Trump, June 2017: From [Covfefe] with Love

"Don't take that seriously, it's not the real message. Help me."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DQmKkR62jo

I used to think he was just stupid and mean as a snake, but I suspect dementia now.

today in "things I did not expect from the NYT op-ed page"

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/opinion/american-communism.html?_r=0&referer=https://t.co/lLGJngAFOq

Also, a slightly counterintuitive thought re the NSA/Reality Winner story (though frankly in this entire mess I'll defer to Tomboto, obv.) -- everyone's been focused on Comey testifying on Thursday, but there's another public hearing tomorrow of interest -- Mike Rogers, who heads the NSA. By virtue of the fact that this story broke and then, with Winner's arrest, was confirmed, seems like a convenient way to ask Rogers a little more about it.

Whenever I become less steadfast in recognizing the profundity of Trump's stupidity, I can always trust that he'll come along to nudge me back onto the right path. Just the dumbest fucking human I've probably ever been aware of. It's astounding.

I used to think he was just stupid and mean as a snake, but I suspect dementia now.

I keep resisting dementia as an explanation just because I'm wary of that being either a justification or an excuse, depending on what side you're on. But since it's increasingly clear his lawyers seem to have no control over what he's choosing to post, one wonders.

The other factor I'll note as well is the question of how involved Dan Scavino, his social media director, is with any of these tweets.

Some good stories for the morning, first:

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-06-06/in-trump-s-white-house-everything-s-coming-in-two-weeks

President Donald Trump has a plan. It’ll be ready in two weeks.

From overhauling the tax code to releasing an infrastructure package to making decisions on Nafta and the Paris climate agreement, Trump has a common refrain: A big announcement is coming in just “two weeks.” It rarely does.

On Feb. 9, Trump boasted that his administration was “way ahead of schedule” on a tax overhaul.

“We’re going to be announcing something I would say over the next two or three weeks that will be phenomenal in terms of tax and developing our aviation infrastructure,” Trump said while meeting with airline executives.

Eleven weeks elapsed before the White House released a one-page outline of the tax plan.

In an April 29 interview on “CBS This Morning” Trump said of his promised $1 trillion infrastructure construction program: “We’ve got the plan largely completed and we’ll be filing over the next two or three weeks -- maybe sooner,” Trump said.

No legislation has been filed. The White House has yet to outline the plan, beyond broad principles described in Trump’s proposed budget.

Next

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/05/trump-russia-war-room-239170

The White House’s Russia investigation “war room” may have been killed before the battle.

Just days before former FBI director James Comey’s Senate testimony about his firing, President Donald Trump decided that all inquiries related to the scandals engulfing his administration should be handled by his outside lawyer in New York instead of by a team based inside the White House, according to four advisors close to Trump.

The so-called “war room,” similar to a Clinton administration crisis operation created to deal with Monica Lewinsky-related inquiries, was taking shape as of last week, with plans for two former campaign aides to take over rapid response on Russia questions, according to a person with knowledge of the conversations.

Former deputy campaign manager David Bossie was being considered to join the West Wing in a senior position. Corey Lewandowski, a former campaign manager who was fired in June 2016, was scouting office space in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building last week for a White House team.

The president decided that Bossie and Lewandowski would be “more valuable on the outside than on the inside fighting back against the Russia narrative specifically,” said a person with knowledge of the conversations.

...

While the Clinton White House integrated lawyers into a larger rapid response operation, the Trump team has so far relegated all inquiries related to the Russia scandal to Trump’s long-time attorney in New York Marc Kasowitz.

There’s still debate over whether Kasowitz will be aided by an outside public relations team to handle media inquiries. Bossie and Lewandowski may assist in that effort to defend the president from the outside, according to the person with knowledge of the conversations.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9v-33jcEDk4/maxresdefault.jpg

Phil Murphy is your next Goldman Sachs Democrat guv of NJ (maybe)

And finally for now, the WSJ editorial board finally going "What the fuck is WRONG with you?"

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-buck-stops-everywhere-else-1496705412

If this pattern continues, Mr. Trump may find himself running an Administration with no one but his family and the Breitbart staff. People of talent and integrity won’t work for a boss who undermines them in public without thinking about the consequences. And whatever happened to the buck stops here?

Mr. Trump is also sabotaging the legitimate legal basis for the travel ban, and the stakes are bigger than the ban itself, which we think is counterproductive and unnecessary. He is exercising core presidential powers over foreign affairs that the courts may restrict if Mr. Trump keeps daring them to do so.

Two appellate courts have ignored the order’s text and cited legally irrelevant campaign statements to rule that the ban is really intended to discriminate against Muslims. And now President Trump has given liberal judges Twitter evidence to conclude that his motives may be suspect. At the very least he is making it harder to corral a Supreme Court majority.

In other words, in 140-character increments, Mr. Trump diminished his own standing by causing a minor international incident, demonstrated that the loyalty he demands of the people who work for him isn’t reciprocal, set back his policy goals and wasted time that he could have devoted to health care, tax reform or “infrastructure week.” Mark it all down as further evidence that the most effective opponent of the Trump Presidency is Donald J. Trump.

(Also, speaking of lawyers)

https://www.yahoo.com/news/four-top-law-firms-turned-requests-represent-trump-122423972.html

Before Kasowitz was retained, however, some of the biggest law firms and their best-known attorneys turned down overtures when they were sounded out by White House officials to see if they would be willing to represent the president, the sources said.

Among them, sources said, were some of the most high-profile names in the legal profession, including Brendan Sullivan of Williams & Connolly; Ted Olson of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Paul Clement and Mark Filip of Kirkland & Ellis; and Robert Giuffra of Sullivan & Cromwell.

The lawyers and their firms cited a variety of factors in choosing not to take on the president as a client. Some, like Brendan Sullivan, said they had upcoming trials or existing commitments that that would make it impossible for them to devote the necessary time and resources to Trump’s defense.

Others mentioned potential conflicts with clients of their firms, such as financial institutions that have already received subpoenas relating to potential money-laundering issues that are part of the investigation.

But a consistent theme, the sources said, was the concern about whether the president would accept the advice of his lawyers and refrain from public statements and tweets that have consistently undercut his position.

“The concerns were, ‘The guy won’t pay and he won’t listen,’” said one lawyer close to the White House who is familiar with some of the discussions between the firms and the administration, as well as deliberations within the firms themselves.

Primary Elections today in New Jersey, says twitter. So... anyone know anything worth looking out for? Any good leftist candidates trying to primary centrists?

Just voted. I had been thinking about voting for one of the leftier candidates, but when the whole Paris accord thing happened, and the governors of CA, WA and NY all teamed up in their "Climate Alliance," I looked on every NJ candidate's website in the days that followed to see which of them had promised to sign on if elected, and the only one who did was Phil Murphy, the guy every other Democratic candidate was busy calling a corporate shill in their TV ads. The guy I had specifically thought about voting for? The only news releases on his site were "Phil Murphy must apologize for this" and "Phil Murphy did that." So I voted for Murphy.

― grawlix (unperson), 6. juni 2017 15:31 (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh, thanks, didn't realize the gubernatorial primary is today as well. That's interesting! Is there any info on the prospects for November at this point?

That's the thing, the people who own the earth share our interest in the earth not being destroyed

Also Trump seems to be tweeting about Qatar being horrible. Pity about the huge US military base there.

The Saudi Orb is passing him instructions.

Orbo Ordus Seclorum

Dan Scavino, his social media director

he has a social media director?

Trump treating his little memo issuance yesterday like a major bill-signing is the Trump-est thing ever.

At an East Room event that was choreographed like the elaborate ceremonies for enacting major legislation, Mr. Trump signed a memo and letter to Congress outlining his principles for overhauling the nation’s air traffic control system. He handed out pens to lawmakers who had been invited to attend, and reveled in several rounds of applause.

But Mr. Trump’s announcement did not have any binding effect, and Democrats quickly denounced the proposal.

as would-be despots go, he's closer to a Lewis Carroll version than anything

It's not about Reality, it's all about a salary

Primary Elections today in New Jersey, says twitter. So... anyone know anything worth looking out for? Any good leftist candidates trying to primary centrists?

― Frederik B, Tuesday, June 6, 2017 9:22 AM (one hour ago)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LEfqueATEbAMVZSc1cdmqyAklgHOfWMS7xADzjXEowk/htmlview?sle=true#gid=0

he has a social media director?

Strange but true...

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

(And his own posts are as bad as Trump's. So I honestly do wonder!)

I just realized that I want to be a social media director

lol, I must have missed this one:

Over the July 4, 2016 weekend, controversy arose when Trump's Twitter account posted an image selected by Scavino of Hillary Clinton with a text in the shape of a Star of David calling her the "Most Corrupt Candidate Ever"; said image had originally appeared on an anti-Semitic, white supremacist message board. Trump's team defended its use saying that the star was a "sheriff's badge", before eventually deleting it and posting a new picture with a circle replacing the star.[3]

i don't know how you could've! i think it was #48 in the 386 Things That Were Going to Finish Trump.

oh god, blast from the past

that shit feels like a thousand years ago

distorted perception of time is a side-effect of long-term exposure to the simulation we're all trapped in iirc

'circle crudely overlaid on the star but you can still see the points' is my recollection.

Oh how young and we innocent we were in those days

we

Even if were to drop dead this afternoon, there's easily enough material for an ambitious writer to make Trump's the longest multi-volume presidential biography yet.

Covfefe: The Trump Year Vol. 17 (May to early June 2017) (793 pgs.)

see? My thread title has paid dividends.

how do you depict a central character who apparently has no inner life whatsoever tho

Imagine James Joyce answering the question in 2024.

Crib a lot from Marquez's The Autumn Of The Patriarch and The General In His Labyrinth.

Covfefe: The Trump Year Vol. 17 (May to early June 2017) (793 pgs.)

just a bit of fun everyone be cool

Crib a lot from Marquez's The Autumn Of The Patriarch and The General In His Labyrinth.

― grawlix (unperson),

Flowers for Algernon

every time i imagine trump in the oval office i picture this for some reason

https://trillornottrill.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/burns.gif

Trump 5/21: Qatar is "strategic partner," pledges to sell them "beautiful weapons"

Trump 6/6: Qatar is terror hub https://t.co/aNWXaRixtb

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) June 6, 2017

every word of that tweet is boundlessly awful but trump tapping his 250-word vocabulary to describe weapons is particularly upsetting

You can keep negging Qatar all you want, Donnie, but it ain't goin' home with you.

how do you depict a central character who apparently has no inner life whatsoever tho

Imagine James Joyce answering the question

Remember how Laurence Sterne anticipated metafiction by running a whole page printed black? I can see a Joycean inner monologue of Trump that consists of 200 blank pages.

man the qatar world cup in 2022 is gonna be a doozy

nah jk we'll all be dead by then

russia 2018, qatar 2022 is that latest in a long list of extremely on the nose plot twists