Trump Dump: Internal Policy (Thread I)

[Flagg]

Wait, Trump said something untrue? I don't believe it. But I believe in Bigfoot.

[FaxModem1]

Well, either Trump lied(shocker, I know) or Carrier pulled a fast one on the Trump administration. Pick your poison.

[Thanas]

Whynotboth.jpg

[FaxModem1]

Wall Street Journal

GOP Activist Who Sought Clinton Emails Cited Trump Campaign Officials
Peter W. Smith listed Bannon, Conway and Clovis, besides Flynn, in a recruiting document; his purpose isn’t clear and there’s no indication he asked for or received any coordination with them
Kellyanne Conway and Stephen Bannon at the White House on April 18.
Kellyanne Conway and Stephen Bannon at the White House on April 18. PHOTO: KEVIN DIETSCH/GETTY IMAGES
By Shane Harris, Michael C. Bender and Peter Nicholas
June 30, 2017 9:35 p.m. ET
28 COMMENTS
WASHINGTON—A longtime Republican activist who led an operation hoping to obtain Hillary Clinton emails from hackers listed senior members of the Trump campaign, including some who now serve as top aides in the White House, in a recruitment document for his effort.

The activist, Peter W. Smith, named the officials in a section of the document marked “Trump Campaign.” The document was dated Sept. 7, 2016. That was around the time Mr. Smith said he started his search for 33,000 emails Mrs. Clinton deleted from the private server she used for official business while secretary of state. She said the deleted emails concerned personal matters. She turned over tens of thousands of other emails to the State Department.

As reported Thursday by The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Smith and people he recruited to his effort theorized the deleted emails might have been stolen by hackers and might contain matters that were politically damaging. He and his associates said they were in touch with several groups of hackers, including two from Russia they suspected were tied to the Moscow government, in a bid to find any stolen emails and potentially hurt Mrs. Clinton’s prospects.

Mr. Smith’s purpose in listing the officials isn’t clear. There is no indication in the document that he sought or received any coordination from the campaign officials or the campaign in general.

MORE

GOP Operative Sought Clinton Emails From Hackers, Implied a Connection to Flynn
Mr. Smith died in mid-May at age 81, about 10 days after he spoke to the Journal. He said he operated independently of the Trump campaign.

Officials identified in the document include Steve Bannon, now chief strategist for President Donald Trump; Kellyanne Conway, former campaign manager and now White House counselor; Sam Clovis, a policy adviser to the Trump campaign and now a senior adviser at the Agriculture Department; and retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, who was a campaign adviser and briefly was national security adviser in the Trump administration.

Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. PHOTO: MICHAEL REYNOLDS/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
Mr. Bannon said he never met with Mr. Smith or anyone affiliated with a limited-liability company, KLS Research LLC, that the document said had been established for its mission. “Never heard of KLS Research or Peter Smith,” Mr. Bannon said.

Ms. Conway said she knew Mr. Smith from Republican politics but hadn’t spoken to him in years. “I never met with him” during the campaign, Ms. Conway said. “There were no calls, no meetings, no nothing.”

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did the Agriculture Department, Mr. Clovis’s employer.

Mr. Flynn, his consulting firm Flynn Intel Group and his son Michael G. Flynn, who was chief of staff at Flynn Intel, were cited more extensively as Mr. Smith sought to recruit researchers, as well as in documents related to the effort that have been described to the Journal. Neither Mr. Flynn nor his son responded to requests for comment.

The names of the other campaign officials haven’t surfaced in connection with Mr. Smith’s work except in the document, which the Journal reviewed on Friday.

The document section that lists campaign officials is followed by the words, “in coordination to the extent permitted as an independent expenditure.”—a possible reference to campaign strictures imposed by campaign finance and disclosure laws.

The document was included in a package of opposition research Mr. Smith shared through an encrypted email with Matt Tait, a cybersecurity expert who once worked for British intelligence. Mr. Tait said he was approached last summer by Mr. Smith, who wanted him to help verify whether emails offered to the group by hackers came from Mrs. Clinton’s private serve.

After discussing his project by phone and in emails Mr. Smith gave him a document called the “KLS research packet,” which contained articles Mr. Smith planned to use for opposition research, Mr. Tait said. The packet cover sheet is the document that listed the Trump campaign officials. Mr. Smith’s name and phone number are typed at the bottom of it.

Mr. Smith asked Mr. Tait to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Mr. Tait said he declined and ceased communications with Mr. Smith, never reviewing any purported Clinton emails.

The document Mr. Smith presented to Mr. Tait, which he kept, is titled, “A Demonstrative Pedagogical Summary to be Developed and Released Prior to November 8, 2016,” which was Election Day.

It cites as the “preferred vehicle” for the effort a limited-liability company established in Delaware. Mr. Smith established KLS Research as that vehicle on Sept. 2, according to incorporation documents.

The House Intelligence Committee and its counterpart in the Senate are investigating Russian election meddling and whether there was coordination with the Trump campaign. So is Special Counsel Robert Mueller. President Trump has denied any collusion. The Russian government has denied it tried to interfere.

U.S. investigators have examined reports from intelligence agencies that tell of Russian hackers discussing how to get emails from Mrs. Clinton’s server and transmit them to Mr. Flynn via an intermediary, according to U.S. officials with knowledge of the intelligence. It isn’t clear who the intermediary might have been or whether Mr. Smith’s operation was the one allegedly under discussion by the Russian hackers.

Mr. Smith said in the May interview he had assembled a group of technology experts, lawyers and a Russian-speaking investigator based in Europe to acquire emails his group theorized might have been stolen from Mrs. Clinton’s private server.

He said that after vetting batches of emails offered to him by hacker groups last fall, he couldn’t be sure enough of their authenticity to leak them himself and told the hackers to give them to WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks has never published such emails or claimed to have them. In a statement to the Journal, it said, “WikiLeaks has never revealed a source and never will.”

Appeared in the July 1, 2017, print edition as 'Clinton Email Seeker Cited Trump Aides.'

[The Romulan Republic]

But remember, any suggestion of collusion with Russia is just a conspiracy theory by Democrats.

[Flagg]

The Wall Street Journal?! They are such a lefty rag, no doubt publishing Fake News TM. I mean what's next, such fifth column pinko "newspapers" like The Washington Times and New York Post?

If you want real journalism you can only trust such fine publications as The Daily Bugle or Wasilla Frontiersman!


But really, this is a whole lot of nothing. I mean yeah, it's got all the usual suspects but zero concrete anything.

I'll admit I'm becoming more convinced that hackers, mainly from Russia, colluded with the Trump campaign prior to the election to retrieve emails in an effort to harm Clinton (and didn't seem to come up with much of anything which is why Tanya Harding impersonator James "Lead Pipe" Comey (whose Mar-A-Lago souvenir knife in the back as reward for his ill deeds on President Fecal Matter's behalf gives me no shortage of joy) had to kneecap her campaign by announcing a "new email investigation" that didn't exist.

I'm slowly kinda sorta coming around to being receptive to it being a real possibility that the election results were fucked with and the election stolen by the Trump Syndicate using hackers, almost certainly Russian Government hackers or hackers paid by the Russian Government if (and it's an if half the width of my dick, so we're talking a big enough "if" to brush against the Andromeda Galaxy) that's what happened. But if all they have is almost completely contentless stories like this to make that case then it's ridiculously thin.

[Ace Pace]

It's more complicated than this, because there's no overall mastermind.

You can both have Trump as an unwitting actor, or even have people like Flynn being non traitors while being complicit in working with russians. Dave Aitel has a pretty good example on Lawfare(*).

You can have the russians "interfering" by attacking a specific actor yet still not being happy with Trump. etc.



(*) of pwnallthethings fame during the DNC leaks.

[Flagg]

It's more complicated than this, because there's no overall mastermind.

You can both have Trump as an unwitting actor, or even have people like Flynn being non traitors while being complicit in working with russians. Dave Aitel has a pretty good example on Lawfare(*).

You can have the russians "interfering" by attacking a specific actor yet still not being happy with Trump. etc.



(*) of pwnallthethings fame during the DNC leaks.

Yeah. I just keep seeing the same "Trump got Vlad to hack the votes and stole the election" thing, but 9 times (or more) out of 10 it's largely based on articles similar to this, with lots of names and little action.

[Ace Pace]

It's more complicated than this, because there's no overall mastermind.

You can both have Trump as an unwitting actor, or even have people like Flynn being non traitors while being complicit in working with russians. Dave Aitel has a pretty good example on Lawfare(*).

You can have the russians "interfering" by attacking a specific actor yet still not being happy with Trump. etc.



(*) of pwnallthethings fame during the DNC leaks.

Yeah. I just keep seeing the same "Trump got Vlad to hack the votes and stole the election" thing, but 9 times (or more) out of 10 it's largely based on articles similar to this, with lots of names and little action.

This article is actually very interesting for that reason. It (with some evidence) explains what sort of "collusion" you could actually see. Which would be more on the willful ignorance of ramifications rather than any deliberate plan to "bring about Trumps control with Russian aid"

[Flagg]

It's more complicated than this, because there's no overall mastermind.

You can both have Trump as an unwitting actor, or even have people like Flynn being non traitors while being complicit in working with russians. Dave Aitel has a pretty good example on Lawfare(*).

You can have the russians "interfering" by attacking a specific actor yet still not being happy with Trump. etc.



(*) of pwnallthethings fame during the DNC leaks.

Yeah. I just keep seeing the same "Trump got Vlad to hack the votes and stole the election" thing, but 9 times (or more) out of 10 it's largely based on articles similar to this, with lots of names and little action.

This article is actually very interesting for that reason. It (with some evidence) explains what sort of "collusion" you could actually see. Which would be more on the willful ignorance of ramifications rather than any deliberate plan to "bring about Trumps control with Russian aid"

It may have been the scumbag aides and advisors Trump, king of scumbaggery, surrounds himself with doing things on their own without his knowledge to help him. But it would just be to insulate him from what is morally treasonous and probably breaks shitloads of laws. At the same time it could also be a situation where he knew damned well what was going on and remained willfully ignorant about it, though I wouldn't be surprised that he tacitly supported it. It could also have been Vlad smelling his own and ordering his people to hack the vote to put him in power without any of President Dingleberry's cronies being involved.

In any case, he benefitted if there was in fact a concerted effort by hackers to give him the election. But articles like this don't seem particularly compelling to me.

[FaxModem1]

NPR

Trump D.C. Hotel Contractors Say They're Owed Millions

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January 11, 20174:54 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
Jackie Northam
JACKIE NORTHAM

The Trump Organization spent $200 million to renovate the historic Old Post Office Building in Washington, D.C., transforming it into the Trump International Hotel. But several companies say they haven't been fully paid for that work.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
In late October, just weeks ahead of the election, President-elect Donald Trump made a quick detour to Washington for the official opening of his new five-star hotel, just a few blocks from the White House.

During a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Trump told the crowd that the two-year, roughly $200 million renovation project at the historic Old Post Office Building was done ahead of schedule and under budget, thanks to what he called an incredible team of people — "including hundreds of construction workers, electricians, maintenance workers and so many others who helped make this project a reality. They're really the important ones."

Now some of those companies would like final payment for their work. Documents obtained by NPR show three Washington-area companies have filed liens against Trump International Hotel totaling more than $5 million.

Agency Pushes Back On Claim Trump Would Breach Hotel Lease Once He Takes Office
POLITICS
Agency Pushes Back On Claim Trump Would Breach Hotel Lease Once He Takes Office
One company, Joseph J. Magnolia Inc., filed a $2.98 million mechanic's lien in December. According to the filing, the firm worked on the hotel from September 2014 to December 2016 and "completed all plumbing, mechanical and HVAC work, along with site sewer, water, storm and water services."

AES Electrical Inc., based in Laurel, Md., says it's owed $2.075 million for its work on the hotel for the same period of time as Magnolia.

Sterling, Va.,-based A&D Construction filed a lien in November saying it was owed $79,700. The firm's lawyer, Richard Sissman, says A&D is a small, Hispanic-owned company that was subcontracting on the Trump hotel project.

"The nature of the work was ... trim and casework and architectural millwork, wall base, crown molding; this is all fine carpentry," he says.

Sissman says A&D's lien is relatively small compared to the other two, but it's a lot of money to his client.

"On these big jobs these should be paid. It's ridiculous that a small-time operator has to beg for its money," he says. "It's put him in a very bad situation right now."

Donald Trump Ordered For Deposition In D.C. Hotel Restaurant Case
BUSINESS
Donald Trump Ordered For Deposition In D.C. Hotel Restaurant Case
Trump has faced many liens — and lawsuits — for alleged nonpayment for work in the past.

Steven Schooner, a contracts specialist with the George Washington University law school, says resolving the liens in this case could ultimately involve the federal government because it holds the lease on the building where the Trump hotel is located.

"The way the lease is structured, it said they may step in and discharge the lien but they're not actually required to," he says.

Still, Schooner says as a rule, the government wants its tenants — like Trump International Hotel — to solve its own problems.

Requests for comment from Trump's communication team about the liens were not returned.

TL:DR. Trump doesn't pay his bills.

[Flagg]

You can't make this shit up.
The only people who think you can are beholden to Vlad Putin's Ass.

[Dominus Atheos]

Spicy's out:

Sean Spicer Resigns as White House Press Secretary

WASHINGTON — Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, resigned on Friday morning, telling President Trump he vehemently disagreed with the appointment of the New York financier Anthony Scaramucci as communications director.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/us/p ... etary.html

[Gandalf]

I'm surprised he lasted this long.

I wonder if he'll sell his story.

[Thanas]

I am pretty sure he will be paid under the table to be quiet.

[Ralin]

I am pretty sure he will be paid under the table to be quiet.

Trump doesn't strike me as honest enough to pay his bribes like a normal person.

[Civil War Man]

I am pretty sure he will be paid under the table to be quiet.

Trump doesn't strike me as honest enough to pay his bribes like a normal person.

He's more the "force employees to sign NDRs and then sue them if they talk" type.

[bilateralrope]

I am pretty sure he will be paid under the table to be quiet.

Trump doesn't strike me as honest enough to pay his bribes like a normal person.

He doesn't pay contractors. Why would anyone expect him to pay bribes ?

[TheFeniX]

Republicans continue to lose support for their healthcare repeal. Trump, of course, just wants to tear the whole thing down and start from scratch in an effort to force the Democrats hand. But he'd have even less support for that. This is shaping up to just be this promise that peters out. I mean, keep fighting against it as hard as you can, but I'm getting to the point where in a year or so Trump is like "I never promised to repeal Obamacare, only fake news said that."

I've never understood how Republicans could dump so much shit on Obama and Democrats for so many years and expect them to turn around and give support for something like this. They aren't even extending an olive branch. It's literally just "FUCKING DO THIS! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU? GAAAAAH! WHY ARE YOU FUCKING GUYS ACTING LIKE PUSSY-ASS DEMOCRA..... I mean uh. Fucking COME ON!"

I mean, this isn't all Republicans. In fact, TrumpCo is having so many issues just getting their Republican opponents to the bill to not say shit like "This bill is bad and you should feel bad" they're trying to get them just to hold their tongue for a limited amount of time, such as after money/vote drives.

The Republican Party's efforts to gut former President Barack Obama's legacy health care law came to an abrupt -- if temporary -- halt Monday night.
Just hours after the Senate was gaveled back into session, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was handed two more public defections on his health care bill to overhaul Obamacare. The dramatic and simultaneous announcement from Sens. Jerry Moran of Kansas and Mike Lee of Utah means McConnell officially does not have the votes to even begin debate on his legislation to overhaul the Affordable Care Act.

The development deals a devastating blow not only to Republicans who have railed against the law for years, but also President Donald Trump, who campaigned on killing Obamacare and made repealing the law his top legislative priority since taking office.

"Regretfully, it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of Obamacare will not be successful," McConnell said in a statement late Monday. He said the Senate would vote in the coming days on a bill that would delay the repeal of Obamacare for two years -- all as Trump called for a wholesale repeal of the law.


In announcing their opposition to the bill, Moran and Lee said they would vote "no" on the motion to proceed -- a vote that McConnell had hoped to hold this week but was already forced to postpone due to Arizona Sen. John McCain's unexpected absence from Washington.
"We should not put our stamp of approval on bad policy. Furthermore, if we leave the federal government in control of everyday healthcare decisions, it is more likely that our healthcare system will devolve into a single-payer system, which would require a massive federal spending increase," Moran said in a statement.
The surprise announcement was all the more devastating as Trump was trying to shore up support for the bill at a dinner at the White House. The group of attendees included Sens. Richard Shelby of Alabama, Steve Daines of Montana and James Lankford of Oklahoma. The three, like Moran, are reliably conservative senators who generally vote with McConnell on major bills.
After Moran and Lee's announcement, Trump tweeted, "Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!"

Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2017

On Tuesday morning Trump returned to Twitter: "We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans. Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard. We will return!"
In another tweet he added, "As I have always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan. Stay tuned!"
In a stark sign of just how grave his concerns are about the bill, Moran went as far as to call for a "fresh" start and an "open legislative process."
McConnell's inability to convince the senators to hold off on publicly opposing the bill highlighted the huge chasm that had developed between the efforts of the leadership to pass a bill and the willingness of rank and file senators to agree to something they had serious reservations about.
Also in attendance at the White House gathering Monday night was Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who chairs the Senate health committee and who has been heavily involved in crafting the bill. An aide told CNN before the meeting that even Alexander could not commit to voting for the bill.
In fact, an ongoing CNN whip count showed only a handful of Republicans fully supporting the bill, many of them members of the elected leadership and chairmen of other committees negotiating the bill.
Who's behind GOP's stunning defeat on health care?
Who's behind GOP's stunning defeat on health care?
The CNN count showed a whopping 41 of the 52 GOP senators unwilling to commit to either the motion to proceed on the bill, a key procedural vote to begin debate, or the bill itself.
Prior to Monday, there were two other Senate Republicans who had said they would vote against the revised health care bill: Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine. This meant McConnell could not afford even one more opposing senator.
Over the weekend, McCain's office revealed that the veteran senator had surgery to remove a blood clot from above his eye, forcing him to stay back at home in Arizona. Shy one "yes" vote on the motion to proceed, the majority leader announced that he would "defer" consideration of the health care bill while his colleague recovered.
Now, with the announcement from Moran and Lee, even if McCain were to return to Washington, McConnell would be unable to move his legislation to the Senate floor.
McConnell had hoped that Lee -- who had opposed the first version of the Senate bill -- would be won over by the addition of an amendment spearheaded by Sen. Ted Cruz. The provision would allow some insurers to offer cheaper and skimpier plans unregulated under Obamacare.
While it was enough to win Cruz's support, the amendment -- which Lee said was not exactly what he had asked for -- couldn't change Lee's mind. An aide to Lee said Monday night that throughout the process, "at most, he was undecided" -- a revealing comment about just how far away McConnell was from winning over some of his colleagues.
Explore Trump's progress on key campaign promises
"In addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes, it doesn't go far enough in lowering premiums for middle class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations," Lee said in a statement.
The fresh defections Monday night had Republican aides wondering whether the floodgates were about to open.
"Nobody wanted to be the third 'no,'" one GOP aide said. Now that there are four "no" senators, the number could grow very quickly and potentially open the door "to a whole stream of other 'no' votes," the source added.
In particular, senators hailing from Medicaid-expansion states have stubbornly remained holdouts as McConnell has searched for 50 "yes" votes.
Sens. Dean Heller of Nevada, Rob Portman of Ohio, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have all publicly said they were deeply uncomfortable with the steep cuts to Medicaid proposed in the Senate bill. In the most optimistic view, the new week-long delay brought on by McCain's absence was seen as offering these senators more time to negotiate and push for changes with leadership. But the Moran and Lee defections could very well shift the momentum and break a dam that has been ready to burst, aides said.
One Senate GOP aide with direct knowledge said Lee and Moran were likely to be first of many to publicly announce their opposition: "More senators are ready to jump. This wasn't done without that knowledge."

[The Romulan Republic]

Oh, I just love the health care debacle. If the stakes weren't the health care of millions of people, I'd be laughing my ass off at the karmic justice of it all.

Because I remember when the Democrats went through this, except we actually got a bill passed that helped people. And then the Republicans spent a decade attacking us for it, and built the Tea Party and retook Congress on this issue, because due to fear-mongering propaganda, this is an incredibly divisive issue where it seems impossible to do anything without massive opposition.

And now, predictably, its coming back to bite them in turn. Because all they have is opposition to Obama, not an alternative they can actually sell to the American people, or even a majority of the Congress. This is shaping up to drag them down in 2018 just like it did us in 2010, and its even worse for them, because they've spent so long whipping up and pandering to the fanatics that its impossible for them to craft a bill that will get support both from their base, and from sane people.

Suck it, assholes. You earned this.

[TheFeniX]

Because I remember when the Democrats went through this, except we actually got a bill passed that helped people. And then the Republicans spent a decade attacking us for it, and built the Tea Party and retook Congress on this issue, because due to fear-mongering propaganda, this is an incredibly divisive issue where it seems impossible to do anything without massive opposition.

I got loads of beef with Obama's policies, but I gained a lot of respect for the man as a politician and a person for doing what he did to get the ACA passed. He admitted faults with the system but believed U.S. health care was the best in the world, if you could afford it. Back-room, front-room deals. Playing nice. Cracking the whip, the guy dealt with Hell to get the votes on both sides of the field he needed.

Trump bullies. It's not about helping people, it's about loyalty to the party, what he now views as HIS party. His cronies do not understand that the Republicans have never been fully united, except in their opposition to vote against Democrats. You still have "small gubmint" Republicans. Those who want the lion's share of the money and responsibility to go to the states, so they can dole out healthcare, the good stuff, to only who they deem acceptable. Let the other states do what they will.

You have the "fuck 'em all" Republicans already in their pocket. Then you have the guys who either got into office in more liberal areas due to the failures seemingly apparent of the Democrat party (much like all the blue-dogs Democrats got after the failures of Bush and Co). Then you have the ones whose electors have suckled at the teet of socialism and now can't live without it.

Republicans need a measured approach and THERE ARE Republicans who could do that. But Trump? Perry? McConnell? Pence? The guys running the show? The idea is fucking laughable. They are cheap bullies. Way too emotionally tied to the idea that "anything Obama = cancer." They bitch and bitch about how Obamacare is a massive failure. And there's enough people who believe that. But there's also millions who have directly benefited from the policies what with the "hooray, I'm alive and not in financial ruin!" angle.

And there's not even an attempt to understand them. Hell, there's not even an attempt to understand division within their own party. They expected heel-toe and can't even comprehend the basics of why that isn't happening.

I used the term "literally" earlier and I've been trying not to do that. But just reading their statements and tweets. I see no real difference between those and "GOD FUCKING DAMN IT YOU TRAITOR PIECES OF SHIT! FUCKING RINOS! FUCKING DEMOCRATS! GRRAAAAAAAAAH!" The older I get, the more I laugh at the idea that grown men are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to act like middle-schoolers.

And now, predictably, its coming back to bite them in turn. Because all they have is opposition to Obama, not an alternative they can actually sell to the American people, or even a majority of the Congress.

Just like how people "hate Obamacare" but "like the ACA," Republicans might try dropping mentioning "Obama" every chance they get. Yes, many people hated him. But those people are already in their pocket. They forget a rather large amount of people LIKED the guy. But I think they are way too entrenched in their hugbox. Like, they honestly believe Obama had "fake popularity" and Obamacare actually DOESN'T help anyone.

[The Romulan Republic]

Yeah, I do think to some extent that the leadership may have started to believe their own propaganda. Which is terrifying.

Or, possibly, they have simply spent so long whipping up the fringe/Republican base that that's all they know how to do, and they've left themselves no room to retreat on any issue.

Or both.

[Flagg]

So President Douchebag has called the media that criticizes him the "enemy of the people" (Mao is laughing in his glass case) and professional shill Lou Dobbs is calling for the government to shut down any news outlet the President deems "fake news".

I did Nazi this coming. You just can't make this shit up.

[Gandalf]

So President Douchebag has called the media that criticizes him the "enemy of the people" (Mao is laughing in his glass case) and professional shill Lou Dobbs is calling for the government to shut down any news outlet the President deems "fake news".

I did Nazi this coming. You just can't make this shit up.

It's like 2005 again, but without that slick intellectual veneer that only George W Bush could bring.

[Lord Revan]

I know that people here like to compare Trump to Hitler but to me at least Trump seems less like the charismatic demagoue of 1930s Hitler and more like the ranting shell of a man living in his own fantasies that was the 1945 Hitler (even if Hitler didn't say those exact words the rant from Downfall depicts what Hitler's policies at the end of the war were), only difference being that Trump has even less control over what's happening.