If This Was What Day One Of The Trump Administration Was Like...

Joe Scarborough, GOP shill and Trump bootlicker, on how Day One of the Trump administration went:

The Trump Administration's 1st day was deeply troubling to intel agents, journalists and allies. For the sake of all, Day 2 must be better.

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) January 22, 2017

Here was the "failing" New York Times (as Trump likes to term it) on how Day One went in a piece entitled With False Claims, Trump Attacks Media on Turnout and Intelligence Rift:

WASHINGTON — President Trump used his first full day in office on Saturday to unleash a remarkably bitter attack on the news media, falsely accusing journalists of both inventing a rift between him and intelligence agencies and deliberately understating the size of his inauguration crowd.

In a visit to the Central Intelligence Agency intended to showcase his support for the intelligence community, Mr. Trump ignored his own repeated public statements criticizing the intelligence community, a group he compared to Nazis just over a week ago.

He also called journalists “among the most dishonest human beings on earth,” and he said that up to 1.5 million people had attended his inauguration, a claim that photographs disproved.

Later, at the White House, he dispatched Sean Spicer, the press secretary, to the briefing room in the West Wing, where Mr. Spicer scolded reporters and made a series of false statements.

He said news organizations had deliberately misstated the size of the crowd at Mr. Trump’s inauguration on Friday in an attempt to sow divisions at a time when Mr. Trump was trying to unify the country, warning that the new administration would hold them to account.

 The statements from the new president and his spokesman came as hundreds of thousands of people protested against Mr. Trump, a crowd that appeared to dwarf the one that gathered the day before when he was sworn in. It was a striking display of invective and grievance at the dawn of a presidency, usually a time when the White House works to set a tone of national unity and to build confidence in a new leader.

Instead, the president and his team appeared embattled and defensive, signaling that the pugnacious style Mr. Trump employed as a candidate will persist now that he has ascended to the nation’s highest office.

Here's what Day One looked like on the Washington Mall as hundreds of thousands protested Trump as part of the Women's March :

Overhead shot in Washington, D.C. shows massive crowds in every direction rallying for Women's March on Washington https://t.co/o3Al1Fo3N4 pic.twitter.com/3MxtAbOTDD

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 21, 2017

Millions across the country (and the world) took to the streets in similar protests:

NYC today. 42nd and 2nd. pic.twitter.com/vgiLljt7Bs

— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) January 21, 2017

An aerial view of the Chicago #WomensMarch right now (+150k people). pic.twitter.com/0OufEmSWU2

— Zach Stafford (@ZachStafford) January 21, 2017

This is happening at the #WomensMarch in #Denver. Media can air the prayer farce all they want. You won't ignore us! pic.twitter.com/2CBPAZc7mK

— sammyemerson (@sammyemerson) January 21, 2017

We’re in a helicopter high over the #WomensMarch in Boston. Watch on Facebook Live https://t.co/6UvxfnW14A pic.twitter.com/HPZgpX9ihL

— CNN (@CNN) January 21, 2017

Thank you Los Angeles for marching (and standing 😉) today. #HearOurVoice #WomensMarchLA pic.twitter.com/eSDrJ65Kq5

— Women's March LA (@wmnsmarchla) January 22, 2017

Blown away by the crowd sizes https://t.co/RMy9ksWVJN

— Andrew Fishman (@AndrewDFish) January 22, 2017

Day Two picked up where Day One left off, with embattled Trump shills still spewing lies, propaganda and horseshit:

"Alternative facts are not facts. They are falsehoods," Chuck Todd tells Pres. Trump's counselor Kellyanne Conway this morning. WATCH: pic.twitter.com/Ao005dQ13r

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) January 22, 2017

If this is how the beginning of the Trump administration is going, imagine what will happen when there is a real crisis to handle?

Some are worried that Trump has rendered truth and facts moot, that he has inaugurated a post-truth society wherein his deplorables will always believe him over their lying eyes and continue to go to the mattresses to protect him:

Re Spicer's lies, this is from someone who worked in a past administration. Important read. pic.twitter.com/XrjLJHRAGL

— Anna Rascouët-Paz (@rascouet) January 22, 2017

There's something to this, of course, but Trump is beyond the campaign now and while there will be a certain percentage of deplorables who stick with him no matter what, there is a level of incompetence and insanity going on here that anybody who isn't completely incompetent and/or insane themselves will eventually see (if they haven't already.)

It's clear from yesterday that Trump is in way over his head, that he is incapable of growing into the job and that he is going to govern abysmally.

It is also clear from yesterday that A) the opposition to Trump is large and growing and B) many in the media are not going to take bullshit from the Trumpsters lying down without calling them on it.

Conservatives and wingers want Trump to get on with the job of gutting the government - but the fatal flaws in Trump's character may be the best defense against that:

@RMConservative @ShannonJoyRadio You understand that w/ Trump, that's what he cares most, yes? Crowd size, ratings, etc

— rbe (@perdidostschool) January 22, 2017

@RMConservative @ShannonJoyRadio If you supported DT, you will own the insanity of next 4 yrs. Yesterday was a preview.

— rbe (@perdidostschool) January 22, 2017

In sum, Benjamin Dixon on how best to combat Trump:

The easiest path to Trump's self-destruction is his ego. https://t.co/7KdjbsEcvP

— Benjamin Dixon 🌹 (@TheBpDShow) January 22, 2017

And would add:

This ridiculous whining by Trump and Sean Spicer is a pretty clear sign the pressure is working. Keep it up, everyone.

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) January 21, 2017

Brexit Redux

Dem elites and Clinton shills are already taking aim at Sanders people or Greens, blaming Trump's victory on them.

As usual with the elites and their functionaries, they miss the truth.

This is Brexit Redux:

It's not a "stunning upset," as NYT says. It's elites' continued failure to understand the trauma people experienced during and after 2008.

— Nicole Gelinas (@nicolegelinas) November 9, 2016

And just so we can get the "The Greens did this!" bullshit out of the way:

Take Jill Stein out of the equation, Trump still wins. Hillary get's MI and WI, but not PA, FL, OH. Anyone telling you others is uninformed pic.twitter.com/Xj1jY9tXX5

— Benjamin Dixon (@TheBpDShow) November 9, 2016

And anyone saying Gary Johnson voters would have ever voted for Clinton has never met libertarians. Run from their commentary. Run quickly

— Benjamin Dixon (@TheBpDShow) November 9, 2016

Clinton shills did a lot of mocking this year, first the Sanders people during the primary, then the Trump supporters during the general.

One thing Clinton and her shills never did - try and understand the real pain and terror many in this country feel over their economic futures.

A lot of those people sent a big "Fuck You!" to the elites last night, though I think that will come back to bite them in the end.

A Republican president with a Republican Senate and a Republican House is going to do a lot of damage in the short term.

Add in all the crazies Trump is sure to bring along - Rudy, Christie, maybe Palin - and it's even worse.

As for the Supreme Court, that strategy Obama pursued doesn't look so hot now either - the chance to transform the Supreme Court is now lost to Dems.

Remember that union case that ended up 4-4 after Scalia died?

You can bet another case like that one is going to rear sooner rather than later and those automatic dues the union elites lap up will go out the window with Clinton's electoral map to victory.

It's going to be a very tough few years.

The "Fuck you!" sent last night, as with the one the British sent with Brexit, is going to be a costly one in the end.

But I blame Dem elites for this mess - this loss is squarely on HRC and her neoliberal cohorts.

This ought to be a wake-up call to Dem elites that neoliberalism must go and the party needs to embrace a true populist agenda.

But I'm under no illusions that Dem elites will learn the correct lessons from this.

They'll continue with the elite circle jerk and furiously blame "Bernie Bros" or Greens or "deplorables" instead of looking into the mirror and saying "Why have we embraced neo-liberalism, bringing about the de-industrialization of the country, the financialization of the economy and Trump to the White House?"

Trump: Jeb Bush Should Stop Speaking Spanish

Oy:

Jeb Bush should speak English while he is in the United States, Donald Trump said Wednesday, in the latest escalation of the brewing feud between the two Republican candidates.

“I like Jeb,” the real estate mogul said in an interview with Breitbart News. “He’s a nice man. But he should really set the example by speaking English while in the United States.”

We learned today that nearly 3/4s of Trump's supporters are in favor of mass deportations.

Shouldn't be long until they start handing out the arm bands and uniforms.

At first I found the whole Trump thing disconcerting, then I started to enjoy the circus spectacle (particularly the "Make Jeb Look Like A Twerp" part of the show.)

But quite frankly, there's a lot to be alarmed about here.

George Carlin said when fascism came to the United States it would be wearing sneakers and a smiley face shirt.

It's starting to look like the smiley face just showed up at the door.

That's the uniform this time around.

Chris Christie Says He'll Track Immigrants Like Fed Ex Packages

Trying to out-Trump the one and only Donald Trump, Chris Christie today:

Laconia, New Hampshire (CNN)Chris Christie said Saturday that if elected president, he will track undocumented immigrants like FedEx packages.

"I'm going to have Fred Smith, the founder of FedEx, come work for the government for three months. Just come for three months to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and show these people," the New Jersey governor said at a town hall event here.

Christie added that while FedEx can track boxes, the U.S. can't track undocumented immigrants.

"You go online and at any moment, FedEx can tell you where that package is," he said. "Yet we let people come into this country with visas, and the minute they come in, we lose track of them."

Christie added, "We need to have a system that tracks you from the moment you come in and then when your time is up," he said. "However long your visa is, then we go get you and tap you on the shoulder and say, 'Excuse me, it's time to go.'"

Christie went on to say that all this talk about "anchor babies" makes the Republican Party look hostile to immigrants.

Oh, but saying you're going to track them like Fed Ex packages doesn't?

Jeb Bush - The Gaffer That Keeps On Giving

If Jeb Bush is the nominee, he's a gaffe machine who will keep on giving to Hillary:

Democratic critics of Jeb Bush’s ad-lib Tuesday about cutting women’s health spending were joined by conservatives, who are annoyed that the inartful statement may undermine their efforts to finally score a win against Planned Parenthood.

Despite his swift damage control efforts, Bush’s casual aside Tuesday afternoon that “I’m not sure we need a half a billion dollars for women’s health programs” threw the Democratic attack machine into overdrive.

...

 For Bush, it marked the third time in a month that a carelessly phrased off-the-cuff comment has sparked controversy — causing consternation anew that the party’s best-funded potential nominee has been, in the early months of the primary fight, something of a gaffe machine.

...

Less than an hour after making the comment about the overfunding of “women’s health issues,” Bush posted a statement on his website saying that he “misspoke” and meant only to question the $500 million in federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

It was a swifter reincarnation of Bush’s other explanations in recent weeks of comments in which he seemed to call for the “phasing out” of Medicare — he said later he wasn’t referring to a specific program, just entitlements in general; and his suggestion that “workers need to work longer hours,” which, he later clarified, was an attempt to discuss underemployment, not an insinuation that American workers are lazy.

Good thing Bush has raised $120 million already.

He's going to need a lot of money to explain in campaign ads the stupid stuff he says on the campaign trail.

Chris Christie Tries To Relive His "Glory Days" By Bashing Teachers

The uproar of Candidate Christie's comments about the national teachers union continues:

The head of New Jersey's largest teachers' union called on Gov. Chris Christie to resign Sunday after the governor suggested the group's national counterparts deserve a punch in the face.

Wendell Steinhauer, president of the New Jersey Education Association, said in a statement Christie "should resign as governor immediately" after the Republican presidential hopeful assailed teacher unions for putting the interests of adults ahead of students.

"Chris Christie's instinct is always to threaten, bully and intimidate instead of build consensus and show true leadership," Steinhauer said.

"That's not news in New Jersey, where voters overwhelmingly reject his immature and inappropriate behavior as well as his failed policies and lack of leadership," he said. "It is clear from polling that voters in the rest of the country also reject his rhetoric and his behavior."

Christie's happy about all this attention, that's for sure.

He finally broke through the 24/7 Trump coverage with something outrageous that got him some headlines, outrage on social media, and attention from one of his favorite adversaries, the NJEA.

He's built a career on this sort of thing but Donald Trump stole his thunder by saying even more outrageous things and getting almost all the media coverage in the GOP primary story.

So Christie had a good morning yesterday, from his perspective, by saying he'd like to punch the national teachers union in the face.

No matter - right after that, he got booed long, loud and hard in two separate choruses by 61,000 horse racing fans at Monmouth Park yesterday.

That booing - which the Asbury Park Press described as a "bombarding" and NJ.com described as "merciless" - reminded him how people in his state feel about him (where he has a 58% disapproval rating and 57% saying he should resign) and how his fellow Republicans feel about him in the GOP primary, where he will just barely make the Thursday FOX News debate cut with 3.2% support.

Christie's a very unpopular governor in a state with one of the worst economies in the nation and an aging infrastructure that Christie has made much worse through negligence and inaction.

Christie has overseen the near destruction of the state pension system and nine debt downgrades for the state.

Yesterday Christie tried to relive his "Glory Days" by going back to the teacher-bashing and union-bashing schtick he used early on in his administration to great acclaim and rode all the way to a 2013 re-election.

But those glory days are long gone and now Christie's left with the mess he's made in New Jersey, the hostility a majority in the state feel for him and the disdain GOP primary goers have for him.

As Bruce Springsteen, Christie's hero, once sang "Glory days well they'll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl's eye Glory days, glory days..."

They're over, Chris, they're over.

Trump Likes "The Blacks"

He'll fit right in at the good old GOP:

Donald Trump recently granted an interview with NY Post editor Fred Dicker in which he most notably denied reports that he'd be announcing his presidential plans during the season finale of his reality show Celebrity Apprentice. But perhaps the other noteworthy bon mot to come from the lengthy and candid interview was Trump's assertion that he's always enjoyed a great relationship with "the blacks." Efforts to confirm Trump's statement were fruitless as we could not find one individual who could speak on behalf of "the blacks."

Well, at least he didn't say "the coloreds".

Jesus, this guy can't be for real, can he?

He can't really be leading a poll for 2012 GOP hopefuls, can he?

I mean, what will happen if he has to run against one of "the blacks"?

Trump On Unions

Trump's a deadbeat, but this is an interesting take on unions from a potential GOP candidate:

On unions: "I've had great relationships with unions, and I've made good deals. I've made a lot of money, I mean, I've made many billions of dollars and in many cases I've been dealing with unions. So, really, collective bargaining doesn't bother me so much."

Trump has about as good a chance of being elected president as Newt Gingrich does.

He has a lot of baggage, an ego the size of Texas, thin skin, and he's declared bankruptcy more than once and walked away without paying his debts.

And can anybody win the GOP nomination without wanting to take unions to the brink?

UPDATE: I should add the following on entitlements from Mr. Trump:

When this country becomes profitable again, we can take care of our sick; we can take care of our needy. We don’t have to cut Social Security; we don’t have to cut Medicare and Medicaid. We can take care of people that need to be taken care of. And I’ll be able to do that.

Yeah, good luck winning the GOP nomination with that on the Internets...