The trump presidency

[b.c.]

Found this article today on dailykos.com. It not only looks at Trump's "charity foundations" but compares them to the work of the Clinton Foundation by enumerating some of the latter's achievements while DEBUNKING much of the right winged spin that was put out there to smear the foundation's work and Hillary Clinton in PARTICULAR:

How corrupt are the Trump Charity Foundations? Totally and absolutely.

Points taken from the article include these (with links to supporting references included):

• "Trump ... hasn’t donated any of his own money to his Foundation since 2008, in fact he’s only been taking other people money since that time and largely spending it on himself."

• "Things that the Trump Foundation has spent it’s [sic] money on includes paying off court fines."

• "Trump Foundation money has been used to pay off politicians."

• "...the various allegations against it are so bad, the New York Attorney General looked at it for “self-dealing.”"

• "Eventually the Trump Foundations was ordered to stop fundraising because they didn’t even do their basic paperwork correctly."

• "As of now the Foundation remains halted while NYAG Schneiderman continues to investigate, and when Trump himself called for it to be shutdown, Schneiderman blocked it until his investigtion is complete."

• "And this isn’t the only Trump charity with problems, as we’ve seen with the Eric Trump Foundation which managed to funnel nearly a $Million back into Trump properties.""

 

[deleted15807]

Two important columns from conservative writers.

In Trump’s political world, this project of dehumanization is far along. The future of conservatism now depends on its capacity for revulsion. And it is not at all clear whether this capacity still exists.​

The conservative mind has become diseased​

Amen to the bolded. It's not at all clear conservatives can be revulsed by anything except a democrat in office.

A week that reveals how rotten today’s Republican Party is

President Trump has had more-scandalous weeks. He has had weeks with more bombshell bad-news stories. But no week has matched this one in revealing the moral and intellectual rot at the center of the GOP. Pandemic intellectual dishonesty and celebration of uncivilized conduct now permeate the party and its support in the conservative ecosystem. Consider what we saw and learned this week:

• Trump in Saudi Arabia disclaims any concern for human rights.

• Trump bullies NATO allies in public (and physically shoves one leader).

• Trump’s budget is built on a rickety scaffold of math errors, economic nonsense and fantasyland predictions.

• Trump’s advisers defend massive cuts to the safety net, coupled with huge giveaways to the rich.

• The Congressional Budget Office score, which the House did not require before voting on a mammoth health-care bill, confirms that GOP leaders falsely claimed they protected people with preexisting conditions.

• Trump’s lawyers contemptuously swat away a request for information relating to his receipt of foreign monies, finding that it is too impractical to abide by his own promise and the Constitution.

• Trump has nothing but praise for thuggish autocrats, including Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

• Trump continues to pursue a Muslim ban, repeatedly struck down by the courts as bigotry disguised under the cloak of national security.

• A GOP congressional candidate, conclusive evidence suggests, attacks a reporter and apparently lies about it (he later apologizes for actions he denied less than 24 hours earlier), but party leaders do not repudiate him or demand that he withdraw.

• Jared Kushner, the beneficiary of egregious nepotism, now is a focus of the FBI’s Russia investigation, bringing a once-in-a-lifetime scandal one step closer to the presidency.

• Sean Hannity is forced to stop propagating a detestable hoax about a young man’s murder; Fox News after a week withdraws the original false report without much explanation or an apology.

This is the state of the GOP — a refuge for intellectual frauds and bullies, for mean-spirited hypocrites who preach personal responsibility yet excuse the inexcusable.




​

 

[b.c.]

Excellent post, Sargon. Though I couldn't help but smile sardonically at the title of the first link (and here I must take care lest I be accused learning another new word, seeing as how I couldn't possibly have had prior knowledge of it):

"the conservative mind has become...." Now that's FUNNY.

 

[deleted15807]

Excellent post, Sargon. Though I couldn't help but smile sardonically at the title of the first link (and here I must take care lest I be accused learning another new word, seeing as how I couldn't possibly have had prior knowledge of it):

"the conservative mind has become...." Now that's FUNNY.

And if you didn't know the writer Gerson was a top aide to President George W. Bush so he's not 'The Left' as many of today's "right" use to neuter and dismiss any criticism. Trump is just the clearest embodiment of the 30 years movement to it's position now as "off the cliff". The rot began when to win Nixon embraced Lee Atwater's dog whistle politics to win elections and it's been all downhill since as they blew the whistle louder and louder.

All the while they bashed the "inner city" and the people who lived their as violent and innately inferior a strange thing happened......(a must read)...

Rural America Is the New 'Inner City'​

 

[chrisrobin]

I hear over the international grapevine that the EU has indeed offered to keep TRUMP just to remind the rest of the EU what an arsehole really is!
Not only that but they've also promised to make sure his lacquer supply doesn't run out and a special guard for his wig - it can be real folks, its always the same length and shape and when it blows in the wind when getting on and off aircraft his forehead tightens....tug

 

[deleted37010]

And if you didn't know the writer Gerson was a top aide to President George W. Bush so he's not 'The Left' as many of today's "right" use to neuter and dismiss any criticism. Trump is just the clearest embodiment of the 30 years movement to it's position now as "off the cliff". The rot began when to win Nixon embraced Lee Atwater's dog whistle politics to win elections and it's been all downhill since as they blew the whistle louder and louder.

All the while they bashed the "inner city" and the people who lived their as violent and innately inferior a strange thing happened......(a must read)...

Rural America Is the New 'Inner City'​

agreed... a must read... thank you, sir...

 

[Industrialsize]

Mr Trump has made this lefty wistful for the days of George W. Bush. I'm afraid he couldn't get elected in today's Republican Party.

 

[rbkwp]

REALITY WANKER EXTREME
trying to quietly sweet talk/convinces NO ONE in the world
already proven to be the ARSE3HOLE sic,OF AMERICA 2017

Trump wraps up first foreign trip as US president

Donald Trump is concluding his first international trip as a US president, during which he signed a major arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

He held talks with Palestinian and Israeli leaders on resolving their conflicts, before meeting Pope Francis at the Vatican.

Trump also took part in a G7 summit in Italy, where world leaders tried to persuade him to remain in a landmark climate change deal.

James Bays reports from Sicily.

 

[chrisrobin]

The total chaos and insensitivity of POTUS now seems to have spread to White House Staff as well.
In a recent picture of First Ladies on European leaders while they captioned the five ladies they didn't name the only first gentleman.
A sign of Trumps
HOMOPHOBIC FEELINGS?
see below

The White House Facebook page failed to acknowledge First Gentleman of Luxembourg Gauthier Destenay, married to Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, in a post featuring the spouses of world leaders attending this week’s G7 summit in Sicily. The photo caption included the names of every other spouse, all of them wives, beginning with: "First Lady Melania Trump poses with Belgium’s Queen Mathilde, center, and other spouses of NATO leaders."
The omission of Destenay's name in the official White House post remained for at least six hours on Saturday before Daily Beast editor CENSORED NAME ALERT! This name is blacklisted on lpsg. Please respect this. Any attempt around this will result in a ban. If you see this please report it so we can delete the comment. Thank you. shared a screenshot on Twitter, writing: "Is there a reason the White House didn't include the First Gentleman of Luxembourg in this photo caption? Like, a non-homophobic one?"

 

[deleted15807]

Well the Idiot Class got what they wanted. Now we are allied with all of the brutal dictatorships in the world like Duterte while long term allies are tossed aside.

LONDON — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday declared a new chapter in U.S.-European relations after contentious meetings with President Trump last week, saying that Europe “really must take our fate into our own hands.”

It was the toughest review yet of Trump’s trip to Europe, which inflamed tensions rather than healed them after the U.S. president sparred with the leaders of Washington’s closest and oldest allies on trade, defense and climate change.
&
Following Trump’s trip, Merkel says Europe can’t rely on ‘others.’ She means the U.S.


BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, Europe’s most influential leader, has concluded, after three days of trans-Atlantic meetings, that the United States of President Trump is not the reliable partner her country and the Continent have automatically depended on in the past.

Clearly disappointed with Mr. Trump’s positions on NATO, Russia, climate change and trade, Ms. Merkel said in Munich on Sunday that traditional alliances were no longer as steadfast as they once were and that Europe should pay more attention to its own interests “and really take our fate into our own hands.”

Merkel, After Discordant G-7 Meeting, Is Looking Past Trump

Ms. Merkel’s strong comments were a potentially seismic shift in trans-Atlantic relations.

​

Pre-dementia Pussy Grabber I'm sure is clueless the short-term and long-term damage he has done.

 

[phonehome]

With respect to the EU "taking there fate into their own hands" I am sure the Trumpeteer's out there will say that is fine and dandy with them and was/is "what they wanted all along"

 

[Chrysippus]

Well the Idiot Class got what they wanted. Now we are allied with all of the brutal dictatorships in the world like Duterte while long term allies are tossed aside.

LONDON — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday declared a new chapter in U.S.-European relations after contentious meetings with President Trump last week, saying that Europe “really must take our fate into our own hands.”
It was the toughest review yet of Trump’s trip to Europe, which inflamed tensions rather than healed them after the U.S. president sparred with the leaders of Washington’s closest and oldest allies on trade, defense and climate change.
&
Following Trump’s trip, Merkel says Europe can’t rely on ‘others.’ She means the U.S.
BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, Europe’s most influential leader, has concluded, after three days of trans-Atlantic meetings, that the United States of President Trump is not the reliable partner her country and the Continent have automatically depended on in the past.
Clearly disappointed with Mr. Trump’s positions on NATO, Russia, climate change and trade, Ms. Merkel said in Munich on Sunday that traditional alliances were no longer as steadfast as they once were and that Europe should pay more attention to its own interests “and really take our fate into our own hands.”
Merkel, After Discordant G-7 Meeting, Is Looking Past Trump
Ms. Merkel’s strong comments were a potentially seismic shift in trans-Atlantic relations.​

Pre-dementia Pussy Grabber I'm sure is clueless the short-term and long-term damage he has done.

Well, Trump is isolating the US from its European allies. He clearly doesn't see where this can lead.
I don't think that Trump is pre-dementia, he just doesn't understand where his actions are taking the US.
And the people of the US seem happy with his doing that.

I don't think his role as pussy grabber has much to do with his willful misunderstanding of Europe and US responsibilities to our European partners.

I despise this fool Trump as much as you do, but calling him a pussy grabber isn't going to get this situation addressed.

 

[deleted15807]

Well, Trump is isolating the US from its European allies. He clearly doesn't see where this can lead.
I don't think that Trump is pre-dementia, he just doesn't understand where his actions are taking the US.

At 70, Trump is the oldest American president to ever take office. Couple his age with a family history of dementia — his father Fred developed Alzheimer's disease in his 80s — and one could argue that the question of baseline cognitive testing for the U.S. head of state has taken on new relevance.

As Presidents Live Longer, Doctors Debate Whether To Test For Dementia​

Have you actually read some of the transcripts of his interviews, AP News Interview? Something is very wrong with his speech, the flow of ideas during the interview.

Or how about the time he said he made up the phrase "priming the pump". Or the time he got the Civil War totally wrong?

The cascade of jaw dropping inaccuracies hits so hard you can't really spend much time distinguishing them from each other. At a certain point the only path left is some sort of medical issue as the cause.

I don't think his role as pussy grabber has much to do with his willful misunderstanding of Europe and US responsibilities to our European partners.

I despise this fool Trump as much as you do, but calling him a pussy grabber isn't going to get this situation addressed.

I use the term purposely as a constant reminder that the US voter understood exactly the character of the person they choose to lead the country. His behavior and character is no surprise though apparently it is to some as his approval ratings tumble. The disaster that is unfolding was entirely predictable.

 

[Chrysippus]

At 70, Trump is the oldest American president to ever take office. Couple his age with a family history of dementia — his father Fred developed Alzheimer's disease in his 80s — and one could argue that the question of baseline cognitive testing for the U.S. head of state has taken on new relevance.

As Presidents Live Longer, Doctors Debate Whether To Test For Dementia​

Have you actually read some of the transcripts of his interviews, AP News Interview? Something is very wrong with his speech, the flow of ideas during the interview.

Or how about the time he said he made up the phrase "priming the pump". Or the time he got the Civil War totally wrong?

The cascade of jaw dropping inaccuracies hits so hard you can't really spend much time distinguishing them from each other. At a certain point the only path left is some sort of medical issue as the cause.



I use the term purposely as a constant reminder that the US voter understood exactly the character of the person they choose to lead the country. His behavior and character is no surprise though apparently it is to some as his approval ratings tumble. The disaster that is unfolding was entirely predictable.

Sargon, I agree with you that Trump's verbal and cognitive incoherence from the getgo on the campaign is symptomatic--especially noticeably when he spoke to introduce Sarah Palin as a suppoter: how anyone could listen to them and not think that their incoherence was not just alarming but pathological is beyond me. We may have elected a mad man, but we elect him we did. How Republicans can stand behind this guy is beyond me. It's shameful.
As to the pussy grabber, I can't help but think that many men and some women thought this was evidence of a healthy, redblooded hetero male who is refreshingly blunt about sex... Women did vote for him even after the pussy-bus scandal.
Voters and especially non-voters failed their country in November: what to do next...you tell me.

 

[chrisrobin]

MERKEL says she cant (meaning the EU) rely on the USA or the UK in future.
Great, then if the UK cannot be relied on then it should think about withdrawing from NATO. German who doesn't pay it its 2% GDP into the scheme can cough up.
Funny though how German speaks once again for the EU, and funny how she thinks that, coming up for re-election its time to talk tough. I do wonder why the rest of Europe can actually think it can really on Germany, after all its only 70 years since the Gestapo brought fear and death into many homes in France, Belgium, Luxembourg Holland etc... and latterly Merkel herself comes from a post wear area of Germany con trolled by the Stassi! So who knows what deep rooted attitudes she really has!

As the Brexit talks have so far to start (from whets coming out of Brussels you wouldn't think it, the UK has already committed itself to continuing with playing its part in NATO, willing to continue to share intelligence and is a committed partner in Climate Change policies - so what more does Merkel want?

 

[Chrysippus]

A GOP congressional candidate, conclusive evidence suggests, attacks a reporter and apparently lies about it (he later apologizes for actions he denied less than 24 hours earlier), but party leaders do not repudiate him or demand that he withdraw.

His margin probably grew with the media's scream-coverage over the scuffle with the reporter--the encounter proved to be what Montanans want to see: a scrappy, get-mad/get-tough fightin' alpha male, who broke the wimpy nerd's glasses--hyuh hyuh.
You forget what Trump's base is...

 

[thirteenbyseven]

At 70, Trump is the oldest American president to ever take office. Couple his age with a family history of dementia — his father Fred developed Alzheimer's disease in his 80s — and one could argue that the question of baseline cognitive testing for the U.S. head of state has taken on new relevance.

As Presidents Live Longer, Doctors Debate Whether To Test For Dementia​

Have you actually read some of the transcripts of his interviews, AP News Interview? Something is very wrong with his speech, the flow of ideas during the interview.

Or how about the time he said he made up the phrase "priming the pump". Or the time he got the Civil War totally wrong?

The cascade of jaw dropping inaccuracies hits so hard you can't really spend much time distinguishing them from each other. At a certain point the only path left is some sort of medical issue as the cause.



I use the term purposely as a constant reminder that the US voter understood exactly the character of the person they choose to lead the country. His behavior and character is no surprise though apparently it is to some as his approval ratings tumble. The disaster that is unfolding was entirely predictable.

Donald Trump, POTUS and the presumed leader of the free world, announces to one and all across the globe that in his analysis terrorists who blow themselves up are losers!! He said it with an accent and tone of voice that sounded remarkably like Bowzer from Sha Na Na. Taken as a single event it's not indicative of an onset of dementia but sadly telling of Trump's lifelong lack of eloquence.

But in a moment that demanded a leader stand and say something that blended strength, assurance, alliance and sympathy with Great Britain, Donald Trump dug deep into his mental reservoir of vocabulary and came up with something worthy of a grade school playground. Did his comment reassure our NATO allies? Did it strike fear in the hearts of ISIS? And did it do anything to the terrorists who vaporize themselves in the name of Allah? No, no and no.

For the immediate future all we can do is shake our heads. However as time goes by and Donald Trump's mythical My World and Welcome To It continues to unfold in a James Thurber-like cartoon way, there may well be a time when the adults in Washington might have to intervene for the good of the country.

 

[Chrysippus]

the adults in Washington

Good thing Washington isn't Temple: you wouldn't have a minyan

 

[deleted15807]

...
You forget what Trump's base is...

Or the entire Republican party which is on a 24/7 ignore and compartmentalize mission. There are "some" conservatives with conscious that are in outright revolt over what the party has morphed into however none of them are in Congress. Until Trump's numbers dip below say 30% will they begin to speak up and we get closer to the "impeachment election" in 2018 should we make it though I have serious doubts we will.

But in a moment that demanded a leader stand and say something that blended strength, assurance, alliance and sympathy with Great Britain, Donald Trump dug deep into his mental reservoir of vocabulary and came up with something worthy of a grade school playground. Did his comment reassure our NATO allies? Did it strike fear in the hearts of ISIS? And did it do anything to the terrorists who vaporize themselves in the name of Allah? No, no and no.

So far it's looking like Trump is easily played by far superior minds and strategies (surprised? nope). If the hope is he would strike fear in enemies so far North Korea, for example, is undeterred. ISIS is marching ahead. Allies have decided to withhold intelligence and forge their own path without Washington. A great lose-lose game he's mastered. Meanwhile back at the ranch the little one is angry and launches another tweet storm as Germany decides to go forward without the US and North Korea sends another missile into the air.

 

[Chrysippus]

Or the entire Republican party which is on a 24/7 ignore and compartmentalize mission. There are "some" conservatives with conscious that are in outright revolt over what the party has morphed into however none of them are in Congress. Until Trump's numbers dip below say 30% will they begin to speak up and we get closer to the "impeachment election" in 2018 should we make it though I have serious doubts we will.



So far it's looking like Trump is easily played by far superior minds and strategies (surprised? nope). If the hope is he would strike fear in enemies so far North Korea, for example, is undeterred. ISIS is marching ahead. Allies have decided to withhold intelligence and forge their own path without Washington. A great lose-lose game he's mastered. Meanwhile back at the ranch the little one is angry and launches another tweet storm as Germany decides to go forward without the US and North Korea sends another missile into the air.

But Trump was smart enough to pick Pence as a poison pill...