The Donald Trump Score Card

Trump wants to make reality TV. But now the cast is ignoring his directions.
What happens when the reality TV president loses control of his production?
By Lucas Mann
Oct. 18, 2019 at 8:00 a.m. EDT

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outl...908b16-f0f6-11e9-b648-76bcf86eb67e_story.html

excerpt:

"The very temptation to compare such constructed, formulaic theatrics to the drama playing out on the global stage doesn’t just indict Trump: It’s also a condemnation of the rest of us, the viewers who voted him into office. We fell for the spectacle. A few months after Trump’s inauguration, Emily Nussbaum detailed in the New Yorker the way his “Apprentice” persona — the man in the power suit calling the shots, never challenged — was a cardboard cutout that could, at least, appear presidential, however free of substance it might be. Implicit in that point is the dynamic that makes any reality television production work: participants willing to engage in the spectacle shaped around them, and an audience willing to suspend disbelief in the face of that spectacle. Whether you loved or hated Trump, he was watchable because we’d seen all the bits before.

It’s easy now to point out that for the past three years Trump has been going back to that same playbook. Reality television, as noted by media critics like Nussbaum, political reporters like John Cassidy and the Bravo god himself, Andy Cohen, is the language he knows — a flip book of insults and set pieces ready-made for conflict or humiliation, or just fireworks. But it might be more helpful, or at least more hopeful, to point out all the ways the show breaks down around him: moments when he expects the production to play out exactly as he wants, but participants and viewers refuse to give him any moral or narrative authority. Often these are interactions with normal people, people who want nothing from him, who won’t be made to mean what they don’t want to mean. They are not contestants, they are citizens, and that is a distinction Trump seems unable to make. When he forces them into the show, their humanity in the face of the formula turns the familiar grotesque."

 

Trump’s season of weakness: A president who prizes strength enters key stretch in a fragile state
by Philip Rucker
October 20, 2019

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...aa864c-f1d4-11e9-89eb-ec56cd414732_story.html

excerpts:

"Trump now finds himself mired in a season of weakness. Foreign leaders feel emboldened to reject his pleas or contradict him. Officials inside his administration are openly defying his wishes by participating in the impeachment probe. Federal courts have ruled against him. Republican lawmakers are criticizing him. He has lost control over major conservative media organs. And polling shows a growing share of Americans disapprove of his job performance and support his impeachment."


"“It’s deflating when the curtain is pulled back and the Wizard of Oz is a little guy,” said David Axelrod, who served as senior adviser in the Obama White House. “If your whole predicate is strength and everywhere you turn there are signs of weakness, it is a danger.”"

 

I’ve been hearing about the president’s imminent downfall since before his inauguration. It’s become quite tiresome. David Axelrod. Yeah, there’s an objective opinion. This inability of the press to accept the fact of this presidency has the profession of journalism in free fall.

 

U.S. slaps new tariffs on European wine, whiskey, planes and much more
CBS News
October 18, 2019 / 5:32 AM / cbs/AFP

U.S. slaps new tariffs on European wine, whiskey, planes and much more

excerpt:

"Trade groups in Europe such as winemakers, German tool manufacturers and whisky producers in Scotland have kept a clamor of protest, demanding Washington reverse tack. Many feel they're being unfairly targeted over a battle that is ostensibly about aircraft manufacturers getting government subsidies and nothing to do with their own businesses.

The U.S. leader and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker agreed in July 2018 to a ceasefire in the conflict to hold trade talks that have so far led nowhere.

The epic legal battle between Airbus and Boeing at the World Trade Organization began in 2004 when Washington accused Britain, France, Germany and Spain of providing illegal subsidies and grants to support the production of a range of Airbus products.

A year later, the EU alleged that Boeing had received $19.1 billion worth of prohibited subsidies from 1989 to 2006 from various branches of the U.S. government."

 

You sound like a FOX News customer.

 

You have to talk smack to them, because they don't comprehend plain English.

 

The great and powerful Trump.



Trump’s ‘great and unmatched wisdom’ tweet sparks ‘Wizard of Oz’ comparisons
By Geoff Herbert
Updated Oct 07, 2019; Posted Oct 07, 2019

Trump’s ‘great and unmatched wisdom’ tweet sparks ‘Wizard of Oz’ comparisons

excerpt:

"Trump later added: “If Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!)”

“The Wizard of Oz" quickly became a trending topic on Twitter as users compared the phrase “in my great and unmatched wisdom” to the movie’s “great and powerful Oz.”"

 

All kidding aside, I think he is mentally ill with executive bi-polar syndrome.

 

Somebody, anybody, throw that poor man a fish.

 

Psychologists have been periodically coming out and insisting that Fundamentalism in general fits every criteria for a mental disease. What modern science is rapidly discovering is that quantum mechanics rule the brain, and life really is insane, and anybody who tells you otherwise is nuts! Donald Duck really is insane, but its a question of degree and, in his case, its difficult to argue there is even someone still home. He is a collection of nasty habits and worse attitudes that completely bury anything like a real personality. Once in a blue moon I'm sure his family gets a glimpse. Calling 40% of the population insane doesn't help the situation.

 

The revenge of the State Department
As U.S. diplomats defy the president and the secretary of State to testify before impeachment investigators, they’re being hailed as heroes by colleagues who’ve long felt abused.
By NAHAL TOOSI
10/20/2019 06:48 AM EDT

The revenge of the State Department

excerpt:

"Later in 2017, when he was pressed on why he’d left so many top State Department positions empty, Trump said he simply didn’t need them.

“The one that matters is me,” Trump told Fox News. “I’m the only one that matters, because when it comes to it, that’s what the policy is going to be.”

But for now, as the impeachment inquiry leads their colleagues to Capitol Hill, State Department staffers feel like they matter, too. “They are sad, tired and scared,” one former State Department official said, “though glad to see colleagues stand up and fulfill their oaths.”"

 

The State department doesn't like to do anything small, and the question is how far do they want to go with this one.

 

How on earth do you think this is a negative for Trump?

"The move green-lights the Trump administration to slap countermeasures on the 28-member bloc and follows a WTO ruling in May 2018 on the Airbus subsidies."

U.S. Approved to Impose $7.5 Billion of European Union Tariffs


Oh, so Britain faces extra US tariffs BECAUSE of the European Union


Because of the European Union


You dont even understand the stuff you are posting

 

He'd be in good company in this thread then

 

Mmmm hmmm, Yes

 

Trump continues to burn his bridges.

Mulvaney made crass remarks about the state department professionals who were forced out by Trump.

Trump dumps the qualified people for unqualified, unofficial people like his defense attorney Giuliani who devolve foreign policy into a pursuit of debunked conspiracy claims about political rivals. He later blames the qualified people for supposedly being on a witch hunt.



The revenge of the State Department

excerpt:

"Neither the State Department nor the White House responded to requests for comment on this story. On Thursday, however, Trump’s acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, took a shot at the diplomats who testified, calling them “career bureaucrats who are saying, ‘You know what? I don’t like President Trump’s politics so I’m going to participate in this witch hunt.’”"

 

Trump in a nutshell.

 

Adam Schiff just called Giuliani to the carpet.

 

Rudy Giuliani threatens ‘big lawsuit’ against impeachment leader Adam Schiff
By Dave Goldiner
New York Daily News |
Oct 03, 2019 | 8:34 AM

Rudy Giuliani threatens ‘big lawsuit’ against impeachment leader Adam Schiff

excerpt:

"Giuliani may be playing with fire by suggesting that Congressional staff “may be individually liable” for meeting with the whistleblower.

Democrats could frame that threat as an improper effort to intimidate people into staying silent about impeachable offences or obstructing the impeachment inquiry."