The Trump presidency

[coley]

The Embarrassment of President Trump

Says it all really, the GOP is prepared to let the US become the laughing stock of the world in order to protect their influence and wealth.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

The Chairman of Trump's Strategic Policy Forum had a birthday party on the weekend.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/...edCoverage&region=EndOfArticle&pgtype=article

This is exactly what those Virginia coal miners voted for - a drained swamp.

Problem is, when Trump said he'd drain the swamp, he didn't tell anybody about the other half of the plan - to replace it with a viper's nest.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

The same guy's 60th birthday party was so lavish, that it caused some kind of existential crisis amongst critics of Wall Street types over the evils of overconsumption.

Trump was at that party: maybe that's why Trump gave him a job.

Steve Schwarzman's $3 Mil. Birthday Bash: Any Regrets?

The Birthday Party

Steve Schwarzman's 60th birthday party last year may go down as the last, great party before the fall. Days after closing on what was then the biggest leveraged buyout in history, the $39 billion purchase of Equity Office Properties, the billionaire chairman of the Blackstone Group invited 500 people to the Armory on Park Avenue for a party that cost an estimated $3 million. A very long list of notables turned up—Donald Trump, Barbara Walters, Barry Diller, Lloyd Blankfein, Jamie Dimon—as did many of the people who have now become poster boys for the global financial crisis, like former Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O'Neal, ex-Bear Stearns chief Jimmy Cayne. Rod Stewart was paid $1 million to perform for the assembled guests; Patti LaBelle sang "Happy Birthday." And the room was designed to replicate Schwarzman's $40 million co-op at 740 Park Avenue. So does Schwarzman have any regrets now the economy has crumbled and he was depicted as a real-life Gordon Gekko in the relentless press coverage that followed?

Sort of! When asked by Andy Serwer at Fortune-sponsored breakfast at Per Se today if he would have held the party all over again given what's happened since, he started off by saying he was just glad he made it to 60. A few regrets followed, although what seems to have upset him most was the damage it did to his personal reputation. "Obviously, I wouldn't have wanted to do that and become some kind of symbol of that period of time," Schwarzman said. "Who would ever wish that on themselves? No one." But it was fun while it lasted! "It was a great party," Bruce Wasserstein chimed in moments later.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Phone records and intercepted calls show that members of Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election, according to four current and former American officials.

American law enforcement and intelligence agencies intercepted the communications around the same time they were discovering evidence that Russia was trying to disrupt the presidential election by hacking into the Democratic National Committee, three of the officials said. The intelligence agencies then sought to learn whether the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians on the hacking or other efforts to influence the election.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/us/politics/russia-intelligence-communications-trump.html


Oh Donald: you should have just tried to win it fair and square.

 

[J Ed]

Interesting that this Flynn stuff appears to actually be sticking.

 

[Old Spark]

Yup drip drip drip ,russian asset russian asset ,some on the left keep stum some on the left keep stum,I knew nothing I knew nothing,mafia state mafia state,totalitarians together totalitarians together,arf arf arf arf.

Damning reports emerge of Trump campaign's frequent talks with Russian intelligence

 

[Yossarian]

For a while after the election it seemed like reality had been hijacked and we all might be living in one of Donald Trump's dreams.

Now we seem to be in one of Hillary Clinton's.

 

[ska invita]

The New York Times report cites four current and former US intelligence officials who are unnamed and who conceded they had “so far” seen no evidence in the intercepted phone communications that Trump campaign officials had cooperated with Russian intelligence in Moscow’s efforts to skew the election in Trump’s favour. The officials do not explain what, in that case, the contacts were about.

Seems quite crucial -what the calls are about.

 

[bimble]

Poor KellyAnne Conway. Someone sneaked onto her twitter account and sent out valentines day love to a white nationalist.
Kellyanne Conway Claims She Doesn't Know Who Retweeted A White Nationalist From Her Twitter Account

 

[newbie]

Interesting that this Flynn stuff appears to actually be sticking.

well, after decades of demonising evil empire Russia, and centuries of celebrating American democracy, it's hard to see how attitudes would dramatically swing over a very short period. Trump & his acolytes are at loggerheads with both the establishment msm and (apparently) the so-called 'intelligence community'. So while KellyAnne insists it's just a matter of personal trust the NYT is pointing towards much more serious issues that responsible Republicans can't really be expected to ignore.

The call logs and intercepted communications are part of a larger trove of information that the F.B.I. is sifting through as it investigates the links between Mr. Trump’s associates and the Russian government, as well as the hacking of the D.N.C., according to federal law enforcement officials. As part of its inquiry, the F.B.I. has obtained banking and travel records and conducted interviews, the officials said.

Even in the flurry of distractions it's hard to see this not turning into formal investigations.



and then there's that nagging conspiratheory that Trump is a figurehead or perhaps placeholder the tea party didn't want, had to accept and seeks to brush aside. The more embroiled he and his people become, the greater the influence clean hands, trustworthy Pence can wield.

Hollywood will have fun with this period. I wonder if the film will convey the sense (which may only last a day or so) that there may be a coup going on but it's not entirely clear who's couping who

 

[CrabbedOne]

Russia should return Crimea??? It's not from Trumpski's own tiny mouth but this is almost a criticism of Russia.

Somebody should check if there's an empty alien pod in the Rose Garden.

 

[bimble]

"First it's Flynn, next it will be Kellyanne Conway, then it will be Steve Bannon, then it will be Reince Priebus," he said. Put another way, Flynn is only the appetizer. Trump is the entree.
The Political Assassination of Michael Flynn

 

[newbie]

"First it's Flynn, next it will be Kellyanne Conway, then it will be Steve Bannon, then it will be Reince Priebus," he said. Put another way, Flynn is only the appetizer. Trump is the entree.
The Political Assassination of Michael Flynn

itIt's possible that Flynn has more ties to Russia that he had kept from the public and his colleagues. It's also possible that a group of national security bureaucrats and former Obama officials are selectively leaking highly sensitive law enforcement information to undermine the elected government.

it's not just me then, they don't know who's couping who either.

but.... no, not KellyAnne, she's too good to lose, her public demands she keeps squirming in front of the cameras for a while longer.

 

[CrabbedOne]

...
Many other potential Yateses—holdovers from the Obama administration who have found their way into spots throughout the Trump administration—await throughout government.

“They’re hiding like sleeper cells everywhere,” one source said.

White House and other government sources say there are as many as 50 of them throughout government, and Priebus has full knowledge of their whereabouts, who they are, and what potential for damage they may cause. He is not doing anything about it, these sources add.

“In some cases, we’ve held some individuals over because they hold a critical position within government,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told Breitbart News when asked during a recent briefing about the holdovers. “In some cases, we’ve named folks as acting. It’s a case-by-case basis and again I think part of it right now is the president wanted to focus on getting his cabinet up and complete. We’ll continue to make nominations at both the deputy, under and assistant secretary level. But in key agencies, ICE being one of them where it’s an assistant secretary, but there are thirty other agencies where we’ve named acting heads to ensure that as we move through the confirmation process we have somebody in that position to ensure continuity of government.”
...

Not hard to guess who "these sources" is. Clearly wants Priebus gone ASAP.

Rather telling that with rumours of Team Trumpski being riddled with Russki influencers the urgent thing is a purge of Obama leftovers as if they were some Gulenist fifth column plotting the downfall of the Great Leader. It's all very much Ankara on the Potomac.

I'd not have pegged loopily insurgent Breitbart ever becoming the Whitehouse's lickspittle Pravda. How the world changes in in a couple of years.

 

[CrabbedOne]

Things not looking good from outside the palace.

 

[Santino]

Putin Starting to Wonder If His Puppets Are Smart Enough to Pull This Off

The New Yorker - satire so biting that it has to be labelled 'Satire' at the top of the page.

 

[CrabbedOne]

 

[CrabbedOne]

 

[Reiabuzz]

Long thread. Is Trump likely to be impeached on grounds of treason, Pence too I guess?

In which case who takes over - if both the President and VP are gone?

 

[CrabbedOne]

Long thread. Is Trump likely to be impeached on grounds of treason, Pence too I guess?

In which case who takes over - if both the President and VP are gone?

Paul Ryan.

 

[SpookyFrank]

"First it's Flynn, next it will be Kellyanne Conway, then it will be Steve Bannon, then it will be Reince Priebus," he said. Put another way, Flynn is only the appetizer. Trump is the entree.
The Political Assassination of Michael Flynn

An appetizer is an entrée.

 

[bimble]

An appetizer is an entrée.

That's what I thought, but then assumed I must be confused and not sure which fork is which etc.

 

[Pickman's model]

That's what I thought, but then assumed I must be confused and not sure which fork is which etc.

you go from the outside in.

 

[bimble]

An appetizer is an entrée.

"in US, entree is a word that is spoken in the same breath as one would talk about the main course. In fact, up until the WW I, in US, UK, and even France, the term entree came to refer to hot food item served after soups and before roast.
Difference Between Entree and Appetizer

 

[Reiabuzz]

an entree is the main course in the US. Always confuses me when im there.

 

[The Octagon]

Long thread. Is Trump likely to be impeached on grounds of treason, Pence too I guess?

In which case who takes over - if both the President and VP are gone?

Technically I don't think he can be charged with treason as the US is not at war, the interesting thing would be whether he was immediately pardoned by whoever took up the mantle. Paul Ryan hates Trump, so he might even do actual time, which would be lols.

 

[SpookyFrank]

"in US, entree is a word that is spoken in the same breath as one would talk about the main course. In fact, up until the WW I, in US, UK, and even France, the term entree came to refer to hot food item served after soups and before roast.
Difference Between Entree and Appetizer

I once got a bollocking from an American customer in the restaurant where I was working because I brought him his starter before the rest of this meal. And suffice to say, this guy was clearly not going to die of starvation in the next ten minutes if he didn't get something more substantial than soup.

 

[ruffneck23]

Kellyanne Conway's Twitter sent a Valentines message to a white nationalist but she claims to know nothing about it

not too sure what to think about this, its getting more bizarre by the second

 

[Reiabuzz]

This whole thing is fucking brilliant (the Trump presidency that is)

Every morning is another lol. Fuck Obama and his sane, measured, competent administration. This is far better.

 

[not-bono-ever]

As much as there is glee amongst the anti Trump legions at this bumbling farce of a POTUS,I think it will take something monumental to get Chump out of office. Not because he is stubborn and ignorant - he is - but anyone with an interest in getting the incumbent out needs to think about plan B. Chump will have to be so systematically devalued and utterly socially irradiated, that he will be unable & unwilling to stand on the sidelines and snipe away on social media after he has departed. From a Washington perspective, he needs to be send up to wooden hill to Bedfordshire, loaded with seddies & calpol, tucked up with a hot water bottle and never heard from again