Friday Reads: The Longest Month Ever …
Posted: February 17, 2017 | Author: dakinikat | Filed under: 2016 elections, Afternoon Reads | Tags: American Held Hostage |
Time evidently doesn’t simply fly when you’re operating with daily emotional shock and awe and the chaotic actions of a mad king. It zooms at super sonic levels leaving stinky vapor trails and maddening sonic booms. It also seems like it never ends. The national nightmare continues after 30 days of hyper Alt Right policies and an Administration creating havoc and chaos what ever they do and where ever they go. Welcome to the 10 second news cycle. We are all ADD and PTSD now.
We’re nationally exhausted. The entire civilized world is exhausted. We’re in constant need of spiked hot chocolate, a warm blanket, and a long nap. Exactly what is it going to take for the Republicans to eliminate this massive onslaught of threats to life as the planet and country has known it? How much more of this are they going to foist on us so that their theocrats and plutocrats can tear down their pet institutions and feel secure for the time being in their enclaves of privilege?
Will this entire Democratic experience die on a cross of religious bigotry and greed while Hair Furor parties on in his Florida Resort Bunker surrounded by leaking oozing hack-able incompetents??
The Democrats and even few Republicans are questioning this so-called President’s mental health. What more does it take to send up the call for a series neuropsychological tests on the s0-called President? Can any one really tell us that Kremlin Caligula is functional in any standard sense of the word? How can we get Trump to a psychiatrist or psychologist? The man is in obvious need of help!
“Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) in a floor speech this week called for a review of the Constitution’s procedures for removing a president. He warned the 25th Amendment of the Constitution falls short when it comes to mental or emotional fitness for office.”
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) during a weekend interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” said that “a few” Republican colleagues have expressed concern to him about Trump’s mental health.
And Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) plans to introduce legislation that would require the presence of a psychiatrist or psychologist in the White House.
The Democrats justify their questions by pointing to Trump’s habit of making demonstrably false claims. At a press conference Thursday, he said he’d had the biggest Electoral College win since President Ronald Reagan, for example, when his margin was lower than either of President Obama’s wins.
Blumenauer told The Hill he started taking another look at the 25th Amendment because Trump had casually repeated easily disproven claims, such as stating that it wasn’t raining during his speech on Inauguration Day when it was.
“It’s not normal behavior. I don’t know anybody in a position of responsibility that doesn’t know if they’re being rained on. And nobody I work with serially offers up verifiably false statements on an ongoing basis,” he said in an interview steps from the House chamber.
But suggesting the president has a mental health problem invites criticism that Democrats are going too far.
“It’s divisive. The bottom line is, if Trump doesn’t succeed, we all fail. It’s time to give the guy a chance,” said Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.).
Reps. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) and Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) both burst out laughing when told some Democratic colleagues were questioning Trump’s mental health.
“Are you serious?” Hunter asked. “Yeah, I don’t care what they say.”
That’s the entire deal. The Republicans keep acting like this is their new normal. This nightmare is their opportunity to gut every reform since The Gilded Age and maybe even before that. We have a daily constitutional crisis. It’s evident our election had serious issues and that Congressional oversight is needed on many levels. But hey look! HER EMAILS!! AGAIN!!! “Chaffetz seeks charge of ex-Clinton aide in email inquiry.” Did he ignore that extended live performance yesterday where our president did everything but literally froth at the mouth?
The Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, who has refused Democratic requests to investigate possible conflicts of interest involving President Donald Trump, is seeking criminal charges against a former State Department employee who helped set up Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday asking him to convene a grand jury or charge Bryan Pagliano, the computer specialist who helped establish Clinton’s server while she was secretary of state.
Pagliano did not comply with two subpoenas ordering him to appear before the oversight panel. The GOP-led committee later voted to hold him in contempt of Congress.
Earlier this month, Chaffetz met with Trump at the White House and agreed not to discuss oversight. He has rebuffed calls for his panel to look into Trump’s businesses and possible conflicts.
Chaffetz said in a statement that allowing Pagliano’s conduct “to go unaddressed would gravely harm Congress’ ability to conduct oversight.”
Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said pursuing charges against Pagliano would be a waste of time and money.
Journalists aren’t likely to forget yesterday’s presser for some time. It’s generally been characterized as “insane”.
On Thursday afternoon, President Donald Trump’s staff corralled the White House press corps into the East Room of the White House so that he could sing the praises of his new Labor Secretary pick, Alexander Acosta.
This was the case only for first few minutes during which the president, visibly bored, read from a sheet of notes, sounding like he had just woke up from a power nap.
For the remainder of the marathon press conference, which lasted one hour and 17 minutes, Trump perked up and did what he has the most fun doing: beating up on the press.
He shouted about Russia, Vladimir Putin, and Russian intelligence. He vented about how unfair and nasty “the media” was to him, but took time to specifically praise friendly outlets such as Fox News. He tried to settle old scores in public. He touted the single national poll that showed a favorable approval rating. He continued to protest too much about charges of racism, and even anti-Semitism in his ranks. And President Trump revived Candidate Trump’s favorite campaign-rally applause line about how he has “never seen more dishonest media than, frankly, the political media.”
It was like he had never left the campaign trail or all the old talking points, pugnacity, and vitriol that came with it. The only thing that was missing was a jab at “Crooked Hillary.”
And as the official White House press conference disintegrated further into unhinged criticism and belligerent sniping, reporters seated in the East Room could hardly contain themselves. There was an awkward mix of laughing with Trump, and chuckling at him as the president kept venting and sneering. The reporters present couldn’t stop quietly gossipping about Trump.
“What is going on?” one journalist whispered to another. “This is insane” and “What the hell?” were other popular refrains in the room.
Given that we’ve got this nightmare partially due to the inability of the media to discern the Pandora’s Box of Trump’s Psyche early on, it only seems fitting they get the abuse straight in their faces. Embedding in the White House Press Corps should come with war zone pay and counselling for ongoing trauma. Still, the Republicans just appear to be hiding and doing what weasels usually do. They’re busy destroying stuff in their own little way. Krugman has a great op ed about the silence of the weasels. Well, he calls them hacks. But then he has to get it published on the NYT and I just press a button here!!!
The story so far: A foreign dictator intervened on behalf of a U.S. presidential candidate — and that candidate won. Close associates of the new president were in contact with the dictator’s espionage officials during the campaign, and his national security adviser was forced out over improper calls to that country’s ambassador — but not until the press reported it; the president learned about his actions weeks earlier, but took no action.
Meanwhile, the president seems oddly solicitous of the dictator’s interests, and rumors swirl about his personal financial connections to the country in question. Is there anything to those rumors? Nobody knows, in part because the president refuses to release his tax returns.
Maybe there’s nothing wrong here, and it’s all perfectly innocent. But if it’s not innocent, it’s very bad indeed. So what do Republicans in Congress, who have the power to investigate the situation, believe should be done?
Nothing.
Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House, says that Michael Flynn’s conversations with the Russian ambassador were “entirely appropriate.”
Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, angrily dismissed calls for a select committee to investigate contacts during the campaign: “There is absolutely not going to be one.”
Jason Chaffetz, the chairman of the House oversight committee — who hounded Hillary Clinton endlessly over Benghazi — declared that the “situation has taken care of itself.”
Just the other day Republicans were hot in pursuit of potential scandal, and posed as ultrapatriots. Now they’re indifferent to actual subversion and the real possibility that we are being governed by people who take their cues from Moscow. Why?
Well, Senator Rand Paul explained it all: “We’ll never even get started with doing the things we need to do, like repealing Obamacare, if we’re spending our whole time having Republicans investigate Republicans.” Does anyone doubt that he was speaking for his whole party?
And evidently the Presser yesterday played well with the Deplorables in the propaganda press… Quoted below is a deplorable bit from the NYP that had an even more deplorable cover. I’m not quoting too much from it because it’s as delusional as its subject.
Just three weeks into his term, Democrats, in and out of the media, smelled blood. Many already were going for the kill.
They won’t get it, at least now. Trump bought himself time yesterday.
In what universe was yesterday’s display of insanity a time buyer? We’re all getting used to gasping for air in 10 second or maybe minute news cycles. I guess if you were black, a woke woman or Jewish you heard a totally different set of dog whistles. This CNN headline says it all “Trump tells Jewish magazine’s reporter to ‘sit down,’ blames anti-Semitism on ‘the other side'”
He settled on a reporter who identified himself as Jake Turx, a reporter with Ami Magazine, which bills itself as “a new standard in Jewish media.” Turx prefaced his question by saying he did not see evidence the President or his staff were anti-Semitic. He even mentioned Trump’s Jewish grandchildren.
He then launched into the thrust of his question about bomb threats to dozens of Jewish Community Centers last month.
What we are concerned about, and what we haven’t really heard being addressed, is an uptick in anti-Semitism and how the government is planning to take care of it,” Turx said.
As Turx continued, Trump interrupted, “See, he said he was going to ask a very simple, easy question, and it’s not.”
The reporter said, “It’s an important one.”
“Not a simple question. Not a fair question. OK, sit down. I understand the rest of your question,”
Trump said. “So here’s the story folks. No. 1, I am the least anti-Semitic person that you’ve ever seen in your entire life. No. 2, racism. The least racist person. In fact, we did very well relative to other people running as a Republican.”
Turx raised his hand again and spoke up.
“Quiet, quiet, quiet,” Trump replied. “See he lied about — he was going to get up and ask a very straight, simple question. So, you know, welcome to the world of the media.”
Turx shook his head, and Trump continued as if he himself had been accused of anti-Semitism, despite Turx’s preface.
“But let me just tell you something: I hate the charge. I find it repulsive. I hate even the question because people that know me — and you heard the Prime Minister, you heard Benjamin Netanyahu, did you hear him, Bibi? He said, ‘I’ve known Donald Trump for a long time,’ and then he said, ‘Forget it.’ So you should take that instead of having to get up and ask a very insulting question like that.”
Trump can make anything into something about directly related to his EGO by his screaming ID. Even I can see that and I’m not the Psych PhD blogger on the blog. I’m just the humble economist trying to deal with a continual onslaught of abusive, gas lighting insanity.
I just don’t know how much longer anything can take this constant assault. It’s an assault on our sanity. It’s national gaslighting. It’s destroying or nation’s rule of law and institutions! And just to prove yesterday’s rant about leaks was true and news being fake we got a wag the dog leak this morning. The AP dropped a story about using the National Guard for deportation efforts. Media outlets got told it was false AFTER the AP made the accusations. Then, there’s this …
This seemed like an attempt to gaslight the AP to me. They probably think they’re “Winning!” “Tiger Blood!” It comes off as Machiavellian which means President Bannon is doing nefarious things again.
To me, this David Corn Tweet says it all. Would you believe this administration if it told you a terrorist attack was imminent?
Have a great day Sky Dancers! Let me know what’s on your blogging and reading list!!!
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Thanks, Dak, for this post. Before reading that the National Guard was now involved in deportations, I had googled “martial law.” I’ll not predict anything, but, within the next few months, something could be ending.
Pence has said it’s not true now. The media has decided it’s not true so we will have to wait and see.
I feel especially disturbed today between too much happening this week and my fears that our democracy, rule of law, freedoms, protections, necessary regulations, and on and on are slipping away. I’m expecting the military state to roll in anytime, but maybe not today then.
Was this another slip of the tongue? We going to be talking to those walls he plans on building.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3467508-Trump-National-Guard-Draft-Memo.html?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP
That’s the memo AP cited so now it’s kinda interesting.
None of this behavior is new. It was on display throughout the primaries when every rally contained mentions of an overblown ego but with an astonishing lack of substance that was mind-blowing. The press ate it up. It was a “must see” to tune in just to see and hear this Know Nothing demean and insult everything and everyone in sight.
He was allowed to bloviate, meander, and dodge questions when he “phoned it in” to cable shows yet few pointed out that he essentially failed to answer policy questions and overtalked any time someone tried to pin him down. That’s if they even bothered.
His insanity has always been on display. Along with his ignorance, his shortcomings were more than evident during debates with Hillary Clinton when he proved that he had no idea what he was talking about. And then there were the lies.
Not on occasion but one following another, day after day, which should have provoked more questions regarding his ability to govern then they did. The press and the pundits began to “normalize” him as if these failings “were no big deal”. He has been a known liar for years, a trait he has depended upon to “fluff” his ego in strange ways.
His treatment of women is in itself disturbing. He touts his “success” as if his 6 bankruptcies never happened. He has “stiffed” his contractors. He has failed to pay taxes over a period of 20 years. He withholds his “audited” tax filings. He tweets nonsense.
The man is dangerously insane. More so now that he holds great power. He has surrounded himself with corrupt, racist, incompetents who are incapable of “reining him in”. He lacks core principles. A moral compass. A conscience. He is without decency.
That bizarre press conference has highlighted a truly disturbed man. Nothing new here folks.
This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, normal. Not even close.
Exactly.
Ditto that. I wish I could kick him off his damn track.
Pat I agree with you whole-heartedly, but his supporters see none of it. They can rationalize everything he says and does.They love him, he is the anti-Obama, anti-dem, anti-liberal, anti-big gov hero they always dream of. Reagan 2.0. He’s rich, he’s successful, he says and does whatever he wants, he has his own TV show so he has to know what is best for us and how to make it happen. How can two such diametrically opposed views of reality co-exist? If I hear one more person say to me, “he is better than the alternative,” “give him a chance,” “he will run the gov like a business,” or “he will do great things,” I may become homicidal. Someone today asked me why 45 upset me so much because there was nothing I could do about him and, after all, he is who the American people voted for. I told her it was like watching someone being cruel to another living thing, and doing nothing to stop it. I don’t want to be that person. This cannot end well for either side.
trump upsets Pulitzer Prize winner, Philip Roth, a great deal as quoted in “The New Yorker”, January 30, 2017, p. 19.
“…Trump is: ignorant of government, of history, of science, of philosophy, of art, incapable of expressing or recognizing subtlety or nuance, destitute of all decency, and wielding a vocabulary of seventy-seven words that is better called Jerkish than English.”
“As for how Trump threatens us, … , what is most terrifying is that he makes any and everything possible, including, of course, the nuclear catastrophe.”
the problem isn’t that his people are incapable of reining him in, it is that he is incapable of reining them in. He names them to a post which they do not respect or have any ability to handle, and then they will destroy parts of our government while they are there. He is a big distraction while they do so. We will have a real train wreck by the time he is finally out of office.
It will be interesting to see if anything happens regarding his mental stability. I have a physician who told me he knew T’s physician and there was nothing to say there. Did I believe it? No. But he claimed the T’s physician was a caring and competent doc who has treated T for many years.
…and has kompromat against him.
Physicians often refuse to say anything against one of their own, even if there is obvious failure of normal practice. Not all, but many are that way, just like the Rs in Congress.
Excellent post. Thanks. I’m still recovering from watching that press conference yesterday. Exposure to that much crazy is toxic to my mental and physical health. I’ve had to zone out most of the day.
BB, I have been told that I must watch his speeches, I just can’t switch to him, my God just looking at him drives me nuts.
Yeah, that was horrible!
Actually, he did polk at Clinton yesterday. He repeated the alt-right lie that Clinton gave uranium to the Russians. I’ve posted that elsewhere and it keeps disappearing. I find that disturbing. He gets away with minimizing his Russian involvement by pointing out how much “worse” she is. It feeds his base. However, it made me wonder if something else was going on; his stream of thought isn’t always self censored. For example, China’s increasing involvement in Kazakhstan bears watching because it’s one of the biggest sources of uranium, aside from Canada, Australia, Russia, and us.
I stayed off-line for most of today. Needed the mental-health break.
Does the sonvabitch from Utah understand what the hell is going on in this country at THIS moment. And he wants to dog paddle Hillary Clinton’s emails. He needs to be pissed on.
Hmmm:
https://twitter.com/donmoyn/status/832694747693133830