US Politics, April 2018: Getting more dangerous (looks like moo vaughn's dreams are coming true)

Happy Easter.

The pastor answered that America had a long history of unjust laws and that it was the duty of Christians to stand with “the outcast.” He invited people to come meet this person that the government now considered an “ICE fugitive,” a designation that applies to more than a half-million undocumented immigrants failing to comply with final deportation orders. Come see the fugitive.

By summer, Rosa’s voice was hoarse from telling her story over and over to the steady stream of people stopping by, including the volunteers who slept on a mattress in the pastor’s office every night within reach of a folder scribbled with emergency instructions: “If ICE shows up, DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR UNLESS THEY HAVE A BENCH WARRANT SIGNED BY A JUDGE!”

By fall, she found herself standing with a group of people holding candles to mark her first 100 days in sanctuary, noticing that many of them were wearing T-shirts with a drawing of her face and the slogan “Rosa Belongs Here.”

By winter, she was realizing that her best hope for a solution — a bill to legalize her status that would have to pass in Congress — was exceedingly remote, and soon, Rosa stopped reading political news altogether.

No room at the inn.

we're putting gabbneb's handle in thread titles instead of banning him, eh

I’m sorry for being sick of ostensibly intelligent people having no memory and no ability to do math. That country exists right now. We live in it. Read the fucking polls and remember the popular vote.

For fuck’s sake.

― El Tomboto, Sunday, April 1, 2018 6:43 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Dude, people on every side of the election were taken by propaganda that flattered their worldview. Even ostensibly intelligent people have to make the individual effort to avoid being conned.

― Arthur Pizzarelli AKA The Peetz (Old Lunch), Sunday, April 1, 2018 7:47 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Sorry, not that many people voted for Jill Stein.

― fajita seas, Sunday, April 1, 2018 9:33 PM

Then again, this shit's about as bad

"remember the popular vote," and the Maine

how is it I never heard of these shirts before btw?

The key word in the Trump "Fuck Your Feelings" t-shirts wasn't "feelings" but "your" pic.twitter.com/dTAkmHFBxk

— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) October 21, 2017

First comment perfectly sums up my reaction to the photo: 'Resting Whiteface'

Remember when the epithet "flip-flopper" used to be contemptuously applied to politicians who compromised on their earlier stated positions? Trump doesn't even bother to have reasons for jumping around from one position to another. He just uses agitation as a substitute for direction, as in "look at all that commotion; he must be getting things done!"

Yabbut no one should be surprised; he sold it in advance as a-feature-not-a-bug. "We're too predictable!"

And people bought it, no doubt because of the way his luxuriantly flowing hair spoke eloquently of promises made, sang lustily of promises unkept because Fuck You, and shouted about not giving a shit because Fuck Your Feelings

this is the worst thread title yuck can we change it?

oh come on "getting more dangerous" was clearly the most memorable phrase used by somebody about something last month and Moo Vaughn is a poster on this board and I always like it when a local kid succeeds.

I honor you for your service to our country and out of respect to the office I will only say that I disagree Mr. President.

Thread titles haven't topped last June's covfefe imo

if you don't want to spend the first 100 posts bitching about the thread title then don't wait so long that I end up being the one to start the new thread. Keep an eye out for when the first of the month happens on a weekend!

remember that time qualms and I both made the thread and he conceded? I still feel bad

The President of the U.S. dresses each day in a W.C. Fields costume he bought from a SPIRIT Halloween Store but throws away the top hat, he buys 365 W.C. Fields costumes a year https://t.co/O4sTUZMc7l

— 🇺🇸Bill Oakley🇺🇸 (@thatbilloakley) April 2, 2018

was this on last month's thread? it's all the rage.

How America's largest local TV owner turned its news anchors into soldiers in Trump's war on the media: https://t.co/iLVtKRQycL pic.twitter.com/dMdSGellH3

— Deadspin (@Deadspin) March 31, 2018

yes it was covered. I was a grump about it because I don't think it's anything to be that upset about (unless you work at one of those stations) but apparently OLD PEOPLE watch local tv news and they VOTE so

Look I'm sorry you didn't like my post but you asked "who the fuck watches local TV news?" and the truth is lots of people do. Seems like you think it doesn't matter much what all those people see on local news, fine, that could well be right and is a point worth discussing.

I'm sorry you didn't like my post either.

I found this detail of interest.

A former Sinclair journalist sent me a screenshot of their contract. “I couldn't leave because of this part of my contract.” pic.twitter.com/ePCnUCbzs0

— Matt Pearce 🦅 (@mattdpearce) April 2, 2018

under what terms can a journalist leave for which he won't get penalized – death?

I just don't think the Sinclair thing even rises to the level of an allegory in miniature of what is wrong with America / The World right now. I'll grant that that contract seems hideous but that kinda sounds like nonunion show business for you.

So funny to watch Fake News Networks, among the most dishonest groups of people I have ever dealt with, criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased. Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2018

He's thinking of NBC's '90s Must-See TV lineup.

I'm not gonna debate wrt the impact of local TV news but Sinclair shit is still creepy af and disturbing and should absolutely be called out.

are contracts like that binding in right-to-work states?

Dear Mr. Trump, Sinclair also owns NBC stations, you fucking idiot.

For those that dismiss him as a doofus, John Oliver did a great in-depth piece on Sinclair a while back, perhaps the first I'd really heard of the company:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvtNyOzGogc

"No Sinclair! Bad dog! You will NOT get this treat because you have been a very bad boy! Bad boy, Sinclair, BAD boy!"

sorry, i can't stop doing that and i know it's annoying

https://scontent.fbed1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/29597888_10156776141827137_8110674733258816789_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=12e655da05fe034e6b2f5c530d19b26c&oe=5B6CE653

Nice to see that Spicer is still getting paid gigs from time to time.

got a little extra orange at mar a lago this weekend

I'd like to see what gif magic Karl could do with that pic.

lol Karl

"When you ask a porn star who they’d been sleeping with, and the answer was Donald Trump, it was the least surprising thing that she could’ve said. She did mention it, actually,” Rogen recounted on Ellen.

why t f would you think it was your business who she'd been sleeping with, seth??

Maybe they’re friends!

if they were friends he would have already known

They are friends, and she told him ten years ago.

i'm sure they are total buds.. the way he phrased that was gross is my point. as if asking porn stars who they're sleeping with is something he does on the reg.

I don't know who all my friends have slept with and, for the most part, hope I never know

when my friends have slept with famous people they usually make sure I know about it. I doubt they'd brag about Trump tho.

Gotta feeling ol' Sam N was singing a bit after his public bender there.

Roger Stone said in an Aug. 4, 2016, email: “I dined with Julian Assange last night.” Now, Mr. Stone says, “I never dined with Assange.” Either way, it's gotten Robert Mueller's attention https://t.co/iBPFUeom4U

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) April 2, 2018

Stormy Daniels was in both the 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, as was Rogen, who starred in the latter. Knocked Up came out in 2007, which means all the Trump stuff was either happening or just happened when they were making it. Of course Rogen would want to be buddies with her, and of course she would probably have talked about Trump, who was fresh in memory. The In Touch interview was four years later, in 2011, so apparently the Trump experience stuck with her.

the Trump experience stuck with her

ew, sticky

Having sex with Donald Trump doesn't seem like something you'd forget about.

nor like something you'd try to remember

Idk i mean if u get gored in the running of the bulls, you wanna forget but the memory won't die

I think that if you have sex with people for a living, who you had sex with becomes a pretty common conversation piece.

And I'm sure that if it had happened to you, one of your go-to anecdotes would become that time when you were on the receiving end of frottage by a squamous walrus. It's a helluva yarn to have in your arsenal.

helluva yam etc

https://i.imgur.com/tzEdz38.jpg

thankyou

lol
sometimes it feels good to puke

cable chyron: CHRISTIE SOUNDS ETHICS ALARM

lolololol

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/04/02/us/teacher-strikes-oklahoma-kentucky.html#click=https://t.co/dMvpspUHzp

My eyebrow, it is arched.

President Trump has joined his lawyer's request to force @StormyDaniels into arbitration. pic.twitter.com/U80cK37tYJ

— Brad Heath (@bradheath) April 2, 2018

This is a curious maneuver if the president is not actually a party to what Ms. Clifford has called the "hush agreement."

— Brad Heath (@bradheath) April 2, 2018

Avenatti's on it:

And the Declaration Mr. Cohen just filed is more interesting for what it DOES NOT state - it does not state that he never discussed the agreement with DJT, that DJT did not know about the agreement, or that DJT did not ultimately pay the 30k (all issues DJT is also silent on).

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) April 2, 2018

Problems, problems.

Trump preparing to launch a war on Amazon. Advisers urging him to open tax investigations and cancel Amazon’s federal contracts. My latest:https://t.co/YTPCKg06KI

— Gabriel Sherman (@gabrielsherman) April 2, 2018

Unsurprisingly, Mariotti thread on that new filing:

THREAD: What does the motion by Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's company to compel @StormyDaniels to privately arbitrate her lawsuit mean for her case? https://t.co/Gumj0rScL3

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) April 2, 2018

How many Trump properties could Bezos just buy outright, if the mood struck him? All of them? Even if Trump wouldn't sell, the ability to make a credible bid would be a serious humiliation.

^this would amuse me, and it gets to a troubling thought that i had earlier today, which is that all of this is going to somehow make jeff bezos appealing to people just because he's in opposition to our racist dickhead president

i cheer for the megabillionaire corporate overlord to overthrow my racist billionaire president overlord, in a state where my vote for governor this fall will come down to a billionaire republican vs a billionaire democrat

otm

Maybe Bezos will flee to London where he will die mysteriously

KM otm. Fuck Bezos but fuck the reason Trump is pursuing this Nixonian vendetta even more.

I want to cheer for a guy who isn't a megabillionaire but could count on the money of several of them in taking on the fake billionaire fake president. Too bad there's probably no chance he'll run, in part because no one (except a whole lot of famous people) knows who he is.

looks like mocking him in thread title hasn't sent the shitbird to hell

Moo has abundant self-confidence, the justification for which he alone understands.

These teacher strikes are truly inspiring to me. First West Virginia, now Oklahoma and Kentucky, perhaps Arizona next. I almost bumped an old "strike!" thread to talk about the teacher stuff, assuming there's a way to talk about it outside of the broader political context. But you've got to figure, depending how they all pan out, that they'll further help galvanize voting and voter turnout in November, right? Following Kansas throwing in the cut-cut-cut! budget towel last year, these seem like red state citizens finally calling bullshit and fighting back. I wonder (and maybe we'll see) if it really has been a matter of democrats or otherwise not republicans just being fatalistic and assuming This Is How It Is, and forgetting that West Virginia, Oklahoma, etc. were not always default red states, and that grassroots mobilization can make a difference in the face of complacency, whether putting your foot down over cuts to important programs or actually running candidates in races you assumed you couldn't win.

Me too. Not clear to me what it “means” other than if you shit on ppl long enough materially and philosophically, they do react.

NEW: George Papadopoulos reportedly incriminated Atty General Sessions, telling a guy in a Chicago bar “Sessions encouraged me” to find out anything he could about the Russia-hacked Hillary Clinton emails mentioned by Malta Prof Mifsud. #Maddow @JuddLegum https://t.co/JuGvNwNYsF pic.twitter.com/wC07SeuLhV

— Paula Chertok🗽 (@PaulaChertok) April 3, 2018

Trump tweeted "caravan" like 3 times today, did he learn a new word or something

he's a character in Pontypool

late ballot for van the man poll

Trump tweeted "caravan" like 3 times today, did he learn a new word or something

― frogbs, Monday, April 2, 2018 8:43 PM (nineteen minutes ago)

It's sponsored content from Dodge.

sorry, just one more shot before i go to bed. suitable for framing!

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/29597958_10215901498356288_2275511085449333159_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=68145206cf9015b6b1b8d4d49553fbed&oe=5B6A3A41

so much joy on their faces for the children...

Did someone edit his teeth in that one?

Meantime, to know what's behind the blacked-out parts...

In response to Manafort's claim that Mueller is acting outside his authority, Justice Department reveals existence of previously classified extended authorization for specific crimes to be investigated by Mueller's team https://t.co/z9bdR2SfWo pic.twitter.com/PX7skxvxKD

— Pwn All The Things (@pwnallthethings) April 3, 2018

How many Trump properties could Bezos just buy outright

[All of them](https://www.forbes.com/donald-trump/#6aa62b642899), in cash, [about 36 times over](https://www.forbes.com/sites/cartercoudriet/2018/03/08/jeff-bezos-nearly-40-billion-net-worth-jump-is-the-biggest-increase-this-century/#48c6edf221f7).

dammit: All of them, in cash, about 36 times over.

the idea of trump getting in cash whatever hyperinflated value is attached to all his holdings is sickening, but on the other hand jeff bezos getting ripped off for that much would be mildly cool

whoever wins... we lose

i'd be okay with a trump/bezos knife fight to the death tho

good mourning!

apparently during that easter bunny shot he was blabbing on and on about how we were going to have a much bigger, better military

it's what jesus would have wanted

It's so cool to have a president who can't even pretend to be a normal human being.

love it when the easter bunny appears more presidential than the man currently occupying the oval office

Am I wrong, or is there a passage in Revelations that basically describes the tableau in that photograph?

ah yes here we go, video if you can stomach it

he's saying this next to the Easter Bunny https://t.co/DVmgHZAJ0N

— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) April 2, 2018

"'Frottage' by Squamous Walrus," sounds like a lost 1960s experimental acid jam, thanks Old Lunch

Always happy to arrange words into unpalatable configurations.

tbf Squamous Walrus did some impressive work before their nightmare descent into drugs and groupies. It's a pity, really. The swirling Farfisa and tabla work on Frottage was groundbreaking, especially the title track. Didn't Glyn Johns produce that album?

he's such a loathsome piece of shit !fucking die already

bit harsh on glyn johns tbh

yeah his drum mic'ing techniques are legendary i don't care if that makes me "neoliberal scum"

amazon...... welcome to the resistance

Love these Richard Lloyd stories of Andy Johns:

The first day in the studio came in November 1976. We had a 2pm start. Andy was nowhere in sight. Finally, about 4.30pm, he came traipsing in. He said, “I came in yesterday, to see what the place was like, and… I can’t work here!” He started listing all the technical tools these old studios didn’t have. We tried to calm him down. Finally, grudgingly, Andy said, “Well, I did manage to set the drums up last night. Got a good sound. Wanna hear it?”

He put on this tape he’d made. And, by God, from the speakers came this humongous, pumped-up John Bonham drum sound. Tom started freaking out. “No! No, no, no, no, no! We don’t want that! You need to take that apart!”

Andy was outraged. “Well, why did you hire me? That’s what I’m famous for. Fuck this! I’m getting a flight back!”

One day, Andy didn’t show up until 6pm. It seems he’d picked up two hookers the night before, who talked him into letting them handcuff him to his bed – then, of course, they took his wallet and blew kisses as they left. The hotel had to free him with a hacksaw. Another day, we came in and Andy was flat out in the producer’s chair in the control room, snoring, holding a three-quarters empty bottle of red wine, with empty bottles scattered around on the floor. We looked at him, then at the tape operator. We said, “Listen. All the mics are set up. Can we just keep the volume down in here and run a song around him?”

So we went in and did “Prove It”. Then we came back to listen back. It sounded pretty good. So we played it back again, a little louder. And we kept increasing the volume until, finally, Andy snorted himself awake.

He sat bolt upright, panicky, paranoid as hell. The music’s playing, and he’s looking between us all, demanding, “Did I record this?”

We said, “Well, sure Andy.” He breathed a sigh of relief. “God, I’m good.” That was Andy. And that’s the cut of “Prove It” that’s on the record.

One down

https://www.buzzfeed.com/zoetillman/a-lawyer-who-admitted-lying-to-the-special-counsels-office?utm_term=.ynglGeaaV#.msrm9nrrx

After he finishes his prison sentence, Jackson ordered him to serve two months of supervised release, and he would be required to pay the $20,000 fine in full. However, the judge said she would permit him to voluntarily self-deport from the United States if Immigration and Customs Enforcement allowed it.

He's a rich Dutch citizen living in London who, as a convicted felon, will be disbarred, so I assume self-deporting is indeed the way this dude will go. Staying here would be more like self-immolating. How does disbarring work internationally? If you have been disbarred in the US, does that affect your ability to practice law in England or the Netherlands?

I imagine that when it comes to retaining your license to practice law outside the US, the fact of your disbarring is less important than the reason for your disbarring. In this case, the perp knowingly and carefully planned to deceive the agents of the court regarding material facts during the investigation into a crime. I think every legal system in Europe would take a very dim view of that.

Had a colonoscopy today. My doctor was actually Russian. Now THAT is what I call RUSSIAN MEDDLING! They put me to sleep w/ same stuff Michael Jackon used. When I woke up, I MOON-walked right out of the hospital!

— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) April 3, 2018

I think that's what you would term Asstral Projection

Huckabee was clearly never schooled in the differences between "can" and "should."

Twitter comments are pretty funny on that one.

"Jackon"? More like the opposite.

Stop Asking Billionaires to Save Us for the Love of God

There are few political solutions being floated today that rankle more than “the billionaires will save us.” They will not. With Bezos, the world’s richest man, as our most shining example, billionaires become billionaires because they’re highly skilled at subverting what’s good for people in favor or what will enrich them personally. They are oligarchs and monopolists who dodge taxes and treat workers as another expendable resource to be exploited. We are fools for ascribing any degree of magnanimity to their actions.

WASHINGTON — President Trump says he wants to use military to secure US-Mexico border until wall is built, calls it ‘big step'.

I'll say

jade helm 16!

xxp was shocked to see that the article somehow isn't a Hamilton Nolan tirade

wants to use military to secure US-Mexico border

I'm sure this will go over big among the military.

I read some heavily 'liked' claptrap from a redhatter on FB last week about how [I paraphrase] the military should be moved from (west) coastal Blue sates to enforce the border while the wall is built, and if we get invaded and/or attacked on that coast, well, shame on them for voting for that woman. Now, how California--both a coastal and border state--fares in this, I don't know. Red Hat Logic I suppose.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act

Forget North Korea, Iran etc, Trump's going to declare war on Mexico.

Trump tweeted "caravan" like 3 times today, did he learn a new word or something

― frogbs, Monday, April 2, 2018 11:43 PM (yesterday)

Should I even bother to look for whatever ridiculous story the caravan thing came from?

it rhymes with 'phlox snooze'

wants to use military to secure US-Mexico border

I'm sure this will go over big among the military.

― A is for (Aimless), Tuesday, April 3, 2018 6:00 PM (eighteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is just an excuse for trying to divert money earmarked for DoD to built his stupid fucking wall.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/the-caravan-of-migrants-thats-alarmed-president-trump-has-now-stalled/2018/04/03/534b01c2-36aa-11e8-af3c-2123715f78df_story.html?pwa=true&sw_bypass=true&utm_term=.1690fc8996eb

Some said they heard about this caravan through friends and relatives; others said they have made the trip in the past but weren’t allowed into the United States. The migrants said they had convened from several countries in Tapachula, a city along Mexico’s southern border, and begun their march north. A number of them said they were fleeing gang violence and extortion threats in their violence-plagued countries, while others said they were looking for better paying jobs.

Screw Mexico lets fight the canadans!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Bacon

the bourne conspiracy...

@realDonaldTrump
5h5 hours ago
More
I am right about Amazon costing the United States Post Office massive amounts of money for being their Delivery Boy. Amazon should pay these costs (plus) and not have them bourne by the American Taxpayer. Many billions of dollars. P.O. leaders don’t have a clue (or do they?)!

can't believe Sears Roebuck got away with using the USPS as their delivery boy for so long.

please tell me he's talking about something other than a hilarious misunderstanding of what the "free shipping" button is

but i though bilking the government meant you were smart and should be commended.

I have no clue what these amazon USPS tweets mean. Does amazon have some sort of deal with the usps?

Nevermind, I see that this is just the daily insanity,

he is so fucking stupid

The Postal Service recorded a net loss of $5.6 billion in 2016, which it blamed on employee health-care costs.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/12/29/trump-calls-for-u-s-postal-service-to-raise-amazons-shipping-rates/

he’s mad because he’s mad about the washington post reporting honestly on him. little dictator wannabe.

He is really the laziest troll in the world.

also from that piece

One of the Postal Service's biggest immediate obstacles to raising prices might be Trump. That's because the body that sets postal rates, the nine-member Postal Service Board of Governors, has only two serving members and lacks a quorum to make decisions. The board cannot raise rates without Trump nominating political appointees to fill the remaining slots, O'Rourke said.

“There is a level at which government operates that elected officials sometimes don't fully grasp,” O'Rourke said. “And this is true whether you're talking about USPS, the State Department or Interior. There are people four and five levels down who make the government of the United States work every day.”

I have no clue what these amazon USPS tweets mean. Does amazon have some sort of deal with the usps?

― Yerac, Tuesday, April 3, 2018 7:13 PM (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The notion is that the USPS - a long-time anti-government right-wing bugbear championed in part by long-term GOP bigwig Fred Smith of FedEx - relies upon Amazon's business for its continued relative solvency.

xp also this from last week

https://www.axios.com/trump-regulation-amazon-facebook-646c642c-a2d7-454b-a9a9-cdc6e4eaef2c.html

Behind the president's thinking: Trump's wealthy friends tell him Amazon is destroying their businesses. His real estate buddies tell him — and he agrees — that Amazon is killing shopping malls and brick-and-mortar retailers.

Trump tells people Amazon has gotten a free ride from taxpayers and cushy treatment from the U.S. Postal Service.
“The whole post office thing, that's very much a perception he has,” another source said. “It's been explained to him in multiple meetings that his perception is inaccurate and that the post office actually makes a ton of money from Amazon."
Axios' Ina Fried notes: The Postal Service actually added delivery on Sunday in some cities because Amazon made it worthwhile.
Trump also pays close attention to the Amazon founder's ownership of The Washington Post, which the president views as Bezos’ political weapon.

the idea that the post office should be a money making business and not infrastructure is so noxious

I think its also unfortunately prevalent which is why it's in danger elsewhere around the globe.
Would be great if it was universally recognised to be infrastructure i.e. a necessity.

the idea that *everything* should be a money making business is just the republican mindset, unfortunately

USPS is an A+ w33d and w33d product delivery system

at least for us out here in NJ

Everything could be a money making business once you remove any sort of benefit for the people who work there.

Xpost, ah this explains why I was getting packages on Sundays.

Money is the currency of American activity

My understanding is that the post office would probably be profitable had the GOP not passed some vindictive law several years back requiring them to pay down pensions before banking anything, which makes it impossible for the post office to make any money.

USPS is an A+ w33d and w33d product delivery system

― (•̪●) (carne asada), Tuesday, April 3, 2018 3:37 PM (thirty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

at least for us out here in NJ

― (•̪●) (carne asada), Tuesday, April 3, 2018 3:37 PM (thirty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

really? everything i read freaks me out too much to try it

i know a lot of ppl who mail weedstuff successfully here in denver and don't even know if there's a way to get 'caught' but i wouldn't do it myself either, i dunno

Some people call me Maurice because I speak of the posse comitatus of love

My understanding is that the post office would probably be profitable had the GOP not passed some vindictive law several years back requiring them to pay down pensions before banking anything, which makes it impossible for the post office to make any money.

Yup. This was a W crime that frequently gets lost in the shuffle with all the other W crimes.

xposts but: my understanding is that the mail inspectors need a warrant to open priority or first class mail; media mail can be inspected at any time.
if the usps thought you were mailing fentanyl and kilos of coke, i think they'd probably involve themselves, but for an oz of weeb or whatever, i doubt it.

Yeah I just have my buddy in California send me stuff but it's all for personal use not weight.

he is so fucking stupid

― maura, Tuesday, April 3, 2018 2:17 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the military should be moved from (west) coastal Blue sates to enforce the border while the wall is built

The military is already based primarily in Red states, and this represents a big part of the Federal subsidy to red state economies. Of roughly 34 domestic based Army BCTs, only 2 at Ft Drum, NY and 2 at Schofield Barracks, HI are in blue states. Of the Marines, similar numbers (~4 brigades) are stationed at Camp Pendleton, CA. I wouldn't be surprised if only 200k of the 1300k Armed forces are stationed in blue states.

^ also 2 Army BCTs at Fort Lewis, WA.

Trump is a total butthole if u ask me

it looks that way now but give him another 6.5 years

Yeah sorry I flew off the handle there

personally I like his style

my (possibly) endangered congressman, one of the few in a Clinton-won district, wants Pruitt out:

Major policy differences aside, @EPAScottPruitt‘s corruption scandals are an embarrassment to the Administration, and his conduct is grossly disrespectful to American taxpayers. It's time for him to resign or for @POTUS to dismiss him. https://t.co/gXWLDffqam

— Rep. Carlos Curbelo (@RepCurbelo) April 3, 2018

I wouldn't be surprised if only 200k of the 1300k Armed forces are stationed in blue states.

well then you'd be fucking surprised

https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/appj/dwp/rest/download?fileName=DMDC_Website_Location_Report_1709.xlsx&groupName=milRegionCountry

Hawaii = 36,620
California = 128,373
Illinois = 20,567
Maryland = 28,888
New York = 20,588
Virginia = 89,303
Washington = 45,343

and that's barely even trying, a quick wikipedia search and some cherry picking off the public spreadsheet used as a citation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tooth-to-tail_ratio is a good short read on why using combat brigades as a metric doesn't tell the story very accurately

If there's one thing the military and Congress agree on, it's spreading those sweet defense dollars into as many districts as possible. It's a marriage made in heaven.

NASA and DOE run the same game

I mean -- I lived in upstate NY from '82 to '85 because my dad was stationed as the commanding officer at a Navy base. Some couple of hundred miles from the ocean. A sub training base. I did have to wonder who finessed that.

what a lousy #NeverTrumpist he turned out to be!

Here's the story. HE'S NOT A TARGET. That's the story. Period. Yes, he could theoretically become a target. But he's been at it seven months and Trump. Isn't. A. Target.

— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) April 4, 2018

Interesting thread to chew over

LINT (short thread). The most interesting part of this piece is the revelation that Mueller wants to write a report on this, "to answer the public's questions." Remember that under the Special Counsel regulations, Mueller doesn't have the authority to produce a public report.

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) April 4, 2018

THREAD: What does today’s news that Trump is a “subject” of Mueller’s investigation but not a “target” mean? (Short answer: Not as much as it seems at first glance.)

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) April 4, 2018

xp El Tomboto: 200k surprisingly works pretty well for active duty Army + Marines. Blue states: 201882, Red states: 335092. For active duty (not incl coast guard), its Blue states: 395892, Red states: 582440. The actual disparity in deployable maneuver units is a bit greater, as blue state numbers are considerably inflated by administrative/support personnel in VA and MD.

At any rate, if detachments are sent to guard the border (a terrible idea for readiness, and possibly not legal without congressional authorization due to the Posse Comitatus act), I expect they'll mostly come from ground maneuver units stationed at the big posts in TX, NC, GA, KY, SC, KS. The ones stationed in CA, HI, & WA are "first echelon" troops for Pacific Command and so I imagine would be reserved for Korea contingencies.

when he says military doesn’t he mean natl guard?

apparently, yes

He doesn't know that tho

it seems today's key immigration tweet was "CRIME!"

Nixonian law-and-order paranoia reduced to one syllable. US politics reduced to its core.

Be pretty impressive if his only lasting achievement is tanking the economy. He'll probably argue that the market was overinflated and needed to be corrected. Trump is like the laxative to the market's constipation.

Not to doubt Trump's ability to tank the economy, but these charts I've been seeing comparing the stick market under Trump vs Obama are pretty dumb. Obama came into office just as the market was bottoming out. Trump's first year comes at the end of a very long bull market. The market moves under those conditions are not particularly surprising and have little to do with the president, although Trump's foolish trade wars are helping speed up the inevitable decline.

For some reason ILX isn't letting me embed tweets today, but this gem from this morning deserves preservation:

When you’re already $500 Billion DOWN, you can’t lose!

As Jeet Heer (yeah, I know) said, "That's the sort of logic that leads you to bankrupt a casino."

For some reason ILX isn't letting me embed tweets today

wow a blessed day

really sounds like something out of bitcoin.txt

Whomp whomp

NEW: On the same day the Stone wrote the email saying that he dined with Assange, he also said he spoke that day to Trump and that "devastating" Wikileaks were coming on Clinton.https://t.co/dKmB50gEwA

— andrew kaczynski🤔 (@KFILE) April 4, 2018

yeah but her emails!

A) this is never going to actually happen.
B) idea that US withdraw from some imperial incursion will "likely benefit enemy X" is a rightwing talking point and has been for decades. It's good and healthy liberals are using it. pic.twitter.com/zdpB2Pu0SN

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) April 4, 2018

We'd still be speaking Capitalism if only we'd stuck to our guns in Vietnam.

The Stubblemeister speaks

"To hell with Wall Street if they don’t like it." https://t.co/5cu2HeE0bT

— Robert Costa (@costareports) April 4, 2018

It's like the Battlestar Galactica pilot, with Trump and Bannon playing a double-Baltar

Hm hm hm.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/04/politics/mueller-special-counsel-investigation-russian-oligarchs/index.html

Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has taken the unusual step of questioning Russian oligarchs who traveled into the US, stopping at least one and searching his electronic devices when his private jet landed at a New York area airport, according to multiple sources familiar with the inquiry.
A second Russian oligarch was stopped during a recent trip to the US, although it is not clear if he was searched, according to a person briefed on the matter.
Mueller's team has also made an informal voluntary document and interview request to a third Russian oligarch who has not traveled to the US recently....

The approach to Russian oligarchs in recent weeks may reflect that Mueller's team has already obtained records or documents that it has legal jurisdiction over and can get easily, one source said, and now it's a "wish list" to see what other information they can obtain from Russians entering the US or through their voluntary cooperation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-va3WUAnXE

https://apimagesblog.com/blog/2018/4/3/migrant-caravan-raising-concerns-in-us-halts-in-mexico

ah, so that's the 'caravan'

goddamn it Cruz is a worthless piece of shit

i do enjoy it when someone's face is such a true representation of their character tho

yeah is an ideal type in form:content, maybe this is his secret appeal

mourning!

Who the fuck looks at Cruz and says "that's my guy right there, I'm voting for him."?

I ask that about a lot of people. He does have the waxy pallor of a 1960’s evangelical preacher so...

he looks like he is about to discharge/hatch a litter of smaller versions of himself which I guess is kind of cool and exciting

idk sometimes i think cruz is so unlikable that he becomes strangely...likable (i would never vote for him and his ideas are terrible, obv). kinda like how a pug is so ugly that it's cute.

or maybe it's like the pity that bilbo feels for gollum, if gollum were also a powerful US senator

*ahem*

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B0CczePCMAAgDYo.jpg

rick scott is a governor tbf i guess

Bill Kristol, everybody!

"Trade wars are good, and easy to win." pic.twitter.com/B1qnOzKw6d

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) April 4, 2018

I was going to welcome Bill Kristol to the resistance but I know he's been in its ranks a while

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DaBvmtvXkAA2e0N.jpg:small

I was going to welcome Bill Kristol to the resistance but I know he's been in its ranks a while

― Simon H.,

well, Kristol would know about endless, fruitless wars that get him invited to talk show green rooms

Ugh why?

A security agent was removed from Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt’s detail shortly after he told the EPA chief he couldn’t use his vehicles' lights and sirens to cut through Washington, D.C., traffic

this fucking guy

the most mundane supervillain ever

“In many places like California the same person votes many times. You’ve probably heard of that,” Trump said. “They always like to say, ‘Oh, that’s like a conspiracy theory.’ Not a conspiracy theory folks. Millions and millions of people. And it’s very hard because the state guards their records. They don’t want to see it.”

there is no evidence of that in the least! it's not just "like" a conspiracy theory you dip shit WTF?!?!

CA why don't you prove that millions of people didn't vote many times?

tbf I've voted many times as well, just spaced out over years

you're right and sometimes it's for the same person in CONSECUTIVE terms!

in a sane world, the guy who pushed the birther conspiracy (and then when forced to admit it wasn't true, blamed his political opponent for starting it) would be laughed off the stage any time he tried pushing yet another baseless theory.

there is no evidence of that in the least! it's not just "like" a conspiracy theory you dip shit WTF?!?!

This reminds me a lot of the obama birth certificate thing. Who was the loud mouth idiot who kept pushing that one for several years again, I’m trying to remember...

xposts!

Exactly

a significant number of people STILL believe the birther stuff

obama was an inside job

otm

They don't really believe it, they hold it in a a special kind of mental stasis where they can say that they believe it out loud and even think "I believe this" to themselves, while also implicitly recognizing that, of course, it is absurd and impossible. Doublethink is real!

(I don't want to stroke my neckbeard, but I think this ability definitely has something to do with religion)

The smartest thing he could do is just claim the wall has been built, declare Mission Accomplished, and then boast about it for two more years. I think they're laying the groundwork for that anyway. I heard they are calling any wall they repair a "new" wall, because technically they're being repaired by "new" material. I am not making this up!

if he walked away now this guy could sell like 10,000x more steaks than he did last time

CNN: President Trump considered replacing Attorney General Jeff Sessions with Scott Pruitt as recently as this week, despite the EPA head's ongoing scandals.

— Juana Summers Markland (@jmsummers) April 5, 2018

Sure

Why not

there are only like three people left, at this point it's like turning the vocals over to Phil Collins

you know he watched a guy drown one time

love too read the news

Major NYT story on Pruitt abt to post to website

— Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) April 5, 2018

xp pretty sure DT does that on the reg for amusement at mar al lago soirees

pruitt stories

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/05/business/epa-officials-questioned-scott-pruitt.html

oh no who is going to be attorney general now?

E.P.A. employees gawked at the size and grandeur of Mr. Pruitt’s refurbished desk, with some comparing it to the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, officials said in interviews.

there it is. he's out today.

that is def a red line

lol I flip on MSNBC and that's the point they all made ("Wait till the president learns that his EPA guy lives higher on the hog than he does!")

"employees marveled at Mr. Pruitt's new blond wig with its extraordinary swoop"

xp this is so true it's not even funny

Aboard Air Force One, President Trump told reporters that he did not know that his personal attorney paid adult-film star Stormy Daniels 30,000 days before the presidential election. Trump also said he doesn’t know where Cohen got the money.

— Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) April 5, 2018

sooo if trump didn't know about the NDA and the fact that his attorney had acted on his behalf, then doesn't that mean it's null and void?

it also doesn't bode well for cohen's claims of attorney privilege iirc

Avenatti going to be laughing himself to death here.

We very much look forward to testing the truthfulness of Mr. Trump's feigned lack of knowledge concerning the 30k payment as stated on Air Force One. As history teaches us, it is one thing to deceive the press and quite another to do so under oath. #searchforthetruth #basta

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) April 5, 2018

xps except Phil had already been a musician

is this thing ever going to a courtroom where that would actually happen? i haven't been paying attention at all (somewhat on purpose) i don't know the legal situation or what's been happening w/ it

It won't go to court because the incident never happened.

Why are there so many references to $30 000? Wasn’t it $130 000?

for all we know Steve Hackett did a stint in this administration but got buried in the mix
xposts

Good (actually GREAT) things come to those who wait!!! The strength of our case just went up exponentially. You can't have an agreement when one party claims to know nothing about it. #nodiscipline #thanksforplaying #basta

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) April 5, 2018

Just what is their case again? The right to tell the story she's already told? So if she "wins" she gets ... what? What does a nullified NDA do at this point given that she has essentially already nullified it?

Cohen claims she owes 20M for breaches

and iirc she has a libel case against cohen

Me (young, naive); I hope something good happens

Me (now): I hope whatever bad thing happens is at least funny

— the hippo account (@InternetHippo) August 15, 2017

iirc cohen (and trump?) called her a liar and denied that the affair happened, and apparently she's got proof beyond just testimony, which would support a libel case

Cohen claims she owes 20M for breaches

Now, right? But not before. So is she actually in a defensive position? Because if Cohen "loses" ... what does he lose? He could still be disbarred or out 130K or Trump in legal election trouble regardless, right? Has Stormy or her lawyer brought up libel?

If the $130k agreement is null and void, obviously she can go public with the details of her story (ie sell it as an exclusive for lots of money to a news org/publisher) or... negotiate a bigger hush payment from Trump for a much bigger sum than $130k. I assume.

also

If this is true, seems to me Stormy Daniels very likely has an open and shut damages case against Michael Cohen for fraud (and can get the settlement agreement voided on that basis too). https://t.co/ygbFy4EG9G

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) April 5, 2018

xxxp please excuse my weird question about $30 000 - it turns out that using whatever theme I'm using for ILX on my iPhone makes "$1" invisible in quoted Tweets, so that "$130K" appears as "30K". Happened with both the above, and doesn't happen using the same theme on my laptop. I'll take it up with the mods.

https://i.imgur.com/1kx73hQ.jpg

yeah $1 gets picked up as some sort of token in block quotes and embedded tweets

Michael Avenatti tells @AriMelber that, following Trump's new remarks about Stormy Daniels, he'll be making a petition on Monday to depose Trump.

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 5, 2018

he'll be making a petition on Monday to depose Trump.

by which definition?
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/depose

ALL HAIL PRESIDETN AVENATIT

I'm still confused.

obviously she can go public with the details of her story

Yeah, but she already has, multiple times. Sure, a favorable verdict would inoculate her against potential damages, but said damages are the result of ... breaking the NDA. Otherwise, yeah, this all looks bad for Cohen, but that is ancillary (as much as I'm happy for his misery). But per the NDA ... the horse it out of the stable on that one, isn't it?

Now, Summer Zervos, her defamation lawsuit against Trump directly is creeping ahead, but that's getting no coverage.

I don't think anyone should have to remember what their attorney did or did not do 30,000 days ago.

xposts

"obviously she can go public with the details of her story"

Like... she can show the evidence?

I'm asking not snarking

While it doesn't mean anything else is fair game automatically, a whole lot of people are surely looking at their own NDAs involving Trump right now, think of it that way. (Also that O'Reilly decision the other day is of interest.)

For sure. But it seems in this case it's Cohen that opened himself up for legal exposure, not Trump. All he (Trump) has to do is stick with his denials while Cohen plays lapdog. Now, if they link it to Trump and he violated campaign laws ... then nothing will happen then either, probably. I don't see how it has any bearing on those other potential NDAs, unless they are all equally sloppy. But I presume there's a reason so few people have come forward to break them.

If Cohen was the point of contact for those other ones -- and I fully believe that to be possible -- then yeah, I'll assume they were actually that sloppy, sure.

Anyway, Mariotti:

Trump denied knowing about the agreement with Stormy Daniels. Even though this wasn’t under oath, it can be used against him in the litigation. It will be hard for him to claim that Cohen or his lawyer were mistaken. Significant problem for his position. https://t.co/xni1N03gfg

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) April 5, 2018

Isn't it easy for him to stick to that position as long as Cohen sticks to his? Yeah, Cohen could get in trouble, but I don't see how Trump gets hurt.

Only in Nevada: Roger Stone to headline event for brothel kingpin running for the Legislature. Come at me, national reporters. You wish you were here. #WeMatter https://t.co/8S3eHszbJj

— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) April 5, 2018

If Cohen wants to play that much of a loyal soldier, he might start finding it expensive, or worse.

i'm sure peter thiel can help him out

isn't Cohen worth tens of millions?

maybe those are in Trump Dollars.

https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2018-04/5/13/asset/buzzfeed-prod-web-09/sub-buzz-12455-1522948803-5.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sTQcokqVIWY/UPhaEDzkB7I/AAAAAAAAGW8/goqNjnkhsFo/s1600/howardjones.jpg

It's clear, isn't it, that there is a layer of hair "bunches" which have been fastened to the remaining sparse hairs growing from his scalp. Explains those times that he sported a long mullet-style growth at the back - he was generating enough hair to be used to make the bunches, so he can claim it's all his own hair. Amazing.
https://i.imgur.com/vI2YNn0.jpg

I don't want to think about it, I just want to look at it for ever.

i can't believe how many pictures of DJT I've seen in the last year. It feels like many more than I saw of Obama in 8 years.

I think I'm kind of OK with his ridiculous plan to send the national guard to the border. It's just such a blatantly stupid, pointless thing to do, with no clear goal, no clear benefit. But unlike a $20 billion wall, it's easily reversible, and those will be thousands of part-time soldiers deployed on a local and easily monitored - and -very visible - boondoggle that will just make him look bad and inept, even before the price tag is revealed. These bored weekend warriors doing ... what exactly? Scratching their asses.

since i'll be out of the house at movies and shit while i'm unemployed, i will come back to the hidden messages in this thread every night and ask NOW what happened?

i know, not much

world's on fire iirc

oh i thought that was hair

These longhair draft dodgers never change, do they.

xxxp do you think this president of all men will not order the National Guard to fire on anyone they spot attempting to cross? There's no way he understands the implications of doing so.

https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/78/590x/Donald-Trump-bald-patch-916012.jpg
http://whywebecamehuman.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/trump-bald.jpg

We've had vigilante border snipers. Given how much traction this sort of story has had in the U.S. mainstream, I'm not sure presidentially authorized border snipers will, either. It won't harm T. among his core constituency: they think killing solves systemic problems.

Mr Trump urged the CIA to start arming its drones in Syria. “If you can do it in 10 days, get it done,” he said, according to two former officials familiar with the meeting.
Later, when the agency’s head of drone operations explained that the CIA had developed special munitions to limit civilian casualties, the president seemed unimpressed. Watching a previously recorded strike in which the agency held off on firing until the target had wandered away from a house with his family inside, Mr Trump asked, “Why did you wait?” one participant in the meeting recalled.
On the campaign trail, Mr Trump often said he would “take out” the families of terrorists.

thank god for the cia, eternally vigilant against the danger of harming civilians

"when you're already $500 million down you can't lose" is like some brilliant, forgotten country and western lyric

sounds like something from bitcoin.txt

we need somebody like merle travis to put this shit into perspective

that tweet reminded me of the way he spoke at the debates, where he got his mind on something and just started rambling without giving the audience any clue what he was talking about. he would just say things like "they just found $400 million in cash in Iran, what's that about?" with no context whatsoever

so no one's talking about the impressive win by the Wisconsin supreme court winner?

Yesterday’s landslide win for progressive (and Democratic-backed) Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Rebecca Dallet may be dismissed by some observers as the product of a low-turnout special election with no particular implications for the November midterms, when Governor Scott Walker is on the ballot and the massive money and mobilization effort he has generated in the past is in play. But Walker himself is not exactly exuding confidence:

It’s the startling double-digit margin of Dallet’s win that’s setting off alarm bells among Wisconsin Republicans. Yes, turnout in November will likely more than double yesterday’s million-voter performance (though it did significantly exceed average turnout in Wisconsin’s traditional spring Supreme Court elections). But it’s a combination of mobilization and persuasion that seems to have produced Dallet’s big win.

All the sad LOLs

https://www.npr.org/2018/04/06/599972396/concerned-evangelicals-plan-to-meet-with-trump-as-sex-scandals-swirl

And this is where Mr Private Army starts learning what limits are

https://www.thedailybeast.com/mueller-has-evidence-contradicting-erik-princes-testimony-about-russia-meeting

The larger ABC piece that Daily Beast one links to has even more info on George Nader and his ways. Could be out of fiction.

Gov. Scott Walker, who appointed Screnock to the Sauk County Circuit Court, also endorsed him. "Tonight's results show we are at risk of a #BlueWave in WI," Walker said in a tweet after the results were announced. "The Far Left is driven by anger & hatred — we must counter it with optimism & organization. Let's share our positive story with voters & win in November."

"We're talkin' 'bout our government here!"

The Far Left is driven by anger & hatred

he's not wrong but it's only because you corrupt idiots are so worthy of our scorn

Senator Hatch was thrilled to receive this shirt from a constituent as he traveled around this week talking about the economy and how tax reform has benefited Utahns.

Cc @scottlincicome #utpol pic.twitter.com/5AvOlUi2eL

— Matt Whitlock 🇺🇸 (@mattdizwhitlock) April 5, 2018

catchy

the rectangle shirt

catnip for photoshoppers

Oh boy, this one is fun:

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/04/06/trump-young-conservatives-college-charlie-kirk-turning-point-usa-217829

😘👌 h/t @kath_krueger pic.twitter.com/q8IO7z98XM

— alex (@shitshowdotinfo) April 6, 2018

https://i.imgur.com/PTB9rLF.jpg

ilu karl

<3 u

I saw him on an airplane a few days ago and must say he looked like a million bucks. Tan and healthy. And nowhere near 80 yrs. no t-shirt tho

ha karl

can you photoshop Orrin Hatch holding up a T-shirt with a image of Orrin Hatch holding up a T-shirt

if you put your mind to it you can photoshop anything

but yeah ,here ya go

https://i.imgur.com/HVcagdR.jpg

FB t-shirt is gold, pure spun gold

That's cool and all mailman, but it really should be infinite images of shirts within shirts.

I feel like the painting on the wall needs to swap as well.

Or maybe a second Hatch can be popping his head through the door in the background.

Just spitballin

omg Dennis Hof I guess it was inevitable that our current political timeline crossed over with HBO's Cathouse series

he's such a scumbag

Air Force Amy could replace Bolton maybe

I honestly don't understand why conservatives waste time and energy trying to articulate an ideology, as the only positions they act on with any consistency are 'anyone who doesn't self-identity as a conservative is bad and wrong' and 'white is might'.

(Re: the young conservative tweet.)

"why can't the blacks be more like the Asians?" says the man who thinks white privilege is a myth

I honestly don't understand why conservatives waste time and energy trying to articulate an ideology, as the only positions they act on with any consistency are 'anyone who doesn't self-identity as a conservative is bad and wrong' and 'white is might'.

Some rare truth here from an unlikely source:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQt0gZt3zDg

Trey Gowdy otm and fuck him forever

Would buy a screaming Pope t shirt

wow @ that trey gowdy interview. 3 minutes in.

must admit tho i like the bacon pope i'm disappointed you didn't go with "BORN TO DIE WORLD IS A FUCK Kill Em All 1989 I am trash man 410,757,864,530 DEAD COPS"

lol, erll i spent about 7 seconds thinking about the different options

on some afternoons, erll = well

re: the gowdy interview

these people are unbelievable. it's a great time to have a crisis of conscience after you've spent years doing untold damage for cheap gain. it's amazing how easy they make it look. I'd be on the verge of suicide if I tried to pull that shit. Money must be a hell of a balm.

read that as "cheap gin" and why not

When Gowdy is asked about endorsing Trump, his answer, "he was the nominee", is delivered with unmistakable rue.

One problem with analyzing Trump is that he is both a terrible person who wants to do terrible things AND he's an undisciplined bullshit artist who never gets much done. He may want to destroy democracy, but he doesn't want to do the work to destroy democracy.

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) April 4, 2018

Fortunately he has The Best People working for him, and at least some of them are working busily away at it.

The Best People picked by Trump are almost as id-driven and idea-poor as he is. Unfortunately some of them, like Pruitt at EPA and Zinke at Interior, are more competent at ripping things apart than he is.

WASHINGTON — Representative Blake Farenthold, the Texas Republican who used $84,000 in taxpayer funds to settle a sexual harassment case with his former communications director, abruptly resigned from Congress Friday afternoon.

In December, Mr. Farenthold, who represented the 27th district of Texas, said that he would not run for re-election amid scrutiny over the payment and accusations from other aides that he set the tone for a hostile work environment in his office. At the time, he was one of several lawmakers to announce his eventual departure from Congress after being accused of sexual harassment and discrimination.

Gowdy makes all this noise now but he will probably run for Governor in 6 years. This is the same move that sneaky shit Chaffetz from Utah will also pull.

This thread is nuts. Please note the kicker in the ninth post.

1. Here's a new name: Joseph Schmitz. He's one of the first people Trump named to his campaign's NATSEC & foreign policy team. He pushed FBI & other govt agencies to review materials from THE DARK WEB he thought were HRC's deleted emails. This is not a joke. https://t.co/rASoqVT9AO

— Ale (@aliasvaughn) April 6, 2018

lol at “THE DARK WEB”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DglchRrb8dY

MKT has an incredibly sad and mind blowing wiki page. I first heard of her from the seattle child rape case, but I had no idea about her past.

Trump begins informal prep for potential Mueller interview

President Donald Trump has begun the initial steps of preparing for a possible interview with the special counsel, a White House official and a person familiar with the situation said Friday, a sign the President's legal team is intensifying its deliberations over whether to allow him to come under Robert Mueller's questioning.

One source familiar with the proceedings stressed the preparation efforts is "in its infancy."

The preparations have been short and informal and included going over potential topics with the President that Mueller would likely raise in an interview, the people said.

The President has not formally agreed to sit for an interview with Mueller.

The president is in his infancy.

not convinced he was ever fully gestated

i hope the easter bunny is playing mueller during their prep.

lol @ trump only just now getting around to maybe sort of preparing for this

And of course in short and informal chunks.

*interview happens*

"So Mr. Presi--"

"I didn't do anything of it, except that stuff I did. And you'll never know! Sad!"

"...thank you, we're done."

Without comment.

Fire in Trump Tower worsening pic.twitter.com/6T1VsOCsuP

— Peter Thomas Roth (@PeterThomasRoth) April 7, 2018

Those account books aint gonna burn themselves

"So where's Don Jr?"

"There was a Don Jr?"

Where's the tax ret--- oh never mind.

Latest photo kind of serious looking!

For all the jokes about burning documents or Greek lightning, that fire looks pretty bad, and is not a good thing to see in dense Midtown Manhattan. Isn't this the second fire in recent weeks?

Oh, it's out now?

i was 4 blocks away at MoMA, so i have an alibi

Based on his latest tweets, 45's still happy with Pruitt, and mad at the Washington Post

Have they named the person who died yet?

Yes , a 67 year old man but 45 has not named him. He’s moved on to blaming Obama for Syria.

https://www.theroot.com/presidential-twitter-rant-doesn-t-include-mention-of-ma-1825088652

AGAIN, TO OUR VERY FOOLISH LEADER, DO NOT ATTACK SYRIA - IF YOU DO MANY VERY BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN & FROM THAT FIGHT THE U.S. GETS NOTHING!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2013

Hey, the Flight 93 election guy is bailing

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/382212-trump-national-security-spokesman-out-at-white-house

Meantime...

Here is the renewed motion we just filed seeking to depose Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen, as well as an expedited jury trial. #searchforthetruth #bastahttps://t.co/qzrzUUoNxL

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) April 8, 2018

1/ Stormy Daniels' attorney moves for discovery, including a deposition of Trump, now that the procedural issue has been resolved. He cites Trump and Cohen's statements that Trump didn't know about the contract with Daniels, which undercut their motion to force arbitration. https://t.co/hm2KPp0cKn

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) April 9, 2018

ICYMI, p4reene:

So the problem is, the only difference between Pruitt’s corruption and the widespread corruption of nearly everyone else in Washington, in both parties, is the degree to which he is captured, not the form his corruption takes. Because being socially close to people representing industries seeking to influence the government, and then acting in ways that benefit those industries, and then receiving some sort of renumeration...a job or consulting gig or massively overinflated speaking fees or even just rides on a nice yacht—is basically How Things Work....

You see it clearly in the legal profession, as when ex-Attorney General Eric Holder returned to his massive corporate law firm, which kept his office empty for him during his stint in the Justice Department, to resume making millions of dollars working at a firm specializing in white collar defense for banks....

https://splinternews.com/scott-pruitt-is-mostly-the-same-kind-of-corrupt-as-ever-1825059502

what about

so Rick Scott announces his Senate bid!

anybody else starting to get WW1 vibes abt syria this week

WW3 vibes is when you should worry tbh.

Lol, at Eric Holder criticism. Dude is one of the strongest leaders in the crusade for voting rights across the country right now.

Hoos, I don't think they even have archdukes anymore tbh

you can be a righteous crusader and a beneficiary of The System's largesse.

and just the same as Scott Pruitt.

xp but like civil conflict in one country drawing in rival world powers aligned with opposing sides--i guess you could say the same for vietnam but i can't help feeling like we're tipping towards even more calamitous territory

In the age of MAD proxy wars are very unlikely to lead to unlimited global warfare.

https://envisioningtheamericandream.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/mad-magazine-finger-74-swscan04061.jpg

Pareene takes aim at Clintons and Cory Booker for ethical failings in that piece too. He doesn’t suggest how IGs or whomever should police wrongdoings better, or if anything can be done re the revolving door between government jobs and private sector ones. He also just lumps Pruitt and the above all together. It’s messier than that. Although i would not say Holder’s current good guy work on voting outweighs his ethical conflicts, and his failure to go after white collar criminals responsible for 2008 recession and housing crisises,

what about

― Nerdstrom Poindexter, Monday, April 9, 2018 11:13 AM

You'll never fall out of love with the Clintonwhores, eh

yes Moodles, what Sotosyn said. As long as Dems find one virtue in a pol, all else is swept away.

hell no i never will morbz i live to be the hott dogg in a bill and hillary bun!!!!!!!!! #resistance

I find this hilarious/expected

NSC spokesman Michael Anton was not planning to resign Sunday night -- but quickly tendered his resignation after finding out yesterday he would be fired Monday morning, a former NSC official and source with direct knowledge of the matter tell me

— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) April 9, 2018

he shoulda charged the cockpit

You'll never fall out of love with the Clintonwhores, eh

― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Monday, April 9, 2018 12:38 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

#ImWithHerpes

Hmm

Mueller’s team showed up unannounced at the house of an associate of the Trump Organization who was involved in overseas deals.https://t.co/OAdoI0KBLu
They had subpoenas compelling electronic records & sworn testimony, & questioned the associate extensively about Michael Cohen.

— StrictlyCovfefè 📻 (@christoq) April 9, 2018

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/09/us/politics/fbi-raids-office-of-trumps-longtime-lawyer-michael-cohen.html

The F.B.I. on Monday raided the office of President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, seizing records related to several topics including payments to a pornographic-film actress.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained the search warrant after receiving a referral from the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, according to Mr. Cohen’s lawyer, who called the search “completely inappropriate and unnecessary.” The search does not appear to be directly related to Mr. Mueller’s investigation, but likely resulted from information he had uncovered and gave to prosecutors in New York.

“Today the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients,” said Stephen Ryan, his lawyer. “I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller.”

this seems important

awwww yeah

he search does not appear to be directly related to Mr. Mueller’s investigation, but likely resulted from information he had uncovered and gave to prosecutors in New York.

seems important because what else will they find in the documents they just seized, beyond the stormy daniels stuff?

this seems important

says who

Karl Malone, Monday, April 9, 2018 4:06 PM (thirteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Per Vanity Fair, FBI searched Cohen's room at the Loews Regency on Park Avenue in Manhattan. (in addition to his office?) https://t.co/iLXOH2o8ga

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) April 9, 2018

Feel like this is not going to be good for trumps mental health.

Avenatti must be cackling about now.

unless it's campaign fraud, i assume there's some criminal implication here bigger than the stormy daniels stuff, because that's otherwise a civil matter no?

Well note the story I linked just before the news of the raid broke -- appears to have been questions about his business dealing in Russia etc as well on behalf of the organization

This is nuts.

NEW: At the direction of the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office, federal agents executed search warrants on longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen on at least THREE locations: office, home AND hotel room https://t.co/IPwBGV2BLh

— erica orden (@eorden) April 9, 2018

Trying to write something about how this might impact the Stormy Daniels v. Trump litigation in Los Angeles but it's hard to type when you're cackling

— SubjectHatNotTargetHat (@Popehat) April 9, 2018

Until Mariotti has his full thread, this might do for something for now

THREAD: Back of the envelope thoughts on the FBI raid of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's office: 1/ https://t.co/rbemJDB9wM

— Andy Wright (@AndyMcCanse) April 9, 2018

And then there's this, more detailed, key read

https://www.popehat.com/2018/04/09/the-search-of-trump-lawyer-michael-cohens-office-what-we-can-infer-immediately/

Trump has been watching TV reports of the FBI raiding Cohen's office, per @jeffzeleny.

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) April 9, 2018

Popehat site crashing, here's the text:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AnneMarieClark/posts/VuD5ykkN93y

Oh man, Avenatti really knows how to twist a knife. No glee, just utter *pity*:

See below and review my comments and predictions last week on CNN and MSNBC. An enormous amount of misplaced faith has been placed on MC's shoulders IMO. If he does not hold up, this could end very very badly for DJT and others. F.B.I. Raids Cohen Offices https://t.co/ijYXxDpiGH

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) April 9, 2018

the comey book is out this week too isn't it?

it won't say anything but i can't imagine trump taking that well either.

yeah something's gonna give this week

I read some story about the WH having no PR campaign to counter his book tour, and that they were hoping a trip to South America and a meeting with the Japanese PM (or something) would distract him. But that was before today's news.

2. Moreover, it's not just that the office thought that there was enough for a search warrant. They thought there was enough for a search warrant of an attorney's office for that attorney's client communications. That's a very fraught and extraordinary move that requires multiple levels of authorization within the Department of Justice. The U.S. Attorney's Manual — at Section 9-13.320 — contains the relevant policies and procedures.

yeah something's gonna give this week

really glad there's no complex international conflict that's gone up several notches over the last few days

I feel so sad

Calling around the president's circle. His allies are taken aback. Rattled. Worry the president has a small legal team that lacks a heavy hitter. Worry that Mueller is making big moves and, in essence, prodding the president to finally sit down for an interview...

— Robert Costa (@costareports) April 9, 2018

Briefly reached a WH official. Official said the WH doesn't have a strategy for the Comey book. Paused. Then said that should answer my question of what's the strategy for dealing with Cohen news.

— Robert Costa (@costareports) April 9, 2018

Oh and

#BREAKING: The victims of Donald Trump’s fraudulent university will finally receive the relief they deserve. A federal court just finalized our https://twitter.com/AGSchneiderman/status/9834653253909422085M Trump University settlement. pic.twitter.com/mBSJwgIY8i

— Eric Schneiderman (@AGSchneiderman) April 9, 2018

wow

Chuck Woolery is ENRAGED

Bank fraud

I think we're about to get our constitutional crisis

Being that this is outside Mueller's office now i am not sure of that

something something fruit of a poisonous tree

xp I'm afraid that nuance will be lost on the president. I don't see how Rosenstein keeps his job now.

president piss baby has weighed in

Quick comments: “it’s a disgraceful situation.”

“I have this witch hunt constantly going on.”

“It’s an attack on on our country…what we all stand for.”

Also called the special counsel “the most conflicted group of people I have ever seen.”

Trump went on to criticize AG Jeff Sessions for recusing himself and repeatedly said no one “is looking at the other side,” referring to Clinton’s 30k emails and “many many” other things.

apparently our country stands for money laundering

Conflicted doesn’t mean what he thinks it means, LOL

The optics would be way worse with the non-base than if he'd done it a month ago though

Xxxpost

Which is why i hope he does it to some extent

"I've been President now for what seems like a lengthy period of time."

prez otm

You should see the Tweets from his base. It's like when you shit yourself during a skydive and try to say it's emblematic of everybody else's fear.

Fun fun

Whoa. POTUS, unprompted, mentions deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein and that he signed the FISA warrant.

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) April 9, 2018

Bank fraud

― fuck the NRA (Neanderthal), Monday, April 9, 2018 5:21 PM

what does this post refer to please

nm, got it

Current assumption is it’s bank fraud/campaign finance violations

seems important because what else will they find in the documents they just seized, beyond the stormy daniels stuff?

figured this was the case, and the nyt confirms:

Though Mr. Mueller’s team did not initiate the search, if prosecutors in Manhattan uncover information related to Mr. Mueller’s investigation they can share that information with Mr. Mueller’s team.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fbi-seizes-records-related-to-stormy-daniels-in-raid-of-trump-attorney-michael-cohens-office/2018/04/09/e3e43cf4-3c30-11e8-974f-aacd97698cef_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.dc4b5bc3b9ad

Interesting given who's saying it

Giuliani on phone w/ Post. Will POTUS now consider firing Mueller or Rod R?
"I don’t think that’s in the cards. Too explosive, the whole process is too near the end."

— Robert Costa (@costareports) April 9, 2018

Giuliani: "The only thing that's happening, perhaps, is that Mueller is trying to compel the president to testify. There is the legal battle and the public-relations battle, and this kind of thing amps up the pressure to get it all over with."

— Robert Costa (@costareports) April 9, 2018

Imagine being in Rachel Maddow's offices right now.

Must I

She's cooking up the biggest monologue of them all

Mariotti thread

THREAD: What does news that a search warrant was executed by the FBI at the offices of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen tell us about the investigation of Cohen and the Mueller investigation?

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) April 9, 2018

Shes opening with “who’s getting the ‘Trump back tattoo’” story, which is a bit snide.

Communications between Cohen and Trump would be reviewed by a "taint team" that is separate and walled off from the investigators.

omfg

So it’s finally come to this

that's the disingenuous part of his base's outrage, that they're acting as if everybody at the FBI is gonna be reading and posting the convos to their LiveJournal.

I resisted making a taint joke omg

Steve Little totally gonna play Cohen in the movie

NEW: Trump appeared via video at a Ukrainian billionaire's event in 2015. Michael Cohen arranged for the organizer to donate 50,000 to the Trump foundation. Mueller is investigating. @nytmike @maggienyt https://t.co/GIMx9Zo2DK

— Amy Fiscus (@amyfiscus) April 10, 2018

And given Erickson's connections, worth keeping in mind.

For several years there’ve been rumors that Trump paid for abortions and the silence of the women involved. If he really did, the FBI has those documents tonight. Folks in the White House are freaked the hell out. Landed to a flurry of texts.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) April 10, 2018

haha -- I just read that on Twitter

Once more that Mariotti thread is highly useful in sifting out all the information that can be logically inferred from the available facts. His competence is always impressive.

take this with a grain of coke, etc

Trump is angrier than he has been at any point in the many fuming news cycles, according to two people close to him. What that ultimately translates to is unclear.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 10, 2018

More angry tweets.

I see a bunch of people saying they're Deeply Concerned about him tonight, what it means. But he's been nothing but fuming incompetence this whole time. Why should things change?

hopefully he suffers a widowmaker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK5vizEzw7w

but yeah I mean at this point if he fires Rosenstein/Mueller, state charges still pend, this train has already left the station regardless of what he does now. if he'd wanted to do it he should have done it a while ago.

this does really feel like a gamechanger. albeit not a fast moving one but...

Mariotti notes the fact that the FBI search warrants were granted pursuant to a NY state investigation that appears to have been instigated by, but not to directly involve, Mueller's team. Mariotti resists drawing any particular conclusions about that, even though he does raise the fact that Trump cannot pardon state crimes elsewhere in that thread, as well as the fact that attorney-client privilege does not extend to communications about the furtherance of crimes.

The thought that Cohen might be persuaded to testify about crimes he committed at Trump's behest, for Trump's benefit, and with Trump's assistance, does suggest itself rather quickly.

Anyway, don't worry, Tucker's on it.

These deep state conspiracy theories keep getting weirder and weirder pic.twitter.com/nChIHJ7xZa

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 10, 2018

He's going to bomb Syria just to get the domestic stuff off the news, isn't he

Mariotti notes the fact that the FBI search warrants were granted pursuant to a NY state investigation

gabbnebb is the prosecutor iirc

At this point, even if Trump resigned tomorrow, none of these investigations would stop, would they? Esp. now that (at least) Trump associates are being investigated at several different levels and in several different contexts.

if Trump resigned tomorrow, none of these investigations would stop, would they?

At this point he's much safer staying in office than leaving without an immunity deal of some sort.

Ha, immunity deal. Maybe they could get Trump to flip and testify against, like, 300 mobsters, all of his friends, and the entire Russian government.

Isn't is still an open question as to whether he can pardon himself?

aaron rupar is a terrible ass clown retrieved from the depths of the city pages and that's saying something. please no more RTs

reading the bit of the power broker about this guy and his criminal connections and his weird (possibly external) compulsion to run for prominent office, and thinking about trump https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_O%27Dwyer

he ended up as ambassador to mexico, which seems like a fitting fate for trump.

It's getting stupid out there

JUST IN: Paul Manafort Is Asking A Judge To Suppress Evidence That Agents Seized From His Home —> https://t.co/7fNLNdoV6B from @zoetillman pic.twitter.com/Whgo4WwI0h

— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) April 10, 2018

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are treating Michael Cohen like he’s a lawyer for the mob. That’s how seasoned white collar defense attorneys describe the raid on Cohen’s office, home, and hotel room to The Daily Beast. https://t.co/4jZvxHKPW7

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 10, 2018

Alan Dershowitz, a liberal attorney

They misspelled 'an edgelord.'

irl lols

He's going to bomb Syria just to get the domestic stuff off the news, isn't he

something something clintonwhores, #perrinembed

Anyway I see it's cranky mornings in the White House. I'm surprised he hasn't signal boosted this, though.

Trump Hotel DC managing director again criticizes lack of media coverage (guess this thread doesn’t count); announces hotel is debuting Monday Wings Night. pic.twitter.com/MWPPx67UPg

— Zach Everson (@Z_Everson) April 9, 2018

i dunno what the dc media is like specifically but i think most hotels around the world would struggle to generate editorial coverage around their launch of a wings night

if you wanna see your hotel in the paper, pay for an ad u cheap fuck

"We placed ads in the Washington Post sir."

"Very good!"

"Meaning you made Jeff Bezos some more money."

"FUCKIN--"

What is even the point of becoming presidetn if you can't get ample press coverage about which nights your various business holdings will be dedicating to the consumption of chicken wings.

At this point I'm praying for the fucker to keel over just so I don't have to see any more intrigue explainer threads hit my TL. (Well, not *just* for that reason obv)

If that restaurant wants coverage they should just call them Mueller Wings or some shit.

Freedom appendages

Winghazi

BAAAAWK in the USSR

the vast buffalo-wing conspiracy

lol bg

Wings=Freedom from appendages, more like.

just wait til President Pence's lackeys boost their Gay Conversion Potlucks

Domestic emoluments beat reporting is weird under trump- til now it was like just oil and finance and war machinery. I guess carter almost had big peanut, but dint they make him liquidate?

mr president, liquidate those nuts

when the president says that the f.b.i. "broke in" to his lawyer's office how many people in his base are going to take that at face value? millions of them, that's how many. attorney/client privilege is dead when the f.b.i. can just break into your office because of fake news! this has gone too far!

Like it even needs to be said (particularly here) but it's just so fucking irresponsible. All of the commentary I've read has gone to great lengths explaining how something like this could not possibly have been casually and involves a lot of moving parts and accountability and a high degree of certainty that something incriminating will be found. He's the kind of dumbshit who destroys his car by filling it with diesel and then sues the gas station.

What's he going to do, fuck the furniture?

Source close to Trump tells Axios: "This is the first crisis post-Hope Hicks. ... This was different: I've never seen him like this before. ... This is the president you're going to see more of from here on out: unvarnished, untethered." https://t.co/eIa4emWPxu

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 10, 2018

I have to say, I'm genuinely concerned for Trump's well-being for the first time ever. This seems like a level of stress that could legitimately kill him and, as much as I may lull myself to sleep at night with reminders that he's totally going to die one day, I'd really hate to see him become a martyr to his trash supporters. Let him get tossed out on his ass first and he can have a full-body prolapse outside the WH gates.

Don’t care, fuck him, bring on the fatal aneurysm.

What's he going to do, fuck the furniture?

trump has never had sex, he's not gonna start now

I'm actively wishing to see him stroke out on live television.

Even Fox News is having a hard time avoiding the gravity of the Cohen raid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR9Z8esiXBQ

I'm genuinely torn because at this point I wish him nothing but the absolute worst, but at the same time I really want the wheels of justice to thoroughly crush him before he suffers an endless series of excruciating and yet somehow non-fatal ailments.

That too.

And another one out

SCOOP: Tom Bossert, who is Trump’s homeland security adviser, is resigning, I’m told.

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) April 10, 2018

This is the first time I'll admit to feeling...unsettled. We have no one – no one – in charge. It's a damn ghost ship.

I really want the wheels of justice to thoroughly crush him before he suffers an endless series of excruciating and yet somehow non-fatal ailments

Massive, Singing Detective-level psoriasis would be good.

obv we need Pence

mike pence is going to boston today and governor charlie baker was like....uh...i'm actually going to be out of town...

"Baker told reporters that he’s missing the Pence event “because my calendar has other stuff on it”..."

#toxic

This is the first time I'll admit to feeling...unsettled. We have no one – no one – in charge. It's a damn ghost ship.

That's all true, but I don't worry about the bureaucracy's ability to maintain order so much as a foreign power taking advantage of the headlines.

'my calendar has other stuff on it! it's *checks notes* steven seagal's birthday and the azerbaijani day of the builder, i wish the timing could have been different'

Oddly enough I’ve never felt more at ease since he started. Trump is a total paper tiger, being worked around.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, April 10, 2018 9:40 AM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That's all true, but I don't worry about the bureaucracy's ability to maintain order so much as a foreign power taking advantage of the headlines.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, April 10, 2018 9:43 AM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

kinda with Ned at the moment but yeah, i share alf's concern

I wonder if Bossert is leaving because he so thoroughly shat himself on ABC's Sunday morning show this weekend. He came across like Stephen Miller with hair.

Truly a master strategist

Roger Stone suggesting the "Two Party-Government-Media complex" will try to remove @realDonaldTrump through the 29th Amendment.

There is no 29th Amendment.

— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) April 10, 2018

xps i am not reassured that the people best situated to "work around" the president now that Kelly has been marginalized are Stephen Miller and John Bolton.

We are in a vastly more dangerous place right now.

Funny/not funny how the "voices of moderation" in this administration belonged to career military men.

I'm more Team Ned than Team Soto on this one. He's a bully but a coward, and above all else favors bluster and indecision over action. He's a conman without a con plan. Is America worse and weaker for his presence? Absolutely. But I don't think he will do any lasting economic or security damage, just psychological damage. Even his cohort, like Scott Pruitt, have in actuality been wildly ineffective at dismantling regulations, and as for Congress? Water carriers they may be, but they have carried absolutely nothing but the tax cut. And per Bolton and Miller, it's hard to be effective if no one likes you.

Yeah if anything Bolton having sit next to Trump yesterday on camera while the latter had his own little breakdown clearly was the best possible punishment in a 'be careful what you wish for' mode. I handwave neither his nor Miller's grotesqueries, but even so.

just psychological damage

don't underestimate that

There is no 29th Amendment.

NOT YET

As for Alfred's point:

That's all true, but I don't worry about the bureaucracy's ability to maintain order so much as a foreign power taking advantage of the headlines.

Think this is already baked in two ways. One, it's clear how he gets his sources of information and everyone knows that well enough by now. Hell, people were pointing it out pretty much right after the inauguration, if not before. Two, well, why wouldn't they? China did a seemingly strange move yesterday by saying "Yeah we can do something about the auto tariffs," etc., which seemingly feels like them giving ground. Might be, but I'm also inclined to read it as "hey, that clown's really fucking occupied by all sorts of things, let's say this, see what happens and if nothing does then go 'Hey, we tried' and let him cave."

I think whatever psychological damage he can do he has done already. The job of the next president will basically be to fumigate and disinfect. And then we can start this whole terrible process over again.

Even his cohort, like Scott Pruitt, have in actuality been wildly ineffective at dismantling regulations

Dunno about that. That New Yorker article published last week was extensive in the roll call of horrible shit he's signed, some of which, it's true, will take years to implement. But I'm not the one sitting next to a dirty river – I'm sitting in a state whose chances of getting swallowed by the Atlantic increase every time one of our shitheel local legislators cites Pruitt and Trump on climate change. That's damage enough.

In line with Anton's 'resignation,' which was a jump-before-pushed deal.

Homeland security adviser Tom Bossert “was pushed out,” multiple White House sources tell @jeffzeleny and @danmericaCNN. Bossert’s departure also caught officials at the National Security council, including those who worked directly with the homeland security adviser, off guard.

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 10, 2018

"But I don't think he will do any lasting economic or security damage, just psychological damage."

He's already signed the tax cut bill, which is already doing lasting economic damage. Elect a Dem & she's have to work hard just to undo that, without even doing anything positive beyond it.

next administration will have to spend 4 years just undoing all of trump's bullshit, administratively and through the courts. by that time the familiar amnesia will settle over the land, and we'll get another celebrity president

josh xxxps I guess I just don't see cowardice as a mitigating or balancing quality to "bullying." If anything it's exacerbating, it encourages lashing out, rashness, unaccountability etc. Personally I found the president's posture yesterday—his arms crossed defensively, practically hugging himself in fear—as concerning as his disjointed speech.

I really am curious as to how/why two of Trump's most eager flacks and bootlickers, Anton and Bossert, have been canned so quickly by Bolton, and with no hint at all that Trump felt anything about it beyond pro forma statements.

(In that it's fairly obvious that Bolton has to be behind those moves.)

"just psychological damage"

every day a fan of BIG COAL is in the white house...

Anyway, apologies to Simon H., but this is a useful thread

Michael Cohen is the most important non-Trump in the Trump business world.

He oversaw nearly all the foreign deals as the Trump Org shifted its focus to sketchy third-tier overseas oligarchs.

1/

— Adam Davidson (@adamdavidson) April 10, 2018

it's so obvious who's gonna play Michael Cohen in the movie pic.twitter.com/vehqXRRHp5

— Tom Medvetz (@tommedvetz) April 9, 2018

haha

aaaaaaaayyyyyyy I'm gonna do disgusting things to you

I'm genuinely torn because at this point I wish him nothing but the absolute worst, but at the same time I really want the wheels of justice to thoroughly crush him before he suffers an endless series of excruciating and yet somehow non-fatal ailments.

pretty confident now that Trump winning the election is going to go down as one of history's greatest self-owns, perhaps next to Trump firing Comey and getting Mueller in the picture

'Subsequent' is doing some intriguing heavy lifting in this tweet.

Due to the FBI raids of Mr. Cohen’s office/home and a subsequent request we received this morning to delay the release of the forensic sketch of the thug that threatened Ms. Clifford to “leave Trump alone”, we will not be releasing the sketch or reward details today. Timing TBD.

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) April 10, 2018

xpost Per his cowardice or posture (literal or figurative), I just don't see current Trump as any different from candidate Trump. Just a shit-talker with no discipline to actually get anything done. Past GOP presidents were effective because they were coldblooded and did not give a fuck (like Mitch and Paul). Trump clearly gives a fuck, but only about himself, which is why he has proven, impressively, again and again his own worst enemy, the creator and incubator of many of his biggest problems. Obviously Trump is not *good*, but he would be so much worse and would have affirmed my initial panic if he was remotely capable of delivering ... well, much of anything beyond flailing vitriol. Clearly this can change, but given congress is essentially waiting the admin out I'm not sure what person, body or power will be able to impose enough discipline to potentiate his innate danger. Like, even Trump, the biggest fan of BIG COAL, he can say that shit all he wants, but coal isn't coming back, mines are still closing, alternative energy sources are still being developed ... maybe he's getting in the way but mostly he's so wildly inefficient on every front - one step forward, one step back, at best - that little he says gains much traction. It's a lot easier to break than build but even as Trump the Destroyer he's been pretty feeble.

Now, his fans - they're a problem. They think he actually *has* been effective, which is baffling, and when he's out of office they will still be there.

he's still got a ways to go if he wants to go down as being a worse president than GWB. maybe his response to Syria will bridge the gap a little.

But they may not have anyone to vote for who they'll consider adequately Trumpian. xp

I guess it depends on what areas of government we're talking about, unfortunately the consolidation of executive powers in recent administrations means an exterior body isn't necessary to potentiate his danger as commander-in-chief

xp don't worry, i'm sure someone will show up to fulfill that particular desire

i saw an article about how millionaire candidates are intentionally/cynically putting on the 'bernie' costume so there will definitely be GOP types who try to do Trump in the future. not sure anyone else can quite match him though

Mark Cuban, blech

The Environmental Protection Agency has spent millions of dollars on security measures for Scott Pruitt, the agency's administrator. In this letter, two Democratic senators say they have obtained an E.P.A. assessment that found no specific credible threats to Mr. Pruitt.

(i'm copying and pasting this from a PDF, so sorry for any typos or mistakes)

EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox was quoted on April 6 as saying the Administrator and his family have faced an "unprecedented" number of death threats, a statement that was amplified the following day by President Trump who stated that "Scott Pruitt has received death threats because of his bold actions at EPA." In its March 21, 2018 response to a February 15, 2018 letter from Senators Torn Carper and Gary Peters about the Administrator's first-class flights, EPA wrote that its Protective Security Detail (PSD) "has identified specific, ongoing threats associated with the Administrator's air travel" and has relied on assessments from EPA's Office of Inspector General (EPA OIG) that the Administrator is facing more security threats than his predecessor. These assertions do not appear to be consistent with the non-public EPA documents we have obtained and enclose here.

For example, one document we are providing to you is an October 17, 2017 memorandum from William Stull, Special Agent on the Administrator's PSD, to Pasquale Nino Perrotta, the PSD's Special Agent in Charge. The memo purports to summarize available threat information regarding Administrator Pruitt, claiming that the EPA OIG data showed 16 threats directed against the Administrator, a 400% increase over threats in the previous fiscal year against then-EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. A closer look at the description of many of these threats cast doubt that they appropriately justify the kinds of security measures Mr. Pruitt has sought, as they include:

• Protestors attempting to disrupt a speech given by Mr. Pruitt at a closed event.
• A social media post in which an individual "stated he is not happy with some of the Administrator's policies and wanted to express his displeasure."
• A postcard sent to the Administrator stating "CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL!!! We are watching you. For the sake of our planet, our children & our grandchildren, will you be a reasonable man? I repeat, we are watching you!"
• An email stating: "Hi, I am considering dumping the old paint I just scraped off of my home outside your office door on Tuesday.'
• A letter addressed to the Administrator that did not include "overt threatening language" from an incarcerated individual.

Notably, none of the incidents listed in this report concerned air travel and the only threat to Administrator Pruitt currently being prosecuted by a United States Attorney's office was a threat made to him and his predecessor Gina McCarthy.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/04/10/climate/document-Pruitt-EPA-Security-Spending.html

• An email stating: "Hi, I am considering dumping the old paint I just scraped off of my home outside your office door on Tuesday.'

I just received a death threat from Ted Nugent; where's my security detail?

Here we go

SCOOP: Rod Rosenstein, the deputy AG, personally approved the raid of Michael Cohen’s office and hotel room. My story with @mattapuzzo and @adamgoldmanNYT https://t.co/L6b02Dkwqf

— Michael D. Shear (@shearm) April 10, 2018

okay, fun!

But backtracking slightly I'm sure that there's a diehard red-hatter somewhere preparing reams of fake Pruitt death threats to give the President rhetorical cover.

If then, in a goofy mixup, he actually gets arrested... there's yr surefire feelgood movie pitch of the day. It's like that Wood Allen movie only sadder.

it will be interesting to see how deep into AG line of succession Trump will have to go to stop investigation

more BREAKING:

WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. agents who raided the office of President Trump’s personal lawyer on Monday were looking for records about payments to two women who claim they had affairs with Mr. Trump, and information related to the publisher of The National Enquirer’s role in silencing one of the women, several people briefed on he investigation said.

The involvement of Mr. Rosenstein and top prosecutors in New York in the raid of Mr. Cohen’s office makes it harder for Mr. Trump to argue that his legal problems are the result of a witch hunt led by Mr. Mueller. In addition to Mr. Rosenstein, all of the top law enforcement officials involved in the raid are Republicans: Mr. Mueller, Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. Director, and Geoffrey Berman, the interim United States attorney in New York.

somehow i think trump will continue to believe that it's a witch hunt WITCH HUNT

duh, they may be Republicans but they're swamp creatures, not #MAGAphiles.

That's the problem--They're Republicans, yet they're mean to Trump: CONFLICTED

what i can't get over is how unfairly he has been treated throughout all of this

Look, life is unfair. Sometimes your dad only gives you a few million dollars to get up and running.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzDu5Db_b7Q

Slightly off-topic but Jay Nixon and Cynthia Nixon are muddying the term "Nixonian."

SCOOP: ABC News has learned Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is recused from the Michael Cohen investigation. He had no role in raid of Cohen's office. Another recusal that will make @realDonaldTrump unhappy.

— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) April 10, 2018

So weird how thing president's appointees don't want to be involved in investigating this president.

It's almost as if they're... conflicted.

I meant to write this / this not thing/this btw

Though in time I might warm to the moniker "Thing President"

Whoops

Fed­eral pros­e­cu­tors in New York have asked the Trump Or­ga­ni­za­tion for records re­lat­ing to the 30,000 Stormy Daniels payment, a per­son fa­mil­iar with the mat­ter tells WSJ. https://t.co/4rsoeuvOBR

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 10, 2018

can't we just get Trump to agree to meet with Mueller, convince him that the meeting is in Finland, have him fly there, then not let him back into the country?

They should invite him down an alley, GoodFellas-style:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ozLROB32K0

I like "thing president". As if a mad scientist reanimated a corpse with a pile of garbage for a head and made it wear a tie.

xposts

Useful piece (this is the Popehat guy revising his blog post yesterday a bit, a couple of outdated piece of info but otherwise a solid overview, with this conclusion):

A federal criminal defense lawyer’s favorite advice, delivered with varying degrees of diplomacy and accompanying obscenities, is “shut up.” Mr. Cohen would not be the first person to ignore such advice, nor the first person to talk himself into trouble. Many of the people Mr. Mueller has snared to date have fallen into that category, finding themselves charged for lying to the investigative team.

But consider this: The Stormy Daniels payout may be outside the scope of the Russia investigation, but it’s possible that Mr. Cohen’s records are full of materials that are squarely within that scope. And the law is clear: If investigators executing a lawful warrant seize evidence of additional crimes, they may use that evidence. Thus Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen, with their catastrophically clumsy handling of the Daniels affair, may have handed Mr. Mueller devastating evidence.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/10/opinion/trump-michael-cohen-fbi-raid.html

yep. trump has so many scandals surrounding him (and likely directly involving him, in some cases), it must have been a struggle for mueller's team to choose the most promising one to exploit

pic.twitter.com/vzlCRsrnyD

— Hannah Barbarendt (@Hegelbon) April 10, 2018

Yeah, learning a bit about clean teams and taint teams or whatever, it's possible that Mueller, knowing the limits of his powers and the power of attorney-client privilege, punted this to NY as his "clean" team. And then, if they clean team finds evidence or info that falls within Mueller's purview and outside of the realm of attorney-client privilege, then they can send it back to the special council to use.

it is my honor and privilege to finally get to ask, "what is the difference between a clean team and a taint team?"

the clean team would be the one that wasn't on the trump team's radar? and/or clean because it would be a state case and thus beyond trump's pardon power?

clean, taint, trump

"Alex, what is 'words I don't ever want to have to see together'"

taint no sin

btw u all are wrong stanley tucci needs to play michael cohen, the converse of his mitch garabedian

I think they could get Droopy Dog to play him.

watching this zuck hearing, man fuck all these grandstanders they are all assholes, fuck zuck btw too

NOW: President Trump “certainly believes he has the power“ to fire Robert Mueller, Sarah Sanders says.

— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) April 10, 2018

someone needs to tell him he has the power to fly, too.

she's not adding her own commentary to any of the things she's attributing to Trump re: Mueller. Very much sounds like she's keeping her distance solely on those things and doing his bidding on the rest.

that's how the press secretary always speaks.

taint misbehavin'

lol

Reporter:Has the president at any time thought about stepping down before or now?
Sarah Sanders: "No and I think that's an absolutely ridiculous question." https://t.co/HHDpY4Qs7O

— Veronica Rocha (@VeronicaRochaLA) April 10, 2018

chuck grassley retire

i think the preferred form is 'chuck grassley retire bitch' fyi

grasslexit

split screen nightmare somebody wake me up I can't wake up

beautiful Sanders expression

http://tolkiengateway.net/w/images/9/9d/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_-_The_Fellowship_of_the_Ring_-_Everard_Proudfoot.png

supposedly the President has been informed he has the authority himself to fire Mueller, meaning it's not that she is saying he has the power to ask Rosenstein to do it, but can carry it out himself.

proving once again he has the shittiest counsel on the planet.

Being yelled at for hours by a bunch of old skeletons who do not understand "the computer" is not quite the hell Zuckerberg deserves, but it's a suburb of it for sure

— Waikiki Wanda (@bulkUSBchargers) April 10, 2018

haha

Ha, was just coming here to link that

Wonder if Zuck's giving them the ol' "you have part of my attention - the minimum amount" treatment.

BINGOOOOOO https://t.co/zK038khTb0 pic.twitter.com/PjiTnMLCH2

— Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) April 10, 2018

he just said "facebook does not sell users' data" too

hey Donnie, can you see what I'm mouthing to you?

: Fox News Radio reporter: Trump mouthed ‘thank you’ for question about firing Mueller https://t.co/XfXcfKNm2B by @ErikWemple Good grief

— Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) April 10, 2018

By my calculations, in 2042, Logan Paul will be the president of the United States.

For fun!

.@KatyTurNBC just reported on MSNBC that multiple sources familiar with the proceedings tell NBC News that Stormy Daniels is cooperating with federal investigators probing the 2016 non-disclosure agreement and 30,000 payment she received from Michael Cohen.

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 10, 2018

Ha, inevitable.

Some news - Dershowitz has been at the White House for part of today as Trump seeks his input, and he’s supposed to have dinner with the president tonight, per WH sources

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 10, 2018

Oh, to be a fly on one of the president's five scoops of ice cream

The Social Network 2 is gonna be great

This chorus is my suggestion for next month's thread title, mostly because I'm in a weird mood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQMlWwIXg3M

Oh that wacky Nunes