Trump, September 2017: Walmart Knockoff Hats and Other Indignities

xpost Per the same David Axelrod appearance I saw, he brought up (in response to a question) the unfortunate paradox of public service in the fundraising era: even well-intentioned idealists want to get re-elected (to best serve their constituents), which costs money, which means a ton of time spent fundraising, which means kissing up to people with money, which means promises and compromises to the people with money ahead of the needs of constituents, because how can you best represent your constituents if you don't get re-elected? And so on. Basically, Citizen's United has made this worse, but that seems almost the logical conclusion rather than the start of this cycle of corruption. I think plenty of good people run or want to run for office, but the reality of it makes it tough.

Incidentally, if I didn't mention it earlier, he was asked about Nancy Pelosi and her leadership, and whether Dems needed a change. His answer was interesting. He began by praising her as without a doubt the savviest, most capable politician he worked with in Washington, bar none. He didn't even have to think about it. At the same time, his concern was her age, and the age of other people in positions of power. It's not that she's not capable now, it's that there needs to be younger faces rather than just new faces, both for a new perspective but also for exposure, putting them in place to run for higher office but also to replace people like Pelosi when they eventually retire (of their own volition or not).

Probably deserves to be in the Dem Party thread. Anyway, back on track. Trump is a shithead. I really think what we're seeing is a repeat of how his business organization worked. That is, Trump himself is not particularly savvy or smart about anything, he just surrounds himself with a tight-knit crew of self-serving and almost myopically selfish individuals. That worked (in the general sense) for his private business, but it clearly failed in the public sector, let alone in Washington. I think bringing in Kelly and pushing out Bannon has already made a huge difference in DC operations, but it's probably already too late for the dude, since all the asshats he surrounded himself with from the start could or would not protect him from inflicting all his self-inflicted wounds.

We'll never have a decent guvmint til raising Big Money is no longer necessary. yep, never

lol:

When will the violence end pic.twitter.com/kjRy3L5liX

— Julian Epp (@Julian_Epp) September 16, 2017

The 2013 Daily Show thing was talking about a local representative who was contacted by Washington and offered the chance to run for congress, but thought they were better off working locally where they were looking out for their constituents. Also thought that congress was self-defeating and created its own time consuming processes to no great end.

I had the feeling back in 2005 when i was first getting involved in a local campaign in Mayo that Irish politicians got sucked into an inner circle of those in power rather than the representative position they were elected for. I would assume that the US power structure is similar. Hopefully people are becoming progressively aware of that. I take it that is what Town Halls were supposed to be addressing at least in part.

This keeps getting better and better

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/16/trump-bannon-alabama-senate-showdown-242802

Thank you! https://t.co/vs4MNwXtei

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2017

what's with all these "lana del"- twitter users

also it's still surreal to me that the president of the united states engages on twitter with anonymous randos who have pictures of lana del rey as their profile pic

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/09/juggalos-assemble-in-dc-make-good-points-about-america.html

Most importantly

Can't get over how good this sign is pic.twitter.com/OSrWSj3clw

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 16, 2017

http://pressthink.org/2017/09/normalizing-trump-incredibly-brief-explainer/

That's fine and relatively concise but that was all clear as day by the end of fucking February iirc. But maybe I just live too close to the source

I'm Scottish and thought that was clear.

i mean given the handwringing over jemele hill it's clearly *not* apparent to a large swath of people

Exactly, all these things. The greatest shock (for me) of Trump being prez isn't his lack of...anything, he's exactly who he I knew he was. it's the incredible stupidity of people whom I understood to have better than average understanding of...anything. Trump is terrible-bad, but America is not simply dumb, but STILL willing to be straight evil in ways I'd hoped we'd overcome, post-War. I guess my only hope is that it is not a clear majority that is willing to be straight-evil, just an electoral-college-disputable-victory-majority.

What's that George Carlin quote? "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”

I find it is more accurate to think of stupidity as inhering in a person's actions than as a personality trait. Of course, some people do stupid things with astounding frequency.

two pieces of advice which i trust tbh.

Whomp whomp

JUST IN: Michael Cohen to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, he tells NBC News

— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) September 17, 2017

SCOOP: Don McGahn scolded Ty Cobb for discussing Russia investigation at DC steakhouse, where @nytimes overheard it. https://t.co/sg1u1Gwp0I

— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) September 18, 2017

DISSENT INSIDE TRUMP LEGAL TEAM: Ty Cobb complained that McGahn is withholding documents & has a spy on Cobb's team. https://t.co/sg1u1Gwp0I

— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) September 18, 2017

Tension between the two comes as life in the White House is shadowed by the investigation. Not only do Mr. Trump, Mr. Kushner and Mr. McGahn all have lawyers, but so do other senior officials. The uncertainty has grown to the point that White House officials privately express fear that colleagues may be wearing a wire to surreptitiously record conversations for Mr. Mueller.

As for that steakhouse things

The friction escalated in recent days after Mr. Cobb was overheard by a reporter for The New York Times discussing the dispute during a lunchtime conversation at a popular Washington steakhouse. Mr. Cobb was heard talking about a White House lawyer he deemed “a McGahn spy” and saying Mr. McGahn had “a couple documents locked in a safe” that he seemed to suggest he wanted access to. He also mentioned a colleague whom he blamed for “some of these earlier leaks,” and who he said “tried to push Jared out,” meaning Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, who has been a previous source of dispute for the legal team.

After The Times contacted the White House about the situation, Mr. McGahn privately erupted at Mr. Cobb, according to people informed about the confrontation who asked not to be named describing internal matters. John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, sharply reprimanded Mr. Cobb for his indiscretion, the people said.

a...steakhouse for lunch? Bet they drank iced tea.

Oddly enough I was at a steakhouse for lunch today. (Not in DC, no White House lawyers, and I ordered a burger and had a beer.)

Also I love that the White House staff are now even more paranoid about each other and their wires that may or may not exist.

a...steakhouse for lunch? Bet they drank iced tea.

exactly, wtf.

Another useful thread from dude

THREAD: What does today's @nytimes story about clashes within the Trump legal team tell us?

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) September 18, 2017

And here's a photo!

Here's a photo of Ty Cobb & John Dowd casually & loudly discussing details of Russia investigation at @BLTSteakDC while I sat at next table. pic.twitter.com/RfX9JLJ0Te

— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) September 18, 2017

Looks like, what, Pellegrino?

LMAO these two-bit crooks

The followup comments feature a variety of DC reporters raving over the location's popovers, so, um, there you go.

This is completely incompetent and unethical. Cobb and Dowd owe their client a duty of confidentiality. https://t.co/TV1pPme91e

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) September 18, 2017

1/ Breathtaking. I can't even begin to explain what a serious breach of lawyer ethics this is. Completely unbelievable. Lawyers have a https://t.co/bQYUXAYQAB

— Trisha Rich (@_trishrich) September 18, 2017

Ty Cobb: "Hardheaded/Fuck You All!"

While it is interesting to note what fuckups Trump's main lawyers are and how much milling around and shouting they do, all that really matters is what Mueller unearths and how he chooses to frame it.

Thus, per the threads I've linked, whatever is in the safe.

Yup.

At least they didn't order iced tea

i would have ordered an iced tea

what's wrong with iced tea?

How does Kushner still have clearance?

Is it predictable that the orange idiot has idiot lawyers.

Is it an attempted 6D chess cunning ruse of misdirection. Cue stage whisper naming an unlikely fall guy.
Can any of the team play draughts yet?

what's wrong with iced tea?

― Wichita prepares for totality (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Monday, September 18, 2017

Precisely because it's the corporate alternative to the prohibition against the two-martini lunch.

that is a dumb reason to hate on iced tea with lunch, which is delicious

I didn't say anything about a normal lunch -- I drink lemonade with my sandwich. I meant lunch at a steakhouse.

I think we covered this on last year's cinema detritus thread, because of that one scene in HoHW oh here it is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65-cpYYA-yk

What don't you want?

a stupid lawyer

The 4D chess crew is claiming they leaked this on purpose, that they knew the reporter was there and wanted him to hear it. Every lawyer with a modicum of sense is basically responding to that with, uh, I don't think so.

Hahah well well

Breaking: #MichaelFlynn establishes legal defense fund, will NOT accept donations from overseas or Trump Org/campaign says Flynn source pic.twitter.com/FXM76pDxVJ

— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) September 18, 2017

Hoo boy, but none of this sounds unexpected

https://apnews.com/4cef63caf6b34cb796bc4c196d47c143/How-Trump's-advisers-schooled-him-on-globalism

"If i did 1 10th of what she did"

what about Pence's emails?

gonna be awesome in 4 years when Kellyanne Conway is invited to do a hilarious sketch on SNL about the Bowling Green massacre

So I studied Afghanistan in great detail and from every conceivable angle.

Sure you did, Donald. Half an hour morelike.

Armed with charts, maps and diagrams, those briefers spent the next roughly 90 minutes explaining to Trump the critical importance of forward worldwide deployments of U.S. military, intelligence and diplomatic assets...

Repeated spelling tests which Donald failed because he got "Kabul" wrong.

Mariotti with a full new piece on the possible state of play

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/09/18/how-to-read-bob-mueller-hand-215616

lots of Hot Takes about Spicey on the Emmys

I thought Lorne Michaels had taught us that Everything is Showbiz