Cont: The Trump Presidency 11: Insert something funny

[Sideroxylon]

Fox News normalisation of the president making decisions from a position of willful ingorance, while reflecting on the recent Tilerson comments.

 

[Aridas]

Here's a small roundup of some of the Republican Power Grabs in this lame duck session via the Daily Kos.

Wisconsin -

Awaiting outgoing GOP Gov. Scott Walker's signature are a number of bills that will significantly weaken the executive branch and hurt voters and working people. They will:

Curtail early voting, reducing it from six to two weeks before the election;
Double down on new Medicaid work requirements
Stripping the Attorney General of the ability to remove the state from lawsuits, including the suit against the Affordable Care Act
Takes away Evers power to control or disband a key economic development council
Require legislative approval for some decisions made by the Governor

Michigan -

- Prevented putting minimum wage increases and paid sick leave questions on the ballot after the requirements were met to do so by passing laws for such. They've done exactly as predicted as they immediately gutted those laws after the election.
Also,

Michigan Republicans are also looking to hobble the ballot initiatives that did pass. Michigan voters overwhelmingly approved nonpartisan redistricting reform, which would prove devastating for a GOP that has relied on immense gerrymanders. So the legislature is trying to shape how the definition of political affiliation is determined, so that they can have some say in what is supposed to be an independent and bipartisan process.

Even worse, they want to take away oversight of campaign finance from the Secretary of State's office. It just so happens that Democrat Jocelyn Benson literally wrote the book on how the Secretary of State's office must be the guardian of democracy. And get this: the Republican who submitted the bill is very bad at following campaign finance rules:

Yeah, the guy proposing the legislation to change who oversees campaign finance violations has been sanctioned for campaign finance violations.

Also

Meanwhile, another rotten Republican, outgoing Rep. Tim Kelly, is working to create a shadow education commission that would have power over the democratically elected Board of Education.

The bills, which the GOP is calling "school choice" legislation, is really about choosing the wellbeing of some children over others and stripping the Governor of any choice in the matter. Via the nonprofit, nonpartisan Bridge Michigan:

The bills would create a commission largely appointed by Republicans that would have broad authority over schools. In essence, it would serve as a shadow State Board of Education that would not be accountable to the incoming governor, the elected State Board of Education or the state Department of Education.

If passed, the new commission would almost certainly have a huge impact on K-12 education in Michigan ‒ from which schools are closed, to which would get extra money and how much classroom instruction students receive.

“These bills basically strip the next governor of the ability to reform education,” said a person intimately involved in negotiations over the bills who asked not to be identified because he works with both parties. “That’s why we’re jumping up and down over this. It’s such a complete power steal from Whitmer that no one should be participating in this.”

Oh, and throw in yet another push to cripple unions via somewhat nonsensical requirements.

North Carolina -

Remarkably, at the same time that a story about Republicans literally hiring people to change and/or rip up ballots is unfolding on the national stage, the North Carolina GOP is trying once again to grab control of state elections.

In short, they've spent two years trying to take power over the Board of Elections, have been continually shut down by courts, and are now trying once again. This time, they've put forward a laughable proposal that would technically split power between the parties, but guarantee that Republicans control the board during general election years.

Significantly, that Board of Elections would only serve administrative functions. The Republican proposal would also create a second board, a so-called Board of Ethics, that would have most of the power. With an even number of members, it would effectively serve to constantly deadlock and curtail any actual legal enforcement or big decisions.

Oh, and here's Utah, as well.

Utah Proposition 2, the Medical Marijuana Initiative was on the ballot in Utah as an initiated state statute on November 6, 2018. It was approved.

Just a few scant days after Utah’s Proposition #2 was approved by a majority of Utah’s voters, Republican legislators destroyed that proposition and replaced it with legislation previously approved by the LDS Church. They rushed it thru with remarkable speed (even faster than Michigan and Wisconsin Republicans), the governor signed it into immediate law.

 

[varwoche]

Please stop.
Many posters here treat the president as if he were a normal person with an abnormally large ego. You are mistaken when you surmise that he fears being viewed as an embarrassment. His entire personality is devoted to believing he is actually a well-loved, much-envied genius who is plagued by petty enemies who use the trappings of the US government to make false allegations against him.

Watch him during his rallies. He loves the adulation and thinks the majority of women in the country want to sleep with him and that the majority of men want to be him. Too many of his critics believe that if you scratch the thin veneer of false bravado, then underneath you’ll find an incredibly insecure individual who knows he is not qualified for the office of president. No, no and no. The veneer is all there is. He is really that shallow. He is really that incapable of introspection. He really is that deaf to even the most constructive criticism.

He may fear that his enemies will get to write a false narrative of his life after he is gone. But he certainly doesn’t fear people learning enough facts to see him as (and remember him as) a vindictive, petty, corrupt grifter who thought he was above the law.

I disagree. And even if the posters who see this differently than you are wrong, "please stop" isn't called for.

Despite the bravado, Trump is deeply insecure. He has an inferiority complex and well he should. He's a loser, and deep down he knows it.

This might help some readers understand -- @the prestige maybe ...? Understanding Charlie the Tuna is the key to understanding Trump. Charlie knows he isn't Starkist quality, so he puts on airs of being cultured. Alas, Starkist wants tunas that taste good, not tunas with (faux) good taste. Charlie will never be accepted.

No matter what number Trump invents about his net worth, his personal bank account is what it is. That number is less than the "real" big shots. Probably a lot less. The big shots in Manhattan looked down on Trump. With the help of friends such as John Baron, Trump invented a persona to gain acceptance. Despite these efforts, he's a joke to NY sophisticates.

This is why he was so humiliated when Obama let him have it at the correspondents dinner. This is why he was so humiliated when the UN laughed at him. And this is why he was so humiliated when Putin and MBS high-fived.

Your friendly armchair shrink,

 

[Ladewig]

I still maintain my position.

In a recent interview, Anthony Scaramucci explained that the president is not thin-skinned. When someone says something critical of President Trump, he responds with insults and name calling not because his feelings are hurt. He responds that way because up until this point, that was the most effective way to stop future criticism. DJT has previously said that his philosophy is that when he is hit, he hits back twice as hard. He never considers the criticism valid, he simply wants people to not say untrue bad things about such a wonderful guy.

Yes, there is no doubt at all that the president is creating anger-fueled chaos in the White House, but that is not because he is fearful of the public really learning that he is incompetitant, that is because he is too ignorant of how government works and he is too stupid to (a) learn from his mistakes, (b) admit that other people are more knowledgeable than him, and (c) admit that other people are smarter than him. He sees himself as the boss of the American government and is baffled when subordinates, subordinates, say he doesn’t have the power to fire Mueller. He’s the boss.

Another example, in a Chris Wallace interview, he mentioned that President Trump once ran a casino. The president responded “You’re right. very successfully, actually.” A normal person would not give that response after filing bankruptcy on his or her casinos. But DJT feels no shame because his goal was not to ensure the casinos turned a profit, his goal was to ensure that he turned a profit - and he did. He really doesn’t care what other people think about his bankruptcy because he has exactly one measure of success: has this transaction given me more power or more money. Why else would a NYC billionaire feel the need to repeatedly cheat contractors out of a few hundred thousands of dollars? He doesn’t care about bad optics on that because he doesn’t understand that being that cheap and that unscrupulous makes him look bad. If he was insecure about what other people thought of him, then he wouldn't just tell stories about how generous he is to charities, he would actually be generous to charities.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

In a recent interview, Anthony Scaramucci explained that the president is not thin-skinned. When someone says something critical of President Trump, he responds with insults and name calling not because his feelings are hurt. He responds that way because up until this point, that was the most effective way to stop future criticism. DJT has previously said that his philosophy is that when he is hit, he hits back twice as hard. He never considers the criticism valid, he simply wants people to not say untrue bad things about such a wonderful guy.

The same Anthony Scaramucci who just the other day was overheard by a reporter enthusiastically endorsing the QAnon conspiracy theory, and who then immediately lied about it? I'm not sure he's the most reliable source.

 

[Ladewig]

This is why he was so humiliated when Obama let him have it at the correspondents dinner. This is why he was so humiliated when the UN laughed at him. And this is why he was so humiliated when Putin and MBS high-fived.
,

My take on those events is that he was not humiliated, he was angered.

The laughter at the UN was not a piece of inescapable evidence that broke through the delusion and showed him how poorly he was seen my the international community. The delusion stood strong and the laughter, in his mind, was not laughter aimed at how silly his assertions were but rather laughter at how correct his assertions were (or at the very least laughter arising from jealousy).

If he were concerned about appearing incompetitant, he would pick a story and stick with it. But he doesn’t. He is always ready to adopt a different position on any issue if he thinks it will generate literal or figurative applause from the people standing in front of him at that particular moment. He is prepared to give conflicting explanations of what he believes in the very same day - sometimes in the very same press conference.

He is not a normal person and does not have normal reactions to things.

 

[newyorkguy]

The Trump way:

“Early on, I took a lot of money out of the casinos with the financings and the things we do,” [Trump] said in a [June 2016] interview. “Atlantic City was a very good cash cow for me for a long time.”

“He put a number of local contractors and suppliers out of business when he didn’t pay them,” said Steven P. Perskie, who was New Jersey’s top casino regulator in the early 1990s.

Link

 

[The Great Zaganza]

My take is that Trump doesn't believe that there is such a thing as Objective Reality - or that it doesn't matter;
Reality is what the most aggressive, dominant in a room can make the others present accept.
That is why he was trying so hard to make the Media swallow the "biggest inauguration crowd" and why he hated the Correspondence Dinner, where Obama was able to shape Reality to his liking.
I fear this is a trait shared by many of his followers.

 

[varwoche]

He is not a normal person and does not have normal reactions to things.

On this larger point, we are in complete agreement.

 

[Regnad Kcin]

My take is that Trump doesn't believe that there is such a thing as Objective Reality - or that it doesn't matter;
Reality is what the most aggressive, dominant in a room can make the others present accept.
That is why he was trying so hard to make the Media swallow the "biggest inauguration crowd" and why he hated the Correspondence Dinner, where Obama was able to shape Reality to his liking.
I fear this is a trait shared by many of his followers.

“I always thought that [the Jack Nicholson character in “A Few Good Men” Col.] Jessup was clearly the villain, an imperious monster who is lashing out like a cornered rat. But no -- apparently there are a lot of people who read Jessup as a hero for standing up against those namby-pamby "rule of law" liberals and for the belief that the way to stay safe is to entrust all power to authoritarian strongmen.”

”The Jessup Defense”

 

[varwoche]

The same Anthony Scaramucci who just the other day was overheard by a reporter enthusiastically endorsing the QAnon conspiracy theory, and who then immediately lied about it? I'm not sure he's the most reliable source.

What a tool. However, we didn't need this tidbit to know that Scaramucci is a Trump water carrier extraordinaire. Ladewig may as well have cited Donald Trump Jr. The Mooch is among the minuscule handful of the worst possible sources on the planet, as relating to this subject matter.

 

[varwoche]

My take on those events is that he was not humiliated, he was angered.

One does not preclude the other. I see him as angered due to being humiliated.

 

[varwoche]

I've been without Fox News for 6 months or so. I have it back now. I turned it on this morning for the first time, with the perspective of a virgin on the first day of spring.

Were they talking about the Friday Cohen drop? Nope. The Friday Manafort drop? Nope. The Friday stock market drop? Nope. The morning crew was effervescing -- as if fizzies had been jammed up their asses at the precise same moment -- over the poor sales numbers for the Bill and Hillary tour.

A few minutes later they teased with ... "After the break, Geraldo Rivera and Alan Dershowitz, two of the greatest legal minds in the nation..."

 

[Stacko]

Pretty amazing that the president can endorse street violence against the French state at 734 AM and then at 752 AM tweet that Europe can always rely on the United States for its defense.​

 

[Andy_Ross]

Trump Tweets

The Paris Agreement isn’t working out so well for Paris. Protests and riots all over France. People do not want to pay large sums of money, much to third world countries (that are questionably run), in order to maybe protect the environment. Chanting “We Want Trump!” Love France.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Trump Tweets

The idea of a European Military didn’t work out too well in W.W. I or 2. But the U.S. was there for you, and always will be. All we ask is that you pay your fair share of NATO. Germany is paying 1% while the U.S. pays 4.3% of a much larger GDP - to protect Europe. Fairness!

 

[BobTheCoward]

Trump Tweets

The idea of a European Military didn’t work out too well in W.W. I or 2. But the U.S. was there for you, and always will be. All we ask is that you pay your fair share of NATO. Germany is paying 1% while the U.S. pays 4.3% of a much larger GDP - to protect Europe. Fairness!

The US pays 2% because it is asked. They pay an extra 2.3% for the laughs.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

The US pays 2% because it is asked. They pay an extra 2.3% for the laughs.

The US spends less than 2% for the defense of Europe.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Federal filings show Trump funnelled $1.1m in campaign donations into his own businesses

 

[newyorkguy]

Trump tweeted:

Germany is paying 1% while the U.S. pays 4.3% of a much larger GDP - to protect Europe. Fairness!

Previously tweeted,

"The United States was paying for anywhere from 70 to 90 percent of (NATO), depending on the way you calculate."

Trump has been accused repeatedly of distortion for political reasons. Rile up the base and then talk trash. The reality is:

Each of the 29 [NATO] members contribute to those costs through an agreed cost-sharing formula based on the country’s gross domestic product. As the member with the largest GDP, the U.S. contributed 22 percent of NATO’s common funding. Not far behind is Germany with about 15 percent, then France and the United Kingdom with about 10 percent. With common costs of about $2.5 billion in 2017, the U.S. share of about $550 million doesn’t change the picture, since Europe’s share was a much larger $1.8 billion. That gap only weakens Trump’s argument.