Trump, September 2017: Walmart Knockoff Hats and Other Indignities

Man, I can only imagine the damage that will come of a letter drafted by Miller and Trump with no oversight.

re: "Its On"

All the leaks indicate Mueller is hard charging at 2 things: the obstruction angle and trying to destroy Manafort

Perhaps money laundering, too. Or money/Manafort in an effort to get to Trump.

i know i've been spoiled by months of document leaks because i want to read the miller/trump letter NOW, and i'm disappointed that it'll have to wait until...whatever happens months/years from now with mueller

How could anyone possibly apply gradations to "knowledgeable," "honest," "steady," "compassionate," and "moral"?

I wasn't clear enough here--what I meant was, as applied to Trump. Who could sort them out? "I think he's a little more honest than he is steady, but a little more steady than compassionate." None of the terms apply.

Days/minutes/seconds.

I mean the way to think about all this is this -- the appointment of Mueller and the creation of his team was not, in and of itself, the key step, though it was necessary. The key step is the increasing coordination and, to a degree, centralization we're now seeing happen across a wide variety of investigations. The consequences of Trump's impulsive mid-May move keep playing out as a result; Mueller didn't have to start from scratch, he has a wide range of professional connections and resources to draw upon and, in a series of sublime gifts from the gods, Trump himself keeps telegraphing concerns or doing things that add to the impression that at the very least he really does have something to hide, no matter what the actual reasons are. That latter fact has to some degree now tamped down, likely due to a combination of Kelly's cleanup and Trump's current legal folks avoiding Kasowitz's clownishness and sticking to various 'no-comment' statements or pat phrases about working with Mueller's team well on a professional level, but the damage is done; combined with Trump's obvious unpopularity, and little wonder it's all chugging along like this.

Having his legal team not being run by a drunk idiot like Kasowitz is also helpful

Minor details.

It's occurring to me with increasing frequency that, in the course of a life filled to overflowing with acts of stupidity, running for president might wind up being the stupidest thing Trump ever did. Instead of (relatively speaking) continuing to fly under the radar as a crooked turd of a private citizen, he just painted a big ol' target on himself. Which he thankfully feels the need to touch up on a daily basis.

Yeah I was thinking the same last night.

THREAD: What does the news that Mueller has a draft of a Trump letter explaining why he wanted to fire Comey mean for the obstruction case?

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) September 1, 2017

61 percent disapproval on Gallup, new low

Time for Trump to repost his smug golf clap photo.

(Again, it must be said, one of his most profoundly pathetic moments was celebrating a 50% approval rating in a poll that's strongly skewed in his favor.)

Well he's -14% net on that one now lol

Trump caves on the wall...again.

The White House has signaled to congressional Republicans that it will not shut down the government in October if money isn’t appropriated to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, potentially clearing a path for lawmakers to reach a short-term budget deal.

Congress has only appropriated money to fund government operations through the end of September, and President Trump has threatened to shut down the government if lawmakers don’t include $1.6 billion in new funding so that 74 new miles of wall and secondary fencing can be added to the border.

“Build that wall,” Trump said at the Aug. 22 rally in Phoenix. “Now the obstructionist Democrats would like us not to do it. But believe me, if we have to close down our government, we're building that wall.”

But two days later, White House officials quietly notified Congress that the $1.6 billion would not need to be in a “continuing resolution” that was meant to fund government operations from October until sometime in early December, a senior GOP congressional aide said.

hmm, i figured he'd cave on it a little closer to the budget negotiations, but fine. that means that trump can direct his idiot legion's rage toward congressional republicans by blaming them for not allocating money for his precious wall

XP Now if only a wall would cave in on...

best case scenario for 9/11/17 = trump pulls a hillary but actually dies

KInd of dumbfounded that he'd still be talking about a wall after Houston. Almost as much as turning down the offer of Mexican help.
But there you go it's not like you can have any expectations of cognition from the guy.

Breaking the potential candidates into formal tiers at this point would be silly. But here are groupings that emerged with our conversations with veterans of past Democratic presidential campaigns, as well as younger operatives likely to be involved in the 2020 campaign:

Watched most closely: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Sen. Kamala Harris (Calif.), New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The classics: Joe Biden, John Kerry, Al Gore, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley.

Outsiders: New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Colorado Gov. Hickenlooper

Has begun seeking staff: Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.), Rep. Tim Ryan (Ohio).

Many in Obamaworld like: former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, Rep. Seth Moulton (Mass.), former Missouri SecState Jason Kander.

Many in Clintonworld like: Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, former Ag Secretary and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, former HUD Secretary Julian Castro.

Possible if wins reelection: Sen. Sherrod Brown (Ohio).

Wants to be mentioned: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.).

Wild cards: Sen. Al Franken (Minn.), Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, Rep. John Delaney (Md.).

Non-politicians: Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Mark Cuban, The Rock, Starbucks Executive Chairman Howard Schultz, Disney CEO Bob Iger, Oprah, George Clooney.

Someone Trump would have no idea what to do with, and who'd win women with authenticity and Southern charm: Sally Yates, the acting attorney general fired by Trump.

https://www.axios.com/axios-am-2480203706.html

president-elect zuckerberg conspicuously absent

he's busy in tulsa, at a laundrette, learning about how people live now

sad no one's mentioning Pete Buttigieg

Draft Tammy Duckworth

When Poppy Bush said every single day during his campaign "Read my lips; no new taxes", he was excoriated mercilessly by his supporters when he later signed a bill that included new taxes. It should be said as often as possible that Trump promised multiple times a day that Mexico would pay for the wall, so if Congress doesn't pay for it, that is only because they know Mexico must do it, so why waste US taxpayer dollars on it?

because the concept of hypocrisy died in 2016

The difference is that Poppy never had a base of support -- he was perpetually mistrusted.

same reason Obama got slammed for "you can keep your doctor"? Trump's lies and scandals at this point are like this -

http://www.tgaw.com/images/SpeakEasy/ThreeStooges.JPG

Has Trump had one of these "wait and see ... " moments yet where in the end he made the better decision rather than the most disruptive and upsetting one?

Huh, TN's AG pulled out of its "DREAMERS" suit. Maybe others will follow and nullify this bullshit.

I am starting to see reports from the misinformed press and the fake news on how I am in violation of breaking campaign law.

#1 I have still not officially announced my candidacy.

#2 See #1 and go fuck yourselves.

Everyone else, Have a great Labor Day (I will be spending mine WORKING in one of the greatest cities in America - Grand Rapids, Michigan!!)

Rock on.
Kid Rock

@ frogbs - antifa is a real thing but probably comprise idk two hundred people in the united states, rounding up. the RW infosphere interpretation is that they are a massive armed front basically interchangeable with black-bloc anarchists and the dangerous terrorist cell known as black lives matter. from what I can tell on comments threads and batshit cartoons they are also communists. must be tough for them juggling all these ideologies but hey.

also, it seems, all liberals of whatever stripes spend a lot of time actively agreeing with all these groups and movements and supporting everything they do. which is prob the most absurd thing to me, as if more than .001% of the US population had ever heard the word "antifa" before last month. conservative media is just so hungry for a "oh yeah well why won't LIBERALS condemn ANTIFA, see trump was right to talk about BOTH SIDES" etc.

the RW infosphere interpretation is that they are a massive armed front basically interchangeable with black-bloc anarchists and the dangerous terrorist cell known as black lives matter.

don't forget they're also secretly funded by george soros.

yeah but Andrew Sullivan cares that they're throwing smoke bombs and shit

yeah it's been strange. I'm used to the right-wing deflecting and "oh why won't you talk about the REAL story" (Benghazi) every time a Trump controversy comes up but this is the first time I've seen the left go along with it, "ahh yeah these *squints* Anteefa are also very bad".

wait isn't Gavin Newsom trying to run?

Trump's main thug, Keith Schiller, is leaving the White House.

Newsom wants to be CA gov first

That Kid Rock thing points to the inevitability of someone using "Fuck all y'all" as a campaign slogan

Hell yeah

Rock 2018: [Radio Edit]

ehhh the broad Dem coalition has always been pretty cool with throwing more aggressive activists, protesters that cross over into property destruction of whatever kind, or really radicals of whatever sort, under the bus. people who share Maddow news constantly are probably the most eager to proclaim "but these violent black-clad thugs, i condemn them totally" which may be a defensible position but it's not new imho. shades really quickly into "and it's fine if the cops mistreat them and throw away the key" cause a lot of the same cats are eager to make clear that they don't live up to the caricature version drawn by the right. turn back the clock to seattle '99, or white liberals struggling to make sense of the black panthers, etc. etc.

Aaaaand the walkback begins. Sarah Huckabee Sanders could not confirm whether Trump's planned donation of $1 million to Harvey victims was going to come from his personal money or from the Trump foundation.

every day, multiple times a day, there is a new illustration of what a piece of shit he is

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/watch-as-trump-calls-on-a-bunch-of-religious-leaders-to-thank-him-for-his-harvey-efforts/

Serious question: How many (and which) senior Trump administration officials use the word "scrivener"? https://t.co/iyjw80yiVF pic.twitter.com/NoLKdUVjxn

— Betsy Woodruff (@woodruffbets) September 1, 2017

ILX's new bff had a good explainer for use of that term - its intentional

The person quoted in that passage is minimizing Miller's role--suggesting he was like a transcriber or a secretary, exercising no judgment. https://t.co/P80fCAEge1

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) September 2, 2017

Kelly and Trump not BFFs anymore! Sad!

President Trump was in an especially ornery mood after staff members gently suggested he refrain from injecting politics into day-to-day issues of governing after last month’s raucous rally in Arizona, and he responded by lashing out at the most senior aide in his presence.

It happened to be his new chief of staff, John F. Kelly.

Mr. Kelly, the former Marine general brought in five weeks ago as the successor to Reince Priebus, reacted calmly, but he later told other White House staff members that he had never been spoken to like that during 35 years of serving his country. In the future, he said, he would not abide such treatment, according to three people familiar with the exchange.

...

Like every other new sheriff in town Mr. Trump has hired to turn things around at the White House or in his presidential campaign, Mr. Kelly has gradually diminished in his appeal to his restless boss. What is different this time is that Mr. Trump, mired in self-destructive controversies and record-low approval ratings, needs Mr. Kelly more than Mr. Kelly needs him.

...

For the seven months of the Trump administration, the favorite parlor game in the West Wing has been guessing how long imperiled aides like Mr. Priebus would hang on before getting fired. But these days it is Mr. Kelly’s state of mind, not Mr. Trump’s, that concerns the beleaguered aides buoyed by the new chief’s imposition of structure and clear lines of authority.

The question now is how long Mr. Kelly will stay, with estimates ranging from a month to a year at the most. White House officials say that Mr. Kelly has given no indication he intends to leave anytime soon. He has thrown himself into long-term planning of the administration’s tax reform push, the president’s Asia trip in November and scheduling for the next several months, they said. Mr. Kelly declined through a White House spokeswoman to comment for this article.

...

Mr. Kelly cannot stop Mr. Trump from binge-watching Fox News, which aides describe as the president’s primary source of information gathering. But Mr. Trump does not have a web browser on his phone, and does not use a laptop, so he was dependent on aides like Stephen K. Bannon, his former chief strategist, to hand-deliver printouts of articles from conservative media outlets.

Now Mr. Kelly has thinned out his package of printouts so much that Mr. Trump plaintively asked a friend recently where The Daily Caller and Breitbart were.

"...and where the hell is my Daily Stormer!?!?"

Sorry Joanie the dragon goo fart was too gross for me

Trump, October 2017: Apologize for untruth, u bum

Ugh, Puzder on MSNBC carrying water for Trump's "tax reform" ideas. He keeps saying "we need to stop parsing this out in individual pieces and look at what it'll do for the whole economy, for everyone" hahaha yeah those keys sure are jingling in your other hand man let me keep staring at those.

The estate tax "is a double tax! It taxes money you've already made!"

Heyyyy fuck you, bud, how about that.

There's an October thread now, heads up

Fuck I thought I was posting in that. Someone should lock this and also i should pay more attention.