Isn't a stable where you keep horses and other dumb beasts? While horses and cows are wonderful beasts they are not particularly bright. So perhaps the W.H. can be thought of as an actual stable whose current occupants are the dumb beasts kept within it. Or am I overworking this metaphor? Maybe the W.H. Is more like a chicken coop?
3
Nuts to all those people who voted for Trump because they were sold a false bill of goods on Hillary Clinton or couldn't bear another politician. You cut off your nose to spite your face and the rest of us have to look at it. Now we have to listen to Republicans like Stephens say it's not going to be so bad, we'll get through it. That's what they said about George W. Bush, he was only mildly stupid compared to Trump, although his cabinet was just as nefarious as today's GOP Senators and Congressmen, and look at the destruction he caused around the world. Lives are still being lost in the mideast, although we don't care much about that because they're not us. Trump wants desperately to start some sort of arms race, if he can't have a war. If we have an arms race, with a huge deficit thanks to the recent tax cut, we will have an economic melt down, which we won't like however Russia will. This isn't even outside the box thinking.
6
In the pic why are all their heads hanging? Why do they look so glum? A charade that even Shakespeare would admire?
s
With reports of anxiety anent the current resident's mental health being common among persons with access to him since before the election, as well as worries expressed by others in his circle and frequenters of the Twitterverse who have heard and/or read his oral and tweeted comments, We the People must *insist* that the executive in question not delay in undergoing a thorough psychological examination administered by a team of experts supervised by one or more distinguished, world-renowned psychiatrist(s) with expertise in narcissicism, pathologies, and dementia, with sufficient time for evaluation between the lead psychiatrist(s) and patient as deemed sufficient by the team lead(s).
Nothing less will suffice when a person suspected of being unhinged taunts a nuclear weapon-equipped rival with tweets such as, "I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful Button than his, and my Button works!"
Well, Republicans, how 'bout it? Is nuclear war the way you want to go out? Or will you, the Big Button-Pusher himself, & other fire-setting scaredy-cats sip Scotch and watch films with your families in a well-fortified, well-stocked, *yuge* bunker in, say, Virginia; while out on earth, a nightmare unfolds: all forms of Life vaporize, melt, boil, and burn; all due to your failing to place country over GOP.
Republican senators and representatives: The life and death of all Earth's living things are in *your* hands.
1
Make America smart again,
Make America sane again,
I.e,,
Make America America again.
3
I'm not Trump didn't work in 2016 and it won't work in 2018, 2020, or beyond. What has worked in the elections so far are real people running for office with a message about how they plan to address the issues facing their constituents. If the Democratshaven't figured out this simple fact they deserve to lose.
Republicans led the charge in holding Nixon accountable for his abuse of power during Watergate. This isn't that Republican party. The American people will have to push for change if we want answers about the Russian interference in our election. Just don't expect any help from today's GOP.
2
Trump , for his own well being and the good of the country , might benefit from a PET scan Friday when he gets his physical . That scan is the scan for Alzheimer’s . I’m sure he doesn’t know Alzheimer’s runs in families . His father had Alzheimer’s .
2
Bret, it is Trump who is the enabler of the horrible Cabinet members. He put the foxes in the hen houses thanks to Pence and others. Trump has been manipulated by every Republican serving in any capacity. Trump has allowed the Republicans to sell our country down the drain, so long as he comes out of the White House with more cash in his pocket.
And Gail, the 25th Amendment is a lost cause. Pence will have to wait until 2020 to run for President. What a horrible thought, Pence in the White House. In may ways he would be worse than Trump.
2
Location: Kindergarten class, anywhere USA.
Teacher: Today we have a very special guest that is visiting the class.
Students: Quietly talking amongst themselves about who the special guest is.
Teacher: Before I introduce the special guest I would like to tell you something about him ... he is very smart and even a genius according to our guest. He also has a big button on his desk that he says works and could cause a big mushroom cloud. And, one more thing .... he does not like to read and has a very short attention span, so please take that into account when you meet him.
So class, are we ready to meet our special guest?
Students: All smiling except for Juan whose parents immigrated from San Salvador. All of a sudden Juan raised his hand and in perfect English he said "I know who the quest is" ... does he have orange hair? If he does then it's that mean man who is sooooo nasty.
Teacher: Juan ... you are right, you are so smart for a five year old, I'm sure you will have a great conversation with our guest.
1
"That might mean that the G.O.P.’s taste for nominating Roy Moore-like figures may abate, at least for a while."
And now, this just in from Arizona. . . . . .
2
The Trump White House is a stable. And it's time to clean it out!
3
I propose the acronym AGRA (no offense to the denizens of the city of the Taj Mahal) to define the Trump years. A Genius Rules America. And of course with that, MAGA becomes almost automatic. And of course if AGRA does not achieve MAGA, then it must be due to DOGA (Democrat Obstructionism Grates America). If DOGA prevails, we can always hope for OMAGA (Oprah will Make America Great Again) ad nauseam.
If you believe that Mr. Trump is a stable genius, then you would be interested in the waterfront property he has to sell you in Arizona.
3
Loved every word of this...chuckle....chuckle..lol. THANKS FOR MAKING MY DAY.
I think the Prez has a 'biographer' with the qualities that he richly deserves.
If he is such a Genius, let him release the transcripts...his college transcripts.
5
In the history of the English language perhaps no one has ever used the term "stable genius" to describe themselves except in the context of the horse breeding industry.
1
Unstable, unfit and unacceptable.
Genius? No, lucky to inherit his father's millions.
2
He's a genius among horses in the stable.
1
If only Trump were stable and the Executive branch of our government were open, honest, ethical, and effective. Sadly, to say it is is "Fake News." Every morning I wake to a horrid realization—our so-called prez is frighteningly real.
He spent months and millions campaigning to become the world's most powerful leader and, upon winning, was surprised and complained that the job is "hard." He calls news agencies "fake" and disputes their reporting even when they have film-footage proof. He minces words with gold-star families about their losses. He is obsessed with eliminating Obama's legacy—still. He has pardoned a criminal with little, if any, consideration of his crime and backed an accused pedophile for Senator before all evidence had been adjudicated. He has pushed world leaders out of his way for photo ops. He pulled out of the Paris Accord and continues to challenge scientific evidence of global warming. Over 50 members of his administration (not yet completely staffed) have left or been fired within the first year. He insults other leaders, governments, celebrities, the FBI, judges, via public tweets. He hasn’t learned his job or the Constitution. He doesn’t take the advice of his advisers. He repeated asserts that he is a genius. He taunts a much less powerful world leader to start a nuclear war.
. . . and this is the tip of the ice berg.
Does this sound like a fit leader for a very powerful country?
2
How is everyone enjoying living in a total corporate plutocracy? Surely few of us believe that our "elections," engineered by billionaires and their promoters, will ever result in any meaningful change. Of course, I, like probably many here, have not given up completely. But my sense of hopelessness and cynicism is deep. Who can stomach these fake, grotesque rituals that play out day after day on the television, as if any of our "elected" officials, really care about us, or understand the impact of corporate horror economy that they have engineered? Who can understand why, gosh darn it, our executive and our legislative and our judicial branches just can't figure out a way to support what's left of the ever dwindling American middle class? Our "elected" officials, try as they may, they just can't do it! For as we all know, the universal laws of Ayn Rand, and Calvinist Social Darwinism, are impossible to change! Lord knows what solar-system-shattering cataclysm would occur if billionaires had to pay more than 2% of their income in taxes! Heavens! What would happen to their eighteenth and nineteenth properties, their private jets, their yachts, their daily golf games, their egos! Is this really the best we can do?
2
Stevens is correct that Trump's behavior won't change the fall elections. But while I am perhaps in too much of a blue state bubble, I think the Rs are going to be in big trouble in California when the impact of their tax law hits home. Will the folks in the Fresno suburbs in Devin Nunes's district still support him when they find out what they stand to lose in federal tax deductions? I'm not sure.
1
To Gail's point about flipping Trump voters: for the most part, that's a huge waste of time and energy. Say 30% of the population adores Trump and thinks everything he does is just great. That leaves 70% who disagree or are apathetic. (I wonder what the percentage is of eligible voters who choose not to vote because none of the candidates are good enough or it wouldn't make much difference anyway.) In any case, the challenge for Democrats is to create a message and plan right now for the country and its working people, bring their best younger voices to the fore (so it's not just the same old), and motivate and convince that other 70% to get out and vote Democrat. It's a numbers game, and the numbers are there, in theory.
2
Perhaps the most extraordinary element in the whole Trump experience is that persons who have position and power themselves--members of the cabinet, for example--choose to just stand there as he extolls his intelligence and his presence of mind. They just stand there, without rolling their eyes, or chortling, or poking one another in the ribs. What does that say about their own characters, about their senses of justice, about their objectivity, about their moral status, about their naked ambition? Stable? Genius? They are convicting themselves of moral collapse.and we will remember.
2
Collins and Stephens are apparently unable to appreciate the fact that America finally has a "stable genius" President, one who has the courage to tell it like it is, to cast himself with all honesty as having the same ability to lead our nation as three other truly great stable geniuses, Secretariat, Citation, and Seattle Slew.
2
Trump certainly is a genius.
that is why he is so successfully promoting sales of the book
"Fire and Fury"
that is so critical of Trump,
and that Trump hates.
All geniuses do that.
1
Funny how Bannon thought he could say anything to anyone at anytime and not pay a price. Now, that's hubris. With the publishing of Wolff's tome, Bannon has lost his web platform, essentially his voice, and been made to pay the price. See how quickly he was dumped by his kooky billionaire patrons when he embarrassed even them. In six months a small news item will be "Bannon, where is he now?" But what about Trump? When is his comeuppance going to happen and how will it play out? Just as it is inevitable that the stock market will crash so is it inevitable that Trump is going to flame out. Mr. Very Stable Genius is next to go. Please God, make it soon.
3
I wouldn't want to interrupt the fun. By all means, let's enjoy the party. But considering the state of the country, bemusement doesn't seem appropriate. This little conversation is barbarism on the way to decadence. To watch Gail and Brett chat as if politics were nothing but a spectator sport, as if the destruction of millions of lives were a sideshow, is a lesson in exactly what Trump voters feel: that elites are disconnected from the lives of ordinary people. I feel compelled to say that the Times won't post this. Cynical disengagement on the part of its columnists is something we're not supposed to talk about. Well, 9 million children just lost health insurance. Thousands are dying in Puerto Rico. The Republicans are taking the ax to Social Security and Medicare. Drilling for oil is about to begin up and down our coastlines. Republicans just gave a trillion dollars of the taxpayers' money to the richest people in the world, here and abroad. What am I missing? Is this an occasion for dry banter? Are we in the audience watching Shaw? Maybe it's time for Gail and Brett to start thinking about how above it all they are, and how maybe that's not the very best place to be. Really, shame on them.
1
Um, “Let’s Make America Sane Again” has long been the marketing slogan for “Real Time with Bill Maher” on HBO. But I agree... let’s do so.
1
Of course trump is a genius. Who else can be for something and against something in the same sentence and sincerely mean it? It's amazing!
2
This book has helped Trump to move on. He is tired of losing, here come the deals!
Funny... when I saw Trump refer to himself as a "stable genius," I thought he was talking about that part of the barn where the horse was kept. It never crossed my mind that he was referring to stability as a characteristic of his shambolic administration. My bad!
1
How is it that such a stable genius went bankrupt so many times.
1
How about starting recall petitions for the enablers? Maybe people will be sick of the likes of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, who are, in effect, using Trump to pass a top-down, mid-west, white over brown agenda. The threat of recall, especially for Ryan, who is in a purple state, might make him think twice. Trump is obviously a bad guy, Ryan and McConnell are a lot more subtle.
1
Gail, Tonka trump suffers from mental imbecility, not incapacity. It is only suitable for leading all those fraternities we are hearing about too often in the news. If he hits a citizen touring the WH with a rock and kills him/her, he would not lose any Republican support.
We need a 26th amendment that allows the people to change their minds and vote the POTUS out of office - to protect us from a corrupted one party congress that cannot provide a check or balance to the executive. If the POTUS is voted out of office, the entire cabinet and appointees need to go too. Other democratic countries have elections when there is a loss of confidence in their leader and get to vote in a new government.
Banning Bannon will not stop Arpaio from running for US Senate - as a Republican. Take that McConnell.
In spite of less revenue, when the economy does blow up, the wealthy will continue to get a tremendous government bailout as they did last time with the bill to be added to the deficit and paid for by the rest of us. No problem, ... for them.
I prefer MATA - Make America Trumpless Again.
2
November 2018. Turnout, turnout, turnout.
Niovenber 2018. Turnout, turnout, turnout.
November 2018. Turnout, turnout, turnout...
33
Trump's behavior is getting more strange by the day. During the singing of the National Anthem at the Georgia-Alabama game Trump drummed on his chest, swayed, and opened and closed his mouth like a fish gasping for breath. Whatever he was doing, he wasn't singing. He was like a two year old who thinks three minutes is too long to wait for something.
Pence may be almost as bad, but he brought his pets to Washington with him. Trump called him a yokel for not abandoning his pets. At least Pence is human.
16
We don't need Wolff's shoddy work, which actually doesn't help matters. We already know the problem. But the Democrats don't yet have a real solution on offer, and 2018 isn't going to help them unless they have one. The only good thing for the Democrats from the current state of affairs is that they are having better-than-expected rebounding in recruitment for potential candidates. But a wave on its own isn't going to be the solution. And 2020 is not yet looking promising: way too many candidates are who are past their sell-by date (and I am on the older side of middle age) for the presidency, including my beloved Elizabeth Warren, who should be focused becoming chair of the Senate Banking Committee, where she can do much more good than the Presidency. Front/middle wave Boomers should be helping a younger generation of leaders take their proper places.
15
Mr. Stephens, nice touch referencing Nick Kristof's column about things getting better - such as over 200,000 people per day around the globe rising out of poverty. Strange to think that most Americans - but especially Republicans - don't give a flip about any non-American lessening of misery. Rather, they are a paranoid bunch who always assume the wider world is forever getting worse and that they had better gather everything they can for the coming storm (which, for many, means End of Days).
7
As Mr. Stephens said, a person who is really smart, even a genius, has no need to tell people that he is smart. I watch Mr. Trump's words and behavior. They display the opposite of genius in their nasty, small-minded and belittling manner. If you don't agree with Mr. Trump, he will call you names. That is not smart and it's certainly not intelligent, the two not being the same. Trump may have a certain slyness and wiliness, but smart he is not.
14
Trump's obvious lack of interest in being a good President have already created a majority of citizens who will definitely vote him out in 2020, but the Democrats are clearly not ready to defeat the Republicans running for re-election in 2018. It's highly likely that the Republicans will retain control of both houses of Congress unless the Democrats wake up and take the fall elections seriously. They seem to think that because they do not respect Trump's abilities and see his policies as contrary to the interests of the country that all potential voters who are not in love with Trump will be motivated to through his Republicans supporters out of office. It's not that simple. The Democrats need to offer a clear agenda of policies and practices which all those voters will embrace as their own.
17
Trump is smart enough to appoint a wrecking squad to high executive offices. Don't underestimate him once again.
11
Keep in mind, the stock market is not the economy, it is what the investors believe the economy will deliver.
Today is driven mostly by funds and hedge funds, not individual investors. However the funds have to keep their investors satisfied. To do so the are chasing yield which is becoming lower, so they are buying and selling pumping up the market, we just don't know how long they can keep it up. If you have your investments in funds you are at the mercy of the other fund investors. They want out, the fund has to sell, your equity goes down.
tRump bragging about the market is another example of taking credit for something he had nothing to do with. The low tax rate passed by the GOP will increase the corporate profit, which goes to the share holders who are owners. It will not increase demand for the products. People will still buy Samsung LG and Braun because they are better products. The GOP tax is a scam, it is at best wishful thinking.
tRumps enablers in the white house are getting paid by the taxpayers to flatter him, it is they who are the real villains in this whole scheme. They are a core of sycophants and pathological liars, stealing the public's money.
300 years ago they would be on their way to the guillotine.
19
I see "a moment of prayer at the White House". This is illegal. The U.S. is legally a secular country. Who decided to have sectarian religion on the public dime? (All religious observance is sectarian, by which I mean it excludes part of the citizenry.) Who's going to stop it?
13
@BretStephensNYT: Ain't nothing like living in a country helmed by a brilliant woman. (...sorry she's having a hard time.) @BretStephensNYT, @GailCollinsNYT, you should do a dialogue on 'How Democracies Die". As I'm sure you know, according to the authors, we'll have to build coalitions across party lines to save the country.
1
I remember Watergate well and still remember our fear that Nixon would remain in the White House.Then we did not have tweets and a three ring circus but there were dark plots and eventually tapes to prove them.When the Republicans realized they were hitched to a failing president they did the right thing...can we not hope that the same thing will happen again?We Americans are proud of our democracy and have defended it in countless wars.Why would we not defend it from an aberrant president?
8
Well, “we” would want that. However, congressional republicans answer to their donors only. Republicans have been bought and have nothing more to do with “we the people.”
12
I think we all need to try to avoid reacting in the moment, which is creating irrational fears of Trump's mental stability. I don't see him as irrational at all, but the fact that a lot of establishment politicians see him this way is precisely what he wants to accomplish. This IS his strategy for dealing with people determined to play chess with our politics and our international relations.
Even though Trump as a business person talks about winning, it is probably obvious to him that in this role winning simply means fixing some things that were wrong with the system. As far as what his goals are? It is quite possible that deep down he would like to see Democrats pass Medicare for all, but as we see with every president, they have to get some buy in from their party, and sometimes that requires hard-nosed partisan behavior.
So regarding his game of chess, is suggest this: politics is not chess, and those who play politics like chess (Mitch McConnell) needed to be shaken up and put in their place. Trump's only political strategy is unpredictability. Given the state of Washington, it actually works. Given the state of affairs with NK, it seems to have worked to some degree. Who while I reacted the same as most initially, with time the results are better than we anticipated.
Democracy depends upon people allowing the winners to govern. The GOP in general doesn't respect this, but regardless the others have to respect it.
These are strange times.
1
Unpredictability is no “strategy” with DT. He wings it rather than deliberates because he is accustomed only to giving orders as a ceo and having his orders obeyed. No experience with collegiality, cooperation, strategy, research, expertise, compromise, respect for disagreement, checks and balances, honesty, integrity, humility, or basic civility.
10
Oh. We have rules for democracy, decency and decorum, but they do not.
1
"Morgan Stanley’s Ruchir Sharma had an excellent Op-Ed essay in The Times the other day on the subject of economic forecasting. As he tells it, economic forecasters “have not predicted a single United States recession since the Federal Reserve began keeping such records a half-century ago".
Well, of course, if you listen to forecasters like those who work for Wall Street. For the record, the economists of the MMT school got the financial crisis of 2008 right, and one of them, Steve Keen, won the Revere Prize (an economic prize NOT given out by Swedish bankers) for it. Furthermore, their theory explains the 6 previous crises unlike the theories of the orthodox mainstream economists from Mankiw to Krugman.
4
If you have to scrounge for things to worry about, I vote for climate change (and just for fun, let's add to that the dual-rape of both our environment and the EPA).
The U.S. suffered 17 separate weather catastrophes in 2017 that cost at least $1 billion each, and while we can't pin any one particular event on this slow-moving world crisis, a lot of meteorological experts have believed for some time that the extremes we are experiencing are due to a sick climate. We're talking about hurricanes, wildfire, drought, tornadoes, polar vortexes and general screwiness.
Meanwhile, America is moving in exactly the wrong direction, which is downward. Like the start of a blanket opening of our coasts and waters and parks up to willy-nilly oil drilling. We started the year with Trump and Pruitt packing the EPA with science deniers and industry lapdogs. Rick Perry took over the Energy Department with the notion that his job was to simply glad-hand energy companies. Then, we pulled out of the Paris climate accord.
America is losing polar bears, sea otters, manatees, cougars, Key deer, coral and other creatures we profess to love. If that's true, we're loving them to death. In fact, we are loving this planet to death.
20
Ms. Collins:
What about an article on the other Steve: Stephen Miller. It seems he is negotiating with Trump on becoming the next Bannon. He is desperately seeking an audience of one while growing his public persona.
15
So the Times has a sense of humor after all. Even though I was a mental health counselor, I would never try to diagnose whether President Trump had a mental disorder or not. The futility of anyone other than a psychiatrist doing a face to face examination of the president is obvious and wildly speculative.
Given that the economy is chugging right along, there are many issues the Democrats can run on in the next few years. Trump's many deregulations in the EPA, the banking industry, National Parks and Monuments, to protections for nursing home residents, and off-shore drilling, as well as wanting to open up all American coasts to oil drilling among other things provide plenty of opportunities for Democrats to focus on policies that put the health and safety of Americans first.
7
Let's not argue semantics. Against all odds, when almost every pollster thought he would lose the election, Trump won. He beat out all Republican candidates, he beat Clinton while spending about half the amount of money the Democrats had. He accomplished this when most of media was strongly against him.
He had the genius not to put an email server in his home when acting as a top government official, and later destroying 30,000 emails sought by The FBI.
The "genius" Democrats ignored the suffering of the working class from globalization and called half of them "deplorables." Trump had the genius to listen to the suffering of the working class in a manner similar to FDR, Truman, JFK, and LBJ.
Trump's genius was that he did not allow himself to be bought by Goldman (Hilary received $675,000 for 3 talks), and other firms. He was his own man and he listened to the voters.
As for stability, Trump has succeeded in the high pressure world of real estate for more than three decades.
2
There is a difference between listening to and exploiting the disenfranchised working class. DT exploited anger, despair, racism and misogyny like a real pro.
1
Trump is not his own man. Russia owns him. Russia helped him win the election with it's cyber-criminals and hacking. To this day we are not sure how far they got in the vote-finagling. They did get as far as voter databases, and changed addresses of Democratic voters so they would not match the previous registration rolls, and those Democrats were thrown off the rolls.
They very well could have actually got into the digital vote-counting and flipped votes. Who is investigating this?
Trump has not "succeeded" anywhere. He went bankrupt multiple times, cheated his creditors and his workmen, and cheated students of his "Trump University". The only success he has had is as a conman.
The Republicans are letting him wreck our country to enrich themselves and their billionaire backers.
1
It isn’t Michael Wolff’s book that shed light on Trump’s instability, it is Trump himself with his constant lies, bizarre pronouncements and tweets. It’s been there all along for everyone to see.
12
How about MAMA—as in, Oh, mama, get us out of this! Has a nice #MeToo angle to it...
4
"That might mean that the G.O.P.’s taste for nominating Roy Moore-like figures may abate, at least for a while." Don't look now but Joe Arpaio just announced he is running for Jeff Flakes Senate seat.
14
In Arizoona, 85-year-old Sheriff Joe announced today he is running for Jeff Flake's Senate seat. Guess who's gonna support him? the Donald!
But wait, the spin in that state is that another candidate, Kelli Ward, is leading the race for the GOP. The truth is, it's another race to the bottom.
VOTE DEMOCRATIC!
31
A simple, four word summary, about Trump, Pence, and their whole misguided, unpredictable bunch, "This, too, shall pass."
13
Well yes, Stop and Think, but if it passes like a large, sharp kidney stone, we're in for a long, excruciatingly painful and dark night of the national soul.
16
So let me get this straight; all the folks whose jobs were sent off shore, and all the families who lost their homes have regained them, and all the small businesses that had to close are revived; and all the communities that have become economic ghost towns are now boom towns, and the newly enacted tax laws can be easily accommodated by the middle and working classes, and concerns about the national debt are all passé, and America is again the land of milk and honey for all?
Or, is the stock market just bubbling and gurgling for the multinationals, speculators, oligarchs, and their marks? Probably the latter. Hope you’re enjoying Germany! I hear they have great health care there, post fascism.
12
The economy has steadily improved over 9 years (and Trump takes all the credit). The stock market has steadily risen since the first year of Obama who gave us the longest run of positive job creation months in history since Bush's disastrous last few months, losing between 700,000 to 800,000 jobs a month. The jobless rate, which Bush inherited from Clinton at 3.9% & ran up to over 10% is back to 4.1%, but it was Obama who brought that rate down to the mid 4% range. After 2009, every month of Obama's GDP was positive - including some higher than Trump has seen. All of Trump's economic success has been "macro-economic", accruing to the top 1%. Ordinary workers still aren't seeing significant rises in their wages to match the rising GDP. One company just offered its employees a one-time $1,000 bonus to celebrate the Tax Bill & days later announced they were laying off thousands of workers.
Addressing a worker in a small group, Trump asked him what he did. He said he was an out-of-work coal miner. Trump crowed & said "coal was back," & that he, his children, & grandchildren will always have miner's jobs in this 19th century energy field. Yet, coal mining has fallen because fewer energy generating plants now use coal - they've already converted to natural gas or green technology & more are following.
The 19th century "Foggy London Town" was caused by coal pollution. Remember the weather reports of the '60s with their smog index? Do we REALLY want to return there?
20
Bret Stephens is correct that “Democrats are gulling themselves if they think they can retake one or both houses of Congress merely on the strength of opposition to Trump.”
That is, he is correct if the statement covers only personal attacks. But what if Democrats crafted a message that WAS anti-Trump, by emphasizing policy differences, such as on Climate Change, acceptance of the scientific method, engagement with the world, liberal (yes “liberal”) trade policies instead of protectionism (including support of advances like the oft-critiqued—from both left and right—TPP), progressive instead of regressive tax policies, support of the opening to Cuba, steady support of the P5+1 negotiated Iran nuclear agreement (even in the face of the interesting protests in Iran), a sensible and just immigration policy, and a workable national health policy, building on the Affordable Care Act. There could be more. Although a strong 40% of the country continues to back the President, about 55% do not. If Democrats fleshed out an anti-Trump campaign based on issues, just maybe they could unify that 55% and edge out a Congressional victory in 2018.
10
The US economy has revived from the worst economic catastrophe since the 1930s. The sluggishness between 2010 and 2016 was reversed, not by any economic or fiscal policy Trump implemented, but by the discomforting measures Obama was compelled to take to stabilize a collapsing banking system and economy, broad unemployment, rapid withdrawal of investment capital, and a consumer sector so depressed many thought it might not recover for years to come. It worked by keeping interest rates at artificially low levels expecting that businesses and consumers eventually would borrow to propel investment; borrowing huge sums to stabilize the banking and employment sectors, partly to ensure that municipalities would not have to enter reorganization; imposing regulations on banks and mortgage companies to prevent the type of lending practices that set off the Great Recession. There actually were some conservative economists who publicly and seriously argued that the President and Congress should not intervene in any way, the "just let it fail" philosophy often applied to dysfunctional and failing businesses, without an ounce of recognition that the US government, banking sector, and economy serve not only Americans but the world and couldn't afford the lethargy being proposed.
Obama took the flak in every case, but with the Fed hanging tight, the economy stabilized and grew. They deserve whatever credit to be stated now. Trump, so far, is just a free-rider on Obama's successes.
23
The forecasters may miss every recession in America, but that only adds to uncertainty. After all, predicted or not recessions did happen in America quite regularly. Just because weather forecasters missed a rain, it doesn't mean that there will be no rain in the future including near future.
2
I had a horse once named Genius, and it wasn't because he was one.
13
The 'Goldwater Rule' prohibits psychiatrists from rendering an opinion on another's mental fitness unless he or she has seen and examined the patient. As I am not a psychiatrist, I am not bound by the rule. I believe in the 'It takes one to know one' rule. I may be a little crazy, but the President...
8
One does wonder how to win back some voters who went for Trump... Along those lines, what does the Democratic Party stand for today? What are the Democratic congressional leaders willing to fight, really FIGHT for? To maybe even "shut down the government" over?
Well, that question is easily answered, because those discussions are going on now, and the Democratic leaders have decided that the biggest issue facing all of us is: letting in undocumented immigrants. Yes, the "Dreamers" -- I'm not putting down their righteous cause, but is it the most important problem facing America today?
Will going "to the mat" for undocumented immigrants win over some Trump voters? Seems unlikely to me. Maybe the Dems should find some priorities higher than undocumented immigrants, transgender bathrooms, and feminist outrage...but only if we want to win back some voters. Like how about income equality? The environment? Health care? A fair tax structure that doesn't favor the rich and corporations?
17
The Democrats only need to get the 50% of people who did not vote in 2016 to go to the polls in 2018. Maybe after 2016, people will realize that their vote really does matter.
1
I'm I'm glad they're enjoying themselves, and a little whistling past the graveyard is not often fatal, but we're still talking about a palpably deranged president with an approval rating in the thirties; an army of Congressional enablers who ought to be, in saner times, planning corrective actions on full red alert; an unfathomably devious sycophant right-wing media buttress engaged in a scapegoating frenzy, rumblings of war (it's good business, you know, and this is a pro-business administration) with multiple targets; a grotesque stock market bubble (about to go on steroids as the 1 percent "invest" their newfound largesse); college still a debt trap; wages still stagnant; opioids still killing tens of thousands annually; natural disasters inadequately responded to; deficits certain to rise by design; and absolutely no means of changing any of this in the foreseeable future.
My conclusion is that the prospects for better days are dim and dimming. But please, keep digging for silver linings. There's gotta be a pony in there.
5
We cannot and should not get rid of Trump in any way that is not Republican lead. The Republicans and/or the truth of the Russian investigation are the only two options. If it looks like Trump is thrown out of office by Democrats then the next Democratic president will have the same thing done to her/him, and our Democracy will have been dealt a massive, deadly blow. As to Pence, any man who confuses his wife for his mother is no great shakes in the mental department, either. Nope, get out the facts and get out the voters. That is the only hope.
12
Under Trump, America is finally starting to get its swagger back.
Good Lord! I’ve been using the Wizard of Oz analogy since September 2016!
1
Measuring presidential fitness is fraught with politics and other confounding variables. Like affect. A president's affect can cause misdiagnosis in either direction.
Some say Trump reminds them of Chance the gardener in the Jerzy Kosinski satiric novel, "Being There." The mind of Chance is like an AI App programmed with simple truths about the world expressed in "basic" gardening language. But because Chance adopted the refined affect of his wealthy employer, his simplicity is mistaken for elegance and profundity by the intelligentsia.
This sounds more like the excessively-decorous, elegant, non-committer former president than the nouveau-riche, gilded go-getter current one. And relative presidential performance is confirmatory. Or as another simpleminded fictional character put it: "Stupid is as stupid does."
3
One of the most frustrating things about the 2016 campaign, aside from the actual election, was that policy differences never seemed to enter the debate. It wasn't for lack of trying by the Democrats, but the media was only interested in the more lurid details of character. As the campaign became more and more focused on "character", policy differences faded into the background. The media, including even the mainstream media, couldn't get enough of trump. Whenever trump had a rally, it was televised live as "breaking news". I've seen guestimates that the media provided the trump campaign with anywhere from 2 to 5 Billion dollars in free advertising. How do you win against that?
Democrats are reluctant to make easily disprovable accusations against their opponents (boring!). Republicans and the right-wing media show no such reluctance (google "national enquirer, hillary" and choose "images"). We cannot win if we make the election about trump and his enablers. When campaigns descend into character assassination, Republicans win. They have been doing it for a long time (remember the Willy Horton ads?) and are better at it.
If we are to win in 2018 and 2020, we need to make the campaign about policy.
7
"It’s pretty clear it would be almost impossible to really make that happen, unless Trump starts swinging from the chandelier and throwing rocks at White House tour groups."
Gail, that's the funniest thing you ever said; however, isn't that what he is metaphorically doing already?
Bret, your retort was funny too.
6
"That might mean that the G.O.P.’s taste for nominating Roy Moore-like figures may abate, at least for a while".
No such luck, Joe Arpaio just announced for the US Senate in Arizona.
9
Here's my slogan: Let's BE America Again. For the 35% who think of us as Murica, and not America--where white privilege is everything, deregulation never poisons water pipes in Flint, women and anyone browner than Pence is to be subjugated and repressed, and billionaires are sacred, what we have now, they think, is our country. They're ignoring history, and their antecedents have suspiciously innocent or racist tendencies. We have been "America" since WWII, but we are Murica right now, thumbing the scale to make sure us old white guys win. That's not America, even if that's what they want. Let's BE America Again. Those who get its subtle message will appreciate it; those who don't, and prefer a Twitter Murica, will be overruled by history eventually anyway. As was always gonna be true with America.
11
Charlie Pierce of Esquire said it best " Secretariat was a stable genius".
Trump has a date with destiny i.e. a medical appointment, this Friday, at Walter Reed. The presidential military medical team, are all sworn to uphold and defend the constitution. I am confident their diagnosis of his various , deteriorating conditions ( especially the dementia) will compel a 25th amendment action by Pence and the cabinet.
3
Hey Bret and Gail, all this is very entertaining. But not a word about the fact that our elections - the only official scorecard for this game you two have behind-the-dugout box seats at - are decided by votes counted by private corporations in the pitch-dark of cyberspace. And that next to nothing is being done to change this absurdity. So that E2018 (and E2020) will be just as subject to manipulation as E2016, E2014, and so on back to E2002, when the computers were entrusted with virtually all of the vote counting in the U.S.
I'm glad you two - and pretty much all of your colleagues - are having the time of your lives covering the depravity. As long as your business is good - and he stays off the nuclear button - the rest is really just collateral damage, our problem, not yours.
One stinking, lousy, publicly and observably counted election could change all this, restore a functioning democracy and public sovereignty, restore our national dignity and our semi-stewardship of the environment. I would think you'd want to push hard for that - even if your business took a little hit as a result.
4
The economy is going to crash hard. The billionaires want it, and look at the signs: real estate bubble, deficits, deport a big chunk of the workforce, let ISPs strangle the internet, and kill health care funding. What could possibly be left? Oh a job killing tax cut.
7
is this stability issue a brilliant defense plant so that there can be a very gentle, exit (or soft landing) when Mr. Mueller comes a knocking?
4
Nick Kristof is right: an advancing civilization continues to bend toward just egalitarianism. That which would divide us can only reveal the foundation of mutual love that binds humanity together. All the rest is commentary.
4
One item Bret & Gail did not mention in the discussion of Dems chances in 2018 elections is the fact that this will not be an Electoral College election. As we know, The College was the difference in 2016. Of course, there are many factors in elections. We might consider that the popular vote this year will be weighted by the number of non-Trump voters who were certain HRC would win, so stayed home. Their disgust for everything Trump will cure that in November.
7
Since identity politics is supposed to be so important, I think the Democratic candidates need to
1. be smart, attractive people with common sense (vetting by the DNC is very important--no skeletons and surprises the GOP can pounce on
2. get plenty of media coverage so voters feel they have a choice and get counter information from Fox that Democrats and liberals are actually sane, smart, people who see the benefits of government. I don't know why the Democrats are always missing in action when it comes to media coverage and entertainment.
3. emphasize they represent the political party that works for middle and working class people, good relations around the world, a strong society (infrastructure, health, education, environment).
4. show a good sense of humor and challenge some of the ridiculous myths the GOP gets by on, such as trickle down economics, deregulation of banks and the environment, tax breaks for the rich and tax incentives to take jobs abroad, and that private for-profit education and health care are always better than publicly funded services.
5. stop stressing demographic, divisive politics: women v. men, etc.
5. question whether what the GOP and Trump administration are doing truly represents who we Americans really are as a people (lots of ready examples here, given Trump's dysfunction and insults to allies, and the GOPs greedy reverse Robin Hood politics of taking from the poor to give to the rich.
6. stop playing defense
7. make voters proud
11
8. Get a media machine to counter Fox, Breitbart, and InfoWars.
9. Dig some pre-emptive dirt on Republicans, and use it when needed.
(Don't bring a rubber knife to a machete fight).
1
I find the accompanying photo quite revealing. It appears that Mr. Tillerson is in deep prayer, perhaps begging for divine intervention? Forgiveness? Trump looksgrumpy and badly put upon, perhaps feeling like a bad boy placed in the corner for, ah, lying, maybe? Others look troubled. Interesting how simple prayer can reveal so much.
5
Dems are always told they should be civil. Meanwhile the GOP is unconstrained by any niceties. The heck with Republicans. Dems need to appeal to their base. If they are angry and show up in Nov. it will not matter how many Trump voters show up. Just look at VA and Al. No sense in playing nice when the other side will lie, cheat and steal to win elections. There really is right vs. wrong.
9
Hate to dash Mr. sthens hope for fewer Roy Moore
s sort of candidates, but Joe Arpaio has just announced his run for the Senate on , of course, the Republican ticket. Racism and bigotry are now the hallmark of the G.O.P, and you all own it.
6
It's not the DEMs who are "Constantly calling the president an idiot", it's his own supporters and party (off the record). The negative descriptions are heard so often that one assumes they're from his opponents, nope.
Nonetheless it is true that the DEMs can't simply sit back and let the GOP damage itself, we must be proponents of not just sanity but responsible economics, fairness, healthcare, trade, immigration, and environmentalism.
7
DT is proof that ignorance can be fun. Readin, writin', 'rithematic: the 3 r's DT took to mean "rage, revile, and ravage", and that was before he was shipped off to play sports in a military school.
If Wolff wrote the clear, concise, direct, and witty prose Bret and Gail share today, his book would be 30% briefer and 30% scarier for DT. But it isn't.
And if DT read Wolff. Bret and Gail, he'd be fit to head the government. But he isn't. It's not tRump's loss, though, it's ours.
1
Sadly, I am so saturated with reports of Trump's stupidity, egoism, belligerence, and flat out childishness, that I almost didn't read this article. It's sad because this is what Trump and those despicable Republicans hope for - they want us to stop protesting our so-called president's incompetence and calling for impeachment. Please NYT keep things interesting so we maintain the focus where it should be - on collecting ammunition to depose the false king and regain America's standing on the world stage.
6
I have not read the Wolff book nor will I; I am prone to nightmares and I am concerned the book would leave me sleepless for the remainder of Trump's time in office.
That said, I find a few things remarkable about Wolff's book.
(1) The Whitehouse (Mrs. Sanders specifically) describes the book as "disgusting." Presumably because it is inaccurate. We can only conclude that Mrs. Sanders is disgusted to work for a president who is a walking inaccuracy given that he lies (all documented) on average about 5 times a day on consequential matters. No?
(2) Or perhaps Mrs. Sanders is disgusted by Wolff's attack on a president with a mental disability? If so, she should consider her president's imitation of the physically disabled Times reporter during the campaign.
(3) I am also amazed that Wolff's book is considered to be some sort of revelation. Pwerhaps it is in detail, however, we know all this stuff already. Amercians seem to need to hear that Trump's insanity and incompetence is recorded in a book to be shocked by it but we see it every day in his tweets and his ridiculous appearances in television. The speech to the Boy Scouts? Barking Mad.
(4) Finally, you have to find the Republican concern with truth and accuracy a little ridiculous given who the president is and their own rampant dishonesty on fine disply in the "tax reform" sham.
And the GOP? There attacking Steele and Mueller while defending the Clown in Chief. Sad!
9
the G.O.P.’s taste for nominating Roy Moore-like figures will be put to the test since the very same Arpaio aka America's Racist Sheriff who was exonerated by Donald Trump has announced his Senate candidacy. If the Mueller investigation bears fruit then it is quite possible that Graham and others might decide that their own political fortunes dictate that they need to get past Donald Trump. Failing that perhaps Tom Steyer might hit up some of his fellow billionaires to scrape up a billion or so dollars to buy Donald Trump out of the presidency
5
I just wonder who's going to clean the stable after the geniuses is gone.
5
One can be a genius and be delusional at the same time.
Bret, I disagree with you that you can't call Trump an "idiot" and expect his voters to "flip their vote". I have one good friend who voted for Trump because she was older and probably not inclined to vote for a woman, and hoped that Trump's business experience would be an asset. Boy does she admit she was wrong, has learned from her mis-vote, and has promised to never do again. A die hard red state voter might be offended, but they will always vote for whatever "idiot" the Republican party places on the ballot. The rest of the country can learn from their mistakes and apologize to their friends.
8
With all due respect, I believe WE MUST INSULT all those who voted for Trump. If after listening to Trump for 10 minutes, you can not determine that he is a useless ignorant moran, then you must be one. The damage that Trump Presidency will inflict on this country and its people shall last for decades. If a foreign Power had inflicted such a damage on our country we would have declared war on them. So, I definitely hokd the 62 million Trump supporters fully responsible for this devastation.
14
The GOP would love to know how Trump's madness attracts their racist base like moths to a candle. It is all magic to them. He is special. They see it. They speak the codes of hate to their base but never get the kind of response that Trump gets. They hope to keep him in long enough to experiment with their own Trumpian manipulation techniques. They will never get it though. They don't have what it takes. They have goals, desires and outcomes that they want these techniques to accomplish, but Trump does it because it is natural to his five year old mind and his simultaneously weak and bullying tendencies. In other words, he is a natural at being a fascist leader. They on the other hand have no natural abilities. They are toadies to the wealthy. That is why they so naturally acquiesce to their mad king. They adore and worship him, he is wealthy.
5
I would have started with tamales but someone already beat me to the punch line. Where to begin? I'll say calling Trump an idiot is not the same thing as calling his supporters idiots. Some very wealthy people are making bank on Trump including congressional representatives. If monetary metrics are your estimation of intelligence, Trump supporters are not necessarily idiots. However, when middle-class voters realize how thoroughly and completely they're getting thrown under the bus with this tax bill, they'll become sufficiently outraged at idiots and geniuses alike. I for one plan to take whatever tax break I get and invest it in political opposition. That doesn't necessarily mean Democrats but it sure doesn't mean the incumbent Republican Party. This is coming from a centerist Utahan. Economy or no, the G.O.P. has another thing coming.
6
In a blind political party, the man with a seeing eye dog is king!
2
Make America DECENT, Again. Period.
5
Maybe no Roy Moores...but hey look over there...isn't that...yes it is, its Joe Arpaio...running for a Senate seat. Pardoned criminal...sure why not, we might as well put them in as crimiinals, instead of waiting for them to become one.
More of the Trump Effect. When the curb is higher...you cant fall off.
4
Since the Republican Party in effect allowed Trump to happen, they either need to admit what he is (fraud, liar, braggart, ego maniac) or circle the wagons and say everyone else is the problem, which is what is happening. What frightens me is that we know the emperor has no clothes and yet that is not enough to rein Trump in. Getting behind another famous person or three or ten will not solve the problems the nation faces. If anything, Trump's success should be teaching all of us that one's track record matters and knowledge of government and the world matters too. Time for the Republicans to stop acting like parents of a juvenile delinquent who claim their child is "just a little different" before the (expletive deleted) really hits the fan.
4
A few observations from slippin’ and sliding Germantown, Maryland, this morning:
1. It must worry “we the people,” when Republicans in Congress would rather live with a likely mentally unstable president than incur the wrath of his tweets.
2. While Make America Sane Again is a noble objective, the pronunciation of its acronym, MASA, brings back memories of slavery, so that’s a non-starter.
3. “The Conversation” is likely to garner a "Trumpy" on Wednesday, January 17 for “the fakest political conversation from the failing New York Times.” So Gail and Bret, kudos in advance and keep talking!
3
We’re Not Ready for a Flu Pandemic
By MICHAEL T. OSTERHOLM and MARK OLSHAKER
I'm sure the Stable-Genius-in-Chief has this high one on his list of priorities. I'm glad I'm old enough to possibly be, at least, partly immune to the next pandemic flu strain.
2
Trump's cabinet is suggestive of a collection of criminals who would show up for a movie night showing of 'Wall Street' while serving time at a white-collar crime federal prison.
3
Trump never actually said he was a stable genius. He rattled off some accomplishments including beating 11 experienced GOP politicians in the election, then stated as summary that that could be considered to amount to genius rather than the claims he is an idiot as stated in the new book (Which btw got a C from the NYT book reviewer). This is normal stuff, and if it were taken in a light hearted manner rather than this counterproductive, juvenile use of it as a cudgel, we'd be on to more important things.
Everyone is an idiot to their detractors, and every billionaire who's been elected president thinks highly of himself. When a guy like Bret Stephens invokes the 25th Amendment over such paltry things it's time to question his maturity and journalistic talent.
Btw I'm a hardcore liberal, that's why a press devolving into schoolyard stuff is more upsetting to me than a President with a dismissive attitude toward it.
2
"...and may do more to galvanize them come November than to persuade them to flip their vote."
Bret: You are presuming that such flipping is possible under the physical laws of this universe. I do not believe that -- the Awful People have amply demonstrated that they cannot be reached or reasoned with. All we can do is try to crush them at the voting booth.<*>
<*>Which statement I'm sure will be twisted by some right-wing propagandist into "See? The Leftists are advocating violence and and anarchy on Election Day!"
3
Bret Stephens lives in Germany! Why??
1
Trump is outsmarting the entire Fake News Media establishment, including NYT. Genius!
1
MASA, Make America sane again may work.
How about MADA, Make America Democratic, again?
=========================================
What we have now is UST, a United States of Trump, a monarchy, dictatorship.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hope the Democrat will indeed come up with telling slogans, that work, rather than the endless, boring ramblings, we had with no "drama Obama".
1
Such an annoying segment. I wish you would just stop this dumb, cutesy bsck and forth radio schtik. Makes me want to cancel my subscription.
1
As long as the Useful Idiot signs the bills, the Repubs will keep still.
4
"Or so we are learning from Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury". That in a nutshell explains why the NYT and MSM is losing credibility. Be better, investigate, vet and report facts, don't refer to gossip rags as sources, regardless if they are "notionally true", whatever that means.
President Bonespur is no "stable genius." Mr. Ed was a stable genius; he was likable, he had decent cognitive abilities and most importantly, he knew when to keep his mouth shut. I watched and enjoyed Mr. Ed as a child...I felt as though I knew Mr. Ed, and President Bonespur, you're no Mr. Ed.
2
I used to wonder how Hitler was able to rise to power, presuming that many German leaders and most German people were basically decent. We are seeing that question answered, right before our eyes.
8
A stable genius..... Would that be Man o' War, Mister Ed...... or Clever Han[d]s?
1
In a sane world, telling someone 'you voted for an idiot' would have some ameliorative effect, IF there was evidence of its truth/accuracy.
Is the US sane? Is the evidence acknowledged? We shall find out in Nov.
1
Reading this "Conversation" revolts me. I am reminded of the "cultural temperament" in Germany right before the rise of Hilter. What is happening in this country right now isn't funny. It's tragic.
5
Sure he’s dumb. But have we yet plumbed the depths of his stupidity?
I don’t think so.
Here are some questions the answers to which could help us find out.
--- A cow says what?
--- True or false: A line is the shortest distance between two joints.
--- The capital of Las Vegas is Miami. Philadelphia or River City.
--- Frederick Douglass invented the electric light bulb and what other common household appliances?
--- A penny saved is a penny ------.
--- The road to Hell is paved with ---- ----------.
--- You put your right foot in
You put your left foot out
You shake it all about and you’re doing the ----- -----.
--- Barack Obama was born in Kenya, Hawaii or a log cabin?
--- The man on the grassy knoll was: The Cigarette Man from the X-files, Ted Cruz’s father, John Dillinger or Alger Hiss.
Times reporters should begin asking him questions of this type at every available opportunity. We already know that he’s not going to release his taxes
or make Mexico pay for a wall. Getting a firm grip on the man’s dumbness would be a big step forward in coming to terms with our destiny as a nation in the Trump era.
7
But don't ask him why the economy is doing better. He would just lie and say he did it.
The right answer is, Obama carefully laid a solid economic foundation for the next President to build on. He carefully integrated his sub 2% GDP, with no wage growth and keeping fracking from ruining the planet.
Did it ever occur to any of you, he might best you in a public forum. Wait, I've seen movie before.
2
Happy New Year to all the journalists who, it seems, have another great year ahead what with a full load of Trump insanity to fill your columns.
Wait! Does McConnell actually ever smile? Or does Ryan suck up all the smug grin juice in the room like Harry Potter's fearsome Dementors?
4
America is 'going to hell in a handbasket' thanks to Trump and his administration. Trump gives personal testimony to his own craziness daily by his public statements and tweets. He is 'all kinds of crazy'.
I agree with Bret that the GOP, his unqualified, unfit Cabinet, and WH staff enablers will keep propping him up until he harms himself or someone else. Nothing short of 'murder by Trump' will have an impact or maybe not even that. They will cover up the body or bodies then frame and blame Hillary for it.
Just think, the threat of nuclear annihilation due to his crazy, threatening tweets to North Korea did not get Trump removed from office as a 'clear and present danger', just surrounded by the military in a WH coup.
Although the Democrats know that the majority of Americans, not represented by their president or their Congress, want him removed, for all valid and viable reasons, they do need more than that for a winning political platform, I agree. However, there is a lot to choose from, their campaign can be in support of our national security, our health care, our social programs we support, and against our paychecks being whittled away in favor of more money aka tax cuts being given to the already obscenely wealthy, or essentially only one percent of the total American population.
I, for one, am tired of this president who 'flies by the seat of his pants' and whose fixation on himself and acquiring billions for his personal empire is an act grown old..
7
I guess I'd enjoy Gail and Bret's light-hearted patter more if the situation in America right now wasn't so damned depressing. It seems there is no way out. Too many Americans aren't paying attention. The Trump crowd loves their man and intends to keep him in office as long as they can--regardless of his performance or mental condition. Democrats must get a message that will get anti-Trump voters to the polls in November. We already know Donald's a dope. What we want to know is what Dems intend to do about it if they get the votes in Congress. It's time to take this mess we're living in just a little more seriously.
9
HELLO
ELLO
LLO
LO
O Yeah, Trump's unfit.
Yup, I'm in the echo chamber. The echo chamber is defined as, the writer posits a theory and everyone agrees, but, with fan-fiction enthusiastic twists.
I'll be honest, it is a bit of a chore to counter some of the wild claims, made here every day. I would have an easier time, though, if you people would stop spinning the conspiracy wheel. What am I talking about? Let's spin the Wheel Of C R A Z Y.
Russian collusion. Russian puppet. Unfit. Dementia. Dr. Evil. He didn't want to win. He eats fast food. He only watches tv. He doesn't read. He can't read. He only reads novellas. He's bat crap crazy. His staff and cabinet cover for him. He says he's smart, but really isn't. He's a racist(duh). He tweets(real presidents don't tweet). He watches FOX and Friends(then he tweets some more). He is a serial sexual criminal. Am I going to fast? He has to be worshiped by those around him, all of the time. He is abdicating America's leadership role in the world. Every time somebody pokes him the eye, he pokes back twice to get their attention and then a couple more times to make it a teachable moment(that makes him a bully).
I shouldn't rub your collective nose in this, but, Wednesday Thursday Friday. After the election, there was a real effort to get the electoral college to vote for Hillary. That was just bad form.
This will be on the quiz. Trump beat 16 politicians. He beat the most qualified woman, since the invention of women. Winning
1
“Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.” As a trans reader, I found this outdated adage to be an offensive way to open the conversation and I expect more from the Times. Just as language evolves, so too does context.
Chris--the word "lady" has a bad connotation and women who have power and are pro-equal rights don't use that word. Your language needs to evolve more and not include "lady" :-)
1
Trump likes to say that he is a "smart guy". Perhaps he is....at business or promotion. What bothers me is his inherent lack of interest in the job. He spends his evenings watching Fox and engaging in angry tweets unrelated to his job. If he reads a briefing paper he shows no evidence of having done so. The guy seems to have been attracted to the glamor of the job and the amount of attention it would give him (which it certainly has). He shows no interest in politics or the business of governing. It's just the attention...without the attention span.
11
Can we agree that Trump is dangerously crazy and his mental state is deteriorating rapidly? Listening to the man is quite simply frighting.
I remember Watergate. There was a great rush by the Republicans to defend "The President" and just as great a rush away from him when facts started to appear. And the facts of Watergate are so petty compared with Mr. Trump's Russia Problem.
18
It is kind of hilarious to see the Trump administration objecting to something on the grounds of it being untrue.
10
Eventually, Trump and his cronies will make one enemy too many. When you start counting, there’s a growing list of people who do have issues with Trump (and his pals) that we might not see at first glance. For example, liberals are unhappy with Trump’s abolishing TPS for Salvadorans. The owners of construction companies are unhappy, too; they’re about to lose an estimated 20 percent of their work force. Similarly, Trump is kissing up to farmers (an important part of his base) while decimating their work force. Sessions, one of Trump’s creatures, has already upset millennials, state governors, and the businesspeople in the legal marijuana trade.
The list of enemies Trump is making goes on and on. Eventually, Trump will go too far and provide the political snowball that sets off an electoral avalanche. The only question is whether we’ll still have a salvageable country—and a world that isn’t radioactive—when that happens.
20
You two are always stimulating, but I'm wondering if you need to consider that the redistribution of wealth has started to make the U.S. a bit more of what used to be called Third World? Yes, Stephens you meniton "all the things that are going right in this world: ever fewer people living in extreme poverty, ever more people becoming literate and gaining access to electricity and clean water, and so on." But the water was on fire in fracking country and we're pursuing fossil fuel production now, and out here in San Diego we can't provide shelter to an ever-growing the homeless population. So... maybe solar power in Africa is becoming available, but here the Nameless One has removed Obama's household subsidies for that sustainable energy in favor of opening national and state monuments to drilling. We're edging downward, no?
15
Well, hang on to your hats, folks. Arpaio, trump's bosom buddy in Arizona, just announced he is running for congress. No doubt trump will be out campaigning for him.
God help us.
10
There was a fire at Trump Tower the other day. Spontaneous combustion I suppose amongst all the glitz and glitter. I wouldn’t be comfortable living in one of his buildings. As President, he has concentrated on eliminating inspectors and regulations all throughout the government. Sooner or later this is going to catch up with us. My bet is on sooner,
9
Trump is the symptom, not the disease. The disease is our national story, in which we stil believe that we have an endless frontier, and that winning the great war is still relevant. Neither are true anymore, but we act, believe, and vote as if they were.
As long as we continue to believe these things, neither party can help us because our problems are not solvable within that context. So we will swing between conservatives, liberals, and the occasional wild card, like Trump.
Our choices are actually fairly simple: leave our national story as it is and accept continuing decay and stratification, or admit that we need to adopt a different set of beliefs and programs, hopefully similar to Northern Europe. The frontier is gone, and WW2 doesn't matter anymore. Get over it and move on.
7
Such a calm, detached conversation for people who are picnicking on the precipice of Trump driven doom. I am of course referring to the near certainty of his breaking something big in an enduring way.
The only question is whether he will break the economy, your supposed freedoms, world peace or the whole post-WWII international order.
5
I'm not going to talk about Trump's politics, that is ordinary back and forth and not a cause for concern. What I am concerned about is the stability issue. We have a person as President, whose words and actions indicate that he is in fact not stable, in spite of his claim as being 'a very stable genius.' He is in charge of the US Military, he literally has world ending power. If he was in the military, his words and actions would require his removal from nuclear access, he would be deemed too unstable for the responsibility.
There have been whispers that both Nixon and Regan were removed from Nuclear Command Authority, near the end of their presidencies. Yet how does one do this when it is the President's basic personality that is at issue?
I would be reluctant to have a non-elected staff member, Kelly or Mattis, be given final authority for a command decision, which would seem to mean that the responsibility should fall to Pence. Yet if we have to do this to guard our safety, then why should Trump continue in office? The very fact that we are having this conversation means we have a problem. It is a problem we cannot duck, the consequences are too large to ignore.
Removing Trump and installing Pence as President would not solve the political issue that bedevils so many people, but it would mean that we would not go to war because of an unstable president.
3
I did not hear Oprah say anything in her wonderful speech about running for President. Stop dreaming, and start supporting viable candidates.
3
Everyone who wants #45 out of office, myself included need to understand that the timeline for repairing the damage done this country is not a short term fix, but in a 20-40 year cycle as younger more Progressive Democrats and or a viable third party are created to end the hegemony of our current debacle. Recruitment of the young and passionate are the only way we will take back this country from the Oligarchs. Anyone under the age of 40 is encouraged to run for local offices. We start the revolution from the ground up!
6
Collins and Stephens are apparently unable to appreciate the fact that America finally has a "stable genius" President, one who has the courage to tell it like it is, to cast himself with all honesty as having the same ability to lead our nation as three other truly great stable geniuses, Secretariat, Citation, and Seattle Slew.
4
Triple Crown winners are stable geniuses. Trump, not so much.
7
NY Times nobel prize winning economist: "the economy will never recover if Trump is elected". This is genius.
Does it take genius to figure out that adding an infinite number of regulations is not great for business?
Does it take a genius to figure out that raising taxes on businesses (to higher than other countries) is not great for them/our country?
Sadly, during the election he repeatedly told and showed us what an ill-informed, non-intellectual, xenophobic he was. He once commented that he wondered why, if we had so many nuclear weapons, we didn't use them.
Those of us who truly care about more than wearing silly red hats and carrying guns apparently weren't sufficiently motivated to actually turn out and vote. The Ralph Nader effect, which tanked Al Gore in 2000 showed up as the Jill Stein effect in 2016, effectively tanking Hillary Clinton. The Bernie effect served to keep large numbers of millenials at home. I actually know Gen Xers who proudly announce they didn't vote in 2016 because they refused to participate in a "lesser of two evils" contest.
Come November, we need to be sure we don't fall back into the mid-term doldrums. Get out and vote for reliable, competent, and qualified candidates who understand "how government by, for, and of the people" is supposed to work. And while you're at it, take a friend along.
10
Let me just point out--Mr. Ed was a stable genius.
The Stable Genius has the support of 80% of Republicans. He is not going anywhere.
Democrats and other Trump foes should focus on what they need to do to minimize the damage in 2018 and remove him in 2020.
Everything else is a waste of time and detracts from realistic goals.
To democrats:
Don't shut down the government.
Most people who vote are against illegal immigrants of any flavor.
Adopt a jobs policy for people displaced by globalization.
3
The Republicans need to put patriotism over party for once. Their lack of love for this country is appalling and Americans everywhere are thoroughly repulsed.
2
"But let me ask you a question about the economy. It’s been doing very well..."
Really? For whom? Many of us are doing fine, but what about the more than 40 million Americans clearly living below the poverty line? And what about the millions immediately above them who are one failed furnace or flat tire from joining them? How does the status of the banksters mean anything to the bottom third? We're fools.
4
Of course Trump is a very stable genius. Because "I'm a very stable genius" is what those people typically say.
1
Why not think of Trump as a salesman of genius? Perhaps he doesn't care much what he sells as long as he benefits. I wish the press paid more attention to the shoddy or dangerous merchandise he's selling. The best way to deal with a seller of bad merchandise is to draw attention to the defects of the merchandise.
2
Does Donald Trump know that a stable genius is a horse that can count with its feet? Now he can be compared to the likes of Mr. Ed . . . I'm sorry if I insulted any other stable geniuses out there. I owe all of you an apple . . .
2
The concept of this 'right-left conversation' is laughable. Bret Stephens is not a conventional conservative or even a right of center pundit. Labelling him as such does a discredit to readers of the NYT. Bret is strictly center; it doesn't matter if he's here from WSJ. An actual right-left conversation would provide valuable insight into real differences in American politics today. If you, the average NYT reader, believe you are witnessing a true discussion between two opposing philosphical sides, perhaps you can visit Breitbart.com to read thoughts by their resident liberal, Rush Limbaugh.
The left abides. Simply does nothing. No organizing, no solid resistance, no leadership. Just laughter and "better". A new opposition party is needed.
2
Finally a sane conversation, even fruitful when one considers the differing philosophies in play, conservative and liberal, hence able to present reality as is...and not as we wish it were. I hate to spend any time on our brutus ignoramus, but here we go; Trump is not really the dumb moron people tend to describe, as he seems well endowed with 'attributes' the rest of us could only dream of, if ever (racist, xenophobe, sexual predator; outstanding liar, and a consummate thief during his long-standing real estate business, always 'the winner' with each of his bankruptcies). On the other hand, don't you think we are foolish by asking this vulgar bully some decency, as he clearly can't give what he doesn't have?
12
Stop giving Trump publicity! It's sure to irritate him more and allow me to read my paper in peace without seeing is FACE!
9
Okay, I just had an evil thought.
What if everyone completely ignored Trump? Treated him as though he did not exist?
Would he implode from the lack of attention, his massive ego collapsing into a singularity that not even his congressional lap dogs could escape?
2
Demo slogan? Easy. "Make America America Again"
218
How about "Rex was right"?
or
"Make America Great Again-Impeach Trump"
Thinking of the new slogan. I vote for MAAA. Yep, like the little kid running to his Ma when scared. MAAA for Make America America Again.
92
Yes, MAAA! Progressive women with deep governing experience, I'm calling you!
Celebrities & business leaders, although accomplished and (sometimes) inspiring, not so much.
2
Power can not only corrupt behavior, it can cloud one's view of one's abilities and importance. I'm speculating that many who are elected to the House or Senate or who are appointed to important federal positions (at least secretly) believe they are "geniuses." Exceptional human beings. Above and beyond reproach. While President Trump trumpets his wealth, so many we've elected and many he has appointed are millionaires, self-proof that money makes one special. In fiction and in "reality," there are "mad scientists" and there are "evil geniuses." I write from personal experience. I have been called a "genius." I differ from Mr. Trump in that I KNOW I'm NOT really a genius. Do I wish I were a genius? I'm not sure.
Doug Giebel, Big Sandy, Montana
5
He's a jerk, but he's getting results. Of course if you don't like more secure borders, a booming economy, energy independence, Middle East peace, devastation of ISIS, or tax decreases, then of course you will not like Trump.
3
Oh please, he inherited the economy and we are no where near being energy independent.
BTW, you forgot to mention the things he can take credit for, an increase in hate crimes, more polluted air and water, strained relationships with our allies etc.
5
None of the things you mention had anything to do with Trump, except maybe tax decreases for the super rich, and overall increases on the rest of us. Yeah our standard deduction increased but only temporarily and we lost so many other deductions, permanently.
3
The problem is that "the Twitter side of his brain" seems to be the only side of the Trump brain capable of mustering even the glimmer of what used to be known as "thought."
8
His election campaign took off after he had released his huge taxcut program he has delivered right now. That´s when donors let the money flow again. He knew by his former, say, special environment or "business entourage" what he had to do then: Acting as an absolutely reliant sturdy bulldozer to push it through bullying all adversaries away no matter what it costs. That´s exactly what he did. Geniusses are not required to pave this way. Consistent pavement was already planned by countless tax cut drafts of all lobby groups, think tanks, party caucuses and corporate circles made in nearly one decade. He should not even read it - it didn´t matter anyhow - he just had to help to pass legislation as it was by his well known personal ways taking all the punches for his main enablers even as a one way candidate. He just did that job as he was supposed to do. Mr. Bannon had not accepted this task so he had to go. Mr. Trump was smarter because he always knows to cheat all hangmen when push comes to shove. That´s what he always did successfully.
The problem is: Job description of "President of the USA" is quite different from those for "tax cut activist" or for "CEO for political agendas of domestic donors and other buddies". Neither he nor his enablers have got this right. Such a very stable not-genius like him is the last to know how to deal with all other duties of this job right now for 3 more years. He isn´t simply built for this but nobody cared about.
6
Te last time we all had this situation was in the last year or so of Regan's presidency, when it turns out he was suffering from early Alzheimer's. Regan's staff and handlers basically kept the nation in the dark.
Now we have The Donnie Show, complete with a narcissistic buffoon who acts out of vindictiveness and self-interest, with a lack of inquisitiveness about the details of much of anything outside of his golf game and a distain for the rule of law. Regan suffered from a cruel disease, Donnie from a defective form of character. Donnie has no excuse at all, nor do the Republicans who preserve his grasp on office.
13
Ronnie was never in charge. He was used by a cabal of wealthy industrialist repubilcans to be the figurehead, while they ran the government for their benefit. As his fellow actor, James Garner once said "Ronnie never had an original thought in his head." Same goes for the electoral college president.
4
Good Lord! Make America CIVIL again.....
15
I like that one, but MAC? Maybe it needs tweaking.
Ooops -guess I didn't capitalize "Again"
How about Make America Sane Again ?
12
Literally a main topic of conversation is if the most important political position in our country is held by a person either mentally ill or mentally deficient.
Thanks Republicans.
We will remember in November
25
Can we survive a stupid president? A "Very Stable Genius" in the White House? Impeachment of a possibly mentally-incapacitated president will be a first in our democracy. Paul Ryan, our "intellectual" Speaker, lauds Trump's "unique style". No need for more G.O.P. enablers attesting to Trump's fitness. Let's see what Trump's doc has to say in a few weeks. The thought of Mike Pence ascending to the presidency is vomitrocious. On the other hand, talmudically speaking, only a depression, recession, explosion of our stock market balloon would help repeal and replace Trump from office .If rage-tweeting by Trump - our "very stable genius", who's "like, really smart" - isn't America's new normal, what is?
7
Thank you. Your congenial conversation about uncongenial Donald Trump is a comfort.
And would you now please invite David Brooks out to lunch and chat with the man? Today he published a column arguing that we should all be more grateful for the diligent handlers in the White House who do their best to control The Donald, and that voters who fail to appreciate the fact America is still functioning, thanks to these babysitters, are stubborn and predictable as Fox News fans. All equally “lowbrows.”
Oh, and please invite Paul Krugman to the meal.
No need to report the menu ... unless it’s Big Macs.
8
What's going to happen to the economy when we've kicked out the Dreamers and the Salvadorians? It could tank then, if it hasn't already.
5
It was the Republican leadership in Congress that led the inquiry into the abuses of the Nixon administration. What is conspicuously absent this time around is the failure of Republican leadership to publicly recognize that the toxicity, divisiveness,and general disregard for the rule of law by this President is in itself a danger to our national security. While conservatives tend not to be gamblers by nature, they are engaged now in the biggest gamble of all . Whether they are able to unite the party and advance their agenda behind their "very stable genius" in chief remains to be seen. And in 2018 we will learn if their gamble was an intelligent move.
88
Do you think the integrity of the current GOP has diminished since Nixon? I would bet on it.
1
I'm surprised lightening doesn't strike the White House during their moment of prayer.
20
In corporate America today there exists a phenomena known as "managing up", which could be defined as assisting, influencing or manipulating one's boss for the good of the company, the greater good, or one's own career (sometimes all three simultaneously). Managing up is obviously extremely prevalent in the White House and Congress today, for obvious reasons. "Here Mr President, sign this, it will make you look good and the American people will like you." Unfortunately, managing up creates a symbiotic relationship between the manager and the managed. With their fortunes thus linked, managing and being managed become increasingly crucial to the survival of careers and paychecks all around. Our Republican Congress surely has realized by now that the bus they would throw their President under will just as surely fall on them.
7
I would PREFER Mr. Ed.. Seriously.
130
Me too. At least we'd get the right end of the horse.
2
Bret, How's the medical care over there in Germany?
11
Medical care in Germany is better than in the US. Life-expectancy - for example - is higher in Germany. Germany has excellent medical care, that's affordable for everybody, and has been since the 1880s. And there are no nasty waiting times, like they have in Britain with the NHS.
What was the point you were trying to make?
1
I think that Mr. Stephens puts his finger on it, we're counting on the Cabinet and Congress to save us from the President's, shall we say, "idiosyncratic" take on reality, when instead they seem to be eager to bolster it for their own purposes.
And if Wolff's gossipy piece of fluff is creating such a stir at 1600, just imagine what will happen when David Cay Johnston's "It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America" comes out next week.
7
My guess is that Michael Wolff flattered Trump behind his back, and word got back to Trump, giving Wolff all the access he needed.
Simply put, Wolff conned the con man, Trump.
11
Two things in this conversation to ponder...
"Fire and Fury" has stumped Trump. He is not shrugging off the book and its bite. He ordered out his sycophants, unarmed, to defend him, he tweeted claims of genius which doth protest too much and ring-a-ding-dinged of, "My mommy can beat your mommy up"; he is seething, futiley laboring over how to frame himself a winner in the book that humiliates him, and he is overheating his tiny mind with the question, What derogatory moniker to give Wolff? His furious shallow child is having a tantrum!
Second, Trump has someone read Gail's columns to him?! That's dangerous to our nation. His babysitters are supposed to keep him on a diet of Fox and Hannity, not disturbing, depressing reality! Gail, as you write, please keep in mind your audience includes a child with a button he is itching to press.
9
What a wonderful imagery : Trump swinging from a chandlier and throwing rocks on White House visitors ! Love it.
5
Rocks, if they're lucky.
1
Trump dose not only have an attention span problem. He "forgets" issues because he was trained by con-artist Roy Cohn to obfuscate and confuse all who question his untenable positions.
7
Best comment: Dems have to be careful about telling Trump voters "they were stupid". It just makes them more likely to vote for Trump candidates. Most people, when threatened or insulted, just retreat more firmly into their previous position. Same happened with Obama in 2012, where many GOP said the Obama voters were stupid. People retreated more firmly to their previous position.
2
Wile E Coyote was a stable genius
6
The symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder published online by the Mayo Clinic so accurately describe Donald Trump that they'ed be humorous if not for the fact that Trump is our president.
11
How about, "Make America GOOD again?" Oh, wait! Speaking of waiting, I can't wait for President "Trump [to start] swinging from the chandelier ... throwing rocks at White House tour groups." It would be better than the unstably genius things he now does day by astonishing day. So, he might smite a few liberals, but not many. Liberals don't visit the White House anymore.
5
"He is absolutely no different than the day he got elected", and "it’s management by controlled and orchestrated chaos”, says a supporter of the president. Truer words were never spoken. Does that mean that he hasn't learned anything or profited from his mistakes? Controlled and orchestrated chaos have no place in the Oval Office. If nothing else, this president has been disruptive, which is just fine with his base.
The president's unfitness for his office was obvious since the day he announced his candidacy. His unseemly mockery of a New York Times reporter was ample enough evidence that this man was unstable, had a serious lack of mature judgment and mental acuity that he passed off as humor, playing to his supporters for laughs. The Hollywood Access video demonstrated how out-of-control his personal conduct is and his contempt for women. These are not the actions of a person who has all his marbles.
During his presidency, he's gone out of his way to pick fights with world leaders and settle grudges for perceived slights and snubs. He attacks the media, then wonders why he gets such bad notices. He compromised his Attorney General and demeaned not only the rule of law but the agencies charged with the duty to uphold the law. He has sympathized with white nationalists, insinuating that they're the cream of he American citizenry crop. He championed the Senate candidacy of a serial molester of young girls. Sorry, but he's a madman in charge of the White House asylum.
14
He is not a narcissist.
He is a malignant narcissist.
The difference?
It's not enough for him to "win". Somenody else has to lose.
2018 will show the "winningness" of anyone who supported this malignant narcissist, or even just stayed silent as he ranted on, ad nauseum.
8
Trump may be a bigot, rabble rouser, pathological liar, admitted sexual predator, ego maniac demagogue but he is not "insane".
He has a personality disorder and his only concern is making himself look good and getting hero worship.
On the points made in the first sentence he should be censored.
If he does not listen to Congress or gets indicted by Mueller, he should then be impeached and convicted.
8
I'd rather have a qualified jerk in there than an under qualified "feel good" vote like Oprah.
Speaking of feel good - that's Oprah's whole m/o - as she did the other night. She makes people (Women) "feel good", placated, "enabled" and comfortable for an hour with a cup of tea.
I have no desire whatsoever to see another celebrity in the White House but I will point out that unlike Trump Oprah actually worked her way up and earned her success and she never had to declare bankruptcy.
1
my few trump-supporting friends do take it personally when liberal elites call their man stupid. and as a point of fact, he's not a moron in any strict sense of the word; he does what he does quite competently (e.g., speaking to crowds, appearing on television, running a family business.)
harvard's howard gardner, patron saint of not-conventionally-smart people, views intelligence as a multiplicity of abilities that cannot be captured in a single iq score. donald trump may not be able to think critically or understand another's point of view, but he shines in front of a friendly audience. since by definition half the nation has a below-average iq, it is hardly useful to hold a leader to a rigid standard of intelligence.
5
It's painful to see a photo of an immoral, lying, hate-spewing, conman pretending to pray along with his despicable minions. If there was a God of vengeance he'd turn them all to pillars of salt for blasphemy.
11
Elsewhere, today, it is reported that our "stable genius" is defunding proven border security measures in order to "pay for his wall." ??????
8
COngratulations! Not a single mention of the dossier or Russia! But I hope your perseveration on Russia may not now be transferred to a perseveration on sanity. Your champions on that issue are as shady as Steele, as you admit.
Why not begin looking for, and commenting on, the good things that have occurred since Obama has left office?
1
I hope all of you who voted for this self-proclaimed genius are happy. You voted for him because you wanted something different, well you got it...and how. Now perhaps you are waking up and realizing everything he promised you is not going to happen.......you've been conned and by an expert. The problem is that this expert is an egotistical maniac, a racist, a bully, a despot. a wanna be authoritarian, etc. etc etc. Are you all happy now. Next time you want something different, thing twice.
8
Very happy, thank you.
When we’ve terminated the “temporary” residence of otherwise illegal El Salvadorans, perhaps we can deal with other “temporary” aliens.
Who knows, when we reduce the pool of aliens (legal and illegal), working for substandard pay - employers might be forced to pay reasonable wages to Americans.
My 401K continues to grow, federal drug and immigration laws are being enforced, and my federal government is more interested in prosecuting criminals than persecuting police officers.
MAGA is working well.
Love the picture of the President and staff praying - the President thanking Jesus for making him such a stable genius, the others asking God if they are doing the right thing, and getting the answer, every time, that they are always doing the right thing. Very inspiring - thanks for posting!
5
And Jesus said, “Be not like the hypocrits who pray in public to be seen by men...”
1
The Congressional Republicans will do nothing about Trump simply because they know what happened to the party following the Nixon impeachment. Memory of those losses, though almost half a century old, will linger on until most of the Baby Boomers have passed on.
It would be nice if the Democrats had a constructive policy to offer, and a range of new candidates to advocate that policy. However, Obama did very little to develop the party while he was the defacto party leader. While his policies preserved the financial industry, those policies did very little for most of his supports. The ACA was an achievement, but much of the credit for that bill goes to Palosi and Reid.
Both parties have much work to do before they can provide true leadership to the entire country.
1
The premise of your discussion is based on false information. There Is nothing wrong with the mental prowess of our president. There is definitely everything wrong with the crowd that can't accept the election outcome.
It is an other low for the NYT.
11
The election outcome revealed a flaw in the Constitution that had never been tested: the huge difference between the popular vote and the Electoral College. It means that times have changed and populations -- as in voters, one person one vote wherever you live - are moving to cities. And the majority in almost every major city, even in the reddest states, voted for Hillary Clinton. Ideally there should be an amendment accounting for such a large difference, because the outcome was undemocratic. It's not the narrow-minded conclusion by Trump voters that California and New York would rule the country.
16
Speaking of people who can't accept the election outcome - Trump is the one who can't stop obsessing about Hillary and Obama and the popular vote count. He is the President after all. Maybe if he could let go of it and stop tweeting about it and stop his governance based on grudges we could all move on.
7
The only thing scarier than a crazy, out of control Trump is one who is doing this stuff deliberately. The latter will cross the Rubicon and put an end to the Republic.
2
Really dislike these cutesy little duets with Gail and Bret. Gail is much more entertaining and lucid on her own.
6
Humor seemingly has a different relevance in the darkest of times but it can never be underestimated. Recall how General McAuliffe replied to the Nazis request that he surrender at the Battle of Bastogne in WWII. His one word reply "Nuts" to the Germans emboldened the Americans and was instrumental in winning the battle and inspiring military men for decades.
So don't give up on humor in these darkest of constitutional times. It may just be the one thing that saves us from this sorry example of leadership. Most Americans - at least 9 out of 10 - enjoy those with a good sense of humor.........think President Kennedy.
93
I'm pretty sure that "Nuts" was the bowdlerized, family-friendly version...
Genius!
Likely so, as it would be a stretch to think that a beleaguered general wouldn't use stronger language. Still it was perfect for us teenagers in the 40's following the war's progress and of course the movie "Battleground" in 49 with an earthy, robust cast led by Van Johnson and James Whitmore reinforced the "Nuts" part which then became the legend.
The first thing a Congress controlled by the Democratic Party must do is set up a group to determine if the President is unfit to serve. They have this authority under Section 4 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...".
I believe that this Cabinet will never declare this President unfit to serve. They have too much to gain by standing by their man. But future Cabinets may also be reluctant to do it. It would probably take a total breakdown by the President to force them to take action, unlike now when the current President is only slightly insane. The Congress needs to set up a group that does not have a vested interest in the President to determine if he/she is unfit to serve.
I would recommend at least one NY Times journalist be a member of that group, preferably Gail Collins.
2
MASA = very nice.
1
Maybe it’s time to stop asking who is “adult” in the room.
It’s obviously a meaningless standard in 2018.
4
Didn't Shakespeare say something like "methinks he doth protest too loudly"?
1
Amusing, Gail, but what have you said.
Chris Welles wrote The Last Days of The Club.
I remember Chris.
He said something. And everything changed.
There’s not a general partnership left – with the exception of Brown Brothers Harriman. Right?
Heads I win, tails you lose?
And we disliked the NYSE Specialist system.
How do you like hedge funds.
Renaissance, anyone?
Should a stable genius not concentrate on horse trading?
5
Funny! Maybe he would trade our country for a ride on Putin's horse--the one he rode on in that bare-chested photo.
I'd have respect for genius if Trump really was one. I respect someone who works hard at making himself an expert at anything, whether it's football, plumbing, science, or international relations. I have no respect for Donald Trump. He constantly lies, often about things he knows nothing about. He refuses to listen to the advice of people who devoted their lives to being experts in their fields. Instead, he relies on what he thinks is his natural genius. He is not a genius, not even a business genius. He is particularly not a genius president.
7
The idea that the anti-Trump movement is not a strong enough motivator to tip a midterm election ignores the behavior of the Republican party since 2010 and the recent off-year elections across the country, including in Alabama and Oklahoma, two states where "Democrat" is a curse word. Trump is the first president in modern times where a fair comparison could be made to the worst dictators around the world. Trump would love to do away with all parts of the 1st Amendment except for the religious part that allows bakers to say no to gay people, and he would like to jail his political opponents. We might as well have Putin as president. Republicans voted against Democrats essentially because Obama was black. The "too much regulation" and national healthcare stuff was just the excuse of the day. Now I don't want to deny how energizing racism can be, but surely, for reasonable-minded Americans, a president who essentially wants to do away with the basic framework of our government and install himself as dictator, well, that should be enough to motivate voters to get to the polls. I would hope that would be as motivational as voting against the "colored fella." Democrats and Independents have to under the severity of risk with Trump, and stay energized. This isn't about a tax cut or global warming, this is about democracy for gosh sakes.
7
Whenever there is a mass shooting, unless the shooter is a Muslim or has brown skin, the Republican Party usually blames the shooters motivation on insanity or the actions of a troubled mad man. They always ask the question, why didn’t the people who knew the shooter, notice they were acting in an unstable manner, or that they displayed erratic, abnormal behavior and why didn’t somebody say something.
Not that Donald Trump is a mass murder, although he could be the greatest mass murder in history, it is deplorable that the Republican party ferociously attacks anyone who suggests that Donald Trump may have a seriously dangerous personality disorder. Whenever anyone suspects someone is a threat to the lives of innocent people or is a danger to the public, it is that person’s moral and civic responsibility to speak up about it and point it out to the authorities, this also applies to Donald Trump or any other person regardless of whether or not they won an election or how much money they have in the bank.
In the case of Donald Trump, those who have the power and authority to prevent an ongoing catastrophe have been warned by over two dozen psychiatric professionals and multiple media sources of the dangers of our potentially mentally ill President and yet they protect him and allow him to continue to be a clear and eminent danger to the citizens of the country and the world. Who do we blame, the Mad Man, or the insanity that embraces the madness.
3
What about this for a political slogan? "Make America America Again."
3
If you voted for Donald Trump and you aren't rich, and you still haven't awakened to smell the coffee then nothing the Dems say will EVER change your mind. and honestly, we should be evaluating if you have the intellectual capacity to vote.
I will say one thing for the squatter in the Oval Office, he's brought me together with normal average Republicans like I never thought I'd see again. They hate him. And it gives us plenty in common.
4
Am I seeing signs of his mental decline? He's forgotten how to use the word, huge! He's now using, "very stable". Perhaps he's completely gone and a new AI device similar to Alexa is responding for him???????????????
I'm not an attorney, but in light of the Mueller investigations, does the law allow a president to declare himself not guilty by reason of insanity?
American economics is still being driven by lower than they should be interest rates, which make some rich at the expense of others. Our wonderful FED continues to lie about inflation. Even though we have high employment, a recent study showed that folks at the lower end of the income range can expect their earnings to pay for rent, but not food, utilities or transportation.
Probably read about a 1/4 of Wolfe's book. Nothing unexpected. Far more serious conversations can be found on street corners around the country, weather permitting of course. So beware the Ides of March. Spring will soon follow.
As far as Bret being a "killer", the Russians have videos of him using a rolled up copy of the Times going after a fly! I expect he will soon receive a coded, tweet warning about future columns.
4
Would have enjoyed the press attention BEFORE the he became president when you should have been debating his mental capacity based on what we all saw. Instead, "but her emails."
7
Trump: "I am glad you are talking about stable and the White House. After all, stable is one of my favorite words. But we don't have a stable in the White House. If we had horsies then we might have a stable."
5
"In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king." - Erasmus of Rotterdam, 16th Century. What we have here is a land of the blind, where the minority of voters and the GOP got their heart's desire - a one-eyed King.
5
Trump surrounds himself with believers and enablers. We can only hope that as time goes on most of these people believe in the Constitution more than profits and bowing down to false gods.
2
Bret: I got a speeding ticket from an MP for 45 MPH in 1955. What free country, and we ran it then.
Thanks so much for not talking about Oprah's presidency.
1
Salvador Dali (1989) : "One must not pretend to be a genius for fear of becoming one. "
http://www.ina.fr/audio/P12192944
1
Please stop dividing people into right and left. Politics is not a continuum. There are thoughtful people with a range of flexible opinions and there are knee-jerk people locked in opinions.
I recently stopped reading a book that had the subtitle “from Edmund Burke to to Sarah Palin”. No way would I compare a thoughtful person like Burke to a rigid thinker like Palin. Burke could change his mind with new information; Palin would...???
1
"...Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.” I think we can safely adapt that quip to the subject of being smart...
How about to the trait of being progressive...
Especially if you're a progressive collecting book advances and royalties...
As far as a slogan - how about:
"Make America Mediocre Again"
This way people could cry out for MAMA...
2
I did notice something recently that shook my Trump enabling senator Cory Gardener out of his intellectual torpor: Jeff Sessions and his proposed War on the Evil Weed. Gardener, never an intellectual giant--or someone capable of sticking his neck out--does know which side his bread is buttered on. He knows that if Sessions has his way with legal marijuana, Colorado will not be a purple state; it will be cobalt blue. Republicans are just as likely to like their legal weed as Democrats.
7
Gail,
You forgot to mention that he's be the bestest rock thrower, ever. Just incredible, amazing, and people can't believe it!
4
It was particularly distressing to read the giddy comments on Oprah by readers here yesterday. After Trump's victory, the Democrats wrung their hands over how to regain the trust of disenfranchised white-working voters, though I have yet to hear any policies from schoolmarms Schumer or Pelosi addressing that- or anything else aside from their antipathy. Now, Democrats are going to win these people back with Oprah??? What they are really doing is trying to resurrect Hillary's failed 2016 strategy by ignoring these voters altogether and looking once more to blacks and women to bail them out, again minus any substantive programs. As our Genius-in-Chief might put it: "Pathetic".
Part of what made Clinton so distasteful as a candidate was the, very correct, impression that she was being foisted on us by forces beyond our control. Trump was a creation brought to us by an unholy alliance of an amoral, audience-hungry media and venal, dark money. They know they reside in a nation of celebrity-worshipping suckers and now the same incestuous cabal wants to give us another fabrication, Oprah, as an antidote. It was so telling that the thunderclap was announced at the Golden Globes, a mecca for plastic people. Do you think you know anything about these "celebrities", who they are, what they represent? Why does an endorsement from them carry more weight than one from your mailman? Because they're attractive! Wake up!
I take it you mean women were foisting Hillary on you. Hillary would have made a terrific president and is much better qualified than some men who have attempted to gain the presidency. Unfortunately, our country is not ready to accept that women can be leaders. While I would not encourage Oprah, I would support and work to get Elizabeth Warren elected as our next president.
1
No Norma, I wasn't referring to women, I was referring to the DNC, Wall Street and wealthy pseudoliberals in general. As a matter of fact, I voted for Jill Stein because Bernie was unavailable for some reason, so you can credit me for voting for a woman just not THAT woman.
Donald Trump’s boasting about his “genius” reminds me of the old saying: “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”
Maybe Bret, who hectored endlessly on the nuances of sexual harassment should examine how much wisdom's such as this have become a part of him and informed his thinking.
3
Trump is having his physical this week. Question: if the doctors find that Trump has neither a heart nor a brain, would this automatically trigger the 25th Amendment? Or would being brainless and heartless become the new requirement for all future Republican candidates?
7
We already knew that Trump has a talent for devising pithy, derogatory, schoolyard taunts for his political adversaries: "Crooked Hillary," "Little Marco," "Lyin' Ted Cruz" and the like. Try as they might, these seasoned politicians were never able to escape Trump's childish nicknames.
But at last, perhaps Trump has devised a catchy nickname for himself: "Very Stable Genius" (or just, "V.S.G." for short, as Paul Krugman abbreviates it, today.) In just 3 words, "Very Stable Genius" encapsulates the vain, lying, narcissistic, clueless and desperate braggadoccio of this, stupid, unstable, small-handed little man.
6
This is exactly what Trump expressed in one of his tweets to show the media loves the circus and will do what they can to help him keep it going all in the name of ratings and views. Unfortunately I think he is correct.
"So, in that spirit, thank you, President Trump! You’re doing wonders for our business. Please keep the tweets, threats and general insanity coming in ’18."
2
Despite Mueller's investigation and Democratic hopes for a 25th Amendment removal, Trump is almost certainly going to be our president until 2020 - unless he has a heart attack from all those Big Macs.
So the thing to do is accept that and to work around Trump's worst character flaws. I think that is what McMaster, Tillerson, Mattis, Kelly and others are doing. Despite lots of hyperventilating on the left, Trump has worked within the Constitutional order of government and has not defied the courts. It's also hard to imagine Trump as an autocrat when virtually every action he takes reduces the size and influence of the federal government.
So just relax, and maybe take a month off from reading anything about Trump.
1
How totally refreshing and wonderful that we now have a President who actually STANDS up for American.
I think you really meant “stands ON America”, bringing out every negative you can think of. VSG, LOL. Malignant narcissistic by nature and as dumb as a rock is DT. People who think otherwise don’t think.
Ms. Collins, that's DOCTOR Ben Carson. As in, "Medical Doctor." The one cabinet member who would normally be considered at least somewhat familiar with the premises of the 25th Amendment - removing the President for medical or mental capacity reasons - doesn't have a clue. God help us.
4
Incumbent Presidents don't lose when the economy is strong. A strong economy is good for the incumbent congress as well.
.
The last time either party didn't hold the White House for at least 2 terms in a row was 1980. Before that the last time was 1896. The Republicans last lost the White House after one term in 1892.
.
If you think that 2018 and 2020 are going to be easy elections to win because of Trump, think again. The Democrats need better candidates, stronger national leaders who aren't hopelessly overage baby boomers from coastal elites, and a national agenda which clearly benefits most Americans, rather than a grab bag of favors for the usual coalition members. The same old Democratic party will not win big simply by 'resisting' Trump.
1
2% economic growth is not sluggish if the population is not growing.
And while we have had 2% growth since 2000, Mr. Stephens only mentions the years of Obama.
Worse, with the W Bush "tax cuts or the job creators," we only got 3 million jobs. Much worse, Bush took the balanced budget, zero deficit, from Clinton and turned it into a whopping $1.4 Trillion deficit.
Obama raised taxes, gave us the "jobs killing" Obama-care and we got 11 million jobs, almost 400% more than Bush. Obama also cut the deficit by almost 2/3 to $550 Billion.
But it sounds like Mr. Stephens is drinking the Reaganomics, trickle-down Kool-Aid.
He really should take some responsibility to learn these things if he is going to make a living giving us advice.
We will have Trump for a finite time.
But we will have Republicans and trickle-down economics and huge increases in the deficit and debt for years to come.
All to be paid for by ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren along with Paul Ryan's cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
And Ryan got through college with the help of Social Security survivor benefits because his father died young.
Someone explain that to me.
1
The thing that is scaring me right now is an Oprah Winfrey run for the President. The part of her "great speech" at the Golden Globe awards that is getting the most play is her suggestion that the greatest thing one can do is "speak your truth."
Lord help us! We've been listening to Donald Trump "speak his truth" for two years now. What we need is someone with courage to "speak THE truth." We don't need Trump's truth, Oprah's truth, or my truth. We need to start telling THE truth about the world we are living in.
1
Sadly and alarmingly, the VSG delusion is shared by many who are charged with the responsibility of protecting the American People. I hope they will all be charged criminally in the VERY near future.
1
I read Fire and Fury and what kept popping in my mind was how trump sounds like Ivan the Terrible from Russia in the 1500s. He was known for his notorious outbursts and autocratic whims. Ivan's legacy was totally changing the political structure and destroying the economy. God help us.
2
I see from that photograph that the Adult Day Care takes afternoon naps.
1
I think the columnists are right.
Democrats shouldn’t run against Trump.
They should run for the values and ideals expressed by the country’s founders. Truth, Equal Justice Under Law, Checks and Balances on Executive Authority etc.
It is odd that the right wingers thought that Obama was going to declare martial law, establish concentration camp, become emperor, but they voted for a man who thins that’s just sines as usual.
.
6
As a Republican voter my top concerns are Trump's lack of character and competency for the role of president, combined with an outsized and compensatory hubris. Everything else we see from him emanates from that. No leader, regardless of who surrounds him or her, can overcome that combination over time. It will always show up in actions. In the president's case, it seems that even those surrounding him don't help much as there are few who are willing to speak truth to power in his inner circle. Even General Kelly seems cowed, unwilling for example to try to rein in the president's Twitter fixation. While I'm sure that is by design as Mr. Trump would be intimidated by anyone who would actually speak truth to him, it's still a major miss for the presidency and a failure in applying the basic principles of Executive Leadership 101.
22
If dissect, genius is not word to use lightly. Synonym for genius is Einstein and no quote from him. Curious. Why emphasize with word "very". Trump said genius. It's like saying "she was very pregnant". And why in God's name add "stable"? Because in advertising you cover all angles, that's why.
4
"gaining access to electricity"? Certainly not in Puerto Rico!
20
I am beginning to wonder just what the Democrats are going to offer the electorate in November.
Where are their bold policy moves that will undo the chainsaw massacre of the federal government now in progress?
Are they going to rise up in a group and create legislation that will save 200,000 good citizens who happen to be El Salvadorans from being forced to return to a gang-infested land that has no place for them?
Are the Democrats brave enough to promote a foreign policy that stops aiding and abetting the most tyrannical regimes on the planet, including the Saudis who are in the process of massacring the ordinary folk of Yemen?
Are they willing to proposal a rollback of tax cuts for billionaires by explaining over and over (complete with effective talking points) about what this nearly two-trillion-dollar giveaway to the wealthiest fraction of the one percent is going to do to your average citizen? The effect it will have on Social Security?
On Medicare?
Right now we need Democrats who are men and women courageous enough to forget the pleasures and privileges of being in Congress and risk it all by going to battle for American democracy.
If the Democrats do not band together, ignoring what their big-money donors want, and fight with all their political and intellectual might for the people they are elected to serve, I fear the United States may not survive this Presidency without wounds serious enough to sink the ship of state.
64
You have been told there will be a Blue Tsunami. There will be a Blue Tsunami.
2
decency is more important now than American "democracy"
1
It's Jan. 9, 2018. The mid-term election clock is ticking. So far, we have nothing from the Democrats. Hello! Time to wake up!
2
This discussion misses the point. Trump's instability and incuriosity was a thoroughly known known when he was elected. He was elected in part because of this and not so much in spite of it. His genius is his ability to manipulate and shape the story that the media and his base follow. Change will come when the legitimate media and the rest of us keep ourselves focused on what made this possible. That is; What happened that inspired enough voters to vote for an unstable and incurious creep that he could become President?
Politicians (and the people that vote for them) must stop make political calculations and focus on the real problems that are hurting the people of this country. Whether we like them or not, whether we think they belong here or not (which means whether they are citizens or not) whether we agree with them or not - because if we don't commit to that what hurts us will not change. The idea of the common good has got to mean something.
24
Perhaps they're not dealing with everyday problems because because the everyday problems of this country are insolvable given our current national story. We still imagine that we're the country with the endless frontier, who won the great war. Until we admit that we must choose between increasing stratification or something similar to what Northern Europe is doing, we will be stuck bouncing between liberals and conservatives, with the occasional wild card (Trump) thrown in. None of them will provide an answer that works.
Gail when you are funny you are generally most amusing, and when you are serious it is a sad outcome. Point being we cannot laugh or humor our way out of this mess. It is going to take strategy, action, and planning outcomes. Do not think the Democrats are up to that and our only hope is on moderate independent thinkers to do the job that the left and right are not capable of because of blinders.
9
Gail and Bret -- It's probably in vain to hope, but could we keep Trump off the balllot next November? Charges of mental instability, 25th Amendment or impeachment effectively put him on the ballot, encouraging turnout among his admirers who might otherwise stay home where they belong. Of course Trump wants to be on the ballot in November -- bride at every wedding, corpse at every funeral. He'll find a way to be topic one in every Congressional district. Sigh.
5
Democrats shouldn’t be optimistic over 2018? Why not? Sure, they shouldn’t get complacent, but, why not optimistic?
November 18 isn’t tomorrow. But in the days up to November 18 God knows how many of these we will witness:
Stupid tweets,
Destructive deregulating,
Foreign embarrassments,
More Russian connections,
Health care losses
and many reminders that the GOP governs with only the top 1% in mind. (What, you think a rising stock market is all people care about?)
All this in the run-up to November 18. Add that to the harm the Trump and his party have already caus d this country this past year, and it will be more than enough to boot the GOP into the street.
17
So, in that spirit, thank you, President Trump! You’re doing wonders for our business. Please keep the tweets, threats and general insanity coming in ’18.
Not so funny.
5
"All of which means that Democrats have to develop a political slogan at least as effective as MAGA. I would humbly suggest MASA: Make America Sane Again." Bret you have hit upon something enormously important. As awful as Trump and the GOP have become it is not enough for the Democrats to be anti-Trump. The party needs a face and a message if we expect to win elections in 2018 and 2020.
12
campaign messages - slogans and caricatures - and celebrity candidates are hopefully something US has learned to stay away from.
On the bright side, at least Fire and Fury will get Trump to read a book.
5
"Trump starts swinging from the chandelier and throwing rocks at White House tour groups."
There are reports circulating from certain sources, who wish to remain anonymous, that Trump has a fixation with the cable gorilla channel. When Trump has down time in the White House, which is rather frequent, he can be found making wild screaming chimp sounds at the TV screen in his bedroom with occasional intervals of chest pounding. When confronted with this story Trump did admit that he was a big "Planet of the Apes" fan.
6
This story will make a great opera that's visually exciting. Just imagine trump-lier in an red velvet cape on his elevated golden throne with a missle replica in his hand as a sephter and his cabinet-sycophants genuflecting. I can see it now...the possibilities for a crown are endless....one woven from golden threads that reach new heights.....this game is so much fun. Too bad what's really happening without the costumes is so frightening.
3
Everybody knows that complicated words do not come easily to Mr. Trump's mouth or fingers so when he said that he was a Very Stable Genius maybe what he was trying to communicate is that he is the Genie in the Stable.
A Genie, that creature of Muslim origins he could be because genies are created to obey the commands of his owner and Mr. Trump so far has done exactly what the Owners of the GOP want him to do, ( tax cuts, no restrictions on pollution, no salary increases, no controls of any sort and so on).
And maybe the Stable part was his subconscious acknowledging what the White House has become since February 2017, a stable, and not for pure breed horses.
4
What isn't mentioned in the conversation in the upcoming election this November is, women running for public office. This year may very well be unique in our political history. Thousands upon thousands of women are exploring the possibility to seek elected office, the majority are Democrats. We just had a special election here in Atlanta a month ago, 5 of the 7 positions were won by women. A very good sign.
It started in January, 2017 with the Women's March, and has been picking up momentum ever since. Trump likely triggered it with his absolute disrespect for women, then the Weinstein's, etc. So the economy and our marginally sane President will be playing second fiddle to the "Women".
280
Until the Congress has term limits - women will always be a minority. The Republican and Democratic machines are greased with billions from "white men." Will this ever change reality does not give me hope.
1
A report by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center estimates that Trump's stripping protections and effectively deporting Salvadorans, Hondurans and Haitians would deprive Social Security and Medicare of about $7 billion in contributions over a decade, and would shrink American gross domestic product by $45 billion...and that's only counting a subset of immigrants Trump is keeping or kicking out of the country.
Trump's Make America White Again policies will slowly and systematically collapse the economy with xenophobia as businesses fail to find workers.
And under the new GOP-Trump 0.1%-CEO Tax Cut Law, income made by American companies’ overseas subsidiaries will be taxed at half the rate applied to their domestic income, 10.5% compared with the new top corporate rate of 21%.
“It’s sort of an America-last tax policy,” said Kimberly Clausing, an economist at Reed College in Portland, Ore., who studies tax policy. “We are basically saying that if you earn (manufacture) in the U.S., you pay X, and if you earn abroad, you pay half of X.”
“Having such a low rate on foreign income is outrageous,” said Stephen Shay, a senior lecturer at Harvard Law School and a Treasury Department official during the Reagan and Obama administrations. “It creates terrible incentives.”
It takes a while do economic damage, but over the course of time, Trump's destructive public policies will be recessionary as he grows the debt and sinks the economy with classic Republican incompetence and greed.
227
What part of 'Temporary Protected Status' did you not understand?
Socrates - a great comment as usual, but don't forget that this set of tax cuts keeps the write off for political donations including PAC donations and massive philanthropic and charitable actions, too. So the taxpayers are covering the costs of Koch brothers', the Mercer's and Adelson's political political actions. We are funding Trump, the Heritage and the CATO institutes too . . . that's just plain wrong.
5
If I want a "stable genius" I'll call The Horse Whisperer.
103
He is neither stable nor a genius, but Democrats have failed to notice that he is making the right decisions for the most part and, shudder!m even enforcing the law.
For instance 200,000 Salvadorans were here temporarily. They have been here for 16 years. Only the NYT fails to understand that "temporarily" means fewer than 16 years.
4
It’s a bit late isn’t it? Why didn’t GW Bush enforce the temporary provision? What were these people supposed to do? Go back voluntarily to a broken country? They stayed, they found work. Has the GOP said much about this in 16 years? No. Only Aruna fails to understand that his GOP let “temporary” be forever until it was time to score political points.
So, why did George Bush let them in, then let them stay?
6
Lon Zo, it is not MY GOP. Where did you get THAT information? I did not vote for Bush in 2000 nor in 2004.
If I argue with Democrats here, it is not because I am Republican. It is rather because Democrats are no less stupid than Republicans are.
Here is my proof. You blame MY GOP but say nothing about the 8 years of Obama's presidency. Democrats have become so partisan that they have lost the ability to think. Sad, really.
1
In this regime, Indian-Americans like me and (you?) should fear same fate falling on them, given the anti-immigrant drive.
if it's always darkest before the dawn...
13
ACTUALLY IT COULD JUST BE BLEAK DARK AND GETTING DARKER - BOOM
1
It is always darkest before going completely black.
2
One thing's for sure: this midterm election will attract more attention than any before. Assuming the Democrats don't muck things up too badly, they will turn Congress into a pretty powerful Trump resistance force.
In addition, the man himself is obviously deteriorating mentally and behaviorally, and thus his own strength is ebbing steadily. If we can make it through this year without a war being touched off, we should be in a position to repair most of the damage all right. People who are tearing their hair out -- "Good Lord, the Republic is suffering irreparable destruction!" -- are simply expressing their emotions, I think. And that's fine; we all need to vent now and then.
19
"Assuming the Democrats don't muck things up too badly..." is akin to believing that you can jump off a cliff and that you reasonably expect to hover or fall up. After all the General Theory of Relativity which describes gravity as mass warping space-time is only a theory.
In the 2016 Presidential election 63 million American voters went with Donald John Trump knowing that "..he was deteriorating mentally and emotionally.." while 70 years old living the heathen hedonist pagan playboy New York City life "earned" from his real estate inheritance.
But "If we can make it through this year without a war...." is in the hands of a Congress that has not had the courage to debate and declare war nor budget and pay for same since Franklin D. Roosevelt after Pearl Harbor.
5
WRONG premise kMr. Mamba - Voters were not aware of Trump's worsening mental state. He was not yet showing the signs that he could not hold up under the pressures of a regular routine. Let's start with an honest premise if we are to speak or write about Trump . . .
Steady now, what you are experiencing is a Trump induced paranoia. Remind yourself that you are smart than this and normally a very stable person!
We've fallen into a real rabbit hole here. It's "Donald in Blunderland" playing the role of the Mad Hatter complete with a Cheshire cat describing all the "Fire and Fury" in this dark chaotic world where mindless insanity is "very stable genius" as the angry Red Queen watches as this house of cards collapses in mutual recrimination and disloyalty. So thank you for the diversion Ms. Tweedledee and Mr. Tweedledum. Now it's back to the reality of dealing with my PTSD--Persistent Trump Stress Disorder as more immigrants are threatened with deportation, the government may shut down unless a multi-billion dollar wall is built while children are being denied their health benefits for a lot less money and millions of others have lost theirs to pay for the tax cut Trump and his cabinet of oligarchs need to Make America Great Again. It's total insanity and I didn't even mention the "bigger button that works" at his tweeting little fingertips.
366
"Blunderland!" Spot on, Paul. For anyone who reads or participates in Comments, "Through the Looking Glass" should be required reading. The opening lines of "Jabberwocky" are as concise and accurate a description of the Trump administration and the Republican delegations to both houses of Congress as any I've seen:
Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves
and the mome raths outgrabe.
1
Things just keep getting "curiouser and curiouser".
1
What is more concerning is the normalizing of this insanity. We have become the frogs in the pot on the stove coming to a boil.
1
Hmm, try spending some time in the country that signs your paycheck and perhaps you'd be able to get a glimpse how badly things are headed. But you support all the Trump policies even though you don't like his style. That's some tremendous political courage you have going there.
28
Those 'geniuses' in the media and DC laughed when he announced his candidacy. They laughed when the primary campaign began. They sneered when he won the nomination and in the weeks leading up to the election these same 'geniuses' confidently predicted his defeat by a landslide.......Ooops, he won. And now faced with a POTUS who accomplished more in real legislation in one year than Obama accomplished in 8, faced with a Russia 'collusion' investigation which has not turned up anything linking Trump and now faced with a special investigator shining the spotlight on the Clinton Foundation and the FBI's botched and corrupted investigation of Hillary Clinton, these 'geniuses' last desperate attempt is to question Trump's sanity. The only people whose sanity needs to be examined are those who think that what Trump has accomplished in the business world and political arena is anything less than genius. They are the only ones suffering mental derangement, the one known as TDS.
9
oh please. What has he accomplished? I keep reading this from his diehard supporters but none can come up with any accomplishments that serve the people of the United States. Not that I'm a fan but where's the wall? The great Obamacare replacement that will be cheaper and better than any health insurance known to man? The huge wage increases. The jobs???? GE is in the process of laying off 12000 workers. Sears is closing 150 stores and even more K-Marts. Wal-mart is closing countless stores. Millions will be without jobs in the real sector. The December jobs numbers were lower than last year. December retail sales were down .9% over last year even though we're swimming in money if one believes trump's deluded supporters. Home prices are still, for most, stagnant. Under water mortgages are still under water. The only ones getting rich in the trump economy are the wealthy. The stock market is soaring, (but being outpaced by Europe and Asia), but 50% of us own no stock since we can't afford a retirement plan. Meanwhile trump is gutting all the regulations that keep us safe as people and as workers. I guess deregulation could be considered accomplishments. Why not have a few more exploding fertilizer plants? After all living in a safe environment is just too dull.
6
Considering that 80 percent of Houston voted for Hillary Clinton, I think you need look no further than your own backyard to "examine" -- also to the other major Texas cities. Right-wingers in your state, as well as you, I guess, are fighting the emerging blue-ness mightily.
And you're confusing executive orders, which don't affect anything except a promise to further investigate an issue, with legislation. Trump supporters often do that, because their great hero says so.
4
In reply to James Houston
GO TRUMP!
I love these partisan, highly imaginative delusions that the left has about Trump. Considering that he is very successful businessman, TV celebrity who had a very successful show, ran for President and beat all the Republicans in the field and then followed a very smart strategy that won him the electoral college and the election, it is absurd to assume that he is either stupid or is mentally deranged. In fact, the evidence suggests just the opposite, which is that he is a genius. And given the protests against him, the almost daily attacks on his friends and family, and the multiple unwarranted investigations against him, you would have to say that other people would not have dealt with the situation as well. He must have a very stable personality, especially compared to the left that continues to suffer from “Trump Delusional Syndrome”.
4
Oh yes, when it comes to sustained states of ignorance, narcissism, and delusion, Trump is off the charts in stability--he sticks with them no matter what. That's our guy!
[By the way, if there is a "TDS," it is "Trump Deficiency Situation."]
4
And, after reading your commentary I must deduce that you also are a genius, although,maybe, a bit less genial than trump because you are not a Tv celebrity.
Anyway in you trump has a supporter as clever, as stable, as principled as he is. Congratulations.
The very stable genius asked, "Where's my Roy Cohn?"
The answer in an ad this morning: "On Broadway!"
The revival of Angels in America could not have come at a better time. Anyone who wonders what Trump meant can--and should--learn a lot about his late mentor from this amazing play.
6
pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. LOL. I'm out after that.
Is what one is hearing, that we are led by a government which must lie to us, to exist? Gosh.
5
This conversation, and David Brooks' latest column, has me thinking about Trump's mindset. While it is tempting to simply label him a fool, it simply isn't true. I think Trump generates such animus not because he is stupid, but because he is tragically out of touch. Trump has powerful narcissistic tendencies, was born wealthy and has been a celebrity for decades. All of those things individually can create a bubble around someone. All together, they are like an alternate reality. For his entire life, Trump has been able to wave off any input that doesn't conform to his rarefied worldview without consequence. Now, 71 years old and suddenly president, his bubble is under constant assault. As a celebrity real estate developer who branded his name, and later as a reality TV personality, Trump played to people who showed interest. To those with no interest in celebrity or reality TV, he was at most an afterthought - an oddity. Now everyone is paying attention, and Trump's shtick looks ridiculous to the segment of the population that ignored him up until now.
The bubble explains why Trump is willing to sit down with a reporter for an impromptu interview - he's spent his life blustering through situations within his bubble where no one calls him out when he says something stupid. He has faith is his ability to sound knowledgeable, because he's never had to be accountable for what he says before. He's genuinely confused at why people outside the bubble aren't won over.
139
I agree with you that Trump is sane. I disagree that he is out of touch. He just doesn't care. Our president is demonstrably one of the most selfish louts in the public sphere. The entirety of his officehood has been an exercise in self enrichment. Some actions, like tax cuts, have a debatable spill over effect, but everything has been about his personal greed - he either pays less in or takes more out.
That's where the animus comes from.
4
"I think Trump generates such animus not because he is stupid, but because he is tragically out of touch."
That boils down to the same thing, doesn't it? Okay, it's ignorance on top, but a smart person would check and recheck the facts, wouldn't she?
"He has faith is his ability to sound knowledgeable, because he's never had to be accountable for what he says before."
And that's vanity: He lacks even a smidgeon of Socrates' humility: "The only thing I'm sure of is that I know nothing."
No, 45 is a vain fool, just what we never need in positions of critical importance. He can hang out with me as I blunder through life, but he deserves banishment from the adult world of civic decision-making.
Not to split hairs, but being motivated by greed and being out of touch with the majority of the electorate are not mutually exclusive.
Our government is in shambles, with a "very stable genius" dotard sitting on his throne while the court jesters entertain him with promises of more and more riches for his “friends” the already extremely wealthy. Waiting in the wings we have Church Lady Pence, who thinks god wants him to be president and make us all holy, and Ivanka Trump, the vacuous, stiff wanna-be who thinks her doting “Daddy” has chosen her to carry on his legacy of crushing America’s working people like roaches. Bad news to both. Trump plans to rule forever. And aside from the members of our resident circus, let’s not forget the foreign powers who are licking their chops over this stinking mess, and I’m not talking big red buttons.
Remember The Agony and the Ecstasy?
Pope Julius II: When will you make an end?
Michelangelo: When I am finished!
Our country wants this horrible charade to end, and some kind of sanity and order to return. But Trump and his destructive army won’t be done until we’re quite literally finished.
21
The president is not religious. Prayer meetings with him are a sham to impress religious conservatives. Religion has no place in politics anyway. Church and state are separate in America. What God are they praying to? Money?
105
That's right. Freedom of religion also means freedom FROM religion.
1
Imagine living in senior HUD housing, living in poverty on food stamps and getting medical care from the Affordable Care Act. Imagine looking around at the massive needs that your housing complex needs to fix, at the hundreds of homeless living under bridges nearby in your city.
This is a topic of conversation for the well off, and if I may be forgiven for writing so, that probably includes most NYTimes columnists. But this Trump administration is terrifying for many of us living day to day.
The greatest danger is that Trump is in fact a stable genius, a dark servant of the American 1% Oligarch investor class. He is a lying charlatan who pretended to care about the poor, only to get their votes so he could himself hire as many foreign workers as possible, and get foreign governments to fork millions over to his family and him.
I wish we had some simple new requirements to run for President, including actually having demonstrated being able to engage in the duties of a political office.
And no business man or woman should ever again be allowed to be President unless they truly divest.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
955
"I wish we had some simple new requirements to run for President, including actually having demonstrated being able to engage in the duties of a political office."
The requirements you seek are in the constitution and have been for 250 years. You should save that wish for 2020. You'll need it then.
2
And now, the Democrats in their infinite wisdom, are looking at Oprah Winfrey as their savior. Does she have an answer for the problems we face? If elected, will we still see her picture on the cover of every O magazine? Will she divest? Oh the horror, the horror!
Dorothy Slater
Portland OR
2
No "celebrity" status or reality show candidates including "O" omg channel.
2
First, I am envious that I am not important enough to be labeled a moron or killer by the guy in the White House. It is (mostly) a badge of honor.
Mr. Stephens raises a serious point concerning the dependence on this guy for ongoing news ratings. For all the complaints about the twitter-fest, there would be so much less agitation and entertainment value without it. Now we might see another celebrity--Oprah Winfrey--moving into the spotlight. Although I have much less concern about her mental stability, and she exudes far more public charm, we would still be moving further into an arena where media coverage of presidential runs is fixated on celebrity and wealth, not on any sort of sustained political experience. I remember another fellow (the last president), not so long ago, who burst on the national stage with a speech.
3
the big "O" moves and will keep on moving out of sight of the Presidency - we need policy and professional experience - not platitudes and populism
1
he was not prepared - and the outcomes were not as good had HRC Madam President been elected into the White House in 2008 or 2012 or 2016.
1
The planet blowing up, permanent attachment to psycho-tweeting, and an economic nose-dive? Who knows? But a flu pandemic, sooner or later, and we are totally unprepared? 100% for certain.
And it's nice to see the president ensconced in prayer. Except that he only prays for one person, and that's himself.
All the best with "business" remaining good for you this year, Bret Stephens. Didn't Les Moonves of CBS say something similar, right before Trump got elected? Reminds me of that Robert DuVall line from "Apocalypse Now."
Tweets are like napalm in the morning. Gotta love them.
12
Ah Brett....not true about the autobahn! Many stretches are subject to speed limits, and one's time between toll booths tracks one's speed and issues and automatic ticket. Free country?
3
How often do we have to jump up and down and exclaim that the Dems need something more than "We 're not crazy" as a platform. The people who elected Trump don't think he is nuts or don't care. And by the time policy has a chance to bite them, they will believe whatever they want about cause and effect.
I can't be unhappy that Bannon was mortally wounded by Breitbart style writing; and I wish that Wolff had be able to do a hatchet job on Stephen Miller while he was at it. But Trump is safe in his bubble, and there is no getting around it. We elected a man we KNEW bragged about assaulting women because he is rich; was under investigation for fraud; refused to release his own personal tax information or recuse himself from profiteering from his position; and bragged about shooting people on Fifth Avenue. We knew he was a loudmouth and a bully - those are the qualities that most people who voted for him admire. What would he need to do to disqualify himself?
Don't hope for salvation from the 25th unless the cheeseburgers do him in. No human intervention is coming.
690
We certainly cannot expect anything resembling a platform, plan or organized leadership out of the Democrats. They are assuming they will win because of disgust with the Republicans. Given their attitudes and the way they operate they (the Democrats) will be lucky to retain what they have.
I do have to say that your mentioning of Trump's flawed character says a lot about the people that voted for him, namely they seem to admire Trump's bad behaviour, character flaws, bullying and lying. The tragedy is that most Republicans in Congress lets Trump get away with it and I am especially disappointed in Senator Lindsey Graham. Of course I did not expect anything less form Senator Grassley for he is a Trump devotee and will defend him until his dying days.
2
Then back up the cheeseburger truck asap.
Also, I agree with your statement that people who voted for him admire his mouth and his bullying. If they/we elected him president, is there any hope for this country? We ELECTED this guy! How much different is this than someone choosing to increase smoking to 3 packs a day while ignoring the surgeon general and his/her own doctor's advice?
2
Having a message other than "Trump is a Dope" is certainly critical to the Democrats regaining a majority in either of the HOR or Senate. The challenge on the national level is whether that message is one of "centrist stability" or one of "progressive action".
Fortunately, that's less of a challenge in local and state-level elections. Democratic congressional candidates can hone their message to their electorate, and provide a tenable alternative to the Trump-Pence enablers sitting in vulnerable seats.
20
The criminalization of a duly elected President is failing day by day,
So now they have turned to mental health. What's next?
Personally I would call a person who defeated 19 other candidates, the entire news media, without mega donations, and figured out how to speak directly to the people, a genius.
Now why couldn't HRC come up with such a strategy?
20
because hrc is truly the genius - that no one respects - understand or appreciates. and she is a female - which is way too many strikes against her (plus she is a woman of the color white)
3
1. duly elected is still up for debate
2. if your boss behaved like trump? you'd quit.
3. speaking directly to the people is fine as long as you are not lying.
4. bring disgusted with and worried about trump does not imply unequivocal support for HRC
5
Founding Father affirmative action ushered Trump into the WH after he lost the popular vote by 3 million. What a short memory you have.
4
I disagree, Bret. The continued presence of Trump in the White House is more than a "current political fixation." It's a reminder that: a) Trump fraudulently deluded millions into believing he is capable of a type of leadership that represents ALL Americans; and b) the GOP is clearly and cynically using Trump for their own gains and conservative agenda.
72
but no - the americans were easily deluded by their own delusions - most of them are truly behind the eight ball
1
Do not underestimate the "genius" of this V.S.P. He has totally trashed normal behavior and triangulated loyalty, complicity and ruthlessness of the treasonous Republican Party. I am always returning to the clip of him meeting the Russians, filmed by the Russians, and the glee and animation of this coup d'etat. He is never so joyful as when he says, Comey is out of the way and the pressure is relieved.
20
Let us give Donald Trump the party of all parties with everything he likes best. We could make it a surprise and let us remember to invite his family as well to join in the festivities. Print 'As We Celebrate President Donald Trump's Brilliant Career, We Hope You will Be able to Attend on (Public Relations to determine the date)'.
We can place our kibble in the pot and give him a new set of golf clubs, which he can exchange (check Amazon and Walmart), or depending on our State of Economic Affairs, go on a splurge and charge it to the G.O.P.
Easy does it, he has not been well from the onset.
It was Gail Collins who reminded us that we should prepare for the next President Elections donkey-years ago. But, we are not ready, protested this Cassandra. We do not have a viable candidate for either Party, and the timing is off. If President Obama leaves Office now at the end of this Term, we are in big trouble.
Suave. The Nation is in motion again, the Government sluggish, The White House in shambles. Trump has been a genius in keeping many Americans on the alert, awake and apprehensive.
One day we will have a President again to lead us. Let us not be multi-taskers during this Season, but trump this damming and damaged political obstacle. True, many tears are shed over answered prayers, and Pence is looming in the background, the cause of a troubled night after watching the vice-presidential debates for this viewer.
Ms. Collins and Mr. Stephens are to remain 'woke'.
3
"I’m not sure how much registers with congressional Republicans these days. They are officially in the business of making excuses and attacking the messenger."
I am not sure which came first, the subversion of their better natures or the corruption of their better natures. And which the Republicans fear most, the retribution from their donors or the retribution from Trump's tribe.
I can't help but wonder about all the moral indignation of people looking in at the people who live in the inner cities who are reluctant to report crimes. And how the collective look-away of the president's enablers is that much different in facilitating the decay.
The rot at the core of the GOP came before Trump. Trump would not have been possible were it not for the undermining of democracy in Congress that proceeded him. Do not expect the authoritarians in the GOP to save us from the authoritarian in chief.
13
The only economic factor doing well is the stock market. Home prices are lazy. New jobs are flat. The poor are poorer. The rich are happy.
37
old saying - the poor get children - maybe it is by their design and choice to stay behind the rich curve
3
Liked the article. One issue, though. Referring to the president, or any President as "the commander in chief" without the modifying phrase "of the armed forces" is all too common, and bothers me no end. I've even heard "the commander in chief of the United States", notably from (I believe) Jim Lehrer or Robert MacNeil, in a presidential debate sometime past.
Especially in the current situation, we need to exercise restraint in ascribing to the so-called "president" more power than the founders intended.
13
"And Democrats will be even less persuasive to voters ... if middle-class voters see their taxes go down thanks to the tax bill."
The "if" in there nails it. I think cutting taxes like the tax bill did is irresponsible and plutocratic.
But if I were a middle-class Democrat fixated largely on my wallet, couldn't I hope for a tax cut that at least definitely cut my taxes?
As it stands, the blasted thing is so complicated that it will be hard to tell what its effect on my taxes is.
This rate goes down, that deduction goes away, and should I have incorporated myself here, or made myself a pass-through whatever there, but Oh no I live in Massachusetts, so...the whole thing is just miserable. Is this little 1% addition to my paycheck my tax cut, or my raise, or the reduction I made in my flex spending account etc. etc.?
Brett Stephens likes to talk about how overjoyed Democrats will be when many (some? a few? who knows?) see they have a couple extra hundred bucks in their checking accounts maybe coming from the "tax cut."
But the Republicans made the thing so blasted ambiguous that it won't even work as pandering. They can't even buy people off right.
7
What will be the effect of the disemployment and deportation of hundreds of thousands of newly undocumented immigrants? Depends on who and how many are next on the list. It will be tough to replace those who lose their right to work -- and live -- in our country. Employers will have to increase wages to attract replacements. Perhaps that will set off the familiar wage/price spiral that leads to inflation. Perhaps Trump's "genius" will start to fade as his core supporters have to pay more for goods and services. Especially if and when NAFTA and other preferential trade relations are ripped to shreds and our economy and country turn inward.
6
If one has to publicly defend ones mental stability the observers can be reasonable assured one is not.
15
My expectation was high in anticipating a line about "stable genius" and his poor race horse. Once, there was an opinion piece on The Times, written by Mr. Obama's former speech writer -- If my memory is correct. It indicated; Mr. Trump has no sense of humor. However, there is a possibility that Mr. Trump might be trying to show his wit to the world with his claiming himself as "stable genius".
Thank you, Writers both, in addition, because I came to a wonderful reminder. While Mr. Trump is in his struggle to swim *straight* toward the center of Poe's mega-water wheel, Mr. Pense has successfully and *almost* completed his construction project for his lifeboat in a vast field on which the gigantic ad signs of pharmaceutical companies stand.
? Y nada más ? I confess. I miss Mr. Trump's co-laboring with Putin for rolling hays. The image can also cover a stable and wheels leaning against it -- all in a vast field as one. Yes, call me Nostalgia. Or, just wait rain to fall.
We don’t need to “persuade them to flip their votes.” Anyone who voted for him cannot be rationally persuaded of anything. We just need to get the silent supermajority to actually come out and vote this time.
132
Yes, Kristof's column was uplifting, but it detailed lower poverty rates and higher literacy rates worldwide, not in the US. Our infant mortality rate is one of the highest of "developed" countries, we don't have universal parental leave, income inequality is GROWING even with very low unemployment (which suggests low wages &/or underemployment), we have one of the highest incarceration rates in the world as well as child poverty rates. These are the issues that affect EVERY American, and what Democrats need to build policies around.
25
Think about what you are saying "but not in the US" WHY not us, because the direction has been wrong.
Thus, success has one father, but failure will certainly be an orphan. Or everyone else's child.
Maybe he’s just a genius in the stable and is surrounded by many in his party who are full of it like him.
We’ll see how stable this genius is when Mueller begins to question him.
12
"Covfeve" - was Trump's fractured hooked on phonics spelling of Roger Khafif- whose Panama "Cocaine Tower" Trump learned was under investigation at the time by Preet Bharara - right before Trump ordered Sessions to fire all the attorneys general. "Every president does that." - Yes, but every president isn't under multiple active investigations for systematic money laundering.
The key to getting rid of Trump is "to follow the money." The key to Trump is also to prosecute him for actively interfering with and obstructing justice in order to prevent justice from "following the money."
6
I realize that many Republicans represent districts that are heavily filled with voters that like Trump, so they are scared of losing their jobs. But, as an educated person in Congress, how long can you take this insanity in the White House? As public servants, don't you owe it to society to work to get rid of this president since many of your constituents do not have the knowledge you do?
2
Impeachment is dangerous. Neuter him by throwing every enabler of his out of office starting with paul ryan. Take either the house back, the senate back or both if possible and trump will be a lame duck president for the balance of his term. Then in 2020 take back the presidency and once more go about repairing the damage to our country that always needs repairing at the end of a republican presidents term. When will the voting public learn that republicans are not good for our working man's economy, our environment, our health, our well being, our children, our elderly, our poor or anyone who isn't wealthy? Every minute these corporate owned sycophants are in office is another minute the USA is set on the road to a banana republic status and a nation of serfs. Vote as many out as possible and help return sanity to our government.
3
What is missing from this dialogue is the Big Bad Bear in the room along with the witches and warlocks aka economists.
The "self-made" "very stable genius" in the Kremlin in Moscow aka Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is the man that Donald John Trump imagines and dreams that he is tweet by tweet. Putin is a streetwise gangster KGB/FSB Czar Peter the Great wannabe from Saint Petersburg who is alleged to be the richest man in the world. Putin's foes end up in prisons, urns and coffins.
In an ethnic Slavic Russian majority aging and shrinking nation of 143 million Putin is punching well above his nation's weight class. The nominal annual American GDP is 15x Russian GDP. America annually spends 9x Russia on it's military-industrial complex and has multiple defense and economic alliances. While Trump is barking hot and loud and saying nothing Putin has a clever cool smile and smirk on his face.
Economics is not a science. There are too many unknowns and variables to fashion the double-blind controls that provide predictable repeatable results. Economics is gender, color aka race, ethnicity, national origin, faith, politics, education and history plus arithmetic. There is no Nobel Prize for Economic Science. There is the Swedish National Bank Prize in Economic Science in Memory of Alfred Nobel created in 1968.
10
I think you may be surprised at the 2018 turn out for Democrats, I think it will be YUGE to use a "He Who Will Not Be Named" favorite adjective...believe me. All of the purists who stayed at home or wrote in Bernie Sanders may be having some moments of mea culpa about that choice now that we see just how different the candidates were and are. All the women of this country who have endured sexual harassment and gender bias their entire lives have had enough. Lifting a proven sexual predatory white male into the oval office does not sit well
with us and I hope that will be shown at the ballot box this November. To say it was not an apple to apples comparison between Trump and Clinton is perhaps the biggest example of gender bias ever. The most ill prepared foolish man to ever run for the presidency and the most prepared intelligent candidate (who just happens to be female) to run being lumped as "they are all the same" clearly shows that gender bias. If Clinton had been male she would have won the office. Oh I forgot, she did win by millions of votes that are trumped (pun intended) by some antiquated system devised 250 years ago that should have been changed to popular vote wins decades ago. Women, people of color and the LGBT community will turn out to vote against insanity and gender bias. And any person paying even a little attention to this freak show of a president and cabinet should turn out to vote against it too.
46
Democrats and thinking people need a reason to vote for a candidate - that has ideas, solutions, plans for God sake.
3
Trump’s comments about his IQ, which are laughable, unbelievable, and worthless without pictures of the results of his latest Stanford-Binet, are ultimately very sad because they appear to prove another troubling symptom: Delusions of grandeur. The smartest man ever? Genius? Maybe in his own alternate universe.
Between what leaks out about some of his West Wing staff’s concerns and what Trump publicly says, it’s easy for any armchair psychologist to conclude that the man has, um, some issues. And his issues are our issues. Trump is not some aging relative who we can humor, coddle, and ignore. He literally holds the fate of millions in his hands — this man, with no apparent filter, self-control, or maturity to hold any office, let alone that of POTUS.
Shame on all his enablers, for that is what they are — those associates who stay silent and those “leaders” like Paul Ryan who see what’s going on and are in a position to act but don’t, as they laugh off Trump’s warning signs as “Trump being Trump.” Not only are they doing this country a huge disservice; they aren’t doing Trump any favors either. Get the man help. Mental illness is not a stigma, it can be treated. Please do so before he does irreperable harm to himself, those around him — and to the rest of us.
26
This administration feeds us baloney sandwiches every day.
It’s not mental instability,” says a Trump ally. “It’s management by controlled and orchestrated chaos.”
Meanwhile, chaos is a state of disorder with no one in charge.
Once again his defenders contort themselves into pretzels while insulting our intelligence.
As an example, maybe or maybe not, this administration banned from the lexicon words such as “science-based” and “evidence-based.” It sure seems like it.
In a non-denial worthy of a page in a George Orwell novel, a Trump spokesman told us "the assertion that HHS has "banned words" is a complete mischaracterization of discussions regarding the budget formulation process."
As Orwell wrote, “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing."
7
"Then again, we’d be out of luck and probably out of work as columnists if all we had was good news and progress. So, in that spirit, thank you, President Trump! You’re doing wonders for our business. Please keep the tweets, threats and general insanity coming in ’18."
Not funny, especially when Trump gloats about keeping the"failing" NYT in business.
3
Stephens is now your third "Name" columnist, after Kristof and Leonhardt, to recently state that despite our usual fixations, things are on balance improving in the world. While it would be nice if this is true, and the pointing out of good news is welcome (your Obit editor recently said non-controversy isn't news), such a conclusion has methodological faults. See my comment on Kristof's piece (which links to my comment on Leonhardt's):
http://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/06/opinion/sunday/2017-progress-illiterac....
Generally, it's the economy, stupid.
That's what tends to determine the general direction of votes.
Except, perhaps for 2016. Or was that the exception that proved the rule?
It can be argued that while the economy in 2016 had been in a long recovery, it was a sluggish and very uneven recovery, with the majority of wage earners having not seen things getting better, and for many, arguably worse. So the incumbent President's party "lost" despite the low quality of the opposition candidate.
The real question is what Joe and Jill Sixpack think the economy is doing right around November 2018. If they think it's doing ok--and we do seem to be finally getting some wage growth--it's unlikely the Democrats take a house of Congress, even with the motivating presence of Le Grand Orange. Make no mistake--the Republican tax bill, while very much a giveaway to the oligarchs, is also designed to dump a few dollars the way of the Sixpacks until at least after the 2020 elections. That may distract the Sixpacks enough to vote for the status quo, if they vote at all.
If, on the other hand, the Sixpacks notice they are still very much underemployed, and/or their health care expenses have ballooned even faster, or there is some sort of shock that throws a lot of them out of work or cuts their hours--then there might be a wave election in the works.
As mentioned here, it's a lot easier to predict the weather than the economy. But for 2018, the latter matters.
13
Blue collar workers wages are still stagnant. They have seen a, big whoop, 1% increase in wages. Wow, one can do an awful lot with that extra $8 a week in their paycheck if one makes $40K a year. Health insurance is projected to go up 10%. The average worker pays well over $100/week for employer provided health insurance. The math is simple. If costs increase by 10% that will wipe out any of this 1% wage increase.
Funny though, the diehard trump supporters think they are better off this year than last even though not a single thing has changed in their lives. They haven't gotten raises, they still lack health insurance, their schools systems are still abysmal and their good job prospects are grim. But trump and his republican counterparts are masters of persuasion and illusion. All is right with the world because we now have a republican president. The letter R is the magic talisman that changed every perception. The propaganda works.
6
Trump declares that "Fire and Fury" is a work of fiction out of one side of his mouth while the other side of his jaw is bringing a Vesuvius of fire and fury down on Steve Bannon for what this work of "fiction" says Bannon said, as though it is gospel truth. And Bannon, adding fury to the fire, apologizes and "clarifies" after taking a few days to work out how he was going to plausibly deny what he says he didn't say.
The mass self delusion that is the Republican delegation of both houses of Congress makes the 25th Amendment to the Constitution the equivalent of a law that is about to be voided by jury nullification. Think marijuana and places like the entire West Coast, Alaska included, and a growing chunk of the rest of the lower 48.
As for a Democratic slogan, though the acronym, KAFBI, is a tad awkward, Keep America From Becoming Irrelevant, shouldn't be dismissed out of hand. Trump is driving the entire planet, with the possible exceptions of Saudi Arabia and a few Israelites, away from us, politically, economically and militarily.
399
Bannon's "apology" - he was either paid off handsomely or some of trumps goons made him an offer he couldn't refuse...
As with everything else in trumps House Of Frauds, nothing is what it seems...
6
No. T. Is all over Bannon because he betrayed Trump by not being nice and appropriately fawning.
6
My slogan would be: Getting Your Money Back.
4
"You’ve put your finger on what disturbs me most. We are counting on Trump’s cabinet to be the adults in the room, the people who set the boss straight and make sure the Twitter side of his brain doesn’t translate into policy or action. But instead of serving as restraints they’ve become enablers, publicly attesting to Trump’s fitness even as they savage him in private as a “dope” or “moron.”"
Thanks, Bret, for your honesty here.
I wish Democrats would stop with their hints of a huge blue wave. I'd rather that be a pleasant surprise, instead of some sort of self-defeating prediction.
They should focus on messaging about the effects of Trumpian policy choices--his love of big oil, the Session's "make America the 50s again" attacks on pot and immigration, and the long-term effects of "tax reform" along with all its punitive effects on states that believe in improving the quality of life for all state residents.
God knows there's plenty of fodder there--stick to the facts, and not the crazy in the Oval.
418
Christine- I agree. Imagine what an oil spill off the east coast would do to the fishing and lobstering industries in MA, ME, RI etc. Imagine the damage it would do to the Cape?
Democrats have plenty to attack without attacking trump's mental state. Run against his policies not his personality. We recently had a salmonella outbreak due to contaminated romaine lettuce which killed two people. Talk about how dangerous it is to relax food inspection and safety. We recently had a Keystone XL oil spill in SD. Talk about how relaxing regulations of the oil industry is dangerous to the environment. Retail is down, talk about the millions who have lost their jobs due to store closings that far more affect the southern states than the northern ones. The 12,000 GE layoffs while their corporate tax rate has been lowered even further. How stock gains don't affect the 50% who have no stock ownership because we can't afford a 401K. Or how wages for blue collar have only increased by 1 %. The proposed gutting of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid to pay for the tax cut for the wealthiest. How cutting Medicaid means cutting vital programs for the elderly: in home care, Meals on Wheels, nursing home care. Do GOP voters want to have to lock mommy in a back room somewhere because there's no money for nursing home care. The proposal to cut cancer treatment options from Medicare. There is so much to attack without mentioning the questionable sanity of trump. Dems need to concentrate on that.
20
Christine and Sharon, the Democrats do. For example, as soon as the increased oil drilling regs were announced, Schumer, Durbin, Nelson, and the two new Senators, Tina Smith and Doug Jones have all announced opposition, but did you see coverage of their statements in the Times?
And Sharon, it is hard to run against Republican policies when policy is rarely discussed in the media. Policy is just not sensational enough.
7
We're all being given Fake News by the man behind the curtain, since 2017 produced 10% FEWER jobs than the year before - under Obama:
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-job-boom-actually-the-fewest-number-of-j...
making 2017 the WORST year for job growth in 6 years !
AND other stock markets around the world out-paced the U.S. in 2017:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/wall-street-wont-tell-you-but-us-stock...
Equally amazing is watching the Dilly! Dilly! GOP'ers destroy Abe Lincoln's party in their conspiracy of fraudulence to hide behind closed doors what the Wolff book brings out in the open.
Worse yet, the Dilly! Dilly! crowd's actions drags down democracy and the rule of law around the world, as they wait until the last possible second to remove His Unhinged Unfitness, thinking that will defuse Resistance.
But watching GOP'ers drag us through a 'Being There' parody brings to mind the "shock" of Alan Greenspan at the actions of banksters destroying TBTF banks through their recklessness at the end of the last GOP'er terms, when Dubya told us all "this sucker could go down".
Reckless Dilly! Dilly! GOP'ers ignoring norms can likewise wound democracy, especially through their attacks on the Courts, the FBI, and the Intelligence agencies, trying to prop up Putin's Poodle POTUS, hoping to lend validity to the careening, rolling Trumpster fire.
198
The real question is whether America can survive the current administration and still be able to pick up the pieces and put it back together after they are gone.
429
Obama fixed the horrible damage George W. Bush caused to our nation. He brought the economy back from the brink of a second Great Depression despite obstructionist Republicans' determination to keep him from accomplishing anything. He dealt as best could be expected with the enormously costly two wars Bush/Cheney/Rove started, then couldn't conduct effectively.
If America can survive Bush, we can survive anything. Trump is reckless and insane, and his White House is dysfunctional, but that makes them ineffectual. They're so inept they can't even manage to make the kinds of catastrophic mistakes Dubya did.
2
T'was a very stable genius
In the White House clockwork run
Mistweeting all his enemies
Was truly loads of fun.
The big bad Wolf, his Enemy
Had stabbed him in the back
He needed all his genius now
of which there was no lack.
But Ryan and the minions
Like Roy Cohn all came through
Called him a mental giant
Which pleased him so anew.
375
Welcome, Mr. Eisenberg, you were in my warmest thoughts earlier and it is a pleasure to wish you and yours a happy 2018!
4
Mr. Stephens: "Masa" is corn dough used for making tortillas and tamales.
Are you proposing that we build a barrier between the USA and Mexico using tamales?
213
"Masa" is also be the common Spanish descriptor for a tumor. But Bret's "¿Quién sabe?" suggests that he might know that but is trying to get Schumer to adopt a motto that will either antagonize Hispanics or get them to laugh at gringo Democrats.
11
I don't care for tamales. Can we use burritos instead?
1
Brad,
Having placed a Forever US stamp with 'Tamales' on my astronomical invoice for gasoline heating during this cold freeze, this American is looking forward to purchasing some Mexican avocados later in the day at an affordable price. True, Ted Cruz does not like them, but there is no pleasing alligators all the time.
4
Covfeve.
Sorry, I needed to write that once. Trump once challenged the country to figure out what it means and we have no winners yet. There’s no “N”, “Y”, or “T” in it, so it probably doesn’t refer directly to the Times, but you can bet it’s an acronym for a phrase that can’t be said in polite company OR published in the Times, unless a pundit uses it within quotation marks to describe some dire digestive disorder.
Is Tillerson napping in that photo, or praying that Trump axes him so he can get on with his retirement, or go reconquer ExxonMobil, or do SOMETHING actually useful?
One of the reasons David Brooks has taken to hallucinating that “anti-Trumpism” is on the decline undoubtedly is that the gratuitous charges of “he’s stupid” (as in Bret’s) have become so popular on both left and right among elites -- when he’s clearly not. It’s become excessive, and people may be responding to the excess with distaste. I got beyond distaste to outrage a long time ago.
As to Gail’s thought that Pence might be better, if I were Pence I’d invest in a food-taster.
But Bret’s right about the low likelihood that Dems will get traction in the midterms on the sole argument of opposition to Trump. While the Republicans hardly have been forthcoming on eliciting Democratic input, they’re not the losers trying to be relevant. Democrats need to put forth some effort in moderating policy by dickering for votes – if they can’t or won’t, don’t expect big congressional changes come November.
17
MASA? Not precisely … politically correct, is it? Where were the editors at 6:00 AM EST this morning?
There’s no indication whatsoever that the economy will flag right through the midterms. If it doesn’t, then Democrats likely will be crushed in November. Again. And what’s sad is that not only don’t they realize this, but they refuse to do anything at all about it.
Have some sympathy for Tillerson. Democrats winning a congressional house could be conveniently blamed on him, and he’d finally get his reprieve.
9
Any politician who intends to exist four years from now, should begin to raise their voice now demanding that Trump be impeached. The congressional hearings must and will be published. Their suppression by Grassley and others should be prosecuted as gross malfeasance and attempts at obstructing justice.
Advice from formerly 'pro-Trumpers' is to be completely disregarded. And the same goes for cautious 'corporate democrats.'
9
Rex appears to be praying for a better comb-over.
9