Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

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

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

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

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

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

Accountability, motherfuckers.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

T R E 4 5 O N

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

You are here: Home / Politics / Goddamned Traitors / #TreasonSummit Gets Unfavorable Reviews

#TreasonSummit Gets Unfavorable Reviews

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Man who chose Sarah Palin as his running mate:

CNN’s lead anchor:

A both sides aficianado:

Director of the National Counter-terrorism Center for GWB and Homeland Security Adviser and CIA Director for President Obama:

[NARRATOR VOICE: They don’t exist!]

VICE and Esquire political analyst and Hillary Clinton critic:

Even the liberal Neil Cavuto on Fox News:

And my husband and me:

My post title is flippant and meant to invoke the terrible fact that everything Trump does is assessed by the useless Beltway press in the shallow terms of “optics.” Well, we’re about to see how an off-off-off Broadway production of TREASON plays. So far, the reviews ain’t good.

Will Bunch had an interesting idea:

Do we have the collective consensus and national will for something like that? I want to believe it, but I don’t, not unless today’s open collusion with a hostile foreign autocrat is followed swiftly by something like a trade war-induced recession.

Americans are a complacent bunch. But if today’s events don’t shake people to their core, I don’t know what will. Baby jails caused widespread revulsion — and forced a rapid walk-back on that policy. But this? I don’t know.

Anyhoo, I’ve believed Trump was a compromised, traitorous scumbag for ages, and I’ll admit I’m rattled. I feel just about as sick as I felt on election night. It’s not just what Trump said — it’s where and when and to whom he said it.

All it would take are two or three Republicans in the senate to effectively paralyze this catastrophic presidency. They don’t have the guts. Do we?

Reader Interactions

92Comments

  2. 2.

    Credence Swampwater Revival

    At the press briefing, Putin was asked directly whether he had compromat on Trump.

    Putin gave a long, apparently dismissive answer. But he didn’t say no. And Trump smiled uncomfortably through Putin’s entire answer.

  3. 3.

    cervantes

    I don’t think it’s a lack of guts on the part of Senate Republicans. I think it’s a lack of honor or integrity. They don’t want to defend the country, they just want to stay in power.

  6. 6.

    Baud

    Obviously, all the Republicans tweeting their disgust over Trump today will punish him by swiftly confirming his Supreme Court pick.

  7. 7.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    This is where we have to make up our minds who we are. I know what I want us to be. Democrats know what we want to be. This is out of our hands though. It’s time for Republicans to choose a side. I have to hope, but it’s hard right now.

  8. 8.

    Lapassionara

    In the mid-sixties, I participated in an hour long silent protest against the Vietnam Nam war. No words, but we did have signs. We did this every Saturday at noon, in a downtown square.

    I think we need to start doing this kind of demonstration this Saturday, and keep it up until we see some evidence that elected representatives take the danger we are in seriously. We can’t wait until Mueller is fired. Start now!

  9. 9.

    Betty Cracker

    @cervantes: Fair point. Folks like Corker, Sasse and Flake are already leaving office, but they still want power of another type.

  10. 10.

    ruemara

    I think POC might have the will. We kinda see where this is heading. LGBTQIA & Disability advocates. Comfortable folks? Not sure, I think so. & some might want to be nice, good, quiet Germans who don’t see anything. The good news is, I think the main groups outnumber the evil ones & the “i just want to have a quiet life” ones. The bad news? We still have our own duplicitous lot using this to increase their power & sow division. Bernie is still an article of faith. As is The Intercept/Jacobin/Dems are almost as bad contingent. Maybe we can muzzle them?

  11. 11.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @cervantes:

    …they just want to stay in power.

    It really is that simple – these people have given us no reason to give them any benefit of the doubt.

  12. 12.

    donnah

    As a Democrat, I’m sick of being called a “chicken little” or “the party who cried Wolf”. This obvious alignment between countries who should not be buddies is a klaxxon to the entire country. Trump may be feeling pretty good about himself right now, what with his big statements in the press conference, but we here at home should be contacting our representives and Senators immediately.

    This will prove who is a loyal citizen and who’s a traitor. It’s all been plainly said: Trump believes and will cooperate with a murderous Russian tyrant against his own country. Republicans who embrace that line of thought should be strung up and held as an example of their criminal disloyalty.

    I just hope we can still be here in time to vote in November.

  15. 15.

    jl

    @Baud:
    ” The only thing that could have made it worse is if Trump had worn a tan suit. ”
    I’m feeling discouraged right now. I don’t know what Baud 2020! can come up with to bottom this mess.

    Edit: Trump doesn’t drink, so I guess you could do the presser all beered up, fall over and puke on Vlad. I’m grasping at straws here.

  17. 17.

    Brachiator

    MCCAIN calls the Trump-Putin press conference “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory. The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate.”

    Sympathy for Autocrats. Kinda catchy.

  18. 18.

    Mary G

    We got the NRA lady!

    The Department of Justice has announced the arrest of Russian national Mariia Butina for "infiltrating organizations having influence in American politics, for the purpose of advancing the interests of the Russian Federation." She was arrested yesterday.— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) July 16, 2018

  22. 22.

    Aardvark Cheeselog

    I’m pretty sure that calling for a “general strike” in the US is still definitive evidence that you have your head so far up your ass that you’ve forgotten what daylight looks like.

    Things are changing though. Maybe I’m wrong!

  23. 23.

    JWL

    “..Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy..”.

    Wrong. It’s “Trump’s treason”.

    Get used to hearing it, too. It will soon enough be spoken aloud as perfunctorily as Americans that love their country say good morning, good afternoon, and good night to each other. Look at this way: we’ve all lived long enough to see Benedict Arnold de-throned.

  24. 24.

    Tilda Swintons Bald Cap

    You know he was dunking on us right? He’s just daring people to do something because he knows nothing is going to done. He’s an existential threat to the country but for some reason or other the great patriots of the CIA and NSA and FBI are just fine with it. We KNOW they have the goods on the guy right now. Just send the tapes over to Access Hollywood. And don’t give me this rule of law and procedure bullshit either. I know what happens to liberals in this country when they are deemed a threat, they get their brains blown out in the middle of the street. Remember the FBI declared the Black Panthers one of the greatest threats to U.S. security. The Deep State is fine with Trump.

  26. 26.

    Brachiator

    Here’s what I’m thinking: 1) Immediate nationwide boycott of 10 largest House GOP donor firms and 10 largest Trump donor firms unless/until impeachment 2) Organize a nationwide general strike in fall if there’s no movement. The only way to reach them is through their wallets

    This is so cute. When’s the next GOP fundraiser?

    OTOH, I would like to see some journalists try to get a statement from the GOP’s biggest donors.

    Have any of the GOP leadership weighed in on Trump’s performance, or are they hiding?

  28. 28.

    rikyrah

    @Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:

    …they just want to stay in power.

    It really is that simple – these people have given us no reason to give them any benefit of the doubt.

    And, they should be dealt with accordingly

    We already know what to do…

    wipe them out….all of them.

  30. 30.

    jl

    I like to see the bright side.At least Trump and Vlad didn’t announce some disastrous BS agreement. No telling what was agreed to in the unsupervised one-on-one, though. But the presser was just a lot of toxic BS. That was about the best we could hope for, IMHO.

    Given the info released Friday on the Russian involvement in the 2016 election shenanigans, I don’t think any US president, no matter how capable, could have produced a good outcome. And I don’t think some big PR stunt insult or snub at a talk like this would have been a good outcome, just a different kind of meaningless shitshow. I think knowledgeable foreign policy pundits who said best thing to do would be to politely, but with a very firmly and calmly explained rationale, cancel the talks, were right.

    Edit: if there was some BS secret agreement during the one-on-one, I guess most likely concerns the goofy and futile plan Israel and Gulf States seem to have cooked up to get Russia to kick Iran out of Syria.

  31. 31.

    celticdragonchick

    A national strike is possible. There are enough people who are angry to make it hurt.

  36. 36.

    feebog

    @Baud:

    You won this thread with the first post. I will say some folks discovered the emperor wears no clothes.

  37. 37.

    Gin & Tonic

    Do we have the collective consensus and national will for something like that?

    No.

  40. 40.

    Bobby Thomson

    I’m just glad to see people finally catching up. This wasn’t really anything new.

  41. 41.

    Roger Moore

    Wow. Another shoe has just dropped*. Maria Butina, aid to Russian Senator Torshin and liaison to the NRA, has just been arrested and charged with being an agent of the Russian government trying to influence American politics. Surprise, surprise, one of the groups supposedly involved in this effort was an unnamed gun rights organization.

    *I think they must be raiding Imelda Marcos’s collection.

  42. 42.

    Mike in NC

    Earlier today my wife was channel surfing and came across some lame game show where the contestant was none other than Robin Leach (Leech?), who more than anybody else spent a lot of time and effort over the years to pass off scumbag loser Donald Trump as some kind of playboy business genius on an early reality show called “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”. I thought Leach had been dead for years. Only the good die young, apparently.

  43. 43.

    Mnemosyne

    Lawyer-types, I have a question. I know that we all thought early on that Trump’s crimes probably didn’t meet the legal threshold of treason as spelled out in the Constitution, but I’ve seen some people say online that Mueller specifically indicted Russian military officers to clear that path. Does that sound plausible?

  50. 50.

    trollhattan

    @Quinerly:
    Good read. I also endorse putting out “Interpol Red Notices” for the spying Reds. Because it sounds cool and why should they be able to safely travel where Dick Cheney
    and Donny Rumsfeld cannot.

  52. 52.

    jl

    I guess I live in a different world than most of the corporate media. I’m quite relieved it wasn’t worse, just the kind of PR shitshow to be expected. No horrible announcements of some toxic understanding or agreement.

    The national affairs celebs, apparently have hit bed rock and unable to lower the bar further down into the earth, are finally suggesting that, gosh golly gee, there might be something really seriously wrong with this Trump guy.

  56. 56.

    jimmiraybob

    @cervantes:

    Well, he did have a flag lapel pin. So it’s okay.

    Are there any closeups? Just going by colors would be inconclusive.

  58. 58.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @jl: I kind of feel that way too. I think I’m like the frog in the pot of water being brought to a boil. It’s hard for me to see what happened today as qualitatively different than what the path we’re on has been leading to.

  60. 60.

    zhena gogolia

    Call Congressman Bob Goodlatte at: (202) 225-5431. Tell him it is time to put his Country over his party and begin hearings on the Impeachment of Donald J. Trump.

  61. 61.

    Brachiator

    NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre with accused Russian spy Marina Butina at the NRA’s 2014 annual meeting in Indianapolis.

    Maybe I’ve been watching too many spy movies. Butina was openly courting conservatives, and even bragging about it. Could this be a little fish that Putin would let be snagged in order to protect bigger, more important assets?

  63. 63.

    jimmiraybob

    I’m thinking that this is the moment when all the independent state “patriot” militias will be descending on DC to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights to take back the People’s House until a legitimate president can be elected. I’ll be waiting by the TV anticipating reports of their progress.

  64. 64.

    Aleta

    Haven’t read everything and don’t have TV here, so grain of salt. But I don’t see that disapproval of T’s performance from Fox and Republicans means the tide has turned and will suck him away. Statements from guys who are stepping down* and guys who aren’t up in 2018** aren’t like committing to stand against him. Imo, their words seem directed and coordinated (immediate and thought out), and Gowdy’s makes the intent clear: “I am confident (–titles omitted–) Pompeo, Coats, Haley, Wray, Sessions and others will be able to communicate to the President it is possible to conclude Russia interfered with our election in 2016 without delegitimizing his electoral success.”

    I don’t know what the puppeteers (big R donors/thinkers) are going to do. But I desperately hope Pence will also be swept up by the investigation before T meets his fate.

    *McCain, Ryan, Flake, Corker, Gowdy
    **Sasse and Cornyn

  65. 65.

    Jay C

    @celticdragonchick:

    A national strike is possible. There are enough people who are angry to make it hurt.

    I doubt whether a “national/general strike” in the usual sense of the term is a viable or a productive tactic in the US: but a MASSIVE – and by this is I mean Obama-Inauguration-times-5 massive – demonstration filling the streets of Washington with crowds demanding Trump’s impeachment/resignation/ ritual seppuku just MIGHT be an acceptable alternative…

  66. 66.

    trollhattan

    @Cheryl Rofer:
    “Why, she was just a purdy little filly with a cute accent who could field-strip an AK47 blindfolded in forty-five seconds, why wouldn’t I talk to her?”

  67. 67.

    trollhattan

    @Aleta:
    I don’t think Fox is going anywhere without Hannity turning on him, and what are the odds of that?

  69. 69.

    Tokyokie

    @Gozer: Hey, the Red, White & Blue can apply to either the U.S. or Russian flags (as well as those of the U.K., France, the Netherlands, Norway, Panama, the Czech Republic, and Cuba and several more I can’t think of off-hand). Easy mistake to make.

  70. 70.

    sukabi

    @Credence Swampwater Revival: translated that sounds like this: “LOL the Pee Tape? Yeah we’ve got a Pee Tape, that’s nothing. We’ve also got things that are much more interesting, that would make Trump wish we had released the Pee tape.”

  71. 71.

    Chris Johnson

    @Brachiator: Putin doesn’t have to protect assets at this point. This is the point where he could begin strategically burning them in order to create as much chaos as possible. Remember he has no reason to want the traitors to stay protected past the point that they’re useful. It’s never been about establishing permanent and resilient control of the USA through his agents, it’s about breaking down the strength of an enemy power.

  72. 72.

    Chris Johnson

    @sukabi: Yes, that’s what I’ve been saying. It just makes sense. Nobody gives a fuck about a ‘pee tape’, these are not the kind of people who even care about sexual perversity. Putin has way the hell more than that to reveal.

  73. 73.

    Tokyokie

    @Jay C: Protesting for Trump to commit seppuku is just ridiculous. I mean the blade of a wakizashi is only about 15 inches long, and the orange fart blimp has blubber at least 2 feet deep overlying his intestines.

  74. 74.

    Aleta

    I’m sure up for boycott and for strike support.

    Here’s some things the owner (or co-owner) of the federalist tweeted after the news conference:

    “I can’t think of a bigger propaganda victory for a tinpot tyrant than having the leader of the world declare publicly that the tyrant single-handedly affected the biggest election on earth using little more than social media trolls and some bitcoin.”

    “… anti-Trump activists in media and elsewhere (are) incapable of even saying the word Russia without frothing at the mouth about alleged treasonous collusion. Conspiracy theorists have made intelligent discussion impossible.”

    “Putin and Fusion GPS are on the same page.”

    Also I’m reminded of one way that conservative media countered the Russia stuff in late 2016. Some said that during Reagan’s 1st term Ted Kennedy had committed treason, by asking the Russians to help defeat Reagan in 1984. (I believe he did talk to Brezhnev to secure release of some dissidents.)

    I just looked the story up and and found several different snarled claims over the years (some by Limbaugh) about Kennedy and Russia.

    Anyway, a story about him and Russian election interference appeared in the federalist in spring 2015, and was picked up by some other outlets in December 2016. It seemed defensive to me at the time.

  75. 75.

    callalea

    Even some of the diehard IOKIYAR folks at home are having a little trouble with the fact that Putin showed up 40 minutes late to this mess and Trump was still sitting there waiting for him when he got there. It’s all a little “Lifetime Movie about abusive relationships with Trump playing the part of the teenaged girl with low self-esteem” for people who voted for Mister Tough Guy.

  76. 76.

    smintheus

    We can’t point out often enough that Trump’s antics at the NATO meeting were treasonous as well. Read a new detail this morning reported by Ian Bremmer at CBS:

    On “CBS This Morning” Monday, Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group and a CBS News senior global affairs contributor, said that backstage at the NATO meeting there were elements that were even more eyebrow-raising than reports have suggested.

    “One is that emergency session where they asked the Georgian and Ukrainian presidents to leave in the middle of their presentation. Apparently Trump said, ‘OK, we’re done with you now,'” Bremmer said.

    There can only ever be one reason for telling people who are reporting abusive activities to stop talking. You don’t plan to do anything about it and don’t wish to be embarrassed on that score. NATO exists to do something about Russian abuses.

  77. 77.

    danielx

    @cervantes:

    I don’t think it’s a lack of guts on the part of Senate Republicans. I think it’s a lack of honor or integrity.

    Likely both, and does it matter?

  78. 78.

    Mnemosyne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I think you guys feel that way because we’ve known for a while now that Russia and the NRA were conspiring together. But having this indictment is proof that we’re not just mirror-image crazy conspiracy theorists, which is why journalists are losing their minds — OMG THE LIBERALS WERE RIGHT ALL ALONG!!!1!!1!

  79. 79.

    Aleta

    @Tokyokie: That would explain the need for Pence–as kaishakunin. : )
    (My impression is that seppuku alone was not expected to be enough, because it’s very difficult to do (deeply enough on all 3 sides) in a way that one would die from it. So it was often like a symbolic first step in intention and then the backup person stepped in.)

  80. 80.

    Mnemosyne

    @trollhattan:

    Sacha Baron Cohen just proved that Republicans will talk to ANYONE who loves guns, no matter how implausible their story.

  81. 81.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    A general strike? Bwahahahaha! No fucking chance. It will not happen.

  83. 83.

    Dabbo

    @Credence Swampwater Revival: It had to hurt Trump’s ego that Putin said he had no idea Trump was in Moscow. According to Donald, they were going to be best friends and Putin was coming to the pageant, but had to cancel at the very last minute.

  84. 84.

    Steeplejack

    What is meant by “donor firms”? PACS and organizations funneling donations to the GOP? Or actual businesses that are big GOP contributors? I presume the latter, but the choice of words is a little fuzzy.

  86. 86.

    Citizen Alan

    @Aardvark Cheeselog:

    I cannot conceive of a general strike possibly having any meaningful impact in a nation where most states have employment at will laws and most working class Americans suffer from income anxiety. In this instance, I don’t mean income anxiety as a proxy for bigotry. I am referring to the fact that most working class Americans will be homeless if they are unemployed for any length of time.

  87. 87.

    jonas

    @Aleta: Josh Marshall flagged Gowdy’s comments earlier as especially telling: Gowdy (and, I’m assuming, the rest of the GOP caucus) is perfectly aware of what’s going on: Trump is kissing up to Russia because he believes confronting them over their election election meddling makes him look bad. It does, of course. But what we have here is a senior Republican essentially admitting that Trump’s fucking ego is a national security threat. Welcome to America 2018.

    Oh, and I expect Ryan and McConnell to do fuck all about it.

  88. 88.

    Bill Door

    I just emailed to my congresscritter, saying the House has to decide now between treason (= impeachment) and senility (= article 25).
    But the dementia has never been more on display.

  91. 91.

    Bonnie

    I am dying of cancer; but, get me information for a boycott and I will start NOW!

    Re: Here’s what I’m thinking: 1) Immediate nationwide boycott of 10 largest House GOP donor firms and 10 largest Trump donor firms unless/until impeachment 2) Organize a nationwide general strike in fall if there’s no movement. The only way to reach them is through their wallets

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