Donald Trump Presidency discussion thread II

everlast75

Peregrinus wrote: »

He has to have some diagnosable condition, seriously.

This gif sums up the nature of this guy in about 6 seconds...

Quin_Dub

I think Bob Corker is going to be interesting over the next few months.

He is retiring , so he doesn't really care about party support etc.

He was never a huge fan of Trump , but he largely kept his own council up to about 10 days ago.

Now though since he announced his retirement he's been giving Trump both barrels on an almost daily basis.

Whilst entertaining to watch the back & forth , I'm not sure of the longer term impacts of it.

Will his constant barrage at Trump embolden other GOP members to speak up if they share his opinions?

Will it strengthen Trumps base by allowing him to use Corker as a prime example of the "Swamp" he claimed he was fighting against?

Steve Bannon is already calling for Corker to resign

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon said Monday that Sen. Bob Corker should “resign immediately” if the Tennessee Republican has “any honor or decency.”

"Corker, [Mitch] McConnell and the entire establishment, globalist clique have to go," Bannon told Sean Hannity on Fox News Monday night.

Bannon said he agreed with Jason Miller, a former top aide to Trump's presidential campaign, who called for Corker to resign immediately so that Gov. Bill Haslam could him with Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who recently announced her campaign to replace the retiring Corker.

I can't see Corker going early and I don't think he can be forced so really not sure how it'll go.

david75

This is everything
https://twitter.com/caveheraa/status/917608372190322693

Billy86

Leroy42 wrote: »

But you have got to hand it to Trump, he is pretty good at defining the narrative.

How many people now follow the line, trotted out by Trump and yesterday by Pence, that this is about disrespecting the flag, military of the anthem. It is about none of those things. It is a protest about black people seemingly being targeted by police and the legal system apparently not being able to do anything about it.

Of course most people would be against people disrespecting the flag. I don't like it is people talk during the anthem etc. So trot out that line and get people riled up about the terribleness of it all.

Somewhat, but it's more a reflexive "us and them" issue generally - if the protesting players for whatever reason decided to stop tomorrow and Trump (or any prominent Republican) went to kneel in protest of not being able to nuke North Korea or Iran yet, I guarantee you over half of those so strongly against these protests would be getting down on one knee immediately. For literally no other reason than 'the left are not doing it anymore, so now we must do it to remain in opposition to them'.

The area where he is doing a good job controlling the narrative is that we're talking about this, sending Pence to that game was a sign of desperation about how eager he is for this to be the main topic of discussion, and not all the other scandal in the last week or so like Kushner's emails. Or other things like the fact that his Russian buddies have been found to be organising openly fascist, white supremacist rallies in the US.

B0jangles

david75 wrote: »

This is everything
https://twitter.com/caveheraa/status/917608372190322693

I feel for comedians these days, I really do; how do you satirize Trump? He's just... beyond parody.

Tony EH

david75 wrote: »

This is everything
https://twitter.com/caveheraa/status/917608372190322693

SMH.

It would be funny, if he wasn't in the highest office in the land.

BoatMad

B0jangles wrote: »

I feel for comedians these days, I really do; how do you satirize Trump? He's just... beyond parody.

still , there are making a good stab at it , its must be a godsend to comedy

Leroy42

It is and it isn't. It is almost too easy to make fun of Trump, basically just show a clip and ask "What the F**k" and everybody laughs.

The problem is the sheer amount of it. Everyday there are numerous instances that can be lampooned, questioned, laughed at etc. But it also leaves no room for anything else.

There is plenty of other stuff that is worth time to be dissected and ridiculed but Trump and is sh1tshow can't simply be ignored.

relax carry on

Leroy42 wrote: »

It is and it isn't. It is almost too easy to make fun of Trump, basically just show a clip and ask "What the F**k" and everybody laughs.

The problem is the sheer amount of it. Everyday there are numerous instances that can be lampooned, questioned, laughed at etc. But it also leaves no room for anything else.

There is plenty of other stuff that is worth time to be dissected and ridiculed but Trump and is sh1tshow can't simply be ignored.

I've seen this come up time and the again about the never ending **** surrounding trump. Was watching Hitler's People on rte the other night and the issue of information overload and never ending stories in the citezens minds led them to describe the experience as like being on speed. Are all of these stories around trump deliberate distraction to allow whatever his plans are to come to fruition? Or is it just he's a complete Trainwreck and this is just voyeurisim on the behalf of us all?

Christy42

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-41568978

I have heard the term free speech abused a lot online but this getting rid of people's free speech.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-41568978

Trump threatens to make laws that punish a private entity because some of its members are protesting.

Literally. He is threatening the nfl tax breaks if they don't stop it.

Leroy42

I think part of it is part of a plan. Keep saying and doing things that keep people from asking the difficult questions. It worked perfectly in the Election. He rarely had to actually answer any question with anything approaching detail. He would either bombast it or simply dive off into a tangent. HC e-mails, Mexicans, Drain the Swamp. He used great soundbites (drain the swamp, build the wall, great healthcare, MAGA) without ever actually defining what any of it meant. It was a massive failure on the part of the media, the political parties and to a large extent the voters that he was allowed to get away with this.

But I think in large part it is totally chaotic and unplanned. On too many occasions, when the narrative should be on something else he allows himself to be distracted and sidetracked. The Tax plan was a clear case in point. That should have been a massive story out to all his supporters and the GOP. Instead he got maybe a day before he went off topic again.

If it was properly planned then he would simply have sat back and let the VP Pence walkout take the stage, but instead he has to get involved and A) make it look like Pence was simply following orders and therefore nothing to do with Pence and clearly showed that it was all part of a preplanned PR stunt.

He also give out too many easy lies. This isn't a master of spin we are talking about. Even the latest 'feud' with Corker. Nearly everything he has stated about Corker has been shown to be false. Now he looks like a baby and a liar. I agree that it feeds his, and his base's, desire to be right but it is simply a reaction not some plan.

The problem is that people have been far too generous to him. They continue to interview him based on the usual POTUS style. Ask a question, maybe a brief follow up then onto the next topic. They should actually talk to him like a child. He needs to show that he actually understands that he his talking about.

So MAGA. "I'm going to bring back jobs, so many jobs". "OK, my President. What type of jobs, where? Will new training plans be needed? We are currently at near full employment, are you going to bring in more people for these jobs or get people off welfare".

"clean coal". What is the difference between clean coal and normal coal? Does it cost more? Does it come from the same mines?

Professor Moriarty

relax carry on wrote: »

I've seen this come up time and the again about the never ending **** surrounding trump. Was watching Hitler's People on rte the other night and the issue of information overload and never ending stories in the citezens minds led them to describe the experience as like being on speed. Are all of these stories around trump deliberate distraction to allow whatever his plans are to come to fruition? Or is it just he's a complete Trainwreck and this is just voyeurisim on the behalf of us all?

Very good question and well put. I think that its a combination of both. Trump is essentially a useful idiot for the likes of Bannon and elements of the GOP. Trump's sensationalist dysfunction is both a deflection from a populist alt right agenda and a conduit for the very same agenda.

PopePalpatine

Christy42 wrote: »

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-41568978

I have heard the term free speech abused a lot online but this getting rid of people's free speech.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-41568978

Trump threatens to make laws that punish a private entity because some of its members are protesting.

Literally. He is threatening the nfl tax breaks if they don't stop it.

Don't forget that under Trumplerina Logic, only white manchildren get their "free speech" rights upheld.

Itssoeasy

Is it wise for trump to compare "IQ tests" with Rex tillerson ? I mean Rex tillerson is clearly far more intelligent than trump.


Also Catriona perry from RTE is reporting that John Bolton a former UN ambassador has been seen entering the White House.

Quin_Dub

Itssoeasy wrote: »

Is it wise for trump to compare "IQ tests" with Rex tillerson ? I mean Rex tillerson is clearly far more intelligent than trump.


Also Catriona perry from RTE is reporting that John Bolton a former UN ambassador has been seen entering the White House.

That's not good - Bolton is a hard core right-winger and would happily follow the Trump school of International diplomacy.

It was suggested that Trump would consider him for SoS if he pulled the trigger on Tillerson.

I guess we might get to see if that "Suicide pact" that allegedly exists between Tillerson, Mattis et al is true or not soon enough..

Leroy42

It seems that despite all the checks and balances built into the system, and IMO they are far more robust than anything we have, there is such a large area of influence that POTUS can cause major damage to with very little the other arms of the state can do.

He can pretty much do anything they wish. If not be legislation then by simple EO. Sure they can be cancelled at the next POTUS, but Trump is showing that a man with no base ideology is happy to trade whatever to get what he wants. So threaten the dreamers, so apparently no real reason, and then use that to get the wall built.

He is, both by his own direct actions and by simply leaving so many posts unfilled, causing major problems in international relations.

Its a very worrisome situation as the checks and balances that are supposed to curb this sort of behaviour are rendered useless due to the bipartisan nature of politics and the largest party (when that party is like the GOP are the same as the POTUS) unwilling to call a halt. (The opposite would be true, as the GOP clearly showed under Obama basically stopping him from doing much at all).

Not sure what the answer is. The best way, of course, is not to get these type of people elected in the first place. But of course that relies on the voters.

Stheno

Quin_Dub wrote: »

That's not good - Bolton is a hard core right-winger and would happily follow the Trump school of International diplomacy.

It was suggested that Trump would consider him for SoS if he pulled the trigger on Tillerson.

I guess we might get to see if that "Suicide pact" that allegedly exists between Tillerson, Mattis et al is true or not soon enough..

Is the pact that if one of them go they all do?

Itssoeasy

Stheno wrote: »

Quin_Dub wrote: »

That's not good - Bolton is a hard core right-winger and would happily follow the Trump school of International diplomacy.

It was suggested that Trump would consider him for SoS if he pulled the trigger on Tillerson.

I guess we might get to see if that "Suicide pact" that allegedly exists between Tillerson, Mattis et al is true or not soon enough..

Is the pact that if one of them go they all do?

Yes.

Stheno

Itssoeasy wrote: »

Yes.

Grief. How many in the pact?

For Forks Sake

Stheno wrote: »

Is the pact that if one of them go they all do?

Essentially yes. http://www.politicususa.com/2017/10/05/tillerson-suicide-pact-reported-trump-declares-news-invalid-reporters-verification.html

For Forks Sake

Itssoeasy wrote: »

Is it wise for trump to compare "IQ tests" with Rex tillerson ? I mean Rex tillerson is clearly far more intelligent than trump.

MENSA have called Trumps bluff

Itssoeasy

Stheno wrote: »

Itssoeasy wrote: »

Yes.

Grief. How many in the pact?

Three I think.

Itssoeasy

Trump probably thinks MENSA is a branch of NASA.

derb12

Itssoeasy wrote: »

Three I think.

It's 4 - it includes mnuchin for some reason!

Frank Bullitt

david75 wrote: »

This is everything
https://twitter.com/caveheraa/status/917608372190322693

How can Mike Pence keep that face. He must be a savage at poker.

Professor Moriarty

derb12 wrote: »

It's 4 - it includes mnuchin for some reason!

Actually, according to the article above, it's three: Tillerson, Mnuchin and Mattis. Mind you, I'd say Kelly wouldn't be long after them if they did leave.

BoatMad

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

Actually, according to the article above, it's three: Tillerson, Mnuchin and Mattis. Mind you, I'd say Kelly wouldn't be long after them if they did leave.

I certainly think Mattis and kelly will not remain in the administration for the duration unless Trump is removed or resigns

far to head wrecking for them to cope with that level of BS every day

GOP will suffer losses in the midterms, and most likely loose the senate, Trump and GOP will then tear each other apart

Billy86

Carter "I am happy to testify because I have nothing to hide" Page who gave maybe the most amazingly car crash style interview I have ever seen with Anderson Cooper a few months back now says he doesn't want to testify to the Senate commission on Russia and is pleading the Fifth Amendment.

Quietly more and more momentum is gathering there, and I think it's playing no small part in Trump trying to go absolutely all out the last few weeks with his vague "look over here!" and "what will happen? Tune in next week folks!" nonsense over Iran, North Korea, NFL players protesting, IQ tests and everything in between.

Samaris

"It's really caught on." probably sums up why Trump is such an astonishingly bad president.

That whole thing about how one of the best terms, he thinks, he came up with, is the term "fake". Maybe some others used it through the years, but he never heard it if so sums up how delusional he is. The media were even kind to him on that and made a cautious assumption that he meant "fake news" (which is also incorrect).

To think that 2017 is the calm between the storms (and screw him for that one too). 2018 is where middens hit windmills, both in Britain and in the US.

Professor Moriarty

BoatMad wrote: »

I certainly think Mattis and kelly will not remain in the administration for the duration unless Trump is removed or resigns

far to head wrecking for them to cope with that level of BS every day

GOP will suffer losses in the midterms, and most likely loose the senate, Trump and GOP will then tear each other apart

Hope you're right. Fingers crossed.

VinLieger

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

Actually, according to the article above, it's three: Tillerson, Mnuchin and Mattis. Mind you, I'd say Kelly wouldn't be long after them if they did leave.

If he lost more than 1 of them in a short space of time surely the dogs would close in on him as he really has nobody left beyond Ivanka and Jared then and they are hardly going to be able to hold off the entirety of Washington by themselves

Billy86

VinLieger wrote: »

If he lost more than 1 of them in a short space of time surely the dogs would close in on him as he really has nobody left beyond Ivanka and Jared then and they are hardly going to be able to hold off the entirety of Washington by themselves

Not while they're wrapped up in email (Jared) and fraud (Ivanka) themselves, anyway.

spacecoyote

Maybe not the height of political debate for this thread, but Eminem with a fairly accurate summation of Trump in a performance for the BET awards:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LunHybOKIjU

frag420

He has no nuts...like an empty asylum!!

spacecoyote wrote: »

Maybe not the height of political debate for this thread, but Eminem with a fairly accurate summation of Trump in a performance for the BET awards:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LunHybOKIjU

david75

Why would he want them if he didn't plan on using them?

https://twitter.com/nbcnews/status/918054895630147585

VinLieger

david75 wrote: »

Why would he want them if he didn't plan on using them?

https://twitter.com/nbcnews/status/918054895630147585

Cus he is obsessed with the size of his metaphorical penis

MadYaker

They already have many thousands, enough to destroy the world several times over and more than they could ever use. It's totally pointless. Another genius idea :rolleyes:

demfad

Trump tweets that NBC should have it's licence revoked:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/918112884630093825

And immediately Russian trolls start to post on it, trending the topic NBC for them.

http://dashboard.securingdemocracy.org/

Tony EH

Somebody really needs to take that Twitter machine off of him.

Overheal

Tony EH wrote: »

Somebody really needs to take that Twitter machine off of him.

It won't be twitter, he's got to be like 5% of their business all by himself

Leroy42

So in the past few days he has threatened American Football players livelihood for taking part in legal protests.

he has threatened to legislate specifically against the NFL unless they do what he wants.

And now he is threatening to invoke possible licence withdrawl of a national broadcaster for posting a story based on facts that he has, to a large extent, accepted as true.

I go back to an earlier post and it is clear that whatever checks and balances are in place are failing to protect US citizens from the power of the POTUS. At what point does someone step in and call POTUS out on his continued lies and defamations.

Blowfish

Leroy42 wrote: »

So in the past few days he has threatened American Football players livelihood for taking part in legal protests.

he has threatened to legislate specifically against the NFL unless they do what he wants.

And now he is threatening to invoke possible licence withdrawl of a national broadcaster for posting a story based on facts that he has, to a large extent, accepted as true.

I go back to an earlier post and it is clear that whatever checks and balances are in place are failing to protect US citizens from the power of the POTUS. At what point does someone step in and call POTUS out on his continued lies and defamations.

In fairness, it's the checks and balances that are actually preventing him from doing anything about it other than ranting on twitter. If it comes to the point that he actually manages to follow through on any of his myriad of threats, that's when you start worrying.

Trent Houseboat

I wonder how many "Free Speech Enthusiasts" will march through the streets to protest a president trying to silence a critical media?

The tiki torches will be visible from space.

Leroy42

Yes I agree, its just that by the time they do come into play the damage is already done. NFL, for example, are facing into a potential boycott from customers due to Trump egging the issue. NFL are now stuck between sticking by the athletes constitutional rights or the demands of
a portion of their customers. May not seem like much but it a bad precedent to set.

At what point should a POTUS have to adhere to certain rules and regulations. Take his latest statement about 'highest taxed country in the world'. Even the Press Sec SHS couldn't stand over that, laughingly saying that what he meant was highest corporate taxed country in the developed world.

Surely there has to be some level of accountability from leaders to at least try to tell the truth, and correct it when they get things wrong.

Professor Moriarty

Is Tillerson a stupid person or is Trump very intelligent? Anyway, you can check to see if you're more intelligent than The Donald here.

everlast75

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

Is Tillerson a stupid person or is Trump very intelligent? Anyway, you can check to see if you're more intelligent than The Donald here.

absolutely zero offence to the above poster, but just in terms of that article, I think this attitude of certain news sites/stations has assisted in DT getting to where he is.

If you think back to before he was "elected", news media did not take him seriously and lampooned him whenever they could. I get why they did it
a) it was ratings gold
b) there is so much to work with

they didn't focus on all the bs that comes out of his mouth and question it; they preferred to call him an idiot (which he is).

More investigative, fact based journalism please is what I'm trying to say and less "ain't he stupid" articles

PopePalpatine

Overheal wrote: »

It won't be twitter, he's got to be like 5% of their business all by himself

And if they did ban him (I'm pretty sure threatening a nuclear holocaust must be against their ToS), I'd imagine Twitter HQ would get some basement-dwelling toad-worshipper driving their Daddy's car through their lobby.

Professor Moriarty

everlast75 wrote: »

absolutely zero offence to the above poster, but just in terms of that article, I think this attitude of certain news sites/stations has assisted in DT getting to where he is.

If you think back to before he was "elected", news media did not take him seriously and lampooned him whenever they could. I get why they did it
a) it was ratings gold
b) there is so much to work with

they didn't focus on all the bs that comes out of his mouth and question it; they preferred to call him an idiot (which he is).

More investigative, fact based journalism please is what I'm trying to say and less "ain't he stupid" articles

Dunno. I think it's just a bit of fun by CNN. I don't think many people underestimate Trump's ability to push an alt right agenda and the US media is awash with articles on his agenda (or the agenda that Bannon et al are pushing via Trump).

Itssoeasy

I really don't understand why Rex Tillerson is still Secretary of State. It must kill him to have to take direction from Donald Trump as a former CEO of a huge corporation like Exxon. From what I've read Tillerson was handed nothing and his started in 1975 as an engineer unlike Trump who was handed everything he's gotten and bankrupted himself multiple times.

Billy86

Leroy42 wrote: »

So in the past few days he has threatened American Football players livelihood for taking part in legal protests.

he has threatened to legislate specifically against the NFL unless they do what he wants.

And now he is threatening to invoke possible licence withdrawl of a national broadcaster for posting a story based on facts that he has, to a large extent, accepted as true.

I go back to an earlier post and it is clear that whatever checks and balances are in place are failing to protect US citizens from the power of the POTUS. At what point does someone step in and call POTUS out on his continued lies and defamations.

"Lulz fascism, such hysterical librul lefites something something talking point"
- Trump supporters, circa 2016.