“The entourage went upstairs to the Yellow Oval Room, Trump's living room. Staff set pigs in a blanket and little meatballs on toothpicks on the coffee table. It didn't take long for the yelling to start up again.” — @jonathanvswan in @axios
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) February 2, 2021
There seem to be as many words here as in the story of the notorious Calaveras County frog, and possibly to the same point. The primary (credited) source is a guy who’s had, as the lawyers might put it, a colorful personal history, and the main auditor to date is Maggie Haberman…
Four conspiracy theorists marched into the Oval Office. It was early evening on Friday, Dec. 18 — more than a month after the election had been declared for Joe Biden, and four days after the Electoral College met in every state to make it official.
“How the hell did Sidney get in the building?” White House senior adviser Eric Herschmann grumbled from the outer Oval Office as Sidney Powell and her entourage strutted by to visit the president.
President Trump’s private schedule hadn’t included appointments for Powell or the others: former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, and a little-known former Trump administration official, Emily Newman. But they’d come to convince Trump that he had the power to take extreme measures to keep fighting…
The hours to come would pit the insurgent conspiracists against a handful of White House lawyers and advisers determined to keep the president from giving in to temptation to invoke emergency national security powers, seize voting machines and disable the primary levers of American democracy.
For weeks now, ever since Rudy Giuliani had commandeered Trump’s floundering campaign to overturn the election, outsiders had been coming out of the woodwork to feed the president wild allegations of voter fraud based on highly dubious sources.
Trump was no longer focused on any semblance of a governing agenda, instead spending his days taking phone calls and meetings from anyone armed with conspiracy theories about the election. For the White House staff, it was an unending sea of garbage churned up by the bottom feeders…
… Trump was behind the desk, watching the show. He briefly left the meeting to wander into his private dining room…
Flynn and Powell had long nursed their antipathy to the FBI and Justice. Flynn had pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI during the Russia investigation but withdrew the plea after hiring Powell as his lawyer in June 2019.
The two alleged the FBI had entrapped Flynn and failed to disclose exculpatory evidence, known as Brady material, as required by law. They had found an ally in Barr, a fierce critic of the Russia investigation who finally directed the DOJ to drop Flynn’s case.
Herschmann, known inside the White House as a defender of Barr and the DOJ, went off on Flynn again: “Listen, the same people that you’re trashing, if they didn’t produce the Brady material to Sidney, your ass would still be in jail!”…
Trump, for his part, also seemed perplexed by Byrne. But he was not entirely convinced the ideas Powell was presenting were insane.
He asked: You guys are offering me nothing. These guys are at least offering me a chance. They’re saying they have the evidence. Why not try this? The president seemed truly to believe the election was stolen, and his overriding sentiment was, let’s give this a shot…
This is clever but this isn’t now getting into the White House works, even during the Trump administration. Folks at White House have firm theories about who waved the group in that Friday night and Powell again 2 days later, when she got in but was blocked from seeing Trump. https://t.co/3fDucJpZE8
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) February 3, 2021
And while Byrne (via tremendous @jonathanvswan reporting) had no idea who WH officials were, the former president also had no idea who Byrne was, despite Byrne claiming Trump recognized him.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) February 3, 2021
I hope somebody with better writing skills will eventually give us a book about this (and no, I don’t want to wait for a Trump-fixated Robert Caro, thankyouverymuch). Maybe Mr. Charles P. Pierce?…
… The Axios story on Tuesday, which was flatly terrifying, was just as obviously the product of senior White House staff from the previous administration* who were fed up with the various bats circling the former president*’s belfry, and who would find it to the advantage to their future employment if they were seen as part of the Not Insane caucus in the West Wing. I have no problem with any of this, and I trust the reporters who have pried these nuggets loose for our own edification. But it is rather unusual in the history of recent presidential scandals.
There was little of this in the aftermath of Watergate, probably because everybody involved except Richard Nixon did prison time. Even Elliot Richardson and William Ruckelshaus, who quit the administration rather than fire the special prosecutor, were very discreet about their roles down through the years. Everybody involved with Iran-Contra got pardoned, so there was no reason for any of them to point fingers, although, in his memoir, Oliver North, of all people, intimated that President Ronald Reagan was cognitively impaired throughout his second term. The closest parallel I can think of is the most recent one—the way a number of the architects of the deceptions that led to the Iraq fiasco tried to distance themselves from the stench of that catastrophic blunder. But even that was nothing like what we’re seeing today, and what we’re likely to see going forward, as the entire Republican establishment tries to plea bargain with history for its accessorial conduct in the crime of assaulting democracy with a deadly lunatic…
Personally, while I am grateful for the work that pried these incredible anecdotes loose, I don’t think anybody who worked in that White House is going to get away cleanly. Barr still strangled the Mueller Report in its cradle and the lawyers in the Axios story get very little credit for doing the least they could do, and for being less nuts than Sidney Powell…
debbie
I was only half-listening, but the local Fox station ran a report last night about Trump being the victim of a number of scheming machinators. I guess this is what they were talking about.
Baud
The only time I’ll be interested in these people’s stories is during their trials.
debbie
And it all only cost taxpayers half a billion or so!
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Dump knew Patrick Byrne as he had carried on an affair with russian spy Maria Butina.
Funny how russian asset Flynn and russian connected Byrne just happen to be advising Dump.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
In other words Trump’s staff were worthless at their jobs. Friend of mine is an executive assistant and she says a lot of her job is stopping nonsense like this. I wonder how much of the reason for ex-Trumpers having a difficult time getting a new job is because of the Trump taint and how much of it is they simply suck at their job.
Jeffro
Notable for the obvious fact that all of this malfeasance was Republican malfeasance.
Try to come up with something comparable on the D side and we get what, ‘malaise’, an affair with an intern, and (zip)? The GQP is off the charts when it comes to fucking up and getting people/economies killed.
Mike in NC
Apparently Donald Trump went to Moscow in 1987 to beg for money, and the KGB was quick to wine and dine him to stroke his massive ego and towering vanity. I’m still reading Malcolm Nance’s “The Plot to Betray America” and Trump certainly did that for Vladimir P.
Hope he dies behind bars.
PsiFighter37
I hate reading stories like this even more, because it’s basically just the result of mediocre legacy hire Maggie Haberman juicing her sources for anything else that will get eyeballs and clicks to the NYT. I hope her next assignment is in Bumfuck, Nowhere interviewing bitter white people at a diner in the middle of nowhere.
Jeffro
If they were any good, they wouldn’t have worked for trumpov. By working for trumpov, they not only demonstrate their lack of principles, they also demonstrate that they probably suck at their jobs.
It’s bad hires, all the way down!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I do love that detail for its Chauncey Gardner quality.
Jeffro
@Mike in NC: yup – he’s been compromised for decades.
Something to add to that constitutional amendment that’ll never happen: a basic security clearance check for all presidential candidates.
Seconded on dying behind bars. I just hope his final resting place is accessible to the public.
Brachiator
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
To the contrary. They were doing what a Trump lackey would do. Trump surrounded himself with people who were vicious, incompetent backbiters.
Their performance was exactly as expected.
Ann Marie
Charles Pierce is, as always, a gem: “as the entire Republican establishment tries to plea bargain with history for its accessorial conduct in the crime of assaulting democracy with a deadly lunatic…” As good a description of the current goings on as you will find.
Scout211
https://www.gocalaveras.com/business/festivals-events/calaveras-county-fair-jumping-frog-jubilee/
The celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County has become a real thing in my county. The story is so revered that it’s almost like people see it as history rather than a story that was set in the county.
I’m not sure what that might mean for the story of the “famous election steal of 2020,” though. Who knows, but I hope it doesn’t become a legend like the jumping frog.
Parfigliano
@Baud: I want to hear it at their sentencing.
ian
I read the axios story. It’s pure gossip. Horrifying if true, but like Pierce I find it unbelievable.
Geminid
Wow! I just checked out Brooklyn Congressman Hakeem Jeffries blasting freshman Republican Burgess Owens (UT) during a Judiciary Committee hearing. A thing of beauty. I don’t link, but I caught it on Sherrylyn Iffill’s twitter feed, by way of Ragnarok Lobster. Two minutes, 17 seconds of fire.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Geminid:
ETA: I’d also like to know who he’s talking to when he says, “You don’t want any of this either”
Another Scott
@Mike in NC: There was a famous tweet, around 2016, that said (almost verbatim): “Donald Trump will die in prison.” The guy is certainly looking prescient.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
@Geminid:
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It was indeed a thing of beauty.
I’m good with him as next Speaker.
Geminid
@Geminid: Jeffries: “And you...have the nerve…to lecture us about patriotism?!!”
JMG
Didn’t Kurosawa make a film about stories like this? I’m pretty sure I remember seeing it.
Sm*t Cl*de
@debbie:
“Machinator” would be a good name for a Doppelbock, I thought, and sure enough, there it was.
aliasofwestgate
@JMG: Rashomon: 3 POVs all of them unreliable narrators of the same incident.
WaterGirl
@Sm*t Cl*de: Once again they make him seem like a child rather than a grown person with agency.
Frankensteinbeck
No, he didn’t. The Mueller Report died because it did not deliver what the people who were super hyped for it wanted. Mueller did not arrest Trump, its contents were far too technical for the dimwitted punditariat and their short attention spans, and it did not give any information that would make Republicans vote to impeach Trump. The report was damning as Hell, and Barr’s attempt to misdescribe it was laughed at.
RSA
@JMG:
I see what you did there. Yes, and I remember seeing that film, though it was different for me. :-)
Lacuna-Synecdoche
Jonathan Swan via Anne Laurie @ Top:
… And the bartender asked, “Hey guys, why the long face?”
Viva BrisVegas
@WaterGirl: It worked for Reagan in regards to Iran-Contra.
Didn’t he go on TV and essentially say that bad things happened, but aw shucks, I’m not to blame because I’m too incompetent to know what was going on?
Ruckus
@Jeffro:
I said on an earlier thread that the republican concept is very simple.
“What’s in it for me?”
They will work together to get more but it’s never about what’s best, good, for the most people, it’s always about what’s good for them. shitforbrains was just the epitome of the republican concept, and why people like him, he is 100% all about him and what’s in it for him. It’s why they tag along, they think they can get a bigger piece if they do. And it has nothing to do with governing or anything other than personal benefit.
Brachiator
@Lacuna-Synecdoche:
… And the bartender asked, “Hey guys, why the
longorange face?”Jeffro
@Ruckus: that’s a good take
They can’t conceive of anyone looking out for anyone but themselves.
We really ought to make more folks aware of that. ;)
Lacuna-Synecdoche
@Jeffro:
Like a Port-A-Potty.
JMG
@aliasofwestgate: I knew. Just being sarcastic.
debbie
@Sm*t Cl*de:
That must be some beer if it gets monks through their winter fasting.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
Same.
JoyceH
@ian:
I dunno, I thought the pigs in blankets and meatballs on sticks added a certain air of verisimilitude. Precisely what you’d expect to be served in a Trump White House.
I got my first Pfizer jab this afternoon, and am totally giddy imagining my mid-March social whirl. The dentist! New eyeglasses! A haircut! Today was the first time I’d been inside a building other than my own house since late October.
aliasofwestgate
@JMG: Gotcha *grins* I hadn’t caught on till someone else pointed it out. Still amused!
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
I’ve said this here many times that while he’s 70 something years old, mentally he’s 5. Now I may be stretching it somewhat but he really has never matured out of single digits and he’s OK with that and very likely has never been capable of it. How many of his rabid supporters haven’t either?
HumboldtBlue
And now for something completely different. Marilyn Monrowl.
Amir Khalid
@Ruckus:
All of them, Ruckus.
NotMax
On topic, basic review of the timeline of bullpuckey.
Mike in NC
@JoyceH: I expected them to serve up a platter of cold Big Macs.
JanieM
@JoyceH: This made me chuckle. The excitement of going to the dentist!! I went last summer but postponed the appointment I had for a cleaning a couple of weeks ago. No shot yet, but hopefully soon.
As for eyeglasses — I have a separate pair for the computer, and the frames are very, very old. A couple of weeks ago the right side bow broke off from the thin rim around the lens, and the bow is unsalvageable. I used crazy glue to glue the lens to the top of the frame, precariously….so far so good but I don’t know if I’m going to be able to nurse them along until my appt. in May. First world problems, for sure, but still, it will feel good to get new glasses!
NotMax
@JoyceH
What, no Jeno’s pizza rolls?
//
mrmoshpotato
9°F here. Feels like -6°.
I hope everyone’s bones are warm indoors.
different-church-lady
I still think we’re lucky this didn’t end with Trump snorting from a huge pile of cocaine on the resolute desk and pulling out a grenade launcher.
mrmoshpotato
@Mike in NC: That picture really was one for the
historyWTF? books.JCJ
I like the part about White House staff describing something as garbage stirred up by bottom feeders. I thought that was the description of the White House staffers themselves. Game recognizes game.
WaterGirl
@Viva BrisVegas: I remember him getting away with it, but I don’t recall the details. When did the Alzheimers kick in?
Anya
I don’t miss all the never ending crazy Trump breaking news. From the day Trump left DC, a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders that I never want to hear from him again. I do understand why the fucker had to be impeached but honestly, I would have preferred for the trial not to take place.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
Oh, those were good!
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady: Or snorting from a huge pile of cocaine on the resolute desk and calling in a nuclear strike.
As for the not snorting coke part…
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: 16 feels like 4. downright balmy. :-)
Tomorrow morning is feels like -16.
Ruckus
@Jeffro:
I think the one’s that can are coming around. They may not come all the way around but they have seen that the lies and bullshit are lies and bullshit. The lies and bullshit started long, long ago, but the fall we’ve been on to get to trump started with Nixon and went downhill from there. And every republican president since has been on the same trail, with trump the result. The people that are the most vocal supporters will remain lost forever, unless some miracle comes along, and I don’t believe in miracles, life doesn’t work that way. And look at people like Rupert Murdoch, he’s no different than shitforbrains except he’s got an IQ that is above room temp in Antartica, in summer. Republicans have been so pissed off that America has been electing presidents that weren’t selfish fucking assholes to try and make up for their selfish fucking assholes and making progress, even though they’ve done their damnedest to attempt to stop progress that they elected the most selfish, least intelligent, least capable human being possible – shitforbrains, and it’s finally fairly obvious what their goals are. Sell everything for pennies on the dollar, which is all that can be had, after they trashed the place with a guy who is maybe, just maybe smarter than the monkeys that throws their shit, but I’m not taking odds that they over estimated him.
JoyceH
@Anya:
Oh, I dunno. I’m thrilled not to have to keep seeing his ugly stupid face and hearing his ugly stupid voice, but I’ll admit that I’m mean-spirited enough to enjoy news stories like this one:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-hotel-lawsuit/2021/02/05/014484a2-67fd-11eb-8c64-9595888caa15_story.html
debbie
@different-church-lady:
Can’t you just imagine DJTJ scrambling for the crumbs?
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Tomato-based crack.
:)
Chetan Murthy
@JanieM: Re: eyeglasses, if you have the details of the prescription, you can just order new ones from Zenni Optical (or other online retailers). But also, I’d bet that your optimetrist would be thrilled to get you a replacement pair (for $$), at this time. Without the need for any in-person appointment.
Another Scott
Very impressive graphic.
Imagine what they’ll be able to do once everyone is vaccinated and has the Gates chip!!!1
(via nycsouthpaw)
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
@Anya:
Hear hear!
You can ignore the 2nd impeachment trial. I am.
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: Tomorrow’s 8/2. Good thing Da Bears aren’t in the game vs someone like Green Bay or Minnesota.
counterfactual
@Ruckus: Trump told his biographer that he hasn’t changed since first grade, since age seven. You’re more correct than you thought.
JanieM
@Chetan Murthy: I’m aware of those options.
croaker
you know what. Stuff her and him and them
stick it Republicans and bedsheets and crosses and baby Jesus
its a new dawn. Fix the broken site. Stop posting Maggie crap.
Be nice to each other for fuck sake
it has been a hard week I got stuck and rotated and made people worried and I don’t have two fucks to give
so if your not nice I promise I will bring down the hellfire and hunt you till the end of days
done w one finger and no golf club manager
CRoAker
Dorothy A. Winsor
I see Louis Gohmert bypassed the House metal detector and is about to be fined.
Kirk Spencer
@mrmoshpotato: While at first I felt that way, I’ve come to think that this is going to be good. Not good as in fun to watch but good for the nation.
Two reasons. First and foremost because I expect the house team (the nominal prosecutors) to run story after story about 1/6. About the fear and damage and death and all that. Because it’s stories that stick in the mind of the public. And when Trump or his team speaks to discount it, it’ll still echo the story.
Second, because for the first time in a long time DJT will be unable to control the conversation. Yes, he can flounce out – but not as president. Yes, he can blather and divert – but he’ll be dragged back to what he said then. He’s complained of hostile interviewers before (my mind boggles at many of those claims) but they’re nothing to people actually, really trying to punish him for his behavior.
Oh – and in both cases, then the esteemed member of Congress who currently claim to be Republicans will get to vote – publicly and openly – to what was said. And it will stick to them forever. Some – many – won’t care. Yet. But I think enough voters will care.
croaker
@Dorothy A. Winsor: fired – I fixed it for you
Dorothy A. Winsor
@croaker: Thank you. :-)
brantl
@Viva BrisVegas: He went in front of congressional committees and said : “I can’t remember shit!”
dmsilev
@Dorothy A. Winsor: He thought it was a mental detector and assumed he didn’t qualify.
Benw
@WaterGirl: I looooove Chicago, but don’t miss the cold snaps!
Timill
@JoyceH:
Pooh-Bah. Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@dmsilev: LOL. That’s probably true.
HumboldtBlue
And The GatewayPundit has been permanently banned from Twitter, well, for being the jackass he’s always been.
TS (the original)
@PsiFighter37:
This one is just Maggie trying to steal someone else’s story. That someone else found out about the events in the trump WH before she did is just unconscionable in her overrated mind.
raven
RIP Leon Spinks!
Richard Pryor Not Safe at Work
dm
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’ve been wondering for a while if Trump’s original diminished capacity didn’t get further diminished by long-COVID mental fog.
Punchy
@Brachiator: “Why the brown nose and chin? And crusty white stains on your cheeks?”
Ruckus
@counterfactual:
You can see in my head?
You poor bastard. It’s a fucking mess in there. No one has straightened up in decades, and the electricity seems to have gone off a couple of times. The lights are pretty though.
dm
@JMG: Are you talking about Rashomon or Ran (Chaos)?
NotMax
@Btachiator
And the bartender says, “Sorry, we don’t have Kool Aid on tap.”
Ken
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Desperately trying to win back his title of “Dumbest Man in Congress”?
hitchhiker
All I know is that it feels like the temperature of the whole country has gone down. Yes, we still have Marge and her stupidity. We still have the clown shows and the insane “plandemic” fools.
But nobody can suck up oxygen like he did. The air is now better and cleaner.
As far as the Senate trial, I’ll watch what the Dems say, and I’ll definitely want to see how they present evidence and hear their witnesses. I’ll be curious to see what the public (not the cult) makes of it all.
It seems obvious to me that even if we’d rather he just go POOF, we can’t have a system that allows someone entrusted with authority to try to blow that system and still enjoy the right to come back for another shot at it later. That would be an invitation to instability, recognized by the whole world.
The Rs all said, a year ago, “Hey, there’s going to be an election. Let the voters choose.” The voters chose, and then they said, “Hey, he needs time to process this. Let him work through it.” Now they’re saying, “Hey, he’s gone. Let’s move on.”
No.
Let’s make sure everyone understands that his madness got people killed, and he cannot ever be on any ballot ever again.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Viva BrisVegas:
I seem to recall him saying, my heart tells me one thing, but the facts tell me something else.
Geoduck
@debbie: I think the machinators are both his useless loser underlings and the evil Deep State. RedState for one is going all in on the “Evil Cabal cheated the Shiatgibbon out of his reelection” theory.
WaterGirl
@hitchhiker:
Well said.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
mrmoshpotato
@Kirk Spencer:
Totally. The 2nd impeachment trial needs to happen. I’m just not going to waste any of my time on it. Already had 4 years of tantrum that we had to pay attention to.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: We are all so different.
I really want to understand what happened on Jan 6, in a linear, methodical way. All I have so far are various videos but no clear timeline.
I am going to watch every minute of the trial. I feel like it’s my duty as a citizen to watch and understand.
The Pale Scot
@Scout211:
All I can think of is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkjsN-J27aU
Zelma
I’m still not over Trump. I know I had a nightmare about him last night. Fortunately I don’t remember it. But I know he is still in my head and causing me angst. What really bothers me is the knowledge that millions of Americans have bought into his Big Lie. It scares me. I don’t see a happy ending. But then, if I want a happy ending, I’ll read a romance novel. In fact, I think I’ll go and do just that.
HumboldtBlue
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yeah, thanks for the memories.
Benw
@WaterGirl: me too. Not just Jan 6, but all the people involved and decisions that were made immediately before then that set up the whole disaster. The best comparison I can think of is Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air about the 1996 Everest tragedy. Walk us through everything
Citizen Alan
@Zelma:
I don’t feel any better either, to be honest. I cheered up a little at the Inauguration and I’ve been very pleased with what Joe has achieved in a short amount of time. But ultimately, I just feel like everyone is relieved that we finally put Charles Manson in prison and so we’re just gonna ignore the fact that the Manson Family numbers in the tens of millions.
HumboldtBlue
What she said.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
It is, in fact, a large boulder.
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: I might watch C-SPAN’s YouTube videos in chunks, but I’m definitely not going to watch hours on end of the trial. The insurrection really was the logical conclusion of four years of this Soviet shitpile mobster conman and his racist, shitpile supporters.
The Pale Scot
Jonathan Pie
Trump’s Last Day!
He’s a loser
“Trump wore the Republican Party like a rented suit”
This Johnny C. with an English accent
WaterGirl
@Benw: I totally agree about not just Jan 6, that it should also include the planning, etc.
randy khan
Think how crazy it is that the test for a “responsible” aide is that it’s someone who thought that it was a bad idea to let in Powell et al. into the White House.
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s also the size of a large boulder.
Citizen Alan
@mrmoshpotato: It would have been even better had it been “a large boulder the size of a small boulder.” Or vice versa.
Another Scott
@mrmoshpotato: They’re fishing for clicks, and having fun remembering a tweet from a year ago.
It gets attention. (For a while anyway. ;-)
(via nycsouthpaw)
Cheers,
Scott.
Geoduck
Never mind, someone beat me to it.
Another Scott
@Geoduck: Yours was a different link – it’s all good. ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
@WaterGirl: agreed. Now more than ever, with people exhausted from all the abuse, it’s time to make sure trumpov and associated kkklowns are held accountable.
Plus, what, football season is over tomorrow anyway ;)
Jeffro
Apparently trumpov is plotting a “revenge tour” against pro-impeachment/conviction Republicans?
Go for it, orange moron! Do it now when we’re still nearly two years out from the next election, and when everyone’s memories of your abuse are fresh in peoples’ minds.
jonas
@debbie:
The emperor is never wrong, only ill-advised.
HumboldtBlue
When it’s not a Saturday night for fightin’ read this piece from Rawstory about how Trump incited the insurrection.
Another Scott
One of the reasons (but only one) Nixon won a huge landslide in ’72 was that 18 year olds got the vote. It was a big deal.
That would, similarly, be a big Biden deal.
Make it so.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mary G
I kind of want HWSNBM to run again for 2024. News about him will be dropping and it will all be bad. Meanwhile Biden will just be cleaning up and being boring and can break all the vote records, because a good chunk of the 74 million will be in jail.
mrmoshpotato
@Jeffro: I, for one, welcome the destruction of the Rethuglican party at the hands of the orange monster they thought they could control, and the Democratic party using it to their victorious advantage.
Mary G
Somebody found his liberal voice:
Bold move for an Ohio senate run, but I approve
ETA: That was Kamala’s position, so he’s copying.
mrmoshpotato
@Mary G: I’d rather a “Wanna run for office? Give us all of your tax returns.” law was passed. Returns are held in escrow until there’s a nominee, and then the nominee’s taxes are released. No more of this “My daddy Vladdy is auditing my taxes tremendous bigly!” bullshit.
ETA – also, I never again want to risk a traitorous shitpile getting into the Oval Office again. Soviet shitpile or not, mobster conman or not.
JoyceH
@hitchhiker:
Oh, same! I don’t just want Trump gone, I want him DESTROYED. Him and his family and his business and every one of his henchmen. Completely and utterly destroyed.
That may sound vengeful, but it’s actually practical. What I want is when the next guy comes along, just as vicious and authoritarian but smarter and less impulsive, and he’s thinking about maybe giving that same deal a try here, I want him to look at the smoking pile of radioactive waste that is all that’s left of the Trump family and Trump organization, and decide “eh – too risky”. And if he pauses and mulls it for so much as a moment, anyone who might conceivably become a henchman will also think “eh – too risky”.
I want the destruction of all things Trump to be so complete and humiliating and horrifying that generations and centuries from now, the message rings down through the ages, “WE DON’T PUT UP WITH THAT SHIT HERE!”
mrmoshpotato
@JoyceH:
It’s not vengeful when it’s justice for what all of this trash did to this country.
ETA – And really did to the world at large come to think of it. I can’t see any reason any Central American country should trust the US ever again, among other problems these bastards created.
Geoduck
@mrmoshpotato: Security check, tax returns and undergo a full physical exam by a certified physician not on your payroll or reporting to you. I would probably add that no results should be automatically disqualifying, no matter how awful, but said results have to be fully released to the public well in advance of the vote.
J R in WV
@JoyceH:
I spent the day shopping, first at the lumber yard, then the steak and seafood shop, the wine shop, then Kroger, which has a liquor store now. I wore an industrial respirator all day.
I hope to have a vaccination ASAP… I hear that WV is doing well with the vaccine program, but I can’t see it from inside the system here in WV.
Geminid
@different-church-lady: According to the Axios account, at one point during the meeting trump “wandered off” to a nearby room for a while, leaving the the other participants to squabble. When I read that I thought, trump went to snort some Adderall.
mrmoshpotato
@Geoduck: “Hmmm….your orange ass is deducting all of these ‘Payment to Russian mob’ line items. What’s up with that?”
Geminid
@WaterGirl: The facts of the planning and financing will ultimately come out through grand jury proceedings and criminal trial testimony. This will take weeks if not months. We can see the broad outlines now, but there is a lot of work to be done beyond the upcoming trial.
Ken
“As Powell and the others entered the Oval Office that evening, Herschmann — a wealthy business executive and former partner at Kasowitz Benson & Torres who’d been pulled out of quasi-retirement to advise Trump — quietly slipped in behind them.” Where have we heard about this law firm before? hmmm.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: I agree with you on that.
frosty
This whole story struck me as complete self serving bullshit for someone. Who brought the recorder and transcribed all this stuff? None of the attendees were capable.
False scribes! False scribes!
Geminid
@Geminid: For instance, what was Roger Stone’s role? Pictures have now come out of Stone and some “Three Percenters” at the Capitol, midday I believe. Stone says he took a flight out that afternoon. That makes me believe that Stone was a key organizer of the insurrection, just as he was the spider in the center of the Russian collusion web. And how do meetings at the Trump Hotel the night before tie in? Federal investigators and prosecutors have their work cut out for them, and Justice Department leadership is crucial. This is one reason we need Merrick Garland confirmed as Attorney General. It probably is also why Lindsey Graham has been obstructing Garland’s nomination.
frosty
@Geminid: Your questions are really valid.
Geminid
@Geminid: Correction: ABC and others reported on video showing Roger Stone hanging outside a DC hotel, not the Capitol, at 10am the morning of the 6th. With him are Oathkeepers. One of them is heard saying to Stone, “So we’ve got this today, right?” Stone responds, “We shall see.”
Sm*t Cl*de
@WaterGirl:
About the middle of his first term, if you weren’t a specialist.
RaflW
Late to this thread, but just have to say re the excerpt at top: “For the White House staff, it was an unending sea of garbage churned up by the bottom feeders.” How could they tell the difference, guests v. staff?
yellowdog
@mrmoshpotato: Several states have passed similar measures for ballot access but they haven’t been tried the real world yet.
evodevo
@Ruckus:
Most of them I know personally are still stuck at 14 yrs old….
evodevo
@Benw:
YES. This. We need a Jon Krakauer analysis, but NOW, while it is still a fresh topic… (I loved his Under the Banner of Heaven, about the Mormons…)
Miss Bianca
Very late to this thread, just wanted to note that I read all those Axios pieces the other day and believe me when I say that, fascnating as they were in a horrifying way, *no one* in that WH comes out looking good, intelligent, or sane – IMHO. Not sure what, if any, propaganda value these pieces are going to have.