Jake Tapper (CNN):
When former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper questioned President Donald Trump’s “fitness to be in this office” it was likely only a matter of time before the President aimed. Indeed, Thursday morning came the tweet from the President: “James Clapper, who famously got caught lying to Congress, is now an authority on Donald Trump. Will he show you his beautiful letter to me?”
Turns out, as Clapper told Tapper, on election night he had prepared identical handwritten congratulatory notes with intelligence briefing info for either candidate, but only the winner got one.
As I read this the thought that Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 84 & Stephen Breyer is 79 cut through me like a bitter wind.
Dear Intelligence Operatives: If you have “the goods” get ’em out. You’ve toppled foreign governments that ‘we’ deemed unfit; seems to me taking down our dangerous, incompetent government in a non violent way would be most patriotic & doing your duty to protect us. I pay your salary, right? And your families future is as important as mine.
Thank You for your service.
I subscribe to newspapers that use truth & good old fashioned hard work to defend democracy & a free press. Now is the time, more than ever, to support this most important foundation in a competent society.
Anyone who thinks I want people to die in Hurricane Harvey has not been paying attention to my posts… and I’ve been here a long time. Do I have confidence in SFB’s ability to handle this crisis… hell no. Do I have confidence in the people on the ground in Texas to handle this crisis… hell yes. Everyone (whether I know you or not) please stay safe.
sj… I echo your sentiments to our Intelligence Operatives… it’s time to take the madman down. The emperor not only doesn’t have any clothes, he also doesn’t have any brains or morals.
Ha, RebelliousRenee, #45’s crew may make “Heckuva job, Brownie” look positively genius. 😉
That aside, the everyday folks who tirelessly schlub away during these disasters are quiet heroes.
Hoping those told to evacuate EVACUATE. Easiest way to survive. Your home is replaceable. Your life is not.
rr – Sorry, I misinterpreted the “fate” comment as glee. My bad. I shoulda known better.
jack – I’m from the Midwest. I get your comment about the weather up there, but this sucker is gonna sit on top of South Central TX and dump 2 or 3 feet of rain. The wind may determine Harvey’s cat, but he’s gonna linger & cause trouble.
Trump thinks he’s special. That’s another problem. Usually folks with yuuge egos need others to keep them pumped up. Trump has a self-inflating ego.
Although the temptation is high to take leave and deploy to TX or New Orleans, I am going to sit this one out at home. American Red Cross (ARC) is sending Disaster Services volunteers to TX today, so look for the familiar logo. Big concerns are also for New Orleans as many of the pumps are not functioning and the city could be very wet if Harvey moves over it for any length of time.
Keep in mind that SFB wants to cut science, including National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecasting.
craig, as you say in the thread title clapper was not clapping when he sent the “welcome to the white house” letter to the twit but, like clappers* of old, he sure was clanging the alarm bells when he spoke of the twit being unfit.
*the free-swinging metal piece inside a bell that is made to strike the bell to produce the sound
Leave our intelligence people out of taking care of the president. It’s a terrible idea. Total anathema to their charter restricting their activities to foreign threats outside our country.
Call your congress critters. march. petition. go to jail
a recent bbc article proclaims “…the Swedish principle lagom (pronounced: laaaw-gum) – with its virtue of moderation and balance – has been crowned the next ‘it word’ ….” and perhaps this explains the seeming dem party’s dullness/dimness of late. they just want to be stylish. anyway, a new/old concept fad is fun to look at. kinda like how feng shui became quite the rage.
it’s an entertaining (and trump free) read. here’s an excerpt from the beeb:
….lagom began to reveal itself to me as ‘appropriate group conduct’ – even among friends and colleagues who had known each other for years.
Etymologically, the word ‘lagom’ is an Old Norse form of the word ‘law’, and it also means ‘team’ in Swedish. But culturally, the roots of lagom are tied back to communal times of the Vikings, when they gathered around the fire after a hard day’s work and passed around horns filled with mead, a honey-fermented beverage. Everyone was expected to sip just their fair share so others could have enough to drink as well. This ‘laget om’ (‘sitting around the team’) has been shortened to ‘lagom’ over centuries.
Often said to be untranslatable, lagom is usually described as the Goldilocks principle of ‘not too little, not too much, just right’, which implies everything in moderation. But the true reason it’s difficult to translate is because it mutates, changing meaning in different situations and within various contexts.
[….]
Lagom wants to push us to a space of individual contentment while creating harmony within whatever groups or societies we find ourselves. In an ideal world, this would work perfectly. But it is human nature to feel envious – and this is why some Swedes process lagom with mixed feelings.
Since one person’s lagom isn’t exactly the same as another’s, a negative side of lagom can manifest within group settings. This side insists that people conform to ensure harmony and not bring their individual levels of lagom into the group because it can cause jealousy and breed resentment.
The term’s usage has even evolved because of this to also mean ‘uninspiring’ and ‘boring’. And so many Swedes want to disassociate themselves from the word. There’s even a hashtag #NoMoreLagom.
Nevertheless, instead of looking at lagom as just ‘moderation’, which carries with it more blasé connotations like middle-of-the-road, mediocre or austere, re-centring lagom back to its optimal core carries a more holistic view of the choices we make in our lives.
Meant to start a caption contest for the photo above. That hand gesture caught my eye. Pincer movement?
there’s a segment *about hallway* thru showing the twit telling his rally during the campaign how he would look at playing/performing “presidential” before an audience. he was spot on at what he’s doing now as teleprompter trump. his rally crowd loved it and they love it now. bigly bigly sad.
Published on Aug 24, 2017
Trevor explains why President Trump takes on a different persona depending on his audience.
**starting at 4:02 minutes in on vid
craig, describing clandestine photos he’s seen of twit au naturel
blue in D… thanks. Yeah… just like with Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina, it’s the flooding that will be the problem.
At least the emperor knew enough to be ashamed once he realized he didn’t really have any clothes on. SFB knows no shame… he would fire the tailor (and claim he was a Democrat)… then go on a tour stating that he had the most beautiful naked body anyone’s ever seen. And his supporters would believe him.
I watched Trump’s performance on CSpan.
It ran past the scheduled one-hour block; no problem, they stayed with it. Not so the people who had set their devices to record for the anticipated one-hour.
Seems to me, it was immediately after the top of the hour, 11pm here, that he shifted gear into full stupid pander rant. He was trying to play them and us.
ha Pat, was waiting for that one. Could combine ours for what IC would like to do to him
meant to mention last week’s the new Yorker profile ” Julian Assange, a Man Without a Country” with regard to the ongoing Russian collusion investigation. too bad what was going on at the time with WikiLeaks, russia, guccifer 2 and the trumpsters didn’t get more exposure to the general public other than the stupid coverage of the email dumps. the author seemed to bend over backwards to paint a sympathetic activist for speech freedom but, in piling up the facts about and quotes from Assange, resulted in a picture of a rather unsavory character who was in cahoots with the colluders.
here’s a sample:
….When he was at Ellingham Hall, a guest once asked what he would do if he learned that intelligence agencies were using WikiLeaks as “laundry” for information warfare. “If it’s true information, we don’t care where it comes from,” he said. “Let people fight with the truth, and when the bodies are cleared there will be bullets of truth everywhere.”
Such an assertion, made so blithely, should be troubling to any WikiLeaks supporter. Standing up to the powerful is one thing. Facilitating conflicts among the powerful is another. To argue that it makes no difference is a license for impunity. Assange created WikiLeaks to diminish institutional abuse. But there is no way to be certain that a broker for geopolitical influence campaigns among states would not increase the over-all levels of abuse (augmenting, in this case, the Kremlin’s power at the expense of Washington’s). Or start a war. Or provide states that are more powerful, more skilled in secrecy, with a way to become even stronger.
salon:
Yeah, there’s still a Russia probe — and it looks worse for Trump all the time
Trump has hissy-fits at GOP senators while Mueller interviews “Dossier Guy.” Bipartisan consensus: Big trouble
[….]
Perhaps we might excuse Trump’s argument with McConnell as a general temper tantrum; maybe he threw in the complaint about Russia as an afterthought. But Politico followed up the Times story with more reports of phone calls with Republican senators in which the president requested that they abandon their plans for Russia-related legislation. He reportedly tried to convince Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee that the bipartisan bill sanctioning Russia was unconstitutional and damaging to his presidency. Corker didn’t listen and the bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, which is not something you see every day.
Trump also called up Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina to complain about the latter’s bill designed to protect special counsel Robert Mueller from a presidential firing. Unsurprisingly, Trump is not a fan of the legislation or of the legislative branch exercising its oversight responsibilities over his administration when it comes to Russia.
As one GOP aide told Politico, “It seems he is just always focused on Russia.”
Meanwhile, there was some intriguing news about the investigation this week. ABC News reported that Christopher Steele, the former MI6 operative who compiled the notorious “dossier” about Trump’s Russian ties has spoken to Mueller and turned over all his sources. Perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising, but Steele had reportedly gone underground for his own protection and was unreachable by investigators.
from that abc story mentioned above
According to people briefed on the developments, Steele has met with the FBI and provided agents with the names of his sources for the allegations in the dossier.
things like that have got to make the twit nervous and maybe more amenable to early retirement with benefits
I don’t like it when they say SFB is 71 and can’t change. I’m 71 and I learn new things all the time
and have on an occasion been known to even change my mind. It’s not his age that is a problem.
Craig
The fingers are way too far apart to measure any quality of Trump.
Clown activity is taking off —
http://sfist.com/2017/08/23/here_are_all_the_counter-demonstrat.php
Jamie, clapper could be measuring how close twit is to cracking up, being criminally charged, bankrupted and divorced again, or all the above.
Craig… when I first saw your comment this morning, I too was going to mention something about the size of SFB’s “hands”…. but on second thought, IMO, James Clapper served this country well and honorably and it just seems undignified to put such a caption under his picture.
KGC… smart people can learn their entire lives…. dumb people… not so much.
Here’s what an active veterans group thinks of Trump’s transgender attack:
“Sadly, it looks like President Trump is moving forward with his order banning transgender Americans from serving in the military.
...
This decision puts our national security at risk. But more to the point, can you imagine risking your life for this nation and being told by a Commander in Chief who sought five deferments and said evading STDs was his own personal Vietnam that your service wasn’t good enough? It’s unimaginable.
Let’s fight this.
Will Fischer
Iraq War Veteran and Director of Government Relations
VoteVets”
Caption: We’re this close to getting rid of Trumpco.
Caption: This is how much of a chance there is that Mexico is paying for the wall (or that there will be a wall).
Caption: It really was a beautiful piece of chocolate cake, but it was only this thick. Trump egaggerated.
….can you imagine risking your life for this nation and being told by a Commander in Chief who sought five deferments and said evading STDs was his own personal Vietnam that your service wasn’t good enough?
well said, will fischer.
and thanks, flatus, for posting his comment. i’m sure similar resentments were stirred in the intelligence community when he denigrated them and their work.
Source: Kasich, Hickenlooper consider unity presidential ticket in 2020
(CNN)Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper have entertained the idea of forming a unity presidential ticket to run for the White House in 2020, a source involved the discussions tells CNN.
Under this scenario, Kasich, a Republican, and Hickenlooper, a Democrat, would run as independents with Kasich at the top of the ticket, said the source, who cautioned it has only been casually talked about.
Loving the captions. good work
petri:
My letter of not quite resignation from the Trump White House
Dear Mr. President,
I can say it in no uncertain terms: Everything this administration does makes me sick.
I am absolutely disgusted with everything going on the White House right now. Several times daily, I must run out of a meeting of the National Economic Council to vomit into a wastepaper basket. (Sometimes, weeks later, I am chagrined to discover one of these papers being presented as a policy proposal.) This cannot go on any longer.
[…gives all kinds of reasons for an advisor/cabinet member here…]
Charlottesville was a wake-up call, sure. But the thing to do with wake-up calls, as I have learned over the course of years of business travel, is to mutter something vague and then go back to sleep.
One day, Trump will do something really awful. And on that day, I will also draft a very stern letter, which I will place into a drawer and not send.
My job needs me. My baby tax reform needs me. I understand Trump has already said and done a number of things that would have prompted prompt resignations from most people. But — I am not most people. And that is exactly who will benefit from my tax reforms: not most people.
Please, you have to understand: I don’t want to resign because of the awful things those neo-Nazis chanted. Or, more relevantly, because of the awful things the president said afterward. I don’t want to resign, in general.
Look, what would you like me to do?
I have done all the things you can do with a resignation letter, as I keep telling the media. I have drafted it. I have even printed it out one or two times. I have signed it. I have placed it on a desk.
Can you blame me? Yes. But you cannot blame me now. Today, I turn over a new leaf.
I am announcing that I am resigned. Not from the Trump administration, though.
To it.
A good read on strzok who was recently demoted…he led comey down the October surprise path and his pal, guiliani predicted it. The Mueller investigation is slapping ’em down!
flatus…thanks for the electrical advice.
James Clapper looks good with facial hair.
from the above article —
* Strzok violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activity, and that explains his sudden transfer and the likelihood he is the subject of an internal investigation.
Here’s hoping SF can get someone to organize a disaster response. Corpus Christie is going to get slammed.
To our neighbors in the path of the hurricane — we have lots of hotel space in Las Cruces…head west on I-10. This is a duration event and better to take-off than suffer.
bw, thanks for the link on the October surprise telling us about strzok’s antipathy to Hillary and his connection with giuliani, prince & co. here’s a bit quoted in an excerpt on that from the jackalope writing at democraticunderground: More background on Rudy Giuliani, Comey and “the letter”
Citing a source at the NYPD, Prince claimed the NYPD forced Comey to act threatening to take revenge action if he didn’t.
Now that senior FBI investigator Peter Strzok who helmed the Clinton e-mail investigation has been relieved of any counter-intelligence duties, it’s worth asking if the Office of the Inspector General has indeed turned up evidence to suggest elements in the FBI and the NYPD had been working to interfere in the election campaign on behalf of Trump and against Clinton and did the former hero Mayor of New York have a role?
Clapper: I am crushing his head
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwlAvsPvPfg
2 Captions :
They came this close to repealing your health insurance.
This is the benefit of repealing Dodd-Frank.
Harvey is a cat 4 now.
Fill up your gas tanks now or pay more next week.
Meanwhile, Lil Kim is masterbating into the Sea of Japan, again. There is another little twit whose head I’d like the Kids In The Hall to crush.
Caption: “CC has this much material for his new book.”
If my company stays with same plan, we are looking at a 22% increase this year.
I thought price gouging was illegal.
It looks like we’ll be on a new plan, again.
Where’s Corey when you need a caption?
SFB signed the orders to his military to purge the US military of transgender men and women. There are many thoughts as to why he would do this. Of those I tend to think he is a transsexual and is like so many others who are republican LGBTQ, over compensate with statutes containing obscene penalties, in an attempt to stop themselves from doing what they pretend to hate. The man has to be a transsexual afraid of her body and herself. I expect him to next ban lesbians from the military as SFB is a transwoman and prefers women for sexual pleasure, there technically making her a lesbian.
Think of all the republicans who have ventured into politics just to hate themselves. SFB really hates herself more than anyone else.
Excellent Observation BB
Yuck SFB pardoned the Arpio
the Reading Room Project is up and running, The fund raiser is through the online site IOBY (In Our Back Yard) They work with community groups like us and only charge 3%.
We have 30 days to raise our money, The fund raising is a requirement of the grant we got from Community Capital Fund (CCF). It was a $20,000 project, we only get $14ooo up front then we have to try and raise $3000 and CCF will match what we raise up to $3000. So every dollar you donate is 2 dollars in the bank for us.
So we are looking for 100 people to donate 30 bucks(Hey, you would be the 1%) or 1 person to donate $3000. Or any where in between.
But we don’t have to stop at $3000, if there is any one that wants to cover the second phase we will sharpen our pencils and get you a budget. We suspect it is going to be somewhere around $60,000. 😉
Jack
Ack
On arpaio…..
he really is a living orange turdman
In September 2014, Barack Obama issued Executive Order 13677, requiring agencies involved in international development work to consider climate change resilience.
Executive Order 13677 (Sept. 23, 2014)
Executive Order 13690: Establishing a Federal Flood Risk Management Standard and a Process for Further Soliciting and Considering Stakeholder Input
In January 2015, President Obama issued an executive order requiring all federal investments involving floodplains to meet higher flood risk management standards.
Executive Order 13690 (Jan. 30, 2015)
Draft Federal Flood Risk Management Standard Implementing Guidelines (Jan. 30, 2015)
Deregulatory Action: On August 15, 2017, President Trump issued an executive order revoking Executive Order 13690.
Jack
I always wanted to be among the 1%. Thanks for the opportunity.
NEW THREAD