What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[Valmy]

"The deep state" is shorthand for a force within Washington that is  able to guide the US' ship of state over periods of time longer than  presidential terms, and at times despite the stated intentions of  elected officials.

They call them 'civil servants' and 'bureaucrats' in the non-insane world.

[Valmy]

Yeah, I would be more worried for the Democrats. Still reeling from their loss and wildly lashing out at anyone or anything to obfuscate the reasons for their defeat.

Why? They get to sit back and Grandstand. Far more fun than being in power.

[11B4V]

  Its an evil WWE faction.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/17/politics/donald-trump-foreign-policy/index.html

Trump's new world disorder

[crazy canuck]

With Trump's upcoming inauguration I feel reminded of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

It was for the sake of this day that he had first decided to run for the Presidency, a decision which had sent waves of astonishment throughout the Imperial Galaxy—Zaphod Beeblebrox? President? Not the Zaphod Beeblebrox? Not the President? Many had seen it as a clinching proof that the whole of known creation had finally gone bananas.

The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.

To summarise: it is a well known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarise the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarise the summary of the summary: people are a problem.

One of the major difficulties Trillian experienced in her relationship with Zaphod was learning to distinguish between him pretending to be stupid just to get people off their guard, pretending to be stupid because he couldn't be bothered to think and wanted someone else to do it for him, pretending to be outrageously stupid to hide the fact that he actually didn't understand what was going on, and really being genuinely stupid.

  Perfect

[Ed Anger]

Its an evil WWE faction.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/17/politics/donald-trump-foreign-policy/index.html

Trump's new world disorder

OH MY GAWD! JOHN LEWIS WAS JUST JACKNIFED POWERBOMBED THROUGH A TABLE!

[garbon]

Spencer is a white nationalist who believes that there should be a "peaceful ethnic cleansing," where people who are not of European descent voluntarily leave the United States.

Am I allowed to be in the US then as I've verifiable European descent?

[DGuller]

  I'm not sure how I feel about this.  Does Eastern Europe count as Europe?

[Oexmelin]

Sanders: My question is, and I don't mean to be rude, but do you think, if you were not a multi-billionaire, if your family has not made hundreds of millions of dollars of contributions to the Republican party, that you would be sitting here today?

De Vos: Senator, as a matter of fact, I do think that there would be that possibility.

[Admiral Yi]

Sanders: My question is, and I don't mean to be rude, but do you think, if you were not a multi-billionaire, if your family has not made hundreds of millions of dollars of contributions to the Republican party, that you would be sitting here today?

De Vos: Senator, as a matter of fact, I do think that there would be that possibility.

Why the itchy chin?  Response sounds reasonable.

[11B4V]

Sanders: My question is, and I don't mean to be rude, but do you think, if you were not a multi-billionaire, if your family has not made hundreds of millions of dollars of contributions to the Republican party, that you would be sitting here today?

De Vos: Senator, as a matter of fact, I do think that there would be that possibility.

The Franken part was brutal.

[Oexmelin]

Because the convoluted phrasing seemed to me to entertain both possibilities.
And because that was after admitting, as another "possibility" that her family had "perhaps" given 200M$ to the Republican party.

(I also loathe the woman).

[derspiess]

It's rough seeing your movement break apart from its own stupid.

We should go easy on spicey for the next few days.

He seems to be having a grand old time, so maybe it's premature to worry for him.

The Schadenfreude is still going fairly strong

[DGuller]

It's rough seeing your movement break apart from its own stupid.

We should go easy on spicey for the next few days.

He seems to be having a grand old time, so maybe it's premature to worry for him.

The Schadenfreude is still going fairly strong

Quoting for posterity.

[derspiess]

 Cool

[Syt]

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/trump-disrupts-world

[...]

Trump's interviews were particularly jarring just days after confirmation hearings for his designated Secretaries of State and Defense and the head of the C.I.A., all of whom were respectful of the European Union and nato during many hours of occasionally tough questions. Defense Secretary-designate James Mattis is a retired Marine Corps general who served, from 2007 to 2009, as nato's Supreme Allied Commander of Transformation. "If we did not have nato today, we would need to create it," Mattis told a Senate subcommittee last week. "It's vital to the security of the United States."

Following the hearings, a senior Western envoy told me, "These are grownups."

After the latest Trump interviews, however, diplomats in Washington were again wondering what to make of the new Administration. "Frankly, what he says doesn't make sense—suggesting that the European Union was created against the United States," one European ambassador told me. "The United States has been a major sponsor of Europe's unity." He called Trump's comments "weird" and "destructive." "People in Europe are devastated," the ambassador said.

Since the election, embassies across Washington have been scrambling to deduce Trump's foreign policy from his often contradictory campaign statements and undiplomatic tweets. "You have a conversation with someone, and then there's a random Trump tweet at night and it's not clear if it shows a policy shift or it's just a middle-of-the-night thought," one Western envoy said. "The bigger question is, What do we take from Trump, and what is he just freelancing off the top of his head?

"We're bracing ourselves," the envoy added.

Over the past ten weeks, more than one diplomat has told me of plaintive daily cables from their capitals appealing for guidance on wars, humanitarian disasters, and other crises in which they have common interests with the U.S., have supported American positions, and, in some cases, have personnel. Many in the diplomatic corps expected more clarity to emerge during the transition.

One ambassador told me, "Every day I send back the same cable saying, 'We don't really know.' "