Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Republicans in disarray!

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

This fight is for everything.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

This really is a full service blog.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Bloomberg Report from the WH Bubble: “He Thinks It’s Impossible to Impeach A Successful President”

Bloomberg Report from the WH Bubble: “He Thinks It’s Impossible to Impeach A Successful President”

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If you can’t see the five-minute clip at the top, it’s well worth clicking over to Bloomberg directly, because it’s a comprehensive (i.e., terrifying) review of what passes the Oval Office Occupant for “thoughts”. And provides, IMO, key insights to some of this week’s agitations among the ‘permanent’ GOP ‘leaders’…

…“If they don’t shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO,” Trump said Thursday in an Oval Office interview with Bloomberg News. Trump said the agreement establishing the body “was the single worst trade deal ever made.”

A U.S. withdrawal from the WTO potentially would be far more significant for the global economy than even Trump’s growing trade war with China, undermining the post-World War II system that the U.S. helped build…

“In the last year, we’re starting to win a lot,” he added. “You know why? Because they know if we don’t, I’m out of there.”

Countries that bring complaints to the WTO tend to prevail and defendants in trade disputes lose…

Since World War II, successive U.S. presidents have led efforts to establish and strengthen global trading rules, arguing that they would bring stability to the world economy.

The WTO was created in 1994 as part of a U.S.-led effort by major economies to create a forum for resolving trade disputes.

Things I noticed, apart from the WTO dick-swinging:

– “He sort of radiates a kind of confidence, which not everyone is going to agree with… but he’s got that sense that he’s winning all the various battles”

– “He still hasn’t stopped thinking up [ed: being spoon-fed by his donors] new big ideas — he’s thinking about the capital gains tax”

– Jeff Sessions’ job is safe “until November, after the midterms”… “I asked how many days after that, and he ignored the question… but I don’t think it’s just Trump, I think there’s a general noise out of the WH at the moment that Sessions is okay through to there.

“What Trump went on, quite a lot, about, was the idea that he wants Sessions to be looking at other things, especially [unclear] the Democrats, and not him. And he returned to the idea that he thinks it’s impossible to impeach a successful president — “

– “Is he aware of, does he understand, his interaction with the stock market? Do you get the sense that he feels omnipotent, in that way? “I think he sees himself… he looks at the stock market as one indicator of how well he’s doing… I think he’s a little bit mystified as to why he might get beaten in the midterms, given how well he sees the economy going…”

– Trump’s “backed off a bit” on attacking the Fed; “He talks a bit about how he wants to be accommodated — if you push him on that, he doesn’t want to step over the line — it looks as though the Fed has begun to win that battle” [again, my impression: He’s been called to heel by the Actually Rich People, his donors/props, who are the only ones he respects]

– “Talk a little bit more, as he says, you can’t impeach a sitting president — ” “No, he thinks it’s very hard to impeach a successful president, which is how, very much, he views himself… He remains, on the midterms, very wary — but he thinks that if the midterms were purely about him, he would do very well.”
***********

Ask President Bill Clinton how hard it was for the GOP to impeach a successful president — of course their manifold wasteful attempts failed to unseat Slick Willy, but you can’t say they didn’t give their and the national treasury’s best in the attempt.

But the general point remains: Trump assumes the world revolves around Trump, who is a Great (if underappreciated) Success, and that as long as he can browbeat his minions into propping up the stock market, he’s literally unimpeachable.

Those midterms, as ever, remain ours to win. And IMO it’s more clear than ever how crucially important — not just for Democrats, or Americans, but for the global financial markets — it is that we do!

Reader Interactions

148Comments

  3. 3.

    Mary G

    Brian Beutler at Crooked Media has a piece about Twitlerthat’s scary as hell, because probably true.

    President Trump is preparing to thrust the country into a crisis as soon as the midterm elections are behind him—irrespective of which party wins the race for control of Congress—and Republicans are lining up to make sure he gets away with it, on the condition that he takes no disruptive steps until after they confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

    It’s hard to interpret the events that have transpired over the past several weeks any other way. The exact contours of the crisis he will ultimately provoke aren’t entirely clear, but the basic shape of it is: He has concluded that he can only escape serious personal and legal consequences—from a number of threats, but particularly from Special Counsel Robert Mueller—with brazen abuses of power, and is laying groundwork to take those steps as soon as he can get away with them, aware that a change in partisan control of the House could stymie him just after the new year.

    At a minimum, he’s going to fire Sessions, Rosenstein, and Mueller (also his latest fixation, Bruce Ohr, who commits the terrible crime of being a Russian specialist at the DOJ who speaks fluent Russian) the day after the election and shut the Mueller probe down.

  5. 5.

    petesh

    He’s been gaslighting all his life, and it worked well enough that he sees no reason to stop now. But this time he’s not just gaslighting rubes he wants to fleece or other mob bosses who discount what he says quite happily, he’s gaslighting the entire nation, a majority of whom are getting sucking fick of it. He might see out his term, but I doubt it. My money is on a stroke.

  7. 7.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Of course he thinks he’s a “successful president”. He’s in the Oval Office, yes? That’s the standard. For him.

    What the rest of us think is utterly irrelevant to this vile creature.

    I’m thinking that when we get around to punishment for him, we toss the Eighth Amendment into the “we’re ignoring you” basket.

  8. 8.

    cynthia ackerman

    We are so fucked.

    This moron is destroying all good will the US can ever hope to regain.

    Please, jackals, work for Democrats in the November election.

    It’s truly existential.

  9. 9.

    debbie

    but he thinks that if the midterms were purely about him, he would do very well.

    Fox News, knock some sense into this clown!

  10. 10.

    ruemara

    Obama’s out of office, loser. I hate that post election, there’s a window of time for these traitors to let loose.

  11. 11.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @B.B.A.: Karma is a bitch, Ben. You will be held accountable, as will every vile sack of shit you mentioned.

  12. 12.

    TenguPhule

    @Baud:

    So that’s not a roadblock then.

    Its a giant painted tunnel on the side of the mountain.

    Pray we are the Roadrunners in this scenario.

  14. 14.

    TenguPhule

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    we toss the Eighth Amendment into the “we’re ignoring you” basket.

    We can Netherlands it. Briefly repeal it for a special occasion and then reinstate it with proper safe guards.

    Ber

  16. 16.

    Ken

    @petesh:

    My money is on a stroke.

    My money is on a “stroke”.

    Not sure if it’ll be a Russian “stroke”, CIA “stroke”, or Wall Street “stroke”.

  19. 19.

    DCrefugee

    @Mary G: One unknown in Brian’s scenario is what Mueller will do next, and when. We’re coming up on 60 days before the midterms, which traditionally meant by DoJ policy no political indictments/reports would be released. Comey threw that out the window, but I’d be surprised if Mueller does.

    Mueller has some arrows in his quiver, if he chooses to use them. But time is short.

    The midterms are everything.

  21. 21.

    Steeplejack

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I forced myself to read that whole piece but briefly blacked out when I got to this:

    Meanwhile, a new generation of movement outlets on the left, from The Intercept to the Young Turks to Jacobin, are consuming space that used to be occupied by traditionally neutral outlets.

    Those are the movement outlets on the left?! Man, I am out of touch.

  22. 22.

    NotMax

    Hollow Dolt 45 blather, as per usual.

    Also too, neophyte stage magician misdirection. Anything to take the focus off the proverbial eight thousand pound gorilla.

  24. 24.

    Brachiator

    Wow. Trump clearly acts from the belief that if you repeat bullshit often enough, other people will believe it.

    Also, I’ve mentioned before and keep seeing him making proclamations as if US history should begin with him. So he’s going to pull out of the WTO and recreate the modern economy in his image.

    Who knew that having a god king as president would be so fucking tiresome.

  25. 25.

    NotMax

    @DCrefugee

    AFAIK, DOJ guidance is silent about filing sealed indictments within the pre-election window, to be unsealed after the election.

  27. 27.

    dmsilev

    And he returned to the idea that he thinks it’s impossible to impeach a successful president — “

    Basically true. Yes, the GOP impeached Clinton, but they got hammered for it by the voters in the 1998 midterms.

    Sort of a moot point in this case, however.

  28. 28.

    TaMara (HFG)

    What’s the over/under that he cannot help himself and he won’t wait until after the midterms to a) fire sessions b)pardon manafort. The man has no self-control whatsoever. And he’s clearly obsessing on this.

  29. 29.

    Gvg

    So if the stock market tanks, will this moron lose confidence? Or will he move the goal posts. What an idiot.
    I am now really against the idea we can’t indict a sitting President. It is a principle that leads to arrogance and needs to be knocked down.
    We need a Congress with a spine too. It’s not a spine to oppose everything on a partisan basis. Coequal branches come up with budgets every year like they are supposed to and don’t abdicate war responsibility nor treaties.

  30. 30.

    TenguPhule

    @Brachiator:

    Who knew that having a god king as president would be so fucking tiresome.

    Mayans would ritually cut out their heart after a year to present to the Sun God and get a replacement. This may have been why.

  33. 33.

    Steeplejack

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I’ll check out the Twitter feed. I’ve read a couple of interesting articles at the site, but I didn’t think they were remotely close to “thought leader” status.

  34. 34.

    Gvg

    @TaMara (HFG): I’d say he was obsessing about pardons all along. He wanted to use that power so bad. He was going to use it even if he hadn’t been a crook trying to evade the law. The three he did issue have turned out to be kind of nothing burgers people forget in the face of more infantile behavior from him. He can’t understand why every body isn’t impressed with him.

  35. 35.

    Mike in NC

    @Brachiator: Trump’s long fascination with dictators and strongmen — who basically have no free press — made him somehow think he’d be greeted by the media and the general public as a New Messiah, ready to be fawned over for every idiot syllable that fell out of his mouth.

  36. 36.

    Shalimar

    @cynthia ackerman: Trump is burning everything to the ground, but we aren’t totally screwed by that. It all depends on the quality of leadership we have during the post-Trump years putting together the world order that comes after. So yeah, probably a Chinese-led world and we’re pretty screwed.

  37. 37.

    Platonailedit

    Apparently, the traitorous thug is at his weekly kkk rally. Remember when the rwnj’s cried hoarse that Obama was misusing presidency for campaigning ?

  39. 39.

    SiubhanDuinne

    A friend in a private discussion equated Trump to Heliogabalus. I responded with “O for a Prætorian Guard!”

    Now I am nervously awaiting the Secret Service knock upon my door.

  40. 40.

    dexwood

    Gee, too bad for him presidential success is so far out of reach. Fucking traitor wacko needs sedation and removal from office.

  41. 41.

    Mary G

    When even Sarah Sanders thinks you’re an absolute asshole:

    Trump and McCain clashed on a range of policy issues. And even after McCain disclosed he had brain cancer, the president continued to grouse in public about what turned out to be one of the Arizona senator’s last votes, blocking a measure to repeal Obamacare.

    “We had our disagreements and they were very strong disagreements,” Trump said Thursday. “I disagreed with many of the things that I assume he believed in.”

    McCain lost the 2008 presidential election to Obama, an outcome the senator called a “privilege” in a letter to the country released after his death.

    Asked if McCain would have been a better president, Trump declined to say, even as his press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, stared at him.

    “I don’t want to comment on it,” he said. “I have a very strong opinion, all right.”

    Sanders, he joked, was “having a nervous breakdown” over his response. “Maybe I’ll give you that answer some day later.”

  47. 47.

    Brachiator

    @TaMara (HFG): I’m not sure when Trump might act, but typically he will tip his hand about his intentions to fire Sessions or issue a pardon at one of his supporter pep rallies.

  50. 50.

    Lee

    @B.B.A.:

    Meanwhile, a new generation of movement outlets on the left, from the Intercept to the Young Turks to Jacobin

    I’m not sure The Intercept is on anyone’s side other than Russia’s.

  52. 52.

    Brachiator

    @Mike in NC: Yeah, I agree that Trump has a strange fascination with strongmen. But he was always anxious to play to the media when he was a private citizen.

    He is teetering out of control. He thought that when he bcame president, everyone would love him, as you suggest. But as that naturally failed to happen, he is moved to abuse the power of the presidency to compel affection.

  54. 54.

    Brachiator

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: The Young Turks are annoying purity ponies. They still love Bernie.

    But Glenn Greenwald is a willing stooge for Putin. I don’t know what anyone else on the Intercept staff is trying to accomplish.

  55. 55.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    On August 26, 2018, Louis C.K. made an unannounced appearance at the Comedy Cellar in Manhattan, New York. It was reported that he received an ovation from the audience, and performed a typical set making no reference to his past behavior. His return to comedy nine months after admitting to sexual misconduct has been criticised by comedians including Aparna Nancherla, Ian Karmel and Allie Goertz.

    Saw an article in USA Today about all of the recent “comebacks” from #MeToo this year. Louis CK got a standing ovation. Fuck that audience. Also, more OT, in the same paper, only 44% of those surveyed thought Trump should be impeached given everything that is known now. 47% thought he should not be and 9% didn’t know.

  58. 58.

    Ruckus

    @Brachiator:

    Who knew that having a god king as president would be so fucking tiresome.

    Well at least most everyone on this lowly blog. I’m guessing though that the number is probably about 65 million.

    BTW did anyone else notice that the blog now has had over 7 million comments?

  59. 59.

    Aleta

    he thinks it’s very hard to impeach a successful president, which is how, very much, he views himself… He remains, on the midterms, very wary — but he thinks that if the midterms were purely about him, he would do very well.”

    If he loses (*his* candidates lose) in the midterms, it’s the Deep State. That is, the Justice Dept. (argghh). He talks about the stock market I think because that’s his way of buying votes — promising a payoff. If that tanks it’s the Deep State again, controlling the Fed.

    He’s counting on ‘stick with me and you’ll get even more money’ continuing to work. The US drunken stupor of hope for more money isn’t going to go away til the heat, water and electricity are turned off, so to speak.

  60. 60.

    NotMax

    @TaMara (HFG)

    Not directed at you specifically, more a general note of fed up-edness with the drumbeat of those obsessed with a Manafort pardon (and convinced of it as a given), without a scintilla of evidence backing the claim and entirely ignoring that (a) Dolt 45 has already disavowed him and (b) there is no, nada, zilch upside for Defecta Glide in Orange, politically or personally.

  62. 62.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Mary G:

    At a minimum, he’s going to fire Sessions, Rosenstein, and Mueller (also his latest fixation, Bruce Ohr, who commits the terrible crime of being a Russian specialist at the DOJ who speaks fluent Russian) the day after the election and shut the Mueller probe down.

    How many times has this been predicted and never come to pass?

  63. 63.

    Patricia Kayden

    @debbie: He has never been sane. That has never been the issue. Trump is no less saber today than he was on the campaign trail. He has engaged in obstruction of justice and violations of emolument clause and probably loads of high crimes and misdemeanors.

  65. 65.

    Ruckus

    Trying to predict what shitgibbon will do at any time is an absolute waste of brain cells. He has no idea what he will do or say at any particular moment. We do know that it will be monumentally ignorant and wrong. We know that anything he actually does will be the exactly wrong thing, even if only because of the timing but probably for it’s effect as well which will be exactly the opposite of any thing close to reasonable.
    The knowns are that he is highly unstable.
    That he is highly ignorant.
    That he is racist as all fuck.
    That he has no idea how the world actually works.
    That no one actually likes him that is not as insane, racist and ignorant as he is.

  66. 66.

    Anne Laurie

    @Steeplejack:

    I’ve read a couple of interesting articles at the site, but I didn’t think they were remotely close to “thought leader” status.

    Jacobin is the salary site for paycheck-to-paycheck “True Progressives”, the poor schmucks who don’t have trust funds to support their Chapo-trap Patreon goals. Used to see some interesting articles, there, but the closer we get to midterms, the more the publication as a whole has devolved into #ButHerEmails as a real-world examplar for #NotAllMen / #NotAllWhitePeople.

  69. 69.

    Anne Laurie

    @Lee:

    I’m not sure The Intercept is on anyone’s side other than Russia’s.

    AFAICT Jim Risen is still an honest, and excellent, reporter. The Intercept as a whole has broken useful news on non-Russia-related topics like immigration abuses and global financial malfeasance. Omidyar’s initial mistake was letting the horseshoe-theory ‘far left’/libertarian yappers hijack his earnest reportorial project… and it looks like those guys are now digging their own graves and/or sidling towards the USA-worse-than-Russia exit (speaking of the NewYorker Ian Parker profile of a certain GG… )

  72. 72.

    Amir Khalid

    @Ladyraxterinok:
    What makes Mitt Romney’s secrecy about his tax returns egregious is that the Republican presidential Candidate who in 1968 started the tradition of tax-return disclosure was his dad George.

  74. 74.

    Jay

    @Ruckus:

    When the truth comes out, it will turn out that everybody in the Insane Clown POSus’s Administration joined up to work for their own agenda’s,

    And all The Insane Clown POSus is in control of is his bowel movements and sometimes his twitter posts.

  75. 75.

    Yarrow

    @B.B.A.: Gawd…that article. The ending:

    And yet, perhaps there’s reason to be nostalgic for that amoral, tactical coverage of American politics. When I spoke the other day to one of the key figures of the old school, who declined to be quoted by name, he sounded a little wistful:

    “You almost long for the days when it was a game.”

    No, you assholes. It was never a game for real people. I hate these insider media people so much.

  76. 76.

    Doug R

    @DCrefugee:

    We’re coming up on 60 days before the midterms, which traditionally meant by DoJ policy no political indictments/reports would be released. Comey threw that out the window, but I’d be surprised if Mueller does.

    My interpretation is nothing that can damage someone on the ballot and to err on the side of caution. Someone like Manafort or Cohen or Pence who aren’t in campaigns, I think they’re fair game.
    Duncan Hunter and Dana Rohrbacher not so much.

  77. 77.

    Eljai

    @Yarrow: I’m with you there. And I do not appreciate him fluffing Chris Cilliza as some sort of paragon of journalistic virtue.

  78. 78.

    L85NJGT

    Trump doesn’t know shit. This is wishful thinking from whatever fifth rate hangers on are advising him.

    …if only Tricky Dick had hung on like Clinton….

    Anyone recommending this course of action is committing malpractice.

  80. 80.

    Fair Economist

    @Doug R: Well, Comey didn’t throw out the window for indictments, because there was nothing to indict Hillary for, so of course Mueller will respect that rule.. He “reported” in ways that would be inappropriate any time. No-leak Mueller won’t do that.

  81. 81.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    this is some good trolling, assuming whoever thought of this has some good questions prepared

    Seung Min Kim @ seungminkim
    !! One of Senate Democrats’outside witnesses for Kavanaugh hearing next week:

    Mr. John Dean
    Former White House Counsel
    President Richard M. Nixon

  83. 83.

    Doug R

    @NotMax:

    Not directed at you specifically, more a general note of fed up-edness with the drumbeat of those obsessed with a Manafort pardon (and convinced of it as a given), without a scintilla of evidence backing the claim and entirely ignoring that (a) Dolt 45 has already disavowed him and (b) there is no, nada, zilch upside for Defecta Glide in Orange, politically or personally.

    Aides expect Trump to go rogue on Manafort pardon

  84. 84.

    efgoldman

    @Doug R:

    Duncan Hunter and Dana Rohrbacher not so much.

    Why the fuck not? The voters have a right to know their elected officials are corrupt.

    Fuckem

  85. 85.

    efgoldman

    @efgoldman:

    The voters have a right to know their elected officials are corrupt.

    And yes, I know an indictment is not a conviction.

    Fuckem amyway

  86. 86.

    Aleta

    @Fair Economist: And now it’s time for Comey to step up and testify to Trump’s obstruction of justice. (Hopefully without pretending he’s the star of the entire show, but more likely he’ll be all aglow.) What matters is his testimony though, and I think he’s been clear on the facts already.

  88. 88.

    oldgold

    For what it is worth:

    @Mediaite
    Chuck Todd Warns of Possible Mueller Bombshell: ‘I Wouldn’t Miss Work Tomorrow’

    @SethAbramson
    Tomorrow, according to NBC News’ Chuck Todd, is the last day we should expect Mueller to make a major move in the Trump-Russia investigation before Election Day. For what it’s worth, I concur with Chuck—I’m confident there will be Trump-Russia items worth talking about tomorrow.

    Time and timing!

  91. 91.

    Aleta

    I read about the first part of this, but it goes even further than the story I read.

    (By Eugene Robinson in the Wa Post. In the borderlands of southern Texas, the State Department is denying passports to hundreds and perhaps thousands of men and women who have official birth certificates demonstrating they were born in the United States. In some cases, valid passports have been confiscated and revoked, their holders stranded in Mexico, unable to come home. In other cases, people have been arrested, sent to detention centers and slated for deportation. …

    Denial of passports effectively renders the victims stateless — meaning they cannot travel outside the country, because they would not be readmitted — and potentially vulnerable to being deported. Again, these are people who have government-issued birth certificates, long accepted as gold-standard proof of citizenship. The Trump administration simply doesn’t see Latinos as full-fledged Americans.

    The Post quoted a 40-year-old man named Juan — he didn’t want his last name used for fear of being targeted — who has a birth certificate stating he was born in the Texas border city of Brownsville. He served his country for three years in the U.S. Army, then was a cadet in the Border Patrol, and now works as a Texas state prison guard. But when he applied to renew his passport this year, the State Department responded with a letter saying it didn’t believe he was a citizen.

    It is important to understand that for Americans who live along the border, a passport is a necessity. People flow back and forth across the Rio Grande all the time to work, make business deals, see family or perhaps just try out a trendy new restaurant. The border is not like the Berlin Wall, though evidently Trump would like it to be.

    There is a backstory: In the 1990s, some Texas midwives admitted accepting bribes to falsely claim that some Mexican infants were born in the United States. These same midwives, however, also delivered many more Latino babies, at least thousands, who were legitimately born in the United States.

    From official records, it is impossible to tell the difference. The Trump administration appears to be denying passports simply because the applicant is Latino, was born in southern Texas and was delivered by a midwife — something the federal government explicitly promised not to do in a 2009 court settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union. The administration claims there has been no change in policy. But The Post quoted immigration lawyers who say there has been a dramatic surge in passport denials.

    In Juan’s case, the State Department demanded he produce documents including proof of his mother’s prenatal care in the United States, his baptismal certificate and rental agreements from when he was an infant. He managed to find some of this obscure material — and yet his passport application was denied a second time. A military veteran who served his country was told that it isn’t his country after all.
    …
    If the government had specific evidence that an individual’s birth certificate was falsified, then we could have a debate about the right thing to do. But this administration is assuming that a person of a certain ethnicity, recorded as being born in a certain part of the country and meeting other unspecified criteria, is de facto not a citizen — and has the burden of proving otherwise. At this point, the Trump administration has the burden of proving this is anything other than vile, unadulterated racism.

  92. 92.

    Yarrow

    The kids are alright. And there’s that number again…

    New NBC millennial poll shows GOP issues persist:

    •GOP doesn’t care about them? 85% Blacks, 76% Asians, 75% Latinos & 62% Whites
    •Only 20% ID as GOP
    •Of millennial GOPers, 58% say they’re “not very strong” GOP
    •GOP fav/unfav 26/60
    •Trump approval 27%
    https://t.co/jrMBgwf8Ff— Evan Siegfried (@evansiegfried) August 30, 2018

  93. 93.

    Jay

    @Doug R:

    When the calls are coming from inside the House, you arn’t supposed to take them,

    There’s so much gaslighting coming from inside the House, it should have blown up by now,

  95. 95.

    bluehill

    The fix is in. There’s a reason the repubs are jamming Kavanaugh through and it’s important enough to keep Trump in check until after the midterms.

  98. 98.

    MomSense

    @DCrefugee:

    People keep bringing up the 60 days policy but Cohen, Manafort, Javanka Tangerine Tinpot, jr, and many more are not running for office in this election. Does the 60 day rule apply for people who aren’t candidates?

  104. 104.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @MomSense: also, does Barbara Underwood feel bound by Justice Dept. guidelines?
    I reeeeaaaally want Junior to see the inside of Rikers Island

  108. 108.

    Bonnie

    Let’s make a pact and not have any state funeral for Trump when he dies. Let’s pretend he was never president*.

  109. 109.

    westyny

    OT, but BJ is still borked on my iPhone. It hasn’t been the same since the implosion last week. Anyone else having problems? Also, even on the computer browser it’s not remembering my nym and email. Is this a Safari thing?

  112. 112.

    Jay

    @Bonnie:

    That’s the ReThugs plan.

    There’s a twitter movement to try to make all references to D’nesh, convicted felon D’nesh.

  114. 114.

    oldgold

    @Jay:

    Consider the basis for this guideline. It is the the DOJ does not want to initiate criminal prosecutions that could reasonably be expected to impact an upcoming election.

    There is no way Mueller would ask for permission or, even if he did, Rosenstein would allow an indictment to issue against a Trump family member within 60 days of this election.

  115. 115.

    efgoldman

    @oldgold:

    There is no way Mueller woauld ask for permission or, even if he did, Rosenstein would allow an indictment to issue against a Trump family member

    Bull.
    Also shit.
    No Trump is on any ballot anywhere.

    Fuckem

  116. 116.

    Aleta

    The corrupt political news outlets seem especially rabid tonight, even after yet another week of ‘DOJ corruption,’ ‘Orr-Weissman-Manafort,’ and ‘endofMuellerinvestigation.’

  118. 118.

    James E Powell

    @Amir Khalid:

    It’s even more terrifying, I reckon, that he was helped into the presidency by voters who decided that his manifest unfitness made him precisely the man they wanted in the Oval Office.

    That’s terrifying for sure, but it is known that a very large portion of the American electorate are hateful bigots and morons. What shocked me at the time and what terrifies me to this day is that so many, nearly all, of the people who certainly know better, the people who control institutional power – the NYT, the FBI, the cable networks, the handful of non-insane Republicans – were all so consumed by their hatred and contempt for Hillary Clinton that they produced this result.

    We may not forgive the voters for being stupid assholes, but we knew that’s what they were. It’s the people who knew better but made this happen anyway just so they could dance on Hillary’s political grave. They are the worst people in the world.

  119. 119.

    jl

    @oldgold: I don’t understand. Trump is not on the ballot. Seems like creeping disabling of the justice system’s ability to function against the powerful (which makes sense given the way the country has been going recently).

    I find it impossible to believe it is an absolute rule with no exception, even in the case of officials running for office. So, for example, a candidate commits a murder with witnesses.

    If the Constitution is not a suicide pact, then DOJ guidelines should not be a suicide pact either.

  122. 122.

    Jay

    @James E Powell:

    Less than 80,000 voters, in three states, 7 corrupt Electors, and a whole bunch of ratfucking came together in The Perfect Storm.

    Checks and Balances got blindsided.

  123. 123.

    oldgold

    @jl:

    I did not say it is a “rule.” I carefully labeled it a “guideline.” That expressed, a cautious i dotter, t crosser and straight-arrow like Mueller will follow the guideline. Plus, Rosenstein, Mueller’s gatekeeper, given his perilous political situation, is going to avoid any appearance of violating this guideline.

  124. 124.

    efgoldman

    @oldgold:

    Trump is on every national ballot.

    No such thing. There are 435 individual congressional elections, with no-one named Trump on any ballot, and 33 statewide elections.
    Yes, all midterms are referenda on the presidency; Obama wasn’t. on any ballot in 2010 either. Your point?

  128. 128.

    oldgold

    The election is in large measure a referendum on Trump.

    The DOJ, correctly by the way, does not like to bring criminal prosecutions close in time to an election that might materially impact the election. This is the reason for the “guideline.”

    An indictment of a Trump family member within 60 days of this election could reasonably be expected to impact this election. For that reason I believe Mueller will not indict any member of the Trump family within 60 days of November 6.

  130. 130.

    Bill Arnold

    @Ken:

    Not sure if it’ll be a Russian “stroke”, CIA “stroke”, or Wall Street “stroke”.

    Just an addendum:
    (1) He has many other enemies.
    (2) Heart attack is also a possibility. His heart health is not great IMO based on his tendency to get winded (but see [0]). So sudden death due to heart attack would be accepted as simply unfortunate by most (excepting the gleeful), though not the conspiracy-minded, or some evangelicals who have tasked themselves with defending POTUS DJ Trump from hostile witchcraft.
    (3) An aneurysm is Old School.
    Personally, I think he should declare victory and resign (the best resignation ever) to spend more time with his companies.
    (This outcome would be in his best interests for health and other reasons, if he made his resignation conditional on dropping of Federal charges.)

    [0] A lowball estimate of his heart attack/stroke risk (I’ve seen higher estimates):
    Donald Trump Has Moderate Coronary Plaque: This Is Normal For His Age And We Already Knew It (January 18, 2018)

    His 10 year risk of heart attack or stroke is 16.7%.

    We should ignore Ronny Jackson’s opinions about DJ Trump’s health, IMO.

  132. 132.

    James E Powell

    @Jay:

    Checks and Balances got blindsided.

    We differ in this regard. I don’t think they were blindsided. It was willful. They just didn’t care about the consequences. They were determined that the woman they hated would not get the White House.

  134. 134.

    Jay

    @James E Powell:

    While there were chunks of Checks and Balances, like the FTFNYT, the New York FBI consumed with Clintonitis,

    There were also big chunks quietly doing their Jobs.

    Whocoodanood that when confronted with Russian ratfucking and Insane Clown POSus’s penetration, Yurtle the Turtle would pick Russia?

    A few American’s and a few Democrats have finally started to clue in that all ReThugs are traitors.

  135. 135.

    efgoldman

    @oldgold:

    I thought you were s lawyer?:

    He is. Are you?

    You’ve totally missed the distinction. HRC WAS ON THE BALLOT IN EVERY STATE. Of COURSE Comey flapping his yap had a material effect. on the election. If some random asshole congresscritter gets indicted a week before election day, of COURSE it will have a material effect in his/her district. Apples and kumquats.

    You’ve made up a “guideline” that fits your (incorrect) view.

  136. 136.

    oldgold

    @efgoldman:

    Yes, Comey violated the premise underlying this guideline. The consequences were disastrous.

    This is precisely why Mueller and Rosenstein will be careful not to commit the same mistake.

  145. 145.

    Aleta

    THE WARS LOST AND WON IN TEXAS, By  Bárbara Renaud González
    https://www.oxfordamerican.org/item/1576-the-wars-lost-and-won-in-texas

    Mary Lou Gomez was born on the Westside, one of San Antonio’s oldest barrios, and poorest. And therefore, the historic corazón of Texas history, too. She’s retired now, and as a trained economist, headed one of the city’s finance departments, managing millions of the city’s then two billion dollar budget.

    Mary Lou is puro San Antonio. She speaks Spanish and travels regularly into the barrio rescuing abandoned and neglected cats and dogs. (If the city paid attention to her, we wouldn’t have thousands of dogs running the streets, but that’s another story.)
    If you saw her, you would think she is a socialite, a member of the city’s upper class. She’s tall, lithe, and fair-skinned. She drives a Prius. It’s only her hair that suggests a Moorish background; I’ve seen women who look just like her in Norway and Poland. In our community, there’s always one pale-face, one güera at the party among the rest of us in shades of brown.

    One day Mary Lou and I were at the new library on the Southside with its space-age computers, and Mary Lou decided to see if she could find her family’s immigrant story on genealogy websites like Ancestry.com. Within an hour she had traced her ancestors back to the tenth century. They were from northern Spain! She was surprised, but I wasn’t. Then, she found her family’s registry papers for Mexico. It was like a cartography of the restless, seeing the ancestral names in Monterrey and then into Texas. Many of the new Spanish-Mexican settlers, including her family, married Canary Islanders who had arrived in Texas too.

    Some of this she already knew: Her great-great grandfather was Trinidad Coy, a famous soldier of the Texas Revolution. His father, José Segundo de los Santos Coy, was a soldier at the Presidio San Juan Bautista del Rio Grande del Norte for Spain from 1797 through 1806. In 1808, José Segundo was assigned to a unit that was ordered to protect the border of East Texas against the rumored American invasions from Louisiana. He died some time after 1813. His widow, Maria Luisa Teresa de Rosas, once owned a parcel of land on Commerce Street between St. Mary’s Street and Navarro Street in what is now downtown San Antonio—valuable real estate.

    According to the Texas State Historical Association, Trinidad Coy became a mounted volunteer for the Republic of Texas and fought at the Siege of Bexar, actively participating in the Texas struggle for independence. Records show he knew many who died at the Siege of the Alamo. He and his brother Antonio were expert horsemen, sharp shooters, and experienced soldiers, enabling them to serve as scouts and military spies during the Texas Revolution. Trinidad Coy was a compadre of Texas Revolution heroes Captain Placido Olivarri and Captain Juan Seguín, who became the Mayor of San Antonio in 1834, and subsequently a leader of Texan independence.

    This ancestor, Trinidad Coy, was in the mounted volunteers who helped protect San Antonio from hostile American Indians, too. Looking back, it seems that Trinidad Coy was faithful to Texas as a Spanish Tejano. During the fallout of the U.S.-Mexican War, he helped his widowed sisters and their children and his brother’s son, Juan Coy. He was also known for helping the starving Polish settlers of Panna Maria during the severe winter of 1856 by providing beef and corn. It is believed that Coy City in Karnes County may be named after Trinidad Coy.

    Mary Lou is a fighter like her ancestors. She is a progressive activist who believes in women’s rights, racial equality, and a green environment as passionately as she believes in saving animals. As the youngest of six, she witnessed her father’s alcoholism and early death, and the deaths of two brothers. Her widowed mother sacrificed, as my mother did—by working and working and working, so that Mary Lou could go to college. And now, if you ask her, Mary Lou will patiently explain the injustices of current economic policies on the poor. We both think Mexican-American studies should require a class that examines the economic history of Mexican-Americans.

    Because of her story, I’ve seen the way that wars secure land at the cost of great violence, hate, and marginalization. Sometimes the so-called losers win. Like the Alamo that the Mexicans won, whose descendants lost everything. What about the downtown real estate? Mary Lou doesn’t know what happened to it. Apparently, not all heroes die rich.
     
    But the war continues: Poverty, illiteracy, prisons, politics. And the “Anglo winners” may lose their creation myths in the years that follow. Like the Alamo. The inheritors of this Texas myth have inherited an immigrant story of glorious battles in the name of liberty, which was always about land. My Tejano father believed in this myth too, even though his own mother was likely Lipan Apache, and had lost all of her family in even earlier invasions.

    But the Tejana descendants—like Mary Lou and myself with the blood of so many winners and losers—realize we can’t live in the past. We respect, but can’t glorify the ancestors. Democracy is the only land we seek. A land to be shared with everyone.

    The wars are over for us. Nobody won, and everyone lost.

  148. 148.

    Citizen Alan

    @Amir Khalid:

    To me, the saddest thing about Mitt Romney is that his campaign caused me to learn about George Romney, who I now think would have made a great President. I can only assume he would be utterly humiliated if he’d lived to see how his offspring have conducted themselves.

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