It's Called Treason, Mike

WaPo is making no bones about it - they put it in print as a declarative statement, without moderating it:

National security adviser Michael Flynn privately discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with that country’s ambassador to the United States during the month before President Trump took office, contrary to public assertions by Trump officials, current and former U.S. officials said.

Flynn’s communications with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak were interpreted by some senior U.S. officials as an inappropriate and potentially illegal signal to the Kremlin that it could expect a reprieve from sanctions that were being imposed by the Obama administration in late December to punish Russia for its alleged interference in the 2016 election.

Flynn on Wednesday denied that he had discussed sanctions with Kislyak. Asked in an interview whether he had ever done so, he twice said, “No.”

On Thursday, Flynn, through his spokesman, backed away from the denial. The spokesman said Flynn “indicated that while he had no recollection of discussing sanctions, he couldn’t be certain that the topic never came up.”

"...couldn't be certain..." The Reagan defense - I don't recall.

We have transcripts, General. You called the Russians half a dozen times just to chat? About what, baseball? You were gonna drop by for coffee sometime? You're a lyin' sack o' shit, pal.

So now we get to watch another dance as Flynn and Pence duke it out - either Pence lied in public or Flynn lied to Pence.

But if we're picking survivors, my money's on Pence. He has some cover because he's worked in the DC network and prob'ly still has a few chips out there. Plus, he has to be sucking up bigly to whoever's plotting Trump's demise (a strictly political demise that is).  But he has to win it all or he'll lose it all. His career was deeply comatose until they picked him for Veep. So he's POTUS or he's our new Ambassador to Gambia under President Ryan, or he lands in a slot on the Wingnut Welfare rolls.

Flynn - aside from being a total fucking loon - is a political orphan. So that knife fight gets really messy and Flynn disappears for a while - until he pops up in a consulting gig for Paul Manafort or some such.

It's not a swamp - it's a sewer. And the shit runs wide and deep.

Say What?

"Conservatives" are adamant about telling celebrities to stay outa politics after trying to name everything in sight for a B-Movie Actor over the last 30 years because they think he was the greatest POTUS ever.

And now they've spent 2 days going out of their way obsessively trying to convince us they don't care what Hollywood thinks about the Game Show Host who'll be inaugurated a week from this Friday.

It's almost like, fuck that death-of-democracy thing - we might stand a chance to get some of that back if we start caring about the death of irony.
...or shame
...or honor

From Across The Pond

The world watches us pretty closely most of the time, but it's still a pretty neat trick when you've made the Brits notice just how fucked up our politics really is.

The lead article:

HOW do people learn to accept what they once found unacceptable? In 1927 Frederic Thrasher published a “natural history” of 1,313 gangs in Chicago. Each of them lived by a set of unwritten rules that had come to make sense to gang members but were still repellent to everyone else. So it is with Donald Trump and many of his supporters. By normalising attitudes that, before he came along, were publicly taboo, Mr Trump has taken a knuckle-duster to American political culture.

The recording of him boasting about grabbing women “by the pussy”, long before he was a candidate, was unpleasant enough. More worrying still has been the insistence by many Trump supporters that his behaviour was normal. So too his threat, issued in the second presidential debate, to have Hillary Clinton thrown into jail if he wins. In a more fragile democracy that sort of talk would foreshadow post-election violence. Mercifully, America is not about to riot on November 9th. But the reasons have less to do with the state’s power to enforce the letter of the law than with the unwritten rules that American democracy thrives on. It is these that Mr Trump is trampling over—and which Americans need to defend.

And in light of some of our less than sterling political moments - Swift Boat, Iraq's WMD, Whitewater, Willie Horton, Iran-Contra, The Enemies List, Southern Strategy, Joe McCarthy (the list goes on and on) - the fact that this one stands out in bold relief is depressing.

Just Keep Talkin' Don

Trump says if he does a great job as president, his assets will increase in value, and so:

"...that's a conflict, but that's like a good kind of conflict, isn't it?"

He starts his bad week with a poor showing at the debate, follows it with three days of Alicia Machado and "finishes" with this little meltdown in Ohio, which included more than some vague allusion to how maybe Hillary's not been "loyal" to Bill (?) Seriously, this is the guy they're talking about when they try to warn us about wrestling with pigs.

We can parse it out and try to draw conclusions about his fragile ego and the weird workings in Trump's little brain, but I think we have to consider that he's really just following his usual pattern, which is first and always counterpunch - never brush it off and never let any of it go - Tit-For-Tat come hell or high water.

But second - and I think more to the point - there's real purpose to it. This is a guy who throws shit.  He's learned that the more shit he throws, the harder it is for anybody to sort thru it and make any sense of it.  But while we're busy trying to get our heads around the shit storm, he stays more or less off the hook because we've all spent one more week not looking into the Rape Allegations and why they postponed the hearing; not looking at The Trump Foundation being uncertified which makes Trump's own actions potential felonies; not focusing on the leak of a few pages of his tax documents from 1996 that appear to confirm that he's been stiffing us all for the last 20 years - and that's what he wants. He wants to stall and deflect and postpone, constantly doubling down on his phony Populist routine which gives him more opportunity to go on playing the rubes for suckers, putting more millions in his pocket, as he moves towards whatever he thinks is his destiny while giving us that self-satisfied comfortable feeling that we've got him all figured out - and maybe we do, but prob'ly we don't.

Political Reality

From Vox:

Donald Trump is great at doing the seemingly unimaginable. He won the Republican nomination over 15 other potential nominees who looked better on paper, with a thin ground game, little cash on hand, and not much buoying him in the early going beyond his celebrity. On that level, maybe he’s a political savant?

But when he’s asked to do something that’s fairly standard campaign ritual — host a political convention, say, or compete in a debate — he very rarely pulls it off. He’s just not that good at the basics of politics, and that only underscores how flimsy and empty most of his policy proposals are.

And if there’s one big takeaway I have from his first presidential debate against Hillary Clinton, it’s that Trump failed almost as much as a performer as he did a candidate.

Turns out that real live politics is just not the same as hosting a game show.

Meet-N-Greet

America's youth should be encouraged to contact and engage with the people who want to run the joint. That way, they can get a sense of what those people are trying to do and help us all gain a deeper understanding of just how great the good ones are...

...and how terrifying the bad ones can be.

Always trust kids and dogs when it comes to dickhead detection - they are absolutely unerring.

On The Wall

For the 1,255 miles of the US-Mexico border that's made up of the Rio Grande, where exactly will Mr Trump's wall stand?

The border more or less runs right down the middle of the river - and you literally can't build the thing in the water.

So do you build it on the Mexico side?  Since Mexico doesn't want anything to do with our silly wall, it seems kinda doubtful they'll allow that.

But if we build it on the US side, then don't we kinda lose access to the river itself?

There's an awful lot of that riverfront that's private land.  Do you plan to condemn 100 or 500 or 1000 miles of private property thru Eminent Domain and then forcibly take possession of the land if necessary?

Maybe that's why the Trumpkinites have restarted the talk about a "Virtual Wall" or "Technological Wall" or a "Digital Wall".  Except that every time surrogates try to ameliorate anything, Trump comes back and either re-doubles down or flipflops and denies he ever said anything like that you must be crazy or you're dishonest and disgusting and I'd really like one of my guys to punch you right in the head no not really but maybe yeah kinda.

And in the meantime, we all just get to wait for whatever Trump has to say so this rolling clusterfuck can keep its death-grip on the news cycle.

He's got us all trained to sit here panting and wagging our furry tails like good little Press Poodles.

PoliticusUSA:

To the surprise of no one outside of those who voted for Trump in the Republican primary, the border wall was a lie. In fact, Republican members of Congress have been suggesting since Trump announced his plan to “build the wall” that they didn’t support it, and would not pass the appropriations needed to construct a wall.

Like cousin Trae said - here's hoping he dies in a tragic hairspray accident. And soon.

Live By Social Media

...die by social media

VIDEO (again): Trump state fair hall not packed full as he falsely claims. pic.twitter.com/RqnKoPJzHz

— Ed O'Keefe (@edatpost) August 24, 2016

And then twitter kinda blew up with it - a few samples:

@edatpost pic.twitter.com/T8sFNRhLNl

— Jerry Jordan (@Jerry_Jordan) August 24, 2016

@edatpost A mostly empty hall of white people. Seems about par for the course for Trump rallies nowadays.

— Big Bo (@mellymel12321) August 24, 2016

@edatpost @NoahCRothman Wowsa. Spinal Tap and the puppet show had better attendance.

— Marshall Power Locke (@MarshallLocke) August 24, 2016

Trump seems to be doing with his "campaign" what he's always done with his "businesses" - he's running into the ground.

So yeah - let's hire that guy and turn it all over to the slugs and leeches he'll subcontract it out to.

 

hat tip = Bipartisan Report

Piling On

Donald Trump spent a little time in front of a TelePrompter yesterday, and suddenly - to hear some of the Press Poodles tell it, the last 14 months disappeared; gone; pfffft; never happened.

The Squint Squad seemed to struggle with it a little too, tho' I'll say they did come up with a better level of appropriate skepticism than usual.

Media Matters:

Donny Deutsch nailed it with "I will always tell you the truth..." as the perfect lead-in to a very good set of ads that show Trump lying about everything.

And Katty Kay pulled it all back to normal by pointing out that Trump still has to own everything he's said, plus she hits on what I think should be the main theme here, which is a little something I'm calling - Trump's Artificial Authenticity.

So who's The Real Trump? Screaming Asshole Guy; the one we've all seen for several years, or Mister Swell Guy who can be schmoozey and charming, but who's only been seen by his buddies?  Y'know what?  Fuck 'em both.

"I will always tell you the truth" (The Guardian):

The lies Trump told this week: from opposing the Iraq war to San Bernardino

Trump shares more false memories from the Iraq war and Middle Eastern politics and welcomes Nato’s ‘new’ terrorism division – which has existed since 2004

Clearing It Up

(This is a bit of a redux)

Hillary "lied" like everybody "lies" - sometimes you say things that you meant one way and people hear them a completely different way.

And always always always remember that every agency in every department in every government at every level is both a constituency itself, and/or it's either prospecting for or looking to maintain a constituency for itself.  You're a client being served, or you're in service to a client, or you're both at the same time. Everybody. Everywhere.

James Comey came up thru the Bush DoJ (he was assigned to take over the investigation of Bill's pardon of Mark Rich), and is no fan of the Clintons.

But he knows enough to be more or less a straight shooter, and he's got some chops as a Bankster Buster even tho' he's been on the inside at Lockheed, Bridgewater, and HSBC.

A bit of an odd duck, and worth watching.

Anyway, he was obviously a little peeved at the whole spectacle, having the look of a guy who couldn't quite stomach all the political bullshit.  Or maybe he was just disappointed that Cartwright asked the right questions, leaving the Repubs with basically a handful of nuthin'.

We can still find reasons to hate on Hillary if we wanna, but we should prob'ly let go of that one.

Here's The Plan

1. Drug Trump
2. Put him in a "Truman Show" White House
3. Wake him up
4. Tell him he won
5. Sell subscriptions
6. Retire National Debt in about 2 years

hat tip = Twitter dude, @harryallen

Lovecraftian

hat tip = Bob & Chez

Fun At The Hatefest

First up: Helga, The Nazi She-Wolf Laura Ingraham

via Rolling Stone and AP

About Last Nite

Some semi-random thoughts on The ShamWow Meeting in Cleveland.

The theme du jour yesterday was "Make America Work Again".  Let's leave aside the imagery invoked by that phrasing - Rich Rent Collectors and Forced Labor - and think for a short little moment about what the speakers had to say last night.

I heard an awful lot of the usual Hillary Bashing, but with the exception of two women who spoke pretty well about their own experiences in business (this is a 5-day bender celebrating USAmerica Inc's reigning champion of shameless self-promotion, so why would you not try to cash in?), there really wasn't much talk about jobs and opportunities for regular folk etc - it was all "fuck China" and "fuck Mexico" and "fuck the immigrants and poor people" and "your jobs were sent to other countries by The Kenyan Usurper while the noble wealth creators had nothing to do with any of that, so let's put Hillary in prison because email!"   

I caught a little bit of MSNBC's after-party thing, where one of the analysts said he Word-Clouded the text of the speeches, and the word "work" was so far down the list as to be nearly invisible.

I think Mr Priebus needs to shift the focus a little and maybe try "Make This Dog-Ass Convention Work." The attendance is sparse, and the "crowds" just aren't into it.  There were at least two speakers who used the standard Call-n-Response thing, and it was more than a little pathetic. When the speakers have to start the USA USA chant, and it runs outa steam before the middle-aged drunk ladies in the cute red white and blue cowboy hats can get on their feet - well, it's a problem.

I'll look for something good about Trump Jr's speech and get back to y'all later.

Round Two

But before we get too crazy, I've heard one source saying the guy who wrote Trump Jr's speech is the guy who wrote the article.  Still doesn't look good, but it's prob'ly not a Melania-level fuckup.

👀 pic.twitter.com/QEftnTTwy3

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) July 20, 2016

Where Have I Gone Wrong?

• Obama is rotten
• Hillary is rotten
• Hillary in the White House would be a 3rd term for Obama
• The main reason that would be terrible for America is because the Clintons and the Obamas don't "share our values"

--so--

Let's send Melania out in front of a packed house and 35 million TV viewers and have her espouse almost everything Michelle Obama had to say about herself and Barack in 2008 - practically reciting - verbatim - fairly large passages from that speech.

I wonder how this is playing today with the GOP faction that's been very vocal about how Trump isn't a "real Republican". 

Just how far down the Bullshit Expressway are the rubes willing to ride with this?

Something Of A Change

The story at HuffPo is that Trump's flipflops on his immigration "policy" pronouncements (aka: standard ranch stash bullshit) is confusing for his supporters.

Donald Trump has spent the week pedaling backward and forward on his immigration positions, leaving immigration hawks — and some of his biggest boosters — worried about the strength of his support for mass deportations and a blanket ban on Muslim immigrants.

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a prominent Trump supporter and immigration hawk, told HuffPost he was perplexed by Trump’s series of unfolding positions.
“He initially said he wanted to deport the 11 million people,” Arpaio said. “So you’re saying he’s now saying he’s not going to deport everybody who’s been here illegally?”

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, an influential think tank that calls for stricter immigration laws, said he was similarly concerned.

“His instincts on a lot of these issues are correct. Unfortunately, since he doesn’t know much about the issue, won’t listen to his own advisers, and won’t read his own immigration platform, he ends up veering from one thing to the next,” said Krikorian, who plans to vote for Trump. “This is just another example of Trump’s weakness when it comes to policy.”

But I'm kinda wondering how many of Trump's loyal Base Voters will start to bail on him now that it appears he's trying to polish himself up for the general election.  The story and that video clip make it pretty obvious that he's being managed a lot differently now.   He's not up there just running his mouth - he's trying to focus a more generally palatable rhetoric on the immigration issue, which is what has put his Knob-Gobbler Chorus Boys into a tizzy.  How does a Joe (America's Own Sheriff of Nottingham) Arpaio and that Nazi Heimbach dude stay with him now?

What does that cost him?  Standard Operating Procedure says you can expect to lose some support from the wingnuts, but it doesn't matter because you have to appeal to the middle now, and what you lose on the right you'll more than make up for... and those rubes aren't gonna vote for anybody else anyway... and and and ... but how does that not make Trump look like "just another politician"?  And how does that not tarnish him big time with all the people who got him this far because he's not just another politician?

What really jumps out at me though is that somebody (Manafort?) has convinced him that if he's going to be more consistent, and better able to stay on message, then he has to use a TelePrompter, and holy fuck, boys and girls, he really sucks at it.

This continues to be something to watch with great interest - like something grotesque and horrific that some teenager caught on video; I can't stop watching it; I can't stop hating that I'm watching it, and I can't stop wanting to see more.

Today's Podcast

The Professional Left

Main point: a theme is emerging - has emerged - that Trump isn't really a Republican. He's zomby-fied enough GOP rubes to get this far, but "we" hafta stop him before he destroys "our" beloved Republican Party.

'Scuse me?  Donald Trump has gathered more Republican Votes in the primaries than any other Republican candidate ever.  Donald Trump is going to the convention with more than enough committed delegates - he has 305 more than he needs.  He could wipe his ass with those 305 people, and Cruz plus Kasich would still be 200 delegates short.

Donald Trump is the GOP now, because all those GOP voters voted for him - see how that works?  He owns what the "Repub Establishment" has been building for the last 30 fucking years.

And also too - driftglass and Blue Gal have been saying exactly that for a long long time.




BTW - Trump read The Snake at a rally back in January, and it's been rattling around in my head ever since, and this is what eventually came tumbling out: When a politician (or a silver-tongued devil of a salesman) spins a yarn obviously intending to warn you, there's a fair probability he's making a subconscious effort to tell you something about himself.  And keep in mind, a guy like Trump is always thinking and talking about himself.

  

Behold The CINO RINO Wars

Charge and counter-charge.

A squad of semi-behind-the-scenes Repubs are gearing up for something.  Of course, we won't get to see what it is exactly for a while - if we get to see much of it at all.

Remember, these Trumpkinite bozos comprise the GOP's base.  Reince Priebus et al have to figure out how to lose Trump without losing the assholes who follow guys like Trump around believing the basic bullshit that guys like Trump are always peddling.

And please - while we're at it - let's make no mistake here: Only some of Trump's voters are with him because he gives vent to the shittier angels of our nature.  Most of them are willing to overlook an awful lot of the really bad shit because he's telling them they deserve not to have been fucked over by a system that took a giant dump on their heads and now expects them to say, "Thanks for the hat".  

I'm not giving any of these bigoted assholes a pass - I'm just saying there's plenty of angst to go around, and people react to that shit in some pretty weird ways.

HuffPo:

Richard Armitage, who was Bush’s deputy secretary of state during his first presidential term, told Politico in an article published Thursday that Trump “doesn’t appear to be a Republican, he doesn’t appear to want to learn about issues. So I’m going to vote for Mrs. Clinton.”

Armitage, who also served under President Ronald Reagan, isn’t the first Republican to throw his support behind Clinton.

Arne Carlson, the Republican former governor of Minnesota, told CityPages on Wednesday that “no human being in history has been more vetted” than Clinton while Trump “has taken campaigning to a new low.”
Mike Treiser, a former Mitt Romney staffer, said that “in the face of bigotry, hatred, violence, and small-mindedness, this time, I’m with her.”

As conservative writer Ben Howe put it, “I am a fiscal conservative and I am a social conservative. That will not change. But I will not vote for an egomaniacal authoritarian. Nope.”

And we might even get to see a few Press Poodles up on their hind legs because Trump yanked WashPo's press pass, but also because they just really can't afford to have a tin-plated strutting martinet push 'em around.  The cumulative standing of the American Press Corps is only marginally better than the unholy triumvirate of politicians, lawyers and lobbyists, plus a raging Herpes Outbreak all over your lip the day before prom.

Margaret Carlson:

Smoke is rising from the capitol dome and the first responders are missing in action. Instead of running into the building to save it from their presumptive nominee, Republicans are running away. Watch them scurry at the approach of a reporter wielding nothing more than a notebook or microphone asking about the latest outburst from Donald Trump. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's press briefings have been designated Trump-Free Zones. His No. 2, Senator John Cornyn, announced that he won't take any Trump questions until after the November election.

So, Press Poodles - if you're any good at all; if you want any chance to redeem your-mostly-worthless-asses; if you wanna do the job you're supposed to do, then every goddamned one of you asks the Trump Questions every goddamned time any GOP politico steps in front of you.  Every fucking one of you - Every.Fucking.Time.

The Lady Kills Me

Can you say 'high dudgeon'?  I knew you could.