Trump, May 2017: 100 days of [unintelligible]

honestly, because you clearly have a crush but tried to "seem cool" about it

and because I'm an incorrigible jackass

^

treesh, not to discount your point, with which i agree, but man what a board description

Idk they were never too keen on Obama

oh I meant to say, "white male"

Cruz has...gained a bit of weight since the primaries last year.

dude's been hitting the soup heavy

Was he down to fighting weight for the primaries?

"The Soup Heavy" is like the Soup Nazi but bigger and more passively intimidating rather than shouting.

A lot is being made of Trump being warned about Flynn, but going with Flynn anyway. Question: so what? Doesn't that just prove dangerous incompetence, which has been a given for months? There's nothing illegal about being dumb (unfortunately). Is the implied issue that he went with Flynn anyway for a nefarious purpose? It's not that different from the focus on Manafort, Page et al, which may dig up some dirt ... on these dirty people, surprising no one. Is the idea that they could be flipped to concede campaign collusion?

Also, why is it so fucking hard for congress and investigators to get Trump's tax returns? That's the key paper trail.

There's a strong chance that there's little of real substance on his tax returns other than he's just a millionaire who barely pays taxes.

it is so fucking hard because the only thing republicans care about is cutting taxes on their donors -- scaifes, kochs, coors, mercers, and so forth. trump, flynn, and putin could have dressed up as isis terrorists and molested puppies and kittens on a church altar and it wouldn't matter, so long as it helps republicans get their tax cuts

Is the implied issue that he went with Flynn anyway for a nefarious purpose? It's not that different from the focus on Manafort, Page et al, which may dig up some dirt ... on these dirty people, surprising no one. Is the idea that they could be flipped to concede campaign collusion?

Something like that, yeah. I think the bigger question right now is, how did all these people come to work on the Trump campaign? Why does everything in Trump's empire and everyone in Trump's family tie back to Russia?

Also, why is it so fucking hard for congress and investigators to get Trump's tax returns? That's the key paper trail.

because the Republicans have absolutely no interest in seeing them?

they don't give a shit. russia just attacked the french election and our president and his republican enablers say boo. all that matters to them cutting taxes on the wealthy and 'shrinking' the federal government

There's a strong chance that there's little of real substance on his tax returns other than he's just a millionaire who barely pays taxes.

Given all his sons have boasted of Russian investment/loans, this on its face can't be true, even if it's not illegal. But if they demonstrate he was getting money from some of the same sources as his campaign people, or if had financial ties to some of the same people, etc. ...

i always assumed he just didn't want to let anyone see how bad he is with money, as it would ruin his Brand

There's a strong chance that there's little of real substance on his tax returns other than he's just a millionaire who barely pays taxes.

― your cognitive privilege (El Tomboto), Tuesday, May 9, 2017 8:58 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

to be fair, there are multiple avenues of interest into the tax returns. catching him at nefarious russia deals is unlikely but would obviously be incredibly damning. heck, even just being able to identify how much he profits from not-necessarily-nefarious russia deals would make all the other russia-related scandals that much more pressing on him.

but there's more generally the question of conflicts of interest; i thought it was very on-point for example that a lot of the reporting around his tax-cut plan pointed to the fact that he, personally, stands to gain a great deal if the plan were put into effect, but not in a way that people could be really precise about. having the tax returns you could put a specific dollar amount on that and make clear even to low-attention-span viewers that his "tax reform" is blatantly a scheme to pass hundreds of millions of dollars to his kids. not your kids, but those rich little twerps in the suits. an extra five mansions for each of them. if i were a democratic politican i'd want those damned tax returns.

We already know ho bad he is with money, because he's gone bankrupt multiple times! The question is, how has he been able to bounce back? All signs point to massive Russian support, either directly or indirectly.

Like that property sold for exponentially more than he paid for it, not long after? Or people buying homes in Trump Tower(s)? Or Russian bank loans? All those things connect him to some nefarious stuff. I mean, didn't he get busted for Russian money laundering via his casino? Weren't there Russians caught up to no good, working out of Trump Tower?

yeah I've heard some people claim that the Taj Mahal was basically one giant Russian money laundering front, idk what came out of that though

I definitely think there's something there, if not literal treason than at least a massive conflict of interest which throws a huge shadow on pretty much anything he tries to do as president. of course none of it matters so long as the GOP continues to look the other way.

present things the president has said or done that are praiseworthy

It would be funny if they just had one bullet point (getting the aid worker released in Egypt), then kept the rest of the column blank. Then run a column of blank space, week after week.

here's a fun article from 2016

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/07/09/a-curveball-in-trumps-veep-search-hes-seriously-considering-a-retired-general/

After weeks of focusing on a group of current and former elected officials in his search for a running mate, Donald Trump is increasingly intrigued by the idea of tapping retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn to project strength and know-how on national security, according to four people familiar with the vetting process.

The turn toward a military figure is being driven by Trump himself rather than by his advisers, the people said, and comes as the real estate mogul is telling his friends that national unrest may demand a “tough and steady” presence alongside him on the ticket.

In Flynn, they added, Trump thinks he would have a partner whom he trusts, based on their close working relationship over the course of the campaign on policy. And he likes the image of a businessman and a general coming to Washington as outsiders.

Like Trump, Flynn is not hostile toward Russia. Last year, he sat next to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a Moscow dinner honoring RT, the English-language network aligned with the Kremlin that broadcasts into the United States and other Western countries.

One person encouraging Trump to perhaps choose a general is Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who has become a force inside of the campaign. He shares Trump’s view that, while unorthodox, a general could excite voters from both parties who want to see wholesale change in domestic politics and an aggressive approach to combating terrorism.

one day we'll all look back and laugh

One detail from that Bloomberg link post upthread--that Trump liked to talk with Flynn about movies and sports:

It seems to me that Trump latches onto people who don't make him feel like a dummy (as McMaster apparently does) and will overlook all kinds of shit in order to keep them on the team.

You mean like Fabio and Don King?

When you are a complete void of a human being, you're entirely dependent upon other people who are willing and able to reflect your completely baseless projection of amazingness back onto yourself. Anyone who fails to do that (or, worse, treats you like the contemptible and substance-free slurry of sickness that you are), they automatically become the enemy.

I feel like if Trump were forced to spend like a year in isolation, he would literally vaporize.

trump's taj mahal got fined $10M specifically for knowingly laundering russian mob money. is that the kind of smoking gun people are looking for? cause that already happened and nobody seems to care

it does seem mighty strange that the only person in Congress who is actually keeping their eye on the ball is.....Al Franken

http://i.onionstatic.com/avclub/5644/83/16x9/640.jpg

Senator Al Franken as the lone check on the Donald Trump administration sounds like the plot of a book Al Franken would have written 15 years ago.

Scammers gonna scam

https://heatst.com/politics/the-presidents-pastor-paula-white-has-connections-and-power-but-where-does-she-get-her-money/

So apparently Comey butchered details about the most important issue of our era in his testimony last week and now the FBI is mulling over what to do to fix it

Donald Trump Is a Big Fat Idiot

what did he get wrong?

not an actual Franken book title

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/332495-comey-testimony-on-forwarded-clinton-emails-inaccurate-report

Wisconsin’s voter-ID law reduced turnout by 200,000 votes, according to the new analysis. Donald Trump won the state by only 22,748 votes.

FAKE PRESIDENT

but no, seriously

Wisconsin’s voter-ID law reduced turnout by 200,000 votes

FOX News type commentators will only cite this as evidence that previous Wisconsin elections must have been rife with voter fraud.

Probably safe to assume that your average Fox commentator views the fraudulence of a given vote as inversely proportionate to the extent that the voter physically resembles Bill O'Reilly.

I think I approve of this, tbh...?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/05/09/in-blow-to-u-s-turkey-ties-trump-administration-approves-plan-to-directly-arm-syrian-kurds-against-islamic-state/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_turkey-2pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.6836e0ad62d3

one for the NYT

@peterfhart
The NY Times is planning a regular "Trump Isn't All Bad" column, so send in those ideas!

― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Monday, May 8, 2017 2:12 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

To the benefit of whichever species manage to survive the cleansing fire, Trump will almost certainly hasten the extinction of that bunch of stupid babbling hairless apes that have been causing the earth so much grief. And that can't be all bad, now can it.

Cockroaches for Trump!

#MakeEarthASmolderingRuinAgain

webmaster: Gordon Liddy

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/alternative-facts-2-0-trump-launches-re-election-website-with-fact-based-information-about-achievements/

Eva Moskowitz is terrible even for someone who runs charter schools

http://gothamist.com/2017/05/09/paul_ryan_harlem_visit.php

is anybody who runs a charter school automatically a villain?

they eat baby meat iirc

So...no?

Depends on the baby.

undermines public education + capitalism = bad charter schools