Trump 11: Worse than Expected

[singsingsing]

It puts you in a position of power to know that essentially (according to your own line of reasoning) all the men you shake hands with are grabbing your dick? lol okay. What an utter moron.

[GreyhoundFan]

6 minutes ago, AuntK said:

I read that in his book, The Art of the Deal, (which I am proud to say I have NOT read and do not intend to), he says that he does not wash his hands after using the bathroom. Why? Because it gives him a feeling of power over people he may be dealing with when he shakes hands with them, he knows that they are, in essence, "touching his junk" and this puts him in a more powerful position.

Just a vile and nasty piece of garbage.  I'm surprised anyone shakes hands with him, hopefully the WH staff makes Purell available.

Okay, you have just won for the most "ewwww"moment of the morning. EWWWW. Personally, I'd never want him to touch me, but he's touching stuff, like doorknobs, pens, etc. Yuck.

And, as for Flynn, good riddance to bad rubbish. I love this quote from the WaPo:

Quote

In a letter to Trump, Flynn said he had “inadvertently briefed the Vice President Elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian ambassador. I have sincerely apologized to the president and the vice president.”

Um,  "inadvertently briefed" is a fancy way of saying LIED.

[fraurosena]

4 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Um,  "inadvertently briefed" is a fancy way of saying LIED.

So this is a presidency of alternative facts, inadvertent briefings, and feculant phalanges... 

[47of74]

12 hours ago, CTRLZero said:

CNN - Mexico may buy corn from other sources - retaliation

This is not unexpected, but "[Trump's] reckless Mexico talk may cost US farmers $2.4B in corn sales."

Some of the comments from US farmers are interesting, like "don't take the Wall out on us"!  This is all part and parcel of electing a blunt force president.

 

And with these farmers I'd say bed, fucking made, lie.  These guys were out voting for Agent Orange even though he and every other Republican was saying they were going to do shit like this.   I know my parents who are farmers didn't cause they thought the orange one was a fucking idiot, but plenty of other farmers did.

18 minutes ago, AuntK said:

I read that in his book, The Art of the Deal, (which I am proud to say I have NOT read and do not intend to), he says that he does not wash his hands after using the bathroom. Why? Because it gives him a feeling of power over people he may be dealing with when he shakes hands with them, he knows that they are, in essence, "touching his junk" and this puts him in a more powerful position.

Just a vile and nasty piece of garbage.  I'm surprised anyone shakes hands with him, hopefully the WH staff makes Purell available.

Of course there's always this stuff...

Although with me if I had to shake hands with the thin skinned one then I'd want some sort of box that douses one's hands in acid then irradiates them til they glow in the dark.  That's the only way my hands would feel clean again.

[GreyhoundFan]

"A White House where no one is in charge". A couple of quotes;

Quote

In early January, House Speaker Paul Ryan met on the issue of tax reform with a delegation from the president-elect. Attending were future chief strategist and senior counselor Stephen K. Bannon, future chief of staff Reince Priebus, future senior adviser Jared Kushner, future counselor Kellyanne Conway and future senior policy adviser Stephen Miller. As the meeting began, Ryan pointedly asked, “Who’s in charge?”

Silence.

It is still the right question. Former officials with deep knowledge of the presidency describe Donald Trump’s White House staff as top-heavy, with five or six power centers and little vertical structure. “The desire to be a big shot is overrunning any sense of team,” says one experienced Republican. “This will cause terrible dysfunction, distraction, disloyalty and leaks.”

All those chiefs, and so few Indians...

 

Quote

It is hard for me (and everyone else outside the White House) to know exactly what is going on in the West Wing. Leaks may provide a distorted picture. But, in this case, there have been an awful lot of them, clearly from the highest levels. And they uniformly reveal a management structure and culture in which the highest goal is not to display competence or to display creativity but to display loyalty, defined as sucking up. The philosophy of competing power centers has, indeed, produced terrible dysfunction, distraction, disloyalty and leaks. Trump’s failed and frightening executive order on immigration is exhibit A. But now the National Security Council seems to be in a full-scale crisis of purpose, thoroughly demoralized and trying to discern American policy from presidential tweets. With the real NSC badly weakened by the travails of the national security adviser, it seems that Bannon is developing a shadow NSC to serve his well-developed nationalist agenda.

The president may thrive in chaos, but the presidency does not. A president needs aides who will give him honest information and analysis, not compete for his favor. This may even involve checking a president’s mistaken instincts. There will always be competing power centers in the West Wing. But the White House runs best when there is, according to a former White House official, “a strong chief of staff, empowered by the president to exercise absolute control over all logistics, decision-making processes and execution. He can have as many advisers as he wants, but until one person has full control over the process, chaos will persist.”

This is where government and private business are different. You can run your private business however you want, but government needs structure.

[Howl]

Someone on facebook discovered that Donald L Trump anagrams to Lord Dampnut. Game over. You're welcome. 

[fraurosena]

Especially in light of @GreyhoundFan's last post above I find this latest tweet from the Tangerine Toddler excruciatingly funny!

 

[Dark Matters]

1 hour ago, singsingsing said:

It puts you in a position of power to know that essentially (according to your own line of reasoning) all the men you shake hands with are grabbing your dick? lol okay. What an utter moron.

Guess anyone meeting with Orange Chump should put on surgical gloves before shaking his hand as a precaution to avoid cooties.

[47of74]

10 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Especially in light of @GreyhoundFan's last post above I find this latest tweet from the Tangerine Toddler excruciatingly funny!

 

Look Lord Dampnuts (h/t @Howl) , you're the one having conversations about national security out in the open and leaving briefcases of classified materials out in the open. 

[Howl]

There are already many phrases to describe leaks coming from the WH, my favorite being "Leaking like a screen door on a submarine" and there are also references to sieves and collanders, but you get the idea.  My sense is many leaks are coming from people at various levels who are deeply  concerned with just how crazy Trump really is and the concomitant level of dysfunction and chaos at the WH,  reverberating into other levels of government, particularly security. 

I stumbled across comments on a site called ZeroHedge.com, responding to a story titled "In 26 Years, I've Never Seen Anything Like This" White House Leaks Reportedly Reveal Trump Team Turmoil   Accurate article, but more to the point,  some of the comments are interesting, in a "Hey, I smell dog shit; everybody, check your shoes!" sort of way, to read how Trump leg humpers view things.  From my perspective, they are in denial.  From their perspective, everybody else is in denial, Trump is totally on top of it and crazy like a fox and liberals just don't get it, you just wait and see! 

From the very few pro-Trump comments that make their way onto my FB, this is typical. Also, why can't you just respect Trump, he's our president, and wait and see what happens. 

[GreyhoundFan]

Another one of the sycophants made the news: "Journalist says Omarosa Manigault bullied her and mentioned a ‘dossier’ on her"

Quote

Manigault, who is now a communications official in the Trump administration, got into a heated argument with a White House reporter just steps from the Oval Office last week, according to witnesses. The reporter, April Ryan, said Manigault “physically intimidated” her in a manner that could have warranted intervention by the Secret Service.

Ryan also said Manigault made verbal threats, including the assertion that Ryan was among several journalists on whom Trump officials had collected “dossiers” of negative information.

Manigault, a onetime friend of Ryan’s, declined to address Ryan’s accusations on the record, offering only this emailed statement: “My comment: Fake news!” She did not specify what she considered false.

Yeah, everything you don't like is "fake news".

Quote

The encounter between Manigault and Ryan took place outside White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s West Wing office late Wednesday. Among the witnesses were White House press office staffers and a Washington Post reporter, Abby Phillip.

Phillip said she didn’t hear every word of the women’s exchange but said Ryan told her afterward that she felt Manigault’s behavior was so threatening that it was “Secret Serviceable,” meaning that it rose to the level of law enforcement intervention.

Ryan, a veteran White House correspondent for the American Urban Radio Networks, used the same phrase repeatedly in an interview. “She stood right in my face like she was going to hit me,” Ryan said. “I said, ‘You better back up.’ . . . She thought I would be bullied. I won’t be.”

Lovely, now we get to physical threats...

 

Quote

During their altercation, Ryan said Manigault told her that she was among several African American journalists who were the subject of White House “dossiers.” Manigault has previously said that Trump is keeping “a list” of opponents, though at the time she was referring to Republicans who voted against Trump.

Ryan said she dismissed the idea of any such dossiers. “I said, ‘Good for you, good for you, good for you.’ ”

And, as if we needed another comparison to Nixon, mention of an enemies list.

You couldn't make this shit up. Can you imagine ANYONE from a previous administration doing this? Wait, Dick Cheney did shoot someone, but, to be fair, the victim was a friend. Oh, and they were hunting.

[AnywhereButHere]

1 hour ago, Howl said:

Someone on facebook discovered that Donald L Trump anagrams to Lord Dampnut. Game over. You're welcome. 

Which just makes the thought of shaking his hand just that much more yark inducing. Blech!

[47of74]

42 minutes ago, Howl said:

There are already many phrases to describe leaks coming from the WH, my favorite being "Leaking like a screen door on a submarine" and there are also references to sieves and collanders, but you get the idea. 

Don't you mean screen door on a battleship?

To tell you the truth, I think Biff would be a better President than the Tangerine Haemorrhoid. 

 

[CTRLZero]

2 hours ago, 47of74 said:

bed, fucking made, lie

This is my mantra!  I hope that the people who voted for Trump will use this end-of-life-as-we-know-it experience to get educated and learn from their mistakes, while we all endure the scorched earth together.  Nah, who am I kidding, they will be too busy getting high on Plexus.

I wonder about how much money is being spent repairing the harm his ill-considered executive orders generate.  And how other countries will retaliate.  And is anyone in his administration honorable (if so, they are probably "in the closet").  And, and, and...

I need to head over to the "What Now?" thread and figure out my next action. 

 

[47of74]

7 minutes ago, CTRLZero said:

This is my mantra!  I hope that the people who voted for Trump will use this end-of-life-as-we-know-it experience to get educated and learn from their mistakes, while we all endure the scorched earth together.  Nah, who am I kidding, they will be too busy getting high on Plexus.

I wonder about how much money is being spent repairing the harm his ill-considered executive orders generate.  And how other countries will retaliate.  And is anyone in his administration honorable (if so, they are probably "in the closet").  And, and, and...

I need to head over to the "What Now?" thread and figure out my next action. 

 

I have no sympathy whatsoever for the people who voted for Lord Dampnuts.

These people let their hatred of those who don't think, act, believe, or love as they do override their good sense and voted for this orange son of a bitch.  They deserve everything that's coming at them.  But at the same time there are still those of us who didn't vote for him.

[Childless]

3 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Especially in light of @GreyhoundFan's last post above I find this latest tweet from the Tangerine Toddler excruciatingly funny!

 

What illegal leaks?  I've not seen any classified info (save for what Lord Dampnuts has stupidly left out for all to see).  The leaks deal with the chaos, mismanagement, and general dumb fuckery currently happening in the White House.  Leaking that is not illegal.  It just makes you look bad Dampnuts.

[clueliss]

http://m.dailykos.com/stories/2017/2/5/1630377/-Christian-Pastor-It-s-Time-We-Stopped-Calling-Donald-Trump-a-Christian?detail=facebook

Oh yes.  A pastor has called out Trump Supporters on calling Trump Christian.  More of this needs to happen.

 

Quote

NC pastor to Trump supporters: Stop calling Trump a Christian—he's everything Jesus stood against

Feb 06, 2017 1:28am CST by Leslie Salzillo

9186

North Carolina Pastor John Pavlovitz continues to call out the hateful rhetoric and actions of Donald Trump, as well as the religious hypocrisy within the church. Over the past year, the popularity of the North Raleigh pastor has grown and many find his public essays to be  straightforward, compassionate and thought-provoking. In one piece, Pavlovitz addresses Christian women and warns them about the misogyny that is perpetuated by extreme right-wing Christian males, who seem okay with Trump’s sexual assaults, and thus really don’t care about and/or respect women. Though Pavlovitz writes a lot about the perilous Donald Trump, he has also written some stunning pieces about others including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former U.S. President Barack Obama. With a social media platform that now reaches millions of people who are believers and non-believers, Pavolvitz has become a strong voice of truth and faith in a country that is torn. Given his unabashed views on Trump, one might say Pavlovitz is an integral part of Christian #Resistance.

Pavlovitz recently published a piece urging folks to stop referring to Donald Trump as a Christian. Who would have thought during Trump’s early campaign, he would ever have been referred to as a man of God. But “somehow” Trump found Jesus on the campaign — just in time to garner millions of Christian voters. Pavlovitiz reminds us that Trump’s life shows contempt toward the good that Jesus lived and preached: “humility, generosity, respect, empathy, kindness, peace.” But high-positioned and high-profile evangelists were able to convince many in their flocks that the real Donald Trump is a new Christian — who has now seen the light and is headed for the Promised Land. Pavlovitz adds:

Sure, he was on his third marriage and was heard on video boasting of his infidelity to his current wife. 

Yes, he said he could grab a woman by the genitalia. 

Yes, he advocated that protesters at his rallies be “roughed up.” 

Sure, he made fun of a disabled man. 

Certainly, he talked about walling off Mexicans and banning Muslims and taking away healthcare

But Donnie loved Jesus now — so all should be well with our souls.

After being a pastor for 20 years, Pavlovitz says he struggles with the hypocrisy of the millions of fundamentalists who use the word of God to condemn the LGBTQ community, Muslims, entertainers, Atheists, Democrats... yet these same fundamentalists have suddenly become a people full of grace for Trump, saying we should not judge lest we be judged,” because “God looks at the heart” and how dare we assess another’s professed faith. Pavlovitz questions how this kind of mercy was  somehow never in play over the eight years fundamentalists spent crucifying Barack Obama. Their obsession with President Obama most likely had nothing to do with religion. It was more to do with “pigmentation” — the color of President Obama’s skin.

In his piece, Pavlovitz cites the words of Jesus in a passage from Matthew 5:

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. “

In accordance with the above passage, the NC pastor asks what kind of fruit comes from:

eliminating healthcare for tens of millions of poor people?

banning refugees and leaving them stranded at airports?

walling of Mexico and demanding they pay for the gesture?

driving an oil pipeline through sacred Native American land?

filling your Cabinet with billionaires?

demonizing and banning Muslims?

appointing a white supremacist to the highest level of government?

Pavlovitz calls Donald Trump’s fruit putrid and rotten and tells Christians: 

“You can continue to support this man, but don’t say you’re doing it because he is a man of God, a follower of Jesus, someone striving for Christlikeness.”

Though Pavlovitzr says he cannot know what’s in Trump’s heart, what is clear is that there is little if any love, benevolence, or compassion towards others — “and that does matter to Jesus.” If Christians really care about all people coming to know Christ, then using Trump as an example will not help that effort, only hinder it. And until Trump shows some resemblance of benevolence and love, “we need to stop using him and Jesus in the same breath, because it distorts Jesus by association.”  Pavlovitz makes many more good points in the full essay, which is a quick and very worthwhile read.

In his conclusion, John Pavlovitz speaks to Christians who may be tempted to argue with him about Trump’s so-called “Christianity” and beckons them to first read Sermon on the Mount and then suggests they spend some time in ”reflection and prayer” before attempting to show where they see Jesus in Trump’s life.

Thank you to John Pavlovitz. To read more of his messages and learn more about what he does, you can visit his site, John Pavlovitz.com. He’s also on Facebook and Twitter (@JohnPavlovitz).

 

 

[formergothardite]

Finally something sensible out of NC! The hypocrisy of Christians supporting Trump is just astounding. 

[Destiny]

12 hours ago, laPapessaGiovanna said:

Keep yourself safe @Destiny! 

I'm safe. I live many miles away. 

Still no declaration. Fucking Cheeto. 

8 hours ago, fraurosena said:

The Tangerine Toddler is taking time off at Mar-a-Lago for the third weekend since he started in office, not even a whole month ago.

Spicer called it the Winter White House. Coincidence? I think not! 

He was at the White House. Just the winter one. You know; the one that DOESN'T FUCKING EXIST!

[GreyhoundFan]

An interesting analysis: "What could cause Donald Trump to lose his base?". Way, way too much to quote, but here's the beginning:

Quote

Zachary Karabell has an excellent column in Politico pointing out an awkward fact: For all the hullabaloo, the Trump administration hasn’t actually done all that much three weeks into the administration:

There is a wide gap, a chasm even, between what the administration has said and what it has done. There have been 45 executive orders or presidential memorandums signed, which may seem like a lot but lags President Barack Obama’s pace. More crucially, with the notable exception of the travel ban, almost none of these orders have mandated much action or clear change of current regulations. So far, Trump has behaved exactly like he has throughout his previous career: He has generated intense attention and sold himself as a man of action while doing little other than promote an image of himself as someone who gets things done.

It is the illusion of a presidency, not the real thing.

If you look beyond the executive orders, Karabell’s thesis still holds up. So far, Trump’s greatest accomplishments have been to nominate a competent Supreme Court justice and get most of his occasionally competent cabinet confirmed by the Senate. That’s it. On the debit side of the ledger, Trump has already lost his national security adviser, which I believe is a new land-speed record for the departure of a foreign policy principal.

Of course, his base is delusional, so a presidency that is an illusion will fit right in...

 

Quote

So here’s my question: is there anything that could happen that could cause Trump’s group of core supporters to lose their passion for the president?

Right now, I think the answer is no. Trump supporters are clearly less-than-thrilled with some aspects of Trump’s style, but they also don’t see any material downside to anything that’s happened so far. Plus, most voters don’t develop buyer’s remorse so soon after an election.

...

Here’s the thing, though. If there is a serious economic slowdown, or a Katrina-level government foul-up, or a national security crisis that could lead to an unpopular war, those numbers will go south real fast. Because that is the point at which all of these minor kerfuffles start to look more like presidential incompetence to his base. It is true that the sooner such a negative shock happens, the more likely the Trump administration will blame the Obama administration for whatever bad thing happened. But Trump has made that standard political move more difficult by talking up the economy ever since his election. If the White House stays chaotic and bad things start happening in the next few months, all of the little things that Trump’s supporters can laugh off right now won’t look so funny if layoffs start hitting Trump counties.

Donald Trump has not done anything yet to truly alienate his base. He has, however, laid the groundwork for his base to turn on him if something really bad does happen. Michael Flynn’s resignation doesn’t fall into that category. But it’s another data point of White House incompetence. The question is whether a crisis hits Trump before the president and his staff move down the learning curve.

Sadly, I think many of the die-hard Branch Trumpvidians would rather die than admit they were wrong.

[Ali]

59 minutes ago, clueliss said:

Oh yes.  A pastor has called out Trump Supporters on calling Trump Christian.  More of this needs to happen.

I have been following John Pavlovitz. He is very anti-Trump and calls him out multiple times a day. He is a liberal Christian.

 

[Dark Matters]

I don't know if this has been mentioned (I did try searching first) but Trump has been hiring "foreign workers" for his Mar-a-Lago resort.

https://qz.com/909220/donald-trump-requested-64-foreign-guest-workers-for-his-mar-a-lago-winter-white-house/

Trump had applied to bring in these workers while promising during his presidential campaign to kick undocumented immigrants out of the United States and block imports. At the time, he defended the guest worker practice by saying it was common among US companies, who will bring in 119,000 temporary workers in 2016 and 2017, many to work seasonal jobs. Temporary foreign workers come into the country under the H-2B visa program.

The Palm Beach Post reports that the latest documents released by the labor department—which will now be put in the position of approving future requests by the US president to hire guest workers—show that Trump cut wages for some of these employees. Cooks saw a 19-cent drop in wages per hour, while maids and servers saw a 10-cent bump. Overtime rates rose.

[AuntK]

5 hours ago, 47of74 said:

Look Lord Dampnuts (h/t @Howl) , you're the one having conversations about national security out in the open and leaving briefcases of classified materials out in the open. 

Exactly! When will he figure out that you DON'T have dinner with the prime minister of a foreign country in the public dining room at what is basically your country club? (Yes, I know it is super elite, but I saw FB posts from all kinds of random people who were there watching, and were not zillionaires.)  If you're not going to entertain him at the WH, at the least arrange for a private dining room!

One other helpful person POTUS usually has on his staff is a GOOD ATTORNEY! Of course, he had one, Sally Yates, but he fired her. I hope he doesn't rely on the legal advice of Klansman Sessions, but Cheeto needs a lawyer!

[treehugger]

7 hours ago, singsingsing said:

It's all that boxing experience.

Bring it, Donald.

Damn, I keep forgetting what a gorgeous man he is.  It's a good time to be Canadian! 

But in keeping with the thread, I am having a hard time believing Trump as President of the USA is real life! It is all so surreal.  

[AuntK]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

An interesting analysis: "What could cause Donald Trump to lose his base?". Way, way too much to quote, but here's the beginning:

Of course, his base is delusional, so a presidency that is an illusion will fit right in...

 

Sadly, I think many of the die-hard Branch Trumpvidians would rather die than admit they were wrong.

What amazes me is that the Russian connection doesn't seem to bother them in the least!

They're talking now on MSNBC on whether or not there will be investigations of Michael Flynn, no real answer; seems like the Senate should look into it, my God, they had how many hearings on Benghazi?