The Trump Presidency

[jfb]

I mostly agree, but there are places where gerrymandering cannot be overcome with sufficient turnout; that's the whole point.  Not unless a certain proportion of voters in those districts realize they've been had.  Especially with current voter suppression tactics.

Yeah, gerrymandering has to be fixed at the state level, which honestly is where we need to fix most of our attention in 2018 and 2020.

[twik]

It does make me sorry for Melania, though. Yes, she agreed to sell herself to be pawed by an obnoxious old man. But she seems to be a shy, introverted person, and I don't think she realized she was signing up to be a public figure, in a country and language not her own. And inexcusably, the administration has failed to give her a strong support staff that could at least create a public persona comfortable with her role. I can truly believe she wept on realizing this was going to be her life now.

Yeah....this "shy introverted person" managed to get from a 2 bed apartment in a former Eastern Bloc country to the White House via the medium of modelling, soft-porn photoshoots some of which included simulated lesbian sex scenes. I cannot think of anyone that less likely fits the description of a "shy introverted person". I think that " single-minded focus", "scheming" and someone that is more than happy to use her sexual talents and attributes to sleep her way to the top is probably far more apt.

You may be right about scheming or single-minded. But I've never seen a First Lady who looks so ill-at-ease in her position. Her body language consistently screams "Get me out of here!" rather than "Look at me! I'm on top of the world!"

As I said, I think she sold herself to an old man for money. But I'm pretty sure that she never figured being a public figure into it. She looks like imposter syndrome weighs heavily on her. She knows this isn't a role she was cut out for, and her attempts at smiling through it are pitiable. And I'm sure Trump gives her no praise for what success she has, and plenty of criticism if he feels she doesn't make him look good.

[Zakalwe]

You may be right about scheming or single-minded. But I've never seen a First Lady who looks so ill-at-ease in her position. Her body language consistently screams "Get me out of here!" rather than "Look at me! I'm on top of the world!"

As I said, I think she sold herself to an old man for money. But I'm pretty sure that she never figured being a public figure into it. She looks like imposter syndrome weighs heavily on her. She knows this isn't a role she was cut out for, and her attempts at smiling through it are pitiable. And I'm sure Trump gives her no praise for what success she has, and plenty of criticism if he feels she doesn't make him look good.

i'm sure that she sobs herself to sleep every night on a pile of dollar bills.

[twik]

I doubt Trump lets her spend a dime without his OK. He doesn't act like an old fool who believes this beautiful younger woman's loins burn for him. He acts like a man who purchased, in his words "a hot piece of ***."

Sure, she's not suffering like immigrant women who are suddenly facing deportation, or women who need health insurance, or all those women who've been dealt body blows by the Trump administration. But I don't think she's happy where she is. Let's just say that the day she gets her widow's weeds out will be the day she'll wear the most genuine smile she's had since Trump started to run.

[Zakalwe]

But I don't think she's happy where she is. Let's just say that the day she gets her widow's weeds out will be the day she'll wear the most genuine smile she's had since Trump started to run.

Indeed.
I'm sure the substantial inheritance will help to wash away the memories of Trumps corpulent mass humping away on her..... 

As Nicholas Soame's first wife once said that sex with Soames was "like having a wardrobe fall on top of you with the key sticking out"

[gillianren]

I also rather dislike the idea that rich people aren't allowed to be unhappy, even if the thing that makes them unhappy is of their own doing.  Yes, she made the choice to marry him, one she probably regrets.  But unless she herself is a terrible person--which I have no reason to assume she is--how do you think she likes bringing up her son in that environment, with that father?  It's not surprising to me that the only one of the adult offspring who seems at all normal is the one whose mother kept her from being influenced by her father as much as possible.  And I know someone who knows people who work at Barron's school, and he's apparently a pretty decent kid.  I'm sure his mother would like him to stay that way, and she's seen the older sons.

[twik]

So, it appears that Trump wants, someday, to go to Mars.

But for the time being, NASA gets severe cuts on studying climate change.

[Zakalwe]

So, it appears that Trump wants, someday, to go to Mars.

But for the time being, NASA gets severe cuts on studying climate change.

He also talked about going to the Moon, but funded next to nothing. The old adage applies "No bucks, no Buck Rogers"

[gillianren]

He apparently wants to privatize the ISS, which I'm pretty sure he can't do.

[jfb]

As someone on another forum pointed out, Presidential budgets are aspirational; the Congressional budget is what becomes law.  Trump already signed the two-year budget deal passed by Congress, so his budget is pretty much just a long read. 

[Zakalwe]

Just when I think that there's surely no more ways for this bloviating sack of sh1te to disgust me, he manages to find one:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/02/op-ed-the-story-behind-the-satellite-that-trump-wants-dead/

"By trying to kill this program, people in the administration are sending two messages. One is that everything they've been saying when they try to explain why they're taking no actions on climate change is a sham—they don't actually believe any of it. And the second message is they'd rather waste millions of taxpayers' dollars than gather data that could possibly tell us we need to act."

[twik]

He specifically wants to defund the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, because he thinks that anyone or anything that mentions those nasty ole greenhouse gases is his personal enemy.

[gillianren]

Who has to write down "I'm listening" as a response to people in crisis?  Then again, I'd also thought he was functionally illiterate, so at least he can read it.

[Glom]

Oh boo hoo. You think you got problems? At least in three years you'll be done with this. In three years, our problems will only be just beginning.

What hope for us when a country that has an unelected head of government, an unelected head of state, an unelected upper chamber, an unelected civil service*, acts like somehow we're being oppressed because we don't get to directly vote for the President of the European Council, who doesn't even have legislative or executive power. Perhaps illusion might describe the mindset.

* not that I have a problem with most of that though I'm open minded about Lords reform

Sorry. Someone was wrong on the Internet and it got me worked up. I restrain myself from participating in the places I read, so I dumped here where noone will see it.

[Bryanpoprobson]

Saturdays UK Daily Telegraph.