The Trump Presidency

[alfaniner]

I honestly believe that there are already plans by the Republican leadership to devise the best methods to erase all public memories and mentions of him as soon as he is gone. "Trump? No, I can't quite recall the name. Wan't he some reality show MC?"

I noticed that on the last day of the public school where I help out, Obama's picture still had not been replaced with that of The PDJT. I'm usually a stickler for things like that but never mentioned it to the administration all that time.

(Yes, I'm referring to him as "The PDJT" now. To be read as "the pidget". I feel a wobble in the universe every time somebody refers to him as "President Trump.")

 

[skyeagle409]

Thoughts on the Cabinet meeting: We got a glimpse of how these people have learned to act around Trump all the time.

And, that's troubling knowing a bunch of clowns and make up the Trump administration. It was the weirdest meeting that I have ever seen and I didn't watch the whole meeting because it was like a bad joke!!

 

[dudalb]

The GOP congressional has warned the WHite House not to mess with Mueller. They are smart enough to know that would be a political catastrophe. Question is if Donald, who disdains advice, will listen...

 

[Cleon]

The GOP congressional has warned the WHite House not to mess with Mueller. They are smart enough to know that would be a political catastrophe. Question is if Donald, who disdains advice, will listen...

What difference does it make? Whatever he does, they'll just make excuses for it.

 

[dudalb]

What difference does it make? Whatever he does, they'll just make excuses for it.

In which case I think we had better start thinking about the unthinkable:Armed resistence to a dictotrial government.

 

[Giordano]

I've been thinking about Trump's promise to Make America Great Again, which often appears to be a nostagia-distorted concept that the 19050s were great. Ignoring the racism and sexism, the Korean War, the constant threat of a nuclear exchange, etc,what really strikes me is: okay, let's say we return the USA to the 1950s (and I will ignore what that means for the over half of Americans who are not white males). But then we will be a 1950s country in a 2020s world competing with 2020's countries, such as the EU and China. Look at what is envisioned by the Trump administration: We will be digging coal as these other countries have moved on to sustainable, less polluting power. We will have shut down our research and development (check out the Trump budget) as these other countries forge ahead. We will be selling 1950s cars with low mileage and questionable safety features as the rest of the world is selling high mileage, or electric, cars that protect their passengers and drivers.

Just how is that going to make America great again? Sounds like a way of turning the USA into a second, or even third world country to me.

 

[Belz...]

Let us hope so. Fervently.

If there is anything that the past year has taught me it is that there is always somewhere lower that Republicans can and do strive for.

If anyone could unearth a worse President, they're the ones to do it.

In my mind the only way they can get one is if they field a candidate who understands how populist, hateful rhetoric combined with voter apathy helped Trump win and uses it as well, but is also actually a person with an ideological agenda. Such a man could be very dangerous indeed.

 

[dudalb]

US Dominance in the 1950's was largely due to the much of the rest of the industrialsed world recovering from the damage done by World War 2,from which the US emerged unscratched. As time went by,Europe and Japan recovered, and China begun to grow into a economic superpower after it de facto junked it's Communist economic system after the death of Mao.,and naturally the US was not a dominant as it once was.
Sorry, the 50's are not coming back.
Someone once said that the right tends to view the 50's through rose colored glasses, and the left tends to view the 60's through rose colored glasses,both distorting what those decades were really like.I think there is a lot of truth in that.

 

[newyorkguy]

If they did, I wonder how legally binding it could be...

I addressed that in the part you snipped.

...Why would they embarrass themselves that way? Probably in order to stay employed. A Cabinet-level position is a pretty good career move.

In other words, if Donnie asked Comey to pledge loyalty who is to say he hasn't asked the same of Pruitt, Sessions, Priebus etc. If they were willing to debase themselves by pledging allegiance to the Trumpmeister, gushing over him at a Cabinet meeting (even in front of assembled media) would be a cake walk.

I got a laugh from a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel headlined:
Help poor Reince Priebus find his next job

The Journal Sentinel (with tongue firmly in cheek I'm sure) thinks in his zeal to save his job, ol' Reince may have laid it on a little too heavy and that could backfire on him. He came across a tad too pathetic. And Donnie don't like pathetic. Here's what Priebus said:

“On behalf of the entire senior staff around you, Mr. President, we thank you for the opportunity and blessing that you’ve given us to serve your agenda and the American people.”

The Journal Sentinel wonders:

What job should Reince Priebus go for after he gets the heave-ho from Trump’s body guard? Link

You can suggest job leads for Reince by following the link and posting an online message or by using the email address provided.

 

[Babbylonian]

The Journal Sentinel (with tongue firmly in cheek I'm sure) thinks in his zeal to save his job, ol' Reince may have laid it on a little too heavy and that could backfire on him. He came across a tad too pathetic. And Donnie don't like pathetic.

The beast is pathetic. It doesn't even have the guts to fire Mueller. If it had any balls at all, it would take care of that business right now so that it could at least appear manlike.

 

[Stacko]

USA Today is doing a great job researching the rapid increase in anonymous buyers of Trump Org. condos.

[IMGw=640]http://i1070.photobucket.com/albums/u492/rfstack/000000_129.jpg[/IMGw]

Since President Trump won the Republican nomination, the majority of his companies’ real estate sales are to secretive shell companies that obscure the buyers’ identities, a USA TODAY investigation has found.

Over the last 12 months, about 70% of buyers of Trump properties were limited liability companies – corporate entities that allow people to purchase property without revealing all of the owners’ names. That compares with about 4% of buyers in the two years before.

USA TODAY journalists have spent six months cataloging every condo, penthouse or other property that Trump and his companies own – and tracking the buyers behind every*transaction. The investigation*found Trump’s companies owned more than 430*individual properties worth well over*$250 million.

Since Election Day, Trump’s businesses have sold 28*of those U.S. properties for $33*million. The sales include luxury condos and penthouses in Las Vegas and New York and oceanfront lots near Los Angeles. The value of his companies'*inventory of available real estate*remains above a quarter-billion dollars.

 

[Tony Stark]

USA Today is doing a great job researching the rapid increase in anonymous buyers of Trump Org. condos.

[IMGw=640]http://i1070.photobucket.com/albums/u492/rfstack/000000_129.jpg[/IMGw]

Sounds like a good way to launder money.

 

[newyorkguy]

Here's a resume the Journal Sentinel came up with for Reince. Suitable for LinkedIn or Craig's List. It's a quickie, could use some work, but you get the idea:

Position Wanted: 10 years running a fractious political organization; six months managed staff for Most Interesting Man in the World. Experienced. Subservient. Unquestioning. Familiar with Twitter trolling. Call 202-456-1414. Ask for “Reince.”

Ironic. Last summer Reince Priebus was strategizing ways to deny Trump the Republican nomination. Priebus wanted no part of him. Wonder if he ever imagined that a short ten months later he'd not only be working for Donnie but reduced to fawning over him in public.

Sad!

 

[skyeagle409]

.
Something is definitely wrong. Dan Coats and Mike Rogers, the two intelligence chiefs, have dodged answering when asked whether Trump asked them to intervene in or downplay the FBI’s ongoing Russia investigation. Now, Sessions has been caught dodging questions as well. IMO, that is a hallmark of a cover-up and we need to know what Trump told them in regards to the Russia investigation.

When individuals refuse to answer simple yes or no answers, indications are, they are hiding something.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

I predict Trump's finances will be 10 times more problematic than colluding with Russian hacking.

 

[skyeagle409]

I predict Trump's finances will be 10 times more problematic than colluding with Russian hacking.

Apparently, there's a reason why Trump is stalling on releasing his taxes. If he had nothing to hide, why is he stalling?

 

[Aridas]

Apparently, there's a reason why Trump is stalling on releasing his taxes. If he had nothing to hide, why is he stalling?

Power trip? Sticking out his tongue at the American People?

 

[Stacko]

Days to hit a 60% disapproval rating:

Carter: Never
Reagan: Never
H.W. Bush: 1,288
Clinton: Never
W. Bush: 1,756
Obama: Never
Trump: 144

 

[Tony Stark]

Days to hit a 60% disapproval rating:

Carter: Never
Reagan: Never
H.W. Bush: 1,288
Clinton: Never
W. Bush: 1,756
Obama: Never
Trump: 144

Tired of winning.

 

[FenerFan]

I've been thinking about Trump's promise to Make America Great Again, which often appears to be a nostagia-distorted concept that the 19050s were great. Ignoring the racism and sexism, the Korean War, the constant threat of a nuclear exchange, etc,what really strikes me is: okay, let's say we return the USA to the 1950s (and I will ignore what that means for the over half of Americans who are not white males). But then we will be a 1950s country in a 2020s world competing with 2020's countries, such as the EU and China. Look at what is envisioned by the Trump administration: We will be digging coal as these other countries have moved on to sustainable, less polluting power. We will have shut down our research and development (check out the Trump budget) as these other countries forge ahead. We will be selling 1950s cars with low mileage and questionable safety features as the rest of the world is selling high mileage, or electric, cars that protect their passengers and drivers.

Just how is that going to make America great again? Sounds like a way of turning the USA into a second, or even third world country to me.

This is from the Slate article I linked to earlier. This is from Marc Fisher, who spent time interviewing Trump for a book.

"I think in most cases, he doesn’t know what he’s saying or exactly how it will be perceived. I think in many ways, Donald Trump’s language and thinking are arrested in the 1950s of his youth. One reason he appealed to some of his voters who talk a lot about how he talks like we do and that sort of thing, that’s very much like the attraction that many of those same voters probably had for Archie Bunker when he was on All in the Family, the same kind of attraction they have to a Don Rickles. For a lot of white Americans, there is a kind of freshness to people whose rhetoric sounds like that of normal speech of the 1950s. Most people, their language has changed with the times. Donald Trump’s really has not. In that way, he’s a throwback, which is appalling to some people and refreshing to others. I think he is really quite unaware of the ways in which his language comes off as dated or worse to many people."