We are so well and truly fucked:
.@realDonaldTrump team has asked @WhiteHouse how his children could receive top secret security clearances – details on @CBSEveningNews
— Julianna Goldman (@juliannagoldman) November 14, 2016
If things like this happen and continue to happen we are going to be operating in an intelligence vacuum because NO other country is going to share anything with us. We’ll be an angry and dumb superpower lashing out blindly.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
On twitter, Ryan Lizza is awarding Trump bananas on his most Banana Republican moves. I think this has to be 140 bananas.
Chris
But but but but but but but but but but but but but but but…
… CLINTON’S EMAILS! CLINTON’S EMAILS!
/ the MSMGOP
Chat Noir
The horrors keep piling up every day with this transition.
Roger Moore
Next, he’s going to ask how he can get one for his BFF, Vladimir Vladimirovich.
Corner Stone
@Chris: But, but, but…BLIND TRUST?!
Corner Stone
@Roger Moore:
Pretty sure that dude already knows everything he needs to about the US.
Baud
I’ve always wanted to know what the nuclear codes were.
I bet one of them is “password.”
Cacti
How long till the epaulettes and medals?
Chris
@Corner Stone:
Our only hope at this point is that the Kremlin announces that Putin died of liver failure after all the alcohol he imbibed celebrating last week.
Chris
@Baud:
“Swordfish.”
I’d be almost unable to resist it myself if I were in charge of that.
“Swordfish,” or “Mellon,” or “Jehovah” spelt with an “I.”
Corner Stone
@Chat Noir: What, you mean like between the installing of a white nationalist racist bigot feet away from the Oval office and the furtherance of an obvious kleptocracy?
IT’S NOT EVEN FUCKING TUESDAY AFTER THE ELECTION, PEOPLE.
catclub
Better exit strategy than most here.
Schlemazel
By law England cannot share intel with any nation that tortures. Since cheeto turd says he intends to torture that would include the US in January. We will be an island of insanity, a spent super power waiting for the CHinese to make their demands
Cermet
But e-mail server …lol. So the small handed dick head has his evil spawn get TS clearance …why? Being spawn does not entitle one to a TS clearance. Boy, are these stupid fucks already starting to lower the bar and it isn’t even day one of the small handed dick head’s tiny rule..
Corner Stone
@Baud: Andrew Jackson’s birthday.
catclub
@Baud: Weren’t they all set to 0000 by some General who thought they were too complicated?
gene108
Which kids are going to get the TS clearance? You got Don, Jr., whose pushing 40 and Barron, who is 10.
Barron is probably the least likely to abuse a TS clearance. Kids at that age, to varying extents, are still willing and able to follow orders. They realize they do not know everything.
Mike in Pasadena
@Cacti: The US Air Force will fit him with an extra large flight suit so he can pretend to be a pilot just like W.
John
I know this isn’t on topic, but I wanted to get this idea into the public sphere.
There needs to be a big push to pressure Donald Trump to appoint Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. The principle that a President is president until his term ends needs to be upheld and Trump should be made to see that if Congress can hold Obama’s appointment power hostage, the same can be done to him. When it looked like Clinton was going to win, there was a lot of talk about pushing through approval of Garland to keep the seat out of her hands, so arguing that he is unqualified is difficult to do. Trump needs to understand that good faith requires that he honor the appointment made by Obama.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Listening to This American Life’s post-election show. Two Hispanic cops in the Miami area are celebrating Trump because life has been so hard for cops the last few years. Obama treats every cop involved in a shooting as guilty until proven innocent. I think that’s kinda the exact opposite of what has actually happened.
Schlemazel
@Baud:
Major Major Major Major
We’ll be an angry and dumb superpower lashing out no matter what Trump does. If he does so blindly he might accidentally do something good!
Betty Cracker
We’re about to witness the largest grifting operation in the history of the planet.
PS: Another plug for Chait’s latest.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/how-the-loyal-opposition-will-work-in-trumps-america.html
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
Help us CIA, NSA, you’re our only hope.
Corner Stone
@gene108:
Are you kidding me? Do you not know any 10 year olds?!
Plus, he’s good at the cyber. He’s so good at the cyber, it’s unbelievable. In a cost cutting move, I expect Trump to fire the NSA and put Barron in charge of all the cyber. He will be paid Smarties, Ritz Crackers with peanut butter and Yoohoo.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: I read that. It was good.
JMG
They can’t get them unless he also gives them jobs entitling them to security clearances. They don’t hand them out like souvenir matchbooks. I honestly wonder if they’ll tell Trump about ongoing covert operations.
SiubhanDuinne
This is in Adam’s wheelhouse, and I for one cannot wait to read his take later this evening.
Oh, and John? This is quite possibly one of your best thread titles ever.
Corner Stone
@John:
Stop. Just stop.
Chris
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I just read a conversation on Facebook where some Trump idiot was talking to a friend and saying “well okay, you’re terrified because you’re persecuted, I’m a police officer, I know what it’s like to be persecuted, but what are you doing about that?”
They really are the biggest fucking… crybabies, because the word that springs to mind is fairly sexist and I don’t have a stronger one available… in the fucking nation.
Baud
@JMG: Why start now?
Adam L Silverman
Unless they are holding official positions, which means he appoints them – regardless of whether they need senatorial confirmation or not – they will not get clearances. They and their spouses, however, will have to be background checked and vetted for his clearance.
gene108
@Cermet:
Also, just having a security clearance, does not grant you magic super powers to access all the governments secrets.
If you have a job that requires a security clearance, you get to access the documents, which are needed for that job and that job only.
John
@Corner Stone: Yeah, I know. But still.
trollhattan
@Cacti:
Are the Nixon palace guard WH uniforms away in a warehouse somewhere?
Corner Stone
@JMG:
People keep saying things like this. That there is some law, precedent, regulation in place where he can’t do what he says he intends to do. Yeah, so what?
SiubhanDuinne
@Major Major Major Major:
This optimistic statement brought to you by the Stopped Squirrel division of the Department of Blind Clocks.
trollhattan
@gene108:
What document access would be required for the job of being a ginormous asshole?
Corner Stone
Ok, MTP Daily’s ending round table is all talking about how Trump is using a balance in picking both Reince and Bannon.
Oy, pretty sure this is all over with but the giggling.
GxB
Reminds me of the good old Dubbuah days. My dad had a hilariously sarcastic commemorative calendar containing many of Georgie’s boners, blunders, and general idiocy. So it looks like we’ll need to dust off the Chronicler of the Fuckups (CotF) yet again.
chopper
i just can’t even with this shit.
Klaus
Can the intelligence services say No? What are the neopitism laws, or do they no apply to Rebulicans?
Corner Stone
@trollhattan: All of them, Katie!
Chris
Holy shit, the LAPD just said that they wouldn’t help deport immigrants under Trump? The LAPD is sticking it to the short-fingered autocrat?
Riggs, Murtaugh, you magnificent bastards.
Frank Wilhoit
@Chris: Accountability == persecution. Freedom == unaccountability. This is the mindset of all of the Republican constituents. It is a shame, because freedom was once a noble concept; but it has now been completely and irreversibly discredited.
Joyce H
But you know what, guys? These folks know NOTHING about security and NOTHING about administration and they’re suddenly going to have to staff up an entire West Wing, something these boneheads apparently just learned the other day.
Soooo… How about we (the left) get some of our people in there on the clerical staff? You think it’s going to occur to these jackasses that people bringing their smartphones to work have a handy audio and video recording device on their person at all times?
SiubhanDuinne
@gene108:
Ah jeeze. We’re gonna have two adolescent boys in the WH at once, aren’t we?
LesGS
@Baud: It is good, although Chait is asking Obama to continue wearing a target on his back, at maybe even heightened risk. (TBH, he will be for the rest of his life anyway…)
Baud
In all seriousness, it wouldn’t surprise me if we see troops killed because Trump revealed some operational military secret.
Bill Arnold
@Baud:
Nah, too easily guessed. Perhaps “passw0rd”. That at least is not in the top 5.
Joyce H
@Bill Arnold: Or ‘maintence’. That one’s always in there because the maintenance guys can’t spell.
Bobby D
I’m going to be the contrarian here and say this is a GOOD thing. We want Ivanka, a moderate democrat from policy perspectives, as close to Trump and the decision making apparatus as possible. I want her in the WH inner circle, virtually a “body man” to him. Uday and Qusay can fak right orf, but I want the moderating democrat daughter to have his ear.
Baud
@Chris: “Whoa, guys. We’re racist but we’re not Trump racist.”
quakerinabasement
Top Secret clearance for the kids? Which one of the boys wants to play double-ought secret spy?
Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire)
@Adam L Silverman: I don’t see how Ivanka gets once, since she’s friends with Putin’s girlfriend.
We really are in the last days of our Republic, aren’t we?
Mary G
I am back to reading nothing but Balloon Juice again. So much for courage. Maybe tomorrow.
Thank FSM for you all.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
I remember reading somewhere that after all the elaborate things they did to protect the nukes with passwords- I think they were actually numbers rather than words- they wound up setting them to 000000 so they would be sure to be able to launch when the time came.
J R in WV
Do they even need to fill out that 168 page form?
He can give them jobs and tell the security folks to issue them clearances, and fire people until someone does what he says.
Nixon, Saturday Night Massacre, he fired Attorneys General down the chain of command until he got to Robert Bork, who was willing to do as he was told. And fire the Special Prosecutor investigating the Watergate break-in bugging wiretapping scandal, which led to Nixon’s Impeachment and resignation, followed by a Gerald Ford pardon.
Trump will get his way eventually. I’m just surprised the issue became public. There will have to be a probe to find who leaked this secret issue!!
Suzanne
Here’s a piece worth reading about the urban/rural divide.
The “white working class”, which isn’t really working class and should better be called “white provincial morons” doesn’t like the idea that they should go get jobs in cities. They want to stay doing what they do and just make more money. Um, no. Moochers.
Maybe I’ll buy a Carrier air conditioner.
goblue72
@Chris: Most big city police departments (not all, but most) do not want to get drafted into serving as adjuncts to ICE. Kicking in the doors of “illegals” is not an agenda item they want to add to their list of responsibilities, nor do they want to be in the crosshairs of the blowback they’d get from politicians and the general public in the generally liberal big cities they work in.
Baud
@Mary G: Someone mentioned something Chris Matthews had said and I was like I don’t even want to hear about it second hand.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Does anybody have a link beyond Twitter? I can’t find anything. Not that I think it’s wrong, but I’d like to know more about it. How far has this gotten? How likely is it? Can the president just decree that anybody he wants should get briefings?
gogol's wife
@Chris:
Doesn’t drink.
Baud
@gogol’s wife: Whoa. Neither does Trump, right?
Corner Stone
@Bobby D:
What? She is a disgusting scumbag parasite. I feel gross just thinking about this family being in the WH.
Chris
@Frank Wilhoit:
No more so than decades of communist tyranny discredited, or should have discredited, the concept of “equality.”
The plain fact is that no one’s yet invented a concept that doesn’t break down when it’s reducio-ad-absurdum’d, or when it’s shamelessly exploited by con artists and narcissists. And unfortunately, any remotely successful political ideal will inevitably be subjected to that at some point.
Religions have the same problem. There, it’s called fundamentalism.
Kay
Read this and see what you think. It describes how I’m feeling perfectly:
It’s decadence. It’s taking it for granted that what they inherited will continue to exist, with no effort on their part.
No one is going to stop this man. We’re just not up to the challenge.
Villago Delenda Est
You’re right John. Not one of our allies will be willing to share intel anymore knowing that to do so is basically to invite Vald in on the conversation.
Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire)
@goblue72: plus, I’m sure there are a fair number of LAPD who are Latino, and maybe their families wouldn’t like them working with/for La Migra.
gogol's wife
@Baud:
Right. I realized just as I was typing that that it’s hinky.
Corner Stone
I can’t listen to his voice. I can’t look at his face. This is going to be a very long fucking four years. And when that is over, whenever it is over, it’s going to be a very long fucking life knowing he was ever elected president.
Good fucking christ.
Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire)
@Corner Stone: Hear hear!
Kay
Chris
@Kay:
Like I said the other day: it’s instructive to me that all the Republicans I know who at least summoned the elementary decency not to vote for Trump were vulgar Bible thumpers, while the few wealthy East Coast Republican friends I know, so proudly “moderate” and “reasonable” and “open-minded” and “cosmopolitan,” pulled the lever for him.
(Or voted absentee, more likely. Standing in line and pulling levers is so crudely proletarian).
@Villago Delenda Est:
And that, in turn, is going to fuck up our intelligence efforts big time. We have a lot of allies with older and more established intelligence networks in the Middle East and North Africa, but who won’t share stuff that they know will go right to the Kremlin.
Of course, since any terrorist attack is an opportunity for Trump, he probably doesn’t even give a shit.
Mary G
@Kay: Can’t make myself hit the link just yet, but that paragraph is truth. I wonder if any of them have a conscience that is bothering them?
Bill Arnold
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap:
Or the Deep State. Or some other organization, possibly detached from normal human morality. The mind, it wanders, into unhealthy and strange places. We are living in extremely interesting times.
catclub
@Adam L Silverman:
Huh? So the employees of some company that is building the latest super-secret spy satellite only need secret clearance?
I would not have guessed that.
Mary G
@Corner Stone: Me too. One of the housemates was watching news and I heard its voice and told her to turn it off or put in earphones and didn’t even say please.
Mnemosyne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Black Lives Matter was unfortunately very consequential in this election, in a bad way. Anecdotally, a friend’s brother in MI said all of the white people in his social circle voted Trump because of BLM.
Bobby D
@Corner Stone: You’d rather have Bannon as the last input before he makes decisions?
Villago Delenda Est
“No, Mr. President (cough) elect, Area 51 is just a plot device in some paranoid bad SF movies.”
Kay
@Corner Stone:
You can’t avoid them. I heard Conway boasting on the radio today. Blathering something about “repealing Obamacare” as if this pollster and GOP political hack has any fucking idea what “Obamacare” is.
She couldn’t describe Obamacare in her own words for a million dollars but she’s bragging about getting rid of it.
ms_canadada
@Corner Stone: You are really scaring this Canadian! (I do have a spare room if anyone wants a taste of Southern Ontario, Canada- no guns!)
SFAW
@Baud:
Thanks, Obama!
Villago Delenda Est
@Mnemosyne: How dare those blah people expect to be treated as anything more than escaped chattel. The nerve!
kindness
Donald’s version of a BLIND Trust is evolving I see.
hovercraft
@Chris:
I think the objection there was that the “Clinton’s” felt entitled to power, Bill was elected, but they tried to ram two for the price of one down our throats. The Shitgibbon’s on the other hand have demonstrated time and time again that they have only the best interests of the country at heart, they would never do anything for personal gain. They are patriots, so it’s okay, we should be grateful they are willing to make this sacrifice for us.
SFAW
@Mnemosyne:
As well they should have — BLM created a lot of “economic anxiety” for those working-class white people.
ms_canadada
@Corner Stone: and pron!
dlm
@ms_canadada: We may hold you to this offer. Seriously, no matter how afraid you are, it’s still not half as afraid as we are down here.
Patricia Kayden
@John: Not to be rude, but what makes you think that Trump cares about protocol? Garland is not going to be a Supreme Court Justice now that Trump has the opportunity to nominate extreme Rightwing Judges to push SCOTUS to the right. In fact, SCOTUS is lost for probably the next 30 or so years once Trump gets to stack it with Conservative Justices.
Kay
@Mary G:
We shouldn’t forget that the people who elected Trump, the vast majority, were economically comfortable and secure Republicans.
They’re soft and spoiled and lazy, so they thought they could elect this lunatic and stay safe because they take it for granted that they’ll remain comfortable no matter what they do.
jacy
@Bobby D:
I don’t know that there’s that much daylight between Bannon and Ivanka. Neither do you.
Villago Delenda Est
Drumpf’s vile spawn are classic security risks; in debt about a half a mile above their ears to disreputable oligarchs in a country known to have renewed imperial ambitions and for the past century at best a potential adversary, if not a straight out one. They shouldn’t qualify for SECRET, let alone TS.
Kay
It’ll get really bad before anyone does anything. Hiring Bannon was a shot across the bow. Now they’ll get more confident no one will stop them and it will get worse.
Corner Stone
@Bobby D: What evidence do we have that Ivanka and/or Kushner are at all reticent, in any way, to the message Bannon has been advocating? IMO, she is as bad as any other person in that circle. She is gross.
debbie
@Chris:
Rich, considering Pence is trying to take his emails private.
Mary G
@Kay: Unfortunately, they’re probably right, or at least a lot of browner, then poorer people, will be first.
Patricia Kayden
@Mnemosyne: Yes because Black people speaking out against police violence (which is unchecked and unpunished) is such a huge problem.
Racist White people: “Can someone make those Negroes shut the hell up while we kill them in the streets? But let’s cry and mourn about aborted (White) fetuses though.”
SFAW
@Kay:
When was that written, in the 1940s? It sure hasn’t been that way for the last 20-plus years.
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
The one cousin who I know for sure voted Trump has two teenage sons with her now ex-husband. They got divorced because he came down with a severe type of degenerative disease (I think it was multiple sclerosis). It’s a disease that is genetically linked.
So she was willing to screw her own kids by voting for Trump, because she’s middle-class and nothing bad will ever happen to her.
Suzanne
@Mnemosyne: Yes. BLM freaked a lot of white people out. Dipshit white people are retaliating when their control is threatened.
In all seriousness, there is no winning coalition if we scare away all the white people with legitimate equality for blacks and Latinx, and women and the disabled, etc etc etc. That takes a certain degree of empathy and yes, dirty left-wing hippie shit education, and I remain unconvinced that more than 50% of the population has it.
Joyce H
@J R in WV:
Um, no. Actually, he can’t. It’s against the law for a federal employee, up to and including the president, to employ a family member. See 5 U.S. Code 3110.
Mary G
@Corner Stone: Ivanka’s just a better actress.
Kay
@Villago Delenda Est:
I’m confused about how none of these Trump family members ever go to work. What kind of business do they have where they never have to work? I’m not familiar with CEO’s like this- they can all take 2 years off?
It’s bullshit. They’re no more “running” this business than I am.
Bobby D
@jacy: No, I don’t know Ivanka’s innermost thoughts. We do have an idea of Ivanka’s political leanings from her past, her “ideas” during the campaign aimed at young mothers, and her association with Chelsea Clinton. And we know clearly where the racist asshole Bannon stands. One of them is going to be whispering in his ear. I’d rather stack the odds against the white nationalist anti-semite being that person. They all disgust me, including Ivanka, but I’d rather drop a hammer on my foot that blast it with a .12ga shotgun
Joyce H
@Kay:
Well, Ivanka, for instance, has a highly important job ripping off other people’s shoe designs.
NotoriousJRT
Blind trust, anyone?
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
Oh, please. Of course they’ll get the clearance. It’ll be Trump’s first Executive Order.
Patricia Kayden
@Kay: Conway, like other Republicans, are trying to destroy President Obama’s legacy root and branch. Krauthammer was boasting after the election that President Obama’s legacy was gone now that Trump has been elected. Doesn’t matter whether or not they know what Obama actually did, they just want to get rid of it if it has his taint on it.
Baud
@Suzanne: Before BLM, libertarian rhetoric against police was much worse.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Corner Stone:
Tire rims and anthrax. All righty, then.
Roger Moore
@Chris:
Has Trump ever tried to grab a woman by her police officer?
SFAW
@Patricia Kayden:
Oh, come on — if they were truly racists, they would have used “the darkies” or “the coloreds” or the N-word.
You are the real racist for calling those pore, put-upon white folk “racists.”
Peale
@Corner Stone: by 11 I had mapped out my secret plan to sneak into the Soviet Union with our chinese allies. Hint: it involved a massive invasion across the Bering straight when they weren’t looking.
Seriously though, were one step away from the family pet as army colonel here
Mnemosyne
@Patricia Kayden:
It’s not a coincidence that my Trump-voting cousin in WI who threw her own children under the bus did it because of the “baybeez” being killed by abortion. Her own born children must be sacrificed to protect the potential children of total strangers.
tobie
@Mnemosyne: That unfortunately is my impression, too. Canvassing in rural PA I saw signs saying, “We support our local police,” which I took to mean, “We take offense at all talk of criminal justice reform.” The level of resentment in rural regions is mind-blowing.
Kay
@Mnemosyne:
That’s why there have to be consequences. They can’t put the whole world at risk on a whim and then be assured none of the downside will affect them. There has to be moral hazard. I get that it will hurt the most vulnerable the most but that’s always true- the least secure are always at most risk. It isn’t a joke or a game and they’re not going to get it until they are themselves at risk.
I was never a chaos person- I’m too orderly for that- but I have reached the point where I think stupid collective decisions have to have consequences. They think they’re invulnerable, and they’re not.
khead
@Betty Cracker:
Just saw this on FB. Not a Huckabee follower but this is what his folks are sharing.
gratuitous
Oh sure, giving the monkey a flamethrower was just soooo cute in the beginning. In retrospect, we probably should have seen that coming. We’ll know better next time.
Peale
@Patricia Kayden: we haven’t moved much beyond those ancient kingdoms where they defaced the idols thinking that would save them
Patricia Kayden
@NotoriousJRT: As in the blind trust that 59 million Americans placed in Trump despite the fact that he has no political experience, lacks self control and has an outsized ego?
@Corner Stone: Perhaps Ivanka and Kushner feel that they are above any damage to Jews that will be meted out by White Supremacists. It’s interesting that they haven’t said a word against the anti-Semitic noise that has followed Trump’s campaign and has spiked since his election.
Juice Box
If his kids don’t have access to top secret information, how can they possibly manage his blind trust?
jk
@Baud:
The more of Chris Matthews you watch, the less you know. He deserves a one way ticket aboard a spaceship full of villager deplorables headed for the Andromeda galaxy.
PaulWartenberg2016
can we convince the CIA, NSA and FBI to void the security clearance of absolutely EVERYBODY in the Trump West Wing? There should be serious concerns about this stuff leaking to Russia 24/7.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kay: Heydrich supposedly replied to a subordinate who questioned some policy decision that had been made that was on its face illegal: “Who’s going to stop us? WE ARE the police!”
Manyakitty
@Kay: I couldn’t have said it better than Fallows.
cokane
yeah the nepotism in this admin is going to be maddening but it might also be its undoing. so sad and predictable, Trump has zero lasting professional relationships, and so … turns to his kids.
Villago Delenda Est
@Patricia Kayden: Kushner is a willing Kapo. Fuck him.
PaulWartenberg2016
@gratuitous:
“We took pity on him because he lost both parents at an early age. I think, on reflection, that we should have wondered a bit more about that.” – a character from Discworld describing Mr. Teatime.
Corner Stone
@Patricia Kayden:
It’s gone. Gone. This decent, intelligent, man who treated people with respect is going to go into the history books as some equivalent as a WH janitor. They are going to go the full Carter on him X10. Or maybe worse.
The US knew what they were voting for, or couldn’t be arsed to come out and vote for.
Timurid
@Villago Delenda Est:
The same is true of their dad. I wonder just how clownshoes this transition will have to get before some Republicans start thinking about an Electoral College mutiny…
Corner Stone
Go dammit Harold Ford. You’re going to say Steve Bannon is going to have to prove himself?!!!
FUCKKKKK!!!
Steeplejack (tablet)
What day is the job fair at
Liberty U.Trump U.? Asking for a neighbor.Patricia Kayden
@tobie: They take offense to the police not getting away with killing unarmed Black men. Let’s say it like it is. Also, they don’t have to worry since the vast majority of police officers who kill unarmed Black men walk away scot-free. That has been going on since Africans were brought here as slaves.
Villago Delenda Est
@khead: Pence’s god, and Huckabee’s god, is Mammon. These are the vile assholes Jesus drove out of The Temple.
SenyorDave
@Patricia Kayden: Perhaps Ivanka and Kushner feel that they are above any damage to Jews that will be meted out by White Supremacists. It’s interesting that they haven’t said a word against the anti-Semitic noise that has followed Trump’s campaign and has spiked since his election.
Kapos don’t care. I’m Jewish, and that is a terrible thing to call another Jew, but they deserve it. They are vile people.
Kay
@Patricia Kayden:
Okay but then don’t put the moron out there saying he wants to “bring the country together”
Burn it down, but don’t claim we’re all in this together while you’re doing it. They want to be radicals but they also want the approval of the establishment. They want to screech these awful things but they also want to whine about how people loathe them They don’t get both. One or the other.
They’re not even good radicals. They’re soft and whiny and pampered radicals. I don’t even respect them as bomb-throwers.
Corner Stone
No wonder we lost all those state houses and now the WH and both houses of Congress.
dlm
@tobie: That sign was code for I’m voting Trump/Pence. I live twenty miles outside of Phila.
cmorenc
@John:
Save for the superficially civil and brief 1.5 hour visit with Obama at the White House on Thursday, Trump and his transition team have done everything to gleefully boast how quickly and thoroughly they intend to go about wiping out every trace of Obama’s legacy they possibly can. What gives you the silly notion that Trump and his team have so much as a microgram of “good faith” or willingness to consider an exception for Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to SCOTUS?
It would be no surprise whatever if by the morning after inauguration day, team Trump has painted pictures of Obama’s face on the bottom of every toilet bowl in the White House, at least all that the press doesn’t have access to.
Joyce H
You know what? We need our own Arkansas Project. (Though perhaps it would be a bad idea to call it the Manhattan Project…) Think about it – would Paula Jones have been able to make so much trouble if she didn’t have access to free right wing legal representation? So there ought to be a pool of lawyers willing to provide free legal representation for any assaulted woman, any cheated small business, that wants to file suit against Trump. Remember, the Supreme Court ruled back during the Clinton Administration that responding to civil law suits while in office would surely be no impediment to the president’s ability to fulfill his duties. (And if the GOP whines that ‘you’re only doing this because he’s the president’, we’ll tell them that the 90s called and advised them to look up ‘irony’ in the dictionary.)
Patricia Kayden
@Corner Stone: I sense that your blood pressure is rising up. You may need to take a break from cable news. Harold Ford is desperate to be a centrist and I hope he’s not delusional enough to think that his centrist schtick will get him into the White House. Someone should direct Ford to read Breitbart.com and see what it says about Black men like him. (Hint: it’s not very nice).
Cain
@Mnemosyne:
Well she did abandon her husband over the disease.. so why not?
Kay
@Patricia Kayden:
Trump is too much of a pampered baby to move to DC. That’s too much for this revolutionary leader. Moving into the White House inconveniences him.
Where will he sleep if not in his own bed? Is he 5 years old?
Suzanne
I have to say that I think that blue state legislators should seek to punish red states from here on out as much as possible. Want money for your options epidemic? Tough shit. Highway spending? What, you don’t need infrastructure in your shitty backwater. I have no sympathy. The workers at the Carrier plant? I feel bad for the ones who voted for HRC, but fuck the rest. If we have to cut Medicaid, I’ll happily cut theirs.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@quakerinabasement:
Come on, double-nought spy.
SenyorDave
@Bobby D: We want Ivanka, a moderate democrat from policy perspectives, as close to Trump and the decision making apparatus as possible. I want her in the WH inner circle, virtually a “body man” to him. Uday and Qusay can fak right orf, but I want the moderating democrat daughter to have his ear.
And Eva Braun was a moderating force on Hitler. Why, because she is a little less vile? Ivanka Trump has the stain of the father, plus years of exposure to the whole evil family. The Trump family is malevolent. Best case scenario is the Monty Python 16 ton weight falls on the whole family.
MazeDancer
@Schlemazel:
Very good news!
Think there also might be a UN signatories clause that says by law, no member nation can share intel with John Bolton.
Corner Stone
@Patricia Kayden:
In place of “interesting” I would substitute, “completely expected”.
And where is P-Elect assface on this? Using his ridiculous clown face with its clown makeup to mouth the words stupidly, “Stop it.” is so fucking presidential I can barely take it.
khead
@Villago Delenda Est:
EVERYONE is in on it now though – not that they weren’t before – but even D-listers see dollar signs beyond their wildest dreams.
Sell your prepper and MRE penny stocks – it’s time to invest in Jesus American history CD’s.
debbie
@Suzanne:
I want Congress’s benefits cut first. Then those red state pigs.
gene108
@Kay:
I do wonder, if Trump opts to live in NYC, while President, if that is not so much fear of sleeping not in his own bed, but rather it makes it easier for him to manage Trump, Inc. and use the power of the President to boost his business.
Sure the Secret Service would be posted around the building, but I doubt they’d go into his actual apartments, as they are private quarters.
Mnemosyne
@Cain:
Yeah, it was a bit of a family scandal. My mom is pretty right-wing, and she was horrified. And then she married a new guy with the same first name, which creeped me right out.
tybee
@gratuitous:
probably not.
Kay
@Corner Stone:
They’re all just angling for work and influence, Corner Stone. Frankly, they don’t care at all what happens. They’re fat and happy and they think they’re secure.
They’re having a revolution! Except it’s a very comfortable and plush revolution, where everyone makes a lot of money and stays friends.
Enhanced Voting Techinques
On Twitter.
Stand by ISIS from some really nasty tweets!!!!
jk
I’m an atheist, but if there were a God this would be the perfect time for some divine intervention that would reward us with a new blockbuster Trump scandal causing a stampede of faithless electors to switch their vote to Hillary.
Baud
@Kay: That sounds like a Glorious Revolution.
Corner Stone
@PaulWartenberg2016:
Does anyone in our national intelligence orgs really give a shit anymore? Are you telling me they could not have ran a counter-op to mitigate what happened this election? I’m not talking about Superman flying around the earth really fast, but there had to be something one of these multi-multi-billion dollar annually fed organizations could have done?
gene108
@Joyce H:
They spend several million dollars on the Arkansas Project. I don’t know anyone, who has that kind of money lying around.
Free legal aide, would be a good thing, for people wanting to step up and sue Trump.
Patricia Kayden
@SenyorDave: Yep. And then you have Black women like Omarosa who stood behind and fully supported Trump even though a lot of his policies are going to heavily damage African Americans. But I guess that’s alright since she’ll have a cushy position somewhere in Trump’s administration so to hell with the rest of Black Americans and other people of color.
debbie
@gene108:
That has got to be illegal. How do you run the country if not in the White House? And why, if the deficit is so yuuuge, would you spend lots of money to set up two separate security programs?
Mnemosyne
@jk:
At this point, I’m kind of wishing that the “deep state” that conspiracy theorists believe in would do something. Alas, I think they’re both mythical.
Central Planning
@Major Major Major Major: He’s already accidentally done some good – downstairs, there’s a thread about the American Jewish Congress and the Islamic Society of North America – they formally entered into a civil rights protection and promotion and civil society defense agreement. Look at Trump, bridging the gap between Islam and Judaism. Want to bet somebody submits Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize next year?
debbie
@Patricia Kayden:
Did you see that clip of her with that smirk on her face talking about Trump taking revenge on everyone who spoke out against him and warning people that Trump was now the most powerful man in the universe?
ETA Link: http://www.mediaite.com/online/omarosa-every-critic-every-detractor-will-have-to-bow-down-to-president-trump/
Roger Moore
@goblue72:
They also don’t want people to be afraid to talk to them out of fear of being deported. If LAPD is forced to cooperate with ICE, they’re going to have an impossible time convincing illegal immigrants from coming forward as witnesses, or even reporting crime when they’re victims. That’s why they adopted these policies a long time ago, for which enlightened stance bigots like Trump brand them as “sanctuary cities”.
Kay
@gene108:
Trump had it right when he said he could shoot someone on the street and nothing would happen to him. That’s MORE true now, not less.
You’re watching political leaders and media negotiate the terms of their surrender. It won’t go well for them.
Patricia Kayden
@Corner Stone: Someone should make a bobble head Donald who squeaks, “Stop it” when a string is pulled. The doll will do as much good as the real Donald at stopping the racist incidents which have spiked since his election.
Enhanced Voting Techinques
@John:The way it’s going I am betting Trump will propose the Duck Dynasty guy as a SC justice.
SenyorDave
@Joyce H: So there ought to be a pool of lawyers willing to provide free legal representation for any assaulted woman, any cheated small business, that wants to file suit against Trump. Remember, the Supreme Court ruled back during the Clinton Administration that responding to civil law suits while in office would surely be no impediment to the president’s ability to fulfill his duties. (And if the GOP whines that ‘you’re only doing this because he’s the president’, we’ll tell them that the 90s called and advised them to look up ‘irony’ in the dictionary.)
Exactly! And for that matter, how about a push to interview all these women together and have them tell their story. Why not, it would be a great narrative. IMO, the idea that Trump is a rapist is far more believable than the idea that Bill Clinton is a rapist. Frankly, while we are at it, let’s make a movie a la D’nish D’Souza. Working title – The Trump Assaults.
Patricia Kayden
@debbie: Have you bowed down yet? I haven’t.
Ruckus
With this lot we will be that no matter whatever else happens.
Bill Arnold
@gratuitous:
You’ve seen this, right?
Chimp with AK-47, what could possibly go wrong? LOL
(backstory if you’re wondering if this was real (not))
dogwood
@Corner Stone:
Harold Ford will play whatever role they want him to play. He’s desperate to be on tv. He’ll be on a lot playing the democrat who goes after his own.
Corner Stone
These media elite just do not get it. He does not “want” to be loved. He is going to demand to be loved.
Kay
I saw on Twitter People magazine did a glowing piece on Ivanka. Could have been written by the Trump family publicist.
This is the magazine where Donald Trump assaulted their reporter, right? Women have that little value, that Trump attacked their reporter and now they’re happily promoting his Presidency?
He was right. He can shoot people in the street. He’s completely and utterly unaccountable.
Patricia Kayden
@Kay: I really feel that being President is just a badge that Trump is going to wear going forward. He inherited his wealth and doesn’t know what it feels to work hard. No way is he going to inconvenience himself to live in the people’s house — especially after that Black family befouled it for 8 years. Why should he? He’s always lived way above the rubes. He’s not going to change just because the rubes elected him to the most powerful position in this country.
SenyorDave
@Kay: We can all hope that the strain of actually working will take a toll on him physically. M.I. in three, two, one…
Kay
@Corner Stone:
The whole country is supposed to be comforted because pundits think Donald Trump wants to be loved.
These people are insane. They have lost their minds. They are hoping against hope that Donald Trump will not decide to hurt them.
They didn’t even last a week before totally surrendering.
Ridnik Chrome
I keep thinking of that old saying: “First rate managers hire first rate people, second rate managers hire third rate people.” Except calling Trump second rate is still too kind…
Patricia Kayden
@Kay: The media is going to suck up to the Trumps so we’re going to see all kinds of cutesy stories about Melania and those odious adult “children”. The complete normalization of Trump has begun.
SenyorDave
@Patricia Kayden: The two trump boys are true example of Hitler youth.
Baud
@Kay: They’re probably exhausted from fighting Hillary all these months.
debbie
@Patricia Kayden:
I’m beginning to think botox may have unknown, lethal side effects.
Peale
@Kay: yep. That’s why this need to get on the case of the WWC is so annoying. Of course the elite republicans and upper middle class shitheals want us to put the entire onus on them. It absolves them of responsibility.
Kay
@SenyorDave:
Oh, no. We’re not getting off that easy. We hired the moron. Now we’ll have to suffer the consequences of that decision. If there are no consequences they’ll just make another bone-headed decision and hire the next idiot conman who comes along. They need to lose their life savings. That’s what happens to people who get duped by cons. Then they learn.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
Stupid collective decisions are going to have consequences whether you like it or not. Trump is going to make us pine for the days of Shrub, much less Obama. It’s vital for the Democrats to oppose him in everything he does so they can say not only that they aren’t responsible for his mistakes but that they actually did their best to prevent them.
Kay
@Peale:
It’s so funny how that has been totally forgotten. Remember all the principled Republicans who were going to vote against Donald Trump? He did better with Republicans than Clinton did with Democrats.
Financially secure Republicans put him in office. They rolled the dice not because they’re desperate white working class, but because they’re arrogant and soft and they were sure they would not get hurt or suffer any downside.
SenyorDave
@Kay: We didn’t learn from GWB. How many scandals were there under his administration? Then we have Obama, who probably has the cleanest administration in modern history, and the GOP spends half its time investigating Benghazi. More time than they spent of fucking 9/11.
But aren’t the Trump kids so good?
Richard Mayhew
@Baud: 1-2-3-4-5 like the combination to my luggage
SgrAstar
@Kay:
Don’t give up yet! As a veteran of past protest movements and resistance to state overreach, I think we are up to the challenge. Not saying it’s not going to be excruciatingly painful (it already is), just saying We. Are. In. The. Majority. Let’s never, never forget that.
Quinerly
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
KOS has a piece. Looks like it was on the CBS news.
Baud
@SenyorDave: The media is about to develop scandal fatigue.
Corner Stone
Former RNC Chair Michael Steele is absolving the Bannon appointment.
It’s going to be fine.
Mary G
I am listening to Hamilton and imagining it in a crown, red velvet cape, and tights.
Roger Moore
@jk:
Definitely a reservation on the B Ark.
Kay
@Roger Moore:
I agree. I wish Bernie Sanders would stop speaking for Democrats. He’s not even a Democrat. He’s negotiating with himself hoping he’ll get something from Donald Trump. It’s disgusting. Jesus fucking christ Bernie. You’re fawning all over this guy in the hopes of getting a highway bill? There’s not going to be any highway bill anyway, but even if there were, this handing over every shred of self respect is appalling.
Peale
@Kay: yep. So it was a combination of poor whites, many of whom opted not to vote, online mean liberals who voted for her, a protest movement against police brutality and Clinton herself. But not middle class white voters. Couldn’t be them. Republican middle class voters couldn’t have been so bad.
gogol's wife
@Mnemosyne:
Yeah, they’re effing terrified of those poor bereaved mothers that Hillary had at her convention. I think that was a big factor. Just the name Black Lives Matter just terrifies them.
Plus tax cuts.
Kay
@SenyorDave:
I loathe the Trump kids. Not the little one. The adults. The boys are objectively horrible and Ivanka reminds me of women who conduct business seminars. I hate that forced cheeriness.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
It’s the most amazing revolution! You never had a revolution so great!
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
I wouldn’t be surprised if some people are starting to hope that Daddy Obama is going to suddenly declare martial law so they can have their Obamacare and their outrage, too.
Sorry, suckers. You broke the country, it’s yours now. No one is coming to save you.
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone:
Missed (thankfully) MTP Daily, but heard (tragically) a few minutes of that show with Halperin and Heileman. They had the execrable Mary Matalin on, who said of the RNC PR BS and Bannon appointments that they would “make the trains run on time.” I think someone else used the same Mussoliniesque phrase a couple of days ago, which was mentioned here by one of the commenters. They are honestly not even trying to keep this shit in dog-whistle range anymore, are they? Loud and proud with the fascism.
(When they brought on “Democrat” Harold Ford, I changed stations. Much as I did earlier during “All Things Considered” when NPR interviewed Bernie Sanders to get his views on how to fix the Democratic Party. Why not go for the trifecta and bring on Joe Manchin?)
Mnemosyne
@SgrAstar:
I think what Kay’s saying is that we’re going to have to save ourselves, because the institutions that were supposedly set up to protect us turn out to have been hollowed out by the Republicans.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
They did something two weeks ago to get the exact result we’re currently seeing. Don’t count on them getting buyer’s remorse.
gogol's wife
@Kay:
Yes, they did a story about how he assaulted their reporter, plus they also ran a spread of the 12 other women who accused him of assaulting them. Today I came home and found the latest issue, with a big glossy picture of “President Trump” on the cover, “His astonishing journey to the White House.” Straight into the trash can.
OGLiberal
@debbie: Trump Tower is near my office so would be a huge inconvenience but would probably him staying out of the White House so he doesn’t gold plate everything and put in a bunch of tacky pieces of furniture.
Of course he doesn’t want to live there…America’s is for plebes.
Roger Moore
@Ridnik Chrome:
Fifth rate managers hire their relatives because they can’t trust anyone else.
JaneE
@catclub: Most of the employees would not need a high clearance. Some facilities are required to clear everyone, others only those with need to access classified information. How high a clearance will depend on the nature of the information you need to do your job. I have worked for defense contractors twice, and was cleared twice, and never in the 11 years total did I ever see any classified information. I did see a “TOP SECRET” envelope containing classified documents once, when a secretary was hand walking it to some meeting. Even 40 years ago no one went to the trouble of getting Top Secret clearance unless it was really necessary.
SiubhanDuinne
@Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire):
Not sure which friendship is more disqualifying in a Trump administration.
dogwood
@Roger Moore:
People do have to own -up. Last night there was a discussion about how devastating the ’04 loss was to so many. Part of me breathed a sigh of relief that night. I knew the war was going to become increasingly unpopular, yet there was no quick fix, happy ending there. Kerry would have faced a republican congress, so no chance at much domestically. I didn’t want dems to left holing the bag when it all came down due to decisions made by W.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mary G:
That’s me, pretty much. I glance at Gin & Tacos, BooMan, and Digby, but I haven’t been on Facebook since Thursday or Friday, and I’m mostly ignoring my email right now. If it weren’t for this place, I’m not sure where I’d turn.
OGLiberal
@SenyorDave: The Trump boys talk strategy……
https://timeentertainment.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/christian_bale_04.jpg?w=600
OGLiberal
@SenyorDave: Here’s Eric Trump providing some lighting at Dad’s rally:
http://www.ivid.it/fotogallery/imagesearch/images/swing_kids_giovani_ribelli_robert_sean_leonard_thomas_carter_010_jpg_mszd.jpg
SiubhanDuinne
@Kay:
The conventional wisdom, for a family industrial fortune, is “Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.”
I guess it takes a little longer for a nation ?
Patricia Kayden
@Roger Moore:
This a million times. That’s exactly what the Republicans did to President Obama. That’s one page we need to borrow from their book.
Joyce H
@Kay:
When I caught a clip of Trump’s acceptance speech (something I did NOT watch), and saw that little boy standing there looking terrified, it occurred to me to wonder – if the Secret Service witnesses the President beating his wife or child, what do they do?
SiubhanDuinne
@ms_canadada:
Well, depending on where you are, I might be in your vicinity sometime in the next week or so. Planning to drive from Atlanta to Owen Sound to spend (American) Thanksgiving with my cousin and his wife, and just chill* for a few days.
* The one thing that would keep me home is a major snow/blizzard event in the GL area, so “chill” may be the wrong choice of words.
petesh
@Baud: According to an apparently informed source (I am NOT joking), for many years the nuclear codes password was: 00000000
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie:
I absolutely believe you, but is there a link for this?
dogwood
@OGLiberal:
I’ve been thinking about the residence staff this week. Couple years ago I read a book about upstairs at the White House. Wonderful interviews with retired staffers. Mostly AA, many worked 40-50 years. They loved their jobs, revere the house, and speak warmly and fondly of every family. Lots of wonderful stories. One woman spoke of the transition period and how the families and staff adjust. In her time there the starkest transition in terms of how the families lived their daily lives was between the Reagans and the Bushes. Well this one is gonna be a doozy. I can’t image these people being forced to work for a racist president. It hurts my heart.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
For all of the can kicking the founding fathers did about slavery, all the chickens came home to roost in this election. I think Black Lives Matter, coupled with Khizr Khan’s attempt to shame those white working class “real Americans”, was the tipping point into fascism. White people are overwhelmingly mean, petty and vindictive, massively uninformed about the Constitution and the rule of law they don’t understand and take for granted because LEO is the new (old) KKK and is reactionary, and white people are deeply, deeply mediocre. The center couldn’t hold, and we couldn’t keep the Republic.
Another Scott
Doesn’t 5 USC § 3110 still apply?
If they can’t be employed, appointed, etc., then how could they be eligible for a clearance?
Adam? Anyone?
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Botsplainer
@Kay:
Those would be the “good” Germans, those conservative residents of Berlin who got squicked out by excess and vice if their cosmopolitan city.
He could always be controlled…
Mnemosyne
@Another Scott:
Was that passed after the JFK years when he made his brother Attorney General?
SiubhanDuinne
@jk:
I hope very hard that Fahrenthold and Eichenwald will continue digging and committing journalism. Whatever they’re able to unearth may not, almost surely will not, change the outcome of the election, but a steady release of damning and damaging news could throw him off center.
Adam L Silverman
@Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire): We are not in the last days of the Republic. When 650,000 of us are strewn across battlefields from Pennsylvania to Florida and from New Mexico to South Carolina and there’s still no end in sight, then we might be in the last days of the Republic.
I’m not going to say things aren’t grim. That we’re in uncharted territory. That we appear to be nationally compromised by Russia and that the Chinese now perceive their long game to eclipse may have sped itself up. All of this is true. But we’ve come through worse. And when we have we’ve almost always made advances. But no advancement, no progress in America has ever come without a sharp, strong, and uncomfortable attempt at retrenchment and reprisal. This is what happens when your state and society are Constitutional Republic version of liberal democracy and, at the same time, the oldest and most aged of revolutionary states and societies. The latter tend towards reactionary beliefs, attitudes, and actions as they age.
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie:
Until a few weeks ago I had never even heard of this woman (no TV, never watched The Apprentice even when I had a TV), but she strikes me as the distillation of awfulness. Am I wrong?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Scott: “If the President does it, it’s not illegal.”
President Nixon.
Adam L Silverman
@catclub: No, if you work for a contractor providing services to the government and the statement of work for your position requires that you have a clearance, then you have to have that clearance. The level will be specified in the contract. Once you have the clearance, however, it is only to access materials that you need to know at the level you are cleared for.
SiubhanDuinne
@Patricia Kayden:
I can almost guarangoddamntee you that Trump will be named Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year.”
Guar.
An.
Tee.
By rights, of course, given all the beautiful souls that have left us since January, the 2016 “Person of the Year” should be the Grim Reaper.
Adam L Silverman
@Patricia Kayden: Actually he denied that Trump is an anti-Semite:
http://observer.com/2016/07/jared-kushner-the-donald-trump-i-know/
SiubhanDuinne
@Kay:
OMG, that is exactly it! Just a brilliant catch, Kay!
Adam L Silverman
@Another Scott: It should apply.
Roger Moore
@SiubhanDuinne:
Should be Putin.
Roger Moore
@Adam L Silverman:
Not an anti-Semite, but #1 with anti-Semites.
SiubhanDuinne
@Adam L Silverman:
O/T, but thank you from the bottom of my heart for using “uncharted,” correctly. I am sick unto death hearing radio and tv pundits (or “pundints,” if Mrs. Greenspan is to be trusted) saying “unchartered.” Grates on every membrane of my ears.
Another Scott
@Mnemosyne: Yup. 1967.
Paul Blumenthal at HuffPo:
If Donnie has enough smart lawyers, they can probably find a way to get his people on the job in some form or other, but it’s not at all clear if they could get a clearance. But IANAL.
Cheers,
Scott.
Corner Stone
@Another Scott: Why would he bother paying a lawyer on this? Just do it. Who is going to stop him/them?
Adam L Silverman
@SiubhanDuinne: Well if we either own the vehicle of choice outright or stole it, then unchartered might be accurate.
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: Everything he or his people do is going to result in an IG complaint or a legal challenge in the courts. There will be civil rights groups and ethics watchdog groups and others challenging everything. They may not win, but they’ll generate bad headlines and slow things way, way down.
1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)
@jk: The Andromeda Galaxy is not interested in becoming our latest Superfund Site.
1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)
@Kay:
This means “make all those people come crawling up to lick our boots and admit we are right and they are wrong.”
In case anyone needed to have that translated from the Authoritarian dialect of Assholish.
Corner Stone
@Adam L Silverman: And?
Another Scott
@Corner Stone: I figure he’s going to have trouble staffing government agencies as it is. People in the DOJ aren’t going to want to throw away their careers by ignoring the laws and the Constitution they took an oath to protect.
Trump’s people are putting up all kinds of trial balloons (heh) now. We need to pushback and not just assume that they can do what they want without consequences.
We’ve got a lot of ideals worth preserving. Yeah, it will be bad going forward, but we have to try.
– Malcom X
Cheers,
Scott.
Corner Stone
@Another Scott:
Oh yeah? I keep being mystified that some people seem to want to cling to normality. To rules, regulations, things that make sense. We are past all that now.
The R’s control everything. The IG, the bullshit rules and regulations. None of that matters now. Trump told people he was going to jail his political opponent if he was elected. They cheered him.
Aleta
Bet he has already opened access to some classified info to Jared and kids. This is retroactive effort to duck and cover up.
Another Scott
@Corner Stone: Trumps voters didn’t swear an oath to protect the Constitution.
Saturday Night Massacre:
Even partisans have their do-not-cross lines.
We’ll see how bad it will be, but we have to stand up for what we believe in even if we can’t yet see a way to stop bad things from happening.
Cheers,
Scott.
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: And what? All I can do is provide factual answers to question about how the government works in terms of things like policy making or getting a clearance or appointments, etc. Or how government can be tied up by both the internal bureaucracy or external interest groups.
I get that you’re upset. I get that you’re processing in the comments. And its not my place, nor would I ever suggest you stop. But I would like to suggest that things are not as bad as your reactions seem to make them out to be. And that’s not to suggest that things are good. This is not last Tuesday at noon with all the promise that day seemed to hold. But its also not the fall of Rome either.
Right now, between the most senior of the President Carter appointments, as well as the much younger still President Clinton and Obama appointments, the Federal judiciary at the district and appellate levels maintains a majority of judges appointed by these three Democratic Presidents. That isn’t going to change any time soon. Trying to pack the district and appellate courts isn’t going to be done quickly or easily. And even with a Supreme Court justice, provided the Senate Democratic caucus doesn’t slow things way, way down and the nomination, advise and consent occurs at a normal pace we’re talking March or April before whoever is nominated gets their final vote. This means that the Supreme Court will be 4-4 this term and if the nomination can be slowed into the summer, then at least the first half of the 2017-2018 docket will be chosen by a 4-4 court. So few momentous, major change of direction cases, because neither side wants to risk a 4-4 tie that affirms an appellate decision the other side can’t live with. And even with a 5th conservative justice we’re just back to where we were before Associate Justice Scalia died.
From what I’m observing things are going to be a shitshow. Even the folks around the President Elect with government experience don’t seem to actually have a clue what they’re doing. This too will slow things way, way down. Right now inexperience and incompetence are good things. Remember, our system of government is not meant to be efficient – as in quick – even in a crisis. Its a high veto point system, and inherently ademocratic to anti-democratic specifically because the Founders and Framers were concerned with something like this happening. They wanted to make it as hard as possible for the system to be turned against the citizenry, to be turned toward autocracy. That works in the favor of the loyal (to the Constitution) opposition.
Corner Stone
@Adam L Silverman: Respectfully, IMO you are coming at this from a perspective of understanding the built-in rules and regulations of a somewhat coherent government. The R’s have done their best to be dysfunctional but overall everyone tipped their cap and played by the rules set in place for some time. We hated their gridlock but our side (D) knew that was a possibility.
If I may, I would humbly suggest you are still clinging to a framework that makes sense to you. Laws, rules, regulations, procedural authority. All those things are steeped in your working adult life.
I simply believe those no longer apply. The D Senate will not obstruct. They do not know how, and further, they truly believe in government at their core. The R’s will take every advantage of this.
No one really knows what Trump truly believes. We do not have to. We know what Ryan, McConnell and Bannon believe. Trump’s closest advisors such as Kushner and Ghouliani – they have shown us what they truly believe.
Yeah, I am shook after the election results. I live and know many white racists so I always knew we could do this. But god damn. Nothing mattered this election. Nothing.
I am personally flabbergasted that any single rational person, at this point, could possibly believe there is a limit on what they will try to do. And given what he has shown us – get away with, with no consequences to him. Someone else may pay the piper. But it will be too late, the deed will be done and he will be moving on to the next thing.
Corner Stone
@Adam L Silverman:
Of course it is. It has been a long term series of the fall of Rome.
That you do not get that is as scary as anything else posted here.
Corner Stone
He just appointed a white nationalist as his chief strategist. The media is saying, well, let’s give him a chance. Democratic politicians are saying, well, let’s give him a chance.
The fucking P-Elect has not come out and told his supporters to be at peace with all of America. After 200+ incidents of hate crimes and terrorism. Further, his staff has been saying how it is incumbent on Obama and HRC to come out and tell people to calm the fuck down.
He wants TS for his kids. the same kids that will run a 500 company org in a “blind trust” that no fucking body is going to stop or oppose. Good luck IG.
It’s a slow motion putsch and a real time kleptocracy. If this isn;t the fucking fall of Rome then what is it?
We impeached Nixon for jacking with his political opponents and then telling us to fuck off. Trump has a nation state act on his behalf multiple times, then the FBI step in twice in 11 days before the election. And all this after he said in a debate watched by 60M+ citizens that he would jail his opponent if he won. And they cheered him on to victory.
Tell me. If he appoints his son Barron to the Senate as special envoy can we then start considering this may actually be the fall of Rome?
LesGS
@Adam L Silverman: He may not be. (I can’t read his mind, though I do believe he loves his now-Jewish daughter, Ivanka (in his own special way)). But – and I’m not saying anything novel to this commentariat – he literally (literally) promoted the anti-Semite Bannon. He has committed an *action*. For all practical purposes, Trump is an anti-Semite.
Maya Angelou – “When someone shows you who they are, believe them; the first time.”
Adam L Silverman
@LesGS: I was just answering the question of had his Jewish son in law said anything. I wasn’t arguing that he isn’t.
J R in WV
@Joyce H:
Thanks for the cite re Trump hiring his kids.
I would like to believe that will be the case going forward over the next four years.
But I’m pretty dubious that the Trumpettes won’t find a loophole that will last longer than the presidency they are working to monetize. Like working for any one of the vast contracting firms, or working for free, or…. the mind reels, you see.