The Trump presidency

[CrabbedOne]

On Politico Donald the Weak

...
Trump retains powerful political assets that no previous president has enjoyed. He has an in-house media organ in Breitbart and, increasingly, Fox News that he can use to attack critics and if necessary enforce party discipline. Republicans in Congress seem willing to humiliate themselves in the face of his antics for now, as long as he continues to back their policy priorities. Trump’s rolling circus of chaos has also confounded the press, which can barely dig into one major controversy before a new one erupts.

But for all the president’s authoritarian tendencies and unwillingness to respect traditional norms and institutions, his inability to moderate his mouth, effectively manage the government or successfully negotiate with foreign leaders have left his presidency wounded and weakened. He will undoubtedly manage some successes over the coming months, but the character flaws that have been so evident throughout his public life have so far proved largely debilitating inside the Oval Office.

It is now up to President Trump to show whether he can change. If not, the courts, the bureaucracy and the warring factions of his own staff will continue to exert more influence over the direction of his administration than he is. The turbulent beginning to his tenure may signal that the defining characteristic of Trump’s presidency will be not the strength he promised, but enduring flaccidity.

My bold, excellent.

Donald Trump: Making America Limp Again!

 

[pesh]

have you seen his handwriting? It's block print all caps, with giant towering 'I's.

you can get it as a font now

 

[19force8]

you can get it as a font now

Ooh, Letraset

Does inverted punctuation option suggest he writes Spanish? Maybe he's a Mexican sleeper agent.

 

[CrabbedOne]

On Bloomberg The New Face of American Unemployment

Even at so-called full employment, some 20 million Americans are left behind.

They’re looking for work, out of the labor force but unhappy about it, or report working part-time when they’d prefer more hours, according to data released last week. Their plight comes even as the U.S. flirts with what economists consider the maximum level of employment for the first time since before the recession, having added 15.8 million jobs since the start of 2010. While some of America’s jobless are simply between gigs, those persistently stuck out of work are called the structurally unemployed.

President Donald Trump said wrongly last month that 96 million people are looking for work, having included Americans who are still in school, retired, or just uninterested. Yet his words resonated in a country where economic insecurity is distributed unequally and cruelly—far deeper in Mingo, W. Va., than in midtown Manhattan.

Because of where the structurally unemployed live, what they’ve done, or the skills they lack, employers can’t or won’t hire them. The problems that keep today's jobless stuck on the sidelines are different than those of past recoveries: a complex web of often interrelated issues from disability and drug use to criminal records.
...

Gives five detailed examples. The Wall and tearing up NAFTA are really not likely to help them.

There's some things Trump might fix here. Maybe easing up on the drug war so not so many people have excluding criminal convictions. It was always stealthily racist but now it's hitting poor white folks it wasn't intended for pretty hard. An argument Trump might appreciate. Throw money at drug rehabilitation perhaps. Trying to interest employers in the skilled over 50s but a basic problem there is huge US healthcare costs and risks soaring at that age. About the only thing there liable to fly with his actual base.

One tragic story has two thirds of applicants for skilled steel jobs in Scottdale, Pa. failing the interview drug test. Folk want jobs but can't kick the opiate habit. Really not a bad salary in the range for a Licensed Practical Nurse in the area running up to the $50K PA level. The town (based on year 2,000 data) is 98% white. As they are failing to hire safe hands they are investing in automation instead. In these conditions it's not just employees but employers that will be considering moving elsewhere.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

A New Jersey congressman says a rarely invoked 1924 law could be used to examine President Donald Trump's tax returns for possible conflicts of interest and Constitutional violations.

Rep. Bill Pascrell, a Democrat who serves on the Ways and Means Committee, has asked the committee’s chairman, Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, to order the Treasury Department to provide tax returns to the committee. Brady's office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

After privately examining returns — Pascrell is seeking 10 years' worth — the committee could decide to share them with the full House, which would in effect make them public. The 1924 law gives congressional committees that set tax policy the power to examine tax returns. It was used in 1974 when Congress looked at President Richard Nixon's returns, and in 2014 when the Ways and Means Committee released confidential tax information as part of its investigation into the Internal Revenue Service's handling of applications for nonprofit status.

Congressman: Rarely used law could make Trump tax returns public

 

[Casually Red]

Plenty of people have family stories like that. They may be true or false, but your granddad tells them to you when you're little and you never see any reason to question them. I have something similar in my own family, but it doesn't make me a bullshitter. Or my granddad, necessarily.

Not everyone tries to pass themselves off as a minority in a law faculty though, or has a vocal group of political supporters highlighting their non existent minority credentials while in pursuit of political office . That's the actual context to this Pocahontas bollocks . But let's keep this context free right..that's the crack isn't it ?

Support for one faction of capitalist, genocidal , warmongering, black gulag creating , bank bailer outers..because you don't like the cut of the other ones jib . Because he's rude to people .Absolutely context free analysis and commentary of this shit show .

 

[Casually Red]

No such thing as "Red Indian", shitbird.

Oh right..i thought they used to have fights with " bovine management operatives " . My mistake .

And for sure, there's no such one as Elizabeth warren no matter how much she bullshits about it. The actual context of the issue.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Some context: Trump is a racist pig who stoops to racially demeaning namecalling, because that's how his brain works.

 

[Ponyutd]

Just as an aside, this fella has a great knowledge of Medieval history, and gives it to Trump quite nicely.Donaeld The Unready (@donaeldunready) on Twitter

 

[Casually Red]

So why are people attacking her for that? Is she claiming some kind of advantage? How would that work, exactly? And is the hostility to her claim based on the fact that she passes for white? Or is her claim seen as somehow convenient? Who is attacking her, Cherokees or Trumpians, or both? (Genuinely confused here.)

I posted the fucking article earlier that explained in full how she and her supporters tried to use it for political advantage . If it was just something she talked about with her family we wouldn't even know about it . Her camp made it a political issue . It was bollocks. A politician told lies....shocker !!

 

[Kaka Tim]

so its fine to use racist language to attack a politician who may or may not have been bullshitting?

Ok - got it.

 

[Casually Red]

Claiming to have some Cherokee ancestry because there were rumours about somebody in the family tree being 1/16th Cherokee is as American as getting drunk on green beer on St. Patrick's Day because you're part Irish on your great-grandmother's side and are sick and tired of how your people are being oppressed by the British.

And as American as chasing a vote and getting yourself designated a minority for political purposes. The context . She's a fucking politician . She tells lies for a living . So do her lobbyists . Why are you defending her ? Because she's somehow..for some bizarre, illogical , god knows what reason I'll never in my life ever fathom...on the " left " ? Why ? Oh..it's because she's an Indian or something..no she isn't !! Not even for that .

This is illogical captain. It does not compute .

 

[Casually Red]

so its fine to use racist language to attack a politician who may or may not have been bullshitting?

Ok - got it.

How is Pocahontas racist ? Explain to me why Pocahontas is racist when referring to somebody whos whiter than the love child of Taylor Swift and Adolf Hitler ?

 

[CrabbedOne]

Just as an aside, this fella has a great knowledge of Medieval history, and gives it to Trump quite nicely.Donaeld The Unready (@donaeldunready) on Twitter

 

[Yossarian]

The irony of the whole "Pocahontas" controversy, of course, is that Trump and his father before him spent many years claiming they were Swedish, not German.

 

[campanula]

Claiming to have some Cherokee ancestry because there were rumours about somebody in the family tree being 1/16th Cherokee is as American as getting drunk on green beer on St. Patrick's Day because you're part Irish on your great-grandmother's side and are sick and tired of how your people are being oppressed by the British.

Yep - it's true. And oddly, it is always Cherokee

 

[2hats]

you can get it as a font now

“Tiny Hand” - could become the new comic sans.

 

[19force8]

Claiming to have some Cherokee ancestry because there were rumours about somebody in the family tree being 1/16th Cherokee is as American as getting drunk on green beer on St. Patrick's Day because you're part Irish on your great-grandmother's side and are sick and tired of how your people are being oppressed by the British.

Reminds me of the time I walked into a (London) Irish pub on St Patrick's day and ordered a pint of orange squash

 

[Kaka Tim]

How is Pocahontas racist ? Explain to me why Pocahontas is racist when referring to somebody whos whiter than the love child of Taylor Swift and Adolf Hitler ?

Your right. Im sure most native americans are just totally cool with her being referred to as "pocahontas" - totally respectful and not a derogatory insult at all. No siree.
And if somebody claimed african heritage, he could call them "chicken george" and that would be fine too.

 

[Yossarian]

And as American as chasing a vote and getting yourself designated a minority for political purposes. The context . She's a fucking politician . She tells lies for a living . So do her lobbyists . Why are you defending her ? Because she's somehow..for some bizarre, illogical , god knows what reason I'll never in my life ever fathom...on the " left " ? Why ? Oh..it's because she's an Indian or something..no she isn't !! Not even for that .

This is illogical captain. It does not compute .

I like Elizabeth Warren and her position on banking reform etc. a lot more than I like the president she's attacking - and the Cherokee thing just seems like a bullshit point to be attacking her on, since believing you have a trace of Native ancestry is really common in states like Oklahoma. How many Irish people go around thinking they might have survivors from the Spanish Armada among their distant ancestors?

 

[NoXion]

have you seen his handwriting? It's block print all caps, with giant towering 'I's.

I write in all caps as well. Could never get the hang of that cursive shit.

 

[redsquirrel]

“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”
(came across this yesterday, falsely attributed to John Steinbeck)

And? Do you believe it to be an accurate summation? Did socialism was never take root in the US?

Or is this just all U75 is these days, somewhere where people repost twitter shit.

 

[belboid]

Or is this just all U75 is these days, somewhere where people repost twitter shit.

And reposting shit that they know is false. Really, what is the fucking point?

 

[krtek a houby]

Reminds me of the time I walked into a (London) Irish pub on St Patrick's day and ordered a pint of orange squash

 

[flustercuck]

Orange = Protestant (as in the Orange Order)

 

[krtek a houby]

Your right. Im sure most native americans are just totally cool with her being referred to as "pocahontas" - totally respectful and not a derogatory insult at all. No siree.
And if somebody claimed african heritage, he could call them "chicken george" and that would be fine too.

It's pretty fucking obvious that the insult was racist and deliberately used to have a go at her. Only an idiot or an ubertrumpbot would claim otherwise.

 

[krtek a houby]

Orange = Protestant (as in the Orange Order)

Sigh. I know that, I'm just wondering why the poster is embarrassed at ordering it. Do they think we're going to take offence at somebody drinking a soft drink over an alcoholic drink?

 

[flustercuck]

Sigh. I know that, I'm just wondering why the poster is embarrassed at ordering it. Do they think we're going to take offence at somebody drinking a soft drink over an alcoholic drink?

The possible political allegiance shown by ordering it in a pub full of catholics?

 

[krtek a houby]

The possible political allegiance shown by ordering it in a pub full of catholics?

'cos all us Irish are Catholics

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

How is Pocahontas racist ?

Should you ever muster the courage to actually travel to the US [and if they let you in], try this little experiment. Go to the Navajo Nation. Monument Valley is a nice tourist spot nearby; but before you do that, go to one of the Navajo towns: Kayenta, or Chinle, maybe. Stop your car near a group of Navajo people that includes men and women. Get out, and yell across the street at one of the women: "Hey Pocahontas!"

See what happens.

Record your experience.

Report back to us, soon as you can.