Where do you see America going?

[Unorthodox]

Or, according to the white house, he was fired and given the opportunity to resign first.....

Which making that statement would negate the opportunity to resign first in the first place...

[Rusty Edge]

Some of the [Sleezebag] behavior during the campaign, as well as after the election and inauguration has baffled me. This includes-

* Going out of his way to praise/make excuses for Putin/Russia. That's a rather un-Republican thing to do.

* Going out of his way to criticize the American intelligence community.

* Going out of his way to point out he won the election and by how much, as if his legitimacy as president was disputed.

* Ignoring the daily intelligence briefings, in favor of getting all of this info from Flynn.

* So, apparently the acting Attorney General informed [Sleezebag] that Flynn had been recorded talking to the Russian Ambassador. Potentially Flynn was illegally colluding and/or compromised by potential blackmail, putting both the [Sleezebag] Administration and the USA at risk, but [Sleezebag] left him in place for weeks until it came out in the press.

First campaign manager Paul Manafort, and now Gen. Flynn have been dismissed due to ties, financial and otherwise,  with the Russians. Is there a pattern here?  For that matter, could [Sleezebag]'s refusal to disclose or divest his financial holdings have anything to do with ties to Russia? Could [Sleezebag] himself have colluded with, or have been compromised by the Russians?

Hell if I know. Do me a favor and re-read my bullet points in light of these questions, and let me know if some kind of a Russian correlation is the simplest and most likely explanation of these baffling behaviors, or if I'm on the verge of a crackpot conspiracy.

[Spacy]

I think you are on the verge, but just on it.  He is to narcissistic to be that deep in anybody but his daddy's pockets I expect. 

[Elok]

Some of the [Sleezebag] behavior during the campaign, as well as after the election and inauguration has baffled me. This includes-

* Going out of his way to praise/make excuses for Putin/Russia. That's a rather un-Republican thing to do.

Possibly, but it's not irrational, as we will need Russia's cooperation to make anything like meaningful progress in the Middle East.  I assumed it was a mixture of [Sleezebag]'s fondness for people who praise him and their common reactionary kleptocratic authoritarian approach to government.  Same way as Stalin liked Hitler.

* Going out of his way to criticize the American intelligence community.

[Sleezebag] criticizes anyone and everyone who does anything other than lick his boots.  Including beauty queens and musicals.  Sometimes he will criticize party allies who have expressed less than unconditional authority, or even random foreigners like the guy currently in charge of Australia.  I have no idea who the hell is in charge of Australia, but [Sleezebag] insulted him.

* Going out of his way to point out he won the election and by how much, as if his legitimacy as president was disputed.

It has been, repeatedly and continuously.  He was possibly the most strenuously opposed president of the modern era.  Significant portions of his own party railed against him even between the primary and general elections.  And now we have #notmypresident and all that.  Also, he lost the popular vote.  Finally, he's well-known for his insecurity.

* Ignoring the daily intelligence briefings, in favor of getting all of this info from Flynn.

Part of a general pattern of refusing to recognize accepted protocol, often to his detriment.  Many times members of his administration have learned about his decisions from the press after he failed to notify them, for example.

* So, apparently the acting Attorney General informed [Sleezebag] that Flynn had been recorded talking to the Russian Ambassador. Potentially Flynn was illegally colluding and/or compromised by potential blackmail, putting both the [Sleezebag] Administration and the USA at risk, but [Sleezebag] left him in place for weeks until it came out in the press.

I'm inclined to chalk this up to a mixture of pigheadedness, laziness, general incompetence, and a fondness for keeping a tight inner circle.

First campaign manager Paul Manafort, and now Gen. Flynn have been dismissed due to ties, financial and otherwise,  with the Russians. Is there a pattern here?  For that matter, could [Sleezebag]'s refusal to disclose or divest his financial holdings have anything to do with ties to Russia? Could [Sleezebag] himself have colluded with, or have been compromised by the Russians?

Hell if I know. Do me a favor and re-read my bullet points in light of these questions, and let me know if some kind of a Russian correlation is the simplest and most likely explanation of these baffling behaviors, or if I'm on the verge of a crackpot conspiracy.

He has so many baffling behaviors that it's hard to spot a correlation between the thousands of points.  Which are meaningful?  Which are irrelevant?  Are any relevant?  We don't know.  That's his secret to success; in the information age, he can flood us with weirdness too constantly for us to stop and absorb it all in time.  Given the media's Captain Ahab levels of hostility to [Sleezebag] (which he earned fairly), combined with the leakiness and ineptitude of his administration, I'd be quite surprised if a real Russian connection existed and had been kept secret this whole time.  I don't know what Russia would have to offer, either, since rigging the election seems beyond their power and rumors of "compromat" would require something bad enough to actually embarrass [Sleezebag].  Which is possible, but in the absence of hard evidence I'm for sitting back and waiting for this idiot to destroy himself.  All will be revealed by and by.

[E_T]

But my God; the fertilizer...

That's what hip waders are for...

[Buster's Uncle]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzwHgeg5b2E" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzwHgeg5b2E</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8suVjclu8Zo" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8suVjclu8Zo</a>

[Bearu]

Since the development of new methods and alleged authoritarian backsliding in China and Russia, the United States continues to develop a number of new foes around the world. The declining rates of living and healthcare in the country continue to cause a decrease in living standards, so the solutions remain to question the validity of the contemporary system. I hope the people develop the necessary solidarity and unity to tackle the serious issues of declining health indicators, declining education rates, transferring of real estate into joint housing ventures, and restoring freedom for the proletarian rights in the country.

[Buster's Uncle]

[blinks]  Actually I agree with every word but the fifth-from-last.

The book-communism doesn't impress.  I've READ Marx, but the term you wanted was "working people".

[Rusty Edge]

Re-reading the thread, whether crackpot conspiracy or not, I am now firmly in the camp. He hasn't changed his behavior,
 regardless of how many people he has changed, so it doesn't seem to be a case of bad advice so much as conscious effort.

Today I learn that while Britain was organizing and implementing multi-national closings of Russian embassies in response to the poisonings n British soil, the [Sleezebag] administration was operating a revolving door on Russian diplomats, and discussing a summit with Putin. They seem to keep on coming.

Occam's razor tells me there are too many coincidences that are more easily explained by a [Sleezebag]/Russian conspiracy.

“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action” - Ian Flemming

[Buster's Uncle]

^This^.

[Vishniac]

That Russian story is pure bull, pure invention but the most impressive is how it suits the agenda of so many different people and group of interest.

To spare me the time of a long post, I condensated my thoughts into a single quote: that of a Soviet at the end of the Cold War.
"We are going to do a terrible thing to you--we are going to deprive you of an enemy."
And then I googled.
I didn't quite find something elaborated enough to convey all I think but this article from 2012 would probably be close. If needed, it can easily be adapted to represent today's situation.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/christopher-holshek/defense-spending_b_1472725.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Interesting.  The quote shows deep insight, whatever else the case is...

[E_T]

The New Enemy is [Sleezebag]!!

[Rusty Edge]

That was a nice read.

[bvanevery]

I notice the sheer randomness of Trumpian policy and prevarication.  I wonder if it will actually have some unintentionally positive effects in some instances?  Sort of like deciding to embark upon a random evolutionary walk in a problem space.  It might be better to randomize outcomes, in situations that are otherwise stagnant.