Trump, May 2017: 100 days of [unintelligible]

And in this story:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/james-comey-had-requested-more-money-for-fbi-s-russia-investigation-before-being-fired-u-s-official-1494433061

Mr. Comey started receiving daily instead of weekly updates on the investigation, beginning at least three weeks ago, according to people with knowledge of the matter and the progress of the Federal Bureau of Investigation probe. Mr. Comey was concerned by information showing potential evidence of collusion, according to these people.

Fun stuff all over the place tonight!

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN1862WP

The anger behind Donald Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday had been building for months, but a turning point came when Comey refused to preview for top Trump aides his planned testimony to a Senate panel, White House officials said.

Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had wanted a heads-up from Comey about what he would say at a May 3 hearing about his handling of an investigation into former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.

When Comey refused, Trump and his aides considered that an act of insubordination and it was one of the catalysts to Trump’s decision this week to fire the FBI director, the officials said.

"It gave the impression that he was no longer capable of carrying out his duties," one official said. Previews of congressional testimony to superiors are generally considered courteous.

When Conway was dragged from cold-storage:

https://media.giphy.com/media/3oKIPxRuQQtVbQz35S/giphy.gif

what's the rationale on 4chan for why the president of the united states met in the oval office with a representative of the russian government (allowing russian press in, but not US press) less than a week after the russian government hacked the french election?

i don't know but it has something to do with penises

Meanwhile, direct from a meeting in my former hometown:

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article149829784.html

News of the Comey firing broke just as the Republican National Committee’s spring meeting was getting underway at a luxe oceanfront resort here near San Diego. In interviews with current and former top RNC members on Wednesday, veteran Republicans called the timing politically problematic, with some warning of potentially serious consequences for the 2018 midterms.

“It worries me for the midterm elections,” said a Republican national committeewoman who called the optics “bad” and the timing “odd” and “inconsistent.” “It looks like we’re shooting from the hip all the time with no real rhyme or reason. If people can’t figure out the logic about what we’re doing, how can they support it?”

Agreed a former top RNC member: “If he wears the base down where eventually they say, ‘Maybe I can’t defend this so much anymore,’ and all of the enthusiasm is on the Democratic side in 2018—I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but it could be a wipeout kind of year for us. I think we need to be more careful about that.”

Yeah but emails

Interesting; thanks, Ned!

The smarter adult in my household made a very good point just now, about #31 in the David Roberts tweetstorm ; what's absolutely terrifying isn't that the president is deranged, it's that all these other people around him, including those who are supposed to be serving as a check (media, CONGRESS, CONGRESS, also CONGRESS) are just taking him as if he's secretly sane on some level.

That's how we get everyone killed. That's how we enable higher-functioning sociopaths and their ilk to do truly horrible, irreversible things (i.e. Sessions). Having a demented fucked up crazy person in the Oval Office is not terrifying, it's not even really unprecedented. Having so many concentric circles of flying monkey enablers and suckups is what's new, and that's what will destroy us all.

There's also the fact that he's a moron. A smarter sociopath could have gotten rid of Comey in a way that didn't cause such a shitstorm. I guess his brainlessness might ultimately be our saving grace.

^yeah and how dumb are Pence (not surprising i guess) and Priebus (maybe slightly more surprising?) for backing his termination now? and Bannon's the guy showing restraint? jfc

any "mainstream republican" who thought they could roll with this trump thing and turn it into something positive for themselves is extraordinarily dumb. so that's basically all of them.

I'd say the chances of Trump serving out his full term are in decline, but of course that leaves us with Pence

if trump is forcibly ousted from office that would mean things have gotten so bad for the republicans they would be totally crippled.

the longer this goes on the worse it's going to get. there are still hundreds of vacancies in this government -- tons of work that just isn't getting done -- and this will catch up with them. you can only blame obama for so long. like, what if there is a major terrorist attack? how would "kneecapping the fbi" -- as a gentleman on npr put it -- look then?

i mean, who knows. but the republican fantasy of quietly looting the nation while maintaining the aspects of statesmen in the eyes of 1/2 the populace just cannot be sustainable.

eh if he goes any time soon i really don't see the GOP changing course at all. they'll keep moving like dead-eyed sharks with pence til they get those tax cuts and judges, or until their stymied by *possible* losses in 2018.

i am not saying they will change, i am saying they will become pariahs

that they won't just lose but collapse. they're all in with this trump fellow now.

i shouldn't prognosticate but you know

yep. it will certainly be interesting to see them try to detach if this whole Trump phenomenon shits the bed

like wtf is that going to look like lol

i shouldn't prognosticate but you know

― Treeship, Wednesday, May 10, 2017 10:15 PM

but you don't

i am not saying they will change, i am saying they will become pariahs

― Treeship, Wednesday, May 10, 2017 10:14 PM

can we post threads from 2008? 2006? Was ILE around during the Poppy/Clinton race?

Treeship, when you get sleep you'll realize that the GOP has principals. It will never stop. It wants tax cuts and an elimination of the federal government as a regulatory force if not presence in our lives. If you want to mitigate the GOP's effects, don't stop the phone calls, emails, and activism.

er principles

Both Schindler and Rick Wilson have posted rather gleefully about something happening tomorrow, it seems.

dump time

I'll believe it whens I sees it.

pic.twitter.com/MwpUZSA5JH

— Jensen Karp (@JensenClan88) May 11, 2017

xpost I love these intimations of scoops and revelations, but I don't have the stomach to pay them much heed anymore. Wilson in particular has been beating this drum for months, so loudly and consistently that his predictions of bombshells could apply to more bombshells than he's actually ever predicted. That is, Trump Inc. just produces so much shit that predictions of shit aren't really that impressive. It's like going to see a crap psychic:

"I see someone in the crystal ball, a man. His name is Ch ... Ro ... D ..."

"Donald?"

"Yes, Donald! And he's in great danger!"

"What kind of danger?"

"Something about ... money. And ... numbers."

"Is it Russia?"

"Yes, it's Russia! It's all very clear now, definitely Russia! They are coming to get him!"

"They're coming to get him, or he is going to them?"

"Yes, that! He's going to them! I see something else now, it's a color. It's reeeee .... no, greee ... no ..."

"Orange?"

"Yes, orange, that's it, orange!"

"Is he going to jail for colluding with the Russians?"

"Wait, things are coming into focus ... yes!"

"Are you sure?"

"I don't know, how much more money do you have on you?"

Sen.Wyden putting a hold on Treasury nom until the Dept coughs up docs related to Trump's Russian ties

The fuck does Trump care if his nominees are put on hold? He's way behind already. Wyden should just hire some teens to turf his golf course.

I'd say the chances of Trump serving out his full term are in decline, but of course that leaves us with Pence

― Zelda Zonk, Wednesday, May 10, 2017 10:00 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i swore i wouldn't do this again after november, but

Contract that pays out if Trump leaves office this year, doubled today from about 10 to 20%. 50% he makes it to 2020 https://t.co/wXhI7b3lv4 pic.twitter.com/ewUqc62ymv

— David Rothschild (@DavMicRot) May 10, 2017

Privately, Democrats are mulling how best to achieve their goal of creating an independent investigation. The leading option being discussed is trying to persuade three Republicans to demand an independent investigation and then have all 48 Democrats threaten to block any nominee for the top post at the FBI.

punters' hunches are not always reliable prophecies

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-trumps-anger-and-impatience-prompted-him-to-fire-the-fbi-director/2017/05/10/d9642334-359c-11e7-b373-418f6849a004_story.html?utm_term=.c7ddcae3103a&tid=sm_tw

Rosenstein threatened to resign after the narrative emerging from the White House on Tuesday evening cast him as a prime mover of the decision to fire Comey and that the president acted only on his recommendation, said the person close to the White House, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

the GOP has principals

https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Money-History-Billionaires-Radical/dp/0385535597

Can't wait for tomorrow

yeah I know it's dumb to get excited about OPPO DROP!! all over again but that was before he pissed off the entire FBI

From WaPo story linked by caek:

The known actions that led to Comey’s dismissal raise as many questions as answers. Why was Sessions involved in discussions about the fate of the man leading the FBI’s Russia investigation, after having recused himself from the probe because he had falsely denied under oath his own past communications with the Russian ambassador?

That is a good question.

The bigger thing is Trump's weird claim that Comey told him three times he was not being investigated. In what context? Because that's totally not kosher.

probably 'you are not a target of this investigation' (in the technical legal sense) if anything - which any idiot who watches as much tv as trump should realize doesn't preclude BECOMING a target, but...

Josh, please go back and read the vox piece and the accompanying twitter thread by David Roberts.

And when I say "Josh" I mean everybody who still can't get why this guy etc. that means you too Treesh

xpost

"Are you sure?"

"I don't know, how much more money do you have on you?"

sure there's opportunists like wilson reveling in the shit of autocratic encroachment. but this is good. the last 120 days have been horrifying and better than i thought they would. imagine if trump was competent, if the gop was, if they passed what they wanted swiftly with people who could justify their ideological extremism. instead: the man is falling apart. to me, the real reek of autocracy/oligarchy/fascism is how quickly he's unglued himself from the understanding of basically everyone expect his god emperor minions. there's a russian novel there too. don't forget. they always had serfs.

to me: there's no con in pursuing trump/russia to it's natural end. the man shouldn't be in power. hobbling him and helping him to hobble himself is a service. i won't give a fuck who was right on twitter if/when this presidency collapses.

Oh, I don't care who brings him down. But I am getting a little tired of this coy "just you wait, I know things" BS. Well, spill, you punks. Because if you know shit that can take him down and you don't reveal it, then you're part of the problem. And by "you" I mean you, Moby.

It's disgusting that people turn a brutal, indefensible moment in history into a self-promotional exercise #brands

That said mosquitoes are always annoying, so...

the oppo teasers are nonsense. john schindler is a loon.

Former senior FBI official tells me Trump's reported short list of Comey replacements is "catastrophic"

— Dustin Volz (@dnvolz) May 11, 2017

i think i liked it better when it was just the text

more ilxy