I've seen the media pull out the "Trump-is-finally-getting-it-in-line" too much to believe it. Sooner or later, this will blow up. First, while Kelly is totally right to get rid of Bannon and Mooch and Manigault and all these idiot clowns, those were all Trump's picks. TRUMP picked all those people. It shows you precisely how he thinks and believes. By removing them, Trump is like a fish out of water and like a fish out of water he is going to start thrashing around as he goes into his death throes.

They need to get him out of the spotlight and get rid of his Twitter and run things behind the scenes. If they let the ape out of his cage, he will wreak havoc. It's always when you think that maybe Trump is starting to understand his role as president is when he blows it all down the shitter with something crazy and stupid.

It probably would have happened already but these hurricanes have him tied up. But sooner or later the shit will hit the fan because it always does.

Yes, okay, I should have said the "forces of chaos supporting the Lord of Chaos" or something like that to acknowledge that I understood the chaos was emanating from our reality-television-person-in-chief.

Other than that I have nothing to add except head-shaking.

"It probably would have happened already but these hurricanes have him tied up."
Perhaps even 45 can figure out not to try to upstage Mother Nature throwing a hissy fit?

With reference to the DACA (no)deal, the question naturally arises, when do you have a deal with Donald Trump? Those of you who thought it was "when he gives his word" must go to the back of the class and contemplate their gullibility. The answer is, "when he has all the chips".

Meanwhile, we have the predicted battle between Congressional investigators and Robert Mueller's team. I am a little surprised that the Senate committee is asserting itself. It could mean any number of things, some good for democracy and some bad, but I will honestly admit I have no idea which are the real reasons.

When we were asked by foreigners what will happen with the Donald elected president, our stock, go to answer was ".. well, the U.S. system has checks and balances, so that should stop the most unreasonable things." But we have already seen 45 get away with so much outrageous stuff that I am having trouble holding that line. He reminds me of the playground bully, called out for breaking rules, saying "Oh yeah? Make me!" Come to think of it, I guess there's a reason he reminds me of that.

Is Trump learning why you should never fuck with the media? Because they can return the favor seven ways to a Sunday:

Well, the ape is out of the cage again, claiming that Puerto Ricans don't want to help their situation but just want "others" to do it for them (can you imagine him saying that about Port Arthur? me neither), and attacking the NFL because the polls are on his side for a change.

Democrats are foolish enough to get caught gloating over their supposed upcoming electoral gains. Are there suddenly some kind of ions in the air that make politicians act stupid? Sure, 55% of America is well and truly sick of this guy, but enough of those have some single issue they are nursing that the electoral numbers don't even look very good.

The electoral process has reduced to two kludgy football teams pushing and shoving over "field position" from issues that independent voters care about, like taxes. Me, I am looking around for ways to get involved that actually have some prospect of making a difference. It's pretty obvious that politics can't do that (though I say that with some relief that politics has not been able to put in place the agenda of the billionaire far-right either).

As it stands now, they can't make any changes to 2018 health premiums because they are locked in. They can take another shot at repeal next year but it won't take effect until 2019. The problem with Congress is that there are no rules. Every rule has an end-around that no one knew about before which effectively means there aren't any rules. You can do anything and justify it somehow. How can anything be accomplished with this?

As for the mid-terms, I don't see much improving. Trump has normalized aberrant behavior to where nobody cares anymore. It's gone from outrage to "that's just Trump being Trump." That's not good--for democrats, republicans, the people, the world, for anybody. We've stopped caring how our presidents acts and even support his boorish behavior and I am ashamed of that.

But, otoh, Trump has hurt himself with the Puerto Rico remarks and the NFL thing. It doesn't make sense to tell Puerto Rico that they need to take care of themselves and stop depending big govt to get involved and then the president is fuming over a few players kneeling during the national anthem and demanding they be fired.

Some people are asking why he can call black athletes sons of bitches but just can't bring himself to criticize white supremacists in Charlottesville after they murdered somebody.

But I agree, the public is otherwise amazingly slow in pushing Trump away. It's like they keep expecting him to suddenly do something great if we just give him enough time otherwise it's up to those crappy do-nothing democrats and nobody wants them in power. This man's support should be zero at this point. He clearly doesn't get it. He is not fit to be a president. He can't accomplish anything good. He's a liar and can't swing a deal if his life depended on it. Everything--and I mean EVERYTHING--has to be ALWAYS be about him. He doesn't know anything else. This is how he's lived his life and we rewarded him for it by electing him president which justifies his behavior in his mind. And why not? He gets away with it. We say apologize, he says blow it out your ass, we shrug and then ask him what's next on his agenda. That's scary. It isn't Trump who scares me--he's a wimp and a buffoon--it's the American people who scare me. I don't know who these people are anymore and I don't want to know them.

As for taxes, it suffers from the same disease the healthcare repeal did--no planning, no study. Obama's plan had like 1200 pages that tried to cover everything. This congress released what? A 16-page document? Absurd!! Now the tax thing is the same. A 9-page document is going to close all the loopholes and make everything easier and better? They couldn't reach two digits in the number of pages it takes their plan to fix the entire tax code??

Does anybody seriously buy any of this? Before you cut my taxes, I want to know what happens when that revenue is gone. Who is going to lose their jobs and what departments are you going to close? If a tornado destroys my city, am I on my own or is the government going to pitch in and help us? I don't want to hear how you're going to cut my taxes. I want to hear about what it is you are REALLY cutting.

And now Trump is once again pulling this--I have a wonderful tax plan, a beautiful plan, one that will work for everybody stuff. Are the American people going to fall for this again?? Well, it sure looks like it! Nobody seems to be rolling their eyes. He pulled this same stuff with healthcare, people, and he had no plan and nothing has been accomplished. And now he's doing it with taxes and you're not ready to rioting in the streets over this man's incessant, brazen lying???? But you're ready to string up a few athletes doing something that (in the words of Jefferson) "neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg"?? What the fuck is wrong with you!!

Again, American lamebrained morons keep whining that they want cheaper health premiums. Well, yeah, we all want them cheaper but how cheap do you want them? Two cents a month? You think that will cover you if you get sick? And you WILL get sick--sooner or later. And who is driving up the premiums? The republican congress and the White House. The premiums are spiking because these idiots can't drop the repeal bullshit. And the American fucking people will likely vote them right back in again.

DB Roy wrote: It's gone from outrage to "that's just Trump being Trump." That's not good--for democrats, republicans, the people, the world, for anybody. We've stopped caring how our presidents acts and even support his boorish behavior and I am ashamed of that.

DB Roy wrote:But I agree, the public is otherwise amazingly slow in pushing Trump away. It's like they keep expecting him to suddenly do something great if we just give him enough time otherwise it's up to those crappy do-nothing democrats and nobody wants them in power.

I admit I have trouble parsing the polls. True Trumpistas, who overlap heavily with Tea Partiers, seem to be under 30 percent of the public - they were never really more than about 40 percent of the Republican primaries. Yet Trump polled well against Hillary from about Iowa on. So there were a lot of anti-Democrats, and anti-Hillary Bernie Sanders independents.
I had thought that the wake-up call on Obamacare, when people realized they would be one pre-existing condition away from bankruptcy without it, would tip a large part of the public, but it seems to have moved no more than about 5 percent on Trump, and maybe 10 percent on the issue of ACA repeal.

DB Roy wrote:This man's support should be zero at this point. It isn't Trump who scares me--he's a wimp and a buffoon--it's the American people who scare me. I don't know who these people are anymore and I don't want to know them.

Well said. I honestly think a fair share of what is holding back impeachment is the feeling of being overlooked and dissed by elites among aggrieved traditionalists. That's the feeling I get on the internet, anyway.

"The calm before the storm." That which we feared is apparently upon us. It sounds to me like he has an attack on Iran in mind. Just a wild guess.

If I respected 45's intelligence enough I would call it irony - we are finishing up with a devastating hurricane season, in which he could have pulled his numbers up a bit (in fact seems to have, with Harvey) but couldn't resist picking fights and condescending to "those people". So, to suggest either that what we have is calm (in the week of the Las Vegas massacre) or that it is before the storm, not after, might conceivably have been a sign of dark humor. But no.

DB Roy wrote:This man's support should be zero at this point. It isn't Trump who scares me--he's a wimp and a buffoon--it's the American people who scare me. I don't know who these people are anymore and I don't want to know them.

Yes, but as I think both of us have said before, Trump must also be allowed to to a huge amount of damage. Americans have great difficulty learning and remembering lessons from history. If we learn anything, it is retained for only 20 - 30 years - this includes the public and our leadership. (Horrendous errors and lessons learned in Vietnam were forgotten and repeated with precision plus new errors and lessons in Iraq. We will repeat those and add new errors in the next counter-insurgency.) Although his hard core supporters (say 30% of the public) will never waiver, Trump must be allowed to rampage to an extent in which the other 70% prevent anyone with similar inclinations to get close to power for another few decades. I don't think we're close to learning that lesson yet. Breathe / Patience.

Unfortunately as our lack of memory indicates, there will be another Trump. As you say Trump will be seen as "a wimp and a buffoon." But the next candidate could promote similar ideas and attitudes with a veneer of respectability. And he or she will be so much more dangerous.

It's unfortunate that I lost track of where I read a piece analyzing Donald Trump's character, especially his inability to have reciprocal, trusting relationships with anyone, with the possible exception of family members. I thought the article got down to essentials. If the Greeks were right that a man's character is his destiny, then we might have the Trump problem in a nutshell. Richard Nixon could have had one of the most successful modern presidencies, even despite Vietnam, had not his own suspicions, paranoia, and insecurities brought him down. In Trump I think we have a person of even less psychological health and social normalcy. His very lack of normalcy, i.e., regard for norms, is what propelled him to the presidency, a very sad commentary on our society.

The article draws comparisons between Trump and Howard Hughes. Trump has said he admires Hughes.