The Former Trump Presidency Thread

[Daehawk]

I cant speak to this as I have no opinion at this time. I can say I support our troops in general and ex military. I usually dont care for top brass.

[GreenGoo]

If that doesn't show how dogmatic and fanatical the support of the administration is, I have no idea what would.

Hilarious that kicking out hundreds of thousands of DACA doesn't make a dent, but omg no, you have to march in a parade? That's the last straw.

I mean, I get it. The parade is absolute bullshit. But so is almost everything else the administration has done. Kick people out of the country, many of which have been residents of the US longer than many military members have been alive? Sure, why not? March in a parade? Hell no.

On the one hand, I'm glad they see the light, even if it's incredibly late. On the other hand, fuck you for waiting this long, and fuck you for the straw being that you and your institution might feel some mild embarrassment.

Seriously fuck over people? Check. I got mine.
Impressive military display in Washington? No way, I'm out.

Geezus.

[Daehawk]

I cant comprehend what all is wrong in Washington or just how long it took to get here.

[msteelers]

Instead they look right past it.

This isn't quite true. I see stories on Puerto Rico pop up every day. Certainly some of that has to do with me living in Florida, but The Daily podcast from the NY Times is doing a series of features on the disaster recovery there, starting today.

Is Puerto Rico getting enough coverage? Certainly not. Is it getting covered at all? Of course it is.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Omarosa is on the new season of Big Brother and the ads show her telling another contestant how bad it was in the White House saying "It's not going to be ok". I'm guessing we're due for another Trump tweetstorm...

[Daehawk]

I wonder what this parade will cost? And why cant that money go to better use? Theres still homeless people and hungry children here in mainland America.

[Isgrimnur]

I wonder what this parade will cost? And why cant that money go to better use? Theres still homeless people and hungry children here in mainland America.

Homeless children and hungry people, too.

[GreenGoo]

I wonder what this parade will cost? And why cant that money go to better use? Theres still homeless people and hungry children here in mainland America.

Homeless children and hungry people, too.

Fuck those guys.

[Holman]

Curious what the impregnable liberal bastion that is OO thinks. I'm seeing a lot veterans turning their back on their Trump support over this parade nonsense. (I would have never guess that was going to be the straw) Do you welcome them in to the fold as woke or do you continue your attacks for not being woke before?

I'll welcome almost anyone to the opposition. Big tent. One country. All that.

It's not like conservatives are going to become progressives, but separating the principled conservatives from the GOP's reactionary racist cult is the first step towards what could still be a functioning American Republic.

As someone who grew up Moral Majority and Reagan Youth, I'm perfectly happy to accept that people take some time to slough off their misunderstandings.

[Daehawk]

I wonder what this parade will cost? And why cant that money go to better use? Theres still homeless people and hungry children here in mainland America.

Homeless children and hungry people, too.

Could feed the homeless people to the hungry children and solve two things at once. That would be Trump's view.

[Kraken]

Curious what the impregnable liberal bastion that is OO thinks. I'm seeing a lot veterans turning their back on their Trump support over this parade nonsense. (I would have never guess that was going to be the straw) Do you welcome them in to the fold as woke or do you continue your attacks for not being woke before?

I'll welcome almost anyone to the opposition. Big tent. One country. All that.

It's not like conservatives are going to become progressives, but separating the principled conservatives from the GOP's reactionary racist cult is the first step towards what could still be a functioning American Republic.

As someone who grew up Moral Majority and Reagan Youth, I'm perfectly happy to accept that people take some time to slough off their misunderstandings.

Absolutely. I have no problem with conservatives who are grounded in reality. I may not agree with pre-Trump Republicans, but I acknowledge their right to be wrong. For example, there's room for intelligent debate about the urgency of global warming, what we should do about it, to what extent we can do anything...but not whether it's occurring. That's just a fact. I'm not in lockstep with liberals either...the young 'uns who won't tolerate free speech in particular worry me.

The diehard Fox News people might be hopeless, though. They have left reality behind, and IDK if they can be deprogrammed.

[Daehawk]

For example, there's room for intelligent debate about the urgency of global warming, what we should do about it, to what extent we can do anything...but not whether it's occurring. That's just a fact.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/la ... 01d577466d

House Science Committee Chair Says Climate Change Is A Good Thing
Rep. Lamar Smith celebrates C0₂ for melting Arctic ice and improving Earth’s lushness.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) — who has spent his career cozying up to fossil fuel interests, dismissing the threat of climate change and harassing federal climate scientists — is now arguing that pumping the atmosphere full of carbon dioxide is “beneficial” to global trade, crop production and the lushness of the planet.

Rather than buying into “hysteria,” Americans should be celebrating the plus sides of a changing climate

The f'n head of the Gov Science Committee doesn't even understand a 5th graders education on global warming. Has no idea it means a ice age.

[Daehawk]

And the DOW dropped ANOTHER 1000+ points today.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way ... 000-points

Also a man here 40 years with family, 4 daughters, and a business owner who revitalized a dead downtown has been deported back to Jordan with just the clothes on his back and $300.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/08/middleea ... index.html

[malchior]

Also a man here 40 years with family, 4 daughters, and a business owner who revitalized a dead downtown has been deported back to Jordan with just the clothes on his back and $300.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/08/middleea ... index.html

These stories enrage me. ICE has under Trump has gone full Lawful Evil.

[malchior]

Instead they look right past it.

This isn't quite true. I see stories on Puerto Rico pop up every day. Certainly some of that has to do with me living in Florida, but The Daily podcast from the NY Times is doing a series of features on the disaster recovery there, starting today.

Is Puerto Rico getting enough coverage? Certainly not. Is it getting covered at all? Of course it is.

That isn't the point. I mentioned that swaths of Puerto Rico still had no power to a room of *very smart people* yesterday and got push back on it. It isn't that it isn't covered at all. It is that people in general have no awareness about what is happening. That tells me the media has again miserably failed to educate people about an important issue. Is that on them too for not getting their information from diverse sources? Sure but this is effectively hundreds of thousands of American citizens without a basic service for months now. That everyone doesn't hear about it constantly to shame the Federal government into action is morally disgusting. I hold the "media" partially accountable for that. I think that is reasonably fair.

[Paingod]

Also a man here 40 years with family, 4 daughters, and a business owner who revitalized a dead downtown has been deported back to Jordan with just the clothes on his back and $300.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/08/middleea ... index.html

These stories enrage me. ICE has under Trump has gone full Lawful Evil.

Trump is a Gibbering Mouther cross bred with an Otyugh.

Of course the empire he creates isn't going to go well for the civilized races. Even the Drow don't like him and simply tolerate him for the chaos he causes.

[LordMortis]

Lawful evil? I'd give you neutral at best.

[Blackhawk]

These stories enrage me. ICE has under Trump has gone full Lawful Evil.

No. Lawful evil does evil with a reason, a goal. When you act only out of hatred and spite, that's chaotic evil.

[Vorret]

He should move his business to Canada I'm sure we'd welcome a smart business man AND jobs here.

[Max Peck]

The original comment was that ICE has gone full-on LE, not the Trump administration in general. I'm OK with that characterization.

[Isgrimnur]

NBC

In the House, the measure easily passed despite several days of outcry from Democrats over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration program, or DACA. But 73 Democrats supported the measure, including many from districts ravaged by hurricanes that would benefit from $90 billion in disaster aid.
...
The spending deal was hammered out between the Republican and Democratic Senate leaders. It increases domestic spending by $131 billion and defense spending by $165 billion over the next two years and suspend the debt limit for one year — until well after the midterm elections.

What it doesn't address is DACA. Per an agreement to end the three-day government shutdown last month, the Senate will take up DACA next week. House Democrats sought a similar agreement from House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., who insisted that he will bring up DACA legislation.

[Skinypupy]

Also a man here 40 years with family, 4 daughters, and a business owner who revitalized a dead downtown has been deported back to Jordan with just the clothes on his back and $300.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/08/middleea ... index.html

These stories enrage me. ICE has under Trump has gone full Lawful Evil.

Trump is a Gibbering Mouther cross bred with an Otyugh.

Of course the empire he creates isn't going to go well for the civilized races. Even the Drow don't like him and simply tolerate him for the chaos he causes.

This right here is why I love OO.

[Blackhawk]

Next week on the floor:

"Have you heard of DACA?"
Republican congressmen: "Yes!"
"Do you like it?"
"No!"
"Ok, we brought that up and debated it. Next item of business!"

[Chaz]

Next week on the floor:

"Have you heard of DACA?"
Republican congressmen: "Yes!"
"Do you like it?"
"No!"
"Ok, we brought that up and debated it. Next item of business!"

That's exactly what I'm worried about. Or they attach Trump's "cut legal immigration by half" onto the dream act, and then blame the Dems for failing to protect dreamers. Either way, these are bad faith actors, and I don't see them allowing anything to pass to legalize anyone here illegally without drastically cutting back on immigration or allowing ICE to do even more extreme deportations.

[Sepiche]

Fascinating piece on WaPo about Secretary Mattis.

Equal parts heartening that there is at least one adult around the president, but disturbing in how much of a free hand the DoD is being given to run foreign affairs.

For weeks, Mattis had been resisting requests from the White House to provide military options for Iran. Now Trump made clear that he wanted the Pentagon to deliver a range of plans that included striking Iranian ballistic missile factories or hitting Iranian speedboats that routinely harassed U.S. Navy vessels.

“Why can’t we sink them?” Trump would sometimes ask about the boats.

National security adviser H.R. McMaster and his staff laid out the president’s request for Mattis in a conference call, but the defense secretary refused, according to several U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations. At that point, McMaster took Mattis off speakerphone, cleared his staff from the room and continued the conversation.

On one hand... holy shit! The Defense Secretary refused a direct order from the Whitehouse to give them options against Iran! On the other hand, if Mattis is reluctant to give them options against Iran, it makes me suspect there's no way in hell he's going to give them options against North Korea.

[Octavious]

Guess we have to add wife beating to things that Trump supports. Seriously every day he tops himself. Fuck this guy.

[Skinypupy]

When asked about the Porter situation, this was Trump's response:

On Rob Porter, the President said:

"We wish him well, he worked very hard. We found out about it recently and I was surprised by it, but we certainly wish him well and it's a tough time for him. He did a very good job when he was in the White House. And we hope he has a wonderful career and he will have a great career ahead of him. But it was very sad when we heard about it and certainly he's also very sad now. He also, as you probably know, says he's innocent and I think you have to remember that. He said very strongly yesterday that he's innocent so you have to talk to him about that, but we absolutely wish him well, he did a very good job when he was at the White House."

Let's put aside the third grade level grammar and word salad aspect of this response for a moment. Porter was accused of abusing multiple women, and the only thing Trump can say about it is "he was great" and "he says he's innocent". Not a single mention of support for the women involved here, or even a very basic "remember everyone, beating your wife is bad".

Tone deaf doesn't even begin to cover this asshole.

[El Guapo]

The claim that they didn't know about it is almost certainly a lie. It may be the case that Trump himself did not know, but the ex-wives said that they told the FBI during Porter's background checks.

As for him saying "very strongly" that he's innocent, I haven't read all the details of the allegations but this is a bad start:

https://twitter.com/abbydphillip/status ... 5694197760

[Daehawk]

Well this is the guy who supposedly raped his own wife over his own scalp reduction surgery.

The part of the book that caused the most controversy concerns Trump’s divorce from his first wife, Ivana. Hurt obtained a copy of her sworn divorce deposition, from 1990, in which she stated that, the previous year, her husband had raped her in a fit of rage. In Hurt’s account, Trump was furious that a “scalp reduction” operation he’d undergone to eliminate a bald spot had been unexpectedly painful. Ivana had recommended the plastic surgeon. In retaliation, Hurt wrote, Trump yanked out a handful of his wife’s hair, and then forced himself on her sexually. Afterward, according to the book, she spent the night locked in a bedroom, crying; in the morning, Trump asked her, “with menacing casualness, ‘Does it hurt?’ ” Trump has denied both the rape allegation and the suggestion that he had a scalp-reduction procedure. Hurt said that the incident, which is detailed in Ivana’s deposition, was confirmed by two of her friends.

[Daehawk]

Trump cant read. Has very important daily intelligence report read to him. Hope the person reading to him is certified unlike the fake sign language interpreter from Florida.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/20 ... trump.html

[Paingod]

The story does conclude on the optimistic note that Chief of Staff John Kelly has made “an effort to exert more discipline” over the process, though it does not contain any conclusions about his level of success.

Mr. President, I need you to just focus, no - focus. Put down the phone. No, Kim won't win. Now, we've got these two last things. Sir. Please. Focus. The deal with... Yes, I know you're good at deals. Please. Sir. If you don't stop, we won't get ice cream. Okay. Now, these last two... Sir? The phone. Put it down...

[$iljanus]

When asked about the Porter situation, this was Trump's response:

On Rob Porter, the President said:

"We wish him well, he worked very hard. We found out about it recently and I was surprised by it, but we certainly wish him well and it's a tough time for him. He did a very good job when he was in the White House. And we hope he has a wonderful career and he will have a great career ahead of him. But it was very sad when we heard about it and certainly he's also very sad now. He also, as you probably know, says he's innocent and I think you have to remember that. He said very strongly yesterday that he's innocent so you have to talk to him about that, but we absolutely wish him well, he did a very good job when he was at the White House."

Let's put aside the third grade level grammar and word salad aspect of this response for a moment. Porter was accused of abusing multiple women, and the only thing Trump can say about it is "he was great" and "he says he's innocent". Not a single mention of support for the women involved here, or even a very basic "remember everyone, beating your wife is bad".

Tone deaf doesn't even begin to cover this asshole.

Don't forget to mention how sad everyone is about it. It reads like a tragic story of how a man's promising career got derailed because his wife's face got in the way of his fist.

[El Guapo]

When asked about the Porter situation, this was Trump's response:

On Rob Porter, the President said:

"We wish him well, he worked very hard. We found out about it recently and I was surprised by it, but we certainly wish him well and it's a tough time for him. He did a very good job when he was in the White House. And we hope he has a wonderful career and he will have a great career ahead of him. But it was very sad when we heard about it and certainly he's also very sad now. He also, as you probably know, says he's innocent and I think you have to remember that. He said very strongly yesterday that he's innocent so you have to talk to him about that, but we absolutely wish him well, he did a very good job when he was at the White House."

Let's put aside the third grade level grammar and word salad aspect of this response for a moment. Porter was accused of abusing multiple women, and the only thing Trump can say about it is "he was great" and "he says he's innocent". Not a single mention of support for the women involved here, or even a very basic "remember everyone, beating your wife is bad".

Tone deaf doesn't even begin to cover this asshole.

Don't forget to mention how sad everyone is about it. It reads like a tragic story of how a man's promising career got derailed because his wife's face got in the way of his fist.

Look, there was a fight, there was a vase around, and at some point the vase interacted with his wife's face. Who can say how that happened? No one could put a puzzle like that together.

[Defiant]

And the DOW dropped ANOTHER 1000+ points today.

After defeating ISIS, Trump moved on to the next terrorist group he could find. This is his thirty day plan to defeat your IRA.

[malchior]

The original comment was that ICE has gone full-on LE, not the Trump administration in general. I'm OK with that characterization.

Exactly - they are using the Law for evil ends. Some of the deportations we are seeing have no reasonable decent purpose. They have the feeling of bureaucrats settling "debts".

[Holman]

The NYT is reporting that Kelly has expressed willingness to resign over his handling of the Porter episode.

The officials emphasized that they did not consider a resignation imminent, and that Mr. Kelly — a retired four-star Marine general who early in his tenure often used a threat of quitting as a way to temper President Trump’s behavior — had made no formal offer.

But his suggestion that he would be willing to step down if the president wanted him to reflected the degree to which the scandal surrounding Mr. Porter has engulfed the White House.

Two West Wing advisers and a third person painted a picture of a White House staff riven and confused, with fingers being pointed in all directions and the president complaining privately about Mr. Kelly.

[Smoove_B]

A second wife-abuser has hit the Trump administration. Only the best people:

A White House speechwriter resigned Friday after his former wife claimed that he was violent and emotionally abusive during their turbulent two-and-a-half-year marriage — allegations that he vehemently denied, saying she was the one who victimized him.

The abrupt departure of David Sorensen, a speechwriter who worked closely with senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, came as The Washington Post was preparing a story about abuse claims by his ex-wife, Jessica Corbett. Corbett told The Post that she reported his behavior to the FBI last fall as the bureau was conducting a background check of Sorensen.

...

Corbett first contacted The Post a week before Porter’s case became public. She said that during her marriage to Sorensen, he ran a car over her foot, put out a cigarette on her hand, threw her into a wall and grasped her menacingly by her hair while they were alone on their boat in remote waters off Maine’s coast, an incident she said left her fearing for her life. During part of their marriage, he was a top policy adviser to Republican Maine Gov. Paul LePage.

[Daehawk]

I get a big smile when these idiots think the background check wont pick up stuff and expose them. Do they simply think they can say Ive done nothing and get a job?

[Freyland]

I get a big smile when these idiots think the background check wont pick up stuff and expose them. Do they simply think they can say Ive done nothing and get a job?

We wouldn't be having this conversation if he didn't get the job.

[Holman]

I get a big smile when these idiots think the background check wont pick up stuff and expose them. Do they simply think they can say Ive done nothing and get a job?

At least a dozen significant WH figures (including Jared) are said to lack security clearances. This is not normal and was never the pattern in previous administrations.

More than a year in, it's now assumed that these people lack clearances because they simply can't get them. They are all compromised in ways that make them vulnerable to blackmail or other exposure.