The Trump Administration: Holy Shit Batman, What Do I Do Now?

Discussion in 'Politics' started by joepistole, Nov 17, 2016.

  1. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Now that the unthinkable has become a reality, what now? After Trump became the president-elect and the adrenaline wore off, Trump appeared bewildered. I don't think he ever thought he would win. So now what? Trump has once again manged to get himself into a situation for which he is wholly unprepared and totally unqualified.

    For the last few days, his staff has been in chaos. He purged his cadre based on loyalty or the lack thereof. Trump is truly overwhelmed and our closest allies are understandably fearful of the havoc and discord he my wreak upon the world. So what's next?

    I'm still having great difficulty wrapping my mind around a President Trump and all that would entail, but there are a few hopeful signs. Let's all hope they pan out. There was a rumor today that Trump is now reaching out to others like Romney, folks in the "never Trump" movement. Let's hope that's true. Trump cannot do this on his own. Trump and the people who surround him are woefully lacking. They need people like Romney. They need people who understand the world. Clearly Trump and his people don't.

    It's both funny and sad. Trump has his family used his government funded transition website to hawk Trump products. That's a first. Ironically, Trump will be the least transparent and most conflicted president we have seen in at least a century. Immediately, Trump will need to appoint the landlord for his new Washington hotel: the head of the GSA. Even though we know very little about Trump's businesses we do know that on the day he is sworn in, a number of his businesses will be in direct conflict with his businesses.

    So what does the Trump administration do next? If Trump reaches out to others like Romney, that's a good sign. But if he continues with the loyalty purges, hold on to your hats and everything else. It's going to be a very rough ride.
     
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  3. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    Think of yourself starting up a business. You will need over 4000 employees and must be up and running in 2 months.
    You need 3 main things from your crew
    1) They take their lead from you
    2) They work well together
    3) They can think on their own.
    ......................
    (ok not to despair abilities)

    That is one helluva juggling exercise.................It'll take awhile to sort it out----fire people, hire people, move them from one job to another laterally or vertically.
    I'd be a bit surprised if Trump could assemble a whole new crew in that timeframe..........which may mean that many current people will stay in their jobs (for awhile?)
     
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  5. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Well here is the thing, it's not like starting a new business. You don't have to create new organizations and new organization structures. All that has already been done. All Trump needs to do is fill the top positions and others can fill in lower level positions. It's not like he doesn't have people helping him. He does. And they need to more than just play together nicely. If Trump's smart, he will be choosing people based on ability rather than how far they can get their nose up someone's derriere.

    Other presidents have managed successful transitions with identical time constraints. Obama did it. Bush did it. Clinton did it. Bush Senior did it. Reagan did it, and the list goes on. So let's not pretend this is some insurmountable task.
     
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  7. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    Mr. Trump's obvious lack of preparation for the presidency only reminds of the swindle. Not a word he uttered unto voters came with the intention of being true.

    Then again, we might wonder whether that sort of thing matters to Trump voters, who would thus turn out to be among the biggest dupes in human history.
     
  8. ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    You don't say? Look I've been trying to convince people he is huckster-conman for month now IRL, this is frankly something they are going to have to learn on their own, the hard way, with all of us going down in flames with them no less.
     
  9. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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  10. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    That's funny until he nominates Falwell.
     
  11. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    I had hoped that this quadrennial insanity would have left us by now.
     
  12. geordief Valued Senior Member

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    Has anyone wondered if the man will have a nervous breakdown in office?

    How much front does he have compared to what he is comfortable with?

    Has he a stable personality ? Do we prefer he cracks up or that he lasts the course?

    Is this going to shove his silver spoon up where the sun don't shine?
     
  13. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    It depends on what you mean by stable. The question is will he be a good POTUS? And the answer to that is still out; we don't know. Trump is certainly an erratic individual and he certainly has little to no subject matter knowledge whose closest advisers are members of the alt-right. He is also the least transparent POTUS we have seen for more than a century and psychologically unstable to boot - hence the erratic behaviours. That's certainly cause for concern.

    I'm concerned Trump's narcissism has rendered him vulnerable to manipulation.
     
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2016
  14. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Well, he's your man. You are stuck with him. He's going to be in the spotlight for the next 4 years whether you like it or not.

    His many and readily apparent conflicts of interest haven't even been touched. The question is does Trump have enough money to keep him out of court for the next 4 years?

    Trump could go down in history as one of America's most corrupt presidents. I just don't see Trump changing his stripes.
     
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2016
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  15. geordief Valued Senior Member

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    Might that explain his seemingly surrounding himself with his family?He knows he is out of his depth and thinks he can create firewall?
    Is Trump going to be an example of the Peter Principle?

    4 years seems an awfully long time . He has nowhere to hide

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  16. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    <-----------caucused for Sanders

     
  17. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Did you read the link? Falwell met with Trump in his ivory tower and discussed this very subject!
     
  18. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    What happens to Washington DC, now that the seat of government is moving to NYC? Well, you don't expect the Emperor to commute!
    Also, I suppose, with all the loss of international trade, he'll be looking for new sources of revenue. Have any real estate deals been made yet? Canada might be interested in Vermont and Washington State; doubt we can afford Oregon, even with another pipeline. Does Mexico want its New namesake? China might pick up some abandoned Rust Belt property in lieu of its loan payments; Texas and California can probably ransom themselves.
     
    joepistole likes this.
  19. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Good question, do you think Trump can tolerate slumming it in the White House for 4 years?

    Trump is clearly in over his head. His selections thus far are questionable at best. Let's hope we see some more rational, knowledgeable and capable selections going forward.
     
  20. zgmc Registered Senior Member

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    I heard that he was meeting with him... I can't think of anyone much worse for that job. So far this might be the most frieghtening. That and putting oil men in charge of the environment.
     
  21. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    5,089
    Not a snowball's chance! It will only get worse.
    Your only hope is some gutsy DA who'll lay one of the many possible criminal charges - preferably before the whole country's up for auction.
     
  22. Bells Staff Member

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    But you then spent weeks and weeks plugging Trump as the only viable candidate and most importantly, as your candidate of choice.

    You kept on and on about how terrible Clinton was and would be, from charges of corruption, which is ironic given what has happened since Trump won:

    Friday evening, the Washington Post reported that about 100 foreign diplomats gathered at President-elect Donald Trump’s hotel in Washington, DC to “to sip Trump-branded champagne, dine on sliders and hear a sales pitch about the U.S. president-elect’s newest hotel.” The tour included a look at the hotel’s $20,000 a night “town house” suite. The Post also quoted some of the diplomats saying they intended to stay at the hotel in order to ingratiate themselves to the incoming president.

    “Why wouldn’t I stay at his hotel blocks from the White House, so I can tell the new president, ‘I love your new hotel!’” said one diplomat from an Asian nation. “Isn’t it rude to come to his city and say, ‘I am staying at your competitor?’”

    The incoming president, in other words, is actively soliciting business from agents of foreign governments. Many of these agents, in turn, said that they will accept the president-elect’s offer to do business because they want to win favor with the new leader of the United States.

    [Source]

    During a gathering at his new, spare-no-expense hotel in Washington DC, Mr Trump wined and dined visiting officials in the opulence of the hotel’s Lincoln Library, a junior ballroom with 16-foot ceilings and velvet drapes.

    Ethical concerns were raised after a number of delegates admitted they would be tempted to stay at the hotel when visiting the US capital, in a bid to curry favour with the President.

    “Believe me, all the delegations will go there,” one Middle Eastern diplomat told the Washington Post.

    “Why wouldn’t I stay at his hotel blocks from the White House, so I can tell the new president, ‘I love your new hotel!’ Isn’t it rude to come to his city and say, ‘I am staying at your competitor?’” said another
    .
    [Source]​

    It doesn't end there. There are now emerging reports that when the leader of Argentina called him to congratulate him on his win, Trump immediately used the political phone call to plug his business interests and use his newly Presidential-Elect status to ask President Macri to approve Trump's application for permits for his business interests in Argentina.. You know, the business that is supposed to be in a blind trust.

    To your allegations that Clinton was a "war hawk".. Again, something something about irony goes here..

    Flynn’s appointment as NSA is worrisome, if he accepts, as appears likely – a known Islamophobe, forced to resign as Obama’s Defense Intelligence Agency director, earlier calling “radical Islamism” a “cancer.”

    He wants these elements eliminated without acknowledging America created and supports them, saying “(w)e will win the global war against radical Islamists.”

    Last March, he lied, claiming “Brussels is their battlefield. Paris is their battlefield. San Bernardino is their battlefield” – all false flags, along with similar incidents in America and Europe, innocent patsies blamed for state-sponsored crimes.

    “I’ve been at war with Islam” for decades, said Flynn, adding “fear of Muslims is rational.” Post-9/11, he was involved in torture and other disturbing practices.

    He suggested killing family members of suspected terrorists is acceptable. Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill said

    “(a)long with Gen. Stanley McChrystal and Adm. William McRaven, Flynn was the embodiment of Donald Rumsfeld’s view that the world is the battlefield.”

    In Iraq and Afghanistan, he “and JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) waged secret wars with the broader conventional wars and dramatically expanded the pace of night raids.”

    Flynn as NSA “means that a very sophisticated, accomplished assassin could end up in a position of tremendous authority.”

    At the same time, he’s friendly with Vladimir Putin, hostile to Iran, and according to Program on Peace-building and Rights director David Phillips, he reportedly lobbied for Turkish President Erdogan, raising “ethical concerns, cast(ing) doubt on his suitability for public office.”

    “We’re in a world war,” said Flynn. But very few Americans recognize it, and fewer still have any idea how to win it.”

    Appointing him NSA, if he accepts, isn’t an encouraging sign, suggesting Trump’s administration intends continued war on Islam – instead of ending what never should have begun.
    [Source]

    This is what you voted for. This is what you plugged relentlessly on this site. This one is on you and all those who voted like you.

    You voted in a candidate who views the White House as a business opportunity, who is appointing people who are openly racist, bigoted and bloodthirsty, who cares nothing for the actual suffering of people and who is more outraged that an actor in a play read a statement to his Vice President, than he is at the exceptional rise in the attacks and destruction of property by white supremacists who are spending so much time praising his win and his appointments to his cabinet as being the new dawn for the 'white man'.

    This one is on you.

    So don't try and backtrack and claim you caucused for Sanders. You are on record for plugging and supporting a white supremacist and corrupt war monger for President. Claiming you caucused for Sanders isn't going to wash that torrid stench of you. You own it. It's yours.
     
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  23. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    It is entirely possible, by the time this is over, that we will only be able to tell who voted for Trump because they are the last people left blaming everybody else except Trump voters. There was an interesting bit in the NYT over the weekend, and plenty to it, but the public editor opened her consideration with an anecdote about a Trump supporter who invited her to come see that they're not all racists and extremists. And I couldn't help but think, "Yes, but you voted for this. Whatever you thought was important enough, you're okay with this." It's like this supporter was saying, "We don't like the bigotry, but under the circumstances we just happen to need it." And then they'll follow up with, "Because, you know, it's your fault, anyway."

    Compared to my lifetime, this phenomenon is going to end up being the people who have abused words like "accountability" to death trying to blame everyone else for their own actions. They built this. Yes, they could. Or, as my mother reminds, those who fart in church must sit in their own pew.

    Okay, she uses different words. It's a principle thing with her: Fart is a profane word. My sister in law was in Scotland when she learned of this, and promptly fell off her barstool. Oh, wait, she was on the bench seat. Even better.

    Oh, right.

    But, yes, watching people play Pilate will be an interesting experience; by the time this is over, identifying Donald Trump voters who aren't alt-right lulzaholic wannabe antisocials might well be among the rarest breeds in the land.
     

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