After trotting National Security Adviser McMaster and Deputy NSA Powell out yesterday to deny that he’d leaked sensitive intel during his performance review meeting with the Russians last week, Trump this morning tweeted confirmation that he had, in fact, shared intel:
As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017
…to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017
WTF? I say again, what the actual fuck? I want off this roller coaster.
Baud
The Dangerman
Fuck me. “If the President does it, it’s not illegal”? I saw the original and sequels always suck.
This isn’t a roller coaster; roller coasters go up. This is free fall.
D58826
MAybe this comment is more appropriate here:OK playing devils advocate (and that is in very very large letters), I can see a reason to share this info with Russia.
1. Russia may have been in a position to take out the bomb builders
2. Since Russian passenger planes have been bombed out of the air they would have a vested interest in stopping this plot. They would have no reason to think that Daesh would not pass the skill set on the Chechen rebels.
NOW that being said, it seems to me, that kind of information would be transferred at a lower level than POTUS and only after it was carefully sanitized to avoid Russian re-engineering. And maybe even in exchange for something of value from the Russians
Or I have been watching to many spy movies??????
Quaker in a Basement
Explain yourself on Twitter? Really?
Baud
@The Dangerman: In this case, it probably isn’t illegal. But it looks to be an ill-considered and reckless act of mismanagement harming our national security.
GregB
Fuckface Tillerson just told the world that humanitarian issues mean nothing.
amk
@The Dangerman: has anyone seen nixon’s grave of late?
Baud
What could possibly go wrong?
m0nty
The real victims are all the online Trumpkins who spent the last 24 hours calling the WaPo story #fakenews. Pour out a forty for those poor, demented souls.
Of course they will all transition smoothly to Trump’s new line, because they are psychopaths with no concept of shame.
JPL
@Baud: They will be talking about human rights, so nothing will go according to plan.
Shalimar
Scarborough is off on his “time for Republicans to turn on the lifelong Democrat” bullshit again. Setting aside the obvious fact that Democrats never would have elected the idiot president, It’s actually the only line they have that might be effective next year, if they had the courage to turn on Trump. Luckily, no one listens to Joe Scarborough.
Zach
This is clearly a negotiated statement coordinated with the press office… and it’s really stupid.
Implies that Trump knew how important the disclosure was and it was a considered decision to share. This implies there is evidence of deliberation beforehand, which is absurd given the panicked response of the intel community (before the leak) and white house publicity staff (after).
I assumed everyone who bothered to think about it could guess that the evidence underlying the laptop ban was pretty damning but that it couldn’t be shared for some important reason… guess Trump never bothered to think about it.
Baud
@JPL: They will debate who is and who is not human.
Princess
@D58826: Russia is not our ally.
Shalimar
@Baud: He also has a call an hour from now with King Abdullah of Jordan, supposedly the ally he fucked over. That could be interesting.
Zach
@D58826:
Yeah there’s lots of possible good reasons to share it with Russia… but super obvious Trump just decided on his own at the spur of the moment to do so and not out of any deliberative process.
Shalimar
@D58826: The Syrian government’s spies have supposedly co-opted at least part of ISIL’s operational command. Russia and Syria are not enemies of ISIL at the moment. It isn’t possible to ally with them against ISIL.
Oldgold
McMaster, if he had an ounce of integrity, should resign by noon.
quakerinabasement
@D58826: Sure, that makes sense. Except for the part where Trump decides and executes all on his own–no involvement from. NSC, Intel agencies, and catching his own staff by surprise. With a TASS photog in the room. The y after he fired the FBI director who was llooking into his chummy relationship with the Russians.
Perfectly normal.
Betty Cracker
Now he’s tweeting about Comey and leakers again. The man is demented. And stupid.
GxB
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep-ba-deep
Ba-deep-deep-deep-deep-deep-a-deep-ah-deep
Rolla – chosta….
Of TRUMP!
Rollah-Chosta!
Oooh-ah!-ooooh-ah-Oooooh!
More Chili Peppers than Ohio Players here – work with me people -it’s 7am fer christsakes…
Baud
@Shalimar: News this morning said Israel was mad too because some White House official said something impolitic about the Western Wall.
Chyron HR
@Baud:
Nothing at all. Unless somebody accidentally switches their ice cream bowls, in which case we’ll fire a hundred cruise missiles at Ankara. But that probably won’t happen.
D58826
@Princess: I know they are not our ally. But sometimes the US and Russia have a mutual interest such as not having their airliners bombed out of the air.
My point was under some very unique and carefully controlled circumstances it might be in the interest of the US to share some info with the Russians. Short of protecting the planet from an invasion from Mars, the way Der Fuhrer behaved does not fit the definition of unique circumstances.
Barbara
There is a kind of person who loathes the kind of people who are, essentially, handlers. A more understandable analogy would be the Bush twins trying to lose their Secret Service protection. On the one hand Trump apparently becomes enraged when his defenders do a lousy job in his mind, but on the other, when they do smooth the roughest edges of his outrages as McMasters tried to do (to not very good effect I must say), within short order he makes them look like fools by contradicting what they said. He is probably pathologically repulsed at the idea that his conduct needs to be explained or filtered by anyone, but his impulse to sabotage others (even if it means sabotaging himself) could also be a stage of dementia. One reason I actually think this is more pathology than dementia is that it seems to be a vice that is common to others in his orbit. Apparently Kushner was angry that Spicer didn’t do a better job dealing with the Comey fall out. I mean, the mind reels. It’s not that I like Spicer, but you can’t deliberately set a guy up to fail and then complain that he failed. Well duh! These are the Tom and Daisy Buchanans of the real world, smashing and grabbing and then getting away with it. Except, they don’t only want to get away with their misconduct, they want to stick around with continued adoration.
BlueDWarrior
@Betty Cracker: Everyone is the enemy. And you have a lot of people who back him personally who believe that everyone is also the enemy.
And JoeScar can scream all he want to, but he has to understand the Republican Party hasn’t been hijacked by a Democratic Brain Slug, it has been completely turned into a Revanchist Frankenstein(‘s Monster) by it’s own base; whose only purpose is to utterly destroy all whom it declares to be an enemy.
So more of a ghoul than a zombie, zombies are just mindless destroyers of everything, ghouls tend to have a target.
efgoldman
@Zach:
I don’t think he “decided” anything, and more than a fish “decides” to rise to the bait; he just blurted.
Baud
@Baud:
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN18B2K2
Shrillhouse
OMG. I read Trump’s tweet a minute ago, and it didn’t even click with me that he was admitting to the very thing his handlers are denying.
Spicer should just go on live TV and pants himself. It would save his boss the trouble of doing it to him every day.
Shalimar
@Baud: They insulted Netanyahu by saying he wasn’t welcome on Trump’s Western Wall visit next week. One of the few Trump fuckups I approve of. Screw Netanyahu.
TS
@Shalimar: Republicans STILL can’t blame themselves for this disaster of a president. “Those emails” get mentioned every time anyone talks about tRump and security data.
schrodingers_cat
@Oldgold: He lost whatever integrity he had when he decided to take up the NSA post.
clay
Someone on Morning Joe (didn’t catch who) pointed out that what Trump did may have been legal, but that doesn’t give him the ‘absolute right’ to do it.
<paraphrasing>”He doesn’t have the absolute right to compromise national security. He doesn’t have the absolute right to burn sources.”
D58826
@quakerinabasement:
The decision to release the information would be made in the WH but the actual transfer would be done at a much lower level. I don’t know if the IC has the equivalent of military attaches but it would be done at that level, NEVER NEVER by POTUS
Zach
@Betty Cracker: Today’s tweets sound crazy but aren’t really in Trump’s voice… if you ever get e-mails/letters from someone with a personality disorder, the rhetoric is familiar… deploying facts (open meeting, right to declassify, etc) that aren’t in dispute in order to muddy the underlying problem.
The Goldenstein story was at least kinda plausible (if you actually read the memo and saw that Comey being unfair to HRC wasn’t the main complaint) till Trump torpedoed it. This story is 1000% a lie and just sounds crazy… who’s running White House PR now?
Balconesfault
@Shalimar: was throwing crap at the TV while Scarborough and his cast of Repubs kept calling Trump a Dem.
Yeah … An anti-choice, climate change denying, Obama birther, corporate tax cutting, Obamacare slashing, race baiting, estate tax eliminating, deregulation fetishist Democratic. That would make one of them.
OTOH, pick any 7 of those attributes, and you have everyone in the GOP.
Shalimar
@D58826: An ex-CIA official went over that last night on one of the MSNBC shows, explaining a situation years ago where the Obama White House coordinated a disclosure to Putin. The Intelligence community prepared in advance exactly what info we would give them and vetted the language through all relevant channels. Needless to say, this is not what happened this time or the NSA staff wouldn’t have had to inform CIA and DCI about the fuckup.
Chet
I wonder what our Supreme Leader, Artist of the Deal, got in exchange for this highly prized asset he blurted out.
Barbara
@The Dangerman: “L’etat, c’est moi” — look it up, it’s in Article VIII of the U.S. Constitution, right there with no border wall being built with U.S. money.
Cheryl Rofer
@Chet: Nothing
Shalimar
@Balconesfault: It is the type of rebranding lie that Fox and Republicans pull off all the time to motivate their gullible base. Just because it is laughably stupid doesn’t mean it wouldn’t work on them. Scarborough is a lot of things, but he isn’t stupid. He doesn’t believe a word he’s saying.
Oldgold
You can’t this up!!Trump’s latest tweet.
“I have been asking Director Comey & others, from the beginning of my administration, to find the LEAKERS in the intelligence community…..”
BlueDWarrior
@Oldgold: When is he going to figure out the calls are coming FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE?!
D58826
@Shalimar: thanks for the info. Missed that on MSNBC.
Baud
@Oldgold: If Comey had balls, he’d mail Trump a mirror.
Barbara
@Chet: He mainlines dominance, and for this act of domination he probably got a nanosecond of dopamine release, which was then completely reversed by the Narcan of his pesky courtiers.
Shalimar
@Cheryl Rofer: Wait until he meets with noted strongman Erdogan later today and gives him Gulen as a show of good faith. With this administration, it always gets worse when it comes to dealing with dictators.
amk
@Oldgold: so, in addition to shoving his own nsa advisor under the bus, he throws fbi, cia and ic into that pile? winning bigly.
Zach
@Oldgold:
The sad thing is that all of the intel sources I’ve seen are doing damage control to try to help American interests (and, presumably, by extension, Trump’s interests). The initial leak could’ve easily come from Russia; it could’ve had more details. The intel sources are pointing out that the source wasn’t revealed… very important to reassure whoever it is.
Shalimar
@D58826: You’re welcome. I’m glad one of my rare tv-watching periods actually helped with something. I’m on vacation for a few days. I don’t even have a tv at home anymore.
Balconesfault
Harward to McMaster “what did you expect, dipshit?”
Sloegin
Sucks for McMaster. Oh well, when you live in the dumpster, you get the trichinosis.
quakerinabasement
@efgoldman: “It’s automatic.”
Tic tac?
clay
@Cheryl Rofer: Oh come now. He didn’t get nothing. He got an ego boost from bragging about how he gets “the best intel.”
Oh, you meant nothing worthwhile?
You know, the stories haven’t said what led up to this exchange, but I would be 100% unsurprised if the Russians intentional dropped bait to see if Trump would bite. “Gee Mr. President, we have good intel in Russia, but probably nothing like what you get, eh?”
OzarkHillbilly
.
via Kevin Drum
rumpole
@Shalimar: If that’s true, we are well and truly fucked. Jordan’s pretty much the only arab state left that we can talk to.
Patricia Kayden
@Balconesfault: When did Scarborough discover that Trump was a Democrat? Joe and Mika were huge Trump enablers during the election cycle so they can shut the hell up.
NotMax
@Shalimar
Assumes facts not in evidence.
Baud
@Patricia Kayden: When it’s convenient. If Trump ever has a win, he’ll be a Republican again.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Balconesfault: What makes you think Trump believes in anything besides than what is good for Donald Trump at the moment?
MattF
But Breitbart says it’s all a smear by the ‘Deep State’. So.
In other news, David Brooks makes a few sensible points about Trump that have been made repeatedly by everyone else. So.
No linkies.
amk
Guess trumpanzees have jumped on the make russia great again wagon.
PaulWartenberg
Slate.com just posted an article “Is This Normal?”
It turns out that Presidents do on occasion divulge classified stuff during meetings with foreign officials – including those we are traditionally adversarial with.
Problem is, in every one of those situations, there were other people in the room. People from the CIA and State Dept. and Defense Dept. and other advisors to make sure the info had been vetted and cleaned out to ensure NOTHING DAMAGING GOT OUT.
In THIS situation, it was just trump in the room with three Russians (don’t forget the photographer spy guy) and he blurted out EVERY DETAIL THAT COULD PROVIDE THE RUSSIANS WITH KEY DATA ABOUT OUR INTEL SOURCES.
/headdesking times one billion
there is no way any foreign ally is going to share intel with us as long as that preening idiot is sitting in the Oval Office.
clay
@Patricia Kayden: Trump *was* a registered Democrat, but it certainly wasn’t “lifelong”. He was only one during (oddly enough) the George W. Bush years.* He was a Republican/Independent for years before and after.
*I suspect, without any knowledge or evidence, that he switched to being a Dem so he could run for mayor of NYC against Bloomberg.
amk
@Baud: When he throws another moab, the cable noise will crown him as prezinent again.
MomSense
Did Twitler really employ the I can do what I want you’re not the boss of me defense this morning?
This little shit needs to be removed from office and given a really long time out.
GxB
I’ve got a friendly wager with my folks. I said around Nov.10th or so last year that Chump would be out of office or in (heart-attack serious) hot water by the 4th of July (provided he made it to inauguration.) Their birthdays are a day apart and just after July 4th, normally I take them out to dinner for a steak – looks like I’m getting a pass this year – FSM willing – I have faith.
Then it hits me, I live in the most dysfunctional “first world” shithole imaginable – oh well, I could go for a steak I guess.
OGLiberal
Josh Marshall predicted this yesterday, based on Trump’s previous behavior. Why do these people keep sticking their necks out for this lunatic when they know he’s going to make them look stupid in less than 24 hours? Does McMaster really want his long and admirable career to conclude with a job that makes him look like a schmuck? Wouldn’t Spicer just be better off going back to running comms at the RNC rather than suffer this idiot?
ET
To Trump and all his mindless idiot supporters: JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN SHARE SENSITIVE INFORMATION DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULD!!!
Particularly when it was to feed your own ego. Jesus H. Christ.
Zach
@amk:
Half of his opponents will go silent on all of the recent controversies if he moves to depose Assad.
Russia might well be OK with this if Putin can control who’s in power next; Assad can be an inconvenient ally and a puppet would be preferable.
That’s my guess on where this is going and what the White House meeting was about. Trump thinks he’s engineering a game-changing deal to unite everyone against ISIS that’ll make him finally look PRESIDENTIAL and give a legit explanation to some shady things. But really he’s just being played to help put another strongman into power who answers to Putin.
SiubhanDuinne
@MomSense:
How’s your dad this morning? And is your mom’s recovery coming along well?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Holy Shit – I think Putin just achieved the master stroke of blowing up intel sharing in the Western alliances AND solidified his position regarding instilling fear in Russian sources for Western intel.
My theory is that the Russian participants leaked it to sew confusion and discord in the alliance and it worked amazingly well. They capitalized on his narcissism.
Anybody know if Chechen separatists have a gofundme? I could be persuaded to donate…
Kay
We need to have a discussion in this country about why having the RIGHT to do something is different than doing the right thing.
Conservatives have conflated these two concepts. “Legal” really doesn’t mean “good”. It was intended as the lowest bar, not something to aspire to.
Do they require more laws? Do they need a code and set of rules to govern their every move? Conservatives are THEMSELVES the best argument for regulation. They don’t self-police.
Kay
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
They’re all running rings around him. There’s the Russian angle but there’s also the allies angle. It’s competitive. They are wholly justified in taking advantage of our stupidity.
I don’t think it’s a conspiracy. I think he gossips because having this information elevates him – it’s the ultimate “insider” gossip. He can’t resist a chance to self-promote.
zhena gogolia
This is such an unbelievable disaster.
japa21
@Kay: Unfortunately, too many people equate the words “can do” with “should do”. It provides the excuse to have no common sense.
Yet another Jeff
@Baud: so they’re going to drive up to Pennsylvania to drop in on someone?
Kay
Did anyone else notice that Trump picked up the idea that one way to justify something that is not in the national interest is “humanitarian reasons”? He’s saying he told the Russians to protect ordinary people on airplanes. That puts distance between him and Russian leadership.
That’s pretty good that this dope managed to absorb that phrase during his 3 minute briefings.
Always, always about covering his ass. He stored that away as a possible excuse.
different-church-lady
I’m so old I can remember a time when Republicans thought being sloppy with classified info meant you should be in jail instead of president.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Kay:
I think they saw the opportunity and ran with it. Master Dealmaker got the ego boost from bragging, and the Russians got to effectively wreck a perfectly functional 70 year old intel sharing system. It’s a win-win!
Kay
@japa21:
I remember the moment it took over the Right. Sarah Palin used it all the time. She’s all about her rights. “Me, me, me!”
This is a basic societal concept, can and should. They’re not going back 200 years. They’re going back thousands of years.
rikyrah
@Barbara:
Absolutely fabulous analogy:
These are the Tom and Daisy Buchanans of the world.
Bravo.
Crystal clear.
MattF
Pretty much completely OT. To respond, at least internally, to the charge that news these days is making us all stupid, I recommend reading the current Existential Comics report from PNN (Philosophy News Network). And read the chyrons too.
clay
@different-church-lady: So you are at least six months old..
Kay
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
I see Trump as so needy that it makes me doubt my sanity that other people think he is strong. He is the definition of weak. There isn’t enough attention in the world for this person. More, more, more.
GregB
This is tremendous. Winning bigly.
@Shalimar:
NotMax
@Baud
Turk meets with turkey.
Preview of conversation.
Dolt 45: “Kurds? What are those? Some new breath mint?”
japa21
Translation of transcript of discussion between Lavrov and Kislyak post meeting with Trump.
Lavrov: I can’t believe it. I know you told us but I couldn’t believe it was that true.
Kislyak: What?
L: That guy really is dumb as a post. We need to get this info to Assad as soon as possible.
K: We will. Our investment in this idiot has already paid off. Imagine how much else we will get out of this.
L: Vlad will be so happy. Maybe we can get a bonus from him.
different-church-lady
@clay: by the time of Trump’s next rally I’ll still be in the womb.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
Where are Jared and Ivanka? Have they fled the country ahead of the FBI? Who is minding this demented moron? I feel like I’m watching the last days of Ferdinand and Imelda, but at least they lived in one place.
bystander
Malcolm Nance must infuriate the trumpanzees. He speaks knowledgeably, logically and clearly. It must be like a cold shower for them everytime he speaks.
Steve Ratner calling out Hugh Hewitt as a kneejerk trumpanzee on this morning’s Moanin’ Joe was my favorite comment.
MomSense
@SiubhanDuinne:
He’s ok. Said he felt desperate yesterday when the shit hit the fan and he thought he was dying for real this time.
My mom is great. She still has a bunch of stitches on her eyeball (ewwwwww) but should keep improving.
I need a vacation!
Jeffro
Here, let me help our WH Press Corps out:
1) “Sean, could you please walk us through the process by which the president* decides, in mid-sentence, what classified information he will be sharing with representatives of a hostile foreign power?”
2) “Sean, what has been the reaction of our traditional allies – Britain, France, Germany, Israel, and so on – that the president* is comfortable sharing classified information on the spur of the moment with the Putin government?”
3) “Sean, you fuckwad, how do you and McMaster and everyone else in this maladministration live with yourselves, knowing that if positions are parties were reversed, your slobbering horde of mouth-breathers would have already dragged President Hillary Clinton – or hell, just President Generic Democrat – from the White House and had her drawn and quartered for both the obstruction of justice last week and sharing classified information with a hostile foreign power this week? Was that a little long? I can repeat the question.”
Zach
@Kay:
As if the Russians can’t infer on their own how seriously USA takes the laptop threat based just on security precautions and how tight lipped we are about it. Humanitarian explanation is a joke. Russians probably baited Trump by making up their own intel about the threat and sharing it with him and he felt compelled to outdo them in response.
MattF
@MomSense: One of the ‘features’ of eye surgery is that it sounds much, much worse than it actually is.
Quinerly
@zhena gogolia:
I am convinced that it will get worse before better. BUT I am also convinced that Trump won’t remain in office the entire term. I’m beginning to think less than a year.
Ruckus
@ET:
You take that away, you take away drumpf’s one and only motivation. Everything flows from him feeding his own ego. Inside, he’s maybe 10 and all the other kids have taken their toys and gone home. He’s going to show them.
MomSense
@MattF:
Certainly sounds much better than the aorta replacement my dad just had. Yikes!
GregB
We all know this Russia sturm and drang is to cover up the Nazi, err, Wiki-leaks bombshell that Hillary Clinton has gotten away with murder yet again.
Brachiator
WTF is officially too weak. Can we get through a week without this clueless idiot not fucking something up?
You know that scene in Jurassic Park where the killer dinosaurs throw off everything keeping them in check? That’s our world now.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
going over the email a deputy White House press secretary wrote to their nannies about dressing the children for this week’s photo shoot about quality family time with Thick Glossy Monthly
then the secret service will be brining in a background check on the stable that’s providing the miniature horses
did you know they’re drawing no salaries for their government work?
SiubhanDuinne
@MomSense:
I hope you will get a vacation from all this worry very soon! Seriously, I hope you’re taking care of yourself. Glad your mom is recovering well, and I’ll continue to send good healing thoughts to your father.
Ruckus
@japa21:
Two things. First, people with no common sense don’t understand the limits of what they don’t know. They think everyone else is in the same boat. Except dumpf of course, he has the bestest boat. Second if common sense was so common, more people would have some of it.
D58826
OT – Ford has announced that it is going to announce a ‘people efficiency plan’ next week. Rest of the world calls this a lay-off. Since it seems that it will affect white collar jobs, Der Fuhrer’s pledge to restore manufacturing jobs remains intact. (sigh)
And Yrtle, in response to the past 18 hours, is saying we need a ‘little less drama’ . Now that is showing real back bone
ET
Oh DC sometimes you ROCK….. Someone projected a funny on the Trump hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue or mocked it up for the Twitters. Share widely…..
Balconesfault
@clay: Reagan was a Democrat too, but I don’t hear them bringing that up every time they talk about him…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
he’s also figuring out how to word the Senate’s Medicaid cuts so that the Village can sell them as a moderate compromise on RyanCare
and speaking of Yertle, go to Cole’s twitter feed to see the ultimate Yertle gif.
Lyrebird
@The Dangerman:
Hard to match the inimitable Betty’s prose, and there you done did it!
Wishing us all safe landings… not sure what to do today other than I guess remembering to vote in our state elections.
sigaba
@ET: It’s real, Business Insider got photos.
OGLiberal
I know he’s a brain dead idiot and the dumbest man on the internet but Jim Hoft tweeted his last tweet about the Russia disclosure deal 10 hours ago, declaring it FAKE NEWS! Nothing since then – now all he’s posting about is the 21st Century’s own Vince Foster – Seth Rich, murdered in cold blood by John Podesta, Hillary, and their gay child porn pizza ring.
hovercraft
@D58826:
The number one reason to NOT share this with the Russians is IT WASN’T OURS TO SHARE, THE OPERATIVES WHO COULD GET BURNED ARE NOT OURS. If a country says hey we’ve got this information that you need to know, but we really, really don’t want you to share it with anyone because sharing it will let people know that we have it and that could get our operatives killed, YOU DON”T FUCKING SHARE IT!!!! Perhaps if he had told them in advance, hey I really think the Russians may be able to help us with this, that nation could have said yes or no, or if they thought that Twitler was going to tell regardless of what they said, gotten their asset/operative out of harms way. This man is not playing eleventy dimensional chess, hell he’s not even playing checkers, he’s just a dumb rube who wanted to show off the “great intelligence briefings” he’s privy to. Moran is a moran period, he’s going to get people killed.
m0nty
Yesterday’s Trumpkins: it’s all fake news!
Today’s Trumpkins: okay so it’s real but no harm was done!
Tomorrow’s Trumpkins: okay so some harm was done but he’s not Hitler!
Rinse and repeat.
Corner Stone
What a petty,petulant little man. “I had the absolute right’ sounds like a kindergartner on the playground telling the teacher why he didn’t go to the potty if he needed to.
?eric
Never has Dennis Green been more appropriate: They are who we thought they were. Every last member of the GOP values Party over Country, and have done so since Gingrich chase dBob Michel from the GOP leadership.
MattF
@Corner Stone: “Leave my doody alone!”
Corner Stone
And fucking McMaster. I am absolutely loving that shit! He didn’t know Trump was going to shiv the absolute hell out of him at the first opportunity?
This is gold, Jerry! Gold!!
Corner Stone
I want to have all of Sally Yates babies.
hovercraft
@Shalimar:
I don’t think it would be an effective line, Republicans love when Democrats abandon their party to join to the other side, it shows just how terrible they are that they can’t keep “good” people in their ranks. Remember there’s a long history of GOP stars who were democrats, Rick Perry, a whole bunch of Southern congresscritters including if I’m not mistaken Jeff Sessions, and of course the Sainted Ronnald Maximus Reaygun. What they don’t like are people who change to try to save their seats, they know that’s not a real conversion, just political expediency, looking at you Joe Manchin.
Ian G.
@Baud:
What do you think the body count of Kurdish fighters will be after Dolt 45 gives Erdogan everything he wants to know about one of our genuine allies in the region?
tobie
I’m assuming the announcement last week of an upcoming ban on laptops on flights was due to this security breach. The Dept of Homeland Security probably felt like they had to announce this policy change given that Trump had blown the US’s cover. This means: the intelligence community has been working feverishly for a week to repair the damage done by Trump.
I leave for Europe today sans laptop. Have a tablet I can risk in cargo if need be.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Corner Stone: just in general, or is she speaking out?
hovercraft
@Betty Cracker:
Is this the new tag for all shitgibbon related posts?
gvg
@clay: Actually I think he was a democrat. I remember the first time I heard of someone encouraging him to run for president. can’t recall if it was 80’s or 90’s but some fan made a big deal about he should run for the GOP nomination and he said he was flattered but actually he was a democrat. Looking back now, I bet he paid that guy.
New York is so democratic that people register as democrat so they can vote in the primaries where the winner is usually picked. They have strict rules about changing parties about a year in advance and Ivanka and Jared caught a lot of flack because they weren’t registered as republican on time. his earlier positions were pro choice until he got kind of serious about running. He donated to both parties to have influence not because he cared. His positions are not democratic by any stretch, he would not have won our prinary.
Corner Stone
@tobie:
Gets a little cold to do much work in cargo, doesn’t it?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@tobie: they first started talking about a laptop ban some time ago (meaning at most two months, feels like a year)– it started on incoming flights on NEMA-based carriers, then they backed off, then it started up again. I gather the big deal is that trump revealed the geographical location of our source
Corner Stone
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: On general principles, plus I think she’s an attractive young lady. But she did an interview with Anderson Cooper and MSNBC was playing clips from it, related to Flynn’s underlying conduct and what she told the WH.
Looks like she goes one or two steps further than her Congressional testimony but probably still doesn’t spill all the beans.
gvg
@tobie: no this lap top ban has been rumored for awhile. its been in the news. I actually didn’t think they would actually do it because it was so draconian and i didn’t see the point. I still rather doubt it’s utility.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@gvg: he called him self a Democrat, “usually” IIRC, some time in the late nineties, was loudly pro-choice for a long time, said lots of nice things about HRC in ’08 and maybe 2012. Said in early 09 that Obama was doing a good job and supported the Stimulus (all this from memory so, I could be wrong). I think in 2000 he flirted with the reform party, hinted at a GOP run in ’06 or ’07, was serious about a possible primary run in 2011 but backed off. My recollection is birtherism was fading when he latched onto it in early 2012. It got him attention, which is his oxygen. He hasn’t looked back.
tobie
@Corner Stone: The only advantage of any of this for me is that I’ll get to avoid some work I’d rather not deal with. Otherwise I’d have to freeze in cargo.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Wasn’t trying to exonerate the Asshole-in-Chief at all. Just thinking about the flurry of reports on laptop bans that started after Trump’s meeting with the Russian foreign minister.
Aleta
Someone quick give Trump his fantasy humanitarian award before the Syrians who’ve been helping the US, maybe promised asylum for their families if they do, are picked up by Assad.
hovercraft
@ET:
So how long before he demands that someone be arrested for defacing his private property? And when they tell him that since it’s just a projection, there is no crime, how long before he sues the hero, I mean culprit and demands his flunkies in congress make it against the law to project anything on his properties?
Corner Stone
@Ian G.: I doubt Erdogan needs any help on intel about the Kurds. But it could be just as likely that Erdogan says something flattering Trump and Trump agrees to stop partnering with the Kurds in any manner.
That’s kind of the point, I guess. There’s just no telling what he is going to say or agree to or deny next. He’ll never be the one paying the price for his irrational and gross behavior.
Cheryl Rofer
WARNING: THIS LINK GIVES A CLICK TO ERICK, SON OF ERICK.
I know one of the sources.
The thing he leaves out is that there is a deliberative body in the government that could have some jurisdiction over these problems.
[Sorry for the hit-and-run. Will be around more later today.]
Aleta
“I have the absolute right to be a leaky puppet.”
“Despised by millions, I am entitled to absolute loyalty.”
Doug R
@Balconesfault: Donald Trump, the Last DixiecratTM
amk
@Corner Stone: I bet twitler has already forgotten this was just last week.
matryoshka
Except it wasn’t Obama who disclosed to Putin. It was George W. Bush, a Republican who was also transformed into a Democrat when it was required. He wanted to impress visitors by showing them “how it’s done in the big leagues.”
hueyplong
We should be happy to see the talking point about Trump as a “lifelong Democrat.” It is a clear sign that they are preparing the zombie base for the final Trump chapter, in which he is revealed as an Other who has failed conservatism.
Being white, he can only be shifted to the Other category by becoming a Democrat. He is otherwise acceptable by right.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@matryoshka: that was my recollection as well, but I wasn’t certain
the guest on Maddow also slipped in a gratuitous, and I think factually incorrect, shot at Clinton
(he said Hillary Clinton couldn’t figure out that “C” meant “classified”, when in fact, as I remember the testimony and google to check, those “C” stood for “confidential” which is (AFAIK) a lower degree of security)
Barbara
@Kay: They mistake his ability to command the energy of everyone around him — to make them react to him — as strength. It is a variant of the squeaky wheel getting the grease. What they don’t see or don’t think about is that there are people in this world, like Putin, who are able to use his need to be the center of attention to manipulate him into doing exactly what they want. His ability to command attention could be a strength, but it is more than offset by his pathologic need for attention, which makes him extremely vulnerable.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I know we have a couple of posters from in/around GA-6. Is Ossoff hammering the “I’ll stand up to trump, she won’t” angle?
jonas
@Zach:
He was literally showing off to the Russians about the “great intel” he has on ISIS. I’m sure for McMaster standing there it was like the beach scene in Saving Private Ryan where all the noise is drowned out and everything slows down because you just can’t comprehend the nightmare you’re witnessing.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
That’s a great insight. I intend to steal it, but I will try to remember to give you credit. See also “Hammy mugging with leather folders” ==> “Man of action” “Active President” ==> “shaking things up” and “getting things done”
NorthLeft12
This is no more than those clowns who have sold out their souls and their country, deserve. As Deadbeat Donald himself advised victims/women of workplace harassment; “If you don’t like it. Quit!”
MattF
@NorthLeft12: It’s getting to the point where having an active cerebral cortex disqualifies you for accepting a job with Trump. One can wonder how anyone can justify doing that.
Это курам на смех
@Quinerly:
He isn’t going anywhere.
1. Trump will never resign, because his pathological need to save face will always come first.
2. The rethugs are in power because he put them there, and they will never get a better chance to carry out their agenda. They still have the support of their voters.
3. They will not impeach because it will do more damage to their brand than muddling through.
raven
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The Moar You Know
@Это курам на смех: Truth. My “Never Trump” lifelong Republican dad is just squirming with hatred towards the guy every day and swears he’s going to be gone in a month. I ask him, how?
“They’ll figure out he’s a problem”
87% approval rating among Republicans, down only 2% since the election. The GOP has the House, Senate, and presidency. Again, how?
“They’ll figure it out”
My poor father. Love the guy, but Trump was always the real face of what his party was and is. He can’t come to terms with that.
tobie
@matryoshka: @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes, the Rachel Maddow show ended up being a font of disinformation last night. First a guest attributed a planned disclosure of classified info to the Russians to Obama when it was George W Bush. Then, the NYT reporter made a dig at Clinton about sharing info marked “c” on her email server. First the info was improperly marked, second “confidential” is the lowest grade of security, and thirdly two of the three confidential pieces of info shared pertained to her friggin’ schedule.
I was shocked at how much the NYT reporters on CNN and MSNBC were shilling for Republicans. The grey lady has changed…it’s now the paper for tote-bagging republicans.
Bruce K
Am I looking through rose-colored glasses if I assume that if the cheeto had tried to game his way to the Democratic Party nomination, he’d have been pitched out of the national convention on his ear?
jonas
@Это курам на смех:
This. They don’t care if Trump burns the entire damn country to the ground. Right wing evangelicals like Falwell and Graham are delirious with joy over Trump and that’s who Pence, Ryan, and McConnell have on speed-dial.
Corner Stone
@tobie:
That was a very catty comment he made, almost as an aside. I wondered at the time why he said that and how it was relevant to the discussion they were having.
The part about disclosing something to Putin wasn’t as bad because the underlying point was that our team thought well ahead of time how to handle it and went to the trouble of creating a completely new book so that all possible info would be scrubbed out and we were giving just what we agreed to and nothing else. It was more about process for intel sharing, IMO.
Corner Stone
Oh, Cole. You so funny.
Corner Stone
Man, I don’t know who put the go-go juice in Michael Gerson’s morning OJ but he is fired up against Trump.
hovercraft
@Bruce K:
I’d love to say that no liberals aren’t dumb enough to fall for a huckster butt…….
WARNING POLITCO
Democrats divide on Bernie’s 2020 plans
Even fucking Kos is over Fucking Wilmer!
Raoul
what the actual fuck? I want off this roller coaster
GOP signaling this morning that they will not abandon Trump or even scold him until they start losing elections. So we have to win at least one of the three upcoming specials.
Beyond that, I’d suggest following @JasminMuj, Jasmin Mujanović. He’s a PolySci guy with some very keen insights into countries that slide into authoritarian regimes. He is arguing strongly that just waiting for the mid-terms will be too late. Not that we shouldn’t organize for those, but that we need to step up protests and resistance now for the 2018 elections to still have enough weight to matter. Check out his feed, I think he has valid, if alarming, points.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
This morning on Morning Joe, there was a commercial telling me that the Republican health plan is going to be better, make premiums cheaper, cover more things and protect people with preexisting conditions AND that I should call and thank Paul Ryan.
catclub
@Baud: If Trump treats the Israelis like the assholes they are, I approve of that.
Has he followed through on moving the Embassy to Jerusalem? I think that got delayed.
If Trump actually gets a better deal fro the Kurds, I approve of that.
I doubt either will actually happen. The Kurds always get screwed.
Frankensteinbeck
@Barbara:
I think it’s a more fundamental process than that. Trump is a mean, whiny, egotistical old man. His voters are by and large mean, whiny, and egotistical. Of course they see these traits as ‘strength.’. Trump validates them every time he spews hateful bile or complains how the whole world is unfair to him.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
We will never take yes for an answer! Somebody put it to music.
hovercraft
@catclub:
Tillerson was asked about the embassy thing on Sunday and he said that apparently Twitler had “discovered” that moving the embassy would impede the “Peace Process” that he has determined he can fix with some of his legendary negotiating skills, so for now at least they are not looking to make the move. Asked if the peace process failed the move would be back on the table, he refused to contemplate the idea of Twitler failing to solve the ME’s deepest divide.
I know he’s got some new perspective, but just wait until he finds out just how “complicated” the Middle East really is, I wonder if anyone has explained the whole Sunni Shia thing, let alone throwing in the Druids, Alawites and Wahhabi’s. Does he know what that the Kurds are not Arabs?
Frankensteinbeck
@hovercraft:
Bernie’s wing is neither progressive, nor activist. It is only economically populist.
Peale
@hovercraft:
Just stop. Fuckin Christ Sake. I wouldn’t vote for him at that age even if he were a ‘spry 79.’
Peale
@Frankensteinbeck: And even then, its “populism” is more kvetching about the state of the world than offering any solutions to it.
Wyatt Derp
“I’m so old I can remember a time when Republicans thought being sloppy with classified info meant you should be in jail instead of president.”
@different-church-lady: You don’t have to be old to remember that. It was their position 6 months ago. Now if you mean you remember when they actually meant it then I am afraid you are old indeed.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Kay:
OMG, Trump’s Rasor said this is what Trump though he was doing – Grandpa Dumbass was warning those nice Russain fellows about the Islamicists and thier sneaky Laptop Bombs he just read about on the Intertubes and then start telling them about US intell to show them Russian fellows Old Donny knows a thing or two still. What does my dad call it when my mom does this; “socializing”,Trump is just like my 70 something mother and her second childhood.
p.a.
(h/t Lorne Michaels): I will pay $3,000 for any close ally’s security apparatus psych profile of Donald Trump. Israel’s also (technically I believe not a treaty ally.)
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
No. This has been another edition of SATSQ.