The Trump implosion thread!

Quote: Face

I don't think politics can be discussed anymore, at least not in the way you envision.

Not with Trump supporters.

See, they like who Trump is against, and little else matters. So when he does something outrageous and, frankly, infantile, like not filling tons of government positions, fire the head of the FBI, undercut his own communications staff, posts Tweets with unsupported allegations (he can ask the NSA, the FBI and others whether Trump Tower was wiretapped, he doesn't need to tweet it like a two-bit conspiracy theorists), they couldn't care less. They like it that he's baiting the media, or the establishment, or the bulk of the non-partisan population, or other enemies of the country.

Quote: Face

You're right. It's no more a social issue, it's degenerated into homerism.

The other thing is when a party controls both houses of Congress as well as the White House, it tends to want to rule on its own, shutting out the opposition as much as possible.

Let me tell you an interesting tidbit of Roman politics. Briefly, there were two co-Consuls, who ruled the city (and the empire) for a year. They acted, in part, with advise from the Senate. Now, when the Senate offered advise in writing, it ended with the sentence "If it seems reasonable to do so."

You'd think the Consuls would do what they damned well please, with the ready-made excuse that it simply didn't seem reasonable. Yet way more often than not they followed the Senate's wishes.

Why?

Because no man could be Consul more than once. Having served in the office, one had to wait ten years to be considered for the office again. Some served Pro-consular missions outside of Italy after their term. But most simply went back to the Senate.

So, yeah, they followed the advise of the Senate because they had served in the Senate and advised Consuls before and would do so again.

The point?

No party stays in control of all the government forever. Most often it doesn't last through the midterm elections.

The point?

It's idiotic to shut out the opposition party from legislation. Because they will do it to you later. next year, next term. Sooner or alter, they will. So passing Obamacare without any major input from the GOP was massively stupid. Trying to undo Obamacare through reconciliation (because it's filibuster-proof) without any input from the Democrats is as massively stupid.

What's needed is for both parties to grow up and realize that legislation is not a political war of ideology, but the force of government imposed on the population.

What's needed is a president who will reach out to the other side and mean it. Not a clue-less man-child who changes opinion at whim, and not a charismatic, statesman-like, hypocritical political operative with delusions of grandeur (what? you thought I liked Obama?).

Oh, yeah, and because when you see a reasoned post without partisan vitriol(*), most people just ignore it.


(*) You can't discuss politics without vitriol, but it wasn't partisan.

The White House communication director has left for "personal reasons". I wonder if Trump will break the record for most people fired.

I think we're all in trouble if he manages to fill that place with sycophants.

synonyms:
yes-man, bootlicker, brown-noser, toady, lickspittle, flatterer, flunky, lackey, spaniel, doormat, stooge, cringer, suck, suck-up

Quote: rxwine

I wonder if Trump will break the record for most people fired.

I wonder what length of tenure at the Golden Boy house renders most people unemployable?

From Bloomberg:

Quote:

The president causes economic damage by saying something crazy (decreased). Here's one where Trump's widespread reputation as a paper tiger helps. His ability to spook the stock market or otherwise harm the economy with some stray remark is probably almost entirely gone; already by February observers were noticing that he could no longer move individual shares with his tweets. It's perhaps still possible that Trump could spark a foreign policy crisis by saying something inappropriate, but even there most foreign nations have probably learned that much of what he says can be ignored.

Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-06-01/how-trump-s-chaotic-presidency-threatens-the-economy

I wouldn't have said decreased. yes, No one takes Golden Boy seriously (some alpha male!), but that can also be a problem if, say, North Korea doesn't take warnings from the US seriously, and decides to do something rash. And international crises tend to be bad for the economy.

Donald's golfing again today (2nd day in a row).

Bet the righties are so happy they spent all those years complaining that Obama golfed too much!

Even the AP is coming down hard on Trump, starting this article by slamming him with:

Quote:

President Donald Trump can’t be counted on to give accurate information to Americans when violent acts are unfolding abroad.

https://www.apnews.com/079e907d81d14e7ca56eb5279f285f71/AP-FACT-CHECK:-Attack-draws-visceral-Trump-tweets,-not-facts?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP_Politics

Many other fact-corrects in there, too.

This counts as implosion - he is keeping his own national security team in the dark!

If there is a disagreement between them, they both need to be aware of his policies and decisions ahead of time, not blindsided like this.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/05/trump-nato-speech-national-security-team-215227

He isn't an alpha-male, he is a loose cannon.

This is now a public rift at the senior level of an administration he appointed.

How bad is it that he won't even tell his senior administrators to their face that he is disagreeing with them and is going to go in a different direction?

It is a lack of respect, and a lack of ability to lead and manage.

I can't get two pages into my news feeds before learning of yet another incredibly stupid thing that Trump has said or done.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/05/trump-tweets-republican-lawyers-backlash-239148?cmpid=sf

In this one, republican lawyers are ripping him for his tweets on his own travel ban, in particular where trump was characterizing it as watered down and a politically correct version of what he really wanted. I am sure people have told him by now that the intent of a law or order is considered when it comes before the court, not just the words on the paper. How can he continue to be so stupid?