Trump, May 2017: 100 days of [unintelligible]

I get Mordy's point, and I guess the depressing thing we have to acknowledge is that most workplaces apply more stringent extralegal definitions of what constitutes a conflict of interest than does our federal government.

"t was during the post-9/11 years that Lieberman linked arms with Republicans Graham and McCain, two other hawks who, like their Democratic friend, were known to thwart their party. The trio traveled the world together and became known as the "Three Amigos." So high was their mutual regard that McCain reportedly wanted Lieberman to be his 2008 running mate, though he eventually succumbed to pressure to pick conservative Sarah Palin instead."

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/19/politics/why-democrats-dont-like-joe-lieberman/

lolz

https://publicoccurrenc.blogspot.com/2015/06/three-amigos.html

man, how much better off would everybody be, incl THE MAV, if he'd bucked the party and picked Lieberman? i mean, he still would've lost (god i hope), but no Sarah Palin. and probably not a whole lot of other solid waste that floated to the top in her wake.

Mordy is right - just because revolving-door shit happens constantly between government and highly motivated private entities (law firms, lobbies, think tanks) doesn't mean we have to stop pointing it out. "Conflict of interest" may not be the MOST precisely-fitting term, but in its colloquial sense (relevant, as we are talking about how politicians, not lawyers, might respond to and frame this decision), it DOES well capture the kind of problem at stake: excessive coziness between the guy being investigated and the guy he's picking to continue said investigation (or 86 it). If Trump gave a shit about even LOOKING like he takes impartiality seriously he would have done something else - but then, he wouldn't have fired Comey in the first place.

the thing is Trump thinks this *is* what impartiality looks like. In both cases he thought he was throwing a bone to the Democrats.

Piers Morgan is concerned!

(Seriously, this is top comedy.)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4522556/amp/PIERS-MORGAN-Stop-whining-President-Paranoid-Snowflake.html

human beings are uniquely susceptible to self-indulgent, emotional wallowing

Piers Morgan has never met our cat.

lol, according to Lachlan Markay, someone just edited Wikipedia to remove Trump's name from Joe Lieberman's law firm's list of clients.

so the answer is no, 'Lieberman is not as awful as others' is not a good reason to confirm him (also, he might be as awful)

Letters obtained by @AP show Trump's attorneys didn't want him to sign his financial disclosure forms: https://t.co/UoNPEx19Bb

— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) May 19, 2017

why isn't Trump starting a new reality show a la The Apprentice to pick a new FBi leader??

not sure what the implication is there. Trump had shady lawyers?

I think the implication is that Trump's lawyers thought it would be safer for him to not certify that his financial disclosure statement was true.

Not saying it's not true, just, y'know, why pin yourself down like that, there might be stuff you forgot...

Goes without saying they are smarter than Donald Trump. Who isn't though.

Remember when Sarah Palin was regarded as dangerously unprepared for the national stage because she had "only" been a mayor of a small city and governor of a sparsely populated state?

well she was also a woman tbf

no lol xpost

i don't think her sex or relative inexperience mattered so much as her obvious idiocy

i think her obviously false folksiness didn't work as well as trump's idiot truck with no brakes.

wasn't she also in some porno's ? I guess that is oen similarity to Trump

"Trump’s hosts on his upcoming trip are well-aware of his aversion to travel and are trying to make accommodations to keep him happy.

In Saudi Arabia, people with knowledge of the planning for Trump’s trip say the caterers are planning to offer the president steak and ketchup alongside the lamb and hefty portions of rice on the menu. All the meat will have been butchered in a Shariah-compliant halal manner as per Islamic custom."

Gender entered into it - that was clear enough from the success of a certain bikini meme that I hesitate to even bring up, and the apparently enduring notion that she was in "some porno's" - but primarily the issue was that she was staggeringly uninformed and incurious. The Couric interview still blows my mind, even if compared to Trump on any given day she comes off like Adlai Stevenson.

hmmm who's dumber Trump or Palin...

Trump could prolly find Russia on a map

I think most politicians are extremely dumb but they are better at hiding it than Trumpster and palinator

He can't see it from his house.. but it can see him

xpost

Trump could prolly find Russia in his office

how many electoral votes did they get him

I'd argue that Palin and Trump are probably equally stupid (not necessarily congenitally impaired on a cognitive level but rather pathologically uninterested in anything beyond the end of their respective noses and completely lacking any internal life that's more complex than, like, some shitty action-adventure cartoon where they're the undisputed hero of a universe that exists in opposition to them). Trump is just slightly better at bloviating his way through situations that are beyond his ability to grasp.

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/3907896/thumbs/o-SARAH-PALIN-DONALD-TRUMP-DUMB-AND-DUMBER-MOVIE-570.jpg?7

uh

@tinyrevolution
Prediction: The Saudi royals will give Trump a 2016 electoral map made of rubies and sapphires.

@PeterBeinart
I disagree with Joe Lieberman's politics but he's known as a decent man. Surely someone he trusts will tell him not to commit moral suicide

@tinyrevolution
"A decent man" in DC means you helped start a war that's killed a million people + you remember staffers' birthdays

i tried to photoshop james comey to make him taller but it's impossible to tell unless you see the other pics for reference pic.twitter.com/FfwXiSADb9

— drewtoothpaste (@drewtoothpaste) May 19, 2017

HE IS A SKYSCRAPER

http://media.vanityfair.com/photos/58ac973c9284e86a824ca887/master/w_900,c_limit/james-comey-letter-02.jpg

https://www.nationaljournal.com/media/media/2016/07/06/0706-cabinetheight.png

This thread went off the rails in Irrelevantville and I blame the new kid.

to be fair, I requested the infographics.

Look at his body language! "I shall eat your pancreas!!"

lol at adding heel height for the ladies

From the AP (v presidential):

The Trump administration plans to announce $110 billion in advanced military equipment sales and training to Saudi Arabia this weekend as President Donald Trump visits the country, officials said Friday.

U.S. officials familiar with the package said it would include Abrams tanks, combat ships, missile defense systems, radar, and communications and cyber security technology. The announcement is expected Saturday in Riyadh, the first leg of Trump’s maiden overseas trip as president. The officials weren’t authorized to speak publicly and demanded anonymity.

Much of the package builds on commitments made before Trump took office, although some elements are new. Some of the weapons are designed to help the Saudis in their current conflict in neighboring Yemen where they are leading a coalition battling Iran-backed rebels, the officials said.

Poor Arne lookin all casual - they had no suit photo?

If there's any expository dialogue along the lines of "____________! What have you been up to the past few years?" I will be so pissed.

lol wrong thread

let's use that money to fund the Wall of Racism

Back to trump v palin: i think palin legit has a type of thought disorder. From psychcentral:

"A disturbance in one’s ability to generate a logical sequence of ideas, as indicated by disordered speech and/or writing.

There are different types of thought disorders. A flight of ideas refers to language that may be difficult to understand when it switches quickly from one unrelated idea to other. Circumstantiality refers to language that may be difficult to understand when it is long-winded and convoluted in reaching its goal. Word salad refers to words that are inappropriately strung together resulting in gibberish.

A thought disorder may be a symptom of many different mental disorders, but is most commonly associated with schizophrenia or some related psychotic disorder. A person with a thought disorder is usually someone who is suffering from something that is need of professional mental health help sooner rather than later.

oh good let's pathologize every prominent republican now, that'll work out great

I find that once startling and prevalent character trait of leaders is a certain blindness to their own faults - as if they have to believe they are magic for nothing to stand in their way