Watch here and then share your thoughts and observations after the jump.
Trump press secretary-to-be Sean Spicer is expected to slam the latest reports about Trump being blackmailable by Russia.
I'm using the live stream from PBS, by the way.
Donald Trump graphic by DonkeyHotey via Creative Commons license.
Do you like this post?
Kevin Koster commented
2017-01-12 10:23:51 -0500
· Flag
This was a hideous display by Donald Trump of exactly the childish behavior his team has repeatedly said he would stop. It’s right in line with the mean tweets and the insults and all the other schoolyard playground antics he’s been using throughout his public life. It’s frankly sad to see a 70 year old man who cannot express himself in any more complicated way than “I know you are, but what am I?”
And this was an equally hideous display by the Right in their attempts to normalize Trump’s viciousness. The entire prime time lineup for Fox News found a way to somehow explain why it was okay for Trump to attack a CNN reporter – Fox News even tried to give Trump the moral high ground! Sean Spicer’s attempt to puff himself up into a morally affronted tone was ludicrous enough to be spit-take funny. I find it pitiable that Fox News is now attempting to forget their own history of repeatedly attacking President Obama at every possible turn at press events and their celebration of both politicians and press who found opportunities to scream at him and get it on video. I find it pitiable that Fox News, which repeatedly drummed through any story of innuendo about the Clintons and any story they could spin as a “scandal” for President Obama, is now somehow ashen-faced that anyone would ever discuss an intelligence dossier about Donald Trump’s documented nasty behavior. If it weren’t so obvious and desperate, and if it weren’t a story that was about the Pence Administration’s new spokesman being potentially compromised on many levels, it would be comic. But it’s not – this is dangerous material. It’s not just that the material shows Trump’s open hatred of the Obamas in a graphic manner – it’s that one can see the reasons why Trump did not want this material to get out into the public eye.
We have repeatedly been told that Trump was going to recognize the solemnity of the office he has gamed himself into taking, that he would “act Presidential”. I’m still waiting to see that happen. What I saw yesterday was the behavior of a five year old bully throwing a tantrum. And it’s not just that we will now have a President who openly throws tantrums at anyone he thinks has slighted him. It’s that there is a serious aftereffect when he does this as President. The President is a role model – someone that adults look up to as the leader of the country and kids normally look to as a model of behavior. The President represents the US to the world. And we’re about to endure four years of this office being defiled by a person who acts like a five-year old. That’s not just embarrassing – it’s frightening, and it should be. Because when Trump acts like this in public and the Right tries to normalize it, the spectacle emboldens all the angry local Right Wingers to act like this as well. This is why there have been so many hate crimes documented as committed by Right Wingers since the election – Trump’s actions are empowering these people to openly attack those with whom they disagree. We can sadly expect more schoolroom assaults, more swastikas on cars and homes, more vicious graffiti, more hate speech all the way around.
I have stated that I am willing to give our incoming acting President Mike Pence a chance to do some good things for the country – to see if Pence can come up with creative ways to streamline bureaucracy, to create more jobs, etc. But that assumes that Trump and Pence have any intention of actually doing that. If their only intent is to throw the entire Obama presidency in the trash and then sneer at the country, then we’re not dealing with adults. If these guys are going to act like children, then they should be treated as such. Respect is given to those who earn it. If Donald Trump cannot act like an adult, then perhaps he should not be giving press conferences and he should leave that work to those people who can actually do it.
I also note that Trump’s presser, when you remove the tantrum and the hyperbole, really didn’t add anything new to his policy discussion. If anything, he made clear that we can expect a fast series of vicious actions starting next Friday. It’s nice that he thinks that the ACA is somehow going to be replaced with a “beautiful” program. Right. The ACA is going to be scrapped, as fast as the Senate can get the reconciliation bill back to the House. I add that the GOP is preventing the Dems from even protecting the elements of the ACA that Trump said they would maintain, such as allowing people with existing conditions to get insurance and allowing parents to keep their kids on their policies up to age 26. The obvious intent of the GOP in Congress is to just trash the ACA as quickly as it can, to be followed by the Sessions Justice Dept dropping the Obama appeals about the funding mechanism. The 22 million who signed up for the ACA should be preparing to lose those policies in short order. The Right Wing solution to this is Health Savings Accounts – which means you pay for everything unless it’s a truly catastrophic situation, and for THAT you could get a small policy with a gigantic deductible. This falls right in line with the libertarian idea of IGMFU. Because that’s what the Right stands by. If these guys had wanted to generate a comprehensive health coverage plan, they would have done it in the nearly 20 years they had between the time they papered Hillary Clinton’s idea to death and the time that Obama finally got something through both houses. The GOP does not get to rewrite this history, and they do not get to rewrite the history of their viciousness and obstruction when it came to the writing of the ACA and their many, many attempts to repeal it. When this boom drops and that 22 million lose their coverage, it will be completely on the shoulders of the GOP and the Right. Make no mistake – this will cause misery for a lot of people, who will be sent back to the notion of either not going to the doctor, or just going to the ER if something really serious happens. If there is any silver lining in this cloud, it is that the ensuing pain may finally push this country to go with a Medicare for All solution in a few years, after Trump and Pence are out of office. But it will be at least another 4 years before that happens.
The vicious tone of this presser, and the corresponding vicious tone from the Right after it was inflicted, is a strong warning sign to anyone with decency that the USA is not likely to be a tolerable environment for several years. There’s a good reason that many people were looking up the notion of moving to Canada or another country until this mess is over. I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to have to deal with childish tantrums from the White House every week, or with local blowhards who feel empowered by the Bully-in-Chief. It does get tiring with these people. I expect we’ll see a flow of decent people finding work and home in other parts over the next four years, and I don’t think those people are wrong to do so.
And this was an equally hideous display by the Right in their attempts to normalize Trump’s viciousness. The entire prime time lineup for Fox News found a way to somehow explain why it was okay for Trump to attack a CNN reporter – Fox News even tried to give Trump the moral high ground! Sean Spicer’s attempt to puff himself up into a morally affronted tone was ludicrous enough to be spit-take funny. I find it pitiable that Fox News is now attempting to forget their own history of repeatedly attacking President Obama at every possible turn at press events and their celebration of both politicians and press who found opportunities to scream at him and get it on video. I find it pitiable that Fox News, which repeatedly drummed through any story of innuendo about the Clintons and any story they could spin as a “scandal” for President Obama, is now somehow ashen-faced that anyone would ever discuss an intelligence dossier about Donald Trump’s documented nasty behavior. If it weren’t so obvious and desperate, and if it weren’t a story that was about the Pence Administration’s new spokesman being potentially compromised on many levels, it would be comic. But it’s not – this is dangerous material. It’s not just that the material shows Trump’s open hatred of the Obamas in a graphic manner – it’s that one can see the reasons why Trump did not want this material to get out into the public eye.
We have repeatedly been told that Trump was going to recognize the solemnity of the office he has gamed himself into taking, that he would “act Presidential”. I’m still waiting to see that happen. What I saw yesterday was the behavior of a five year old bully throwing a tantrum. And it’s not just that we will now have a President who openly throws tantrums at anyone he thinks has slighted him. It’s that there is a serious aftereffect when he does this as President. The President is a role model – someone that adults look up to as the leader of the country and kids normally look to as a model of behavior. The President represents the US to the world. And we’re about to endure four years of this office being defiled by a person who acts like a five-year old. That’s not just embarrassing – it’s frightening, and it should be. Because when Trump acts like this in public and the Right tries to normalize it, the spectacle emboldens all the angry local Right Wingers to act like this as well. This is why there have been so many hate crimes documented as committed by Right Wingers since the election – Trump’s actions are empowering these people to openly attack those with whom they disagree. We can sadly expect more schoolroom assaults, more swastikas on cars and homes, more vicious graffiti, more hate speech all the way around.
I have stated that I am willing to give our incoming acting President Mike Pence a chance to do some good things for the country – to see if Pence can come up with creative ways to streamline bureaucracy, to create more jobs, etc. But that assumes that Trump and Pence have any intention of actually doing that. If their only intent is to throw the entire Obama presidency in the trash and then sneer at the country, then we’re not dealing with adults. If these guys are going to act like children, then they should be treated as such. Respect is given to those who earn it. If Donald Trump cannot act like an adult, then perhaps he should not be giving press conferences and he should leave that work to those people who can actually do it.
I also note that Trump’s presser, when you remove the tantrum and the hyperbole, really didn’t add anything new to his policy discussion. If anything, he made clear that we can expect a fast series of vicious actions starting next Friday. It’s nice that he thinks that the ACA is somehow going to be replaced with a “beautiful” program. Right. The ACA is going to be scrapped, as fast as the Senate can get the reconciliation bill back to the House. I add that the GOP is preventing the Dems from even protecting the elements of the ACA that Trump said they would maintain, such as allowing people with existing conditions to get insurance and allowing parents to keep their kids on their policies up to age 26. The obvious intent of the GOP in Congress is to just trash the ACA as quickly as it can, to be followed by the Sessions Justice Dept dropping the Obama appeals about the funding mechanism. The 22 million who signed up for the ACA should be preparing to lose those policies in short order. The Right Wing solution to this is Health Savings Accounts – which means you pay for everything unless it’s a truly catastrophic situation, and for THAT you could get a small policy with a gigantic deductible. This falls right in line with the libertarian idea of IGMFU. Because that’s what the Right stands by. If these guys had wanted to generate a comprehensive health coverage plan, they would have done it in the nearly 20 years they had between the time they papered Hillary Clinton’s idea to death and the time that Obama finally got something through both houses. The GOP does not get to rewrite this history, and they do not get to rewrite the history of their viciousness and obstruction when it came to the writing of the ACA and their many, many attempts to repeal it. When this boom drops and that 22 million lose their coverage, it will be completely on the shoulders of the GOP and the Right. Make no mistake – this will cause misery for a lot of people, who will be sent back to the notion of either not going to the doctor, or just going to the ER if something really serious happens. If there is any silver lining in this cloud, it is that the ensuing pain may finally push this country to go with a Medicare for All solution in a few years, after Trump and Pence are out of office. But it will be at least another 4 years before that happens.
The vicious tone of this presser, and the corresponding vicious tone from the Right after it was inflicted, is a strong warning sign to anyone with decency that the USA is not likely to be a tolerable environment for several years. There’s a good reason that many people were looking up the notion of moving to Canada or another country until this mess is over. I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to have to deal with childish tantrums from the White House every week, or with local blowhards who feel empowered by the Bully-in-Chief. It does get tiring with these people. I expect we’ll see a flow of decent people finding work and home in other parts over the next four years, and I don’t think those people are wrong to do so.
David Lindsay commented
2017-01-11 21:32:10 -0500
· Flag
The GOPee. Full of piss and ready to piss on everyone. It’ll be a long four years.
William Barlow commented
2017-01-11 17:54:48 -0500
· Flag
Is this Orange bozo actually going to be President? Or will he finally admit that he has punked the American people? Or fess up that he is doing another reality show called the ULTIMATE CON?
Bemused commented
2017-01-11 13:13:05 -0500
· Flag
No news, folks. Keep moving. Nothing to see, here.
In fact, the WSJ journalist drew up a looooong list of the same sentences that Trump used during the campaign.
And, then, and then, and then … Trump won’t give the CNN reporter a chance to ask anything on the grounds that the CNN had been nasty, unfair. Not true, to my mind, and I’ve been glued to CNN all day. Since the election, I’ve felt that CNN has been trying to do a proper job. I hope they won’t stop now. And I expect Trump to ban them from the WH press conferences. Very similar to what happened under the Nazis and the Fascists … and to what is still happening under dictatorships around the world. Instead of fighting authoritarian regimes, the USA is about to become one.
In fact, the WSJ journalist drew up a looooong list of the same sentences that Trump used during the campaign.
And, then, and then, and then … Trump won’t give the CNN reporter a chance to ask anything on the grounds that the CNN had been nasty, unfair. Not true, to my mind, and I’ve been glued to CNN all day. Since the election, I’ve felt that CNN has been trying to do a proper job. I hope they won’t stop now. And I expect Trump to ban them from the WH press conferences. Very similar to what happened under the Nazis and the Fascists … and to what is still happening under dictatorships around the world. Instead of fighting authoritarian regimes, the USA is about to become one.
Warp Resident commented
2017-01-11 12:04:15 -0500
· Flag
Wait, I thought Mexico was going to pay for it up front? What’s this “reimburse us for the wall” crap? Bait and switch!
Warp Resident commented
2017-01-11 11:58:11 -0500
· Flag
“2017 is going to be a disaster” —he’s right about that, but in a different context.
Ellen commented
2017-01-11 11:33:33 -0500
· Flag
Trump: If Putin likes Donald Trump, that’s an asset, not a liability. … Do you honestly believe Hillary Clinton would be tougher on Vladimir Putin than me?
Yes, but more importantly, so does Putin.
Yes, but more importantly, so does Putin.