The "stable genius" with the nuclear codes began looking insane this week

The media has been exaggerating the things that Trump has been saying for a long time.
In many cases their overreaction was tiresome.
But this past week was something else. Trump really did start talking like an insane person.

President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened to release ISIS fighters in Europe as a form of punishment for countries like Germany and France; said he’s strongly considering trying to change the Constitution by executive order (it doesn’t work that way); indicated he hasn’t ruled out trying to illegally serve more than two terms; rewrote history during comments about Russia’s expulsion from the G8 that framed the situation in the most pro-Kremlin manner possible; and, despite five draft deferments, joked about giving himself the Medal of Honor.

That was Wednesday. And that’s an incomplete list of all the outlandish stuff Trump said on that day alone.

Any of the aforementioned statements would’ve generated major scandals coming from the mouth of any other president. But given the week Trump has been having, they arguably didn’t even make the cut of the five most WTF things he’s said since his New Jersey vacation ended on Monday.

Did you catch all of that? Because that isn't even the most bizarre stuff.

Just this morning, the president delivered a proclamation stating that, "Our great American companies are hereby ordered" to stop dealing with China (!). He also declared the chairman of the Federal Reserve, whom he himself appointed, was an enemy of the state.

But remember when the president endorsed the idea he is King of Israel and the Second Coming of God? And then he said Jewish people who vote for Democrats—that is, the 70-to-80 percent of American Jews who don't support him—are guilty of "disloyalty" to Israel? And then he accused Rashida Tlaib of anti-Semitism? And then he started screaming, "WHERE IS THE FEDERAL RESERVE?" And then he canceled a diplomatic trip to Denmark because the prime minister was rude in saying she wouldn't sell him Greenland? And then he demanded Russia be reinstated in the G8, and said they were only thrown out because they "outsmarted" Obama, when in fact it was because they'd invaded Ukraine? And then he declared he was The Chosen One, looking to the heavens as he said it, who'd been tapped by the almighty to launch a trade war against China?

Let me first say that Jews do not in fact believe in the second coming of God.

What is one to make of all of this?
If you don't think that there isn't a lot at stake in 2020. Think again.

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movie buff's picture

Can you imagine the epic word salad that would be a Trump/Biden debate? It would make Lewis Carroll look like Strunk & White.

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"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." --Noam Chomsky

@movie buff
link

Donald Trump has reportedly suggested on more than one occasion that the US military should bomb hurricanes in order to disrupt them before they make landfall.

According to US news website Axios, the US president said in a meeting with top national security and homeland security officials about the threat of hurricanes: “I got it. I got it. Why don’t we nuke them?”

“They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they’re moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. Why can’t we do that?”

Quoting unnamed sources who were present at the meeting, Axios report that the response from one official was “We’ll look into this.”

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movie buff's picture

@gjohnsit

The next Katrina makes landfall with 150 mph radioactive winds and turns New Orleans into an underwater Chernobyl. Hey, Greenland's looking better and better...

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"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." --Noam Chomsky

@movie buff
Double-standards

Trump spoke to reporters as he departed from the White House in Washington and answered questions about his comments made the day before, which were widely condemned as employing anti-Semitic tropes of dual loyalty.

“If you vote for a Democrat, you’re being disloyal to Jewish people and you’re being very disloyal to Israel,” Trump told US media. “Only weak people would say other than that.”
He also said he hadn’t heard of anyone calling his remarks from Tuesday anti-Semitic.
...
Omar herself caused uproar in March when she suggested that Israel’s supporters wanted American lawmakers to pledge “allegiance” to a foreign country.

Omar was criticized by some as anti-Semitic, and her remarks was said to have revived a trope of dual Jewish loyalties. At the time, Trump called on her to resign from the House or at least quit her post on the Foreign Affairs Committee over her comments.

American Jewish leaders have condemned Trump over his Tuesday remarks.

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movie buff's picture

@gjohnsit

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"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." --Noam Chomsky

mimi's picture

@gjohnsit
of minutes. Being insane and being considered as such is the solution for him to save face.
How long will the world accept an insane person to rule the world ?

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mimi's picture

@mimi
[video:https://youtu.be/1c_bOU57Z0g]

hard to listen to the translator"s voice, but it is almost live.

May be this one is better?
[video:https://youtu.be/iqKdl8nB5vU]

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mimi's picture

@mimi

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Hawkfish's picture

@gjohnsit

And abandoned because - in addition to the obvious reasons - it was determined that it simply wouldn’t work.

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We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg

Bollox Ref's picture

does the same routine in the UK.

Comes out with a daily dose of bollox, and yet everyone pretends all is normal.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Bollox Ref

de Piffle Johnson does the same routine in the UK.

Comes out with a daily dose of bollox, and yet everyone pretends all is normal.

All is normal.

It's when Boris Badenov Johnson starts making sense that you need to start worrying.....

Wink

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@thanatokephaloides ...but what the world really needs now is some fearless leadership!

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

janis b's picture

@Bollox Ref

All of it.

[video:https://youtu.be/3-_9cAEhxvA]

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at Common Dreams today, that the executive power he is liable to invoke in re ordering corporations to stop doing business with China, was a law written years ago, first used by Carter, for times of economic emergencies.
It is not new, and was also used by Obama.
This comment in no way is meant to make Trump appear to be sane. And it doesn't address his other nutty shit. It is just that his staff has advised him that his "I hereby order corporations" remark may actually be within his power.
Republicans are quick to notice Biden's noticeable mental lapses, but they never call out Trumps'.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Big Al's picture

@on the cusp yes indeedee. I didn't know that when I wrote my thing. But it brings up some questions, like, what kind of emergency could they create to justify such a significant move? And why did Trump say 'I hereby order" when said national emergency hasn't been declared. It sounds like Yoo justifying torture or using the GWOT AUMF to attack Syria. Which unfortunately, worked.

Another example of why the office of the president needs to be abolished along with a wholesale remaking of our political system.

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@Big Al article became available.
I do not think we have the mechanisms in place to get rid of a nutty president. We certainly had Reagan in office when he likely had to have his diapers changed. And since NOBODY would trust a group of doctors who could easily be compromised to say this president or that president is a nut, what else is there but to start all over in designing and implementing a governed democracy?
We have a system BY DESIGN that allows and empowers our version of Crazy King George II.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp It's a percentage of the cabinet, iirc. Doctors don't figure in it. The problem remains: Pence makes Trump look sane AND he wants the End Times.

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Orwell: Where's the omelette?

@jim p I am not sure about the specific nutty president amendment. I usually invoke certain ones that pertain to my law practice, which is state, not federal.
1st, 2nd, 5th, 14th are the most invoked.
And Pence. 2nd Coming and End Times may sound completely nuts to you and me, but there are many US citizens who believe that.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@Big Al
W tried to claim that the Great Recession (that was still something like 3 months off) was a sufficient emergency for him to suspend the constitution indefinitely. He didn't have the courage (or audacity) to actually try it. At the time I not-really-joked that he changed his mind at the next meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff where the chiefs came in armed.

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On to Biden since 1973

hurricanes is an interesting example of how Cold War propaganda is generated in a deeply disturbed psychological environment. Indeed, both are the product of profoundly deranged competing world views.

Are we supposed to choose sides in this insane asylum?

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@leveymg so might as well nuke one as the other, no?

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Orwell: Where's the omelette?

@leveymg supposed to take a side, damned straight. Team sports Yeah? Never mind both teams are insane, just pick One And act like it really really matters.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

I don't really get the outrage over him saying that about China. It seems we do this to countries all the time (e.g., Cuba, etc.). Maybe that takes congressional action, though--I dunno.

Having said that, stopping trade/business with China would indeed be insane. It would send the world economies spiraling downwards into a black hole.

However, I've mostly seen Trump state crazy things in speeches and then completely forget about or just not following through from a legal standpoint. I'm hoping it's because he wants to keep people on edge (I really, really hope), and rouse up his base of support. They eat this stuff up (they tend to be authoritarians at heart, in my observation).

I also wonder if any of this is trying to make people think he is batsh*t, since I'd imagine a US president is always under personal threat from deep state/establishment sources. If he appears completely unhinged, it may make people hesitate to go up against him because of potential consequences. I dunno--just speculating there. But, if it is true that after achieving the presidency someone takes you aside and tells you that you will do what people tell you or your family/friends are under threat, going up against that (e.g., not starting a war with Iran) might put you at risk. So, you act scary as a defense mechanism.

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Anja Geitz's picture

Trump is REALLY scary = This election is VERY important?

I feel like I've seen this movie before...

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Pluto's Republic's picture

@Anja Geitz

If it were important, the Democrats wouldn't choose another loser.

Not that something significant and out of the ordinary couldn't happen between now and then. Something completely unexpected.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@Pluto's Republic

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Pluto's Republic's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat

I still have a prediction out there that Trump does not finish his first term. But I have no idea how that would come about.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
karl pearson's picture

@Pluto's Republic My spouse says the same thing: Trump will not be the candidate in 2020. Trump has accomplished a lot of what the libertarians wanted, but he has become an embarrassment. Time to send in someone else. Maybe Trump will say he's sacrificed enough. After all, just today Trump said the presidency has personally cost him $3-5 Billion. I'm thinking the Republican PTB are looking at the Kasich & Nikki Haley team. It's still early.

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@karl pearson wishful thinking from the left. That would make me feel ultra good too, but it's very unlikely to happen. I think he greatly enjoys some of the trappings of office -- the bootlicking sycophants, the underlings bowing and scraping and flattering him to his face, the power or perceived power he wields. And not irrelevant, the legal protection holding the office gives him against all those many legal problems brewing out there.

He will try to hold on to power for another 4 and try for an additional 4 after that, by hook or by crook. As I've so thoughtfully and delightfully noted here before, if the economy does take a deep dive south before the election (odds there might be in favor, maybe strongly in favor), he will be told that sitting presidents tend not to win re-elect in such circumstances* and so he will need something to distract people from their shrinking bank accounts. War with a country like Iran might do the trick.

In any case, Donald is not going to pull a Lyndon 1968 and drop out. He even won't pull the real Lyndon 1968 and drop out with the plan (at the time or a little after) of getting back in later in the process when his party nominates a loser and instant nostalgia for the incumbent suddenly emerges.

My dos centavos.

* I can't recall any incumbent prez winning re-elect when a mid-to-large size recession hits in the 12-18 months before the next election. Donald will finger point and waive his arms mightily about immigrants and the fed chair and China, but the folks in WI, MI, PN, OH and FL won't be buying his con act anymore.

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Wally's picture

@Pluto's Republic

He will serve the Dem elite and their corporate sponsors/masters.

All they want to do in terms of electoral strategy is focus on Trump.

Guess what? China called last night. Really. Guess what they want to talk about?

Trump's guiding political strategic model is Rowdy Roddy Piper. He talks shit to put stuffed shirts and empty pantsuits at a disadvantage. And for whatever reasons, it seems to work.

Meanwhile, much of the left(?) seems to focus on attacking Biden's gaffes, purporting that they're indicative of his diminishing mental faculties. Most voters, however, are not proccupied with politics and figure that all these candidates are on the road stumping everyday and talking nonsense, so what if they twist their words up every now and then, and the cameras which are are them 24/7 catch a few bumblings? Politicians are thus widely seen as human, at least in this respect. Have Biden's numbers drastically gone down despite videos of his greatest gaffes? No.

There's something else, other things, that need to be focused upon if Biden and Trump are to be defeated. Let's see.... a Green New Deal? Medicare for All? Free College? $15 minimum wage? Workers' rights? An end to endless wars? Cutting the Defense (sic) budget? An end to Shock Doctrine?

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@Wally
reassuring

Former Vice President Joe Biden told New Hampshire supporters that he was "not going nuts" after he mistook the state for Vermont last week.

“I want to be clear, I’m not going nuts,” Biden said on Sunday. “I’m not sure whether it was the medical school or where the hell I spoke. But it was on the campus.”

The former vice president's clarification came after he mistakenly praised Vermont when asked what he thought about Keene, N.H., on Saturday.

"I love this place. Look, what’s not to like about Vermont in terms of the beauty of it? And what a neat town. This is like a scenic, beautiful town. The mayor's been a good guy. Everybody has been really friendly. I like Keene a lot," Biden said.

The Biden campaign has expressed frustration about the news media's coverage of his gaffes, arguing that the press has been too critical of him.

President Trump has also drawn attention to the former vice president's mistakes, saying it's evidence that he's not fit to be president.

"Joe is not playing with a full deck. He made that comment, I said 'woah,' " Trump said earlier this month after Biden told supporters that “poor kids” are “just as talented as white kids” before correcting himself to say “wealthy kids."

Trump accusing Biden of being insane is the pot calling the kettle black.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@Wally

Meanwhile, much of the left(?) seems to focus on attacking Biden's gaffes,

Who is the "Left"?

You mean the news media or Internet pundits? Neither of those are the "Left." The right wing is certainly 'attacking' Biden for his gaffes, and they will keep harping on them to weaken his image. People here are talking about his "lapses", but they are looking at the reality that his mental deficits are obvious.

But, like you say, right now the general public is not focused on that. They are focused on one thing only: Their number one issue: Health Care security. But the four Democratic presidential candidates who cosponsored Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All Senate bill either no longer support it or won’t say if they do.

The people have been betrayed again. That's why Democrats will lose the 2020 election.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

@Pluto's Republic

The people have been betrayed again. That's why Democrats will lose the 2020 election.

Bernie hasn't lost yet.
Let's not give into defeatism.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@gjohnsit

I've been writing a future history where Bernie was already eliminated. But there is a future out there where Bernie remains in the race.

That would be huge.

The Democratic Party would not cope well. And they are mentally unstable as it is.

But the Republicans would suffer even more. For them, it's capitalism versus communism. They would become unhinged.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

@Pluto's Republic

For them, it's capitalism versus communism. They would become unhinged.

Wouldn't that be a shame?

/s
Wink

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@gjohnsit sounds so March 2019, when Nervous Nellie lefties were going into the fetal position thinking Donald would be impossible to beat -- presumably b/c they had heard that meme so often in the media and online chats -- so why not just throw in the towel and Voltaire-like devote yourself to your garden.

But how the presidential outlook has changed in just a few months. The economy is about on the ropes and it has 15 more months to hold on by a fingernail until the election. Unlikely. If the economy goes, so does Trump.

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@Anja Geitz
When a crazy man is in the White House?

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edg's picture

@gjohnsit

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@gjohnsit myself, I would describe it as even worse than when crazy men LBJ and Nixon were in office. And at least for those two, there were enough sane, strong and independent people around to stand between the nut job and the nuclear button.

Not sure with Donald. I think all that's left on staff, after numerous rounds of house cleaning, are the bootlicking sycophants and equally deranged nut jobs.

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Just political puffing. Much ado about nothing.

Average people will not get their policies adopted unless the elites also want them and the elites will get their policies adopted most of the time. Princeton Press study 2014.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/...

Fights between the oligarchy impact us, but there is nothing we can do about it unless we start making laws by referendum. We can't make laws by referendum at the federal level other than Constitutional amendments. But we can make laws by referendum at the state level and hope the federal judges hold the state laws passed by referendum are Constitutional.

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put into office by a god. He's just the first to really say it out loud.

Read The Family by Jeff Sharlet or watch the series The Family on Netflix.

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"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

Azazello's picture

in countries that annoy the US may be a crazy thing to do but it is not unprecedented.
In fact this strategy has long been practiced by presidents of both parties.
It's who we are, it's what we do.
And besides we can't bring our troops home from Syria as long as they are tasked with protecting ISIS fighters in Idlib.
Where would they all go if not to the countries they came from ?
Maybe Saudi Arabia or Israel will take them in.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

snoopydawg's picture

@Azazello

And besides we can't bring our troops home from Syria as long as they are tasked with protecting ISIS fighters in Idlib.

I just read an article on how we are training even more 'moderate Syrian rebels' in Southern Syria. Funny how when one protects his country from outside forces who are using the same terrorists that they are supposed to be fighting makes that guy a bad guy.

Israel is being called ISIS' air-force because they have been attacking the armies that are trying to defeat them. On that topic how is Israel attacking at least 3 countries now considered self defense when if they are attacked back that is considered an act of war? Never mind.... it's Israel.

ETA link

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

edg's picture

In those last two tweets, Trump was quoting what another person, Wayne Allyn Root, wrote. Yet you make it sound as though it was Trump himself.

BTW, it kinda pisses me off that you make me defend the indefensible Trump when you mischaracterize what was tweeted or said. In the interest of the accuracy and integrity of C99, I'll do it, but I shouldn't have to.

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@edg
Especially when I posted a video of it.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@edg

...to maintain our intellectual honesty during the subversive Russia Hoax. Somehow, if we lost that, we would have lost everything. All the moral high ground would be under water. All truth would have been contaminated. But challenging the dangerous and frankly seditious accusations against Trump from the left was no picnic.

It's a thankless effort. In the end, you persist in holding the light on the truth only because of who you are.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
snoopydawg's picture

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.