Trump Thread

[Husar]

There's also the little detail that the video shows Wolfenstein and Fallout, which are made by Bethesda, which is owned by ZeniMax.
And it just so happens that the president's brother is on the Board of Directors of ZeniMax.
https://www.zenimax.com/about

Has he done anything about guns though or does he just switch topics now until the next big mass shooting?

[HopAlongBunny]

Steven Colbert had David Byrne on The Daily Show.
Byrne was punting his album American Utopia; pretty normal stuff.
I almost had a fit during the interview. Byrne sketched out a vague outline of a way to bring Kushner to life.
It involved looking just beyond that bland exterior, revealing the slow moving train-wreck of a Greek Tragedy; "the sins of the father being visited upon the progeny"
The vision of the Fates mercilessly pushing from behind to make an outcome nobody desires inevitable; Oh I hope this talk show one-off becomes a reality!

[HopAlongBunny]

Trump and Kim to share cheeseburgers! No they won't! Yes they will...possibly; reply hazy please contact your State Dep't later: buzz tone

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...ditions-449448

Ok, it seems the twitter feed got ahead of actual thinking.
So, how might the stupidest man in Washington fare in N.Korea?
That depends on a lot of things, including as it turns out whether it happens at all:

http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/09/...-mcdonaldland/

The above article notes that the meeting was the dangling carrot already; Trump just gave it away for nothing if he follows through.
Fortunately Trump rarely follows through; unless it makes him money.

[Fragony]

Feeding Kim cheeseburgers? Your national debt is high enough as it is

[Montmorency]

Xpost Trump vs. Kim

[a completely inoffensive name]

Leaving the term "technocracy" aside, federal elections should be more of a resume-measuring contest than a question of charisma (or of fundraising).

I'll have more to say about this ACIN, but don't fall into the Democratic trap of "electoralitis". Democrats need to pass proper legislation in office, not just take office to hold it. Also one of the things that makes me skeptical of Sanders: if there's a right way to do things, and you want to implement it in government, you should have a pioneering hard line prepared for all the world to see, not just statement of intent: "Here are comprehensive drafts for just about everything government can touch. The second we have suitable majorities, these bills will be signed into law. Immediately. Here is the substance publicly available ahead of time, for people of knowledge and good will to assess. None of that bipartisan debate crap on the floor. Immediately. "

I missed this among the daily show that is "what did the president say now?"

I mostly agree with what you are saying, but I think it would just be so much easier for the public to swallow with someone new rather than an experienced politician. Democrats are not good at PR. Cue the stats about people hating 'Obamacare' but they would love to keep the ACA.

Personally, I can only think of a few policies off the top of my head that would be both straightforward to implement, would be beneficial to the Democratic party, and has a chance of a broader coalition of support among the public.
A. Codified paid parental leave, both maternal and paternal. (Treat it as minimum wage, with a bottom limit of 12 paid weeks, states free to expand as they wish)
B. Amend the Reapportionment Act of 1929 to include the Wyoming Rule. (This would mitigate a portion of the gerrymandering disadvantage Democrats face in House elections in a scenario where SCOTUS upholds gerrymandering)
C. Automatic voter registration. (Several states already have their own programs, again leave it up to them with minimal standards to meet).

[Montmorency]

I missed this among the daily show that is "what did the president say now?"

I mostly agree with what you are saying, but I think it would just be so much easier for the public to swallow with someone new rather than an experienced politician. Democrats are not good at PR. Cue the stats about people hating 'Obamacare' but they would love to keep the ACA.

Personally, I can only think of a few policies off the top of my head that would be both straightforward to implement, would be beneficial to the Democratic party, and has a chance of a broader coalition of support among the public.
A. Codified paid parental leave, both maternal and paternal. (Treat it as minimum wage, with a bottom limit of 12 paid weeks, states free to expand as they wish)
B. Amend the Reapportionment Act of 1929 to include the Wyoming Rule. (This would mitigate a portion of the gerrymandering disadvantage Democrats face in House elections in a scenario where SCOTUS upholds gerrymandering)
C. Automatic voter registration. (Several states already have their own programs, again leave it up to them with minimal standards to meet).

One problem is that many reforms would necessarily be so massive, they could not be drafted by a small team ahead of elections. For these one is largely limited to advertising a set of principles or ideals that points in the direction of the reform. But you need a way to legislate a scaleable agenda into place so that, if hypothetically one party no longer has the supermajorities to pass a Universal Healthcare measure, the government would be provisioned to go on drafting and testing and building it up in the national consciousness in time for the next round.

Refund the IRS and do everyone's taxes for free. Relatively easy if the lobbyists are out of the picture for even a moment.

I mostly agree with what you are saying, but I think it would just be so much easier for the public to swallow with someone new rather than an experienced politician. Democrats are not good at PR.

Firebreathers like this guy?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...-collar-voters
https://www.politico.com/magazine/st...rmy-one-217217
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqsa0c8lHv0

After I introduced myself, Ojeda uncorked a nearly unbroken, 13-minute tirade in which he called lobbyists “the absolute scum of the earth,” said they should have to wear body cameras in the Capitol, said they shouldn’t even be allowed “in the damn Capitol,” and told me one of the first things he did as a state legislator was give energy industry lobbyists a tongue-lashing. “I threw Big Energy out of my office!” he said. “They said, ‘Well, is there anything we can do to change your mind?’ I said, ‘You can get yo’ ass out of my office.’” He continued by scorching lawmakers for making decisions based on corporate campaign contributions instead of the interests of their constituents.

“Bootlickers!” he screamed into the phone.

“Bootlickers!”

[a completely inoffensive name]

One problem is that many reforms would necessarily be so massive, they could not be drafted by a small team ahead of elections. For these one is largely limited to advertising a set of principles or ideals that points in the direction of the reform. But you need a way to legislate a scaleable agenda into place so that, if hypothetically one party no longer has the supermajorities to pass a Universal Healthcare measure, the government would be provisioned to go on drafting and testing and building it up in the national consciousness in time for the next round.

Again, I would agree. That's why the three I listed above would not be overly complicated to put into practice (A and C would be essentially amendments to previously passed bills from the early 90s) and give a good return on investments.
From my perspective, Trumpism has not invalidated the 2012 GOP autopsy report. Once Democrats find themselves above the stacked deck, many regions become competitive due to demographics and other regions will flip. Trump's hold on the section of blue collar whites is only as good as the Dem's were. If you ask them in 2020 if they were better now than 4 years ago, only those locked into into alt-right consciousness would deny the lack of effort made by this administration to bring back the coal jobs, fight the opioid crisis and revitalize the rust belt. This analysis also ignores the trends I have seen reported online about the millenials and gen Z workers being more receptive to participating in labor unions (which skew workers left by their nature) than their fathers and grandfathers.

Refund the IRS and do everyone's taxes for free. Relatively easy if the lobbyists are out of the picture for even a moment.

This almost happened in California (lost by one vote). Perhaps this is simply a case of unmined political gold that TurboTax has successfully kept hidden?

Firebreathers like this guy?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...-collar-voters
https://www.politico.com/magazine/st...rmy-one-217217
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqsa0c8lHv0

I do think men like him are the key to the future for the Democratic party. If Dems wish to become competitive in regions like West Virginia, they will need to become inclusive of men like Ojeda into the Democratic platform.

[Montmorency]

I do think men like him are the key to the future for the Democratic party. If Dems wish to become competitive in regions like West Virginia, they will need to become inclusive of men like Ojeda into the Democratic platform.

West Virginia Democrats tend to diverge a bit from the national party, typically marrying a yeoman’s populism with heavy doses of social conservatism. Ojeda is different still, with aggressively and blunt rhetoric reminiscent of Donald Trump, and politics that run the gamut but skew towards the Bernie Sanders wing of the party. On abortion, Ojeda said “I hate the idea of telling a woman what to do with her body,” and expresses support for Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood. He supports Dreamers in their battle for immigration reform, is open to some forms of gun control, marijuana legalization and makes a case for a government role in providing healthcare.

He's already left of just about any Blue Dog, with the advantage of economic populism rather than corporatism. Ideally the Democratic Party should be syncretizing economic populism and globalism, exporting it. The Dems should never be allowed to forget that US domestic policy is foreign policy of consequence.

But with Democrats like these...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[HopAlongBunny]

House Intel Panel:
No Collusion

https://www.npr.org/2018/03/12/59301...on-with-russia

The Panel minority dissent:

https://www.npr.org/2018/03/13/59332...ia-conclusions

The public record of what little we definitely know about Mueller's investigation:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/...y-worried.html

When Mueller lowers the boom there may not be enough popcorn for the full campaign.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

And adieu Rex Tillerson, we hardly knew ye.

The White House must speak with one voice, and that voice must be the President's.



On the other hand, it might be a LEEEEETLE easier to keep a staff if Trump himself knew what he was going to say more than 20 seconds prior to his saying/tweeting it.

[rory_20_uk]

He didn't appear to be doing a particularly great job - partly since he was somewhat bought into the "disruptive" agenda Donnie was peddling which unsurprisingly caused all the ones you want to stay to leave ASAP and of course not having Congress et al bought into the concept of a State Department that was 1/3 the size of what it was. There probably were changes that could be made, but "leadership" is supposedly taking others along with you.

But even with all the wilful damage and disruption he was creating, he still made the carnal sin of making Donnie look like a prat. Not falling foul of this requires someone with all the freedom of thought of a cult member who is happy for history to be rewritten one tweet at a time.

No idea about the new person but Donnie is currently saying how they are really good, close friends who he knows really well. In six months time he'll be denying he every did more than meet him twice in meetings and he too is too much "establishment" which apparently code for "refuses to believe that this is all some sort of reality show on MTV".

[spmetla]

Well Rex Tillerson is fired as Secretary of State:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/13/polit...est/index.html
In his outgoing remarks, Tillerson defends his record

This is an odd one too that will be overshadowed by Tillerson's departure:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/13/polit...nce/index.html
Longtime Trump aide fired over financial crime investigation

(CNN)President Donald Trump's longtime personal aide John McEntee was fired because he is currently under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security for serious financial crimes, a source familiar with his firing told CNN.

The charges are not related to the President, the source said.
Minutes after news of his departure broke, the Trump campaign announced McEntee would be joining the reelection effort as a senior adviser for campaign operations.
McEntee escorted from the White House on Monday, three sources with knowledge of the matter told CNN. Two sources said McEntee was pushed out because of issues with his security clearance, making him just the latest aide to be forced out because of difficulties obtaining a full security clearance.

[Montmorency]

http://www.businessinsider.com/trump...mnuchin-2018-3

In October 2017, BuzzFeed News reported that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and Tillerson had forged a "suicide pact," whereby all three agreed to leave if Trump fired one of them.

Elsewhere I saw McMaster included in the pact. Make it happen.

[Strike For The South]

Everyday I grow more weary of a man who is running everything into the damn ground.

I have spent 13 years on this forum wondering what the downfall of Western Civilization would be. Turns out it's simply all of our own worst vices.

Not with a bang but a whimper indeed.

It is March 13 2017 and Vladimar Putin is still a fascist.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Everyday I grow more weary of a man who is running everything into the damn ground.

I have spent 13 years on this forum wondering what the downfall of Western Civilization would be. Turns out it's simply all of our own worst vices.

Not with a bang but a whimper indeed.

It is March 13 2017 and Vladimar Putin is still a fascist.

Based on some old posts of Monty's I started listening to some discussions on Hannah Arendt and her notion of the 'Banality of Evil'.
Most men do not commit to evil actions because they are sociopaths, they simply do it to get ahead in the system which they operate in. The banality comes from the common ignorance we all share of turning the blinders on to what the outcome is of the overall system, only focusing on what our relative position is within that system.

This is what I think is going on with many agents in Trump's administration and the GOP. It's a shame that we as a nation were in a position to learn this lesson and internalize it, but didn't; I guess when faced with such atrocity it is easier to think of such things as somehow born in a culture wholly different from our own so that we can rest easier at night. Another common ignorance that leaves many in the US today wondering how we find White Nationalists marching in Charleston...

[Montmorency]

What did I say?

[a completely inoffensive name]

What did I say?

you quoted her in a different thread some time ago about the relationship of violence and power, I think. I made a note to learn more about her and only just got around to it recently. I would have to look up the specific post to remember the details.

[HopAlongBunny]

Trump won PA's 18th by 20 points.
The election just held seems to be a win for the Dem's by about 500 votes; this in a race that was "safe" for the R's.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43390652

One off or possible tsunami?
It seems a lot will hinge on turnout. Trump does not appear to be a positive factor, even for incumbent Republicans.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...nto-a-tsunami/

Could be a very interesting mid-term season.

[Shaka_Khan]

[spmetla]

Another Friday full of news and scandal...

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...ms-she-n857491
Trump tries to move Stormy Daniels lawsuit to federal court, claims she owes him $20 million

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

President Donald Trump and his personal attorney are trying to get a lawsuit by adult film star Stormy Daniels transferred to federal court — and they claim she's on the hook for at least $20 million for violating a secrecy agreement signed just before the election.

An attorney for the actress accused the Trump team of "bullying tactics" for the legal maneuver, which is aimed at pushing the dispute into private arbitration.

"To put it simply, they want to hide the truth from the American people. We will oppose this effort at every turn," said Michael Avenatti, the lawyer representing Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford.
Trump attorney Michael Cohen, with the consent of the president, filed a "notice of removal" on Friday that contends Clifford's suit should be moved from California state court to federal court because the parties live in different places and the amount at stake is more than $75,000.

Related: Another Trump lawyer signed Stormy Daniels gag-order documents

The new paperwork showed that Trump is being represented by Charles Harder, the high-profile attorney who won a $140 million verdict for Hulk Hogan against Gawker and who has also worked for Harvey Weinstein, Jared Kushner and a constellation of Hollywood stars. He also represented Melania Trump in her successful defamation suit against the Daily Mail newspaper.

Cohen and Harder did not respond to requests for comment from NBC News.
Clifford says in her lawsuit that she had an "intimate" relationship with Trump, who was married at the time, in 2006 and 2007. Trump denies the allegation.

In the fall of 2016, while Trump was running for president, Clifford signed a non-disclosure agreement in exchange for $130,000, the suit says. Cohen says he "facilitated" the payment with his own funds, through a company he created, and was not reimbursed by the Trump Organization or campaign.

Clifford's suit says that Trump never signed the agreement, making it null and void. She asked the Los Angeles Superior Court to declare it invalid, allowing her to speak with impunity.

Cohen had already secretly obtained a temporary restraining order against Clifford from a private arbitrator. He says the 2016 agreement specified that any dispute would be resolved through arbitration.

The removal notice says that the agreement calls for $1 million in damages for every breach and alleges that Clifford has broken it at least 20 times.

"This is simply more of the same bullying tactics from the president and Mr. Cohen," Avenatti said.

"They are now attempting to remove this case in order to increase their chances that the matter will ultimately be decided in private arbitration, behind closed doors, outside of public view and scrutiny.
"The fact that a sitting president is pursuing over $20 million in bogus 'damages' against a private citizen, who is only trying to tell the public what really happened, is truly remarkable — likely unprecedented in our history.

"We are not going away and we will not be intimidated by these threats."

The White House has sought to distance Trump from the Clifford dispute, while Avenatti has been highlighting ties between the president and the matter.

Cohen used his Trump Organization email to arrange for the transfer of funds before he wired the $130,000 to Clifford. And an in-house lawyer for the company also signed documents linked to last month's gag order.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.2693ae8b7a31
FBI’s Andrew McCabe is fired a little more than 24 hours before he could retire

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Attorney General Jeff Sessions late Friday night fired former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, a little more than 24 hours before McCabe was set to retire.

Sessions announced the decision in a statement just before 10 p.m., noting that both the Justice Department Inspector General and the FBI office that handles discipline had found “that Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor — including under oath — on multiple occasions.”

He said based on those findings and the recommendation of the department’s senior career official, “I have terminated the employment of Andrew McCabe effective immediately.”

The move will likely cost McCabe a significant portion of his retirement benefits, though it is possible he could bring a legal challenge. McCabe has been fighting vigorously to keep his job, and on Thursday, he spent nearly four hours inside the Justice Department pleading his case.

Michael R. Bromwich, McCabe’s attorney, said in a lengthy statement responding to the allegations that he had “never before seen the type of rush to judgment — and rush to summary punishment — that we have witnessed in this case.” He cited in particular President Trump’s attacks on McCabe on Twitter and the White House press secretary’s comments about him on Thursday — which he said were “quite clearly designed to put inappropriate pressure on the Attorney General to act accordingly.”
“This intervention by the White House in the DOJ disciplinary process is unprecedented, deeply unfair, and dangerous,” Bromwich said.

McCabe has become a lightning rod in the political battles over the FBI’s most high-profile cases, including the Russia investigation and the probe of Hillary Clinton’s email practices. He has been a frequent target of criticism from President Trump.

His firing — which was recommended by the FBI office that handles discipline — stems from a Justice Department inspector general investigation that found McCabe authorized the disclosure of sensitive information to the media about a Clinton-related case, then misled investigators about his actions in the matter, people familiar with the matter have said. He stepped down earlier this year from the No. 2 job in the bureau after FBI Director Christopher A. Wray was briefed on the inspector general’s findings, though he technically was still an employee.

McCabe, who conducted interviews with several media outlets in advance of his firing, told the New York Times that the allegations against him were “part of an effort to discredit me as a witness” in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the 2016 election.

“The idea that I was dishonest is just wrong,” he said.

Through a representative, McCabe declined to be interviewed by The Washington Post.

Bromwich, who himself is a former Justice Department Inspector General, suggested in his statement that office treated McCabe unfairly, cleaving off from a larger investigation its findings on McCabe and not giving McCabe an adequate chance to respond to the allegations he faced. He said McCabe and his lawyers were given limited access to the inspector general’s draft report late last month, saw a final report and evidence a week ago and were “receiving relevant exculpatory evidence as recently as two days ago.”
“With so much at stake, this process has fallen far short of what Mr. McCabe deserved,” Bromwich said. “This concerted effort to accelerate the process in order to beat the ticking clock of his scheduled retirement violates any sense of decency and basic principles of fairness.”

[FBI disciplinary office recommends firing former deputy director Andrew McCabe]

A spokesman for the inspector general’s office did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Some in the bureau might view McCabe’s termination so close to retirement as an unnecessarily harsh and politically influenced punishment for a man who spent more than 20 years at the FBI. The White House had seemed to support such an outcome, though a spokeswoman said the decision was up to Sessions.

“We do think that it is well documented that he has had some very troubling behavior and by most accounts a bad actor,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday.

Trump and McCabe’s relationship has long been fraught. The president has previously suggested that McCabe was biased in favor of Clinton, his political opponent, pointing out that McCabe’s wife, who ran as a Democrat for a seat in the Virginia legislature, received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from the political action committee of Terry McAuliffe, then the state’s governor and a noted Clinton ally. During an Oval office meeting in May, Trump is said to have asked McCabe whom he voted for in the presidential election and vented about the donations.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz put McCabe in his crosshairs during a broad look at alleged improprieties in the handling of the Clinton email case. In the course of that review, Horowitz found that McCabe had authorized two FBI officials to talk to then-Wall Street Journal reporter Devlin Barrett for a story about the case and another investigation into Clinton’s family foundation. Barrett now works for The Washington Post.

Background conversations with reporters are commonplace in Washington, though McCabe’s authorizing such a talk was viewed as inappropriate because the matter being discussed was an ongoing criminal investigation. The story ultimately presented McCabe as a somewhat complicated figure — one who some FBI officials thought was standing in the way of the Clinton Foundation investigation, but who also seemed to be pushing back against Justice Department officials who did not believe there was a case to be made.

McCabe, who turns 50 on Sunday and would have then been eligible for his full retirement benefits, had quickly ascended through senior roles to the No. 2 leadership post. He briefly served in an interim capacity as the FBI director, in the months between when Trump fired James B. Comey from the post and Wray was confirmed by the Senate.
McCabe’s team on Friday night released a bevy of statements from former national security officials supporting the former deputy director, including from former Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr.; former National Security Agency Deputy Director Richard H. Ledgett, Jr.; former U.S. attorney Chuck Rosenberg; former FBI national security official Michael B. Steinbach; and former Justice Department national security official Mary B. McCord.

Steinbach said McCabe had “become a convenient scapegoat so that narrow political objectives can be achieved.” McCord said she “never doubted his honesty or motivations, and can say without hesitation that he was one of the finest FBI agents with whom I ever worked.” Notably absent was a statement from Comey, McCabe’s former boss, though Comey did say after McCabe stepped down as deputy director that he “stood tall over the last 8 months, when small people were trying to tear down an institution we all depend on.”

Comey is still considered a key subject in Horowit’z probe of how the FBI handled the Clinton email case.

[Hooahguy]

If you havent read McCabe's statement, here it is:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I have been an FBI Special Agent for over 21 years. I spent half of that time investigating Russian Organized Crime as a street agent and Supervisor in New York City. I have spent the second half of my career focusing on national security issues and protecting this country from terrorism. I served in some of the most challenging, demanding investigative and leadership roles in the FBI. And I was privileged to serve as Deputy Director during a particularly tough time.

For the last year and a half, my family and I have been the targets of an unrelenting assault on our reputation and my service to this country. Articles too numerous to count have leveled every sort of false, defamatory and degrading allegation against us. The President's tweets have amplified and exacerbated it all. He called for my firing. He called for me to be stripped of my pension after more than 20 years of service. And all along we have said nothing, never wanting to distract from the mission of the FBI by addressing the lies told and repeated about us.

No more.

The investigation by the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has to be understood in the context of the attacks on my credibility. The investigation flows from my attempt to explain the FBI's involvement and my supervision of investigations involving Hillary Clinton. I was being portrayed in the media over and over as a political partisan, accused of closing down investigations under political pressure. The FBI was portrayed as caving under that pressure, and making decisions for political rather than law enforcement purposes. Nothing was further from the truth. In fact, this entire investigation stems from my efforts, fully authorized under FBI rules, to set the record straight on behalf of the Bureau, and to make clear that we were continuing an investigation that people in DOJ opposed.

The OIG investigation has focused on information I chose to share with a reporter through my public affairs officer and a legal counselor. As Deputy Director, I was one of only a few people who had the authority to do that. It was not a secret, it took place over several days, and others, including the Director, were aware of the interaction with the reporter. It was the type of exchange with the media that the Deputy Director oversees several times per week. In fact, it was the same type of work that I continued to do under Director Wray, at his request. The investigation subsequently focused on who I talked to, when I talked to them, and so forth. During these inquiries, I answered questions truthfully and as accurately as I could amidst the chaos that surrounded me. And when I thought my answers were misunderstood, I contacted investigators to correct them.

But looking at that in isolation completely misses the big picture. The big picture is a tale of what can happen when law enforcement is politicized, public servants are attacked, and people who are supposed to cherish and protect our institutions become instruments for damaging those institutions and people.

Here is the reality: I am being singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey. The release of this report was accelerated only after my testimony to the House Intelligence Committee revealed that I would corroborate former Director Comey's accounts of his discussions with the President. The OIG's focus on me and this report became a part of an unprecedented effort by the Administration, driven by the President himself, to remove me from my position, destroy my reputation, and possibly strip me of a pension that I worked 21 years to earn. The accelerated release of the report, and the punitive actions taken in response, make sense only when viewed through this lens. Thursday's comments from the White House are just the latest example of this.

This attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort not just to slander me personally, but to tain the FBI, law enforcement, and intelligence professionals more generally. It is part of this Administration's ongoing war on the FBI and the efforts of the Special Counsel investigation, which continue to this day. Their persistence in this campaign only highlights the importance of the Special Counsel's work.

I have always prided myself on serving my country with distinction and integrity, and I always encouraged those around me to do the same. Just ask them. To have my career end in this way, and to be accused of lacking candor when at worst I was distracted in the midst of chaotic events, is incredibly disappointing and unfair. But it will not erase the important work I was privileged to be a part of, the results of which will in the end be revealed for the country to see.

I have unfailing faith in the men and women of the FBI and I am confident that their efforts to seek justice will not be deterred.

Pretty harsh stuff. I'm actually rather shocked how forward McCabe was about this. But then again, I would probably be pretty angry over being fired literally a day before I qualified for my pension too.

[Montmorency]

From what I've been reading, Stormy Daniels (and Buzzfeed) has Trump legally outmaneuvered.

Presumably McCabe will retire to Twitter to tagteam with Comey in slamming the White House. By Twitter, I mean depositions.

[Fragony]

Trump certainly has personality issues.. Got to wonder where it came from. Really stern father? Normal people aren't this resentful, I can see a little Trumpie crying in a corner

[Strike For The South]

Trump certainly has personality issues.. Got to wonder where it came from. Really stern father? Normal people aren't this resentful, I can see a little Trumpie crying in a corner

Money and arrogance tend to exacerbate bad personality traits.

[Husar]

What I really don't get is how Trump can be the candidate of choice for christians. Not just in the US but also some here in Europe.
He's rich, arrogant, condescending, vain, proud of himself, bullies others and so on and that's not even considering the sex scandals they can explain away with fake news about them being democrat conspiracies with paid actors. Pretty much all of that is not how Jesus or the bible in general described a good christian. And yet, just because he mentions God once in a while, many christians think he is somehow the christian candidate. Then again I also don't get why christians need a gun to turn the other cheek, but...

[Hooahguy]

What I really don't get is how Trump can be the candidate of choice for christians. Not just in the US but also some here in Europe.
He's rich, arrogant, condescending, vain, proud of himself, bullies others and so on and that's not even considering the sex scandals they can explain away with fake news about them being democrat conspiracies with paid actors. Pretty much all of that is not how Jesus or the bible in general described a good christian. And yet, just because he mentions God once in a while, many christians think he is somehow the christian candidate. Then again I also don't get why christians need a gun to turn the other cheek, but...

I wouldn't be shocked if this Stormy Daniels thing turns up that Trump forced her to get an abortion. And I would be less surprised if then the Evangelicals didnt care.

[HopAlongBunny]

And I would be less surprised if then the Evangelicals didnt care.

The "Christian Right": emulate Jesus, act like Trump.
Face it, he is what they wish they were.

[Montmorency]

What I really don't get is how Trump can be the candidate of choice for christians. Not just in the US but also some here in Europe.
He's rich, arrogant, condescending, vain, proud of himself, bullies others and so on and that's not even considering the sex scandals they can explain away with fake news about them being democrat conspiracies with paid actors. Pretty much all of that is not how Jesus or the bible in general described a good christian. And yet, just because he mentions God once in a while, many christians think he is somehow the christian candidate. Then again I also don't get why christians need a gun to turn the other cheek, but...

Every candidate talks about their faith, including Clinton and Obama and Sanders. Here's what happens if you run an atheist candidate: you lose by 50 points. The candidate only did about as well as Clinton in the counties of the district, though generically there should be at least some shift.

The "Christian Right": emulate Jesus, act like Trump.
Face it, he is what they wish they were.

Interesting thing about the Christian Right in the past two generations is how they seem to have utterly shed any sense of shame.

[Montmorency]

Speaking of which...

@Seamus Fermanagh

Here's the father of my current governor speechifying in the 80s about "Religious Belief and Public Morality: A Catholic Governor's Perspective".