Monday, November 27, 2017

Circling the psychic drain



“The chief. He’s the general and the chief,” Trump said during the White House event, referring to his chief of staff John Kelly. “I said, how good were these code talkers? He said, sir, you have no idea. You have no idea how great they were, what they have done for this country and the strength and the bravery and the love for the country.”

“So that was the ultimate statement from General Kelly, the importance,” Trump continued. “And I just want to thank you because you’re very, very special people. You were here long before any of us were here, although we have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago, they call her Pocahontas. But you know what I like you.”


“This was supposed to be an event to honor heroes, people who put it all on the line for our country, and people who, because of their incredible, work saved the lives of countless Americans and our allies,” she said. “It is deeply unfortunate that the President of the United States cannot even make it through a ceremony honoring these heroes without having to throw out a racial slur.”
And then, going back to "fake news," that tweet is the most recent one of a long, long weekend:

Yes, that was only two days ago.  And again today:

And really, it isn't even like the press is uniformly interested in making you look bad:
“President Trump? Ali [Velshi] and I [Stephanie Ruhle] cover business and the economy, especially as it relates to politics every single day,” she explained. “So where are these companies coming back specifically and not just pledges,  Foxconn may be coming.”

“[Republican congressman] Jim Renacci said this the other day, from Ohio, the president’s bringing all these jobs back. What are you talking about?” Ali Velshi excitedly interjected. “What jobs? Just tell me where they are. We’ll go, we’ve got reporters, we’ll find out what these are. We don’t know about these.”

“Please sir,” host Ruhle said, addressing the president. “We’re not being biased here. We would love to cover these and cover wins of this administration for the people in this country, specifically those forgotten Americans who are desperate for those jobs.”

I think Trump is losing it.  Indeed, despite what he says about the tax bill:

All signs point to it being in serious trouble:

Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) told reporters in a Capitol Hill press conference that he’s skeptical the promised economic growth will fill that hole, and refused to say how he will vote on the tax bill itself.
“What if we don’t get 0.4 percent growth? Is there any backstop?” he asked. “I’m not opposed to tax reform, but we need to do it right.”

Lankford also suggested that conservatives who have long railed about the size of the federal deficit are acting hypocritically by backing the deep tax cuts without corresponding spending cuts.

“We can’t ignore the debt and deficit issues,” he said. “As conservatives, we’ve said for a long time that to get ahead of the deficit we have to control our spending and have a growing, healthy economy. Well, if we use all of the tax reductions to just offset, we’ll never get on top of it.”

Funny I haven't heard of OK's other Senator before, but he doesn't sound comfortable with this legislation at all; and he isn't the only one:

Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran shared similar fears in town hall meetings and local interviews over the Thanksgiving break.

“We don’t want to increase the debt and deficit as a result of tax cuts,” he told a crowd in Clay Center on Saturday. “I’m also cognizant of what people saw happen in Kansas.”

Republicans can only lose two votes from their caucus and still pass the tax bill. With deeply conservative lawmakers like Moran and Lankford wobbling, in addition to more moderate members like Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ), the upcoming Senate vote is likely to be a nail-biter for GOP leaders desperate to avoid closing out the year with no major legislative accomplishments.
Sen. Moran doesn't want to wish Kansas on the country; and what does Jeff Flake care about his political future?  Dare we expect a Christmas miracle?  And if the GOP can't deliver on a tax bill, what do its major donors do?  And what do they do about Trump, except isolate him further?  And I haven't even gotten to Mueller.






2 comments:

  1. Just when you figure he's as disgusting as he can get, he finds a new and worse way to be disgusting. I've had to revise my skepticism about the existence of the devil because some of these people seem to be finding depths of evil that are beyond their natural capacity to be evil. Or maybe Putin had some kind of transmitter put in his head, or something.

    Tillerson is obviously destroying American deplomacy on behalf of his patron, Putin.

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  2. then today he insults the entire Native American population.

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