The Many Faces of US Politics...

[Jell 0 Biafra]

Interesting read on Trump, his budget, and military power.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/world/americas/donald-trump-us-military.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

[seafoid]

"Trump's tweets, however, refer to a "lower court" that failed to approve a request for wiretapping his headquarters, which means that a higher court did. That means that the FBI, after being duly authorized by the Justice Department, succeeded in convincing a special tribunal set up in accordance with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that despite the danger of being accused of improper interference in the political process, there was enough "probable cause" to suspect that Trump and/or his underlings were in contact with a foreign entity or foreign intelligence service (and we all know who that might be). If this is the case, then Trump himself may have offered the noose from which he might ultimately hang, politically speaking.                                                                                                    As soon as Washington recovers from another one of its recurring shocks, there is certain to be a growing demand to expose the material on which the FBI based its surveillance request, if it exists, and what it may have found out, if the wiretapping took place. "

http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-1.775240

[Keyser soze]

You think Trump went on a twitter outrage this morning, wait till he hears about the golf tourny down in Mexico.
A spectator picked up Phil Mickelson's ball and took off.

Trump Twitter: Not only are Mexicans stealing our jobs but stealing our golf balls, SAD!! Build the wall now around the course!

And Rory McIlroy has hardly been shown on the Tv all day Thursday purely as a result of playing a round of golf with POTUS the previous week. More fake media!! Disgusting.

[Milltown Row2]

Anyone watch the show on Sky Atlantic last night... Trumped? Fly on the wall Doc following Trump before the primaries and during the election, watched first hour before heading to bed, had all the bits we've seen before but the comments from all the pundits and the ones who ran against him for the Republican nomination, Cruz, Bush and co

[Eamonnca1]

FBI

• Director James Comey requested that the Department of Justice publicly rebut the President's claims that Obama ordered any wiretapping. The charge implies the FBI broke the law and Comey was not willing to let that hang over the organization with no evidence. Further, he worries that the opposite inference can also be drawn—that there is evidence in their possession that directly implicates persons in Trump Tower in collusion with Russian agents. The DOJ to this point has remained silent.

There is palpable irony here as "The Comey Letter" about a new line of investigation into Hillary Clinton's e-mails a few weeks before the election was released despite DOJ advice.

POTUS

• Another round of golf. Eight in six weeks. Obama's golfing hobby was a favorite target of his ire over the last eight years.

• Was fur-i-ous – "steaming, raging mad" – all weekend that no one, not even many of his supposed allies, believes him like he believes that Breitbart article that Obama ordered his phones to be tapped. He's also furious that this has destroyed any goodwill from Tuesday's speech and threatens to derail his policy agenda.
Honest to god, people. There's no grand strategy of distraction here. He won wide praise for managing to get through the speech without screwing up, and four days later he figuratively puts a shotgun to his foot and pulls the trigger.

If you possibly can, imagine a worldview where not only do you believe that the President can order wiretaps, but that you so much believe that when you say something, other people should accept it as true, without question. A worldview where you get JUST SO MAD that people push back. His thought process must be a frigid, empty, howling wind that cracks rock. It's fear and insecurity given malevolent form.

• All this comes from a Washington Post article citing 17 top White House officials, members of Congress and friends of the president as sources. Spicey's got a
LOT of phones to get checking.

• Saturday at dinner he was joined by noted racist Attorney General Sessions, chief ethno-nationalist & White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly and junior ethno-nationalist & Senior Policy Advisor to the President Stephen Miller.
"They tried to put Trump in a better mood by going over their implementation plans for the travel ban."

This is depraved.

• On Sunday, the President's good mood over the wiretapping story making newspaper headlines soured as Republican after Republican went on the news shows and essentially said, "We have no goddamned clue what he's on about." Especially Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), whom he had given a ride home to on Air Force One on Friday. That's gotta sting.

Press Secretary

• Spicey tweeted out that the President was concerned about the wiretapping "reports" (Report, Sean, report. There was only one, and that one's sources turn to tissue paper once you start looking) and that Congress should investigate it immediately. Oh, and that "neither the White House nor the President will comment further until such oversight is conducted." Forty minutes later Spicey was commenting on the matter—retweeting former FBI Director Michael Mukasey's remarks on the subject.

As expected, the executive branch had to treat the President's statements as true, rather than admit that he's a senile old man who has trouble with listicles. So it is now Official U.S. Government Policy that the previous administration broke the law. The "no comment" bit is interesting because it's a tacit admission that they're trying to keep the President from saying anything to make matters worse for them.
The Hill

• Lap-dog Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, announced that the committee will be looking into the wiretapping accusations the President made.

West Wing Leak Wars

• Over a dozen Trump aides, allies, and others close to the White House told Politico that Chief of Staff Reince Priebus is one of the main reasons the administration can not find its footing. For his part, Priebus has complained about the amount of time he needs to spend on damage control because of something or other that the President said.

• Such as spending an hour Friday night, calling reporters off the record, denying that the presidential ass-chewing of the senior staff earlier that night over the AG's recusal had actually happened.

• Other complaints include that he *gasp* runs meetings first thing in the morning with department heads giving 30-second updates on their projects and agendas.

Call me crazy, but that sounds exactly like the thing a Chief of Staff should be doing on a daily basis. Not sure where these whiners worked before this.
Never Ask Me About My Kleptocracy

• Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, White House economic adviser Gary Cohn, Small Business Administration head Linda McMahon are receiving government salaries which they are using to pay for accommodations at the Trump International Hotel, which is managed by a company that the President still owns, enriching him further.

ACA Replacement

• Office of Management and Budget head Mick Mulvaney, not Health & Human Services Secretary Tom Price, has been finalizing the replacement plan.
Foreign Relations

Mark Levin, the man who wrote the Breitbart article the President used as the basis for his wiretapping tweets and who said, days after the election, "There is no systemic racism in America. There is no systemic sexism in America," is reportedly up for the position of ambassador to South Africa.

This has been Day 45 in Trumpistan. Good night!

[J70]

Its ironic that Trump compared Obama to Nixon over the weekend!

Has there ever been another president, apart from Nixon, who appears to be so stuck in his office, mostly alone, muttering about how everyone and everything is out to get him? He's only seven weeks on the job!

One could almost derive some satisfaction from this except the chances are that he is going to drag everything down to his level, like he did with the campaign, and prevail.

[screenexile]

He's a chicken!!

Fired this ridiculous allegation out there for his supporters to jump on and then sent his generals out to the Sunday shows to get eaten alive. I just watched George Stephanopoulos eviscerate Huckabee Sanders there and none of them have any credibility at this stage. We've still to hear anything to back up his nonsense!!

Along with that the Muslim ban is stripped of all the fanfare of last time as reporters aren't even allowed to ask questions from State and Melissa McCarthy is holed up in his office afraid to talk to anyone because reporters will run rings round him as they already have done since Trump took office. . . If it were a TV show you'd think it was sinister and worrying but this is real life!!

Hopefully the ACLU destroy this new EO as well to further ruin Trump's credibility!

[seafoid]

"It's sheer incompetence," said one White House official. "There's a lack of management, and a lack of strategy." http://politi.co/2mxSFv4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfl6Lu3xQW0

[seafoid]

https://thinkprogress.org/6-terrible-ideas-included-in-the-house-gops-health-bill-ce2236cbe191

[Gmac]

He's a chicken!!

Fired this ridiculous allegation out there for his supporters to jump on and then sent his generals out to the Sunday shows to get eaten alive. I just watched George Stephanopoulos eviscerate Huckabee Sanders there and none of them have any credibility at this stage. We've still to hear anything to back up his nonsense!!

Along with that the Muslim ban is stripped of all the fanfare of last time as reporters aren't even allowed to ask questions from State and Melissa McCarthy is holed up in his office afraid to talk to anyone because reporters will run rings round him as they already have done since Trump took office. . . If it were a TV show you'd think it was sinister and worrying but this is real life!!

Hopefully the ACLU destroy this new EO as well to further ruin Trump's credibility!

i I think what we are going to hear soon is the flynn phonecall to the Russian ambassador was
Made from the trump tower office , the dems with the faux outrage at Russian interference with  the election may come back to bite them on the ass  .

[screenexile]

I see the President of the working man has just upped medical insurance premiums for the poor and cut them for the rich... oh and if you're old then f**k you!!

Very decent also to give those tax breaks to the poor suffering CEO's . . . #MAGA

[J70]

He's a chicken!!

Fired this ridiculous allegation out there for his supporters to jump on and then sent his generals out to the Sunday shows to get eaten alive. I just watched George Stephanopoulos eviscerate Huckabee Sanders there and none of them have any credibility at this stage. We've still to hear anything to back up his nonsense!!

Along with that the Muslim ban is stripped of all the fanfare of last time as reporters aren't even allowed to ask questions from State and Melissa McCarthy is holed up in his office afraid to talk to anyone because reporters will run rings round him as they already have done since Trump took office. . . If it were a TV show you'd think it was sinister and worrying but this is real life!!

Hopefully the ACLU destroy this new EO as well to further ruin Trump's credibility!

i I think what we are going to hear soon is the flynn phonecall to the Russian ambassador was
Made from the trump tower office , the dems with the faux outrage at Russian interference with  the election may come back to bite them on the ass  .

If there is nothing to see, why all the lying and denials only to be later caught out?

Are you not even slightly curious?

What do you think Trump and the GOP would be saying if the roles were reversed? Would the GOP congress be investigating Hillary? Would Chaffetz and the rest be sitting on their hands like they are with Trump? Did you sleep through the umpteen Benghazi investigations, the birth cert stuff and all the rest?

[J70]

I see the President of the working man has just upped medical insurance premiums for the poor and cut them for the rich... oh and if you're old then f**k you!!

Very decent also to give those tax breaks to the poor suffering CEO's . . . #MAGA

And even that is a bridge too far for the lunatic tea party end of the GOP!

[screenexile]

I see the President of the working man has just upped medical insurance premiums for the poor and cut them for the rich... oh and if you're old then f**k you!!

Very decent also to give those tax breaks to the poor suffering CEO's . . . #MAGA

And even that is a bridge too far for the lunatic tea party end of the GOP!

The chaos ensuing from this latest disaster from the Whitehouse and the GOP would be funny were it not so fundamentally important to every Americans lives!!!

A well oiled machine!!

[J70]

This thread seems to be dying a bit.

I guess there's not much left to say or debate. Doesn't look like anyone wants to defend what Trump and the GOP are foisting on the country.