The 85th Weak, Sad, and Frightened Don the Con

[JackLuis]

Is Donald Trump just a liar or has he lost his grip on reality?

Did he ever have a grip on reality?

We bring this up in the context of Trump’s latest eye-raising nonsense: His tweet suggesting that his infamous interview with NBC’s Lester Holt was somehow manipulated to make it appear that he had stupidly blurted out a confession that he’d fired former FBI Director James Comey to put an end to the Russia investigation.

This followed an earlier tweet in which Trump claimed that Google had a team of Antifa elves, maybe, sifting through news stories and demoting those that said nice things about Trump.

Most observers see this stuff as an example of the Big Lie technique, and that may be correct. Virtually every word out of Trump’s mouth is a lie, and always has been, yet his base continues to believe that he’s the sole arbiter of truth. It hasn’t hurt him with Congressional Republicans, in part because they know their constituents like Trump more than them, or their party. So he just offers up an endless stream of happy bullshit, and this claim about the Holt interview is just one more example.

 

[JackLuis]

Trump says Canada not needed in NAFTA deal, warns Congress not to interfere

No worries Don, Congress is not going to do anything, but whine.

 

[JackLuis]

Trump’s allies are fleeing as he increasingly ‘acts like he is cornered’

“Tensions with staff run high as ever,” Axios’ Mike Allen explained. “He has never been close to many of his top staffers, and this is more true than ever.”

Trump’s “allies are buckling” as longtime attorney and fixer Michael Cohen, National Enquirer publisher David Pecker and Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg are all cooperating with investigators

The report noted New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman reported on the dynamic as, “his aides say he is behaving as if he is cornered.”

He thinks he's a Honey Badger, but he's just a rabid chipmunk.

 

[JackLuis]

Chief Wingnut Jeanine Pirro sez"

Fox News host Jeanine Pirro brutally shames Jeff Sessions for refusing to quit: ‘Where is your dignity? You’re not wanted’

Trump hasn't the Balls to fire Sessions, so he has his minions attack. Ankle Biters are very annoying.

“What do’t you get? Have you have no self-esteem, no self-regard, self respect?” she said. “Where is your dignity? Why would you stay in a job where you’re not wanted? A job you took under false pretenses, knowing you wouldn’t be able to do the whole job?”

Pirro said Sessions “groveled and begged” Trump for the job and was given it out of pity. She derided his service in the Senate, saying he did “basically nothing” and “did not deserve to be Attorney General.”

Pirro then said that the Russian collusion investigation is “over” and that the “unhinged conspiracy theory is dead.”

Pirro then warned Sessions that Trump would come for him.

“Can’t you see the damage to this country by this fraudulent investigation that you breathed life into by allowing them to run amok,” Pirro said. “This country is being torn apart.”

Pirro then appeared to threaten Sessions.

“If you and your pals think you’re getting to the president, think again. This president can take the shots, he’s done it his whole life,” she said. “Never underestimate him or his powers.”

Ooooo! Orange Lighting, perhaps?

 

[JackLuis]

Dr. Howard Dean explains Trump’s ‘narcissism’ during McCain’s funeral: ‘The president is mentally ill’

You're the Doctor, Howard.

Dr. Howard Dean, a former Vermont governor and physician, asserted on Sunday that President Donald Trump has a mental illness that makes him unfit for the presidency.

As part of a panel discussion on MSNBC, host Alex Witt noted that Trump had effectively been isolated during Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) funeral because he was not invited to attend the event.

“Trump has been an outlier since he’s been president and he’s not a particularly well respected person,” Dean explained. “He wasn’t very well respected when he was in business in New York and he’s not very well respected now.”

“What you had was what I think was an extraordinary tribute to John McCain,” Dean pointed out. “He basically rallied the decent people in this country, Republicans and Democrats, to make a statement about America being a decent country and not being represented by the president who is not a decent person.”

“We’ve seen that before with the president not being there, tweeting,” Witt observed. “He did it for First Lady Barbara Bush’s funeral. Howard, is this him saying, this is working for me, this is the way I’m going to go about it?”

“I’ve long believed the president is mentally ill,” Dean replied, “and I believe narcissism overcomes his ability to know, A, what’s good for the country, and B, what’s good for him.”

 

[JackLuis]

Trump attacks Jeff Sessions for not forcing the Justice Department to ignore Republican crimes

The president was apparently referring to Congressmen Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and Chris Collins (R-NY). Hunter was charged with illegally using campaign funds to pay personal expenses while Collins was charged with taking part in an insider trading scheme.

“….The Democrats, none of whom voted for Jeff Sessions, must love him now. Same thing with Lyin’ James Comey. The Dems all hated him, wanted him out, thought he was disgusting – UNTIL I FIRED HIM! Immediately he became a wonderful man, a saint like figure in fact. Really sick!” Trump added in another tweet.

Misappropriation of campaign funds is a 'perk' of incumbents, every Rethuglican knows that!

 

[JackLuis]

‘He has no poker face’: CNN panel mocks Trump’s panicky tweets as ‘the walls are closing in’

MSNBC guest mocks Trump: It’s exhausting to pretend like he knows what he’s talking about

“My god, he’s so exhausting and tiring,” remarked Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post. “The idea that we have to pretend like he knows what he’s talking about, that he has any — that there is any real authority behind anything that he’s saying about this friend, about Jim. Why not just say, this is what I think.”

MSNBC host wonders if Trump ‘has any lawyers left’ after his latest obstruction tweet

 

[JackLuis]

Trump’s staff staged a ‘coup’ to stop him from destroying nation: Woodward

In the upcoming book, Fear: Trump in the White House, several former staffers admit to having stolen documents off Trump’s desk before he could see them and make tragic errors.

In one case, an aide swiped a letter that would have withdrawn the U.S. from a trade agreement with South Korea that affects our ability to monitor North Korean nukes.

“I stole it off his desk,” former chief economic adviser Gary Cohn said, according to the report. “I wouldn’t let him see it. He’s never going to see that document. Got to protect the country.”

Former staff secretary Rob Porter said he also stole documents off the Resolute desk.

“A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really dangerous ideas that he had and try to give him reasons to believe that maybe they weren’t such good ideas,” Porter reportedly said.

Woodward doesn’t mince words on the actions, calling them, “no less than an administrative coup d’état.”

Bob has a new book. How will Don the Demented react to Woodward's reporting? I almost bought Omerosa's book at Costco, but $14.95! I'll wait for it to be remanded.

 

[JackLuis]

Rudy Giuliani On White House Blocking Release Of Full Mueller Report: ‘I’m Sure We Will’

Giuliani’s startling admission was tucked inside an expansive New Yorker profile of the former New York City mayor and Trump attorney, published online Monday.

Giuliani, who like the president has repeatedly described the Russia probe as a “witch hunt,” told journalist Jeffrey Toobin that Trump’s original legal team had struck a deal with Mueller about his expected final report that would allow the White House to “object to the public disclosure of information that might be covered by executive privilege.”

“I asked Giuliani if he thought the White House would raise objections,” wrote Toobin in the profile.

“I’m sure we will,” Giuliani responded, noting that it would be the president who “would make the final call.”

Giuliani, whom Trump hired in April amid a change in the president’s legal representation in the special counsel probe, said that his team was preparing a lengthy report which they planned to release at the same time as Mueller’s to “refute its expected findings.”

"Trump Fuckery!"

 

[JackLuis]

Save your Money, Wonkette summerizes the New Woodward Book.

The 445,672 Most HOLY FUCKING BATSHIT Moments In Bob Woodward's New Trump Book (SO FAR!)

 

[JackLuis]

Woodward has Trumpikins in a panic then, The Grey Lady pounces!

I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration

I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.

"Treason" tweeted the Donald!

 

[JackLuis]

This word from the anonymous New York Times op-ed may prove Mike Pence wrote it

As the media world (and the White House) scrambles to figure out the identity of the anonymous senior Trump administration official who wrote a scathing New York Times op-ed rebuking the president, one producer thinks he may have figured it out.

Panoply audio producer Dan Bloom tweeted that the use of the word “lodestar” to laud the late John McCain not only ruled out people like Stephen Miller — it also stuck out because he’d heard it before.

He then ran across the word in a speech Vice President Mike Pence made to the United Nations in 2017, saying that the NGO “must again be our lodestar, our ideal, and our aspiration.”

The term came up again two months later at a dinner, Bloom noted.

Pence used it again in February 2018, the producer wrote — but he also was documented using it in 2011 as well.

In subsequent tweets, Bloom noted that it couldn’t simply be attributed to Pence’s speechwriter Stephen Ford because he began working for the vice president in 2001, but the first usage that anyone had found was in 2001.

Mikey and the 25th?

Rave on Donald!

‘Call your palace Saddam’: Internet can’t stop laughing at Trump’s New York Times op-ed meltdown

 

[NickStJohn]

/////

 

[sharingfantasies]

This word from the anonymous New York Times op-ed may prove Mike Pence wrote it



Mikey and the 25th?

Rave on Donald!

‘Call your palace Saddam’: Internet can’t stop laughing at Trump’s New York Times op-ed meltdown

I wouldn't put it past him, Pence is one evil, devious person. But as much as I can't stand Trump, Pence is way, way worse. I would rather Trump survive the four years and we vote him out, then end up with Pence for any period of time.

 

[JackLuis]

But, How deep is the state that Don stepped in?

If Mike 25ths Don, and Sessions signed on too, well that could cause some backlash, even after the election. A Lame Duck Congress and a Christian Usurper for Christmas!

Oh the Drama! Reality TV, Alive!

 

[magicalmoments]

Trump claims Woodward's book is full of lies and untruths.

Trump wants Congress to amend the libel laws so that he can sue woodward.

So... are the current libel laws in the USA such that you can't sue people who tell lies about you?

 

[JackLuis]

Watch Jimmy Kimmel hilariously pile on Mike Pence as the supposed writer of the NYT anonymous op-ed

Calling the publishing on the anonymous New York Times op-ed criticizing President Donald Trump by a White House insider “remarkable,” ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel jumped on the “Mike Pence wrote it” train on Wednesday night.

Kimmel began by sharing expensive excerpts from the extraordinary criticism of the president of a person who claims to be part of the “resistance” undermining Trump.

Appearing both amused and stunned, Kimmel quipped, “I have to say, I’m surprised by how good of a writer Ivanka Trump is.”

Like many, Kimmel focused on the use of the word “lodestar” in the op-ed, saying: “That is not a common word, lodestar, not a lot of people use that word. But you know who does use that word? This guy.”

With that Kimmel showed Vice President Mike Pence using it multiple speeches and interviews.

 

[JackLuis]

Cory Booker leaks!


Kavanaugh hearing starts in chaos as Cory Booker infuriates GOP by daring them to punish him for leaking documents

Democratic Sen. Cory Booker (NJ) said Thursday that he would “knowingly violating the rules” of the Senate and release “committee confidential” documents about Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

When questioning Kavanaugh on Wednesday, Booker had quoted a 2002 email that he said showed Kavanaugh considered using racial profiling after 9/11. During the Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday, he threatened to release it to the public.

But, but his e-mails!

 

[JackLuis]

Kamla Harris, "Kava-Nope!"

WHAT THE HELL DOES KAMALA HARRIS KNOW ABOUT BRETT KAVANAUGH?

 

[sharingfantasies]

Watch Jimmy Kimmel hilariously pile on Mike Pence as the supposed writer of the NYT anonymous op-ed

The thing that bothers me about all this is that I don't understand the reasoning behind it.

1) Was it someone that wanted to create an explosion for the press so that something else can be done while everyone is focused on this? That seems to be typical of this administration.

2) Was it someone that truly felt they were telling us something we didn't already know? Someone who wants to feel important but not lose their job? We have been hearing about this kind of stuff all year.

3) Telling the world that a small group of people were trying to keep the President from doing things seems like it should bring some hope to the rest of the world, but by telling the world it brings those efforts to Trump's attention and so it will be harder for them to try to control things. What good does that do?

4) Someone thinks that doing this before the elections will make people vote differently?

5) Pence did this because he is tired of dealing with Trump and figures this will speed up the process for impeachment so he can have the job? If chaos in the White House was a reason for impeachment, then it would have happened a long time ago.

In reality, this whole thing make no sense at all. It just outs those people that were trying to make things work better, if, they were. Maybe the entire thing was just made up. Who knows?

 

[JackLuis]

What if Trump had Pence, and his writers, gin this up to deflect the fallout from Woodward's book?

How loyal is the cabinet to the Donald, now that the tax and courts are fixed?

What recourse does the Donald have if Mike 25ths his ass?

 

[KeithD]

The thing that bothers me about all this is that I don't understand the reasoning behind it.

1) Was it someone that wanted to create an explosion for the press so that something else can be done while everyone is focused on this? That seems to be typical of this administration.

2) Was it someone that truly felt they were telling us something we didn't already know? Someone who wants to feel important but not lose their job? We have been hearing about this kind of stuff all year.

3) Telling the world that a small group of people were trying to keep the President from doing things seems like it should bring some hope to the rest of the world, but by telling the world it brings those efforts to Trump's attention and so it will be harder for them to try to control things. What good does that do?

4) Someone thinks that doing this before the elections will make people vote differently?

5) Pence did this because he is tired of dealing with Trump and figures this will speed up the process for impeachment so he can have the job? If chaos in the White House was a reason for impeachment, then it would have happened a long time ago.

In reality, this whole thing make no sense at all. It just outs those people that were trying to make things work better, if, they were. Maybe the entire thing was just made up. Who knows?

I think it was someone who was chaffing from what is in the Woodward book combined with the example McCain was making with his death on profiles in courage in taking a stand against Trump. The only person named in the OpEd was McCain. I think it's someone feeling guilty about staying in the administration and convoluted about not taking a public stand against Trump and, to a certain extent, trying to rationalize taking a "protecting the nation" role within the administration and covering his/her ass for the decision to stay and smoothing the edges around Trump but still basically promoting most of the policies of the administration. I think it was a personal friend of McCain who feels the sting of McCain using his demise to do what's right for a government servant to do at the crucial point (not that McCain didn't do some damage himself when he was fully functioning).

That's why I think it may be Dan Coats, who occupies a key role in protecting national security and who was a close friend of McCain's when he was a senator.

 

[JackLuis]

It's "Pin the Tail on the Dumbass" Friday!

Morning Joe pins NYT op-ed on Kellyanne Conway: She wants a TV job — and she’s trying to take down Pence

A tangled web for sure!

Analyst John Heilemann pointed to a column by Esquire‘s Charles Pierce, whose wife noticed some telling details in the extraordinary op-ed.

“Credit where credit is due,” Heilemann said. “Charlie Pierce on Esquire.com yesterday, he suggested his wife, who is probably very perspicacious, she detected a feminine tone in the op-ed, and she suggested it was Kellyanne Conway, and I had not even contemplated that.”

Heilemann said he had first suspected Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, but found himself persuaded by the theory laid out by Pierce.

“The more you think about it, the more Kellyanne Conway makes some sense,” Heilemann said. “She’s very cagey, she’s the kind of person who would find out that Mike Pence used the word ‘lodestar’ a lot and put it in to try to pin it on Mike Pence.”

 

[JackLuis]

"O, O,Obama!"

Barack Obama blasted President Donald Trump and the Republican Party as hypocrites and radicals in a scathing speech at the University of Illinois.

The former president condemned his successor and the GOP for obsessively undoing his accomplishments and upending the international order, all while stoking fear and prejudice.

These are nine of Obama’s most withering attacks.

8. “The politics of division and resentment and paranoia has unfortunately found a home in the Republican Party. This Congress has championed unwinding of campaign laws to give billionaires outside influence over our politics. Systematically attacked voting rights to make it harder for young, minorities and the poor to vote. Handed out tax cuts without regard to the deficit, slashed the safety net wherever it could. Cast dozens of votes to take away health insurance from ordinary Americans. Embraced wild conspiracy theories like those surrounding Benghazi or my birth certificate, rejected science, rejected facts on things like climate change, embraced a rising absolutism, from a willingness to default on America’s debt by not paying bills, to a refusal to even meet, much less consider, a qualified nominee for the Supreme Court because he happened to be nominated by a Democratic president. None of this is conservative.”

9. “We have the chance to restore some semblance of sanity to our politics.”

Blue Wave, Blue Wave!

 

[JackLuis]

Open Letter to Times Op-ed Writer: Go Public Now, Before They Bust You

Dear Deep State Throat:

You need to run. Run fast. Run now.

First, I’m sure you can hear the national golf clap for your op-ed in The New York Times. Some people think you’re a hero. Some people (particularly a certain orange, rage-tweeting resident of the West Wing Inpatient Mental Health Care Facility) consider you a traitor of the first order.

Now, take a deep breath, because here comes the hard part. You’re going to have to go public. You’re going to have to burn it down to save yourself. You’re thinking, “I’ll never work in this town again,” and you’re probably right.

The only path is to get into the daylight as fast as you can, not like Omarosa, but as a true whistleblower and patriot. Your only value now is in pulling down the entire system. First movers in the collapse of this White House get a book deal. The future of the tenth asshole who escapes this White House who says, "I saw all this crazy, terrible, illegal, dangerous stuff and still tried to help" is exactly zero. Here’s their future: “Welcome to Arby’s.”

No one in this White House will help you. No one there can help you, even if the lower-level staff is cutely sending “sleeper agent” texts to one another. The edifice is crumbling, the King is mad, and no amount of tweeting, no redneck rally in East Asscrack, Arkansas, no Fox filibuster will save it.