillary over and over and over. He knew that if you say something enough times with enough confidence, people will believe it. No evidence needed. And here we are!
 
People keep saying that his followers will come to their senses when he crashes and burns, but I am legitimately terrified that they WON'T. They have denied, ignored, and explained away so much that I think he could declare himself king, nuke Australia, reinstate slavery, or institute a theocracy with himself at the head and they would just cheer louder. 

This is downright terrifying to me.

I know quite a few who have championed him. They are defending the most disturbing things.

[zygote373]

4chan is claiming they made up the golden shower story in early November and sent it to Rick Wilson to troll him. However, I can't find direct proof of that in the 4chan archives (not that I know how 4chan works...). Screencaps of the relevant posts are in this tweet, and you can find links to them if you dig through twitter.

Even if that part is not true, it's still alarming how much has been gathered about Trump's ties to Russia. I am terrified of these next four years. Obama's speech last night highlighted just how much we are losing with this transfer of power.

[ShepherdontheRock]

Seriously, though, I kind of hope this story isn't fake. Just because I don't want Agent Orange to have any more ammunition about "everything bad about me is a lie!"

[Penny]

I can't believe he said no one wants to see his taxes. He is not releasing them because he has something to hide. Listening to him now is making me sick.

[Ali]

Any one else watching the press conference? I missed some due to my dog and my baby. I took some notes on the parts I was able to watch.

• The golden three children are there. Melania is not present.
• Pence and some other guy began by complaining about the media reporting about the unsubstantiated report.
• Trump immediately started complaining about being mistreated by the media.
• Then he attacked the intelligence community.
• He is complaining about the media again. Yet he has great respect for the media that praises him and reports him "accurately."
• He bagged about "saving" businesses.
• He ranted about various disasters in business due to companies leaving and getting away with murder.
• Did you know that we are going to save billions of dollars with a variety of industries?
• Direct quote: "I am going to be the greatest job producer that God ever created."
• He ranted about the mistreatment of veterans. He announced his appointment for VA Secretary. I imagine it is someone who hates veterans.
• There was discussion about the Russian hack. I missed most of it.
• He thinks the only people who care about tax returns are reporters.
• His sons will run the company and will not discuss it with him
• Ivanka will have nothing to do with his business.
• He has a table full of paperwork on display that has to do with about turning over the business to his sons.
• His attorney had a long speech about turning over his business to his sons. I missed most of it.

[formergothardite]

I already sent emails to my representatives telling them I'm not a reporter and I want to see his tax returns. I plan to call later. I know there is so much to call about, but if Obama was hounded into releasing his long birth certificate, then we can attempt to hound Trump into releasing his tax returns. 

[Ali]

• He claims as soon as his Secretary gets approve. He will have a plan filed to repeal and replace Obamacare "simultaneously." It will be far less expensive and far better.
• He is ranting about Mexico and his plan for a boarder tax.
• He doesn't feel like waiting to build the wall, so he is going to start building it instead of waiting for a deal with Mexico. Mexico will reimburse the United States for the wall.