Roy, if you're planning on doing a look-back on Trump's Train o' Wreckage, you'd better plan on doing this every day from now until Jan. 1. Because the thing about Trump is that every day, EVERY FUCKING DAY, bring some new outrage that would have ended any other candidacy or presidency. Whether we're talking about starting his presidential run with his racist anti-Mexican statements, or last night's rally filled with "I'm the one keeping all you White suburban women safe from the big Mandingo threat!!!", Trump commits/admits/continues a new crime, a new outrage, a new racism EVERY FUCKING DAY! (And, usually, there are several scandals a day.)
Just trying to document 10% of this will take what's left of your writing career--you will die of old age before you get done chronicling even half of it.
Even the highlights are too much. It's like watching Cleavon Little holding a gun to his head in Blazing Saddles -- "Don't move or the writer gets it!" I'm with Derelict here. Trump has been such a freakshow there's just too, too much awfulness for one man to review. Besides, sometimes it's the details that reveal the devil. Like Trump, 3 days in, standing before the CIA memorial wall talking about his inauguration crowd sizes. Or calling up the Mayor of Charlottesville after the Nazi murder march to congratulate him on how his city was famous now, and his tourism numbers would "go up like tenfold with the expenditure of no money". Or in response to players kneeling, calling for NFL owners to "Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, he's fired. He's fired!" And so on. Gotta be careful, it's like quicksand.
Speaking of revealing the devil, if you haven't seen it, the short video clip from 1990 where Trump walks out on the CNN interviewer that just surfaced is a doozy. Watch it from about 1:10 and you see Trump's smirking inner mobster as he glances off camera -- as revelatory as catching a glimpse of Linda Blair's head spinning around, or maybe in this case, Roy Cohn's.
Holy frijole, that glance was creepy. Linda Blair is right -- there's almost a supernatural offness.
I gotta say, I had scant hope he'd "grow into" the office, but I had some. We were only six minutes into his Administration when he was giving the American Carnage speech and I realized there was going to be zero growth, and that he hadn't surrounded himself with anyone interested in helping him find some. Then the next day he was boasting about his crowd size, which would have been insanely petty IF IT WERE TRUE. That it was all lies, and that he pressed the park service to lie too -- well, 24 hours in, it was already clear these four years would be a shitshow we could not possibly survive intact.
Although I wouldn’t quite call myself a political junkie – I value my sanity too much – I probably pay closer attention to politics than 80-90% of people. And it’s amazing how much I’ve forgotten about Trump: The Early Years. So thanks for the timely refresher, Roy.
I do know it feels like Trump’s been President for a decade already, and if his administration couldn’t quite clear the bar of committing a crime a day, they definitely committed a crime a week. No wonder it’s easy to forget about some of the malfeasance, they really have followed Bannon’s playbook of flooding the zone with shit.
Trump's campaign manager ends up in prison because of his ties to the Russians. Manafort ran Trump's campaign for free because the Russians were paying Manafort.
During the campaign, Trump publicly asks Russia to compromise American security when he implores Russia to hack Clinton's servers to find "the missing emails."
Trump's next campaign top advisor is caught on tape meeting with the Russian ambassador. Jeff Sessions goes on to, first, lie to the FBI about that meeting, then lie under oath about that meeting during his confirmation hearing to become Trump's first AG.
Trump's campaign adviser for national security turns out to be a paid foreign agent with long-standing ties to Russia and Russian intelligence. Michael Flynn is installed as the President's National Security Adviser and holds that position for a month before Trump is forced to let him go in the face of overwhelming evidence that Flynn is actually a Russian agent.
Trump's top adviser on all matters gets outed during the transition for trying to create a secret back channel to communicate directly with Putin. Jared Kushner is forced to revise his application for a security clearance half a dozen times as his contacts with the Russians are revealed. Despite US intelligence services recommending against Kushner receiving a clearance, Trump grants him one.
Trump himself invites the Russian ambassador into the White House, leaving the intelligence community aghast at the exposure this gives to national security. At the meeting, Trump does not allow any US press or security officials to be present, but does allow Russian intelligence and media. At the meeting, Trump brags about having fire James Comey so that there would be no more investigation into Trump's ties with Russian. Trump also reveals extremely classified information that compromises ongoing US-Israel operations in Syria.
.
.
And all of this is before we've even gotten to the 4 month mark of his first year.
...and all of this, what everyone including Roy are saying here, IS JUST BASED ON THE PUBLIC RECORD. As I keep saying, it will take an army of historians 20 years to dig up and narrate all the crimes, scandals, and bullshit both public and (so far, at least) hidden. However bad we think the past 4 years have been, you know the reality is ten times worse.
The year is 2050. I'm an historian working on my PhD. My research on the Trump administration centers on October 3, 2020 from 10AM to noon. Because this time period alone has produced more than 10,000 pages of research, my advisor suggests I narrow my scope to the period between 10AM and 10:05AM.
On November 3rd Puerto Rico votes on statehood. It’s a non binding referendum but the polling there shows a consistent majority in favor. The Democratic Party platform has long supported PR statehood if the Puerto Ricans want it. Trump’s shitting on PR may come hurtling back at him like a soaked paper towel roll. A positive referendum result could mean statehood under a Democratic House and Senate and future PR Senators aren’t likely to be Republicans (or caucus with them - PR has its own political parties). That plus DC statehood could counter balance the political power of all those Wyoming cattle and Dakotas wheat fields.
We also need to vastly expand the House of Reps, which hasn’t been done in about 100 years, in which time the USA has tripled in population. Also, wouldn’t more reps make it much more difficult to gerrymander a state?
I've long thought a 1000-2000 seat House was reasonable: it would take a constitutional amendment to have a Senate seat represent a compact group of House districts representing 1% of the House, subject the redistricting. I know I'm dreamin'...
While arguably more districts would facilitate easier gerrymanders, mostly because there are more pieces to play with, it's still the best option. NC map drawing under T Hoeffler was granular: computers will be drawing lines. Oversight needs to be firm and transparent..
It would upend politics: give the third parties their shot, and usher in plenty of chances for corruption. One tries to picture Vidal or H Adams reaction to such a thing.
Ah memories - unfortunately there's no scalpel around to cut them out of my brain.
This country is broken. We need to elect democrats of course, but that's not going to be the end of it. Expect further turbulence ahead no matter who wins the election. The republican principal that democrats aren't Americans and are not allowed to rule isn't going anywhere.
I think about the irony of John McCain's thumbs down verdict on overturning Obamacare actually temporarily helping Trump and the Congressional GOP because, if 20+ million Americans had suddenly lost their health insurance and millions more not able to get insurance because of pre-existing conditions, the 2018 bloodbath would have been even worse. And since the GOP has never had anything like a serious health insurance plan to offer as an alternative (and still don't), even absent Covid-19, Trump's prospects would have been pretty dismal.
Roy, if you're planning on doing a look-back on Trump's Train o' Wreckage, you'd better plan on doing this every day from now until Jan. 1. Because the thing about Trump is that every day, EVERY FUCKING DAY, bring some new outrage that would have ended any other candidacy or presidency. Whether we're talking about starting his presidential run with his racist anti-Mexican statements, or last night's rally filled with "I'm the one keeping all you White suburban women safe from the big Mandingo threat!!!", Trump commits/admits/continues a new crime, a new outrage, a new racism EVERY FUCKING DAY! (And, usually, there are several scandals a day.)
Just trying to document 10% of this will take what's left of your writing career--you will die of old age before you get done chronicling even half of it.
I'm only one man! Just the highlights.
Even the highlights are too much. It's like watching Cleavon Little holding a gun to his head in Blazing Saddles -- "Don't move or the writer gets it!" I'm with Derelict here. Trump has been such a freakshow there's just too, too much awfulness for one man to review. Besides, sometimes it's the details that reveal the devil. Like Trump, 3 days in, standing before the CIA memorial wall talking about his inauguration crowd sizes. Or calling up the Mayor of Charlottesville after the Nazi murder march to congratulate him on how his city was famous now, and his tourism numbers would "go up like tenfold with the expenditure of no money". Or in response to players kneeling, calling for NFL owners to "Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, he's fired. He's fired!" And so on. Gotta be careful, it's like quicksand.
Speaking of revealing the devil, if you haven't seen it, the short video clip from 1990 where Trump walks out on the CNN interviewer that just surfaced is a doozy. Watch it from about 1:10 and you see Trump's smirking inner mobster as he glances off camera -- as revelatory as catching a glimpse of Linda Blair's head spinning around, or maybe in this case, Roy Cohn's.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3_VdMYAxYk
Holy frijole, that glance was creepy. Linda Blair is right -- there's almost a supernatural offness.
I gotta say, I had scant hope he'd "grow into" the office, but I had some. We were only six minutes into his Administration when he was giving the American Carnage speech and I realized there was going to be zero growth, and that he hadn't surrounded himself with anyone interested in helping him find some. Then the next day he was boasting about his crowd size, which would have been insanely petty IF IT WERE TRUE. That it was all lies, and that he pressed the park service to lie too -- well, 24 hours in, it was already clear these four years would be a shitshow we could not possibly survive intact.
Although I wouldn’t quite call myself a political junkie – I value my sanity too much – I probably pay closer attention to politics than 80-90% of people. And it’s amazing how much I’ve forgotten about Trump: The Early Years. So thanks for the timely refresher, Roy.
I do know it feels like Trump’s been President for a decade already, and if his administration couldn’t quite clear the bar of committing a crime a day, they definitely committed a crime a week. No wonder it’s easy to forget about some of the malfeasance, they really have followed Bannon’s playbook of flooding the zone with shit.
Draining The Swamp By Flooding The Zone With Shit: Steve Bannon's Republican Plumbing Service
LOL. Maybe all the time spent in toxic sewers explains what’s up with his reptilian skin.
It explains his most common expression.
"Malfeasance" is far too mild a term. Consider:
Trump's campaign manager ends up in prison because of his ties to the Russians. Manafort ran Trump's campaign for free because the Russians were paying Manafort.
During the campaign, Trump publicly asks Russia to compromise American security when he implores Russia to hack Clinton's servers to find "the missing emails."
Trump's next campaign top advisor is caught on tape meeting with the Russian ambassador. Jeff Sessions goes on to, first, lie to the FBI about that meeting, then lie under oath about that meeting during his confirmation hearing to become Trump's first AG.
Trump's campaign adviser for national security turns out to be a paid foreign agent with long-standing ties to Russia and Russian intelligence. Michael Flynn is installed as the President's National Security Adviser and holds that position for a month before Trump is forced to let him go in the face of overwhelming evidence that Flynn is actually a Russian agent.
Trump's top adviser on all matters gets outed during the transition for trying to create a secret back channel to communicate directly with Putin. Jared Kushner is forced to revise his application for a security clearance half a dozen times as his contacts with the Russians are revealed. Despite US intelligence services recommending against Kushner receiving a clearance, Trump grants him one.
Trump himself invites the Russian ambassador into the White House, leaving the intelligence community aghast at the exposure this gives to national security. At the meeting, Trump does not allow any US press or security officials to be present, but does allow Russian intelligence and media. At the meeting, Trump brags about having fire James Comey so that there would be no more investigation into Trump's ties with Russian. Trump also reveals extremely classified information that compromises ongoing US-Israel operations in Syria.
.
.
And all of this is before we've even gotten to the 4 month mark of his first year.
...and all of this, what everyone including Roy are saying here, IS JUST BASED ON THE PUBLIC RECORD. As I keep saying, it will take an army of historians 20 years to dig up and narrate all the crimes, scandals, and bullshit both public and (so far, at least) hidden. However bad we think the past 4 years have been, you know the reality is ten times worse.
The year is 2050. I'm an historian working on my PhD. My research on the Trump administration centers on October 3, 2020 from 10AM to noon. Because this time period alone has produced more than 10,000 pages of research, my advisor suggests I narrow my scope to the period between 10AM and 10:05AM.
Hm. Risky. You do have the NetChip (TM) implant in your frontal cortex for immediate data download off the Web, right? Otherwise...
Yeah, I'm not looking forward to being reminded of the rest of it, really. Seems like a waste of a lot of good psychological defense mechanisms.
On November 3rd Puerto Rico votes on statehood. It’s a non binding referendum but the polling there shows a consistent majority in favor. The Democratic Party platform has long supported PR statehood if the Puerto Ricans want it. Trump’s shitting on PR may come hurtling back at him like a soaked paper towel roll. A positive referendum result could mean statehood under a Democratic House and Senate and future PR Senators aren’t likely to be Republicans (or caucus with them - PR has its own political parties). That plus DC statehood could counter balance the political power of all those Wyoming cattle and Dakotas wheat fields.
We also need to vastly expand the House of Reps, which hasn’t been done in about 100 years, in which time the USA has tripled in population. Also, wouldn’t more reps make it much more difficult to gerrymander a state?
I've long thought a 1000-2000 seat House was reasonable: it would take a constitutional amendment to have a Senate seat represent a compact group of House districts representing 1% of the House, subject the redistricting. I know I'm dreamin'...
While arguably more districts would facilitate easier gerrymanders, mostly because there are more pieces to play with, it's still the best option. NC map drawing under T Hoeffler was granular: computers will be drawing lines. Oversight needs to be firm and transparent..
It would upend politics: give the third parties their shot, and usher in plenty of chances for corruption. One tries to picture Vidal or H Adams reaction to such a thing.
That is well over 100,000 representatives
Just wait until The southern US becomes America's own Chechnya.
I like the subtle metaphor of rape at the end. Trump, the lifelong individual rapist, now as president raping the entire country.
Ah memories - unfortunately there's no scalpel around to cut them out of my brain.
This country is broken. We need to elect democrats of course, but that's not going to be the end of it. Expect further turbulence ahead no matter who wins the election. The republican principal that democrats aren't Americans and are not allowed to rule isn't going anywhere.
I think about the irony of John McCain's thumbs down verdict on overturning Obamacare actually temporarily helping Trump and the Congressional GOP because, if 20+ million Americans had suddenly lost their health insurance and millions more not able to get insurance because of pre-existing conditions, the 2018 bloodbath would have been even worse. And since the GOP has never had anything like a serious health insurance plan to offer as an alternative (and still don't), even absent Covid-19, Trump's prospects would have been pretty dismal.
It's funny to recall all the "you'd win only if you become a moderate Republican" punditing, since Reagan..
It's almost like they knew the Moderates were going to go extinct...
>buying more “rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love.”
…every month.