The Trump Presidency: Sweet/Sweat 16

[Skeptic Ginger]

I take it that President Trump has fared badly in a recent Washington Post Poll.

Regarding the highlighted, is President Trump suggesting that the Washington Post changed its polling results over time in response to his lawyers (as opposed to it changing in response to changes in polling numbers). ?

Or it never happened.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Bolton is texting Fox hosts who are on air to dispute trump's version of things.

That's interesting.

 

[kellyb]

Excellent news.

Unless it's just a promotion for Elliott Abrams, who is really a much more competent evil genius, as far as I can tell.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

He resigned after being asked to. Maybe. If you believe Trump.
In any case, good riddance to bad rubbish. He must have been VERY disappointed with Trump not bombing the crap out of Iran. And NK, as well.

Or Trump fired him after he resigned.

It could be either one.

I hope his leaving is a signal we are less likely to invade Iran. Makes me wonder if Trump isn't blaming him for Iran upping the uranium refinement game.

 

[Segnosaur]

Would he really have been the only candidate that "had a chance" in 2016 against Hillary?

Yes, Trump won, but he ended up getting less votes than Romney. (His victory probably had as much to do with Clinton's unpopularity, and general Democratic miscalculations than anything else, something that would have been of help to any potential Republican nominee.)

Granted, some of the alternative candidates (like Ted "Machine Gun Bacon" Cruz) didn't exactly have much charisma, but there were others (such as Kasich) who might have had a good shot at winning.

And once again the myth is repeated that somehow Clinton wasn't popular.

Ok, fine... she wasn't popular enough to get elected.

I didn't want to derail the thread too much with a discussion of Clinton; I only wanted to point out that the Republicans had options other than Trump that would have had a decent chance to get elected. They weren't "forced" to pick Trump as their only option to victory; they chose to because things like his racism and empty promises resonated with them.

Comey's Oct BS
Cambridge Analytica
Bots and Trolls pushing hundreds of thousands of false messages on social media

Yup, all that impacted Clinton. But as I suggested before, those would have impacted Clinton regardless of who the Republican nominee was, and if Cruz or Kasich had become the nominee, they likewise would have benefitted from Russian interference and Comey's October BS.

 

[Childlike Empress]

Unless it's just a promotion for Elliott Abrams, who is really a much more competent evil genius, as far as I can tell.

Well, his special mission, together with Bolton, to achieve regime change in Venezuela failed spectacularly (as was obvious from the outset) so I can't see why Trump would promote him. Hope I'm not missing something.

 

[jeremyp]

Hmm which of them is less credible?

AFAIK Bolton holds some really disastrous opinions but I have no evidence he lies like Trump. If it's a case of Trump's word against the word of $ANYBODY_ELSE_IN_THE_WORD, Trump is the one lying.

 

[Stacyhs]

Bear in mind that this isn't the first time Trump has floated the idea of sitting for a third term.

By 2024 they'll just tell him he was re-elected and decorate his room in the nursing home like the Oval Office. The care givers will call him 'Mr. President' and keep him supplied with ice cream and hamberders. He won't know the difference.

 

[Childlike Empress]

This time he really should hire Tulsi.

 

[Trebuchet]

I couldn't remember so I looked to see if Bolton is yet another Chicken Hawk. Yup.

Bolton was a supporter of the Vietnam War, but purposely avoided military service in Vietnam.[37][31] During the 1969 Vietnam War draft lottery, Bolton drew number 185. (Draft numbers were assigned by birth date.)[38] As a result of the Johnson and Nixon administrations' decisions to rely largely on the draft rather than on the reserve forces, joining a Guard or Reserve unit became a way to avoid service in the Vietnam War, although 42 Army Reserve units were called up with 35 of them deployed to Vietnam shortly after the Tet offensive in 1968–69, 5760 reservists dying in the conflict.[39][40][41][42] Before graduating from Yale in 1970, Bolton enlisted in the Maryland Army National Guard rather than wait to find out if his draft number would be called.[43][44] (The highest number called to military service was 195.)[45] He saw active duty for 18 weeks of training at Fort Polk, Louisiana, from July to November 1970.[44] After serving in the National Guard for four years, he served in the United States Army Reserve until the end of his enlistment two years later.[5]

He wrote in his Yale 25th reunion book: "I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy. I considered the war in Vietnam already lost."[37] In a 2007 interview, Bolton explained his comment in the reunion book saying his decision to avoid service in Vietnam was because "by the time I was about to graduate in 1970, it was clear to me that opponents of the Vietnam War had made it certain we could not prevail, and that I had no great interest in going there to have Teddy Kennedy give it back to the people I might die to take it away from."

So is Abrams, near as I can tell.

 

[Stacyhs]

Trump Tweets

I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House. I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore....

....I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning. I thank John very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week.

According to this, Bolton is the 13th National Security adviser to either be fired or who has 'resigned' under Trump. I'd say there's a problem here...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Trump_administration_dismissals_and_resignations

 

[kellyb]

I couldn't remember so I looked to see if Bolton is yet another Chicken Hawk. Yup.
So is Abrams, near as I can tell.

it was clear to me that opponents of the Vietnam War had made it certain we could not prevail, and that I had no great interest in going there to have Teddy Kennedy give it back to the people I might die to take it away from."

WOW!

"It's ok to be rabidly-pro-war draft-dodger because Ted Kennedy" is some next-level cowardice.

The mind, it boggles.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Assumes facts not in evidence.

True he doesn't care enough about her to be able to identify her, but that doesn't mean he doesn't want to bang her.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Not gonna lie, watching these Trump enablers get thrown away like used paper plates after they've sold out their soul for tiny scraps of power is pretty invigorating. Hope it was worth it Bolton, you didn't have much credibility before, but you're radioactive now.

They had to know it was coming seeing how he treated Roy Cohn.

 

[kellyb]

According to this, Bolton is the 13th National Security adviser to either be fired or who has 'resigned' under Trump. I'd say there's a problem here...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Trump_administration_dismissals_and_resignations

Bolton on twitter:

https://twitter.com/AmbJohnBolton/s...6?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^tweet

I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, "Let's talk about it tomorrow."

 

[Aridas]

Bear in mind that this isn't the first time Trump has floated the idea of sitting for a third term.

I think he left the 10th behind long ago, too.

I'm being perfectly serious. We've got almost two years of more gerrymandering, more voter suppression plans being put in place, maybe another SCOTUS judge or two.

Again I'm not getting what magical factor people think is going to make 2020 a harder battle for the GOP then 2016.

Negative Partisanship, first and foremost. Which also means that if Democrats win big in 2020, they'll likely get a bit complacent and 2022 will be very good for the Republicans.

Trump would not need to direct Ross, all he had to do was pick the person for the job.

Need? Perhaps not. May well have? Yes.

As for the Emperor's clothes, you're just now seeing the resemblance?

Nope. That was a particularly telling example, though.

 

[dudalb]

See, I wish we could go back to Obama's "friendliness" with Iran (Obama's nuclear deal) and also be distantly, skeptically at "peace" with Russia/Syria, as well.

Obame pretty much abandoned the "At Peace" with Russia after he saw what Putin was up to.

 

[dudalb]

Bolton vs Trump.
THis is going to be fun.
Time to grab some popcorn.

What is fascinating about the Bolton resignation is he is a big favorite among a lot of the right. The right/Trumo coalition might be showing a crack.

 

[kellyb]

Obame pretty much abandoned the "At Peace" with Russia after he saw what Putin was up to.

Not really. Our proxy war with Russia was in Syria, and Obama was backing off that to some degree.

 

[The Don]

Bolton vs Trump.
THis is going to be fun.
Time to grab some popcorn.

What is fascinating about the Bolton resignation is he is a big favorite among a lot of the right. The right/Trumo coalition might be showing a crack.

IMO President Trump has little to worry about. He's President and can still promise overturning Roe Vs Wade, building a wall, tax cuts and all the other things the right wing wants.