Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/06/05/befuddled-trump-furious-with-d.html
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Donald Trump refuses to consider anyone who ever said something bad about Donald Trump
Kelly Anne Conway was one such, though…
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He’s not talking to us, he’s placating his base in case any of them get worried about the gaping hole in our government that he made when he came in, kinda like a cannonball.
For a hardcore Trump supporter, his tweets are the news, and everything else is damned dirty liberal lies that will kill us all if we listen. Well… unless it’s Breitbart or Fox, then its OK.
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There, fixed etc.
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I realize BB doesn’t have the reportorial resources of the NYT, but it would be nice to see some of the cold hard facts filled out a bit more. Something like this:
Of the %d positions that must be confirmed by the Senate, Trump has nominated just %d to date. Among the %d positions for which he has made a nomination, %d have been confirmed and %d are still waiting for Senate confirmation. On average, Trump’s pending confirmations have been in the Senate’s hands for %d days. This compares to an average Senate confirmation time of %d days for the incoming Clinton, Bush (43), and Obama administrations. (*)
That’s the frame into which I’m trying to shove raw numbers (like 449). When the other numbers are missing, the raw digits just seem like unmoored, meaningless numbers.
(*) If printf was good enough for K&R, it’s good enough for me, dammit. Undernourished Python programmers can suck it up.
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Want Approvals!
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He may not be talking to his base either, he may be talking to himself.
The idea that he’s crazy like a fox would mean this is a calculated ploy to dictate the “real” news to his loyal followers.*
I find the idea that he’s just plumb crazy a lot more logical-- if he doesn’t even know that Presbyterians are Christians, then why would he know that he hasn’t nominated anyone for any of these positions yet?
(*Ultimately the end result is the same, though.)
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wikipedia has a good link to this resource, which I believe is being regularly updated
I haven’t read about how wapo determines which positions are considered “key” - there are about 1200 positions requiring senate approval, but this tracker only covers a subset of those - 559 “key positions”
of those 559, as of today,
441 have no nominee
16 are awaiting nomination
63 are nominated
39 are confirmed
So, that’s 7% of key positions confirmed. Not even a skeleton crew.
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Trump + cell = personal echo chamber
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I’d think Trump’s job of nominating is complicated by the need to have nominees who are susceptible to bribes.
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There’s days when even competent corruption feels like it would be a step up. The description of the process of recruiting a new FBI director is pretty much exactly everything I expected
While the department has compiled a long list of candidates for the White House, there has been no “clear framework or logic for who was interviewed and why,” said one of the sources. Another of the three sources described the process as chaotic and said that in one interview, Trump spoke mostly about himself and seemed distracted.
After watching what has happened to McMaster and Mattis, it’s becoming increasingly clear that anyone competent enough to do these jobs should also be smart enough to realize that there’s no good outcome if you join this administration. You can’t contain his bad impulses. You can’t meaningfully reassure allies while Trump is trashing them in speeches. It’s no longer a question of whether taking an administration job means you’ll be a bulwark for the republic or an enabler of Trump’s worst impulses - it is always the latter.
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To be fair, I’ve known Americans who were under the impression that Catholics aren’t Christians, so this kind of thing wouldn’t be that surprising to me… if it weren’t for him actually claiming to be Presbyterian, anyways.
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Obama was in office for 8 years and didn’t confirm a single one of Trump’s nominees! Sad!
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Facts won’t change this trajectory. Try something else.
Don’t forget how time zones and language barrier play havoc with project schedules. The 8 hour time difference between Moscow and Washington DC, combined with translation time (now that the White House doesn’t talk to the CIA) means that getting the Kremlin’s nomination list passed through to the Senate takes longer then they’d like.
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Hmm. Let’s see. Googling time zonessssssss. Ah! There it is.You’re right. The time lag would definitely be a significant factor.
Thx!
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That’s what I would have thought, early in his administration. Now, I’m not so sure he actually even knows what the situation is.
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Mattis seems to be slowly backing away from Trump
‘Slowly’ in that while the “Bear with us” and “we’ll do the right thing … eventually” lines don’t exactly inspire confidence in his boss, he nevertheless continues to defend Drumpf overall. Which, I get, is his job. Actually … it’s not his job, but it has become a necessary pre-req to trying to do his job.
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i don’t know why i was surprised by this – we’ve already learned that he clearly has no clue how our government works, or what anyone around him is doing.
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