So the Orange Imbecile is sworn in, and then gives a fucking STUMP SPEECH

[FORD]

Hey Cheeto. You were just sworn in, you fucking moron. That means it's time to stop campaigning. And (pretend to) do the job.

[Von Halen]

Feel free to jump against Trump!

[Von Halen]

[Von Halen]

[Von Halen]

[twonabomber]

[silverfish]

C2sttyUWEAEW3hv.jpg

[Nickdfresh]

You really think that small handed pussy has any idea how to actually drive his own car? Von Gina, you're just a piece of white trash shit to him...

[Terry]

Hey Cheeto. You were just sworn in, you fucking moron. That means it's time to stop campaigning. And (pretend to) do the job.

And today [Trump] sends out his press secretary Spicer for the sole purpose of denying that the size of the crowd at the Trump Inauguration was anything less than yuge, following his own bizarre press conference at the CIA where [Trump] felt the need to address the same topic. In both instances, the claim was made that "the media" were deliberately making distorted estimates of the crowd sizes (by way of claiming they were smaller than they really were) to intentionally undermine public enthusiasm for the incoming administration...

First off, I didn't really care about the crowd sizes one way or the other when they were mentioned in either the Times or the WSJ this morning, and even less so when televised newscasts throughout the day would make the comparisons: who gives a shit? Any Clinton voter taking the comparisons and trying to make a single strand of political hay out of them in terms of meaning is undertaking a Fool's Errand.

What WAS disconcerting was not so much that Trump felt the need to try and disprove the emerging media consensus on the size of his Inaugural crowd being smaller than the one in 2009 - clearly Trump will respond to any and all criticisms, which is certainly his right to do, wisdom of such a tactic to one side - but that he decided to pick a speech in front of the CIA at the Central Intelligence building to do it. Particularly considering his own public relationship with both the Agency and indeed the entire intelligence community has been contentious at best: the public speech he gave at Central Intelligence demonstrated Trump in an off-the-cuff, rambling and unconnected manner regarding his choice of topic(s). He would have been better served limiting his comments to Intelligence Community concerns.

Then to send Spicer out to restate the same dubious claims Trump made earlier just makes the whole White House approach to this crowd size "topic" seem overblown, defensive and not in command of the facts, much the same way the supposed tens of thousands of bikers Trump referenced who were going to turn up at the Inauguration turned out to be bunk.

A shame Trump can't seem to avoid swinging at every pitch, even those that are clearly in the dirt. Some may claim it's just Trump's way of changing the conversation or keeping the media/general public interested by continually flashing new, shiny objects. Honestly, I think Trump's ego is something even he can't control in terms of self-defensive grandiosity. He is seemingly unable to let any criticism pass unanswered. Swinging at every pitch in the dirt and being more concerned with how you look swinging is a good way of missing the ball altogether.

[FORD]

Wonder what Spicer is going to say tomorrow, after Cheeto hears about the crowds at the womens marches?

[cadaverdog]

C2sttyUWEAEW3hv.jpg

Donald Trump wasn't a politician when he made those remarks. Guys talk shit when woman aren't around. You post at a website that has an entire forum dedicated to objectifying women. You're as guilty as Trump is of sexism. You're a David Lee Roth fan. The same guy who brags about fucking your girlfriend if you piss him off.

[cadaverdog]

Wonder what Spicer is going to say tomorrow, after Cheeto hears about the crowds at the womens marches?

Just think about all that pussy that you could be grabbing if they were here right now?

[Seshmeister]

Donald Trump wasn't a politician when he made those remarks. Guys talk shit when woman aren't around.

Guys I know don't talk like that because he's talking like a prick.

Also he was 59 at the time not 16.

[MmeForget]

Guys I know don't talk like that because he's talking like a prick.

Also he was 59 at the time not 16.

Yeah, the guys I know were pretty disgusted by his talking that way...

[Nickdfresh]

[Terry]

"I'm Eric Trump."

[Terry]

Guys I know don't talk like that because he's talking like a prick.

Also he was 59 at the time not 16.

It's an insight into who Trump is and how he thinks. Regardless of if one considers the comments as "locker room banter" like Trump's media defenders did, or indicative of a mean-spirited frame of mind - and I have as yet to hear a single Trump advocate advance the rationale that because they were merely locker room banter they therefore WEREN'T sexist, misogynistic or extremely mean-spirited (if not outright criminal) toward women.

It was a private moment that morphed into a public window about how Donald Trump views women, and there was nothing positive about Trump's viewpoint unless one happens to share it.

[Nickdfresh]

Thank you all for peeing here, er, pissing here, er, being here!

[Terry]

Wonder what Spicer is going to say tomorrow, after Cheeto hears about the crowds at the womens marches?

Trump released a somewhat tempered tweet about the Saturday marches.

Spicer, regardless of his own personal belief in what he was ordered to say to one side, went out and made demonstrably false claims to the White House press corps and walked off after making the statement without taking any questions.

This was his first working encounter with the White House press corps. It couldn't reasonably be called a successful one by anybody with the notable exception of Trump and his supporters. It fits perfectly within the paradigm that was exemplified with Trump's New Year's Eve tweets of 2016 ("including my many enemies and those who fought me and lost so badly") and 2014 ("to everyone, including all haters and losers...always remember, winning takes care of everything") and more than a few elements of his Inaugural Address: winning is all and those who aren't on my side are losers.

I'd say it is the natural extension of a siege mentality, but in the case of Donald Trump he is correct rather than merely defensive or paranoid in the belief that his opponents are hostile to the things he says and the policies he advocates. Sadly, Trump was hunkered in the bunker before he even took office, and apparently being sworn in has failed to alleviate this mentality or cause him to want to mend divisions but rather double down.

On the heels of Spicer's statement, we now have Trump spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway making the Sunday morning political talk show rounds essentially saying that the Trump Administration has every right to expect the media to put out their (a direct quote) "alternate facts" without any independent verification or discussion regarding the truthfulness about what the Administration is saying. Also she stated that unless the media accepts and abides by these one-sided terms of reporting (at one point telling Chuck Todd of Meet The Press what HIS job as a reporter should and shouldn't entail), any type of adversarial relationship will result in a strained relationship. The implication of what THAT meant for the press in terms of diminished access was by definition unstated but perfectly clear.

So, that's where we're at.

[qikgts]

I know he's only done one so far but Spicer's next presser should be in an empty room... Time for some tough love, you know, so he can "Make Pressers Great Again"... pftt

[cadaverdog]

It was a private moment that morphed into a public window about how Donald Trump views women, and there was nothing positive about Trump's viewpoint unless one happens to share it.

Like I said to the other dude. You demonize Trump for his remarks but you post at a site dedicated to another guy who has basically the same attitude towards women. Trump's remarks were recorded without his knowledge. Roth blurts out the same kind of remarks on stage in front of huge crowds. In his defense I don't know if he changed any in his latter years or it's just a stage persona but we've all accepted his behavior without as much as a peep out of any of us except Krusty.

[Seshmeister]

It's an insight into who Trump is and how he thinks. Regardless of if one considers the comments as "locker room banter" like Trump's media defenders did, or indicative of a mean-spirited frame of mind - and I have as yet to hear a single Trump advocate advance the rationale that because they were merely locker room banter they therefore WEREN'T sexist, misogynistic or extremely mean-spirited (if not outright criminal) toward women.

It was a private moment that morphed into a public window about how Donald Trump views women, and there was nothing positive about Trump's viewpoint unless one happens to share it.

According to various witnesses including Penn Jilette, in the hundreds of hours of material filmed for Celebrity Apprentice these kind of comments and worse were commonplace and routine from Trump.

I watched part of one from 3 years ago this week where he said that he could have any woman he wanted the minute they got on his private plane because it was so amazing and that was broadcast.

[Seshmeister]

Yeah, the guys I know were pretty disgusted by his talking that way...

Anyone I've ever hung around with when misogynistic chat flies around it's done with huge amounts of humor and usually self deprecating. Apart from being thought a prick anyone that talked like Trump would have the utter shit ripped out him to take him down a peg. Clearly part of the problem is that he has spent his life surrounded by little sycophantic yes men.

[Terry]

Like I said to the other dude. You demonize Trump for his remarks but you post at a site dedicated to another guy who has basically the same attitude towards women. Trump's remarks were recorded without his knowledge. Roth blurts out the same kind of remarks on stage in front of huge crowds. In his defense I don't know if he changed any in his latter years or it's just a stage persona but we've all accepted his behavior without as much as a peep out of any of us except Krusty.

With the one self-evidently obvious (yet oddly unmentioned in your reply) fact that David Lee Roth isn't the President.

[Terry]

I know he's only done one so far but Spicer's next presser should be in an empty room... Time for some tough love, you know, so he can "Make Pressers Great Again"... pftt

Usually it takes much longer than the first official press conference for ANY White House Press Secretary to lose a significant amount of credibility. I mean, shit, it took Ron Ziegler 4 years...and this was during the Nixon Administration, and it took Ziegler until the height of Watergate in 1973 to be publicly challenged by the White House Press Corps for making demonstrably inaccurate or false statements. Spicer managed to accomplish this inside of his first several minutes. Well done.

[Seshmeister]

With the one self-evidently obvious (yet oddly unmentioned in your reply) fact that David Lee Roth isn't the President.

And at the time when he started the 'I'm gonna fuck your girlfriend' line, not qualified to be POTUS as he did not meet the minimum age requirement.

[Nickdfresh]

Usually it takes much longer than the first official press conference for ANY White House Press Secretary to lose a significant amount of credibility. I mean, shit, it took Ron Ziegler 4 years...and this was during the Nixon Administration, and it took Ziegler until the height of Watergate in 1973 to be publicly challenged by the White House Press Corps for making demonstrably inaccurate or false statements. Spicer managed to accomplish this inside of his first several minutes. Well done.

Don't worry, he'll get better...

[cadaverdog]

With the one self-evidently obvious (yet oddly unmentioned in your reply) fact that David Lee Roth isn't the President.

Neither was Trump at the time.

[Terry]

Neither was Trump at the time.

David Lee Roth isn't currently sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office. Get it?

[cadaverdog]

And at the time when he started the 'I'm gonna fuck your girlfriend' line, not qualified to be POTUS as he did not meet the minimum age requirement.

Trump wasn't a politician at the time either and it was a conversation between two grown men. I see it as one guy bragging to another guy.

[cadaverdog]

David Lee Roth isn't currently sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office. Get it?

You don't get it. He wasn't the president or running for office when he said it. it was a private conversation between two grown men. Do you think every president we've had was squeaky clean like Jimmy Carter?

[Terry]

Don't worry, he'll get better...

In a larger sense, I shouldn't be surprised. I expect a casual relationship with the truth from political hacks (or "strategists") such as Jeffrey Lord, Reince Priebus and Kellyanne Conway. I expect them to "spin". Regardless of being surprised or not - or if it is to be expected or not - it is a bit astounding that Spicer went out and professed so many things to be factual (or "alternate facts") when they clearly weren't. Why squander your personal credibility as Press Secretary right off the bat doing this? Put ethics to one side: what was the net gain for the Trump Administration in lying so blatantly over something so easily disprovable this early in the game? To change the subject from the protest marches? That they actually believe their alternate facts because they live in an alternate reality? The former would be cynical yet semi-clever in a short-term tactical way. The latter is a bit frightening for what it portends to come.

It is almost as if Trump, who sets the tone for his staff, can't even be bothered trying to construct a believable lie. Not just the lie itself, but the sheer laziness of it. I mean, I can appreciate a clever bullshitter. Should it be that this was to deflect from coverage of the marches, there would be a degree of a clever bullshitter there. My fear is that this wasn't the objective. Trump (like Reagan) believes things to be true because he thinks they are so.

[cadaverdog]

Apart from being thought a prick anyone that talked like Trump would have the utter shit ripped out him to take him down a peg.

Horseshit. Especially if you had to work with that person or better yet work for that person. You'd let it go in one ear and out the other just like anyone else would.

[Seshmeister]

You don't get it. He wasn't the president or running for office when he said it. it was a private conversation between two grown men. Do you think every president we've had was squeaky clean like Jimmy Carter?

If you are going to be the resident board apologist for dumb shit Trump says, your post count is going to go through the roof during the next 4 years.

[Terry]

You don't get it. He wasn't the president or running for office when he said it. it was a private conversation between two grown men. Do you think every president we've had was squeaky clean like Jimmy Carter?

He was 59 years old when he said it.

He was then speaking of using his celebrity and position of power as a means of forcing himself upon women, including a married woman who was resisting his advances.

That you speak of it in terms of being excusable because he wasn't running for president when he said it (so that makes it okay?), or because it was a private conversation (therefore because it was made public it is to somehow be put to one side when deliberating character? sometimes private conversations are when the truth comes out) or the relative character deficiencies of other presidents (the "they all do it" defense)...all of that just rings hollow in my ears.

I suppose if one expects no more from the President than they do David Lee Roth all of what you cited is a solid rationale. Suffice to say, I choose not to buy a pencil from your cup.

Fuckin' imbecile.

[cadaverdog]

It was a private moment that morphed into a public window about how Donald Trump views women, and there was nothing positive about Trump's viewpoint unless one happens to share it.

When has anyone said it was acceptable for anyone to sexually assault any woman? I just see it as bragging. I didn't take it serious the first time I heard it and I still don't.

[Seshmeister]

Horseshit. Especially if you had to work with that person or better yet work for that person. You'd let it go in one ear and out the other just like anyone else would.

No I wouldn't I would think this guy is a prick and I'm going to fuck him up if I can do it safely.

Not being a deplorable little weasel like Billy Bush my opening line to the woman would not be "How about a little hug for the Donald?".

[cadaverdog]

Fuckin' imbecile.

If you can't force your opinion on someone they're an imbecile. Or a deplorable. Who died and made you the judge and jury of everyone else opinion?

[cadaverdog]

Not being a deplorable little weasel like Billy Bush my opening line to the woman would not be "How about a little hug for the Donald?".

Exactly. He knew he was in the company of someone who wouldn't be offended when he said that. Otherwise he probably wouldn't have said it. If he knew he was being recorded he wouldn't have said it.

[Seshmeister]

He had just heard him boast about sexually assaulting women and wanted to see him do it.

The odious little prick wanted to ingratiate himself with Trump by giving him an opportunity.