The Former Trump Presidency Thread

[Isgrimnur]

My high school physics/computer programming/calculus teacher had a degree from Calvin College.

That's a lot of hats for one teacher to wear!

I had a teacher that was Chemistry/Physics/Astronomy.

[Enough]

He was a fantastic teacher. Other than his computers classes, he really only taught courses to the college-bound seniors. And I had him for three of my six periods my senior year.

He was a mellow dude and rolled with so much of the stuff we threw at him. Typically he'd show up for the physics class a few minutes late (as he had to switch from his normal computers room to a different wing in our high school). One time by the time he got there, we had moved the desks and the portable blackboard to the lawn just outside the class room. He let himself out the external door to the biology room and taught that day's lecture as if nothing were different.

We had a fire drill early in the school year and the next day's recap over the loudspeakers (occurring during our physics class) mistakenly stated during future fire drills we should all move 300 yards away from the building. The next fire drill happened during physics, and true to our previous discussion we all met up at the McDonalds on the other side of the football field. 300 yards is 300 yards, after all.

We "broke into" the school one weekend (Tim's mom was our English teacher, and he surreptitiously pilfered her set of keys) and filled the floor of the computer room up 3' high with balloons. He loved it. Well, he loved it until the first period's class, in their stompy efforts to clean up the mess, came across a few of the water balloons we had left behind. He chewed us out for that. Water + Apple ][ computers was a no-no. Mea culpa.

For a physics midterm all his test problems involved things happening to doughnuts (probably the lessons involving projectile motion or something). The next lecture, coordinate on the cue of his chalk touching the chalkboard, we pelted him with doughnut holes. He roared with delight. (There were a lot of greasy 1.5" circles on the blackboard for the rest of that week, which I'm sure confused other teachers using that room.)

The summer after graduation the core of this class (about a dozen of us) snuck out to his farm and recreated the Monte Python scene with the chanting monks slapping themselves in the face (we used calculus books). He had to do some explaining to his wife, but he got a big kick out of it.

He was a big one for "when the work's done, your time is yours." The bakery runs this attitude enabled is probably the genesis for the doughnut-themed mid-term. He basically gave a bunch of high school seniors the sort of leeway most of us wouldn't normally see until college a year early, and for the most part we didn't take advantage of his flexibility and trust.

Thanks KB (Oh, whoops. K-college, not Calvin. My bad.)

And thanks to you for the share, that's just awesome stuff!

[Enough]

Trump prepares to score his biggest win yet.

President Trump will take the most significant step yet in obliterating his predecessor’s environmental record Tuesday, instructing federal regulators to rewrite key rules curbing U.S. carbon emissions.

The sweeping executive order also seeks to lift a moratorium on federal coal leasing and remove the requirement that federal officials consider the impact of climate change when making decisions.

The order sends an unmistakable signal that just as President Barack Obama sought to weave climate considerations into every aspect of the federal government, Trump is hoping to rip that approach out by its roots.

“This policy is in keeping with President Trump’s desire to make the United States energy independent,” said a senior administration official who briefed reporters on the directive Monday evening and asked for anonymity to speak in advance of the announcement. “When it comes to climate change, we want to take our course and do it in our own form and fashion.”

Some of the measures could take years to implement and are unlikely to alter broader economic trends that are shifting the nation’s electricity mix from coal-fired generation to natural gas and renewables. The order is silent on whether the United States should withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate agreement, under which it has pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions between 26 and 28 percent by 2025 compared to 2005 levels, because the administration remains divided on that question.

This really sucks but it could have been worse and I'm sort of surprised it isn't.

Two key omissions that will really piss of the denier camp (as distinct from skeptics):

1. Let stand EPA's (court-tested) endangerment finding for climate change that allows EPA regulation of greenhouse gases.
2. Nothing on the Paris agreement.

This has some conservatives hopping mad. Cue Breitbart bile that Pruit isn't conservative enough!

[LordMortis]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/opin ... dency.html

Trump and the Parasitic Presidency

NYT headline, sound like a children's book or a Harry Potter novel.

Presidential credibility is American credibility.

This is what continues to haunt me globally. Domestically I am haunted that between the president and Congress it feels like we are one heinous speech, executive order, law from burning the whole place to the ground. Like the country is already lost and all the remains in galvanization.

I wake up this morning Nunes, the EPA, Internet Privacy, ACA repeal again, Trump electing not to throw out the first pitch, what is essentially no correspondents dinner.

Every day it's this.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/po ... video.html

Wasn't it two days ago that Health Care reform was off the table? Things are great... We've never had more of a need for a greater military?

I need to bury myself in work or something.

[RunningMn9]

These are the consequences of electing someone that doesn't know what it means to be President, or even care to find out. This is about enriching his family. Nothing more, nothing less.

We've elected our very own Tiberius.

[LawBeefaroni]

I need to bury myself in work or something.

I've been listening to news talk to keep my sanity. News talk from Ireland. Their Garda drink-driving stop falsification scandal is a godsend of a distraction from our domestic mess. Yesterday there was a kerfuffle about an iPhone app leading to cyberbullying. Brexit is getting time and there was also some controversy about Legs-it, a Daily Mail "article." Then I heard the Iceland/Ireland friendly. Why isn't Hörður Magnússon a household name? So nice to hear little to no Trump news during the workday.

Legs-it:

Spoiler:

[malchior]

These are the consequences of electing someone that doesn't know what it means to be President, or even care to find out. This is about enriching his family. Nothing more, nothing less.

We've elected our very own Tiberius.

I would guess that means the American Caligula would be next but then again maybe Trump is both.

[LawBeefaroni]

These are the consequences of electing someone that doesn't know what it means to be President, or even care to find out. This is about enriching his family. Nothing more, nothing less.

We've elected our very own Tiberius.

I would guess that means the American Caligula would be next but then again maybe Trump is both.

He's the American Silvio Berlusconi. Less intelligent, less tactful, and not as wealthy but more famous and with greater delusions of grandeur.

[Smoove_B]

I was reading about the proposed cuts to the NIH and it's continuing to blow my mind. This is arguably the greatest biomedical research institution in the modern world - a triumph of American culture - and it's being kneecapped because...? At the risk of sounding melodramatic, all these cuts really are an attack on what it means to be an American. The contributions of the NIH are immeasurable - and that's not even counting the 80+ Nobel Prize awards. They're a core foundation that works for the betterment of humanity. Not private industry, not for-profit development - for all Americans and arguably all humans. Between the changes to the EPA and now what's on the table for the NIH, the potential for damage to generations of Americans is real.

[Carpet_pissr]

This is arguably the greatest biomedical research institution in the modern world - a triumph of American culture - and it's being kneecapped because a literal goal of some of the highest up people in the current administration is to take down the US government from within.

Mortoned

[Smoove_B]

These are the consequences of electing someone that doesn't know what it means to be President, or even care to find out. This is about enriching his family. Nothing more, nothing less.

And yet, I've still heard nothing from GOP leadership on any of this. Nothing from Speaker Ryan or my favorite human being in the world, Mitch McConnell. No matter what President Trump does, they're seemingly ok with it all. As horrific as President Trump is, you'd kind of expect the leaders in the Legislative branch to push back a bit if he's violating accepted norms and processes? Their silence on all this shouldn't be ignored, IMHO.

[tgb]

These are the consequences of electing someone that doesn't know what it means to be President, or even care to find out. This is about enriching his family. Nothing more, nothing less.

And yet, I've still heard nothing from GOP leadership on any of this. Nothing from Speaker Ryan or my favorite human being in the world, Mitch McConnell. No matter what President Trump does, they're seemingly ok with it all. As horrific as President Trump is, you'd kind of expect the leaders in the Legislative branch to push back a bit if he's violating accepted norms and processes? Their silence on all this shouldn't be ignored, IMHO.

The Republiklans see Drumpf as a dupe that they can use to push their agenda through, which is why they're OK with the insanity. Once done, they'll drop him like a used loofa and give Pence the blow job he's been waiting for.

[Sepiche]

Their silence on all this shouldn't be ignored, IMHO.

As long as they think 45 will keep moving their agenda forward they'll carry whatever water they have to for him. If he ever gets weak enough to the point where he's an electoral drag on them, they'll turn in a heartbeat. The finger pointing after the failure of the ACHA to pass was a tiny preview, but we've still got a ways to go before the long knives really come out sadly.

[LordMortis]

The Republiklans see Drumpf as a dupe that they can use to push their agenda through, which is why they're OK with the insanity. Once done, they'll drop him like a used loofa and give Pence the blow job he's been waiting for.

I don't think so. I think they're terrified of him and will be terrified of him until they aren't. He's the monster they created and the people who put him in power are the people who keep this Congress in power. So Congress are trying to realign their corruption with his corruption and they don't know how because he can say and do whatever he wants.

Last Wednesday: via Spicer regarding the ACA vote: Deal? There was never any deal.
Friday: I'm done with Obamacare. Let it implode in two years and democrats will be exposed. It's what's best for the party.
Monday: Repealing Obamacare is important and I think we can make a deal with democrats because it is too important for the American people.

And his sheeple eat it up.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want
He makes me down to lie
Through pastures green he leadeth me the silent waters by
With bright knives he releaseth my soul
He maketh me to hang on hooks in high places
He converteth me to lamb cutlets
For lo,m he hath great power and great hunger
When cometh the day we lowly ones
Through quiet reflection and great dedication
Master the art of karate
Lo, we shall rise up
And then we'll make the bugger's eyes water.

[Smoove_B]

I get both of your points and if he was a politician with weak-sauce skills at supporting their agenda that would be one thing. However, with all this Russia stuff continuing to bubble up (I can't even keep track of it all anymore), I don't find silence to be an acceptable option - particularly when it appears that at least one GOP member is actively stopping an investigation. I completely get that various GOP members have their own agendas and they're absolutely using President Trump as a smokescreen. The fact that they're still doing so in light of what else is going on is unreal.

[Holman]

The Republiklans see Drumpf as a dupe that they can use to push their agenda through, which is why they're OK with the insanity. Once done, they'll drop him like a used loofa and give Pence the blow job he's been waiting for.

I believe you mean the "brief, metronomic, procreative missionary intercourse he's been waiting for."

[YellowKing]

Unfortunately, based on their constituent support, they don't have much reason to change. Republicans by and large still stand firmly behind both Trump and Ryan.

[hepcat]

The Republiklans see Drumpf as a dupe that they can use to push their agenda through, which is why they're OK with the insanity. Once done, they'll drop him like a used loofa and give Pence the blow job he's been waiting for.

I believe you mean the "brief, metronomic, procreative missionary intercourse he's been waiting for."

The addition of the metronome image is what separates the chaff from the wheat in this post.

[El Guapo]

These are the consequences of electing someone that doesn't know what it means to be President, or even care to find out. This is about enriching his family. Nothing more, nothing less.

And yet, I've still heard nothing from GOP leadership on any of this. Nothing from Speaker Ryan or my favorite human being in the world, Mitch McConnell. No matter what President Trump does, they're seemingly ok with it all. As horrific as President Trump is, you'd kind of expect the leaders in the Legislative branch to push back a bit if he's violating accepted norms and processes? Their silence on all this shouldn't be ignored, IMHO.

The Republiklans see Drumpf as a dupe that they can use to push their agenda through, which is why they're OK with the insanity. Once done, they'll drop him like a used loofa and give Pence the blow job he's been waiting for.

So, the Republicans have both opportunities and problems here. Their fundamental problem is that the main things that they really want to do - massive upper income tax cuts, dismantling safety network programs, etc., are generally massively unpopular. With both chambers of Congress plus the presidency plus a Supreme Court majority, they have a chance to do a lot of those things, and who knows when this window will end, and when they might have a chance like this again.

Other problem - people tend to vote in Congress based on the presidency. If they investigate Trump and find a lot of dirty shit, then that will make Trump less popular (and make Trump less inclined to work with them to do what they want). That will only make it harder for them to pass the agenda which was already unpopular to begin with.

So...they protect Trump while they try to get as much of their unpopular agenda enacted while they can.

[El Guapo]

Unfortunately, based on their hand-picked constituent support, they don't have much reason to change. Republicans by and large still stand firmly behind both Trump and Ryan.

Never forget about the gerrymandering problem.

[LordMortis]

Unfortunately, based on their hand-picked constituent support, they don't have much reason to change. Republicans by and large still stand firmly behind both Trump and Ryan.

Never forget about the gerrymandering problem.

Especially not on the day when Congress makes it legal for them buy data mining information on their constituents from ISPs.

[Paingod]

Unfortunately, based on their hand-picked constituent support, they don't have much reason to change. Republicans by and large still stand firmly behind both Trump and Ryan.

Never forget about the gerrymandering problem.

Which, if reading serves me right, can't be touched until 2020 after another census. At least it's on the Democrat's radar now as a possible priority if they want to try and balance the scales again.

[El Guapo]

Unfortunately, based on their hand-picked constituent support, they don't have much reason to change. Republicans by and large still stand firmly behind both Trump and Ryan.

Never forget about the gerrymandering problem.

Which, if reading serves me right, can't be touched until 2020 after another census. At least it's on the Democrat's radar now as a possible priority if they want to try and balance the scales again.

Yeah, and something that Obama is getting personally involved in.

[LordMortis]

Every... Day...

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... -citations

Since January, the surge has transformed into a slow, incessant march of deleting datasets, webpages and policies about the Arctic. I now come to expect a weekly email request to replace invalid citations, hoping that someone had the foresight to download statistics about Arctic permafrost thaw or renewable energy in advance of the purge.

In the waning days of 2016 we were warned: save the data. Back up the climate measurements. Archive the maps of America’s worst polluters. Document the education portals that teach students about backyard ecosystems.

Anticipating a massive overhaul by the new administration, scientists around the world sounded the alarm to copy as many files off of government sites before they were altered or removed. As the inauguration neared, hundreds of guerrilla archivists took up the call. From Philadelphia to Toronto, hackers raced against the clock to protect crucial datasets before they disappeared. Volunteers tried tirelessly to save what they could, but the federal government is a massive warehouse of information. Some data was bound to get left behind.

All in all, emails about defunct links of sites that weren’t saved are annoying, but harmless. Finding archived materials to replace them add maybe 20 minutes of internet searches to my day – and a bit of anger at the state of the country.

The consequences of vanishing citations, however, pose a far more serious consequence than website updates. Each defunct page is an effort by the Trump administration to deliberately undermine our ability to make good policy decisions by limiting access to scientific evidence.

We’ve seen this type of data strangling before.

Just three years ago, Arctic researchers witnessed another world leader remove thousands of scientific documents from the public domain. In 2014, then Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper closed 11 department of fisheries and oceans regional libraries, including the only Arctic center. Hundreds of reports and studies containing well over a century of research were destroyed in that process – a historic loss from which we still have not recovered

[Smoove_B]

So...they protect Trump while they try to get as much of their unpopular agenda enacted while they can.

I think you're right:

Rick Wilson, the GOP strategist who has emerged as a leading anti-Trump gadfly, was recently talking to a good friend of his who serves in Congress, representing a moderate but solidly Republican district in the upper Midwest. “He loathes Donald Trump,” Wilson told me. “Hates him with the fire of a million suns.” Yet the congressman told Wilson he’s terrified to cross the president, saying, “ ‘If I say something about [Trump], one tweet could kill me.’ ”

...

Meanwhile, flagrant violations of American laws and norms go unchecked. Few in government are even trying to police Trump’s manifold financial conflicts of interest. The president is blatantly selling access to himself by doubling membership fees at his private club, Mar-a-Lago. And as Politico reported, the club doesn’t keep visitor logs, meaning there’s no way to track whom Trump and his relatives are meeting with. Presidential daughter Ivanka Trump is assuming an ethically dubious semigovernmental position; in meetings with foreign leaders she plays a larger role than our elusive secretary of state. “Right now the American political system is increasingly looking like a dystopic third-world banana republic, and the Republican Party is complicit in allowing this to happen,” says Jerry Taylor, president of the Niskanen Center, a libertarian think tank.

...

From conversations the Niskanen Center has had on Capitol Hill, Taylor believes there are somewhere between 50 and 100 Republican congressmen “who have convinced themselves that Donald Trump is worth embracing and have little concern about that partnership.” The rest, he says, “are in various degrees of shock, horror, and disgust at what’s going on in this administration. But none of them want to be decapitated by a primary challenge. Nobody wants the social media fanaticism of the alt-right turned on them.”

[malchior]

No doubt this has to be one of the most shameless power grabs in our nation's history. At least FDR was incredibly popular when he threatened to pack the courts. They are trying to swindle the intellectually bankrupt Trump while also being afraid of his rabid following. It is an ugly dynamic. Especially since Trump does have some sharp people around him and they know how to push all his buttons. At the moment, they are just incompetent at Government compared to some of the people on the Hill.

Also I think it is illustrative to compare how McConnell keeps the Senate mostly out of trouble amidst all this nonsense to Ryan who is hopelessly over his head. Though to be fair to Ryan, he is hemmed in by the absurdity of the Hastert rule and his nutso caucus but Boehner certainly wouldn't have fallen into the AHCA trap.

[LordMortis]

They are trying to swindle the intellectually bankrupt Trump while also being afraid of his rabid following.

Now this I concur with. That is how I see our entire federal government at the moment.

At the moment, they are just incompetent at Government

That I'm not sure about. It seems to me a whole fuck ton of Government is getting done at a lightning pace.

They may be bad government but their competence is precisely what terrifies me. The things that are different from when I went to bed last night makes my head spin and my stomach turn.

[Paingod]

feral government

FTFY

[malchior]

The opportunities for schadenfreude never cease with these clowns in power.

[Enough]

So much winning.

https://twitter.com/PoliticalLine/statu ... 0790466560

[LordMortis]

So much winning.

https://twitter.com/PoliticalLine/statu ... 0790466560

Saw a quote today that congratulated Ernest Saves Christmas for having a better approval rating than DJT.

[Alefroth]

I'd like to see a report on the estimated job losses associated with all of the cuts.

[El Guapo]

So much winning.

https://twitter.com/PoliticalLine/statu ... 0790466560

Saw a quote today that congratulated Ernest Saves Christmas for having a better approval rating than DJT.

That cinematic classic clocks in at a lofty 38%.

[Carpet_pissr]

I believe you mean the "brief, metronomic, procreative missionary intercourse he's been waiting for."

Fantastic. Is that original?

[Holman]

I believe you mean the "brief, metronomic, procreative missionary intercourse he's been waiting for."

Fantastic. Is that original?

I heard the phrase "sex like a metronome" somewhere, but I forget where.

[El Guapo]

I believe you mean the "brief, metronomic, procreative missionary intercourse he's been waiting for."

Fantastic. Is that original?

I heard the phrase "sex like a metronome" somewhere, but I forget where.

It was me, I said it first, it was amazing, everyone laughed, everyone says so, you can ask Sean Hannity.

[Enough]

The opportunities for schadenfreude never cease with these clowns in power.

This made me think of this:

[tgb]

The opportunities for schadenfreude never cease with these clowns in power.

This made me think of this:

Someone needs to convert this to Trump Golf

[Skinypupy]

Trump is "shocked" that women attending a women's empowerment event have heard of Susan B. Anthony.

“Since the very beginning, women have driven, and I mean, each generation of Americans, towards a more free and more prosperous future,” Trump said. “These patriots are women like the legendary Abigail Adams, right? Who, during the founding, urged her husband to remember the rights of women. She was very much a pioneer in that way. We’ve been blessed with courageous heroes like Harriet Tubman who escaped slavery. And went on to deliver hundreds of others to freedom, first in the underground railroad and then as a spy for the union army. She was very, very courageous, believe me. Around we’ve had leaders like Susan B. Anthony. Have you heard of Susan B. Anthony? I’m shocked that you’ve heard of her — who dreamed of a much more fair and equal future and an America where women themselves as she said helped to make laws and elect the lawmakers, and that’s what’s happening more and more.”

I'm pretty sure that was written into his speech as a joke, not that it makes it any better. I would have loved to see the audience ask him to give one additional fact about he women he named in the speech.

Days since being a national embarrassment: 0

[Defiant]

What George W. Bush Really Thought of Donald Trump’s Inauguration

But, according to three people who were present, Bush gave a brief assessment of Trump’s inaugural after leaving the dais: “That was some weird shit.” All three heard him say it.