Trump, June 2017: From [Covfefe] with Love

It seems like we are entering a new time period where what was once huge news is now not

― Dean of the University (Latham Green), Monday, June 12, 2017 9:10 AM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

truth

we're definitely already there. the President shared highly sensitive counterintelligence information with diplomats from a country that unequivocally committed cyberterrorism to affect the outcome of our most recent election, and it's basically been 100% forgotten about.

Canada has never looked more inviting

It's like if every day you woke up and you were a different animal living on a different planet. The first couple dozen times it'd blow your mind but eventually you're just like, yep, guess today's the day I'm a penguin on Rigel-7, let's get it over with.

Yeah, it's increasingly clear that if Congress is unwilling to hold his/her feet to the fire, the president can basically do whatever the fuck he/she wants.

exactly, which is why I've stopped being outraged by Trump himself. his entire life philosophy has been "if you can get away with it, do it" and the people who are supposed to be running checks on him are letting him get away with literally everything. you don't put a plate of cookies in front of a 4-year old and get outraged when he devours them all and starts burrowing through the walls.

Congressional GOP is doing a lot of work for Trump to undermine the basic functioning of democracy and checks. They've been working at this for a long time, but we are quickly reaching a point where it cannot be repaired.

Really the most depressing thing is that not only did Trump win, Congress is also Republican controlled, AND Trump can nominate a supreme court justice to make sure social progress is reversed on all fronts. I don't think the founding fathers would be pleased.

why wouldn't they be? Parties gain majorities all the time, as much as the framers abjured the idea of political factions (and Jefferson loved them).

I guess its one of those "ah what can ya do that's democracy for ya! win some lose some!" in two years it will all be democrat again as the pendulum swings back

i wouldnt be so sure

&they'll be blamed for the horror show situation they inherited and unable to build on previous progress which has been dismantled. Innit?

Someone in an earlier thread posited that Trump's election marked the end of the American experiment. I might go a step further and posit that Trump's election marks the beginning of the end of America as a functional democracy (although I'm sure many would argue that the beginning began much earlier than that). I mean, there's still a chance to salvage it but no one in a position to do so seems interested in doing so. Once you've basically established that there are no real controls in place for the guy at the top, you either need to make some sweeping changes or accept that the system is broken.

Congress has been bought by lobbyists for so long its hard to imagine how the US govt isn't just the democratic face of a larger capitalist body which has had control all along

i am going to the opening of that Trumpesque Julius Caesar in Central Park tonight. I have low expectations.

if you're looking for a smaller scale option of NYC theater that doesn't, shall we say, strive for subtlety, here's one for you:
https://www.faust3theturdcoming.com/

" "Faust 3: The Turd Coming, or The Fart of the Deal" by Paul David Young, a political satire of the Trump fiasco performed by an ensemble of four clowns, will have its world premiere June 11 to 26 in The Meeting Room of Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, presented by Skylight Productions. Augustus Heagerty directs.

The play presents a Faustian bargain between the populace, and their chosen king, a deceptive, Mephisophelean clown figure. Although the clown is offensive, vulgar, and evil, the people agree to sign away their future on the gamble that the clown will improve their lives. They are shat upon instead. In sermon-like tweets, the clown king communicates his predatory intentions, based on perversions of the Beatitudes ("BLESSED ARE THE RICH FOR THEY DESERVE IT ALL") and other parts of the Gospels. The sensitive ego of the clown king leads to nuclear war and worldwide devastation. The script adapts and mangles Goethe's "Faust" (Parts 1 and 2) and the Gospels in the King James translation, as well as bits of Yeats, Shakespeare, Christmas carols, Stephen Foster, John Donne, Heiner Müller, Julia Ward Howe, Abel Meeropol, and others.

The performance will take place in the found environment of the Meeting Room, a landmarked Neo-Renaissance sanctuary designed by architect Stanford White and sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens, with the largest collection of John Lafarge stained glass windows in the world, all paid for by the Rockefellers of Standard Oil. The actors will use microphones as they move about the space, speaking directly to the live audience. With demonic evangelism, they will also sing, dance, and perform tricks and mock religious rituals while celebrating the clown king. Music will include drums, melodica, recorded music (classical to pop), Christian anthems, Christmas Carols and computer-generated sound.

Congress has been bought by lobbyists for so long its hard to imagine how the US govt isn't just the democratic face of a larger capitalist body

That was one of the most viscerally pleasurable things about the Occupy movement. I saw those hedge-fund guys looking out the windows at the marchers and those motherfuckers were scared.

Anyway

JUST IN: Attorney General Sessions will testify publicly to Senate Intelligence Committee at 2:30pm Tuesday, panel says.

— Ed O'Keefe (@edatpost) June 12, 2017

Cool, another opportunity to perjure himself without any subsequent consequence.

Just in case anyone had forgotten that the attorney general demonstrably perjured himself previously. NBD.

That thing on Banks includes his opinion of Paul Ryan as "wonky and thoughtful," and welp

One of those descriptors is accurate, if not in quite the same way it was intended.

Apparently an actual quote just now?

"Never has there been a president....with few exceptions...whose passed more legislation, whose done more things that I have --" Trump

— Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) June 12, 2017

he certainly has done things

if/when he is under oath someone should ask him if he's passed any legislation and just pop him for perjury right there

'are your hands of average dimensions for a man of your height'

Ryan is W&T, its just his goal is to return to Ayn Rand's imagined paradise of pre-New Deal America. The robber baron era.

Presidents portrayed as Julius Caesar in U.S. productions: Lincoln, Reagan, Clinton, GWB, Obama, Trump. (Caesar died in all of them.)

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) June 12, 2017

Caesar died for somebody's sins but not mine!

want to congratulate the julius caesar actors for wearing suits in 95 degree heat

should've worn a toga and sandals

gonna guess that's a more accurate portrayal trump's attire during sunday morning brunch

This guy.

WH Chief of Staff Reince Priebus to Trump: “We thank you for the opportunity and blessing to serve your agenda” https://t.co/L7DEdZUjV3

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 12, 2017

you don't put a plate of cookies in front of a 4-year old and get outraged when he devours them all and starts burrowing through the walls.

many of the people who gave him the plate of cookies are entirely happy at the results, but the people who live on the other side of those walls are mad both at the 4-year old and his enablers.

consistency is the newt gingrich of small minds

I will never get over this...it hasn't even been a month. pic.twitter.com/5r0K4shUAW

— Yashar Ali (@yashar) June 12, 2017

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin..." etc.

yes I was calling newt gingrich a hobgoblin thaaaat's the joke

"Never has there been a president....with few exceptions...whose passed more legislation, whose done more things that I have --" Trump
— Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) June 12, 2017

From the start of this thing, he's been like a toddler testing his boundaries and finding that there are none. Feel like he's been taking tentative steps lately toward lies that are increasingly untethered from reality. Like, not just self-serving bullshit that is likely to fool credulous saps who haven't done their research but patchy fabrications that don't even have the whiff of possible truth. He's like half a step away from declaring that he's a different person altogether or that he lives inside a basketball.

"A foolish consistency is the Newtgoblin..."

Gallup: Trump approval falls to twenty three points underwater at 36-59, his lowest since March and second worst approval of his presidency. pic.twitter.com/CJcY6LQjfD

— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) June 12, 2017

"Never has there been a president....with few exceptions...whose passed more legislation, whose done more things that I have --" Trump
— Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) June 12, 2017

From the start of this thing, he's been like a toddler testing his boundaries and finding that there are none. Feel like he's been taking tentative steps lately toward lies that are increasingly untethered from reality. Like, not just self-serving bullshit that is likely to fool credulous saps who haven't done their research but patchy fabrications that don't even have the whiff of possible truth. He's like half a step away from declaring that he's a different person altogether or that he lives inside a basketball.

― The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T & the Women (Old Lunch), Monday, June 12, 2017 1:04 PM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Someone laid it out on reddit:

Here are president Trump's legislative accomplishments.
They can be categorized into: A - minor inconsequential garbage, B - handouts to oil and gas, C - minor procedural changes mainly to undo Obama-era federal rules, D - handouts to private industries, E - useful legislation, and F - laws that screw the citizens of the United States

June 6, 2017: H.R. 375 - Named a courthouse the “Fred D. Thompson Federal Building and United States Courthouse”. (A)
June 6, 2017: H.R. 366 - Updated the DHS vehicle fleet allocation methodology (how DHS assigns cars to its personnel) (C)
June 2, 2017: S. 583 - Law to setup a small grant fund to hire veterans as law enforcement officers (A)
June 2, 2017: S. 419 - Tweaks how public safety officers can claim disability and other benefits (C)
May 17, 2017: H.J.Res. 66 - Terminated rules that allowed states to have public retirement plans that would benefit workers by being better than private plans (D)
May 16, 2017: H.R. 274 - Allows government employees to use Uber and Lyft (C)
May 12, 2017: S. 496 - Undid a federal rule about the alignment of planning regulations (C)
May 8, 2017: H.R. 534 - U.S. Wants to Compete for a World Expo Act (A)
May 5, 2017: H.R. 244 - The budget, to narrowly avoid a shutdown (E)
April 28, 2017: H.J.Res. 99 - Kicking the budget can down the road (E)
April 19, 2017: S.J.Res. 36 - Appointed a person to the Smithsonian Institution (A)
April 19, 2017: S.J.Res. 35 - Appointed a person to the Smithsonian Institution (A)
April 19, 2017: S.J.Res. 30 - Appointed a person to the Smithsonian Institution (A)
April 19, 2017: S. 544 - Extended the termination date for the Veterans Choice Program (E)
April 18, 2017: H.R. 353 - Required NOAA to give money to the private sector for weather forcasting, so the private sector can then charge for that information (D)
April 13, 2017: H.J.Res. 67 - Terminated rules that allowed states to have public retirement plans that would benefit workers by being better than private plans (F)
April 13, 2017: H.J.Res. 43 - Allows employers to not provide family planning coverage, because Jesus says NO! (F)
April 3, 2017: S.J.Res. 34 - Allows the sale of your internet browsing history (F)
April 3, 2017: H.R. 1228 - Modified the terms of service of the Board of Directors of the Office of Compliance (C)
April 3, 2017: H.J.Res. 83, Undid a rule that stated it is an ongoing requirement that employers actually report workplace injuries (D)
April 3, 2017: H.J.Res. 69, Undid a rule that stated that the Fish and Wildlife service can restrict commercial fishing in Alaskan Wildlife Refuges (D)
March 31, 2017: S.J.Res.1 - Useless feel-good commemoration of veterans of Desert Storm or Operation Desert Shield. (A)
March 31, 2017: H.R.1362 - Renamed an outpatient clinic in Pago Pago, American Samoa, the Faleomavaega Eni Fa'aua'a Hunkin VA Clinic. (A)
March 31, 2017: H.J.Res.42 - Undid a rule that stated that states can only do employee drug testing in appropriate fields (F)
March 28, 2017: S. 305 - Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017 (A)
March 27, 2017: H.J.Res.57 - Undid a rule that requires states to have an accountability program for measuring school quality (F)
March 27, 2017: H.J. Res. 58 - Undid a rule that requires that states actually require that teachers be qualified to do their job (F)
March 27, 2017: H.J. Res. 44 - Opened previously-protected public lands to mineral exploitation by private companies (B)
March 27, 2017: H.J. Res. 37 - Undid a rule requiring that NASA contractors document their compliance with federal labor laws (D)
March 21, 2017: S.442 - Tweaked some NASA rules and regulations regarding the use of commercial spaceflight providers and the acquisition of foreign services (D)
March 13, 2017: H.R.609 - Renamed Department of Veterans Affairs health care center in Center Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania, as the "Abie Abraham VA Clinic". (A)
February 28, 2017: H.R. 321 - Inspiring the Next Space Pioneers, Innovators, Researchers, and Explorers (INSPIRE) Women Act (E)
February 28, 2017: H.R. 255 - Promoting Women in Entrepreneurship Act (E)
February 28, 2017: H.J.Res. 40 - Undid a law that forced oil and gas companies to disclose payments to politicians. (B)
February 16, 2017: H.J.Res.38 - Undid a law that required oil and gas companies to disclose what chemicals they were dumping in public waterways (B)
February 14, 2017: H.J.Res.41 - Undid a law that forced oil and gas companies to disclose payments to politicians. (B)
January 31, 2017: H.R.72 - GAO Access and Oversight Act of 2017 (E)
January 20, 2017: S.84 - A bill allowing Mattis to be Secretary of Defense (E)

Minor inconsequential garbage: 10
Handouts to oil and gas: 4
Minor procedural changes: 5
Handouts to private industries: 6
Useful legislation: 7
Laws that directly screw the citizens of the United States: 6

http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Delta-Sponsored-2012-Guthrie-Theater-Season-Which-Featured-Obama-Inspired-Julius-Caesar-20170612

xp that's a very helpful summary, thanks

"This is a big signing, very important signing," the president said. "We are bringing back jobs, big league. We are bringing them back at the plant level, we are bringing them back at the mine level. The energy jobs are coming back."

yes - corruption produces jobs!

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2017/02/14/Trump-nixes-anti-corruption-regulation-for-US-energy-companies/2021487103685/

Trump Loses Travel Ban Ruling in Appeals Court

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/us/politics/trump-travel-ban-court-of-appeals.html?_r=0

January 20, 2017: S.84 - A bill allowing Mattis to be Secretary of Defense (E)

categorized as "useful legislation", but this was the bill that waived the rule that generals wait seven years until they can become Secretary of Defense. even in his useful legislation" he made sure to undermine the principle that the military should be checked by civilian oversight

I think they were categorized according to the opinion of the poster.

It seems like we are entering a new time period where what was once huge news is now not

― Dean of the University (Latham Green), Monday, June 12, 2017 9:10 AM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

truth

― jason waterfalls (gbx)

Things that should seem amazing but just don't

Well Schumer is quick off the mark today

GREAT meeting today with the best staff in the history of the world!!! pic.twitter.com/ocE1xhEAac

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) June 12, 2017

https://www.thecut.com/2017/06/melania-trump-father-viktor-knavs-photo.html?utm_campaign=nym&utm_source=fb&utm_medium=s1

lol

If hearing Schumer's soundbites on a reg basis doesn't make one despair over the Dems' ability to push back, I dunno...

xp

Why, it's such pleasant reading here

Comments from the first full meeting of the Trump cabinet, courtesy of an admirably detailed pool report by @sdonnan pic.twitter.com/4dmQohRbrM

— Alexander Panetta (@Alex_Panetta) June 12, 2017