Trump is being described as unhinged, isolated, depressed, and losing his mind. https://t.co/fE0W4I448h pic.twitter.com/HTng72Sn6m
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) March 2, 2018
Unlike Nixon, Trump will not be caught talking to portraits in White House corridors. He has no clue who they are. https://t.co/u6aDGXXQnu
— David Simon (@AoDespair) March 3, 2018
CNN, “The Great Unraveling”:
Not since Richard Nixon started talking to the portraits on the walls of the West Wing has a president seemed so alone against the world.
One source — who is a presidential ally — is worried, really worried. The source says this past week is “different,” that advisers are scared the President is spiraling, lashing out, just out of control. For example: Demanding to hold a public session where he made promises on trade tariffs before his staff was ready, not to mention willing. “This has real economic impact,” says the source, as the Dow dropped 420 points after the President’s news Thursday. “Something is very wrong.”
Even by Trumpian standards, the chaos and the unraveling at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue are a stunning — and recurring — problem.
But there’s an up-against-the-wall quality to the past couple of weeks that is striking, and the crescendo is loud, clear, unhealthy, even dangerous…
It is difficult to overstate how much cable news coverage (and chyrons in particular) influences Trump — his moods, his impressions of other officials, his policy views, his political instincts https://t.co/wL8Wt3vLRT
— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) March 3, 2018
It’s this magisterial Washington Post report that seems to be getting the most attention:
Inside the White House, aides over the past week have described an air of anxiety and volatility — with an uncontrollable commander in chief at its center.
These are the darkest days in at least half a year, they say, and they worry just how much farther President Trump and his administration may plunge into unrest and malaise before they start to recover. As one official put it: “We haven’t bottomed out.”
Trump is now a president in transition, at times angry and increasingly isolated. He fumes in private that just about every time he looks up at a television screen, the cable news headlines are trumpeting yet another scandal. He voices frustration that son-in-law Jared Kushner has few on-air defenders. He revives old grudges. And he confides to friends that he is uncertain about whom to trust…
In an unorthodox presidency in which emotion, impulse and ego often drive events, Trump’s ominous moods manifested themselves last week in his zigzagging positions on gun control; his shock trade war that jolted markets and was opposed by Republican leaders and many in his own administration; and his roiling feud of playground insults with Attorney General Jeff Sessions…Retired four-star Army general Barry McCaffrey said the American people — and Congress especially — should be alarmed.
“I think the president is starting to wobble in his emotional stability and this is not going to end well,” McCaffrey said. “Trump’s judgment is fundamentally flawed, and the more pressure put on him and the more isolated he becomes, I think, his ability to do harm is going to increase.”…
Trump has been asking people close to him whether they think Kushner or his company has done anything wrong, according to a senior administration official. Two advisers said the president repeatedly tells aides that the Russia investigation will not ensnare him — even as it ensnares others around him — and that he thinks the American people are finally starting to conclude that the Democrats, as opposed to his campaign, colluded with the Russians…
Maybe somebody should check if his urine’s turned purple.
Even the ever-subservient NYTimes — “Trump’s Chaos Theory for the Oval Office Is Taking Its Toll”:
… Mr. Ruddy insisted that Mr. Trump was finding his groove in the Oval Office. But his subordinates are faring less well. With an erratic boss and little in the way of a coherent legislative agenda, they are consumed by infighting, fears of their legal exposure and an ambient sense that the White House is spinning out of control…
Morale in the West Wing has sunk to a new low, these people said. In private conversations, Mr. Trump lashes out regularly at Attorney General Jeff Sessions with a vitriol that stuns members of his staff. Some longtime advisers said that Mr. Trump regards Mr. Sessions’s decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation as the “original sin,” which the president thinks has left him exposed.
Mr. Trump’s children, meanwhile, have grown exasperated with Mr. Kelly, seeing him as a hurdle to their father’s success and as antagonistic to their continued presence, according to several people familiar with their thinking.
Yet Mr. Trump is also frustrated with Mr. Kushner, whom he now views as a liability because of his legal entanglements, the investigations of the Kushner family’s real estate company and the publicity over having his security clearance downgraded, according to two people familiar with his views. In private conversations, the president vacillates between sounding regretful that Mr. Kushner is taking arrows and annoyed that he is another problem to deal with.
Privately, some aides have expressed frustration that Mr. Kushner and his wife, the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump, have remained at the White House, despite Mr. Trump at times saying they never should have come to the White House and should leave. Yet aides also noted that Mr. Trump has told the couple that they should keep serving in their roles, even as he has privately asked Mr. Kelly for his help in moving them out…
i know i’ve been joking about this but it’s both entirely expected and legit terrifying that trump sparked an international economic incident because he had a bad day https://t.co/NpmC1PiZ1O
— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) March 2, 2018
Elizabelle
I think they’re trying to push Trump out and install Pence before the midterms. We know the FTF NYTimes will lead with going along with that.
John Revolta
The best part is gonna be hearing all the Repubs denying that they voted for the guy.
“Who? Drump? Never hearduvim. How ’bout them Cowboys??”
mai naem mobile
@Elizabelle: except Manafort is the one who got Pence the Veep slot and,I am guessing, has dirt on Pence. Manafort and Kushner seem to be in the.most trouble with Mueller anf I doubt Manafort goes down without taking down Dolt45 and/or Pence with him.
Mary G
@Elizabelle: Yeah, feels like “better cut our losses and the media who love a pivot will call us brave and call Mike Pence a great president and we will spend billlions and win the midterms.”
BruceFromOhio
Party before country.
PhoenixRising
@Elizabelle: My lovely wife, who is a lot smarter than I am, says that the reason House Republicans won’t act to limit Trump is that they know Pence is as compromised as he is, just less unbalanced. So they’re waiting to see who the next Gerry Ford is. And if you think about it…only craven opportunism and rank stupidity can explain their failures.
So I guess we’ll see what comes first: Manafort/Gates hand off Pence, who was their guy for the job, to Mueller…Mueller is fired…Pence resigns…Trump resigns…it’s like a game of musical chairs! Only not fun!
mai naem mobile
@John Revolta: they’ll say Dolt45 was a Democrat. I fully expect Fox to start calling him a Democrat once he gets into trouble.
JR
@mai naem mobile: No one knows anything, but in this scenario getting ahead of the midterms would be even more important for republicans, who would then have Ryan as president.
Elizabelle
Yeah, I want Pence the compromised out, and Ryan the crook, and bring on President Nancy Pelosi. All in time.
The Republicans stole the Executive Branch. We cannot have them keep it. I hope Mueller burns them so badly they’re getting food thrown at them in restaurants.
Jay
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YZuMe5RvxPQ
magurakurin
Meanwhile, Florida votes to arm teachers and declines to ban AR-15s. I thought arming teachers was just an unserious proposal and a distraction we should ignore…even though it already was the law in Texas…and now is in Florida.
they.are.more.insane.than.you.think.
light the match. light all the matches.
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@magurakurin:
This shit has got to stop. Can schools refuse?
magurakurin
scary graf from the WaPo article
This is coming from an Army Ranger with three Purple Hearts, two Silver Stars, and two Distinguished Service Crosses. The guy who lead the “left hook” armor attack in the Gulf war. If he’s alarmed, I’m frozen with fear.
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
Donald and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
Feebog
Trumpov is running scared. He knows his money laundering schemes with Russian oligarchs is on Mueller’s radar and it may finally be dawning on him that he has committed numerous acts of obstruction. He will never resign, and I doubt there are enough Republican votes to convict him even if impeached by a Democratic controlled House. Then we really will be in a constitutional crisis.
condorcet runner-up
Until they are able to replace Ginsburg and Kennedy with their own Federalist Society-approved Justices, the GOP Congresscritters will continue to eat all the shit that is shoveled their way.
Chyron HR
The olds buy “Trumpy bear” dolls to protect them from immigrants and liberals. The Redpilled Incels of Reddit call him their “God-Emperor” and think that he curses their enemies. Does the GOP really think they can just sweep him under the rug and say “No, you love Mike Pence now”?
magurakurin
@? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?:
who knows? Well, someone does. I don’t. It’s just madness.
I am more than willing to give up my 2nd Amendment right to own a gun. It should be a privilege not a right. But that will never happen, because even most people who don’t own a gun, don’t want a gun, and never will own a gun think it is “going to far.” whatever. invest in kevlar, I guess.
Jay
@PhoenixRising:
Meuller has to be fired “for cause”, by the ranking AG, and there’s 49 AG’s that Dolt45 would have to fire first, to get one to fire Meuller.
Major Major Major Major
@mai naem mobile:
I believe I saw Rick Wilson doing this just the other day.
Spanky
So does Vlad have info that would make Mother very angry? Or is Mother playing the Angela Lansbury part in this remake?
NCSteve
If only there’d been some sign. If only somebody had warned them. How could anybody possibly have known this would happen?
Oh well, the important thing is we were saved the inconceivable awfulness of a woman who gave paid speeches to investment bankers and took the going rate.
The Dangerman
Can we make sure that Fox and Fiends carefully enunciate their orders for lunch so that Trump doesn’t hear “launch”?
Matt McIrvin
@PhoenixRising: I think it’s simpler than that: Trump is still fairly popular, by the only metric that matters to them, namely Republican primary voters.
It’s not like the last days of Nixon. Nixon was down in Crazification Factor territory not that long after Watergate really started getting media traction. Trump still has 38, 40 percent of the country solidly behind him, and nearly all registered Republicans. Tens of millions of Americans are watching Trump’s lunacy (or some Fox-filtered version thereof) and deciding they like what they see.
artem1s
So are we finally done with the “look how presidential Donnie is being” articles? Looking at you NYTs. /ffs
Baud
@NCSteve: There are still people who will tell you that is the important thing.
It’s a disease.
Lapassionara
@magurakurin: Me too.
Spanky
@Feebog: Uh, sorry. No. The constitutional crisis started the minute the electoral college votes were finalized. If not earlier, when Mitch & Paulie obstructed Obama in warning the nation.
Major Major Major Major
@artem1s: Maybe if he bombs something again.
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@Chyron HR:
That whole “God-Emporer” thing is especially sad because that comes from the Warhammer 40k series. It’s a blatant parody of fascism as only fascism could possibly be appealing and “work” in a universe that is literally trying to kill all of humanity.
randy khan
That’s only because there’s no Obama portrait in the White House yet. He’d probably yell at that one.
NotMax
Pivot coming any day now….
:)
One cannot lose that which one has never possessed.
Matt McIrvin
@? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?: I first saw “God-Emperor” as a jibe from a Bernie fan (and tabletop gamer) who predicted Trump was going to win really early in the cycle and spent months “bracing for it”. He was posting Photoshops of Trump as the Warhammer guy as indications of the horror that was coming after Hillary lost. I have to hand it to him, he saw it way out.
Suzanne
I hope that Trump’s flameout is just unbelievably embarrassing. Like shit-his-pants embarrassing. God. I want them all to never show their faces in public again, and if they do, they get spit on.
Major Major Major Major
@Chyron HR: @? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?: And of course the “red pill” thing is based on a speech where a black man educates a white man about the world’s hidden oppressive machinery, written by two transwomen.
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: I’m afraid it’s going to be embarrassing only in the sense that millions of dead people are embarrassing.
John Revolta
@mai naem mobile: He actually was a Democrat once. They’ll make up a narrative where he was a stealth agent sent in to destroy the GOP.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin: Unless he predicted Russian and Comey’s interference, he was more “lucky” than prescient.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Josh Marshall has a few thoughts along these lines.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: It was more on “nobody I know likes Hillary” grounds. Among other things, he said that the notion of POC supporting Hillary was bullshit because he didn’t know any (he was mixed-race himself but lived in Vermont).
Another Scott
@magurakurin: As I read the 105 page PDF of the bill, the “Office of Safe Schools” is “school marshal” program set up by the Sheriff (p.12). IANAL, but I don’t see anything in the bill about arming school teachers.
Corrections welcome.
Cheers,
Scott.
(“Who thinks that the bill should do much more, but who also thinks that we should be accurate in our criticism of it.”)
Suzanne
@Matt McIrvin: Do you think he’ll off himself in a bunker?
John Revolta
@Elizabelle: The Republicans stole the Executive Branch.
Making pretty good progress in the Judicial also too.
Caphilldcne
@magurakurin: BARRY MCCAFFREY is a first class jackass who killed more Americans with his bullshit drug czar work than he killed Iraqis in the ridiculous left hook. He was regarded in the Clinton White House as a loose cannon who never should’ve been hired. Was one of the defense consultant mafia who got paid to carry DOD propaganda to CNN and other media. In short he’s not particularly trustworthy and mostly just adores being on camera. Just because he’s semi on the D side doesn’t mean he’s especially helpful or insightful.
Villago Delenda Est
This vile creature, and his Ivana spawn, all need to suffer for a very long time.
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@Matt McIrvin:
If I had my way those tens of millions would be deported to Russia where they belong.
“But I’m a citizen, I was born here! Here’s my birth certificate.
Me: *burns birth certificate* “That’s where you’re wrong, kiddo. Let’s see how you like being stuffed in a cage and deported to a country you don’t know.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I always figured Jared would flip on Pappy trump, with his old man and Lady McVanka whispering in his ears (“Is this a proffer I see before me”), but maybe trump or somebody around him can figure out a way to dump the whole thing on Jared
also, too
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@Major Major Major Major:
People are really fucking stupid.
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: He’ll starve to death in that bunker after all the KFCs have burned away.
Omnes Omnibus
@John Revolta: Reagan was once a Democrat too.
hellslittlestangel
Even by Trumpian standards, the chaos and the unraveling at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue are a stunning — and recurring — problem.
“Trumpian standards”? What an idiotic phrase. There are no fucking standards to apply to this senile monster.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin: POC voting was down slightly but overwhelmingly for her. We also have learned that the Russians were targeting POC with their disinformation campaign. Of course, plenty of people liked Hillary, but they were treated as non-people.
Suzanne
@Villago Delenda Est: I have a fantasy that Tiffany (or Marla—that would also be funny) is the one to bring it all down.
trollhattan
@BruceFromOhio:
…collapses in a smouldering heap.
Oh tarbender, make mine a double.
p.a.
Well thanks to the Party of Personal Responsibility and Treason Putin was really playing with house money in his destabilize/weaken plan, wasn’t he? Back Trump and win, and here we are. Back Trump and lose, and watch the Party of… cry vote fraud ™ and throw sand, wrenches, mangled copies of the Constitution etc. in the gears of the US gvt. as the Party of… continues its war against the (most recent) worst monster in history, Hillary Clinton. House money.
danielx
@? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?:
Amen.
Is it my imagination or does a lot of the oscar commentary seem aimed at giving a large fuck-you to lord shortfingers?
Ruckus
@Elizabelle:
I hope that they get the food thrown at them through bars. By the guards. I don’t want them to ever be able to walk into a restaurant or any place else public.
TS
It has taken the media 15 months to discover what most people knew at the inauguration. Anyone who screams he has the biggest crowd ever while surveying thousands of empty seats is unhinged if not downright insane. The campaign showed up how dumb he was with zero policies other than MAGA and let’s build a great big wall. His mind has long been gone.
Tim Illingworth
If only Hope Hicks would admit to a Presidential BJ…
Central Planning
@Matt McIrvin:
I’m not sure that is true, however, Dolt 45 is their guy so they will tell anyone who asks that they support him whether they agree with what he does or doesn’t do.
hellslittlestangel
@Suzanne: Melania in the Lincoln bedroom with the candlestick.
Sm*t Cl*de
Guardian:
Major Major Major Major
@? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?: yes, yes they are.
magurakurin
@Caphilldcne: so, then everything is copacetic? what a load off my mind.
magurakurin
@Another Scott:
all that firearm training is just for shits and giggles, I guess.
hellslittlestangel
@Sm*t Cl*de: Wow. That’s uncharacteristically witty of Steele.
Elizabelle
@Ruckus: I’m good with that, Ruckus.
Caphilldcne
Nope. I just think you should be less impressed by that particular dude. Oh and if trump’s starting to feel the hot breath of the law on his neck and doing destabilizing things that’s sad but inevitable. I’m not inclined to get too panicky and I’m putting my energy into issue advocacy and funding good house candidates to the best of my ability.
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@danielx:
I’m not watching but I hope so. All decent people hate him.
Boussinesque
@? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?: huh, I’d always assumed that the “God-Emperor” thing was a reference to the Dune series, when Leto fuses with a sandworm and becomes an immortal(-Ish) tyrant. I think the Warhammer version probably makes more sense. (Also, apologies if it’s already been pointed out, but shouldn’t it be “Amerikajin” instead of “-hito”? Unless that’s part of the joke.)
Achrachno
@Ruckus: Yes! But what more can we do to make it so? Electoral wipeout is the only thing I seem able to contribute to. And, that probably won’t be thorough enough: 80% reduction in repubs needed. Can we do better than 20?
Patricia Kayden
@magurakurin: Sigh. Florida voters are ok with this nonsense so nothing will change.
MomSense
@magurakurin:
I’ve been worried about this as well. He was making some pretty terrifying threats about North Korea around the end of the Olympics.
Another Scott
@magurakurin: I saw that too. Perhaps it’s semantics, but I read it as that training is for the people in the program run by the Sheriff. Maybe that program is open to teachers, but if so I wouldn’t expect too many teachers to sign up (time constraints if nothing else).
To be clear, I think more guns in schools – by people under some Sheriff program, or under some expansion of concealed-carry, or anything else – is a bad idea. But as I read this bill, it doesn’t require teachers to join (it doesn’t even require the Sheriff to set up such a program).
YMMV.
Cheers,
Scott.
Patricia Kayden
@mai naem mobile: Doesn’t matter. He’s their guy. Whenever I hear Joe Scarborough say that Trump was a Democrat, I just smile.
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@Boussinesque:
Dune is an influence of Warhammer 40k so you’re close.
I literally just used Google Translate so it might not be the most accurate.
magurakurin
@Another Scott: it definitely appears to be voluntary, but that seems beside the point. Allowing the creation of armed marshals in schools is insanity and this bill clearly does that.
eemom
How DARE you bigfoot Teh Oscars Thread, AL? Have you, at long last, no sense of priority?
SiubhanDuinne
@Suzanne:
In my fantasy, it’s young Barron using his expertise with the cybers who provides Mueller with the final elusive piece of evidence. But I’m happy with a scenario that involves Barron, Tiffany, and Marla all working together.
efgoldman
@Feebog:
I’m really not sure of that. Everything we’ve seen in the last two+ years suggests that he believes everything he says in the moment he says it. He’s always right. He cannot see consequences more than ten minutes ahead.
Listening to him is like listening to my four y.o. granddaughter, except she knows fantasy from reality.
Brachiator
@Elizabelle:
Fine. Whatever. I say, keep up the pressure. Drive the muthafucka mad.
SiubhanDuinne
@TS:
Ruckus
@Patricia Kayden:
The operative word being “was” a democrat. And not a very good one at that.
He’s a conservative republican racist by any stretch of any imagination. And has been for a very long time.
burnspbesq
@Suzanne:
I don’t think Tiff will finish law school in time to go to work for Mueller’s office.
Omnes Omnibus
@magurakurin: I am sure that everyone on a phone is happy with you right now.
Doug R
@mai naem mobile:
Hope you’re right!
Omnes Omnibus
@eemom: Must you be an asshole everywhere? Many people can multitask.
burnspbesq
@Tim Illingworth:
You think a 71-year-old morbidly obese man with undiagnosed and uncontrolled Type 2 (which is probably the least of the health issues he’s in denial about) can still get it up?
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
I’ve been saying for a while that I think it’s possible that he has Alzheimer’s and that could explain his current behavior. That and he’s becoming a cornered boar. (bigger than a rat and much nastier I’ve been told) He’s been able to get away with a lot of crap in his life, but nothing really protects him from himself now and he knows no other way but bullshit and bluster.
Omnes Omnibus
@burnspbesq: I prefer not to let my thoughts go that way at all.
efgoldman
@Ruckus:
It’s possible, and provides an easy explanation.
But he was a lying, racist, narcissistic, penny-ante thieving fabulist long before the onset.
Chet Murthy
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh c’mon, I found that comment by @eemom funny. And I detest all award shows and the buzz around them. Detest/detest/detest.
burnspbesq
@Omnes Omnibus:
That was a joke, actually. I can say with some confidence that Elaine gives nary a fuck about the Academy Awards.
Whether it was a good joke is for each to decide for himself or herself.
Major Major Major Major
@? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?: computers still aren’t very good at translating Japanese. Complicated language.
Jay S
@Major Major Major Major: I would be fine with Republican propagandists calling Trump a Democrat as long as he is gone.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chet Murthy: @burnspbesq: My opinion. And she and I have already traded opinions. Given that exchange, i should apologize for responding to her. My error.
ET
This is TOTALLY OT, but I had to share and hopefully everyone will watch this a few times.
Someone turned a camera on this little kitty watching Psycho I thik. So much tension. Hope the link works because I am terrible at doing this via smartphone.
Gin & Tonic
@Ruckus:
His current behavior can be explained by the fact that it is completely consistent with his behavior for the last 40 years.
Patricia Kayden
@Chyron HR: Yeah, I don’t see that happening either. The rabble wanted Trump. If they wanted someone safely and boringly conservative like Pence, they could have voted for Kasich or Jeb Bush.
Amir Khalid
For some sorely needed light relief, a YouTube video of a chicken playing the piano.
Another Scott
@ET: You’re right, it is hilarious. It showed up in a comment yesterday or so. The original is from HappyCatFamily on Instagram.
:-)
Cheers,
Scott.
HumboldtBlue
@PhoenixRising:
Kasich is trying to situate himself as the next Ford.
Amir Khalid
@Major Major Major Major:
They aren’t very good at translating between human languages in general.
Another Scott
@Amir Khalid: Chicky doesn’t like the red dot at all!!
:-)
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Tenar Arha
@ET: I love that one! Seen it twice past two days. Kitty settling in to watch very cute.
Major Major Major Major
@Jay S: it’s extremely bad for our polity, and country, if the republicans just keep no-true-Scotsman-ing every republican leader who is terrible (all republican leaders). They either have to learn from their mistakes or be kept from power forever, and right now both of those look pretty hard. So no, I’m going to be mad when a republican propagandist starts slinging that kind of bullshit.
@Amir Khalid: the quality has accelerated very rapidly very recently, with notable exceptions like Japanese.
efgoldman
@HumboldtBlue:
He shouldn’t hold his breath.
Gerry Ford, at least. was popular and well-liked by a wide variety of politicians from both parties. Of course, in those days, Republiklowns acted like a real party actually interested in governing.
HumboldtBlue
Let’s go fly a kite. Up to the highest height.
Amir Khalid
@PhoenixRising:
Gee, I don’t know about that timeline. Everything I’ve read says it’s going to take a lot of work to fire Mueller — more work, and more difficult work, than the Trumpenvolk are equipped to do.
Suzanne
@burnspbesq: I have zero doubt that Dampnut hasn’t had a good boner or fuck in months, if not years.
Small comforts.
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@Major Major Major Major:
I’m ok with that. A lot of people have seen how awful the GOP is, tho.
lamh36
We interrupt Oscar news:
Amir Khalid
@Major Major Major Major:
Good enough to pass as a human translator? Or is that still some distance off?
Steeplejack
A side detail that I find particularly disturbing in all this is that the friends, confidants and advisers that Trump turns to in phone calls during his “executive time” late at night and in the morning seem to be an unholy collection of grifters, political hacks, sycophants and hangers-on. Not a statesman or a serious policy wonk among them, that I’ve read about.
Just in the stories quoted here:
And we know he had dinner the other night with Wayne LaPierre and some other NRA ghouls. And he is in regular contact with Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro from Fox News. Plus apparently he still talks to Steve Bannon, Roger Stone and God only knows who else. Oh, yeah, Rupert Murdoch.
CNN:
Washington Post:
So Trump ends up in a fact-free echo chamber where this is his grasp of the situation:
None of these people can tell Trump he’s wrong, because they’ve been his toadies and yes-men for the last 30 years. And I don’t see a group of the current Republicans in Congress driving over to the White House to tell Trump what’s what and give him a reality check, as some did with Nixon and Watergate. The current GOP is all Slim Pickens “let’s ride the bomb down.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lamh36: oooh hold on to your hats for the early morning tweets
Another Scott
@lamh36: Interesting. DailyBeast:
That witness is going to be very busy…
Cheers,
Scott.
p.a.
@lamh36: @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Not long now, tweeting, rolling ball bearings, talking about the missing 2nd scoop of strawberry icecream.
smike
@Steeplejack: The Republicans have yet to pay a price for their perfidy, hence “let’s ride the bomb down.” When they are out of power they simply stay in grifter mode, continue to profit, and leave Democrats to fix what they broke. True capitalists. Capitalism is flawed, me thinks.
Cheryl Rofer
This seems to be the same subpoena that Axios scooped earlier in the evening. It looks like the witness who received it is shopping it around.
Emptywheel speculates a bit. Jared’s and Don Jr’s names are not on the list. Is one of them the witness who supplied the subpoena? Hard to imagine, but this story has had a lot of twists and turns.
Also, the subpoena starts just before Felix Sater sent an email to Michael Cohen linking a real estate deal and Trump’s becoming president.
fuckwit
@magurakurin: is he not also the vainglorious war criminal that massacred retreating iraqi troops along miles of highway?
SFAW
@lamh36:
@Another Scott:
Yarrow? YARROW!!! Stop watching the Oscars!! We need you to bless this thread with your special “blessing.”
debbie
Couldn’t be happening to a more deserving guy.
Mike in NC
@p.a.: The problem is that Hope Hicks was the one to spoon feed Fat Bastard his famous two scoops of dessert ice cream. Now she is gone!
SFAW
@Cheryl Rofer:
KellyAnne? Nazi-wannabe Steve Miller? Jill Vladimirovna Stein?
ETA: I just threw “Doctor” Stein’s name in there because I can’t stand that evil motherfucker, not because I think she was subpoenaed. Yet.
Suzanne
@SFAW: Maybe we’ll summon him if I say it?
eemom
@Omnes Omnibus:
Um, stalker freakazoid? I thought we agreed to be done with each other.
dmsilev
@SFAW: Since it’s movie night, could we instead substitute the theme from Jaws?
eemom
@burnspbesq:
Hey, PAUL? Stop doxxing my name. Thx.
Amir Khalid
@SFAW:
While we wait for Yarrow:
Der Müller Gottes mahlt langsam, doch er mahlt außerordentlich klein.
efgoldman
@Steeplejack:
And he wouldn’t listen or understand if they did. “Lalalalala”
@SFAW:
I’ve got it covered.
Tick-tock motherfuckers
Also fuckem
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus:
Doing your best Bobby Mueller impression? [Meaning: asking a question for which you already know the answer.]
Omnes Omnibus
@eemom: I thought that we agreed that we were not friends and nothing more. No contact? Okay.
mike in dc
Only a matter of time before the depo subpoena for Trump comes. Expect the meltdown to accelerate then, and pick up speed with every indictment.
efgoldman
@fuckwit:
I think that was Schwarzkopf, but I could be wrong
Jay S
@Major Major Major Major: The thing about the no true Scotsman Republican argument is that it divides the die hard Trumpists from the party. That will be a major crack in what I hope will be part of the complete fracturing of the party. It’s only bad for “the polity” if a large enough segment buys into the BS. They may try, and they may succeed with some of the party, but I see it as a self inflicted wound at that point. To hope that the party comes to its senses for the good of the country is a hope against evidence.
SFAW
@burnspbesq:
Bullshit. His “doctor” said that his BMI is 29.5. He also said that Shitgibbon is a stable genius, and I believe him.
Meaning diabetes? If so, seems unlikely.
SFAW
@efgoldman:
I think Yarrow would be OK with you pinch-hitting.
efgoldman
@SFAW:
Why, given what we know about his diet and habits?
Diabetes is epidemic in this country. Don’t believe it? Watch the drug commercials on the shows old people watch
Davebo
@Major Major Major Major: Complicated by the fact that Japanese rarely say what they mean.
magurakurin
@efgoldman: McCaffrey was accused by Seymor Hersh of obliterating an Iraqi column after the ceasefire. But the point isn’t that he is a good guy, or a hero, or whatever, the point is the guy has been in the shit, for real, in Vietnam as a captain in combat and elsewhere as a commanding general. Now maybe he is lying through his teeth about being alarmed and worried, but…oh fuck it.
magurakurin
@Davebo: this actually not entirely true. People do say what they mean, but one has to learn to read between the lines quite deftly. Also, too facial expressions are very, very important…but they are much subtler than say an American’s facial expressions. 23 years of marriage has taught how to do both, kind of, a little.
efgoldman
@magurakurin:
I don’t believe any talking head; I always expect them to be self-serving. I’m rarely disappointed.
And I stopped watching CNN aeons ago.
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
Nicht Wahr?
auch
Ihr naht euch wieder, schwankende Gestalten?
[That last part is apropos of nothing, I was just being fustian.]
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@magurakurin: I saw someone criticizing John Brennan for getting so political, saying much the same kind of thing as McCaffrey. Brennan strikes me as a pretty button down kind of guy, and I think if he’s speaking out as strongly as he is, it’s because he can’t quite believe, as I can’t, what the Republican party, and far too many of the American people, are just kind of shrugging at.
Suzanne
I love our commenters’ great signature lines:
“Tick tock, motherfuckers”
“Fuckem”
“Uh huh uh huh”
“I’m a bitter, washed-up, mean drunk”
So many great ones for the ages.
magurakurin
@efgoldman: fair enough. probably wise policy as well.
SFAW
@efgoldman:
Oh, I agree he would seem to be at high risk for diabetes. I just think that, were he to be diagnosed with it:
A) We’d have heard about it, and the measures needed to treat it (assuming he’d need more than dietary control, since that is probably not something he’d do) would not remain hidden
B) Were he not to use diet or meds to control it, his health would be a lot worse by now
Standard Disclaimer: not a doctor, don’t have diabetes, but I know little enough to be dangerous.
poleaxedbyboatwork
Tap, tap, tap.
Is this thing on?
(Test cuz last comment got eated.)
magurakurin
@SFAW: seems like a reasonable assumption to make…but for the world’s sake, I hope you are mistaken and it is untreated…
SFAW
@Suzanne:
How can that be a “signature” line if it applies to about 30 or so of the commenters here?
efgoldman
@SFAW:
Not a doctor, either but diabetic (type 2) leading inevitably (if you live long enough) to kidney failure
Apparently his family genetics have the constitution of a Clydesdale. Good for them. I don’t..
Omnes Omnibus
@SFAW: Only 30?
SFAW
@magurakurin:
Does he need to sign one of those documents (a la West Wing) saying that in case he becomes incapacitated, Dense becomes Acting Preznit? Or does the 25th kick in, whether he signs one or not? [Why yes, I AM too lazy to look it up, why do you ask?]
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus:
Good point. I’ve edited it to improve accuracy.
efgoldman
@Omnes Omnibus:
Well I’m bitter, washed up, and mean, but definitely not a drunk. Don’t buy stock in distillers if you’re counting on me
Major Major Major Major
@Amir Khalid: not there yet, no.
Suzanne
@SFAW: Most of the drunks here are quite nice, or are at least amusing.
efgoldman
@Suzanne:
But in the morning, will they remember what they said?
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: People can re-read the thread if needed.
SFAW
@efgoldman:
In the morning? Hell, I don’t remember what I wrote five minutes ago.
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus:
Can I get Hope Hicks to read it to me? So she stays in practice, of course.
Omnes Omnibus
@SFAW: One may want to contact her. I wish you the best with this.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Jay S:
Cannot disagree more vehemently. (No offense.) ‘Member the last days of Junior Bush’s reign of error? ‘Member how alla the loud-mouthed right-wing dickheads who voted for Jr. Bush — loudly, proudly n twicely — alla sudden at the end, after Bush had fucked up the goodwill of the world after 9-11 and insolently invaded Iraq just cuz he could, n after the casual cruelty of malign neglect of Katrina (just like Puerto Rico; ah, the verities of Republican governance), and after — this really done it for white folk! — after, horrors!, Bush fucked up the economy, by God, my stars *then* Bush wasn’t even conservative nomores. Nossir. Then he was just another big-spendin’ profligate liberal interloper fuckin up the grand unified theory of conservative (Republican) governance.
Which is about the time that every starfucking dickhead who proudly n loudly n insolently voted for Bush twice alla sudden became like Peter denying the crucified (loser!) Republican Jesus. Nope, now George W. Bush was a liberal. Why? Cuz he failed.
Think digby put it best: “Conservatism cannot fail. It can only *be* failed.
So why’zit matter? I think it do cuz right now — as we fucking speak — every conservative dickhead in creation is looking for the lifeboat offa the sinking failure of the — quite pointedly — *Republican* Trump admin. We’re talking chickenshits and opportunists and career grifters like Andrew “Fifth Column” Sullivan and David “Both Sides” Brooks and Joe “What-this-dead-girl-doing-in-my-office?” Scar and David “Axis-of-motherfuckin’-evil” Frum and “Butcher” Bill Kristol and Peggy “NoonersFluffer” Noonan and Rush “Sex Vacation” Limbaugh and Sean “Sophistry-in-Defense-of-Treason” Hannity and every garbage human you can think of who has aided and abetted this atrocity — every motherfuckin one is looking for the lifeboat to escape. So as to rehabilitate their careers and escape culpability for helping to bring us the logical motherfucking conclusion to 40 years a Republicanism.
Point being: Trump is merely the STD symptom of the disease. Granted, Trump is awful. But what ain’t said nearly enough is that Trump is the culmination — the apotheosis — of 40+ years of movement conservatism. He is not sui generis, a freak who *took over* the party. Trump is a reflection of the Republican Party and until we as a people see that clearly, it will remain impossible to excise the cancer upon the body politic.
Getting rid of Trump would lessen the chances of a cataclysmic event, that I will grant you. But dismissing Trump w/o confronting and vanquishing radical Republicanism will leave us vulnerable and susceptible to the next eruption.
fwiw, I think it matters, cuz otherwise the spawn arise in the next gen (viz. Cheney n Rumsfeld from Tricky Dick, who never shoulda been pardoned,, etc.).
Mike J
Am I the only person who when he sees a virtuoso like Eddie Van Halen play Eruption, think of nothing more than, “stop wanking, start rocking“?
I mean I understand how technically accomplished he is, but so fucking what?
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: No. Punk had a point.
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
Very true, he was.
You did leave out self deluded asshole though.
@Gin & Tonic:
As above, I agree with both of you. But my point was that he had limits before. Those seem to be gone now. And that is a symptom.
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus: Amir is gonna woodshed until he gets too good to hang out with us.
Suzanne
@Mike J: You’re not alone. I feel much the same about the Eagles. Great musicianship and yet….uhhhhhh booooored.
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
What he inherited from Clydesdales was the ability to create large amounts of shit. He just uses a different orifice to dispense it.
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
Phuck no. They are ALL going to jail
Doug R
@Amir Khalid: Played tic tac toe with a chicken at the PNE. Tied it, at least.
Mnemosyne
@Matt McIrvin:
Given that we now know that the Republicans and Russians microtargeted voters of color to suppress turnout by spreading BS like the “superpredators” thing, he may have been more right than he knew, but he didn’t realize that he was repeating Russian propaganda.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@rikyrah:
Would’t it be pretty to think so?
Serious question: You believe that?
Me, I’d like to, they certainly deserve it, but if life has rather rudely made one thing rather prickly plain, it’s that life ain’t fair. Most oft scumbags and assholes and even, yes, traitors, skate. Especially in the upside-down world of IOKIYAR.
Viz. Scooter “We’s-Just-Kiddin!Can’tcha-Takea-Joke?” Libby. And Dick “Stovepipin-Darth” Cheney. And Fitzmas. And guilty-as-fuck Nixon pardoned. And Reagan-Bush skating for merely selling weapons to terrorists to fund an illegal war in Central America. (Yawn.)
In my heart a hearts, I’d liketa see the Dems take both the House n the Senate by wlldly unexpected margins, have the indictment-evidence hammer drop on the entire Trump admin so fucking *both* Trump n Pence (unjustly ignored for an angel w/sucha dirty face), get impeached n (mirabile dictu) convicted n then have us some Preznit Pelosi.
The keening butt-hurt crybaby lamentations would be epic.
Which ain’t like to happen. But a boy can dream.
Chet Murthy
@poleaxedbyboatwork: PB, I’m with you (and Elizabelle) in my wishes, and with you in my fears/suspicions. There’s really only one thing we can do, and I’m certainly going to do it: no more will I ignore the question of whether some acquaintance voted for Twitler. It’ll be one of the first questions I ask everybody I ever meet, for years.
Yeah, it’ll lose me friends. But shit, if we all did it (and let’s remember, we outnumber the traitors) we could drum them out of polite society. For real.
efgoldman
@poleaxedbyboatwork: If you’re going to become a regular around here, please speak (write) English. The language affectation gets old really fast.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@efgoldman:
Ha! Sez Mr. Fuckem. (But that leitmotiv is presumably A-OK cuz you say it. Noted.)
Well, hello, how are you, efgoldman? Nice to make your judgmental acquaintance!
(Are you telling me, inna purty objectively dickish way, to get off your lawn? Cuz I ain’t your monkey.)
Anything else you feel the need to unburden yourself of?
prostratedragon
What’s all this I’m hearing about a newly disclosed (actually sent last month) subpoena for more documents?
The subpoena seeks documents that involve S. Bannon, M. Cohen, R. Gates, H. Hicks, C. Lewandowski, P. Manafort, C. Page, K. Schiller, R. Stone, and D. Trump.
efgoldman
@poleaxedbyboatwork: I’m sure if this were earlier in the day I wouldn’t be the only one.
ETA: You’re not worth it.That’s what the pie filter is for. Goodbye.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@efgoldman:
The infamous appeal to authority. Keep diggin.
Purty sure I ain’t in the bidness of turning over rocks in your manner of expression. It would be nice, and, I think, not asking too much, for you to either learn to be a civil human being or ignore my posts. Cuz pecking at how I write might scratch an itch for you, but it makes you appear rather small.
Just sayin’.
ETA: Ah, the supercilious send-off. Cuz I’m “not worth it”, sez the guy who stuck his oar in the water to bullyrag me about how the way I write ain’t conforming to what he thinks is proper. Consistent, you are. Bossy, disappointing. But consistent. (You and Emerson’s hobgoblins live in the same house, apparently.)
El Caganer
@fuckwit: What, you never saw Apocalypse Now? “Oh. You’re looking at the heads. Sometimes he goes too far….but he’s the first to admit it!”
sukabi
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): to Josh Marshall I’d say “no shit, that’s been painfully obvious for the last 2 years”.
Should be embarrassing for a grown ass man to be that oblivious, especially since his chosen profession is “journalism”.
SFAW
@poleaxedbyboatwork:
So of the three comments I’ve read by you in this thread, one was too cute by half, and the other two apparently were an attempt to raise your dickishness quotient. And the “purty” and “bidness” crap is better suited to a Cracker Barrel menu. But I’m sure you think you are being witty.
You’re half right.
Gex
I guess it all depends on whether or not you want someone to read your comments I guess. Write however you want, but just know if you are going to go out of your way to make it extra work to read your comments a lot of people won’t. I didn’t even get through the first one, no need to let someone demand extra work from me just because they think it’s fun.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@SFAW:
Astonishing! That’s the name of my bidness: Too Cute By Half.
Wow. Impressive! Are you psychic?
SFAW: I am not engaging you — perhaps you’ve somehow failed to notice? And yet you feel obliged to slag on me. That, of course, is your prerogative.
But, like efgoldman, it just makes you seem petty. And small.
But go for it. Still a (mostly) free country.
cain
@mai naem mobile:
How would that fly because during the election, liberals had their democrat – Hillary Clinton. So to say that he’ sa democrat now seems nuts when every republican pull the lever for Trump because he was a Republican.
PIGL
@John Revolta: Historically this sort of thing leads to the declaring of Republic n+1.
SFAW
@poleaxedbyboatwork:
Poor baby, sorry if I hurt your feelings.
Please alert me/us when you decide to write something that’s not an attempt to show how impressed you are with your own “cleverness.”
poleaxedbyboatwork
@SFAW:
Feelings ain’t hurt. Little befuddled by the weird reax, but fuckit, life is a carnival.
Just get the impression you’re [acting like] a classless boob.
(Not that you *always* are a classless boob — that remains to be seen, course. But it *is* a distinction with a — charitable — difference for them’s that wanna give folks — like you, SFAW — the benefit of the doubt even when seemingly dog-piled for no apparent fucking reason apart from you disapprove of how I communicate.)
Frankensteinbeck
Like Trump being about to axe Mueller, I’ve heard this story before.
@Major Major Major Major:
I’m not sure it’s the complicated part. If anything, I bet it’s the simple part. Specifically, the (relatively) small and specific number of syllables. The same verbal repetition and overlap that makes it so fantastic for puns must give translation programs hives.
Archon
It’s getting more and more difficult to see how this ends well.
Fair Economist
@SFAW: We’ve had only two doctor’s reports on Trump, from that nut in NY and from the supposed Presidential physical, and they were both transparent lies. So we can’t assume we’d have been told if Trump had a significant medical condition like diabetes.
Amir Khalid
@cain:
It’s not about truth. With Fox News and its audience, it’s about stoking partisan sentiment.
Frankensteinbeck
@Fair Economist:
The presidential physician is not ‘supposed’, but the report he gave was certainly weird and suspect. I do think we’d have heard about diabetes, but Trump has just been put in a diet. Perhaps that’s the sign?
@Amir Khalid:
I think it’s about the racists’ terrified imaginings of what the world MUST be like. Then again, that aligns so closely with partisan sentiment, it might be a distinction without a difference.
Joey Maloney
@burnspbesq: I just presumed Tim meant Hicks on the receiving end.
Bruce K
@SFAW: The letter thing a la West Wing is Section 3 of the 25th; if the President becomes incapacitated without signing off, then Section 4 applies (VP and a majority of the Cabinet formally inform the president pro tem of the Senate and the Speaker of the House that the President’s incapacitated).
…I’m just praying right now that there’s a tidal wave in favor of the Dems this November, closely followed by Bobby Three Sticks delivering a slam-dunk open-and-shut case against both Trump and Pence…
SFAW
@poleaxedbyboatwork:
As you semi-morons used to say, “Whatevs.” Maybe the rest of your Creative Writing class — do they still do that in 8th Grade? — will tell you how your song stylings are oh-so-arch. Then again, maybe bot central has figured out how to use enough slang and referents to get the half-wit thing down pat? Don’t know, don’t care enough to waste additional time.
Just remember to switch hands, or use Cornhuskers, μαλάκας
SFAW
@Fair Economist:
Understood. I was just of the opinion that, were he to have (diagnosed) Type 2 diabetes, we’d have heard about it, and were he to have undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes, we’d already be seeing some serious effects. But, as I noted above, I know only enough to be dangerous.
SFAW
@Frankensteinbeck:
Hadn’t heard about that. Three Big Macs per day instead of five?
poleaxedbyboatwork
@SFAW:
Is your stumbling collection of insults and insipid dark allusions sposed to evince wit?
Perhaps you are a classless boob. Was hopin for your sake it was just an act but you’ve gamefully lived down to your first impression.
SFAW
@poleaxedbyboatwork:
My, my, my. Seems like your butthurt continues to grow. Still waiting for something intelligent (other than your apparent thesaurus at-the-ready) to come from you.
Let me know when you reach puberty. Actually … don’t.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@SFAW:
Am beginning to suspect that you smugly think that because you are known in this community that you can act like a classless boob with impunity. Perhaps you can! Or perhaps not. No matter.
Think it quite amusing that you impute butthurtedness to me. You are making genuinely insipid insults and acting childishly. It’s like a war of wits with an unarmed adversary.
It’s not a good look, but you keep right on fucking that chicken. Maybe you’ll find a pony yet.
Vhh
@Matt McIrvin:Er, not what i remember. Nixon remained at 70%+ approval among GOP voters until a couple of months before the end. We also know now that Sen Howard Baker was the WH mole on the Senate committee investigating Watergate. The GOP was then, as now, very keen on authoritarianism.
SFAW
@poleaxedbyboatwork:
You seem to like using the word “classless.” Based on your initial “comment,” I would not have guessed you’re a Republican, but your projection betrays you.
OK, now toddle off to Roget’s, have Mommy explain the big words to you, so you can write another clueless comment, half-wit.
I’ve tried to dumb my comments down, because you’re clearly not capable of better.
Fred
@randy khan: If there was an Obama portrait in the White House Trump would hire prostitutes to pee on it. A’course DC prostitutes aren’t as good as Moscow prostitutes (Uncle Vlad said so, really he did) but give ‘em enough beer* and they will get the job done.
*Is there a Trump brand beer? I’m sure it would be awful. And expensive too.
Amir Khalid
@poleaxedbyboatwork:
Get over yourself, you long-winded poltroon.
ruemara
@Matt McIrvin: He wasn’t prescient, he was probably a participant.
poleaxedbyboatwork
This reply post was originally made 11 minutes after SFAW’s last lame attempt at wish fulfillment. Subsequent to its original posting, it has been deleted — by someone –three times (not saying it’s SFAW; I have no way of knowing who, just know that — weirdly — it has been deleted three times). I find this funny and perplexing and irritating. If it is deleted again, I will make it a point to find out why.
———-
@SFAW:
You are hi-larious. I think … you think … (and this is what’s really funny) that you thinks you sound impressive, like you’ve scored alla these righteous sockdolagers, lIke your lambent wit is self-evident.
You gives me the unmistakable impression of the man in the story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” in which you are the brave spirited hero of every fantasy. A fabulist to be sure except … kinda mean.
If you were funny or imaginative in your fabricated insults, you might not be so tedious. But … you are not.
More’s the pity for you.
_____________
My reply at #205 was posted at 8:16, then it disappeared. Weird. Now both disappeared.
Hmm. Curiouser and curiouser.
In any event, SFAW, I gather that you will stick around to get the last word if it meant waiting till the cricks all rise and the earthenworms all drown, so allow me to forthwith yield the field.
Think it only fair to say what I think of you: that, with me anyway, you are a fabulist and a chickenshit. Your straw men retorts are laughably unconvincing and your japes are unworthy of a bright middle-schooler, but you’ve got your pride to salve, so carry on as best you’re able.
Now you can play Magic Fire Music and invoke some incantations and chortle with wry satisfaction over your breezy winsome unconquerable brilliance you are sure to display.
Life’s too short to squander being bored and disappointed by the displeasure of your company.
You’re on. Make the most of it.