Trump 31: Parody of a Presidency

[GreyhoundFan]

"Lord save the world"

Spoiler

The one area in which any president has almost complete latitude is foreign affairs. Lord save us.

Lord save the world, actually. President Trump is making rash and risky moves that promise either brilliant success or catastrophic failure. Given that it’s Trump we’re dealing with, I do not like the odds.

I can only applaud his achievement in securing the release of Kim Dong-chul, Tony Kim and Kim Hak-song, the three Americans who were being held in North Korea on baseless charges — apparently as bargaining chips. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flew to Pyongyang to bring them home, and Trump was there to meet them when they arrived before dawn Thursday at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington.

“We want to thank Kim Jong Un, who was really excellent,” Trump said. It was an odd way to describe a dictator who leads one of the most brutal and secretive regimes on Earth — a man whose nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, according to Trump and his advisers, pose a grave and unacceptable threat to the United States and its allies.

Trump announced later Thursday that he and Kim the Excellent (formerly known as Rocket Man) will hold their much-anticipated summit on June 12 in Singapore. I remain skeptical that Kim will ever give up his hard-won nukes and missiles, even for an ironclad U.S. promise never to attack or seek regime change, which is what Kim says he wants. I believe Kim looks at Trump and sees unprecedented opportunity.

Kim is finally getting one thing that North Korean leaders have always sought — one-on-one negotiation with a U.S. president as equals. I believe Trump was right to agree to a summit, since the policy of not talking hasn’t worked. But a lot more groundwork should have been laid, and I fear Trump will return with a bright, shiny package full of promises that turn out to be empty.

I understand why Kim would want to get out from under international sanctions and offer his oppressed people enough economic growth to make his own position more secure. I also understand why he might want to signal officials in neighboring China that if they are not more forthcoming with money, technology and other goodies, North Korea has another suitor knocking at the door.

But there’s no reason to prejudge the summit’s outcome when we don’t even really know the agenda. Kim has already declared a pause in his provocative nuclear and missile testing. Maybe he and Trump will emerge with a pact to reach a more substantive agreement at a later date. That would be a good thing — while we’re talking, we’re not shooting — and Trump would have achieved something worthwhile.

That credit is negated, however, by Trump’s unjustifiable and reckless decision to renounce the Iran nuclear deal. Of all the bad decisions Trump has made as president, this is the most dangerous. He seems to be trying to start an unthinkable war.

Officials in Germany, France and Britain have pledged to try to keep the agreement alive. But with the Trump administration already threatening to impose sanctions on European firms that continue to do business with Iran, it is unclear whether the deal can survive without the world’s leading economic power and most important reserve currency.

It is customary to insert the caveat that the Iran agreement isn’t perfect, that it has obvious flaws, that it could be much better, and so on. But actually it is, or was, quite good. It has provided an unprecedented window into every nook and cranny of the Iranian nuclear program; divested Iran of its stocks of highly enriched uranium that can be easily made into fuel for bombs; and halted Iran’s steady progress toward nuclear weapons for at least a decade.

Put yourself, for a moment, in the Iranian regime’s position. You know that the full economic benefits of the deal will never come through. You see the U.S. administration aggressively promoting your rival, Saudi Arabia, as a dominant regional power that is bristling with advanced new weapons and backed by other Sunni states. You see nuclear-armed Israel effectively joining in as a member of an anti-Iran coalition.

Iranian officials can just surrender. Or they can intensify their campaigns of asymmetrical warfare, using groups such as Hezbollah, while also secretly resuming work on a bomb.

I fear that Trump’s decision greatly increases the likelihood of a major war in the Middle East — not because he has a better idea but because he can’t bear living with a landmark pact signed by Barack Obama.

That last sentence is so very true.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[Audrey2]

21 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

Of course, Trump's proposed wage increases for the military were below what the law requires. Businessmen like Trump are exactly why we need a minimum wage. Otherwise- I can hire you for $8.25? Sorry, you no longer have a job, as I found someone who will work for $8.10. Oh wait, this person only wants $7.85. What? I can do a 90 day training wage of $7.25? Sure, I'll take these folks- I can get rid of them in 90 days, anyway. There's a guy holding a sign on the corner who will work for $5- sign him up and I'll get rid of my trainees. Wait! Illegal you say? Surely they will be happy with $3 and I can let the $5 guy go back to holding his sign. I can get an underaged kid for $1.50? Bah- Illegals! I hate them!  Inmates can only make $0.25? Bye-bye underaged kids. MAGA. You know, my favorite song is 16 Tons (I owe my soul to the company store.)

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

19 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

Here is the pro quo for the quid Cohen got.

And bam, here’s also another case of ETTD, as @Howl likes to call it.

 

[Howl]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

here’s also another case of ETTD, as @Howl likes to call it.

I defer to Rick Wilson, whose book, Everything Trump Touches Dies, is due out August 5th. 

I sure hope Bob Quinn enjoys spending more time with his family. 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

The world is calling the presidunce out on his idiocy.

I guess you can safely say that America’s standing in the world has taken a nose dive. If he isn’t impeached, and consequently removed from office, you won’t get it back either and your time as a big player on the world’s field will not only be diminished, it will be near permanently over.

Way to MAGA.

(BTW, anyone else notice that when the presidunce puts on this ‘serious’ face, he looks like a petulant toddler, willing to cut off his nose to spite his face? Except in his case it’s America’s nose to spite Obama)

[AmazonGrace]

Have you been invited to the White Supremacist House? 

 

[PreciousPantsofDoom]

3 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

Have you been invited to the White Supremacist House? 

 

I Don't comment much in the politics threads because there is just so much WTFery and where to start, amd I'm not sure why this one particular thing should get me going this morning, but WTF?!

How the hell do you explain this sea of white women other than racism.  Either they specifically went out of their way to only invite white female spouses (and I cannot think of a single reasonable justification to do so) or they did invite everybody, but all the people of colour also got the not so subtle message that they were not really welcome and declined (either in protest or in fear of getting hassled.)  Either way those pictures are astounding. 

Have to say that I wouldn't accept an invite to the WH right now myself, and I'm about as white as they come.  Not that Trumpo would want me anyway, I'm not rich, Russian, or a Porn Star.

[GreyhoundFan]

Bill Maher's New Rules concluded this week comparing this administration with the mafia. It's excellent. And scary.

 

[47of74]

The world is calling the presidunce out on his idiocy.
I guess you can safely say that America’s standing in the world has taken a nose dive. If he isn’t impeached, and consequently removed from office, you won’t get it back either and your time as a big player on the world’s field will not only be diminished, it will be near permanently over.
Way to MAGA.
(BTW, anyone else notice that when the presidunce puts on this ‘serious’ face, he looks like a petulant toddler, willing to cut off his nose to spite his face? Except in his case it’s America’s nose to spite Obama)

Yeah when I go overseas this winter as far as any rando in the street is concerned I’m Canadian.

[AmazonGrace]

Trumpster is going to direct taxpayer money towards his golf courses even on his visit to the UK 

 

[Howl]

13 hours ago, 47of74 said:

Yeah when I go overseas this winter as far as any rando in the street is concerned I’m Canadian.

Stock up on some clothes with a maple leaf motif, or just rock a T shirt that says, Je suis Canadien.  Leave Leaf no room for doubt. 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[Gobsmacked]

17 hours ago, 47of74 said:

 

Yeah when I go overseas this winter as far as any rando in the street is concerned I’m Canadian.

 

As I said back in 2016, if we had jobs and houses to go around you would all be welcome here in Scotland. 

[candygirl200413]

Did anyone see his Happy Mother's Day post?

Spoiler

 

 

[Cartmann99]

I like this idea of trying to pass as a Canadian, but I'm going to need one hell of a voice coach to pull this off. 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Alarming new revelations about Trump’s addiction to Fox News"

Spoiler

There are two Mueller probes. There’s the one that exists in the Fox News-addled mind of President Trump and his supporters, which features dark conspiracy-mongering about a “Deep State coup” against Trump; out-of-control federal agents jackbooting poor, hapless Trump allies; and, of course, the corrupt failure to prosecute Hillary Clinton. Then there’s the one that exists in most mainstream news accounts, which features a team of investigators mostly going by the book, never leaking, methodically following the facts, albeit very aggressively, wherever they will lead.

The gaping disconnect between these two Mueller probes is driven home by two new pieces: one from New York magazine, which reports alarming new details about Trump’s addiction to Fox News and how that has shaped his perception of the Mueller investigation; and one from The Post, which paints a detailed picture of how the probe has actually been operating day in and day out.

The New York magazine piece reports that former White House advisers Sean Spicer and Reince Priebus sought to deliberately drive Trump deeper into the Fox News bubble, because he was getting overly agitated by criticism on MSNBC and CNN. They did this by talking up Fox’s high ratings and importance to Trump’s base until Trump’s television diet became, as one former official put it, “mainly a complete dosage of Fox.”

But this has created its own alarming problems, officials now say. Fox gets Trump riled up about topics that weren’t supposed to be on that day’s agenda, forcing White House staff to scramble to refocus. And Trump’s addiction to Sean Hannity — who has become a kind of walking security blanket for the president — is having a deep impression on his view of the Mueller investigation:

Regardless of the news of the day, the overarching narrative of the show is the political persecution of Trump, and by extension of Hannity and Hannity’s viewers, at the hands of the so-called deep state and the Democratic Party, and the corrupt mainstream media, a wholly owned subsidiary of both. Everything comes back to … Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election, a phony, petty diversion from what should be the real focus: prosecuting Hillary Clinton.

Now over to The Post’s new piece. The big takeaway is that the Mueller probe, as the piece puts it, is “secretive and methodical,” a “steaming locomotive” that is racking up indictments and guilty pleas — the real action in the background, even as Hannity rails about the Deep State and Rudy Giuliani rails about Mueller’s “stormtroopers” while pummeling himself about the face with seemingly endless rake-stepping. Note this:

“The biggest challenge for the White House is that the special counsel is conducting an investigation properly, which is not commenting publicly, only making known its activities by virtue of bringing cases or executing legal process in a manner that is publicly observable,” said Jacob S. Frenkel, who worked in the independent counsel’s office in the late 1990s.

This is indeed the big challenge for the White House — in more ways than one. The general buttoned-down nature of the investigation, and the lack of leaks and other visible antics, have probably made it harder for Trump and his allies to discredit the probe, which is likely why large majorities — including independents —  support the investigation of both collusion and of Trump’s finances (even if large majorities of Republicans still think it’s a witch hunt).

The other big challenge this creates for Trump and his outside allies is that it’s impossible to know what Mueller has discovered. He is investigating multiple actions by Trump that could constitute obstruction of justice. The Post also reports that the Mueller team is probing the relationship between former Trump confidant Roger Stone and Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, which leaked the hacked Democratic Party emails.

On top of that, the Atlantic’s Natasha Bertrand reports that Mueller’s agents “allegedly detained a lawyer with ties to Russia who is closely associated with Joseph Mifsud, the shadowy professor who claimed during the election that Russia had ‘dirt’ on Hillary Clinton.” (This claim was made to former Trump aide George Papadopoulos, whose activities formed the real genesis of the Mueller probe, despite #Foxlandia’s founding myth to the contrary.) As Bertrand notes, this highlights Mueller’s ongoing interest in “whether the campaign knew in advance that Russia planned to interfere in the election.”

All of this confirms once again — as did the leaked Mueller questions — that it is utter folly to assume we have any idea what Mueller has established on whether there was Russia-Trump campaign conspiracy to sabotage our election and democracy, or, for that matter, on anything else. Yet the gap between the real Mueller probe and the one that exists in #Foxlandia — and, as a result, in Trump’s head — has never been wider.

...

 

[AmazonGrace]

You will be happy to know: 

 

[fraurosena]

Ha, we all know the presidunce is the bigliest leaker of them all... so this is him confessing to being a traitor and a coward!

Please can we have that as the next thread title? 

[onekidanddone]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

Ha, we all know the presidunce is the bigliest leaker of them all... so this is him confessing to being a traitor and a coward!

Traitor to him maybe, but not to our country

[AmazonGrace]