Open Thread Jan. 12: Shithole Fallout
Maybe the mind is so shot that Donald Trump truly believes he didn’t call countries full of dark-skinned people “shitholes” yesterday. That’s certainly how he tried to play it today, claiming he has a “wonderful relationship with Haitians.” I’m guessing he employs some at his Florida properties — they work cheap.
Sen. Dick Durbin put the kibosh on that lie, confirming Trump said it, adding “repeatedly.” What will Congress do about it? Probably nothing, because we all know they won’t go against Trump. Nevertheless, Jonathan Alter suggests a move far short of impeachment: an official censure.
Andrew Jackson — whose painting Steve Bannon told Trump to hang in the Oval Office — is the only president ever censured (for not turning over certain bank documents). Senator Joe McCarthy was censured in 1954 for dishonoring the Senate with his anti-Communist character assassination, which was engineered by Trump’s mentor, Roy Cohn. Censure is what I and a lot of other people argued was the right punishment for Bill Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky case. It wasn’t enough for Republicans who backed impeachment—some of the same Republicans (I’m looking at you, Orrin Hatch) who today think Trump is “one of the best” presidents.
Alter acknowledges it almost certainly wouldn’t happen, but argues it would be the smart thing for Republicans to do if they don’t want to lose control of him altogether.
But they aren’t smart, and they aren’t doing their jobs, either. Michael Tomasky argues that if the Republicans in Congresskeep failing to fulfill their constitutional duties, we are no longer functioning as a democracy.
More evidence that Trump is losing it came in his interview with the Wall Street Journal, summarized at length here. One highlight among many:
Let me, let me tell you something about the wall. So I’ve always said we have to have a wall. I’ve also said Mexico’s got to pay for it—sometimes you know on occasion, I’d add who’s going to pay for it? Mexico. Well they will pay for it, OK? There are many forms of payment. I could name 10 right now. There are many forms of payment, I didn’t say how.
Many liberals think Trump’s supporters will never abandon him, and I’m sure some never will — hell, 18% of New Jersey voters still approve of Chris Christie. But many more are just people who were snookered by a con man, like the workers at that Carrier plant in Indiana who are now being laid off, and they realize it now. Remember, it’s easy to get people to believe something they want to believe, but very few of them are so resistant to reality that they’ll believe it forever.
In Arizona, the “establishment” politician Republicans want for the Senate race to replace Jeff Flake announced her candidacy yesterday. Rep. Martha McSally, a former Air Force colonel and fighter pilot, told her party to grow a pair of ovaries. Why, so Donald Trump can grab them?
I’m beginning to wonder if Trump is so deranged that a case can be made that he’s not responsible for his actions. Legally, that is. Although I don’t think he’ll face prosecution, I’m wondering (if I’m wrong and) if he does face prosecution if he could use that as a defense. But perhaps his ego would never allow that kind of admission of impairment.
I think that’s the only possible future, because they’ll prop him up as long as possible, so he’ll be far gone before they’ll give up. My thinking is based on the idea — unproven, but I think there’s strong evidence of it — that his mind is declining and the high probability that it will continue to do so.
He’s already at the point he can’t reliably remember what he said yesterday. I don’t believe that all of his denials are simply lies. People in mental decline lose their grip slowly, but often they realize what’s going on and compensate by faking their way through interactions. It’s the short-term memory that slips most frequently.
That’s exactly what his exchange with Feinstein looked like to me.
You could very well be correct, Alby. It’s just hard to adjust to the thought of feeling sorry for him.
I dunno, Dana. Is he not truly the least of these? He looks like a man beset by demons. He made them himself, sure, but this is a tormented man.
He’s despicable, as Daffy Duck would say, but he’s always been like this, though in the past he was better able to put on a charming act. The guilty ones here are the Republicans in Congress. Either Mike Pence is really despised or they’re afraid of Trump’s orcs, er, base. Their minds aren’t going, but their courage skedaddled long ago.
AAAAAAAnd now the GOP senators who where in the room are standing by their master. color me shocked. This, like every other outrage will fade into normalcy. Alby, understand this. The current GOP congresspeople will never vote their leader out. Fuck dude, at this point, I dont even trust our Delaware senators to fight him.
And no sympathy for this fucker ever. The more painful his decline is for him and his family, the better.
The real evil bastards rarely face anything close to justice. I hope his last conscious thought is utter humiliation and his progeny has to change their name to avoid rotten tomatoes everywhere they go.
I’ll settle for seeing his progeny in jail, even briefly.
You can say what you want about his diminishing capacities but there is one thing that he is correct on – nothing can hurt him. Censure? How did that affect Bill Clinton’s life? Impeachment? He’ll go back to living a life better than any other president. The only thing that could really hurt him is prison – 10+ years. And that’s never going to happen
Funny, he always looks like he’s in a lot of pain. Something’s sure hurting him.
Constipation.
Good thing Trump did not call Countries a “Shit Show”, like Obama did in 2016, that would have been really bad!
He was talking about the political situation in Libya. Keep digging, Rusty, there’s a pony somewhere under that horseshit.
Alby, well then, it’s ok
I started commenting on this blog around 2009. At that time I suggested that the amount of cussing here might be inappropriate
because it can be seen in public. So Bullo proceeded in Spanish to call me and my mother pretty much every bad name in the book. Many of you have called me an F***ing idiot dozens and dozens of times. I am glad to finnally see that the word Shit hole bothers you, maybe you are finally coming around.
Shut up you fucking dildo. It isn’t the word it is the racism you twat.
“So Bullo proceeded in Spanish to call me and my mother pretty much every bad name in the book.”
Uh, Rusty, ‘Bulo (Bullo) is a character I made up. I don’t really speak Spanish. Didn’t even take it in school.
So you are, what’s the word I’m looking for, lying.
Bullo, my apologies, it was some other regular on this blog
Who called you and your mom every imaginable swear word in Spanish.
Right.
Rusty, here’s the thing. If you’re gonna be a successful con man, something your history suggests you sought to be (yes, we can work the ‘Google’ here at DL), you gotta be able to work the con. Maybe that’s why you failed as a con man in real life.
Hey, why don’tcha check out our archives to see who cussed you out in Spanish? Until then, the best I’ve got for you is ‘mucho estupido’.
Rusty, you are such an idiot snowflake. You should be happy, ass hole. Your Daddy Donny is President!
Dick head Durbin opposed chain migration years ago, now he fights for it? Liberals are two faced cowards.