Trump

[Mikey Brown]

More Daniel Dale.

[Digby]

Anybody read up on this Trump/Whitefish/Puerto Rico situation? Crazy conspiracy or yet another example of totally shameless bribery/profiteering at the expense of many?

In fairness which of us hasn't handed a multi hundred million dollar contract to a company staffed by 2 people one of which is known to us that hasn't run through a normal tender offer using public money? Okay to some people it'll scream a back door deal with a woefully unprepared company simply on the basis of cronyism but it's this sort of 4D thinking which will improve everything, probably it'll fix Obamacare too

[morepork]

Company was a Trump donor. Just think how much the liddle Montana utilities company will shit when they and their three pick up trucks are deposited on an island populated entirely by Sea Mexicans.

[Which Tyler]

I can't quite decide if it's a measure of the corruption of this administration... or a measure of the contempt with which they hold Puerto Rico.

Could be both I guess.

[morepork]

More incompetence and ignorance. Just seems normal practice for them. They have some spectacularly incompetent people on the job. Rick Perry, the Secretary of Energy, who is overseeing energy infrastructure efforts on PR, is as thick as a whale's cock. As in, seriously dim. For him, electric come out de plug and that's that. There are other shining examples too. Betsy DeVos, the secretary for education is astoundingly ignorant of basic up to date child psychology and other key metrics in education. Watching the head of the EPA Scott Pruit attempt to cut through and refute scientific consensus is also very entertaining. I could go on.

[Mikey Brown]

Am I just another fake news sap?

http://www.newsweek.com/trump-flies-tex ... ion-692656

[morepork]

It's even better when he can charge them through one of his own classy properties.

[Sandydragon]

Paul Manafort indicted.

President Trump’s former campaign chairman and one of his associates have been indicted for conspiracy against the United States and money laundering, the federal special counsel’s office said today.

Paul Manafort and his former business associate, Rick Gates, who also worked for the Trump campaign, were told to turn themselves in early this morning by federal authorities in the first charges in the special investigation into connections between the campaign and Russia.

Mr Manafort is reported to have handed himself in this morning, facing charges from special counsel Robert Mueller of laundering more than $18 million to buy property and services.

“Manafort used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States without paying taxes on that income,” the indictment reads.

The news follows widespread reports that Mr Mueller, the special counsel, had prepared the first indictments in the investigation and was expected to enact them today.


The charges against Mr Manafort and Mr Gates represent the most significant escalation yet in an investigation that the president has repeatedly railed against, calling it baseless.

Mr Manafort has been under investigations for violations of federal tax law, money laundering and irregularities over his disclosure of foreign lobbying.

He left the campaign after only three months over allegations about his foreign ties. Mr Gates, who continued, was a long-time junior partner of Mr Manafort. His name appears in documents linked to payments Mr Manafort received from Eastern European politicians and businesspeople.

Trump is apparently taking to the airwaves to make noise about it all being an conspiracy.

[Digby]

Trump is apparently taking to the airwaves to make noise about it all being an conspiracy.

'tis possible he'll be right, though for Trump to confirm he's part of a conspiracy (assuming he actually knows the word) would be rather dimwitted , even for him

[morepork]

So kids, if you would like an object lesson in being a flat-track bully, with little to no sophistication or understanding of due process, look no further than the Orange Entity currently heading the United States Government. Within 24 hours, Tango Charlie Fucktrot has seized the moment to serve his repugnant syphilitic ego and waded into the judicial process by calling for the death penalty for a suspect in the killing of 8 people in Manhattan yesterday. On twitter. Just as he did with the central park five in 1989, he has lobbed a racist bomb into due process with no thought for anything other than seeking to look like the man. Cut funding to security agencies, ignore a string of recent domestic terrorism attempts (http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/ ... p-from-rei), then comically over react to a cherry picked event in order to further your cartoon Mussolini agenda. Nice fucking work. All with the added bonus of being able to compromise due legal process and fuck up future fair trials with this ridiculous precedent.


What

a

CUNT.

[Digby]

Trump is happy to call for the death of a US Army soldier seemingly held captive and tortured for five years, and the soldier was white from a Christian family, so it can't surprise a non white non Christian warrants the same tariff

[Digby]

Trump calls US justice system a joke and a laughing stock, his actual words talking about the system were "...what we have right now is a joke, and it's a laughing stock"

The Whitehouse responds to that be saying he didn't say it, Sarah Huckabee Sanders notes "That's not what he said" when asked about the President's comments. It's not exactly the easiest narrative to follow given it's exactly what he did say

What's actually interesting rather than Trump is simply crap at talking is where Sanders further notes Trump is annoyed at the time and cost to prosecute individuals accused of terrorism and that "Particularly for someone to be a known terrorist, that process should move faster. That's the point [Trump] is making. That's the frustration he has,"

I don't know Trump is quite making the point that some trials should start with a presumption the accused is guilty, but it's maybe not far off in the world of Trump if the accused is a bad hombre

[morepork]

He is going to be in the Philippines soon. He and Duterte could summarily execute homeless people under the assumption of drug trafficking. Doubt the Trumpet good handle the recoil from an AK, and would faint at the sight of blood.

[Digby]

Trump's approval rating with white men without a college degree is on the verge of dropping below 50%. If the economy grows strongly he might still be in the running come 2020, but he does look a lame duck a l'orange

[canta_brian]

He is such a knob.

https://www.washingtonian.com/2017/10/2 ... go-letter/

[WaspInWales]

He is such a knob.

https://www.washingtonian.com/2017/10/2 ... go-letter/

Quality.

[WaspInWales]

The DNC keeps giving to Trump. So much so, that one has to wonder if they were colluding with Trump for as long, if not longer than Russia!

What the fwck is wrong with them?

More importantly, why is the news hitting the headlines now? Call me a cynic, but it's rather coincidental regarding Mueller's investigation and recent events from it.

In other news, some Republican Representatives have introduced a resolution to have Mueller removed from the investigation.

Politics is murky at the best of times but ffs, the US has been taking the piss for a long time now.

[Sandydragon]

Meanwhile, the US apparently expects Britain to keep our close financial liaison with the EU whilst reducing food standards to allow American chicken imports. Sounds like the Whitehouse has been reading the same briefing notes as David Davis.

[kk67]

If you were a conspiracy theorist it might seem as though our elected representatives are slaves to big business.
If the sexual abuse, prejudice and corruption in Government and Entertainment seems terrifying, just wait until the Financial sector goes under the microscope.
Talk about a barrel of psychopaths.

[Mikey Brown]

I assume that Turnip’s remarkable level of coherence on twitter today is due to him freaking out about these elections and letting somebody else handle his account?

[Digby]

I assume that Turnip’s remarkable level of coherence on twitter today is due to him freaking out about these elections and letting somebody else handle his account?

Trump's on Twitter in China? That must raise the number of Twitter users in the country to 1. Of course if we could reduce access to Instagram, facebook, Twitter et al it'd probably give a huge boost to our productivity rates

[Mellsblue]

There is a certain irony of the one man you’d most want to stop using Twatter is tweeting from the one place you most famously can’t use Twatter.

[morepork]

Can't handle the truth? Post a cheesy thumbs up with your best matez on Twittage. He has a "I'm handling this anal probe with aplomb" smile on his dial.

Screen Shot 2017-11-08 at 1.29.48 PM.png

[Buggaluggs]

G'wan. Pull it.

[morepork]

There could be a real risk of Trump starting to wank him off with that request. The great negotiator folds like a cheap suit on the world stage again. A nice military parade, some pork buns, and he is won over.