Today’s round-up of awful. More people are bringing up the Tiny Tyrant’s mental state, and it’s not any sort of shady speculation, this is not something we can afford to ignore, and I’m past tired of all the left-sided prim of “you can’t do that, it’s not nice.” It’s not nice, or healthy to have an unstable wannabe tyrant in charge of the country, with access to military and nuclear weapons, either. Trump’s narcissism is bad enough, but his continued disconnected rambling, temper flare-ups, and decision making based on whims in increasing, and it continues to be clear that exactly no one has a leash on the Tiny Tyrant. Trump admires Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’ for fuck’s sake. Wake up.
Howard Fineman said President Donald Trump seems to be under the impression that he can meet with the world’s worst dictators and “cut a deal” with them like it was a business transaction.
On a day when Trump said he would be “honored” to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un –and a day after he extended an invitation to Philippines strongman Rodrigo Duterte to visit the White House — Fineman said that Trump thinks dealing with dictators is like making a real estate deal.
“Donald Trump is analogizing world affairs to a real estate deal in New York,” Fineman explained. “He’s trying to get everybody in the room, however much he dislikes them, however much it’s like the unions he didn’t like or politics he had to donate to or whatever, and he’s creating in his own mind a legion of dictator superheroes of some kind because he thinks it’s a jungle out there.”
“He was put off by what he regarded as Barack Obama’s overweening idealism and he’s going to go in just the opposite direction and he will literally go to every bad actor in the world,” Fineman continued. “He thinks he’s creating — will get all the bad guys in the room at the same time and somehow cut a deal. I think that’s his mentality.”
Fineman has a very good point here. That point is validated by the fact that Trump is up to his neck in a lucrative deal with Duterte in the Phillipines, so why wouldn’t Trump view everything in terms of business which is good for him? He has no interest in what is good for America, let alone the rest of the world. I don’t think Trump is even capable of understanding the world as a connected, cohesive whole. He only sees one bit at a time, and primarily those bits which can make him money. Full Story Here.
Politico has an in-depth look at the interviews, and the sheer amount of WTFuckery involved:
President Donald Trump questioned why the Civil War— which erupted 150 years ago over slavery — needed to happen. He said he would be “honored” to meet with Kim Jong-Un, the violent North Korean dictator who is developing nuclear missiles and oppresses his people, under the “right circumstances.”
The president floated, and backed away from, a tax on gasoline. Trump said he was “looking at” breaking up the big banks, sending the stock market sliding. He seemed to praise Philippines strongman President Rodrigo Duterte for his high approval ratings. He promised changes to the Republican health care bill, though he has seemed unsure what was in the legislation, even as his advisers whipped votes for it.
And Monday still had nine hours to go.
“It seems to be among the most bizarre recent 24 hours in American presidential history,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian. “It was all just surreal disarray and a confused mental state from the president.”
The interviews — published by Bloomberg, Face the Nation and the SiriusXM radio network — seemed timed to the president’s 100-day mark but contained a dizzying amount of news, even for a president who often makes news in stream-of-consciousness comments. Trump’s advisers have at times tried to curb his media appearances, worried he will step on his message. “They were not helpful to us,” one senior administration official said. “There was no point to do all of them.”
White House officials said privately there was no broader strategy behind the interviews. GOP strategists and Capitol Hill aides were puzzled by it all. “I have no idea what they view as a successful media hit,” said one senior GOP consultant with close ties to the administration. “He just seemed to go crazy today,” a senior GOP aide said.
And if all that isn’t worrying enough, the Fucking Idiot wants a shutdown, so he can change the rules of democracy. Wheeeeeee, you havin’ fun yet?
President Trump on Tuesday called for a “good shutdown” in September to fix the “mess” in government.
He also expressed frustration that legislation needs 60 votes in the Senate because of the filibuster, saying it would be necessary to elect more Republicans or “change the rules.”
“The reason for the plan negotiated between the Republicans and Democrats is that we need 60 votes in the Senate which are not there! We … either elect more Republican Senators in 2018 or change the rules now to 51%. Our country needs a good “shutdown” in September to fix mess!” he wrote in a series of tweets.
In fairness, the whole “dealing with dictators” thing is a long-standing bipartisan tradition. The US loves dictators, and always has.
Sure, in order to paint themselves as heroes, but this is a very different level of dictator love going here. Those dictators are what Trump wants to be, in his words, “popular and strong”. This is not politics as usual, and if people don’t wake the fuck up, we are headed for a full blown regime, which will slam down with a neck-breaking speed.
Huh? Not sure I follow… The US has always been perfectly happy to cosy up to and support mass-murdering dictators, to sell them arms, to train their torturers, goons, and killers, and to proclaim them as Good People. Duterte is exactly the sort of local strongman that the US has always supported and admired, and gone to great lengths to manufacture if not already present.
That’s exactly politics as usual. OK, usually it’s a bit better disguised for the benefit of the proles on the home front, but that’s all.
I think the difference is between “the end justifies the means” (we’ll happily ignore the horrors of Saudi Arabia to get military bases and oil contracts) and “I really admire and want to emulate that dictator; why can’t America be more like Russia/Philippines/etc.” Before we were just hypocrites, now our president wants to actively make us a third world dictatorship.
Kengi, exactly.
Oh, now I see… I just never really bought that line. Funny how they always managed to find ends that justified those particular kinds of means…
The US has always had a gigantic raging boner for killing and torturing people, particularly brown people, and all the stuff about how it’s necessary to achieve some noble aim was never anything more than window dressing. The only aim it was ever really in service of was power. The whole thing is circular -- you support Saudi Arabia because you need those military bases and the oil, you need the bases and the oil so that you can maintain military dominance in the region, and you need military dominance in the region so you can prop up friendly regimes like Saudi Arabia.
President Donald Trump seems to be under the impression that he can meet with the world’s worst dictators and “cut a deal” with them like it was a business transaction.
Ey, we get all da capos in one room. We have some drinks. We talk. We cut up the pie. It’s bidness. It’s how it’s done, ya know?
Apparently Wonderboy has made a boo-boo: Jared Kushner didn’t disclose business ties to George Soros, Peter Thiel, and Goldman Sachs, or that he owes $1 billion in loans.
I eagerly anticipate the octuple-helix contortions the Bannonites will make of this (whether or not the Wall Street Journalists who released the story can back it up).
Now, while I have yet to read Spider-Gwen, like just about every adult comic nerd in the known world I would walk across red hot coals and commit an arbitrary amount of gentle murders for a Spider-Gwen hoodie. Because as Geek and Sundry’s Twitch’s Wednesday Club noted: That is the best costume design.
Oh? Politics? I’d rather not think about that bit…
Must I? Oh, well…
I would rather say that he is covetous of the power inherent in Duterte’s actions. Every time he gives glowing reviews to a foreign dictator you should imagine him licking his lips in a fashion consistent with his character (I’m sorry for that image).
It’s the difference between “Oh, I wish I could do that” and “I can’t wait until I get to do that”.
And this is how “scary like Reagan” is waking up during the nuclear winter, and “scary like Trump” is never waking up at all, and being one of the lucky ones.
Could we go back to talking about comics, please…