The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump

[digster]

Glad he cleared this up for us.

It must be utterly exhausting to be a Trump media hack.

[McParadigm]

lol (cries)

[Rob]

lol (cries)

[Norah]

Stannis never had a chance.

[96583UP]

YAAAAS

Michael Cohen unveils his bombshell book about Trump and says he witnessed 'golden showers, tax fraud, a secret back channel to Putin, and lying to Melania' - as he calls president 'racist, a predator and a con man who wants to be leader for life'

[...]

'In some ways, I knew him better than even his family did because I bore witness to the real man, in strip clubs, shady business meetings, and in the unguarded moments when he revealed who he really was: a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man,' he revealed.

[...]

'From golden showers in a sex club in Vegas, to tax fraud, to deals with corrupt officials from the former Soviet Union, to catch and kill conspiracies to silence Trump's clandestine lovers, I wasn't just a witness to the president's rise—I was an active and eager participant,' he wrote.

[...]

'I also knew that the [Robert] Mueller investigation was not a witch-hunt. Trump had cheated in the election, with Russian connivance, as you will discover in these pages, because doing anything -and I mean anything - to "win" has always been his business model and way of life.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... fraud.html

[Bi_3]

YAAAAS

Michael Cohen unveils his bombshell book about Trump and says he witnessed 'golden showers, tax fraud, a secret back channel to Putin, and lying to Melania' - as he calls president 'racist, a predator and a con man who wants to be leader for life'

[...]

'In some ways, I knew him better than even his family did because I bore witness to the real man, in strip clubs, shady business meetings, and in the unguarded moments when he revealed who he really was: a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man,' he revealed.

[...]

'From golden showers in a sex club in Vegas, to tax fraud, to deals with corrupt officials from the former Soviet Union, to catch and kill conspiracies to silence Trump's clandestine lovers, I wasn't just a witness to the president's rise—I was an active and eager participant,' he wrote.

[...]

'I also knew that the [Robert] Mueller investigation was not a witch-hunt. Trump had cheated in the election, with Russian connivance, as you will discover in these pages, because doing anything -and I mean anything - to "win" has always been his business model and way of life.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... fraud.html

So it’s a pro-Trump book?

[Simple Torture]

The.

Pee.

Tape.

Is.

Real.

[Hatfield]

Is there a website where someone has broken down Trumps twitter contradictions? I see some of you quoting old ones (pre-presidency)

[Mickey]

Birtherism II

[Higgs]

Good to see the Senate taking a siesta without sorting the stimulus deal. That hard-line domination politics seems to be really helping our US friends out.

Seriously though, how does this happen?

[tragabigzanda]

Good to see the Senate taking a siesta without sorting the stimulus deal. That hard-line domination politics seems to be really helping our US friends out.

Seriously though, how does this happen?

Tea Party conservatives hold enough power, and Mitch McConnell is the devil incarnate

[Mickey]

Good to see the Senate taking a siesta without sorting the stimulus deal. That hard-line domination politics seems to be really helping our US friends out.

Seriously though, how does this happen?

Tea Party conservatives hold enough power, and Mitch McConnell is the devil incarnate

Hmm, I'm not sure about this. On the one hand, yeah, the Tea Party chodes do hold an inordinate amount of power (and reinforce the sense that the structure of the Senate is designed to obstruct). On the other hand, do we really think that McConnell couldn't have whipped the votes if he wanted to, given that both the Dems and the White House wanted something to get done? I'm not being aggressive here--I really don't know how to think about it.

[tragabigzanda]

I don’t think he could have even if he wanted to. The Tea Party has tapped into an enormous amount of funding from the evangelical and pro-biz/anti-reg set, and will forever threaten to primary any Republican who doesn’t bow to their demands.

[McParadigm]

Good to see the Senate taking a siesta without sorting the stimulus deal. That hard-line domination politics seems to be really helping our US friends out.

Seriously though, how does this happen?

Tea Party conservatives hold enough power, and Mitch McConnell is the devil incarnate

Hmm, I'm not sure about this. On the one hand, yeah, the Tea Party chodes do hold an inordinate amount of power (and reinforce the sense that the structure of the Senate is designed to obstruct). On the other hand, do we really think that McConnell couldn't have whipped the votes if he wanted to, given that both the Dems and the White House wanted something to get done? I'm not being aggressive here--I really don't know how to think about it.

In this case, yes. I actually think he ran into a situation where he couldn’t whip the votes. Too many of the items Democrats won’t budge on, the White House won’t accept. And too few Senate Republicans would dare defy the White House.

I think that’s why he walked. The White House wouldn’t adjust its wants or make concessions in order to get them, and he had no interest in being the face of a negotiation that was destined to fail. I also think that putting the Senate on recess is likely to help him, since it puts senators outside of the beltway bubble and back in their districts, where they get to hear state and local officials freak out about the status back home.

[Mickey]

But so that means McConnell's hands aren't tied with regards to getting it done, but they are tied with regards to getting it done and keeping his seat/other vulnerable seats--which means that they are letting it happen rather than at an insurmountable impasse. Is the play to hope that Trump's EO is enough and this reflects badly on the Dems somehow, or is it just, fuck it, we don't care, post office war time.

[tragabigzanda]

But so that means McConnell's hands aren't tied with regards to getting it done, but they are tied with regards to getting it done and keeping his seat/other vulnerable seats--which means that they are letting it happen rather than at an insurmountable impasse. Is the play to hope that Trump's EO is enough and this reflects badly on the Dems somehow, or is it just, fuck it, we don't care, post office war time.

I honestly don’t think McConnell knows what he’s doing right now. The pandemic had completely upended his own playbook.

[tragabigzanda]

From The Hill:

Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Doug Jones (D-Ala.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Christopher Coons (D-Del.) and Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) requested in May that Congress provide direct aid to the USPS in the next stimulus package.

These speaks volumes about the extent to which McConnell is worried about pissing off his hard-won rural base for the foreseeable future.

[McParadigm]

I think trag is probably right.

One thing I’ll add: if McConnell could pass the Republican plan in the Senate, he would. If for no reason other than to weaponize the follow-up headlines saying the Democratic House voted it down...he would pass it. At any other time and in any other fight, that would reliably be his next move.

He must not have enough unity on his side of the aisle to do even that much.

[Mickey]

But so that means McConnell's hands aren't tied with regards to getting it done, but they are tied with regards to getting it done and keeping his seat/other vulnerable seats--which means that they are letting it happen rather than at an insurmountable impasse. Is the play to hope that Trump's EO is enough and this reflects badly on the Dems somehow, or is it just, fuck it, we don't care, post office war time.

I honestly don’t think McConnell knows what he’s doing right now. The pandemic had completely upended his own playbook.

I've also heard the argument that he's excellent as an obstructionist and at getting things like judicial appointments through (where he doesn't need votes from the other side)--basically he's really good at Senate rules, but he's out of his depths when it comes to actual deal-making. So, yeah, this is probably the most likely scenario.

[tragabigzanda]

I think trag is probably right.

One thing I’ll add: if McConnell could pass the Republican plan in the Senate, he would. If for no reason other than to weaponize the follow-up headlines saying the Democratic House voted it down...he would pass it. At any other time and in any other fight, that would reliably be his next move.

He must not have enough unity on his side of the aisle to do even that much.

Exactly. And while it’s been super easy for the TP Republicans and the moderates to rally around the various culture wars, things like an economic free fall and voting access have illustrated the ideological divide between the two groups.