Saturday, May 05, 2018

Still pathetic after all these days


Non sequitur, much?  (This one really just makes me laugh.)

The white evangelicals least tolerant of Trump appear to be women.

According to data that the Pew Research Center provided to The Washington Post in March, support for Trump among white evangelical women in polls has dropped about 13 percentage points, to 60 percent, from their level of support about a year ago. Among all women, there has been an eight-point drop.

Republicans do not risk losing white evangelicals as a whole to Democrats. But every percentage point counts, and considering how close recent congressional races have been, Trump cannot really afford for any of his supporters to stay home. And perhaps more importantly, there is far more to evangelicalism than American elections. Whether people will have much interest is not yet clear.
May need to try harder.
Hold his breath?  Refuse to eat his vegetables?  Play more golf?  Pretty much the same results as Trump issuing a "demand" of Congress right now.

“He’s a professional liar that will say anything to appease whatever crowd he’s at,” [Cameron Kasky] the senior attending Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida explained. “If he’s in front of families he might say something in support of common sense gun reform. But then when he’s at the NRA, he’ll say something to get a big cheer.”

“The NRA convention is like Comic-Con, you only really get the die-hard fans,” he continued. “The average American NRA members, who perhaps only got a membership to the NRA free with the purchase of a handgun, they’re not showing up and they’re not holding Trump accountable for what he needs to talk about. They aren’t going to this dog and pony show that Trump and Pence are going to.”

“It’s a celebration really and I hope they’re having fun this year,” he added. “But the average members of the NRA, they don’t agree with Trump’s stance on guns. They don’t agree with NRA board member Ted Nugent saying that Democrats and liberals need to be shot in the street like dogs. This is all a spectacle; Trump trying to appeal to a crowd of people who really, really like weapons that shoot bullets fast.”
It's not just a high school senior who says you're full of shite (that's gotta hurt, right?); the world was listening:

US President Donald Trump has criticised the level of knife crime in London, comparing one of the city's hospitals to a "war zone".

His comments came in a speech to the National Rifle Association (NRA), in which he defended US gun laws.

He also told the firearms lobby's conference in Dallas, Texas, that American gun rights were "under siege".

Mr Trump is due to visit the UK this summer, after previously cancelling a trip amid calls for mass protests.

"I recently read a story that in London, which has unbelievably tough gun laws, a once very prestigious hospital right in the middle is like a war zone for horrible stabbing wounds," he said on Friday.

"They don't have guns. They have knives and instead there's blood all over the floors of this hospital.

"They say it's as bad as a military war zone hospital. Knives, knives, knives, knives." He mimed a
stabbing motion.

"London hasn't been used to that. They're getting used to it. It's pretty tough."
But the world, like the rest of us here, didn't know what he was talking about:

Marian Fitzgerald, a criminologist at the University of Kent, said although there had been a spike in knife-related deaths in London, it was a separate issue to gun control.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's just politically convenient, in a speech to the gun rights lobby, to try and make those comparisons and they are totally spurious.

She added: "If he needs reassurance, Donald Trump is going to be much safer in London than he would be at home." 
 Maybe this is why our President is so popular:

On Saturday, The New York Times reported that the White House had been informed that President Trump would not be welcome at the anticipated funeral for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who has been battling brain cancer.

“His intimates have informed the White House that their current plan for his funeral is for Vice President Mike Pence to attend the service to be held in Washington’s National Cathedral but not President Trump, with whom Mr. McCain has had a rocky relationship,” The Times explained.

This has been a pattern for the embattled White House.

In April, President Trump was not welcome at the funeral of former First Lady Barbara Bush, who was “repelled” by the 45th president. Trump instead spent the day of the service golfing and tweeting.

In December, it was reported that UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s government was worried about negative reactions when Trump would not be invited to the upcoming nuptials between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
SAD!

Even sadder (Just when I think I'm out, they drag me back in!):


Maybe not such a good idea, that:

“I think it is pretty obvious to anyone who has ever spent five minutes negotiating with the North Koreans that you do not announce things that have not happened,” said Christopher Hill, a former State Department official who led the U.S. delegation in the six-party talks with Pyongyang during the George W. Bush administration.

“I understand they take pride in doing things differently,” Hill said of Trump’s team. “But this is serious business — people’s lives are at stake. It just takes a little bit of discipline.”

And yes, this even involves Giuliani:

On Thursday morning, Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor who has joined Trump’s legal team, said on Fox News, while defending Trump in the controversy surrounding adult film actress Stormy Daniels, that the Americans would be freed by the end of the day.

They were not.

Giuliani later confessed that he did not have inside information and had not even spoken to Trump
about it, saying he was basing his prediction on “newspaper accounts.”

“I wasn’t made secretary of state, so I’m not conducting foreign policy,” Giuliani told BuzzFeed News. “We made that comment in the context of, ‘Will you stop interfering with this guy? He’s got other things to do.’ ”
.....
Foreign policy experts said it is likely the North will release them as a goodwill gesture. However, they cautioned that even if Trump has a guarantee of their release, their physical condition remains unknown, and speaking publicly about their fate could make the hostages a more important leverage point for Kim.

“The more public you make it and the more you say something is going to happen that has not happened, it creates leverage for no reason,” said Jung Pak, a former CIA official who now works as an Asia analyst for the Brookings Institution. “It’s not going to get us anything, and it draws criticism that you are politicizing the detainees.”

Joseph Yun, who as the State Department’s former point man on North Korea brought Warm­bier home to Ohio, said Thursday on CNN that administration officials talking about the three Americans publicly could jeopardize efforts to free them.
It even involves his speech in Dallas:
But speaking at the National Rifle Association conference in Dallas on Friday, Trump accused the Obama administration of having a general “policy of silence” when it came to North Korea.

“Everybody said, ‘Ohh, don’t talk, please don’t talk,’ ” Trump said. “ ‘Don’t talk! You may make them and him angry! Don’t talk! If a horrible statement is made about the United States, don’t say anything. No comment.’ ”

He added dismissively: “Please, please, oh my God.”

Yeah, it's not like your kids are being held captive in North Korea, right?

“When we talk about North Korea, in general, we tend to forget we’re talking about people, and these abductees have families who have been anxiously awaiting their return and are only relying on governments to do that,” said Pak, the former intelligence official. “It would be best to be circumspect in discussions like this. We’re talking about real lives.”

Trump really is an asshole.  I realize that isn't very pastoral of me, but:  damn!  He really is!
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