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

Maybe! Or we may never find out.

LOL"

Although Trump provided no information that he may have been monitored, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) stated that the president may want to lawyer up.

“Mr. President: If there was a wiretap at Trump Tower, that means a fed judge found probable cause of crime which means you are in deep shit,” Lieu wrote. After providing a link to a Washington Post article on Trump’s tweets and the fallout, Lieu took it a step further.

“Either @realDonaldTrump is paranoid like Nixon, or judge found probable cause of crime for #wiretap. Either way our President is in trouble,” he wrote.

More LOL:

Author Stephen King on Saturday jokingly turned President Trump's tweets accusing his predecessor Barack Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower into a short story using a series of tweets.

"Not only did Obama tap Trump's phones, he stole the strawberry ice cream out of the mess locker," King tweeted.

"Obama tapped Trump's phones IN PERSON! Went in wearing a Con Ed coverall. Michelle stood guard while O spliced the lines. SAD!" King continued.

"Trump should know OBAMA NEVER LEFT THE WHITE HOUSE! He's in the closet! HE HAS SCISSORS!" King wrote.

Gannon, Griebus & Grump.

Revising party platform seems to be weirdly beyond mere interference in the election itself, though it is an action within the election process. It's so strange as a procedural step I'm not sure what the objective of that step even was. Why bother to do it? To curry favor with Russian "investors"? To demonstrate allegiance to Putin? It wasn't to sway voters. Is that really the kind of tomfoolery Russian "investors" request, though? Xp

The platform was revised to match that of Obama - that the US would provide intelligence and non-lethal military hardware but stop short of lethal aid.

I don't think it's remotely implausible that someone from the Russian government discussed it with someone from the Trump team but the nature of that discussion could quite easily have been along the lines of 'if you come into power promising to give weapons to Ukrainian militias, Russia won't cooperate with you in Syria' or something similar. It is hard to see Trump being so wedded to the idea of being more actively involved in Ukraine than Obama it would take bribery or corruption to get him to change the platform.

He was running as a Republican. It was the only platform issue his campaign took a strong interest in. You make it sound as if it wasn't even newsworthy at the time:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trump-campaign-guts-gops-anti-russia-stance-on-ukraine/2016/07/18/98adb3b0-4cf3-11e6-a7d8-13d06b37f256_story.html

The point isn't that it couldn't have been changed with the influence of the Russian government, or pro-Russia Trump insiders like Flynn - more that whatever notional quid pro quo that might have been offered wouldn't have to have been illegal or directly related to the election.

it'd be kinda hilarious if the reason Trump is acting like this is not because Russia leads anywhere but because he did this other unrelated horrible thing nobody knows about yet and he doesn't want anybody to find out about THAT

"would you quit focusing on Russia, guys? I actually am running a Ponzi scheme, nobody is talking about this!"

i would not be surprised if we eventually find out that the russians hacking into the DNC informed the trump campaign about email secrets like the clinton campaign's monumentally stupid decision to take wisconsin and michigan for granted. the deftness of the trump campaign has thus far been nowhere evident in the trump administration

it'd be kinda hilarious if the reason Trump is acting like this is not because Russia leads anywhere but because he did this other unrelated horrible thing nobody knows about yet and he doesn't want anybody to find out about THAT

This is what my mom thinks is going on.

he probably runs a child slavery ring out of Mar-a-Lago

Jeff Sessions just looks like a baby-faced child, he's actually adult-aged

baby-faced child w/ Perot ears

He and Flynn both look like leprechauns, Flynn a demonic one and Sessions a seemingly more benign one

so Trump really wants an investigation of Obama based on something he read in Breitbart with no supporting evidence, and doesn't want an investigation of Russia despite there actually being evidence of meddling in that case.

idiots like Ben Sasse taking up this cause make me want to put my shoe through a window.

just so fucking tired of feeling angry, scared, and exasperated

not to defend him, but I don't think that's what Sasse is doing

I spoke too soon on Sasse because the way it was framed in the news report was misleading until I played the video clip.

what he said was more similar to Lindsey Graham which to be honest was reasonable.

actually the most reassuring thing to me is that there aren't more Republicans yelling OMG INVESTIGATE more than "ooooooooook, uhh, wanna give us some details or something"

yeah benghazi-ing obama on this would be such a base win for trump, i don't see how they _don't_ really try to make it happen. until aliens attack earth and unify humanity, i don't anything that can stop that as the new primary beetbort objective.

until aliens attack earth and unify humanity

oh for Ozymandias right now

Still think that Trump Inc's. Russia connections and possible tomfoolery are real but separate from Russian interference in the election, but the Russian interference in the election and in particular Trump's surprise win have inextricably connected the two. Hence Trump's frustration.

I'd buy this and until recently I was sure this was the case, but then why all these weird little communications between his administration/campaign and the Russians, and why does the admin continue to lie about it until they can't anymore?

I don't believe that Trump's frustration is a result of him knowing he's been treated unfairly - he reacted like this when people kept attacking the obvious scam that was Trump University. I honestly don't think he knows the difference between right and wrong, legal and illegal.

speaking of horrors: Thomas Friedman is still alive.

Because his administration and campaign are populated by independently wealthy and scheming business people who probably had their own personal connections to Russia, people who would be back channel communicating with Russia no matter what. But when Trump won they suddenly came on board with him, and all their independent and individual sneakiness became Collective and subject to public scrutiny.

Xpost

Sessions and Flynn? That would be surprising to me.

let's say it was confirmed that Trump campaign had established a quid-pro-quo w/ Russia that they would leak hacked DNC & Clinton campaign emails in exchange for removing sanctions. what's the probability of Trump actually being impeached?

Zero

"hey boris, you've made a really smart investment here..."

"da i think this will be very good for business, to cripple ukraine, end nato, and capture squirrel!"

"hey guys, we all know the climate's changing. let's cash in on these new oil fields open to us now in the russian arctic"

"but that means we'd have to get the feds to lift sanctions. what can we do about that?"

"hey, i know a guy"

I think Trump honestly believes there were 3 million illegal votes and that he won the popular vote and the greatest electoral college margin in history solely by the power of his own charisma and excellent deal-making.

I think Trump lacks phenomenal experience

wh now calling for congressional investigation into potential abuses of power by the Obama administration related to the purported wiretaps (also hilariously declining to comment further). if wiretaps existed, have to think this will bring up whatever evidence was there to obtain the FISA warrant in the first place and if the wiretaps didn't exist then presumably this would be determined as a result of the investigation. either way, this doesnt seem like the smartest play.

also seems likely Congress doesn't investigate at all BC the Wh hasn't presented any evidence to support their claims so, why waste the time?

the events of the last week have really been damaging to the 5D chess narrative some still cling to, is basically what im coming to. the wh doesn't seem to really have things under control at the moment

Overview of the DoJ and their likely white supremacist schemes. Probably old news, but the most surprising bit to me was the revelation that Bannon and Sessions (and Miller) went back a ways.

Both Susan Collins and Tom Cotton (Senate Intel members) said this morning "We've seen no evidence at all" and are pretty much saying the WH has to give it up if it exists. Also on the roffle front: Mike Rogers, former House Intel chairman as well as Trump transition guy -- much like, say, Nunes, said this:

"(Trump) just put another quarter in the conspiracy parking meter."

wh now calling for congressional investigation into potential abuses of power by the Obama administration

Will this come before or after the investigation into voter fraud? Or before or after Melania's anti-bullying measures?

let's say it was confirmed that Trump campaign had established a quid-pro-quo w/ Russia that they would leak hacked DNC & Clinton campaign emails in exchange for removing sanctions. what's the probability of Trump actually being impeached?

― flopson, Sunday, March 5, 2017 9:56 AM (twenty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Zero

― Οὖτις, Sunday, March 5, 2017 9:57 AM (twenty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

if this were actually demonstrated in the public record they would have to impeach him, especially if it were also demonstrated the pence was somehow blameless

i don't have a lot of confidence in a republican controlled congress but a quid pro quo that involved election tampering would be tough to wave off

This is a guy who was about to call for a nationwide recount to prove he won the popular vote, until McConnell talked him down. Now he wants to go on the road, leave all the staff behind and make his own decisions.
More Popcorn.gif

oh good -- another week distracting the Congress from ACA repeal and a budget.

“Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling,” Spicer said. “President Donald J. Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016.”

Hold up, if Trump demands an investigation into Trump Tower wiretapping, then ... doesn't he invite congressional investigators to expand their search to include Trump, his staff, their phone records, etc?

all part of the fiendish 5D chess plan, man...

More like Monopoly:
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/monopoly/images/9/95/Chance_go_to_jail.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20121122151318

another week distracting the Congress from ACA repeal and a budget.

OTM this is exactly what I've been saying to ppl myself

Despite the distractions, it looks like wh and congress are starting to coalesce around a health care plan. Whether it can pass is another question, but I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing this move forward faster.

Thats the one thing i worry about with a President Pence. Less distraction from passing shitty legislation.

Even that would be better than the utter disaster we are facing right now