The Trump Administration: A Clusterfuck in the Making

[Czarcasm]

@Rick_Kitchen

You’re full of shit. I don’t post unreferenced comments, I post links to news stories. So you can go away now.

You post links to past history-it is like getting your news from the newspapers found in the bottom of old drawers.

[QuickSilver]

@Folacin

The sad thing is that there is a non-zero possibility that he did bring it up, even without Twitter egging him on.

He mentioned it once. I think he got away with it.

[eschereal]

@QuickSilver

He mentioned it once. I think he got away with it.

When everyone recognizes you as an utter baffoon, you can “get away with” all manner of your ridiculous bubboonery and everyone will just shake their heads, saying it is just derigger.

[The_Librarian]

@Rick_Kitchen

(…) I don’t post unreferenced comments, I post links to news stories. (…)

Is this a whoosh where you are ironically emulating the subject of this thread? (doubling down, insulting, adding BS to bolster the BS) If so; well played.

[DrFidelius]

@QuickSilver

He mentioned it once. I think he got away with it.

Basil?

[Sherrerd]

@DrFidelius

Basil?

Speaking of whom, today there was this interchange on Twitter:

John Cleese‏Verified account @JohnCleese 55m55 minutes ago
The Fairmont Macdonald hotel in Edmonton has a concierge desk. But no concierge. She’s out of town today. Probably back Wednesday, the solitary lady at Reception guesses N American hotels are chronically understaffed. Having enough staff for guests is slightly less profitable
136 replies53 retweets532 likes

Danny Doyle‏ @Danny_T_Doyle 40m40 minutes ago
Replying to @69L46 @JohnCleese
You know you’ve hit rock bottom in the hotel industry when Basil Fawlty is advising you on how to better your service…
1 reply5 retweets84 likes

Apologies for the derail, but it was a nice moment. (My bolding.)

[Dewey_Finn]

@eschereal

@QuickSilver

He mentioned it once. I think he got away with it.

When everyone recognizes you as an utter baffoon, you can “get away with” all manner of your ridiculous bubboonery and everyone will just shake their heads, saying it is just derigger.

The other thing, aside from Trump’s buffoonery, is how susceptible he is to flattery and everyone in the world knows it. So on his current trip to Japan, the Japanese PM invited him to a “basho”, which is apparently one of six annual grand sumo tournaments, and the trophy for the winner was Trump-themed. And today, Trump will meet Naruhito, the new Japanese emperor, and he’s the first foreign leader to meet him. Later there will be a big banquet. Perhaps if any other American president were visiting, they would also have the honor of being the first foreign leader to meet the new emperor, but there wouldn’t be the naked flattery.

[carnivorousplant]

@eschereal

Some amusing twittery going on. Memorial Day '16, CFSG wondered whether Obama ever discusses the Pearl Harbor attack while meeting with Japanese leaders. Since he is in Japan this Memorial Day weekend, others have wondered the same about the guy who brought up the subject 3 years ago.

I still believe that Bush was ill at the Japanese Prime Minister’s dinner because some of Bush’s crew, captured by the Japanese, were eaten.

[SlackerInc]

Adam Kinziger makes the second very recent Republican congressman to take a strong stance against Trump. I consider this extremely important. There are many soft Republicans who will ignore any criticism from Democrats, no matter how warranted. The exact same criticism coming from a Republican cannot so easily be brushed off. And two different guys is much more powerful than one lone critic.

[eschereal]

@carnivorousplant

I still believe that Bush was ill at the Japanese Prime Minister’s dinner because some of Bush’s crew, captured by the Japanese, were eaten.

On little clumps of rice wrapped with kelp?

[Ukulele_Ike]

@drfidelius

basil?

“don’t mention the war!”

[Ukulele_Ike]

@Folacin

The sad thing is that there is a non-zero possibility that he did bring it up, even without Twitter egging him on.

Trump: “HEY, what about PEARL HARBOR?”

Abe: “Qu’est-ce que c’est?”

[Fear_Itself]

The cult of Trump has infected our professional military.

Airmen onboard the USS WASP wearing patches on their jumpsuits that read “Make Aircrew Great Again.” The patches include an image in the center in the likeness of President Trump.

https://twitter.com/vmsalama/status/1133203283227529217/photo/1

[bobot]

Well yeah, this so-clled president is the first to let them have a “happy” Memorial Day!
Onboard the appropriately named USS WASP:
“I have to wish you all a very happy Memorial Day,” Trump said. “On this Memorial Day evening in the United States, Americans are concluding a sacred day of remembrance, reflection and prayer.”
Before appearing on the USS Wasp, Trump and first lady Melania Trump visited a Japanese destroyer, the J.S. Kaga, docked nearby. Standing alongside Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump delivered the same “happy Memorial Day” message to the Japanese forces."

Trump wishes troops 'happy Memorial Day' as he heads home from Japan

[Czarcasm]

@Fear_Itself

The cult of Trump has infected our professional military.

https://twitter.com/vmsalama/status/1133203283227529217/photo/1

That is against the rules, without a doubt.

[ThelmaLou]

@Fear_Itself

The cult of Trump has infected our professional military.

https://twitter.com/vmsalama/status/1133203283227529217/photo/1

@Czarcasm

That is against the rules, without a doubt.

“Who ya gonna call?”

[Bryan_Ekers]

Rank-busters, I would think.

[Fiveyearlurker]

Lynne Patton, the imminently qualified (sarcasm emoji) regional leader of HUD in the New York area, states that she may be violating the Hatch Act and she just doesn’t care.

[ThelmaLou]

@Fiveyearlurker

Lynne Patton, the imminently qualified (sarcasm emoji) regional leader of HUD in the New York area, states that she may be violating the Hatch Act and she just doesn’t care.

I saw this story yesterday. :smack: It’s worth quoting a couple of lines:

…“Just retweeted this amazing tweet from both of my Twitter accounts–professional and personal. It may be a Hatch Act violation. It may not be. Either way, I honestly don’t care anymore,” Patton wrote. “These people are determined to try to ruin and discredit a good man.”

Responding to criticism for posting the comments, she tweeted on Sunday: “What part about ‘I don’t give a [s**t]’ don’t you understand?”
…

Good soldier, following her Fuehrer’s example. :dubious:

[CalMeacham]

Remember when Trump said he'd revoked Brennan's security clearance?

Remember when Trump said he’d revoked Brennan’s security clearance?

Last summer, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that Donald Trump was considering a bold move. As the president’s chief spokesperson acknowledged at the time, Trump was considering revoking the security clearances of former intelligence officials who’ve criticized him, raising the specter, as NBC News put it, of a president “using his office to lash out at his political enemies.”

The next day, then-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) shrugged off the White House rhetoric. Referring to the president, Ryan told reporters, “I think he’s trolling people, honestly.”

Team Trump seemed to prove otherwise: it soon after announced the revocation of former CIA Director John Brennan’s clearance for accessing classified information. The motivation wasn’t subtle – the president was retaliating against a critic, while sending a signal to other potential detractors – and it drew swift condemnations from a variety of circles.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman at the time, described Trump’s move as “a banana republic kind of thing.”

…
Nearly a year later, the New York Times reported over the holiday weekend on the president’s antagonism toward his own country’s intelligence community. The article noted:

The White House said a month later that the president was ordering the revocation of Mr. Brennan’s clearance. But the White House never followed through with the complex bureaucratic work it would have taken to strip the clearance, according to a person familiar with the process.

Oh. So in this case, it was “a banana republic kind of thing” in a country where the authoritarian leaders are kind of lazy.

Between this and what Bob Woodward reported in his book Fear about Trump’s short attention span, and tendency to forget things not placed on his desk, it appears that Trump strongly resembles the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland[, screaming “Traitor!” instead of “Off with their Heads!” and then not following through, either because it would be boring, or he forgot, or he considered it below his dignity.