Trump 17: James Comey and the Goblin of "You're Fired"

[formergothardite]

4 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Because of the truthfulness of her past predictions, I tend to believe what she says in my post, but I do have to admit to some wishful thinking on my part as well. 

It would be worth things going a bit slower if in the end they could take them all down. I think this would pretty much destroy the GOP. 

[apple1]

7 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

I'm not quite sure exactly how accurate she is, but so far most of her predictions have been true or very close to the truth. I know she uses multiple sources to back up what she says, but they are mostly anonymous, so how much they can be trusted is not quite clear to me. @RoseWilder knows more about her, I believe.

Because of the truthfulness of her past predictions, I tend to believe what she says in my post, but I do have to admit to some wishful thinking on my part as well. 

But I am keeping my fingers crossed! 

While I would be more than delighted if her scenario proved correct, I don't see sufficient current evidence backing her up. I suppose time will tell.

2 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

It would be worth things going a bit slower if in the end they could take them all down. I think this would pretty much destroy the GOP. 

Apart from the Mensch predictions, I feel like the GOP is working on splitting itself into two parties - those that are more like the old GOP, vs. the Freedom Caucus/ Tea Party section. Ironically, that would create what would actually be a 3 party system, with the Dems having the larger numbers.

Next question is whether the Dems can pull their crap together and unify themselves and come up with a viable candidate that will be electable.

All my fingers and toes crossed.

[GreyhoundFan]

Just now, formergothardite said:

It would be worth things going a bit slower if in the end they could take them all down. I think this would pretty much destroy the GOP. 

I so agree. The thought of bringing down that gang of scum makes me want to do a happy dance.

 

I thought this was a good piece: "‘Looking Like a Liar or a Fool’: What It Means to Work for Trump"

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WASHINGTON — President Trump has never shown any reluctance to sacrifice a surrogate to serve a short-term political need, so he apparently did not think twice this week about exposing a series of staff members to ridicule as he repeatedly shifted his explanation for firing James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director.

Mr. Trump, obsessed with the F.B.I.’s investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election and increasingly frustrated by the hyper-scrutiny of the Washington press corps, is more in need of effective spokesmen than ever, and aides say he is considering a broad shake-up of his team.

But his career-long habit of viewing his public protectors as somewhat disposable, on vivid display after Mr. Comey’s sudden ouster, has not exactly been an incentive to step into the firing line on his behalf.

...

I wonder if tonight's SNL, which will certainly skewer Spicey, will be the straw that breaks the camel's back and gets him axed.

 

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The firestorm touched off by the Comey firing has only reinforced the lesson Mr. Trump has usually taken away from past crises, that only one person was truly capable of defending him: the man in the mirror. It would be a “good idea” to end the daily news briefing, he told a Fox News host on Friday, suggesting that he was considering hosting his own news conferences every two weeks or so.

“Trump is putting a lot on the backs of his spokespeople, while simultaneously cutting their legs out from underneath them,” said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist and a former adviser to Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida. “There is nothing more discouraging or embarrassing for a spokesman than to have your boss contradict you. In political communications, you’re only as good as your credibility.”

The view that the communications dysfunction begins at the top of the White House organizational chart is bipartisan.

...

This is so true: he puts a lot on their backs while cutting their legs out from underneath them.

 

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“The most hazardous duty in Washington these days is that of Trump surrogate because the president constantly undercuts the statements of his own people,” said David Axelrod, a communications and messaging adviser to President Barack Obama.

“You wind up looking like a liar or a fool, neither of which is particularly attractive.”

...

Or, in many of the sycophants' cases, you look like both a liar and a fool.

 

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Mr. Gingrich, a friend and frequent surrogate for the president, said the go-it-alone approach worked “brilliantly for him as an entrepreneur, and it worked pretty well” for him as a candidate.

“But it minimizes the ability of the presidency to both protect him from mistakes and to maximize his strengths,” said Mr. Gingrich, who is working on a biography of Mr. Trump. “At some point, I hope he’s going to learn that taking one extra day, having the entire team lined up. I don’t think he always helps himself. I think 10 percent less Trump would be a hundred percent more effective.”

For his part, the president’s mood, according to people close to him, alternates between grim frustration with Washington and his news coverage, and a belief that his own political capital is regenerative. Mr. Trump saw that running against strong headwinds in the campaign worked for him, and he has frequently reverted to that playbook.

...

It's rare that I agree with Newt, who I have always despised, but he is right on the bolded points.

 

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In private, however, Mr. Trump was not in a mea culpa mood. He was still raging over what he viewed as Mr. Comey’s “witch hunt” against him — and blaming the bipartisan condemnation of his action on the failures of his embattled and overworked communications team.

Mr. Trump is growing increasingly dissatisfied with the performance of his chief of staff, Reince Priebus; the communications director, Michael Dubke; and Mr. Spicer, a Priebus ally, according to a half-dozen West Wing officials who said the president was considering the most far-reaching shake-up of his already tumultuous term.

...

Yeah, I think more heads are going to roll.

 

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Mr. Trump’s four-decade career in real estate, casinos and entertainment has given him a sense, associates say, that a tacit agreement exists between him and the people who work for him: In exchange for the wealth, fame and power he conveys to them, they agree to absorb incoming fire directed at him.

“With Mr. Trump, it’s pretty simple: Once he makes up his mind on something, that’s it,” said Sam Nunberg, a former Trump political adviser who remains close to the president’s team.

“You either work for him” or quit, Mr. Nunberg added.

Um, quitting is a much more sane option.

[GreyhoundFan]

This is getting good: "Judge orders government to turn over documents from Rudy Giuliani on travel ban"

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A federal judge in Michigan this week ordered the Trump administration to turn over communications from Rudolph W. Giuliani and other advisers on the president’s controversial travel ban. Those suing over the matter hope the documents will bolster their bid to prove the ban was motivated by animus toward Muslims.

Giuliani has been a key figure in the ban even before the first version was signed, and judges across the country have pointed to statements by the former New York mayor and close Trump ally as they have ordered the ban frozen. The judges have noted particularly a comment Giuliani made on Fox News in January, in which he seemed to suggest he helped the president craft a legal way to prevent Muslims from entering the U.S.

“So when first announced it, he said, ‘Muslim ban.’ He called me up. He said, ‘Put a commission together. Show me the right way to do it legally,’ ” Giuliani said at the time.

...

 

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U.S. District Judge Victoria A. Roberts ordered the government to turn over to those suing a memo that Giuliani crafted, along with all “documents or communications” about the travel ban from him and several other Trump advisers, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon and senior adviser Stephen Miller during the period just before the election, before they were in their current roles.

Judges have noted Miller’s comments, too, in putting the latest version of the ban on hold.

“We believe these documents will show exactly how the Muslim ban that Donald Trump called for on the campaign trail turned into the executive order he issued a week after taking office,” said Miriam Aukerman, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Michigan, in a written statement. “If the administration now still refuses to turn over these papers, the question will be: What is it trying to hide?”

...

 

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The case in Michigan is not one of the two that have put Trump’s latest travel ban on hold. It is proceeding at a slower pace and it could be significantly impacted by rulings elsewhere. On Monday, a three-judge panel with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit Court is scheduled to hear arguments in one of those cases. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit heard arguments this week.

In an interview, Giuliani said he was willing to turn over whatever documents he still had — but he noted the court’s order was directed to the government, not to him personally. “Basically, the advice was you can’t ban, based on any religion,” Giuliani said.

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I didn't realize there was a separate case in MI.

 

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Giuliani also said his comment on Fox News had been misinterpreted, and that Trump had not asked him how to craft a legal Muslim ban.

“That’s the incorrect interpretation,” Giuliani said. He said Trump more accurately asked, “what can he do legally to keep the country safe” or “How can I do whatever I’m going to do legally?”

“For example, what we told him is he shouldn’t do a Muslim ban,” Giuliani said. “The way I interpreted it, it was, ‘Tell me what I can do legally,’ not, ‘Tell me how I can get around and do a Muslim ban and find some kind of legal justification for it.’ We did just the opposite.”

Roberts ordered the government to turn over Giuliani’s memo by May 19 and the rest of the materials by June 2.

Because of course. Giuliani went on Faux, running his mouth, and now, we didn't really understand. Sure. I believe that. NOT.

[JMarie]

11 hours ago, 47of74 said:

Here's a real douche cannon fuck nugget Branch Trumpviidian;\

heavy.com/news/2017/05/alex-alexander-jennes-downing-south-padre-texas-anti-muslim-video-mugshot-trump-racist/

And as the article goes on to show, he's quite the fucking loser too.

 

 

You just know he wanted the "fierce badass warrior" tattoo, but the tattoo artist saw him for the douche he is and gave him "turn left at the stop sign" tattoo instead.

[fraurosena]

6 minutes ago, JMarie said:

You just know he wanted the "fierce badass warrior" tattoo, but the tattoo artist saw him for the douche he is and gave him "turn left at the stop sign" tattoo instead.

That mugshot is a little foretaste of how all the branch trumpvidians will look when the tangerine toddler is toppled. 

[fraurosena]

Europe view: American democracy isn't as strong as you think

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Eight years ago, early in the Obama presidency, I was sitting with a group of conservative students in the cafeteria of a liberal Ivy League college. I was the only non-American among them. One of the campus liberals approached us to pick a fight: She was agitating for the new Democratic administration to pursue a case for war crimes against former President George W. Bush.

My GOP cronies bridled. "This is America," one insisted. "When one side gets into power, they let the other side retire quietly -- they don't stick their predecessors' heads on spikes. We don't use the law as a tool to punish political opponents. That's what makes us different from banana republics in Africa. That's what makes us the greatest democracy in the world."

Regardless of what you think about George W. Bush -- or this characterization of the entire African continent -- my friend summed up what many Americans believe about their nation's strengths. From Thomas Jefferson onward, the rhetoric of the democratic example has been fundamental to the mythology of American exceptionalism.

Central to this reverence is the faith Americans have in their Constitution: a document which promises to punish corrupt representatives, constrain executive overreach and protect judicial independence. But beyond America's borders, even its greatest admirers reserve a dose of skepticism. America's confidence that its Constitution uniquely protects against abuse of power feels, at best, naïve.

For those of us who split our lives between America and Europe, the series of scandals now emanating from the Trump White House will prove the true test of whether American checks and balances are all they promise. Our European friends are doubtful. No nation is exempt from the risk of an authoritarian coup. The clear feeling in Europe today is that America is, as Sen. Brian Schatz recently tweeted, "in a full-fledged constitutional crisis."

People are concerned about traveling to the US, even concerned about doing business in a country that no longer seems to uphold the rule of law. No longer is America a shining example, as my college friends would have it, to the tin pot dictatorships of Africa.

[...]

If there's a single question on every European's lips, it is: How long can Trump last? To those of us who've heard Americans wax lyrical about the legacy of the Founding Fathers, now is the time when we expect to see the US Constitution's checks and balances swing into action. We know that Americans are good at getting rid of presidents: In the American TV series that form our stable diet, it happens all the time, from "Veep" to "24." It's happened in living memory, too. If you can impeach a president simply for lying about sex, surely you can impeach a president who sacks the person investigating him?

Now, however, it's American observers who sound more skeptical. If you're actually living in America, you know that it'll be hard to get much of the congressional GOP on board for an impeachment; that nothing really constrains the executive branch's power over civic appointments.

It is evident that separation of powers only truly exists in the United States when separate parties control the executive and legislature.

Smug Europeans are congratulating themselves that Americans were always wrong about their exceptional democracy. Those of us with a foot in both continents are not so much smug as heartbroken.

I don't agree with the author's last statement. I don't think Europeans are smug about Americans being wrong about their democracy. Not at all. People I speak to about it first scratch their heads and ask what exactly I'm on about. Because over here nobody's all that interested in American politics, to be brutally honest. (I'm the exception. But I'm weird like that.)

American politics don't mean much to them.  The results of our own elections, and which parties will manage to form a government is what they talk about. The elections in France,  or the upcoming elections in Germany, that is what interests them, not so much what's happening on the other side of the ocean.

Those that do know of the toddler's antics speak of it with a wink and a giggle. "Have you heard what he's done now ?"  And yes, then they ask "I wonder how long he will last?" But they aren't disparaging the American people. Just him.

[fraurosena]

I realize this could be a fake, and I'd like to reiterate that I don't believe everything I read on the interwebs. But if  this is true, then wow. They're even on to Breitbart and Bannon!

Note the date on the document though. that's quite some time ago. However, the wheels of justice grind slowly. However again, if you look at this from a pessimistic viewpoint, the DOJ under Sessions just might have swept this under the rug already. 

Still noteworthy information though - if true.

[GreyhoundFan]

Good op-ed: "Trump Is Terrible at Firing!"

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Donald Trump is going to meet soon with the pope. How do you think that will go? Maybe when Trump emerges, he’ll announce that Francis promised him canonization. Then the Vatican will deny it. Then Sean Spicer will hold a press conference in which he will explain that the president was simply working off a memo written by the deputy secretary of state.

Then a reporter will point out that the State Department doesn’t have any deputy secretaries yet. Then we will hear another complaint about “gotcha journalism.”

Look, it wouldn’t be any weirder than what we’ve been through this week.

...

Sadly, I could see the tangerine toddler announcing something that stupid -- as if he would understand the word canonization.

 

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The president managed to fire F.B.I. chief James Comey in the most unseemly, strange and borderline ridiculous manner humanly possible. A third of Trump’s letter of dismissal was an expression of gratitude for “informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation.” That sounded sort of fishy, since Comey did not have a reputation for running around town assuring people they were not currently suspected of any crimes.

Indeed. I wasn't a Comey fan, but I don't think he would have done something so stupid. Or illegal.

 

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On the night the message was delivered, Spicer starred in what we will call the White House Shrubbery Incident, briefing the press corps in the dark, near a cluster of bushes by the West Wing.

He was not hiding in the foliage! Stop passing around that story! Although he did make it clear he was prepared to bolt if anybody tried to get a picture. (“Just turn the lights off. Turn the lights off.”)

During the conference in deep shadows, Spicer informed the media that the decision to fire Comey was based entirely on a memo by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein: “It was all him. … No one from the White House. That was a Department of Justice decision.”

...

"The White House Shrubbery Incident"-- I love it!

 

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We will now pause to identify Rod Rosenstein. He had been deputy attorney general for two weeks. Before that he was U.S. attorney in Maryland, a very well-regarded public servant. Let that be an important lesson, people. Whatever you do, do not take a job in the Trump administration. Before you’ve got your desk organized, you’ll be involved in a national scandal. Or in a bush.

“At the very minimum he was being used — they were using his reputation to try and wipe up their mess,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in a phone interview. Rosenstein has agreed to meet with the full Senate next week. Let’s hope he says something very useful and interesting. Otherwise he’ll be known for the rest of his life as The Memo Guy.

...or a bush. <giggle and snort childishly>

 

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Since nothing ever happens in this White House that is not instantly followed by a contradicting story, by the end of the week the president was claiming it was all his idea to fire Comey. That version did seem way more believable than the idea that Trump was reacting to something he had read. The memo was only three pages long, but still.

Yeah, he wouldn't have read it if it was three sentences long.

 

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Then he went Watergate. “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” Trump twittered.

“You would think they’d have learned a lesson,” mused Nixon aide John Dean. “But Trump doesn’t seem to have much of an institutional memory. If any.”

 

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Hmm. In an NBC interview, in which Trump was eager to make it clear that he had fired Comey without considering any supporting documents, the president said his decision was all about “this Russia thing with Trump and Russia.” We will now take a moment to recall what previous chief executive had the peculiar habit of referring to himself in the third person. Hint: He liked to, um, record stuff.

The whole world, of course, wanted to know whether there was indeed some kind of taping system in the Oval Office. The White House had no comment on Trump’s comment.

“The president has nothing further to add on that,” said Spicer. Three times, in fact. Spicer also said that “the tweet speaks for itself.” As do they all.

 

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What happens next? Should we be talking impeachment? (Remember the magic warning: Mike Pence.)

Magic warning indeed.

 

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And by the way, who would you rather have as press secretary, Sean Spicer or his deputy, Sarah Huckabee Sanders? Spicer vanished for a while after that late-night press conference, but he was on Navy Reserve duty, not crouching under the hydrangeas. While he was gone we had Sanders, who previously starred as manager of her father Mike Huckabee’s 2016 presidential campaign. She contradicted herself about a billion times, but with a lot of spunk.

Or neither? Trump suggested that perhaps “the best thing to do would be to cancel all future ‘press briefings’ and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???”

Do you think the written responses would have lots of unnecessary punctuation, and quotation marks in strange places like Trump’s tweets do? Or would they just be transcriptions of those ‘tapes’?

And most important of all, do you think he’ll be wired when he meets with the pope?

 

[onekidanddone]

14 hours ago, JMarie said:

Looks like Melania and Barron really are moving to D. C.

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/05/12/report-barron-trump-to-attend-st-andrew-s-episcopal-in-marylan/22084335/

 

I wonder ow many parents are going to yank their kids knowing his son will be attending? Not the kid's fault he has such a low life scum for a father, but just the thought of running into TT at school functions gives me the heebee jeebies

[GreyhoundFan]

@onekidanddone -- I was thinking the same way. The parents in Potomac probably won't go for someone like the tangerine toddler. The only thing would be that it might be hard to transfer to another exclusive school on short notice.

[onekidanddone]

Well @GreyhoundFan, if parents start to pull their kids  TT will just whine about the liberal "elite" who are being mean to him and the fake news.  Maybe even blame it on ..BENGAZI!  Anything to bring attention on himself.

 

[onekidanddone]

Random distracted thought: Been sitting around on a lazy Saturday half reading half watching TV and it popped into my head if I could say something to TT today it would be "Hey Donnie!  YOU are the reason our country can't have nice things"

[fraurosena]

10 minutes ago, Destiny said:

 

@DestinyI love your new avatar!
 I don't know why you made an empty post though... but it makes for pretty little empty quotebox at the top of my post. 

 

I just found this Raw Story article. It's sobering.

Don’t get too distracted by the Comey Scandal — Trump is still moving forward with his slow-motion coup

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The most important revelation in the mushrooming Comey scandal is the report that Trump summoned the former FBI director to a White House dinner and “demanded loyalty.”

This meeting occurred a week into his presidency and on the same day Trump issued his Muslim ban that’s been blocked by the courts. By asking the head of the top law-enforcement agency to swear loyalty to him, Trump was trying to obliterate the principle that government is founded on the Constitution and turn it into his personal fiefdom.

It was an unambiguous manifestation of Trump’s dictatorial ambitions. This was a central element of his presidential campaign. He expressed admiration for strongmen, attacked an independent judiciary, and declared, “I alone can fix” America.

Since being elected, Trump has initiated what can only be termed a slow-motion coup. And while he appears to be sinking into a swamp of criminality and lies, he is pushing ahead with his plan to twist the executive branch into a mafioso-style operation that serves only him and his family.

That’s why it’s vital to not become mesmerized by the Russia scandal. The heat and noise is overshadowing one power grab after another.

Take these recent events. Trump signed an executive order establishing a “Commission on Election Integrity” headed by the architect of the “voter fraud” myth and aimed at suppressing African-American and low-income voters who tend to favor Democrats. A journalist in West Virginia was arrested for “willful disruption of state government processes” for questioning Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price about the House healthcare bill. Trump’s Justice Department notched a conviction and potential one-year prison sentence against a 61-year-old woman who laughed during Senate confirmation hearings for Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The government slapped seven more felony charges on more than 200 people indiscriminately arrested by police on inauguration day in Washington, D.C. They are all staring at 75-year prison sentences. Then there is Trump’s relentless assault on the federal regulatory apparatus, most recently with the hollowing out the EPA’s scientific integrity board. This is capped off by Trump’s demands for more power, such as calling for a “good shutdown” of the government and pushing for the Senate to end the filibuster, which tends to give the minority party say in the legislative process.

Trump is using government to squash any opposition whether in the streets, at the voting booth, or in Congress and the courts. In this context his demands for personal loyalty are moves toward a dictatorship. The FBI and U.S. military explicitly warn of such a scenario, stating that officers who swear loyalty to the president instead of the Constitution could enable officials “to gain control over the military and become dictators.”

Now, some might dismiss the Trump administration as all bark. Certainly there is a nonstop torrent of bluster combined with ineptitude, whether it’s further attacks on judges or press freedoms, threats to pull out of NAFTA, or fomenting tensions with China, North Korea, and South Korea.

But Trump is winning as well. He pushed through the House bill that will cripple the healthcare system. He is turning government over to corporations, which is why the stock market has been on a tear since he was elected. He is implementing a white-nationalist vision backed by millions of his supporters.

While Trump has thus far been stymied on building the wall on the Mexico border, he has taken the “shackles off” ICE, which has recorded a 35 percent increase in arrests of undocumented immigrants over the same period last year. Refugee admissions have plummeted. In more than 100 cases, asylum seekers have illegally been turned away at the U.S. border. Forty percent of colleges report a drop in foreign applicants. Sessions has restored mandatory minimum sentences for drug-related offenses that have devastated Black and Latino communities.

His base supports the nativism, the xenophobia, the racism, the Islamophobia. In his march to victory, Trump convinced them the dark hordes are to blame for economic decline and social ills.

Trump understands how power works better than the media, the experts, and the Democrats, all of whom he humiliated in his rise to the presidency. He retains high approval ratings from Republican voters, meaning Congress fears him. He is only concerned with his power and image, so he is indifferent to the right’s wrecking-ball policies. Wall Street has no reason to buck the trend as it controls the levers of economic policy. As long as he can keep his base whipped up with racial resentment, there are few obstacles to his power grabs. It’s mainly courts that have smacked him down when he overreached.

That’s why Trump consistently attacks judges. And it’s why Trump knows the power grabs are vital to his reelection. He can only win as a minority president, as he did against Clinton. A cloud of criminality may hang over the Trump White House that dwarfs Watergate, but it remains unlikely, at least for now, to stop an American dictator in the making.  

 

[47of74]

Um, quitting is a much more sane option.

They should ask Göring and the other Nazis how well the working for Hitler worked out for them at the Nuremberg Trials.

[Destiny]

6 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

@DestinyI love your new avatar!
 I don't know why you made an empty post though... but it makes for pretty little empty quotebox at the top of my post. 

 

I didn't mean to. I think my pocket had something to say. I'm busy working an event for my second full time volunteer job at the moment. 

I thought it was time for a change - the resistance is well underway at this point.

[Howl]

51 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

That’s why Trump consistently attacks judges. And it’s why Trump knows the power grabs are vital to his reelection. He can only win as a minority president, as he did against Clinton. A cloud of criminality may hang over the Trump White House that dwarfs Watergate, but it remains unlikely, at least for now, to stop an American dictator in the making.  

So true.  

And if you can't figure out why Trump still has support from his base and other republicans, please  note that Trump supporters and many Republicans get news through an entirely different filter.  They don't go to the same sources or read the same news that we do or listen to the same talking heads. For example, many of them don't believe there is a Russia problem; that's just a big kerfuffle invented by Liberals. They go to different sources -- Fox news is just the tip of that iceberg.  And the Republican congress doesn't know whether to put their feet in their mouths or step on their own dicks to try to get out from under the crazy.  From our perspective, the Republicans, and especially those on the more extreme right, seem doomed.  And yet, sadly, I don't think this particularly imperils their chances of re-election.  We are seeing the curse, "May you live in interesting times,"  come true. 

 

[fraurosena]

6 minutes ago, Howl said:

We are seeing the curse, "May you live in interesting times,"  come true. 

I feel for you all. I'm just a spectator on the sidelines, basically oohhhing and aahhhing at the unfolding drama. But you are actually living it...

[JMarie]

3 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

I wonder ow many parents are going to yank their kids knowing his son will be attending? Not the kid's fault he has such a low life scum for a father, but just the thought of running into TT at school functions gives me the heebee jeebies

Not to mention the traffic headaches and Secret Service agents that go along with the enrollment.

[Howl]

While others will be slavering all over themselves to ingratiate themselves with Ma & Pa Trump.  It's a business opportunity, after all, and this is DC, where the only thing that counts is who ya know and connections connection connections. 

Anyway, the Obamas got through it with not one but two kids.  

[47of74]

Fuck.  I think I'm going to be sick.

thehill.com/homenews/administration/333249-trump-gets-honorary-law-degree-at-liberty-university-commencement

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Liberty University President Jerry Falwell, Jr. on Saturday presented President Trump with an honorary Doctorate of Laws at the Lynchburg, Va. school's commencement ceremony. 

In a speech that painted Trump as a fierce political ally of evangelical Christians, Falwell praised Trump's early accomplishments in office and admonished the news media and academics for their "relentless" attacks on the president.

Hey, Jerry Falwell, you sanctimonious fuck.  You just cheapened the work of everyone who is either working towards or have earned a Juris Doctorate.

[RoseWilder]

14 hours ago, formergothardite said:

Trump is dumber than dumb if he really used Russia's Law Firm of the Year to try and convince folks he isn't connected to Russia. 

@fraurosena, how accurate is that source typically because that would just make my next couple of years if they all went down. I've always thought that there is no way Pence has clean hands in all this. You can't be that close to Trump and not know what is going on just because he is simple too stupid to hide things well. 

She reported on the existence of a FISA warrant for Trump and his associates back in October - five months before the mainstream media began reporting on it. She frequently reports on things long before the MSM reports on it, is mocked for it, and then proven to be correct. 

Claude Taylor (who worked in the Clinton White House and correctly reported on the existence of two grand juries related to the Trump-Russia scandal a week before the MSM picked up the story) is backing up her claims. 

And now Mensch and Taylor have reported on a joint story about a sealed indictment being issued against Donald Trump: 

https://patribotics.blog/2017/05/14/exclusive-sealed-indictment-granted-against-donald-trump/

 

[RoseWilder]

Claude Taylor also has a scoop on Donald Trump's adult child: 

https://www.palmerreport.com/politics/eric-ivanka-jr-trump-russia/2812/

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The investigation into Donald Trump’s Russia scandal has become so far reaching that it involves not only two branches of the United States government, but also the intelligence agencies of a number of foreign nations. It’s become so sprawling that there are reportedly at least twenty-eight people being targeted. And now comes confirmation that three of them are Donald Trump’s children.

That new comes from Democratic insider Claude Taylor, who is fresh off having been the first to break the Trump-Russia grand juries story, for which he was ultimately vindicated by CNN. Now he has another piece of information from his inside sources: “Told by an [intel community] source – now confirmed by legal source – that there is recorded evidence of criminal wrongdoing by each of Trump’s adult children”. He went on to clarify that this does not include Tiffany Trump, who has no association with her father’s organization. But it does include the other three.

I despise Donald Jr, Eric and Ivanka almost as much as I despise their father, so I would be doing cartwheels on the front lawn if they went down along with their father. 

[laPapessaGiovanna]

16 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Yes, this is Louise Mensch. But oh, I really, really, really, really hope this is true!

Sources: Russia probe means president Hatch; RICO case against GOP

 

Me too me too.

I share your experience @fraurosena, my countrymen are much more interested in local politics and Trump is just a butt for jokes for those who read international newspapers.

ETA also as a foreigner I find unbelievable that the independence of the judiciary rests in the good grace of people like Trump and Sessions. That the President can legally fire the head of the institution that is inquiring on him seems a big flaw. A lot of the checks and balances seem to be based not on law written on the rock but on decades log habits that Humpty Trumpty can infringe without fear.

[formergothardite]

6 hours ago, RoseWilder said:

She reported on the existence of a FISA warrant for Trump and his associates back in October - five months before the mainstream media began reporting on it. She frequently reports on things long before the MSM reports on it, is mocked for it, and then proven to be correct. 

I'm going to go ahead and get my hopes up just a little that this is really going to happen! 

From the sealed indictment link:

Quote

While it is understood that the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution means that, until Mr. Trump is impeached, he cannot be prosecuted,

I did not know this. What happens if Congress refuses to impeach? Can the man just get away with everything? 

Watching the Three Tiny Trumps fall from grace would be the icing on the cake. The only Trump I will feel sorry for is Barron who is a child and whose life will probably be turned upside down. 

4 hours ago, laPapessaGiovanna said:

also as a foreigner I find unbelievable that the independence of the judiciary rests in the good grace of people like Trump and Sessions. That the President can legally fire the head of the institution that is inquiring on him seems a big flaw. A lot of the checks and balances seem to be based not on law written on the rock but on decades log habits that Humpty Trumpty can infringe without fear.

As an American I find the whole thing unbelievable. We had checks and balances beaten into our heads as children, but now it is clear how shockingly easy it is for those checks and balances to fall to pieces and be worthless. If we survive this, America really needs to have a long hard look at our government and how to prevent this from happening again.