The (new, straight-from-scratch) Trump thread
Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2017 5:28 am
Trump had his month, now let's start tearing into him.
Vic Berger's re-edit of the first Trump press conference:
Ted Rall on why it would be a bad thing if the Republicans impeach Trump:
Link. Quotes:
"....This is speculation, but I bet Republicans with presidential ambitions — Ryan, Rubio, Cruz, Paul — have already grokked that Trump’s days are numbered. Odds makers agree. Whoever takes credit for bringing down a feared and reviled leader will rid themselves of a rival and reap rewards up to and including the highest office in the land.
Barely one month after taking office, Trump’s approval ratings are tumbling into territory historically belonging to presidents mired in scandals and unpopular wars. Voters tell the latest Quinnipiac poll Trump is dishonest and doesn’t care about people like them. Trump’s numbers are within a rounding error of Richard Nixon’s during Watergate.
Right now, Donald Trump is constitutionally impeachable over his temperament and his brazen violations of the emoluments clause. But nothing will happen until he’s politically impeachable.....
If I’m Ryan or Cruz or some other crafty GOPer, I’m thinking to myself: every president screws up eventually. But this guy Trump will definitely screw up big. Given his manic pace, his Waterloo will occur sooner rather than later."
Even the conservatives are angry with him:
"Trump's Nuclear Babble", Daniel Larison, The American Conservative
Link. (Article too short for quotes.)
Rolling Stone giving it to the Conservative Political Action Conference:
"How the Conservative Movement Went All in for Trumpism" Link. Quotes:
"....The right's assaults on the left, and, more recently, on a supposed Muslim fifth column, are hardly new features of its broad culture war to define the "real" America. What is new – and a stark abdication of the movement's claimed commitment to the Constitution, freedom and democracy – is the willingness to look the other way as the movement mutates from 20th century conservatism to a Trump-Alt-Right-white-nationalism. At CPAC, it becomes clear that conservatives' role in this transformation is far worse than willful blindness. They are deploying conspiracy theories to deflect any criticism of Trump by blaming the left not only for making up Trump scandals, but also for being the true diabolical force behind any wrongdoing.
The Alt-Right? A left-wing movement. Putin? He's the one "causing mayhem on the streets of America" by funding anti-Trump "riots," according to Trevor Loudon, a conspiracy theorist who appeared on a panel moderated by Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who says that "paid protesters" and "subversives" tried to delegitimize Trump at his inauguration. Later, Loudon screens his film America Under Siege: Civil War 2017, which purports to expose the "puppet masters guiding the chaos unfolding on America's streets," including a trail that Loudon is confident leads right to Putin. These same forces, whom Loudon says have long followed Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse Tung, "have been organizing protests and riots in the United States from the Vietnam War to Ferguson, Missouri." Yet some people, Loudon complains on the panel, "have the insolence" to accuse Trump of ties to the Russian president."
Vic Berger's re-edit of the first Trump press conference:
Ted Rall on why it would be a bad thing if the Republicans impeach Trump:
Link. Quotes:
"....This is speculation, but I bet Republicans with presidential ambitions — Ryan, Rubio, Cruz, Paul — have already grokked that Trump’s days are numbered. Odds makers agree. Whoever takes credit for bringing down a feared and reviled leader will rid themselves of a rival and reap rewards up to and including the highest office in the land.
Barely one month after taking office, Trump’s approval ratings are tumbling into territory historically belonging to presidents mired in scandals and unpopular wars. Voters tell the latest Quinnipiac poll Trump is dishonest and doesn’t care about people like them. Trump’s numbers are within a rounding error of Richard Nixon’s during Watergate.
Right now, Donald Trump is constitutionally impeachable over his temperament and his brazen violations of the emoluments clause. But nothing will happen until he’s politically impeachable.....
If I’m Ryan or Cruz or some other crafty GOPer, I’m thinking to myself: every president screws up eventually. But this guy Trump will definitely screw up big. Given his manic pace, his Waterloo will occur sooner rather than later."
Even the conservatives are angry with him:
"Trump's Nuclear Babble", Daniel Larison, The American Conservative
Link. (Article too short for quotes.)
Rolling Stone giving it to the Conservative Political Action Conference:
"How the Conservative Movement Went All in for Trumpism" Link. Quotes:
"....The right's assaults on the left, and, more recently, on a supposed Muslim fifth column, are hardly new features of its broad culture war to define the "real" America. What is new – and a stark abdication of the movement's claimed commitment to the Constitution, freedom and democracy – is the willingness to look the other way as the movement mutates from 20th century conservatism to a Trump-Alt-Right-white-nationalism. At CPAC, it becomes clear that conservatives' role in this transformation is far worse than willful blindness. They are deploying conspiracy theories to deflect any criticism of Trump by blaming the left not only for making up Trump scandals, but also for being the true diabolical force behind any wrongdoing.
The Alt-Right? A left-wing movement. Putin? He's the one "causing mayhem on the streets of America" by funding anti-Trump "riots," according to Trevor Loudon, a conspiracy theorist who appeared on a panel moderated by Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who says that "paid protesters" and "subversives" tried to delegitimize Trump at his inauguration. Later, Loudon screens his film America Under Siege: Civil War 2017, which purports to expose the "puppet masters guiding the chaos unfolding on America's streets," including a trail that Loudon is confident leads right to Putin. These same forces, whom Loudon says have long followed Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse Tung, "have been organizing protests and riots in the United States from the Vietnam War to Ferguson, Missouri." Yet some people, Loudon complains on the panel, "have the insolence" to accuse Trump of ties to the Russian president."