TRUMP is seriously dangerous

[82_28]

Everybody knows all this and is nothing new. You just have to take this photo with you next time you take a spin in your time machine to show your grandparents who the president of the United States would one day be. Just let the aesthetic critic in you announce itself. It's been nearly a year of this fuck.



Think what goes on in the head of a person like this who does not say "you want me to pose how?!?!?!?!" "In front of all that fake gold?"

The man is fucking insane. We know this. But who poses like this? Someone totally unaware of how he appears. I knew a kid like this growing up and I could get him to do the stupidest shit. All it would take was me telling him he couldn't do something that was totally impossible for the sole intent of making fun of him to his face on video. But he would try and prove that he could and then blame it on some factor outside his control. He was also a stalker of girls/women. His father was a lunatic hateful libertarian that (looking back) probably abused the fuck out of him causing him to be totally socially inept. Anyway. Dump reminds me of him.

[seemslikeadream]

trump more dangerous than ever...he's begging for something to happen


State Department Issues Travel Warning Ahead of President's Embassy Decision State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert says cables have been sent out to U.S. officials overseas ahead of the president's decision on moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

State Department warns of violence ahead of Trump Jerusalem decision
By NAHAL TOOSI 12/04/2017 07:54 PM EST

The State Department has warned American embassies worldwide to heighten security ahead of a possible announcement Wednesday by President Donald Trump that the U.S. recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The warning — delivered in the past week via two classified cables described by State Department officials — reflects concern that such an announcement could provoke fury in the Arab world even as Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner works to advance long-stalled peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.


Some Arab leaders have implored Trump not to change longstanding American policy on Jerusalem, saying it could make any peace agreement impossible and that it would spark mass protests and even terrorism. The militant group Hamas has already called for a new Palestinian “intifada,” or uprising, if Trump declares Jerusalem the capital of the Jewish-majority state.

“The impending Jerusalem announcement has me very worried about the possibility of violent responses that could affect embassies,” one State Department official told POLITICO. “I hope I’m wrong.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/ ... nce-279735

\

A Few Thoughts on Trump and Jerusalem

By JOSH MARSHALL Published DECEMBER 6, 2017 11:40 AM

I’ve been watching coverage of the Jerusalem decision today on the cable networks, especially CNN. It’s telling, almost painful, watching real experts trying – really trying – to interpret this decision as part of an effort to push the peace process forward. Maybe Trump’s gotten some secret concession from Prime Minister Netanyahu in exchange for this? Maybe this is the game changer that can free up the current impasse?

These are the kind of things it would make sense to think if you had a normal US President. The idea that you would just do something like this purely to gratify the Republican base, spurred by the President’s boredom and desire to upset people. That’s all unthinkable. Yet that is pretty clearly what is going on here.

I would say that this is 90% political and a matter of satisfying the President’s need for an act of self-assertion. The other 10% does slightly fall into the category of forward-moving gambits. It’s one you need to be exposed to the more extreme right-wing variants of Zionism to be familiar with.

It basically goes like this: What keeps the conflict going is Israel’s and the international community’s indulgence of unrealistic expectations on the part of the Palestinians. The path to peace is to make it totally clear, with established facts, that the Palestinians will essentially get nothing. Nothing here would be defined as a few autonomous self-governing zones within the West Bank under over-arching Israeli security control. No capital or even foothold in East Jerusalem. Not even a demilitarized version of sovereignty. No geographical contiguity. Nothing. Basically the right to self-govern in civil matters in the parts of the West Bank where there are too many Palestinians to outnumber with Israeli settlers. Once Palestinians expectations are set to a realistic level, you can get down to negotiations.

There are needless to say, a number of problems with this theory. But you hear it a lot as a sort of guiding theory of the case on the Zionist right. I would count it as 35% profoundly misguided idea, 65% mendacious self-assertion. That’s probably what the top Trumpers are telling themselves.

I would be remiss if I didn’t note the obvious. Not only did the President put the region’s issues in the hands of his neophyte son-in-law. He put it in the hands of a settlement activist. Obviously nothing possibly good can come of this.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-f ... re-1099200

http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year ... -breakers/



Putin let him live in the White House, so why can’t Pence bring his pets?

[seemslikeadream]

Joyce Karam‏Verified account
@Joyce_Karam
3h3 hours ago


3 hours following #Trump announcement on #Jerusalem, protests now in:
1-Turkey 2-Jordan 3-West Bank 4-Gaza









And now Lebanon

[Sounder]

Damn, Trump just pivoted the whole Middle East towards Russia.

Maybe he is a Russian agent. Or stupid, or exceedingly sly.

[kelley]

this seems a bizarre gift to pence, pompeo, and their psychotic dominionist ilk

a prerequisite for the apocalypse etc

[seemslikeadream]

^^^^
it was a promise keep to Adelson

Is Sheldon Adelson behind Trump's decision on Jerusalem?

Adelson and his wife Miriam spent more than $80 million on Republicans in 2016, and he gave $5 million to Trump’s inauguration.
Adelson and his wife Miriam also contributed $35 million to help elect Trump.
https://972mag.com/is-sheldon-adelson-b ... em/131218/

Big march protesting Trump’s Jerusalem announcement making its way towards Trump Tower


18 AGs are filing a brief to challenge @POTUS’s appointment of Mick Mulvaney as @CFPB Acting Director.

jeremy scahill‏Verified account
@jeremyscahill
Trump just blurted out: “We have thousands of people under surveillance.”
5:33 PM - 8 Dec 2017

[seemslikeadream]

President Trump Sexual Assault Accusers Press Conference 12/11/17


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8beFhdo35tQ

[82_28]

‘Trump, Trump, Trump!’ How a President’s Name Became a Racial Jeer

The high school basketball squad from Eagle Grove, population 3,700, had traveled 60 miles up Highway 69 in Iowa to play the team from Forest City, population 4,100. It would be the Eagles against the Indians, a hardwood competition in the center of the country. For some people, this is as American as it gets.

At one point during the online streaming of the game last month, two white announcers for a Forest City radio station, KIOW, began riffing on the Hispanic names of some players from the mildly more diverse community of Eagle Grove. “They’re all foreigners,” said Orin Harris, a longtime announcer; his partner, Holly Jane Kusserow-Smidt, a board operator at the station who was also a third-grade teacher, answered: “Exactly.”

For some people, this is as American as it gets.

Mr. Harris then uttered a term occasionally used these days as a racially charged taunt, or as a braying assertion that the country is being taken back from forces that threaten it. That term is, simply, the surname of the sitting American president.

“As Trump would say, go back where they came from,” Mr. Harris said.

“Well, some would say that, yeah,” Ms. Kusserow-Smidt said. “Some days I feel like that, too.”

Last year’s contentious presidential election gave oxygen to hate. An analysis of F.B.I. crime data by the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, found a 26 percent increase in bias incidents in the last quarter of 2016 — the heart of the election season — compared with the same period the previous year. The trend has continued into 2017, with the latest partial data for the nation’s five most populous cities showing a 12 percent increase.

In addition, anti-Muslim episodes have nearly doubled since 2014, according to Brian Levin, the director of the center, which he said has also counted more “mega rallies” by white nationalists in the last two years than in the previous 20. “I haven’t seen anything like this during my three decades in the field,” he said.

Peppered among these incidents is a phenomenon distinct from the routine racism so familiar in this country: the provocative use of “Trump,” after the man whose comments about Mexicans, Muslims and undocumented immigrants — coupled with his muted responses to white nationalist activity — have proved so inflammatory. His words have also become an accelerant on the playing field of sports, in his public criticism of black athletes he deems to be unpatriotic or ungrateful.

Officials at Salem State University in Massachusetts discovered hateful graffiti spray-painted on benches and a fence surrounding the baseball field, including “Trump #1 Whites Only USA.” An undocumented immigrant in Michigan reported to the police that two assailants had stapled a note bearing a slur to his stomach after telling him, “Trump doesn’t like you.” A white Massachusetts businessman at Kennedy International Airport in New York was charged with assaulting and menacing an airline worker in a hijab, saying, among other threats: “Trump is here now. He will get rid of all of you.”

In an email, the White House on Friday denounced the use of the president’s name in cases like these. “The president condemns violence, bigotry and hatred in all its forms, and finds anyone who might invoke his or any other political figure’s name for such aims to be contemptible,” Raj Shah, a White House spokesman, said.

Still, it persists. Across the country, students have used the president’s name to mock or goad minority opponents at sporting events. In March, white fans at suburban Canton High School in Connecticut shouted “Trump! Trump! Trump!” as players from Hartford’s Classical Magnet School, which is predominantly black and Latino, took foul shots during a basketball playoff game. They also chanted “He’s our president!”

The visiting players and their chaperones interpreted the chants not as a sudden burst of presidential fealty, but rather as a slyly racist mantra intended to rattle. As if Donald J. Trump was the president of here, in white suburbia, and not there, in the diverse inner city.

“I’m not sure what politics has to do with basketball,” Azaria Porter, then the Classical team’s 16-year-old manager, told The Hartford Courant. “It was just annoying. It was like, O.K., we get it.”

For the record, Classical beat Canton.

According to several scholars of American history, the invocation of a president’s name as a jaw-jutting declaration of exclusion, rather than inclusion, appears to be unprecedented. “If you’re hunting for historical analogies, I think you’re in virgin territory,” said Jon Meacham, the author of several books about presidents, including a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Andrew Jackson.

Michael Beschloss, a presidential historian, agrees. “If you’re looking at modern presidents, fill in the blank and see if it can be used in the same way,” he said. “You will see it has not. Hoover? Or Eisenhower? Can you imagine a situation like that?”

The jarring use of Mr. Trump’s name began to surface shortly after he declared his candidacy in June 2015. Within a year, educators were reporting incidents in which, as the Inside Higher Ed website put it, “Trump” had become “a kind of taunt, tossed by largely white students at minority opponents during, say, basketball games.”

But it was not confined to high schools like Dallas Center-Grimes in Iowa, where students mocked a basketball team from the more diverse community of Perry with chants of “Trump, Trump, Trump” in February 2016. Colleges and universities were experiencing similar moments.

Nor was it confined to places of learning. In March 2016, for example, video surveillance at a Kwik Shop in Wichita, Kan., showed a white motorcyclist arguing with two college students — one Hispanic, one Muslim — then assaulting one of them before driving off. The victims later said that the man interspersed his racist epithets with: “Trump, Trump, Trump.” (And yes, the name does tend to come in threes, as if the incantation of his name might summon the man himself.)

Shortly after the election, the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes, published a report called “The Trump Effect: The Impact of the 2016 Election on Our Nation’s Schools.” Based on a survey of more than 10,000 educators, it detailed an increase in incidents involving swastikas, Nazi salutes and Confederate flags.

“Kids saying, ‘Trump won, you’re going back to Mexico,’” wrote a teacher from Kansas. “A black student was blocked from entering his classroom by two white students chanting, ‘Trump, Trump,’” wrote a teacher from Tennessee. “Seventh-grade white boys yelling, ‘Heil Trump!’” wrote a teacher from Colorado.

An analysis of F.B.I. crime data by the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, found a 26 percent increase in bias incidents in the last quarter of 2016 — the heart of the election season. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times

It is a far cry from wearing a button that says “I Like Ike.”

Mr. Beschloss recalled moments in recent American history when, say, the X in President Richard M. Nixon’s name appeared as a swastika, or a caricature of President Lyndon B. Johnson featured a Hitlerian mustache. But these were generally the acts of opponents to those presidents’ policies during the Vietnam War.

“The message here,” Mr. Beschloss said, “is ‘Trump is going to come and get you — and we support that.’”

There have also been cases in which anti-Trump protesters have harassed and assaulted supporters of the president for, say, wearing a “Make America Great Again” cap. In some instances, the name Trump is invoked in punctuation.

When asked how a president’s very name could become so coded, Mr. Beschloss cited Mr. Trump’s speeches and tweets, including two in particular: the announcement of his candidacy in 2015, during which he referred to Mexican immigrants as criminals, drug dealers and rapists; and his equivocating comments after a white supremacist rally and counterprotest in Charlottesville, Va., in June ended with one person killed and 19 wounded. (“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides,” the president had said. “On many sides.”)

“This broadened into a feeling by some people — right or wrong — that Trump is going to be a weapon to reduce the opportunities of those who are different,” Mr. Beschloss said. “This is a signal moment.”

Leah Wright Rigueur, an assistant professor of public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, agreed, saying that Mr. Trump’s status as a racial wedge was of his own doing.

“When Trump says, ‘I hear you, I will represent you,’ he is speaking to a particular cross-section of the nation that does not include Muslims, that does not include people of color,” Ms. Wright Rigueur said.

Khalil Gibran Muhammad, a professor of race, history and public policy also at the Kennedy School of Government, said that Mr. Trump had created his own breakaway brand, making him the personification of specific ideals.

“To use the name as a rallying cry for a kind of embodied white supremacy, white nationalism or sense of triumphalism, for taking back the country, as best as I can tell has never been crystallized in the name of a U.S. president,” Mr. Muhammad said.

“It’s authoritarian, the cult of personality,” Mr. Meacham said. “It’s saying that we’re American — and you’re not.”

The sporadic episodes — as chronicled by ProPublica’s “Documenting Hate” project, among others — continue. A “Heil Trump” here, the Trump name scrawled beside a swastika there. In late September, two high school football teams in the Salt Lake City suburbs were squaring off when cheers erupted. Someone was brandishing a cardboard cutout of Mr. Trump, and there began the chanting of three words that have electrified some and unnerved others: “Build the wall! Build the wall!”

Back in Iowa, there have been consequences and remorse in the wake of those two Forest City radio announcers musing on the Hispanic names of some of the players from Eagle Grove.

Ms. Kusserow-Smidt, 63, was fired as a board operator for the radio station; she has since resigned from the Forest City School District. Mr. Harris, 76, who had been with the station for more than 40 years, was also fired. The two have expressed deep regret for their comments, which they said did not reflect who they truly were.

“It didn’t sound right; it wasn’t right,” Mr. Harris told a local television station. “And I apologize.”

The xenophobic words of the two announcers stung some of the Eagle Grove players, including Nikolas Padilla, whose mother is from Iowa and whose father is from Mexico. Mr. Padilla, a 17-year-old senior, said that he briefly considered quitting because he did not want to be singled out for his Mexican heritage.

One particular comment by the broadcasters — “As Trump would say, go back where they came from” — puzzled Nikolas. His mother, Misty, recalled what her teenage son had said:

“Um, I came from Mason City, Iowa.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/t ... jeers.html

[seemslikeadream]

emptywheel‏
@emptywheel

While we await Tom Bossert to make a very curiously timed attribution of WannaCry, let's remember that he was the pivot in the distribution of the KT McFarland email on RU sanctions.

Tom Bossert Brings You … Axis of CyberEvil!

empty wheel
December 18, 2017


I was struck, when reviewing the NYT article on the KT McFarland email, how central Homeland Security Czar Tom Bossert was to the discussion of asking Russia not blow off Obama’s Russia sanctions.

“Key will be Russia’s response over the next few days,” Ms. McFarland wrote in an email to another transition official, Thomas P. Bossert, now the president’s homeland security adviser.

[snip]

Mr. Bossert forwarded Ms. McFarland’s Dec. 29 email exchange about the sanctions to six other Trump advisers, including Mr. Flynn; Reince Priebus, who had been named as chief of staff; Stephen K. Bannon, the senior strategist; and Sean Spicer, who would become the press secretary.

[snip]

Mr. Bossert replied by urging all the top advisers to “defend election legitimacy now.”

[snip]

Obama administration officials were expecting a “bellicose” response to the expulsions and sanctions, according to the email exchange between Ms. McFarland and Mr. Bossert. Lisa Monaco, Mr. Obama’s homeland security adviser, had told Mr. Bossert that “the Russians have already responded with strong threats, promising to retaliate,” according to the emails.

There Tom Bossert was, with a bunch of political hacks, undercutting the then-President as part of an effort to “defend election legitimacy now.”

Which is one of the reasons I find Bossert’s attribution of WannaCry to North Korea — in a ridiculously shitty op-ed — so sketchy now, as Trump needs a distraction and contemplates an insane plan to pick a war with North Korea.

The guy who — well after it was broadly known to be wrong — officially claimed WannaCry was spread by phishing is now offering this as his evidence that North Korea is the culprit:

We do not make this allegation lightly. It is based on evidence.

A representative of the government whose tools created this attack, said this without irony.

The U.S. must lead this effort, rallying allies and responsible tech companies throughout the free world to increase the security and resilience of the internet.

And the guy whose boss has, twice in the last week, made googly eyes at Vladimir Putin said this as if he could do so credibly.

As we make the internet safer, we will continue to hold accountable those who harm or threaten us, whether they act alone or on behalf of criminal organizations or hostile nations.

Much of the op-ed is a campaign ad falsely claiming a big break with the Obama Administration.

Change has started at the White House. President Trump has made his expectations clear. He has ordered the modernization of government information-technology to enhance the security of the systems we run on behalf of the American people. He continued sanctions on Russian hackers and directed the most transparent and effective government effort in the world to find and share vulnerabilities in important software. We share almost all the vulnerabilities we find with developers, allowing them to create patches. Even the American Civil Liberties Union praised him for that. He has asked that we improve our efforts to share intrusion evidence with hacking targets, from individual Americans to big businesses. And there is more to come.

A number of the specific items Bossert pointed to to claim action are notable for the shoddy evidence underlying them, starting with the Behzad Mesri case and continuing to Kaspersky — which has consistently had more information on the compromises we blame it for than the US government.

When we must, the U.S. will act alone to impose costs and consequences for cyber malfeasance. This year, the Trump administration ordered the removal of all Kaspersky software from government systems. A company that could bring data back to Russia represents an unacceptable risk on federal networks. Major companies and retailers followed suit. We brought charges against Iranian hackers who hacked several U.S. companies, including HBO. If those hackers travel, we will arrest them and bring them to justice. We also indicted Russian hackers and a Canadian acting in concert with them. A few weeks ago, we charged three Chinese nationals for hacking, theft of trade secrets and identity theft. There will almost certainly be more indictments to come.

The Yahoo case, which is backed by impressive evidence, was based on evidence gathered under Obama, from whose Administration Bossert claims to have made a break.

And this kind of bullshit — in an op-ed allegedly focused on North Korea — is worthy of David Frum playing on a TRS-80.

Going forward, we must call out bad behavior, including that of the corrupt regime in Tehran.

Especially ending as it does with a thinly disguised call for war.

As for North Korea, it continues to threaten America, Europe and the rest of the world—and not just with its nuclear aspirations. It is increasingly using cyberattacks to fund its reckless behavior and cause disruption across the world. Mr. Trump has already pulled many levers of pressure to address North Korea’s unacceptable nuclear and missile developments, and we will continue to use our maximum pressure strategy to curb Pyongyang’s ability to mount attacks, cyber or otherwise.

I mean, maybe dirt poor North Korea really did build malware designed not to make money. But this is not the op-ed to credibly make that argument.
https://www.emptywheel.net/2017/12/18/t ... cyberevil/

Buckle Up for Year 2 of Trump

Four major crises the president is steering America toward in the year ahead.

Max Boot
December 19, 2017, 7:00 AM


It may sound strange to say, given that Donald Trump has been the least popular first-year U.S. president on record, but he has been extraordinarily lucky during his first year in office. There have been lots of controversies, mainly generated by him, from his ill-advised ban on travelers from certain Muslim countries to his endorsement of an accused child molester for the Senate in Alabama. But there have been no major domestic or foreign crises of the sort that normally test a first-year president — nothing comparable to the Bay of Pigs and the Berlin Wall for John F. Kennedy, the Gulf of Tonkin incident for Lyndon B. Johnson, the Vietnam War and antiwar protests for Richard Nixon, the fall of Saigon for Gerald Ford, the energy crisis for Jimmy Carter, the recession and assassination attempt for Ronald Reagan, the fall of the Berlin Wall and invasion of Panama for George H.W. Bush, the “Black Hawk Down” battle for Bill Clinton, 9/11 for George W. Bush, or the economic meltdown for Barack Obama.

The odds are that Year Two of the Trump era will not be so placid. Predicting what Trump will do is a fool’s errand, and crises by their nature are usually unexpected. That said, here is my best guess at the three or four major crises that could pop up next year.

First and foremost: a war with North Korea. Trump has put himself into a no-win position with regard to North Korea. Even before he was inaugurated, he tweeted on Jan. 2: “North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It won’t happen!” But Trump’s attempts to forestall that dire development by ratcheting up sanctions and trying to enlist China’s help have predictably failed to stop a nuclear weapons program that Kim Jong Un views as essential to regime survival. On Nov. 29, Kim tested an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching any point in the United States.

Trump could switch to de facto acceptance of North Korea’s nuclear capability, relying on deterrence to keep America and its allies safe, but his national security advisor H.R. McMaster claims that isn’t going to happen. On Oct. 19, McMaster said, “The president has been extremely clear on his perspective on North Korea. He’s not going to accept this regime threatening the United States with a nuclear weapon. He just won’t accept it. There are those who have said, ‘What about accept and deter?’ Well, accept and deter is unacceptable.”

If deterrence is unacceptable and sanctions are unsuccessful, that leaves only one way to stop the North Korean nuclear program — through military action.If deterrence is unacceptable and sanctions are unsuccessful, that leaves only one way to stop the North Korean nuclear program — through military action. Those who are in close contact with the administration say the odds of a preventative strike are going up. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a notable hawk who has become a golf buddy of Trump’s, says there is a 30 percent chance of an American military strike, going up to 70 percent if the North Koreans conduct another nuclear test, which would be their seventh. Kori Schake, a former colleague of Defense Secretary James Mattis at the Hoover Institution, writes that the way the Trump White House is talking about North Korea “sounds eerily and increasingly like the George W. Bush administration in the run-up to the Iraq War.” Even if Trump doesn’t launch a preventative strike, there is a still a worrisome chance that a nuclear war could break out by accident, with tensions exacerbated by his saber rattling and unhinged tweets. Nuclear nonproliferation expert Jeffrey Lewis lays out a frightening scenario for how a string of miscalculations could result in the death of millions.

The chances of war with Iran are smaller but can’t be ruled out. Trump has already refused to recertify that the Iran nuclear deal is in America’s interest. He called on Congress and America’s allies to toughen sanctions, or he would pull out of the deal. Congress has already ignored a 60-day deadline to act, and our European partners have made clear they have no interest in renegotiating the agreement. As with North Korea, so with Iran: Trump will either have to make a humiliating climb-down or double down, raising the risk of war.

There is also a growing risk of another kind of war in Year Two — a trade war. Trump campaigned as a protectionist, promising sanctions against China and the renegotiation of “bad” trade deals like NAFTA and the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. He did not deliver in Year One but, as he showed by announcing that he would move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, he is still eager to make good on campaign promises. Axios quoted him in August telling White House chief of staff John Kelly: “I want tariffs. And I want someone to bring me some tariffs.” He may well get those tariffs he so dearly desires, especially once he figures out that China is not going to “solve” the North Korea problem for him — the chief reason why he has been holding back so far.

Trump’s trade negotiators have been working with Canada and Mexico to revamp NAFTA. The leaks out of the talks suggest that the administration is making such “pretty harsh, pretty horrible” demands — e.g., demanding that “50 percent of the value of all NAFTA-produced cars, trucks, and large engines come from the United States” — that the other two countries can’t possibly accept. Maybe these are simply hardball negotiating tactics from a president who prides himself on his deal-making skills. But it’s also quite possible that Trump simply hates NAFTA and is ready to abandon it, even if launching a trade war with America’s three largest trading partners — China, Canada, and Mexico — would risk ending the strong economic growth that he inherited from Obama.

The final risk that I see in Year Two is the possibility of a constitutional crisis triggered by Trump either pardoning his aides or firing special counsel Robert Mueller. Trump and his fans are signaling that a crisis may be near with their hyperbolic attacks on Mueller.Trump and his fans are signaling that a crisis may be near with their hyperbolic attacks on Mueller. If you watch Fox News, as Trump does, you will be told that Mueller is leading a staff full of Democratic partisans who are eager to overturn the results of the last election and stage a “coup in America.” The latest accusation of misconduct against Mueller is that he obtained access to all of the emails that the Trump transition team sent via their .gov accounts. If you listen to Trump’s lawyers, this is a gross abuse of justice — but it’s just fine for the public to have access to all of Hillary Clinton’s emails or all of the texts sent by FBI agents who were critical of Trump. Consistency is not the hobgoblin of this White House.

This is all, of course, cynical nonsense, but the fear is that this propaganda barrage is laying the groundwork for Trump to pardon his aides and try to fire Mueller — along, presumably, with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the Russia investigation. Trump hardly put such concerns to rest when he said on Dec. 15: “I don’t want to talk about pardons with Michael Flynn yet, we’ll see what happens, let’s see. I can say this, when you look at what’s going on with the FBI and the Justice Department, people are very, very angry.” There are even rumors in Washington that Trump could act before the end of the year, although on Sunday he denied any such intention.

If Trump does move against the prosecutors investigating him, the public cannot count on much pushback from Congress, at least not initially. All too many Republicans have joined in the shocking character assassination of a special counsel who has spent a lifetime in his country’s service and who does not have a partisan bone in his body. But it will be a different story if Democrats take control of Congress next November — and the odds of that happening have increased with the unexpected Democratic victory in the Alabama Senate election and polls showing a double-digit lead for Democrats when voters are asked which party should control Congress. Whether Trump fires Mueller or not, he is likely to face impeachment — the only way he can avoid it is if Mueller exonerates him, which is unlikely. Getting the articles of impeachment through a Democratic-controlled House wouldn’t be a problem. Peeling off enough GOP senators to convict (67 votes needed) appears unlikely, but at least a few Republicans might abandon the president if Mueller finds unequivocal proof of collusion between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin — or if Trump fires Mueller.

If an impeachment trial does occur in 2019, it would unleash a political war that for sheer nastiness would easily surpass the struggles over Richard Nixon’s and Bill Clinton’s impeachments. Trump has fewer compunctions than either Nixon or Clinton about using every tool at his disposal to stay in office, and with Fox News, Breitbart, Infowars, and other propaganda outlets at his beck and call, he has a way to bypass the mainstream media to mobilize his rabid followers. Street violence is not out of the question. What’s truly worrisome is that Trump might try to save his own skin by launching either an actual war or a trade war in a Wag the Dog ploy.

Fasten your seat belts. We survived Year One. But Year Two of the Trump presidency promises to be an even bumpier ride, with catastrophe looming around every corner.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/12/19/buc ... -of-trump/

President Clinton was impeached 19 years ago for lying about a single sex act and people were outraged.

2017: Donald Trump has lied about attacks on16 women and they won’t even have a hearing about it.

[Belligerent Savant]

.

Clinton was acquitted of both articles of impeachment against him.

Of course, he also committed far greater criminal acts, before and after his presidency, wholly ignored by any due process or media scrutiny -- a recurring theme with most presidents.

"Donald Trump has lied". Come now, surely this isn't alarming to anyone, is it?

Presidents lie.
Politicians lie.
Humans lie.

[seemslikeadream]

trump presidency is not over yet you can not make that assumption

yes clinton was impeached ....at least let's have that happen to trump...it is his turn

I am not sure why you keep bringing clinton into this he had his turn now we are on to trump

I don't see anyone here championing clinton

the women and young girl that trump raped are to be believed and trump should not be lying about what he did to them...I don't think presidents lie excuse comforts them

but yes please continue to let trump off the hook

your whataboutisms is silly

you do know that trump is the president now...correct?

why don't you bring up Andrew Jackson for god's sake....too soon?

and why are you ignoring all the other crimes trump has committed?

You could start a Bill Clinton is seriously dangerous thread but it seems a bit late for that one


Clinton’s National Security Advisor did not commit treason against the American people and lie about it and he was not a convicted felon either......just saying if you insist on going down that road

[Belligerent Savant]

.

"I am not sure why you keep bringing clinton into this he had his turn now we are on to trump."

I am responding directly to YOUR reference/raising of Clinton in your prior posting. Scroll up.

"whataboutism" is not a one-way street, demonstrably.

[mentalgongfu2]

President Clinton was impeached 19 years ago for lying about a single sex act and people were outraged.

Also, this common refrain is not quite accurate and I would argue extremely misleading. Bill Clinton was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice because he blatantly lied to a grand jury. What he was lying about - his sexual relationships - is not material in a legal sense.

[Karmamatterz]

Clinton belongs in this as much as anybody. Its lame that people STILL want to give him a pass. Like WTF.

the women and young girl that trump raped

That there is way over the top when there have been no warrants issued, indictment or conviction. Doesn't matter who it is, thats bullshit using the word rape without a conviction in court.

[seemslikeadream]

Update: On Nov 4, 2016, "Jane Doe" told her lawyers to withdraw her lawsuit. (Around this time, the Daily Mail of London became the only media outlet to get photos and a face-to-face interview with her.)

>>> A woman whose identity is being protected has filed a civil lawsuit against Donald Trump and billionaire Jeffrey Epstein (a convicted sex offender) accusing them of raping her in 1994, when she was thirteen years old. The mainstream media have been almost unanimously silent about this.

The lawsuit has gone through three iterations: the original suit, Katie Johnson v. Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein, filed in California in April 2016; Jane Doe v. Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein, filed in New York in June 2016; and the second Jane Doe v. Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein, filed in New York at the end of September 2016.

By posting these documents (retrieved through Pacer, a site run by the federal court system), we're not commenting on the merits of the suit. The fact is that the process is in motion: the lawsuit has been filed, a prominent lawyer is representing Jane Doe, summonses have been issued, and US District Judge Ronnie Abrams has scheduled a pretrial conference of counsel for all parties.

Trump's attorneys have vehemently denied the accusations of the previous lawsuits, and regarding the current one, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump's campaign said the claims are "categorically false, frivolous, and sanctionable."
Documents in the current Jane Doe v. Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein

1 - Complaint and related documents Filed & Entered: 9/30/2016

2 - Statement of Relatedness Filed & Entered: 9/30/2016

3 - Civil Cover Sheet Filed & Entered: 10/03/2016

4 - Complaint [corrected] Filed & Entered: 10/03/2016

4-1 - Attachment: Declaration in Support of Plaintiff's Request for a Protective Order [Jane Doe]

4-2 - Attachment: Declaration in Support of Plaintiff's Request for Protective Order [Tiffany Doe]

4-3 - Attachment: Declaration in Support of Plaintiff's Request for Protective Order [Joan Doe]

5 - Order for Initial Pretrial Conference Filed 10/04/2016, Entered 10/05/2016

6 - Request for Issuance of Summons [Trump] Filed & Entered: 10/07/2016

7 - Request for Issuance of Summons [Epstein] Filed & Entered: 10/07/2016

8 - Motion for Admission Pro Hac Vice Filed & Entered: 10/10/2016

9 - Affidavit in Support of Motion (Certificate of Good Standing) Filed & Entered: 10/10/2016

10 - Summons Issued [Trump] Filed & Entered: 10/12/2016

11 - Summons Issued [Epstein] Filed & Entered: 10/12/2016

12 - Motion to Appear Pro Hac Vice [corrected] Filed & Entered: 10/18/2016; Terminated:10/19/2016

12-1 - Attachment: Exhibit [Supreme Court of Florida Certificate of Good Standing]

12-2 - Attachment: Text of Proposed Order

13 - "Full docket text for document 13: ORDER granting [12] Motion for James Cheney Mason to Appear Pro Hac Vice (HEREBY ORDERED by Judge Ronnie Abrams)(Text Only Order) (Abrams, Ronnie)" Filed & Entered: 10/19/2016

14 - Motion and Order to Appear Pro Hac Vice Filed & Entered: 11/01/2016; Terminated:11/01/2016

14-1 - Certification of Evan Goldman

15 - Notice of Voluntary Dismissal Filed & Entered: 11/04/2016

Documents in the first Jane Doe v. Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein

1 - Complaint Filed & Entered 06/20/2016

1-1 - Attachment: Declaration in Support of Plaintiff's Request for Protective Order [Jane Doe] Filed & Entered 06/20/2016

1-2 - Attachment: Declaration in Support of Plaintiff's Request for Protective Order [Tiffany Doe] Filed & Entered 06/20/2016

2 - Civil Cover Sheet Filed & Entered 06/20/2016

3 - Request for Issuance of Summons [Trump] Filed & Entered 06/20/2016

4 - Request for Issuance of Summons [Epstein] Filed & Entered 06/20/2016

5 - Summons Issued [Trump] Filed & Entered 06/21/2016

6 - Summons Issued [Epstein] Filed & Entered 06/21/2016

7 - Order for Initial Pretrial Conference Filed & Entered 06/30/2016

8 - Order for Initial Pretrial Conference Filed & Entered 08/25/2016

9 - Notice of Voluntary Dismissal Filed & Entered 09/16/2016
Documents in Katie Johnson v. Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein

1 - Complaint - (Discovery) Filed: 04/26/2016 & Entered: 04/27/2016

2 - Certificate and Notice of Interested Parties Filed: 04/26/2016 & Entered: 04/27/2016

3 - Request to Proceed In Forma Pauperis with Declaration in Support (CV-60) Filed: 04/26/2016 & Entered: 04/27/2016 & Terminated: 05/02/2016

4 - Notice of Assignment to United States Judges (CV-18) Filed: 04/26/2016 & Entered: 04/27/2016

5 - Notice to Parties of Court-Directed ADR Program (ADR-8) Filed: 04/26/2016 & Entered: 04/27/2016

6 - Order on Request to Proceed In Forma Pauperis with Declaration in Support (CV-60) Filed & Entered: 05/02/2016

7 - Mail Returned Filed: 05/09/2016 & Entered: 05/10/2016

8 - Mail Returned Filed: 05/09/2016 & Entered: 05/13/2016

Related articles:

Trump's 13-year-old 'rape victim' dramatically DROPS her case

Lawsuit Charges Donald Trump with Raping a 13-Year-Old Girl [Thorough Snopes overview of the situation]

The Donald Trump underage rape accusation explained

Why The New Child Rape Case Filed Against Donald Trump Should Not Be Ignored [By lawyer and NBC legal analyst Lisa Bloom]

Video Puts Spotlight on Donald Trump’s History of Lewd Comments [Under a misleading headline, the Wall Street Journal relates all three public accusations of sexual assault toward Trump, becoming the first member of the corporate media to report on the Jane Doe lawsuit.]

Trump Rape Accusers Turn On Each Other

The Billionaire Pedophile Who Could Bring Down Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton

Related: Bill Clinton is also buddies with Epstein and often flew around the world with him on his private jet, nicknamed "Lolita Express":

Flight Logs Put Clinton, Dershowitz on Pedophile Billionaire’s Sex Jet

Flight logs show Bill Clinton flew on sex offender's jet much more than previously known

Billionaire sex offender Epstein once claimed he co-founded Clinton Foundation