What Does This Button Do?
So, it turns out, the Transition is not exactly going smoothly. From the WSJ:
During their private White House meeting on Thursday, Mr. Obama walked his successor through the duties of running the country, and [Dat Guy] seemed surprised by the scope, said people familiar with the meeting. [Dat Guy’s] aides were described by those people as unaware that the entire presidential staff working in the West Wing had to be replaced at the end of Mr. Obama’s term.
I don’t mind so much that they’re unfamiliar with ALL the intricacies of the Federal Government. I do mind that none of them has ever watched a West Wing episode. Or Schoolhouse Rock.
There’s a song? This job is hard!
After meeting with [Dat Guy], the only person to be elected president without having held a government or military position, Mr. Obama realized the Republican needs more guidance. He plans to spend more time with his successor than presidents typically do, people familiar with the matter said.
Seventy years of blithering ignorance. I appreciate your attention to duty, Mr Last Real President For Awhile Obama, but do you really hope to change that in him in 70 days?
God bless President Obama. It must be taking every bit of fortitude he has within himself not to just want to choke [Dat Guy] and his entire Goon Squad. He truly wants to do everything in his power to save us all from these [words not fit for Momma] and I am grateful to him, because seriously, I think we have entered a time of tremendous peril. He can exit the presidency knowing he did his best to get this [words not fit for Momma] as ready as he could to take over the office for which he was elected (choking as I write that part). ugh ugh ugh
I’ve also read unsubstantiated reports that [Dat Guy] doesn’t really want to live in the White House and will be traveling back to his glittering tower in NYC as often as possible. I’m pretty sure he never really wanted to be president and didn’t really think he could lwin. He wanted to have hordes of people cheering him and boosting his ego. The White House is a lonely place, I’ve heard. Not an environment for someone who needs his ego level maintained every day.
This whole situation makes me want to vomit.
1Astonishing but not surprising. Read somewhere that his vocabulary is equivalent to 4th grade. Hum, that might be generous.
2What is even more disturbing about this kind of background story is the realization that ‘Dat Guy’s’ staff will have pretty much no constraints and are perfectly willing to push a button to see what it does.
“Dat Guy” had better hire a lot of new mouths under Conway’s new Department of Gaslighting to start explaining what the heck happened.
3Not change him … merely update his reality horizon.
4The body politic just got handed a reality check that they can’t cover. When a society’s reality check bounces, what does society do?
It doesn’t matter where Trump lives or what he knows. Pence will be running the show and that’s equally terrifying. Trump’s cabinet, The Snake Pit, may end up eating each other.
5We can only pray that Dat Guy will realize how much he needs help from Obama, not those right wing madmen he’s pulling in right now. We need some hope to hang onto.
Me? I’m spending a lot of time watching great South African guides show me lions and leopards and buffalos in life and death struggles on Safari Live. It is a welcome relief from U.S. nightmares. Let me share it with you.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV6HJBZD_hZcIX9JVJ3dCXQ
6Re fourth grade vocabulary. I think Trump talks that way because it’s the best level at which to convince people. Hillary wonked out. Donald didn’t. He’s spent his whole life bullshitting people with simple, but ambiguous words.
I find that bullshitting is best done that way. In 1968, I moved from Berkeley, where language is a revered skill set, to Spokane, Washington, birthplace of the John Birch Society.
I started, with a friend, the Spokane Natural, an alternative newspaper, and a small coffeehouse, the specific purpose of which was to bring Enlightenment to the natives.
It soon became obvious that small words and simple sentence constructions were necessary tools. After we learned that, and repetition, we did all right. 2500 PAID subscriptions to a mimeo’d 16 page broadsheet.
Hillary never moved to red state America, never had to live or die by her listener’s comprehension skills. Too bad.
7Didn’t I tell you Drumpf was more clueless than the last wingnut candidate- RMoney? Even dumbass dubya.
8There was this woman I know of who left a promising East Coast career behind to follow a boyfriend to Fayetteville, Arkansas. There she taught college and started a free law clinic for folks thereabouts. Eventually, they bought a tiny house there and got married in the living room. He ran for Congress and lost. But then he got elected State Attorney General and they moved to Little Rock. And she became the first woman associate at the oldest law firm west of the Mississippi. She lived in Arkansas for almost 2 decades.
But I guess small words, and simple sentences, beat fact-checking, every time.
9Ah, yes, the First Lady of Arkansas was indeed smack dab in the deepest red and managed to connect with “low-information” voters not by what she said, but by what she did. (Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families, Legal Services Corporation, Arkansas Public School Reform) Hillary’s life has been one public service after another.
10“the duties of running the country, and [Dat Guy] seemed surprised by the scope”
My solution would be to just pay Dat Guy part of his salary. Make him an offer, maybe half, until he finally accepts something rather than nothing.
After all, we’re the ones paying, and we’re gonna get nothing rather than something.
11My thought on this is that it’s a “Dog catching car” situation.
12So why not make him this offer– just keep everyone who is currently working in the White House and they will help you.
Hmmmmmmmm.
Also, my daughter who lives in Colorado just called her Rethug Congressman’s office to say he doesn’t need to worry about her birth control situation any more, as she will be getting an IUD next week. Ladies– take a hint and do the same (get one if yu need it, and make the call also.)
13Well, maybe there’s an upside? Since [Dat Guy] and his minions had no idea that they had to staff the west wing, that means they’ll get nothing done till they’ve taken care of that bit of business — oh — late next year sometime. Or later.
I’ve got an idea! Let’s all phone the White House every day and clog up the lines. The longer we can stall them the better.
14This would be funny as a sitcom. Since we can’t turn it off, it’s tragic as hell. I’m still hoping to wake up from this nightmare.
15If I had to pick a previous Prez who resembelled President-elect *****-grabber, I would put my nickel on Warren Harding.
16Linda @ 13, two cross @ 14–Brilliant. I think all smart women still at reproductive age should call their congressman monthly (or more often as needed) to report on the status of their reproductive systems: menstruating, pap smear, refilled birth control, etc.
Maggie at 16–I’ve heard Herbert Hoover (think Great Depression).
I saw comments on a Facebook page that “educated” Snacilbuper voted for C.J because of his “economic policies.” I didn’t want to be ugly so I didn’t ask which policy he has and why they believe *that* b.s. when he’s led so much about everything else.
17There are several memes going around about Joe Biden’s plans to say goodbye too the WH and hello to the Cheetoh-faced Ferret-wearing Shitgibbon Cocksplat. They’re very funny and you can see them here:
https://goo.gl/7FmT7d
18Time to call Temps4Hire, right?
Hey! I didn’t vote for this. Don’t look at me!
19I hope with all my heart that Trump will not attain the presidency. This is because I love my country. But if Trump does attain the presidency, I will do everything I can to oppose him.
20maggie, I’m sure LBJ grabbed a few in his day, but his policies (except on Vietnam) were good.
I’d say Harding too, as someone who was clueless and incompetent. Reportedly his wife wanted him to be president, and when he was elected he turned to her and said, “Now what?” He definitely wrote to a friend that he had no idea what he was doing– “Maybe there’s a book somewhere that would tell me what to do, but I don’t know where to find it, and I probably couldn’t read it if I did….” But at least Harding was sensible enough to know that he didn’t know. Trump is worse because he thinks he’s a genius. “I have a very good brain.” It must be in a jar on his desk because his is Abbie Normal.
21Perhaps he’ll get so overloaded and frustrated in the next 2 weeks that he’ll ask all his designated electors to vote for someone else.
22Debbo @ 18: those Biden memes are the only thing making me smile this week. I can so see him saying all those things!
23@Trish–Bannion (sp?) will never let that happen.
I plan to disrupt any racist, sexist, bullying I see loudly and repeatedly. Maybe the creeps will slink away, maybe not, but I won’t be silent.
24Trish and others: Let’s lay off the dope pipe and pipe dreams. He’s going nowhere. To come this far and drop from the history books? I think not. He’s in for four and, good or bad, he will dust of his hands and walk away thinking he’s been the bestest president ever. And he’ll be ever so much richer, too. So what if a bunch of Americans get killed, our economy is trashed, our debt balloons to OMG levels, our freedoms have been shredded and the world sees us as the losers we have become… he’ll be just fine! That alone should keep you warm on a cold night, shouldn’t it? USA! USA! USA!
“Well it’s too late, baby, now it’s too late…”
25Carole King.