Every time Trump says something denigrating the work of the intelligence community, as he did last week when he stated nonsensically that "Nobody knows for sure" if Russians attempted to meddle in the election, every professional who has devoted his or her career to serving the country in that capacity nods and gets ready to turn the thumbscrews one more full revolution. These people are anonymous, and they've spent their entire careers training to be anonymous. But they have more than enough professional skill to dig up an endless array of dirt on someone as loud, attention-hungry, and stupid as Donald Trump has been for thirty-plus years.
They have every piece of information they need to reduce him to a smoldering pile of ashes, and they're doling it out piecemeal.
Simply put, an intelligent person would not have spent January shitting all over the people with the greatest potential to destroy him.
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But Donald Trump is not an intelligent person.
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He is a blustering idiot, and he thought that if he went hard enough at the CIA and NSA that he could convince the public that everything intel agencies say (especially the things they were about to start saying about him) is false.
That gambit failed. And now here we are, after months of pathetic excuses and denials and sophomoric lies, with open admissions of pre-election collusion right before the NY Times, no doubt in possession of intelligence-leaked information, could publish the damning emails itself. And in another week or two, when this revelation has subsided, they will release the next damning evidence.
One of the best strategies in life for self-preservation is to figure out who has the power to destroy you and be really, really certain to stay out of his or her or their way. Yes, Trump and his supporters are correct to note that leaks are the source of most of the revelations about his connections to Russia – the NYT's oblique reference to "three persons familiar with the email" all but screams, "Someone with the ability and desire to dig deep into the Trump landfill sent this to one of our reporters." And the leaking is a direct result of the Boss's total disregard for the law, for democratic norms, and for the people who serve under him. People know that any investigation done within the normal channels will end up being politically quashed. What option does that leave them? Well, they have two. They can sit around and watch this ass clown shit all over everything they care about. Or they can use their vastly superior intelligence (pun intended) to drip-dry him.
As I have been saying since his surprising election, this presidency will end when we reach a breaking point, when the evidence for illegal collusion with Russia is so damning and overwhelming that even congressional Republicans can't ignore it without imperiling their own political careers. This week we are one step closer to that.
Disgusted says:
My biggest worry is that by the time republican Senators finally say enough it will be too late for the country to recover it's dignity, respect, and world leadership. The wod is already laughingstock at us
Disgusted says:
Oops laughing
RP says:
November 2018 can't get here soon enough!
democommie says:
I can take the derision. I'm a little more concerned about that fucking idiot in North Korea, Moscow or Damascus being emboldened to the point that they think they can take one of our Carrier groups on.
Ellis Weiner says:
It's reasonable to think that, no matter how greedy, corrupt, and stupid these people are, they're able to hire lawyers who are cool and competent. But no lawyer, however cool and competent, can manage an environment in which a MOB of stupid, greedy, corrupt people are all vying to look out for themselves, undercut their rivals, and/or cut deals to save their own skins. So yes, pass the popcorn.
Delbort says:
Why are we waiting for some kind of "AHA!" moment where the corporate media wake up and decide to tie Republicans at large to Donald Trump? Why would that ever happen? If anyone in the media came out and really started pushing the idea that this is part of a larger pattern of ratfucking that the GOP's been engaged in for decades, that Donald Trump is the most pure distillation of the Republican id possible, that the GOP only obtains power by appealing to the absolute worst parts of the absolute worst people in this country, they wouldn't be able to go back to their comfortable, familiar narrative of Both Sides Do It after he's gone. So Republicans aren't about to hold him accountable, because that would involving mixing their brand with his and making it seem like he's one of them.
Further, there is almost nothing he could do that would cause his supporters to stop supporting him. He wasn't lying when he said he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose any supporters. Donald Trump could call a press conference and, on live television, literally fuck a baby to death and his supporters would just hand-wave it away. He didn't really do that, fake news, whudduboudderemails, CNN is biased anyway, cuck Jew snowflake. He may have low approval ratings in general, but within the GOP he's still ROCK SOLID DONNY, BABY. It took GWB six years before his base turned on him and wiped him from their memory and even then a third of his party was willing to go down with him. You ready for six more years of this trainwreck?
Buckle up, Donald Trump's not going anywhere. This eternal optimism that suddenly people are going to come to their senses and realize what a horrible mistake they have made, are making, and are continuing to make is a panic reaction from a reptile brain desperately seeking a return to safety and rationality, but we are never going back to it. We can never go back to Arizona.
c u n d gulag says:
If I were to write a book about Dumb-'n-old t-RUMPLE-THIN-sKKKin and the rest of his stupid and evil, ignorant and bigoted, inKKKompetent KKKabal of (treasonous? TBD) KKKeystone KKKlowns, and their abundantly clear examples of endless hysteria at this, their moment(s) in America's history, and how people in the future (presuming there will be any) should remember this nation-wide Klavern, I'd give it the following title:
'Profiles in Derp.' *
At least "Duck Soup" and "Idiocracy" were funny movies with some connection to governing a country.
But there's nothing funny about seeing the nation you were born and raised and still live in – and love, even if it is an imperfect one, to be sure (but one with lofty ideals) – being torn apart for sale to bidders- including, apparently, foreign ones; and and even one which was and still is an enemy.
"The horror…
The horror…
The horror…"
* Though I also like 'Heart of Derpness' for a title.
Daniel Miller says:
Sorry Delbort, I stole your comment and posted it to facebook.
I accredited it to you. I hope you're not angry.
HoosierPoli says:
All signs point to the calls coming from inside the house. My bet is that Kush was feeling the heat and wanted to try to pin the meeting on Jr, and Jr put out the whole thing to make sure that Kush couldn't wriggle his way out.
It's remarkable that this team has done essentially nothing but knife each other in the back since January 21st.
Kovpakistan says:
I don't think you're ever going to see the GOP move on this. You can't possibly overestimate how depraved these people are, especially when they have the opportunity to roll back civil rights, lower taxes, and kick people off healthcare. There is nothing they cannot rationalize, therefore if Russia helped Hillary lose, they'll eventually justify collusion with Russia as patriotic. They'll compare it to the alliance in WWII or something. Nothing is too dumb; nothing is too egregious.
Already Sean Hannity has been shifting focus to Ukraine, making him resemble a Russian state news broadcast. Expect more mental gymnastics.
Tim H. says:
They'll move on this, not when the wheels come off, or when the smoking hulk slides down the ravine, only when it catches fire will they stagger away.
Bessemer Mucho says:
I'm with Delbort & Kovpakistan. There will be more book contracts awarded to members of this administration than indictments.
DES says:
@ Delbort — I agree:
"If anyone in the media came out and really started pushing the idea that this is part of a larger pattern of ratfucking that the GOP's been engaged in for decades, that Donald Trump is the most pure distillation of the Republican id possible, that the GOP only obtains power by appealing to the absolute worst parts of the absolute worst people in this country, they wouldn't be able to go back to their comfortable, familiar narrative of Both Sides Do It after he's gone."
But didn't Naomi Klein do just that in last week's Nation? Her point in "Daring to dream in the age of Trump" was just precisely that we need to knock off the pretense that DJT is an anomaly and instead recognize him as the culmination of the disturbing trends and "dangerous stories" that have existed in our culture for a long time. You know the ones: greatest hits like 'greed is good.' 'The free market ought to rule.' 'The poor deserve their fate.'
geoff says:
Welp, I'm not really gonna get my hopes up until somebody gets indicted, but I have to admit that the Giant Evil Baby Jr.'s recent admissions are pretty astonishing. Pass the popcorn, baby!!
anotherbozo says:
Ah, yes, the breaking point. Trouble is that point has kept shifting, ever since—what?— Teapot Dome? Watergate? And once you accept the fact that American businessmen were free to run around Moscow looking for building sites, never mind hold beauty pageants there, how is it a shock to the American public that a meeting is arranged with promised dirt on Hillary? They didn't specify "information we got when hacking the DNC," of course. So it could have been relations with them HRC wanted kept secret. I'm in liberal New York City but even I have a hard time seeing this admission of eagerness to collude as shockworthy. If you started rationalizing Trump's presidency in January, chances are you'll continue.
Well....mostly says:
Hubris eventually gets people way out on a thin limb. Climbing back isn't in the mix. The resulting break only comes from the weight of the climber.
No one seeing this from the ground, pundits, journalists, politico types, can do a damn thing about it but watch and comment. We can only get out from under it and avoid getting bonked on the head.
R's will never wake up when staying in a dreamysleep, and putting others in a deep slumber, is the key to their survival.
Well....mostly says:
Hubris eventually gets people way out on a thin limb. Climbing back isn't in the mix. The resulting break only comes from the weight of the climber.
No one seeing this from the ground, pundits, journalists, politico types, can do a damn thing about it but watch and comment. We can only get out from under it and avoid getting bonked on the head.
R's will never wake up when staying in a dreamy sleep, and putting others in a deep slumber, is the key to their survival. Until, of course, the break comes and they chant I told you so, he's not a real conservative.
Ted and Rand start tussling for the lead in 2020. They are not stupid.
We've been taken over by third rate equity fund types who don't know what they're doing, don't care, and will go back to their mansions soon enough no matter what happens. This is what the decline of a society feels and looks like.
Putin won, let's face it. And there's always someone else like the NK fellow to start the brawl that our man won't avoid. Welcome to high school.
2018. Vote. Start over.
Safety Man! says:
@Anotherbozo
I agree, it's been starkly obvious from the beginning that Trump has significant business ties to Russia, which almost certainly means ties to Russian Organized Crime, because these days they've more or less merged. I think Trump Jr found out that his Russian buddies don't have his back now as much as he thought, gee wiz there. IMO part of the whole dumpster fire has been Trump and Co. not getting that intimidation and strong arm tactics either don't translate well or are illegal in government. Just look at Ivanka, was it?, who plugged a clothing line or some such in a speech.
Delbort says:
@DES,
Naomi Klein is really only influential within liberal/leftist circles. To a certain extent, she's preaching to the choir. Nobody who voted for Trump reads the Nation, and if they did they'd wave it off as just so much more left-wing bias and liberal tears. There is no broad push within our national media to tie Trump to Republicans and say "this is your guy and you're responsible for this trainwreck" and there's really no incentive to do so.
Mo says:
Trump will be re-elected in 2020 unless it becomes totally unhip and unfashionable to be Republican, and Republicans are sneered at by all (not just Liberals) as dumb fascist racists.
"Ewwwwwwwwww! Vote Republican? As if. If I bother to vote at all, it will be for Green Skybot."
Mark says:
The drip drip drip approach, IMHO, is a recognition that there will be no quick way to get rid of Trump. Instead the leaks keep him jumping from crisis to crisis with no time to build up political capitol and accomplish anything. With luck this will keep him from doing any lasting damage too. And 4 (god forbid 8) years from now he'll have accomplished nothing…
Off topic, Ed, have you seen this? Comments?
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/41206-misinforming-the-majority-a-deliberate-strategy-of-right-wing-libertarians
democommie says:
Well, all of the doomsayers will have their portents realized–unless of course we ALL go out and vote for anyone who has a D after their name until we get something like balance in the House and Senate. I would far rather a venal bunch of "neo-liberals*" to the screeechingbatshitKKKrazze motherfuckers in their at this moment.
Do what you like, but realize that every "protest" vote is a freebie for the assholes on the right.
LINO's
mothra says:
Yep, I am with Delbort and Kovpakistan: a) the recent revelations about Junior are all from people within the WH who want to shiv Junior for whatever reason; b)the FBI didn't even know about this meeting; c)nothing, absolutely nothing will shake the GOP's support for Trump. They see their golden opportunity to drown government in a bathtub and they are NOT going to let it go. No way, no how.
democommie says:
FuckTheNew'sCorpse apparently retracted a story that was put out there Steve Doocheybag about Comey releasing classified info. My comment on that thread was that somebody prolly told Fox that Comey's colleagues are pissed and they CAN hurt people.
democommie says:
"Off topic, Ed, have you seen this? Comments?
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/41206-misinforming-the-majority-a-deliberate-strategy-of-right-wing-libertarians"
We apparently have two commenters named, "Mark". This commenter cannot be the batshitKKKrazzee that comes in here and spews ReiKKKwing cant like it's a blessing from heaven.
I took a quick look at the cited link.
While I agree with the gist (from a very quick scan) I would only say that the Romans did not have to force the commoners into watching the blood-soaked spectacle offered at the various fora.
Prairie Bear says:
@Mark (the sane one)
"Off topic, Ed, have you seen this? Comments?
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/41206-misinforming-the-majority-a-deliberate-strategy-of-right-wing-libertarians"
This once more reminds me of Philip E. Agre's maxim that "Conservatism is the domination of society by an aristocracy." http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/conservatism.html
They really do not even care how big a shitpile they make of everything, as long as they end up at the top of it.
democommie says:
@ Prairie Bear:
It's GOOD to be King!
Until the tumbrels roll.