concordtom said:

---

Good morning,
I just need to wash myself clean by getting this icky feeling off my chest.

"God, I can't stand Trump. I hate him and look forward to his demise!"

There, I feel so much better. Thank you.

---

I have been a life long democrat but I respect the office of the presidency. When Reagan & even Nixon passed away I shed tears. I will say if something happens to Trump, I wouldn't shed a single tear or feel remorse. He is that divisive.

"Trump supporters seem to approve of the fact that he lies constantly, including to them. Like a movie that is loosely based on a true story, Trump's fans seem to feel that he is making the dull reality of politics more fun and interesting by augmenting it with gross exaggeration, often utter fantasy." Al Franken, Giant of the Senate

OBear073akaSMFan said:

---

concordtom said:

---

Good morning,
I just need to wash myself clean by getting this icky feeling off my chest.
"God, I can't stand Trump. I hate him and look forward to his demise!"
There, I feel so much better. Thank you.

---

I have been a life long democrat but I respect the office of the presidency. When Reagan & even Nixon passed away I shed tears. I will say if something happens to Trump, I wouldn't shed a single tear or feel remorse. He is that divisive.

---

Not a "life long" dem here. That ended with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, just before my first Prez election (1964 LB. Johnson / H. Humphrey) I went Indie.

After that it was all about whom to cast a negative vote for in the primaries, and that means I registered $GoP. We knew AuH2O was a mad bombing lunatic, and we all saw the $GoP had been grooming their mule, the bed-wetting, jellybean jive-asz Ray-gun with cute TV spots for GE and quaint "tough-guy" 20 Mule Team Borax . And the governorship of California (1967-__). They even built a "memorial" fountain to him outside of Wurster, west of Boalt. How nice. "Chickenhawk".

So I was registered $GoP until 1988. Unfortunately that resulted in the election of $GoP tszuch-ass G.H.W. Bush.

There were positive benefits to being $GoP if you lived in Oregon 1974-82 . . .Wayne Morse, Mark Hatfield, Robert Packwood, and Governor Tom MCall,

Now because of the episodes of the 2016 Prez elections I am back to being indie.

Unit2Sucks said:

---

Strykur;842859395 said:

---

DPRK casualties may be massive, but insignificant of course.

---

I don't consider them insignificant. NK is a terrible place to live with not a lot of options for its citizens who have been treated very very badly by their leadership. I don't think this would be a simple regime change by any means, but I do put very nearly 100% of the blame for their plight on the Kim family.

---

FWIW: I was taking the phrase "but insignificant of course" as being bitterly ironic/sarcastic

concordtom said:

---

Latest ridiculous Trump move:

Tells fans to not attend NFL as move to force players to stand during the anthem.
Tells owners to fire all players who do not stand.

I can see it now: those who do not bow to trump will be punished.

Plain and simple, the man is a joke. And I'm with you, Bearister: what's up with the fools around us, in our families who still defend and make excuses for him???

That's the part that scares me, and it makes me understand how the Holocaust could happen. Normal, intelligent, good hearted people I know very well cannot consider letting down their Trump/GOP guard for one moment. I swear to god, the personal identity affiliation to that team is greater than Cal vs. Stanford.

He's sickening, yes.
But he's just one person. So, the phenomenon of the masses who support him still is 1000 times more sickening. If we just switched his GOP/DEM affiliation, these people would somehow suddenly be arguing vociferously against him, and not just as a duty to party, but they would believe it!

My grandfather, Cal '39 and Rose Bowl Band Marcher, would sit back in his chair and calmly say, "you can rationalize ANYTHING."

I get it, grandpa!

---

Trump understands, and knows how to play to, I think better than anyone, the thick vein of "tribal" racism that runs through this country, and has swallowed up "The Working Class" (white working class so far), if only because no other political force could speak to their plight, since the politics of both parties became beholden to big money as a matter of utter practicality, while real wages went nowhere since Reagan.

So, Trump is the only politician who speaks the language which has been perfected for decades now by Fox News, and now Sinclair and the Mercers.

But, because everyone else remains beholden to big money, only Trump is shameless enough to trumpet the real memes of this Fox brainwashing (since virtually none of it has much relation to the truth - except for the economic victimization of this Class - and since big money has so much to do with that, and Fox is part of that, virtually any enemy of Big Money, even perceived, is fair game to be blamed for this economic disaster, maybe even the more divorced from the truth the better, since, if you don't have to pay attention to the truth, it's easier to make up the stories).

So, to me, the interesting part of this is that, since Trump is the only one who actually speaks their language, he really could do anything, and his base would follow.

He doesn't even have to play to the crowd - except in attitude -- so he's got a pretty free hand, maybe even more so the more hornet's nests he stirs up among 'The Mainstream".

So, as shown by his recent flirtation with Chuck and Nancy, it would be nothing for him to swing to the left on a lot of these issues, which would in fact gain him a tremendous popularity, and majorly dull the attacks on him from "The Establishment"

I wouldn't expect it, since so much of his background (from his father's association with the KKK, and his easy housing discrimination in his properties, etc., etc., etc.), which gives him his attitude that is so popular in the Deep South, Appalachia, the Rust Belt, etc.,, is ingrained.

But he has had enough exposure to liberal policy ideas that would actually benefit his base (as opposed to the actual Republican policies, which do nothing but decimate those folks) from the 1960s forward, in New York, that they are not foreign to him; and I truly believe it would be nothing for him to adopt them: certainly massive infrastructure spending (even if paid for by federal taxes), even Medicare for All (which would immediately solve the problems with Veterans Health Care - in case he needed a talking point).

The main danger will be his foreign policy recklessness, and strong leaning towards authoritarianism in general and Russia in particular - because, from a cynically political point of view, the awful harm and slaughter it could cause Americans (and one wonders if, politically, he cares anything about harm to any others) would definitely be the last straw.

One would have to conclude from the above, that Mueller is the country's best hope, unless some political counter-intelligence could figure out the antidote to the devil's bargain encompassing the now-way-too-long-put-upon working class in this country; and there is at least a temporary remedy to that at hand, which I believe could be teased out from the politics of California since the politics of the Republican Party here finally were exposed enough to dispose of them as a meaningful player in this state.

Interestingly, North Carolina's basketball team apparently has turned down an invite to visit the White House.

"...and when Trump tells a crowd, as he often does, 'I love you,' what he means is that in Middle America he found something he had long ago run out of in New York, suckers. Trump voters were played for rubes by the ultimate fast talking city slicker who saw vulnerable people nervous about jobs and the Melting Pot getting too 'melty,' and he told them he would build them a Great Wall and get them their jobs back at the mine and they said 'Where do I sign up?' Folks, you didn't Make America Great Again, you enrolled in Trump University." Bill Maher

So I'm wondering if anyone is willing to defend this administration's disaster response in Puerto Rico. Seems worse than how Bush handled Katrina, and that is saying something.

Why would anyone think that a carnival barker could lead the response to once in a lifetime catastrophic disasters? This is his Katrina. Not even the man he put in charge thinks that the response has been sufficient.

The Liar In Chief's actions today yet again proved that he is incapable and unfit for the office of POTUS. His lack of empathy or sympathy while in PR was absolutely astonishing. While he continued to say that his response to the hurricane was great and tremendous, those on the ground said different. Despite what he says, all buildings haven't been inspected. U.S. citizens are still not getting the things that they need in the U.S. territories hit by the hurricanes. His comments with cameras rolling were something out of a bad novel. He just doesn't get it, doesn't care to get it, and people are suffering because of it. His throwing of paper towels to people was painful to watch, but says so much about who this clown is.

John Kelly's personal cell phone was compromised, White House believes

Kelly's phone has been compromised, Tillerson is about to show Trumpito the back of his head on the way out, the head of the EPA is using an oil executive's plane to fly back and forth to his home and visiting a hockey team, and others in the Trump White House are flying private jets all over on tax payer expense. Can you freakin imagine if the Obama White House pulled a stunt like that? They would have been called to testify before congress, investigations would have been opened, and human sacrifices performed. This is a Freakin Clown Show!

I believe it was a different official who visited the hockey team, not epa.

It was the Interior Secretary.

Now it looks like Trump will decertify the Iranian Nuclear Deal. This is not good and will lead top a situation much like North Korea with Iran refusing to renegotiate a deal and moving ahead with their own nuclear program. How long before Israel gets spooked and attempts to bomb Iran in this scenario, which would cause the middle east to become unhinged? Why would the DPRK ever negotiate with the U.S. when the U.S. cancelled the Iranian deal? The cherry on top of all this is the man tasked with representing the U.S. overseas could be gone at anytime.

BearNIt said:

---

It was the Interior Secretary.

Now it looks like Trump will decertify the Iranian Nuclear Deal. This is not good and will lead top a situation much like North Korea with Iran refusing to renegotiate a deal and moving ahead with their own nuclear program. How long before Israel gets spooked and attempts to bomb Iran in this scenario, which would cause the middle east to become unhinged? Why would the DPRK ever negotiate with the U.S. when the U.S. cancelled the Iranian deal? The cherry on top of all this is the man tasked with representing the U.S. overseas could be gone at anytime.

---

Even crazier, the Europeans may try to keep the Iranian deal alive, which would put Trump in the position of sanctioning major European corporations and banks, which would lead to a massive trade war on top of the scenario you outlined.

UrsaMajor said:

---

BearNIt said:

---

It was the Interior Secretary.

Now it looks like Trump will decertify the Iranian Nuclear Deal. This is not good and will lead top a situation much like North Korea with Iran refusing to renegotiate a deal and moving ahead with their own nuclear program. How long before Israel gets spooked and attempts to bomb Iran in this scenario, which would cause the middle east to become unhinged? Why would the DPRK ever negotiate with the U.S. when the U.S. cancelled the Iranian deal? The cherry on top of all this is the man tasked with representing the U.S. overseas could be gone at anytime.

---

Even crazier, the Europeans may try to keep the Iranian deal alive, which would put Trump in the position of sanctioning major European corporations and banks, which would lead to a massive trade war on top of the scenario you outlined.

---

This raises a terrifically interesting question, because the extraordinarily probable Parade of Horribles you posit is undoubtedly known to whatever percentage of the current administration could be deemed sane, and who, according to MSM reports, have so far been able to rein in the administration's truly insane positions.

I think that, if there were a mass resignation of that eminent group [of which group 3 have already formed a kind-of 3-Musketeers "Suicide Pact", which even could be - and would likely be intended to be], such event], then that could be the trigger for the impeachment proceedings we have all been looking forward to -- and I think Trump knows that; and, for the present, is content with playing the Chucky Doll at the end of a fairly long tether.

But it does seem that his extraordinary mental and emotional weakness will cause him, at some point, to succumb to the temptation to cut the cord, and thereby precipitate the tipping point in response to which one can only hope that there would be enough sane people in position to be effective to prevent the real Grand Guignol toward which Trump's conduct is apparently dying to go.

Word out of Japan is that it's Tillerson who should be listened to and not Trump. Is this an emerging trend? Also, there is word that the three adults will exercise their discretion should the 2 year-old attempt to go too far. Sigh, what ever happened to the good old days when worries about POTUS were about policy differences, and not about whether POTUS is going to destroy the world.

Carl Bernstein: "The military is in control of the presidency."

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/74pic3/cnns_bernstein_the_wheels_are_coming_off_the/?st=J8GSJUD2&sh=cff17137

bearister said:

---

Carl Bernstein: "The military is in control of the presidency."

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/74pic3/cnns_bernstein_the_wheels_are_coming_off_the/?st=J8GSJUD2&sh=cff17137

---

Remember when our biggest fear was that the military might take over (who has read or seen "7 Days in May?")? Now we're all hoping that they do (or already have), since the alternative is way to crazy to contemplate.

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/74w33f/history_wont_be_unkind_to_trumpit_will_be_cruel/?st=J8I0KWO1&sh=22b3bd8e

Feeling down about our mounting gridiron losses, this Republican Presidential Etiquette Guide might cheer you up.

They forgot to point out that Obama wore a tan suit once and that he ate grey poupon.

"This battle that Trump insists on maintaining also serves a wider goal for him: distraction. As long as we focus on the latest outrage he publishes on Twitter attacking one person or another, the less time we have to focus on the fact that his presidency thus far is a colossal legislative failure, his cabinet is an unending game of cloak and daggers meets musical chairs, his Justice Department is systematically and unrelentingly expressing its hostilities to equal rights, and Trump's reckless, emotionally triggered language and actions are making us less safe by denigrating diplomacy and advocating military aggression." Charles Blow, NY Times

Now the ex-wife ("First Lady") and Bob Corker both threw their hats into the ring. Fight on!

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/10/donald-trump-is-unraveling-white-house-advisers

Have we ever had a President described as "unstable," "losing a step," and "unraveling"? This is deeply troubling that POTUS is having to be managed by those around him. When the President's cabinet, chief of staff, and the leaders of the House of Representatives and Senate feel like they may have to step in and manage POTUS to protect the country, something is wrong. When the Republican chairman of the Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations indicates that the President is dangerous, you have to wonder how the individual occupying the White House can be trusted with the well-being of this country.

BearNIt said:

---

Have we ever had a President described as "unstable," "losing a step," and "unraveling"? This is deeply troubling that POTUS is having to be managed by those around him. When the President's cabinet, chief of staff, and the leaders of the House of Representatives and Senate feel like they may have to step in and manage POTUS to protect the country, something is wrong. When the Republican chairman of the Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations indicates that the President is dangerous, you have to wonder how the individual occupying the White House can be trusted with the well-being of this country.

---

I think one of the Presidents on the show 24 may have been almost as bad as tRump.

BearNIt said:

---

Have we ever had a President described as "unstable," "losing a step," and "unraveling"? This is deeply troubling that POTUS is having to be managed by those around him. When the President's cabinet, chief of staff, and the leaders of the House of Representatives and Senate feel like they may have to step in and manage POTUS to protect the country, something is wrong. When the Republican chairman of the Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations indicates that the President is dangerous, you have to wonder how the individual occupying the White House can be trusted with the well-being of this country.

---

Yet his 32% continue to show a blind eye and support the unstable and moronic Trumpf. Says a lot of about his supporters where party comes before country.

Can anybody tell me why the White House would stall on a bill that received overwhelming support from both parties that would implement sanctions on Russia for interfering in our election? Is there any good reason not to proceed with installing sanctions that were approved on August 2?

BearNIt said:

---

Can anybody tell me why the White House would stall on a bill that received overwhelming support from both parties that would implement sanctions on Russia for interfering in our election? Is there any good reason not to proceed with installing sanctions that were approved on August 2?

---

Sure, this is why tRump is stalling on Russian sanctions:

http://billmoyers.com/story/trump-russia-timeline/

BearNIt said:

---

Can anybody tell me why the White House would stall on a bill that received overwhelming support from both parties that would implement sanctions on Russia for interfering in our election? Is there any good reason not to proceed with installing sanctions that were approved on August 2?

---

I, for whatever reasons, am (probably inordinately) fond of well-constructed, rhetorical questions.

"Donald Trump engages in conduct 3-5 times a week that would get him fired by any Fortune 500 company." Donny Deutsch on MSNBC

Confirmed: Donald Trump talks to himself.

sycasey said:

---

Confirmed: Donald Trump talks to himself.

---

It's the old story of Mr. Hyde and Hyde Jr.

bearister said:

---

"Donald Trump engages in conduct 3-5 times a week that would get him fired by any Fortune 500 company." Donny Deutsch on MSNBC

---

As much as I dislike Trump, we need to stop quoting these talking heads as if their biased political opinions are somehow worthy.