• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

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

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

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

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

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

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Mobile Menu

  • Winnable House Races
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Balloon Juice 2023 Pet Calendar (coming soon)
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • War in Ukraine
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • 2021-22 Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Open Threads / Repub Enablers Open Thread: The ‘Boot Lamprey Pundit Class’ Is Very Nervous

Repub Enablers Open Thread: The ‘Boot Lamprey Pundit Class’ Is Very Nervous

by Anne Laurie|  August 13, 20229:38 pm| 119 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Republican Venality, Republicans in Disarray!, Trump Crime Cartel, Our Failed Media Experiment

FacebookTweetEmail

hasn’t sunk into the boot lamprey pundit class that they’re no longer out there fighting in the narrative sphere where there are no rules and saying the dumbest shit can win anyway

— kilgore trout, death to putiner (@KT_So_It_Goes) August 13, 2022

… as they begin to suspect that TFG is no longer their Grift Gift That Keeps on Giving. They’re having a really hard time giving up on their favorite political subject, squirming to find some excuse (however thin) for the latest torrent of criminal exposures.

Nobody wants to be first — or last — off the TFG gravy train! It’s genuinely traumatic for them. But Maggie Haberman is the Queen Lamprey, and if she’s beginning to waver…

Just asked a former senior administration official who would be in a position to know about such a thing and they had absolutely no idea what this report is talking about https://t.co/ucEXaHdblg

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 13, 2022

Trump made clear to several people last year he saw the NARA-requested documents as his personal property. When speaking about his correspondence with the Kim Jong-un, Mr. Trump said, “They’re mine,” according to a person familiar with the exchange.https://t.co/zgExwDy65A

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 13, 2022

Plenty still willing to go down with the SS Trumptanic, though. Including Maggie’s colleague, BoBo Brooks:
Open Thread: The Boot Lamprey Pundit Class Is All Very Nervous

Why is Donald Trump so powerful? How did he come to dominate one of the two major parties and get himself elected president? Is it his hair? His waistline? No, it’s his narratives. Trump tells powerful stories that ring true to tens of millions of Americans.

The main one is that America is being ruined by corrupt coastal elites. According to this narrative, there is an interlocking network of highly educated Americans who make up what the Trumpians have come to call the Regime: Washington power players, liberal media, big foundations, elite universities, woke corporations. These people are corrupt, condescending and immoral and are looking out only for themselves. They are out to get Trump because Trump is the person who stands up to them. They are not only out to get Trump; they are out to get you.

This narrative has a core of truth to it…

What happens if a prosecutor charges Trump and he is convicted just as he is cruising to the G.O.P. nomination or maybe even the presidency? What happens if the legal system, using its criteria, decides Trump should go to prison at the very moment that the electoral system, using its criteria, decides he should go to the White House?

I presume in those circumstances Trump would be arrested and imprisoned. I also presume we would see widespread political violence from incensed Trump voters who would conclude that the Regime has stolen the country. In my view, this is the most likely path to a complete democratic breakdown…

My impression is that the F.B.I. had legitimate reasons to do what it did. My guess is it will find some damning documents that will do nothing to weaken Trump’s support. I’m also convinced that, at least for now, it has unintentionally improved Trump’s re-election chances. It has unintentionally made life harder for Trump’s potential primary challengers and motivated his base…

It’s not that I *want* Trump back in the White House, but if we just indulge him on this, maybe his rabid followers won’t destroy the country. Worth a try!

Another masterpiece of the genre, from long-time Trump apologist Marc Caputo & friends:
Repub Enablers Open Thread: The Boot Lamprey Pundit Class Is All Very Nervous

… West Wing aides and government movers frantically tossed documents and other items into banker boxes that were shipped to a storage room at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida along with other, previously packed records set aside by Trump, sometimes erratically so, according to two sources with knowledge of Trump’s move and records issues…

The criminal investigation into how sensitive records moved from the White House to Trump’s beachfront club writes a new chapter of his political biography. It’s a story of his impulsive instincts and disregard for established rules or norms that repeatedly created trouble for him in office and now may jeopardize the 2024 election bid that he could launch at any time…

“It was a chaotic exit,” this source said. “Everyone piled everything — staff, the White House movers — into the moving trucks. When they got to Mar-a-Lago, they piled everything there in this storage room, except for things like the first lady’s clothes. Everything in a box went there.”

“He didn’t care. He didn’t care about the boxes. He was in a dark place at the time, if you remember. He didn’t even unpack things,” the source continued. “Over time, the staff moved them back in. If you had brought him into that storeroom, and asked, ‘Which are your presidential papers?’ he couldn’t tell you.”…

According to advisers, confidants and former aides, Trump is a “pack rat” who tends to leave the actual packing to underlings. At the end of the day, they clear his desk of paperwork — notes, scribbles, newspaper clippings, printed-out-emails, the new tree alignment for a golf course, a new grill for Mar-a-Lago — and the contents are placed in a box on the floor.

When filled, the box is removed by an aide and stored elsewhere. When he travels, an aide sometimes brings boxes along…

Trump also saved sentimental items, advisers said. He would ask to keep items that were fun to show off: classified surveillance photos or letters from foreign leaders, like France’s Emmanuel Macron, Canada’s Justin Trudeau and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, they said…

Still, even critics like Bolton say they’re not sure Trump was that careless.

“We don’t know what Trump has at Mar-a-Lago and people shouldn’t hyperventilate over it until we know more. Just because a piece of paper has the word ‘nuclear’ on it somewhere doesn’t mean it’s apocalyptic if it gets out.”

I mean, the “it was just an accident, didn’t mean to keep them, and also declassified them” is deeply humiliating, but Trump has just the people to carry that water. https://t.co/0lcmSZmF1S

— 18Hat793 (@Popehat) August 12, 2022

NYT tomorrow: Are Event Venues Good Places to Store Nuclear Secrets? It's Complicated. https://t.co/QjrWNkQ2cB

— Pfizer Hellmaxxing ?? (@pleizar) August 12, 2022

Chris, he was impeached the first time for trying to shop information to a foreign power so they could release it and benefit him politically. He wants to be president again. Put two and two together. https://t.co/dz3AHsceVc

— The Fig Economy (@figgityfigs) August 12, 2022

"Trump's only crime is being dumber than the other presidents" is Trump apologism, and saying it doesn't make you a cool cynical intellectual, it just makes me wonder why you feel so compelled to do it. Why does it hurt your psyche for Trump to be acknowledged as a truly bad guy? https://t.co/TUSaYqVPGZ

— méli mélo (@PulsePersephone) August 12, 2022

Davis: He does not need to explain it so therefore a sitting President can never violate the espionage act by declassifying records by sending them to Mar-a-Lago or whatever… pic.twitter.com/eGx4RqfPhw

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 13, 2022

crowdsourcing crisis response https://t.co/Iqg2zVkRM6

— Andreas Schou (@revhowardarson) August 12, 2022

Cold, hard truth:
Repub Enablers Open Thread: The Boot Lamprey Pundit Class Is All Very Nervous 1
Repub Enablers Open Thread: The Boot Lamprey Pundit Class Is All Very Nervous 2

Meanwhile in Russia: Putin's mouthpieces on state TV are taunting America about "Top Secret" documents sought during the raid of Trump's estate, which they claim had to do with the newest nuclear weapons developed by the US and gleefully imply that Moscow already got to see them. pic.twitter.com/hmmphB4Utf

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) August 13, 2022

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: «spy v. spy flyouts War For Ukraine Day 170 (Again): We’re Back With Some Crimean Kaboom Analysis!
Next Post: Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Tennessee Summer »

Reader Interactions

119Comments

  1. 1.

    JMG

    August 13, 2022 at 9:43 pm

    “If we yell loud enough, the problem will go away” has been the Republican default mode for decades now. This problem is going to push to the outside of the envelope of that response.

  2. 2.

    Ken

    August 13, 2022 at 9:50 pm

    Dreher: What is a good reason that Trump would keep classified documents in his private home and refuse multiple requests to return them?

    He’s an amoral sociopath who was planning to sell the documents to foreign countries.

    (I’m using “good” as “explains all the facts”. If Dreher meant “excuses Trump’s actions”, he’s out of luck.)

  3. 3.

    dmsilev

    August 13, 2022 at 9:56 pm

    Trump also saved sentimental items, advisers said. He would ask to keep items that were fun to show off: classified surveillance photos or letters from foreign leaders, like France’s Emmanuel Macron, Canada’s Justin Trudeau and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, they said…

    I read somewhere that one of the ‘sentimental items’ he tried to keep was the infamous Sharpie-annotated hurricane map. I’m not sure why he’d want to keep as a memento something that made him into a national laughing stock for a week or two, but thankfully I don’t understand what goes on inside that mind.

  4. 4.

    Scout211

    August 13, 2022 at 9:57 pm

    I posted a link to this commentary by Daniel Dale of CNN in the columnist thread. He goes through every one of the crazy statements from the people trying to defend Trump, fact-checks the lies and explains their crazy communication techniques.  It’s a good read. I think he is their fact-checker.

    Responding to FBI search, Trump and allies return to his familiar strategy: flood the zone with nonsense

  5. 5.

    kalakal

    August 13, 2022 at 10:04 pm

    Brooks really is pathetic. His entire life is devoted to proclaiming that not only does shit does not stink, it has an bouquet that, if bottled, would outsell Chanel

  6. 6.

    Brachiator

    August 13, 2022 at 10:04 pm

    Statement from Trump Office: As we can all relate to, everyone ends up having to bring home their work from time to time… He had a standing order that documents removed from the Oval Office taken to the residence were deemed to be declassified..

    Trump is no longer president. Even if he and his staff believed this bullshit, the immediate question is why this material was not returned at least by inauguration day.

    His base may accept whatever rationale he offers, but it is tougher for GOP political leaders to try to clean this pig.

    Trump made clear to several people last year he saw the NARA-requested documents as his personal property. When speaking about his correspondence with the Kim Jong-un, Mr. Trump said, “They’re mine,” according to a person familiar with the exchange.

    This is more like it. I don’t know if he planned on selling national secrets to Putin or other friends, but it was always clear that he saw the presidency as his personal property. And he never bothered to learn any rules, protocols, tradition or norms. And his base loved him for this.

  7. 7.

    HumboldtBlue

    August 13, 2022 at 10:10 pm

    People are saying Eric Trump called his father to ask who Espy Onage and Affa David are.

  8. 8.

    Splitting Image

    August 13, 2022 at 10:13 pm

    I’m seeing speculation that Ivanka is distancing herself from the family and won’t be publicly defending Daddy anymore.

    I’m also seeing speculation that Jared and Melania have been put forward as possible moles.

    It occurs to me that a paranoid individual who demands absolute loyalty might find one or both of these stories worrisome.

  9. 9.

    Ken

    August 13, 2022 at 10:14 pm

    @kalakal: proclaiming that not only does shit does not stink

    Somewhat ironic, considering what Dante said happens to flatterers (including political courtiers) in the Inferno.

  10. 10.

    different-church-lady

    August 13, 2022 at 10:16 pm

    JFC, could Brooks be telling on himself any fucking harder? “He tells stories that people believe” is his whole damn career.

  11. 11.

    Jackie

    August 13, 2022 at 10:17 pm

    @dmsilev: My guess is, his sharpie hurricane map ended up humiliating him, so he swiped it – hoping no one would recall it – if it was out of sight – out of mind.

    I got unremembered and had to re-enter nym and email. Hmmmpf

  12. 12.

    Percysowner

    August 13, 2022 at 10:18 pm

    Feds obtained surveillance footage showing boxes being moved

    “The Justice Department also subpoenaed surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago recorded over a 60-day period, including views from outside the storage room. According to a person briefed on the matter, the footage showed that, after one instance in which Justice Department officials were in contact with Mr. Trump’s team, boxes were moved in and out of the room,” The Times reported. “That activity prompted concern among investigators about the handling of the material. It is not clear when precisely the footage was from during the lengthy back-and-forth between Justice Department officials and Mr. Trump’s advisers, or whether the subpoena to Mr. Trump seeking additional documents had already been issued.

    Of Course it’s on surveillance tape! They’re Republicans, They always manage to get it on tape! You would think all Republicans would be forced to swear an oath that they double, triple quadruple check that they AREN’T being taped when they do something illegal, but NO! They just keep on taping. Thank God, it makes it so much easier to prosecute them.

  13. 13.

    dmsilev

    August 13, 2022 at 10:20 pm

    @Splitting Image: Hmmm, do we go with Godfather Fredo references or would King Lear be more appropriate? Decisions, decisions….

  14. 14.

    different-church-lady

    August 13, 2022 at 10:21 pm

    @Percysowner: It’s because they honestly don’t think anything they do is illegal, by definition.

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    August 13, 2022 at 10:21 pm

    @Percysowner:

    Of Course it’s on surveillance tape! They’re Republicans, They always manage to get it on tape! You would think all Republicans would be forced to swear an oath that they double, triple quadruple check that they AREN’T being taped when they do something illegal, but NO! They just keep on taping.

    To paraphrase slightly, ‘is you making security footage of a criminal fucking conspiracy?’

  16. 16.

    Raoul Paste

    August 13, 2022 at 10:22 pm

    I had heard  David Brooks column characterised as his worst ever, but  my God.  What a cynical, calculated effort to make Trump’s lies sound reasonable

    To say that this was infuriating to read  is an understatement.  Brooks knows exactly what he is doing, and why.

  17. 17.

    different-church-lady

    August 13, 2022 at 10:22 pm

    @dmsilev: Hamlet would suit me just fine.

  18. 18.

    geg6

    August 13, 2022 at 10:22 pm

    I have to say, the flailing has been a joy to see.

    Any statements from the Turtle? 😆

  19. 19.

    geg6

    August 13, 2022 at 10:23 pm

    @dmsilev:

    Defintely Fredo.  Lear wasn’t a total idiot.

  20. 20.

    Splitting Image

    August 13, 2022 at 10:25 pm

    @dmsilev:

    Hmmm, do we go with Godfather Fredo references or would King Lear be more appropriate? Decisions, decisions….

    Can’t be King Lear. He loved all his kids and one of them actually loved him back.

    Gotta go with Fredo.

  21. 21.

    Chetan Murthy

    August 13, 2022 at 10:26 pm

    deleted.  Splitting Image got there first.

  22. 22.

    The Moar You Know

    August 13, 2022 at 10:27 pm

    “Mistakes were made”.

  23. 23.

    Jackie

    August 13, 2022 at 10:29 pm

    @Brachiator:

    “Even if he and his staff believed this bullshit, the immediate question is why this material was not returned at least by inauguration day.”

    I believe these items were moved to MAL on Inauguration Day – not before. Moving supposedly 15 boxes to FL would have been a bit noticeable.

    And, AGAIN, I’m having to re-enter nym and email address to post. Anyone else having this issue? iPhone, Safari.

  24. 24.

    geg6

    August 13, 2022 at 10:30 pm

    These aren’t very bright guys and things got out of hand.

    —NYT David Brooks

  25. 25.

    Percysowner

    August 13, 2022 at 10:30 pm

    @Splitting Image: ​
     I guess Ivanka doesn’t want to go to the pokey.

    Jared may be trying to keep himself out of jail by turning state’s evidence, although a recent not well explained influx of $2 Billion from the Saudis to Jared means he may have to come up with a LOT of evidence. Melania may just want out of being married to Donald. She probably went in with the idea that she’d put up with him for a couple of years, get a decent divorce settlement and move on to a life of luxury. Then she got stuck being First Lady and Donald wouldn’t let go. So send HIM to jail and she walks free.

    So many vipers in that nest, who will turn on who and who will walk away with the least damage?

  26. 26.

    dmsilev

    August 13, 2022 at 10:31 pm

    @Jackie:

    And, AGAIN, I’m having to re-enter nym and email address to post. Anyone else having this issue? iPhone, Safari.

    Nym/email seem to be staying put for me so far. Also Safari, on an iPad.

  27. 27.

    Chetan Murthy

    August 13, 2022 at 10:36 pm

    @Percysowner: Jarvanka, I can believe.  Melanoma?  She’s as awful as he is.  I doubt  she’s the leaker.  And besides, I’d bet she isn’t privy to much.

  28. 28.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    August 13, 2022 at 10:36 pm

    Raw Story via PercysOwner:

    Of Course it’s on surveillance tape! They’re Republicans, They always manage to get it on tape!

    Doesn’t Trump still have a Secret Service security detail?

    If so, I would imagine the Secret Service has surveillance cameras all over Mar-A-Lago and other Trump properties. And being a government agency, one would assume they’d keep and catalog the tapes.

  29. 29.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    August 13, 2022 at 10:39 pm

    David Brooks via Anne Laurie @ Top:

    Why is Donald Trump so powerful? … Is it his hair? His waistline? No, it’s his narratives. Trump tells powerful stories that ring true to tens of millions of Americans.

    That doesn’t mean Trump’s narrative are powerful, Bobo – it means tens of millions of Americans are fucking stupid.

  30. 30.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 13, 2022 at 10:46 pm

    I have often opined that it would be a wonderful day when Brooks’ broken and exsanguinated body is found in some NY back alley.

  31. 31.

    Geminid

    August 13, 2022 at 10:47 pm

    @geg6: McConnell doesn’t give a shit about trump. He’s gotten his use out of the guy. McConnell would probably be piling on except that he wants to get through the midterms with minimum defections by the trump zealots. But McConnell knows that his party needs to put trump in the rear view mirror.

  32. 32.

    Kirk Spencer

    August 13, 2022 at 10:47 pm

    @Lacuna Synecdoche: Assuming the DHS inspector general doesn’t deem them unnecessary, of course.

  33. 33.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 13, 2022 at 10:48 pm

    @Jackie:

    iphone, Safari here. Seems to be fine.

  34. 34.

    BC in Illinois

    August 13, 2022 at 10:49 pm

    From David Reiss, M.D.  @DMRDynamics

    Schrödinger’s Treason:

    When you didn’t take, accidentally took, innocently used, declassified and then took, took and then declassified, the documents that you never took and were illicitly planted in your house by the FBI – all simultaneously.

     

  35. 35.

    Spanky

    August 13, 2022 at 10:51 pm

    My bet would be that Melania doesn’t know anything. Donald wouldn’t trust her, and she was careful not to be too curious.

    Is she even in the country now? People.com had a fluff piece back in May 

    After Memorial Day, Melania will come and go from Mar-a-Lago until Barron’s school resumes later in the year. A source says she will spend some of the summer at her husband’s Bedminster, New Jersey golf club where the former president will golf, schmooze, raise money, and campaign for his favorite midterm candidates.

    But I’m thinking recent news might have gotten her to re-thinking things.

  36. 36.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 13, 2022 at 10:51 pm

    This narrative has a core of truth to it…

    Only if you’re a deranged idiot who doesn’t realize that TFG has always been eager to ingratiate himself into that very group.  He’s been trying to elbow his way into NYC high society all his life, his problem is he’s so openly and aggressively arriviste that he gives himself away.  Brooks is such a fuckhaid.

  37. 37.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 13, 2022 at 10:52 pm

    @Splitting Image:

    Ivanka is distancing herself from the family and won’t be publicly defending Daddy anymore.

    Fine. Doesn’t mean I like her any more, though.

    ETA: Although I suppose Daddy could cut her and her kids out of the Will if he were so inclined. That might be amusing.

  38. 38.

    Spanky

    August 13, 2022 at 10:52 pm

    @Lacuna Synecdoche: An evergreen reminder:

    Half of Americans are below average intelligence.

  39. 39.

    Jackie

    August 13, 2022 at 10:52 pm

    @Lacuna Synecdoche:

    “”The Justice Department also subpoenaed surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago recorded over a 60-day period, including views from outside the storage room. According to a person briefed on the matter, the footage showed that, after one instance in which Justice Department officials were in contact with Mr. Trump’s team, boxes were moved in and out of the room,” The Times reported. “That activity prompted concern among investigators about the handling of the material. It is not clear when precisely the footage was from during the lengthy back-and-forth between Justice Department officials and Mr. Trump’s advisers, or whether the subpoena to Mr. Trump seeking additional documents had already been issued.”

    https://www.rawstory.com/surveillance-trump-mar-a-lago/

  40. 40.

    Percysowner

    August 13, 2022 at 10:53 pm

    @Lacuna Synecdoche: Well they managed to lose a shit ton of texts from January 6. Maybe they decided sedition was okay, but Roger Stone’s pardon was a bridge too far?

  41. 41.

    Spanky

    August 13, 2022 at 10:54 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Now, now, don’t be too hard on Brooks’ intelligence. He’s doing it for the money.

  42. 42.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 13, 2022 at 10:57 pm

    @Spanky: Can I be hard on his absence of integrity?

  43. 43.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 13, 2022 at 10:58 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Anything that causes the vile Ivanaspawn pain is fine by me.

  44. 44.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 13, 2022 at 11:02 pm

    Okay, I give up. WHAT DOES ‘BOOTS LAMPREY’ MEAN? I’ve googled, I’ve checked Urban Dictionary, and there’s nothing useful cThis is the first I’ve come across the term. Please help.

    P.S. I know what BOOTS are, and I know what LAMPREYS are. I just can’t make sense of the phrase, in of out of context!

  45. 45.

    Spanky

    August 13, 2022 at 11:02 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Sure!

  46. 46.

    Jerzy Russian

    August 13, 2022 at 11:07 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:   Don’t lampreys latch themselves to other fish?  Thus a boot lamprey is a person whose lips are constantly in contact with the boots of various VIPs.    Sort of like a bootlicker I suppose.

  47. 47.

    Another Scott

    August 13, 2022 at 11:08 pm

    figgy makes a good point.

    Fortunately for the rest of us, the United States Code doesn’t have exceptions for certain people. Everyone has to obey the law, no matter how inconvenient for their narcissism, neuroses, and psychoses, or risk prosecution.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  48. 48.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 13, 2022 at 11:08 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Sorry for many typos; edit window is faster than my reflexes.

  49. 49.

    Jackie

    August 13, 2022 at 11:09 pm

    WHOA!

    ”Government officials had worried as Trump left office that he presented what experts considered the perfect profile of a security risk: He was a disgruntled former employee, with access to sensitive government secrets, dead set on tearing down what he believed was a deep state out to get him.“

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/13/trump-mar-a-lago-search/

    ETA Whatever was my issue having to reenter nym and email seems to have dissipated.

  50. 50.

    counterfactual

    August 13, 2022 at 11:12 pm

    @Jackie: only thing I can think of is that you’re accidentally in a private window, which I’ve managed before

  51. 51.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 13, 2022 at 11:16 pm

    @Jerzy Russian:

    I guess. I mean, it makes as much sense as anything. Seems a rather clunky way to describe a bootlicker, though.

  52. 52.

    Chetan Murthy

    August 13, 2022 at 11:19 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Shitbirds like MAGA Habs are attached pretty firmly though — “licker” doesn’t do that level of suction justice.

    ETA: then again, “boot” doesn’t do it justice either.  Maybe “ass lamprey” ?

  53. 53.

    Scout211

    August 13, 2022 at 11:20 pm

    @Jackie: ha ha. If stupid Trump would just keep his mouth shut, these little nuggets wouldn’t keep getting leaked. But he can’t shut up so they keep leaking more.

    I think it’s a good strategy.  It might also cause Trump to have a stroke so it’s A- okay with me.

  54. 54.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 13, 2022 at 11:23 pm

    @Jackie:

    ”Government officials had worried as Trump left office that he presented what experts considered the perfect profile of a security risk: He was a disgruntled former employee, with access to sensitive government secrets, dead set on tearing down what he believed was a deep state out to get him.“

    I suppose we should all be thankful that he didn’t do the classic “disgruntled former government employee” thing and actually go postal.

    Come to think of it, could he fire a weapon? I know he talks big about the 2nd Amendment and the NRA and shooting people on Fifth Avenue, but in reality I’m not sure he could handle the recoil.

  55. 55.

    frosty

    August 13, 2022 at 11:27 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Thank you! I don’t get it either.

    ETA @Jerzy Russian: OK, I get it now. I don’t like it, too obscure, but I get it.

  56. 56.

    David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    August 13, 2022 at 11:27 pm

    Chris Hayes has always been a naive boob

  57. 57.

    Doug R

    August 13, 2022 at 11:31 pm

    Not even Remoras, but Boot Lampreys-yikes.

  58. 58.

    Ken

    August 13, 2022 at 11:31 pm

    @Jackie: I’ve heard it claimed that the Constitution doesn’t allow any laws restricting who can become President — say, that they have to be able to pass a background check and security clearance.

    But maybe we could split off the “ultimate authority on classification” role from the office? Then normally it would still be the President, but in (ahem) special cases it would be given to someone who’s not a security nightmare.

  59. 59.

    Mike in NC

    August 13, 2022 at 11:33 pm

    Somebody really needs to do a deep dive into the Fat Orange Clown’s obsession with his absurd campaign to suck up to the dictator of North Korea. He wanted a Nobel Peace Prize because the hated Obama had one and his fragile ego demanded that he get one too. I really want to know how many millions of dollars were pissed away on this ridiculous fucking pursuit.

  60. 60.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 13, 2022 at 11:35 pm

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Speaking of MAGA Habs, she has a new(ish) byline up on a piece saying that one of TFG’s lawyers told the FBI months ago that everything had been returned. Even signed a document to that effect. The Haberman-Glenn Thrush article contains the following:

    The existence of the signed declaration, which has not previously been reported, is a possible indication that Mr. Trump or his team were not fully forthcoming with federal investigators about the material.

    Were I her editor, I might change it to read:

    The existence of the signed declaration, which has not previously been reported, shows clearly that Mr. Trump or his team lied like proverbial rugs to federal investigators about the material.

    But that’s just me.

  61. 61.

    Captain C

    August 13, 2022 at 11:42 pm

    @Splitting Image: If it’s Jared, he might be trying to get out in front of him possibly selling secrets to the Saudis for control of a $2 billion slush hedge fund.  I hope he goes down and gets hard time.

  62. 62.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    August 13, 2022 at 11:45 pm

    So basically, President McDumbass Bitchbaby just happened to have these documents in the oval office the day he had to fuck off back his Florida scam resort, was in to much of hissy fit to let his staff to return so it go thrown in a box and now even doesn’t know were this shit and this is all because he’s to embarrassed to admit it. God damn.

  63. 63.

    Geoduck

    August 13, 2022 at 11:49 pm

    @Geminid: I think Moscow Mitch “gives a shit” in the sense he actively hates the Shiatgibbon and would backstab him in an instant if he thought he could get away with it in terms of vote-totals from The Base.

  64. 64.

    schrodingers_cat

    August 13, 2022 at 11:56 pm

    I just read David Brooks op-ed, what a steaming pile of garbage.

  65. 65.

    MisterForkbeard

    August 14, 2022 at 12:04 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Thats the most charitable reading of Trump’s excuses, yes.

  66. 66.

    Yutsano

    August 14, 2022 at 12:07 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: ​ My dear, you KNOW that would be harsh. Uncivil. Dare I even say it…SHRILL*!!!

    *It’s fun to revive the classics every now and again.

  67. 67.

    SFBayAreaGal

    August 14, 2022 at 12:11 am

    @HumboldtBlue: I saw what you did. I laughed out loud.

  68. 68.

    SFBayAreaGal

    August 14, 2022 at 12:13 am

    @Percysowner: You would think the Republicans would have learned the lesson from the Nixon tapes.

  69. 69.

    Mallard Filmore

    August 14, 2022 at 12:19 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: 

    ETA: Although I suppose Daddy could cut her and her kids out of the Will if he were so inclined. That might be amusing.

    “You only get $1000 of my debts!”

  70. 70.

    Jackie

    August 14, 2022 at 12:19 am

    Disbelief as Foreign Press Covers Trump’s Classified Documents Scandal:

    ”Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States together form “The Five Eyes” — which the UK Defense Journal describes as the “intelligence alliance of the Anglosphere.”

    “The Five Eyes was formally founded in the aftermath of the Second World War, through the multilateral agreement for co-operation in signals intelligence (SIGINT), known as the UKUSA Agreement, on 5 March 1946,” UK Defense Journal explained. “Initially, compromising only the UK and the United States, it expanded to also include Canada in 1948 and Australia and New Zealand in 1956, all of these last three English-speaking countries, members of the Commonwealth of Nations and with similar political systems when compared to Britain. Thereby, the ‘Five Eyes’ term was created from the lengthy ‘AUS/CAN/NZ/UK/ Eyes Only’ classification level that included the ‘eyes’ that could have access to high profile papers and information.”

    https://www.rawstory.com/trump-signals-intel-five-eyes/

  71. 71.

    Kent

    August 14, 2022 at 12:26 am

    So the current story from Trumpworld is that Trump waved his magic wand and declassified all of this material on 1/20 when he was packing up the White House and leaving for Mar a Lago.  And did so without any paperwork or documentation or even telling anyone?  It is just a magical power of the presidency?

    But oops, when Biden took office on 1/21 I heard that he waved his magic wand and reclassified all that material as is his presidential right.  He just now remembered doing it but hey, what can you say, he is kind of old.  And apparently it doesn’t matter if there is zero documentation or anything.  That is just something that presidents can do.

    So check mate MAGATs!!!    There is only one president at a time.

  72. 72.

    sdhays

    August 14, 2022 at 12:27 am

    @Splitting Image: Jared gave the Saudi’s something for that $2 billion and there’s no way Ivanka wasn’t involved.

  73. 73.

    ...now I try to be amused

    August 14, 2022 at 12:32 am

    What happens if a prosecutor charges Trump and he is convicted just as he is cruising to the G.O.P. nomination or maybe even the presidency? What happens if the legal system, using its criteria, decides Trump should go to prison at the very moment that the electoral system, using its criteria, decides he should go to the White House?

    What happens is that tens of millions of Americans will have had no problem with voting for a convicted criminal. Tell us something we don’t already know, Bobo.

  74. 74.

    The Pale Scot

    August 14, 2022 at 12:37 am

    Fuckin’ Haberman and co. Back in the day if my foreman and crew drove off in my truck with my tools to do a job they got payed for I’d have liens on their cars and fraud charges by the the end of the week.

    How does an editor or publisher not go barren earth over a reporter keeping the really important stuff while receiving a paycheck and credentials from a huge media outfit? Lou Grant would have thrown them out a fucking window.

     

    I suspect they are all FSB assets

  75. 75.

    lgerard

    August 14, 2022 at 12:51 am

    I’m pretty sure it was the Secret Service that tipped off the FBI, but it would be hilarious if it turned out to be someone like a busboy at his club.

    Hello FBI, uh I work at Mar a Lago and , uh mr trump was yelling for a diet coke, and when I brought it, I saw he was, uh, showing some photos labeled, uh, top secret to one of the guests, I think his name is Igor something.

  76. 76.

    Sasha

    August 14, 2022 at 12:51 am

    @Jackie: Disgruntled employee who was fired from his job.

  77. 77.

    Origuy

    August 14, 2022 at 12:53 am

    @SiubhanDuinne:

     Although I suppose Daddy could cut her and her kids out of the Will if he were so inclined. That might be amusing.

      There’s going to be a huge fight over the estate when TFG kicks the bucket, no matter who comes out ahead. I bet either he has 20 different wills or none at all.

  78. 78.

    lgerard

    August 14, 2022 at 12:54 am

    @…now I try to be amused:

    What happens if a prosecutor charges Trump and he is convicted just as he is cruising to the G.O.P. nomination or maybe even the presidency? What happens if the legal system, using its criteria, decides Trump should go to prison at the very moment that the electoral system, using its criteria, decides he should go to the White House?

    Hannity already addressed this

    Sean Hannity says that Trump could run for president from jail, if he wanted to

  79. 79.

    NotMax

    August 14, 2022 at 1:06 am

    Memo to: David Brooks

    Check your meds.

    //

  80. 80.

    NotMax

    August 14, 2022 at 1:11 am

    @lgerard

    Or Barron.

    He’s 16, prime rebellious teen age.

    //

  81. 81.

    schrodingers_cat

    August 14, 2022 at 1:14 am

    @The Pale Scot: NYT wants it that way. Their political desk is a reputation laundering operation for the Republican oligarchy.

    And NYT is the leader of the prestige MSM like the Atlantic and the Snooze Hour.

  82. 82.

    Soprano2

    August 14, 2022 at 1:17 am

    My husband said TFG could have scanned all of those documents and put them on a flash drive, and who would know he did it? If course, he would have to have someone do it so at least one other person would know, but would the government know it happened? If I wanted to keep them that’s what I would have done. I think he kept them because he likes to show them off. It makes him feel important.

  83. 83.

    Poe Larity

    August 14, 2022 at 1:19 am

    The question isn’t who knew, it’s who didn’t know.

    The stuff is already all out there and the community is in CYA mode because:

    The Miami area is home to over 100 foreign consulates, foreign trade offices and bi-national chambers of commerce, which promote and facilitate international business.

    And every person with access at Mar-a-lago is hawking documents to every one of them.

  84. 84.

    schrodingers_cat

    August 14, 2022 at 1:24 am

    @Soprano2: I have heard stories of how he is a Luddite. He has tweets and emails printed.

  85. 85.

    Uncle Cosmo

    August 14, 2022 at 1:55 am

    @lgerard: Sean Hannity says that Trump could run for president from jail, if he wanted to

    For once (stopped clock, twice daily) InsHannity isn’t wrong: Eugene Debs ran for President from Federal prison in 1920 and got 1 million votes.

  86. 86.

    patrick II

    August 14, 2022 at 2:21 am

    Trump tried to have the government sell nuclear technology to Saudi during his presidency. He was overruled by congress. Now he may have documents containing nuclear tech at Mar a Lago and Kushner gets 2.3 billion from the Saudis. Those two things couldn’t be relayed, could they?

  87. 87.

    prostratedragon

    August 14, 2022 at 2:29 am

    @Captain C:  My best guess, perhaps with Ivanka, and for that reason: they might have him on some aspect of the Saudi transaction. Tom Barrack is another who might be way up a creek and have such knowledge.

  88. 88.

    Frankensteinbeck

    August 14, 2022 at 2:58 am

    @Mike in NC:

    Somebody really needs to do a deep dive into the Fat Orange Clown’s obsession with his absurd campaign to suck up to the dictator of North Korea.

    Why?  It seems straightforward.  Trump fetishizes dictators and wants to be one.  Kim Jong is absolute, absolute ruler of his country and worshipped as semi-divine.  He gets military parades and constant praise from his media.  Trump talked about how much he wants this for himself all the time, and he sucked up to all the cool kids – that is, brutal autocrats.

    It’s one of the reasons I think we’ll eventually find out he’s a literal “Heil Hitler” Nazi.  We already know he used Hitler as his reference for how loyal he wanted generals to be, and he’s racist as Hell.  Jews are just his model minority because he believes all the anti-Semitic tropes but thinks greed is a virtue.

  89. 89.

    mrmoshpotato

    August 14, 2022 at 3:34 am

    “It was a chaotic exit,” this source said. “Everyone piled everything — staff, the White House movers — into the moving trucks. When they got to Mar-a-Lago, they piled everything there in this storage room, except for things like the first lady’s clothes. Everything in a box went there.”

    “He didn’t care. He didn’t care about the boxes. He was in a dark place at the time, if you remember. He didn’t even unpack things,” the source continued. “Over time, the staff moved them back in. If you had brought him into that storeroom, and asked, ‘Which are your presidential papers?’ he couldn’t tell you.”…

    Time once again to thank all of the stupid fucks who elected a mobster toddler.

  90. 90.

    mrmoshpotato

    August 14, 2022 at 3:39 am

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I just read David Brooks op-ed, what a steaming pile of garbage. 

    Story of his entire career.

  91. 91.

    Ruckus

    August 14, 2022 at 3:49 am

    @dmsilev:

    “but thankfully I don’t understand what goes on inside that mind.”

    I doubt that anyone does or even could if it was explained a bazillion times. Or that you could understand anyone who could explain it even once, other than to say that mind is broken, in ways that no one ever wants to understand. Some things we are better off just knowing that they are just abnormal and there isn’t enough time or drugs in the world to make it understandable. LSD makes far more sense as a headache remedy than anything that could be explained about that brain than just that it’s broken in so many ways that there aren’t enough days in an eon to explain it.

  92. 92.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    August 14, 2022 at 3:57 am

    @lgerard: Like the Daily Show was saying the mostly likely snitch was Trump himself.  Trump supposedly has a habit of calling up billionaires who hate him like Jeff Bezos at random and boasting  to them about Trump’s latest scam.

  93. 93.

    sab

    August 14, 2022 at 3:59 am

    @different-church-lady: In contrast to Clinton, who had historian Taylor Branch drop buy every few days and take notes of Clinton’s conversation about what he remembered had happened the last few days, because Clinton didn’t feel he should taping anything.

  94. 94.

    sab

    August 14, 2022 at 4:01 am

    @Lacuna Synecdoche: The Secret Service IG lied and hid things, so I wouldn’t assu,e any such thing.

  95. 95.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    August 14, 2022 at 4:02 am

    @MisterForkbeard:  The thing that kills me as much as I want it to be Trump got caught committing treason, with that daughter fucker the most likely explanation to anything he does is; he’s a profoundly lazy and incurious asshole who always tries to cover his fuck ups with bullshit about his screw up was some super genius power move.

  96. 96.

    Amir Khalid

    August 14, 2022 at 4:03 am

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Kim Jong-Un is not quite like other dictators. He is a unique and weird thing: third king of the only “communist” royal dynasty on Earth. Kim also gets to play by his own rules and keep the world guessing what he’ll do next. It seems to me that these are the two things TFG most envies in Kim, and wants more than anything to emulate.

  97. 97.

    Martin

    August 14, 2022 at 4:04 am

    @Uncle Cosmo: Eugene Debs was worth a million votes. Trump ain’t worth more than his own.

  98. 98.

    Martin

    August 14, 2022 at 4:06 am

    @mrmoshpotato: And how did TS/SCI information end up in a place for any rando to put it in a box? The document was already mishandled before it ever got put in a box.

  99. 99.

    sab

    August 14, 2022 at 4:17 am

    @Amir Khalid: Good point.

  100. 100.

    ColoradoGuy

    August 14, 2022 at 5:52 am

    Still baffles me what he could do with the docs other than sell them. They’re filled with military acronyms and are unreadable unless you know what the lingo means. What sets them apart are the red markings and TS/SCI designators, which are obvious and unmistakable, and unlike other Federal documents.

    Most of all, they were outside the mandatory SCIF storage location(s), and had been for more than a year. And MAL is chock full of spies, more than anywhere else in the country.

  101. 101.

    Matt McIrvin

    August 14, 2022 at 5:54 am

    Trump had a standing order that anything he did would be deemed to have a standing order making it legal. Well, there may not have literally been such an order but you could apply it to imply its own existence.

  102. 102.

    J R in WV

    August 14, 2022 at 6:03 am

    @HumboldtBlue:

    This is hysterical — I had to sound out the  names, then nearly woke Wife up!! Dunno who created it,  sheer genius though  !!!

    . .  .   .    ;~)

  103. 103.

    germy shoemangler

    August 14, 2022 at 6:36 am

    Trump had an intermediary send a message to a Justice Department official to send to Garland, including that he'd heard people around the country are upset with the search. “The country is on fire,” was the message. “What can I do to reduce the heat?” https://t.co/JKTTvk2a5H

    — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 13, 2022

    what did AG Garland say when you handed it to him?

    — Steve 6- Here's to the Night (on Spotify) (@SteveThreeP0) August 13, 2022

    Alpha Lamprey

  104. 104.

    Princess

    August 14, 2022 at 6:41 am

    I mean, even people in this thread, who should know better, are buying the line that Trump just wanted souvenirs. Trump is not stupid, no matter how much we’d like to believe that, and even as his cognitive powers decline. He kept stuff he thought would be useful some day. To sell, and for blackmail both of his own people, to keep them quiet, and others. And there’s a reason Ivanka is buried on the golf course and it’s not taxes. The left consistently underestimates him. The man managed to get elected President. He’s not an idiot or a buffoon. He is dangerous.

  105. 105.

    Princess

    August 14, 2022 at 6:49 am

    Everyone here seems to forget he tried to blackmail Ukraine and almost succeeded.

  106. 106.

    raven

    August 14, 2022 at 6:50 am

    @Princess: “Everyone”? Please.

  107. 107.

    germy shoemangler

    August 14, 2022 at 6:51 am

    @Princess:

    No argument from me, I agree it wasn’t a souvenir situation.  He wanted more power.

  108. 108.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    August 14, 2022 at 7:07 am

    I suspect something even simpler at the core of TFG’s actions: a refusal to accept that there might be a time when he was no longer President. The Presidency wasn’t a job to him, it was a prize, and all the privileges that went along with it were part of the prize, and he’d be damned if he’d let anyone ever take that prize away from him.

  109. 109.

    lowtechcyclist

    August 14, 2022 at 7:15 am

    Analysis: Event venues (like Trump’s Mar-a-Lago) are not good places to store nuclear secrets, duh

    Fixed that for ya, WaPo.

  110. 110.

    germy shoemangler

    August 14, 2022 at 7:15 am

    @Bruce K in ATH-GR:

    Obama won two terms, he needed to beat that and he couldn’t.  And he lost to Obama’s former VP.  Painful!

  111. 111.

    satby

    August 14, 2022 at 7:36 am

    I hope the Feds go with a warrant and ground radar to check out Ivana’s grave. Because cremains don’t fill a huge casket.

  112. 112.

    Soprano2

    August 14, 2022 at 8:37 am

    @schrodingers_cat: True, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have someone else do it, or that someone who helped him steal those documents wouldn’t do it.

  113. 113.

    Soprano2

    August 14, 2022 at 8:49 am

    @Princess: i think it’s both. He loves to show off how powerful he was, that’s why he uses the presidential seal illegally. I have no doubt he or someone around him would sell that information if he had a buyer. Won’t surprise me at all if he did that.

    I think it was a SS agent who told the FBI. That, or someone who was shown some of that stuff and was appalled.

  114. 114.

    EarthWindFire

    August 14, 2022 at 9:15 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: The worst part is, it’s sort of believable. Another illustration of Kay’s low quality yields low quality hires. Message to GOP: I won’t lower my standards. Up yours.

  115. 115.

    Madame Bupkis

    August 14, 2022 at 10:18 am

    @EarthWindFire: “I won’t lower my standards.  Up yours.”  LOL.  I had to write that down!  Thanks.

  116. 116.

    Chris Johnson

    August 14, 2022 at 10:36 am

    @Chetan Murthy: I still think Melania is much smarter and more capable than Trump, because she is his handler. Wonder if that will turn out to be true.

  117. 117.

    brantl

    August 14, 2022 at 11:35 am

    @Soprano2: Stumpy wouldn’t have done it himself, as he wouldn’t have known how to use a computer. PERIOD. FULL STOP.

  118. 118.

    brantl

    August 14, 2022 at 11:41 am

    @Princess: He’s not an idiot or a buffoon. He is dangerous.

    You’re 1 for 3.

  119. 119.

    Anonymous At Work

    August 14, 2022 at 2:02 pm

    I wouldn’t rush to consider Chris Hayes or Adam Davidson or others wrong that Trump didn’t connect desiring to run in 2024 with the contents of the stolen documents.  Trump has NO, ZERO, ability to defer gratification and precious little long-term planning ability.  He took some documents to brag to guests at his club is incredibly popular, and took other documents whose immediate effect was to make him look bad, and took another set that he dictated (the North Korean Love Letters, for example) that he regarded as his personal property.  All of that would be outside his thought process of “I cannot ever lose, so I’ll run in 2024 to prove I’m not a loser.”

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Political Action

Postcard Writing Information

Recent Comments

  • Brachiator on Thursday Morning Open Thread: But Seriously… (Sep 28, 2023 @ 11:22am)
  • Jackie on Thursday Morning Open Thread: But Seriously… (Sep 28, 2023 @ 11:20am)
  • OzarkHillbilly on Thursday Morning Open Thread: But Seriously… (Sep 28, 2023 @ 11:20am)
  • Jeffro on Thursday Morning Open Thread: But Seriously… (Sep 28, 2023 @ 11:20am)
  • Sean on Thursday Morning Open Thread: But Seriously… (Sep 28, 2023 @ 11:20am)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
We All Need A Little Kindness
What Has Biden Done for You Lately?

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Talk of Meetups – Meetup Planning

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
TaMara
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Join the Fight!

Join the Fight Signup Form
All Join the Fight Posts

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Cole & Friends Learn Español

Introductory Post
Cole & Friends Learn Español

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!