Trump 38: Donald Trump and the Wall of Lies

[GreyhoundFan]

21 minutes ago, Gobsmacked said:

Send Jo Frost to the White House. She would sort him out. 

He'd be on the naughty bench for 70 minutes, then off the bench for a minute, then back on for another 70 minutes once he threw the next tantrum.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

Sweet Rufus.

 

[AmazonGrace]

Definitely maybe an emergency that has to be dealt with straight away later 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

A good one from Dana Milbank: "President Trump is entering his terrible twos"

Spoiler

He shuts down the government, maybe for “years.” He wants a wall that is “transparent,” then concrete, then slatted, then steel. One moment he’s leaving Syria, the next he isn’t. He’s watching too much TV and yelling at everyone.

This is all to be expected. President Trump is entering his terrible twos.

The Trump presidency turns two this month, and though we often hear the mantra “this is not normal,” what the president is doing actually is normal. For a 2-year-old.

If you want to understand this White House, turn off Wolf Blitzer and pick up Benjamin Spock. The ninth edition of the late pediatrician’s famous guide, first published in 1946, tells us all we need to know about this presidency as it approaches its second birthday:

“This can be a physically exhausting and trying time.”

The 2-year-old “has a hard time making up his mind, and then he wants to change it,” his “understanding of the world is still so limited,” and “he becomes bolder and more daring in his experiments.”

“A battle of wills with a two-year-old is tiring.”

“Two is a great age for whining.”

One moment, Trump says the furloughed workers are Democrats, who oppose the wall. The next moment, Trump says the furloughed workers support his stand. Dr. Spock anticipated this: “Negativism reaches new heights and takes new forms after two.” The “two-and-a-half-year-old . . . even contradicts herself.”

Trump rails about being persecuted by “THE HATERS AND THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA.” Dr. Spock anticipated this, too: “She acts like a person who feels she is being bossed too much, even when no one is bothering her and even when she tries to boss others.”

Trump believes “my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else’s brain can ever tell me.” Dr. Spock: “The child’s nature urges her to decide things for herself and resist pressure from other people. Trying to fight this battle without much worldly experience seems to get her tightened up inside.”

And the terrible twos are defined by tantrums, which, Dr. Spock wrote, “usually start around age one” — Trump was precocious — “peak around age two to three” and are worse for “children who are less flexible.” So buckle up.

How to deal with Trump? I called my teenage daughter’s pediatricians for advice. “The behavior is natural,” explains Dr. Howard Bennett. Two-year-olds “are living in an adult world but they don’t have all the tools they need to see how the world is structured. That’s why they have conflict with their parents.”

In this case, we are Trump’s parents — the electorate, members of Congress, the media, all of us. (I challenge him to produce a birth certificate showing otherwise.) And, according to Dr. Spock, we’re doing it all wrong.

It was a mistake to leave him alone in the White House during the holidays, tweeting forlornly. Children left alone “for long periods, even though they are crying for company,” Dr. Spock wrote, are “learning that the world is a mean place.”

Dr. Spock also explained Trump’s petulance during his televised meeting with Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer: “A child might just feel outnumbered when she has to take on two important people at once.” And Trump’s subsequent attacks on Schumer while ignoring Pelosi? “It’s more often the father who is particularly unpopular at this period,” Dr. Spock wrote.

Clearly, White House aides are giving him too much “executive time.” Dr. Spock strongly opposed TV for 2-year-olds, “because it does all the work” for them. This is how Fox News ordered the shutdown.

But Democrats should quiet the impeachment talk and name-calling: “Young children who see parents using hurtful language or threats often develop similar troublesome behaviors.” Instead, “You might say, ‘I know how angry you feel toward me when I have to say no to you.’ ”

Respecting allies is not developmentally appropriate for Trump — as Jim Mattis learned. “Two-year-olds don’t play cooperatively with each other very much,” Dr. Spock wrote. “There is no point in trying to teach a two-year-old to share; he simply isn’t ready.”

And when Trump has a tantrum, “it doesn’t help to yell at your child, threaten punishment, plead for calm, or try too hard to ‘make everything better.’ ” This “just tends to make tantrums last longer.” Instead, ignore the outburst, and later, “a quick word of praise along the lines of ‘Nice job pulling yourself together’ can let your child salvage some self-esteem.”

Nice job pulling yourself together after announcing the Syria pullout, Mr. President.

Happily, the terrible twos don’t last forever. “The automatic resistance and hostility,” Dr. Spock tells us, “lessen after three in most children.” In the meantime, “Remember to praise yourself,” he counsels, “for staying calm and rational — not easily done when your two-year-old is having a meltdown.”

Don’t we know it.

 

[Ozlsn]

11 hours ago, CTRLZero said:

Maybe these are Americans heading south, trying to escape Trump? 

Probably going to buy their meds and then discovering that drivers licenses won't work as cross-border ID any more.

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

But Democrats should quiet the impeachment talk and name-calling: “Young children who see parents using hurtful language or threats often develop similar troublesome behaviors.” Instead, “You might say, ‘I know how angry you feel toward me when I have to say no to you.’ ”

OMG I would pay to see Pelosi do that.

[Cartmann99]

 

There was a recent picture of Trump crossing his arms and looking petulant while standing in front of Nancy Pelosi. My first thought upon seeing it was wondering if she was fighting the urge to tell him that he had to go stay in his room until he was ready to behave like a big boy.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

Thank God Hillary didn't get elected, a president under a FBI investigation just couldn't function

Sarah Sanders, we all believe you 

 

[AmazonGrace]

There is always a tweet 

 

[fraurosena]

Frankly, I would have been more surprised if the FBI didn’t look into the counter-intelligence aspect of the prediduncial actions. That the presidunce is compromised and is being used as a useful idiot (literally and figuratively) by the Russians has been speculated about since before the elections.

I’m quite sure Mueller is investgating that. It would be dereliction of duty if he didn’t. 

[AmazonGrace]

When I first saw that headline on Twitter I scrolled past it because I assumed it was somebody dragging up old news to make a point. I only registered it was new after seeing more people in my timeline making a fuss about it. Guess I've been taking it for granted that Putin owns Trump all along. 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

So I gather the presidunce isn't pleased with the investigation.

Mud-slinging and name-calling are such an adult way of reacting, aren't they? 

[AmazonGrace]

"just learned"? He's always the last to find out is he.

[Howl]

20 hours ago, Gobsmacked said:

Send Jo Frost to the White House. She would sort him o

Brilliant suggestion!  I love Jo Frost.  I wish they'd bring back whichever nanny show she was on.  Actually, I loved both of the nanny shows.

And "Trump's" tweet re: Davos?  Yeah, agree that he didn't write it, although the ghost writer got the random caps and tone correct. 
 

Quote

Because of the Democrats intransigence on Border Security and the great importance of Safety for our Nation, I am respectfully cancelling my very important trip to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum. My warmest regards and apologies to the @WEF!

SO MANY WORLD LEADERS are breathing a sigh of relief that they won't have to put up with Trump frumping around in Davos.  me. 

Which reminds me. It's winter, the weather forecast in Davos is for snow for the next three days.  The lows are going to be in the 20s.  Who the heck decides it's a good idea to have a world forum in Switzerland in January, regardless of topic?  Maybe to work in a ski trip after?

Off to read the NYT article about FBI investigating whether Trump is a Russian asset/spy. 

Pre-emptive apology for wall o' text: As I mentioned earlier, I woke up a week or two ago and realized that he is, indeed, a Russian asset, working for the Russians. There could be any number of reasons why this is so.  Blackmail, financial entanglements, the promise of future filthy lucre, whatever.  But the fact is, yes, he is working hard and consistently on behalf of Putin's global and domestic agenda at the expense of the US.  

We want to believe that this can't be so.  It seems too crazy.  Really?  Our PRESIDENT? The leader of our country not working on behalf of our country? Past presidents have done some horrible things with regime change, for example, but that was largely to benefit American economic and corporate interests abroad. 

Trump is working  to benefit an enemy state over American interests and he hasn't been hiding it.  It's not some huge, behind-the-scenes secret.  He's blocked the implementation of sanctions.  The  tête-à-tête with Putin at Helsinki with only a Russian interpreter.  So many other things right in our faces.  Someone on twitter reminded us of of this Trump tweet from 2017.  The responses are priceless, but at least not censored.

Yes, read it again.  

Here are some responses.  First, from July 2017:

TRUMP: I 'strongly pressed' Putin on election meddling, and we discussed forming an 'impenetrable cyber security unit'

And in line with Trump saying crazy shit, but never forgetting the crazy shit that he says, a year later almost to the day, at the Helsinki meeting there was this: 

Trump-Putin meeting rekindles ridiculed cyber plan

SRSLY, Trump was promoting an "impenetrable" cyber-security pact with the country that has waged and is still waging aggressive cyber warfare on the institution that forms the basis of our system of governance.  Jaw-dropping excerpt from article linked above: 

Spoiler

The notion prompted bipartisan disbelief, and Trump backed away from it within hours. But it surfaced again Monday after the two leaders met in Helsinki, Finland, when Putin suggested both countries work together to examine the evidence that Russia had meddled in the U.S. presidential election.

“We can analyze [evidence] through the joint working group on cybersecurity, the establishment of which we discussed during our previous contacts,” Putin suggested, confirming that he and Trump had talked about the idea before.

That foxy ol' Vlad: Donald, my dear friend, comrade, let's see what cards you've got in your hand and then we'll place our bets. 

This all takes me back to that computer server thing happening back in 2016. The The New Yorker revisited this in an article posted on 10.15.2018

Was There a Connection Between a Russian Bank and the Trump Campaign?  A team of computer scientists sifted through records of unusual Web traffic in search of answers.

Quote

“And we thought, Why the hell is a Russian bank communicating with a server that belongs to the Trump Organization, and at such a rate?”

Only one other entity seemed to be reaching out to the Trump Organization’s domain with any frequency: Spectrum Health, of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Spectrum Health is closely linked to the DeVos family...

 

[AmazonGrace]

He is so predictable, I knew he would say exactly this

[fraurosena]

Yeah, he's really scared, isn't he?

Time to attack Mueller again, because he's so very frightened of what Mueller may know.

And LOL at the "leaking machines". There has been absolutely zero leaking from Mueller's team -- much to our collective frustration .

[Audrey2]

12 minutes ago, Howl said:

Brilliant suggestion!  I love Jo Frost.  I wish they'd bring back whichever nanny show she was on.  Actually, I loved both of the nanny shows.

I am not sure that Jo Frost alone would be powerful enough. I think in Trump's case, we would also have to invite all of the nannies of Nanny 911 (Nanny Deb, Nanny Stella, Nanny Yvonne).

[AmazonGrace]

The nannies are used to dealing with children who get feedback and learn from it. Trump gets nothing and learns nothing.

[formergothardite]

When proof is finally shown that Trump is a Russian agent I know most Trumpsters will reject it as fake news, but what will the top GOP do? If they openly say they are okay with a Russian Agent being president they are doomed in any future election but if they condemn Trump they are also doomed because the Trumpsters will turn on them

It will be interesting to see how they attempt to spin this to play both sides. 

[fraurosena]

57 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

When proof is finally shown that Trump is a Russian agent I know most Trumpsters will reject it as fake news, but what will the top GOP do? If they openly say they are okay with a Russian Agent being president they are doomed in any future election but if they condemn Trump they are also doomed because the Trumpsters will turn on them

It will be interesting to see how they attempt to spin this to play both sides. 

Many in the GOP top are in thrall to the Russians themselves. Proof of that is slowly becoming more clear. McTurtle has taken money from Russian sources. The NRA, one of the big GOP donors, recently admitted to taking money from Russian sources. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. When the presidunce topples, so will the GOP. 

The GOP is a party of traitors. anyone associated with them will also be tainted.

If true conservatives are smart, they will ditch the GOP and form a new party to represent conservative values in America. 

If true Americans are smart, they will ditch the current political system that allowed this treason to fester from within, and reconstruct a system that is as fair and honest and democratic as possible.  

[AmazonGrace]

1. He can't spell Strzok. 

2. His sitters woke up and told him to switch to a racist rant.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

You say "... there's almost nobody in the W.H. but me..." as if it's a good thing...

Oh, shut up about winning the election! That was almost 2 1/2 years ago. And we all know you didn't really win it at all. Russia rigged it so you could steal it.

I do agree that elections have consequences though. Just look at what happened in the Midterms a few months ago. It just so happens you LOST those elections. Nobody but you wants that wall. Nobody but you and the Russian asset traitor GOP'ers in the Senate wants the shutdown. Everybody understands your plan on the shutdown. It's to distract, distract, distract.