Trump, July 2017: Tweet more

Heaven forbid Donald Trump engage in any behavior that might be construed as 'trashy'.

Did Sessions do a closed hearing court session since the JUne open one? I thought he was on his way out already. But somebody here has pointed out taht none of the usual penalties are being undertaken and that was a couple of weeks back. I think he's done even more since tehn hasn't he?

At some point surely some level of control and authority has to be applied to this misrule. Surely?

I'm sure he was brought up to believe that cursing is "trashy."

I was going to argue that someone who talked about walking up to women and grabbing them by the pussy wouldn't shy away from some good old cursing but then I remembered my cousin, who once unironically said to me, "Nigga, I don't give a flip!" so there's really no telling.

Although he did say he moved in on a woman "like a bitch," didn't he? Wouldn't that count as cursing?

I've read accounts that he swears like a sailor when out of the public eye.

At a news conference ostensibly meant to announce the takedown of an illicit online marketplace, Sessions said he had the “honor of serving as attorney general,” and he planned “to continue to do so as long as that is appropriate.” Asked how he could keep working, having apparently lost President Trump’s confidence, Sessions responded: “We’re serving right now. The work we’re doing today is the kind of work that we intend to continue.

add sessions to the list of GOP people who dgaf and aren't scared of trump i guess

So I'll continue to continue to pretend
My life will never end,
And flowers never bend with the rainfall.

I'm not talking about behind closed doors with Billy Bush, other times when he is not aware of the camera or recording devices… but when he knows that he is "on." He doesn't care about how he behaves in 99% of instances when he's being watched, performing etc, so why wouldn't he curse in public, calling Comey or H Clinton and Mika B a cunt or asshole…or say "fuck the haters" at one of his rallies.

It can only be that he developed an instinct to not curse when he was on television, or doing deals with men he knew would disapprove, etc, when he was in his 30s and could still train himself to not do shit that would work against his interests. He clearly has not had that ability in many years, cognitive decline, etc.

He curses volcanically when he is not "on." Karen Pence is evidently deeply mortified whenever she must be in his presense.

"presence." Mrs. Pence loves "achilles last stand" btw.

Sessions said he had the “honor of serving as attorney general,”

i read that as "horror of serving as attorney general" at first.

Sessions knows Trump can't fire him

xp

which is too bad because Sessions is the person I would most appreciate Trump firing

yeah and a sessions who isn't scared of his boss seems bad for everyone

I thought the response to his behaviour during the open hearing where he refused to answer questions because of an uninvoked presidential privelege was to try to get him to a closed hearing. This in the wake of both of the non responsive people in the previous weeks sessions had been brought in privately where thy had both become more responsive.
Has he just been refusing to appear or found some other way of wriggling out of things.

Surely he should be ousted by the law he's supposed to be serving.

"the law"

there is no solution to the current predicament that is legal, rather than political

ie, there is no non-elected, non-partisan, apolitical authority to appeal to

Trump will, however, fire Mueller.

probably

maybe not immediately but I can see it happening at some point. Trump will also pardon anybody that happens to get charged, including himself

Revolution time?

the left doesn't have any ammo

guessing we'll become a one-party autocratic state in 15-20 years. well, even more than we already are

In all honesty, the idea that we're watching the slow death of the US as a functioning democracy doesn't feel at all hyperbolic anymore. It seems like the only hope of turning the tide is if there's some efficacious pushback against this shit, legitimate punishments meted out, etc. But I'm not holding my breath. Even if Trump & co. don't finish the job, a more efficient operator will come along to exploit all of the weaknesses his tenure has exposed and that no one fought to patch up.

yeah things don't go backwards

I wouldn't undercut the gravity of firing Mueller. It could play out like this:

1) Trump informs Mueller he is relieved

AG Rosenstein and Mueller both inform them he does not have that authority and decision is challenged in court. Base still stays with him as do majority of Republican voters, but Congress starts to break from him out of fear for their own careers.

2) Trump asks Rosenstein to fire him.

Rosenstein probably refuses, is then fired or resigns, and we have Saturday Night Massacre part Deux until someone does. I can't see Trump surviving this one politically. Yes, we say that every week, but there's a stark diff between him flouting the law in ways his bitches can easily spin doctor and him performing a cover of one of the most imfamous acts im political history.

He'd still retain support of maybe even a majority of the base but even if impeachment failed, it'd probably sink the 2018 election. Dems try again after 2018 (still no easy feat) and Trump dies choking on some intetn's edible panties.

Ok i really have no clue how this will play out. But Comey firing had the benefit of plausible deniability that there could be other reasons for the firing (terrible plausible deniability but still). Mueller was hired for one purpose, Trump went on record almost saying he'd fire dude for looking at his finances even tho it is legally within scope, so if he does, there's no deniability.

May not get him impeached due to the ridiculous political climate but his ability to influence anybody in Congress would be dead

His poll numbers among Republicans might actually fall into the low 90s if he did that.

http://phildellio.tripod.com/trump.jpg

Very poor timing.

In today's daily dose of disturbing reportage from the heartland, a trip to western Colorado:

Before Trump took office, people I met in Grand Junction emphasized pragmatic reasons for supporting him. The economy was in trouble, and Trump was a businessman who knew how to make rational, profit-oriented decisions. Supporters almost always complained about some aspect of his character, but they also believed that these flaws were likely to help him succeed in Washington. “I’m not voting for him to be my pastor,” Kathy Rehberg, a local real-estate agent, said. “I’m voting for him to be President. If I have rats in my basement, I’m going to try to find the best rat killer out there. I don’t care if he’s ugly or if he’s sociable. All I care about is if he kills rats.”

After the turbulent first two months of the Administration, I met again with Kathy Rehberg and her husband, Ron. They were satisfied with Trump’s performance, and their complaints about his behavior were mild. “I think some of it is funny, how he doesn’t let people push him around,” Ron Rehberg said. Over time, such remarks became more common. “I hate to say it, but I wake up in the morning looking forward to what else is coming,” Ray Scott, a Republican state senator who had campaigned for Trump, told me in June. One lawyer said bluntly, “I get a kick in the ass out of him.” The calculus seemed to have shifted: Trump’s negative qualities, which once had been described as a means to an end, now had value of their own. The point wasn’t necessarily to get things done; it was to retaliate against the media and other enemies. This had always seemed fundamental to Trump’s appeal, but people had been less likely to express it so starkly before he entered office. “For those of us who believe that the media has been corrupt for a lot of years, it’s a way of poking at the jellyfish,” Karen Kulp told me in late April. “Just to make them mad.”

Xpost That statement is more likely to piss off angry racist White Voters than anything

AG Rosenstein and Mueller both inform them he does not have that authority and decision is challenged in court.

challenged in court by who

the slow death of the US as a functioning democracy

Some could argue that this has roots much further back, but I think the rudder actually snapped in half in 2010.

Democracy only works if politicians actually give a shit beyond "doing things just to piss off liberals"

I actually as a lark looked into whether I qualified to emigrate to Canada and I most likely do plus my job would move with me so...lol.

I think even if Trump got impeached, the lasting damage to the system is already done. Look forward to President Toby Keith in 2028

I actually as a lark looked into whether I qualified to emigrate to Canada and I most likely do plus my job would move with me so...lol.

Me, too.

vote Keith/Richards "Government Is the Problem" '28

the slow death of the US as a functioning democracy

Some could argue that this has roots much further back, but I think the rudder actually snapped in half in 2010.

― El Tomboto, Thursday, July 20, 2017 4:44 PM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

my money is on that time the supreme court picked george w bush to be president in 2000

I think there's a fair chance that I'll live to see something in US government on par with Caligula appointing his horse as consul. Not that our current president is that far off.

that's a terrible thing to call Ivanka

The point wasn’t necessarily to get things done; it was to retaliate against the media and other enemies. This had always seemed fundamental to Trump’s appeal, but people had been less likely to express it so starkly before he entered office. “For those of us who believe that the media has been corrupt for a lot of years, it’s a way of poking at the jellyfish,” Karen Kulp told me in late April. “Just to make them mad.”

This is the reasoning that gets to me: "Oh sure, take away or fuck my healthcare up more than it already is, ruin the environment, push our military into ill-advised situations with unnecessary fatalities--it's all worth it BECAUSE WE PUT THE MEDIA IN THEIR PLACE!"

Cognitive dissonance, bro. All this stuff Trump does is just harmless entertainment. I mean, it's on tv, right?

It's probably about time for things to fall completely apart and for all of us to have a nice long think about what makes a society function while we forage for nuts and berries for a couple thousand years.

Look forward to President Toby Keith in 2028

Lee Greenwood wants to have a word with you.

"Oh sure, take away or fuck my healthcare up more than it already is, ruin the environment, push our military into ill-advised situations with unnecessary fatalities--it's all worth it BECAUSE WE PUT THE MEDIA IN THEIR PLACE!"

You say that like it's not a very real motivator for some people. Not that alone, and not just the media. But I've seen PLENTY of middle-finger-voting rightwingers express similar sentiments.

It's not just like the excerpt quoted; it's like, "No, I don't personally approve of everything Trump says and does (cf. 'I'm not voting for him to be my pastor'), and maybe he's not really going to build a wall / repeal Obamacare / whatever. But: 1. Hillary Rodham Clinton will never be president (HRCWNBP), and 2. He's sticking it to the coastal elites. All the rest is gravy."

Like a lot of us I have grown SOFA KING WEARY of "conservatives in the mist" thinkpieces. But this most recent New Yorker one at least got that right: it is not about policy, it is about tribe, tone, and poking the jellyfish.

Also, it wasn't about grizzled old steelworkers but about women and Latinx immigrants and outcasts and intellectuals who find the Trumpian mode compelling.

Another thing, the only thing I am more sick of than another "conservatives in the mist" thinkpiece is another rehash of the Baffler-style "why are these dummies VOTING AGAINST THEIR SELF-INTEREST???!!!eleven???!!" As if self-interest were purely economic/rational and not visceral/tribal/groinal.

I'm sick of American politics existing and being a thing I think about

I actually as a lark looked into whether I qualified to emigrate to Canada

Is there an online test?

I don't think anything was posted from the NYT Mag piece last Sunday on DC Under Yam... I liked these two passages:

As a general rule, the most time-efficient and foolproof approach for a Trump-weary Republican is to simply walk through the Capitol as if protected by a selectively permeable bubble filtering out certain unwelcome words (e.g., ‘‘Trump’’). Mitch McConnell is the master of this, and I caught the Senate Republican leader as he walked off the Senate floor on the day of the Comey hearings. ‘‘What’d you think of Comey?’’ I asked as he headed back to his office. He kept walking, remaining impassive. The McConnell Zombie Walk is familiar to any reporter who has spent time on Capitol Hill. But this was a rare privilege to be *exclusively* blown off by McConnell. It was just me alone with him and his security detail moving down an empty hallway. I asked the question twice more, until we passed Lindsey Graham, who was walking in the other direction. Of late, Graham had been a font of backhanded Trump defenses. ‘‘He can’t collude with his own government,’’ Graham said last month on ‘‘Face the Nation.’’ ‘‘Why do you think he’s colluding with the Russians?’’ (He had also suggested to reporters that it was no big deal that Comey had accused Trump of lying, because ‘‘everyone in the primary accused him of lying.’’) I asked Graham how he would characterize this moment in the capital, given that he has seen many Washington circuses over the years. He paused and took a breath, as if he were about to deliver the first line of a sermon. ‘‘I yearn for the good old days of impeachment,’’ he said, then ducked into a meeting....

Ryan, who was persuaded by his House colleagues to replace Boehner as speaker in 2015, has perfected his ‘‘I don’t need this job’’ shtick. He will frequently express longing for his previous post as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. When I interviewed him in his grand office at the Capitol, I asked what he liked best about being speaker. ‘‘The impact, the big impact I can have,’’ he said.

What’s the worst part?

‘‘Everything else,’’ Ryan said. He laughed and then tried to declare what he’d just said ‘‘kinda off the record.’’

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/magazine/washington-dc-politics-trump-this-town-melts-down.html?mcubz=2

You say that like it's not a very real motivator for some people. Not that alone, and not just the media. But I've seen PLENTY of middle-finger-voting rightwingers express similar sentiments.

Actually knowing about policies--their nuances and ramifications--and international relations, and DC processes etc takes knowledge and work. Picking tribal battles and getting childish thrills from some clown "sticking it to" your perceived enemies is much easier and more fun.

Spicer’s adviser stepped in to remind him that he had a TV interview to do in a few minutes. He walked over to a small desk in the corner of his office and started rubbing on foundation. I made a verbal note of this into my tape recorder. ‘‘Don’t you dare,’’ Spicer said, ‘‘just so we’re clear.’’

‘‘You’re putting on makeup,’’ I said.

‘‘You’re going to say that in the story,’’ he charged, ‘‘that I’m putting on makeup?’’

‘‘Well, you are.’’

‘‘I’m going on my way to a television hit,’’ he said. He patted his cheeks a few times with a makeup puff.

‘‘That’s fine,’’ I said.

‘‘So, as long as it’s in context.’’

‘‘You’re going on TV,’’ I affirmed.

‘‘I believe there are too many reporters who are looking for some snarky angle,’’ he said.

We walked out of the White House, and Spicer, looking perfect, veered off to the front lawn to tape his second on-camera interview of the afternoon with Fox News.

mr. trump and his people are good people, sticking it to the liberals

"That's a luxury we don't have" -@JohnCornyn when asked "don't some people want to know the plan before they vote" on health care.

— Kelsey Snell (@kelsey_snell) July 20, 2017

sort of like democracy