February 16, 2017

"It was unhinged, it was wild," says Jake Tapper about Trump's press conference...

... after Trump, at that press conference, predicted that the press would respond with "rants and raves."

I'll say more about the press conference once a transcript is available. I thought it was indeed wild, but in a good way. I hope we get more of Trump working with the press in this mode.

ADDED: Here's the full smoking hot video:



AND: The transcript is now available. I "live-blog" my reading of the transcript in a new post.

395 comments:

«Oldest   ‹Older   201 – 395 of 395
Michael K said...

Pence has one job-

Get the tax cuts passed through Congress. That is the most important thing.

That said, I think Trump understands the firing of Flynn was premature. Lessons learned.


I would add that Trump needs Pence for that function and Flynn got crossways with Pence.

I;d still like to see the transcript. Pence may want to hide it now.

gadfly said...

So the President who didn't get more electoral votes than all Presidents since Reagan, made that claim again and again today. Sheppard Smith wondered why he would deliberately lie to us, but when Trump is incapable of discerning truth from fiction, he simply screams "Fake News!"

When Trump should be actually working to get his staff positions filled, he has to have a press conference to beat up on the press and to defend his Russian position. When he runs out of things to say, his stream of consciousness takes over. His narcissism exudes from every sentence and his dictatorial style of rule by shooting down straw men keeps the world's attention on Trump - or so he thinks.

This press conference is like a campaign rally and so shall they all will be. In the meantime Uday and Qusay continue to create additional conflicts of interest for Dad with foreign deals - sorry, The Donald can't have conflicts of interest as president.

And as sure as we were stuck with watching him go on and on, we could bet that the damn Wall Street Journal was printing fake news about the intelligence agencies withholding stuff from the Great One. Amazingly the President never does anything wrong, never attacks anyone and we all love his truth telling. The End.

Chuck said...

HoodlumDoodlum said...
...
So:
1.) Do you agree that the United States doesn't publicly acknowledge intelligence programs to clandestinely record the private communication of US citizens?
2.) Do you agree that revealing both the existence of such a program almost certainly means revealing classified information?
3.) Do you agree that revealing specifics about such a program, like its specific capabilities, scope, and specific targets--all of which must be highly-guarded secrets--would be revealing classified information?
4.) Do you agree that the Flynn leaks so far have done all, or some, of the above?

1.) Yes. And only the FBI should be doing that. In exceptional cases, the CIA/NSA will be intercepting communications between U.S. citizens and suspect foreign nationals. Under a FISA warrant. Pretty much everybody knows this.
2.) No.
3.) Maybe. Although our adversaries probably know our capabilities in ways far, far, far beyond the Flynn reporting in the fake news. Or the really fake news. Or even the "very fake news."
4.) No.

Thanks for asking!

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I've never heard a president jerk himself off so much as this one. "Approval rating?" From Rasmussen? Right.

I've never heard a president trash so much of his country before, either.

He takes as authoritative tall tales and conspiracy theories repeated by lone posters on Twitter.

This whole charade was propaganda. Here he was again, starting out as if he was actually going to do a professional press conference. But I guess that would be too good for him. Instead it's attack attack attack belittle berate, and all directed against the same institutions that Hitler's goons attacked.

Anonymous said...

I watched the whole thing. I didn't hear anything unhinged or wild. Unless Tapper thinks the press is a sacred cow not to be questioned. Then maybe a question back at the press might set their insecurities rolling. Trump did excellent as a listener, a perceiver, and an issue driver. Lawyers probably don't like the repetition but this is a not a court. Trump was quite clear on Russia and the leaks. The Russia hub bub is a scam run by the media and the leaks are bad and illegal and will be fixed. Take him at his word. Tapper proves Trumps point.

Seeing Red said...

Ahh, you didn't listen to Obama!

That's why trashing if country is new to you.


Some of us are seasoned veterans.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

He's repeating his election returns. Yawn. Boring. Broken record. When has any freaking president ever done this? Doesn't he have any recent accomplishments or current projects to overshadow an irrelevant past glory? All he does is pound his tiny hammer that says I WON I WON I WON. This guy's interest in actually getting on with the job is negligible. The ego trip marginalia he drones on about just adds to how disjointed and rambling the whole thing is. He is like a business operation - except with every department out to lunch but marketing.

CWJ said...

"Mead the bridge/wall to the 21st century will cost you upward of 21billion dollars and be full of cracks and corruption that will not be inspected by any government agency to warn of structural failure."

R/V, This is what always makes me wonder about people left of center. You can write this and still think the best solution is to give even more power to government agencies to make it right. If you were tongue in cheek, well then I missed it. Because what you wrote actually made sense from an expectation standpoint.

Seeing Red said...

Clutch those pearls tighter, ladies.


I don't know if there will be enough smelling salts to cover the next 4 years.

FullMoon said...

Chuck, case closed:

"It’s possible Trump was referring to his own biography on the White House’s official website, which correctly states that Trump “won the election on November 8 of 2016 in the largest electoral college landslide for a Republican in 28 years.” That is, in fact, entirely true since former President George W. Bush barely defeated former Democratic Vice President Al Gore 271-266."

Rick said...

exhelodrvr1 said...
I used to have a fair amount of respect for Tapper - he was relatively impartial - but I am quickly losing that. Someone higher up at CNN must have laid down the law to him.


No one came down on him. His willingness to do his job when a Dem is president doesn't mean he's not on the left. He wants a left which actually tries to meet its stated goals and leftists understand this makes him different (much like Althouse). Now he has to be even more aggressive toward Trump or he'll be blackballed. He's still the best of the moderate left where 60-40 against you is as good as it gets.

Unknown said...

Does anyone else get the feeling that Chuck would gladly trade China nuking, say, Chicago, San Fran, and Denver if he could but stab Donald Trump to death?

He'd cheerfully volunteer to be the guy pulling the switch to dump the Zylon-B on every conservative in America if he could but put Donald Trump first in line.

You are unhinged, Chuck. A malevolent fascist Democrat who claims to be a "Lifelong Republican."

--Vance

CWJ said...

"I've never heard a president jerk himself off so much as this one."

Ritmo, were you awake any of the last 8 years? Oh, that's right Obama didn't need to do himself. He had the press corps available to blow him on demand.

Rick said...

It's getting to the point that any thread Chuck's on is useless. Are we sure R&B didn't
realize his act was losing its mojo and change his theme?

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

I am genuinely uncertain how this press conference plays with Mr and Mrs Joe Average. It's certainly not a look that other presidents have deliberately sought.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Ritmo, were you awake any of the last 8 years? Oh, that's right Obama didn't need to do himself. He had the press corps available to blow him on demand.

Obama was confident, but interested in what was going on around him. Trump is so self absorbed that he can't even treat his kid like a human being.

Trump's thoughts on god, or as he refers to Him, himself.

Find me examples of that with Obama. You can't.

Just simple denial of basic reality, right there, in front of your eyes.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

RedState said...
"President Trump’s rambling brain fart of a press conference is getting criticism from all directions today. One GOP Senator reportedly said that Trump would be better served by finding a therapist instead of airing his issues on live television."

Birkel said...

Is so called Chuck still arguing that shit talking to an anonymous guy on the internet is defamatory? That Chuck is fucking crazy!

Drago said...

AReasonableMan: "RedState said..."

LOL

Breaking News: Lefty quotes well known NeverTrumpers criticizing Trump.

#DidNotSeeThatComing

Birkel said...

"AReasonableMan" thinks anybody on Althouse cares about NeverTrump RedState besides Leftist Collectivists lifelong Repiblicans, like Chuck.
#Sad

Drago said...

AReasonableMan: "I am genuinely uncertain how this press conference plays with Mr and Mrs Joe Average."

No you are not.

You are genuinely concerned that this press conference is too similar to Trumps campaign Press conferences that led to his victory.

Plus, you and the rest of the left despise Mr and Mrs Joe Average.

So, you know, thanks for your "concern".

Birkel said...

Damn it, Drago.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

RedState said...
"President Trump’s rambling brain fart of a press conference is getting criticism from all directions today. One GOP Senator reportedly said that Trump would be better served by finding a therapist instead of airing his issues on live television."


That's a narcissist, for you. They use everything and every person around them - their jobs, their families, their country and its people - as their therapy.

RedState is exactly right. He's inflicting his illness on us. His supporters don't seem to get it though because they've really degenerated into something that isn't even a socially realistic ideology any more - just an exercise in cruelty, callousness, belligerence and division. He's the perfect lens for everything they're all about now.

HT said...

I'll say more about the press conference once a transcript is available. I thought it was indeed wild, but in a good way.

In the tiny snippets I saw from CBS News right now, he seemed strong and spontaneous, and in control. Not bad, but I'm just tuning in.

Birkel said...

1. 2. 3. 4.
I declare hash tag war on Drago.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Lefty quotes well known NeverTrumpers criticizing Trump.

Why do you think they, or anyone, were "NeverTrumpers", as you call them?

Why do they have to be perfect for Trump to be so imperfect that he actually gets a lot wrong, in terms of what a president's supposed to be?

Francisco D said...

I'm beginning to like this fellow Trump.

I mostly voted for him because he was not Hillary. To do that I had to ignore a number of annoyances and personality quirks. However, I am starting to embrace his different style and personality.

We have been brainwashed (Yes. Even a skeptic like myself) by the MSM and Deep State operatives to expect certain things in a politician. I am tired of politicians. I want a LEADER.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Drago said...
[Moderate] quotes well known NeverTrumpers criticizing Trump.


But, they are Republicans and presumably representative of some slice of Mr and Mrs Joe A. Republican.

Drago said...

Well known lefty continues attempt to rebrand as moderate and fails miserably, since if you are going to fail as a lefty, why not miserably?

CWJ said...

Ritmo, nothing you just wrote had the slightest relevance to the press's disparate treatment of Obama and Trump. Though I will say the thought of Obama being interested in his job intrigued me. I think that's the most anyone could say about his approach to job performance.

Chuck said...

FullMoon said...
Chuck, case closed:

"It’s possible Trump was referring to his own biography on the White House’s official website, which correctly states that Trump “won the election on November 8 of 2016 in the largest electoral college landslide for a Republican in 28 years.” That is, in fact, entirely true since former President George W. Bush barely defeated former Democratic Vice President Al Gore 271-266."

Oh God I want to bear down on this one. I want to rub your nose in this one until it hurts.

First, your clue to wrongness should have been anything that appears on a Trump White House website. That's a warning flag right there.

Now, let's blow the living shit out of any notion that Trump won any sort of "landslide." He didn't.

He lost the electoral vote. I don't personally think that matters, and that those on the left who want to try to claim that Trump is an illegitimate president ought to shut up. There is no popular vote. No popular vote matters. Nobody campaigns to win any popular vote. But if you lose the popular vote, you hardly get to claim that you won a landslide. Losing the popular vote while winning the electoral vote means that it was among the handful of historically closest elections in history.

And that was what Trump's election was. It was close. His margin of victory in the three critical swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania was extremely close. The closest presidential race, by percentage, in Michigan history.

Now of course at the end of this day we all know Trump was wrong about where his electoral victory (305) stands in history. In the post-Reagan era, George H.W. Bush beat Dukakis with more electoral votes (426); Bill Clinton beat Bush41 with more electoral votes (370); Clinton beat Dole with more electoral votes (379); and then Obama beat McCain (365) and Romney (332).

As for the specific parsed-beyond-comprehension claim on the White House website, I want you to understand -- as I shove this down your throat -- that Trump wasn't trying earnestly to recite an innocent historical footnote from the website. No; Trump was trying to make a point about how the press doesn't respect his landslide. When the fact is that Trump never had any landslide.

http://www.factcheck.org/2016/11/trump-landslide-nope/

Drago said...

TTR: "Why do you think they, or anyone, were "NeverTrumpers", as you call them?"

LOL

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I want a LEADER.

Washington was a leader. Honest and humble and accomplished. The complete opposite of Trump. And the reason a country could even be assembled out of that convention at all.

Drago said...

"lifelong republican" Chuck: "Oh God I want to bear down on this one. I want to rub your nose in this one until it hurts."

Gee, nothing psychotic about this guy. Nope. Not at all.

Poor Chuckie.

Still waiting for those late Detroit returns to put Hillary over the top.

Birkel said...

Mr and Mrs Republican elected Trump.
The NeverTrumpers, like so called Chuck, called themselves NeverTrumpers.

President Trump had a press conference today. Erick Ericson diddled himself imagining President Jeb. President Hillary diddled Huma.

Drago said...

TTR: "Washington was a leader. Honest and humble and accomplished."

Wow.

The utter and complete opposite of one B. Hussein Obama.

Birkel said...

Chuck, so called: "I want to rub your nose in this one until it hurts.
...
He lost the electoral vote."


Irony is dead.
#DragoKilledIt

Drago said...

I wonder if li'l baracky has secretly stashed more pallets of hard currency destined for Hezbollah by way of Iran?

I hope Trump and our intel services make sure that scenario does come about.

After all, $150Billion+ for the largest state sponsor of terror is more than enough, wouldn't you say?

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Ritmo, nothing you just wrote had the slightest relevance to the press's disparate treatment of Obama and Trump. Though I will say the thought of Obama being interested in his job intrigued me. I think that's the most anyone could say about his approach to job performance.

The press is dong its job. It must call out a delusional liar when he's delusional and lies all the time. He contradicts himself 180 degrees and persists and rejects explanation. Obama never did that. Obama took efforts to find out what the truth of a situation was. Never warping it or bending it as Trump constantly does to suit his own highly deficient ego needs. Obama was a president, as a president should be. Interested in the world and the things his presidency affects, rather than in controlling it. Negotiating and questioning rather than beating his chest. That's how you persuade people - if you respect their intelligence and their freedom. Trump respects none of those things in others. He's not even aware that other people exist. Watch that video on god and the one on Tiffany. He says he's proud of her... "to a lesser extent." Just a monster of a man. No decent parent ever says something that warped. You can bet he's proud of Americans... to a lesser extent, as well. He doesn't care about the people, he cares about their use to him as a means to the glory of the office as he perceives it.

Chuck said...

Unknown said...
Does anyone else get the feeling that Chuck would gladly trade China nuking, say, Chicago, San Fran, and Denver if he could but stab Donald Trump to death?

I love visiting San Francisco and Chicago. Been to both many times. I wouldn't like them being nuked at all.
I've only been to Denver once, and didn't get much of a feel for it one way or another. It's an interesting airport.

So maybe we could talk. Anyway, it all sounds like something Trump would say; shooting someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue, shooting a Russian frigate out of the water off Connecticut. Executing accused deserter Bowe Bergdahl.

Weird Trumpian shit.

Chuck said...


"...lost the popular [not electoral] vote..."

Drago said...

HT: "In the tiny snippets I saw from CBS News right now, he seemed strong and spontaneous, and in control. Not bad, but I'm just tuning in."

Stepping back and attempting to be as objective as I can be (which is not easy, lets face it), Trump actually seemed to demonstrate an almost joyful and giddy desire to do battle with his political enemies.

A friend of mine who was definitely on the fence with Trump called it "the most "fun" press conference I have ever seen."

And that's just it. It looked like Trump was having fun.

Matt said...

From PoliFact:

Trump opened his remarks talking about his accomplishments, starting with the election itself.
"We got 306 because people came out and voted like they've never seen before so that's the way it goes," Trump said. "I guess it was the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan."
This is incorrect. Trump received a smaller share of the Electoral College votes (56.88 percent) than former presidents George H. W. Bush (79.18 percent), Bill Clinton (68.77 percent in 1992, and 70.45 percent in 1996) and Barack Obama (67.84 percent in 2008 and 61.71 percent in 2012).
So that’s five elections since Reagan and in which the winner got a larger percentage of the Electoral College votes than Trump.

Unbelievable, this guy....

Drago said...

"lifelong republican" and "Trump fact Checker extraordinaire" Chuck: ""...lost the popular [not electoral] vote..."

LOL

That is so perfect it ought not be marred by any further comment.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Wow.

The utter and complete opposite of one B. Hussein Obama.


Nope. The opposite of Trump.

Tell me one instance where Trump was humble.

Show me one time where his truths outweighed his falsehoods (3/4ths of his statements, at last check).

Tell me when someone could grow a personal fortune at a rate lower than the growth of the market and call it a success.

My own investments grow faster than Trump's business ever did. Even in a bad economy. But that's because I have fund managers instead of a douchebag who thinks making his name into a business is the same as actually inventing technology or a service that can change the world and commerce.

Anyone with Fred Trump as a dad, loaning them money like that, would have done as well.

You guys truly are aristocrats. Celebrate his accident of birth all you want. He's still not a great man. Just a great ad man.

Birkel said...

So called Chuck, I am rubbing your nose into that until it hurts. You wanted Trump to lose so you typed what you wanted to be truth.

Wishcasting should be contained to internal dialogue. Hillary lost, poor dear, Chuck, so called.

#RubThatNosePsycho

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Chuck said... [Trump is such a target-rich environment. Solid assertions, like what sort of narrow electoral victory Trump really had, are all that is necessary.]

Trump is such a target-rich environment that you have to make ridiculous comparisons and hyberbolic assertions, beclowning yourself in the process, to attack him. Make sense. FlynnRuskieGate is equivalent to Watergate--solid assertions indeed.

2.) Do you agree that revealing both the existence of such a program almost certainly means revealing classified information? Chuck said...: No.

Ok, I think we found where you went wrong, then, Chuck. Confirming the existence of a classified program and confirming details of that program's capabilities (and things like who its targeting, etc) isn't revealing classified information?

The existence of the program is classified. What the program can do is classified. Who the program targets is classified. Yes?

Revealing any or all of that info, and confirming it for our adversaries, is not revealing classified info? How does that work, Chuck? I really hope you understand that's an illogical position.

Drago said...

"lifelong republican" and "Fleet Admiral" Chuck: "So maybe we could talk. Anyway, it all sounds like something Trump would say; shooting someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue, shooting a Russian frigate out of the water off Connecticut."

Frigate.

LOL

Drago said...

TTR: "Tell me one instance where Trump was humble."

When he, and the rest of us, came to a common understanding that it would impolite to point and laugh at you.

Drago said...

"lifelong republican" Chuck: "Trump is such a target-rich environment"

LOL

Popular vote, electoral vote, whatever.

Frigate, spy ship, whatever.

Chuck said...

Fuck off, Drago. In a paragraph where I correctly wrote "popular vote" four times, anybody with half a brain would have known what I was talking about. I've noted the correction above.

Anybody with half a brain would have figured it out. Which I suspect excludes you.

Birkel said...

@ Toothless

I agree that Obama never contradicted himself 180 degrees. His lies were very practiced and Obama delivered them flawlessly.

#LogicPunk

HT said...

And that's just it. It looked like Trump was having fun.

Sort of. I guess. In a way, I suppose I was just glad and a little surprised that he didn't seem to be beaten down by it all.

He also lied a lot in the press conference....

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

When he, and the rest of us, came to a common understanding that it would impolite to point and laugh at you.

See. You don't take your country or its leadership seriously. You deflect a serious question, right on the spot, direct. about mental fitness for the job. And instead you think you made fun of me. Aside from lame and not clever, it shows how unable you are to just admit a simple truth: He confuses the office for himself.

That's no minor thing. That's exactly what the framers set this thing up to try to avoid.

Go visit Washington's grave and pay some respects after pissing on him like this.

heyboom said...

Blogger Seeing Red said...

What's great is when they whine about being given what they want.

They're whining because they wanted to draw this thing out for months and he cut it off in a few days. Stole their thunder, so to speak.

Unknown said...

My favorite is how the leaks coming out of his administration are real but the media reporting the leaks are "fake news". Yes, we are in the era of alternative logic.

Birkel said...

The person having fun is winning.

#AlinskyMeetsChuck

CWJ said...

Ritmo @ 5:51,

It's pretty that you think so. Bless your heart.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I agree that Obama never contradicted himself 180 degrees. His lies were very practiced and Obama delivered them flawlessly.

Not as practiced yet simultaneously inept as your own lie, here. Independent fact checkers rate Obama about three times more honest than Trump. Trump never does anything worthy of respect on account of honesty. For Trump, the closest he gets to honesty is pointing out someone's looks (including his daughter's), someone's disability, someone's losses. That's it. If he can't rub your nose in it or make someone feel bad about it then he doesn't relate to it. His confidence really is that underdeveloped.

Birkel said...

Toothless: "But it's a serious question, seriously y'all! Seriously."

#PointAndLaugh

heyboom said...

@ The Cracker Emcee:

You're batshit, Chuck. No sane person would try to milk this Lifelong Republican troll as long as you have and to so little effect (other than our delight).

He's been deep cover for so long he actually believes he is a Lifelong Republican.

Bay Area Guy said...

Are there still #NeverTrumpers out there?

After nominating Neal Gorsuch to the Supreme Court?

Oy vey.

Birkel said...

Toothless: "Independent fact checkers... "

#PointAndLaugh

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Toothless: "But it's a serious question, seriously y'all! Seriously."

Well, you got what you wanted, Birko. The country's in a very unserious guy's tiny hands. So now what? Oh right, get to work hating on the majority of your country. Trump really has that little to show for it, I see.

Even Tony Manero was a good dancer despite obsessing about his hair. Trump's talent is talking about himself and how mean people are to him. Not that that's really a talent, but I guess your bar is just that low.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Toothless: "Independent fact checkers... "

#PointAndLaugh


Right. You prefer the ones that strive for bias and drama.

eddie willers said...

So that’s five elections since Reagan and in which the winner got a larger percentage of the Electoral College votes than Trump.

Unbelievable, this guy....


Best ever comment about Trump and his support was the gal who said (paraphrase): His detractors take him literally, but not seriously. His supporters take him seriously, but not literally.

One hour and fifteen minutes of one of the most remarkable press conferences in memory, and THAT was your takeaway?

You can't be serious.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Glenn Greenwald: The Leakers Who Exposed Gen Flynns Lie Committed Serious--And Wholly Justiifed--Felonies

Fun quotes: That all of these officials committed major crimes can hardly be disputed.

This Flynn episode underscores another critical point: The motives of leakers are irrelevant. It’s very possible — indeed, likely — that the leakers here were not acting with benevolent motives. Nobody with a straight face can claim that lying to the public is regarded in official Washington as some sort of mortal sin; if anything, the contrary is true: It’s seen as a job requirement.

It can't be disputed, except by Chuck I guess. Sorry Greenwald.
(Understand, of course, that Greenwald is cheering the leak, while acknowledging the plain fact that it's a serious crime.)

Birkel said...

Aw, Toothless! Do you believe you have the stamina to stamp your feet for four years?

#PointAndLaugh

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Aw, Toothless! Do you believe you have the stamina to stamp your feet for four years?

Nah. Just a mind and an interest and enough of a sense of humor to point at impending disasters in the making.

It's ok. I'm sure that whatever he fucks up you'll blame on the Democrats, or tell everyone to shut up about. The Democrats could shrink to like 20% and you'd still say Trump is infallible. Maybe at that point you'd blame his failings on the Greens.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

And hopefully it won't be four years. He just had an open-air meeting in response to N. Korean nuclear missile exercises with open cell phones, at the next table over in the Maragolo (or whatever) dining room, with some dude posting pictures to Facebook of the guy holding the nuclear codes. Hey, pretty glitzy and glammy! Who needs actual propriety and confientiality? Not this administration!

I'm sure the Norks were impressed by his utter unprofessionalism.

eddie willers said...

The Democrats could shrink to like 20%

They're getting there.

mockturtle said...

Trump is probably the only President in my lifetime who is not scared shitless of the press.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Trump really is the only president in history to prioritize the continuation of a black tie dinner party over a response to a potential nuclear crisis.

Pat your guys on the back for that one. Very impressive.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

They're getting there.

Hopefully so. This adminsitration is too disastrous to touch with a ten foot pole. As usual though, they'll sweep back in as you foment yet another, completely predictable disaster. So you can yell at them for not fixing your messes fast enough.

heyboom said...

@ Hoodlum Doodlum:

Great points!

When I was in the Air Force I was a member of only four aircrews in our squadron briefed into the F-117 Stealth Fighter program when it was still a "Black" program. We were forbidden to tell our fellow squadron members that the program even existed, let alone any actual details about it. And if we did it was punishable by death. No kidding.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Trump is probably the only President in my lifetime who is not scared shitless of the press.

Correction: He's scared shitless of how his combover looks in front of the press.

He's scared shitless of how the best way to parody his Napoleonic press secretary was with a short, loud woman acting obnoxiously.

The guy is delusional. Tell us how he would treat you as a husband?

That's how he'll treat the country.

FullMoon said...

Chuck,
They wouldn't put it on the WhiteHouse website if it wasn't true.
Obviously, you misunderstand. You, and MSM, are not comparing apples to apples

mockturtle said...

And that really irritates them.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

The Toothless Revolutionary said...Trump really is the only president in history to prioritize the continuation of a black tie dinner party over a response to a potential nuclear crisis.

Potential nuclear crisis, oh my! It's funny, but I bet if Trump had run out of the room you'd be criticizing him for panic over nothing.
Anyway it's not like he was golfing or filling out his NCAA bracket or something important.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

It's funny, but I bet if Trump had run out of the room you'd be criticizing him for panic over nothing.

Yeah, North Korea firing at the country whose PM is visiting us. Ha ha hahahaha.

He doesn't have to run out of a room. Just go to a secure location. You know, one where patrons aren't snapping shots of all the confidential materials passed in front of him with cell phones hovering above.

Maybe if he'd conducted it over an email server instead of in a crowded public area that would have gotten your attention.

You people don't even hear yourselves.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

heyboom said...When I was in the Air Force I was a member of only four aircrews in our squadron briefed into the F-117 Stealth Fighter program when it was still a "Black" program. We were forbidden to tell our fellow squadron members that the program even existed, let alone any actual details about it. And if we did it was punishable by death. No kidding.

No heyboom, you're mistaken--acknowledging the existence of a particular classified program or classified activities is not in any way revealing classified information. I know you think it is, and I believe that your chain of command made it clear to you that it both was and was punishable by very harsh penalties, but you're wrong and Chuck is right. Sorry.

Also--that sounds like super-cool experience, man, thanks for sharing! I dated a girl whose brother flew U2s (he had been a cargo pilot before that, I think) and I had to imagine that the security protocols were intense.

Seeing Red said...

Bwaaaaa Obama was interested in what goes on around him?


Only if it was on TV!!!

Birkel said...

My arm is getting tired from all the pointing and laughing. I am going southpaw.

#PointAndLaugh

HoodlumDoodlum said...

The Toothless Revolutionary said...You know, one where patrons aren't snapping shots of all the confidential materials passed in front of him with cell phones hovering above.

Maybe if he'd conducted it over an email server instead of in a crowded public area that would have gotten your attention.


The same people who loudly mock "but her emails!" are all buckled in for 4 years of "but his cell phone!"
We're all having so much fun.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Only if it was on TV!!!

How much cable news tv does Trump watch every day and what proportion of the information he gets comes from it?

Jon Ericson said...

Truly one of the best.
Here's a pillow rest for your arm (check tour USB port).

Birkel said...

Toothless did not get the reference to Bush during the 9/11 attacks. Sad!

Luke Lea said...

"Hysteria is a real thing that makes people wholeheartedly believe in things that are not real. The media, the Democrats, and a large portion of elite liberals are truly in a state of hysteria." Peter Irons

Well said.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Toothless did not get the reference to Bush...

Maybe if you'd thrown in more of your characteristic cackles.

You guys sound worse than Hillary Clinton with all these fake laughs.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Blogger eddie willers said...

Best ever comment about Trump and his support was the gal who said (paraphrase): His detractors take him literally, but not seriously. His supporters take him seriously, but not literally.

I believe that the best way to understand Trump's words is that they are not meant to be taken as plain statements of fact, but are negotiating positions. Facts may be right or wrong, but negotiating positions are neither right nor wrong, and the goal of negotiations aren't to establish the truth, but to arrive at a settlement (or not).


Drago said...

TTR: "You know, one where patrons aren't snapping shots of all the confidential materials passed in front of him with cell phones hovering above."

Can't wait for the links to all the confidential material being bandied about in public.

I'll bet it's riveting....and coming to us any minute now.

Any minute now.

It has already been confirmed that Trump was briefed on actual security matters in the already established SCIF at that location and the paperwork laden discussion involved the upcoming press conference logistics.

The lefties and their friends in the "lifelong republican" category simply can't help themselves.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

"China gave Donald Trump something this week that he’s been seeking for more than a decade: the rights to own his name in that country. The Chinese government announced Tuesday that it has awarded Trump a 10-year trademark on his last name for construction services, a development that the Associated Press described as a “surprise win” for our businessman-president. Previous attempts to wrest control of his naming rights from a Chinese man who had beat Trump to the punch in registering the name by two weeks repeatedly failed."

Merny11 said...

i often wondered how, and why, we had Obama for eight years. I think I know the answer now. Without the disastrous and damaging mess he made, we wouldn't have been open to Trump. God works in mysterious ways.

Drago said...

TTR: "How much cable news tv does Trump watch every day and what proportion of the information he gets comes from it?"

Great question.

The answers are (in order): "eleventy" and "not so very much".

Fabi said...

"Maybe the mere fact that our intel services knew about a series of Flynn-Russia calls is too revealing. But I seriously doubt that."

You would be wrong, Chuck. Russia recorded the conversation, too, and have the time stamps. They know the bandwidths and can check their electronic's intelligence (remote sensing and hard-wired) to verify and validate the intercept source(s). That reveals intelligence methods and operations. That's why those intercepts are highly classified and closely-held.

Birkel said...

I know we were promised so much winning that we would get tired of winning.

Were we also promised that we would get tired of Leftist tears? Because I cannot imagine getting tired of pointing and laughing at Leftist Collectivists.

Drago said...

AReasonableMan: "China gave Donald Trump something this week that he’s been seeking for more than a decade: the rights to own his name in that country. The Chinese government announced Tuesday that it has awarded Trump a 10-year trademark on his last name for construction services, a development that the Associated Press described as a “surprise win” for our businessman-president. Previous attempts to wrest control of his naming rights from a Chinese man who had beat Trump to the punch in registering the name by two weeks repeatedly failed."

That seems like a reasonable payback for Bill and Hillary and their Loral pal Bernie Schwartz giving, literally giving, the commie Chinese advanced multiple independently targeted re-entry vehicle missile technology that move the commies ahead 5 to 10 years in their tech development.

Of course, Bill and Albert "no controlling legal authority" Gore also received some cool foreign campaign cash from the commies.

So it's all good.

eddie willers said...

You would be wrong, Chuck

I hope you go back to Vichy Chuck. I laugh every time I see it.

eddie willers said...

That seems like a reasonable payback for Bill and Hillary and their Loral pal Bernie Schwartz giving, literally giving, the commie Chinese advanced multiple independently targeted re-entry vehicle missile technology that move the commies ahead 5 to 10 years in their tech development.

I was upset when the Monica Lewinsky stuff came out. The Loral scheme was the impeachable offense and it got blown aside.

Drago said...

TTR: "You guys sound worse than Hillary Clinton with all these fake laughs."

Okay, that one hurt.

Jon Ericson said...

Pew! Pew!

Chuck said...

FullMoon said...
Chuck,
They wouldn't put it on the WhiteHouse website if it wasn't true.
Obviously, you misunderstand. You, and MSM, are not comparing apples to apples


I didn't give a rip about what was on the White House website.

Here is what Trump said:
And then coming to Washington and pursuing their own interests which is more important to many politicians. I’m here following through on what I pledged to do. That’s all I’m doing. I put it out before the American people, got 306 electoral college votes. I wasn’t supposed to get 222. They said there’s no way to get 222, 230’s impossible.

270 which you need, that was laughable. We got 306 because people came out and voted like they’ve never seen before so that’s the way it goes. I guess it was the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan. In other words, the media’s trying to attack our administration because they know we are following through on pledges that we made and they’re not happy about it for whatever reason.


It wasn't the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan. If the Very Fake News was reporting that Trump was elected on a thin margin, they would be right, and Trump would be wrong.

That all happened before anybody asked any questions. No one asked Trump about the electoral college until Trump made that false assertion.

It wasn't the biggest electoral turnout in history, except by raw numbers of voters which is almost a no-brainer with rising populations and rising voter registration. It was a wet fart of a year in terms of percentage of eligible voters turning out. And most interestingly, I think it was an unprecedented year, for numbers of people who voted in Senate races but who left the presidential election choice blank. It was a year characterized by very large numbers of American voters being severely turned off by both candidates.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Can't wait for the links to all the confidential material being bandied about in public.

I'll bet it's riveting....and coming to us any minute now.

Any minute now.


Let's translate this to the majority of the country (and world):

"Trump is perfect. He can do no wrong. He can shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and his supporters would be ok with it. All criticism of him is illegitimate. Etc., etc., etc. Ignorance is strength war is peace freedom is slavery blah blah blah blah blah."

Drago said...

"lifelong republican" Chuck: "It wasn't the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan. If the Very Fake News was reporting that Trump was elected on a thin margin, they would be right, and Trump would be wrong'

LOL

Yes, this from the guy who muffed electoral and popular vote.

Thanks Vichy Chuck!

exhelodrvr1 said...

Stop digging, Chuck.

Drago said...

TTR: ""Trump is perfect. He can do no wrong. He can shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and his supporters would be ok with it. All criticism of him is illegitimate. Etc., etc., etc. Ignorance is strength war is peace freedom is slavery blah blah blah blah blah."

Yikes.

I see that you feel personally hurt that Trump did not do what you claimed he did.

I really don't know what to tell you other than not to worry. Trump will make some mistakes along the way so I'm sure you will find something you don't have to lie about.

Chuck said...

Fabi said...
"Maybe the mere fact that our intel services knew about a series of Flynn-Russia calls is too revealing. But I seriously doubt that."

You would be wrong, Chuck. Russia recorded the conversation, too, and have the time stamps. They know the bandwidths and can check their electronic's intelligence (remote sensing and hard-wired) to verify and validate the intercept source(s). That reveals intelligence methods and operations. That's why those intercepts are highly classified and closely-held.


Okay. So how does the existence of that knowledge compromise any sources and methods?

I'm going to say; you could be right about all of this. And I still want a Senate Select Committee investigation. And an FBI investigation.

Actually, I am pretty much guaranteed both at this point.

Birkel said...

My laughs are hearty, robust guffaws. Also, as a human, I do not laugh like Decepticon Clinton.

Drago said...

"lifelong republican" Chuck: "Okay. So how does the existence of that knowledge compromise any sources and methods?"

Just leave it to the experts "frigate" boy.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Trump will make some mistakes along the way so I'm sure you will find something you don't have to lie about.

So whenever career military and or other Republicans point it out they're wrong but we can assume to rely that the Trump supporters are neutral enough to figure out and inform everybody when he's actually crossed a line?

Birkel said...

@ Toothless

When you say Republicans I will stipulate that Lifelong Republican Senators McCain and Grahamnesty will say bad things about actual Republicans. Ok?

Jon Ericson said...

"frigate" boy
He was my favorite in The Villiage People @

Michael K said...

Boy, the chuck and Ritmo show is playing 24/7.

"Plus, you and the rest of the left despise Mr and Mrs Joe Average."

Yes and virtue signaling has reached its sell by date.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

That's right Birkel Trump knows more than POW McCain about the military because of his deferments for bone spurs on whichever foot they afflicted (he can't remember). But the good thing about never serving is that he never had the supposed "shame" of being captured, so that's worth something.

And as long as we're on the topic, Bannon's appointment to the NSC is like putting a crossing guard as the chief of police of a major city.

Seeing Red said...

Oohhhh, skerrryyyyyyyy Russia recorded the convo.


Pffffttt


Anyone remember why we couldn't move into our new Russian embassy years ago?



Bugs.



They even put bugs in the typewriter ball elements.


In the USSR, kiddies, your room was bugged, it was a given, and you sometimes had "tour guides" so you went where they wanted to.




I was just wondering if this was an outgoing or incoming call.


I'm working under the old premise when one knew, even an ignorant college student as me, that my call was being recorded calling back home.


OTOH, our TVs and phones and cars, depending on tech, can be switched on remotely to listen in at will.

So, this is the world we now live in.



Then there are/were all the arrays at the embassies that were pointed at the WH and Congress.



We're tappin' phone lines!

This ain't no party!

This ain't no disco!

Jon Ericson said...

I don't think this can be called a conservative echo chamber anymore.
More like a Talking Points Memo drool spigot.

Anonymous said...

Hahahaha Hahahaha!

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/16/politics/harward-says-no-to-national-security-adviser-role/

"(CNN)Ret. Vice Adm. Bob Harward has turned down President Donald Trump's offer to be national security adviser, sources told CNN Thursday.

A friend of Harward's said he was reluctant to take the job because the White House seems so chaotic. Harward called the offer a "s*** sandwich," the friend said."

Seeing Red said...

Potential nuclear crisis?


I could have sworn Iran and Venezuela signed an agreement around 2010 about locating missiles in Venezuela.


Any ideas on how far an Iranian missile can go?


Rantburg is your friend or nightmare, kiddies.

Known Unknown said...

"Russia and China are both menaces, so they are our enemies until they change substantially. WWIII may be around the corner with those two crazies."

Both Russia and China are acting logically in their own best interests. A smart diplomat would recognize that and not refer to them as "two crazies."

Darrell said...

Trump 6,545,492
Chuck 0

Seeing Red said...

NOW you're worried about the NORKS?



HoodlumDoodlum said...

Fabi...You would be wrong, Chuck.[paragraph explanation]

Chuck said...I'm going to say; you could be right about all of this. And I still want a Senate Select Committee investigation. And an FBI investigation.

Dang, man, all it took was Fabi saying it and you come around? I could have saved myself lots of typing.

Of course you want a Senate investigation and an FBI investigation, and of course you'll get both. What will you want next if both of those come away with nothing, ChucK?

Jon Ericson said...

+1 on Rantburg.
Send Fred a c-note.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

SockPuppet#55 said...
A friend of Harward's said he was reluctant to take the job because the White House seems so chaotic. Harward called the offer a "s*** sandwich," the friend said."


Fake news.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

SockPuppet#55 said...Hahahaha Hahahaha! "A friend of Harward's said he was reluctant to take the job because the White House seems so chaotic"

Rules for Radicals, baby: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy.

Once cut off and made radioactive the target can't get any kind of help--not even relatively non-political assistance from non-political professionals.

'member when the Left was so worried about not getting good people into important positions of power within the government--when delaying confirmation, etc, was a big deal and hurt our nation's security, etc? Now it's funny--a funny joke--since it makes Trump look bad.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

A friend of Harward's said he was reluctant to take the job because the White House seems so chaotic. Harward called the offer a "s*** sandwich," the friend said."

Are we still allowed to repeat this news in Trump's America?

I guess we are. They have decided to use constant denial as an official substitute for censorship.

jacksonjay said...

They say Bubba popularized and normalized blowjobs for the middle school crowd. DJT will certainly have a similar impact on our young people.

The Trump circle jerk at alt-house is having an spanking good time. My advice would be to pace yourselves ...or not. Carry on.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Rules for Radicals, baby: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy.

Ok, so because the news would hurt Trump's many feelings, we are to assume it was just part of an anti-Trump radical socialist plot.

Got it.

jacksonjay said...

Oh yeah, the Seal's Seal told the Fine Tuned machine to Fuck Off! Too coo-coo!

Fabi said...

"how does the existence of that knowledge compromise any sources and methods?"

I explained that in the paragraph you included in your reply, Chuck.

Drago said...

TTR: "I guess we are. They have decided to use constant denial as an official substitute for censorship."

I have found that plain yogurt often makes the best substitute.

FullMoon said...

Chuck said
Trump said:
I guess it was the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan.


See, right there? "I guess" is not the same as "I know".
You can understand that, right?

HoodlumDoodlum said...

The Toothless Revolutionary said...Ok, so because the news would hurt Trump's many feelings, we are to assume it was just part of an anti-Trump radical socialist plot.

The relevant part of the quote was "cut off the support network" and that was applied through metaphor. I thought that was pretty clear, but maybe I have to dumb things down a bit. I accept the criticism implicit in how badly you missed the point, and will strive to do better.

Anonymous said...

"Fine tuned machine"..... hahahahahaha! That was so funny. I'm surprised the Press didn't crack up laughing at this buffoon.

Drago said...

A friend of Harward's said he was reluctant to take the job because the White House seems so chaotic. Harward called the offer a "s*** sandwich," the friend said."

Harwood, whom I love love love, is in fact a much more establishment figure.

And there is nothing wrong with that.

It does not make him a good fit for the role under Trump in my opinion but I understand the desire, as with Acosta for Labor, on the part of the staff to try and get this behind them as soon as possible with a much more vanilla selection.

I am surprised that Harwood let it go on this long and I would not be surprised if he was counseled by other establishment figures spoke to him about long term implications of joining this populist team.

Again, nothing wrong with any of this from either side.

Drago said...

Ugh. Harward, not Harwood.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

The relevant part of the quote was "cut off the support network" and that was applied through metaphor. I thought that was pretty clear, but maybe I have to dumb things down a bit. I accept the criticism implicit in how badly you missed the point, and will strive to do better.

Oh, you're going to have to write a lot more than that if you want to get everyone to forget the underlying story here: That a highly desired, top pick for NSC adviser, wanted nothing to do with this chaotic s*^%tstorm of an administration.

This really is like the bunker scene in Downfall, only it's just the beginning. I always knew how practiced you guys were at the art of denial, but this one will test your skills like no other.

Pay no attention to these trolls behind the curtain. Pay no attention to the scalped cut beneath that combover.

I think the crucial angle for a Republican to accept is that you guys think he's disciplined, or want to think that he is, and love that about him - just because he aims his mouth so loudly and sharply at whomever he wants. But he is actually the mirror image opposite of disciplined. He is chaotic.

Drago said...

SockPuppet#55: "Fine tuned machine"..... hahahahahaha! That was so funny. I'm surprised the Press didn't crack up laughing at this buffoon"

The press was probably feeling too punked out from the ass=kicking Trump has been giving them for the last 18 months to crack up laughing.

Not that you would notice that.

You would have to be a sentient being to notice.

Jon Ericson said...

Hah! I thought you said hardwood vs. carpet. nevermind.

damikesc said...

CNN has Mike Baker, a former CIA Operative on a panel right now and I would like to see more of him. His head is on straight.

He left FNC? He was on Red Eye all of the time.

So why fire Flynn?

I'd argue that doing nothing wrong but not being fully open with Pence would lead to dismissal. In the end, even if you do nothing wrong, misleading your bosses is a bad idea.

Drago said...

TTR: "Oh, you're going to have to write a lot more than that if you want to get everyone to forget the underlying story here: That a highly desired, top pick for NSC adviser, wanted nothing to do with this chaotic s*^%tstorm of an administration."

LOL

Dude, HUNDREDS of highly desirable top picks for specific roles have bowed out from consideration.

This is to be expected of an utterly unprecedented disruptive candidate, campaign and Presidency.

Harward is simply one of those many folks who don't feel comfortable bopping on in and aligning themselves with a guy who plans on spending the next 4 or 8 years fighting the entire establishment from dawn to dusk.

Drago said...

Jon Ericson: "Hah! I thought you said hardwood vs. carpet. nevermind"

I see what you did there!

And I blame Trump!

FullMoon said...

The Toothless Revolutionary said...

........

Oh, you're going to have to write a lot more than that if you want to get everyone to forget the underlying story here: That a highly desired, top pick for NSC adviser, wanted nothing to do with this chaotic s*^%tstorm of an administration.


More likely the guy used the N word twenty years ago, or had an affair , or something equally un-important that he does not want to be beat up about by the MSM and lefties.

BlackjohnX said...

Been following this blog for years. Second post. Chuck (with a capital C), SockPuppet#55, R..../V...., and a few others should all save bandwith and everyone else's time by just posting "I hate Trump" on each thread.

Anonymous said...

Drago,

Don't be sad that all the really good people will be staying away from the Trump administration from here on in. Poor Mattis is probably regretting signing on to this nuthouse-Whitehouse. Shit sandwich indeed.

Drago said...

At least TTR is funny.

Sockpuppet, R/V and others however seem to enjoy showing off their ignorance simultaneously with their desire to repost Democrat Underground talking points.

#Sad!

Anonymous said...

"Chuck (with a capital C), SockPuppet#55, R..../V...., and a few others should all save bandwith and everyone else's time by just posting "I hate Trump" on each thread."

The Trumpists here should start every comment of theirs with "I would eat a shit sandwich for Trump".

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

You know, I'm actually sympathetic to political disruption... up to a point! I think that point would be, when is it actually serving a purpose and when do the ends cease to serve any means.

You guys are in uncharted territory here if your goal is to float this new term, "Deep State," and propel Trump as your final anti-FDR. The guy to dismantle what allowed America to defeat the Nazis and Axis, a Great Depression, and all else.

If so, let's be honest. Is the government as it was construed in 1920 adequate in 2017 for the needs of this nation? It certainly couldn't win a world conflagration -- which is the scale of conflict that Mr Substitute President Bannon wants to fight. And it won't do anything for those voters who gave him his unpopular win, barely enough to push him over in the states he needed.

How will it manage a state/nation that's going to bring manufacturing back supposedly, as Trump says he wants to do? WWII, FDR and all that were crucial to advancing America's industrial output to the juggernaut that it subsequently became. And I hate to break the news to you, but you have to be pro-worker to make it happen socially. Just cutting around the margins of the few remaining Mexicans who haven't bothered to self-deport or forcibly deport under Obama won't cut it. You need worker's protections or they will go to college instead. End. Of Story.

This administration sure has half the narrative right. But I guess that's why it feels it can plow on full speed ahead with just less than half the country on board with its Brave New World.

Anonymous said...

Do you hear the flys buzzing around the Trump poo poo? Hey, who ordered the Poo Poo Platter?

Anonymous said...

....Democrat Underground talking points."

Buzzy Drago, my link was from CNN. But I know anything not from Breitbart is now all fake news. How's your sandwich?

Chuck said...

andy karas said...
Been following this blog for years. Second post. Chuck (with a capital C), SockPuppet#55, R..../V...., and a few others should all save bandwith and everyone else's time by just posting "I hate Trump" on each thread.

How about if I just say it once, and you can count on it forever after? I'll bold it for you.

I hate Trump. I hate him personally. He's been a Birther, a Vaxxer, and Truther. He's been a complete asshole, insulting hundreds of people in the recent campaign, making statements that no candidate should ever have made, and generally following his dubious career in public life where he filed abusive lawsuits, made ridiculous litigation threats, and behaved despicably in a variety of private concerns. Trump has no real record as a reliable Republican. He does have a record of having taken both sides of most popular political issues. He's got a tenuous relation to the truth, as seen in his sworn testimony in civil litigation.

Now; I voted for Trump. I voted for Trump because I preferred a figurehead Republican president, to Hillary Clinton. I voted for Trump as a "least-worst" alternative. Part of my intensely hateful language toward Trump is out of some level of guilt that I felt compelled to vote for him. But vote for him I did, and I like a few things so far. Neil Gorsuch. Jeff Sessions. Betsy DeVos. Mick Mulvaney. General Mattis.

To sum up: I really do hate Trump. You can count on it, without my having to re-post it every time.

Fabi said...

Very bold of you, Chuck.

Anonymous said...

Chuck, why the hell would you vote for someone you hate so much? You know what Trump is. You should feel guilty. To thine own self be true. You would've been better off staying home.

Original Mike said...

Was just over on MSNBC. They haven't got the word yet that the case against Flynn has fallen apart.

Birkel said...

Do not pretend to believe Chuck, SockPuppetInga. He is a known liar without honor.

For similar reasons, do not believe yourself.

Birkel said...

@ Original Mike

If The FBI said Flynn is in the clear that is evidence of how far the Russian influence extends. Trump is that bad.

/so called sarc

bagoh20 said...

"Trump just can't get through a press conference without lying."

Wait! I thought he wasn't qualified. Clearly he's a quick study.

Fabi said...

Compare these two passages:

Trump has no real record as a reliable Republican.

and:

...I like a few things so far. Neil Gorsuch. Jeff Sessions. Betsy DeVos. Mick Mulvaney. General Mattis.

Those appointments, plus his selection of Pence as his VP, are reliably Republican.

Brad said...

Tapper & the Media's arrogant self regard is the best arrow in Trump's quiver. If they had an ounce of brains, they'd keep their opinions to themselves.

But they don't and won't - - - - they're far too arrogant, and far too dismissive of the rest of the country, to shut up and learn something .... anything.

If your favorability rating is 10%, maybe, perhaps, just possibly .... you're doing something wrong .....

bagoh20 said...

"To sum up: I really do hate Trump. You can count on it, without my having to re-post it every time."

Me too, but I'm glad he's President, because how I feel is irrelevant, what he says is barely relevant, but what he's DOING is highly relevant, badly needed, and appearantly impossible for anyone else to pull off.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Listening further, a third of what he does I actually really like. A third of it I hate. And a third is just either meandering or incompetent. And then there are the exaggerations, lies, fixations and boasts.

It would be easier if he were just one of those three things. But no, he has to be a mixture.

Bad Lieutenant said...

TTR,

So you're saying he's human?

Well, that's progress.




Drago said...
Again, it is amazing that someone with such political acumen and "expert" political insight as "lifelong republican" Chuck hasn't been asked to run a campaign or two in Michigan.

Those dumb Michigan republicans. How could they overlook such a gem right in their midst?

2/16/17, 3:18 PM

You know what's interesting? The Republicans have been doing all this losing. While Chuck has been a Republican election monitor. He quits this year and a Republican wins. Hmmmmm...

bagoh20 said...

I don't get why people would want someone to be more like politicians of the past, but I guess that's why movie sequels are so common and really new ideas are so rare in politics.

Jupiter said...

"I never did give them Hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was Hell!"

Harry Truman, Wild and Unhinged.

Mark said...

I'm sorry that I am so late to the party, when everyone's gone home and it's clean-up time, but Jake Tapper is getting to be one of the worst offenders. Jake Tapper -- who was involved with Monica Lewinski before Bill was and wrote columns on the level of pussy grabbing for a local DC rag -- has proven himself a hack, even if for a brief time he had some integrity.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Oh, he's all TOO human.

Just needs to control himself a little - uh, maybe a LOT - better. Overstating things comes with the danger of warping people's ability to call things straight down the line. He spends about 3 times more time than any president I know of just defending himself and his reputation. If he were a better president, he'd minimize his defensiveness and let his policies/actions speak for themselves. But I guess he can't do that. There's too much that he wants to do that he wants to convince you guys will be different, and he's naturally just more insecure and self-absorbed than we've ever IIRC allowed a president to be.

And then there are the boners.

"You know what uranium is, right? This thing called nuclear weapons.. and other THINKGS... like lots of... things are done with uranium, including some BAAAAD things."

Come on. A little more professional.

Chuck said...

Fabi said...
Compare these two passages:
Trump has no real record as a reliable Republican.
and:
...I like a few things so far. Neil Gorsuch. Jeff Sessions. Betsy DeVos. Mick Mulvaney. General Mattis.
Those appointments, plus his selection of Pence as his VP, are reliably Republican.


Good that you are reading me so carefully, Fabi. It will do you much good.

Trump has no, or better said "had no pre-election", record as a Republican. In the space of a couple of weeks he has begun to develop a bit of a record. With my occasional congratulations every step of the way, you'll recall. I've been saying all along through the transition how much I liked Sessions and DeVos and others. I love the Gorsuch nomination. You knew that.

Birkel said...

All the common folk hear is Trumps on their side.

Over there is a PURPLE ELEPHANT. Do not chase it.

Jupiter said...

Chuck said...

"Trump has no, or better said "had no pre-election", record as a Republican. In the space of a couple of weeks he has begun to develop a bit of a record. With my occasional congratulations every step of the way, you'll recall. I've been saying all along through the transition how much I liked Sessions and DeVos and others. I love the Gorsuch nomination. You knew that."

Yes, Chuckles, we are all familiar with your fulsome encomia to Trump. When will you get enough of singing his praises? Can't you give it a rest? I mean, I voted for the guy, and that press conference was pretty damned funny. Hilarious, really. But you just go on and on about how great he is. Can't you think of *anything* you don't like about him?

bagoh20 said...

If we just had a great orator, we could quote his great sounding words, and that would make everything better.

Achilles said...

The Toothless Revolutionary said...

"Just needs to control himself a little - uh, maybe a LOT - better. Overstating things comes with the danger of warping people's ability to call things straight down the line. He spends about 3 times more time than any president I know of just defending himself and his reputation."

This country needs to have the corrupt corporate owned media destroyed. He is doing this faster than even I thought he would.

You should be happy he is doing this for you. This needs to happen before the democrat party can be a party that represents Americans again.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

I think he says things like "the biggest electoral college win since Reagan" just to drive people nuts. The kind of people like Chuck and Mike Medved who were sure Hillary would win. But the rest of America sees a President (with 55% approval) beating up the idiots who have ruined the news business and achieved the stunning low of being less popular than Congress.

Think about how bad you have to be at your job to be less popular than Congress for God's sake!

And then, like the automatons they are they go on air and call him unhinged. There is zero news on the "news" tonight. It is 100% journolisters talking about how they feel about Trump. People (other than Chuck of course) don't tune into Rachel Maddow to hear her opinion. They tune in to watch the train wreck and laugh at her. The word of the day is "chaos" but the press doesn't realize it is them who are flailing and failing.

It is truly a sight to behold.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Did I forget to mention they deserve to be beat into submission? They do.

Roughcoat said...

My name is Joe Average and I can tell you that it plays well with me.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

This country needs to have the corrupt corporate owned media destroyed. He is doing this faster than even I thought he would.

You should be happy he is doing this for you. This needs to happen before the democrat party can be a party that represents Americans again.


He ain't destroying Jack shit. Media is not for the defensive, paranoid and inarticulate - which are the components of his "preferred" sort of media niche. There will always be people in this country, in this world who are interested in it and curious and not interested in being fed a line of hooey about worshipping authority, corporations and blood nationalism. Maybe you were confusing his success in destroying free speech with this guy. (As similar as their approaches are).

His picks have been all about persecuting professionals and expertise in the agencies and replacing their leaders with people who want to destroy environmental standards, educational standards, banking regulations and fill the departments with cronies and hacks. (Like Pruitt who lost all 14 cases he brought, as a state environmental regulator, against the EPA. That's some record. Good thing you guys have laid off of going full Nazi (for the moment) and destroying the judicial branch. But I know you're licking your chops at the prospect of it).

His cabinet is about Goldman Sachs, Trump University, Monsanto and Exxon Mobil, and other entities that anyone could have easily berated during the campaign. Until he felt that he didn't mean it and had to turn around and bribe them. The only industry he still bothers to call out if Pharma. The rest he's made his master once again, as all Republicans do.

Winning popular votes is representing Americans. As I said, stop gerrymandering and reform the campaign finance system and we'll see who represents Americans. You still represent the special interests that you want controlling them. Admit it.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

If you're going to "destroy the media," it's important to learn how to do it effectively.

Don't forget to destroy the judiciary, too. It's important, in giving an authority figure absolute power, to make sure to go after both of those. And the universities. Communicating, researching, and interpreting knowledge must all be destroyed and subsumed into the leaderprinciple of the leader. Just ask these guys.

I know you can do it.

Blue@9 said...

I think he says things like "the biggest electoral college win since Reagan" just to drive people nuts.

I've started to think that myself. The pattern just keeps repeating itself: he slips in some dumb but innocuous/irrelevant falsehood, the press goes nuts for a few days with "fact check" headlines, and most clear-headed people start to wonder what the hell is wrong with the press.

Think about how much airtime was devoted to looking at pictures of crowds during the inauguration. Did the press ever take a step back and think "Fuck, I can't believe Trump tricked us into spending so much time on such stupid and trivial shit."

Lewis Wetzel said...

R&B wrote:
His picks have been all about persecuting professionals and expertise in the agencies and replacing their leaders with people who want to destroy environmental standards, educational standards, banking regulations and fill the departments with cronies and hacks.

Rule by experts is the default Leftist position these days. The "power to the people" thing is a no-go when you hate the people and the people hate you.
Bernie was just a faux populist. He endorsed all the tools our wannabe aristocratic class uses to oppress the masses and keep them from uniting; a "global warming" scare that allows the aristos to choose who gets how big of a slice of the economic pie, open borders to destroy social cohesiveness, gun grabbing to make the proles helpless, identity politics to make the relationship between the individual and the state more important than the relationship between individuals.
"Democratic socialist" my ass. Bernie didn't trust the people to run the country when 2016 began, and he trusted them even less when 2016 ended.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

A campaign speech. Same as an Obama press conference, just different speaking style.

I'm more interested in what the guy DOES rather than what he says, or how he says it.

So far, is good.

Lewis Wetzel said...

President Trump today used a press conference to call out media bias, and Chuck Todd sat in the corner quivering in fear, and tweeting like a child.

Todd: "This not a laughing matter. I'm sorry, delegitimizing the press is unAmerican."

http://donsurber.blogspot.com/2017/02/chuck-todd-whinges-america-laughs.html

Ever notice how quickly our elites are to call behavior that they disapprove of "un-American"? Obama made me sick with his "this is not who we are", "These aren't our values" crap. I guess Obama learned about American values at Punahou Preparatory Academy, or maybe he learned about American values on the streets of Jakarta.
The problem that the elites have isn't that the anti-elites are acting un-American, it is that the elites don't like the way Americans act.

Rusty said...

To the usual suspects;
Let me make this easy for you.
What Trump said is secondary.
Because......
It wasn't a Hillary press conference.
He promised to;
Deport illegals.
Make not having health care not a crime.
Lower taxes.
So far so good.
Whine all you want.

Birkel said...

Blue and Mike:

I have been calling it the PURPLE ELEPHANT strategy. He demands the press not do something (Don't think of a purple elephant!) and they immediately and uncontrollably start to do what he demanded they not do.

And Trump keeps telling them to do things that are bad for the press and good for him.

Trump is not destroying the press. They are destroying themselves. That is because they are undisciplined partisan hacks with neither specials skills nor abilities nor training. We need a good adversarial press and we don't have one.

Known Unknown said...

"went off on that bogus electoral college history"

Trump was certainly wrong about that. However, his margin in states won was the greatest since Reagan, which I hadn't realized.

Jeff said...

On Flynn: The President fires an appointee. He has every right to do so, and he is not under any obligation to explain himself to the voters, the press, the Congress or even the person fired. But what is really telling in this instance is what we don't hear: We don't hear Flynn himself complaining. If Flynn thought he was wrongly fired, don't you think we'd be hearing about it? He's not a timid man.

On Trump getting numbers wrong and doubling down on inaccurate statements: He does do this a lot, more so than any President I can recall. Every President gets a fact or two wrong sometimes, but the media only make a big deal about it if he's a Republican. So some of what we're seeing is media bias. But it still seems pretty clear that Trump does this more than his predecessors. However, we saw in the campaign that the practical effect of this is that it generates so much media attention that it starves his opponents of the media attention they need to present their own case to the voters. All we hear about is how awful Trump is, and we hear nothing about how anyone else has a better way.

Reagan showed us that command of details is not nearly as important as getting the big picture right and consistently acting on that. So far, Trump is doing that much better than his campaign had led us to expect.

The Democrats have managed to delay many of Trump's appointments, and it has hurt in at least one instance. Does anyone believe that the dismal performance of the Justice Department's lawyer defending Trump's immigration order would have been that bad if Jeff Sessions had been on the job for a few weeks already? But some of these delays may actually work against the Democrats, such as the delays in confirming Devos, Pruitt and Price. These delays won't stop Trump, but they do give him time to improve his reforms before announcing them. And more importantly, the delays mean that the Trump reforms will dominate the news for two months instead of one month.

So, is this guy just lucky or is he really good at this stuff? More and more, it sure seems like the latter.

Birkel said...

@ Jeff

Do you imagine the misrepresentations of immaterial facts is a mistake? Can you imagine that?

I cannot imagine it. I think it is a brilliant strategy to distract. It is the magician that gets the audience to watch the left hand while the right hand does the work. He asks the press not to talk about what he wants them to talk about: PURPLE ELEPHANTS. And the MSM is too ignorant to wonder why they keep digging through shit, ever expectant that they will find an elephant in there somewhere.

That this has never been done before does not give us allowance to deny it is happening now.

Jeff said...

On Harward: I read somewhere that Harward wanted to bring along his own staff, and the White House refused, so he decided not to take the job. I don't think disagreements like this are all that unusual. Tillerson, for example, wanted Eliot Abrams as his deputy, but the White House refused. Tillerson didn't feel strongly enough about it to quit.

Todd said...

Chuck said...

Do you not see, Mr. President, how all of this raises many more questions than it answers?"

2/16/17, 3:31 PM


Why? Do not all of these folks "serve at the behest of the President" and is he not free to "fire" someone that works for him at any time and for any reason? Maybe he doesn't like the guys socks. Or the VP doesn't care for his style. WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE since no LAWS were broken?

Michael said...


A friend of the friend of Harward says the friend was not entirely truthful in his characterization of why the job was declined. The friend says the other friend believes that maybe tapper inserted the "chaos" part of the meme and is ashamed that he, the friend, did not deny it immediately in a dueling tweet. A third friend has heard both friends arguing about this.

Todd said...

The Toothless Revolutionary said...

Obama took efforts to find out what the truth of a situation was. Never warping it or bending it as Trump constantly does to suit his own highly deficient ego needs. Obama was a president, as a president should be.

2/16/17, 5:51 PM


Hey Toothless... "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor."

Mike drop...

Todd said...

The Toothless Revolutionary said...

And as long as we're on the topic, Bannon's appointment to the NSC is like putting a crossing guard as the chief of police of a major city.

2/16/17, 7:00 PM


Or say like putting a community organizer as the President?

#MikeDrop

mockturtle said...

Ever notice how quickly our elites are to call behavior that they disapprove of "un-American"? Obama made me sick with his "this is not who we are", "These aren't our values" crap. I guess Obama learned about American values at Punahou Preparatory Academy, or maybe he learned about American values on the streets of Jakarta.
The problem that the elites have isn't that the anti-elites are acting un-American, it is that the elites don't like the way Americans act.


Aptly stated, Lewis! The 'elites' have been assuming for a long time that, because the media worship them and Hollywood enshrines them, that they are the majority American worldview. It has been a shock for them to realize otherwise.

Goldenpause said...

I agree that the "press" acted unhinged at the press conference.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Rule by experts is the default Leftist position these days.

And rule by idiots and axe grinders is the default Rightist position these days. So where does that leave you?

The "power to the people" thing is a no-go when you hate the people and the people hate you.

Right. Which is why Trump, the most detested candidate in modern history and the one with the lowest and fastest sinking approval ratings, will do nothing for the people.

The rest of what you wrote was the predictable drivel.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

"If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor."

Are you saying Obama made it his business to write insurance plan policies restricting doctor choice or to tell them which doctors to cover?

If you are, then you should drop your keyboard, because you obviously no absolutely nothing about insurance regulation policy.

Insurance companies change physician relationships and who they'll cover you to see or how all the time. Before Obamacare, after Obamacare. It's called "provider network." If you didn't know that, then you sort of advertise yourself as just an abject idiot on insurance practices. It's hard to believe that anyone actually ever taking time to be an informed consumer of their health insurance wouldn't know that, which is why people like you have no business even commenting on it.

M15ery said...

The Toothless Revolutionary said...

Obama took efforts to find out what the truth of a situation was. Never warping it or bending it as Trump constantly does to suit his own highly deficient ego needs. Obama was a president, as a president should be.

2/16/17, 5:51 PM


Obama sent out his underlings to blame the death of his ambassador on a YouTube video. Obama and his people lied nonstop to pass Obamacare.

Trump makes up silly lies about inauguration crowds and electoral college margins.

Can you really not see the difference?

Bill Clinton's impeachment survival was proof that the American people don't care that much about petty lies. And yet the press spent weeks trying to fact check the size of Trump's inauguration crowd. GET OUT THE BIG GLOSSY PHOTOS! CALL THE EXPERTS, THE PARK SERVICE, CONVENE A PANEL OF RESPECTED JOURNALISTS! That's some hella hard-hitting journalism right there, some real truth to power!

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