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

Rep. Gregg Harper (MS-3) bails out after this term.

CNN:
Harper became the 44th member of the current House -- including more than two dozen Republicans -- to announce that he will retire, campaign for other office or resign by the end of the current term. This means that more than one tenth of the chamber is planning to leave.

For Republicans, it's the sixth committee chair this cycle to retire or run for another office.

catching up here but wolff is a grifter and a scumbag (i know people who have been personally affected by his bullshit—read BURN RATE if you want the kind-to-him version of his dot-com era antics), and he's also been comically wrong about The Future Of Journalism while sucking up to the people who've helped turn it into a shambles.

in other words, he fits right in with the trump white house

memories http://tktk.gawker.com/we-have-a-few-more-blurbs-for-michael-wolffs-new-book-1707802934

our caligula has his seneca

US publisher Henry Holt is understood to be in discussions to move forward publication of the book after receiving the cease-and-desist letter from Trump’s lawyers. About 250,000 copies of the book have already been shipped, but they are supposed to be held under strict embargo until Tuesday.

Although lifting the embargo is complicated, the publisher could now direct booksellers to immediately place the book on sale, a source with knowledge of discussions said.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/04/trump-lawyers-book-steve-bannon-white-house

Fucking weird anyone would grant this dude access anywhere anymore. “All press is good press” kind of breaks doen when you’ve already monopolized the world’s attention.

all these idiots are super-susceptible to flattery from anyone who they perceive as 'like them'

we're dealing with an inherited aristocracy (in well-funded denial that it's an aristocratic class) afflicted by dunning-kruger effect

i definitely just pre-ordered the book

In Wolff’s account, the battle lines inside the White House were clearly drawn. Bannon, Reince Priebus, who served as chief of staff before Kelly, and Donald McGahn, the White House counsel, were adamantly opposed to firing Comey. “McGahn tried to explain that in fact Comey himself was not running the Russia investigation, that without Comey the investigation would proceed anyway,” Wolff writes. In an Oval Office meeting, Bannon told Trump, “This Russian story is a third-tier story, but you fire Comey and it’ll be the biggest story in the world.”

Ranged on the other side of the issue, according to Wolff, were some of Trump’s cronies outside the White House, including Chris Christie and Rudolph Giuliani, who “encouraged him to take the view that the DOJ was resolved against him; it was all part of a holdover Obama plot.” Even more important, Wolff goes on, was the concern of Charles Kushner, Jared’s father, “channeled through his son and daughter-in-law, that the Kushner family [business] dealings were getting wrapped up in the pursuit of Trump.” As the President considered whether to get rid of Comey, Jared and Ivanka “encouraged him, arguing the once possibly charmable Comey was now a dangerous and uncontrollable player whose profit would inevitably be their loss.”

reince priebus: temporarily the smartest guy in the room, somehow, a memoir

if ever a book screamed to be torrented, this is it

that was my plan tbh

Meantime

DENVER (AP) - US attorney in Colorado: No change to marijuana enforcement despite Attorney General Jeff Sessions' shift on pot policy

— Josh Lederman (@joshledermanAP) January 4, 2018

Posting this because that's one ugly freezeframe

Trump on Bannon calling him a “great man”: He changed his tune pretty quick, didn’t he? https://t.co/4x80pGARj6 pic.twitter.com/xXqTZJWyPz

— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) January 4, 2018

This one's something as well.

Just In: When asked if Steve Bannon betrayed him, President Trump said, "he called me a great man last night" although he hasn't talked to him.

Adding Bannon "changed his tune pretty quick" since the many revelations in @MichaelWolffNYC's upcoming book. pic.twitter.com/U0h79LfFeL

— errol barnett (@errolbarnett) January 4, 2018

any image of trump is a graven image

really want a push to have him put on the penny

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/be/02/00/be0200e6eb6785ea7bbda8ab938d51aa--jungles.jpg

an echo

Garry Wills on anxiety, political discontent, police brutality, the "forgotten American," and "false news" in 1968. From Nixon Agonistes. pic.twitter.com/IXXb5F1SDf

— Osita Nwanevu (@OsitaNwanevu) January 4, 2018

Nixon Agonistes is a great book btw

Why did they think this was a good idea.

New header image pic.twitter.com/2GCBflU1Hp

— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) January 4, 2018

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

— Michael Wolff (@MichaelWolffNYC) January 4, 2018

These Trump screencaps need to stop, I'm freely wetting myself at this point with all the laughing.

Another confirmation on the dinner story reported by Wolff

So I was one of the 6 guests at the Bannon-Ailes dinner party in January 2017 and every word I've seen from the book about it is absolutely accurate. It was an astonishing night... pic.twitter.com/I4vgOrHOYb

— Janice Min (@janicemin) January 4, 2018

Was going to start/propose a new thread, "Pictures of Trump where it looks like he's pooping," but EVERY picture of him, he looks like he's pooping.

I simply cannot imagine why that would be the case. I simply cannot.

Yes, yes of course

On CNN, Atty. Mark Geragos says he has it on 'good authority' that Steve Bannon is considering a defamation suit against President Trump.

— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) January 4, 2018

screencaps of trump making the exact same expression as pokey minch https://lparchive.org/Mother-3/Update%2034/21-62.png

Was going to start/propose a new thread, "Pictures of Trump where it looks like he's pooping," but EVERY picture of him, he looks like he's pooping.

Ties right into the common observation that he sits on every chair like it's a toilet.

I get that Wolff apparently has some credibility issues, but given everything we know, given that this entire year and change has been punctuated by daily (often multiple times daily) doses of Trumpian WTF-ery, why would anyone with his level of access need to do anything more than directly transcribe what he's heard/recorded? Attempting to out-sensationalize that gaggle of fucksticks would be a very steep climb and not even worth the effort. It's like being accused of overstating how wet the ocean is after spending a year floating around in it. It's the wettest ever, no need to exaggerate.

And this kinda confirms it.

Incredulous, I often asked Michael about his near-weekly visits to roam the White House unsupervised:

Me: 'So what do they THINK you are doing?'

Him (typing, typing): 'I have no idea. No one asks'

— Janice Min (@janicemin) January 4, 2018

The victories continue...

#BREAKING: Trump tells GOP senators he doesn't expect physical 2,200-mile wall to be part of immigration deal https://t.co/aAFMMmxMuf pic.twitter.com/VTOSfcUKCJ

— The Hill (@thehill) January 4, 2018

so hard to imagine a trump white house where nobody knows what's going on. xp

wait no it's not

what are the odds his annual physical actually takes place? Or takes place to completion, without him storming out or firing the doctor or something?

Senator John Cornyn everyone

aggressive senate fashion pic.twitter.com/sJNJrBkIFs

— Jim Newell (@jim_newell) January 4, 2018

xpost I'm glad you explained what you meant by 'to completion'.

It's absolutely astonishing that this article (which is not exactly fawning) is what got Wolff his access:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/donald-trump-conversation-politics-dark-898465

Seriously, every day the question "Just how stupid are these people?" has a new answer.

they liked the cover

that was probably enough

Him (typing, typing)

lol

wolff in the white house:

https://i.imgur.com/a8Fehku.jpg

Earlier in the day, I'd met with Trump at a taping of ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! at the El Capitan Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, where he was the single guest for the evening (musicians The Weeknd and Belly canceled upon learning of his appearance). "Have you ever seen anything like this?" he asked. He meant this, the Trump phenomenon. Circumventing any chance that I might dampen the sentiment, he quickly answered his own question: "No one ever has."

His son-in-law, New York Observer owner Jared Kushner, married to his daughter Ivanka and also a real estate scion — but clearly a more modest and tempered fellow, a wisp next to his beefsteak father-in-law — offered that they may have reached 100 percent name recognition. In other words, Trump could be the most famous man in the world right now. "I may be," says Trump, almost philosophically, and referencing the many people who have told him they've never seen anything like this. "Bill O'Reilly said in his lifetime this is the greatest phenomenon he's ever seen."

✔
@joshledermanAP
DENVER (AP) - US attorney in Colorado: No change to marijuana enforcement despite Attorney General Jeff Sessions' shift on pot policy

1:58 PM - Jan 4, 2018

I misread that as "shit-in-pot policy"

this is the greatest phenomenon he's ever seen

"donald trump" replacing "benedict arnold" is truly historic

xpost Six of one...

now being rushed to stores for tomorrow morning.

lmao

leggoooo

Hmm. (Worth noting Gaetz has been complaining about the Mueller probe forever, so, two birds, one stone?)

Rep. @mattgaetz, who's been one of Trump's strongest allies in the House, blasts DOJ over the new marijuana guidelines. pic.twitter.com/W7xN2IeuxU

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 4, 2018