Donald Trump: Classic or Dud?

bill barr was like, damn, i'm never going to be invited on television again

I see what you did there

heh

Asked what he thought of the argument for the appointment of a special master, Mr. Barr laughed. “I think it’s a crock of shit,” he said, adding, “I don’t think a special master is called for.” https://t.co/auJhHiRXGN

— Adam Goldman (@adamgoldmanNYT) September 2, 2022

Special mastur amirite

I've a hunch that Barr is deeply offended that, after Trump hired him as AG, he's publicly employed a long list of lawyers who are complete hacks and fools, thus forcing Barr to be associated with them in the public mind.

Right. Barr may be a liar, an authoritarian and an enabler of authoritarians, but he is neither a hack nor a fool.

no he's a hack

Yeah but he is a *conceited* hack, and one whose father helped give Jeffrey Epstein a leg up into high society. We must respect him.

I guess we can at least agree he is not a quack.

He’s just a fucking asshole GOP apparatchik.

The best description I ever read of Barr's look was "Steve Bannon Meets Queer Eye."

He’d still be carrying water for Trump if it was in any way in his interest to do so. He’s just making a different calculation these days.

He was awful as Poppy's AG

Alfred have you read Russ Baker’s book “Family of Secrets,” and if so do you regard it as quackery or a pretty good portrayal of how the Bush family situated themselves at the center of American power?

William Barr a/k/a "Robert Johnson"

I wonder if he met the devil at a crossroads?

I had some sake and I want to talk JFK.

hell yeah

treeship, I'd love to chill with you and sake

Me too. Lemme know when you are in nyc.

I had my first negroni the other night and my bestie said "what put you in the mood for that"

I mentioned a friend in South Florida :)

hell yes

Negronis rule.

I love negronis so much.

otoh, Donald Trump does not love negronis at all. the fool.

Also I will be in NY ina couple weeks. Schedule is pretty packed, but the gf and I are open to suggestions on breweries and cocktail locations.
Also i should find the right thread for this.

I doubt Donald Trump has ever shared his coke.

OK, this is important. So let's go thread. And remember: I'm from New York; I volunteered in the recovery afterward; I wouldn't lie about this shit ... [1] https://t.co/NlkOnmIMy0

— Jeff Pearlman (@jeffpearlman) September 4, 2022

OK, this is not important

It's OK to remind everyone that Trump is a shameless liar who will say anything that he thinks will make him look like an admirable human instead of a worthless piece of shit. It ain't news but it is truth.

you are correct

and i guess i'm glad that you haven't become too disheartened to mention it yet again now when it meant nothing 10 years ago

the only solution to trumpism is to displatform trump completely from everything

appeals to hypocrisy are laughable

It's absolutely infuriating, is what it is.

forgive my being slow on the uptake but it recently crystallized for me that (one explanation for why) the core cult simps for him so hard is because he’s an avatar of all the privileges: white, male, straight, cis, rich. he can’t break the law because he is the law. he can’t ever face consequences because he can’t ever be wrong. that’s why every foul thing he says and does just cleaves those fuckheads closer to him. his untouchableness, his absolute freedom to publicly indulge in every lowest stupidest harefulest impulse, is a reflection and amplification of their own privilege (actual or aspirational).

feeling pretty “um, no duh" about taking so long to see this. i bet others have been pointing it out for ages.

he's just the result of a spoiled brat never being taught responsibility. It's always someone else's fault, you can run away from everything, you can pay people instead of doing anything yourself, etc

It goes beyond that. He has a truly aberrant personality. Without money, he'd likely be in jail or dead already.

*without money and a truly remarkable ability to get people to go along with his bullshit, which is closely related to, but not the same as, having money

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybtwzNpJ0YA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a71VqHpza58

i don't think the "start at" will work, maybe it will. but just in case, compare and contrast 58 seconds into the first video and 49 seconds into the second

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deconstructed/id1354611827?i=1000578150696

Alex holder’s peeks into the weird interior life of trump. If useful, maybe for “is he an evil machiavellian or is he a delusional madman?” eval.

But then, it doesn’t really sound like there’s too much interior there.

all the rich interiority of an empty shoebox

A document describing a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities, was found by FBI agents who searched former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and private club last month, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring concerns among U.S. intelligence officials about classified material stashed in the Florida property.
Some of the seized documents detail top-secret U.S. operations so closely guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the dark about them. Only the president, some members of his Cabinet or a near-Cabinet-level official could authorize other government officials to know details of these special-access programs, according to people familiar with the search, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive details of an ongoing investigation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/06/trump-nuclear-documents/

I'm not at all convinced that he's fucked, but I'm almost certain we are.

otm (sigh)

it is mind boggling to me how much this one fucking guy, who is absolutely an incurious moron, has laid bare the basic inequities and depravities at the heart of US empire in a more visible way than any other person during my lifetime.

i’m not at all surprised that so many people cheer him on— they want the depravity, because without it, their lives are meaningless.

As others have said, the guy didn’t care about intelligence briefings etc. while he was President. Why would he want them now?

I’m sure his bestie MBS would be interested in Israeli or Iran nuclear information.

if that is what he was doing and the judge he appointed is running cover for him... i mean, i don't even know what to say.

my original theory was that he kept information that he thought showed the mueller investigation was a "witch hunt," or maybe information that could be used as oppo in the future. however, this document described in the washington post doesn't seem to be of this kind.

i’m not at all surprised that so many people cheer him on— they want the depravity, because without it, their lives are meaningless.

― broccoli rabe thomas (the table is the table), Tuesday, September 6, 2022 8:46 PM (forty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is true. they like that he is nihilistic and uninhibited, it gives them a vicarious thrill. if you have values or standards, that places certain demands upon you. trump doesn't have anything like this, and to some his existence suggests the intriguing possibility that nothing matters.

I mean the Saudis gave Jared K, a notoriously shitty businessman and all around idiot, $2bn.

As others have said, the guy didn’t care about intelligence briefings etc. while he was President. Why would he want them now?

Why does he ever want anything? Because (1) someone else has it and/or (2) he perceives some advantage to himself in having it.