Sound The TRUMPets! A Thread for Presidential Pondering 2016-2020(?)

[Sydney Nova Scotia]

Norman Gunston V Donald Trump

https://youtu.be/ItDs-di-iFM

[71 dB]

Trump is a genius fake populist (MAGÆnius). Otherwise he is a moron without intellectual curiosity.

[Karl Henning]

     U.S. Weighs Sanctions Against Chinese Officials Over Muslim Detention Camps

The discussions over the mass detentions in Xinjiang highlight American efforts on issues that diverge from the president's priorities. Mr. Trump has rarely made statements criticizing foreign governments for human rights abuses or anti-liberal policies, and in fact has praised authoritarian leaders, including Mr. Xi.

Understatement can scarcely get any drier than Mr. Trump has rarely made statements criticizing foreign governments for human rights abuses, can it?

[bwv 1080]

Today, however, that "sense of purpose" seems to have found its object in Russia. The crusade against Putin has taken the place of the crusade against Saddam. Jonathan Chait is a representative case. Once a prominent liberal cheerleader for the wars in Iraq and Libya, he now takes to the pages of New York magazine to spin conspiracy theories regarding Trump and Russia.

But by linking arms with the neocons in their opposition to Trump, liberal Democrats are effectively laundering the reputations of unapologetic war enthusiasts such as Kristol and Frum, and assisting them in whitewashing their records. Painfully learned and expensive lessons from the United States' ill-starred military adventures over the last decade and a half are now all but ignored by too many US political and media elites.

Still worse, the neocon-Democratic alliance crowds out space for the few remaining progressive, ethical realists in a party still dominated by the liberal hawks.

https://www.thenation.com/article/the-unholy-neocon-liberal-alliance/

[drogulus]

     Repubs are dolts on economics. Cohn and Trump can't have an intelligent conversation and the blame is on both sides. Trump effectively ran the printing press with huge tax cuts and Cohn doesn't even recognize he did it. Did he complain? Of course not, he's a dolt, he thinks he can like a deficit into not being one, then dislike it if it's demand positive and therefore does real work to grow the economy.

     Trump is a dolt for a different reason. He thinks the government borrows from somebody. It does no such thing. The money that buys securities has already been spent into the economy or the securities wouldn't be issued. Swapping one kind of money for another just moves it from a checking account to an interest bearing savings account.

[SimonNZ]

Trevor Noah looks back at 17 years of Trump being weird about 9/11:

https://www.youtube.com/v/YzUBMwlGNWQ

[Karl Henning]

[...]

Two Benedict Arnolds in one young administration? Make that three. "TREASON?" Trump asked via Twitter after an unnamed administration official criticized him in a New York Times op-ed last week. "Is it subversion? Is it treason?" he asked the next day. He answered his own question on Fox News: "Virtually, you know, it's treason." Trump regarded a personal embarrassment as a national security threat.

Woodward has left us with so many troubling images of Trump — incompetence, erratic behavior, ignoring advice — that it is a close competition to determine the most worrisome. I nominate Trump's Louis XIV-style belief that he is the state, that his self-interest and the national interest are the same.

News he doesn't like is "fake."

Actions he doesn't like are "illegal."

People he doesn't like are "traitors."

Trump says the famed journalist and author should be disbelieved because "I don't talk the way I am quoted." But Woodward's Trump sounds exactly like the Trump we hear daily.

[....]

[Karl Henning]

And some more tossed bullshit word salad from the Gibberer-in-Chief:

"I think probably the hardest one we had by far was Puerto Rico because of the island nature. I actually think it was one of the best jobs that's ever been done with respect to what this is all about," Trump said.

[Karl Henning]

Again, if there are other folks who are better off under Trump (and they are welcome to be under Trump), I am genuinely pleased for them.

My retirement funds, generally, are off since the end of August.

And one fund in particular has not yet recovered to its 26 January level.

My prospects as an employee are not at their best, either.

You guys who are doing great:  good on ya!

[Karl Henning]

Manafort in talks with prosecutors about possible plea, according to people familiar with the discussions

[Karl Henning]

He tweeted "17 years since September 11th!" after his morning Fox News content; ("Karen, come here! You have got to see what the president tweeted about 9/11" has its usual ominous sound) and then he had a nice time pumping his fists and greeting supporters in Pennsylvania on his way to commemorate the victims of Flight 93. Because what is today if not another day to Build the Trump Brand? (On Sept. 11, 2001, he told an interviewer that a building he owned was now the tallest in lower Manhattan.) What is today if not another occasion for Branded Content and self-promotion? What is any day?

[Karl Henning]

America to Trump: We'll take the media over you any day

[Karl Henning]

America to Trump: We'll take the media over you any day

[...] It's not the media's job to lure Trumpists out of their cult, but rather, to inform and earn the trust of those open to learning about reality. So far, like the courts, the media is doing its part to stand up to Trump.

[Karl Henning]

Heckuva job, Donald!

Trump administration diverted nearly $10 million from FEMA to ICE, according to document

[JBS]

He tweeted "17 years since September 11th!" after his morning Fox News content; ("Karen, come here! You have got to see what the president tweeted about 9/11" has its usual ominous sound) and then he had a nice time pumping his fists and greeting supporters in Pennsylvania on his way to commemorate the victims of Flight 93. Because what is today if not another day to Build the Trump Brand? (On Sept. 11, 2001, he told an interviewer that a building he owned was now the tallest in lower Manhattan.) What is today if not another occasion for Branded Content and self-promotion? What is any day?

His visit to Shanksville has a subtext, of course. Those not familiar with the "Flight 93 Election" meme are invited to google it and see what it signifies in Trumpnik lore.

[SimonNZ]

Nah...its just that they hate him in New York and they hate him at the Pentagon.

[JBS]

Nah...its just that they hate him in New York and they hate him at the Pentagon.

True.
But he went to the Pentagon last year.

[bwv 1080]

Nah...its just that they hate him in New York and they hate him at the Pentagon.

Not defending Trump, but that is perhaps not a bad thing

[SimonNZ]

Not defending Trump, but that is perhaps not a bad thing

Please explain.

[bwv 1080]

Please explain.

Has the Pentagon shown itself to be worthy of trust after 2 failed wars, countless lives and 1.5 trillion dollars down the drain?