Trump 33: Making Norman Bates Look Like a Choir Boy

[AmazonGrace]

Have I told you largely that Pence sucks too (and swallows) 

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

 

 

[47of74]

After what fuck face did today in Finland, when it comes time to do the next fuck face thread, I think it should be Traitors Я Us.

[GreyhoundFan]

A good op-ed: "If you work for Trump, quit now"

Spoiler

Everyone who works for President Trump: Quit now. Save your souls. Save your honor, such as it is. Save your reputation, such as it remains. Russia attacked our democracy. Trump has demonstrated repeatedly, and did so again with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, that he doesn’t care and won’t defend his country.

If you work for this man and you call yourself a patriot, it is time for you to go.

This may sound excessive, even irresponsible. Indeed, for months I have agonized over the question of public service in the age of Trump.

Of course, as a general matter, it is better to have more grown-ups around Trump, mitigating his worst impulses, providing wisdom born of experience to counter his ignorance and petulance.

But that assessment assumes facts not in evidence: that Trump is educable or containable. Actually, it contravenes the available evidence. There is none that Trump has done anything but what Trump wants to do. Monday’s news conference made that clear.

Extreme times call for extreme measures, and these are the extreme-est of times.

A foreign adversary — not a competitor, as Trump would have it, an adversary — mounted a sustained and multifront assault on the presidential election, specifically to help elect Trump. We knew this before Friday’s indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking into Democratic computers and emails to help secure Trump’s election.

So I would ask those who continue to serve Trump: What is the impact and message of your continued presence? Are you mitigating Trump’s excesses or enabling them?

Think about it. You are a Republican who loves your country. Or you are a foreign policy or intelligence professional. What do you do in the face of Trump’s craven capitulation to an adversary? It is a hard choice but one that Trump is making easier every day. On Monday, he all but forced it.

Specifically, U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, you cited “the need to hold the Russians accountable for what they did.” In what way did Trump do that? Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats, you said Friday that, much as with rumblings of a terrorist attack on the United States before 9/11, “the warning lights are blinking red again,” this time on the danger posed by Russian cyberattacks to the 2018 elections. How do you continue to serve a president so determined to ignore those flashing lights?

And others: CIA Director Gina Haspel; national security adviser John Bolton; gulp, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis? You understand the Russian threat; combating it has been part of your life’s work. How do you get up every morning and go to work for a man who’s so heedless of his responsibilities to his country?

How heedless? Before his two hours alone with Putin, Trump tweeted, “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!”

Things went downhill from there. At his post-meeting news conference, Trump stood side by side with Putin and, asked about holding Russia accountable, instead replied: “I think we’re all to blame. . . . I do feel that we have both made some mistakes.” On the investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, he added, “the probe is a disaster for our country. I think it’s kept us apart, it’s kept us separated.”

And challenged directly about whether he would, “with the whole world watching, tell President Putin, would you denounce what happened in 2016 and would you warn him to never do it again,” Trump flat-out refused. He not only resorted to his usual misdirection about the Democratic National Committee’s computer server, but he also refused to back up the claims of his intelligence director against Putin’s denials.

“My people came to me, Dan Coats came to me and some others, they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin; he just said it’s not Russia,” Trump said. “I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be. But I really do want to see the server.”

God save us.

Certainly, Congress won’t, at least not from the extensive evidence of GOP spinelessness so far. Sure, we saw some post-summit head-shaking from the likes of South Carolina Sen. Lindsey O. Graham and Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee. Better than nothing, but we have suffered months of tut-tutting followed by capitulation.

Perhaps mass resignations of administration officials would rouse a supine Congress. Perhaps this would alarm even some Trump voters, who thought they elected a crockery-breaker and got, in the most charitable interpretation, a Putin-enabler. Perhaps not, but really, administration officials, what good are you doing, for yourselves or your country, by sticking around for this?

 

[Audrey2]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

A good op-ed: "If you work for Trump, quit now"

  Reveal hidden contents

Everyone who works for President Trump: Quit now. Save your souls. Save your honor, such as it is. Save your reputation, such as it remains. Russia attacked our democracy. Trump has demonstrated repeatedly, and did so again with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, that he doesn’t care and won’t defend his country.

If you work for this man and you call yourself a patriot, it is time for you to go.

This may sound excessive, even irresponsible. Indeed, for months I have agonized over the question of public service in the age of Trump.

Of course, as a general matter, it is better to have more grown-ups around Trump, mitigating his worst impulses, providing wisdom born of experience to counter his ignorance and petulance.

But that assessment assumes facts not in evidence: that Trump is educable or containable. Actually, it contravenes the available evidence. There is none that Trump has done anything but what Trump wants to do. Monday’s news conference made that clear.

Extreme times call for extreme measures, and these are the extreme-est of times.

A foreign adversary — not a competitor, as Trump would have it, an adversary — mounted a sustained and multifront assault on the presidential election, specifically to help elect Trump. We knew this before Friday’s indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking into Democratic computers and emails to help secure Trump’s election.

So I would ask those who continue to serve Trump: What is the impact and message of your continued presence? Are you mitigating Trump’s excesses or enabling them?

Think about it. You are a Republican who loves your country. Or you are a foreign policy or intelligence professional. What do you do in the face of Trump’s craven capitulation to an adversary? It is a hard choice but one that Trump is making easier every day. On Monday, he all but forced it.

Specifically, U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, you cited “the need to hold the Russians accountable for what they did.” In what way did Trump do that? Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats, you said Friday that, much as with rumblings of a terrorist attack on the United States before 9/11, “the warning lights are blinking red again,” this time on the danger posed by Russian cyberattacks to the 2018 elections. How do you continue to serve a president so determined to ignore those flashing lights?

And others: CIA Director Gina Haspel; national security adviser John Bolton; gulp, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis? You understand the Russian threat; combating it has been part of your life’s work. How do you get up every morning and go to work for a man who’s so heedless of his responsibilities to his country?

How heedless? Before his two hours alone with Putin, Trump tweeted, “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!”

Things went downhill from there. At his post-meeting news conference, Trump stood side by side with Putin and, asked about holding Russia accountable, instead replied: “I think we’re all to blame. . . . I do feel that we have both made some mistakes.” On the investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, he added, “the probe is a disaster for our country. I think it’s kept us apart, it’s kept us separated.”

And challenged directly about whether he would, “with the whole world watching, tell President Putin, would you denounce what happened in 2016 and would you warn him to never do it again,” Trump flat-out refused. He not only resorted to his usual misdirection about the Democratic National Committee’s computer server, but he also refused to back up the claims of his intelligence director against Putin’s denials.

“My people came to me, Dan Coats came to me and some others, they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin; he just said it’s not Russia,” Trump said. “I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be. But I really do want to see the server.”

God save us.

Certainly, Congress won’t, at least not from the extensive evidence of GOP spinelessness so far. Sure, we saw some post-summit head-shaking from the likes of South Carolina Sen. Lindsey O. Graham and Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee. Better than nothing, but we have suffered months of tut-tutting followed by capitulation.

Perhaps mass resignations of administration officials would rouse a supine Congress. Perhaps this would alarm even some Trump voters, who thought they elected a crockery-breaker and got, in the most charitable interpretation, a Putin-enabler. Perhaps not, but really, administration officials, what good are you doing, for yourselves or your country, by sticking around for this?

 

The Trump supporters and employees will never understand that meddling in our election is an attack on the United States. The only kind of attach they'll understand is something like December 7, 1941 or September 11, 2001, when enemy combatants waged war on U.S. soil and took U.S. lives (military or not). They might label it an attack if another country takes over some aspect of our utilities grid (power, water, etc., finance even) but, since an attack on the election didn't cause physical harm to them or others, and they were still able to have the lights on and running water, it doesn't count. The rest of us know better and are outraged. We see this for what it is- an act of war in the 21st Century. As civilization advances, warfare has always advanced. Sadly, I can see electronic warfare being the method of this century. Much like December 7, 1941, the US has been taken by surprise.

[Drala]

Just when I think my capacity for outrage has been exhausted...the tangerine traitor ups the ante.  The Helsinki debacle was even too much for Fox news. 

  http://www.foxnews.com/opinion.html

[AmazonGrace]

If it's evil they're doing it 

 

 

[laPapessaGiovanna]

5 hours ago, Drala said:

Just when I think my capacity for outrage has been exhausted...the tangerine traitor ups the ante.  The Helsinki debacle was even too much for Fox news. 

  http://www.foxnews.com/opinion.html

They stopped a couple of inches short of calling his behaviour treasonous, but still...

Spoiler

During Putin and Trump’s prepared remarks, it was rather obvious who had led the discussion. While President Putin laid out a clear framework for advancing Russian interests within the context of U.S.-Russia relations, Trump appeared to have had little plan, alternating between vague promises of improving our relationship with Russia and spending too much time on U.S. domestic affairs, notably the 2016 presidential election. Instead of holding Putin accountable for his election interference, he referenced his defeat of Hillary Clinton.

When Trump said, “It’s a shame that there could even be a little bit of a cloud over it. People know that, people understand it,” it was a clear example of him circumventing the question.

At one point, President Trump even cited, incorrectly, the Electoral College tallies from over two years ago. This was all in an attempt to deflect questions that he was apparently unable to answer.

Crucially, there were no concessions from Russia on any of the issues that needed to be addressed. Even more concerning, Trump was unwilling to even make the United States’ case on these issues, and the failure to hear concessions from Putin mirrors the lack of follow-through on the grand promises of the recent North Korean summit with another murderous authoritarian, Kim Jong Un.

Trump, throughout the entire press conference, failed to condemn or even acknowledge the illegality of Putin’s actions in Crimea and Ukraine.

When asked if he would hold Russia accountable for any of its past actions, Trump deflected and deferred. President Trump’s unwillingness to stand up to Russia on this issue only serves to weaken the Western alliance and encourage further Russian incursions into the territory of sovereign nations now that Putin knows Trump will give him a pass.

Most importantly, on election meddling, Trump refused to stand with U.S. intelligence and charge Putin with interference, saying he doesn’t “see any reason why it would be” the Russians carrying out the illegal meddling.

For a sitting U.S. president to say publicly that he believes a foreign leader over his own intelligence team is shocking and admonishable. At a time when our democracy faces grave threats, it is deeply troubling that the president would side with the very country who attacked us.

Strong words, but it reads like the declarations of Congress' Republicans: ineffective.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

We're living in the age of woke dictionaries 

[AmazonGrace]

Dictator love 

 and dafuq, Ukrainian and Georgian leaders were ASKED to LEAVE????!?!!

[GreyhoundFan]

When you lose the support of Newt:

Joe Walsh even said it was the last straw:

 

[AmazonGrace]

 Orange wankmaggot sold out Bill Browder and a former ambassador

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

 

[AmazonGrace]

Tiny Hands has the sads because no one threw a parade in his honor 

 

[Alisamer]

Does he realize that NATO is not a fundraiser? I'm glad to see at least some Trump supporters have reached the end of their rope with him, but I think there are some people so unwilling to see or admit that they were wrong that he'd have to hoist the Russian flag over the white house before they'd start to get it.

[Howl]

Quote

JUST IN: Rod Rosenstein was summoned to the WH today, four days after he indicted 12 Russian Intelligence Officers. He was seen leaving the WH at 11:28AM.

All I can say is shit.  Shit, shit, shit.  Trump is scheduled to meet with "congress" at 2 pm eastern time (no press).  I fear Rosentein has been fired and Brian Benczkowski, a Trump-humper ass hat, will take over and stop the Mueller investigation.  Is there a Russian $$$$$ connection with Benczkowski?  Of course there is!  Here ya go: 

WSJ, July 11

Quote

The Senate Wednesday narrowly confirmed President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Justice Department’s criminal division, over objections from Democrats concerned about his work for a Russian bank with ties to President Vladimir Putin.

 

[fraurosena]

Once again, the contrast is staggering.

 

[47of74]

A Fornicate caught in the headlights.

[fraurosena]

Everything about this desperate attempt at damage control reeks of insincerity. He forgot a word? Yeah, right. 

Note the very dark line at the bottom of his piece of paper. Like it's a bolded,  pt.72 font, all caps sentence. 
Then again, he may have signed it.

[AnywhereButHere]

Sadly, his base (and the rest of the fucking republican sycophants in the house and senate who still think they NEED this shitstain) will lap it up and all will be well again in LaLaLand.

[GreyhoundFan]

[AmazonGrace]

No one is tougher on Russia

He needs notes on "No collusion!" 

 

[fraurosena]

This NYT article has another, better picture of his paper. in it the big dark line is even more visible: