Let's make fun of Trump, bash him, etc. while we can!

[pbrower2a]

When the President starts to sound more like a Mob boss than any previous President... this fellow makes Warren G Harding (po for that matter, Tonya Harding) seem an exemplar of cultivated principle by contrast... some parodies are obvious.


One good thing about Trump -- he should be grist for dramatic treatments suitable for cinematic and literary exploitation, in contrast to his "No Drama" predecessor.

[pbrower2a]

...This is not tongue-in-cheek humor. The conservative editorial board of the Chicago Tribune has had it with the President.

Quote:When your strongest statement of support for a president is that “there are no charges against him,” you’ve described a presidency under siege. So it is for the reign of President Donald Trump, who came into office a whirling, undisciplined outsider and is now paying the price for his unseemly behavior.

Trump “did nothing wrong,” spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Wednesday. She was in full damage control after an incendiary accusation by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, that Trump was involved in hush payments to two women who said they had affairs with Trump.

The legal risk to Trump is the timing and purpose of 2016 payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. If the money was spent to protect Trump’s campaign from embarrassment, these were de facto campaign contributions and should have been treated as such. Cohen on Tuesday pleaded guilty to two violations of campaign finance laws; in doing so he implicated Trump by claiming Trump directed Cohen to make the payments. The president denies the accusation, saying he learned of the deals “later on.”

There’s a lot more to uncover about what transpired between Trump and Cohen, so no point in rendering final judgment here. The same is true about the question of Russian interference in the election. Special counsel Robert Mueller will conclude his independent investigation and determine, among other things, whether Trump obstructed justice by firing FBI Director James Comey. Trump’s presidency may survive these travails. Let’s see what happens.

There is something we can say now: Trump’s tenure in the White House is a disappointment and a disgrace. Presidents are elected to lead and achieve — to work tirelessly toward a vision of a better America. What we have with Trump is a distracted, ill-mannered figure who spends more time bashing perceived enemies on Twitter than uniting a nation that faces serious challenges at home and abroad.

The connection between Trump’s nasty streak and his potential legal jeopardy is his impetuous nature. Trump is a brash bully who sees himself as a political street fighter, a great counter-puncher, as he puts it. His pride in being a tough guy displays a recklessness that has no place in the Oval Office. The president who invited court fights by ordering an ill-considered immigration ban and insisted there were “some very fine people on both sides” of a violent white supremacy rally is now caught up in legal battles over his behavior that imperils his presidency.

Defending himself in a Fox News interview, Trump sounded like a nervous hoodlum as he attacked Cohen for “flipping,” that is, telling prosecutors what they want to hear in exchange for a lenient sentence. “I’ve had many friends involved in this stuff,” Trump said. “It’s called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal.”

No surprise, really. Trump, who had never been accountable to the voting public, showed his colors on the campaign trail. Voters were attracted to his populist message and embraced, or looked past, his rough persona. In our view — expressed early on — he was unqualified for the presidency. He ceded moral authority last year when he failed to call out neo-Nazis. We judge his performance as president based on policy work, but Trump’s behavior continually undermines his ability to get things done.

Did Trump conspire to violate campaign finance laws? Did he obstruct justice by firing Comey? We’ll see.

Just as we’ll see whether he retains or loses control of his presidency.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opini...story.html

[Eric the Green]

Personally, I’d buy Ed Gein-branded signature lampshades before I’d ever buy anything with Donald Trump’s name on it.

But for years, about the only game Li’l Donny had going was slapping his gauche insignia on sketchy and/or outright fraudulent business ventures. If it said “Trump” on the outside, you knew it was the functional equivalent of a flaming bag of hair.

Well, now all the people who for some reason once equated “Trump” with opulence and epicurianism — when they really should have been thinking of Granny’s white lightnin’ and the ceement pond — are finally bailing on our slovenly suzerain.

Exhibit A: this tweet from The Washington Post ‘s David Fahrenthold, whose reporting on The Donald’s myriad scams has been indispensable:

David Fahrenthold
✔
@Fahrenthold
.@realDonaldTrump once had 19 companies paying him to use his name on their products. By this yr, just 2 were left. Now, it might be 1.
Panamanian company HomeStudio S.A., which sold Trump-branded bed linens in Latin America, has shut website and stopped answering the phone.
7:17 AM - Aug 29, 2018

To be fair, I’d stop answering the phone, too, if Trump’s name were still befouling any of my wares. But mere shame can’t explain why the company’s website has shut down.

Then again, maybe Google did it. They’re very unfair. Very unfair.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/8/...=emaildkre

[Bad Dog]

These charges have *nothing* to do with Russia!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/dc-lobbyist-c...on-brknews

A business associate of a key figure in the investigation into former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort pleaded guilty Friday to failing to register as a foreign agent for a Ukrainian political party.

W. Samuel Patten entered his plea in federal court in Washington, shortly after prosecutors released a charging document that accused him of performing lobbying and consulting work in the United States but failing to register as a foreign agent as required by the Justice Department.

As part of his plea, Patten also admitted to lying to the Senate intelligence committee during its investigation into Russian election interference and of participating in a scheme to circumvent the ban on foreign donations to President Donald Trump's inaugural committee by lining up a straw purchaser to pay $50,000 for four tickets to the inauguration.

The Patten case was referred by special counsel Robert Mueller's team to the United States attorney's office in Washington, said Bill Miller, a spokesman for the office. Andrew Weissmann, one of the lead Mueller team attorneys in the Manafort prosecution, was also in the courtroom Friday during Patten's appearance. And Patten's plea agreement specifically requires him to cooperate with the special counsel's probe.

Patten's attorney Stuart Sears declined comment after the Friday court appearance.

Patten was a business associate of Konstantin Kilimnik, a man U.S. authorities have said has ties to Russian intelligence.

Kilimnik worked closely with Manafort, who was found guilty this month of eight financial counts. Kilimnik also is a co-defendant in a pending case against Manafort in Washington, brought by Mueller's team, that accuses them both of witness tampering.

Court papers don't refer to Kilimnik by name, but say Patten worked with a Russian national on lobbying and political consulting services. The Russian national, who formed a consulting company with Patten, is identified only as "Foreigner A" in court papers.

The documents filed along with Patten's plea lay out years of work he performed for a wealthy Ukrainian businessman and a Ukrainian political party known as the Opposition Bloc beginning in 2014. They also detail more recent activity including his interactions with the Senate intelligence committee and the presidential inauguration committee.

The goal all along, according to prosecutors, was to influence U.S. policy. But they say Patten never filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act or disclosed that he was representing the foreign businessman or the Opposition Bloc.

Prosecutors say in 2015 Patten worked to set up meetings between the Ukrainian businessman and several U.S. officials including members of Congress and leaders in the State Department.

Later, Patten wrote talking points and letters used to lobby U.S. officials on the behalf of the businessman, who is referred to as "Foreigner B." Patten also drafted an op-ed for Foreigner B that sought to address concerns about Ukraine's ability to work with the Trump administration.

Court papers say the op-ed was published in February 2017 in a "national United States media outlet," but they do not name the media outlet or Foreigner B. However, on February 6, 2017, an op-ed published under Serhiy Lyovochkin's name appeared in U.S. News and World Report. The op-ed identifies Lyovochkin as a "leader of the Opposition Bloc" and addresses the same topic as described in Patten's case.

Lyovochkin's name also came up during Manafort's trial earlier this month. Prosecutors detailed how he was among the wealthy Ukrainian businessmen who paid Manafort for his own political consulting work.

Prosecutors also revealed Friday that in January 2017, Patten lined up an American as a straw purchaser of four tickets to the inauguration for Foreigner B to circumvent the ban on foreign contributions to the inaugural committee.

Patten was informed in writing of the ban, court papers say. Yet, to conceal that Foreigner B was paying for the tickets, court papers say Patten had the American front the $50,000 for the tickets. The straw purchaser, who is not named, then was reimbursed by Patten's company, which in turn received the same amount from Foreigner B via an offshore bank account in Cyprus.

Patten then attended the inauguration with Foreigner B.

The topic came up a year later in January 2018 when Patten testified before the Senate intelligence committee as part of its investigation into Russian election interference and possible coordination with Trump associates.

According to court papers, Patten misled the committee during his testimony and withheld certain documents to conceal that Foreigner B had been behind the purchase of inauguration tickets. He also gave "misleading testimony" about his representation of foreigners in the U.S. to hide that he had failed to register as a foreign agent with the Justice Department.

After the congressional testimony, Patten then destroyed documents relating to his foreign work.

In a joint statement Friday, committee chairman Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and the panel's top ranking Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, confirmed that the committee had made a criminal referral to the Justice Department requesting an investigation into Patten.

"Due to concerns about certain statements made by Mr. Patten, the Committee made a criminal referral to the Department of Justice. While the charge, and resultant plea, do not appear to directly involve our referral, we appreciate their review of this matter," the senators said.

Patten was released on his own recognizance Friday without a sentencing date. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

During the court hearing Friday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson told Patten that she couldn't provide any estimate of his potential sentence because U.S. sentencing guidelines don't have a section for violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Prosecutions of the offense have been rare, but in recent years, the Justice Department's national security division has taken a tougher stance on enforcement of the law.

[Bad Dog]

They are slowly rolling up the chain, with guilty pleas, after nailing the previous links down. Classic prosecution demonstration of "co-operate, or regret it".

Of course, nothing matters until 2020.

[pbrower2a]

Now for some quotes:

[Eric the Green]

Always worth seeing again!

[Eric the Green]

A young Bernie supporter stands right behind the president and spontaneously makes faces! Obama's long pause is over!

[pbrower2a]

It's a poll of Massachusetts, the first of the Colonies to turn against George III. But you'll see why I put it and my commentary here very easily.

Suffolk, Massachusetts.

Don't deride Massachusetts as an impossible state for a Republican. In Presidential races, Eisenhower won the state twice in the 1950s, and Reagan won it twice in the 1980s (even if it was his second-worst state in 1984). It has elected the late great Ed Brooke to the Senate and Mitt Romney as Governor. It even has a Republican Governor, Charlie Baker:


approve 72 disapprove 18


which is surprisingly even stronger than a Democratic Senator who is being hyped as a possible Presidential nominee (Elizabeth Warren)

approve 57 disapprove 35

I don't see Donald Trump as much of a baseball fan, especially of the much-hated (in Greater Boston) New York Yankees:

approve 22 disapprove 73

(I'd guess that Derek Jeter, the greatest shortstop in the history of the New York Yankees, would have a higher approval rating than Donald Trump, and would defeat him soundly in Massachusetts if he ran as a Democrat. It is bad form to show any New York Yankees logo in Greater Boston. Mets? It might be shaky.

Well, Donald Trump isn't Charlie Baker, Ed Brooke, Mitt Romney, Dwight Eisenhower, or Ronald Reagan. I'm guessing that he is in George III territory in Massachusetts.

Oh, by the way -- 53% of Bay State voters in this poll think that Congress should seriously consider impeaching the President. The good news for President Trump is that the state is Massachusetts.

500 likely voters, September 13-17.

https://www.suffolk.edu/documents/SUPRC/...ginals.pdf

Can you imagine any incumbent President having only 22% approval in any state without the economy going into the tank or being on the brink of impeachment?

[Eric the Green]

I like people that don't die, I hate to tell ya

[Eric the Green]

It's a human struggling

[Bill the Piper]

Trump is a dotard, but for some reason the MSM call him "childish" :/ This is an insult to children. Children are typically naively idealistic, but what they want is good. Trump is a heartless cynic, who wants only money, power and sex. This makes him a sort of living dead:



He is also a disgusting, palaeolithic embodiment of toxic masculinity. He sees himself as a warrior, but the only sword he can use is the pork sword.

[image deleted because it was too disgusting]

Finally, Trump is an American version of Stalin - a brutal strongman who pretends to represent the working class. It's no coincidence that both make heavy use of the national identity concept.

[pbrower2a]

The difference between Donald Trump and children is that children are usually protected and guided. If you realize how fearless and reckless seven-year-old boys are, you would never let them loose. If you realize how naive and vulnerable seven-year-old girls are, you would never let them loose, either.

There are reasons for not letting people under 16 get any right to drive cars without adult supervision.

Donald Trump has a child-like level of moral 'sophistication'. This could be that he is even less mature morally and emotionally than he is intellectually, which manifests itself even in his taste in decoration. (Check my thread on Donald Trump and Dictatorial Taste, and you will find some people of great power and little substance as shown in their amorality... Nicolae Ceausescu, Saddam Hussein, Victor Yanukovich, Ferdinand Marcos, Moammar Qaddafi, Emperor Bokassa I, Hermann Goering, Mobutu, and Donald Trump. For an analogue outside of politics I introduced some drug kingpins, and for a contrast to show that it isn't simply power I used the comparatively austere setting of the residence of the British Prime Minister. Residents have included Sir Winston Churchill, who as wartime Prime Minister had to do about everything but rig elections, loot his country's wealth, and order the killing of rivals or dissidents (and needed every power but those to conduct the war, but had no need for murder, theft, or electoral fraud) ... and Margaret Thatcher. A Prime Minister whose natural constituency is working people and who might have been one himself has no desire to intimidate people similar to him in origins, and someone like Margaret Thatcher might want to avoid scaring off small-business owners who are the natural constituency of her Conservative Party.

[Eric the Green]

We want some nerds on the Court, damn it!
Excuse me, excuse me lady, I'm trying to tell you how women should be heard!
Saying things that nobody understood. Watch with someone you love!

[David Horn]

(09-27-2018, 08:35 AM)Bill the Piper Wrote: Trump is a dotard, but for some reason the MSM call him "childish" :/ This is an insult to children. Children are typically naively idealistic, but what they want is good. Trump is a heartless cynic, who wants only money, power and sex. This makes him a sort of living dead:

He is also a disgusting, palaeolithic embodiment of toxic masculinity. He sees himself as a warrior, but the only sword he can use is the pork sword.

Finally, Trump is an American version of Stalin - a brutal strongman who pretends to represent the working class. It's no coincidence that both make heavy use of the national identity concept.

The one side note that needs to be added: Trump sounded like this in the 1970s, 80s, 90s and ever since. He's more like Bubble Boy -- never in the real word, only the one of his own creation.

[Bill the Piper]

For me, a childish person is someone like Russell Brand:

http://markhumphrys.com/russell.brand.html

Briefly, he, like most other SJWs, believes he could solve all the problems just by being nice to criminals, dictators and terrorists. He didn't experience evil, because his life experience is almost non-existent.

Trump is the opposite: he is a cynical geezer without any ideals or morals.

[pbrower2a]

(09-27-2018, 03:40 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(09-27-2018, 08:35 AM)Bill the Piper Wrote: Trump is a dotard, but for some reason the MSM call him "childish" :/ This is an insult to children. Children are typically naively idealistic, but what they want is good. Trump is a heartless cynic, who wants only money, power and sex. This makes him a sort of living dead:

He is also a disgusting, palaeolithic embodiment of toxic masculinity. He sees himself as a warrior, but the only sword he can use is the pork sword.

Finally, Trump is an American version of Stalin - a brutal strongman who pretends to represent the working class. It's no coincidence that both make heavy use of the national identity concept.

The one side note that needs to be added: Trump sounded like this in the 1970s, 80s, 90s and ever since.  He's more like Bubble Boy -- never in the real word, only the one of his own creation.

There's a word for a mental view similar to that: solipsism.

Solipsism (/ˈsɒlɪpsɪzəm/ ( listen); from Latin solus, meaning 'alone', and ipse, meaning 'self')[1] is the philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist. As an epistemological position, solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure; the external world and other minds cannot be known and might not exist outside the mind. As a metaphysical position, solipsism goes further to the conclusion that the world and other minds do not exist.

.........................

Intellectually hollow as our President is, he seems to act as if the only mind that matters is his own. That's not quite the complete story, as other minds might simply be irrelevant to him. It may be that he thinks that minds other than his are irrelevant, which gives him an impoverished view of the richness possible in those who recognize that there are far greater and more productive minds than their own. A truly great man can recognize that he is not Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Vermeer, or Bach. I encounter pretensions to superiority based upon class, power, or wealth and am unimpressed. I encounter intellectual greatness manifesting itself in delightful achievements, and I am humbled.

[Bill the Piper]

(09-28-2018, 07:56 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: Intellectually hollow as our President is, he seems to act as if the only mind that matters is his own. That's not quite the complete story, as other minds might simply be irrelevant to him.

There is also a word for that: psychopathy (or narcissism at least).

In this respect, Trump is an embodiment of Thomistic Western civilization, which also behaved as if other cultures (e.g. the Chinese culture) didn't matter, even if these cultures were in some ways more sophisticated than the West.

Quote:It may be that he thinks that minds other than his are irrelevant, which gives him an impoverished view of the richness possible in those who recognize that there are far greater and more productive minds than their own. A truly great man can recognize that he is not Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Vermeer, or Bach. I encounter pretensions to superiority based upon class, power, or wealth and am unimpressed. I encounter intellectual greatness manifesting itself in delightful achievements, and I am humbled.

I don't think disliking Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Vermeer and Bach means that there is something wrong with the person. Many people, like me, prefer rock music.

[pbrower2a]

(09-28-2018, 11:17 AM)Bill the Piper Wrote:

(09-28-2018, 07:56 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: Intellectually hollow as our President is, he seems to act as if the only mind that matters is his own. That's not quite the complete story, as other minds might simply be irrelevant to him.

There is also a word for that: psychopathy (or narcissism at least).

In this respect, Trump is an embodiment of Thomistic Western civilization, which also behaved as if other cultures (e.g. the Chinese culture) didn't matter, even if these cultures were in some ways more sophisticated than the West.

Quote:It may be that he thinks that minds other than his are irrelevant, which gives him an impoverished view of the richness possible in those who recognize that there are far greater and more productive minds than their own. A truly great man can recognize that he is not Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Vermeer, or Bach. I encounter pretensions to superiority based upon class, power, or wealth and am unimpressed. I encounter intellectual greatness manifesting itself in delightful achievements, and I am humbled.

I don't think disliking Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Vermeer and Bach means that there is something wrong with the person. Many people, like me, prefer rock music.

Because I have little tolerance for loud noises, I could never attend a rock concert. That basically leaves classical music, jazz, or folk.

I have had to leave a house because the dog was barking too loud.

[Eric the Green]

(09-28-2018, 11:17 AM)Bill the Piper Wrote:

(09-28-2018, 07:56 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: Intellectually hollow as our President is, he seems to act as if the only mind that matters is his own. That's not quite the complete story, as other minds might simply be irrelevant to him.

There is also a word for that: psychopathy (or narcissism at least).

In this respect, Trump is an embodiment of Thomistic Western civilization, which also behaved as if other cultures (e.g. the Chinese culture) didn't matter, even if these cultures were in some ways more sophisticated than the West.

Quote:It may be that he thinks that minds other than his are irrelevant, which gives him an impoverished view of the richness possible in those who recognize that there are far greater and more productive minds than their own. A truly great man can recognize that he is not Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Vermeer, or Bach. I encounter pretensions to superiority based upon class, power, or wealth and am unimpressed. I encounter intellectual greatness manifesting itself in delightful achievements, and I am humbled.

I don't think disliking Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Vermeer and Bach means that there is something wrong with the person. Many people, like me, prefer rock music.

Recognizing greatness in the arts, music or other achievements, whether it's rock or Bach, old or new, is being able to see the highest potentials in yourself; something to aspire to. Trump doesn't seem to have much capacity to look toward the greatness in others and aspire to something greater for himself. He doesn't seem to be interested in learning beyond his prejudices and desires. He is content to praise himself as he is, and boast and do positive thinking.