Trump's America, March 2017: Using His Inside VOICE

xxxpost It's all relative. Half of the federal government would've already been sent to the gallows in a different era but nowadays colluding with a hostile foreign government is just a thing people do, y'know?

It makes sense that Spicer would say those things with that level of vociferousness. When you've put all of your chips on the hand that's holding five aces, why, it's an absolute outrage that anyone would even suggest that anyone's cheating and of course you can't look at my cards! For shaaaaame!

"The message that Sessions should not recuse himself from the investigation, according to Spicer, comes straight from President Trump," Fox correspondent John Roberts added.

I should start making a point of watching his press conferences so I can see the moment when reality washes over him and he resigns in mid-sentence.

^more suggestion that there's really something there. Trump needs Sessions to thwart any investigation

xpost

They can't give up Sessions because he's the only one in the White House who can read and write.

lol this Cillizza headline Jeff Sessions is in deep trouble. Bigly.

Lol partisan politics. Most of the calls to recuse are from Republicans. We want him to resign. Get it right

the interesting thing about resignation is that it answers the question of recusal definitively. seems like a win/win

So much for new Trump.

Ryan calling for recusal and Rubio strongly hinting at at least that on NPR this morning

Ryan also defended him tho

"treason" still makes me lol. oh u CIA Dems

Interior Secy rode horse to work:

https://twitter.com/byrdinator/status/837306196415688704

i swear 50% of politicians are cosplay dorks

It's probably so he can write off his stable fees as a business expense.

sooner or later it becomes hard to stay in an executive position if your entire org thinks you might be guilty of treason

what if they do but won't say it publicly

so apparently Ryan did not call for recusal in Trump-Russia DoJ investigation. He only said that recusal is required if Sessions himself is the subject of investigation

Well, per WSJ, Sessions is the subject of investigation.

tbf to ryan he probably didn't have time to read all 5 or so of the big headlines last night, he's busy obfuscating a healthcare swindle after all

McCarthy walking back his comments too - tho tbh I expect them to cave on this fairly soon

long series of tweets this morning from David Frum (I've put them in paragraph form)

“Sessions story today is a sinister confirmation of central thesis of my autocracy article. Donald Trump is a uniquely dangerous president because he harbors so many guilty secrets (or maybe one big guilty secret). In order to protect himself, Trump must attack American norms and institutions - otherwise he faces fathomless legal risk. In turn, in order to protect their legally vulnerable leader, Republicans in Congress must join the attack on norms & institutions. Otherwise, they put at risk party hopes for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to remake US government in ways not very popular with voters.

American institutions are built to withstand an attack from the president alone. But … they are not so well-built as to withstand an attack from a conscienceless president enabled by a hyper-partisan Congress. The peculiar grim irony in this case is that somewhere near the center of Trump’s story is the murky secret of Trump’s Russia connection. Meaning that Trump is rendering his party also complicit in what could well prove … the biggest espionage scandal since the Rosenberg group stole the secret of the atomic bomb. And possibly even bigger. We won’t know if we don’t look.

Despite patriotic statements from individual GOPers, as of now it seems that Speaker Ryan & Leader McConnell agree: no looking. So many in DC serenely promise that “checks and balances” will save us. But right now: there is no check and no balance. Only brave individuals in national security roles sharing truth with news organizations. But those individuals can be found & silenced. What then? We take it too much for granted that the president must lose this struggle. The “oh he’s normal now” relief of so many to Trump’s Feb 28 speech revealed how ready DC is to succumb to dealmaking as usual.

As DC goes numb, citizen apathy accumulates …GOP members of Congress decide they have more to fear from enforcing law against the president than from ignoring law with the president. And those of us who care disappear down rabbit holes debating whether Sessions’ false testimony amounts to perjury or not. Meanwhile job market strong, stock market is up, immigration enforcement is popular.

I’m not counseling despair here. I don’t feel despair. Only: nobody else will save the country if you don’t act yourself.”

good lord, how many tweets was that spread across?

"there's got to be a better way"

(weird world, but) Frum otm

the biggest espionage scandal since the Rosenberg group stole the secret of the atomic bomb. And possibly even bigger.

ohChristAlfuckingMighty

lol

Frum is sensible to be worried in just this way. This is why slacking off the protests and phone calls is not an acceptable option. The heat needs to stay on Congress at record temperatures.

yes -several times i have half-typed and erased the thought that there should be waves of massive protests going on right now, women's march levels. there's a new reason to do it nearly every week. there is a big climate march coming up at the end of april (https://peoplesclimate.org/), which is great, but the relative silence in the streets right now is disheartening.

dude this *just happened* it takes time to mobilize millions of people on the same day

oh, i meant over the last several weeks. basically every weekend since the women's march! the current sessions thing is bad but no worse than the fact that he was appointed in the first place, as djp mentioned earlier. same with devos, pruitt, etc. the muslim ban prompted protests but only for the day or two before the courts stepped in.

the muslim ban prompted protests but only for the day or two before the courts stepped in.

this is not accurate

i was just at a rally in NYC on presidents day. it was well attended

wanna donate to that peoplesclimate thing but a little wary of entering my credit card info is that being paranoid

alright, i was mistaken, the people are in the streets everywhere. i was wondering what that fuss was out on my sidewalk but my window is all the way over there

Good roundup here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/03/02/daily-202-trump-s-russia-headache-gets-worse-as-sessions-struggles-to-spin-undisclosed-meetings/58b745cae9b69b1406c75d1b/

lol

"I never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign," he said in a statement. "I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false."

I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false.
I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false.
I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/schiff-doj-235615

to discuss issues of the campaign

"Hello, Mr. Ambassador. I asked to meet with you today to get your opinion on how many 30 second spots to run in South Florida in October, and while we're at it, what do you think is the best approach to taking Pennsylvania's Third District?"

Haha http://www.vox.com/2017/3/2/14792196/gop-obamacare-bill-search

alright, i was mistaken, the people are in the streets everywhere. i was wondering what that fuss was out on my sidewalk but my window is all the way over there

I meant that protests lasted longer than "one or two days" - the court decision(s) didn't come that quickly and protests persisted up until it was struck down by the 9th circuit. The order was issued on Jan 27th, the TRO wasn't issued until February 3rd, and the Circuit Court ruling didn't come until Feb 9th. There were nationwide protests all through that time period.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_protests_against_Executive_Order_13769

to discuss issues of the campaign

Oh, THAT campaign. I thought you meant the campaign to KILL MOOSE AND SQUIRREL

I guess I shouldn't say "struck down" (since it wasn't) but you know what I mean, the 9th circuit upheld the restraining order and basically killed its implementation.

xp

lol YMP

I didn't not didn't have communications with the Russians. triple negative, liberals, sorry, J-Sesh is clean!

So Caterpillar was raided by irs and FBI this morning. Supposed suspicious movement of funds between foreign subsidies including russia

subsidiaries*

sessions really doubling down on this being 'false', so either he's just very very committed to lying, or maybe the justice department and intelligence are trying to tank him

can't it be both

Morbz is this what living through Watergate was like cuz man, parallels seem eerie w so many potential rabbit holes/threads...

But there's total confidence don't you know

https://twitter.com/AP/status/837378370451222528