Corey Lewandowski could join the White House “as early as next week” in Trump war room to combat Russia scandal. https://t.co/b1fmF9invO pic.twitter.com/jsKFJHsKkb
— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) May 27, 2017
When in trouble, bring in an old Washington hand who knows about Russia, the law, and how DC works.
Or, Corey. That's another way to go. https://t.co/2tEE0FQqJs— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 27, 2017
You can see why no competent people would want to join the current White House team: They know they won’t get paid, they won’t get credit (not even Johnny-Cochrane-post-OJ-style credit), and they’d have to deal with some of the most unpleasant and incompetent individuals currently not under court-mandated supervision. Not to mention, even the enthusiastic brigands might not meet Lord Smallgloves’ highly egocentric standards. But, jeez, Lewandowski again?
Jason Zengerle’s GQ profile actually came online early in May, before the latest bouts of Russiagate revelations. That makes the whole thing even more darkly comic, IMO:
… As unlikely a presidential candidate as Trump was 30 months ago, Lewandowski was an even more implausible pick to manage a presidential campaign. His experience in politics had been far from exemplary. When he hadn’t been failing in his own political ambitions—he managed just 143 votes in an unsuccessful attempt to secure the Republican nomination for a Massachusetts House of Representatives seat in 1994 and lost a race for the treasurer of his New Hampshire town 18 years later—he was coming up short on behalf of other politicians. Lewandowski had a stint working on Capitol Hill for an Ohio Congressman who’d later resign in scandal and serve 17 months in prison, and he managed the dismal reelection campaign of U.S. Senator Bob Smith of New Hampshire, who was the rare incumbent to lose a party primary. He eventually washed up at the New England Seafood Producers Association. For years, his closest brush with the big leagues of GOP politics came via his side-gig duties as a marine patrol officer on Lake Winnipesaukee, where Mitt Romney and his clan vacation. “He wasn’t even considered a B-teamer,” says one prominent Republican strategist, who first encountered Lewandowski on Smith’s campaign. “He was like a C- or D-level political operative.”
To the extent Lewandowski was thought of at all in broader political circles, it was because of his work for Americans for Prosperity, a group funded largely by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, which in 2008 hired Lewandowski to serve as its New Hampshire state director. (“The Koch operation is the island of misfit toys,” explains the prominent Republican strategist.) It was propitious timing. Riding the Tea Party wave in 2010, AFP helped Republicans take back the New Hampshire legislature and the state’s two seats in the U.S. House. Lewandowski created his own momentum, as well. Noticeable for the fact that he was invariably wearing a suit—a rarity in New Hampshire politics—Lewandowski became famous for “debating” a life-size cardboard cutout of the state’s Democratic governor at political rallies. “It got attention,” says Greg Moore, a New Hampshire conservative activist who succeeded Lewandowski as AFP state director. “You have to have someone who’s out there and leading the charge, and Corey certainly was that.” After the 2010 triumph, Lewandowski was promoted inside AFP to a regional director.
But according to multiple sources, Lewandowski ultimately ran into trouble at AFP. One former Koch adviser says it was because of spending and management issues—including an incident in which Lewandowski threatened to “blow up” the car of AFP’s chief financial officer because of a late reimbursement check. (Lewandowski has denied making this threat.) A GOP political operative says the Kochs were embarrassed when AFP was accused of voter-suppression tactics after its North Carolina chapter, which Lewandowski oversaw, sent a mailer to voters there with incorrect voter-registration information. Another former Koch adviser says Lewandowski was simply one of many AFP apparatchiks whose heads were put on the chopping block after the group spent hundreds of millions of dollars in 2012 and Republicans failed to win back the White House or the Senate. Whatever the reason, these sources say, by the time Lewandowski met with Trump at the beginning of 2015, he had fallen out of favor at AFP.
But Trump, according to people close to him, did not realize that. Indeed, when he offered Lewandowski the job of campaign manager, he believed he was poaching one of the Koch Brothers’ top talents. “Trump thought he was getting somebody who left the Kochs to go work for him,” says Sam Nunberg, an adviser to Trump at the time who later clashed with Lewandowski. “He thought he was getting the Kochs’ shiny trophy, when he was really getting their dog shit.”
And yet, in some ways, Lewandowski was the perfect campaign manager for Trump—at least at the beginning. “Five of us, that was the whole team,” he’s recalled wistfully. “You could have put ’em in a minivan.” Unburdened by any previous national campaign experience, and eager for his new boss’s approval, Lewandowski didn’t try to force the candidate into a conventional box. Instead, his mantra was “Let Trump be Trump”—which turned out to be a singularly important insight, a strategic directive that ultimately propelled Trump to the White House. “Mr. Trump’s gut instinct is better than anyone I’ve ever seen,” Lewandowski told me.While Lewandowski’s critics were quick to point out that his duties for Trump were less those of a traditional campaign manager than of an “advance man”—the political worker bee who ensures the rallies have the right number of flags—that particular job, given the nature of Trump and his campaign, was a crucial one. If Trump decided on the spur of the moment that he wanted to go campaign Philadelphia, Lewandowski would find the biggest arena; if an aide played the wrong walk-on music for Trump—like a live version of Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” instead of the studio one—Lewandowski made sure the mistake never happened again. “Trump really pays attention to how his rallies work,” says one reporter who covered his campaign from its inception. “Corey was very good at making sure the thing that mattered most to the candidate, and at that point the campaign, were top-notch.”
The problem was that, as the campaign progressed, Lewandowski didn’t grow along with it. “You’re looking at a guy who not only didn’t understand strategy,” says a Republican political consultant who worked with Lewandowski on the Trump campaign, “he didn’t have a clue what a tactic was.” Even worse, Lewandowski resented those who did—and he became increasingly preoccupied with, and paranoid about, the people who were joining the campaign and turning the Trump minivan into a bandwagon…
His fate was apparently sealed when Lewandowski ran afoul of Jared Kushner. According to multiple sources, Lewandowski was discovered not only shopping damaging stories about Trump’s son-in-law to reporters, but also trying to keep Kushner from talking to higher-ups at the RNC. On a Sunday in mid-June—Father’s Day, in fact—Ivanka Trump reportedly insisted to her dad that he get rid of Lewandowski. The next day, Lewandowski arrived at Trump Tower at six in the morning, as he typically did, and conducted his usual series of conference calls; at 9:30, he was summoned into an office, where Trump’s two sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, as well as a family attorney, were waiting for him. They told him he was being terminated from the campaign. “What am I being fired for?” Lewandowski asked. “We won!” Security guards then escorted him from Trump Tower and he walked out, alone, onto Fifth Avenue.
But Lewandowski had the good sense not to burn his bridges. That afternoon, he appeared on CNN (in what would turn out to be a job audition of sorts) to sing Trump’s praises. “Corey recognized it was an honor, it was a gift, and it was time to hand off the torch,” says Bryan Lanza, a Lewandowski friend who also worked on Trump’s campaign. “Corey’s a professional.”…
So Trump is bringing in the guy that Kushner fired to run a War Room to respond to an investigation into Kushner. Quite a plan https://t.co/rRJmgXYNr7
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) May 27, 2017
Lewandowski was fired from the campaign after assaulting a reporter and left lobbying firm amid accusations he was selling access to POTUS. https://t.co/CuxNzpJPdk
— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) May 27, 2017
Morzer
I knew there was something fishy about him.
Gin & Tonic
Maybe now CNN will remove him from their payroll?
Corner Stone
He was not fired after assaulting a reporter. He assaulted a reporter and was also fired but the two most likely have nothing to do with one another.
SiubhanDuinne
This is just so hinky, any way you look at it.
Corner Stone
“Tell me, Ivanka. Do you love your husband?”
/Lewandowski
SFAW
@Gin & Tonic:
My my my, aren’t WE the optimistic/naive sort?
They’ll up his salary, as long as he guarantees more access to Shitgibbon.
Morzer
Jared: The Trump lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can’t. Not without your help. But you’re not helping.
Lewandowski: What do you mean, I’m not helping?
SFAW
@Morzer:
Wait a second — when did McConnell become part of this?
Gelfling 545
Well, it’s not like the Trump regime has its choice of the brightest and the best so they can’t be too choosy. Lewandowski needed the job so can’t be choosy. Perfect match.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Gin & Tonic: Nah.
Corner Stone
Call me crazy, but I have the absolute best feeling about this.
NotMax
Rotten to the Corey.
Adam L Silverman
Letting Trump be Trump is not going to help this situation. The problem is the President. It doesn’t matter who you put around him. Who you hire. As long as the President is allowed to be Trump the current dynamic will continue to exist and continue to get worse.
Keith P.
Chris Christie is laaauuuughing his ass off right about now.
tobie
You would think that Lewandowski was just a gal Friday, arranging things like the appropriate number of flags on stage, if he weren’t such a thug. Thanks, CNN, for keeping this jerk’s career alive.
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman:
Optimistic tonight. That’s good.
dmsilev
@Corner Stone: The phrase ‘root for injuries’ comes to mind. Also ‘no honor among thieves’.
Morzer
@dmsilev:
Sadly, there is a hope among hicks.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Pulling the wagons into a circle.
On quicksand.
FlipYrWhig
@Keith P.: He’s gonna need a bigger laugh.
Jeffro
I’m far less concerned about Lewandowski, and more so by the fact that the CINC is a fucking moron: read between the lines here
How Trumpov Consumes (or does not consume) Top-Secret Intelligence
Jesus, this know-nothing blowhard…parse these couple of lines…
It actually gets worse…
Here, let me translate that shit: “General, I’m in way, way over my head on the most basic of world events…feed me my lines, break it down, yes or no, CAN’T. A. GUY. JUST. GET. A. ONE-PICTURE, ONE-WORD. BRIEFING HERE?!?”
Killer finish:
Yes…that’s IT! He’s a technical blueprint reader…why would we fuzz things up with all those words?
“Dancing through life..
Skimming the surface
Gliding where turf is smooth
Life’s more painless
For the brainless
Why think too hard
When it’s so soothing?
Dancing through life
No need to tough it
When you can slough it off as I do
Nothing matters
But knowing nothing matters
It’s just life
So keep dancing through…”
Corner Stone
If I am J Kush. Aren’t you looking side eye at Trump and wondering just how far he’s going to cut you loose at this point? I’m supposed to go into battle with Corey? When my freedom is literally on the line?
Man, dial 1-800-SNITCHS my man. Post haste.
rikyrah
I am watching Still Star-Crossed ?
Jeffro
@Corner Stone:
LOL
Kushner out, Lewandowski in? What could go wrong? Or as the kids say, “Hold my beer…”
p.a.
Can this government of stooges, by stooges, for stooges survive 40% approval if vote suppression and intimidation (the next logical step) keep that party in control of the legislature? I’m afraid I think the answer is yes. On top of that, if they instigate a military incident or there is a major terrorist attack here (by the right sort or terrorists), you know there will be a ‘rally round the stooge’ effect, at first at least.
Morzer
@Jeffro:
General McMaster will soon be along to explain that Trump’s preference for crayons and coloring books is because of his bold, strategic thinking that dispenses with unnecessary nuances.
SiubhanDuinne
@Keith P.:
I think he is. I hope he is.
I also think and hope that Barack Obama is laughing his own sweet black ass off right about now.
Jeffro
@Morzer: She’s a mess, isn’t she?
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Morzer:
LOL! Yeah, Lewandowski is a psychotic putz. “Don’t touch me!” he squealed like a brat child on CNN. This hire is sort of like someone naming Jeff George starting QB now.
Jeffro
@Morzer: He’s just coloring frantically so that his presidential library will have content, major content available! for subscribers and visitors, some of whom might not be tripping on their own shoelaces and/or speaking Russian.
p.a.
@Jeffro:
probably more of a presidential kiosk
sm*t cl*de
@Jeffro:
Animated cartoons are especially effective at capturing his attention.
Your President wants his information in the form of Tellytubbies.
Morzer
@p.a.:
A small, orange latrine with metered toilet tissue.
ruemara
I think this title is an insult to the measured reasonings* of Leeroy Jenkins.
*compared to every Trump administration member.
dmsilev
@Morzer: I feel safe in guessing that Trump’s crayon box has 63 gold crayons and one Hair Orange for making self portraits.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
Wow, Jeffro… that account reveals Trump’s diminished mental capacity. And drinking Cokes at 10:30? What is he, 16?
Jeffro
@p.a.: Probably just a mirror?
Morzer
@dmsilev:
Short, thin crayons, so that his stubby little fingers look all big and manly.
Morzer
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
Low-energy, very low-energy. Sad!
Corner Stone
@SiubhanDuinne:
Others may be but Obama is not. Whatever else Trump is doing/not doing, he is steadily erasing everything Obama ever did that can be done without new legislation.
Adam L Silverman
@Keith P.: Who do you think told the WaPo about Kushner’s attempt to set up covert comms with the Russians?
p.a.
What’s going on with storm, flood damage response? Is the admin telling red states to pull themselves up by their bootstraps?
Morzer
@Adam L Silverman:
And if there’s one person who knows all about the Kushner crime family’s dirty little real estate secrets, it’s Big Chicken.
Aleta
Maybe this was mentioned already. But speaking of “bringing in the wrong guy to solve something” in Bizarro World:
WTFUCK: Portland Republican says party should use militia groups after racial attack
Morzer
@Corner Stone:
He’s trying, but mostly failing. And boy, is he making Obama’s record look better by the day.
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: So a little context here. You always tailor your briefing deliverables to your commander’s preferred format. That doesn’t mean you don’t prepare the in depth reports or backgrounders, but each decision maker digests information differently. It is a the sign of a good staff officer when this is realized and acted upon.
So that part is completely normal and to be expected. How much the President retains, whether he grasps the nuance, whether he appreciates the need to hold this information closely and keep it compartmented, these are all separate issues from tailoring deliverable formats to the preferences of the decision maker/commander.
NotMax
@Aleta
If the
shoejackboot fits…Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: How is that something Christie would know?
Jeffro
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
There’s a dozen hints in the article that the Prez is not all there…consumed by his morning talk shows until 10:30 (sometimes earlier!), briefings that consist of a picture and a couple of words (sometimes with an aside to McMaster: “Give me more info, General”)…it will be a horror show during a major crisis, but in the meantime it is a stain on his GOP enablers and all of their big money/dark money donors that they’d risk our country with this moral AND mental abomination technically in charge of the republic.
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: The RUMINT was she was having an affair with Lewandowski. She’s not married. He is.
Adam L Silverman
@p.a.: Pretty much.
Frankensteinbeck
@Corner Stone:
And there may be no one in the country who cares more about America being governed well. If Obama finds any of this funny, I suspect only as gallows humor.
@Adam L Silverman:
True, but the subtext of this and other articles like it is that this commander’s preferred format is ‘A is for Apple.’ Well, no, worse. It’s ‘BAM!’ ‘POW!’ ‘To the Trump Cave!’
SFAW
@Aleta:
Hey, if the shoe fits, you fascist motherfucker …
Adam L Silverman
@Aleta: That will not end well.
p.a.
@Adam L Silverman: and if the medium can’t deliver nuance, or depth…?
Morzer
@Adam L Silverman:
SiubhanDuinne
@Adam L Silverman:
Wait, so is it Elgar’s “Land of Hope and Corey”?
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: I thought I focused mostly on the low-level capabilities of the CINC without disparaging the briefers’ flexibility in adjusting to his needs. The capabilities of the briefers are not in question, not at all. The cognitive level of the president, and the willingness of those around him to cover for that deficit, is.
Jeffro
@Morzer: There’s increasing speculation that she’s (at a minimum) ga-ga over Orange Gropenfuhrer…there may be other angles to the story…
Gin & Tonic
@Aleta:
So he’s 0 for 3, then?
bmoak
Well, Steven Universe certainly dropped a lot of bombs in it’s four-episode season opener tonight
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: He was in charge of the transition well into December when he was forced out, supposedly at Kushner’s urging. This is alleged to have happened in December. Can I prove it was Christie? No. But it is something in character for him if he’s decided to settle scores. If I’m recalling the reporting correctly, the WaPo got a letter postmarked from NJ with the information in it and it has taken them about 6 months to corroborate the info.
That said it could have easily been an allied/partner intel service that provided the info to the WaPo through a cutout.
Jeffro
@Frankensteinbeck:
He’s barely on time to those 10:30 briefings because he’s still playing at making bad words with his bowl of Alpha-Bits…
Morzer
@Adam L Silverman:
So the White House needs a golf course, a dozen scantily-clad teenage girls and a grotesque amount of gold leaf? And, of course, two scoops of ice cream.
Adam L Silverman
@p.a.: It is what it is.
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: I wasn’t criticizing your comment, just providing context.
NotMax
Adam, thought this might interest you. Wheels within wheels within wheels.
p.a.
@Morzer: and ketchup
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: Those that can’t become party chair. See Preibus, Reinhold.
Cheryl Rofer
@Adam L Silverman: In other words,
JerryRich
In other news, He, Trump has hired Freddie Krueger to chaperone a teenage slumber party.
Adam L Silverman
@Morzer: That too.
GregB
The simplest way to convince people that you aren’t a Nazi is to hire Brownshirts.
p.a.
@NotMax: ahhh… but are they (any of these groups) moderates?
mai naem mobile
I am worried what this cornered animal is going to do as things get worse. He’s such a petty vindictive little twit.
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: Yep.
Mike in NC
Every one of these pieces of shit needs to die in a fire.
Morzer
@p.a.:
Compared to the Trump administration, almost certainly.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: Sadly, I have to agree with you.
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: Same here (seriously). A line to that effect in my original comment would have helped. It’s not on the folks who are giving the briefings at this point, that’s for sure.
NotMax
@p.a.
Can’t tell the players without a pogrom.
Suffragette City
If it was Christie who sent the letter, who would have told him about the convo? Don’t see where he would have been allowed to be part of it. And I continue to wonder about Woolsey and just how much he knows in all this.
JerryRich
@NotMax:
You will answer to Crabby Appleton for this remark.
mai naem mobile
@Morzer: and chocolate cake. The best chocolate cake.
p.a.
@GregB: well after all the
NazisRepublicans don’t have their own militia. Oh wait… they have the US military and any number of armed fed departments.Morzer
@Suffragette City:
It seems unlike Christie to send a letter postmarked New Jersey. I wonder if someone else sent it and decided to make Christie look like the sender.
Corner Stone
@JerryRich:
Ha! Too bad he doesn’t know anything about slumber parties! The first one to fall asleep gets sharpie marker all over their face!
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: I can tell you with perfect certainty, that the DNI and DCI and DIRNSA (Director NSA) and Director DIA (DDIA) and Director FBI being present or not being present, the IC selects its best briefers on each specific topic and issue to go and deliver the briefings. Regardless of that briefers rank and/or experience.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Cossack or Kulak? One of my favorite party games.
mai naem mobile
@Adam L Silverman: I don’t see Christie settling scores that quickly. I think he would have waited until it was clear he wasn’t going to get any position in the administration. I can totally see him adding fuel to the fire once things started going downhill.
Aleta
(WaPo) Trump administration plans to minimize civil rights efforts in agencies
The Trump administration is planning to disband the Labor Department division that has policed discrimination among federal contractors for four decades, according to the White House’s newly proposed budget, part of wider efforts to rein in government programs that promote civil rights. As outlined in Labor’s fiscal 2018 plan, the move would fold the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, now home to 600 employees, into another government agency in the name of cost-cutting.
The proposal to dismantle the compliance office comes at a time when the Trump administration is reducing the role of the federal government in fighting discrimination and protecting minorities by cutting budgets, dissolving programs and appointing officials unsympathetic to previous practices.
The new leadership at the Environmental Protection Agency, for instance, has proposed eliminating its environmental justice program, which addresses pollution that poses health threats specifically concentrated in minority communities. …
The Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights — which has investigated thousands of complaints of discrimination in school districts across the country and set new standards for how colleges should respond to allegations of sexual assault and harassment — would also see significant staffing cuts. …
And the administration has reversed several steps taken under President Barack Obama to address LGBT concerns. The Department of Housing and Urban Development, for example, has revoked a rule ensuring that transgender people can stay at sex-segregated shelters of their choice, and the Department of Health and Human Services has removed a question about sexual orientation from two surveys of elderly Americans about services offered or funded by the government.
NotMax
@JerryRich
His resumé listed extensive experience with children. Krueger described the appointment as his “dream job.”
Morzer
@Adam L Silverman:
Rabbi, is there a prayer for the Donald?
Suffragette City
@Morzer:
I was unaware of the NJ postmark. Would make sense to have Jared think it was Christie..actually that’s rather funny.
Adam L Silverman
@mai naem mobile: It’s RUMINT.
p.a.
@Adam L Silverman:
Thank FSM. Good thing Donnie is so respectful to lower echelons.
Corner Stone
@Suffragette City:
“No where to run to, baby. No where to hide!”
Morzer
@Corner Stone:
When thieves fall out, honest crooks get their due.
Jeffro
@mai naem mobile:
I think that’s a perfectly normal concern that many of us have in the back of our minds. There’s no good way to predict what Trumpov will do, except go on past performance. And based on that…
– he’s likely to deny everything and lie to everyone & anyone about the Russia scandal, to the point of calling it all made-up, #FakeNews (he’s already doing this, that wasn’t really a bold prediction ;)
– he’s going to be doing weekly rallies of his supporters…most likely in districts/states of Reps/Sens who appear to be wavering on their Trump-love…(the former they’ve already announced; the latter, they have not)
– if and when the evidence becomes overwhelming, and as we get closer to the 2018 elections, he’ll start to turn on members of his own party for their statements that he finds insufficiently supportive
– this will be accelerated if and when indictments of the Trumpov team start to drop…I expect the WH to go just about fully dark (other than Fox News and worse) in about 3 more months…
Adam L Silverman
@p.a.: In the case of the civilians, the rank, SES, Senior Analytic Service (SAS), or civil service (GS) would not be transmitted or referenced.
Morzer
@Jeffro:
Trump is 70, obese, never exercises, obviously not as sharp mentally as he once was, prone to rage – you have to wonder just how long his health will hold up under the strain of 24/7 scrutiny by people who obviously want him to fall.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Isn’t that where the rubles are printed?
/cheap but irresistible
Adam L Silverman
@Suffragette City: Given that it was sent in December, when the then President-elect was working from his Bedminster property to select White House staff and cabinet nominees, it could have been anyone involved with the campaign. Or it could simply be a misdirection.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Cute.
Suffragette City
WaPo reporting Jared gets his own intelligence briefing.
SFAW
@Morzer:
“May the Lord keep the
TsarShitgibbon ….
.
… far away from here.”
Steve in the ATL
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
Damn that is cold…like 0 degrees Kelvin cold
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: Right…they are doing their best, given the ‘audience’ and somewhat/completely atypical briefing requests. I have no doubt these are some of the most flexible, high-EQ, psych-profile prepared folks around.
Morzer
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
You know that the Jets are going to try that strategy at least once this year, don’t you?
Suffragette City
@Adam L Silverman:
Ahhh the plot thickens!! How the heck do you remember all this stuff???
Morzer
@Suffragette City:
I am not saying Adam was in New Jersey at the time, but.. I am not saying he wasn’t either.
Adam L Silverman
@Suffragette City: You don’t need to know.//
More seriously, I have a garbage can memory. It isn’t eidetic, but stuff goes in and stays in even if it isn’t word for word.
Another Scott
@p.a.: They probably don’t know what’s going on there, either. GovExec:
I imagine it’s only gotten worse in 2017… :-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
@Morzer: It’s the stress and the not sleeping that are already taking a toll on him, you can tell.
Adam L Silverman
@Morzer: I can honestly, 100% state that I have not been in New Jersey since I gave a talk at Seton Hall in 2009.
Morzer
@Jeffro:
Add in an unhealthy diet and the fact he’s clearly an obsessive who watches his critics and you’ve got a good recipe for some sort of extreme health/mental health event.
Emma
@Corner Stone: Me too! Hand out the knives and stand back!
Morzer
@Adam L Silverman:
And I can honestly, 100% state that I believe you and I certainly didn’t run into you at the post office on a day when neither of us were in New Jersey.
Suzanne
@Keith P.:
I have to admit that I am a small and shitty enough person that I fervently hope that Christie is somehow instrumental in sending Kushner to prison. God, that would be so funny.
I really hope that they all turn on each other and that it is bloody and humiliating.
Morzer
@Suzanne:
The Fat Controller looked sternly at Kushner the Kaboose….
Lyrebird
Maybe too late for you to see this, but Anne Laurie, you are on fire!!!
Thanks also (I think it was your post) for sharing someone’s line about this administration ending in ICE or in FOIA…
Appreciating the surreal is the only way I know to keep rolling forward with this going on.
mai naem mobile
@Jeffro: he already cancelled the Iowa one for next week. I think he’s worried a bunch of protesters are going to show up and chant ‘Lock You Up! Lock You Up!’
Morzer
@mai naem mobile:
Hang Him High! Hang Him High!
Elie
@Another Scott:
Its the GOP and now Trump intent to destroy the government. No joke. Trump is just the final stage in destroying what is left of America as a “dream” and any kind of moral ideal. Its been stewing a while, but now it is here and we will have to fight day and night to prevent it from what they intend. The goal has been both Russian and US extreme right wing funded by Mercers and Koch. It worked perfectly under the noses of the Democrats who while in power at the Federal level, did not understand our risk for how weakened we were at state and local levels such that once we lost the presidency, we would not be in position to do much about the rest of it.
I have to say, I have mixed feelings hearing and seeing photos of Obama laughing. Sure, he is free of this, but what’s so funny? I don’t expect him to do anything particularly — but to look relaxed and laughing is kind of a shock. We are in the fight of our lives and our weapons look meager to the task right now. If he can’t help, please do us the courtesy of at least being sober (meaning no pearly whites).
sukabi
@SiubhanDuinne: pretty sure Obama is enjoying his life, and like the rest of us is looking at horror at the mess Drumpf and his clueless coterie are making of everything.
ETA although at this point it would be nice if we could have an ex-presidents intervention to remove the mango malignancy and his family….
Jeffro
@mai naem mobile:
Maybe. And maybe they also booked a good-sized place and got zero response. Or maybe his palace guard realized that as wound up as he is from his horrendous European trip and the Russia investigations, they don’t want him speaking off the cuff to a hall full of mouth-breathers just yet.
Who knows with these folks? But I look forward to the loyalty pledges and NDAs that he starts asking for from his rally attendees, and his barring of all but the wing-nuttiest of wingnut media. It won’t change the minds of his hard core supporters. But that kind of dictator behavior won’t play too well with “independents” and the last remaining ‘moderate’ Republican*.
*L.H. Puttgrass of BLOOM COUNTY, who, as noted in a thread a few days ago, was “signing off and heading for the hot tub” (likely due to all this Trumpov bullshit) ;)
Morzer
@Elie:
You shouldn’t ask Obama, or any of us, never to enjoy life or be happy so long as Trump is president. People need to take a break, they need to have some reason for going on – and if you take joy in life out of the equation you’ll end up with a lot of burned-out, angry people who retreat into despair, cynicism and nihilism.
randy khan
This move makes perfect sense. I mean, in the context of an Administration that puts Jared Kushner in charge of Middle East peace negotiations and has Sean Spicer as press secretary. In any other context, it’s insane.
Anne Laurie
@Jeffro: Hope Hick’s a 20-something marketing assistant from the white-bread Connecticut suburbs. She was brought into the Trump campaign by Ivanka, who thought Daddy needed something nice to look at (who wouldn’t threaten other peoples’ standings, ifyouknowwhatImeanandIthinkyoudo).
She’s not even smart or experienced enough to be Fawn Hall. Fifty years from now (assuming the world and what we know of as civilization still exist) I can see her writing the sort of happily clueless memoir Hitler’s last secretary produced just before her death, a few months ago.
Elie
@Morzer:
“Thanks, I needed that ‘
Actually, I need that… I have been pretty upset and filled with dread…
I am working with the local Dems to get some good candidates and run in local races. Let me focus on that. This other is just making me nuts and cynical…
Morzer
@Elie:
We are all a bit more nuts and cynical since the Tangerine Scream began swinging a monkey-wrench at America’s civil liberties and international reputation. Remember that you are doing the right thing by working with the local Dems and getting good people to replace the fools, frauds and fascists that bob along in Trump’s turdly wake. Give yourself some happy time and let it make you stronger for the future. Hell, even Cole isn’t naked mopping alone these days!
Morzer
@Anne Laurie:
But.. but.. she graduated from Southern Methodist University!
Anne Laurie
@Morzer:
Not a rabbi (or even Jewish), but my guess would be “Oy, gevalt!”
From the Forward:
Anne Laurie
@Lyrebird: Thank you!
Aleta
@Jeffro: At times of stress dysfunctional people (groups) get more dysfunctional, not less.
SFBayAreaGal
@Adam L Silverman: Who is she?
Morzer
@SFBayAreaGal:
Hope Hicks
Groucho48
@Aleta:
Nothing says “We are not Nazis” better than hiring Brown Shirts as security for your rallies.
Adam L Silverman
@SFBayAreaGal: What @Morzer: said.
SFBayAreaGal
@Morzer: @Adam L Silverman: Thank you
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Morzer:
I am totally opposed to giving Woody Johnson a security clearance.
TenguPhule
@Mike in NC: How do I crowd source napalm?
No One You Know
I just finished a detailed addendum to my latest Democratic Party survey. My “Additional Comments” ran five pages (but with nice formatting and name dropping, so hopefully it will get read). And a check, because C.R.E.A.M. May it be known that I borrowed some of the wisdom here while I tried to explain why I prioritized the way I prioritized. I am so glad for David and Richard and Adam and John and Mnemosyne and Cheryl and…oh, you know who you are.
Also going to Saturday’s March for Truth. I’m still looking for a pink kitty hat. I don’t knit, but I thought it would be easy to just get some yarn and learn…but no. Pink is so in, it was out of stock. With my luck, some new symbol will be in…
AxelFoley
@Elie:
Fuck that noise. You expect him to go around moping and frowning so you won’t feel bad? Nah, again, fuck that.
He bust his ass for 8 years for this country, and he got shit in return from the right and the far left. The right wants to fuck everyone over and the far left wants to burn everything down. Welp, both sides got what they wanted.
Obama represented us finer than just about any President in our history. He and his family deserve to live their lives like they’re golden.
Aimai
@AxelFoley: this!
Jake the antisoshul soshulist
Out with old grifter in with the new grifter.
sheila in nc
@Adam L Silverman: My dad got to do that once. I think for Carter. He was very, very proud of it.