The Commentariat -- February 16, 2019
Afternoon Update:
Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "House Democrats are taking their first real steps to force ... Donald Trump to divulge information about his private conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, setting up an extraordinary clash with the White House over Congress' oversight authority. Rep. Adam Schiff, the Intelligence Committee chairman, and Rep. Eliot Engel, the Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, told Politico they are actively consulting with House General Counsel Douglas Letter about the best way to legally compel the Trump administration to turn over documents or other information related to the president's one-on-one discussions with the Russian leader.... In particular, Democrats say they want to find out what Trump and Putin discussed during their private meeting in Helsinki last July, where Trump put himself at odds with the U.S. intelligence community and declared --; while standing next to the Russian president -- that the Kremlin did not interfere in the 2016 elections."
Linda Qiu of the New York Times: "To justify redirecting federal funds to a wall, the president made a litany of assertions about crime, drugs and other issues on the southern border. Nearly all were misleading, exaggerated or false." ...
... Glenn Kessler & Meg Kelly of the Washington Post: "Where to begin with President Trump's rambling news conference to announce he was invoking a national emergency to build a border wall? It was chock-full of false and misleading claims, many of which we've previously highlighted.... Here's a summary of 14 of the most noteworthy claims...."
Elizabeth Dias & Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "Pope Francis has expelled Theodore E. McCarrick, a former cardinal and archbishop of Washington, from the priesthood, after the church found him guilty of sexually abusing minors and adult seminarians over decades, the Vatican said on Saturday. The move appears to be the first time any cardinal has been defrocked for sexual abuse -- marking a critical moment in the Vatican's handling of a scandal that has gripped the church for nearly two decades. It is also the first time an American cardinal has been removed from the priesthood."
*****
#FakeTrumpEmergency
The president's actions clearly violate the Congress's exclusive power of the purse, which our Founders enshrined in the Constitution. The Congress will defend our constitutional authorities in the Congress, in the Courts, and in the public, using every remedy available. We call upon our Republican colleagues to join us to defend the Constitution. -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi & Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in a joint statement.
... Mrs. McCrabbie: One big problem: the public doesn't understand the concept of separation of powers that Democrats are trying to protect. Most (74 percent) can't even name the three branches of government, much less understand the established Constitutional relationship among them.
Shannon Vavra of Axios: "The House Judiciary Committee announced it will investigate President Trump's national emergency declaration in light of comments he made at his Rose Garden press conference on Friday morning, during which he claimed that he 'didn't need to do this.'... In a letter addressed to Trump, Democrats who control the committee requested a hearing with White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and 'appropriate individuals' from the Justice Department, as well as background documents related to the decision and written responses to a number of questions. The panel asked Trump to provide the relevant information by Feb. 22."
Connor O'Brien of Politico: "... Donald Trump's decision to tap into billions of dollars in defense funding to help build his signature border wall drew fierce criticism Friday from military-minded lawmakers in both parties, who warned the move would damage military readiness. Trump's declaration of a national emergency, including tapping into $3.6 billion in military construction funding to finance more barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border, set off another firestorm on Capitol Hill as he declared that the military projects his administration intended to raid 'didn't sound too important to me.'... House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) vowed stiff oversight to highlight specific military projects Trump 'has chosen to value less' than a border wall.'... Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, called Trump's move a 'dangerous precedent' and warned 'securing our border should not be done at the expense of previously funded military construction projects.'"
Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News: "A consumer advocacy group filed the first lawsuit late Friday challenging ... Donald Trump's national emergency declaration, suing on behalf of Texas landowners and an environmental group who say they'll be affected by border wall construction. The case, filed by Public Citizen in federal district court in Washington, DC, is the first of what are expected to be multiple lawsuits challenging Trump's unprecedented decision to declare a national emergency in order to access $3.6 billion in military construction funds to pay for more sections of the wall he promised to build along the US-Mexico border." ...
... ACLU: "The American Civil Liberties Union today announced that it will file a lawsuit challenging President Trump's emergency powers declaration to secure funds to build a wall along the southern border."
Matt Wilstein of the Daily Beast: "Ann Coulter says she's thankful President Trump distanced himself from her on Friday after he disappointed her once again by signing a bipartisan border deal while simultaneously declaring a national emergency to fund his wall. 'I haven't spoken to her. I don't follow her. I don't talk to her, but the press loves to bring up the name Ann Coulter,' Trump told reporters from the Rose Garden Friday morning.... The president's 'mandate,' Coulter said, was to build the wall. And even though that's what he plans to do by declaring a national emergency, she's not happy about it. 'The only national emergency is that our president is an idiot,' she said.... Coulter predicted that the courts will use the bill Trump just signed to block him from building the wall, once again calling him a 'lazy' and 'incompetent' president who is surrounded by 'absolute morons' like Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump."
I could do the wall over a longer period of time. I didn't need to do this. But I'd rather do it much faster. And I don't have to do it for the election. I've already done a lot of wall for the election. 2020. And the only reason we're up here talking about this is because of the election -- because they want to try to win an election, which it looks like they're not going to be able to do. -- Donald Trump, explaining in the Rose Garden why his "national emergency" was an unnecessary, bogus political gambit
Trump also said, 'I made a deal ... but I'm not happy with it,' making clear that he sees the emergency declaration as a way to get around Congress. -- Noah Lanard of Mother Jones
So then Trump rushed off to Mar-a-Lago to oversee the "national emergency" while playing golf over the long weekend. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump declared a national emergency at the border on Friday to access billions of dollars to build a border wall that Congress refused to give him, transforming a highly charged policy dispute into a fundamental confrontation over separation of powers. In a televised announcement in the Rose Garden, Mr. Trump said he would sign the declaration to protect the country from the flow of drugs, criminals and illegal immigrants coming across the border from Mexico, which he characterized as a profound threat to national security." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Damian Paletta, et al., of the Washington Post: "During a 50-minute, meandering Rose Garden news conference, Trump offered little empirical evidence to back up his assertion that there was a crisis on the border requiring an extraordinary response. Instead, he invoked hyperbolic, campaign-style rhetoric about lawlessness that he said only walls could suitably address.... He later said the emergency declaration wasn't urgent but rather expedient, as it would help him build a wall more quickly than Congress would allow.... Democrats and several Republicans predicted a two-pronged response to the declaration: one, having Congress vote to reject it in the coming weeks, and two, suing Trump -- or at least aiding other parties that attempt to intervene.... White House officials plan to use $8 billion to build new fencing that they believe will block or discourage a wide range of immigrants." The reporters break down the planned sources of those funds. ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "The idea that the situation at the border is truly a 'national emergency' already strained credulity. And at Friday’s news conference, President Trump might have just erased any doubt about his true motivation.... 'I didn't need to do this,' Trump said. 'But I'd rather do it much faster.'... If it's truly an emergency, how can you say you didn't need to declare an emergency? Trump basically admitted that this was a choice for him -- a matter of expediency, quite literally -- and not something required by events on the ground.... He repeatedly disagreed with data, even data produced by his own administration, about what's happening on the border. He called reports showing the vast majority of drugs come through ports of entry, where a wall wouldn't matter, a 'lie.' Of data that show undocumented immigrants commit less crime than native-born Americans, Trump told the reporter, 'You don't really believe that stat, do you?'"...
... ** Dana Milbank: "... with the nation watching, Trump ... delivered a bizarre, 47-minute variant of his campaign speech. He boasted about the economy, military spending and the stock markets ('we have all the records'), and he applauded the Chinese president's pledge to execute people who deal fentanyl ('one of the things I'm most excited about in our trade deal'). [Read on for a good summary of bizarro claims.] Somewhere, administration lawyers were face-palming.... CNN's Jim Acosta pointed out that border crossings are near record lows and illegal immigrants are not disproportionately criminal. 'You're fake news,' Trump replied. Playboy's Brian Karem asked Trump to 'clarify where you get your numbers.' 'Sit down,' Trump told him, declaring that 'I use many stats.' Minutes later, he pumped a fist in the air and departed. 'What about the 25th Amendment?' Acosta called after him. Trump's performance had already provided a compelling answer." ...
... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "The President lets it all hang out: the incoherence, the fabrications, the mendacity, the raging but delicate ego, the attention-deficit disorder, and, occasionally, the revealing shards of self-illumination. He just can't help himself.... Trump's description of the situation at the border is almost entirely fictitious, of course, but in one sense it is real. It's a central element of the political narrative he has constructed for his white-nationalist base over the past three and a half years, and, as he helpfully sought to explain, it's one he can't easily back away from at this stage.... In [his] carefully concocted narrative, the wall isn't a mere stretch of concrete or steel fencing stretching along the border; it's a symbol of national sovereignty and regeneration. But, if it's so important, why didn't Trump get it built during his first two years in office, when the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress? Trump's failure to ge his own party to support what was arguably his signature campaign pledge demonstrates that he is fundamentally a weak and isolated President.... [Mitch McConnell's capitulation] was yet another example of how the G.O.P. leadership's Faustian pact with Trump has driven them to enable his more authoritarian tendencies. ...
... Matt Ford of the New Republic: "So why did McConnell relent and declare his support for the president's plan to declare a national emergency? Trump reportedly had last-minute apprehensions about signing the compromise spending bill, even though a veto would have triggered another partial government shutdown for which Republicans would bear the blame. McConnell could not risk that, and likely was unable to change Trump's mind about the emergency declaration. This is the perfect encapsulation of the ruling Republican Party today: an uncompromising president who inflicts long-term damage to avoid the short-term humiliation, and a spineless leader of the Senate who stands by him every step of the way."
... Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Forced to confront arguably the biggest surrender of his presidency, Mr. Trump did what he often does after a loss: respond with distraction, digression and entertainment, through a fog of words. There was no teleprompter. He hardly looked at his notes. There was just Mr. Trump, dressed in a dark overcoat and bright blue tie, free-associating in tweetable sound bites.... A White House handout was titled 'President Donald J. Trump's Border Security Victory.'... The Rose Garden has become Mr. Trump's chosen backdrop for pitching defeats as victories.... Employing a singsong voice that seemed meant to play down the significance of the separation of powers he will be testing, Mr. Trump walked through what he anticipated would be the legal ramifications of his order.... Throughout, Mr. Trump focused on grisly, specific stories while ignoring questions about why there needed to be a national emergency now, as opposed to two years ago."
Michael Tackett of the New York Times: "Here are six takeaways from Mr. Trump's action. Trump will go to almost any length to appease his base.... Democrats probably can't stop him, but they can make it awkward... Pulling money from elsewhere could make new enemies.... A court challenge is a near certainty.... Expect to hear a lot from [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi about a basic tenet of American government, that Congress is a coequal branch of government that is not cowed by presidential whim."
Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday pointed to nearly five dozen previous instances in which presidents of both parties have declared emergencies as justification for his invocation of extraordinary powers to build his border wall.... He portrayed his invocation of emergency powers as a routine use of executive authority that was never controversial when his predecessors did it.... But there is no precedent for what he has just done. None of the times emergency powers have been invoked since 1976, the year Congress enacted the National Emergencies Act, involved a president making an end run around lawmakers to spend money on a project they had decided against funding. Mr. Trump, by contrast, is challenging the bedrock principle that the legislative branch controls the government's purse."
Jonathan Chait: "Trump's extemporaneous commentary defending his emergency decision repeatedly gave away his own rationale. He admitted he could have passed border funding through Congress during his first year and a half, but he was 'too new to politics,' and his fellow Republicans 'didn't step up.' And he admitted the emergency declaration was a luxury rather than an emergency ('I didn't need to do this. But I'd rather do it much faster.'). He is clumsily undermining his already-shaky legal case, while making it plain his ploy is to claim Executive powers to override an area of control for Congress.... Trump chillingly praised anti-drug policy in authoritarian China, which he claims has achieved total success by brutalizing criminals. His argument for a wall could just as easily be used to justify overriding criminal-justice protections.... Trump has at minimum proven that he lacks the temperament or basic competence to serve as president of the United States." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: It was kind of enjoyable to hear Trump admit he didn't know WTF he was doing when he was "too new to politics," & completely predictable that he would blame Ryan & McConnell, et al., for failing to "step up." ...
... Henry Olsen of the Washington Post: "Trump's rambling and disjointed explanation for his decision is a perfect example why so many independents and former Republicans find him unacceptable.... Words matter when you are president. They are a president's strongest weapon.... A leader who can't string together an original coherent paragraph loses ... voters' respect.... Friday morning's speech was significantly worse than normal even for a man whose rhetorical style will never be confused with Cicero's."
... Trump said during Q&A that the Pentagon's planned spending projects "didn't seem too important to" him. One of the piggy banks Trump is planning to raid is for military housing. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Joshua Schneyer, et al., of Reuters: "Deeply troubled by military housing conditions exposed by Reuters reporting, the U.S. Army's top leadership vowed Friday to renegotiate its housing contracts with private real estate firms, test tens of thousands of homes for toxins and hold its own commanders responsible for protecting Army base residents from dangerous homes. In an interview, the Secretary of the Army Mark Esper said Reuters reports and a chorus of concerns from military families had opened his eyes to the need for urgent overhauls of the Army's privatized housing system, which accommodates more than 86,000 families. The secretary's conclusion: Private real estate firms tasked with managing and maintaining the housing stock have been failing the families they serve, and the Army itself neglected its duties." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Daily Beast: "Replying to a tweet that claimed 'the goal of a national emergency is to end illegal immigration and cartel smuggling,' Coulter wrote that 'no, the goal of a national emergency is for Trump to scam the stupidest people in his base for 2 more years.' In a subsequent tweet, she added that 'The goal is to get Trump's stupidest voters to say "HE'S FIGHTING!" No he's not. If he signs this bill, it's over.'"
Brian Krassenstein of the Hill Reporter: "In [a] 2014 video, first posted by Conservative pundit, and Trump critic Bill Kristol, former Indiana Governor and current Vice President, Mike Pence attacks Obama's use of executive powers to push through new immigration policy. 'I think it would be a profound mistake for the President of the United States to overturn American immigration law with the stroke of a pen,' Pence, said in the video, taken at the annual Republican Governors Association conference in New Jersey, just days after President Obama announced that he would use his executive powers to offer temporary legal status to certain undocumented immigrants." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's worth noting that President Obama's executive action was materially different from Trump's fake national emergency. First, Obama did not declare a national emergency. Second, Obama's executive order had little or no spending impact; i.e., it didn't usurp Congress's "power of the purse." Third, it did directly overturn a Congressional action; rather, it made a substantial policy change that Congress itself could have enacted into law.
The Trump Scandals, Ctd.
Wow! Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Prosecutors said for the first time that they have evidence of Roger Stone communicating with WikiLeaks, according to a new court filing from special counsel prosecutors. During its investigation..., 'the government obtained and executed dozens of search warrants on various accounts used to facilitate the transfer of stolen documents for release, as well as to discuss the timing and promotion of their release,' the prosecutors wrote Friday to a federal judge. 'Several of those search warrants were executed on accounts that contained Stone's communications with Guccifer 2.0 and with Organization 1,' which is WikiLeaks. Previously, the prosecutors had only outlined how Stone attempted to get in touch with WikiLeaks' Julian Assange through intermediaries.... Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Friday denied Stone's attempt to get a new judge in his case, by alleging that his charges are unrelated to a case about the Russian hack of the Democrats. Prosecutors say they are indeed related, partly because they both hinge on some of the same search warrants." ...
... As Frank Figliuzzi noted on MSNBC, "This may be the closest we've come to actual evidence of collusion with Russians." (paraphrase, but close) Stone has claimed he never communicated with WikiLeaks or Guccifer 2.0.
... Katelyn Polantz: "A federal judge has placed a gag order on ... Roger Stone and attorneys involved in his criminal case, though Stone's ability to speak publicly isn't completely restricted. Lawyers 'for the parties and the witnesses must refrain from making statements to the media or in public settings that pose a substantial likelihood of material prejudice to this case,' Judge Amy Berman Jackson wrote. They, their clients and even Stone are also not allowed to speak in and around the courthouse. In her order, Jackson notes how effective Stone has been in gaining followers, critics and media attention. She notes 'the size and vociferousness of the crowds that have already been attracted to these proceedings, and the risk that public pronouncements by the participants may inflame those gatherings.'"
Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Robert Mueller's office recommended on Friday that Paul Manafort get up to 24-and-a-half years in prison for his conviction last summer for financial malfeasance. The special counsel's suggestion is the opening move in what will be a two-step sentencing process for the 69-year-old former Trump campaign chairman, who appears to be on track to spend the rest of his life in prison absent a presidential pardon.... In their 27-page memo filed late Friday, Mueller's team signaled it would recommend a sentence from 19-and-a-half to 24-and-a-half years in prison for the Virginia case alone. They also recommended a fine between $50,000 and $24.4 million, supervised release of up to five years and forfeitures in the amount of more than $4.4 million.... The Mueller prosecutors described a series of crimes committed 'for no other reason than greed, evidencing his belief that the law does not apply to him.' They also made a clear reference to Manafort's time atop Trump's 2016 campaign, noting his 'repeated misrepresentations to financial institutions were brazen, at least some of which were made at a time when he was the subject of significant national attention.'... Both Democrats and Republicans have both warned the president against [pardoning Manafort]. But ... Trump ... asked his legal team to review pardon scenarios last summer during the Manafort trial and told the New York Post in a November interview that he 'wouldn't take it off the table.'"
Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings said on Friday that his panel received new documents showing that two attorneys for ... Donald Trump may have lied to government ethics officials about Trump fixer Michael Cohen's payments to women alleging affairs with the president ahead of the 2016 election. 'It now appears that President Trump's other attorneys --; at the White House and in private practice -- may have provided false information about these payments to federal officials,' Cummings (D-Md.) wrote in a letter to White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.... 'This raises significant questions about why some of the president's closest advisers made these false claims and the extent to which they too were acting at the direction of, or in coordination with, the president,' the chairman wrote.... Cummings named Sheri Dillon [private] and Stefan Passantino [White House] as the two attorneys who might have made false statements to the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), citing documents the committee obtained from the office."
Pamela Brown & Alex Rogers of CNN: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has interviewed White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, she told CNN on Friday. 'The President urged me, like he has everyone in the administration, to fully cooperate with the special counsel. I was happy to voluntarily sit down with them,' Sanders said in response to a question from CNN. The interview is one of the final known interviews by Mueller's team. It came around the same time as the special counsel interviewed former White House chief of staff John Kelly, well after a number of other senior officials, including former White House communications director Hope Hicks and former press secretary Sean Spicer, were brought in for questioning. The White House did not immediately agree to grant the special counsel an interview with Sanders, according to one of the sources. Similarly, as CNN reported in December, White House lawyers initially objected to Mueller's request to interview Kelly, who ultimately responded to a narrow set of questions from special counsel investigators." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Sanders' responses to investigators' questions included & were limited to, "I'll get back to you on that," and "I have no further information on that."
Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker will remain at the Justice Department despite William Barr's being sworn in to lead the department. Whitaker, who served as chief of staff to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions until ... Donald Trump tapped him for the acting role in November, is now a senior counselor in the associate attorney general's office, a department spokesperson said Friday.... The Office of the Associate Attorney General, whose titular role is currently filled on an acting basis, oversees civil justice, federal and local law enforcement, and public safety matters for DOJ." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Pete Williams of NBC News: "The U.S. Supreme Court said Friday that it will take up the battle over a citizenship question for the coming census, agreeing to hear and decide the case before the court's term ends in late June. Eighteen states, several of the nation's largest cities, and immigrant rights groups sued the government over its decision to ask about citizenship on the 2020 census form that goes to every U.S. household. They said the question would make immigrants reluctant to respond to census takers, resulting in an undercount of the population." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg returned to the Supreme Court Friday for the first time since she underwent surgery in December, a court spokeswoman said. Ginsburg, 85, participated in a private conference with her colleagues as they considered which cases to accept for review or reject, said court spokeswoman Kathleen Arberg." (Also linked yesterday.)
Presidential Race 2020
Holly Ramer, et al., of the AP: "Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, little-known on the national stage but well-respected among veterans in the GOP establishment, announced an exploratory committee for president on Friday, becoming the first Republican to move toward a serious primary challenge against ... Donald Trump. There are new signs he won't be the last. In the immediate aftermath of the 73-year-old Weld's announcement at a breakfast event in New Hampshire, a senior aide for former Ohio Gov. John Kasich indicated Kasich is likely to launch a primary challenge as well.... [Aides to] Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan ... acknowledge that the two-term Republican governor is openly considering a Trump challenge." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
News Ledes
New York Times: "Lee Radziwill, the free-spirited former princess who shared the qualities of wealth, social status and ambition with her older sister, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, but who struggled as an actor, decorator and writer to share her sister's aura of success, died on Friday at her home in Manhattan. She was 85."
Chicago Tribune: "Six people, including a gunman, died in a mass shooting at a manufacturing firm Friday afternoon, and five officers were struck by gunfire, officials said. Authorities confirmed the shooter, Gary Martin, 45, was killed in a shootout with police. Police said he was a 15-year veteran of Henry Pratt Co. in the industrial park in the Chicago suburb, and was getting fired Friday."
Share Article
Reader Comments (18)
Basically every MSM commentator frames "wall" as something DD "has" to do to keep his fanatical cult followers. I agree to an extent, but it should also be taken into consideration the amazing pliability that Trumpers follow their Dear Leader. He blows smoke up all their asses daily and they don't care, to the point he says "wall" is being built and they still hurrah.
It is absolutely plausible that he could tell his sheeple that drones and cameras and infrared tech and bigger guns are actually all they need, and they'd all applaud anyway. Only the fringe of his fringe is actually diehard about "wall", so if he wanted to he could head fake and get Bill Shine to film sleek helicopters cruising at low altitudes with giant machine guns hanging off the side and declare victory and lose approx zero political support. I don't know who is behind the scenes brainwashing him into this real national emergency (the Constitutional one), but I sincerely doubt it's Diaper Donny and if he had any "real deal" acumen, he'd have already sold his base a bullshit sandwich long ago to get them off his back about shit I'm still convinced he knows (somewhere in that adderalled brain) is a fantasy anyway.
One positive aside in all this, and it's come at great cost, is Mr. McConnel's reputation is permanently and irreparably tainted by Trumpenstench. He'll have that flabby ballsack sitting dead center on his face for eternity, blowing up any notions of any supposed principals or mores he held after he walked off the cliff while clinging to power by his fingernails.
I once had a dear friend, Lydia, whose mode of conversation was what you could call wildly tangential: She'd start out telling you about a problem with her daughter's marriage which segued into a discussion of her therapist which began a long diatribe on the type of therapy which then, because she spotted a neighbor's garden, (we were on a walk) she'd go into minute detail about certain kinds of flowers to plant. You always had to bring her back to her original point.
Listening to the Rambling Rose Garden Fog of Words speech I thought at least Lydia made sense which this pretender of a president seems incapable of doing. Unhinged––or as Chait says:
"Trump has at minimum proven that he lacks the temperament or basic competence to serve as the President of the U.S."
One of his lies that bothered me the most was claiming that Obama told him when they had their meeting after the election that he had planned to go to war with North Korea. "Rubbish" said General McCaffery, "Obama never entertained that notion–-Trump out and out lied." I thought I was immune to Trump's bizarre antics but this performance has a different stink to it–-even Lydia would have been shocked.
And look what George Conway had to say–-priceless with a picture to boot! La jiggy jar dar doo~~~~~~~
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-kellyanne-conway-husband-jar-jar-binks_n_5c675b61e4b033a79942c18b
I think, for many people who tend toward fear and xenophobia, walls have a historically talismanic power. But those whom the walls are built to keep out typically find ways over, under, and around them. The Trojans had some very nice walls. So did the people in Jericho (if you want to get mythical). The Great Wall of China has been breached many times. In the Middle Ages, kings built walls around their castles and then around cities. Those locked out built siege weapons. Those inside the walls were cooked. How long did it take the Nazis to roll over the Maginot Line? Twenty minutes? If that?
Even the Berlin Wall was overcome.
High tech stuff like drones and infrared tracking just don’t have the same appeal to the fearful. They have a superstitious faith (and more than a little glee) in the image of brown people coming up to the Great Trump Wall and collapsing in tears and frustration at not being able to sell drugs or rape white women. White people saved again!
A couple of years ago I remember reading an incredible article about some far right Christian group that planned to build themselves a walled city somewhere in Nevada (I think) to keep out the heathens (and the real world). They had a little plot picked out for growing food, plots for churches and special prayer areas, spots for their Christian school where only the Bible would be taught. They seemed to think their wall would keep them safe.
I guess they never heard of things like planes and RF signals.
They loves them their walls.
If you recall the original “Night of the Living Dead”, the last remaining humans were sure that once they got to their safe house and barricaded themselves behind the walls, all would be well. Right. They don’t call them horror movies for nothing,
But this image, the chosen ones being hunted by demonic others is exactly what Trump is selling:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uU0DNCV22dU
THIS is what he wants the droolers to see in their nightmares.
Only thing is, the wall doesn’t work here either.
History, as it usually does, gives the lie to Fatty’s most fervent promises. Every time I hear him declare, with all the certitude of ignorance, that “walls work!”, I think “Read a book, you idiot”.
Oops, that last comment was mine. I meant to address it to Safari’s earlier comment. A combination of doing this on a cell phone and having the flu.
Long list of Fact checks here on Trump's long list of lies: Instead of this being on Fact-Check.Org it should be on the front pages of all the national papers. I remain flummoxed at what this guy gets away with. There was our newly minted A.G. sitting in the the front row––does he know how many lies were being thrown his way? Will he in any way try and protect this monster of a man?
https://www.factcheck.org/2019/02/factchecking-trumps-national-emergency-remarks/
@AK: that's so funny–-as I was reading that comment I thought safari is sounding just like Akhilleus. Sorry about the flu–-take care of yourself, my friend--flues is bad!
One thought about Fatty’s incessant, juvenile whining. Yesterday, like a petulant 6 year old, he sez “Well, I don’t like it, see? But I guess I’ll do it...”, scowl on his puss, looking down, kicking the dirt.
All of which makes him look like a spoiled brat who couldn’t get his way. What he should have done, what a grown up would do, would be to say, “Well, things didn’t work out as I’d hoped, but it’s important to keep the government open and functioning. We live in a democracy and you don’t always get what you want, but there might be places we can compromise and still achieve our goals. Let’s all move forward together.”
At least then he’d look like an adult. But wingers don’t like mature adults. They want what they want. No deals, no compromises, no backing down. And if it doesn’t work, it’s not because their demands were ridiculous or unworkable, it’s because they’ve been stabbed in the back by traitors and are victims once more.
Trump admitted as much. It wasn’t his fault. Republicans didn’t step up and Democrats love open borders and want to invite murdering wetbacks into the country to destroy the economy and kill white people.
“I don’t wanna, but I guess I’ll do it.” My 8 year old doesn’t even pull that one anymore.
Evidence of unfitness overflows in a cornucopia of incompetence.
PD,
Thank you. The constant light headedness and general sense of being off kilter might be fun (for an hour or so) if it wasn’t for the less enjoyable stuff. Reading is tough. Last night I was reading (trying to read) about the development of modernism. I quit after reading the same paragraph three times with no improvement in comprehension. Switched to short stories but tossed that aside after thinking “Who is this guy again, and why is he looking for a hammer?”
Gave up and put in a movie.
No matter how advanced our medical science, nature will always have us in the rear view. Every year a new strain of flu arrives to laugh at our previous efforts to stem its progress. We’ve had swine flu, bird flu. Prob’ly 50 years from now we’ll have Monarch butterfly flu.
Unless the wingers kill the Monarchs first.
PD,
At least your friend Lydia was saying true things. Fatty’s stream of unconsciousness is a river of lies. Big difference.
I wonder, in Liarbee’s interview with Mueller’s guys, whether she took along her trademark sneer, and whether she constantly interrupted them, insulted them, questioned their motivation for each query, doubted their sincerity, and their love of America.
I’ll bet there was some of that. She can’t help it. She is a grade A Trump asshole.
@safari@Akhilleus: I think you might be referring to a right-wing doomsday guy who planned to build a self-sufficient, medieval-style walled community in northern Idaho, which he would call "The Citadel." Their main industries would be manufacturing guns &, um, tourism. Although I'm sure this is not the only such plan, the developer (also a convicted extortionist) had drawn up a plan that was quite cute & reminiscent (to me anyway) of a board game. I ran a link to a story about the Citadel & I think I posted a photo of the plan.Like most such plans, the Citadel would be "exclusive," in that only like-minded people, who met a number of criteria, would be/feel welcome. As far as I can tell, the Citadel was never built & no doubt the "developer" absconded with the "membership" fees (of around $200) which he collected.
This type of utopian community has a long history in North America. Ironically, the earliest settlers in the South planned more feudal-style societies, with a lord & master receiving land grants from the King of England, a class of lords & ladies, and one of servants, while New Englanders had more egalitarian-style communities in mind, where "freeholders" would be the governing bodies & all receive plots of land around common greens, and everyone would adhere to same religious and behavioral rules.
There is something appealing about living in an "exclusive" community where all the neighbors agree with you and behave in ways that you find acceptable. But of course that's also fairly impossible as today's denizens of gated communities & "exclusive" co-ops surely know. But we do have that concept sort of baked into our heritage. That's what zoning laws are about, after all. Although some places, especially in the West (Houston, for instance) don't have zoning laws, developers & residents often create their own "zoning" by establishing planned developments with quite restrictive & rigidly enforced rules.
In tension with that idea of "exclusivity" are the "rugged individualism" that also defines this country, especially in the West, not to mention the clear vestiges of the Southern feudal model. Trump seems to prefer the hierarchical model, with a smattering of utopian "likeness," in which he is king, wealthy people who pay him tribute receive special status, and the peasants who are all white, nominally "Christian" & bitterly opposed to others who don't meet his criteria. "Individualism," which implies different ideas & patterns of behavior, is not permitted -- so "criminals & rapists," "fake news," "socialism," etc.
The American "ideal," on the other hand, is an inclusive version of utopia, in which all are welcome but must adhere to certain common "exclusive" rules in order to accommodate "individualism." It eschews the feudal model, even as that model persists & is even encouraged in many laws & practices.
What really impresses me about Akhilleus is that he types coherent, grammatically correct comments on a cell phone.
Joynone,
It ain’t easy. You can tell the ones I hit “create post” on too early. They often include those weird auto-correct artifacts which perform frightful debauchery on a sentence, or render it incompatible with reasoned thought. A quick copy edit often saves one the trouble of that second post which lamely points out that the spot where you wrote “no, idiot” was supposed to read “no, I don’t”.
So when WW III starts and 45 declares a national emergency at the
direction of Fox News, everyone will just ignore it because:
Wolf! Wolf! Wolf! He should crawl back into his Fox hole.
Marie,
That’s exactly the one I was trying, unsuccessfully, to recall. And, In fact, now that you mention it, I read about it here on RC. I remember that “board-gamey” graphic, a sort of Candyland for Christian survivalists. “Now children, if the evil liberals storm the barricades, run through the Lollipop Woods, past Gumdrop Mountain, to the Peanut Brittle House. Jesus will be there with an AK.”
The Utopian goal is, as you say, one with a long and storied history. Even groups that don’t have their own enclosed Citadel, have some form of enclosure whose members are recognized by the various shibboleths they employ, kinda like the R’s who delighted at sending each other pictures of Michelle Obama as a gorilla and the White House lawn as a watermelon patch. Trump often forgets the somewhat recondite membership rules of these groups when he spouts things like “Nazis are good people” in broad daylight as if we’ve all just finished a glorious screening of “Triumph of the Will”.
Even those rugged individualists you mention have rules. Declaring there are no rules is itself a rule. I often joke about a rule book for anarchists. Which, I suppose, wouldn’t make them...anarchists?
Sorry. Time for some more medicine.
@Akhilleus
You write better (and certainly more easily) than I could ever hope to.
I'm picturing you rising repeatedly from your death bed scores of years hence to inform and entertain us (thank you, Horace) one last time.
Get well soon.
And @Marie....
Fine disquisition. Community and individual needs are always in tension, particularly so in the Land of the Free, which means that here in 'Merica what is always at issue is who is to be free, how and to what degree and who determines it all.
For people like the Pretender and many of his adherents, the answers to these complication questions are obvious.
Oops.
Make that "complicated," and I can't blame my typing on a cell phone. My cell ain't "smart."
Is there anyone working for Fatty who can spell?
Here’s pretend Sec’y of State, Mike Pompeo, former pretend CIA director, and prior to that, pretend congressman, trying to say something about former Fox reader and current pretend spokesperson at State, Heather Nauert, who, to her credit, turned down Fatty’s offer to make her another highly unqualified jamoke in his circle of unqualified jamokes, as the next Ambassador to the UN:
"Heather Nauert has performed her duties as a senior member of my team with unequalled [sic] excellence,"
Did she have unequaled spelling skills too?
Really, Mike? Try spellcheck, or a dictionary, or run it by someone who knows how to spell. Oh, wait. That would mean someone not working for Fatty.
It used to be when you saw an ungrammatical or poorly spelled press announcement or tweet, you knew right away it came from Fatty. Now, when we see a tweet saying we’re going to invadde Iran, it could be from any number of idiots.