Why is Trump treating California and Porto Rico quite differently than Texas and Florida? Two reasons... One... Number of electoral vote available, 67 vs. zero. Two... Tolerance for brown skinned Americans. Welcomed in PR and CA; scorned in TX and FL.
73
I'm looking forward to the late night routines on his Presidential Library, assuming we're all still here.
23
Speaking of the bugle incident, Trump attended the NY Military Academy. He should still be familiar with the appropriate response to reveille, retreat and the national anthem. Maybe he was sick the day bugle calls were covered in class. Trump also has a military aide who would/should prep him for the correct response to the bugle calls.
60
Will Trump run around saying "Merry Christmas" to his son-in-law and his son-in-law's family?
106
I am planning on sending a "Happy Holidays" card to the White House this year. I may send the "Season's Greetings" card to Mar-a-Lago to just be sure to find Trump at home. In any case I hope he receives enough cards from those who did not vote for him to change his mind about who won the War on Christmas this year.
The whole "War on Christmas" is a foolish political stunt which apparently does stir up Trump's base which like him has no idea people exist (Real American People!) who do not celebrate the same holidays Trump thinks all the Founders did.
It similar to the whole "Black Athletes Must Respect the Flag" stunt Trump is trying to push on the American people. If he and Pence decide all the NFL "workers" must follow the flag code, stand with hand over heart in silence while the anthem is played, I wonder when the NFL owners will be told to lock the restrooms, shut down the concession and food stands and hold back late comers until the song is over. We can't have any fans "disrespecting" the military and the flag! Let's put the cameras on the owners' suites and see how they each respect the flag. Let's stop with the KissCam and point out the Flag Worshipers in the stands; maybe they should get a tee shirt.
The stupid distractions should not stop us from protesting Trump's "Dangerous Tricks" like stopping subsidies for insurance companies under ACA or insulting North Korea or undermining the agreement which keeps Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
57
Trump is not ignorant, not by any means. He has enough smarts to know what the majority of Americans are for, and feel strongly about - and then he does the exact opposite. I truly believe his modus operandi is to anger as many people as he possibly can.
24
Christmas is fighting for survival and Shopmass is winning.
20
Gail, reading your column nowadays is like watching someone dynamiting fish in a rain-barrel. On the other hand, not reading your column is like asking Nero to play an encore. You truly have a gift for choosing the perfect narrative for a situation that makes a reader laugh and cry simultaneously. The light we see at the end of the tunnel is probably only a firefly, but thanks for helping us see it at all.
48
Trump spoke at a Value Voters Convention--would be interesting to know exactly what values the attendees represent and hold dear
39
I am not religious. I have jewish heritage, but I am an atheist. I enjoy the holiday season for the light and festivities it brings to a dark time of year. When I hear the words Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays, I choose to take them as words of well wishing at a time of year when many holidays are celebrated. Let's relax and think about the good wishes behind the words, instead of feeling irritated that somebody has not taken the time to say exactly the right thing. The spirit of the season and the good wishes it can bring is what is important, not the parsing of words. Trump can make this political if he wants, but I will choose to accept the happy well wishes during this holiday season as a sign of civility in our nation. We certainly need to lighten up and share in the spirit of the holiday season without judging our fellow man for how somebody cheerfully wishes us a fine holiday season.
60
Come now, the president does not do details, and as noted he was inside doing an interview. Average people don't know this and it has been a long time since he was in school. Just more looking for issues with a president that they don't agree with and don't support. SAD!!! And basically unprofessional.
2
The Christmas holiday has been turned into a extended commercial season for hawkers of stuff most people don't need and for cheesy movies, musicals, and maudlin TV shows. Trump is the perfect spokesman for this alt-version of Christmas. As someone who childishly blames others for his own mistakes and bad behavior, he wouldn't even make it onto a secular Santa's deserving kids list.
23
Trump has no idea what he is doing. He is just an entertainer. His base knows this and they don't care. Those around him have to make sure this doesn't matter.
25
To be honest I have never heard of the military song Retreat and when I think of the word I think of religious events associated with a Church. I am very American and will stand for our anthem and flag saluting as this is what we do.
I say Merry Christmas but refuse to say Happy Holidays. If someone says this to me which happens frequently I say same to you. It comes down to what is natural and makes you comfortable. It is hard for one to change their ways nor do some want to. We are creatures of happen.
These criticisms of President Trump are positives for those who supported him during the election. He said he would help Americans with healthcare where costs escalated and made it difficult for some families to pay their premiums and copays. Some received medical coverage for free while others were paying exorbitant costs and getting little to no care. What many received was inferior and plans that had coverage that was of little use to them. He is just doing what he said he would do. People were How refreshing for a president to talk the talk and walk the walk.
The people who are fault finding did not vote for Mr. Trump and will find nothing he does a success. They constantly belittle and mock him which is to be expected. His supporters are happy with his results so far and continue to be on his side.
3
I think that Trump's same-day, major moves re Iran and ACA; and the resulting 'storm of outrage' from Democrats constitutes the 'storm' referenced in Trump's elliptic declaration that this was 'the calm before the storm', rather than hinting an attack on North Korea.
4
Gail take the signing of the subsidy cutback and give us, with supporting numbers, what the effect it will have on Americans
Time to get very serious about this act of cruelty and revenge.
8
Yep, Gail, just when we think things can't get any worse with Trump, they get worse. I was thinking that we really are in some sort of Trump reality TV show. Trump writes the script for the week and his loyal minions act it out.
It's like the model of the old sitcoms like the George Burns and Gracie Allen, or Lucy and Desi, where there is a lead comic who becomes embroiled in the machinations of those around him and then has to straighten everything out.
But in Trump's case, Trump writes the script and causes the imbroglio, and his minions around him try to straighten it out. Which is why Rex Tillerson called him a "moron". Rex, evidently, did not like the script that week. And neither did anyone else.
Your keen observations here, Gail, leave us all with the question, "How bad is it going to get?" Nuclear war would be pretty bad. And given that Trump has no concern about the horrible fires in California, he just might yawn at a nuclear fireball over Guam.
I think that I'm going to unsubscribe from this channel.
15
Does anyone agree that a person should have a deep, abiding humility and deference to our country's armed service members before assuming the mantle of their commander-in-chief? I ask because the oblivious self-absorption that Donald Trump displayed as "Retreat" began to sound, and the casual, unrestrained way he attacked the parents of a fallen soldier, demonstrate that he can no more transcend his narcissistic, unappreciative shell with regard to those who commit their lives for America's safety than he can for anyone else. "Nobody respects and loves our military members more than I do," he would say, as he has said about women and in fact members of all the groups that he has spent a lifetime trampling on. And it would be the same sort of meaningless pablum.
35
On Thursday, I watched a General Kelly's remarkable press conference.
On Friday, Trump announced his decisions on Obamacare, the Iran deal and his attack on LGBTQ citizens.
I have concluded that General Kelly's statements, knowing what was brewing, was one long SOS to Congress, the GOP, judges and whoever else will listen that the president, and this presidency, is a danger to the world.
36
Fascinating. Would love to hear why you think so.
2
Trump at Voters Values Summit after ending ACA subsidies breaks ten commandments:
"Thou shalt not kill."
17
If you don't give trump money ot clap for him, he does not care about you. He is not the nation's president he is only acting the president to his fan base. It isn't about the nation, it is about his Own Self, He is only happy when he is getting all the attention, unless if that attention is negative then he just wants to beat you up. Make him a one term president.
41
In 2005, Bill Maher did a HBO comedy special called "I'm Swiss" so titled because he didn't want to be identified as American under the Bush presidency when traveling abroad. A comedy show! With Donald Trump, plowing though our international allies, treaties, obligations and commitments as though they were his contractors on a real estate development project he wanted to stiff in one way or the other.
At best his actions speak a strategy of pandering to his base with no other purpose than to get re-elected, but that is likely just an artifact of needing to get his way, garner attention and stick his finger in the eye or everyone who does not aggrandize his fragile ego, placate his childish need to be the center of attention.
Maybe we should all be Swiss, or Canadian, or a citizen of the EU.
14
So yes, we are witnessing an early act in a tragedy.So shouldn't we worry about the number of acts to follow?That will depend on changing the balance of power in 2018 and displacing Trump two years later.And yet, where is the leadership necessary to make these changes happen?And the ideas?Throw mud and hope some of it stick?It's time for Democrats to lose the playbook they criticized Republicans for during the Obama era(object to everything) and focus on coming up with one that will make the pain go away.
8
I myself do not like to say Merry Christmas, I'm a non-believer, but I would suggest that we all revert to calling these holidays by their original title, before the Catholic Church co-opted the Pagan festivals. Happy Saturnalia everyone!
22
It's official, we are living in an Idiocracy. I hate to comment on this but here it I go.... Saying Happy Holidays is a respectful way of acknowledging that a multitude of holidays coincide and the same time, so no matter your religious affiliation or non-affiliation, please enjoy this time. Purposefully saying merry Christmas to a person, you know is not Christian, is disrespectful. Some may be forgiving, some may not care, and some can be offended. Wouldn't you find it strange if a Jewish friend ignored your faith and said Happy Hanukkah? That's all folks, it is trying to remain inclusive and respectful to all. That is the great evil of Happy Holidays in a country that is diverse.
184
I'm 65, so I've been saying "Merry Christmas" since the 50's. It's just habit. But, I'm training myself to say "Happy Holidays" this year. Just my little contribution to the resistance.
78
He felt that the music was obviously to honor HIM. He was just being modest when he suggested it was to honor Hannity, but everyone knew he was the honoree. And people obviously rose to their feet in recognition of his wonderfulness. So what's the controversy?
24
What is behind the daily fits of chaos this dolt is creating? Why not try to make life better for people who are struggling (e.g. healthcare & taxes), create alliances rather than animosity (Iran, etc etc etc etc ) - And why are people in thrall? I still don't get the point - There s a whiff of Stalin/Mussolini in the air.
25
Trump managed to redefine kneeling as being disrespectful. Many of us kneel in church as a sign of respect. Also done as a sign of respect for royalty. Redefining everyone and lots of things is really how he got elected. His assigning negative nicknames to his opponents is an example of this. Say it often enough and it will be believed.
19
It seems to me that this past week has marked a new intensity in Trump's destructive actions. Health care subsidies; the Iran deal. These two alone are literally world-changing, and they are played out against the ongoing subplots of the denial of the right of professional athletes (or anyone else) to protest police violence; the dismantling of all regulations that protect our fragile environment; and the wrecking ball aimed at voting rights. And the backdrop is a conflagration on our west coast whose horrid symbolism only Donald Trump could miss. Image after image of fire consuming everything; stories of people who hesitate for only minutes and are lost. I don't think anything speaks more clearly or more eloquently of Trump's march through our democracy than those flames.
27
Every week I think it can't get any worse.
And every week it does.
46
What galls me is that signing away the protections of the ACA is just a cheap and cruel way to look like he is accomplishing something, when all it amounts to is a form of deconstruction for a president who has no real vision. And what really galls me is that his base and the very people who voted for him are the ones who will suffer most from these time-wasting theatrics and non-solutions to serious issues. Yes, the Retreat incident matters. It's not only the greater, more devastating acts that undermine this presidency and the American people, but the lesser things, too, which reveal the empty vessel of Trump and company. Why won't folks wake up?
35
Trump's issue with NFL players kneeling during the anthem has nothing to do about respect for the flag but everything about letting the NFL know he is more powerful than the league. This is revenge for the failure of the his New Jersey Generals, the rejection by the NFL of him to buy a team, and the results of his lawsuit against the NFL. Trump will try to use his position as president to take revenge on all of his enimies.
45
One awesome trick that Trump is playing is on his own children. How is it they choose to stand with him? Look at how he treated their mothers.
21
Every time I read about another new mean and nasty act or statement emanating from this man, I think: how can his children not be ashamed of their father? If this sorry excuse of a human being were my father, I'd want to be hiding under the bed, ashamed to be seen in light of day amongst decent folks. Yet clearly they're not, they seem to be cut from the same cloth, chip the old block, etc. ... UGH!
18
Is there any more negative distinctives left to characterize Trump?
Any rational person can see through the abject callousness and monstrous ego of this man.
And yet watch the adoring eyes of his supporting staff (including VP Pence) when he signs his destructive executive orders.
12
Beneath that stupidity of bragging about something but forgetting to sign it, this is a deadly serious matter. We should emphasize 'deadly' in the literal sense of the word. We are talking about people's life or death here.
Looking at the picture itself, without any description or background information, one would have thought Trump had established world peace or ended hunger in America. In spite of Trump's buffoonery, this demonstrates how heartless these people are.
24
There are so many stupid things President Trump does and says every day, that I feel overwhelmed by his endless avalanche of stupidity.
But, yesterday at the Values Voter Summit (who comes up with these names), Trump said he spoke with the president of the Virgin Islands. The president of the Virgin Islands is Trump. Does anyone think he knows that?
Which begs the question I'd like a reporter to ask Trump, if the president of the United States and the president of the Virgin Islands get into an elevator, how many people are in the elevator.
What a moronic dotard we have as our president.
68
Please! Please! Someone give me hope.
What is more frightening? That an ignorant lout is demeaning the presidency and unraveling our democracy or that huge sectors of the population still support and cheer him on. I think it was Thomas Friedman who suggested that countries that do business with each other are not going to war and damage their bottom lines. Theoretically, Trump wouldn't risk his profits, except his fall back position is usually to declare bankruptcy and shaft his suppliers. The many lines of dominoes are being tipped and will continue to fall for years to come. Our government, our country has been taken hostage by the unprincipled. Hitler rose to power with promises of economic salvation and used scape-goats to spur discontent and solidify his base. Sound familiar?
'The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing.' All those seemingly intelligent, purportedly moral people in 'power'.
How do they sleep at night?
44
Thanks, Gail, as well as the late-night comedians for reminding us of how absurd we have become as a nation.
Only in America can Trump and the GOP pee on us and tell us it's raining - and we believe him. Only in America can the brain-dead rule (Asimov: "...my stupidity is equal to your genius.") because a venal GOP can bamboozle "...all of the people all of the time."
P.T. Barnum, you should be on our dollar bill. Or maybe Saint Ronald the Dimwit should be on it, after all, he was a prophet declaring the government the problem when the American people were the government and now have become the problem.
20
Do you think behind those big sunglasses,Melania is eye rolling?
27
"the president"
No my president
11
It is interesting that thin-skinned people tend to be thick-headed. I guess that is because everything goes to their head.
5
So anyone want to guess why Trump's parent sent him to a military high school?
24
The awfulness of the Trumpling appears to be boundless. The trash comes so fast and furious, you feel as if you're at the transfer station on free dump day. We really are at risk of becoming enured to the missteps, misstatements, scandal and downright stupidity of the Trumpster and his administration. Lest we lose sight of the offal that has gone before, I suggest that "a prominent publication" keep a running of tally of the nastiness beginning say with "boys on the bus", John McCain and the Kahn family. Remember way back then? I was initially thinking front page, but really back page would be more appropriate.
9
"Values Voters" Now there's an ironic label. "Merry Christmas" everyone, er, except for you LGBT, Black, Brown, Yellow, Red, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Sikh .. Hate the sin but love the sinner -- to death.
14
here we are in potterville with no sign of clarence......
17
Trump's base doesn't care about his following protocol. They don't care about who he maligns. They don't care about him, really. What they care about is putting blacks "back in their place", getting people that don't look like them out of the country, and getting the poor off their backs. They have no concerns about anything other than that. Everything else is a sideshow to them. My one hope is that once they come to realize once they get what they want they become the minority. They become the poor. They become the problem. All they will get out of the deal is......more bitterness.
19
my friends, our country is in big trouble , he a danger to USA like N.Korea or ISIS . so how do we stop him, congress must tell him that HE IS MENTALLY UNFIT TO SERVE our country has to be done now
13
The oppressed white Christian majority. Really?
23
John : They consider themselves a minority because they consider most Americans to be Christians in name only.
2
Shame on all these wealthy, influential white men and women, yucking it up, smiling broadly, and just having a grand old time, while this mind-numbingly, sexually perverted, loony man, our "President", takes swipe after swipe at civility and good governance. Shame on you.
32
Trump needs to realize that there are "some very fine people" in the IRGC. He shouldn't get defensive about "death to America", "America is the great Satan", "Israel is a cancerous tumor". It's nothing more than Iranian choral rapping. Think of Eminem free-styling. It's their version of a Trump dog whistle, like when he called kneeling black football players S.O.B's. It makes the hardliners happy. The Supreme Leader and the Donald should trade head ornaments. The orange hair weave may be a a little problematic for the Supreme leader, but Donald Trump's black turban would be perfect for his funky glowing orb and sword dancing moments.
3
The Pres ident finds it impossible to tell the truth, about anything.
9
What better place and time to quote the infamous Forest Gump: “stupid is as stupid does” in modern terms “Trump is as stupid does”
10
Merry Appearance of Christmas Decorations in Stores even before Halloween
Merry Black Friday and Internet Monday
Merry Buying Tacky Christmas Ornaments Made In China
Merry DUI on the Way Home from the Nth Office Party
Merry Look Who's Coming for Christmas, Oh, no!
Merry Airport Gridlock
Merry Guilt Tripping People over a Paltry Gift
Merry What the Heck Do I Buy for Cousin Mean Girl or Bully Boy Twice Removed?
Merry Christ Would Be Appalled at all the Commercialism
Merry Mar-a-Lago, Another Chance to Ditch the Dump of a White House on a Taxpayer Funded Long Holiday of Golf under Southern Sun
157
Under sun now, under water later.
6
This President's given name is Donald John Trump. His true birth name is Hypocrisy.
8
Did Mike Pence have to go home and eat meatloaf?
3
I'm going to have something very important to say about our President in a few days. Watch for it. Meantime, please write a front page story about this announcement.
9
Look at the bright side. We now know that truly anyone can be president. Next election, I'm writing in "Shamus".
13
Trump to working class americans - "drop dead" - happy holidays y 'all
13
Don the Destroyer is out to wreck health care, the Iran nuclear accord, the environment, public schools, and anything else that his reptilian brain fixates on. He's well on his way to destroying the U.S.A. Are we going to let him?
12
eyesopen: WE are not! But some others are going to let him. They have already done so; they are doing so now, and they will continue to do so. And I wonder WHO or WHAT is going to stop them, if ANYONE or ANYTHING can?
5
In one week, the GOP destroyed SCHIP, the program that provides medical care to millions of poor kids- including, some years back, our son's best friend and his sister, raised by a single mom who, yes, GOP, worked f/t, but had no medical benefits- torpedoed the ACA, which provides health insurance for millions of Americans, almost all of them working or middle-class, and killed the Iran treaty, with which Iran has complied and has reduced the prospect of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons.
If people support the GOP after this, they are hopeless fools. That, or evil. The GOP leadership and its wealthy supporters are evil. The GOP's other supporters buy into a fantasy of a Boy Scout nation of white Christians in white suburbs, working in white factories next to obedient black people - who live who knows where (not next door).
The fantasies of whites and greed of wealthy supporters, coupled with the sociopathy of ideologues in GOP think thanks, have destroyed people's hope and sense of purpose. (Hence, opioids and booze.) We must cut these people loose and build a Democratic party that reflects the will of the majority of Americans.
Congressional elections are in 2018. The party leadership has a weak message. The Democrats must stop fighting – the Sanders wing needs the Schumer-Pelosi wing, and vis versa. Schumer will not win over the Sanders people, and the Sanders people will not win over the Clinton people, but we can work together – and must if our country is to be saved.
17
Bernie Sanders is not a member of the Democratic Party, and never has been.
7
At least the late-night comedians don't normalize the traitor like Gail does. benedict donald isn't some harmless fool to shrug your shoulders over, he is an existential threat in the service of Vladimir. Soon Mueller will demonstrate the treachery.
PROSECUTE RUSSIAGATE!
10
Who is this “base” that Trump keeps perpetuating evil to appease? Could it be... Satan?
9
He forgets to sign an Executive Order and is hauled back to the table by his VP, he jokes about Puerto Rico and refers to its citizens repeatedly as "those people" as if they were foreigners, he speaks constantly in language unworthy of a third grader and displays the body language of a chimpanzee.
The sooner this joke of a President is removed, the better for the U.S. and the world at large.
26
Is it time for "Take a Knee on Christmas"?
14
31 dead in NorCal, hundreds missing. Not a word from the president. Deplorable.
21
Our unhinged president is stuck in destruction mode. Loyalty is something he demands but never gives. He believes that his electoral college victory gifted him with a new toy to play with. He alone makes the rules. This wannabe dictator, foisted upon us by Russian oligarchs with the aid of would be a few American oligarchs who sell their patriotism for rubles. They believe that patriotism don’t pay.
Now, our govt controlled by a single party whose sole purpose for existence is to remain in power in perpetuity. We are in the grasp of a mix of oligarchs, plutocrats and kleptocrats and soon if Mr. Bannon has his way we can add theocrats, Neo Nazis yearing for the return of the master race. Would be tyrants need war to consolidate their power and Trump is beating the drums of war.
What prompted voters to put in office people so unfit and unqualified to actually govern and why is govt hated? It began with Reagan.
People trusted govt to help and now Trump and the GOP is actually setting out to injure and kill Americans as the direct result of voters voting for the most destructive government.
The aim is chaios and we have a part of the country armed to the teeth. Will mega corporations with private security ultimately us corporate anarchy followed by a police state. Congress can stop it if it had the courage and patriotism; but who’s kidding who.
There will be a midterm correction. The real question is whether by then will there be anything left to save.
9
Someone needs to say this to Madam Collins. Might as well be me.
Madam Collins: stop this. By "this" I mean the endless mockery. You don't know this, but you represent absolutely everything that lies in soft underbelly of the American center and left in so many ways. It is a long list, but let me tell you the top three.
First, you think chortling and mocking is strategy. It is not. It is what losers do, this is sour grapes2.0.
Second, stop pretending that there is some majority of people out there (real Americans) who agree with you. There aren't, and they don't. Your chortling and mocking is actually whimpering; a show of weakness.
Third, you have no allies except among hand wringers (the sagacious David Gergen who couldn't choose from a menu) or shrills (the perennially indignant Rachel Maddow). If this is the best of what passes for moderate voices, we are rather doomed.
Trump is surrounded by infinite circles of sycophants, buffoons, evil manipulators. And the layered with every grievance holding "real" American who supposedly lives in rural areas, in the south, is white, and a Christian - who thinks cross-burners and the Klan are benign and cute. Stop laughing at them. Take this seriously. Because despite all your chortling, and every evidence that republicans are intellectually and morally bankrupt, they own and rule everything.
This happens, Madam Collins, because of the likes of you. With friends like you . . .
Kalidan
I would think Ms. Maddow would have a low enough voice to avoid being called the usually-sexist term shrill, but I guess not.
11
Equally sickening is the cheering, applauding and laughing by the sycophants surrounding him, at every destructive move he makes.
17
Don't forget that a lot of the cheering is coming from a large number of our fellow Americans.
5
How soon can Trump and his coterie be dumped?
5
Diana, commenting: “I am numb from everything Trump has devastated this week.” Here in Cloverdale, CA we are packed for evacuation in case winds blow the nearest fire our way. Meanwhile Donald Trump continues burning up the world.
13
President Trump: an oxymoron.
6
With all the very relevant points you made about his ignorance of the traditions and policy functions of his office, you did not mention his chat with the President the US Virgin Islands yesterday . Must have been hard to get a word in!
5
One thing shines through...stupid does not know stupid. Trump is truly stupid, and he doesn't know it. Stupid does not know stupid.
11
Completely understandable that Gail never even got to Trump's hilariously deranged threat to take away media "licenses." How can anyone keep up? With a game-show narcissistic clown for president, it's wall-to-wall slapstick crazy with dozens of laughs per week. Until it turns deadly.
3
Why must the failing NY Times always pick on poor Donald Trump? Of course he didn't stand for Retreat! He has bone spurs that trouble him whenever he is faced with patriotic duties in a military setting. It hurts him. And since Melania wasn't there, he knew no one was going to tell him to do the right thing, so why bother? Besides, standing for the flag is for suckers in the military and those privileged, black NFL millionaires. Donald is entitled.
I am impressed that the champion dog whistler shredded Obamacare in almost the same breath used to resurrect "merry Christmas"! At first glance, they have nothing to do with each other, but that is where the master manipulator intuitively makes the subconscious connection for "his people."
Before the 37% blow their savings on Christmas presents, Trump is getting them thinking about the stacks of cash they might need to set aside for increased health insurance premiums and medical expenses that are no longer required to be covered by some plans. Many will need that money to stay alive long enough to vote for Trump again, but others will realize next year that they can get by with cheap, junk policies, by which time they will have kept this year's Amazon gift purchases to a minimum. Take that Jeff Bezos!
Cratering Christmas sales will mean fewer jobs and diminished economic activity. But that is actually great for Trump because it proves we need tax cuts for corporations. See? Winning!
The man is a genius, I tell you!
7
Gail - really like the fact that you are talking straight talk and beginning to truly take all of this "mess" he is making seriously. It is no joke or laughing matter of course, but so many people are still not catching on I think. He could still perhaps win reelection with his twisted philosophies and untruths. Kentucky coal fields still think he is saving coal (huh?). No one has killed it, it is dying a natural death all on it's on lack of merit. (Bloomberg has the facts.) Yet these are the same little (not too bright) people, he will take healthcare away from and harm immensely while he gets fatter and richer. Despicable them, well I don't know. But certainly not critical thinkers and they are fact challenged. But the conman knows how to stroke the fires of many American's fears and have them believing he is the pied piper. Go figure. He is the truly despicable devil. Maybe Satan.
6
Trump did not hide his agenda during the Presidential campaign, and he WON! How stupid was that “trick”? Now he is pursuing the agenda and liberal progressives are apoplectic. And if kneeling football players were not wealthy hypocrites (not much different than the democratic Hollywood hypocrites), they would simply quit the NFL and find employment elsewhere. Normal middle class people like me would have been fired long ago for NFL football player kneeling and Hollywood sex abuse and Clinton email server misconduct - but liberal progressives allow these celebrities special magic rules - now that’s a stupid liberal progressive trick.
1
It is SAD Gail, embarrassing... but please don't lose faith. A buffoon can't be a leader. Whatever Mr. T does, means nothing, examplewise, policywise. You gotta use that good old-fashioned American ingenuity! Ignore him and get on with communicatiing and working, he is a mirage and a distraction. Hopefully Congress and Europe will just get on with.. living. And yes, thank God for comedy.
4
Yesterday, October 13th, I heard a television commercial playing on television with Christmas music encouraging me to make my Holiday plans. IF there is a “War on Christmas” I would say that it’s kicking Thanksgiving’s butt and taking aim at Halloween. The war on Christmas exists in the fevered minds of those who are insecure in their faith and feel the need to embrace their supposed victimhood. I try to celebrate each holiday and so I’ll say Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. I will not; however, feel slighted in any way if someone says Happy Holidays.
7
what ever happened to "ask not what your country can do for you...."?
3
Don't know about you, but I've never been arrested for saying Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas!
Happy Hanukkah
Kool on Kwanzaa!
Festivus for the rest of us!
Soooooo many choices. Mr. President, please don't make it illegal to choose just the one.
4
Sorry for you, guys, but I just tell myself:Try to enjoy this sinking feeling.
USSR was decomposed and it was a rare thing to observe on a real time basis such a historical event (it is of course reassembled under a little different wrapping).
Now I'm observing a similarly historical episode of US being degenerated by its own President (I know that there are so many supporters behind him).
I am thrilled (may have to pay the price for this entertainment by being hit by North Korean missiles). At the same time I'm fearful that bullies, when scorned, tend to react violently (you know I'm meaning not only the little rocket man).
2
Ms Collins ponders the latest gyrations of Modern Day Presidential and wonders about the proverbial low road that keeps presenting itself.
This is not Narnia. Beasts are not wonderfully magical. Our nation is trapped in "The Trump Story"; and we find that the "talent" of our leader is his relentlessness to define "wonderful " healthcare and "fixing" messes, specifically in Iran and North Korea.
Donald Trump invented submarine warfare long before he came to realize that he invented "fake". When he sinks to any depth, reporters must follow. If he leaves live ammunition carelessly strewn on his battlefield of lies, it would be unpatriotic to NOT fire them back as facts.
Now Mr Trump has found a nervous dance partner to cheer his Let-It-Burn-Care. Nine of ten states that most need the federal subsidies to make ACA insurance premiums affordable to the families of lowest income are red states. Sub Commander Trump is lying on the ocean bottom now. Fire!
3
The photo ops of fawning officials around Trump during these executive signings brings the story of the " Kings New Clothes" to mind.
4
Trump is a national embarrassment and he proves this almost every day since to took office. I'm not numb but outraged by his behavior and lack of character. It is past time for the 25th Amendment.
7
I enjoy Gail's columns, but note she omitted to mention that Trump's ACA signing would cost taxpayers $200 billion in increased insurance rates to provide lower quality health insurance to fewer people.
In the same vein, one has to ask whether politicizing Christmas is entirely in keeping with the Christmas spirit.
More basic issue still, the fact that all this focus on petty symbolism and ritual ignorance only distracts readers from the fundamenal issues that must be resolved in the national interest. Cybersecurity, global warming, population growth, environmental degradation, corporate profitization of the people, anyone? Oh, right ... let's all say "Merry Christmas."
4
The radical right wing has everyone successfully arguing over the imaginary war on "Merry Christmas". I'd like to point out that the radical right wing is engaged in a war against "Happy Holy Days" -- "Happy Holidays". Once one realizes that, one immediately sees the discrimination behind the war on the more encompassing "Happy Holy Days" -- whether any given individual intends the discrimination or not.
This should not be taken lightly. Every response to anyone demanding worshipful fealty to "Merry Christmas" should include emphasizing of the person's anti freedom of religion attack upon "Happy Holy Days".
2
Saying Merry Christmas is conservative PC. But you don't say the words in a friendly festive way. You say it in a passive aggressive 'meaningful' way, all the while watching the reaction of the suspect.
Have a great Festivus everyone!
3
It's not a Presidency, it's a vendetta against Obama for humiliating Trump; there are no policies, there is only revenge. And we are all forced to pay....
19
Well, I suppose in Trump's mind, sitting around and telling jokes while "Retreat" is being played, isn't as bad as his being down on one knee when "Retreat" is being played.
SAD.
1
Thank you Gail, I needed a few laughs to get out of bed today. It really would be funny, until I realized it wasn't a Marx Brothers dream. Or sometimes I think I'm dreaming about Charlie Chaplin's 'The Great Dictator'. Life imitates Art is the message in this demonstrative mass nightmare that so many of us are fused into. Still the key to sanity is the occasional ability to laugh at the moronic behavior of the bottom of the barrel fools who actually believe that their view is reality. Of course as long as we don't vote in every election for the better candidates, instead of protesting with no-win candidates or staying home to really show them how angry they are, we'll have to endure more of these hilarious characters. Keep up the good work Ms. Collins, we're certainly going to need for a very long time. The bugle sounding 'retreat' is mandatory for all within the sound to stop driving their cars, walking down the side walk, or even in offices nearby. I guess the great dictator believes himself to be above it all. That bony heel of his must Grant him an exception. The retreat flag lowering applies to civilian workers as well.
3
Donald couldn't be better at his job. While his cabinet members are dismantling health care, environmental regulation, labor laws, civil rights and women's health protections, safety regulations -- and while Congress works on stiffing the middle class for yet another tax cut for the rich and a budget that guts federal staffing to "reduce the size of government" -- Donald is doing his stuff.
Donald is click bait for the media. A diversionary force of one. While we all are mesmerized by his latest antics, the Republican Congress is undoing our social contract.
7
George Will in the Washington Post nailed it in one sentence in his column today, "Sinister Figures Lurk Around Our Careless President.”Pence is a reminder that no one can have sustained transactions with Trump without becoming too soiled for subsequent scrubbing.
6
Although Ms. Collins points out that "There are good reasons the most influential commentators on this administration are the late-night comedians," things are getting so bad that I think soon we will have to call them the late-night tragedians.
When the buffoon tycoon president starts trashing programs and ruining people's lives (DACA, ACA, etc), it's hard to call it comedy anymore.
3
This from the clown who went to a military high school should know about the retreat. Yet wants to disparage the NFL athletes for kneeling during the anthem who have every right to protest, which by the way are trying to bring to light a message. Oh and by the way has never ever apologized for his comments to a war hero John McCain. Now so many things I never agreed with McCain on but have always respected the man for was his service. Trump is less than half the man he is. Trump has disgraced his role as the Commander in Chief, and the office he holds. He is my opinion a disgrace as a President.
4
Well, yes, but I'm tired of Donald Trump and the flag and all the rest of it. Seriously, the solution to the NFL players vs. patriotism problem is to get rid of the national anthem at football games. It serves no national purpose and has nothing whatsoever to do with a sporting event. If we're going to declare war on tradition, let's leave Christmas alone (as you correctly observe, it doesn't need our help) and declare war on pre-game Star Spangled Banner.
In other events, let's enjoy what we can enjoy. Roman Torres (who plays for the Seattle Sounders) scored the winning goal in Panama vs. Costa Rica that put Panama into the World Cup for the first time ever and eliminated the U.S. men's national team. The overwhelming, elated reaction of crowd and announcers will bring tears to your eyes. See it on YouTube, trust me. I can't wait to watch the World Cup on Univision without having to hear anything from or about Donald Trump in any language. GOOOOOOAAAAAALLLL!!!
3
It's as if we entered a bad dream or a locked room and we can't wake up or get out. It may only end when the house has burned down and we in it.
2
When an angry, confused, uninformed electorate chooses an angry , confused, uninformed leader we get the disaster that is American political life. DT always was , is , and will be a danger to democracy and to the lives and prosperity of all Americans. Hopefully, when the pain is unbearable the American people will act and rid the nation of this pestilence.
2
So when Mueller walks into the oval office in December with his handcuffs dangling , Trump will greet him with "Merry Christmas"?
Somehow I don't have a problem with that.
9
And let's hope that when the arresting officers put Dump in the back seat of the squad car they take his advice and not be too careful about protecting his head.
7
I wonder if he will remind us , as did Megan Kelly, that Santa is white.
'A lot of people don't know that.'
7
Great — Trump will now enlist himself as a foot soldier in the War on Christmas, to make America great for Santa again.
Can we at least wait until after Halloween before this next round of distracting stupidity begins?
5
in the end, he will be seen as a incompetent facsimile of a president.
5
In the end. ..and now, monsieur. Et toujours.
2
"Merry Christmas, Ivanka. You too Jared. And all my cute little Chinese speaking grandchildren. Before me, no one said, "Merry Christmas, you know."
6
Man, I can't wait for Mueller to stand up and say: "It's indictment time!"
11
I ask, what more could Vladimir Putin wish for in a USA President than what Donald J. Trump has been delivering on a daily basis since January 20th?
Aren't you all glad to know that he isn't Vlad's Tool? Self destruction is so much more "peaceful," isn't it?
4
Stupid Collins tricks. Ms. Collins shows why she and the Times have jumped the shark. Even Ms. Collins apparently admits in her last paragraph that Kimmel and Colbert do a better job of critique than her and the Times. Talk about a low bar. Even Kimmel acknowledges that he's a more knowledgeable pizza critic than a political or policy critic. In the pizza zone, I have to laud his expertise. Pumpkin pizza? Draw the line, yes. On the other hand, people get that the Donald knows that the insurance company subsidies are about the swamp, not the little people. Does the Times not get that? Or is the only way to help the little people by helping the swamp? That position, as they say, is unsustainable.
1
Are we just aping his fecklessness? Nah.
Yes you are. Along with every other media, all day, every day: 'And you know what he did/said today?'
In the face of all this, news media are child-like tattle-tales.
“Take a look at who those insurance companies support and I guarantee you one thing. It’s not Donald Trump.”
This is the Real Donald Trump. Punish the weakest among us because insurance companies don't support him: There is a place in the after-life for him, but it won't be found in Two Corinthians.
11
Trump is just a perpetual ignorant tantrum. That and groping seem to be his only "talents."
According to Politico David Brody, a correspondent for the Christian Broadcasting Network, "is now writing a book about the president's religious "journey," he said, which he admitted has drawn "chuckles" from liberals and skeptics. Trump is expected to participate in the book."
Will this be a new "Confessions of St. Augustine?" Is it deeply unchristian of me to think that not only will pigs have wings, but jet turbines that push them supersonic ... before Mr. Trump has an actual thought, let alone an epiphany?
Augustine of Hippo was one of the most brilliant men of his age, a dedicated scholar long before his conversion, who came to it through long thought, and teaching from St. Ambrose. At 29, seeking a better way, he heard a child's voice urging him to read; opened the bible to Romans 13:13–14: "Not in revelry and drunkenness, not in debauchery and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy; but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and as for the flesh, take no thought for its lusts."
Is it uncharitable of me to think that this would be so much easier for a man of 70 than one of 29? Yet it would be a far greater miracle in this case, because the very first necessity is not there -- Trump does not think -- he only lusts.
3
About signing those documents he reminds me of the little bitty kindergarden kid holding up his coloring and saying "look Mommy, look what I did!"
7
Why are people, including Gail, continuing to have any expectations of Trump given his undisciplined upbringing, failed business background, idiotic promises in his walk-through for president, and just about everything stupid thing he has done or said? He is exactly who he has demonstrated himself to be. He has not changed one iota. An ignorant bully is as an ignorant bully does. Not SAD but very DISGUSTING! dot dot dot
5
There's a reason "In God We Trust" is on our curency. Oh, and can we really safely assume that the the Thanksgiving turkey will be pardoned? Was the pardoning of that turkey-sheriff practice or a mistake?
In writing this column Ms. Collins failed to make mention of Trump's most egregious act this week, his failure to make any mention of and offer condolences for the loss of four Green Berets.
Not a word was written by Ms. Collins or spoken by our president. Shame on both of them.
3
Welcome to Bizarro America where working class people think a corrupt, cheesy developer is a "successful businessman" who will provide them all with secure high paying jobs, where evangelicals believe a lying, foul-mouthed, cheating libertine will restore Christian values in our nation and where active military members and veterans believe a draft-dodging chicken hawk will make our country secure. Have mercy!
13
First, before we put "Christ" or Christianity back into Christmas, shouldn't we work on putting it back into Christians?
18
You gotta try to keep a sense of humor about all this, or else it's not funny at all.
2
Gail: the "dreadfulness" of which you complain is simply a president acting constitutionally and asking the Congress to do the same. If Obamacare subsidies of your beloved insurance companies are what is needed, then surely the Dems in Congress will join with a few Republicans to pass a law (you remember that concept, don't you) authorizing and funding the subsidies. Ditto for the useless Iranian executive order that the Harvey Weinstein-loving former president signed.
1
Let's just all admit it, loud and clear. It is not just that the Donald is ignorant, ill-informed, ill tempered, and, when the Special Prosecutor's Report is released, illegitimate. It is that he is STUPID person, a STUPID man. How we will ever survive the damage of his brash stupidity, I don't know.
9
"Take a look at who those insurance companies support and I guarantee you one thing. It's not Donald Trump." So says...Donald Trump. Clearly, this guy is now in Papa Doc territory.
9
Braggart,liar, narcissic unable to feel and show any compassion, taking off from the poor and the weak to give to the wealthy, a short list of qualities displayed by this president! No more than a very sad joke for people around this planet.
2
Trump got bigger inauguration crowds than Obama. Get it ? He is POTATUS so he can do and say what he wants. All he wanted was to be the most powerful person, I mean, corporation in the world; all the rights, none of the responsibilities. Thanks Justice Roberts. Now may I please have another paper towel?
6
I did enjoy reading about the adventures of Trump's poodle, Mike Pence.
After all, he could be president soon, then another tedious national nightmare will begin.
10
59 people dead, over 500 maimed, and we are talking about Retreat? Where are your priorities America?
1
Feel like crying, but thanks for the laughs.
2
What's imprinted these days on Trump's $45.00 for-sale hats?
Emoluments. Golf. Military Global Footprint. Afghanistan. Iran Nuclear Accord. North Korea Nukes. ISIS. Ignored service members who die fighting for wars he claimed he'd win. No tweets or speeches for fallen soldiers from Jan. thru August.
Global Warming. Hurricane Maria/Puerto Rico/Let Them Eat Paper Towels. Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Infrastructure. Obamacare subsidies. Health costs. Punt to Legislators. Tax cuts for Billionaires. Bob Corker's The Man.
It's Mueller Time.
5
And, have you noticed, his signature on executive orders (the instruments he mocked President Obama for using) has become larger and applied with much more vigorous strokes and seemingly larger "Pepe the Frog" grins? He loves retribution and mindless destruction; great traits for an apolitical, unethical and immoral leader. He is the Mercers' and other extremists' willing tool.
4
What if Donald Trump's concept of the date Jesus was born, celebrated as Christmas, was historically wrong?
"According to Bible commentator Adam Clarke it was customary for the Jews to send their sheep to pasture from the spring until early October. As the cold winter months began, the flocks would return from the fields for shelter and warmth. Since the shepherds were still tending their flocks in the fields around Bethlehem it can be concluded that the angels announced the news of Jesus’ birth no later than October....Therefore, according to the texts above we can approximate the month of Jesus’ birth to be around the time of Tishri (mid to late September). To arrive at this date, start at the conception of John the Baptist, Sivan (June), count forward six months to arrive at Gabriel’s announcement of the conception of Jesus, Kislev (December), then count forward nine months, the time it takes for human gestation, to reach Tishri (September), when Jesus was born."
So Mr Trump, are we all celebrating a convenient date Dec 25, world wide, because it gives children the hope of a "white Christmas"? So we can go around saying Merry Christmas to each other?
Does Trump even know that Jesus was born Jewish, that he was in fact a Rabbi, a spiritual teacher? That he was not "White" "Christian" in the European white sense of the word?
3
I really find it odd that with the problems America is having with North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, immigration, healthcare, race relations, income inequity, climate change, hurricane and wild fire destruction the big thing on "president" trumps mind is saying "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holiday" This man is really, really unbalanced!!!
3
We're going to have "Christmas", he says. Now all those evangelical Protestants who love him so much will be acknowledging the origin of the word: the Catholic Mass celebrating Christ's birth. And for all those who are non-Christian or no religion, shut up and put up with it because Trump speaks for a base that has no true and deep belief in anything except what they perceive as symbolic - a word and a flag.
As one writer has said, he has a pebble for a soul. Compounded by what I think, he has a pea for a brain.
20
Right on!
As far as I am concerned, everyone present when Trump signed that Executive order dismantling Obamacare, is now a murder. Take a look at the smiling faces and the happy claps as that action will lead to the death of many vulnerable people. MURDERERS, each and everyone, not just the monster holding the pen.
22
It should be obvious by now that Trump hates America. America's enemies have had a year-long celebration, and continuing; the vodka and champaign is running out. In only nine months America is already a shell of its former self, lost in the world. And look, all those faces in the photo are actually laughing, overjoyed at the prospect of everything falling apart - so long as they can pick up a few remaining pieces. What an absolute disgrace to the nation they are, laughing because a demented man forgot to sign his name large on a piece of paper that will completely destroy many poor people's hope of healthcare, enabling them to get richer. What wonderful people; the best this nation has to offer. Disgusting.
30
It appears that Hannity also disrespected the flag, sitting and jabbering insultingly throughout Retreat and To The Colors. He and Trump demonstrated their unpatriotism in disgraceful unison.
21
trump pulled a similar stunt at Arlington ON Memorial Day. Everyday in every way, trump defiles the oval office.
15
Take note of all the smiling people in the room. They are the ones who are happy that you're losing your health care. RIP.
16
I seem to recall Obama getting endlessly beat up for holding a cup of coffee while saluting a Marine guard. I guess the rules have been relaxed.
22
Sorry Gail, but it's just not funny any more. We could laugh when you kept flogging Seamus, Mitt Romney's roof-riding dog ("He likes it up there.") And even Dubya was good for a couple of titters, even as he was waging an entirely bogus war in Iraq. The Donald, I'm afraid, is an entirely different kettle of fish. He was hoot when he was vomiting up ugly, tasteless, overpriced condos and running Atlantic City casinos into the ground. Now, however, no amount of levity on your part can diminish the pain and the embarrassment and the outrage that is being generated by this no good, very bad man and his enablers in the press, the government, and most of all his "base." (Great word, that!). I love you for trying, though.
17
Once, just once, would I like to see the guy that opens Donald Trump's car door put his hand on his head to keep him from bumping it when he gets in.
9
Who would have thought that the democratic experiment that began for us with our founding fathers was so tenuous. That a third rate charlatan supported by the greed of a political party, could unravel our country.
Times were a-changing for sure. But or electoral system aided and abetted by the Russians and the megaphone of the internet, produced the worst possible outcome.
Hopefully it is just our country that unravels. But as the US is so influential around the world with our money and our missiles, I fear a much greater damage.
9
The reason the late night comedians are so important during this so-called administration is that laughter is the only form of relief (other than drinking) we have during these horrific times.
13
“Take a look at who those insurance companies support and I guarantee you one thing. It’s not Donald Trump.”
Which we KNOW means if they did, he'd never DREAM of cutting their subsidies!
What a greedy, lying hypocrite.
It's almost pointless to debate his lies, because ALL the "Value Voters" give him a pass for doing EXACTLY the same things as Harvey Weinstein, whom they vigorously condemn.
I'd ask "How can they be such hypocrites?" but it's pointless. These are the same people who when a Democrat is President, deficits and the National Debt are crucial failures, but when a Republican is President, it's back to what Cheney said "Ronald Reagan proved deficits don't matter!".
Therefore we can ONLY conclude that Republicans have only one ethic: Achieving power by any means and lies necessary, fair or foul.
14
Does he even know the biblical meaning of Christmas? I seriously doubt it. He is the last person i want to hear defending the birth of Jesus Christ who he admitted never praying to (or His God) for forgiveness.
13
One of the only pleasures left during this horrendous presidency is reading columns by Gail Collins as well as the other opinion writers at NYT. That's how I must start my day. I end the day by listening to Colbert lambast the president. Knowing that I still live in a country where such criticism is possible gives me some little bit of faith and hope.
19
I'm wondering if anyone sane now doubts that he's carrying out Putin's agenda to dismantle our democracy and bring down our country.
10
I'm sorry, maybe I am missing something. How can Donald Trump force everyone to say "Merry Christmas"? Even non-Christians? What about the 1st Amendment? I am a Christian, but I don't want to hear Merry Christmas from someone who doesn't want to say it! I wish Merry Christmas to fellow Christians, Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends. And general happiness, well-being and peace to all, of whatever faith or atheist.
156
What does he say to Ivanka, Jerald, and their children?
2
J.M. Kenney: How does trump rationalize saying only "Merry Christmas" (instead of Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, etc.) to his orthodox, Jewish son-in-law Jared, and his orthodox, Jewish daughter, Ivanka, and their orthodox, Jewish children? Unless I know what religion someone is, or what they celebrate, I almost always say: "Happy Holidays." I do not think it is wrong to say "Merry Christmas" to anyone, no matter what their religion...it is a nice sentiment...but you cannot force people to say "Merry Christmas" instead of another nice well-wish! It is nuts. It is even more nuts in face of all the terrible things going on in this world, and in this country...too be preoccupied with HOW you wish someone a nice holiday! But from this nut I expect nothing less than...well, NUTS!
3
Thank you for your comment.
1
Sure it's fair game to ridicule the President for blatantly failing to observe the protocol surrounding the flag and anthems - of course.
The flag and the anthems are symbols - that and only that - and adherence to customs surrounding them are symbolic - one reason the symbolic taking to the knee made such an impact - they were speaking the language.
Trump's totally contrived attack on the few players who were making that gesture to "raise consciousness" as my generation used to say, served to feed numbers but deflect the issue - as Trump so predictably does. Classic "kill the messenger". The conversation has devolved around the patriotism of those involved, rather than the seriousness of the issues they address - once again a well remembered tactic from the 60's/70's - just insert "hippy" for "athlete".
Every once and again the universe sends us a delicious irony - it's meant to be savored and served cold.
And, boy, are you right about Christmas. Once again this year they are putting up "seasonal displays" of Christmas capitalism before we've even decided on our Halloween costumes.
They've reduced Thanksgiving - a holiday that brings us altogether and should be our cornerstone holiday - to encouraging us to gorge ourselves on one huge meal - and giving a hypocritical President who undermines the fortunes of the poor every chance he gets - to look charitable by serving up a few meals to those understandably "less fortunate".
You go, Gail.
13
There is no humor about this man Trump. Yesterday was a horrible day, the worst of this man's term. For no other reason than spite he is willing to cause financial loss and pain to his constituents by roiling the ACA. For no reason other than spite he will add to global destabilization and increase the chance for war by walking away from the Iran deal. This man Trump is going to get Americans killed needlessly. The damage that will be done to the USA and the world will take decades to unwind. I was with my granddaughters yesterday, they were laughing and playing, and all I could think about was the world they will have to live in as a result of this man Trump and the damage he has done and will certainly do in the future.
16
Trump the mad man fronting the GOP, listening to Hannity his pet snake, abandoning the responsibilities of our highest office and soiling the honor and duties of the presidency is a pitiful pitiful thing. Ignorant ranting and taking away healthcare for millions is obscene. There will be a price to pay.
6
I think Donald Trump's brain must be like the inside of a classic pinball machine. Lots and lots of noise. Thoughts careening around, pinging off of receptors that generate flashes of light as they register feelings of anger, revenge, and feelings of grandeur. Exhibitions of sight and sound that are impossible to control using the little paddles that are really there just for show.
It's just not possible for such a brain to connect concepts and provide rational leadership.
16
Trump is masterful at finding symbols--words, short phrases, actions--that, for his base, automatically unpack to evoke deep, powerful, mobilizing narratives that stick and go viral: "crooked" Hilary, "little" Marco, "disrespecting" our flag, Obama is "not a citizen," to name a few.
Corker is the first to figure out how this works--"adult day care" has proven sticky because it unpacks to an accessible, applicable, sharply pointed narrative--and Corker is using it to start changing the conversation. It has viral potential.
Corker didn't lower himself or fight fire with fire. He astutely fought accessible, sticky, mobilizing images with an accessible, sticky, mobilizing image.
As much as I agree with what you say, Ms. Collins, I was disappointed; because the headline promised me a pithy list of Stupid Trump Tricks a la Letterman. That's what we need now, to mobilize a robust container around Trump and all the venal, opportunistic players in the GOP. I've long admired how clever you are with language, and would push you to dig much deeper. Find the images and turns of phrase that will stick and go viral.
98
Forgetting to sign the order is a glimpse, yet again, into how DJT's mind works. It shows what's really important to him: the hoopla, the ceremony, the right TV angle, the applause. The actual work of substantial governance is an afterthought. And not even *his* afterthought — someone else has to tell him to do his job.
This is the kind of president we have??!
12
How much how much more evidence of Trump’s incompetence, ignorance and extreme narcissism will it take before a majority of his cabinet members decide to invoke the 25th amendment? Even though many of them have also displayed similar destructive behavior, there must be some who value their own credibility, integrity and place in history.
Of course, a few courageous Republicans in the House could join Democrats in approving articles of impeachment, but until the Mueller investigation is completed, that’s not likely.
Perhaps the only source of optimism is the prospect that the 2018 elections will be a disaster for the Republicans, and that at least some of the damage created by Trump can be reversed. That can’t be reassuring to the millions of Americans who will sicken and die after the rug of Obamacare is pulled out from under them, or to those who value the natural beauty of our land and the ability to breathe clean air and drink clean water, but it may be all we can hope for under the administration of what historians are already calling the worst President in history.
9
"Trump's axing government payments to insurance companies that help subsidize policies for the poor."
These government payments to insurance companies are like heroin to the drug user. We have to stop this scourge by these for-profit insurance companies. If we don't cut their supply, it will only get worse.
1
Get a life -- those tax dollars are mine too, to help support the health care of people with lower incomes.
2
Sadly fear of the abolition of Christmas is not restricted to Trump and his base. The UK tabloids will be winding up the hysteria shortly for their annual assault on the (long past and totally misrepresented) Winterval. Given the fun they had trashing an Easter Egg whose only fault was that it only said Easter on the back of the box rather than the front, there is clearly much mileage to be made on either side of the Atlantic out of this sort of thing.
1
Taking the high road doesn't actually seem to get you anyplace (see Clinton). And it is almost impossible to talk policy and direction with a man who seems to not to have any. And, Yes, I know that many of the stunts he pulls are just tactics to distract (the NFL protest have been going on for a about a year, now he's upset?). But how do we avoid seeing his behavior and how do we avoid comment (and being appalled)? When every stupid thing he does and says is everywhere?
2
President Trump’s decision not to certify that Iran was complying with all terms of the 2015 agreement reached by President Barack Obama came after a fierce debate inside the administration.
Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis persuaded Mr. Trump not to immediately scrap the accord, arguing it served national security interests.
===============
This shows that Trump is open to persuasion. But you do have to TALK to him. Insulting him is not the most efficient method. And yes, I am aware that the latter is the method used most often! :-)
1
The photo is sickening and says a lot. Everyone there is complicit in this horrible action to dismantle the ACA and of course, they can laugh and smile, they have government healthcare. Most of GOP does nothing to stop Trump and I actually believe they like Trump as president because he will say and do things they would not dare to do but secretly want to do, and then if it doesn't work out they can blame him; they are all cowards.
186
Gail, I think it's getting really hard to say something funny about an unleashed mad dog roaming the neighborhood, biting men, women, and children at will. Especially since the the animal control officers think he's just a cute puppy.
My point is made by one look at all those jovial, smiling, giggling, people in the picture, as it bites a big chunk of health care insurance out of millions of people.
2
His use of fictional foot boo-boos to avoid the draft and his treatment of John McCain told me all I needed to know about Trump and his disdain for our military and its heroes and traditions.
The rest is just confirmation.
3
I don't understand why anyone agrees to work for his administration. The comedian David Steinberg once said of Watergate that it was "a rare case of rats swimming TOWARD a sinking ship." His swamp appears to be more of the same.
3
Ironic that with all Trump's bluster about how the football players disrespect our country and servicemen by not standing and saluting the flag that he sits and jokes through the military ceremony when he should have stood at attention. And while this country totally disintegrates while Trump's lackeys smile and joke about his blunders, the master of distraction will be blasting away about the importance of being able to say "Merry Christmas," while we are forced to listen to the news analysts pontificate on that. I can barely stand to turn the TV on anymore.
4
I am fascinated by how this man's wrecking tour has become part of the fabric of our nation- we endure, complain, laugh till it hurts and move on- like all good souls who know that in the end we must worry about our own concerns. Christmas indeed - the babe would be crying in his manger to think how he has been used to divide us. The fallout from this man's "krow" (the opposite of work) is not happening today, and the news cycle will be over when our neighbor goes to the emergency room instead of a getting a vaccination. But we have always been better at hindsight than foresight. So another week will go by and the water will be turned up a little on the poor frogs who, voiceless and powerless, will be collateral damage in the crusade to nowhere, and the cabinet will wear their pearls, smile and applaud their fearless leader.
1
Our flags a symbol. It's what it represents that is so important not the thing itself. Being able to actually burn it is a true expression of what it stands for. Being ignorant of what it stands for as TRump is, is the ultimate disrespect.
2
Interestingly Trump's stupid tricks have been used as a Trump tactic as far back as the 80s. Trump acts outrageously because he wants something.starts a lawsuit making false accusations against people and then pretends it is about the flag. Some poor family near his golf course in CA had this happen. Trump and Pence's attacks on the NFL players' " take a knee" is as old as Trump is. Find someone you are trying to extract something (money, property) from and confuse people by pretending this is about the flag. Maybe Trump needs a new approach drop the lawsuits and the strategy it's about the flag and instead try telling truth- it is all about Trump. That is all Trump is interested in is Trump.
2
Have you seen the energy Trump puts into his signature? It's way more exercise than he gets piloting an electric cart around a golf course. I've read that he's actually a good goofist...sorry, golfist...oh, sorry again, gofer...golfer. That he really gets his shoulder down and behind the club, keeps his knees bent and powers the ball for great distances. He applies his name to a piece of paper with the same effort, shoulder down, knees bent, concentrating as his hand pilots a Sharpie up and down the page in an excellent approximation of seismograph or an EKG machine. That's because it's always an earth-shaking, heart-stopping event.
Speaking of his golf and the flag and the national anthem. In response to a comment I submitted yesterday on this half of my computer monitor, another denizen of Comments said I had an excellent idea (though its application was more his idea than mine). I merely pointed out that the national anthem is NOT played before the start of all sporting events: e.g. ping-pong, archery, rifle, tennis and golf matches for starters. The Star Spangled Banner, wrote my ally, should be played every Saturday, Sunday and Monday, immediately prior to Trump's drive off the first tee. I agree whole-heartedly. The official bands of each of the branches of the armed forces could take turns. Then they could play Retreat as the president sinks his final putt on #18, with yet another yugely fabulous score of 63, his 47th in a row. At least he'd be standing.
I've won over 50 tournaments in my amateur golf career, on the finest courses in the world including Pebble and Spyglass.
I'd love to play Trump even up for any amount he could afford to lose.
He is a hacker in oh so many ways.
I would catch him cheating before the 5th tee.
Not my presodint.....
Trump's inability to: 1) grasp that there is no advantage if one increases the world destructive power of our nuclear forces from 30 times to 300 times, 2) understand any policy with complexity such as health care or Afghanistan, 3) hold his attention on a subject, 4) remain appropriate in both social and formal situations, and 5) have an iota of compassion for anyone outside his immediate family, are manifestations of his evolving dementia. Most probably, he has early Alzheimer's disease. Many of his reality TV fans will be energized by his mission to bring back the term "Christmas" despite his assault on everyone's health care. He is getting good political advice with respect to his base, and as per Thomas Edsall, don't count him out in the next election. This is a depressing and frightening situation.
1
Trump isn't funny anymore. He's insane and incompetent. It is time to practice indifference towards his nonsense. Nothing sane people can say or do will change him.
On Christmas Day all over the country we should gather together in small or large groups to watch "Bananas." It was disturbingly funny the first time I saw it years ago, now just disturbing.
I'm sick of this man and his "base."
The Trump presidency represents nothing more than government by whim and spite. His administration - as well as the majority republican Congress - represents a triumph of ignorance over enlightenment, bigotry and hate over tolerance and love, and greed over compassion. Nothing these people do amuses or surprises me anymore.
1
I read Ms Collins' article because I dislike the current president (and because I'm pro-science and pro-treating people decently). In part, I eSubscribe to the NYT and avoid Fox "News" because I dislike the current president (and because I'm pro-science and pro-treating people decently). A poll of the people I talk to about politics and culture would prove I live under a flawless ideological blanket.
The question: What good comes from articles written by and for same-blanket people?
A better question: What peripheral liberal attitudes are alienating us from non-coastal America? Politics is compromise--should we stay ideologically pure, no matter how many elections we lose? For example, can we acknowledge that abortion is ugly, albeit legal?
A better question still: What threads can we pick at to unravel the fabric of the other blanket? What problems can non-coastal Americans pay attention to: perhaps climate change (and its effects on agriculture), or our country's losing its scientific edge (today's NYT has an article about China's aggressive, though troubled, push towards scientific dominance), or wealth transfer (to the ultra rich)? What can journalists write about that could change how other-blanket people think?
2
trump should stay away from California. We don't want him here and any symbolic gesture he might make to those who have lost everything to the fires would surely be as disingenuous and idiotic as throwing paper towels to Puerto Ricans was when they have no potable water, no electricity, insufficient food, and no homes to go back to.
1
“We’re saying Merry Christmas again,” he told the Values Voters Summit on Friday. It’s important, he explained, because it’s something that “people don’t talk about anymore.”
If that quote were not attributed to Donald Trump, it would certainly have been credited to the late, great Yogi Berra, RIP.
3
This disgraceful person is a stain on our country and it's institutions. His latest antics are an attempt to deflect attention from the Mueller investigation.
Merry Christmas - and lumps of coal for all!
Trump's unhinged, vulgar, chaotic, menacing nine months in the Oval Office, N Korea's equally appalling president, more chaos in Middle East, white supremacists' violent mischief in Europe and here in USA - all anticipate a certain cleansing, a calamitous restructuring of societies; perhaps that's what's needed to restore sanity and peace to this perturbed humanity.
28
I thought he went to war with the NFL for alleged disrespect of the flag?
who knew that ms collins would be able to have so much fun so soon after dubya and romney?
15
Just in case the fire fighters in California don't have their radios with them, perhaps Trump could put a banner behind Air Force One announcing that once the fire is contained they can look forward to saying "Merry Christmas" again.
Every week with Donald Trump seems to bring forth a bumper crop. Even though I fight against it, I have to say chaos is beginning to feel normal. No matter what Trump does or says he wakes up tweeting and another day begins.
When I feel I'm about to cut off the news and find some sand to bury my head in, I watch some of the Hitler biographies on one of the cable channels. I'm not being dramatic- the parallels are stunning. Just watch Hitler's speech to the young men of Germany and the very expensive, professionally crafted propaganda film he had made portraying him as the friendly, affable military savior that would restore the homeland to its former glory. If you really thought Hitler was sincere, how could one not be aroused?
But he wasn't sincere. And neither is President Trump. He is rapidly isolating us from the world. He walks and talks like an authoritarian leader of a third world country. I'm leaving my TV on. My son and his future children deserve better- much better. I'll bet yours do to. We must keep the conversation going. We must not relent until Donald Trump is removed from office and just maybe in the process the Republican party will remember some of their better days.
126
I wish I could recommend this several times; excellent comment, Joe.
3
You're absolutely correct - this bears watching. This also bears daily if not weekly calls to your representatives in D.C.
Keep your friends close. Keep your enemies closer.
2
Remember the film anthology New York Stories? In the segment Oedipus Wrecks, Woody Allen's mother is chosen from the audience to be part of a magic trick in which the magician puts her in a box and makes her disappear. Only after she disappears, the magician can't bring her back. That's the Stupid Trump Trick I'd like to see.
50
Good column, but no jokes about Trump are funny anymore.
230
Ms. Collins, after reading your essay on stupid jokes, I found at dawn on my doorstep a book left by my brother, which at first glance looked entitled 'Trump in The New World' by Frederic Tuten. This is not his idea of fun, and on further inspection, it was about Tintin, a favorite of ours, and his little dog Snowy.
My sibling and I did a fair trade recently where I gave him an old illustrated copy of Tintin and his adventures in Egypt. My brother, a professor of Middle Eastern studies, will give you a tour of Paris in hieroglyphics, starting at the obelisk at Place de La Concorde, the Louvre and a return visit to the Metropolitan.
To keep in mind and wishing you a Happy Holiday Season without our Halloween Boo President. In the Country where I used to live, friends celebrate all holidays, regardless of our religion.
1
Face it, every American either knows who THE Donald Trump is, or has had ample opportunity to find out.
The real joke is that 37% of Americans support him, as well as most of his Party’s “leadership”.
That’s really pathetic, and shows us in real time who we are.
94
bdmike, there are reasons for this, and the reasons are Mr. Obama and Hillary.
Most Americans were just fine with separate bathrooms for men and women. Did a man born in Hawaii and with only one American parent, really have the right, or the wisdom to upend a very old established custom?
Or Hillary, who voted for the Iraq war and celebrated the assassination of Gaddafi had said that she wanted a no-fly zone over Syria. Now Syria is a Russian ally and the Russian air force is already there. Is there MORE risk of WW3 with Trump than with Hillary? I really do not know. But if there IS to be a nuclear war, I would rather have North Korea than Russia as our opponent.
The Democrats should have put up a better alternative. But they went by the Clinton machine. And now we are stuck with an erratic president.
1
Yes, and it's horrifying. I really thought the American people -- our fellow citizens -- were better than this. Of course, a majority are, but sufficient numbers are tragically ill-informed and easily manipulated by gross propaganda methods. It's cause for despair, but we have to resist.
1
What leadership?? Oh that bumbling bunch of miscreants who are supposed to be in charge of our country protecting us from the likes of Donald Trump? I admire Bob Corker more and more each day!!
1
Are we, as Jews, also supposed to say "Merry Christmas" even though it's not really our holiday? Wouldn't "Happy Holidays" be more inclusive? I guess that's not Trump's plan. Sad.
74
You are free to say whatever you feel is right for you.
But if someone else says "Merry Christmas" why not just take it as a friendly comment.
2
Anon, you might not know but Trump's daughter Ivanka has converted to Judaism and both his grandsons are circumcised. Also, you must be aware that Trump is closer to Netanyahu than seems wise. So where does Trump's insistence on "Merry Christmas" come from? It is entirely your own invention.
There ARE things about Trump that should make us all worry. But adding fantasies, as so many like you, are doing, will change our worries into panic. And few people are best able to make decisions in a state of panic.
That’s the point. We are meant to feel like outsiders. This isn’t an equal country, as much as we like to beat our chests that it is.
1
Regarding the photograph that accompanied your excellent article, why do these Trump photo-ops with people laughing and smiling look as strained and artificial as the photos of officers surrounding Kim Jong-Un?
63
what this shows that a combination of stupidity and selfishness wins. Trump has smartly figured out that there are many simpletons who do not like the high faluting logic an language and many smart people who consider their own fortune, even a small one supreme. Add to that fear of the alien cultures and languages crowding your neighborhoods and schools/ Low skilled workers (coal miners, steel workers, even the ball bearing makers are losing their jobs to semi skilled workers in countries with lower living standards and working conditions abetted by the rich American capitalists with their selfish profit at any cost (some one else's) motives, while the skilled workers in IT jobs are threatened by the import os skilled workers again by the same capitalists.
Oddly enough, these capitalists' selfish acts have raised the standard of living in many other countries like China and Japan and even India and Bangladesh which is good but that has been at the cost of employees in our country and Trump sings them a lullabi of promises.
16
I don't even know where to start my comments about 45. I can't say his name...and I have had a few interactions with him many years ago while his ex wife Marla and I were on the Board of Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS. He was abusive to Marla in public and the litany of other things I was privy to were amazingly awful. Here's what people need to know about Donald Trump...my personal perceptions. His last name pretty much sums up who he thinks he is: "Trump"ing all things and all people. He really thinks he's better than anybody else. He IS racist. He IS a womanizer. He IS a consummate showman...and that's really where I want to begin my comments. Donald Trump's ascension to the White House put "his show" as #1 in the USA. That's what drives his entire mantra: Stardom. But he also wants people to be afraid of him, love him, worship him. Trump wants people to think he's the best of the best, brilliant, a billionaire, a man among kings. Trump is a pure egomaniac and will play to any audience that he KNOWS will make his ratings higher. Believe me, he is the consummate showman with a carefully chosen 500 word vocabulary that he's practiced for years. A vocabulary featuring words like..."its amazing, the best"...all intimating that he's perfect...Trump-ing the world. Don't ever be fooled...Trump is not ignorant. He is cunning, clever, power hungry, and evil from the point he'll play anyone to keep his ratings high. He knows how to work an audience.
139
All Trump can do is undo what has already been done, this is what the Republican pretends to be accomplishments. Remember, this is still the do nothing Congress and now we have a undo everything the black President did, President.
35
For Trump It’s personal and only personal. Ever since President Obama humiliated him at the White House Correspondents Dinner (and appropriately so), Trump has made it his life’s purpose to get even. This is why he ran and why he is on an absolute and unequivocal mission to destroy anything even remotely associated with President Obama. For Trump there is no strategy, no long-term plan, no philosophy or set of guiding principals. It’s not even about “his base.” It’s all about eradication and getting even - nothing more.
114
Failing to honor military traditions is the least of Trump's failures. Trump failing to honor, or even mention, those brave soldiers who died this week defending our nation is deplorable.
58
If I had been knocked into a coma prior to the start of the campaign now and then revived from the coma today and my wife recapped some of the doings of the current president, I would have said "Oh, Trump has a new sitcom where he plays the president of the United States".
The scary thing is that it's not that hard to imagine. Everyday is just a constant reminder: this is the president of our country?
36
There was a bill introduced recently to remove the unilateral authority of the president to launch a nuclear attack. Yes, that's right: currently that authority rests with this "president".
If ever there was a place where the balance of powers is needed it's here. Unilateral launch authority must be removed, especially now.
57
I'm taking bets that within days Trump will announce that the correct greeting on October 31 when little ghosts and goblins and deveils and the like come to our doors begging for sinful treats will be "Evil Halloween" in honor of the fundamentalists who founded our country. Takers?
6
Obviously, Trump thought the soldiers were standing to salute the commander in chief. Thus, it would have been inappropriate for him to stand because, you know, it really is all about him.
25
Just to echo several in this set of comments. I grown up in the military. "Retreat" was played every single day on loudspeakers, and reached every corner of most bases where we were stationed. If you were indoors, you didn't need to stand. But if you were outside, it was just what you did. Even traffic on base stopped, everyone got out of their cars, and if in uniform, you saluted toward the main base flag location. That Trump joked, kept talking to that shill Hannity, etc. is being blatantly disrespectful, whether he was inside or not. His base, of all people, should recognize this, as fanatical as so many of them are about flag-respect.
2
I think the statement about who insurance companies support tells all - Democratic states and companies that support Democrats will be punished. Why must we endure photisvti the signing of executive orders - the clips from his campaign stops, the publishing of his Tweets. It's Torture by Trump! I do wonder who owns Twitter - someone who delights in the chaos and divisiveness created by his actions. I support the boycott of Twitter - corporate and personal. Let's make America civil again.
16
I promise to shout Merry Christmas from the rooftops when Robert Mueller delivers a report detailing impeachable offenses.
Until then I'll just keep screaming into my pillow. And voting.
86
We'll be "listening to Trump bring back Christmas?" While we wonder how to make sure we can breath? And get health insurance? And pay the extra taxes being levied so that the rich can get richer? And figure out how we're going to find the money to send our children to private school, since public schools will be defunded? And worry about nuclear war? No Christmas here, only a lump of coal in our stockings - the only current use for coal.
20
I am particularly offended about the disregard Trump had for the flag lowering ceremony. After all, wasn't one of his multi-week tantrums all about how NFL players (who had more on their mind than Hannity's ratings) kneeling was unpatriotic and should be heavily punished?
But on a more serious note, a caring, observant parent who had, say 8-14 yrs old who exhibited the behavior patterns of our president, they would immediately suppose that something physical or psychological was interfering with their child;s development and seek help. We are letting this severely impaired person run our country. Even the "liberal" press gives him credence by analyzing his "motives" or "plans". They will never succeed in finding rational thought behind his actions. He (and we) really need help. He is destroying decades if not generations of advancement of humans on this planet, and is a danger to himself and others.
23
The section 4 of the 25th amendment is there for just the situation in which we found our country.
There are fewer things more devastating to an organization than to have a leader that is uninformed, unwilling to learn, psychotic in behavior, and egocentric.
It is to the benefit of the Republican party, and more important to all Americans that action is necessary .
The time for action is now B4 he ignites a war.
54
I thought Speaker Ryan acted very much Presidential during his visit to Puerto Rico yesterday, don't you? It made me wonder if something was afoot. After Vice President Pence, the Speaker of the House is Paul Ryan is second in line for the Presidency and the President pro tem Senator Orrin Hatch is next. While I am not sure that I would welcome the political philosophies of these potential presidents, I certainly would welcome the stability and rational behavior.
As reference, here is the first paragraph of Section IV of the 25th amendment. "Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President."
5
But that would require his cabinet to turn on him and they won't do that.
"before" in formal (and relatively formal) communication would be nice, don't you think ? You're not texting here.
If you say, see or hear something over and over again, after awhile, you become anesthetized; it no longer has a meaningful effect on you. The famous comedian Lenny Bruce back in the 50’s knew this well with his use of profanity. At first, it was shocking, and then after you hear the F or N word over and over again, the affect wears off.
Donald Trump is a perfect example of this and our country, in fact our planet, is feeling the consequences of it. Generally when we talk about setting new standards, it usually bespeaks higher levels. If Gail had written this article a year ago, it would have been news. Today? It’s background noise.
How do we stop Trump? Stop giving him the spotlight and the microphone. Let him self-destruct. There are things that each of us can do in our daily lives that are positive and have value. That’s what we should concentrate on.
34
You make a great point about Trump's not respecting the flag. I find the more media attention our tantrum throwing Commander in Chief. As he has faltered more and more in the basic duties of his job, it has been media scrutiny that drives his approval ratings to the basement. And it's hastening his breakdown. And when he has that breakdown, I hope he tries to get Social Security Disability and he has Medicare coverage for a while.
6
Eric, normally I would agree that extinguishing the bad behavior of a narcissist is appropriate, but unfortunately the narcissist is also an arsonist trying to burn down all our institutions with the help of his alt-right friends. We have to stay vigilant
14
Guess that old bone spur was acting up. You know, the one on his left foot, no, I mean right foot, no wait, it was the left foot.
60
Has any reporter ever asked Trump WHY he hates Obamacare - other than the fact his base does?
Can he articulate words into a sentence that explains anything?
45
It doesn't require a sentence. Just a word: Obama.
3
Because it has the word Obama in it.
2
... too fast... one devastating policy announcements (can before the storm), did or really matter whether he slouches, not kneels, during the lowering of the flag?
2
The buffoonery of Donald Trump is certainly fair game, even at these perilous times. He has stolen so much from the most vulnerable people in our society, let’s be sure that we don’t let him steal our sense of humor.
On the other hand (love that phrase), we certainly don’t want to be like Jimmy Fallon, making a very nasty man endearing by tousling his elaborate hairdo.
The guiding principle is, “Mr. Trump, we’re not laughing with you. We’re laughing at you.”
43
Fallon clearly regrets his idiocy. He has been busy redeeming himself ever since.
1
Gail, keep your eyes on the Russian investigation and trump's connection to Putin.
15
My fear is that as the Russia connections become clear and things heat up, Trump will escalate the situation with North Korea into a war to divert attention from the work of his minions. Hard to worry about Russia when a mushroom cloud is rising over SE Asia.
The one person you really have to watch out for is Trump's enabler in chief, Mike Pence. With his altar boy smile and humble demeanor, Pence gets ignored, while all the focus is on Trump's theatrics. But, you know that Pence truly believes in everything Trump is doing when he constantly says, "As the president has CLEARLY stated.....".
43
Trump may look forward to striking a blow against “religious persecution” by wishing us a “Merry Christmas,” loudly and often this year, but he certainly won’t be wishing millions of Americans “Happy Accessible, and Affordable Healthcare!” - quite the opposite.
16
The football players took a knee
In protest of police brutality
And as the flag lowers solemnly
Trump jokes around with Hannity
With heel spurs that got him deferred
And his misogyny we’ve overheard
Our commander in chief
Seems to always have a beef
With the press, but not Thurston Howell III
22
One Trump "misstep" that has not gotten much press is his silence on the recent deaths of four green berets in Niger. It has also been reported that he was playing golf when the soldiers' remains were returned to the U.S. Patriotism at its best. Absolutely stomach- turning.
60
You forget...never mind that trump went to a "military" school for wayward youth...trump is a draft dodger: he faked bone spurs in the heel of one of his feet (he cannot remember which foot) so as to avoid military service.
To many of us who are the same age and served, trump essentially "spit on the flag" by faking an injury. Now he wraps himself in the "flag", calls himself a "patriot" and tries to tell people how to act and what to do when the National Anthem is played.
I did not slog my way through the jungles of Cambodia for this. To me trump is a second class citizen. Colin Kapernick can do as he pleases as far as I am concerned.
797
Thank you - so very well put.
2
For Allen82.
The only bone spurs Trump has are the ones lodged in his "little" brain.
As well as the ones piercing his "little" heart.
His ego and self-regard however are large and huge and simply amazing.
Thank you for your service.
Semper Fi.
2
"I did not slog my way through the jungles of Cambodia for this." To me, this says it all, Allen82. May I quote you on my Facebook page?
1
If trump goes to California to show support for the fire victims, he will toss out boxes of matches to one-up the paper towels P.R. has to use to get rid of the flood water.
9
He would hand out toy squirt guns to help put out the fires!
1
Watch the bootlicking faces of people fawning on Trump at the signature scene (which he had to be reminded to sign - so much for his seriousness and focus on his job).
People who, for many of them, despise and criticize him behind his back or work at ruining his credibility, like Mike Pence for instance, the would be calife who'd love to replace him in 2020.
12
What does Trump's continued behavior and unacomplishments say about his acolytes, zealots and devotees? Now there's a scary thought.
21
Let's face it, we are in a holding pattern, with our captain in chief, circling the country with no place to land. I pray we have enough fuel in this circling pattern to make it through four years.
7
Gail, have you noticed that in every picture of Kim Jong-un he’s surrounded by a bunch of people with huge plastic grins frozen on their faces? It’s that “I’d better look happy or I’ll get the flame thrower” sort of joy that comes with being in the vicinity of a vicious dictator during a photo-op.
Now we have that bunch surrounding Trump. Look familiar? The teeth are better, but Trump would expect that.
Welcome to the new America.
29
The only reason this guy is still around is because obama did such a good job with the economy and helping the stock market. Only if the economy or stock market were to go down will we see change. Until then I think we are hostage to the coal miners and minimum wage white supporters of this craziness.
13
• “Trump forgot to sign,” AGAIN, just as he did on 31 March. This is becoming Trump tradition.
“He couldn’t do anything to help” in California. Oh, no? Couldn't he throw people some paper towels? Or hand a box of supplies to a driver? He sure could manage those things before.
13
Every single congress person, is complicit in Trump's disfunction, and the imminent death and destruction that will result.
He is taking the world to the brink of nuclear war, literally giving citizens by the thousands a death sentence by repealing health care, ignoring Puerto Rico, etc. etc.. and instead of working 24/7 on an impeachment process, congress goes on....VACATION??? Get them out. Every single last one of them.
23
Don't be distracted by tweets, Hannity interviews and signing ceremonies with very large signatures. Follow the money. Manafort owed $60 million to Putin crony when he ran the campaign. Trump keeps claiming "no collusion" but his son and son-in-law met with Russians. Giuliani kept promising a surprise just before the Wikileaks dump. Howcum he knew what was going to happen? And most important of all, keep asking why Trump continues to ignore the Russian sanctions bill, passed overwhelmingly by both houses of Congress, that called for him to impose more sanctions by an Oct. 1 deadline -- one he has now violated. Follow the money. Follow the money.
31
While not surprised, I've been appalled by the failure of the adminitration to acknowledge the disaster and suffering in California. Thank you for calling that out.
15
Great stuff, Gail!
I love the parallel you draw between the football players taking the knee and
Trump talking and joking during a military ceremony! He is such a strange chap!
Also, it's jolly interesting that he hasn't jumped all over the Weinstein story ......
I wonder why!
6
Trump is so clueless. I grew up as an Army brat. They played a Star Spangled Banner film clip at the movies started and we all stood up for it. While driving across base in the late afternoon listening to the radio blasting, you noticed people pulling off the road. Oh yeah, Retreat. You got out of your car and faced whichever way was towards Headquarters, where uniformed soldiers lowered the flag and then fired a cannon. When you heard the cannon you got back in your car, cranked up the radio and continued on.
10
I hate this president as much as anyone. The faster he is removed from office by impeachment, the 25 Amendment, or natural causes, the better. But it's not helping anyone's cause to open an argument with mostly false information. The opposition will simply perseverate on that and obfuscate the real problem/argument. Please try harder. The Russians certainly are.
2
My stomach hasn’t stopped hurting since the November election. However, all is not bleak: I’m finally dropping the stubborn avoirdupois that attached to my chassis some years back. Besides, I’m getting some great weight training by throwing things around and aerobics by screaming at the top of my lungs. Heck, this presidency might be the best thing that ever happened for my health. And a good thing, too, since I’m a member of that aging population who will no longer be able to afford health care should this new attack on the ACA truly become enacted.
13
The one-man government.
No Congress, no Courts, no Cabinet or Administration.
It's just him, acting alone. He can't be reasoned with, influenced or controlled. He will damage whatever he can to bolster his warped sense of self, fulfilling the blood lust of his ''base.''
The country that rose up to expel King George III cannot bring itself to control our own mad king.
22
"Well, maybe he had no idea what “Retreat” was."
Trump has no excuse for not knowing what the 'Retreat' was having spent the better portion of his youth in a Military School.
But we won't hear one malicious word from the hypocritical Republicans that support him.
21
The panel of your colleagues on the investigative side Thursday night affirmed what I already suspected about 45, but also about the writers that are with DT more than your opinion co-workers. The most eye opening piece of the panel was the description of how 45 hurled accusations at the press stirring up the crowd only to board the plane and be nice to the press. His attack against the NFL for not standing only to read your words that he talks and walks during ceremonies reveals not just hypocrisy, but a clear and present danger. The embrace of symbols and the blatant destruction of Christian Values is a sin before our Heavenly Father. I have NEVER said the pledge, but I love my country. I have veterans in my family and I don’t put up Christmas Trees, but confess Jesus Christ came in the flesh and is the Son of God. 45 does not protect my values that I believe from the Holy Bible, yet makes a mockery of God’s words daily by his actions. We all sin and fall short of God’s glory, but we can’t choose to get hung up on meaningless symbols and sexual preference, and ignore greed, arrogance, pride and deceit.
Our constitution is being shredded daily all in the name of Republican Christianity and it is disgusting! There is a reason for separation between church and state, unfortunately the Modern Day Pharisees are just to blind to see.
27
Amen.
1
Poor Pence had one shred of decency left to him, then shredded it at a football game. (That actually was quite a feat.) Even his mother seemed to get dragged along in the perfectly awful gesture. Do you suppose anyone told her what was happening?
Over at the Washington Post in an intense dialogue about Putin's influence over Mr. Trump and our election, one wag suggested the name for a puppet's puppet: a pence.
12
Good editorial on Kenyan elections but you missed the fact that one of the two major contenders insists on demonstrations but ignores the word 'peaceful'.
Then many hooligans say we are just copying our rights as in the USA....I am citing my Uber tax driver here in Africa!
Gail Collins again points out the issues and problems with your dreadful President. Peace in Iran, North Korea, Russia etc rarely comes out of the man's mouth. The world suffers from what was once the beacon of fairness and human rights - the USA. Untold damage has been done as so many cite 'that' man and say why cant we behave like that too?
The quicker your country can invoke Article 25 the better the world will become...I hope it is not already too late.
9
Trump is as phony a patriot as Christmas is Christian. Christmas is the ultimate marketing strategy of capitalism. We are all obligated to go out and spend ourselves into debt on gifts for everyone we know, or feel guilty of not being American. Merry Christmas all!
Trump did not respect our beautiful flag, our beautiful military, our beautiful country, during the playing of "Retreat." But he proves he alone is America's most beautiful patriot by calling out football players for attempting to raise consciousness of America's failure to live up to its ideals the flag represents.
18
jabarry: "But he proves he alone is America's most beautiful patriot by calling out football players for attempting to raise consciousness of America's failure to live up to its ideals the flag represents."
PERFECTLY EXPRESSED. trump is the vilest and most obvious of hypocrites, among other far worse things that he is.
This nation's founders knew a president doing what he wanted without checks/balances would destroy a republic. It's survival would depend on the goodness, wisdom & integrity of those governing.
But these aspects are absent now. The GOP is silent, distant, and also absent.
A president tyrannical with healthcare, working to undermine it to destroy it, despite many Americans inevitably suffering the results. A president who functions on immediate gratification, overly familiar buzzwords, tiresome slogans, tantrums and emotion. Who understands little, and learns less.
A man who bragged not paying taxes "makes me smart," and with his cronies, now fashions a plan to essentially eliminate his own taxes. Who pushes fake news & false facts, despite Thomas Jefferson calling for presidents "to educate and inform the whole mass of the people.”
He won't roll up his sleeves, study and learn, or do any of the hard work.
He knows nothing of healthcare, Iran Accord, or governance. Wake up, GOP.
You're letting this republic be destroyed. And not preventing this man's saber rattling/disinformation on the Iran Accord. As he provokes North Korea and Puerto Rico simultaneously. Stupid Trump Tricks Must Stop.
15
Trump voters wanted him to be the wrecking ball that would destroy the Washington swamp and the legacy of Barack Obama. But they failed to appreciate the fact that when you propel a wrecking ball, it comes back to you with greater momentum. That is what will happen as a result of Trump's actions on Obamacare. Many Trump voters will be hurt by this, and that is a shame. But maybe the impact will knock some needed sense in them and they will see what is obvious to the rest of the world - that Trump is simple an agent of destruction who is totally unfit for the office of the leader of the free world.
22
I am waiting for the Donald Trump hat trick where he makes a December visit to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and leaves a note saying "we could have world peace if we made this into a hotel", then turns to the press and says "You know, most people don't know that Christ was a Jew" and finally wishes everyone a Merry Christmas. The base cheers. The heads of the press explode. Christ weeps.
27
And I'm waiting for some brave person to go into the oval office and put Dt into a straight jacket.
1
I have decided Trump hates everyone. He speaks slowly from the teleprompter so that his followers can grasp his complex ideas. He doesn't understand anything so of course they don't either. Taking a knee is also very confusing for him, hence the fact that he sits instead of kneeling. Signing EO's, who knew that could be so hard. Good thing Pence was at his beck and call again to point him in the right direction. I won't even mention the video of him wandering on the tarmac looking for the limo. Those really difficult political ideas like remembering who is the president of the Virgin Islands have him stumped. But, if all else fails, just ask "oops Perry", he'll point you in the right direction. Tragically we have had 15 horrible disasters in 2017. The one that does not end is Trump destroying our government.
15
Trump forgetting to sign the order at the, ah, signing ceremony reminds me of an old, true story of a congressman who was so deep into his liquor habits that he showed up to be sworn in for a new term...after he had been defeated for re-election. Ah, the good ol'days. Trump is famously not drunk on alcohol but drunk on himself, in rapturous wonderment about his own greatness.
I'm not at all certain that Trump is even paying attention to the job he has, the presidency. There are reports that he watches television at least four to five hours per day, exceeding the excessive national average. Of course, its not "Wheel of Fortune". No. Serious yakking all about him and what he's not doing and over-tweeting.
Every minute of every day a little birdie needs to poke its face out across America and say, "This is what you voted for, folks." Actually, people don't care because most people don't actually know what the government does, but they know, beyond a whisker of a doubt, they don't like it.
There is a deadly serious side to all of this seriousness. Trump is violating his oath of office in deliberately trying to wreck Obamacare. He took an oath. It said that he would faithfully execute the laws of the United States, not just the laws with which he agrees. He said beforehand that he wanted it to fail so this week he fired the gun into its cranium. After, that is, he was called back to the table. So, now Trump owns the corpse, lock, stock and barrel.
You voted for this, folks.
17
The Obamacare thing is dirty politics. The move is part of the escalating war between Trump and the G.O.P. Congress. Trump won't have to worry about the consequences because he'll blame McConnell and Ryan instead. In any event, the change wouldn't take effect until 2019. If the issue is still on the table by then, I'm sure we'll hear Trump disparaging the problem he created. Aside from Trump's perverse satisifaction in destroying anything related to Obama, the move also creates a separation point between Trump loyalyists and establishment Republicans in the 2018 Republican primaries. The cruelty and death part flies under the radar for Trump. Thing is par for the course under our current administration.
Speaking of golf, Lindsey Graham claimed Trump shot a 73 on that golf outing and even Golf Magazine had to raise an eyebrow. And I quote: "Still, the senator's claimed score for Trump is patently unbelievable to many golfers. A score of 84 would seem plausible. Trump is a good golfer. But a 73, from a 71-year-old who plays often for a president but infrequently for a low-handicap golfer? Unlikely, to say the least." Trump just got burned by Golf Magazine.
As for the "Retreat" hypocrisy, I want to find every news clip criticizing Obama for his coffee cup salute and replay the old commentary in front of Sean Hannity live while he does his show. If late-night writers aren't working on this joke already, I should get into comedy.
4
I didn't vote for Trump but will take a stab at his resilience. The very fact that he is constantly attacked as the worst president ever by most media sources is what gives him strength. If anyone is so deplorable but yet is in power, there has to be something to that. Maybe, just maybe a president is not supposed to be politically correct and well liked by all. Maybe he is supposed to challenge all the norms. Maybe he is supposed to tell us what we don't want to hear.
2
Maybe he should listen to what he doesn't want to hear. He is ignorant and proud of it. I don't like it and it scares me. There is a difference between shaking things up and blowing them up.
7
Ben R: Yes, PLEASE, take a stab at his resilience! He certainly does derive strength from being attacked, doesn't he? Or is it that he is like a huge boulder, careening down a mountainside, in that as he keeps doing more and more corrupt and immoral things, he gains strength solely from his accomplishment of evil deeds? It IS crazy that he is still "in power." You can blame that on congress, for the most part. And, no, a president is not SUPPOSED to challenge all the norms, and tell us what we don't want to hear. A PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is SUPPOSED to uphold and defend the Constitution, and do what is best for the country, and for the people. He is not SUPPOSED to do what is best for only the RICHEST people (including him and his family). He is not SUPPOSED to appoint cabinet members who are intent on dismantling the countries protections and laws. He is not SUPPOSED to lie pathologically. He is not SUPPOSED to be a racist and a hater. He is not SUPPOSED to actively seek to harm 99% of the citizens, especially the poor, the elderly, women, children. the handicapped, and the chronically ill. He is SUPPOSED to find ways to make the country better, stronger, and healthier, and by extension, its citizens. He is supposed to set a good example, in all facets of life. Now, not every president has done ALL of these things, but THIS president is "amazing" -- He has FAILED in every one of these categories! EVERY SINGLE ONE! This makes him A LOSER!
3
We must understand that Mr. Trump is an extremely unstable person who simply cannot be allowed to be president of anything. He WILL crack up and will take a disastrous decision on something. It could be North Korea, Iran, freedom of the press or whatever. But then it will be too late. And when it happens, we can only blame ourselves.
14
Ms. Collins, perhaps you noticed the two photos taken by Doug Mills? The first where Trump is diligently signing the document with some effort, happily surrounded by beaming faces, the second where he holds his effort for the room and Nation to see, a Black American yanked in by the elbow at the last minute, looking flushed and out of place.
6
Who are all those grinning people surrounding Trump? Are they extras from central casting? I don't recognize any of them.
2
Much as I want him out of office, according to this story in Stars and Stripes, he wasn't required to stand. Being incorrect about these things makes it easier for his defenders to defend him.
www.stripes.com/news/us/trump-continued-to-talk-while-retreat-bugle-call...
"Master Sgt. Matt Schwartz, a spokesman for the 193rd Special Operations Wing in Harrisburg, said the bugle call plays on the base every day at 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. While the base flag is not raised or lowered at that time, personnel outside are required to stop and salute. Those indoors are not required to render honors.
"Being in the hangar, they didn't have to do anything special," Schwartz said."
1
I just returned from a trip to Normandy, France. I visited the American Cemetery near Omaha Beach. It was a profoundly moving experience. The whole place exudes a quiet dignity, and the Visitors Center contains many inspiring tributes to those who gave their lives. General Eisenhower stands out as a man of great principle. I contrast this with our current "leader", an international embarrassment. Did Eisenhower go on to make his sole mission the dismantling of the New Deal? Did he say, "I like people who didn't get captured"? What has happened to this country? Is there no one left in government with the principle, as well as the legal ability, to help us out of this hellish nightmare?
15
So he attacks NFL football players for not following the protocol that everyone knows when our national anthem is performed, and thinks “Retreat” is the proper time to talk about TV ratings when everyone with any US military background knows the protocol when Retreat is performed. Keeping in mind his blustering statement last September that his employees were having a terrible time with Obamacare revealing he knows nothing about healthcare and is not a consumer of healthcare, I have to wonder if his ignorance about Retreat reveals that he either did not remain in a military school for long or, in fact, is lying about ever having attended military prep school.
24
It seems that the major opponents of players kneeling have something in common. Trump, Pence, Dallas' Jerry Jones, Washington's Dan Snyder, Roger Goodell, and their cheerleaders Hannity and O'Reilly, have spent a total of <1 second in the military. Of course, Trump and probably Jones actively avoided the draft back when we had it.
3
He may not have paid attention in school. He is so ignorant of science, math, public speaking and history, to name just a few subjects, that I am pretty sure he skated. It is well know he doesn't like to read. His father paid the tuition and Donny just had a good time.
2
Merry Christmas? All over the world, except US, everyone says Happy Christmas. Feliz Navidad in our neighboring country beyond the soon-to-be-built Great Wall of Trump. It isn't shaping up to be either merry or happy in Trumpland as health care is gutted and the nukes are tuned up. But President Trump wants his Christian supporters to know that he's on the same page they're on in the prayer book he has yet to open in a church he has yet to visit before his Sunday golf outings. The responsibilities of office weigh heavily on the Leader. Policy writer Steve Miller keeps pestering him about slashing another social benefit. Chief of Staff Kelly wants him to listen to more advisors. Our president hardly has time to read all the stuff his staff sends him. He likes to keep his big desk clear and uncluttered by possibly conflicting advice -- and just practices his signature, which gets bigger and bigger as the federal government shrinks.
23
Re Christmas
I live in New York. I have always, and only, lived in New York.
Big news to the rest of the country: We wish each other Merry Christmas. Especially those of us who attend church. We never stopped wishing each other a merry christmas. The talking point that we cannot mention Christmas is "fake news", as they say.
The president, who lives in New York, must live in a bubble. Among his family and friends, Christmas must not be a big deal. He should get out more.
36
Maybe it's just that given his abhorrent behavior, no one ever wishes HIM a Merry Christmas. I know I wouldn't.
5
President Trump inspired, if not wrote, The Art of the Deal and yet art does not define him, assuming it ever did, and the deals he seeks only matter to him if they work to his glory. He is neither an artist nor a dealmaker. He goes about the business of the Presidency as though he were wielding a fifty caliber machine gun and looking for targets that inspire his loyalists to cheer.
19
Take a good look at those well-dressed, smiling people admiring their leader. Those people don’t have to worry about insurance--we taxpayers take good care of them. Remember those smiling faces when it comes to the next elections. They are the ones responsible for letting Trump walk all over the people of this country. He couldn’t do it without them. There must be some politicians out there who actually care about humanity. Where are they? How I miss the Obama family.
55
Gail Collins, yes, we are getting lost in the wilderness and sinking to new Trump woes-lows. An alternative is to refrain from smiles and smirks and some how find a way to ask Mr. Trump why he did not go to California? Why he's taking support from the poor? Why he's pushing Iran as our foe scapegoating away from high risk Russia, Saudi Arabia and China? Why is he tweeting and pouting instead of using his presidential pulpit? Why is he vindictive to Congress and his Cabinet? Why is he provoking nuclear war? Why is Porto Rico an object of wrath rather than compassion? Why is his tax bill reduction for the rich rather than reform? Why is DACCA a weapon for his base rather than a solution to massive migration?
We have to refrain from trivial responses to profound issues.
22
An observation by one Thomas Zaslovsky in these comments, 'I believe more and more that we are watching national suicide in action', is the perfect psychologically correct description of what is happening.
As a former longtime trauma and family psychotherapist, I've theorized that oftentimes someone close to a suicided person has wanted that person dead (not always, usually a parent or a spouse; never a child). It is an unconscious wish (because if you knew someone wanted you dead you would certainly defy them).
This is a mass case of (what?) 'national suicide by ...' by Republican Congress? Or 'national suicide by...presidential appointees?'
With the person who holds the inner suicide wish for all of us being dead being Steve Bannon and Mark Whosis.
Each nationally and internationally destructive act by Trump -- several on one day today -- may be a symbolic acting out of his inner turmoil. ('See what you made me do.' 'You hurt my narcissism -- see how I can hurt you.'
If anyone wants to flesh out this theory you are welcome.
'National suicide in action.'
The way his every retrogressive action horrifies and sickens us exactly resembles what our reactions would be if a loved one killed him/herself. (Suicide is often a very angry gesture.)
60
S.: Your comments are very profound, and you are a professional. I believe all the things that you say, but I feel that the primary "disorder" that is fueling everything that trump does, and everything his cabinet does, and everything congress does (and everything that they IGNORE), is GREED. Their primary goal is enriching themselves. All the other "disorders" that they exhibit and espouse such as racism, misogyny, xenophobia, entitlement, elitism, mendacity, etc., -- these are all OUTGROWTHS of the primary disorder, which is GREED. In order to keep their coffers filled, they must play to their base, and their base is two-fold: The haters, and the very wealthy. (These may overlap.) So money will keep pouring in (GREED fulfilled...although with them, it will NEVER be enough) as long as the secondary "disorders" are employed to that end. -- I also believe that recently, more than before, trump knows that he may be found guilty of obstruction of justice, financial crimes, and perhaps even treason...SO he is speeding up his nightmarish agenda...AND HE DOES NOT WANT TO GO "DOWN" ALONE...so the most damage he can do to us before his "fall," he is trying to do. It is like the Las Vegas shooter trying to take down as many people as possible before he kills himself. Yes, it is suicide, and certainly it is the work of someone, who as you say as great "inner turmoil." We are not dealing with a well president, or a well cabinet, or a well congress. There is much rot within.
Gail Collins tries to be humorous in this essay. But she plays to the prejudices of liberals.
Make no mistake. Trump's base is filled with people who would be characterized as "ordinary people." Many have not been to the University.
We can ridicule them because they don't understand Obamacare. But then again, I have a PhD and don't understand Obamacare. Admittedly my PhD is not in economics. One of the architects of Obamacare was economics professor Jonathan Gruber, who ridiculed America's voters for not understanding how the mandate works.
So when the Joe Six-Packs vote for a candidate that promises to replace Obamacare, they may be hurting themselves. Or maybe not. I'm pretty educated but the complexity of the ACA boggles my mind.
In a democracy there is a virtue to simplicity. You don't ask voters to decide the rules of nuclear physics.
Why not propose something simple? Why not propose a path to universal health care?
I am unfortunate to have many of the hated "white patriarchs" as friends. You know the people who have insurance yet cannot afford for debilitating chronic conditions when their health takes a turn for the worse.
I don't blame them for being stupid when they argue that millionaire football players should show respect for the flag.
Why not respect those (perhaps of limited intelligence) who make different choices.
Does constant ridicule of the white patriarchs win elections for Hillary?
5
You don't need an advanced degree or GED -- or be a liberal --to understand that what Trump is doing has no basis in fact or humanity. Common sense and and an ethical framework will tell you all you need to know about this man who should never have been elected president. Why not respect intelligence, compassion and wisdom instead of crass rebellion and anger?
8
Universal healthcare? Republicans do not believe in healthcare - period. People who do not have college degrees are not unintelligent. Kneeling during the flag - the President had the reminded to put hand to heart by his son and wife - yes people support him - freedom of choice but we are also free to to criticize and denounce his unreasoned and "joking" behavior. National and international security demand it.
12
Let’s dispense with the “rich elite liberals talking down to overlooked white working class”trope right now. Many of my liberal friends are teachers and freelancers and writers. Not all of them could afford college. Yet all of them are tolerant, compassionate and open-minded, rather than bitter and entitled. The ACA is complicated and imperfect, but an intelligent or less self-involved president might have looked to improve it rather than dismantle it because he resents his predecessor’s popularity. As for commenters who seem to be mocking Trump supporters, they are probably “guilty”of relieving stress, since trying to reason with these bitter entitled people who spout bias-confirming garbage without any interest in truth is an exercise in futility.
10
Just remember "Festivus for the rest of us." I know we have some grievances to air.
17
C'mon Gail. Go out to politically Red areas, listen hard to what they are saying, and write about it. That would be productive. I need to better understand the thinking of Trump voters and so do you.
13
Just watch Fox News if you want to know. Unfortunately I know more than a few Trump voters and they all spout the same things you hear on Fox because that is where they get their news. They do not live in the reality based universe.
The Tump voters I know are typical suburban Republicans, not working class, struggling people. They are college educated, have nice homes, good jobs, etc. some I have known for years and they were not like this a few decades ago. It is right wing propaganda, and Fox in particular, that has radicalized them, not economic struggles.
10
Here's what Peter Hart the pollster found when he interviewed five (or six?) Trump voters in a September focus group in Pittsburgh : no one had heard of or had significant information about Robert Mueller. The group included a number of people who were critical of and disturbed by DT's personal behaviors, so they weren't uncritical. I'm listening hard to that, and I am deeply dismayed. How will those people respond if Robert Mueller comes back with indictments of Trump and his circle? Will they attend to Mueller's indictments or respond to DT's incitements and claims of fake news and the deep state?
C'mon traveling wilbury, tell me--and I really mean this--how to make something productive of that. We need to know more about the thinking of Trump voters, but aren't they also obliged, as voters, to be informed?
4
> Trump forgot to sign. Pence had to drag him back to the little bitty table to write down his name.
Because he had already accomplished the goal for that event: gathering a group of people to praise him for something that he orchestrated. He goes through his days and his life desperate for praise and affirmation.
Trump is the most needy most-powerful-man-in-the-world I've ever seen.
90
I always wondered what would happen if the jester took over the kingdom, now we know. It would be funny if it was not so tragic. I would not worry so much if not for the fact this man is dangerous and playing with fire. Like a child playing with matches. God help us.
39
It's wildfire season every day for DJ who has set the nation on fire in his quest to drain the swamp..
6
It's been many years since I had to pay attention to Retreat but, if memory serves, only when you are outside must you come to a halt and salute if in uniform or simply come to a halt if not in uniform or are a civilian.
Anyway, Trump is still a boor and fundamentally un-American.
18
That's what Gail wrote! Re-read the column!
1
I don’t know why Trump’s sitting during “Retreat” or pitching paper towels in Puerto Rico isn’t playing on endless loops on CNN or MSNBC. Maybe then people would get the picture of who Trump really is. And, even better, it would actually drive him insane.
42
Drive him insane? Haha. Too late.
1
Speaking of the Holidays: for Trump, every day is Festivus: airing of grievances, and promises of miracles.
22
I am surprised you mention the Christmas thing. Democrats and Republicans alike, religious or not, almost every non-Jew I've known has viewed Merry Christmas as a secular and neutral statement. Heck, my neighborhood association even suggested that I decorate my house for Xmas even though I'm Jewish. They said that it's a neighborhood solidarity thing. I'm sorry but the Happy Holidays thing doesn't fly anywhere I've been.
8
What do you mean "Happy Holidays" doesn't fly?!
It makes perfectly good sense as it covers Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year's, Kwanza, etc.
It also avoids patronizing or offending people by saying "Merry Christmas" when they may be atheists, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, etc. who may be put off by an assumption they are Christian or by a reminder that they are in the minority!
We still live in a society that favors Christianity and oppresses Muslims and others.
If there's a "war" on Christmas, it isn't because some people prefer saying "Happy Holidays", it's because the event has become commercialized, profit-driven, the height of materialism, and stripped of its religious meaning.
The advertising and buying also starts far too early and ends up undermining far too many people's finances.
Worse, it's only October, not even Halloween, and we're already discussing Christmas!
425
SB: Maybe I wasn't clear,. but you missed my whole point. I prefer Happy Holidays but everyone around me thinks I'm being silly. You argue that I'm wrong and insist Happy Holidays is fine, which is my whole point.
9
If I don't know if someone is a Christian, I will say "Happy Holidays," if I say anything. I will continue to say whatever I feel is appropriate without guilt or apology. Unless I say "F*&( you" I think I'm behaving all right.
15
Decades from now the story will still be told how the republican party abandoned their country and its people, in support of this unhinged, deeply troubled POTUS.
Obviously this assumes there'll be people around to tell such stories.
39
Why is there no in depth analysis of this "Trump base". Why does this group have the GOP cowering in fear? This constituency of chaos represents a slice of bread in terms of numbers compared to the rest of the loaf of American people that didn't vote for this man. I get wanting to shake up the status quo, but when you elect Alfred E. Neuman don't expect John F. Kennedy.
19
Trump's main opposition seems to be Sen Corker who is one powerful Senator. His latest statement that Trump is "castrating" Tillerson rings true if we only look at Trump's tweets. But, the idiocy of his Iran move against Tillerson and Mattis's opposition is very frightening. His "America First" program is rapidly isolating the US from our allies and, in fact, the rest of the world. One Fox personality says "Trump is fast losing his friends". So, he is also isolating himself.
David Underwood (below) though points out that his supporters in the hinterland are solid neo-confederates. Trump can do no wrong as he is protecting us from the mongol invaders and the war on Christmas.
And, where are the democrats? They are not making much noise except in e-mails asking for donations. They are outraged at this and at that but there is no apparent cohesive, planned approach to the upcoming mid-terms. What is the program? Where is the leader, e.g. Obama? He seems to be MIA but enjoying his vacation. Hard to blame him after all the abuse he suffered for 8 long years. But, someone of real stature needs to stand up and be counted. Thank you Senator Bob Corker.
33
I am weary.
How many times can you shout that the Emperor is naked, and no one listens? He is naked, and folks, it ain't pretty.
But how many times can you shout at the crowd that they are buying snake oil? That the football thing is a distraction and pandering? That the holidays ceased to be solely about Jesus and goodwill so long ago, that "The Grinch" and "Charlie Brown's Christmas" spread that message in my childhood 50 years ago? Tain't new, folks and tain't the result of identity politics: commercialism and materialism put the nails in the coffin long ago.
How many times can you shout at the crowd that the snake oil will kill them, before anyone listens?
I am weary, and will be wearier before we come to our senses. It wasn't ever funny and it is less so now.
51
Thing is, that I actually agree with him about the Christmas thing. It's ok to declare your faith by stating Merry Christmas or Happy Passover or Happy Eid al-Adha. I would gladly respond in kind, even were I not of that faith. It lets us know our neighbors; it builds community. It doesn't hide that fact that we are gloriously diverse. But now President Trump, by declaring he shall march in the streets shouting "Merry Christmas," has gone and ruined this, because if I go around saying "Merry Christmas," everyone will think I'm a white nationalist. Thanks for ruining Christmas, Mr. Trump.
36
I spent 10 years in the US Army. During that time, I heard Trump make many comments about Obama and how he was not quite an American. Yet, he knew military protocol. I am glad Trump was never my commander in chief. He clearly does not understand what it means and the huge responsibility that comes with it. Soldiers and veterans are more than just poll numbers. Most of us gave something for the country we love, to include deployments to a war that is still in action. We didn’t want to use our flat feet as an excuse to avoid it. Trump has no idea what the word sacrifice means, so he jokes while a tradition to salute our country plays. Sad.
52
The Presidency is an office that attempts to implement a strategy while managing daily reactions to a chaotic world. Trump was a semi-successful or failed real estate developer which in no way prepares one for the global importance of this role. He has no strategy other than disruption. I doubt that he could list all 50 states on a blank piece of paper, or find New Zealand on an unlabeled map. Every day I wonder how my friends and neighbors voted us to this point.
26
This is what Democrats need to do. Reciprocate and take the low road. Glad Gail does in a funny fashion
11
Let us vote for 'Chappy' the Poodle.
Dotard Donald just signed an executive order to try to destabilize and dismantle ACA simply because he wants a "win."
Never mind that it remains the law of the land because he and his party couldn't come up with something better, even though they control the entire federal government.
Never mind that it may kill countless Americans.
Are we so numb to governing malpractice that this just feels like another disastrous day in America?
42
Trump reminds me of another Don: Mozart’s Don Giovanni—except that Trump’s cruelty, wantonness, and total lack of morals make Don Giovanni look like a girl scout, and Trump’s moral failures are played out on a much larger stage than the Metropolitan Opera.
I wonder if Trump knows how the opera ends. Hint: Don Giovanni has a close encounter with the animated statue of a man he murdered. The score: statue 1, Don Giovanni, zero. The moral of the opera: evil always gets its just reward.
P.S.: There are a lot of statues in Washington. If I were Trump, I would stay away from all of them.
18
Especially weeping angels. On the other hand, I wouldn't mind if he had a close encounter with a weeping angel a la Doctor Who.
3
Ah, so Donald Trump deplores the ACA because it kept insurance companies in the equation! Great news - I thought it was for some dopey, myopic reason like the fact that the law's nickname contains "Obama." Congress shouldn't waste any time giving him a single-payer law that he can sign (if he remembers to do that).
By the way, let's talk Halloween, not Christmas. I assume he'll be going as a wizard. Grand!
25
One of the chronic and unfounded complaints about President Obama from the Obama-haters was that he was not "presidential," and the examples included his supposed inability to give a proper salute to military personnel when he exited the presidential helicopter, appearing in public without a tie occasionally, and putting his feet on the desk in the Oval Office. (And, oh, his Kenyan birthplace.) And the First Lady's arms were too bare, and she meddled in the diets and exercise habits of American children, and her elder daughter's skirt was too short. (Cf., that photo of a naked future First Lady taken before the Donald married her, and, possibly, before she had a valid US visa that permitted her to work and be paid for that photo.) The criticism of the Obamas was all a lot of nonsense, and most of it was untrue.
So now we have President Trump, who tweets childish insults about US public officials, including his own cabinet, leads mindless chants against presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and hangs insulting nick-names on US Senators, e.g., Little Marco and Lyin' Ted. (That last one may be true, but there is a more presidential way to convey that information.) And there are all the ooopsies that Ms. Collins recounts. But the unpresidential President Trump gets a pass from his supporters on all this nonsense.
44
Nitpicking about the indoors/outdoors question is totally pointless regarding the flag-lowering ceremony. Donald Trump did not know what was happening and it never occurred to him to pause to see if something more important than himself was at hand.
"What a nice sound that is," he said, which is redolent of his "warmest condolences" to the victims of the Las Vegas massacre and his "It is a great honor to be here with all of my friends — so amazing" at Yad Vashem. This is how the United States of America is represented now, despite the flag's own best efforts to represent us well. In fact, it's ironic that he's decrying protests during flag ceremonies because, while the flag stands for everything that's decent and good about our country, he champions the opposite.
This video, which was linked from the Washington Post story on Donald Trump's total self-absorption, is incredibly moving, even more for what's so clearly in the hearts of the service members than for the (proper) way that Robin Williams behaves himself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD9QAAEfQEA
10
Wow. I just watched the Robin Williams video. Thank you for the link. What a glaring difference between an aware and compassionate person... and someone who is just - dangerously - not. (I am once again missing Robin Williams now, anyway. He was a truly fine person.)
4
"Do we have any right to ask why he hasn’t dropped into California to check up on the wildfire disaster?"
I am very concerned about my adopted home state of California. Not one word from the White House, just criticism about our people, US citizens in Puerto Rico.
I can only quote Seth Meyers: "I can't... I just... I just can't."
Yeah, the White House response to just about everything leaves me speechless.
24
Pat,
We do not have a President. One can look at this as a test of How We Help Our Own.
2
When I read Ms. Collins she is preaching to the choir. But obviously there is another choir Trump is preaching to. I went to YouTube and searched the top 3 compilations of Trump one liners. All 3 were favorable to him and had a combined viewership of 12 million. That says that there are a lot of folks who are fed a different and likable Trump. And that’s why he isn’t going anywhere soon. I think it would be good for thinking people to see what they’re up against. You don’t win the war without knowing the enemy.
31
Excellent point.
Now I know how George Baily felt when his beloved Bedford Falls became a Pottersville. At Christmas time no less.
It's only fitting that Trump does a potters-vilification of the entire country on a Friday the 13th. Even the scary slasher movies show more humane villains.
11
As a former Army officer my recollection is that the playing of Retreat had a twofold purpose: to signal the end of the duty day and to pay respect to our nation's flag!
18
This man is a never-ending horror show: bad manners, willful ignorance and lying with every breath are just some that spring to mind. It can be overwhelming: I have a friend at the gym and she and I do nothing but talk about this wreck of a regime when we meet up. After Julia Louis-Dreyfus revealed her breast cancer diagnosis, we talked about our own experiences with the disease-oncologists, radiation, fear and hopefulness-and we laughed a great deal. When I left I said "Do you realize that this is the first time we have laughed so much in nine months and we were speaking about breast cancer?" I realized that for us the real cancer is not the one we both got through but the national cancer sitting in the Oval Office right now-and it's 7:15 which means he's tweeting. I'm afraid to look.
33
B>T.W., 'Happy Xmas' is a perfectly viable greeting. The X is a contraction for Xristos, (A transliteration of the name Christ for the people in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.)
7
Thank you for including comments for this article. Having felt so disheartened by the symbolic policy moves by "that man" this week, I am thankful to read that I am not alone in my reaction. It feels like systematic, psychological torture enacted by that man, meant to make us question our own sanity so that a cult-like leader can then sow his own propaganda. The shock and denial of his presidency is so profound for me, that using his name feels difficult. Seeing his name in print forces me to face the reality he is president. I see all the elements of the grief process in accepting the reality of his presidency - shock, anger, denial, depression; the audacity of his presidency is a trauma-invoking reality, inciting fresh trauma again every time he "takes action" or even speaks or twitters. Lord help us, though him invoking the Christian faith even cheapens the name of Christianity.
16
I am a bit of an historian. Presidents are judged after a decade, or several decades. Consensus is, "he wasn't overly bright.", let's say.
The current one has been judged after 18 months!
3
I'm glad you pointed out two major points, that he did not stand or show any respect when he heard that bugle playing Retreat and that he made the comment about the health care industry not supporting Donald Trump - referring to himself as usual in the third person. Ignoring the bugle shows hypocrisy and again his "it's all about me ego." The line about the health care industry not supporting him was especially disconcerting. Do they have to flatter him or give money to his campaign in order for him to provide health care to people?
17
This is a man who craves the limelight. Who evidently has so much bias and malice and pettiness towards some Americans that it defies logic.
A classic, do as I say, not as I do, kind of person.
Does his base really think they are going to come out of this presidency with decent healthcare and a tax break and a job in the coal industry? I am still astounded how people will vote against their own best interests.
16
The odd affinity that Gail and most liberals hold for Obamacare seems almost religious in nature. Obamacare wrecked and distorted a poorly functioning private health insurance system so badly that we have actually been subsidizing both sides of the equation: the purchasers and the insurers. If that is not a financial house of cards, I don't know what is. Trump is simply forcing Congress to deal with the mess instead of continuing to band-aid over the systemic problems. Why Gail and her friends think this can continue is beyond me.
2
Those of us who celebrate Christmas now face a moral dilemma. When did loving Christmas become like loving Wagner's operas? This year, should we reduce the size of our tree from ten to five feet? Should it be six foot two, and should the angel on top be orange? Should I drop more pocket change into the Salvation Army bucket, or less? Should we skip Christmas altogether as a protest, or just take a knee every time we hear "Silent Night"?
Thanks, Trump, for ruining my country and my Christmas.
22
“We’re saying Merry Christmas again,” he told the Values Voters Summit on Friday. It’s important, he explained, because it’s something that “people don’t talk about anymore.”
Impeccable logic. When setting priorities, let's focus on things that people don't talk about anymore. Next, Mr. Trump will set up a task force to investigate who shot J.R.
Or, he could attend to things that matter to Americans outside his narrow base of support.
48
Great comment! I wish Trump would set up a committee to find out what happened on "Lost." Was Jack really dead during the entire series?
Heaven--or any superhuman force--help us were the Donald to "attend to things that matter to Americans outside his narrow base of support"! Think what more chances that would provide for him to screw things up. This is truly a no-win situation, and I fear that Thomas Zaslavsky's assessment is accurate: we are on a path to national suicide.
I find no humor regarding Trump's personalized one-man show. I have passed the stage of shock, denial, anger and now teetering on the verge of feeling numb. Surely I can't be the only person who is witnessing this man mentally unraveling bit by bit.
'Attention must be paid. But there has also been a bumper crop of Ridiculous Events. And it seems only fair to mention a few of them, given that the president himself doesn’t have enough stable thoughts for a serious policy debate.'
I am paying close attention, and yes 'Trump does not have enough stable thoughts for serious policy debate". Where is everybody? The democratic party is all too silent, the majority of this GOP actions and/or lack of , tell me they continue to see, hear and speak no evil. This man has been in office for about 266 days and destruction he continues to leave in his path is morphing into a tsunami. There are real life, every day human beings who are suffering the repercussions of these extreme actions with his stroke of a pen.
If I were in the room when he forgot to sign the executive order to begin destroying the ACA with no reasonable alternative, I would never have called him back in and burnt every last page.
390
Good question , " where is everybody"? There's no question that late night TV has taken over the role that the Democrats should have owned for the last 260 or so days. Trump should be called out every single time he does something ridiculous, mean spirited and dangerous which is just about every time he opens his mouth.
Where is Elizabeth Warren, Pelosi, Shumer or any sincere and courageous citizen.
The country desperately needs to hear your voice.
13
Please be numb, that way you won't be bothered by these sorts of things. Better for your mental health.
Well he was told because Pence has the same agenda as Trump. Scary isn't it.
I think the operative word here is failure. Trump is a failure of a man, the GOP is a failure at governance and our country has become a failure at world leadership. We have been bankrupted by failed leadership.
Trump is a laughing stock. Our Navy cannot navigate a ship without running into another moving object. Who is running the show? Who can we blame this on?
Pogo comes to mind.
177
After eight Obama's years, with accomplished nothing but millions of refugees flooding Europe, and emboldening Iran, DJT is lighting rode for the US.
'Who can we blame this on?'
The American people.
1
Reading this from your regular writers, they all think something is dreadfully wrong. They can't be the only ones who think this. May i suggest that the Times regularly get the opinions of Republicans in Congress. Senator Corker surely can't be the only one among them not to have seen that something is dreadfully wrong with Trump, and not just that he is a lifetime bully who lacks empathy.
On healthcare Republicans seem content to continually attack the ACA, as a way to head off efforts to save its best features, or sought after plans to improve it. What Senators Alexander and Murray come up with now, and any support from Republicans is what may prove to be important. Like the Russia investigation, the Republicans have been stonewalling this. There is also children's health insurance, which is in limbo.
With Trump and the Republicans, dreadful does not seem so much as something attached to a particular action, but rather is a state of mind.
29
Aha !! Thank you Gail.
Another golden opportunity to highlight Trump's forgetfulness.
More then once, even before the election, I have submitted variations of the following comment.
Why don't we ALL consider the possibility that Trump suffers from early onset Alzheimer's Disease (AD) as an explanation for the following:
His difficulty with the truth and inability to remember his lies.
He demonstrates severe memory problems and a great deal of confused thinking.
He will say one thing and then contradict himself thereafter.
At times even immediately thereafter.
We have witnessed his obvious memory problems, his inability to focus on the matter at hand, the tendency to wander off topic, his confusion regarding facts and figures, and the desire to avoid answering questions in Q&A forums.
Another attribute of AD can be irascible behavior and poor anger management.
(I emphasize this statement this time around and will REPEAT it hereafter.)
All factors noted should be enough to remove him from office - before he does any more damage and/or creates any more severe problems for us ALL,
wherever we happen to be on the political party spectrum.
There are routes available to end the problem we can easily brand as Trump.
Let us lean upon the Congress to address and to solve this problem as expeditiously as possible.
And before we are ALL as crazy as he once again reveals himself to be.
52
Having spent the last 5 weeks in Europe and the UK I've missed a few of the little ditties mentioned here. Perhaps the most disturbing is forgetting to sign "the healthcare wrecking changes...." When someone gets in the car and doesn't start the engine and drive away but instead get's out of the car to go back into the house it's time to take the keys away.
48
Trump's tricks are stupid because his arrogance is boundless and his ignorance unfathomable. But to his base, who clearly share that ignorance, he can do no wrong.
That some 30% of voters not only accept, but to this day applaud his eye-watering incompetence, reflects the total failure of our educational system and the erosion of the values that once made the country great.
Look in the mirror, America.
378
For at least 30% of the population the educational system in many states has failed its citizens and that's by design, and it's been the case for many decades. That's why the rich have always sent their children to private schools.
The values of the 30% haven't eroded. The values are what they were since the 1870s.
The U.S. is a mix of the backwards and the educated which is a volatile mix
3
Let's repair the wall between Church and State all the way to Washington. Parts are crumbling.
3
The reasons can be found in the cruel majesty of Duck Dynasty.
1
At the Values Voters Summit, Trump noted that at the 1787 Constitutional Convention Benjamin Franklin suggested that a prayer be said. Trump did not note that the delegates decided that supernatural help was not needed; there was no prayer.
Honesty is not a value honored by Trump nor his audience.
59
With every proclamation, action, and tweet, Trump demonstrates that he is Putin's puppet. He is putting the well-being and lives of American citizens in danger. Enemies do this. Presidents are supposed to protect us from enemies, both external and internal.
If Robert Mueller would like to take his investigation all the way, he should probably insist that Donald Trump submit to several lie detector tests. Sooner rather than later.
21
Don't you think his pathology would facilitate him passing a lie detector evaluation?!
in the short period of time in which Trump did four devastating policy decisions (Iran, clean power, health Care subsidies, women's health coverage) and at least two devastating
10
Trump is so far beyond dumb and incompetent, it baffles the mind. HOW can this all be happening and the Republicans surrounding him are allowing it? I have started telling my children "What Trump just did - don't ever, ever behave that way."
52
We must never forget what craven cowards sit in Congress and allow this nightmare to continue. They could stop it tomorrow . They choose not to. They are utterly despicable.
“During one top-level discussion with his foreign affairs advisers, he reportedly compared the United States’ strategy in Afghanistan to the remodeling of the 21 Club in Manhattan.” If Trump designed the 21 Club, it was likely an execrable job, so he might have had a valid point.
12
I haven't heard anyone in the media and on TV pick up on the fact that Trump accused the insurance companies of getting rich off of the subsidies while at the same time he and straitjacket Republicans are saying the insurance companies are going broke trying to stay in the exchanges of the ACA (Obamacare). If a Blue Jay had Trump's brain it would fly backward.
110
Nice catch!
1
If anyone else were to behave the way Donald Trump does, we would not hesitate to observe that his intellect is rivaled only by garden tools. Instead, we laugh at his horrible gaffes and pretend he might be more capable if he tried, because the obvious conclusion is too painful.
10
Not only Gail, Trump throws everyone off their game with his jaw droppingly dangerous stupidity. Only when America once and for all solves its Donald problem will people around the world truly be able to celebrate Christmas, or any other religious or civic holiday, once again.
14
Does Trump realize he's not the star of a weekly TV drama? Or does he see himself as the cop who doesn't play by the rules, stuffs Miranda Rights down suspects' throats, infuriates establishment powers who hide behind "our hands are tied" excuses, is harassed by a nitpicky media focused on undotted "i's" and uncrossed "t's", but just before he's about to be kicked off the force turns out to have been right all along.
As Trump sees it, he was hired to be the show's hero. Something must be amiss with the scripts. At the end of each script, the hero is supposed to prevail. That's not happening here.
Sorry Donald, didn't anyone tell you that for actual presidents there is no script? It's largely improv? Improv dies unless the cast members cooperate to dwevelop the premise to an ending that the audience likes. I'm afraid your "it's all about me" approach is terrifying the audience and most of the cast. And we're not looking forward to the ending.
18
Trump's Presidency is already the worst we have known as a country, and it is getting more so not by the day, but by the hour, and he isn't even a year into his damage making. It's hard to know what motivates or inspires him other than a lack of empathy and intelligence; perhaps King Midas is his spirit animal. His term won't come to an end soon enough, and the country's hangover for a generation.
23
When it comes to politics, I conserve my time. After all, there are books to read, games to watch, and dogs that need walking. When it came to the presidential election, I watched each debate religiously, but I didn't watch much else. As for Trump's stupid tricks, that pretty much describes his whole campaign. Since he promised to put Hillary in jail, he had nowhere to go but up, but it was clear that things would stay at that level. Whoever Trump is appealing to, it isn't me. That capsulizes his whole Presidency for me. I just need to know the issues -- taxes, health care, or whatever -- and I pretty much know what he'll say. Trump is a five minute President. That's how long it takes to get to know him and to understand that, whatever the issue, his comments are no intended for me, so why bother listening?
8
Yes; let's talk about the Flag Thing. A President couldn't stop talking about himself during the playing of "Retreat" yet a manic comic genius like Robin Williams could; stopping in the middle of his comedic routine during a 2007 tour for our troops in Kuwait. And we wonder why late night comedians have become our go-to source for the truth.
28
"Among many depressing changes, he's axing government payments to insurance companies that help subsidize policies for the poor."
Well, yeah, but he will still say "Merry Christmas" as he consigns these people to the ranks of the uninsured. That passes for substance and principle in today's Republican party; truly, the "Party of Trump".
26
Are we winning? What are we winning? Seems like Americans are LOSING. We are losing health insurance, losing to natural disasters of fire and hurricane and gaining few resources to recover. We are losing allies in Europe. To coin a phrase, What Happened?
16
As a grade school kid living on an Army base I knew that when Retreat sounded we all stood at attention with our right hand over our heart. But then I was seven at that time. Maybe trump can still learn to respect the flag - or not.
12
Gail, I yield to no one in utter contempt for Trump, but nevertheless, the health care debacle was inherent from the beginning, and it's foolish not to recognize that. First and most obviously, they who live by executive orders can die by executive orders. Second, passing a kludge bill the public hated even after the unmistakable augury of the Scott Brown election was an act of political idiocy. Third, you can't sustain major legislation in the absence of broad political legitimacy, which Obamacare never had and never deserved to have.
1
10 months into the presidency and it already feels like 10 years. Our greatest risk is that with the constant barrage of stupidity, ignorance, and hate we become so desensitized to the real danger he poses that we fail to stop him. He may constantly act in buffoonish ways but he is one evil clown.
Not working and voting to take back control of Congress is not an option. The real question is whether we can survive that long.
15
Trump wouldn’t stand for a military exercise because he would be expressing reverence to something other than himself. He’s not that way inclined. The most disturbing thing about his presidency is the number of leaders in Congress who continue to remain silent over Trump’s autocratic rule. Their silence is a betrayal of the people they’re supposed to represent.
26
Unfortunately, many poor whites in America won't think twice about voting for Trump again, even after he has taken away their health care. Trump and the GOP are simply saying that the government is bad, and that is what Trump's base wants to believe, whether it is true or not is irrelevant. Trump, his GOP supporters, and his base live in a dream world of hate and fear, and they like it that way.
14
Trump would have you believe he is a patriot and a religious man. He is neither. Trump has as much familiarity with what the flags stands for as he has familiarity with the bible teaches or the constitution means His ignorance by now is legend. The bible and the flag are both props for him used to manipulate others by. Clinton roundly criticized Trump for being both unfit for the Presidency and for being a major con man. She was ridiculed for making these two points about Trump's character and not focusing on other issues. And yet here we are and all we seem to do each day is reaffirm her warnings and concerns.
20
Late-night comedians are in luck, having a brutus ignoramus expose himself to his ridiculous lies and insults, excellent fodder to pull his leg, and expose his absolute lack of manners. Before Trump, comedians were having some difficulty finding cretins to pick on, expose their folly, and uncover their ridiculous stance. It is as if Trump was like winning the lottery, an inexhaustible source of sick jokes.
9
Don and Sean might have at least taken the knee while the flag was being lowered. Our President hasn't a clue about much of anything.
8
Trump promised health care coverage "for all, cheaper and better". But instead of repealing and replacing Obama Care, he's undermining and destroying affordable health care.
12
The most interesting thing about President Trump is who his friends are.
They need to pay the price. Yeah, Trump is all 'great' and everything, but the rest of us are pretty numerous. And what comes around goes around. Your money will not protect you.
7
It took me a couple of sessions of listening to Trump's speeches during the Primaries to conclude that we had an ignorant, immature, inexperienced and totally hollow person running for the highest office in the land. And while I was aware of the existence of a large minority of voters who were too ignorant that they could be easily manipulated by a Trump like character, I failed to see that he actually had a chance. The minority that I knew about turned out larger than I had anticipated. However, after his election, there is nothing order ton that he does that amazes me. The reason is that this Nation has elected a person as its President who has no conviction, no belief, no vision, no plan and no capabilty to learn. So, he gets up in the mornings and does something on the spare of the moment, be it a tweet, a statement to a reporter, an order to a Department Secretary, etc. that carries no rhym or reason. But because he needs to keep his ignorant Base busy, the easiest thing he can do is to repeal an Obama achievement. That way the Base is happy and the Media keeps busy. In the meantime nothing of any benefit to the people, including the ones who voted for him, gets done. Unfortunately, the Congressional Republicans who hold the power to prevent a major disaster that an erratic President could ultimately bring about have acquiesced and have put Party above the Country. In my book, that is called TREASON!
20
I remember when president Obama forgot to salute the Marine standing guard over marine one. He immediately disembarked, spoke to the Marine, shook his hand, & then reboarded. President Obama realize he was responsible for treating the servicemen & our traditions with respect at all times. I miss having dignity in the whitehouse.
Late night hosts are helping us laugh which is much needed right now. But Democrats need to step up. Right now all I'm hearing is crickets from our supposed opposition. Citizens can only do so much on our own, we need allies in Congress. Democrats might be a minority but they still have a voice & need to use it.
In the last year we've learned a lot about what our two parties stand for. Under a Democrat healthcare was expanded to millions & the health insurance industry was forced to stop selling junk policies, the TPP international trade agreement was negotiated, the auto industry was bailed out, an agreement with Iran was reached to stop their nuclear program, & the economy stabilized. In less than a year Republicans have tried to take healthcare away from millions & when that didn't work resorted to sabotage, pulled out of every agreement negotiated under the previous administration creating chaos, & they're focused on tax breaks for the wealthy & putting conservative judges in place to roll back our civil rights. Not to mention taunting North Korea.
Can we please have a do over. This past year has been terrifying & enlightening.
17
In the spirit of the upcoming Christmas season I offer the following quote :
"At this festive season of the year, Mr Trump, ... it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts and lacking health insurance, sir."
"Are there no prisons?"
"Plenty of prisons..."
"And the Union workhouses." demanded Trump. "Are they still in operation?"
"Both very busy, sir..."
"Those who are badly off must go there."
"Many can't go there; and many would rather die."
"If they would rather die," said Trump (surrounded by members of the GOP), "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."
With my apologies to Mr Dickens.
12
Automobiles and trucks of all descriptions will stop and the occupants get out and if in civilian clothes just stand tall. in uniform a salute is expected. This is what happens when Retreat is played every day. it is obvious of WHAT he does not know. This is just another glaring example that we are so in trouble with this man running the show.
Perhaps the Xmas diatribe will keep the man busy as the rest of his Major Policy attempts , like us are doomed with him at the helm.
6
Time to go to the streets America, by the millions.
Good dates to do it are the 2016 election anniversary and/or Inauguration Day.
This man has made up his mind to self distract and to take us down with him.
9
Trump is a draft dodger and the only thing he respects is his bloated ego. He thinks being a patriot is wearing a $1.98 made in China flag pin. When I was on active duty, people driving on base would stop their cars when Retreat was sounded, get out of their cars and stand at attention.
I support the players kneeling in protest of police harassment of Blacks. I was stationed at southern bases when segregation was in effect. I am not Catholic, but give the Catholic Churches a big thumbs up for maintains integrated churches during the Jim Crow era.
16
I'm so happy to be able to say "Merry Christmas" again while our great President ignites potential wars in Korea and the Middle East, throws more people under the bus when it comes to getting insurance, makes it more difficult for women (and not men, by God) to have access to reproductive health, willfully lies about the benefits of this grand tax scheme, allows our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico to be treated like occupants of a third world country and continues to profit off of the office he holds and enriches his cronies and children. He is REALLY going to make the holidays great again!
12
I get your derisive trump report Gail but your language is not strong enough. As regards his sabotage of the ACA, this is blatant law breaking behavior. The president has sworn to uphold the laws of these United States but his EO to withhold payments is in violation of federal statute. This unabashed criminal is holding the country hostage and the (republican) senators and congressmen who could do something about it are failing to act. We are coming very close to a point of no return.
14
The Trump Administration is like watching an horrible accident happen. You want to turn away - you know you should - but you can’t. Time slows and all you can do is stand instead transfixed and helpless. Especially if you’re not an American with an actual vote.
This administration isn’t an administration. It’s a three-ring circus with the power to do significant and lasting damage globally. Trump is a simpleton driven by ego. The Democrats are lying low watching Trump and the Republicans do more to discredit themselves than the Democrats could ever hope to do. The Republicans know they’re in bed with the agent of their undoing but can’t muster the unity of purpose, or any unity at all, to control him or dump him. And the man-child is left in unconstrained to romp around breaking things without regard for the consequences, driven by his own ego, populist dogma and a massive anti-Obama revenge chip on his shoulder.
I like the world wherein America has a real and a positive influence. Putin must be having a howl watching this chaos unfold: mission accomplished.
11
I’ve been looking at the headline and wondering: Does it mean stupid tricks performed by Trump? Or tricks performed by Stupid Trump? Is there a difference? The first seems to imply that Trump, theoretically at least, is capable of tricks that aren’t stupid. The second, well, you gotta figure stupid is stupid, so if the tricks don’t turn out stupid, it was entirely by accident, or through a Kelly intervention.
As it turns out, these encapsulate the central question about the Trump White House in October 2017.
Either way, it cannot end soon enough.
9
The humor here is appreciated although the incidents make you wince. It does show how little Trump understands or cares about shows of American patriotism, disasters, or anything but Trump.
However, this is the week when Trump declared himself an unconstitutional dictator. He usurped the power of Congress by overturning an official act - the ACA - through the stroke of a pen. It was not just subsidies: it was other parts of the ACA such as essential services, small business insurance and other aspects.
What act passed by a previous Congress will he overturn next? The Social Security Act, the Environmental Protection Act, the Civil Rights Act?
What treaty will this dictator negate next?
These are not within the Constitutional powers of a president. Passing law through legislative acts is the power of Congress. Congress ratifies treaties. Congress declares war and sets the budget.
Trump just became the de facto fascist dictator of America. He can now design his own uniform and rituals in his own honor which will no doubt include crawling and kissing his feet while calling him Most Magnificent and Divine King of the Universe.
10
Instead of focusing on the greeting Merry Christmas perhaps it is time for this underachieving president to focus on practicing the values of Christmas.Good will toward the beleaguered American citizens of Puerto Rico.And more direct involvement.More empathy and the spirit of Christmas for racial minorities and the physically disabled.POTUS love your neighbor not just your family.My Christmas wish for the Donald.
3
I think sometime during a week of outrage there is some symbolic event, like Trump's ignoring of "Retreat", that sort of sums up his awfulness. What it does is accentuate how little he knows, or worse, how little he cares, about a subject he loves to critique in others.
Take the flag, take "Merry Christmas," take any number of cultural hot buttons, and you'll find a man who flouts them in his private moments yet lambastes others for doing the same.
Donald Trump doesn't even go to church on a regular basis, and he certainly doesn't lead a "Christian" life based on his actions in business and relationships.
So to hear his lectures on ridiculous issues such as Merry Christmas raises the blood pressure. Too bad, if you happen to rely on the ACA to treat that blood pressure.
What we're really seeing though as the political year draws to a close in two months is a surge in presidential patience, and a series of gambles that his extreme policy reversals will bring "Democrats back to the table."
It's an odd way to see compromise--trample all over one's constituents health care, so that you'll pound on the Oval Office door to bring a shard of it back.
As for Iran, well: I commend anyone to read the front page expose of how much Trump outright lied about Iran's history and current regime. But do facts really matter when Trump is in the middle of a shrieking harangue of a foreign state just to show how tough he is?
This comic book presidency is unfolding like a cheap suit.
52
The flag of freedom flew over slavery. Let's remember not bias, not prejudice, racism is a full blown system, advancing and amplifying power and privilege by race; using cultural narratives, and its ubiquitous strong force tactic, denial. Denial works simply: it refutes charges of racism by offering alternative grounds. Denial sustains racism's actions and consequences by disavowing any harm; it uses tensions to amplify racism's appeal.
Through denial, protest becomes disrespect. We see the Vice-President wrap racial injustice in the flag. He becomes one of those “fine people” a few weeks ago chanting blood and soil to keep racism on its pedestals. Denial turns limited, more expensive healthcare into “choices.” Denial says stopping nuclear bomb-building is “bad.” Denial blames Puerto Rico's infrastructure—before the storm, working fine!—for inept FEMA/federal management, then blames the people themselves, with a stereotype, lazy.
The banks were bailed out to the tune of billions, along with the car industry (auto CEOs were forced to park their private jets on trips to Washington!), but a fierce PR machine fights the dismal failure to assist Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands with staging food, water, medicines, according to reports fro volunteer groups of veterans, nurses, churches and others on the ground, documented by pictures of pallets of food and supplies stacked along the docks. These documented failures are called political “noise.”
(Part 2 below.)
33
(Part 2.)
Trump has integrated and broadened racism's frames, tactics, and strategies to include women, working families, and the poor--and the raw pursuit of power. Racism's outreach is comprehensive and some of his followers are in denial about denial. He is using racist tactics and strategies to engage elements beyond race.
To deny water (now long term in Flint, a danger in WVA and NC rivers flowing into watersheds), puts lives at risk and scatters the statistics of death that results. To deny food is cruel. (His budget pretends the balance sheet demands we starve children as he spends 100,000s on golf carts!) To deny these efforts are deliberate (Trump's White House edited a video montage to cut out statements that told of how Puerto Rico residents—American citizens—were helping themselves!) is evil and treason at its worse. I am sickened by the people in the photo, smiling.
They would deny it, but they find joy in our pain.
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People who do not like Trump and do not like how the late night comedians talk about him are living in a dream world. Having more respect for the office of the president than its current occupant does can only be expressed by mocking that occupant. To not mock him is to disrespect the office.
Those who believe he is an effing moron and do not act on that belief thereby share his condition, and have it worse than he does because they know better.
The emperor has no clothes. But the real problem is not him but rather all those who are still praising his attire.
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So well stated! Thanks.
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sdavidc9 -- I entirely take your point, but think there are in fact no sincere people who demand respect for any office, when it is filled by the incompetent or corrupt, or both.
The question of under what circumstances, and too what limit, they must be obeyed ... is entirely different.
After the mutiny of the Hermione (after the big mutiny of the Nore) Admiral Lord Howe threatened to "keelhaul any sailor who did not salute a lieutenant's jacket on a purser's handspike" -- that was mere public fulmination. In reality and in quiet Howe had offered kind terms for the mutiny at Spithead, most of the men of the great mutiny of the Nore were pardoned, and Howe set about a rigorous removal of cruel or incompetent officers.
It is overdue for Congress to rid us of this angry bad child in an old-man's body, obviously in mental decline.
3
Trump is a living lesson in how democracies can be held hostage by a mentally haywire dictatorial conniver who knows he can bully cowardly pols like Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and the other GOP swamp creatures. Think it can't happen here? Well folks, it is happening, and the GOP will do absolutely nothing about it. Capitol Hill greed, financial corruption, moral cowardice and addiction to the privileges and perquisites of power appear to have shut down our system of checks and balances.
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This observation rivals another I found here in quintessence of truth. (See below.)
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It happened. True. Well said, Mark.
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The area of California that is burning is not tRump friendly. Santa Rosa is a San Francisco commute town, it is surrounded by miles of wine producing vineyards that employ pickers, the harvest is on and many rushed to save what they could before the smoke made the grapes unusable.
Many of those pickers are undocumented immigrants, they do not seem to be able to get those unemployed white men in Michigan, Minnesota, and other rust belt states to come and take the jobs they complain the immigrants are taking from them. Just east of that is the Napa Valley, same problem, need pickers, of course you have to leave your family for a couple of months and live in less than luxurious housing.
Go a bit more east and north of Sacramento County, and they voted for him. Little mountain towns on the road to Tahoe, Lassen, Shasta, they like him there. Many people in these towns live on SS, have Medicaid, the median income in some is $25K or less. But they are afraid the abortionists will come to town.
On up the valley between the coast range and the Sierra is agriculture, a lot of it and ranches. tRump or not, they do not seem to mind employing those job stealing immigrants, but hate liberals. They even complain if evolution is taught in their schools. The call it the State of Jefferson, named for Jefferson Davis.
Of course he is not welcome in the majority of the state. We have had our share of Republican buffons, they left an indelible impression on most of us. Thumbs down.
.
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TO: David Underwood--- Just for the record, Minnesota is traditionally a "blue state," not a rust belt state and doesn't struggle with unemployment.
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Don't lump Minnesota into Trump country.
4
During WW II, 65,034 Puerto Ricans served in the military. 2,560 were wounded. 37 were killed.
61,000 Puerto Ricans served during Korea. 2,770 were wounded. 775 were killed. When the 1st Marine Division was ordered to retreat from Chosin Resevoir, the Puerto Rican 65th Infantry was the rear guard covering their withdrawal. The 65th did this a second time. Paraphrasing Wiki, “When the Marines were surrounded by the Chinese close to the Manchurian border, they were ordered to retreat back to Hungnam. The 65th rushed to their defense and were ordered to stay behind and fight the enemy.”
Chinese repeatedly attacked the 65th. The 65th never buckled. The Marines and the 65th Infantry got to Hungnam.
We combat veterans know the strength of character needed to ignore fears and keep up the fight. Those Marines and men of the 65th Infantry earned our lasting, profound, reverent respect. Together they prevailed in relentless, fierce combat, under horrendous, difficult conditions.
Puerto Ricans earned 1 Medal of Honor, 10 Navy Crosses, 256 Silver Stars, 606 Bronze Stars, and 2,771 Purple Hearts. That’s jaw-dropping combat bravery.
During Vietnam, 48,000 Puerto Ricans served. 3,775 were wounded. 455 were killed. Puerto Ricans earned 5 Medals of Honor. 7 Puerto Ricans earned the second highest medals for bravery. Several Puerto Ricans served as generals and admirals.
These are Americans by citizenship and blood. Stand up, Trump. Those are your betters you’re addressing.
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Bravo, sir! This should be a Letter to the President...front page of every paper in the Nation, print and online.
I wept listening to a decorated 89 yr old Korean vet, standing eight hours in line for two bags of ice to take home to keep their medicines cold and his 85 yr old wife was ill in bed....and not knowing where and when they'd get their diabetes and heart medications they were soon to run out of.
As I've said, and I will continue to repeat: Puerto Rico is a crime scene on account of, at best, incompetence.
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And thousands and thousands and thousands of US non-Puerto Ricans died and thousands won medals and were heroes so that places like Puerto Rico could exist. And they paid taxes.
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AMEN! And thank you to each and every one of those brave Americans who served our country. I thank God they did not have bone spurs.
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I could point out that Trump hasn’t yet visited northern California because he prefers red Bordeaux to Cabernet, or that he ran out of packaged singles of “Bounty” in Puerto Rico to toss to the California suffering … but responders would pillory me for making light of a dreadful situation in commenting on the making light of a dreadful situation.
Trump’s whole crusade against the football demonstrators has played very well to his base, as well as to millions not his base but who tune in to a football game to watch a football game and not to be reminded, yet again, that they’re irredeemable white people who need to get on the right side of history. So far, he hasn’t lost a single vote by his actions and may have picked up some to add to his catch of Midwest Democrats whose support Dems are fast becoming too politically correct to reliably retain. Me, I’m one of those weird Americans who stopped watching professional sports when I grew up and ceased actually playing them myself; and I already regard myself as a white person already on the right side of history. So, neither his actions nor those of the demonstrators have had an outsized effect on me.
But it’s good to know that Mike Pence at least is buttoned-down. Must come from not being willing to dine alone with a woman not his wife – leaves more attention for important matters, like making sure executive orders get signed.
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@Richard: They may be opposed to NFL players taking a knee during the singing of an anthem written by a slave owner (what is there to protest, after all?) but they're still tuning in to watch those players giving each other concussions for fun and profit. Glad to know that you're on the white- I mean, the right- side of history, however. I guess that's the side in which non-racists knowingly vote for racists who undertake executive orders that potentially kill affordable health care for 23 million Americans. At least their popularly-elected predecessors worked to obtain congressional approval in order to design the laws that America's Great White Hope would destroy by fiat. And the nation itself is getting greater by the day as those mines keep reopening and those good-paying jobs keep returning from China, Mexico, Slovenia and Bangladesh.
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stu:
While I don't blame you (at all) your concern over the nature of football and its truly barbaric violence, I do hesitate strongly in full-throatedly joining it, as I played a lot of it as a kid. I was always big enough to be credible, never big enough to be truly intimidating, so it wasn't something that lasted beyond junior high (baseball did, though, which I don't watch anymore, either).
I vote for people I believe can make a positive difference, even when they're not perfect or agree with me on all issues. However, unlike this commentariat, I don't believe Trump to be a racist. As to affordable health care, what I saw was an attempt to address without Congress an ACA that has pitted class against class, enslaved Americans to healthcare through its "mandates" and caused a lot of regular people to move from getting insurance they could afford to basically paying for their healthcare on a retail basis, given the stratospheric deductibles. If you wanted to help 20% of our people who didn't have adequate access to insurance, you should have targeted them, instead of trying to transform healthcare for 100%. Instead, you destroyed our politics. Congratulations. Reap the whirlwind from your wilderness fastnesses.
As to jobs, Trump can no more solve the economic disaster of eight Obama years in nine months than he can save a destroyed PR in three weeks. Give him time -- he'll REALLY tick you off. And, then, hilariously, Tom Edsall thinks he might even be re-elected.
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Richard,
There is much racism and injustice in our United States. The players are protesting that police are killing Black Americans, they are not saying that all white people are, "irredeemable white people who need to get on the right side of history." They are silently asking all their fellow citizens to help root out this injustice. They know that America is founded on higher values that can free us all. They have hope, they are trying to move all people to action. Not to violence, not to hateful rhetoric, and certainly not to counting the votes or appealing to a base that is part of the problem. Trump is a man with no moral compass. He sees no higher purpose than his own greed and lust for power. By not letting the demonstrators have an outsized effect on you, you are only helping keep the violent unjust status quo in place.
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It's difficult not to put a lot of faith in Lin-Manuel Miranda's prediction. What else could be in store for a person who out of vindictiveness over being deservedly belittled at a press function takes glee in depriving humans of access to health care?
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You've nailed it in two sentences.
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This is the most real observation said all day or week or .... Exactly. Perfectly captured.
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Which prediction, #23?
"There are good reasons the most influential commentators on this administration are the late-night comedians."
The late-night comedians are doing work that, in a functioning republic, would be done by members of the opposition party. In the United States that party would be the Democrats. Anybody seen a Democrat since last November? Perhaps the most important election of my lifetime is a year away. If the opposition can elect a majority in the House, they can staunch the bleeding from Trump's assaults. Democrats should already be in the middle of an all-out, 50-state press. Where are they?
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Unfortunately, they are being denigrated from all sides -
by the half of the country that is getting only extremely conservative, not intellectually honest, agenda-based news, and
by the Democratic Socialists, who Steve Bannon correctly noted were far out of the American mainstream.
All guaranteeing continuing GOP victories.
And that's too bad, because many Democrats have evidence-based policy ideas designed to benefit most of the country.
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@Prairie Populist: Yes- where are the Democrats. Out West- I've heard one tepid radio spot asking a low-level Representative to support the Affordable Care Act. The only other big news is; is Diane Feinstein too old to run for reelection? The party appears to be frozen in fear or just frozen.
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'Anybody seen a Democrat since last November?'
NO. Congress and the electorate are failed institutions.
Congress should be turned upside down and dumped and thereafter subject to Term Limits and the exercise of the vote should be a condition of citizenship.
As is, we have what we deserve.
1
"But if you’re a president who went to a military high school, sitting in a military facility, near people who suddenly get to their feet, there ought to be an inkling that some attention should be paid."
Trump ought to have had inklings about a lot of other times he was disrespectful to the military. There was mocking John McCain as less than heroic for getting captured. Trump, this year, addressed a graduating Coast Guard class with a self-indulgent speech stating that no one in the history of politics had been treated so badly as him. He mocked the Khan family and claimed that his "sacrifices" well akin to theirs. And he did describe his quest to avoid STDs as his "own Vietnam."
Donald creates empty controversy over the NFL, and hides behind a thin pretense of patriotism, but we should all have more than an inkling that his supposed reverence for the military is another Trump production.
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Trump supporters who consider themselves patriotic should definitely read NM's comment.
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Do not forget his nasty comments to the Gold Star family.
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Anyone who thinks Trump supporters are really patriotic and are actually offended by disrespect for the flag haven't been paying attention.
Disrespect for liberals and people of color and upholding the right of police officers to shoot people of color at will is the kind of patriotism his supporters understand.
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I really enjoyed the late night comedian who suggested that if we really want meaningful legislation about gun violence in this country all that needs to occur would be for those same NFL players to hold an AR-15 over their heads during the National Anthem rather than taking a knee. We'd have a serious law outlawing assault weapons by half-time.
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@ Marc Strange: That is how California got its first meaningful gun control legislation: Members of the Black Panther Party in Oakland decided to exercise their Second Amendment Rights- and pronto, The Mumford Act of 1967 repealed California's Open-Carry laws- courtesy of Gov Ronnie Reagan.
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Class act, that Trump fellow. So much more constructive, empathetic, inspirational, and progressive in his thinking than that other one before him. What was that guy's name again?
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You're being ironic, right?
If not, well then just listen to that Trump fellow for a minute or two if you can stand it, and you will notice that he is constantly referencing that guy.
2
Just saw/heard this and I am compelled to share for those who missed it or likely live by the mute button. Today Trump attended the gathering of the "Values Voters" (first president to attend, of course)...he's talking, in his gravest of tone, about working families having to work two, three jobs and worry about the "furniture and future of their children".
Now that he's discovered this great concern of the American Family, can we look forward to a Trump line of Chinese made children's furniture?
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Only the right wing could weaponize “Merry Christmas”, turning good wishes into another chip on shoulder tribal challenge. The retailers debased Christmas by bringing it to November and making it about consumption, but that’s still better than the right wing raising it on October 13 and making it all about antagonistic encounters.
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'Christmas' has been in the stores since the beginning of October. It's insane. America is insane.
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Yesterday, Gary Cohen, with a really straight face uttered the best joke I think I've heard from this bunch:
Corporations are going to get a tax break and they're going to take all that money and give it all to their workers in pay increases: a $4,000.00 raise for every worker.
Think Trump will sign an EO ordering Santa to say Merry Christmas while he delivers the cheques?
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RW: That $4,000 raise (if it happens) will go to pay for the increase in health care premiums and co pays.
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The careful commentators proclaim scrapping the Iran deal "increases" the possibility and likelihood of war. Nukes between Iran and N. Korea are going to cause insomnia. One of those two will fire off a warhead. And for the Trumpians glee, galvanization of the populace across this country would instantly grow the Trump base. Can the U.S. take a course that avoids war? Is Tillerson really too far adrift? As forgetful as Trump is becoming, you never know when hardening of the arteries is setting in, and he doesn't sign or forgets what page his cabinet is on, and what position he needs to articulate. Nevertheless, he will no doubt get into the nursing home of his choice when that becomes apparent. Bad insurance coverage is very dangerous for the aging population of this country. So as the premiums go up, and pre-existing conditions creep back in, the appearance that it is aided and assisted by a richly crafted Republican bill will mask the truth behind Trump change. Will 2018 simply result in a zombie test pattern in the mind of the American voter?
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“We’re saying Merry Christmas again,” he told the Values Voters Summit on Friday.
That goes back to one of Trump's bizarre campaign promises, that he would make every clerk in the US say "Merry Christmas," not "happy holidays."
Trump, of course, goes for the low-hanging fruit, like cashiers. Or like Rex Tillerson, with whom Trump plays passive-aggressive games like complimenting him while accusing him of wasting time and being weak. Or like the tantalized reporters trying to decipher Trump's cryptic reference to "the calm before the storm." Or, speaking of storms, like the citizens of a devastated Puerto Rico, whom Trump insulted and threatened to cut off, because they did not toe his line that he worked miracles for the island.
There's nothing Merry or Christ-like in any of Trump's behavior. Bah humbug is more like it.
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He can't force clerks to say that. First amendment protected speech, not compulsory greetings for Christians only. Jefferson would be rolling over in his grave.
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It's just a matter of time before Trump orders the FCC to ban radio stations from playing the Andy Williams version of "Happy Holiday." Sad.
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Well Gee you sure can spin, the president never threatened he said the truth. That being troops etc. can't be there forever, and the place was a mess. SIMPLE!!!
Ah yes, Christmas - it seems so long since we were enjoying Christmas with a real President. And yet here we are, starting the holidays with a crippling of healthcare and an attack on American football and journalism. We are about to punish a country for not having a bomb, yet, and poking fun at one which does -so there is bound to be lots of excitement this season; I bet neither of the turkeys gets pardoned. Hurricanes and fires, Congress and Cabinet, nothing will not stop the festivities, not when our good President is as mythical as Santa Claus.
Make Christmas Merry again - in 2020.
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Add the gift of impeachment before 2020.
3
Turn that last statement into a bumper sticker. Democrats...where are you?
1
In the course of just a few days The Donald dissed America's allies, dissed the residents of Puerto Rico, dissed the press, and told 23 million citizens who finally have affordable health insurance that they can drop dead for all he cares. A brand new poll discloses that 70% of respondents want the ACA to be repaired, not repealed. So who exactly is Trump now appealing to apart from the malicious oaf who smiles back at him in the mirror? I just saw a documentary this evening about a Burmese monk who encourages his country's Buddhist majority to expel or annihilate its Muslims. He also recommended that Americans vote for Donald Trump. Admittedly, the film was shot last year, in the months prior to our elections. By now, even this man might very well be rethinking his endorsement.
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I don' know, Burmese 'Buddhist' monks this year seem to be right in sync with Donald Trump's destructiveness.
2
The Burmese practice a strange kind of Buddhism, certainly not what Gautam the Buddha taught. If anything, it is an anti Buddha move that was practiced not too long ago by self professed Buddhists of Sri Lanka who bestowed upon the Tamil minorities great brutality forcing them (the Tamils) to invent the suicide vest.
1
Trump didn't stand? He didn't even "take a knee"? Surely he must be fired!
The only thing that would really fit him would be an orange jumpsuit. Yes, so low am I stooping. It has gone well beyond cringing into the daily record of dangerously anti-human things he is eager to do. And then there's those nukes. He's eager to use one, and it seems some of his policy is meant to be a setup so he can play with his new toy.
Only problem, it's not a toy. Nor is the mounting damage exacerbated by climate change a yuge compliment to him.
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Susan, there are two things that would really fit Trump. One is the orange jumpsuit. The other is a straitjacket. There is a third choice: both at once.
This shows how Trump is superior to G. W. Bush; he has two options; Bush only belonged/s in the orange jumpsuit.
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Christmas won’t be the same since the anti-Santa took office. To reward a certain constituency of miners who helped put the president in power, I hear that there will be lumps of coal in our stockings. Sadly, most of us won’t have stockings by then, but it’s the thoughtlessness that counts.
People are always going to say Merry Christmas. Unfortunately, this year it’s going to be said with a sarcastic sneer and an eye-roll. If that doesn’t suit, “Happy Hollowdays” may sum it up just as well.
Of course, there’s another big holiday coming up in November. I’ve heard that in honor of the Republican takeover of American politics, it’s going to be renamed Thankstaking. The turkeys in Congress will be running the show, and turning up the heat on the rest of us. My only concern is where they’re going to put the meat thermometers.
The president is no stickler for protocol, so it’s no wonder he didn’t stand for the lowering of the flag. But as far as I can tell, he doesn’t stand for anything. He certainly doesn’t seem to realize that California is burning and that Puerto Rico is drowning, starving, dehydrating and dying of treatable illnesses.
To be fair, there are only so many hours in the day, and those are filled with playing nuclear chicken with North Korea and tweeting insults to all and sundry.
Be aware that the president isn’t that focused as signing ceremonies. So if you get an unsigned Christmas card, it’s probably from him.
Happy Festivus.
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Oh good, an alternate use for coal.
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I wonder if he'll compel Jared Kushner to give up that Happy Chanukah nonsense...
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Maybe we'll have to make do with nuclear chicken on this Thanksgiving's menu because all the turkeys will be in the Washington.
38
Trump campaigned on heartfelt spite by trashing Mexicans, Muslims, Gold Star Mothers and John McCain, and his voters were very impressed with his trashy style.
Trump managed to trash the very idea of winning the Presidency by losing the popular vote by a landslide.
He trashed the idea of Christianity when American Christians confused him with a Christian and voted for him in record numbers.
Trump trashed the dignity of Presidential inaugurations by injecting 'American carnage' into his inauguration to everyone's utter confusion; little did we know that he meant the American carnage to come as he proceeded to slowly unplug the ACA from the wall so that millions of Americans could drop dead early from lack of healthcare....or from a Trump-triggered war with North Korea, Iran or Venezuela.
After taking his oath of destruction on January 20, Trump immediately trashed female contraception funding and rights around the world.
Then he put Scott Pruitt to work to trash the air, the earth and one of the world's great salmon fisheries in Alaska.
He's getting ready to trash the tax code with giant tax cuts for the wealthy because it's the easiest way to trash the national treasury, the economy and the common good.
He trashes the NFL, diplomacy and everything he touches.
He trashes the Presidency effortlessly, like a raccoon stuck in the Oval Office trying to find his way out of a cage, occasionally stopping to devour some delicious chocolate cake.
Welcome to Trump Trash Nation.
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Socrates, like gemli's post but in a different style, this is all true. I believe more and more that we are watching national suicide in action. We are outsourcing and destroying the productivity of American land and water, factories and universities, government and business; secretly and in public, by neglect and assault.
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The raccoon line. Priceless!
4
Putin's Fifth Column of One.
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What will it take for the members of "that fabled base of his" to become ex-members? Maybe when a good many of them find a steep increase in their no-longer-subsidized ACA premiums.
Who knew that health care could be so complicated?
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Problem. The dumber the voter, the less facts matter. There are a certain number who will simply never consider reevaluating Trump. Because then they'ed be wrong. We hope it's a small number, but the IQ bell curve is not encouraging. And let's not overlook, the republicans count on their support.
9
Come on, Mancuric, Trump supporters come from two demographics: the group that doesn't buy healthcare insurance, or the group that doesn't need subsidies. So, net effect on his base: zero.
5
The base's ethics are situational and their loyalties transient. They share in trump's reality deficit, attention deficit and character deficit. They are not monolithic, stereotypical or easily pigeonholed. There's no guarantee they would necessarily connect an economic hit like this with fearless leader, and are just as likely to blame it on Hillary, Obama, the media or spacemen. On the other hand...
Our gov't. has been lying through it's teeth to us, since at least Viet Nam, about untold numbers of topics. It's hard to know who to trust these days, or if we're simply going with the lies we want to hear. For some that is Trump in every way, shape and form. Thus the fierce loyalty from across the spectrums of economics, education and other parameters. He's insidious, an opportunistic infection exploiting our deepest fears. Just think how much worse it could be if he had a modicum of competency.
His base is a minority, but take no solace in that as he was elected by a minority. More than anything, he points up all that has gone wrong here in the US, but the intransigency and opaqueness of the rest of government is what prevents us from recovering. The secondary and tertiary effects, and side effects, of this presidency will haunt us for decades. As with the environment, we're at a tipping point, are we already too polluted, too compromised to make it back? And will we precipitate some instantaneous disaster that seals our fate? Ask Zoltan, may be he knows.
4
More proof every day of Trump's claim he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and still be elected, as if we needed any more. (Of course, his base understood he was talking about shooting a Democrat)
I recognize that as long as Trump is saving Christmas and the right to unintended teen pregnancy, creating freedom from health insurance and the destruction of the greatest fishery in the world by a foreign mining company and assuring Puerto Rico that they are on their own, he generates a certain kind of enthusiasm in his base. And that was just this week.
Meanwhile, he is promising tax relief for corporations and the wealthy, while soothing fears among the middle class that the increases they see in their taxes will surely be offset by huge wage increases from their newly enriched and benevolent employers.
All of this has sent his approval ratings soaring into the high 30s. And those of his supporters who have not had family members deployed by December to Korea, the Middle East, Afghanistan or some other region he has destabilized will be celebrating a very merry Christmas or whatever.
854
A Democrat on Fifth Ave? Must be in the 90s.
3
Income tax cuts only for the middle class, the wealthy as he personally said might pay more. You apparently are not paying attention. And the details are not yet know as well, just the framework.
With every single passing day, our national nightmare deepens. I am numb from everything Trump has devastated this week. His cruelty in gutting the ACA is breathtaking. His disavowal of the Iran Treaty just made this country and world a more dangerous place to live in. Trump is enjoying trashing the legacy of the man he perceives as his nemesis. Trump's envy of President Obama is palpable. (He has good reason to envy a man of principle, decorum, and intelligence because Trump is sorely lacking in these attributes to the detriment of this country.)
When I first read about the "Retreat" incident, I found it difficult to believe that a man who attended a military high school was clueless about the protocol for when "Retreat" is played. As a child living on a military base, I can remember many time jumping out of the swimming pool, facing in the direction where the flag was flown at headquarters on post, and placing my hand over my heart when I heard "Retreat", it was automatic.
The whole incident of Trump making Mike Pence leave a football game because of players taking a knee when the National Anthem was played was ludicrous and seemed more designed to ruin Pence's enjoyment of the game with his family. Trump is cruel that way. Just as he was cruel in taking away the subsidies that help people pay for health care insurance. This has now roiled the insurance markets
Trump is morally bankrupt. He is unfit for office. Will someone please invoke the 25th amendment.
2240
Agreed Diana. Yet poll after poll conclude that 80% of the GOP electorate still support him. They enable him and he enables them financially and religiously. His concession to the GOP and his legacy to our country will be felt for a generation in the regressive appointments he is making to the federal judiciary.
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until we begin once again to teach history (instead of "communications", "computer science", and "media studies"), this will ever be the case.
ours appears to be a nation of 8th-graders with credit cards, nothing more.
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We also have to add Mitch to the list of enablers who are going to alter the judiciary for MORE than a generation. There are apparently an endless line of Scalias ready to be appointed and confirmed by the simple majority which is all that is now needed.
43
If Trump and Republicans are against subsidies paid to insurance companies on behalf of American families, they must be against Insurance Companies, surely not American families? So where is their policy
to take the middlemen out of health care
and eliminate the insurance companies?
If they don't want to fund the insurance companies, where us their alternative?
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BBB...the Republican alternative is to pull the plug on healthcare and let Americans drop dead.
"Take two tax cuts and call me from the morgue"
The Republican Doctor is IN !
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Shovel to grave health care!
99
Life is not fair. Trump gets a free pass for everything when he should be out in the public square in the stocks. Instead, he is in our henhouse killing our chickens.
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If ONLY he were just killing chickens.
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Tacking onto your last sentence: "...late-night comedians" and you! Thank you, Gail Collins, for being a sane voice in the wilderness. I think there has to be a new FB emoji of a head shaking in disbelief. Are we surprised that a person who went to a military high school doesn't have a clue about the proper behavior for flag lowering? But I loved how he joked about a crowd of people turning their backs to him. I wish the millions of us who are depressed and distraught every second of every day could go to a place where he's on a stage, and we all turn our backs and walk out! And then block all exits!
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Sad isn't it that we have such an unpresidental President? I wish I knew who voted for him. Now how do we reign him in or get him out of ofice?
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"Rein", please. Trump is a horse, not a king.
57
By doing more than posting here. Hopefully, you're typing and dialing 4 times as much to your representation. Ready to organize?
5
He's trying to get there. Nothing would please him more than being King or maybe Dictator.
3
I have a headache. Thanks Gail.
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We all have headaches.
9