Trump 2018: Resistance is Never Futile

[lionheart]

To pick up on the Star Trek motif.

I don't think it will be one thing that ends trump. The Mueller investigation adds pressure and an obvious legitimacy to critisicm, but it won't end him anytime soon on its own. However, combined with ongoing campaigns against his actions, rising political engagement, international pressure, and hopefully a bad show for the GOP in 2018, and I think we have something.

It's going to be a storm not a single sharp shower that washes this shit away.

Thank you all for your words of encouragement and reality-checking my fervent wishes.

Seeing Bigly’s name, I am reminded of something that’s niggled for a while. Did Trump actually say bigly, or was itva mishearing of him saying “big league” as a magnifier/adjective? I’ve quietly wondered this for a while.

TheClaws, same boat here with a neurological condition. But though I don't think we can make an actual diagnosis of 45, I do think it's completely fair to scrutinise someone who has actively sought a responsible job he's unable to carry out. I don't even put myself forward for voluntary roles when I don't think I'll be able to deliver - part of managing my condition so it doesn't hurt other people.

It's not a pleasant situation to be in; sorry to hear you're also suffering.

BTW it's been striking me quite forcibly that 45 does things I do during a flare up.

That two-handed holding of the cup and weird dipping of his head down to the water, for instance. That looks like me on days I'm not sure I can safely get the cup all the way up, on target, and tip it just the right amount.

I also wouldn't be surprised if his love of burgers and KFC is getting a boost from a desire to avoid wrangling cutlery.

But I doubt we'll know all this stuff for definite any time soon.

As for this upcoming medical... he's as likely to release complete and honest medical results as he is to release his tax returns. Obfuscation, misdirection, cherry-picking and a sudden technical inability to release details are much more likely.

Yes, I don’t think the conclusion of
Mueller’s investigation will be a moment of reckoning for him but I do find it amazing that there is a special prosecutor at all - it seems unfathomable to imagine that the GOP would allow something like that to happen in the current climate.

This is the sort of thing they do now, actively and unabashedly

The Senate Intelligence Committee Is Prepping To Wrap Up Their Russia Investigation Early Next Year

“We have a pretty good idea of sort of the architecture of what we’re looking at,” Committee Chair Richard Burr said.

www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/emmaloop/the-senate-intelligence-committee-is-prepping-to-wrap-up?utm_term=.mdl0NV4OJ&__twitter_impression=true

Did they allow the appointment of mueller because times were more normal then (or things have gotten even less normal now)? Could they not see that there was the potential to establish obstruction of justice - which is hard to imagine given trump went on tv and confessed that it was - or did they not care because they thought that ultimately it wouldn’t be allowed to be completed/acted upon? Or did they not think they would ever lose power due to voter suppression/gerrymandering/creating an alternative universe through fox? Hopefully people are engaged enough now to recognise these hurdles and fight to clear them as they did in Alabama, in all the special election successes this year, and the swing back to more liberal values will be borne out in the polling booth, despite all the obstacles the gop place, but though I think it’ll be the collective power of the people that affects change, I’m still glad that mueller is in place and quietly beavering away.

He'll delay the medical somehow. God, I hope he doesn't launch a missile or something to avoid it.

BBH it was a mishearing of ‘big league’. He slurred the two words together into ‘bigly’, and as that matched the geography of his usual vocabulary, it stuck.

Perking Thank you! You get it. It does make me uneasy though, especially when I hear his symptoms discussed cruelly.

Who is conducting the medical and how do we know that the results will be released?

Caveat...might have imagined this, but..

I think I read somewhere it was being done by the same person as did Obama's and they said they would release them. Of course, whether they will actually be allowed to is another matter all together.

Didn't imagine it

www.newsweek.com/president-trump-very-overweight-wont-stop-eating-burgers-and-drinking-soda-763604

The White House announced Thursday that Trump will undergo his first physical since becoming president on January 12. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the exam will be at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. The White House physician, Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson, will examine the president, just as he did for Barack Obama.

Phew! That's a relief. Thanks Pain

I'd love to watch the physical. Followed by that IQ test.

Is it usual to have a medical at this stage in the Presidency, or are they quietly laying the groundwork for him to bow out due to medical issues? I think the timing is interesting, in that he would just about manage a year so he could chalk it up as a bigly win but then step down in a face-saving way.

After all, the usual "spending more time with my family" won't wash if they're all in chokey or not permitted to hang out together due to legal issues.

edition.cnn.com/2017/12/07/politics/president-donald-trump-physical/index.html

Past presidents have typically undergone annual physical examinations with a military doctor and released those records to the public.

President Barack Obama's first physical record was released on February 28, 2010. President George W. Bush's was first released August 4, 2001.

The records release will be the first time the American public gets a legitimate accounting of the health of the 45th President, who at age 71 is the oldest of any President at this point in his tenure.

Trump released a clean bill of health from his longtime personal physician last year that was widely panned as laughable for lacking details and offering an over-the-top portrait of Trump's health.

"If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency," Trump's physician of 25 years, Dr. Harold Bornstein, said in a signed statement in December 2015.

Bornstein declared then that Trump "has had no significant medical problems" and called Trump's blood pressure and lab results "astonishingly excellent."

Trump's health has also come back into the fore in recent days because of a book written by Corey Lewandowski, in which his former campaign manager describes Trump's fast food-fueled diet.

Trump's typical order from McDonald's, Lewandowski wrote, consisted of "two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fish and a chocolate malted."

This is less verified

Is The President Required To Have An Annual Physical?

www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/11/22/is-the-president-required-to-have-an-annual-physical/

Excellent.
I think Americans who have adequate insurance tend to have annual physicals?

Some Russia news

Exclusive: Russian tankers fuelled North Korea via transfers at sea - sources

www.reuters.com/article/northkorea-missiles-russia-oil-exclusive/exclusive-russian-tankers-fuelled-north-korea-via-transfers-at-sea-sources-idINKBN1EN1PP?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5a4750e204d3012ef0d97cdd&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

And (standard language barrier disclaimer)

Mikhail Golub
@golub
Putin’s propagandist says Russia might cut off gas supplies to Germany and supply weapons to North Korea as an answer to sanction

twitter.com/golub/status/947006584638623744

And

U.S. MILITARY PREPARES FOR WINTER WAR WITH NORTH KOREA, RUSSIA BY BUYING THOUSANDS OF SKIS

www.newsweek.com/us-military-prepares-winter-war-north-korea-russia-and-buys-thousands-skis-765471?utm_campaign=NewsweekTwitter&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social

And

Russia sentences fund head Browder who campaigned in Magnitsky case

www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-court-browder/russia-sentences-fund-head-browder-who-campaigned-in-magnitsky-case-idUSKBN1EN17C?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5a468e5a04d3012c97ebc25e&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

And

Putin tells Assad Russia will help defend Syrian sovereignty: Kremlin

www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-russia/putin-tells-assad-russia-will-help-defend-syrian-sovereignty-kremlin-idUSKBN1EO06P

And

Senators scrap Russia trip after Kremlin snubs Shaheen

The Democratic senator backed sanctions against Russia and called for a crackdown against Kaspersky Lab.

www.politico.com/story/2017/12/29/senators-scrap-russia-trip-after-kremlin-shahen-snub-319632

I'm feeling along the same lines as Bigly. I think at this point what we can hope for is a 'delegitimatization' (if that's even a word) of Scrotus' presidency and by extension, the GOP led 115th Congress. This would make it easier to repeal or amend any/all of the egregious EOs and legislation that they've pushed through.

I think this is why we are seeing a decrease in verbal support/praise for Scrotus by many GOP legislators. If you parse their actual words, it's not praise of him, but more murmuring about 'aims' and 'agenda' that happen to coincide with some of his rhetoric, whilst disavowing that rhetoric itself. They're preparing themselves to hold on tight to the new tax laws, welfare policies, and the anti-environmental shit they've done. Plus, they're going to want to be able to run for reelection without a yuge lump of Scrotus stuck to their shoes like dog shit. But they are forgetting that old adage "Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas".

I don't think Scrotus has dementia, or any type of neurological condition. My dad had a progressive neurological condition. He used two hands to drink, he often times had that look of 'pained concentration'. He slurred and/or 'couldn't find' words. But it didn't turn him into a bullying, bigoted, misogynistic arsehole. Dad was the same lovely, loving man until the day he died. Scrotus is just a twisted, evil, egotistical piece of inhuman offal. I know we badly want anything that will remove him from office, but we can't start to conflate physical or mental 'symptoms' with evil or selfish words or actions. That's a slippery slope, imo.

As far as releasing the results of his physical, it will be interesting. But sky-high cholesterol, hypertension, and obesity aren't reasons to remove from office. And remember that many forms of dementia don't show up on test results. According to his son, Reagan was exhibiting signs of Alzheimer's during his second term. He had an annual physical, too.

It's always been a part of the equation, hasn't it?

'The President is standing down for health reasons and the good of the country.'

The announcement of the January medical seemed a rather rapid response to the slurred speech.

Thanks for the new thread, lion - love the title's variation on the Star Trek theme. I'm Kingingon to the hope that this will be the year Trump is beamed to infinity and beyond..

*or even Klingingon - cripes, my eyes are bad at the moment!

Oh I completely agree that he hasn't suddenly turned into a bullying, bigoted, misogynistic arsehole because of some neurological condition - his life is well-enough documented that we know he's long been the above.

But I suspect he may now have a medical condition as well.

Great combo for a commander-in-chief.

Agree with Perking. I was going to post something similar.

He's nasty and he's mentally unwell on top. I suspect his mental condition makes his nastiness worse, as the filter is weaker, but power itself is probably a stronger catalyst than anything else.

I agree that he may well have some form of dementia which accentuates his underlying nastiness - I think sometimes dementia will lay bare the bones of a personality so there is no veneer of "correctness" to hide behind.

thehill.com/policy/healthcare/366728-gop-could-push-medicaid-cuts-in-2018

100 days later.

www.newsweek.com/puerto-rico-recovery-100-days-hurricane-maria-760965?utm_campaign=NewsweekTwitter&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social