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Friday, February 17, 2017

Petulance

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Twenty-eight days.

We’re twenty-eight days into the Trump Administration.

Four weeks.

It just seems longer, doesn’t it?

Maybe it’s just me.

The first few months of a new administration define a presidency.

A new president’s inauguration speech, the first major press conference, these are the moments that set the tone for what is to come. 

These are the moments where the new president seizes the high ground and uses the Bully Pulpit to lay out his vision for the next four years.

This is the time when a new president transitions from candidate to leader of the Free World.

This is the moment, the brief moment, when a new president seeks to inspire the nation before he gets down to the tedious grinding work of governing.

Perhaps most importantly, this is when the new president pledges to work with Congress, with his own party and the opposition, to build bridges, to move the country forward for all citizens.

Now, honestly, none of us really believe any of that.

Of course not.

We expect the new president to cater to his party and his political ideology and the people who put him into office. Of course we do.

But we expect him to make the gesture.

And the gesture matters.

The tradition, that moment of inspiration, that olive branch no matter how insincerely extended to the other side, that matters.

It matters because a President must lead the entire nation not just a part of it.

It matters because we are nowadays engaged in the politics of fear and half our country is convinced the other half is out to get them – and they might be right.

It matters because we live in a country of Death Panels and Jade Helm and Pizzagate and Benghazi and Emails and shadowy Russian entanglements and we can’t tell what’s real and what is false and most of us no longer care.

It matters because we are afraid, because we’ve been fed a diet of fear and terror and division.

It is the president’s job – even if nobody believes him – to make the gesture.

But these last four weeks of the Trump Administration have hardly been a period of bridge building and inspiration.

 

Yesterday’s presser should have been a gesture of confidence and leadership.

 

Instead it confirmed all of our worst fears.

I mean, I expected it to be bad. Who doesn’t at this point, right? I expected it to be filled with non-sequiturs and digressions, bombast and bragging and empty promises of greatness, and it was all of that and more.

But it was so much worse than that.

This should have been a moment of inspiration, a chance for Trump to define himself as a leader.

Instead it was again nothing but the airing of grievances.

Thank you very much.

I just wanted to begin by mentioning that the nominee for secretary of the Department of Labor will be Mr. Alex Acosta. He has a law degree from Harvard Law School, was a great student; former clerk for Justice Samuel Alito. And he has had a tremendous career. He's a member and has been a member of the National Labor Relations Board, and has been through Senate confirmation three times, confirmed; did very, very well.

And so Alex, I've wished him the best. We just spoke. And he's going to be -- I think he'll be a tremendous secretary of labor.

Acosta is not currently a member of the NLRB.  He is a former member, serving under George W. Bush for one year, 2002-2003.

You’d think at this point, Trump of all people, would at least make sure he had his leading paragraph bulletproofed.

But this, this right here, is what will define the Trump Administration, they’re amateurs.

And also as you probably heard just a little while ago, Mick Mulvaney, former congressman, has just been approved weeks late, I have to say that, weeks, weeks late, Office of Management and Budget. And he will be I think a fantastic addition.

Weeks late. Weeks, weeks late, dammit.

Two paragraphs in and the petulant whining starts. Hell even George W. Bush had a thicker skin (and was a more stirring and focused speaker and you have no idea how much it hurts me to type that).

It’s hilariously hypocritical  for the Republican President to complain about the slow pace of Congressional action given Republicans have over the last eight years loudly and repeatedly emphasized the supposed idea that the Founding Fathers wanted Congress to work slowly and deliberately. 

The party of obstructionism has a lot of gall complaining about obstructionism.

But then religious fanatics are always outraged over the mote in everybody else’s eye, aren’t they?

Paul Singer just left. As you know, Paul was very much involved with the anti-Trump or as they say, "never Trump." And Paul just left and he's given us his total support. And it's all about unification. We're unifying the party and hopefully we're going to be able to unify the country. It's very important to me. I've been talking about that for a long time. It's very, very important to me.

So I want to thank Paul Singer for being here and for coming up to the office. He was a very strong opponent, and now he's a very strong ally. And I appreciate that.

Paul Singer is a Republican super-donor who spent $24 Million to defeat Hillary Clinton. He might have been Never Trump in the primaries, but there’s no way a right-wing fanatic isn’t going to get something for his money. Trump thinks he’s won over Conservative purists like Singer. He’s wrong. Singer loathes Trump, but just like all the rest, including hardcore true-believers such as Ted Cruz and John McCain, he’ll kiss the ring in order to advance the Conservative agenda.

Because power and ideology matter more to these people than country.

Or people.

I think I'll say a few words, and then we'll take some questions. And I had this time. We've been negotiating a lot of different transactions to save money on contracts that were terrible, including airplane contracts that were out of control and late and terrible; just absolutely catastrophic in terms of what was happening. And we've done some really good work. We're very proud of that. And then right after that, you prepare yourselves, we'll do some questions, unless you have enough questions. That's always a possibility. I'm here today to update the American people on the incredible progress that has been made in the last four weeks since my inauguration. We have made incredible progress. I don't think there's ever been a president elected who in this short period of time has done what we've done.

Gibberish. This isn’t a policy statement, it’s just random fragments of thought pasted together.

And that’s important because language and how we use it defines how we face the world, how we deal with adversity, how we think.

Look at that paragraph. There’s no clarity of thought, no cohesive theme. It’s just … gibberish. He’s going to say some stuff then he’ll take some questions because he had some time after negotiating some transactions that are out of control and terrible and catastrophic in terms of what’s happening and he’s done some good work that he’s proud of but can’t really describe and prepare yourself for some questions unless you have enough questions because that’s always a possibility and we’re back to incredible progress, incredible progress, just like the most incredible progress, I’m amazing.

I want you to remember this paragraph. Because we’re going to come back to it later.

A new Rasmussen poll, in fact, because the people get it, much of the media doesn't get it. They actually get it, but they don't write it. Let's put it that way. But a new Rasmussen poll just came out just a very short while ago, and it has our approval rating at 55 percent and going up. The stock market has hit record numbers, as you know. And there has been a tremendous surge of optimism in the business world, which is -- to me means something much different than it used to. It used to mean, "Oh, that's good." Now it means, "That's good for jobs." Very different.

Trump is obsessed with approval, with what other people think about him. He’s the bore at the party who tries to impress the girls by telling them about his car and his big screen stereo TV.

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He’s calls the press the enemy of the people.

That’s some fascist bullshit right there. That’s unbelievable statement from a US president, that’s the kind of thing you hear from dictators in Iran and North Korea.

He makes vague comments about optimism and tells you how some unnamed people think things are “good for jobs.” But you’ll note he doesn’t tell you about those jobs in any detail.  Who are these people? What are these jobs?

Plants and factories are already starting to move back into the United States, and big league -- Ford, General Motors, so many of them. I'm making this presentation directly to the American people, with the media present, which is an honor to have you. This morning, because many of our nation's reporters and folks will not tell you the truth, and will not treat the wonderful people of our country with the respect that they deserve. And I hope going forward we can be a little bit -- a little bit different, and maybe get along a little bit better, if that's possible. Maybe it's not, and that's OK, too.

And again, he leads off with one thought and ends up some place completely different. The car companies are bringing jobs back to America so the media stinks so I hope we can work together in the future but probably not so that’s fine.

Unfortunately, much of the media in Washington, D.C., along with New York, Los Angeles in particular, speaks not for the people, but for the special interests and for those profiting off a very, very obviously broken system. The press has become so dishonest that if we don't talk about, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people. Tremendous disservice. We have to talk to find out what's going on, because the press honestly is out of control. The level of dishonesty is out of control.

We all have that one relative, that one person we know, who just won’t shut up about some pet bugaboo. Everything, every conversation, always, every time, leads back to that one thing.

That’s Trump and the press.

It was bad enough when he was merely a candidate, but this is the President of the United States whining endlessly about the press and that should disturb every citizen.

The press was given enumerated protection in the First Amendment for a reason. The press is the only private enterprise given specific rights and freedoms in the Constitution. The press is the only private enterprise specifically protected from government interference.

This was done because the press is supposed to be the watchdog of liberty.

Now granted the press doesn’t always live up to this responsibility. I don’t think any of us would argue that it does. But it is not the president’s job to decide how any of us use our rights. And if Trump doesn’t like how he’s portrayed in the press, then perhaps he should do a better job of explaining himself (see the comments above regarding gibberish et al) or find himself a better press secretary and speech writer.

I ran for president to present the citizens of our country. I am here to change the broken system so it serves their families and their communities well. I am talking -- and really talking on this very entrenched power structure, and what we're doing is we're talking about the power structure; we're talking about its entrenchment. As a result, the media is going through what they have to go through too often times distort - not all the time - and some of the media is fantastic, I have to say - they're honest and fantastic.

This, this right here, is what I’m talking about. The media is terrible but they’re fantastic but the power structure is entrenched because it’s entrenched and I’m going to use the word entrenched for a third time in the same sentence and so the media is terrible.

If Trump doesn’t like how he’s perceived by the media, then he needs to be more coherent.

But much of it is not a,the distortion, and we'll talk about it, you'll be able to ask me questions about it. But we're not going to let it happen, because I'm here again, to take my message straight to the people. As you know, our administration inherited many problems across government and across the economy. To be honest, I inherited a mess. It's a mess. At home and abroad, a mess. Jobs are pouring out of the country; you see what's going on with all of the companies leaving our country, going to Mexico and other places, low pay, low wages, mass instability overseas, no matter where you look. The middle east is a disaster. North Korea - we'll take care of it folks; we're going to take care of it all. I just want to let you know, I inherited a mess.

Three paragraphs back he was telling you how jobs were coming back to the country, now he’s directly contradicting that statement and telling you how jobs are leaving the country.

And the takeaway from this paragraph is what? Everything is a mess, but it’s not Donald Trump’s fault. Right?

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He tells you the country is a mess, but he again he gives you no details, no facts, to back that up. When Trump took office, the unemployment rate was  4.7 percent after the the longest period of job growth in history. Household income rose in 2015 by 5.2 percent which is largest one-year increase since 1967.

While things could certainly be better – and would be better if Republicans had helped America for the last eight years instead of sabotaging government at every opportunity – the country is a damned sight better off than it was last time there was a Republican in the White House and that is provable by any standard measure you’d care to employ.

Beginning on day one, our administration went to work to tackle these challenges. On foreign affairs, we've already begun enormously productive talks with many foreign leaders, much of it you've covered, to move forward towards stability, security and peace in the most troubled regions of the world, which there are many. We have had great conversations with the United Kingdom, and meetings. Israel, Mexico, Japan, China and Canada, really, really productive conversations. I would say far more productive than you would understand.

Far more productive than you peons would understand.

And somehow he completely misses the fact that it’s his job to make us understand.

Trump complains that the press won’t report his truth, but he makes no attempt whatsoever to explain his assertion. He says these supposed conversations were “really, really productive” but he provides no facts, no details, no footnotes, no references, no transcripts, no witnesses. He expects the press to report that everything is peachy simply because he says it is.

Trump never, not once, took Obama at his word, but we’re supposed to take Trump at his.

We've even developed a new council with Canada to promote women's business leaders and entrepreneurs. It's very important to me, very important to my daughter Ivanka. I have directed our defense community headed by our great general, now Secretary Mattis. He's over there now working very hard to submit a plan for the defeat of ISIS, a group that celebrates the murder and torture of innocent people in large sections of the world. It used to be a small group, now it's in large sections of the world.

He combines his daughter’s fashion business with some vague hand waving about defeating ISIS and how bizarre is that?

“He’s over there now…” Mattis. He’s over where now? Working with who? Submitting a plan to what?  I mean, Trump gave you more detail about Ivanka’s purse sales in Canada than whatever the hell war Mad Dog is currently working up.

They've spread like cancer. ISIS has spread like cancer - another mess I inherited – and we have imposed new sanctions on the nation of Iran, who’s totally taken advantage of our previous administration, and they're the world's top sponsor of terrorism, and we're not going to stop until that problem is properly solved. And it's not properly solved now, it's one of the worst agreements I've ever seen drawn by anybody. I've ordered plan to begin building for the massive rebuilding of the United States military. Had great support from the Senate, I've had great from Congress, generally.

He goes from ISIS to Iran in the same sentence without any acknowledgement that these are two totally different entities and then he’s into the Iran Agreement and without even a paragraph break and he fetches up on “rebuilding” the US military.  These are three separate subjects, each extensive enough to be a press conference in and of themselves. Instead, it’s all just jumbled together like a tub of grocery-store pasta salad.

We've pursued this rebuilding in the hopes that we will never have to use this military, and I will tell you that is my - I would be so happy if we never had to use it. But our country will never have had a military like the military we're about to build and rebuild. We have the greatest people on earth in our military, but they don't have the right equipment and their equipment is old. I used it. I talked about it at every stop. Depleted, it's depleted - it won't be depleted for long. And I think one of the reason I'm standing here instead of other people is that frankly, I talked about we have to have a strong military.

“I used it.”

That’s what he said. I used it. Military equipment.

I read it three times. I watched the video over and over. That’s that he said.

And today nobody is asking where Trump supposedly used this military equipment.

I’ll ask. This military equipment Trump claims to have used, to have first hand knowledge of, where and when was that experience?

It must be recent, right? Since he took office.

So, let’s have it. When. Where. What.

And while we’re at it, this grand military, this mighty fleet that we’re going to build and rebuild, I’d also like to know more about that. As a citizen. As a taxpayer. As a veteran.

Trump says we don’t have the right equipment.

Okay. Of all the Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and by ISIS over of the last 16 years, of all the Americans killed or wounded in action, not one – not a single one – was killed by enemy air superiority. Not one was killed by enemy naval action. So, about that trillion dollar F-35 or those $4 Billion per copy Zumwalt class destroyers, or $400 Billion for an upgraded nuclear arsenal, or … well, I guess my question here is this, exactly what equipment is Trump talking about?

And how do we pay for it?

We have to have a strong law enforcement also. So we do not go abroad in the search of war, we really are searching for peace, but its peace through strength. At home, we have begun the monumental task of returning the government back to the people on a scale not seen in many, many years. In each of these actions, I'm keeping my promises to the American people. These are campaign promises. Some people are so surprised that we're having strong borders.

Well, that's what I've been talking about for a year and a half, strong borders. They're so surprised, oh, he having strong borders, well that's what I've been talking about to the press and to everybody else. One promise after another after years of politicians lying to you to get elected. They lied to the American people in order to get elected. Some of the things I'm doing probably aren't popular but they're necessary for security and for other reasons.

And if that last line doesn’t set off alarms, you aren’t paying attention.

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.

You see it right?

You see it, right? “We got 306 because people came out and voted like they've never seen before.”

Except the Electoral College vote and the popular vote are two separate things and Trump’s comment makes no goddamned sense at all.

At all.

Not only that, but it’s factually wrong.  Trump didn’t get 306 electoral votes, he got 304. A minor nitpick I suppose given that the rest of his statement is even more wrong.  Barack Obama won with 332 electoral votes in 2012 and 365 in 2008. Trump’s favorite foil, Bill Clinton, won with 379 electoral votes in 1996 and 370 in 1992. 

When he was questioned on this comment, Trump tried to wiggle out of his lie by saying he meant he’d had the biggest electoral win of Republicans since Reagan, but even that isn’t true since George H.W. Bush won 426 electoral votes in 1988.

Out of five presidents since Reagan, Trump is second from the bottom in electoral votes and he shares with the guy on the bottom the distinction of losing the popular vote.

And - but a lot of people are happy about it. In fact, I'll be in Melbourne, Florida five o'clock on Saturday and I heard - just heard that the crowds are massive that want to be there. I turn on the T.V., open the newspapers and I see stories of chaos. Chaos. Yet it is the exact opposite. This administration is running like a fine- tuned machine, despite the fact that I can't get my cabinet approved.

A fine tuned machine?

Let’s review, shall we?

The National Security Advisor resigned (or was fired, depending on who’s telling the story) for colluding with the Russians and lying to the Vice president about it. Mike Flynn didn’t even last a whole month.

Trump’s first military mission, a raid on Yemen, was a disaster with one SEAL dead, half a dozen injured, dozens of women and children killed, a $73 MILLION dollar aircraft destroyed, and the guy they were after got away and is now mocking Trump in public.

The US Intelligence Community is in open revolt and leaking classified information like piss from an incontinent Russian hooker.

Trump’s pick for Labor Secretary crapped out and withdrew his own nomination.

The White House Press Secretary is a running joke on Saturday Night Live ala Baghdad Bob only more ridiculous and when Kellyanne Conway isn’t hawking Ivanka Trump apparel she’s inventing fake terrorist attacks.

Trump’s Executive Order banning immigration from Muslim countries was halted by court order and even his own AG won’t defend it. His promise to make Mexico pay for a border wall constructed from the bodies of white elephants literally has Mexico’s former president telling Trump to go fuck himself on social media and Mexico’s current president cancelled an official state visit over the issue.

The streets are full of pissed off women in pink pussy hats and the airports are jammed with immigration protestors.

And then Trump’s Director of Scheduling, Caroline Wiles – the daughter of Susan Wiles, Trump’s Florida campaign director and the former campaign manager for Governor Rick Scott – was escorted from the White House today along with five other Trump staffers. Wiles apparently resigned because she couldn’t pass the background check which includes inquires into your credit score, substance use, and personal habits. The other five staffers also failed their background checks. 

The administration might be a fine-tuned machine all right, but it’s like an airplane full of bombs and jet fuel aimed at a mountainside while the pilots play Doodle-Jump on their cell phones.

And they're outstanding people like Senator Dan Coats who's there, one of the most respected men of the Senate. He can't get approved. How do you not approve him? He's been a colleague - highly respected. Brilliant guy, great guy, everybody knows it. We're waiting for approval. So we have a wonderful group of people that's working very hard, that's being very much misrepresented about and we can't let that happen.

So, if the Democrats who have - all you have to do is look at where they are right now. The only thing they can do is delay because they screwed things up royally, believe me. Let me list to you some of the things that we've done in just a short period of time. I just got here. And I got here with no cabinet. Again, each of these actions is a promise I made to the American people.

I'll go over just some of them and we have a lot happening next week and in the weeks - in the weeks coming. We've withdrawn from the job-killing disaster known as Trans Pacific Partnership. We're going to make trade deals but we're going to have one on one deals, bilateral. We're going to have one on one deals.

We've directed the elimination of regulations that undermine manufacturing and call for expedited approval of the permits needed for America and American infrastructure and that means plant, equipment, roads, bridges, factories. People take 10, 15, 20 years to get disapproved for a factory. They go in for a permit, it's many, many years. And then at the end of the process -- they spend 10s of millions of dollars on nonsense and at the end of the process, they get rejected.

Now, they may be rejected with me but it's going to be a quick rejection. Not going to take years. But mostly it's going to be an acceptance. We want plants built and we want factories built and we want the jobs. We don't want the jobs going to other countries. We've imposed a hiring freeze on non-essential federal workers. We've imposed a temporary moratorium on new federal regulations.

We've issued a game-changing new rule that says for each one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated. Makes sense. Nobody's ever seen regulations like we have. You go to other countries and you look at indexes (ph) they have and you say "let me see your regulations" and they're fraction, just a tiny fraction of what we have. And I want regulations because I want safety, I want environmental - all environmental situations to be taken properly care of. It's very important to me. But you don't need four or five or six regulations to take care of the same thing.

Twenty years to get approval for a factory?

Businesses spend tens of millions of dollars for a permit?

Once again, you’ll note he doesn’t provide any actual examples or facts to back up that claim.

It might take years to get approval for new power plant or a large pipeline or a dam, but those things require massive studies and extensive engineering and environmental review and history has shown repeatedly that when that kind of oversight isn’t applied it’s the public who suffers the consequences. Ask the folks of Love Canal or the Down Winders or those who live next to Hanford or the Savannah River or those sucking petroleum byproducts from their faucets in the middle of the fracking fields.

Most of the time, the delays are economic. Alaskans have been trying to build a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to a terminal near Anchorage or even as a pipeline through Canada for decades now. Every governor for the last 40 years has promised to complete the project and every conservative has blamed the EPA and Environmentalists and Liberals for the delays. But the real reason the project has never gotten off the ground is because it’s a white elephant. There’s no money in it. None. Even if you tossed out every regulation and ran the gas though rubber garden hoses right through the middle of sacred Native American graveyards, you still couldn’t turn a profit. For forty years the people pushing this scam have been doing their damnest to find a way to get the Federal Government to subsidize this boondoggle so they can line their pockets with tax dollars while blaming sissy liberals for the cost of doing business.

There’s a reason why these projects need strict oversight and you don’t have to go to Alaska to find them or wait from some massive environmental disaster, you don’t have to look any further than Enron or (Conservatives’ favorite punching bag) Solyndra.

We've stood up for the men and women of law enforcement, directing federal agencies to ensure they are protected from crimes of violence. We've directed the creation of a task force for reducing violent crime in America, including the horrendous situation -- take a look at Chicago and others, taking place right now in our inner cities. Horrible.

Uh huh.

Again, no details. No facts. No names. No references. No objective. No timelines. We’ve directed some people to do some vague thing.

It’s that scene from Indiana Jones: we’ve got top men working on it right now. Top. Men.

We've ordered the Department of Homeland Security and Justice to coordinate on a plan to destroy criminal cartels coming into the United States with drugs. We're becoming a drug infested nation. Drugs are becoming cheaper than candy bars. We are not going to let it happen any longer.

Oh. Destroy cartels coming into America. Boy, why didn’t anybody else think of that?

Drugs are cheaper than candy bars. We’re not going to let that happen any more.

No details. No facts. No names. No references. No objectives. No timelines. We’ve got top men working on it right now.

We've undertaken the most substantial border security measures in a generation to keep our nation and our tax dollars safe. And are now in the process of beginning to build a promised wall on the southern border, met with general -- now Secretary Kelly yesterday and we're starting that process. And the wall is going to be a great wall and it's going to be a wall negotiated by me. The price is going to come down just like it has on everything else I've negotiated for the government. And we are going to have a wall that works, not gonna have a wall like they have now which is either non-existent or a joke.

He promised a wall. He promised that Mexico would pay for his wall.

He was going to negotiate that.

He got told to go fuck himself by Mexico. That was the entire extent of the negotiations.

Now we’re paying for his wall and he’s promised to pay us back later.

This is the same guy who doesn’t pay the contractors who worked on his hotels and casinos.

You can do the rest of the math yourself.

We've ordered a crackdown on sanctuary cities that refuse to comply with federal law and that harbor criminal aliens, and we have ordered an end to the policy of catch and release on the border. No more release. No matter who you are, release. We have begun a nationwide effort to remove criminal aliens, gang members, drug dealers and others who pose a threat to public safety. We are saving American lives every single day.

This morning the media is full of reports of ICE agents arresting housewives and day laborers and school kids, but curiously lacking are pictures of alien gang members and violent criminals and drug dealers being carted off for deportation.

The court system has not made it easy for us. And are even creating a new office in Homeland Security dedicated to the forgotten American victims of illegal immigrant violence, which there are many. We have taken decisive action to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of our country. No parts are necessary and constitutional actions were blocked by judges, in my opinion, incorrect, and unsafe ruling. Our administration is working night and day to keep you safe, including reporters safe. And is vigorously defending this lawful order.

It’s not supposed to be easy.

Isn’t that exactly what Republicans have been telling us for eight years? The president isn’t a dictator. He’s not an emperor. Every single one of his actions and orders are subject to review and approval, by the court, by congress, by the people. That’s what conservatives like Trump told Obama.

I will not back down from defending our country. I got elected on defense of our country. I keep my campaign promises, and our citizens will be very happy when they see the result. They already are, I can tell you that. Extreme vetting will be put in place and it already is in place in many places.

What?

Again – again – no details. What is this “extreme vetting?” He provides no facts, no information, nothing.

In fact, we had to go quicker than we thought because of the bad decision we received from a circuit that has been overturned at a record number. I have heard 80 percent, I find that hard to believe, that is just a number I heard, that they are overturned 80 percent of the time. I think that circuit is -- that circuit is in chaos and that circuit is frankly in turmoil. But we are appealing that, and we are going further.

Trump “heard” that the 9th Circuit decisions are overturned at “record” numbers.

Maybe he should listen to somebody else.

While it’s true that up to 79% of cases from the 9th Circuit Court are reversed IF they make it to the Supreme Court, that’s not the highest rate, nor is it unusual. Nor is it 80% of the 9th Circuit Courts total decisions, it is 80% of the cases that make to the Supreme Court, that’s less than 1/10 of 1% of the Court’s decisions. It’s how our system is supposed to work. In the case of Trump’s immigration ban, the court’s job is to issue a stay on the order if there is any question of Constitutionality. That temporary decision is than reviewed at much higher standards by the Supreme Court (if the case gets that far) and while the ban itself might be overturned it’s often with certain modifications to the order or law to bring it into compliance with Constitutional requirements.

If you need an example, look at the various challenges to the ACA.

We're issuing a new executive action next week that will comprehensively protect our country. So we'll be going along the one path and hopefully winning that, at the same time we will be issuing a new and very comprehensive order to protect our people. That will be done sometime next week, toward the beginning or middle at the latest part.

Comprehensively protect the country how

From what? 

From who?

Using what resources?

And just how “comprehensive” can it be if it doesn’t require legislation and approval of Congress?

What the hell is he talking about?

We have also taken steps to begin construction of the Keystone Pipeline and Dakota Access Pipelines. Thousands and thousands of jobs, and put new buy American measures in place to require American steel for American pipelines. In other words, they build a pipeline in this country, and we use the powers of government to make that pipeline happen, we want them to use American steel. And they are willing to do that, but nobody ever asked before I came along. Even this order was drawn and they didn't say that. And I'm reading the order, I'm saying, why aren't we using American steel? And they said, that's a good idea, we put it in.

He’s reading the order. What order? The Executive Order he supposedly wrote? And if he didn’t write it, who did?

And “they” said that’s a good idea? Who? Who said that?

Never mind, let’s back up to that part where the President can order a private enterprise to buy materials from a particular supplier. Or better yet, let’s talk about how the president can order a pipeline company to buy American steel but apparently Casino owners can “negotiate” a better deal with China.

To drain the swamp of corruption in Washington, D.C., I've started by imposing a five-year lobbying ban on White House officials and a lifetime ban on lobbying for a foreign government.

White House officials were the problem? White House officials? Just White House officials?

We've begun preparing to repeal and replace Obamacare. Obamacare is a disaster, folks. It it's disaster. I know you can say, oh, Obamacare. I mean, they fill up our alleys with people that you wonder how they get there, but they are not the Republican people that our representatives are representing.

Wait, what?

I mean, they fill up our alleys with people that you wonder how they get there, but they are not the Republican people that our representatives are representing.

What?

So we've begun preparing to repeal and replace Obamacare, and are deep in the midst of negotiations on a very historic tax reform to bring our jobs back, to bring our jobs back to this country. Big league. It's already happening. But big league.

By this point in Trump’s press conference I was reduced to shouting What?! over and over and throwing things at the TV.

I've also worked to install a cabinet over the delays and obstruction of Senate Democrats. You've seen what they've done over the last long number of years. That will be one of the great cabinets ever assembled in American history. You look at Rex Tillerson. He's out there negotiating right now. General Mattis I mentioned before, General Kelly. We have great, great people. Mick is with us now. We have great people. Among their responsibilities will be ending the bleeding of jobs from our country and negotiating fair trade deals for our citizens.

Trump apparently thinks that if he just says “negotiate” enough, some kind of magic will happen.

Now look, fair trade. Not free, fair. If a country is taking advantage of us, not going to let that happen anymore. Every country takes advantage of us almost. I may be able to find a couple that don't. But for the most part, that would be a very tough job for me to do.

Jobs have already started to surge. Since my election, Ford announced it will abandon its plans to build a new factory in Mexico, and will instead invest $700 million in Michigan, creating many, many jobs.

Fiat Chrysler announced it will invest $1 billion in Ohio and Michigan, creating 2,000 new American jobs. They were with me a week ago. You know you were here.

General Motors likewise committed to invest billions of dollars in its American manufacturing operation, keeping many jobs here that were going to leave. And if I didn't get elected, believe me, they would have left. And these jobs and these things that I'm announcing would never have come here.

Intel just announced that it will move ahead with a new plant in Arizona that probably was never going to move ahead with. And that will result in at least 10,000 American jobs.

Walmart announced it will create 10,000 jobs in the United States just this year because of our various plans and initiatives. There will be many, many more, many more, these are a few that we're naming.

Other countries have been taking advantage of us for decades -- decades, and decades, and decades, folks. And we're not going to let that happen anymore. Not going to let it happen.

Don’t make me say “negotiate” again.

And one more thing, I have kept my promise to the American people by nominating a justice of the United States Supreme Court, Judge Neil Gorsuch, who is from my list of 20, and who will be a true defender of our laws and our Constitution, highly respected, should get the votes from the Democrats. You may not see that. But he'll get there one way or the other. But he should get there the old-fashioned way, and he should get those votes.

“You may not see that.”

So, just to be clear, he’s going to personally “negotiate” with our toughest trade partners, countries like China, but he can’t negotiate with Democrats? He can’t make a deal with his own countrymen. But then again, according to Trump “they are not the Republican people that our representatives are representing” so fuck ‘em, they don’t matter anyway. 

This last month has represented an unprecedented degree of action on behalf of the great citizens of our country. Again, I say it. There has never been a presidency that's done so much in such a short period of time.

You said it, all right.

I swear Trump blows his own horn so much it’s practically autofellatio.

And we have not even started the big work yet. That starts early next week.

Oh great, I can hardly wait.

Some very big things are going to be announced next week. So we are just getting started. We will be giving a speech, as I said, in Melbourne, Florida, at 5:00 p.m. I hope to see you there.

And with that, I just say, God bless America, and let's take some questions.

And so, at long, long last we arrive at the questions.

“…unless you have enough questions. That's always a possibility.”

Apparently not.

Alas

Mara, Mara, go ahead. You were cut off pretty violently at our last news conference.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

TRUMP: Mike Flynn is a fine person, and I asked for his resignation. He respectfully gave it. He is a man who there was a certain amount of information given to Vice President Pence, who is with us today. And I was not happy with the way that information was given. He didn't have to do that, because what he did wasn't wrong – what he did in terms of the information he saw. What was wrong was the way that other people, including yourselves in this room, were given that information, because that was classified information that was given illegally. That's the real problem.

So, Flynn’s a fine guy and he didn’t do anything wrong but Trump fired him anyway because “somebody” reported what he did, which wasn’t wrong, but Trump fired him because somebody else who wasn’t Flynn told the press what Flynn did, which wasn’t wrong. See?

And, you know, you can talk all you want about Russia, which was all a, you know, fake news, fabricated deal, to try and make up for the loss of the Democrats and the press plays right into it. In fact, I saw a couple of the people that were supposedly involved with all of this – that they know nothing about it; they weren't in Russia; they never made a phone call to Russia; they never received a phone call.

So, like I was saying, Flynn talked to Russia and didn’t tell Pence about it, but nobody talked to Russia, except for Flynn, who Trump fired for not doing anything wrong except for getting caught talking to Russia, and besides that was all fabricated by the Fake News and never really happened which is why Trump fired Mike Flynn for it, who is a really great guy, who talked to Russia except for when nobody talked to Russia. Okay?

It's all fake news. It's all fake news. The nice thing is, I see it starting to turn, where people are now looking at the illegal – I think it's very important – the illegal, giving out classified information. It was – and let me just tell you, it was given out like so much.

So, it’s Fake News but it’s real information that was given out, which is really important, illegally speaking, but it’s fake, see?

I'll give you an example. I called, as you know, Mexico. It was a very, very confidential, classified call. But I called Mexico. And in calling Mexico, I figured, oh, well that's – I spoke to the president of Mexico; I had a good call. All of a sudden, it's out there for the world to see. It's supposed to be secret. It's supposed to be either confidential or classified, in that case.

Same thing with Australia. All of a sudden, people are finding out exactly what took place. The same thing happened with respect to General Flynn. Everybody saw this. And I'm saying – the first thing I thought of when I heard about it is: How does the press get this information that's classified? How do they do it?

You know why? Because it's an illegal process and the press should be ashamed of themselves. But more importantly, the people that gave out the information to the press should be ashamed of themselves, really ashamed.

So, anyway, in conclusion, if it had been on, like, you know, Wikileaks, it would have been totally cool. But, um, if the press, you know, reports it, it’s totally lame and Fake News and that’s bad and sad.

Yes, go ahead.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

TRUMP: Because when I looked at the information, I said, "I don't think he did anything wrong; if anything, he did something right." He was coming into office. He looked at the information. He said, "Huh, that's fine." That's what they're supposed to do. They're supposed to, he didn't just call Russia. He called and spoke to both ways, I think there were 30-some-odd countries. He's doing the job. You know, he was doing his job. The thing is, he didn't tell our vice president properly, and then he said he didn't remember. So either way, it wasn't very satisfactory to me. And I have somebody that I think will be outstanding for the position. And that also helps, I think, in the making of my decision. But he didn't tell the vice president of the United States the facts. And then he didn't remember. And that just wasn't acceptable to me.

So, just to reiterate, Mike Flynn was just doing his job and Trump was all “You’re Fired!” and Flynn was like “What the fuck, man?” And Trump was like, “Pence is pissed, Dude. But you can have this nice Ivanka Purse as a parting gift and anyway we gave your job to another guy.”

Yes?

QUESTION: (inaudible) clarification here. During your campaign, did anyone from your team (inaudible) Russian government or Russian intelligence? And if so, what was the nature of those conversations (inaudible)?

TRUMP: The failing New York Times wrote a big, long front-page story yesterday. And it was very much discredited, as you know. It was – it's a joke. And the people mentioned in the story, I notice they were on television today saying they never even spoke to Russia. They weren't even a part, really – I mean, they were such a minor part. They – I hadn't spoken to them. I think the one person – I don't think I've ever spoken to him. I don't think I've ever met him. And he actually said he was a very low-level member of I think a committee for a short period of time. I don't think I ever met him. Now, it's possible that I walked into a room and he was sitting there, but I don't think I ever met him. I didn't talk to him ever. And he thought it was a joke. The other person said he never spoke to Russia; never received a call. Look at his phone records, et cetera, et cetera. And the other person, people knew that he represented various countries, but I don't think he represented Russia, but knew that he represented various countries. That's what he does. I mean, people know that. That's Mr. Manafort, who's by the way, who's by the way a respected man. He's a respected man. But I think he represented the Ukraine or Ukraine government or somebody, but everybody, people knew that, everybody knew that. So, these people – and he said that he has absolutely nothing to do and never has with Russia. And he said that very forcefully. I saw his statement. He said it very forcefully. Most of the papers don't print it because that's not good for their stories.

If you were on trial and you answered a question in that fashion in front of a jury, they’d be fitting you for the electric chair twenty minutes later.

So the three people that they talked about all totally deny it. And I can tell you, speaking for myself, I own nothing in Russia. I have no loans in Russia. I don't have any deals in Russia. President Putin called me up very nicely to congratulate me on the win of the election. He then, called me up extremely nicely to congratulate me on the inauguration, which was terrific. But so did many other leaders, almost all other leaders from almost all of the country. So that's the extent. Russia is fake news. Russia, this is fake news put out by the media. The real news is the fact that people, probably from the Obama administration because they're there, because we have our new people going in place, right now.

Let’s back up to the part where Trump just fired Mike Flynn for talking to Russia and lying to Mike Pence about it.

What?

Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

You know what? You’re right, he’s rolling. Never mind.

As you know, Mike Pompeo has, has now taken control of the CIA, James Comey at FBI, Dan Coats is waiting to be approved, I mean he is a senator and a highly respected one and he's still waiting to be approved. But our new people are going in. And just while you're at it, because you mentioned this, Wall Street Journal did a story today that was almost as disgraceful as the failing New York Time's story, yesterday. And it talked about – these are  front page. So director of national intelligence just put out, acting a statement, any suggestion that the United States intelligence community, this was just given to us, is withholding information and not providing the best possible intelligence to the president and his national security team is not true. So they took this front page story out of The Wall Street Journal top and they just wrote the story that its not true. And I'll tell you something, I'll be honest, because I sort of enjoy this back and forth that I guess I have all my life but I've never seen more dishonest media than frankly, the political media. I thought the financial media was much better, much more honest.But I will say that, I never get phone calls from the media. How did they write a story like that in The Wall Street Journal without asking me or how did they write a story in The New York Times, put it on front page? That was like the story they wrote about the women and me, front page, big massive story. And it was nasty and then they called, they said we never said that, we like Mr. Trump. They called up my office, we like Mr. Trump, we never said that. And it was totally, they totally misrepresented those very wonderful women, I have to tell you, totally misrepresented. I said give us the retraction. They never gave us a retraction and frankly, I then went on to other things.

Nixon was like Ha hah! Woodward and Bernstein didn’t talk to me so, hah hah! Watergate didn’t happen so I’m still the president! Hah hah, Fuckers! and America just sort of shrugged and said, well, he’s got a point…

Trump (and a lot of journalists apparently) think access journalism is the only journalism.

OK, go ahead.

QUESTION: You said today that you have big electoral margins (inaudible) 300 or more , or 350  electoral  votes. President Obama about 365 electoral votes.

TRUMP: Yeah.

QUESTION: Obama (inaudible) 426 on (inaudible). So why should Americans...

TRUMP: I'm skipping that information, I don't know, I was just given, we had a very, very big margin.

QUESTION: But why should Americans trust you on the information?

TRUMP: Well, I don't know, I was given that information. I was given, I actually, I've seen that information around. But it was a very substantial victory, do you agree with that? OK thank you, that's...

Why should we trust you?

Well, I don’t know.

Fair enough.

TRUMP: Go ahead Sir, yes?

QUESTION: Can you tell us in determining that Lieutenant General Flynn did, whether there was no wrongdoing in your mind, what evidence was weighed? Did you ask for transcripts of these telephone intercepts with Russian officials, particularly the Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, who he was communicating with?  What, what evidence did you weigh to determine that there was no wrongdoing? Further to that, Sir, you said on a couple of locations this morning, you are going to aggressively pursue the source of these leaks.

TRUMP: We are.

QUESTION: Can we ask what you're going to do and also, we've heard about a, a review of the intelligence community headed up by Steven Feinberg, what can you tell us about that?

TRUMP: Well, first of all about that, we now have Dan Coats, hopefully soon, Mike Pompeo and James Comey and they're in position so I hope that we'll be able to straighten that out without using anybody else. The gentleman you mentioned is a very talented man, very successful man and he's offered his services and you know, it's something we may take advantage of. But I don't think we're need that at all because of the fact that you know, I think that we are gonna be able to straighten it out very easily on its own. As far as the general's concerned, when I first heard about it, I said huh, that doesn't sound wrong. My counsel came, Don McGahn, White House Counsel, and he told me and I asked him, he can speak very well for himself. He said he doesn't think anything is wrong, you know, really didn't think. It was really, what happened after that but he didn't think anything was done wrong. I didn't either because I waited a period of time and I started to think about it, I said "well I don't see" – to me, he was doing the job. The information was provided by -- who I don't know, Sally Yates. And I was a little surprised because I said "doesn't sound like he did anything wrong there." But he did something wrong with respect to the vice president and I thought that was not acceptable. As far as -- as far as the actual making the call, fact I've watched various programs and I've read various articles where he was just doing his job. That was very normal. You know, first everybody got excited because they thought he did something wrong. After they thought about it, it turned out he was just doing his job. So. And I do. And by the way, with all of that being said, I do think he's a fine man.

Thank God we cleared that up.

QUESTION: Sir, if I could, on the leaks, on the leaks, Sir...

TRUMP: Go ahead. Finish off then I'll get you.

QUESTION: I'm sorry. What will you do on the leaks? You've said twice today...

TRUMP: Yes, we're looking at them very, um, very, very serious. I've gone to all of the folks in charge of the various agencies and we're, um, I've actually called the Justice Department to look into the leaks. Those are criminal leaks. They're put out by people either in agencies. I think you'll see it stopping because now we have our people in. You know, again, we don't have our people in because we can't get them approved by the Senate.

We have our people in but we don’t have our people in. You can quote me on that.

We just had Jeff Sessions approved. In Justice, as an example. So, we are looking into that very seriously. It's a criminal act. You know what I say, when I, when I was called out on Mexico, I was shocked because all this equipment, all this incredible phone equipment, when I was called out on Mexico, I was, honestly, I was really, really surprised, but I said "you know, it doesn't make sense. That won't happen" but that wasn't that important a call, it was fine, I could show it to the world and he could show it to the world, the president who's a very fine man, by the way. Same thing with Australia, I said that's terrible that it was leaked but it wasn't that important. But then I said to myself what happens when I'm dealing with the problem of North Korea? What happens when I'm dealing with the problems in the Middle East? Are you folks going to be reporting all of that very, very confidential information, very important, very, you know, I mean at the highest level? Are you going to be reporting about that too? So, I don't want classified information getting out to the public and in a way that was almost a test. So I'm dealing with Mexico, I'm dealing with Argentina, we were dealing on this case with Mike Flynn. All this information gets put into the Washington Post and gets put into the New York Times and I'm saying what's going to happen when I'm dealing on the Middle East? What's going to happen when I'm dealing with really, really important subjects like North Korea? We got to stop it. That's why it's a criminal penalty.

But then I said to myself please don’t make me sound like an idiot because I hate that.

QUESTION: I just want to get you to clarify this very important point. Can you say definitively that nobody on your campaign had any contacts with the Russians during the campaign? And on the leaks, is it fake news or are these real leaks?

TRUMP: Well the leaks are real. You're the one that wrote about them and reported them, I mean the leaks are real. You know what they said, you saw it and the leaks are absolutely real. The news is fake because so much of the news is fake. So one thing that I felt it was very important to do and I hope we can correct it. Because there's nobody I have more respect for, well, maybe a little bit but the reporters, good reporters. It's very important to me and especially in this position. It's very important. I don't mind bad stories. I can handle a bad story better than anybody as long as it's true and, you know, over a course of time, I'll make mistakes and you'll write badly and I'm OK with that. But I'm not OK when it is fake. I mean, I watch CNN, it's so much anger and hatred and just the hatred. I don't watch it any more because it's very good, he's saying no. It's OK, Jim. It's OK, Jim, you'll have your chance. But I watch others too. You're not the only one so don't feel badly. But I think it should be straight. I think it should be, I think it would be frankly more interesting. I know how good everybody's ratings are right now but I think that actually, I think that'd actually be better. People, I mean, you have a lower approval rate than Congress. I think that's right. I don't know, Peter, is that one right? Because you know I think they have lower, I heard lower than Congress. But honestly, the public would appreciate it, I'd appreciate it, again, I don't mind bad stories when it's true but we have an administration where the Democrats are making it very difficult. I think we're setting a record or close to a record in the time of approval of a cabinet. I mean, the numbers are crazy. When I'm looking, some of them had them approved immediately. I'm going forever and I still have a lot of people that we're waiting for. And that's all they're doing, is delaying. And you look at Schumer and the mess that he's got over there and they have nothing going. The only thing they can do is delay. And, you know, I think that they'd be better served by, you know, approving and making sure that they're happy and everybody's good. And sometimes, I mean, I know President Obama lost three or four, and you lose them on the way, and that's OK. That's fine. But I think it would, I think they would be much better served, John, if they just went through the process quickly. This is pure delay tactics. And they say it, and everybody understands it.

So, that’s a big no on the talking to Russia thing then?

Yeah, go ahead, Jimmy.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

TRUMP: Well, I had nothing to do with it. I have nothing to do with Russia. I told you, I have no deals there, I have no anything. Now, when WikiLeaks, which I had nothing to do with, comes out and happens to give, they're not giving classified information. They're giving stuff, what was said at an office about Hillary cheating on the debates. Which, by the way, nobody mentions. Nobody mentions that Hillary received the questions to the debates. Can you imagine , seriously can you imagine if I received the questions? It would be the electric chair. OK, he should be put in the electric, you would even call for the reinstitution of the death penalty, OK. Maybe not you John. Yes? We'll do you next Jim, I do you next.

To be completely honest, I’m not sure even an electric chair would help at this point.

QUESTION: Can you clarify…

TRUMP: Yes, yes, sure

QUESTION: Did you direct Mike Flynn to discuss sanctions with the Russian ambassador…

TRUMP: No, I didn't.

QUESTION: …prior to your…

TRUMP: No, I didn't.

QUESTION: … inauguration?

TRUMP: No, I didn't.

QUESTION: And then fired him…

TRUMP: Excuse me?

QUESTION: (inaudible)

TRUMP: No, I fired him because of what he said to Mike Pence. Very simple. Mike was doing his job. He was calling countries and his counterparts. So, it certainly would have been OK with me if he did it. I would have directed him to do it if I thought he wasn't doing it. I didn't direct him, but I would have directed him because that's his job. And it came out that way, and in all fairness, I watched Dr. Charles Krauthammer the other night say he was doing his job and I agreed with him. And since then, I've watched many other people say that. No, I didn't direct him, but I would have directed him if he didn't do it. OK? Jim?

Wait, let’s back up to that part about nobody talked to the Russians. Hello?

I admit to being a little confused at this point.

QUESTION: Thank you very much, and just for the record, we don't hate you. I don't hate you.

TRUMP: OK.

QUESTION: So, pass that along…

TRUMP: Ask, ask Jeff Zucker how he got his job. OK?

These two should maybe get a room.

QUESTION: If I may follow up on some of the questions that have taken place so far here, sir…

TRUMP: Well, that's, well, you know, we do have other people. You do have other people and your ratings aren't as good as some of the other people that are waiting.

QUESTION: It's pretty good right now, actually.

TRUMP: OK, go ahead, John.

QUESTION: If I may ask, sir, you said earlier that WikiLeaks was revealing information about the Hillary Clinton campaign during the election cycle. You welcomed that. At one time…

TRUMP: I was OK with it.

QUESTION: …you said, you said that you loved WikiLeaks. At another campaign press conference you called on the Russians to find the missing 30,000 e-mails. I'm wondering, sir, if you…

TRUMP: Well, she was actually missing 33 and then that got extended with a pile after that.

QUESTION: Then your numbers were off too?

TRUMP: No. No, but I did say 30. But it was actually higher than that.

QUESTION: If, if I may ask you, sir, it, it sounds as though you do not have much credibility here when it comes to leaking if that is something that you encouraged during(ph) the campaign…

TRUMP: OK, fair question. Ready?

QUESTION: Well, if I may ask you that…

TRUMP: No, no, but let me do one at a time.

QUESTION: If I may as a follow up?

TRUMP: Do you mind?

QUESTION: Yes, sir.

TRUMP: All right. So, in one case, you're talking about highly classified information. In the other case, you're talking about John Podesta saying bad things about the boss. I will say this, if John Podesta said that about me and he was working for me, I would have fired him so fast your head would have spun. He said terrible things about her. But it wasn't classified information. But in one case, you're talking about classified, regardless, if you look at the RNC, we had a very strong, at my suggestion and I give Reince great credit for this. at my suggestion, because I know something about this world, I said I want a very strong defensive mechanism. I don't want to be hacked. And we did that. And you have seen that they tried to hack us and they failed. The DNC did not do that. And if they did it, they could not have been hacked. But they were hacked and terrible things came in. And, you know, the only thing that I do think is unfair is some of the things were so, they were, when I heard some of those things I picked up the papers the next morning and said, oh, this is going to be front page, it wasn't even in the papers. Again, if I had that happen to me, it would be the biggest story in the history of publishing or the head of newspapers. I would have been headline in every newspaper. I mean, think of it. They gave her the questions to a debate and she, and she should have reported herself. Why did Hillary Clinton announce that, I'm sorry, but I have been given the questions to a debate or a town hall, and I feel that it's inappropriate, and I want to turn in CNN for not doing a good job.

I missed something. Do we still like Wikileaks or not?

QUESTION: And if I may follow up on that, just something that Jonathan Karl was asking you about. You said that the leaks are real, but the news is fake. I guess I don't understand. It seems that there's a disconnect there. If the information coming from those leaks is real, then how can the stories be fake?

TRUMP: The reporting is fake. Look, look, you know what it is? Here's the thing. The public isn't, you know, they read newspapers, they see television, they watch, they don't know if it's true or false because they're not involved. I'm involved. I've been involved with this stuff all my life. But I'm involved. So I know when you're telling the truth or when you're not. I just see many, many untruthful things. And I'll tell you what else I see. I see tone. You know the word tone. The tone is such hatred. I'm really not a bad person, by the way. No, but the tone is such, I do get good ratings, you have to admit that. The tone is such hatred. I watched this morning a couple of the networks. And I have to say, Fox & Friends in the morning, they're very honorable people. They're very, not because they're good, because they hit me also when I do something wrong. But they have the most honest morning show. That's all I can say. It's the most honest. But the tone, Jim. If you look, the hatred, the, I mean, sometimes, sometimes somebody gets, well, you look at your show that goes on at 10 o'clock in the evening. You just take a look at that show. That is a constant hit. The panel is almost always exclusive anti-Trump. The good news is he doesn't have good ratings. But the panel is almost exclusive anti-Trump. And the hatred and venom coming from his mouth; the hatred coming from other people on your network. Now, I will say this. I watch it. I see it. I'm amazed by it. And I just think you'd be a lot better off, I honestly do. The public gets it, you know. Look, when I go to rallies, they turn around, they start screaming at CNN. They want to throw their placards at CNN. You know. I, I think you would do much better by being different. But you just take a look. Take a look at some of your shows in the morning and the evening. If a guest comes out and says something positive about me, it's, it's brutal. Now, they'll take this news conference, I'm actually having a very good time, OK? But they'll take this news conference, don't forget, that's the way I won. Remember, I used to give you a news conference every time I made a speech, which was like every day. OK? No, that's how I won. I won with news conferences and probably speeches. I certainly didn't win by people listening to you people. That's for sure. But I'm having a good time. Tomorrow, they will say, "Donald Trump rants and raves at the press." I'm not ranting and raving. I'm just telling you. You know, you're dishonest people. But, but I'm not ranting and raving. I love this. I'm having a good time doing it. But tomorrow, the headlines are going to be, "Donald Trump rants and raves." I'm not ranting and raving.

I’m babbling like a deranged lunatic, but I’m not ranting and raving.

This goes on and on. So let’s jump over the CNN bashing and the part where Trump explains how he’d be a really good reporter and the bullshit about his great tax plan and get to the part where he’s starting a nuclear war.

QUESTION: Mr. President, you mentioned Russia. Let's talk about some serious issues that have come up in the last week that you have had to deal with as president of the United States.

TRUMP: OK.

QUESTION: You mentioned the vessel, the spy vessel off the coast of the United States.

TRUMP: Not good.

QUESTION: There was a ballistic missile test that many interpret as a violation of an agreement between the two countries; and a Russian plane buzzed a U.S. destroyer.

TRUMP: Not good.

QUESTION: I listened to you during the campaign ...

TRUMP: Excuse me, excuse me. When did it happen? It happened when, if you were Putin right now, you would say, "Hey, we're back to the old games with the United States; there's no way Trump can ever do a deal with us." Because the, you have to understand, if I was just brutal on Russia right now, just brutal, people would say, you would say, "Oh, isn't that wonderful." But I know you well enough. Then you would say, "Oh, he was too tough; he shouldn't have done that." Look, all of the…

QUESTION: I'm just trying to find out your orientation to those...

TRUMP: Wait a minute. Wait, wait. Excuse me just one second. All of those things that you mentioned are very recent, because probably Putin assumes that he's not going to be able to make a deal with me because it's politically not popular for me to make a deal. So Hillary Clinton tries a re-set. It failed. They all tried. But I'm different than those people.

Maybe, and I’m just throwing this out there, Putin thinks he can’t do a deal with the United States because we elected a raving lunatic for President.

Go ahead.

QUESTION: How are you interpreting those moves? And what do you intend to do about them? Have you given Rex Tillerson any advice or counsel on how to deal?

TRUMP: I have. I have. And I'm so beautifully represented. I'm so honored that the Senate approved him. He's going to be fantastic. Yes, I think that I've already...

QUESTION: Is Putin testing you, do you believe, sir?

TRUMP: No, I don't think so. I think Putin probably assumes that he can't make a deal with me anymore because politically it would be unpopular for a politician to make a deal. I can't believe I'm saying I'm a politician, but I guess that's what I am now. Because, look, it would be much easier for me to be tough on Russia, but then we're not going to make a deal. Now, I don't know that we're going to make a deal. I don't know. We might. We might not. But it would be much easier for me to be so tough, the tougher I am on Russia, the better. But you know what? I want to do the right thing for the American people. And to be honest, secondarily, I want to do the right thing for the world. If Russia and the United States actually got together and got along, and don't forget, we're a very powerful nuclear country and so are they. There's no up-side. We're a very powerful nuclear country and so are they. I have been briefed. And I can tell you one thing about a briefing that we're allowed to say because anybody that ever read the most basic book can say it, nuclear holocaust would be like no other. They're a very powerful nuclear country and so are we. If we have a good relationship with Russia, believe me, that's a good thing, not a bad thing.

It would be a holocaust like no other.

That’s what your president has been authorized to tell you. We’ve got nukes. They’ve got nukes. It would be a holocaust like no other, see? He’s been briefed so he knows. Nuclear war is bad, Folks. You probably didn’t know that, but, yeah, bad. So, probably better go easy on Russia because nobody wants a nuclear war, right?

QUESTION: So when you say they're not good, do you mean that they are...

TRUMP: Who did I say is not good?

QUESTION: No, I read off the three things that have recently happened. Each one of them you said they're not good.

TRUMP: No, it's not good, but they happened.

QUESTION: But do they damage the relationship? Do they undermine...

TRUMP: They all happened recently. No...

QUESTION: ... this country's ability to work with Russia?

TRUMP: They all happened recently. And I understand what they're doing because they're doing the same thing. Now, again, maybe I'm not going to be able to do a deal with Russia, but at least I will have tried. And if I don't, does anybody really think that Hillary Clinton would be tougher on Russia than Donald Trump? Does anybody in this room really believe that? OK? But I tell you one thing, she tried to make a deal. She had the re-set. She gave all that valuable uranium away. She did other things. You know, they say I'm close to Russia. Hillary Clinton gave away 20 percent of the uranium in the United States. She's close to Russia.

QUESTION: Can we...

TRUMP: I gave, you know what I gave to Russia? You know what I gave? Nothing.

QUESTION: Can we conclude there will be no response to these particular provocations?

TRUMP: I'm not going to tell you anything about what response I do. I don't talk about military response. I don't say I'm going into Mosul in four months. "We are going to attack Mosul in four months." Then three months later, "We are going to attack Mosul in one month." "Next week, we are going to attack Mosul." In the meantime, Mosul is very, very difficult. Do you know why? Because I don't talk about military, and I don't talk about certain other things, you're going to be surprised to hear that. And by the way, my whole campaign, I'd say that. So I don't have to tell you. I don't want to be one of these guys that say, "Yes, here's what we're going to do." I don't have to do that. I don't have to tell you what I'm going to do in North Korea. Wait a minute. I don't have to tell you what I'm going to do in North Korea. And I don't have to tell you what I'm going to do with Iran. You know why? Because they shouldn't know. And eventually, you guys are going to get tired of asking that question. So when you ask me what am I going to do with a ship, the Russian ship as an example, I'm not going to tell you. But hopefully, I won't have to do anything, but I'm not going to tell you. OK.

Honestly, I don’t know if Hillary Clinton would have been tougher on Russia or not.

I do know, however, that I would be a whole lot more comfortable if her hand was on the button instead of this rambling nut.

Hell, at this point, I’d take George W. Bush back and be glad to have him.

I’ll spare you the rest of this shitshow. It goes on for another couple of thousand words because you can’t just gong the President off the stage even if he starts babbling about nuclear holocaust. Wading through the rest of the transcript is like reading dialog written by an angry Adam Sandler for an Eddie Murphy Pluto Nash sequel. It’s about as funny as waterboarding and sure Rush Limbaugh finds that sort of thing great entertainment but then he’s stoned on Oxy and Rogaine speedballs.

We’re twenty-eight days into this horror fest.

Yesterday’s presser should have been a gesture of confidence and leadership.

Instead it was an extended middle finger waved under the nose of America.

204 comments:

  1. Am I the only one who has noticed he talks in hyperbole and absolutes? Everything is either completely terrible or tremendously great. There's no nuance, no middle ground, no balance. It's like listening to a bi-polar schizophrenic who is off his meds.

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    1. He never met an adverb he didn't like--very, very, very, very . . .you get the idea. And one does wonder what meds he takes--or should take.

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    2. If not schizoid, then definitely your average ten year old. One of my housemates has his kids over on the weekends, including his ten year old son. Bright kid, reads a lot, full of energy and when he's not reminding me of my own childhood insecurities (Oh the memories), he talks like Trump.

      Because he's at the age where he knows he's smart so he thinks he's going to fit in with any adult conversation by talking big, using big words and Sounding Like He Knows Things, even if he's just parroting what he just heard. And while I'm deeply annoyed (and retroactively embarrassed) when he monologs about how the comedy of the 1970s was clearly less sensitive than today, using our own phrasings, he's ten. He doesn't know any better and ideally he's going to learn more about social graces in the next year or three.

      Donald Trump is not ten. Insert full body shudder here.

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    3. They also can be both at the same time!

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    4. No, you're not the only one.

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    5. Yes, ma'am. That pretty much sums it up. Dave Barry could not have written a funnier dialogue and so that old adage about moving from tragedy to farce is ringing ever more truly.

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    6. "Wait. What? WHAT did you just read there? It sounds like you had a stroke mom." said Garrett to me, as I read aloud the presser transcript of #45's speech thingee. Words. Lots of very wordy words. Word salad.
      HELP! My brain is stuck in 7 a.m. Twitler mode again.
      Having a stroke seems the most logical answer.

      I personally paused or hemorrhaged about here in the early part of his blathering...

      "I think the one person — I don't think I've ever spoken to him. I don't think I've ever met him. And he actually said he was a very low-level member of, I think, a committee for a short period of time. I don't think I ever met him. Now, it's possible that I walked into a room, and he was sitting there, but I don't think I ever met him. I didn't talk to him ever. And he thought it was a joke."

      I sat at the dining room table open-mouthed re-reading that single paragraph feeling my brain just dissolve.

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    7. New idea is that he's got a raging case of Neurosyphilis.

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    8. Voice recorders from planes that crash into mountains or into the ocean show last words from Captain are " Oh shit." That is the only response to this accident we are watching in real time.

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    9. I agree Natasha. According to Trump, everything is a messsss. A disasssster. He hisses when he talks. He seems obsessed with death and destruction. Remember when he announced his candidacy an he claimed the American Dream is dead? And now he is humping the body.

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  2. Jesus Harold Christ.

    I know you're not much for Jack Daniels whiskey, but I have an unopened bottle of the special stuff they made to honor Frank Sinatra. Should you ever make it 'round my way, I'd be willing to open it.

    Because it was bad enough reading that. Writing it? No. No I think I'd rather give myself corrective eye surgery with knitting needles.

    Thank you.

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    1. Howard, his middle name is Howard. You know, "Our Father, who art in heaven, Howard be thy name?"

      Figured this post and the responses needed some humor, cause reading the Donnie quotes makes me consider suicide.

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    2. I'm pretty sure it's actually Harold. As in, "Hark, the Harold angels sing."

      But at the end of the day, the important part is that I'm offering free booze to Jim Wright.

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    3. You're all wrong. The H stands for Hector. After all, Jesus is a Latin name.

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    4. Pretty sure it's Haploid. As in only amount of DNA of an egg, because he didn't get the other half from any Pa, not having one of this earth.

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  3. Part of me wants to attempt to diagram his sentences to see if I can actually force a coherent thought out of them, and part of me wants to run screaming from the abuses he has heaped on the English langauge.
    I'm so sorry you waded through that transcript. I respect your fortitude.

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    1. I am not sure that sophisticated software could diagram that babble. Perhaps we should present it as an exercise for doctoral students in linguistics. There is a body of research on the study of BS.

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    2. I agree! I even tried reading some of it out loud in a calm, rational voice to find some substance or sanity. Didn't work.

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    3. It needs a giant cork board wall with the pins and strings I think.

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    4. Oh! no! No diagramming those things. I'm also sure you would find a large company of fellow screamers doing so for your exact reasons!

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    5. Agreed. I feel the need to rewrite what he said, scratching out the adjectives and gibberish, re-paragraph, and then figure out what he thinks he said.

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    6. Let's dissect this one- this is the most coherent (yes, that doesn't mean much in trumpian word-salad English), and the most condemning.

      TRUMP: "No, I fired him because of what he said to Mike Pence. Very simple. Mike was doing his job. He was calling countries and his counterparts. So, it certainly would have been OK with me if he did it. I would have directed him to do it if I thought he wasn't doing it. I didn't direct him, but I would have directed him because that's his job..."

      What did he just admit to?

      If he wasn't doing this, I would have told him to. This definitely indicts trump as either being complicit (knowing he WAS talking to Russia re US sanctions and oil) or directly ordered Flynn to talk with Russia.

      Sure- trump will try to walk it back with another word-salad serving of unintelligible jibberish. Irrelevant. He admitted that he knew and approved of Flynn's actions- to undermine and engage in negotiations with a foreign govt as a civilian. Which is illegal... and against the Constitution.

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  4. I don't know if he's on drugs, or if his mind is breaking loose, or what's going on, but I once had a workmate who started babbling, and we called people and had him taken away to see some nice doctors. And I hope someone introduces Trump to some nice doctors very soon, because I want his finger removed from the nuclear codes. I despise Pence, but Pence isn't likely to destroy the world just to prove he's in charge.

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    1. I read one doctor suggesting that his mental and attitude issues are symptomatic of untreated syphilis. No proof of course, without a blood test, but that does seem like the sort of humor karma has.

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    2. shouldn't have played with Russian prostitutes then.

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    3. I read that speculation too. Can't wait for the autopsy!

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    4. No, he'd just destroy it to bring on the End Times and the Kingdom of GahLemmeOutaHere.

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    5. Speaking as a retired psychiatric nurse, who's seen patients with tertiary syphilis. The diagnosis makes a whole lot of sense, after that word salad of a press conference. This man scares the living crap out of me.

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  5. And bless you for going through the whole thing. I gave up.

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    1. I had to skim past the transcript of Trump's speech after a while and just read what Jim wrote. It's like allowing pollution into your brain.

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    2. I had to do the same. I'd get a "sentence" or two in, and the headache would start.

      That might be his nefarious goal - confuse the dumb ones, and give the smart ones such a headache trying to find a real point to his "speech" that they just start ignoring him.

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  6. Holy fuck that was exhausting. Only an intel weenie would troll through that word shitstorm

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  7. Dickens as reread by Samuel Beckett... Exhausting but worth the read.

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  8. So when this is all said and done how's "45*" the movie gonna go? Mel Brooks? Oliver Stone? Jerry Bruckheimer? SNL ensemble?

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    1. I covered that. Pluto Nash. Try to keep up.

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    2. I want to scrub my ears now. With a wire brush. That level of pond-surface stream-of-consciousness from 45 is painful. I no longer trust my own earwax; I worry that it may have become mildly radioactive from that bombardment.

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    3. I see David Cronenberg directing, myself.

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  9. Gah! I keep wondering…he used to be capable saying coherent things. They were sometimes pretty nasty, but they made sense. Has his mental condition deteriorated? Or is this how he talks when he is dissembling?

    I keep remembering that Hitler was thought a buffoon until the violence started. I've read period accounts, and most of the US elites were much more concerned with Germany paying its debts than with Germany turning into an authoritarian state. By the time they realized it was becoming a well-armed imperialist menace, it was too late.

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  10. My eyes are bleeding just from reading this. What an embarrassment to this country... he talks like a meth head.

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  11. Your analysis of this gabble is incisive, as always. But I would like to add something: copied a single spaced page from the transcript into my word processor, then ran a writing analysis program on it. The analysis covered 713 words and found 204 'issues' in 21 categories. Grade level: 5.9. To play fair, I did the same analysis on your words, Jim Wright, drawn from this very post. The analysis covered 871 words and the software identified 167 issues. Grade level: 9.1. Once I removed the 'issues' that were simply repetitions of the Current Occupant of the Oval Office's words, the number of 'issues' dropped by roughly 100. A little rough math, and you wind up with about 50 issues for the same number of words that gave the COOO 204. So grade level 9.1 versus grade level 5.9. There's your problem. You are writing over the heads of the President's audience. You clearly need to use the word 'very' far more often. (Again, great job.)

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  12. The press should just start laughing at him when he says an absurdity. I know they usually have to show respect for the President, but can you imagine? Guffaws, giggles, derision. It would make Trump go nuclear.

    It's either that, or they need to start throwing shoes.

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    1. There was a news bit yesterday that said someone "threw something" at the presidential motorcade on his way to his fancy club down in Florida. I was hoping it was rotten veggies.

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    2. Except Mr Trump has the capacity to quite literally "go nuclear." The suggestion of pushing a madman to the limit is perhaps not well thought-out.

      -- EMH

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  13. How the hell has Trump survived this long. I feel like I just read the proof that evolution is wrong. There is no way someone this stupid can survive to age 70. Or 7.

    And he whines more than a group of 5 year olds. How is it possible to be so miserable?


    Fuck it. Jonestown kook-aide all around. Jim, I'm le;t you all my booze including some decent bourbon. You have earned it.

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    1. I have a 21 year old son who has ADHD, Asperger's, a Chiari Malformation, and minor cognitive impairment. Mentally stuck at about 11-13.

      And he is a FAR more intelligible speaker than Trump.

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  14. There are no atheists in foxholes or in Trump's America. My God. I started having an anxiety attack about halfway through, although to my credit (and it's really great credit, let me tell you, beautiful credit...no one has credit like I do) I managed to read all the way to the end. I couldn't have done it without you.

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  15. Holy crap. I could barely read this and it's been softened with snark and wit.

    You're a true hero, sir, to wade through this shit for us.

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  16. As a bipolar schitzophrenic off my meds, I find that statement offensive.

    Now help me finish painting my body in cat feces.

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  17. To be fair:
    I've got recordings of me talking to myself after a week of smoking meth that are more coherent than a 45 press conference...

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    1. I've been away for a while, can someone explain why 45 for Drumpfilthinskin?

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    2. He's the 45th president.

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  18. He's deteriorating. As the pressure goes up and he's required to do more, his ability to cope starts to reach maximum overload. And it doesn't take much to start with. He is a mentally unstable person and it won't take much more to push him completely over the edge. The question is, will the Rs in Congress grow some balls and deal with it or will they stay hiding in the dark for fear of the Freak's almighty tweet. Gawd, if there was ever a time to start drinking again, this would probably be it. How the hell did you wade thru that gibberish and remain standing?! You might want to have a brain scan. Just to be sure, ya know. Aarrgghhhh...

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    1. I do believe you're right.God help us all. Bob

      Delete
  19. Double Agent Orange is damaging what little calm I have on a daily basis.

    Thank the FSM fer Scotch-y Scotch Scotch

    But Scotch is expensive, so I have to laugh my ass off at the sheer word-salad-y fuckwittery that spews from that buffoon's sphincter-y lips. Laugh, only because tears would dilute what Scotch I have. Gotta make it last.

    Your commentary is fantastic, Jim. Many thanks for so many much-needed laughs -however tinged with bewildered rage they become after prolonged exposure to so much of Trump's dumbfuckery.

    Mmmmm.... Scotch...

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  20. BRILLIANT!!!! You put into words what so many of us wondered!

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  21. The guys repeats himself endlessly. I don't think it even rises to the level of a tautology - more like a long stream of consciousness by someone who is drunk.

    I retired from the Army after 20 years, 16.5 of which were as an MP. Thus, many of my acquaintances are current or former MPs. Many support Trump, and it baffles me how they, as law-enforcement officers cannot see the guy for the BS artist that he is.

    I am reminded of the scene with the principal in the film Billy Madison:

    "Mr. Madison, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."

    It is going to be a long four years, folks.

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    1. One of the things I've observed over the years is that a distressing number of people drawn to law enforcement are in it because they're unquestioningly authoritarian and not particularly prone to self-examination. Add in reports from the FBI that the nation's police departments have been infiltrated by racists - who threw their support behind that man even back when he was campaigning - to me, it's not so baffling that they fail to see him for what he truly is.

      http://boingboing.net/2017/01/31/fbi-u-s-law-enforcement-infi.html

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    2. I've been a mental health counselor for 20 years and his pattern of speech is that of a psychologically underdeveloped chronic offender. He sounds like one of Judge Judy's worst defendants. He doesn't just outright lie, but does all the other of Glasser's Thinking Errors that offenders use to deflect blame or accountability; he topic-hops, he accuses others of exactly what he has done (in fact this is true of the entire Repugnacan party), he counterblames, justifies, minimizes his part, it goes on. textbook offender language and behavior.

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    3. Consider, first, his own personal indictment- just imagine his defense attorney yanking his arm- DO NOT GO UP TO TESTIFY- TAKE THE FIFTH!!! (trump response- I don't drink, sniiffffffff)

      trump admitted that he WAS, indeed, aware of Flynn's actions AND would have told him to talk with Russia if he hadn't already...

      TRUMP: No, I fired him because of what he said to Mike Pence. Very simple. Mike was doing his job. He was calling countries and his counterparts. So, it certainly would have been OK with me if he did it. I would have directed him to do it if I thought he wasn't doing it. I didn't direct him, but I would have directed him because that's his job."

      More- VP pence's lies have been paraded full frontal courtesy of Rience Previus' adamant clarifications on Fox News Sunday- Chris Wallace.

      Wallace basically pulls out a virtual calendar and has Rience show the dates of "who knew and when did they know it?"

      And voila- Riense states that pence was, in fact, informed of Flynn's actions- WELL BEFORE pence lied to the American public. (it starts at the ~8 minute mark and climaxes ~3 min later!)

      This really destroys pence's false narrative that he is pure and innocent (and ready to be POTUS when trump is impeached).

      Delete
  22. Thanks Jim. I watched and read the transcript of this insane rambling nonsense, this clusterfuck of a press conference while trying to keep my head from exploding. You made me laugh out loud at your comments. We're all gonna die but at least we'll do it laughing.
    How the hell do we stock up for the brain dead apocalypse?

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  23. Yes, I read the whole thing. I admit that my eyes glazed over for some of 45's 1000-word sentences that would curl the toes of our country's least effective English teachers and would act as a vomiting agent to the best. In the end, the analysis pointed out the hopelessness of ever seeing a solid point made by this man, and the helplessness of those who to tried to identify one.

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  24. By the time this "show" is over your country is going to need a firing squad wall as long as the US/Mexico border, to line up all the republicans who are selling out their country and their citizens for the sake of the "Ego of the Century". I don't think even Stephen King could have written such a frightening character. I am a Canadian who recently started following your posts and I find you to be a strong voice of intelligence and sanity and possessed of a sharp wit to boot. You do your country credit. It's unfortunate that a good percentage of it's citizens don't deserve or respect the sacrifices that so many of you have made on their behalf. It's a pleasure to support you in your continuing efforts to defend freedom while delivering truth and more than a few belly laughs.

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  25. Jim, thanks for parsing this mental hairball of a press conference. Even reading the transcript is exhausting to the extreme.

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  26. After listening to his rant, I've come to the conclusion that our country is going to be continuously embarrassed over the next four years. Your dissecting it like this makes it even worse. I cannot shake this feeling of foreboding.....how in the world is he going to seriously negotiate with our enemies...or our allies?

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    1. Truth be told, Trump won't be doing much negotiating, right? I mean there is this whole Department of State, the entire purpose of which is to do the negotiating, find the common ground, create the treaties,and sweet talk away the rough edges? Trump and Tillerson have run most of the professionals away but they did not get rid of all of them.

      Then again: I just went looking to ensure I had the correct spelling of Tillerson's name. Only to find a whole article about how much of the top talent at State has been given the boot or is about to be booted. According to Tillerson they weren't working anyway so, why keep them around.

      Will we have a functioning federal government even 6 months from now? Trump and his gang sure seem determined to dismantle the whole thing.

      Delete
  27. Hearing it live like you I wasn't sure if I heard it correctly,seeing it written now I sure wish it wasn't.

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  28. it was painful reading the transcript in the first place. reading bits of it interspersed with actual coherent sentences and thought out points made it even worse.

    anyone who can't see that he is a delusional moron is clearly just as deranged as he is. but hell, i'm an educated urban libtard snowflake, so what do i know?

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  29. I am so happy not to be on a SSBN anymore... on the other hand, maybe I should still be there.

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    1. I hope you would be like the Denzel Washington character in Crimson Tide.

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  30. The repetition is purposeful as is emphasis on particular words. Neuro-linguistic Programming is a gimmick sales/con-men use to sell you something. He's very good at it. Not crazy. Not babbling. NLP.

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    1. You nailed it. and unthinking people voted for it.

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  31. Unpacking that presser line-by-line was a filthy job which no professional journalists were up to, and I am grateful that you rolled up your sleeve and plunged your arm bicep-deep into Satan's anus to bring this to us. Thank you.

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  32. Autofellatio. You actually said that.

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  33. Not to mention the wildly unprecedented actions of EPA scientists, researchers, administrators, etc., making their opposition to Pruitt a matter of public record! I've never seen public servants and public employees take a stand like that in my entire 62 years. Not in the previous 10 presidencies have I ever seen this. Not even when Reagan went after and fired some 11,000 air traffic controllers and thus, broke their union! And now this two penny gobshite of a mottled ignoramus stands in their shoes?
    And he's aided and abetted by a Republican controlled Congress and Senate who willfully and with malice aforethought have abrogated their duty to the country. It's a bitter draught to swallow after years of that vicious slander that liberals do not love their country and care not for it's future weal.

    At least I can bless Vice Admiral Harward (ret) for his refusal to accept a "shit sandwich" job as National Security Advisor from this president. Him and those several hundred EPA folks.

    In the meantime, I've got about 4 rose canes from my recent pruning project to go whittle the bark off now. Its what I do when I miss the previous 10 presidents these days,

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  34. I think it worth mentioning the percentage of Ninth Circuit overturns has to do with the .01% (less than 1/10 of 1 percent) that reach the Supreme Court. Article reads as though 79% of ALL decisions reached by the 9th Circuit Court are overturned. As far as the rest goes, I don't know how you did it. Finishing the article, the first word that came to mind was--exhausting. Then I started reading the comments and found it was a common reaction. Can't begin to imagine actually WRITING the damn thing. Thank you.

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    1. Jim did address that exact percentage game in his essay. I know it is hard trying to digest the whole thing, but it's in there.

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    2. That's why I used it. (79%) What I was high lightening is what you missed--the percentage has to do with 9th Circuit cases that go before the Supreme Court ONLY. The article reads as though ALL decisions made by 9th Circuit are the subject to a 79% reversal rate--which is (unintentionally) misleading.

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    3. So 79% of 0.01% is o.oo79%. That is the actual figure of how many of the 9th circuit opinions get overturned, point zero zero eight, basically. In other words %99.921% of the 9th circuit opinions are NOT overturned. Sounds like a pretty solid record of being upheld to me.

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  35. Something made this speech pop up in my feed while I was at work so I listened to it and it was so insane that when it finished I cleaned the entire tech room as therapy. How can anyone on either side of the aisle sleep at night?

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  36. Jim, good job. I watched half way through I had to turn it off. I just could not do it. Many many years ago I had too many Longnecks. The guys talked me into riding the bull (I had no experience) but they told me I just had to stay on the bull for 8 seconds and it would be over. They did not tell me that the bull did not recognize the bell. I think that we are in for one hell of a ride.

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  37. How can anyone read a transcript of this man's speech and still feel that he's qualified to be president? Listening to or reading his rambling, incoherent words makes me want to beat my head against the wall. And realizing that they are coming out of the mouth of the President of the United States of America scared the living crap out of me.

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  38. Shorter President (aaakkh) Donald Trump:

    I am fantastic, the people who suck up to me are fantastic, everyone else is simply sucks, and they suck very very badly.

    Think I could have saved you quite a lot of time if I was his speechwriter.

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    1. Love your short version, Norse. I may need to store it in a safe place.

      Delete
  39. Geez, Jim.....I'd like to say something cool and witty......but my other eye is screaming for the knitting needle............

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  40. What I find incredible is that there are people who watched this mess and thought it was absolutely fine. They saw no problem with anything he had to say. It makes me feel like I live in Bizzarro World, where everything was it's opposite.

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    1. They need to read the entire transcript. Out loud.

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    2. Sadly, I was sitting next to one of those folks during the news conference. As I'm screaming at the T.V., he reaces for the remote, to silence my decent by tuning into a re-run of "The Andy Griffith Show". With daggers flying from my eyes, I shoot him a look that would kill.

      I have been checked out emotinally, from this man, since the election. Forty-give has highlighted everything that is flawed in our relationship; we will not survive a full term in office. Seperation will come before Impeachment but, neither can come soon enough.

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  41. The "I used it." line. I'm pretty sure he meant he used the story about the military not having the right equipment on the campaign trail, not that he used the equipment himself.

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    1. I wouldn't be sure of that, you just know, if he thought he could get way with it, that he'd be one of those stolen honour mopes.

      Delete
  42. The only body that can save this country from Trump is the Congress. The 25th ammendment will do it, but not without Congress. Congress is the last ditch. Good thing it's filled with strong-minded independent thinkers with really admirable moral fibre, who put country ahead of party, and the public good ahead of private enrichment. If Congress wasn't made up nearly entirely of brave, morally upstanding heroes, we'd all be compleletly fucked.

    Err, um, oh...

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  43. Wow. I'm completely flabbergasted. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for this complete and thorough deconstruction of the madman Marmalade Mussolini.

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  44. Typo "specifically protected from government interfere." Should be interference? Also "facet" instead of faucet?

    Jim, I don't know how you managed to get through that shitshow but I take my hat off to you. I now believe I understand when kids say "I just can't even..." and throw their hands in the air. Whatever you drank to dull the pain, you deserved every drop.

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  45. As a fellow crafter of words (although not at Jim's level), I am far too often left left slack-jawed at the current state of affairs.

    I hope my Facebook sharing of Jim's analysis will hit home with people. Hopefully they'll keep paying attention as this Grand Guignol continues.

    Scott Burnell

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  46. Dear Odin, How did you make it through all that? I would love to find some coherent conservative review of that smorgasbord of inanity and see what they make of it. How could anyone see this and not wonder wtf man.

    Some git on Youtube said sure he does not sound presidential he sounds like an American.

    Is that what Americans are supposed to sound like? I had no idea.

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  47. Trump is mentally screwed up. He talks nonsense and people say he's so sharp, no one can keep up. No, he's fucking senile. Do not give this old fart a microphone or an iPhone. Do not let him talk to heads of other countries. And for pity sake, do not allow him to make decisions of any kind.

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  48. I am amazed, and grateful, that after writing all that you didn't put a bullet into your head to end the pain. You are a stronger, mentally, man than I. Seriously, thank you. President Trump is a very dangerous man and the republicans keeping silent are his getaway drivers. Damn, I never thought I'd say this since he was a whiny, naked, would be emperor but I am beginning to miss President Obama.

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  49. Jim, you mentioned the other day that you were going offline because you needed a break. You call this a break? Slogging through that incoherent wasteland of a transcript was a feat worthy of Hercules. (Didn't he clean out that stable...?) I stand in awe, not only of your writing and perspicacity, but also of your sheer stamina and endurance.

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  50. facet -> faucet

    So why do so many well educated conservatives adore ignorant and incompetent politicians? They would never hire someone like this.

    Remember how Fox news said that if elected Sarah Palin would be a fast learner? A few briefings and she'd be a policy expert?

    The same story with Trump -- once he gets in office the pressure and power of the office will make him "presidential". That has really worked hasn't it?

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  51. Great article. You use a word that we're just not hearing enough. Amateurs. For years, candidates and talking heads have been saying "professional politician" like it's something they just scraped off their shoe. So the alternative is this much more derogatory word. DJT supporters are fine with the situation, and just block out that word. Imagine eschewing "professionals" in any other field would be horrifying, but, hey, anyone can govern, right?

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  52. Oh.my.God. #45 is a stark, raving lunatic! Shouldn't we have some kind of law against that? Great read!

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  53. The Republic owes you an unpayable debt of gratitude for transcribing this shitstorm and then picking it apart line by line. Like someone else already said, I gave up, and started speed-reading, and then scrolling quickly, muttering "OMG. OMGOMGOMG..."

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  54. Jim,

    I hope you don't mind but I just sent the following email to the 'Reader Representative' at the WaPo.

    Thank you for the words you produce.

    I recently became a subscriber to WaPo. I did this because I believe the Post is a reputable newspaper and it's my obligation to provide funds to help you do your good work.

    I expect the Post to adhere to the highest standards of journalism and provide non-hysterical, fact based reporting. I long for a modern day Woodward and Bernstein, but so far, no joy on that front.

    I also want to see more long pieces that systematically break down statements made by the President, his staff, and those in Congress that highlight both the factual and fictional portions of the statements. To that end, I refer you to the following piece by Jim Wright. He is a former Navy chief and an author with a wickedly sharp point of view and the ability to back up his writing with specific facts. When something bad happens, my first source of information is not the Post but Mr. Wright. Please either hire this guy or step up and provide this kind of in depth analysis.

    Thank you for listening.

    Doug xxxxxxxxx
    xxxxxxxx, GA

    [link to this post]

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  55. OK - I am in absolute awe that you were able to wade through that incoherent B.S. without ending up in a corner foaming at the mouth with your brains leaking from your ears and nose. That you were able to provide thoughtful analysis (and insert a Pluto Nash reference for good measure) is outstanding. Well done sir!

    It was astounding to watch the national news yesterday evening to see the interviews with the true believers...they are lining up to testify that Trump is doing just what they expected, "telling the truth," "making great changes," etc...as though his performance is anything other than an erratic, raving, dangerous assault on the republic.

    At what point does this democratic system spiral completely out of control? It has been knocked completely out of equilibrium by this buffoon (and his enablers/henchmen/fellow lunatics) and the new equilibrium point is still to be seen but I'm afraid the process involved in getting to a new state is going to be exceptionally ugly.

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  56. Know what's worse? All of his supporters that accept and seem to understand this drivel. Rush Limbaugh called it masterful manipulation of the media. Charlie Daniels praised it. I've read the comments under some of the articles about it. The have chugged the Fool-Aid. Coherence seems to be an option these days

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  57. Wow. That.. ow. That was physically painful. I feel bad for the press corps who have to cover this. They all deserve the finest of liquors until they pass out, their livers give up, or until this starts making sense. Which will probably be about two sips before they are in danger of not waking up from passing out.

    I've had more coherent conversations with people on twilight anesthesia, while I myself am actively hallucinating.

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  58. Thanks for going through that mess, Jim. I don't know that I could have read it raw. Your attempt to bring some lucidity to that freak show - where there was none to be found - was most welcome.

    Let's not take our eye of the ball, however. The Republican Congress is quite happy with this raving lunatic, as long as he signs our country away.

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  59. I missed the live talk because real people have jobs. I've looked for a real breakdown of the ramblings misuse of words that pour from his mouth. Thank you, I needed this.

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  60. I skipped watching this fiasco. I knew I'd get an interesting interpretation of it from you. I had tears in my eyes toward the end of your blog. Tears of disbelief and dismay and downright fear. I couldn't even read his incoherent rambling after a while. He's unhinged. THIS is a man with a college education? How many grammatically correct sentences came out of his mouth during this conference? Did the number get anywhere near ten? The way a person speaks is an indication of how his mind works, and oh my gawd, this is a mind that isn't functioning anywhere near normal. He needs serious psychiatric help. Get him the hell out of the White House.

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    1. The current president touts his education at Wharton and has lied about graduating first in his class. The graduation program doesn't list him on the Dean's list - in fact, the Daily Pennsylvanian published the Dean's List for the year he graduated and he's no where on on it: http://dparchives.library.upenn.edu/cgi-bin/pennsylvania?a=d&d=tdp19681025-01.2.27. Other stories I read suggested he wasn't that much into studying and would high tail it back to NYC (which is apparently his comfort zone) just about every weekend. (http://www.thedp.com/article/2015/08/donald-trump-wharton-classmates)

      Delete
    2. Is there anything at all that the current president does NOT lie about? If so I haven't found it yet.

      Delete
  61. It's been 30 plus years, but I feel like I did a hit of LSD!
    What the hell was that?
    Thanks for walking us though that mess.

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  62. I did not watch the thing because I knew it would be like wrestling with a pig. Thank you for this. It was actually worse than I expected. I could see that you gave up on countering each absurdity and just settled for a comprehensive 'What?'. Congratulations on doing as much as you did.

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  63. So, in an hour and a quarter he uttered about 2 dozen words, many of which were contradictory. I also mostly avoided the press conference with our Prime Minister on Monday: I watched a live stream, with the sound off, and only watched the watchers' comments. It gave me the gist of the speeches, without my having to clench teeth or sphincters.

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  64. Dear. God. What. The. &%^$.

    If we can't make head or tail of it, what can the British or Germans or Russians think of it? That we're totally completely reliable except when we're not? That we're totally going to kick ass on bad actors except when we're not? Would ANYONE take this professional conman SERIOUSLY?

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  65. Spot on Jim! as always... But Congress is not acting... not responding. We are all focused on this shit show while republicans are passing bills to close the EPA and refuse to investigate the Russian connections... so now what?

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    1. I am having the same problem. I live in a congressional district that went 85% for Trump and has a Tea Party Rep in congress. there is NOTHING I can do in this district that will make a damn bit of difference.
      For now, I've opted to send $$ to the ACLU to engage in the upcoming fights and also to the Democratic Party in the hopes that some reasonable candidates will be put forward during the mid-terms in the hopes we can turn some Republican seats into Democratic ones.
      Other than that, I'm stymied.

      Delete
    2. Support your local Democratic party candidates as much as you can. Help them develop and support new up and comers. Right now the job looks as bad as the Augean stables but the work is still in front of us.

      Delete
  66. I wonder if his "use" of military equipment is Air Force One? It wouldn't surprise me given his level of ignorance that he wouldn't know a detail like that (especially slamming the cost of the new AF1 planes being built), until someone told him that after he is President. I'm still waiting for him to start walking around in a Military uniform like a despot dictator. He's already got the Language down.

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  67. I would have been breaking things had I listened to this incoherent jibberish. I am still in a state of shock that this uneducated, illiterate person got elected and is representing the USA. How can people listen to him and not be stunned at the lack of cohesive thought processes? I simply cannot imagine 4 years of this.

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  68. after watching this presser, it finally occurred to me that the reason people are saying *he is fulfilling his campaign promises*, is because on any given topic, he supported both sides of the issue on any given day. *we* hear what we want to hear, especially if what we are hearing is *you is smart, you is kind, you is important*...I honestly don't know if Hillary would have been a good president, i like to think she would..but as we go further in to this, already, horrendously long presidency...i often take pause and think about the idea that it may actually be true that Hillary didn't get elected, because she is a strong female..and this makes her unlikeable. Benghazi happened, and it was sad, but even the victim's family say they don't blame her. Ultimately, I think, the people who keep bringing it up either have no clue what happened and have simply seen other people mention it...or they can not let the fact go that she ultimately said that it wasn't the issue that the attack was terroristic in nature or not...i believe that if trump had said that...then it would have been ok..like...oh ok..yes people died..this is really the issue at hand.

    At this point...attacking the media seems so pointless...we have so much raw footage available to us from pressers and interviews, that we don't need to rely on articles or news snippets to tell us the truth. we can see a thing and go hunt down more information, so readily. this is no longer an age where we don't have so much of the information at our fingertips.
    trump is already tweeting about fake news and the media in regards to his presser...but the media can do whatever they want to it...we all can see the whole thing, in it's entirety. it might serve trump's purpose more, if he simply didn't allow everything to be filmed.

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  69. After saying: Dear God thanks for your martyrdom, two ideas:

    1). One thing worries me. News sound clips will of necessity make 45 sound far smarter than he is. My friends in the broadcast media must play sound clips as part of their newscasts, and these must be brief, and must be pulled out of the mess in a fairly cohesive form. It's like a documentary filmmaker pulling a not-too-bad cinnamon bun out of a dumpster, because you can't get good video of slime. The listeners will conclude that this whole garbage business isn't all THAT bad. That's bad! Very very bad!


    2). I remember a story from psychology class, mumblemumble years ago, that reporters might try. In the story, a class decided to try operant conditioning on their teacher. If he moved slightly to the right on the stage, they alerted and took notes. If he moved toward the left, they looked away, didn't write anything, and even essayed a yawn or two. By the end of the hourlong class, they had worked him so far to the left that he was almost off the stage. Could this strategy be used to reward coherent or factual statements? One could only hope.

    Noni Mausa

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    1. Re: #1 - maybe that is the way for the broadcast press to fight this fool...take clips that demonstrate just how much utter bullshit flows from his mouth at every turn...

      Delete
  70. Oh. My. God. I had to read this in short bursts with a LOT of breaks. Listening to Cheeto ramble at his press conference is bad enough. Reading the text of his press conference makes my head want to explode. We are in big f*cking trouble. I have never been so afraid of what is happening. I used to sleep well at night, not having to worry what our president is doing because I trusted that he was taking care of us. Now? Dump your coal slag in our rivers and streams, frack everywhere, lift clean air regulations, get rid of health insurance, give more tax breaks to your wealthy friends, screw the poor and middle class, round up immigrants, send in the troops to our cities. And oh yeah...RUSSIA.

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  71. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. I almost had to stop reading because I was getting dumber by the minute. Luckily, your anecdotes sprung me back to life.

    He gives me a reason to keep telling my children, "You can do anything and be anything you want. No, seriously....you can. Always remember 45."

    Thank you for going where no man should ever have to...

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  72. Jim, I hope that you didn't strain anything by having to stretch so far trying to find coherency in that mess. Reading your words of sanity mixed in with trump gibberish reminded me of the article I saw recently about Japanese interpreters trying to properly translate Trump speeches. One comment was that if they portray his words, as he speaks them, then THEY look stupid and incompetent!

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  73. He can convince some that the media has been lying about him, but he cant convince me that was not him on TV. He sure looks like and sounds like he is quacked.

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  74. Thank you, Ronald Reagan for paving the path of mental instability that now leads directly to the White House by clear-cutting our mental help institutions.

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  75. Smoke, mirrors and bullshit. I think you've covered it all. Brava!

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  76. I spent last evening and the better part of this morning, trying to finish reading this. It is important to observe and discuss Trump's speech, because somewhere in there, we must find meaning, even if that meaning is simply "I rule, you drool". The we'd know where we stand at least!

    I can't stop wondering though, if this aneurysm of a press conference is just a giant time-waster, while the House Republicans are working in the background, writing unholy bills and making their town halls exclusive to "believers-only".

    So many fires to be put out, every single day. My heart goes out to the reporters.

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  77. Our government has been hijacked by the glamour of an insane person. Glamour originally was a medieval term used to discribe the use of evil spells to disguise the witch or demon. The antique meaning is singulary appropriate. He needs to be removed, but as the Congress is owned by the Republicons I doubt they will do so unless he does something so disastrous it could kill us all. So it is up to the journalists and the courts.

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    1. Sadly, Congress, when not agenda-driven, is reactive. So, after the world ends, they will consider a bill. Or at least a resolution.

      Delete
  78. Classic free-style Trump.

    This is what happens when you mix a smattering of Joseph Gobbels with Palin's word salad and add in a massive dose of repetitive juvenile incoherence.

    I hope he continues to ignore his advisors and keeps up this shit.

    The Media should never back off. That doesn't mean to be disrespectful, it means just keep doing your job to the best of your ability.

    CS in Fla.

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  79. If Congress won't do their job and deal with this unhinged lunatic, we are doomed. Fox and all his supporters think he did great, that's scary too. Can't wait to hear his rally speech in Melbourne tonight. Maybe they should have straightjackets handy? One can hope.

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  80. Reading thru, unless I missed it, Am I the only one who got the Ron Jeremy connection? My misspent youth. I'm surprised he's still alive.

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  81. I started watching “There Will be Blood” last night. I’ve seen it before, long time ago, and decided to watch it again. I remembered the main theme, but mainly I remembered that it was extraordinary.

    About half an hour into it, the details of the movie started to return to me. An hour later, I almost had to stop watching. The film is such a miserable index of human cynicism, bad faith and just plain evil (all superbly acted and directed) that I wasn’t sure I could continue. But I said to myself, and I’m not sure why, “No, I’m going to watch this to the bitter end.”

    I got the exact same feeling whilst reading this post. It went on and on, the actual horror of it all, and I read to the bitter end, though I nearly couldn’t. Thank goodness for the humorous bits, it helped it go down more easily. And it went on for 2,000 more words?

    At the end of the “There Will be Blood,” I felt a sort of existential emptiness. Like all good movies, it took me to another place, and that place was very dark. There was no humor in that place, no hope for humanity. But I shook it off. It was just a movie.

    Right?

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  82. Jim, as Kipling once wrote: "you're a better man that I am Gungha Din"!

    I now more fully appreciate the difference between intelligence analysis (your realm) and your 'run of the mill' information analysis (me). I spent 15 years reading medical records for Social Security Disability. 15 very tedious, years reading record after record of doctor's hand-written notes (this was before electronic medical records). I probably read over a million pages of records during those 15 years.

    But I could not read all of the quotes from President Trump.

    As you very well might have written: I. Just. Couldn't.

    I tried, I really tried to read everything. I found myself half way down reverting to skim reading the Trump quotes. It was down hill from there, I am sorry.

    I love your essay's all of them. Keep writing, you and all who write comments, challenge me and force me to think to a depth that I rarely get a chance to in my now retired life.

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  83. Did anyone else note his comment about getting his nominee onto the Supreme Court "one way or another"? There is only one way to get someone confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice, so I'd be very interested in hearing what his proposed alternative methods might be. Does he think he can freely emulate Kim Jong Un or his daddy Putin and just place someone on the court without confirmation? I've never seen a president with so little respect for the Constitution or for the "law" portion of the law-and-order he pays homage to in his rantings.

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    1. I caught that too. I'd imagine that if asked, Spicer would mention something about some political deal to be made to get enough confirmation votes. But, damn, that sure came across to me as a telegraphing of autocratic intent.

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  84. I've read Jim's redaction of President Trump's Press Conference several times now and I STILLL can't make head nor tail of it.

    I mean the words are in English certainly, but they don't seem to be strung together in any sort of meaningful sequence. It's just UTTER gobbledygook, COMPLETE gibberish, TOTAL mumbo-jumbo.

    Indeed, Doublespeak in the extreme.

    I know 5 year olds who make more sense than your President.

    That's more than a trifle worrying!

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  85. Trump's incoherence has led me to change my thoughts somewhat. I originally saw Trump as Hitler and Bannon as Goebbels, but now I see Trump closer to von Hindenburg and Bannon as Hitler. Here's how I see events playing out in the next two years. Bannon, as he increases his power in the White House, will convince Trump to remove Pence and name him the next Vice President. Soon after, Trump will be determined to be unfit for office and removed, making Bannon our next President. Bannon will dismantle the remaining checks and balances in our political system and start his much-desired, all-out war against Islam by some preemptive nuclear strike on Iran and/or mobilization of ground forces to the region, while at the same time expanding the power of the police and the armed forces in general to perform ethnic cleansing here at home and eliminate a free press. The KKK and other hate groups will be used to further this agenda in the much the same way as paramilitary death squads were used in some Latin American countries. What he is able to do in the rest of the world depends on the political will of other powers to oppose him militarily and diplomatically, but Bannon may wind up allying with Russia to crush Europe on both fronts and perhaps attack China and North Korea. Republicans and big business in general will be content to further their existing agenda and get their hands on additional wealth at the expense of the populace, and will rubber stamp any of Bannon's military plans if he bothers to listen to them at all. Climate change, while not trivial, becomes secondary in this case. This very real possibility is why we, while continuing to use what powers are left in our hands to oppose this agenda, should also prepare for the worst and plan on how to protect ourselves and our loved ones in case life in the United States and some other parts of the world becomes unlivable.

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  86. I've only watched a few clips from the presser because I knew I would not be able to keep my temper in check. Reading the excerpts along with your analysis helped to calm my emotions however I now feel sick to my stomach. I'm not sure if it's his horrible abuse of our language, the bullshit streaming from his piehole or both. Maybe it's my brain cells in the last throes of death caused by exposure to his verbal toxicity.
    I've read read comments online from people who think it was great, in fact the best they've ever heard. How in the world does someone arrive at that conclusion? By what standards?What is wrong with people that they cannot see what a godawful shitshow that was? There must be some psychological component, some Jedi "These are not the droids you're looking for" trick that isn't working on me.

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  87. I would only take issue with one comment from your article. Most of us do know what is true and what is a lie, and we do, in fact, care very much. You only need to look out your window to see that with your own eyes. It ain't gonna be easy, but the resistance is real and powerful.

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  88. Via the good offices of Digby at http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2017/02/you-are-special-people.html.

    "Politico obtained a recording of Trump at his golf club in New Jersey (the above is Mar-a-Lago) where he interviewed all the cabinet members during the transition talking to his club members:

    “We’re doing a lot of interviews tomorrow — generals, dictators, we have everything,” Trump told the crowd, according to an audio tape of his closed-press remarks obtained by POLITICO from a source in the room. “You may wanna come around. It’ll be fun. We’re really working tomorrow. We have meetings every 15, 20 minutes with different people that will form our government."

    "We’re going to be interviewing everybody — Treasury, we’re going to be interviewing Secretary of State,” he continued. “We have everybody coming in — if you want to come around, it’s going to be unbelievable….so you might want to come along.”

    Etc., etc., etc.

    So he's capable of coherent speech; he just spews bafflegab when talking to the public.

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  89. Jim Wright, you are my hero!! You are amazing and your Trump Presser Playbook puts everything in glorious perspective. I will be following you FOREVER...but not like in a stalking way. In a good way :-D

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  90. Someone needs to keep track of his ramblings, but it isn't going to be me. I get dumber and less hinged every time I even skim a transcript of what he says. I've dealt with his kind before because I had to in my former career

    http://ranthonysteele.blogspot.com/2017/01/caveat-emptor.html
    I'll stick to this as a summary;
    "I say all this, every single word of it that I've written on the subject of Donald J. Trump or his 3am rage tweeting alter-ego The Orange Hate-Monkey over this past year with the personal knowledge I have gained through experience. That we have elected a con-artist to the presidency. That when you are forced to deal with a con-artist you keep your hands on your wallet and don't agree to anything without seeing it first in writing; and even then, don't let go of those purse-strings. Keep your legal representation on retainer and make a point of running every single thing the con-artist says to you past your counselor before responding in any fashion to him."

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  91. Just wow!
    It's what I knew the first time he opened his mouth during the initial campaign trail. People were blown away by his honesty to the lower class and his proposed changes for the regular people. What I heard was an illiterate, unpolished, self-aggrandising clown. It was gibberish back then and it's more apparent now. This presser should have been a wake up call to the Repubs to impeach on the grounds that he's mentally unfit. I don't believe he has a speech writer and if he did, that person would have been fired after the first two minutes in by his chief of staff.

    You did a great job breaking the press conference down. It is a two coffee, one potty break, and a tylenol commentary. It was Trumps blathering idiocy that caused my head to swim and the need for pain meds. Maybe some fresh air instead... It took a couple of days off from EVERYTHING newsworthy to regain a semblance of inner peace. Not a day passes that Trump or one of his aids doesn't do something stupid (Opening of the mouth disease...) And that goes for our PM Trudeau. A numb-nut with very little political experience. After a year at the helm his pressers sound less stilted and breathy, however continue to be filled with the trump-gibberish. It's a way to fill in time and get off topic to confuse the people so the press can't accuse him of lying.

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  92. Thank you Jim for breaking it down. I watched the whole sorry thing and was left wondering if he actually said anything definitive that I missed. Apparently not.

    My husband says Trump speaks for him. I do not speak Trump. I was turned off a long time ago by the excessive superlatives and lack of concrete ideas, besides the wall.

    In fairness, I have on a few occasions heard Trump speak intelligently. These were structured one on one interviews. I suppose the key word there is structured.

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  93. I'm now convinced that all through school Trump paid someone to do his assignments and take his tests. This kind of incoherency indicates a middle-school mentality.

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  94. I applaud your ability to comment on this insanity. I can barely read what he says as the sheer insanity, lack of intellect, and hyperbole is so beyond reality. I'm appalled at the blatant use of power by the Republicans to destroy our institutions and programs. Lord help us.

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  95. I was hoping you'd comment on Thursday's event. I just finished watching a feed of his Saturday 'event' and as horrified as I was about Thursday I'm thinking he's gotten much worse since then.

    The thing that bothered me the most was how that show was organized.

    I salute you for going through that rambling, as they used to say in the days of sail "see you on the other side."

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  96. Trump is a large man with a tiny, tiny brain, used to getting his way because, as Paul Krugman says, "He was born on third-base and thinks he hit a triple." His vocabulary is that to of a 14 year old boy trying to impress women, and he uses the oldest con artist trick in the trade: Never utter facts. Instead, use vague words (like "sad"; but for whom: his target, or himself?) in which the listener/reader has to insert meaning, which will naturally come from their own biases, because those who LOVE his style are good at BELIEVING, but not REASONING. They are easily seduced by words that have little intrinsic meaning ("Make America Great!"), because they are still deceived into believing all the lies about how rotten Obama was because he wasn't Republican (of course, Obama delivered jobs, and sanity...and that disqualifies him from further consideration by those with empty heads). And, the unspoken premise is that "America is NOT GREAT" has to be believed, if you're to accept the short-fingered vulgarian's formulation. As if America was NOT great while Trump was stupidly dogging Obama about his birth certificate...which had already been produced, numerous times...but not enough to satisfy the whims of the candidate for his job.

    The Göring to his ascendancy to being "The One" (King? Emperor?) is, of course, Bannon...who, like the crafty snake he is, keeps pumping Trump up with "fake news" treated as fact, which necessarily means that actual fact is now called "fake news" from the "News Media" (who, to be honest, have brought this state of affairs upon themselves with their estranged relationship to "facts" in all too many major media corporations).

    The hopeful sign is the "Womens' March" (Jan 21), the largest citizen representation in the history of our nation. We must work hard to make sure the "Science March," April 22 is even larger. We citizens are more intelligent (on the whole), more dedicated to the truth, more appreciative of variety in skin color, orientation and birthplace, and absolutely smarter than this usurper of the White House.

    If we stand together, we will turn the tables in 2018, rendering the Republican support of this ignorant, unhinged madman demolished and terminated, leaving the Presidency to the fate faced by Obama in light of McConnell's destructive view of Democracy. The tables will turn, and then it will be, virtually, R.I.P., G.O.P.

    I cannot imagine a more positive or productive fate that will return Rule (cratic, in the original Greek) to the People (Demos). And, no, I Do Not hate Republicans; I do, however, fear they have allowed themselves to be deceived by a myriad "pied pipers," over the decades, culminating in the current abhorrent President of the U.S.

    We are too strong as a nation to succumb to this madness, but the citizens will, eventually prevail if they stand together and hold hands with people just as scared as they are, no matter what the look like, sound like, or how they prefer to live their lives under the banner of FREEDOM.

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  97. Thank you, sir, for another wonderful essay. Had to read it with a few breaks; watched the clown show live, had to take smaller bites this go around. Was watching with the sound muted and reading the closed captioning; I thought the person entering the information was having a stroke or was less than ten years old. Or was Betsy Devos. I have had more in depth, coherent conversations with people just coming out of anesthetic than this 77-minute ramble of a brain fart. Setting my DVR for ALL the morning shows to see his talking heads face the media tomorrow morning. Looks like popcorn for breakfast!

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  98. You're en pointe as always. You've got a Teflon stomach when it comes to Trump's toxic sludge. I mute the bastard because I am trying not to go up in a rage blaze. Thanks for invoking Animal House in there. I needed that.

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  99. Thank you again Mr. Wright, you articulate for a Navy guy, good! have read this twice and trying to figure out how to print. Please keep it up! A retired Army guy.

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  100. Regarding those leaked details about the telephone calls to Mexico and Australia, in which Trump is so enraged at the leak he wants to throw the leaker into jail, did it ever occur to him that the leaks could have come from the other end of the call?

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    Replies
    1. I would go further than that. I think he doesn't have the first clue of why and how information is classified. He seems to think he still has the right to private conversations and that all of them are 'classified' because he says so. I'd really like to see a journalist ask him for his understanding of this concept the next time Trump brings up his whining about leaks.

      Delete
  101. Hey Tump: You "used it"? No - fuck you, you lying motherfucker. You did not use it, you useless, rancid piece of shit. You have only served with dishonor, not - emphatically not - honor. The only thing you've "used" so far is your pathetically needy jones for obeisance, subservience, and adulation. Fuck you on all three counts. You will get none of the above from me.

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  102. It is like clockwork watching Pubs whenever they get into power doing the exact same shit they screamed to high heaven about during the previous administration... and doing it times 10.

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  103. I have been wracking my brain for some time now trying to figure out who Trump reminds me of. Reading his words here has helped me tremendously.

    Have you ever read "The Caine Mutiny" by Herman Wouk? At the very least see the movie. Donald Trump is Captain Queeg on the witness stand jabbering about strawberries.

    Except Queeg spent his life serving his country. Trump has spent his life serving only himself.

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    Replies
    1. That's exactly what occurred to me the other day!

      Delete
  104. This was one of the most difficult/obtuse articles ever! I commend you for making it as far through that presser as you did. Trump is truly a disaster . Thank you for trying to make some sense out of a senseless, rambling, disaster of a speech. Wishing for George W Bush made me smile.

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  105. "tomorrow, the headlines are going to be, 'Donald Trump rants and raves,'" but "I'm having a good time."
    Yes, Mr Trump, that is exactly the problem.

    -- EMH

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  106. You earned a donation just for enduring his babbling, let alone an excellent commentary. I shared your essay and urged my peeps to kick in a bit also. Your work is appreciated.

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  107. Hasn't Trump claimed that he only gets some 4 hours of sleep per day. And doesn't a lack of sleep screw up your cognitive abilities?

    Our Prez needs an Ambien.

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  108. I tried to watch the press conference, I really did, I couldn't.
    One of my best buds did manage to watch it all the way through but I think he got drunk while doing so.

    I have shared this essay with a few hardcore supporters of this being, and asked them to point out where he actually said ANYTHING of substance.

    Thus far it's been crickets.

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    Replies
    1. Teetotalers could have a drinking game at a Trump presser. Take a drink every time he puts together a coherent sentence: everyone goes home sober!

      Delete
  109. Bastard. Jim Wright says watch Bridge of Spies. So because Jim writes what I feel so eloquently and Showtime is free this weekend, and Bridge of Spies is on Showtime this weekend, I watch it. Best goddamn movie I've seen. Prick.

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  110. "I can't believe I'm saying I'm a politician, but I guess that's what I am now. "

    Trump apparently just had a moment of enlightened self-realization. He is a P.O.L.I.T.I.C.I.A.N now. He GUESSES. Wonderful. That is some deep self-awareness, folks.

    Could you imagine, say, for example, a doctor when about to perform a surgery, seeing the scalpel in his hand, saying to his colleagues, "huh, I don't believe this, but I guess I am a surgeon now. Who would have thunk it?"

    No one is all knowing and all powerful and all wise, but, really. I mean...really...

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  111. Thank you. I don't know how you got through the whole damned thing without having a seizure, but I'm grateful that you did. It verifies for me that I'm not the crazy one when my mind goes where it does as he speaks.

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  112. I cannot watch this guy speak. It's hard enough to read an article that quotes more than one sentence of his. He constantly interrupts himself mid-sentence and inserts non-sequiturs and digressions to the point that it's impossible to follow his train of though. Then he'll repeat himself three or four times.

    I cannot fathom what you went through writing this piece. I read the entire thing. It took two hours, including a break for alcohol and another for a shower because I felt so dirty trying to read it. I can truthfully say that this is the only time I'll ever read (or listen to) more than a paragraph of his speech. I just can't. I'll take the "fake news" reporting on what he says, boiling it down into something that is legible without all the self-gratification and whining.

    I can't believe we have another 3 years, 11 months of this to put up with.

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  113. Jim, I admire the hell out of your mental fortitude. I can't even stand to hear President (shudder) rich asshole speak for thirty seconds, so what was required to get through that entire fact-free, incoherent, bragging session/press conference--and dissect it so eloquently afterward--is far beyond my ability. I read what the President said, however, and what you said about it; both left me terrified for the future of the country.

    That Other Jean

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  114. Jim, sorry about the "anonymous), I'm old and don't subscribe to the other choices.

    When I was a kid, my mother and I went to pick blueberries for pie to feed about 40 people. It was hot and buggy. I told my mom I'd picked enough for my piece of pie and I wanted to quit. She asked me quietly if I thought it fair for her to pick the rest.

    And I grew up a little that day.

    When I was 20, I worked my way through college. And I thought everyone else was just lazy or stupid. And then I learned the conditions for those lazy, stupid people who lived in abject poverty or in a state where tuition wasn't damn near free.

    And I was ashamed and grew up a little more.

    Now, I'm 79. I remember WWII, and Watergate and Abu Graib. And I recently found your blog.

    I think I'm growing up again.

    Thanks.

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    Replies
    1. Really? Are you kdding me?
      There's a zoo in Gulf Breeze?
      Keep on rattling the keyboard and other things.
      Loving it here.

      Delete
  115. After reviewing a number of political articles on my newsfeed (much easier than reading several newspapers a day), cross referencing attached links, and verifying sources, I am convinced that my beloved Nation is rapidly reaching a critical mass crisis point. It would seem a party that once could pride itself on members like Dr. King or Abe Lincoln has devolved into the Outriders of Apocalypse. As I read the comments on these posts, I see my fellow Americans becoming angrier, more disgruntled, willing (as in one post) to engage in armed insurrection against a budding tyrant to defend the Country we share and love...

    And I realize this would be the very point at which these nefarious powers would turn the Republic into a nation under martial law.

    I wonder... was that their intention the whole time?

    #MAGA

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    Replies
    1. This is something I've been saying all along to anyone who will listen. Unfortunately, I live in the Red State part of California, so I have to keep my doors and windows locked and my shotgun loaded.

      Watch for 45's "Reichstag Fire"!

      Delete
  116. Of course it might not be petulance at all, it might be... sassines.

    check it out: small change in sound, much better match-up with the body language. It's a revelation:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwMVBoibxCc

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  117. Would a nice High School forensics coach like to give a critique on President Trump's speaking style? I would be curious.

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    Replies
    1. Given trump's peculiar assemblage of friends and consorts, perhaps we should be asking for a 'nice high school wrestling coach' instead.

      paging Dennis Hastert... Dennis Hastert, please report to the warden's office. you have a call from trump.

      Delete
  118. Dear Jim,

    I'm pretty sure you misinterpreted his use of "I used it"

    "...our military, but they don't have the right equipment and their equipment is old. I used it. I talked about it at every stop...
    And I think one of the reason I'm standing here instead of other people is that frankly, I talked about we have to have a strong military."

    “I used it"

    He wasn't saying that he used the equipment, he was openly admitting to one of his campaign manipulations, using the military rebuild rhetoric the same way as: I'll build a wall, mexico will pay;
    crooked hillary emails; deporting illegals, banning muslims, dishonest media, law & order etc. etc.

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  119. I live a couple of miles directly below the Oroville Dam, so I have been highly distracted this last week and only peripherally aware of the week's T*rump fuckery, so I'm very late in reading your cathartic essay.

    Of all of his exchanges with reporters one of the most disturbing is with the jewish reporter who asked him about the recent increase in anti-semitic violence. I never would have ordinarily submitted myself to the torture of watching this horror show, but my family members had it on. My eyes, ears, hair & the TV barely survived.

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  120. I think his word-salad might be deliberate, as one poster above mentioned. It's a device.

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  121. I believe your verbatim transcript to be unnecessarily cruel.

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  122. Thanks Jim, great writing. I got half way through, and my head is spinning. I'll have to come back later and read the rest of it. Incredible.

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  123. Anyone brave enough needs to read this article in the Guardian:

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/26/robert-mercer-breitbart-war-on-media-steve-bannon-donald-trump-nigel-farage

    For the view that what Trump was doing with his word salad in that presser was NOT just blathering, that it's intentional, and driven by AI bots mining Facebook and tweeting from ghost accounts, and generally useing algoythms to game google with the object of changing hearts and minds, and doing it at the speed of light, not the creak of brain.

    Psyops in other words. Of a very new kind. Funded by some VERY deep pockets.

    From the article:

    There’s nothing accidental about Trump’s behaviour ... “That press conference. It was absolutely brilliant. I could see exactly what he was doing. There’s feedback going on constantly. That’s what you can do with artificial intelligence. You can measure ever reaction to every word. He has a word room, where you fix key words. We did it. So with immigration, there are actually key words within that subject matter which people are concerned about. So when you are going to make a speech, it’s all about how can you use these trending words.”

    But there is a lot more. The article is long but really worth the effort. And chilling as all Hell.

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  124. Jim Wright here is a reaction from a friend:
    Here is my reaction to the first essay by Jim Wright I have ever disagreed with. I can't post the comment to him directly, so I hereby send it out into the ether...

    Every bit of this presupposes that the playing field is the same as it was 40, or even 8 years ago. It is not. Allowing oneself to be constantly sealioned into submission by brazenly mendacious trolls who have no intention whatsoever of debating substantive issues in good faith is every bit as much a recipe for political failure as any elaborately constructed straw-man-liberal who is pedantically unwilling to compromise because of unicorns. Go ahead, Charlie Brown. Compromise with Lucy. Try to kick that football again. You'll get it this time.

    There simply is nobody left to compromise *with*. If you think they're there, they're not. We're being baited. Traditional strategies will no longer work. We've passed that point. The Right got here through a long and rigorous campaign of conscious, willful disruption spanning decades, and employing the most unethical means possible. It's time to observe their goals, reason out the means by which they hope to achieve them, and do absolutely everything possible to disrupt them, hopefully ethically this time. Reasoning with them, compromising with them, debating them - all of that just plays right into their greasy hands.

    "You want to fix voter suppression in all its various forms? Then you have to WIN. FIRST. That means you have to use the system as it exists NOW."

    Bullshit. The Right didn't. Not one little bit. They came from behind, deliberately screwed with the system, and it seems to have worked out rather well for them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Let me guess, your "friend's" name is Elizabeth? She's certainly persistent, I'll give her that. And while I got sick and tired of her OCD on Twitter, I did indeed allow her not-so anonymous comment to post on the Red Sea essay (which is where your comment belongs and not here. Just saying).

      Despite the fact that you've posted on the wrong essay, I'll let your comment stand and I will go you one further and concede the point. For argument's sake, let's say you're right. I'm totally off base.

      So, I'll ask again, same question I asked your "friend" on Twitter: What's YOUR plan?

      Come now, don't be cagey. Answer the question. What's your plan?

      You won't compromise. You don't believe there are any rational conservatives left. You regard half the country as The Enemy. You don't believe the system will work. You don't believe you can win via legal means. You believe the opposition is illegitimate and therefore not worthy of consideration or any respect. They hate you and you hate them and there can be no peace between you. Got it. I'm totally there.

      So what's your plan?

      Violent revolution? Civil War? Coup d'etat? And when you succeed, assuming that you do, and you seize power, what then? Purges? Genocide? Ghettos? Reeducation camps? Mass deportation? What?

      Please, explain. And be specific.

      Delete
    2. There are several factors to take into consideration- the playing field has been changed, the standard historic roles & moves of the chess pieces have been outright rewritten.

      Consider trump's chief confidante- Bannon. The historic Repub Party had no place in their tent, let alone in the speaker's table, for an anarchist. Bannon's goal is not to assert power for Republican gain, but power to implode our nation (and, really, the structures defining all nations).

      "I am a Leninist and my goal is to tear down the State". I’m not sure it matters whether trump is truly bright or stupid, calculated or disjoin. Is he in this for personal gain? Of course. Does he have a sense of national pride? Not as any party leader has ever promoted (at least, not in the US).

      When CPAC became TPAC we know that there really is no stability or basis to 'the other side'. Its a frikken free for all! Ryan and McConnell and others are acting to promote their own pet projects or the legislation dictated to them by their $$$ benefactors.

      So- how does anyone address this with logic and objective debate? The 'Ryan' Republicans campaigned on smaller govt, yet we are seeing a massive over reach by the trump administration- from threatening private businesses on free trade ("we'll make it very much harder for them to leave this country") to massive federal expenditures- $25 BILLION for a wall that 'Mexico will (NOT) pay for"; $1 TRILLION in federal projects via alleged public / private ventures- how many damn toll roads on OUR public highways will there be? Fees for every single bridge across the nation?

      Bannon wants to deconstruct our nation- who elected him? We gave him no voice at the national table, albeit there are many who followed breitbart for their daily ration of LSD-laced facts.

      Courtesy of gerrymandering, legislators no longer feel a need or responsibility to answer to "We the People". Their seats are effectively guaranteed. So who is their guidance counselor? The private interests who press legislation thru ALEC. We- we no longer count. We are irrelevant.

      trump, imo, is merely a one dimensional character- a fictional creation of what he thought POTUS should be. He received large donations and now he is paying them back (as is Congress)- see DeVos donations to members of Congress, as well as ~$43 MILLION to the Republican candidates.

      What DO we do when Citizens United guarantees that the game is fixed, that the refs already have the game called?

      We can point to the poor voter turnout and the very small (hand) margin that trump took to win the EC votes. There would be change if not for low voter turnout. Perhaps a bit of optimism. We see for House seats, that repairing Congressional districts will take a monumental amount of work. (trump did campaign on term limits, maybe we can force him to call for this? hahahaha... ya, i know, right??)

      But look at the number of R governors and R senators. These are state-wide results. There is a big amount (BIGLY?) of dysfunction in the D side of the aisle. Maybe with Schumer, we'll see an adult voice championing things (Reid, for whatever good he tried to accomplish, was NOT made for prime time tv.)

      Re the options to address the immediate issues- of trump complicity or outright conspiracy with Russia to engage in a technical/electronic war on our election- something DOES need to happen. If the Repubs (and one POS Joe Manchin, as one person said- a DINO) rationalize and twist the issue re Sessions and his blatant perjury as a non-event, then-

      Delete
    3. to conclude-

      then what? Marches and protests and rallies. Not only this- but coordinating with the private sector- the business leaders to force the hand of Congress to have this resolved. Economic warfare. Economic protests. (ref Gov Pence in Indiana when he tried to push thru his religious 'liberty' legislation in 2015- major fail.. BIGLY FAIL- and that was through a coordinated effort by private sector, major employers, the colleges, the NCAA, and the many pro sports teams).

      As for a coup d'etat? Well- I have no doubt that Pres Obama spoke with the Joint Chiefs and senior military prior to his departure. I believe he advised them BIGLY to honor the Constitution and NOT the person in the WH without discretion.

      And as we now hear that Obama made sure that intel re trump and Russia was distributed extensively to assure things didn't disappear, the information will continue to come out. The 'fake news' groups are conducting and publishing great, detailed studies of trump's finances, questionable relations and sources of income. I have little doubt that there is MUCH MORE to come out. US Intel has been insulted by trump as well as our military.

      This will continue to play out. Expect folk like the Koch Bros etc will be telling Repubs in Congress to get this fixed NOW. They will throw trump under the bus without question- when they get the green light from their $$$$ WS gods. (and knowing pence, he has already met with his congressional buddies to assure a 'safe and smooth' transition).

      We'll see what happens with Sessions. He lied, he perjured himself before Congress. With Flynn gone for lying setting the standard, Sessions needs to resign. Congress needs to demand his resignation. Its not a matter of what Sessions talked about- its the fact that he lied under oath.

      We'll see... but the pressure on trump and his administration will not let up. More information will come out about trump's reliance and debt to Russian 'investors'.

      Delete
  125. Not only was that authentic frontier gibberish...

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  126. Sadly, ever since John Kerry, prior military service has been a handicap to seeking the Presidency. Because people in the military have to make decisions, and no matter what those decisions are, someone will be unhappy and willing to complain years down the line. The ideal candidate is someone who has never made a controversial decision in their life.

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