Hey, I made a meme, inspired by the troubles besetting Trump’s transition team.
In case you haven’t been following the issue, here are a few just slightly alarming quotes from a Huffington Post piece on the chaos.
Donald Trump’s transition team is nearing a state of stasis, causing concern among both Democrats and Republicans in Washington that his White House will be woefully ill-prepared once he is inaugurated. …
The disarray has left agencies virtually frozen, unable to communicate with the people tasked with replacing them and their staff. Trump transition team officials were a no-show at the Pentagon, the Washington Examiner reported. Same goes for the Department of Energy, responsible for keeping the nation’s nuclear weapons safe, where officials had expected members of the Trump transition team on Monday. Ditto for the Department of Transportation. Over at the Justice Department, officials also are still waiting to hear from the Trump team. …
According to several sources close to the Trump transition team and inside the Obama administration, the president elect and his staff have had difficulty finding able-minded Republicans willing to take on critical posts. One Democratic source, who like others would only discuss sensitive talks on condition of anonymity, said transition officials had been informally asking Obama political appointees to recommend Republicans to take over their jobs.
Yeah, that’s kind of what happens when you elect a dude who has no freaking idea what he’s doing to the highest office in the land.
@ WWTH;
0% might be optimistic… he’s going to have to either do something so egregarious that it can’t be ignored (which he’s perfectly capable of) or piss off enough repubs that they’re willing to air their laundry in order to get rid of him (again, he has that skill set).
It’s not 1973 any more (oh, and alt-right, just FYI, it’s NOT 1958 EITHER), and I don’t think something as “lightweight-by-modern-scandal-standards” like the Watergate break-in, or even the cover-up would get Noxin booted today.
@ Skiriki
Re: dork tower, Ain’t it the truth….
I honestly would love to see the GOP Congresscritters impeach Trump, as it might mean they’re putting country above party. Might. More cynically I think they’d want Trump out of the way because they would see Pence as more willing to play ball with them/less likely to do something to damage their comfy chairs.
I have family from Indiana, and I have few illusions about Pence. The scary thing is that I’ve found myself thinking, “Well, at least Pence wouldn’t start a nuclear war,” which shouldn’t be the best thing one can name about a potential president.
If both Trump and Pence were impeached, btw, the next in line would be Speaker of the House, who right now is Paul Ryan. If you’re curious about how long the line is, check this out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_line_of_succession
RE: Impeachment
If, and that’s a big if*, it happens, the Republicans will stall it long enough so as to not trigger the term limits in the 22nd Amendment. As long as Mike Pence (or whoever is VP – can’t rule out Trump forcing him to resign over some slight or disagreement) serves less than 2 years of Trump’s term, he’d be eligible to run for two of his own terms.
*Silver lining aside: I can see Trump resigning as well at some point; after all, I doubt he’ll run for a second term – he’d be 75, which would make him the oldest US president (Reagan was 73 in 1985). Given that he won largely by creating a cult of personality which requires running an exhausting tent revival style campaign, plus the baggage of people seeing evidence that he’s an evil piece of shit (instead of just talking about it, which is all he’s done so far), I doubt he goes for 2. And if he does, I’d wager it’s unlikely he finishes the term to allow a Republican VP to tack on 2 1/2 terms after his.
@ Weird (and regrouping quickly) Eddie
I’d say there’s a non-zero % chance of impeachment if the GOP thinks it’s in their best interest, i.e., they can replace him with one of their own for 2+ terms, and have someone they can control, making appointments they want. I doubt their loyalty to Trump (and vice versa) extends much beyond their mutual advantage.
I heard part of his 100 days includes a hiring freeze on ALL federal jobs. To stop all the “corruption.” Oh yeah, defense gets a pass on this. Of course.
Sorry if this was mentioned, but it seems apropos with him not knowing what the fuck he’s doing.
The thing about incompetence is that it is no bar to doing harm. It is far far easier to destroy than to create. Destruction is probably closer to being the default action.
At this point, the best case scenario is tha Trump alienates the rank and file GOP legislators and party heads enough that they refuse to work with him at least until maybe the Dems can pull together something for the midterms.
Honestly, I think even a Pence presidency would be worth it to get Trump out of office. It wouldn’t be ideal, but it’s not like Trump is restraining Pence in any way anyway – putting Pence officially in charge would at least get the narcissist away from the controls.
@feartheminotaur – I feel the same way, I think there’s a good chance Trump might find a way to resign.
I’m not sure the excuse he would use, as to claim “health reasons” would imply he’s not the manly-man juggernaut he has boasted of being. Maybe to “spend more time with the family” or something.
And as others have noted – he does look terrified and absolutely NOT thrilled about having to do this job. The fun part was winning, and he’s said it before that he really loses interest after he achieves some goal, that it’s the chase and competition that he lives for.
Hey everyone!
Are you ready to get fucking political?
Go here!
http://www.holyfucktheelection.com/
Probably a good chunk of it is that; Beck didn’t support Trump back during the primaries either.
Part of it may also be that Beck is a Mormon, and a lot of Mormons weren’t terribly fond of Trump. That’s why Evan McMullin was running in Utah as a spoiler.
The problems I see with faithless electors are that
1) Clinton conceded. Is that binding? Is she out of the race? Is the only choice Fuckhands McHairpiece?
2) If the Electoral College gets deadlocked, the choice goes to the House, which is Republican-controlled.
3) As others have said, this will throw gasoline on the fire and give the Trumpkins a real grievance.
Also, I see that the three electors who are leading the effort to sway at least 37 of their fellows include the two faithless electors from Oregon who weren’t going to vote for Clinton anyway. Gotta wonder what’s up with that.
@ Scildfreja Unnýðnes
That’s awesome! Thanks!
@ Falconer:
The Constitution gives the presidency to whomever the electoral college votes for. Clinton’s concession isn’t binding at all other than in a philosophical sense. I think the deal is done because I can’t see enough electors jumping ship from the Trumptanic to make a Clinton majority.
i sincerely believe he never was running to actually WIN…. I think he was building an audience for a cable tv show, and “ohhhh, shit look what happened”. His problem now is, while he can still make loads of cash for himself and his friends, and he can still get his face on the screen all the time, he can’t bloviate at will and, as I’m sure his advisers tell him CONSTANTLY, a lot of what he is used to being able to say and do is off the table now.
I can’t imagine that the Electoral College would go so wildly against tradition and protocol, but then I remember, “Hey, aren’t you the same woman that thought there was no way, ever ever ever in a million years would Trump be elected? Yeah, um, you are….”
So I guess hope springs eternal?
@ dreemr
yeah
🙂
Re: Glenn Beck, Beck supported Ted Cruz, who is every bit as bad as Trump on issues. Cruz hired Frank Gaffney onto his Foreign Affairs team, after all.
BUT, since Trump voters are vocal and awful, Beck got savaged by Trump supporters for his die-hard support of Cruz. So he may have had a slight taste of being a target of the Alt-Right.
That said, it fucking infuriates me that _ANYONE_ left of Fox News is giving Glenn Beck the time of day. “Oh but even he says Bannon is Goebbels!” The dude has been screaming about the incipient rise of Fascism as a Democratic party phenomenon for years. He is Chicken fucking Little. A living Goodwin Law violation. He has paved the ground for Alex Jones and the right-wing divorce from reality. He’s stuck at “Nazi o’ Clock” and will strip any sort of nuance or believably out of criticism of Trumps non-fascist actions.
“Congratulations Beck, you’re right for once. This is all your fault, now fuck off forever.”
The way I see it, swaying the EC is the longest of all long shots and has fallout of its own, but we have literally nothing to lose by trying.
Honestly, I fear Trump less than any credible republican. Especially his vice-president.
The EC might be swayed to not vote for Trump. But i don’t believe they will vote for a democrat anyhow. We could have both an horrible, not-Trump, président, and a lot of additional fuel for white supremacist who feel martyrized at the same time.
Someone else mentioned earlier that Beck is a grifter and has simply moved on to a different grift. I couldn’t agree more.
Ol’ Crocodile Tears doesn’t fool me for a second. Sure, I suppose it’s possible that he’s had a change of heart, but for my money he’s still the sleazy fear-mongering con artist he’s always been.
Beck is just providing The Excuse for the GOP. That way they can 1) be in power, and 2) still stand on the moral ground.
“Hey, we can nominate Supreme Court Justices and avoid the ‘grab them’ fallout! Thanks, Glenn!”
Bwahahaha! Sick burn.
It almost doesn’t matter that Trump’s a lazy, incompetent fool. (He won’t back down and admit it, so don’t count on a resignation). Even if he just toddles off to play golf all day, even if he gets impeached on Day 1, the zealots he’s hired to hold various offices in his government will be left in charge.
There is so much about him to mock that it’s almost too easy to think we can laugh him to death, but really he’s the least of our worries.
In unrelated news – You guys, I just got a sponsored post on my FB feed inviting me to see The Red Pill screening in London this Saturday.
Billed as “The film Feminists don’t want you to see. Feminist filmmaker Cassie Jaye examines all of the issues raised by the Mens Rights Movement.”
I notice that only 15 people have said they’re “going”, and there are 58 people “interested”. What that’ll mean in terms of actual turn-out I dunno, but the 9 comments I can see range from tepid, to mildly disgusted that this has shown up on their feed.
I just hope TRP doesn’t get normalised, as if it’s just another kind of opinion or preference. My one hope is that Trump’s presidency will throw a spotlight on the alt-right and expose the nasty crawling, seething, bugs underneath the stone, y’know?
The media’s mostly been content to ignore the manosphere, or just regard it as a curiosity when part of it rises to the surface of The Real World and draws some attention. Now they might actually name it for what it is.
But I have a feeling that the phrase “alt-right” is just going to be uncritically absorbed into political discussions and become known as an “alternative” to centrist politics as Soy milk is to dairy. It’s already happening on Channel 4 news discussions.
QFT.
More like “… as rubbing alcohol is to ethanol.”
Interesting development in the Philando Castille case.
Of course, the virdict (should the case actually go to trial” will be “not guilty”, because the cops are always, Always, ALWAYS, ALL-FUCKING-WAYS justified.