Octopus Overlords

ImLawBoy wrote:Didn't he make a big deal of being an Executive Producer on the new show? And he's now disparaging it?

gilraen wrote:

malchior wrote:[

Captain Caveman wrote:I know this isn't a secret or anything, but this guy truly is pathological.

Exactly - we've elected someone who is likely mentally ill. There is no other way to describe it at this point.

3 Professors of Psychiatry write to Obama, request full psychiatric evaluation of the PEOTUS

The Trump Archive launches today with 700+ televised speeches, interviews, debates, and other news broadcasts related to President-elect Donald Trump, created using the Internet Archive’s TV News Archive.

A work in progress, the growing collection now includes more than 520 hours of Trump video. The earliest excerpt dates from December 2009, and the collection continues through the present. It includes more than 500 video statements fact checked by FactCheck.org, PolitiFact, and The Washington Post’s Fact Checker covering such controversial topics as immigration, Trump’s tax returns, Hillary Clinton’s emails, and health care.

With two weeks until Inauguration Day, President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has issued an unusual order in the history of US foreign service: a blanket mandate that all politically appointed US ambassadors step down by Jan. 20, with no exceptions, as several US diplomats told The New York Times and Politico.

While being told to pack their bags at the end of an administration is par for the course, the lack of a grace period, or case-by-case exceptions, could prove worrisome, diplomacy experts say, if it left top US embassies without ambassadors for months.

Mr. Trump has so far chosen lawyer David Friedman as his ambassador to Israel, a pick some have criticized for his doubts about a two-state solution, and Iowa governor Terry Branstad, who has a longstanding friendship with Chinese President Xi Jinping, as his pick for China. Neither nominee has diplomatic experience.
...
A chargé d’affaires, a role usually held by a designated senior career foreign service officer, will maintain the functions of the embassy while the nominated ambassador goes through Senate confirmation. But this arrangement is not ideal, Henrikson says.

“A charge-d'affair, they're usually not in the position to do anything other than to maintain continuity,” Henrikson says. “That is to say, they're very unlikely to be given themselves, individually, any kind of instructions to negotiate something new. They really want just to maintain, I wouldn't say the status-quo necessarily, but to maintain things progressing as they have been.”

The incoming Obama administration has notified all politically-appointed ambassadors that they must vacate their posts as of Jan. 20, the day President-elect Barack Obama takes the oath of office, a State Department official said.

The clean slate will open up prime opportunities for the president-elect to reward political supporters with posts in London, Paris, Tokyo and the like. The notice to diplomatic posts was issued this week.
Political ambassadors sometimes are permitted to stay on briefly during a new administration, but the sweeping nature of the directive suggests that Obama has little interest in retaining any of Bush's ambassadorial appointees.

Most ambassadors, of course, are foreign service officers, but often the posts involving the most important bilateral relations (such as with Great Britain, Japan and India) or desirable locales (such as the Bahamas) are given to close friends and well-heeled contributors of the president.

Holman wrote:Trump is doing transition of power as a hostile takeover.

Holman wrote:Of much more concern are the ideological purges he seems to be setting up administration-wide.

Skinypupy wrote:"Stupid"

I love how he puts quotations are ransom words to somehow make them more impactful. I used to do the same thing on my high school term papers and got called out on it by my teacher way back then.

Max Peck wrote:
(And seriously, why does it take him so long to push out each individual tweet in a multipart message?)

Skinypupy wrote:"Stupid"

I love how he puts quotations are ransom words to somehow make them more impactful. I used to do the same thing on my high school term papers and got called out on it by my teacher way back then.

Rip wrote:

The incoming Obama administration has notified all politically-appointed ambassadors that they must vacate their posts as of Jan. 20, the day President-elect Barack Obama takes the oath of office, a State Department official said.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/200 ... assad.html

In keeping with standard practices, the White House requested and received resignations from all politically-appointed chiefs of mission shortly after Election Day, several senior State Department officials told CNN.
...
But, in a break with precedent to consider grace periods on a case-by-case basis, a subsequent State Department cable sent last month to all non-career ambassadors instructed them to finish their service by January 20 "without exceptions," the sources said.
...
Past incoming administrations from both parties have granted exceptions on a case-by-case basis for ambassadors requesting to remain at post for weeks or months.

The exceptions are generally granted as a courtesy to ambassadors with school-age children or who have unique family situations, but are also occasionally made to help with continuity as the incoming administration seeks to fill a large number of postings at home and overseas.
...
In 2009, Obama granted several exceptions to Bush-era political ambassadors for work or personal reasons.

A top Russian lawmaker accused the Obama administration Saturday of undermining US democracy, saying Republicans had more trust in Russian President Vladimir Putin than in the Democrats.

Alexey Pushkov's assertions in a series of tweets come in the wake of a US intelligence report pinpointing Russia and its leader as the culprit behind the hacking in the US presidential election.
...
Pushkov, a Russian senator and former chairman of the parliamentary foreign relations committee, first tweeted early Saturday, "The Democratic process in the United States is undermined not by Russia, but by the Obama administration and the media which supported (Hillary) Clinton against (Donald) Trump. The threat to democracy is the United States."
...
Translated, like the others, from Russian, it read: "Obama dismayed: Republicans trust Putin more than the Democrats. This is the 'merit' of the Democrats and one of the results of Obama's presidency."

Isgrimnur wrote:Yup. Couldn't give them Michigan. Too many Wolverines.

malchior wrote:Trump tears up the playbook for the Inaugural Parade - for who knows what reason.

geezer wrote:

malchior wrote:Trump tears up the playbook for the Inaugural Parade - for who knows what reason.

Trumpers are such assholes.

Chaz wrote:Similarly, when I show you my middle finger held upright, I'm simply praising you for your wise policy decisions.

Skinypupy wrote:In some ways, his strategy is succeeding. I am no longer surprised that the highest office in the US is using Twitter to toss out juvenile insults and/or lies whenever he is criticized. He's done it so often, that it barely even registers anymore. He has, in some ways, normalized the notion that arguably the most powerful person in the world should respond to any sort of criticism with either "NO U!" or "Neener Neener!".

That doesn't make it any less ridiculous or horrifying, but I can't bring myself to be outraged or surprised any more. He's a vindictive, immature, childish twit. We all know this (even Rip) because he proves it on a daily basis. The question is how the nation collectively moves forward, given the new reality that we are being led by a child.

Skinypupy wrote:In some ways, his strategy is succeeding. I am no longer surprised that the highest office in the US is using Twitter to toss out juvenile insults and/or lies whenever he is criticized. He's done it so often, that it barely even registers anymore. He has, in some ways, normalized the notion that arguably the most powerful person in the world should respond to any sort of criticism with either "NO U!" or "Neener Neener!".

That doesn't make it any less ridiculous or horrifying, but I can't bring myself to be outraged or surprised any more. He's a vindictive, immature, childish twit. We all know this (even Rip) because he proves it on a daily basis. The question is how the nation collectively moves forward, given the new reality that we are being led by a child.

But appointees in key positions—like the people who make sure our nukes work—are often asked to stay on in their roles until a replacement can be found and confirmed by the Senate, helping ensure a smooth transition and allowing our government to continue functioning. In fact, for the entirety of Obama’s first term and into part of his second, the NNSA Administrator remained a Bush appointee.

malchior's link wrote:“There are scores more appointees within the department,” our source told us. “Secretarial and administration appointments that don’t require Senate confirmation, mostly performing policy, liaison, and strategic advisory capacities in support of the agency they’re at. They serve at the will of the head of their agency. Those people are, theoretically, also out on inauguration day unless otherwise directed, which hasn’t happened yet to my knowledge.”

The source later added, “I’m more and more coming around to the idea that we’re so very very fucked.”

malchior wrote:A taste of the incompetence ahead. This feels more like a purge than a transition. It isn't a transition if you leave key posts unfilled...because...who the fuck knows anymore.

Oh - and to preempt Rip but Obama did something nonsense:

But appointees in key positions—like the people who make sure our nukes work—are often asked to stay on in their roles until a replacement can be found and confirmed by the Senate, helping ensure a smooth transition and allowing our government to continue functioning. In fact, for the entirety of Obama’s first term and into part of his second, the NNSA Administrator remained a Bush appointee.

CLAIM: An episode of the 1950s western TV series 'Trackdown' featured a snake oil salesman named 'Trump' who promised to build a wall in order to prevent the end of the world.

Narrator: Hoby had checked the town. The people were ready to believe. Like sheep they ran to the slaughterhouse. And waiting for them was the high priest of fraud.

Trump: I am the only one. Trust me. I can build a wall around your homes that nothing can penetrate.

Townperson: What do we do? How can we save ourselves?

Trump: You ask how do you build that wall. You ask, and I'm here to tell you.

....the president-elect’s remarks seem to be a stretch.