What stupid shit has Trump done today?

[Streathamite]

[QUOTE="MightyTibberton, post: 15092212, member: 73052] . I hope May will condemn this attack on the mayor of a city under terror attack and this disgusting attempt to link that mayor's religion - which is what he is doing, have no doubt - to the attack.[/QUOTE]
In fact, she posted just about the weakest, mildest reproof that she possibly could. Disappointing even by her low standards

 

[CRI]

Unethical crap is such a lovely euphemism for torture and mass murder.

The belief that Trump is worse than his predecessors is a liberal fantasy.

Yeah, wevs

 

[CRI]

[QUOTE="MightyTibberton, post: 15092212, member: 73052] . I hope May will condemn this attack on the mayor of a city under terror attack and this disgusting attempt to link that mayor's religion - which is what he is doing, have no doubt - to the attack.

In fact, she posted just about the weakest, mildest reproof that she possibly could. Disappointing even by her low standards

Well, at least the Mayor of New York City has come out in support of Khan.

 

[gosub]

Interesting interview with Seb Gorka on Newsnight (20mins in), which pretty much set out the media boundaries. Real Donald -Twitter is for Trumps communication with his domestic political power base, and us outside the State should ignore it, not least cos it can only be detrimental to international relations.

 

[Streathamite]

How soon you've forgotten the bloody debacle on Iraq, the carpet-bombing of Southeast Asia, the coup on Chile and the other crimes by their cronies in Latin America.

The man's a shit but I don't think he's worse than his predecessors.

Give him time, he's only been at it 5 months.
In a way you have a point. Those others were evil scumbags who did terrible things. But they were sane and rational, who understood the rulebook. Trump is as evil as them, plus he is both thick as shit, and completely unhinged.
He scares me more than that lot put together.
e2a: You could kinda work out the rationale behind everything they did, and - at the very least - plot the general outline of what they would do next. That helps. With Trump, you can't. It's like having a psychotic pre-teen let loose with an uzi in a shopping mall.

 

[Streathamite]

A clusterfuck, yes, but as long as he keeps the clusterf Uckfield primarily domestic

But that's the point. He's the POTUS. He can't keep it primarily domestic

 

[editor]

Great idea!

http://jalopnik.com/trumps-plan-to-privatize-air-traffic-control-explained-1795826288

 

[Streathamite]

Unfortunately, his decision on climate change will effect everyone--even people who've never heard of the man.

Precisely

 

[gosub]

Great idea!

http://jalopnik.com/trumps-plan-to-privatize-air-traffic-control-explained-1795826288

The tech game changer FANS kicks in on his watch, its more that than anything else

 

[spring-peeper]

.

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

This explains a lot

 

[CrabbedOne]

Important point. Worth reading this thread on the nature of Trump's support and how it's fading. Most significantly he's losing the Clinton hating conventional Republicans he needed to win the election.

Occurs to me that means he's in trouble. He'll need to rally the respectables to win a second term in 2020. There'll be no pre-demonised Dem hate figure that the GOP have been throwing shit at for decades to run against.

Silver also pointed out earlier things like ditching Paris are pretty bad politics. Republicans will mostly approve of the affront to tree huggers but a lot of them only weakly. For a broad swath of Dems piously obsessed with things eco on the other hand its like he killed Bambi. 2020 will be all about turnout and Trump's mobilising the wrong side.

 

[bimble]

Just anecdotal but I spoke to my nutty Aunty the other day who lives in a massive gated retirement community in Florida which voted largely for Trump:
Asked her what the general feeling was there and she said almost everyone she knows has turned against him now. She said there's a lot of disappointment, growing as time goes on, and that those including herself who wanted to 'give him a chance' now feel that day by day he's proving himself a national embarrassment, has been given a chance and blown it.

 

[CrabbedOne]

On TAC Jeff Sessions In The Doghouse

...
Our president is making himself look like a fool who doesn’t know how the US government works. In revising the travel ban language, Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department were trying to come up with one that would be more likely to survive Supreme Court review. Trump must be the only person in America who thinks that by force of his audacious will, he can bend the Supreme Court to his will. Sessions and his team were trying to serve the president’s best interests — and it seemed that the president understood that, which is why he approved the revised version. Until now.
...

And Trump is pissed about Sessions recusing himself from Russia-gate. Points out Trump buggering up his teams best efforts to help him and then blaming them is something of a pattern.

 

[CrabbedOne]

In WaPo How Trump just completely undermined the legal argument for his travel ban, in 4 tweets

More on Trump's Muslim Ban woes. The old fool is so upset by any hint of "political correctness" he's destroying (again!) any chance of this fairly daft bit of legislation ever getting past the courts.

 

[MightyTibberton]

Occurs to me that means he's in trouble. He'll need to rally the respectables to win a second term in 2020. There'll be no pre-demonised Dem hate figure that the GOP have been throwing shit at for decades to run against.

The GOP are - I've read - trying to do this with Elizabeth Warren.

 

[bimble]

I can't stop looking at this tweet of his from Sunday.
There are so many shades of stupid in it, its kind of a logic defying work of art.


What's the likelihood of him tweeting about yesterday's mass shooting by a 'disgruntled former employee', I wonder.

 

[CRI]

I can't stop looking at this tweet of his from Sunday.
There are so many shades of stupid in it, its kind of a logic defying work of art.

View attachment 108583
What's the likelihood of him tweeting about yesterday's mass shooting by a 'disgruntled former employee', I wonder.

Nil.

 

[CrabbedOne]

In Newsweek IS TRUMP OK? PRESIDENT’S MENTAL STABILITY A 'SERIOUS PROBLEM,' CONSERVATIVES SAY

...
Carl Bernstein, of Watergate fame, said in May he and other journalists had spoken to Republicans who were second-guessing Trump’s mental acumen.

“We have many reporters, myself included, who have talked to numerous people, Republicans on Capitol Hill, who in private will tell you they doubt the stability of this president,” Bernstein said on CNN.

The tweeting exploiting that Tower Bridge attack does make him look unhinged. All the leaks about very erratic behaviour with staff. Trump a very vain man facing falling approval ratings. He's being remorselessly pursued by a hyper critical press. He's in a high pressure job he really does not know how to do. Beloved members of his family also play a role in his chaotic, back biting administration and are under attack as well. It's not like he entered it with a well ordered mind. He's always been an eccentric, larger than life character.

Consider this on LBJ coming apart during his presidency.

 

[chandlerp]

He's tweeting about ISIS claiming responsibility for the Melbourne attack which left one person dead. No comment yet on the Florida shootings of course.

 

[CrabbedOne]

On Bloomberg In Trump’s White House, Everything’s Coming in ‘Two Weeks’

Typical bad manager, has his team always scrabbling to reach a stretch deadline while getting later and later and later.

 

[ohmyliver]

Top-Secret NSA Report Details Russian Hacking Effort Days Before 2016 Election

In short. The Intercept were leaked a top secret report stating that the Russians hacked into election infrastructure in the months before the election. It looks likely to be a genuine report because they fucked up the operational security and posted the documents in such a way that the source of the leak was revealed, and has now been arrested.

Mike Farb has been doing a lot of investigation into electoral dubiousness MikeFarb (@mikefarb1) on Twitter so he's also worth following on this.

 

[CRI]

Apologies for the tweet, but some sobering thoughts in the thread about resistance and complacency. Have a look at the whole thing if you can.

 

[CRI]

Top-Secret NSA Report Details Russian Hacking Effort Days Before 2016 Election

In short. The Intercept were leaked a top secret report stating that the Russians hacked into election infrastructure in the months before the election. It looks likely to be a genuine report because they fucked up the operational security and posted the documents in such a way that the source of the leak was revealed, and has now been arrested.

Mike Farb has been doing a lot of investigation into electoral dubiousness MikeFarb (@mikefarb1) on Twitter so he's also worth following on this.

The arrested woman is Reality Winner (her parents should be shot!) The fact there was an arrest points to the content of the report being genuine.

 

[8den]

Interesting interview with Seb Gorka on Newsnight (20mins in), which pretty much set out the media boundaries. Real Donald -Twitter is for Trumps communication with his domestic political power base, and us outside the State should ignore it, not least cos it can only be detrimental to international relations.

You could clearly tell Evan Davis was annoyed that they were given Gorka again. I'd almost forgotten there's a literal nazi in the Whitehouse between the rest of the scandals.

 

[CrabbedOne]

On The Hill Four top law firms turned down Trump: report

...
Some lawyers familiar with the situation cited existing commitments, upcoming trials, possible damage to a firm's reputation and potential conflicts with clients as part of their reasoning for not representing Trump.

But those lawyers reportedly said they were concerned Trump would make public statements against their legal advice that hurt his position in the investigation.

“The concerns were, ‘The guy won’t pay and he won’t listen,’ ” one lawyer close to the White House told Yahoo.

Marc Kasowitz, who has repeatedly represented Trump, is serving as his personal attorney in the probe.

My bold, well that's a pretty accurate assessment.

 

[bimble]

Qatar. That's what the problem is according to his latest tweet.
Qatar, which has just annoyed the Saudis.

 

[CrabbedOne]

In The Atlantic Why Trump Wants to Privatize Air-Traffic Control

...
Where Trump and his critics agree is that his embrace of privatizing air-traffic control is emblematic of his larger, details-still-to-come infrastructure plan. For one, it’s relatively cheap. “This new entity will not need taxpayer money, which is very shocking when people hear that,” Trump boasted on Monday.

In a victory for conservatives, the president is no longer touting new public investments on a grand scale; the $1 trillion he once promised has fallen to just $200 billion in direct federal spending. Instead, he’s relying on ideas Republicans have already proposed to incentivize private development and reduce the federal role in infrastructure altogether. The president plans to promote his infrastructure plans on the road in Cincinnati on Wednesday and again back in Washington later in the week, but he is expected to focus on permitting reform rather than new federal money.

In part, that’s a political calculation. Trump has already seen the two issues Republicans most prized—health care and taxes—stall on Capitol Hill. Conservatives were never particularly excited about infrastructure to begin with, and Democrats are loathe to cooperate with Trump on anything. The president needs something—anything—to pass Congress, and if nothing else, privatizing air-traffic control was an idea that had already gotten off the ground, so to speak.
...

Perhaps not all Trump's fault. Like Obama I think he genuinely hoped to work on infrastructure. Construction is one of his things and potentially it would create a surge Blue Collar jobs. Despite America's problems and huge deficit Uncle Sam due to the RoW governments bonds being a comparatively shittier bet has access to very cheap money. However a President does not have the power of the purse. That belongs to Congress. Those campaign trail boasts were thin air unless he had enthusiastic support from the GOP in Congress. Having run against them he was basically doomed to be an all mouth and no trousers President. It must be tremendously frustrating for a grab them by the pussy kinda guy like Trump.

If you read about his proposals rather than listened to his confused blethering at rallies there was always a veiled privatisation agenda. He's walking into a political minefield here but he's not got many options.

 

[8den]

In The Atlantic Why Trump Wants to Privatize Air-Traffic Control
Perhaps not all Trump's fault. Like Obama I think he genuinely hoped to work on infrastructure. Construction is one of his things and potentially it would create a surge Blue Collar jobs. Despite America's problems and huge deficit Uncle Sam due to the RoW governments bonds being a comparatively shittier bet has access to very cheap money. However a President does not have the power of the purse. That belongs to Congress. Those campaign trail boasts were thin air unless he had enthusiastic support from the GOP in Congress. Having run against them he was basically doomed to be an all mouth and no trousers President. It must be tremendously frustrating for a grab them by the pussy kinda guy like Trump.

If you read about his proposals rather than listened to his confused blethering at rallies there was always a veiled privatisation agenda. He's walking into a political minefield here but he's not got many options.

While a big part of his base (and indeed the general public) would applaud a big infrastructure bill, those Tea party republicans in the house and Senate, will figuratively die before passing any big spending agenda.

He'll get fucked in both holes by this one. Marvelous.

 

[8den]

I know Axios, but its a good summary of Trump's legal woes right now

It's Comey time, and Trump's war room has no soldiers


And the WH man power crisis is still ongoing. No Republicans want to book tickets on Titanic as it's sinking, if I was applying for a job at the WH right now, I'd be working out a way to ensure immunity or pardon was on the cards as part of the benefits package.