Trump 37: Tweeting instead of Leading

[Howl]

3 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

Does he know how many of his MAGA supporters who are senior citizens spend the winters in cities along the border and go to Mexico to fill prescriptions, as well as take care of dental and vision needs that aren't covered by Medicare? Surely not. I used to live not far from the border and crossed with lots of senior citizens when I used to visit Mexico.

Incredibly good point.  But then, Trump doesn't think about unintended consequences. 

[Ozlsn]

3 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

Does he know how many of his MAGA supporters who are senior citizens spend the winters in cities along the border and go to Mexico to fill prescriptions, as well as take care of dental and vision needs that aren't covered by Medicare? Surely not. I used to live not far from the border and crossed with lots of senior citizens when I used to visit Mexico.

He'll just blame the Democrats, they'll believe him and vote for him again.

Assuming they don't expire trying to return home of course.

[Gobsmacked]

Calling @thoughtful ...

Ive just realised that the lyrics to Coldplays Viva la Vida are quite prophetic when applied to Trumps rule. The chorus needs adapting though! Your challenge for today!

 

Thank you in advance. 

[fraurosena]

 

Trump officially ranked worst president of all time

Quote

Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 3 million votes. But on Presidents Day, he finally won something fair and square: the title of worst president ever.

According to the “Presidential Greatness Survey” published Monday by the American Political Science Association, Trump is ranked 44th out of 44 presidents. The survey counts President Grover Cleveland’s non-consecutive administrations as a single presidency, thus sparing Trump from being ranked one spot lower.

The survey also ranked President Obama 8th overall, making him the the greatest living president, one spot ahead of Ronald Reagan.

But even among Republican respondents to the survey, Trump could only manage a ranking of 40th out of 44, edging out James Buchanan, Franklin Pierce, William Henry Harrison — who died in office just one month into his first term — and Andrew Johnson.

By contrast, President Obama’s first appearance in this survey in 2014 placed him at 18th, and a group of 238 presidential historians ranked Obama 15th after his first year in office.

Trump’s first year in office has been marked by historically low approval numbers, an embarrassing trend that was continued by a five-point drop in his weekly approval rating from Gallup.

If there is any consolation for Trump, it’s that he can’t possibly drop any lower in this ranking during whatever time he has left in office.

For the rest of the nation, it’s the prospect that that time will be brief.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

2 hours ago, Howl said:

Incredibly good point.  But then, Trump doesn't think about unintended consequences. 

There, I fixed it for you!

[Audrey2]

3 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Uh-oh. Beware the inevitable self-pitying tweetstorm. 

Trump to cancel New Year's plans, stay in DC as government shutdown drags on

 

Translated: People are so pissed at me that I was uninvited to my own party! Poor me- (singing) Everybody hates me, nobody likes me, going to the garden to eat worm. Big fat juicy worms, sweet fat slimy worms, oh how they twist and turn.

(My Mom used to sing that when we kids felt sorry for ourselves.)

[Dandruff]

6 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

If Trump had any love for anything other than his own ego, he would be working out a deal to keep this country from imploding.

The question I'd ask is how the situation will ultimately affect his bottom line.  At some point, by some means, he'll no longer be in office.  Let's assume he won't be in prison, or not for long.  He'll have protection for himself and his immediate family for life, compliments of the US taxpayers.  I'm guessing he'll also be able to run his businesses again - but this time with extensive knowledge of world politics and financial dealings that he didn't have before.  Are the wall and wanting to win in 2020 simply a function of ego?  If not, what else might he stand to gain or lose?

[GreyhoundFan]

"The best way to force Trump’s hand? Ignore him."

Spoiler

As Americans watch the federal government remain (partially) shut down and the president lob angry accusations at the opposition, a common response is, “Why can’t they all just sit down and work this out?” It seems like a reasonable question — if this were a different time and we were dealing with a different president. But since Donald Trump is in the White House, everything is more complicated.

So the only answer may be for everyone, Democrats and Republicans alike, to ignore President Trump. Act as though he doesn’t exist and this has nothing to do with him.

By which I mean that members of Congress should shut their ears to Trump’s tweets and threats and fulminations, pass something that House Democrats and Senate Republicans can live with, and then dare Trump to veto it. Because I doubt he has the guts.

Negotiating with Trump might be impossible, not only because he’s committed to a border wall that Democrats won’t accept, but also because he changes his mind so frequently that his word just can’t be trusted. He could say in the morning that he’ll sign a particular compromise, then decide by the afternoon that he won’t because Sean Hannity doesn’t like it. He’ll have to agree to something eventually, but the only way forward might be to cut him out of the process until the end, then force his hand.

Where we stand now is that Paul Ryan and other Republicans have decided to stop trying to arrive at a solution and just leave town, meaning things won’t get resolved until Democrats take over the House next week. Democrats are considering a few options (a very short-term bill, a somewhat short-term bill, a longer-term bill), but they are refusing to offer any more than the $1.3 billion in extra border security funds they’ve already put on the table. So here’s where we are now:

Earlier Saturday, Vice President Pence visited Schumer for what has been the last face-to-face bipartisan talks, a brief meeting at which Pence made a new offer that included about half of Trump’s original request for $5 billion in wall funding. Democrats rejected that, still holding firm that no funds go toward a wall, and they also accused Pence of not being capable of guaranteeing the president’s support for his negotiating.

“Different people from the same White House are saying different things about what the president would accept or not accept,” Pelosi and Schumer said Wednesday in a joint statement.

Trump’s position is a critical roadblock to any negotiating. Democrats do not want to support something presented by Pence, only to have Trump balk at the idea and then move the goal posts farther right because of the apparent Democratic concession.

That might sound like gamesmanship on the Democrats' part, but they’re right: Nobody knows what Trump is going to accept, and nobody can speak for him. He changes his mind so often that he himself doesn’t even know what he’ll accept. Even Republicans are getting exasperated:

And congressional Republicans are adamant that they will not get caught flat-footed like last week, when the Senate unanimously approved a temporary funding plan to keep the entire government open through Feb. 8, only to learn later that Trump would veto the bill because it did not have funds for a wall.

“It’s clear that we on the Republican side, we do not want to vote for a bill that the president won’t sign,” [Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.)] said.

That’s perfectly understandable, but since it is impossible for anyone to know what the president will sign, the only real option is to cut him and the White House out of the process. House Democrats should sit down with Senate Republicans and work out their own compromise.

And we know what it will look like. It will have more money for border security — personnel, equipment, repairs to existing fencing — but not a wall. Republicans will say they worked to secure the border, and Democrats will say they held firm against the wall. It's not complicated.

Once the bill is passed by both houses, they’ll send it to Trump’s desk and force him to make a final decision: Sign this or veto it. It’s one thing to threaten vetoes and proclaim that you won’t sign anything if you don’t get what you want; it’s something else entirely to stand against both parties and veto a real compromise that everyone else is behind.

This plan of shutting out the White House requires only one person's cooperation: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. If he were to decide it's the best way forward, he and Nancy Pelosi could work out the details in an afternoon. Fortunately, McConnell is utterly unemotional and completely cynical. He doesn't particularly care about whether Trump is happy, or whether the president gets a "win." McConnell's only real concern is maintaining his own, and the GOP's, hold on power in the Senate. If he decides that the best way to do that is to end this shutdown and dial back the state of permanent crisis, that's what he'll do.

As I argued on Thursday, in the end, Trump will have to find a way to save face if he’s going to sign a funding bill. Perhaps Democrats and Republicans in Congress could make that more likely by announcing that once the government funding bill is out of the way, they’ll begin work on a comprehensive immigration reform bill, one that might include walls in some places if it’s combined with permanent status for “dreamers.” That would give Trump something to point to, so he can tell his base that the wall is on its way.

But there’s just no way that any negotiation in which Trump is involved can succeed. So if it is going to reopen the government, Congress needs to ignore him.

 

[thoughtful]

4 hours ago, Gobsmacked said:

Calling @thoughtful ...

Ive just realised that the lyrics to Coldplays Viva la Vida are quite prophetic when applied to Trumps rule. The chorus needs adapting though! Your challenge for today!

Challenge accepted. Thanks for the coffee, but it's too late in the day for caffeine.

Of course, Trump doesn't have the insight of the original speaker in that song. He doesn't seem to realize that it's not always good to be the King (apologies to Mel Brooks), that people might have a reason to be mad at him, or that he isn't an absolute monarch.

So:

I tried to rule the world
MAGAs cheered when I gave the word
Now in the morning, I sleep alone
Tweet the tweets to bitch and moan.

I used to munch my fries
Seeing fear in the Democrats’ eyes,
Listen as the crowd, with hate,
Yelled for me to go make America great.

I thought if I held the key,
That the wall would be built for me.
But I discovered that my tantrums grand
Just won’t get me my wall, the way that I planned.

I hear the gavels in court all falling
People tell me that karma’s calling.
But my mirror, in my small hand
Still says I’m the fairest in all the land.
For some reason I can't explain
Once I came there was never, never an honest word,
I still think I rule the world!

It was a wicked and a wild Putin
Blew down the doors to let me in,
Shattered laws, blind Justice now struck dumb,
People couldn't believe what I'd become.

Robert Mueller’s gang all wait
For my head on a silver plate.
Just a baby with a lonely tweet,
But I still think that ruling is neat!

I hear the gavels in court all falling
People tell me that karma’s calling.
But my mirror, in my small hand
Still says I’m the fairest in all the land.
For some reason I can't explain
I think Saint Reagan will call my name! Never an honest word
And I still think I rule the world!

 

 

[Gobsmacked]

Thank you Thoughtful!! Brilliant!! 

 . 

[Gobsmacked]

6 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

Translated: People are so pissed at me that I was uninvited to my own party! Poor me- (singing) Everybody hates me, nobody likes me, going to the garden to eat worm. Big fat juicy worms, sweet fat slimy worms, oh how they twist and turn.

(My Mom used to sing that when we kids felt sorry for ourselves.)

No body loves me , everybody hates me I'm going to go and eat worms, long thin slimey ones, big fat juicy ones , see how the little ones squirm, bite their heads off, slurp all their middles out, throw their skins away, no body knows how well I thrive on worms three times a day.

The Lancashire version!! 

[Myomy]

Wait, I'm confused.  If 45 can shut down the border, why does he need a wall?

[AmazonGrace]

Did Spanky know what he signed?

[formergothardite]

I'm actually surprised he is skipping his party. There must be people there who he doesn't want to see. 

[Destiny]

Wait, I'm confused.  If 45 can shut down the border, why does he need a wall?

Because the wall is his political penis and he likes to measure.

[AmazonGrace]

I can't read this because it's behind a GDPR wall but I offer my sincerest womp womp anyway 

 

[mamallama]

Awww, Gurbir Grewal the NJ AG is from my hometown.  I love him!

[AmazonGrace]

Maybe Jr or Kushvanka will be there so you still get to do some light corruption

[AmazonGrace]

Here's Trump dancing on the graves of dead children: 

 

[Destiny]

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