[Discussion] The Donald Trump Administration

Let's follow and discuss what our newest presidential administration gets up to, the good, the bad, the lawsuits.

I'm less bothered by Flake's votes, because he was never going to be a Democrat just because he thinks that Trump is as morally bankrupt as the rest of us believe. The tax vote was disgusting, but it is also something many Republicans have wanted. Hell, we even lost Susan Collins on that one.

He may run for president when this is over, and he was never going to be someone Democrats rallied against. I think there are Republicans like him that want Trump impeached, but fear that a Republican led impeachment will doom the entire party because of Trump's deplorable base. More and more I think they are trying to give the Dems the 2018 midterms to do what they can't.

With Dems ousting Trump, it would help shield Republicans from the fallout. Trump's base will go after the Dems, not the Republicans. you could even argue that passing the most unpopular tax bill in the horsy of the country was a move to help execute this gambit.

But then, maybe I'm giving everyone too much three dimensional chess credit.

My problem is that he sees and talks about Trump as an existential threat and then does literally nothing to stop him. If he voted against him that would at least be something consequential. Otherwise his speeches are meaningless.

White House physician did a great job... of reinforcing Trump's belief in eugenics.

How can that be? “Some people have just great genes,” a navy doctor, Ronny Jackson, told reporters at the White House. “I told the president that if he had a healthier diet over the last 20 years, he might live to be 200 years old ... But I would say the answer to your question is he has incredibly good genes and it’s just the way God made him.”

Is anyone supposed to take this guy seriously?

There was also news that will come as little surprise to anyone who follows Trump’s Twitter feed. “He doesn’t sleep much,” Jackson said, estimating that Trump got four to five hours a night. “He’s probably been that way his whole life. That’s probably been one of the reasons he’s been successful.”

And he's Nostradamus....

“He is fit for duty,” Jackson insisted, disappointing the president’s critics, then rubbing salt in their wounds. “I think he will remain fit for duty for the remainder of this term and even for the remainder of another term if he’s elected.”

He's practically another Sarah Sanders.

Guy's a quack. One of the first things you learn in med school is that you never ever EVER make predictions. You say things are "likely" or "probable". But never certain.

Is the guy a quack? I don't know enough to know if he's actually a quack, if he's a reasonable doc that's worked on other admins before and has just been leaned on to give this assessment, or if this is his honest assessment. It sure seems fishy, but I don't have enough info to make an informed judgement.

Ultimately, none of this medical stuff actually matters until and unless the dude just has a heart attack and keels over, so I say let's chuckle at it a bit and move on. There's plenty of stuff. Like how we might be about to have a government shutdown because Trump's a terrible negotiator. Or how HHS is about to expand protections to health care providers who want to refuse treatment on moral grounds like finding gays and trans people icky.

Rear Admiral Dr. Jackson has had the role of White House Physician since 2006...

Thanks Obama!

Robear wrote:

Rear Admiral Dr. Jackson has had the role of White House Physician since 2006...

Trump probably promised Dr. Jackson a $160,000, Florida condo, and a contract at the National Enquirer if he said he was 6' 3" and 239 pounds.

Chaz wrote:

Ultimately, none of this medical stuff actually matters until and unless the dude just has a heart attack and keels over, so I say let's chuckle at it a bit and move on.

I consider it another example of how this administration feeds us a steady diet of bullsh*t and expects us to like it.

Anyone else notice that Trump miraculously grew an inch last year? By great coincidence that inch allowed him to stay just under the cut off for obesity as well.

IMAGE(https://data.whicdn.com/images/50525094/original.gif)

I want to see the long form girth certificate.

Paleocon wrote:

I want to see the long form girth certificate.

The enlarging Girther movement is leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

I don't care about the medical stuff...

Quintin_Stone wrote:
Chaz wrote:

Ultimately, none of this medical stuff actually matters until and unless the dude just has a heart attack and keels over, so I say let's chuckle at it a bit and move on.

I consider it another example of how this administration feeds us a steady diet of bullsh*t and expects us to like it.

...though Q-Stone has a point. I saw things trending that way since literally the moment when Spicer got up after the inauguration and lied to us. Donald is insecure enough to want to brag about his height or whatever but I really don't care.

Whatever practical relevance it might have had is subsumed by the people on both sides trying to use health as a proxy for morality (and therefore avoid confronting their own eventual deaths).

The NYT gave its editorial page over to satisfied Trump voters for Thursday.

While this is the umpteenth retrospective on Trump voters I've seen, it is, at least, interesting in a lot of ways.

Weren't his stupid awards supposed to be today at 5?

Fake news!

I seriously want all the journalists to keep asking him about those every day. Throw in some questions about what he thinks of the strong competiton between Colbert, Bee, Myers, and Noah.

These are gold. The first one:

"Donald Trump has succeeded where Barack Obama failed. The economy is up, foreign tyrants are afraid, ISIS has lost most of its territory, our embassy will be moved to Jerusalem and tax reform is accomplished"

Lets see:
1. Economy was up before Trump
2. I'm not sure how you can judge how afraid foreign tyrants are now vs. a year ago
3. ISIS was starting to lose territory before Trump
4. We have no idea if the embassy move is good or bad right now but it has been met with negativity from experts and other governments
5. We have no idea if the tax reform passed is good or bad yet as we can only guess at what it will due to our economy.

Man these people are dillusional. Time after time I see Isis losing as a thing Trump has done. Really? This is article after article online from different sources before Trump was elected that talk about ISIS losing territory and losing the war.

pizzaddict wrote:

These are gold. The first one:

"Donald Trump has succeeded where Barack Obama failed. The economy is up, foreign tyrants are afraid, ISIS has lost most of its territory, our embassy will be moved to Jerusalem and tax reform is accomplished"

Lets see:
1. Economy was up before Trump
2. I'm not sure how you can judge how afraid foreign tyrants are now vs. a year ago
3. ISIS was starting to lose territory before Trump
4. We have no idea if the embassy move is good or bad right now but it has been met with negativity from experts and other governments
5. We have no idea if the tax reform passed is good or bad yet as we can only guess at what it will due to our economy.

A couple down is better.
"Not all Trump voters are Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables.” Many of us are well-informed and highly educated, and we are weary of the Democrats’ tiresome focus on identity politics, class warfare, and disparagement of corporations and the “wealthy.”"
None of that means you aren't still a deplorable person.

Jolly flipping crikes - I envy and appreciate you who can watch that and not have a mental breakdown.

I can’t believe anyone thinks this is okay.

I’m over it all.

I almost choked on my own spit at the Betsy DeVos compliment.

pizzaddict wrote:

These are gold. The first one:

"Donald Trump has succeeded where Barack Obama failed. The economy is up, foreign tyrants are afraid, ISIS has lost most of its territory, our embassy will be moved to Jerusalem and tax reform is accomplished"

Lets see:
1. Economy was up before Trump
2. I'm not sure how you can judge how afraid foreign tyrants are now vs. a year ago
3. ISIS was starting to lose territory before Trump
4. We have no idea if the embassy move is good or bad right now but it has been met with negativity from experts and other governments
5. We have no idea if the tax reform passed is good or bad yet as we can only guess at what it will due to our economy.

Man these people are dillusional. Time after time I see Isis losing as a thing Trump has done. Really? This is article after article online from different sources before Trump was elected that talk about ISIS losing territory and losing the war.

100% agree with you.

Another one that baffles my brain: Trump supports on how he is doing today

Stele wrote:

Weren't his stupid awards supposed to be today at 5?

He tweeted a link to a dead part of GOP.com about an hour ago...

Link is live now. It's really stupid, and has a lot of instances of journalists being held accountable for mistakes, but it's live.

My favorite is the scare graph showing the market take a small, ten minute dip, but making it look like an epic crash.

pizzaddict wrote:

2. I'm not sure how you can judge how afraid foreign tyrants are now vs. a year ago

I'm sure Putin, Duterte, Xi Jinping, and Erdogan are just absolutely terrified of Trump sucking up to them.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
pizzaddict wrote:

2. I'm not sure how you can judge how afraid foreign tyrants are now vs. a year ago

I'm sure Putin, Duterte, Xi Jinping, and Erdogan are just absolutely terrified of Trump sucking up to them.

The 3rd pro-Trump letters to the editor featured a guy who praised Trump for his strong foreign policy that reversed Obama's timid approach to our "adversaries." One of the countries he listed as America's adversary was Russia.

Nice to know Trump supporters can be see him as being strong against Russia while completely ignoring his man crush on Putin and fact that he's under serious investigation for selling the country out to the Russians.

I'm sure any day now they'll start enforcing those sanctions that congress passed.

It is sort of worth mentioning that since Obama was so adept at managing crises, we grew complacent politically and reliant on his administrations measured responses. And now since we have absolutely no faith and even fear this administration's solutions, we are much more politically active and compelled to "be the change."

Im still surprised so many .45 supporters are testifying to experiencing tangible benefits from tax cuts already. That was fast!

There is generally a staggering lack of self awareness or introspection. One guy said Trump was crude and dumb yet he’s somehow stumbling along with the help of his team into leading the greatest administration evar.

My dad has taught me that a certain type of person will reach a point in his or her life when they’re just going to believe what they believe no matter what. The psychic barrier to them even entertaining the idea that they could have been wrong cannot... will not ... EVER factor into he equation.

Personally I feel that Trump’s base - the deplorables - are hopeless.

Maclintok wrote:

Im still surprised so many .45 supporters are testifying to experiencing tangible benefits from tax cuts already. That was fast!

There is generally a staggering lack of self awareness or introspection. One guy said Trump was crude and dumb yet he’s somehow stumbling along with the help of his team into leading the greatest administration evar.

My dad has taught me that a certain type of person will reach a point in his or her life when they’re just going to believe what they believe no matter what. The psychic barrier to them even entertaining the idea that they could have been wrong cannot... will not ... EVER factor into he equation.

Personally I feel that Trump’s base - the deplorables - are hopeless.

Yes. I have un-friended (on Facebook) and broken off contact with large swaths of my childhood friends and family. I doubt I'll ever reconnect with them.