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Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse
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Do you remember back when everybody thought John Kelly was going to calm down the Trump White House?
Stop laughing. Although it has been another wow of a week, hasn’t it? We had one top administration official, Rob Porter, resigning over claims of domestic abuse regarding two ex-wives. Kelly defended Porter as “a friend, a confidant and a trusted professional” shortly before a picture popped up of one former Mrs. Porter sporting a black eye.
This was a little bit after Kelly himself made headlines for suggesting that some young immigrants couldn’t qualify for federal help because they were just “too lazy to get off their asses” and file some paperwork. Meanwhile the president, apparently unsupervised, was calling for a government shutdown and lobbying enthusiastically for an expensive new military parade. Because he saw one in Paris and thought it was cool.
A good chief of staff advises the president against doing things that will make the administration look stupid or crazy. So, are we all in agreement that Kelly, retired general turned Trump chief of staff, appears to be … a failure? And sort of a jerk in the bargain?
When Kelly first came over to run the Trump team there was near-unanimous expectation that he’d be the adult in the room. And indeed the chain of command got more efficient and some problem employees were evicted. However, there’s a limit to how long you can live off your laurels for firing Omarosa and The Mooch.
Kelly did nothing about the fact that the White House is loud and mean and generally unfathomable. Except make things even worse. This, after all, is the guy who’s intervened whenever Donald Trump is in his expansive give-me-an-immigration-bill-to-sign phase, and pushed him over to Haiti-is-a-shithole territory.
“It almost makes you nostalgic for Reince Priebus. Never thought I’d say that,” mused Chris Whipple, the author of “The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency.”
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WIFE BEATERS FOR TRUMP
https://claytoonz.com/2018/02/08/wife-beaters-for-trump/
Rob Porter is the staff secretary for the White House, a title that downplays the significance of the position.
The staff secretary is really the assistant to the chief of staff, which makes him a gatekeeper to the Oval Office, who gets to see the president, and what information gets to the president. Porter even had a hand in crafting the State of the Union address, which might explain why it was so slappy.
Porter resigned Wednesday after a British tabloid, the Daily Mail, brought to light accusations that he was emotionally and physically abusive to his ex wives. That’s not a typo. Wives. Plural. He gave one a black eye and the other obtained an emergency protective order against him after he broke into her home.
Par for the course for this White House, they didn’t care and tried to downplay it. They knew about the accusations for over year, as both of his exes told the FBI in January, 2017 of the allegations while they were being interviewed for Porter’s security clearance. Porter has not had a security clearance in all this time, much like Jared Kushner and Sebastian Gorka (before he resigned and is an international fugitive).
Trump himself has been accused of violence by his first wife who later retracted her claim. This in addition to over a dozen accusations of him sexually assaulting women along with his boasting about groping women without asking and barging into dressing rooms full of naked teenage girls.
Kelly even tried to talk Porter into staying, telling him these accusations shouldn’t be taken seriously. Kelly, once thought of as a moderating presence who was cheered by many when he took the job, has turned into one big disappointment. It worked for a day as Porter decided not to leave until a photo emerged of one of his exes’ black eye.
Typical for Republicans, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch defended Porter until the photo showed up. Hatch didn’t have all the details before he commented, much like the entire party was with the FISA memo. Orrin went from “It’s incredibly discouraging to see such a vile attack on such a decent man,” to “I am heartbroken by today’s allegations.” Heartbroken, I’m sure, that it got out.
Porter is also dating Hope Hicks, who went from being a fashion model, to helping Ivanka sell clothing made by children in third-world countries, to doing whatever the hell her job is for Donald Trump. It’s not surprising that a woman will to help a vulgar man like Donald Trump push his agenda would get all dreamy eyed for the likes of a Rob Porter.
Why any woman would want to advocate and vote for the Trump agenda is befuddling. You would think anyone who voted for Trump would see through the lies and broken promises as “clean” coal is not coming back and Mexico is not paying for the wall. You’re paying for the wall and Trump is willing to shut down the government until you do.
White women in particular got it bad when it comes to Trump. White women in Alabama even supported Roy Moore. It’s puzzling that these women don’t believe the numerous sexual allegations against these men despite very convincing evidence and Trump’s own admittance to assaulting women. It continues to baffle me how anyone, especially women, can believe Hillary Clinton is dishonest while they support Trump.
While it’s surprising white women refused to vote for a white woman who advanced issues important to them, I know we can’t expect women to vote for a woman just because she’s a woman. But, how about expecting women to vote for a women because she’s more qualified, accomplished, experienced and not a raging racist narcissistic lunatic with self esteem issues?
I will never understand why a woman will stay in an abusive relationship. The one you’re in now, white women, will never treat you right.
https://claytoonz.com/2018/02/08/wife-beaters-for-trump/
Rob Porter is the staff secretary for the White House, a title that downplays the significance of the position.
The staff secretary is really the assistant to the chief of staff, which makes him a gatekeeper to the Oval Office, who gets to see the president, and what information gets to the president. Porter even had a hand in crafting the State of the Union address, which might explain why it was so slappy.
Porter resigned Wednesday after a British tabloid, the Daily Mail, brought to light accusations that he was emotionally and physically abusive to his ex wives. That’s not a typo. Wives. Plural. He gave one a black eye and the other obtained an emergency protective order against him after he broke into her home.
Par for the course for this White House, they didn’t care and tried to downplay it. They knew about the accusations for over year, as both of his exes told the FBI in January, 2017 of the allegations while they were being interviewed for Porter’s security clearance. Porter has not had a security clearance in all this time, much like Jared Kushner and Sebastian Gorka (before he resigned and is an international fugitive).
Trump himself has been accused of violence by his first wife who later retracted her claim. This in addition to over a dozen accusations of him sexually assaulting women along with his boasting about groping women without asking and barging into dressing rooms full of naked teenage girls.
Kelly even tried to talk Porter into staying, telling him these accusations shouldn’t be taken seriously. Kelly, once thought of as a moderating presence who was cheered by many when he took the job, has turned into one big disappointment. It worked for a day as Porter decided not to leave until a photo emerged of one of his exes’ black eye.
Typical for Republicans, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch defended Porter until the photo showed up. Hatch didn’t have all the details before he commented, much like the entire party was with the FISA memo. Orrin went from “It’s incredibly discouraging to see such a vile attack on such a decent man,” to “I am heartbroken by today’s allegations.” Heartbroken, I’m sure, that it got out.
Porter is also dating Hope Hicks, who went from being a fashion model, to helping Ivanka sell clothing made by children in third-world countries, to doing whatever the hell her job is for Donald Trump. It’s not surprising that a woman will to help a vulgar man like Donald Trump push his agenda would get all dreamy eyed for the likes of a Rob Porter.
Why any woman would want to advocate and vote for the Trump agenda is befuddling. You would think anyone who voted for Trump would see through the lies and broken promises as “clean” coal is not coming back and Mexico is not paying for the wall. You’re paying for the wall and Trump is willing to shut down the government until you do.
White women in particular got it bad when it comes to Trump. White women in Alabama even supported Roy Moore. It’s puzzling that these women don’t believe the numerous sexual allegations against these men despite very convincing evidence and Trump’s own admittance to assaulting women. It continues to baffle me how anyone, especially women, can believe Hillary Clinton is dishonest while they support Trump.
While it’s surprising white women refused to vote for a white woman who advanced issues important to them, I know we can’t expect women to vote for a woman just because she’s a woman. But, how about expecting women to vote for a women because she’s more qualified, accomplished, experienced and not a raging racist narcissistic lunatic with self esteem issues?
I will never understand why a woman will stay in an abusive relationship. The one you’re in now, white women, will never treat you right.
A network of Russian social media bots and trolls in February 2018 pounced on Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the main author of a memo about Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election that House Intelligence Committee members https://www.snopes.com/2018/02/06/house-committee-votes-release-democrats-classified-memo/ to declassify.
Such parades, after all, are more the preserve of nations such as North Korea, Russia and China, whose leaders still need these sometimes surreal displays of military strength to buttress their own rule. In many other parts of the world, military parades are quaint anachronisms, cloaked in remembrance of the past with little relevance for the future. In the United States, the world's unquestioned military superpower, respect for the military and its members is so ubiquitous that it's somehow become easy to overlook. An eye-catching parade is hardly necessary to honor the troops.
So what's the point? “A military parade is really a kind of ritual dance, something like a ballet, expressing a certain philosophy of life,” wrote the great British author George Orwell.
Orwell was writing in 1941, at a time when Britons faced the prospect of defeat and conquest by the Nazis. He decried the fascist “goose-step” as “one of the most horrible sights in the world,” and saw in it “an affirmation of naked power; contained in it, quite consciously and intentionally, is the vision of a boot crashing down on a face. Its ugliness is part of its essence, for what it is saying is ‘Yes, I am ugly, and you daren't laugh at me’, like the bully who makes faces at his victim.”
This led Orwell to conclude that, “beyond a certain point, military display is only possible in countries where the common people dare not laugh at the army.”
For Trump, the army certainly is no laughing matter — and he has picked a series of political battles with any domestic critics he claims are disrespecting the military. But while most Americans dare not laugh at their army, the reaction to Trump's parade shows that quite a few are laughing at him.
The first time he called me a "fucking bitch" was on our honeymoon. (I found out years later he had kicked his first wife on theirs.) A month later he physically prevented me from leaving the house. Less than two months after that, I filed a protective order with the police because he punched in the glass on our front door while I was locked inside. We bought a house to make up for it. Just after our one year anniversary, he pulled me, naked and dripping, from the shower to yell at me.
Everyone loved him. People commented all the time how lucky I was. Strangers complimented him to me every time we went out. But in my home, the abuse was insidious. The threats were personal. The terror was real. And yet I stayed.
When I tried to get help, I was counseled to consider carefully how what I said might affect his career. And so I kept my mouth shut and stayed. I was told, yes, he was deeply flawed, but then again so was I. And so I worked on myself and stayed. If he was a monster all the time, perhaps it would have been easier to leave. But he could be kind and sensitive. And so I stayed. He cried and apologized. And so I stayed. He offered to get help and even went to a few counseling sessions and therapy groups. And so I stayed. He belittled my intelligence and destroyed my confidence. And so I stayed. I felt ashamed and trapped. And so I stayed. Friends and clergy didn't believe me. And so I stayed. I was pregnant. And so I stayed. I lost the pregnancy and became depressed. And so I stayed.
Abuse is indifferent to education level, socio-economic status, race, age, or gender. And no one can ever know the dynamics of another's relationship. My cycle continued for four more years. Afterward, I let go and welcomed the hard work of healing and forgiveness. My experience made me stronger and able to love more deeply. But my heart breaks for him. In the end, who is the real victim of his choices?
Look at the picture. Really. Look at the picture. The woman’s eye socket is the sickly green-yellow of a healing bruise. Around the eyelid, and in a sickening swoosh underneath, there is the deep plum of blood pooling around broken capillaries.
The picture, if you haven’t seen it, shows Colbie Holderness, one of two ex-wives who have accused senior White House aide Rob Porter of physically abusing them. Porter, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senior-white-house-official-to-resign-following-allegations-of-abuse/2018/02/07/49aa80b8-0c19-11e8-baf5-e629fc1cd21e_story.html?utm_term=.aa293d18b21a (in the statement) announcing his resignation Wednesday, declared that “these outrageous allegations are simply false. I took the photos given to the media nearly 15 years ago and the reality behind them is nowhere close to what is being described.”
Okay, then, explain the photo, which Holderness says was taken after Porter punched her in the face on a trip to Florence. Bruises like this are not self-inflicted. Why does it matter who took the photo? The question is: Who committed the assault?
Explain Holderness’s description, to the Daily Mail, which broke the story, of how, on their honeymoon, Porter “was angry because we weren’t having sex when he wanted to have sex and he kicked me. . . . That was the first time he hurt me and then the doors opened. I didn’t do anything and it continued.” It always does, by the way. Once is never enough for abusers.
Explain the request for an emergency protective order from Jennifer Willoughby, Porter’s second wife, after, she said, Porter “punched in the glass on the door” of their apartment when he refused to leave, in violation of their separation agreement. Explain the https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senior-white-house-official-to-resign-following-allegations-of-abuse/2018/02/07/49aa80b8-0c19-11e8-baf5-e629fc1cd21e_story.html?utm_term=.80ff9dc3ebd7 (finding) that “reasonable grounds exist to believe that [Porter] has committed family abuse and there is probable danger of a further such offense.” Explain Willoughby’s description, in a blog post, of how her husband “pulled me, naked and dripping, from the shower to yell at me.”
All presidents lie. Richard Nixon said he was not a crook, yet he orchestrated the most shamelessly crooked act in the modern presidency. Ronald Reagan said he wasn’t aware of the Iran-Contra deal; there’s evidence he was. Bill Clinton said he did not have sex with that woman; he did, or close enough. Lying in politics transcends political party and era. It is, in some ways, an inherent part of the profession of politicking.
But Donald Trump is in a different category. The sheer frequency, spontaneity and seeming irrelevance of his lies have no precedent. Nixon, Reagan and Clinton were protecting their reputations; Trump seems to lie for the pure joy of it. A whopping 70 percent of Trump’s statements that PolitiFact checked during the campaign were false, while only 4 percent were completely true, and 11 percent mostly true. (Compare that to the politician Trump dubbed “crooked,” Hillary Clinton: Just 26 percent of her statements were deemed false.)
Those who have followed Trump’s career say his lying isn’t just a tactic, but an ingrained habit. New York tabloid writers who covered Trump as a mogul on the rise in the 1980s and ’90s found him categorically different from the other self-promoting celebrities in just how often, and pointlessly, he would lie to them. In his own autobiography, Trump used the phrase “truthful hyperbole,” a term coined by his ghostwriter referring to the flagrant truth-stretching that Trump employed, over and over, to help close sales. Trump apparently loved the wording, and went on to adopt it as his own.
