What stupid shit has Trump done today?

[CRI]

But.....but we're told it's not those voter's fault. They are the victims, the oppressed white working class. The evil doers are those damn liberals who voted against Trump, and of course the evil Hillary.

All that economic anxiety just drove them into Trump's arms. Funny how it didn't happen with black and brown working class people. A real head scratcher, eh?

 

[CRI]

Interesting.

McClatchy: FBI investigating potential Russian donations to NRA to boost Trump - CNNPolitics

 

[CRI]

Any guesses?

A record $107 million was raised for Trump’s inauguration. So where did it all go? No one will say.

 

[J Ed]

Obama’s Year of #Resistance

just as when he was in office, Obama’s post-presidency becomes less shiny when it moves away from the realm of the symbolic. For one, Obama’s actions over the past year remind us that his moderation and centrism as president weren’t merely posturing, but a reflection of his very real disdain for the Left.

Take his political endorsements. Merkel and Macron are right-wing politicians. One could argue that his endorsement of Macron was a product of limited choices — it was either him or a fascist. But no such excuse exists in Germany, which has a proportional electoral system and a number of left to center-left alternatives to Merkel’s CDU.

This is more galling when one considers the major European election that Obama conspicuously sat out: the British one, which ultimately saw Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour come from behind to achieve the party’s best result in seventy years. At the same time that Obama sat down to go viral with Trudeau, and only a month after explicitly endorsing Macron, he didn’t say a word about Labour or Corbyn — not even offering a symbolic non-endorsement endorsement, as he did at first for Macron with a “bromantic” phone call.

In fact, it was much worse. According to journalists Tim Ross and Tom McTague, who wrote a behind-the-scenes account of the election, Obama personally phoned Tory headquarters to reassure them (incorrectly, it turned out) that Labour was set to lose twenty to thirty seats. “Obama told a Tory friend to pass on an encouraging message,” they wrote: “Labour are expecting to lose seats, meaning the Tory majority will go up.” In other words, Obama believed that Labour was set for a catastrophic defeat, and he was gloating to their right-wing opposition about it.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising since he suggested at the end of his tenure that Labour had lost touch with “fact and reality” under Corbyn. Yet Obama had also promised to wade into politics when “our core values may be at stake,” and Theresa May’s campaign and policies were defined by the stoking of anti-immigrant fervor described as “cruel” and “backward looking.”

Back home, Obama was the singular force behind the derailment of Keith Ellison’s bid for DNC chair at the start of last year. As president, Obama had specifically recruited Tom Perez to block Ellison, and “stop the Sanders wing of the party from taking over,” as one Obama official said. According to Vox, in the weeks leading up to the election at the end of February, Obama and his team systematically worked to turn each DNC voting member against Ellison, with Obama personally phoning members when necessary. Ellison lost, despite securing the endorsement trifecta of grassroots progressives, high-ranking congressional Democrats, and numerous state party chairs.

According to Politico, Obama’s now pushing former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick to run for president in 2020. Besides pushing an austerity agenda while governor, Patrick also worked for Texaco and Coke as they carried out unconscionable abuses in poor countries, sat on the board of a predatory lender that ended up being a key player in the subprime-mortgage crisis, and now works for Bain Capital, the “vulture capital” private equity firm that Obama spent 2012 disparaging when it served his interests in the election.

There’s also Obama’s Presidential Center, which has been the subject of significant controversy in Chicago, his hometown. Concern has been voiced by groups as diverse as Black Youth Project 100, the Poor People’s Campaign, and the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights. Critics point out that instead of choosing the public transportation-accessible Washington Park, badly in need of economic revitalization, as the location, Obama chose the much fancier, less accessible lakeside location of Jackson Park, transferring twenty-one acres of public (and historically significant) land to a private entity.

A landscape-advocacy group warned the design would damage landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted’s design, and conservationist groups say it could violate federal laws against damaging sites on the National Register of Historic Places More than one hundred University of Chicago faculty signed a letter calling it “socially regressive,” pointing out, among other things, that its construction will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, but that the center and its profits will stay in private hands.

Since May of last year, protesters have been campaigning to pressure Obama to sign a Community Benefits Agreement, a legal contract that guarantees various principles, including that the majority of jobs go to local communities, that they pay a living wage, that it doesn’t displace residents, and that some land is set aside for low-income housing. Obama has refused, telling the audience at a public Q&A about the project that the proposed deal was an “okey-doke” — meaning, a scam — and essentially assuring the crowd he knew better.

Then there’s the gaudy chase for cash that’s characterized his year out of office. The Obamas signed a record-breaking $65 million book deal early last year, but that didn’t stop Obama from following in the footsteps of Tony Blair and the Clintons by picking up $1.2 million for three Wall Street speeches. Sure, an Obama spokesman pointed to his $2 million donation to charities, but that was never the point. The problem is that Obama — who staffed his administration with Wall Street lackeys, failed to prosecute bankers despite mountains of evidence of illegality, and came up with the doctrine of “too big to jail” — would never have earned that money had he meaningfully taken on the banking sector

 

[Libertad]

I would have loved Alistair Cooke's weekly take on this shit soup.

 

[Yossarian]

I don't think this Stormy Daniels stuff is going to get much traction but some of the details are hilarious - shark week??

"Donald Trump?" Dube wrote to the consultant in an email. "In her cellphone?"

"Yep," the other consultant replied. "She says one time he made her sit with him for three hours watching 'shark week.' Another time he had her spank him with a Forbes magazine."

Trump had Stormy Daniels spank him with Forbes cover of his face

(Suggested ways of linking this to the Obama administration: "People are complaining about Trump screwing a porn star, but they didn't complain about Obama screwing the poor," or "People are making a fuss about this porn star, but weren't the State Department's policies under Hillary Clinton the real obscenity?")

 

[BemusedbyLife]

I don't think this Stormy Daniels stuff is going to get much traction but some of the details are hilarious - shark week??


Trump had Stormy Daniels spank him with Forbes cover of his face

(Suggested ways of linking this to the Obama administration: "People are complaining about Trump screwing a porn star, but they didn't complain about Obama screwing the poor," or "People are making a fuss about this porn star, but weren't the State Department's policies under Hillary Clinton the real obscenity?")

Donny is doing a sterling job on screwing poor people as well as porn stars

 

[DotCommunist]

interesting take on wolff's book

Trump was deeply attached to the idea of an association with Putin. Trump's passion for Putin was never a secret. He admired him, as he tends to admire powerful, autocratic men, and said so. He bragged about his connections thereto, much as he bragged about pussy-grabbing. There was also no secret about his associations with Russian oligarchs, or those of his allies like Manafort or Flynn. Jared Kushner is not as cheerful about it these days, but there was a time when his links to Russian capital was a source of pride. Trump was distinctly blase about all of it. So, early on, before the investigations, these were quite overt 'Russian links'.

Trump, Wolff suggests, seems to have been unworried by talk of investigations. Supporters like Roger Ailes and son-in-law Jared Kushner warned Trump over and over to take the Russia accusations seriously. He had to sort out his Russian affairs. He professed to have dealt with it, no sweat. Manafort had been driven out early, more because he was running a lousy campaign than anything else. But then, Trump continued his public bromance with Putin, and contemptuously swatted away any questions on the issue.

However, for these 'links' to become the basis of a major intelligence operation and investigation, they had to be worked into a theory of Russian infiltration. Wolff says that this theory began to sprout legs in July 2016, thanks to a Slate article written by former New Republic editor Frank Foer. Wolff notes that Foer, "without anything resembling smoking guns or even real evidence", had already pulled together all the circumstantial threads that would subsequently play out over eighteen months of turmoil. The key figures in the conspiracy -- Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Carter Page, among others -- were identified early on. The lines of investigation, of dirty money and influence, were drawn.

At this point, Wolff notes, Fusion GPS had paid Christopher Steele, a former British spy, to investigate claims of an alliance with Putin. And one gets the impression that Wolff thinks this material might have been leaked to Foer. Either way, he points out that Steele's 'dossier' was so unsupported that almost no media touched it at first and that it, and the subsequent joint intelligence report, tended to rely on people being willing to assume that spies were telling the truth.

However, there were lots of reasons for various influential groups to go along with it: for the Democrats, it would be their Benghazi multiplied by a million. For Republicans, it would give them leverage and help them restrain Trump's more unpredictable tendencies. A largely hostile media had a source of ready-made news for years to come, in which these largely conservative news corporations could style themselves as a resistance. Wolff doesn't say it, but it's above all a useful way to deflect any serious consideration of 'what went wrong' by externalising the problem, and thus incorporating anti-Trump sentiment into a renewed nationalism.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

when people started describing things they disdained as poundshop it was a bit of a cuss. now it just makes the cusser look unimaginative, feeble and derivative.

I'm sorry I've never heard the term "poundshop" used as an adjective. From context, I'm thinking it means something like the American phrase "low rent". Here, it's a term to describe something that's lower class. Does it have similar classist connotations there?

 

[Jonti]

Yeh, it's a chain of UK shops in which everything for sale costs just £1. You can get some real bargains, amidst the heap of cheap tat.

 

[Pickman's model]

I'm sorry I've never heard the term "poundshop" used as an adjective. From context, I'm thinking it means something like the American phrase "low rent". Here, it's a term to describe something that's lower class. Does it have similar classist connotations there?

yes

 

[spring-peeper]

I'm sorry I've never heard the term "poundshop" used as an adjective. From context, I'm thinking it means something like the American phrase "low rent". Here, it's a term to describe something that's lower class. Does it have similar classist connotations there?

pound shop = dollar store

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

yes

I guess what I'm really not understanding is why anyone who see themselves as conscious of the difficulties of the working class would use a term that describes the working class in a negative way? Sorry if I'm not understanding.

 

[Pickman's model]

I guess what I'm really not understanding is why anyone who see themselves as conscious of the difficulties of the working class would use a term that describes the working class in a negative way?

because he doesn't think his actions through.

 

[maomao]

I guess what I'm really not understanding is why anyone who see themselves as conscious of the difficulties of the working class would use a term that describes the working class in a negative way? Sorry if I'm not understanding.

It just means cheap and shoddy. It would be a real struggle to read any political meaning into it.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

pound shop = dollar store

Yep. Most of my dinnerware comes from the dollar store. I think my square, white ceramic plates have a certain amount of elegance. And if you drop a plate, its easily replaced.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

It just means cheap and shoddy. It would be a real struggle to read any political meaning into it.

I'm not saying you have any ill will, but you do have to admit that those stores exist to cater to people who are less well off. Selling products in smaller sizes and/or cheaply made stuff serves a need.

I've noticed a trend in shopping. The stores that cater to the poorer consumer are busy. The stores that cater to the well off consumer are busy, but if you go to a middle-market store, its empty. That does have political consequences. Perhaps that's a topic for another thread.

 

[maomao]

I'm not saying you have any ill will, but you do have to admit that those stores exist to cater to people who are less well off. Selling products in smaller sizes and/or cheaply made stuff serves a need.

Indeed. I shop at Poundland, Poundworld and 99p stores regularly myself. There are bargains to be had. However, if you've ever tried to use any sort of tools bought from one (a spanner set for a quid sounds great till you try to undo a nut with one) you'll understand what the now apparently passé British adjective 'poundshop' refers to. Some things just can't be had for a quid.

 

[maomao]

"Might have done" is rather important here. She might have also banned wearing sox with sandals, or putting chocolate sprinkles on ice cream.

She didn't mention either of those policies at any point in the campaign to my knowledge. She did specifically say she wanted to impose a no fly zone on Russia. Which is a pretty direct threat to start shooting down Russian planes. So not quite the same thing.

 

[chandlerp]

A tweet for all occasions part #6514

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Indeed. I shop at Poundland, Poundworld and 99p stores regularly myself. There are bargains to be had. However, if you've ever tried to use any sort of tools bought from one (a spanner set for a quid sounds great till you try to undo a nut with one) you'll understand what the now apparently passé British adjective 'poundshop' refers to. Some things just can't be had for a quid.

I shall take your word for it. I do have to say that it sounds quite a lot like terms used in the US to put someone down, such as "low rent", "trailer park", and "ghetto."

 

[Archimage]

Trump suggests that a terror attack could help Republicans in the 2...

 

[DexterTCN]

Trump suggests that a terror attack could help Republicans in the 2...

jesus fucking christ

at least the others kept it secret

 

[maomao]

I shall take your word for it. I do have to say that it sounds quite a lot like terms used in the US to put someone down, such as "low rent", "trailer park", and "ghetto."

Hmm. The aggrieved party in this used the phrase half a dozen or so times himself back in 2014 when it was a bit of a buzzword. And on a board where a thread referencing the 'tramps buffet' (discount shelf at the supermarket) had its name forcibly changed I don't think posters would have accepted that if it had that kind of negative meaning. The British equivalents to the phrases you've stated would be (among others) 'chav' or 'council' which you won't find used much here at all.

 

[CRI]

I don't think this Stormy Daniels stuff is going to get much traction but some of the details are hilarious - shark week??


Trump had Stormy Daniels spank him with Forbes cover of his face

(Suggested ways of linking this to the Obama administration: "People are complaining about Trump screwing a porn star, but they didn't complain about Obama screwing the poor," or "People are making a fuss about this porn star, but weren't the State Department's policies under Hillary Clinton the real obscenity?")

 

[CRI]

I'm not saying you have any ill will, but you do have to admit that those stores exist to cater to people who are less well off. Selling products in smaller sizes and/or cheaply made stuff serves a need.

I've noticed a trend in shopping. The stores that cater to the poorer consumer are busy. The stores that cater to the well off consumer are busy, but if you go to a middle-market store, its empty. That does have political consequences. Perhaps that's a topic for another thread.

Same here. Aldi and Lidl used to be thought of as the shops poor people went to, and their own brand goods were considered sub par. They weren't, especially their cakes and pastries! Now though, there's a sort of inverse stigma about shopping there, the quality of their stuff is far better than the main supermarkets and their luxury lines perform better than the fancy shops like Waitrose much of the time.

Prolly best for a separate thread, but there's a bit more here.

 

[CRI]

All that economic anxiety just drove them into Trump's arms. Funny how it didn't happen with black and brown working class people. A real head scratcher, eh?

Speaking of which, remember that article I posted from a year ago about my white, rural, working class home town? It was one of the legion of articles featuring the views of Trump supporters that have appeared in the past year.

Steinberg: Wayne County is glad it voted 84 percent for Trump

Well, they only went back recently to talk with them again and guess what? They still all think Trump is the bees knees!

'Enthusiasm for Trump hasn't diminished one bit' downstate

“Most people I know haven’t really changed their opinion of Trump yet,” said L. Bryan Williams, who owns an insurance company. “He says a lot of cringe-worthy things that some of us wish he wouldn’t. But, by and large, we’re judging things by what we’re seeing regarding unemployment dropping, the price of oil is higher, more job opportunities throughout America — sadly none to Wayne County yet.”

“I think the year has gone well,” said the Rev. Donna Blythe of the Fairfield First United Methodist Church. “Some of our parishioners are not happy with the kind of administration it has been, but almost the whole majority are very happy. Very happy with the economics, currently.”

“I think people were pretty excited,” said Griswold, who retired in June. “Now . . . all the antics of the president leave us scratching our head a little bit. Personally, I think a businessman should, at the end of the day, make an excellent leader. Some of the stuff he’s pulling, golly, get it under control. I’m disappointed in that element of him. Fundamentally he makes some sound decisions.”

“His handling of Korea is kind of scary but, hell, it was kind of scary to begin with,” said Griswold. “At least he has those two countries talking. The whole Russia thing is the Democrats looking for something that doesn’t exist. Let’s bury it.”

A year ago, Tom Mathews, publisher of the Wayne County Press, was enjoying “the hell out of” Trump’s style and success. “I still am,” said Mathew, 70. “I think he’s accomplished quite a bit in his first year. Of course he has no help from the media; he’s got a lot of stiff headwinds. But I’m very encouraged; he was far superior to what the alternative was. My enthusiasm for Trump hasn’t diminished one bit. I’m just ecstatic that he is not a career politician. I enjoy his brash style. It’s refreshing.”

And yes, I know all the fuckers interviewed bar one, and he's the kid brother of someone I went to school with. These are all among lovely members of the community who've ostracised my family for not being enthusiastic about Trump.

No doubt someone who's never been there will come along and insist I just don't understand their situation, they're clearly "economically and culturally anxious" and felt forced to vote Trump. It's the Democratic Party's fault for not listening to them and responding to their plight. Yada yada yada.

Nope, they're bastards every one, and I wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire.

 

[Tankus]

over on zero hedge ..and fox

All hell is breaking loose in Washington D.C. after a four-page memo detailing extensive FISA court abuse was made available to the entire House of Representatives Thursday. The contents of the memo are so explosive, says Journalist Sara Carter, that it could lead to the removal of senior officials in the FBI and the Department of Justice and the end of Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation

"Explosive", "Shocking" And "Alarming" FISA Memo Set To Rock DC, "End Mueller Investigation"

Now wash your hands

 

[MightyTibberton]

Devin knows I'm miserable now!

 

[CRI]

Devin knows I'm miserable now!