The Trump thread: All things Donald

[Athos_131]

Trump’s frustrations are boiling over after Comey dismissal

#Resist

[Lois]

VIDEO
Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands
Dutch TV did what no American TV network dares, suggesting Trump's past includes illegal racketeering.

http://www.alternet.org/video/donald-trumps-financial-ties-russian-oligarchs-and-mobsters-detailed-new-documentary

[Northwest]

BOASTS THAT HIS IMPEACHMENT WILL GET HIGHER TV RATINGS THAN ALL OTHER IMPEACHMENTS

By Andy Borowitz   May 12, 2017



WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, Donald Trump boasted that, if he is impeached, the television ratings will be higher than those of any other impeachment in history.

“Everywhere I go, people tell me that if I am impeached, they’re going to watch it,” he said. “The ratings are going to be through the roof.”

He said that he expected his impeachment ratings to be “many, many times” the size of the audience for Bill Clinton’s impeachment, in 1998.

“It’s not even going to be close,” Trump said. “The ratings for Bill Clinton’s impeachment were a joke.”

Asked about the recent impeachment of the former South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Trump said, “Did anyone even watch that one? That was Korea. Nobody cares.”

As for the impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, he said, “I didn’t hear about that one. I don’t follow Brazil. I like Argentina. I saw ‘Evita’ many, many times. Andrew Lloyd Webber did a great job. Millions and millions of people loved it. But that was a Broadway show, not an impeachment.”

Even though he anticipates “just terrific” ratings for his impeachment, Trump said that he did not expect the media to provide an honest accounting of his audience size.

“They’re going to lie and say that a lot of people who watched my impeachment didn’t watch, and that’s going to be very bad and unfair, but it’s not going to change the fact that my impeachment will be a great impeachment, a really beautiful impeachment,” he said.

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/trump-boasts-that-his-impeachment-will-get-higher-tv-ratings-than-all-other-impeachments

[Lois]

Great satire is so very believable.  

This whole affair shows the need the reform (or elimination) of the electoral college system.  If we keep it, the electoral college needs to become non-partisan entity that takes into account if a person is qualified for office or not. Presidents need to be vetted before taking office, and the details of this vetting should be made available to the electors.

Questions like the following should be explored:

1. Experience
2. Security clearance (including a review of income and debt)
3. Literacy test
4. Mental and physical health

more?

[joan1984]

   Lois, the United States Constitution details the requirements for a person elected to U.S. President, and does it quite nicely.  You may also find there, the details for the Electoral College, and can find the reason for this as a system, by looking just a step further at the various Founders papers, all now online, and available via the Library of Congress.

   The United States Constitution is the answer to your questions, and is quite explicit in this regard.  Good choices for good reasons.  Consider that in the last election, one Candidate won the majority of votes in 3084 Counties, nationwide and the other received the majority of votes in 57 Counties, nationwide.

   Seems clear to me, and to most Americans. Sorry you have such difficulty.

[Lois]

And as I said, these guidelines were not sufficient to prevent a functionally illiterate, delusional demagogue, from being elected.  So clearly reforms are needed.

Have you read the Federalist Papers, Joan?  Clearly in them it outlines that the reason we have an electoral college is to prevent people like Trump from being elected.  So why did it fail?

I know it must be hard for you. Your blind ideology has led you to support someone who is likely to destroy all you hold dear and make you look like a fool once again.  When will you learn that supporting idiots in the hopes they will be a "useful tool" for your agenda will always backfire?

[joan1984]

  Many reasons for the Electoral College, including the need to affirm agreement from various sized States to form our union. Without such a Representative republican method, States of smaller populations would be disadvantaged, and frankly would not have agreed to bind together under the Constitution.

  That reason is as important today as it was at the beginning. Donald Trump, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, each meet the specifications of the Constitution.

  The Founders envisioned a different makeup in Congress, of course, and not the job for life that often occurs in the House and moreover the Senate, but the specs for President envisioned are right on the money, it seems.

  Your criticism and hysteria about President Trump notwithstanding, he meets the criteria perfectly, as have all our Presidents, including the most recent one, presuming the birth certificate presented is a valid one, of course... water over the dam... I suggest you decide to support your Country, and our President, no matter your personal politics, and the hysteria of your avowed fellow travelers.

[Northwest]

Another reason which the Electoral College was used rather than a direct election system (one person, one vote), is because the framers were concerned that a skilled populist could rouse the rabble and get themselves elected even if they were manifestly unqualified. The EC was put in place to provide a measure of protection, since if was believed the Electors would have the ability and willingness to countermand the general will and 'do the right thing'.

Trump's election proved it didn't work as planned. Trump got in anyway.

[Lois]

@ NW: Indeed.

@ Joan: You did not answer my question.  Have you read the Federalist papers?

[Lois]

It seems that the GOP has learned nothing from the Watergate fiasco and has even gotten worse.  Can you say principle before party?  Many in the GOP have no idea what principles are.

Paul Krugman: The Republican Party Is Just as Treasonous as Trump
The New York Times columnist says it's time we acknowledge the GOP has no interest in democracy.
By Jacob Sugarman / AlterNet May 12, 2017

After abruptly firing FBI director James Comey earlier this week, Donald Trump told NBC's Lester Holt on Thursday that Comey's dismissal was, at least in part, a product of "this Russia thing." (The thing in question is, of course, the Trump administration's alleged collusion with the Russian government.) It was a stunning admission, a sitting president openly acknowledging his obstruction of a federal investigation. Just don't expect a Republican-controlled Congress to draw up impeachment proceedings any time soon, warns Paul Krugman.

In his latest piece, the New York Times columnist compares the GOP to Judas Iscariot, betraying the American public for the equivalent of 500 silver coins—the spoils of a billion-dollar tax cut for the rich. Republicans have accused Democrats of being soft on communism during the Cold War and on terrorism since 9/11, he reasons, but confronted with circumstantial evidence of treason, a single congressman has called for a special prosecutor. Just six Republicans claim an independent investigation is in order. Krugman sees this as part of the conservative movement "returning to its roots":

Much has been made of Trump’s revival of the term “America First,” the name of a movement opposed to U.S. intervention in World War II. What isn’t often mentioned is that many of the most prominent America-firsters weren’t just isolationists, they were actively sympathetic to foreign dictators; there’s a more or less straight line from Charles Lindbergh proudly wearing the medal he received from Hermann Göring to Trump’s cordial relations with Rodrigo Duterte, the literally murderous president of the Philippines.

Krugman also argues that the GOP of 2017 bears virtually no resemblance to the GOP of the 1970s, which placed country over party when confronted with President Nixon's sweeping malfeasance. Citing the work of Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein, he writes that the Republican Party "hasn’t just become 'ideologically extreme'; it is 'dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.'"

"It's time to face up to the scary reality here," Krugman concludes. "Most people now realize, I think, that Donald Trump holds basic American political values in contempt. What we need to realize is that much of his party shares that contempt."

Read Paul Krugman's column at the New York Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/opinion/judas-tax-cuts-and-the-great-betrayal.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fpaul-krugman&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection&_r=1

[JulesVern]

Another reason which the Electoral College was used rather than a direct election system (one person, one vote), is because the framers were concerned that a skilled populist could rouse the rabble and get themselves elected even if they were manifestly unqualified. The EC was put in place to provide a measure of protection, since if was believed the Electors would have the ability and willingness to countermand the general will and 'do the right thing'.

Trump's election proved it didn't work as planned. Trump got in anyway.

The problem today is the two primary parties. The Electoral College electors were supposed to be a check against a poor candidate, but today are prohibited by rules from actually fulfilling that role. Of course, as much as I dislike Trump, and think he was and is a poor choice for President, I was exactly a Hillary supporter. We were left with two poor choices IMO. :-(

[Lois]

Actually I believe that Hillary was as a fairly good choice, but over 20 years of vilification by the extreme right had an effect on all of us.

[Athos_131]

Republicans and Democrats agree: If Trump has tapes, he’ll need to turn them over to Congress

#Resist

[Athos_131]

Under Trump, inconvenient data is being sidelined

#Resist

[Athos_131]

Clapper says Trump weakening U.S. institutions

#Resist

[Athos_131]

With focus on Comey’s firing, White House aides mostly avoid Sunday news shows

#Resist

[JulesVern]

Actually I believe that Hillary was as a fairly good choice, but over 20 years of vilification by the extreme right had an effect on all of us.

Perhaps, but she did a number of things that while technically legal, didn't look that way and helped her opponents vilify her. And her husband did too. Don't get me wrong, I voted for her, both in the primary and the general election, but she won my state by a landslide so my vote wasn't all that important. :-p

[JulesVern]

And if he does have tapes, he's even more of a moron than I thought. Mentioning them has to be one of the worst things he could do ... unless he did it as another attempt to distract from the actual issue(s).

[Athos_131]

Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador

#Resist

[Katiebee]

I guess his security clearance needs to be revoked. This is why you don't let idiots have security clearance.