Trump Is A Dipshit

[Steve Minkin]

"He's [China's President Xi Jinping] now president for life. President for life. No, he's great," Trump said. "And look, he was able to do that. I think it's great. Maybe we'll have to give that a shot some day."

[Steve Minkin]

from RawStory

>>Republican strategist Mike Murphy on Monday made his contribution to “Russia speculation night,” telling NBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell an “international businessman” said special counsel Robert Mueller is looking into an agreement Donald Trump had with Russian interests during the 2016 campaign.

“I was walking around [Beverly Hills] and an international businessman I know pretty well, swore me to secrecy said ‘You can say this on TV. A friend of mine got pulled in by Mueller asking about a MOU, a memorandum of understanding, that Trump had with Russian interests during the 2016 campaign and Mueller has the documents,’” Murphy told O’Donnell.<<

[Steve Minkin]

I'm sure I've referenced it before in this strange, sick, all-too-real thread the Chinese CURSE: "May you live in interesting times." I've kept up with the news. It's a huge commitment these days. There are so many corrupt, fucked-up characters in this melodrama that there's a pseudo-complexity to it, it's not a complex scheme, there's just a cast of dozens. Latest, a cooperating witness potentially tying the Emirate and Russian money together, a January 2017 meeting in the Seychelles with the UAE Crown Prince, Jared, Bannon, and Flynn. In the Seychelles . . . nothing suspicious there. Throw in the chief executive of the state-run Russian Direct Investment Fund . . .

The Lebanese-American 'man of mystery' now singing was stopped coming in to the country on his way to Mar-A-Lago to celebrate with The Chump.

They weren't merely selling out the country, this was like an auction.

It never ends, although it has to end. It's like that Sinatra song, 'you're like a falling star that dies and seems to go on dying.'

[Steve Minkin]

from Politico, by the woman who wrote 'The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders And A President'

>>For Trump, there was an obvious life lesson: No matter what he did, he could escape accountability so long as he had built-in accomplices who had as much or more at stake. He has played this card in every crisis since then, and to date, it has never failed. He took his casinos public and made his shareholders bear the risk for his ill-advised expansion. His ego-driven need for headlines has created a ratings and readers bonanza for news outlets, but, in exchange, the mainstream media have had to endure Trump-style delegitimization—that is, being denounced as fake news—whenever they carry a story he dislikes. He even neutralized the apparently crippling blow of the Access Hollywood tape by turning it into a referendum on coverage of Bill Clinton’s womanizing and Hillary’s complicity.

Now, as Trump hunkers inside the White House, the windstorm of never-ending crises raging around him, observers once again speculate that this will be the moment of his undoing. The evidence, I would argue from long observation, suggests otherwise. Trump might well be fuming at the negative headlines as so many news accounts over the past several days have claimed, but my guess is that he is not overly worried about his future. Once again, he has an accomplice with as much to lose as he does: his own party.

Even if special counsel Robert Mueller were to indict Trump before the midterm elections, he wouldn’t be held truly accountable unless a Republican-controlled House voted for impeachment, and a Republican-controlled Senate found him guilty. That’s when what has arguably been a Trump problem would turn into a wholly Republican problem. And once again, Trump would have the Republicans, the very people charged with deciding his fate, over a barrel. Take down Trump and the party goes with him.

Just like the bankers, who ignored financial safeguards because they were snowed by Trump’s rich-guy trophies and his celebrity aura, the Republicans in Congress ignored his lifelong track record of stiffing anyone he could because he was promising them their dream—an opportunity to toss out the Obama legacy and replace it with their own long-stalled agenda.

Like the bankers, the Republicans in Congress will not be willing to face up to what they’ve done. If I’m right about Trump, he’s counting on it.<<

[Steve Minkin]

And a quote from newly departed Gary Cohen, who swallowed his revulsion at the fascists in Charlottesville but really got pissed off about the tariffs:

>>"It's worse than you can imagine. An idiot surrounded by clowns. Trump won't read anything - not one-page memos, not the brief policy papers; nothing. He gets up halfway through meetings with world leaders because he is bored. And his staff is no better. Kushner is an entitled baby who knows nothing. Bannon is an arrogant prick who thinks he's smarter than he is. Trump is less a person than a collection of terrible traits. No one will survive the first year but his family. I hate the work, but feel I need to stay because I'm the only person there with a clue what he's doing. The reason so few jobs have been filled is that they only accept people who pass ridiculous purity tests, even for midlevel policy-making jobs where the people will never see the light of day. I am in a constant state of shock and horror." <<

[The G Man]

And a quote from newly departed Gary Cohen, who swallowed his revulsion at the fascists in Charlottesville but really got pissed off about the tariffs:

>>"It's worse than you can imagine. An idiot surrounded by clowns. Trump won't read anything - not one-page memos, not the brief policy papers; nothing. He gets up halfway through meetings with world leaders because he is bored. And his staff is no better. Kushner is an entitled baby who knows nothing. Bannon is an arrogant prick who thinks he's smarter than he is. Trump is less a person than a collection of terrible traits. No one will survive the first year but his family. I hate the work, but feel I need to stay because I'm the only person there with a clue what he's doing. The reason so few jobs have been filled is that they only accept people who pass ridiculous purity tests, even for midlevel policy-making jobs where the people will never see the light of day. I am in a constant state of shock and horror." <<

Your first sentence isn't fair. He reluctantly stayed on after Charlottesville because he thought he could be a positive force in economic policy, e.g. prevent tariffs. When he ultimately failed at that, he resigned.

[Steve Minkin]

[Mo Noyz]

That’s too haphazard and busy to even bother with.

[Antoine]

Bannon meets Le Pen...
+ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/ ... t-national

[Steve Minkin]

Bannon meets Le Pen...
+ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/ ... t-national

>>Steve Bannon told members of the French National Front, a far right wing political party that has been labeled neo-fascist, they should wear their racism as a badge of honor.

“Let them call you racists,” Bannon told the anti-immigrant party’s audience on Saturday in France, as The Washington Post reported. “Let them call you xenophobes. Let them call you nativists. Wear it as a badge of honor. Because every day, we get stronger and they get weaker.”<<

[Steve Minkin]

Peggy Noonan in the WSJ:

>>A great deal of embarrassed attention has been paid by the press as to why half the country in 2016 refused to do what it was supposed to do and reject Mr. Trump.

Granted: Mr. Trump didn’t start the fire. A great deal had to go wrong before America put a man like him, a TV star/brander with no political experience and a sketchy history, in the presidency. The political class right and left, Dem and Rep, had to fail, and did, spectacularly, with the 2008 crash and two unwon wars. Their biggest sin the past few decades: The wealthiest and most powerful Americans, those who had most benefited from its system, peeled off from the less fortunate and made clear they were not especially concerned about their problems. Stupidly, and they are stupid, they didn’t even fake a prudent interest. The disaffected noticed this lack of loyalty and decided to respond with a living insult named Donald Trump, whom they sent to Washington to contend with a corrupt establishment . . .

Here is what you try to wrap your head around if you are a centrist or moderate who’s trying to be fair. You think: On some level this is working. And on some level he is crazy.

He’s crazy . . . and it’s kind of working. You struggle to reconcile these thoughts. You try to balance them.

Then you realize everything you’ve learned from life as a leader in whatever sphere—business, local public service—tells you this: Crazy doesn’t last. Crazy doesn’t go the distance. Crazy is an unstable element that, when let loose in an unstable environment, explodes.

And so your disquiet. Sooner or later something bad will happen—an international crisis, or damaging findings from the special counsel. If the president is the way he is on a good day, what will he be like on a bad day?

It all feels so dangerous.

A president who has relative prosperity and relative peace should be at 60% approval. This is why he is about 20 points lower.

Observations and criticisms like this make Mr. Trump’s supporters angry and defensive. So he’s not smooth, they say—“We never thought he was!” So he doesn’t have the right tone, he doesn’t always use the right words—“You’re like old-time snobs looking down on him because he uses the wrong fork.”

But it’s a little more essential than that.

Centrists and moderates are seeing what Trump supporters cannot, will not see.

Expecting more from the president of the United States springs from respect for the country, its institutions, and the White House itself. It springs from standards, the falling of which concerns natural conservatives.

It isn’t snobbery. The people trying to wrap their heads around this presidency are patriots too. That’s one of the hellish things about this era.<<

[The G Man]

If Trump blocks Stormy Daniels from appearing on 60 Minutes, he will have imposed more sanctions on a porn actress than on Russia.

[The G Man]

Interesting article about Mueller investigation.

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/arti ... ssion=true

[The G Man]

Steve, did you read this in the SF Chronicle?
https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/art ... 742583.php

[Steve Minkin]

Thanks, Gordon! Had not seen that article. Very interesting! Saw a recent television segment on the Azerbaijan scheme, mentioned in piece, a ploy to move massive sums of money while not building a hotel. But the Panama angle was completely new to me. What a nest of vipers!

So with Stormy Daniels, a departing Secretary of State who has contempt for him, and Mueller's noose starting to tighten, it's reassuring that Our Leader is focused and his mind is still laser sharp, spending today looking at sections of border walls and proposing a new Space Force to protect the Galaxy from undocumented aliens. What mind!

[Steve Minkin]

In keeping with the March Madness spirit, White House officials have begun betting pools on who will be going bye-bye next.

[The G Man]

Should the President meet with Kim Jong-Un?

Let's ask Fox News. They have two definitive answers.

https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/ ... 8714747906

[Steve Minkin]

Should the President meet with Kim Jong-Un?

Let's ask Fox News. They have two definitive answers.

https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/ ... 8714747906

And Bolton and his funny-time mustache may be on their way into McMasters' job.

John Cleese: "The average Trump supporter seems like someone who goes regularly to watch professional wrestling, without having any idea that it's fixed."

[The G Man]

Craigslist job posting:

SEEKING LEAD ATTORNEY FOR DIFFICULT CLIENT (1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW)
© craigslist - Map data © OpenStreetMap
1650 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W

(google map)

compensation: Client is a hugely wealthy man. Hugely successful. Everyone says it.
employment type: contract
Seeking a lead attorney to represent client involved in an ongoing Federal investigation. Must be familiar with laws and procedures around discovery, executive privilege, international financing of licensed real estate, election law and the Logan Act. Working knowledge of social media, especially Twitter is a plus, as is a better than average knowledge of the adult film industry and a collection of Playboy magazines from 1985-2010. Must look the part - Gregory Peck or Tommy Lee Jones type. Prior appearances on Fox News a huge plus.
No fatties.

Must be prepared to work with a client who is very forceful and opinionated about his defense and is his own best counsel.

Basically your job boils down to keeping him from testifying under oath and hoping the rest comes out in the wash.

Ask about our other openings on our staff and submit your resume to be considered for potential openings in the near future. Perhaps the very near future. Like, hit refresh on your browser now. Now again.

[Mo Noyz]

No fatties.