Guy must have done too much cocaine with the prostitutes or something. Someone give me dictator Pence over this guy...

Drilling down on the story a bit more the consensus is that Trump didn't have, and couldn't get, anywhere near the trillions of dollars that he had been talking about for infrastructure, that was the purported subject of the meeting. Journalists noted that, affixed to the Rose Garden podium, was a nicely printed No Collusion No Obstruction poster for when Trump stormed out of the meeting and started to kvetch. So the whole walk-out was staged as a smokescreen for the inability to deliver the infrastructure funding, which was itself a smokescreen. — Wayfarer

So, since there was no point in having a meeting, Trump decided to make a show of it. Sounds Trumpian.

Some highlights from the Rose Garden Rant:

Positively everybody was out to get him. They were out to get him in the third person: “They hated President Trump. They hated him with a passion,” he said. They were out to get him in the first-person plural: “These people were out to get us, the Republican Party and President Trump. They were out to get us.” What’s more, they have been after him “pretty much from the time we came down the escalator in Trump Tower.” And now they probably will impeach him because they “do whatever they have to do.”


He raged on. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) has “been an enemy of mine for many years.” The “whole thing was a takedown attempt.” The assembled press “ought to be ashamed of yourselves for the way you report it so dishonestly.” And, even though he was the one who blew up the infrastructure meeting, he just knew that Democrats were “not really thinking they wanted to do infrastructure or anything else other than investigate.”


He ricocheted randomly among inchoate thought fragments: Infrastructure. WITCH HUNT! Unemployment. NO COLLUSION! Drug prices. HOAX! A special election in Pennsylvania. ONE-SIDED HORRIBLE THING! Tax cuts. DON JR. HAS GONE THROUGH HELL! I love the American people. IMPEACHMENT! Regulations. A DISGRACE! ABUSE!


Nobody seemed to know what to make of the explosion. White House officials reportedly said they tried to stop Trump from making the Rose Garden appearance. And for good reason: With Wednesday’s public announcement that he won’t negotiate with Democrats, the president has taken ownership of the lack of progress on infrastructure and other legislation — much the way he took ownership of the government shutdown.

https://wapo.st/2wg2j8S

Rumor has it that Trump is snorting Adderall since cocaine is not available.

Trump is a teetotal, never drinks, never has there been any suggestion that he takes drugs. His problems are not in the least associated with intoxicants.

His problems are not in the least associated with intoxicants. — Wayfarer

Then what are they associated with?

Read the news :roll:

Yeah, no thanks. I don't need to be told that we have a pseudo-godfather as a president.

Good mission statement.

24 May 2019. Are folks paying attention to the news? What I cannot figure out is who is masterminding Trump's behaviour. Clearly he cannot be doing it. And the people who are and those who facilitate, the Kellyannes, the Sarah Saunders, now Barr, and a host of others: who is running them? Clearly they are not Americans, even if born and educated here, and I suspect they're not even that. Or under the veneer of this culture is there a monstrous subculture? Trump is pushing so hard that impeachment looms as a simple necessity. But he has been doing so much damage even that in itself is only a step towards repair.

It's common to suppose Trump is someone who cannot: cannot tell the truth, cannot accomplish anything, cannot do anything good, and so forth. But it has been apparent - to some people for a very long time - that he actually is accomplishing something, and that what he's accomplishing is towards a goal. We're the Titanic and that goal is a lethal iceberg concealed by a dark night - and our captain knows where it is, what it is, and he is steering right for it. And among the evils of this iceberg is that we will sink by degrees. Pay attention in the near future to the play of abortion rights, attempts to limit the first amendment and criminalize certain kinds of journalism. And watch how federal judges react - and The Supreme Court. It's them and Congress and the law. If those fail, then it will be time for a Jeffersonian remedy. To my way of thinking all of this is much more serious, dangerous, and dark than media has the capacity to correctly and accurately represent.

Or under the veneer of this culture is there a monstrous subculture? — tim wood

Yes, anarchists.

What I cannot figure out is who is masterminding Trump's behaviour. — tim wood

The stable genius is at best of average intelligence but he has a knack for promoting his own self-interests. To this end he has aligned himself with Fundamentalist Evangelical leaders, big business capitalists, and anti-government idealists (many of whom are Evangelicals or billionaire capitalists or both). Although they have some common interests, I do not think there is a mastermind.

But Trump is remarkably consistent with making particular decisions that are destructive - even beyond chance. And those decisions, which I do not believe he authors, much less truly himself cares about, are funneled to and through him. Do they originate with a many? Whose idea was it to separate children, and then neglect to track them? No one could be that stupid and immoral, so we must attribute purpose and motive. And so on across the board. What's the sum? Confusion, a general weakening, and erosion of belief in American values and liberties. The whole method is consistent with at least old soviet techniques of subversion and fifth-columnism.

The outer techniques are lies so persistent and relentless and even brazen and absurd that they poison the ground even for the truth. The creation of false enemies, the demonization of groups and organizations, and on and on. All this of a comprehensiveness that requires if not a master-mind, then a master plan. It must be Russian, or even the American Right. Where else could it emanate from? And even if the American Right, the Russians have found willing tools in them. I said "tools," more accurately fools - and traitors. Strong language, but show me how it is not appropriate.

In 1919 the Treaty of Versailles was supposed to secure a permanent piece. A prescient few recognized it as a twenty-years armistice. Their voices were inconsequential against the next twenty years of applied ignorance, self-interest, short-sightedness, greed, denial, and finally stupidity. The lesson tor this time is that these same failings are at work today, but under the influence of masters at exploiting them.

Trump's presidency is a call to arms for those who grasp the nature of the danger he represents. Our system is slow to turn, slow to react. In civil times a good thing - in a bad, not so much. But turn it must, and it will take a combined effort to turn it. It starts with federal judges and The Supreme Court blocking attacks on the legal side. Then impeachment and conviction, followed by criminal indictment and trial for criminal acts, and finally civil actions for wrongs committed, to hold those who committed them responsible. Just my fantasy? Is there a better way that will not do more harm than good? Is this a Cassandra voice?

I predict a war with Iran before the end of his presidency.

Someone hand me some Prozac and wine...

Today's snippet - Trump Trusts Chairman Kim More than his own Staff.

Why, oh why, do people keep standing by this guy when it routinely betrays them? The only two people in the world that Trump is unreservedly positive about are Putin and Kim. What is it going to take for the charade to be punctured?

Whose idea was it to separate children, and then neglect to track them? No one could be that stupid and immoral — tim wood

I do not know the extent of Trump's involvement. What is clear is that he believes that problems can and should be resolved by a show of force. This is the same strategy he uses when it comes to foreign relations. He seems to have little concern for details. Let someone else do the dirty work.

As to whether or not someone could be that stupid and immoral, it was done. How much was callous and deliberate and how much was negligence and incompetence I don't know. I think Trump believed that this or some other tactic of fear, pain, and intimidation, together would his wall, would put an end to the immigration problem. He prefers acting to thinking, and has surrounded himself with people who will act first and ask no questions. If there is a master plan, this is the extent of it.

Trump's presidency is a call to arms for those who grasp the nature of the danger he represents. — tim wood

The problem is how to end his presidency without causing irreparable damage to the office itself.

It starts with federal judges and The Supreme Court blocking attacks on the legal side. — tim wood

Unfortunately, he has appointed two Supreme Court justices and a significant number of federal judges. Although some will oppose him, he has managed to hijack the Republican Party and has closely aligned himself with conservatism; and so, they may be more willing to overlook his abuses then rule against him. In addition, the playbook of both Trump and conservative activists is to appeal everything they can to the Supreme Court. One would think there must be a tipping point, but with each step Trump takes that point recedes further away. If the courts do rule against him he will do everything he can to destroy them.

James Comey has come out with an important OP, saying Trump's lies about treason and conspiracy have to be called out. He points out that, had there been a conspiracy to damage the Trump campaign, as continually alleged by Trump, then what had been found out, would have been leaked, because it was very damaging to Trump. But it wasn't leaked, because it wasn't a conspiracy directed at Trump - it was an effort to find out about some incredibly alarming information about Russian interference in US politics. Not the hoax that Trump continually mis-states.

The problem is, whatever doesn't kill the Trump presidency just makes it stronger. Like, each new outrage, each new low, each instance of Trump doing or saying something which would forever torpedo anyone else, somehow gets a pass from Fox and Friends, freeing him up to go even lower. It's a shame that it's not just funny. But it isn't.

The problem is how to end his presidency without causing irreparable damage to the office itself. — Fooloso4

His occupancy of it is far more damaging than anything leading to his vacating it could be. He's practically destroying the office in plain sight.

He's practically destroying the office in plain sight. — Wayfarer

He has destroyed it, or at least caused irreparable damage. It was the will of the people - so it seems.

It's a shame that it's not just funny. But it isn't. — Wayfarer

Remember, Trump's run for presidency started out as a big joke, pure entertainment. But the American people value bad entertainment far higher than good governance. There's a slow, slow train coming, up around the bend.

What I cannot figure out is who is masterminding Trump's behaviour. — tim wood

"Mastermind"?? Forgive me, but the irony is almost unbearable - as if there's some actual master strategy or over-riding vision in the fiasco of Trump's presidency. It's all instinct, mendacity, cupidity (now there's a word I don't get to use often) and chaos, which various unscrupulous interests have conspired to game.

Anyway - nobody masterminds Trump. It's all straight from the Trump Id.

"Mastermind"?? Forgive me, but the irony is almost unbearable — Wayfarer

No it's unbearable.

He just made peace with freaking North Korea — fishfry

North Korea Envoy Executed Over Trump-Kim Summit, Chosun Reports

North Korea Envoy Executed Over Trump-Kim Summit, Chosun Reports — Maw

LOL. Already debunked. The "Philosophy forum" is a hotbed of fake news when you are around. Just how gullible are you, anyway?

North Korea execution reports - why we should be cautious

But there is a reason we treat reports about North Korean officials being executed with extreme caution. The claims are incredibly difficult to verify and they are very often wrong.

Both the South Korean media and the government in Seoul have reported on purges in the past - only for the "executed" officials to turn up a few weeks later looking alive and well next to the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

On this occasion, a single anonymous source has told a newspaper in Seoul that Kim Hyok-chol, the former North Korean envoy to the US and a key figure in talks ahead of the summit between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump in Hanoi, was executed at an airport in Pyongyang.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48477248

Already debunked. — fishfry

The BBC article states that "we should be cautious" and that "the report is plausible". I would hardly call that "debunked".

i was wondering, with the recent news that Kushner and Ivanka made 82 million last year, whether anyone knows anything at all they did for the nation last year.

i was wondering, with the recent news that Kushner and Ivanka made 82 million last year, whether anyone knows anything at all they did for the nation last year. — ernestm

What did they do to earn 82 million?

What did they do to earn 82 million? — Benkei

Served with duty their country honorably and very successfully.

What else? :smile:

What did they do to earn 82 million? — Benkei

It's almost all from their private businesses which they never sold off. Currently Kushner and Ivanka are on vacation in England.

I kind of meant that in the ethical sense. :wink:

A State Visit is not a Vacation.
Can you take him away please?

lol. Maybe ivanka will open a hat shop in Soho, I hear pastel green is suddenly in.

Currently, I can hear Kushner remarking how proud he is that Acting Defense Minister Shanahan flew B52 nuclear bombs over countries he is managing, and someone gently correcting him that the Baltics are not the Balkans like his father-in-law claims.