Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

“woke” is the new caravan.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

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

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

Hot air and ill-informed banter

This really is a full service blog.

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

An almost top 10,000 blog!

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

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

White supremacy is terrorism.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / “Fear” and Loathsome in the West Wing

“Fear” and Loathsome in the West Wing

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So, excerpts of Bob Woodward’s book about the Trump White House, “Fear,” were published at The Post a while ago. Woodward claims there’s been an “an administrative coup d’etat,” describing aides swiping papers off Trump’s desk and ignoring outbursts so he doesn’t precipitate World War III or crash the global economy in a fit of pique and stupidity. You know, the usual stuff. Here are some excerpts:

White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly frequently lost his temper and told colleagues that he thought the president was “unhinged,” Woodward writes. In one small group meeting, Kelly said of Trump: “He’s an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had.”

***

A near-constant subject of withering presidential attacks was Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Trump told Porter that Sessions was a “traitor” for recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation, Woodward writes. Mocking Sessions’s accent, Trump added, “This guy is mentally retarded. He’s this dumb Southerner. … He couldn’t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.”

***

After Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called Mattis and said he wanted to assassinate the dictator. “Let’s fucking kill him! Let’s go in. Let’s kill the fucking lot of them,” Trump said, according to Woodward.

Mattis told the president that he would get right on it. But after hanging up the phone, he told a senior aide: “We’re not going to do any of that. We’re going to be much more measured.” The national security team developed options for the more conventional airstrike that Trump ultimately ordered.

***

Cohn, a Wall Street veteran, tried to tamp down Trump’s strident nationalism regarding trade. According to Woodward, Cohn “stole a letter off Trump’s desk” that the president was intending to sign to formally withdraw the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea. Cohn later told an associate that he removed the letter to protect national security and that Trump did not notice that it was missing.

***

Woodward recounts an expletive-laden altercation between Ivanka Trump, the president’s eldest daughter and senior adviser, and Stephen K. Bannon, the former chief White House strategist.

“You’re a goddamn staffer!” Bannon screamed at her, telling her that she had to work through Priebus like other aides. “You walk around this place and act like you’re in charge, and you’re not. You’re on staff!”

Ivanka Trump, who had special access to the president and worked around Priebus, replied: “I’m not a staffer! I’ll never be a staffer. I’m the first daughter.”

LOL! I bet she said the same thing at every other job she ever got through her wretch of a father, which is all of them.

My favorite part so far is the account of the former legal team trying to keep Trump from testifying before Mueller. There was a practice session where Trump had a tantrum at the beginning and started bleating about hoaxes and witch hunts. Then this happened:

The book vividly recounts the ongoing debate between Trump and his lawyers about whether the president would sit for an interview with Mueller. On March 5, Dowd and Trump attorney Jay Sekulow met in Mueller’s office with the special counsel and his deputy, James Quarles, where Dowd and Sekulow reenacted Trump’s January practice session.

Dowd then explained to Mueller and Quarles why he was trying to keep the president from testifying: “I’m not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish that transcript, because everything leaks in Washington, and the guys overseas are going to say, ‘I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?’ ”

“John, I understand,” Mueller replied, according to Woodward.

Later that month, Dowd told Trump: “Don’t testify. It’s either that or an orange jumpsuit.”

But Trump, concerned about the optics of a president refusing to testify and convinced that he could handle Mueller’s questions, had by then decided otherwise.

“I’ll be a real good witness,” Trump told Dowd, according to Woodward.

“You are not a good witness,” Dowd replied. “Mr. President, I’m afraid I just can’t help you.”

The next morning, Dowd resigned.

So basically, Trump’s lawyer told Mueller that Trump couldn’t testify because his testimony would reveal that Trump is an idiot, and it would be bad if foreign adversaries realized that the President of the United States is an idiot. Sounds plausible.

Reader Interactions

262Comments

  1. 1.

    ByRookorbyCrook

    Which foreign adversary has not realized Trump is an idiot? I think that train left the station a long time ago. These excerpts all sound like the same hot takes we have heard for the last 2 years, shifting blame and highlighting malfeasance in others, but lacking any spine or fortitude in any member of the Executive branch.

  2. 2.

    Ghost of Joe Lieblings Dog

    Trump’s lawyer told Mueller that Trump couldn’t testify because his testimony would reveal that Trump is an idiot, and it would be bad if foreign adversaries realized that the President of the United States is an idiot.

    That ship sailed with a cargo of cats out of their bags last February, if not before.

  3. 3.

    Corner Stone

    So basically, Trump’s lawyer told Mueller that Trump couldn’t testify because his testimony would reveal that Trump is an idiot, and it would be bad if foreign adversaries realized that the President of the United States is an idiot.

    They don’t need Dowd or Mueller to tell them that. They get their translator to do a transcript of anything Trump says and they say, “Hey, um, I may not speak English very well…but this shit is crazy, right? Just batshit crazy?”

  4. 4.

    hueyplong

    This reads like a bunch of fuckers covering their own asses by telling of their heroic, undocumented actions to save the republic when the time comes to hold fuckers accountable.

  5. 5.

    Mary G

    This is an unwelcome distraction from Kavanaugh and I can’t help thinking that it was leaked to the WaPo at this time on purpose.

  6. 6.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    On March 5, Dowd and Trump attorney Jay Sekulow met in Mueller’s office with the special counsel and his deputy, James Quarles, where Dowd and Sekulow reenacted Trump’s January practice session.

    Even without what followed, I am kind of gobsmacked that this happened.

  7. 7.

    Betty Cracker

    @ByRookorbyCrook: I had the same thought — they all know he’s an idiot. Here’s hoping Mr. Mueller agrees. As for the spineless operators in the executive branch, Brit Hume at Fox News puts some unique spin on that:

    To recap, man at Trump propaganda network thinks we should be grateful to aides for keeping the idiot president from blowing the world up.

  9. 9.

    Martin

    @Mary G: The book has been scheduled for release now for months – certainly long before the Senate decided to start hearings today.

    Beside, this is the era of juggling shitshows. We should be good at it by now.

  10. 10.

    Corner Stone

    What a shiftless, aimless, garbage rummaging raccoon of an admin this WH is. There’s no agenda so if a document or two disappears off Trump’s desk he never misses them. Because it’s not like he had shit he was doing anyway. And who in their right mind was delivering a draft to his desk about cutting off all trade with South Korea? Shouldn’t that go to someone like Rob Porter first, or a CoS, or damn near anyone else?

  11. 11.

    Droppy

    Yeah, but no mention of his excellent email server management, which is, after all, the most important trait in an effective executive.

  12. 12.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @Mary G: if it was it may backfire by showing Trumpov even more in unhinged. Maybe somebody this unhinged should not be making an appointment to the United States Supreme Court?

  13. 13.

    Corner Stone

    @Mary G: I somehow seriously doubt the WH or Trump really wanted these excerpts leaked at any time. They’ve got Kavanaugh in the bag. This Woodward book makes Trump exactly like the ignorant, incurious, mentally unfit rage-baby he is. And all his staff are betraying him and then confessing about it. That’s not a good look.

  15. 15.

    laura

    And here I was thinking that I couldn’t possibly despise Ivanka, the feckless tnuc any more than I did.
    Spouse! Where’s my tumbrel?

  16. 16.

    satby

    @Mary G: Pretty sure Woodward is a Republican, but I just don’t think the bunch of them is that strategic. But all of these people telling Woodward how nuts, stupid, and out-of-control TOTUS is are complicit in his treason as far as I’m concerned. Their cover allows the GOP to get away with not doing their duty and removing his unfit ass from office.
    Fuckem

  17. 17.

    randy khan

    So I have this picture in my head of Trump being interviewed by Mueller, with a court reporter there. Mueller asks Trump the first question, Trump goes off on a rant about witch hunts and fake news for 15 minutes, and when he’s done, Mueller just turns to the court reporter and says “Would you re-read the question for the President?”

    The alternative ending is that, when Trump is done, Mueller looks at him and says, “Thank you, Mr. President, that’s all I needed.”

  18. 18.

    Martin

    @Corner Stone:

    And who in their right mind was delivering a draft to his desk about cutting off all trade with South Korea?

    Stephen Miller. Probably quite a few others as well. Let’s not pretend Trump is the only lunatic there.

  19. 19.

    ByRookorbyCrook

    @Mai Naem mobile:

    Not that I give a shit but this might be the end John Kelly at the White House.

    Who is Trump going to get to fire him? Trump can’t fire anyone to his face. Kelly is CoS for life. We know he doesn’t have the spine to resign on principle and he won’t resign if it is what Trump wants. I think Kelly is there just for spite at this point. Who his spite is for is up for conjecture.

  21. 21.

    eemom

    @Mary G:

    I agree with you, as I mentioned on the last thread.

    @Martin:

    The book’s release date has nothing to do with the WaPo’s decision to “break” this bullshit non-news today of all days.

    I’m not saying it’s a conspiracy. I’m saying fuck the WaPo.

  26. 26.

    trollhattan

    Seem to recall Nixon presented himself to the North Vietnamese as “Crazy Dick” as a ploy to get them to the negotiating table, all while actually being rather…crazy in real time, sans act. Trump merely removes the pretend bit.

    But we’ve fvcking known that for decades!

  27. 27.

    Martin

    @eemom: Woodward works there. They got the exclusive embargo in the runup to the release date. It’s been part of a scheduled PR effort for months.

    This is pretty weak tea compared to the kind of shit the NYT has been pulling.

  31. 31.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @randy khan:

    So I have this picture in my head of Trump being interviewed by Mueller, with a court reporter there. Mueller asks Trump the first question, “What is your name?”; Trump goes off on a rant about witch hunts and fake news for 15 minutes, and when he’s done, Mueller just turns to the court reporter and says “Would you re-read the question for the President?”

  32. 32.

    Mnemosyne

    I have to admit, shit like this warms my black, shriveled little heart:

    Kelly said of Trump: “He’s an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had.”

    Yes, John Kelly. I hope your decision to go full metal racist and support Trump drags you down to his level and permanently shreds the remainder of your pathetic little life. I hope you get incurable colitis from the stress, and that being mocked in the street and shunned by everyone you know only adds to that stress until you go to the VA for treatment, only to discover that your court-martial ruled that you lost your pension and benefits for the disgrace you brought on the Marine Corps with your “service” in the Trump White House, and now you have to fight to get into the emergency room with all of the other plebes who lost their health coverage thanks to you.

  35. 35.

    hitchhiker

    Can’t help but think of those videos of the cabinet gathered around the table in front of all the cameras, each one taking a turn at praising the man they all know is a vicious fool.

    I hope they all end up having to testify against him.

  39. 39.

    Martin

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: That would require a majority of the cabinet. Here’s the cabinet:

    Administrator of the Small Business Administration Linda E. McMahon
    Attorney General Jeff Sessions
    Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats
    Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Gina Haspel
    Director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney
    Representative of the United States to the United Nations Nikki R. Haley
    Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue
    Secretary of Commerce Wilbur L. Ross, Jr.
    Secretary of Defense James Mattis
    Secretary of Education Elisabeth Prince DeVos
    Secretary of Energy James Richard Perry
    Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar
    Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen
    Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Benjamin S. Carson, Sr.
    Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke
    Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta
    Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
    Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao
    Secretary of the Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin
    Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie
    U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer
    Vice President Michael R. Pence
    White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly

    Only Coats, Kelly, and Mattis can be relied on here. Maybe Haley. But most of the rest wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for Trump, and they’re not going to abandon him, not even Sessions. Hell, you put a functioning AG in there and half of them wind up in prison.

  41. 41.

    harry

    Dear Brit Hume: The lesson to take from this is the Republicans are actively putting this country is serious danger every day they allow Trump to stay in office.

  43. 43.

    low-tech cyclist

    @Roger Moore:

    @Martin:

    They’re a domestic enemy, not a foreign adversary.

    They’re not even of this world. They’re from an alternate reality, the one that Fox News has created for them.

  45. 45.

    geg6

    @Mary G:

    It’s actually not a leak. This book’s debut was set months ago (I remember reading that Woodward was doing the book back then). I don’t think Bob or the WaPo or his publisher knew that Cavenaugh’s hearing was going to be happening almost a year ago.

  46. 46.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary G: Woodward is an associate editor at WaPo. Whenever he wanted this done, it was going to be done. There was no leaking involving. Just Woodward telling Costa and Rucker that they could each have an advance copy, giving it to them, and then saying when he was okay for their article to drop.

  47. 47.

    TenguPhule

    @hueyplong:

    This reads like a bunch of fuckers covering their own asses by telling of their heroic, undocumented actions to save the republic when the time comes to hold fuckers accountable.

    Kill them all. Mammon will know his own.

  53. 53.

    Adam L Silverman

    @ByRookorbyCrook: No, Kelly is there because he’s convinced himself that if he’s not something even worse than what has happened has happened. That’s pretty clear from these excerpts and from other reporting about Kelly.

  55. 55.

    Martin

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I know. I’m just explaining my position here. I’m doing what I can here, but holy fuck is most of the country beyond reach. The day is a lot easier to get through if I just pretend that Alabama is a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

  59. 59.

    geg6

    @eemom:

    You are being more ridiculous than usual here. When you are the employer of a reporter whose books’ releases have broken stories for decades now, you get the best stuff out just at release time in order to increase first week sales so as to get on the bestseller lists. I know you aren’t that ignorant of basic marketing and PR, so it’s just your general pissy holier-than-thou attitude talking here. And I don’t give a shit about that. You do you. But quit trying to drag other commenters into your fantasy world.

  60. 60.

    celticdragonchick

    @Adam L Silverman:

    He can be there to head off a disaster that he thinks will happen if he leaves…and still be a generally awful person that approves of the proto ethnic cleansing policies that MIller et al are pursuing.

  61. 61.

    Martin

    @Adam L Silverman: You don’t have to tell me. I’m just fucking rejoicing that dipshit isn’t a coworker of mine any more. There was almost no professional courtesy extended to him. Everyone just wanted that clown gone. That he failed upward so spectacularly is a bit of a punch in the dick, though. Sorry, all. We tried.

  63. 63.

    celticdragonchick

    @geg6:

    I have never put anybody into the pie filter….but eemom is making a great case for herself to be the first.

  64. 64.

    Adam L Silverman

    @celticdragonchick: Correct. I’m not arguing that they’re mutually exclusive or that he should be lauded, just that my impression is that he’s convinced himself he has to be there or the worst will happen.

  66. 66.

    Mandalay

    @Mary G:

    I can’t help thinking that it was leaked to the WaPo at this time on purpose.

    I’m not following your argument. Isn’t it simply the case that the publisher openly sent WaPo the book in the hopes of some free publicity in advance of its release? Who would want to stealthily provide a distraction from the hearing? It certainly wouldn’t be Woodward or WaPo, and I can’t imagine the publisher cares either way.

  67. 67.

    Mnemosyne

    @JPL:

    I think my wish for him to develop painful, difficult-to-treat sores in his colon is far more likely to happen than it would be for him to apologize to Rep. Wilson. If he does ever apologize, I’ll remove, say, one sore from his curse. That seems fair.

    I’m probably going to attempt another shower today. It’s kind of a pain in the ass to get in and out, but I have nonslip rugs and a nonslip bath mat inside the tub, plus a safety bar to hold onto, so I should be reasonably safe. Today I need to concentrate on doing knee slides, which is necessary but won’t be much fun.

  68. 68.

    Martin

    @TenguPhule: To be fair, she plays a snake on TV – the role she was obviously hired on to play, and played well enough to get into the WH. Now she gets to play a different role.

  69. 69.

    Betty Cracker

    @geg6: The Post has a recording of the call, and yep — Trump comes across as totally weak and cowardly. He drags Conway into the conversation to try to deflect blame for ducking an interview with Woodward and then babbles on endlessly about how he’s the greatest president ever, blah blah blah.

  70. 70.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Martin: Was he like this before he got tenure? Did he just hide it? Or did he go off the rails at some point post tenure when it was impossible to get rid of him?

  72. 72.

    Mnemosyne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    If acknowledged child thief Kelly thinks that he’s preventing something even worse by staying, there must be an active hellmouth open in the basement of the White House right now.

  75. 75.

    MattF

    One should not pay any attention to what Bob Woodward writes. At all. He’s the personification of Conventional Village Wisdom. The guy who will inform you, with a straight face, that Alan Greenspan was a genius. Ignore him and believe your lyin’ eyes.

  77. 77.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @eemom:Sounds like the WP is seeing if they can troll Trump into full rant in the middle of the hearing, so Trump can piss over another of his own victories. Yes, it’s distraction but who are the WP trying to distract?

  79. 79.

    Mnemosyne

    @Martin:

    “That’s why I took the form of a 45-year-old white man — I can only fail up!”

    Man, I love “The Good Place.”

  80. 80.

    Adam L Silverman

  83. 83.

    Miss Bianca

    @Corner Stone:

    What a shiftless, aimless, garbage rummaging raccoon of an admin this WH is.

    OK, it’s early yet, but you may just have won the Internets today with that comment.

  85. 85.

    TenguPhule

    @Corner Stone:

    And who in their right mind was delivering a draft to his desk about cutting off all trade with South Korea?

    I see the obvious flaw in your line of reasoning.

  86. 86.

    Mnemosyne

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    He wisely purchased both kinds of Chex Mix prior to the surgery. ?

    But it turns out that not being constantly nauseous from the medication and the pain has put me in a better mood this time. I was able to atop taking the opiates yesterday with minimal discomfort, and my temperature finally went back down, too (a mild fever of less than 101 degrees for a few days after surgery is normal).

    Now if my fucking ice machine would just arrive, I would be all set.

  87. 87.

    HeleninEire

    Oh hi. Once again I was commenting on a dead post. I gotta figure out how to know that a new post is up.

    Also, too go back to the last post. My comments are the Ernest Hemingway of posts. [sic] /Trump.

  90. 90.

    Mandalay

    @harry:

    Dear Brit Hume: The lesson to take from this is the Republicans are actively putting this country is serious danger every day they allow Trump to stay in office.

    Brit Hume is going seriously rogue lately.

    Charles Krauthammer was Hume’s hero (I’m not joking), and it’s as though Hume promised Krauthammer on his deathbed that he would take up his mantle, and shiv Trump at every opportunity. Or perhaps Hume has concluded that things are going to end badly for Trump, and he doesn’t want to be on the wrong side of history.

  95. 95.

    Jack the Second

    You ever read about that chicken that survived having its head cut off? Its brain stem and jugular were intact, and it had to be hand fed, but it survived for like a year and a half before choking to death on a kernel of corn.

    I kind of feel like we’re seeing the same thing with a government. It’s not pleasant and more than a little disgusting, but there’s also a sort of morbid fascination, “Huh, I had no idea you could survive so long without a functioning chief executive.”

  101. 101.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I had a professor in college who worked at the Post as a young reporter with Woodward and swore up and down that Woodward was a very careful and accurate in his writing.

  102. 102.

    Chyron HR

    Ivanka Trump, who had special access to the president and worked around Priebus, replied: “I’m not a staffer! I’ll never be a staffer. I’m the first daughter.”

    I’ll admit that Madonna sang the part better, but for my money the only real Ivanka is Patti LuPone.

  103. 103.

    eemom

    Also, If I wasn’t clear before, my point is just that this bullshit “leak” of shit that everybody already knows is a distraction from what’s going on today and it was irresponsible of the WaPo to do it, period, planned in advance or not. You might not agree, but I’m not getting the outrage at that comment.

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Thank you for this response, and for not being a gratuitous asshole to me just cuz it’s what all the kewl kids are doing. : )

  107. 107.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mai Naem mobile: He has recordings for everyone he talks to. When one of his three books on Bush 43 came out, Rumsfeld denied he’d spoken with Woodward. Woodward produced the tape recording and asked if Rumsfeld wanted it published. Rumsfeld shut up.

  110. 110.

    Martin

    @Adam L Silverman: He was always there to a large degree. In the past you could put him down as the kind of protectionist liberal that would attack Clinton over NAFTA. But over time his central thesis didn’t hold. NAFTA did hurt some workers, but it saved agriculture in the US as well as a bunch of other markets. And the general conclusion is that broad tariffs really only serve to hold people in poverty (which we’re of course okay with as long as it isn’t our people). Trade has proven a good way to reduce inequality. Sure, some game the system to their benefit, but that was true to an even larger degree during protectionist periods.

    Navarro’s scholarship has always been that tariffs are a net good, and when the broader economics community rejected that view, he pretty much doubled down (how could he reverse after so many years with that view?). And in doubling down, he picked up more and more of this racial undertone. I’ll give a real world example. This weekend I was polled regarding our city council, etc. There were a TON of questions suggesting that the city should find a way to ban ‘foreign investments’ in real-estate here. Now, that’s clearly code for PRC nationals dropping piles of cash on home sellers. Home prices here are through the roof, and yes, all of this demand outstripping supply is causing that, but holy fuck people, this is a US export! This is money being airdropped into the US economy. Yes, it sucks people are getting priced out of the market, but there’s a remedy for that – build more housing! Which the same voters are opposing because it means mass transit, but also more Chinese neighbors. I fucking went off on the survey (which the person administering the survey took some real delight in). For starters, we’re a university town. Half of our faculty are foreign born. What the fuck is a ‘foreign investor’? Is it the new math professor from Greece who got his PhD at Stanford and now wants to teach here?

    Yes, there’s some right wing xenophobia here, but there’s a shit-ton of liberal NIMBYism as well. San Francisco is a fucking train wreck of housing policy, and you can hardly blame conservatives for that. I think this is an area that very elegantly crosses party lines and I think Navarro is right in there as well. Trade means change, it means adapting to the market, it means cultural interchange. I think that scares the shit out of people left and right. I think it scares Navarro more than most. It also has nearly zero economic basis.

  111. 111.

    TenguPhule

    EPA lacked justification, authority for Pruitt’s 24/7 security detail, watchdog finds

    This is my shocked face. : |

    The Environmental Protection Agency failed to properly assess security threats facing former administrator Scott Pruitt before spending $3.5 million on round-the-clock protective detail in his first year, according to an Inspector General’s report.

    Those costs covered just 11 months from February to December 2017 — and amount to more than double what was spent during the same period a year earlier.

    “The increased costs associated with this undocumented decision represents an inefficient use of agency resources,” the report concluded.

  113. 113.

    MattF

    @Adam L Silverman: Woodward is careful about things like that. He’s not so careful about his biasses. Of course, writing about Donald Trump is a very different sort of business from writing about Alan Greenspan.

  114. 114.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Mnemosyne:

    it was white supremacists who picked the gesture up from Trump and started using it to signal their allegiance to Trump, not the other way around.

    Not quite.

    It’s an old (relatively speaking) 4chan/Pepe-the-frog thing, which gained traction as an alt-right shibboleth. Then people noticed that Trump happened to do it too, and it became a symbol of Trump support. This was doubly convenient for them because it already signaled alt-right/dark enlightenment/ethno-nationalism affinity. And then 4chan started a campaign to flood the Internet with posts warning people that the gesture was a symbol of white supremacy. This tricked media organizations into reporting that it was a symbol of white supremacy. It then became a symbol of white supremacy, but one that the flasher can winkingly claim is just a symbol of Trump support, or just a frog thing.

    This is how fractally stupid everything is with these people, by the way.

  115. 115.

    Barbara

    @MattF: Bob Woodward and Maureen Dowd serve a very important function and that is not for you and me to be informed by them but for you and me to understand what is or is about to become conventional wisdom.

  117. 117.

    Fair Economist

    @Martin: At the next meeting mention the #1 way to keep foreign investors out is to build enough housing that it is not a near guaranteed win to just buy and hold property.

  118. 118.

    James E Powell

    After Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called Mattis and said he wanted to assassinate the dictator. “Let’s fucking kill him! Let’s go in. Let’s kill the fucking lot of them,” Trump said, according to Woodward.

    Mattis told the president that he would get right on it. But after hanging up the phone, he told a senior aide: “We’re not going to do any of that. We’re going to be much more measured.” The national security team developed options for the more conventional airstrike that Trump ultimately ordered.

    If memory serves, according to most of the Village, this was the day Trump really, finally, no really, became president.

  122. 122.

    geg6

    @eemom:

    It’s the kind of conspiracy mongering you usually only hear from the other side. I find nothing at all unusual or weird about it. And if I was an author, I’d expect my publishers to do the same thing. Not everyone thinks the entire world has to stop because of a confirmation hearing.

  123. 123.

    TenguPhule

    @James E Powell:

    “Let’s fucking kill him! Let’s go in. Let’s kill the fucking lot of them,” Trump said, according to Woodward.

    Let me remind everyone that the story about Trump regretted not being able to kill Canada’s government was just 5 days ago.

  124. 124.

    lgerard

    BW: Yeah, well, about six or seven people. I tried. And I couldn’t have — you and I spent a whole lunch on it, Kellyanne. And I said, I want to cover the substantive issues in foreign policy and domestic policy. And you said you would get back to me. Nothing.

    Conway: Yeah. So, I did. I presented it to the people here who make those decisions, but . ..

    BW: Who are the people?

    Conway: But anyway, I’ll give you back to the president.

    LOL

  126. 126.

    MattF

    @MattF: Several years ago, I knew a journalist who was in the White House press corps. He repeated (and believed) conventional wisdom, whatever it happened to be, down to the last iota. They believe, in all seriousness, that knowing what their betters believe is part of their job.

  127. 127.

    Martin

    @Domestic short hair tabby (fka vheidi): Fair warning to all. If you find me at a meet up and I’m making that sign, it’s a little thing I picked up in college from my therapist as a way to rein my anxiety in. My brain is doing this little meditation kind of thing.

    If I’m a white supremacist, I’m an unwitting one.

  129. 129.

    germy

    @MattF:

    Several years ago, I knew a journalist who was in the White House press corps. He repeated (and believed) conventional wisdom, whatever it happened to be, down to the last iota. They believe, in all seriousness, that knowing what their betters believe is part of their job.

    They wouldn’t be in the White House press corps otherwise.

  130. 130.

    Mandalay

    @Martin:

    Only Coats, Kelly, and Mattis can be relied on here. Maybe Haley.

    What can be safely relied on is that everyone you listed will do what is in their own personal interest. Chao will surely invite opinions from her husband, Carson and Perry have skin deep loyalty after the campaign, Haley would happily stab her mother in the eye if it meant career advancement, and even Mike Pence can work out what happens next if Trump goes. I wouldn’t trust a single fucker on that list to stick with Trump.

    The only people who might stand by him when things start wobbling are the billionaires like Ross and DeVos since they are too big to fail: they gain nothing by turning on Trump, and lose nothing by remaining loyal.

  134. 134.

    Miss Bianca

    @Jack the Second:

    You ever read about that chicken that survived having its head cut off? Its brain stem and jugular were intact, and it had to be hand fed, but it survived for like a year and a half before choking to death on a kernel of corn.

    Mike the Headless Chicken! Who merits his own annual festival in the bustling metropolis of Fruita, CO! Ah, yes.

  135. 135.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    My favorite bit is Ivanka’s “I’m the first daughter!” That is so stupid and yet so consistent with my impression of her. She’s 36 years old, she’s married, she has three kids. She’s practically middle-aged. She’s not Amy Carter gamboling on the White House lawn. But “I’m the first daughter!”

  136. 136.

    Keith P.

    @lgerard: Reminds me of college orientation. The dean of students said to everyone “Repeat after me – ‘no one told me about that.’ Now, that is the last time you get to use that excuse.” (Note: I did not go to Wharton)

  137. 137.

    Martin

    @Fair Economist: But that’s just it. Even the staunchest liberal gets a little weak in the knees when they’re staring down a million dollar equity gain. Discussion then turns downright Lee Atwater in nature, arguing about quality of life, school crowding, and a bunch of things that nobody dare oppose, as if it’s honorable to defend your kid having an uncrowded pool while his/her classmate is living in their car. It’s a bit unsettling how quickly a bunch of self-described liberals can start blaming people for bad life choices, and protecting their special unearned status.

  138. 138.

    Anotherlurker

    @Mnemosyne: And Traitor Tot (stolen from some other commenter) lifted the “OK” sign from SCUBA Divers.
    As a diver, I resent a safety signal being uses as a sign of hate.

  139. 139.

    Martin

    @Major Major Major Major: The OK sign can be pretty invisible as well, unless you’re seeking it out. Often I’ll just hold a pen that way so it’s less apparent. I’m not saying whoeversheis wasn’t flashing a white supremacy sign, but if I were sitting with that CSPAN camera on me, I’d be okaying the fuck out.

  140. 140.

    Fair Economist

    @Mandalay: The opinions of the cabinet are irrelevant because if the President contests their findings, it takes 2/3 of both houses to remove him, which is actually harder than impeachment. In the current polarized climate, that removal process is relevant only for a President that is unconcious or otherwise mute and uncommunicative.

  144. 144.

    Kelly

    @Anotherlurker: It’s always been the OK sign to me. Kayakers around here pat themselves on the head to signal I’m OK. Reach a hand up as far as you can to signal Help!

  145. 145.

    Fair Economist

    @Martin: Which is why the housing supply problem will probably have to be fixed on the state level. The Socal there is some noise in LA proper and Santa Ana about large scale housing increases (because they now have renter majorities) but I don’t think there is anything like that in Nocal. It is still mostly noise even here.

  146. 146.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Martin: Oh, but of course. And it’s only very recently a for-the-lulz wink to white supremacy, among a smallish number of people, and recognized by a larger-but-still-smallish number of people outside of that. I suspect it will be a flash in the pan, and we’ll be back to it meaning “OK” or playing the circle game by the second year of the next Democratic administration, if not sooner.

    @Fair Economist:

    I don’t think there is anything like that in Nocal. It is still mostly noise even here.

    I mean, Scott Wiener is the state senator from SF.

  149. 149.

    The Moar You Know

    On March 5, Dowd and Trump attorney Jay Sekulow met in Mueller’s office with the special counsel and his deputy, James Quarles, where Dowd and Sekulow reenacted Trump’s January practice session.

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: This would probably be the most hilarious piece of theater ever put on by anyone, ever, and my only sorrow is that I will never get to see it: an eight-figure a year lawyer imitating Donald Trump.

  151. 151.

    jonas

    Has any world country in recent history ever been ruled by someone embodying such a combination of outright stupidity, clownish imperiousness, and toddler-like impetuosity? Seriously. Many leaders have been ruthless and violent, or perhaps even unhinged, but you can’t say that they were idiots. Conversely, some may have not been the sharpest knife in the drawer, but they understood enough about history and politics to run their country competently. Trump is truly, gob-smackingly stupid, in the sense of not really knowing anything about how basic things in the world work, and on top of that, remaining stubbornly ignorant of the scale of his own ignorance (aka the now much-cited Dunning-Kruger effect). Moreover, he wields that ignorance to turn everything he touches into shit. This is really, truly unprecedented.

    The Republican party, from their voters on up to the Congressional leaders and Cabinet members, that have supported, suborned, and excused this horrifying regime must answer for what they have done to this country. They have to answer for it. This party, along with its propaganda network, must be destroyed, its fields sown with salt, and all memory of it wiped from the earth.

  152. 152.

    Jeffro

    Folksy sister Lindsey Graham is lecturing the Democrats for being hypocritical re: Kavanaugh, which led him to say, “If you want to pick judges, you’d better win”. Like, multiple times. Lindsey, you prick, I’d like to thank you for some of the best ready-for-TV-ads footage we’ve possibly EVER been given.

  155. 155.

    The Moar You Know

    Peter Navarro. All of the break the trade deals and the tariff stuff is his schtick.

    @Adam L Silverman: Used to listen to him on the radio – KNX out of Los Angeles – in the early aughts. He was sane then. I had stopped listening to KNX (which meant I’d stopped listening to radio, period) after the run-up to Obama’s election, because their “non-partisan political analyst” was anything but. That station got destroyed when the longtime GM left, sadly. At any rate, Navarro hasn’t been on there for a few years at least. Maybe he went to KFI, there’s a station full of the insane.

    Navarro has gone off the rails. Worse than Turley, who I used to read a lot and was very centrist and sane until Obama got elected, and within a month I had to delete his link out of my bookmarks. Dude lost his shit.

  156. 156.

    cope

    I’m sorry, but I just don’t get the outrage whenever a new “tell-all blockbuster, no holds barred, you won’t believe what’s going on behind the scenes book” comes out. Really, who is surprised? It’s really just more evidence of what is already know, only the quotes have changed. I liken it to zooming in on a fractal image. The same pattern repeats in each iteration, no matter how close or far away from the image you are.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbrot_set#/media/File:Mandelbrot_sequence_new.gif

  158. 158.

    geg6

    @Mary G:

    Typically, big time author books get at least a week of pre-sale publicity. And Bob Woodward is a big time author, having written numerous best sellers over the past four and a half decades. Plus, his books always make news, so the news critters are always clamoring for a scoop on what the big news might be. And since he gives his own co-workers, the WaPo, advance copies before anyone else gets them, WaPo always plays this game.

  159. 159.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @eemom:
    Look, nobody likes you here because you’re a vicious piece of shit who treats everyone like trash, not because it’s the “kewl” thing to do.

  160. 160.

    J R in WV

    I don’t think the nomination/hearing/confirmation is that big a deal.

    When Kavanaugh is indicted for the dirty dealing that paid off his quarter of a million dollar credit card debt, he will b e off the bench so fast all our heads will spin!!

    You don’t think Mueller’s team has taken a look at this rat bastard? Of course they have, and you know there’s dirt there.

  169. 169.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Fair Economist: We’ve had quite a few new housing developments here in Glendale and here’s what happened: this new housing stock ends up being high end, so the average for rents increases, so landlords at the low end raise their rents(they’re just keeping their rent with the average) pricing folk out of the city.

    Bill(maybe not in)GlendaleCA for long.

  170. 170.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @laura :…..ereht did uoy tahw ees I

    According to someone who knows someone who knows someone whose work occasionally takes him/her to the bunker under the Reichskanzlerei White House, Ivanka avoids being photographed, because her tukhis is a double-wide & her face a cautionary tale from the Botox-Gone-Berserk files. /scurrilous gossip

  172. 172.

    Gravenstone

    @Betty Cracker: The sad thing is, he’s not wrong. They were doing it from self interest as much as any vestigial sense of the needs of the nation. But that level of intervention has likely forestalled any number of incidents large and small.

  173. 173.

    James E Powell

    @Martin:

    It’s a bit unsettling how quickly a bunch of self-described liberals can start blaming people for bad life choices, and protecting their special unearned status.

    I hear that. Try talking about immigration or public education at dinner parties in Brentwood and Santa Monica.

  175. 175.

    MCA1

    @cope: Yours seems like the more common take in these here parts.

    I’ve had a different reaction to the Woodward book, though. Because, yeah, I knew this guy would be a terrible president who would, through his constant transgressions and policy choices, take this country decades away from where I want it to be. I, like everyone outside the deplorables cult and the polite old school Republicans who haven’t noticed that their party’s slid a long, long way from 1980, recognized Drumpf as petty, vindictive, proudly ignorant, narcissistic, racist, venal, and an aggressive cheat and con artist in every way. It was patently obvious that he was unfit to lead the country, and that he would be President of Himself, and all of that. I could even see that he would become desperate as soon as his “business” practices were subjected to the slightest bit of scrutiny, and had the temperament to do incredibly destructive things in order to save his own skin when that happened.

    But I did NOT think that he would, within 20 months of being in office, be shown to be a completely imbecilic Mad King George. We’re no longer talking about constitutionally or dispositionally incapable of living up to the demands and the dignity of the office. We’re talking about deranged and delusional. His closest advisors have basically resorted to a secret, unofficial 25th Amendment invocation. There is no one at the wheel of the ship of state. It’s not that we have a terrible president – we are without a president.

    I hope someone’s combing through WH records of visitors, and starts grilling GOP Congresscritters about what they knew and when, and what they talked about on specific visits with cabinet members, Kelly, etc., etc. The story here is not that this West Wing is a toxic work environment or that it’s full of predators. It’s that PEOPLE IN THE WHITE HOUSE RECOGNIZE THAT TRUMP IS MAD AND ARE SIMULTANEOUSLY COVERING IT UP AND TRYING TO REIGN IN THE MADMAN BY DECEIVING AND/OR IGNORING HIM. I honestly didn’t think we’d get to this particular place. I knew we’d go to bad places, but not this one.

  177. 177.

    geg6

    @celticdragonchick:

    Probably because he’s always pimping himself on FOX. He gets the exact audience he’s been pandering to since the Obama administration. The common clay of the new west. You know, morons.

  178. 178.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    So it’s a white supremacist symbol that 4channers pretended was not a white supremacist symbol so they could produce fake warnings claiming that it really was a white supremacist symbol so they could pwn the MSM for falling for the fake propaganda that said it was a white supremacist symbol even though it actually is?

    Gosh, that’s almost as clever as when my 4-year-old niece told me that the cookie in her hand couldn’t possibly be a cookie because her mommy had told Auntie Mnemo not to let her have a cookie.

  184. 184.

    geg6

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    Goku isn’t far from wrong here. But I will say that, like other people I currently consider allies (such as Bill Kristol or Joe Scarborough or Jen Rubin), I don’t have to like them to be happy they are on my side. But she is pretty much horrible to others here, so I totally get Goku.

  187. 187.

    PaulWartenberg

    everybody in trumpworld seems to be at everyone else’s throats.

    the “honorable” people refuse to quit because they fear unleashing a madman on the world (far worse than we’ve already seen). the grifters refuse to leave because they still need to finish their own con games.

    the rest of us are royally screwed.

    Please GOD let us vote the Republican thieves out.

  193. 193.

    Gelfling 545

    @Betty Cracker: Marshall called it a hard read and he is right. I feel real pity for Trump. This is a man who has never had a real life, never had a relationship not based on quid pro quo, never, I think felt love or felt loved and doesn’t even know it’s possible. His entire life is a shiny veneer, a tv reality show. And it makes me want him out of office more desperately than ever – a thing I did not believe was possible; but he is pitiful.

  194. 194.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Barbara:
    I thought it was common knowledge what with eemom (autocorrected to “demon” lol) was a total whackjob piece of work who has generally been pretty hostile to a lot of regulars in tone. She was pretty horrible to Suzanne a couple of days ago, bringing up comments Suzanne had made a year ago about drinking after several personal tragedies had struck her in a short time period, just to prove some asinine point.

  196. 196.

    Brachiator

    @Martin:

    Which foreign adversary has not realized Trump is an idiot?

    GOP voters.

    Sad, but true. Trump’s supporters will just cling more tightly too him. Their conventional wisdom is that Establishment Washington hates Trump and will not let him do what “the people” want him to do.

    I’m knee deep in work, but am enjoying all the great comments here during a lunch break. Also enjoying some of the sour comments, as well. Didn’t realize that the book excerpt thing was happening. Interesting that this largely confirms Omarosa, aka Cassandra. What will be left for NYT’s Haberman to reveal?

    The takeaway seems to be that, yes, the government can run on automatic pilot, it doesn’t matter whether a mad man is in charge, especially if the rich can get their tax cuts, and people like Bob Woodward can write a book about it. No one, no one in power, no journalist, no publisher, no strategist or consultant, will ever say, “this is not right. We must (by constitutional means) remove this man from office.”

    We are all dependent on someone being smart enough to ignore Trump or to yank a crazy order out of his hand. That’s one fucked up game of chicken.

  197. 197.

    Gravenstone

    @trnc: Not done face to face though. He deplaned AF1, then was left on the tarmac alone. A true coward’s approach to the firing.

  198. 198.

    eemom

    >geg6:@geg6: @geg6:

    Yeah, that’sjust what you said when your sad little ass was being piled on after the Sandusky scandal broke, and I defended you.

    Got another example? Google is your friend.

  199. 199.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??:
    Damn I miss the edit button. I meant I thought it was common knowledge since eemom has been so active recently, basically calling other commenters morons (without real justification). She’s just generally obnoxious much of the time.

  200. 200.

    Fair Economist

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: You are mistaking cause and effect. If lower end landlords raised their rents above what the market called for, they would get vacancies. The problem is that in almost every city in CA construction is far less than demand, so prices keep going up. It is even more nuts in the cities with minimal construction.

    In those rare cases where there is enough construction rents slow down. Seattle doubled its construction last year and managed to almost stop rent increases. We shall see if they will keep it up.

  206. 206.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Fair Economist:
    I’m not interested in being constructive. eemom needs to get a taste of her own medicine and it’s kind of fun kicking trolls around sometimes, which I absolutely believe eemom is.

  208. 208.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Barbara:

    My mistake then. I amend my previous comment: I was only speaking for myself and perhaps a few others

  212. 212.

    Brachiator

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    Ivanka avoids being photographed

    I am willing to bet good money that she does a lot to stop the clock and preserve her looks because she dreads the day her father looks at her and says, “Look at you. You’re not hot anymore.”

    But I also think that part of her will be relieved to be able to become a normal woman, with all of the natural flaws and beauty and grace that real women can have.

  214. 214.

    Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ

    @Martin: I saw that video and it seems to me that she is digging her thumb into her forearm and the rest is incidental. I will do that (usually not on my forearm though) especially if I’m experiencing really strong emotion such as mortification in public. Moreover, her crossed arms indicate discomfort so maybe digging her thumbnail in her arm makes more sense. Her facial expressions are strange–more one of discomfort than a look of complete blank innocence or the look of defiance and a smirk one would expect for someone trying to casually toss out a white supremacy gesture on the sly.

  218. 218.

    TenguPhule

    @MCA1:

    But I did NOT think that he would, within 20 months of being in office, be shown to be a completely imbecilic Mad King George.

    I am still sure things are worse then reported because all the leakers are still asscovering for the shit they got wrong too.

  220. 220.

    Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ

    @J R in WV: With all due respect, no one with a penis gets to say, “I don’t think the nomination/hearing/confirmation is that big a deal.” It won’t affect you for the rest of your life. And I highly doubt that Mueller is looking at Kavanaugh. He has his hands full with the Orange Disembodied Anus in the WH.

  221. 221.

    goblue72

    @Martin: The tote bag liberal voters of San Francisco have raised hypocrisy in the areas of land use to a performance art level that could give Karen Finley a run for her money. Don’t ever try to point to a NIMBY San Franciscan (yes, I realized that is duplicative) that their insistence on keeping “the City” in amber is causing economic displacement in Oakland on other side of the tube connected to their city – you’ll get a sneer that will completely singe your eyebrows.

    I’d say the voters down on the Peninsula have taken a “hold my beer” response to San Francisco, save that folks down on the Peninsula don’t actually feign to be enlightened progressives superior to everyone else in the Bay Area.

    (I leave Marin out of it only because the only people in the Bay Area who don’t think Marin is completely full of it are people who live in Marin.)

  222. 222.

    TenguPhule

    @Brachiator:

    The takeaway seems to be that, yes, the government can run on automatic pilot,

    Its like running your car on autopilot. The shit only works on a straight road, clear visibility, no traffic and a driver is still seated and read to take over if something goes wrong.

    The US government has none of the above.

  223. 223.

    TenguPhule

    @Brachiator:

    I also think that part of her will be relieved to be able to become a normal woman, with all of the natural flaws and beauty and grace that real women can have.

    I’ll sooner expect Ivanka to poop ice cream and rainbows.

  225. 225.

    Brachiator

    @Barbara:

    I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for that day.

    Oh, I don’t think that Ivanka will ever be anything other than a monster, but I think that part of her will be happy to stop being Daddy’s Barbie Doll.

  227. 227.

    Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ

    My last comment is stuck in moderation because I had the temerity to use one of the rotating banner phrases that contains “Disembodied”…..Can someone please remove me from the Moderated Zone?

  229. 229.

    Barbara

    @goblue72: It is sad to see San Francisco being turned into a Disneyland for adults, like Venice, a place that is alive mostly for tourism. It is why I finally told my husband I had no interest in moving there.

  230. 230.

    geg6

    @eemom:

    Fuck off. No one had to defend me during the Sandusky scandal. I defended myself. Which was easy since it had nothing to do with me. You sometimes have good points. More often, you’re an ass to others here. But I don’t pie anyone and I can handle anything you want to throw at me. As I said, you be you. It’s what makes BJ an interesting place to be.

  232. 232.

    SFAW

    @low-tech cyclist:

    They’re a domestic enemy, not a foreign adversary

    No, they’re foreign until each and every one of them provides their long-form birth certificate, a statement from the hospital where they were allegedly born (or an affidavit from the midwife), plus documented proof that they have not said anything against President Obama, plus $25K to fund the exhaustive search investigators will need to go through to prove none of the documents was forged. If they don’t provide all that, then as efgoldman says:

    Fuckem.

    And then deport them to Russia or Somalia.

    [Apologies if someone has already suggested this. I’m too fucking lazy old to search all 487 comments.]

  233. 233.

    Brachiator

    @TenguPhule:

    Its like running your car on autopilot. The shit only works on a straight road, clear visibility, no traffic and a driver is still seated and read to take over if something goes wrong.

    The US government has none of the above.

    Problem is, the people watching Trump and keeping him in office believe that the road ahead is straight and visibility is perfect.

    I understand that Trump had to back away from his declaration to kill a federal employee pay raise. Earlier a commenter asked if there had ever been a modern ruler as crazy as Trump. Has a modern era president ever tried to do so much shit that was patently boneheaded or illegal? And yet, all the wise heads in the Beltway keep pretending that everything is fine. Or they are waiting for Trump to pivot into being truly presidential.

  235. 235.

    TenguPhule

    @Brachiator:

    Has a modern era president ever tried to do so much shit that was patently boneheaded or illegal?

    Zimbabwe and Venezuela immediately come to mind.

  236. 236.

    randy khan

    @Martin:

    It’s a bit unsettling how quickly a bunch of self-described liberals can start blaming people for bad life choices, and protecting their special unearned status.

    Earlier this year I was in a conversation with someone who generally came off as leftish and who was lamenting how her old neighborhood had been ruined by real estate agents engaged in blockbusting (which took place decades ago). She said once it started everyone had to move. I asked her why everyone had to move and she got an extremely confused look on her face.

  238. 238.

    J R in WV

    @JPL:

    If a judge is indicted for criminal activity, they are gonna get kicked off their bench.

    Perjury, taking money illegally, quid pro quo regarding cases, any thing like any of that. And I have no doubt that “Judge” Kavanaugh has participated in the Right Wing Grift!!

  239. 239.

    catclub

    @Corner Stone:

    This Woodward book makes Trump exactly like the ignorant, incurious, mentally unfit rage-baby he is.

    and it was obvious to a majority of the US population in nov 2016. They either did not care or there were not quite
    enough to fix that problem.

  241. 241.

    Brachiator

    @TenguPhule:

    Has a modern era president ever tried to do so much shit that was patently boneheaded or illegal?

    Zimbabwe and Venezuela immediately come to mind.

    I’m tired and getting sloppier than usual.

    I meant to have written, Has a modern era US president ever tried to do so much shit that was patently boneheaded or illegal?

    We obviously are paying more attention to Trump, but I wondered whether any previous US president (in the 20th century) been so obviously dumb?

  242. 242.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Fair Economist: I am not mistaking cause and effect, my landlord is. The unit next to me was vacant for two years, until(as we found out recently) he decided to sell the property, so he made a deal on a lower rent for gardening/landscaping. I call my landlord, Trump.

  243. 243.

    Mnemosyne

    @Barbara:

    If you want canals and a vibrant city in So Cal, look at Long Beach next time. They have some issues with crime, but they’re their own independent city, not a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles.

  244. 244.

    Ruckus

    @Betty Cracker:
    Unfortunately it’s true, we should be, if not greatfull, at least minimally thankful that they are doing at least the least they can do. That they are incapable of doing more for their country is the shame.

  245. 245.

    catclub

    @Gelfling 545:

    I feel real pity for Trump. …… His entire life is a shiny veneer, a tv reality show.

    and enough US voters believed The Apprentice showed a guy in charge and on top of things.

  246. 246.

    TenguPhule

    @Brachiator:

    We obviously are paying more attention to Trump, but I wondered whether any previous US president (in the 20th century) been so obviously dumb?

    Bush Jr. He’s more articulate then Trump, but a low bar to slither over.

  248. 248.

    Mnemosyne

    @Brachiator:

    Warren G. Harding is probably the closest analogue: a corrupt, scandal-ridden horndog who was none too bright. Still smarter than Trump, but not by much.

  249. 249.

    Mnemosyne

    @catclub:

    Enough US voters thought that the election didn’t matter because both Trump and Hillary were equally corrupt and would have the exact same policies. And many of those same people believe the exact same thing today, because they’re just that fucking dumb.

  250. 250.

    Shana

    @Adam L Silverman: The recording of the call with Trump that the Post released earlier today has Woodward telling Trump he’s turning on his tape recorder. And Trump acknowledging it.

  251. 251.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @MattF: Genius is no guarantee against someone garbing dumb ideas. Take Newton who believed in alchemy and the pyramid inch.

  253. 253.

    Zinsky

    Screw impeachment! Pence and Trump’s Cabinet members should be talking seriously about a 25th Amendment takedown of this reptile. Tackle the fatass in the halls of the White House – bind and gag him nd cart him off to the nearest psychiatric hospital, never to be seen again!

  256. 256.

    Brachiator

    @catclub:

    I understand that Trump had to back away from his declaration to kill a federal employee pay raise.

    Where was that?

    From Vox,

    Just ahead of Labor Day weekend, President Donald Trump announced he would freeze the salaries of some 2 million federal workers next year. After an outcry, Trump said he’d use the long weekend to “study” the matter.

    Of course, he just ended up playing golf. Aides are telling him that this might hurt the GOP in some of the mid-terms.

  258. 258.

    TenguPhule

    @Zinsky:

    Pence and Trump’s Cabinet members should be talking seriously about a 25th Amendment takedown of this reptile.

    All wolves, no sheep.

  259. 259.

    NotMax

    @Brachiator

    William Gamaliel (“I don’t understand this Europe stuff”) Harding comes to mind, but still not at the Dumbcon 1 level of Dolt 45.

  261. 261.

    Kathleen

    @Barbara: Yes. Woodward in particular sets “The Narrative” and he has set the stage for the heroes (in Final Days it was Alexander Haig) and the villains. I also detect a whiff of “The Revenge Of The Deep State” in the excerpts I read. I don’t ever see his works as “books”. He’s the ultimate Establishment White Male Whisperer. I wonder if The HandMag’s Tale is eating her heart out.

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