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

[JBS]

Regarding the two other soldiers
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clint_Lorance
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Gallagher_(Navy_SEAL)

[SimonNZ]

I think President Pence would have directed the actor to steer Trump away from the crazy.

What does #WWG1WGA mean?

[amw]

I think President Pence would have directed the actor to steer Trump away from the crazy.

What does #WWG1WGA mean?

I think it means "Where We Go One, We Go All" but I'm not completely sure.

Given the rate of ideological acceleration in the Republican Party, by the time the 2020 general election campaign comes around I fully expect Republican Senate candidates to be proclaiming Trump a paid actor and Pence the real president, and instructing their supporters to prepare for civil war.

[JBS]

Google shows no trace of that rumor, as least for now, but it did yield this imaginative attempt

https://www.wsbtv.com/news/trending-now/north-dakota-man-pleads-guilty-to-using-stolen-forklift-in-trump-assassination-attempt/887175986

[amw]

I really appreciate how, in a country where you can just go into any Wal-Mart and buy a firearm, this guy decided that his best shot at assassinating the president was.... a forklift. Americans are truly the most creative of people.

[Todd]

Poor Roger.

I await post-Thanksgiving polling.

[SimonNZ]

Poor Roger.

What with him being so innocent and all.

meanwhile:

New Ohio Law Would Provide Religious Students With A Safe Space From Facts

"Ohio just decided to make their kids dumber. The state House of Representatives passed the Student Religious Liberties Act this week. The legislation will permit students to answer questions with any nonsense they want as long as it's what they think Jesus would do.

The bill passed the Republican-controlled House 61 to 31 or eleventy million to zero if you reject Satan's math. It will now move to the Senate, which religious-pandering Republicans also control. This is the relevant crazy-making portion of the text:

No school district board of education (...) shall prohibit a student from engaging in religious expression in the completion of homework, artwork, or other written or oral assignments. Assignment grades and scores shall be calculated using ordinary academic standards of substance and relevance, including any legitimate pedagogical concerns, and shall not penalize or reward a student based on the religious content of a student's work.

Ohio Rep. Timothy Ginter insists critics of the law are just possessed by liberal demons. The law will not in fact permit what it clearly says it will allow. Don't worry. Students can't refuse to answer test questions because the material conflicts with their religious views, but they can denounce their teachers as heretics. Gitner offers as a hypothetical Christian and Jewish students who believe (incorrectly) that the world was created just 6,000 years ago and is barely older than The Phantom of the Opera. He doesn't even bother to include anything a Muslim student might believe that also ignores observable scientific evidence."

GITNER: This bill is not an expansion, but rather a clarification, of those liberties already afforded our students in the Constitution and seeks to remove ambiguity for our schools who are often confused as to what students can and cannot do in regard to religious expression, by providing a pathway they can follow that keeps them within constitutional guidelines

However, Gary Daniels, chief lobbyist at Ohio's ACLU, has actually read the bill Gitner sponsored. He was able to comprehend the words "shall not penalize or reward a student based on the religious content of a student's work." (We're mostly talking about public schools so a student's work shouldn't contain "religious content" in the first place.). Daniels contends students could very well answer questions with religious dogma and teachers would let it slide. They have college loan payments to make and don't want to get whipped by the Bible belt.

DANIELS: In a small town, in a small county, where these issues tend to attract more attention, how much is a teacher going to push back on a student's religious beliefs and create a controversy in a classroom?"[...]

[SimonNZ]

Barr Suggests Impeachment Inquiry Undermines Voters' Intent
The attorney general strongly defended President Trump's assertions of executive power.

"Attorney General William P. Barr on Friday vigorously defended President Trump's use of executive authority and suggested that House Democrats were subverting the will of voters by exploring whether to remove the president from office for abusing his power.

Mr. Trump campaigned on a vow to upend Washington, and voters were aware of his agenda when they elected him president, Mr. Barr said.

"While the president has certainly thrown out the traditional Beltway playbook and punctilio, he was up front about what he wanted to do and the people decided they wanted him to serve as president," Mr. Barr said in a speech at a conference hosted by the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group influential in Republican politics.

Mr. Trump's opponents "essentially see themselves as engaged in a war to cripple by any means necessary a duly elected government," Mr. Barr added.

His forceful defense of the president came after some of Mr. Trump's allies have in recent weeks accused Mr. Barr of failing to vociferously back the president. Mr. Trump was said to be frustrated that Mr. Barr urged him to release a reconstructed transcript of the July call with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine at the center of the impeachment case. The president also wanted Mr. Barr to hold a news conference to say the president had violated no laws, only to have Mr. Barr rebuff the request. Mr. Trump has denied that account.

Speaking for an hour at the upscale Mayflower Hotel a few blocks from the White House, Mr. Barr hit back at the president's critics on an array of fronts as he argued that Mr. Trump, in his capacity as president, has not overstepped his authority.

While Mr. Barr never uttered the word impeachment, he castigated those he sees as stalling Mr. Trump's agenda. He defended the president's right to set policies, steer the country's diplomatic and military relations and keep executive branch conversations confidential from congressional oversight."[...]

[dissily Mordentroge]

While Mr. Barr never uttered the word impeachment, he castigated those he sees as stalling Mr. Trump's agenda. He defended the president's right to set policies, steer the country's diplomatic and military relations and keep executive branch conversations confidential from congressional oversight."[...]

Which has many of us living outside of the Land of the Brave and the Free wondering why Americans imagine they live in a democracy.

[JBS]

the press is starting to mine Mr(Ms) Anonymous's book for all the clickbait it can muster

https://news.yahoo.com/bombshell-anonymous-book-claims-white-140800072.html

[SimonNZ]

Wonkette:

President Coronary Thrombosis Perfectly Healthy, Just Likes Making Surprise Hospital Visits

"Did the president have a heart attack this weekend? We should know enough not to expect a straight answer. Donald Trump made an unscheduled trip Saturday to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Sources reportedly told Andrew Vernon, a contributor to The Hill, that Trump was being examined for chest pain. That seems a more likely explanation than what part time White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham offered us. She said in a statement that Trump had some down time so he proactively went to the hospital to have his oil changed.

GRISHAM: Anticipating a very busy 2020, the President is taking advantage of a free weekend here in Washington, D.C., to begin portions of his routine annual physical exam at Walter Reed.

That's hard to believe even if the White House or the press secretary had any credibility. Trump is lazy. He's not someone who gets a jump on things. He's not my wife (thank God). Grisham implies that Trump's weekends are otherwise jam-packed with work, but he usually plays golf like a retired person with no interesting hobbies. He watched The Joker Saturday night, and that seems more like how Trump would spend all his non-crime-related free time. I just don't believe he would voluntarily go to a doctor unless he was in serious discomfort.

It's also suspect that Trump described Saturday's visit to Walter Reed as "phase one" of his annual physical, which he'll actually finish next year. It's like his doctors are unreliable contractors screwing him on a kitchen remodel. They updated the backsplash, but his cabinets are on back order and won't be ready until next spring.

It's possible that "phase two" is just the actual physical, which should only take a few hours because Trump is at least passably human. But we shouldn't promote conspiracy theories. We should take the president at his word despite his documented history of obvious lies.

Saturday evening, while Trump was watching good friend Robert De Niro in The Joker, Grisham stopped by Jeanine Pirro's Fox News show to spread some North Korea-style propaganda. Not only is our dear leader in excellent health, he's in the best health of anyone who ever lived. Actual billionaires want to hunt down Trump for the restorative properties of his blood."[...]

[SimonNZ]

President Trump's Pardons of Soldiers Shows How Little He Knows About War

"This past Friday President Trump signed pardons for Army First Lieutenant Clint Lorance and Army Major Mathew Golsteyn, and signed an order directing the promotion of Special Warfare Operator First Class Edward Gallagher to the grade of Chief Petty Officer. The White House press release announcing the decisions in these cases concludes with a quote from Trump, "when our soldiers have to fight for our country, I want to give them the confidence to fight." In the face of battlefield misconduct, however, the final statement from the White House is a perplexing one and begs the question: from where do we draw our confidence to fight?

Pete Hegseth, the Iraq war veteran and conservative Fox & Friends commentator, has said the president believes, "The benefit of the doubt should go to the guys pulling the trigger." Fair enough, war is complicated, a realm where the toughest decisions don't appear in black or white but in confusing shades of gray. However, in these cases the issues are, for once, very clear. Lorance was found guilty of murder and Golsteyn has confessed to murder—twice. With regards to Gallagher—who posed for a photo over the body of an executed ISIS prisoner and texted it to a friend with the caption: "Good story behind this, got him with my hunting knife"—Trump is trying to strike the pose of being sympathetic to the warfighter while simultaneously undermining Navy commanders—the very warfighters he allegedly supports—who have petitioned both to demote Gallagher and to strip him of his SEAL qualification in order to maintain good order and discipline within Naval Special Warfare.

The confidence to fight doesn't come from laxity but rather from discipline. When unit discipline breaks down—when lieutenants start shooting unarmed civilians (in the case of Lorance), when special operators take matters into their own hands and begin executing prisoners (the case of Golsteyn, and, I would contend, Gallagher)—the confidence to fight evaporates. In fact, you aren't fighting anymore. You're doing something altogether different: you're killing.

Navy officials said Wednesday they are pulling achievement medals from prosecutors who argued the case against a decorated Navy SEAL who was acquitted in the death of a wounded Islamic State captive after President Donald Trump intervened

Clearly, Trump doesn't understand this difference. This past October, he took to Twitter to discuss Golsteyn's case, writing, "We train our boys to be killing machines, then prosecute them when they kill!" Is that really how Trump views the U.S. military? As a collection of "killing machines"? When I returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, I was often asked by well-meaning people whether or not "I had to kill anyone over there." My response evolved to: "If I did, you paid me to." Which was more often than not met by confusion as opposed to the intuitive understanding that it was American tax dollars that had sent me to war, and thus American citizens who shared in the complicity of whatever killing I had done.

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I can think of no clearer evidence of America's civil-military divide than President Trump's decision to pardon Lorance, Golsteyn, and Gallagher. Even if one were to assume the pardons weren't a cynical political move designed to pander to his base, they would represent an extreme misreading of how to stand in solidarity with our service members.

A week ago, I sat on a panel where the question came up of whether "Thank you for your service," was a sentiment appreciated by veterans. My co-panelist felt it held us apart from society at large, giving veterans an awkward "otherness." My view was that it is a genuine expression of gratitude that should be appreciated. What both of us agreed on was that in the past few decades norms of behavior towards veterans have changed for the better in this country. Thankfully we won't regress to the days of the Vietnam War when citizens spat on soldiers returning home. Today, we all agreed, no one defiles the uniform and those who wear it.

How naïve.

Norms have changed. We've discovered a new way to defile the uniform. Today, we allow murderers to wear it while being lauded as heroes. They tell their stories on cable news specials. This new norm should come as no surprise. In 2016, then-candidate Trump announced in Iowa his personal view of killing and death. "I could," he said, "stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters."


(personally I feel that Trump is trying to say to the military: pretty soon you're going to be asked to do some nasty shit to defend me in the name of loyalty, but don't worry, I'll pardon all of you)

[SimonNZ]

Israel's West Bank Settlements Do Not Violate International Law, U.S. Says
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the shift, which may doom peace efforts, on Monday afternoon.

[JBS]

Wonkette:

President Coronary Thrombosis Perfectly Healthy, Just Likes Making Surprise Hospital Visits

"Did the president have a heart attack this weekend? We should know enough not to expect a straight answer. Donald Trump made an unscheduled trip Saturday to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Sources reportedly told Andrew Vernon, a contributor to The Hill, that Trump was being examined for chest pain. That seems a more likely explanation than what part time White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham offered us. She said in a statement that Trump had some down time so he proactively went to the hospital to have his oil changed.

GRISHAM: Anticipating a very busy 2020, the President is taking advantage of a free weekend here in Washington, D.C., to begin portions of his routine annual physical exam at Walter Reed.

That's hard to believe even if the White House or the press secretary had any credibility. Trump is lazy. He's not someone who gets a jump on things. He's not my wife (thank God). Grisham implies that Trump's weekends are otherwise jam-packed with work, but he usually plays golf like a retired person with no interesting hobbies. He watched The Joker Saturday night, and that seems more like how Trump would spend all his non-crime-related free time. I just don't believe he would voluntarily go to a doctor unless he was in serious discomfort.

It's also suspect that Trump described Saturday's visit to Walter Reed as "phase one" of his annual physical, which he'll actually finish next year. It's like his doctors are unreliable contractors screwing him on a kitchen remodel. They updated the backsplash, but his cabinets are on back order and won't be ready until next spring.

It's possible that "phase two" is just the actual physical, which should only take a few hours because Trump is at least passably human. But we shouldn't promote conspiracy theories. We should take the president at his word despite his documented history of obvious lies.

Saturday evening, while Trump was watching good friend Robert De Niro in The Joker, Grisham stopped by Jeanine Pirro's Fox News show to spread some North Korea-style propaganda. Not only is our dear leader in excellent health, he's in the best health of anyone who ever lived. Actual billionaires want to hunt down Trump for the restorative properties of his blood."[...]

As I understand it, Trump was at Walter Reed for only a couple of hours.  Possibly the chest pains were a false alarm, but I think if it was a real coronary event, the doctors probably would not let him leave so quickly.

[drogulus]

     

     This is beyond the valley of Nunes face. How did he get to the Fox studio without being mobbed by exorcists?

[SimonNZ]

Impeachment guide: The 9 witnesses testifying this week


McConnell 'can't imagine a scenario' in which Senate removes Trump

[JBS]

Impeachment guide: The 9 witnesses testifying this week


McConnell 'can't imagine a scenario' in which Senate removes Trump

Given the state of the GOP, Mitch  is probably correct . There are at this point probably no more than 5 or 6 Republican senators who would vote to convict.

But it must be noted that the main reason Congress is not legislating is Mitch himself, and his refusal to allow votes on almost anything other than confirming judges.

[SimonNZ]

Yeah, but "can't imagine a scenario"? That's saying right out loud not simply "we think he's innocent of the charges" but "we don't care if he's proven guilty of all these accumulating charges, but also of anything else he's done or will do no matter the size or scope".

[JBS]

Yeah, but "can't imagine a scenario"? That's saying right out loud not simply "we think he's innocent of the charges" but "we don't care if he's proven guilty of all these accumulating charges, but also of anything else he's done or will do no matter the size or scope".

That's exactly the state of the GOP now.

[Herman]

Interestingly, Trump had to be rushed to Walter Reed Hospital recently, yet another thing that was spinned out of recognition.

Apparently things are getting to him, now that he appears to be watching tv for eight hours a day.