Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Republicans in disarray!

You can’t love your country only when you win.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Consistently wrong since 2002

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Sweet Fancy Moses!

Sweet Fancy Moses!

by | 252 Comments

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Likely from the golden commode at the tackily ostentatious throne room at Disgraceland this morning, Trump dropped the following nuggets on Twitter:

As I’ve done repeatedly in this nightmarish political cycle, I double-checked to make sure it was actually his account rather than one of the many parodies. The news sites are just now picking it up, so it’s apparently legit.

This is a serious charge, and since Trump is a pathological liar, few outside of Cult 45 are going to take his word for it. WTF? Trying and failing to imagine the end game here. What do you think?

Reader Interactions

252Comments

  2. 2.

    JMG

    I don’t know about here, but I’ll bet in most every country in the world, including the likes of Vanuatu, there’s a cabinet meeting today on the subject of “so, about building that bomb, how much money do we need, anyway?”

  4. 4.

    PsiFighter37

    I feel like Bannon puts on the craziest shit possible on Trump’s TV or radio when Jared checks out for Saturday.

  5. 5.

    Retr2327

    Given that the FBI was investigating ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s true. But that doesn’t mean Obama ordered it, or even knew of it in advance.

  7. 7.

    Baud

    Reposted from below

    I remember there was some reporting on a Trump server communicating with the Russians during the campaign, so it might be true. Since Trump should be investigated, I have no problem with this.

  8. 8.

    ericblair

    Deciphering the Yam-ese garble of what he must have been told: I would assume that the Russian ambassador’s line was tapped because duh, and then Trump either called or was called by the RU ambassador, and Trump’s convo was sealed as he is a US person, until a warrant was issued to unseal it? Because that seems to be the only thing that makes sense.

  11. 11.

    GregB

    This pile of orange tinted feces called on Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails during the very sacred election.

  12. 12.

    Baud

    Maybe we need an independent commission to look comprehensively at all of this stuff.

  14. 14.

    Aleta

    I think his paranoia is erupting under the stress.
    And:
    Sarah Kendzior
    @sarahkendzior
    33m
    Keep him away from the nuclear codes today. Please.

  15. 15.

    JPL

    Is it legal for a sitting President to be “wire tapping” a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier.

    Scared much?

  16. 16.

    Lapassionara

    @Baud: Agreed. I think he might be talking about the FBI, which tried to get a FISA warrant at some point re some kinky financial transactions. Failed the first time, as FISA court said no, but then got ok.

  17. 17.

    Booger

    OH NOES! THE KENYAN MOOSLIM USURPER PRESNIT MEETED W/ FORRIN LEEDERS!! HOW DAREZ HE! SAD!!

  19. 19.

    PaulW

    Trump is trying to accuse Obama of doing illegal things when in truth this is all standard procedure for the Intel agencies to track phone calls and other communications with foreign powers like Russia.

    FISA wiretaps may have its issues – the lack of transparency – but there’s supposed to be some form of oversight to it all, and it’s part of a bureaucracy that operates below the specific awareness of the White House.

  23. 23.

    Kansi

    Talk is he got the “intel” from Mark Levin via Brietbart. One wonders if Bannon likes to keep the crazy up to 11. But if not through Brietbart, did he just disclose classified info on the very public Twitter machine?

  24. 24.

    PaulW

    If Trump thinks he can get into a punching fight with Obama, he’s wrong.

    He may get his voter base to rally to him, but Obama’s base is bigger, more popular, and more dedicated.

  28. 28.

    PaulW

    At some point, I think Trump is going to blab something with national security implications on his twitter rant, and it’ll be YUGE enough to have the entire government from the Army on down to Parks and Rec in riot mode.

  32. 32.

    Emma

    I remember talk of a Trump server that was sending regular transmissions to one in Russia and the Trump claim that it was an old unused server. Or am I nuts? This thing just keeps getting more and more conspiratorial.

  33. 33.

    PsiFighter37

    @Emma: Yes, there was something about a connection between a Russian bank and Trump servers. I’m not sure where that ended up…one of many threads the MSM failed to follow up on during the election because screaming about EMAILS!!! was easier to do.

  34. 34.

    MattF

    It’s possible– maybe even probable. And, as events are demonstrating, tapping T’s phone would be a reasonable thing for an investigator to do. And, um, also, btw… inspecting T’s tax return would be reasonable. I would not be shocked if it turned up, out of the clear blue sky.

  35. 35.

    Birthmarker

    Lol, BC, I always tell people if he’s tweeting at 3 AM, it’s from the pot!

    Seems like I saw some kind of ‘worse than Watergate’ headline yesterday. He reacts to negative news stories by accusing an opponent of whatever he himself has been accused of.

  36. 36.

    TS

    Fancy Ambassadors from foreign countries visiting the White House – problem is that none of them want to visit Trump – so he just assumes it must be BAD if they visit. The madness of King George has nothing on this man.

  37. 37.

    Ajay

    I don’t see these tweets on his account. Unless he deleted them, these are not real.

  38. 38.

    efgoldman

    That’s the killer that puts the knife in Obama’s back and makes Salmon Shitheel Monarch for Life and King of the Crazies: Obama met the Russian Ambassador 22 times at the White House! OH NOOOOOOOS!!!
    I didn’t think it was possible for the asshole to get more stupid, but that’s what’s happened.
    Does he have any idea what an Ambassador’s job is? What the fucking president’s job is??
    Never mind, rhetorical question.
    Hey, Donnie dipshit, here’s a hint to get you started: Obama met dozens of times with dozens of ambassadors from all over the world. Dozens of times. It was their fucking job, you pig shit brained oaf.
    And every president going back centuries met with the Russian Ambassador… and the French… and the British… and the Japanese… and the Argentinian…

    The abject ignorance and stupidity is burning a hole in what’s left of my old brain!

  40. 40.

    Oldgold

    I doubt the tweets Trump has impulsively fired off this morning are where wisdom lies.

    Down the road, and probably just around the corner, this is going to bite him in the ass bigly.

  41. 41.

    Another Scott

    He’s also just now gloating / whining about Arnold quitting / being fired from The Apprentice – a “great show”.

    Priorities!!1

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (It’s always, always all about him.)

  42. 42.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    He’s unhinged, and judging from my tweet deck, he’s churning up some kind of emotional response from the lizard brains of Trumpers. The next few days could be difficult – Sessions is getting pounded and I suspect that Trump may be terrified of conversations he had getting out.

    There may be a slew of arrests ordered by Sessions in order to attempt to plug leaks, as well as Russian-style arrests of everybody from Hillary to Holder to Lynch to Obama himself, authorized FISA warrants notwithstanding.

    Remember – with Trump, everything is projection. Also remember, while he technically can’t use USG resources for black bag surveillance, he has a private goon squad.

    Also musing aloud – Twitler may also just now be coming to realize that the Brits, Australians, Germans and French may have been mousing him, too.

  43. 43.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @PsiFighter37: I read that those connections were investigated, but nothing of interest was found. Hard to know what was really found seeing as leaks tend to be selective depending upon the leaker’s interests.

    Also yes, the original FISA warrant app was denied, but after being refined and narrowed was approved. As far as I can tell, this is all a rehashing of old news but this time with appropriate outrage.

  44. 44.

    debbie

    @Aleta:

    I think his paranoia is erupting under the stress.

    He’s being egged on by his primary advisors, Fox and Breitbart.

  45. 45.

    Kenneth Kohl

    Interesting accusation. It seems that the hounds are getting close to the fox – Obama wiretaps (investigate!), Schumer meets/Russians (investigate!), Pelosi meets/Russians (investigate!)

  47. 47.

    TS

    @Baud:

    If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.

    Which is why, if or when, word of this stupid gets to Obama, he will be wondering what on earth Trump is trying to hide (or maybe he already knows).

    Nothing stuck to President Obama in 8 years, and everyone – including Trump – tried so very hard. This isn’t going to change

  48. 48.

    debbie

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Reminds me of that bit in one of the debates where Hillary was saying something about Trump and he kept saying, “How do you know about that?” Google’s failing me now for the specific statement, but I doubt Trump had any idea that secrets could not stay secret.

  49. 49.

    efgoldman

    @debbie:

    He’s being egged on by his primary advisors, Fox and Breitbart.

    I’m surprised we haven’t seen any damning leaks about president Bannonazi, yet.
    Could it be he’s the leaker?

  52. 52.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    yeah, this is off the charts crazy time and anything can and probably will happen. However, I get the sense that there are lots of holdovers in the various agencies that are in the resistance, and Trump is so largely unpopular, and the intel community is appalled at his treason, I just don’t think they can get away with much*.

    * but will try and create chaos and a crisis just like Bannon likes it.

  54. 54.

    JPL

    The info in Breitbart wasn’t new, since it was reported before the election, in the NYTimes. What happened yesterday, that concerned Trump. I did hear Sen. Coons say that there are transcripts, which he hadn’t seen, but believes to show collusion between the campaign and Russia. Sen. Coons is not the type to speculate, so it’s possible someone whispered in his ear. (my speculation)

  55. 55.

    germy

    Since he always projects, I think it’s obvious the phones were tapped in every one of his properties.

  57. 57.

    GregB

    Hey, wasn’t the standard set by the Republicans, Trump and the media during the election with Wikileaks that if illegally gotten information expises wrongdoing the the greater good is exposing the wrongdoing.

  63. 63.

    JPL

    @germy: Yup..
    If Ivanka shows up by his side before sundown, then we’ll all know, something big is coming down.

  64. 64.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Wondering if the IC has loaded the trap to spring the recording this weekend, or maybe early next week, and he now knows for sure.

  66. 66.

    MomSense

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Everybody has been so focused on the US intelligence community that they have overlooked that our allies and adversaries also collect intelligence. The sources of the leaks aren’t necessarily US sources. Betcha Ukraine is pretty damned interested in what twitler and putin have been up to.

  68. 68.

    ThresherK

    @Another Scott: Schwarznegger had a rough go of it as governor. Cast in the light of Trump’s seven weeks in office and eleven weeks of transition before that is almost enough to make Arnold look good.

  74. 74.

    Jeffro

    @Oldgold: it really feels like this will be the week… The train is definitely gathering steam, and I don’t mean the frickin’ Trumpov train, either

  75. 75.

    zhena gogolia

    I’ve been thinking that the protest movement seems to have died down somewhat, but this morning I thought, “Maybe they’re like you, just holding their breath and hoping that he crashes soon.” Господи, спаси нашу бедную родину!

  76. 76.

    D58826

    Only slightly OT. The man who is the top law enforcement official in the land :

    ‘Gun for hire’: how Jeff Sessions used his prosecuting power to target Democrats Opponents concluded that Sessions used his federal prosecutor’s office, and the FBI agents who worked for him, as political weapons, according to more than half a dozen veterans of Mobile’s 1980s legal and political circles. Some alleged in court filings that the ambitious young Republican actually worked from a “hitlist” of Democratic targets.
    “Sessions was a gun for hire,” said Tom Purvis, a former sheriff of Mobile County, “and he went after political enemies.” Purvis was acquitted of charges against him that Sessions oversaw after Purvis unseated another Outlaw ally from the elected sheriff’s position.

    http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gun-for-hire-how-jeff-sessions-used-his-prosecuting-power-to-target-democrats/ar-AAnM7KW?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=iehp

  78. 78.

    TS

    @Baud: I would probably vote for both – just think an intervention has a bigger chance of success. Until he starts standing on his head and barking no way will the current house start impeachment proceedings.

  79. 79.

    zhena gogolia

    Now that he’s attacking Obama by name, doesn’t it open the door for Obama to come out swinging? Wouldn’t that be great? (although he has a perfect right to stay out of the whole thing, I guess)

  80. 80.

    Frankensteinbeck

    End game? Trump doesn’t have an end game. Some of his minions do, but I can’t imagine they knew about this digital evacuation of Trump’s bowels. Trump just rants.

  81. 81.

    Ken

    @J.: I wonder, if Trump had lost the election would his children already have started the process to have him declared incompetent?

  82. 82.

    Baud

    @zhena gogolia: If Obama says anything, I think he’ll say something like: “The current president can put a lot of this controversy to rest by authorizing an independent investigation into all facets of Russian interference into the election and by promising to fully cooperate with that investigation.”

  83. 83.

    D58826

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne:

    However, I get the sense that there are lots of holdovers in the various agencies that are in the resistance,

    And the fact that Das Fuhrer has been slow to fill most of of the deputy and assistant positions may also help. According to a NYT article many of the agencies top positions are still filled by the temporary transition beachhead teams and they know so little the career folks have to show them where the front door is.

  84. 84.

    Another Scott

    My two main comments from downstairs.

    He’s talking, and leaking information (or giving credence to leaks) about ongoing investigations – something he shouldn’t be doing. He’s strengthening the hands of those who want the investigation to be independent of the DOJ. Heck of a job, Donnie!!

    And he’s trying to distract us from important things. Like his “10% increase in the Pentagon budget”. Very little of the reporting has noted that it won’t happen unless the Democrats agree to end the Sequester limits – and there is no indication that they will do so (and why would they without getting something big in return?). GovExec:

    Within the next couple of weeks, things are going to get vastly less breezy, when the White House officially drops its 2018 “skinny budget” on Congress. This will give lawmakers their first real peek at Trump’s economic priorities––beyond his usual unicorns-for-all pledge to slash taxes while spending willy-nilly on things like infrastructure and immigration enforcement.

    At that point, shit starts getting real.

    To clarify, what the White House is handing over is not a full budget proposal. It is a “skinny budget,” which sounds like some god-awful low-calorie sludge you’d order at Starbucks, but is in fact a general overview of the president’s spending priorities for the 2018 fiscal year. As Trump budget director Mick Mulvaney stressed at a press briefing Monday, the outline will not address entitlement programs such as Social Security or Medicare; it will not tackle tax reform; it won’t get into any specifics on infrastructure; and it won’t attempt any sort of revenue projections. It will merely provide “topline” numbers on discretionary spending that the various agencies will be expected to abide by.

    In other words, most of the really bloody fights will come later. Even so, there will be enough meat on these bones to start a brawl or two. Case in point: Trump’s proposed cuts to the State Department have moved Republican Senator Lindsey Graham to declare the package “dead on arrival.” So that debate promises to be lively.

    More broadly, the basic structure of the blueprint—in which Trump wants to add $54 billion in defense spending by whacking an equivalent amount from non-defense programs—would blow up the 2011 sequestration agreement (which split cuts evenly between defense and non-defense programs) and thus require a change in the law in order to even be considered. But we’ll get to all that fun in a minute.

    […]

    Already, the skinny budget is making the rounds in the executive branch. On Monday the White House sent the numbers out to federal agencies and departments in a process known as “passback.” Along with the topline amounts they are being allotted, agencies received suggestions from Mulvaney’s Office of Management and Budget on how to hit those numbers. After spending a few days reviewing the proposal, agency officials will come back to OMB with their thoughts on where the cuts—or, in the case of the Pentagon, the additional billions—should be directed. Serious appeals go up the food chain to Mulvaney or even the White House.

    Further details will be fleshed out, and the budget office hopes to hand lawmakers a final outline by March 16. As Lindsey Graham’s DOA comment indicates, the White House can look forward to many spirited exchanges about its skinny budget even with lawmakers from its own party. Democrats, meanwhile, are working themselves up into a lather over the core structure of the proposal.

    Specifically, popping the sequestration cap off the defense budget would require at least 60 votes in the Senate. That means recruiting a handful of Democrats to the cause. But adding billions to defense while not simply keeping a lid on non-defense programs but specifically slashing them by an equivalent amount will play poorly with Democrats. (Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has already been raising holy hell about it.) White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has expressed confidence that Democratic Senators will decline to play partisan politics with national security—suggesting that the past several weeks have taken a greater toll on Spicer’s grasp of reality than originally thought.

    To be sure, Trump fancies himself the shrewdest of negotiators. And perhaps his full budget will indeed turn out to be a bipartisan work of art. In the meantime, even the skinniest of budget outlines gives lawmakers a nice fat target to rally opposition around until the final package lands in May—at which point, the real Beltway carnage can begin.

    In other words, the most likely outcome is that the FY17 budget (which still isn’t in place, 6+ months into the FY) is likely to continue as a Continuing Resolution. And there’s no sign there will be any agreement on a FY18 budget either, so that will be a CR too. So no new money for the Pentagon (and under the Sequester law, it’s effectively continued cuts), nor for Donnie’s Wall, nor for new ICE agents, etc., etc. Plus, there will be more pressure to keep Obamacare in place (as ending it blows up the deficit, also too).

    He’ll make his speeches and sign his EOs, but he won’t have the money to do anything that he claims he’s going to do.

    Whodathunk that electing an idiot who doesn’t know how the federal government works would lead to an administration that doesn’t know how the federal government works?!?!?!

    [ fixed a linky ]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  85. 85.

    Schlemazel

    @PsiFighter37:
    The NY Times was doing a story on the server & word leaked. The server ‘disappeared’. A couple of weeks later a new server was discovered. Don’t remember the details but the story was out there.

  87. 87.

    debbie

    I don’t know if it was Pelosi or Schumer who pointed out that of course there were photos of them with Putin because their meetings weren’t secret. Boom!

    ETA: It was Pelosi:

    Nancy Pelosi ✔ @NancyPelosi
    [email protected] doesn’t know difference between official mtg photographed by press & closed secret mtg his AG lied about under oath.

  88. 88.

    Hal

    Pelosi should go on national television and call for an investigation into Russian ties of anyone who ever met with the ambassador, including herself. Say she completely agrees with President Trump’s tweets.

  89. 89.

    Baud

    @debbie: Schumer did the same. They should also tweet out their tax returns.

    ETA

    Chuck Schumer‏Verified account @SenSchumer 20h20 hours ago

    Chuck Schumer Retweeted Donald J. Trump

    Happily talk re: my contact w Mr. Putin & his associates, took place in ’03 in full view of press & public under oath. Would you &your team?

  90. 90.

    Schlemazel

    @zhena gogolia:
    Yeah because BHO is such a street fighter he will ignore 250 years of history and attack his successor.

    He might say something & it might cut like a stiletto but it will not be the hammer Trump deserves.

    EDIT: apparently html code is not working?
    Edit2: ok, B does but i does not

  92. 92.

    hovercraft

    They really do need to figure out who is on duty from Friday at dusk till Saturday evening, this is out of hand. I guess they also need to switch to a new medication, just when it looked like they’d found the right one, it’s failed.
    @debbie:
    That was Schumer, pointing out that since HE had nothing to hide, the press was invited along, moran!

  93. 93.

    Jeffro

    Trump now “pivoting” from Obama to Schwarzenegger on Twitter…yes, I do believe this is ‘the’ week, folks…

  94. 94.

    JPL

    @Another Scott: That would be great, because there are some in the administration that don’t believe in free school lunches. It’s never to early to teach a child, that there are no free lunches in life.

  96. 96.

    amk

    wonder what those ‘raygun democrats” and the union guyz who voted for this nut feel now.

  100. 100.

    Another Scott

    @Schlemazel: The italic tag ([i][/i]) hasn’t worked for ages. You need to use the Em tag to get italics ([em][/em]). Or use the buttons. :-)

    HTH!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  101. 101.

    debbie

    @Jeffro:

    This weekend is Arnold’s big fitness expo. No way he will let that tweet go without a response.

    Trump has become a national embarrassment on the world stage. They have got to be laughing at him, which will enrage him even further.

  102. 102.

    Yarrow

    Just got up. I wondered what might happen this weekend. Guess we found out

    I really hope whoever is in charge of the nuclear codes has added in a fail-safe. Trump is off his rocker.

  105. 105.

    WereBear

    If there was ever a blatant refutation of “both sides do it” it is President Obama contrasted with pResident Circus Peanut.

  106. 106.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Yarrow:

    The guy carrying the football actually has a decade’s worth of press clippings with Trump photos and stories, but no codes. That should keep him distracted for a while until his urge passes.

  107. 107.

    amk

    lil jeb! blew what, 150 mil?, during the primaries and couldn’t be arsed to finger the twitler in all these? He should be sued for political malpractice.

  108. 108.

    Aleta

    Whether investigation or impeachment, Trump can take comfort that his television ratings will be higher than (Watergate + Nixon resignation) + (Starr investigation + impeachment).

  110. 110.

    Taylor

    I assume it is obvious to everyone that Trump is calling in his white supremacist base.

  112. 112.

    Mickee

    Even as desperate efforts to distract go, this one is pretty pathetic. Problem is that most of his supporters won’t know that the FISC process is lawful and that it was IC/FBI/law enforcement who requested the FISA warrants–not the president. This will play with the mouth-breathers. Not clear how many others will be convinced.

    I think it is more alarming that he abused the (Twitter) power of his office to call for an investigation of a political opponent–Nancy Pelosi–yesterday. President’s don’t get to determine who should be investigated based on their whims. At least not yet. He is trying yet again to destroy our system of checks and balances on his power.

  113. 113.

    hovercraft

    @zhena gogolia:
    Obama is the master at slipping in the stiletto, and he does it in such a way that the other person looks small. Given that the first FSM help me, the first 44 days, only 44 days, have been such a disaster, bringing up Obama makes him only look worse. Everything he’s done or has tried to do has blown up in his face, the Muslim ban, protests, chaos, the courts giving him and his lawyers the middle finger. The wall, Mexico’s still won’t pay for it, you will, and just to add insult to injury, Pena Nieto cancelling on the shitgibbon. Day one came and went and Obamacare is still with us, and protesters have the entire GOP running scared, oh and it’s popular now. The entire city of DC has turned into one giant sieve, there are so many leaks he has no hope of plugging them, they are springing up everywhere, including in his own White House, where the infighting is hilarious. The fawning press of the campaign has devolved into a constant codependent love hate fest, with an emphasis on the hate.
    Obama is living rent free in his head, he keeps trying to outdo him and he keeps falling flat on his face, Bin Laden is still dead and Yemen was a disaster that the shitstain is now trying to blame on everyone but himself. Obama is chilling basking in all the love, while tiny hands is miserable, the focus of more hate and criticism than he ever imagined was possible. He got through 70 of life by being the biggest loudest bully, turns out that the thousands of career IC, and government workers can and do push back when confronted by a bully, they know they’ll be there long after he’s gone. And if they can help make that sooner rather than later, they will.

  114. 114.

    Jeffro

    @hovercraft: and in every case it’s a sad example of him not be able to make reality bend to his will

    … no amount of money or power can do that Donald

  115. 115.

    japa21

    What gets me is that Trump is still focused on Obama and not on what may have been discovered. Isn’t GOP gospel that if you have done nothing wrong being wiretapped is no big deal?

    The problem is that his base doesn’t see the inconsistencies,. One minute it is that the leaks are dangerous because classified information is being released. The next it is that the leaks are all lies.

  116. 116.

    randy khan

    @germy:

    There was a truly weird story (I know, I know, but even by the standards of the campaign) that came out about how he would listen in to calls by people at Mar-a-Lago when he was there. Apparently the switchboard was set up specifically to allow that.

  121. 121.

    Tripod

    @Another Scott:

    Arnold’s line about smashing his face into a a tabletop is a crack about Trump getting his face messed up.

    He has had extensive reconstructive work on the nose and cheeks.

  127. 127.

    Hobbes83

    I think that there is one major component of this whole Russian affair that needs to be covered much more extensively than what the media has done up to this point, and it focuses on the leaders of the House and Senate. Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, along with Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and presumably the chairs and ranking members of the Armed Services Committees, Foreign Relations Committees, and Intelligence Committees of both chambers were briefed on a good majority of the things that are being leaked to the media right now. They* chose not to come out and inform the public about these issues based on “concerns” over the appearance of partisanship.**

    In my opinion, although they most likely did not have any contact with the Russians and did not collude with the Russians to influence the campaign, they are just as guilty as the filth that occupies the WH currently. They clearly put politics and party above our democracy to get some fucking tax cuts and deregulate the business sector so that their puppeteers can make $1.4 billion in quarterly profits instead of $1.2 billion in profits. This goes beyond simple craveness and ideology, there needs to be a new term for this type of behavior.

    Prior to this election, I had faith in the institutions that exist in our country, but because of the morally bankrupt behavior of one political party in this country over the past thirty years, I do not see how this country survives going forward when roughly half of the electorate is bat-shit insane and/or willfully ignorant and bigoted.

    *I’m specifically referring to Ryan and McConnell.
    **As they clutched their pearls and sought out couches to faint on.

  130. 130.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: No idea, my uncles are pretty sane too. I do has some cray cray in-laws. I just pretend I don’t understand what they are saying, plus I am far enough away that I can ignore them easily.

  131. 131.

    JPL

    https://twitter.com/costareports has a time line about Trump. Yesterday he was quite upset about Session’s recusal. Costa also tweeted the following

    confirmed: Priebus and Bannon are *not* in Florida with POTUS, per WH, though they may fly down there later today

    lol

  132. 132.

    Malovich

    The flopsweat administration strikes again. President* Cheeto-Fingered Shitgibbon is flailing hard in the quagmire of problems he’s created for himself.

    Schadenfreude? This is a shadengasm.

    I’m looking at this guy, a month and a week or so into his administration, and he’s fitting everyone for a scapegoat. The President* is such an incredibly vainglorious and narcissistic asshole he’s seriously trying to paint the world in the colours he sees in his head and I’m seriously in anguish over how everyone who identified with his message is getting it on in Holiday Id, putting the screws to their favourite target victim.

    Now that the ship is leaking, the rats wouldn’t even get on board, there wasn’t even enough third-rate pirates to fill out the administration properly, he’s spiralling into blame while the ship begins to sink. Putin really knows how to pick’em.

    The cleanup is going to be a bitch.

  135. 135.

    D58826

    @Hobbes83:

    *I’m specifically referring to Ryan and McConnell.

    Was going to make just that point. IIRC Obama wanted to release a bi-partisan statement concerning the Russian interference last Sept. but McConnell would not go along.

  137. 137.

    Jeffro

    @Yarrow: I know, right? Don’t you just feel in mortal peril for your life, waiting for that ban to save us?

    Yeah me neither.

  138. 138.

    chris

    These tweets remind me that the three generals, Mattis, Kelly and McMaster have an agreement that one of them will always be in the country. An overview

    Chairman Dunford has said little so far, but his role was brought to the fore by the president’s executive order reorganizing the National Security Council. The order left him, the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, without a permanent seat on the NSC’s most senior body, while giving one to Bannon. According to reporting from the Associated Press, it was on account of concern with these sorts of half-baked executive orders coming out of the White House that Mattis and Kelly arranged to have one of them in the country at all times during Trump’s initial weeks in office. While the detail is buried deep in the AP’s story, it’s a significant revelation. Essentially, it shows that it is military leaders, albeit retired, who feel the need to guard against the overreach of a civilian executive. It’s a phenomenon familiar to countries like Turkey or Egypt, but not the United States. Until now.

  139. 139.

    SFBayAreaGal

    If all who are connected to the Russians go down, they all need to have their heads cut off, a stake driven through their hearts, salt poured over their bodies and their bodies burned so there is no chance of them ever coming back. (Supernatural way of getting rid of vampires and ghosts)

  140. 140.

    hovercraft

    @Another Scott:

    He’ll make his speeches and sign his EOs, but he won’t have the money to do anything that he claims he’s going to do.

    Whodathunk that electing an idiot who doesn’t know how the federal government works would lead to an administration that doesn’t know how the federal government works?!?!?!

    Why are democrats so mean!! Twitler won, dammit he won, why can’t the democrats just let him govern!! I guess being a pointy headed elitist who knows stuff is useful after all.
    In answer to the Cornyn tweet downstairs, I’m sure the democrats would be more than willing to work on criminal justice reform on a bipartisan basis, or infrastructure, just to name two, the problem is not democrats refusing to work on anything, the problem is you don’t negotiate with terrorists, they are terrorists.

  141. 141.

    Yarrow

    @Malovich: I’ve said a couple of times that I don’t think Trump will resign unless and until he’s thrown everyone else, with the possible exception of Ivanka, under the bus first. Resigning would be losing and he will keep thinking that if he just does what he’s always done–blaming everyone else–he can stay standing. He will not resign unless he’s completely out of options and people to blame.

    I think he’ll go through impeachment proceedings before he resigns.

  142. 142.

    JPL

    Question?
    Since FISA warrants are classified, didn’t Trump tweet about classified info?

  143. 143.

    kindness

    Paranoid AND insane. Why would even a TeaHaddist support such a nut case? Oh….yea. They’re worse.

    Honestly this is the part where we are all proclaimed enemies of the country and the foaming at the mouth folk are prompted to open season on us all.

    Trumplenacht.

  147. 147.

    Another Scott

    @Hobbes83: Yup. It’s “the dog that didn’t bark”.

    WaPo from December:

    The Obama administration has been debating for months how to respond to the alleged Russian intrusions, with White House officials concerned about escalating tensions with Moscow and being accused of trying to boost Clinton’s campaign.

    In September, during a secret briefing for congressional leaders, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) voiced doubts about the veracity of the intelligence, according to officials present.

    […]

    The reluctance of the Obama White House to respond to the alleged Russian intrusions before Election Day upset Democrats on the Hill as well as members of the Clinton campaign.

    Within the administration, top officials from different agencies sparred over whether and how to respond. White House officials were concerned that covert retaliatory measures might risk an escalation in which Russia, with sophisticated cyber-capabilities, might have less to lose than the United States, with its vast and vulnerable digital infrastructure.

    The White House’s reluctance to take that risk left Washington weighing more-limited measures, including the “naming and shaming” approach of publicly blaming Moscow.

    By mid-September, White House officials had decided it was time to take that step, but they worried that doing so unilaterally and without bipartisan congressional backing just weeks before the election would make Obama vulnerable to charges that he was using intelligence for political purposes.

    Instead, officials devised a plan to seek bipartisan support from top lawmakers and set up a secret meeting with the Gang of 12 — a group that includes House and Senate leaders, as well as the chairmen and ranking members of both chambers’ committees on intelligence and homeland security.

    Obama dispatched Monaco, FBI Director James B. Comey and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to make the pitch for a “show of solidarity and bipartisan unity” against Russian interference in the election, according to a senior administration official.

    Specifically, the White House wanted congressional leaders to sign off on a bipartisan statement urging state and local officials to take federal help in protecting their voting-registration and balloting machines from Russian cyber-intrusions.

    Though U.S. intelligence agencies were skeptical that hackers would be able to manipulate the election results in a systematic way, the White House feared that Russia would attempt to do so, sowing doubt about the fundamental mechanisms of democracy and potentially forcing a more dangerous confrontation between Washington and Moscow.

    [Putin denies that Russia hacked the DNC but says it was for the public good]

    In a secure room in the Capitol used for briefings involving classified information, administration officials broadly laid out the evidence U.S. spy agencies had collected, showing Russia’s role in cyber-intrusions in at least two states and in hacking the emails of the Democratic organizations and individuals.

    And they made a case for a united, bipartisan front in response to what one official described as “the threat posed by unprecedented meddling by a foreign power in our election process.”

    The Democratic leaders in the room unanimously agreed on the need to take the threat seriously. Republicans, however, were divided, with at least two GOP lawmakers reluctant to accede to the White House requests.

    According to several officials, McConnell raised doubts about the underlying intelligence and made clear to the administration that he would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics.

    Some of the Republicans in the briefing also seemed opposed to the idea of going public with such explosive allegations in the final stages of an election, a move that they argued would only rattle public confidence and play into Moscow’s hands.

    McConnell’s office did not respond to a request for comment. After the election, Trump chose McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, as his nominee for transportation secretary.

    Some Clinton supporters saw the White House’s reluctance to act without bipartisan support as further evidence of an excessive caution in facing adversaries.

    “The lack of an administration response on the Russian hacking cannot be attributed to Congress,” said Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who was at the September meeting. “The administration has all the tools it needs to respond. They have the ability to impose sanctions. They have the ability to take clandestine means. The administration has decided not to utilize them in a way that would deter the Russians, and I think that’s a problem.”

    Country Party First!!11 is always McConnell’s MO.

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  148. 148.

    TS

    @Yarrow:

    Hey! Speaking of that, wasn’t the revised travel ban supposed to drop this week? Where’d that go?

    Keeps getting delayed – maybe it is just a ploy to slow down the court case against the current situation.

  149. 149.

    Yarrow

    @Jeffro: I know, I feel so unsafe without everyone being banned from entering the country!

    All joking aside, the revised order was supposed to be issued on Wednesday but they decided to delay it so as not to “step on Trump’s great speech.” They finally got good press and didn’t want to ruin it. Ha ha. So they said later in the week and I don’t think anything’s been issued, has it?

    Maybe they’ll issue the order to distract from the bad press on the Russian stuff.

  150. 150.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Yarrow:

    I think he’ll go through impeachment proceedings before he resigns.

    I think that if he’s Impeached, and convicted, he will have to be physically removed from the premises of the White House. He’ll keep screaming “unfair!” to the bitter end.

  151. 151.

    polyorchnid octopunch

    @Baud: That wasn’t wiretapping; that was an analysis of DNS requests at the root server level that got published by one of the people who work on them. Private actor, not the state.

  152. 152.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Looking around twitter and now turning AM Joy, I’m kind of surprised how relatively calm people are about this. “There he goes again, crazy grandpa’s on a twitter binge…” or “this just means we have to keep our eye on Russia”. Neither is wrong, but didn’t he just sort of guarantee we need a “9/11 commission” like commission? Hopefully not as weak and whitewash-y as that one.

    Since the 25th amendment solution is out of the question, though I bet Mattis, Kelly and maybe Tillerson, and the career VA guy would all be on board, and a couple of them have probably already discussed it.

  153. 153.

    hovercraft

    @Jeffro:

    I do believe this is ‘the’ week, folks…

    You know he is beyond pissed and frustrated, this was supposed to be his great triumph, his first address to congress, and he did it, he got great reviews from the media, they loved it, he was finally “Presidential”, and then it all went to shit, they refused to let him bask in his great success, they had to just keep asking questions about stuff. Who cares about what his people said and when they said it, they’re his people, leave them alone, look I’m presidential! Turns out distracting the media with shiny objects doesn’t work as well when you’re the only game in town, the 24 hour beast must be fed and they actually can do more than one thing at a time. Who knew.

  155. 155.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @hovercraft:

    Why are democrats so mean!! Twitler won, dammit he won, why can’t the democrats just let him govern!!

    They’re blocking and delaying confirmation of his appointments! Except the problem is, all his appointments that can be confirmed, have been confirmed. There’s no one left to confirm because Donald hasn’t put names forward for the empty positions.

  156. 156.

    Yarrow

    @Jeffro: I’m not sure about that. His fortune is already at stake and a smarter guy would have known that running for president and winning would open him up to all kinds of scrutiny. The smarter person with all the Russian ties would not have run.

    He wants to win. Resigning would be losing. I’m not sure his psyche will allow it.

  157. 157.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: have you seen Paul Ryan’s biceps? He’ll run in, drop the Ayn Rand Liberty Bill on Pence’s new desk for signature, and give trump the bum’s rush out the door into the back of a van driven by Kevin McCarthy.

  159. 159.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Jason Zengerle‏Verified account @ zengerle 49m49 minutes ago
    Jared Kushner should really look into hiring a Shabbos goy.

    So funny, sad and telling that no one even thinks that maybe Uday and Qusay could split this into two shifts.

  160. 160.

    Yarrow

    @Baud: I don’t think the little juicy tidbit about Pence’s use of AOL email for state business being released this week were an accident. There’s no way he’s clean of all this Russian stuff–he’s been in too many meetings with Trump and the rest of the gang. Someone is angling to make him questionable too. Could it be Ryan? But he’s just as culpable since he knew about the intel before the election.

    Who’s next in line after Ryan?

  163. 163.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    I love the fact that Trump is asking whether the president can wiretap someone.

    Hey, asshole, you are the president now. Either you should know or you can get somebody on the phone right away to tell you.

  164. 164.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Yarrow: Orrin Hatch, I think, as senior Senator, President Pro Tem? After him, SoS.

    Good Lord, President Tillerson.

  167. 167.

    hovercraft

    @Yarrow:

    Hey! Speaking of that, wasn’t the revised travel ban supposed to drop this week? Where’d that go?

    Where everything else he proposes goes to die, the real world. The revised ban has been coming every week since the 9th Circuit put the brakes on it. Wednesday they claimed that it was being pushed back because they didn’t want to step on all the glowing reviews of his speech, but if that was the case they could have rushed it out yesterday to step on the Sessions news. It’s not ready, and the DHS leaks about it’s efficacy are not helping.

  169. 169.

    WereBear

    @japa21: The problem is that his base doesn’t see the inconsistencies,. One minute it is that the leaks are dangerous because classified information is being released. The next it is that the leaks are all lies.

    The base long ago outsourced their brain. Fox News does the thinking for them and they love it!

  173. 173.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Good lord, the Exxon guy outranks the the Goldman Sachs guy, who outranks the four star Marine general (not that I really want president Mattis, but if this is the list….) and Betsy DeVos outranks Kelly. Where’s my Bailey’s?

    1 Vice President Mike Pence (R)
    2 Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan (R)
    3 President pro tempore of the Senate Orrin Hatch (R)
    4 Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (R)
    5 Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin (R)
    6 Secretary of Defense James Mattis (I)
    7 Attorney General Jeff Sessions (R)
    8 Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke (R)
    – Secretary of Agriculture Mike Young (D)[a]
    9 Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross (R)
    – Secretary of Labor Ed Hugler (I)[a]
    10 Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price (R)
    11 Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson (R)
    – Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao (R)[b]
    12 Secretary of Energy Rick Perry (R)
    13 Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos (R)
    14 Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin (I)
    15 Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly (I)

    ETA jumps in that list represent those cabinet members not yet confirmed, and the fact that Elaine Chao was born in Taiwan

  174. 174.

    hovercraft

    @JPL:
    He did, but he is allowed to declassify anything, he’s not supposed to do it willy nilly, but technically he can declassify anything. I know, a scary thought.

  175. 175.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: After President pro tempore of the Senate, yeah, Secretary of State, then Secretary of the Treasury, then Secretary of Defense. The rest of the cabinet, in the order created, down through Homeland Security.

    And Jim provided the entire list. Elaine Chao (Mrs. Yertle) is foreign born, therefore ineligible.

  176. 176.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @hovercraft: I’m also wondering if very quietly behind the scenes the Mouse might be roaring, along with the CEOs of Delta, AA, Hilton, Hyatt, Universal…

  182. 182.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Andrea Mitchell‏ @mitchellreports

    Senator Chris Coons says FBI has transcripts that could show Russian leaders colluding w/ Trump campaign

    170 replies 1,580 retweets 1,581 likes

    This is what Benedict Donald is responding to – he knows the jig is up.

  183. 183.

    Another Scott

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I has always thought Haig got a bum rap on that.

    Constitutionally, gentlemen, you have the President, the Vice President, and the Secretary of State in that order, and should the President decide he wants to transfer the helm to the Vice President, he will do so. He has not done that. As of now, I am in control here, in the White House, pending return of the Vice President and in close touch with him. If something came up, I would check with him, of course.

    He was clearly rattled about the shooting and was clearly talking about the executive branch. Since there was no issue with the VP, the Speaker and the PPT weren’t in the picture, and he was simply stating that until the VP returned he was the guy to talk to in the White House.

    But he shouldn’t have expressed it that way since there was no issue with Bush anyway.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  184. 184.

    hovercraft

    @Jeffro:
    He’s making too much money, he’s not going anywhere, he’ll be carried out in a box. The fact that it would be such a public humiliation forecloses on him ever leaving voluntarily, I don’t even think that if faced with a situation like Nixon, or worse criminal prosecution he would leave, unless his lawyers told him that he was going to jail. He believes he can bluff and brazen his way out of anything, everyone said he was going to lose to Hillary and they were wrong, he’ll stay till the bitter end. Sadly he may not be wrong, the Malheur morons were acquitted, he could be too, and then he would play up his martyrdom and his fans would eat it up.

  186. 186.

    Yarrow

    Trump’s people better be watching their backs.

    Unexpected deaths of six Russian diplomats in four months triggers conspiracy theories

    Several deaths have been described as ‘heart attacks’ or the result of a ‘brief illness’ by officials, in some cases despite evidence to the contrary

    Four of the six were in the Steele dossier on Trump’s Russian connections. Trump’s people are in dangerous territory. Russian doesn’t play around.

  187. 187.

    Olivia

    @amk: The ones that I know are ignoring everything. Fingers in ears, going about their daily business, screaming LALALALALALALA.

  188. 188.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Jared Yates Sexton‏ @JYSexton

    Say what you want about the impeachable scandals, and they’ll be proven, but this president lacks mental clarity to guide the country 10/10

    8 replies 60 retweets 149 likes

    tick tock…. tick tock…… tick tock…..

  189. 189.

    JPL

    @hovercraft: Just great! He either declassified info, or he’s just making up fake news.

    This morning when I awoke, I had a few emails linking to a New Yorker article which has my mayor, stating that we’re to bigoted to vote for a person with the last name of Ossoff. I thought the rest of the day, would be calmer.

  190. 190.

    hovercraft

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    telling that no one even thinks that maybe Uday and Qusay could split this into two shifts.

    Would you trust them to babysit your dogs? I thought not, you’d come home to a destroyed house with the front door open and no sign of your beloved pets. Bad idea.

  192. 192.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @hovercraft: Liquor cabinet emptied, too. Your Japanese pressing Beatles LPs scattered everywhere after being used as frisbees. A very bad idea.

  194. 194.

    hovercraft

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    No one on that list is comforting to me, they may not be insane, okay Carson and DeVos are “special”, but they are almost all evil and or dumb with the exception of the military guys, who by accepting the jobs are also suspect.

  195. 195.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    what I’m hearing is they didn’t tap Trump’s phone, rather they tapped his private email server that was communicating with Alpha Bank (a Putin front)

    Oh, how delicious, to be brought down by a private email server.

  196. 196.

    Yarrow

    Trump knows his illegal ties to Moscow will be exposed soon. Hence his panic. He will do anything to save himself. Even provoking civil war.— John Schindler (@20committee) March 4, 2017

    So Hill #GOP needs to ponder how much of Trump's dangerous crazy they can tolerate. Only they can stop him. If they don't, this is on them.— John Schindler (@20committee) March 4, 2017

    Yep. It’s gonna get ugly. Trump is not going to go quietly.

  198. 198.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    bigly good thread, retweeted by professional Republican (I think Cruz guy?) Rick Wilson

    Jared Yates Sexton‏Verified account
    @ JYSexton
    Trump’s tweets this morning have one thing in common: the president lacks critical reasoning in a frightening, frightening way 1/
    Trump, in midst of Russian scandal, should know not to point at something incriminating. It never occurs to him it’s an investigation 3/
    All signs point to him having done something wrong, but it’s obvious he doesn’t understand that he did. That’s…baffling. 4/
    Say what you want about the impeachable scandals, and they’ll be proven, but this president lacks mental clarity to guide the country 10/10

  199. 199.

    Gravenstone

    Rather late to the thread, but the end game (such as it is) is simply to discredit any and all information connecting Trump and company to Russia. Of course, Donnie doesn’t understand (or doesn’t want) the subtleties of the situation. If his phones actually were wiretapped, it would only have been under the auspices of a FISA warrant. Meaning DoJ managed to convince the FISA court that something was afoot and that more information was required. But to his mind, it’s just more fodder for his persecution complex.

    May it all lead to a proper prosecution and the fall of Twitler.

  200. 200.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @hovercraft:

    I like this very minimal metric – “do you trust him to dogsit?”

    Ivanka probably. Deadbeat Donnie, Uday and Qusay, no.

  201. 201.

    M31

    @Another Scott:

    Back when Reagan got shot I was a student at a school with a lot of central/south american students.

    Those students were all getting panicked phone calls from their parents — “The president has been shot and a general is on TV saying he’s in charge? It’s a coup! Stay inside!”

  203. 203.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @hovercraft: I probably wouldn’t vote for either for president, maybe not even for Congress, and I certainly don’t know enough about the military to know what to think about them as general officers, but I don’t think any of them– Mattis, Kelly or McMaster are under that crazy, stupid or evil heading, which almost all the rest are to one degree or another.

    ETA: and as for wiretaps… I really wanna hear the conversation at the Obamas’ breakfast table this morning

    ETA, A: I think today would be a good day for the “Miss me yet?” billboards to go up

  204. 204.

    Yarrow

    @Seth Owen: Orrin Hatch is the best bet, I think. Old enough to be a bit of an old school Republican. That’s saying a lot, given how crazy he used to be considered. Republicans have completely gone off the rails. But Hatch may have some sense of duty and service to the country, unlike the rest of those greedy traitors.

  205. 205.

    Brachiator

    I’m barely awake here in California, and Trump has already gone Full Queeg.

    Once again, there is a pattern here. Whenever Trump gives a restrained performance (which should always be ignored), he soon just has to throw off his restraints and unleash his inner Beast.

    We also see that he will be consumed by his fear and loathing of Obama until the end of time.

    Could we soon be looking at President Pence. Or could we attach Pence to the Russians as well, and have President Ryan emerge from the rubble?

    The idiot pundit shows will have a field day with this stuff. A few more Twitter messages and Trump’s address to Congress will almost be totally forgotten.

  207. 207.

    Tripod

    @Yarrow:

    Trump has been cut lose and the Russians are cleaning up lose ends.

    Donald J Trump has always been a bad bet, and he’s just about run out of marks.

  208. 208.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    All signs point to him having done something wrong, but it’s obvious he doesn’t understand that he did.

    Josh Marshal points out that Donald does not believe that anything he does can possibly be wrong.

    Donald needs to be made an example of.

  210. 210.

    Another Scott

    @Seth Owen: The “Gang of 12” in the September meeting about the Russia election interference was:

    “House and Senate leaders and members of both chambers’ committees on intelligence and homeland security.”

    McConnell, Ryan, etc., all six Republicans in that group (I can’t easily find the actual list at the moment) seem to me to be “suspect”. They knew what was going on, but they decided to ignore it and prevent Obama from presenting a united front against it.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  211. 211.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Brachiator: Could we soon be looking at President Pence. Or could we attach Pence to the Russians as well, and have President Ryan emerge from the rubble?

    (while acknowledging that this bloggy wool-gathering is at this moment [ETA] about as relevant to the real world as who would win a Gandalf-Dumbledore fight– which would of course be Dumbledore). I think the Trump succession is a poisoned chalice, and for that very reason the R’s, Paul Ryan first and foremost, would want the disposable Pence to run out the clock

  212. 212.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Gravenstone: There’s also the fact that various NATO ICs have been tapping Russian officials as well, and may have actually targeted Donald himself, for their own national security reasons.

    This shit has multiple source, not just NSA. Donald has no fucking idea how much trouble he’s in. Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Poles, Slovaks, Romanians, will not have the slightest hesitancy to go public with what they know if it comes down to that.

  213. 213.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Be still, my heart. I want him, his asshole sons and that piece of shit son in law to serve nice prison terms, their funding to collapse and the entire lot of them consigned to some shitty, third tier two bedroom Ocala condo by the time their prison terms are over.

  214. 214.

    hovercraft

    I just perused the front page of the WaPost web site, I think Chriss Cillizza is still smarting from the beating he took on twitter the other day.

    The FixAnalysis
    Trump is on the verge of being a conspiracy-theory president
    The latest tweets appear to trace back to a Breitbart piece suggesting a “silent coup” by the Obama administration.
    By Chris Cillizza 1 hour ago

    I didn’t click through, who has the time to waste when one could be cutting ones toe nails, but this strikes me as very different from his normal fawning over Twitler.

  215. 215.

    Another Scott

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’ve posted this story before: Mattis is deranged about Iran, IMHO.

    I don’t know the man, but that story is very, very worrying to me. And anyone who willingly takes a high-level policy position under Trump (rather than being an Obama appointee who sticks around) strikes me as someone who has some screws loose.

    YMMV.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  221. 221.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Another Scott: I’d read that story following a link of yours a while back and forgot about it, at least this early morning, and I agree, that is very troubling. I know there were people of that generation who never forgave Pearl Harbor– wouldn’t buy a Japanese car or radio– but I’m trying to imagine a high ranking military officer still bent on military revenge in 1976.

    and as much as I think they’re the best of a bad lot, McMaster and Kelly have not shown signs of being able to rein trump in, from the immigration EO– still a little surprised Kelly was willing to publicly eat shit– to “Radical. Islamic. Terrorism.”

  225. 225.

    hovercraft

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    Does the man not know that the government didn’t have to tap his phone to get the incriminating evidence? We monitor the phones of certain foregn people who we think are spies and or foreign operatives, this is basic stuff, I know he watches TV all the time, so surely he’s seen movies, 24 or The Russians, or FFS anything ever about crime or intelligence? I know I’m assuming a great deal here.

    ETA: Agree that the generals are probably not in the same league as the rest of the cabinet, but their presence in it makes them suspect to me, but if I had to choose, they would probably be preferable to the rest, now that batshit Flynn is gone.

    ETA: 11/9/2016 was the day Obama should have put those billboards up. That was the day America or rather 43 % of the voters lost their goddamn minds.

  227. 227.

    debit

    @hovercraft:

    Would you trust them to babysit your dogs? I thought not, you’d come home to a destroyed house with the front door open and no sign of your beloved pets.

    Except for a picture of Uday holding up one of their tails, blood still dripping from the stump.

  230. 230.

    RobNYNY1957

    @M31: I was living in Germany at the time, where that General, Alexander Haig, was noted for his untranslatable speaking style, and referred to as “der Hofnarr”: “the Court Fool.”

  231. 231.

    hovercraft

    @Brachiator:

    We also see that he will be consumed by his fear and loathing of Obama until the end of time.

    Obama refuses to be beaten by the shitgibbon, every time he thinks he’s “won” he gets compared to Obama and he loses, it’s just not fair, Obama has all the advantages, he’s young, good looking, the first black president, athletic, charismatic, well liked, well respected, competent, knows shit, it’s just not fair, all Twitler had/has is a rich father, a trust fund and his white privilege, just not fair.

  233. 233.

    Another Scott

    @hovercraft:

    Does the man not know that the government didn’t have to tap his phone to get the incriminating evidence? We monitor the phones of certain foregn people who we think are spies and or foreign operatives, this is basic stuff …

    Not just Donnie, of course, but lots and lots of people around him….

    The NSA’s explicit signals-intelligence mission (as I understand it) is to hoover up every bit of information that crosses the border or is outside the USA. Since foreign embassies within the boundary of the USA are legally foreign soil, of course everything in to and out of the Russian embassy is recorded. Similarly, everything that a known or suspected foreign agent does is monitored as well. Having such people in his own buildings invites extra scrutiny, especially as POTUS, even if there hadn’t been well know[n], overt, and blatant interference with the election.

    Donnie being Shocked, Shocked shows that either he’s an idiot who doesn’t understand the most basic things about intelligence and the FISC and all the rest, or he’s an idiot who thinks his misdirection will work on anyone except his minions. Ok, maybe both/and rather than either/or…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  236. 236.

    Kathleen

    @Another Scott: Given the craven, sycophantic mainslime media in this country, Obama was wise not to reveal anything. I think if media were more principled and focused on truth and facts he may have made a different decision. We could easily have a 300 Comment Thread here on what the media headlines, stories, and tweets would have been if President Obama had released information.

  238. 238.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @clay: I thought for sure I was starting a blog war, a fun one for a change.

    I read the LOTR series a long, long time ago. I should re-watch the movies.

  240. 240.

    raptusregailter

    @hovercraft:
    That reminds me of the great Scott Adams (Dilbert) line about why Star Trek’s transporter would never work in the real world: Because you have to trust your co-workers to operate it. And you have co-workers in your office right now that you don’t even allow to make coffee.

  242. 242.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @debit: Yup. In the case of GoT, you’ve got the author collaborating with the TV guys, and modifying the story in ways that remain fairly true to the source material, but diverge in various ways because of the nature of the different medium. For example, the entire Ramsay/Sansa storyline isn’t in the books, some other poor woman is subjected to Ramsay’s charms. The TV producers wanted to give Sophie Turner more to do and boy did she ever in the new storyline.

    LotR is in many ways quite divorced from the source material, with (obviously) no input from the author.

  243. 243.

    clay

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Hey, it takes two to war, buddy.

    I do like the films, and they did the best they could, but they don’t really capture the essence of Tolkien’s sense of magic, which is much less about casting flashy spells, and more about one’s ability to exert one’s will on the world around them (which isn’t very visual admittedly, which is why the filmmakers changed it).

    Rowling’s magic, by contrast, is akin to spamming the right button combo in a video game. I enjoy the Potter books, but they aren’t very deep.

  244. 244.

    Brachiator

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: RE: Could we soon be looking at President Pence. Or could we attach Pence to the Russians as well, and have President Ryan emerge from the rubble?

    (while acknowledging that this bloggy wool-gathering is at this moment [ETA] about as relevant to the real world as who would win a Gandalf-Dumbledore fight– which would of course be Dumbledore).

    I agree for the most part. But there is this. Nixon famously had his obsessions, but kept them relatively private, acting out in front of Kissinger and a few others, who kept Nixon’s secrets during his presidency. Trump is affronted by the smallest challenge, counter punches with bizarre allegations, and resists any attempt by his people to keep his reaction out of the public eye. Have we ever seen this before in an American president? Could a Trump outburst precipitate a constitutional crisis which the Republican leadership be unable to contain?

    I don’t think anyone could predict that a Trump meltdown is eminent. But, WTF Donald?

    And we are not even fully into the second month of the Trump Administration.

    I think the Trump succession is a poisoned chalice, and for that very reason the R’s, Paul Ryan first and foremost, would want the disposable Pence to run out the clock

    The Republicans have no shame. They will take a win no matter how they get it. The only person who would be sad if either Ryan or Pence got elevated to the presidency would be Mitt Romney, who yearned to be the “save us from Trump” alternative for the Republicans.

  245. 245.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @debit: too many I still need to read the first time, some embarrassing gaps on my personal reading list

    @clay: I enjoy the Potter books, but they aren’t very deep.

    Oh god no. I was semi-astonished to find myself reading them during a heatwave and its corresponding mild depression (I think I have summer SAD), but they were fun.

    I have an enviro fantasy where the Ents come to life and throw rocks at HumVees and coal-fired power plants.

  247. 247.

    Tehanu

    @efgoldman:

    Hey, Donnie dipshit, here’s a hint to get you started: Obama met dozens of times with dozens of ambassadors from all over the world. Dozens of times. It was their fucking job, you pig shit brained oaf.

    Don’t hold back, efg, tell us what you really think!

    But seriously… yes, it does make you wonder, doesn’t it, why he would think an ambassador meeting the President was evidence of some kind of malfeasance. Well, perhaps “think” is the wrong word. I doubt very much that anything resembling thinking goes on inside the giant orange sitting on his shoulders.

  248. 248.

    Tehanu

    @debit:

    Read the books again instead.

    Hear, hear! Not that there’s anything wrong with the Potter books; they’re just not as deep. Rowling, however, does have one thing in common with both Tolkien and Charles Dickens: the best naming ability in the language.

  250. 250.

    Buttermilk Sky

    Trump would bite the head off a live chicken on Fox & Friends to distract attention from Kremlingate.

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