Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

T R E 4 5 O N

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

I was promised a recession.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Accountability, motherfuckers.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Come on, man.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

I really should read my own blog.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Exactly according to plan…

Exactly according to plan…

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Sarah Huckabee Sanders wants you to know that recent developments in the North Korea negotiations — like the North Koreans threatening to pull out of the planned summit after Trump had already ordered a selection of Nobel Prize display cases — are totally expected, and everything is going according to plan:

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that North Korea’s threat the previous night to withdraw from planned negotiations with President Donald Trump was “something that we fully expected.”

“The President is very used (sic) and ready for tough negotiations, and if they want to meet, we’ll be ready, and if they don’t, that’s okay too,” Sanders told reporters outside the White House. “And we’ll continue with the campaign of maximum pressure if that’s the case. But like I just said, if they want to meet, the President will certainly be ready, and we will be prepared, but if not, that’s okay.”

“[I]f the U.S. is trying to drive us into a corner to force our unilateral nuclear abandonment, we will no longer be interested in such dialogue and cannot but reconsider our proceeding to the DPRK-U.S. summit,” North Korean negotiator Kim Gye Gwan said Wednesday.

Kim specifically noted National Security Adviser John Bolton’s talk of following the “Libyan model” for disarmament in North Korea: Libya disarmed and complied with international inspections, but, left unsaid by Bolton, its dictator was later violently murdered in the streets.

Sanders distanced herself from Bolton’s comments Wednesday, saying “I know that that comment was made. There’s not a cookie cutter model on how this would work.”

“This is the President Trump model,” she added. “He’s going to run this the way he sees fit. We’re 100 percent confident, as we’ve said many times before, and as we all know that you’re aware, he’s the best negotiator. And we’re very confident on that front.”

Jesus, we’re doomed.

Reader Interactions

247Comments

  1. 1.

    NotMax

    “See? Precisely why we have no plans. That way we’re ready for any contingency.”

  2. 2.

    Stan

    Being “100 % confident” is the kind of thing utterly ignorant people say….you have to be really clueless about what you’re doing in any field to be 100% confident in an outcome. If you know nothing it’s easy to be confident.

    I like to work with people who are highly competent and acknowledge that they may have a “high degree” or “low degree” of confidence in some project, but 100% ? Sure sign of an amateur.

  3. 3.

    Elizabelle

    How’s Badger today?

    It’s pouring in central VA. He would not like it here, for purposes of elimination. Got to say, rain falling and the sound of car wheels on wet pavement; I love having a window open to listen to the rain.

  4. 4.

    Yarrow

    “This is the President Trump model,” she added. “He’s going to run this the way he sees fit. We’re 100 percent confident, as we’ve said many times before, and as we all know that you’re aware, he’s the best negotiator. And we’re very confident on that front.”

    “He’s the best negotiator?” WTF? How is this real life?

  7. 7.

    AnotherBruce

    Every thing she says is bullshit, and she’s not even a competent turd polisher. Not surprising, given her upbringing.

  9. 9.

    Yarrow

    @clay: She is speaking FOR that person. She is speaking to the press, who laps it up and repeats it verbatim. It’s disgusting.

  10. 10.

    Walker

    @jeffreyw:

    I hear Yearel. I don’t know where these two choices come from (Actually I do — it has to do with frequency sensitivity or my lack thereof in certain bands).

  11. 11.

    Corner Stone

    @Yarrow:

    and as we all know that you’re aware

    I want to know if someone then asked, “We are aware? How would we be aware of this? Beyond his multiple bankruptcies and his failed hush money scheme to a porn star?”

  13. 13.

    trollhattan

    he’s the best negotiator

    How long before Possum Queen bleaches her hair and swirls it around her thick skull? She more Trumpier by the day, as boggling as that is to ponder.

  16. 16.

    Adam L Silverman

    From a Russian document: “One of the serious problems in planning against American Doctrine is that the Americans do not read their manuals nor do they feel any obligations to follow their doctrine.”

    From a German General: “The reason that the American Army does so well in wartime is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices chaos on a daily basis.”

    From an Anonymous American: “If we don’t know what we are doing, the enemy certainly can’t anticipate our future actions!”

  18. 18.

    Yutsano

    @Yarrow: Can’t give up that sweet sweet access. I swear all they want is to be treated like they’re important to the process.

  19. 19.

    MJS

    @Yarrow: Exactly. For once, couldn’t one of those reporters grow a spine and say something like, “No, no one here knows he’s ‘the best negotiator’. He has multiple bankruptcies, other business failures, and relies heavily on NDAs. Why would anyone think ‘he’s the best negotiator’?”

  20. 20.

    gene108

    @waspuppet:

    We’ll be lucky to get out of this without losing Hawaii.

    Maybe part of the plan. If Hawaii is no longer part of the USA, then Obama was never legitimately President or something.

  21. 21.

    rikyrah

    @Yarrow:

    “He’s the best negotiator?” WTF? How is this real life?

    We know it’s bullshyt, and because it’s bullshyt, it just feeds our rage at being in this situation.
    It’s the reason why my rage hasn’t abated since November 2016.

  22. 22.

    Teddys Person

    @clay: I agree. Those who don’t contantly praise Dolt45 will be punished and the verbal beatings will continue until adolation is resumed. Content doesn’t matter as long as the bestest most awesome words are used to flatter Trumpov. SHS’s job is not to speak for the president. She’s his number one fluffer. And the press contort themselves into pretzels trying to normalize this freak show.

    Edited for typos

  23. 23.

    vhh

    @Adam L Silverman: Winston Churchill, himself half American, apparently said something like: “You can count on the Americans to do the right thing, after they have exhausted all other possibilities.” The shorter French version the same thought is “Les américains ont la tendance de foncer avant de penser, au lieu de penser avant de foncer.” Alexis de Tocqueville, who wrote “Democracy in America” as well as a much less well known similar book about Russia, concluded that the US and Russia were similar in that being large countries stretching over much of a continent, they did not recognize limits to behavior, and that therefore, the fate of the world was in their hands.

  26. 26.

    p.a.

    @Adam L Silverman: Foreign Intelligence Services: current American domestic policy best predicted by putting 10 toddlers in a room and seeing what the most vicious one does. Foreign policy by seeing what the room looks like after several hours.

  27. 27.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Total amateur hour at Foggy Bottom and NSC. All the professionals left long ago.

  28. 28.

    different-church-lady

    @Adam L Silverman:

    From a German General: “The reason that the American Army does so well in wartime is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices chaos on a daily basis.”

    Shooting from behind rocks and trees and stuff, instead of lining up in a neat row.

  30. 30.

    rikyrah

    There are 10,598,177,817 total shares in #Rosneft.

    Manafort mentions 133m shares in his Trump Tower notes.

    If he means Rosneft, that’d be almost exactly 1.25% of total.

    Is that amount the “commission” mentioned in Steele dossier?

    18.25% to investors, 1.25% to Trump = 19.5%?

    — Greg Olear (@gregolear) May 16, 2018

  31. 31.

    Yarrow

    @MJS:

    Exactly. For once, couldn’t one of those reporters grow a spine and say something like, “No, no one here knows he’s ‘the best negotiator’. He has multiple bankruptcies, other business failures, and relies heavily on NDAs. Why would anyone think ‘he’s the best negotiator’?”

    Exactly.

  32. 32.

    clay

    @Yarrow: Ah, you may think she’s speaking FOR that person, and that may indeed be her job description, but in truth everything she says is directed TO that one set of orange, misshapen ears.

  37. 37.

    NotMax

    Vacancies R us.

    The White House has eliminated the cyber coordinator role, an Obama-era position key to developing a cohesive policy for the federal government to fight back against hacking and other digital threats, according to a Tuesday Politico report.

    Per Politico, National Security Adviser John Bolton floated the idea of eliminating the position last week, and an email sent to staffers Tuesday confirmed that the position would be ended in an effort to “streamline authority.” Source

  38. 38.

    JGabriel

    “The President is very used (sic) and ready for tough negotiations, and if they want to meet, we’ll be ready, and if they don’t, that’s okay too,” Sanders told reporters outside the White House. “… But like I just said, if they want to meet, the President will certainly be ready, and we will be prepared, but if not, that’s okay.”

    La di da di da, whatever will be will be, it’s the end of the line you see, que sera sera.

    American global leadership at it’s most decisive! Only the best!

  40. 40.

    Corner Stone

    “As we know you are all aware, the sun now rises in the West. The Trump admin’s plan of maximum pressure has forced the other large orange ball of gas in this galaxy to comply.”

  42. 42.

    Betty Cracker

    Regarding the Yanny and Laurel thing, I hear both clearly — “Yanny” at a high register, and “Laurel” at a lower one. I must be some kind of freak.

    @Elizabelle: Badger isn’t happy about the weather, which has continued rainy. He’s doing great, though. I have to restrain myself from posting and tweeting pictures of him every 20 minutes. He’s so damn cute and funny!

  43. 43.

    different-church-lady

    @Betty Cracker:

    Regarding the Yanny and Laurel thing, I hear both clearly — “Yanny” at a high register, and “Laurel” at a lower one. I must be some kind of freak.

    Someone call me in my fortified bunker when this is over.

  44. 44.

    hitchhiker

    There are people who think he did well in business. They believe he’ll be a tough negotiator, because they don’t know that his usual methods (stiff people, then bury them with lawsuits, then go bankrupt) aren’t available to him now.

    His main asset is unlimited shamelessness, and Sarah/Lydia appears to have a healthy supply of that herself.

  45. 45.

    Mary G

    Today’s tweets were the worst yet – we are going to negotiate with China, we don’t know what their demands are going to be, but we’re not giving them much. WTF? You already told them we ‘re waiving the ZTE sanctions and you have no idea what you’re getting in return? That’s called bidding against yourself and is a failure of Negotiating 101.

  48. 48.

    Corner Stone

    @Yutsano:

    Can’t give up that sweet sweet access. I swear all they want is to be treated like they’re important to the process.

    It’s all about being a preening, savvy, camera whore. They are the ones *in the know*. They know it’s all a scam and a game, but unlike us rubes who are outraged and baffled, they play it cool, and savvy.
    It takes just a few minutes of watching a press briefing to see one of them spend 45 seconds mau mauing a question out of their piehole to realize what they are really up to. Then you see one of them on a pundit show giving that knowing grin and little head shake. Because they realize the absurdity of it all but saying it out loud would ruin the fun. Kasie Hunt is one of the worst at that inane impish grin when she’s “reporting” on some nonsense.

  49. 49.

    Corner Stone

    Hey it’s another day ending in Y. Rand Paul is doing Rand Paul again and mugging for camera attention.

  54. 54.

    terraformer

    I’ve finally discovered who Huckster reminds me of: Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, the former Iraqi Information Minister. Everything’s always great, going exactly as planned.

  56. 56.

    Dread

    A snip of an audio file was just sent to me by someone who says they’re a time traveler…

    Trump: Kimmy, may I call you, Kimmy?
    Kim: No. And may I say what large and impressive hands you have, Mr. President.
    Trump: Thank you, Kimmy, I’m glad you noticed. Now look, we can’t have you building nukes that can hit America. Some of my voters live there.
    Kim: Okay, we will stop new ICBM tests. (Because we’re confident in our existing supply.)
    Trump: That is great news.
    Kim: In exchange, we would like a formal end to the Korean war and the withdraw of your troops from the Demilitarized Zone.
    Trump: I think we can do that. What about nuclear tests?
    Kim: We will suspend nuclear tests. (Because our testing site collapsed.)
    Trump: You are a great man. What can we do for you?
    Kim: Renewed economic aid.
    Trump: Done.
    Kim: And lastly, we put the great name of Trump on our tallest, most impressive hotel, the Ryugyong Hotel that stands majestically over Pyongyang.
    Trump: I knew you were okay. Everyone else tried to tell me you were a bad man, but I said, “I know Kimmy is a good guy. Great guy.”
    Kim: Thank you, Mr. President. We would also like Hawaii.
    Trump: Deal. It’s not even a part of the United States.

  59. 59.

    JGabriel

    @MattF:

    What am I supposed to do with all these monkeys and all these typewriters?

    Contract them out to the Trump communications office and speech-writing team.

  60. 60.

    JGabriel

    @terraformer:

    I’ve finally discovered who Huckster reminds me of: Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, the former Iraqi Information Minister. Everything’s always great, going exactly as planned.

    Baghdad Barb?

  61. 61.

    TenguPhule

    We’re 100 percent confident, as we’ve said many times before, and as we all know that you’re aware, he’s the best negotiator.

    That SHS did not immediately explode into a pillar of flame after uttering that flat denial of reality is proof that there is no loving God.

  64. 64.

    Adam L Silverman

    @terraformer: The differences is that her family isn’t being held hostage as a threat that if he didn’t go out and lie on behalf of Saddam Hussein, they’d get 9mm retirement parties. She’s doing this willingly.

  66. 66.

    stinger

    @MJS: They wouldn’t even have to do this. They could just laugh. The entire WH press pool should laugh whenever PQ tosses out one of her ludicrous lies. It would reduce her to incoherent rage, and they’d enjoy their day a lot more.

    Laughter is powerful, and IMO isn’t used enough to push back against lies, racist demagoguery, and complaints that a clerk is speaking SPANISHfergawdssakeImcallingICE.

  67. 67.

    Brachiator

    I am convinced that Trump wants the N Korea summit because he was not invited to Prince Harry’s wedding, and is over-compensating.

  70. 70.

    TenguPhule

    @Mary G:

    That’s called bidding against yourself and is a failure of Negotiating 101.

    Escalating into Trump getting into a bidding war against himself.

  71. 71.

    TenguPhule

    @Corner Stone:

    They know it’s all a scam and a game

    its all fun and games until as Dr. Silverman said, they get brutalized and killed by the rubes who really believe what the head rube is saying.

  73. 73.

    TenguPhule

    @stinger:

    They wouldn’t even have to do this. They could just laugh.

    Sometimes I think they have Stockholm’s syndrome.

  76. 76.

    YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)

    @Betty Cracker: When I listen over my Chromebook speakers I hear Laurel. When I use my bluetooth headphones I hear Yanny.

  78. 78.

    TenguPhule

    @Dmbeaster:

    Nobel Prize for taking chaos theory to never before experienced heights.

    Lows. New lows.

    its a wave particle after all.

  88. 88.

    Mart

    Bipartisan senate committee says the NRA and Russia played dirty together to elect Trump.

  94. 94.

    TenguPhule

    @trollhattan:

    Heh. Bolton, the Bushie that keeps on giving.

    He’s like a demented Easter Bunny that’s secretly a serial killer.

  96. 96.

    trollhattan

    Christ on a cracker, Florida Man cannot ever be allowed in the classroom. If my kid were in that class there would be hell to pay.

    Florida teacher drowns ‘nuisance animals’ in front of class — then catches another to kill ‘just for sport’

  100. 100.

    Corner Stone

    @Mart: From the excerpts I have seen of that Senate report so far, this is going to be one nasty ass document against Trump et al. Oh, and DJT JR is even dumber than one had imagined he could be.

  102. 102.

    Yarrow

    @Corner Stone: The Senate document is just the beginning. Junior is an idiot, for sure. Ivanka is smarter than both her brothers but her time will come.

  103. 103.

    TenguPhule

    Huh, the FYNYT is breaking Trump’s Cohen payments under his required financial disclosure.

    $100,000 for reimbursements to third parties.

  105. 105.

    Aleta

    @trollhattan: Sadistic toward the kids as well as the animals. Someone who takes pleasure from causing pain or distress is no teacher.

  106. 106.

    NotMax

    @Yarrow

    Ivanka is smarter than both her brothers

    Assumes facts not in evidence.

    More clever – perhaps. Smarter? Pfeh.

  107. 107.

    catclub

    @TenguPhule:

    proof that there is no loving God.

    some where I read something along the lines of:
    “I don’t believe in God, but the God I don’t believe in is a loving God, a merciful God, not your cruel old testament God.”

    which seems even sillier once I write it down.

  108. 108.

    JGabriel

    @Yarrow:

    Ivanka is smarter than both her brothers …

    … Which is kind of like saying Ivanka is smarter than a brick and a peanut, combined.

  114. 114.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @trollhattan:
    I guarangoddamntee you that this instance is far from the first time this horrible man has killed and tormented animals for “fun,” and I further feel very comfortable in suggesting that he is, or at least has been, a child molester and/or domestic abuser.

  115. 115.

    Yarrow

    @NotMax: @JGabriel: It’s not saying much, that’s for sure. Perhaps clever is the better word. She’s figured out how to get what she wants, even if it means breaking law. Her brothers are not nearly as good at it as she is.

  116. 116.

    sukabi

    @Yarrow: you’ve got to remember that ALL statements this administration puts out are for exactly 1 person and one person only.

  117. 117.

    Libraryguy

    Help!

    Just spoke with my absentee landlord. Nice person. Hasn’t kept up with bills for our place (and others). :( “A little short right now”.

    Anybody feel like some shopping (early Father’s Day?), you can do it here. We need to raise about $500 over the next few days.

    I’ll post this again later, because I have to go yell at the clouds.

  119. 119.

    The Moar You Know

    “This is the President Trump model,” she added. “He’s going to run this the way he sees fit. We’re 100 percent confident, as we’ve said many times before, and as we all know that you’re aware, he’s the best negotiator. And we’re very confident on that front.”

    In a civil society, every member of the press corps at this point would pack up all their shit and walk out, never to return until the next president takes office. Let that beast of a press sec spew her garbage to Fox and Breitbart, but the rest need to stop acting like anything these people say is newsworthy. It isn’t. It’s just fucking lies from the opening to the final statement.

    The press can report on the admin’s actions – and probably do so better – without ever having to set foot in that briefing room again.

  121. 121.

    The Moar You Know

    Help!

    Just spoke with my absentee landlord. Nice person. Hasn’t kept up with bills for our place (and others). :( “A little short right now”.

    Anybody feel like some shopping (early Father’s Day?), you can do it here. We need to raise about $500 over the next few days.

    I’ll post this again later, because I have to go yell at the clouds.

    @Libraryguy: And…now I know who you are. Nice new nym.

  122. 122.

    germy

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I guarangoddamntee you that this instance is far from the first time this horrible man has killed and tormented animals for “fun,”

    My experience with animal abusers and murderers is that they build elaborate moral justifications in their minds. The animal was a “nuisance” or “destroying property”.

    Sometimes they come up with “I just want to put it out of its misery” (This last excuse was from a co-worker many years ago. A small bird flew against the window of our workplace. It was stunned and laid on the ground next to the building. My co-worker rushed out, ready to wring its neck. Before he could get to it, the bird shook its head, flapped its wings a bit, and flew off.)

    We all knew he just wanted to kill something. It had nothing to do with mercy.

  123. 123.

    sukabi

    @trollhattan: what’s the class called Children of the Corn?

    They need to check the teachers basement, he’s serial killer material.

  124. 124.

    trollhattan

    @Aleta: @SiubhanDuinne:
    Completely agree and if the parents aren’t down to the school and school district HQ with pitchforks demanding he be removed they’re complicit in any future misdeeds.

  128. 128.

    Tokyokie

    @stinger: The mother of one of my best friends has the greatest hoot of a dismissive laugh I’ve ever heard. She leaves no doubt that the object of said laugh was not even worth arguing with. But then, she’s a Holocaust survivor and sort doesn’t give a shit how right-wingers feel.

  129. 129.

    Jeffro

    BREAKING: Trumpov’s financial disclosures do indeed note the Stormy Daniels payment (via Cohen). Hey Trumpkins, tell us how you feel about that – I guess Ms. Daniels’ didn’t make it up, and I guess Mr. “I Never Settle”…settled.

  130. 130.

    TenguPhule

    Donald Tusk condemns Trump administration

    What are the odds that the names would be so damn similar at this moment in time?

    The threat posed by Donald Trump’s administration has been likened to that of China and Russia by Donald Tusk as he condemned the US’s withdrawal from the Iran deal and threat of a transatlantic trade war.

    At the start of an EU summit in Bulgaria, the European council president offered a withering condemnation of Trump’s White House. He said: “We are witnessing today a new phenomenon: the capricious assertiveness of the American administration. Looking at the latest decisions of Trump, some could even think, ‘With friends like that, who needs enemies?’”

  132. 132.

    sukabi

    @TenguPhule: I guess his series of lectures will be cancelled…pretty sure it was a “Becoming…” series. The first one was “Becoming Gacy”….

  133. 133.

    Kay

    “He’s going to run this the way he sees fit. We’re 100 percent confident, as we’ve said many times before, and as we all know that you’re aware, he’s the best negotiator. And we’re very confident on that front.”

    They do think he’s the “best negotiator” though. That’s true.

    What she meant was not that they’re confident that he’ll make a good deal, she meant they’re very confident they will continue to believe he’s “the best negotiator” no matter what actually happens and that’s a safe bet :)

    You want to hate the Trumpsters but really, you can’t argue with some of it. When Trump says “you love me because I’m good for media business” I’m thinking, “he’s got a point there!”

  134. 134.

    Jeffro

    @NotMax: he can use Jared’s special “oopsie” pencil for filling out disclosure forms…it’s got an eraser on it the size of an apple…

  136. 136.

    Kay

    And, really, what does “best” mean anyway? He says he’s best. At everything. That’s good enough for me.

    “Be Best”. Turns out it’s as easy as saying you’re best, over and over and over. It’s the perfect Trump slogan.

    This is the definition of “best”, btw:

    excelling all others

    But are words, really….

  137. 137.

    The Moar You Know

    When Trump says “you love me because I’m good for media business” I’m thinking, “he’s got a point there!”

    @Kay: Last year – and I don’t have a source and could well be horrendously wrong – I recall reading somewhere that if you took all the coverage given Trump during the election, tallied it up at the going rate for advertising, that Trump got over a billion dollars in free advertising from the media during his run.

    I also recall the same source mentioning that the media made far more off him during the same period.

  144. 144.

    Elizabelle

    @Jeffro: Hmmm. Suppose it’s not the payment to Stormy (although it likely is). Suppose it’s part of the 1.6 million to the pregnant Playmate?

    I do not ever want to see anyone else run for the White House, Senate, or governor without disclosing a long series of recent previous tax returns. Good on California for keeping tax return disclosure evaders off the presidential ballot.

    (In non-elective office, it would have saved Baltimore a lot of embarrassment. Their police commissioner just resigned; hasn’t paid taxes in 3 years. Can’t folks screen for that? I mean, really … You probably already know about the Charm City tax evader, since it’s almost local, but still….)

  145. 145.

    Gelfling 545

    @Corner Stone: Dumber? Then how does he maintain respiration & heart beat? Because I imagined pretty dumb. As in not as smart as his father levels of dumb.

  146. 146.

    stinger

    @Gex: It was a Code Pink activist, not a reporter, at a Senate hearing, not a press conference, and a judge overturned her conviction. Unless there’s another incident I didn’t hear about.

  150. 150.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    Unbelievable but unsurprising. Of course this would be spun this way. Trump cannot fail! He never makes mistakes!

    If Obama had done this he would have been impeached by now.

  151. 151.

    Bill Arnold

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Total amateur hour at Foggy Bottom and NSC. All the professionals left long ago.

    Bolton’s work, this is. It’s deliberate[1], it’s not subtle (he thinks it’s deniable I’m sure, and maybe even thinks it’s subtle), so I’m seriously wondering whether DJ Trump realizes that Bolton is making these moves to monkey-wrench a collection of paths to peace that he (Bolton) personally dislikes. (A few world regions involved.)
    [1] Disclaimer: IMO. Also irritated so could be emotional bias at work, downplaying (the probability of) some of the other possible scenarios.

  152. 152.

    Brachiator

    @Jeffro:

    BREAKING: Trumpov’s financial disclosures do indeed note the Stormy Daniels payment (via Cohen). Hey Trumpkins, tell us how you feel about that – I guess Ms. Daniels’ didn’t make it up, and I guess Mr. “I Never Settle”…settled.

    Ha, ha, ha! Love it.

    It’s funny how Rudy G tried to get in front of this with his stupid clumsy media performances recently. Instead of the old lie, “Trump never settles,” we got the new lie, “rich people like Trump settle all the time.”

  154. 154.

    Bill Arnold

    @Yarrow:

    “He’s the best negotiator?” WTF? How is this real life?

    It’s not. It’s farce. It might even be deliberate farce at some levels. Think of Sarah Huckabee Sanders as a Pro-Wrestling announcer.
    The general tit-for-tat bombast is, granted, a new approach Not sure what positive net effect it has other than perhaps to humanize Trump (and the US by proxy) in KjU’s mind. (While scaring the shit out of some of the rest of us.)

  155. 155.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Old School:

    Thanks for the audio link. The way people were discussing it, I thought those were names of two singers I’d never heard of and the trick was to guess whose voice it was. This makes marginally more sense, although it’s still pretty stupid IMO.

    (For the record, it’s ‘Yanny.’ Definitely ‘Yanny.’ Also, the dress is gold and white.)

  156. 156.

    Chet Murthy

    @jeffreyw: Oh, interesting. I listened to it also, and heard Yanny. Then, based on reading elsewhere about how bass response of speakers might be relevant, I cranked up the volume and voila! Lauren. Turns out, the treble response of my speakers isn’t so awful, but if you crank up the volume, you can swamp it with bass, I guess.

  160. 160.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    But like I just said, if they want to meet, the President will certainly be ready, and we will be prepared, but if not, that’s okay.”

    This reads like they are pleading with NK not to call it off.

    Shorter Trump “I would like totally bang that chick so hard, chicks dig a romancer like me you know. But hey, if she says no I am totally cool with it, in fact beyond cool, because Donny doesn’t creep on chicks who secretly dig him but won’t admit it, but if she changes her mind then I am totally up her skirt”

  161. 161.

    jonas

    @Jeffro: The whole web of lies he’s spun around this is basically to preserve his “I never settle” image. His excuse is that Cohen — mensch that he is — stepped up totally on his own and made a payoff to Stormy (who was totally lying about their affair) to save Trump the embarrassment of a sex scandal and that when Trump found out about it, he playfully brushed his fist across Cohen’s chin, going “Awww, you!” and reimbursed him the 130k.

  163. 163.

    Brachiator

    @Bill Arnold:

    Total amateur hour at Foggy Bottom and NSC. All the professionals left long ago.

    Bolton’s work, this is. It’s deliberate[1], it’s not subtle (he thinks it’s deniable I’m sure, and maybe even thinks it’s subtle), so I’m seriously wondering whether DJ Trump realizes that Bolton is making these moves to monkey-wrench a collection of paths to peace that he (Bolton) personally dislikes. (A few world regions involved.)

    But freezing out of professionals happened with Tillerson at the State Department, and is happening with other agencies as well. And there are still many vacancies in key offices. It is entirely possible that Bolton may try to take advantage of this.

    But it also appears that Trump does not know how to execute the office of president of the United States, and that he is also trying to recreate the way that he runs his Trump businesses. He and his fluffers try to sell this as the president reducing the size of the federal government, but he doesn’t seem to know what is essential and what might be streamlined.

  164. 164.

    jonas

    Trump’s innovative “ready, shoot, aim” approach to international arms control agreements is really paying off!

  165. 165.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Yarrow

    : “He’s the best negotiator?” WTF? How is this real life?

    At lest she didn’t call Spanky “The Master Debater”

  166. 166.

    glory b

    @germy: I think that was the excuse Mike Huckabee used to justify his son killing a dog. It had mange, according to them, and it was a mercy.

    Of course, he (allegedly) hung it and set it on fire IIRC.

  168. 168.

    Aleta

    @NotMax: I’ve noticed Kushner and DJ and their so-called communications dept have redefined achievement as “we told someone to get this done and gave them a deadline” + “no one else has been able to do this in XX years of trying.” (To be used for campaigning and brand of course.)
    Lately it’s also: “the achievement is that he kept a promise to a rw group.” Standing ovation.

    Success = “we’ve come up with a conclusion to the situation.”
    Leave out the results over time, leave out the opinions of the affected people.

  169. 169.

    NotMax

    @jonas

    That’s what fixers do. Happen to know someone (respected, serious and credible, was a White House counsel when those were upstanding lawyers) who knows someone who is a fixer for a major, major banking concern (begins with C). That person receives an annual retainer (read: slush fund) of $2 million to do the ‘fixing.’

  170. 170.

    germy

    Jane’s been quiet lately.

    In light of what happened at Burlington College, it's telling how Jane Sanders unequivocally states in this 2011 Burlington FreePress article that she has secured a $1 million loan from a VT woman who wishes to remain anonymous. Of course, that was not true. pic.twitter.com/Ex0mrLJBLM— m. mendoza ferrer (@mgranville1) April 28, 2018

    Jane Sanders secured a matching $1 million gift from Tony Pomerleau, per below, based on the above gift she never secured. Since neither gift materialized, Burlington College went bankrupt. Pomerleau advised Sanders on college land deal he also saved https://t.co/UWuOwvCg0P— m. mendoza ferrer (@mgranville1) April 28, 2018

    Interesting, too, that Sanders bestowed honorary doctoral degrees to Pomerleau and his wife after he helped her secure the bank loans to purchase land from the Catholic Diocese in 2011 – thanks to his "relationships." pic.twitter.com/bmAkZ6zA4E— m. mendoza ferrer (@mgranville1) April 28, 2018

    It seems pretty clear that Jane Sanders misrepresented to the Board of Trustees at Burlington College – and possibly to the banks – the money that had been raised to secure the loans. How the banks allowed this to happen without actual documentation is also highly suspect.— m. mendoza ferrer (@mgranville1) April 28, 2018

  172. 172.

    ET

    I know I shouldn’t put this to writing in case our overlords The Cats find out, but that is one of my favorite pictures on the Internet.

  175. 175.

    stinger

    @SiubhanDuinne: Now I’m wondering if there is a link — do those who see a yellow dress hear Yanny and those who see blue hear Laurel? Or are the traits randomly distributed? Or is it purely the software, and you might hear one on your phone and the other on your laptop or someone else’s phone?

  176. 176.

    Amir Khalid

    For you jackals who’d like a taste of Schadenfreude at the sight of a corrupt leader going down, I present Najib. The Royal Malaysian Police have spent the first evening of Ramadhan paying him a visit at his private residence. This raid, unlike the reported raid earlier this week on a condo rented by his family members, was confirmed by the police. They were looking for documents related to 1MDB.
    I’ve heard that now that The Official One is no longer an official and has no more immunity from his office, law enforcement in several countries — France, Switzerland, the US — might intensify their investigation into his doings.

  177. 177.

    YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)

    @Old School:

    People are hearing the same recording say different things.

    A literal human dog whistle.
    @JPL: “A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest”

  178. 178.

    Barbara

    @Yarrow:

    Ivanka is smarter than both her brothers but her time will come.

    I don’t know that this is true. Her perceived greater smartness is due to her obvious assessment that she needed to be financially independent of her father. She seems as clueless as her brothers on every other matter under the sun.

  180. 180.

    SFAW

    @jeffreyw:

    It’s Yanny and all you Lauren kids get offa my lawn.

    What’s really weird is that Mrs. SFAW hears “Luxury yacht” and I hear “Throat wobbler mangrove.”

  182. 182.

    Humdog

    @Amir Khalid: This seems breathtakingly fast. How great to see justice happening against the elite, at least somewhere. Good on your voters for rejecting the crook!

  183. 183.

    Mary G

    I’m sure one of you FPs will put up something about the NYT’s “Crossfire Hurricane” story. I almost reinstated my subscription so I could write a furious comment.

    About the infamous article where the NYT said there was no evidence about Trump:

    In the Clinton case, Mr. Comey has said he erred on the side of transparency. But in the face of questions from Congress about the Trump campaign, the F.B.I. declined to tip its hand. And when The New York Times tried to assess the state of the investigation in October 2016, law enforcement officials cautioned against drawing any conclusions, resulting in a story that significantly played down the case.

    Ya think?

    Looking back, some at the Justice Department and the F.B.I. now believe that agents could have been more aggressive. They ultimately interviewed Mr. Papadopoulos in January 2017 and managed to keep it a secret, suggesting they could have done so much earlier.

    “There is always a high degree of caution before taking overt steps in a counterintelligence investigation,” said Ms. McCord, who would not discuss details of the case. “And that could have worked to the president’s benefit here.”

    Jim Comey has a lot to answer for.

  184. 184.

    SFAW

    @Betty Cracker:

    I have to restrain myself from posting and tweeting pictures of him every 20 minutes.

    Oh, thanks be to FSM! I don’t think my heart could stand that much cuteness, unabated. And I’m not even a “dog person.”

  186. 186.

    But her emails!!!

    @jeffreyw:

    I originally heard Yanny it then transitioned to Lauren and now that’s the only thing I hear.

  189. 189.

    SFAW

    @germy:

    creativity and arts in education and society.

    Is that the latest euphemism for “creative accounting”?

  190. 190.

    SFAW

    @germy:

    Ascension of the Conservative Murdoch Son Ensures New Fox Will Be a Lot Like Old Fox

    Just like with Pinche’ Sulzberger, as of 1/1/18.

  194. 194.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @stinger:

    I could probably make a case for any of those scenarios, but based on the commenter who heard one thing on a mobile and the other on a desktop, I’m thinking it’s specific to the hardware/software more than to the wetware :-)

  195. 195.

    germy

    The Journal reports on a poignant conversation with Trump in November 2017 in which Cohen, marooned in New York, said, “Boss, I miss you so much. I wish I was down there with you. It’s really hard for me to be here.” At some point, perhaps, the poignancy will come home. Cohen might look in the mirror and see not a tough guy but a sap, and his supreme loyalty to Trump as not empowering but foolish. Perhaps he might even come to share or at least appreciate the revulsion Trump inspires in so many.

    Then—not tomorrow, or next week, but in good time—Cohen’s emotional mindset might fall into line with his self-interest in avoiding a long prison sentence. And the stage may be set for the most loyal of the president’s men to tell all.

    https://www.lawfareblog.com/flipping-michael-cohen

  197. 197.

    PPCLI

    @Mary G:

    And when The New York Times tried to assess the state of the investigation in October 2016, law enforcement officials cautioned against drawing any conclusions, resulting in a story that significantly played down the case.

    “There is no FBI investigation” is not “playing down the case”.

  198. 198.

    YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)

    @SiubhanDuinne: It’s both hardware and wetware. Some people will never hear one set of frequencies, but different hardware may not produce some of the frequencies. There have already been several frequency filter analysis that confirm that what you hear can be explained by what frequencies you are hearing. The dress issue is more complex, but color fidelity across monitors is a known problem and may play a role in the perception as well as visual responses.

  199. 199.

    Mary G

    @PPCLI: The NYT is still not acknowledging getting rolled:

    In late October, in response to questions from The Times, law enforcement officials acknowledged the investigation but urged restraint. They said they had scrutinized some of Mr. Trump’s advisers but had found no proof of any involvement with Russian hacking. The resulting article, on Oct. 31, reflected that caution and said that agents had uncovered no “conclusive or direct link between Mr. Trump and the Russian government.”

    The key fact of the article — that the F.B.I. had opened a broad investigation into possible links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign — was published in the 10th paragraph.

    A year and a half later, no public evidence has surfaced connecting Mr. Trump’s advisers to the hacking or linking Mr. Trump himself to the Russian government’s disruptive efforts. But the article’s tone and headline — “Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to Russia” — gave an air of finality to an investigation that was just beginning.

    Democrats say that article pre-emptively exonerated Mr. Trump, dousing chances to raise questions about the campaign’s Russian ties before Election Day.

    Just as the F.B.I. has been criticized for its handling of the Trump investigation, so too has The Times.

    Passive/aggressive much?

  201. 201.

    germy

    @Mary G: I wonder what a fly on the wall inside their latest editorial meetings would hear. Lots of angry sputtering, I imagine.

    I think the editors are pissed off about all the criticism. They don’t take criticism well.

  206. 206.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @The Moar You Know: @stinger:

    Oh, I think you’re quite wrong. Libraryguy offers value for money, with excess going to animal rescue causes. JPork … doesn’t.

    ETA: And the style seems to me to be quite different.

  207. 207.

    The Moar You Know

    Just as the F.B.I. has been criticized for its handling of the Trump investigation, so too has The Times.

    @Mary G: The self-righteous butthurt in that one sentence is positively jaw-dropping.

  208. 208.

    Brachiator

    @Amir Khalid:

    For you jackals who’d like a taste of Schadenfreude at the sight of a corrupt leader going down, I present Najib. The Royal Malaysian Police have spent the first evening of Ramadhan paying him a visit at his private residence. This raid, unlike the reported raid earlier this week on a condo rented by his family members, was confirmed by the police. They were looking for documents related to 1MDB.
    I’ve heard that now that The Official One is no longer an official and has no more immunity from his office, law enforcement in several countries — France, Switzerland, the US — might intensify their investigation into his doings.

    I’ve heard bits of this story on BBC Global News and the News Hour, but I greatly enjoy your take on it. Thanks much.

  210. 210.

    Mary G

    @germy: It looks like they’re censoring the comments, too, so far. All of them blame Comey, the FBI, and Hillary so far. A surprising number say the article proves the whole thing is a witch hunt. Not one syllable about the Times.

  214. 214.

    Mary G

    They are showing their bigotry more and more openly:

    Trump: "We're taking people out of the country — you wouldn't believe how bad these people are. These aren't people. These are animals."He says the U.S. has "the dumbest laws on immigration in the world."— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) May 16, 2018

  215. 215.

    Kay

    @Mary G:

    The mood in early meetings was anxious, former officials recalled. Agents had just closed the Clinton investigation, and they braced for months of Republican-led hearings over why she was not charged. Crossfire Hurricane was built around the same core of agents and analysts who had investigated Mrs. Clinton. None was eager to re-enter presidential politics, former officials said, especially when agents did not know what would come of the Australian information.

    I’m sick of this excuse. I don’t care if they were “eager” to re-enter Presidential politics. Why didn’t they just do a straight good job to the best of their ability and let other people say what they want?

    I mean, seriously. Enough of their anguish. The anguish is voluntary. They’re supposed to be professionals. Just do the job and let the chips fall where they may. All of this THINKING they did just made it worse.

    You know, they failed. They lost credibility anyway. So all that anguish was for nothing and they could have skipped all the gaming out scenarios and it would have been BETTER.

    Follow the rules and the process. The rules and process are designed to protect them from accusations of bias. That’s all they had to do.

  216. 216.

    Mnemosyne

    I didn’t place in the writing contest I entered AND I fucked up at work and cost my department a couple thousand dollars. Today sucks.

  217. 217.

    Kay

    @Mary G:

    Also, it doesn’t inspire a lot of faith in their CURRENT ability to investigate ANY of this if they are still indulging in this idea that they somehow have to suss out what people might say before they do their jobs!

    They don’t! It’s BETTER if they stop doing that! Stop agonizing. They have permission. They have a whole set of elaborate rules and process to ENSURE they don’t have to agonize.

  218. 218.

    Mary G

    Well, Collins, Kennedy of Louisiana and Lisa Murkowski all broke ranks to vote for net neutrality today, but it means nothing because the House won’t take the issue up?

  219. 219.

    Mary G

    @Kay: Exactly. If Comey had followed the rules and kept his mouth shut, none of this would be happening.

    Mr. Comey has said he regrets his decision to chastise Mrs. Clinton as “extremely careless,” even as he announced that she should not be charged. But he stands by his decision to alert Congress, days before the election, that the F.B.I. was reopening the Clinton inquiry.

  225. 225.

    Corner Stone

    @Mary G:

    Jim Comey has a lot to answer for.

    Comey should have never been hired as FBI Director in the first place. And he should have been subsequently fired asap after his Summer 2016 press conference where he broke every dept rule in the book and indicted HRC without forwarding an actual indictment. Comey then would not have felt “compelled” to send his fucking letter to Congress in the waning days of the election.

  226. 226.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @satby:

    I have not ordered from Libraryguy’s online store, but several months ago he introduced himself and his products and my memory is that some BJ commenters shopped there and were pleased with their purchases. His entire approach and style is very different from JP’s. I’m glad you encouraged Libraryguy to link his website to his nym.

  227. 227.

    stinger

    @SiubhanDuinne: (I don’t know how to add in satby) I’d be glad to be wrong, but the “somebody else did something bad, and now I need money quick” is JPork all over. If you’re getting actual, nice products, that seems like a step upward. But re-read the excuse for the bleg — it doesn’t hold water.

  230. 230.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Mary G: JFC, is that a REAL quote? What the hell?

    The vast majority of people Trump is exporting are normal immigrants, no issues. And he’s kicking out even more people who’ve been here as refugees for decades and have been contributing normally.

  231. 231.

    stinger

    @Mnemosyne: Argh, sorry to hear it. Hang in there — most people who are in there doing things, do things wrong from time to time.

  233. 233.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @stinger:

    My approach to JPork was always to just ignore his blegs. Should I eventually become persuaded that Libraryguy = Jurassic Pork, I’ll do the same with him. But for the moment I prefer to extend the benefit of the doubt.

  234. 234.

    Mnemosyne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):

    To be fair, I was competing against published authors. I’m still curious to know where I placed, though.

    I realized yesterday that I’m having trouble getting myself to do my rewrite because I’ve never gotten this far before. I’ve never had a finished draft of a novel that then needed rewriting. I always got frustrated and gave up halfway through.

    I have now ordered a couple of books on rewriting (“The Last Draft” and James Scott Bell’s book from the WD series) but it was kind of odd to realize that I wasn’t sure what to do next because I’d never had a completed rough draft before.

  235. 235.

    Yarrow

    @stinger: I’m not sure it’s the same person. Cole frontpaged his request for business to his store in December. It includes his and his wife’s names. Here’s a followup post frontpaged by mistermix. Maybe he is JPork and they both fell for it, but he’s got a different style, gives his name, and links to his store.

  236. 236.

    Mnemosyne

    @stinger:

    If it is JP under a new name, he finally figured out that he needed to give value for his blegs, so that’s a step forward.

    G is going to take me out for a drink tonight, so that will help with the annoyance of today.

  237. 237.

    Mary G

    Eric Wemple at WaPo has a good article trolling the NYT: New York Times acknowledges it buried the lead in pre-election Russia-Trump story:

    The upside of the New York Times’ aggressive coverage of the FBI investigation into Russian election meddling is that the American public is learning more and more about recent history. The downside is that the newspaper keeps bumping into its archives.

    and

    The key fact of the article — that the F.B.I. had opened a broad investigation into possible links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign — was published in the 10th paragraph.

    That’s one heck of a concession: We buried the lead! In their book “Russian Roulette,” authors Michael Isikoff and David Corn report that editors at the New York Times “cast the absence of a conclusion as the article’s central theme rather than the fact of the investigation itself,” contrary to the wishes of the reporters.

    and

    In response to Comey’s blast, Baquet told this blog, “I think the headline was off but if you read the story I think it was NOT inaccurate based on what we knew at the time. Sort of like the Hillary Clinton story that turned out to be right.”

    Credit the New York Times for the self-criticism couched in the Apuzzo-Goldman-Fandos story. More such caveats may be necessary as the paper continues to examine the back story of the 2016 election.

    So at least he’s admitted that the headline was wrong. Why is it so hard for these people to say: “Hey, we really screwed that up, sorry.”

  239. 239.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MisterForkbeard:

    JFC, is that a REAL quote? What the hell?

    It sure is. If you click through to the original tweet and scroll down about three comments, there’s video. He said it and he meant it. Fucking sociopathic monster (no offense to actual fucking sociopathic monsters).

  243. 243.

    Jeffro

    Looks like there may have been a criminal referral for Trumpov for lying on that financial disclosure form…and the anvil’s about to drop in Stone, too

  244. 244.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mary G:

    “Sort of like the Hillary Clinton story that turned out to be right.”

    Uh, which Hillary Clinton story turned out to be right of the thousands they promoted?

  245. 245.

    satby

    @SiubhanDuinne: @Yarrow: yeah, I would assume neither front pager would have highlighted jpork. I ordered some nice things I gave as Christmas gifts last time.
    I’m sensitive to the frustration people feel with constant requests for money because I’m one of the main fundraisers for our rescue. I get sick of us too, but it’s the only way we can keep doing the work.

  246. 246.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Mnemosyne: Maybe they’re referring to all of the “Clinton’s are shady” articles that had a blaring headline and lede but the actual body of the article was essentially “we exhaustively researched all of this and the Clintons clearly didn’t do anything wrong, but they COULD have if they’d wanted to so therefore we’re suspicious.” :P

  247. 247.

    J R in WV

    @Mary G:

    “Jim Comey has a lot to answer for.”

    The NYTimes has far more to answer for, in my opinion. The same day they ran their story that there was nothing there in the Trump investigation, there was a story by David Corn/Mother Jones spelling out much of what everyone now knows about the Trump/Russia connections and the effect of the campaign.

    The same Day!! They ignored the competition’s accurate story in order to run their own false and misleading story to further aid Trump’s campaign.

    I think more accurate estimates of Trump’s advantage in free publicity versus Clinton’s campaign was 3 or 4 billion dollars worth of TV time. Remember all those hours of Trump’s campaign nonsense and Raging hatred compared to no coverage of Hillary Clinton’s many speeches filled with policy statements?? Yet people accused her of not talking about her policy positions!! She talked, the MSM didn’t cover that story. At all!

    Frankly, I think MSM management was bought and paid for, and the word was spread to all the reporters that they needed to follow the bosses’ party line if they wanted to be promoted, or even to stay on the payroll at all. And I’ve grown up in media households and lived in media households for nearly 70 years now!!! I don’t remember the first 8 or 10 years, honestly, but I was there! They were bought and paid for long before the election!

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