About me | halbrown@gmx.com |Tweets | Facebook | Daily Kos posts | CHB columns | Noteworthy: Trump's sadistic malignant narcisism | Police Stressline | Cranberry Stressline | Casino Friend
April 25, 2019
Somebody at the WaPo chose the picture on the right to illustrate this article. He looks somewhat presidential there. I prefer my photoshop.
Excerpt:
“THERE IS no reason to go any further, and especially in Congress,” President Trump told Post reporters Tuesday, explaining why he was preparing to stonewall congressional requests for administration documents and testimony, possibly by invoking executive privilege. “We’re fighting all the subpoenas,” Trump said on Wednesday. “These aren’t like impartial people.”
 |
| Click image to enlarge |
As we said at the time, “No doubt a lot of congressional investigations are partisan fishing expeditions. For better or worse, that comes with the democratic territory. Absent very strong countervailing considerations — stronger than some of those the administration has asserted in this case — Congress is generally entitled to disclosure.” Democrats, too, are entitled to disclosure, particularly as they ask weighty questions about the potentially severe abuse of power in the top reaches of the White House.
Just saying:
April 24, 2019
 |
| Click image |
Excerpt from the snarky (and accurate) Wonkette article: Donald Trump's schizodementiasyphilomania* is acting up again. Or whatever it is. And it was acting up yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that, and it's usually a good thing to mostly ignore whatever comes out of the dark bowels of Trump's Twitter, because after all, he's the stupidest person currently alive on Planet Earth, and he's also a lazy fuck who doesn't go to work until Whatever Thirty in the afternoon, but ...
Well, either the Mueller Report, which paints him as an absolute criminal, is sending him spiraling into highly disturbing levels of mental decay, or it's possible that he knows something. Or maybe it's both. Maybe he's losing it because he knows the House is coming for him, and despite everything his White House is saying right now, he knows he has zero legal standing to stop the tsunami. Could be that!
(He made nine) then 10 tweets. He started here, with a deranged conspiracy theory from an obscure conservative fake news outfit about the United Kingdom spying on him, the day after the White House announced he's finally getting the state visit to the UK that nobody in the UK wants to give him, and which will probably be greeted by Brits pissing in the general direction of his motorcade...
*not a real psychiatric term, schizodementiasyphilomania = schizo-dementia-syphilo-mania
(He made nine) then 10 tweets. He started here, with a deranged conspiracy theory from an obscure conservative fake news outfit about the United Kingdom spying on him, the day after the White House announced he's finally getting the state visit to the UK that nobody in the UK wants to give him, and which will probably be greeted by Brits pissing in the general direction of his motorcade...
*not a real psychiatric term, schizodementiasyphilomania = schizo-dementia-syphilo-mania
 |
| Click image to enlarge |
Editorial:
Look for him to spend more time attending rallies which will barely get covered in the media. He will spend more time at his golf resorts consorting with the likes of Rush Limbaugh. That lapdogs like Kushner (“it was just a couple of Facebook ads”), Guiliani, and Sanders become objects of ridicule won’t help either. As his support erodes among Republicans and previous loyalists like Verret (story below) turn against him and get major publicity he'll be under more stress. Meanwhile Bill Weld, who called Trump a malignant narcissist and megalomaniac on Lawrence O’Donnell last night, will get more air time. Kasich may also decide to run against him.
Therapists will be alert for sign of psychological and cognitive decompensation and I look for more of our spokespersons like John Gartner and Bandy Lee to be interviewed on TV.
George Conway will be tweeting "I told you so."
Trump will make more unintended errors like his Sri Lanka tweet which stayed online for 20 minutes until some staffer noticed it. Such behaviours will make it appear he is in in a state of at the least distraction and at worst pre-dementia.
No matter what his psychiatric diagnosis is, Trump has psychological defense mechanisms. Everybody does. His are readily observable, and they tend to be primative or immature ones. His defense of denial borders on the psychotic. See the variants of defense mechanisms here. Note how few of the mature ones Trump uses.
Trump will lash out at immigrants and his chosen enemies. The country and world will be a dangerous place until he is no longer president.
 |
| Click image to enlarge |
UN Bows To U.S. Demands, Waters Down Resolution To Help Survivors Of Sexual Violence In War - because of what? Abortion.
‘This is risky’: Trump’s thirst for Mueller revenge could land him in trouble
Already, a fusillade of verbal assaults aimed at former White House counsel Don McGahn, a star witness in the Mueller report, have sparked questions about obstruction and witness intimidation as Democrats fight the Trump White House to get McGahn’s documents and testimony.
“This is risky,” said William Jeffress, a prominent Washington defense attorney who represented President Richard Nixon after he left the White House. “I find it surprising because he’s taking these shots at witnesses who gave information to Mueller, and I think he’s got to be careful because there’s an explicit federal statute punishing retaliation against witnesses.”
It’s a lesson some thought Trump would have learned during the Mueller investigation.
April 23, 2019
In the news:
The Mueller Report Was My Tipping Point by former Trump transition staffer
In this Atlantic op-ed a former Trump transition staffer called for Donald Trump’s impeachment, saying the Mueller report was his “tipping point.” J.W. Verret, a lifelong Republican and an associate professor of law at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, said that after reading Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report twice, he “realized that enough was enough” from Trump. “If you think calling for the impeachment of a sitting Republican president would constitute career suicide for someone like me, you may end up being right,” he wrote. “But I did exactly that this weekend, tweeting that it’s time to begin impeachment proceedings.”
Verrett joined Trump’s pre-transition team in August 2016 as the deputy director of economic policy, one of the first 16 members to join the staff. Though he left amicably after three months, he said he never thought he would join the “Never Trump” efforts until reading the Mueller report. “I wanted to share my experience transitioning from Trump team member to pragmatist about Trump to advocate for his impeachment, because I think many other Republicans are starting a similar transition,” he wrote. From Daily Beast
EXCERPT:
EXCERPT:
The Mueller report was that tipping point for me, and it should be for Republican and independent voters, and for Republicans in Congress. In the face of a Department of Justice policy that prohibited him from indicting a sitting president, Mueller drafted what any reasonable reader would see as a referral to Congress to commence impeachment hearings.
Depending on how you count, roughly a dozen separate instances of obstruction of justice are contained in the Mueller report. The president dangled pardons in front of witnesses to encourage them to lie to the special counsel, and directly ordered people to lie to throw the special counsel off the scent.
This elaborate pattern of obstruction may have successfully impeded the Mueller investigation from uncovering a conspiracy to commit more serious crimes. At a minimum, there’s enough here to get the impeachment process started. In impeachment proceedings, the House serves as a sort of grand jury and the Senate conducts the trial. There is enough in the Mueller report to commence the Constitution’s version of a grand-jury investigation in the form of impeachment proceedings.
The Founders knew that impeachment would be, in part, a political exercise. They decided that the legislative branch would operate as the best check on the president by channeling the people’s will. Congress has an opportunity to shape that public sentiment with the hearings ahead. As sentiments shift, more and more Republicans in Congress will feel emboldened to stand up to the president. The nation has been through this drama before, with more than a year of hearings in the Richard Nixon scandal, which ultimately forced his resignation.
Republicans who stand up to Trump today may face some friendly fire. Today’s Republican electorate seems spellbound by the sound bites of Twitter and cable news, for which Trump is a born wizard. Yet, in time, we can help rebuild the Republican Party, enabling it to rise from the ashes of the post-Trump apocalypse into a party with renewed commitment to principles of liberty, opportunity, and the rule of law.
House Panel Moves to Hold Ex-White House Official in Contempt for Following Trump Admin’s Instructions Not to Testify
The House Oversight Committee moved Tuesday to hold a former White House official in contempt of Congress for failing to appear at a hearing on alleged lapses in White House security clearance procedures. The former White House official, Carl Kline, was in charge of the security-clearance process, and now works for the Defense Department. Kline was instructed by the Trump administration to not appear at the hearing which was ordered by a House subpoena. Kline claimed his reason for not attending the scheduled testimony was that Democrats were looking for access to confidential information.
The move to hold Kline in contempt indicates an escalation of tensions between Congress and the Trump White House. The Trump administration has been increasingly resisting requests for information from Capitol Hill. “The White House and Mr. Kline now stand in open defiance of a duly authorized congressional subpoena with no assertion of any privilege of any kind by President Trump,” Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) said in a statement. “Based on these actions, it appears that the President believes that the Constitution does not apply to his White House.”
and
Furious Trump orders officials to boycott correspondents' dinner
Trump is the first president to order administration officials to boycott the dinner. He is also the first president not to attend the dinner himself since Ronald Reagan missed the event in 1981, when he was recovering from an assassination attempt.
Today's photoshop goes with these stories.
April 22, 2019
Exclusive: "The most dangerous times thus far in Trump's presidency" by Howard Covitz, PhD
Excerpts (emphasis added)
Barr’s actual legal reasoning is a bit more defensible. In order to prove obstruction of justice, the state must establish that an individual undermined an investigation with a “corrupt intent.” Barr’s argument is, in essence, that the president did not act with a corrupt intent because he was sincerely subject to the paranoid delusion that the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference — and his campaign’s potential ties to it — was an inquisition orchestrated by his political enemies. And there’s nothing corrupt about trying to shut down a witch hunt.
--------
----------
Therefore, if we accept Barr’s reasoning, Trump’s intentions were pure because he is so earnestly paranoid and narcissistic he was incapable of entertaining any explanation for the Russia investigation’s existence that did not involve a nefarious conspiracy hatched by his enemies.
This assessment is itself dubious. But it is true that proving beyond a reasonable doubt that this president is not subject to paranoid delusions would be difficult.
Making the case that Congress should not allow a paranoid, delusional man to retain command of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal seems like an easier task.
[[[[]]]]
Sarah Sanders lies again as she rants about April Ryan wanting to chop her head off during Fox News interview - this story begged for a photoshop
The (UK) Observer view on the Mueller report: Trump is a disgrace not welcome in Britain
The president has been shown to be the biggest threat to US governance since Watergate. Britain must not honour this dishonourable man with a state visit.
Excerpt: The proposal that the British state should extend to this unworthy man its highest honours, including an address to parliament, and a banquet and carriage ride down the Mall with the Queen, is misjudged. It will do nothing to revive the “special relationship”, already torn apart by Trump’s reactionary policies on climate change, migration, race, multilateralism, Yemen, nuclear arms, civil liberties and other issues. What it will do is give an undeserved boost to a wounded charlatan.
If Americans are content to allow a habitual liar who has presided over systemic illegality, numerous ill-concealed attempts to obstruct justice and a foul-mouthed culture of venality and vendettas to continue to lead their country, that is a matter for them. But the British people cannot be expected to collude or condone such misbehaviour. And what’s to be gained? A fantasy post-Brexit trade deal? Trump’s word, evidently, cannot be trusted.
If Democrats won't act against Trump, the destruction of our democracy is on them - Heather "Digby" Parton
Ever since Watergate, Democrats have been accomplices in the degradation of democracy. That has to stop now
EXCERPT: I hate to say it, but the Democrats have been accomplices. Throughout this anything-goes evolution in our political culture, they have played their own brand of politics. They accuse the Republicans of being craven and unethical for enabling Donald Trump, yet when faced with scathing bill of indictment in Robert Mueller's report, they are openly calculating whether doing their duty will work to their advantage or not. They have become partners in this scheme that allows the Republicans to sink to ever greater depredations, and always seem to find a reason not to stop them.
We have reached a turning point in this ongoing crisis. If someone as obvious and inept as Trump can get away with all this, imagine what a competent authoritarian demagogue could do. Allowing Trump to just ride out his term and perhaps even win another one -- which is entirely conceivable, I'm sorry to say -- could be catastrophic. If Democrats refuse to take the risk of changing this dynamic once and for all, someone much smarter and stronger than Donald Trump is going to come along, very soon, and take advantage of the destruction of our political culture to fundamentally change our democracy in ways we will not be able to fix. At some point there will be no way to "right the ship" anymore. It will be sunk.
If Democrats don't take a stand this time, it's very likely they won't get another chance.
Impeach Donald Trump?
Obstruction of justice is a crime. The decision is clear.
Excerpts:
So, an impeachment vote in the House has, to this point, been the strongest rebuke America is willing to give a president. I can think of no president who has earned this rebuke more than the current one.
And, once a president is impeached, he is forever marked. It is a chastisement unto itself. It is the People’s House making a stand for its people.
---
I worry that inaction enshrines that idea that the American president is above America’s laws. I worry that silent acquiescence bends our democracy toward monarchy, or dictatorship.
As Thomas Paine wrote in 1776, “In America the law is king.” He continued: “For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other.”
Who will we let be king in this country, the president or the law?
April 21, 2019
 |
| Click image to enlarge |
Any major change in Trump's usual behavior in reaction to being attacked, now with revelations from the Mueller report leading to the increased chance of impeachment, is diagnositcally significant and may be a prelude to an imminent dangerous psychic collapse.
Rudy is all over the morning talk shows. Here's my photoshop which speaks for itself.
Trump Retweets Message About How Happy He Is. Twitter Critics Wonder What He’s Smoking.
“Who sold Trump a bag of oregano for $60?” asks one Twitter wit.
"Quippy weed tweets aside, lots of people responding to the Scavino retweet went absolutely bonkers over the reference to Trump’s private business — limited to those who can afford a $200,000 membership fee and their guests — as the “Summer White House,” which it decidedly is not. The name alone evokes for many infuriating reminders of the “White House” of the South during the Confederacy."
Speaking of being stoned:
Excerpt:
“Bringing a fascist fuck magnet into my city is hardly comparable to television,” The Queer Crimer recently tweeted at Dickinson. “Your actions have consequences.
The “fascist fuck magnet” attack was a reference to the Proud Boys, a far-right brawling group that Stone brings to his events. Stone has previously denied being an outright member in the group, although footage of him from a Proud Boys channel showed him participating in a low-level initiation rite. Stone did not return a request for comment.
Richmond appears to have its own Proud Boy presence. At a Richmond event by right-wing pundit last month, a man claimed to have stabbed three anti-fascists “in self-defense.” Proud Boys in the audience cheered and shouted one of the group’s slogans. The group glorifies fighting, and its founder described “kick[ing] the crap out of an antifa” as a requirement to become a “fourth degree” Proud Boy. (The group now claims they only fight in self defense.)The “fascist fuck magnet” attack was a reference to the Proud Boys, a far-right brawling group that Stone brings to his events. Stone has previously denied being an outright member in the group, although footage of him from a Proud Boys channel showed him participating in a low-level initiation rite. Stone did not return a request for comment.
Richmond appears to have its own Proud Boy presence. At a Richmond event by right-wing pundit last month, a man claimed to have stabbed three anti-fascists “in self-defense.” Proud Boys in the audience cheered and shouted one of the group’s slogans. The group glorifies fighting, and its founder described “kick[ing] the crap out of an antifa” as a requirement to become a “fourth degree” Proud Boy. (The group now claims they only fight in self defense.)
These are the 4 times Fox News was referenced in the Mueller report — and why they make Trump look even worse
-------
(Politico)
- Did a secret computer link exist between the Trump Organization and Moscow’s Alfa Bank?
- Did Cambridge Analytica have ties to Russia or WikiLeaks?
- What was the NRA’s relationship with the Trump campaign, and with Russia?
- What did WikiLeaks know about the source of the stolen emails?
- What about the infamous video tape alleged in the Steele dossier?
Perhaps no element of the Trump-Russia scandal was as sensational as the claim, contained in an unverified dossier assembled during the campaign by former British spy Christopher Steele, that the Russians had kompromat on Trump in the former of video capturing him cavorting with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room.
Although the alleged tape consumed vast public attention over the past two years, Mueller mentions it only briefly. His report states that Russian businessman Giorgi Rtskhiladze texted Michael Cohen on October 30, 2016 and said: "Stopped flow of tapes from Russia but not sure if there’s anything else. Just so you know .... " Rtskhiladze told investigators that “tapes” referred to derogatory tapes of Trump rumored to be in the possession of the Agalarovs—a Russian-Azerbaijani family that hosted the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in 2013.
Rtskhiladze told Mueller that he believed the tapes were fake. But for whatever reason, he didn’t tell that to Cohen, according to the report. Mueller does not draw a conclusion one way or the other. It remains unclear who might have been creating or disseminating such tapes, what their motive might have be
Back to earlier April
Back to earlier April
