The Trump Presidency 13: The (James) Baker's Dozen

[Garrison]

Trump really is just a twitter troll isn't he? As infuriating as they are to read I doubt whether they are fooling many people, not even amongst those who support him.

 

[CapelDodger]

Trump Tweets

Despite the most hostile and corrupt media in the history of American politics, the Trump Administration has accomplished more in its first two years than any other Administration. Judges, biggest Tax & Regulation Cuts, V.A. Choice, Best Economy, Lowest Unemployment & much more!

A question Trump won't be pondering is why, given all this, the mid-terms were so disastrous for the Republican Party that he had to award them a triumph for not losing the Senate at a point in the cycle which heavily favoured them.

 

[Ladewig]

Trump really is just a twitter troll isn't he? As infuriating as they are to read I doubt whether they are fooling many people, not even amongst those who support him.

If they weren’t fooling many people, then shouldn’t we expect to see s drop in his approval rating? There are many people who put more credence in a President Trump tweet than they do in a half-dozen domestic intelligence agencies’ conclusion. It is easy for us to forget how many millions of Americans get their news from nowhere.Or get their news from their friends’ Facebook posts. Or from cow-orkers in the company lunchroom.

To those people, the president’s tweets appear accurate, honest, and believable. To those people the Democrats are starting unfounded investigations purely as a partisan ploy for power. To those people, their vote for Trump was a wise and patriotic decision. Too those people, ”Killary” gave the stand-down order and there weren’t a half-dozen Cingressional investigations that could not produce any evidence of that unsupported claim.

I see no reason to believe that the number of those people is less than 15% of the population. Perhaps it is as high as 20-25%.

A question Trump won't be pondering is why, given all this, the mid-terms were so disastrous for the Republican Party that he had to award them a triumph for not losing the Senate at a point in the cycle which heavily favoured them.

Of course he won’t ponder it; he believes the answer is that not enough Republican candidates sided with him. He believes he that he is a political King Midas and the candidates he supports are guaranteed a win (barring massive voter fraud by those criminal Democrats).

 

[Arcade22]

Trump Tweets

Despite the most hostile and corrupt media in the history of American politics, the Trump Administration has accomplished more in its first two years than any other Administration. Judges, biggest Tax & Regulation Cuts, V.A. Choice, Best Economy, Lowest Unemployment & much more!

In saner times this kind of statement would come off as over the top parody.

 

[Norman Alexander]

Trump really is just a twitter troll isn't he? As infuriating as they are to read I doubt whether they are fooling many people, not even amongst those who support him.

Trump is used to having to take on an opponent and make them into a blood-enemy so he can defeat them and plunder what is theirs - zero-sum game. He has no idea of subtlety, just brawling. So he is trying, desperately, to goad his "enemy" into a twitter-street brawl in the same way he took on candidates in the debates in 2016.

Since this mythical "enemy", which is now presumably anyone who says or does anything that opposes him, is not a single entity and doesn't have a twitter feed, there's no response. So he is standing there on the twitter street corner yelling at passers-by and demanding they fight him. Even Ann Coulter got a spray! And THAT is hilarious! When raving-mad non-entities fall out!

 

[smartcooky]

She criticized Trump, not Putin. But also she helped expose a Russian Troll factory.

You do understand that its same thing?

If you offend Putin, Trump's bestest buddy, its tantamount to offending Trump. The only thing is, offending Trump directly gets your award recinded, while offending Putin likely gets you dead.

 

[Stacyhs]

If they weren’t fooling many people, then shouldn’t we expect to see s drop in his approval rating? There are many people who put more credence in a President Trump tweet than they do in a half-dozen domestic intelligence agencies’ conclusion. It is easy for us to forget how many millions of Americans get their news from nowhere.Or get their news from their friends’ Facebook posts. Or from cow-orkers in the company lunchroom.


To those people, the president’s tweets appear accurate, honest, and believable. To those people the Democrats are starting unfounded investigations purely as a partisan ploy for power. To those people, their vote for Trump was a wise and patriotic decision. Too those people, ”Killary” gave the stand-down order and there weren’t a half-dozen Cingressional investigations that could not produce any evidence of that unsupported claim.

I see no reason to believe that the number of those people is less than 15% of the population. Perhaps it is as high as 20-25%.

We forget just how many stupid people there are in a population this size. I suspect, with good reason, that your 20-25% is a bit too low.

Of course he won’t ponder it; he believes the answer is that not enough Republican candidates sided with him. He believes he that he is a political King Midas and the candidates he supports are guaranteed a win (barring massive voter fraud by those criminal Democrats).

He has some basis for this "King Midas Touch" belief. That percentage of the population that has gorged itself on his Kool-Aid does vote for whomever Trump endorses. They're either too stupid or too lazy to think for themselves.

 

[quadraginta]

One could write a book encyclopedia about what President Trump doesn’t get. #NotAMetaphor

True perhaps, but also a truism.

Pretty much any encyclopedia is going to be mostly and more likely completely things Trump doesn't get.

 

[Parsman]

We forget just how many stupid people there are in a population this size. I suspect, with good reason, that your 20-25% is a bit too low.

Which brings to mind George Carlin. Observe how stupid the average American is. Then realise that half the population are stupider than that! Not a dig at the US, the same is true of all countries and we certainly don't have to search hard for the morons in the UK just now

 

[Paul2]

We forget just how many stupid people there are in a population this size. I suspect, with good reason, that your 20-25% is a bit too low.

I am too fond of saying that about half of all Americans are below average intelligence.

 

[Stacyhs]

Which brings to mind George Carlin. Observe how stupid the average American is. Then realise that half the population are stupider than that! Not a dig at the US, the same is true of all countries and we certainly don't have to search hard for the morons in the UK just now

Carlin's comedy was gold specifically because it was based on the truth.

I am too fond of saying that about half of all Americans are below average intelligence.

You'll get no argument from me there.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

I've not had time to keep up with this forum the last couple of days, and I've not got the time to chase down good links at the moment, but there's a story out at the moment about a Chinese brothel-owner and alleged sex trafficker who's got a bunch of selfies with key Republicans, including Trump, and who sells access to Trump - including sit-down dinners.

Here's one story about it: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...day-spa-robert-kraft-super-bowl-a8815791.html

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

I've not had time to keep up with this forum the last couple of days, and I've not got the time to chase down good links at the moment, but there's a story out at the moment about a Chinese brothel-owner and alleged sex trafficker who's got a bunch of selfies with key Republicans, including Trump, and who sells access to Trump - including sit-down dinners.

Here's one story about it: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...day-spa-robert-kraft-super-bowl-a8815791.html

This was posted also: Mother Jones: A Florida Massage Parlor Owner Has Been Selling Chinese Execs Access to Trump at Mar-a-Lago

 

[abaddon]

That was my first thought, too. WTF?

Me too. I was all "wait..what?"

 

[abaddon]

That's not a signature. That's a heartbeat.

What makes you think Trump has a heart?

 

[acbytesla]

What makes you think Trump has a heart?

That's not the organ he is missing.

 

[Parsman]

That's not the ONLY organ he is missing.

FTFY

 

[Ladewig]

FTFY

I never noticed it before. He is an amalgam of the Tinman, the Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion, the Wizard, and the Wicked Witch.

And I guess his associates facing jail time are the Flying Monkeys.

 

[Norman Alexander]

I've not had time to keep up with this forum the last couple of days, and I've not got the time to chase down good links at the moment, but there's a story out at the moment about a Chinese brothel-owner and alleged sex trafficker who's got a bunch of selfies with key Republicans, including Trump, and who sells access to Trump - including sit-down dinners.

Here's one story about it: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...day-spa-robert-kraft-super-bowl-a8815791.html

This was posted also: Mother Jones: A Florida Massage Parlor Owner Has Been Selling Chinese Execs Access to Trump at Mar-a-Lago

Like moths to a flame...

 

[Aridas]

Trump really is just a twitter troll isn't he? As infuriating as they are to read I doubt whether they are fooling many people, not even amongst those who support him.

If it were just him, maybe. Have you forgotten about Fox News and the rest of the Republican Party Propaganda outlets?

This was posted also: Mother Jones: A Florida Massage Parlor Owner Has Been Selling Chinese Execs Access to Trump at Mar-a-Lago

Here's a bit of another roundup of news about that from the Daily Kos.

One of the most poignant things mentioned there is a tweet by Bill Kristol.

The Mar-a-Lago and Chinese “business executives” story isn’t simply about crony capitalism or foreign businesses buying access. Given that there’s zero chance these Chinese businesses aren’t enmeshed with China’s intelligence services, it’s a national security problem.

And now for a bit of another dump.

On the somewhat more lighthearted side of something rather terrible... Trump NOAA Official Says Seismic Air Gun Blasts Don't Harm Whales, so Rep. Joe Cunningham Blasts Him

To quote the WaPo -

“A hearing on the threat seismic testing poses to North Atlantic right whales was plodding along Thursday when, seemingly out of nowhere, Rep. Joe Cunningham (D-S.C.) pulled out an air horn and politely asked if he could blast it.

Before that moment at a Natural Resources subcommittee hearing, Cunningham had listened to a Trump administration official testify, over and over, that firing commercial air guns under water every 10 seconds in search of oil and gas deposits over a period of months would have next to no effect on the endangered animals, which use echolocation to communicate, feed, mate and keep track of their babies. It’s why the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gave five companies permission to conduct tests that could harm the whales last year, said the official, Chris Oliver, an assistant administrator for fisheries….

...Cunningham, who represents Charleston and other coastal cities, pressed on. What if it happened every 10 seconds for days, weeks and months, he said. He asked Oliver to guess how much louder commercial air guns are than his store-bought air horn. When Oliver didn’t bite, he told him the sound from air guns is 16,000 times that of his air horn.”

That the Trump Administration maintained the position that that practice wouldn't affect the whales in the first place is just another one of the horrendously cruel and transparent lies that they've been promoting.

In other nasty news... When leniency for child porn suddenly became a top priority for VA GOP Majority Leader...

Really short version, VA GOP Majority leader tried to change the laws related to child porn to benefit his GOP defendant client back in 2017. There's more stuff there that might be worth taking a look at, especially if you live in Virginia and feel like participating in this years elections that will likely have him as a candidate again.

In Puerto Rico news... Over a year after Hurricane Maria, relief to Puerto Rico still mired in administration delays

The disparity in treatment is really amazing, and not in a good way.

So far, the commonwealth has identified 7,505 rebuilding sites and delivered 4,792 reports to the Federal Emergency Management Agency seeking major repairs. Only 67 projects are proceeding, according to Puerto Rico’s government. In a similar period after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the last U.S. hurricane approaching Maria’s magnitude, more than 9,000 were underway.

Bloomberg reports that of the $371 million designated for restoring infrastructure and facilities, only $35 million has actually been paid out, a result of FEMA, rather than local officials, holding total control over those disbursements. This is contrary to how rebuilding efforts are handled in other disaster zones, but Puerto Rico is not a state—and the Trump administration has been uniformly antagonistic towards the commonwealth, both before and after the disaster.

Also in GOP horrificness - Idaho GOP is working to gut Medicaid and destroy direct democracy

There are two bills being pushed in the last weeks of the Idaho legislative session. The first, sponsored by Rep. John Vander Woude, would put ridiculously onerous work requirements on Medicaid recipients, demanding 120 hours a month, which is far more than any other state, and could cost 10,000 or more people their healthcare. And absolutely no one but GOP leadership is in favor of it. Look at what happened last Friday, via the Idaho Statesman:

Of the 51 people to testify over three hours, 49 were opposed to the bill. Only one person spoke in favor — Fred Birnbaum, a lobbyist with the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a group that earlier this year lost a lawsuit seeking to overturn the Medicaid voter initiative.

Nearly all of the testimony given during the first hour of testimony opposed the bill, with critics taking aim at the added administrative costs the bill creates, the difficulty that rural residents could face in finding work training and job opportunities, and the potential that the bill could still leave thousands of Idaho residents without access to health care.

Even more egregious is a law being pushed by new State Sen. C. Scott Grow that would make it just about impossible for new voter initiatives to even placed on the ballot. Idaho made it harder to get on the ballot in 2012, requiring signatures from 6 percent of registered voters in 18 of the state’s 35 legislative districts. That was in response to a voter initiative that struck down anti-teacher “reforms.”

Now, Grow’s legislation would raise the bar to 10 percent of voters in 32 of 35 legislative districts in just 180 days, an absurdly high bar that everyone agrees would end ballot initiatives as we know it. News organizations across Idaho have come out against it, and activists have been storming the capitol to try to stop it.