Tele-Tubby stages deflection...

The trumpster in the dumpster made his first visit to U.S. troops in a combat zone amid his government shutdown and just days after his Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned.

Iraq is the one place where Trump has not promised a rapid withdrawal.

Plans to exit Syria and Afghanistan have infuriated allies.

••• “The coward-in-chief was shamed into visiting the troops on the battlefield.”

••• “Long overdue, let’s hope he did more than talk about himself.”



••• “ Just a distraction from his ridiculous shutdown and his bad bone spur news.”

Trump doubles down on insistence Democrats must approve wall funding to end shutdown

••• “He’s cornered and trying to win some favorable publicity. I have no respect for individuals who utilize patriotism in exchange for publicity to further their personal status.”

••• “Now he can say he’s visited a war zone. He had to be shamed into it, but he’s finally done it. Ah, the joys of narcissism.”

••• “Grandstanding to distract from the mess this country is in... the federal employees not being paid because of whining over an unnecessary wall...Using our troops this way is despicable!”

••• “There is a first time for everything for this empty suit. I hope the troops were happy.”

••• “DJT is doing a photo opt! He’s so Desperate that he finally broke down and did what he should have done a long time ago.”

••• “Did it to try and boost his polls, else he would have long ago. He cares for no one but himself”

••• “Everything this man does is empty and despicable. Even visiting the troops is just a sad publicity stunt when he does it. Our troops deserve better. We all do.”

••• “He must be getting desperate to finally get around to using the troops as props.”

Trump’s “lump of coal” Christmas gift for investors

U.S. stocks tanked again after their worst trading week in a decade. This drop came after "Not my President" Trump criticized the Federal Reserve on Twitter and Steve Mnuchin caused deeper concern.

This was Trump’s “lump of coal” Christmas gift for investors, shareholders, retirees, and mutual fund managers. Yesterday was the worst trading day ever - on a Christmas Eve. And it followed on the heels of markets finishing their worst trading week since the 2007 George W. Bush financial flop.

And Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin issued a puzzling statement, saying he'd spoken with the heads of the biggest U.S. banks to reiterate the strength of the financial system and to confirm their reserves of cash.

It would be quite normal for the treasury secretary to talk to the heads of big banks. This happens all the time. But the Treasury put out a press release on a weekend, before a holiday, assuring market participants that nothing was happening, which is not something that anybody had previously worried about.

And it's a weird statement. It like, unnerved a lot of market participants. Does Secretary Mnuchin see something that we can't see; is there something hidden?

We do have problems in a number of quasi-financial markets. The leverage loan market, for instance, is having some issues, where financiers are losing money as interest rates rise.

Is the president simply trying to find someone to blame for this stock market slide?

• Annie Lowrey of "The Atlantic.":
"The president... sees a rising market as being a sign of his success. He points to a rising market as being a good indicator of economic health, which it really isn't. [Now] he's looking for somebody [else] to blame now that the market is going down.
It's really important to note that the Federal Reserve is not responsible for the market going up. It doesn't see the market going up as being its responsibility. It is responsible for two things: 1) price stability and 2) unemployment."

No way to spin it when it is spinning out of control.

Xmas eve and... little woodie gonna' shut you down

Oh, it the "old golfer wisdom" ploy... third time he pulled that one on us this month.

Trump's golfer wisdom -- or the complete and utter lack thereof -- is illustrated above. Fair and Balanced. You decide.

Yes, Virginia, the wall will be built.

New US Anthem: "Sometimes I feel like a rudderless ship."

Where was Mr. Flip before he FLOPPED?

What would "Mr. Smith" say when he goes to Washington?

What are congressional republicans saying behind Trump's back?

I peeked into investors Xmas gift from Trump.

Is's old news. Move along, move along.

a paranoid isolate

Donald Trump, now a paranoid isolate, feels like it’s him against the world.

He has fewer people at his side who he trusts and far fewer people at his side in general.

Trump is increasingly isolated and paranoid as he keeps bleeding away his advisers, staff, and cabinet secretaries.

Jim Mattis, the defense secretary, is the fourth member of President Trump’s cabinet to resign or be forced out in less than two months (and the third in less than two weeks).

Veteran advisers who once tried to contain Trump’s worst instincts have resigned or been fired.

As a result, Trump is retreating to watching more FAUX television than ever before.

Trump’s “presidential” day now starts at “roughly 11 many mornings” when he is not playing golf.

Trump leaves FAUX Snews on in the West Wing so he can constantly keep track of what is being said about him.

Trump has been telling his few remaining associates that he feels “totally and completely abandoned.” (Blames the victims of his firings, those who gave up on him, or those foolish enough to ever try to work for him)

And that feeling now extends to his family.

The jealous man-who-would-be-president is getting increasingly paranoid that those around him have ulterior motives. (They should only be motivated by their desire to praise Trump) That even extends to his son-in-law, who recently received more praise than Elizabeth Trump’s grandson for helping to pass the criminal justice bill.

All praise unto Trump! On your knees, hapless fools!

If dynomite was snot, the Trump's together would not have enough to blow ONE nose, let alone the lot.

Some folks have "Georgia on [their] mind." Not the trumpster in the dumpster.

If there is one obvious thing that Trump is NOT filling, it isthe White House!

WTF?

The stranger-than-sitcom American presidency opened 2018 with a big tease about mutual nuclear destruction from two leaders who then found “love” not war.

The presidency ends the year saturated in tumult, with the government in partial shutdown and Trump tweeting a video of himself.

Throw in a beer-loving and very angry Supreme Court nominee, an unhappy departing defense secretary, Trump’s parallel universe of facts and his zillion tweets, and you can see that the president’s world this year was touched by the weird, the traumatic and the fantastical — also known as WTF.

There was no holding back the self-described “very stable genius” with the “very, very large brain.”

Read the full story HERE!

Manipulated by fools.

Masters of the echo chamber and...