Former President Donald J. Trump

[Thang-y]

Being a lying no-backdown bully got him the presidency. It's a winning formula for him.

And he's still president.

[PresMuffley]

I certainly never bought into the idea that he really didn't want to be pres., but even if he was afraid of the challenge, the prestige the title has awarded him has most obviously driven his laughably large ego into overdrive. In my mind he will undoubtedly go down with the ship. I only hope he doesn't take too many of us with him along the way.

[Diamond Dog]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 87641.html


Trump to declare Jerusalem capital of Israel next week.

[Thang-y]

Christ

It used to amaze and to vaguely amuse me that Trump still had it in him to shock me, but enough al-fucking-ready

[sloopjohnc]

And that “build that wall” tweet after the Kate Stein verdict. Homey appears to be doubling down on the racist horseshit.

It's Steinle, but no big whup.

The jury was sequestered for days considering the evidence. I don't know if he considered that the defense may have just done a better job than the prosecution. Here's a quote from Steinle's brother today in SF Chronicle.

In Brad’s view, those official actions were at least as responsible as the shooter for Kate’s death.

“This trial, for me, is kind of the least important part of the puzzle,” the brother said. “The sequence of events that led up to this — and the fact that nothing has changed — is the most disheartening thing. It’s like Siegfried and Roy: You stick your head in a tiger’s mouth and you’re probably going to get bit at some point.”

I think the biggest problem is agencies didn't communicate. SF Sheriff, Ross Mirikami, didn't tell notify federal agencies about Garcia Zarate's release. I understand the concept of sanctuary cities, but I do think there has to be some reasonableness depending on individual cases. This procedure has been cleaned up by the SF Board of Supervisors and the Co. Sheriff.

I think the killer was high as a kite, was on the embarcadero with a stolen gun, and just fired it because he was high.

[toomanyhatz]

Some rather frightening food for thought:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... mic-crisis

[Belle Lettre]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-jerusalem-israel-capital-when-day-latest-announcement-wednesday-a8087641.html


Trump to declare Jerusalem capital of Israel next week.

That should please the hasbara

[Sneelock]

Public Citizen has a pretty startling report detailing how strong a hand the Koch brothers seem to have on his administration.
https://www.citizen.org/sites/default/f ... n-koch.pdf

I think it makes a very strong case that these guys pretty much set the agenda in Washington right now.
just this morning I heard a segment about the Admin. suggesting National Monuments in Utah be cut back by 85%!

[sloopjohnc]

Some rather frightening food for thought:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... mic-crisis

That's largely what I think is going to happen, unfortunately.

[Sneelock]

I think the reasoning is pretty sound. These guys are smart and know how to use social media. They know how easily manipulated Low information Voters are & how something can hit the zeitgeist & have an effect well before it’s proven to be a stunt.

It’s scary.

[sloopjohnc]

Recent tweets by Republican strategist, Steve Schmidt:

When GOP Senators vote for this Tax bill and pay for it with almost 2 trillion in new debt on the national credit card it means that everything everyone of them has ever said about spending was simply performance theater. Plus for millions of Americans it's a tax HIKE

The United States Senate has gone completely off the rails. Lobbyists are writing the bill in secret and duly elected Democratic US Senators have no idea what's in it. The corruption of what used to be the worlds greatest deliberative body is a tragedy.

[Sneelock]

It’s no wonder they want this done by Xmas. If i’m Understanding correctly, it seems to me that a great chunk of what the Super-Rich spend their money on is going to be tax deductible....forever.

No wonder TRUMP is wigging out. They need to make hay BEFORE the sun shines.

[sloopjohnc]

It’s no wonder they want this done by Xmas. If i’m Understanding correctly, it seems to me that a great chunk of what the Super-Rich spend their money on is going to be tax deductible....forever.

No wonder TRUMP is wigging out. They need to make hay BEFORE the sun shines.

I tried to find an interesting chart they put up in MSNBC this morning contrasting the Reagan budget vs. the Trump budget.

They considered and there were tons of hearings on the bi-partisan Reagan bill. They did that for one day on the current one. It does have to go back to the House before it goes back to senate, so we shall see. I'm not crossing my fingers.

[Thang-y]

A lesser, unshocking matter, latest Trump/Republican efforts:

Until now, your income that paid for public schools (via state & local taxes) wasn’t taxed by the federal government. GOP bill ends that. Instead, they’re now creating a tax break for *private* school tuition.

[Snarfyguy]

I guess I am frustrated by how we are still not over the Russia thing, how readily we are still, after more than a year of this ridiculousness, still supposed to accept the joke's punchline because of course Putin lied to Trump. Putin lies about everything. Russia is a country filled with troll farms, its raison d'etre is to meddle, to fuck with our democracy, to sew dissension. Take the easy, unassuming, un-skeptical way Colbert and Bill Maher (I count them as media) still use Russia as a punchline. Of course Russia has spies but time after time I have shown you much counter-evidence, shadows of doubt in case after case how the meddling case is bogus. Bots, stolen emails, even Trump associates visiting Russia, so far Meuller has shown you nothing. When he does it will probably be just as easy to debunk. You fail to see that this has all the hallmarks of a a hoax, a disinformation campaign morphed into a witch hunt perpetrated by our intelligence agents. This is an American op played on Americans it's purpose being a dangerous geopolitical war move preparing you for the soon to come war with Russia. Your minds will be primed and ready to fight. Think aluminum tubes. They pushed that lie down your throat to make you hate Saaddam and now they have you hating Putin. That Obama and Hillary and co. did similar shit with Russia should tell you that dealing with Russia - up until after HRC's loss - was business as usual. Snarf's joke is not funny because at it's root is war.

Jimbo: now that there are indisputable facts demonstrating that there was collusion at high levels in the Trump transition team, would you like to amend any of this? (You seem to have been quiet here lately.)

Generally: I note Trump attorney Sekulow appears now to concede that there was collusion, but that it doesn't matter because it wasn't unlawful. Way to move those goalposts, team!

“For something to be a crime, there has to be a statute that you claim is being violated,” Jay Sekulow said in an article published in the December issue of the magazine. “There is not a statute that refers to criminal collusion. There is no crime of collusion.”

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ot-a-crime

[BARON CORNY DOG]

By the by, I didn’t read as much as I wanted this weekend, but this is predictably cogent and reasonable ...

https://www.lawfareblog.com/flynn-plea- ... y-analysis

Toobin has something up in the New Yorker I haven’t read yet. As most of you know, I’ve come to view him as a bit of a hack, but you can bet your boots I’m gonna check it out ...

[Jimbo]

Generally: I note Trump attorney Sekulow appears now to concede that there was collusion, but that it doesn't matter because it wasn't unlawful. Way to move those goalposts, team!

“For something to be a crime, there has to be a statute that you claim is being violated,” Jay Sekulow said in an article published in the December issue of the magazine. “There is not a statute that refers to criminal collusion. There is no crime of collusion.”

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ot-a-crime

According to your Hill article Trump's lawyer did not say collusion is unlawful he says collusion is not a crime. If you interpret that as some kind of tacit admission to collusion then fine, what is your meaning of collusion, especially in the original sense in this case that Trump and Putin colluded - conspired - to rig the election in Trump's favor?

Since he is unmentioned by you I am assuming you are talking about Flynn's admission to lying to the FBI which is, according to what I've read, another nothingburger, especially in the case of Trump/Putin/Russia/Election/emails/Wikileaks, etc. Did Flynn talk to the the Russian ambassador before inauguration Day? Looks that way and it is about having or not having that talk that Flynn supposedly lied. But I've read that former transition teams have talked to ambassadors as well. More importantly what did Flynn and Kysliak talk about? Apparently it was a deal that Russia go easy on Israel in the UN re some vote and if so Trump (via Flynn) assured Kysliak they'd take it easy on Obama's sanctions. And if that arrangement was to thank Russia for helping with the election, well, Russia voted against Israel in that vote. (Thanks Vlad … not.) Now, there was also some Turkey connected crime, some collusion between Flynn and Turkish officials about proposing kidnapping Gulan back to Turkey for which Flynn also may be in trouble. That too has nothing to do with the election.

I don't know if you posted to say "Aha!" If so, I say, sorry, Charlie, no tuna just yet.

PS I skimmed the Baron's Toobin article and it pretty much says what I just said. There's smoke but apparently it isn't from the colluding with Russia to steal the election fire.

PS 2 I think I may have raised an interesting point noting that this supposed "collusion" is just "conspiracy" with a name change, especially if "collusion" is not a crime but "conspiracy" is! So far all the HRC supporters in the media I watch use the word "collusion." Are they afraid to say "conspiracy" because they don't want to be called "conspiracy theorists?" They're all right, boys, they're only collusion theorists.

[Sneelock]

TRUMP tweeted that he fired Flynn for lying to the F.B.I.
That opens a whole can of worms. Comey’s notes say TRUMP told him to lay off Flynn. Now he’s calling Comey a liar.

Sure, people are scattering to cover for him like always but he just hung himself with his own belt.
The only thing that keeps this from blowing up in his face is the fact that most Americans are accustomed to The President of the United States talking out of his ass.

[Diamond Dog]

The only thing that keeps this from blowing up in his face is the fact that most Americans BCB'ers are accustomed to The President of the United States Jimbo talking out of his ass.

[copehead]

TRUMP tweeted that he fired Flynn for lying to the F.B.I.
That opens a whole can of worms. Comey’s notes say TRUMP told him to lay off Comey. Now he’s calling Comey a liar.

Sure, people are scattering to cover for him like always but he just hung himself with his own belt.
The only thing that keeps this from blowing up in his face is the fact that most Americans are accustomed to The President of the United States talking out of his ass.

Now his legal council has said he drafted that one individual semi literate tweet

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/04/doesnt-make-sense-incredulity-trumps-lawyer-john-dowd-take-blame-for-flynn-tweet

A lawyer who can't use the verb to plead in the past tense correctly

They can't even lie at the level of a 5 year old

But as many have said what will do for Trump is he is too stupid to run a conspiracy at this level, and that is before his years of Russian mafia money laundering comes out