The President of the United States just admitted for all the world to see that he tried to keep a terrible employee on board solely because she stroked his ego by saying nice things about him.

If any country seeking to get concessions out of the president hadn’t already figured out the way to his heart, he just spelled it out for them.

Also, considering how easy it was for her to get into the Situation Room and record people, if I'm the leader of another country, and I don't have multiple bugs/wiretaps/spies following the President everywhere, then I'm firing my head of intelligence.

One of the post-Trump tell-alls I am waiting for is the one that talks about what precautions, if any, the career security people have taken to avoid leaks since the head of the executive has to be considered a massive security risk.

dola: Also, I really hope the answer to that question is not much/none. I don't want the un-elected security forces deciding to route around the elected representatives if they decide they know better.

We elected Trump. So, for good or ill, we live (or die) with that choice. It isn't fair to the people who like him to route around him. And it isn't fair to the rest of us that the message can get out that you can elect a Trump and "don't worry, we won't let it get too bad."

We know that Kelly's phone was compromised for months.

So Trump tweeted about the OH special election and how the governor there John Kasich hurt the guy Trump wanted to win, all the usual put downs of people he's beat in primaries/election, etc.



Kasich's response? a close-up of Putin laughing:

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump 4h4 hours ago







The very unpopular Governor of Ohio (and failed presidential candidate) @JohnKasich hurt Troy Balderson’s recent win by tamping down enthusiasm for an otherwise great candidate. Even Kasich’s Lt. Governor lost Gov. race because of his unpopularity. Credit to Troy on the BIG WIN!

Last poll that was taken, Kasich is actually more popular among Dems than Repubs, probably because of his denouncing of Trump. But he is at about average popularity overall, like 52%.

Prosecutors rest their case in Manafort trial. We have no idea what the defense will do tomorrow-no witness list, unknown if Manafort will testify

So in case you missed it, Peter Strzok, the FBI agent who sent the anti-Trump texts to his fellow FBI agent, Lisa Page, was fired on Friday. It was supposed to be a 60 day suspension and other punishment, but someone didn't like that result and fired him instead. I removed the tweet I thought was from him because it was from a parody account. Pretty sure you can expect a lawsuit over his firing.







.

You may want to look at that @

Hint: He's not Peter Strzok.

This Omarosa thing has gotten to the White House. Today Trump retweeted Michael Cohen as defense in the allegations. The same Cohen that is a pathological liar.

yeah saw that after I posted. Fooled a lot of people on Twitter too

The same Michael Cohen that has tapes of him too.

If I see one more "Muslim terrorists in NM go free on bail, yet Paul Manafort sits in jail for tax evasion" tweet today, I just may scream.

After one last attempt by the defense to get the Manafort trial thrown out, they rest their case with no witnesses. On to Closing arguments now

Is the media seriously spending any time trying to figure out if there's tape of Trump saying N****R?

I mean, are we all pretending that there's any number of voters/GOP leaders who have supported Trump this far but who will jump ship if a tape comes out?

I think a lot of conservatives would speak out against him, but it'd be back to business as usual the next day, same as with everything else.

In case anyone is curious, this is a standard motion made after the prosecution rests in a criminal trial.

He would lose dozens, perhaps even hundreds of black supporters nationwide!

It does combine two of the media's favorite things - audio/visual evidence they can replay over & over, and race baiting, but yeah in the end it'd probably have the same effect the Billy Bush tape did.

I'm pretty sure the majority of the country already believes trump is a racist and exactly no one would be surprised if he dropped the N word on TV at some point during his presidency. Evangelicals have already shown they have no standards and the rest of his base won't even pretend to care.

The only thing this does is distance him from true independents even more, but I'm not sure how much that even matters at this point.

The N word triggers SJWs and Liberals?! We should all start saying it then this is great! Its not racist though b/c we don't mean it that way. It only has power because the left tries to put a stop to people saying it. -- A depressingly large number of people on "The Right", most likely soon.

This twitter account is great.

I'm a 25 year old, college-educated, white man from CA.

I'm a moderate Republican who always supports abortion, supports deporting illegal immigrants, opposes mandatory minimums, and opposes the Clean Air Act.

I voted Jill Stein in 2016.

— American Voter Bot �� (@American__Voter) August 14, 2018

One, America is much more complicated than a horizontal line.

Two, how does a candidate pitch an appeal to this guy?

"Some men want to watch the world burn."

Is the proper role of the media to report news, or to tell people who to vote for?

Not only did Tim Pawlenty (who the R party believed would be the stronger candidate in Nov.) lose the GOP nod for MN governor tonight, but Democrats are casting more than SIXTY FIVE percent of ballots in the state (77% reporting). I’d be worried if I were a statewide R in MN.

— G. Elliott Morris����‍♂️ (@gelliottmorris) August 15, 2018

I'm still waiting for a bit of news in all of this reporting.

Both. There's the news side and the editorial side. This, to me, does not count as either, though.

Not everything the president does is newsworthy. So what is newsworthy? Stuff that gives us new information about him. Stuff that might change people's minds about him. Stuff to help people put his other actions into context.

Trump is a septuagenarian racist. Whether he said or didn't say the N-word in the past in his private life gives voters no new information about him. It won't change anyone's mind about him. It gives us no new context for his other actions.

It seems as un-newsworthy as the fact that he like McDonalds or owns lots of ties.

To be fair, the non-disclosure agreements are real news. It puts into question everything said by admin officials, even in congressional testimony. If the GOP weren't solely concerned with the beauty of the emperor's new suit, this would be sparking hearings and subpoenas.

And the results were enough to keep all Democratic constituencies interested. Walz is popular in greater Minnesota. Ilhan will bring progressives out in Minneapolis. Angie Craig is going to be in a highly publicized race in the South suburbs and Dean Phillips is the same in the western suburbs.

Wisconsin Dems choose Tony Evers to try and take out Scott Walker. They definitely did not go for charisma in their choice but Tony has won some statewide races.

Walker is vulnerable but I have deep reservations about Evers being the guy to exploit the vulnerabilities. The Dems just can't come up with a good candidate. Better hope for an anti-Trump blue wave.

OTOH, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction (also former teacher) is a great candidate to highlight Walker's enormous fuckups of Wisconsin's education system. It's a shrewder pick than it looks like on the surface. And Walker is scrambling already this morning to combat that:

https://www.channel3000.com/news/pol...-win/781808443

That's why I voted for Evers, yeah. There were a couple other cats who intrigued me, but a huge huge percentage of my beef with Wanker is the way he inherited an educational system that was, by most measures, top 5 in the country and burned it to the ground for political advantage.

And then, nigh ten years later, was all like "hey we should increase funding to the schools."

Trying to make people forget that, y'know, his policies chased some of our top educational talent to retirements/other states, slashed funding repeatedly at all levels of education, and specifically at the K-12 level, enjoined schools from trying to recover the lost revenue through property taxes.

Nah. Let Evers fix it and fuck the WI-GOP forever.

No disagreement there. I just worry when his victory speech had the charisma of George McFly talking to Biff Tannen (I stole that comparison from elsewhere).

I'm fully behind Evers now. I voted for Kelda Roys in the primary.

I get the education part, but I think Evers needs to expand his focus in the general campaign. Roads! Scottholes!

It's not that Walker and his collaborators in the Legislature didn't break lots of other shit that needs fixing. But as a long-term play, if you want the tax base to be there to be able to fund the other fixes, the first thing you need is to repair the damage to the educational system, and I worry that "expanding the focus" dilutes that message.

One of the best predictors of losing in a GOP primary is whether a candidate criticized Trump over the Access Hollywood tape.

The big deal the media is making of Sanders' "can't guarantee" line is the exact type of BS that Trump supporters and other anti-media people jump all over. I wish Trump would step down yesterday and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if it was true, but c'mon.

Exactly how is someone supposed to answer that question - especially when the moment in question was years before he was President? It smacks of trying to make something out of nothing, by using a false premise. "The President reiterates that he's never said it." That's about the best she could do. How is she responsible for guaranteeing whether something ever happened? My wife couldn't guarantee I've never done something.

It's things like this that hurt the media's credibility when they have legitimate issues to report on. Trump has been amazingly skillful at throwing so much crap on a wall and getting reporters to chase every runny detail that the media is actually helping him the more it tries to point out the obvious about what a lying scumbag he is. It's crazy. And the media can't help themselves.

I agree and even if she had said she guaranteed it, what does that even mean? Is she giving them money back if it turns out it happened? It's not like she hasn't already told so many lies that it would hurt her reputation.

Also (and I admit this is probably a bit too 3-D chess), if the WH is pretty sure that there isn't a tape, then Sanders equivocating gets the media to focus more and more on whether there is a tape. Eventually, the lack of tape becomes a positive.

Jury will begin deliberations tomorrow in the Manafort trial.

Is there any chance Omarosa and Trump have had a sexual relationship?

Probably not since she doesn't look anything like his daughter.

My Uncle wrote this on FB today:

CORRUPTION

Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and Rick Gates -- involved in embezzling, money laundering. Health and

Human Services Secretary Tom Price -- fired for using private jets for official travel.

EPA administrator Scott Pruitt -- forced to resign after a parade of ethical controversies.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross -- accused of siphoning more than $120 million from various business associates.

Rep. Chis Collins, -- first congressman to endorse Trump -- charged with insider trading.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin -- uses military aircraft to see a solar eclipse with his wife. The entourage of the Saudi crown prince -- spends large at Trump’s New York Hotel.

Secretary of Education Betsy Devos -- flies Cayman flag on her yacht, saving $2.4 million in taxes. The Veteran’s Administration -- being steered by a secretive trio of members from within Mar-a-Lago. None of them has held a government post or had potential conflicts vetted.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke -- billing taxpayers for expensive trips, including one to deliver a pep talk to a donor’s hockey team.

The president’s daughter, Ivanka -- meets Chines leader, China grants trademarks covering her jewelry, bags and spa services.

Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney -- solicits payment of at least $1 million from the government of Qatar in late 2016 in exchange for access to and advice about the then-incoming administration.

Donald Trump--loses second bid to dismiss ongoing emoluments clause lawsuit alleging self-dealing at his Washington D.C. hotel.

CHAOS

Gone So Soon:

Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State
Sally Yates, Attorney General
H.R. McMaster, National Security Adviser
Mike Flynn, National Security Adviser
Dina Powell, Deputy Nat'l Security Advisor
Steve Bannon, Chief Strategist
Reince Priebus, WH Chief of Staff
Rick Dearborn, WH Deputy Chief of Staff
Tom Price, Secretary of HHS
Sean Spicer, WH Press Secretary
Hope Hicks, WH Communications Dir
Anthony Scaramucci, WH Communications Dir
Mike Dubke, WH Communications Dir
Josh Raffel, WH Deputy Communications Dir
Rob Porter, WH Secretary
Gary Cohn, National Economic Council advisor
David Shulkin, Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Vivek Murthy, Surgeon General
John McEntee, Personal Aide & Bodyguard
Sebastian Gorka, Deputy Presidential assistant
Omarosa Manigault-Newman, Dir - Office of Public Liaison
George Sifakis, Dir - Office of Public Liaison
Walter Shaub, Dir - Office of Government Ethics
David Shulkin, head of the Department of Veterans Affairs,

Across the government, more than half of the six hundred and fifty most critical positions are still unfilled. Asked about the shortage in the diplomatic corps, Trump said, “I’m the only one that matters.”

It's always newsworthy whether or not the president said something like this. In short, I couldn't disagree more.

That wasn't very smart of Cuomo. He may retain his popularity with the bluest of blue states but its going to hurt everywhere else, and Trump and Fox will have a field day with this.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/15/polit...eat/index.html

In your estimation, when was it "great" and what makes it "great"?

But that's exactly the thing. We know for sure that he has said "something like this" countless times. He is a brute, is easily duped into gutter thinking, and has plenty of racist tendencies and friends. We know that's who he is, and that's a pretty polished-up version, to be honest.

He has almost certainly used that word, at least here and there. If it's on tape it would make news, but nobody really thinks that item would suddenly change what we know about him. Whatever chance there was to rescue any sort of moral clarity with him was lost in the Access Hollywood tape saga. He now is on a complete free pass, as everyone who loves his Supreme Court nominees is just duty bound to continue to further degrade himself time and time again to explain how it's actually okay that he did, said, or believed something completely reprehensible.

Anything that makes it less likely for Cuomo to be the Dem nominee is good. That guy is corrupt AF.

Speaking as a 90's immigrant, its always been great warts and all when compared to vast majority of countries. Definitely "land of opportunity" and "salad bowl" (vs melting pot) diversity which is great.

So the Boston Globe organized something I guess you could call "free press" day and got many other news organizations involved. Here's Trump's reply to that:


"The Boston Globe, which was sold to the the Failing New York Times for 1.3 BILLION DOLLARS (plus 800 million dollars in losses & investment), or 2.1 BILLION DOLLARS, was then sold by the Times for 1 DOLLAR. Now the Globe is in COLLUSION with other papers on free press. PROVE IT!"

Jury has started deliberation in the Manafort trial.

I'd say-

-Caliber of higher education institutions
-contribution to culture in films, music, art, theater, etc.
-natural wonders
-origin of so many great world, business, science, and technology innovators and leaders, both individuals and organizations.
-Won some very important wars
-peaceful transitions of power since its origin
-developed the world's most massive economy
-in general, the rule of law and protection of law and the law's ability to continuously evolve
-a government which has always changed, at least to some degree, based on the whims of the people for better or worse. In other words, we usually get what we deserve.

Some of these are true now, some are based on history, but I think there were always elements of greatness. Other countries have some or all of these things, but more than one country can have elements of greatness in it. In fact, I'd say probably most do, in their own way. (though it's generally not polite, especially for someone from another country, to shit on a country as a whole except if it's the U.S. - which I think, in an odd way, is also evidence of U.S. greatness.)