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Trump Derangement Syndrome. Treatment options.

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aDjUsToR
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« on: October 28, 2017, 10:57:12 am »

Treating Trump Derangement Syndrome — Part 1
By Rod Thomson

I suspect all of us who are on social media, or are known to have voted for Donald Trump, have felt the escalating malice and name-calling from Trump-haters, now nobly referring to themselves as #theresistance. Yeah, they’re the flippin’ French Underground fighting the Nazis.

What we are seeing is the worldview epidemic of Trump Derangement Syndrome, which can be defined as an irrational level of hatred of Donald Trump the man, the businessman, the husband, the father, the candidate, the President.

All hate all the time, to the point that many are professing upfront that they will never accept him as president (including sitting congressmen such as John Lewis) and plan marches against the Great Oppressor before he is even sworn in as president. Yes, the derangement reached the point that a businessman who had no effect on almost anyone’s life, and was given awards for his work with the inner city (see picture) was protested as an oppressor before he had any power whatsoever.

Since this contagion is spreading among one type of political person, and they live among us all, herewith are some treatment options you can try on those suffering from the disease. There’s no cure beyond a worldview revelation and some historic context, which will be difficult to realize while suffering under this, but there are treatments to lessen the severity of certain symptoms.

 

Symptom 1: Trump is an illegitimate president
The disease here forces its sufferers to undermine a newly elected United States President before he is inaugurated. This means making the case that the President of the United States is not really president. Dangerous to the country, delusional for the individual.

Treatment: Suggest that this overt anti-patriotism is unbecoming of Americans who have a history of pulling together after an election, even Republicans after the two elections of Barak Obama. No Republicans acted in such ways. Further, point out that the last newly elected Republican president that bitter Democrats did this to was Abraham Lincoln. Heads will spin. Spittle may fly. But Trump Derangement Syndrome is not contagious by touch. It’s an infection of the rational thought process.

Further treatment for this syndrome is listing all of the items that have been blamed for Trump’s win (none of which ever actually include Hillary Clinton.) The first thing blamed was the racist Electoral College. (Sorry, but you just need to understand that sufferers see everything as racist.) The popular vote is what should count! Hillary is our President! Well, no. The rules are the rules and we don’t change rules after a game is concluded because the losers don’t like the results. Then it was fraud in Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania and Jill Stein was going to uncover it. There was fraud all right, but not committed by Trump voters. Then it was another try at FBI Director Jim Comey. If not for Comey, Hillary would have won. Well, if she hadn’t played the Nixon card and deleted 33,000 emails from her unsecured server that had classified documents and more on it, there would have been no need for Comey. And now finally, it’s the Russians.

Julio Gonzalez for State Representative
The disease comes with a fever.

 

Symptom 2: Putin/Russia hacked the election
Since Russia “hacked” the election on Trump’s behalf — or so the claim goes — then Trump will be in the back pocket of the Russians and will go easy on them.

Treatment: Very easy. Treat with context. Point out that he couldn’t go easier on them than Obama/Clinton did. After the embarrassing “reset” button — remind them how terrible they claimed relations were because of Bush to set the first context — point out that the Obama administration did nothing when Russia invaded and took over Crimea; nothing when Russia invaded eastern Ukraine and appears to have annexed it; and nothing in Syria despite the cries for help, allowing the Russians to go back in for the first time since the Cold War to help their old ally crush the rebels ruthlessly. This gave us the humanitarian disaster that is Aleppo.

Trump could hardly do worse than this record.

 

Symptom 3: Outrage over a foreign nation interfering with our elections
This is meant to keep focus on the nefarious Russian nemesis that now owns Trump and further the narrative that the Trump presidency is illegitimate. (Actually, Russia really is a problem that Obama’s weakness enabled and emboldened and is now leaving for his predecessor.)

Treatment: Easiest yet. Casually point out that the Obama Administration overtly worked to defeat Brexit and made threats that Britain would no longer enjoy its trade status under a Bexit approval. No outrage though by those suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Add that Obama’s campaign team was sent to Israel to work on behalf of Benjamin Netanyahu’s opponent. Again, no outrage by those suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. In 1996, the Clinton Administration tried to bolster the election of Boris Yeltsin by endorsing a $10.2 billion loan from the IMF that was to be linked to privatization, more open trade policies further steps toward capitalism. Yeltsin used the loan to bolster support among voters. And, once again, no outrage by those suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. This symptom is a classic case of selective outrage and reveals mere partisanship and nothing higher.

It’s unknown the course this syndrome will take, but with treatment, we hope it can be managed and those suffering from it will over time regain their proper faculties.

Part 2 is here!
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« Reply #1 on: October 28, 2017, 11:00:23 am »

Treating Trump Derangement Syndrome — Part 2
By Rod Thomson

Well Part 1 of our treatment options for Trump Derangement Syndrome was popular enough that we are jumping right in with Part 2. Plus, the symptoms keep multiplying. Treatments will need to keep up. This could be an ongoing process.

Most of us are now aware of the worldview epidemic of Trump Derangement Syndrome, which can be defined as an irrational level of hatred of Donald Trump the man, the businessman, the husband, the father, the candidate, the President. All things Trump. All hatred. That is Trump Derangement Syndrome.

One of the overt symptoms of those suffering falls under the hashtag #theresistence. When you see that you need to take immediate treatment steps to help the sufferers.

We saw that 66 members of Congress consciously chose not to attend the inauguration, which is unprecedented since perhaps Lincoln. A clear sign of the Trump Derangement Syndrome contagion spreading to the upper levels of government. But it is among friends, family and neighbors too. There’s no cure beyond a worldview revelation and some historical context, which will be difficult to realize while suffering under this. But there are treatments to lessen the severity of certain symptoms.

Part 1 dealt with three symptoms. We pick it up there.

 

Symptom 4: Fight the Oppressor!
The claim that Donald Trump was a great oppressor gained currency weeks before he was elected. A businessman with no power and who had no effect on almost anyone’s life, and was given awards alongside Muhammad Ali and Rosa Parks, was protested as a racist oppressor before he had any power whatsoever. That’s TDS.

Treatment: It’s important that those suffering from this symptom be treated with some honest context. While Trump had no power to oppress, President Obama did. And did.

Julio Gonzalez for State Representative
First, the Obama Administration sicked the most feared of U.S. institutions, the IRS, directly on his political opponents. Any group seeking tax exempt status that had Tea Party or Conservative in its name was targeted for denial through attrition. Dozens of those applied — a relatively quick and simple process — but were run through the wringer, some for years, until they ran out of money to keep filing. They never received that and so could not raise money to oppose President Obama’s 2012 reelection. Obama denied Americans their Constitutional rights to further his personal political career. That was oppressive.

Second, Obamacare fines people for not buying a product President Obama decided Americans should buy. That’s oppressive and would have been unconstitutional but for a politicized Supreme Court.

 

Symptom 5: Protests, threats of impeachment before he’s president
I wanted to start a pretend pool on how long it would take for sufferers of Trump Derangement Syndrome to call for impeaching Trump after the moment of inauguration. Measured in months, weeks, days, hours or seconds. Well, I was too late, because calls for impeachment began before he was sworn into office. No matter, there will be members of Congress who will call for it within days, weeks at the longest

Treatment: Inform the TDS sufferers that there are actually tight controls on impeachment, and they do not include vulgar behavior or ideas with which opponents disagree.

Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution, is helpful here: “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

 

Symptom 6: 66 members of Congress boycotted the inauguration
Clearly, Trump Derangement Syndrome has affected the highest levels of our government — if not the actual strongest of our people. A rather astounding 34 percent of the Democrat members of Congress boycotted the inauguration and were cheered on by other fevered sufferers of TDS. It was a tragic moment for them and an embarrassment.

Treatment: Remind TDS sufferers that one of the greatnesses of the United States is the peaceful transition of power between political opponents. Since the Civil War, this has always been the case. The Obamas, the Clintons, the Carters, along with the Bushes, all participated in this American truth. All handled with dignity and class — which could not have been easy for Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama. But they did it.

We will update symptoms and treatment as they become visible and available.
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« Reply #2 on: October 28, 2017, 12:10:28 pm »


America with Trump in charge....



from The Washington Post....

The Daily 202: The GOP civil war is bigger than Trump.
A new study shows deep fissures on policy.


Don't buy into the spin that the Republican divide is more about personality than substance.

By JAMES HOHMANN | 7:54AM EDT - Thursday, October 26, 2017



THE BIG IDEA: Republican leaders are trying to downplay the significance of Jeff Flake's retirement speech by insisting that the party is unified and that critiques of President Trump are entirely about his personality — not his policies.

Asked about Flake's criticisms as he boarded Marine One for a trip to Texas yesterday afternoon, Trump responded that his meeting with Senate Republicans was “a lovefest”.

“We have, actually, great unity in the Republican Party,” the president said. “If you look at the Democrats with Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, that's a mess…. We're really unified on what we want to do.”

Asked for reaction to what both Flake and Senator Bob Corker (Republican-Tennessee) said about Trump, Senator Rand Paul (Republican-Kentucky) told Fox News: “This is more of, like, a People Magazine saga.” Senator James Risch (Republican-Idaho) told CNN, “These things are all personality-driven, and it's unfortunate that this leaked out over into the public.” Senator Mike Lee (Republican-Utah) told MSNBC, “If we were all to chase every squirrel that comes running along in the form of a personal dispute or a mischaracterization of someone's integrity or intent, we would be very busy doing that and not focusing on the government.”

But that's not the case, and they all know it. In fact, there are profound ideological differences within the Republican coalition that have become much more pronounced in the Trump era. Flake's decision to not seek another term was as much about his refusal to abandon his core principles as his concern over Trump's fitness for office.

“It is clear at this moment that a traditional conservative who believes in limited government and free markets, who is devoted to free trade, and who is pro-immigration, has a narrower and narrower path to nomination in the Republican party — the party that for so long has defined itself by belief in those things,” Flake said in his Tuesday speech on the Senate floor.

On the same day Flake bowed out, the Pew Research Center released a fascinating 152-page report on the nation's political typology. Based on in-depth interviews with more than 5,000 American adults, the non-partisan group divided everyone across the political spectrum into eight groups, along with a ninth group of politically disengaged “Bystanders”. (That is a giant sample, and the methodology is airtight.)

Pew's typology studies, which it has conducted since the 1980s, are always a treat to read because they include a delicious trove of data to feast on. But they are expensive to conduct, so the last one came out in 2014. That's only three years, but it feels like a generation ago: before Donald.

The report highlights fissures under the Republican big tent on a host of issues. In many cases, the dividing lines are not necessarily new. But several of the areas which Republicans are most torn about have moved to the front burner because of Trump's disruptive campaign and presidency, from trade to immigration and America's role in the world.




• Pew identifies four distinct GOP factions:

Core Conservatives, about 15 percent of all registered voters, are what we think of as traditional Republicans. They overwhelmingly support smaller government, lower corporate tax rates and believe the economic system is fundamentally fair. Seven in 10 express a positive view of U.S. involvement in the global economy “because it provides the U.S. with new markets and opportunities for growth.”

You might call this group the Jeff Flake Republicans. Flake grew up on a ranch that depended on the labor of undocumented immigrants, who he came to deeply respect as human beings. He was a Mormon missionary in South Africa, which made him worldly. As an ideological heir to Barry Goldwater and a devotee of Milton Friedman, he's a devoted free trader who has unabashedly embraced the “globalist” label to describe himself.

Country First Conservatives, a much smaller segment of the GOP base (7 percent of all registered voters), are older and less educated.  They feel the country is broken, blame immigrants for that and largely think the U.S. should withdraw from the world. Nearly two-thirds agree with the statement that, “If America is too open to people from all over the world, we risk losing our identity as a nation.”

Market Skeptic Republicans (12 percent of registered voters), leery of big business and free trade, believe the system is rigged against them. Just one-third of this group believes banks and other financial institutions have a positive effect on the way things are going in the country, and 94 percent say the economic system unfairly favors powerful interests. Most of them want to raise corporate taxes, and only half believe GOP leaders care about the middle class. They generally view immigrants negatively, they're not too focused on foreign affairs and they're less socially conservative than the first two groups.

New Era Enterprisers, the fourth group, are the opposite. They account for about 11 percent of registered voters: They're younger, more diverse and more bullish about America's future. They support business and believe welcoming immigrants makes the country stronger.

• Core Conservatives are the biggest faction in the party, but they have historically punched above their weight because people in this category are more engaged with politics, more likely to vote and more likely to keep up with current events. (They also make up the lion's share of the donor class, so politicians have another incentive to cater to their interests.)

This helps to explain why 9 in 10 Core Conservatives say the Republican Party represents their values very or somewhat well, compared to only 3 in 4 Country First Conservatives and 6 in 10 Market Skeptic Republicans.

• Trump's core supporters tend to regard economic policy as a zero-sum game. Many believe that others must lose for them to win. Most Americans, however, believe that it's possible to have economic policies that benefit everyone in the country. Six in 10 Market Skeptic Republicans say that pretty much any economic policy will end up benefiting some at the expense of others, much higher than Core Conservatives.


Senator Jeff Flake speaks to reporters after announcing he will not seek re-election. — Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images.
Senator Jeff Flake speaks to reporters after announcing he will not seek re-election. — Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images.

• Looking through the crosstabs, here were seven other questions that divided the subgroups in striking ways:

Taxes: Two-thirds of Core Conservatives say there should be lower taxes both on large businesses and corporations. On the other side, only 24 percent of Market Skeptic Republicans support lowering tax rates on high-earning households and a 55 percent majority says taxes on large businesses and corporations should be raised.

Health care: 88 percent of Core Conservatives say it is not the government's responsibility to make sure all Americans have health-care coverage, compared to 72 percent of Country First Conservatives and 57 percent of Market Skeptic Republicans. But the New Era Enterprisers are split: 47 percent say it is the government's responsibility to ensure Americans have health care, while 50 percent say it is not.

Immigration: Three-quarters of Country First Conservatives say immigrants are a burden on the country, and two-thirds of that group say that the U.S. risks losing its identity as a nation if it is too open to people from around the world. But 70 percent of New Era Enterprisers view immigrants as a strength and two-thirds of them say America's openness is “essential to who we are as a nation”.

Role of government: Only 12 percent of Core Conservatives say that the GOP is too willing to cut government programs even when they have proven effective, compared to 36 percent of Country First Conservatives, 46 percent of New Era Enterprisers and 49 percent of Market Skeptic Republicans.

America's role in the world: Overall, 47 percent of Americans agree that “it's best for the future of our country to be active in world affairs”, but an identical percentage says “we should pay less attention to problems overseas and concentrate on problems here at home”. Support for global engagement has spiked among Democrats since 2014. While half of Core Conservatives say the U.S. should be active globally, 66 percent of Country First Conservatives and 72 percent of Market Skeptic Republicans say the U.S. should concentrate on problems at home and pay less attention to problems overseas.

Climate change: 7 in 10 Core Conservatives say there is no solid evidence of global warming. Only half of Country First Conservatives say that. On the other hand, two-thirds of both Market Skeptic Republicans and New Era Enterprisers say there is solid evidence of global warming.

Same-sex marriage: Nationally, 62 percent of Americans favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally while 32 percent still oppose same-sex marriage. Three-quarters of Country First Conservatives oppose same-sex marriage. But Core Conservatives are now closer to evenly divided — 43 percent support and 49 percent oppose. On the other side, 57 percent of Market Skeptic Republicans and 54 percent of New Era Enterprisers want to let gays and lesbians to marry legally.

• Bigger picture: The center is not holding. There is much less overlap in the political values of Republicans and Democrats than in the past. In 2004, 49 percent of Americans took a roughly equal number of conservative and liberal positions on a scale based on 10 questions. That was the same percentage as in 1994. Then, three years ago, 38 percent had a mix of liberal and conservative views. Now it's dropped to 32 percent.




• A good insight: Trump keeps talking about Hillary Clinton because it's the best way to hold his coalition together. Only about 4 in 10 Core Conservatives and Country First Conservatives say they agree with Trump on “all or nearly all issues”, compared to almost 6 in 10 Market Skeptic Republicans. The New Era Enterprisers are split almost evenly: 47 percent say they agree with Trump on many or all issues, while 53 percent say that they agree with the president on few or almost no issues.

In every GOP faction, though, voters strongly dislike Clinton at about twice the rate that they strongly like Trump. (Similarly, Democrats are held together right now by their near universal disdain for Trump.)




“To appropriate a phrase from the late Rick James, reflexive partisanship is a helluva drug”, Aaron Blake observes on The Fix. “And today's Republican Party is much more united on what it is against — namely, the Democrats and the mainstream media — than on what it's for…. Trump may not be great on their policies, and they may even think he's kind of a jerk, but he's with them on the most important thing: being not-the-other-side. It's arguably his most pronounced quality. And in an increasingly polarized country, it's what really matters.”

Read the full report here.

Take Pew's online quiz to see where you would fall on their political typology.

With Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve.

• James Hohmann is a national political correspondent for The Washington Post. He is the author of The Daily 202, The Post's flagship political newsletter, and the voice of its affiliated Big Idea audio briefing. Hohmann covered local news for The Post in the aughts and returned in 2015 after six years at Politico. He's also written for the Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News and San Jose Mercury News. A historian by training, Hohmann grew up in Apple Valley, Minnesota, and graduated with honors from Stanford University.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • The Daily 202: Flake and Corker feel liberated to speak their minds. That should terrify Trump.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/10/26/daily-202-the-gop-civil-war-is-bigger-than-trump-a-new-study-shows-deep-fissures-on-policy/59f0eb7230fb045cba000a43
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« Reply #3 on: October 28, 2017, 12:11:33 pm »


More about America with Trump in charge....



from the Los Angeles Times....

Steve Bannon battles Republican leaders for the soul of their party

By DAVID HORSEY | 5:00AM PDT - Friday, October 27, 2017



REPULICANS control the White House and Congress, plus the majority of state legislatures and governorships, yet the GOP may be on the edge of implosion.

Every time a political party takes a shellacking in a big election, pundits wonder if the losers can ever recover. Since the extinction of the Whigs back in the 1850s, though, losing parties always do bounce back. The question now, however, is whether Republicans can survive a victory: Donald Trump's unexpected triumph last November.

A few GOP senators and a legion of establishment conservatives and veterans of past Republican administrations are in open rebellion against Trump, while many current Republican members of Congress privately express outrage and alarm at the president's antics. Trump has stolen their party and they want it back. But the usurper in the Oval Office has one very big advantage over his Republican adversaries: A majority of Republican voters continue to perceive him as a bold, straight-talking deal maker, not the dangerous clown that the establishment believes he is.

It is telling that Trump's loudest critics on Capitol Hill — Tennessee Senator Bob Corker and Arizona Senator Jeff Flake — are not running for re-election. They are free to say what they truly think about the braggadocious buffoon who is now leading their party. In contrast, those who want to continue in office maintain a timid silence. They know that if they publicly point out that the emperor has no clothes, the emperor's fans will run someone against them in the next GOP primary.

This worry is not unfounded. Trump's self-proclaimed “wing man”, Steve Bannon, has joined forces with right-wing billionaire Robert Mercer to identify and support challengers to every Republican senator found insufficiently slavish in his or her loyalty to the president. Bannon's key goal is to depose Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the ultimate representative of the GOP establishment, who is loathed by Trumpistas.

To borrow a phrase from the late, not-so-great Alabama Governor George Wallace, “There is not a dime's worth of difference” between establishment Republicans and the Trump administration on major policy issues. They all want to give tax cuts to rich people and large corporations, kill Obamacare, minimize regulation of the fossil fuels industry, loosen up rules for big-time financiers, sell off public lands to mining companies, give more money to the Pentagon, get tough on immigrants and do whatever they can to stifle abortion, same-sex marriages and efforts to deal with climate change.

This is not a sharp philosophical split like the one between the progressive Republican President Theodore Roosevelt and conservative power brokers in his party who were in thrall to Gilded Age robber barons. Nor is it like the 1964 battle between Nelson Rockefeller’s Eastern liberal Republicans and Barry Goldwater's upstart Western conservatives. There is almost no one in today's Republican Party who cannot make a valid claim to being a solid conservative — unless it is Trump, who, not so long ago, was a Democrat.

The battle is really over the definition of conservative. To the establishment Republicans, conservatism is a set of political principles that favors business over labor, industry over environmentalists, corporations over consumers, Wall Street over Washington, low taxes over big government, and the Pentagon over social programs. To the angry crowds flocking to Trump rallies and buying into the alternative reality being concocted by Fox News, Breitbart and right-wing talk radio, conservatism is more of an attitude. Like their fathers and grandfathers who were electrified by the race-baiting, anti-establishment, anti-elitist rhetoric of the aforementioned Governor Wallace when he ran for president in 1968 and 1972, the Trump conservatives feel as if the country they love is being overrun by brown-skinned immigrants, black-skinned protesters, morality-defying sexual deviants and godless urban hipsters. They are fearful and fuming and Trump is their unfiltered, unapologetic voice of rage.

Elected Republicans who do not share such attitudes may have to decide if keeping their jobs is worth the price of letting the party of Lincoln become a party in which George Wallace would feel very much at home.


http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-republican-battle-20171026-story.html
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« Reply #4 on: October 29, 2017, 09:51:16 am »

Symptom 1: Trump is an illegitimate president
The disease here forces its sufferers to undermine a newly elected United States President before he is inaugurated. This means making the case that the President of the United States is not really president. Dangerous to the country, delusional for the individual.

Treatment: Suggest that this overt anti-patriotism is unbecoming of Americans who have a history of pulling together after an election, even Republicans after the two elections of Barak Obama. No Republicans acted in such ways. Further, point out that the last newly elected Republican president that bitter Democrats did this to was Abraham Lincoln. Heads will spin. Spittle may fly. But Trump Derangement Syndrome is not contagious by touch. It’s an infection of the rational thought process.

Further treatment for this syndrome is listing all of the items that have been blamed for Trump’s win (none of which ever actually include Hillary Clinton.) The first thing blamed was the racist Electoral College. (Sorry, but you just need to understand that sufferers see everything as racist.) The popular vote is what should count! Hillary is our President! Well, no. The rules are the rules and we don’t change rules after a game is concluded because the losers don’t like the results. Then it was fraud in Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania and Jill Stein was going to uncover it. There was fraud all right, but not committed by Trump voters. Then it was another try at FBI Director Jim Comey. If not for Comey, Hillary would have won. Well, if she hadn’t played the Nixon card and deleted 33,000 emails from her unsecured server that had classified documents and more on it, there would have been no need for Comey. And now finally, it’s the Russians.
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« Reply #5 on: October 29, 2017, 09:53:57 am »

I hope you are enjoying this special thread I created just for you KTJ😁
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« Reply #6 on: October 29, 2017, 04:43:00 pm »



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Are you sick of the bullshit from the sewer stream media spewed out from the usual Ken and Barby dickless talking point look a likes.

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AND WAKE THE F_ _K UP
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« Reply #7 on: October 29, 2017, 06:43:30 pm »

Symptom 2: Putin/Russia hacked the election
Since Russia “hacked” the election on Trump’s behalf — or so the claim goes — then Trump will be in the back pocket of the Russians and will go easy on them.

Treatment: Very easy. Treat with context. Point out that he couldn’t go easier on them than Obama/Clinton did. After the embarrassing “reset” button — remind them how terrible they claimed relations were because of Bush to set the first context — point out that the Obama administration did nothing when Russia invaded and took over Crimea; nothing when Russia invaded eastern Ukraine and appears to have annexed it; and nothing in Syria despite the cries for help, allowing the Russians to go back in for the first time since the Cold War to help their old ally crush the rebels ruthlessly. This gave us the humanitarian disaster that is Aleppo.

Trump could hardly do worse than this record.
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« Reply #8 on: October 30, 2017, 10:33:53 am »

Symptom 3: Outrage over a foreign nation interfering with our elections
This is meant to keep focus on the nefarious Russian nemesis that now owns Trump and further the narrative that the Trump presidency is illegitimate. (Actually, Russia really is a problem that Obama’s weakness enabled and emboldened and is now leaving for his predecessor.)

Treatment: Easiest yet. Casually point out that the Obama Administration overtly worked to defeat Brexit and made threats that Britain would no longer enjoy its trade status under a Bexit approval. No outrage though by those suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Add that Obama’s campaign team was sent to Israel to work on behalf of Benjamin Netanyahu’s opponent. Again, no outrage by those suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. In 1996, the Clinton Administration tried to bolster the election of Boris Yeltsin by endorsing a $10.2 billion loan from the IMF that was to be linked to privatization, more open trade policies further steps toward capitalism. Yeltsin used the loan to bolster support among voters. And, once again, no outrage by those suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. This symptom is a classic case of selective outrage and reveals mere partisanship and nothing higher.

It’s unknown the course this syndrome will take, but with treatment, we hope it can be managed and those suffering from it will over time regain their proper faculties.
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« Reply #9 on: October 30, 2017, 11:03:03 am »


The first arrests should take place tomorrow (our time).

Excellent news, eh?

That should piss Trump off.

He is already going rabid on Twitter lashing out at everybody in general.

No doubt the first arrests will be those on the periphery.

They will then squeal their heads of to save their miserable skins.

Over time, the arrests will gradually move closer to the centre.

I look forward to the day when Trump's oldest son, his daughter, and his daughter's husband get arrested.

Trump will be absolutely rabid with rage, and his lashing out will be the greatest entertainment show on the entire planet.
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« Reply #10 on: October 30, 2017, 11:19:02 am »


Symptom 4: Fight the Oppressor!
The claim that Donald Trump was a great oppressor gained currency weeks before he was elected. A businessman with no power and who had no effect on almost anyone’s life, and was given awards alongside Muhammad Ali and Rosa Parks, was protested as a racist oppressor before he had any power whatsoever. That’s TDS.

Treatment: It’s important that those suffering from this symptom be treated with some honest context. While Trump had no power to oppress, President Obama did. And did.

Julio Gonzalez for State Representative
First, the Obama Administration sicked the most feared of U.S. institutions, the IRS, directly on his political opponents. Any group seeking tax exempt status that had Tea Party or Conservative in its name was targeted for denial through attrition. Dozens of those applied — a relatively quick and simple process — but were run through the wringer, some for years, until they ran out of money to keep filing. They never received that and so could not raise money to oppose President Obama’s 2012 reelection. Obama denied Americans their Constitutional rights to further his personal political career. That was oppressive.

Second, Obamacare fines people for not buying a product President Obama decided Americans should buy. That’s oppressive and would have been unconstitutional but for a politicized Supreme Court.
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« Reply #11 on: October 30, 2017, 09:02:09 pm »

Symptom 5: Protests, threats of impeachment before he’s president
I wanted to start a pretend pool on how long it would take for sufferers of Trump Derangement Syndrome to call for impeaching Trump after the moment of inauguration. Measured in months, weeks, days, hours or seconds. Well, I was too late, because calls for impeachment began before he was sworn into office. No matter, there will be members of Congress who will call for it within days, weeks at the longest

Treatment: Inform the TDS sufferers that there are actually tight controls on impeachment, and they do not include vulgar behavior or ideas with which opponents disagree.

Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution, is helpful here: “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
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« Reply #12 on: October 30, 2017, 09:28:57 pm »


Mate....you're fucked in the head.

Where are you living these days?

Perhaps your locality has something to do with it.
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« Reply #13 on: October 31, 2017, 12:12:54 am »


from the Los Angeles Times....

Scariest thing on this Halloween is the demise of fact-based reality

By DAVID HORSEY | 5:00AM PDT - Monday, October 30, 2017



IF YOU are a person who likes being frightened by the prospect of a zombie apocalypse, then Halloween is the holiday for you. Have fun being scared. But, if you truly are convinced that a zombie apocalypse could be a real thing, then we all have a problem.

A sane society depends on most people sharing a common understanding of reality, but American politics is driven by fears, many of which are unfounded. True or not, the things we fear are very likely to be the things that motivate us to vote for particular candidates.

For instance, if you fear global warming and people carrying guns in grocery stores, I can probably guess who you voted for in the 2016 presidential election, just as I could likely make an accurate prediction of your ballot behavior if you are someone who fears that federal agents will take your guns and immigrants will take your job.

Voting is an emotional act that feels as if it is a rational choice. If it scares you to think that the federal government is concocting so-called false flag events, like the Sandy Hook school shooting, or that every Muslim is capable of being turned into a terrorist, then it seems rational to vote for certain candidates over others, even though both those viewpoints are preposterous falsehoods promoted by charlatans to elicit an emotional reaction that is susceptible to manipulation.

Of course, there are fears that are justifiable. It is not irrational to worry about another economic meltdown caused by high rollers on Wall Street. It is not irrational to have angst about random mass shootings. It is not irrational to have some concern about a lunatic North Korean dictator lobbing a nuclear bomb at an American city. It is not irrational to fear for the safety of your teenager in a society where bullying, addictive drugs, gang shootings and pervasive pornography are common. It is harder to predict, though, how those particular fears will drive your political choices.

For many people, the fear of losing access to healthcare is a very real thing. But the way this frightening prospect steers voting depends on the particulars. A poor person who relies on Medicaid may make a different decision at the ballot box than a middle class voter who lives in a state where health insurance options are becoming scarce and unaffordable.

I have my own set of fears. Climate change is high on the list, although, because the worst effects of this genuine phenomenon are decades away, this is more a fear for my children and grandchildren than for myself. I do fear that Kim Jong Un will target a West Coast city with his missiles and that I might live in one of them, though I tell myself this hazard is still remote. I fear that our ignorant, brash president and his chaotic administration will bungle foreign policy so badly that the United States will be perceived around the world as an unstable, unreliable partner and America's strength and global influence will wither.

Beyond those worries, though, the fear at the top of my list right now is that our democracy is being dangerously and permanently subverted by fake news. This is not the fake news that President Trump complains about — the generally accurate and verifiable stories in the mainstream media that are critical of him. No, the fake news I fear is coming from a variety of sources — Russian hackers, Internet trolls, talk radio charlatans, right wing political operatives — and is being amplified by social media, Fox News and presidential tweets. This manipulated view of reality has been sold to millions of Americans and it has made finding common ground nearly impossible. Even Republican politicians who know fact from fiction find themselves in thrall to this malign force because their constituents have bought into the mendacity.

I cannot yet see how we, as a country, will find a way out of this pit of lies. And that is as scary as anything on this spooky Halloween.


http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-halloween-20171030-story.html
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« Reply #14 on: October 31, 2017, 11:23:10 am »


The television series House of Cards is being cancelled after the sixth season, 'cause it turns out that actor Kevin Spacey is yet another Harvey Weinstein/Donald Trump/Roger Ailes/Bill O'Reilly-style sexual predator & groper (and paedophile), but of the gay kind.


from the Los Angeles Times…

Amid Kevin Spacey fallout, ‘House of Cards’ to end with upcoming season


from The Washington Post…

‘Kevin Spacey has set gay rights back’: Actor blasted for response to sexual misconduct claim
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« Reply #15 on: October 31, 2017, 11:32:36 am »


Hilarious.....instead of The White House imitating House of Cards; for a change, the lead actor of House of Cards has been shown to be an imitator of the clown in The White House.

ie....a sexual predator, groper and sicko!!
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« Reply #16 on: November 01, 2017, 12:12:46 pm »


Psssssssssst……wanna see something REALLY scary?


The “pussy-grabber” and general sexual pervert, Donald J. Trump, being allowed near young kids....that is really very scary alright!

But....that is not just merely scary, but is extremely disturbing. That's like letting a paedophile priest loose amongst the altar boys.



President Trump and first lady Melania Trump hand out treats at the South Portico of the White House. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump hand out treats at the South Portico of the White House. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.

President Trump and first lady Melania Trump pass out treats as they welcome children from the Washington area and children of military families to trick-or-treat. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump pass out treats as they welcome children from the Washington area and children of military families to trick-or-treat.
 — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.


President Trump and first lady Melania Trump greet trick-or-treaters. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump greet trick-or-treaters. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.

President Trump and first lady Melania Trump hand out treats. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump hand out treats. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.

President Trump talks to trick-or-treaters. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.
President Trump talks to trick-or-treaters. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.

Children line up to receive Halloween goodies. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.
Children line up to receive Halloween goodies. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.

First lady Melania Trump reacts to a costume. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.
First lady Melania Trump reacts to a costume. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.

The president and the first lady hand out treats. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.
The president and the first lady hand out treats. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.

President Trump and first lady Melania Trump pose with trick-or-treaters. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump pose with trick-or-treaters. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.

The first couple pose with trick-or-treaters. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.
The first couple pose with trick-or-treaters. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.

Omarosa Manigault talks with President Trump as he hands out treats. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.
Omarosa Manigault talks with President Trump as he hands out treats. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.

President Trump and first lady Melania Trump pose for a photo with White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her family. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump pose for a photo with White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her family.
 — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.


Visitors wait in costume to receive treats from President Trump and first lady Melania Trump. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.
Visitors wait in costume to receive treats from President Trump and first lady Melania Trump. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.

The White House is decorated for Halloween. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.
The White House is decorated for Halloween. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.
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« Reply #17 on: November 01, 2017, 07:43:24 pm »

In case you hadn't noticed, nobody is reading your crap KTJ. 😁
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« Reply #18 on: November 01, 2017, 10:36:32 pm »


from Fairfax NZ....

Every story has a plot — and a villain

By JOE BENNETT | 5:00AM - Wednesday, 01 November 2017

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has announced the first indictments from his investigation of Donald Trump and his links to Russia. — Photograph: Reuters.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has announced the first indictments from his investigation
of Donald Trump and his links to Russia. — Photograph: Reuters.


A STORY is playing itself out in public right now and it has me in thrall. Like every story it has a plot.

Because there are millions of stories one would think there were millions of plots. But there aren't. There are only two. Between them they've formed the nub of every story since Adam and Eve, including Adam and Eve.

The first plot is the female plot, the triumph of love. All forces may be lined up against love but love does not bend. Love persists. And in the end love either wins or dies trying. And to die for love is considered a triumph (though no one ever asks the opinion of someone who's actually done it).

That love prevails is the plot of Cinderella, of the New Testament, of all Shakespeare's comedies. It is the only plot ever used by the most successful publishing house in history. Mills and Boon's formula is to put barriers in the way of love and then to make the lovers swat them aside, until on the last page they clinch and kiss or even, in the more risqué modern stories, code-coloured purple, I believe, make the beast with two backs. But the point of it all is that love prevails.

The male plot is just as simple: it's the triumph of justice. All crime novels are founded on it, all detective stories, all myths of heaven and hell, everything from Greek tragedy to the adventures of Tin Tin. The nub of the plot is that the malefactor cops it. He or she — and it's usually he — has been tempted, has succumbed and has broken the moral code of the cosmos. Whereupon the cosmos sets about putting things right. Justice can take a while to achieve but it is inevitable. The culprit, says Father Brown, can wander to the ends of the earth, but eventually, “I can bring him back with a twitch of the thread.”

To put things right the cosmos may use an external agent of justice, a wild west sheriff, say, or a bunch of little prigs called The Famous Five, but it can equally use the internal agent of conscience. After killing the king, Macbeth and his wife are hunted down by the king's son. But it's their own psyches that do the real hunting. In the end, Lady Macbeth can take the guilt no longer and flings herself from the battlements, while her husband discovers the hollowness of a foul-won victory. And thus justice prevails.

Both plots are founded on the principle that the world is the right way up, is a place where, despite countless threats to its supremacy, good triumphs.

All of which brings us to the story which is playing out in front of our eyes at the moment. It is an example of the male plot. It is the story of Trump and the special counsel.

If you don't see Trump as vile you have not been paying attention. His vileness has nothing to do with his political views, and everything to do with his character. He is utterly self-centred. He doesn't care who he tramples on. He preens. He lies. He's a self-confessed sexual predator. Violence delights him. He's driven by spite and vengefulness. All of which means that if the world is the right way up he should suffer. Yet he's been elected to the highest office on the face of the globe. What's happened to plot number two?

Enter the special counsel, Robert Mueller. Mueller was appointed to look into Trump five months ago, since when neither you nor I have heard him speak. He's been the silent tracker, loping, grey-haired, modest, the embodiment of integrity, with a jawbone as long as a forearm. We've heard Trump ranting and lying and boasting, but from Mueller, nothing. We've just had to hope that he was on the job.

And now it seems that he was. He is about to start laying charges. At the time of writing I don't know who's going to have his collar felt but I can hardly wait to find out. There are numerous candidates, because vile attracts vile.

There's the loathsome Manafort, Trump's campaign manager, who's made a career out of lobbying on behalf of murderous dictators. There's the duplicitous weasel General Flynn. There's Trump's chinless son, his shifty son-in-law or even his bovine press secretary.

Whoever it is should be the first of many. And the last of those many has to be Trump himself. For if Trump survives to see out his term of office without impeachment or imprisonment, then plot number two is a myth, an act of self-delusion, a tale we tell to console ourselves in a world that's the wrong way up.


Julian “Joe” Bennett is a writer and columnist living in Lyttelton, New Zealand. Born in England, Bennett emigrated to New Zealand when he was twenty nine.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/98391558
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« Reply #19 on: November 02, 2017, 05:17:10 pm »


from The Washington Post....

Trump never misses an opportunity to miss the point

Trump cannot lead, so he attacks.

By JENNIFER RUBIN | 3:45PM EDT - Wednesday, November 01, 2017

President Trump, flanked by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, left, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, speaks during a meeting in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington on November 1st. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.
President Trump, flanked by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, left, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, speaks during a meeting in
the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington on November 1st. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.


PRESIDENT TRUMP's incapacity for governing and absence of empathy make him uniquely unsuited for his job, especially at times of potential unity. He operates only with divisiveness and aggression; his intellect is entirely directed at how to avoid blame and create scapegoats, not to solve problems. So it has been in his cringe-worthy response to the terrorist attack in New York.

Trump does not vow to unite the country, nor seek to shield a community that might be targeted. He looks for targets and opportunities to wave the bloody flag. Without exception. Every single time. He did not call the governor or mayor but instead went nativist.

The Washington Post reports:


Quote
Authorities said on Wednesday that the 29-year-old man accused of mowing down pedestrians and cyclists on a Manhattan bike path, killing eight people, had plotted for weeks before carrying out the attack in the name of the Islamic State.

Officials identified the suspected attacker as Sayfullo Saipov, a legal permanent resident of the United States who arrived in the country from Uzbekistan in 2010 through a diversity visa program. They said Saipov was influenced by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and its violent tactics after he came to the United States.

No vetting would have caught the suspect. None of Trump's three Muslim bans would have kept him out. But self-radicalization is not something Trump can “use” to stir fear of outsiders or to gin up his base; it's no good to him politically and, in fact, it suggests that good relations with Muslim communities are our best defense. Never mind all that. Trump will attack Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (Democrat-New York), who supported the Gang of 8 immigration reform to get rid of the diversity lottery program.

However, we do know that he “had never been the subject of an FBI investigation or a New York police intelligence investigation … [although] Saipov had been known to authorities. According to a law enforcement official familiar with the current investigation, Saipov's name had surfaced during an earlier Homeland Security probe into some of his friends.” Perhaps Trump should stop ordering  assaults on “sanctuary cities” and pursuing anti-immigrant policies, and instead focus on internal communication and community outreach.

Trump, of course, wants to get rid of diversity program. (Can we agree then his Muslim ban is worthless?) Oh, and he likes the idea of sending a green-card holder captured on American soil to Guantanamo Bay, where presumably he would not been given a public trial. Welcome to Trump's America.

The Washington Post reports:


Quote
Schumer responded with a statement that read, “I have always believed and continue to believe that immigration is good for America. President Trump, instead of politicizing and dividing America, which he always seems to do at times of national tragedy, should be focusing on the real solution — anti-terrorism funding — which he proposed cutting in his most recent budget.”

 At the U.S. Capitol, Schumer said Trump's handling of Tuesday's attack contrasted sharply with how former president George W. Bush responded to the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attack at the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.

“President Bush united us,” Schumer said. “He had us in the White House the next day saying how we would work together. All President Trump does is take advantage — horrible advantage — of a tragedy and try to politicize and divide. It doesn't work with New Yorkers, it doesn't work with Americans.”

But it's all Trump knows.

• Jennifer Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Washington Post, offering reported opinion from a conservative perspective.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • Trump blames N.Y. attack on weak laws, justice system


 • Sending the New York terrorism suspect to Guantanamo is a horrible idea

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/11/01/trump-never-misses-an-opportunity-to-miss-the-point
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« Reply #20 on: November 02, 2017, 07:29:23 pm »


from The Washington Post....

Trump is faithfully following the autocrat's playbook

The reaction to the Mueller investigation cannot be written off as normal partisanship.

By E.J. DIONNE Jr. | 7:57PM EDT - Wednesday, November 01, 2017

President Donald J. Trump speaks. — Photograph: Al Drago/Bloomberg.
President Donald J. Trump speaks. — Photograph: Al Drago/Bloomberg.

DEMOCRACIES sometimes collapse suddenly. More typically, they waste away.

One major cause of institutional decline involves politicians putting their own immediate interests ahead of their obligations to democratic norms. We wake up one day and discover that a long series of individual choices has rotted out the constraints on authoritarian rule.

President Trump plainly feels no sense of stewardship when it comes to our political system or to any accepted standards of truth. From the moment he descended that escalator at Trump Tower in 2015, he made clear that he would say and do anything to advance his purposes and to eviscerate anyone who opposed him.

It should thus not surprise us that in anticipation of Robert S. Mueller III's actions this week, Trump rolled out an assault on the legitimacy of the special counsel's investigation and brazenly insisted that not he but Hillary Clinton (the holder of no public office) should be the subject of prosecutorial interest.

Trump's Distract-O-Rama ought to be met with derision and condemnation. Note that by securing a guilty plea from former Trump adviser George Papadopoulos for lying to FBI agents about his contacts with Russians to secure “dirt” on Clinton in 2016, Mueller confirmed the central premise of his probe. Yes, there was collusion between Russia and the Trump apparatus aimed at defeating Clinton.

We don't yet know for certain how high up engagement with the Russian project went. But media disclosures about contacts made by top Trump officials suggest the story won't stop with Papadopoulos.

As is his way, Trump lied right out of the box after Mueller's announcements by claiming that the charges brought against his former campaign manager Paul Manafort entailed behavior that long predated last year's presidential contest. In fact, the money laundering at the heart of the indictment was, according to prosecutors, ongoing in 2016.

Trump's rampage against Clinton focuses on the 2010 purchase of Uranium One, a Canadian company with U.S. assets, by the Russian nuclear authority. The deal was approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States when Clinton was secretary of state.

But the conspiracy side of this story was debunked long ago. As The Washington Post's Fact Checker, Glenn Kessler, reported this week, Clinton, “by all accounts, did not participate in any discussions regarding the Uranium One sale” and the sale “does not actually result in the removal of uranium from the United States.”

Then on Wednesday morning, Trump moved to exploit the murderous New York City truck attack by casting blame on Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer because the Democrat had backed the diversity visa lottery. Trump tweeted in response to the then-unconfirmed but later verified reports that the driver of the truck, Sayfullo Saipov, entered the United States from Uzbekistan under the program. Schumer, by the way, supported a bipartisan 2013 immigration reform bill that would have abolished the lottery.

It's essential to recognize that Trump is faithfully following the autocrat's playbook. He's trying to undermine a lawful inquiry that endangers his hold on power. He has suggested that his opponent in the last election deserves to be jailed. He's inventing stories about dark coverups by his enemies to sow confusion about the proven facts of his own team's skulduggery. And now he is blaming his foes for violence and disorder.

Even more alarming is the extent to which Republicans in Congress and Trump's media allies are falling into line behind their leader's efforts to obstruct and divert. As The Post's Philip Rucker and Robert Costa noted, “Republican lawmakers have mostly split into two camps: those who are wary of weighing in on Mueller's investigation and those who see it as a prime political target.”

Notice what's missing here: an unambiguous defense of Mueller's work. Few Republicans have stood up unequivocally on his behalf. And the pro-Trump media, from Fox News to The Wall Street Journal editorial page to radio talk show hosts, have willingly served as bullhorns for the president's anti-Clinton, anti-Mueller strategy.

What's going on cannot be written off as normal partisanship. The push to discredit and derail Mueller risks becoming an existential threat to our democratic values and republican practices. The interference by a foreign adversary in our electoral process is not a routine event. Resistance to uncovering what happened should not be seen as part of the everyday give-and-take of politics.

Republican patriots have to know that what's at stake matters far more than the quick passage of a tax bill. Don't they?


• E.J. Dionne writes about politics in a twice-weekly column for The Washington Post and on the PostPartisan blog. He is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, a government professor at Georgetown University and a commentator on politics for National Public Radio, ABC's “This Week” and MSNBC. He is the author of Why the Right Went Wrong.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-is-faithfully-following-the-autocrats-playbook/2017/11/01/4a7b0b70-bf43-11e7-97d9-bdab5a0ab381_story.html
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« Reply #21 on: November 02, 2017, 11:25:50 pm »


from The Washington Post....

The other huge scandal Mueller brought to light this week

Trump “hires the best”: a bartender, a cabana boy and a Meineke muffler salesman.

By DANA MILBANK | 9:34PM EDT - Wednesday, November 01, 2017

President Donald J. Trump at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.
President Donald J. Trump at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.

ROBERT MUELLER brought to light a huge scandal this week, and it has nothing to do with Russia.

He has introduced the world to Sam Clovis.

Clovis, we now know, was the Trump campaign official who oversaw George Papadopoulos and encouraged his efforts to meet with Russian officials. But what's more interesting than what Clovis is is what Clovis isn't.

For those who had not heard of Clovis before (which is pretty much everybody), he has been nominated to be the chief scientist at the Agriculture Department, a position that by law must go to “distinguished scientists”, even though he is, well, not a scientist. He is a talk-radio host, economics professor (though not actually an economist, either) and, most importantly, a Trump campaign adviser.

President Trump promised to “hire the best people”. And, as scientists go, Clovis is an excellent talk-show host. Among his scientific breakthroughs: being “extremely skeptical” of climate change, calling homosexuality “a choice”, suggesting gay rights would lead to legalized pedophilia, pushing the Obama birther allegation, and calling Eric Holder a “racist bigot” and Tom Perez a “racist Latino”.

Trump may want “extreme vetting” of immigrants, but he's rather more lenient with his appointees. On Wednesday, he named Robin Bernstein to be ambassador to the Dominican Republic. Bernstein speaks only “basic Spanish” (it's so hard to find Americans who speak Spanish), but she does have this — membership at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club.

A group called American Oversight had the foresight to make records requests for résumés of those hired by the Trump administration, and the group searched for those who worked on the Trump campaign. Among the “best” Trump hires American Oversight found:


  • Sid Bowdidge, assistant to the secretary of energy for energy efficiency and renewable energy. Before working for the Trump campaign, Bowdidge, from 2013 to 2015, was manager of the Meineke Car Care branch in Seabrook, New Hampshire. He previously was service and branch manager for tire shops. I don't know what qualified Bowdidge for his position, but I do know this: He is not going to pay a lot for that muffler. (He had to hit the road, losing his job after it was discovered he had called Muslims “maggots”.)

  • Victoria Barton, congressional relations for Regions II, V and VI, Department of Housing and Urban Development. Prior to working for the Trump campaign, Barton was an office manager and, between 2013 and 2015, a “bartender/bar manager”. The expertise in housing policy possessed by Barton is no doubt invaluable to HUD Secretary Ben Carson, a retired brain surgeon.

  • Christopher Hagan, a confidential assistant at the Agriculture Department. Before working on the Trump campaign, he was, between 2009 and 2015, a “cabana attendant” at Westchester Country Club in Rye, New York. According to his résumé, he “identified and addressed customer's needs in a timely and orderly manner”. This is important, because you never know when somebody at the USDA is going to need a towel.

  • Nick Brusky, also a confidential assistant at the USDA. The Trump campaign worker previously drove a truck. He was a trustee in Butler Township, Ohio, at the same time, and, as Politico noted, his résumé lists coursework but no degree.

  • David Matthews, yet another confidential assistant at the Agriculture Department, developed scented candles while also serving as a “legal receptionist” before joining the Trump campaign.

Some of the other “best” people Trump has hired are well known. Lynne Patton, HUD regional administrator, previously arranged Trump golf tournaments and arranged Eric Trump's wedding, among other things. Callista Gingrich, just confirmed as ambassador to the Vatican, prepared for this by writing children's books, singing in a church choir — and being married to Trump ally Newt Gingrich.

Others now in high office are less known: an office page, the author of an anti-Clinton book, a Christian-school librarian, a couple of real estate brokers and a landscaper. Many don't appear to meet the educational qualifications for their positions. But they did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

One can imagine the chairman of an interagency task force going around the table asking each department what should be in the infrastructure bill:

“Transportation Department?”

Don't know, sir. I was an Uber driver before I joined the campaign.

“Army Corps of Engineers?”

Pass. I ran a coin-operated laundromat.

“Surely somebody here knows something about infrastructure?”

(Silence.)

I was a toll-taker on the New Jersey Turnpike before the campaign. Now I'm in charge of climate science at the EPA.

Anybody else?

I was a plumber. But they made me chief medical officer at NIH because I watched a lot of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’.

“What, they had no doctors for NIH?”

We had one chiropractor on the campaign, sir, but they needed him to run NASA.

“A chiropractor running NASA? What next, a musician at Strategic Command?”

Actually, sir, the Stratcom commander was a hairdresser.


• Dana Milbank writes about political theater in the nation's capital for The Washington Post. He joined The Post as a political reporter in 2000.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-other-huge-scandal-mueller-brought-to-light-this-week/2017/11/01/5e05a458-bf4c-11e7-959c-fe2b598d8c00_story.html
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« Reply #22 on: November 04, 2017, 03:46:02 pm »

Have a look back through all your posts. You'll notice they're all just mindless copy and paste spam attacks on either Trump or America. Have you considered that just maybe you might have a wee obsession?
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« Reply #23 on: November 04, 2017, 06:52:00 pm »

Trump Derangement Syndrome:

A condition of hysteria, anger, and fear of Donald Trump as a result of a failure by the afflicted to avail themselves of alternative media sources to combat the misrepresentations and often outright lies of the leftist media.

I keep asking him for examples of actions or actual statements by Trump that prove him to be some "evil incarnate" but due to a sever case of Trump Derangement Syndrome he just keeps chanting he's a racist, a misogynist, he has his finger on the bomb, we're doomed, America is over....
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aDjUsToR
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« Reply #24 on: November 04, 2017, 07:59:31 pm »

Trump Derangement Syndrome:

A condition of hysteria, anger, and fear of Donald Trump as a result of a failure by the afflicted to avail themselves of alternative media sources to combat the misrepresentations and often outright lies of the leftist media.

I keep asking him for examples of actions or actual statements by Trump that prove him to be some "evil incarnate" but due to a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome he just keeps chanting he's a racist, a misogynist, he has his finger on the bomb, we're doomed, America is over....
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