Tag: trump

Published on Jul 28, 2017

Richard Engel reports on how, regardless of whether collusion with the Trump campaign is ever proven, Russia’s goal of sowing chaos and doubt in the American system is already working.

Perspective | Mark this date: Donald Trump is now a lame-duck president

This is a Waterloo moment for Trump, the tea party and their alliance.  They have been stopped in their tracks not only by Democratic opposition but because of a mutiny within their own ranks. Although never particularly liked or respected, it is now clear that they are no longer feared. 

…

There were as many as 10 Republicans who had acknowledged that the proposal cobbled together at the last minute by the Republican leadership was so bad that, earlier in the day, they had demanded assurances from the House of Representatives that it would never become law.

It was left to McCain, however, to do the deed so the others could protect themselves from the retribution of party leaders or the wrath of tea party voters in the next Republican primary.

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Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who earlier in the week had received a call from the secretary of the interior warning that the administration would drop its support for expanded energy drilling and road construction in Alaska if she dared to defy the president and Republican leadership on the crucial vote. Murkowski did not take well to being muscled in that ham-handed fashion. As chair of the two relevant committees, she announced that she was indefinitely postponing sessions to consider nominations to Interior’s top positions and to mark up its 2018 appropriations.

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[With the support of establishment Republicans in Congress who said they will not hold confirmation hearings for a replacement]  In the hours before the vote, the attorney general of the United States had defiantly declared that he had no intention of acceding to White House requests that he resign and dared the president to fire him.

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military and civilian leaders at the Pentagon indicated they would “study” what to do about transgender members of the armed forces after the commander in chief had tweeted that they would no longer be allowed to serve.

Here’s Why Firing Reince Priebus Is Going to Backfire on Trump BIGLY

published 7/29/17 at ReverbPress by Marc Belisle 

Priebus was one of the only people with an important position in the White House who worked his way up through the Republican establishment. Trump may have fired him because he believes that getting rid of him will give him more free rein. In the very short term, that might be true. But Republicans in Congress are likely to see this as a serious affront. 

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But among the establishment, the moderates, the economic conservatives and the foreign policy neo-cons, they might be getting ready to stop playing games with Trump. The president may believe he’s insulating himself from Republican criticism, when in fact, he’s about to draw the battle lines within his own party so far away from his own position that he can’t possibly win. Democrats have no incentive to bail him out in Congress. If Trump loses any influence with only a few Republican Senators and a chunk of the House he will not be able to get any legislation passed for the rest of his term.

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He has continued scrambling the political calculus in Washington, and Congressional Republicans have, so far, sought to just stay out of his way. But in terms of playing a long game, it seems that his habit of collapsing into bankruptcy hasn’t really changed since the 1980s. Everything he does is a reaction to the moment that gives him momentary advantage, but narrows his support in the long-term.

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And I can only imagine that Mitch McConnell is pissed.  McConnell does share some of the blame for the failure to repeal Obamacare, but it’s a crushing defeat for a man who likes his power and the defeat puts his leadership in jeopardy.  Makes it awfully hard to tolerate being bad mouthed by someone who did very little to help and worked to put you in this position in the first place.  

Perspective | Mark this date: Donald Trump is now a lame-duck president

nbcnightlynews:

BREAKING: Sen. Graham warns Pres. Trump against firing AG Sessions or Special Counsel Mueller: 

“If Jeff Sessions is fired, there will be holy hell to pay. Any effort to go after [Special Counsel] Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency…”

Right now I have no reason to believe Mueller is compromised. If he has reason to believe he is compromised, he should let me know.

I’m working on legislation that I will introduce next week with Republicans and some Democrats… that will say the following, ‘Special Counsel cannot be fired when they were impaneled to investigate the president and his team unless you have judicial review of the firing,’ not just for Trump but for any future President.

bilt2tumble:

wilwheaton:

“I mean, look, we’re trying to take healthcare away from tens of millions of people, ensure that women are second-class citizens, remove the regulations that keep Americans safe, and put those uppity Black people back into their proper place,” Paul Ryan added, “and when I have to pretend to be a leader who cares about anything other than those things, it takes up precious seconds of my time that I could be spending writing even more Ayn Rand fanfiction disguised as laws.”

Ryan then looked at the reporters and added, “I mean, it’s not like anything I say right now matters, anyway. I’m in such a safe district, I can do whatever I want and stay in power. Watch.” 

Mr. Ryan then kicked a puppy and continued. “But, let me say again: I will not stand by and say nothing when a rich, white celebrity is criticized by the president who I support in every single way that actually matters. You know it, I know it, and let’s continue to pretend that a single word I am uttering right now matters at all.”

The Speaker took no questions.

They hate him. With a passion. Even unhinged, mustache twirling, Supervillains tend to have some modicum of Standards. Crude, unwashed, imbecilic, viciously petty, blatantly vulgar, Apes are nearly universally… DISTASTEFUL. At the VERY least! EVEN those created/birthed in their own Supervillain Labs/Arcane Libraries. So, yes, even THEY hate him.

This does not, nor WILL it, stop them from SUPPORTING him.

His clownishly boorish antics have proven far too, conveniently, distracting. More than enough for them to operate, MOST effectively, in the shadows. They DESPISE him but, as long as he continues lumbering in a direction that accommodates THEM? He is to be TOLERATED. They are willing to take whatever superficial damage to their agenda that he manages to generate. EXCEPT for the one thing that’s proven more damaging to their Organization/Cause than ANYTHING else. The ONE thing that they, have so far passively but if necessary, will actively ASSIST him in avoiding at all costs?

Impeachment.

Been there, done that. NOT doing it again.

Yes, because he is a useful idiot.

He is so predictable.  He overreacts to the simplest of provocations and puts himself in situations that eventually blow up in his face.  It’s like watching a train wreck in slow motion.  

And that’s useful.

It’s useful to Vladimir Putin and it’s useful to Steve Bannon and it’s useful to Jeff Sessions and it’s useful to Fox News and it’s useful to the Republicans in Congress.  All anyone has to do is lay a trail of breadcrumbs along the path of his vulnerabilities (and he has laid many a landmine for himself) and he predictably blows himself up in a manner that captures everyone’s attention.

It’s a distraction from the AHCA just as the news had started to focus on the CBO report and protests are gaining energy.

It’s a distraction from his voter fraud commission’s request from all 50 states that allows them to know who you are, where you live, and the VOTING HISTORY of every god damn person in the US. 

It’s a distraction from the fact that the House just passed an immigration bill that gives Trump authority to punish sanctuary cities.   

It’s a distraction from the fact that a modified version of the travel ban is now in effect.

Does he do it on purpose?  Who cares.  The effect is the same.  His addiction to emotional drama makes him incredibly easily manipulated into providing a smoke screen for anyone who can get access to the media he likes.

Source: wilwheaton

cupidsbower:

cupidsbower:

cOMEY’S TESTIMONY THO. omg

So, having listened to the whole thing and read Comey’s statement, the thing that struck me most was how much the hearing sounded like the questioning of a sexual assault victim.

By which I mean:

  • Comey was asked why he didn’t say, “No,” to Trump’s inappropriate requests.
  • Comey was asked why he didn’t refuse Trump’s calls or invitations.
  • He was asked if he instigated the private meetings.
  • He was asked why he hadn’t told anyone or asked for help.

Frankly, it was amazing he wasn’t asked what he was wearing.

The conclusions I draw from this are that, yeah, I pretty much believe Comey’s account. It sounds legit. I think it’s realistic that Trump uses predatory intimidation techniques in his business and political dealings, as well as in his dealings with women.

Comey’s account makes it pretty clear that Trump relies on two things when trying to manipulate someone to get what he wants.

  • First, he uses his power – in this case the office of President – as a deliberate intimidation technique. He silently uses his power to put less powerful people in situations where they cannot easily say no in the moment, because the potential harm to them seems too high to do so.
    Pretty much every woman in the world will know what I mean by that.
  • Second, he relies on the expectation of the normal scripts of politeness in the people he targets, while already planning to break them himself. By which I mean, he deliberately puts people in a situation where not only does the power differential make it hard to say no, they also have to be deliberately rude in order to say no, and the resulting damage to their own reputation will likely be worse than to his.

It’s practically textbook sexual-predation technique, and we just got an eye-witness account of it on the stand by the then-head of the FBI. Scholars and historians are going to be chewing over this for decades. Wowser.

I have a swirling maelstrom of feelings about this. Obviously, it’s appalling that a sexual predator and bully is the President of the USA. It’s also just completely bizarre to hear a comparatively powerful white man express on the world stage the awkwardness and scriptlessness that’s felt in the moment of being targetted by a predator. It was practically word for word an echo of experiences I’ve had in sexually unwanted situations. I felt for Comey – no-one should have to deal with that anywhere, anytime, but particularly not in the workplace.

And perhaps the most astounding thing of all: I didn’t think any explanation could make me think Comey’s public announcements about the Clinton email-server investigation really were the lesser of two evils, but this testimony did offer a fairly compelling case for it. The larger implications of the context he found himself in, with the person he reported to either suspect or perceived to be so… ugh. He really did only have bad choices. The one he chose was still undoubtedly bad. But maybe silence really would have been worse. I’m glad I wasn’t the one in that hotseat.

American politics is such a fucking mess right now.