Tawdry Mr Trump

[Huntn]

And - I smiled with both appreciation and delighted pleasure this morning - the adjective that Mary Trump, (Mr Trump's niece) has used in a piece in The Observer (the Sunday companion paper to The Guardian) to describe her awful uncle is "tawdry".

I’ll have to add that to my long list of Trump adjectives, some are profane. I do realize you used it in your thread title.

 

[lizkat]

Tawdry Mr. Trump's fundraising just got more complicated. Well the GOP likes free market decisions.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1348409924062216195/


From the cited WSJ piece

The financial-technology company handles card payments for millions of online businesses and e-commerce platforms, including Mr. Trump’s campaign website and online fundraising apparatus. Stripe is cutting off the president’s campaign account for violating its policies against encouraging violence, the people said.

 

[lizkat]

And apparently it's not just big biz trying to back away from the stench.

Some other entities, Trump supporters more interested in his policies and meanwhile holding nose about his decorum and amorality, are now having second thoughts.

This was always going to happen. One might have hoped that a split from Trump might have occurred to more policy-side supporters sooner than ten days before his exit after half-a-coup and god knows what yet to come.

[ America Magazine presents news/politics and culture of Catholicism. It is prepared and edited by Jesuits and has a somewhat more liberal and intellectual lean to it than conservative RCs may prefer. That does not seem to be helping it at the moment. The backlash is pretty predictable. ]


https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1348377811355103239/

 

[Huntn]

Tawdry Mr. Trump's fundraising just got more complicated. Well the GOP likes free market decisions.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1348409924062216195/


From the cited WSJ piece

I want to know about the campaign finance laws that prevents Trump from pocketing this money, by reports a fortune already collected from Despicable America.

 

[lizkat]

I want to know if Pence is going to urge Trump to bow out. He took his Chief of Staff with him to a meeting in the West Wing this afternoon. Marc Short is a guy associated w/ the Koch brothers, the remaining politically oriented one of which does not care for Trump. Maybe there is a deal that doesn't involve a pardon. Money always talks loudly to The Don. Funny if there were a bait and switch move in the works. Twitter is having fun with not knowing what the meeting might be about.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1348733982469476355/

 

[Huntn]

I suggest that the Medal of Freedom be renamed, the Medal of Loyal Trump Minion. Trump is on a role in all things corrupt, dirtying, dishonoring everything he touches.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-rewards-gop-ally-rep-jim-jordan-with-medal-of-freedom

However note:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bill-belichick-declines-presidential-medal-of-freedom-trump/

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Tawdry, and yes, petty.

So, so, so predictably petty.

Petty, spiteful, vindictive, and so, so small.

Tonight, it has been reported that Mr Biden is flying to Washington (from Delaware) on a private plane.

Apparently, he was neither invited nor permitted to fly by government plane - a normal courtesy extended to incoming presidents by their predecessor.

"The president-elect and his wife, Dr Jill Biden, departed Delaware via a private aircraft, another break with tradition as incoming presidents usually fly to Washington on a government plane," reported the Guardian, adding that it is "unclear" why this happened, or, to quote the Guardian ("No immediate word on why he wasn’t offered - or isn’t flying - on a US government plane, which is standard for a president-elect").

 

[Scepticalscribe]

And, by way of further striking contrast, this evening, Mr Biden and his spouse, Dr Biden, along with Kamala Harris and her spouse, attended a dignified and moving memorial service (the first - and only, so far - memorial service to have been held since the virus first appeared eleven months ago) at the Lincoln Memorial to comemorate the over 400,000 US people who have died from Covid.

Classy, decent and dignified.

Meanwhile, the disgraced, departing Mr Trump - the tawdry, trashy Mr Trump - quibbles over the exact details of the salute he will receive early tomorrow morning as he leaves Washington for the last time as President.

 

[thekev]

Meanwhile, the disgraced, departing Mr Trump - the tawdry, trashy Mr Trump - quibbles over the exact details of the salute he will receive early tomorrow morning as he leaves Washington for the last time as President.

Personally, I'm in favor of the middle finger.

 

[lizkat]

Personally, I'm in favor of the middle finger.

I kinda liked the passing idea I saw on Twitter awhile back about a fleet of those Trump baby balloons...

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Apparently, Mr Biden had hoped to travel by train (Amtrak) to Washington; he had commuted daily by train when he was a young Senator, returning home to Delaware each night, and, more recently, he and Barack Obama (and their respective families) had also journeyed to Washington by train in 2009.

However, recent events (security concerns, rather than health ones) had decreed that this journey - a short one - was to be made by air.

And, of course, it was entirely beyond the tiny, seething, narcissistic mind - petty, pathetic, petulant - of Donald Trump to extend the basic courtesy of a government flight, just as it was beyond him (or his appalling wife) to even meet the Bidens, invite them for tea, or extend the courtesy of a White House tour.

Small graces, small decencies, small courtesies, but - nonetheless - very revealing of character.

And it was telling, revealing of character, a note of impeccable taste and class, of empathy and decency, dignity and decorum, that both Mr Biden and Ms Harris should - jointly - hold a memorial service (that rendition of Amazing Grace - sung by an African American nurse - a frontline health care worker - was spellbinding and spine-tingling), a formal, public, ritual of mourning to acknowledge, to mark, to note, to share in and to bear witness to, the publicly expressed grief of the tragic passing of just over 400,000 Americans, who have lost their lives to Covid.

Character and tone matter, in such a setting and at such a time.

And President-elect Biden and Vice-President-elect Harris have struck the right note, and passed the test of character this evening.

 

[User.168]

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[Huntn]

It seems like the crowd to say goodbye was very small, so they piped in crowd noises to welcome the Trump, but then they had some technical difficulties.

Look at the other angle later on - about 6 rows of people or so.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1351887106424139777/

I was so glad that his arrival in Palm Beach was not covered, thank goodness, but I wonder how many of his losers showed up to cheer their loser?

 

[User.168]

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[lizkat]

I was so glad that his arrival in Palm Beach was not covered, thank goodness, but I wonder how many of his losers showed up to cheer their loser?

I read there were about 20 at the airport itself but a lot of supporters were lined up along the highway to Mar a Lago. Melania had changed from her somber black attire worn when leaving the White House to something far breezier as she deplaned in Florida.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I read there were about 20 at the airport itself but a lot of supporters were lined up along the highway to Mar a Lago. Melania had changed from her somber black attire worn when leaving the White House to something far breezier as she deplaned in Florida.

View attachment 2925

Pair of creeps.

Complete creeps.

I was impressed when I read (yesterday) about how Laura Bush had welcomed Michelle Obama to the White House; to her eternal credit, there were two such meetings.

The first was the formal "meet & greet" cup of tea stuff (and neither awful Trump could manage even that basic courtesy), but the second was a formal "tour of the premises", where Michelle Obama was accompanied by her children.

Before anything else could even begin, Laura Bush - who, herself, had two children (okay, teenagers, but still) during her years in the White House - explained that the most important thing was to show the two Obama kids the accomodation and to let them select - or, think about - what would be their bedrooms in the White House; I must admit that I loved this detail, it is human, and decent, and allowed the two mothers to begin to bond a bit as mothers, sharing stories and trading tales of challenges of rearing kids while in the gilded goldfish bowl environment of the White House.

 

[Huntn]

I saw something on Twitter that mentioned it was quite a few. Maybe he can form Trumpistan there? Would Florida be a loss in the big picture?

My Dad lives in Florida and he’d never stand for it. Yeah it’s still red technically but not by that much. This is the 92 year old life long Republican who finally bailed on the GOP under W.

 

[lizkat]

My Dad lives in Florida and he’d never stand for it. Yeah it’s still red technically but not by that much.

It will be interesting to see what Florida makes of Trump going forward, that's for sure. And of its senior Senator Marco Rubio, who must stand for re-election in 2022. Supposedly Ivanka Trump thinks to run against him, and the Kushners aside from having bought land on Indian Creek have also taken a one-year lease on a condo not far from there in Arte. Maybe Marco should quit quoting the Bible online all the while, and start getting out there amongst his bricks-and-mortar supporters to make sure they're still on board his re-election train. Biden did hit the ground running in DC but Trump&Co will surely start their rebuild effort in Florida.

Speaking of Ivanka: she contributed a little real drama for the occasion of her dad's departure by being photographed at least trying to weep. But there were some observations that she was careful to face her father so that he would be able to see her loyalty (or at least her $3k designer coat) on display. Hah, Trump himself is probably trying to figure out who the disloyal photog was who managed to swing camera away from an outgoing President to take a picture of anyone else in those moments, whether weeping or not.

It seems like the crowd to say goodbye was very small, so they piped in crowd noises to welcome the Trump, but then they had some technical difficulties.

Look at the other angle later on - about 6 rows of people or so.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1351887106424139777/

That whole scene was surreal, no? Trump's decision to order a 21-gun salute for himself as he departed office will seem ever more tacky as time goes on. Oh well, it did suit the image of him as a wannabe tin pot dictator. The recorded crowd noise is his addition to a shopworn international playbook.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

I wonder if they discovered the piece of luggage Giuliani hid himself in yet.

 

[User.168]

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