Trump, May 2017: 100 days of [unintelligible]

I mean, I love that second one. "You just didn't understand his tone of voice!"

Meanwhile, this restores my confidence so much

Trump national security aides put his name in their briefing docs as much as possible so he will keep reading them https://t.co/TTZfbKsy67 pic.twitter.com/rTm1r11EN0

— Dustin Volz (@dnvolz) May 17, 2017

Just came hear to get "Gordon is a Moron" stuck in my head, thanks

He was doing air quotes the whole time

As if the Senate didn't have enough on its mind

BREAKING: Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina collapses during DC race, gets CPR, taken away in ambulance.

— The Associated Press (@AP) May 17, 2017

Trump national security aides put his name in their briefing docs as much as possible so he will keep reading them

things that really really really read like an Onion article

oh it's from the Daily Express, not as highbrow or reliable as The Onion tbf

there'd be a pleasing arc if putin manages to take trump out of the white house after helping to put him there in the first place

As has been said before, chaos in USian politics is always in Putin's best interests. He likely doesn't even care who's in charge, as long as it's a mess that he can exploit. Dude is way evil, of course, but he is not stupid. His offer to helpfully provide a record of the Trump-Lavrov conversation is A+ trollage.

He's better at being evil than 45.

Trump national security aides put his name in their briefing docs as much as possible so he will keep reading them, with every other page featuring a collage of women in various stages of undress. The president is fed a treat after every third page and is slowly learning sign language so that he can communicate with his keepers.

Dude is way evil, of course, but he is not stupid

he doesn't even need to be smart to run rings around trump is the alarming thing

That what Tills gets for using up his body's finite store of energy

Whole lotta 'Pence save us'/'Pence what are you thinking' pieces today in various RW media outlets. Wonder why?

Meanwhile, fun times in the West Wing:

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/17/trump-white-house-on-edge-238482

In interviews, multiple White House officials indicated they feel under siege – unsure who in the intelligence community was leaking, how much damaging information was out there, when the next proverbial shoe would drop and what Trump might say.

Staffers shuttled back and forth among West Wing offices debating what to say without divulging confidential material or getting anything wrong. A deflated and exhausted Sean Spicer, who continues to read reports that his job is in jeopardy but is working 12 hours every day in his office, huddled in his office with Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.

There was a pervasive sense, another official said, that “we are kind of helpless.”

...

But inside the White House, there was a struggle to get any surrogates on TV because no one knew what to say or how to defend the story, one White House adviser said. At one point in the evening, Fox News host Bret Baier told viewers that “there are not Republicans willing to go on camera tonight as of yet.”

“There is this misunderstanding all these people want to go out there and defend us,” said one of the senior administration officials. “Who are they? Do you want to call them? Do you know how to get them on TV?”

Earlier in the day, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster was given talking points to “try and turn the temperature down a little,” one person familiar with the comments said, “without causing more of a firestorm or making news or actually denying the story.”

But White House officials, one person said, are becoming increasingly leery of putting their names on statements in the immediate aftermath of stories – because Trump often contradicts them publicly or on Twitter.

Etc. etc.

of all the many trump traits that are incomprehensible to me, his inability to grasp the value of reading, either for work or for pleasure, is maybe the most alien to me

I know so many people like him!

Our new poet laureate

This email is the closest thing to a poem I've read in a while pic.twitter.com/Ou8ltlRVjX

— Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) May 17, 2017

Yeah, this'll work, sure.

Trump to unveil plans for an ‘Arab NATO’ in Saudi Arabia https://t.co/1pC7QuuqeR @washingtonpost

— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) May 17, 2017

Earlier in the day, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster was given talking points to “try and turn the temperature down a little,” one person familiar with the comments said, “without causing more of a firestorm or making news or actually denying the story.”

'okay hr, listen up, we're gonna need you to go out there and give the appearance of addressing this issue but we're gonna need you to do it without sharing any information whatsoever, so just go out there, square your shoulders, look directly into the camera, and just make some mouth sounds that are like human speech but aren't actually words'

Bad thought: Was an elderly Russian gentleman seen walking away from Tillis, incongruously carrying an umbrella on a sunny day? Bumping off a few GOP Senators can imperil the majority, or at least require tie-breaking votes from Pence, who becomes suddenly consequential, just in time to have his own complicity cast in doubt...

I know so many people like him!

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

me too! people who outright refuse to read anything and they wear it like a badge of honor .

I work in FE I know hundreds of people who hate reading lol

LATEST: Russia's Putin says he can give record of Trump and Lavrov conversation to U.S. congress and senate

For reasons I can't quite put my finger on, this feels qualitatively similar to Bugs Bunny tricking Daffy into saying 'duck season'.

This is so stupid.

Paul Ryan talking to reporters at 10. Maybe he'll light himself on fire.

treesh more of a hanna-barbera man i assume xp

Ryan'll be all "I'm deeply troubled for my tax cuts."

i hope ryan just shows up in his gym gear and furiously, worldlessly pumps barbells while refusing to break eye contact with one unlucky reporter

I was a lonely guy just thinking baout things this morning and it occurred to me that the colossal mess Obama had to clean up coming into office is truly small potatoes compared to the damage the next president (or, let's be real, probably the next half dozen presidents) will likely have to undo.

Not if this is stopped. Ross Douthat *door mysteriously slams in another room -- fox mysteriously appears in the window, screams* thinks the 25th amendment is a realistic option based on all the anonymous smack talk coming from "top level white house officials"

not to mention the fact that it's practically guaranteed that the next time a Republican majority congress gets a Democratic president they'll spend four years trying to impeach 'em regardless of circumstances. hell some of them were already signalling this with Hillary before the election.

xp

i like adam schiffs voice

I think we can pretty much guarantee the GOP breaking every norm for advantage from here on out until there's just two of them left and they are all 3 branches of govt.

Paul fucking Ryan

Our new poet laureate

― Ned Raggett

he forgot to put STOP after every line

i like adam schiffs voice

― nxd, Wednesday, May 17, 2017 9:35 AM

he also knows how to speak in sentences, including how to stick big words into them

'okay hr, listen up, we're gonna need you to go out there and give the appearance of addressing this issue but we're gonna need you to do it without sharing any information whatsoever'

i presume that i am hardly alone on ilx in having done this job in several guises thus far in my career

silly moustache and high pitched voice my favourite of those guises obv

that basically is my job

that douthat 25th amendment piece relies on the idea that trump doesn't know he made a booboo. but he asked sessions and pence to leave the room (i.e. there was intent, he is aware of the law) before he popped the question. it's obstruction of justice.

I kinda love that this is the fallback.

Rep. James Comer, a member of the Oversight Committee, says Trump may well have been joking to Comey. "It looks different on paper."

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) May 17, 2017

Just came hear to get "Gordon is a Moron" stuck in my head, thanks

― your cognitive privilege (El Tomboto), Wednesday, 17 May 2017 12:53 (fifty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

np, all part of the service

Lol

i can't believe we're seriously discussing the nuance of an op-ed by ross douthat, who is a face scrawled in sharpie on a balloon iirc

ross, dontdouthat

xposts Ned: along the lines of "Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?" ?

a line that surely ought to have been delivered with relish by len brennan at some stage

Paul Ryan is talking about tax cuts.

At least SOMEBODY has their priorities straight this morning.

"You don't understand, 'imprison journalists' was our code word for the surprise party we were throwing Ivanka -- AND YOU RUINED IT, YOU MONSTERS"

Come on, he was only joking. He's always joking, can't you take a joke? Also, stop hitting yourself.