Trump, May 2017: 100 days of [unintelligible]

fast becoming comey central

some podcaster described pence as looking like a man who's been replaced with his pod person doppelganger

I still think it's uniquely dangerous having a madman at the top of the government. The evil men around him are if anything emboldened bc they dont take direct responsibility for the things they advise trump to do.

putin has had major botox no?

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, May 10, 2017 4:24 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tom price also has a similar, remarkably smooth old man head

self-sabotage is honestly the best possible outcome, first because the opposition has no actual power to oppose the administration whatsoever, and second because effective totalitarianism involves demonizing one's enemies. having a president who absolutely cannot talk about anybody but himself makes it much more difficult to do that work. at the same time you want to make your enemies invisible, and any time one of his enemies mentions his name it's like summoning fuckin' kibo. so not so good on the totalitarianism there either.

wonder if trump is actually looking for a way to fall on his sword --- resign under the pretense that the constant opprobrium of the dems and the inefficiency of the swamp is hampering his plans, make it his idea, hands the keys to pence and gets back to golding

golfing

he does do a fair amount of golding, tbg

tbf

lol

tbg = to be golfing

yeah those flat DOJ denials will end well. always good to make clear-cut statements that can later be proven to be lies.

trump meanwhile is straight up retweeting the Drudge Report's Comey-bashing, in between this highly presidential performance, relentlessly focused on the central issues of the matter:

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump 5h5 hours ago

James Comey will be replaced by someone who will do a far better job, bringing back the spirit and prestige of the FBI.

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump 5h5 hours ago

Comey lost the confidence of almost everyone in Washington, Republican and Democrat alike. When things calm down, they will be thanking me!

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump 4h4 hours ago

Watching Senator Richard Blumenthal speak of Comey is a joke. "Richie" devised one of the greatest military frauds in U.S. history. For....

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump 4h4 hours ago

years, as a pol in Connecticut, Blumenthal would talk of his great bravery and conquests in Vietnam - except he was never there. When....

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump 4h4 hours ago

caught, he cried like a baby and begged for forgiveness...and now he is judge & jury. He should be the one who is investigated for his acts.

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump 4h4 hours ago

The Roger Stone report on @CNN is false - Fake News. Have not spoken to Roger in a long time - had nothing to do with my decision.

Thinking further on #Resistance strategical 5D chess: look how often Rumpian chuckleheads use "we fired the guy who was the problem" as if it were synonymous with "ergo, now there is no problem."

Firing Lewandowski indicated that Lewandowski was the problem, and the campaign was therefore clean as a whistle. Firing Manafort, ditto. Firing Flynn meant that problem had taken care of itself, and now there is no collusion issue to speak of (because we fired the guy who had that ick attached to him). Firing Comey means that now there is no problem relating to the messy election. (So can we now please shut up about Russia?)

Thinking purely in 7D strategery terms: to regain traction in the next presidential election, who would Democrats rather be running against:

(A) A beclowned buffoon whose approval is at historically record lows, and who can reliably be counted on to tweet some ridiculous bullshit about "the chinks" or "the spearchuckers" during his 3 AM potty breaks? or

(B) A group of steely-eyed professionals who took over from said buffoon and have been able (however haltingly) to restore sanity and order to the capital?

Impeachment might allow the GOP to treat Trump like Trump treated Flynn. "Welp, now that that problem child's outta here, let's get to work on our shared American agenda. Cutting taxes, cutting government, cutting services to poor browns, and of course privatizing National Parks so that they can be run more like a business, and by 'business' we mean 'mining and drilling'."

So I type all of that but still have second thoughts, because while all that 8D chess is happening there are real people suffering and dying because see above: evil toddler at the wheel.

xp- Stolen Valor! Is Trump a secret Chapo fan?

The idea that Trump is under any circumstance going to voluntarily resign from a position where everyone in America has to pay attention to him all the time AND he has the power to almost literally destroy his enemies AND he's getting paid on the backs of the US taxpayer is cloud-cuckooland talk.

Pence reminds me of this alien-possessed senator from THE HIDDEN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2JD5h82-fo

but yeah we'd be way worse off with pence amirite?

great movie

xp

Update: Spokeswoman Sarah Flores said "more resources" stead of "more money." Tells reporters she spoke directly w/ Rosenstein about reports https://t.co/tmjpi4pipo

— Ram Ramgopal (@RamCNN) May 10, 2017

it's like this former Democrat does it on purpose

many xposts -- Morning Dope was pimping this angle this morning. rest assured it will be Official Talking Point of the Right when this whole train derails.

look i know 8d chess is really tempting because there ain't shit else we can do but build elaborate simulacra, and if it makes you happy to do so fine, but don't expect it to come out any better than Brigadier Pudding's _Things That Can Happen In European Politics_.

Yeah I agree w/ YMP to the extent that a world where Trump is singularly exposed, ousted, punished, and denounced by history - though just! - is also a world where the GOP can wash his hands of him. Like Nixon he could ultimately end up shrugged off, where the problems they posed for the country were entirely a matter of individual character defects and not also the party platform. It'll be crucial for Dems running in 2018 and 2020 to remember that while Trump sells papers and gets people riled up, they need to not just be "I'm there to oppose Trump" but to somehow articulate that Trump is a part of the GOP fabric and not some weird aberration.

I think they'll be strongly incentivized to do this by the actual conditions of the races they're contesting, but it may take effort to get them to the message that, yes, Trump is uniquely incompetent and unbalanced and taking us in the wrong direction, but also his policies are the same bad Republican policies "that got us into this mess" - the 2008 crash, the growing rich-get-richer poor-get-poorer economy... his health care policies are the same ones that Republicans always want, where people screwed by fate are on their own if they're not rich and the market doesn't see a profit in healing them... etc. etc. Every Republican legislator backing his agenda has to be repeatedly, relentlessly exposed as Trump's willing errand-boy - they voted for Trump's bills 480 times, they refused to hold hearings investigating Trump, here's footage of Trump saying this, here's footage of congressperson mushily defending Trump's crazy statement. They can't be allowed to wash their hands of his presidency when it becomes convenient to do so.

otm

all right, playing at brigadier pudding - the real thing to watch out for w/r/t this is The Pardon. you want to play 4d chess? get a constitutional amendment rolling that makes crimes committed by the president unpardonable.

i agree that pence would be more competent and cooperative w/ congressional GOP and therefore more evil but in the (extremely unlikely) event that trump is impeached it's not like the GOP would just get to say "oh we'll take trump out and sub in our guy pence, just a quick little bump in the road nbd" without any political fall out. any impeachment scenario that is remotely likely does not involve a powerful GOP - if it's ever going to happen it's because the democrats win congress in 2018. a president pence who was sworn in because trump was impeached by democrats would be an incredibly handicapped president who would be the leader of an embarrassed and weakened minority GOP

also not much love from the rabid base do or dies for Pence i'm guessing

oh boy the Pence v. Trump argument again

in the unlikely argument that Pence becomes president before 2020 he goes down easily. Trump won because he was Trump. Pence is a failed governor and mediocre GOP ghoul.

Doctor C otmfm

Trump is a part of the GOP fabric and not some weird aberration.

Yeah X eleventy, and this:

Trump is uniquely incompetent and unbalanced and taking us in the wrong direction, but also his policies are the same bad Republican policies "that got us into this mess"

...is conveniently also the best response to Comeygate. We can walk AND chew gum simultaneously.

YES, Comey interfered inappropriately with the election. BUT ALSO firing Comey when he's investigating YOU can still be NAGL.

This shouldn't be too hard to understand. Especially for people who think that fatally shooting a suspected shoplifter = justice rightly dispensed.

Continuing marcos's point, impeachment - which I agree is vanishingly unlikely - also just takes up a ton of fucking time and energy. Congress gets nothing done and the airwaves have no space for you to sell people on your agenda, since every time you're invited on a show it's for a roundtable where the topic is the impeachment proceedings and you're being asked to defend your support of the president etc. etc. OTOH that applies as much to majority as minority congresspeople - I could see the imaginary Dem majority not even wanting to fuck around with it, even if they thought they had an airtight case, precisely because that quagmire effect could backfire (as it did for the Republicans, nigh two decades back).

democrats who decide it may not be _strategically important_ to go for impeachment will very, very rapidly be persuaded to re-evaluate their priorities. i don't give a fuck about an "agenda" you have no fucking way of accomplishing anyhow. you go after him, and you go after him hard, and that is your _only_ job.

we wouldve gotten a horrible health care repeal with President Romney or President (Jeb!) Bush. I keep telling my lib friends at home to think of the party of ghouls to which Trump belongs. They are charlatans, cupbearers to white male satraps who believe in tax breaks and babies who survive abortions to become poor people for whom there will be no social services.

^^^^^

The boy with the white male satrap

they are people who believe that it would be better to be a slave than on welfare

that would be a gallup poll with terrifying results

Lavrov is funny

Guys, I have the solution to everything

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2708877-the-rock-thinks-its-a-real-possibility-he-runs-for-president-in-gq-exclusive?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial

A Republican close to President tells me Trump has been increasingly isolated in recent days. Frustrated, avoiding major public appearances

— Robert Costa (@costareports) May 10, 2017

Trump is grappling with the harsh reality of governing and media scrutiny, which he has told friends he hoped would eventually abate, per R

— Robert Costa (@costareports) May 10, 2017

Aw, boo hoo. Does he need another rally? Memorial Day weekend's coming up. I guarantee he's gonna have one of his masturbatory crowd-work extravaganzas in Milwaukee or someplace.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders filling in for a gunshy Spiceworld today

oh my god i would totally vote for the rock TWICE. love him.

he's a republican

@RichLowry
A friend suggests Joe Lieberman for FBI director--respected Democrat/independent, former senator, former AG of CT

sock o' manure, plz

"Trump has been increasingly isolated in recent days"

https://frinkiac.com/gif/S06E01/674991/681664.gif?b64lines=

I have no particular interest in supporting the Rock's candidacy but I confess I would kinda like to see Emperor Tinyhands compete in a metaphorical dick-size contest with a guy whose actual name is Johnson.

if trump brings joe lieberman back from the dead i will die.

love for the rock is one of the few things me and trump voters can agree on.

Schwarzenegger/Johnson 2020