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

[Eric the Green]

I wouldn't mourn the loss of Flake, although I admire the fact that he's a man of principle and integrity. But he's a conservative so he's a flake, and the wrong man for America and the Senate. AZ has a chance to elect a sensible Democrat now. I hope they take the opportunity.

[John J. Xenakis]

So were all you people out screaming at the sky last night?

http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/359...s-election

[pbrower2a]

(11-09-2017, 02:51 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote: So were all you people out screaming at the sky last night?

http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/359...s-election

I was celebrating some electoral results in Virginia.

It looks as if he is no longer the Wave of the Future.

[Eric the Green]

(11-09-2017, 02:58 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:

(11-09-2017, 02:51 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote: So were all you people out screaming at the sky last night?

http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/359...s-election

I was celebrating some electoral results in Virginia.

It looks as if he is no longer the Wave of the Future.

A new wave may be breaking.

[Eric the Green]

"I'm not allowed into an Alabama mall? Well then, I guess I'll go off to Washington DC where they ain't so picky"

[Eric the Green]

WE got him!

[Eric the Green]

laughter is the only relief when you live in an insane world, Mr. Bob Butler.

[Eric the Green]

[Eric the Green]

BUT HE'S MY DADDY!!!

[Eric the Green]

[Eric the Green]

Trying to break through Bob Butler's critique of this thread, which is by far the most viewed on this forum, I cite the Newshour report on the TV show "Blackish"
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-bl...and-nuance

from the transcript:

Tracee Ellis Ross:

Our show is consciously authentic and consciously honest. And a lot of the subject matter that we courageously dive into does end up coming across that way.

I think that they are topics that are uncomfortable for people. They are topics that are — need to be unpacked and discussed, and I think that’s why they’re uncomfortable for people.

Charlayne Hunter-Gault:

I just wonder why they think that these heady issues can be addressed through comedy.

Tracee Ellis Ross:

When one’s heart is open through laughter, so much more information can be received.

I think it’s like giving people their medicine with a spoon full of sugar, you know, or giving your dog its antibiotics in peanut butter, you know?

(LAUGHTER)

[pbrower2a]

When it comes to turnover, the Trump Presidency is beginning to look almost like a fast-food place. Except that the needs of a fast food place are easily met in someone with practically no work experience who then get little training to fill stereotyped roles as replaceable cogs in a profitable machine.  



https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/723...=600&h=327

If President Trump's first year in office seemed chaotic from a staffing perspective, there's a reason. Turnover among top-level staff in the Trump White House was off the charts, according to a new Brookings Institution report.
Turnover in Trump's first year was more than triple that in former President Barack Obama's first year, and double the rate in President Ronald Reagan's White House. A full 34 percent of high-level White House aides either resigned, were fired or moved into different positions in this first year of the Trump presidency.


Kathryn Dunn Tenpas/The Brookings Institution
"While some turnover is expected and possibly beneficial, excessive turnover portends problems," writes Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a nonresident senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. "[President Trump] has valued loyalty over qualifications and suffered from a White House that has functioned in a chaotic manner. Both features have made it difficult to retain staff and have contributed to the governance difficulties he has encountered."
Tenpas has another theory about why the Trump White House has had difficulty getting staff to jell: Trump prided himself on a small, nontraditional campaign.


Politics
From Taxes To The Swamp: Trump's Promises, Kept And Incomplete, 1 Year In
"The insurgent-like features of the Trump campaign and the relatively small campaign staff limited the pool of experienced applicants," Tenpas writes. "While it created new opportunities for many individuals who had not previously worked in the White House, such inexperience may have led to poor performance and a slew of first-year departures."
Tenpas has spent years studying White House staff turnover and has crunched the numbers going back to Reagan's presidency.
"Trump's turnover is record-setting," she writes.
At times it has been head-spinning. First there was former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who resigned under pressure after just 24 days on the job. His was the shortest tenure ever for a national security adviser.

Politics
Majority Of Americans See Trump's First Year As A Failure
There were ripple effects, with several other top National Security Council staffers leaving or moving into new positions. Similarly, the naming of new chief of staff John Kelly in late July led to further staff changes.
When former White House press secretary Sean Spicer's resignation was announced July 21, it marked the start of a remarkable monthlong streak of staffing chaos. That day, new communications director Anthony Scaramucci (either Trump's second or third in that role, depending on how you count), made his one and only appearance in the White House press briefing room.

"This is obviously a difficult situation to be in, and I applaud his efforts here, and I love the guy, and I wish him well, and I hope he goes on to make a tremendous amount of money," Scaramucci said of Spicer.


Trump Ethics Monitor: Has The President Kept His Promises?
Within days Trump's original chief of staff, Reince Priebus, was out too.
"The president has a right to change directions," Priebus said in an exit interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "The president has a right to hit a reset button. I think it's a good time to hit the reset button. I think he was right to hit the reset button. And I think that it was something that I think the White House needs. I think it's healthy."
His tenure was uncommonly short for a first chief of staff.

And then just 10 days after he was introduced to America, Scaramucci was gone in a blaze of glory. Or rather, in the aftermath of a profanity-laden interview in which he bluntly assessed top White House staff. He was the shortest-serving White House communications director ever. It was the first major personnel move under new chief of staff Kelly. In short order, chief strategist Steve Bannon left as well.

National Security

Bannon And Trump White House Raising Questions About Executive Privilege, Lawyers Say
After that flurry of firings and resignations over the summer, the departures continued, including that of former Apprentice contestant Omarosa Manigault Newman.
Tenpas says changes in key posts cause a domino effect, with deputies she didn't even track in this research moving on.

"When a new chief of staff comes in or a new national security adviser, they want to bring their own people with them," she says. "So in many ways you could make the case that my data in some ways understates how much turnover has occurred in this Trump administration."

Every administration is slightly different in the way it staffs the White House. Titles vary. In the past Tenpas used a list of top staff compiled by the publication National Journal, but it didn't put out its list in 2017, so she made her own list of "A Team" staff with comparable titles and responsibilities. She only counts people once, so even if they change jobs multiple times she is only counting their first move.
Tenpas argues all those staffing changes have consequences, especially ones at the top.
"Turnover creates disruptions, it creates inefficiencies, it affects the morale. If you see people around you getting fired at a very high level, there's a lot of angst about that," she says.


Kathryn Dunn Tenpas/The Brookings Institution
In an interview on Fox News this week, current chief of staff Kelly was asked to explain all the turnover.
"Campaigning is very, very different than governing. It's really, really hard work to govern at this level, and some people that were perhaps involved in the campaign didn't make that transition," he said.
Kelly insisted he has brought more stability to the staff, but the departures have continued under his leadership. As for Kelly, he says he is in it for the long haul.
Yet typically, the second year of an administration has much more turnover than the first. It could be that Trump got all of his out of the way in 2017, or it could be that 2018 will be just as much of a wild ride. As President Trump says, we'll see what happens.

https://www.npr.org/2018/01/19/578858897...even-close

[Eric the Green]

The Republicans now need talking sticks and tranquilizer darts. This place sucks!

[Eric the Green]

Trump does a potty as we ask whether Hannibal is a vegan..... it's all about the golf fees! Another one of those either/ors. Remember the Hillary/Trump one a while back??!! ("it's soooo even!!!")





Am I part of the same species as Sean Hannity? I wonder..... I seem to detect a divergence going on..... you know about Darwin's finches and all that, how isolation of two groups of the same species can lead over time to them becoming two species.......

[Eric the Green]

Parades: Trump personal trainers, and who will be chosen king of his prom parade? Can Trump name 15 countries? Nambia? Tanzania? The United Shates?

[Ragnarök_62]

(02-14-2018, 09:35 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Parades: Trump personal trainers, and who will be chosen king of his prom parade? Can Trump name 15 countries? Nambia? Tanzania? The United Shates?

You forgot 76 Trump-Boners and 1 crappication of SNAP.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/tru...08901.html

[Eric the Green]

Knowing Trump, those boxes will be full of cheeseburgers and fries.

[pbrower2a]

I was on SNAP while I was applying for disability, and I admit that I ate well. I even bought such luxuries as asparagus and strawberries. The trick? I did not buy candy, pastries, snack cakes, ice cream, or potato chips on SNAP.

SNAP gives people freedom to choose their foods, and that can accommodate religious values (one could eat in according to one's religious or ethical teachings, or to allow adjustments for such conditions as diabetes and gout). The box could offer coffee to Mormons, pork to Muslims or Orthodox Jews.

Would I change anything? Sure. I would issue a cookbook to anyone getting SNAP, suggesting how people could cook from scratch (which is laborious but cheaper. Of course my tiny kitchen makes that impossible.

Trump's idea of a box of pre-selected food suggests either the offering of the old surplus commodities (which have obvious limitations), or, worse, sweetheart deals with a supplier. Of course, dealing with President Trump reminds me of an old saying about dealing with a shady businessman: after you shake hands, make sure to count your fingers.

[Eric the Green]

Trump Wants More Guns In Schools

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert added a new episode on Facebook Watch.

President Trump extemporaneously offered some logic-free theories on schools being gun-free zones.

[pbrower2a]

Why does anyone think that Donald Trump needs logic when he surrounds oneself with yes-men who tell him exactly what he wants to believe? A firearm is the last thing that I as a teacher would want in a classroom.