Seriously...?!

[TheVictors]

With all due credit to Amy Pohler and Seth Meyers for the OP title, but Seriously, does anyone think this will end well or for that matter, that Trump will last 4yrs?

I tend not to post on the Politics page much because every thread boils down to the same endpoint and nothing is ever really discussed. But let's set aside party politics and the talking points we all go find on the interwebs to totally burn one another on message boards and just be adults ...American adults.

I'm not the youngest guy, but I'm not that old yet either. I have seen a number of elections, can recall the Iranian hostage crisis (Cuban Missile before my time), the movies 1984 and The Day After, crawled under my desk bracing for nuclear war with the Soviets and watched live on TV as the second tower was hit on 9/11. I've lived through attempts to impeach a president for a blowjob, hanging chads, space shuttle explosions, Reagan's assassination attempt and the election of the first Black President.

I vote across party lines, am a registered Independent, voted for Gary Johnson in 2012 and work on Wall Street - a typically apolitical world but for notions of "lower taxes on wealthy" and "free markets" (whatever that means). I hate guns but respect the RIGHT of ownership in theory and very much prefer a world of "live and let live" to one of paternalistic bullshit.

But seriously ...Donald Trump?! What the fuck?

He's lying about basic and verifiable facts every single day. He takes to Twitter like a bitter millennial living at home with his parents and is horribly and shockingly uninformed about almost every critical international issue. He's threatened specific demographics of the population, taunted other nations and long held diplomatic agreements and can't seem to string together cogent sentences when speaking in pre-planned formats. The guy made his "brand" in real estate and business, yet has put forth implausible and completely nonviable economic policy. Now he's banning specific members of the media from the White House after calling the entirety of media liars and is very much acting like a unrepentant narcissist. Today, Border Patrol agents were stopping US Citizens at major US airports while deplaning....

So, seriously ...what the fuck??

Has ANYONE ...ever seen anything like this before? Can anyone frame anything we have seen from this White House in an appropriate historical context??

Trump blasts that he inherited a "total mess" but every single one of us was alive for the 2008 election, with the economy in ruins and on the brink of collapse, and openly scoff at such a claim. Yet he still says these things. He blasts China, is shown his own Trump ties are made in China and insists that they aren't - Wrong!

No new President has ever had such horrible approval ratings so soon, or been so divisive along such bizarre and outdated lines. How long is this charade going to play out before some really serious shit hits the fan? How much longer can he flaunt his complete ignorance to the country and to the world and face no repercussions?





Personally, I don't think he really ever wanted the Presidency. I think he ran as an instigator and to get the free publicity - still not so sure that by winning the election that he's not simply after that. I don't think he can survive a full term, whether by impeachment or health reasons/death.

But honestly - every single thing Hillary Clinton (not a fan) was accused of doing during the Election, Trump has also done ...

deleting emails
"Benghazi"
lying
Influence by foreign governments
questionable charities


So, seriously ...how the fuck did this guy get elected to the Presidency and if this isn't all a giant prank on the American public, what the fuck is this?

 

[dubbsco]

It's a complete embarrassment. I'm ashamed that this human was voted into office.

 

[biggunsbob]

I agree with both of you. Lived through every election since 1980 and have voted for every party at one point or another but this is something that is crazy. I am really worried that he is going to start major war. Bannon loves war. He has Trump's ear big time. Now banning the press. That is so un-American. No president republican or democrat or independent should ban the press. Stand there and take the heat good or bad from a free press.

Jeff Sessions is going to be a nightmare. Betsy Devos has no business being the leader of education. This cabinet is so bad, and bias it's unreal.. Just amazing how the GOP leadership has caved to this adminstration.

Exxon and Mobil knew in 1980's that global warming was real and they started it's disinformation campaign just like big Tabacco, and Trump puts in swamp critter Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State. Give me a break. Just another group that lied. Bad thing is is that Tillerson may be one of his better swamp creatures and that is really, really ,really disheartening.

 

[Mitchrapp]

It's a grand time.

 

[KAWDUP]

Disagree with at least one of the rants. He didn't ban anyone from the White House. Read the story again without the radical anarchist eye glasses.

The "banned" news media were just not invited to the expanded "gaggle". Well within their right and done by just about every administration for awhile.
Wiki Press gaggle

You guys have every right to be angry, afraid, and hateful, but don't fall into the trap that some of the media is creating.

 

[sggatecl]

The "banned" news media were just not invited to the expanded "gaggle". Well within their right and done by just about every administration for awhile.
Wiki Press gaggle

Got a source for that claim? I haven't seen a single report that it's been common in other administrations to single out specific news outlets and exclude them from a 'gaggle'. Especially considering this 'gaggle' replaced the daily press briefing.

Even Fox News reporter Shep Smith called it out as being bullshit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOAD0_Ito8E

CNN, Politico, and the others were refused entry to the briefing. They were physically turned around. By the very definition, they were banned.

Read the story again without the radical anarchist eye glasses.

That's ironic.

 

[KAWDUP]

Got a source for that claim? I haven't seen a single report that it's been common in other administrations to single out specific news outlets and exclude them from a 'gaggle'. Especially considering this 'gaggle' replaced the daily press briefing.

Even Fox News reporter Shep Smith called it out as being bullshit.

CNN, Politico, and the others were refused entry to the briefing. They were physically turned around. By the very definition, they were banned.

That's ironic.

From the Wiki:
"Gaggles" historically refer to informal briefings the press secretary conducts with the press pool rather than the entire press corps. ...they were more or less off the record, and their purpose was mostly to exchange information - the president's schedule and briefing schedule, from the administration side; heads-up on likely topics or early comment on pressing issues, from the news side. Briefings were what everybody knows them to be.

Just because it replaced a single day's briefing does not make it a banning. It isn't permanent - it was one day.

. . . and certainly Obama never "banned" Fox News did he?

Turning them away may have been just a pick and choose for the briefing, and for that they deserve a small mention on page 6, but this OMG the whole fucking world is coming to and end. We are Hitler's Germany.

Give me a break.

Irony is funny in this respect. In this political world we now live, it very often can apply to both sides.

 

[sggatecl]

From the Wiki:
. . . and certainly Obama never "banned" Fox News did he?

Prove it.

Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush...I haven't read a single account of them doing it. And why would they? They were respectful of the position they held and thus earned the respect of those around them. 30 days in and Trump is a joke thus far.

 

[KAWDUP]

Prove it.

Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush...I haven't read a single account of them doing it. And why would they? They were respectful of the position they held and thus earned the respect of those around them. 30 days in and Trump is a joke thus far.

I don't have anything to prove. You must not get out very much.

Here is a NY Times article, which was followed by attempts to keep Fox from a Feinberg interview.
Fox vs. the White House

. . . and, of course, when the "ban" is over by the next White House briefing, I'm sure more unhinged rants are on the way for the next stupid thing the Trump administration does.

 

[sggatecl]

I don't have anything to prove. You must not get out very much.

Here is a NY Times article, which was followed by attempts to keep Fox from a Feinberg interview.
Fox vs. the White House

So you think the Treasury department excluding Fox from a round of interviews with Feinburg is the same as the president's administration barring (were not allowed to use the word 'ban' anymore, hopefully this suffices) several networks (all of which have been critical on Trump's possible Russian affiliations) from a gaggle that replaced the daily press briefing? If you really think that, there's really no reason to discuss it further.

. . . and, of course, when the "ban" is over by the next White House briefing, I'm sure more unhinged rants are on the way for the next stupid thing the Trump administration does.

And I'm sure more unhinged rants are on the way from the Trump administration itself.

 

[TheVictors]

Lmao, "unhinged rant"...?!


Trump IS AN UNHINGED RANT! His 'supporters' - typically stupid white men (polling shows) - are unhinged rants who elected him for his unhinged rants.

You can't see this thread for being what Americans of all backgrounds are seeing for the first time ever? Left or Right, Trump is a complete and total liar.

Brazenly.

This admin ...as long as it may last, is perhaps the last, desperate grab by the angry old white man. Sort of like, smoke em if ya got em.

Might as well torch the place on the way out....

 

[dubbsco]

Sorry KAWDUP, you can try and spin this any which way you want. The dude banned certain media groups (liberal leaning) because he wants to control the sources of information. I never heard this shit come out during Obama's administration because he was respectful of the people doing their job.

No, the country won't end up a dictatorship because there are real check and balances in place. But the people that go to his rallies and still chant lock her up and get off when he says "fake news" are almost like a fucking scary ass cult.

 

[TheVictors]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/americans-split-whether-want-president-223528084.html

More Americans want Trump impeached (46%) than have a favorable opinion of him (38%)

That is fucking staggering ...think about that. Only 1/3 even 'approve' of the guy and 1/2 people want him legally removed from office.

Absolutely unprecedented.

 

[KAWDUP]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/americans-split-whether-want-president-223528084.html

More Americans want Trump impeached (46%) than have a favorable opinion of him (38%)

That is fucking staggering ...think about that. Only 1/3 even 'approve' of the guy and 1/2 people want him legally removed from office.

Absolutely unprecedented.

Can't even go to some of those links in that yahoo story. They are blocked. LOL. Odds going up that he will be impeached? I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[KAWDUP]

So you think the Treasury department excluding Fox from a round of interviews with Feinburg is the same as the president's administration barring (were not allowed to use the word 'ban' anymore, hopefully this suffices) several networks (all of which have been critical on Trump's possible Russian affiliations) from a gaggle that replaced the daily press briefing? If you really think that, there's really no reason to discuss it further.



And I'm sure more unhinged rants are on the way from the Trump administration itself.

YES, absolutely on all accounts. You get that it was one day and that all news sources got all the information right? Did you actually read that NYT article?
So yeah I guess there is no reason to discuss it. I stand by everything I said in the first post. It wasn't right, but the level of hysteria is what is unprecedented.

You'all meet unhinged rants with your own. So keep going at it. I'm sure it will amount to some real change. NOT!

 

[KAWDUP]

His 'supporters' - typically stupid white men (polling shows) - are unhinged rants who elected him for his unhinged rants.

This admin ...as long as it may last, is perhaps the last, desperate grab by the angry old white man. Sort of like, smoke em if ya got em.

If this were true, and that is a HUGE if, their desperate grab seems to have worked. Stupidity can be applied to many groups - I doubt stupid white men are the only ones to blame here.

 

[tinselwolverine]

Can't even go to some of those links in that yahoo story. They are blocked. LOL. Odds going up that he will be impeached? I'll believe it when I see it.

Well I just heard a report that a pretty prominent congressional Republicans, Darrel Issa, he represents a district in North San Diego County, California is calling for a special prosecutor to be assigned to investigate any wrongdoings or potential wrongdoings between trumps people and Russia.

So who knows? I'd say the odds of impeachment or low, but the odds may have just gone up a snoodge.

 

[KAWDUP]

Well I just heard a report that a pretty prominent congressional Republicans, Darrel Issa, he represents a district in North San Diego County, California is calling for a special prosecutor to be assigned to investigate any wrongdoings or potential wrongdoings between trumps people and Russia.

So who knows? I'd say the odds of impeachment or low, but the odds may have just gone up a snoodge.

Yep, said it wrong. I'll believe a removal from office when I see it. Impeachment is just the first step. Even Clinton was impeached. Certainly the odds of impeachment went up - didn't mean to imply that they didn't, just that there will have to be much more support for a special prosecutor for any hearing to even start.