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Month: July 2017

It vas just boys talk

It vas just boys talk

by digby

The Boy Scout Chief Executive has had to apologize for the remarks by our cretinous imbecile of a president:

Scouting Family,

In the last two weeks, we have celebrated the best of Scouting at our 20th National Jamboree with nearly 40,000 participants, volunteers, staff and visitors. The 2017 National Jamboree has showcased and furthered the Scouting mission by combining adventure and leadership development to give youth life-changing experiences. Scouts from Alaska met Scouts from Alabama; Scouts from New Mexico met those from New York, and American youth met youth from 59 other countries.

Over the course of ten days, Scouts have taken part in adventures, learned new skills, made new and lasting friendships and completed over 200 community service projects that offered 100,000 hours of service to the community by young men and women eager to do the right thing for the right reasons.

These character-building experiences have not diminished in recent days at the jamboree –  Scouts have continued to trade patches, climb rock walls, and share stories about the day’s adventures. But for our Scouting family at home not able to see these real moments of Scouting, we know the past few days have been overshadowed by the remarks offered by the President of the United States.


I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree. That was never our intent. The invitation for the sitting U.S. President to visit the National Jamboree is a long-standing tradition that has been extended to the leader of our nation that has had a Jamboree during his term since 1937. It is in no way an endorsement of any person, party or policies. For years, people have called upon us to take a position on political issues, and we have steadfastly remained non-partisan and refused to comment on political matters. We sincerely regret that politics were inserted into the Scouting program.

It was more than just politics, wasn’t it?

This is what comes from having a pussy-grabbing bully in the White House. You can’t even ask him to address a group of young boys for fear that he’s going to brag about his “victory” insult previous presidents and former political rivals and chatter crudely about rich guys having orgies on yachts because “the boy scouts know…”

After all, his own wife excused him bragging about assaulting women by saying it was just “boys talk.” She blamed Billy Bush for egging him on. Maybe these boy scouts did too.

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Jahbs, jahbs, jahbs

Jahbs, jahbs, jahbs
by digby
On Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump had another Twitter tantrum about his “beleaguered” Attorney General Jeff Sessions and then impulsively announced that he was banning transgender people from serving in the military. Apparently some far right Freedom Caucus types in the House appealed to him directly and he just fired off a tweet as if he were the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland commanding “Off with their heads!”

After all that drama the president met with Boys and Girls Nationand then announced what he characterized as a yuuuge new jobs initiative — Foxconn, a Taiwanese corporation that makes computer components, will open a facility in Wisconsin. The electronics company announced that it plans to invest $10 billion in the LCD manufacturing plant and will employ about 3,000 workers. Trump said, “Foxconn joins a growing list of industry leaders who understand that America’s capabilities are limitless and that America’s workers are unmatched.”

According to Issie Lapowsky at Wired, that may end up being a bit of an overstatement:

The 3,000 jobs Foxconn says it will create in Wisconsin aren’t the kind of manufacturing jobs that so many laid off auto and steel workers have been clamoring for. Nor are they a pathway to the American-made iPhone President Trump promised during the 2016 election. They are, instead, part of a new generation of advanced manufacturing jobs, requiring high levels of engineering skills — skills that are still sorely lacking in the American workforce.

Obviously, this could be remedied if there were a serious effort to train people to work in these jobs. But most of those Rust Belt Trump voters are not out-of-work engineers. As Lapowsky observes:

Certainly, investing in advanced manufacturing is smarter than trying to slap a Made in America sticker on every iPhone, as President Trump wants to do. Such a move would require building an entire supply chain of the kind of low-skill assembly line jobs that Apple now offshores to countries like China. No livable wage in the United States could ever compete.

This is complicated stuff, which is not Trump’s strong suit. Nonetheless, it is good news; although if it follows his other “deals,” like the much ballyhooed Carrier plant in Indiana (and every other “deal” Donald Trump has ever done), it’s entirely possible that it won’t live up to the hype. Lapowsky reported that this isn’t the first time Foxconn has made such a commitment, and in the past it has failed to follow through. In 2013 the company promised to spend $30 million on a Pennsylvania factory that never happened.

If Trump were serious about this, he would lobby Congress to ensure that America is preparing a workforce that can fulfill the requirements of these new high tech manufacturing jobs. He’s not serious, of course, and has no intention of doing any such thing.

Trump gave an interview to The Wall Street Journal this week in which he repeated his criticisms of Sessions, which is what got all the play in the media. But he also talked about his plans for job creation and said something that I doubt his supporters in the Rust Belt understood him to be saying on the campaign trail:

In Tuesday’s interview, Mr. Trump said people in New York and other states without jobs will have to move to states like Wisconsin, Iowa and Colorado that are adding manufacturing. “You’re going to need people to work in these massive plants,” Mr. Trump said. “…I’m going to start explaining to people: When you have an area that just isn’t working like upper New York state, where people are getting very badly hurt, and then you’ll have another area 500 miles away where you can’t get people, I’m going to explain, you can leave. It’s OK. Don’t worry about your house.”

In other words, Trump isn’t promising to bring manufacturing jobs back to places where manufacturing used to thrive. He’s saying that all those people who are out of work need to move to other states to find work. Is that what his voters in those states thought he meant? I doubt it. And I doubt very seriously that the president telling them not to worry about their houses, or explaining that they “can leave,” is going to be persuasive.

Americans don’t move around like they used to, and nobody is really sure exactly why that is. There are many theories, including Trump’s obscure “house” reference, meaning that homeowners have a major investment that is not always easy to liquidate. Most families have two incomes, which means one spouse might have to give up a career he or she is happy with to accommodate a move. Many Americans are deeply rooted in their communities with a support network of family, friends and church.

Whatever the case, I suspect that when the average Trump voter heard their man say that he was going to bring back jobs, they didn’t think he was telling them that they had to learn engineering and move to a distant region of the country. They thought he was going to bring the jobs to them.

Trump said similar things during the campaign but nobody paid close enough attention. For instance, he told The Detroit News:

“You can go to different parts of the United States and then ultimately you’d do full-circle — you’ll come back to Michigan because those guys are going to want their jobs back even if it is less. We can do the rotation in the United States — it doesn’t have to be in Mexico.” He said that after Michigan “loses a couple of plants — all of sudden you’ll make good deals in your own area.”

Trump wants to have states compete with one another for the purpose of lowering wages and benefits. (He obviously had no idea that while foreign automakers may pay lower wages, the Big Three U.S. manufacturers have union contracts that must pay the same no matter where the plants are.)

The bottom line is that Trump doesn’t care about American workers. His issue is with foreign competition for American companies, which isn’t exactly the same thing. He said in a Republican primary debate, “We are a country that is being beaten on every front. Taxes too high, wages too high, we’re not going to be able to compete against the world.” His supporters had to pretend they didn’t hear that: Their wages were too high.

Polling is showing that Trump’s previously stable approval numbers on the economy are finally slipping. That’s mostly attributable to the health care debate, which is an important pocketbook issue where many people don’t like what they see. But his promises on jobs so far have consisted of feckless photo-ops and bragging about himself. You can’t blame his supporters if they’re starting to lose their patience. Wait until they find out he wants them to get in new skills (at their own expense), board up their houses and move across the country to work for lower wages.

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She really can field dress a moose

She really can field dress a moose

by digby

So, this happened. Seems Trumpie really doesn’t like it when a woman doesn’t do what he tells her to do. For some reason he’s decided Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski needs to be taught a lesson even though she’s not up for reelection until 2022 so putting the squeeze on her makes little political sense. Plenty of men have voted against various aspects of the health care monstrosity.  So this is more about grabbing her by the you-know-what:

President Donald Trump isn’t going to just let go of Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s no vote Tuesday against debating Obamacare repeal.

Early Wednesday, Trump took to Twitter to express displeasure with Murkowski’s vote. By that afternoon, each of Alaska’s two Republican senators had received a phone call from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke letting them know the vote had put Alaska’s future with the administration in jeopardy.

The response follows Trump’s no-holds-barred style of governing, even when it comes to his own party. It is his first strike of retaliation against Murkowski, however, despite her tendency to stray from the party line and the president’s priorities.

Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan said the call from Zinke heralded a “troubling message.”

“I’m not going to go into the details, but I fear that the strong economic growth, pro-energy, pro-mining, pro-jobs and personnel from Alaska who are part of those policies are going to stop,” Sullivan said.

“I tried to push back on behalf of all Alaskans. … We’re facing some difficult times and there’s a lot of enthusiasm for the policies that Secretary Zinke and the president have been talking about with regard to our economy. But the message was pretty clear,” Sullivan said. The Interior secretary also contacted Murkowski, he said.

Murkowski was not available for comment. Spokespeople from the White House and the Interior Department did not respond to inquiries.

Uhm, she’s not going to put up with it:

I suspect Alaskans aren’t going to like this either. She’s popular and Alaskans are very independent sorts.

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Professional political communications FTW

Professional political communications FTW

by digby

I just don’t know what to say about this. Just watch it. Someone obviously put LSD in the White House water:

Does this loon have a security clearance?

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CONSUME. BUY. by @BloggersRUs

CONSUME. BUY.
by Tom Sullivan

The sitting president is only the most extreme version of the derangement infecting his party’s leadership.

Listening to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., (among others) pontificate yesterday about the evils of Obamacare and the efficiency of the Market was further proof. He argued at length Americans should have a choice of what insurance to buy. Because that’s freedom. Freedom is good, but … You. Must. Be. A. Consumer.

(No transcript is available, so I’m jumping around a bit in his speech.)

Obamacare must be repealed, Rand Paul argues, because of rising premiums and lack of choice. “Obamacare is predicated on force and coercion,” Paul argues. “This is what happens when you let government get involved in the marketplace.” So surrender yourself to the Market. You. Must. Be. A. Consumer.

Because of Obamacare, many places in America have no choice, the senator worries. “It’s about freedom of choice. It’s about whether you as an American can make the choice whether you want insurance or don’t want insurance,” but … You. Must. Be. A. Consumer.

See, the problem is really in the individual market. Group insurance works fine if you work for a large corporation, “Toyota or Ford or General Motors,” says Senator Paul. If you get sick, you don’t lose your job or see your rates skyrocket. But the individual market is a “terrible place to be.” Paul proposes legalizing forming group markets across state lines so individual farmers or plumbers are free to join groups too. Just not one, national group.

“I don’t think we can overstate the negotiating value of a group,” Paul says. This is “collective bargaining for consumers.” You liberals think that’s okay for labor, right? Why not for consumers? But … You. Must. Be. A. Consumer.

It is a strange definition of freedom that dictates you must be a consumer. It is stranger still coming from a Republican party that actively works to prevent workers from forming unions and engaging in collective bargaining. Yet with a straight face, Paul argues that, because collective bargaining works, consumers should be free to form groups to bargain for health care and drugs. Just not as one, national, not-for-profit group. Being a consumer is freedom. Belonging to a national community is tyranny. The Market demands tribute.

Paul twice condemned the unionized U.S. Postal Service for not making a profit. Authorized under the U.S. Constitution, USPS must now operate in the marketplace and work “toward more innovation, profit, and efficiency” in spite of the fact it is legally mandated to serve all Americans, regardless of geography, at a uniform price. And when this quasi-government agency cannot operate at a profit in a marketplace dictated for it, it proves government does not work. No matter that the Post Office operated for centuries before it was expected to compete as a common, for-profit business instead of as a community service.

“The federal government cannot deliver the mail. All right?” Paul explained. “They lose a billion dollars a quarter delivering your mail. Do you want them in charge of your doctor?” Or anything else, if it cannot operate in the black?

From what is publicly known, the Defense Department — another government bureau authorized by the Constitution — spent $600 billion last year. Meaning the Pentagon “lost” 150 times more a quarter delivering national security than what Paul condemns in the government delivering mail. You have no choice of national defense providers either. (“A lot of people don’t know that.”) And there’s a penalty for not paying for the service.

So what is it with the Pentagon? Wasteful spending? Bad management? Poor marketing?

Surely there are wars around the world just begging for the United States military to fight them. Wars are not one-size-fits-all affairs, of course, and different countries have a range of budgets. So like the Obamacare exchanges, the Pentagon could offer consumers Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum plans. And because we believe in capitalism, we shouldn’t fear competing with the Russians and the Chinese for the business.

We are the premier military in the world. The Mercedes of militaries. Naturally, our costs are higher because our quality is higher. So if we are having trouble winning war-fighting contracts on a time-and-expense basis, the Pentagon could offer to keep costs down for potential clients with a not-to-exceed contract option. With that added risk, of course, the Pentagon would have to insist on a bonus clause for victories brought in early and under budget.

Seriously, it costs money to keep our equipment and brave boys in uniform idle. We have nearly 900 unprofitable overseas outlets convenient to nearly every hot spot on the planet. Why not stir up foreign wars and hire out to keep them generating enough revenue to satisfy Sen. Paul and his colleagues that they are part of and not a drag on the Market.

Sure, that’s perverse. But so is Mr. Paul’s and his colleagues’ view of what government for the people is about, and their insistence that You. Must. Be. A. Consumer. I’d rather be a citizen.

Aren’t there special sunglasses for better picking out these zealots in a crowd?

Debate continues in the Senate today on amendments to whatever Obamacare repeal bill Republican priests are hiding under their cloaks:

Fed up with the GOP’s constant vacillations over how to dismantle Obamacare, Democrats say they will hold back on offering any more amendments in the health care floor fight until Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) shows what plan the GOP will ultimately coalesce around.

“Democrats are not going to participate in this one-sided and broken process,” announced Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) Wednesday evening. “Once the majority leader shows his hand, reveals what his bill will actually be, Democrats will use the opportunity to try and amend the bill.”

“Democrats” includes independent Senator Bernie Sanders who expects to introduce Medicare-for-all legislation after the repeal debate ends.

Don’t let up on those calls and faxes to the Senate or the illegitimi will carborundum.

I guess he showed them

I guess he showed them

by digby

Trump put all those “moderates” in their place with this one:

After a week sparring with his attorney general and steaming over the Russia investigation consuming his agenda, President Donald Trump was closing in on an important win.

House Republicans were planning to pass a spending bill stacked with his campaign promises, including money to build his border wall with Mexico.

But an internal House Republican fight over transgender troops was threatening to blow up the bill. And House GOP insiders feared they might not have the votes to pass the legislation because defense hawks wanted a ban on Pentagon-funded sex reassignment operations — something GOP leaders wouldn’t give them.

They turned to Trump, who didn’t hesitate. In the flash of a tweet, he announced that transgender troops would be banned altogether.

Trump’s sudden decision was, in part, a last-ditch attempt to save a House proposal full of his campaign promises that was on the verge of defeat, numerous congressional and White House sources said.

The president had always planned to scale back President Barack Obama-era policies welcoming such individuals in combat and greenlighting the military to pay for their medical treatment plans. But a behind-the-scenes GOP brawl threatening to tank a Pentagon funding increase and wall construction hastened Trump’s decision.

Numerous House conservatives and defense hawks this week had threatened to derail their own legislation if it did not include a prohibition on Pentagon funding for gender reassignment surgeries, which they deem a waste of taxpayer money. But GOP leaders were caught in a pinch between those demands and moderate Republicans who felt the proposal was blatantly discriminatory.

“There are several members of the conference who feel this really needs to be addressed,” said senior House Appropriations Committee member Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) on Tuesday. “This isn’t about the transgender issue; it’s about the taxpayer dollars going to pay for the surgery out of the defense budget.”

That’s why House lawmakers took the matter to the Trump administration. And when Defense Secretary James Mattis refused to immediately upend the policy, they went straight to the White House. Trump — never one for political correctness — was all too happy to oblige.

“[P]lease be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military,” Trump tweeted Wednesday morning. “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”

The president’s directive, of course, took the House issue a step beyond paying for gender reassignment surgery and other medical treatment. House Republicans were never debating expelling all transgender troops from the military.

“This is like someone told the White House to light a candle on the table and the WH set the whole table on fire,” said one senior House Republican aide. The source said that while GOP leaders asked the White House for help, they weren’t expecting — and got no heads up on — Trump’s far-reaching directive.

While Democrats and centrist Republicans are already blasting the move, one White House official said the decision would be “seen as common-sense” by millions — though likely vociferously protested by others.

“It’s not the worst thing in the world to have this fight,” the administration official said.

The announcement, multiple sources said, did not sit well with Mattis, who appeared to be trying to avoid the matter in recent weeks. Congressional sources say Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), the original author of the House’s transgender proposal, tried numerous times to phone Mattis to discuss the transgender issue.

He only got back to her the day she forced the matter on the House floor in mid-July.

It is unclear what Mattis told Hartzler at that time. But insiders say he felt there was no need to rush upending the policy, arguing the Pentagon needed time to study the issue. Their decision would affect at least 2,450 transgender active-military personnel, according to a Rand report — though military LGBT activist groups as many as as 15,000 soldiers fall into that category.

After lawmakers went around Mattis to engage the White House, Mattis was consulted before the announcement and knew the ban was being considered, according to several White House officials. But the decision ultimately came down from Trump and was “White House-driven,” Trump aides said.

The president was also annoyed by the Pentagon delay, one person said. A different official said the White House had gotten positive reaction from conservatives, an important factor amid their displeasure with Trump’s recent bashing of Jeff Sessions.

There was no deliberation, no understanding of the full dimension of the issue. The far right wingnuts went to him and told him that his favorite pet issues were being threatened and he just issued an edict. On twitter.

I hope people understand what this means. The president will act like a dictator without a second thought if he can get away with it.

And who’s going to stop him? The “moderates”?

lol

Update: Wow

At the Pentagon, the first of the three tweets raised fears that the president was getting ready to announce strikes on North Korea or some other military action. Many said they were left in suspense for nine minutes, the time between the first and second tweet. Only after the second tweet did military officials receive the news the president was announcing a personnel change on Twitter. 

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This is what leadership looks like to little kids today

This is what leadership looks like to little kids today


by digby

The Boy Scout Jamboree blog posted this before Trump’s visit. Obviously, they knew what was possible:

As a unit leader or staff member, you can help make the president’s visit a success by ensuring that any reactions to the president’s address are, as we state in our Scout Law, friendly, courteous, and kind. This includes understanding that chants of certain phrases heard during the campaign (e.g. “build the wall,” “lock her up”) are considered divisive by many members of our audience, and may cause unnecessary friction between individuals and units. Please help us ensure that all Scouts can enjoy this historical address by making sure that your troop members are respectful not only of the president, but of the wide variety of viewpoints held by Scouts and Scouters in the audience tonight.

What a sad comment on our country that the Boy Scouts had to warn their members about not joining in the disgusting divisive, misogynist, racist  rhetoric of the President of the United States.

Even sadder that he went there — and that the crowd booed Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, led by that fascist creep who went on to allude to orgies on yachts in front of a group of teen-age boys.

1. Trump starts off by marveling at the size of the crowd and attacking the press.


“Boy, you have a lot of people here. The press will say it’s about 200 people. [Laughter.] It looks like about 45,000 people. You set a record today. [Applause.] You set a record. That’s a great honor, believe me. Tonight we put aside all of the policy fights in Washington, D.C. — you’ve been hearing about that with the fake news and all of that. [Applause.] We’re going to put that aside. And instead we’re going to talk about success, about how all of you amazing young Scouts can achieve your dreams … I said, who the hell wants to speak about politics when I’m in front of the Boy Scouts, right?”

2. Trump calls our nation’s capital a “cesspool.” 


“You know, I go to Washington and I see all these politicians, and I see the swamp. And it’s not a good place. In fact, today, I said we ought to change it from the word swamp to the word cesspool, or perhaps, to the word sewer. But it’s not good. Not good.” [Applause.]

3. Trump boasts that ten members of his cabinet were Boy Scouts, then threatens to fire one of them.


“Secretary Tom Price is also here. Today Dr. Price still lives the Scout Oath, helping to keep millions of Americans strong and healthy as our Secretary of Health and Human Services. And he’s doing a great job. And hopefully, he’s going to get the votes tomorrow to start our path toward killing this horrible thing known as Obamacare that’s really hurting us, folks.”

[Applause. Crowd chants “USA! USA! USA!”]

“He better get them. He better get them. Oh, he better — otherwise, I’ll say ‘Tom, you’re fired!’ I’ll get somebody. [Applause.] He better get Senator Capito to vote for it. You got to get the other senators to vote for it. It’s time. After seven years of saying repeal and replace Obamacare, we have a chance to now do it. They better do it. Hopefully they’ll do it.”

4. Trump says we need more “loyalty,” doesn’t explain what he’s referring to.
“As the Scout Law says: ‘A Scout is trustworthy, loyal’ — we could use some more loyalty, I will tell you that.”

5. Trump marvels at the size of the crowd and attacks the “fake media” for refusing to show it (though CNN aired the speech).


“I’m waving to people back there so small I can’t even see them. Man, this is a lot of people. Turn those cameras back there, please. That is so incredible. By the way, what do you think the chances are that this incredible, massive crowd, record-setting is going to be shown on television tonight? One percent or zero? [Applause.] The fake media will say: President Trump — and you know what this is — President Trump spoke before a small crowd of Boy Scouts today. That’s some — that is some crowd. [Applause.] Fake media. Fake news. Thank you.”

6. Trump attacks his predecessor for failing to address the Boy Scouts (Obama sent a video message in 2010).
[Audience chants, “We love Trump! We love Trump! We love Trump!”]

“By the way, just a question, did President Obama ever come to a jamboree?”

[Audience shouts, “No!”]

“And we’ll be back. We’ll be back. The answer is no, but we’ll be back.”

7. Trump tells a long, meandering story about the real-estate developer William Levitt and alludes to “interesting” activities he engaged in on his yacht. 

“[Levitt] he sold his company for a tremendous amount of money. At the time especially — this was a long time ago — [he] sold his company for a tremendous amount of money. And he went out and bought a big yacht, and he had a very interesting life. I won’t go on any more than that because you’re Boy Scouts, so I’m not going to tell you what he did.”

[Audience boos.]

“Should I tell you? Should I tell you?”

[Audience shouts, “Yes!”]

“Oh, you’re Boy Scouts, but you know life. You know life. So — look at you. Who would think this is the Boy Scouts, right?”

“So, he had a very, very interesting life, and the company that bought his company was a big conglomerate …” [Trump explains that years later Levitt bought his company back.]

“He so badly wanted it, he got bored with this life of yachts and sailing and all of the things he did in the south of France and other places. You won’t get bored, right? You know, truthfully, you’re workers. You’ll get bored, too. Believe me. Of course, having a few good years like that isn’t so bad.”

8. Trump recalls meeting Levitt at a hot New York party.


“In the end he failed, and he failed badly. Lost all of his money. He went personally bankrupt, and he was now much older. And I saw him at a cocktail party, and it was very sad because the hottest people in New York were at this party. It was the party of Steve Ross who was one of the great people — he came up and discovered — really founded — Time Warner and he was a great guy.”

“He had a lot of successful people at the party. And I was doing well so I got invited to the party. I was very young, and I go in — but I’m in the real-estate business — and I see 100 people, some of whom I recognize and they’re big in the entertainment business …”

[Trump recognizes Levitt.] “So I went over and talked to him, and I said, Mr. Levitt, ‘I’m Donald Trump.’ He said ‘I know.’”

9. Trump tells the boys the lesson to take from Levitt’s life is not to lose “momentum” — but if you do, that’s okay, too.


“But I’ll tell you, it was very sad, and I never forgot that moment. And I thought about it, and it’s exactly true. He lost his momentum. Meaning, he took this period of time off long — years — and then when he got back, he didn’t have the same momentum. In life, I always tell this to people, you have to know whether or not you continue to have the momentum, and if you don’t have it that’s okay. Because you’re going to go on and you’re going to learn and you’re going to do things that are great. But you have to know about the word momentum.”

10. Trump recalls his victory on November 8, and attacks the “dishonest people” for doubting that he could win.


“Now with that, I have to tell you our economy is doing great. Our stock market has picked up — since the election November 8. Do we remember that date? [Applause.] Was that a beautiful date? [Applause.] What a date. Do you remember that famous night on television, November 8, where they said — these dishonest people — where they said there is no path to victory for Donald Trump? They forgot about the forgotten people. By the way, they’re not forgetting about the forgotten people anymore. They’re going crazy trying to figure it out. But I told them, far too late. It’s far too late.”

“But do you remember that incredible night with the maps and the Republicans are red and the Democrats are blue, and that map was so red, it was unbelievable, and they didn’t know what to say?” [Applause.]

11. Trump goes through his victories state by state and criticizes Hillary Clinton. 


And you know we have a tremendous disadvantage in the Electoral College — popular vote is much easier. Because New York, California, Illinois — you have to practically run the East Coast. And we did. We won Florida. We won South Carolina. We won North Carolina. We won Pennsylvania. [Applause.] We won and won. So when they said there is no way to victory, there is no way to 270, I went to Maine four times because it’s one vote, and we won. But we won — one vote. I went there because I kept hearing we’re at 269. But then Wisconsin came in. Many, many years — Michigan came in. And we worked hard there. My opponent didn’t work hard there because she was told —”

[Audience boos.]

12. Trump thanks his audience — which again, consisted largely of children — for voting for him in November. 


“[Clinton] was told she was going to win Michigan, and I said, well, wait a minute, the car industry is moving to Mexico. Why is she going to move — she’s there. Why are they allowing it to move? And by the way, do you see those car industry — do you see what’s happening, how they’re coming back to Michigan? They’re coming back to Ohio. They’re starting to peel back in.” [Applause.]

“And we go to Wisconsin — now, Wisconsin hadn’t been won in many, many years by a Republican. But we go to Wisconsin, and we had tremendous crowds. And I’d leave these massive crowds. I’d say, why are we going to lose this state? The polls — that’s also fake news. They’re fake polls. But the polls are saying — but we won Wisconsin.” [Applause.]

“So I have to tell you what we did, in all fairness, this is an unbelievable tribute to you and all of the other millions and millions of people that came out and voted for Make America Great Again.”

[Audience chants “USA! USA! USA!”]

13. Trump makes a false claim about the latest jobs reports, and updates the kids on his tax-repatriation plan. 


“We had the best jobs report in 16 years. The stock market on a daily basis is hitting an all-time high. We’re going to be bringing back very soon trillions of dollars from companies that can’t get their money back into this country, and that money is going to be used to help rebuild America.”

14. Trump assures the Scouts, out of nowhere, that they can finally say “Merry Christmas” again. 


“In the Scout Oath, you pledge on your honor to do your best and to do your duty to God and your country. [Applause.] And by the way, under the Trump administration, you’ll be saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again when you go shopping. Believe me. Merry Christmas. [Applause.] They’ve been downplaying that little, beautiful phrase. You’re going to be saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again, folks.” [Applause.]

It makes me feel like crying. The celebration of rank stupidity, the crude brutality, the incessant bragging, the whining and the lying in front of a bunch of cheering and jeering boy scouts is almost physically painful to watch.

That’s being imprinted on this next generation as leadership.

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Brilliant strategery

Brilliant strategery

by digby

Apparently the geniuses in the Trump political operation think the next election is going to be about transgender people in the military instead of the deranged, cretinous, orange Commander in Chief of the military.

Good luck with that.

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