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Donald Trump 2019


Francisco 2.0

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1 hour ago, cactusflinthead said:

Look man there all delusional over there. I don't know what to tell you. He's already eaten three burnt steaks and a pint of ketchup. Someone next week is going to have to give him an enema and it's not going to be me.

 

I'll do it.  No lube.  Country/party.  

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DJ has no events scheduled for today so expect some vicious tweets as he has some time to ruminate over the unfolding events. His staff have been retweeting a lot on his account, but this one was rather rich:

Only someone who cannot discriminate between punctuation would confuse Voter ID and election hacking.

 

Oh, and since I don't think EFT (rather appropriate initials since he is good at financial skullduggery) has his own thread:

DJ retweeted his son's tweet but neglected to mention that EFT is glomming off of Warren's devoted small donors.

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9 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

Probably totally unrelated to the news of this week.  Might have just taken a little R & R with the missus, maybe head over to Lake Como.  I understand it's beautiful this time of year.

 

 

 

It says "official," so maybe it's a Fascist Friends Playdate?

Salvini lost I believe? Perhaps Willy wants to keep the phone lines open for future plans but keep the sandbox closed to the other kids back home who would like to speak with him.

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37 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

Probably totally unrelated to the news of this week.  Might have just taken a little R & R with the missus, maybe head over to Lake Como.  I understand it's beautiful this time of year.

 

 

 

He's just killing himself out there recruiting.

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-cant-get-away-with-it-anymore?ref=home

 

Quote

When Donald Trump was caught on a hot mic talking with Billy Bush, much of the world looked on in horror at the graphic way in which he bragged about committing acts of sexual assault. But it was another part of the audio—the part where he shared his secret for evading culpability—that truly revealed the underpinnings of his worldview. 

“When you're a star,” Trump said, “they let you do it.”

Quote

As the inheritor of a major real estate enterprise, Trump has been a star—more or less—since the day he was born. And he has expanded on that stardom throughout his career, even managing to be a headline-grabber when his fortune vanished and his marriages crumbled. Through it all, they let him do it. The banks with which he did business bailed him out; the newspapers that recognized the hollowness of his self-constructed image ran his tips; the network that had incriminating recordings of him off-camera on his top-rated show kept them secret.

 

Quote

One of the great gambles Trump made was that this particular brand of stardom could be translated into politics. And, largely, he was right. No one in the Republican Party stood up to him as he championed the birther movement. No one in the party took him on directly as he launched his campaign railing about Mexicans being rapists. And though Republicans reacted in horror to his mocking of John McCain, Megyn Kelly, a gold star mother, and the Billy Bush tape, they eventually got over it—as Trump knew they would. He was, after all, their star. They’d let him do it. 

 

Quote

But being president has proven fundamentally challenging to that basic life ethos. And if Trump needed proof of that, it has come this week in what can only be described as the most harrowing and dangerous moment of his presidency. 

Trump is on track to be impeached. In doing so, he will become just the fourth person to occupy his office who has ever faced that fate. 

 

Spoiler

That, of course, would be alarming in and of itself. But it is the manner in which it is all transpiring that must be proving so unnerving and unfamiliar to him. A whistleblower from within his administration has decided to speak out about—what appear at first blush to be—illegal and unscrupulous acts involving the president calling a foreign leader, encouraging him to dig up dirt on Joe Biden, and then having the record of that conversation hid away. 

The contents of the complaint were not just produced by one alarmed person choosing to speak out, however. Instead, they were described and detailed to the whistleblower by several White House aides who, it is presumed, shared similar fears.

On Thursday, Trump’s own director of national intelligence affirmed that the complaint was credible. He also called the crisis presented before the country unprecedented, leaving the impression that he too was a bit shaken by the totality of it all. 

That same morning, videos of Trump’s speech to the U.S. mission at the United Nations and his address to a private fundraiser at a swank Manhattan restaurant were both quickly leaked to the press. And not because they showed the president in a fine light. Instead, he was caught ruminating about his desire to see the whistleblower executed like treasonous spies in days of old. That night, Trump’s private attorney, Rudy Giuliani, ran one of the more harebrained CYA moves in recent memory by sharing text messages implicating the State Department in the president’s scheme to pressure the Ukrainians. And by the next day, the official whom he was texting—Trump’s envoy to Ukraine—quit. 

Before then, came other revelations: that Trump had records of his call with Vladimir Putin and Mohammed Bin Salman hidden and that he’d casually mentioned to his “China whisperer” that he’d like to see if he too could get Biden dirt. And later that evening came, perhaps, the most alarming news break of all. The Washington Post published another story on another private meeting with another set of world leaders—this time involving Trump telling senior Russian officials that he was unconcerned about Moscow’s meddling in 2016 elections. 

There have been famous leaks before, including many of far more significance and historical weight than these. But rarely has a president been so under siege from within. For Trump—who is used to living in an insular world created by his media ingenuity and relentless efforts at self-promotion—the lack of control must feel petrifying. 

And yet, the threats from within are the ones that are easier to handle right now. It’s those coming from outside the White House that are existential. Though some Trumpworld figures may believe otherwise, House Democrats are not bluffing in their impeachment push. They are firm in their desire to see it done and to see it done with as much pain applied to the president as they can muster.  

Just on Friday, they demanded records from Trump’s budget office as to why it delayed congressionally authorized military aid payments to Ukraine and subpoenaed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for answers about what Foggy Bottom knew about Rudy’s travails. There are plans to talk in closed session to the inspector general of the Intelligence Community and to bring Kurt Volker, the recently resigned U.S. special representative for Ukraine, in as well. Eventually, they will come asking for the documents we now know Trump tried to hide. And if he doesn’t disclose them, it will be portrayed—perhaps accurately—as a cover-up. 

Faced with this mortal threat, Trump’s plan seems to be to simply tweet through it. A senior White House official told The Daily Beast that he explicitly said he doesn’t want a war room created to handle impeachment. And even if he did, who would staff it? Many of the people initially brought into the White House have left on poor terms. And those who would be comfortable being brought back are not trusted. It’s not surprising that the source for Friday night’s story in The Post was “three former officials.”

Certainly, Trump may find his way through this. He remains a star, after all, among his base of supporters. And in a Senate run by Republicans worried about being primaried this cycle, that seems like enough to see him through a trial that would follow the House’s impeachment. But even then, this week has provided a jarring and potentially crippling lesson for a president who isn’t particularly keen on making personal adjustment. There are, Trump’s discovering, limits to what your stardom will allow you to do. 

 

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2 hours ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

 

Oh, and since I don't think EFT (rather appropriate initials since he is good at financial skullduggery) has his own thread:

DJ retweeted his son's tweet but neglected to mention that EFT is glomming off of Warren's devoted small donors.

He's going to fleece the rubes of most of their money and abscond.  Kind of sad (well, no, not really) that these idiots are giving away the money they actually probably need in their lives to prop up a con man who has sold them a fantasy.

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5 minutes ago, Red Five said:

Hey guys, remember last night when we learned that the President told Russia he was fine with them fucking with our elections? Because that's a thing that happened. After screaming NO COLLUSION for years. 

Look.... Did he order arugula  on his salad on not? We can’t focus on side distractions when there are important issues out there.

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1 minute ago, Red Five said:

Hey guys, remember last night when we learned that the President told Russia he was fine with them fucking with our elections? Because that's a thing that happened. After screaming NO COLLUSION for years. 

Right after he fired the man responsible for investigating it, which by the way he told the same Russians relieved a "great pressure" on him. Oh, and then he appointed an attorney general that limited and then buried the special counsel investigation that firing triggered.

The corruption and criminality in this administration is insane. What's even more terrifying is that as a result of internet and other media filter bubbles (see Fox News/Limbaugh), you can just ignore these facts, buy into an alternate reality, or just be distracted by nonsense (Hillary's emails, Uranium one, etc.) .When Watergate happened, the presentation and filtering of facts was much more concentrated in a few influential news sources. That media was also driven by journalistic integrity and not a profit motive--as many outlets are today. The result was that the facts--and the wrongdoing-- could be made readily apparent to the public and Nixon had to resign. Today, at least 40% (probably most) of the country is isolated from the truth.

What's truly terrifying, though, is Trump--while putting out a model for taking advantage of the modern media and ability to engage in sophisticated and widespread domestic psychological warefare-- is mildly incompetent at pulling it off. Imagine what would happen if you had someone more savvy decide to use Trump's tools to impose tyranny. That's the greater danger, and i don't know you address it. New regulation of new and social media would be a good place to start, but it's going to raise a bunch of 1A issues that I'm not sure we're prepared to sort through. The bottom line , though is that where we're heading is much worse than where we are. Chew on that for a while. 

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7 minutes ago, Red Five said:

Hey guys, remember last night when we learned that the President told Russia he was fine with them fucking with our elections? Because that's a thing that happened. After screaming NO COLLUSION for years. 

All Republicans: “right, but where’s the evidence, huh?”

Everyone else in the world: “he admitted it, in public, in front of millions of people.”

All Republicans: “well, that’s just circumstantial.”

Everyone: “it’s the exact opposite of circumstantial.”

All Republicans: “what about something else though?  Didn’t some Democrat do something wrong in the 1960s?  Why isn’t everyone talking about that?” 

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2 minutes ago, horncyclist said:

Right after he fired the man responsible for investigating it, which by the way he told the same Russians relieved a "great pressure" on him. Oh, and then he appointed an attorney general that limited and then buried the special counsel investigation that firing triggered.

The corruption and criminality in this administration is insane. What's even more terrifying is that as a result of internet and other media filter bubbles (see Fox News/Limbaugh), you can just ignore these facts, buy into an alternate reality, or just be distracted by nonsense (Hillary's emails, Uranium one, etc.) .When Watergate happened, the presentation and filtering of facts was much more concentrated in a few influential news sources. That media was also driven by journalistic integrity and not a profit motive--as many outlets are today. The result was that the facts--and the wrongdoing-- could be made readily apparent to the public and Nixon had to resign. Today, at least 40% (probably most) of the country is isolated from the truth.

What's truly terrifying, though, is Trump--while putting out a model for taking advantage of the modern media and ability to engage in sophisticated and widespread domestic psychological warefare-- is mildly incompetent at pulling it off. Imagine what would happen if you had someone more savvy decide to use Trump's tools to impose tyranny. That's the greater danger, and i don't know you address it. New regulation of new and social media would be a good place to start, but it's going to raise a bunch of 1A issues that I'm not sure we're prepared to sort through. The bottom line , though is that where we're heading is much worse than where we are. Chew on that for a while. 

It was a game to them when they were lying about Obama and Hillary, and it's a game to them now that they are lying to protect Trump.   The irony is that they have pulled the wool over the eyes of Americans who are "sick of Washington politics" but have been tricked into supporting it in its worst form. 

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Well, I mean, he’s just yelling now.

 

Why not stay home and prank call cable access?

 

 

 

Man....those days were awesome. Sitting on the couch shithammered, listening for hits. I still remember the night some guy called in and said the exact, detailed obscene things he wanted to do to a particular stuck up prude sorority girl I knew...I heard her name and it cracked my ass up. She’s now married to a State legislator.

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I’m a fan of the Principled Conservative(TM) “Yes, Trump is an amoral shitheap who is destroying our democracy and has commuted multiple felonies,  but what possible good will come of impeachment?”

George Will and Kathleen Parker have particularly pungent versions this AM.

 

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29 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-cant-get-away-with-it-anymore?ref=home

 

 

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

That, of course, would be alarming in and of itself. But it is the manner in which it is all transpiring that must be proving so unnerving and unfamiliar to him. A whistleblower from within his administration has decided to speak out about—what appear at first blush to be—illegal and unscrupulous acts involving the president calling a foreign leader, encouraging him to dig up dirt on Joe Biden, and then having the record of that conversation hid away. 

The contents of the complaint were not just produced by one alarmed person choosing to speak out, however. Instead, they were described and detailed to the whistleblower by several White House aides who, it is presumed, shared similar fears.

On Thursday, Trump’s own director of national intelligence affirmed that the complaint was credible. He also called the crisis presented before the country unprecedented, leaving the impression that he too was a bit shaken by the totality of it all. 

That same morning, videos of Trump’s speech to the U.S. mission at the United Nations and his address to a private fundraiser at a swank Manhattan restaurant were both quickly leaked to the press. And not because they showed the president in a fine light. Instead, he was caught ruminating about his desire to see the whistleblower executed like treasonous spies in days of old. That night, Trump’s private attorney, Rudy Giuliani, ran one of the more harebrained CYA moves in recent memory by sharing text messages implicating the State Department in the president’s scheme to pressure the Ukrainians. And by the next day, the official whom he was texting—Trump’s envoy to Ukraine—quit. 

Before then, came other revelations: that Trump had records of his call with Vladimir Putin and Mohammed Bin Salman hidden and that he’d casually mentioned to his “China whisperer” that he’d like to see if he too could get Biden dirt. And later that evening came, perhaps, the most alarming news break of all. The Washington Post published another story on another private meeting with another set of world leaders—this time involving Trump telling senior Russian officials that he was unconcerned about Moscow’s meddling in 2016 elections. 

There have been famous leaks before, including many of far more significance and historical weight than these. But rarely has a president been so under siege from within. For Trump—who is used to living in an insular world created by his media ingenuity and relentless efforts at self-promotion—the lack of control must feel petrifying. 

And yet, the threats from within are the ones that are easier to handle right now. It’s those coming from outside the White House that are existential. Though some Trumpworld figures may believe otherwise, House Democrats are not bluffing in their impeachment push. They are firm in their desire to see it done and to see it done with as much pain applied to the president as they can muster.  

Just on Friday, they demanded records from Trump’s budget office as to why it delayed congressionally authorized military aid payments to Ukraine and subpoenaed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for answers about what Foggy Bottom knew about Rudy’s travails. There are plans to talk in closed session to the inspector general of the Intelligence Community and to bring Kurt Volker, the recently resigned U.S. special representative for Ukraine, in as well. Eventually, they will come asking for the documents we now know Trump tried to hide. And if he doesn’t disclose them, it will be portrayed—perhaps accurately—as a cover-up. 

Faced with this mortal threat, Trump’s plan seems to be to simply tweet through it. A senior White House official told The Daily Beast that he explicitly said he doesn’t want a war room created to handle impeachment. And even if he did, who would staff it? Many of the people initially brought into the White House have left on poor terms. And those who would be comfortable being brought back are not trusted. It’s not surprising that the source for Friday night’s story in The Post was “three former officials.”

Certainly, Trump may find his way through this. He remains a star, after all, among his base of supporters. And in a Senate run by Republicans worried about being primaried this cycle, that seems like enough to see him through a trial that would follow the House’s impeachment. But even then, this week has provided a jarring and potentially crippling lesson for a president who isn’t particularly keen on making personal adjustment. There are, Trump’s discovering, limits to what your stardom will allow you to do. 

 

I really liked your post. That 'star' power is strange isn't it? You see it on a local level with city councils, hs athletes, etc all the way to this debacle. Some will be outraged, others shake their heads that it is the way of life, and others emulate it or one day hope to attain it and exploit it for themselves. We are an interesting species.

I wonder if there are staffers/employees who still maintain a level of integrity that rises above this administration. That rather than quitting, have decided to take names and notes, not for personal gain, but in an attempt to salvage the republic. I'm rather naive, however.

 

Oh, and @Bozo_Casanova about that hamburger (and tangentially, star power). The only way that hamburger would be good enough to rate a *triple post  would be if it was served by Salma Hayek (I think my husband admires her star power, among other things).

*(I get it, computer error)

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Not that fucking thing again.


lol I personally enjoy the reoccurring Trump Doral Burger gag. For a site that has the greatest repository on smoking brisket and ribs, y’all get soo mad at a well char-grilled piece of meat.

keep them coming Bozo!

it’s the little things, ya know?
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27 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

This is the naked burger from "Champions Grill" at the Trump Doral, and that, in the lower right corner,  is arugula.

Yeah, but it ain't got no spicy mustard...real Americans don't eat fucking spicy mustard!  That shit's for fags, and anti-American Kenyan Muslims.

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43 minutes ago, Bateshorn said:

George Will

While he is a never-Trumper, the Trump Era has exposed George Will’s shallowness and dare I say fraud with regards to loyalty to his so-called principles.  

He was one of the original voices on the right blaming Hillary for Trump getting elected.  George Will is a good demonstration of boomer out of touchness on an higher intellectual level.

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George Will is concerned that impeachment will only be significant symbolically and will energize a fatigued base. Nancy Pelosi has the same concern. I'm not sure if they're right or not. It's a difference of opinion. There's nothing more sinister to it than that. I'd be elated if my ideological differences with George Will was my biggest fear in the future of American democracy. 

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16 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

While he is a never-Trumper, the Trump Era has exposed George Will’s shallowness and dare I say fraud with regards to loyalty to his so-called principles.  

He was one of the original voices on the right blaming Hillary for Trump getting elected.  George Will is a good demonstration of boomer out of touchness on an higher intellectual level.

People like him are happy to play the game when it comes to lying about Democrats, but unwilling to recognize their own complicity in the consequences of that game, which is the lying, tribal defense of Trump.   That was the refreshing thing about Joe Walsh recently.  As awful as he is, he didn't just announce his opposition to Trump, but also acknowledged the wrongness of what he did under Obama and how it contributed to where we are today.   Most Never-Trump Republicans won't do that. 

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4 minutes ago, Mojo Hand said:

People like him are happy to play the game when it comes to lying about Democrats, but unwilling to recognize their own complicity in the consequences of that game, which is the lying, tribal defense of Trump.   That was the refreshing thing about Joe Walsh recently.  As awful as he is, he didn't just announce his opposition to Trump, but also acknowledged the wrongness of what he did under Obama and how it contributed to where we are today.   Most Never-Trump Republicans won't do that. 

99.999999999999% of Republicans won’t do that.  

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14 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

we know the Republican Senate probably won’t remove him no matter what.

Which means we don’t know for certainty.  

We have plenty of evidence to suggest the Republican Senate will vote for acquittal but it’s more important to see them do it.  Get those motherfuckers on the record.  The sooner the better.

If I’m a vulnerable GOP Senator, I would be praying for Trump to resign or the House not to impeach.  No way do I want to be forced to publicly decide between Trump and the rule of law/constitution.  Because that’s what the vote will be sold as by democrats. 

The Republicans got lucky with the timing on this impeachment process accelerating.  They have a window here to abandon Trump and scrape something more competitive for the 2020 election.  If they stick with Trump, they are currently looking at a electoral massacre with Elizabeth Warren leading the charge.  

Edited by Hugo Stiglitz
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3 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

Which means we don’t know for certainty.  

We have plenty of evidence to suggest the Republican Senate will vote for acquittal but it’s more important to see them do it.  Get those motherfuckers on the record.  The sooner the better.

If I’m a vulnerable GOP Senator, I would be praying for Trump to resign or the House not to impeach.  No way do I want to be forced to publicly decide between Trump and the rule of law/constitution.  Because that’s what the vote will be sold as by democrats. 

The Republicans got lucky with the timing on this impeachment process accelerating.  They have a window here to abandon Trump and scrape something more competitive for the 2020 election.  If they stick with Trump, they are currently looking at a electoral massacre with Elizabeth Warren leading the charge.  

This is where I'm at. We criticize the Dems for being weak with no spine but these Republicans enabling the behavior of this lawless President are worse. If they vote for acquittal, put it on record, their names will be etched onto that shit.

Either they drop him or just go full Revenge of the Sith and try and become a empire. Either way things are not stable for things to just go" business as usual" and ignore that their fuckery and enabling of bad behavior for decades in their quest for power and hegemony have led up to this. There needs to be a reckoning for this. 

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2 hours ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

I really liked your post. That 'star' power is strange isn't it? You see it on a local level with city councils, hs athletes, etc all the way to this debacle. Some will be outraged, others shake their heads that it is the way of life, and others emulate it or one day hope to attain it and exploit it for themselves. We are an interesting species.

I wonder if there are staffers/employees who still maintain a level of integrity that rises above this administration. That rather than quitting, have decided to take names and notes, not for personal gain, but in an attempt to salvage the republic. I'm rather naive, however.

 

Oh, and @Bozo_Casanova about that hamburger (and tangentially, star power). The only way that hamburger would be good enough to rate a *triple post  would be if it was served by Salma Hayek (I think my husband admires her star power, among other things).

*(I get it, computer error)

You should post a picture of yourself so we can compare and let you know if you have anything to worry about.

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35 minutes ago, Mojo Hand said:

If that's what happens, so be it.   What I can't handle is the Dems going down without a fight.   This is an existential threat to our nation. Either a president is above the law and unrestrained from committing acts of criminality and corruption or he/she isn't.  Either a president may betray our nation to a foreign country when backed by a vocal minority of traitors or he may not.   Either a president may abuse the power of his office against his rivals in an election or he may not. 

 

Great post.  The only thing protecting us is our system of laws.  That some people can tolerate someone so openly hostile and dismissive of our constitution and the things that hold our country together is just terrible, but as long as it motivates us, we can right the ship.  We got rid of our Trumpkin congressman in northeast Dallas and replaced him with someone who can't tolerate Trump's assault on the country. 

We need to keep working.

Everyone with a brain knew this guy was right about Trump.

2017-03-07T131737Z_79549695_RC1501CA4330

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