Trump, May 2017: 100 days of [unintelligible]

ah, closed session

who knows then

w made it so, so easy for the republican base to abandon him: he _compromised_.

And we got more Holt interview!

More of my interview with Pres Trump tonight. Still angry Comey failed to charge Hillary Clinton. @NBCNightlyNews

— Lester Holt (@LesterHoltNBC) May 12, 2017

did ye never get this sorted lads

We've been busy, keep getting distracted.

it's on our to do list

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=253&v=_wMvItIDMPU

Are youtube videos embedding tghese days?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wMvItIDMPU
Colbert's response to Trump

Cornyn to interview for FBI job

was about to ask wtf these other two people are:

Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe — who on Thursday contradicted the Trump White House’s characterization of the Russian meddling probe as a low priority — will interview Saturday to serve as the FBI’s permanent director, according to people familiar with the matter.

McCabe is one of at least four people who will interview to replace James B. Comey, who Trump suddenly fired earlier this week, the people said. The others are Alice Fisher, a white-collar defense lawyer who previously led the department’s criminal division; Michael J. Garcia, a judge on the New York State Court of Appeals; and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.).

Whoever strikes Trump as being the biggest law'n'order fire-eater while simultaneously acting the most deferential to him will get the nod.

Cornyn's another one where, anytime he's not talking, you can hear the wind whistling through his empty skull. I'm sure Trump loves him.

Whoever strikes Trump as being the biggest law'n'order fire-eater while simultaneously acting the most deferential to him will get the nod.

― A is for (Aimless), Friday, May 12, 2017 9:12 PM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sounds about right

so, cornyn?

Senator Cornyn has the kind of depth of experience at schmoozing and buttering up rich guys that should put him in the post position. Odds on favorite.

Senate to FBI seems like a lateral move to me. But I guess not having to campaign or fundraise has its appeal.

The head of the fbi is more powerful than a senator, if that's your bag

faster than a speeding bullet

I presume Abbott would fill Cornyn's seat, right?

A handy resource:

http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/vacancies-in-the-united-states-senate.aspx

For Texas, interim governor appointment, then:

If vacancy occurs in an even year on or before the 62nd day before the primary, remainder of term is filled at next regular general election. If vacancy occurs after 62nd day before the primary in an even year, or in an odd year, special election is held on the first uniform election date occurring on or after the 36th day the election is ordered

Ned thinks we can math

A person does a thing and then things happen

Keep in mind right now there's a Senatorial election in Alabama coming up and it's the corrupt former Attorney General vs. Judge Roy Moore (among others, I think). Sadly, these candidates do not cancel each other out.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C_rJbwHXUAAujDc.jpg

lol

Spicer indicates he feels personally victimized in this job.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 12, 2017

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/us/politics/trump-sean-spicer-sarah-huckabee-sanders.html

Good headline

‘Looking Like a Liar or a Fool’: What It Means to Work for Trump

This makes sense

Scooplet by @NYTmike: Comey wants to testify, but insists it be in public. Watch this space: https://t.co/fWuPiGHMJw

— Lara Jakes (@jakesNYT) May 13, 2017

Meantime, more from his favorite channel of choice

Fox News EVP John Moody questions if Trump “actually plans to stay in office for four years”https://t.co/kFBP9RkioD

— Jon Passantino (@passantino) May 13, 2017

Elsewhere...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/former-trump-adviser-paul-manaforts-bank-records-sought-in-probe-1494637248

The Justice Department last month requested banking records of Paul Manafort as part of a widening of probes related to President Donald Trump’s former campaign associates and whether they colluded with Russia in interfering with the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the matter.

In mid-April, federal investigators requested Mr. Manafort’s banking records from Citizens Financial Group Inc., the people said.

It isn’t clear whether Citizens is the only bank that received such a request or whether it came in the form of a subpoena. Federal law generally requires that a bank receive a subpoena to turn over customer records, lawyers not connected to the investigation said.

Citizens gave Mr. Manafort a $2.7 million loan last year to refinance debt on a Manhattan condominium and borrow additional cash, New York City real-estate records show. The Wall Street Journal couldn’t ascertain if the Justice Department request is related to that transaction or whether the bank has turned over Mr. Manafort’s records.

Also, more from Adam Davidson on the wider Trump financial front

http://www.newyorker.com/business/adam-davidson/the-senate-starts-to-look-at-trumps-businesses

More significant for the long term, perhaps, was another request made by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which is known as FinCEN, to turn over documents related to Trump and his campaign officials as part of what Senator Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the committee, told CNN is “our effort to try to follow the intel no matter where it leads.”

The FinCEN request is particularly interesting because the unit enforces money-laundering laws and is familiar with Donald Trump’s holdings, specifically the Taj Mahal casino, in Atlantic City. Trump opened the Taj Mahal in 1990. He sold half of his shares in 2004, as part of a bankruptcy settlement, but remained a minority owner. In 2015, the Taj Mahal admitted to “willfully” violating the law by letting many suspicious transactions go unreported to the authorities, and agreed to pay a ten-million-dollar fine—one of the largest ever for a casino. While the fine came at a time when Trump was no longer a majority owner, FinCEN made clear in its public statement that the casino had violations dating back to 2003, when Trump was majority owner, and had faced another fine in 1998. The casino closed late last year.

With further thoughts on money laundering from there.

For Texas, interim governor appointment, then:

November 7th is the next uniform election date in Texas. It's an odd year (and how) so that's when Cornyn's Senate seat would likely be voted on. Not sure who the Dems would run... one of the Castro brothers, Wendy Davis, Leticia Van de Putte? Whoever it is will get soundly beaten by the Republican candidate.

I nominate f. hazel on behalf of the ILX Party.

I promise to lose gracefully and expensively.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/jeff-sessions-drug-laws-toughest-maximum-sentences-policies-obama-a7733266.html

Mr Sessions advised that all criminals be charged with the “most serious, readily provable offence,” or whichever crime has the longest sentence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM_6tgVJb_o

I'd prefer Lemongrab at this point in our reality

Is the dinner that Trump mentioned in the interview the same one that was about a week after he was sworn in as president back in January? Does that put any different slant on whether Comey was going to stay on as FBI director. Does Trump know that it's normally a 10 year appointment and does this tie in further with him thinking that as President, everything else is under his immediate command?

It just sounded from the interview as though this dinner was more recent.

Also does Carter Page have any credibility left? I'm getting Chris Hayes shows late so only just seeing that he was teh studio guest on Thursday night.

& I've seen Adam Schiff on several things this week and unfortunately keep seeing Andy Kaufman in his face. He seems a good guy but I wonder if that undermines anything?

I trust that Sessions's brutal sentencing standards will be applied to the current administration when the time comes.

Also does Carter Page have any credibility left?

'left'

Yeah I guess presupposing he had any at a previous time is far fetched, but he was appearing on at least a couple of news programmes a few months back.

the current line on Comey is that he'll testify only if it is in a public forum

good [unintelligible] !

xpost and if someone beatboxes for him

before everyone gets carried away with all this trump and russia hoax, let's get back to first principles, please

lying about a bj is a far greater crime than securing russian assistance in a US election

attempting to provide affordable healthcare is a far greater crime than firing law enforcement officials who are investigating you

religious values outweigh science

deficit spending is good for the economy, but only when republicans do it

tax cuts for the wealthy are more important than healthcare or infrastructure

thank you

This guy gets it

forgot 'hillary is crooked'

so crooked

Erick Erickson had an illuminating op-ed in the Times today about how "the Comey affair" is no bigs

Just a bit of threatening a witness

Was it him? It was probably written before Thursday if so. Yesterday he posted a Twitter thread pretty much saying 'this is ALLLLL fucked.'

1. Some game theory for @EsotericCD whose twitter handle comes up on my phone when I type "game theory"

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) May 12, 2017

And some Mike Allen fun

https://www.axios.com/top-republicans-demoralized-and-dumbfounded-but-publicly-defend-trump-2405906415.html

Elected Republican officials are publicly defending Trump but privately are dumbfounded, disgusted and demoralized by this turn of events.

We haven't had a single conversation with a top Republican that doesn't reflect this. The worries are manifold:

This kills momentum on legislating, and unifies Democrats in opposition to everything they want to do.
This makes it easier for Democrats to recruit quality candidates and raise money for the off-year elections.
It sours swing voters.
It puts them on the defensive at home. They want to talk tax reform and deregulation -- not secret tapes and Russian intrigue.
But mainly it reinforces their greatest fear: Trump will never change. They keep praying he'll discipline himself enough to get some big things done. Yet they brace for more of this.

Pobrecitos.

Of course, none of those five reasons appear to be 'he's doing longterm damage to the country itself.'