The Next President of the United States

[Marky147]

Haha, too good.

He is absolutely barking.

[MintTrav]

Now there's a job - having to tell a hostile press that the police were right to target peaceful protestors with militaristic tools.



The references to Secretary Esper are to Mark Esper, Secretary of Defence, who had said that he wouldn't turn the military on the public. He was in the photo at the church but has made it clear that he thought they were going to speak with some of the police on the front-line and didn't know they were going to the church for a photo. Hence the questions about whether Trump still has confidence in him, met with the ringing endorsement that he does at the moment. Despite rumours of replacement, his job should be safe. He has met the President since and seems to have understood his errors, as he is now willing to get in line. Anyway, five months before the election is no time to start trying to get a new nomination through the Senate.

Click to see full-size image.

For the first time in his life, Esper is on the extreme left.

[MintTrav]

The Secretary of Defense publicly breaks with the President.




And Esper's predecessor, James Mattis, has piled in as well with a statement: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/03/read-mattis-statement-on-trumps-handling-of-nationwide-protests.html

"....Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership...."

Donald has responded in typical style:

Click to see full-size image.

John Kelly, Chief of Staff at the time, has also weighed in with a defence of Mattis, saying that he wasn't fired.

"The president did not fire him. He did not ask for his resignation. The president has clearly forgotten how it actually happened or is confused. The president tweeted a very positive tweet about Jim until he started to see on Fox News their interpretation of his letter. Then he got nasty. Jim Mattis is a honorable man."

It's almost unknown for people like Esper, Mattis and Kelly to speak out in public against the Administration. Shows where we've got to.

[Marky147]

I saw that tweet, but wasn't sure what it related to.

McEnany looks even better, given her ability to handle these press conferences when it's obvious he's going madder by the day.

[MintTrav]

It's a great day for George......apart from being dead and that.

[Marky147]

Sarah Cooper doing alright out of the donald lately.

[MintTrav]

Sarah Cooper doing alright out of the donald lately.

Def one of the winners from all this. Didn't know her before, but I've watched a few of her YTs now and I'm sure many others have too.

[Marky147]

She's too good.

Been busy today, so no idea what this one is about

[Karabiner]

She's too good.

Been busy today, so no idea what this one is about

The worst job I ever had...

[Marky147]

She's too good.

Been busy today, so no idea what this one is about

The worst job I ever had...

Lip syncing the donald?

[Karabiner]

She's too good.

Been busy today, so no idea what this one is about

The worst job I ever had...

Lip syncing the donald?

I was thinking of this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a_UKKvUcoE

[Marky147]

I'm far too young for that

[MintTrav]

Major upheaval at The Failing New York Times, which criticised an article by a leading Senator that it had published itself the day before, saying that "the essay fell short of our standards and should not have been published”.

Tom Cotton is a right-wing ex-army Republican Senator from Arkansas, who comes from the conservative wing of the Party, but is also popular with moderates - a difficult task to achieve. Despite only being in the House since 2012 and the Senate since 2014, he was on Trump’s short-list for Vice-President in 2016 and is seen as a future Presidential candidate. As well as his political abilities, he is one of the Party’s most effective fundraisers.

The piece he wrote called for troops to be used to maintain order on the streets and was widely criticised, including by numerous former and current Times journalists and a couple of former Times editors, with several of them going into print or tweeting about it. The article led to the paper’s most ever subscription cancellations in an hour. This is it, preceded by a disclaimer: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/opinion/tom-cotton-protests-military.html

Following some internal trauma, the FNYT took dramatic and painful action, including restructuring its editorial department, allowing the editor of the editorial page to resign, reassigning the deputy editorial page editor responsible for the article to the newsroom, inserting the disclaimer at the front of the piece, including the statement above, and publishing counter articles, eg 'Tom Cotton’s Fascist Op-Ed' https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/04/opinion/tom-cotton-op-ed-new-york-times.html?auth=login-google

Is Tom Cotton chastised? Is he heck - he has been taking victory laps, making fun of the FNYT’s troubles on Twitter etc.

[Marky147]

Just following the leader, though.

Has to tow the line, or he'll be hauled over the coals by him, too?

[MintTrav]

Just following the leader, though.

Has to tow the line, or he'll be hauled over the coals by him, too?

Cotton is a nutter, an army tough guy, much more right-wing than Trump. He was the one poking at Trump to use the Insurrection Act to turn the military on the population. He used the phrase “an overwhelming show of force”, which sounds fairly vague to us, but it’s a specific US military term, part of the ‘Shock and Awe’ strategy, which he would know very well, and which caused alarm when he went into print suggesting it be used on the American public. God knows where it all would have ended if Trump had listened to him.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/03/nyt-rebuked-tom-cotton-op-ed-calling-us-military-use-overwhelming-show-force-against