I’d like to keep the DOE thread on those topics, so here’s a new one to pick apart Donald Trump’s latest babblefest.
Open Thread: Trump’s Interview With the Wall Street JournalPost + Comments (317)
This post is in: Open Threads, Russiagate, Trump Crime Cartel, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Blatant Liars and the Lies They Tell
I’d like to keep the DOE thread on those topics, so here’s a new one to pick apart Donald Trump’s latest babblefest.
Open Thread: Trump’s Interview With the Wall Street JournalPost + Comments (317)
This post is in: Dolt 45, Open Threads, Trump Crime Cartel, Assholes, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?, Not Normal
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 31, 2017
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Apart from doing our best to prevent such a dreadful eventuality, what’s on the agenda for the day?
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This line in @PhilipRucker story –> "John F. Kelly will be sworn in Monday at the nadir of Trump’s presidency." https://t.co/vZr0SVV92J
— Annie Linskey (@AnnieLinskey) July 30, 2017
Thing about nadirs is that they're only identifiable in retrospect … https://t.co/b9OEcfjFDg
— Josh Chafetz (@joshchafetz) July 30, 2017
President Trump is trying to take command of his floundering administration by enlisting a retired four-star Marine general as his White House chief of staff, empowering a no-nonsense disciplinarian to transform a dysfunctional West Wing into the “fine-tuned machine” the president has bragged of running but which has not yet materialized.
John F. Kelly will be sworn in Monday at the nadir of Trump’s presidency, with historically low approval ratings, a stalled legislative agenda and an escalating Russia investigation that casts a dark cloud…
But no matter how decisive his leadership, Kelly alone cannot turn Trump’s vision into reality. Warring internal factions that have stirred chaos, stoked suspicions and freelanced policies for six straight months may not easily submit to Kelly’s rule. And the president — whose rash impulses routinely have sabotaged the best efforts of his senior aides — has shown no willingness to be tamed.
“Kelly is an incredibly disciplined person who could bring order to the process if the animals in the zoo behave,” said John E. McLaughlin, a former acting director of the CIA who served in seven administrations. “The danger he has is that Trump will be Trump.”…
I love reading about all of the "geniuses" who were so instrumental in my election success. Problem is, most don't exist. #Fake News! MAGA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017
"I would like everyone to know that my campaign was actually full of fucking idiots" https://t.co/fsOfsaC0YH
— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) July 29, 2017
Not that he isn’t trying to keep future gaffes out of the press. Because FUTILITY!
Trump Org. has a new NDA: Employees must agree to keep secret any info they learn about anyone in the Trump family. https://t.co/Eie2ljgI5F
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 31, 2017
Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Not If We’re Lucky, You Won’tPost + Comments (153)
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Excellent Links, Open Threads, Trump Crime Cartel
Oh, how I would love to see Catherine Rampell’s Washington Post suggestion in action! “Jared Kushner ‘forgets’ to disclose his assets? Seize them.:
… For the 39th time, top presidential adviser (and son-in-law) Jared Kushner has revised his financial disclosure forms. Kushner disclosed 77 additional assets, collectively worth millions of dollars. These items were “inadvertently omitted” from previous versions of his federal forms, according to a document the White House released Friday…
Maybe Kushner really did forget all those assets, including a stake in a start-up valued at $5 million to $25 million. Just as maybe he really did accidentally submit a security-clearance form that left off more than 100 contacts with foreign nationals…
It’s true that willfully omitting an asset on one’s federal financial disclosure form comes with the risk of criminal action. But how motivating can a threat of prison possibly be if Kushner knows he can just go back and add anything that the press happens to dig up?
That’s exactly why we need the banana republic rule (named for the lawless state, not the store).
Above a certain value — let’s say $1 million — any assets that are “forgotten” on federal disclosures can be seized by Uncle Sam. If they weren’t memorable enough for these forms, then clearly you’re rich enough that you don’t really need them.
Treasury gets to take them, without compensating you.
“That’s socialism!” you might protest. But really, it’s not so different from another policy that the definitely-not-socialist Trump administration already backs enthusiastically: civil asset forfeiture.
This is when law enforcement seizes private property without proving the owner is guilty of a crime, often without even charging the owner with a crime. Just last week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced he was restarting a federal forfeiture program the Obama administration had shut down.
“Civil asset forfeiture takes the material support of the criminals and instead makes it the material support of law enforcement,” Sessions explained, even though the stuff being seized is not necessarily providing “material support” for any crime or any criminal.
With such tenuous logic, why shouldn’t Sessions support appropriating possibly-innocent-but-still-kinda-suspicious financial disclosure omissions, too?…
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Apart from (gleefully) imagining a more just world, what’s on the agenda for the day?
Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Banana RepublicansPost + Comments (119)
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Dog Blogging, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Russiagate, Trump Crime Cartel
ok it is time for that pup enjoying her bath
she did not even get verbal govt approval she just jump invia https://t.co/RLJNJdqmET pic.twitter.com/yya61pPXLU
— darth:™ (@darth) July 20, 2017
I particularly love the other two dogs, giving Mr. Happy Laps the hairy eyeball — and a wide berth.
Apart from maybe hitting the pool, what’s on the agenda for this summer weekend day?
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Speaking of ludicrous instinctive actions from an organism not bred for critical thinking…
NEW: Kushner says he "inadvertently" failed to disclose 77 assets worth over $100 million on disclosure forms https://t.co/74xoXj6yo8
— Yashar Ali (@yashar) July 21, 2017
Who among us has not revised our security and disclosure forms multiple times?
Oh, right, no one, because usually there's zero slack given. https://t.co/MTrHyWsooB
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) July 21, 2017
Jared Kushner failed to disclose dozens of financial holdings that he was required to declare when he joined the White House as an adviser to President Trump, his father-in-law, according to a revised form released Friday.
A separate document released Friday also showed that Kushner’s wife, presidential daughter Ivanka Trump, had been paid as much as $5 million from her outside businesses over an 84-day span this spring around the time she entered the White House as a senior adviser and pledged to distance herself from her private holdings.
And they both continue to draw large sums from outside interests: The couple has jointly made at least $19 million in income from business ventures and listed more than $80 million in real estate and other revenues since the start of 2016, the documents show…
Ivanka Trump also listed receiving $2.4 million in hotel-related revenue from the Trump International Hotel in Washington. She said she earned $787,500 from a publisher’s advance for her book “Women Who Work,” which debuted in May. And she reported $2.5 million in salary and severance from her “continued participation in employer-sponsored 401(k) plan” of Trump Payroll Corp., a side entity that handles Trump Organization wages.
For his part, Kushner earned millions from his family’s real estate over the past year, his filing shows. He pulled in between $1 million and $5 million between January 2016 and March 9 of this year from BFPS Ventures, a holding company valued at between $5 million and $25 million.
An earlier version of Kushner’s disclosure form described BFPS as a company focused on “real estate in New York.” However, public documents revealed, and Kushner’s legal team later confirmed, that it held a wide range of entities, including an Oklahoma oil and gas firm that has been sold…
Kushner amends disclosure to reflect Russian citizenship.
— Schooley (@Rschooley) July 22, 2017
Saturday Morning Open Thread: Call Him JaredPost + Comments (258)
This post is in: Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Trump Crime Cartel, Assholes, Clown car, I Reject Your Reality and Substitute My Own
nope too on the nose sorry pic.twitter.com/QhmGetuDIt
— Alexandra Petri (@petridishes) July 21, 2017
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Archetypical celebrity clown figure for a clownshow “administration”. Buzzfeed:
… Trump “wanted to give Scaramucci something to do because he likes him on TV,” a source close to the White House’s press operation told BuzzFeed News.
“Ivanka has been pushing this for some time. Since the communications job was open, Trump thought it would be a nice fit. But the president doesn’t understand what kind of responsibilities come with that job, and Sean did. Sean would have been expected to serve as press secretary, and do the comms job while Scaramucci held the ceremonial title, and he would have reported to him. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” the source said.
“And Trump did it over the objection of several senior staff who know Scaramucci in that job is a joke,” the source added…
At his first White House daily press briefing on Friday, Scaramucci named Sarah Huckabee Sanders the new press secretary. She read a statement from Trump about Spicer’s resignation, complete with an odd line about television ratings at the end: “I am grateful for Sean’s work on behalf of my administration and the American people. I wish him continued success as he moves on to pursue new opportunities. Just look at his great television ratings. Sean will continue to serve the administration through August.”
Scaramucci then took over, calling Spicer — a Navy reservist — a “true American patriot” and said he hoped he would go on “to make a tremendous amount of money.”…
Scaramucci was calm, chatty, and easily engaged reporters — something Spicer was never quite able to master at the White House — and repeatedly said how much he loves people in the White House and how much he loves the president.
Though his presentation was sleek, the substance from previous news conferences wasn’t that different: When asked about Trump’s baseless claim that about 3 million people illegally in the election, he said, “There’s probably some level of truth to that.”…
Those close to the administration who have remained skeptical of Priebus and Spicer because they don’t consider them Trump loyalists see the shakeup positively. This is “all good! Trump needs more people around him he can trust,” one of them wrote to BuzzFeed News…
Scaramucci, who recently sold his stake in his hedge fund, was originally under consideration for the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, a post held by Valerie Jarrett under President Barack Obama. But White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus tried to get Scaramucci to pull out, claiming that his ethics review was taking too long. Priebus, according to reports at that time, did not want someone as close to the president in that position as Scaramucci is and sees him as a possible threat to his own power…
Just asked Nancy Pelosi about Spicer resignation. "I don't even care," she says.
— Casey Tolan (@caseytolan) July 21, 2017
Freudian slip by AP. pic.twitter.com/s51lAKX3zz
— Eli Clifton (@EliClifton) July 21, 2017
“Commutations” Director.
Scaramucci is "the guy the president thinks he sees in the mirror" — @DanaBashCNN taking no prisoners
— J.M. Berger (@intelwire) July 21, 2017
The main thing I know about Scaramucci: He compared the fiduciary rule to the Dred Scott decision https://t.co/QCvE1Vhfcx via @newsfromIN
— Zoe Galland (@zoegalland) July 21, 2017
My spouse, after listening to Scaramucci speak: "when someone like this guy gets hired by your organization, prepare your resume to leave."
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) July 21, 2017
If Scaramucci was given his own TV show would he be doing this? Appears he opposes GOP on all non-plutocratic issues, just wants to be on TV
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) July 21, 2017
Late Night Open Thread: A Little Silhouette-o of A ManPost + Comments (77)
This post is in: Russiagate, Trump Crime Cartel, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Sociopaths
Trump’s legal team is looking for ways to discredit Mueller’s investigation. Both the New York Times and the Washington Post released stories with that theme. The WaPo story has more juicy detail:
Trump has asked his advisers about his power to pardon aides, family members and even himself in connection with the probe, according to one of those people. A second person said Trump’s lawyers have been discussing the president’s pardoning powers among themselves.
Trump’s legal team declined to comment on the issue. But one adviser said the president has simply expressed a curiosity in understanding the reach of his pardoning authority, as well as the limits of Mueller’s investigation.
“This is not in the context of, ‘I can’t wait to pardon myself,” a close adviser said.
Just checking to make sure of all the legal ramifications in the same way Trump has been so careful throughout his career.
The lawyers are also looking for conflicts of interest. From Trump’s interview with the New York Times yesterday, I think he doesn’t understand what conflict of interest is. He seems to think that it means conflicts with HIS interests. Perhaps his lawyers understand the term.
by Betty Cracker| 208 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Trump Crime Cartel, Assholes, General Stupidity
We’ve had months to get used to a nuclear-armed Twitter troll rage-tweeting from the White House, but it still seems surreal:
The Republicans never discuss how good their healthcare bill is, & it will get even better at lunchtime.The Dems scream death as OCare dies!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2017
The latest plan is that the Republicans will fix their historically unpopular, demonstrably shitty bill over burnt steak and ketchup at the White House this afternoon. That’s pretty fucking delusional, but no more so than this:
"You're going to have such great healthcare at a tiny fraction of the cost"
"It's going to be so easy" pic.twitter.com/HDZqtGD0pA— Sven Henrich (@NorthmanTrader) July 18, 2017
The “Dems scream death as OCare dies!” bit though, that’s just…weird. Trump’s incoherent rants about Obamacare have always oddly personified the law. For months now, Trump has been spitting out the words “Obamacare is DEAD,” like a pimply rube in a cheap horror flick who prematurely claims to have vanquished the monster.
It’s damn sure not because Trump disagrees with the law’s provisions, which he could not enumerate on a bet. Trump hates “Obamacare” because it’s a reminder of President Obama, whose very existence as an accomplished, beloved, self-made and knowledgeable man is an intolerable injury to Trump’s fragile ego.
Trump can’t obliterate the man himself, so he’s pursuing the namesake law with the obsessiveness of a Captain Ahab, minus the bravery and with twice the hubris. If Trump has to sacrifice the political lives of Republican elected officials and sink the GOP for another opportunity to harpoon Obamacare, so be it.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer crew. We must stand ready to toss additional anvils to the swimmers as needed.
“For hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee”Post + Comments (208)