The monthly average of 171,000 jobs created in 2017 was the lowest average monthly job growth since 2010, when just 88,000 jobs were added per month.
― reggie (qualmsley), Friday, 5 January 2018 23:27 (six years ago) link
Bannon described Trump as a simple machine. The On switch was full of flattery, the Off switch full of calumny. The flattery was dripping, slavish, cast in ultimate superlatives, and entirely disconnected from reality: so-and-so was the best, the most incredible, the ne plus ultra, the eternal. The calumny was angry, bitter, resentful, ever a casting out and closing of the iron door. [...] Bannon felt - perhaps with overconfidence - that Trump could easily be switched on and off.
― reggie (qualmsley), Saturday, 6 January 2018 01:02 (six years ago) link
So they were selling this book at Penn Station and — god I’m weak.
― treeship 2, Saturday, 6 January 2018 01:18 (six years ago) link
Previous presidents, and not just Clinton, have of course lacked scruples. What was, to many of the people who knew Trump well, much more confounding was that he had managed to win the election, and arrive at this ultimate accomplishment, wholly lacking what in some obvious sense must be the main requirement of the job, what neuroscientists would call executive function. He had somehow won the race for president, but his brain seemed incapable of performing what would be essential tasks in his new job. He had no ability to plan and organize and pay attention and switch focus; he had never been able to tailor his behavior to what the goals at hand reasonably required. On the most basic level, he simply could not link cause and effect.
― reggie (qualmsley), Saturday, 6 January 2018 01:19 (six years ago) link
god I’m weak
if you're experiencing buyer's remorse, sell it to a friend for 20% off retail. they'll tell you all the 'good' parts anyway.
― A is for (Aimless), Saturday, 6 January 2018 01:20 (six years ago) link
"As [Trump] got back on Marine One to head to Andrews Air Force Base and on to JFK and then into Manhattan and Trump Tower, [after addressing the Charlottesville murder], his mood was dark and I-told-you-so. Privately, he kept trying to rationalize why someone would be a member of the KKK -- that is, they might not actually believe what the KKK believed, and the KKK probably does not believe what it used to believe, and, anyway, who really knows what the KKK believes now?"
― reggie (qualmsley), Saturday, 6 January 2018 01:58 (six years ago) link
Once, coming back on his plane with a billionaire friend who had brought along a foreign model, Trump, trying to move in on his friend’s date, urged a stop in Atlantic City. He would provide a tour of his casino. His friend assured the model that there was nothing to recommend Atlantic City. It was a place overrunby white trash.
“What is this ‘white trash’?” asked the model.
“They’re people just like me,” said Trump, “only they’re poor.”
― reggie (qualmsley), Sunday, 7 January 2018 19:08 (six years ago) link
“You know when I was young. Of course I feel young — I feel like I was 30 . . . 35 . . . 39 . . . . Somebody said, Are you young? I said, I think I’m young. I was stopping in the final months of the campaign, four stops, five stops, seven stops — speeches, speeches in front of twenty-five, thirty thousand people . . . fifteen, nineteen thousand. I feel young — I think we’re all so young. When I was young we were always winning things in this country. We’d win with trade, we’d win with wars — at a certain age I remember hearing from one of my instructors, the United States has never lost a war. And then, after that, it’s like we haven’t won anything. You know the old expression, to the victor belongs the spoils? You remember I always say, keep the oil.”
“Who should keep the oil?” asked a bewildered CIA employee, leaning over to a colleague in the back of the room.
― reggie (qualmsley), Sunday, 7 January 2018 21:01 (six years ago) link
Ultimately Trump may not be that different in his fundamental solipsism from anyone of great wealth who has lived most of his life in a highly controlled environment. But one clear difference was that he had acquired almost no formal sort of social discipline — he could not even attempt to imitate decorum. Hecould not really converse, for instance, not in the sense of sharing information, or of a balanced back-and-forth conversation. He neither particularly listened to what was said to him, nor particularly considered what he said in response (one reason he was so repetitive). Nor did he treat anyone with any sort of basic or reliable courtesy. If he wanted something, his focus might be sharp and attention lavish, but if someone wanted something from him, he tended to become irritable and quickly lost interest. He demanded you pay him attention, then decided you were weak for groveling. In a sense, he was like an instinctive, pampered, and hugely successful actor. Everybody was either a lackey who did his bidding or a high-ranking film functionary trying to coax out his attention and performance — and to do this without making him angry or petulant.
The payoff was his enthusiasm, quickness, spontaneity, and—if he departed for a moment from the nonstop focus on himself — an often incisive sense of the weaknesses of his opponents and a sense of their deepest desires. Politics was handicapped by incrementalism, of people knowing too much who were defeated by all the complexities and conflicting interests before they began. Trump, knowing little, might, Trumpers tried to believe, give a kooky new hope to the system.
― reggie (qualmsley), Sunday, 7 January 2018 22:31 (six years ago) link
1/2 term like totally used flynn as a primary russian go-between
A White House meeting that morning failed to convince Trump to fire Flynn. He was concerned about what it would look like to lose his National Security Advisor after just twenty-four days. And he was adamant about not wanting to blame Flynn for talking to the Russians, even about sanctions. In Trump’s view, condemning his adviser would connect him to a plot where there was no plot. His fury wasn’t directed toward Flynn but to the “incidental” wiretap that had surveilled him. Making clear his confidence in his adviser, Trump insisted that Flynn come to Monday’s lunch with the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau.
― reggie (qualmsley), Monday, 8 January 2018 23:03 (six years ago) link
just fuck the whole thing if this nominate Oprah thing gets any traction inside the DNC
― Hadrian VIII, Monday, 8 January 2018 23:14 (six years ago) link
i worked out how much it would cost, in 2021, to give every licensed american driver the equivalent of a 2004 pontiac G6 and it came to about 9.5 trillion
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Monday, 8 January 2018 23:18 (six years ago) link
if you spread that out over two terms it's only about a trillion a year
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Monday, 8 January 2018 23:19 (six years ago) link
but what would be truly extraordinary is the number of pontiac plants we'd have, and the sheer number of people required to work in them. we would be number one in pontiac plants per square mile and unemployment would probably be a thing of the past
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Monday, 8 January 2018 23:21 (six years ago) link
Also, the taxes everyone would have to pay for getting free cars would pay for all sorts of other stuff! Downside: no one could sell their car, since everyone would have one already. The price we pay for the Pontiac Economy.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 8 January 2018 23:25 (six years ago) link
worth it imo
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Monday, 8 January 2018 23:26 (six years ago) link
Some thought him dyslexic; certainly his comprehension was limited. Others concluded that he didn’t read because he just didn’t have to, and that in fact this was one of his key attributes as a populist. He was postliterate — total television. But not only didn’t he read, he didn’t listen. He preferred to be the person talking. And he trusted his own expertise — no matter how paltry or irrelevant — more than anyone else’s. What’s more, he had an extremely short attention span, even when he thought you were worthy of attention.
it's like an alfred jarry play come to life
― reggie (qualmsley), Monday, 8 January 2018 23:27 (six years ago) link
“What is this ‘white trash’?” asked the model.“They’re people just like me,” said Trump, “only they’re poor.”
I might have to call bullshit on this quote because it betrays a gift for brutally honest self-assessment that I can't believe Trump possesses.
― Bobby Buttrock (Old Lunch), Monday, 8 January 2018 23:28 (six years ago) link
that's a younger pre-senile 2scoops
― reggie (qualmsley), Monday, 8 January 2018 23:40 (six years ago) link
He seemed to lack the ability to take in third-party information. Or maybe he lacked the interest; whichever, he seemed almost phobic about having formal demands on his attention. He stonewalled every written page and balked at every explanation. “He’s a guy who really hated school,” said Bannon. “And he’s not going to start liking it now.”
― reggie (qualmsley), Monday, 8 January 2018 23:44 (six years ago) link
When Trump walked onto the field for the national anthem, he was greeted with a chorus of boos amidst scattered cheers, and struggled to remember the words to the Star-Spangled Banner he respects so much.
hooray
― maura, Tuesday, 9 January 2018 02:56 (six years ago) link
I totallt believe the “white trash” anecdote. Trump has always been aware that he wasn’t accepted by polite society. This is why he can convincingly (to some) rail against “elites” while being a billionaire. His brand isnas much about vulgarity as it is about glamour.
― treeship 2, Tuesday, 9 January 2018 04:07 (six years ago) link
i hate his stupid fucking ugly face
it is so disgusting
― j., Sunday, 28 January 2018 02:39 (six years ago) link
Hater
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 28 January 2018 03:43 (six years ago) link
he really epitomizes the old white politician “spoiled canned ham” ideal
― maura, Sunday, 28 January 2018 03:44 (six years ago) link
you know what i find really helps is calling him donald butt instead of donald trump that way every time you talk about him you get to let ppl know that you think, that he is a butt
― sleepingbag, Sunday, 28 January 2018 03:51 (six years ago) link
But my 6 year old would do that.
I tried just saying '45' but I couldn't keep doing it.
― fajita seas, Sunday, 28 January 2018 04:10 (six years ago) link
nicknames are silly imo. he's not the first bad president, you can just refer to him by name
― k3vin k., Sunday, 28 January 2018 04:18 (six years ago) link
Difference is, his name is a brand he licenses.
― fajita seas, Sunday, 28 January 2018 04:24 (six years ago) link
i believe 'donald butt' is a good compromise and will endorse this expression
― Clay, Sunday, 28 January 2018 04:27 (six years ago) link
donnie two scoops is still the best
― maura, Sunday, 28 January 2018 05:27 (six years ago) link
no it's not, it's all stupid. playground nicknames? seriously? Trump is a virus & he's making everyone insane
― flappy bird, Sunday, 28 January 2018 23:07 (six years ago) link
ILM >>> ILE for maybe the first time since idk I first posted?
― imago, Sunday, 28 January 2018 23:10 (six years ago) link
j/k i always preferred ilm ;)
I agree that he is a virus and he's making us all insane and we should just use his name, but also I have been calling farts "trumps" from the age of 5 because that's what they are called.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Sunday, 28 January 2018 23:15 (six years ago) link
truly, we must treat Donald Trump with the dignity he deserves
― algorithm is a dancer (katherine), Sunday, 28 January 2018 23:40 (six years ago) link
finding the nicknames stupid has nothing to do with dignity
― Simon H., Sunday, 28 January 2018 23:44 (six years ago) link
flappy bird otm. The cute albeit belittling nicknames make me cringe. It acknowledges this level of familiarity that I deeply wish I didn’t have.
― treeship 2, Sunday, 28 January 2018 23:44 (six years ago) link
This is a good use of our time
― fuck you, your hat is horrible (Neanderthal), Sunday, 28 January 2018 23:46 (six years ago) link
i usually call him "our president"
― difficult listening hour, Sunday, 28 January 2018 23:46 (six years ago) link
guys this is a stupid argument I didn't mean for it to be taken with deathly seriousness. glad to see everyone in usual formation, though
― k3vin k., Sunday, 28 January 2018 23:54 (six years ago) link
We need more discourse
― treeship 2, Sunday, 28 January 2018 23:57 (six years ago) link
when they invent the profanity strong enough to describe how i feel about president trump i'll use it. until then i'll stick with "president trump" or "the president of the united states".
― Arnold Schoenberg Steals (rushomancy), Monday, 29 January 2018 00:06 (six years ago) link
yeah
― flappy bird, Monday, 29 January 2018 00:11 (six years ago) link
I googled "Donald Butt" and was directed to a deviantart page that's mostly screencaps of Donald Duck's ass
― soref, Monday, 29 January 2018 00:13 (six years ago) link
<3
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Monday, 29 January 2018 00:15 (six years ago) link
^said ass
― fuck you, your hat is horrible (Neanderthal), Monday, 29 January 2018 01:14 (six years ago) link
we could spit on the ground like the romanians in that doubtlessly historically accurate snl sketch
― j., Monday, 29 January 2018 01:31 (six years ago) link
Trump Diary- Eric pic.twitter.com/LDNzuEbkWr— kyle Dunnigan (@kyledunnigan) January 20, 2018
― calstars, Monday, 29 January 2018 01:34 (six years ago) link
scoops²
― reggie (qualmsley), Monday, 29 January 2018 01:43 (six years ago) link