US Politics, March 2018: Why do people leave the White House for good?

http://youtu.be/X_gwnFSFzv0

Our guy is probably going to get a polonium milkshake

nuclear warfare means Liverpool won't win the Premiership

reminds me of the summit between Rufus T Firefly and Ambassador Trentino

ICYMI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9Wh66FXZJQ

remember that kim jong un’s brother was assassinated when two escorts one of whom was a woman in a shirt saying LOL smeared a substance containing vx on his face

lol

http://www.funnysigns.net/files/drowning-lol.jpg

remember that kim jong un’s brother was assassinated when two escorts one of whom was a woman in a shirt saying LOL smeared a substance containing vx on his face

the really incredible part is that we aren't just constantly talking about this

remember tho that the world ended on december 21 2012 and we've all been living in a simulation controlled by extremely bad satirists ever since, there's been a lot to talk about

wonder how the_donald is taking the whole "blame video games" thing

video games are very bad bc they promote guns, which by the way are very good

— KT NELSON (@KrangTNelson) March 9, 2018

oof

a gem from the replies

True fact: SWAT teams have stopped more Twitch streams than school shootings.

— Michael Kelley (@mike_kelley) March 9, 2018

and i don't know how any sort of negotiation involving trump himself can be called anything but rolling the dice on this. he is legendarily dumb, brash, impulsive.

― and in my opinionation, the sun is gonna surely shine♪♫ (Karl Malone), Thursday, March 8, 2018 5:54 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

btw regarding this, Trump is all of those things but i also think he gets extremely cowed by a lot of people in certain ways, or he's at least extremely willing to go along with their ideas. i assume California will be "East Korea" before summer.

'don't believe what the fake news media tells you, folks, juche is very good'

after being +1 on Rasmussen around a week ago, he's back to -10 there now.

'don't believe what the fake news media tells you, folks, juche is very good'

And look, he was able to do that. I think it's great. Maybe we'll have to give that a shot someday.

EXCLUSIVE: Trump lawyer Michael Cohn used Trump Org. email address while arranging deal with adult film star Stormy Daniels pic.twitter.com/0ksd4ph7BA

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 9, 2018

EXCLUSIVE: Trump lawyer Michael Cohn paid Stormy Daniels in bills which were each individually signed by Donald Trump.

There's probably a bulging file in Trump's desk with 'DIRTY DEALS AND CROOKED PLANS' scrawled across the front of it.

Michael Cohn is this guy

https://frinkiac.com/meme/S07E15/325925.jpg?b64lines=IE9oLCBjcmFwISBJIGNlcnRhaW5seQogc2hvdWxkbid0IGhhdmUgc2FpZCBpdAogd2FzIGlsbGVnYWwuIA==

Was listening to an exchange between an MSNBC person and stormys lawyer. Made the really good observation that stormy has her lawyer. And Trump's lawyer now has a lawyer. But there's really no client that Trump's lawyer was representing. It's a phantom client. Michael Cohen is pursuing all the stuff, and threatening to sue, and trying to push arbitration, to the benefit of a party as yet unnamed. I wonder who it could be?

I wonder if North Korea is in a sense just curious to see this freak show up close in person. Kind of like, okay, we've hung with Dennis Rodman, who else is on the list. Trump? Yeah what a weirdo, let's hang with him and see how it goes.

Maybe eventually they'll invite everyone who's ever shown up to a Comedy Central Roast.

Some Republican senator, Dean Heller, is claiming that Anthony Kennedy will retire this summer.

don't worry Tony, it's only the nation's fate

ok maybe Pence otm re: Roe v Wade running out of time

President Trump has already stated publicly that this is a negotiation, a meeting to achieve denuclearization. No one from North Korea has said that. Trump has said that. It is highly unlikely that North Korea will ever agree to that. That sets up high odds of embarrassment and disappointment. Given that President has shown very little inclination to be briefed or take advice, the odds are even greater. So will Trump agree to things he shouldn’t? Will he feel humiliated and react belligerently? It’s a highly unpredictable encounter with an inexperienced and petulant President who will reject almost all counsel. It sounds like North Korea has gotten a really big thing in exchange for very little and has no real incentive to do more than meet, bask, say generic things and not agree to anything. Trump looks like he’s getting played big time. I suspect we will learn that he didn’t consult with any advisors before agreeing to meet.

What does this all mean? As Churchill said, jaw, jaw, jaw is better than war, war, war. We have been on an extremely dangerous trajectory. There are no good solutions. There are probably no realistic paths to North Korea ceasing to be a nuclear power. But you could perhaps find agreements to limit the scope and reach of the nuclear and missile programs in place (perhaps even scale it back) with some mix of normalization and aid. But we start with an opening gambit in which Trump seems to be stumbling into something of a trap and being guided by his self-importance and vanity rather than any realistic appraisal of the situation.

Despite it being better than the alternative it’s starting in the worst way.

President Trump has already stated publicly that this is a negotiation, a meeting to achieve denuclearization. No one from North Korea has said that.

although fwiw,according to South Korea's NSA, North Korea DID say something like that:

South Korea’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong (pictured above), said from the White House lawn Thursday that he had delivered a message to President Donald Trump, from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un: Kim, Chung said, was “committed to denuclearization” and would like to meet the President. Trump, Chung said after meeting with him, had agreed to meet Kim “by May.”

“I told President Trump that in our meeting, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he’s committed to denuclearization,” Chung said. “Kim pledged that North Korea will refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests.”

but yeah, the likelihood of them backing down from obtaining a nuclear weapon now is about 0.0000001%, regardless of what they're saying. seems like everyone is getting played here.

christ this man is so fucking dumb

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/03/trump-is-going-for-a-clean-reset

According to five Republicans close to the White House, Trump has diagnosed the problem as having the wrong team around him and is looking to replace his senior staff in the coming weeks. “Trump is going for a clean reset, but he needs to do it in a way that’s systemic so it doesn’t look like it’s chaos,” one Republican said.

They’ve counseled him to return to his 2016 campaign message. Another source said Trump has felt newfound validation after a CPAC straw poll last month showed him with a 93 percent approval rating. “He felt the crowd desiring more,” a Republican close to the White House said.

wait josh marshall has a hot take that relies on a reading of facts that's 180 degrees at odds with published statements? well hose me down and sell me to the mob

Another source said Trump has felt newfound validation after a CPAC straw poll last month showed him with a 93 percent approval rating.

...he went to wharton, did very well there, very good school....

Are they at odds? Marshall is arguably correct that "no one from North Korea has said" that (publicly). Rather, South Koreans have reported that North Koreans said so (privately). Am I calling the South Koreans liars? No, it's a bit more subtle than that - they may have shaded what was said in a fashion that makes repetition of a longstanding position sound like something new. Why would they do that? Because they would prefer not to have Trump start an idiotic war on their border. Why would the North Koreans fail to correct them? Because the South Korean mischaracterization helps enable them to get what they want - an image-fluffing toadyist visit from the leader of the free world, who they can then promptly tell to gfh by being more precise. Whether they will do so remains to be seen, but I'd say that the hopeful readings of this might be hotter takes than more 'realist' ones.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/03/08/north-korea-and-south-korea-snooker-trump/

Trump, Chung said after meeting with him, had agreed to meet Kim “by May.”

My hot takes:

• My hunch is that Kim is only playing at a willingness to denuclearize, so as to gain time to get his ICBM program up to the mark. Once he can prove he has nukes mounted on missiles that can reliably land in North America, all this nonsense about a "bloody nose strategy" will disappear and DPRK will be extremely secure from invasion or interference.

• This move was diplomatically very smart. It puts pressure on the administration to confirm or deny the timeline DPRK has announced and obligates them to pursue a policy of negotiations, which they've already publically embraced. DPRK has never been shy about breaking off negotiations that have begun, or spinning them out for their own purposes.

I love how they think they have the cards

NEWS: Trump’s legal team may tell Mueller he can interview the president if, among other considerations, he agrees to a timeline for ending the Trump-related portion of the Russia probe—for example, 60 days from the date of the interview. W/@PeterWSJ https://t.co/oW1LoFuP2D

— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) March 9, 2018

lol

so not gonna happen tbh

president deals, you magnificent bastard

MAGA 2.0

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/03/trump-is-going-for-a-clean-reset

he needs to do it in a way that’s systemic so it doesn’t look like it’s chaos

Wait I thought chaos was a feature not a bug...

"gfh" = go.. fuck a hog?

but point taken Moo

Speaking about a series of recently lost policy fights — on gun reform, the tax bill, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and more — Warren told the annual gathering of progressive elected officials and advocates, “Just this week we lost the first round in the battle of a bad banking bill — a bill that would take the reins off of Wall Street’s most reckless actors and put as greater risk of another financial crisis. When I saw a handful of my Democratic colleagues vote for it, it felt like a stab in the heart. Not for me, but for all the homeowners who were cheated and all the taxpayers who bailed out those banks. That is wrong.”

While she was angry at Wall Street, she said, she felt most betrayed by her own colleagues. “It is so hard to fight against all the money and all the lobbying. It is so hard to fight when we fight and lose. It’s worse when some of our teammates don’t even show up for the fight,” she said.

While she started off with a nod to teachers mobilizing in West Virginia and Oklahoma, Warren spent most of her address describing how she got involved in politics — interviewing people experiencing bankruptcy for her first book, “As We Forgive Our Debtors: Bankruptcy and Consumer Credit in America,” released in 1989. What Warren learned through that process, she said, was that “this isn’t a story about economics. This is a story about power: about who has it and who doesn’t. In this relationship between lender and borrower, the lender has the power.”

https://theintercept.com/2018/03/09/elizabeth-warren-wall-street-bank-deregulation-bill/

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/never-mind-the-north-korea-meeting-trump-was-just-babbling.html

EXTREMELY BORAT VOICE: My wife and girlfriend . . .

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/28870735_10156405974317259_3866691250633780537_n.jpg?oh=c706678bde8c21ac99759f25f7285230&oe=5B0859B7

“that, in the last week, Trump has confused North Korea with the other, extremely different South Korea, and demanded a laughably tiny $1 billion trade concession from China when he was supposed to demand $100 billion. ”

Outstanding

What a difference four days and an intervention makes.

A stone-faced Sam Nunberg leaves his grand jury testimony and refuses to answer questions, shakes his head when asked for comment. He escapes to a waiting white car, which zooms away

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 9, 2018

“that, in the last week, Trump has confused North Korea with the other, extremely different South Korea, and demanded a laughably tiny $1 billion trade concession from China when he was supposed to demand $100 billion. ”

Outstanding

― YouTube_-_funy_cats.flv (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Friday, March 9, 2018 4:51 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Literally word for word except in billions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKKHSAE1gIs

More fun

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/michael-cohen-dismisses-claims-email-proof-trump-knew/story?id=53642094

Has anyone actually asked him *why* he paid $130K to Stormy?

Michael Avenatti, who provided the emails to ABC News, alleges that the use of Cohen’s Trump.org email further supports his position that Trump was aware of the payment to Daniels whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford.

"We're one step closer to demonstrating that the assertion by Cohen and the White House that President Trump knew nothing about this is ridiculous," Avenatti told ABC News’ Tom Llamas on Friday.

Cohen dismissed these allegations.

“Mr. Avenatti has clearly allowed his 15 minutes of fame to affect his ludicrous conclusions. The earth-shattering uncovered email between myself and the bank corroborates all my previous statements; which is I transferred money from one account at that bank into my LLC and then wired said funds to Ms. Clifford’s attorney in Beverly Hills, California. How Mr. Avenatti or the media at large believes this to be ‘breaking news’ is a mystery to me,” Cohen told ABC News.

When asked where the $130,000 sent to Daniels’ attorney came from, Cohen told ABC News “the funds were taken from my home equity line and transferred internally to my LLC account in the same bank.”

"I think this document seriously calls into question the prior representation of Mr. Cohen and the White House relating to the source of the monies paid to Ms. Clifford in an effort to silence her," Avenatti told NBC News, which first reported the use of the email. "We smell smoke."

When asked about this statement, Cohen responded: " “He should either evacuate the room he’s standing in or immediately seek the attention of an ENT doctor.”