Trump 32: Pissing off the World, One Country at a Time

[onekidanddone]

1 hour ago, AmazonGrace said:

Today Trump will be meeting with a renowned constitutional law scholar and correctional facility expert to discuss prisons and his pardon powers:

 

Ah yes, Kim.  I bet you didn't know that she is the BEST scholar, I mean bigly best. Everybody says so. In fact she taught Obama when he was at the failing Harvard school.

[AmazonGrace]

That was then this is now the Trump edition:

YESTERDAY

I'm too busy  with all this bigly important stuff to worry about the Russia probe

TODAY:

I had a yuge crowd! I did! Everyone says so! Except fake news reporters!

 

[LeftCoastLurker]

3 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

That was then this is now the Trump edition:

YESTERDAY

I'm too busy  with all this bigly important stuff to worry about the Russia probe

TODAY:

I had a yuge crowd! I did! Everyone says so! Except fake news reporters!

 

Just went at looked at NYTimes article. They say "5500" people..numbers are hard, don't you know...1000-5500 what's the difference?

Also, LOTS of empty seats in the picture.

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

 

 

[Cartmann99]

4 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

That was then this is now the Trump edition:

YESTERDAY

I'm too busy  with all this bigly important stuff to worry about the Russia probe

TODAY:

I had a yuge crowd! I did! Everyone says so! Except fake news reporters!

 

This show could really use some new writers. Do a demonic possession, bring somebody back from the dead, or have a catering business run by a raccoon, a German Shepherd, a polar bear, and the surviving cast of The Brady Bunch, BUT QUIT HAVING TRUMP BITCH ABOUT THE MEDIA ALL THE DAMN TIME!!!

[GreyhoundFan]

I agree with Dana Milbank: "Trump’s not a liar. He’s a madman."

Spoiler

Even by President Trump’s standards, this Memorial Day weekend was memorable for the sheer volume of balderdash, bunk, poppycock and patent nonsense flowing from the White House.

Balderdash: Trump went after the “failing and corrupt” New York Times for citing a senior White House official “who doesn’t exist” and admonished the newspaper to “use real people, not phony sources.” It turned out the senior official in question had spoken at a White House briefing arranged by Trump’s aides and attended by dozens of reporters.

Bunk: Trump attacked “the 13 Angry Democrats” working for Robert S. Mueller III, apparently referring to prior party registration. But Mueller himself is a Republican, appointed by a Republican who was himself appointed by Trump.

Poppycock: He called for “pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from there [sic] parents once they cross the Border into the U.S.” There is no such law, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions has acknowledged that family separation “inevitably” results from Trump’s “zero-tolerance” enforcement policy.

Patent nonsense: “Who’s going to give back the young and beautiful lives (and others) that have been devastated and destroyed by the phony Russia Collusion Witch Hunt?” Trump asked. I can picture the GoFundMe campaign: “Paul Manafort, a young and beautiful 69-year-old, had a promising career ahead of him selling access to the White House before he was cruelly indicted . . . ”

Early in this weekend’s monsoon of malarkey, New York Times White House reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted that Trump told “demonstrable falsehoods” — and she was roundly ridiculed on Twitter for failing to say Trump was lying. She defended herself by saying Trump’s pronouncements “can be hard to label” because “he often thinks whatever he says is what’s real.”

Haberman is right, but there’s another reason not to label Trump’s untruths “lies”: Calling him a liar lets him off easy. A liar, by definition, knows he’s not telling the truth. Trump’s behavior is worse: With each day it becomes more obvious he can’t distinguish between fact and fantasy. It’s an illness, and it’s spreading.

I’ve been writing for two years about his seeming inability to separate truth from falsehood: from his claim that he opposed the Iraq War to his belief that his rainy inauguration was “really sunny.” The man who ghostwrote Trump’s “Art of the Deal” marveled at Trump’s “ability to convince himself that whatever he is saying at any given moment is true.”

Trump has acknowledged as much himself. In a 2007 deposition — he was suing author Timothy O’Brien for asserting that Trump’s net worth wasn’t in the billions but in the range of $150 million to $250 million — Trump was asked how he calculates his net worth.

“My net worth fluctuates,” Trump said, “and it goes up and down with the markets and with attitudes and with feelings, even my own feelings. . . . I would say it’s my general attitude at the time that the question may be asked.”

Of course, Trump’s “feelings” don’t change his net worth any more than they change the weather. That he thinks they do is his problem — and ours.

Writing last week for NBCNews.com, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London, along with a researcher, offered an explanation for Trump’s mendacity.

Noting that the daily average number of Trump falsehoods has been rising since he took office (as measured by The Post’s Fact Checker), the professor, Tali Sharot, pointed to the biological process of “emotional adaptation.” People tend to feel uncomfortable when they tell lies, but research has found that the discomfort is reduced each time a person lies — thereby increasing the frequency of lies.

Trump’s fictions are so pain-free that they may not feel like lies to him — honestly. And, ominously, they may seem less glaring to others over time. Sharot noted that people “may desensitize to the president’s falsehoods in the same way that they do to overused perfume, making them less likely to act to correct this pattern of behavior.”

You can see this in the repeated failure of congressional Republicans to call out Trump’s untruths, when they obviously know better. And you can see it in administration officials’ determination to support whatever Trump says, no matter how ludicrous. (The White House held a briefing Tuesday to support Trump’s attempt to blame Democrats for immigrant family separation.) Trump may not be able to separate fact from fiction, but those who knowingly back up his falsehoods are liars.

So what should we call the twaddle and claptrap Trump spouts? I propose “Trumpery.” Defined as “worthless nonsense,” it also has a felicitous echo of “Trumped up.”

Go ahead and say he’s lying, if you think so. To me, his facility with fallacy and his pain-free fibbery aren’t sympto­matic of a liar but of a madman.

 

[Howl]

In the comments section of Talking Points Memo today (can't recall which article) there was a little back and forth about Trump vs Pence.  I have to say that now I'm swayed that Trump is worse, because he's BAT SHIT CRAZY!  He institutes actions without understanding that there can be and are, profound repercussions.  Like what, you're asking.  initiating nuclear war? 

 But this is funny too: 

Sorry not sorry kitty: 

[AmazonGrace]

 

 

Putting the FUN back in FUNerals

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[AmazonGrace]

Only because you told Lester Hold that's why you did it.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Call out his lies. He depends on them."

Spoiler

By now, we know that President Trump is a lying demagogue. Because this is not said often enough, he has been allowed to routinize lying and enshrine the vilest forms of divisiveness as a normal part of our politics.

Lies do not deserve deference just because a president tells them.

We thought that the media learned during Joseph R. McCarthy’s heyday that “We report the lies, you decide” is not a responsible approach to journalism. Trump’s egregiousness requires everyone to take a refresher course in the lesson of McCarthyism.

At the same time, just calling out deceit is insufficient. It is essential as well to understand why Trump tells particular lies at particular moments and to be hardheaded in judging how effective they are. This is a precondition to turning back the smears and the falsehoods.

Trump’s address Tuesday at a Nashville rally was a lollapalooza of deception. He kept the fact-checkers busy. PolitiFact raised doubts about 15 of his statements and flatly rated 10 of them as “mostly false,” “false” or “pants on fire.”

But two passages are worth special attention.

“They don’t want the wall, they want open borders,” Trump said of Democrats. “They’re more interested in taking care of criminals than they are in taking care of you.”

For good measure, he referred to the House Democratic leader as “the MS-13 lover Nancy Pelosi,” linking her to the brutal gang whose members Trump continues to call “animals.” He even pumped up the crowd to shout out the word.

As a factual matter, “open borders” is not a policy supported by anyone except a handful of libertarians. The “taking care of criminals” line and the slandering of Pelosi have become so common they are barely noticed. Republicans on the ballot this fall should be asked if they see Pelosi as an “MS-13 lover,” and if not, whether they will denounce Trump for saying such a thing. I am not holding my breath.

Yet sometimes Trump engages in a perverse form of transparency. He signaled clearly that the whole point of his screed — during which he also re-upped his claim that Mexico would pay for his border wall — was about the midterm elections. Immigration, he said, is “a good issue for us, not for them.”

Why immigration? It’s not the central concern of most voters. A Gallup survey in May found that 10 percent of Americans listed it as the most important problem facing the country. And Trump’s wall is not popular — in a recent CBS News poll, 59 percent of Americans were against building it.

But currently, Trump and the Republicans aren’t focused on the majority of Americans. They are petrified that their own loyalists do not seem very motivated about voting in November.

Another May Gallup study found that just 26 percent of Americans strongly approved of Trump’s job performance, compared with 41 percent who strongly disapproved. Only George W. Bush in 2006 (at a time of rising impatience with the Iraq War and dismay over his handling of Hurricane Katrina) and Richard Nixon in 1974 (at the height of the Watergate scandal) exceeded Trump’s level of strong disapproval. The midterm elections in those years were disastrous for the GOP.

Trump and his party feel they need to screech loudly to get their side back into the game, and attacking immigration (going back to Mexican “rapists”) is the signature Trump talking point. Voters who listed immigration as a motivating factor in 2016 backed him over Hillary Clinton by nearly 2 to 1. And the CBS poll found that while Democrats and independents overwhelmingly opposed Trump’s wall, 78 percent of Republicans supported it.

Republican House candidates are following Trump’s lead, according to a USA Today study published Tuesday, “blanketing the airwaves with TV ads embracing a hard line on immigration.” By contrast, health care was the topic most invoked in Democratic spots. The GOP’s emphasis may shift some after the primaries, but Republicans seem to know that wedge issues are more useful to them than their record.

Political polarization has many sources, but the prime cause of it now is the president himself. Polarization defines Trump’s survival strategy, and it means that demagoguery — toward immigrants, toward crime, toward special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe, toward dissenting NFL players, toward anyone who takes him on — is what his presidency is all about.

What thus needs exposing is not simply Trump’s indifference to the truth but also the fact that he depends upon the kinds of lies that will tear our country to pieces.

 

[JMarie]

Trump pardoned D'Souza for one reason, and one reason only: to get back in the good graces of Ann Coulter.  She used to be a big Trump fan (even wrote a book about him), but has since flipped.  Coulter and D'Souza dated in the past, and Trump is trying to win her back.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

7 minutes ago, JMarie said:

Coulter and D'Souza dated in the past, and Trump is trying to win her back.

What a hateful and horrible couple.

[47of74]

I see fuck face wants to force German automakers out of the US

Quote

President Donald Trump is hoping to effectively ban sales of Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and other German cars, according to reports from a German magazine.

A report in WirtschaftsWoche cites unnamed diplomatic sources who say Trump told French president Emmanuel Macron he would maintain his trade policy “until no Mercedes models rolled on Fifth Avenue in New York.” The trade policy would seemingly affect any German automaker, though, putting sales of Porsche and Volkswagen (and its Audi luxury division) at risk as well as Daimler.

Trump began pushing for heavy tariffs (as much as 25%) on car imports a week ago. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said at the time “there is evidence suggesting that, for decades, imports from abroad have eroded our domestic auto industry.”

Trump himself hinted at the news before the announcement, implying the tariffs would result in more domestic jobs for automakers.

And that's despite the fact that a lot of German auto makers have factories here, have dealerships here, have other businesses dependent on them here. 

[GreyhoundFan]

Oh, for pity sake. Now the orange fuckface is talking about pardoning Martha Stewart and Rod Blagojevich

Quote

...

Trump also relayed that he is considering commuting the remainder of the sentence of Blagojevich, who was convicted in 2010 on charges relating to the selling of President Barack Obama’s former Senate seat.

“What he did does not justify 18 years in a jail,” Trump said. “If you read his statement, it was a foolish statement, there was a lot of bravado. But . . . plenty of other politicians have said a lot worse. And . . . he shouldn’t have been put in jail.”

Trump also cited the case of Stewart, who was convicted in 2004 of obstructing justice and lying to investigators about a well-timed stock sale.

“I think to a certain extent Martha Stewart was harshly and unfairly treated,” Trump said. “And she used to be my biggest fan in the world . . . before I became a politician. But that’s okay, I don’t view it that way.”

A senior White House official said as many as a dozen other pardons are under consideration by Trump, adding that most are likely to happen.

“There are going to be more,” said the official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the issue.

Blagojevich, who has been seeking assistance from Trump, wrote an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal earlier this week in which he echoed some of Trump’s concerns about the Justice Department and FBI, saying that “the rule of law is under assault in America.”

“I learned the hard way what happens when an investigation comes up empty after the government had invested time, resources and manpower,” Blagojevich wrote. “When they can’t prove a crime, they create one.”

...

 

[Audrey2]

6 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Oh, for pity sake. Now the orange fuckface is talking about pardoning Martha Stewart and Rod Blagojevich

 

Ratings, people, ratings. As I remember, Blagojevich was on the Apprentice. Martha Stewart is...well... Martha Stewart, and had also been on television. 

[Howl]

2 hours ago, JMarie said:

Coulter and D'Souza dated in the past, and Trump is trying to win her back.

I just threw up in my mouth a little.  

OK, @onekidanddone,  back to Kim Kardashian meeting Trump at the WH to discuss prison reform.  The New York Post has this crazy cover celebrating the event, which if you like trashy humor like I do, could be considered pretty funny.  However, the Post got roasted for sexist shit.  However, this was a meeting of two YUGE reality show personalities, one of whom is famous for having a famous ass,  and one for BEING a famous ass, so rump roast. 

Spoiler

 

 

[Alisamer]

3 hours ago, 47of74 said:

I see fuck face wants to force German automakers out of the US

And that's despite the fact that a lot of German auto makers have factories here, have dealerships here, have other businesses dependent on them here. 

If Daimler is included, that's bad news locally for me - they own Freightliner and have (I think) two plants in my area. Also, I believe they own Thomas buses - which is pretty much every school bus I've ever seen. 

I think the Trumpster has no idea what forcing German automakers out of the US means. How likely is it nobody in his family has a Mercedes, Maybach, Audi, etc.?

[AmazonGrace]

 

Justin Trudeau is pissed off so that's mission accomplished for Trump.

[Cleopatra7]

3 hours ago, Howl said:

I just threw up in my mouth a little.  

OK, @onekidanddone,  back to Kim Kardashian meeting Trump at the WH to discuss prison reform.  The New York Post has this crazy cover celebrating the event, which if you like trashy humor like I do, could be considered pretty funny.  However, the Post got roasted for sexist shit.  However, this was a meeting of two YUGE reality show personalities, one of whom is famous for having a famous ass,  and one for BEING a famous ass, so rump roast. 

  Hide contents

 

 

I suppose this may be the only way to get any kind of prison or drug law reform: make it all about rich white women with reality shows.

[JMarie]

5 hours ago, Howl said:

I just threw up in my mouth a little.  

Sorry, not my intention.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump doesn’t just fail a moral standard. He enables cruelty and abuse."

Spoiler

America suffers from a persistent misunderstanding of the role of character in public life. For some — a diminishing few — political leaders should be moral exemplars. They should be men and women whom children can look up to and emulate.

Democrats surrendered this standard in their defense of President Bill Clinton. Republicans are abandoning this standard in their defense of President Trump. There is apparently no remaining constituency for the belief that high office should involve moral leadership.

Given human nature, this expectation was always a recipe for disillusionment. But while it is true that politicians are not called to be pastors, something has been lost in abandoning the ideal of rectitude. Clinton did not just conduct a quiet affair. He exploited an unequal power relationship for sexual favors. He expanded the boundaries of acceptable exploitation. Trump did not just (allegedly) have a fling. He bragged about sexual assault and dismissed it as locker-room talk. He expanded the boundaries of acceptable misogyny.

It is one thing for public officials to fail a moral standard. That makes them human. It is something else to shift a standard in favor of cruelty and abuse. That makes them poor stewards of public trust.

This points to an underestimated role for politics. Politicians may not be moral examples, but they help set the margins of permissible behavior and speech. I’m not talking about the law. We have a Constitution that protects hurtful, even hateful language. But public officials help determine the shape of social stigma, which is based on our self-conception as a community.

Stigma has a value determined by context. Social stigma against HIV/AIDS or against mental illness damages lives and undermines public health. But the stigmas we feel against misogyny and against racism are tremendous social achievements. Shifting those social expectations in favor of decency was the hard, sometimes dangerous work of generations.

And political leaders — displaying good public character — have helped determine those expectations. It mattered when President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House. It helped break an oppressive social convention against the social mixing of blacks and whites. It mattered when Clinton began the tradition of celebrating Eid al-Fitr at the White House. It sent the signal that American public traditions reach beyond Protestantism, Catholicism and Judaism. It also mattered when Trump in 2017 discontinued the White House Eid celebration.

A significant factor in Trump’s appeal has been the argument that “political correctness” has gone too far. There are college campuses — yes, you, Evergreen State College — where consciousness has been raised into the stratosphere of silliness and boorishness. But Trump’s political use of this idea has had little to do with academic freedom and disruptive student protests. It has had everything to do with testing the limits of prejudiced public language against migrants (particularly Mexicans) as potential rapists and Muslims (particularly refugees) as potential terrorists.

This is a failure of public character with serious consequences. Trump is urging Americans to drink at a poisoned well of intolerance. This desensitizes some people to the moral seriousness of prejudice. It creates an atmosphere in which bigots gain confidence and traction. And one sad social consequence is the emboldened racism of Roseanne Barr and many like her, many of whom surely believe — on good evidence — that the president of the United States is on their side. The combination of Trumpism, social media and (at least according to Barr) sleeping pills creates a powerful disinhibition to hatred.

There are many drawbacks to being ignorant of and indifferent to history. But one of the worst is a failure to appreciate the depth of U.S. racism and the heroism of the long struggle against it. We are a country in which 1 out of 7 people was owned by another. We had an American version of apartheid within living memory. It was a hard-won lesson that racism is a form of oppression that destroys the soul of the oppressor as well. We honor that lesson, not out of tender sensibilities, but because of long, difficult experience. Much of what is attacked as political correctness in politics (as opposed to on campus) is really politeness, respect and historical memory.

“I had on my side,” said Frederick Douglass, “all the invisible forces of the moral government of the universe.” True enough. But it eventually helped to have reinforcement from the U.S. government as well. And it hurts to have a president of poor character placing his thumb on the other side of the moral scale.

 

[dawbs]

7 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

Ratings, people, ratings. As I remember, Blagojevich was on the Apprentice. Martha Stewart is...well... Martha Stewart, and had also been on television. 

One of Martha STweart's lawyers allgedly connected to bullshit that's 'deep state' and it tweaks the nose of Comey, since he was part of her prosecution.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/why-trump-pardoned-dinesh-dsouzaand-may-pardon-martha-stewart

Crazy like a fox glued to an orange.
 

[onekidanddone]

I'll just leave this here. Discuss among your selves