Friday, November 30, 2018

The Beginning Of The End? - Updated




I'm posting this tweet because it echoes my feelings this morning. Big things have happened this week and I'm seeing significantly more chatter about the possibility that Donald doesn't serve out his entire term. Writing at the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin mentions something that has occurred to me, i.e., the possibility that Trump bails and returns to New York rather than release his taxes:

Now, I leave open the possibility that Trump will be run out of office before 2020. (“Your tax returns or the presidency, Mr. President,” House Democrats might say if they get a subpoena for Trump’s documents enforced in federal court.) (Read the column here.) 

 Update: I have to post this one too. Hillary nailed it, eight days before the election. 


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

They're All Liars

From Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo, posted last night at 8.42:

Sometimes it’s worth stepping back and stating the obvious. Over the course of these thirty months of cover-ups, every player in the Trump/Russia story has lied about their role in the conspiracy. And not hedging and spinning fibs but straight up lies about the core nature of their involvement, their overt acts. Most – though here what we know is a bit more tentative – seem to have lied under oath, whether to congressional committees or a grand jury. Not a single one of them told a story that wasn’t eventually contradicted and disproved. Not a single one.

Who? Well, let’s see. Donald Trump, Jr., Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, Donald Trump, Jerome Corsi, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Carter Page, Jared Kushner. These are ones who lied, the ones we can state definitively. I’m not including the marginal players, folks like Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan. I’m not including those who just never spoke at all – at least not in public.

We can now see documentation and confessions that outline some of what has always seemed probable. During the campaign – for roughly the first year of the campaign! – Donald Trump was actively trying to strike business deals in Russia with the help of Vladimir Putin’s government and working closely with members of the Russian intelligence services. Felix Sater was working with all these people. Trump’s deal-maker and Russian money channel handler, Michael Cohen, literally reached out to Putin’s press office and spoke to a member of the staff to enlist the Russian government’s assistance. This was while Trump was already the clear frontrunner for the nomination.

As this was happening, Putin’s intelligence services were stealing emails and documents from various arms of the Democratic party. They were mounting various information operations within the United States. As this was happening a bankrupt and desperate political fixer who’d been working for a Putin loyalist for a decade showed up wanting to work for the campaign for free. That’s Paul Manafort, a longtime business partner of Roger Stone, another member of the conspiracy.

Did they work with Wikileaks? Yes, there was a back channel between Trump and Wikileaks murkily conducted through Roger Stone and Jerome Corsi and likely others – requests for help in one direction, information and assistance in the other.

President Trump has been at war with the Russia investigation from the get-go for an obvious and totally logical reason: the depth of his personal involvement in and knowledge of the conspiracy amounts to a devastating indictment of him and his presidency. It all makes perfect sense. (Nothing to link to, this is the entire post.)
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Just A Few Random Tweets - Updated




















































For now, at least, I'll end with this, from a couple of weeks ago. As far as I can tell, the Vice President is keeping his head down and doing his best to appear loyal in public, but when he's alone with his thoughts at the Naval Observatory... You know he's just slobbering at the possibility that Donald won't make it to January 20, 2021:


Friday afternoon update. I can't resist posting this one:
2nd update, on Saturday afternoon. In his column yesterday, Jonathan Bernstein ponders Donald's weaknesses after the midterm elections and finishes with this:

But it would surprise me if there aren’t quite a few congressional Republicans, and a fair number of party actors, who daydream about having a nice, reliable, normal president again. Perhaps some of them once believed that Mueller’s probe, which has now netted so many guilty pleas and indictments, was a witch hunt. Perhaps they believed Trump’s lawyers that Mueller would surely be wrapping things up by Thanksgiving, or New Year’s at the latest. (Oops — that was Thanksgiving 2017.)

Now, though, they surely understand that the Trump-Russia story and other scandals aren’t going away any time soon. Even in the best-case scenario, they will continue producing stories that Republicans don’t want in the headlines. And at the very worst … well, surely some Republicans are also having nightmares about just how bad the very worst could be.

I’m not predicting anything. Just noting some obvious facts. The incentives for supporting Trump that have held since his election have suddenly become a lot weaker. In mid-July of 1974, President Richard Nixon could still count on virtually every conservative Republican in Congress to oppose his impeachment and removal, even if they weren’t exactly thrilled with him. By early August, he had only a handful of supporters remaining. That’s not to say that Trump’s support will necessarily evaporate — just that if it does, it could happen extremely quickly, perhaps in days. And nice, reliable, normal Mike Pence will be sitting right there.

Like I said. Slobbering. (Is Mike Pence really nice, reliable and normal? That's a blog post for another day.)

Read Bernstein's column here.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Michael Bublé

Issue dated December 10, 2018: Michael Bublé

It's Michael Bublé this week, with Meghan featured in a sidebar, the only item on the Guessing Game list to make the cover, although I've had murderer Chris Watts on the list a couple of times recently. Last year, of course, the big story was Harry and Meghan's engagement:

Issue dated December 11, 2017

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

Christmas At The White House

For all of Melania's background in fashion and her supposed elegance, she sure doesn't have very elegant visual taste. Remember this:





Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Donald Looks Awful - Updated



Christopher Ruddy is the CEO of Newsmax and I disagree with his caption. Donald is almost certainly not in a great mood; in fact he looks as if he's aged 20 years. My bet is that Donald is seriously worried that he's about to see his reputation, his business and his presidency go up in flames. As I've said before, we don't know every illicit, unethical, immoral and illegal thing Donald has done in his 72 years on earth, but he knows, and by now, to some degree or other, Robert Mueller knows. Starting in January, the Democrats are going to start knowing stuff too. Can you imagine what's going on in Donald's head right now?

On a related note, Jonathan Bernstein thinks we may be hearing from another group with unflattering tales to tell about Donald, i.e., former members of Congress, cabinet officials and White House staffers:

What has to be a little scary for the president is that there are an awful lot of Mia Loves around all of a sudden. More than 75 Republican representatives from the 115th Congress won’t be there in the 116th, along with a handful of senators. Trump has lost quite a few White House staffers, cabinet members and other executive-branch officials. It’s a safe bet that very few of these people have warm feelings for the president. Virtually all of those who personally interacted with him will have stories that put him in a bad light, whether it’s his ignorance of public policy, his inclination to do hugely unacceptable things, or his tendency to insult his supporters behind closed doors. We know this because a lot of these folks (and others who are still there) have already proved willing to disclose damaging information about the president, in some cases on the record.

Of course, some of these Formers will keep their mouths shut and quite a few won’t speak openly, whether it’s out of loyalty to the party or concern about their future careers. But one of the striking things about the Trump administration from the beginning has been the willingness of insiders to tell devastating stories about the president despite strong incentives not to do so. All of this turnover creates a growing group with much weaker incentives to keep quiet. (Read the column here.)

Update on Wednesday morning. Trump returns to the White House yesterday after his trip to Mississippi, looking wretched--aging, tired to the point of almost vacant and with a growing double chin. The Carefully Constructed Coiffure is deteriorating too. This picture accompanies a Washington Post article about how Donald's lies are catching up with him, read it here.


photo credit: Alex Wong/Pool/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , ,

Monday, November 26, 2018

Primary The President?, Part 2

In my first "Primary The President" post, on November 16, I quoted Conservative columnist Michael Gerson, who says a Republican must run against Donald in the 2020 primaries. (Read it here.) 

Now political scientist Jonathan Bernstein looks at the possibility of a serious nomination challenge:

It’s true that the last four presidents to be re-elected all dipped below 45 percent approval at some point between the midterms and the presidential election. Ronald Reagan got as low as 35 percent in early 1983 before winning 49 states the next year. The problem for Trump is that there’s no reason to expect his current numbers to improve significantly, and it probably wouldn’t take much for him to return to his 2017 lows.

If that happened, the chances of a serious nomination challenge would increase rapidly. A 40 percent approval rating seems like a rough line dividing incumbents who get renominated by acclamation and those, such as Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, who have to overcome serious threats. Although such a challenge would be unlikely with a president who seemed competitive, it certainly could happen if Trump looked like he was about to get clobbered in a general election and bring the whole party with him. After the midterms, it’s hard to believe many Republicans still think Trump is immune from the normal laws of politics. Nomination challenges don’t cause re-election weakness; it’s the other way around.

Meanwhile, we’re entering a period of real danger for Trump, in which the incentives for elite Republicans to support him will be weaker than they’ve been at any time since he clinched the nomination. If he runs into further trouble in the next six to 10 months, he might find less loyalty from his party than usual, which in turn could push his approval numbers lower and make a serious nomination challenge more likely. Of course, it’s possible that the administration won’t run into any new scandals or otherwise create bad news out of nothing. Possible. But not likely. (Read the article here.) 
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

The Guessing Game - Updated

What will be on the cover of People this week? Just a few guesses:

Joe and Mika: A secret wedding over the weekend, officiated by Representative Elijah Cummings
Harry and Meghan: Moving to Windsor; Tuesday is the anniversary of their engagement announcement
Sean "Diddy" Combs: At the funeral for his former girlfriend
Dwight Howard: Something to do with a man claiming to be Howard's ex-boyfriend. Read about it here
Aaron Sorkin and/or Jeff Daniels: A new version of To Kill A Mockingbird, written specially for the stage by Sorkin and starring Daniels, opens on Broadway in December. Read about it here and here
Oprah: Her mother died on Thanksgiving

Tuesday morning update:
John Allen Chau: The missionary who was killed by members of a remote tribe
Amanda Bynes: Talking about her recovery from addiction
Stephen Hillenburg: The creator of SpongeBob SquarePants has died

Stories that appear on the new cover will be highlighted in green.

Update #2 on Wednesday morning. See the new cover, featuring Michael Bublé, here.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

Saturday, November 24, 2018

A Little Shade From Pete Souza

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Friday, November 23, 2018

A Warm, Loving Thanksgiving Dinner For The Trump Family




Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Thursday, November 22, 2018

This Day In History, 1963: The Kennedys In Fort Worth

From The Death of a President:

In the fatigue of last night and the haste of this morning neither Kennedy had noticed that they were surrounded by a priceless art exhibition. On the walls and tables were a Monet, a Picasso, a Van Gogh, a Prendergast, and twelve other celebrated oil paintings, water colors and bronzes. A catalogue, which had also been overlooked, disclosed that the exhibit was in their honor. "Isn't this sweet, Jack?" [Jackie] said as he hung up [his phone call.] "They've just stripped their whole museum of all their treasures to brighten this dingy hotel suite." He knew it had been for her, and taking the catalogue he said "Let's see who did it." There were several names at the end. The first was Mrs. J. Lee Johnson III. "Why don't we call her?" he suggested. "She must be in the phone book." Thus Ruth Carter Johnson, the wife of a Fort Worth newspaper executive, became the surprised recipient of John Kennedy's last telephone call. The Death of a President, Harper & Row, first Perennial Library edition, 1988, pages 120-121.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

Things That Are Catching My Eye On Thanksgiving - Updated

Image may contain: text







Friday morning update. "Spatchcock" is the word of the day on my Instagram feed:



Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Getting In The Mood For Turkey - Updated With Recipe


Update: Click here for the recipe.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)