US Politics January 2018: "You All Just Got A Lot Richer"

"POTUS pulled into Trump International Golf Club at approximately 8:51 am."

http://publicpool.kinja.com/subject-pool-report-no-1-happy-2018-1821689279

"Because POTUS started his day at Mar-a-Lago, the NBC News tracker tells your pooler this is his 117th day at a Trump property as president. It is also his 91st day at a golf club as president."

he better have a wicked short game by now

one of the best thread titles

an index of "enemy" behavior super-relevant to digital discourse to be on the lookout for in 2018

https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/12/29/5-things-emboldened-far-right-trolls-2017/218935

I use Social Media not because I like to, but because it is the only way to fight a VERY dishonest and unfair “press,” now often referred to as Fake News Media. Phony and non-existent “sources” are being used more often than ever. Many stories & reports a pure fiction!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2017

i also enjoyed his proclamation that stocks would have dropped 50% if hillary had been elected, a figure presumably sourced from his alternate self of earth-2

a transdimensional council of infinite Trumps *would* explain how he can square citing the opinions of "many people" with the overriding and indelible fact that he is the only person in the universe

one of the best thread titles

Yes--file away "Many stories & reports a pure fiction!" for possible future use.

a transdimensional council of infinite Trumps *would* explain how he can square citing the opinions of "many people" with the overriding and indelible fact that he is the only person in the universe

this is a good read to start off the new year:

https://lawfareblog.com/why-trumps-war-deep-state-failing%E2%80%94so-far

it looks at trump's attack on institutions in his first year, and finds that for the most part, they've held up.

...A number of factors have contributed to the edifice’s relative durability in the face of Trump’s personality and overt aspirations.

The first is that Trump has been checked more effectively by institutional constraints than many commentators acknowledge. Jack Goldsmith has made this point repeatedly—and he is clearly correct. Congress, which has enabled Trump in many respects and been lackadaisical about confronting his worst predations, has nonetheless checked him in other ways. The Senate intelligence committee’s Russia investigation has been a serious undertaking, and the legislature really boxed in the president with the sanctions legislation it passed last year. Sessions is still attorney general because Republican senators made clear that they wouldn’t tolerate his removal. And while support for Mueller on Capitol Hill has ebbed of late, when Trump made noises about firing him over the summer senators of both parties reacted strongly. (Trump has more recently disclaimed any intention of removing Mueller.) Some of us would like Congress to do a great deal more than it is in the way of protecting institutions, but it’s important to appreciate that it has not, in fact, done nothing.

More robust responses have come from the courts, the press and the bureaucracy. The ever-present factor of Trump’s unpopularity with the public—and the resulting political mobilization of forces to oppose him—has further reduced his room to maneuver.

the legislature really boxed in the president with the sanctions legislation it passed last year.

But he never did what they compelled him to do, did he?

it blocked his quid to Putin's pro quo

a fine example of congressional quidblock, if you will

ha

The first few weeks of the Trump administration raised the question of the degree to which Trump’s malevolence would be tempered by his incompetence. In the first year of the Trump presidency, the answer to that question was that incompetence did a lot of tempering.

TAX BILL: Trump’s legislation includes provision that makes it harder for all future presidents to eliminate a multibillion-dollar tax loophole that enriches Trump’s top adviser & the former Wall St firms of Trump’s top aides https://t.co/X3zVlBmJhj

— David Sirota (@davidsirota) January 1, 2018

a little New Year cheer

In private meetings:

Trump keeps asking for tariffs — on steel and aluminum, in particular. He wants a trade war, and has for many years. His economic and diplomatic advisers persuaded him to delay trade actions in 2017.

Those advisers recognize that the day of reckoning will come in 2018, regardless of whether economic adviser Gary Cohn and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson — who advocated restraint — stay or go.

Cohn and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin successfully persuaded Trump not to do anything rash while tax reform was being negotiated.
Trump also saw the advantage of trying to use that as leverage with China to get help on North Korea. He said yesterday in an interview with the N.Y Times: "China's hurting us very badly on trade, but I have been soft on China because the only thing more important to me than trade is war. O.K.?"

And he tweeted yesterday, in response to Chinese ships secretly delivering oil to North Korea: "Caught RED HANDED - very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea. There will never be a friendly solution to the North Korea problem if this continues to happen!"

NEW: Look for Trump to take action on trade in the next month. It probably won't be next week, so as not to disrupt the afterglow of the tax cut. But nothing is final.

Trump still wants his wall, and tighter restrictions on legal immigration. He's a true believer on this stuff, and knows intuitively that it keeps his base stoked.

Trump seems most interested in discussing military options on North Korea in these meetings. He is surrounded by advisers who share his concern about the rogue state, but not his fixation on a military strike.

https://www.axios.com/trump-unchained-2520671086.html

He would save so much time money and energy yet still reap the benefits if he just tweeted that the wall has already been built and immigration and violent crime are dropping at record rates.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/01/us/politics/trump-businesses-regulation-economic-growth.html

Some businesses will essentially be able to get away with shortcuts that they could not have under a continuation of Obama-era policies. The coal industry, for instance, will not have to worry about a regulation, overturned by Congress and Mr. Trump, that would have protected streams from mining runoff.

cool

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/resolution-not-conflict/201603/can-you-spot-10-signs-childish-adult

Democrats are doing nothing for DACA - just interested in politics. DACA activists and Hispanics will go hard against Dems, will start “falling in love” with Republicans and their President! We are about RESULTS.

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

He just...says whatever he wants, huh. I will be completely unsurprised when he finally gets around to tweeting 'I am literally a phone. Sad!' or somesuch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shTC8VcsmNQ

oh those wacky hispanics

democrats in ‘interested in politics’ shocker

it's so sad the Democrats won't sell out all of their ideals in their entirety for a compromised deal that helps a few thousand people who have been unfairly put at risk by the GOP and their idiot president by agreeing to a set of ridiculous ideas, including a border wall and stricter immigration laws, that hurt many times more people, for some ephemeral symbolic gain even though the bulk of the political benefits go to the GOP. Not that the GOP is being political, because they are not. Not at all.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/02/donald-trump-foreign-policy-analysis-dangerous-216202

"Caught RED HANDED - very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea. There will never be a friendly solution to the North Korea problem if this continues to happen!"

"a friendly solution"??? fwiw, when the United States threatened an oil embargo on Japan in the 1930s, the Japanese government saw that as no different than threatening them with war, which prompted them to plan and execute the Pearl Harbor attack.

president biff is just mad china wont do his homework for him anymore so its time to fite

He gets all his negotiating advice from The Sopranos

DACA activists and Hispanics will go hard against Dems, will start “falling in love” with Republicans and their President!

Fairly accurate, considering Trump's understanding of "falling in love" is "grudgingly allowing Trump to fuck you repeatedly, having no better viable option for the time being"

in the year....two thous^aaaaaaaand^

sorry, can't stop reading that quote in the Conan O'Brien "Year 2000" style, with the addition of ridiculously overemphasized finger square quotes for "falling in love"

Thank you @realDonaldTrump for preventing US commercial airlines from crashing in 2017. Your active participation monitoring the flight patterns and safety regulations was greatly appreciated. In 2018 could you please turn your efforts toward preventing wildfires and hurricanes? https://t.co/yYq49PzZpX

— Bryan Cranston (@BryanCranston) January 2, 2018

orrin hatch out

thank you for that excellent news

Franken resignation official

deets, NYT

Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the longest-serving Senate Republican, plans to announce on Tuesday he will retire at the end of the year, rebuffing the pleas of President Trump to seek an eighth term and paving the way for Mitt Romney to run for the seat. Mr. Hatch intends to announce his decision Tuesday afternoon via a video announcement, according to two Republican officials briefed on the plans.

Mr. Hatch, 83, was under heavy pressure from Mr. Trump to seek re-election and block Mr. Romney, who has been harshly critical of the president. But Mr. Hatch, who emerged as one of the president’s most avid loyalists in the Senate, decided to retire after discussing the matter with his family over the holidays. The veteran senator was also facing harsh poll numbers in Utah, where 75 percent of voters indicated in a survey last fall that they did not want him to run again.

Revenge of The Romney!

escape, hatch

https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/583edb39ca6f7ee00ec2921d/master/pass/mitt%20romney%20donald%20trump%20dinner.jpg

Orrin should do nothing but post about weed for the rest of the year.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/resolution-not-conflict/201603/can-you-spot-10-signs-childish-adult🕸

that trump/romney pic is iconic

You misspelled 'nightmarish' but that's okay and here's why.

https://punditfromanotherplanet.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/twin-peaks-trump-romney.jpg?w=590&h=393

trump's face in that pic has always reminded me of

http://www.mtv.com/shared/promoimages/bands/p/primus/video_stills/wynonas_big_brown_beaver/640x480.jpg

The prospect of Senator Mitt Romney is a big blow to Trump. It'll be yet another Republican senator who will say mean things about him, while still voting for everything on his agenda

— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) January 2, 2018

xp -- I was thinking nightmare Aphex Twin

EXCLUSIVE: GOP Rep. Bill Shuster to retire, spend final year working with Trump on massive infrastructure bill https://t.co/XlYyXha5jh pic.twitter.com/bmWWXwEV2f

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) January 2, 2018

what does a Utah Democrat look like, anyway?

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/resolution-not-conflict/201603/can-you-spot-10-signs-childish-adult🕸

POLL

― El Tomboto, Tuesday, January 2, 2018 2:35 PM (twenty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Please do

what does a Utah Democrat look like, anyway?

Kinda like Mo Udall I'd think -- Mormon, pro-environment, wholesome family, that kinda thing

Or like a lesbian private detective.

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

escape, hatch

― Newb Sybok (Doctor Casino)

This needs to be the bottom right caption of an Onion Kelley cartoon.

orrin hatch, welcome to the resistance

someone get that man a safety pin stat

but Hatch loves Trump – he's better than Reagan.

Reporter: “Can you tell me the biggest single thing the president has accomplished for the American people during his time on the golf course?”

Sarah Sanders: “Developing deeper and better relationships with members of Congress” pic.twitter.com/iNPitqut3x

— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) January 2, 2018

In the American Embassy in Paris this morning, I noticed that they still haven’t put up a picture of Tillerson in the usual SOS spot, where the Kerry portrait had been in the better old days. As ever the staff remains courteous and efficient, showing that Trump’s effects haven’t spread this far yet.

Here's Mitt Romney with a bird on his head :) pic.twitter.com/YpOA0cg30a

— Betsy Woodruff (@woodruffbets) January 2, 2018

here's Mitt Romney, after a rowdy weekend in Vegas.

properly reddened

i'm skeptical of the times' framing of hatch quitting as substantially 'about' mitt's comeback, or that he even has one

who will be 3rd in line for the presidency when hatch goes?

? still paul ryan

VP, ryan, then ? i mean

who will be the new president pro tem

oh it's elected, who knows then. obviously it's unlikely to be significant, just thinking if ryan goes next year

http://www.4president.us/websites/2000/2000w/hatch2000.jpg

lol let me think about ordinal numbers for a second

i don't know

The way succession works is that the next person moves up

It’s a decrementing loop, it doesn’t stop because N-X isn’t populated

Sheesh

So if I understand you correctly, Ryan leaves and Romney automatically becomes president whether he even runs for Hatch's seat, am I right?

Yes, and Prince Harry is the new veep.

no i don't mean "who is next when there's temporarily no president pro tem?" i mean "who would replace hatch as president pro tem of the senate (and be 3rd in line in the last two years of the trump administration)?"

they're elected but by custom it's the most senior senator from the majority party - so it'd be thad cochran.

the succession process is too complicated. i propose that whenever a new spot opens up, we just roll a 535-sided die to determine who is chosen.

Now that the tax bill is passed, don't be surprised if Thad retires sooner rather than later. He won't make it through his full term (up in 2020) and I doubt he'll live through the year (free tip for deadpool players).

grassley, then

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018

Hardest button to button

Ok I’m legitimately terrified now

iirc trump's button just summons a diet coke

Trump sold the Nuclear codes for a double Big Mac

deleted?

oh no, still there

we’re all gonna die

Yeah NK is working on bigger button technology as we speak

buncha Trumpers walkin around a pile of rubble

"HE'S PLAYING THE LONG GAME!"

Gen Jack Ripper is the prez lol

I think, sometimes, SHS feels like a good example of a person whose unapologetic DGAFism would be celebrated if she weren't on Team Stupid Bullshit Worst POTUS Ever Fake News

Yeah NK is working on bigger button technology as we speak

"we just keep telling the President this button we got from staples is the "nuclear button", he thinks he's nuked NK 10 times already and subsequently forgets it"

Big money, Mr. President, no whammies!

I will be announcing THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR on Monday at 5:00 o’clock. Subjects will cover Dishonesty & Bad Reporting in various categories from the Fake News Media. Stay tuned!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018

I will be announcing THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR on Monday at 5:00 o’clock. Subjects will cover Dishonesty & Bad Reporting in various categories from the Fake News Media. Stay tuned!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018

Four minutes later. What the fuck

This mother fucker needs to be committed

That should keep him busy at his desk for a couple days.

Is anyone else freaked out? How did it come to this

Trump is a creature of the media. It's one of the few things he understands better than an ordinary schlub off the street. It's more or less his whole life right now.

is he going to a ceremony for these or just tweet them

I'm guessing he'll just forget

I am no longer freaked out by anything this dumbass does and that's part of the problem

I prefer when this asshole is on golf vacation tbh

What can't be cured must be endured.

The Commander-In-Chief of the most powerful military on earth has just tweeted that we should watch Sean Hannity at 9pm tonight.

I'm not freaked out, but it's only because I've dispensed with all hope at this point.

this has been quite a day for him, his israel/palestine two-parter managed in its own way to be just as infuriating as the nuclear-button and fake news awards announcements. also we're all going to die.

I want him to turn THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS into his personal take on the Kennedy Center Honors gala and brag about his amazing ratings and record-breaking attendance. Like what jmm said but I'd prefer it be a big happening, let's eat up 3-4 months with planning and tough decisions

tbf, everyone dying at once would solve some tricky logistical problems I've been fretting about.

Yep I'm not going to pay that student loan this month I think

I have to believe (want to believe?) this is all a reaction to him learning about something that is going to be made public soon and he's trying to divert attention from that coming story.

MADDOW GOT THE PEE TAPE

The pee tape is only relevant if Putin were proved to have actively used it to blackmail Trump into committing some official act. Otherwise, it's just another stained dress from Monica's closet.

i don't think we're gonna die

even kim jong un knows at this point that trump's tweets are impulsive bullshit that mean nothing

ya we're fine guys but we def did just sink deeper into the Zone

lol

https://musingsonfilms.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/stalker_dune.png

the zone is otm. i don't think we're going to die either, or at least i think there's less than a 15% chance of it, so that's pretty good. it's just very disorienting to have this loudmouthed buffoon as a president typing these ridiculous things in all caps all the time.

yeah it's weird

I really appreciate that you guys still aren’t jaded to his shit fwiw

what a fucking moron

I have to believe (want to believe?) this is all a reaction to him learning about something that is going to be made public soon and he's trying to divert attention from that coming story.

Fox News is going to get us all killed.

Left, Fox, 7:37 pm
Right, Trump, 7:49 pm pic.twitter.com/Qewz7I1SRF

— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) January 3, 2018

I am no longer freaked out by anything this dumbass does and that's part of the problem

― El Tomboto, Tuesday, January 2, 2018 7:29 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

cosign

at least i think there's less than a 15% chance of it, so that's pretty good.

no, that is not pretty good, less than .0015% chance of it would be pretty good, "less than a 15% chance of it" is really pretty fucking bad

i seriously think that twitter doesn’t suspend trump because he doesn’t swear

speaking of the pee tape

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/opinion/republicans-investigation-fusion-gps.html

It’s weird, I thought Trump looked at Drudge, who had the KJU button quote at the top of his site on NYE

xpost -- yeah that's a more than interesting read. Have to wonder what happens next when you've got them saying "Hey, we have all this evidence, y'know."

https://ssli.ebayimg.com/images/g/D7UAAOSwNkJZ8sEc/s-l1600.jpg

Ha, it really is bigger!

BTW, ironic that the same day he took stupid credit for preventing airline deaths in 2017, there now comes a report that coal mining deaths are surging.

(Or at least surging by the standards of that industry)

That’s ... a way to give people their old jobs back in the mines

“yeah your neighbor’s dad, your brother and your uncle all just suffocated so if you’re up for it we have a couple shifts open”

Speaking of which, anyone here read this article? I knew it was bad, but not that bad.

https://qz.com/1167671/the-100-year-capitalist-experiment-that-keeps-appalachia-poor-sick-and-stuck-on-coal/?utm_source=atlfb

That reminded me - this genius wants to bring back uranium mining too.

He should show us how it's done.

It’s weird, I thought Trump looked at Drudge, who had the KJU button quote at the top of his site on NYE

he doesn't look at any websites

the twitter app on his various phones is the only electronic interaction he has with the internet at all

XP...except Mr. Skin

Ohh yeah

he follows Drudge on twitter guess he didn't see it

at least i think there's less than a 15% chance of it, so that's pretty good.

no, that is not pretty good, less than .0015% chance of it would be pretty good, "less than a 15% chance of it" is really pretty fucking bad

oh, i meant "pretty good" sarcastically, sorry

Attending a high school so underfunded that many teachers paid out of pocket to make copies of handouts, Mullins made the National Honors Society. But in eighth grade, an administrator had talked him out of taking the advanced-track classes, telling him his course load looked like too much work for him to handle. Not that he needed much of a push—those classes were filled with the coal-boss kids, who bullied anyone whose dad actually entered a mine.

When Mullins asked his guidance counselor how to apply to college as a junior, she told him that, without having taken advanced classes, it was pointless.

regarding that simpson / fritsch fusion GPS NYT op-ed maura posted ~

As we told the Senate Judiciary Committee in August, our sources said the dossier was taken so seriously because it corroborated reports the bureau had received from other sources, including one inside the Trump camp.

o_O

There is a lot of good stuff in that article

xxpost TBF, if you take out the coal-boss kids, that's representative of how a lot of kids get hamstrung by the educational system. But don't worry, Devos the Destroyer will do her damndest to ensure that all kids get hamstrung.

if your parents can't pay for private school tuition, then you don't deserve an education

this overcooks the main quote in the headline but still
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/03/donald-trump-russia-steve-bannon-michael-wolff

“They’re going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV,” Bannon reportedly told Wolff.

“Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad shit, and I happen to think it’s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately,” Bannon said of the meeting. “But that’s the brain trust that they had.”

In it, Wolff lifts the lid on a White House lurching from crisis to crisis amid internecine warfare, with even some of Trump’s closest allies expressing contempt for him.

At this point is anybody really surprised that contempt is the feeling everyone in this asshole’s orbit has for him

Maybe he'll go like Caesar, only with a zillion knives in his back

maybe like the caesar haircut has persisted for millennia, the combover spiral will still be sweeping the galaxy in the year 3030

1) That Bannon interview must have taken place minutes after he was fired.
2) I can totally believe that Bannon, of all in Trump's orbit, is the only one telling the truth when he says he has nothing to do with the Russia stuff.

It does seem increasingly likely to me that this is going to end in something like a coup. Someone(s) in the upper echelons will read a new variation on the shit Donnie Peepants tweeted last night, have a revelatory moment where consideration of their loved ones/America/humanity briefly overwhelms blind obeisance or party loyalty, and just say 'okay, yeah, enough.'

It's a comforting fairy tale, anyway.

(NB, I am not actually any more comforted by the thought of a coup than I am by the continuation of a Trump presidency.)

but he's making america great again folks

it's important to tweet what you feel

Someone(s) in the upper echelons will read a new variation on the shit Donnie Peepants tweeted last night, have a revelatory moment where consideration of their loved ones/America/humanity briefly overwhelms blind obedience or party loyalty

nah

As I said, I think it's a fairy tale myself, but you do have to wonder if any of these venal fuckers realize that the benefits conferred by their current positions might just be curtailed when/if the country becomes a smoking ruin.

Predicting is a bad business nowadays, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict we will _not_ have any of the following:

1. Any kind of "have you no decency at long last" moment from any consequential person in current GOP leadership. (GOP never-Trumpers are, and will remain, a small and mostly ineffectual group of people who sometimes write things.)

2. Actual nuclear war, with North Korea or anyone else.

3. Actual hot civil war (by which I mean large groups of normal people taking up arms against one another).

4. A climate catastrophe that registers as a dramatic difference in everyday life for most people. (By which I do NOT mean a gradual rise in average temperatures, or a gradual increase in the frequency of severe-yet-comprehensible weather events.)

Instead of sudden cathartic cataclysm, I predict decades of this miserable incremental grinding away at everything that decent people hold dear.

Further, I doubt I will _personally_ suffer directly from most of this. Nor will most of you, frankly. It will be those already at the margins, those already downtrodden, whose lives will go from sucking most of the time to sucking all the time. We will lose too many of them, and there will be too much avoidable suffering, before sanity returns.

Happy new year!

xxp yeah the moment for that was like a year ago. even if he literally announced a nuclear strike on Twitter the GOP would just come out of the woodwork to say "uh, that's not how it's done"

btw apparently Paul Ryan just killed the bill requiring Congressional approval to launch a nuclear missile so that's cool

YMP otm

i mean the trump admin source referred to in that fusion op-ed has to be bannon, right?

1. Any kind of "have you no decency at long last" moment from any consequential person in current GOP leadership. (GOP never-Trumpers are, and will remain, a small and mostly ineffectual group of people who sometimes write things.)

Was just thinking about this the other day and realizing that an excoriation of that nature would have like zero impact in post-shame America. 'YOU'RE the one with no decency at long last. Sad!'

It's obvious from the tone of those Bannon quotes that Wolff caught him more or less right as he was being shoved out the door, when he was in full vindictive-nerd-rage mode. These days he's back to being 100% "Hail Trump! He cannot fail, he can only be failed by fair-weather friends and Deep State cucks!"

“Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad shit, and I happen to think it’s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately,” Bannon told Wolff in reference to the Trump Tower meeting, per The Guardian.

Bannon did not officially join the Trump campaign until about two months after that meeting.

He told Wolff that if the Trump campaign wanted to set up such a meeting, it should take place “in a Holiday Inn in Manchester, New Hampshire, with your lawyers who meet with these people.”

just for the historical record:

https://i.imgur.com/mWg7SYD.png

they sell "full trump: bomb cyclone" pomade in the gift shop there iirc

trying to imagine Trump, Jr. meeting in the Eagle Conference Room at an Embassy Suites.

I don't think there will be a have-you-no-shame moment, but I'm still holding out for a Ceausescu-on-the-balcony moment. Hopefully while he campaigns for the midterms. Not to be followed by a violent overthrow, just the balcony moment.

i'm trying to think of the last time he spoke at a public event that wasn't pre-populated with his existing supporters + people paid to stand there. i know if he ever got anywhere near me i would be tempted to just scream "YOU'RE THE WORST, EVERYONE HATES YOU" etc etc at him, and i think that a lot of people feel the same kind of primordial rage when they see him.

a public event not in America, basically.

a Ceausescu-on-the-balcony moment

now i reviewed a lengthy Ceausescu documentary years ago, but i don't remember this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceau%C8%99escu%27s_final_speech

Yeah, that's what I'm rooting for. A miscalculation, an event in a swing area, where the opponents outnumber the supporters. Could happen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWIbCtz_Xwk&

It's really remarkable.

xps which is why he's not coming to england

a public event not in America, basically.

it would happen here, too! he doesn't hold public events, right? i mean, he's still holding campaign rallies in places where they can ensure that nearly everyone in attendance is a huge supporters and/or might physically attack any dissenters. but has anyone ever had a chance to go see him speak in a neutral context, where there might be, i don't know, 70% of the crowd that viscerally dislikes him?

wait till the toupee tape comes out and he never shows his face in public again

He's already shrugged off the mushmouthed moment when his choppers came unglued as 'exhaustion' or whatever. Perhaps he'll rationalize a wig mishap as spontaneous and temporary alopecia.

i wish i could go back to the one time i saw him in person, around 2012 or so, in the old post office pavilion in DC as i was standing in line to get takeout indian food. he walked by with a small entourage because he was getting ready to buy it so he could turn it into something really tacky. i should have told him "this whole place has terrible germs. the worst germs. you can't get rid of them. this whole city has terrible germs. stay away from here if you want clean hands!!"

Here's a full on Wolff selection

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/01/michael-wolff-fire-and-fury-book-donald-trump.html

i know if he ever got anywhere near me i would be tempted to just scream "YOU'RE THE WORST, EVERYONE HATES YOU" etc etc at him

Remember Joe Wilson?

feel like norma desmond is the likely model for how trump would take abundant, in-his-face, unmistakable proof that he is hated, unpopular and unloved

the piece Ned posting is amazing

On December 14, a high-level delegation from Silicon Valley came to Trump Tower to meet him. Later that afternoon, according to a source privy to details of the conversation, Trump called Rupert Murdoch, who asked him how the meeting had gone.

“Oh, great, just great,” said Trump. “These guys really need my help. Obama was not very favorable to them, too much regulation. This is really an opportunity for me to help them.”

“Donald,” said Murdoch, “for eight years these guys had Obama in their pocket. They practically ran the administration. They don’t need your help.”

“Take this H-1B visa issue. They really need these H-1B visas.”

Murdoch suggested that taking a liberal approach to H-1B visas, which open America’s doors to select immigrants, might be hard to square with his promises to build a wall and close the borders. But Trump seemed unconcerned, assuring Murdoch, “We’ll figure it out.”

“What a fucking idiot,” said Murdoch, shrugging, as he got off the phone.

I have wondered to what extent his references to 'your favorite president (me)' are trolling vs. an expression of reality as filtered through the putrefying mass of gray matter sloshing around in his brainpan.

Goddammit, I'm gonna buy a book by Michael Wolff, aren't I? "She" in this passage is Ivanka:

She often described the mechanics behind it to friends: an absolutely clean pate—a contained island after scalp-reduction ­surgery—surrounded by a furry circle of hair around the sides and front, from which all ends are drawn up to meet in the center and then swept back and secured by a stiffening spray. The color, she would point out to comical effect, was from a product called Just for Men—the longer it was left on, the darker it got. Impatience resulted in Trump’s orange-blond hair color.

“How’s the kid?” asked Ailes, referring to Kushner.

“He’s my partner,” said Bannon, his tone suggesting that if he felt otherwise, he was nevertheless determined to stay on message.

“He’s had a lot of lunches with Rupert,” said a dubious Ailes.

“In fact,” said Bannon, “I could use your help here.” He then spent several minutes trying to recruit Ailes to help kneecap Murdoch. Since his ouster from Fox over allegations of sexual harassment, Ailes had become only more bitter toward Murdoch. Now Murdoch was frequently jawboning the president-elect and encouraging him toward Establishment moderation. Bannon wanted Ailes to suggest to Trump, a man whose many neuroses included a horror of senility, that Murdoch might be losing it.

“I’ll call him,” said Ailes. “But Trump would jump through hoops for Rupert. Like for Putin. Sucks up and shits down. I just worry about who’s jerking whose chain.”

“Nobody is apparently telling you this,” she told him. “But you can’t. You just can’t hire your children.”

How did Wolff source all of this?

they all are really as dumb as they seem

How did Wolff source all of this?

From the end of the article:

HOW HE GOT THE STORY

This story is adapted from Michael Wolff’s book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, to be published by Henry Holt & Co. on January 9. Wolff, who chronicles the administration from Election Day to this past October, conducted conversations and interviews over a period of 18 months with the president, most members of his senior staff, and many people to whom they in turn spoke. Shortly after Trump’s inauguration, Wolff says, he was able to take up “something like a semi-permanent seat on a couch in the West Wing” — an idea encouraged by the president himself. Because no one was in a position to either officially approve or formally deny such access, Wolff became “more a constant interloper than an invited guest.” There were no ground rules placed on his access, and he was required to make no promises about how he would report on what he witnessed.

Since then, he conducted more than 200 interviews. In true Trumpian fashion, the administration’s lack of experience and disdain for political norms made for a hodgepodge of journalistic challenges. Information would be provided off-the-record or on deep background, then casually put on the record. Sources would fail to set any parameters on the use of a conversation, or would provide accounts in confidence, only to subsequently share their views widely. And the president’s own views, private as well as public, were constantly shared by others. The adaptation presented here offers a front-row view of Trump’s presidency, from his improvised transition to his first months in the Oval Office.

So basically, they're all imbeciles who can't keep their fucking mouths shut, and nobody on the outside has the slightest bit of loyalty to any of them.

The headline on that excerpt pretty much underscores my own impression that Trump won counter to his own wishes and helps fuel the tiny sliver of schadenfreude I enjoy every time I think about this dumbfuck who could've been golfing every day of his golden years (instead of, y'know, 3 out of every 5 days) if he wasn't such a dumbfuck. Cold comfort, but I'll take it.

The first thing that pops up on google for "Scalp-Reduction Surgery": https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trumps-hair-mystery-solved-he-had-scalp-reduction_us_58966965e4b061551b3dff8a (not for those with weak stomachs)

his hair is like #3,067 on my list of horrible things about that person, but w/ev

Almost everybody on the Trump team, in fact, came with the kind of messy conflicts bound to bite a president once he was in office. Michael Flynn, the retired general who served as Trump’s opening act at campaign rallies, had been told by his friends that it had not been a good idea to take $45,000 from the Russians for a speech. “Well, it would only be a problem if we won,” ­Flynn assured them.

incredible

put it right into my veins:

He didn’t process information in any conventional sense. He didn’t read. He didn’t really even skim. Some believed that for all practical purposes he was no more than semi-­literate.

We will lose too many of them, and there will be too much avoidable suffering, before sanity returns.

sanity is not gonna return - the genie is out of the bottle and the america you grew up in is gone forever

The surgeon dropped a junior mint into the cavity

xposts

Those who had worked on the campaign noticed the sudden change. Within the first week, Bannon seemed to have put away the camaraderie of Trump Tower and become far more remote, if not unreachable. “What’s up with Steve?” Kushner began to ask. “I don’t understand. We were so close.” Now that Trump had been elected, Bannon was already focused on his next goal: capturing the soul of the Trump White House.

He began by going after his enemies. Few fueled his rancor toward the standard-issue Republican world as much as Rupert ­Murdoch — not least because Murdoch had Trump’s ear. It was one of the key elements of Bannon’s understanding of Trump: The last person the president spoke to ended up with enormous influence. Trump would brag that Murdoch was always calling him; Murdoch, for his part, would complain that he couldn’t get Trump off the phone.

amazing

Balancing risk against reward, both Jared and Ivanka decided to accept roles in the West Wing over the advice of almost everyone they knew. It was a joint decision by the couple, and, in some sense, a joint job. Between themselves, the two had made an earnest deal: If sometime in the future the opportunity arose, she’d be the one to run for president. The first woman president, Ivanka entertained, would not be Hillary Clinton; it would be Ivanka Trump.

jfc.

it can also never be pointed out too often how truly stupid Steve Bannon is. only next to Trump is he anything more than a complete fucking mouthbreather. even in the Guardian excerpt he says "plain as a hair on your face" which is not the actual idiom, numbnuts.

Congratulations mr Wolff on your upcoming dishonesty in media award (2017-2018 season)

I've assumed for a long time that Ivanka will eventually run so that tidbit isn't even slightly surprising.

After Jared and Ivanka joined them for lunch, Trump continued to cast for positive impressions of his first week. Scarborough praised the president for having invited leaders of the steel unions to the White House. At which point Jared interjected that reaching out to unions, a Democratic constituency, was Bannon’s doing, that this was “the Bannon way.”

“Bannon?” said the president, jumping on his son-in-law. “That wasn’t Bannon’s idea. That was my idea. It’s the Trump way, not the Bannon way.”

Kushner, going concave, retreated from the discussion.

Trump, changing the topic, said to Scarborough and Brzezinski, “So what about you guys? What’s going on?” He was referencing their not-so-secret secret relationship. The couple said it was still complicated, but good.

“You guys should just get married,” prodded Trump.

“I can marry you! I’m an internet Unitarian minister,” Kushner, otherwise an Orthodox Jew, said suddenly.

“What?” said the president. “What are you talking about? Why would they want you to marry them when I could marry them? When they could be married by the president! At Mar-a-Lago!”

lmao @ "plain as a hair on your face"

On the one hand, this book is exactly the kind of deep expose of this clusterfuck that I've been hoping for and I really really really want to read it. On the other, I don't know that I need another thing that makes me feel like lying down in the street and waiting for the sweet release of death.

his hair is like #3,067 on my list of horrible things about that person, but w/ev

It's not as much about his hair as what it was said he did because of it (which, according to the article I posted, was rape Ivana) that's upsetting.

i'd like to preemptively cut off any killjoys who are no doubt about to pop into this thread to opine at the likelihood of some-to-much of this reporting being bullshit. i think after last night's button tweet we all deserve a little fanfic.

well, it's wolff so the quotes are bullshit

"plain as the pustules on my face"

'Look, it's as highly-contagious as the seething bacteria farm that comprises what's left of my face.'

As Nate Silver points out, the excerpt never establishes that Trump didn't want to win, and also plays fast and loose with polls - only outlier polls showed Trump down 12, the worst average was 6-7, and that was after the convention bounce. Basically, it sounds about as believable picture of the Trump campaign as Shattered was of the Clinton campaign.

I'm still definitely reading it, though :)

fwiw

for no reason whatsoever, just remembered this passage from michelle cottle's profile of wolff in 2004 https://t.co/9JMwBbuYqT pic.twitter.com/D5GQw60AYH

— brad plumer (@bradplumer) January 3, 2018

Yeah. But come on, you're reading it as well, Simon :)

However fictional Wolff's specifics may be, an accidental Trump win has always made much more sense to me on many many levels. Trump may have convinced himself after the fact that this is what he wanted, but I very much doubt this was how he was planning to spend the next 4-??? years prior to election night.

I honestly don't find the inner workings of the Trump White House all that fascinating xp

xpost

i was about to say, certain parts like

“I’ll call him,” said Ailes. “But Trump would jump through hoops for Rupert. Like for Putin. Sucks up and shits down. I just worry about who’s jerking whose chain.”

sound like something written by robert reich

Old Lunch otm. It's hardly believable Trump willingly chose the route of having to divert and divest his own business emporium (unless, as stated, he was clueless yet again and didn't even know this was required). Not that he's really divesting or letting go but ykwim

I find it entirely believable however that they just let Wolff in one day, and he became the hobo-lives-in-airport-for-a-year, where he became one of the 'gang' with no one even questioning it.

yeah, this is why the russia stuff makes way more sense to me as a bunch of career grifters looking to cash in however they can before their meal ticket gets his ass handed to him rather than putin's grand masterplan to undermine american democracy (xp to old lunch)

JUST IN: President Trump statement on Steve Bannon: "When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind." pic.twitter.com/LxZoBI5Ng4

— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 3, 2018

putin's grand masterplan to undermine american democracy haha well he didn't have to exert much effort to do what he did , these guys were willing miscreants .

oh damn lol xp

Huh, didn't realize Bannon was responsible for making Sessions the AG, Mr. President.

What a bugfuck lunatic.

OK, so now we reverse engineer Trump's statement based on the "every word is an obvious lie and literally the opposite of the truth" theory that's served us so well the last 13 months and...

Can't wait to see how this low-rent Vader vs. Palpatine battle turns out. Hopefully very much like the original.

I'd put all of my worldly possessions in hock for front-row seats to watch Bannon throw Trump down a shaft just before croaking himself.

bannon already looks like vader when he takes his helmet off tbf

wowowow

Force-choke Trump with coke.

this white house had a lot of coffee boys didn't it?

i mean none of these people did anything , it was just Trump and his huge brain making it all happen

i'm still incredulous that there isn't anyone in the approval chain who just says "no"/gets fired over balls-out-bonkers statements like this one

whatever the truth, high five to Wolff for eliciting that response

Lol at that statement. Btw, they definitely called Trump for comments yesterday, and that's why he ranted even more than usual.

i wonder if anyone's still editing these statements? that last one seemed to be directly from trump.

bannon has openly speculated about running for office himself iirc.

xpost whoops big hoos made the same point! crazy.

that + whatever he knows makes him dangerous, but probably this is kabuki to drive breitbart page impressions and to feed trump's ego. he'll be back in with trump soon.

My god.

pic.twitter.com/683UJFlKL4

— Team Mitch (@Team_Mitch) January 3, 2018

Team McConnell so happy it is putting emojis in press releases pic.twitter.com/PMVcKUdDX9

— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) January 3, 2018

Breitbart commenter: "This is just two alpha-males, going at it."

— Will Sommer (@willsommer) January 3, 2018

Wow, Just looked at the comments section on Breitbart. Wow. When Bannon has lost Breitbart, he’s left with . . . umm, nothing.

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 3, 2018

haw haw

"This is just two alpha-males, going at it."

― mookieproof, Wednesday, January 3, 2018 11:18 AM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

brief description on an xtube video too iirc

where is the Mooch when we need him most ?

definitely not face-down in a giant pile of cocaine iirc

definitely not trying to suck his own cock

I said what I said in the Summer take out the expletives and pay closer attention. Btw, @realDonaldTrump is doing a great job.

— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) January 3, 2018

lol

the mooch abides

I'm absolutely certain this point has been made before, but Trump legitimately sees no difference between being POTUS and being a WWE heel, does he.

unfortunately, none of this matters

Oh the pettiness of it all is the key.

Well, when he was participating in pro wrestling he was the most important and interesting person in the world. Now he is President and he is the most important and interesting person in the world. So really the two jobs are the same, and demand the same skills.

i wonder if anyone's still editing these statements? that last one seemed to be directly from trump.

Trump cannot compose short, coherent sentences like that.

no shit but dont try and take this away from us with reason alfred

brief description on an xtube video too iirc

i wonder if anyone's still editing these statements? that last one seemed to be directly from trump.

Trump cannot compose short, coherent sentences like that.

― Haribo Hancock (sic), Wednesday, January 3, 2018 2:30 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

correct use of "whom" is a real giveaway too

i'm not listening to it to check but...

Trump’s comments about Bannon today are almost word for word what @benshapiro said about Bannon on @Jamie_Weinstein’s podcast last week.

— Matt Lewis (@mattklewis) January 3, 2018

I mean the practical effect is it fractures a perceived unified front where 'the GOP' as defined downplays or actively rails against claims of collusion, Mueller's work etc. Now someone who was working with Trump out and in of the White House for a year is one record as saying 'nah, something's there.' There's already a rapid closing of ranks in response but even so -- and, as I've thought about more and more this morning, it's...interesting that Bannon seems terribly unworried about this probe, which theoretically could affect him. Makes me wonder a bit -- saw a claim earlier that he's been mentioned nowhere in Mueller's team's public interview schedule. By now you'd think they would have talked to him, and maybe they have...

It certainly will make the Nunes and Meadows types in the House to think twice about criticizing Mueller. After all, they had their eye firmly on a base besotted with Bannon/Breitbart.

where's the tax returns?

I lol'd hard at Bannon's comment (from the book I think) that he wont testify, wont get a lawyer. Yeah I dont think you have a choice in the matter my dude.

unfortunately, none of this matters

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), 3. januar 2018 20:29 (fifteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If Bannon loses his followers it could mean a lot for senate primaries.

Trump condensed:

My senior policy advisor? I had nothing to do with him.
My campaign chairman? Only with me for a short time.
My national security advisor? A liar.
My foreign policy advisor? He was just a coffee boy.

Don Jr? Um ... fake news!

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) January 3, 2018

Andrew Breitbart would be ashamed of the division and lies Steve Bannon is spreading!

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 3, 2018

unfortunately, none of this matters

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), 3. januar 2018 20:29 (fifteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If Bannon loses his followers it could mean a lot for senate primaries.

― Frederik B, Wednesday, January 3, 2018 7:49 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ya his PAC planning to boost little trumps & moore-likes in primaries has been one of the more frightening developments for me out of all this & if the redhats divide over this i'll breathe a sigh of relief

xpost Okay, that one's flat-out hilarious. And 'ashamed'! A concept about which no one involved or named has any understanding!

denial ain't just a river of grievances

i do sometimes wonder what the cultural landscape of the us would be like if andrew beetbort hadn’t been assassinated by the deep state killed by an insatiable appetite for cocaine and fistfuls of lard

basically identical imo

yeah prolly :(

actually, it would be a little worse, since andrew breitbart would still be alive

guys come on I'm still poring over the Fusion GPS story

unfortunately, none of this matters

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), 3. januar 2018 20:29 (fifteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If Bannon loses his followers it could mean a lot for senate primaries.

― Frederik B, Wednesday, January 3, 2018 7:49 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ya his PAC planning to boost little trumps & moore-likes in primaries has been one of the more frightening developments for me out of all this & if the redhats divide over this i'll breathe a sigh of relief

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, 3. januar 2018 20:54 (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I mean, there's a reason Mitch McConnell is jubilant, and I'm guessing the DNC is slightly disappointed. The road to a blue senate probably got a bit harder. But Trumpism died a while back, and if Bannonism goes as well, the worst might be over. Time to sit down, make the plan to do single payer as quickly as possible in 21.

andrew beetbort lives on in the artery-hardened hearts of a nation

Something tells me this isn't going to work out well for Manafort

Manafort sues Robert Mueller, Rod Rosenstein and the USDOJ in federal district court, alleging Mueller has overstepped his authority. pic.twitter.com/1A1iSrVXZj

— Byron Tau (@ByronTau) January 3, 2018

i want bannon himself (via the mercers, are they still tight?) to primary trump

But Trumpism died a while back

interested in what takes you to this conclusion--the poll numbers dropping to just the die-hards?

Heard on the radio that the Manafort thing is so totally stupid that his attorney should be fined. Prosecutors, let alone public servant prosecutors, are apparently immune from lawsuits like that, especially from a current defendant in a criminal trial.

Trumpism itself is a byproduct of ever-increasing alienation and disenfranchisement. Without detectable material improvements in peoples' lives, it will be replaced (if, indeed, it's actually gone anywhere) with something similar or worse

But Trumpism died a while back

interested in what takes you to this conclusion--the poll numbers dropping to just the die-hards?

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, 3. januar 2018 21:09 (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's something I began to think because of a book by a Danish theorist, analyzing Trump as an especially American gaudy form of fascism. But then everything that he wrote about had been dormant for a while. Remember back when Trump used to travel around and announce he saved American jobs all over? Yeah, he stopped doing that a while back. And then I think it finally ended when he endorsed Luther Strange and lost. It just seemed quite obvious that something else was going on, and Trump was following, rather than leading it. Bannon has tried explicitly to lead it, but he seems to be failing hard right now.

There's no movement, just a bunch of competing chaos agents.

and the white suburban parents & their sons on campus, casting around for their standard bearer

+ racism.

BTW, the scariest thing about potential President Ivanka is that she's, like, 30, and rich as shit, so she could run again and again forever until eventually maybe she lucks into winning, like her dad.

I got in an argument with a devil's advocate minded friend about whether or not Trump deserves credit for winning. And I was like, no, the fucker got lucky, there is no sign any of his achievements were intentional, and that goes for his shitty business as well. Yeah, he made money, but he's no Warren Buffet or Carl Ichan style evil genius. The only people who admire Trump are people who look and act like his son. I can't imagine anyone serious takes him seriously.

i don't think he made money. he inherited a fortune and went bankrupt how many times? that's the kicker our "conservative" friends never seem to figure

The possibility of enduring President Ivanka Trump makes me more inclined to support her dad in starting WWIII.

Was just reading this old Fortune article:

http://fortune.com/2015/08/20/donald-trump-index-funds/

Basically, were he an astute businessman he would be worth a lot more, a la his ostensible billionaire peers. As it is he's mostly just lazy and lucky and good at branding, which makes him about as clever a businessman as any celebrity chump with a racket, whether Dr. Phil or Deepak Chopra or whomever.

Most con men have to hustle widows for their pension checks and don't have the benefit of millions of dollars of startup capital.

he's genuine affirmative action in action. how many people have made their living apologizing for donald trump and cleaning up his messes?

I know there's so much more to come, but this has the feel of an endgame: two allies and their respective factions turning on each other, everybody pointing fingers, dropping their coordinated "there's nothing to see here" messaging.

There's been a slight shift in how the media have been covering the story, too, in the wake of the Fusion GPS piece and the George Papadopoulos expose. The tone is less "if there was collusion" and more "how deep was the collusion." Bannon casting key players in the administration as guilty should only further fuel that.

Press briefing in background, a few folks seems to be openly mocking her, about it being Infrastructure Week, about the Bad Media Awards or whatever.

Poor Goebbelina.

the blaze is obviously nuts, but this has a ring of truth

http://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/01/03/commentary-steve-bannon-understands-the-truth-about-the-mueller-probe-and-the-media-still-dont

In other words, the family and business enterprises of the president of the United States owe over half a billion dollars to a financial institution that is currently under investigation by the United States Department of Justice for, among other things, allegedly laundering money for the Russian mob. Not to belabor the obvious, but the entirety of the Department of Justice reports directly to the president.

When the DOJ finishes this investigation, the result of that investigation — especially if it lets Deutsche Bank off with a slap on the wrist — will be placed under intense scrutiny.

If Democrats retake the House in 2018, the scrutiny will likely take the form of official committee investigations into Trump’s ties with Deutsche Bank that might well make impeachment politically palatable in a way that “Russian collusion” has not. And if it can be proven that Trump or his family or companies were involved, however indirectly, with the money laundering that Deutsche Bank is accused of, it’s Katy bar the door.

There’s growing evidence that Bannon is exactly right about what Mueller is doing with his probe. The bits about Russian collusion are excellent fodder for the media that is obsessed with the idea that the election was somehow taken away from Hillary Clinton unfairly.

Substantively, though, the real concern for Trump is and always has been his entanglement with the troubled bank, which is why the one actual public threat he has made to fire Mueller centered around any potential investigation into his personal or family finances.

good ol' The Blaze. i wonder if glenn beck regrets his decision to try to pivot to the left just before the 2016 election?

bears repeating: jim jordan (R-OH) is the worst

from fire and fury to fire at hillary's :(

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/fire-breaks-bill-hillary-clinton-westchester-home-article-1.3735597

how long til someone comes up w/a "they were burning pizzagate evidence" theory

'theory'

yeah the bleach wasn't working so they burned the emails

And I said "What about fire at Hillary's?"
You said "I think they were burning the files"

What color was the smoke?

BREAKING : Are they destroying evidence?#QAnon #BREAKING#LockThemAllUp #DrainTheSwamp#MAGA #WednesdayWisdom #BreadCrumbs #FollowTheWhiteRabbit #Pizzagate https://t.co/1X8M3BYjWU

— 🇺🇸MAGAChick🐥🇺🇸 (@michellechick79) January 3, 2018

good luck usa

“Katy bar the door”?

"She Caught The Katy, And Left Me With A Mueller To Indict"

I looked up Katy Bar the Door, and it is metal as fuck:

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

katy hodor

My comedy improv teacher (30+ years ago) used "Katy, bar the door!" when he wanted to evoke archaic, rural times.

When I'm away for a few hours and see there are 200 new answers, I think NOW WHAT? And usually, not much.

board description

"Morbs, bar the door!"

morbs, dennistheperrin

he actually attended some of those improv classes

remember how less than 24 hours ago the President of the United States threatened to start a catastrophic nuclear war on Twitter

If the war itself was on Twitter and the tweets were nuclear-strength then he was almost right.

Meanwhile...

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/367314-rosenstein-meeting-with-paul-ryan-about-russia-investigation#.Wk1ThjR0Qi0.twitter

Key bits: Rosenstein requested the meeting, Wray was invited but not seen there. Hm.

Elsewhere, Chuck Grassley IS Ian McKellen, sorta:

Sen. Chuck Grassley is wearing a hat in the Senate subway on his way to votes — a new look pic.twitter.com/sWvWBYjmYT

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) January 3, 2018

looks like an old queen

what stage of capitalism is it where brands imitate threats of nuclear war to sell fried chicken pic.twitter.com/Fsu8xvi8ng

— Kelsey D. Atherton (@AthertonKD) January 3, 2018

an improv sketch: trump and bannon acting out the german country bench scene from my best fiend where werner laughingly recalls making up anti-werner shit talk with kinksi to help kinski's memoir all i need is love sell

Also seeing reports that Wray is definitely in the Rosenstein/Ryan meeting, if it's still going on.

thanks to C. Grisso/McCain for the Taj Mahal reference btw

The Ryan meeting is Bad, right?

For Trump? I can imagine it going lots of ways. But one way is them meeting with Ryan and saying for all the protestations, there's a lot of bad stuff coming down the pipe, so you better prepare yourself.

Of course, I don't see why they would give him a heads-up about that, or even what they might expect Ryan to do about any of this stuff. Another possibility is it involved a member of the House. I can think of a couple of conspicuous figures tied up in this who might have a bullseye on their back.

Hm hm hm

A single source familiar with the meeting tells us:

Surprise meeting tonight between Deputy Atty General Rod Rosenstein and House Speaker Paul Ryan was requested by Rosenstein to discuss matters related to Congressman Devin Nunes and the Russia investigation.

— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) January 3, 2018

not quite a whomp whomp whomp?

Deputy AG, FBI director make unannounced visit to Paul Ryan's office -source familiar w/ meeting said it had to do w. Nunes doc request https://t.co/NgmFszz9OS @politico by @kyledcheney

— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) January 3, 2018

Said doc request, it should be noted, was made over the summer, so whatever it is isn't something new.

it is truly bonkers that really not a single day has gone by in the last year-and-a-half without some batshit thing going down.

Whoa -- Kobach's little sham group has been dissolved?

White House statement: "Rather than engage in endless legal battles at taxpayer expense, today I signed an executive order to dissolve the Commission [on Election Integrity]"

— Josh Eidelson (@josheidelson) January 3, 2018

more good news if true

It's legit, being reported elsewhere.

Full statement is a roffle

Trump is disbanding his voter fraud commission pic.twitter.com/Gymb2wUU4Q

— Stefan Becket (@becket) January 3, 2018

nice

Dude looks like Ivor Cutler up there

Xposts fifth time

sweet!

In Wolff book, Bannon quoted after Trump denounced Sessions to NYT in July: "If he fires Mueller it just brings impeachment quicker. Why not, let's do it. Let's get it on. And I am going to go in and save him? He's Donald Trump"

— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) January 3, 2018

And Bannon, quoted about Mueller hiring Andrew Weissmann: "You've got the LeBron James of money laundering investigations on you, Jarvanka. My a---hole just got so tight!"

— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) January 3, 2018

@kalebhorton: Michael Wolff's book on Trump has the distinct and specific odor of wish-fulfillment pornography manufactured by someone who wants to make a million dollars very quickly and doesn't care how many lies it takes to get there.

this...feels right

I'm not sure he claim that he has any control over any asshole, including his own.

yeah, starting to seem that way xpost

I think it's clear that Bannon's quotes are from the heart, and that he's not the only one saying the book got their quotes right:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-enraged-personally-dictates-scathing-denouncement-of-one-time-top-strategist-steve-bannon

My a---hole just got so tight!"

omg dying

I think it's clear that Bannon's quotes are from the heart

i think they were from somewhere else

The...Shart?

I am so entertained

Michael Grimm — whose Congressional run, so far, has mostly consisted of a widely shared photo of him shaking Steve Bannon’s hand — just denounced Bannon in a statement. "I fully support our Commander in Chief."

— Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) January 4, 2018

Anyway, I think this sums it up

the core dilemma here is that while Wolff doesn’t seem to do much to support his account of events & scorching hot quotes, both the Trump camp & Bannon seem to be behaving as if it’s legit https://t.co/3yT2Olrbil

— Kilgore Trout (@KT_So_It_Goes) January 3, 2018

the other thing is everyone in the Trump camp seems to want to dismiss everything as a lie but they don’t know which accounts and quotes are safe to dismiss so they’re just very broad & subsequently lousy denials

— Kilgore Trout (@KT_So_It_Goes) January 3, 2018

I’m pretty sure some of that stuff is just wholesale horseshit but I’m also pretty sure a lot of it isn’t - and I don’t think the Trump team knows how to sort that out either

— Kilgore Trout (@KT_So_It_Goes) January 3, 2018

And this is of interest...

FWIW: The several times I saw Wolff at the White House, he was cleared-in with a blue 'appointment" badge allowing West Wing access, rather than a gray "press" badge.

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) January 3, 2018

Sanders claimed he was always there at the invitation of Bannon.

if you're sucking your own cock it's best to relax, not tighten, your asshole btw

(erm, so I've heard. From a friend.)

Getcha hot takes here

Wouldn’t it be funny if Trump & Bannon cooked this one up together as a decoy for some bombshell policy initiative?

— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) January 3, 2018

Fun times amidst the maggots.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/03/bannon-endorsement-trump-republicans-263753

read that as 'coked this one up'

Lol

One Republican senator joined many Democrats at a private congressional briefing about Trump’s mental health by a Yale psychiatrist, @anniekarni reports https://t.co/M7pjx8pfPp

— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) January 4, 2018

Apparently they met with Ryan to get reassurance that the DOJ wouldn't be refunded if they didn't conply5with Nunes' document request.

*comply with

...defunded?

Apparently that's something congress can do

The Congress has the power to simply not fund an institution that is not being obedient. The DOJ has to be confronted, at some point, with reality that Congress is not going to tolerate being kept in the dark and being told lies. https://t.co/CaTaO6011e pic.twitter.com/sBUsC6AN1u

— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) January 4, 2018

Newt, with Jeffersonian wisdom.

what about the refunding though

I don't think this would actually happen, and it would backfire massively if it did, but Rosenstein was apparently concerned enough to seek reassurances from Ryan.

This @jdawsey1/@AshleyRParker WaPo piece says Bannon has alienated Rebekah Mercer https://t.co/jlscrwPfuh pic.twitter.com/Zgz5kNGw9a

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) January 4, 2018

ya i was saying you said re-funded

RIP bannon's presidential run

RIP big ban

Can we finally stop hearing about this shithead now?

i think we're going to be hearing a lot more from him

although, i guess i was thinking of it in terms of trump v bannon. but i suppose it's more like trump + FOX v bannon, which does tilt the scales against him a bit.

BREAKING - Attorneys for President Trump send Steve Bannon a cease and desist letter citing the non disclosure agreement he signed during the campaign https://t.co/jDybwQenJ2

— John Santucci (@JTSantucci) January 4, 2018

i've always been curious about what would happen if someone decided to say To hell with the NDA....

The funny thing is that it’s kinda aimed at the wrong person. It’s Wolff’s work that caused all this.

Trump devours you like warm cottage cheese.

xpost

Here's where we see if blusterbear Bannon turns tail or goes ham.

i finally got around to reading the rest of the Wolff piece a few minutes ago. it does irritate me when people put paraphrased remarks within quotation marks, but i agree with the interpretation that it's probably mostly on the mark, given that no one from the white house has really disputed any specific parts of it (that i've seen, at least).

there's these really damning passages, like:

As soon as the campaign team had stepped into the White House, Walsh saw, it had gone from managing Trump to the expectation of being managed by him. Yet the president, while proposing the most radical departure from governing and policy norms in several generations, had few specific ideas about how to turn his themes and vitriol into policy. And making suggestions to him was deeply complicated. Here, arguably, was the central issue of the Trump presidency, informing every aspect of Trumpian policy and leadership: He didn’t process information in any conventional sense. He didn’t read. He didn’t really even skim. Some believed that for all practical purposes he was no more than semi-­literate. He trusted his own expertise ­— no matter how paltry or irrelevant — more than anyone else’s. He was often confident, but he was just as often paralyzed, less a savant than a figure of sputtering and dangerous insecurities, whose instinctive response was to lash out and behave as if his gut, however confused, was in fact in some clear and forceful way telling him what to do. It was, said Walsh, “like trying to figure out what a child wants.”

and what's amazing is that i've never really seen anyone really dispute this characterization of trump, either. even his defenders. this dude does not read. he doesn't like the big words. he doesn't pay attention. he gets distracted. some people close to him call him childish, outright, and most of the others don't say anything or brag about how good he is at sinking putts from 30 feet away. but no one really chimes in with an anecdote about how trump is actually really interested in a certain policy, or the good idea that he had that one time in that one meeting, or that he really likes kafka or something. there's just nothing there.

Couldn't such an NDA-related lawsuit claiming slander open the door for some sort of discovery proceedings? That is, it's not slander if it's true, which would lead to all sorts of dirt aired in public. Right?

IIRC, that's precisely how a lot of Church of Scientology dirt wound up on the record.

Yeah. They got a lot of crazy stuff from L. Ron's suppressed memoir, so to prove slander they would have had to produce it and other documents. Which no way were they going to do.

I mean, every move the WH has done today has been to basically shout at the world "Please look at it further and take it seriously." Wolff must not believe his luck at this point.

MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018

Yep Twitter Trump has been boring today - no threatening to nuke the Palestinians or anything. Sad.

xp you got it, big guy

I'm probably late to this interpretation but lately I'm getting a strong "SIEG HEIL!" vibe from the MAGA! exhortations.

And Bannon is the Ernst Rohm of the WH administration

of note:

Changes to Presidential Job Approval Tracking and Reporting

Beginning in 2018, Gallup will start updating presidential job approval on a weekly basis, rather than on a daily basis. We are making this change largely because the source for these daily data, the Gallup Daily tracking program -- made possible by a client-supported commitment to daily interviewing on a wide variety of well-being metrics -- is shifting from telephone surveys to reporting mail surveys on a monthly basis.

Gallup remains committed to tracking presidential approval using probability-based, telephone interviewing, but is reducing the sample size from 3,500 to 1,500 U.S. adults per week. As a result, Gallup will aggregate and report presidential job approval each week, rather than daily, beginning on Jan. 8 at 1 p.m. ET. We will continue to report subgroup differences for presidential job approval using the large sample sizes collected each month.

The Gallup Poll Social Series surveys conducted each month, other standalone surveys, and periodic updates of other Gallup trends and measures throughout the year will continue as they have with no change.

xp sic semper Strasseris

Wolff has the explosive quotes taped, so the access journos newly worried abt the sanctity of journalism can relaxhttps://t.co/CfBrE6Kksf

— Heidi N Moore (@moorehn) January 4, 2018

More golden quotes from the Wolff book here: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/michael-wolff-my-insane-year-inside-trumps-white-house-1071504

"There was more: Everybody was painfully aware of the increasing pace of his repetitions. It used to be inside of 30 minutes he'd repeat, word-for-word and expression-for-expression, the same three stories — now it was within 10 minutes. Indeed, many of his tweets were the product of his repetitions — he just couldn't stop saying something."

Okay, okay, I'll preorder the fucking thing already.

The way that closes is killer

Hoping for the best, with their personal futures as well as the country's future depending on it, my indelible impression of talking to them and observing them through much of the first year of his presidency, is that they all — 100 percent — came to believe he was incapable of functioning in his job.

At Mar-a-Lago, just before the new year, a heavily made-up Trump failed to recognize a succession of old friends.

i hope rosenstein highlighted all the damning evidence about nunes

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/03/politics/rod-rosenstein-house-intel-russia/index.html

damn, if he's got recordings

also the skepticism about this Wolff piece is odd to me in that it reads pretty much exactly like.... every other fucking thing I've ever read about the Trump White House

tbf Wolff himself doesn't exactly have a glowing rep

yeah you're right that is fair
but I guess I was expecting this fantastical thing when most of the behavior an the dynamics between the various factions seemed very in line with a dozen stories

like, I don't know maybe people are still struggling with THIS IS THE GUY HE'S JUST A DUMB ASSHOLE, there's nothing there and there's some need for there to be

Dumb is one thing, actively falling apart is another.

Put them together and what've you got.

The nature of the comedy, it was soon clear, was that here was a group of ambitious men and women who had reached the pinnacle of power, a high-ranking White House appointment — with the punchline that Donald Trump was president.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/michael-wolff-my-insane-year-inside-trumps-white-house-1071504

I genuinely believe 95% of the carping about Wolff is professional jealousy and nothing more. Oh, Michael Wolff has an exaggerated sense of his own importance, and touts his proximity to power at every opportunity? This separates him from every other big-name journalist exactly how? Also, scumbags he made sound like assholes in his work later shouted "I never said that"? Oh, THAT'S never happened before. I find it perfectly plausible that Trump could golf with Boehner, give a talk about Boehner, then in a meeting say "Who's John Boehner?" Why? Because he thought it would be advantageous to Donald Trump to do each of those things, at the moment that he did them, and that was all his canary's brain needed to know. Every political and/or business journalist in America would act exactly like Wolff if given half a chance, and they're just pissed that a guy who looks like a cross between Roy Cohn and Klaus Kinski in Nosferatu pulled off what they couldn't.

https://www.apnews.com/19f6bfec15a74733b40eaf0ff9162bfa

fuck you Jeff

Every political and/or business journalist in America would act exactly like Wolff if given half a chance, and they're just pissed that a guy who looks like a cross between Roy Cohn and Klaus Kinski in Nosferatu pulled off what they couldn't.

It makes perfect sense to me that a hack grifter journalist would be the one to get this level of access.

This will solve EVERYTHING.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders issues statement saying "all personal devices for both guests and staff will no longer be allowed in the West Wing." pic.twitter.com/r2P1fzfMem

— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 4, 2018

Sessions compares marijuana to heroin and blames it for spikes in violence.

FFS!! i hate this fucking goblin

the fact that no one immediately shouted FAKE NEWS!!! at the Wolff story but instead started attacking each other and threatening lawsuits kinda makes me feel it's legit

"There was more: Everybody was painfully aware of the increasing pace of his repetitions. It used to be inside of 30 minutes he'd repeat, word-for-word and expression-for-expression, the same three stories — now it was within 10 minutes. Indeed, many of his tweets were the product of his repetitions — he just couldn't stop saying something."

I notice this in his recent interviews. He'll say something over and over again and then the interviewer will ask him another question and...he'll just keep going back to his previous point. Like an entire page of that NYT interview was him answering questions about his tax bill with stuff like "actually you'll see everyone agrees it was the Democrats that colluded"

Also kind of reminds me of him calling the war widow and just sorta rambling on about completely unrelated topics

Rather. Also, Wolff says he has tapes.

Sessions' decision, BTW, is a fudge. He's basically saying federal prosecutors can do what they want depending on how they feel, and I have a feeling more than a few of them will shrug.

I find it perfectly plausible that Trump could golf with Boehner, give a talk about Boehner, then in a meeting say "Who's John Boehner?" Why? Because he thought it would be advantageous to Donald Trump to do each of those things, at the moment that he did them, and that was all his canary's brain needed to know.

― grawlix (unperson), 4. januar 2018 15:11 (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Okay, but then that's how the story is, that Trump decided to say that even though he golfed with Boehner. Presenting the story without mentioning that they've golfed together is piss poor research. And, well, sorry, but that's kinda not up for discussion.

And I say that as someone who will read the book, and probably laugh heartily at stupid shit like that Boehner quote. But Wolff is cutting corners everywhere, there's no doubt about that.

i don't buy that ! he would like nothing more than to reignite the war on pot anyway he can , he could have left that in place just fine. xp

Man, the wedgie those burnouts gave Sessions in high school must have been positively atomic. But I guess he's showing them.

Sessions waited too long. I'm not being flip here -- if he had announced it out of the gate, that's one thing. This is only coming after a full year, Trump's political erosion, California fully implementing its own policy, etc. So now?

now I imagined Sessions holding a keytar and mouthing ATOMIC from the Blondie song.

Anyway, good luck with that!

NEW - Another letter....Trump's attorney sends letter to author Michael Wolff and publisher demanding cease and desist publication of new book https://t.co/q4fSuHugXZ

— John Santucci (@JTSantucci) January 4, 2018

i'm not saying he will be effective in turning back the tides on already legal states but for states trying to bring it on like here in NJ this doesn't help at all.

No platforming. SAD!

i'm not saying he will be effective in turning back the tides on already legal states but for states trying to bring it on like here in NJ this doesn't help at all.

Sessions himself noted the answer in his confirmation -- Congress can change the law. So if you wanted people to rally to a cause...

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders issues statement saying "all personal devices for both guests and staff will no longer be allowed in the West Wing." pic.twitter.com/r2P1fzfMem

— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 4, 2018

lol

i'm not saying he will be effective in turning back the tides on already legal states but for states trying to bring it on like here in NJ this doesn't help at all.

I'm willing to bet that Phil Murphy has a way better relationship with NJ's US attorney than Jeff Sessions does. Just a hunch.

so there are definitly tapes xp

Zing.

Some reporters are calling the book sloppy, challenging specific passages.

How could Wolff know for sure what Bannon and the late Roger Ailes said at a private dinner?

It turns out Wolff hosted the dinner for six at his Manhattan townhouse. https://t.co/DXjtl4Q7s9

— Robert Mann (@RTMannJr) January 4, 2018

does that mean Sanders is taking his phone away?

Jake Tapper with the bucket of cold water:

Like “Trump lawsuits against the women he allegedly sexually harassed and assaulted” imminent or “Trump lawsuit against the New York Times” imminent? https://t.co/JHWhCsnXWp

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 4, 2018

I can't think of a better barometer for the factual accuracy of Wolff's book than Trump's apoplectic reaction to Wolff's book. Per Tapper's tweet, if they're telling the truth about Trump, legal action is imminent.

oh shit, they are trying to cease and desist the publication of the book? I am going to have to order it. This is awesome.

yep that shit sold me lol

yes, it's very smart to prevent publication and just let the media that got advanced copies drip out details from the Suppressed Blockbuster Book

Just ordered my copy from B&N.

The jokes, they write themselves.

I'm listening to Alex Jones' interview with Roger Stone on Bannon – because I hate myself – and Jones says of Bannon, "there are signs of paranoia."

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

The fluoridated water has finally kicked in.

We were somewhere around DC on the edge of Dupont Circle when the fluorinated water began to take hold.

anyone who attempts to satirize the Trump admin this year is a fool. RT/quote, walk away.

honestly my expected outcome at this point between now and the end of next year Trump does a set of public appearances so incoherent (as in, descending into indecipherable gibberish as opposed to his usual vaguely-decipherable gibberish) that he just makes some lame excuse and bails

Can totally imagine Trump on his deathbed muttering to the two or three people there: "I used to be president!" And they'll look at each other, smile softly, pat him on his head and say: "Sure, pop. Sure."

And then he'll die, and they'll say, phew, at least it happened before he ran for a second term.

If by 'makes some lame excuse and bails' you mean 'shits his pants and dies on the spot', I concur.

If by "look at each other, smile softly, pat him on his head and say: "Sure, pop. Sure."" you mean "ignore Trump and keep checking Twitter on their phones as he flatulently expires", I concur.

as he flatulently expires

Like a balloon losing air.

Like a whoopee cushion.

Like an inflatable mattress after your guest has left.

Like the bounce house after the party.

Last night, I made like Emmerich and tried to imagine what would happen if some misguided party kidnapped the president. Probably something along the lines of, 'so...what's on the agenda today, President Pence?'

Like, how quickly would the entire country conspire to rewrite the history of the past year if he just disappeared?

GOP Senator from Colorado re Sessions move:

This reported action directly contradicts what Attorney General Sessions told me prior to his confirmation. With no prior notice to Congress, the Justice Department has trampled on the will of the voters in CO and other states.

— Cory Gardner (@SenCoryGardner) January 4, 2018

I am prepared to take all steps necessary, including holding DOJ nominees, until the Attorney General lives up to the commitment he made to me prior to his confirmation.

— Cory Gardner (@SenCoryGardner) January 4, 2018

Liberals have already been trying to write Trumpism off as an aberration rather than a natural culmination of steadily-evolving trends, so yeah xp

I always expected trump to try to ban books, I just didn’t think it would be a single book, about him.

And wow this one-two

One of the baffling things about Trumpworld giving access to Wolff: all they needed to do was call Murdoch and he would have said don’t cooperate b/c Wolff had written nasty book on him. And Jared/Trump speak to Murdoch all the time!

— Gabriel Sherman (@gabrielsherman) January 4, 2018

I kept waiting for that call to be made. https://t.co/RGm2SqLbKx

— Michael Wolff (@MichaelWolffNYC) January 4, 2018

Summary: pic.twitter.com/JLBpzQcK0J

— Mike Flacy (@mikeflacy) January 4, 2018

If by 'makes some lame excuse and bails' you mean 'shits his pants and dies on the spot', I concur.

― Bobby Buttrock (Old Lunch), Thursday, January 4, 2018 8:42 AM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If by "look at each other, smile softly, pat him on his head and say: "Sure, pop. Sure."" you mean "ignore Trump and keep checking Twitter on their phones as he flatulently expires", I concur.

― "Taste's very strange!" (stevie), Thursday, January 4, 2018 8:43 AM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sometimes this thread is a gift

These quotes are funny/terrifying, but my sense is Trump could be removed from office and the nation's taste for such a figure won't have been tempered a bit. You'll just get another demon like him but more competent.

If by 'makes some lame excuse and bails' you mean 'shits his pants and dies on the spot', I concur.

I'm making predictions not wishes

Feels like it might be complacent to call Trump the *culmination* of these trends in American politics and society, rather than just another stage on the descent

These quotes are funny/terrifying, but my sense is Trump could be removed from office and the nation's taste for such a figure won't have been tempered a bit. You'll just get another demon like him but more competent.

― droit au butt (Euler), Thursday, January 4, 2018 9:55 AM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm not going to say there won't be political candidates who get some serious traction by speaking directly to Trumpist grievance/dem baiting/racism, because there absolutely will be. But I absolutely believe that Trump eked out a win largely on the basis of celebrity/name recognition. If some no-name GOP senator had replicated Trump's campaign note-for-note, he wouldn't have come within spitting distance of the presidency.

Feels like it might be complacent to call Trump the *culmination* of these trends in American politics and society, rather than just another stage on the descent

Yes.

Fortunately I have no idea who most TV celebrities are today, let alone which could be apocalyptic candidates. xp

Republican David Yancey has won the important state race in Virginia's 94th district: his name was picked from the ceramic bowl. The Democrat can request another recount.

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 4, 2018

After a tie-breaking name drawing by Virginia State Board of Elections officials, Republican David Yancey has officially been declared the winner in the 94th Virginia House of Delegates District seat in Newport News.

Yancey, the incumbent, maintains his seat in the House of Delegates after an unconventional end to the Virginia race. Republicans now hold a 51-49 majority in the state House.

xp

guy must have lucky charms

well, looks like republicans in the state of Virginia have their mandate to impose their will on the entire state

let god take the wheel and then drive it off a cliff

really should have been a duel

his name was picked from the ceramic bowl.

In all seriousness, delete America.

The oracle has spoken!

😂😂😂
Scaramucci: Some of us have different views, but lets subordinate all that nonsense and work for the president and knock it off.

Ruhle: Anthony, you said 6 months ago that you think Steve Bannon tries to suck his own penis. pic.twitter.com/a5AAcIVn5o

— Lis Power (@LisPower1) January 4, 2018

"Legislative power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical ceramic ceremony."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8bqQ-C1PSE

lol The book is a bestseller on Amazon and it's not even released

In the span of one day, Michael Wolff’s bombshell book about President Donald Trump and his administration, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, moved 48,448 positions up on Amazon’s best-seller list to reach the no. 1 spot. As of 10:00 a.m. ET on Thursday, it has retained its status. (The book is still in pre-order stages; it will be released on Jan. 9.)

can't wait for Trump to take credit for having a new best selling book out

I'm not going to say there won't be political candidates who get some serious traction by speaking directly to Trumpist grievance/dem baiting/racism, because there absolutely will be. But I absolutely believe that Trump eked out a win largely on the basis of celebrity/name recognition. If some no-name GOP senator had replicated Trump's campaign note-for-note, he wouldn't have come within spitting distance of the presidency.

― Bobby Buttrock (Old Lunch), Thursday, January 4, 2018 8:08 AM (forty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's also important to note he was going up against probably the most hated candidate the democrats could have nominated, the bête noire of the entire GOP establishment and idiot fox viewership and a just-large-enough segment of the left.

and whose stirring get-out-the-vote label was 'Qualified'

xpost

the mooch video is funny but it also saddens me because it reminds me that i can never run for any sort of public office. "KM you argue for policies which remove the incentive for electricity utilities to increase sales as a means of increasing revenue and profits...but a recent comprehensive analysis of your posts on the internet found that you used the word "fartz", with a 'z', more than 750 times in the last ten years, including one period in August 2011 where it was used over 200 times."

Weird scenes etc

Trump on Bannon: “He called me a great man last night...he changed his tune pretty quick.”

Adds: “I don’t talk to him”

— Jordan Fabian (@Jordanfabian) January 4, 2018

xpost You're still stuck in that 2016 way of thinking! There are literally no barriers to entry at this point. You just have to be vehemently unapologetic about the 'fartz'-ing, perhaps even suggesting that those who spell it 'farts' are terrorists who hate America.

damn i was about to que up a morbs addition to the shitty candidate hillary discussion but you beat me to it irl xxxp

Oh, actually, basic decency and a healthy sense of shame are probably barriers to entry now so you may want to work on stamping those qualities into the dirt.