Sunday, January 29, 2017

Mad As a Hatter.


David Letterman has known Trump for years, long enough to describe the man as a "badly damaged human being." Paul Krugman says Trump is "obviously mentally ill." Harvard prof Stephen Walt concludes Trump is "not a rational actor." This is not hyperbole, the 45th president of the United States is unhinged.

The New Yorker's Benjamin Wallace-Wells has a chilling look at what he calls "A Dangerously Isolated President."

The Presidential order that Donald Trump signed on Friday barring all refugees and citizens from seven Muslim countries from travel to the United States was reviewed by virtually no one. The State Department did not help craft it, nor the Defense Department, nor Justice. Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security, John Kelly, “saw the final details shortly before the order was finalized,” CNN reported. Early Saturday morning, there were reports that two Iraqi refugees had been detained upon their arrival at John F. Kennedy Airport. When a lawyer for the men asked an official to whom he needed to speak to fix the situation, the official said, “Ask Mr. Trump.” This sounded like a sign of straight goonery and incipient authoritarianism; maybe it was. But it also may have been the only reasonable answer. Few people understood what was going on.

Trump's Rasputin - Steve Bannon?

On Saturday, the President announced three more executive actions, one of which changed the composition of his National Security Council. Trump reserved one seat on the Council for his chief strategist, Steve Bannon, the former chairman of the right-wing Web site Breitbart News, who has no experience in foreign relations. Trump also limited the roles of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of National Intelligence, with a memo that said they will only attend meetings when “issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed.” The erasure of the line between national security and Bannon’s politics, which have included an embrace of white nationalism, was deeply troubling. But the exclusion of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of National Intelligence was more surprising. The President can pick anyone he wants for those positions. Trump has nominated the former Indiana senator Dan Coats to be the director of National Intelligence; the term of the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, will expire this year. The President seems to be deliberately tightening the circle around him.

Did you get that? Trump strategist, Steve Bannon, gets a permanent seat on the National Security Council but the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the director of National Intelligence are sidelined, downgraded to an "on call" status. Who does that except somebody plainly out of touch with reality?

The President’s isolation runs deeper than that. As the confusion around the immigration ban made clear, the vast government he oversees has little input on his actions. In an interview this week, Trump said that he reads the Times, the New York Post, and the Washington Post each day, but he seems to scan them as an actor does, for reviews of his own performance. His campaign made clear that he was not interested in the findings of scientists, social scientists, or the American government. Trump’s transition has alienated him from the American public. Gallup found on Friday that fifty per cent of Americans disapproved of Trump’s performance, the highest disapproval rating on record for any American President this early in his term.

President Donald J. Trump is barking mad. He must be removed from office.


10 comments:

John's Aghast said...

Seems as if he's not high on Jay Inslee, the Governor of Washington State's list either.

Toby said...

We have seen this movie before and it took a world war to end it.

Jay Farquharson said...

https://you.leadnow.ca/petitions/tell-trudeau-welcome-those-fleeing-violence-and-deportation-under-trump#signature-form

"Don’t turn away asylum seekers fleeing violence and deportation from Trump’s America. We are calling on Prime Minister Trudeau and Minister Hussen to immediately rescind the “Safe Third Country Agreement”, and that immediate steps be taken to allow special consideration of humanitarian and compassionate reasons for entry to Canada as enabled by the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act."

This needs to be done, not just empty words on twitter.

the salamander said...

.. I am 'on the record' here.. and on Twitter, where I am approaching 20,000 tweets.. not followers.. but actual messages. I predicted mass resignations from the JCS - Joint Chiefs of Staff - following confrontations, behind closed doors, to the ignorance or idiocy of the Trump Regime. I did not anticipate what was surely a premptive strike by Bannon Miller & Trump et al.. who have undercut the JCS and installed Bannon as a most senior military and strategic decision maker.. Its reaching .. OK its now reached farcical level.. a la Monty Python.

With trepidation, but confidence.. I now see a pathway to military coup opening up... this will either precede or immediately follow the sporadic onset of civil war within the US of A .. that's not Monty Python.. and satirical.. that's historic..

Anonymous said...

Some seriously bad shit is going to come down over the next few months. looks like Putin is getting what he's paid for.

Anonymous said...

This is how it started!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzRbC7lQ-EQ

Trump is the latest in a long line of Trumpets..

TB

The Mound of Sound said...


At some point I imagine Spence is going to be pressured into invoking the incapacity provision to have Trump removed. It'll still be a seismic shitstorm for the US, especially the Gullibillies, but Trump is both irrational and deeply under the influence of Bannon.

Toby said...

Question: will Junior preside over a Canadian Anschluss?

rumleyfips said...

This morning while walking the dags I started to think about martial law. With the courts choosing the constitution and congress scared and uncertain Trump may declare a state of emergency and claim with Bannon hoping to be able to threaten Democrats with jail. Pence is already been sidelined and this would be a way of keeping him outpermanantly.

I have always thought the US military would resist because ruling the country has always been difficult and now is being made impossible. They may , however, have no choice: act or watch the country go down the drain. After delegitimizing the courts, the congress and state and city administrations, would the JCS give Bannon and Trump absolute power? I think they have more concern than that for their own well being. A coup looks possible to me.

Northern PoV said...

"plainly out of touch with reality"

Ya think? I wish!

This is all very deliberate. tRump is decapitating the Dark State (the only potential block) quickly. He needs Bannon to take charge asap.

The poorly implemented Muslim ban? The milquetoast legal push back, global confusion and massive demos (in Blue States - where tRump is hoping for violence I'm sure)?

Just dramatic distraction and meat to the base while the real work goes on.

Bannon will make Dick Cheney look like Mother Teresa!