The chaos of the Trump White House
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8:32 am, December 1st, 2017 - 22 comments
Categories: Donald Trump, International, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, us politics, you couldn't make this shit up -
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Early on president Donald Trump was the subject of a number of posts such was the shock and awe at how bad and dangerous a president he was. Then the frequency of posts died down as the novelty wore off. Others have religiously documented everything day by day, the website What the Fuck Just Happened Today being one notable contributor.
But lately the White House has hit new lows even by its standards.
First there was the President retweeting tweets from a far right UK activist allegedly showing acts of radical Muslim activity. Even UK Prime Minister Theresa May thought it was wrong to share the videos, meanwhile Whitehouse hack Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended the tweets because the need for national security and military spending needs to be discussed. The fact that at least one of the videos is not what it is represented to be should have worried the White House but apparently does not.
https://twitter.com/JaydaBF/status/935609305574903812
Overnight there is news that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who infamously called Trump a moron, is on the way out. Tillerson’s mistake is that he was not extreme enough. He tried to find a diplomatic solution to the North Korea issue and Trump spent his time undermine the remotest possibility that one could be found.
And there is the strange tale of the Alabama Senate election where Republican Roy Moore who decades ago was banned from a mall because he was so creepy and who has been accused of sexual misconduct with minors. Trump has publicly supported Moore even after the allegations were made public. Polling puts Moore slightly ahead in what is a very red state. Republicans clearly have variable standards when it comes to allegations of sexual impropriety.
And in the background is the Republican tax bill. The level of dishonesty here is high. The bill reduces tax for corporates and the wealthy and eventually increases it for the poor while also driving up State debt tremendously. The theory is trickle down will work to grow the economy and make things better. After so many tried when will the right realise that this does not work?
The theory is that Trump relishes chaos. This theory seems more and more to be reality.
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Labour is urging the Prime Minister to walk the talk and support legislation combating modern slavery. ...1 week ago
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The Government has done the right thing in moving to ban greyhound racing. ...2 weeks ago
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Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...2 days ago
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My personal theory is that Trump is a giant douche.
It used to be laughingly said that UK scandals were all about sex and US scandals were all about money. Whom knows now ? Speaking of sex scandals and the US it completely beats me that not only does the Republican Party have an elephant (red) in its signage, it also has an elephant (orange) in the (oval) room at the White House. And all those god-fearing fascists in training seem not to give a fuck. They just double down on how much they love God Almighty ???. Of course “Y’all know the Access Hollywood stuff is fake……”
In the context of a declining empire, it all sort of makes sense. Kinda, sorta.
All part of the plan Mickey using Trump’s naturally occurring narcissist attributes.
Creates a focus for the outrage and provides ongoing distractions for the sheeple whilst the power brokers go about their day.
I agree with all of that Mickey. But….
…….. Trump is the only person who can deliver Democrat majorities into the Senate or Congress in the foreseeable future.
Even the retrograde Moore still has a very strong shot in Alabama, sex scandals are damaging otherwise strong Senate performers, and the internal struggles within the Democrat leadership, the Democrats are a long, long way from repairing themselves enough to regain majorities and the White House.
I see minor renewal of social democrat activism among the state legislatures and Council tables, but nothing remotely like what is needed to rise up and kill off either the Republican or Democrat parties. Not even a massive challenger to Trump rising (I don’t see Cuban as serious) to challenge him as the No1 contender.
Trump needs to hang in there and keep flaming the electorate into live coals if there is to be any chance of renewal in U.S. politics.
“The theory is that Trump relishes chaos. This theory seems more and more to be reality.”
I think that’s giving Dolt45 too much credit for being able to actually create chaos to his liking. I don’t see evidence that there’s any kind of plan, strategy, vision – even in service of creating chaos – there’s just reaction to the stimulus of the moment with whatever feels good to him at that moment.
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/28/politics/trump-shutdown-zero-dimensional/index.html
It’s the authoritarian nature. Anything to defend their own from any accusations or even real proof of wrong doing.
It’s not about it working, it’s about making rich people richer. It will destroy the economy and society but they’ll still do it and when it does happen they’ll blame everyone else.
There is opportunity in chaos – for those in a position to make use of those opportunities.
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
Disaster Capitalism: Making a Killing Out of Catastrophe by Antony Loewenstein review – the management of nightmares
And yet Only 40% of Americans think Fox News should receive the Fake News Trophy
/sarc
I agree with Andre above – there is no plan in all this. HMDI (His Most Despicable Idiot) simply utters the the last sound bite he heard, and the only thing we can be sure about is that what he said today will almost certainly change tomorrow. But whatever it is – it will be BIG and WONDERFUL – the most AMAZING thing EVER – and isn’t he the most popular president of all time and look at all the things he has achieved – like playing golf on 81 days out of 315 of his Presidency. Yes many are counting the days.
How many americans were shot yesterday in the US by americans?
I guess that economic anxiety will be going up a notch or three.
I’m fortunate enough to have an amazing and wonderful girlfriend who hails from Seattle.
Do not mention Trump in her presence. She has to work and live in NZ with every person she comes across asking about her country. She has no pride and I feel sorry for the abuse she receives sometimes.
She fears for her home and quite rightly.
They have got him! Flynn has agreed to testify that Trump asked him to contact the Russians. Trump has also been sounding out senators to drop the investigation. Will post links when on computer and not on phone.
Dunno about “got him”.
His entire life, BLOTUS has been able to bullshit and bluster his way out of tight situations, find someone else to take the hit and someone to bail him out. I don’t yet see good reasons to think this time is different. More importantly for getting the orange anusmouth out out of the Oval Office, there aren’t good reasons yet for him to think this time is any different.
In terms of getting Congress to act, the numbers still remain that 20-odd Repug House members and 19 Repug senators would need to vote for impeachment and conviction. The only ones that might be willing to do that are ones that don’t fear getting primaried by angry Trumpkins, ie ones that aren’t running again. That’s approximately 10 House members and 10 senators absolute tops.
Maybe the very-sickly-shade-of-yellow snowflake will develop a sense of awareness and try to cut a deal with Pence to resign and get a pardon from President Pence. But Pence surely has enough awareness to look at how that went for Ford, and Ford wasn’t even part of the wrongdoing, which Pence surely is.
Once those Senators have their big, wonderful, amazing, fantastic, beautiful, and huge Christmas present out of the way (at the expense of half of their country folk).. and the Billions safely in their pockets… then they might start to wonder about their futures. Looking ahead to the next mid-term elections – it’s not looking good for the repugnants. Prince Dopey is becoming more of a hindrance than an assert. Repugnants are trailing by around 12 points at the moment in the re-election stakes, and even if the creepy predator in Alabama gets the nod in a few days time its not certain that he will pass muster with the ethics committee. So I would pick that in a few months time – some feeble repugnants will decide that continual pandering to the utterly repugnant can last no longer, and find some moral backbone, and do the thing they should have done months ago.
Thing is, King Con isn’t needed in the Oval Office to sign legislation. Everyone in any possible line to replace Don of the Braindeads is a Repug, and since the ideas that hold Repugs together are tax cuts for the wealthy and controlling women’s bodies, every potential replacement is going to sign whatever the Repug congress puts on the desk.
So I really don’t see congressional Repugs acting to remove Twitterfinger J. Putinpussy until enough of them decide leaving him in place is personally electorally more painful than facing the eternal wrath of the Trumpkins. The Tea Party showed how much primary pain can be inflicted by a small group of fired-up committed irrationals, so I don’t think Repugs anywhere near ready to bite the bullet and these recent events only brought it a tiny bit closer.
Yes that is certainly true – and Pence fills the bill as far as all those “essential qualities” you list above that are required of a repugnant is concerned. There is just one advantage however in Pence over Tweetybird. He is perhaps a little closer to being sane. Perhaps he actually might allow a Sec of State to work towards a diplomatic solution with Nth Korea rather than undermine him with a twitter tirade.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/michael-flynn-charged-with-making-false-statement-to-the-fbi/2017/12/01/e03a6c48-d6a2-11e7-9461-ba77d604373d_story.html?utm_term=.936b0e32d93f
Of course this is all “Fake News” because it comes via the Washington Post and the New York Times – and not via Faux News. /sarc
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-has-now-urged-seven-officials-help-end-russia-probes-728072
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/michael-flynn-charged-making-false-statements-fbi-documents/story?id=50849354
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/01/trumps-ex-national-security-adviser-michael-flynn-charged-with-lying-to-fbi
Fake news is an oxymoron. It’s not news if it’s fake.
Drain the swamp!.
//
Tax reform is taking over Washington, so much so that more than half of all registered lobbyists have disclosed working on the issue, according to an analysis from Public Citizen, a government watchdog group.
There are just under 11,000 active lobbyists in the nation’s capital, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), and more than half of them — 6,243 — have reported working on taxes this year, according to the report, which relies on CRP data.
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/362796-analysis-more-than-6000-lobbyists-have-worked-on
Oh! But just think of this Amazing Wonderful Beautiful Christmas Present they are all giving themselves – but poor ol Chumpy – Santa’s not coming to him. He might actually have to pay some tax this year. So SAD!
Never mind I’m sure the Billion or two he gets from the Senate will make up for it. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/28/us/politics/trump-tax-benefit.html
Oh! and don’t forget the tax breaks for golf courses. hehehehe
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/republican-tax-plan-golf-course-owners-donald-trump-international-jobs-act-bill-a8051861.html
What is really really worrying is that Trump’s irrationality and appalling inhumanity might be applied in a formulation that a construct war “like the world has never seen” is a valid tool in his domestic political manoeuvres.