Trump's America

[River]

What people think is in their best interest and what actually is in their best interest isn't always the same. Example: that PI in my graduate department who consistently waited until 72 hours before the deadline to start writing his grants.

[N.E. Brigand]

The Washington Post has a journalist keeping tabs on the 'untruths' emanating from Trump.

I remain gobsmacked that American politics have come to this.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-fr ... on-purpose

Daniel Dale at the Toronto Star also has been documenting these statements since at least Trump's inauguration.

[N.E. Brigand]

Notable documents from the United States' earliest days, including Thomas Paine's Common Sense pamphlet, which helped precipitate the American Revolution, and the Federalist papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, which made the case for ratification of the U.S. Constitution, were published anonymously.

Yesterday's Times author may or may not have made the right choice by omitting his or her name, but she or he is following in a noble tradition.

[RoseMorninStar]

It should be pointed out (if it has not already) that although the Op-ed writer is anonymous to us, it is not anonymous to someone(s) at the NYT. The general gist of the letter is and was well known to those paying attention, well before Trump was even a nominee. I am angry that Congress appears to be abdicating their duty and covering up for an awful lot of corruption & chaos.

Treason does not apply to loyalty to a person (as in the President--as Yov said, he is not a King) but loyalty to the country, to the Constitution.

Dictionary definition: 'the crime of betraying one's country, especially by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government.'

In my humble opinion, anyone involved with the tampering of our election with the assistance of another country (Russia, for example) or placing the welfare of another country over our own comes far closer to the definition of treason. Everyone in public office takes an oath to protect the country from enemies from without and from within.

[Cerin]

The issue here, in my view, isn't loyalty to the President, but the undermining of the Executive Branch of the Government. Someone not elected doesn't have the Constitutional authority to try and influence policy from the White House through sabotage. Everyone hired by the President to serve in his administration should be serving sincerely, and if they can't do that with a good conscience, they should resign. It's in the country's best interest that a President be able to trust in the candor of his advisors and staff. This is quite dangerous ground we're on, imo.

[River]

Everyone in public office takes an oath to protect the country from enemies from without and from within.

Yes. I took that oath when I started a two-year fellowship with NIST. Before I signed any papers I faced a flag and swore to uphold and defend the Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic.

The POTUS isn't the Constitution. No one's sworn loyalty to him personally, no matter what he thinks. And if he hired crappy people who are now doing crappy things that says a lot of things about him. Not necessarily things one couldn't figure out from his Twitter feed, of course - what kind of boss cyber-bullies a subordinate?

That said, the Constitution does lay out mechanisms for removing elected officials who aren't doing their jobs. Would be nice if those with the power to implement them had the moral courage to do so, rather than leak to the press and write anonymous op-eds.

[RoseMorninStar]

Cerin, I agree it's dangerous ground. I don't agree with what 'anonymous' and the group of so called 'resistance' has done/is doing. I suppose I understand why they chose to write that anonymously but I don't think it's for the best of the country. The editorial puts too much emphasis on whodunit and not on the content and corrects nothing that is wrong. It also perpetrates the media as an 'enemy' when 'the call is coming from inside the house'. Like a horror film.

I found the wording for Treason under the constitution. Article III, Section 3 (in part) states:
'Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.'

That said, the Constitution does lay out mechanisms for removing elected officials who aren't doing their jobs. Would be nice if those with the power to implement them had the moral courage to do so, rather than leak to the press and write anonymous op-eds.

I agree. They should not be aiding, abetting, and covering up for an incompetent, mercurial, ignorant, unstable puppet who can't recall what he's said or done. A figurehead. This administration seems to be rotting from within.

[IdylleSeethes]

BHO addressing the resistance from within on Friday:

“I’m being serious here. That’s not how our democracy is supposed to work. These people aren’t elected. They’re not accountable.”


Almost 2 years ago:

"The people have spoken. Donald Trump will be the next president. The 45th president of the United States. And it will be up to him to set up a team that he thinks will serve him well and reflect his policies. And those who didn't vote for him have to recognize that that's how democracy works."

[River]

Not sure the situation described in that op-ed is what a team faithfully serving the President and reflecting his policies looks like...

[IdylleSeethes]

River,

It absolutely isn't. That's what has gone wrong. The President was naive about transitions. I was around transitions from Reagan to Bush43. A change in party generally means thousands of high level appointees left from the prior administration are disposed of as quickly as is possible. I have never seen anyone other than Trump assume that those remaining would have the interest of the country in their minds, rather than their ideology. We see how that worked out, especially in the Justice Department and the intelligence Community. I doubt it is much better elsewhere.

The most non-sensical was a Consumer Affairs head who was a temporary replacement for her predecessor. Even though Warren tried her best to make that group independent of the Executive, which is most likely unconstitutional, the resignation of her boss opened the door for the President to replace her without dealing with Warren's odd view of constitutional powers. It was this summer that she finally dropped her attempt at a legal battle to hold on to her position.

So, most of the government remained in the hands of his enemies, some at the higher levels that he could replace and some in the lower levels who were recruited in the prior 8 years. My wife spent the last few years of her career at HHS. She had to pass more than the lengthy FBI investigation for her security clearance. If it were not for a career long friend at the top unappointed position in the group, she wouldn't have gotten the job. Having gotten the job, it didn't take her long to notice she was unique in her political persuasion. She was probably the only Republican in a very large group, all of whom remain.

Even in the White House Trump left holdovers in top positions for a long time. McMasters was probably the most notable. In addition to that, he surrounded himself with Democrats, not conservatives or even Republicans. I think it is still safe to say most of the people in the White House with direct access to Trump are Democrats, beginning with his chief of staff.

There was no body of Trump loyalists to bring in. There weren't many Republican loyalists, as the top levels of the party are mostly never-Trumpers.

All of this has made it impossible for a pool of people dedicated to the President's vision to be assembled. It also makes it hard for him to keep them. Just look at Conway. She is a strong woman who is the first to get a President ellected. She should be praised for this incredible achievement. Instead she is derided by all of the media and many other Americans, plus her husband. So, yes he has enemies everywhere, which makes his successes phenomenal.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Question: is my negative reaction to seeing the below picture of Mr. Trump doing a double fist-pump as he arrived to a 9/11 memorial service in Pennsylvania because his action is genuinely inappropriate, or simply because I have trained myself to react negatively to Mr. Trump?

Trump 9-11.jpg (26.69 KiB) Viewed 7563 times

[Primula Baggins]

I would be repelled if anyone displayed such behavior under these circumstances. Taking a tragedy as an opportunity to preen and boast. He has done it so many times, though, that I more or less expect it.

[River]

This is the person who touted the relative size of his building after the towers fell. Expressing empathy isn't really his thing.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

He did, however, make a nice, appropriately somber, speech at the event itself.

[Primula Baggins]

I'm glad to hear that, Voronwë.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

During the Obama administration, Mr. Trump claimed that America was a 'laughingstock' worldwide, despite the fact that President Obama enjoyed enormous respect and popularity around the world.

Now:

[Sunsilver]

Yeah, you're not the only one to point that out today, Voronwë! Nice bit of irony!

Oh, and did you hear that Fox News edited that particular bit out of his speech? Can't have anyone laughing at Our Esteemed Leader!

I've only ever heard of that sort of editing happening in dictatorships...SMH!!

[Cenedril_Gildinaur]

The anonymous Op-Ed writer just confessed to helping Trump. If Trump is as dangerous as they say, then letting him go ahead with something would expose him to the world very quickly. Instead he's making Trump look better than he actually is.

Comparing Trump to Obama, it is very clear. Obama was so very well spoken that he could make any bad policy go down smoothly.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The man arrested for sending the suspicious packages containing explosive materials to former President Obama, former Vice President Biden, former Secretary of State Clinton, Sens. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, Rep. Maxine Waters, former CIA director John Brennan and former National Intelligence Director James Clapper (both care of CNN), Democratic activist George Soros and actor Robert de Niro, all prominent critics of Mr. Trump, is Cesar Sayac, a 56-year old registered Republican with a criminal record. His white van that was seized "was plastered with pro-Trump stickers, the slogan "CNN SUCKS" and images of Democratic figures with red crosshairs over their faces."


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/man-s ... spartanntp

Words matter, Mr. Trump.

[yovargas]

Quite honestly, I am somewhat surprised that this and the Bernie-supporter shooter are the only instances we've had of this kind of thing in the past 2 years.