#Trump Press Conference

[relaxedstyles]

[deadpresidents]

"It's called rain, comes down from comes down from heaven. And they want to do, no water comes out of the shower. It goes drip, drip, drip. So what happens you're in the shower 10 times as long, you know. No water comes out of the faucet."

-- Exact transcript of President-elect Donald Trump complaining about shower heads with restricted water flow during a batshit crazy press conference at Mar-a-Lago, January 7, 2024.

President-elect Trump, who also pointed out during the press conference that "The windmills are driving the whales crazy", touched upon some more serious matters, as well, implying that the United States may take back control of the Panama Canal by force, potentially use force and/or economic coercion to force Denmark to sell Greenland to the United States (he will "tariff Denmark at a very high level" if they don't give us Greenland), and continued to suggest that Canada should become an American state. Oh, he also talked about changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America" because he's an asshole.

In case you forgot, over 77 million Americans -- including, undoubtedly, people you love and who say they love and care about you -- voted for this person to lead our country for the next four years, despite...well...despite fucking everything we have experienced since 2015.

I seriously don't know if I can do this again for another four years.

[busterballsblog]

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Billboard

* * * *

NPR reports on Trump's 162 lies during last Thursday’s press conference.

The journalists in attendance at Trump's staged press-event last Thursday failed to challenge him when he spouted lie after lie. Some organizations did “fact checks” of the most egregious lies. But only one news organization has published a comprehensive analysis of every lie Trump told during the 90-minute press conference. See NPR, 162 lies and distortions in a news conference. NPR fact-checks former President Trump.

The report by NPR is exhaustive. It required a substantial amount of work and attention to detail. NPR and the reporters who researched the article deserve to be commended for their work. The article begins by noting that Trump told two lies per minute during the press conference!

A team of NPR reporters and editors reviewed the transcript of his news conference and found at least 162 misstatements, exaggerations and outright lies in 64 minutes. That’s more than two a minute. It’s a stunning number for anyone – and even more problematic for a person running to lead the free world. Politicians spin. They fib. They misspeak. They make honest mistakes like the rest of us. And, yes, they even sometimes exaggerate their biographies. The expectation, though, is that they will treat the truth as something important and correct any errors. But what former President Trump did this past Thursday went well beyond the bounds of what most politicians would do.

The byline on the article is Domenico Montanaro, but the text says it was written by a team of reporters and editors. I urge readers to provide feedback to NPR on its editorial decision to invest the time and resources to catalog Trump's lies. We must not allow Trump to exhaust us through the sheer volume of his lies. NPR didn’t let that happen for last Thursday’s staged press event. Kudos to NPR!

An article by Tom Nichols in The Atlantic also deserves attention. See The Truth About Trump’s Press Conference. (This article is accessible to all.) Nichols reviews the headlines in the NYTimes, WaPo, CNN and other media outlets, all of which focused on the impact of the news conference on the horse-race aspect of the election.

Nichols writes,

All of these headlines are technically true, but they miss the point: The Republican nominee, the man who could return to office and regain the sole authority to use American nuclear weapons, is a serial liar and can’t tell the difference between reality and fantasy. Donald Trump is not well. He is not stable. There’s something deeply wrong with him. Any of those would have been important—and accurate—headlines.

Sunday presented another opportunity for major media to redeem themselves and finally—finally—acknowledge that Trump is not well. Will they do so in their Monday editions? We can always hope. Read on!

Trump descends further into conspiracy, delusion, and deceit over the weekend.

Last week, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz visited Michigan in Air Force 2. They disembarked the plane and walked into a hangar that held an overflow crowd that spilled onto the tarmac. Estimates put the crowd size at about 12,000.

On Saturday, MAGA internet trolls began analyzing the “reflections” on the body and engines of Air Force 2 and could not see reflected images of the crowd. The trolls could not see the reflected images because they were examining curved surfaces that reflected light and images from directly beneath the plane—where no one was standing. The trolls should have spent more time in high school science classes than playing multi-player fantasy games online. But I digress.

The trolls immediately concluded that the images of the crowds were generated by AI autofill in Photoshop. That claim was immediately and unequivocally rebutted when video from major media outlets panned the crowd and Air Force 2 in a single shot, proving the crowds were real—not AI-generated images. That should have been the end of the story, right?

Wrong! On Sunday, Trump posted a rant on Truth Social in which he claimed that Harris and Walz were resorting to AI to make it appear that their crowd sizes were larger than Trump's. With apologies, I am going to reprint Trump's rant in full. Read as much as you can, and then meet me on the other side:

Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport? There was nobody at the plane, and she "A.l'd" it, and showed a massive "crowd" of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN'T EXIST! She was turned in by a maintenance worker at the airport when he noticed the fake crowd picture, but there was nobody there, later confirmed by the reflection of the mirror-like finish on the Vice Presidential Plane. She's a CHEATER. She had NOBODY waiting, and the "crowd" looked like 10,000 people! Same thing is happening with her fake "crowds" at her speeches. This is the way the Democrats win Elections, by CHEATING - And they're even worse at the Ballot Box. She should be disqualified because the creation of a fake image is ELECTION INTERFERENCE. Anyone who does that will cheat at ANYTHING!

One of two things is true: Trump believes that the images are faked (despite video by major new organizations) or he does not.

If Trump has fallen into delusion and conspiracy, that fact deserves front page treatment from every news outlet in America.

If Trump knows the images of the crowd are true, then he is setting up a claim that Democrats can only win the 2024 election by cheating, and that fact deserves front page treatment from every news outlet in America.

As I said, we shall see if the Monday editions of major news outlets say (a) Trump is descending into delusion, or (b) Trump is setting up an attack on integrity of presidential election for the second time!

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[johnschneiderblog]

Lest we forget (even though we may want to)

If you've been trying for three years to erase from your mind the images associated with this T-shirt, I apologize. But maybe we should be forced to remember certain things - for our own damn good.

This particular T was a Christmas gift from one of my kids. I wore it a couple of times on the pickleball court when it still meant something; it got a few laughs.

Memories faded; images got supressed; the shirt soon lost its punch.

Let's revisit: On Nov. 7, 2020, four days after the presidential election, the defeated Donald Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, hosted a bizarre state-of-denial press conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping near Philadelphia.

It was a baffling choice of venue and although the Trump campaign never admitted it, speculation was that somebody meant to book the posh Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia. Oops.

Nontheless, the presser proceeded. Trump's legal team hurled wild and baseless claims about electoral malfeasance while rivulets of hair dye trickled down Rudy's cheeks.

Remember?

[filosofablogger]

Terminal Stupidity!

I don’t really want to write about Trump’s “press conference” yesterday, but a few things stuck in my craw and I feel compelled to share them.  Frankly, I’d be over-the-moon happy if I never had to hear or write about Donald Trump again, but as long as he is a threat to our very lives, I cannot simply close my eyes and ears and go ‘round singing ♫ La la la la la la ♫. The ’event’ was supposed to…

[saywhat-politics]

The administration of President Donald Trump swiftly sought to downplay a Thursday incident in which Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was roughly pinned to the ground and briefly handcuffed during a press conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles.

Noem claimed that Padilla did not identify himself as he tried to ask her a question, even though he can clearly be heard saying his name near the start of the incident.

[reality-detective]

President Trump is set to reveal criminals who have been stealing billions from American taxpayers at a press conference tomorrow...

Names you will recognize. 🤔

[martyr-mayhem]

Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, reality checks MAGA and Trump himself:

"So today the United States launched a trade war against Canada, their closest partner and ally, their closest friend. At the same time, they’re talking about working positively with Russia, appeasing Vladimir Putin, a lying, murderous dictator.

Make that make sense.

Canadians are reasonable and we are polite, but we will not back down from a fight — not when our country and the well-being of everyone in it is at stake. At the moment, the U.S. tariffs came into effect in the early hours of this morning, and so did the Canadian response.

Canada will be implementing 25 per cent tariffs against $155 billion worth of American goods, starting with tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods immediately, and tariffs on the remaining $125 billion of American products in 21 days’ time.

Today we will also be challenging these illegal actions by filing dispute resolution claims at the World Trade Organization and through the USMCA.

But in the meantime, our tariffs will remain in place until the U.S. tariffs are withdrawn and not a moment sooner. And should these tariffs not cease, we are in active and ongoing discussions with provinces and territories to pursue several non-tariff measures, measures which will demonstrate that there are no winners in a trade war.

Now, just like I did a month ago, I want to speak first directly to the American people.

We don’t want this. We want to work with you as a friend and ally, and we don’t want to see you hurt either. But your government has chosen to do this to you. As of this morning, markets are down and inflation is set to rise dramatically all across your country.

Your government has chosen to put American jobs at risk at the thousands of workplaces that succeed because of materials from Canada, or because of consumers in Canada, or both. They’ve chosen to raise costs for American consumers on everyday essential items like groceries and gas, on major purchases like cars and homes and everything in between.

They’ve chosen to harm American national security, impeding access to the abundant critical minerals, energy, building materials and fertilizers that we have and that the United States needs to grow and prosper.

They’ve chosen to launch a trade war that will, first and foremost, harm American families.

They’ve chosen to sabotage their own agenda that was supposed to usher in a new golden age for the United States. And they’ve chosen to undermine the incredible work we’ve done together to tackle the scourge that is fentanyl, a drug that must be wiped from the face of the earth.

So on that point, let me be crystal clear: there is absolutely no justification or need whatsoever for these tariffs today. Now, the legal pretext your government is using to bring in these tariffs is that Canada is apparently unwilling to help in the fight against illegal fentanyl.

Well, that is totally false.

Let’s look at the fact our border is already safe and secure. Far less than one per cent of fentanyl flows and less than one per cent of illegal crossings into the United States comes from Canada. But we acted, because we know we can always do better.

We responded to concerns, including from the president, by implementing an ambitious $1.3-billion border plan, a border plan that includes generational investments in new AI and imaging tools to stop the flow of fentanyl in its tracks, stronger co-ordination and information sharing with American agencies, along with the deployment of drones, helicopters and additional personnel to keep our border secure.

You know, a month ago, as part of an agreement with the United States that paused the tariffs, we made further commitments. We appointed Kevin Brosseau as our fentanyl czar, a man who dedicated his multi-decade career in law enforcement to combating organized crime networks and drug trafficking.

We designated seven drug cartels — sick, evil groups who cynically profit off the pain and suffering of people on both sides of the border — as the terrorist organizations that they are.

And just yesterday, we launched a new joint operations partnership, supported by a $200-million investment between Canada’s security and law enforcement agencies, a partnership that will enhance the co-ordination of information and intelligence in order to thwart criminal gangs involved in the illegal fentanyl trade.

And critically, our actions are working as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection just acknowledged there was a 97 per cent drop in fentanyl seizure from January compared to December, to a near-zero low of less than half an ounce seized in January.

Now, I want to speak directly to one specific American.

Donald, in the over eight years you and I have worked together, we’ve done big things.

We signed a historic deal that has created record jobs and growth in both of our countries. We’ve done big things together on the world stage, as Canada and the U.S. have done together for decades, for generations. And now, we should be working together to ensure even greater prosperity for North Americans in a very uncertain and challenging world.

Now, it’s not in my habit to agree with the Wall Street Journal. But Donald, they point out that even though you’re a very smart guy, this is a very dumb thing to do.

We two friends fighting is exactly what our opponents around the world want to see.

And now, to my fellow Canadians. I won’t sugarcoat it. This is going to be tough, even though we’re all going to pull together because that’s what we do.

We will use every tool at our disposal so Canadian workers and businesses can weather this storm. From expanding EI benefits and making them more flexible to providing direct supports to businesses. We will be there as needed to help.

But Canada, make no mistake. No matter how long this lasts, no matter what the cost, the federal government and other orders of government will be there for you.

We will defend Canadian jobs. We will take measures to prevent predatory behaviour that threatens Canadian companies because of the impacts of this trade war, leaving them open to takeovers. We will relentlessly fight to protect our economy. We will stand up for Canadians every single second of every single day. Because this country is worth fighting for.

You know we’ve been through tough spots before, but every time we’ve faced long odds and seemingly insurmountable obstacles, we’ve not only survived, we’ve emerged stronger than ever.

Because when it comes to defending our great nation, there is no price we all aren’t willing to pay.

And today is no different. Thank you."

[thesilly-goose]

watch it

you don’t understand how funny this is

[relaxedstyles]

CNN did what???

[expectsomuch]

HOLY. FUCKING. SHIT.

Please watch this. How can you possibly defend these people, or think of them as any kind of statesmen?

"You got be more thankful"!?

This is a mob boss shaking down the leader of Ukraine IN PUBLIC and he' proud of it. JFC.

This is straight up insane. Talk about disrespect. Vance and Trump are unbelievably enormous pieces of shit. I am so angry. This is pathetic.

We re doomed.

I'm so sorry, Ukraine. I'm so sorry, everyone.

America has failed you all.

[thashining]

I have some really great news for you in light of #trump’s press conference

Gulf of amerikkka

[swedebeast]

I saved the press conference with Trump, Vance, and Zelensky for this morning, and holy fucking shit was that a good decision. I had to take multiple breaks from the shock and spiking blood pressure.