Trump

[Oniya]

Running down some information on how Trump's own grandiosity caused the talks to break down.  In the mean-time:

We had to extract a top-level spy in 2017 because Trump can't stop talking.  When I say top level, I meantop level:

According to CNN's sources, the spy had access to Putin and could even provide images of documents on the Russian leader's desk.

Note that this asset had been in position for several years - which includes the time covered by the Mueller Report's investigation into Russian interference in the US Presidential election.

And, in the latest 'Trump makes a dick-move' news,  Bahamian refugees were told to get off of an evacuation ferry because they didn't have visas.  (If you want a contemporaneous source, the tweet-thread by journalist Brian Entin linked in the article has video through a large portion.)  Trump doubled down on this, talking about 'very bad people and some very bad gang members and some very very bad drug dealers' that could possibly be among the refugees.  Where have we heard that line before?

(Plot twist, one of the documents that many of the refugees carried was a copy of their clean, official police record.

[TheGlyphstone]

What's the running count on Trump cabinet firings up to?

[Oniya]

I know Rachel Maddow has had to add a second wall to keep the list legible... 



That was in May, though.

[TheGlyphstone]

Has anyone compiled a comparative list for Obama and/or Bush II?

[Sara Nilsson]

Has anyone compiled a comparative list for Obama and/or Bush II?

https://www.brookings.edu/research/tracking-turnover-in-the-trump-administration/

[legomaster00156]

Posted in the wrong thread by mistake. In the Cabinet of 23, only 8 Cabinet secretaries have been serving from the start. This ignores that some positions have been through several hands, and also ignores any acting secretaries and non-Cabinet positions.

[Oniya]

https://www.newsandguts.com/the-hill-house-judiciary-committee-broadens-its-power-to-investigate-trump/

They have passed the procedures.  We are now in the impeachment investigation.

“This committee is engaged in an investigation that will allow us to determine whether to recommend articles of impeachment,” he said adding that “there’s no legal difference” between the terms “impeachment inquiry” and “impeachment investigation.”

[Oniya]

If anyone wants to watch the first impeachment hearing where Corey Lewandowski is going to testify, here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cYufJsEDAU

[Tolvo]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/17/climate/trump-california-emissions-waiver.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

Trump is going to revoke the right of the state California to determine its own Auto Emissions rules.

[Deamonbane]

Isn't interfering with states rights frowned upon?

[Sara Nilsson]

Isn't interfering with states rights frowned upon?

something something libtard, something communist. He is your president! MAGA.

Or something like that. I stopped expecting logic from these people.

[Skynet]

Isn't interfering with states rights frowned upon?

When George Wallace gave his infamous "segregation forever" speech, he regretted it afterwards. He believed it would've been far more effective if he replaced 'segregation' with 'states rights.'

[Oniya]

I seem to remember someone else using 'states' rights' as a reason to stand up to the President at one point.  Who was that?  Someone in the South...


Anyways.  Lewandowski has spent the day 'respecting Trump's assertion of executive privilege' (which shouldn't apply to Trump's interactions with a private citizen); the Republicans have spent the day asking about 'Russian collusion' (in a hearing about 'obstruction of justice and the abuse of powers'); and the Dems have just been collecting more evidence of obstruction through the fact that Lewandowski is soft-blaming Trump for the fact that he won't answer questions.

Next hearing, on the 23rd, is going to be on emoluments.

[Callie Del Noire]

Isn't interfering with states rights frowned upon?

Only if it’s in the GOPs interest. If it’s something the party at large dislikes.. well that is totally different.

[Various]

Pile of garbage whose methane emissions barely mimic human speech, Donald Trump, said recently: “We have people living in our … best highways, our best streets, our best entrances to buildings ... where people in those buildings pay tremendous taxes, where they went to those locations because of the prestige[.] In many cases, they came from other countries and they moved to Los Angeles or they moved to San Francisco because of the prestige of the city, and all of a sudden they have tents. Hundreds and hundreds of tents and people living at the entrance to their office building. And they want to leave. And the people of San Francisco are fed up, and the people of Los Angeles are fed up.”

See, the problem with homelessness is that those wealthy enough to afford homes have to look at those walking eyesores, many of them (in his mind foreign). How will the 'least of these brothers and sisters of mine' crowd bend over backwards to excuse the wide gulf between the man they worship and the man they claim to profess? Let's watch!

[Deamonbane]

In other news, Trump needs to be told by Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, Army chief of engineers, not to discuss sensitive information while being recorded:

https://twitter.com/ScottMStedman/status/1174450157925982208

Best comment: This man was left alone with a former KGB agent for TWO HOURS....

[Oniya]

And there's a whistleblower report that the House is having to subpoena the DNI to get hold of - regarding a 'promise' that Trump made on the phone to a 'foreign leader'.

And of course the White House doesn't want that report looked into.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/19/politics/white-house-justice-department-dni-whistleblower/index.html

[Shivery]

Honestly, I never recovered from "I know words, I have the best words."

[Tolvo]

https://twitter.com/axios/status/1174855025048375296

Rudy Guliani on CNN denied asking Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden. Then followed up explaining he did, he was said "So you did ask them to investigate Joe Biden?" Rudy said "Of course I did!" When it was brought up he just lied and gave contradictory answers he said he never asked them, then carried on to say he did. When he was told this he kept denying he said these things seconds prior despite being recorded on video and being broadcast on TV.

[Oniya]

So - that makes recorded evidence that someone associated with Trump asked a foreign government to investigate another candidate.  Literally asked a foreign government to interfere with an election.

In my dark fantasies, I'd want that 15-second clip broadcast on a loop on every single White House screen.  His television, his unsecured cell phone, his desktop computer...  Maybe flash the word 'treason' for two frames in between repeats.

[Tolvo]

https://twitter.com/JasonSCampbell/status/1174860545859751937
I'm trying to find the full interview but CNN seemingly has cut it up into clips which is a bit annoying. But that meltdown by Rudy gets even worse. He said he'd be willing to share the truth and information with anyone, mentioned how he believes there should be no secrets and would share information with anyone who wants to see it but then says he won't with CNN as they are the enemy. He actually used the word enemy live on air. He even when told to "I hope you have a good night" replies "You shouldn't have a good night." It's just such a weird meltdown I don't know how the man can hold out in any public office without pissing his pants everywhere he goes in anger at every slight.

[Oniya]

Someone had a theory on that - the bizarre meltdowns make more sense when you look at it like a pro-wrestling tactic.  Sometimes, in a tag-team, you have the one guy that's always riling things up in the 'can you believe what he did?!' sort of way, keeping your attention away from the other guy.  Right now, everyone's talking about Rudy, and not as much about Trump.  Based on relative cognitive ability, I'm betting this is Rudy's plan (not Trump's) because Rudy knows who butters his bread.

[Orval Wintermute]

Someone had a theory on that - the bizarre meltdowns make more sense when you look at it like a pro-wrestling tactic.

Odd you should mention pro-wrestling, there was last year during which Ed Balls interviewed pro-wrestlers who said Trump's shtick is straight out of the squared circle.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/25/ed-balls-leotard-travels-in-trumpland

Sometimes, in a tag-team, you have the one guy that's always riling things up in the 'can you believe what he did?!' sort of way, keeping your attention away from the other guy.  Right now, everyone's talking about Rudy, and not as much about Trump.  Based on relative cognitive ability, I'm betting this is Rudy's plan (not Trump's) because Rudy knows who butters his bread.

Rudy seems to pulling the "dead cat strategy", a phrase that seems to have got more traction after a certain Boris Johnson used it.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/9906445/This-cap-on-bankers-bonuses-is-like-a-dead-cat-pure-distraction.html

[TheGlyphstone]

Or just reality TV in general. We like to rightfully mock Trump's intellect, but don't forget he hosted a reality TV show. That sort of distracting drama fakeout is a tactic he can understand and endorse, even if we figure Rudi thought of it.

[Oniya]

Odd you should mention pro-wrestling, there was last year during which Ed Balls interviewed pro-wrestlers who said Trump's shtick is straight out of the squared circle.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/25/ed-balls-leotard-travels-in-trumpland

Rudy seems to pulling the "dead cat strategy", a phrase that seems to have got more traction after a certain Boris Johnson used it.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/9906445/This-cap-on-bankers-bonuses-is-like-a-dead-cat-pure-distraction.html

I picked up the wrestling thing from a thread on Twitter, where the guy cast Rudy as a 'heater' - which I then looked up and tried to translate for a more general audience.  (Yes, I used to follow pro wrestling.  Athletic men in spandex - whufff...)

Or just reality TV in general. We like to rightfully mock Trump's intellect, but don't forget he hosted a reality TV show. That sort of distracting drama fakeout is a tactic he can understand and endorse, even if we figure Rudi thought of it.

He hosted 'The Apprentice', but he wasn't the brains behind that either.  Mark Burnett was the 'idea man' there, and Trump was more or less an actor.  Similarly, Trump has been involved in kayfabe before - he did the 'Battle of the Billionaires' match with Vince McMahon (Vince, predictably, lost - the penalty was that he got his head shaved.)