Is it as bad as you expected - worse?

[Drunken Irishman]

Think back to November 7th. It was probably just sinking in how big of a cluster fuck we were getting ourselves into. But did you think it would be this bad?

I didn't.

I thought it'd be bad. But this bad beyond my wildest nightmares. It's so fucking bad. I didn't even think it was possible to be this bad.

It's barely over 100 days and Trump has already cemented his legacy as the most destructive, devastating president in American history. Eat your heart out, Andrew Johnson.

He's also right there as the worst.

I expected it to maybe get this bad - but not this bad so fast. I thought it'd be a slow burn. Maybe it'd be this bad by 2019.

Not by fucking May.

God help us.

[Tatiana]

1. It's worse. A lot worse.

I'm glad we have Mueller. I don't think he'll take years. He's someone who can get the job done thoroughly and in less time that the other special prosecutors. Our country cannot take two or more years of this turmoil.

He's also the dumbest and laziest head of state in United States history.

[Samantha]

2. I thought it would be bad but not this horrendous

I still can't believe it. Sometimes I think I have made a mistake -- it is a really bad political soap opera I imagined in a dream. I am still waiting to wake up....

How can one person do this much damage to our government in such a short time (excluding the salient events such as the tragedy in Dallas when we suddenly lost our beloved JFK).

Sam

[Jacquette]

3. How bad he is? That's not even the worst

part. The worst is the...idk...the OKness (yeah i made up a word) of it all; the way politicians, the msm etc want to business as usual this.

"Trump's N. Korean policy may very welll..." Fk that. He has no N. Korean policy. He couldn't find N. Korea on a map if you spotted him S. Korea. This....upsets the hell out if me. As if we're being encouraged to normalize this bs.

[furtheradu]

7. YES, what You said.

I knew it would be this bad, and this fast.
I still have moments of *SHOCK*..
there are some who think he is 'GREAT'. NOTHING he does is wrong or unacceptable for them. THAT freaks me OUT..the ugly meanness they spew.
Can't believe I walk this Earth with such 'people'.
NO
to the "OK ness"! Not ~no~ but HELL NO!!
NUTHIN normal or ok about trump & his ilk.
NOTHING.

[still_one]

4. I had no illusion, I thought it was going to be as bad as it is.

[Silver Gaia]

15. Yes, me, too. I didn't know what form this "badness" would take,

but I had no doubt it would be this bad. My dread was so intense I could barely function for weeks after 11/8. I am not surprised by any of this.

[still_one]

19. Yes. Honestly, it should not be a surprise. Besides his racist and sexist rants, he told you what

he would do. Climate change was a hoax, healthcare was going to be trashed, build a wall, make Mexico pay for the wall, ban Muslims, protectionism, Renegotiate or withdraw from NAFTA, full repeal of the ACA, and replace it with a MARKET driven system, Renegotiate the Iran deal, ‘Bomb’ the hell out of ISIS, and take oil where ever we can find it, get rid of common core, the EPA, defund planned parenthood, keep surveillance on mosques in the United States, bring back torture, get rid of Dodd Frank, and on and on

[HAB911]

45. +++++++++++

[grantcart]

5. Not sure

I thought that it would be a couple of dozen going to the penitentiary.


They are handling it so badly that you can't tell if it is really a lot of crap or just a little crap but handled really badly, they are so grossly incompetent its hard to tell.


I never thought that they would be marching the kids around in handcuffs but that wouldn't surprise me now.

[Ezior]

6. It is so much worse

As a German citizen, I didn't follow the campaigns too closely. On election day I thought that Hillary would probably win, because who would vote for a guy who randomly grabs women, mocks disabled journalists and talks about Muslims the way he does? That's very un-American, or so I thought. I thought that I'd watch the reporting as voting results come in and it would look like Hillary won the election quite soon. When they pronounced Trump as the winner I was so shocked I actually started to cry because it occured to me that you have a lot of either really, really stupid or evil voters in the US. And that's very scary for the future of everyone on this planet.

So then I told myself "he's a sick person, but at least he promised some nice things, like insurance for everybody – he is bad, but it might have some positive side effects and we can laugh at press conferences!".

Yeah. Then news about the Steele dossier broke and I thought that's just some BS. Then his crazy inauguration speech, I just couldn't believe it. Then we had more revelations related to the Steele dossier and I started to look into it...

So today I assume there's at least some, maybe even a lot of Russian influence there. This is so bad, I would never have imagined this happening.

Also, I always expected congress to be checking & balancing Trump. I knew Republicans hate US citizens, I actually thought "it will be difficult for Trump to get health care for everyone because of congress, but at least they will prevent him from doing really crazy things". And now he's in bed with the Russians and nobody in congress (other than Dems) seems to care. They only care about tax cuts and taking away health care. And Trump actually works with them on this after what he promised.

On a scale from 0 to 10, this is hell.

[spiderpig]

28. I always appreciate perspective from outside the US

Trump is an unmitigated disaster.

Political positions (as if he actually has any) apart, he is a nasty, mean, rude, vindictive human being.

He's about to depart on his first foreign tour, and he's already pissed off all of his host countries.

The angels weep.

[raccoon]

47. Great analysis--ITA.

Last edited Fri May 19, 2017, 12:46 PM - Edit history (1)

"Political positions (as if he actually has any) apart, he is a nasty, mean, rude, vindictive human being."

[mreilly]

40. "you have a lot of either really, really stupid or evil voters in the US."

This was a rude awakening for me as well. I've lived in the U.S. all my life and the myth here is that "we are all good, caring folk with common interests who just want to do what's right, and while we might disagree on the methodology for that, our hearts are all in the right place."

No. The Trump voters are nasty, vindictive, selfish people who literally want to destroy the people they hate: namely, "liberals." They define "liberal" as "anyone who opposes us" and their political ideology is based on belittling and sneering at "liberals" for having the nerve to "try to tell us how to live." In their view, "liberals" are responsible for every problem in their life - crime, immigration, taxes, lack of jobs, balding - you name it.

These are people who ran around gloating after the election that "your liberal tears are tasty to me" and jeering about snowflakes, libtards, etc. They have all the maturity of a spoiled five year old (which is why they love Trump) and all the intellect of a squashed fly.

I kid you not, if Trump mandated concentration camps for "liberals" complete with execution squads these people would be hopping up and down applauding. They would be CHEERING. Giggling, even. It would be their every dream come true.

Which is why now that the screw has turned against them, I'm particularly enjoying the show. These filthy people are now forced to carry water for Trump, racing around bellowing: "Nuh uh! NUH UH!" at every new scandals, screaming "Trump did nothing wrong!" and whining that "it's all a big liberal conspiracy."

But I can see how frantic, vicious and desperate these people are becoming. They know the clock is ticking. And when Trump leaves, if they decide to incite violence they'll only end up mowed down in the streets by the U.S. Military. And if so, good riddance.

There really is such a thing as karma.

[kimbutgar]

55. If chump orders his supporters to shoot liberals

I think there is a proportion who would carry out his orders.

[mreilly]

60. Some of us are prepared to shoot back...

... that should send the triggered little snowflake Trump fans running for the hills. Their absolutely worst nightmare: an armed "liberal" (their word for anyone who doesn't agree with them) who knows how to handle a gun.

[dchill]

76. Instant Karma's gonna get you, Gonna knock you right on the head...

(John Lennon)

Seems to be a real thing.

[raccoon]

48. "I knew Republicans hate US citizens,"--you sure got that right. nt

[Kablooie]

8. Much worse. I assumed he would straighten up a little bit.

[MedusaX]

9. Both: I thought it would be worse as far as the amount of legislation that would be pushed through

And the speed at which the Bannon Deconstruction would take place...


What has proven to be better than expected is the public interest and involvement in government...
Combined with the degree to which 45 & team are so completely obvious about what they are attempting to do..

The foreign IC contributions to the investigations and the amount of information that has been made public is also much better than what I had expected it to be.

The biggest issue now is the failure of the legal /justice system to have executed a timely extraction of those who merit indictment.

While I understand the theory that by showing 45& Klan the writing on the wall, so to speak, it may encourage some to remove themselves from office.

It actually creates a sense of 'urgency' and a 'nothing to lose' type desperation on the part of 45& Klan.
They still retain the full power, influence and publicity of their offices
and are free to use everything at their disposal to wreak havoc on
all aspects of peoples lives
both domestically and internationally.

It is kinda like announcing the discovery of a cure for a disease ....
with no timeline for its widespread public availability

Then injecting everyone in the population with an aggressive strain of that disease ....

and all we can do is sit idly by -
glued to all media sources...
Anxiously awaiting news of the cures availability
while the disease feeds on us - growing stronger day by day.

[world wide wally]

10. Trump is one man and we can deal with one man.

I hate to say this but we are surrounded by our true enemies... our "fellow citizens" who amaze me daily with their ignorance and determination to completely control what used to be the USA and play follow the fascist.

[progree]

11. I didn't expect this much chaos so soon. Or 24 million people losing health care

I know the Senate hasn't done anything with health care yet, so it is still only potentially (though Caligula is trying to crash the individual insurance market with considerable success), but the fact that a plurality of the House would vote to take away 24 million people's health care, with Trump's support and encouragement, still bogles the mind.

And insulting so many foreign leaders, sheesh.

I guess the Muslim ban isn't a surprise, and fortunately the courts have suspended it for now (though in the turmoil, many foreigners who had gotten their paperwork done to get into the U.S. have had that expire and have had to start over again).

[No Vested Interest]

12. It's worse than anyone could have imagined. Full-time dysfunctional.

He sucks all the oxygen out of the air, leaving little space for rational discussion or thought regarding the business of government.
This must be what a really bad marriage feels like - all around you, never escaping.

I know enough about human nature to realize that there was no hope of him changing, especially at his age. - Just not possible.
There was a liar in my family, who would lie at the drop of a hat, and sometimes just for the fun of it. That's what we have here.

[JohnnyLib2]

13. Worse. I expected chaos in our government and

in international dealings. I didn't anticipate the need for criminal investigations re: Russian ties.

[G_j]

14. most certainly

Like some evil out of the Tolkien stories, purely destructive forces hating all that is good. For real.

[That Guy 888]

16. In one way it's better than I expected.

I really didn't think Trump would implicate himself in impeachable offenses. Sure there were rumors, unnamed sources saying that Trump's offenses were going to be bigger than Watergate, but it seemed like wishful thinking.

I just hope the Democratic Party doesn't play nice like they did in the past with Iran/contra and Watergate* itself.







*Some of the low-level flunkies given a pass included Carl Rove, Lee Atwater and Donald Segretti - the original GOP "ratfuckers".

[TreasonousBastard]

17. Actually, i thought it would be worse...

As a New Yorker, I've had news of this asshole shoved down my throat for about 50 years.

Is there a camera within a quarter mile? So's Trump. A microphone with 50 feet-- there's Trump...

It got to the point that you would expect a press release every time he took a good shit.

In the beginning it was all about his grand plans and great future. then when everyrhing was falling apart it was about how things weren't falling apart, but that was part of the plan...

Trump Air was a success! Atlantic City showed his genius, not because he blew it and went bankrupt, but because he was smart enough to get out early...

And so it went. Every time he blew his nose and it was a slow news day we got glorious news of the greatest snot ever.

He never, ever accepted responsibility for his bad management. Even when the banks took away his checkbook, that was "winning".

I'm really a little surprised that it took this long for him to say "You're fired" to someone. He took such pleasure in it during the show.

[still_one]

20. It is still early. Fortunately, things might get delayed now

[byronius]

18. I think it's awesome.

I expected all the Russian stuff to explode -- it sounded true to me -- but I'd thought we'd slowly devolve into bloody civil war, and that looks less and less likely.

Most Republicans are deeply violent sociopaths. Goes with the ideology. Primitive, tribalistic, fearful and cruel. The chaos has blunted the worst of their will.

Our national immune system appears to be responding well enough so far. We might live through this, and learn.

Awesome.

[jmowreader]

21. I expected it to be a lot worse than it is

As bad as it is, it could be a LOT worse.

[lindysalsagal]

22. I expected he'd be out by now. Total toddler. Can't run the world.

The gop really enables.

[Miles Archer]

23. I figured the minute they handed him the keys, he'd try to drive the car off the cliff

I figured Ryan and McConnell were salivating in the wings, having nocturnal emissions over Trump's approval pen

Turns out I was right

[Nonhlanhla]

24. It's about what I expected it would be

I got his number from the start. So nothing he's done, has surprised me, neither the cruelty, nor the stupidity. He is exactly what I feared and knew he would be.

[ananda]

25. I know. Every time I think that 45 and co. have gone as low as they can go ..

.. they prove me wrong by going lower.

[Crunchy Frog]

26. I expected; and still expect it to be much, much worse.

[ucrdem]

27. Could be worse. Right now he's gotten done what he's going to get done

and it turned out to be bad but not catastrophic. He pulled out of TPP, that was bad, but so far he hasn't killed NAFTA and I doubt he'll do much more than cut himself a few breaks when he "revisits" it.

He hasn't managed to kill the ACA and it's looking like the AHCA is a vote-killer and since 2018 is coming up I doubt it will go any further than it's gone.

He didn't nuke North Korea and he didn't change much in Syria which he's basically leaving to Russia to ramp down. That could have been much worse.

He totally squandered his hundred-day honeymoon and apart from some talk his stupid wall is dead in the water along with his tax plan. Now he's got Pence panting for his job and a special prosecutor to worry about so basically he's going to have to focus on 2018 and getting impeached if the House changes hands.

So, bad but could be worse.

[pnwmom]

29. I knew it would be this bad but figured they'd impeach him right away

so they could replace him with Pence.

I'm surprised they have stuck with him this long.

[Dorian Gray]

30. So......

Everything that's happening is NOT surprising to me.

I hated him during his campaign. I thought he was overly smug and his high opinion of his abilities were all rooted in fantasy. I also thought he was a buffoon who would fake it till he ruined it.

What I didn't think would happen was the House of Cards would come tumbling down less than 6 months in. I truly thought that he might start listening to people and try to rein in his less dignified qualities.

[mnhtnbb]

31. It's as bad as I expected and I still stand by my prediction

that Trump will not last a year in office.

We weren't too many days past the election when polls started appearing asking people to predict how long he'd last in office.
I had no problem choosing the 6-12 months option.

I can only hope that we see Pence/McConnell/Ryan go down with him.

[thecrow]

80. I forecast he'd last about 6 months

But I also told my kids to not expect things to straighten out for a couple years.
So far, right on schedule.
Have to say that I'm hopeful for our country for the first time in months, though that may come and go.

I wonder what manner of shrieking is going on in AF1 about now. Glad I'm not there!

[Phoenix61]

32. A little of both

Worse-
The depth of Russia's influence on the election.
Twitler and his minions ties to Russia.
Repubs willingness to sell out our country for their own personal gain.
MSM's inability to stick to the facts and tell the truth.

Better-
Their complete inability to actually govern.
The divisiveness within the Repub party.
The dem reps and senators gaining a spine and standing strong together (who'd a thought that)
MSM's ability to learn and actually tell the truth

Much Better-
Our response. The level of political activism is just amazing.
The world's response. They want him gone as much as we do.

[Mme. Defarge]

34. Good assessment.

[GliderGuider]

33. This is nowhere near as bad as I expected.

By now I was expecting to see a radiological false-flag strike on American soil, out-and-out civil war, and a true, overt Hitlerian or Stalinesque dictatorship.

I did not expect Trump to be such an visibly incompetent buffoon. The fact that he is gives me hope that the USA could get out of this crisis as a single, functioning nation. That's not guaranteed yet, but it doesn't look like the you're going down the nightmare road I envisaged after the election and especially just after the inauguration.

The current situation actually comes as a great relief to me.

[kydo]

35. Better. I thought for sure I'd be in a concentration camp and that we would be in WW III by now.

He is a shitty dictator. A good one would have had all undesirables (like me) locked up in some detention or labor camp, with in the first 100 days. He has also failed dictatorship 101 class. First rule in that class, start a war!

So while it's bad, so far it is not has bad as it should be. We just got lucky and have history's stupidest dictator.

[GliderGuider]

42. +1

[steve2470]

67. haha good post!

As I've said, if he was a smart sociopath and dictator, we'd be in very deep shit and a lot of us locked up by now, as you said!

[mnmoderatedem]

36. eleven billion times

worse.

I mean I never in my wildest nightmares thought he would be stupid enough to reveal classified intelligence to directly to the Russian ambassador just to show off, or point out the secret service agent carrying the nuclear codes and say, hey that's the dude.

He's monumentally stupid, far more than I even realized.

[Meowmee]

37. I expected

A lot of this. I was in a shock for a long time from the campaign on to the fake election of this fascist monster. I knew something was terribly wrong and now as it's slowly coming out I just wonder how much will be revealed to us and what will happen. The attempted normalization of it by MSM and gov is very alarming. The depth of the infiltration of the Repub party is alarming. Perhaps the worst is the support by the millions of evil people who voted for this monster. There's no way to normalize this ever.

I'm shocked that some people are not reacting to this attack on our democracy.

I am heartened though by the resistance and the people who are fighting this and I hope that will continue. My worry right now is that the current mess is a distraction from trying to pass the achc and the attacks on the health services and other dependent social services and civil liberties.

It seems like something big is going down but what will happen? Will this all be covered up, will we end up with Pence / Ryan? The whole administration needs to go and people need to go to jail. Those who participated in voter suppression and fraud also need to be made to pay. I just don't know how we get out of this mess.

[janterry]

38. When he declares war

Then it will be just as I expected.

[Demsrule86]

39. It is better than I expected...given our complete lack of power, I thought

they would have rammed bad legislation through by now. Everyday we stop them puts us one day closer to the mid term.

[Vinca]

41. Much worse. At least Dubya is happy. No longer "worst POTUS."

[walkingman]

56. Trump has the potential

to exceed Dubya as the worst but at this moment I still think Dubya is far worse. Bush basically changed the world and not in a good way. He and his regime are responsible for thousands of US soldiers being killed and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis death. Also millions of refugees from the Middle East.

I do think Trump is more ruthless, more racist, and more dangerous that Bush but to date his impact is more tabloid stuff than actual action. FWIW, I think Congress gets a pass these days but they are fueling the decline of the US in a major way. We simply have to quit electing these greedy, bigoted bastards at some point.

[wildeyed]

43. Worse.

I misjudged how gibbering-stupid the man is. I thought he was crazy-like-a-fox, but turns out he is just crazy.

On the plus side, he hasn't had much time to focus on nukes and the military. Too busy doing campaign-like events he needs to feed his pathological addiction adulation and terrorizing his obsequious minions.

[LanternWaste]

44. I'd thought he was at least an adult and competent.

I'd thought he was at least an adult and competent. Now... well, there's nothing else to say but that he's dangerously incompetent.

And we have to lead this buffoon by the hand for the next three and half years.

[kwassa]

46. I thought it would be very bad, but I didn't know HOW it would be bad.

Trump alternates sanity with insanity constantly, so it is impossible to know exactly what will be a disaster.

I was surprised by his deep inability to staff his own government.

I was surprised by the endless leaks from the White House itself.

I was surprised by the vicious stupidity of his budget proposal.

I was surprised by the horrible domestic cabinet picks, the anti-cabinet.

He is crippled by his obsessive need for loyalty, and by the few number of people in the world that are willing to be loyal to a crazy person. That, by itself, could be a game-ender.

[lpbk2713]

49. I was expecting bad, but not this bad.

I thought Trump would be clever enough to surround himself with talented people who could guide him and could help bail him out if he got in a tight spot. All he got was the Keystone Kops.

[GoCubsGo]

50. I figured it would be at least this bad, if not worse.

Even the speed of it all doesn't surprise me, not with a compliant House and Senate. The only thing that shocks me is that the Dems were able to get what they wanted out of the annual budget. I don't know how the hell they managed to pull that off with all of the shitbaggery from the republicans.

[mvd]

51. It's as bad. I knew this would be a catastrophe

the signs were all there. Only a nuclear war already would have been worse than my expectations.

[spanone]

52. an abomination

[Eliot Rosewater]

53. I thought we would all be dead by now.

Dont put it past him to use a nuke on someone to avoid justice.

[Ilsa]

54. I figured there would be self-serving behavior and some degree of treason.

But trump's behavior is worse than I expected. He's a basket case and needs to be removed for health reasons.

[WMDemocract]

57. More or less what I expected

I had hoped he was only pretending to be a tinfoil looney in order to get that crowd on his side. Apparently it was no act. so here we are. Hopefully his populism isn't an act and he really tries to pass some reform that will turn the tide of the increasing wealth inequality. That's been my one potential silver lining on this matter. We'll know shortly. He's at a crossroads with the unions right now.

[sammythecat]

58. God help us is right!

This country is in some serious, serious trouble.

The way you saw it, and see it, mirror my own thoughts on all this. I was expecting "not good at all", but not absolutely horrendous. Our president is a stupid authoritarian with all the power of the presidency. He's 71, he is not going to change, period. If he stays in office things will only get worse, and his replacements would be just as bad in their own different way. God help us indeed.

[herding cats]

59. I expected this, but not right out of the gate

I thought they'd reign him in a bit until they destroyed the AHA, and passed their tax cuts. Which I expected to be done by mid year. Then I thought he'd go off on a rampage.

I recall some people here disagreeing with my thoughts on how Trump would be an international disaster back when he was first elected. I wish they'd have been right and me wrong.

[Orsino]

61. About as bad.

He's a total fuck-up, so "his" agenda is stalling as soon as it hits Congress, but he is installing incompetents, sycophants and stooges across the Executive Branch.

But he is rubber-stamping everything the GOP musters the courage to pass, and nominating whoever he's told to nominate.

We'll be years and decades getting the stench out of the furniture, and people are going to sicken and die who never had to.

Where I'd hoped for a pleasant surprise in his pig-headedness, I am disappointed. After some progressive noise, he has never bucked the GOP leadership and forced through something good. I've long thought him capable of acting benevolently, if cleverly flattered, carefully guided and sufficiently overcredited...but the man's too busy golfing and sniffing out traitors.

[Lotusflower70]

79. Ok I am curious

What gave you any indication that he would ever be capable of acting benevolently? I never saw anything that would give a glimmer of hope that would be possible.

[Orsino]

85. The fact that he can be talked into almost anything.

It depends on who he's listening to, and unfortunately Bubble Boy retreated immediately behind a screen of handlers who don't let any light in. I think the job frightens him, but perhaps more than anything else it inconveniences him. Having to concentrate on work for more than a few minutes a day exhausts him, and then he gets cranky, and then he gets belligerent. Same old Donald.

I had thought that he might manage to do one good thing...by accident, or if he was maneuvered into making a very public pledge. But no, it seems he's determined to go on sucking in the same old stupid ways, and he has no energy or brains left for anything else.

[Lotusflower70]

86. Kudos

For giving him the benefit of the doubt. But he has been a douchebag for decades so I had no such expectations. I don't think he wanted the job because of the actual work. I do agree that his attention span is short so complicated matters of the various branches of government are challenging for him. He also hates to be challenged so the various bans as well as the issues with the Senate and even his own party make him want to hang his head against the wall. He loves the power and having his ego fed.

[steve2470]

62. Much worse, he really IS a sociopath. Thank god he's a STUPID one

For a long time, my GUESS was he was a Mixed Personality Disorder with Antisocial and Narcissistic Features. Nope. He's a full-on sociopath. Our only saving grace is that he's a STUPID one. If he was really clever, we'd be in very deep shit. He keeps shooting himself in the foot and can't seem to learn. Twitter will be his undoing.

[marlakay]

63. Much much worse

I had some stupid hope that he was playing the republicans and would in real life be more moderate to get ratings up and get reelected.

That was back at very beginning.

It didn't take more than a week for me to know it was the country's biggest nightmare.

I knew he was a liar and i hoped he was lying to his base just to get elected but wouldn't really do anything he promised.

[LeftInTX]

64. Kinda what I expected

I was wondering if he would keep his twitter and stay in campaign mode. I think this is his undoing.

He has made some pretty bad appointments and bad executive orders. I think that is the area that I think he is worse. Bringing Bannon into the WH made things worse than I expected.

I expected more of a Chris Christie, Guiliani influence rather than a Bannon influence in the WH.

[anarch]

65. not as bad as I expected...I thought martial law would have been imposed by now

and/or we'd basically be in WWIII.

What with the I-word being openly discussed in the media, and us still being alive and all, I'm encouraged.

[Tiggeroshii]

66. Kinda knew it

No indication lead me to believe the man was capable of the slightest level of competency to run this government. All signs pointed to a near distant disaster.

[Hekate]

68. Yes I thought it would be this bad. I just didn't know the details.

I told an old friend who used to work in DC that I felt like we drove off the cliff, were still falling, and I didn't know when we'd hit bottom and go splat. She said we already had.

Have we gone splat yet? I do not know.

Edited to add: He does have the capacity to shock me deeply. That business with Lavroff, Kitslyev, and TASS in the Oval Office was massive.

[lunamagica]

69. I thought it was going to be bad, terrifying, horrific, a nightmare. and it is SO MUCH WORSE

[itcfish]

70. The Worse

Part in this whole drama is that there are still people out there who still support Trump and think that the Media and the Democrats are making all this nightmare up. What will it take to get through to these people?

[RobinA]

71. Every Bit As Bad

Not surprised at all at the way things are going. But then, I work in a psychiatric hospital.

[alarimer]

72. It's worse.

I expected him to be terrible. I expected never ending scandals of one form or another, but I didn't not expect all the people around him to be so terrible, too. I didn't expect the attack on our very institutions. I thought, well, the people at the top of these agencies will be terrible, but there will be people there who are good and do the work, etc. That's what happened under Bush (and in fact his appointments weren't all people seeking to destroy the very agencies they led, so there is that difference). I didn't expect the wholesale destruction of every single thing.

Most of that is Bannon's and Mulvaney's doing, I am sure. What I don't know is how we come back from this. How do the Democrats, should they ever regain power, restore the budgets of these agencies and also restore our reputation in the world? How do those relationships get repaired? And how to restore the simple norms of behavior for Presidents and officials? Most of those aren't written in law. Maybe they need to be. Also, assuming the massive tax cuts go through, some Democratic politicians are going to have to put their political careers on the line to raise taxes massively to restore everything and I don't see anyone with the guts to do that. But we'll see.

I don't see any end until and unless some Republicans see the writing on the wall and join with the Democrats and others to undo it all. Right now, that is not happening either.

The good thing is that many, many people are very, very angry. That may give the Republicans the push they need (Or likely, the push out of office).

[crosinski]

73. The night of the election, I sat down with my scrapbook to record the election counts state by state

as they came in. Yes, silly me. I'm a 62 year old woman who sincerely expected to see the first woman president of the United States elected that night. My husband (who is a true feminist, bless him) and I had contributed quite a bit to Hillary's campaign. I still have all the Hillary buttons and stickers in the envelopes they came in. I still haven't decided what to do with them.

It didn't take long to see that something was going wrong that night. Finally, we went to bed. I keep my tablet by the bed, and I jolted awake very early to check the news. All I said was 'Oh my God!' And my husband woke from a dead sleep to say, 'He won, didn't he.'

For five days in January, I kept a diary of the bizarre happenings surrounding the -45 administration, but I gave up because I literally couldn't keep up. And I've had a hard time keeping up since. I feel like my eyes have been frozen open in the shocked position ever since.

So, the answer to your question is; neither my husband or I had any idea that it would be this bad. We didn't know it COULD be this bad.

For those of you interested, here's my January diary:

No. 1 - 5 are catch up notes without dates.

1. First hint in October when Sen. ? insinuates that Dir. Comey has something on Trump.
2. Hints of something big in the works from journalists, but nobody able to confirm.
3. FBI Dir. Comey tanks Hillary's campaign.
4. Russia hacks election for Trump.
5. Obama orders all Russian Ambassadors out of US
6. Jan. 10 CNN breaks story that Obama and Trump briefed that Russia might have blackmail on Trump
7. Jan. 10 Dossier is released at same time.
8. Jan. 10 4Chan rumored to have invented Pee Shower and fooled CIA.
9. Jan. 11 'Official' says synopsis of dossier was meant to be an example of disinformation.
Dec 15: Congress unanimously voted to give Inspectors General clearer authority. Obama signed the bill.
10. BBC is reporting the Dossier story as the Russians have sex tapes of Trump they can blackmail him with, which is the real story. 1/12/17
11. Dossier Spy Name revealed by MURDOCH and he flees for his life. 1/11/17
12. Jan. 12 DOJ Inspector General starts an investigation into Dir. Comey and FBI investigation of Hillary's emails. 
13. 1/12/17 CSPAN was replaced by 10 min of RT today 1/12/17
14. 1/12/17 Comey briefed Trump on the 2-page synopsis of the Russian sex story. (he did not receive it during a briefing as he stated) 1/12/17
15. 1/12/17 US troops enter Poland, 1st deployment at Russia's doorstep
16. 1/12/17 MSNBC broadcast abruptly freezes and repeats the word Russia, Russia, Russia over and over
17. 1/13/17 Commanding general of D.C. National Guard to be removed from post after they leave for the inauguration ceremony.
18. 1/13/17 "My confidence has been shook": Dems furious after meeting with James Comey - but they can't say why. House Democrats walked out of a classified briefing sputtering with anger over FBI Director James Comey’s response to claims of Russian election hacking. 
Several of the lawmakers who took part in Friday’s meeting said they’d lost confidence in Comey and had become convinced he’s unfit to lead the agency, reported The Hill. 

“I was non-judgmental until the last 15 minutes,” said Rep. Tim Walz (D-MN). “I no longer have that confidence in him. Some of the things that were revealed in this classified briefing — my confidence has been shook.” 

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) said he was “extremely concerned” about what had been revealed, which was confidential.

Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) was so shaken by what he’d learned that he could barely complete a sentence. “I’ll just — I’m very angry,” Takano said.

19. Trump adviser Flynn held multiple calls with Russian envoy: Michael Flynn, President-elect Donald Trump's choice for national security adviser, held multiple phone conversations with Russia's ambassador to Washington on the day the United States announced retaliation for Moscow's interference in the U.S. presidential election, two people familiar with the issue said. 

20. 1/13/17 Senate to investigate Trump and Russia ties

21. 1/14/17 While Trump screams about *a* dossier, intel agencies around the world are sharing *many* dossiers.

The End

[TNLib]

74. It's worse but in a different way

I figured they get his tax plan and repeal of ACA out the door before he imploded.

He's far more mentally ill than I first thought and his own worse enemy.

[smirkymonkey]

75. Worse.

Not only did I think it would get this bad, this quickly, but I never thought that there would be an assault on our liberties and the foundations of our democracy on a DAILY BASIS!

[JuJuYoshida]

77. Worse, much worse

Apparently this knob head of a president was bragging about the daily intel he receives when he shared the classified information.

He was showing off, and now people's lives are at risk.

Unbelievable. Truly unbelievable.

He is so unfit for this position.

[unblock]

78. i expected him to be evil. i did not expect him (all of them, really) to be this incompetent.

i expected him to be largely like shrub, but without any polish. offensive in tone and rhetoric in addition to being offensive in policy.

but benedict donald is making shrub look like george washington by comparison, and i ranked shrub dead last among presidents just four months ago....

[Flaleftist]

81. I thought it would be even worse, but he still

has plenty of time to really screw up things.

The thing I did not expect to be so bad was the level of incompetence. They might be much more dangerous if they were more intelligent.

[ThoughtCriminal]

82. As bad but weirder than expected

And dumber. I was expecting "W" dumb, this is a whole new level. I also got to find out just how stupid supporters are willing to look.

[Locut0s]

83. I overestimated the damage that would be done because I underestimated the level of incompetence...

A lot of damage had and continues to be done. But I honestly worried that things would be a lot darker now. What I understated was just how clownishly comically incompetent all of these wackos would be. I didn't foresee just how nuts this twilight zone episode would get.

[workinclasszero]

84. I thought Trump and total republican control of the government

would be an absolute disaster.

The speed at which the Trump cult is collapsing is kinda surprising though.