Trump 11: Worse than Expected

[Dark Matters]

Apparently, Orange Chump couldn't be bothered to wear a translator earpiece when the Japanese PM was giving a speech.  Way to insult another one of our allies.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/10/shinzo-abe-donald-trump-earpiece-translation

Donald Trump was not wearing a translation earpiece as he nodded along and appeared to listen intently to remarks from Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, at the White House on Friday.

[Flossie]

19 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

As some of you already know, the Prime Minister of Japan and his wife are here today visiting the United States. Usually while Prime Minister Abe is doing his thing with our president, the First Lady of Japan spends the day with our First Lady visiting museums, schools, etc.

Since our current First Lady is a squinty-eyed ingrate, she can't be bothered to come to Washington to accompany Mrs. Abe, or to arrange for someone else to take over for her. Because of this, Mrs. Abe is out seeing the sights on her own. This is really insulting to Mrs. Abe, and with the Orange Idiot in the White House, we can't afford to offend any more world leaders or their significant others.

Melania does plan to leave her golden tower later on, as both couples are headed down to Florida for the weekend.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/10/politics/melania-trump-akie-abe-washington/index.html

If you click on through, you'll see some nice pictures of our last two First Ladies accompanying Mrs. Abe on previous visits.

Regarding Melania not being in Washington to tour the sights with the First Lady of Japan, I don't think it was Meliania's call to make.  I know she's made it clear that she never wanted to be First Lady, but it's even more obvious that Trump is over whatever feelings he ever had for her, and would prefer to be a bachelor president.

I bet Melania would have hated spending the day Akie.   Not out of a racial bias, but because Akie Abe grew up in a wealthy family, is well-educated and comfortable in her role of First Lady.  She's respected in her own right, has her own causes she champions, and is outspoken, even publicly disagreeing at times with her husband.  

Melania is none of those things, and as a result she reeks of low self esteem.  The confidence she displayed by entering and doing well in the cutthroat world of modeling (at the tender age of 16) has been ground out of her over the years by her bullying husband, who makes no bones about his loss of interest in her and his constant admiration of Ivanka.  I think Melania would have felt self-conscious and constantly worried about what new faux pas she might commit, leading to more negative publicity for her and more anger from Donald.

However, I also believe that if our Commander in Orange had said the word, Melania would have presented herself in DC and done her duty.  Why wasn't she there?  I think Donald didn't want her there.  I think Donald wanted Ivanka to take over such a public appearance.  However, Ivanka has already felt the sting of appearing to take over the role of First Lady, and bowed out.  She probably had to explain it in words of one syllable, and repeated herself over and over again as one does when dealing with a recalcitrant toddler, but she eventually got through to him.

If I'm correct, Donald retaliated by refusing to let either lady accompany Ms. Abe on a tour of the city, and told off someone to assign some staffers to the role and went off to sulk.  I'm amazed he didn't go on a Twitter rant, but give it time.

Can you imagine how awkward the weekend at Mar-a-Lago is going to be?  Melania's there, and probably wishes she weren't.  Trump's there, and probably wishes Melania isn't.  Then the Abe's are there, probably wondering if this is worth it to maintain good relations with the United States.

I think the Abe's join me in missing the Obama's.

[onekidanddone]

 

12 hours ago, Mecca said:

And just when you think Asshat could not get any lower. It is being reported on CNN that during a meeting with Senators Trump said, "Pocahontas is now the face of your party" when addressing Sen. Warren. 

Excuse me for a minute here, but I must be brutally honest. I hate that man. I hate that man with the fire of a thousand suns. For anyone to say Trump is not a racist, they may want to get their heads out of their cans. 

My cousins and their mother, my late aunt belong to the First Nations people.  This comment, while not at all shocking or surprising, makes me all stabby.

[Mecca]

2 hours ago, formergothardite said:

Does anyone else think Trump is looking more unhealthy as each day passes? I know the presidency ages folks, but damn, it has only been three weeks and he is looking rough. I really don't think he can make it four years. 

Yes. I think all the years of hatred, KFC and inhaling hairspray has not helped him deal with the stress of the presidency. 

[Bethella]

12 hours ago, countressrascal said:

I want to know where is Barron? You see picture of Ivanka and her kids but no Barron. I guess "Orange Idiot" doesn't care about his second and third family only the first ones that make him money.

I'm really hoping that they're respecting Barron's wishes not to be in the limelight or that Melania is trying to protect him from it all. He's a child and didn't ask to be a part of this shit show. 

[onekidanddone]

Just now, Bethella said:

I'm really hoping that they're respecting Barron's wishes not to be in the limelight or that Melania is trying to protect him from it all. He's a child and didn't ask to be a part of this shit show. 

This might be the only thing over which Melania has control.  I'm sure she loves and want to protect her son. To shit stain  he is  prop and nothing more.  He will parade him out for a photo op when it serves him.

[Mecca]

I hope they keep Barron out of the limelight, personally. I think it is disgusting that people were targeting him and saying such mean things about him. He is just a little boy and he did not choose to be part of this shit show. 

[ShepherdontheRock]

35 minutes ago, Bethella said:

I'm really hoping that they're respecting Barron's wishes not to be in the limelight or that Melania is trying to protect him from it all. He's a child and didn't ask to be a part of this shit show. 

This is why I get pissed the fuck off at assholes speculating/arm-chair diagnosing Barron with whatever. Obviously, 45 and Melania and the adult children are subject to criticism bc they're grown ass adults with control over their lives, but Barron has pretty much zero say. 

Also, for the same reason speculation re fundie kids' sexuality is banned here. The last thing Barron needs, with an ableist af father, is for internet strangers to talk about how they think he MUST be autistic based on something they saw on TV. Nope.

And I think Melania is tacky as fuck, but I think keeping Barron in NYC for the rest of the school year was a good parenting call. 

Let's let Barron grow up and actually do something wrong before we pile onto him. For all we know he isn't anything like 45. 

[RoseWilder]

2 hours ago, formergothardite said:

Does anyone else think Trump is looking more unhealthy as each day passes? I know the presidency ages folks, but damn, it has only been three weeks and he is looking rough. I really don't think he can make it four years. 

He looks like he's aged 10 years in the last month. I feel like I"m watching time lapse photography when I look at anyone in Trump's inner circle. Bannon looks like he woke up in jail after a three-day bender. Kellyanne Conway looks like she's disintegrating before our very eyes. Completely lacking a moral compass appears to age a person very rapidly. 

[RosyDaisy]

With Sessions as U.S. Attorney, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley appointed Alabama AG Luther Strange to the U.S. Senate seat held by Sessions. This was a little quid pro quo having to do with the possibility Gov. Bentley's impeachment. Anyway, Luther Strange is every bit as bad as Jeff Sessions.

[Mecca]

5 minutes ago, RoseWilder said:

He looks like he's aged 10 years in the last month. I feel like I"m watching time lapse photography when I look at anyone in Trump's inner circle. Bannon looks like he woke up in jail after a three-day bender. Kellyanne Conway looks like she's disintegrating before our very eyes. Completely lacking a moral compass appears to age a person very rapidly. 

Yep. Bannon and Kellyanne look like a hot mess most of the time. Bannon looks as if he has not showered in months and sleeps on the Oval Office couch. Kellyanne looks as if she has not slept in months. Kellyanne is probably up all night shopping online for Ivanka's products and reliving the Bowling Green Massacre. 

[Flossie]

might not be able to last a full four years of being President.

I personally wouldn't shed a tear if he died, but I'm not actively hoping for his death.  So the Secret Service can stand down, I'm not a threat to DT.  

I don't want DT to die in office, because that would be bad for America.  Think about the mess that would make.  If he were taken down by someone who wanted Hillary Clinton to win, the outrage would guarantee the Republicans would never work with a Democrat again.  Not that they're doing it all that much anyway these days, but sometimes it happens.  If the assassin was a disgruntled Trump supporter, he or she would be considered clearly mentally ill.  Or a plant who was influenced by an outside source.  

It would be even worse if DT was assassinated by someone who could not be found.  The conspiracy theories would erupt.  The hysteria and finger pointing could tear this country apart.  We would be stunned, but only for a short time.  Things are already tense and we're polarized.  Very soon people would take to the streets.  There would be riots, some of the participants would be politically motivated, some would just taking advantage of the situation for their own personal benefit.  We'd all have our personal theories, but we would never be quite sure.  We'd never be quite sure.

Hell, even if DT stroked out or had a heart attack, there are people out there who would immediately claim poison.  DT's longtime personal physician, who is just as batty as DT, probably wouldn't help much.  This is the guy who said "If something happens to him, then it happens to him.  It’s like all the rest of us, no? That’s why we have a vice president and a speaker of the House and a whole line of people. They can just keep dying.”  With such a blasé attitude, if he were my doctor, I'd fire him immediately.

To make matters worse, even if Donald Trump had a health scare that caused him to resign the presidency, there would still people who would believe that he was forced out by threat.  Some of those Trumpsters will go to their grave believing he can do no wrong and will be looking forward to meeting him in the great, gold-plated penthouse in the sky.  He'll probably have them scrub the toilet and tell them to get out, but they'll be happy anyway.  Maybe they will get away with a commemorative toilet brush.

[SilverBeach]

On 2/8/2017 at 9:22 PM, Howl said:

I just want to thank whoever introduced a link to BreakingBurgh.com, which I think surpasses The Onion.  First there was "Grizzlies Flee America's Classrooms Following Confirmation of Betsy DeVos" and right now I'm on 

Now I'm off to read "Satan Reportedly Upset Over Frequent Comparisons To Steve Bannon"

Ok, that China/Nordstrom treaty had me in tears! Too funny! I needed that belly laugh.

[AuntK]

3 hours ago, Bethella said:

I'm really hoping that they're respecting Barron's wishes not to be in the limelight or that Melania is trying to protect him from it all. He's a child and didn't ask to be a part of this shit show. 

But is Barron going to Florida with them or not? There was no sign of him last weekend and none this weekend as yet. This means that Barron has not seen his father since January 22, which is not exactly good parenting for a ten year old boy. Not that Cheeto has ever exhibited any kind of decent parenting skills. At some point, someone in the media needs to ask him about it. Obama was president, but he was also, quite proudly, a father. Looks like Barron may be spending weekends without either parent!

[samurai_sarah]

While I personally understand the curiosity about Barron, I for one, would prefer if we kept an underage child out of all of this. The adults signed up for this, not him.

[AuntK]

11 minutes ago, samurai_sarah said:

While I personally understand the curiosity about Barron, I for one, would prefer if we kept an underage child out of all of this. The adults signed up for this, not him.

This isn't about Barron, this is about his parents, specifically his father, since I suspect that is who has the final word on whether Barron is with his parents or not. (Commenting on Barron's whereabouts is totally different than speculation regarding the child's personal characteristics.) And Cheeto's parenting or lack thereof, and anything else about him, as far as I'm concerned, is fair game until he and his gang of misogynist racist scumbags are out of the WH and it has been completely disinfected.

 

[laPapessaGiovanna]

1 hour ago, Flossie said:

might not be able to last a full four years of being President.

I personally wouldn't shed a tear if he died, but I'm not actively hoping for his death.  So the Secret Service can stand down, I'm not a threat to DT.  

I don't want DT to die in office, because that would be bad for America.  Think about the mess that would make.  If he were taken down by someone who wanted Hillary Clinton to win, the outrage would guarantee the Republicans would never work with a Democrat again.  Not that they're doing it all that much anyway these days, but sometimes it happens.  If the assassin was a disgruntled Trump supporter, he or she would be considered clearly mentally ill.  Or a plant who was influenced by an outside source.  

It would be even worse if DT was assassinated by someone who could not be found.  The conspiracy theories would erupt.  The hysteria and finger pointing could tear this country apart.  We would be stunned, but only for a short time.  Things are already tense and we're polarized.  Very soon people would take to the streets.  There would be riots, some of the participants would be politically motivated, some would just taking advantage of the situation for their own personal benefit.  We'd all have our personal theories, but we would never be quite sure.  We'd never be quite sure.

Hell, even if DT stroked out or had a heart attack, there are people out there who would immediately claim poison.  DT's longtime personal physician, who is just as batty as DT, probably wouldn't help much.  This is the guy who said "If something happens to him, then it happens to him.  It’s like all the rest of us, no? That’s why we have a vice president and a speaker of the House and a whole line of people. They can just keep dying.”  With such a blasé attitude, if he were my doctor, I'd fire him immediately.

To make matters worse, even if Donald Trump had a health scare that caused him to resign the presidency, there would still people who would believe that he was forced out by threat.  Some of those Trumpsters will go to their grave believing he can do no wrong and will be looking forward to meeting him in the great, gold-plated penthouse in the sky.  He'll probably have them scrub the toilet and tell them to get out, but they'll be happy anyway.  Maybe they will get away with a commemorative toilet brush.

If I were him (no way I'm not that nasty nor that stupid) I'd fear more a more or less metaphorical knife in the back from his allies. He is going to disappoint them BIGLY. Personally I think he won't last more than a year before being impeached or have a stroke. 

[Cartmann99]

2 hours ago, SilverBeach said:

Ok, that China/Nordstrom treaty had me in tears! Too funny! I needed that belly laugh.

Yup. We definitely have to take our laughs wherever we can find them these days. 

[louisa05]

1 hour ago, AuntK said:

This isn't about Barron, this is about his parents, specifically his father, since I suspect that is who has the final word on whether Barron is with his parents or not. (Commenting on Barron's whereabouts is totally different than speculation regarding the child's personal characteristics.) And Cheeto's parenting or lack thereof, and anything else about him, as far as I'm concerned, is fair game until he and his gang of misogynist racist scumbags are out of the WH and it has been completely disinfected.

 

Trump doesn't do parenting. Link: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trumps-backwards-views-on-parenting-are-dangerous-af_us_57717819e4b017b379f6d602

I also recall an interview at some point where he explained that the mothers were in charge of his kids until they finished college, then he began to be interested in their careers and such. Before that, as stated in this link, he considered his only obligation to be paying the bills. 

That seems to have been slightly different with Ivanka, but perhaps his interest emerged in adolescence and around the time she began modeling or expressing the interest in it? 

[HarryPotterFan]

18 hours ago, Howl said:

OK, attribution to an anonymous facebooker: 

It's not POTUS, it's SCROTUS  (So-Called Ruler of The United States)

 

SCROTUS is too close to "scrotum." Though I guess that's the point  

[Lizzybet]

6 hours ago, RoseWilder said:

Bannon looks like he woke up in jail after a three-day bender. 

Best, most accurate, and funniest description of this horror show of a man.

[fraurosena]

Here's a scathing article wherin George W. Bush's top ethics lawyer Richard Painter unloads on Nordstrom tweet: "What he did was particularly reprehensible."

http://uk.businessinsider.com/bush-richard-painter-ethics-trump-conway-nordstrom-2017-2?r=US&IR=T

Quote

"The Republicans on the hill — and I'm a Republican and I've been very unhappy about this — they are not willing to confront the president and say that he has got to make some fundamental changes in his approach if he wants to keep this job," Painter said.

"Intimidating people because of their religion, intimidating the press, trying to intimidate federal judges, and now jumping into the free market and trying to intimidate companies for decisions they make in the free market about what they want to buy and what they don't — that's not what the president should do in the United States," he added.

(...)

Painter added that he thought congressional Republicans' patience regarding such episodes, steeped in conflicts of interest, would eventually run thin.

"I think as November of 2018 gets a little close they're going to start thinking about" taking action, he said, referring to the midterm congressional elections. "And I think that may come on sooner than that, because there is a limited amount of time they're going to want to put into the baggage created by his own conflicts of interest. And what is here is a completely unjustified Twitter war with Nordstrom."

 

[Mecca]

4 hours ago, AuntK said:

But is Barron going to Florida with them or not? There was no sign of him last weekend and none this weekend as yet. This means that Barron has not seen his father since January 22, which is not exactly good parenting for a ten year old boy. Not that Cheeto has ever exhibited any kind of decent parenting skills. At some point, someone in the media needs to ask him about it. Obama was president, but he was also, quite proudly, a father. Looks like Barron may be spending weekends without either parent!

Honestly, Barron is probably better off not being around Trump at this point.

It has been reported that Trump has never really been a present father to any of his children, so nothing has really changed for Barron. It does not appear that Melania is gong to be taking the usually role of First Lady, so maybe that will mean she will be with him more often than not. Who knows. I honestly hope people just don't bring up the issue. Trump being a slack ass father is the least of our worries right now. 

[church_of_dog]

2 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

Yup. We definitely have to take our laughs wherever we can find them these days. 

These two articles each made me laugh:

http://theantinews.com/anti-news205.html 

Cuba imposes embargo on United States

and

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/the-wrap/article/Photo-of-Alec-Baldwin-s-SNL-Trump-10925858.php 

Newspaper mistakenly uses photo of Alec Baldwin instead of POTUS SCROTUS

[Cartmann99]

Article from The Guardian about the economic effects on the Palm Beach area when the Trumps are at Mar-a-Lago:

Quote

 

The Secret Service requires airspace and road routes around Mar-a-Lago to be closed when Trump comes to town, and Greene worries that restaurants and hotels on narrow Palm Beach island will be the first to lose out. “This is a seasonal resort community, a place where there are a number of small business people who have to make their whole livelihood in a short period of time,” he said.

“And basically the opportunities in a town like this are exactly the times he’s planning on being here, Christmas, New Year, Presidents’ weekend, Easter and all these other weekends, like last weekend and this coming weekend. In our hotel we depend on February and March to make 50% of our annual profit.”

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/11/palm-beach-businesses-cost-trump-mar-a-lago