Kudos to the Washington Post, which of course has been down these twisty little paths before:
Every time FBI Director James B. Comey appeared in public, an ever-watchful President Trump grew increasingly agitated that the topic was the one that he was most desperate to avoid: Russia.
Trump had long questioned Comey’s loyalty and judgment, and was infuriated by what he viewed as the director’s lack of action in recent weeks on leaks from within the federal government. By last weekend, he had made up his mind: Comey had to go.
At his golf course in Bedminster, N.J., Trump groused over Comey’s latest congressional testimony, which he thought was “strange,” and grew impatient with what he viewed as his sanctimony, according to White House officials. Comey, Trump figured, was using the Russia probe to become a martyr.
Back at work Monday morning in Washington, Trump told Vice President Pence and several senior aides — Reince Priebus, Stephen K. Bannon and Donald McGahn, among others — that he was ready to move on Comey. First, though, he wanted to talk with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, his trusted confidant, and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, to whom Comey reported directly. Trump summoned the two of them to the White House for a meeting, according to a person close to the White House.
The president already had decided to fire Comey, according to this person. But in the meeting, several White House officials said Trump gave Sessions and Rosenstein a directive: to explain in writing the case against Comey.
The pair quickly fulfilled the boss’s orders, and the next day Trump fired Comey — a breathtaking move that thrust a White House already accustomed to chaos into a new level of tumult, one that has legal as well as political consequences…
The known actions that led to Comey’s dismissal raise as many questions as answers. Why was Sessions involved in discussions about the fate of the man leading the FBI’s Russia investigation, after having recused himself from the probe because he had falsely denied under oath his own past communications with the Russian ambassador?
Why had Trump discussed the Russia probe with the FBI director three times, as he claimed in his letter dismissing Comey, which could have been a violation of Justice Department policies that ongoing investigations generally are not to be discussed with White House officials?And how much was the timing of Trump’s decision shaped by events spiraling out of his control — such as Monday’s testimony about Russian interference by former acting attorney general Sally Yates, or the fact that Comey last week requested more resources from the Justice Department to expand the FBI’s Russia probe?…
Dating to the campaign, several men personally close to Trump deeply distrusted Comey and helped feed the candidate-turned-president’s suspicions of the FBI director, who declined to recommend charges against Clinton for what they all agreed was a criminal offense, according to several people familiar with the dynamic.
The men influencing Trump include Roger J. Stone, a self-proclaimed dirty trickster and longtime Trump confidant who himself has been linked to the FBI’s Russia investigation; former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, a Comey critic who has been known to kibbitz about the ousted FBI director with like-minded law enforcement figures; and Keith Schiller, a former New York police officer who functioned as Trump’s chief bodyguard and works in the West Wing as director of Oval Office operations…
Well worth clicking over to read the whole thing; there’s video, graphics, surprise twists, ham-handed henchmen, and a capper with Sean Spicer trying to hide in the bushes.
Spicer on phone to WaPo: ?
"I was not IN the bushes!
I was AMONG the bushes!"
Editor: ?
Social media manager: ? pic.twitter.com/o8TJUsEPRy
— Prof Dynarski (@dynarski) May 11, 2017
Corner Stone
Every thing Trump touches turns to shit.
Ian G.
Maybe, as with the ever-expanding list of people who went to jail over Watergate, Guiliani will get caught up in this and end up behind bars too.
Of all the bullshit artists in the history of New York, none come close to Trump or Guiliani in terms of ego, treating friends and family as disposable items, and taking credit for accomplishments they has nothing to do with.
Corner Stone
Do we think Trump has actually convinced himself that the Russians really did not play any part in his getting elected?
Elizabelle
LOL. Another Scott just posted link to a 2015 profile on Trump by Mark Bowden (author, Black Hawk Down), Vanity Fair. Late Night Horrorshow thread.
Recalling a 1996 meeting with the Donald:
And now he’s president. Lucky us.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
Failed State.
Ridnik Chrome
Is that Washington Post update about Spicer real? I gotta say, he’s one of the more ridiculous public figures to come down the pike in a long, long time.
gvg
Re:spicer, I don’t get the difference in the bushes, among the bushes, what?
sherparick
That the morons among us elected a moron is made more evident every day. Atrios links to Trump’s interview in the Economist. If markets were rational, they would fall 20% this week after reading this shit.
http://www.eschatonblog.com/2017/05/also-i-just-invented-pizza.html
“…President Trump: That all goes into tax reduction. Tremendous savings.
But beyond that it’s OK if the tax plan increases the deficit?
It is OK, because it won’t increase it for long. You may have two years where you’ll…you understand the expression “prime the pump”?
Yes.We have to prime the pump.
It’s very Keynesian.
We’re the highest-taxed nation in the world. Have you heard that expression before, for this particular type of an event?
Priming the pump?
Yeah, have you heard it?
Yes.
Have you heard that expression used before? Because I haven’t heard it. I mean, I just…I came up with it a couple of days ago and I thought it was good. It’s what you have to do….”
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: If you think about the clown parade fielded by the GOP in 2012 and 2008, T’s ascent is not surprising. The right wing has nurtured the crazy since at least Bill Clinton’s presidency. This is the party of Bachmann, Steve King and Louis Gohmert.
randy khan
@Ridnik Chrome:
The SNL writers already are incorporating “among the bushes” into their Spicer sketch for this weekend. (McCarthy’s guest hosting, so you know for sure that they’ll do a Spicer bit.)
randy khan
@gvg:
I guess Spicer meant that he and the staff were on the ground between the bushes, not actually within the branches of individual bushes. Or something. Or he’s gone mad.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Probably.
ETA: there are rumors that Trump is already sounding people out about getting rid of Spicy. It’s kind of scary that it’s entirely plausible that a viral SNL sketch could be the end of the man’s job. Not that he deserves better, but we do.
Corner Stone
The article names Sessions and Roger Stone as his trusted confidants. That all by itself should be enough to kick off articles of impeachment.
Ridnik Chrome
@gvg: “In the bushes” sounds sneaky and possibly perverted. But “among the bushes” sounds bucolic, almost pastoral. As White House press secretary, Spicer is attuned to such things…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
for once, I’m glad about the slow pace of American politics. If there had been only two weeks between rounds, as in France, this story wouldn’t have been out there. Now it’s gonna fester for weeks, and probably there will be footage of hearings for Ossoff to use against her.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: Yes it is.
And the Broder faction look at it and see — Ike. Elliott Richardson. The ghosts of sensible Republicans past.
sdhays
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
So I guess he’s taking a more deliberative approach than the one he took when firing the Director of the FBI…
amk
Another divert the tax-payers’ munny to his cronies grift. The trmpunzees must be giddy with all that swamp draining.
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Serious question: who is going to want Spicer’s job?
That Huckabee lying ass daughter? Kellyanne (and she’s not hireable, because even Trump has to realize her credibility is shot). Who wants to go out there and lie for Donald Trump, who will never have his spokescritter’s back?
Corner Stone
@sherparick: Because I haven’t heard it. I mean, I just…I came up with it a couple of days ago and I thought it was good.
Aleta
@Elizabelle: Jesus. Also from your and Another Scott’s link:
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Oh dear god keep Wilmer away from that race. I want to see Handel the Handmaiden go down hard.
Josie
@Ridnik Chrome: Ever since I heard about Spicer in the bushes, I’ve been reminded of this.
Elizabelle
@sherparick: Next we’re going to be hearing he developed Keynesian economics.
Beatrice G Blacklow
@Corner Stone: Of course the Russians didn’t help. His greatness needs no assistance. I am quite sure that is what he firmly believes.
sdhays
@Elizabelle:
What makes you think credibility is something Donald Trump values, or even has a concept of?
Boatboy_srq
@Elizabelle: The GOTea wants a nasty pResident. They miss Tricky Dick and are beginning to think that everyone after him failed because s/he was a wuss.
This certainly explains McCain’s and McConnell’s consistent good luck at the polls.
Sad that one party thinks they need a ratb#st#rd in office.
Boatboy_srq
@randy khan: Puts Between Two Ferns in a whole new light….
clay
@sherparick:
*facepalm*
Once again, Josh Marshall’s observation is borne out. Trump is so ignorant about what he’s ignorant of, that he doesn’t even know he stupid he sounds. To be so impressed by the phrase “prime the pump” that he’s showing it off like a participation trophy (multiple times!)… and to think that the editor of an economics magazine wouldn’t have heard of it… and to then try and say he invented it a couple of days ago…
I… I’m just speechless…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Boatboy_srq: Yeah, unfortunately trump isn’t the only one who confuses all the bluster and photo-ops, like the hammy, mugging EO signing ceremonies– as action.
clay
@amk: I guess they’ll go after the Trump boys, who’ve openly stated that he has Russian business ties…
rikyrah
the visual of Spicer hiding in the bushes MUST become an SNL skit.
clay
@Corner Stone: I would not underestimate Trump’s ability to convince himself of anything.
The Dangerman
@randy khan:
Someplace Zach Galifianakis and the Between Two Ferns crew are losing their shit.
ETA: 28 beat me.
NeenerNeener
There’s a picture on Twitter of Spicey in his Easter Bunny costume standing behind Dubya and Laura…..and lots of jokes about him hiding behind “the bushes”.
Aleta
@Josie: oh good one.
Aleta
@randy khan: As impeachment get closer, it’d be fun to see Dan Ackroid do a Trump.
Wyatt Derp
LOL. So Chump was worried about Comey looking like a martyr and decided to fire him. Not…surprised…at…all.
Zach
Two really important facts are lost in 99.9% of the coverage I’ve seen:
1) The Rosenstein memo is misinterpreted. The MAIN complaint about Comey was that he let Clinton off the hook. That Comey torpedoed the Clinton campaign was a minor secondary point. Everyone is reporting it as “Trump says Comey fired because unfair to Clinton” when in reality it should be “Trump says Comey fired because Clinton isn’t in jail.”
2) Trump’s “Comey said I’m innocent 3 times!” thing isn’t just some weird non-sequitur. It’s purpose is to insulate Trump from obstruction of justice charges. A future Trump will claim he was under the impression that (a) he wasn’t party to Russia investigation and (b) he was unaware of any shady Russian business issues. It’s a precursor to a plausible deniability defense.
It’s telling that someone in the Trump/Priebus/McGahn/Bannon/Sessions/Goldenstein circle is apparently leaking to WaPo (there’s a reason the article lists who was at the meeting)… one of them is smart enough to know Trump will try to hang obstruction of justice charges on them and claim personal ignorance.
geg6
@randy khan:
She has to be just busting a gut at this point. They don’t have to write anything, just with what really happened. Like Tina Fey did that one time, using Princess Snowbilly’s own words.
The Dangerman
@Beatrice G Blacklow:
Ditto.
Ian G.
@Josie:
Wasn’t Michele Bachmann caught hiding in the bushes, “spying” on some gay rights rally or something? I always assumed she was trying to catch Marcus with his lover.
TS
@sherparick: Not a usual thing to quote Tapper but
Priming the Pump
@jaketapper
Jake Tapper Retweeted Carrie Dann
Nichols, Egbert Ray, ed. “Pump Priming Theory of Government Spending.” Published in 1939.
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: Not to be a mean girl but she looks like she wandered off the set of Honey Boo Boo.
Confession: I have never seen Honey Boo Boo, so this is an educated guess.
ETA: To think that there was a time when Rs used to attract women like Sally Yates.
Wyatt Derp
@NeenerNeener: you mean “among” the bushes. This is a key distinction apparently.
Betty Cracker
@Beatrice G Blacklow: Sounds about right to me. Trump sees everything through the lens of his untreated narcissistic personality disorder. Everything good comes from him (even catchy new phrases like “prime the pump”), and everything bad is someone else’s fault.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
What astounds me is the loyalty Princess Manbaby’s fans still show. I really can’t understand it, and I’m trying to understand it. I think that the one thing Manbaby said last year about shooting somebody and not losing his voters was the only thing he said in his life that was true. He could tear off a baby’s head and swallow it whole and they’d tell us why it shows bold leadership.
And speaking of leadership, I saw yesterday that they rolled out the misfiring robot they’ve put in place of the vice president. He spoke for about five minutes, and in that time said “strong and decisive leadership” about 78 times and “the right decision at the right time” roughly 37 times. And to think that Pence is most likely the smart on in this administration…
Josie
@Ian G.: You’re right. I had forgotten about that. Seems to be a Republican predilection.
Betty Cracker
@Ian G.: She was indeed! Maybe she can be the new press secretary. Lots of tape of her credulously repeating outrageous lies, plus she’s already got experience hiding “among” the bushes.
Shalimar
@Corner Stone: A narcissist is perfectly capable of convincing himself that the Russians had nothing to do with his election, right before a meeting with his Russian handler. There is no logic at work in their brain, just rationalization.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): White straight male culture.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: Is it possible to be a mean girl when talking about Kellyanne Conway?
I would say: professional courtesy.
Elizabelle
@Ian G.:
@Betty Cracker: Oh Lord. Interesting point. How is Michelle Bachmann not a part of the Trump administration already. Perchance she was just overlooked?
Or it’s the “having better hair and grooming” part?
hovercraft
@Corner Stone:
Well he is shit, ergo he contaminates things wherever he goes. He’s like Pigpen with his cloud of dirt.
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: I was talking about Huckabee’s daughter. Kelly Con looks like the daughter of a Swedish person and a broom.
Ridnik Chrome
@sherparick: One of my duties at work involves looking things up in old editions of New York newspapers, and in the course of doing that I will often see stories about Trump from the Eighties and Nineties (the Daily News in particular covered him regularly) and think to myself, how in the world did we end up with this guy as president? I keep trying to think of a way to express to younger people how utterly mortifying it is to us older folks, having observed Trump’s career over decades, to see him occupying the highest office in the land. The closest I can come up with is, imagine if twenty years from now Justin Bieber (or possibly one of the Kardashians) got himself elected president?
Thoroughly Pizzled
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Trump is so, so, so bad that turning on him after voting for him would destroy one’s entire self-image. Better to ride this missile all the way down.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@Elizabelle: She helped Steve King from Iowa push the Yes vote button on the AHCA, so she’s around.
Betty Cracker
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): I suspect they’re mostly too embarrassed to admit they were conned. Isn’t that a fairly common phenomenon with Ponzi schemes, etc., that victims will vociferously defend the integrity of the enterprise and its architects until they suffer personal harm to a degree that is undeniable? Admitting you’ve been conned is painful because it’s an admission of your own bad judgment. Nobody likes to admit being a sucker.
Elizabelle
@Aleta: A man of action. Is our Trump.
Now I’d like to go find the 1996 Playboy profile. The Vanity Fair piece was dead on. But did it really end that abruptly, with Norma F. describing Trump as “livid?” Seemed there would be more …
Gin & Tonic
@Corner Stone: I’ll bet real cash money that the moron hasn’t the slightest idea how a pump works, or what “priming” means in that context.
JMG
Besides the racism, which was factors number 1 through 112, the real Trump fans thought, “hey, here’s a guy who understands politics the way I do.” They can’t repudiate their own stupidity. He’s them.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: Oh yeah. There is no hope for that Huckabee woman. Spiritually or otherwise. What a fail parade.
Have seen her on TV. Horrible woman. Laser guided intensity, shrill strength lying.
Ian G.
@Ridnik Chrome: Don’t insult the Kardashians by comparing them to Trump.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’ve never seen Honey Boo Boo either, but she’s the sister of the dog-burner and the meathead who tried to board a plane with a loaded pistol shortly after the 9/11 attacks. That she’s the cream of the crop is like saying that Ivanka is smarter than her brothers
bupalos
@Corner Stone:
Personally I think we’re just constantly half-forgetting that this guy almost certainly has a towering, raging mental issue around narcissism. It’s such a pat and apt everyday-insult that it’s hard to keep the idea that it really is an honest to god DSM diagnosis and serious disease in mind. But I think we need to really try. After marinading in the Comey firing for a bit, I think the heart of the explanation is really simple. Not that there isn’t anything to the Russian connections, I’m sure there is. Not that there aren’t elements of evil strategery involved, I’m sure of that too. But I think these things are almost peripheral. Comey failed to minister to Trump’s disease by very publicly entertaining the possibility that his empty letter is the reason Donald J. Trump is president, rather than Donald J. Trump’s inherent greatness and the inexorable march of history towards the realization of his godhood.
Likewise, I don’t think it’s impossible that Comey denigrating Hillary Clinton does also now upset trump. Hillary now needs to be an incredible, shrewd politician and almost unbeatable enemy that Trump somehow managed to defeat.
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: I have only seen photos, one where she is wearing a blouse with a gaudy cheap looking rhinestones on the collar.
Shalimar
@amk: “Go after” anyone who suggests he has Russian ties?
“Oh no, please don’t throw me in that briar patch with all the financial information you refuse to release to the public.”
Just One More Canuck
@sherparick: OMFG – this is someone who supposedly has an economics degree?
GregB
Dear God.
This is madness. Two minutes reading the usual morning blogs and I am astounded.
*Regime shocked at Russian photography in oval office.
*Dear Leader claims he invented priming the pump as an economic concept.
*DL demanding DOD retrofit aircraft carriers with steam catapults.
This madness cannot be sustained.
Mike in DC
Dementia vs corruption. A race between Article 2, Section 4 and Amendment 25, section 4.
liberal
One thing I hate about this motherfucker is that it’s impossible to get any work done with this constant fucking freak show.
Elizabelle
OK. Here’s the 1997 Trump profile by Mark Bowden, which Playboy republished in 2016.
The Art of the Donald
rikyrah
Today is Eat What You Want Day :)
liberal
@Just One More Canuck: I thought it was a business degree.
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: But Ivanka is smarter than her brothers.
Still, I take your point.
Gin & Tonic
@Just One More Canuck: No, he does not have an economics degree. He has a bachelor’s degree in business, apparently earned without making a lasting positive impression on anyone at the school.
Ridnik Chrome
@Ian G.: I’m not a TV watcher, so I actually know very little about the Kardashians, beyond the fact that they’re rich airheads.
liberal
@Shalimar: IMHO the Comey stuff was a lot more damaging than the Russian stuff. Assuming the Russkies didn’t hack the election itself (which is a pretty good assumption, but you never know).
Gin & Tonic
@rikyrah: That’s every day, for me.
Kay
This is kinda nice. The UAW retirees here are holding a lunch to feed town hall protesters/attendees after a town hall next Wednesday. I’m sorta surprised it’s that union. They’re usually not active at all, locally.
The town hall is 11 to 1. I can’t go that whole time but I think I can go 12 to 1. Feeding people after is a good idea. Gives them a chance to socialize.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Elizabelle: comforts are small in these times, but I do chuckle when I think of Uday and Qusay around a campfire after they passed a bottle of Jack back and forth for a couple of hours, and the inevitable tears come as they try to figure out why Daddy likes fucking Jared! better than he likes them. And their guide, a crusty old codger played by Sam Elliott, idly wonders if anybody would really mind if he didn’t bring them back….
Jim Parish
This is something that gets me.
Comey, Trump figured, was using the Russia probe to become a martyr.
and so, by firing him, DJT made him one.
amk
@Mike in DC: Yup. The chips have to fall one way or another soon. This inept kkklowns show cannot survive 4 years.
bupalos
@Betty Cracker: @JMG: I think there’s a psychic interface between Trump’s personal narcissism disorder and the skewed and generalized narcissism of ethnic supremacy. That won’t go away ever, I don’t think.
Kay
Here’s today’s Trump person who was supposed to be normal, but isn’t :)
He’s bad at hiring. Also firing. Those two things.
amk
YOU ARE FIRED.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@Kay: Yeah, I saw that this morning and was unimpressed. When one of these shitstains does indeed step down over something Princess Manbaby does, then it’ll mean something. Until then, they’re all empty, soulless sharts in suits.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: What is he good at? Besides throwing tantrums and calling people names.
Kay
I saw Tillerson was smirking over the Russian’s joke about Comey.
Tillerson was (reportedly) normal. Nope. Not that one, either. Another weirdo.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@amk: And another one who’s so, so sad over all this but lacks the backbone or ethics to give up her job over it. Sooner or later, one of these zeroes is going to really resign over something Trump does, and, sad to say, that’s going to be seen as a bold thing. Lordy help us…
hovercraft
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
These are mean petty people, I think for many of them, he is who they wish they could be. We all sometimes wish we were in a position where we could really just let loose and tell some people where to go, but we don’t. The Manbaby gets to tell any one who fucks with him, whether real or imagined where to go, they wish they could too, he’s their idol, telling all those black and brown people that he’s here to take the country back and there’s nothing they can do to stop him. The feeling that he can do whatever he wants and no one can stop him is a giddy feeling for them, the media can bitch all they want, the democrats and liberals can bitch and march all they want to, but they can’t stop him, this is pure real unadulterated power, and they are loving it. This is how a real man governs, it’s better than fondling a gun, or Rolling Coal, this is the ultimate high for them, screwing over your enemies with impunity. He is their God, he is right, he cannot fail, only be failed.
Kay
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
I love the grasping at hope when they hire a new one :)
“This one is ….qualified! At least!”
Then the inevitable crushing disappointment when the newest hire is ALSO horrible.
*Munchin appears to be another pathological liar. Just giving you a head’s up.
amk
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): I don’t see why she should fall on her sword for the fuckstick’s sake. Let the punk fire her.
Elizabelle
Serious question: how many here think we will still have President Trump a year from now?
I have thought, since about the inauguration, that we will not. He is even less suited to the job than one’s low expectations led one to hope, and he’s a dumpster fire of lies and corruption and bad hires.
I don’t see that his base of hardcore white supremacists and grifters is enough to weather what is likely coming his way. He’s made enemies of the Intelligence Community and FBI. Americans don’t want Trumpcare, and saw all those white congresscritters yukking it up about voting to take away Obamacare. Beer party.
Do you think he will last a full year? Or even another year from now?
Just One More Canuck
@liberal: @Gin & Tonic: Per eduinreview.com
“After high school, Trump attended Fordham University for two years. He then transferred to the Wharton Business School, where he graduated in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a concentration in finance.”
Not necessarily definitive, but this is where I got it from
bupalos
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The idea that Uday and Qusay actually want or need the approval of their father (and I use the term loosely) never occurred to me. And I have a feeling that’s because it’s 180 degrees wrong. I think they actually know their dad as a distant and vaguely malevolent force and don’t love or even like him. The entire Trump clan talks about each other in business terms, I think that’s genuine. That shock jock once had the whole family* (minus the parts that are deliberately subtracted) on and had them discuss what the kids have to do to stay in the will, and it was pretty chilling.
tobie
@Zach: I’m not a lawyer so it’s hard for me to judge the full import of Rosenstein’s memo and what strategy he or others may be devising. But I did wonder to what degree Trump’s fury at Comey was not only about the Russia investigation but about his failure to recommend prosecution of HRC. Who knows, maybe he asked Comey to launch a new investigation into HRC when he was elected and Comey said no. Was Rosenstein asked to write a memo about Comey’s dereliction of duty on that score? This is pure speculation but it would fit with your interpretation of Rosenstein’s memo.
Ian G.
@Ridnik Chrome:
My wife watched the show, so I got an impression of them by osmosis. I actually think they’re not airheads at all, but shrewd marketers who’ve created a very lucrative brand around themselves. And they’ve sustained it unlike a lot of other reality TV types (remember Paris Hilton?).
That doesn’t mean that Kim should be considered presidential material, but she’s light years ahead of the train wreck currently occupying the White House.
Mayur
@Ridnik Chrome: they are, but they know how to behave themselves in public and they’re not pumped full of haterade, which right there puts them miles above Orange Juche.
Gin & Tonic
@Just One More Canuck: Well, I guess I was wrong. Thanks for the correction.
hovercraft
@Elizabelle:
So while they are eating the paste and flinging their shit at the walls, she merely sitting at the table talking to the voices in her head. Yes then I guess she’s the cream of the rancid crop.
bupalos
@hovercraft:
re-submitted without comment.
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
……………………
President Trump expected to launch commission on ‘election integrity’
By KATHERINE FAULDERS ALEXANDER MALLIN
May 11, 2017, 6:10 AM ET
President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order today establishing a commission to review alleged voter fraud and voter suppression in the American election system, multiple senior administration officials tell ABC News.
The officials say Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach will be announced as Chair and Vice Chair of the ‘Presidential Commission on Election Integrity’ in a press release today. It’s not clear whether the White House will allow coverage of the order signing.
The commission, which will include Republicans and Democrats, will be tasked with studying “vulnerabilities” in U.S. voting systems and potential effects on “improper voting, fraudulent voter registrations and fraudulent voting,” according to one official with knowledge of the announcement.
In the aftermath of the 2016 election, Trump claimed widespread voter fraud explained why former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton emerged with nearly 3 million more popular votes. To date, neither Trump nor his team has provided evidence to substantiate the claims, but they have promised an investigation.
“You can never really find, you know, there are going to be — no matter what numbers we come up with there are going to be lots of people that did things that we’re not going to find out about,” Trump told ABC News’ David Muir in January. “But we will find out because we need a better system where that can’t happen.”
Administration officials would not provide a draft copy of the order but described its scope to ABC News. The commission’s review is expected be broad in scope, and will not just address Trump’s allegations about the 2016 election but also “systemic issues that have been raised over many years in terms of the integrity of the elections,” one official said.
Membership of the commission is still taking shape even as Trump is poised to sign the order creating it. Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson (R), New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner (D), Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap (D), Christie McCormick, commissioner of the election assistance commission, and former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell (R), are among the names under consideration, the administration officials said.
The Thin Black Duke
@Ridnik Chrome: Thing is, that’s not fair to Mr. Bieber. I don’t care for his music but he is talented. Bieber earned his success; Trump didn’t. (And yeah, it hurt to type this.)
Spanky
CNN top story headline:
Nice.
Then down the right hand side:
I’m so old that I remember when CNN was mostly pro-Trump. The tide has turned and is rushing out.
So, @Elizabelle: , to answer your question … no.
Ian G.
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Well, now you know how otherwise normal people ended up killing their neighbors by the tens of thousands at Auschwitz, Srebrenica, Rwanda. Delusional beliefs and personality cults are dangerous things.
As I’ve said earlier, it’s very good that most of Trump’s hardcore disciples are old. Such people likely wouldn’t last long in street battles. And his younger supporters are tough when hiding behind frog avatars, but in real life are the most pathetic snowflakes on the planet. I’m convinced every “alt-right” activist is doing it for revenge on the girls who laughed at their date requests and the jocks who stuffed them into a gym locker.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
saw a blip about her on the internet last night, can’t remember why I clicked on it, but she makes a million dollars a night dj-ing in places like Ibiza. I know that DJ’ing is a thing, but I can’t even fathom how she draws a crowd worth a million dollars a night. $1,000 bottles of vodka and $2,000 bottles of champagne sold to Euro-trash and the kids of the guys who fund ISIS to turn back infidel decadence?
Gelfling 545
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It would be a kindness to be kicked put pf that soul (if any) destroying job.
schrodingers_cat
@Ridnik Chrome: Isn’t Bieber, Canadian?
the Conster, la Citoyenne
This is all insanity.
Gelfling 545
@Gelfling 545: apparently I dotted have permission to edit. OUT OF, not put pf.
Bruce K
@Elizabelle: I personally don’t think he can make it four years without self-destructing, but then again, a year ago, I was utterly convinced he’d self-destruct before Election Day. If we get a wave election in 2018 (knock on wood), we’ll probably see a real investigation with teeth in 2019, which stands a real chance of driving the cheeto past the point of no return before the 2020 elections. Before then? Depends on if-and-when the GOP re-categorizes Trump as enough of a net liability to warrant either impeachment or Amendment 25:4. And given that the prime movers would have to be Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, on the one hand, and the corrupt gang of sycophants populating the West Wing, on the other hand, I’m not exactly confident…
rikyrah
ICYMI:
Betsy DeVos was invited to speak at Bethune-Cookman, an HBCU. Needless to say, many folks were deeply offended.
Luvvie’s take on what happened yesterday:
Dear Bethune-Cookman 2017 grads, thank you for telling Betsy DeVos ‘ nah”
http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2017/05/bethune-cookman-2017-grads-betsy-devos.html
bupalos
@randy khan: Oh my god, I just realized this is probably going to be a M.McCarthy/C.Strong (as Huckabee-lady) sketch. Mother of god!
Thoroughly Pizzled
@Elizabelle:
He’s too spiteful to quit and the Republicans are too worthless to remove him. Maybe if health problems force his hand.
tobie
@liberal: @rikyrah:
I never expected I would be part of the tin-foil-hat contingent but I guess I am. My bet is we’ll never know what exactly went down on election night. Whatever gains were made in early voting were wiped out. Maybe people who voted for Trump were too embarrassed to say so to pollsters.
In the meantime, as rikyrah points out, voter suppression efforts will pick up pace and we need to do everything we can to protect the franchise.
rikyrah
Feinstein says she’s read Rosenstein’s memo 3 times.
“With each read I’ve become more troubled by the contents of this unusual document.” pic.twitter.com/HuETaTlstj
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 11, 2017
NYT Ed. Board writes an open letter to Deputy AG Rosenstein: “You have one choice: Appoint a special counsel…” https://t.co/F8QN0njfaB pic.twitter.com/9dHHvsbWNN
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 11, 2017
Kay
@rikyrah:
Any Democratic Sec of State who sits on that commission is crazy. It’s a voter suppression planning meeting. They’ll completely discredit themselves if they go anywhere near it.
I’m sure Team Trump are lying again and “under consideration” doesn’t mean anything, but boy, I hope no Democrat validates this “voter fraud” bullshit they’ve been flogging for 20 years. Don’t do it.
rikyrah
Trump creating voter fraud commission today with Kris Kobach as vice chair. Will lead to massive voter suppression https://t.co/RneLso5ANS
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) May 11, 2017
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: I honestly don’t know. I’m convinced his mind is diseased, and he seems to be decompensating. Unsurprisingly, the lackeys who were able to channel his impulses sufficiently to allow him to serve as figurehead of a licensing scheme and various fraudulent enterprises in the private sector don’t seem up to the task of containing the worst of his excesses in the most high-profile job of them all. So that points to a fairly rapid descent.
But OTOH, there’s so much incentive for the entire GOP establishment to keep him afloat by whatever means, so they are and will continue to do their damnedest to normalize this shitshow. It’s a race between his pathologies and their venality.
Just One More Canuck
@Gin & Tonic: even if it was a business degree, he should have had enough economics to have heard the expression and have remembered it (even if he was half asleep through his classes), or someone around him should have caught it – it’s hardly a new or unknown concept. My economics textbook published in 1979 has a very detailed discussion of the concept and its history (been around since at least FDR). He may be the most absurd example of affirmative action for the rich in history
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@rikyrah: @Kay: I don’t know what he can do, but I hope Jason Kander and his people are gaming out a strategy to challenge that Kangaroo commission at every turn. I’ll give what I can.
bupalos
@rikyrah: Has anyone walked through and called out the various angles they’re working with this HBCU thing, which I feel like includes more than a passing nod to “separate but equal?” I’m completely gobsmacked by it, and that’s with a gob that now feels almost completely numb from all the previous smacking.
Another Scott
I find it weird that so many reporters and pundits are mystified about Donnie firing Comey now, trying to tie his thinking to the Hillary investigation, saying that he praised Comey for the way he investigated HRC but now is using it as a pretext, and all the rest. Is it really such a mystery?
Of course not.
He says in the memo why he fired him:
“While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, …”
How much clearer does it need to be?
Comey was fired because he wouldn’t end the Russia investigation(s).
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I don’t know anything about the district (Cole?) but I have a hunch that military background will be a big factor. If Ossoff were a vet, he’d probably be ahead in the polls
Thoroughly Pizzled
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’d like to know more about what they’re doing. Are they challenging voter ID laws in court? Are they paying for people to get IDs in the meantime? Getting people valid IDs is a decent idea anyway. I’d like to see somebody put money toward it.
magurakurin
@hovercraft:
“Outstanding Red Team. Outstanding. Get you a case a beer for that”
Kay
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
they have to stop giving these people the benefit of the doubt. This is his work. He did this. Unless someone was holding a gun to his head he produced this garbage and he was central to the whole thing. “27 year career” or not.
He isn’t be the first Trump has smeared with shit and he won’t be the last. This is a pattern. They join Team Trump and any ethical or professional grounding goes out the window.
Ridnik Chrome
@The Thin Black Duke: I know. I was thinking of saying Sarah Palin instead of Bieber, but even she has more experience at running a government than Trump did.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Thoroughly Pizzled: I haven’t looked them up in a while, but like you, I want to see more details before I can give. Soros, I am not.
hovercraft
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
Karen Finney, who was one of Hillary’s spokespeople during the campaign, has been on TV the last two days pointing out that many of the quotes and rationales in the memo, are in a briefing book that the Hillary campaign complied and distributed to the press last year to rebut and discredit Comey’s handling of the situation. That was back in the late summer of last year. Ari Melbur has also been out there pointing out that the letter should have been filled with citations of precedents, and real research and interviews with justice and FBI personnel showing that morale and confidence was down, rather than this collection of news clips.
SiubhanDuinne
@sherparick:
I clicked through and read the entire Economist transcript.
Possibly one of the most disjointed, surreal things I’ve ever read — and I have read a lot of Trump interview transcripts over the past year or two.
Cracking up that he thinks he, personally, invented the phrase and the concept of “priming the pump.” I mean, that’s so familiar it’s a fucking cliché. (He did give us a new word — “reciprocality” — despite the fact that we already have the perfectly serviceable “reciprocity.”)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@SiubhanDuinne: there’s a Time piece on trump after hours, I can’t bring myself to read it, but of course people are tweeting excerpts that highlight the childishness and pettiness of our Toddler Emperor– he gets more dessert than others at the table, brags about his redecorating, had a 60-inch flat screen installed in the President’s dining room. And has apparently switched to Diet Coke, so that New Yorker cover and all the twitter pics of his plumpness got to him.
Ridnik Chrome
@schrodingers_cat: Yeah, he is. But I figure if that didn’t stop Ted Cruz, why should it stop Bieber?
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s bullshit. They make shit up about voter fraud and then they have to placate the base- or admit they made shit up.
They’ll make “recommendations” and crank out some fake EO or pronouncement. No one will be bound by any of it.
What Sessions will do is NOT enforce federal law on voting rights and pressure US Attorneys to bring charges on phony voter fraud charges. Donate to the defense.
Sessions actually LOST his big voter fraud case back in the day. He’ll be bad at it.
tobie
@Kay: His name is on the memo. He owns it. I’m not sure what else there is to say.
bupalos
@Another Scott: I really don’t think that follows at all. That’s more like a “people are going to say I did it because of the investigation, so I’ll cut that right off at the pass.” It is evidence that he knew he’d be attacked for it, not why he did it. Personally I think it’s a mix of factors, and I think the prime one is that Comey lent credence to those calling into question the legitimacy of the Greatest of All Political Wins™ by History’s Greatest Man™
Kay Eye
@Zach: Yes, the Rosenstein memo poses a new danger to Hillary. They want to go after her in order to distract from their own unethical, immoral, and illegal behaviors. Why this was almost universally misinterpreted is beyond me.
rikyrah
@Kay:
tell that truth, Kay. I was hoping you would see this story.
SiubhanDuinne
deleted bc rikyrah and kay got there first
rikyrah
Man angrily tells MacArthur: “You have been the single greatest threat to my family.” Says GOP bill was dead until MacArthur resurrected it. pic.twitter.com/U1O8vTwVBx
— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) May 11, 2017
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: So same as the H1-B EO. T is treating the Presidency like a fucking reality show.
The Moar You Know
@Elizabelle: All four. No brainer.
And he may get another four if we can’t get our shit together. He wants to. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t make it through that one simply because of the shit-poor physical condition he is obviously in.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Ian G.:
This is why laughter at unappealing date requests should be done in private and why people shouldn’t be stuffed into gym lockers. We all pay.
Kay
@SiubhanDuinne:
It’s okay. It’s a “commission”. They can’t change federal law by commission and they can’t touch state law at all.
Trump made a big to-do over voter fraud and they all have to cover his giant lying ass so they’re forming a “commission”. There will be lots of bad actions on voting. This isn’t a big threat.
The press release didn’t say those Sec of States were actually ON the commission. It says they’re “considered”.
Frankly, they’d be crazy to join. There’s no upside and there’s huge downside to their credibility.
schrodingers_cat
@The Moar You Know: And he will be on Mt Rushmore, because why not?
/end snark
Gelfling 545
@bupalos: who would they work for if not Dad?
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
Reprint of the May 1997 Playboy interview.
http://www.playboy.com/articles/the-art-of-the-donald
Felonius Monk
@Kay Eye:
I don’t believe it does, but this might.
Kay
@rikyrah:
Kobach is a threat because he puts this “fancy lawyer” patina on conspiracy theories, but commissions don’t have any actual power. Let’s hope some dumb Democrat isn’t “I have to be AT THE TABLE” and joins. There’s always those people who are willing to lend credibility to the worst things because they’re flattered.
Gelfling 545
@Gelfling 545: don’t, not dotted. Jesus, this iPad.
SiubhanDuinne
@bupalos:
I have read in several books and articles that Donald Jr. refused to talk to his father for a solid year at the time of the Marla affair/Ivana divorce.
Grung_e_Gene
@Corner Stone: it’s his reverse midas touch…
Betty Cracker
@Felonius Monk: Hard to believe Bilbo Bigot, AG, would want to remind everyone that Republicans spent months hyperventilating over possible exposure of retroactively classified documents on an email server when we all now know that Trump knowingly invited a compromised asset of a foreign power to sit in on Oval Office calls to Putin, et al. But these people aren’t very bright. Maybe they will!
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
No. He may still technically be in office a year from now, because even as quickly as things seem to be flying apart now, there’s still the creaky, ponderous machinery of due process and shit, and that could take some time. But I fully believe that the impeachment or removal process will be well launched within a year.
Or, you know, health issues, in which case much sooner.
KithKanan
@Kay: If there are any collaborators, they need to have their democratic political careers burned to the ground and that ground salted as an example to others.
Adam C
@Zach: That was my impression as well, and I’m surprised no-one seems to have picked that up. Why do we give the administration even that much credit? It’s much more consistent with Trump’s actions all along to interpret that memo as criticism for not laying charges.
Felonius Monk
@Betty Cracker:
I agree. Their dimness has been demonstrated many times. However, I see this as more of a diversionary tactic to take Dems focus away from the Russia scandal.
Another Scott
@bupalos: Ok, one could make that argument, but I don’t find it persuasive.
“Don’t think of an elephant” isn’t a way to tell someone not to think of an elephant.
The Russia investigation(s) were and are clearly at the forefront of his mind. He cites nothing specific in the other memos to support his decision. He only says “I am not under investigation”.
It’s a smoking gun to these eyes. Of course, good lawyers can argue about it – that’s what they do. ;-)
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodingers_cat:
Yes, he is. But consider….
Kenyan
Kenyadian
Canyadian
Canadian
SiubhanDuinne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That’s funny!
Kenneth Kohl
@Elizabelle: I don’t believe he makes past calendar year. I think some combination of psychological shortcomings, physical issues and/or corruption/scandal ends this regime fairly quickly.
Wyatt Derp
At this point Dems should insist on a special prosecutor but give Repubs the choice of who. Only requirement is it has to be a former FBI director. They can’t argue partisanship since we are letting them choose. And I can’t imagine any ex-FBI heads are looking to do Chump any favors.
cckids
@GregB:
. . . wait, what??
Captain C
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Don’t worry, he’s already stated for the record that Ossoff isn’t Progressive enough for him.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
Yup. This is what those assholes Session and Kobach were hired to do — bring back race-based voter suppression.
Captain C
@Elizabelle: When he starts to be a drag on Republican poll numbers, is most likely when he’ll be made to leave (indictments of his
co-conspiratorsassistants and associates could do that, though with his groupie brigade that may not be enough).He’s also not in good health, I think, so he may well die a natural death, or a convincing natural death at some convenient time, or at least have enough of a physical health issue that he gets Article 25’d. A 70-year old near-at-minimum obese man who’s obviously not in great shape wouldn’t be able to handle the stress of office very well if he were smart and in good mental order, let alone the extremely ignorant and possible NPD (and other things) plus possibly sliding-into-dementia Trump.
Mnemosyne
@Captain C:
That may be a good thing. So far, all of Sanders’ hand-picked endorsements have flopped at the ballot box.
Captain C
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Hmm…if you draw 10K people at $100 per head, that covers the DJ Hilton fee, and then anything else you make selling overpriced booze and velvet rope experiences is your gross. Plus, she’s probably bobbing about behind a computer playing a prerecorded track (which she may or may not have selected herself).
Captain C
@Mnemosyne: My thoughts exactly.
SgrAstar
@Thoroughly Pizzled: VoteRiders is a grassroots organization. They have helped people get valid ID, driven people to the polls, done tons of voter outreach to explain new voter ID laws in places like TX and WI. It’s a massive struggle and has to be fought by actual volunteers on the ground. If we believe in this, we can’t be hoping that “someone” will fund it. That would be up to us.
Uncle Cosmo
@SiubhanDuinne:
Even that’s unoriginal; Warren Gamaliel Harding[1] “gave” the language (or maybe resurrected from a well-deserved obscurity) the word normalcy when the perfectly appropriate normality was out there in plain sight waiting to be used…
—-
[1] Who FTR is Mike Dunce’s separated-at-birth-by-a-century Doppelgänger in looks & imbecility & was roundly savaged for the latter in a postmortem poem by e.e. cummings…
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@Elizabelle:
For a while now, I’d been thinking that he’d muddle along, crippled and incompetent for four years. My guess was that he wouldn’t want to risk the humiliation of losing in 2020, and would just tell us that his awesome work is done, so he can retire with dignity to the fanfare he worked so hard to earn. After the last few days, I’m beginning to feel for the first time that he might not make it through. Either he’ll get impeached, which is unlikely with the clowns we now have running Congress, or, more likely, he’d resign. I think he’s an even bet to resign before his four years are up right now.
Chet Murthy
@Ridnik Chrome: Justin Bieber has real accomplishments! I am insulted for him by proxy, and I’ve never even heard one of his songs! Oh, the ROFL!
But seriously, I was thinking, you gotta reach lower than that. Maybe Paris Hilton? Captures the inheritance, sense of entitlement, fame-hogging, notoriety. But even she doesn’t do it, b/c even in the 80s Dampnut was despicable, and I think Hilton’s just …. embarrassing.
-Is- there someone today, who compares to DJT in the 80s? I mean, other than his daughter?
Chet Murthy
@Just One More Canuck:
B-school, yo. B-school. Totally different. A degree in parting rubes from their life’s savings, not econ. To coin a phrase, “con, not econ”.Holy cow. He -did-. He -did-. ouch.
les
@Kay:
I disagree. If there aren’t some Dems on it, we’ll never know what’s said and only see the “necessary” suppression bs that comes out.
Sally Wright
@schrodingers_cat: What excuse do you give the constituents who keep voting them back in office?
Another Scott
@Another Scott: Kevin Drum has been reading my posts here again.
;-)
Yup.
Cheers,
Scott.
DavidTC
Prime the pump isn’t even an ‘expression’ that someone could have invented.
It’s an *analogy*.
Priming the pump is an actual, literal thing that people have to do to certain pumps. Namely, the ones that work by suction. They work by you forcing some liquid out, which then pulls the liquid behind that forwards, etc, etc…so to work, they have to already have liquid in them (Otherwise you’re just moving air around), and if they don’t (Like if it fell back down into a vertical pump, which was the most common thing with water pumps.), you have to put some liquid in there to start with, which is called priming them.
I explain this in the vain hope that Trump reads this website.
No one ‘invented’ the phrase, anymore than they invented the phrases ‘cook the food’ or ‘build a house’ or ‘drive the car’. Those are just *verbs you do with nouns*.
At some point, (Before Donald Trump was born) someone applied it to economics, and the *analogy* could be considered to have been ‘invented’, I guess.
But the ‘phrase’ couldn’t be.