The one where Trump just can't stop being Trump

[TheClaws]

Time for a new 'un.

Old thread here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2958743-Its-too-hot-for-high-drama-but-nonetheless-we-persist-Trump-cont

Wages aren't rising, though.

Wages aren't rising, though

Sounds like the UK. More jobs. But no wage growth. Are the jobs the right kind of jobs? Are they paying enough? Full time or part time?

Just saying there's more jobs hides a whole load of truths.

Her second ever tweet!

Sally Yates @SallyQYates
POTUS' inexplicable refusal to confirm Russian election interference insults career intel pros & hinders our ability to prevent in future.

Perhaps we could have a caption competition?! Pic from today...

Trump: Hey Angela
Merkel: Oh no...
Trump: Angela... I'm back
Merkel: Excuse me, I need the bathroom
Trump: Angela I want to talk about NATO
Merkel:

Just saw that tweet Pain.

I think Merkel has great sense when it comes to spotting a meme op.

more on that Warsaw speech

Love this

Merkel: OK Donny, I 'm going to count to a million and you have to hide as far away as possible. 1, 2, 3...no don't tell me where you're going to hide!

Felix Sater turned informant? If true, that will be very interesting.

Meanwhile, remember months back we were saying that a monarchic regime doesn't need a state department because it's all about making deals with the ruling family and favoured courtiers?

Now fully in swing:
The guilty secret of every diplomat in Washington DC
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-40534572

This is how banana republics behave.

180K new jobs!!! Hooray! What's that you say? 120K of them are at fast food outlets paying $7.70/hour and 40K of them are at Walmart paying $10.00/hr and only 20k are at a salary high enough to actually pay your bills and put food on the table? Ok.

The thing about the 'increased jobs in healthcare' is that it doesn't show the wages or nature of those new jobs. To me it's more about new jobs at a living wage than just jobs themselves many of which include minimum or near minimum wage work. Conversely, an increase in the number doctors and nurses, while great for patient care, doesn't really help the rank and file of unemployed and 'under-skilled' workers.

Pain

Perking it is alarming to see how quickly this has all happened.

I like your caption, Pain you should tweet it out ...

I hope Sater has turned.

Here's a battle that will go on forever (unless there is impeachment or imprisonment and they decide on a new star).

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/07/donald-trump-hollywood-star-walk-of-fame-clean-dirty

Not a bad thing to have added some well-sourced stats to the thread, Pain, even if the result of overheating.

This. This is brilliant. Putin tries mansplaining....Merkel rolls eyes. Love her!

twitter.com/fionaadorno/status/883321202286120960

I seem to remember Candidate Trump attacking the same figures used to calculate employment, jobs and unemployment levels.

Funny how being President makes you look at numbers differently

I'm terrible at coping with the heat despite being brown

This was proposed before but if trump's actually agreed to set up a cyber security group with Purim, might this be a last straw for the GOP? Depriving vulnerable people of healthcare to give tax breaks to the wealthy is one thing but surely selling American democracy down the river in such a blatant way is a step too far?

Lucian Kim @Lucian_Kim
Lavrov: Putin, Trump agreed to
-secure Syrian ceasefire
-open channel on Ukraine
-start working group on cybersecurity
-name new ambassadors

Russia-born dealmaker linked to Trump assists laundering probe
www.ft.com/content/159eb2d8-6162-11e7-8814-0ac7eb84e5f1?mhq5j=e2

Cybersecurity.

But who do they think will buy this? Trump's base? Putin's?

That is bizarre.

This conjures a certain kind of image:

thehill.com/homenews/administration/341013-first-lady-sent-in-to-end-trump-putin-meeting

Photo caption:
Merkel: "If I can't see you, you can't see me."
Trump: "Don't be silly, that trick only works when I do it!"

AgNu

Perking seeing it laid out so explicitly that other nations are remarketing their agendas to be liked by trump is pretty sobering (Mexico rebranding "war on drugs" as "war on terror" etc). How can this giant toddler be in charge?

The end of the article is no more cheery:

And while the White House press corps have derided Mr Trump's Twitter diplomacy, some of his allies have a grudging respect for it.

"An awful lot of politicians around the world are watching this and thinking, 'Can I learn from it?' because it's been astonishingly successful," one diplomat told me.

"This is a guy who had never run for public office anywhere and the first time he runs, he gets the biggest job on the planet. So he did something right."

Yes, it's really telling, isn't it?

And the end of the article is plain scary. I mean, we can list some of the things he and his crew "did right". It's possible they'll add up to treason.

lionheart The very flimsy pretext is for trump's base's benefit I think. The demonisation of the press has paved the way for trump's base to dismiss concerns they present about any cybersecurity deal, and trump himself has disparaged the intelligence community so of course there's nothing to worry about!

If you've invested your hopes into a person, rather than principles, it becomes a lot easier to disregard everything that might be inconvenient.

That's why I'm also a bit weary about all the corbyn love - I think he is principled but nobody should be exempt from being critiqued and analysed. If merely asking questions about policy etc is seen as disloyal, you've veered into "cult of personality" territory and that's not useful.