Trump, May 2017: 100 days of [unintelligible]

the problem with the whole "if trump is impeached the republicans will be able to easily dissociate themselves from them" narrative is that it assumes a state of affairs where denying trump will be necessary or desirable, the emergence of a "smoking gun" tape that fundamentally changes the narrative. does trump look like Fat Elvis? and what will make america, as a country, turn against Fat Elvis? the people who are on his side now, _nothing_ will change that.

the republicans are the party of trump now and that is not going to change.

cool, let's just have groups of elitist bullies fight for power til we all bake/drown

ok u go stop them and let me know how it goes

http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/the-fbi-was-never-going-to-save-the-republic-you-dolt-1795093830

(via kingfish)

The reason a lot of people will remain on his side is that they don't want to admit they were snookered (or have admitted to themselves but have concluded they can't fight it). Meantime, as noted, the president himself is whiny, impulsive, erratic.

Per Tombot's wise points all throughout the year, if/when people die because of this dynamic is the real fear. But I have no pity for anyone still vocally saying they're on his side, and will enjoy watching them twist in the wind because they're defending the void.

Did they ever release the numbers for the Fat Elvis vs. Thin Elvis stamps? How much did Fat Elvis lose by, and who certified those results? This is important! Tampering with novelty stamp votes is a federal offense!

the fact remains that Trump is clearly more concerned with being tight and friction-free bros with Russia than he is with soothing discord within the country over which he presides.

fwiw, it does seem that straightforward at all. The administration is pressing forward with intensifying the Magnitsky Act:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/mikehayes/the-trump-administration-is-moving-forward-with-an-obama?utm_term=.hlYranqwQ3#.sn75aOZDLj

and has just put through a bill designed to target Russia's position in Abkhazia meaning that any country that recognises it as part of Russia, rather than part of Georgia, is automatically barred from receiving foreign aid. This is beyond the Obama position and would normally be seen as a pretty hostile move.

https://www.rferl.org/a/georgia-kvirikashvili-trump-abkhazia-south-ossetia/28475046.html

As a whole, i wouldn't say Trump's position on Russia is any more coherent than his position on anything else but it doesn't seem designed to foster good relations at all costs.

The myth of white supremacy is a sick and incoherent ideology which exists in utter contradiction to logic, justice, and even, ultimately, self-interest. Trump is the purest distillation yet of this myth made manifest and so, to the extent that the GOP is fueled by this ideology (which would be, like, to the full extent), they're absolutely the party of Trump.

cool, let's just have groups of elitist bullies fight for power til we all bake/drown

― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 11 May 2017 14:34 (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

welcome to human history, make yourself comfortable

this is the board where i get accused of "toxic cynicism," right?

*checks board*

yes

soooo cute. you and Mordy shd be roomies!

cynicism is sentimentality about life gone to seed so

thx for quoting me. mayb just call it "Mordyism" then

on the free press front

West Virginia state police arrested Dan Heyman, a veteran reporter with Public News Service, for repeatedly asking Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price whether being a target of domestic violence would be considered a “pre-existing condition,” allowing health insurance to be denied, under the new Republican healthcare bill.

The charge: “willful disruption of governmental processes.”

http://fair.org/home/action-alert-asking-questions-of-government-figures-is-not-a-crime/

soooo cute. you and Mordy shd be roomies!

go pitch it to dennis perrin, he needs the work

http://images.classicalite.com/data/images/full/18434/the-king-of-comedy.jpg

Is @tinyrevolution against bureaucracy?

It's worth discussing the ways in which we feel various bureaucratic institutions should and should not interact, given that we will most likely find ourselves in the position of having to rebuild what's left of our society sometime within our lifetimes.

Freddie de Boer should be here any minute

I'm at the point where I feel that maintaining cynicism is a heroic and praiseworthy ideal in the face of the nihilistic void that beckons upon honest appraisal of our current situation.

meanwhile Jonah has questions about The Economist interview:

So, I’m honestly curious. What is the right way to interpret Trump’s statement that he coined the phrase “prime the pump” a few days ago? Did he forget? Was he playing a game with the editors of The Economist? If so, what possible benefit would he get? I’m really interested in knowing what the best possible explanation could be?

is anyone going to ask mccabe tough questions? wyden, maybe?

The phrase 'priming the pump' dates to the early 19th century.

— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) May 11, 2017

lol

What is the right way to interpret Trump’s statement that he coined the phrase “prime the pump” a few days ago?

well uh he's a massive narcissist who will shamelessly seek every opportunity to inflate his achievements no matter how patently, insanely untrue the resulting statement is

good talk jonah, hope living in your car is working out okay

Maybe he'd genuinely never heard the phrase before and came up with it independently.

So, I’m honestly curious. What is the right way to interpret Trump’s statement that he coined the phrase “prime the pump” a few days ago? Did he forget? Was he playing a game with the editors of The Economist? If so, what possible benefit would he get? I’m really interested in knowing what the best possible explanation could be?

clearly someone didn't read that Theory of Mind thread.

the answer is he's dumb, it really isn't any more complicated than that

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_845ywsAF1Oc/R14KltELALI/AAAAAAAAAF0/hG8T6VV0uy4/s320/jonah_goldberg_in_car.jpg

"Waddup, guys. Starting a podcast on Trump's English, hit me up."

The 'prime the pump' thing is just another example that Trump has yet to reach a number of developmental milestones that most functional people have long surpassed by the time they enter kindergarten.

It's worth discussing the ways in which we feel various bureaucratic institutions should and should not interact, given that we will most likely find ourselves in the position of having to rebuild what's left of our society sometime within our lifetimes.

― Download this Man With Hamburder And Mug (Old Lunch), 11. maj 2017 16:58 (fifteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, after the forthcoming Tiny Revolution.

no it's actually better to just blindly support anyone who seems hostile to trump and shout down anyone else as a useful idiot

hey I've still got Democratic friends who think McCain is a Good Republican.

Ron Wyden going in right now

which is a true nickname in ways they don't intend

xpost

he's trying, i guess.

all the leaders of our intelligence community are unable to say anything, shockingly

I know a guy who's sort of this incredible narcissist, who shows people a lot of memes on his phone and sometimes weirdly claims that he created them, even though its stuff that's been shared tens of thousands of times

I imagine Trump's head works a bit like that.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/politics/trump-comey-loyalty/index.html

Who needs competence when you have loyalty?

loyalty, loyalty, loyalty

martin heinrich seems frightened

What is the right way to interpret Trump’s statement that he coined the phrase “prime the pump” a few days ago?

My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy.

otm

The best construction, which is how I read it, is not that he's claiming to have invented that phrase but to have invented its application to economic policy

Which is still stupid in a, how you say, huge way

Such a chill bro now

Sen. Steve Daines asks Sen. Ted Cruz how he's doing this morning. Cruz takes a sip of coffee and answers, "Just... living in the circus."

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) May 11, 2017

xxpost Except for the thing where complex phrases like 'economic policy' (let alone the broader concept described by the phrase) have, of course, never manifested within the mind of Donald J. Trump.

how big of an asshole is Mike Rogers? rumor has it he's gonna be the next FBI chief

let's not forget money-related endeavours is supposed to be where he's a viking

like, this is his alleged area of expertise and he's still performing at a level consistent with having only just suffered a serious head injury

fuck coffee, ted crux was 100% taking a sip of campbell's chunky soup when he said that

Xp yeah a part of that interview was me thinking no way has this child ever been allowed to run a functional business