It’s bigger than Flynn. New Russia revelations widen Trump’s credibility gap.

Two days after Trump’s victory, Russia’s deputy foreign minister told a reporter in Moscow that “there were contacts” between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. “Obviously, we know most of the people from his entourage,” he said. That prompted a vigorous denial from Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks, who insisted there had been “no contact with Russian officials.”

“The call logs and intercepted communications are part of a larger trove of information that the F.B.I. is sifting through as it investigates the links between Mr. Trump’s associates and the Russian government, as well as the hacking of the D.N.C. … As part of its inquiry, the F.B.I. has obtained banking and travel records and conducted interviews…

CNN published additional details, as well: “High-level advisers close to … Trump were in constant communication during the campaign with Russians known to US intelligence, (according to) multiple current and former intelligence, law enforcement and administration officials...

Where's the popcorn Schwantz?

I love the left/right ideology when being applied to American politics. Aren't all of our politicians on the far left?

To clarify the scale, the absolute far right is complete anarchy. Zero governmental control at all. The absolute far left is complete totalitarianism. You don't do anything without clearing it with somebody in an official position.

Which end of that scale are we closer to? And how varying are the last ten fuckwits from one another on that scale?

umm No.... look at 20th century history!

The democratically elected countries aspire to a liberal world order designed,set forth and carefully built post WWII despite a Cold war and subsequent collapse of the USSR. These first world countries get scored on a Burkian conservative vs liberal social democrat axis as they implement this shared liberal world order goal. It is foundational that there be constitutional rule of law for both conservatives and liberals in functional democracies. It led to the most rapid increase in global wealth and living standards in human history and reduced war to regional conflicts. Their mission was to contain the authoritarians and their fellow travelers.

What you describe is a libertarian vs communtarian scale. Of course organizing the world on this axis and the battle for supremacy between these two poles led to Global Depression and two world wars plus the agreement which divided up the Ottoman empire creating ruling minorities of sectarian majorities. We THOUGHT this was relegated to the dustbins of history post war till Regan, Paul Ryan and the Koch brothers rebranded it and torqued the Republican party to rebirth it as small government conservatism... aka the ann rand makers versus takers philosophy.

Then of course you get the always present authoritarians. Hitler,Sadam Husein, Kim jun Un, Trump, Putin, Castro, Mugabe, Chavez and any number of other strong men with their unwitting or incapacitated sheep in tow.


So that is the big picture question... will the Authoritarians in US leadership of the feckless libertarian right change the direction of world history? A return to the Calvin Coolige era is a feature... not a bug. Or will the liberal world order (with the ominpresent healthy battle between burkean conservatives and the progressive liberals) figure out the domestic economics, political messaging and basic politics and keep the world growing with an ever expanding world economy.

If they don't... the era of I got mine... FU! will be a simple zero sum game.... where survival is the ultimate goal.

Remember the big picture of 20th century history when the end of liberal world order began!
Bush I fought the Iraq war I to preserve the liberal world order concept of borders are not changeable by invasion, and helped the Germans establish the whole German state. Clinton intervened in Yugoslavia to stop further genocide and re establish borders in southern europe. After the Bush/Clinton rebuilding job from Regan's mistakes... the US was flush with cash, real incomes had risen ... and by and large the world was at peace.

The liberal world order consensus ended when Bush II, Tony Blair and Putin reacted to muslim extremism (World trade center and Chechnya) by illiberal solutions. They just discarded the principles of the liberal world order in the name/service of security/maintaining their power. Bush invaded Iraq under a weak pretense of self defense against WMD???, and pro American/Randian values to remake the middle east and buggered it up for years. He dumped international law to create black sites and torture as a tactic. (He could not have stood for reelection in 2 years had he not invaded somebody with a name) Putin crushed Chechnya, invaded Georgia, Ukraine and annexed the Ukraine's Crimea and completely undermined the notion of international borders. Obama spent 8 years trying to rebuild that liberal world order... DECLINING to invade Lybia or Syria or any of the fubars in Africa while wielding power in killing terrorists from extremest factions hell bent on fomenting religious jihad.

It is not clear that you can put humpty dumpty back together after Bush. Obama's record is mixed... not for lack of trying tho.


The scoreboard favors the illiberal authoritarian/libertarian side with Trump et al aligning with Putin.

Trump of course wants to get on with the religious war, renegotiate the trade rules as a way to win a zero sum game and not continue with the liberal trading global order. He wants to take America back to an era where Jim Crow was just fine and domestic terrorism was swept under the rug.. Japanese internment of CITIZENS was just fine and all that matters is America first and then your libertarian economic interests.

The post war order of things was not divine good luck.... it was a product of policy's that prioritized global growth and self imposed limits on domination by the sole super power taking care of number 1. A large minority of voters elected Trump to spite the liberal world order.

The power driving illiberal solutions is a lack of judgement by the people themselves.
100 people die every day from distracted driving (texting and cell phones)... yet a Handful of victims of muslim extremists in a year are enough to drive the country in rejecting their 50 year old post war commitment to taking care of refugees. The almost equal number of terror victims of the racist right are ignored. Really? what standards are you using?
Emails? really!
Clinton foundation issues ... really?
Trump OMG in spades...

Is this status quo nirvana???.... Oh hell no... Are there solutions available to redistribute wealth equitably not taken because of political power... yes.

Is the solution to embrace a very illiberal movement that uses authoritarianism and the oligarchs fighting it out with libertarian utopians to forge a restoration of the good ol days of the early 1900s while preserving their latter day robber baron status and privilege???

Choose wisely! authoritarian or liberal constitutional democracy. (But could you at least find some literate authoritarians, .... to and too are distinguished in what... the third grade!)

Seems like complete anarchy to me, and its only 4 weeks in.
Confusing/contradicting statements about policy, absurd spokespeople making crazy statements (like this guy, complete nutter IMO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHiHuTmxxgI)

The irony of Trump whining about leaks

Donald Trump has benefited from leaks more than the CEO of Depends.

Mr. President: ‘Just who the hell do you think you are?’

Let’s be brutally clear here. If you were a smart guy with unimpeachable integrity and a good heart who was enacting wise policies for the betterment of all humankind, you’d still be subject to sharp scrutiny from news media, oversight from Congress, restraint by the judiciary — and public opinion.

And you, of course, are none of those things. I know you fetishize strength. I know your pal Vladimir would never stand still for reporters and judges yapping at him.

So, to be fair and balanced, did you read all the comments?

This administration is running like a fine tuned machine.
---Popular Vote Loser 2/16/17

Still Lyin' After All These Weeks

The dizzying, mesmerizing Trump show

Republican Painter: It's time to impeach Trump

“I swear, it's like we elected the Clampetts, if the Clampetts were grifters.”

After the election, many hoped that Trump would “grow up” into the job – that he couldn’t possibly be as bad as some thought. Well, it’s gone the other way. The bully has become a more entitled bully. Anyone disagreeing is attacked. Policy is announced in illiterate tweets.

The leader of the band of Mad Hatters occupying the White House has already insulted allied world leaders, issued illegal and badly written orders, impugned a “so-called” judge appointed by his own party, and appointed the least-qualified cabinet ever. The first secretary of state was Thomas Jefferson. Trump appointed a big-oil executive with close ties to Russia. The first treasury secretary was Alexander Hamilton. Trump appointed a former Goldman Sachs exec who got rich foreclosing on homeowners. The national security advisor lasted 24 days.

Admit it: Trump is unfit to serve

The Michael Flynn fiasco was the entirely predictable product of the indiscipline, deceit, incompetence and moral indifference that characterize Donald Trump’s approach to leadership.

Even worse, Trump’s loyalties are now in doubt. Questions about his relationship with Vladimir Putin and Russia will not go away, even if congressional Republicans try to slow-walk a transparent investigation into what ties Trump has with Putin’s Russia — and who on his campaign did what, and when, with Russian intelligence officials and diplomats.

It will be said that Trump was elected and thus deserves some benefit of the doubt. Isn’t it rash to declare him unfit after so little time?

The answer is no, because the Trump we are seeing now is fully consistent with the vindictive, self-involved and scattered man we saw during the 17 months of his campaign. In one of the primary debates, Jeb Bush said of Trump: “He’s a chaos candidate and he’d be a chaos president.” Rarely has a politician been so prophetic.

She Smith of Faux News comments on the popular vote loser's presser.

“It’s sort of our job to let you know when things are said that aren’t true,” Smith began. “This president keeps telling untrue things and he does it every single time he’s in front of a microphone … some of them aren’t really big, but they’re coming from the president.”

Smith noted the biggest question right now is the nature of Trump campaign aides’ “constant contact” with the Russian government during the 2016 election, adding “we don’t get a straight answer on this question.”

“He says Russia is a ruse, it’s fake news. The leaks are real, but the news is fake. So, that’s impossible,” Smith said later adding, “it’s very confusing.”

The Fox News host then repeated that it is his job to point out when the President of the United States says things that are “demonstrably, unquestionably, opinion aside, 100 percent false.”

Smith later slammed Trump for deflecting blame onto reporters and attempting to delegitimize negative stories about his administration. The Fox host specifically mentioned Trump’s treatment of CNN’s Jim Acosta, saying, “It’s crazy what we’re watching every single day. It’s absolutely crazy.”

“He keeps repeating ridiculous throwaway lines that are not true at all and sport of avoiding this issue of Russia as if we’re some kind of fools for asking the question,” Shep said. “Really? We’re fools for asking the questions? No sir, we are not fools for asking the questions. And we demand to know the answer to this question.”


Who woulda thunk?

hobie1616
You are one angry sailor
Better check your blood pressure
You are about to explode

Nope. I'm laughing so much at the popular vote loser I'm crying.

I'm laughing at the dopes who voted for him.

I'm laughing at the morans (sic) who repeat his lies.

Fact-checking President Trump’s news conference

My BP is fine. My RHR is 42.

‘I’m a Dead Man Walking’

Mark Sanford is not like most Republicans in Washington.

His digs at Trump cover the spectrum. The president, Sanford says, “has fanned the flames of intolerance.” He has repeatedly misled the public, most recently about the national murder rate and the media’s coverage of terrorist attacks. He showed a lack of humility by using the National Prayer Breakfast to ridicule Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ratings on “The Celebrity Apprentice.” Most worrisome, Sanford says, Trump is unprepared for the presidency.

Trump’s Public Humiliation

The Financial Times, Washington Post, CNN, and other news outlets are reporting that Harward turned down the offer in part because Trump wouldn’t let him fire several officials who Flynn had hired for his staff and install his own team instead. This suggests that Trump is adamant on keeping certain people loyal to him—including Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland, a former Fox News commentator who Trump admired. The news reports don’t mention whether Harward made demands about Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief political strategist who wrote the executive order that placed himself on the NSC Principals Committee and has created a parallel NSC structure called the Strategic Initiatives Group, comprising a few extreme right-wing associates. But any serious person would insist on the dismantling of this weird group as another condition for taking the job.

CNN quoted one of Harward’s friends saying that, in mulling over the decision, he was persuaded most of all by the sheer dysfunction of Trump’s presidency, describing the job he was offered as “a **** sandwich.”

Donald Trump’s disastrous reality s...ing president searches for a new villain

CNN’s Jake Tapper called it “unhinged” and “wild” and a “Festivus airing of grievances.” MSNBC’s Chris Hayes tweeted, “We can agree across all ideological, political and partisan divisions that this is a deranged performance, right?” Even Shep Smith of Fox News seemed shell-shocked, saying, “It is crazy what we are watching every day; it is absolutely crazy.” CBS News’ Scott Pelley said, “Today we learned the length of the president’s fuse.” (Which unfortunately brought to mind what my great-aunt used to say about her first husband: “He was a 6-foot, 3-inch stick of dynamite with a little bitty fuse.”)

[A]s the official White House press conference disintegrated further into unhinged criticism and belligerent sniping, reporters seated in the East Room could hardly contain themselves. There was an awkward mix of laughing with Trump, and chuckling at him as the president kept venting and sneering. The reporters present couldn’t stop quietly gossipping about Trump. “What is going on?” one journalist whispered to another. “This is insane” and “What the hell?” were other popular refrains in the room.


Are ya laughing Hullflyer1? How's your BP doing?

What a Failed Trump Administration Looks Like

Judging by his Thursday press conference, President Trump’s mental state is like a train that long ago left freewheeling and iconoclastic, has raced through indulgent, chaotic and unnerving, and is now careening past unhinged, unmoored and unglued.

The Civil Service has a thousand ways to ignore or sit on any presidential order. The court system has given itself carte blanche to overturn any Trump initiative, even on the flimsiest legal grounds. The intelligence community has only just begun to undermine this president.

President Trump can push all the pretty buttons on the command deck of the Starship Enterprise, but don’t expect anything to actually happen, because they are not attached.

For the past 70 years most nations have instinctively looked to the U.S. for leadership, either to follow or oppose. But in capitals around the world, intelligence agencies are drafting memos with advice on how to play Donald Trump.

The first conclusion is obvious. This administration is more like a medieval monarchy than a modern nation-state. It’s more “The Madness of King George” than “The Missiles of October.” The key currency is not power, it’s flattery.

The corollary is that Trump is ripe to be played. Give the boy a lollipop and he won’t notice if you steal his lunch. If you want to roll the Trump administration, you’ve got to get in line.

The Israelis got a possible one-state solution.

The Chinese got Trump to flip-flop on the “One China” policy.

The Europeans got him to do a 180 on undoing the Iran nuclear deal.

Vladimir Putin was born for a moment such as this. He is always pushing the envelope. After gifting Team Trump with a little campaign help, the Russian state media has suddenly turned on Trump and Russian planes are buzzing U.S. ships. The bear is going to grab what it can.


Would you like a lollypop Hullflyer1? Will you share with Schwantz and Todd?

This should give you a good laugh Hullflyer1

The Downfall of Kellyanne Conway

As Kellyanne’s once-forceful cable news denials have disintegrated into whimpers, I can’t say I feel anything for her at all. I don’t mind when people point out how tired she looks. I simply cannot dredge up any sympathy for a person who has acknowledged the structural problems most women face only when she is personally facing them, or used them as derailing tactics when she’s losing an argument. I can’t mourn the downfall of a fair-weather feminist, a woman who has used her power to hurt other women.

Ms. Conway made her bed. And now it’s time for her to get some sleep.

I'm not laughing at this Hullflyer1. Are you?

Trump family’s elaborate lifestyle is a ‘logistical nightmare’ — at taxpayer expense

Barely a month into the Trump presidency, the unusually elaborate lifestyle of America’s new first family is straining the Secret Service and security officials, stirring financial and logistical concerns in several local communities, and costing far beyond what has been typical for past presidents — a price tag that, based on past assessments of presidential travel and security costs, could balloon into the hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of a four-year term.