the STABLE GENUIS

MASTERBAKER

༺ S❤️PER❤️ ᗰOD ༻
Super Moderator

Nena Mendez Cuevas #TraitorTrump is a NARCISSIST, SEXIST, SELF-CENTERED, SELF-SERVING, RACIST, LIAR, INSANE, GRADE-A PRICK, FAKER, DICTATOR, RAGING EGOMANIC, DRAFT DODGER, TREASONOUS, HITLER-CLONE, TITTY OBSESSED, MURDEROUS, P.O.S. COWARD, BULLY, schizophrenic, paranoid, crying, baby hating, dangerous, psychotic, sociopath, dementia-ridden, shallow, insecure, weird, senile, old, ancient, doddering, orange skinned horned beast, manipulative, obnoxious, splenetic, small, petty, cliche, sheltered, thick, dim, repulsive, venal, twisted, mountebank, dull-witted, God-awful, scumbag, walking disaster, shyster, low life, shut talking, belligerent, flip-flopping, sick, messed up, douche, loud, unfit, corrupted, Muppet, butt plug face, weapons-grade plum, c*ck splat, tangerine ball bag, toupee f*ck trumpet, charlatan, cretin, superficial, disgusting, unremarkable, unapologetic, fake, spineless, misguided, conniving, crazy, foolish, mean-spirited, dumbbell, demented, adulterous, orange, horrific, imbecile, idiotic, foolish, pathetic, misogynist, buffoonish, arrogant, sleazy, xenophobic, hatemonger, immature, carnival barker, ludicrous, mentally unstable, delusional, pathological liar, morally bankrupt, certifiable loon, cheating, bigot, egotistical, vile, inhuman, hateful, petulant child, drama queen, royal a-hole, hypocrite, egomaniac, brat, con artist, paranoid, blowhard, belligerent, big-headed, boastful, bossy, callous, cantankerous, deceitful, dishonest, greedy, grumpy, harsh, impolite, thin-skinned, inconsiderate, indecisive, intolerant, irresponsible, mean, miserly, narrow-minded, nasty, rude, selfish, self-centered, sneaky, stupid, putz, superficial, tactless, germanium, manipulator, thoughtless, draft dodger, tax cheater, unkind, monster, untrustworthy, vague, paranoid, schizophrenic, pussy, piss ant, vain, untrustworthy, unbelievable, unelectable, unwanted, vengeful, adolescent, hilariously ostentatious, arbitrary, profane, dishonest, loudly opinionated, consistently wrong, vulgar, dumb as a box of rocks, ignorant, opportunistic, demonic, fake-ass, UN-presidential, dickhead, jabber-the-hut, treasonous, out-of-touch, inhumane, oozing pimple, illiterate, "privileged," big fat loser, heap, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, blood-sucking, brainless, hopeless, heartless, fat-razz, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, vile, vomit inducing, spotty-lipped & worm-headed This Hitler protege' doesn't deserve my vote!
 

MASTERBAKER

༺ S❤️PER❤️ ᗰOD ༻
Super Moderator
Donald Trump is a madman: The President's Wednesday Twitter spasm confirms what many Americans have long suspected


After his latest spasm of deranged tweets, only those completely under his spell can deny what growing numbers of Americans have long suspected: The President of the United States is profoundly unstable. He is mad. He is, by any honest layman’s definition, mentally unwell and viciously lashing out.

Some might say we are just suffering through the umpteenth canny, calculated presidential eruption designed to distract the nation from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, or perhaps from unpopular legislation working its way through Congress.

Quite possible. But Occam’s razor, and the sheer strangeness of Trump’s behavior, leads us to conclude that we are witnessing signs of mania.

Early Wednesday morning, Donald Trump or whomever was manning his Twitter account retweeted, seemingly at random, three videos of supposed violence against Christians by Muslims.

Trump tweets 'fake news' anti-Muslim video from far-right leader

At least one of those was long ago debunked. The words of the tweet spread to Trump’s 43.6 million followers referred to a violent young man pictured in a video as a “Muslim migrant.” The perpetrator appears to have been neither a Muslim nor a migrant.

Trump is broadcasting discredited hate videos even as he now tells multiple people in his inner circle that the real, verified “Access Hollywood” video in which he boasted of grabbing women “by the p---y” — words for which he has already publicly apologized — was falsified.

trump30e-1-web.jpg

The most powerful man in the world
(Susan Walsh/AP)
By engaging in the little Islamophobia-fest, Trump amplified the handiwork of a leader of Britain First, a fringe, far-right political movement that is the rough equivalent of America’s white nationalist alt-right.

Trump wasn’t done. Just before 7 a.m., he urged the nation to “boycott Fake News CNN” — the nation’s most powerful person targeting a media company that happens to be locked in a legal fight with his own Justice Department over a merger.

GOP senators advance Trump's picks for top environmental posts

Then, upon learning of the firing of NBC’s Matt Lauer for workplace sexual harassment, came the real unraveling.

“When will the top executives at NBC & Comcast be fired for putting out so much Fake News. Check out Andy Lack’s past!” he tweeted, aiming unhinged ire at the network’s news boss.

This is a day after North Korea fired what was, by all accounts, an ICBM. During a week when Congress is in the throes of delicate negotiations on taxes and the budget.

And before our eyes, the President is spinning in a Tasmanian devil’s rage about American news networks.

Trump speaks with China, vows 'major sanctions' on North Korea

There was more.

“When will the Fake News practitioners at NBC be terminating the contract of Phil Griffin?” Trump then tweeted — demanding the firing of a private citizen who happens to run MSNBC, a news channel he hates.

“And will they terminate low ratings Joe Scarborough based on the ‘unsolved mystery’ that took place in Florida years ago? Investigate!”

Stop. Read it again. Google it if you must.

President Trump revives birther claims against Obama



Donald Trump in the White House

The President of the United States just casually accused a congressman-turned-TV-host of murder because an intern died in his Florida office in 2001.

It is a terrible shame that we have to address the substance of this base smear, but these are the indignities forced upon all of us in the age of Donald Trump.

Lori Klausutis, 28, was found dead behind a desk. An autopsy was conducted: She had been feeling unwell; she had heart problems that caused her to fall and hit her head. That is what the medical examiner concluded, finding no signs of foul play.

There is no evidence connecting Scarborough, who barely knew Klausutis, to her death. None. Zero. Zip.

Macron mum on Obama meal plans to avoid angering Trump: report

Just like there is no credible evidence connecting Donald Trump to the alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1996, a crime of which he was accused in a since-dropped civil lawsuit that has never held up to scrutiny.

One might think a man falsely accused of such a serious crime, who pledged to “open up” libel laws to make it easier for public figures like him and Scarborough to sue people who spread lies about them, would think twice before hurling such an incendiary false charge at someone else.

To think that is to assume that Donald Trump is well. He is not well.
 

MASTERBAKER

༺ S❤️PER❤️ ᗰOD ༻
Super Moderator

says those close to President Trump described him as 'like a child' and 'idiot'
BYDAVID BOROFF
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Friday, January 5, 2018, 8:27 AM

Hannity denies report that he gave Trump interview questions

"The one description that everyone gave: they all say he is like a child," Wolf told the "Today" show. "The need for immediate gratification. It's all about him.

"This man does not read, does not listen. He's like a pinball just shooting off the sides."

Wolff said he was stunned when Trump hit him and publisher Henry Holt and Co. with a cease-and-desist letter on Thursday.

PAID CONTENT BYJETBLUE
PEOPLE ALREADY SHARE DATA WITH FAMILY PLANS – MIGHT AS WELL SHARE POINTS.

"This is extraordinary that a President of the United States would try to stop the publication of a book," the journalist said.

President Trump claims he doesn't talk to Steve Bannon

He laughed off a Trump tweet from Thursday night that said "Fire and Fury" was "full of lies." He said he has recordings and notes of his interviews.

wolff6n-2-web.jpg

Michael Wolff speaks to the "Today" show on Friday morning.
(NBC)
"My credibility is being questioned by a man who has less credibility of any man who has walked on Earth to this point," Wolff said.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders continued to criticize the book on Friday.

"What I think is really mentally unstable is people that don't see the positive impact that this president is having on the country," she told "Fox & Friends."

Trump tears into ‘Sloppy Steve’ Bannon, new explosive book

Former press secretary Sean Spicertold "Good Morning America"on Friday that some of the quotes in the book are true, "but the context in which they are given aren't."

"Fire and Fury" chronicles the first nine months of the Trump White House, painting a dysfunctional atmosphere. It was available in bookstores on Friday, and has already hit No. 1 on Amazon.

Stephen Bannon, former White House strategist, is quoted extensively in the book and is highly critical of Donald Trump Jr.

"The book is not about Steve Bannon, this book is about Donald Trump," Wolff said Friday.
 

MASTERBAKER

༺ S❤️PER❤️ ᗰOD ༻
Super Moderator

President Trump described as 'like a child' and 'idiot'





says those close to President Trump described him as 'like a child' and 'idiot'
BYDAVID BOROFF
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Friday, January 5, 2018, 8:27 AM

Hannity denies report that he gave Trump interview questions

"The one description that everyone gave: they all say he is like a child," Wolf told the "Today" show. "The need for immediate gratification. It's all about him.

"This man does not read, does not listen. He's like a pinball just shooting off the sides."

Wolff said he was stunned when Trump hit him and publisher Henry Holt and Co. with a cease-and-desist letter on Thursday.

PAID CONTENT BYJETBLUE
PEOPLE ALREADY SHARE DATA WITH FAMILY PLANS – MIGHT AS WELL SHARE POINTS.

"This is extraordinary that a President of the United States would try to stop the publication of a book," the journalist said.

President Trump claims he doesn't talk to Steve Bannon

He laughed off a Trump tweet from Thursday night that said "Fire and Fury" was "full of lies." He said he has recordings and notes of his interviews.

wolff6n-2-web.jpg

Michael Wolff speaks to the "Today" show on Friday morning.
(NBC)
"My credibility is being questioned by a man who has less credibility of any man who has walked on Earth to this point," Wolff said.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders continued to criticize the book on Friday.

"What I think is really mentally unstable is people that don't see the positive impact that this president is having on the country," she told "Fox & Friends."

Trump tears into ‘Sloppy Steve’ Bannon, new explosive book

Former press secretary Sean Spicertold "Good Morning America"on Friday that some of the quotes in the book are true, "but the context in which they are given aren't."

"Fire and Fury" chronicles the first nine months of the Trump White House, painting a dysfunctional atmosphere. It was available in bookstores on Friday, and has already hit No. 1 on Amazon.

Stephen Bannon, former White House strategist, is quoted extensively in the book and is highly critical of Donald Trump Jr.

"The book is not about Steve Bannon, this book is about Donald Trump," Wolff said Friday.
 

QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
Trump is the epitome of evil...

Donald Trump is a madman:

Republican Makes Morning Joe: Trump is Mentally Unstable

Republican Makes Morning Joe: Trump is Mentally Unstable

President Trump described as 'like a child' and 'idiot'


Trump, Defending His Mental Fitness, Says He’s a ‘Very Stable Genius’


merlin_131900144_264e4666-c7b6-4361-a1ef-c97e1099d37e-articleLarge.jpg

President Trump this week at the White House.TOM BRENNER/THE NEW YORK TIMES


By PETER BAKER and
MAGGIE HABERMAN
January 6, 2018

WASHINGTON — President Trump, whose sometimes erratic behavior in office has generated an unprecedented debate about his mental health, declared on Saturday that he was perfectly sane and accused his critics of raising questions to score political points.

In a series of Twitter posts that were extraordinary even by the standards of his norm-shattering presidency, Mr. Trump insisted that his opponents and the news media were attacking his capacity because they had failed to prove his campaign conspired with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.

“Now that Russian collusion, after one year of intense study, has proven to be a total hoax on the American public, the Democrats and their lapdogs, the Fake News Mainstream Media, are taking out the old Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence,” he wrote on Twitter even as a special counsel continues to investigate the Russia matter.

“Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart,” he added. He said he was a “VERY successful businessman” and television star who won the presidency on his first try. “I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!”

Elaborating during a meeting with reporters at Camp David later in the day, Mr. Trump again ticked off what he called a high-achieving academic and career record. He raised the matter “only because I went to the best colleges, or college,” he said. Referring to a new book citing concerns about his fitness, he said, “I consider it a work of fiction and I consider it a disgrace.”

The president’s engagement on the issue is likely to fuel the long-simmering argument about his state of mind that has roiled the political and psychiatric worlds and thrust the country into uncharted territory. Democrats in Congress have introduced legislation to force the president to submit to psychological evaluation. Mental health professionals have signed a petition calling for his removal from office. Others call armchair diagnoses a dangerous precedent or even a cover for partisan attacks.

In the past week alone, a new book resurfaced previously reported concerns among the president’s own advisers about his fitness for office, the question of his mental state came up at two White House briefings and the secretary of state was asked if Mr. Trump was mentally fit. After the president boasted that his “nuclear button” was bigger than Kim Jong-un’s in North Korea, Richard W. Painter, a former adviser to President George W. Bush, described the claim as proof that Mr. Trump is “psychologically unfit” and should have his powers transferred to Vice President Mike Pence under the Constitution’s 25th Amendment.

Mr. Trump’s self-absorption, impulsiveness, lack of empathy, obsessive focus on slights, tenuous grasp of facts and penchant for sometimes far-fetched conspiracy theories have generated endless op-ed columns, magazine articles, books, professional panel discussions and cable television speculation.

“The level of concern by the public is now enormous,” said Bandy X. Lee, a forensic psychiatrist at Yale School of Medicine and editor of “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President,” a book released last fall. “They’re telling us to speak more loudly and clearly and not to stop until something is done because they are terrified.”

As Politico reported, Dr. Lee was invited to Capitol Hill last month to meet with about a dozen members of Congress to discuss the matter. But all but one of the lawmakers she briefed are Democrats. While some Republicans have raised concerns, they do so mostly in private. Others scoff at the question, dismissing it as outrageous character assassination.

Few questions irritate White House aides more than inquiries about the president’s mental well-being, and they argue that Mr. Trump’s opponents are trying to use those questions to achieve what they could not at the ballot box.

“This shouldn’t be dignified with a response,” said Kellyanne Conway, the White House counselor.

“The partisans on Capitol Hill consulting with psychologists should reorient their spare time: support the president’s positive agenda of middle class tax cuts, rebuilding infrastructure and the military, investing in our work force,” Ms. Conway said later in an email. “The never-ending attempt to nullify an election is tiresome; if they were truly ‘worried about the country,’ they’d get to work to help it.”

Thomas J. Barrack, a friend of Mr. Trump’s, was quoted in Michael Wolff’s new book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” as telling a friend that the president was “not only crazy but stupid.” In interviews, Mr. Barrack denied that and insisted that many people miss Mr. Trump’s actual brilliance.

“Potus has learned over time that Socratic testing and a lack of predictability is a worthy weapon in both negotiations and in keeping his team well honed, unentitled and on alert,” he said, using the initials for president of the United States. “He has no truck with political correctness, self-promotion or personal hubris of his team. This may cause him to appear at times to be overly realistic, blunt or to be politically insensitive even to his own subordinates. However, that is not the case.”

Still, in private, advisers to the president have at times expressed concerns. In private conversations over the last year, people who were new to Mr. Trump in the White House, which was most of the West Wing staff, have tried to process the president’s speaking style, his temper, his disinterest in formal briefings, his obsession with physical appearances and his concern about the theatrics and excitement of his job.

In conversations with friends, Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, has said Mr. Trump is “crazy but he’s a genius.” Other advisers speak about the president as a volatile personality who has to be managed carefully. While Mr. Wolff’s book generated enormous attention, news accounts over the past year have reported the president’s mood swings and unpredictable behavior.

The questions have prompted a sharp debate among mental health professionals about the so-called Goldwater rule adopted by the American Psychiatric Association barring members from evaluating anyone they have not personally examined, a rule generated in response to questions raised about Senator Barry Goldwater, the Republican presidential nominee in 1964.

Mr. Trump is due for his annual physical examination on Friday, but the White House would not say whether it would include mental acuity tests. Some psychiatrists have said it is irresponsible to throw around medical terms without an examination.

“These amateurs shouldn’t be diagnosing at a distance, and they don’t know what they’re talking about,” said Allen Frances, a former psychiatry department chairman at Duke University School of Medicine who helped develop the profession’s diagnostic standards for mental disorders.

Dr. Frances, author of “Twilight of American Sanity: A Psychiatrist Analyzes the Age of Trump,” said the president’s bad behavior should not be blamed on mental illness. “He is definitely unstable,” Dr. Frances said. “He is definitely impulsive. He is world-class narcissistic not just for our day but for the ages. You can’t say enough about how incompetent and unqualified he is to be leader of the free world. But that does not make him mentally ill.”

Questions about presidential psychology are not newbut have largely been shrouded in secrecy until now. Abraham Lincoln suffered from depression. John F. Kennedy secretly took prescription medicines to treat anxiety. Aides to Lyndon B. Johnson were so troubled that they sought out three psychiatrists, who concluded that his behavior could indicate paranoid disintegration.

Richard M. Nixon took Valium, and during his final days advisers took precautions intended to avoid any rash orders for military action. Late in his tenure, Ronald Reagan’s aides, concerned enough about his mental state, discussed whether to invoke the 25th Amendment. Only years later was Mr. Reagan diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

While Mr. Trump cited Mr. Reagan’s case in his tweet, the discussion of his capacity was far more restrained in public back then. Reporters who covered him, like Ann Compton of ABC News and Peter Maer of CBS News, said they knew he was a visibly aging, sometimes hazy man who struggled with facts. But there was less direct public questioning of his mental health until his final year in office with publication of a book disclosing the aides’ 25th Amendment debate.


Public discussion of mental issues has long been a political liability. Senator Thomas F. Eagleton withdrew as the Democrats’ vice-presidential candidate in 1972 after revelations that he had undergone electric shock therapy. Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988, was forced to release records to dispute rumors that he had received psychiatric treatment. Bill Clinton’s aides were grilled on whether he was being treated for sex addiction.

Mr. Trump’s capacity has been discussed openly since the 2016 campaign. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, then a rival for the nomination, called him a “delusional narcissist.” Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, another Republican candidate, said: “I think he’s a kook. I think he’s crazy. I think he’s unfit for office.”

But fewer Republicans are willing to say that now that Mr. Trump is in office. Indeed, Mr. Graham in November chided the news media for trying “to label the guy some kind of kook not fit to be president,” even though he had said the exact same thing a year earlier.

One exception has been Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, who said Mr. Trump had yet to “demonstrate the stability” required of a president.

For his part, Mr. Trump has accused his critics of being mentally impaired. He regularly describes adversaries with words like “crazy,” “psycho” and “nut job.”

But the discussion has now reached a point where Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, who has been reported to have privately called Mr. Trump a “moron,” was asked to weigh in during an interview with CNN on Friday. “I’ve never questioned his mental fitness,” Mr. Tillerson said. “I have no reason to question his mental fitness.”

Democrats, however, say they do. Fifty-seven House Democrats have sponsored a bill to form an oversight commission on presidential capacity. The 25th Amendment, ratified in 1967, permits a president’s powers to be transferred to the vice president when the vice president and a majority of the cabinet or a body created by Congress conclude that the president is incapable of performing his duties. Congress has never created such a body.

Representative Jamie Raskin, a freshman Democrat from Maryland who drafted the legislation, said it was time for Congress to do so. He said his concern was as much about cognitive issues, citing the president’s occasional slurred speech and inability to form complete sentences.

“The 25th Amendment was passed in the nuclear age, and we have to keep faith with its central premise, which is there is a difference between capacity in a president and incapacity,” said Mr. Raskin. “We haven’t been forced to look at that question seriously before and now we are.”

Peter Baker reported from Washington, and Maggie Haberman from New York.


https://news.google.com/news/amp?caurl=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/06/us/politics/trump-genius-mental-health.html#pt0-82185


.
 

MASTERBAKER

༺ S❤️PER❤️ ᗰOD ༻
Super Moderator
Trump isn’t crazy; he’s Trump
BYBARBARA RES
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, January 16, 2018, 5:00 AM
res14e-1-web.jpg

Same, not insane
(CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES)

PAID CONTENT BYCOMPARECARDS

Skip The Interest.
The more that Trump is forced to confront reality, the more he denies it and goes to extremes to continue his farce. Trump does and has always believed his own deceptions. He says it and it becomes real, at least to him.

Does having Ivanka and Jared running the show indicate that he is losing it? No. In my experience, Trump always put incompetent people in highly important positions, because he has huge problems trusting people.

Fred Trump, the old man, taught Donald that honest employees were stupid, and anyone with any brains would steal his boss blind. So Donald turned to his family for their inherent loyalty. Early on, Trump had Ivana involved way beyond her depth, interfering with the construction of the Hyatt and Trump Tower.

Later, she was put in charge of the Castle Casino, and then made president of the Plaza Hotel. Her only real qualification was that she could be trusted, although Trump did actually expect that she could do it because she was smart.

Notorious for hiring the very young, Trump put a novice twentysomething who happened to be very pretty in charge of the Miss Universe pageant. Does this sound familiar vis-à-vis Hope Hicks, the young and attractive communications director?

Because being a sycophant has now become more important to him than ability, Trump’s selection of aides appears incoherent. But he gets what he wants in effusive praise and unwavering adulation.

I watched Trump go from hiring the best and brightest to hiring the obsequious during the ’90s. He has only gotten worse.

Mishaps, malapropisms, threats and contradictions have been hallmarks of Trump’s persona for as long as I have known him. That he changes his direction midstream, even midsentence, is consistent with past performance.

Trump has a singular agenda and an uncanny sense of which way the wind is blowing. He is manipulative and can adapt to the situation when he can’t change it. And without having honesty to constrain him, he can be all over the place.

Much has been made of Trump’s working hours and golf time. Again, nothing new here. Shortly after I started with Trump, he began coming in later and leaving earlier. The fact is, Trump, in a sense, is never not working. Sitting at a desk is not the determinant.

Even during his copious television watching, Trump believes he is doing research for his job. If people would accept that Trump’s singular role in life is to promote his agenda, and become richer and more famous, and that he works at that tirelessly, then his conduct makes more sense.

Trump today is not really different from the man I worked for, he is just more so. More rich, more famous, more powerful, more Trump-like, but not crazy.

Res is an engineer and attorney. She is the author of a memoir entitled “All Alone on the 68th Floor: How One Woman Changed the Face of Construction.”
 

QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
SURVEY SAYS

This poll actually asked whether or not voters think Trump is a 'genius'


The Week
January 22, 2018

After President Trump declared himself "like, really smart" and "a very stable genius," the enterprising pollsters at ABC News and The Washington Post took it upon themselves to ask voters if they agree.

The results are unlikely to please the president: Three in four respondents said they do not consider Trump a genius, and about half do not believe him to be mentally stable.



(ABC News)

Only Republicans specifically are confident in Trump's stability — just 14 percent say he is not mentally stable — but they are less convinced of his genius, as only 50 percent of GOP voters agree with that claim.

The same survey found white women, whose votes were key in securing Trump's victory in 2016, now favor Democrats by a large margin when presented with a generic ballot. Read The Week's breakdown of that part of the poll, including what it means for Democrats' chance to retake Congress this year, here. Bonnie Kristian


http://theweek.com/speedreads/750033/poll-actually-asked-whether-not-voters-think-trump-genius


.
 

QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
.
Report: Trump officials had secret meetings to plot a coup in Venezuela


Members of the Trump administration over the last year secretly organized meetings with dissenters in the Venezuelan military to negotiate plans to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, The New York Times reported Saturday. The White House declined to give the Times a detailed statement, saying only that the administration supports "dialogue with all Venezuelans who demonstrate a desire for democracy."

While the Maduro regime is increasingly unpopular due to massive shortages of food and other necessities its policies have produced in Venezuela, U.S. interference is unlikely to be favorably received thanks to Washington's messy history of regime change and support of dictatorships in Latin America.

Source: The New York Times, The Hill



.
 

MASTERBAKER

༺ S❤️PER❤️ ᗰOD ༻
Super Moderator
Today, I really can't believe I'm saying this. Today the President of the United States boarded Air Force One with toilet paper stuck to his shoe. This is how much the people around him respect him. It just says VOLUMES.
5bb6d35824000051009863eb.jpeg

'The sh*t's starting to stick': Trump boards Air Force One with TOILET PAPER stuck on his shoe

trump-toilet-paper-450x450.jpg

1538750157_930e164158b1135a6b170f604351dffe.jpg
 

MASTERBAKER

༺ S❤️PER❤️ ᗰOD ༻
Super Moderator
350 health professionals sign letter to Congress claiming Trump's mental health is deteriorating dangerously amid impeachment proceedings
Tom Porter

4 hours ago
5de8f9fafd9db22ed5239623
President Donald Trump

President Donald Trump. Alex Wong/Getty Images
  • A petition signed by 350 psychiatrists and other mental-health professionals claiming that President Donald Trump's mental health is deteriorating rapidly amid impeachment proceedings is set to be submitted to Congress on Thursday.
  • "We are convinced that, as the time of possible impeachment approaches, Donald Trump has the real potential to become ever more dangerous, a threat to the safety of our nation," said Drs. Bandy Lee, a Yale psychiatrist, Jerrold Post, a former CIA profiler, and John Zinner, a psychiatrist at George Washington University.
  • The petition was first reported by the British news outlet The Independent.
  • Lee told The Independent that Trump appeared to be showing signs of delusion by doubling down on falsehoods and conspiracy theories.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
A group of 350 psychiatrists and other mental-health professionals are set to submit a petition to Congress on Thursday claiming that President Donald Trump's mental health is rapidly deteriorating amid the impeachment inquiry.

"We are speaking out at this time because we are convinced that, as the time of possible impeachment approaches, Donald Trump has the real potential to become ever more dangerous, a threat to the safety of our nation," Drs. Bandy Lee, a Yale psychiatrist, Jerrold Post, a former CIA profiler, and John Zinner, a psychiatrist at George Washington University, wrote in a statement accompanying the petition, which was first reported by the British outlet The Independent.
They wrote that "failing to monitor or to understand the psychological aspects" of impeachment on Trump "or discounting them could lead to catastrophic outcomes."
They outlined the facets of Trump's behavior that prompted them to speak out:
"What makes Donald Trump so dangerous is the brittleness of his sense of worth. Any slight or criticism is experienced as a humiliation and degradation. To cope with the resultant hollow and empty feeling, he reacts with what is referred to as narcissistic rage.

"He is unable to take responsibility for any error, mistake, or failing. His default in that situation is to blame others and to attack the perceived source of his humiliation. These attacks of narcissistic rage can be brutal and destructive."
The three said they were prepared to testify about the effect of impeachment on the president's mental health.
"We implore Congress to take these danger signs seriously and to constrain his destructive impulses," they wrote. "We and many others are available to give important relevant recommendations as well as to educate the public so that we can maximize our collective safety."
Lee did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for further comment.

Lee first publicly expressed concerns about Trump's mental health shortly after he took office in January 2017. The move was controversial — some said it violated the American Psychiatric Association's Goldwater rule, which states that psychiatrists should not make public statements about the mental health of public figures unless they have personally examined them.
It does not appear that the three psychiatrists have personally examined Trump.
barry goldwater

Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater, who ran for president in 1964 and lost to the Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson. AP Images
The rule was adopted after a controversial Fact magazine article in 1964 outlined several psychiatrists' claims that Barry Goldwater, then a Republican presidential candidate, was not mentally fit to become president.
The petitioners said they were not breaking the Goldwater rule because by speaking out they are encouraging psychiatrists "to educate the public when asked about a public figure, so that we may improve the community and better public health."

It's not just medical professionals who have voiced concern about Trump's mental health.
A recent book by an anonymous Trump administration official claimed that White House staff members were concerned about the president's mental acuity and said he "stumbles, slurs, gets confused, is easily irritated, and has trouble synthesizing information, not occasionally but with regularity."
Lee told The Independent that she expected that Republicans would dismiss the petition as colored by partisan bias, but she insisted it was based on observations and accounts of Trump's behavior.
She told The Independent that Trump appeared to be "doubling and tripling down on his delusions," based on his "ramping up his conspiracy theories" and "showing a great deal of cruelty and vindictiveness" in his "accelerated, repetitive tweets."

"I believe that they fit the pattern of delusions rather than just plain lies," she said.
 

MASTERBAKER

༺ S❤️PER❤️ ᗰOD ༻
Super Moderator
North Korea just called Trump an old imbecile in the latest sign the country is back on a warpath
Ellen Ioanes

2 hours ago
trump
trump

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an interview with Reuters in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., April 27, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
  • North Korean officials revived the insult "dotard" against President Donald Trump in response to his insults about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and threats to take military action against the Hermit Kingdom.
  • North Korea has repeatedly indicated over the past weeks that it plans to act — most likely reviving intercontinental ballistic missile testing — by the end of the year should it not get significant concessions from the United States.
  • "If any language and expressions stoking the atmosphere of confrontation are used once again on purpose at a crucial moment as now, that must really be diagnosed as the relapse of the dotage of a dotard," North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui said in North Korea's official news agency KCNA on Thursday, Yonhap News Agency reported.
  • The relationship between the US and North Korea has steadily deteriorated despite high-profile meetings between Trump and Kim, with North Korea saying that it will be taking action should the US not come to the table for serious, significant talks.
  • Visit Business Insider's home page for more stories.
North Korean officials are reviving jabs at President Donald Trump's mental capacity in an indication that peace talks between the two nations are deteriorating. North Korea has repeatedly indicated over the past weeks that it plans to act — most likely reviving intercontinental ballistic missile testing — by the end of the year should it not get significant concessions from the United States.

"If any language and expressions stoking the atmosphere of confrontation are used once again on purpose at a crucial moment as now, that must really be diagnosed as the relapse of the dotage of a dotard," North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui said in North Korea's official news agency KCNA on Thursday, Yonhap News Agency reported.
In response to recent veiled threats from North Korea tied to a year-end deadline for serious and significant peace talks with the US, Trump has again called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "Little Rocket Man," an insult he used in 2017 when relations between the US and the hermit kingdom were at a nadir.
Trump has also threatened military action against North Korea, most recently during a visit to London on Tuesday, ABC News reported.
"We have the most powerful military we ever had, and we are by far the most powerful country in the world and hopefully we don't have to use it. But if we do, we will use it," Trump said at the time.

Kim Jong Un first called Trump a dotard in response to Trump's insults, saying he would "tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire." The somewhat obscure word, referring to someone who is going senile — was unfamiliar to many Americans and spiked searches for the definition, Merriam-Webster's Twitter account indicated at the time.
The word comes from the Middle English "doten," which was used starting in the 14th century to describe an imbecile.
The next year, Trump rhapsodically described his relationship with Kim, saying that they had written each other letters and "fell in love." Despite a series of high-profile meetings in Singapore, Vietnam, and at the demilitarized zone (DMZ) and the cessation of testing nuclear and long-range weapons on the part of North Korea, no significant breakthroughs have been achieved, and experts have indicated that North Korea will likely resume testing ICBMs soon.
 

MASTERBAKER

༺ S❤️PER❤️ ᗰOD ༻
Super Moderator
Politics
‘You’re a bunch of dopes and babies’: Inside Trump’s stunning tirade against generals
imrs.php


President Trump speaks to reporters Monday as he walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
President Trump speaks to reporters Monday as he walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
By
Carol D. Leonnig and
Philip Rucker
Jan. 17, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. EST
This article is adapted from “A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America,” which will be published on Jan. 21 by Penguin Press.
There is no more sacred room for military officers than 2E924 of the Pentagon, a windowless and secure vault where the Joint Chiefs of Staff meet regularly to wrestle with classified matters. Its more common name is “the Tank.” The Tank resembles a small corporate boardroom, with a gleaming golden oak table, leather swivel armchairs and other mid-century stylings. Inside its walls, flag officers observe a reverence and decorum for the wrenching decisions that have been made there.
Hanging prominently on one of the walls is The Peacemakers, a painting that depicts an 1865 Civil War strategy session with President Abraham Lincoln and his three service chiefs — Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, Major General William Tecumseh Sherman, and Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter. One hundred fifty-two years after Lincoln hatched plans to preserve the Union, President Trump’s advisers staged an intervention inside the Tank to try to preserve the world order.


By that point, six months into his administration, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had grown alarmed by gaping holes in Trump’s knowledge of history, especially the key alliances forged following World War II. Trump had dismissed allies as worthless, cozied up to authoritarian regimes in Russia and elsewhere, and advocated withdrawing troops from strategic outposts and active theaters alike.
New book portrays Trump as erratic, ‘at times dangerously uninformed’
Trump organized his unorthodox worldview under the simplistic banner of “America First,” but Mattis, Tillerson, and Cohn feared his proposals were rash, barely considered, and a danger to America’s superpower standing. They also felt that many of Trump’s impulsive ideas stemmed from his lack of familiarity with U.S. history and, even, where countries were located. To have a useful discussion with him, the trio agreed, they had to create a basic knowledge, a shared language.




And I've prosecuted big cases,
I've defended big cases,



How a closely watched senator is preparing for the impeachment trial



0:04 / 2:49
















Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) is facing a tough re-election. He says that has nothing to do with how he is preparing for the senate's impeachment trial. (Rhonda Colvin, Ashleigh Joplin/The Washington Post)
So on July 20, 2017, Mattis invited Trump to the Tank for what he, Tillerson, and Cohn had carefully organized as a tailored tutorial. What happened inside the Tank that day crystallized the commander in chief’s berating, derisive and dismissive manner, foreshadowing decisions such as the one earlier this month that brought the United States to the brink of war with Iran. The Tank meeting was a turning point in Trump’s presidency. Rather than getting him to appreciate America’s traditional role and alliances, Trump began to tune out and eventually push away the experts who believed their duty was to protect the country by restraining his more dangerous impulses.
AD


The episode has been documented numerous times, but subsequent reporting reveals a more complete picture of the moment and the chilling effect Trump’s comments and hostility had on the nation’s military and national security leadership.
Just before 10 a.m. on a scorching summer Thursday, Trump arrived at the Pentagon. He stepped out of his motorcade, walked along a corridor with portraits honoring former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs, and stepped inside the Tank. The uniformed officers greeted their commander in chief. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Joseph F. Dunford Jr. sat in the seat of honor midway down the table, because this was his room, and Trump sat at the head of the table facing a projection screen. Mattis and the newly confirmed deputy defense secretary, Patrick Shanahan, sat to the president’s left, with Vice President Pence and Tillerson to his right. Down the table sat the leaders of the military branches, along with Cohn and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon was in the outer ring of chairs with other staff, taking his seat just behind Mattis and directly in Trump’s line of sight.
Mattis, Cohn, and Tillerson and their aides decided to use maps, graphics, and charts to tutor the president, figuring they would help keep him from getting bored. Mattis opened with a slide show punctuated by lots of dollar signs. Mattis devised a strategy to use terms the impatient president, schooled in real estate, would appreciate to impress upon him the value of U.S. investments abroad. He sought to explain why U.S. troops were deployed in so many regions and why America’s safety hinged on a complex web of trade deals, alliances, and bases across the globe.
AD


An opening line flashed on the screen, setting the tone: “The post-war international rules-based order is the greatest gift of the greatest generation.” Mattis then gave a 20-minute briefing on the power of the NATO alliance to stabilize Europe and keep the United States safe. Bannon thought to himself, “Not good. Trump is not going to like that one bit.” The internationalist language Mattis was using was a trigger for Trump.
“Oh, baby, this is going to be f---ing wild,” Bannon thought. “If you stood up and threatened to shoot [Trump], he couldn’t say ‘postwar rules-based international order.’ It’s just not the way he thinks.”
For the next 90 minutes, Mattis, Tillerson, and Cohn took turns trying to emphasize their points, pointing to their charts and diagrams. They showed where U.S. personnel were positioned, at military bases, CIA stations, and embassies, and how U.S. deployments fended off the threats of terror cells, nuclear blasts, and destabilizing enemies in places including Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, the Korea Peninsula, and Syria. Cohn spoke for about 20 minutes about the value of free trade with America’s allies, emphasizing how he saw each trade agreement working together as part of an overall structure to solidify U.S. economic and national security.
AD


Trump appeared peeved by the schoolhouse vibe but also allergic to the dynamic of his advisers talking at him. His ricocheting attention span led him to repeatedly interrupt the lesson. He heard an adviser say a word or phrase and then seized on that to interject with his take. For instance, the word “base” prompted him to launch in to say how “crazy” and “stupid” it was to pay for bases in some countries.
Trump’s first complaint was to repeat what he had vented about to his national security adviser months earlier: South Korea should pay for a $10 billion missile defense system that the United States built for it. The system was designed to shoot down any short- and medium-range ballistic missiles from North Korea to protect South Korea and American troops stationed there. But Trump argued that the South Koreans should pay for it, proposing that the administration pull U.S. troops out of the region or bill the South Koreans for their protection.
“We should charge them rent,” Trump said of South Korea. “We should make them pay for our soldiers. We should make money off of everything.”
AD


Trump proceeded to explain that NATO, too, was worthless. U.S. generals were letting the allied member countries get away with murder, he said, and they owed the United States a lot of money after not living up to their promise of paying their dues.
“They’re in arrears,” Trump said, reverting to the language of real estate. He lifted both his arms at his sides in frustration. Then he scolded top officials for the untold millions of dollars he believed they had let slip through their fingers by allowing allies to avoid their obligations.
“We are owed money you haven’t been collecting!” Trump told them. “You would totally go bankrupt if you had to run your own business.”
 (Penguin Press)
(Penguin Press)
Mattis wasn’t trying to convince the president of anything, only to explain and provide facts. Now things were devolving quickly. The general tried to calmly explain to the president that he was not quite right. The NATO allies didn’t owe the United States back rent, he said. The truth was more complicated. NATO had a nonbinding goal that members should pay at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product on their defenses. Only five of the countries currently met that goal, but it wasn’t as if they were shorting the United States on the bill.
AD


More broadly, Mattis argued, the NATO alliance was not serving only to protect western Europe. It protected America, too. “This is what keeps us safe,” Mattis said. Cohn tried to explain to Trump that he needed to see the value of the trade deals. “These are commitments that help keep us safe,” Cohn said.
Bannon interjected. “Stop, stop, stop,” he said. “All you guys talk about all these great things, they’re all our partners, I want you to name me now one country and one company that’s going to have his back.”
Trump then repeated a threat he’d made countless times before. He wanted out of the Iran nuclear deal that President Obama had struck in 2015, which called for Iran to reduce its uranium stockpile and cut its nuclear program.

“It’s the worst deal in history!” Trump declared.
“Well, actually . . .,” Tillerson interjected.
AD

“I don’t want to hear it,” Trump said, cutting off the secretary of state before he could explain some of the benefits of the agreement. “They’re cheating. They’re building. We’re getting out of it. I keep telling you, I keep giving you time, and you keep delaying me. I want out of it.”
Before they could debate the Iran deal, Trump erupted to revive another frequent complaint: the war in Afghanistan, which was now America’s longest war. He demanded an explanation for why the United States hadn’t won in Afghanistan yet, now 16 years after the nation began fighting there in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Trump unleashed his disdain, calling Afghanistan a “loser war.” That phrase hung in the air and disgusted not only the military leaders at the table but also the men and women in uniform sitting along the back wall behind their principals. They all were sworn to obey their commander in chief’s commands, and here he was calling the war they had been fighting a loser war.

“You’re all losers,” Trump said. “You don’t know how to win anymore.”
AD

Trump questioned why the United States couldn’t get some oil as payment for the troops stationed in the Persian Gulf. “We spent $7 trillion; they’re ripping us off,” Trump boomed. “Where is the f---ing oil?”
Trump seemed to be speaking up for the voters who elected him, and several attendees thought they heard Bannon in Trump’s words. Bannon had been trying to persuade Trump to withdraw forces by telling him, “The American people are saying we can’t spend a trillion dollars a year on this. We just can’t. It’s going to bankrupt us.”
“And not just that, the deplorables don’t want their kids in the South China Sea at the 38th parallel or in Syria, in Afghanistan, in perpetuity,” Bannon would add, invoking Hillary Clinton’s infamous “basket of deplorables” reference to Trump supporters.
Trump mused about removing General John Nicholson, the U.S. commander in charge of troops in Afghanistan. “I don’t think he knows how to win,” the president said, impugning Nicholson, who was not present at the meeting.
Dunford tried to come to Nicholson’s defense, but the mild-mannered general struggled to convey his points to the irascible president.
“Mr. President, that’s just not . . .,” Dunford started. “We’ve been under different orders.”
Dunford sought to explain that he hadn’t been charged with annihilating the enemy in Afghanistan but was instead following a strategy started by the Obama administration to gradually reduce the military presence in the country in hopes of training locals to maintain a stable government so that eventually the United States could pull out. Trump shot back in more plain language.
“I want to win,” he said. “We don’t win any wars anymore . . . We spend $7 trillion, everybody else got the oil and we’re not winning anymore.”
Trump by now was in one of his rages. He was so angry that he wasn’t taking many breaths. All morning, he had been coarse and cavalier, but the next several things he bellowed went beyond that description. They stunned nearly everyone in the room, and some vowed that they would never repeat them. Indeed, they have not been reported until now.
“I wouldn’t go to war with you people,” Trump told the assembled brass.
Addressing the room, the commander in chief barked, “You’re a bunch of dopes and babies.”
For a president known for verbiage he euphemistically called “locker room talk,” this was the gravest insult he could have delivered to these people, in this sacred space. The flag officers in the room were shocked. Some staff began looking down at their papers, rearranging folders, almost wishing themselves out of the room. A few considered walking out. They tried not to reveal their revulsion on their faces, but questions raced through their minds. “How does the commander in chief say that?” one thought. “What would our worst adversaries think if they knew he said this?”
This was a president who had been labeled a “draft dodger” for avoiding service in the Vietnam War under questionable circumstances. Trump was a young man born of privilege and in seemingly perfect health: six feet two inches with a muscular build and a flawless medical record. He played several sports, including football. Then, in 1968 at age 22, he obtained a diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels that exempted him from military service just as the United States was drafting men his age to fulfill massive troop deployments to Vietnam.
Tillerson in particular was stunned by Trump’s diatribe and began visibly seething. For too many minutes, others in the room noticed, he had been staring straight, dumbfounded, at Mattis, who was speechless, his head bowed down toward the table. Tillerson thought to himself, “Gosh darn it, Jim, say something. Why aren’t you saying something?”
But, as he would later tell close aides, Tillerson realized in that moment that Mattis was genetically a Marine, unable to talk back to his commander in chief, no matter what nonsense came out of his mouth.
The more perplexing silence was from Pence, a leader who should have been able to stand up to Trump. Instead, one attendee thought, “He’s sitting there frozen like a statue. Why doesn’t he stop the president?” Another recalled the vice president was “a wax museum guy.” From the start of the meeting, Pence looked as if he wanted to escape and put an end to the president’s torrent. Surely, he disagreed with Trump’s characterization of military leaders as “dopes and babies,” considering his son, Michael, was a Marine first lieutenant then training for his naval aviator wings. But some surmised Pence feared getting crosswise with Trump. “A total deer in the headlights,” recalled a third attendee.
Others at the table noticed Trump’s stream of venom had taken an emotional toll. So many people in that room had gone to war and risked their lives for their country, and now they were being dressed down by a president who had not. They felt sick to their stomachs. Tillerson told others he thought he saw a woman in the room silently crying. He was furious and decided he couldn’t stand it another minute. His voice broke into Trump’s tirade, this one about trying to make money off U.S. troops.
“No, that’s just wrong,” the secretary of state said. “Mr. President, you’re totally wrong. None of that is true.”
Tillerson’s father and uncle had both been combat veterans, and he was deeply proud of their service.
“The men and women who put on a uniform don’t do it to become soldiers of fortune,” Tillerson said. “That’s not why they put on a uniform and go out and die . . . They do it to protect our freedom.”
There was silence in the Tank. Several military officers in the room were grateful to the secretary of state for defending them when no one else would. The meeting soon ended and Trump walked out, saying goodbye to a group of servicemen lining the corridor as he made his way to his motorcade waiting outside. Mattis, Tillerson, and Cohn were deflated. Standing in the hall with a small cluster of people he trusted, Tillerson finally let down his guard.
“He’s a f---ing moron,” the secretary of state said of the president.
The plan by Mattis, Tillerson, and Cohn to train the president to appreciate the internationalist view had clearly backfired.
“We were starting to get out on the wrong path, and we really needed to have a course correction and needed to educate, to teach, to help him understand the reason and basis for a lot of these things,” said one senior official involved in the planning. “We needed to change how he thinks about this, to course correct. Everybody was on board, 100 percent agreed with that sentiment. [But] they were dismayed and in shock when not only did it not have the intended effect, but he dug in his heels and pushed it even further on the spectrum, further solidifying his views.”
A few days later, Pence’s national security adviser, Andrea Thompson, a retired Army colonel who had served in Afghanistan and Iraq, reached out to thank Tillerson for speaking up on behalf of the military and the public servants who had been in the Tank. By September 2017, she would leave the White House and join Tillerson at Foggy Bottom as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs.
The Tank meeting had so thoroughly shocked the conscience of military leaders that they tried to keep it a secret. At the Aspen Security Forum two days later, longtime NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell asked Dunford how Trump had interacted during the Tank meeting. The Joint Chiefs chairman misleadingly described the meeting, skipping over the fireworks.
“He asked a lot of hard questions, and the one thing he does is question some fundamental assumptions that we make as military leaders — and he will come in and question those,” Dunford told Mitchell on July 22. “It’s a pretty energetic and an interactive dialogue.”
One victim of the Tank meeting was Trump’s relationship with Tillerson, which forever after was strained. The secretary of state came to see it as the beginning of the end. It would only worsen when news that Tillerson had called Trump a “moron” was first reported in October 2017 by NBC News.
President Trump walks from the Oval Office to board Marine One on Jan. 9. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
President Trump walks from the Oval Office to board Marine One on Jan. 9. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
*****
Trump once again gathered his generals and top diplomats in December 2017 for a meeting as part of the administration’s ongoing strategy talks about troop deployments in Afghanistan in the Situation Room, a secure meeting room on the ground floor of the West Wing. Trump didn’t like the Situation Room as much as the Pentagon’s Tank, because he didn’t think it had enough gravitas. It just wasn’t impressive.
But there Trump was, struggling to come up with a new Afghanistan policy and frustrated that so many U.S. forces were deployed in so many places around the world. The conversation began to tilt in the same direction as it had in the Tank back in July.
“All these countries need to start paying us for the troops we are sending to their countries. We need to be making a profit,” Trump said. “We could turn a profit on this.”
Dunford tried to explain to the president once again, gently, that troops deployed in these regions provided stability there, which helped make America safer. Another officer chimed in that charging other countries for U.S. soldiers would be against the law.
“But it just wasn’t working,” one former Trump aide recalled. “Nothing worked.”
Following the Tank meeting, Tillerson had told his aides that he would never silently tolerate such demeaning talk from Trump about making money off the deployments of U.S. soldiers. Tillerson’s father, at the age of 17, had committed to enlist in the Navy on his next birthday, wanting so much to serve his country in World War II. His great-uncle was a career officer in the Navy as well. Both men had been on his mind, Tillerson told aides, when Trump unleashed his tirade in the Tank and again when he repeated those points in the Situation Room in December.
“We need to get our money back,” Trump told his assembled advisers.
That was it. Tillerson stood up. But when he did so, he turned his back to the president and faced the flag officers and the rest of the aides in the room. He didn’t want a repeat of the scene in the Tank.
“I’ve never put on a uniform, but I know this,” Tillerson said. “Every person who has put on a uniform, the people in this room, they don’t do it to make a buck. They did it for their country, to protect us. I want everyone to be clear about how much we as a country value their service.”
Tillerson’s rebuke made Trump angry. He got a little red in the face. But the president decided not to engage Tillerson at that moment. He would wait to take him on another day.
Later that evening, after 8:00, Tillerson was working in his office at the State Department’s Foggy Bottom headquarters, preparing for the next day. The phone rang. It was Dunford. The Joint Chiefs chairman’s voice was unsteady with emotion. Dunford had much earlier joked with Tillerson that in past administrations the secretaries of state and Defense Department leaders wouldn’t be caught dead walking on the same side of the street, for their rivalry was that fierce. But now, as both men served Trump, they were brothers joined against what they saw as disrespect for service members. Dunford thanked Tillerson for standing up for them in the Situation Room.
“You took the body blows for us,” Dunford said. “Punch after punch. Thank you. I will never forget it.”
President Trump delivers remarks on environmental regulations in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Jan. 9. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
President Trump delivers remarks on environmental regulations in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Jan. 9. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Tillerson, Dunford, and Mattis would not take those body blows for much longer. They failed to rein in Trump’s impulses or to break through what they regarded as the president’s stubborn, even dangerous insistence that he knew best. Piece by piece, the guardrails that had hemmed in the chaos of Trump’s presidency crumpled.
In March 2018, Trump abruptly fired Tillerson while the secretary of state was halfway across the globe on a sensitive diplomatic mission to Africa to ease tensions caused by Trump’s demeaning insults about African countries. Trump gave Tillerson no rationale for his firing, and afterward acted as if they were buddies, inviting him to come by the Oval Office to take a picture and have the president sign it. Tillerson never went.
Mattis continued serving as the defense secretary, but the president’s sudden decision in December 2018 to withdraw troops from Syria and abandon America’s Kurdish allies there — one the president soon reversed, only to remake 10 months later — inspired him to resign. Mattis saw Trump’s desired withdrawal as an assault on a soldier’s code. “He began to feel like he was becoming complicit,” recalled one of the secretary’s confidants.
The media interpretation of Mattis’ resignation letter as a scathing rebuke of Trump’s worldview brought the president’s anger to a boiling point. Trump decided to remove Mattis two months ahead of the secretary’s chosen departure date. His treatment of Mattis upset the secretary’s staff. They decided to arrange the biggest clap out they could. The event was a tradition for all departing secretaries. They wanted a line of Pentagon personnel that stretched for a mile applauding Mattis as he left for the last time. It was going to be “yuge,” staffers joked, borrowing from Trump’s glossary.
But Mattis would not allow it.
“No, we are not doing that,” he told his aides. “You don’t understand the president. I work with him. You don’t know him like I do. He will take it out on Shanahan and Dunford.”
Dunford stayed on until September 2019, retiring at the conclusion of his four-year term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. One of Dunford’s first public acts after leaving office was to defend a military officer attacked by Trump, Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, a National Security Council official who testified in the House impeachment inquiry about his worries over Trump’s conduct with Ukraine. Trump dismissed Vindman as a “Never Trumper,” but Dunford stepped forward to praise the Purple Heart recipient as “a professional, competent, patriotic, and loyal officer. He has made an extraordinary contribution to the security of our nation.”
By then, however, Trump had become a president entirely unrestrained. He had replaced his raft of seasoned advisers with a cast of enablers who executed his orders and engaged his obsessions. They saw their mission as telling the president yes.
 

QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator


The president is unwell


1587930829678.png



The State
By Windsor Mann
April 24, 2020


The only thing worse than a pandemic is having Donald Trump as your president during a pandemic. Tens of thousands of Americans have died. Tens of millions have lost their jobs. President Trump, meanwhile, has indulged in self-pity, touted an unproven drug, bragged about the TV ratings of his press briefings, and expressed interest in the idea of people injecting disinfectants into their lungs — or, as we used to call it, committing suicide.

Every day, we have to worry about the president's mental health when he should be worrying about our physical health.

Every day, we have to worry about the president's mental health when he should be worrying about our physical health.

After saying he wanted "the governors to be running things," Trump said his authority was "total." "The president of the United States calls the shots," he explained. Three days later, he told governors, "You're going to call your own shots."

To the extent that Trump has a plan, it is to take credit for everything the governors do well and to blame them for everything he does poorly. On Wednesday, he faulted Georgia's Republican governor for reopening businesses too soon. This was five days after Trump called for several states to be "liberated" from the guidelines he himself had issued the day before. Governors can't do anything right. If they reopen businesses, Trump will blame them for deaths. If they keep businesses closed, he will blame them for a bad economy as well as deaths. By doing nothing, Trump hopes to be blamed for nothing.

Too late. He failed to prepare for the pandemic even though — and also because — there was a book outlining how to prepare for a pandemic. Trump doesn't read much, know much, or learn much. He feels much and talks much.

"I'm not a doctor," Trump said, "but I'm a person with common sense."

Apparently, it's common sense to call hydroxychloroquine "a very special thing" and to say that "a lot of people are saying" that patients should take the unproven drug. According to a White House official, these people include "so many people in New York — friends, Wall Street guys, real estate guys."

When not heeding the medical advice of real estate guys, Trump relies on his own epidemiological clairvoyance. He told Fox News' Sean Hannity he had a "hunch" about the coronavirus death rate. "Personally, I would say the number is way under 1 percent," he said, adding, "I don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators." As Joel Stein said, "Sometimes you just know in your gut how many ventilators each hospital will need in a pandemic."

Trump's "war against the invisible enemy" is a war against the scientific method. We cannot attack the coronavirus. We can only hide from it and defend ourselves with gloves, masks, and hand sanitizer. This takes time. The only way to win is to wait.

Trump doesn't want to wait. Just six days after he called himself "a wartime president," he said the war had "been going for a while" and that it should end by Easter (19 days later). Why Easter? Because, he said, "Easter is a very special day ... for me." Trump makes everything about him, even the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The president's subordinates are tasked with protecting his ego first and Americans' lives second. His trade advisor Peter Navarro said on Fox & Friends, "I bet on President Trump's intuition on this." He said "this" because hydroxychloroquine was too hard to pronounce. Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House's coronavirus task force, said that Trump is "so attentive to the scientific literature and the details and the data." This is true if Fox News chyrons count as scientific literature.

In the Trump administration, telling the truth is a fireable offense. Dr. Rick Bright, the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, was removed for questioning the president's recommendation of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the coronavirus. Now medical researchers have to worry about getting fired for not recommending ingesting bleach.

While visiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month, Trump boasted, "I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors said, 'How do you know so much about this?' Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president."

He should have. Our hospitals would be in much better shape if Trump were in one of them.





.
 

MASTERBAKER

༺ S❤️PER❤️ ᗰOD ༻
Super Moderator
Trump brags about having learned a lot from Nixon in off-the-rails Fox interview

 

QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
Trump, Defending His Mental Fitness, Says He’s a ‘Very Stable Genius’


Mary Trump's scathing book claims Trump paid someone to take his SATs


 
Top