Most surprising thing from Trump era.

[WhatTheBuck 28713]

15 minutes ago, Js1 said:

He didn’t need the NRA to do the Russian money laundering Bc he just accepted Russia’s help directly. 

Except the NRA donated $30 Million to his campaign and he ultimately capitulated to them and backed down from all his tough guy talk. Hopefully Biden’s DoJ will thoroughly investigate the conduit of Russian money through the NRA to Republican politicians.

Edit: Democratic politicians too if there are any. 

Edited January 21, 2021 by WhatTheBuck

[Biff Tannen 45499]

1 hour ago, Mole said:

Spending Sundays at the park feeding the ducks has been far more spiritually fulfilling and done more good for the world than some of the sociopathic Sunday sermons I've heard from people close to me.

Go to the mountaintop and there you will see God as He truly is in the world. - paraphrased John Muir

[Biff Tannen 45499]

36 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Speaking of, I bet there won't be any sports teams that refuse to go to the White House now.  This is dumb, but it's such a window into his soul.  He is white trash, through and through.

[Ghost of LL 15492]

2 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

He suggested that nuclear weapons would be an effective deterrent against hurricanes.

He canceled a trip to Denmark because they refused to sell Greenland to the U.S.

He colluded with Russian intelligence during the 2016 campaign, covered it up, successfully obstructed justice during the investigation, and installed an attorney general to misrepresent the findings of the investigation to the American people. And he didn’t even get impeached for it!

Maybe I should’ve listed that last one first. 

You know, buying Greenland wasn't an altogether awful idea.

 

 

I'm still going to say that the most surprising thing from the Trump era was when Parasite won the Oscar for Best Picture.

[Beau Vine 54003]

4 hours ago, Ghost of LL said:

I said in 2017 that the GOP had nine months to impeach and convict Trump.  If they did that, they could install Pence and do everything that they really wanted to do.  The evangelicals would've gone along with it. 

Yeah, I was telling people that Trump would get impeached by the end of his first year... and that it would be the Republicans leading it.

[WhatTheBuck 28713]

13 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Speaking of, I bet there won't be any sports teams that refuse to go to the White House now.  This is dumb, but it's such a window into his soul.  He is white trash, through and through.

He has a hotel a block down the street that he could’ve used to cater the event during his 5-week government shutdown. He’s cheap and shallow. He could amass a fortune of $1 Trillion and he’d still be low class. And he’d still order his steak well done.

[yoladu 4067]

Right out of the chute:

1. It was the lie in regards to the inauguration crowd. It was like : "They are gonna tell us the sky is green when we know it is blue? Is that how this is going to go?"

2. the sad realization that so many Americans will agree and say : "Yah, the sky IS green".

[Biff Tannen 45499]

3 minutes ago, yoladu said:

Right out of the chute:

1. It was the lie in regards to the inauguration crowd. It was like : "They are gonna tell us the sky is green when we know it is blue? Is that how this is going to go?"

2. the sad realization that so many Americans will agree and say : "Yah, the sky IS green".

It IS green

[WhatTheBuck 28713]

8 minutes ago, yoladu said:

Right out of the chute:

1. It was the lie in regards to the inauguration crowd. It was like : "They are gonna tell us the sky is green when we know it is blue? Is that how this is going to go?"

2. the sad realization that so many Americans will agree and say : "Yah, the sky IS green".

Don’t you just love the emperor’s new clothes?

[Bullneck 18987]

6 hours ago, Constant said:

I don’t know where it falls on the spectrum of surprises, but his argument here always stuck with me. Willing to shutdown the entire Federal government in order to get what he wanted. Pence sitting there like a buttplug on the nightstand not saying a single word. 
 

edit: His petulance is on full display. 

 

[BradInATX 9208]

Most surprising to me was how over four years the "religious" right actually convinced themselves that Trump was a godly and reverent person. I figured they'd understand that he's not, but he would pass conservative policy, and they'd find a way to bridge that mental gap.

Nope. A majority of them actually think he's a religious man. The bible-in-hand photo op was pure theater of the absurd. His attempts to appear religious were so cynical and half-assed. He didn't even try. It's like he knew that just holding up a Bible in a picture was all the mental cover Republicans needed.

Nothing Trump did surprised me at all. Nothing. But the mental gymnastics from his supporters? Mind blowing.

[pyrohornIII 4809]

Repeating what others have said, but it just amazed me how many people kissed his ring without question.  From his family and outwards.   

How he deflected time and again.   How he squirmed out of everything.  I still think there is kompromat on some, but overall it's not.

 

One thing that I felt really sick about was the abandoning of the Kurds.   I still see no reason for doing that except to appease Putin.   

[Superhero 8775]

Aljazeera had a pretty good article on 11 forgotten (?) moments.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/20/remembering-11-of-trumps-forgotten-moments

Read the article. So much stupid. But the one that really stands out (for my anyway) was him pushing Montenegro's prime minister away so he could be front and center in a photo. He's a piece of shit to everyone except Putin.

 

Spoiler

Remembering 11 of Trump’s forgotten ‘moments’

As the sun sets on US President Donald Trump’s presidency, the chilling events of January 6, when his supporters stormed the US Capitol, continue to hang over his departure. But there is no denying that Trump will be remembered for many other moments.

Some of them were historic, unprecedented and, in many cases, completely bizarre. Americans will remember his public suggestion that COVID-19 could possibly be knocked out by injecting disinfectant in the human body or the time he tweeted out the word “covfefe” (still no explanation of what he meant). But there were many other unusual and awkward moments.

KEEP READING

Analysis: The causes and chaos of Donald Trump Trump baby protest blimp enters Museum of London collection Trump-free Twitter: The debate over deplatforming First Lady Melania Trump releases farewell message

Here are 11 things you may have forgotten about:

#lastnightinSweden

In the opening months of his presidency, Trump seized on his popularity and held rallies to keep his base fired up. One of those events was in Melbourne, Florida in February 2017. The audience got the show they wanted complete with Air Force One pulling up to the rally. But like so often during his tenure, Trump’s words at home rattled a nation thousands of miles away.

During a tirade against illegal migrants, Trump hinted there may have been a terrorist attack in Sweden the previous night. “You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden,” Trump exclaimed. “Sweden, who would believe this? Sweden!”

 

 

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One tiny problem with his claim: there was no such attack. The remarks reportedly prompted a confused call from the Swedish embassy to the US State Department asking for clarification. Swedes, on the other hand, ran with it and the humorous hashtag #lastnightinSweden was born showing locals doing things like making moose stew or practising the trombone.

Perfect piece of chocolate cake

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping and First Lady Peng Liyuan attend a dinner hosted by President Donald Trump at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida, April 6, 2017 [Carlos Barria/Reuters]

It was his first bilateral summit as president and there was no better place to hold it than Trump’s luxury Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida in April 2017. The US president welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two smiled and waved to cameras to quell some of the tensions that had been building ever since Trump ran for office and accused Beijing of unfair trade practices. But during the summit, another country, Syria, was also dominating the news as pictures of a chemical attack by government forces against civilians in Khan Shaykhun angered people around the world.

 

As Trump and Xi dined, the president gave the order to destroy a Syrian airbase with Tomahawk missiles to send a message to President Bashar al-Assad. But when he recalled the moment to a Fox Business anchor, the commander-in-chief seemed focused on the wrong details.

“We had the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you’ve ever seen and President Xi was enjoying it,” he recounted intently. “So what happens is I said [to President Xi] we’ve just launched 59 missiles heading to Iraq and I wanted you to know this.”

That beautiful piece of cake must have been pretty good because the US President forgot he had bombed Syria, not Iraq.

The “shove”

 

President Donald Trump adjusts his jacket after pushing past Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic at the NATO Summit in Brussels, Belgium, May 25, 2017 [Kevin Coombs/Reuters]

Normally, a NATO meeting is a formulaic gathering of military allies who send out boring communiques and reaffirm their relationships and commitments. But when Donald Trump is present, nothing is normal.

 

In May 2017, Trump had everyone wondering how he would behave at his first NATO meeting with world leaders in Brussels. After all, he had trashed the organisation during his campaign, referring to it as “obsolete”. Predictably, Trump criticised them again during the meeting demanding members pay their fair share to the organisation set up in 1949 to counter the growing Soviet influence in Europe. But that speech, which upset many people in the foreign policy ranks, was not his true mark that day.

As world leaders gathered for the official photo, Trump was caught shoving aside Montenegro’s Prime Minister Dusko Markovic in what appeared to be an attempt to get to the front of the photo line. At the time, the Balkan country was seeking entry into NATO, a move that the Russian government opposed, so the snub took on a particularly dire tone among Montenegrins. The prime minister was unfazed, however, later telling reporters the shove seen around the world was overblown.

The paper towel launch

 

President Donald Trump throws rolls of paper towels into a crowd of residents affected by Hurricane Maria in San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 3, 2017 [Jonathan Ernst/Reuters]

A natural disaster is a devastating, horrific event that often tests the human spirit in unexpected ways. But it is also a good time for a president to get positive press by showing compassion and kindness in the aftermath. It is a ratings boost, if you will, in Donald J Trump terms. So when powerful, category-four Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in September 2017, it was a moment for the US president to earn some political points.

 

Hundreds had died, thousands were homeless and many more were without power. Almost two weeks later, Trump and First Lady Melania Trump made the trip to San Juan to survey the damage. Trump spoke to emergency management officials, victims and visited some of the devastation. But then he did something that may be the only thing people remember about that trip.

As he visited a church, he decided to help out by distributing supplies. As the cameras rolled, the president began tossing paper towels up in the air to victims as if they were raffle winners at the Iowa state fair. San Juan Mayor Carmen Cruz would later slam the president’s actions as, “terrible and abominable” saying it showed he cared little for the people who lived there.

 

Trump salutes an enemy’s general

Trump’s love affair with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could go down as one of his lasting foreign policy legacies. He was the first sitting US president to meet with a North Korean leader, a noteworthy feat considering the two countries have no formal diplomatic relations. The two men had initially threatened each other, with the US president referring to Kim as “Rocket Man”, in reference to his penchant for missile launches. The North Koreans returned the barb by calling Trump a “dotard”. Eventually, though, the two leaders held summits in Singapore and Vietnam to hash out their differences.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, June 30, 2019 [File: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]

In June 2018, during their first meeting in Singapore, however, Trump made a different kind of history. North Korean state media caught the president taking the unprecedented step of saluting one of Kim’s generals. It is unusual for an American president to salute any foreign military leader but saluting the general of a sworn enemy of the US is, well, strange. Prominent Democrats back home noted, at the time, the move would be used by Pyongyang in propaganda videos, which it was.

 

Trump’s calls a porn star “Horseface”

 

Adult film star Stormy Daniels sued Trump for defamation and drew Trump’s ire [File: Mike Blake/Reuters]

A US president is the most sought after world leader. Powerful CEOs, celebrities, prime ministers, royals and everyone else scramble for his attention. So, it would seem that someone in that position would not have the time, or the interest, in trolling a porn star. But that is what happened in October 2018 when Trump put aside congressional negotiations and policy papers to lash out at Stormy Daniels (aka Stephanie Clifford) via Twitter over a defamation lawsuit.

 

Months earlier, a magazine article surfaced in which Daniels said she slept with him in 2006 after Melania Trump gave birth to their son, Barron. There were also allegations that he paid her $130,000 to keep quiet about the affair (Trump initially denied, but later confirmed the payment). That interview fuelled a salacious and embarrassing public battle culminating in the Texas defamation suit filed by Daniels against the American leader.

When a judge dismissed it, Trump pounced. “Great, now I can go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer in the Great State of Texas,” he celebrated on Twitter. Daniels was undeterred, retaliating via tweet, in an apparent reference to a certain, um, anatomical deficiency, “Game on, Tiny.”

The Santa call

 

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump both speak on the phone while sharing updates to track Santa’s movements from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Santa Tracker on December 24, 2018 [Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo]

Collman Lloyd got the phone call of a lifetime on December 24, 2018. The president of the United States wanted to wish the seven-year-old girl a Merry Christmas. But what would normally be a dream call on the biggest night of the year for any Christmas-obsessed kid eventually took a peculiar turn.

 

After some chit-chat next to the White House fireplace, TV cameras caught the president asking the South Carolinian a question. “Are you still a believer in Santa?” he inquired. “Because at seven, it’s marginal, right?” The girl’s response, inaudible to reporters, made Trump chuckle, but horrified Santa-loving parents around the country. One would think the man who gets classified briefings every day could, at least, keep the Santa info on the down-low.

The night of fast food

 

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Guests attending a reception for the Clemson Tigers grab fast food sandwiches in the State Dining Room of the White House, January 14, 2019 [Susan Walsh/AP Photo]

Imagine you get an invite to the White House to dine with the US president. It is an honour reserved for very few people. You dress up, you are on your best behaviour, hoping to sit in the state dining room where celebrities, world leaders and giants of history have shared the same honour. You arrive and are awestruck by the most famous house on the planet. Eventually, the president enters and so does the main course … Filet-O-Fish and Big Macs?

 

That is what happened when the Clemson Tigers, winners of the college football championship, came to the White House in January 2019.

“We have pizzas, we have 300 hamburgers, many, many french fries, all of our favourite foods,” Trump boasted to reporters as an array of culinary delights from restaurant chains KFC, McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King sat in front of him on silver platters. Trump told them he had no choice and the fast food, getting colder and colder with every word he spoke, was the result of a partial government shutdown that forced the closure of the White House kitchen.

Press Secretary Sarah Sanders would later say the president paid for the meal himself which is perhaps why Taco Bell’s pricey Double Steak Melt Deluxe box was not on the menu.

Greenland’s for sale?

It sounds like the beginning of a joke: the US president wants to buy Greenland. Whispers about the strange request started trickling out in August, 2019. However, after a Wall Street Journal story cited sources saying it was true, once again, Trump found himself in the middle of an awkward quarrel with a close NATO ally. This time, it was Denmark, the kingdom that oversees the northern territory.

 

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“Essentially, it’s a large real estate deal,” the businessman-president confirmed to reporters after much speculation. He also suggested it would give the US a strategic advantage in the Arctic. Still, the Danish government was not impressed.

“Greenland is not for sale,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen shot back in an interview. “I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously.” Trump would later call her response “nasty” but not before he cancelled a planned presidential trip to the Scandinavian country. And with that, the great Danish-American conflict of 2019 was finally over.

‘Sharpiegate’

 

President Donald Trump references a map held by acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan while talking to reporters about Hurricane Dorian in the Oval Office at the White House, September 4, 2019 [File: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]

Trump’s spats with world leaders and Democrats were hallmarks of his four years in office. But his fondness for petty disputes often crept into the downright weird and in September 2019, that is exactly what happened.

 

As Hurricane Dorian approached the US, Trump tweeted that “South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama” would be affected. That was apparently news to people in Alabama who began preparing for the worst. But it also precipitated a stunned National Hurricane Center (NHC) to tweet that Alabama, “will NOT see any impacts from Dorian” which ultimately turned out to be true.

Unwilling to concede and frustrated by the rebuttal, Trump gathered reporters into the Oval Office three days later to explain why he made the prediction. As he spoke, he held up a NHC map from August that showed the projected path of the hurricane which ended in Florida. Someone, however, had apparently taken a Sharpie and doctored the map by extending the hurricane’s path into, you guessed it, Alabama. As puzzled reporters looked on, Trump motioned to, without a hint of humour, the map with the Sharpie line.

When later asked about who added it, Trump simply said, “I don’t know.” Historians will remember the moment as “SharpieGate”.

 

 

[Superhero 8775]

3 minutes ago, pyrohornIII said:

Repeating what others have said, but it just amazed me how many people kissed his ring without question.  From his family and outwards.   

How he deflected time and again.   How he squirmed out of everything.  I still think there is kompromat on some, but overall it's not.

 

One thing that I felt really sick about was the abandoning of the Kurds.   I still see no reason for doing that except to appease Putin.   

Now that Putin doesn't need Trump, will he have the orange turd defenestrated?

[pyrohornIII 4809]

1 minute ago, Superhero said:

Now that Putin doesn't need Trump, will he have the orange turd defenestrated?

I have a funny feeling there's never going to be a Trump Tower in Moscow. 

[Biff Tannen 45499]

17 minutes ago, Superhero said:

Aljazeera had a pretty good article on 11 forgotten (?) moments.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/20/remembering-11-of-trumps-forgotten-moments

Read the article. So much stupid. But the one that really stands out (for my anyway) was him pushing Montenegro's prime minister away so he could be front and center in a photo. He's a piece of shit to everyone except Putin.

 

  Hide contents

Remembering 11 of Trump’s forgotten ‘moments’

As the sun sets on US President Donald Trump’s presidency, the chilling events of January 6, when his supporters stormed the US Capitol, continue to hang over his departure. But there is no denying that Trump will be remembered for many other moments.

Some of them were historic, unprecedented and, in many cases, completely bizarre. Americans will remember his public suggestion that COVID-19 could possibly be knocked out by injecting disinfectant in the human body or the time he tweeted out the word “covfefe” (still no explanation of what he meant). But there were many other unusual and awkward moments.

KEEP READING

Analysis: The causes and chaos of Donald Trump Trump baby protest blimp enters Museum of London collection Trump-free Twitter: The debate over deplatforming First Lady Melania Trump releases farewell message

Here are 11 things you may have forgotten about:

#lastnightinSweden

In the opening months of his presidency, Trump seized on his popularity and held rallies to keep his base fired up. One of those events was in Melbourne, Florida in February 2017. The audience got the show they wanted complete with Air Force One pulling up to the rally. But like so often during his tenure, Trump’s words at home rattled a nation thousands of miles away.

During a tirade against illegal migrants, Trump hinted there may have been a terrorist attack in Sweden the previous night. “You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden,” Trump exclaimed. “Sweden, who would believe this? Sweden!”

 

 

Do Smokers Have Higher Risks of COVID-19 Complications?

Ad by CA Dept of Public Health 

 

See More

 

 

One tiny problem with his claim: there was no such attack. The remarks reportedly prompted a confused call from the Swedish embassy to the US State Department asking for clarification. Swedes, on the other hand, ran with it and the humorous hashtag #lastnightinSweden was born showing locals doing things like making moose stew or practising the trombone.

Perfect piece of chocolate cake

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping and First Lady Peng Liyuan attend a dinner hosted by President Donald Trump at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida, April 6, 2017 [Carlos Barria/Reuters]

It was his first bilateral summit as president and there was no better place to hold it than Trump’s luxury Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida in April 2017. The US president welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two smiled and waved to cameras to quell some of the tensions that had been building ever since Trump ran for office and accused Beijing of unfair trade practices. But during the summit, another country, Syria, was also dominating the news as pictures of a chemical attack by government forces against civilians in Khan Shaykhun angered people around the world.

 

As Trump and Xi dined, the president gave the order to destroy a Syrian airbase with Tomahawk missiles to send a message to President Bashar al-Assad. But when he recalled the moment to a Fox Business anchor, the commander-in-chief seemed focused on the wrong details.

“We had the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you’ve ever seen and President Xi was enjoying it,” he recounted intently. “So what happens is I said [to President Xi] we’ve just launched 59 missiles heading to Iraq and I wanted you to know this.”

That beautiful piece of cake must have been pretty good because the US President forgot he had bombed Syria, not Iraq.

The “shove”

 

President Donald Trump adjusts his jacket after pushing past Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic at the NATO Summit in Brussels, Belgium, May 25, 2017 [Kevin Coombs/Reuters]

Normally, a NATO meeting is a formulaic gathering of military allies who send out boring communiques and reaffirm their relationships and commitments. But when Donald Trump is present, nothing is normal.

 

In May 2017, Trump had everyone wondering how he would behave at his first NATO meeting with world leaders in Brussels. After all, he had trashed the organisation during his campaign, referring to it as “obsolete”. Predictably, Trump criticised them again during the meeting demanding members pay their fair share to the organisation set up in 1949 to counter the growing Soviet influence in Europe. But that speech, which upset many people in the foreign policy ranks, was not his true mark that day.

As world leaders gathered for the official photo, Trump was caught shoving aside Montenegro’s Prime Minister Dusko Markovic in what appeared to be an attempt to get to the front of the photo line. At the time, the Balkan country was seeking entry into NATO, a move that the Russian government opposed, so the snub took on a particularly dire tone among Montenegrins. The prime minister was unfazed, however, later telling reporters the shove seen around the world was overblown.

The paper towel launch

 

President Donald Trump throws rolls of paper towels into a crowd of residents affected by Hurricane Maria in San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 3, 2017 [Jonathan Ernst/Reuters]

A natural disaster is a devastating, horrific event that often tests the human spirit in unexpected ways. But it is also a good time for a president to get positive press by showing compassion and kindness in the aftermath. It is a ratings boost, if you will, in Donald J Trump terms. So when powerful, category-four Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in September 2017, it was a moment for the US president to earn some political points.

 

Hundreds had died, thousands were homeless and many more were without power. Almost two weeks later, Trump and First Lady Melania Trump made the trip to San Juan to survey the damage. Trump spoke to emergency management officials, victims and visited some of the devastation. But then he did something that may be the only thing people remember about that trip.

As he visited a church, he decided to help out by distributing supplies. As the cameras rolled, the president began tossing paper towels up in the air to victims as if they were raffle winners at the Iowa state fair. San Juan Mayor Carmen Cruz would later slam the president’s actions as, “terrible and abominable” saying it showed he cared little for the people who lived there.

 

Trump salutes an enemy’s general

Trump’s love affair with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could go down as one of his lasting foreign policy legacies. He was the first sitting US president to meet with a North Korean leader, a noteworthy feat considering the two countries have no formal diplomatic relations. The two men had initially threatened each other, with the US president referring to Kim as “Rocket Man”, in reference to his penchant for missile launches. The North Koreans returned the barb by calling Trump a “dotard”. Eventually, though, the two leaders held summits in Singapore and Vietnam to hash out their differences.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, June 30, 2019 [File: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]

In June 2018, during their first meeting in Singapore, however, Trump made a different kind of history. North Korean state media caught the president taking the unprecedented step of saluting one of Kim’s generals. It is unusual for an American president to salute any foreign military leader but saluting the general of a sworn enemy of the US is, well, strange. Prominent Democrats back home noted, at the time, the move would be used by Pyongyang in propaganda videos, which it was.

 

Trump’s calls a porn star “Horseface”

 

Adult film star Stormy Daniels sued Trump for defamation and drew Trump’s ire [File: Mike Blake/Reuters]

A US president is the most sought after world leader. Powerful CEOs, celebrities, prime ministers, royals and everyone else scramble for his attention. So, it would seem that someone in that position would not have the time, or the interest, in trolling a porn star. But that is what happened in October 2018 when Trump put aside congressional negotiations and policy papers to lash out at Stormy Daniels (aka Stephanie Clifford) via Twitter over a defamation lawsuit.

 

Months earlier, a magazine article surfaced in which Daniels said she slept with him in 2006 after Melania Trump gave birth to their son, Barron. There were also allegations that he paid her $130,000 to keep quiet about the affair (Trump initially denied, but later confirmed the payment). That interview fuelled a salacious and embarrassing public battle culminating in the Texas defamation suit filed by Daniels against the American leader.

When a judge dismissed it, Trump pounced. “Great, now I can go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer in the Great State of Texas,” he celebrated on Twitter. Daniels was undeterred, retaliating via tweet, in an apparent reference to a certain, um, anatomical deficiency, “Game on, Tiny.”

The Santa call

 

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump both speak on the phone while sharing updates to track Santa’s movements from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Santa Tracker on December 24, 2018 [Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo]

Collman Lloyd got the phone call of a lifetime on December 24, 2018. The president of the United States wanted to wish the seven-year-old girl a Merry Christmas. But what would normally be a dream call on the biggest night of the year for any Christmas-obsessed kid eventually took a peculiar turn.

 

After some chit-chat next to the White House fireplace, TV cameras caught the president asking the South Carolinian a question. “Are you still a believer in Santa?” he inquired. “Because at seven, it’s marginal, right?” The girl’s response, inaudible to reporters, made Trump chuckle, but horrified Santa-loving parents around the country. One would think the man who gets classified briefings every day could, at least, keep the Santa info on the down-low.

The night of fast food

 

How to Improve Your Retirement Outcomes

Ad by Vanguard 

 

See More

 

 

 

Guests attending a reception for the Clemson Tigers grab fast food sandwiches in the State Dining Room of the White House, January 14, 2019 [Susan Walsh/AP Photo]

Imagine you get an invite to the White House to dine with the US president. It is an honour reserved for very few people. You dress up, you are on your best behaviour, hoping to sit in the state dining room where celebrities, world leaders and giants of history have shared the same honour. You arrive and are awestruck by the most famous house on the planet. Eventually, the president enters and so does the main course … Filet-O-Fish and Big Macs?

 

That is what happened when the Clemson Tigers, winners of the college football championship, came to the White House in January 2019.

“We have pizzas, we have 300 hamburgers, many, many french fries, all of our favourite foods,” Trump boasted to reporters as an array of culinary delights from restaurant chains KFC, McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King sat in front of him on silver platters. Trump told them he had no choice and the fast food, getting colder and colder with every word he spoke, was the result of a partial government shutdown that forced the closure of the White House kitchen.

Press Secretary Sarah Sanders would later say the president paid for the meal himself which is perhaps why Taco Bell’s pricey Double Steak Melt Deluxe box was not on the menu.

Greenland’s for sale?

It sounds like the beginning of a joke: the US president wants to buy Greenland. Whispers about the strange request started trickling out in August, 2019. However, after a Wall Street Journal story cited sources saying it was true, once again, Trump found himself in the middle of an awkward quarrel with a close NATO ally. This time, it was Denmark, the kingdom that oversees the northern territory.

 

Why Vanguard Stable Value Funds are a Smart Investment

Ad by Vanguard 

 

See More

 

 

“Essentially, it’s a large real estate deal,” the businessman-president confirmed to reporters after much speculation. He also suggested it would give the US a strategic advantage in the Arctic. Still, the Danish government was not impressed.

“Greenland is not for sale,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen shot back in an interview. “I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously.” Trump would later call her response “nasty” but not before he cancelled a planned presidential trip to the Scandinavian country. And with that, the great Danish-American conflict of 2019 was finally over.

‘Sharpiegate’

 

President Donald Trump references a map held by acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan while talking to reporters about Hurricane Dorian in the Oval Office at the White House, September 4, 2019 [File: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]

Trump’s spats with world leaders and Democrats were hallmarks of his four years in office. But his fondness for petty disputes often crept into the downright weird and in September 2019, that is exactly what happened.

 

As Hurricane Dorian approached the US, Trump tweeted that “South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama” would be affected. That was apparently news to people in Alabama who began preparing for the worst. But it also precipitated a stunned National Hurricane Center (NHC) to tweet that Alabama, “will NOT see any impacts from Dorian” which ultimately turned out to be true.

Unwilling to concede and frustrated by the rebuttal, Trump gathered reporters into the Oval Office three days later to explain why he made the prediction. As he spoke, he held up a NHC map from August that showed the projected path of the hurricane which ended in Florida. Someone, however, had apparently taken a Sharpie and doctored the map by extending the hurricane’s path into, you guessed it, Alabama. As puzzled reporters looked on, Trump motioned to, without a hint of humour, the map with the Sharpie line.

When later asked about who added it, Trump simply said, “I don’t know.” Historians will remember the moment as “SharpieGate”.

 

 

Yeah I remember all of those, but the paper towel toss is one of the worst things he ever did.  Fuck him straight to hell.

[pantone159 712]

The most surprising to me, was that 74+ million people just voted to re-elect him. I really cannot wrap my brain around that.

I did not realize the depth of the narcissism. There was obviously a lot, but I did not really expect it would be 100.000000% total. I hoped at least, that somewhere along the way, he would let somebody else do something sensible, and  just take all the credit. But it had to be absolutely, totally, entirely about him, so nope.

Not much else was really surprising. The Capitol riot went further than I expected, but everybody knew something would happen.

Unfortunately, we are not done with DJT. If the Senate does not vote to bar him from office, and if he decides to run/grift again, he will still win the R nomination easily. I will rest much easier now that he no longer has control of the government, but like a shambolic zombie, I expect him to try and come back.

[Hugo Stiglitz 23356]

1 hour ago, pyrohornIII said:

I have a funny feeling there's never going to be a Trump Tower in Moscow. 

But there will be a Trump fountain! 

[Biff Tannen 45499]

34 minutes ago, pantone159 said:

The most surprising to me, was that 74+ million people just voted to re-elect him. I really cannot wrap my brain around that.

I think this is actually me too. Biden really should have won 538-0. I had no idea there were so many batshit crazy and/or completely just horrid people in this country. It’s really sad. 

[Underdog 28457]

I'd prefer a Trump tombstone in Moscow. 

[bluto 4894]

There’s quite a few options to choose from, but I have a feeling the best is yet to come (lulz) as bodies are exhumed by the new admin.

[J.R. 150]

Hopefully Biden saves the best surprise for last and imprisons him in a glass cell in the wall of the Lincoln Memorial on display 24x7

[Mole 4320]

Remember that time it was alleged that he said all of those terrible things about military service and the denial was to tell obvious and verifiable lies? At least he hadn’t tried to overthrow the government yet.

[Satchel 6908]

4 hours ago, gmr548 said:

I was most surprised by how unsurprising everything was.

The scale and scope of his lying about things large and small was eye opening as was his creative cruelty. It would never occur to normal people to plan the firing of an employee in such a manner as to invalidate his pension. It’s evil.

Upon leaning how much Sean Spicer wanted to meet the Pope, Trump left him off the list and took other non Catholics instead. He seems to revel in hurting people.

[WhatTheBuck 28713]

2 hours ago, Superhero said:

Read the article. So much stupid. But the one that really stands out (for my anyway) was him pushing Montenegro's prime minister away so he could be front and center in a photo. He's a piece of shit to everyone except Putin.

Read this one:

Why President Trump’s Comments About Montenegro Were a Win for Vladimir Putin

[Saint Tacky 1610]

I believe the angriest I may have been was when he pulled support for the Kurds and allies that had just defeated ISIS in Syria, leaving them in no-man's land against the Turks.

To me his biggest disgrace was the surrender of Afghanistan. In his haste to be able to say he fulfilled a campaign promise he completely surrendered to the Taliban.

[TwiceHorn 31283]

3 hours ago, BradInATX said:

Most surprising to me was how over four years the "religious" right actually convinced themselves that Trump was a godly and reverent person. I figured they'd understand that he's not, but he would pass conservative policy, and they'd find a way to bridge that mental gap.

Nope. A majority of them actually think he's a religious man. The bible-in-hand photo op was pure theater of the absurd. His attempts to appear religious were so cynical and half-assed. He didn't even try. It's like he knew that just holding up a Bible in a picture was all the mental cover Republicans needed.

Nothing Trump did surprised me at all. Nothing. But the mental gymnastics from his supporters? Mind blowing.


 

And he didn't do a gotdam thing for the religious right except spew a bunch of bullshit.  And judges.  But any GOP President would have done that.

[Brisketexan 104628]

And he didn't do a gotdam thing for the religious right except spew a bunch of bullshit.  And judges.  But any GOP President would have done that.

Yep. The evangelicals sold out their country for 30 pieces of silver....and they did it by extending credit....to a known deadbeat, who still owes em those 30 pieces.....I’m sure they’re coming any day now.

[WhatTheBuck 28713]

1 minute ago, TwiceHorn said:

And he didn't do a gotdam thing for the religious right except spew a bunch of bullshit.  And judges.  But any GOP President would have done that.

What did he do for the Christian Right? He enacted the Muslim ban. He banned transgender service members from the military. He moved the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and basically put the kibosh on any hope for a two state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. He was a total stooge for right-wing Jewish interests which comports with the interests of right-wing Christians who crave the end of times (when all those Christ-killing Jews will burn in Hell).

[Celery Man 20886]

I never followed politics particularly closely. I tuned in enough to vote for President ever four years, that was mostly it. I voted for Hillary even though I didn’t like her because I’m not stupid. I was shocked he won, assumed that he would either chill out or otherwise the adults/guardrails/whatever would keep things from being the type of bad that bothered me. And yes, realizing the privilege of being able to not really care. Charlottesville happened, I assumed that the “both sides” thing was just a gaffe. I don’t know when he said the shit about Mexican rapists, I assumed similar or didn’t think about it too much.

 When we, the United States of America, began by policy stealing infants and children from their parents and putting them in cages as a deterrent against immigration I had a few minutes of thinking there must be something else to the story. When I found that there was not, I became furious and have been since. I will vote against any Trump republican (that is currently every single one) every time I am legally able to, to the best of my ability.

[WhatTheBuck 28713]

[mchookem 16224]

it's been said...but the re-emergence in 'polite society' of the kind of racism we saw in bygone eras, that i, a white woman married to a black man, assumed no longer actually existed beyond the ignorant backwoods of places like Vidor, TX and Shithole, MS...the 'rebirth' if you will of an overt, out-in-the-open, violent racism...THAT was a shocker for me.

 

[F250 28691]

10 hours ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

That 75 million people watched the last 4 years unfold and decided they wanted more.

That’s so incredibly depressing.

[deac_tracy 513]

Anyone remember La David Johnson aka the marine who died in combat in Niger and when Trump called his family for sympathy he couldn't even remember the soldier's name? Then when Congressman Frederica Wilson revealed the latter detail to the press, conservatives were more upset with Wilson revealing it then Trump's own actions even after Johnson's family confirmed Wilson's story. This happened very early in his presidency and if Obama did that we would never hear the end of it for good reason. I remember swam, clearlakehorn and a bunch of other shitty shaggybevo posters being far more upset over Frederica Wilson's actions then Trump's. Heck Trump got his chief of staff John F. Kelly to straight up lie about Frederica Wilson's story, it still didn't matter to conservatives. That shocked me and made me realize how much of a cult they really are.

[F250 28691]

4 hours ago, Superhero said:

Aljazeera had a pretty good article on 11 forgotten (?) moments.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/20/remembering-11-of-trumps-forgotten-moments

Read the article. So much stupid. But the one that really stands out (for my anyway) was him pushing Montenegro's prime minister away so he could be front and center in a photo. He's a piece of shit to everyone except Putin.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Remembering 11 of Trump’s forgotten ‘moments’

As the sun sets on US President Donald Trump’s presidency, the chilling events of January 6, when his supporters stormed the US Capitol, continue to hang over his departure. But there is no denying that Trump will be remembered for many other moments.

Some of them were historic, unprecedented and, in many cases, completely bizarre. Americans will remember his public suggestion that COVID-19 could possibly be knocked out by injecting disinfectant in the human body or the time he tweeted out the word “covfefe” (still no explanation of what he meant). But there were many other unusual and awkward moments.

KEEP READING

Analysis: The causes and chaos of Donald Trump Trump baby protest blimp enters Museum of London collection Trump-free Twitter: The debate over deplatforming First Lady Melania Trump releases farewell message

Here are 11 things you may have forgotten about:

#lastnightinSweden

In the opening months of his presidency, Trump seized on his popularity and held rallies to keep his base fired up. One of those events was in Melbourne, Florida in February 2017. The audience got the show they wanted complete with Air Force One pulling up to the rally. But like so often during his tenure, Trump’s words at home rattled a nation thousands of miles away.

During a tirade against illegal migrants, Trump hinted there may have been a terrorist attack in Sweden the previous night. “You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden,” Trump exclaimed. “Sweden, who would believe this? Sweden!”

 

 

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One tiny problem with his claim: there was no such attack. The remarks reportedly prompted a confused call from the Swedish embassy to the US State Department asking for clarification. Swedes, on the other hand, ran with it and the humorous hashtag #lastnightinSweden was born showing locals doing things like making moose stew or practising the trombone.

Perfect piece of chocolate cake

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping and First Lady Peng Liyuan attend a dinner hosted by President Donald Trump at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida, April 6, 2017 [Carlos Barria/Reuters]

It was his first bilateral summit as president and there was no better place to hold it than Trump’s luxury Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida in April 2017. The US president welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two smiled and waved to cameras to quell some of the tensions that had been building ever since Trump ran for office and accused Beijing of unfair trade practices. But during the summit, another country, Syria, was also dominating the news as pictures of a chemical attack by government forces against civilians in Khan Shaykhun angered people around the world.

 

As Trump and Xi dined, the president gave the order to destroy a Syrian airbase with Tomahawk missiles to send a message to President Bashar al-Assad. But when he recalled the moment to a Fox Business anchor, the commander-in-chief seemed focused on the wrong details.

“We had the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you’ve ever seen and President Xi was enjoying it,” he recounted intently. “So what happens is I said [to President Xi] we’ve just launched 59 missiles heading to Iraq and I wanted you to know this.”

That beautiful piece of cake must have been pretty good because the US President forgot he had bombed Syria, not Iraq.

The “shove”

 

President Donald Trump adjusts his jacket after pushing past Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic at the NATO Summit in Brussels, Belgium, May 25, 2017 [Kevin Coombs/Reuters]

Normally, a NATO meeting is a formulaic gathering of military allies who send out boring communiques and reaffirm their relationships and commitments. But when Donald Trump is present, nothing is normal.

 

In May 2017, Trump had everyone wondering how he would behave at his first NATO meeting with world leaders in Brussels. After all, he had trashed the organisation during his campaign, referring to it as “obsolete”. Predictably, Trump criticised them again during the meeting demanding members pay their fair share to the organisation set up in 1949 to counter the growing Soviet influence in Europe. But that speech, which upset many people in the foreign policy ranks, was not his true mark that day.

As world leaders gathered for the official photo, Trump was caught shoving aside Montenegro’s Prime Minister Dusko Markovic in what appeared to be an attempt to get to the front of the photo line. At the time, the Balkan country was seeking entry into NATO, a move that the Russian government opposed, so the snub took on a particularly dire tone among Montenegrins. The prime minister was unfazed, however, later telling reporters the shove seen around the world was overblown.

The paper towel launch

 

President Donald Trump throws rolls of paper towels into a crowd of residents affected by Hurricane Maria in San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 3, 2017 [Jonathan Ernst/Reuters]

A natural disaster is a devastating, horrific event that often tests the human spirit in unexpected ways. But it is also a good time for a president to get positive press by showing compassion and kindness in the aftermath. It is a ratings boost, if you will, in Donald J Trump terms. So when powerful, category-four Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in September 2017, it was a moment for the US president to earn some political points.

 

Hundreds had died, thousands were homeless and many more were without power. Almost two weeks later, Trump and First Lady Melania Trump made the trip to San Juan to survey the damage. Trump spoke to emergency management officials, victims and visited some of the devastation. But then he did something that may be the only thing people remember about that trip.

As he visited a church, he decided to help out by distributing supplies. As the cameras rolled, the president began tossing paper towels up in the air to victims as if they were raffle winners at the Iowa state fair. San Juan Mayor Carmen Cruz would later slam the president’s actions as, “terrible and abominable” saying it showed he cared little for the people who lived there.

 

Trump salutes an enemy’s general

Trump’s love affair with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could go down as one of his lasting foreign policy legacies. He was the first sitting US president to meet with a North Korean leader, a noteworthy feat considering the two countries have no formal diplomatic relations. The two men had initially threatened each other, with the US president referring to Kim as “Rocket Man”, in reference to his penchant for missile launches. The North Koreans returned the barb by calling Trump a “dotard”. Eventually, though, the two leaders held summits in Singapore and Vietnam to hash out their differences.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, June 30, 2019 [File: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]

In June 2018, during their first meeting in Singapore, however, Trump made a different kind of history. North Korean state media caught the president taking the unprecedented step of saluting one of Kim’s generals. It is unusual for an American president to salute any foreign military leader but saluting the general of a sworn enemy of the US is, well, strange. Prominent Democrats back home noted, at the time, the move would be used by Pyongyang in propaganda videos, which it was.

 

Trump’s calls a porn star “Horseface”

 

Adult film star Stormy Daniels sued Trump for defamation and drew Trump’s ire [File: Mike Blake/Reuters]

A US president is the most sought after world leader. Powerful CEOs, celebrities, prime ministers, royals and everyone else scramble for his attention. So, it would seem that someone in that position would not have the time, or the interest, in trolling a porn star. But that is what happened in October 2018 when Trump put aside congressional negotiations and policy papers to lash out at Stormy Daniels (aka Stephanie Clifford) via Twitter over a defamation lawsuit.

 

Months earlier, a magazine article surfaced in which Daniels said she slept with him in 2006 after Melania Trump gave birth to their son, Barron. There were also allegations that he paid her $130,000 to keep quiet about the affair (Trump initially denied, but later confirmed the payment). That interview fuelled a salacious and embarrassing public battle culminating in the Texas defamation suit filed by Daniels against the American leader.

When a judge dismissed it, Trump pounced. “Great, now I can go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer in the Great State of Texas,” he celebrated on Twitter. Daniels was undeterred, retaliating via tweet, in an apparent reference to a certain, um, anatomical deficiency, “Game on, Tiny.”

The Santa call

 

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump both speak on the phone while sharing updates to track Santa’s movements from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Santa Tracker on December 24, 2018 [Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo]

Collman Lloyd got the phone call of a lifetime on December 24, 2018. The president of the United States wanted to wish the seven-year-old girl a Merry Christmas. But what would normally be a dream call on the biggest night of the year for any Christmas-obsessed kid eventually took a peculiar turn.

 

After some chit-chat next to the White House fireplace, TV cameras caught the president asking the South Carolinian a question. “Are you still a believer in Santa?” he inquired. “Because at seven, it’s marginal, right?” The girl’s response, inaudible to reporters, made Trump chuckle, but horrified Santa-loving parents around the country. One would think the man who gets classified briefings every day could, at least, keep the Santa info on the down-low.

The night of fast food

 

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Guests attending a reception for the Clemson Tigers grab fast food sandwiches in the State Dining Room of the White House, January 14, 2019 [Susan Walsh/AP Photo]

Imagine you get an invite to the White House to dine with the US president. It is an honour reserved for very few people. You dress up, you are on your best behaviour, hoping to sit in the state dining room where celebrities, world leaders and giants of history have shared the same honour. You arrive and are awestruck by the most famous house on the planet. Eventually, the president enters and so does the main course … Filet-O-Fish and Big Macs?

 

That is what happened when the Clemson Tigers, winners of the college football championship, came to the White House in January 2019.

“We have pizzas, we have 300 hamburgers, many, many french fries, all of our favourite foods,” Trump boasted to reporters as an array of culinary delights from restaurant chains KFC, McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King sat in front of him on silver platters. Trump told them he had no choice and the fast food, getting colder and colder with every word he spoke, was the result of a partial government shutdown that forced the closure of the White House kitchen.

Press Secretary Sarah Sanders would later say the president paid for the meal himself which is perhaps why Taco Bell’s pricey Double Steak Melt Deluxe box was not on the menu.

Greenland’s for sale?

It sounds like the beginning of a joke: the US president wants to buy Greenland. Whispers about the strange request started trickling out in August, 2019. However, after a Wall Street Journal story cited sources saying it was true, once again, Trump found himself in the middle of an awkward quarrel with a close NATO ally. This time, it was Denmark, the kingdom that oversees the northern territory.

 

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“Essentially, it’s a large real estate deal,” the businessman-president confirmed to reporters after much speculation. He also suggested it would give the US a strategic advantage in the Arctic. Still, the Danish government was not impressed.

“Greenland is not for sale,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen shot back in an interview. “I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously.” Trump would later call her response “nasty” but not before he cancelled a planned presidential trip to the Scandinavian country. And with that, the great Danish-American conflict of 2019 was finally over.

‘Sharpiegate’

 

President Donald Trump references a map held by acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan while talking to reporters about Hurricane Dorian in the Oval Office at the White House, September 4, 2019 [File: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]

Trump’s spats with world leaders and Democrats were hallmarks of his four years in office. But his fondness for petty disputes often crept into the downright weird and in September 2019, that is exactly what happened.

 

As Hurricane Dorian approached the US, Trump tweeted that “South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama” would be affected. That was apparently news to people in Alabama who began preparing for the worst. But it also precipitated a stunned National Hurricane Center (NHC) to tweet that Alabama, “will NOT see any impacts from Dorian” which ultimately turned out to be true.

Unwilling to concede and frustrated by the rebuttal, Trump gathered reporters into the Oval Office three days later to explain why he made the prediction. As he spoke, he held up a NHC map from August that showed the projected path of the hurricane which ended in Florida. Someone, however, had apparently taken a Sharpie and doctored the map by extending the hurricane’s path into, you guessed it, Alabama. As puzzled reporters looked on, Trump motioned to, without a hint of humour, the map with the Sharpie line.

When later asked about who added it, Trump simply said, “I don’t know.” Historians will remember the moment as “SharpieGate”.

 

 

This is the plot to The Hangover: White House edition. These aren't even the bad things and it's like Trump was a blackout drunk the entire time.

 

[fattyflattie 4636]

I remember thinking his campaign was mainly red meat bullshit and that he’d be a lame duck president, who was much more liberal than he let on.  So basically everything he did further than center surprised me.  I was certain there was going to be serious military conflicts (which were mostly avoided). 
 

I’m surprised there are people who are still surprised a HUGE portion of the country votes with 1a) their pocketbook 1b) their religious beliefs.   

[Michael Knight 12898]

The real surprise were the friends we made along the way.

[aggie08 21434]

1 minute ago, fattyflattie said:

I’m surprised there are people who are still surprised a HUGE portion of the country votes with 1a) their pocketbook 1b) their religious beliefs.   

While undoubtedly true, I held out a naive hope that this fucking dude--a non-religious elitist--would be the one that would cause most sane voters to put aside partisan politics for 3 seconds, and vote to remove a cancer from our country by a humiliating margin. I knew I would be proven wrong, but it was still somehow disappointing.

Guns, abortions, taxes, and socialism. Rinse and repeat.

[fattyflattie 4636]

1 minute ago, aggie08 said:

Guns, abortions, taxes, and socialism. Rinse and repeat.

And pipelines, permits, and unfortunately for many, paychecks. 

[DonkeyCigars 144]

I'm surprised to hear from some that they think because Biden won this round in a somewhat close election that what they view as a "threat" to their liberal value systems (and their "this is a threat to Democracy and America as we know it!" position) is over.

The division and gulf between more-or-less two aggregated groups (informed by different cultures and mindsets and values which want for vastly different things and only share a physical geography) is not going to be bridged in the short term and I'm not even sure there is a path for the medium to long term. 

I guess I'll take Brisket's spot on the ledge.

Edited January 22, 2021 by DonkeyCigars

[AnTiM 1659]

1 hour ago, DonkeyCigars said:

I'm surprised to hear from some that they think because Biden won this round in a somewhat close election that what they view as a "threat" to their liberal value systems (and their "this is a threat to Democracy and America as we know it!" position) is over.

The division and gulf between more-or-less two aggregated groups (informed by different cultures and mindsets and values which want for vastly different things and only share a physical geography) is not going to be bridged in the short term and I'm not even sure there is a path for the medium to long term. 

I guess I'll take Brisket's spot on the ledge.

Not much has changed since the mid 50s when I asked my dad what the difference was between dems and reps.  Still appears the same to me.

[AnTiM 1659]

Craziest thing to me was listening to all the crazy shit he accused the Clinton campaign of doing, then watching him do basically the same exact crazy shit he accused them of when he lost.  He is the definition of two-faced.

[956 Worldwide 34444]

10 hours ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

The intersection of Christianity and politics is fascinating.  Perhaps because the faith is based around a political execution of a radical dissident and the universal symbol of the religion is a torture device of the government. 

/serious post....It is. 

I'd make the argument, though, that the concept of a divide between the secular and religious realms of authority is a peculiarity of Christianity and a Christian worldview. If we are restricting things to the Abrahamic faiths, then it's not a question that it's a Christian idea. But I think you can go even farther than that. 

Christianity never figured it out, and it's a source of constant tension.  But the reality is, it likely never happens without Christianity.  Something to be thankful for, and to remember even if you're firmly secular in your outlook and you get frustrated with the believers around you.

[Fudge Nuggets 19151]

12 hours ago, Superhero said:

Aljazeera had a pretty good article on 11 forgotten (?) moments.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/20/remembering-11-of-trumps-forgotten-moments

Read the article. So much stupid. But the one that really stands out (for my anyway) was him pushing Montenegro's prime minister away so he could be front and center in a photo. He's a piece of shit to everyone except Putin.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Remembering 11 of Trump’s forgotten ‘moments’

As the sun sets on US President Donald Trump’s presidency, the chilling events of January 6, when his supporters stormed the US Capitol, continue to hang over his departure. But there is no denying that Trump will be remembered for many other moments.

Some of them were historic, unprecedented and, in many cases, completely bizarre. Americans will remember his public suggestion that COVID-19 could possibly be knocked out by injecting disinfectant in the human body or the time he tweeted out the word “covfefe” (still no explanation of what he meant). But there were many other unusual and awkward moments.

KEEP READING

Analysis: The causes and chaos of Donald Trump Trump baby protest blimp enters Museum of London collection Trump-free Twitter: The debate over deplatforming First Lady Melania Trump releases farewell message

Here are 11 things you may have forgotten about:

#lastnightinSweden

In the opening months of his presidency, Trump seized on his popularity and held rallies to keep his base fired up. One of those events was in Melbourne, Florida in February 2017. The audience got the show they wanted complete with Air Force One pulling up to the rally. But like so often during his tenure, Trump’s words at home rattled a nation thousands of miles away.

During a tirade against illegal migrants, Trump hinted there may have been a terrorist attack in Sweden the previous night. “You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden,” Trump exclaimed. “Sweden, who would believe this? Sweden!”

 

 

Do Smokers Have Higher Risks of COVID-19 Complications?

Ad by CA Dept of Public Health 

 

See More

 

 

One tiny problem with his claim: there was no such attack. The remarks reportedly prompted a confused call from the Swedish embassy to the US State Department asking for clarification. Swedes, on the other hand, ran with it and the humorous hashtag #lastnightinSweden was born showing locals doing things like making moose stew or practising the trombone.

Perfect piece of chocolate cake

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping and First Lady Peng Liyuan attend a dinner hosted by President Donald Trump at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida, April 6, 2017 [Carlos Barria/Reuters]

It was his first bilateral summit as president and there was no better place to hold it than Trump’s luxury Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida in April 2017. The US president welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two smiled and waved to cameras to quell some of the tensions that had been building ever since Trump ran for office and accused Beijing of unfair trade practices. But during the summit, another country, Syria, was also dominating the news as pictures of a chemical attack by government forces against civilians in Khan Shaykhun angered people around the world.

 

As Trump and Xi dined, the president gave the order to destroy a Syrian airbase with Tomahawk missiles to send a message to President Bashar al-Assad. But when he recalled the moment to a Fox Business anchor, the commander-in-chief seemed focused on the wrong details.

“We had the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you’ve ever seen and President Xi was enjoying it,” he recounted intently. “So what happens is I said [to President Xi] we’ve just launched 59 missiles heading to Iraq and I wanted you to know this.”

That beautiful piece of cake must have been pretty good because the US President forgot he had bombed Syria, not Iraq.

The “shove”

 

President Donald Trump adjusts his jacket after pushing past Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic at the NATO Summit in Brussels, Belgium, May 25, 2017 [Kevin Coombs/Reuters]

Normally, a NATO meeting is a formulaic gathering of military allies who send out boring communiques and reaffirm their relationships and commitments. But when Donald Trump is present, nothing is normal.

 

In May 2017, Trump had everyone wondering how he would behave at his first NATO meeting with world leaders in Brussels. After all, he had trashed the organisation during his campaign, referring to it as “obsolete”. Predictably, Trump criticised them again during the meeting demanding members pay their fair share to the organisation set up in 1949 to counter the growing Soviet influence in Europe. But that speech, which upset many people in the foreign policy ranks, was not his true mark that day.

As world leaders gathered for the official photo, Trump was caught shoving aside Montenegro’s Prime Minister Dusko Markovic in what appeared to be an attempt to get to the front of the photo line. At the time, the Balkan country was seeking entry into NATO, a move that the Russian government opposed, so the snub took on a particularly dire tone among Montenegrins. The prime minister was unfazed, however, later telling reporters the shove seen around the world was overblown.

The paper towel launch

 

President Donald Trump throws rolls of paper towels into a crowd of residents affected by Hurricane Maria in San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 3, 2017 [Jonathan Ernst/Reuters]

A natural disaster is a devastating, horrific event that often tests the human spirit in unexpected ways. But it is also a good time for a president to get positive press by showing compassion and kindness in the aftermath. It is a ratings boost, if you will, in Donald J Trump terms. So when powerful, category-four Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in September 2017, it was a moment for the US president to earn some political points.

 

Hundreds had died, thousands were homeless and many more were without power. Almost two weeks later, Trump and First Lady Melania Trump made the trip to San Juan to survey the damage. Trump spoke to emergency management officials, victims and visited some of the devastation. But then he did something that may be the only thing people remember about that trip.

As he visited a church, he decided to help out by distributing supplies. As the cameras rolled, the president began tossing paper towels up in the air to victims as if they were raffle winners at the Iowa state fair. San Juan Mayor Carmen Cruz would later slam the president’s actions as, “terrible and abominable” saying it showed he cared little for the people who lived there.

 

Trump salutes an enemy’s general

Trump’s love affair with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could go down as one of his lasting foreign policy legacies. He was the first sitting US president to meet with a North Korean leader, a noteworthy feat considering the two countries have no formal diplomatic relations. The two men had initially threatened each other, with the US president referring to Kim as “Rocket Man”, in reference to his penchant for missile launches. The North Koreans returned the barb by calling Trump a “dotard”. Eventually, though, the two leaders held summits in Singapore and Vietnam to hash out their differences.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, June 30, 2019 [File: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]

In June 2018, during their first meeting in Singapore, however, Trump made a different kind of history. North Korean state media caught the president taking the unprecedented step of saluting one of Kim’s generals. It is unusual for an American president to salute any foreign military leader but saluting the general of a sworn enemy of the US is, well, strange. Prominent Democrats back home noted, at the time, the move would be used by Pyongyang in propaganda videos, which it was.

 

Trump’s calls a porn star “Horseface”

 

Adult film star Stormy Daniels sued Trump for defamation and drew Trump’s ire [File: Mike Blake/Reuters]

A US president is the most sought after world leader. Powerful CEOs, celebrities, prime ministers, royals and everyone else scramble for his attention. So, it would seem that someone in that position would not have the time, or the interest, in trolling a porn star. But that is what happened in October 2018 when Trump put aside congressional negotiations and policy papers to lash out at Stormy Daniels (aka Stephanie Clifford) via Twitter over a defamation lawsuit.

 

Months earlier, a magazine article surfaced in which Daniels said she slept with him in 2006 after Melania Trump gave birth to their son, Barron. There were also allegations that he paid her $130,000 to keep quiet about the affair (Trump initially denied, but later confirmed the payment). That interview fuelled a salacious and embarrassing public battle culminating in the Texas defamation suit filed by Daniels against the American leader.

When a judge dismissed it, Trump pounced. “Great, now I can go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer in the Great State of Texas,” he celebrated on Twitter. Daniels was undeterred, retaliating via tweet, in an apparent reference to a certain, um, anatomical deficiency, “Game on, Tiny.”

The Santa call

 

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump both speak on the phone while sharing updates to track Santa’s movements from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Santa Tracker on December 24, 2018 [Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo]

Collman Lloyd got the phone call of a lifetime on December 24, 2018. The president of the United States wanted to wish the seven-year-old girl a Merry Christmas. But what would normally be a dream call on the biggest night of the year for any Christmas-obsessed kid eventually took a peculiar turn.

 

After some chit-chat next to the White House fireplace, TV cameras caught the president asking the South Carolinian a question. “Are you still a believer in Santa?” he inquired. “Because at seven, it’s marginal, right?” The girl’s response, inaudible to reporters, made Trump chuckle, but horrified Santa-loving parents around the country. One would think the man who gets classified briefings every day could, at least, keep the Santa info on the down-low.

The night of fast food

 

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Guests attending a reception for the Clemson Tigers grab fast food sandwiches in the State Dining Room of the White House, January 14, 2019 [Susan Walsh/AP Photo]

Imagine you get an invite to the White House to dine with the US president. It is an honour reserved for very few people. You dress up, you are on your best behaviour, hoping to sit in the state dining room where celebrities, world leaders and giants of history have shared the same honour. You arrive and are awestruck by the most famous house on the planet. Eventually, the president enters and so does the main course … Filet-O-Fish and Big Macs?

 

That is what happened when the Clemson Tigers, winners of the college football championship, came to the White House in January 2019.

“We have pizzas, we have 300 hamburgers, many, many french fries, all of our favourite foods,” Trump boasted to reporters as an array of culinary delights from restaurant chains KFC, McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King sat in front of him on silver platters. Trump told them he had no choice and the fast food, getting colder and colder with every word he spoke, was the result of a partial government shutdown that forced the closure of the White House kitchen.

Press Secretary Sarah Sanders would later say the president paid for the meal himself which is perhaps why Taco Bell’s pricey Double Steak Melt Deluxe box was not on the menu.

Greenland’s for sale?

It sounds like the beginning of a joke: the US president wants to buy Greenland. Whispers about the strange request started trickling out in August, 2019. However, after a Wall Street Journal story cited sources saying it was true, once again, Trump found himself in the middle of an awkward quarrel with a close NATO ally. This time, it was Denmark, the kingdom that oversees the northern territory.

 

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“Essentially, it’s a large real estate deal,” the businessman-president confirmed to reporters after much speculation. He also suggested it would give the US a strategic advantage in the Arctic. Still, the Danish government was not impressed.

“Greenland is not for sale,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen shot back in an interview. “I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously.” Trump would later call her response “nasty” but not before he cancelled a planned presidential trip to the Scandinavian country. And with that, the great Danish-American conflict of 2019 was finally over.

‘Sharpiegate’

 

President Donald Trump references a map held by acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan while talking to reporters about Hurricane Dorian in the Oval Office at the White House, September 4, 2019 [File: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]

Trump’s spats with world leaders and Democrats were hallmarks of his four years in office. But his fondness for petty disputes often crept into the downright weird and in September 2019, that is exactly what happened.

 

As Hurricane Dorian approached the US, Trump tweeted that “South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama” would be affected. That was apparently news to people in Alabama who began preparing for the worst. But it also precipitated a stunned National Hurricane Center (NHC) to tweet that Alabama, “will NOT see any impacts from Dorian” which ultimately turned out to be true.

Unwilling to concede and frustrated by the rebuttal, Trump gathered reporters into the Oval Office three days later to explain why he made the prediction. As he spoke, he held up a NHC map from August that showed the projected path of the hurricane which ended in Florida. Someone, however, had apparently taken a Sharpie and doctored the map by extending the hurricane’s path into, you guessed it, Alabama. As puzzled reporters looked on, Trump motioned to, without a hint of humour, the map with the Sharpie line.

When later asked about who added it, Trump simply said, “I don’t know.” Historians will remember the moment as “SharpieGate”.

 

 

The Montenegro PM incident was just so on brand for the piece of shit.  We were five months into the reign of terror and this was probably the high-water mark.  It got worse by the day after that.

[956 Worldwide 34444]

12 hours ago, Superhero said:

Aljazeera had a pretty good article on 11 forgotten (?) moments.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/20/remembering-11-of-trumps-forgotten-moments

Read the article. So much stupid. But the one that really stands out (for my anyway) was him pushing Montenegro's prime minister away so he could be front and center in a photo. He's a piece of shit to everyone except Putin.

 

  Hide contents

Remembering 11 of Trump’s forgotten ‘moments’

As the sun sets on US President Donald Trump’s presidency, the chilling events of January 6, when his supporters stormed the US Capitol, continue to hang over his departure. But there is no denying that Trump will be remembered for many other moments.

Some of them were historic, unprecedented and, in many cases, completely bizarre. Americans will remember his public suggestion that COVID-19 could possibly be knocked out by injecting disinfectant in the human body or the time he tweeted out the word “covfefe” (still no explanation of what he meant). But there were many other unusual and awkward moments.

KEEP READING

Analysis: The causes and chaos of Donald Trump Trump baby protest blimp enters Museum of London collection Trump-free Twitter: The debate over deplatforming First Lady Melania Trump releases farewell message

Here are 11 things you may have forgotten about:

#lastnightinSweden

In the opening months of his presidency, Trump seized on his popularity and held rallies to keep his base fired up. One of those events was in Melbourne, Florida in February 2017. The audience got the show they wanted complete with Air Force One pulling up to the rally. But like so often during his tenure, Trump’s words at home rattled a nation thousands of miles away.

During a tirade against illegal migrants, Trump hinted there may have been a terrorist attack in Sweden the previous night. “You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden,” Trump exclaimed. “Sweden, who would believe this? Sweden!”

 

 

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One tiny problem with his claim: there was no such attack. The remarks reportedly prompted a confused call from the Swedish embassy to the US State Department asking for clarification. Swedes, on the other hand, ran with it and the humorous hashtag #lastnightinSweden was born showing locals doing things like making moose stew or practising the trombone.

Perfect piece of chocolate cake

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping and First Lady Peng Liyuan attend a dinner hosted by President Donald Trump at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida, April 6, 2017 [Carlos Barria/Reuters]

It was his first bilateral summit as president and there was no better place to hold it than Trump’s luxury Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida in April 2017. The US president welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two smiled and waved to cameras to quell some of the tensions that had been building ever since Trump ran for office and accused Beijing of unfair trade practices. But during the summit, another country, Syria, was also dominating the news as pictures of a chemical attack by government forces against civilians in Khan Shaykhun angered people around the world.

 

As Trump and Xi dined, the president gave the order to destroy a Syrian airbase with Tomahawk missiles to send a message to President Bashar al-Assad. But when he recalled the moment to a Fox Business anchor, the commander-in-chief seemed focused on the wrong details.

“We had the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you’ve ever seen and President Xi was enjoying it,” he recounted intently. “So what happens is I said [to President Xi] we’ve just launched 59 missiles heading to Iraq and I wanted you to know this.”

That beautiful piece of cake must have been pretty good because the US President forgot he had bombed Syria, not Iraq.

The “shove”

 

President Donald Trump adjusts his jacket after pushing past Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic at the NATO Summit in Brussels, Belgium, May 25, 2017 [Kevin Coombs/Reuters]

Normally, a NATO meeting is a formulaic gathering of military allies who send out boring communiques and reaffirm their relationships and commitments. But when Donald Trump is present, nothing is normal.

 

In May 2017, Trump had everyone wondering how he would behave at his first NATO meeting with world leaders in Brussels. After all, he had trashed the organisation during his campaign, referring to it as “obsolete”. Predictably, Trump criticised them again during the meeting demanding members pay their fair share to the organisation set up in 1949 to counter the growing Soviet influence in Europe. But that speech, which upset many people in the foreign policy ranks, was not his true mark that day.

As world leaders gathered for the official photo, Trump was caught shoving aside Montenegro’s Prime Minister Dusko Markovic in what appeared to be an attempt to get to the front of the photo line. At the time, the Balkan country was seeking entry into NATO, a move that the Russian government opposed, so the snub took on a particularly dire tone among Montenegrins. The prime minister was unfazed, however, later telling reporters the shove seen around the world was overblown.

The paper towel launch

 

President Donald Trump throws rolls of paper towels into a crowd of residents affected by Hurricane Maria in San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 3, 2017 [Jonathan Ernst/Reuters]

A natural disaster is a devastating, horrific event that often tests the human spirit in unexpected ways. But it is also a good time for a president to get positive press by showing compassion and kindness in the aftermath. It is a ratings boost, if you will, in Donald J Trump terms. So when powerful, category-four Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in September 2017, it was a moment for the US president to earn some political points.

 

Hundreds had died, thousands were homeless and many more were without power. Almost two weeks later, Trump and First Lady Melania Trump made the trip to San Juan to survey the damage. Trump spoke to emergency management officials, victims and visited some of the devastation. But then he did something that may be the only thing people remember about that trip.

As he visited a church, he decided to help out by distributing supplies. As the cameras rolled, the president began tossing paper towels up in the air to victims as if they were raffle winners at the Iowa state fair. San Juan Mayor Carmen Cruz would later slam the president’s actions as, “terrible and abominable” saying it showed he cared little for the people who lived there.

 

Trump salutes an enemy’s general

Trump’s love affair with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could go down as one of his lasting foreign policy legacies. He was the first sitting US president to meet with a North Korean leader, a noteworthy feat considering the two countries have no formal diplomatic relations. The two men had initially threatened each other, with the US president referring to Kim as “Rocket Man”, in reference to his penchant for missile launches. The North Koreans returned the barb by calling Trump a “dotard”. Eventually, though, the two leaders held summits in Singapore and Vietnam to hash out their differences.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, June 30, 2019 [File: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]

In June 2018, during their first meeting in Singapore, however, Trump made a different kind of history. North Korean state media caught the president taking the unprecedented step of saluting one of Kim’s generals. It is unusual for an American president to salute any foreign military leader but saluting the general of a sworn enemy of the US is, well, strange. Prominent Democrats back home noted, at the time, the move would be used by Pyongyang in propaganda videos, which it was.

 

Trump’s calls a porn star “Horseface”

 

Adult film star Stormy Daniels sued Trump for defamation and drew Trump’s ire [File: Mike Blake/Reuters]

A US president is the most sought after world leader. Powerful CEOs, celebrities, prime ministers, royals and everyone else scramble for his attention. So, it would seem that someone in that position would not have the time, or the interest, in trolling a porn star. But that is what happened in October 2018 when Trump put aside congressional negotiations and policy papers to lash out at Stormy Daniels (aka Stephanie Clifford) via Twitter over a defamation lawsuit.

 

Months earlier, a magazine article surfaced in which Daniels said she slept with him in 2006 after Melania Trump gave birth to their son, Barron. There were also allegations that he paid her $130,000 to keep quiet about the affair (Trump initially denied, but later confirmed the payment). That interview fuelled a salacious and embarrassing public battle culminating in the Texas defamation suit filed by Daniels against the American leader.

When a judge dismissed it, Trump pounced. “Great, now I can go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer in the Great State of Texas,” he celebrated on Twitter. Daniels was undeterred, retaliating via tweet, in an apparent reference to a certain, um, anatomical deficiency, “Game on, Tiny.”

The Santa call

 

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump both speak on the phone while sharing updates to track Santa’s movements from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Santa Tracker on December 24, 2018 [Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo]

Collman Lloyd got the phone call of a lifetime on December 24, 2018. The president of the United States wanted to wish the seven-year-old girl a Merry Christmas. But what would normally be a dream call on the biggest night of the year for any Christmas-obsessed kid eventually took a peculiar turn.

 

After some chit-chat next to the White House fireplace, TV cameras caught the president asking the South Carolinian a question. “Are you still a believer in Santa?” he inquired. “Because at seven, it’s marginal, right?” The girl’s response, inaudible to reporters, made Trump chuckle, but horrified Santa-loving parents around the country. One would think the man who gets classified briefings every day could, at least, keep the Santa info on the down-low.

The night of fast food

 

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Guests attending a reception for the Clemson Tigers grab fast food sandwiches in the State Dining Room of the White House, January 14, 2019 [Susan Walsh/AP Photo]

Imagine you get an invite to the White House to dine with the US president. It is an honour reserved for very few people. You dress up, you are on your best behaviour, hoping to sit in the state dining room where celebrities, world leaders and giants of history have shared the same honour. You arrive and are awestruck by the most famous house on the planet. Eventually, the president enters and so does the main course … Filet-O-Fish and Big Macs?

 

That is what happened when the Clemson Tigers, winners of the college football championship, came to the White House in January 2019.

“We have pizzas, we have 300 hamburgers, many, many french fries, all of our favourite foods,” Trump boasted to reporters as an array of culinary delights from restaurant chains KFC, McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King sat in front of him on silver platters. Trump told them he had no choice and the fast food, getting colder and colder with every word he spoke, was the result of a partial government shutdown that forced the closure of the White House kitchen.

Press Secretary Sarah Sanders would later say the president paid for the meal himself which is perhaps why Taco Bell’s pricey Double Steak Melt Deluxe box was not on the menu.

Greenland’s for sale?

It sounds like the beginning of a joke: the US president wants to buy Greenland. Whispers about the strange request started trickling out in August, 2019. However, after a Wall Street Journal story cited sources saying it was true, once again, Trump found himself in the middle of an awkward quarrel with a close NATO ally. This time, it was Denmark, the kingdom that oversees the northern territory.

 

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“Essentially, it’s a large real estate deal,” the businessman-president confirmed to reporters after much speculation. He also suggested it would give the US a strategic advantage in the Arctic. Still, the Danish government was not impressed.

“Greenland is not for sale,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen shot back in an interview. “I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously.” Trump would later call her response “nasty” but not before he cancelled a planned presidential trip to the Scandinavian country. And with that, the great Danish-American conflict of 2019 was finally over.

‘Sharpiegate’

 

President Donald Trump references a map held by acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan while talking to reporters about Hurricane Dorian in the Oval Office at the White House, September 4, 2019 [File: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]

Trump’s spats with world leaders and Democrats were hallmarks of his four years in office. But his fondness for petty disputes often crept into the downright weird and in September 2019, that is exactly what happened.

 

As Hurricane Dorian approached the US, Trump tweeted that “South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama” would be affected. That was apparently news to people in Alabama who began preparing for the worst. But it also precipitated a stunned National Hurricane Center (NHC) to tweet that Alabama, “will NOT see any impacts from Dorian” which ultimately turned out to be true.

Unwilling to concede and frustrated by the rebuttal, Trump gathered reporters into the Oval Office three days later to explain why he made the prediction. As he spoke, he held up a NHC map from August that showed the projected path of the hurricane which ended in Florida. Someone, however, had apparently taken a Sharpie and doctored the map by extending the hurricane’s path into, you guessed it, Alabama. As puzzled reporters looked on, Trump motioned to, without a hint of humour, the map with the Sharpie line.

When later asked about who added it, Trump simply said, “I don’t know.” Historians will remember the moment as “SharpieGate”.

 

 

This is a good example of eroding norms and how "salami-slicing" works.  I really believe if you had a list of many of these things and you told Republican voters in November 2016, look, if you elect this guy here's some things he'll do, 100 percent:

- Throw paper towels at hurricane victims

- Doctor a weather map with a sharpie and show it to everyone on TV

- Shove a foreign leader to get a better photo-op

- Have a Twitter flame war with a pron star (and lose)

That would have swung the vote just enough.  It probably would have worked in primary season.  But once the show was on, and we were living it, people had no choice than to admit they made a terrible decision (we don't like to do that as humans) or just keep dunking that turd in chrome (we prefer to do this rather than admit we were wrong). 

And so there we are.  And that's just the dumb shit that never hurt anyone. 

Edited January 22, 2021 by 956 Worldwide

[pyrohornIII 4809]

 

 

10 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Yep. The evangelicals sold out their country for 30 pieces of silver....and they did it by extending credit....to a known deadbeat, who still owes em those 30 pieces.....I’m sure they’re coming any day now.

They'll have them in two weeks.

[aggie08 21434]

6 hours ago, DonkeyCigars said:

I'm surprised to hear from some that they think because Biden won this round in a somewhat close election that what they view as a "threat" to their liberal value systems (and their "this is a threat to Democracy and America as we know it!" position) is over.

The division and gulf between more-or-less two aggregated groups (informed by different cultures and mindsets and values which want for vastly different things and only share a physical geography) is not going to be bridged in the short term and I'm not even sure there is a path for the medium to long term. 

I guess I'll take Brisket's spot on the ledge.

Having different values, cultures, priorities, and goals is fine. That's been America since its inception. Debate and disagreement is necessary.

It becomes problematic when a large chunk of one "side" has completely abandoned reality, truth, and facts in favor of one conspiracy theory after another and will believe every single word out of a megalomaniac's (and his sycophants') mouth. And politicians line up to cater to that base with more lies and disinformation, rather than trying to bring them back into the fold of "normal" political discourse.

Healthy skepticism of our media sources and politicians is a good thing. But that's not what we have right now. We have one side that immediately dismisses every story from reputable sources because "deep state." It's unreal that millions of people now see Fox fucking News as too liberal and are going down the internet rabbit hole to find sources that are directly monetarily incentivized to lie and tell their consumers exactly what they want to hear (with absolutely no repercussions), driving them further over the cliff.

[Snake Diggity 4614]

By far the most surprising thing is how many people supported him in the face of everything that is wrong about him.  It wasn’t just my redneck meth head cousin in law.  Fucking depressing.

Like many others I thought Trumps campaign character was a schtick that hed mostly drop if he won (which I did not think he had a chance of winning).  So I was surprised to see him continue on with the white nationalism and the undermining of our democracy and tearing at our social fabric.

I did expect him to get us into a war, especially once his popularity waned.  That we didn’t was pretty much the only pleasant surprise of his presidency.

The sheer volume of lies, the turnover of his lieutenants, the boasting, the shit talking...none of it surprised me.

[MaybeACoordinator 8349]

Y'all "Russia Russia Russia" people forget about the other knobs he slobbed. This was as weird as it got for me. 

[wildcat09 29258]

10 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

What did he do for the Christian Right? He enacted the Muslim ban. He banned transgender service members from the military. He moved the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and basically put the kibosh on any hope for a two state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. He was a total stooge for right-wing Jewish interests which comports with the interests of right-wing Christians who crave the end of times (when all those Christ-killing Jews will burn in Hell).

Yeah, he wasn't godly but he hurt the people they wanted to see hurt, so he did all they ever wanted from him.