Reporters, journalists and communication media editors everywhere should focus their attention on badgering EVERYONE in all military branches, at every level of command, to find out what military people are really going to do if Trump orders fire and fury on N. Korea, or anyone else.
Where do Mattis, McMaster and their millions of subordinates stand on this issue? Will they follow orders?
Do that, media people, and IGNORE future stupid tweets coming from the S*hole's mouth.
87
Not that simple, Gail - the multiple instant replay cameras tell very different stories...
To where different camera angles can no longer explain away the large disparities...
Clear that some of the tapes are being edited - both by selective omission and by alteration...
Perhaps we should - as you presciently analogize - return to the most fundamental rule of baseball...
That is - it doesn't matter what the batter, fans, or replay cameras saw...
Whether a ball or a strike - it's the umpire's call...
So - let's put all the names into a bowl, and draw one for umpire...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/03/us/virginia-race.html
...that'd be absolutely final - unless someone wants a do-over
......
The irony - umpires have no conception whatever that there's an even more fundamental rule in baseball...
TV revenues need to increase by four percent - or more - each year...
If not, the whole game will unravel...
......
There is a limit to the analogy, though...
We know from Tom Hanks that there is no crying in baseball...
Likewise, there is no vulgarity, racism, or merit-based inequality...
After all - it's only a game...
7
I love Gail Collins...
50
step 4, Mr. Mueller, where are you. Just step out and ARREST our detestible leader. You should have enough evidence by now to stop this maniacal creature of Satan.
88
The greatest concern of Canadians and so many millions who reside outside of your failed state is that there is no real control on this mad President's ability to unleash the ultimate nuclear holocaust, because your War Powers Act provides no clear unambiguous checks on his big red button. All that stands in the way are a few retired generals in the White House who may try to foil President Strangelove.
114
Here is Step 4, Gail:
New York, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois, Minnesota and Washington secede from the Union. Why?
1. These states are net payers to the federal government, whereas nearly all of the Trump-supporting states are net receivers of federal funds. In other words, the eight states listed pay far more to the federal government than they get back from the federal government in funding. Ironically, the Trump loving states, who want taxes slashed and elect people who want to destroy federal social programs, are the most dependent on the very federal funding that Trump and the GOP hate so much!
2. Nearly all of the better educational systems, including universities and colleges, are in the eight states that should secede. No surprise--nearly all of the worst ranked state educational systems are in Trump-supporting states. (But in fairness, they do have better college football teams in the south, so at least they have that going for them. Nick Saban for president?)
I'm sure the remaining 42 states of Trumperica will do just great without the money, business and brains from those terrible eight states and their damned liberal, educated, taxpaying elites. And as an added bonus--the southern states can put back up their Confederate monuments and rename all of their public schools after Nathan Bedford Forrest and Jefferson Davis.
It's a win-win.
148
Step 4 should be deep cleaning of congress and the white house, get rid of all those traitors
111
Gail, jeez, you make it sound like he's crazy or something.
85
The added factor in offshore oil drilling is that the US will surpass Saudi Arabia and Russia as the world's #1 oil producing nation in the coming year. No longer can the rationale of 'energy security' be trotted out. This declaration is all about pillage & plunder, damn the safeguards, full speed ahead.
53
Trump continues to self-immolate, but the Dems could still continue screwing up enough to allow his re-election. For example, if the Dems were to shut down the government in a principled stand for undocumented/illegal immigrants. That will sure win back a lot of Trump voters!
9
President Trump,Genius Sir, why don't YOU move to Norway? problem solved!
71
The more I ponder Trump's "shithole" comments, the more I picture him as one of those guys who shows up at a bar nearly every day, sits at the end, and pontificates about any and everything as if he were an expert but is, in fact, just someone who gets his info from Fox News.
The others at the bar mostly ignore him unless he plays the race card. Then, they join in and raise their beer glasses towards Donnie. "You got that right, my man," they chortle. They spend the rest of the day, nearly every day, attacking Colin Kaepernick and/or Barack Obama (and Michelle Obama for goof measure), and decrying that blacks have ruined football, basketball and politics. Donnie throughout has the pained look of someone who, deep down, knows he is king in this bar, but king over nothing.
It's all very familiar to me. Donnie is my late brother, who hid his failures in torrents of racial and cultural epithets to a vaguely adoring bunch of fellow losers gathered at the bar trying and failing to make sense of what happened to their lives.
119
Exhausting
32
You're slipping, Gail. You talked about Gov. Sanford and didn't once mention 'hiking the Appalachian Trail.' It's almost as if you wrote about Romney and ignored the dog on the roof.
15
The first step in the twelve step political party recovery program, Racist Unanonymous, is admitting your leader is a racist. No, he did not say something unfortunate or harm progress towards bill or couldn’t filter himself, he is racist AND sexist and other assorted “it’s”. By trying to avoid admitting what everyone around can clearly see, you are not only putting off getting healthy, you haven’t found your bottom yet and how much farther do you can fall- how low will you go? What outrage will you pretend you didn’t hear or see? If you avoid recovery, only inevitable, eventual destruction awaits. What is it going to be?
14
That Bi-paraatisan meeting was a sham.. That was The Donald trying to distract the pubic from the constant press overage of Wolff's book "Fire and Fury"
It was The Donald trying to prove he was a functioning politician.
It did not help. He is so far from virtuous.. In fact he is the living embodiment of "crime does pay". Like all of his bankruptcies. He put the screws to banks and contractors. Trump is a piranha and he gets away with it. Trump will "win" bigly as he continues to make fools of the RNC and his followers.
This is how Trump lives his life. His life is nothing but lies and distractions. Trump will never keep his word. The Democrats need to believe this, not trust his word.
60
Step four: midterms. Get enough of a majority to override vetoes an maybe, just marbe, impeach. He will retain a hard core base.
Ignore them and wait for the older ones to die off. Good riddance.
37
To quote Alan Paton.....Cry, the beloved country.
26
Step 4: The Wall Street Journal reports that he paid off a porn star to keep her quiet about the affair he had with her when he was already married to Melania. The State of the Union should be interesting, if the country survives until then.
35
Was the president referring to his own mouth
20
What would MLK do and say?
www.thewaryouknow.com
5
Why does the stable genius appear to dislike non-whites so much? If he's truly plain-spoken, maybe he could precisely explain and clarify his opinions for everyone. People have a right to know...consent of the governed.
www.thewaryouknow.com
14
To keep America great immigrants should "not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Dr. King is a true American hero. Trump is a lying misogynist-racist.
58
Step 4: Put the fear of God into his Collaborators, i.e. make them fear losing their " Jobs ". It's the only thing they fear, and respond to. Either HE goes down, or we ALL do. It's that simple. Vote, vote, vote.
Also, Gail, he is doing an excellent job. Of turning America into a " hole ".
Be proud, GOP. You've nearly destroyed a reputation that took us 200 plus years to build. All those who fought and Died for America, are turning over in their hallowed graves. Stand tall, GOP. And enjoy your " donations ". Your party's suicide mission is nearly over. NOVEMBER.
45
One who uses such language should have his mouth washed out with soap.
Perhaps daily.
22
1. Wolff slugged me.
2. The press mugged me.
3. Spies bugged me.
4. Stormy Daniels never hugged me
One week, 156 to go.
36
The vast majority of sentient Americans now have a very serious variant of PTSD known as “President Trump Stress Disorder”. Treatment is not covered under “Trumpcare”.....well actually nothing is. This form of “PTSD” if left untreated could prove fatal to America The only cure is exercise of your right to vote in 2018 and 2020.
36
Let's discuss "Step 4."
7
Sort of hoping for the shutdown...
147
We had a "stable genius" in our old neighborhood in Philly . HORSES... CHARLIE was his name. His job was cleaning out the police horse barn. He often said bizarre things. People said that he had once been kicked in the head by a pony.
What's Trump's excuse ?
21
The sad thing is, there is no need for satire here, Gail just reports events as they happened and we all feel as if we are in the nuthouse.
27
If you've got the time, we've got the cure...it's Mueller time...
35
Step four is to blame Obama and Crooked Hillary for everything. They'l the real crazies, after all, not the athletic, quietly effective, completely sane, unprejudiced genius that is Trump. To whom many Haitians are his best friends.
25
Anyone here commenting that Step 4 should be getting rid of this person by any legal means possible, a.s.a.p.? I yeah, I just did.
19
One day he calls immigration a bill of love
The next he calls them s"" hole countries
Doesn t this show insecurity, as he felt "need to please" on one day
Then showed his true colours as he blurted out how he truly felt the next day
I think that s psychology 101 but if any psych are reading this , pls confirm
Feeling insecure when you hold one of the biggest job in the word. wouldn t that make you unfit ?
10
If closing the government meant a stall to the damage this administration is doing, I would be all for it!
Why can't we build a beautiful big wall around the WH and refuse to let anything in or out until he abdicates - I mean resigns?
Well, at least we have located the biggest black hole in space: Trump's head.
28
"Step 4, anyone?" How about impeachment, as soon as possible after November 6th, 2018?
17
Step 4 is start a war?
4
C of course. Since he is now a God why shouldn't he exempt Florida so that he can have a pleasant view of the offshore waters?
7
Have you heard what your kids and grandkids are learning and saying about the President in grade school? Shocking how he's degraded our country to the core.
14
So.... Pinky™ had three minders for the WSJ 'interview'. Just to make sure that he stays in the proper lane. No wild allusions to stocks and bonds or any prescriptions for the future of money. Got to keep Murdoch happy.
In addition....in what way does a respectable paper let the occupant of 1600 speak off the record? Deep background? The date for Armageddon? What did he say that the minders had to intervene, yelling "Off the record, Off the record"?
5
1,2,3 ... 1,2,3 ... 1,2,3 ...
The Trump Tango is a simple 3 step dance classically performed by the Very Stable Genius with any number of complicit GOP partners:
Take two bold steps into the abyss and then grudgingly walk it back one small step. Chin up, chest out, eyes closed. Partner bows to the VSG.
Repeat ad nauseum
9
Ah, Gail, love your efforts but this is no longer funny. It's dangerous and scary and I say that as someone who lived through the Cuban missile crisis. Somebody's gotta stop him.
238
Please can we hear about the other mischief Republicans are pulling to harm us?
The Trump over-coverage is too distracting and you just know horrific harm is coming to our democracy while we are looking at shiny tweets and "shithole" naughty language. Not to mention a porn queen.
15
In baseball, if the batter gets a fourth strike it's because the umpire missed a pitch that should have been called a strike. To further torture the analogy, missing the strike could be intentional or not. Umpires are human and at times they seem to correct for previous misses.
When Trump is batting, the umpires, in this case members of Congress, intentionally are not doing their jobs, e. g. "I don't recall hearing him say shithole." Cheating seems to come naturally to American elected politicians.
However, this is not a sport, it’s not just a game. It’s the fate of America that’s being played with by fanatical corporatist ideologues. In the stands, Americans are watching their should-be democracy head for a catastrophic loss, and we are well past the first inning.
10
ENOUGH!!!!!!!!
13
This country is fast becoming one of the "shithole" countries 45 rails about. No one from the Western European countries wants to come here, why would they. They have medical systems that work for the people, they have security in their old age, education is valued, family time is valued. 45 is hastening this countries demise and his followers want it that way. When are we going to say loudly and persistently that we won't put up with this any longer? The Republican Party, to a man in both houses, are content with 45's behavior because it masks the hateful legislation they can't wait to foist onto the rest of the population. 45 have has managed to bring total chaos to his office, chaos is what makes this country vulnerable to take over by any one of our global enemies. Just pick one? 45 doesn't care, as long as he gets to say anything and do anything he wants to with out any checks from Congress. Yes he's a bigot and proud of it, many on the right are too, that's why they are silent.
31
Gail you always make me want to laugh through the tears of horror and frustration. Re the Norwegians. I work summers at an international camp for teenagers and last summer our share of Scandinavian campers was down, probably to 0. One parent told the directors that their kid didn't want to come to America, wouldn't feel safe. So much for white Norwegians streaming across the Atlantic. Me, I'd be willing to swim across the Atlantic to get back to Sweden where my grandparents immigrated from. As an elderly person I could sure use the benefits and Mark Meadows, he of the Freedom caucus, wouldn't be my representative. He's my congressperson because of Republican gerrymandering in NC. Thank you Federal courts for saying the districting was unfair and the map needed to be re-done. Oh, everything is just so awful. By the way at camp we have counselors from South Shithole, wonderful people and they don't live in huts.
24
Gail, you left out Trump's proclamation that he and Kim Jong-Un have now become BFF. Also, our self-anointed genius supreme leader has taken his already filthy rich friends to new heights of wealth in the stock market while he has taken our country to new depths of depravity with his disgusting "shithole" immigration policy.
WOW what a guy, can't wait to see what this week will bring!
11
It is kind of funny but the main way Norway is so incredibly rich is off shore drilling.
13
As Taylor said in Planet of the Apes, "It's a madhouse. A madhouse!!"
1
I was wonder if anyone in Government offices is working at full speed now? I mean the CEO's leadership style makes a big difference in the rest of the organization. So is everyone busy writing their resumesband keeping their heads down?
Then I realized that the military is probably managing OK, which led me to think about how military coups occur in other countries. Gail, I actually, pondered the possible positive effect of a military coup because DJT is so unstable and generally terrible.
I had no idea the damage this man could do, especially with the cowed acquiesce of the Republicans. Three more years? May God Bless The United States.
23
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter.
The people who supported Trump think he is doing a great job. Gail, I know this, I have talked to some of them. We live on the border where Times Country ends and Trump Country begins. They simply believe that everything done by the Administration - from bring you dog to work day to calling other countries names that would get this comment bounced - is right and good. They think shutting down the government is a good idea. There is nothing he could say or do that disqualifies him.
So buckle up. Because unless the nation decides to vote more Democrats into the House and Senate this is reality for a generation. Trump may move on but his supporters have written a blueprint that will take a while to recede or be overturned.
54
Your writing is as good as ever Gail, but I'm having trouble finding anything about trump and Republicans funny. I'm looking forward to the day when you can make us laugh about trump's downfall though. I think I'll be able to laugh at that.
27
I have been wrong. I have asserted that, as bigoted and toxic as he is, Donald Trump is not that much worse than the party that elected him.
I fear the day Vice President Increase Mather takes the oath of Presidential office, but that day will be better than this one.
I do believe that removing Trump will be like treating a rash only to learn that the rash was masking a cancer.
The editorial today is right. Trump's racism is a feature, not a bug. We are surrounded by ignorant racists who this time were able to relish pulling the election lever.
Christopher Buckley writes about Caligula, our President's patron saint. Imagine: Marcus Aurelius followed by Caligula.
Trump has had a year to convince us that he is not the same flaming egomaniac that graced New York's tabloids for 40 years. Instead, he has made the most hyperbolic Daily News headline read like Oxonian understatement.
It's time to start the clock on the GOP enablers who might remove him if doing so would not enrage the wild pack that chooses racial and sexual bigotry over civil discourse, Galt's Gulch pipe dreams over health care, and raging weather patterns, including floods, over measures to minimize climate change.
In a way, those of us who look with horror upon the entire GOP pollution-war-plutocratic agenda can be skeptically sanguine that such a cavalier display by this preening wannabee will finally convince a large American majority that both sides really aren't the same.
They really aren't.
40
Will Democrats have the political courage to stick to their guns -- sorry -- and refuse to go along with another extension of government funding without getting relief for Dreamers if not other endangered immigrants who have lived in our country for decades? Likely not. Which would make both parties unworthy of our support, ensuring the continuation of Trump's Reign of Global Terror.
4
There is a way out of this.
Show up at your local polling place on Tuesday, November 6th.
Vote for the Democrats.
Ryan and McConnell gave us Trump, and continue to keep him in the Oval Office.
Flip the House or the Senate or both.
D to go forward, R to continue careening backwards.
It's your choice, America.
57
I believe that Trump was a good athlete, but I don't believe he would have been welcomed in any game that was played with strict boundaries and immovable rules.
I'm pretty sure the same is true in almost every endeavor he has or does participate(d) in. It's not a coincidence that he long ago lost the ability to get financing for his luxury apartment buildings and playgrounds in the United States, which explains why his presidency is rife with conflicts of interest, like his presidency.
It's almost uncanny how wrong headed Mr. Trump is in every position he takes versus he campaigned on. Since he appears to know nothing about the job or how the government functions in a democracy, complaining that he can't have total control over the Justice Department, one would think he would have put together a functional, not completely perverse cabinet. Think again.
All in all, while Trump's presidency and the problematic and overtly plutocratic, deficit busting, tax bill may not lead to another Depression, it has certainly led to a plague of depression among the populace. Every day millions of Americans wake up to utter chaos not reigned in by one of the most irresponsible legislatures in modern history. It being Saturday, forgive me if I go back to bed.
11
Gail, I wish you would stop including links to WSJ articles that are only available to their subscribers. Unlike the rest of the publishing world, they do not allow a handful of articles to be read for free each month by non-subscribers. They don't deserve the free publicity and subscription recruitment you provide them.
35
For those who think the Deepwater Horizon disaster is over, nature writer Terry Tempest Williams' investigation of the matter in her book The Hour of Land, is extremely shocking and troubling.
With the help of scientists, naturalists and a pilot who gave her an aerial tour of the region, Williams discovered how the effects of the massive spill continue to be an ongoing tragedy.
It was big news for months, but then the media moved on to other stories.
However, the oil and the toxic contaminants used to "hide" it from view did not move. They continue to wreak havoc in the Gulf and kill and destroy the area's plant and wildlife.
17
What is Step 4?
The stage is set for a slew of Donald Trump’s bad decisions to culminate in some really bad results, so most of us hope that Step 4 is impeachment.
But, when the bad stuff does happen, Donald Trump is more likely to give us his version of Step 4: Everything is our fault, not his.
After all, it was our Electoral College which put him in the White House.
When Donald Trump declares his Step 4, try not to be sitting near any sharp objects.
4
The only thing I would like to know about Trump's physical is his life expectancy. As in, "How much longer do we have to put up with this?"
35
The government shutting g down actually seems like a pretty good deal right now, given the options.
20
Why would Trump say he was the best athlete ever? Which, of course is preposterous! Could it be that right before the interview he saw a commercial for the upcoming Olympics?
14
Step 4? Does this mean we are in for a 12 step program? And which step will be war for political purposes? The GOP is in denial if they think they can rein this guy in.
7
Clearly Trump owes his self aggrandizement to his critical father always putting him down. But lucky Floridians won't have to look at oil rigs because of Mar A Lago at least for now. Now let's yell about ANWR and the other states slated for an oil drilling fiasco.
5
I used to rail at even the idea of shutting down our government, but under the current administration, maybe it's not a bad idea.
13
Maybe his plan is to simply exhaust all of us and create so much chaos, we simply can't keep up any longer. Every time you think he can't possibly sink any lower, he proves us wrong. I guess in that respect he's a "stable genius."
12
If the Republicans won't pass a fair deal like the one negotiated, don't pass a bill. Trump is posturing for his base. Dems should promote current bill and hold firm. This promotes a split within Republican party.
13
Destruction makes Trump feel powerful. Chaos makes him feel powerful. GOP sycophants are empowering him to their own ends mindless of the nation.
His incompetence means a real future crisis is beyond meaningful response. No planning, no knowledge, no capable people around him. He simply does not respond.
He has to go. How is the question.
18
Trump's imbecilic gyrations are so exhausting, it's difficult to muster enough energy, ignore the fearful trepidation or suppress the real anger in order to laugh at his dangerously clownish behavior.
Even when it is so comically framed as in this column.
9
Given the people who are currently in government, a shutdown sees like a really good idea. Can we cut the power to the White House and Congress?
15
If a government "led" by McConnell, Ryan and Trump did shutdown, would we even notice?
18
We the People of the United States on order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare. and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
We the People ought to remind ourselves of what the purposes of our government are. When we have representatives who are not about these purposes but rather do the bidding of their multi-billionaire donors, it is our right and our duty to remove them from office.
The United States is US. We get the government we deserve.
13
Employing wishful thinking: I wonder if Trump will soon report that he needs to leave office because he has found out that he has a previously undetected medical condition which is of a type that he cannot work and that he he needs to have the condition properly treated on an ongoing basis.
And i hope that Pence has been so intensely effected by having his values up close and personal with Trump's values that Pence tempers his excessive narrow-minded exclusionary conservatism so that he can go on to do the work of a president on behalf of the growth and development of all the the people regardless of whether or not they hold to the kind of values Pence holds.
4
It's a grave error for the Democrats to shut down the government because of the failure of DACA negotiations. Such an action would give a green light to future extortions on budgetary issues, threatening full faith and credit in the bond market. Yes, the Republicans have conducted this kind of extortion in the past, and yes, the stock market seems to be overlooking the threats. But financial stability can turn on a dime.
DACA is one thing, and the budget is another. Though DACA is important, so are taxes. The Democrats are a minority party, and they have to realize that they need to win elections in order to restore sanity to immigration policy, as well as tax policy, environmental policy, etc. Shutting down the government would play into the hands of the anarchists and would do the Democrats irreparable harm at the ballot box, upon which the future depends.
1
You know how it feels when you miss a step on a stairwell or curb--that sinking feeling which sometimes ends up to be a bad twisted ankle. With this presidency I have this feeling every hour of every day this clown in his office.
8
Step 4--How about someone in the Cabinet or Congress growing a backbone and telling Trump to his face that he is wrong and that his "base" is diminished .People have perfected the weary smile and the subtle eye rolling in his presence.No one wants to set off a tantrum.Better a tantrum than outrageous talk and tweets.We as a country never asked for this- not even Trump voters.
3
In a fit of rage Trump spontaneously ignites leaving behind a pile of ashes and several hundred million very relieved American citizens.
5
Perhaps the safest course of action is to shut the government down to life support until after the new congress is put in power following the 2018 elections. The more this GOP government can function the more harm it will do.
9
There is bi-partisan support for comprehensive immigration reform. Congress should work out a reasonable bill, pass it by 2/3 of both houses and skip the ridiculous wall. It would reassure a lot of Americans that our government could function without being forced to throw away billions of dollars in placate Trump.
5
Step 4
What was that the president said about now being the time we need the military the most and that therefore the democrats must not be allowed to shut the government down?
It seems somethings going on we don't know. Probably ought to ask him.
I’m worn down by this clown. There no longer exists a proper framework to organize his vile and vulgar actions and words-and we’re only a year into this nightmare. How many weeks have ended with incredulous cries of “does anyone even remember the Monday outrage”?
Please, Mr. Mueller. End this travesty now.
11
Maybe some group should start a site that lets people state they will NEVER vote for another Republican until this mess they created is gone.
After all. the politicians only want their seat at the troth of benefits they have created for themselves. Little Sweden for politicians.
2
There exist some people for whom wreaking havoc is necessary to their existence. They only feel alive when they are creating discord everywhere they possibly can. By bullying, by throwing tantrums, by pathological lying, by careful, cunning planning in multiple directions to sow as much misery as possible.
I know because my family suffered through a family member who behaved, on a smaller stage, the way Trump does.
I'm no longer interested in what to call this need, what the DSM would say about it, listening to "diagnoses" from doctors, or journalists, or people who post. It doesn't matter if it's NPD, or BPD, or ABC.
What's crucial is to understand that he needs the destructive behavior to feel alive and to feel as if he matters. It's his identity, his coping method, the way he reassures himself he exists.
There is no way to stop it, let alone control it, except to remove him from office.
There are reports that he is "relishing" the reaction to his vicious, racist words.
Of course he is.
Stop talking about his "base." Talk instead about how he has NO mandate. Get the "base" off its tyranny of the minority pedestal, and start talking about the majority vote and the people who voted for Clinton.
Double whammy, triple whammy, it doesn't matter.
All that matters is getting him out of office, isolating him where the havoc he wreaks can't hurt anyone.
Begin by rallying the people to support the censure vote. Hound McConnell. Harass Ryan.
Let's create some havoc of our own.
10
Lost in your discussion is the fisa fiasco, where at Fox's suggestion trump went against his administration's stated support before being corrected and lectured by Ryan and reversing himself again. Two wrongs make a right I guess.
1
Seems to me EVERY state that is not Florida, affected by the new offshore drilling plan, needs to file for a "Florida" exemption. State attorneys general in all coastal states should also file suit against the plan in any case. Any attorney general who refuses to file, or "slow walks" a suit, needs to feel the heat from the citizens of that state, either directly, or through the governor and the ballot. Trump's arbitrary approach to this (as with immigration) can be made to work against him.
8
Perhaps Mr. Trump, not known for his scholarship, believes he campaigned to "Make America Grate Again," and that is the reason he believes he is so wildly successful.
4
Trump was an awesome athlete;his performance ruined by a terrible crippling, indeed disability inducing 'footy thingy' in some foot or other! The NFL/Olympics/NBA/NHL brutally denied his presence. Sad.
2
In every aspect of what should be considered a functional government, the country shut down a long time ago. What's being negotiated is how to further fund the dysfunctional.
3
What would have happened to Trump by now if he had been hired last November as a CEO of any corporation in the US? I'll rephrase that...any corporation in the world? Other than his own family business....
5
Perhaps if we accept more immigrants from Normay, they will accept more immigrants from the US. This is a major potential benefit of Trump’s proposed immigration program.
2
Yesterday in the parking lot at Walmart I saw a 1994 Honda Accord, filled to the roof with junk, that had two bumper stickers -- one said "Trump Pence" and the other had a picture of a sniper rifle with the words "When all else fails, vote from the rooftops" beneath it.
The two guys getting out of the car smiled big and waved while I was waiting on them so I could pull into the spot next to their car, because that's what they were trained to do in that situation. Looked like the nicest guys in the world.
And yet, I get the feeling they didn't care at all about anything written in this op-ed.
5
At this stage of the Trump presidency, Step 4 may be our best option for restoring some sanity in this country. To quote Trump, himself, "What have we got to lose?"
1
Step 4: when after the government shut-down the world decides it is time to cash all those U.S. treasury bonds.
The dollar collapses, there is a Wall Street panic...
There is no limit to what this "very smart genius" could do.
3
You missed an angle on Trump's need for a room with a view when it comes to his Trump International Golf Links (whatever that means). Look up and read all about his antics in Aberdeenshire, Scotland in trying to stop a wind farm off the coastline of his now famous golf course. Look up the letters he himself wrote to the Scottish minister, Alex Salmond, not to mention the bullying of local authorities and local residents alike. All in the public realm and well before 'fake news' which so far has not been a problem for us here. As soon as I read about 'except Florida' in NYT, I knew it was your option C) withouttadoubt. We all know here.
8
Those who say "shut the government down" are asking that Trump be given full dictatorial powers. Keep the government open until Spring, when we can all brave the weather and block every traffic artery from thruways to runways.
1
This is way too much to handle on a daily basis. I am exhausted and scared, and very worried about America's future and its standing in the world.
3
Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright; The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light, and somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout; but there is no joy in Mudville -- Trump has rolled out of bed, turned on Fox and Friends, and commenced to tweet.
4
Soon, someone will write the screenplay for "An American Fool," and it will become a movie for the ages. The material is rich and vast. We can see the beginning and the middle of the story, but how to make it end is another matter. The man with the tangerine hair rides off to self-imposed exile? Or, he's drummed out of Washington by members of congress who began channeling their inner Sam Ervin and Howard Baker?
6
A great step 4 would be 1) an excellent bill of health followed by 2) unexpectedly dropping dead.
4
If my name were Pulitzer, and I gave out awards, I'd give you one for this column. Thank you.
5
Heel spurs kept him from the Olympics. Sad.
6
In reply to "What have you got to lose?" I say we've lost a helluva lot already and have a helluva lot more to lose unless we vote this capricious lunatic and his Republican enablers out of office. It will take years, maybe decades to repair the damage they are doing to our country and our our planet. Some of the damage, such as what has been done to our international reputation, may never be repaired because it was not done by Trump but by the nearly 63 million who voted for him. They knew what they were getting and liked it. Our only hope is the nearly 66 million who did not vote for him, if we can swell that majority in the next election with some of the 42% of registered voters who did not vote at all.
2
Best athlete? In high school Bernie Sanders was apparently third in the NYC indoor mile, which must have been very competitive. Bernie's attitude: "I was a very good long-distance runner -- not a great runner." Wouldn't it be nice to have a president who is in touch with reality, not an egomaniac, and not a racist?
2
Just don't look at his over -priced condos bought in Las Vegas by shell companies. Mission Accomplished.
2
Spot on; spot on.
Meanwhile, Andrew Cuomo and Bill De Blasio are still waiting for all that infrastructure money Trumpie would have sent to the New York metropolitan area. Speaking of views (from Trump Tower, mid-town): how about some money for a couple of tunnels, one linking Westchester or Fairfield Counties with La Guardia and JFK, the other linking New Jersey and either the World Trade Center or Penn Station?
If South Carolinians are so dense they keep electing Mark Sanford to positions of some authority and import, they sort of deserve to have a little sand amongst the tar balls on their Atlantic shore. Can they tell the difference?
Are you sure, Gail, Trump said some of his best friends were Haitians? Or could it possibly have been that some of his best Haitians were friends (with one another, not with him by any stretch).
Step 4. Buy a school desk and hide under it.
4
Forget step 4; it’s time for step 25th.
2
It's official now that the White House is occupied by a monster. I feel like a passenger in a bus with a drunken driver on a dangerous highway. Which happened to me once, in Colombia, years back. Which is just to say that I'm not exaggerating.
6
Not only does Florida have a lot of Haitian-American voters, but recently a lot more Puerto Rican voters, too!
3
Central to Republican politics are beliefs that competitive views are the norm and “I” am only served when “we” is rejected. Immigration is a marvelous touchstone, where I can reject any concern for others, because, let’s face it, immigrants don’t look, sound, or smell like me.”
All policies involve picking winners and losers. “Stronger together” is an admirable notion, and very definitely true, but many Americans think the only way is to take care of “me first”
3
I truly despise all of these people for making G W Bush, the former gold standard of bad, look good.
5
Seeing how the koch brothers shut down Cape Wind, Massachusetts's proposed wind farm because it would interfere with their yachting and view, it's surprising that we don't get similar consideration. I guess we're just a bit too blue and North Eastern liberal establishment for that!
1
Isn't the "best athlete" the same guy that had such painful heel spurs that he could not serve during the Vietnam war? So painful he could not remember which foot?
6
Step 4 anyone ?, well i have not checked yet to see the usual Saturday morning tweet storm that normally perpetrates out of Mar-a lago when Trump is sulking in residence (as usual ) and counting back the days from new year , it is hard now to score each individual incident because their are so many to keep track of, but one for sure that has got my attention will be as and when the hill censure Trump, but do not hold your breath on the feckless GOP going along with that motion , it never happened even after Charlottesville .
Trump wants his wall so he can have thousands of miles of "TRUMP" plastered across the country. Much more attractive, if only in his tiny mind, than an unsightly drilling platform outside his window.
Why doesn't someone suggest a new space station or moon base, which we can name after him? Nothing loftier than that. We can throw in a Star Trek captain's uniform for him to wear at liftoff, and if we're fast enough, we can push him aboard.
2
People forget why this is happening and it needs to be hammered into us. Our institutions are being dismantled. The cabinet, republicans in Congress, donors are richer (oligarchs - see Mnunkin's photo drooling over freshly printed money- w/no brains to do their job). Whether it's Russia's interference or the republicans, it doesn't matter because they now look the same.
We are under constant attack by Russia and all of this dismantling is part of their goal. Chaos is what we've seen Putin's work elsewhere then those countries actively pursued countering the effects (while the wh does nothing). We are weak under a form of a human being propped up by bad people who don't support the Constitution and certainly don't support their constituents.
Cover this up with the newest atrocities being committed that will take over news cycle after news cycle but remind people WHY this is happening. Even Bannon promised it would get worse. Then look at Russia and what they do to bring down a country.
4
After all this overwhelming fouling of the America I love, whoever runs against him has the campaign slogan ready to go: "Make America Great Again"
1
OMG!!! It truly does get worse every day. I can only hope that damage is contained and we can set things right again sooner rather than later. One friend insists she is creating her own reality and avoiding news of Trump and his cronies to keep from going crazy. I am taking the opposite track and going crazy living the nightmare. "Help me Obi-wan you're our only hope."
Hopefully step four will include a net, a psychiatric evaluation and an impeachment or resignation. We have indulged this very sick man long enough.
4
I hope and pray step 4 involves the Mueller investigation.
3
Could things get worse? Sure.
It is pretty clear that Stephen Miller has replaced the now-banished Stephen Bannon as ''Trump's brain.''
Miller, who previously worked for Michelle Bachmann. Dave Brat, and Jefferson Beuregard Sessions is a staunch opponent of immigration and immigrants. Miller is responsible for torpedoing the bipartisan immigration reform that was adopted by the Senate on a 68-32 vote in 2013, but was never introduced in the House.
With Senators Graham and Durbin were expecting a private meeting with Trump this past Thursday, they were instead blind-sided by a half-dozen hard line anti-immigrant Republican Senators and Representatives. Miller regularly provides Trump with inflammatory rhetoric, having written the 2016 convention speech, the ''American carnage'' inaugural address, and reqular talking points designed to stop progress.
Miller was traumatized as a boy when PA announcements were made in both English and Spanish at Santa Monica high school. His political philosopy was shaped by reading ''Guns, Crime and Freedom'' by NRA EVP Wayne LaPierre. He has told us on TV that the President's authority is ''not to be questioned'' and that Trump is ''a political genius.''
Could things get worse? Sure.
253
Does Trump’s athletic prowess extend to his dinner table? Jowling down 2 half pounders, a couple of fish sandwiches and a litre of Diet Coke make a Star? -or- simply announces man girdles make the man?
41
I am so very, very sick to death of all of this. I am living in crazyland
235
Then there's the Martin Luther King Jr. day speech, wherein our bigot in chief intoned on behalf of "love for neighbors and fellow Americans", cited the "dignity in every human soul" and noted "that we are all created equal by God."
44
The MLK day speech is yet another example of his being disconnected from his words and actions. How in the world did he recite/read those words with a straight face?
23
Anyone saw Trump carefully reading the words he spoke off a sheet of paper would realize that Trump's Martin Luther King day speech was prepared by someone else and very difficult for him to verbally express. (especially "dignity in every human soul") Is there any dignity in Trump's soul? Does he even have a soul?
4
I have a serious problem with the African Americans who attend the MLK day event with this disgrace of a human being. They have a name for that: enablers. Shame on them.
5
While campaigning, the stable genius issued the "What have you got to lose?" question to those in distressed areas-well, now we know: our ideals, our dignity, our environment, our decency, our public service, our peace of mind- all lost... but the stock market is up so all must be well.. The title Fire and Fury should have been Sound and Fury, but that was already taken by Faulkner quoting " It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." for Gail's step 4- read Macbeth, which fortunately ends with the restoration of order.
86
how about 'Noise and Fury'?
1
You know, there seems to be a lot of talk that Putin planned to discredit America through his puppet Trump. What if next week he simply orders that the U.S. government be shut down. Ask some Republicans about this. If they don't want to talk about obvious racism and bad language, i'll bet they don't want to talk about Treason either.
52
I was hoping Trump would try for a deferment from the Presidency during his physical yesterday, claiming Bonehead Spurs (from putting his foot in his mouth so often).
215
Me, too. I was hoping he would disappear from public view after an announcement from the doctor that although there was "nothing to be concerned about" and his health was fine, given his "exhaustion" from working so, so hard, the doctor could not in good conscience recommend he continue in his job as president and that from this day forward would be on a leave of absence of at least three years.
27
Thanks for that image. It will keep me laughing today despite the reality of the Liar in Chief's presidency.
Things could be worse believe it or not. We could have Sarah Palin clucking away behind him instead of The Undertaker, Mike what’s his name.
72
Gail, you are one of the finest aspects of the NYT so I know that you'll agree with this approach to our problems. Tell them in the front office please.
Here's the deal: How about those Dutch journalists who asked follow up questions until the cowardly lying U.S. ambassador there was reduced to silence?
When is the American Media going to start treating public servants as just that and stop treating them as ugly celebrities? So American Media how about those Dutch journalists? How about those Dutch journalists? How about those Dutch journalists?...
178
@nilootero.. In addition, how about a dignified and silent rebuke of the utter mendacity of the WH Press Office? NYT WH correspondents stand up, do a 180, wait for three beats and walk out.
3
...how about those Dutch journalists? How about those Dutch journalists? How about those Dutch journalists?...
Regarding North Korea, at least, he is already at step four: “I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-un,”
11
North Korea has more steps than a flamenco marathon. Where do we put the "Bloody Nose" tactical nuclear strike, that sure-fire route to a peaceful tomorrow? Was that 3A?
1
If this government shut down, would anyone know?
54
The four million or so people who work for the federal government will probably notice when they don't get their paychecks. But, it would certainly look no different to the rest of us. Maybe a little quieter.
Trump, like all narcissists, never strikes out.
16
Right! Which means he needs to be *thrown* out. enough with the baseball metaphors. I prefer soccer. Time for the RED CARD!
2
Time to go, Mr. President. You can't hack it.
33
Step 4: Stormy Daniels
33
Step 4? It's time the U.S. Fires this president. Way past time.
40
Interesting to see the country find out what everybody in Queens Village knew 40 years ago. The country IS behind the times.
51
When will it be time to flood the streets around the White House or Mar-a-Lago demanding that he resign?
39
Next Saturday January 20 2018
3
The thought of a Democratic landslide in Nov. is heartening.
Merchants all prepare months in advance for the Christmas sales. There must be a strong push very soon to make sure that those responsible for the operation of the voting procedures are fully prepared. All the details to accommodate the voters should be positively in place at least a month before voting day. None of the waiting hours to vote, none of shortened voting hours or such, plenty of chairs, restrooms, etc.
47
Tongue in cheek approach in this case isn't funny. Sessions could care less that Russian hackers are doing more to prepare for 2018 election than the DOJ and many state elections offices.
1
Notice how we’re not talking about the Wolff book anymore?
554
Sorry, but the Master of Distraction theory doesn't work in this case (to the extent it ever applies). "Fire and Fury"s publisher has already shipped 700,000 copies of the book. Retailers can't meet demand. That's not going to change because of Trump's appalling rhetoric. In fact, it only helps Wolff's credibility.
82
You're right! Man, we fall for it every time.
5
The Republicans are a bunch cowards. Trump is either blackmailing them or bribing. Or they just don't care as long as they get what they want while he is President. They will pay in November.
102
Yes Yes Yes ... is not his loyal friend the chief of TMZ or the National Enquirer? My theory since the inauguration has been these soulless representatives are being blackmailed. Come on investigative journalists find out what might be occurring.
1
They just need his signature on their trash legislation.
1
I believe Trump. Any stable genius would know from shitholes, and Trump obviously feels that he's like Hercules, so I'm sure that someday soon he will divert the Potomac through the White House to clean out the stables.
35
Step 4: Mueller time?
100
I know, hurry hurry......
1
It is all so wretchedly nasty and dispiriting. If only there were a military academy for loose-cannon presidents. If only.
14
Why, oh why, is this excellent piece sponsored by Cannon Operating.... oil and gas drilling, touting its great ROI??? Is this a joke? A fine piece of irony?
9
So now we know the origin of the term "hair-brained idea".
67
Actually, the term is "hare-brained," or "having the brains of a kind of rabbit." But keep punning. It's healthy.
2
Photos received at dawn from a friend traveling in The Land of Magic Carpets and 1000 Tales, the cause of replying: 'You lucky swan! This extravaganza is magnificent. Check out the rental for a studio on the 88th floor. In the meantime, counting on your return home as scheduled, and in no hot air balloon across the Desert'.
You don't read the papers, an economist once said, a prominent New York public official, causing me to study a blank page on my desk. He did not specify that this reader should take to the Times, but wanted the cleric in his office to stay informed as to Our State of Affairs and the business of the day,
Le Grand 'Cover-Up', a president unhinged, and while one cannot fool All the People all the time, one can send them into a State of Denial. You can even lie to yourself and pretend that 'Somebody' in power in going to steady the course. This Ally does not exist and belongs to the realm of fiction.
Our Allies are not in denial, however, and there is no asking for their help either. Now is the impact received of what friends in Jerusalem had to say about maintaining one's wits during this reign of dangerous stupidity, stultifying as it is, planning to continue supporting The Team of The New York Times.
Thank you, Ms. Collins, for this latest effort on your part. This photo of pollution is 'The Smoke on the Rig'.
5
Gail, yes many people, myself included think expanding offshore drilling is a terrible idea. So let's be thankful that there won't be any offshore drilling around Florida.
But the Friends of Fossil Fuel (FFF) may shout loudly, where is the electricity going to come from to keep Mar-a-Lago lit up 24/7?
Gail, I am about to reveal the secret to Florida's uniqueness that not even you know. The secret has to do with making Florida Denmark.
Take a 15 minute drive from Mar-a-Largo and you will find the West Palm Beach Renewable Energy Facility designed and built by Babcock & Wilcox, Völund, Denmark. Here @ https://www.swa.org/Facilities/Facility/Details/Renewable-Energy-Facilit... you will learn that incineration of Palm Beach County solid waste produces "... enough electricity to provide power for an estimated 44,000 homes and businesses, or about all the homes in Boca Raton-" B & W says that this plant - the only one in America - is now the most advanced in the world.
As a resident of Linköping, Sweden, I would phrase that differently - one of the THREE most advanced in the world, the other two also by B & W, are the plant heating my home here in Linköping, and the CopenHill plant under construction in Copenhagen DK.
Perhaps a member of FFF will tell us how much oil is needed to keep the lights on in 44,000 homes - and how long it would take to get that oil from new drillholes in offshore America.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen US SE
38
All those strong Christians that pulled the lever for Trump had best start praying. You have a lot of atoning to do for this sin.
61
Old Rose Dawson in Titanic, "Wait to live, wait to die, wait for an absolution that will never come..."
Admittedly Zinke is a villain devoted to degrading not just the Department of the
Interior but America, both interior and offshore. But don't criticize his take-your-dog-to-work program. It's a shining light, superior to anything Tillerman, Perry, deVos, and several others in the cabinet have done.
14
Darn.
I guess it's no use starting a GoFundMe page to put an oil rig directly offshore Mar-a-lago...
37
They could still put in a few windmills there.
It's just not funny anymore. It is too terrible.
25
"Step 4, anyone?"
Yes. Mueller makes his move.
11
At what point does it make sense to ignore him like a ranting homeless person? Can the government & nation & the world just tune him out? Could this newspaper go cold turkey and not print his name for a week, just to see what happens?
16
Trump is not nuts!
He's maybe just confused. No, he is terminally confused about what he is saying and what he believes (nothing) and he needs help finding his way very, very badly. We haven't had a president so lost in space since Elmer Fudd took over for U. H. Grant.
A significant, shrinking minority of citizens think he's the greatest thing, continuing our cartoon analogies, since Donald Duck learned to quack. Once long ago, Senator Barry Goldwater, hoping to become president, said the entire east coast of the U.S. should be sawed off and allowed to float out to sea, presumably to sink somewhere near Atlantis. Me thinks we are in deeper trouble now. We might have to saw ourselves in half because there is no way we can have a meeting of the minds between "He's the greatest!" and, "He should be taken out in a straightjacket tomorrow."
We could be headed for a civil war. Seriously. When people get their way, when racist based ideas float to the surface, when tax cuts for the mega-rich are a reason to run up the national debt, when cutting off health care benefits for 9 million children seems like a good thing, we have sunk so low that any chance of dialog breaks down.
Will we survive this Trump disaster? No one in Washington, DC, really cares. They are too busy trying to save their own backsides. The 2018 elections should be a referendum on Trumpism and the blowback from our very big non-nuclear buttons should be atomic, unlimited.
28
Hehe, funny you should mention offshore drilling, quality health care and pensions. Watching Camila Cabello on Fallon last night I'm now willing and ready to shut up, sneak in through Canada and take my chances with capitalism.
2
Of course it's Mar-A-Lago. The man has the intellect of a sack of hammers, and thinks first, last, and only, about his own self-interest.
24
An insult to hammers everywhere. At least they have a viable and useful purpose.
3
Yup. That about sums it up.
Keep up the good work Mr. Trump! Way to MAGA!
Periscope Down & Pass the Popcorn.
(are the midterm elections here yet?)
2
And who but Donald Trump could have lost the US the popular support of its staunchest ally -Great Britain, in one short year? With the “triple whammy” of his repeated attacks on London’s mayor Sadiq Khan, his criticism of Theresa May’s handling of terrorism, and his retweeting of extremist anti-Muslim videos from the British far right, our only “friend” in Great Britain now would appear to be the bumbling Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson- who often presents as Trump with a better vocabulary.
Note to the politically beleaguered Theresa May, now forever tainted by her rush to seek the Donald’s blessing last January, the next time Donald Trump tells you “I Wanna’ Hold Your Hand” for a photo-op - just say “no.”
20
Oh, but Trump's canceled visit to London is the fault of Obama. He said so. Obama makes it rain sometimes when Trump wants to play golf, too.
I believe that Trump has lost the support of Great Britain, and the British people feel sorry for us. Not so sorry that they would come here, of course.
1
Great athlete? Didn't he suffer from bone spurs?
38
Seamus loves going to the beach
3
gail,you are, of course, also referring to the rule of three in comedy or the "comic triple." if one gets to the point where we need a "4," we enter into what is referred to as the "tragic 4th." that's when the joke has died and the comedian is asked to leave the stage. i believe it's time, don't you?
15
The Trump thing has gone from tragedy to farce.
5
I have a very positive Step 4: The New York Times runs banner headline articles about New York City's divestment from fossil fuel companies and its suing oil company for sticking us with what they knew would be the disastrous results of continued use of their product. Hey, Ms. Collins, can you help us - all of us… the whole planet - with that?
8
History has shown that in communist and authoritarian governments, he/she who owns the media and the military has full control of all that happens in the state. Lets' see, Fox News is the media that will prostitute itself to pump out outrageous and often laughable fake news and Gen. Kelly as WH Chief of Staff is the puppeteer pulling Trump's strings. It will be an uphill battle to return the USA to its standing as the leading light of democracy, but it is a fight we must undertake. Cease being paralyzed by the daily, mouth-dropping onslaught of chaos. Don't be sucked into it. Don't give up. Stand up and acknowledge the challenge. Find your voice to speak out. It's time to take back our country.
12
How about we just skip right to Step 25?
11
I'm tired of thinking about Trump. However, I never tire of thinking about his weird republican enablers or the toothless hicks who make up his 35% approval rating. Can anyone properly explain to me what those people are thinking?
7
He still has at least one third of the population approving his actions. What gives?
80
Prevalence of Mental Illness
Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the U.S.—43.8 million, or 18.5%—experiences mental illness in a given year.1
Approximately 1 in 25 adults in the U.S.—9.8 million, or 4.0%—experiences a serious mental illness in a given year that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities.2
Approximately 1 in 5 youth aged 13–18 (21.4%) experiences a severe mental disorder at some point during their life. For children aged 8–15, the estimate is 13%.3
1.1% of adults in the U.S. live with schizophrenia.4
2.6% of adults in the U.S. live with bipolar disorder.5
6.9% of adults in the U.S.—16 million—had at least one major depressive episode in the past year.6
18.1% of adults in the U.S. experienced an anxiety disorder such as posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and specific phobias.7
Among the 20.2 million adults in the U.S. who experienced a substance use disorder, 50.5%—10.2 million adults—had a co-occurring mental illness.8 Consequences of Lack of Treatment
Serious mental illness costs America $193.2 billion in lost earnings per year.15
Mood disorders, including major depression, dysthymic disorder and bipolar disorder, are the third most common cause of hospitalization in the U.S. for both youth and adults aged 18–44.16
National Alliance on Mental Illness
2
26% of Americans think the sun revolves around the earth, too.
7
From what I've experienced, much of Trump's appeal to his base has to do with shared racist views and burn-it-all-down mentality.
1
If the government shuts down, Trump will just stay longer at Mar-a-Lago, eating steak and chocolate cake he'll charge to us, and bill the Secret Service for the use of his golf carts. What does he care?
Plus, he'll be waited upon by the many Haitians he hires every year for temporary visas to work at Mar-a-Lago for the season. There are no Americans suitable for the jobs.
87
He imports eastern Europeans to work his resorts.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/26/us/politics/donald-trump-taps-foreign...
4
He says he likes Hiatians and Roumanians.
1
Trump's immigration plan calls for more immigrants from Norway and fewer from Haiti. Why would anybody want to leave Norway and come to some place where Trump is president?
195
Please shut the government down. Please. Does anyone actually believe that the Democrats will get the blame?
Do not allow it to re-open until Trump is gone along with all his enablers.
63
The Democrats will be blamed by the liar in chief and his supporters will cheer loudly.
1
I wonder if Step #4 isn't really the best course?
I, and perhaps much of the World, need a Trump-break.
Surely the Times can find other things to report on for a couple of months.
Suggestions: Winter Olympics, Brexit, Oil drilling in the Falklands, Paris fashions, the economy of Luxembourg.
24
It is easy to be distracted by every new utterance from President Trump as he plumbs a new depth every time. FOCUS because we have only so much energy and because in the meantime, GOP over the last several years has:
1. Successfully denied President Obama the right to nominate SCOTUS Justice
2. GOP governors in 18 states denied Medicaid expansion purely for ideological reasons leading to poorer health outcomes for their citizens
3. Scott Pruitt at EPA continues to weaken protections for clean air and water
4. Betsy DeVos continues to weaken education standards
5. Steven Mnuchin and Gary Cohn have taken voodoo economics to new depths
6. GOP continues to spread falsehoods regarding healthcare and ACA
7. Senior GOP leaders like Paul Ryan, Devin Nunes and Chuck Grassley are weakening institutional investigative powers of the Congress
8. GOP legislators in several states have taken gerrymandering to new depths
9. GOP controlled states have worked on weakening voting rights
10. GOP leaders in Congress have shown no interest in solving issues such as CHIP, DACA
334
Please let your GOP "representative" know that you see this- loudly and daily. Flood them. It only takes a few minutes to resist the destruction of our democracy. It is our civic duty.
Brilliant comment. Gross distractions are assisting the grand reshaping. We’re like circus goers in need of constant entertainment, oblivious to being swindled.
3
We are voters living in one of the two Texas congressional districts that a federal panel ruled unconstitutional because they were drawn along racial lines to disenfranchise minorities. Of course our Republican controlled state legislature and Republican governor have no plans to redraw the district boundaries before the 2018 election. Meanwhile, our current congressman has yet to repay the $84,000 his sexual harassment lawsuit cost taxpayers.
2
Norwegians are well read, educated and smart. In general, they think Trump is a lunatic.
168
President Trump profoundly embarrasses America and endangers the planet---all courtesy of the Republican party. May we never forget who sponsored this disaster.
795
Remind said republicans daily that you see this. Flood their offices. It is our civic duty. We cannot sit by passively and wait for Nov.
7
An advert for democracy if ever there was one.
But in the end, all he does is confirming an earlier President's assertion that "America's business is business". After all, what have future generations ever done for us, heh?
14
The time for cutesy irony is long past. It’s now time for pitch forks and tiki torches. Drive the scoundrel out of office.
44
Don't forget the tar and feathers.
6
Gail,
I know that with your clout at the NYTimes you can find out how the payment of $130,000 hush money paid to Stephanie Clifford, who performed under the name Stormy Daniels was treated by the I.R.S. Was it a legal expense of the law firm that made the payment reimbursed by a Trump business or was it listed as a personal expense of Mr. Trump?
For all of the high income celebs who are making payments to pay for their indiscretions how is the expense treated.
This could make a contribution to our understanding of how the stock market and the growth of the US economy is being spurred to historic highs.
35
"Step 4, anyone?"
Step four from the book 'Alcholoics Anonymous':
"Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves."
Perhaps it is time the whole nation took a step four. Might do some good before the midterm elections.
40
I am sure there are plenty of people living in the United States right now who are nearly as irrational, preposterous and ridiculous as Donald Trump. But none of them is living in the White House.
21
The current occupant of the Blaine House, Augusta, Maine comes to mind.
5
Such posturing,
But nothing new of any note,
Trump is smote,
The writers gloat,
Any point of interest so remote.
4
Any chance we can leave the government in shut down mode thru November, when we can get some competent adults elected back into the Congress?
47
It's all act one, every step, every raw nerve and every rally. The picture doesn't change, nor the pain.
7
The quote "was always the best athlete" along with the very stable genius nonsense makes me ponder-perhaps the bone spurs that made him a grand hero of the Vietnam War is affecting, in an adverse way, his remaining thought process.
As long as we are reading about stable geniuses, the smartest stable genius I ever witnessed, on TV, so it must be as true as Trump's other reality show, not the one he is starring in today, was Mr. Ed. Better vocabulary, better diction and a helluva lot smarter than President Potty Mouth.
45
A quick call to New York Military Academy or the Wharton School should quickly dispel Trump's boast of being "the best athlete" in school.
1
Hang on, we're on a bumpy ride!
5
It’s clear that the squirrel that runs the wheel that pilot’s Trump’s brain has long been in need of replacement. On the other hand, a complete upgrade of the system, perhaps where decisions are randomly made by the actions of one of those little puzzles that you maneuver to get three tiny ball bearings into some holes might be better yet. Let’s face it, Romney’s dog would make better policy than Trump, isn’t a racist misogynist xenophobe and doesn’t have a combover. The world would be grateful to America for decades.
11
Can we stop talking about this president? He has proven that even presidents don't matter. We will survive as a country - together.
11
Step 4: more of the same.
or repeat steps 1,2, and 3.
Very stable genius should consider building along the Mexican border the types of structures with which he is most familiar and which mighte generate income-- namele casinos, hotels, and golf course. A few ball parks are a great idea as well. All I know about a wall is people coming in crrently across the dessert frequently don't make it.. (in other words in fact a wall will be a good thing if it makes them think again... and there are tunnels here and there and everywhere.... and many people are smuggled in by truck, boat is a possibility as well...
3
Trump is a mirror. America needs to take a long, unflinching look.
70
Question: In light of the Trump presidency, do you think "The Wall' street journal has an advantage over other news publications. Does he reveal his most intimate thoughts to them or is he just dreaming?
I also noticed that you caught him in a lie when he claimed that some of his best friends were Haitians. He has no friends!
Off Shore Drilling is the extraction of potentially unstable substances, sometimes under huge pressure in precarious surroundings. Tragedies occur on a regular basis. They accidents occur so regularly you'd think they'd rename the technique, Trump Drilling!
13
From my POV, a "stable genius" is someone who can tell which is the south end of a horse and avoid stepping in the outcomes.
Trump does not meet that threshold.
52
DJT will be responsible for the most successful voter drive, and midterm turnout in history.
And if not it might be the last one.
Engage other people where ever and whenever you can and urge them and their circle to register and vote.
12
And while we're at it, why don't the Democrats actually come out with a platform? Their foot-dragging has become more than suspect. Wall Street's two delegates, Chuck and Nancy, are banking on a free ride, hoping to surf back into power on a wave of righteous disgust without detailing a single progressive policy should they reassume control. It might work in the very short term but the lack of an ennobling vision and not a high school cafeteria full of Russian hackers is what ultimately did Clinton in.
1
Trump is supporting Jeff Sessions trying to put an end to legalized marijuana.
Typical GOP strategy - put more people in prison. Lock them up and ruin their lives.
This one thing alone has a potential to destroy hundreds of thousands of young Americans who thought prosecuting people for pot was coming to an end.
A disaster waiting to happen...
5
1 2 3 were out. Let's hear it for infrastructure week. i remember 2 different weeks last year dedicated to this one issue. not much happened either time. seems trump gets distracted. Governmental shutdown would and could possibly be the feather in his quiver that rends a rip in the fabric of this standoff. major changes soon.
4
Your column made me feel oddly hopeful, Gail. Maybe it's just because I took my morning pill, or had my iced coffee, or because you pointed out that the decisions of the President (and really, his entire party) seem absolutely destined to alienate major blocs of voters. The President's saving grace (and I squirm as I write that) is that he's completely, utterly incompetent, way too unskilled to be a dictator in the mold of, say, Kim Jong Un (rimshot). As for his Republican enablers, and they are legion, and they're tied to him, like a hostage strapped to a suicide bomber. Oh, did I mention that he's also an abject coward (like all bullies, once you stand up to them)? The thought of the GOP getting pasted in November and losing control of the House (and possibly even the Senate) is warming the cockles of my heart. If he's still President in 2019 (a big if), he'll be wearing a dog collar and will be led around on a leash by whoever happens to be Democratic House Speaker and/or Senate Majority Leader. Of course, none of that will happen by itself, so we need to prepare and tell everyone to vote. Because elections, as we can see, have consequences.
10
Trump is our nation's drunk uncle. During the campaign, he never gave us specific policies he would work to achieve -- just the simplistic slogans of a man who has not thought things through. Still many voters swallowed hard and bought the "anti-establishment attitude" Trump would bring to Washington.
Now we see the emperor in all his new clothes -- and still some defend him for "speaking his mind" though it looks like his "mind" is nothing more than his prejudices. And his policies? They're like tickets on the Acela Express -- "good for this day and train only."
Before the election, I remember Republicans saying they would vote for the devil himself before they would vote Hillary Clinton. Well, perhaps they did. Perhaps they did.
34
As always, Trumps dog and pony show keeps the country in a dither. All our attention is on the show. Pretty predictable since there has been more heat on Muller's investigation.
Meanwhile, I would like to know what Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and others are up to. Sanity isn't as interesting?
6
Trump's accession to the oval office and his hiring of a coterie of so-called businessmen to key cabinet departments makes one wonder what this country will look like by the time Trump is finally gone. Even worse, the congressional Republican caucus's willingness to participate with this madman of a president in the taking down of every regulation, every measure to preserve the American patrimony for future generations portends a nation bitterly at war with itself.
The GOP has chosen to tribalize our politics. If you are not with them, they say, you are against them. Compromise, as one of their congressmen once said, is to agree with them.
The Republican electorate will either wake up to the fact that they have been sold a bill of goods or we will continue this "us or them" politics until the democracy itself simply withers on the American vine.
7
What Obama did I undo
And that is the Trumpian view
Make unsafe what's safe
Dark faces? I chafe,
And any plan that works, I rue.
The greatest of athletes? That's me,
Fantastic grades all above C,
Climate Change? I hoot,
Give Science the boot
With my Genius mentality.
229
Rocket Man is just like me:
Surrounded by sicophantry.
Giuliani? Who’s that?
O’er the ramparts we... sat?
Hail me! The genius, you see.
4
"There is no doubt, even among many Trump supporters, that this is a guy who would change a major federal policy to protect his view."
Yes, yes, and yes. It's astounding not only that they opened up offshore drilling in any waters where there's NOT a Trump property, but that Zinke ripped away basic safety regulations designed to stop another spill.
I suddenly see dead birds and black tar covering American beaches on both coasts.
Gail, if you tried to design the portrait of a presidency in ruin and a man running it who brings shame to all, you couldn't come up with anything better than this.
On every level, it seems, America is growing smaller, crueler, less safe, and less humane.
During the election, the Globe ran a front page spoof of an April 1, 2017 scenario of what would happen if Trump were elected, as part of their weekly Opinion page.
It was as startling then as it is now when, in retrospect, that spoof seems tame.
I have no answers other than the importance of voting, this year above all others. At the very least, if we can't get rid of Trump, we need to get rid of his enablers.
229
I don't know how you do that when the democrats insist they are a private club that can run any candidate they want.
Look. They want to run Oprah against Trump in '20. That's right, NOT impeach! They think the disaster makes them look good, so they'll milk it. For all it's worth. And then they will lose again.
I hope that anybody who voted for him is now deeply, deeply ashamed and never would again.
Sadly, I imagine my hopes will be dashed.
112
The mystery is not Trump, but those who continue to support him. Although there is a long human history of Vichy-type collaboration, so I guess we should not be shocked at the level of degradation to which people will willingly fall.
18
I have two sisters who voted for him and I am afraid to ask if they would do it again, because I am afraid their answer might be yes.
9
No shame necessary when one is too simple and weak to admit when they're wrong. They're contributing to the noblest of human endeavors, namely that when we go down, we'll at least all go down together.
Pathetic.
9
Norway's health care leaves much to be desired. Norwegians who can afford it routinely come to the USA for non-emergency procedures. The long waits for elective procedures is a perrenial issue for politicians. People showing up at emergency rooms in suburban Oslo with a broken bone are given an appointment two/three weeks hence to come back and get the bone set. The Kingdom of Norway is full of citizens who would love to become US citizens.
1
Really? Certainly not the Norwegians that I have met over the years!
16
Did not know that treatment of a fracture is considered an elective procedure. Are you sure?
3
really? or are we in the world of satire?
5
Our immigration policy is a mess...both parties share the blame for allowing it to get to this point. Reform is needed because our current policies undermine our national and economic security. In addition, without reform Americans will surely turn against immigration in principle. We’ve instituted an insane visa lottery program to supposedly diversify our immigrant pool, where new immigrants are literally selected at random. This isn't working and will be a disaster going forward. Chain migration isn't sustainable either. Obviously it's wrong to discriminate between immigration applicants based on characteristics such as race. But it is not wrong to discriminate based on other criteria such as literacy, education level, and other skills. To claim otherwise is to advocate open borders, or at least a first-come, first-served immigration policy. The simplest and most effective solution to all of this controversy would be to move to an immigration system like Canada’s — a points-based system that prioritizes applicants based on merit alone. Tomorrows jobs will require more education, more high skilled workers. Technology/robotics/AI will decrease the demand for low skilled workers. Lets acknowledge that. If we don't then we are being complete hypocrites and will only make our immigration dilemma worse of that's possible. We have to start to making intelligent choices. Common sense and the federal government has to have a serious relationship while there's still time.
10
There is a huge difference between an intelligent immigration policy and a racist policy driven by preferences for white nationalists. The exclusion of 70 millions Americans from full participation in the economy because of drug related criminal records and its contribution to structural poverty is not the fault of immigrants.
3
More Nigerian immigrants have college degrees than US citizens. So much for your argument.
6
The Trump administration gives me a small inkling of an emotion that Americans have never had to endure: what it is like to be vanquished and occupied by a hostile power bent on undermining the core values of one's society.
1076
Small inking?? How about regular nightmares?? I have to add, not all Americans have "never had to endure" this. Welcome to the world of the oppressed. Maybe this is a new feeling for you but now perhaps you can better sympathize with those of us who've had rights denied or taken away, and had their livelihood threatened by men like Trump.
25
That's because at his very inauguration Trump made it clear that he did intend to wage war against that portion of the country (the majority) that didn't vote for him. Clearly, that's what he and his Republican supporters are doing. Waging war on ethics, truth, our norms and values in the most perverse manner possible, using "Make America Great" as they tear America down.
10
I'm not that worried over Arctic oil drilling because it won't happen. First, lawsuits will delay it for years. Add to that the 2018 election, a referendum on Trump, will be such a wipeout that the Republicans will be on their heels until 2020, after which they'll be irrelevant. The Republicans threw in with the mob when Nixon needed a shield. Then Saint Ronnie attacked reason right and left. Now, as Malcolm X said, "Chickens are coming home to roost."
I'm still glad that Trump won. Hillary, with the congress against her, would be no more successful than Obama (just more gridlock). We needed a Trump in order to drain the swamp, of Republicans.
36
The damage he will have done in for years via executive edicts and and incompetent, malevolent cabinet will not be worth the “swamp draining” of a gridlocked Congress.
9
President Obama was a remarkably successful leader in spite of continual opposition from the right. What you claim is revisionist.
2
I hope you are right in your first-paragraph prediction.
And I see the logic in your second paragraph. But when I wake up most mornings feeling nauseous by the president’s latest flurry of tweets, I cannot say I am glad the dispicable one won.
2
Trump’s policies are not much different from many Republican predecessors. The real problem is his outrageous manner which is unprecedented and so inappropriate that we question whether he reflects on what he says and does or governs by the seat of his pants.
5
These are truly terrible decisions and worse consequences.
But as entertaining as your columns on Trump have been, Gail-
Since it's been established that most of Trump's own staff are concerned and/or fearful that he is out of control and unfit, and that he daily exhibits the behavior that you outline in your column-
Why are the Republicans in congress remaining silent?
Why?
29
"Why?" Because of the power that is within their grasp with their party controlling the House, the Senate, and the White House. They want to downplay all of the Trump horror and not rile up his base, which more than likely would support a primary challenge to Republican incumbents.
Democrats have to get out and vote in large numbers in both the primary and general elections this year.
2
Why did Tom Cotton say, "I don't recall" Trump using such vile language and ideas against other human beings? Because he's just as bad - or worse - than Trump. He knows right from wrong. Why won't he confirm it? "I don't recall". What a crock.
2
Really? You have to ask??.
Back in the day when the circus came to town they would parade down main street to announce their arrival. The elephants were always followed by someone with a shovel and a wheelbarrow.
64
That would be the cabinet.
4
There are a lot of scary step 4s:
Step 4 - Deluding himself that he and Kim Jong-Un "probably have a very good relationship".
Step 4 - Following his (surprising) good bill of health from his annual physical, he decides to limit school lunch programs to big macs, fried chicken, and diet cokes.
Step 4 - After bowing to pressure from GOP governors to include a "work requirement" for Medicaid recipients, he goes the next step and insists on a a "work requirement" for CHIP recipients over the age of 12.
Step 4 - Given that he is still working at 71, he raises the age for Medicare eligibility to be pegged to his age in any given year.
24
Sitting on his golden 'throne' and tweeting does not equate to 'working'. That equates to 'messing up the world on a daily basis'.
3
It just hit me. Mar Lago is in Florida. You don't think maybe......
The "always the best athlete" comment is interesting. Maybe this is one reason Trump seems to have a problem with people of color. Just as considering Russian influence in the election might delegitimize his victory, acknowledging his best athlete status occurred in an environment without the best athletes present with which to compete, might damage his fragile grasp on his own personal reality.
"I was successful at everything I did." Clearly this means it was not his goal to defend our country in the military. Alas, the best athlete in the room was undone by bone spurs.
The number one motivation for off shore drilling apparently is to selectively repeal more regulations, specifically regulations that are connected to Barack Obama. I've never seen anyone with such an irrational sense of always competing with another person no matter what the current circumstances are. Let's be thankful that President Obama didn't personally start up the internet or I'm sure that would be the next item to be dismantled.
34
The only way out of this mess is to VOTE.
Vote in the 2018 November Mid Term Elections.
Vote, not just for best Federal Candidates in your State, vote for the best Candidates in your Local Elections.
Support the best Candidates running for office, with donations, and if at all possible your time. Volunteer at the Local Level. Just show up and ask at your local candidates office where your help is most needed. No experience necessary, there is much you can do to help.
The Democratic process will work, but will only work with the your support.
Please Vote this November.
96
"The only way out of this mess is to VOTE."
NO! It takes too long and the damages done by election time is likely no longer repairable. Find a better way; if the is a will there is a way.
Start with voting in the primary elections this spring. In Illinois, the date is March 20th. Democrats need to vote in this particular election. The governor's race is on in 2018, along with several state wide offices.
1
I have yet to hear a leading Democrat speak out about two of three items Ms Collins writes about. Yes they are all over immigration. But the regulations put in or the opening up the coastlines. I actually saw more Republicans speak up against coastline drilling. This is a winning common sense item to bring up & protect the guidelines put in place after the Deepwater blow out. And North Korea, any Dems speaking up about the consequences of war and why talking has to be the best way. No one... Schumer absolutely useless, as most of the so called 'opposition' party.
17
One perk of retirement is not seeing copies of the Wall Street Journal, but I am grateful to Ms. Collins for bringing the "I was always the best athlete...successful at everything I ever did" interview of Trump to the attention of her NYT readers. There are still days I miss the unintentional comedy Murdoch's paper provides.
As a Florida resident, I am grateful the offshore drilling under Zinke will be limited to wells off of Alabama or the other Gulf Coast states which still threaten the quality of Florida's beaches. Since Trump and Zinke and Scott are all climate change deniers (hard to be when you live in FL) the quality of the FL beaches is not as great a worry as the sea level rise which moves the location of beaches into Florida's interior counties and floods the gun shops.
What a choice for Trump: take action to reduce the impact of climate change or risk flooded gun shops.
Many thanks, Ms. Collins for not trying to be humorous about Trump's racist and vulgar comments about which countries have citizens whose skin colors automatically make them ineligible for immigration to the US. Trump and his fawning supporters like the Republican senators in the DACA meeting who happened not to "hear" his vulgarity have grown both tiresome and too bigoted to be funny.
102
Reading the comment section of the WSJ Trump interview is instructive. While some commenters see the interview as the usual incoherent string of unconnected thoughts and display of policy ignorance, quite a few commenters saw political genius followed by shouts of encouragement.
To his supporters Trump is inerrant even as evidence to the contrary is printed on the page in front of them. I marvel at out capacity for delusion.
27
Is anyone keeping a large notebook full of everything we will need to reset and fix once Trump is gone? I lost count many months ago.
And speaking of lost items, if you recall the Apollo program, Apollo 13 "lost the moon." That happened when their oxygen tank blew up, and they all almost died alone in space. But through the heroics of those on the ground, and those in the spacecraft, they managed to make it home.
We also have a blown oxygen tank, and it is called Donald J. Trump. We have "lost democracy." But in this case it's unclear if we possess the necessary skills to get ourselves back home. Will we die alone, as the rest of the world moves on without us? It's a scary thought, but a salient one.
24
It’s common knowledge here in Florida that Scott Walker our soon to be turfed out governor wants to run on this no oil in Florida platform against the incumbent Democratic Nelson. This will be his main pitch. Walker by the way was the disgraced health care executive that used his company to embezzle millions from the government to Medicare fraud whilst refusing to take the ACA’s Medicaid money for the poor and working poor for the State of Florida. The irony surrounding his misdeeds should be construed as disqualification for office, yet he has served two insidious terms. His plan to test people on welfare was met with resistance from the crack team from the former Jon Stuart Show, when they reminded him he was also receiving money from the public coffers and would he and his staff be willing to participate in the proposed program. They should have extended this on to ask if the recipients of the corporate welfare programs we have newly passed (Senator Collins you should be ashamed) would also be held to the same standard. Real Estate developers with their new pass through taxing system is a prime example of that. Ahoy, cups all around. Remember the goose and the gander? So apropos in this climate of us vs them.
32
I believe your governor is named Rick Scott. Scott Walker is governor of Wisconsin.
3
Scott Walker is the governor of Wisconsin, not Fla.
Scott Walker is the Governor of Wisconsin. not Florida,
I'm sorry, but I cannot pretend to understand the stuff about off-shore drilling. What I do understand is that it looks like the Feds have erased the coastal States' rights concerning drilling for oil offshore and now want to lease the land to commercial oil companies, themselves. Okay, that's bad. But don't the oil companies have a choice in the matter? What if they elect not to bid on the leases because they don't want to open themselves up to billions of dollars of payouts and fines when the inevitable happens? I understand that the oil companies are supposed to be in cahoots with the GOP, but what if, out of concern for all who would be affected by big spills, they just said, "No. We're not going to do that," and then followed through? Or am I being hopelessly naive?
8
Zinke represents everything that is wrong about America, Inc.: a laser focus on exploitation of resources and workers, a disregard for intangible treasures that only tree-huggers and dolphin swimmers and landscape gazers and wild creature admirers value, and an utter disregard for safety and responsible policies and procedures (think coal shaft mining, the old textile industries with their health problems, waste discharge into rivers, toxic waste dumps, unfettered air pollution, mountain top removal, and irresponsible drug marketing and distribution, to name a few). In short, a lack of appreciation of balance and a lack of respect for moderation and conservation and protection of resources and people.
There is a place for free markets, and capitalism can drive innovation and efficiencies, but it is not the be all and end all of what most people value in the world. The very wealthy buy beautiful landscapes and clean, protected water, and homes in places with clean air far from toxic waste dumps and would never tolerate intolerable work conditions where they work. They also buy politicians to ensure that profit streams are steady, but care little for what happens to other people's worlds because they have their own. And if their world is threatened with infringement by the rest of the world, they simply buy the necessary changes or move, and then continue with business as usual.
Trump is only the most crude example of people who behave like this. Robber barons indeed.
20
Two hundred ninety years ago the great English political satirist Jonathan Swift wrote his Modest Proposal. It was the most vicious satire imaginable from an esteemed cleric yet I don't think anybody could imagine that 120 years later the genocide and deportation of three million Irish souls whose only crime was poverty would so sorrowfully fulfil Swift's insight.
Every time I hear a GOP congressman talk about the Irish famine I want to throw something at the TV. There was no famine in Ireland there was a potato crop failure and an economic genocide. The Irish food export economy boomed, the blight was a boom to the landlords and farmers and three million of the Irish peasants Swift had talked about three hundred years earlier were starved to death, or deported.
Ireland had lots of food, each year it exported more than enough food to feed all its people for the entire duration of the blight. Food that was sent to Ireland's peasants was not allowed to land. The disappearance of three million people who did not benefit to the Irish economy who Swift had written about was a godsend to the biggest beneficiaries of the Irish economy.
Swift was writing about an economic system we now call neoliberalism where growing the economy is more important than human lives.
I grew up loving America and everyday I remember the America that believed in its people more than its economy. I cry every time I read A Modest Proposal and now days I cry when I hear the news from America.
33
At a time of increasing natural disasters like major hurricanes and winter storms, new oil rigs in coastal waters make zero sense. Lawsuits, environmental and economic damage will follow especially when the inevitable leaks and explosions occur.
Trump's three step program seems to inevitably spiral into destructive chaos but is there a three step program for his enabling Republican and evangelical supporters?
Classic management advice is when people are playing power games, the best response is not to play. Refuse to be put in the position of parent, bad guy, or whatever, and just stop playing.
I think Democratic politicians who had actually come up with a good bipartisan plan must stop playing with the Trumpublicans and shut the government down.
9
America: I am not sure you will EVER recover from this shameful interval.
I have had to come up with so many calming explanations to my kids about how America has seemingly unraveled so quickly, so violently, and so depressingly, that I have lost the will to keep it up. I just can't continue to try and make sense of it anymore.
The place of America on the global stage is now looking more like it actually is correctly *under* the stage, among variously discarded garbage, spit-out chewing gum, empty candy wrappers, and crumpled-up used napkins. So sad.
336
Intolerance is the lifeblood of Trump supporters but in a few weeks they are going to see for themselves the pittance added to their paychecks by the largest tax cut the universe has ever seen and it might finally dawn on them they've been played. Trump announced that the average cut would be $4000 and in this one instance, he might be telling the truth, but that's $4000 averaged over an enormously skewed income distribution. Fortunately for him however, in the states they reside, the "three R's" all all stand for "Racism" so they may not even notice.
12
As an Oregonian I appreciate my governor Kate Brown for calling out the hypocrisy of protecting Florida from offshore drilling but refusing to address the issue with her. Our coastline brings in billions from tourists and we're one of the few states whose entire coastline is open to all. We do not want offshore drilling to cause the same damage to our state that the horizon tragedy caused the gulf coast states. No amount of dirty money from the oil industry makes this ok.
Everytime Trump says or does something controversial I always ask myself what he's trying to distract us from now that we really need to be paying attention to. We need to stop letting this loser keep distracting Americans from what really matters.
Deregulation of rules that were intended to protect us from another massive oil spill need to be talked about. Leases with oil companies for future drilling that we have no say and little control over need to be talked about. What doesn't need to be talked to death is whatever the latest racist insult our darling president has managed to deliver to distract us from the fact that he and his minions are systematically destroying our country and handing it over to the highest bidder.
512
Why is it a problem if THIS government shuts down? If somebody drops the key during the next snowstorm and it stays missing until spring I'm not going to make like it's Lent.
7
Collins list simply demonstrates two things:
1/ Executive decisions are a bad way to make policy, even when Congress punts on doing so. You end up with policies that can be undone just as easily.
2/ It is beyond me why anybody gives Trump the power to ruin their day by paying attention to his tweets, inasmuch as they are fake news, containing alternative facts, and undoubtedly will have whatever they say soon contradicted by some other tweet or action.
4
Cali just had massive fires. We now have mudslides. The last thing we need is off shore drilling. The Trump administration need to figure out how to use Wikipedia and look up the Santa Barbara oil spill.
11
Maybe it’s time to shut down the government.
Republicans will be happy to finally reduce government spending to $0 and Democrats/Independents can stop czar Trump and his Republican sycophants from inflicting any further damage on our Country.
Unfortunately though, the reality is that millions of good Americans and their families would be affected - those who work for our government and those who rely on our government.
Which do you choose?
1
Gail, i so look forward to your columns, your ability to make me laugh at the foibles of our elected officials is incredible. Today’s column was another master piece but has me on at the crossroad of a laugh or cry moment. This Great Experiment is on the edge of collapse and we cant let that happen. Keep up the good work. We need your humor, wit and incredible insight.
7
Step 4. Trump is out.
With passage of the Tax Loot Bill, Trump's truly greatest accomplishment, Trump' buffoonery is no longer needed to the wealth concentrators. Trump is now a liability and he is being set up for a HUGE TRUMPIAN FALL. President Pence (do not shiver, but we may be longing for Trump's degenerate presidency) will play rear guard action to protect the gains from the Loot Bill from a democratic landslide, that could override vetoes. Trump is now a liability and his handlers will let Trump flame up, (hopefully remembering to take away from his little fingers the briefcase with the biscuit.)
5
Worse than trump are his gop enablers who have suddenly lost the ability to remember what they've heard. They are more than deplorable, they're disgusting.
10
Donald Trump has become the Platonic Form of dysfunction, though he probably thinks Plato invented gyros. He only thinks emotionally, and every emotional impulse is driven by his ego. If the Constitution does not have a workable process to depose a President who is simply, obviously and utterly incompetent, in almost every sense of that word, then we must reform the Constitution. But first, dump Trump, and make the Republican Party pay the full price.
8
I know it's an awful, petty thought, but I often wish Mar-a-Lago had been flattened by Hurricane Katrina. The fact that Trump is permitting offshore drilling everywhere but Florida cries out for poetic justice. Meanwhile, get ready for Deepwater Horizon x 10.
18
If only this were as low stakes as the old ball game. Or any game.
This is not reality TV, either, though that was what came to mind with Trump's scripted, made for television meeting with Congressional leaders earlier this week. If Trump hoped that his rehearsed performance would dispel the insight that he is neither stable nor a genius, he was wrong.
Predictably, when the cameras were off on Thursday, the real Donald was on, being racist, small-minded, and using crude stereotypes to form policy. Dick Durbin knew that what he heard from Trump was real; so did his Republican counterparts, though they are too gutless to say so.
Trump himself, well, he bizarrely threw out an assertion that he has a good relationship with Kim Jung On, though he won't say if the two have even communicated. It's just as well if they don't. Trump can handle relationships only at a fantasy level. Real life plays out more frighteningly than anyone should care to imagine.
8
We are getting what we voted for.
The US electorate voted Republicans into control of the Presidency and Congress.
What is the surprise? After all, the prior R president gave us the Iraq war and an economic meltdown
8
Step 4:
"Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves"...
That is the key to introspection and preparing for making amends to the ones we have harmed.
Doctor Bob and Bill W would have had the patience to mentor #45.
2
Trump should be prosecuted in The Hague. Would it not be interesting to have a sitting President found guilty of crimes against humanity in an international court? That would cut back on his travel outside the country. Think of it as a cost-cutting tactic, Republicans.
12
I have run 20 NYC Marathons. The trek takes me through all 5 boroughs and lining the streets are people from all over the world. Italian Americans, African American, Hasidic, Hispanic, Asian, and more. I’ve run through some of the richest neighborhoods along 5th Ave in Manhattan and some of the poorest in Bedford Stuyvesant in Brooklyn. Up close and personal I get to experience the wonderful diversity of NYC and its people. The NYC Marathon has 50,000 runners from all over the world and I believe 200,000 (maybe more) who apply but can’t get in. The Oslo Marathon, for example, the same 26.2 miles, but it only draws about 3,000 runners. Beautiful city Oslo and much “prettier” than NYC. But it is the wonderful assortment of people and the uniqueness of the neighborhoods that makes NYC so special. It's the diversity of our people and cultures that makes America “great.”
36
Step four comes this spring when primary challenges wipe out the few sane Republicans who have not already left in disgust.We will all be amazed at what the gerrymandering, vote suppressing states will be sending to Washington after the election. Or maybe it won't be any surprise at all.
6
This piece makes me laugh that nervous laugh one makes where everything is beyond horrible. Every day brings a new (or multiple) abomination beyond the pale of anything I'd ever imagined in my worst fantasies. And I'm relatively conservative and lean Right in a Bret Stephens way.
I'm in China for 3 months, and trying to explain this stuff to the Chinese is impossible. They can't believe it. Can't.
15
If Trump really wants to know why we don't get more Norwegians moving to this country, he might look in the mirror at Exhibit A. Even I would consider any place that elected him to be a questionable place to live.
23
While reading this, as with so much news these days, I pinched myself then cursed that I wasn't having a nightmare in my sleep.
5
I just don't know how we can go on like this. Are there no Republican politicians who can stand up to this man for what is right?
15
"Are there republicans who will stand up."
No.
10
Step 4 is asking Oprah to run.
She emanates love. She embodies the places and people Trump tries to squash. She'll take the airwaves.
Swallow your overly strictly applied meritocratic pride (destroying first and foremost any career entries, prospects for 'those people' and women) and deal with your cringe reflex of thought- and beingness-repression and strongly scarring condescension. A panentheist in the White House, who brings a galactic EQ, blossoming, aware spirituality and even some ghetto smarts to it will be so refreshing. The undertickets will thrive. She'll win over people to respect global warming science, science on gun death causality, maybe even science on the pesticidal ecocide that is not bought, so no, she will not undermine the relevance of science. She evolved, people.
We lost to Trump after the Dems predetermined their candidate, manipulating the primary by using every trick in the book, and now, instead of promoting democracy, we disinvite candidates in advance?
Whoever the people in the primary select (especially where Independents are allowed to weigh in) is the most promising to win the WH and we need a shellacker to overcome the onslaught of the unprecedented yet currently presidentially promoted Republican- and Homeland Security-engineered voter suppression and vote count fraud to come. She'll probably run on an Obama platform. She would in person vindicate Trump's steady grope for the bottom. She's the wonderful, effective step we GOT to take.
1
Its hard to say which is crazier, the things Trump says and does or the things his continued supporters say and do to defend Trump over the things he says and does.
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Gee, Gail; looks like we're getting an up-close view of why so many bankers in the U.S. quit dealing with His Unhinged Unraveling Unfitness.
And why those same bankers were so appalled at the way he ran his family businesses that they took things over and put him on an allowance.
And why he'd been involved in 6500 lawsuits before he was allowed by GOP'ers to be in their primary races.
And why he'd been bankrupt in the casino business - a business where the regulators guarantee casinos will make a profit - several times over.
And why it looks like he took a tax loss of $900+ million$ in the '90s that may have kept him from paying any taxes at all for the better part of a decade:
https://www.npr.org/2016/10/04/496596466/how-donald-trump-lost-916-million
And why Putin's Poodle POTUS looks to the U.S. Attorney General to be his own personal Roy Cohn !
GOP'ers put us in this spot by not insisting their candidates show their taxes - GOP'ers did this because they were afraid of their base, and because media gate keepers like Les Moonves (CBS head) had an "It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS" attitude regarding the primary circus that this Orange Jabberwock orchestrated.
So now, the seditious Complicit crowd have thrown their Oaths by the wayside, propping up a petulant Prez who's told at least 2000 verifiable public lies in the last 365 days, thinking they can 'manage' this slime ball.
Why ?
He is degradation, personified.
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To be completely accurate - 3500 lawsuits.
28
Why can’t the media do a better job putting together a simple, informative narrative like this comment? The facts speak for themselves—these facts and many others just as damming. But it’s safe to say that most of these facts have rarely, if ever, been mentioned on CNN, as an example. How can the media tell a story about the constant chaos and buffoonery that surrounds this man and not bring them up? As this comment points out, nothing about what’s happening is surprising, all backed by a mountain of logical, verifiable facts that prove a pattern.
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Wait until he changes the libel laws--the 6500 number might be conservative.
4
Stinke stinks which I'm sure is something he's heard before. Hopefully, state's rights by way of lawsuits will stop this in its tracks. Also since the U.S. under President Obama became a net export of energy--the countries that would benefit from off-shore oil exploitation leases will be other countries anyway as the oil would be sold abroad.
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Ryan Zinke is likely to be the first Trump swamper to be sentenced to prison once the extent of his corruption is fully known. And somewhere James Watt and Anne Gorsuch are smiling, Zinke makes them look like Boy/Girl Scouts.
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We're not even two weeks into 2018, and complete chaos reigns in this repulsive regime - so many abhorrent and racist words and actions surrounding immigration, so much political chicanery with the "we'll save the coast of Florida" but the the rest of our beautiful coastlines are up for grabs, a new book that exposes how our very own "Fearless Leader" is even more temperamentally, intellectually and emotionally unfit for the presidency than imagined and Congressional Republicans act like nothing is wrong. Shutting this government down no longer seems a bad idea but our only option to put the GOP on notice that this insanity must end.
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Here, Here!!
3
It's too bad Trump hates animals. He called Pence a yokel for bringing his pets to the Vice President's house. We all know about Trump's fear of germs. Animals are too dirty for him. But anyone with a heart can't look at the pelicans, and the dolphins, and the seagulls, and the shrimp, the ducks, the clams and on and on covered in oil and not think that offshore drilling is a bad idea.
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I'm glad he doesn't have a pet. He'd torture them. Because that's who he is. Mean, sadistic bully.
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Gail can be such a pessimist. And it doesn’t help that she makes the cynicism funny.
Democrats, long out of power, captured undivided government in the election of 2008, and 2009-2010 they insisted on taking a shot at revolutionizing America in ways that scared the funny entirely out of America’s right – on regulation, on the environment, on entitlements. Heck, Democrats even invented a new healthcare entitlement that half the country despised. Republicans revolted.
So, having tossed incrementalism to the wind, the current dimensional reality we all inhabit is, as far as I’m concerned, the fault of Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid – if you remember their charming speeches and talks of those times, current Republican analogs certainly aren’t within galaxies as hateful as Pelosi and Reid were in expressing their contempt for the side opposed.
The Tea Party rose to kick the rascals out at the behest of American voters, and Dems haven’t recovered since. Nobody in the ensuing time up to Trump’s inauguration had the power to truly govern, so it appears that both sides lost the knack of it. Republicans slowly are getting their mojo back, but Democrats not only still can’t usefully participate, they appear to have lost the ability to do anything other than complain.
It’s not one, two, three strikes and we’re out. Despite the ferment of this past week, a snapshot of Trump’s first year in office shows not the blasted aftermath of a giant tsunami but a lot of good things.
9
Those good things include a rollback of excessive regulation by executive diktat, and a neutering of Dodd-Frank this year or next -- business, reacting, is hiring and blue-collar wages are going up; ISIS is on its last legs and “Rocket Man” knows that he can’t get away any longer with blackmailing the world; Europe is finally talking about how to defend THEMSELVES for a change; Illegal immigration is better controlled, and attention is being paid to employers (! … !!!); national security is toughened; and we have a tax framework that for the first time demands that high-tax states accept that their residents AREN’T bottomless wells to be pumped dry in order to create the constituencies that elect Democrats.
Oh … you don’t LIKE those things. Well, instead of cynical, humorous pessimism, figure out how to become relevant again so that some of that arc might be bent. Otherwise, if you want to be a winner you really need to be a Republican.
Regarding race and other social issues, it wasn’t in OBAMA’S time that Confederate statuary was being removed throughout the South, and that the #MeToo movement was launched. Why is that?
Trump has a big, vulgar mouth, is neither suave nor sophisticated, and, while I don’t believe that he’s a racist, he’s certainly insensitive to racial political correctness. So?
If you hadn’t broken our politics so badly, we wouldn’t have needed him to do all the good things he’s done and is doing. Consider the glass half-full.
11
Regarding "entitlements," I thought one had to work a lifetime to earn social security.
30
Once up on a time I would read this man as he was one of the few who defended the current president. That, at least, was different from most commentators and I was interested in his viewpoint. But he defends this dreadful man, no matter what he says or does. So I give up and won't read him anymore. A pity, as I was interested in opposing viewpoints. But not propaganda.
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I swear I have fallen down the rabbit hole, how else to explain the White House and its occupants? This i as surreal as it gets, no expert on psychotic behavior could predict such events aw we have witnessed lately.
A president of the U.S. completely out of control, worse yet a cabinet supporting him, and a political party allowing it to happen. When history is written it will be called "The White House of Horrors."
The Queen of England refuses to see him, he has been refused a ride in the royal carriage, we on the west coast have declared him "persona non Grata." He says he did not say what he said, he insults Kim of North Korea, then says he has a good relationship with him. And now this insult to several other countries, they must all be researching the Journal of Abnormal Psychology" to be able to plan what to do next.
Well fans of James Buchanan have something to cheer about, he will no longer be considered the worst of all presidents, they will have to settle for second place. We in California have a resistance movement, he and his enablers are not welcome here either. So please insult us too.
Maybe we are all butterflies that think we are people and will wake up and find this all to be a dream, a nightmare as it were.
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This feels like it's playing out as Sixtus and Torquemada meet the 3 stooges. I'm betting his impending medical exam turns out to be an addendum to "Anomalies and Curiosities of Modern Medicine". The American dream has become so bizarre that Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes and Sigmund Freud couldn't find a clue to interpret it.
12
James Buchanan has fans? I know he was the first (but closeted) gay president... but c’mon!
1
I have never felt such humiliation as an American.
Here we are only 12 days into the new year and it already feels as if "Fire and Fury," the very appropriately named book it turns out, was months ago.
But this does seem to represent a new low ... the horribly vulgar comments about people, countries, continents, the ugliness, the mean-spiritedness, the cowardly response of the Republicans to this ignominious behavior of the president, the phony dog and pony show put on by President Trump's handlers to try and pretend that this obviously unhinged man is not exactly as represented in Wolff's book, when it's obvious to everyone, except for Republicans, who brazenly continue to turn a blind eye.
I will do everything I can as a citizen to register people to vote, march, volunteer for campaigns to help the opposition to President Trump in the upcoming midterm elections.
November can't come soon enough. I just hope we make it and put this country back on the right track, and bring back integrity, humility and decency to our government.
I hope we truly can make America great again.
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We cannot sit passively by and wait till Nov and hope for the best. We must loudly protest, get out the vote, and flood our Senators and members of the House, no matter what their party. Thank people like Maxine Waters and tell republicans we are not stupid and we see their greed and corruption.
10
Wouldn't a stable genius be someone who spends a good deal of time with horse manure? Just asking.
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The only stable genius is Mister Ed.
10
Nah! Things grow in horse manure. Trump shows no signs of growth whatsoever. But, as a vulgarian myself, whatcha got against horses?
stu, boy do you have it wrong. it means less time with horse manure. he's got pence and sessions to do that for him.
You do remember how furiously he has fought the proposed windfarm that would be seen from the Scottish Trump Golf Course on what remains of the dunes near Aberdeen ( the same course about which Eric somebody once boasted had Russian money pouring in), so be sure he's not letting his property be exposed to an oil spill risk)
Absolutely none of this raises a laugh in me anymore. Stupidity, graft, hubris, blatant lies and a horde of Republicans and hangers on scrambling for phrases to obscure the obvious lying and racist insults which we haven't already heard. L little people" would've been fired a few month ago.
Add one pornstar and stir.
What do you do with a player who doesn't play by any rules, and who has stuck out repeatedly and is hogging home plate?
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Cheryl that was so well said, thank you! So glad to live in Canada, home of normalcy...
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Tell him he'll get 'A Wall' if he resigns.
4
Wealth, white privilege and insanity are marching into town, and so far, our amazement lacks the redemption of grace. Trump has nearly united the country in fear as he declares himself history's greatest victim, attacked by the ghosts of the real villains, the salt-and-pepper twins, one of whom carried out a two mile move into a state of the art new embassy in London, which will be the world's most secure.
In this achievement, paid for by land transactions that saved taxpayers money, Trump, the ultimate promoter of security, can find no greatness. He becomes the first President to refuse to cut the opening ribbon for an embassy which is the finest in the world and tell transparent lies as the cause!
Pride comes before greatness (and falls!), and he is so haunted by ghosts his only friendly thoughts are xenophobic vanities. He finds grievances and faults--invents conflict--but is utterly lost in finding pride beyond his own invention, except when he is wrapping empty promises in the flag: USA! He is a leader who criticises his own, but never himself.
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Congress is a big part of this side show; even with their milquetoast statements they are major players. They have gone into the Richard Nixon-Bill Clinton mode: lapses of memory, missing data, incomplete recall; "I did not hear, can not recall," but none of the nine in the room have challenged Sen. Durbin directly. None of the nine had said, as was done with President Obama at the State of the Union, "he lies." None of them has said, it is a political ploy or smear. Their silence is prima facie evidence of consent.
Trump's tone was so egregious, so hateful and belittling, so vile and dehumanizing, and so wrong and void of truth or facts, they cannot bring themselves to challenge Sen. Durbin; instead they scurry for cover.
Trump's racism and its damage within and without America aside, his personal beliefs left to be revisited, is it too much to ask the President of the United States to have good manners and common decency?
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"Pride comes before greatness (and falls!)"
Let's not forget what "hubris" can do, and this guy's got plenty of it.
11
Walter Rhett, this is when one wonders where are The Men in White Coats to take Trump away and place him in a safe environment for his own sake, and for the benefit of our Nation and its well-being.
8
Florida has 29 electoral votes.
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It's also got a lot of Haitian-American voters...
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and will soon have a lot of displaced Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. Citizens and will be able to vote next November; certainly in 2020. Do you think they will vote Republican? 29 electoral votes move into the Democratic column
34
Also 250,000 Puerto Rican American citizens who are able to register to vote, unlike the Haitians (Temporary Protected Status) who cannot.
22
I wouldn't assume there'll be a huge increase in off-shore drilling, in reality. Oil companies haven't been clamoring for more exploration leases, and could be wary of starting a multiyear process that couldn't come to fruition until well into the next (probably Democratic) Administration.
Not that I disagree with anything in the article, in terms of motivation or competence in the Trump Administration. It's just that it might not result in any new oil wells in coastal waters.
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Zinke is making long-term agreements that will last well beyond this admin. Once a lease agreement is contracted, it is hard to undo. And those contracts is where they would lay out the requirements for safety and clean-up.
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I would tend to agree with you, as municipalities are beginning to divest from fossil fuels, and the WB and WTO reducing fossil fuel subsidies particularly in upstream production. That is why I was surprised to hear in a phone call with a family member, who is a CPO working in that area of the oil industry for some 40 years, finds himself at 68-years of age with a number of new and lucrative job opportunities. He told me that divestment, at least in the short to medium term, should drive up the price of oil by reducing competition. So, I am afraid that we might be in for a final plunge here.
10
Even if they don undertake full-blown drilling, I could easily imagine a big increase in "initial expenditures," so that when Mr Trump is replaced with a more environmentally friendly President, the oil companies can go crying into court, "You can’t revoke these Trump-era approvals! It 0nly LOOKS like we aren’t drilling there. We spent $$$ on surveys and test drilling, and it wouldn’t be fair to stop us from going forward whenever we finally get around to it!"
14
Everything this president does stinks to high heaven. It generally involves besmirching anything Barack Obama did, such as protecting delicate ecosystems from a repeat of a catastrophic disaster from which the gulf coast has never recovered.
Well, the president really dug himself a hole this time. This very stable genius gave us a peek at what a stable is often full of.
Everyone feared that the president was going to say something awful when he pulled up a stool and proceeded to talk about immigration reform. The room was silent, but deadly calm often precedes a storm.
There was a rumbling that seemed to suggest a certain urgency, but they thought that a room full of Republican and Democratic lawmakers would cause him to be more cautious, and not say anything inflammatory.
And, as it turned out, he was deturd. He's frequently deturd, although he pooh-poohs his critics who say his lips are too loose. Well, he bowled them over at this meeting. Everyone looked flushed when it was over. It's lucky Colon Powell wasn't there.
It might be a good thing if this government closes down. Normally, this is a complicated process. But with this administration, they'd just need to hang an "Out of order" sign on the door.
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Such a sign would assume facts not in evidence, i.e., that the White House has ever been in order under Trump.
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Thank you Gemli! Clever. You provided a good laugh.
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Hey for all you sensitive contributors making comments here read Ricard Luttengen's two comments.
Don't believe everything you think.