The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump

[McParadigm]

McConnell repeatedly on tv this weekend offering soft criticisms of Trump and hard stances on voter fraud investigations. Liz Cheney tweeting about the new Putin remarks. Charlie Sykes and John Woo writing op eds.

Seems like another week of messes could bring about a real republican tonal shift.

[4/5]

Seems like another week of messes could bring about a real republican tonal shift.

I hope you're right but I still think this is overly optimistic.

[4/5]

Wishful thinking tabloid nonsense. Since when does Trump and Co. care about or believe poll numbers? If he's angry about anything, it's not poll numbers or the staff he picked, it's at the media for being so mean to him.

The insecure man obsessed with himself who constantly talks about how wrong the polls are absolutely cares about what the polls say.

Without a doubt. And if they don't reflect what he wants then they're fake. But if a few weeks later the updated version of that poll has news he likes then he immediately touts it again as if he hadn't just said how untrustworthy and biased and fake it was a few days before.

He's probably the most polls-obsessed president we've ever had.

[Strat]

How long before his next Thank You tour?

[McParadigm]

The peculiar isolation of Donald Trump

There's a remarkably telling paragraph in Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush's tour de force in the New York Times documenting President Trump's first two weeks in office. Here it is:

Usually around 6:30 p.m., Mr. Trump retires upstairs to the residence to recharge, vent and intermittently use Twitter. With his wife, Melania, and young son, Barron, staying in New York, he is almost always by himself, sometimes in the protective presence of his imposing longtime aide and former security chief, Keith Schiller. When Mr. Trump is not watching television in his bathrobe or on his phone reaching out to old campaign hands and advisers, he will sometimes set off to explore the unfamiliar surroundings of his new home.

First of all, it's amazing reporting that allows HaberThrush to create such a vivid image. Second, it continues to shock me how willing administration officials are to leak information that makes the 45th president look not so good. And third, and most importantly, the image of Trump as an almost entirely solitary figure, riveted to a TV set and his phone, is a revealing and important window into the man and the life he now lives.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... ald-trump/

[Bi_3]

The peculiar isolation of Donald Trump

There's a remarkably telling paragraph in Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush's tour de force in the New York Times documenting President Trump's first two weeks in office. Here it is:

Usually around 6:30 p.m., Mr. Trump retires upstairs to the residence to recharge, vent and intermittently use Twitter. With his wife, Melania, and young son, Barron, staying in New York, he is almost always by himself, sometimes in the protective presence of his imposing longtime aide and former security chief, Keith Schiller. When Mr. Trump is not watching television in his bathrobe or on his phone reaching out to old campaign hands and advisers, he will sometimes set off to explore the unfamiliar surroundings of his new home.

First of all, it's amazing reporting that allows HaberThrush to create such a vivid image. Second, it continues to shock me how willing administration officials are to leak information that makes the 45th president look not so good. And third, and most importantly, the image of Trump as an almost entirely solitary figure, riveted to a TV set and his phone, is a revealing and important window into the man and the life he now lives.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... ald-trump/

Sitting, watching films in his high castle....

[Strat]

This guy just isn't going to make it 4 years. Im not even talking about all the potentially illegal and unconstitutional things he might get himself into, but rather his emotional well being and his desire to actually be president.

[McParadigm]

Seems like another week of messes could bring about a real republican tonal shift.

I hope you're right but I still think this is overly optimistic.

Hes basically one calm, quiet week away from an entirely different narrative change, as well. It will be interesting to see if the leaks are true, and he's decided that the shock and awe approach was a mistake.

[Strat]

Seems like another week of messes could bring about a real republican tonal shift.

I hope you're right but I still think this is overly optimistic.

Hes basically one calm, quiet week away from an entirely different narrative change, as well. It will be interesting to see if the leaks are true, and he's decided that the shock and awe approach was a mistake.

Trump wont change. Trump only knows how to Trump.

[McParadigm]

It sounds increasingly likely that the plan is to keep the ACA in place, undermine its ability to function, then say "See? Told you. Doesn't work"...setting the stage for an argument that the GOP didn't take away your health care, Obama did.

[Strat]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 65651.html

Donald Trump will effectively be blocked from addressing Parliament on his state visit to the UK, the Speaker of the House of Commons has said.

John Bercow, the Speaker, said he was "strongly opposed" to Mr Trump speaking in the Commons and that being invited was "not an automatic right" but "an earned honour".

In a dramatic intervention he cited the Commons' opposition to "racism and to sexism and our support for equality before the law and an independent judiciary" as his reasons.

[Strat]

And most importantly!

http://www.stereogum.com/1923148/kanye- ... n=timeline

Kanye West is no longer Team Trump, according to TMZ. The rapper apparently deleted some tweets about the President of his own volition after disapproving of his actions during his first two weeks in office.

[Norah]

It sounds increasingly likely that the plan is to keep the ACA in place, undermine its ability to function, then say "See? Told you. Doesn't work"...setting the stage for an argument that the GOP didn't take away your health care, Obama did.

It was the scary black guy the whole time!

[The Argonaut]

When even John Yoo feels the urge to write to the New York Times expressing "grave concerns" about Trump's use of presidential power.

I read the biography of Bush 43 by Jean Edward Smith that came out last year. It taught me two things I otherwise might not know right now: Jim Comey is an honorable man and John Yoo is a dangerous maniac. It looks backwards right now, but I still think it's true.

[McParadigm]

When even John Yoo feels the urge to write to the New York Times expressing "grave concerns" about Trump's use of presidential power.

I read the biography of Bush 43 by Jean Edward Smith that came out last year. It taught me two things I otherwise might not know right now: Jim Comey is an honorable man and John Yoo is a dangerous maniac. It looks backwards right now, but I still think it's true.

I'm inclined to agree with both of those statements. Comey's questionable choices and leadership problems of late are hard to reconcile with his past, though.

[McParadigm]

It's hard to imagine trying to keep up with such a rapidly paced, blindly misleading administration in the days before the Internet.

[The Argonaut]

When even John Yoo feels the urge to write to the New York Times expressing "grave concerns" about Trump's use of presidential power.

I read the biography of Bush 43 by Jean Edward Smith that came out last year. It taught me two things I otherwise might not know right now: Jim Comey is an honorable man and John Yoo is a dangerous maniac. It looks backwards right now, but I still think it's true.

I'm inclined to agree with both of those statements. Comey's questionable choices and leadership problems of late are hard to reconcile with his past, though.

I'm inclined to forgive him because he was put in a situation where the FBI Director doesn't belong after Loretta Lynch was careless/stupid.

[McParadigm]

Trump’s F.C.C. Pick Quickly Targets Net Neutrality Rules

WASHINGTON — In his first days as President Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai has aggressively moved to roll back consumer protection regulations created during the Obama presidency.

Mr. Pai took a first swipe at net neutrality rules designed to ensure equal access to content on the internet. He stopped nine companies from providing discounted high-speed internet service to low-income individuals. He withdrew an effort to keep prison phone rates down, and he scrapped a proposal to break open the cable box market.

In total, as the chairman of the F.C.C., Mr. Pai released about a dozen actions in the last week, many buried in the agency’s website and not publicly announced, stunning consumer advocacy groups and telecom analysts. They said Mr. Pai’s message was clear: The F.C.C., an independent agency, will mirror the Trump administration’s rapid unwinding of government regulations that businesses fought against during the Obama administration.

[McParadigm]

[Orpheus]

God this guy has got to be the most pathologically pathetic person in the history of our country.